#I'd love to answer some questions))

[energ00n]

Howdy! First off, ABSOLUTELY LOVE this whole AU of yours, it's so fragging cute and so amazing!

Secondly, will we get to see Bumblebee or Eilta anytime soon? It's fine if no, I just think it be funny to see Bee somehow become apprentice under one of the 13 Primes(money is on Micronus) just because he made Micronus laugh or something, lol. Not sure about Elita though, lol

You're so kind, thank you!!!

I have been avoiding asks about Bee and Elita (there are a lot) because nothing is set in stone yet. Tho I have been thinking that Bee is in the High Guard academy and Elita will either be Solus' or Maximo' apprentice (one anon said she was his distant descendant in one continuity and I think that's cool)

[tinyfrenchowl]

Hi fellow lord of the rings fans, I have a question.

Everyone in the books seems to know what time it is - or at the very least the hobbits do. And I wonder, how? They're never shown to have a pocket watch or anything like it, are they? And yet they seem to have this very modern sense of time, when they're leaving Buckland they're saying stuff like "we leave at 6" and "whoops it's already 9" and I'm here wondering, how do they know it's 6 or 9? The Shire isn't shown to have clock towers and bells iirc, nor are sundials mentioned, nor any sort of personal clock or watch.

Is it just a case of hobbitish vibes? Has time-telling magic been woven into Arda from the first song?

[mymuseandme]

errr I don't know how to use Tumblr BUT! HERE'S AN INTRODUCTION TO MY GRAVITY FALLS AU!! I'm calling it Pandemonium AU (very original /j)

So what I'm thinking so far is Bill is the god of pandemonium (which means a state of extreme confusion and disorder, or a wild uproar caused by excitement or anger). Which describes Bill in a way (does that make sense?) And ford is like, his worshipper (duh.) but idk what the plot to this would be.. I'm still thinking about it. What I have so far is Ford finds out Bill used to be evil.. or something. Like through ancient writings,carvings, or finds something while researching. And Bill tries to convince Ford he's not who he used to be, and ford just doesn't believe him. One of my oomfs on twt gave me a suggestion; Bill being evil would be an old myth, and they would paint their ideas and stories onto Athenian vases. ^_^

I'll add more onto this AU and post my thoughts if I ever find out where I wanna go with this!! But I definitely love it :)

[oscenfortrouble]

You know how wild animal species have a conservation status? Have you heard of something similar for dog breeds? Or is dogbreeding as a professional and amateur practice just too varied to make informed judgements of a breed's health? I ask because I've heard about collies having overbred issues for a while, and I have no clue if that's getting better or worse from one decade to another.

With collies specifically: I know that the breed has a fairly high COI + yet is considered to be much healthier than several breeds with similar COIs. The Collie Health Foundation is a good resource for specifics about health issues found in the breed.

In order to look for specific trends in health issues, I think you're looking for OFA (and specifically the CHIC program). Obviously it's missing some of the historic data, but here's the testing statistics for all CHIC-registered collies, broken down by birth year!

[uhbasicallyjustmilex]

✨ ARCTIC MONKEYS ASK GAME ✨

favourite record opener track?

have you been to a live show? if so, feel free to share a photo/something particular that struck you about your experience!

humbug or tbh+c?

which member of the band would you most like to spend the afternoon with and why? how would you spend your time?

which album means the most to you?

if you had to pick one song from their discography to never hear again, which one would it be?

how long have you been a fan? tell us about your journey!

do you have any cool arctic monkeys memorabilia or keepsakes that are meaningful to you? (eg wristbands from a show, merch you’ve bought, signed stuff, tour posters)

what’s the first song you heard that made you fall in love with the band? where were you when you heard it?

what’s your favourite alex era hair? feel free to share photo examples!

have you ever created any fanart or fanfiction inspired by the band/involving anyone in the band? feel free to share a link!

do you have any arctic monkeys tattoos? if not, do you want any?

what are some of your favourite lyrics alex has written? (doesn't have to be arctic monkeys, can also include tlsp/ other artist collaborations/the submarine soundtrack)

do you own any physical copies of any of the albums?

favourite arctic monkeys b-side?

if each of the albums was a person, which one do you think you'd most be like and why?

favourite album cover?

if you could ask each member of the band something and have them answer honestly, what questions would you ask them?

what's your favourite quote said by someone in the band? feel free to share a link/clip!

favourite record ender track?

[kakusu-shipping]

Y'all wanna see my Every Single Pokemon ranked by Smashability lists I made the other day for fun? (Organized in Region order)

Under the cut, loooong ass post

[blue-cat-shitposts]

Looking back on it after so many years, something that I remember was missing from early fandom discussion of Undertale's narrative and its themes was the understanding of Undertale as a heavily meta narrative.

Don't get me wrong, people knew and laughed at meta references or the game acknowledging game mechanics, but somehow, that fact was more often than not entirely omitted from the discussion of Undertale's storyline. As soon as discussion went into plot territory, its as if people would entirely forget that you, the player, are also treated as an acting agent in the narrative. Most people back then would treat Undertale as a self-contained story and would shift the game aspect onto "Frisk has magic time travel powers that work on video game-ish logic", and would address all of the "this is a game to you" remarks to Frisk as the fully-fledged character that belongs in this world and is playing god with their magic powers. Which is not necessarily a bad take, and it worked excellently for some Undertale fan stories, but it misses the true impact of the story by millimeters.

I remember that back then, this erasure of the player's involvement generated a lot of criticism for Undertale's pacifist route. People would complain about how it's unrealistic to expect a child that fell into a realm of monsters trying to kill it to be a True Pacifist, which people religiously believed it to be the only legal route endorsed by the game since it is the "true ending", after all - so it must be the "canon" ending of that story. I remember people critiquing it on the basis of the pacifistic mindset being completely inapplicable to real life, or even just realistic situations, which it is, because real life is more complicated than the world of Undertale.

The thing is though - the thing that everyone was somehow ignoring at the time - is that Undertale is not meant to be a realistic story. Undertale can hardly stand on its own as a self-contained story that isn't seen through the lens of the world being a video game without losing a lot of its sense and internal logic that makes it work.

And possibly the greatest example of that, and the reason why those joking critiques rub me the wrong way now, is that- you are not a helpless child. Your role in the story is not playing a helpless child. You, the player, are a character in the story yourself - and your role is NOT that of a helpless being. Quite the contrary, actually. You are the most powerful being in this world from this world's perspective. You are above everyone by the simple virtue of the way in which you, from your position behind the screen, can interact with the world. You, the player, are not in any physical pain from dying over and over, you have the power to replay, reset, redo, as much as you want, at no cost to yourself as an individual playing the game (maybe aside from eyestrain of hours spent behind a screen, but that's on you - you have the power to pause and quit anytime you want too, after all). You are not on the same level as the other characters, you are not their equal, and you are definitely not weaker than them. You are not the one who's at a disadvantaged position here. It's the monsters.

This isn't a story about a child who's at the mercy of ruthless, powerful monsters that they have to trust in the innocence of. This is a story about you - the individual reading this - having an incredible, unfathomable amount of power over an entire world and all its inhabitants, and choosing how you would use that power when there are no consequences that would stop you. Because there really aren't any. Physically, on a meta, real level, there genuinely aren't any consequences to you, the player, playing a goddamn video game. And the game knows that. The only question the game is asking is how do you, an individual playing a game, interact with it? What kind of a player are you? When you are given absolute power over a world that is presented as a plaything to you, do you believe that the characters of the game you're playing could be real people with feelings that you're toying with? You don't have to believe that, nobody out there in real life is forcing you or judging you for it (except for the aforementioned rabid fanbase, but that is outside the game's narrative). Every player is different, and each one is meant to experience the story in their own personal way - whether or not you like it, this story is a self-insert. But it doesn't change the fact that all players are inherently put in a position of power over this world, and they need to recognize that first in order to properly understand the actual moral dilemma of the game:

What would you do in a position of power if none of the people you have power over could stop you?

And I'm really glad that as the fandom developed over the years, people started recognizing that that was the true meaning of Undertale's narrative, and that Deltarune is doubling, tripling, and quadrupling down on that theme. Because it really is a great one. It's a difficult and uncomfortable question to ask, for sure, but it is, undeniably, one that guarantees a deep emotional journey and a cathartic experience if you decide to search for the answer to it.

[panharmonium]

Hi! I love your Naruto thoughts and meta posts with all my heart and I want to ask your thoughts on something that has been on my mind literally since I was 13: what do you think about the relationship between Sasuke and Sakura? I went from being a hardcore shipper when I was a teenager, to being against any romantic relationship in Naruto after finishing the anime when I was in my early twenties. Nowadays I'm very into platonic love and depictions of friendship and I think the anime's obsession with forcing the "romantic interest" curse upon the main female character robbed us of... so much. There are a few wonderful moments in the anime where Sasuke and Sakura acknowledge each other, but because she's always "the girl with the crush", her actions are so often interpret as irrational or selfish by the fandom.

Hi @riemmetric!  It's great to talk to you again! Sorry it's taken me so long to answer this; RL has been making demands of me lately and it took me way longer to finish writing this up than I wanted it to (then again, I knew from the minute I read your original ask that my reply was going to get long, so I suppose I should have predicted a delay XD)

It's funny, my sister once asked me to choose between Sasuke or Sakura for an “unpopular opinion” meme, and I ended up doing Sasuke solely because I think the negative fandom opinions about Sakura are so unhinged and divorced from the actual text that I wouldn’t even know where to start.  People are entitled to dislike whatever characters they want, obviously, but there are some fandom takes that are, for me, so obviously rooted in bad faith viewings/readings that there’s no urge in me to discuss them.  That said, since you asked, I’m happy to go into my own thoughts on this a bit, with the disclaimer for other potential readers that I only write about fandom things for my own personal enjoyment, not as a contribution to The Discourse. If you don’t like Sakura, great!  I have no interest in changing your mind. Please consider this a sincere invitation to scroll on by and go enjoy whatever parts of the fandom appeal to you.

In general terms: I love Sasuke and Sakura’s relationship as much as I love all of the relationships in Team 7.  If we’re talking about them specifically as a romantic couple, then I probably fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, because I do like them together in a post-canon (to be clear: non-Boruto) setting, after time has passed and they’ve continued to develop individually and reconnect with each other, but I also wouldn’t exactly call myself an intense “shipper,” in the sense that I have no interest in pulling things out from the text and incorrectly citing them as evidence that Sasuke has hidden romantic feelings for her during the canon period. He cares about her in the canon period, just like he cares about Naruto and Kakashi.  That’s not up for interpretation; it’s the text.  But Sasuke during the canon time period does not demonstrate specifically romantic interest in anyone.  

[A note before people who might ship Sasuke with Someone Else emerge to rail against this statement - please just scroll past and continue enjoying fandom in whatever way is most fun for you. It is cool to ship whatever fanon thing you want; I think that’s great!  But earnestly citing any loving or emotional thing Sasuke does re: various characters in this story (yes, Sakura included) as indicative of specifically romantic love isn’t supported by the text. I know there are always going to be enormous subsets of any fandom who insist that it is, and I'm certainly not going to barge into anyone else's space to complain about that (because other people having fun together is harmless and none of my business), but I'm not obligated to indulge it on my own blog, either.]

Anyway, that said - the reason why I love Sakura and Sasuke’s relationship (from here on out I’ll use “relationship” in a general, non-romantic sense) is precisely because Sakura isn’t just “the girl with the crush.” Sakura has an arc when it comes to Sasuke, and its trajectory moves in the exact opposite direction of “irrational” or “selfish.”  She specifically goes from “the girl with the crush” to “the girl who steels herself and tries to put her personal feelings for Sasuke aside for the greater good” to “the girl who knows she can’t put her feelings aside, but who also knows full well that Sasuke doesn’t reciprocate them, and who still wants to save him regardless, because he matters to her as a person and a friend.”

[I'm putting the rest of this under a cut to save everyone's dash, and also to emphasize once again that this is a personal post on my personal blog which I wrote in response to a question from a personal acquaintance, the full content of which no one is obligated to read. I am not sending this post to random strangers and forcing them to look at it. I'm not even putting it in the character tags. I'm typing it up on my own blog and putting it under a cut. If you already know that you don't like Sakura, but you still click the link/read the post and then feel an urge to comment and complain, I am going to copy-paste this disclaimer and remind you that I specifically recommended that you scroll past and go have fun with fandom in your own way. Thanks in advance for responsibly curating your own fandom experience!]

So, from the top:

1. the girl with the crush

Sakura is, obviously, completely obsessed with Sasuke at the beginning of Part 1.  She’s also deeply clueless about him and his history (bizarre though it is, the story seems to indicate that she initially doesn’t know what happened with his family, the same way young!Obito is initially clueless about Kakashi’s father).  But what I like about Sakura and Sasuke’s Part 1 relationship is how this changes over time.

The critical scene that kicks this off happens right at the beginning of the manga, when she and Sasuke are talking by that bench - she complains about Naruto and blames his behavior on him being all alone/having no family to scold him; and even says she’s jealous that he doesn’t have parents to nag him all the time.  This obviously triggers an outburst from Sasuke, who tells her she has no idea what loneliness means and that she “makes him sick”/she’s “annoying” (importantly, the exact same thing Sakura said to Naruto in anger earlier that day), which in turn prompts Sakura to reassess herself and wonder whether she’s been making Naruto feel this terrible all the time, too:

From that point on, it’s a process of her putting little pieces together.  She still has a MAJOR crush, and she still acts like a twelve year-old, but as we approach the end of Part I, Sakura actually has a more accurate grasp on Sasuke’s current state of mind than Naruto does.  Naruto is initially excited to fight Sasuke on top of the hospital, because he feels like Sasuke’s finally acknowledging him, whereas Sakura is the one who immediately recognizes that something is wrong about this situation.  She is also the one who, after this fight, is concerned that Sasuke is really unwell and might do something drastic like run off in pursuit of the power Orochimaru promised him, but when she communicates this to Naruto, he assures her that this would NEVER happen:

(Sakura isn't convinced, though, because she goes to monitor the exit out of the village anyway.)

I’m not criticizing Naruto for his response here.  I ADORE hearing him say that Sasuke is too strong to need Orochimaru, with such perfect confidence - I love seeing how much respect and admiration he has for Sasuke underneath all their fighting, because that’s the whole reason he’s always baiting Sasuke and yelling at him and claiming “you're not so great!” He looks up to Sasuke; he wants to be like Sasuke; he thinks Sasuke is awesome! (It’s that Obito @ Kakashi behavior, you know?) But the fact remains that he is clueless about what’s actually going on with Sasuke in Part 1, and he remains clueless(ly optimistic) for a long time.  

(Eg, when he catches up to Sasuke during the retrieval arc and Sasuke climbs out of that cursed seal coffin, Naruto waves at him and calls "Come on, let's go!" as if Sasuke has been successfully rescued and is now going to come running home.  Even in Part II, when Naruto hears that Sasuke killed Orochimaru, he beams and immediately says, “So he must be on his way back to the Leaf Village!”  And everyone else in the room is like, “....,” because they know better.  Naruto doesn’t yet fully understand [or doesn't want to accept] the extent to which Sasuke has willingly chosen this path, and it’s not until after Jiraiya’s death/the Pain attack/the Five Kage Summit that Naruto really starts to understand Sasuke more clearly, which is something he himself admits.)

Sakura, in Part 1, has access to more information about Sasuke - she’s there for his first dissociative monologue during the bells test, she’s there for the curse mark’s placement, she’s there for his first violent transformation in the Forest of Death - she is, in fact, the unwitting catalyst for it (“Sakura…who did this to you?”), and her compassion is the reason Sasuke is later able to overcome the curse mark’s influence - so she has a more accurate/complete picture of “how he’s doing,” for lack of a better phrase, whereas Naruto, who doesn’t know about the curse mark in the first place, is still in the dark.  This means that Sakura is able to accurately discern that Sasuke is struggling more than Naruto realizes, and specifically to predict that he’s going to run away.  

(This dynamic is then interestingly flipped in the back half of Part II, since at any point after the Five Kage Summit, Sakura doesn’t have access to extremely relevant [if currently questionable and unproven] details that would in any other circumstance inform her behavior).

Of course, just because she has more info in Part 1 doesn’t mean she has some kind of miraculous insight into Sasuke’s every thought and feeling.  There are parts of her attempt to convince Sasuke to stay in the village that are as clueless as any of Naruto’s assumptions, and they showcase the kind of magical thinking common to childhood - like when she says that if he stayed with her, she could give him happiness, she’d do anything for him, even help him get his revenge - this idea that she herself can do something to make him feel better, that she can love him powerfully enough to defeat his pain - obviously none of that is rooted in realism.

Is this part of her approach irrational and immature and inadvertently self-centered?  Of course it is!  But it’s no more irrational and immature and inadvertently self-centered than Naruto’s stated plan to drag Sasuke back to the village even if he has to “break every bone in [his] body!” 

Hating on Sakura for her Part 1 attempt to convince Sasuke to stay in the village while simultaneously lauding Naruto for his feels like a bad faith misread of what is, to me, pretty clear narrative intention.  The story doesn’t at any point intend for us to see her begging him to stay as a selfish or conniving attempt to get something she wants.  She’s begging him to stay for the same underlying reason that Naruto is: she cares about him.  She thinks he’s making a mistake that will only cause him more pain in the end (she’s right) and she wants to make it so he feels less pain right now (she can’t.  But she doesn’t understand that/isn’t able to admit that, and she’s willing to try ANYTHING that might help).  

It’s critical that this farewell scene is set in front of that same bench from their first important confrontation - she references that day and how angry he got at her, and this time she tells him that she understands his reaction.  She’s learned things and she recognizes how insensitive she was being back then (“I know what happened to your clan, Sasuke”), even though she still can’t fully grasp all the complexities of the situation. She tells him that him blowing up at her back then helped her understand what loneliness actually meant (as opposed to her previous shallow understanding of it), and she challenges him about his choice right now: "So that's it, you're choosing the lonely path?" And when she tells him that she'll be very lonely if he leaves, we're immediately shown a panel of Sasuke thinking of both his friends, with the very clear implication that if he goes through with this, he will be lonely without them, too - that he's still struggling with the idea of leaving them, no matter how hard he tries to pretend:

Sakura at this point knows that Sasuke isn’t interested in her the way she is in him, but she still wants to give him happiness, however fantastical and immature her ideas sound to us (and, I’m sure, to him).  “I’ll do anything, even help you get your revenge/we'll have fun every day, and...and you'll be happy! I'll make sure of it!” - of course, it’s completely childish.  It’s irrational.  It’s ridiculous to think that any of this would ever be effective, but no more ridiculous than Naruto’s belief that he can simply break every bone in Sasuke’s body and keep him in the Leaf by force.

Both Naruto and Sakura are children who have a deeply oversimplified understanding of Sasuke’s situation.  They both still think they can fix him themselves.  They both think they can save him themselves.  They both think they can convince (or force) him to do what they want, what they think is in his best interests.  Both of them don’t yet understand that he has to want to come back, if it’s ever going to mean anything.  Their attempts to keep him in the village are immature and unrealistic, yes.  What they aren’t, however, is selfish, because neither Sakura nor Naruto are doing any of this with the intention of advancing their own interests.  They’re only thinking about Sasuke - how to keep Sasuke safe, how to make Sasuke happy - even when neither of them are taking an approach that will actually work.

Naruto and Sakura are children.  They’re afraid of losing somebody they care about.  Their attempts to prevent that from happening are desperate and messy and ultimately ineffective, but they are also genuinely felt and rooted in a true desire to rescue Sasuke from his pain, which - and this is the single most important thing that should impact our viewing of Part 1 - is something that Sasuke RECOGNIZES.  He doesn’t spend that agonizingly long moment bowed over Naruto’s defeated body so we can pretend he doesn’t understand that Naruto was just trying to help him.  He doesn’t take the time to murmur, “Sakura…thank you,” before laying her out carefully on a bench, just so we can discount it and pretend that he doesn’t recognize and appreciate her genuine intention to make things better for him, however clumsy that attempt might have been.

2. the greater good

If Stage 1 Sakura is "the girl with the crush," then Stage 2 Sakura is a progression to “the girl who decides to put her feelings for Sasuke aside in order to protect innocent people, including (but certainly not limited to) Naruto.”  She’s driven to this decision by interactions with Shikamaru, who all too recently had to grow up fast himself (“We're not kids anymore...we can't allow a war to break out between the Hidden Leaf and the Hidden Cloud because of Sasuke") and Sai, who risks his new friendship with Sakura and Team 7 in order to speak some hard truths and deliver one of my favorite lines in the whole story: “I don’t know what promise Naruto made to you, but it’s really no different than what was done to me.  It’s like a curse mark.”

(INCREDIBLE.  How can anybody be complaining about a season where Sai gets to say something that goes THIS HARD and Sakura LISTENS and takes DRAMATIC ACTION that actually propels the story forward in a meaningful way - )

[Okay, yeah, brief personal opinion interlude - it is just bonkers wild to me that there are people who complain about Sakura in the Five Kage Summit arc. That entire season is the greatest character arc she ever has.  Literally she has never been more interesting and dynamic than in Season 10; it’s the first time she ever gets to be as deep and fascinating as the boys; what is everybody so worked up about?  Oh, “she lied to Naruto that one time” - Sasuke joined infant-kidnapping baby-murdering human experimentation machine Orochimaru when he was twelve years old in order to (dare I say it????) selfishly pursue his personal goals and yet, somehow, we are still able to root for him.  He abandoned his friends/allies to imprisonment and death (Suigetsu and Jūgo) or outright stabbed them in the chest himself (Karin) in order to (SELFISHLY) get what he wanted, and yet, somehow, we are still able to love him, understand him, and be on his side.  Naruto is canonically not upset with Sakura about her lie after receiving context for the situation and I think we can probably take our cues from him without feeling the need to bring her up on war crimes; please calm down]

[Sorry, I just really love most of Season 10 and think it’s one of the best examples of how good this story can be when every single character gets to do something that matters (as opposed to things being all Naruto, all the time) so I get a little bit worked up over people complaining about some of the best writing Sakura ever gets.  I don’t understand what certain elements of fandom want from her. People complain about her being “useless” and not doing anything that contributes to the story, but then they complain just as much when she does finally get to act decisively and have just as complex/dynamic an inner world as the boys.  She’s “weak” for being unreasonably in love with Sasuke, but when she tries to be “strong” and put her love for him aside and eliminate him in order to protect Naruto and the rest of the world, she’s evil, because she should have been more understanding of his situation (despite the fact that she doesn’t KNOW anything about his situation).  But then when she can’t go through with killing him after all because she cares about him too much despite the things he’s done, she’s not "compassionate" or "kind" or "a good friend," she’s “weak” again. Nothing Sakura does in S10 is more wrongheaded or rash than any of the batshit, buckwild things Naruto and Sasuke have done in the past (and will continue to do in the future), but when Naruto and Sasuke have big feelings or take bold action, it makes them interesting characters, whereas Sakura can’t breathe in anyone’s direction without being minutely scrutinized for moral impurities.]  

Anyway. Back to a more measured response.  

Every single piece of development Sakura has with regard to Sasuke in this season satisfies me so much.  Her initial shock and disbelief at hearing that Sasuke had joined the Akatsuki?  Good, appropriate.  The fact that she starts to acknowledge the reality of what Sasuke’s done sooner than Naruto does?  Also extremely appropriate, very in-character for both of them.  Her taking Sai’s words to heart and deciding that the promise she asked Naruto to make when they were children is causing him to suffer and she has to relieve him of that burden?  Juicy!  AND thematically significant (promises!!!!  the burden that a promise places on a person, especially when it can't be kept - we've seen that before in this story and we'll see it again).  Her anguished pivot from wanting to protect Sasuke to realizing that she has a responsibility to protect the countless innocents who will die because of the war he’s trying to start?  HELLO THIS IS INCREDIBLE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.  Her knocking out the classmates who agreed to help her so they don’t have to share in her burden (and so the only person Naruto will hate when it’s over is her)?  BRUH.  Her being so committed and focused on her goal of saving innocents and protecting Naruto (not just from being harmed by Sasuke/the Akatsuki, but by the possibility that Naruto will someday have to hurt Sasuke himself) that she tries to take everything on by herself and walks into a confrontation that she absolutely cannot win??  INCREDIBLE.  (Literally the first time I watched this, I said, “Finally!!!  It’s Sakura’s turn to go off the rails!”  I laughed with my sister about how Kakashi isn’t even mad, because Naruto and Sasuke have been pulling stunts like this for years and Sakura was way overdue for her own meltdown.)  And then, after Kakashi intervenes in the fight - Sakura barreling back into the battle when she realizes he’s going to take on the burden of killing Sasuke himself in order to spare her and Naruto the horror - “I can’t let Kakashi-sensei bear this burden!”  I love her for that.  

And then, of course, in the end - her not being able to do hurt Sasuke after all.  Despite committing herself to the act, despite forcing herself to put her feelings for him aside, despite resolving to stop him from starting a war and killing innocent people, she can’t harm him.  She cares about him too much.  This, too, is thematically significant - think about Itachi’s “you don’t have enough hatred” - she doesn’t have enough hatred to kill someone she cares about, even if it seems like he deserves it, even if would be the right thing to do to protect others.  She can’t do it, and Sasuke almost kills her for her compassion.  

I love the dynamic this sets up between her and Sasuke, for a few reasons:

1) Personally, I think Sasuke respects Sakura much more for trying to kill him than he would have if she’d just tried to talk him out of his behavior or beg him to come home (a la their original confrontation in Part 1).  This is the first significant interaction he’s had with Sakura in years, and the fact that she does something SO contrary to his memory of her is an important demonstration of the fact that she’s not the same girl she used to be.  Sasuke spends a lot of time after his defection declaring to his old team “I’ve changed; I’m not that person anymore,” but this is one of the moments where he’s forced to acknowledge that his teammates have changed, too.  Time didn’t just stop for them when he left.  While he was turning into someone new, so were they.  They grew up without him, and his old memories of them can’t encompass the whole picture of who they are now.  

(This is a little tangential, but in general, I love the spectrum of reactions that Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi have in this sequence, and the way that all of them are ultimately messages Sasuke needs to hear.  Sasuke - who we know textually regrets what he did here, who apologizes to Sakura for it later - for “everything,” in fact - needs Naruto’s aggressively optimistic open-arms policy, yes, needs that potential, that unconditional possibility of return.  He also needs Sakura’s refusal to let him hurt her friends and start a war that will kill thousands of people, needs her surprisingly ruthless attempt to take him down; needs just as much her failure to do so, because it shows him that she still loves him too much to kill him even as she condemns him.  And he needs Kakashi’s grim line in the sand, needs someone who very possibly won't hesitate like Sakura (despite the horrifying personal cost), someone who will try to reach him but also won't let him escape and become the next generation’s Orochimaru, who won't let him cause untold suffering to untold numbers of people just because a teacher loved him too much to stop him when he had the chance. 

(And then even Kakashi chooses not to deliver a killing blow when he has the opportunity -)

(I know that in fandom people are more likely to be all, “oh, Naruto Good, everybody else Bad,” but I don’t think the narrative frames Sakura or Kakashi as “worse” than Naruto in any way.  The story goes out of its way to make it clear how desperately they don’t want to hurt Sasuke and how much they care about him.  And [this is just my interpretation, so obviously I won’t claim it as fact], I personally think that Sasuke - Sasuke, who, looking back, can see how lost he was then and how tortured he would have been if he’d gone through with many of his plans - would be grateful to Sakura and Kakashi for making an attempt to stop him when he couldn’t stop himself.)

2) On the other side of this, the fact that Sakura wasn’t able to deliver the killing blow means a lot. Sasuke was incapacitated under that bridge; he was completely at her mercy - but she stopped with the kunai an inch from his back.  She couldn’t kill him, even though she knew that he was completely willing to kill her (because he'd attempted to Chidori-assassinate her from behind just a few minutes ago).  That’s huge!  Sasuke is too out of his head right now to process this or understand it, but later, it's going to matter.  She stayed her hand.  She spared his life.  She loved him too much to hurt him, even when he’d given her every reason to take him down.  She hesitated, and he almost killed her for it, but her inability to strike him ultimately gave him yet another chance to come home, another chance to get better, another chance to have a life outside of his pain.  Despite everything, some part of her still hadn’t really given up on him, and that knowledge will matter later, when he’s finally able to acknowledge it.  

The point of all this is to say that I really have no complaints about Sakura and Sasuke’s dynamic in their S10 confrontation.  This season is the point where Sakura fully grows past her “girl with a crush” stage and into her “shinobi must make very harsh decisions” adulthood, but it never means that she doesn’t care about the person she’s trying to take down.  Her ultimate inability to deliver the killing blow remains a dangling lifeline for her relationship with Sasuke, an open door that Sasuke is able to walk through at the end of the story (literally, in fact, when Sakura opens that portal for him and saves him from Kaguya’s desert prison, and figuratively, too, when Sasuke apologizes to her).

3. she only wants to save you

The last stage in their relationship is what Sakura settles into during the war arc.  She started off Part 1 being just a girl with a crush, then tried to harden her heart and put her feelings for Sasuke aside in service of the greater good, but she was unable to actually follow through and kill him, and because of that, what she’s come to accept by the war arc is actually two things: that 1) Sasuke truly is willing to let her die if it furthers his goals, and 2) she wants to save him anyway.  

She has no intention of pursuing Sasuke romantically.  She knows full well that Sasuke isn’t interested in her.  She even knows that Sasuke isn’t really on their side (there’s a great scene where Sai questions Sakura about Sasuke’s return, and she reassures him that everything is fine, and Sai sadly thinks to himself “even I can tell your smile is fake”).  She’s well-aware that Sasuke didn’t try to help her when Madara stabbed her.  She’s well-aware that he left her to die in the lava pit.  She’s also well-aware that none of this is enough to make her stop loving him.  He doesn’t have to care about her - she still cares about him.  She still wants to help him.  She still wants to save him.

This is not hidden, hard-to-parse character development.  It’s explicitly articulated on the page:

Sakura’s not trying or wanting to make you hers!  She only wants to save you.

I’m not sure if people look at this last confrontation and unquestioningly take Sasuke at his word (as if we haven’t just read 71 volumes/watched 700 episodes showing us how how painfully distorted his thinking is), or if they stop reading/watching before the end of the scene, or if they don’t understand that Sasuke saying something doesn’t make that statement an accurate representation of reality.  The entire point of this scene is to show us how deeply mistaken Sasuke is about Sakura (and, by extension, the rest of Team 7).  He’s locked into a false pattern of thinking.  His single-minded focus on revenge and destruction has blinded him to the unconditional love his friends feel for him; he’s become so accustomed to using others and being used that he can’t understand or accept that someone would care about him without needing a reason, without needing him to love them back, without needing to receive something from him in exchange.

Sakura’s not trying or wanting to make you hers!  She only wants to save you.

Sasuke matters to Sakura as more than a love interest.  He always has.  She does love him romantically, yes, but she doesn’t only love him romantically, and her desire to help him is not and has never been contingent on him returning her feelings, romantically or otherwise.  Sasuke isn’t able to acknowledge that in this scene, but that doesn’t mean we’re supposed to just sit back and agree with his warped perspective.  Kakashi is the one who’s explicitly positioned as the voice of the narrative here.  We, as the audience, are supposed to recognize that Kakashi is the one telling us the truth.

[tangential thing 1: You don’t have to love Sakura's last plea to Sasuke here. It’s not my favorite, either - the best part, other than Kakashi’s speech at the end, is the moment after Kakashi collapses when Sakura’s expression changes from pained uncertainty to pure rage, when she grits her teeth together - when I first saw that, I almost leapt out of my seat like “Oh my god.  She’s finally going to let him have it.  It’s finally happening - ”  I wanted that so badly, and I still think it would have been a more effective writing choice for Sakura’s last words to lean more into her anger at the suffering Sasuke is causing all of them (himself included!) and less into yet another of Kishimoto’s “let me have Sakura articulate what a shame it is that she can’t do as much as Naruto despite the fact that I literally just went through a major reveal sequence in the war to show that she’s caught up to the boys; I can’t make up my mind about whether I want her to progress or not” - it’s extremely frustrating (and it's something he does at the very end of the S10 Team 7 reunion, too, which is the ONLY moment of S10 that falls flat for me).  But at the same time, even if there are ways this sequence could be more satisfying, it doesn’t change the fact that her plea to him is not remotely motivated by a desire to be with him romantically and not anything to condemn her for.]

[tangential thing 2: I do like how she remembers that moment when Sasuke says “Thank you.”  That panel precedes her saying “If there’s even a tiny corner of your heart that thinks about me…” (which I’m sure is one of the things that people like to criticize about this scene, aka “oh she’s sooooo self-centered” etc), but that particular line of dialogue is preceded by that particular flashback panel for a reason: Sakura knows that Sasuke DOES think about her.  He thinks about all of them.  Sakura remembers that “thank you,” and it reminds her that despite everything Sasuke has done and said since, despite all evidence to the contrary, she knows in her bones that his expression of gratitude back then was genuine.  He cared about her once.  He cared about all of them.  She’s trying to reach the part of him that still does, if it exists.]

[tangential thing 3: The fact that Kakashi says “she suffers from loving you,” and it triggers Sasuke to remember his own family - thinking about how much he suffered (and still suffers) from loving them - “Perhaps…those are the ties to a failed past” - the idea that it’s not worth it to have bonds if it means you suffer this much…that it’s too difficult, it’s too painful, and if Sakura and the rest of Team 7 were smarter they would just give it up (all Sasuke knows how to do now is sever potential bonds before they can hurt him; so why aren’t Sakura and the rest of his teammates doing that, why can’t they let it go, why are they making this so hard - ) << yeah, he clearly doesn't care about her/them at all.]

4. the shadow of my family

This has all been a really long way to answer the original question, but the short response to “What do you think about the relationship between Sasuke and Sakura?” is “I really care about it,” just like I really care about the relationship between Sasuke and Naruto, just like I really care about the relationship between Sasuke and Kakashi. And I don’t think the story ever asks me to choose between them.

I’m not sure whether it’s the impact of Boruto-era “canon” that gets in the way of other people approaching things this way (I don’t consider sequel material when I evaluate the original story), or if it’s Kishimoto’s frequent disinterest in/disrespect towards female characters, which yes, does sometimes make it harder, or if it's a shipping thing (bane of my existence), or some combination of factors, but for me, taking one member of Team 7 out of the equation hobbles the rest of the story.  I can’t read/watch Naruto while hating one of the protagonists and loving the other three.  It doesn’t work like that for me.  The story wasn’t written that way, and there’s nothing in the text that would cause me to receive it that way.

That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with disliking one of the main foursome (or any character, for that matter) - obviously we're all going to have different preferences, and everyone is free to enjoy or reject whatever parts of a story they want, or to like or dislike whatever characters they want. I know that some people have more fun disregarding canon and doing their own thing, which is fine.  My own personal zone of enjoyment comes from receiving the story as closely to how I think it was intended to be read as I can, and personally, when I look at this particular story, what I see is that all the members of Team 7 clearly demonstrate their love for Sasuke in ways that he himself later recognizes and acknowledges. All of them are driven by their desire to save him and their unwillingness to hurt him. All of them make repeated choices to chase after him when he runs away, to trust him when he hasn't exactly earned it, to give him another chance when he doesn't appear to deserve it. ALL of them, not just Naruto, do these things multiple times throughout the story, and Sasuke owes his life (and thus his eventual recovery) to ALL of them, many times over. Kakashi disobeys Hokage-elect Danzō and breaks the law to negotiate for Sasuke's life with a foreign head of state. Sakura and Kakashi both have opportunities to kill Sasuke in the Land of Iron, and they choose to spare him instead. Kakashi stops Sasuke from killing his only friends at two different points in the story, which would have been a mistake Sasuke couldn't have recovered from. Sasuke would have died in Kaguya's desert dimension if Sakura hadn't saved him (Sakura, who knew that Sasuke wasn't even truly on her side yet, who knew he'd abandoned her for dead multiple times already that day). Kaguya's bone bullet would have killed Sasuke too, if Kakashi, with his intention to die in Sasuke's place, hadn't leapt in front of it (Kakashi, who also knew that Sasuke wasn't fully on their side yet, who also knew that Sasuke had abandoned him for dead earlier that day). Sasuke and Naruto would have BOTH died in the Final Valley if Sakura and a severely injured Kakashi hadn't chased after them to heal their injuries.

Remove any one member of Team 7, and Sasuke never makes it home. Without the combined efforts of all three of his teammates, he doesn't survive.  That’s the way it should be, thematically, for a story whose first and most foundational premise was the importance of teamwork, and since Sakura was just as essential to that framework as everyone else, I’m just as invested in her relationship with Sasuke as I am in his relationship with everyone else.  You can’t remove one leg from a four-legged stool without damaging the integrity of the entire structure, and for me, discounting any single member of Team 7 irreparably damages the integrity of the entire story. 

TL;DR: I love all of the Team 7 relationships, including Sakura and Sasuke's, because despite what some segments of fandom seem to believe, the text of the story never gives me any reason not to.

[pulau-harimau]

Setting Profile: Family, Gender, and Language

In this post we explore the kinship system displayed by the colonies of the Island, beliefs about nepotism, colony conceptions of gender and stereotypes about it, and the words for different family members.

This is a huge and very dense post; be warned!

Relationship Hierarchies

In many Western cultures, the most "important" relationship someone has, or the one highest on the relationship hierarchy, is a romantic one. Every person is expected to want and actively seek out a romantic relationship, and once they have one, their romantic partner is expected to be their priority in all things. Even long-time friends and family members are often expected to be held as a "less important" relationship than one's romantic partner, even if the partner is very new.

The colonies of the Island instead view one's siblings (mafhaa), and especially same-gender littermates (fhaa), as the most important relationship in a tiger's life.

Most tigers who have cubs will have 1-2 litters in their life, which usually consist of about 2 cubs each (but may contain as few as 1 and as many as 4). Sibling relationships, and especially the relationships between siblings of the same gender, are very strong from a young age. The assumed relationship between fhaa is similar to the assumed relationship between twins in many Western cultures. It is normal for tigers to feel incomplete without their fhaa, and cubs without fhaa are usually assumed to be somewhat clingier and less well adjusted due to poor early life socialization. Cubs without fhaa are more likely to have strong relationships with any mafhaa of the same gender.

A tiger who shows preferential treatment to a mate or other romantic interest over their fhaa (or sometimes even their mafhaa!) is generally thought of as childish or unreliable. It's the sort of behavior expected out of unruly adolescents, not responsible members of society.

Fhaa are also important because they will socially be considered the parents of your cubs. The colonies of the Island use the Iriquois kinship system, shown here:

Family Relationships

(Note about language: For our purposes, "biological family" includes adopted individuals. The distinction being made is solely between parallel cousins and "full siblings." The colonies are extremely pro-adoption; implying or outright stating that an adopted child isn't a full member of their adopted family in every respect is literally heresy against the goddess Shossuow.)

Your biological parents' same-gender siblings are also considered your parents, and your parallel cousins (the children of your parents' same-gender siblings) are your siblings, your mafhaa. Your primary parents, usually a mother and her fhaa, are formally known as your raowreh, or informally known as your rao. Your secondary parents, usually a father and his fhaa, are formally known as your maowreh, or informally known as your mao.

However, colony tigers also track their blood relationships with their names. In most cases, a colony tiger will simply be known by their own holy name ("Fire Ant,") but upon first introductions, in ceremonies, and in other formal situations, they will be known by their full name tracking their biological same-gender parent (shahafen myrraowreh) and biological same-gender grandparent (garrmwa). For example, a tiger called Fire Ant who is the daughter of Jequirity Drum and granddaughter of Castor Leaf would be formally be called "Fire Ant from Jequirity Drum from Castor Leaf." One's garrmwa, but ESPECIALLY their rao's rao, are also usually quite involved with raising them, just not as much as their rao and mao.

It isn't unheard of to honor a different-gendered biological parent (yyan) or grandparent (garryyan), however. Tigers who have no same-gendered parent or grandparent, tigers who have disowned or been disowned by their same-gendered parent or grandparent, or tigers who have any number of other reasons to honor another ancestor may choose to be called for a different pair of ancestors. However, this decision might come with some societal baggage.

Under this system, it is forbidden to have cubs/become mates with the following types of tigers:

The child of your shahafen myrraowreh (named parent)

The child of the current or former mate of your named parent (yyan)

Someone with the same garrmwa (named grandparent) as you

Your own cubs or grandcubs, naturally!

As a result, it is permissible to have cubs with your cross-cousins (pemm) or nieces/nephews (nipemm). However, Tide's Leap discourages these relationships due to a belief that it promotes nepotism. Furthermore, it is illegal to have cubs with a step-sibling or the child of a parent's former mate (both concepts included under the word korfhaa), whether or not they're actually likely to be blood related to you.

Colony tigers also make a distinction between family (those who are directly and legally related to you) and kin (distant family, close friends, and mates-- anyone in your family who it would be permissible to have cubs with, basically).

Trinary Gender System

The colonies also have a trinary gender system. These genders are usually assigned in early childhood, but it's assumed to be reasonably common for onlookers to be wrong about a cub's gender. It isn't unusual for a cub or adolescent to correct their assigned gender, or even to change their mind about it. However, trying to correct it once you have reached adulthood may lead to a tiger being faced with some amount of confusion or scrutiny, due to an assumption that you should have already known something so essential to your identity. Non-trinary or gender nonconforming tigers may also face some social difficulty.

Additionally, the words used for these genders are subject to change!

Presumed biologically female cats are usually assigned yaow in early childhood. Yaow tigers are stereotyped to be more introverted than other genders and fairly aloof. They are also believed to be very protective, especially of their kin. Due to associations with Shossuow, yaow tigers are also somewhat associated with nighttime. They are expected to internalize their emotions and avoid expressing them, but are known to have potentially violent tempers, especially if their loved ones are threatened. There is a stereotype that yaow tigers are better at hunting and managing camp tasks; as a result, there tends to be a slight bias toward yaow tigers being Heralds, which leads to a mild stereotype that they make better leaders.

Presumed biologically male cats are usually assigned ssuf in early childhood. Ssuf tigers are stereotyped as being passionate, outgoing, and emotional. They're also usually assumed to be very territorial, especially at borders. Despite their outgoing nature, it's usually assumed that they will have fewer friends than yaow tigers. Despite a cultural belief that ssuf tigers need more affection than other genders, there's a taboo against them asking for it directly. Increased aggression and territoriality, especially toward other ssuf tigers (and even within their own family or colony), and especially in adolescence, is more socially acceptable than it is for other genders. Additionally, sexists sometimes have a belief that it isn't safe for ssuf tigers to be around cubs that are not theirs (naturally, their fhaa's cubs do count as being "theirs") because they might harm or kill them out of an abundance of territorial aggression.

Cubs that are not obviously male or female, singletons, suspected fading cubs, cubs born with fever coat, and cubs with unusual physical features (such as extra toes, heterochromia, or an unusual pelt color for their family) are usually assigned meewa in early childhood. Meewa tigers are strongly associated with the goddex Mesha. As a result, it is believed that they generally take longer to mature; childish behaviors will be tolerated longer, but it can be more difficult for meewa tigers who are young adults to be taken seriously. Meewa tigers are believed to remain curious, inquisitive, playful, and young at heart throughout their lives. They are believed to be the best scientists and storytellers, and make excellent babysitters. There is also a stereotype that they are scatterbrained or easily distracted, and a medium cultural taboo against meewa tigers having cubs; this will be explored later, but it means that aroace tigers and neurodivergent tigers are more likely to be assumed to be meewa than their peers. If they have no same-gendered parent, meewa tigers are free to take the name of whichever parent they are closer to, but if only one parent has the ability to carry cubs, the meewa tiger will usually take that parent's name.

Queer Tigers & Queer Families

Queer tigers have some societal struggles. Not many individual tigers are strongly sexist, transphobic, homophobic, or polyphobic, and astronomically few would be moved to violence about it-- but the ingrained culture of the colonies usually makes the lives of societally queer tigers and tigers in families seen as queer by their society noticeably harder.

For example, a tiger who does not easily fit into the trinary gender system or who is gender nonconforming may be seen as childish, unreliable, or irresponsible. Someone who strongly identifies as one gender but acts strongly in line with the stereotypes of another might even be thought of as intentionally dishonest. Tigers with complex relationships to their gender might be thought of as likely to pass on their "confusion" to their cubs, and may have some difficulty finding mates-- or, worse, might become distant or disowned from their fhaa and mafhaa. Transphobic attitudes are reasonably prevalent in the colonies, but usually fairly mild (and mostly targeted at cultural groups with different ideas of gender).

Tigers who enter into same-gender relationships may also face some cultural difficulties if they decide to have biological cubs. Homophobic tigers would believe that tigers in same-gender relationships should focus on raising the cubs of their fhaa and being active in the lives of their nipemm (nieces/nephews), not trying to "complicate" things by having their own cubs. If the couple is able to have cubs of their own (including through adoption), a cub of the same gender as their parents will need to decide which parent will be their shahafen myrraowreh. Because of the social nuances involved in rejecting the name of a biological same-gender parent in favor of your other biological parent, either choice could be seen as disrespectful to the parent & grandparent not chosen. The choice of name for such a cub is always going to be political, and some tigers believe that it's an undue burden to place upon one's child.

Meewa tigers and singletons choosing to have mates and especially cubs are also faced with some amount of social stigma. It is believed that a cub needs at least four parents to grow up well adjusted. Because the most common way to be assigned meewa is to be a singleton, there is a strong association that both groups make poor parents. Singletons, and especially non-meewa singletons, are stereotyped as clingy and emotionally stunted-- and, due to the association with meewa tigers, somewhat childish. Meewa tigers are stereotyped as being easily distracted, head-in-the-clouds types or as fun babysitters who would make terrible parents. It is believed (again, to varying degrees by different individuals!) that neither type of tiger is likely to pass on favorable personality traits to their offspring, and especially that both will produce maladjusted cubs who don't have a good understanding of how to behave socially. Additionally, if a meewa tiger has cubs, it is reasonably likely that there will be a yaow or ssuf cub who will have to decide which parent to honor with their name (see: the same-gender parent problem).

Perhaps counterintuitively, polyamorous relationships are looked down upon by most colony tigers. While it is believed that a cub needs at least four parents, it is seen as childish and even outright disrespectful to give the co-parent roles to mates rather than one's fhaa. Furthermore, any polyamorous relationship is guaranteed to include at least one meewa tiger or a same-gender relationship, if not both-- so the associated stereotypes with each situation are included. In a situation where there are multiple tigers in a romantic relationship who aren't snubbing their fhaa, there is a strong chance that there will be more than eight parents involved, which is believed to be equally bad for a cub's development-- the cultural belief is that at that point, they're being raised by so many tigers that they may as well be an orphan being raised communally.

Additionally, having multiple litters by different tigers is frowned upon. Not only is it considered a sign of dishonesty or unreliability to have had multiple serious mates, but the cubs of any of your past mates are ineligible to be mates with your cubs, even if they aren't blood related. (Or, to simplify: Jane has a child with John. They break up. John has a child with Alice, named Kate. Jane has a child with Joe, named Bob. Bob and Kate have no parents or relatives in common, but if they got married, the colonies would consider it incest.) If you have five ex-mates, you're assumed to be setting up any of your cubs (OR their cubs!) for failure. Furthermore, dishonesty and bad character are believed to be hereditary. If you are the type of person who for whatever reason can't keep a wife, it's assumed that your cubs will be the same way. As a result, tigers with previous, still-living mates tend to have a hard time finding new ones, even if the previous relationships were toxic or dangerous.

Family Word Recap

A summary of the vocabulary.

named parent/biological primary parent - shahafen myrraowreh*

mate (current or former) of named parent - yyan

named grandparent - garrmwa

unnamed grandparent - garryyan (rarely used)

primary parents - raowreh, rao*

secondary parents - maowreh, mao*

same-gender littermate - fhaa

other siblings** - mafhaa

rao's mafhaa - raohhr

mao's mafhaa - maohhr

cross-cousins/children of your raohrr or maohrr - pemm

nieces/nephews/niblings, children of your pemm - moopemm

law-siblings*** - korfhaa

your cub from a first litter - moowr

your cub from a second litter - moowri

your cub from a third litter - moowr'eef

*As a point of clarification, "shahafen myrraowreh" is a purely legal term. Colony tigers make no distinction in common conversation between their biological primary parent and that parent's fhaa (this set of tigers being their raowreh), or between their biological secondary parent and that parent's fhaa (this set of tigers being their maowreh). "Rao" and "mao" are assumed plural unless otherwise specified.

**"Other siblings" for colony purposes includes parallel cousins, different gender littermates, biological full siblings from other litters, and half-siblings.

***Not to be confused with the English term "siblings-in-law," although it's sometimes used colloquially to mean that. In legal terms, your korfhaa are your step siblings and the half-siblings of your half-siblings; tigers you aren't blood related to, but who you are legally forbidden to be mates with. It isn't illegal to have cubs with your sibling-in-law, so they are not legally your korfhaa; a tiger who refers to a sibling-in-law as their korfhaa is just acknowledging that the SIL is a relative they have a somewhat awkward/convoluted relationship to, who it would be weird to have cubs with.

[oneluckydragon]

I have a few questions about Echo!

1) when did she know she used to be Darkrai? My guess is at Dark Crater, either when she first laid eyes an Darkrai and just *knew,* or something about Palkia's speech about what could happen to Darkrai after being attacked in the portal.

2) what caused the scar on her neck? (Probs darkrai tbh)

3) alright so this is probably me overthinking things but did Echo change genders?? Asking cause Darkrai is typically referred to as 'he/him', and he has a distinctly masculine voice in his movie. Plus, it also makes sense with Darkrai and Cresselia being opposites: Cress is canonically a female while Darkrai is depicted as a male, full moon vs new moon, sweet dreams vs nightmares, day and night, light and dark, and so on. So did Darkrai go from he/him to ???/??? (as a 'human') to she/her? Did Darkrai just not give a shit? Have we been accidentally misgendering Darkrai this whole time?

Basically I'm asking b/c 1) confusion, and 2) is it another layer of symbolism about how Echo is nothing like her former self?

@maxtheirisagent tagging you like requested!

Thanks so much for asking about Echo! I'm happy to answer any questions so feel free to pester me whenever you'd like. It's so exciting that someone wants to know more about her. c:

+++ +++ +++ +++ +++

The truth about Echo's past life as Darkrai clicked the moment she first met Cresselia within Azurill's nightmare.

Not only did she piece the truth together because the sight of her long-lost sister-- someone she had scorned and despised and hated in her original life-- jarred her so much that it cleared away some of the fog in her memory. But it was the feeling. The rush of anger, of fury, the ache she felt upon seeing Cresselia again after years and years of separation. It awoke something inside Echo that felt real in a way she couldn't ignore. Like a puzzle piece finally slotting into place.

And even more, Echo had her suspicions leading up to said point. She cannot dream at all. Not ever. Never figured out why during her time as a human and Eevee, and yet other Pokemon tend to suffer nightmares around her (even as a human, this ability Bad Dreams never went away) which had caused some pain for both Sora and Grovyle over the years. And Echo never shared the secret that she doesn't dream. She never confessed to suspecting that these nightmares might be her fault, so Sora and Grovyle never understood the origins of their own nightmares either-- but Echo was able to deduce that she was indeed the source of the problem. Especially after Chatot had explained that Darkrai caused nightmares and pain wherever he went, and the correlation between Echo's powers, her amnesia, her sudden appearance on the beach, her life with Grovyle in the dark future, the Dimensional Scream/connection to the Time Gears, and Darkrai's personality were too coincidental.

What solidified this conclusion is that while Cresselia was traveling with Team Wish during their attempts to reach Dark Crater, Sora did not suffer nightmares at all-- for the first time in what seemed like ages. And it was a like a gut punch, a vicious stab in the heart, and Echo immediately knew why. It was because Cresselia was accompanying them, and her gentle light purifies bad dreams and brings good health. Someone that could cancel out the nasty effect Echo seems to have on others... and it did. Cresselia DID cancel out these nightmares and that could only mean one thing.

And Echo was angry, then. Angry at Cresselia. Angry at herself. And fueled that anger towards fighting Darkrai for the sake of everyone she loved.

+++ +++ +++ +++ +++

You're right! The scar on Echo's neck is indeed from Darkrai. In fact, both of Echo's scars (the large one along her neck AND the one denting her leg as an Eevee/Umbreon or rather on her arm as a human). Each one was received technically at the same time, but with a twist! During the final battle at Dark Crater, Echo and Darkrai both went berserk and clashed in a desperate attempt to knock each other out.

Echo inflicted a wound onto Darkrai which took sizeable chunks out of his forearm. When Palkia shattered the dimensional portal it then instantly scarred that injury and Darkrai then carried it through ALL future lifetimes. Which is why Echo still has that scar as a Human -> Eevee -> Umbreon. Despite Darkrai receiving this injury during the peak of their final battle, Echo has bore it for all of her past lives up until the point she actually GIVES it to Darkrai. A new wound for him. An old wound for her.

Simultaneously, Darkrai inflicted the neck scar onto Echo who then carries this mark the rest of her life as an Umbreon. It's a bit of a coincidence that her neck scar ends up somewhat, strangely, resembling the red fringe that Darkrai has around his own neck. She finds this to be some kind of messed up joke being played on her by the universe, because now there's ANOTHER reminder of her old life being thrust in her face whenever she catches a glimpse of her reflection. (It's bad enough looking like Dusknoir as an Umbreon, but now this too? How unfortunate.)

A major purpose to these scars is that I think they are a bold (albeit complicated) way to show that both your past and present choices can cause self-harm when destructive, and that it can leave permanent marks that will haunt you through your entire life (or lives in this case!) but that in the end it doesn't define you. Despite everything, you can still grow beyond the trauma inflicted upon yourself. You can be more than the bad choices that hurt you. You can learn to live beyond your own perception and expectations! You can let go of your own mistakes and let them heal/scar, let them fade. And move on to be better.

+++ +++ +++ +++ +++

And my friend, you are not overthinking things. I haven't explained Echo's progression through her life-stages yet, but hopefully I can shed some light on that topic now. (Apologies ahead of time if this is overly convoluted!)

Echo did change gender! Like this:

(Darkrai) he/him or they/them -> (Human) they/them -> (Eevee/Umbreon) she/her or they/them

The reasoning behind this particular progression is that I am guilty of inserting the main game lore into PMD. Whenever I think of legendary or mythical Pokemon (that aren't officially assigned male or female like Latios and Latias) I always immediately think of them as nonbinary in my mind. Darkrai in the PMD universe seems to use male pronouns as mentioned (or rather in the movie, like you stated, had a male-presenting voice) so I think Echo would have used he/him as a personal preference while living as Darkrai. However, he was still technically "genderless" as a mythical (or even nonbinary) and thus was comfortable with they/them as well.

Echo as a human is nonbinary and no longer uses male pronouns. I like to think of them as Echo's "blank slate" form. They think, feel, and appear in very simple but strong terms. And as such their gender binary has been washed away too! They use they/them because it's what Grovyle chose when he met them in the dark future. Grovyle decides that Echo is human based on what minimal knowledge he's gained from ancient tales/myths/glyphs about extinct humans, but he has no idea what a true human would look like since humanity is long dead. And since Echo has no distinct male or female characteristics as a pseudo-human, Grovyle doesn't shove them into a specific box of labels and instead starts using they/them to accommodate. Echo accepts it. Besides, with both amnesia clouding their past and a body that doesn't quite fit, Echo never really felt compelled to argue against his decision. It seemed counter-intuitive and like a waste of energy to argue. Echo was too busy being angry about other things to really care.

Echo as an Eevee/Umbreon uses she/her pronouns. This is because Sora starts using them immediately upon meeting Echo on the beach, and Echo (with a second round of amnesia and a body that now presents more towards female appearances) accepts it because it just makes sense. She has no memory of her past, and because Sora wholeheartedly starts calling Echo "she", well, Echo just goes with it. Because someone as sweet as Sora must know what she's talking about, right? She doesn't seem like the type to lie or play pranks, after all.

Additional note: Even as an Eevee/Umbreon, Grovyle still uses they/them for Echo since that's what he's used too. And Echo is fond of him using it anyway, so she is comfortable with it. It feels like a little promise between them. And it brings back some of the sparse good memories Echo had with Grovyle while stuck in the dark future together.

Additional ADDITIONAL note: Once Echo and Cresselia have begun reconciliation and start repairing their sibling relationship, she often refers to Echo has her "brother" out of old habit (eons of habit, really). Cresselia normally apologizes for the mistake and tries to correct herself but Echo isn't bothered by this at all. "I'm still your brother," Echo tells her, "If that's what you want to call me, then I see no reason to stop." And Cresselia appreciates it, because she's really trying, but it might take a little bit to re-train herself.

And you got it, my friend! The change in Echo's pronouns IS symbolism about how Echo has grown/evolved beyond her original self. That she is no longer the same being of pain and fury that Darkrai was-- and that she has moved away from this shadow of her past. That she has struggled to become something she's proud of, someone tempered by patience and hope. Love has changed Echo, and thus Echo is happy with this new version of herself because her loved ones chose it for her. And she is okay with that!

I also really enjoy the idea that while Echo and Cresselia are still opposites in both powers and personality, they now share common ground on at least ONE thing after being entirely different for their whole mutual existence. They can relate. They can be siblings again. They can heal. And they do together, they work and work and work on being good to each other and being overall better individuals. And they learn to love each other again. <3

[sheyshen]

interview went well i think (in spite of my anxiety) and next big patch details for wow today too wooo xiv has their pll this friday so i'm hoping that the good vibes keep on keepin on and i get a second interview soon too >:3

[ragnarokhound]

Happy Halloween! Trick or treat?

Hee hoo thanks for the ask, anon! Happy Halloween :3 A silly supernatural jaytim 3 sentence paragraph (lol) fic for you:

"For the last time, I am not getting in the damn coffin with you," Jason huffs.

Tim leans out over the polished wood and satin lining, his fangs flashing as he pouts, winding his arms lazily around Jason's neck and burying his fingertips in Jason's hair-- because he's a dirty cheater and he knows that Jason's willpower is brittle as old bone this close to the full moon. He resolves to stay strong, because if you give Tim an inch then he'll take the whole damn continent.

"You don't have to, I suppose," Tim sighs, red eyes flashing from under his eyelashes. "I'll just be here...cold. Lonely. Wanting." He breathes the words against Jason's lips, and Jason whines. Christ. The things he does for this bloodsucker.

[waterfallofspace]

ok ty! bc i requested some things but got no response so i just wanted to make sure, and check so I wasnt being annoying

ah yeah, no worries!!~ you are not~ I don't tend to answer them unless I'm going to do them, or specifically saying no, especially if they're on anon bc there's no direct way of communicating with that specific person~ gotta answer it publicly, then if I also wanna actually do it, ask/hope they send it again to reply to with the actual thing, etcetcetc, whole process hehe~

But!! if you ever request things (or anyone does) and don't see an answer, and want to know if I saw it/wanna do it, feel free to send another ask saying which it was, and asking!~ [or, like some anons do, add an identifying feature so I can know which one(s) are you!~] I really don't mind getting a couple asks to answer, long as they're respectful!~

(if you are the one who requested the tam/irio wav though, which perhaps you aren't!! again, with anon, hard to tell, haha~ that one is in the works, just still being edited~ and if it's something else, then I may be working on it too/wanting to get to it!~)

[blakbonnet]

the biggest thing I am gonna miss seeing because of there being no s3 fuck you max is how these two would've dealt with genuine fights, because they've both realised they want it to work and want to stay together and walking away is not an option in their minds now. how would they react when they had different solutions to the whole English problem? are there bitchy fights ending with reluctant kisses all 😒 similar to fics or does Ed pull the experience card and Stede pulls his creativity card and there's tension? Would we have seen these fights purely in decorating the inn to keep it lighthearted? what does their life look like, now that they've decided to love each other for ever and ever but they *might* start finding little things that they don't exactly like about each other?

[queenlucythevaliant]

This seems kind of unlikely, but since a few of you have bookbinding experience I thought I'd toss it out there:

I'd like my next practice bind to be a favorite novel, but most of the novels whose full text is easily available are also easy to find as beautiful clothbounds, and thus I already own them. If I bound a favorite classic, my efforts would be redundant. This leaves me with (a) binding a B-tier favorite or (b) attempting to bind something outside the public domain. I'm trying to figure out how feasible (b) would be for me now.

Does anyone know of a method that could be used to harvest text from ebooks into Word or similar? Or can anyone even recommend some less legitimate resources for getting ahold of these texts with the formatting intact?