#So yeah this probably doesn't make sense

[gruelingtonic]

Drinking Alternian Monster Energy is like drinking literal battery acid. Moreso than Earth Monster Energy.

[coddda]

Hiiiiiii. Episode 25/26 lawlight analysis rant thingy here. I don't know how to write an intro for this so let's just get to it LOL

I think one of the reasons that the rain/foot scenes stick out so much (the. Sheer insanity of a Foot Massage Scene in an anime revolving around two guys trying to kill each other aside 💀) is the fact that the anime specifically suffers a bit in terms of adapting a few of the "emotional" moments in death note.

And I don't mean "emotionally impactful" exactly. For example I think the adaptations of scenes like Raye and Naomi's deaths were very impactful and the atmospheres of their final scenes were great, but I mean more from a characterization standpoint (if that makes sense). Being more focused on mind and logic games, Death Note as a whole isn't as invested in individual characters' deeper feelings as it is in its action (which isn't necessarily a criticism per say, it's simply part of the nature of a mystery thriller series). But just because they're fewer and farther between doesn't mean there are none at all. In the manga we do get to see, for example, how much Light actually cared for his family and especially Sayu, and how he actually felt more conflicted and suffered lack of sleep/appetite when he first used the Death Note.

The anime specifically as an adaptation is pretty good at adapting the main mind fuckery and action of Death Note, but its lacking in properly adapting scenes like the ones I mentioned above is a criticism I see somewhat often, and it's pretty fair imo. Compared to all the other adaptations, it certainly seems to fall short on an emotional level: the musical has entire songs going in depth about the characters feelings and relationships, the 2015 jdrama is. Insane and has its emotional moments in spades (because it's a TV drama, which are more focused on portraying emotional conflict and the like), even the 2006 movies has its emotional beats and L Change the WorLd is. Well. Oh Man.

Anime Light to a lot of people is like. Light but he's "already evil" (which I have my own thoughts on but I digress). Light but after using the Death Note for like 2 minutes he's already like "fuck yeah time to kill criminals". Basically the anime doesn't take as much time to delve into his less cynical sides or really delve into his already vague and harder to decipher feelings in general, he is noticeably colder from the get-go here, etc.

But that's part of why I think episode 25 manages to stand out so much tonally (apart from it being, y'know, the episode L literally Dies). I love the episode so much and could probably rant for hours about how much I love the artistic choices made in it but what I'm trying to get at here is that it's one of the very few moments where the show tries to go deeper into specific character's emotions, and one of the very few moments where the show Attempts (emphasis on "attempts" because, well, you'll see in a bit) to get more in-depth into Light's feelings apart from his cynicism/apathy/justice. ness.

L in these two scenes in episode 25 is, well, pretty damn open about how he feels. It's usually interpreted as him knowing that he's going to die, and you can see it. He visibly looks/sounds lost, somber, etc. He never really had much to hide around Light to begin with (since he doesn't really care about hiding himself the same way Light does) but especially not now and it Shows, and I personally thought it was pretty cool to delve into his thoughts/show how he feels this way. The somberness can be felt throughout the entire scene, even people who don't already know the plot of Death Note from the manga could probably tell that he's about to die.

In the manga, once L starts suspecting Misa again and Rem realizes what Light is trying to do, it goes straight to Watari and L's deaths, but the anime instead gives a distinct and unexpected pause in the middle of this where L contemplates his own death. It's fucking great, and the shift from straight action to slower emotional weight makes these scenes stand out a lot, since, like I said, the show usually focuses more on the former. But it's kind of ironic, too.

Not only does the anime open up L's feelings more in these scenes, but it also tries to dig deeper into Light's feelings as well through L. And it's really funny honestly because while, yes, these are the more "emotionally open" scenes of the anime Light still manages to be Incredibly avoidant and contribute almost nothing to the entire ordeal.

L is visibly upset -> "Yeah Ryuzaki, you're not making any sense at all" (Not addressing the obvious conflict from L)

"Tell me, Light. From the moment you were born, has there ever been a point where you've actually told the truth?" -> "[The most stale, over-explained, avoidant answer to a "yes/no" question that you could ever hear + blatant attempts to reframe the question]"

(L's half-smile here kills me) "I had a feeling you'd say something like that" -> [Nothing]

"I'm sorry" -> [Nothing]

"It'll be lonely won't it? You and I will be parting ways soon" -> [Nothing]

^ From this point Light continues to say literally Nothing for the rest of the scene. I'm not even joking, from then on the rest of Light's voicelines are reduced to nothing but vague noises of confusion.

Everytime L calls Light out as a person ("Has there ever been a point where you've actually told the truth?" / "I had a feeling you'd say something like that." / "Won't it be lonely?") he doesn't actually acknowledge anything. Out of those three lines, he only answers verbally to if he's ever told the truth, and even then it's the most blatantly people-pleasing answer ever, as it usually is with Light. And I don't think it's because Light just. Doesn't care about any of what L's saying at all, or that he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about (questioning Light's authenticity as a person, saying it would be lonely when they part), instead he's choosing not to acknowledge any of what this means about himself or him and L at all. He's like a fucking wall.

And like, for the truth question in particular, the show makes sure that you know it's not something that Light just. Doesn't care enough about to answer. The hard cuts to silence are a very rare but extremely effective way that the show conveys an extremely important moment (see: Light regaining his memories, Matsuda noticing Light opening the warehouse door before he escapes (not as much of a "direct" cut to silence but still)), and cuts to multiple angles/framings/zooms of the exact same shot are also used for the same purpose (see: Light hugging Misa when she was crying, Matsuda aiming his gun to shoot Light, Light regaining his memories Again). Just like the scene where Light gets his memories back, the moment L's question finishes the show utilizes both. That question cut Deep. There's is a solid Almost 5 seconds of silence before the sound of the rain gradually starts fading back in, and honestly that should be telling enough as is (but of course Light doesn't actually admit that. Or anything at all really, so). Oh also another fun detail! We do not see Light's face At All (except for the shot where you can see his mouth moving but not his eyes), for the Entire time that he's going on his spiel to L. We Will Be Revisiting This Later, by the way. This is not, in fact, the first time you're going to see this detail from Light.

The only sort of reciprocation that we see from Light during Any of these two scenes is when Light dries L's hair while L dries his feet. Biblical meanings/references aside it's interesting because it's the only time he directly does anything "for" L in these scenes, but even then he doesn't try to pass it off as anything meaningful really the same way L does ("You're still soaked", a purely neutral and factual statement. It doesn't Add Anything compared to L's. Sin atonement loneliness grieving stuff. While Light is showing his own reciprocation to this more personal moment he also tries to keep it impersonal enough that it doesn't actually have to mean anything deep). And when L says "I'm sorry" after he once again gets no response from Light. It's also after this that L gets that pained look on his face, like he knows that at this point he's not actually going to get anything meaningful from Light (again, very significant and rare from L in the show. We've seen him in distress (see: when Ukita died, hell, when Watari dies), but even then he mostly manages to keep his usually neutral expression), we never see him "look sad" like he does here):

I just think it's interesting that this is one of the few scenes in this particular adaptation of Death Note where they try to open up the character's thoughts/feeling (especially considering the fact that they. lowkey blunder in adaptations of original scenes from the manga), and L himself is being rather open (not that he ever really tries to hide what he thinks nearly as much as Light), and yet all Light contributes to it in return is like. Actually nothing. Bro fumbled it. There is no resolution to any of this, to any of what L asks at all, to any of the many opportunities for a meaningful conversation, and the only thing even relatively close to an answer that you can get from Light is what you can infer from how he acts in the episode after L dies, where he's just going through the motions, but hardly acting as if he's actually living at all.

(Honestly I think the transition from this scene with the taskforce to the subsequent scene with Misa says enough on its own. Light's expressions and tone says everything:)

(Oh sidenote but. This shit again:

"Light, this is our first date in forever. can't you enjoy yourself a little more?" ('Why don't you seem happy? We can finally be together since L is dead') -> No response, Light instead changing the topic to him wanting to move in with Misa without changing his mannerisms at all

Also there's that one detail again. You pretty much don't see Light's expression when he speaks here at all, except for one shot of his eyes, which is quite literally the exact same shot they used when he "saw" L, just altered for the new setting. You have No idea what he looks like when he's responding to Misa, although it's probably fair to assume that it's the same empty stare he has for the whole Two Shots where you can clearly see his whole expression in the entire scene.

Something something Light Yagami bad at feelings I think you get the point though)

I guess Light's Kind of showing what he's feeling now? He'll admit to himself that it's boring without L, but no more than that. Light never actually admits to anything "significant", and L's dead already anyway, so what would that even do?

And then we get, uh. Basically nothing from Light. For the next 5 Years. Except that he joined the NPA, so, uh, yay? Good job, Light you totally nailed it! Thank you for allowing us as an audience to delve deeper into your inner thoughts and feelings as a character so we can find out more about you as a person! Very helpful! Thank you for not sabotaging one of your few dedicated opportunities to look into yourself as a person and reflect on your relationships with others and being 100% honest with yourself! We stay winning guys.

Anyway, this got way too long for a scene that's over a decade old, and I've probably just said everything that everyone else has already said in this fandom before. But unfortunately this has been living in my head for way too long and I must scream. I just think this episode's neat is all :)

tl;dr Part of the reason why the rain/foot scene (tbh episode 25 in General) stands out so much is because the Death Note anime specifically was a bit robbed in terms of its more emotional character moments compared to the other medias, which makes more somber/introspective scenes like the ones in episode 25 stand out a Lot in comparison. But it's also incredibly ironic because it's one of the few moments where the show (or specifically L) tries to look deeper into Light's character, but because he is so avoidant for the entire duration of these two scenes he adds basically nothing at all. It's almost funny. Mostly sad. It's also very gay. Aand post

Okay actually nevermind one more thing I talked about how the jdrama is supposed to be more emotionally in-depth because it is a TV Drama and just for the record, same thing happens there! I could probably do an entire analysis of the Blue Scene in this context like I did with episode 25 but I'd literally be here forever, so uh, just take this iconic line as my main example:

Same Thing. L's statement "I wish we could have met some other way" is personal. It's his own wish, his own regret that he is expressing to Light. While Light's reply obviously has that same regret implied it's also phrased in a specifically impersonal way. It's closed off. "This is the only way we could have met" it closes off the topic and simply renders L's wish as ultimately futile. Light does not say that he Also wishes he could have met L a different way even if it was likely impossible, instead it's a cold statement of cynical fact.

Idk just. Something something L being able and Willing to be more openly sentimental/emotionally open towards Light/about Light vs. Light's inability to be honest with anyone including himself and his own nature preventing any form of meaningful reciprocation. Something something self-sabotage, y'know the drill. God don't even get me Started on how sincere L's tone is when he says "It'll be lonely won't it?"(at least in the eng dub) in the anime I could talk about his tone in that scene for ages. Also yes all of this relates to L Change the WorLd too by the way. Don't ask how it just does okay.

I do think that scenes like these (rain/foot scene, The Blue Scene. Uh. L Change the WorLd The Novel Adaptation) show, at least in those adaptations, that L does genuinely care for Light, and show that he values him as a friend not just in the mindgame-equal sense but also just like, a more sincere sense you know. Idk if that made any sense and that's a whole other topic for another day but you guys just have to believe me on this one alright please please believe me buries head in hands. Okay post over finally thanks for coming to my tedtalk hope you enjoyed my very-unnecessarily long analysis of the week

[steakout-05]

being aegosexual is like looking at a guy and being like "damn he's hot" but never wanting to do anything with him. instead, you take another hot guy and then do the imaginary equivalent of smacking them together like action figures

[cementcornfield]

a series of tweets i found helpful and informative today re: joe's performance

so in summary: he wasn't throwing deep balls and it's hard to know why. he said in the presser that the patriots D "took the deep options away" and maybe that's true. but in that first tweet you can see that both ja'marr and yoshi are in single man coverage and breaking free. but joe doesn't even try to hit them. it's tempting to blame pass protection (as it has so often been the issue) but the pass protection was actually pretty good, some of the best of joe's professional career. but he honestly just looked spooked?! which i wouldn't blame him for, psychologically overcoming injuries is just as important and probably just as tedious as overcoming them physically. i imagine that can only improve with more reps.

saw a lot of people also blaming the wrist itself, and maybe that's true! he wouldn't say he was 100% last week and said he still has good and bad days. but it also doesn't seem like it really was affecting his throws at all, shallow intermediate or deep. the announcers certainly pointed out that he was fiddling with his wrist/shaking it around (and GASP wearing a glove!), but he's been doing that all training camp. what they showed on the broadcast was likely just him breaking up scar tissue.

so who knows! a lot went wrong in this game. play calling and scheme, run defense (although i also saw some tweets about how our D-line did well, our secondary still can't tackle though!), sloppy and undisciplined plays from everyone, along with some of joe's decision making (he also had some great plays! listed above!) we start slow, it just seems to be a given at this point. and i hope we can fix it. we have a track record of doing so, and you know the boys are pissed and watching the tape to see how they can improve. maybe they can fix it by the time we get to KC?

[trashcanwithsprinkles]

Mmm. In the cyanide narwhal verse. How do you think stuff happens with Yanfei? Like. Ajax told Guizhong that Firehopper is gonna have a kid. I’m just curious how the little half adeptus would be received when she eventually shows up. Does Guizhong remember?

guizhong would absolutely remember. she'd be side-eyeing fire hopper in secret for like- every single important thing the guy does. gets a girlfriend? guizhong's paying attention from the sidelines. breaks up with her? guizhong worries a bit. gets another girlfriend? guizhong considers asking ajax what yanfei looks like so she can suss out who the mother will be. she doesn't. hundreds of years and many girlfriends later, guizhong is starting to grow worried. she eventually does ask ajax and he's like oh no yeah fire hopper's daugher is half-adeptus (i think ajax never told them this part) so his wife's going to be a human. and yeah it should still be a bit, don't worry about it

so guizhong is like oh ok. and when it does happen she sort of looks at ajax trying to gauge whether this is the Correct Child, and sees ajax is as happy to meet little yanfei as he is to meet all the other random people he's been planning for (the blorbos) guizhong is like ok i guess this is it. holy shit

[saturnniidae]

I love the idea of Hiccup being plagued with guilt whenever he's not able to bond with a dragon or has to fight one (despite it often being self defense he has no choice in). Like, the whole thing with the skrill probably weighed on him for years until they caught it again and he chose to release it.

[i-am-dumb]

Animal purecacao!

(a stupid, VERY low effort comic under cut)

[brittlebutch]

actually it's kind of funny how people will say Alex's fatal flaw is that he 'doesn't ask for help' and that it's his determination to handle things on his own that leads to his deterioration and eventual death when his whole introduction to the present-day timeline was a very literal cry for help that simply went ignored

[sage-is-in-fact-very-tired]

okay yes I'm making *another* ship of Theseus Icarus post, but. I wanna point a very specific detail out - because maybe it answers the question of if Icarus is still really Icarus even after everything quixis has changed and made *not them.*

Because. You can change the ship - different colors (the wood never exactly the same as before), different name, slightly different shape - but people who knew what the ship was before might, at quick glance, mistake it for what it was before - for something it is not but that it mirrors still even now.

And, despite everything that Quixis has changed - has man *not them*, has made someone else, and has broken and shattered - and despite how little Icarus still looks like the child they were and the parent they mirror, people have still mistaken them for Fable. Despite looking nothing like him anymore - and, I do suppose by proxy, not like themself - people still mistake them for the person they mirror, even now.

You can change and replace and shatter and break all their pieces, but at their core they still mirror the same person they did as a child - despite fable and Icarus being nothing alike, in a way, they'd end up mirroring themself.

[infinite-infinite-stars]

Literally everything that WKM might have been trying to say about choice and lack thereof, ISWM explores as well, but better. Fight me.

[dogearedheart]

thought about fem castiel and blacked out immediately

[shippy-from-apocalypse]

Ok im Very sleepy rn it's 2 am bare with me

What do we think Jon would think of How The fandom sees him? And I don't mean this in a pedantic "oh fandom bad because dumbed down and Insert Petty Headcanon Disagreement"

I mean this entirely in a "How would Jon, The man who believes himself to be an Irredeemable monster who is to blame for everything that ever went wrong, react to Just so so many people listening to his shortcommings and ultimately seeing his side"

Like yeah everyone agrees he's kind of an asshole sometimes but he is so beloved by The fans?

I'm sure some people did but I've never seen anyone doubting his humanity or blaming him for the horrors™ he Just clearly understood as his fault? Like yeah Martin tried telling him it wasn't but what I'm getting at is

I love to think about what Jon would do If he saw just the ocean of people who listened to (what he considers to be)

the most unsympathetic person in the world becoming a monster and making choices that brought the literal apocalypse upon humanity

and pretty much everyone saying "he did the best anyone could reasonably expect and he is not a bad person for being caught in the crossfire of an impossible situation with no good solutions"

remember that time in mag 187 a lady grabbed jon in fear and he shouted and presumably pushed her away? and everyone and their mother defended jon's humanity because that was a textbook trauma response i think he would break down crying if he saw that

[spiriiitt]

PDH hc that Laurance has a shitbox car that he got off of facebook marketplace and he picks Garroth up everyday for school in it, and it's got a bunch of empty beer cans from their random late night hnag outs and they leave them in the back so they don't get caught drinking when the cand appear in their trash bins at home, and other random shit that he can't be fucked cleaning up.

c: I love PDH Garrance sm, like even from just a friends standpoint they're so>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[immediatebreakfast]

"Therefore may I ask that you promise me in the dark, so that afterwards, though you may be angry with me for a time—I must not disguise from myself the possibility that such may be—you shall not blame yourselves for anything."

This paragraph weights so much within the narrative as religion weights down on the suitor squad' hearts. It's not a promise of bravery, or endurance. Nothing about making you control your own emotions as you chase down the love of your life to kill her a second time. To free her from being a tool of the revenge orchestrated by a more ancient monster.

It's forgiveness at the eyes of god.

Even if their hands are stained with the blood of the undead innocent Lucy, their souls will remain pure and inside the light of that eye who watches everything good and evil.

Van Helsing may not (or maybe did) have done anything as drastic as this before, but he knows that the act of killing Lucy in such brutal way will remain in their brains forever.

Arthur's memories of Lucy will flash between their dates in the sunset ,and Lucy's horrified expressions silenced by her own blood as he staked her in her tomb. Quincey's ears will remember Lucy's laughter, and her screams of terror and pain. Jack's eyes (now filled with hate) will have both the face of Lucy smiling with a wreath of garlic, and Lucy scowling in rage as she is trapped.

All of them participating in this unmerciful ritual of giving Lucy her actual final rest, and all of them will walk away with their actions forgiven; Van Helsing said so.

Even Van Helsing implies that he might bear the godly punishment of this action for them. He might lose all of them as the consequence of such barbaric yet necessary ritual to let Lucy rest, and he is at peace with that. Van Helsing is older, and he believes that these young men should not carry such sin on their backs.

[gidakata]

DPR Ian is a comedic genius simply for the fact that like. ok mr insanity is this joker/harley quinn type. got it. great happy aesthetics, unsettling smile, having fun causing chaos and wrecking things (THAT HE SET UP) and then like. just dragging this faceless green dude around. ok. got it. that's his shtick that's what he does.

and then mito, who we've seen have some pretty serious moments in MVs up until now, but in like a more emotional kind of way, is all of a sudden like. dressed like a cowboy out of a sci-fi western and every time he appears in this mv mr insanity just has this little cartoon "uh-oh!" moment and a delayed reaction while everything goes to shit and it brings me joy because why do you give the "oh we're fucked" look while ROBBING A BANK... and then immediately go shooting the only entity that could hurt you EVEN THOUGH he just took even MORE power from one of the objects in that bank!??!

LIKE!?!? ALL OF A SUDDEN THE MV GOES HARD AND FOR A SPLIT SECOND MR INSANITY LOOKS PETRIFIED AND THEN HES LIKE :D NO ACTUALLY. I LIKE THIS. (which is hilarious considering not even 5 seconds later he and his faceless bank robbing husband dip like??)

OR WHEN THEY GET IN THE CAR AND THEY REALIZE THEY'VE MET MITO FOR THE FIRST TIME?? ITS SO FUCKIGN FUNNY LIKE

MR INSANITY GOING. WE DONT HAVE THE KEY?? WE HAVE MUFFINS?? THEY TRICKED US AND NOW WE HAVE A BOX OF MUFFINS!?!? :( oh wait nvm I see the key. AND THEN MITO FUCKIN. COMING OUT OF NOWHERE AND STARTING A TORNADO TO GET HIM BUT THE DELAYED REACTION KILLS ME BC WHY DOES HE JUST STARE AT THIS DUDE CLEARLY CALLING UPON THE DARK FORCES ON A MOUNTAIN TOP???

like im so. im so fond of these two in particular. mr insanity who does not at all register the actual threat mito poses and MITO who goes so hard the MV changes visuals and the music changes its tone and rhythm completely like this is so fucking funny to me please. I need more content of just this pure emo tom and robbing-a-fucking-bank jerry

[brittlebutch]

a lot of people seem to use Entry #61 as 'proof' for the crux of the "Brian didn't care about Tim, he was Taking Advantage of Tim's conditions and Forcing him to work as part of totheark" thing, but honestly when you think about it there's no possible way Brian could have possibly orchestrated that series of events, like you almost have to interpret that as a baffling group of coincidences