#Think this is relevant to the entire cast in a way so

[yourlocalgrass]

Listen. Listen. Hear me out ok.

I LOVEEE Thirteen, Mephisto and Raphael ok, I would die to date any of them.

But the thought of them becoming dateable, as much as I want to date them… not so much, honestly… gives me constant anxiety, like… big time.

I mean the devs couldn’t even handle the SEVEN main love interests in S1 or S2. I mean cmon who doesn’t know how Asmo and Beel were the devs obvious least favourite. There are times where all the brothers get a kiss except Beel or Asmo.

And then when 4 more characters entered the intimacy system, they handled them really good actually, amazing even. S3 was great imo, for the new dateables that was. But again, half of the brothers were forgotten to be love interests. But, they did do the new dateables good.

But then, by S4 they all literally reverted back to being side characters again and not dateables from what I could see.

Diavolo seemed the exact same as he was in S1 and S2 except maybe in one romantic scene with him. Solomon was only playing the role of a teacher and almost nothing more. If you played S4 without S3 context, you wouldn’t have even guessed that they were a dateable. Same goes for Simeon (even though almost the entirety of S4 was centred around him) Barbatos just became a more romantic dateable so, we did get one kiss by the end but… felt really rushed.

And don’t forget before we had the spotlight events how bad, cliche and repetitive the events were? Because we had to make sure we kissed all of them (except luke ofc) so an entire event chapter was dedicated to making sure we spend time and kiss all of them. And then even then there were characters who weren’t kissed or got fair time and treatment.

Finally, in Nightbringer, during S1 Solomon had a lot of spotlight for once and some Diavolo, while Simeon didn’t even exist. When it came to S2, we got Simeon spotlight but Solomon and Diavolo just went -poof- and vanished just like that.

Don’t forget that every near to end of a season, we kiss all the dateables right? And for some very weird reason, we kissed every character, but you know who we didn’t? Diavolo. And what’s even more weird is that, there was no reason not to because we’ve already kissed him previously, and the scene was in perfect timing for an MC option to kiss him, we talked to him, but just didn’t… kiss him? It’s just so… confusing.

Oh right, don’t forget how the brothers went through their special arc or whatever you’d like to name it, with MC who’s helped the brothers through and through of course, so we get to kiss them each at the end, except you know which brothers didn’t? Asmo and Beel. That’s right. Even in Nightbringer the devs never changed. Well, actually, they got even worse. You know who else didn’t get a kiss? Belphie, who we know isn’t the fandoms favourite brother, so of course… no kiss either… that’s now another brother who the devs are starting leaving to the side.

So, the entire game is a current mess and if Solmare couldn’t handle 7 love interests properly, and added 4 to the mix, which upturned everything into chaos, adding another 3 into the dateables section… is it reeaaalllllyyy a good idea? I mean to let the devs handle them…

Again it’s not like I don’t want them to be dateable but just like… how are they going to handle it? You know… considering they actually can’t handle it?

There will have to be more romance in the story, or people would complain, they’d have to fit 15 characters in, and they can’t make the lessons short, which they already do, there’s a chance we’ll get to kiss some while others won’t even get screen time, Thirteen, Raphael, and Mephisto can’t be set to the side during events either otherwise there would be complaints, and there’s no way writers won’t get tired of writing Devilgrams for 15 characters so other characters will be bad, while others who always get the top will have a decent Devilgram story. I bet the writing for almost everything will go into mess…

And that’s my only problem cus I love them and I do want them to become dateable but I also want the game content to be good even though it’s… not… really. Ok ngl it’s already a mess. And that’s just something I feel very anxious about when thinking what’s gonna happen when there are more dateables…

[constantvariations]

It would've been hilarious if ShawLuna had tried to cover their asses from the early volume transphobic jokes around Jaune by making him a trans woman. It can't be transphobia if it's ☆~foreshadowing~☆

[baekuras]

the hardest part about writing is just putting down any words first because i WANT everything to be planned out fully even though i know when i actually write it out first so i can go back to it, all that is way easier to do or revise later

no planning only write

[bsotted]

"The subtext that undergirds this new anti-racist discourse—that Black-white relationships are inherently fraught and must be navigated with the help of professionals and technical experts—testifies to the impoverishment of our interracial imagination, not to its enrichment. More gravely, anti-color-blind etiquette treats Black Americans as exotic others, permanent strangers whose racial difference is so chasmic that it must be continually managed, whose mode of humanness is so foreign that it requires white people to adopt a special set of manners and 'race conscious' ritualistic practices to even have a simple conversation."*

*(emphasis mine)

By: Tyler Austin Harper

Published: Aug 14, 2023

The hotel was soulless, like all conference hotels. I had arrived a few hours before check-in, hoping to drop off my bags before I met a friend for lunch. The employees were clearly frazzled, overwhelmed by the sudden influx of several hundred impatient academics. When I asked where I could put my luggage, the guy at the front desk simply pointed to a nearby hallway. “Wait over there with her; he’s coming back.”

Who “he” was remained unclear, but I saw the woman he was referring to. She was white and about my age. She had a conference badge and a large suitcase that she was rolling back and forth in obvious exasperation. “Been waiting long?” I asked, taking up a position on the other side of the narrow hallway. “Very,” she replied. For a while, we stood in silence, minding our phones. Eventually, we began chatting.

The conversation was wide-ranging: the papers we were presenting, the bad A/V at the hotel, our favorite things to do in the city. At some point, we began talking about our jobs. She told me that—like so many academics—she was juggling a temporary teaching gig while also looking for a tenure-track position.

“It’s hard,” she said, “too many classes, too many students, too many papers to grade. No time for your own work. Barely any time to apply to real jobs.”

When I nodded sympathetically, she asked about my job and whether it was tenure-track. I admitted, a little sheepishly, that it was.

“I’d love to teach at a small college like that,” she said. “I feel like none of my students wants to learn. It’s exhausting.”

Then, out of nowhere, she said something that caught me completely off guard: “But I shouldn’t be complaining to you about this. I know how hard BIPOC faculty have it. You’re the last person I should be whining to.”

I was taken aback, but I shouldn’t have been. It was the kind of awkward comment I’ve grown used to over the past few years, as “anti-racism” has become the reigning ideology of progressive political culture. Until recently, calling attention to a stranger’s race in such a way would have been considered a social faux pas. That she made the remark without thinking twice—a remark, it should be noted, that assumes being a Black tenure-track professor is worse than being a marginally employed white one—shows how profoundly interracial social etiquette has changed since 2020’s “summer of racial reckoning.” That’s when anti-racism—focused on combating “color-blindness” in both policy and personal conduct—grabbed ahold of the liberal mainstream.

Though this “reckoning” brought increased public attention to the deep embeddedness of racism in supposedly color-blind American institutions, it also made instant celebrities of a number of race experts and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) consultants who believe that being anti-racist means undergoing a “journey” of radical personal transformation. In their righteous crusade against the bad color-blindness of policies such as race-neutral college admissions, these contemporary anti-racists have also jettisoned the kind of good color-blindness that holds that we are more than our race, and that we should conduct our social life according to that idealized principle. Rather than balance a critique of color-blind law and policy with a continuing embrace of interpersonal color-blindness as a social etiquette, contemporary anti-racists throw the baby out with the bathwater. In place of the old color-blind ideal, they have foisted upon well-meaning white liberals a successor social etiquette predicated on the necessity of foregrounding racial difference rather than minimizing it.

As a Black guy who grew up in a politically purple area—where being a good person meant adhering to the kind of civil-rights-era color-blindness that is now passé—I find this emergent anti-racist culture jarring. Many of my liberal friends and acquaintances now seem to believe that being a good person means constantly reminding Black people that you are aware of their Blackness. Difference, no longer to be politely ignored, is insisted upon at all times under the guise of acknowledging “positionality.” Though I am rarely made to feel excessively aware of my race when hanging out with more conservative friends or visiting my hometown, in the more liberal social circles in which I typically travel, my race is constantly invoked—“acknowledged” and “centered”—by well-intentioned anti-racist “allies.”

This “acknowledgement” tends to take one of two forms. The first is the song and dance in which white people not-so-subtly let you know that they know that race and racism exist. This includes finding ways to interject discussion of some (bad) news item about race or racism into casual conversation, apologizing for having problems while white (“You’re the last person I should be whining to”), or inversely, offering “support” by attributing any normal human problem you have to racism.

The second way good white liberals often “center” racial difference in everyday interactions with minorities is by trying, always clumsily, to ensure that their “marginalized” friends and familiars are “culturally” comfortable. My favorite personal experiences of this include an acquaintance who invariably steers dinner or lunch meetups to Black-owned restaurants, and the time that a friend of a friend invited me over to go swimming in their pool before apologizing for assuming that I know how to swim (“I know that’s a culturally specific thing”). It is a peculiar quirk of the 2020s’ racial discourse that this kind of “acknowledgement” and “centering” is viewed as progress.

My point is not that conservatives have better racial politics—they do not—but rather that something about current progressive racial discourse has become warped and distorted. The anti-racist culture that is ascendant seems to me to have little to do with combatting structural racism or cultivating better relationships between white and Black Americans. And its rejection of color-blindness as a social ethos is not a new frontier of radical political action.

No, at the core of today’s anti-racism is little more than a vibe shift—a soft matrix of conciliatory gestures and hip phraseology that give adherents the feeling that there has been a cultural change, when in fact we have merely put carpet over the rotting floorboards. Although this push to center rather than sidestep racial difference in our interpersonal relationships comes from a good place, it tends to rest on a troubling, even racist subtext: that white and Black Americans are so radically different that interracial relationships require careful management, constant eggshell-walking, and even expert guidance from professional anti-racists. Rather than producing racial harmony, this new ethos frequently has the opposite effect, making white-Black interactions stressful, unpleasant, or, perhaps most often, simply weird.

Since the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, progressive anti-racism has centered on two concepts that helped Americans make sense of his senseless death: “structural racism” and “implicit bias.” The first of these is a sociopolitical concept that highlights how certain institutions—maternity wards, police barracks, lending companies, housing authorities, etc.—produce and replicate racial inequalities, such as the disproportionate killing of Black men by the cops. The second is a psychologicalconcept that describes the way that all individuals—from bleeding-heart liberals to murderers such as Derek Chauvin—harbor varying degrees of subconscious racial prejudice.

Though “structural racism” and “implicit bias” target different scales of the social order—institutions on the one hand, individuals on the other—underlying both of these ideas is a critique of so-called color-blind ideology, or what the sociologist Eduardo Bonilla-Silva calls “color-blind racism”: the idea that policies, interactions, and rhetoric can be explicitly race-neutral but implicitly racist. As concepts, both “structural racism” and “implicit bias” rest on the presupposition that racism is an enduring feature of institutional and social life, and that so-called race neutrality is a covertly racist myth that perpetuates inequality. Some anti-racist scholars such as Uma Mazyck Jayakumar and Ibram X. Kendi have put this even more bluntly: “‘Race neutral’ is the new “separate but equal.’” Yet, although anti-racist academics and activists are right to argue that race-neutral policies can’t solve racial inequities—that supposedly color-blind laws and policies are often anything but—over the past few years, this line of criticism has also been bizarrely extended to color-blindness as a personal ethos governing behavior at the individual level.

The most famous proponent of dismantling color-blindness in everyday interactions is Robin DiAngelo, who has made an entire (very condescending) career out of asserting that if white people are not uncomfortable, anti-racism is not happening. “White comfort maintains the racial status quo, so discomfort is necessary and important,” the corporate anti-racist guru advises. Over the past three years, this kind of anti-color-blind, pro-discomfort rhetoric has become the norm in anti-racist discourse. On the final day of the 28-day challenge in Layla Saad’s viral Me and White Supremacy, budding anti-racists are tasked with taking “out-of-your-comfort-zone actions,” such as apologizing to people of color in their life and having “uncomfortable conversations.” Frederick Joseph’s best-selling book The Black Friend takes a similar tack. The problem with color-blindness, Joseph counsels, is it allows “white people to continue to be comfortable.” The NFL analyst Emmanuel Acho wrote an entire book, simply called Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, that admonishes readers to “stop celebrating color-blindness.” And, of course, there are endless how-to guides for having these “uncomfortable conversations” with your Black friends.

Once the dominant progressive ideology, professing “I don’t see color” is now viewed as a kind of dog whistle that papers over implicit bias. Instead, current anti-racist wisdom holds that we must acknowledge racial difference in our interactions with others, rather than assume that race needn’t be at the center of every interracial conversation or encounter. Coming to grips with the transition we have undergone over the past decade—color-blind etiquette’s swing from de rigueur to racist—requires a longer view of an American cultural transition. Civil-rights-era color-blindness was replaced with an individualistic, corporatized anti-racism, one focused on the purification of white psyches through racial discomfort, guilt, and “doing the work” as a road to self-improvement.

Writing in 1959, the social critic Philip Rieff argued that postwar America was transforming from a religious and economic culture—one oriented around common institutions such as the church and the market—to a psychological culture, one oriented around the self and its emotional fulfillment. By the 1960s, Rieff had given this shift a name: “the triumph of the therapeutic,” which he defined as an emergent worldview according to which the “self, improved, is the ultimate concern of modern culture.” Yet, even as he diagnosed our culture with self-obsession, Rieff also noticed something peculiar and even paradoxical. Therapeutic culture demanded that we reflect our self-actualization outward. Sharing our innermost selves with the world—good, bad, and ugly—became a new social mandate under the guise that authenticity and open self-expression are necessary for social cohesion.

Recent anti-racist mantras like “White silence is violence” reflect this same sentiment: exhibitionist displays of “racist” guilt are viewed as a necessary precursor to racial healing and community building. In this way, today’s attacks on interpersonal color-blindness—and progressives’ growing fixation on implicit bias, public confession, and race-conscious social etiquette—are only the most recent manifestations of the cultural shift Rieff described. Indeed, the seeds of the current backlash against color-blindness began decades ago, with the application of a New Age, therapeutic outlook to race relations: so-called racial-sensitivity training, the forefather of today’s equally spurious DEI programming.

In her 2001 book, Race Experts, the historian Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn painstakingly details how racial-sensitivity training emerged from the 1960s’ human-potential movement and its infamous “encounter groups.” As she explains, what began as a more or less countercultural phenomenon was later corporatized in the form of the anemic, pointless workshops controversially lampooned on The Office. Not surprisingly, this shift reflected the ebb and flow of corporate interests: Whereas early workplace training emphasized compliance with the newly minted Civil Rights Act of 1964, later incarnations would focus on improving employee relations and, later still, leveraging diversity to secure better business outcomes.

If there is something distinctive about the anti-color-blind racial etiquette that has emerged since George Floyd’s death, it is that these sites of encounter have shifted from official institutional spaces to more intimate ones where white people and minorities interact as friends, neighbors, colleagues, and acquaintances. Racial-awareness raising is a dynamic no longer quarantined to formalized, compulsory settings like the boardroom or freshman orientation. Instead, every interracial interaction is a potential scene of (one-way) racial edification and supplication, encounters in which good white liberals are expected to be transparent about their “positionality,” confront their “whiteness,” and—if the situation calls for it—confess their “implicit bias.”

In a vacuum, many of the prescriptions advocated by the anti-color-blind crowd are reasonable: We should all think more about our privileges and our place in the world. An uncomfortable conversation or an honest look in the mirror can be precursors to personal growth. We all carry around harmful, implicit biases and we do need to examine the subconscious assumptions and prejudices that underlie the actions we take and the things we say. My objection is not to these ideas themselves, which are sensible enough. No, my objection is that anti-racism offers little more than a Marie Kondo–ism for the white soul, promising to declutter racial baggage and clear a way to white fulfillment without doing anything meaningful to combat structural racism. As Lasch-Quinn correctly foresaw, “Casting interracial problems as issues of etiquette [puts] a premium on superficial symbols of good intentions and good motivations as well as on style and appearance rather than on the substance of change.”

Yet the problem with the therapeutics of contemporary anti-racism is not just that they are politically sterile. When anti-color-blindness and its ideology of insistent “race consciousness” are translated into the sphere of private life—to the domain of friendships, block parties, and backyard barbecues—they assault the very idea of a multiracial society, producing new forms of racism in the process. The fact that our media environment is inundated with an endless stream of books, articles, and social-media tutorials that promise to teach white people how to simply interact with the Black people in their life is not a sign of anti-racist progress, but of profound regression.

The subtext that undergirds this new anti-racist discourse—that Black-white relationships are inherently fraught and must be navigated with the help of professionals and technical experts—testifies to the impoverishment of our interracial imagination, not to its enrichment. More gravely, anti-color-blind etiquette treats Black Americans as exotic others, permanent strangers whose racial difference is so chasmic that it must be continually managed, whose mode of humanness is so foreign that it requires white people to adopt a special set of manners and “race conscious” ritualistic practices to even have a simple conversation.

If we are going to find a way out of the racial discord that has defined American life post-Trump and post-Charlottesville and post-Floyd, we have to begin with a more sophisticated understanding of color-blindness, one that rejects the bad color-blindness on offer from the Republican Party and its partisans, as well as the anti-color-blindness of the anti-racist consultants. Instead, we should embrace the good color-blindness of not too long ago. At the heart of that color-blindness was a radical claim, one imperfectly realized but perfect as an ideal: that despite the weight of a racist past that isn’t even past, we can imagine a world, or at least an interaction between two people, where racial difference doesn’t make a difference.

[ Via: https://archive.today/8zfvc ]

[midnight-in-town]

Ao no Exorcist is a Shonen series written by a woman and it shows

Since the latest chapter, I've been thinking about how several usual Shonen tropes are written rather differently under Kato-sensei's pen. No judgement or anything, it's just cool to observe. Some examples :

1) Rin's mentor is a woman

2) Rin's secret, despite being the MC, was revealed in ch13 to the entire cast, meanwhile Shiemi, The Main Girl, who was introduced to be so helpless is only starting to be explained.

3) Also, the Mysterious plot-relevant Shonen Parent is actually the twins' mother. (Of course Shiro is super plot-relevant too, but Satan is still angsting over Yuri and she's a huge part of the reason why he's the big bad)

4) Rin also changed his view about his future throughout the story: from dropping out of school, passing by hoping to become the Order's Paladin (probably to cope with Shiro's death and also to antagonize Arthur), to finally showing way more interest and potential in the (less epic and heroic in appearance) field of talismanic cooking.

5) When it comes to arcs, mental illness is a valid reason to build a character arc around...

6) And so is making an arc about girls being "cursed" to basically "get married and have children before they hit 30, the age where their beauty fade thus they become useless" :

7) ANE is a story about women becoming traitors to protect their loved ones, like Mamushi

or becoming overwhelmed because men toyed with their feelings like Tamamo

8) Older women can be absolute badasses like Shiemi's grandma

or Lucy.

9) Complicated mother-daughter relationship and girl friendships are given as much focus as complicated father-son relationships and sweet bro friendships (like Bon and his dad during the Kyoto arc, as well as the complicated but deep bond between the Kyoto Trio)

10) And one of my favorites: full time single dad, asking for help to do the job as well as he can and finding his true purpose in life by doing so :D

Hmm and now that I think about it, the only other Shonen series written by a woman I've been as invested in is Kuroshitsuji, by Yana Toboso, and similar examples can be found in it too, namely:

1) If Ciel ever finally admits needing a mentor, his aunt Frances will probably play that role

2) Girls can be super strong & skilled (Elizabeth, Mey Rin) and clever (Sieglinde)

3) (one part of) the Big Bad is a woman (Queen Victoria)

4) maybe Ciel's entire revenge stems from a conflict between Queen Victoria and Ciel's maternal grandmother, Claudia.

5) the Undertaker has been a continuously freaking pain in the ass because he probably fell in love with that same maternal grandmother and couldn't mourn properly

TL;DR we love our boys and their spectacular growth and development under women's pens a.k.a shonen series written by ladies are hella fun to read. :D

[four-loose-screws]

Hi! I’ve seen people people say that Dimitri speaks in an informal rude manner in Japanese so him being super polite in English is weird changes his character a lot, but I’ve also seen people say the localization is just fine. Could you clear up please? Thank you!

This ask has been in my inbox forever, and I know other ENG/JP bilingual FE fans have weighed in on this topic before. But exploring the nuances of Japanese formal vs. casual speech is always super fun, so I want to share my own thoughts too. There's always a chance there will be more to learn with each new person's input on the same topic. Plus, I discovered some things even I didn't expect! So, I'll still offer everything I have to say!

First, I'll explain the full background this ask is referring to. Japanese has 2 major distinct speaking styles - casual and formal. I was taught to call the formal style "distal" - because it is more about respecting distance in social standing than being formal specifically. But formal is the more common term, so I tend to stick with saying formal most of the time.

The distinction between casual and formal is made with pronoun choice, word choice, and other factors as well, but the fastest way to differentiate the two is to look/ listen for the use of desu and masu at the end of someone's sentences. Formal uses them. Casual drops them. This concept is entirely foreign to English speakers!

Dimitri drops desu and masu most of the time. His "I pronoun" is also ore, and his "you pronoun" is omae - both casual, blunt, and masculine choices. But does speaking casually to most of the cast make him rude?

Short answer is... no, not at all! There's 2 major reasons for this.

Reason #1 - the rules for casual vs. formal speech are a bit different in reality vs. fiction:

Partially, Dimitri speaks casually because he is showing his personality. He's got all those traits most standard FE protagonists share - he's strong, straightforward, and wants to connect directly on a personal level with everyone he meets. He tries to convince several characters that they can speak casually with him, because he sees people as people, and doesn't want social status putting distance between them.

Fictional characters generally speak more in-line with their personality more often, rather than following the socially acceptable speaking rules of the real world. (Though don't get me wrong - casual real Japanese people will speak casually in more circumstances than the average Japanese person.) This is simply the style that Japanese writers largely choose. And I think it is one of the great benefits of Japanese - anyone can start to pick up on a character's personality archetype almost instantly, thanks to their speaking style!

Reason #2 - Dimitri is a prince, making him of high social rank:

Here's the second nuance to this - it is absolutely standard for a superior to talk to their subordinates in casual style.

In modern times, this is shown in the workplace. Bosses and those in other leadership positions will frequently speak casually with the staff in a lower-ranking position than them. The president of the office I now work at is Japanese, and he speaks very casually with me - I have to be formal in response though, because he's at the top!!

But in the past, this would have been a distinction made between lord/ royalty, and those beneath them. Which is the case that is relevant in Fire Emblem's setting.

Dimitri can also speak casually without coming off as rude, because he is one of the highest ranking people across all of Fodlan.

-

Okay, so that's the answer in broad strokes - but let's get a bit more nuanced, go down Dimitri's support partner list, and confirm whether or not he always speaks casually!

Group #1 - Dimitri and the other citizens of Faerghus (8 other Blue Lions + Gilbert)

Dimitri has a multi-layered relationship with all of the other 8 Blue Lions. They are citizens of the country he is a prince of, therefore he is ranked very highly in social standing above them. But they are also his friends, classmates, and later, war allies; placing them on the same social level in that regard. So the way they speak to him comes down to a little bit of column A - personality, and a little bit of column B - which aspect of their relationship with Dimitri they feel is the "main" one.

Gilbert is also here in this category, as another person from Faerghus.

Dedue: Dimitri speaks casually, Dedue speaks formally, as they have a lord/ servant relationship. Dimitri wants Dedue to be a very close friend to him though, and wants Dedue to speak casually with him - this is a major source of tension in their supports. In the end, being able to mutually speak casually with each other and be friends, is a place they may reach one day. With other characters, Dedue speaks casually.

Felix: As royalty above Felix's noble house, Dimitri speaks casually. Felix is Felix, so he speaks casually too. I imagine he sees Dimitri quite literally as more of a wild boar than a human being, much less royalty.

Ashe: Dimitri speaks casually, Ashe speaks formally. However, pretty much the whole point of their supports is Dimitri attempting to get Ashe to speak casually with him.. Ashe tries in earnest to switch, but in the end sticks with speaking formally, otherwise he feels too uncomfortable. His view of Dimitri as his prince is too strong for him to let go and speak casually.

Sylvain: Dimitri speaks casually, and Sylvain speaks casually more often, but actually switches to desu and masu more than once. When a relationship is "in-between" higher/lower social standing and friendship, it's not uncommon for at least one person to switch back and forth between casual and polite speech, depending on which side of the relationship they are appealing to more at the moment. This happens in real life too as people shift from strangers, coworkers, etc. to friends.

Mercedes: They both speak casually. In Mercedes' case, I think she's speaks more in-line with her personality rather than paying attention to social status.

Annette: Both speak casually, but Annette is well aware that there's something a little wrong with that - her father would never let her get away with it if he knew!

Ingrid: Dimitri speaks casually, Ingrid speaks formally. But I think Ingrid speaks formally with everyone.

Gilbert: As you can probably guess based on my comments in Dimitri and Annette's analysis, her father most certainly speaks formally with Dimitri! He is very formal and takes social heirarchy very seriously. Dimitri, as the prince above him in social status, speaks casually.

Group #2 - The other characters at the monastary:

Since the remaining characters are not from Faerghus, Dimitri is not their prince. They'll be more likely to view him through the lens of a different relationship than royalty/ subject.

Catherine is originally from Faerghus yes, but she has cut her ties from her homeland completely to serve Rhea, so she fits into this group now.

Raphael: Both speak casually. I think Raphael treats everyone like a life-long friend!! He at least attaches san or sensei (teacher) to the names of his instructors, but that's about it for formal language for him.

Marianne: Dimitri speaks casually. Marianne speaks formally, as she does with everyone. I think she even attaches san to everyone's name, conveying how much she keeps her distance from people, trying not to form close relationships.

Flayn: Dimitri speaks casually. Flayn speaks formally, as I think she does with everyone.

Hapi: Both speak casually. I think Hapi speaks casually with everyone.

Alois: Now *here's* where things get interesting! At this point, I really thought I would discover that Dimitri speaks casually with everyone. But alas, he does NOT! Dimitri speaks formally with Alois, while Alois speaks casually to him. Why? Well, while Dimitri is a prince, he's also a student at Garreg Mach (in Part 1 of course). In this way, he is below all Garreg Mach staff and professors in social standing. So it makes perfect sense that he'd speak formally and Alois would be casual in this case.

Catherine: Same situation as Dimitri and Alois - as someone who serves as an instructor at Garreg Mach, all students like Dimitri are below her in status at the monastary. So Dimitri speaks formally, and she speaks casually.

Byleth: I left Byleth for last, because while Byleth is a professor at the monastary... Dimitri speaks casually with them. I imagine this has more to do with Byleth being the self insert than anything. Everyone bonds to Byleth on a deep level faster than magnets stick together.

And that's all I can think of to say for now! This is a super fun example of how nuanced Japanese's casual vs. formal language can get, and showcases one of the many reasons why Japanese has such a high barrier of entry for anyone learning it - including young native speakers! You don't get all this desu and masu stuff, until finally you just do.

Let me know if I missed anything, or if anyone has any follow up comments to make!

I apologize it took me so long to respond to this one! Thank you anon, and all readers, for waiting! I hope it helped explain even more of the trickier nuances of Japanese.

[thedissonantverses]

Once again on why you’re all wrong about Veilguard, let’s talk about the red lyrium and the blight and why it’s shown as two different things in Veilguard and what it represents and why this isn’t a retcon or bad writing. Because I saw people genuinely confused about the red lyrium in Harding’s quest. I’m actually not trying to be a dick here I genuinely want to clarify this for people and not just because Harding is my wife and I’m obsessed with her quest line and what it means for dwarves. It also illustrates what I love about Veilguard. Spoilers under the cut. Also trigger warning for talk about processing trauma.

This is going to sound facetious but first things first, Origins established lyrium is blue and you shouldn’t touch it unless you’re a dwarf because it’s basically raw magic.

Then DA2 established that red lyrium is really bad. It’s like the One Ring as far as what it does to your brain Prolonged exposure will turn you into a monster.

In Inquisition we learn that red lyrium is blighted. The blight can only affect living creatures. This means lyrium is alive. We also know that red lyrium is very, very angry.

In Veilguard we learned the blight is actually a living entity all on its own, a combination of magic and existential horror and the living embodiment of the mind of hatred born from the pain of an entire sapient race being exploited. (Like holy shit I can’t emphasize enough how cool I think this is as a concept).

But what we are supposed to infer during Harding’s quest is that lyrium turns red when a Titan is in pain or angry. The reason the blighted lyrium is red as well is because it is literally infused with the Titan’s nightmares. We essentially learn not all red lyrium is blighted but all blighted lyrium is red. This is just expanding the concept and isn’t a retcon. This through line was being set up since at least DA2 if not origins.

Side tangent, I’ve mentioned I worked in the medical field and a pet peeve of mine is people saying blood is blue before it’s oxygenated which isn’t true your blood is always red. But I love how the Titan blood is blue but when it’s exposed to pain it turns red. Not really relevant I just think it’s neat.

Anyways, so when Harding touches the dagger I believe she opened a two-way connection to the Titan, which is why she gets her stone magic. But I believe she also received the pain and rage that the Titan was harboring for literal centuries. By opening that connection, the Titan turned Harding into its avatar in much the way Valta was.

Harding’s shade is red for the same reason the lyrium is, she was forced to cast out the hatred for the sake of her own survival. It’s literal pain and anger. She’s a reflection of toxic positivity as a character. She’s always cheerful for survival even when she has every right to her emotions. What Solas and Mythal did to her and her people, both personally and across the eons, is truly awful. This why Harding waffles on Solas before she embraces the shade, but why she fully lays into him during the final mission if she gets the chance. (If you haven’t heard that banter it’s so good. I’m so proud of her.)

It’s not until Harding embraces her negative emotions that she and the shade and the Titan can rest easy. However you make that choice, Harding has to acknowledge those emotions and cleave to them. Something a lot of trauma survivors struggle with. You have to face them and process them or your body will hang onto that hatred and pain until it kills you. Harding’s journey is at its heart, about uniting who you were with who you are so you can move forward. Healing means reckoning with all of the parts of you, the good and the bad.

[ihaveforgortoomany]

Reverse 1999 and child soldiers (just rambling) (global friendly)

It doesn't take long for anyone to realise most of the cast (excluding awakened, entities like Voyager and AlienT, and people like Eternity) are young: ranging from most being 17-16 with adults around their 20s and Shamane currently being the oldest (excluding the above) at around 40. (Edit hes 45 thanks for clarifying)

Alright you say, this is a gacha game ofc the characters would be around these ranges and we hope every patch to get character that is above 40 (wdym someone like Tooth Fairy isn't 30? Same for Kakania and Isolde, how are they 19 and 18 respectively?For example). Hey I would like more older characters too, but I think the ages are partially intentional if we look into lore on a thematic level.

Ok. We already know the Foundation, Laplace and now Zeno (though it was ofc from Lilya) they produce child soldiers, workers and scientists:

Vertin is the Timekeeper at 12

Sonetto probably became a field investigator around 14-16 at best (correct me if we have a better frame of reference)

Ms Moission in her character profile apparently was a field investigator at 14. (I spelt her name wrong I think)

Mesmer Jr started working at the age of 12

As of the release of the Zeno anecdote we know Lilya around 14 was already in field missions and has seen the state of war.

(Probably could include X, Horrorpedia here but I don't have much info)

What am I getting at? Characters being young in their fields of work is completely intentional, one due to the Storm in the case of the Foundation as the first had taken nearly the entire workforce (plus Child Labour Laws) so in desperation to maintain numbers and order the age to become investigators, soldiers and scientists became much lower. I don't know if the SPDM existed before the Storm but the way it functions primarily serves to replenish those lost workforce.

And two: the perception of arcanists and the importance placed on the manifestation of their arcane skill as young as possible.

We see this in the case of Mesmer and Isolde/Trista.

Mesmer Jr once she was tested to see if she had her arcane skill immediately was set to manage mentally unstable patients at the age of 12. (She alongside Vertin probably needs the most therapy)

For Trista this was the seance her mother brought to at the age of 3, dying as a result and leading to her mother with Isolde to delay by 3 years. (Acting as if that was a mercy which it really is not)

There is an emphasis on an arcane families and arcanists maintaining their societal status/ relevance through children developing their arcane skills as soon as possible plus the idea of childhood and working is flipped on its head with the presence of arcanum.

Ok idk if worded that bit correctly but in short: our idea of when a child should be working (which is never) or the time someone should be in teaching before they get into a profession (TF, Kakania and Madam Z) is warped and absent in R1999. For Kakania, shes 19 but I would argue this is because of how she had dropped out and decided to be an unlicensed doctor. Most characters being younger is the result of arcanum being present in the world.

Moreover there is a general theme of lost childhoods/ forced to grow up fast in the younger cast. Exclude characters like Ezra, Matilda (so far) and Spathodea since they are relatively fine/ not deeply traumatised. Everyone else, Vertin, Sonetto, Mesmer Jr and characters like Eagle, Monlicht, Oliver Fog were forced to grow up fast despite their young age.

Summary: characters being in younger age ranges either being literal child soldiers or certain adults being relatively young is the result of the devastation of the Storm alongside the different perception of age in the arcanum world, there the manifestation of your arcane skill seems to be used as a sign of maturity and readiness to be thrown into work (Mesmer and Isolde being put om their respective career paths at a very early age) (or your Constantine celebrating the erasure of Child Labour Laws)

[trexiejan]

My Opinion about Barbara Gordon as Oracle.

Oracle is a great character. Don't get me wrong.

My issue has nothing to do with her disability but more on how her writers and fans brag about her job and position in the DCU in an arrogant way.

I've met a lot of toxic barbara gordon fans who think she's an untouchable goddess who everyone has to worship and who thinks she runs the entire universe.

Again Oracle is a great character but I don't like it when her writers and fans ignore, sideline, and dumb down other dc characters to prop her up.

I think she's a bit overhyped and her role is over-exagerrated.

let me explain.

Her fans think she's the brain of the DCU.

I disagree with this.

Barbara is smart but I refuse to believe she's DC's no. 1 most smartest character when the Brainiac Family, Lex Luthor, Detective Chimp and Mr Terrific are right there.

Her fans think she's the one and only tech support and central hub of information for the entire dc superhero community.

Who gave Barbara this title?

In what world where 10 billion+ people exist, is it possible to only have 1 person capable of using technology and providing information to people.

I don't think Barbara is that special.

There are plenty of DC Characters who know how to use a computer.

Who know how to research.

Who know how to hack.

Who know how to communicate with other heroes.

Who know how to use technologies

The Brainiac Family, Lex Luthor, Cyborg, Mr. Terrific, Danny Chase, Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake, Luke Fox, Blue Bettle, Green Arrow, Atom etc.

and Governments exist in dc too!!! There's literally Amanda Waller!

Batman has the Bat-computer in his Batcave

The Titans have a huge computer at Titans Tower.

The Justice League has the watchtower which has even installed highly advanced off world technologies.

You expect me to believe these characters don't use their own computers and resources and just wait on Barbara to hand feed them information???

Why are her writers and fans ignoring all these other intelligent tech users and information brokers in DC?

Why are they making Barbara the center of their universe.

Reastically, A lot of characters don't really need Barbara to do things for them.

They can do what she does.

A lot of DC teams have fully functioned and stood on their own without her help.

Her fans always say she's a huge part of the Justice League and Suicide Squad.

Yes she is a member but she's not an integral part of those teams and I'm sorry but she's not easily remembered as a member of those teams. She's forgettable.

Nobody knows who Oracle is outside of comics.

Oracle doesn't even exists in multiple Justice League and Suicide Squad cartoon shows and movies.

Again Barbara is a great character but her role and importance is over-exagerrated.

And I don't know if this is the right word but she looks like a cloutchaser to me since she's often shoehorned into other character's histories and into other teams she has nothing to do with to maintain her relevance. Worse she dumbs down characters along the way to justify her presence.

just like What Tom Taylor did in the Titans book when he shoehorned her into their team despite the fact that she's not a Titan and she's not needed. They literally already have Cyborg for tech support 🙁 what's worse is that Cyborg got sidelined to make her look more useful to the team.

Again I don't hate Barbara.

I just don't like the constant bias towards her.

I do think Barbara is Gotham's information hub, but I don't think she's the queen of the entire dc universe.

Overall i think she's better on her own with her own original supporting cast because Every other hero she touches gets dumbed down to prop her up including Dick.

Dick is an intelligent detective and he's also a good hacker. He's even hacked an alien computer before but the second he gets paired with Barbara, he stays away from technologies and gets dumber so he can be the himbo muscle and she can be the Brains behind their operation 🙁

[randomameteur]

Y'know, for all the fandom tomfoolery around sans's heehoo glowey eyeball, I don't think I've heard anyone bring up anything truly plot-relevant or thematic about it, so here are my observations:

In UNDERTALE, virtually all battle sprites (save for the healthbar and battle options) are black and white:

This applies consistently with virtually every monster battle sprite as well.

When a monster's fight features some kind of color, it's usually a really big deal: When you first see the color blue in battle, it signifies the beginning of the blue attack and blue SOUL mechanics, when you see green, you get the green SOUL mechanic, when you see purple, you get muffet's signature purple SOUL mechanic, Yellow is also a SOUL mechanic etc, etc. Characters that introduce new SOUL mechanics are usually the more important ones: Papyrus, Undyne, Mettaton/Alphys, and Muffet.

Additionally, colors have thematic implications, and this is the part that actually starts connecting to sans' sprite.

As far as memory carries me, the first time you'll ever see a consistantly colorful element of a battle sprite is against Asgore.

Asgore sports a trident worthy of a fight against the devil himself, and it's the same ruby-red we come to associate with the player, Frisk's SOUL, and by extension DETERMINATION. In a way, this fits. Asgore has been the most (naturally) determined being in the underground for as long as until Frisk arrives. His drive to free his people, though not fully put into action due to his guilt and ineptitude to handle responsibilities on his own, is IMMENSE, and only someone essentially made of determination can overpower that.

However, the red player soul is not the only one to bear any kind of meaning. Thanks to "ball game" in snowdin, we know the virtues the other SOULs embody as well:

Red signifies DETERMINATION

Orange signifies BRAVERY

Yellow signifies JUSTICE

Green signifies KINDNESS

Cyan signifies PATIENCE

Blue signifies INTEGRITY

And Purple signifies PERSERVERANCE.

Green shows up all the time in healing projectiles, no questions there as to why, but ONLY ONE CHARACTER has not one, but TWO of these colors present in their battle sprite: Cyan and Yellow.

Now tell me, who in UNDERTALE's main cast is A: Willing to wait all fucking day for something to happen and B: Willing AND capable of actively judging you the ENTIRE time?

Sans the motherfucking skeleton.

(Best gif i could find, my phone really doesn't like the gif selector!)

Sans's left eye.... eye socket? His eye thingy rapidly flashes Cyan and Yellow whenever he uses his strongest attacks. If we're to assume a SOUL color appears where its corresponding attribute is at its limit or highest prominance, then this makes a lot of sense.

Sans is the living definition of letting things be, he'll wait as long as humanly possible to so much as pick up a sock.... and then wait some more. His patience is perhaps TOO great, and largely manifests in a sort of apathetic complacency so thick that he won't even fight you until there's literally no other option left. When sans DOES fight you, he's not even remotely determined or anything, rather he knows that his only shot--monsterkind's only shot-- at survival is not merely killing you, but in making sure the experience sucks so much for so long that you decide to stay dead and quit the game. Sans is not determined, he is desperate, and he'll have the patience to wait forever if it means stopping you.

Sans is also very observant, like.... SCARY observant, he does NOT remember you're genocides, but he certainly can extrapolate that they've happened after a good long look at your expression every time you're forced to reload your save. This observance plays into his incredibly strong sense of justice, which is likely why he's the royal judge. Sans' way of things is very "what goes around, will eventually come around", and this even manifests in his battle mechanic literally being called Karmatic Retribution, or KR.

Sans knows better than anyone (other than flowey) that he cannot possibly send you to the hell he knows you deserve, but he can absolutely build one of his own for you, and if he had the energy to do so he'd keep you there forever until you, the player, make the one good remaining decision to quit the game.

TLDR: Sans's glowing eye is not only intimidating and fancy, but also a direct reprisentation of his core virtues at their absolute strongest.

[lurkingshan]

A list of sins in the Wandee Goodday finale

Yak finally confessed that he is still having hallucinations when he steps into the ring—and Dee did NOT tell him to bow out of the fight.

Dee magically cured Yak’s years long trauma ringside and there were zero consequences for Yak lying and hiding his mental health struggles for the entire show.

Yak gave a big speech about Dee believing in him more than he believed in himself—which is not the actual story we got on our screens. Cool fanwank of your own show, though, I guess!

The show began with telling us that Yak could not be out with a man because of the effect of homophobia on his career, and now he’s doing love confessions in the ring and this is apparently fine. Add it to the list of GMMTV shows trying to have it both ways with the bubble.

They only gave us Kao’s love story via a retrospective exposition dump and an awkwardly shoehorned in asexuality PSA. They could have actually written him a plot and showed us these themes, but I guess that was too much to ask.

The money problems magically went away by Yak winning one fight, and there was no fallout for Yei hiding things from Cher.

Ter and Taem were paired up as expected—A POX ON YOUR HOUSES WRITING TEAM. Everyone who caught the signs that they intended to redeem Ter was correct; I have no idea why they chose to have him harass and assault Dee when this was their intention the entire time. Pairing him with a character who survived a different assault makes it so much worse. Just another sign of the poor judgment behind this show.

Yak’s graduation becomes a background detail handled with a two second appearance in a montage.

And instead we spend time on a very strange PSA telling us that old people have sex, too? How this is relevant to anything I could not tell you.

Continuing their bad dynamic from the entire story, Dee pretends he’s not going to thank Yak in his little beauty pageant speech (that he’s giving for receiving a professional scholarship, for some reason). Contra the writers of this show, I don’t actually think it’s funny that Yak feels so insecure and Dee is always fucking with him.

DEE SANG A GODDAMN SONG. WHY?!? This show has just gotten so embarrassing.

Dee finally asks Yak to be his “real” boyfriend, but it has no meaning because he already has been for weeks. And they already did the big public kiss moment in episode 11! It’s like they wanted the tension of not letting them get together until the end but were not willing to sacrifice the weekly ship moments so they tried to have it both ways. It just did not work. Tell a good story or make a branded pair content vehicle removed from story, you can’t do both.

They made Yei and Cher’s wedding kiss so weird by having Yak and Dee do it first whyyyyyyyyyyy

Welp! At least I got to see Oyei and Cher get married; I’ll be hanging onto that one.

This one goes down as the show that finally pushed me over the edge re: GMMTV and their tendency to start strong before completely losing the plot. I was primed to love this show and it thoroughly let me down. None of the threads they set up at the start were followed through and virtually nothing that happened in this story had real consequences or meaningfully mattered. What an absolute waste of a fantastic cast and a solid and fun premise. I will be skipping most GMMTV dramas going forward unless I hear they hold up all the way through.

[mosaickiwi]

Ahh i totally forgot to send it :’)

(Tumblr hates me so sorry if you get this ask twice)

Hii momo <3

My headcanon is:

“What if Angel gets isekai’d in the game. But instead of getting to live the life of the MC, they switch roles with a certain hacker, unexpectedly getting trapped in the game mechanics. Will they be able to make it out? Or will they be forced to live the days over and over on a loop”

hiii ashe!!! no i will not write teo fic <333 (froggy hats are NOT enough payment sorry!!)

Flip the Script(s) - Isekai AU?? 

Flip the script like the saying goes but also a script like coding… is this funny to anyone but me… anyways have some messy thoughts hehe

14 Days With You is an 18+ Yandere Visual Novel. MINORS DNI

🖤 Flipped [REDACTED]

📜 No glitch powers or awareness anymore. Keeps most of his backstory intact, but gets og!Angel's main plot relevant traits which are: 

Secretly obsessed with AoG and therefore Haruko (this is extremely funny to me).

Someone proposed to him as a kid and he doesn't remember. 

Moved back to Corland, lives in a crappy apartment, works as a librarian.

📜 For the sake of the plot being able to move forward, he can't be as clever or observant but otherwise their personality is pretty much the same. Just without the Angel obsession.

📜 (Lack of) friendship with other characters?? Probably treats them the same as River at best: he doesn't really mind most of them. This is more like a debuff so there's at least a guarantee that Ren won't wind up on another character’s route unless Angel majorly fucks up. Also I can't imagine him putting up with any of the main cast besides Conan for more than 5 minutes.

📜 I think it's funny for River and Leon to swap places too!! So River also proposed to Ren lmfao (and Leon still gets to be Angel’s best friend, only now he’s cautiously supportive of all the wild shit they have to do to make the game progress).

💜 Flipped Angel

📜 I have a specific Angel in mind but obviously bits and pieces here are not universal to all Angels fdjsalkfjldska

📜 Their goal is to leave, but they aren’t even sure how to. Has to play the manipulative yandere role in some ways, otherwise the game falls apart.

📜 Angel’s only inherited traits are the ones [REDACTED] loses, so glitch powers + awareness. They at least have isekai semi-omniscience: 

Knows they're in a yandere romance game 

Knows a few of the characters from browsing social media 

Can see the UI and therefore the choices Ren makes 

Hit by the truck once they press the start button so they don’t know much of the plot outside of meeting Ren at the library

💙 Game Rules - that Angel is not aware of without doing some trial and error

📚 The plot/narration/dialogue etc. doesn't have to (and logically can't) be one-for-one, but pivotal choices remain the same.

📚 The day restarts by itself if Angel’s meter is too low to make any progress (as in [REDACTED] doesn't show enough interest, or shows hostility towards them). Angel can also restart the day themselves once they figure out how the glitch powers work.

📚 Choices that would normally lead to dead ends force Angel to end and restart them the same way [REDACTED] does—by breaking in to his apartment at night.

📚 They can't escape until they reach the true ending to reset the game back to normal, and reach another ending as og!Angel. Except now [REDACTED] remembers everything that happened.

💙 Goofy things to chew on

😋 [REDACTED] would still be a clean freak, so finding the mattress with a hole on day 1 would absolutely piss him off. Bro (rightfully) harasses their landlord 24/7.

😋 [REDACTED] also still terrible with finances… poor Angel has to figure out asap how to hack to give him more money before he has to move in with River (River route canon!!!).

😋 [REDACTED] either has to ignore Teo’s entire existence, or every single interaction is a minefield since Teo would live for pissing him off. River (poorly) plays mediator.

😋 Angel could outright suck at murder. Sledgehammer? Too heavy. Knives? Too messy. Screaming on the inside when [REDACTED] still doesn’t go home with them on day 2 after they’ve tried so hard. Olivia getting murdered simply does not happen anymore, they give up and force another reset.

😋 Elanor having the worst time at work because [REDACTED] gets customer complaints every single day but Conan won't fire him (the plot compels him). And then mutters insults about her being clumsy when she tries to correct his manners.

😋How are Moth and [REDACTED] even friends... enemies on the forums until some third party comes in with the most wild take on AoG?? Enemy of my enemy is my friend. But most of the time they're insulting each other.

😋 Leon watching Angel lose their shit seemingly out of nowhere (because of all the restarts) during a hangout. Consoling them awkwardly while they cry about the emo boy they’ve been stalking and how they don’t know how to ride a motorcycle.

😋 The trio being River, Jae, and Teo instead has disaster possibilities. Leon was the one keeping them from getting TOO destructive, and I feel like River is absolutely on board with every terrible idea. So Corland might as well be going up in flames in the background while Angel attempts romance.

💜 And a short fic!!! Angel's "first" day

Day 1, Attempt #0

You know right away that you’re in some type of isekai situation. An oddly luxurious but empty apartment that you woke up in. A hallway that’s just as empty, and when you knock on all the neighboring doors, nobody’s home. Weird, but not enough to set off any alarms. Getting back home should be simple. 

You head to the library and finally find someone, at least. That blonde girl Ellen? Elaine? Whatever her name is, she smiles as you walk in… and then greets you like a patron? Weren’t you meant to be co-workers? You’re completely confused until the person that you spot in a far aisle isn’t a pink-haired stranger, but instead someone decked head to toe in black fabric and silver chains.

Ohh it’s THIS one. The one you’ve seen in fan art sometimes. He’s supposed to be the real Ren, but you thought he’d be dressed up as “Haruko" at first. Something is wrong.

You slowly walk up and tap his shoulder, but they recoil at your presence. There’s a name tag stuck to his shirt—did he work here? The name is scribbled out completely.

“Um… I was wondering if you could help me?” you timidly ask.

His eyes roll as if you’re bothering him, instead of asking him to do his job. “Y’lookin’ for somethin’?” [REDACTED] mutters.

“Yes! Sort of. It's a long story. Maybe we could go to your place and talk?” Normally, you aren't this forward. But from what little you've read, they're the type to go along with anything his ‘Angel’ says, so this should be easy.

Something pops up in front of you. A small pair of black boxes with words in them. “Invite them over” in one, and “Don't invite them over” in the other. Finally, something like a system. You were wondering if you'd have to play through the game without any clear help. 

You reach your hand out, but the second choice seems to get chosen all on its own, and the menu disappears once more. You worriedly look back up only to be met with pure disgust in the man's gaze.

“...How ‘bout y’do us both a favor n’ fuck off, yeah?” the venom in his tone startles you, forcing you to take a few steps back. “I'd rather not lose my job f’beating the shit out of a patron.”

“What—”

“Leave.”

💜🖤💜🖤💜🖤

Day 2, Attempt #14

It took you longer than you wanted to admit to realize that the pink hair dye in the bathroom was meant for you. 

On the 9th time you approached [REDACTED] for your ‘meet cute,’ you’d finally noticed the little character pin keeping his scribbled out name tag in place. An acrylic, chibi face that looked strikingly similar to the bloodied image on the title screen you saw before winding up in the game.

The thought didn’t occur to you until then. Talking to him was like pulling teeth when he didn’t even care to try, but… If you were taking his place, and they were taking yours… wouldn’t he be more open to talking with someone that was maybe into the same weird anime he was?

So you reluctantly bleached and dyed your hair in pastel pink, put on the sweater despite the horrid summer weather, and went off to the library once again. Unfortunately, it worked. 

While he wasn’t outright hostile like the first couple of times, he wasn’t completely interested, either. But the conversation was friendly enough. As friendly as they seemed capable of being, anyway.

Thanks to frying your hair, you made it all the way through the day after a few more tries. You even managed to get invited over somehow. Instead of waking up in that all too familiar empty apartment for the millionth time, you woke up on a terribly put together couch. Just as you sat up to stretch and work the kinks out of your back, you spotted a rat skittering behind a table across the room.

You were grateful that he hadn’t chosen to make you sleep on the floor.

[autumnmobile12]

I've seen more than a few posts by now asking why Horikoshi doesn't just kill Dabi off by now, and frankly I agree with that question. Let's be honest, killing him would be a mercy at this point and in spite of everything he's done, I don't thinking another prolonged coma with sporadic moments of consciousness is a punishment that fits the crime. He killed 30+ people, caused mass destruction, and tried to overturn an entire society.

Giving some crossover insight, Light Yagami probably killed millions with the Death Note, and I don't think even he would deserve the fate Dabi got. His poetic justice was he was an arrogant psychopath who died a pathetic death in a warehouse. The vampires of Castlevania Netflix have killed and tortured millions of people over the centuries they've been alive and out of all of them, I think only Erzsébet Báthory might deserve that fate, and that's only because she's ascended to goddess status and may be unkillable at this point and eternal imprisonment might be the only option.

So why doesn't Horikoshi kill Dabi off already?

Well....Horikoshi does have a problem with killing off characters unless its for shock value. There's no reason Nighteye, Magne, or Midnight had to die other than shock value. Most other characters that are killed off are barely in the series long enough to consider them a noteworthy death.

You could argue that Magne's death was to show that Overhaul was a new villain that meant business, but given the fact Overhaul doesn't kill or maim any other character the same way unless it's one of his nameless henchmen, his power doesn't prove to be that much of a threat to the main cast.

When Midnight reacted to Majestic's death, I legitimately asked, "Who?"

Endeavor confronts Dabi about killing Snatch and even Dabi asks, "Who?" (Also, why? Did Endeavor even know Snatch? Why bring that up?)

Why did Star have to die? To showcase how strong an opponent AFO/Shigaraki was? Uh, we already knew that...? To show why no other nations were getting involved in the fighting in Japan? A simple doomsday message from multiple nations that says, 'You're on your own,' would have sufficed. AFO could have been blackmailing world leaders into staying out of it. There could have been an international conspiracy of corrupt leaders who were in on it. They could have been having the same issue with mass prison breaks and couldn't help out. There was no need to invent a whole new character for any of that, so her death was a waste.

Arguably, Twice is the only character I can think of at the moment whose death was plot relevant. Realistically, how else was that fight going to go down? He and Hawks spend the entire battle in a weird standoff?

So either Dabi's current state is the result of creator cruelty or:

In the last couple chapters we have left, we're going to find out Eri's Quirk is not as damaged as everyone thought it was and she comes in clutch to save everyone. It's a cop-out ending, but I tentatively think this one might actually happen yet, mostly because it would neatly fix Bakugou's destroyed hand and some of the other characters who were maimed in Final War to the point their Quirks are barely usable.

Dr. Garaki cuts a deal where he biologically engineers a solution that saves everyone in exchange for a reduced sentence. Also a legit possibility. Would not be shocked if President Hawks visits the guy in prison and says, "Listen, a lot of people got really messed up in that last fight, so we've got a proposition for you." Saving both heroes and ensuring the villains actually live out a life sentence.

That unknown figure wandering around the wasteland does prove to be Shigaraki and he's got some unknown Quirk from AFO that could potentially save his comrades and we're headed for a Harry Potter Musical 'It's Not Over Yet' twist ending.

If the rumors about My Hero getting a sequel series are true, Horikoshi may be keeping Dabi around in case he has a use for him there. I don't know how that would even be possible, but I do admit the possibility of this conversation does make me laugh a little:

Pro Shouto: The plan couldn't have gone more wrong. Deku was in the wrong place. Bakugou was being Bakugou. Yaoyorozu had a relapse in nervousness and just created those weird dolls of hers instead of the materials we actually needed. The whole thing made the civilians laugh though. Not mean laughter, they were entertained and that's important, but if we were still in school, Aizawa would have expelled us all for sure.

Dabi: ...as much I just love our bi-weekly challenge of how long we can keep a conversation going before that heart monitor goes off and they put me back to sleep, do I have to listen to you bitch about work?

Pro Shouto: You said you wanted to hear about the outside world.

Dabi: Yeah, the fucking weather and shit.

Pro Shouto: You want a full forecast or--

Dabi: Don't make me come down there.

...

Realistically, none of those four scenarios are gonna happen, but the sequel rumors are preventing me from discounting them outright.

I would say there's no point in having that last minute 'everyone is saved' because that's it, that's the end, but then I remember Zuko's last line in Avatar is, "Where is my mother?" and opened up that whole subplot for the graphic novels.

So I don't know anymore.

[skullmoss]

helluva boss really pisses me off, because every day it is more proof that vivziepop has no idea how to write female characters with their own lives and goals without having the anchor of a male character holding them down into the narrative.

the one female character with any actual nuance and care given in helluva boss is probably octavia, and she mostly serves as a plot device for her father. we don't know anything about her beyond what she represents to stolas. all conversations with her and about her revolve around stolas.

when a male character is present in a female character's life in helluva boss, the male character overshadows them and becomes the Main Person. stella is an antagonist, but once her brother is introduced he immediately takes over as an antagonist, leaving stella to be a lackey as opposed to an active villain with her own agenda and goals.

and millie has always been a problematic sticking point with the main cast of helluva boss, because she is so underdeveloped & underutilized compared to blitz & moxxie. she cannot exist separate from moxxie. the writing team for helluva boss clearly struggles to figure out what to do with millie outside of Wife. and it's at a point where it is entirely too late to reconcile and fix her role in the story without feeling like it's forced. knowing full well the prioritizing of male characters over female characters has cornered the helluva boss team into trying to acknowledge the 'millie problem' in a way where most people can tell they just...can't fix anymore.

so they give her an unplanned pregnancy/motherhood angst plot. and she is so underdeveloped and underutilized as a character, and the fandom is so hyperfocused on the male characters where they don't stop to think for five seconds about the female characters outside their relationship with their fave males, that some people think/theorize millie is upset because she cheated on moxxie, because the helluva boss fandom is so primed and groomed into simply not taking five seconds to try to understand why a female character feels a certain way unless they did wrong to their man.

there is a way to explore a lack of individual personhood and the anxiety of being pregnant and becoming a mother making that even more apparent for a character like millie, but the helluva boss writing team just does not function that way. i do not trust them with a pregnancy subplot just given the overall way they write and handle their female characters, shoving them into a corner where only the male characters can dig them out into relevancy before they get shoved aside once again. there is no agency.

[soren-apologist]

i wonder if the reason soren can cast magic silently is because of his dragon blood

it’s canon that soren doesn’t actually verbalize his incantations when casting thanks to the fact he was taught magic years before anyone ever bothered to help him learn how to speak, hence the “silent master of winds” moniker. heck, we even see it during lucia’s execution cutscene where soren is visibly mouthing the words for elwind but is entirely inaudible.

considering no one else can apparently do this (based on how the silence staff works, and ignoring the fact that those also affect soren because of gameplay reasons), i’m curious as to what exactly makes soren so special. it’s possible that the sage that taught him magic was the one who gave him this technique, but since soren never mentions him also being able to do this, he may have just figured out how to do it himself since the sage apparently never bothered to teach him how to even speak to begin with.

it’s a given that branded will have unique abilities based on their laguz parentage, but it’s only really ever expanded upon with micaiah, who can heal others at the expense of her own health, read hearts, and has the ability to see events in the future. meanwhile, the only thing we really know about soren is that it’s implied that he has a perfect sense of direction because of scenes like fe9 chapter 17 where he mentions knowing exactly where he was in the burnt serenes forest when even ike was getting confused, as well as it offering an explanation for how, exactly, he was able to track ike all the way to crimea with nothing but a vague memory and a dream.

with that said, i propose that being half-black dragon, the most powerful variant of laguz on the continent, grants soren two other abilities:

1. draconic heart-reading

2. unusually high magical talent

the first thing isn’t really relevant for this specific topic even though it does offer a reason why soren is so “empathetic” despite how prickly and misanthropic he is, but the second gives a possible explanation for how he was able to develop that sort of unique ability at such a young age. (it also gives an in-universe reason for why soren, a teenager, ends up a significantly more powerful mage than characters like calill and bastian who both have decades of experience over him, but growths > bases isn’t exactly important here either lol.) silent casting could just be something soren who was already considered a magical prodigy was able to create all by himself, but i’d argue it’s plausible that if his dragon blood wasn’t directly responsible for him being able to do it, then at the very least it’s the reason why he was so adept at magic to begin with.

to be more specific on that last point, it’s important to keep in mind that laguz heritage not only gives unique, non-beorc abilities, but also affects any sort of natural talents the branded may have. stefan is an incredibly talented and adept swordsman because of the naturally high strength and skill of a lion, while micaiah is a poor combatant but excellent healer because of her heron blood, who themselves are pacifists entirely incapable of fighting but instead heal and energize their allies. as such, black dragons have unusally high magical stats despite their breath attacks using strength, so i’m willing to bet that if one were to use tomes in combat instead of transforming, their solid magic and skill along with their high resistance would make them formidable opponents. those 3 stats are actually all ones soren happens to excel in, so i believe that it wouldn’t be a massive stretch to claim that black dragon blood grants its owners a natural gift for casting magic.

to sum all this up, while i do think it’s possible that soren is literally just so good at magic he was able to pull a toph beifong and invent an entirely new method of casting, it could still be a result of his dragon blood granting him unique abilities— and honestly, with all the bullshit he had to endure just because he has that dragon blood, giving him special powers is the very least it could do for him.

[imagitory]

So my mum and I were revisiting one of our all-time favorite Christmas movies, The Muppet Christmas Carol, and I think maybe -- just maybe -- there's some really fun symbolism we've all been missing out on. And it all has to do with our main character Scrooge and the color red.

Okay, so at the beginning of the film, Scrooge is in all black, from head to toe. It makes him this wonderful dark shadow over the rest of the cast, and also makes him immediately stand out when he's in public, since everyone else is much more colorfully dressed.

Contrast this especially to the people who are closest to him, Bob Crachit and his nephew Fred.

Well, well, isn't this interesting...both of them have red in their costumes. Even later on, at Fred's Christmas party, we see his wife also wearing red.

The Ghost of Christmas Present -- the ghost who in this film arguably influences Scrooge the most out of all of them -- has a bright red beard...

Oh yes, and we mustn't forget that our favorite narrator "Charles Dickens" is also wearing a bright red coat. (Even his friend Rizzo has some red in his scarf.)

Red as a color can mean lots of different things symbolically -- violence, passion, anger, courage, danger...but I think the one most relevant to this reading is love and warmth. Why? Because even when we see Scrooge as a young man prior to the "all black" treatment, his definitive color is a dark blue.

Notice how much cooler young Scrooge's overall color palette is compared to the much flashier, rosier Fozziwig. (And yes, I think that rosy palette is on purpose -- in the film, Scrooge even describes Fozziwig as being "as hard and as ruthless as a rose petal.") It also makes it so that when Scrooge meets Belle (at this point dressed in pale green with pink rose details), their palettes compliment each other a little bit more, even if Belle's look is still softer, lighter, and warmer in tone to Scrooge's cool, serious ensemble.

But when Belle and Scrooge part ways, we see them wearing colors that contrast much more. Scrooge is still in cool, detached blue, but Belle is in...

Red. Specifically, like Bob and Fred, she has red right around her neck, in the form of her bonnet's ribbon. And it's presumed that over time, after losing Belle and withdrawing more into himself and his own greedy self interest, that Scrooge lost the remaining color of his life and became the cold, black-hearted moneylender we see in the film.

Then of course Scrooge goes through this radical transformation thanks to the Ghosts of Christmas, as we all know...and the very first Christmas present he receives, as a thank you for his charity, is from one of the charity workers, played by Beaker. What is it?

A red scarf.

It's a gift given in the spur of the moment, and yet from Scrooge's reaction, we can tell it's something foreign to him. It's likely it's been ages since he's received such a modest, and yet heartfelt gift from anyone. Scrooge feels the warmth of the gesture, not just because a scarf keeps one's neck warm, but because it was given out of such sincere gratitude and kindness. And as startled as he is by it, he responds with such sincere joy, and wears it happily for the rest of the day. He wears that warmth as easily as Fred and Bob wore it earlier in the film -- as if it's become a part of him. And in a strange way, it has.

For the first time, arguably in his whole life, Scrooge has a true understanding of selfless, loving warmth. The warmth that he should and does feel for the people most central to his life and identity -- his nephew and niece-in-law, his loyal subordinate, his first employer, his first love...even the Spirits who taught him the true "meaning of the season." A kind, generous warmth that permeates the entire story of A Christmas Carol because it's what Charles Dickens loved so much about the holiday season and so wished to spark in his audience.