#There will be two ways this will resolve

[thoughtspresso]

Predictions for Oshi No Ko Ending

1. Anemone will be the one to find Katayose Yura's dead body.

In Japanese flower symbolism, Anemones or Windflowers represent death, bad luck, and forsaken love. And it just so happens we have a character named exactly that, who happens to be the only other character apart from Katayose Yura who loves being in the mountains.

Anemone will likely be climbing the same mountains on Yura's wishlist, and just like before, The Crow might lead Anemone to the dead body.

It's like Akasaka-sensei decided Spider Lilies are already too obvious a deathflag so he chose a different flower.

I'm taking the bet that Akane might be the person who figures out the connection between Yura and Kamiki, or Miki-san might simply show up on the news as a statement about his "dear friend Yura" who "disappeared".

Akane might also give the head's up to Aqua that she thinks Kamiki murdered Yura, and that would be a reason for the two to spend more time with each other again. (Might shove a wedge between Kana and Aqua again, if Aqua isn't already doing that himself lmao.) Either way, it'd be a convenient way for Akane to attempt to both "save" Aqua and also help him accomplish his goals without killing himself.

2. The person who texted Frill Shiranui is Miki-san.

Sylvanes made a fairly solid guess that Frill Shiranui works for Kamiki Productions. Whether or not he was necessarily correct on this, I'm making the bet that Yura's "best drinking buddy" Miki-san is connected to Frill professionally, and goaded Frill into pushing Ruby into the spotlight.

Some speculators say this might have been Aqua's ploy, but I I think this was incorrect. Aqua agreed with Kaburagi that money comes first and Frill was a more reasonable choice commercially. He even said that Gotanda should "grow up" and not choose Ruby just because of his artistic integrity.

Apart from the friendly, casual tone of the text message that really sounds like the "Miki-san" persona and the image of decanted whiskey as his profile picture, I think Kamiki is actually praying for Ruby's success as a star.

In fact, I think people misunderstood why he killed Katayose Yura. He didn't kill Yura because his serial killer MO was simply because he liked killing up and coming megastars who shone brightly. He killed Yura because:

(a) He hates Stars who lie, who sell a persona to their fans that is vastly different from who they are as people, which is why he hated Himekawa Airi and Hoshino Ai.

(b) He killed Yura because he knew that the project being offered to her was the lead role in The 15-Year Lie. And simply, he wanted Ruby to play Ai's role.

In a twisted way, I think Kamiki believes he is protecting his children, and the public in general, from being lied to any further by celebrities like Yura who deceive the public with their feigned innocence.

Honestly? I think the reason he killed their mothers was to protect them from growing up with mothers who lie and abuse their kids.

3. Kana might play Hoshino Ai in The 15-Year Lie.

Okay, okay, okay, okay. I know. I know. Unhinged fan theory. I get it.

Even AquaKana stans think this is majorly unlikely to happen. I agree in that, I think it's insane. But I keep coming back to what Aqua meant when he said that, "Kana is so easy to manipulate", and "It's more convenient for me to build a good relationship with Arima right now."

People tend to say, he's making silly convoluted excuses again, he just wants to spend more time with her. But I think a man who is resolute in his goal to off himself by proxy of martyrdom doesn't care to date the person he was protecting from a love scandal anyway.

There are a few key reasons why I think Aqua's "using" of Kana will result in her playing Ai's role.

First of all, I think Aqua's plan is to play Kamiki, to portray him in the worst possible way, and expose him as the murderer through the film. Through this, Aqua will bait his father into murdering him too, and thus Aqua's death can be used as legal grounds for charging Hikaru Kamiki with Homicide.

As established above, I think Aqua doesn't agree that Ruby is the best choice for Ai's role. There are a lot of parallelisms baked in between Kana and Ai. Apart from the shot-by-shot remake of Sign is B, Kana is also the best person to get stabbed and deliver the lines, "Some day I hoped the lies would become true. / I did my best. I worked hard. I lied with all my heart. / To me, lies are love. In my own way, I thought I was showing my love."

Besides, you saw anyone else say these same things?

Uhuh, you guessed it:

So is Kana gonna get stabbed? Hopefully in a movie, yeah.

I think it could happen as a result of Kaburagi's dissatisfaction with Ruby's performance.

Kaburagi's "finalized" casting isn't final-final yet, really. We can see that he swapped Aqua to play Kamiki instead of Himekawa who will now play Ryosuke the university student/stalker here:

Which makes sense! Aqua looks like his father, is closer to his age during the time of the events, and Taiki's age and height also better matches Ryosuke.

And even though the paper says finalized on Ruby's casting, Kaburagi's still not completely sold:

I think the swap will come as a result of Ruby being severely overworked and unable to keep up with the demands of her role, and the Dome performance that she might want to prioritize. She may even outright collapse from exhaustion, as foreshadowed by Kana:

Apart from Akasaka-sensei absolutely trolling us to death by Ai x Kamiki on-screen romance being portrayed by twins, then just outright pulling the plug on that for fun, I think it'd just make sense for Kaburagi to say it's better if we pair Aqua with Kana for this role.

Ruby doesn't even have to collapse or anything. She's so loved up with the idea of Gorou-sensei right now, Aqua could literally just tell her "this is what's best for the plan, you trust me, don't you?" And she would absolutely just go with it.

I said before that I think up until Mem-cho pointed it out, Aqua was wholly unaware that Kana had a crush on him and joined B-Komachi just because of him. I think now that he has the awareness, he'll ask Kana to do it, first to help Ruby, but also because he can only trust Kana to play this role because she is "Special" to him.

A repeat of:

It really is the only way that this scene therefore makes sense to me:

Bonus: if the Shima D masterpiece film doesn't draw Kamiki's attention to her, Kana playing the role of Ai definitely will. And if she delivers the role with so much honesty, it might change the trajectory of the story altogether.

4. Aqua's plan will backfire.

I explained a little above and in a previous post that Aqua misunderstands Kamiki's motives.

While we all like to shit on Aqua for being the World's Nicest Master Manipulator, we have to give him credit for the fact that when it's used for saving other people, he's been really effective at spinning a public narrative in his favor. Like in the cases of Akane's suicide attempt and Kana's Love Scandal.

If the goal is to get Kamiki to stab him in plain view of the public, villify his father, and make it easy to convict him for homicide once and for all, I think he will fail.

Kamiki will not kill him or go after him. In fact, I think Kamiki will shed his Miki-san persona and reveal the truth: he was Himekawa Airi's rape victim, and Hoshino Ai was a manipulative person who seduced him with the prospect of true love, then abandoned him when she got what she wanted, which was a family.

In the absence of any evidence that he had anything to do with their deaths, Kamiki might even use this momentum of propaganda to make the public believe that he's happy to finally be reunited with his children that these terrible mothers took away from him.

Heck, Taiki might hate Uehara so much that he'd be relieved to learn about Kamiki? And if he really is connected to Frill, and if Kindaichi still cares about him, there might be real people who would back him up.

Then, it won't be until Akane works with Aqua and everyone to bring the murder of Katayose Yura to light that Kamiki would actually be brought to justice.

[songs-from-the-basement]

the absolute power that comes from combining Taigen's "we may be enemies but I'll suffer to protect you" with Mizu's "we may be enemies but I'll abandon my mission to save you"

[dropsnectar]

New here, found you from your kitsune post. I don't know if this is the kind of ask you like but. I'm imagining fluff of the kitsune, maybe he takes a prank too far, messes with something too cherished, a necklace, stuffed animal, something of the sort. He hadn't expected to make you cry, that's not the face he wanted you to make. Quickly moving into a perceivable form while handing you back the thing he whisked away or helping you pick up the mess before coming over to kiss your face, wrapping his soft tail around you and rubbing your back. He hadn't meant to upset you this much.

Our Kitsunes nonsense strikes again!

Ever since he had revealed himself to you, things had been... entertaining. He still messed with you of course. It was in his nature to twist thongs to suit him, whether it be replacing your furniture with higher quality, more comfortable seating or you finding random groceries on the counter, often the ingredients of the dinner he wanted you to offer him tonight. And instead of waiting outside by that uncomfortable stump, he had graced you with his presence, his nine tails flitting about over a meal well cooked. It was only right that he sit with you, as he could see your face better from a chair, rather than a corner or a window.

Sensing his thirst for variety you had also started bringing different types of alcohol to dinner. You'd learn the stories and histories around each drink and share their tales over dinner. You only ever had a glass but your fox, not having to worry about work tommorrow, would take his full fill.

He was rather cute while drunk, moving you to the living room couch to cuddle as he'd ask you more questions, about the alcohol but mostly about you. His tails always had a habit of curling themselves around you, pushing you closer to him as he stared at your face with an unbreakable gaze. It made you blush.

Sometimes when you were midsentence he'd cut you off with a kiss, sharing the taste and tipsiness of the alcohol. But sometimes the two of you would talk all night, and he'd follow you to bed to watch you sleep in his arms. Hed been very clingy recently, ever since that night.

You were his favorite entertainment, as their was always something new he could gleam from you. A new reaction, new information, a new experience as you guys walked together under the moonlight. Their was an issue though. An annoyance. A bane of his that made possession boil in his chest and his hackles stand.

He had given you a gift, him! Holding you as you sleep! He was so generous, he knows this, sharing his heat with a human in the cold of night. He was saving your life really. But you had this... habit. Instead of pulling yourself into his warm chest, or wrapping your beautiful legs around his tails. You had a habit of holding this... thing in your arms.

It was a pillow-like thing, an anima. Pperhaps a dog? Or a bear. The thing was so weathered it was hard to tell. And you'd kiss its little snout every night before you'd snuggle it and pass out. It wasn't every night, just the nights he was your big protector spoon.

But still! He could be small and fluffy too! He had a fox form! You should have kissed his snout.

When his graciousness had finally run out he took that wretched little pillow and dropped it out in a marsh pond in the woods. He even magicked the pond so no one else could find the thing, lest you wander about in the woods and find it.

What he hadn't expected was to find you the next day searching every corner of the house manicly, like hed stolen your paycheck for the next month.

He makes himself known and you rush to him, desperation and panic in your eyes.

"Where did you put my stuff animal? I know you like to play games but this is really important!"

His eyes narrow in disdain.

" You mean that little plush rag? Why do you need it? I can hold you so much better than it can." He refused to be sorry but your eyes welled with tears as the realization flit across your features. Hurt. True hurt filled every crevice if your face and his stomach turned. No no, he didn't like seeing you like this, not that face. Never that face, he didn't want it.

"My grandmother gave me that stuffy before she died. Its all I have left to remember her. Give it to me now."

Immediately, he magicked up the plush. It was dripping and muddy. You grabbed for it quickly but he held it up above your head, a finger out. He magicked it clean, then passed it back into your arms. He understood now. Once, he used to have a grandmother too.

Blazing hot shame trickled down his throat and blazed into his stomach. His ears pushed flat against his head as he felt sick for what he had done. There would always be games to play, but he never wished to hurt you. And with something so sentimental too. Family was everything after all, especially to a kitsune.

"There is no excuse. I will never touch it again, I promise."

You held your stuffy to your face, staring at his limp tails and flat ears. You had never seen him so openly ashamed before. Pride was like air to this being and to see him so devoid of it was novel.

"I'll forgive you. But only on one condition."

He looked at you, eyes tired.

"What is that, then?"

You held out your stuffy with both arms.

"You kiss his snoot and say sorry."

He looked at you, and with as much poise as he could manage, he kissed the plastic nose of the stuffed animal.

"I'm sorry, little thing." His eyes went back to you.

"So you like small fluffy things, huh?"

You gave him a small smile.

"Maybe. Whats it to you?"

Their was a puff of white smoke. When the air cleared you looked down to find a small fox kit, staring up at you with big adoring eyes. You squeeled, and carefully set down your stuffy on the table.

You leaned down to the kit and hesitantly pet his little head. It was soft. He chirped at you, encouragingly and you pulled him into your arms, cradling him to your chest as all of his tails wagged about and brushed your skin.

You knew it was him but you couldn't help it. You crooned and pet him, kissed his snout and his little fuzzy forehead. You snuggled him furiously and sat with him on the couch. You swear you could hear him purring the whole time, the grumbling making you feel calm and at ease with him. Eventually, you lean foreward and kiss his forehead again.

"You are forgiven."

[smile-files]

nickel and balloon stuff from spring on the breakfast!!! i'm keeping in mind that in the previous episode, both of them were under the impression that their friendship wasn't real...

in a way, ii3 balloon is a lot like late ii3 cabby. of course, balloon did something indisputably immoral (manipulate and exploit others), and cabby only did something thought to be immoral (keep and use files about her fellow contestants) -- but both did something wrong and had to subsequently undergo a disproportionate amount of abuse and malignment for it, ending up with them being apologetic and submissive to avoid any chance of being framed as bad again. the biggest difference is that cabby has internalized the guilt others have attributed to her, while balloon largely hasn't -- he understands the concept of rolling with the punches for the sake of keeping good connections, but he doesn't believe he deserves it.

nickel brushes off ii2 a LOT this episode. to rid himself of his guilt regarding that time, he necessarily has to delegitimize the hatred he felt towards balloon then, thus also ridding balloon of his guilt. he expresses this all vaguely, choosing to remember ii2 fondly and saying off-hand that its baggage should be laughed off -- implying that balloon has been forgiven. reasonably, balloon is happy that nickel seems to actually believe he's changed for the better, so initially this makes him happy.

of course, though, it becomes clear that nickel just wants to shove his own actions under the rug, and balloon reasonably gets pissed off. nickel treated balloon and suitcase like complete garbage in ii2, and balloon clearly hasn't forgotten that.

"it keeps things easy." it keeps things easy to roll with the punches, to endure nickel's abuse and accept his sudden friendship. note, also, that nickel is still placing the blame on balloon: he's saying that balloon didn't want to "make things better", as if nickel and balloon ever having a rift was entirely balloon's fault, and his problem to fix.

and as we can see, nickel still hasn't fully forgiven balloon for ii1. as i've discussed before, nickel seems to secretly feel incredible guilt about how he treated balloon in ii2 (which is why he goes to such lengths to repress the whole memory of it) -- but that guilt is about the way in which he expressed his disdain and distrust of balloon, not those opinions themselves, nor the motivations for them. this is all very interesting, then -- if he still believes balloon can't change from his old, bad self, why did nickel start being friends with him at all?

i think a large part of it is his projection onto balloon. nickel sees himself in balloon: someone who screwed up big-time and isn't able to become a better person after that (according to nickel). we tend to gravitate to people similar to us, after all. i wouldn't be surprised if nickel was also trying to overcompensate for his hostility towards balloon in ii2 by being very friendly with him in ii3, thereby helping him forget that he was ever hostile to him at all.

the most fascinating thing to me about balloon and nickel's relationship is how impersonal it is for balloon. he seems to value what nickel's affection represents rather than nickel himself -- and it represents that he's been forgiven. anyone who saw balloon and nickel's conflict in ii2, which was a product of balloon's nastiness in ii1 and nickel's subsequent inability to forgive that nastiness, would likely come to accept balloon and forgive him themselves if they then saw nickel being friendly with him -- because nickel is the epitome of the ii contestants' anger at him, and nickel of all people (seemingly) forgiving him would imply that he's really changed. the relationship is almost entirely a symbol in that regard. i don't think balloon has much residual guilt about is actions in ii1 -- he feels like he's adequately addressed them and changed -- but nickel having a positive relationship would be helpful in affirming that stance and proving to himself that he really has changed.

i wouldn't say it's cruel of balloon to keep this relationship going on under that pretense, but it is backhanded, and it helps explain why he was ever willing to accept nickel's friendliness unchallenged. he wanted his crimes to finally be laid to rest once and for all, and keeping nickel on good terms with him would let that happen. people would finally shut up about it. up until now, nickel wasn't explicitly denying his past cruelty towards balloon anyway, so balloon would be able to ignore that he neglected to ever bring it up; now, though, nickel is denying not only what he did to balloon but also to suitcase, which balloon is not able to tolerate. now that he's confronted nickel about that though, nickel snaps back with his condemnation of what balloon did in ii1, thereby uprooting the social stasis balloon had been able to maintain precisely because nickel refused to bring anything up before. in a way, then, balloon is purposefully shoving the past under the rug, just like nickel is.

we can't forget, though, that nickel has his own complex about fearing that he's incapable of change and incapable of forming positive, genuine relationships with people. balloon is essentially revealing that, in a way, he wasn't really friends with nickel -- at least not in the way nickel wished and fooled himself into thinking they were. if balloon truly were friends with nickel like that, then that would mean that balloon had forgiven him for his cruelty in ii2, and perhaps that he really has changed... but no. balloon hasn't forgiven him. why should he? nickel never apologized -- and given how he never apologized, it's impossible that he could've changed anyway: nickel doesn't want to apologize because that means addressing his guilt and allowing himself to feel it. he wants the forgiveness to be handed to him on a silver platter, without him having to do all of the painful work, and he's incredibly upset when it isn't. he wants to not be a bad person, but in order to do that, he has to feel like one, and he really doesn't want to. he hates who he was and doesn't want to associate with it at all.

(note how it's the suitcase robot who says "you can say sorry" when nickel says that nothing can be done about making things better...)

there's clearly an immeasurable amount of resentment these two have been harboring for each other throughout this season, which they'd only been hiding for the sake of fooling themselves into thinking they've changed (nickel) or thinking that others think they've changed (balloon). and now that they've let themselves explode with anger, partly related to the lies they'd been telling themselves falling apart, they yell at each other and balloon drops nickel down a hole!

ah, balloon and nickel's relationship... it's bizarre, it's toxic, it's convoluted, it's shady, and it's incredibly sad. i'm glad i'm revisiting ii3, especially this episode -- i used to be utterly baffled by nickel's writing, particularly in spring on the breakfast, but now it makes complete sense to me. also, i used to think balloon was entirely the victim in this relationship, while now i know that he has his own faults and own baggage in that regard. it's weird -- they hate each other, but at the same time they're dying to be liked by one another. god i love these freaks...

[mariyekos]

So in the Visions of V Manga, when kid Vergil's attacked he specifically shouts "Demons?!" and is confused why they're there, wanting to warn Dante and Eva about it. Since he seems immediately certain about what his attackers are, this to me says that Vergil was already aware of the existence of demons even before the attack occurred. But in DMC3, when Cerberus asks Dante if he's human, Dante responds "Who knows? I'm not even sure myself" which implies to the point of pretty much outright stating he's not sure of his heritage and thus that he's part demon.

Do people think Eva/Sparda told Vergil and only Vergil about the existence of demons because of some sort of "older brother" responsibility? Or do you think Eva/Sparda told both Dante and Vergil that demons existed, but just didn't tell them (or only didn't tell Dante, which seems messed up and less likely) that they were half demon themselves? Why does kid Vergil not seem shocked that demons exist while teen Dante isn't even sure he's part demon himself? Retcon/inconsistency, or some combination of the above?

EDIT: Thank you to @/astronomiaa for mentioning the bit in Before the Nightmare! I'd forgotten about it. In BTN Dante mentions getting sword lessons from his father, but knowing very little about him otherwise, and not knowing (or even suspecting) that Sparda was a demon. These are the four main scenarios I see coming from that:

Neither kid knew demons existed because Sparda taught them to fight and that was it,

Dante didn't know demons existed while Vergil did, but neither suspected their dad was a demon,

Both kids knew demons existed but (at least Dante) didn't suspect their dad was a demon

Theoretical fourth where Dante knows nothing and Vergil knows everything (or at least that Sparda was a demon) which could've helped guide Vergil's research where Dante just kind of lived and ran, which would make sense but is also reeeeally questionable parenting because guys your kids can't be more than a few hours apart at absolute most stop shoving so much responsibility on the older one! He might only be older by a few minutes!!!! He's 8 (eight) (or younger depending on when they told him!!!)!!!!!! That's yoo young for you to decide he can shoulder that entire burden oh my god!!!!!

Again, since Vergil's doesn't have some sort of "what the hell are these things" moment I do want to say that at least he knew demons existed, but that's not a guarantee. It could just be a situation where a kis goes "of course monsters are real!" because it makes sense and they've read scary stories rather than one where said kid's parents actually sat him down to tell him monsters/demons were Real (And potentially Out To Get Them). But it would be really interesting if Sparda and Eva gave him more information than they did Dante, especially when you consider that means Dante might've watched his life be torn apart by creatures he didn't know existed until they destroyed everything he knew and loved.

Sources/Pics of what I'm referencing under the cut.

Visions of V:

DMC3:

EDIT: Before the Nightmare

The sepia/top picture is the newer version floating around the internet, while the bottom is the old translation.

[mayasaura]

Actually. Looking at the chronology. The last time Gideon and Harrow talked alone before the pool scene, Gideon accused Harrow of being a jealous creep for telling her to stay away from Dulcinea.

A whole lot of stupifying things happened in between, but really, it wouldn't be surprising if her first panicked reaction to Harrow disrobing was to think Harrow was making a move on her. Relationship definitely hurtling toward something.

[bitchthefuck1]

you know what, I actually will talk about this because it's bothering me. The issue with focussing so heavily on syd and carmy's potential for a romantic relationship isn't that there's something inherently unintellectual about romance or whatever, it's that a lot of people seem incapable of doing that without immediately flattening the story and ignoring or intentionally misreading any and all nuance for the sake of that romance. Every scene suddenly becomes about how it impacts their relationship, every analysis is done through a romantic lens, every frame or line of dialogue becomes about finding some easter egg or hint that "proves" these people should start dating. Their dynamic is absolutely a fundamental part of this show, but if you can only see it as a will-they-won't-they, you miss so much of what the story is actually trying to say with these two.

There are good versions of this story where their relationship is romantic and there are good versions of this story where it isn't, but as soon as you decide them being together is "the point," you lose the ability to actually judge the story for what it is, not what you want it to be.

[cxtori]

so i finally decided to get caught up in reading BSD because, y’know, i haven’t read it since season 5 ended. read chapters 110-118 and ummm…

what the FUCK

[slightlytoastedbagel]

when you think about it Vivid Bad Squad was the first time any of them truly had people outside of family and not just classmates or family acquaintances. it's no wonder they got so ride or die for each other despite the rocky start they understand each other in ways no one else has before

[holydrakes]

Eastern twitter SoMa fandom: alive and well, almost like 3 headcanons a week, meta observations almost daily, content creators who gush about them every two days, at least one fanart a week, new doujins almost every month

Western twitter SoMa fandom: fanart at least once every three weeks, rather than meta observations it's just people complaining why aren't they canon, somehow got talked more by young croma fans whining how the ship sucks or smth

[roseworth]

btw i think rose shouldve gone apeshit after finding out that slade started drugging cass like a week after he stopped drugging her

[kkoct-ik]

ok like. unironically. i know its a semi popular fandom headcanon to depict four swords link as multiple personalities in one body which can be very charming. am i the only one who sees the dissociative coding of majoras mask's transformation masks

[alaskan-wallflower]

how my parents feel after always reminding me how much better my older brother is than me

[watermelinoe]

radblr when a woman makes a post criticizing inappropriate behavior towards male-partnered women:

radblr deciding the bigger problem is women criticizing this behavior:

and i mean god forbid a woman ask not to be spoken to like the above, which radblr has decided doesn't happen and isn't a real problem even if it does because as we all know women should never complain when there are other women who have it worse

[spiritcc]

at this point I don't even know if tag fragmentation in the general russian holmes space is worth addressing. a few years ago I successfully kept the ancient customs intact because I wrote a post so deranged and pretentious it displeased people into doing what I wanted but nowadays what's the point in making a grand return of being terminally online if yall kinda right

[yloiseconeillants]

MAYNCIENT :: Day 17 ~ Mentor

If you, too, wish to set down roots in this fertile field of study, hearken you to the Words of Halmarut and submit your application to the Akadaemia.