#ITS ABOUT THE ‘laws’ OF THE UNIVERSE

[ovrrdogg]

Hfjone au where instead of kidnapping people for his reality show he accidentally discovers twitch and starts a stream and becomes the most popular twitch streamer ever. People love tuning in to watch forest man and his wacky antics. They love the “larp.” Twitch keeps trying to get him to come to cons he can never attend. People make wildly popular edits and gifs of him to share on stan twitter.

Instead of getting people to entertain him, he works to entertain people.

[spottedenchants]

so when the mighty nein participate in a premeditated, treasonous act against the governance in their nation and exonerate themselves by framing innocents for the crime, they are lauded as underground heroes, but when I, essek thelyss-

[ulteri0rm0tives]

It's every iteration.

It's every iteration of V that will always find Johnny. Every iteration of V that Johnny grows to care about. It's every iteration of each other, in every universe, that will always find each other. They'll always become inseparable, tied together in unfathomable ways. Ways they could never truly unravel from each other in the end, no matter the end.

They'll always be destined for one another. No matter what face is worn. No matter what universe. No matter what, they're always meant to be. No matter what, the stars will always align for them, just to come crashing down from the sky.

[declanscunt]

sometimes, taking a leap forward means…

… leaving a few things behind.

arcane 2.03 (2024) // interstellar (2014) // interstellar // isaac newton, from nasa.gov // arcane 2.07 // interstellar // arcane 2.07 // interstellar // arcane 2.07 // arcane 2.09

[petrichal]

Absolutely no reason for Shamrock to be that cool btw. Like what do you mean he has a sword that can turn into fucking Cerberus having THREE swords in their mouths combined. And their spiked collars can spin?? And the heads can shoot forward like rockets and hit their target like they're homing missiles???? put the pen down

[doctor-hopper]

I'm really tempted to comb through his lines about luck and write meta on it, because even off the top of my head, looking only at DR2/Dangan Island content, it's like

His FTEs frame bad luck as being part of good luck: bad thing leads into something good enough to compensate

But he has at least one Dangan Island line where he anticipates something bad after experiencing something good

And interestingly considers nothing much happening to him to be bad luck in Dangan Island's ending, even though he had a good time, which warrants some unpacking (my current hypothesis is it's because his impending death is making him desperate to make his life meaningful, not 'waste' his remaining time)

Not all of his examples fall neatly into his luck cycle model, especially not the FTE version where the events are connected. The diagnosis and HPA admission were separate-ass events, in DI's ending he expected his convo with Hinata to go well because of the aforementioned general '''bad''' luck too, the events of chapter 5 are hard to sort into the model, some DI interactions make it sound like he just has extreme outcomes sometimes (eg. he'd win capture the flag first try every single time), etc etc.

I have a feeling at least some of the way he talks about his luck is copium, especially in his FTEs since he really had to focus on the idea of bad -> good in the killing game. But as you say, he could have been intentionally oversimplifying... and if he actually thought the cycle worked both ways, saying he lives in fear of bad things every time something good randomly happens might've veered too close to genuine vulnerability. Which he avoided (by his standards anyway- I think he lacked awareness of how bad the kidnapping + plane stories were) until the final FTE.

Either way, I definitely need to scrutinise his lines more :'D

A ton of good points! Komaeda’s luck is fascinating and nowhere near as clear-cut as he originally makes it sound. Fics where he tries to “game the system” and finally gain some sort of control over his luck are interesting—but honestly, I feel like he’s already been trying to do that for as long as he’s lived. And he exercises an impressive amount of power under those restraints! But…also.

As for anticipating something bad after experiencing something good, I do think the way Komaeda portrays the order of events is just what he tells himself and/or Hinata. In reality, good and bad luck are two sides of the same coin to him—the real important part isn’t the order, it’s that nothing good can happen without something bad happening too. Everything has a price. Luck is a zero-sum game.

(He touches on this again in 2.5 when he says there’s “a fixed amount of luck in the world” and so he’s content to suffer the bad luck for everyone else’s benefit. In the dream-world sim, the luck he experiences is apparently “ideal”, but it still has to exist. There still has to be an Omelas child of sorts. Komaeda would just rather it be himself.)

As for good being caused by bad vs. just following it, it definitely happens both ways and he’s definitely contradicted himself. Beyond that, even, there are cases in the game where it’s not totally clear what sort of cycle is involved in the luck he experiences. In 2-1, he draws the short straw simply because he wanted to. Was the bad…offscreen? Was it the killing game itself? Would “being forced to clean” actually count as bad luck even if he wanted it? Was it then followed by the good luck of finding the secret passage? People hypothesize that his luck works differently in the simulation according to his own belief, which would complicate things even more, but I’m sort of back-and-forth on that theory. There are arguably examples of luck working the way Komaeda claims it does in DR2, also—such as getting the Despair Disease the worst out of anyone thanks to his compromised immune system, but being able to discover in the hospital that Tsumiki was the culprit. ending up in the hospital but meeting a lovey-dovey nurse GONE WRONG

I’ve always read the Island Mode ending as copium myself. I do definitely think he was hoping for a chance to die meaningfully on the island, and I guess in his mind that could be bad luck, but it doesn’t really fit his model. The way he tries to nudge Hinata into agreeing it’s bad luck, the scene reads to me like he just needs to believe it’s bad luck so he can solemnly ask Hinata to be his friend. (And I think it’s notable that in the word he uses for friend here is 友達 tomodachi, which in this context could be understood as more of a personal friend—everywhere else, he’s used the word 仲間 nakama, comrades, to refer to the whole class as a unit.) And remember, being loved by someone is another way that Komaeda’s death could have meaning—so even if he didn’t end up in the climactic situation he was expecting, perhaps he’s realized there’s another way to get what he wants. :’)

But, yeah, what decides if something is good or bad luck for Komaeda though? I think even that’s not always clear to him.

I’ve heard the view that it “gives him what he immediately wants while taking away what is subconsciously valuable to him” (from TheAmityElf, I think) which is interesting, especially to play with as a writing tool, but not ultimately convincing. Some events could be loosely mapped to that pattern, but others contradict it a bit—you can’t tell me he just wanted money, and he did actively try to turn down his invitation to Hope’s Peak.

Which is now also making me think: Since the diagnoses and the invitation weren’t directly related, do you think he even connected them in his mind at first? What if he didn’t, and so he was afraid that by going to Hope’s Peak he would be invoking even more bad luck yet to come?

One more interesting dimension of his luck to think about is whether it hurts others vs. himself. In 2.5 it only hurts Komaeda, but that’s not quite the direct opposite of his real luck, because his real luck gave him cancer and dementia! However, it also does seem to be proactive in protecting him from actual death in both 2.5 and the rest of canon.

I’ll conclude this reply with this…relevant blackout poetry (blackout infographic?) I made years ago and which you suddenly reminded me of, lmao.

Silly coda: This is why Komaeda’s favorite word is eucatastrophe.

(…How lucky, then, that people say “Komaeda, eucatastrophe!” to him all the time!)

[gingerswagfreckles]

It's really depressing to watch your circle of allies get smaller and smaller and smaller as you realize just how many people are willing to cut you off and throw you under the bus if they think doing so might help them save themselves.

[ducktracy]

i get told “it must be so fun to work on The Patrick Star Show, you guys probably get to go hog wild” and it’s true! we do! it’s never lost on me just how grateful i am to be doing what i’m doing. but you would not BELIEVE how much of my job is having extremely long conversations wracking your brains over the most mundane things possible. i’m talking 30 minute discussions over screen direction. this character needs to be going from screen left to screen right, but maybe with the flow of this next scene it would make more sense if they could start from screen right, but then we would have to flip all of the drawings in another scene, and that would make this action of a character putting a prop down inconsistent with this, etc etc. and so if you’re ever reading my LT reviews and you’re like “WHY is she nitpicking about this little gaffe in screen direction, or WHY is she harping so much on this extremely menial detail that doesn’t matter at all”. it’s because it’s what i do for a living. NDAs forbid me from being more specific/potentially funny about this, but you would not believe how much thought goes into the most mundane things. it’s actually maddening (in a fun way though)

[scarlct-vvitch]

the indescribable pain of realizing your favorite character is about to spend an entire season of tv with a fuckass haircut

[take-meowt]

okay people really need to stop calling the new phineas and ferb seasons a reboot. it's a revival. not a reboot. there's a huge difference.

[bigskydreaming]

Sorry not sorry but literally no one's favorite blorbo has ever benefited from their fans seizing upon one single character trait or throwaway line from the source material and making that the character's ENTIRE PERSONALITY in fanfic, or even just an inescapable factor in everything ever written about them.

I get that this happens because its seen as a guaranteed way of rendering them as recognizably characterized to all other fans or casual consumers of the media, but I genuinely feel this is counter-productive as in actuality this is the very thing that leads to so many depictions feeling one-note and superficial.

Your characterizations will always benefit from digging deeper than that. Think about whatever go-to character element you were going to lead with, take a beat to follow that down the trail to additional character elements connected to it or deriving from it or butting up against it, and make THOSE your starting point instead.

[murdocktm]

i am turning over plot ideas in my head after the born again finale. i will wait to like update what it means for my blog to put the ideas out there but god, is it gonna be good.

[boydykedevo]

it's literally always funny to me that Apollo's inner monologue calls himself "Justice" while Edgeworth's inner monologue calls himself "Miles"

[hyp3rfixation-h3ll]

The council has become VERY locked in a heated debate about this so I'm settling this ONCE AND FOR ALL via a tumblr poll (feel free to check the tags for context)

( GOES WITHOUT SAYING BUT PLEASE REBLOG FOR A LARGER SAMPLE SIZE )

if you'd like my personal opinion , i think it counts and we Would redefine the word to include our alien friends . theyre arguably just as human as we are and eating them would have the same psychological effects , even if they taste good !

[echidnana]

ok yeah finished pmmm and even vaguely knowing the ending already we were still floored

[tugpull]

@cyneris replied : future husband ?? :3c

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ❝ ―future ....? ❞ ㅤㅤㅤㅤHe lifts his brows while lightly tilting his head to the side, surprised not by the request itself, but rather; by the uncertainty in his words.ㅤWhy should.... he have to wait...?ㅤThe question cooks for exactly one minute inside his head until the answer pops from its hypothetical microwave.ㅤ❝ AH ! of course ! I deeply apologize, I should have noticed it earlier― ❞ㅤQuickly he rummages inside his pockets in search of a neatly folded piece of paper, the sound of his light hearted humming merging with the sound of clicking 'keys' stored inside his pocket before he finally manages to pull out the desired piece of paper, not forgetting of pulling during the process, not what sounded like keys; but an entire long metal chain, one from which he securely attaches one of its extremes to the collar he was wearing himself while extending the opposing handle forward for Esra to hold.

ㅤOf course he was missing out the formalities !

❝ Don't let your dreams be only dreams Mr. Solheim, or should I rephrase―; my future husband~♡! I can cook, I can clean, I am a hardworking and devoted lover... Just give me one minute to add to the contract a marriage section and I'll be yours for as long as you wish me~~~! If you sign now, you can use me for 24 hours a day! Customer satisfaction through the 'WOOF'~☆!! rooft ㅤㅤMmmmmm... Actually, do you have a pen ? ❞