#Player Personality Analysis

[smile-files]

something interesting i realized while on the vessel-making screen in the deltarune introduction is that it's physically impossible to make kris: there is no hair that perfectly matches theirs (none have the cowlick or the right jagged shape on the bottom), and there is no sweater that perfectly matches theirs (none have a single stripe). this is fascinating, as it perhaps suggest that, if we (the player) had a choice, we *wouldn't* make kris. they aren't something we want, or are even capable of wanting, rather something we're stuck with.

and i suppose the fact that they can't be *created* as a vessel is telling, because we didn't create kris -- they weren't made for us, they're not a player avatar. they're a pre-existing person we just happen to gain possession of.

we weren't made for each other; they don't want us, and we don't seem to want them either (if the inability to choose to create someone like them says anything); funny, then, that in a way we're "soulmates"...

(both pictures are from the deltarune wiki!)

[utilitycaster]

You know what's interesting to me? For all people keep claiming at every juncture that perhaps Bells Hells will come around on the gods and see the harm they do (which, as discussed extensively, is, half the time, simply not intervening) not only have they never done so, but also they never quite cross the line into saying the party should join the Ruby Vanguard or aid them - and indeed, they defend against it - so what does this achieve? It feels like they're asking for a story in which the party stands idly by, which isn't much of a story nor, if I may connect this briefly to the real world, a political stance anyone should be proud of.

That's honestly the frustration with the gods and the "what if the Vanguard has a point" conversations in-game. What do we do then? Do we allow the organization that will murder anyone for pretty much any reason that loosely ties into their goals run rampant? The group that (perhaps unwittingly, but then again, Otohan's blades had that poison) disrupted magic world-wide, and caused people who had the misfortune to live at nexus points to be teleported (most, as commoners, without means of return). While also fomenting worldwide unrest?

Those were the arguments before the trip to Ruidus; with the reveal of the Vanguard's goals to invade Exandria, the situation becomes even more dire. Do you let the Imperium take over the planet?

And do the arguments against the gods even hold up? If Ludinus is so angry at them for the Calamity, what does it say that he destroyed Western Wildemount's first post-Calamity society for entirely selfish means? (What does it say about the validity of vengeance as a motivator?) What does it say that Laudna told Imogen she could always just live in a cottage quietly without issue before the solstice even happened? (Would this still be true if the Imperium controls the world?) What does it say that when faced with a furious, grieving party and the daughter she keeps telling herself was her reason for all of this, Liliana can't provide an answer to the question of what the gods have done other than that their followers will retaliate...for, you know, the Vanguard's endless list of murders. (That is how the Vanguard and Imperium tend to think, huh? "How dare your face get in the way of my boot; how dare you hit me back when I strike you.") She can't even provide a positive answer - why is Predathos better - other than "I feel it", even though Imogen and Fearne know firsthand that Predathos can provide artificial feelings of elation. Given all the harm Ludinus has done in pursuit, why isn't the conclusion "the gods should have crashed Aeor in such a way that the tech was unrecoverable?"

Even as early as the first real discussion on what the party should do, the fandom always stopped short of saying "no, Imogen's right, they should join up with the people who killed half the party," it was always "no, she didn't really mean it, she just was trying to connect with her mother." Well, she's connected with her mother, and at this point the party doesn't even care about the gods particularly (their only divinely-connected party member having died to prevent the Vanguard from killing all of them). So they will stop the Vanguard; as Ashton says, the means are unforgiveable. As Laudna says, it's not safe to bet on Predathos's apathy. As Imogen says, she's done running; the voice that she used to think of as a lifeline belongs to someone she doesn't trust. So I guess my question is: if they're stopping the people who are trying to kill the gods (and defense of the gods isn't remotely their personal motivation)...do you think the next phase of the campaign is Bells Hells personally killing the gods? Reconstructing the Aeor tech and hoping none of their allies notice? How does this end? Does your ideology ever get enacted? Or is this entirely moot and pointless and the story ends with Bells Hells saying "well, I'm really glad we stopped the people who [insert list of Vanguard atrocities from above]; none of us follow the gods or plan to, but honestly, the status quo we return to is preferable to whatever nightmare Ludinus had concocted in his violent quest for power and revenge"?

[struggling-jpg]

Come on, it always irks me when people call Dr. Ratio a Star Rail Al-Haitham or say that they're exactly alike when let's be real, they're quite notably different in specific but major ways. Yes, they're both really smart scholars and yes, they have personalities that make it difficult for others to like or get along with them but

Dr. Ratio considers himself a doctor on a mission to actively help other people become more educated and self-reliant. It's pretty much the reason he couldn't get into The Genius Society—he cares too much for others and doesn't follow the underlying apathy/cruelty to pursue all knowledge by any means with a disregard for others (We have been shown that there are kind/well-meaning people in the group, but there seems to be a very specific aspect that Nous has that Ratio hasn't been able to meet). He cares intensely and has a pretty big ambition.

Al-Haitham, on the other hand, focuses on himself first and foremost. That doesn't mean he doesn't care for others, but he believes that people should look out for themselves because a single person can't save everyone. He usually gets involved only if it affects him, and he adamantly prioritizes living a happy and peaceful life (which is so wholesome when you read his Story stuff). He doesn't get hands-on with helping every single person, he refuses to do so. I want to add that his having lower empathy isn't a bad thing, having lower empathy in general isn't an inherently negative thing. He cares in his own way and doesn't look down on others in the first place, much to contrary belief in-universe and out. He's a pretty laid-back person considering everything, he isn't as ambitious.

If anything, one of their big similarities is that they get generalized as "arrogant smart guys" by others.

[existencebringsonlypain]

I find something really interesting about Deltarune, and I want to talk about it.

YOU are canon to Deltarune.

Everything in real life that has ever happened is canon to Deltarune.

You are not playing as the Player, you ARE the Player. And not in an "oh, I need to imagine I'm involved in this for the game to make sense!" way, but in a literal, by the act of playing, you are the Player way.

And that's what kind of makes the game so real- When, instead of playing as a figure, you are the figure, through and through and without having to do anything, it kind of ropes you in, and brings itself out of the realm of fiction while it's at it.

Yes, the game is fiction, and yes, nothing in it is really happening, and the code is written. But when you're a part of the narrative, it becomes very easy to forget that, and so there's very few leaps in logic you need to take in order to make it feel real.

Kris is a video game character, both in reality and in canon. The game isn't fiction, it's reality. In the lore of Deltarune, Deltarune is a video game that you are playing. The exact same is true in reality.

This also leads to something many of us, including me, are guilty of- separating the Player and ourselves. Every instance of Deltarune that has ever been played has a different Player character, because it's a different person. But that gets confusing, so we refer to ourselves, and after time, them, as the Player. As time goes on, it's very easy to feel like your actions aren't your actions, but the Player's, and you're just moving the story along. Even if you haven't done Snowgrave, you can claim that the Player did snowgrave, because plenty of Players did snowgrave. But you didn't, and as such, it's not canon for your Deltarune.

We cannot characterize the Player. We cannot give them a personality seperate from our own. They are you, and you are them. Your actions are your own, and no matter what COULD happen, it doesn't until you make it. The Player is only malicious if you are malicious. The Player is sympathetic if you are sympathetic. If you don't want Kris to suffer, then the Player doesn't want Kris to suffer, and you're not a bad person. Your love is canon.

[celestiarambles]

here’s another criticism of the tropes fans put in the cc tv tropes page, and it’s mostly about angela (another defending angela post i’m so sorry, long post and spoilers ahead!)

angela haters like to look and nitpick certain things she does that could probably hint at her being the mole, but fail to gloss over the good things she actually did do.

for example, her character arc in south asia, especially in plagued by death where she showcases her talents in biology and medicine is severely overlooked. here’s an example:

if you look at the recap page of plagued by death, shweta and warren are the ones listed as the big damn heroes. while yes they did do those things, they probably wouldn’t have done it if angela hadn’t intervened.

sure, shweta did tell angela all about the final ingredient needed for the cure and she did say that she was planning to share her findings with the bureau later on, but it’s hard to say whether she actually planned to share it or not. after all, angela and lars had been studying and working on finding a cure for WEEKS, but during that timespan shweta had not reached out to them even once, especially since she knew that she was the one who had created that virus. hell if the bureau didn’t find patient zero and flagged shweta as a suspect, would she actually say something to help out? if angela didn’t yell at her for hiding information from the bureau, would she still go to help them? bottom line is that shweta knew that she created the virus that caused the epidemic, and while she did help in finding out the cure, she never said anything about it to the bureau until she was first interrogated. not even basic information or anything. and basically, she only said that she was planning to TRY out the flame lily for the cure, but angela was the one who made it work.

other than that if angela didn’t find the cure, obviously warren wouldn’t have any medicine to distribute. in fact, she and the player were the ones who inform him about it personally. i don’t know if angela was aware that warren was sombra or not (given that she is sombra as well), but she still warned him about o.m medilab too.

i’m not saying that shweta and warren didn’t do enough to help with the epidemic, but it’s kinda off-putting on how angela and lars have been working their asses off to the point of sleep deprivation just to find the cure, and when angela was the one who discovered it the cc community just blatantly ignored that and said that shweta and warren were the ones who saved the day.

“well that’s because angela is the mole! she can’t do good! she’s evil!” in later cases (and seasons), both shweta and warren also became killers as well. how come they get credited with this but all that they can say about angela here is that she was “determined”? regardless of her connections with sombra, angela was the one who CREATED the cure.

“angela only worked on finding that cure because lars got infected!” even before lars got sick, they were BOTH working on it together. yes, it was obviously a factor as to why angela was determined to find the cure, but of course no sane person would want a virus like that to plague an entire country. and she’s a scientist. it’s her job. and imagine trying to find a cure knowing that someone you love’s life is on the line and only that cure would save them: there was a ton of pressure on her part during that case, more so when lars got infected too.

“but angela is sombra, she must’ve wanted that to happen since sombra’s motto is that the weak die! she’s probably been helping o.m medilab too!” she probably was aware of what o.m medilab was doing given her ties with sombra, but she seemed to be most likely against it, given that she’s in the medical field and that their actions harmed a lot of people. here’s another overlooked detail, this time in bad medicine:

if angela wasn’t against the crimes that o.m medilab had done, she wouldn’t have told elliot that dracoxia is dangerous. this may have been another case of “angela pretending to help so that the bureau wouldn’t think she’s the mole”, but if she wasn’t genuine she would’ve told elliot surface-level information about the drug. she could’ve omitted the part about how the pills weren’t tested yet and claim plausible deniability if they confronted her about it. but she still told him EVERYTHING she knew. she was clearly against their actions from the start.

“but angela’s loyal to sombra!” that’s another pet peeve i have in tv tropes’ perception of angela. the fans who put her tropes there think that she is completely loyal to sombra even though she disagrees with some of their methods and that lars is her ‘morality pet’. i really couldn’t blame them because pretty simple had written her poorly in the darkest hour, but i don’t think she was actually THAT loyal to sombra at all. she was just afraid of disobeying them because of the harm they could do to her and her family so she had to comply. and when she got arrested, everyone in the bureau was basically aware that sombra was everywhere at that point so angela had to put on this act that she did agree with sombra.

look at the sequence of events in save the world. in south asia, angela created a cure to a virus that o.m medilab, a sombra front, bought from shweta, then the bureau found out that said sombra front was embezzling funds. in east asia, the bureau discovered sombra’s child trafficking scheme, something angela was CLEARLY AGAINST to the point she feared for her children’s lives. (what didn’t help was that sombra was the one who initially took her in in the first place when her parents died, so the investigation probably made her remember her own trauma in the murder games and the death of her parents.) then in oceania, the bureau found out about the experimentation they did to the children who won the hunt, something that angela wasn’t aware about because it had never happened to her when she was raised by sombra. add the fact that elliot, their teenager colleague, was kidnapped as well.

after everything she had discovered, angela had enough. she probably wanted out of sombra that time. which is why sombra made the bureau’s plane crash in africa to keep her in line. to threaten her.

i’m not trying to say that angela didn’t do anything wrong. i just think that she isn’t as bad as people make her out to be. she clearly knows what’s right and what’s wrong, even if she wasn’t married to lars. she just had to make a lot of difficult choices that time just to protect herself and her family. players know her for all those choices and for all the bad things she did, but fail to acknowledge the good things that she actually did do. i mean girlie won a whole NOBEL PRIZE for god’s sake, which in real life is difficult especially for a woc like her. and even if she did it out of guilt, she created this whole charity to help orphans and adopted children, and it’s even deeper when we acknowledge the fact that she herself became an orphan.

TLDR: angela committed crimes and did a lot of bad things, but whether you like her or not, she still did some good things as well. don’t ignore or downplay that just so that she could fit into this villain narrative.

[pyrosomatic-metamorphosis]

thinking about the elections tonight... bad, cellbit, baghera, and forever are four candidates who are devoted to the island- more specifically, to the residents of the island. They care for the eggs, and they care for each other, and the way they exhibit that care through their primary presidential strategies is fucking fascinating.

Bad is who I watch the most, so I know him best. He's a classic mother hen. He doesn't like to take risks with the eggs, and he likes to prepare. If there's any sort of variable that could hurt an egg then he wants to control it. They have a stable relationship with the federation right now- it's not great, but they know the parameters. Don't trust cucurucho. don't follow cucurucho. send the eggs to NINHO every time there's a threat. the time of day changing means you need to run. Other than that they're p okay and roughly safe. But adding a president could potentially change everything. What if the president makes a rule that makes it easier to kill the eggs? And what about the way a president could cause tensions between the players to rise even higher? The dynamics of the island could change drastically. It's safer to neutralize that threat before it ever becomes a threat. It's easier to stop a war before it can start.

Baghera's primary concern is the way the election is designed to pit the residents against each other. All of them know that the Federation is a threat and she, like Bad, is focused on not letting them hurt more people. But, unlike Bad, she's less resistant to change. If the power is spread to multiple players rather than just one, it will be harder for the Federation to corrupt any one of them. Each time before the Federation has gotten to someone it's done so by isolating them. Felps, Cellbit, Jaiden- they've all spent a lot of alone time with Cucurucho. A council isn't just to consolidate the ideals of the island; a council would protect the players themselves. Sure, there might be disagreements and arguments, but they've had those before (and they're having them now!) and there's no reason to think they wouldn't be able to get through them again.

I hit a bit of a wall with Forever and Cellbit's pov here. Everything I know about their plans are from the debates and paraphrased discussions that have been translated here on tumblr, I'm going to talk less about their explicit plan and more about what the result will entail- a single president who takes responsibility for the island. It seems to me like they've recognized the presidential seat as the powerful opportunity that it is, and they want to take advantage of it. Here's some extra personal speculation but, adding rules, adding or removing mods, proposing public works, enforcing laws- those are just the abilities that are listed. Those are incredible opportunities to make the Federation take action, which is more than they've had before. We've seen before that the Federation isn't perfect; the Federation makes mistakes.

By working with the Federation, by making them take action (in a semi-controlled, semi-predictable way) you open them up to more opportunities for them to fuck up (while benefiting you). And, maybe, one of those fuck ups will be the key to taking them down. Maybe they could reopen ender chests. Maybe they could open the nether. Maybe they could learn why the Federation is holding an election in the first place. It's possible to do all these things with Baghera's plan, sure, but that's not a guarantee and, if someone like Bad is on the council, there's absolutely no way to be sure it would get done. And, if there's a council, then that opens up everyone on the council to the Federation's wiles. If there's just one president, then that's where the Federation's focus will be. By using a single person to build a relationship with the Federation, they only risk that single person. By electing ministers instead of a council, they can ensure that the island residents' needs are being heard while placing the federation's focus on that one person. A point can be made that they've done that before- with varying results. like kidnapping. selling your soul. etc. But! overall, I think they've gained more than they've lost by singling out one person. Because of them, we know that Cucurucho can't be trusted. We know that the Federation has a series of tunnels underneath the island. We know that the Federation not only has some sort of cryo technology, but had some unknown reason to use it. We know that there was another person working with Cellbit to take care of Felps (theorized to be ElQuackity), so we know there's at least one more Fed that isn't Cucurucho + blank-faced workers. There's been risk, but there's absolutely been rewards. This is just a very long meandering way to say that their plan to sacrifice Forever to the presidential seat reminds me very much of Cellbit's plan to sacrifice himself to the federation. They're saving their friends by potentially damning themselves and I, for one, think that is cool as hell.

they all care about each other so much. bad's plan means taking on no more risk. baghera's plan means spreading that risk evenly to stand strong together. and cellbit and forever's plan means taking the risk onto themselves so they can reap the rewards for others. am i reading too much into things? no this is tumblr and this smp is about LOVE and i really genuinely think that their election plans are a fantastic example of just how much they love each other

[evi4th]

religious trauma lifesteal!zam essay //lifesteal spoilers

call it projecting but like imagine the amount of religious trauma lifesteal!princezam has (presuming theres some sort of connection of the characters between seasons) like bro has had like 80% of his teamates become gods and watched them loose their sense of self in one way or another he himself started exploiting at one point then goes on to ban himself in season five theres something to be said their having reached the heart cap and having so much power after hours and hours of constant labour to achieve what he got handed to him by a divine like entity like just to ban himself something something sacirficing your life to a higher entity . something also about watching all of his loved ones betray him die or him having to betray them for his own self of moral justice which is very lackluster to his constantly changing beliefs and morality he will never find something that he can cling to (like religion) so. yeah.

[thegreatyin]

being a big fan of gender selectable and/or gender ambiguous characters is so hard because everyone defaults to calling them a guy all the time and it's like. i GUESS that's correct. i guess. you're perfectly free to decide that because that's the point of gender being choosable and im not one to dictate how you play or interpret your playthroughs or opinions on the game. im still gonna fucking kill you though.

[mcybree]

“why do i miss gem and the scotts suddenly theyre barely even real”

LITERALLY!! like. that team was held together with scott tape and the sheer force of gem’s personality. i don’t think scott and impulse ever actually even talked the entire time. it only worked because for the first time scott was faced with someone who was bossier than he was. they were awesome i should rewatch secret life

they were actually so fucking funny. All three of them promising to remain loyal and stick together until the very end (bc together they can win this!!) only for gem to hunt scott for sport an episode later was literally so based… their dynamic will always be funnier in my head i think but god it was awesome

[theabyssqueen]

Chara is our partner, not our victim (rant)

Warning: may sound like Chara hate to some, but Chara is actually one of my favorite characters in Undertale since childhood. I love them. Please keep this in mind while reading this.

Undertale fandom (especially on Youtube and ESPECIALLY Tiktok) try to use critical thought and realise after 8 years that Chara is just as responsible for the Genocide route and is a willing participant in it challenge (impossible)

Like how can you think that Chara is punishing you for your sins at the end of Genocide or is disgusted with you if they helped you throughout it all?

We do not corrupt them.

We do not manipulate them.

Chara is your partner on equal grounds. They make it very clear right at the end of Genocide that you were never in control.

I repeat: we are NEVER in control of Chara.

Treating them as a lost and confused baby without any freedom of choice or thought is a disservice to the character.

Proof under the cut.

The Genocide Run has strict requirements for it to be started. For red text to appear, you need to kill 20 monsters in the Ruins, fully clearing them out. Yet, if you kill the first Froggit you meet, AND 19 monsters, Genocide does not begin. Why is that? I thought Chara was corrupted by all the LV and EXP we are gaining!

It's because Chara doesn't care if the first Froggit is killed or not. Only the monsters after it count.

Additionally, the last chance that Genocide can be aborted is right before Mettaton NEO, at which point, you should be at LV 15. Thing is, this LV can be reached even during a Neutral Run, by grinding 39 Knight Knights in the CORE. Yet, red text still doesn't appear.

Sparing monsters in Genocide is possible and doesn't deter Chara from the Run (but only if it's a common encounter).

Chara berates you if Snowdrake gets away and Genocide is aborted immediately.

Chara keeps count of the monsters needed to be killed and will stop you from advancing further in some sections if there are still monsters left.

They could easily just not do all of that.

Frisk's independent actions out of the Player's control during Genocide are actually not theirs, but Chara's. Chara kills Flowey, Asgore, and Sans. And while an argument could be made for us influencing Chara into killing Sans, the same cannot be made for Asgore's and Flowey's deaths. There isn't even any FIGHT button for us to press. The only thing we are doing at this point is advancing dialogue.

And this is considering that Flowey and Asgore were/are both Chara's family, or at least akin to one.

Listen, I get it. I also hate when people put all the blame on Chara. I also dislike when people just stamp "evil" onto them and erase all possible nuance. But that doesn't mean that we should go right into the opposite direction and act as if they're innocent or righteous.

At the end of Genocide, no matter your input on the matter, Chara ends the world. Not just you, not just the monsters still left alive in the Underground, but the whole universe. That indescribably outweighs all the misdeeds we have done during the Run.

Just think about it. Is really killing EVERYONE in the world justifiable, if you do it to punish someone? Even a murderer? To make them "see the consequences of their actions"?

How does that make sense?

How does that elevate them from you in any capacity?

Is it because they talk of "perverted sentimentality", which evades even them? Chara only talks about it if you try to return to the world you had a part in destroying. Chara only talks about if on the 2nd+ Genocide Run you do not comply with erasing everything.

In fact, if you play along, they compliment you. And they don't say anything about your feelings on the matter.

Killing and erasing is encouraged. If you do so, in Chara's eyes, you are a beneficial and trustworthy partner.

And the photo. The photo that appears at the end of Soulless Pacifist if you leave Toriel. Instead of Frisk, Chara is shown, and everyone else's faces are crossed out, implying that they are dead.

Some argue that this is just Chara trying to scare you, or remind you of all the murder you've committed, keeping you responsible.

Alphys is scribbled out.

It is impossible to kill Alphys in Genocide.

It's possible she kills herself during some pretty bad Neutral Runs. Not to mention that, in general, a lot of Neutral Runs are just as, if not worse than Genocide.

Why won't Chara guilt trip you for having done them, then?

And I just can't wrap my mind around someone thinking that Chara is literally pulling a "just a prank bro" here. Especially considering that this is never shown or hinted at to be the case.

And as the icing on the cake, look at the text that appears after the end of Genocide in the Undertale Demo:

To me, at this point, thinking that Chara is innocent is just denial.

Yes, Chara offers trying out a different route next time. Yet they sure as hell won't stop encouraging it if it is started all over again. No matter if it's the 1st, 2nd, or 100th time you decide to kill everyone to wipe out the world, Chara will play along. This is considering the fact that their dialogue changes on the 2nd Genocide, and thus, proof that Chara's memory is unaffected by RESETs or ERASEs.

Yes, Chara says that YOU were the one who lead this world to ruin. But in my opinion, considering their offer for you to try out a different path, and their actions in Soulless Pacifist (which are, again, out of their own volition and unprompted), Chara's ultimate goal is to take over your/Frisk's soul. Which is why the point fingers and erase their contribution in all the murder, to try and make you feel guilty for it, seeing how you clearly do not wish to part with this world so easily.

Evidently, they've succeeded.

Chara would never get what they want at the end, if not for your help. And you wouldn't get what you want, if not for Chara's help.

The Player and Chara are partners. Let's never forget that.

Credit to the Undertale Text Project for the screenshots and to the nochocolate blog for opening my eyes all those years ago. I love you nochoco.

[whitmore]

i think when we approach the conversation and history of the ‘purgatory underdog’ you have to take into account what the game and arc was portrayed to be to the audience (also therefore the players) at the time— this is to say that the earlier days placed a lot more emphasis on pvp, both narratively via the observer and in the daily breakdown. the first days were so hopeless for bolas ultimately because they didn’t see any kind of chance to outthink the game, which would be their sole route to victory. since then the only reason red’s had any kind of fighting chance is because they’re tactically stunning, their wins are almost entirely strategy because they could not beat green or blue in a one-to-one pvp environment. i think it’s kind of a disservice to analysis to isolate the days of triumph and victory and ignore that bolas worked around their glaring and blatant weaknesses compared to other teams in this specific environment

[rodlaveraryna]

never forget people like aryna and iga are byproducts of the media they consume

[struggling-jpg]

HSR 2.4 Quest Spoilers

Specifically some Yanqing parts (screenshots below)

Yanqing!!! In this part of the quest kind of had me near tearing up!!! This part specifically grabbed me by the throat and throttled me.

I appreciate how the writing has him continuously navigate through his issues. There's a sense of maturity he's developed (albeit some of it feels melancholic in a grand scale of things) and he continuously thinks of others and his job despite his natural childishness (since, you know, he is still a kid (also not at Jiaoqiu directly asking how old he was and Yanqing just saying "it doesn't matter" LIKE HOYO PLZ LOL)). BUT he's clearly growing up and he's really thinking through all of this and it just rwaetknrhsd messes me up!!

And his contrast with Yunli shines through. The way they both can learn from each other in not just swordplay but ideals, philosophies, and attitudes. Watching them in scenes and how they interact with others makes them both fun to study.

But back to Yanqing, it's the fact that he finally comes back to this love for the art of sword wielding and to be able to self-improve and become a better person. That's such a moving thing. And it's cool that even with such a realization, he still is going to learn and struggle as he grows. And I wonder how that'll play into his future arcs!

Yan-KING my son TvT He's so precious

[sharksliveontrains]

one thing I love about blue lock is that you never see kira again after the first episode. obviously he’s used to show how serious they are about the program and to turn the usual sports anime/manga trope on its head but. his ego was very apparent the moment he realized isagi- the one person that he was friendly with there- attacked him and caused him to lose his dream. and he really lost it himself by not being prepared to fight back, he’ll have to grapple with that fact for the rest of his life, especially seeing isagi and others from blue lock make it to the national stage. but it’s especially interesting because i’m sure he had the ego to make it. as soon as he was eliminated it was evident. if he was given another chance, or even 5 seconds longer to pass the ball to someone else, i think he could’ve been a major part of blue lock and possibly make it to the national level. but because he wasn’t expecting it, was trying to think of others, wasn’t prepared to eliminate someone else in time- his soccer career slipped from his fingers and he’ll never be allowed to play for japan’s national team

[sayheykid]

i genuinely don't think a story's worldbuilding and lore has ever drawn me in the way that check please did. it's been years and i still think about it every day. the characters and plot were always superb but i think what has stuck with me the most is the depth of the settings and how everything feels so lived in and tangible. everyone wants to make a fake world and town and university but no one else has EVER done it that well

[twnj]

'It no longer confused her why Shikamaru was so agreeable to other players, either. Granted, it was annoying to be beaten by someone so nonchalant — Temari knew that first-hand — but he was inoffensive, gliding through draws without friction with all but a few. Maybe his interview answers were short, even dull, but they were never abrasive and certainly never sparked trouble. And alone, outside of when he caught Temari in a witty remark, there was almost nothing she could find left to complain about the man.

He was a good player, a good second, and above all, a good person.'

Grandmaster on ao3 by @notquitejiraiya