#abandonment is a big theme in the series! so is separation!

[welcometogrouchland]

There's a lot of things that, were they to happen on screen in the owl house season 3, would surely be the end of my mortal existence.

But the one I'm thinking of right now is if we get ANY hint of the moment when Caleb "plays witch hunters and practices his pitchforking technique in between chores with his baby brother in left-of-salem" Wittebane

became Caleb "I love my magical bird friend and my scary magic wife and this weird magic world I live in to the point I'll die defending my right to exist in it against said baby brother who's refused to let go of our childhood beliefs" Clawthorne

[phoenix-fell]

Anti-Bumbleby criticisms answered with BB analysis - Big post

As expected, as Bumbleby gets more attention from the show, the anti-BB crowd have surfed in on their tidal wave of bitter lemons. So, I’d like to put my degree, job and training to use and compile my thoughts down in one place - a one-stop shop if you will - it’s long and will be largely unfiltered as I tackle the weirdest and most common criticisms and BB analysis. (I kinda miss Bumbleby analysis Megaposts, I might make one sometime to go alongside this as a point of reference as most I’ve seen end around Vol 6).

TIA for anyone who actually takes the time to read my ramblings and please feel free to give your thoughts/analysis and I’ll edit it in. FIRST EDIT - 8th Mar 2023 presenting labels and sexuality in Remnant - 4th from end.

Credentials: Double major 1st class grad in Literature and Creative Writing, specialising in fairy tales and WLW representation in media. Recipient of dissertation award exploring character psyche and the presentation of psychological themes. Literary critic, writer and content specialist. 

Let’s start off with a cracker from Reddit!

“Why couldn’t the BB scenes be more of a background thing? Why do they need to focus on them like they’re a main plot or something?”

Is... Is it stuffy under all that homophobia? I could easily rhyme off a string of sarcastic quips like ‘gee, I wonder why, it’s almost like it’s important to the development of two of the main characters or something.’ But it’s so lost on some people that I’mma spell it out:

We’ve seen Blake and Yang’s trauma painted across the screen from ‘Burning the Candle’ when Yang first confesses her abandonment issues, to the White Fang / Adam arcs that gave us a picture of the abuse Blake has endured - not just as a Faunus, but from her partner (“Adam used to get into my head, make me feel small.”), right through to their separation that dealt with their respective issues with running away/being abandoned and the shared trauma which has tied them both together indefinitely. They’ve been apart, they’ve repaired their relationship, they’ve grown together. In a current volume that’s so inherently focused on character’s individual development, seeing Blake and Yang together was almost inevitable as they’ve been so completely involved in one another’s development throughout the entire series. This is without going into their fairy tale allusions that tie them together which I’ll go into further down or the references to Yin/Yang and numerous romantic tropes that show how integral they are to one another’s characters. Contrary to belief, it’s not romance for the sake of romance - in this instance, the romance very much strengthens their development individually.

Asides from all of this, it was decided from the very beginning that Yang would lose her arm (foreshadowed in the Yellow trailer). The moment they decided that Yang would lose her arm protecting Blake, was the moment a decision was made to invariably tie these two narratives together on a very fundamental level.

But also, don’t clown yourself into thinking you’re not a homophobe if you think any LGBT content belongs in the background whilst also rejoicing any onscreen developments between straight ships.

“If BB was meant to be a thing then they wouldn’t have had Sun as a romantic interest.”

Is there a universe where love triangles and bisexuals are a foreign concept?

But in all seriousness, I think that certain corners of fanbases seem to struggle with any concepts that are non-linear; something I often see with anime. By ‘linear’, I mean: love interest introduced > build up > canon > together forever. As opposed to ‘non-linear’; a character that goes on their own journey of discovery and, through which, has more than one interest and path over time and has the ability to change their mind. The show was never a ‘romance’ as a primary theme; it’s an action/adventure which has some romantic subplots. But to honest, Blake changing her mind shouldn’t really be this much of a shock to the fanbase given that our FIRST ever interaction with Blake, in her TRAILER, is her changing her mind about her partner (and first romantic interest) and deciding to pursue a new journey. A scene which is actually referred back to in the Season 6 opener when Blake uncouples the train and sees what she believes to be a hallucination of a hooded Adam on the opposite carriage, foreshadowing the importance of that original decision later in the series (“you didn’t leave scars, you just left me, alone”). 

The arc that follows Blake thereafter is inherently tied to Adam (amongst other important themes), who is predominantly based off Gaston and the rose (or curse of the rose) from Beauty and the Beast. Blake and Yang are interchangeably alluded to as both Belle and the Beast throughout their character arcs from as early as the Red Trailer: “Black the beast descends from shadows / Yellow beauty burns gold.” and as recently as Blake describing Yang to the Hunter Mice in Vol. 9 Chapter 1. I can rhyme off these allusions until I’m blue, but again, I may save this for a master post.

The story that Blake is based on is a love triangle - she was never meant to have one set path from the beginning and romantic interests were always meant to play a huge part in Blake’s story/development; she was always going to have a romantic decision to make after conquering the curse / Gaston. Blake being haunted by her first romantic interest is foreshadowed in the ending of her trailer and first referenced in her conversation (with Yang) at Mountain Glen, and becomes an undeniable path of exploration once Yang loses her arm to Adam at the end of Volume 3. Let it be noted that Sun was present when Yang announced she was going to find Blake at the Battle of Beacon - a decision was made here for Yang to be the one to lose her arm protecting Blake, as was Adam’s poignant promise to take away everything Blake loves - “starting with [Yang]” or, otherwise, the solidifying of this romantic subplot. Which, again, is called back to with the infamous line: “What does she even see in you?” besides the obvious subtext, it’s setting the stage for these parallels between Adam and Yang, past and future, the previous love interest identifying something in Blake that used to be reserved for him, now directed towards Yang.

This season began with Blake declaring that Yang “seems scary, but isn’t”. Because, once Belle knows the Beast isn’t scary, she allows herself to fall in love (conveniently, this is said whilst walking through a fairy tale).

I could go into a big post about romantic foils and the ways in which Yang, Adam and Blake are all foils to each other but I might make a separate post instead for anyone new to the FNDM. Either way, I feel it’s worth mentioning as it’s Blake who directly compares Yang to a past love interest who was designed with semblances and characteristics that mirror each other. Point being, no one should be shocked that Blake has multiple interests given the character and fairy tale she’s based off and heavy allusions where Yang is concerned.

“Oh yeah, because Yang ‘literally purred at guys in their underwear’ Xiao Long and Blake ‘literally kissed a boy’ Belladonna are clearly bisexual because of [insert out of context reasons]” and “yes but Monty said...”

1. You mean... the one, and only one scene in 9 entire volumes where Yang shows any interest (albeit jokingly) in a guy, and the literal scene directly before she sees Blake from across the crowded room and proceeds to never express interest in men again? (Ignoring the very obvious implied trope here). And, in fact, only expresses interest in a woman from this point onwards? This is your frame of reference? Personally, I find it quite lovely that Yang’s perspective is never the same from the moment she sees Blake. Asides from this, while ‘bisexual’ is the label that these guys have gone with, Yang’s sexuality hasn’t been confirmed outside of being sapphic - it’s not outside the realm of possibility that she is, in all likelihood, lesbian. It’s important to note here that any young character expressing an interest in a man would not invalidate that same character being a lesbian. In fact, if we apply this to real life, it’s not uncommon for people not to realise that they’re queer immediately (I myself didn’t until I was 21). But in the opening episodes of the series especially, I’d very much chalk this up to writers exploring the characters.

2. As for Blake - there are, from what I remember, three kisses in the entire show so far. The one between Jaune and Pyrrha - on the lips after prolonged romantic allusions between the two (their romance is explicitly referenced by Nora - “practice what you preach, Pyrrha.” - almost fitting that it’s Nora to call out the Bees in Season 7 - A Night Off, no? Neat little parallel for y’all). The one between Ren and Nora after trying to work out the status of their romantic relationship - again, on the lips. And the one where Blake says goodbye (and thank you) to Sun by kissing him... On the cheek. (So hot, I know). Which is immediately followed up with Sun telling Neptune “it was never about that”. One of these is not like the other, can you guess which? I’ll wait.

As for referencing Monty - I could go on all day about this one, and the quote most notoriously used is ‘they’re a sisterhood’. Firstly, let me just say that I find it disturbing that anyone would use the show’s deceased creator as ammunition, whilst also disregarding his other comments on LGBT rep - specifically, ‘maybe there are LGBT characters there now / they’re just kids rn and figuring it out / it needs to be earned’. But also, it’s really disturbing and egotistical that anybody would pretend to know what Monty wanted better than the crew he handpicked, worked with, collaborated with and was friends with (special mention to the fact that his own brother is one of the cast). If you truly want to honour his legacy, then show respect to the people he put his trust in.

“I don’t have an issue with BB, but why does it always have to take away from Yang’s moments with Ruby?” / “All Yang’s feelings for her sister transferred to Blake.”

One from the hall of fame. The age old question of ‘can a girl have a romantic partner and still care about her family?’ I wish this wasn’t a serious question, but there are actual sides of the Fandom that seem to think that Yang’s forgotten about her sister that she raised because she has feelings for someone and that the sole purpose of Yang’s existence is to be her sister’s keeper.

I’mma address this on 3 fronts. 1 - Logistically, the episodes for RWBY, excluding the intros, are 15-20 mins long currently and typically oversee several different storylines particularly as the cast grows larger, leaving us with... What? About 5 minutes of team RWBY interactions? It’s not a lot of time to pack in character development, relationship development, plotline, strategy etc. so often if they’re wanting to develop more than one relationship, they will alternate between putting these themes in the background (such as the yellow in Blake’s sword, references from other characters etc.) and foreground, and some developments have to be shoulder-to-shoulder to fit them in. This isn’t an indicator of how much one character cares for one another and is more a demon created by people’s perception of how they ‘think’ a protective sister should act.

Additionally, it should be noted that Yang fawning over Ruby and not allowing her to develop other relationships outside of her sister, would actually offer us nothing from a development perspective for both Yang and Ruby’s characters and would, instead, steer these two strong female characters down a path of co-dependency. 

2 - It feels like a very easy excuse for Anti-BB folk to throw out there, conveniently forgetting how great of a sister Yang actually is (contrary to the number of RWDE videos I’ve seen arguing otherwise, as this is an essay I could write in itself). These very often take isolated incidents out of context and conveniently forget important information like Yang 1. Literally sacrificing herself twice to protect her sister 2. Sacrificing her entire childhood to raise her sister and 3. Importantly, the fact that Ruby is her (self-sufficient) Team Leader needs to be factored into their dynamic, as Yang gives her space to find herself as a leader and steps in when her sister actually needs her - not when the audience thinks she does. People hear ‘protectiveness’ and seem to think that this should mean that Yang should be overbearing. 

3 - Anyone who says this doesn’t have siblings. I have older and younger siblings and, having largely raised my younger sibling, I can safely say that I still love them even when I’m in a relationship. I also feel extremely secure in arguing/disagreeing with any of my siblings because I inherently know they will still be there at the end of the day - a sibling love goes deep (referencing ‘Fault’ from Volume 8). However, in a romantic relationship that is not established and very new... you will feel insecure, that’s normal, it doesn’t have the luxury of established stability that siblings do, and therefore you will overtly express more anxiety about this as a result. It’s a very strange concept that if you have a sibling, you need to give them all of your attention and ignore any love interests. Yang has gone through her own traumas, she has every right to care about others, heal herself, and have a life that isn’t defined by being a caretaker for her sister. ESPECIALLY as she already gave up her childhood to fulfil this role, unselfishly AND as the person she’s bonding with is best poised to understand Yang’s trauma. Yang as a character deserves to receive the love she constantly gives out. Again, this is a demon born from the fact that it either doesn’t reflect the relationship commentors have with their siblings, or the fact that they’re *imagining* how that relationship should be.

Bonus picture below: Yang putting aside her anguish for Summer Rose, who she considered to be her mother, to prioritise comforting her sister about that same loss.

“I hate BB shippers because they pass off BS interactions as platonic. BS made more sense, there was no build-up to BB until Vol 6 and they let the BS build-up go to waste to force BB.”

First off, there’s nothing wrong with BlackSun as a ship. Shipping shouldn’t be dictated by canonicity and people have the right to ship it and to their opinions. And while a few of these seem to have referenced BS, I don’t actually think that BS shippers are at fault for the hatred coming this way, but rather that the ship seems to get used as ammunition from the Anti-BB crowd - to summarise, Anti-BB and BS shippers are not synonymous. I personally don’t ship BS, but I do enjoy the debate and actually think that Sun is a very important part of Blake’s development and arc. There did seem to be some form of mutual attraction between Blake and Sun. Had they gone down that route, I wouldn’t have hated it, I just never felt excited by it, which seems to be a large consensus amongst BB fans. An appreciation whilst feeling there was a better alternative.

Believing all the development between Sun and Blake was ‘wasted’ is also very closed-minded given how much he helped Blake in the White Fang arc and also disregards the importance of their friendship. BS has the potential to be one of the best and most supportive friendships in the series, I stand by that.

That said, I don’t think it’s entirely wrong to acknowledge that a lot of (not all) interactions between BS were platonic from Blake’s pov while Sun’s feelings were more explicit. The only real hint I saw of Blake reciprocating was a blush at the Vytal festival. Maybe the dance at a stretch, but there’s hints at both BS and BB and I will fight you on it. Now, it might be a question of timing; Adam was still a prevalent threat during this time which will have been weighing on Blake given the resurgence of the White Fang, and is clear when Adam rocks up seeking vengeance in Volume 3. For this reason, I honestly think it would have been disingenuous to have explored Blake in a full relationship with anyone at this point given these loose ends, and Blake undergoes a lot of development over volumes 4-6 as a direct result of this.

Additionally, if BB didn’t begin until Volume 6 then that means that BS had 4-5 volumes to happen - 2 of which where they were in their own arc, separated from the main cast. It didn’t happen. What happens instead is Blake’s guilt over Yang weighs heavily on her while she deals with her arc and Sun helps her come to terms with this, ultimately redirecting her back to her team, and Yang, while Sun’s interactions with her become increasingly platonic from his side.

Lastly, the only way you don’t see build up for BB, is if you actively will yourself not to see build-up. If you replace Blake and Yang’s moments with Sun, I don’t feel there’d be any misunderstandings on how these moments are supposed to be interpreted. Take off the hetero goggles, and we’re cool. 

But on a sidenote and personal pet peeve of mine, the cries of ‘BB is forced while BS had build-up’ will forever irritate me - BB has a slow burn, a full arc, developed from a friendship and partnership as well as several tropes and allusions without going into too much detail. BS, firstly, never ended up happening, but it starts when Sun runs past, winks at Blake, magically knows she’s a faunus, then proceeds to follow around a girl he doesn’t know for two days who, at his own admission, didn’t speak that whole time. But... BB is forced? I’d say it’s subjective, but logic defies when this is the barometer for a natural introduction of a romantic pair.

“BB is ‘queerbait’”

Let’s address the ‘Goliath’ in the room, shall we? ‘Queerbaiting’ gets thrown around like a reflex at the moment by pseudo-fans who I don’t believe actually know the gravity of their statements or the meaning behind the word. I often see this slur paired with BB being strung out to keep the shippers watching. Now, there’s an essay in itself that could exist in this section, but are people really still clowning themselves that a show that’s explicitly shown that it wants to have queer representation in the cast and foreground is ‘queerbaiting’ it’s audience? Even weirder for me is the part of the FNDM saying that it’ll be baiting if they make BB canon. Please stop this nonsense and do some research.

Now, one thing I would like to tackle is that, sadly, some will still see pairings on the show through heteronormative glasses, so let me use that here. If the pair were a m/f couple and had several seasons of development and increasingly intimate moments, there would be no doubt in anyone’s mind that 1. It was heading in the direction of canon and 2. That it was a slow burn romance that’s building to its’ climax. Interestingly, the show actually does use the hetero goggles to frame BB on several occasions by paralleling this budding romance with several straight ships such as Arkos and Renora. Why? Because this is a narrative technique often used by writers to frame LGBT romances to separate them from ‘just friendships’ and, let’s face it, use an unconscious heteronormative bias to their advantage.

“BB is badly written, they barely interacted in volumes 1-3 then didn’t speak for two volumes.”

Tickle me pink. Volumes 1-3 are a very strange reference point for ‘in-depth’ development between characters. Crumbs, sure. The odd scene, absolutely. But let’s be real here - the show started as a low budget web series with an onus on cool fighting scenes and, most importantly, the episodes were around 5 minutes long whilst entertaining teams RWBY and JNPR, the White Fang, the Vytal tournament and several other plots. Nobody particularly interacted much but the writers did the best they could with what they had and the rest is left to us, the audience, to interpret that relationships are developing off-screen. Though from a critique POV in the interest of fairness, I would say the current season is a breath of fresh air by re-focusing the plot on the central characters as I think the show can sometimes be guilty of taking on too many plotlines.

As for volumes 4-5, while they’re in different continents, it’s obvious that they’re prevalent in each other’s arcs. Whether it’s Yang admitting she’s struggling with Blake’s abandonment - in the same episode the first lesbian character is revealed confessing their feelings to Blake (sidenote, all of team RWBY left Yang, and it’s Blake she’s mad at, this was always meant to be framed differently to her other teammates and IMO the struggle they go through is meant to frame the characters coming to terms with the depth of what they mean to each other), the parallels of them both getting onto the ship (named ‘Pride’ - wink wink), or Blake actively struggling to talk about Yang, yet referencing it when Sun is hurt (“Not again!”) showing it’s at the forefront of her mind. All of which culminates in their reunion in the Vol 5 finale.

Is it the best writing ever? No, nothing’s perfect. But they do explicitly use parallels throughout the series to drive the narrative forward as a foreshadowing tool to strengthen subplots.

“Blake being bisexual makes no sense - she was interested in Sun, it just seems so out of the blue, she and Yang just seemed like friends to me.”

Funny, because she and Sun seemed like friends to me too.

There are so many things I wanted to fire back at this, from the insinuation that if a woman first shows interest in a man then it’s out of the blue that she’s bisexual now that she’s showing interest in a woman... Like, how do you think it happens for bisexuals IRL?! Did you want her to burst onto the scene in Volume 1, announce she likes men and women, and then express explicit simultaneous interest in both of them? Start a harem? Proposition a throuple?

This particular take amuses me most of all as someone who is very openly bisexual. Yes, she and Yang seemed like friends. Great friends, in fact. That hold hands and blush and want to spend all their time together. And check each other out when the other isn’t looking. And make excuses for casual physical contact and flirt and giggle like a couple of giddy teenagers. Just like me and my ‘best friend’ did, before I realised I was bi. I’m sure that a lot of people thought it came out of the blue for me too. Blake being oblivious to being bisexual until it becomes too obvious to ignore is actually a very realistic scenario.

Bonus headline - just because you don’t understand/identify with something, doesn’t mean that it’s not good representation or realistic. I feel it’s also important to mention Blake’s VA, Arryn Zech, is bisexual and has spoken numerous times on the matter. The reason I bring this up is because it’s clear that the way in which the bisexuality of her character is presented on the show is actually something that’s incredibly important to Arryn - because good representation is significant. 

Presenting labels and sexuality on Remnant: A Theory and - “BB is a terrible representation of LGBT and your critique ignores the female and LGBT people that have spoken out against it.”

They say, to someone who is both female and LGBT. Credit to the Anon who charged into my inbox to accuse me of the above - hope you enjoy. Now, there’s a couple of things I’d like to cover before I go into how sexuality is perceived in-universe. The first is that if you use this argument against someone who is queer without seeing the belligerent hypocrisy of your statement, please check yourself as, clearly, you only care about LGBT voices on representation when it aligns with your own rhetoric and ready to dismiss any narrative to the contrary from that same community.

Secondly,  the queer/LGBT community is a vast and vibrant community of *individuals* with their own opinions and own voices. I didn’t nominate anyone to speak on my behalf, just as I don’t speak on the behalf of the rest of the community. Moreover, any art is open to interpretation. My opinion does not override theirs, nor does their opinion erase my own. And, believe it or not, it’s quite possible to have two or more differing opinions within one community without being at war with one another. I respect their opinion, just as I hope they respect mine.

We clear? Great. Onto the analysis! Huge shoutout to @crimsonxe​ for the brilliant discussion and assistance with the analysis in the comments that helped me construct this section! You’re awesome.

Let’s dive in with the headline - Homophobia doesn’t appear to be an issue on Remnant and labels don’t appear to exist, in the sense that it doesn’t appear anywhere in-universe. Now just to pre-emptively disclaimer: this may change, but in 9 volumes and however many supplementary materials, we’ve not heard any labels or had any representation of this type of discrimination. If that changes, I’ll happily remove this. 

So why is this important, you ask? Ultimately, when you take away the inherent ‘fear’ that a lot of the LGBT community face IRL along with prevalent ignorance towards the community and society’s insistence on labelling sexualities and gender identity, it creates a world divorced from our own and is, from a narrative point of view, a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it allows the characters to explore themselves in a non-discriminatory environment that is inherently more fluid and free, whilst the audience will inevitably want to compare that to their own experiences. But we can’t - not properly - due to the still very real stigma and discrimination that exists in our own world. Instead, what we see are characters who express an interest in other characters and find other ways to allude to their preferences or identity. A prime example of this would be May, canonically a trans character, who does not use this term in-world but instead says, “To the Marigolds that meant I wasn’t their son, and I made sure everyone knew I wasn’t their daughter.” This is a theme that is poignantly reflected in the accompanying media for the series - such as the books; for instance, Coco, canonically lesbian, referring to “breaking the hearts of many women.”

How does this tie into the relationship with Blake and Yang? Glad you asked. If you bear in mind that Remnant has a very fluid outlook on sexuality and more of a ‘love who you love’ ethos which is blind to gender norms, it immediately subverts the assumption that interactions between m/f are romantic while f/f are platonic. It’s an open field, if you will. BB is a steady build from partner/best friend (though I’d argue that at least Yang had an immediate attraction, with Blake figuring herself out) with interactions that become increasing more intimate. Eye rolls and jokes become winks and innuendo (“I love it when you’re feisty!”), nudges become intimate hugs (Burning the Candle), become hand-holding (it isn’t coincidence that these two have held hands more than any other pair in the series), becomes pining, blushing, forehead touches (BB and Renora - remember those parallels), which evolves into flirting and... More. And yes, some of their interactions will still resemble the friendship they built their foundations on. But in a world where labels don’t exist, that journey from friend-to-lover is much more subtle and embedded in a gentle upwards curve of increasing intimacy.

“BB is only happening because the horrible BB fans demanded it, the show caved and gave in to the toxic fanbase, it wasn’t planned from the beginning.”

I’ve seen this in so many places, like a broken record. I have no doubt that there are BB fans that are fanatical, and I’d never justify the behaviour of any so-called fan that resorts to death threats or violence in any way. I’m hoping this surely must be a minority that has, hopefully, shrunk over the years as the audience has matured. However, this also really isn’t how shows work... 

As many have pointed out in recent weeks, the show would be a very different landscape altogether if CRWBY were, in fact, that easily swayed by fans; namely, I’m thinking of Clover/Qrow, Pyrrha, Penny etc. While I don’t doubt that show-makers pay attention to the fanbase where needed and where it’ll be beneficial (seeing how fans react to developments, if allusions are clear etc.), sending death threats or whatever is actually much more counterproductive than anything else. But also... You’re not on the crew, you’re not part of those discussions. I feel confident that Miles, Kiersi and Kerry aren’t writing BB content with a gun to their head.

Lastly, the ‘it wasn’t planned from the beginning’ war cry is a tale as old as time. Like Beauty and the Beast. (See what I did there?) Asides from the fact that 1. Yang and Blake were actually the first created out of the team, and made with each other in mind, regardless of in what context (check out the original character designs/concepts) 2. Even if it wasn’t planned from the beginning, what difference does it make? There are tonnes of examples where the writers have felt the chemistry between two characters as the story’s gone on and decided to put them together (case-in-point from outside the anime world.. Chandler and Monica from Friends). In fact, while some writers like to plan every element of their plot from the beginning, there’s a great many writers who allow the characters to steer the plot as they grow - especially arcs with romantic undertones. The series was made predominantly for the action - it’s not a romantic series, so if they didn’t plan it from the beginning that wouldn’t be unusual, especially given that the episodes of the first few volumes are literally 5-10 minutes long. But regardless of whether the romance of the two was planned or not planned, it does not make it any less meaningful.

But let’s be real, the issue at heart isn’t that they weren’t sucking face in the first 3 seasons, it’s that they thought Blake would be with a guy, and she chose a girl. To which I say... Get over your bruised ego, and move on.

“BB fans deserve the hate they get because of x, y, z and cos it has toxic shippers.”

And you’re... Not... Toxic? If you’re an Anti-BB shipper and go out of your way to stalk and comment on BB tags/accounts just to harass shippers etc, then are you any better than the toxic fans you supposedly hate? To me, following BB tags and looking at BB content whilst being an Anti-BB shipper is so weird, why you trying to hurt your own feelings?

Also, saying that innocent shippers who are just living their best life should bear the burden of the toxic FNDM, is literally the definition of tarring everyone with the same brush. Some of us just want to eat our crumbs in peace, and from our POV, you’re the toxic ones being disrespectful. Bonus point: others being toxic does not give you licence to be hateful to anyone you come across that doesn’t agree with you.

“I’m no longer watching the show cos it’s trying too hard to be ‘woke’”

This ain’t an airport, you don’t need to announce your departure. But since you are, if your issue is the gay representation in the show then wake up and look around... We’re everywhere. The show is literally just reflecting the diversity you see day-to-day; but you keep sipping that haterade, my dude, we’re here to stay.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

Apparently when Aang was depressed and suggested that maybe they should abandon hope, he was actually ordering/Forcing The pregnant Couple to accept air nomad beliefs.

Also Aang apparently Regularly disrespects and refuses to learn from other cultures and Aang actually isn’t even a good airbender because somehow even though he regularly airbends, we don’t see him practicing at all.

Finally even though Aang allowed Katara to take Appa and acknowledged that she believes that she needs to go on the journey to Yon rha, Aang was forcing Katara to murder Yon Rha.

What show were Aang’s detractors watching?

I love the implication that somethings as simple as "having hope" is considered "Air-nomad exclusive belief", when that's a big theme throught the whole show and we have IROH telling Zuko not to give into despair, and explaining to the crew on "The Storm" that Zuko is so obsessed with capturing the Avatar because that mission allows him to hope he can come home and fix things with his dad.

They REALLY think that "pacifist" (which IS an air-nomad thing) MUST mean "hopeful, optimistic and cheery" like Aang - like we didn't see the air-nomads clearly freaking out so bad that they tell Aang he is the Avatar four years ahead of time, getting pissed whenever he is having any fun, and even want to separate him from his "father" because they knew something bad was gonna happen. Aka, they gave into despair.

As for him "forcing" the couple to give that name to their child

Husband: What should we name her?

Wife: I want our daughter's name to be unique. I want it to mean something.

Aang:  I've been going through a really hard time lately. But you've made me ... hopeful again.

Wife: I know what I want to name our baby now. Hope.

Husband: That's a perfect name. Hope.

That was a suggestion at most. Not an order, not intimidating them into doing what he wanted them to, and surely not forcing them to accept "air-nomad beliefs."

"The guy who spent the whole series traveling around to learn from different people, and was so understanding he was even sympathetic to the nation that killed everyone he knew and loved, did not respect other cultures" Bruh.

Literally the only two "disrespectful" things I remember Aang doing were:

1 - That bitter comment about "dead animals" towards Bato - which he only made because he was feeling left out of the conversation since his friends were so excited about being with someone from their tribe that they were completely ignoring him. Not cool, but totally understanding considering he's 12.

2 - Snapping at Pakku for not wanting to train Katara/trying to teach her what he was taught behind his back (even though the second one is on shaky ground since, even though that was a bit of a "cheat code" to make Pakku train Katara indirectly, he doesn't have the right to demand Aang never share his knowledge with someone he doesn't approve of)

And both of these, on top of being understandable, also have the disclaimer of "You can disagree with someone's beliefs/cultural habits without looking down on them" - hell, Katara full on says Gran-Gran left because she wouldn't let the Northern Water Tribes stupid customs ruin her life. Not to mention, the Fire Nation's culture for at least 100 years has been "fuck everyone else, only our way of living is the correct one" and the whole point of the show is "This belief is not only wrong and hurting the other nation, it is harming the Fire Nation itself"

"It's my culture" is a neutral statement. It does not shield said culture from criticism, and Aang disagreeing with someone's beliefs - be it that hunting/eating meat is okay, or that women can't be fighters, or that not all life is sacred - is not the same as him being disrespectful. He owes people basic human decency, not blind agreement with anything and everything they believe in.

So yeah, these people need to keep. Aang's. Name. OUT. THEIR. FUCKING. MOUTH.

[gatoraid]

親愛なるジーンへ (Dear Gene) by Azuma Kaya

I’m looking back on some of the most memorable BL manga I read in 2023 and copying/ expanding on some of my twitter threads about them to tumblr.

Dear Gene is a spinoff of the pretty well-known Amish themed BL manga The Scene of My Rumpspringa (ラムスプリングの情景) by Azuma Kaya. I know Amish BL might sound like a silly joke, but the series actually treats the subject very thoughtfully.

In Rumspringa we followed a young Amish man exploring the world beyond his community in the 80s. In Dear Gene, we follow another man from the same community, who ended up leaving his family and community for good in the 70s. All the things that made Rumspringa so memorable are present in Dear Gene as well: the nostalgic atmosphere, bittersweet emotions, lively characters and gorgeous art & storytelling.

I really like the story within a story structure: in the 90s, teenager Gene Edwards is sent to spend the summer at his uncle Trevor’s place in NY to help with chores. While cleaning up a room that has not been used in years, Gene accidentally stumbles upon an old diary that records Trevor’s romance with a guy who was also called Gene almost 20 years ago.

Most of the manga follows Trevor and Gene Walker’s story in the 70s, as recorded in the diary. Gene grew up as an Amish in Pennsylvania but decided to leave the community to look for his own place in the world. When he first meets Trevor, he is homeless and has nowehere to go. Trevor, who's a lawyer at the office where Gene works as a janitor, takes him in and slowly they fall in love.

Since we are following the story from an outsider’s perspective, we already know from the start that Gene W is no longer in Trevor’s life in the 90s. Thinking about what might have happened, already feeling sad and bittersweet about this while seeing the characters get together, and then gradually learning the truth about what happened all those years ago make it a very emotional reading experience that is well worth revisiting.

Spoilers after the cut!

I think what really makes Dear Gene stand out is the way it treats the characters' individual journeys. It's very much a romance story, but the characters' family relationships and personal goals are just as important, if not more so, than the romantic relationship between Trevor and Gene.

That's why their inevitable separation is so impactful. There is no big drama or tragic events, just the simple notion that one person cannot be your whole world, that even though you love someone, your other dreams and goals in life might take you far away from them. And that when you love someone, sometimes the biggest act of love can be letting them go so they can fulfill their whole potential.

The beautiful themes and emotions are enhanced by the vivid recurring imagery: plants in different states of growth, the window view from Gene’s room, the scenes from Gene W and Trevor’s childhood, especially the scenes where older Gene is set inside his memories, looking at the younger versions of himself.

And the scene where Trevor, who was abandoned and adopted as a baby, is shown to sit in the shadows while the rest of his family is bathing in light, showing the disconnect he’s felt even from the people who truly love him… Definitely one of the most powerful parts of the story for me.

Even now, thinking about the characters is making me emotional all over again....

There's Trevor, who has estranged himself from his family even though they love and support him, who desperately tries to show his own love by giving and buying people things and is afraid of pursuing his own happiness.

There's Gene Walker, whose hunger for knowledge and life drove him away from his family and community, who still hasn’t forgiven himself for that and who is still looking for something to believe in and belong to, yet doesn’t want those things chain him in one place.

Then there's Gene Edwards, the cheeky teen who cannot stop reading his strange uncle’s very personal diary, because he’s been trying to figure out his own sexuality and finds something that feels familiar on those pages. I really would have wanted to see more of his story! Maybe there's still room for one more spin-off in the series?

And finally there's Karen, romance novelist and Trevor’s ex-fiancee who becomes a great friend to both Genes and who definitely deserves her spot in the ’amazing women in BL stories’ hall of fame. Cannot stress how much I love her.

Even though I really wish the story would have been a little longer and the ending didn’t make me ugly cry the way Rumspringa did, Dear Gene is still a very beautiful and thematically rich story.

This whole manga series handles topics like family, belonging, growing up and becoming your own person in a very poignant way. Romance and sex are very important to the story (Azuma Kaya draws ero scenes so beautifully I'll never get over it), but they are not the only thing that is important in the storyline or the characters' lives. Azuma Kaya is definitely one of those creators who are showing just how versatile BL manga can be, and how many types of stories can be told through BL!

Dear Gene has not been officially licensed in eng yet. The jp version is available on all major Japanese bookstore and ebook sites, I personally read it on ebookjapan. The eng version of The Scene of My Rumspringa can be read on Bookwalker, Inkr and Comikey.

PS I totally recommend buying the special edition for Dear Gene vol 2 because it comes with a lovely 20 page bonus comic where Gene E comes to visit his uncle for Christmas and we get to meet all the characters one more time!

[grumphare]

In my dream, Jewelpet Sunshine had an OVA, and the theme song for the OVA is 「BREAK THE CHAIN」 from Nami Tamaki, the song was originally from the anime, Battle Spirits: Garrett’s Revolution, but Studio Comet was allowed to use it under the permission of BN Pictures and Bandai, as then I went in Google, the new OVA series basically reused mature themes from Jewelpet Twinkle, like issues of parental abandonment and neglect as one of its most recurring themes. People have problems with their families.

The villain was someone who's fated to die an early death due to her powers, and who's been forcefully separated from her family, along with Sunshine having incest, zoophilia as plotlines along with the final episodes have God becoming corrupt and nearly killing the entire earth. and for the Sunshine OVA, it explores deeper and expands into some of those themes like: issues of parental abandonment and neglect, problems with family members.  The generals of the main antagonist, who are aliens are fated to die an early death due to their powers, and who's been forcefully separated from their families, after being brainwashed, and literally murdered, and then being brought back from the dead via torture to turn into mindless human slaves, including more mature themes in Jewelpet like: war, politics, racism, and more.

so this is basically what went down in the show or the show’s storyline: Kanon is now 23 years old as it had been fifteen years since the events of the final episode of MAŌ Season 4: Tears (Sakurā), and 3 years before the events and time-lock of Season 7: Demon King’s Resurrection, Kanon is now, a tough-as-nails teacher and carries Teacher Iruka around with her, Iruka marries Jill, Garnet hits it big as an actress along with Masago as a director, Sapphie and Nejikawa are renowned astronauts, Shouko and Angela win the Moto GP, Hinata is a firefighter, Peridot is a famous ice-skater, Labra works for Jewelina and last but not least, Ruby finds Granite and they become lovers once again, in her class that she becomes in charge of, Kanon is both a bit traumatized and reminded of dead ringers of her own class from many years back along with the sacrifice of Sakurā, the reason why Kanon is so strict with her students and the people around her, is because she doesn’t want them to end up the same way her class and Sakurā did many years ago, during one evening, a meteorite appears in the skies from outer space, a mysterious caped figure appears from the meteorite, which is actually a UFO - as NASA investigators wonder what the caped figure’s plans are, they end up being killed by him, the caped figure named Lord Darkness, has came from outer space along with his generals, the Orcs, who are human-turned alien slaves fated to die an early death due to their powers, and who's been forcefully separated from their families, after being brainwashed, and literally murdered, and then being brought back from the dead via torture to turn into mindless slaves, as they declare war on both the Earth and JewelLand, the students all notice the Orcs heading for Sunshine Academy, as then an evacuation is underway, as the academy gets destroyed. then Ruby, along with all of the Jewelpets, notice Lord Darkness arriving walking towards them, as then Kanon stops Lord Darkness, Lord Darkness fatally stabs her. as Ruby tries to hit Lord Darkness, but he injures her - forcing her into a coma, as then Kanon tries to get up, as Granite appears as he tries to helps Kanon, as Kanon realizes it’s her brother who is Granite, as she slaps him for falling in love with Ruby, calling him “sick and perverted” and for putting Ruby in a coma, then Ruby realizes that Lord Darkness’ plan is to receive the Primus Seed, a remarkable and enigmatic artifact with transformative properties. It is a multipurpose seed that holds immense power and potential. the Primus Seed is capable of altering physical forms, enhancing abilities, and connecting different universes within the multiverse, however without it: the universe can’t be connected, as JewelLand and the Earth are both under war, whatever side wins, they both lose, that’s some crazy stakes, even a children’s franchise like Jewelpet.

Kanon notices JewelLand along with the Earth getting destroyed, buildings are crumbling, people are dying, as the weeks pass by, more and more destruction happens, until one night, when a giant explosion hits London as then a massive casualty happens, in which 28484 people were killed, and there were 19295 people injured, and along with landmarks almost being destroyed, like the London Bridge and Big Ben, as then Kanon is horrified at the amount of events going on, as then Ruby awakens from her coma.

as Ruby notices the terror around her, she is worried about Kanon and Granite, Ruby asks: What is going on? Kanon, where is Granite?, Kanon says in a angry tone: MY BROTHER, HE WANTED TO BE WITH YOU FOREVER, THAT’S DISGUSTING!, the Orcs are about to kill Kanon and Ruby until Kanon shouts: “I-, I-, I WANNA TO PROTECT RUBY!” as then Ruby turns into a young girl, who has fair skin and cherry red eyes. She has cherry red medium length hair and wears a thin fuchsia magenta pink headband with her signature cherry blossom flower ornament with a powder white large kerchief attached to it. She also wears a light pastel fuchsia magenta pink unbuttoned seifuku jacket with side pockets and a powder white shirt with a pastel fuchsia magenta pink folded collar. She wears a pleated pastel fuchsia magenta pink skirt, powder white long socks, and pastel fuchsia magenta pink shoes. Her shoelaces resemble Ruby's signature cherry necklace, as then Kanon is shocked at what happened - Kanon and Ruby defeat the Orcs, the war or “fight” against Lord Darkness vs. Kanon and Ruby is not over, as Kanon faces her past and demons, and Ruby faces her dread, what will they fight or discover together in this dreaded sick horrifying world? after reading that whole synopsis, I was like: that’s fucking dope, Jewelpet for Adults? Sanrio is already high then they once was when they made Aggretsuko, I better watch it when it comes out, but then I woke up, and search on Google: Jewelpet for adults, and this is what came up.

And also in my dream, the reason why this Sunshine OVA anime was made, was not only to capitalize on the success of Aggretsuko and Show by Rock, but also the Jewelpet anime/animation’s 15th anniversary, along with wanting to market Jewelpet to an adult audience, and give another series the OVA treatment, and Sunshine was not the only show that got the OVA treatment, but also Lady Jewelpet had an OVA treatment, where Momona and Cayenne had a daughter, though the dream was not real.

luckily somewhere in a AU, the OVAs were real, and were airing on TOKYO MX?! instead of TV TOKYO?!, and apparently the OVAs were released in 4 volumes each (Episodes 1 - 11: Vol 1, Episodes 12 - 16: Vol 2, Episodes 17 - 20: Vol 3, Episodes 21 - 52: Vol 4 + Extra Episode: Episode 53), also the OVAs were being talked about on websites like: Twitter, Reddit and YouTube, with the sites speaking of the OVAs along with the controversy of Sunshine’s OVA, where there were responds ranging from: “This OVA isn’t nothing like Jewelpet” to “What the hell is this?!” to “Studio Comet shall burn in hell!”, anyway enough yapping, see you guys later!

[happytapirstudio]

Tapir Book Review: "Deadlands bk 1: Hunted" by Skye Melki-Wegner

Do you remember when I discovered this book and got super excited that it existed?  Well that's it that's the story.  Was it everything I hoped and dreamed?  I think so!

So this is what the website says: "Wings of Fire meets Jurassic Park in this action-adventure middle grade debut series by Skye Melki-Wegner about five outcasts—and former enemies—who are the only hope to save their warring kingdoms from impending doom."

First off, every piece of dinosaur media in existence feels the need to evoke Jurassic Park as a selling point.   I'll bitch about JP in a separate post, but needless to say, the only thing Deadlands and that movie have in common is dinosaurs.  And I guess being action/adventure stories.  As for Wings of Fire, I can't say...haven't read it!   Going in I figured it would be a lot like Warriors, what with the whole concept of warring factions of animals.  Surprisingly...it wasn't much like Warriors, either!

You know what it *is* like?  Land Before Time.  It's clearly for kids, but it's still a mature story.  It's told from the perspective of dinosaurs (no humans whatsoever! thank christ.)  And the directors/author clearly did some serious research for it.  The world-building in Deadlands is a bit more involved than LBT--it portrays dinosaurs with a distinct culture, a rich oral history, a political system, and a magic stone-based currency--but in the bigger picture, I'd say the level of anthropomorphism is about the same in each.  These are dinosaurs in their natural habitat, engaging primarily in natural behaviors, by which I mean, their main goal in life is to eat leaves.  Everything built around that--rules, rituals, armies--exists only to support that kind of lifestyle.

Another big LBT parallel is that our protagonists are a motley crew of young, abandoned, herbivorous dinosaurs who band together in the face of serious hardships in order to survive.  In Hunted, an Oryctodromeus named Eleri is cast out of his herd and sent to the Deadlands, a carnivore-infested desert wasteland where dinosaurs chuck all their criminals and traitors.  There, he meets several other dinosaurs (not saying what kind - spoilers!!), and found family ensues.

I am trying soooo hard to avoid spoilers here.  But don’t worry, another post is coming up, chock-full of spoilers and rife with myyyyyyyy opinions.  [link forthcoming]  Here's what I have to say in closing:

I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves dinosaurs, especially dinosaurs in their own right, not just as props in a human-centric story (cough, cough...........Jurassic Park.....................) I think the prose is quite lovely, and the premise, themes, and characters are all pretty sound.  That being said, this is, at the end of the day, a chapter book for younger kids.  If you can't hang with that, or the talking animal genre really doesn't appeal to you, then you should probably go back to the library and look for something else.

I had fun reading this--a good before-bed read!--so if you did, too, please hmu and we can chat about dinosaurs together!! <3

[muffinrecord]

I have a question about Arc 2 and Infinite Iroha (I can’t bring myself to read the story myself because the concept of someone being erased from existence like that makes me too sad). Is there anything that could have been done in-universe so that Iroha didn’t have to become Infinite Iroha and be erased?

It's hard to answer this since all I have are the chapter summaries to go off of and not an actual translation that I can read line-by-line. Also tbh I still don't 100% understand the final chapter in all its nitty gritty details-- I have a good idea of what happened, but I don't want to dig in too deeply into it because I feel like that'll spoil it slightly for me when it actually gets a translation I can watch.

That being said, I think I still might be able to answer this...? But it's two separate answers:

Answer One: No.

Iroha realizes in this final chapter a very sad truth-- in every timeline except for this one, she dies. This is the only one where she lives. And fate has come to balance its checkbook.

Before anything else, I want to quickly point out that Iroha being Kimochi-fied isn't actually what erases her-- she was able to be a Kimochi ver when she helps Rabi not destroy everything after all:

This form of hers is just Iroha, Ui, and Little Kyubey all combined into one being.

The reason she's erased is... uh.... actually I can't really give a solid answer to this, beyond that she's put a lot of burden on her soul-- she took in the Mirrors Witch out of compassion to show the witch (which is the amalgamation of many magical girls and their pain) a miracle. She then rewound time so that the fight never happened, erasing the witches' minions. Then she had to undo the uwasa-ification of all the magical girls which is apparently a mega burden on her soul, and I think it's implied she's doing other things behind the scenes.

In a way, it's very Madokami of her, but to a lesser scale. After all, Madokami was forgotten by everyone except for Homura, and Iroha is "only" forgotten by non-magical girls. Everyone else still remembers her, even if they can't see or interact with her anymore.

(It's also kind of implied she might be coming back, but it would be far off in the future...? I'm not really sure.)

In a way, this is the kindest kind of "death" Iroha could have been offered, and when you compare it to Madoka, Iroha had a much gentler version of being erased. Her friends still remember her and Iroha isn't alone-- she still has Ui, Little Kyubey, Sakurako, Touka, and Nemu by her side. Her friends still visit her by Sakurako's tree, and even if they can't communicate, they can be alongside one another.

It's interesting when you think about it. Iroha, the girl who could only live in one timeline, became Infinite. In some ways she was erased, in some ways she was stamped into time permanently, so that she can never be truly gone.

So in one sense, I think that Iroha can't have been saved. It was her fate, something like this was going to happen to her all along. She's stubborn about wanting to help everyone, and she has her own version of a happy ending, even if bitter sweet.

...

However...

Answer Two: Yes

See, there's another thing here. Magia Record, at it's core, is not a story about how one special fated girl is able to save the world. The series' themes are baked right into its gameplay-- connects are a big feature, teambuilding is important, and synergy is important.

This story is always stressing that connection, friendship, companionship, and understanding are what saves lives, not solo acts of greatness. When a girl tries to abandon it all and forsake the world, her friends come to pull her back. When a character feels like her destiny is too much and she can't possibly do it, her burden is carried by those around her. And these characters repeatedly learn that lending out a hand to someone else also in turn saves them.

Arc 2 has a lot of darkness, but a lot of light. Characters die, but characters are also saved-- morally gray characters are redeemed to the point of frequent fan frustration in fact. However, I think this is a deliberate choice of the writers-- it's very clumsily done in some ways so don't get me wrong, but I don't think it's a matter of the writers being too scared or cowardly to make a character actually evil or to let a character be irredeemable by the text (to be clear, you might disagree with the text and the actions of its characters but I'm talking about what the text states itself).

Arc 2 says that suffering causes suffering and that understanding and connection is what will save its characters. It says that everyone deserves a chance at redemption. It says that no one should be left alone.

...

Which makes the whole Iroha thing kinda weird, doesn't it?

Every faction leader has to learn something in arc 2. Every faction leader has to change in some way, to amend their thinking. Each faction leader needs to be saved by their own faction in many respects, and the connections and friendships they built are what make them saved.

So the question is: how has Iroha changed?

I think Iroha starts and ends arc 2 in a similar way-- she wants to save everyone. She starts off not wanting anyone to suffer and she ends it the same way. She retains her stubborn nature. In the end, she makes the decision to take on all the pain and suffering and deal with it on her own.

Ui, Little Kyubey, Touka, Nemu, and Sakurako are there. But this isn't Iroha getting saved from her fate like how Himena was saved by Sasha. This is Iroha falling in lockstep with it.

I think the answer to your question would be that Infinite Iroha shouldn't be Alone Iroha, but saved by those around her. An Iroha who let herself be saved instead of trying to save everyone else.

If Arc 3 does actually happen, then I think it might be something along these lines-- a story about how you don't need to take all the burdens in on yourself. Everyone else was able to change, and Iroha could too.

-

Anyways that's my long-winded answer. Sorry if this doesn't make sense, I can't sleep and it's hard to articulate.

[heliza24]

This was one of those lines and scenes that basically turns me inside out with envy as a writer. This exchange is working on so many levels. Like on a macro level it is summing up the themes of the show. Andy and the other inventors are fixated on creating technology that will protect them in the face of climate change but it's not enough to protect them from murder. In fact sometimes it's the technology itself that's being used to kill them. Andy is constantly talking technology in these big sweeping terms. He uses it to keep himself separate and apart from the rest of the world. But Darby uses it for connection. She fell in love with Bill on the internet. She uses technology to find the clues that lead her to answers. She uses Ray to keep herself grounded. She sees the humanity, the people-made hacks, threaded through every interface and every computer. The dead speak to her but so does code. And when the show touches on a generational divide I think that's what it's mainly saying. How do you view technology? Is it a tool to help you stay separate and apart from the rest of humanity or a way to speak to the dead? In reality there are people of every generation that have every possible relationship to technology. But there is something that feels very Gen x about Andy and very Gen Z about Darby in their relationship to computers.

Bill is kind of an in between. He meets Darby on the internet, but their courtship is analogue. He woos her using Morse code after they graduate off of Reddit. After he leaves Darby he starts making art that protests smart cities. Maybe he was murdered because he opposed some sort of tech that Andy is working on. We're not sure yet. And he's frustrated that Darby is so obsessed with the case she can't look up and see him, and for Darby the case lives on her phone. So it makes sense on a scene level that he would be railing against phones here. He's just been so vulnerable with her, listed the moments he knew he was in love with her, and she's too scared to be vulnerable in return. Instead she turns back to the phone. So it makes sense that he's displacing his frustration with Darby onto the object of her obsession. And her response just cuts through his defense mechanism. It's such a good rebuttal. It refutes his initial assumption, that her obsession with the case means she doesn't love him. It lets her be vulnerable and defend herself at the same time. It's such a good line.

Another thing I loved about this episode was the way that the Bill/Darby relationship shifted. In the beginning of the series Bill feels very dangerous. He's a stranger Darby met on the internet, he's hacking lights on abandoned train tracks to send her a message, he's sweeping her away on a cross country roadtrip to find a killer. He could easily be a killer himself. Those early scenes between them are shot in a way to emphasize the danger and the edginess that exists between them, and you’re supposed to be scared for Darby. But as we gradually get to know Bill we realize how caring and thoughtful he is. We see how much he cares about Darby and especially about her consent before anything sexual happens. And in this episode we realize that there was always a dangerous element in their relationship. But it was Darby, not Bill. It was Darby's obsession with the case, her comfort and dedication to the dead over the living, and her spiraling mental health that threatened their safety and their relationship.

By the time Darby is in Iceland, it seems like she's grown past this negative mental health space, at least to an extent. She's written about her experience finding the killer with Bill and put it behind her. But death finds her in Iceland and pulls her back in, and in this episode we see her resort to some of the same unhealthy coping mechanisms in order to solve the case.

The other perfect line from this episode was "sometimes I feel like I would have to die for you to love me", and I think it's so wonderful because it's both extremely true and totally wrong. Darby does have a connection to the dead, and she is bound to Bill more strongly in his death than she was during the years after he left her. She is intent on finding out what happened to him, but at the same time she is drowning in grief. She's unwilling to offer Bill's name when the other guests lists the other murder victims at the bonfire because that would mean he is really not coming back, he's really just the same as all the other serial killer victims they investigated together. And she loved him more than that. She loved him in life too.

This show is so good, the writing and the dialogue and the symbolism and sense of fate that runs through it is so good. I really hope they stick the landing of the mystery because I just love it. This episode in particular is just rattling around in my brain, I can't let it go.

[artcosmique]

Heyyyy guys, Im alive !

Annnnd i dont know if you noticed, but Im the kind of person who came with a lot of ideas, and (tragedy) after that i dont know wich one i should/want explore further

Soooo

I Will make yall choice WHEHEHEHE :D

1. Rise Of The Foot Clan AU

Well do you remember my Rise ‘design’ for Leatherhead ? I would like to put him in a comic where we will see more 2012 vilains through a comeback of The machiavelic Foot Clan :}}

Pro : I have a cool and long plot for that and cool designs ideas too

Con : My project plot is so long i might give up in the middle of it ;-;

2. Hanzo Samurai AU

a timeline exploring the lives of my two ocs Carravagio and Tiziano, from a Clan mirroring the Hamatos one, but who are not Ninjas but Samurais eager to restore the honor of this ancient abandoned clan.

Pro : The plot is cool i swear

Con : It will be a little less focused on our four favorite turtles (and yeah logic but we'll see them anyway) and before anyone asks the question no they won't have a ship (even if they are technically not blood related in my mind they are like cousins)

3. Brotherhood AU

Well it will be a series of small comics and not really a big story retracing the reunion of the four brothers in the following context:

Baron Draxum was interrupted during his most important experiment, that of giving life to mutants from turtles and Lou Jitsu DNA, a company called TCRI stole the four mutants from the experience, before locking them up in the four departments of this company to experiment on them. About fifteen years later, the Yokai Government collapsed this illegal business, rescue these mutants and the four brothers will be able to find each other again, rediscover each other, but what can you do when you have been separated for so long?

this will explore the theme of brotherhood (with humor) (and written by someone who hasn't had siblings, aka me)

Pro : I have quite a few of these little comics already written precisely in my head

Con : It will be very emotionally focused, there won't be a lot of action

And

There won't be much Splinter and Draxum, at least not Yet.

And

I know i Never talked about it before now lol.

Bonus :

Would you like more lore on my Rise Sona, Cosmos the Chameleon?

[morally-grey-girlbosses]

Nana Daiba Propaganda Post

Okay this got so very long so tl;dr: Local girl decides to engage on overprotective bs for an entire franchise, and goes from causing a bunch of time loops in the base series, trying to destroy a whole play in the game and both beating all of her friends in combat to lead them to their symbolic deaths so that they can symbolically be reborn also trying to get her roommate to be symbolically dead without that second step. Also she has two swords so she's automatically a girlboss.

Okay so this is going entirely off my knowledge of the anime, mobile game/ReLIVE and movie. If she did anything silly in the stageplays I do not know about it. So Nana is a funny little girl with so many issues. If you like anime girls in time loops, you'll love her, because she chose her time loop herself. She has abandonment issues like no other and she's so scared of her friends all growing up and going their separate ways that she decided to keep winning the auditions (/a series of funny little stage battles. Also there's swords. She has two of them which I think qualities her as a girlboss because lesbians with two swords are inherently cool) and choosing to repeat the same year and few months over and over. She kept doing this for decades, winning against even the top stars of her class, people more visibly talented than her, over and over. She did it partially because she wanted to protect everybody but also she was the only one with her fears so it was ultimately super selfish on her part. Not that she actually grew up or learned anything other that period of time, because so much of her character relates to how she's largely a tall child who did not consider letting go once. Eventually the childhood friends to lovers trope (Hikari and Karen) made it impossible for her to keep going with this, since they both beat her in the auditions.

Anyways now that we're done with that overprotective nonsense, let's move onto ReLIVE, where she does it again in a different form. This is the storyline to both introduce students from other schools and the Arcana Arcadia arc, which I'll be talking about now. So in this arc, what was known as Play A was causing all of the students to reach for the Unknown Lead. The problem was that this was fucking up peoples dynamics with each other, but in a way which was the pathway to change and growth. Nana is very anti-change when she sees it as harmful so of course she's back to her shenanigans. Aside from a brief talk with Junna early on, her first big appearance in the arc is when she's having a chat with Mahiru, and the hill Nana decides to die on is that there's not really any point in a lead role if anybody will have to be hurt at all by trying to get it. Mahiru points out that getting hurt is something they're all prepared for, and that was all of their choice. Almost like denying her friends and everybody she loves the choice or chance to face Nana's own fears/get hurt in any way is becoming a theme. Anyways, they have a revue over this, and Nana wins. After this, Nana ends up switching her attention from protesting the idea of plays having lead roles (as one done) to destroying this play as a whole, resolving to take everybody down and free them from what she sees as the madness the play has driven them all into, when they're all just passionate about a role and not really under a spell or being held captive like Nana says in her little monologue. Anyways, this is a bit short lived, because in her next appearance an act later, Maya, a fellow classmate and the top star Nana took down each time she began another reproduction/time loop, decided to invade her stage to fight against Nana. Nana takes this as a chance to talk about how much she thinks the play is hurting everybody, and reaffirms her viewpoint of the play being a source of madness. Maya points out how flawed Nana's viewpoint is, since she's once again selfishly denying everybody the chance to face any sort of hardship and grouping them all together as one thing she needs to protect. Then Nana says something strongly hinting at her reproductions and Maya simply decides not to unpack the implications there in favor of stepping on every moral which was driving Nana and leaving her with the realization that she messed up anyways.

And here's the movie. For context, at the end of the recap movie, which was the anime from Nana's POV, the symbolic deaths of the cast were strongly hinted at, and Nana knew about this. So naturally the next step was for her to beat all of her buddies in a 6v1 and restart the revues so that they could all reach their symbolic rebirths. Except Junna, her roommate/friend/the character she's usually paired with, was, in her eyes, incapable of recapturing her spark, so she ended up offering Junna an opportunity to choose her own end with one of Nana's weapons instead of trying to be symbolically reborn and just dying out pathetically as a result. Junna naturally was not really approving of this, so she ended up taking her sword to instead fight against her while making the point that her stage wasn't something Nana could make for her. And she won and the two of them promised to reunite but all of my emotions about that (which are very positive but are also just painted screaming) don't give her more morally gray or girlboss points while the rest of the revue at least gives her that first variety.

Anyways this girl keeps doing overprotective but very selfish things and also has two swords and the ability to use them so she is my funny little morally questionable girlboss. she also has girlflop traits but that coexists with the girlboss part because she is just a silly girl who has beaten 6 (maybe 5 technically) in combat singlehandedly

[squeeneypod]

listened to the wtw finale while driving yesterday and GOD

i wish i was better at writing words because it was so fucking Good the themes of cultural loss and assimilation and the ways that people who are robbed of their cultural heritage and the ways that people are robbed of the right to pass on their cultural heritage to the next generation

this season is one of the strongest in terms of how much time i spent wondering, just like elena, about anita and whether she would follow the tapes. wondering what went through her mind as this strange woman went on about her biological mother, and knew just a little too much about her because the society took away any chance that elena COULD know her, and led her from place to place and slowly revealed just how much elena wanted to be her mom and to share experiences with her and im gonna CRY because at least to a point she DID follow the tapes and she DID enjoy herself and they might TALK and maybe anita hates elena or thinks she's weird or loves her or doesn't know what to think and its MOTHERHOOD and CONNECTION and a sad dying woman who just wanted to connect with the person who could have been her daughter and AGH

i feel like this season is a great a mirror to season 4, where we sit in the place of sigrid as her biological mother touts the importance of family but ultimately abandons her for the sake of personal gain to the point of telling her to kill herself, while in this recent season we sit in the place of anita, a woman who is indirectly approached by a woman she's never met but over the course of ten episodes just wants to share so much with her about her mother and about herself. how she wants anita to have experiences and live her life and know where she came from and elena wants so badly for anita to LIVE

i love elena so much shes messy and selfish and has so many insights into the world she lives in! she wants to pass things on! she wants the woman who could have been her daughter to know that the world is big and beautiful and sad! she wants to tell her would-be daughter that the society robbed them of this!

and the whole series feels like that. the ways that the world they live in rob them of choices they could have made, of connections they could have had. claudia mourned her family and her home. hester only barely got to know her sister after years of separation. anita only got to learn about her mom after she died and now has to figure out what the hell that means to her and also for most of the tapes believes that this other woman is dead. vivi wanted her daughters!!! she wanted them!!

and then there's sigrid, on the other side. based on what little we know, she most likely didn't follow her mother's instructions at the end of season 4. but because of the restrictions by the society, she never had a choice growing up either. she couldn't leave without possibly being cut off entirely from the group she always knew, or even being sent to a place like the institute. where could she go?

god i love how little we know about oletta and sigrid and anita. i love that anita went on the trip and seemed to be having fun. i love that sigrid most likely saved the cradle. i love that oletta reached out to her sister and for reasons ill never know did go with hester. i love that a huge part of the story is in the wondering.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

I’m kinda still side eyeing and growing at the synopsis for the DD spinoff… ‘Daryl washes ashore in France and struggles to piece together how he got there and why. The series tracks his journey across a broken but resilient France as he hopes to find a way back home. As he makes the journey, though, the connections he forms along the way complicate his ultimate plan.’

Daryl making connections and things getting complicated is not a new thing for Daryl. It sounds like Daryl - as he seems known to do now - gets webbed into big things happening in France and makes some friends that he doesn’t want to abandon in the middle of their situation… Again, fairly common of Daryl I’d say. I’m trying just trying to piece together what the big discovery/big thing will be for Daryl’s spin off. With TWD it was literally the virus and surviving and not “becoming the walking dead” and connections you make. Daryl making connections isn’t a new big theme… one of the spin offs has to explore the cure route. I think France was where the CDC dude (forgot his name) said they were working on stuff for a cure. I kind of WANT Daryl to be in the cure arc of the spin offs. I feel like he’s the best choice for it besides Judith (I still believe kids born during the downfall of humanity are born with some kind of immunity but idk if that’s been touched on in the other spin offs). So much to think about. So many possibilities running through my little TD brain

Agreed. They're being very hush-hush about what the big hook, the big thing he'll be dealing with for the spinoff is. There has to be a villain of some kind. And sure, you could assume it's going to be a minor French villain--another Governor or Gareth, say--that Isabelle and her group are already dealing with. But if that's the case, why not use it in the promotion?

No, I keep going back to Diverged, which is where the writers tried to show us that things were changing, and that Daryl and Carol would not be together in the spinoff. They would go their separate ways. While out on his own (presumably a foreshadow of him being in France without any other current members of TF) he fixed his bike (we think that's indicative of Beth, because he also "fixed" the music box) ran into some military walkers (code for CRM soldiers) and heard wolves howling in the distance (there's gonna be a party when the wolf comes home).

So, I do believe the spinoff will involve Beth, but I also think it will heavily involve the CRM and the cure arc/immunity arc.

Remember, there are also ties to the coda of the World Beyond finale, because those characters were speaking French. And that was ALSO all about the CRM and cure/immunity arc. So, I think it's all connected. Even if Daryl isn't heavily involved with the CRM or said cure in the spinoff, I think this is still where he finally becomes really aware of them, comes face to face with them, and will eventually take that information back to TF to gear up for the CRM war.

And THAT, Nonny, is why I cannot wait for the spinoff to air. ;D

Xoxo! 🍀💖

[alliluyevas]

On the subject of prestige tv thank you for getting me rambling about the Sopranos and Big Love and Breaking Bad all at once because I’ve got an idea I’ve been sort of ruminating over in my head and i want to share it

I think all three of these shows have a kind of “original sin” that is deeply embedded into the moral framework of the show. this is a particular act that is sort of haunting the narrative, initially serves as a kind of barrier between the show’s nominal protagonists and antagonists--a line that the protagonist is not willing to cross. Until, of course, he is.

In the Sopranos, this line is filicide (and to a lesser extent fratricide). In the first season, Livia tries to kill her son and Junior tries to kill the nephew who is like a son to him. This positions Tony narratively as the victim of an atrocity, and it’s sort of the last huge taboo in a world where many characters commit horrible acts. Even in the mob, a mother should not kill her son. And this is a ghost that haunts Tony (and us) for the rest of the show. On the flip side, the mafia is set up as a band of brothers, and to betray your chosen family is the worst possible sin--except, starting with Pussy’s death, this fabric starts to further tear, until finally the narrative unravels enough to bring us to Tony killing Tony B (like a brother) and Christopher (like a son).

Breaking Bad’s ultimate evil is similar, but in some ways simpler. It’s killing a child. Not your own child--just a child. The murder of Tomas is initially what separates Walt and Jesse from Gus, but even from the beginning this is complicated by the parallel with Walt standing by while Jane dies--she’s not A Child in that she is not literally a kid anymore, but she is Someone’s Child, and her death has massive ramifications for her father. Then as the show goes on Walt further abandons his moral pretenses in this realm as he first poisons Brock and then allows Todd to kill that little boy whose name I can’t remember. It’s particularly insidious because when he poisons Brock he does so knowing that Jesse will blame Gus and not him because Gus would harm a child and Walt--Jesse thinks--wouldn’t. In the end, there’s still a dividing line in terms of this ultimate evil, but it isn’t between Walt and Gus--it’s between Jesse and Walt.

Big Love’s original sin is statutory rape/sexual exploitation of teenage girls. This is the evil that haunts that narrative, from the pilot episode where we are first introduced to Roman and Rhonda throughout the show. It’s in some ways the invisible ugly bedrock that their world is built on, and it’s not always the kneejerk in your face grossness that is Roman’s engagement to Rhonda but it’s very omnipresent. This is something that Bill initially uses to draw a fine line between himself and Roman--my polygamy is not abusive, I am not a pervert, etc, and obviously the show draws that majorly into question especially with season five--and this is one of the aspects of season five that really worked for me. Especially because it’s not necessarily Bill getting worse over the course of the series (tho I do think he does): it’s a revelation about something he did before the show even started. It’s always been there, even if you didn’t see it. And I think that theme really shows through in what I personally found one of the most compelling and chilling scenes in the show, where Margene deflects criticism of her and Bill’s marriage by pointing out that Joseph Smith married underage wives too. It’s always been there!

[scribbledquillz]

8 Videogames To Get To Know Me

Tagged by the lovely @shivunin to share some games I consider near and dear to my heart. Thank you for thinking of me!

Dragon Age: Origins - I love the whole series dearly, but Origins will always hold a special place in my heart. It has my favorite stories, characters and PC out of the three games. I found it during a very big transition point in my life (graduating college, first real apartment, moving permanently away from home etc) and it was a great comfort. Not to mention this game is the one that got me back into writing after more than a decade away.

Planet Zoo - sometimes you just need to sink 600+ hours into making the perfect habitat for your favorite critters... Before abandoning it halfway through as soon as you get another impulsive idea for a zoo theme.

Silent Hill, specifically 3 and The Room - Baby's first horror games. 🥰 These titles are what let me take my baby steps into my love of horror in games and stories. I might be a giant chicken who can't play them alone or have to watch them as let's plays, but I think the love still counts.

Project Zomboid / The Last Stand: Aftermath - technically cheating bc this is two separate series, but they hit the same corner of my video game preferences so I say it counts. I LOVE a good zombie apocalypse, and the survival challenge of Zomboid / combat system of Last Stand are just so darn fun.

Overwatch - yeah yeah yeah I know 2016 called. This is the one pvp game I play, and only with a select group of friends. It's for the socialization and shit-giving more than anything else. Lord knows their match making and monetization aren't what's keeping me around.

God of War - the whole series. The early games were a blast to play with the husband when we were in college, and the newest games (still playing Ragnarok) are just. Beautifully done stories that really delve into Kratos' attempts to do better by his son.

Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2 - again, emotionally powerful stories with gameplay that makes me willing to put hundreds of hours in for the sake of soaking up every last pixel.

Unpacking - this is just a delightful organization game with great unspoken visual storytelling. It feels cozy and warm and kiddo loves it too.

Honorable mentions - The Uncharted series, the Mass Effect series, Rollercoaster Tycoon, the Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Overlord 1 and 2, Pokemon Yellow, Spyro, Horizon: Zero Dawn

Annnnd with that I'll tag: @heniareth , @siriskulksnerding , @darkspawntaxcollectors , @greypetrel , @malewifezevran , @jinakadaisy , @merlange , @melisusthewee , @darethshirl , @oxygenforthewicked and YOU 🥰 (no pressure ofc)

[ursaspecter]

how would you rank the ghostbusters movies?

Oh man this is really hard! I love them all for their own reasons but I think in terms of objective quality (as objective as i can be) from best to worst I'd rank them

Ghostbusters (1984)

Ghostbusters Afterlife (2021)

Ghostbusters (2016)

Ghostbusters 2 (1989)

But again I love them all so very much in their own ways. The original film is for sure a classic and a staple of 80s pop culture. Ghostbusters 2 in retrospect is very much like a last hurrah for the guys as it's the last time all four of them would be on screen together. The 2009 video game had them all reprise their roles, but Bill Murray recorded his lines in a separate studio due to a falling out between him and Harold Ramis. (Ok "falling out" is a bit of an understatement but I don't have time to get into it rn fhdjhdjdhd)

Ghostbusters 2016 is a good movie y'all are just mean. No but actually it's pretty good! Yes it has its flaws and the jokes don't always land, but I think the hate it gets is extremely overblown. It came out during a big antifeminist movement that spawned from Gamergate and sadly I think the timing really did the movie a disservice. But separated from that, I think it's a nice extension to the Ghostbusters multiverse (yes it is a multiverse). The characters are fun, it tries new things, and while there are a few forced references to the original movie, I think there are plenty of subtle nods to the other movies and even the video game that tell me the people working on this movie cared a lot about Ghostbusters. Also Kate McKinnon is a joy and a delight.

Ghostbusters Afterlife is truly a love letter to the series though and I think an excellent tribute to Harold Ramis. The dedication to capturing the spirit (pun not intended) of the original movie and bringing the series back is just so charming and heartfelt. I highly recommend watching Adam Savage's series on YouTube touring the set of Afterlife as he goes through the set design, costumes, props, and practical effects for the film.

I don't think any of these films are bad, but I put Ghostbusters 2 at the bottom just because it's really toned down from the original. I wish it kept those darker themes since y'know it's a movie series about dealing with ghosts like pest control. Kind of a morbidly humorous idea that the sequel almost completely abandons. Except that one scene in the subway tunnel. What the fuck was up with that.

[apparentlyaswarmofbees]

EVEN MORE Small Things to Imagine With The Brothers and Undatables

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Because I got in a good mood after listening to 'My Narrow Road' from Ito Kashitaro. I recomend! it’s good!

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Lucifer

The way he squints challengely at you when you spot a single paper plane on the corner of his office that looks suspisciously like a document.

The ultimate betrayal as he nudges the back of your knees with his own consequently making you almost lose balance.

The concentrated furrow of his brows upon his closed eyes as he tests the sounds of an old violin, big eyelashes slowly fluttering open as he gives a satisfied smile.

Present him a plushie and enjoy the sight as he takes a final look at his documents and any lost messages before going to bed, all the while keeping said plushie confortably sitting on his leg, his fingers absentmindely rubbing the soft texture every once in a while

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Mammon

The casualness as you fix each other's clothes and accessories, your hands unwrinkling his collar, his fiddling with your own. Expect to have any long sleeves you wear suddenly be folded up whenever you guys sit near each other.

The teasing peek of skin from his belly and hips as his shirt rolls up just enough when he stretches his arms up with a very long, and slightly exagerated, yawn.

Having him laying on his arms on your middle, the adorable scrunch of his face, rubbing it on his arms as he tries to wipe off the growing smile on his lips when you give his nose an affectionate and gentle pinch.

Peeking from behind a tree and having him chase you around in circles until either of you decide to just to grab onto the other forcefully.

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Leviathan

Tying his bangs in a cute little ponytail on the top of his head and watching as he refuses to undo it with pride for the entire day if the tie used was Ruri-Chan themed.

Making voices with him in front of a fan on a hot day, and watching as he starts to make more and more different voices and references the more confortable he gets.

Watching as Henry follows his owner's movements as he wanders back and forth in front of the big aquarium in a rant.

Hugging him close and playing with his hair as he burries his entire face on your shoulder and squeezing you closer with his arms each passing minute until he finally relaxes.

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Satan

Challenging each other to read the most ridiculous crack fics in the most dramatic poet voice manageable and watching as he struggles to keep his composure.

The ridiculously serious and concentrated frown on his face as he tries to make a perfect ketchup cat on the top of an omelette and the ridiculously cute proud smirk on his lips as his eyes shine brightly at his successfull creation.

Talking to him about a show he has already watched and the undoubtedly excited fidgeding of his body as he struggles both to not spoil you of anything and to not give you omnious comments about what you should expect next.

Alternativelly, his coninuous gaze as he tries to read into every single detail on your facial expressions in a curious attempt to see if it gives out what he should expect to happen next on a show you have watched and recomended to him.

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Asmodeus

The sight of him humming along to a tune with an absentminded smile as he paints his toe nails. There are clips in his hair to keep his bangs away from his eyes, toe separators on his feet and definetelly a few stains on his hands.

The way he looks in your direction with a wrigling brow as he flips his scarf dramatically over his shoulder in front of a store's one sided mirror.

Sharing a candied apple and watching as he smiles, small pieces of candy still stuck on and off his lips, giddy at both the idea of sharing it with you and the sweet taste of the lovely treat.

The happy twirl he gives as he shows off to you the new outfit he bought, clapping excitedly after having you do the same to him, possibly with the help of his own hand, spinning you smoothly almost like in a dance.

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Beelzebub

Kissing the very tip of his nose and watching as the corners of his mouth squishes his reddening cheeks as he smiles so hard to the point he may not even be able to keep his eyes open anymore.

The almost bratty but adorable pout he gives when you deny him a sample of the still in process of making food before he proceeds to basically glue himself to your back, his head resting on your shoulders or head, expectant eyes watching as you move.

The sight of his hunk figure crouching down in front of a flower bed, his careful fingers giving the flowers a series soft and gentle nudges and touches, his face devoid of expression as he pays attention to every single detail. He nods, his face now carrying a satisfied smile. They were healthy.

Having him gladly and happily bend his head down to your height as you reach your hands into his hair, giving him a well deserved head pat.

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Belphegor

Hanging up a blanket on top of a very throughly organized nest of pillows and stuffed animals in the dark, snuggling to him shoulder to shoulder, a flashlight in one hand, Grimm Fairy Tales on the other.

Watching as he succumbs himself to the rule of kittens as he lays down on the floor, giving a free pass for the small felines to climb and snuggle into his face, neck and body all they wanted.

Whispering ridiculous things right into each other's ears in an attempt to make the other laugh out loud in the worst places and situations.

Curling with him under a big blanket on a cold day, each with their own mug of hot chocolate. The adorable sight of a very obvious cream moustache that has made it's place on the sleepy demon's face.

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Solomon

Taking Use of the closeness of your boddies while cuddling as an opportunity to tickle the hell out of him and watching as he struggles to decide if he should focus on getting out of your betraying hold or if he should keep on blocking your wriggling hands that keep reaching for his most sensitive spots.

Going on a small trip to the human world and somehow ending the day laughing your hearts out as you ride a two seats bike, that came equipped with two very nostalgic bells, together.

Sitting together with your backs touching, the immortal sorcerer closing his eyes, you being able to feel his every breath as he inhales and exhales, his body relaxing and melting into your presence alone.

Taking part of his shenanigans in the kitchen, feeding each other surprisingly edible samples, a happy smile never once leaving his face.

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Simeon

Having your feet on top of his or his on top of yours as you both give in an attempt at slow dancing, his chuckles reverberating between your touching bodies, the vibrations leaving behind a small and giddy tingle on your skin.

Having him sit on the floor in front of you, your fingers combing through his dark hair and his body becoming more and more slouched as you attempt to style the silky strands into a braid.

Hands linked in the air for balance as each of you walk alongside an abandoned rail trail together, both of you aware, almost sheepishly, of how cheesy said action in fact was.

Sitting side by side on top of a tree branch, his fingers softly holding onto yours as both of you gaze into the distance, a gentle breeze swaying your clothes as the two of you enjoy a moment of confortable silence.

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Diavolo

Teaching him various types dances and styles, his beautiful laugh echoing through the walls as he both succeeds and fumbles in his gestures, bright eyes attently paying attention and mimicking your every movement.

Going to the carnival together, watching as the prince of hell almost bounces on his feet from attraction to attraction, all the while while wearing a cute animal eared headband he completelly refused to take off until he stepped inside his own castle.

Introducing him to the human world "magicians", his face morphing through a chain of expressions as he watches in wonderous amazement tricks ranging from simple card tricks to making things desappear, reapear and multiply.

Kissing each other all over the face, little smoochy noises getting mixed with a fit of giggles as both of you were set on not leaving a single patch of skin unkissed, even thought the two of you were now smiling too hard to even do it properly.

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Barbatos

Introducing him to fruit carving and watching as it slowly becomes like a new hobby for him. The buttler's posture and face turning into something almost fondly relaxed as he skillfully turns various types of fruits into beautiful shapes of objects, animals and flowers.

Giving each other an almost smirk like smile as you Link your arms together, the two of you bringing your respective glasses to your lips before drinking from the liquid at the same time.

Convincing him to try out scented candles, watching as he judges each option throughly, his expressions going through slight, almost unseen changes as he closes his eyes momentarily so he focuses solely on his senses of smell.

Gloved protective hands craddling your head onto his shoulder and firmly holding onto your back, the flicker of an almost sorrowfull expression threatening to break through his usual deadpan demanor gone unseen as he, strangely, hopes for his presence to be of enough confort.