#Oni Meta

[fumifooms]

do you happen to have that page that talks about the beauty standards of each race?

Yeah sure. While scavenging pics for this I found this neat reddit compilation & chart & theory talk too. I had um, way more to say than I anticipated (I know you only wanted the one page. I have nothing to say for myself. Like most topics in Dunmeshi things snowball because they’re so interconnected. Mercy…) so, many races and observations are only mentioned near the bottom.

Beauty standards and race in Dungeon Meshi

Not pictured there’s also how elven society is harsh on visibly disabled people, and how the demon took away Mithrun’s silver eyes and ears to take away his pride. There’s also how Senshi might have fit in with the orcs more easily because of the dwarven wide body shape, and how they tend to have more body hair too I suppose. In the extra on orcs we see Senshi living with the orcs and he gets judged because of the hierarchy rather than his looks.

What is fashionable also differs from culture to culture, and there’s how tattoos only seem common with elves, though dwarves and others do also sometimes have some. They seem to not raise much brows, which makes sense since for many essentially they’re for professional (magical) purposes especially with elves. Gender roles also differ in type and importance, but generally they are similar to irl ones for the races we see. Elven society seems to be the least gendered, which would be an unsurprising logical outcome of having lesser sexual dimorphism aka they look more androgynous. Comparing fashions and gender roles and how they affect beauty standards would be a whole other compilation and conversation. Kui has great worldbuilding partially because she’s got such a good grasp on sociopolitics and geopolitics. History affects cultures and beauty standards greatly. Kui’s oneshot Distant Utopia was very eye opening on her way to worldbuild and the consideration she gives these things, I do really recommend reading it.

Out of the big 5, we know the least about gnomes, but their sheet does say both culture and region are similar to dwarves’ and they end up being confused together often, so we can imagine the beauty standards are similar to dwarves’ as well.

I wanted to touch on this in a post eventually, but how one daydream hour page said half-foots tended to be curvaceous like in the artwork below puzzled me for a long time, all the half-foot characters we see during canon are rather slender and lanky after all, Chil’s succubi also being more curvy than plump. Economics are for sure a factor in that I imagine, the half-foots characters we see are all implied to be some flavor of poor or malnourished, as are half-foots depicted as empoverished oppressed minorities in general. Even comparing the artwork with the half-foot sheet’s depicted average half-foot, the ones on the left seem bigger. Wouldn’t it make sense though, if unlike dwarves half-foots don’t have similar naturally wide bodies, yet due to idolizing dwarves they work towards having a similar body shape/type to emulate them?

It’s said half-foots tend to stick to pretty ethnically homogeneous regions (aka half-foots-only communities) unless they move to the big city with ambition to try and make it big (like Chilchuck and his wife & kids did), and that’s interesting imo because then that would mean that in a ton of half-foot communities, they rarely see or interact with dwarves whom they try to emulate. Of course, one thing about beauty standards is that when they get adopted, at one point it stops being "this is how dwarves look and so this is how half-foots should look" and just becomes "this is how half-foots should look", most people feel as though beauty standards aren’t learned but innate, so I figure the half-foots wouldn’t have any problem still seeking dwarvish traits when there are no dwarves around.

There’s also stuff you can glean here and there if you want to extrapolate more. Like how in the race swap artworks, Mickbell is only smiling in the dwarf portrait, and Rin’s elven portrait looks very close to her elven one- Rin who is stated to be beautiful in her profile blurb. Benichidori’s extra does teach us tallmen can definitely have harsh beauty standards, but also since the text portrays her as very dysmorphic that’s likely reflected in her thoughts to a much more intense degree than is common, not an accurate strict baseline to go off. Ah, Kabru’s blue eyes are also why he and his mother lived a rough life in Kabru’s hometown, but that seems to be regional. Good post here on the topic of Kabru’s blue eyes and ties to irl history. There’s a lot to be said about Kabru being a man that in many ways is close to elven beauty standards, and how that might have affected or been affected by his upbringing with elves + his persona as someone that can effortlessly charm most people. Marcille’s section here in this essay also goes into Marcille’s struggles to fit in with the ideal image of an elf.

Looking human

Also notable are beastkins and demihumans: Demihumans are all dehumanized which makes people treat them worse. So if you differ from the visual idea of "human" (an in-world subjective categorization just as much as demihuman is) most people do judge you negatively. Elves and dwarves get to fight about which type of human is considered the prettiest, but demihumans are below tallmen and half-foots, they are considered as simply below the beauty contest, incompatible with it.

Onis are perhaps the demihuman people we know of with the least cultural influence on the dunmeshi world, and with the least intensely different appearance than other demihumans—they seem to be technically categorized as human to people not from the eastern archipelago?— but even them are treated as lesser than human, treated as beasts to slain for reputation points or useful strength to have around and command. It’s said their "magnificient horns" and fangs are often shaven off when the oni lives in tallman towns, so you could easily make the argument that onis are denied the right to have their own beauty standards, having to conform to other people’s and going through mutilation to take away features they might otherwise have taken pride in. Inutade was bought by the Nakamotos from a dangerous sumo fighting ring that got one of Inutade’s tooth broken on her first and only fight, and kept as a low ranking servant ever since. Remember when I said different fashions existed in dunmeshi and how those could also affect beauty standards? Like the elves, if you look at the portraits pages which include a lot of characters that aren’t in the story you can see distinct cultures within the same races, for example one young elf is bald which is in sharp contrast with the usual elven long luscious hairstyles, and that’s especially true for onis I think. Maybe not only from different regions but different eras as well… They have a bit of population in the very north of the western continent, so I like to think some of the ogres live in very cold, maybe even subarctic or arctic conditions. The point I’m getting at here is that within a race, culture/ethnicity like with Kabru will also influence them it isn’t just tallmen as a whole, different communities will have differing beauty standards. The oni history blurb and third row first collumn portrait remind me of Mongolia (which historically was a lot of different nomadic communities with different cultural identities as well. Something something, the oni empire experienced a decline and then tallmen overpowered them, and now they’re governed and split apart by stronger social classes & slavers and the richness of culture was hurt for it especially if they have no real community left of their own), but obviously many of them are dressed and look rather japanese, makes sense considering living in/close to Wa, and first row second collumn portrait reminds me of ainus which again would be logical considering geographical placement, though I’m far from an expert. Interestingly, ainus are indigenous people both in Japan and Russia- Perhaps the northern western continent ogres are meant to be closer to Russia than Canada like I imagined? Ok tangent over.

The kobold sheet says they’re especially sought after as slaves because they’re "adorable", but locally in the western continent they’re repeatedly said to be seen more as ferocious and dangerous. The dehumanization is most apparent in the first comic below. The language barrier and conflicts no doubt worsen this by a lot, but I think it’d be hard to deny that their canine appearance makes the dehumanization worse. "They’re ferocious beasts, they’re demihumans, they can’t be communicated with". Most characters in Dungeon Meshi’s world are desensitized to slavery and most characters are prejudiced one way or another. Point being, kobolds are fully removed from human beauty standards, but no doubt for kobolds, other kobolds are more beautiful than humans are. They’re assumed to be an uncivilized bunch, but just like any other people they like to adorn themselves with nice clothes and jewelry and keep themselves clean and groomed; they too take care of their appearance and take pride in it.

And the orcs! This one we have the most contact with in canon, with not only there being foreigner characters from the ethnicity or hearsay of their homelands and culture but full on contact with a community. We get to see up close what they’re like and what they think, and of course in turn they’re our introduction to how demihumans are harshly looked down upon and seen as inferior, less human and thus less worth valuing and less dignified. It’s text that orcs are ugly to most humans and humans are ugly to most orcs. Since I judged they didn’t need accompanying explanation the pictures showing this are in the pictures dump at the top.

God forbid you sell vegetables to orcs my god- but then again they do basically mandate adventurers to kill any orcs they come across so yeah the world isn’t above that even a little bit.

So yes, my main point here is simply that orcs are yet another evidence of the physical ideal of "human" being an important beauty standard for human societies globally.

Izutsumi is our glimpse at how beastkins are treated in the world, and in Wa at least that’s ending up being caged and mistreated as part of a freak show. Izutsumi hates her appearance and wishes she could leave the feline part of herself behind to only be human. Interestingly, not that we have a lot of info on them so this is very much a take with a grain of salt situation, but there seems to be less stigma around artificial beastmen, those who can shapeshift at will. The main difference is of course appearance, that most of the time they simply look like average tattooed humans. Artificially creating humans is an illegal practice, and no doubt it’s not well regarded, but being able to hide that makes them less likely to be discriminated at any moment, or even just discriminated less intensely. Again, looking human is important, not only for belonging but for safety’s sake. Beauty standards rule the world with harsh hands.

Mermaids and fishmen

Ok we’re done now right? Right-! But wait… Wait…! Mermaids and fishmen are said to be demihumans too, special separate cases to the main three demihuman species however, which is also represented by how mermaids and fishmen both are in the Adventurer’s Bible chapter Monsters meanwhile ogres, kobolds and orcs are in the chapter World. They’re an interesting topic because they directly tackle this topic, not only in a meta way for the readers but also making characters themselves struggle to quantify their humanity with the goal of knowing wether they should be eaten or not, especially Chilchuck. Chilchuck’s "is it really just a matter of feelings?" mini arc.

The party asking themselves "Should we eat this?" is very common, and often they end up playing a little loose on morality, like eating the red dragon’s meat despite it having digested Falin. Not unsimilarly Marcille freaks out a little over the vegetables they harvested having been grown with fertilizer, aka largely human poo. Half of the motivation of "should we eat this perhaps sentient creature" is out of consideration and compassion, but more strongly and more often, the characters struggle with a sense of taboo at eating something too closely related to humans. Even, feel uncomfortable because of the deepseated impression that eating it would dirty them in some way. Cannibalism is an interesting and relevant topic in many ways, but what I want to mention is how there’s the more or less universal belief that committing cannibalism inherently taints you as a person and turns you more monstrous, morally but also literally depending on some myths such as w*ndigos and onis in some cases, like in Touge Oni. Marcille and Izutsumi both express a fear of eating monsters turning them monstrous. Maybe this is part of what Laios was hoping for, honestly. There are two fears here, if eating a demihuman monster constitutes as cannibalism or not, and so, will eating it taint you because it’s a human, or will eating it taint you because it’s a monster? You are what you eat, until it’s a little too literal. You morally are the means by which you get your food, and you physically are the result of your nutrition. Dungeon meshi manages to mix an exploration of humanity with the theme of food because our relationship to food is very deep and complex, psychological as much as physiological.

In the end, the characters sort of shrug and accept that they’ll never quite understand the world of mermaids and fishmen and how they operate, and what that means about them. Laios is the one always challenging these notions other characters take for granted, it��s not obvious to Laios why people are softer on mammals than other animals and plants, it’s not obvious to Laios why people would be afraid of eating a monster just because it’s a monster, it’s not obvious to Laios why some food is gross to Marcille but not fish testicles, it’s not obvious to Laios why you should immediately regard orcs and kobolds badly.

"Cows are probably closer to humans [aka closer to being human] than fishmen, though they’re clearly intelligent", dehumanization to lessen empathy towards them to be able to eat them. Meanwhile, mermaids seemingly have a less noticeable "civilization" or intelligence, they hunt in groups like fishmen, but they don’t use tools and such, they feel more primal and similarly instinct driven, and yet… Do they attract sympathy more? Mammals, humans, is it because of their nature or because of their appearance?

Both the nature and appearance of fish are ones people don’t typically sympathize with. "Fish don’t feel pain", "goldfish only have 5 seconds of memory", "it’s okay to keep fish in completely empty bowls too small for them until they die from it", so many lies and misconceptions exist that make people less considerate of them. The average lifespan of a goldfish is 10-15 years, the record is 43, but they’re not seen as lives that really matter, so a lot of goldfish die in a few weeks of bad aquarium conditions. There’s a lot of research on animals evolving to look cute and appealing to make some predators want to kill them less and parents want to care for them more, including humans. First good google research result gave me this credible short article on the topic. In Chilchuck’s weighing wether a fishman is far enough from being human or not to eat, "face is 100% fish" is his biggest argument for it being more acceptable. The face, the most important thing for empathy and recognition. The face, the decapitated fishman one that falls into his hands next chapter.

To quote @room-surprise: "Chilchuck can't explain why it's wrong to eat the merpeople, even though it's NOT complicated. But the problem is Chilchuck would have to accept and acknowledge that the merpeople might be people? And that's outside of the worldview he passively believes, so he can't just say that, because he doesn't think that's true. But that IS why he "feels" it's wrong. And it's all you'd need to say for Laios to understand! But it would require acknowledging that maybe the way they're treating and talking about the merpeople is wrong."

The idea of Chil not being able to grapple with how maybe some monsters are more humans than they seem, him who had been an advocate of half-foots rights, half-foots who get undermined and treated as inconsequential sacrifices… Grappling with how he could relate to the merpeople’s situation almost, and pulling away because it’s so existentially horrifying. I do not want to see myself into an hostile fish-faced warrior I can’t communicate with. In a way this also relates to Chilchuck being the only party member who doesn’t see Izutsumi as a cat in the relationship chart, the only one to treat her with full human dignity. He knows the struggle to be taken seriously, he knows being infantilized and he knows what it’s like to be treated as less than human.

Below, you will see Chilchuck draws the line of where they become not okay to eat as when "they already look like mermaids". Above, there’s speculation that the algae hair is partly to mimic "the mermaids’ beautiful female form". Is it because mermaids are their enemies and the ambiguity might give them extra seconds to attack or flee? Is it to trick adventurers instead? It’s striking to me that this is what works, with the adventurers. Sure the fishmen are intelligent, but explicitly here, what makes them no longer acceptable prey to Chilchuck is that they look close enough to a mermaid, close enough to human. Mermaids who of course themselves have this form to entice and seduce and charm the adventurers they prey on. Chilchuck considers the intelligence due to the tridents, but most of his internal debate centers around their appearance, and the image of a fishman skewered sickens him. The power of mimicry… Mimic being a beautiful human woman. Mimic being cute, babies being wired to make us feel protective and softened. Half-foots, sometimes pretending to be children for scams or help or avoiding trouble.

The mermaids are only concerned by their differences and not their similarities, and have no trouble treating the fishmen as food rather than peers. To an outside perspective like us, the audience, all these categorization of "more human" and "less human" between onis and orcs and elves and tallmen etc seem stupid and unfounded, but to the people living in Dungeon Meshi’s world, elves may as well be mermaids while onis are fishmen, not alike at all, unworthy of empathy and thus fine to eat.

Ultimately, Dungeon Meshi promotes unity. It’s about seeking to understand the unknown and the misunderstood, the dehumanized and the inhuman. It shows the good that comes from seeking to understand what you do not, even when that’s one another.

[artbyblastweave]

Actually I think the only thing more fucked up than Oni Lee's canon situation (Lung kept him in the gang as a blunt instrument rather than drive him away or kill him because he realized that his power-induced brain damage meant he would never be a serious threat to his leadership) would be if the Protectorate picked him up and absolutely nothing about his situation changed, they still run him ragged as a blunt instrument and pretend not to notice the psychological damage his power is causing him, because his incipient ego death and extreme suggestibility means that he creates the fewest PR problems of any cape in the department. And he's marketing gold. Everyone loves Snake Eyes. Everyone loves the strong silent type

[demonslayedher]

This is not happening any time soon, but if I were to write a Wordpress blog about oni, would you guys follow me there

[tvckerwash]

random head canon I just came up with: tucker complaining about the meta suit being tight in the crotch is supposed to be a dick joke, but I think it's way funnier if it's supposed to be tight because that's how armor works: if its too loose you risk being injured because of things being knocked around when impacts are made, lessening the effects of the armor absorbing and distributing the force, so you don't want a bad fit. tucker wouldn't know that though because he's been wearing flowers armor, which was custom fit for flowers, and when they got new armor in s6, they used the measurements of the old armor, so tucker's been wearing improperly fit armor the entire series—which is a level of stupidity only the reds and blues could accomplish.

[klunsgod]

hope you've been enjoying the complete bummerbutt of KVA Gallery drops; it's keeping me focused, after all. yes, the elephant too

did you know writing is the end result of many drafts and bad ideas? i've been writing and a lot of it is just writing up better and better ideas, so i haven't really been writing stories... okay rant over

[yellowbluemoonshine]

Stories about them;

+ Yin & Yang;

The basic Taoist concept of Yin-Yang is based upon the idea that two natural, complementary and contradictory forces exist in our universe: Yin – the feminine, and Yang – the masculine.  All forces can be classified as either Yin or Yang.  These opposite forces mutually complement one another and are in dynamic equilibrium.  As one aspect declines, the other increases to an equal degree — striving for that harmonious equilibrium of BALANCE that we all seek. (Source).

Chobei and Toma really fits yin and yang, both as characters and their harmony.

Yang represents the light and its characteristics include those that are “masculine”, active, producing, and rational such as: Enthusiastic, Direct, Mental, Excited, Outgoing, Logical, Day, Heaven/Air, Sun, Fire, Hardness, Dryness, Joy, Reactive, Upward seeking, Fast, Restless, Productive, Hot, Summer, Activity, Function, Expansive, Outward, Back of Body, Rigid, Unwavering, Dominant, Controlling, Positive, Full, Even Numbers, Shiva, the contents. (Source).

Chobei is yang. He is very masculine character. He is natural leader so of course, he is outgoing. He is all about adaptation. Has self confidence. Very direct with his desires and also loud. Obviously dominant and active. He is light for his brother. He was born in summer. Etc Etc.

Yin represents the dark and its characteristics include those that are “feminine”, passive, receptive, and sensitive such as:  Nurturing, Intuitive, Relaxed, Imaginative, Quiet, Introverted, Night, Earth, Moon, Water, Softness, Moisture, Sadness, Contemplative, Downward seeking, Slow, Consuming, Cold, Winter, Rest, Structure, Contracting, Inward, Front of body, Mutable, Bending, Allowing, Negative, Empty, Odd Numbers, Shakti, the container. (Source).

Toma is yin. Yin symbolize feminity which fits Toma’s character design and behavours. He has female-ish design, and behavours (for example, he often plays with his hair), also has soft-seductive touch. He is very negative character who often worries about things which makes him slow. Very quiet, introverted, passive and distant character who tends to obey. His tao element is earth which also symbolize yin. He was born in autumn, this also can be read as yin. Etc etc.

And their story and character development is all about them ‘balancing the harmony’ between them. Their origin of characters dont change. Chobei is still yang and Toma is still yin. At the end, they just learn to be equal as yin and yang.

Basically, we can say clearly, their characters are based on yin and yang. They are written as soulmates.

+ Blue Oni & Red Oni;

Chobei and Toma also kinda reminds me of Blue oni and Red oni.

The Red Oni is associated with passion, wildness, and defiance. A Red Oni character is often more brawny than brainy, extroverted, enthusiastic, determined, and filled with a zest for life. They are also much more likely to break conventions and rules than their counterpart.

The Blue Oni is associated with serenity, control and observing authority. A Blue Oni is more intellectual, proud, traditional, introverted, and cultured (sometimes more spiritual, although that's not guaranteed), if a Blue Oni is indeed physically strong, they tend to be Genius Bruisers, with the calm, collected intelligence of a typical Blue Oni character combined with the physical prowess of a typical Red Oni character.

Source

For their design and characters, Chobei is similar to Red Oni and Toma is similar to Blue Oni. Oni (demon) metaphor fits them too since they are bandits. And just like onis, brothers were outcasted for something they had no control of by other people.

Original story is about two friends. Red Oni and Blue oni. Red oni is hot-headed, Blue oni is calm one. People are scared of them because they are oni. Red oni wants to be friends with humans so Blue oni decides to help him. He plays to bad guy to humans and Red oni saves the day so people accept Red oni as hero. Red oni returns back to Blue oni but find out that Blue oni is gone because if humans find out, they are friends, that he can be outcasted again which makes Red oni sad but well, story is about kindness of Blue oni. (Source).

Though, with Chobei and Toma, Chobei fits the role of Blue oni more. He always make sacrifices for Toma (even though he never asks for it) who learns to connect with others and become strong enough to survive on his own in story.

There are so many things to say about them but for now, thats it.

[zeravmeta]

if theres something i do have an issue with in heian kyo besides -gestures vaguely at tsuna- and its not even an issue just a minor change id make itd be to have shuten see gudas shimosa scar. shuten is entirely defined by how she keeps everyone and everything she cares about at arms length so i think her seeing her own handiwork on guda but then realizing the only way guda would have that scar is if she'd cared enough about guda to save their life even when shoulder deep in their guts without eating them would probably have her go "hm. well this is some self reflection i am Not going to commit to right now" and then she tries to eat us normally like she already does. the entire familiar ensemble of heian kyo does recognize that they have some connection to guda so having shuten faced with the fact that she cares both about a half oni god monster in kintoki and a normie ass nobody (sort of) in guda would have been nice to see in the context of when shuten was at the height of dealing with these issues

[rescuefield-a]

thinking about how claire is the heartTM

[mis-mcgifsten]

Palpy deliberately chose Obi-Wan for this and knew in doing so that it would drive a wedge between Obi-Wan and Anakin. He also knew that Obi-Wan would be motivated to try and save his apprentice from the pain of seeing his mentor assassinated. It's really strongly indicative of just how well Palpatine has set things up so no matter how things fall out it furthers his sithly agenda.

Anakin being butt hurt over it also illustrates just how not ready for mastery Anakin is. How flawed, grasping and immature he is. So fic that has him throwing a tantrum until Obi-Wan has grovelled enough just makes me hit the back button toot sweet.

Fic that has Cody, a man steeped in military necessity from his cradle, a man with op sec and mission priority running in his veins, that Cody being in a snit over Obi-Wan's following the rules?!? Nah man. I can read fic where the characters get turned into tookas with less suspension of disbelief than I can read a fic where Cody and the 212th stop talking to Obi-Wan like pissy 8 year olds because they weren't included in the need to know mission.

Or in fact fic that claims Anakin has any military skills or abilities beyond charge in waving his light saber 😀

every time I see deception arc discourse I get even more tired and am tempted to write a “you know what? Anakin actually did deserve to be deceived like that” fanfic

[partycsincsill]

Imma start posting my stuff from insta here (cuz meta's a bitch)

This is my first bigger project (took me like 4 months to finish, 3 of them were me procrastinating lmao) and I'm still very proud of this one despite it being almost 5 months old (yes that's old for me)

If the colours are burning your eyes that's because my laptop's colours are a lot duller and don't know what they actually look like while picking them lol

Anyway it's everyone's favorite oni-dragon-human hybrid green ninja going god-mode

[sufferu]

Hello, was reading your take on the Sloth IF and while I do see the themes of repression, I feel like you're selling Slothbaru short here.

When Rem asks him "Do you regret it" she's talking about having a kid (With all that happening, she had this confession. …Did he want this child to be born?).

And Subaru responds honestly, about how he tried to be a perfect husband to make up for running away (But, I can’t..show you that I am. I……I brought you with me. I’m the one who brought you with me. I wanted to give you everything I had to make you happy. I told myself that I had to do it……).

...and faces his insecurities and self-worth issues head on by accepting that he'll always be afraid, that his fear might never go away (Subaru, as someone who couldn’t look at his parents in the face, always had a fear of becoming a parent. He still does. It wasn’t gone. It probably would never go away... But, at the same time, Subaru knew something. He knew the love of the best role model parents in the whole world.) He thinks of his parents for the first time since he came to this place, admits that he wasn't a good kid, and remains determined to love his kid anyway.

It's essentially everything he was meant to say on the rooftop in From Zero, just filtered through the lens of being a parent. Sure, it took him over a year to get there, but he did face his issues in the end. Thematically, the story wouldn't have ended with that exchange between Subaru and Rem, as well as how he handled Zarestia/Reese, if the story was about him avoiding his problems and succumbing to Sloth.

I really don’t agree with that, to be honest — for starters because Rem’s question about if he regrets it or not is explicitly stated, by Subaru, to be the first time in a year that either of them have actually acknowledged the decision made in the Capital that day to run away. Even if you want to make the argument that Rem wasn’t asking about that (I’d disagree but if you wanted to make that argument) — it’s still very explicitly how Subaru interpreted the question that she was asking him. At the very least, the question of the child is the culmination of “Do you regret…any of the decisions that led to this moment?” In which case, of course, he’s only focusing on one aspect of the question — that being the birth of their child. Even as Rem explicitly grows her hair out in order to emulate her, Emilia still never gets brought up even once. He is ONLY focusing on being a parent and husband — and he’s making a commitment to that role, but in doing so he is avoiding everything else.

And, of course, he is committing to become a copy of Natsuki Kenichi, the man who’s shadow he never really managed to step out of.

This decision later reflects in his relationship with his son being the same as the one that he had with his old man, right down to him passing down that exact same hairstyle to Rigel. —Hell, Rigel’s whole character is just the culmination of all of the things that Subaru and Rem never really managed to properly digest. He’s a one-horned oni, he’s the son of one of the most respected men in his town, he’s even a closet crossdresser. Subaru never really figured out what Natsumi Schwartz was to him and never stopped emulating his father, Rem never stopped feeling guilty about being Ram’s twin and making it so both of them only had a single horn, and now Rigel gets to deal with all of it at once.

(Plus there’s the QnA detail that Subaru gets sent right back to Arc 3 when he dies, which is a pretty major hint that he really, REALLY never managed to come to terms with what happened that day.)

And also — just, on a meta level: it’s a Sin Route. It’s a little different than the others because it does not look all that bad on the surface — everything that makes it a Sin Route hinges on what Subaru specifically Does Not Say, and that honestly makes it look almost downright utopian at times — but it’s still an IF Route labeled after one of the Seven Deadly Sins. It’s marked as a Bad Ending for a reason, and it’s marked as Sloth for a reason, too.

[demonslayedher]

Something I really loved about this past episode (and I loved a lot of things about this episode) is that I got to enjoy Himejima at his dweebiest.

I've been on the meta side of enjoying Himejima so long now that I feel like I went straight from "ugh, crying is this guy's personality" to "Himejima is deeply jaded but that has nothing to do with how deeply everyone respects him." This episode is that wonderful space in between where Himejima is an even bigger dork than most of the rest of the Hashira. Like, you could expect that this is going to be his role for the rest of the series and still be just as happy with seeing another side of him, like "haha, of course he cries about trash. OMG, he loves cats. HAHAHAHA LOOK AT HIM HE THINKS HE IS HIDDEN BEHIND THAT SKINNY TREE" because he's just such an adorable oaf.

Also, I startled myself a bit when I thought that, because often when I say that I love oni (of the red- and blue-skinned cartoony kinds), I say its because they are such big, silly oafs. My apologies, Himejima, I know you would make a terrifying oni.

But that's the beautiful of this episode. People only following the story in the anime don't know that yet.

I'm so happy we got the silliest of Himejima Taisho Secrets animated, both the way he is goo when holding a cat, and how seamlessly they integrated Himejima smacking Inosuke face first into the ground with the flippancy of a cat knocking a cup off a countertop. That is one of my favorite Gotouge doodles ever.

Anyway, that is my happy, cheerful, "yay, Himejima is so cute and silly" ramble. I really hope to see his flashback get the same dramatic treatment that Muichiro's did (which would be especially satisfying after showing this light side of his character so we get that contrast), and I'm very excited for the next episode. But man, we don't *truly* get Himejima until he's facing off against Kokushibo, do we?

[favvnsongs]

via @fischiee

in which they all spend so long standing around bickering about it that the director is just "yeah okay im out lmao" and kills himself to avoid the drama

lowkey I think a "lina&epsilon go on a quest to find the alpha and also maybe shoot her father in the face bc she thinks it'll make her feel better or whatever" au meanwhile also a "wash&alpha try to dodge the meta and also locate epsilon so that Maybe the director won't get away with all of the uh. medical malpractice and ai ethics violations and also the casual terrorism and corporate espionage" au but like.. both of those things happening simultaneously would just be So funny

[destinysbounty]

I understand why Garmadon is usually considered the main villain of Ninjago as a series. Like, I get that on a meta level. It's not an altogether inaccurate assessment of his character. But it's still kinda funny bc this man is only an antagonist for like half of his screentime. Observe:

Pilots - Villain. Kidnaps Nya, deliberately orchestrates Samukai's death, overall acts like a spooky demon man, etc.

Season 1 - I mean he's kind of a general nuisance, sure, but aside from stealing the Golden Weapons he doesn't do anything objectively evil here? Not only does he help them save Lloyd, but he also defeats the Great Devourer. If we're being purely technical from a narrative standpoint, he's an ally in this season.

Season 2 - Back to being a villain again, but gets redeemed/restored at the very end.

Seasons 3-5 - Good guy! A mentor figure for the ninja, in fact! Just an all around good dad and funny guy.

Seasons 8-9 - Villain. Oh my god is he a villain. I don't even have to explain this one. Pilots-era spooky demon vibes except it's dialed up to like 200.

Season 10 - Once again a reluctant ally for the ninja, as he helps them stop the Oni invasion, but he's also a dick about it. Season 1 vibes but this time directly solely at Lloyd.

Season 15 - Morally gray antihero type. not very good at being a good person, and is even worse at being a good father, but he's trying his best.

Dragons Rising - Honestly idk if he's even alive. Fingers crossed, I guess?

Like sure, yeah, I'm not gonna raise a fuss about it when someone says Garmadon is the main villain of the show. Technically speaking, they're not entirely wrong. But it's very silly to me because Garmadon is only a villain sometimes. Sometimes he's a bad guy trying to take over the world, sometimes he's a loving father, and other times he's just a morally gray asshole minding his own business. And y'know what, I respect that about him.

[buckybarnesss]

These new fans who pretend like sterek shippers are making things up need to rewatch the show. The people who think that Derek and Scott are buddies also need to rewatch. Derek and Scott work together but STILES is the link between them.

If the nogitsune had possessed anybody else but Stiles then Derek and Chris would have tried to kill them, period. It is only because it was Stiles specifically that Derek didn't jump on-board the "lets kill this dangerous creature" plan.

it's not a secret that i like scott but it blows my mind that people defend his every move. he's a shitty teenage boy with a limited perspective, a lot of issues thrust into a terrible situation. he's a mess.

but it was scott who burned bridges with derek rather than the other way around. derek tried with scott. no he wasn't always the nicest or explained himself to scott's satisfaction but he did try and at least wasn't duplicitous about it.

scott didn't pull the stick out of his ass about derek till at minimum season 3 which is a whole meta unto itself because a lot of the reason as to why is in the subtext due to stiles but also because derek loses his alpha status. derek having any perceived authority over scott triggered the hell out of scott's issues with male authority figures who are not sheriff stilinski.

i think we've talked about this before. if the nogitsune had possessed anyone but stiles the story would've gone very differently. it seemed to realize this and use it to it's advantage the entire time.

there's a reason it chose derek's loft as the site to protect itself. it brought the argents there as muscle against the oni but derek and the sheriff were there specifically to protect stiles not just from the oni but from the argents too.

[adhd-mess]

I have so many thoughts about episode 8 but I'll begin with my favorite dumbass: Tusgaru Shinuchi, this is a little meta I made, it was supposed to be about him and Aya's relationship but I got distracted.

This scene is by far one of my favorites. I love Jack's just utter confusion on why they were chasing them. Like he can't imagine why?

"Chasing us? For what? Revenge? A cure?"

He doesn't get it. Because he wanted to be this hybrid, he had a choice whereas Tsugaru didn't. But what catches my attention in this scene is Tsugaru's reaction to him saying "for what?"

The most likely involuntary head raise, the widening of the eyes, the gasp. What Jack said triggered Tsugaru trauma. The curtain closes only for a moment on his performance of being the Headliner.

And then we get his memories coming in

A normal shot of Tusgaru standing in front of some body of water covering his face

Then it shifts and he's completely shaded black

He's shaded completely black as he remembers the torture, his trauma. To me it kind of feels like he's reliving his trauma . Typically when someone with ptsd is having a flashback they will think that it's currently happening to them--reliving it.

But that doesn't always manifest in the way we see ptsd portrayed(specifically with veterans)in media. You can relive a flashback, think you are there, but it doesn't show in real life. (i have cptsd as does my sister). Maybe except for eyes widening and gasping, and some others that aren't relevant.

To help bring someone out of a flashback you need to remind them of the present, he does this himself. Jack's question triggered a flashback but it also reminded him of why he was doing this.

The person who gave him a reason to "live", or better put, a better cause to die for--destroying the man who is to blame.

Aya Rindo.

or appearing in blood is just a power of the immortal and she knew Tsugaru was having a flashback and could have died either way Aya brought him back to reality.

He sees her in the pool of blood between his legs which is interesting but okay. And then our favorite Headliner is back

Our Jack here takes that the wrong way, I doubt he knows the double meaning that lies in those words. The meaning we learn in the first episode where Tsugaru says the only reason he keeps killing is one day he'll go feral from using his ability(? cant remember exactly)and kill his owner and all the people who support his and the onis abuse.

A little tangent here: Tsugaru's nonchalant and "dumb lug" attitude is the reason Tsugaru got the diamond in the end. He knows acting that way gives him a certain power, the ability of being underestimated. I know that's a given but I just love that