#Stupid little manlet hate him so bad

[phoenxwright]

Seriously what is this guy's problem

[pinkbelugacollective]

On Yamihime & the Politics of Toxic Loyalty

I think about Yami’s history and his struggles, and wonder just how deeply Julius’ arrival affected his psyche. Here’s a man who collects squad members like they’re Pokemon, and has no problem giving them a home and a military title because, quite frankly, that’s what Julius did for him, and because Julius gave him a reason to live, then maybe the people Yami collects will also find their will to live.

Except Julius didn’t pick him off the street because he felt bad for him; he took him in because he had magic power, and magic/mana is what makes the man in Clover Kingdom.

It’s not to say Yami doesn’t know he’s a cog in the greater Clover military machine; I’m sure he does! I just think it’s important to note that even though Yami is aware he was brought in to be a tool, he has no problem making others tools as well, because his perception of loyalty and service is inherently warped. For Yami, it’s OK to give your life for someone, no matter what kind of person they are, if you owe your loyalty to that person. It’s also probably why Yami, despite being so perceptive and intelligent, has never questioned Julius’ authority, even though the kingdom is a shitshow from the capital all the way to the boonies.

Asta is critical to Yami’s narrative because Asta, despite being a magicless manlet, is also the only person in the Black Bulls who doesn’t come into the squad looking for comfort, family, and a place to belong. Asta already has all of that. He has comfort in the fact that he’s an ambitious little fuck, he has a family he’ll literally die for, and his home is Hage. The Magic Knights are a path to his goals, not the goal itself. This is a clear opposite of the Black Bulls at large, who are mostly depressed, prone to loitering, and have no motivation to heal and improve their magical abilities because they’re all suffering from depression, anxiety, etc., and the Black Bulls and Yami are really all they have, because they have nothing and no one else.

Prior to Asta’s arrival, the Black Bulls were largely fractured, and barely functioned as individuals, much less a team. Yami did nothing to foster camaraderie. He didn’t have to! They didn’t have to be loyal to each other, only Yami, because it wasn’t a brigade, it was a halfway house, and he was house master. Again, it’s not to say Yami willingly fostered toxicity in his ranks, but he definitely let it fester for so long that it took a whole arc for them to come together as a cohesive unit. And why? Because Asta was the only one well-adjusted enough to recognize his squad’s potential as a whole, versus Yami who wanted them to surpass their limits individually.

But through Asta, I truly believe Yami learned the meaning of family and individual agency in ways Julius could never teach him. I don’t see Yami as a father figure for the Black Bulls at all. In fact, if there’s anyone I think Yami resembles the most, it’s Rukia from Bleach, and that’s as a mentor, a friend, and an ideal to be achieved. Yami is someone who, despite fundamentally being a good person, is bound by his toxic loyalty to his king, wrapped in politics beyond his comprehension, and ultimately a tool who’s been sacrificed time and time again to keep up appearances. The Black Bulls are some of the strongest people in the realm, and led by the King’s ward himself, and yet no one respects the Black Bulls, and no one looks to or respects Yami as ward of the King. He’s treated like garbage despite the military clout. He’s a monster to be feared, when he could have been a beacon of hope for other immigrants, but in the greater narrative of Clover’s military, that just wasn’t possible, and so Yami’s dignity had to be sacrificed in order for him to coexist with the natives.

And now that he’s literally about to be sacrificed, I think it’s poignant that Yami smiled one last before his transformation into Yamihime. It’s his way of apologizing for his shortcomings as squad leader because, in a way, he knows it’s his fault Vanessa, Finral, Grey, Gauche, and Henry still aren’t emotionally well enough to duke it out in tough spots, and Asta can’t save them at the end of the day because Asta is but one human. Yami knows he fucked up, and that he should have tried harder, but he didn’t. Of course we know that it’s not Yami’s fault he got snatched up, but for Yami, it’s a culmination of all of his shortcomings, so he has to smile at the end, because he needs the Black Bulls to understand that it aint their fault. AKA, if we follow through with the Bleach parallel, then the Black Bulls are mini-Ichigos, with Asta being Alpha Ichigo.

The power structure that birthed the Black Bulls can’t be allowed to continue, because how many others like Yami are serving the Crown while willfully ignoring the injustices happening to the civilians? How about the crimes against military personnel? How many more Zara Ideale’s are there? How many more Vanessa’s, and Finral’s, and Henry’s? More than enough, probably, but they’re stuck in this hateful cycle because they have a central figurehead willing to sacrifice them to keep the institution running. That’s why Julius has to die, not because Julius is inherently evil (he’s not), but the institution he serves, upholds, and strengthens is corrupt and fundamentally evil. It’s the same institution that carried out a genocide, and created the tragedy of Yamihime and those like him, those who were sacrificed one way or another to keep the Crown looking pretty.

So why the wall of text? Simple. I feel like Yami’s one of those characters whose physical appearance is a reflection of his deepest insecurities. Here’s a guy who’s three hundred pounds of pure muscle and bulging neck veins, but not only is he objectively ugly, he also has the social skills of a wet leaf. He doesn’t know how to navigate socially, can’t read the room, is crazy intelligent and observant, but too damn stupid to catch a cue. And it’s not his fault! He’s dumb! Lonely! He wants friends, but he’s bad at it! So what does he do? Overcompensate with his muscles and emotionally detach himself enough that his squad members can’t get too close to him, so then he becomes more of an ideal than a person. 

With his transformation into Yamihime, I think Yami is finally in a place where he’s finally humanized, not only to the Black Bulls, but to the audience as well. Now we know that despite three hundred pounds of muscles, anyone can be a victim. Despite being a physical representation of oozing masculinity, anyone can be harassed, hurt, and victimized by violent predators like Dante and Zenon. The transformation into Yamihime thus serves as the critical juncture where Yami is now a person rather than just Julius’ tool, the Black Bulls’ idealized leader, and Charlotte’s love interest. Yami is now a deeply flawed human being who has his own shortcomings and insecurities, recognizes these issues, and who has accepted his failure in order to emotionally relieve his squad of having to feel the guilt of losing him. I know I joke about the Yamihime a lot, but it really is a powerful tool when used properly, because Tabata didn’t fridge Yami, he made Yami the very human being Clover refused to believe he was.

And his rescue now is staked on his humanity, because Yami is a friend and a potential lover, and not just a monster, or a captain, or the dude who’s made of three hundred pounds of pure muscle. And with Yami’s transformation into Yamihime, it comes time for Julius to be removed from the narrative as a proponent of the old Yami and all that he stood for, because Yamihime can’t be the tool of the state after this. Yami can’t uphold the dirty institution after this because the institution has spent this whole time stripping away Yami’s humanity, so for Yami to return to Clover as Julius’ soldier does nothing to reflect the change that’s necessary for the story to further develop as a whole. 

See with Yami’s humanization came Julius’ breakdown as a figurehead. I now understand why Tabata had to deage him. If he’d killed him off during the elven invasion, then he would have died a martyr and thrown the country into a civil war with a Spade invasion on its heels. No - Julius needed to be deaged so that it would be much easier for both the audience and characters to consume his true death because it’s easier to woobify a thirteen year old babie than a forty year old man. Because despite how kind Julius is to Yami, he’s still a propagator of violence and a leading figure of a corrupt institution. For Yami’s sacrifice to even make a modicum of narrative sense, Julius must die. The civil war, which has been brewing since the first chapter, is practically imminent.

tl;dr: Yamihime is an excellent developmental point for Yami, Julius needs to die in order to start the Clover civil war, Jack the Ripper is Renji Abarai and will rescue and eventually go onto marry the Yamihime, and Henry’s bussy pops SEVERELY. No, I will not be taking questions.

[pastelninjaimagines]

What would Deidara and Sasori do if they liked the same person (let’s say a new female member who was assigned to the both of them for a mission so yh basically a team consisting of three ppl) and were aware of that? Headcanons please♥️

ok this is gonna be a shitshow…you got the two pettiest pretty boys on the planet sparing for your love and affection. Welcome to the circus

Deidara had already been eyeing you up since you first joined bc he thinks you sexxyy, so when Pain assigned you to the mission too, he legit did a flip. He wastes zero time before he starts hitting on you. Literally every word out of his mouth he’s trying to make some sort of pass, showing off his art, showboating, stupid jokes to make you laugh, etc. You being a newbie is the perfect excuse for him to put his arm around you and say “Lemme show ya the ropes, rookie.” He’s like yes I wanna be your senpai. All so that he can get close to you. 

And of course Sasori’s like a tsundere supreme and doesn’t actually realize his own feelings for you…it’s only after spending some time with you during the mission that it kinda hits him. Like at first, Deidara’s constant flirting with you is only annoying bc he’d rather you all just be silent if that’s what he has to hear, but suddenly it hits different. He gets to know you after a few one-on-one encounters and he realizes he’s annoyed not bc he’d wish Deidara would be silent for once in his life, but because he’s making blatant passes at you. And Sasori, having one of the shortest fuses in history, goes off on Deidara. Like more than usual, more than him saying that Dei’s art is trash and that he always keeps him waiting, no Sasori’s intention is to now make him look bad. And it comes out of the blue. Both you and Deidara are like “wtf man.” But Die kinda brushes it off bc that’s just how Sasori is

Sasori ends up getting kinda embarrassed by his own outburst and tries to get you alone to explain that he’s not normally like that (lmao lies), and since you’re a newbie, tries to explain that the Akatsuki keeps it professional between members so he really didn’t mean to get heated (tho he’ll add that he still stands by what he said). And you take it as he’s trying to apologize and you’re like “apologize to Dei, not me” But all’s not lost bc you give him this smile that takes the wind out of him and he can’t even deny to himself that he likes you

And all of a sudden Sasori’s acting super considerate around you and he’s really trying to be patient and less critical

Deidara picks this up right away bc let’s be real he knows Sasori’s personality to a tee. And he turns to him at one point and is like “since when do you have human feelings” And from that moment each of them acknowledge the unspoken fact that they both have feelings for you. And they hate each other even more for it.

And thus begins the war. They’re constantly throwing petty comments and shade at each other in front of you, trying to make the other look bad while elevating themselves. This is incredibly blatant when one of them is trying to show off his art to you. The other will be in the background tearing into it and why it’s the wrong point of view on art and why their approach is the superior art, etc. Deidara said once, “Sasori’s such a midget. Couldn’t reach that without his puppet strings.” and Sasori retorts, “Look who’s talking. Do I need to hand you a mirror you manlet.”  Stupid banter like that. But constant. 

And it their little competition to show off their art starts impeding the mission. Like at one point Deidara basically sabotages Sasori when he was trying to get information from one of his spies, by accidentally blowing the spy up. And Sasori once got in Deidara’s way so that Deidara couldn’t detonate a bomb at the enemy and the enemy got away. It gets to the point that you have to bring their attention to it. You’re like “can we please focus on what the leader told us to do?” You’re just like, let’s all act like adults please. Please, you’re tired of their constant shade. 

They call it truce, and agree that the mission comes first not their personal beef (not that either admits what the sudden beef is - the tension was certainly not this high when the mission began you noted). They only make snide comments after that, still not perfect but at least they weren’t jeopardizing the mission. 

Once the mission is complete and you’re heading back to base, Deidara thinks it’s time he makes his move before Pain assigns you somewhere else. And once Deidara asks if you have feelings for anyone and admits that he has them for you, Sasori, at first thinking he was going to stay silent and hope that you make the right choice, butts in and proclaims his feelings for you realizing that he has to make it known incase you do fall for Deidara’s scheme. 

And they start arguing anew, Deidara accusing Sasori of sabotaging his moment and Sasori saying that it was Deidara’s fault for not asking in private. You clear your throat to get their attention. They stop dead and stare at you, both on pins and needles, awaiting your answer. And you chose….