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starberry-cupcake · 7 months ago

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I shouldn't be making another one of these because I didn't even give you enough time to catch up and I'm sure you're tired of me (I'm probably losing mutuals over the length of these) BUT I FINISHED ACT II and I think this is the right place for an update recap. I'm so sorry.

previously, in harrowlana the ninth (reference I might explain one day):

this happened

currently, chapters 20 - 22 (END OF ACT II!!!):

we start with a killer epitaph from harrow for her own grave that I absolutely 10000% need in a tshirt yesterday

"Here lies the world's most insufferable witch"

alleged gideon the first, here known as ortus the first (but I am so sure about this one) has tried to kill harrowbeanie 14 times

I honestly don't know how harrow is going through this without outright telling emperor johnny man to go and insert this entire planetary situation right in the center of his bolthole

we're over here working overtime for you and your sorry ass of a plan that is probably terrible for everyone who isn't you

and we have to put up with zombies (we'll get there), the terrible attitude of your remaining lyctors, very questionable food, very questionable decor, very questionable non goth fashions, and also a man who tries to kill harrow at every turn

this is the worst

at least in canaan house we had gideon's humor and camilla's perfection

ANYWAY

emperor john tells alleged gideon the first (if I'm wrong about this, these are going to be embarrassing looking back on) "she's your responsibility, not your punching bag" to which alleged gideon the first answers "I find the responsibility a hard one"

I'm not sure if this is alluding to baby lyctors in general or harrow in particular, or if anything related to the gideon-involvement narrative I'm imagining has anything to do with it

emperor johnny boy tells harrowbean that this guy's problem is that he made a pact with an "authority he has no power to gainsay" to protect emperor johnny john and that alleged gideon the first thinks harrow is a danger to the emperor

I SURE HOPE SO

I SURE HOPE HARROW KILLS THIS MAN

I HOPE ALLEGED GIDEON THE FIRST IS RIGHT

harrow then mentions how she's "lyctor lite" and emperor john of nottingham says he doesn't think harrow fucked up the lyctor thing

he says only one person fucked it up and it was nasty

it was the ninth lyctor, Anastasia (and a song someone sings, once upon a december)

the vacant room harrowbean has taken residence in was meant for her, but she never made it there

she asked emperor john the asshat to kill her and he said no because he's that kind of a person

"she had much more to give"

I hate this guy

he also says "I had a body and I needed a tomb"

harrow asks the question everyone is asking themselves

aside from where tf are gideon and camilla

"God, who did you bury?"

he gets all vague and cryptic so he can avoid taking about what the fuck he's doing

and he quotes Annabel Lee

edgar allan poe's Annabel Lee

this is a bit more in my wheelhouse than shakespeare

to which harrow notes "Who was A.L.?"

now, I have SEVERAL THINGS TO SAY

first, and most importantly, I HAVE BEEN SAYING THIS

THAT ICE CUBE BARBIE MIGHT BE A.L.

I HAVE BEEN SAYING THIS, FAM

here's more magic knight rayearth art of the vibes I get from them to celebrate

second of all, Annabel Lee

I do have Annabel Lee in one of my EAP books, but not the one with the pretty Lacombe illustrations

so here are some Ligeia illustrations from it that have the vibe we're going for, as a treat

now, not to be all ortus over here, but I'm gonna be reciting some poetry

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride, In her sepulchre there by the sea— In her tomb by the sounding sea.

gonna put that in the 3d model

in the middle of it, like a centerpiece

let's bring back the barbie

this man is doing the whole wife/madwoman in the attic gothic trope but instead of an attic it's a tomb in pluto

another madwoman archetype to add to the list, we've got a whole collection

CHAPTER 21

we have summoned ortus by reciting poetry, because we're back in the gideon-less version of canaan house

so, the sixth is dead in this version

the sleeper or random rifle carrying person shot them in the face a bunch of times

what I wanted to do to not!dulcinea

harrow mentions not having seen camilla or palmolive much in this gideon-less version

devastating for her not to have met camilla

so then protozoa and dulcinea come in

notice I didn't say not!dulcinea

that's because this is the real deal dulcinea and the alive non zombified protozoa

we can know this by their descriptions (especially the hair), the fact that dulcinea knows who tf palmolive is, that she has a breathing tube that palmolive designed for her (this guy istg), that she can identify them and calls them "cam" and "pal"

I was so caught up on this book I forgot to read the short story that came before it btw

anyway, we also know this because protozoa speaks, but we'll get to that

before that, ortus calls the sleeper "the waker" and it's giving me the vibes of the citadel deck

wait, I'm gonna take a pic of some of the cards that give me the correct tlt vibes, so you know what the hecko I'm talking about

(I'm going on unplanned tangents but maybe someone appreciates them)

(we've moved from 3d models to me fetching books and decks from my shelves, what has palmolive done to me)

so, as previously established, protozoa speaks, which is how we know he might be the real one and not the zombie version

he then proceeds to recite poetry

ortus is feral about this

I thought initially that they were gonna have to make room for protozoa in the polycule ortus is in with the fifth, but he doesn't like protozoa coming for his gig

abby says "we're all in this together" which reminds me I did make a high school musical connection with magnus before, so it's funny that it turned out that way

abby asks real dulcinea, aka "dulcie" to her, to bring in mayonnaise uncle because he'll listen to her

why is everyone always into her in all the aus, idk

this one is less bad than not!dulcinea though, but the bar for that was on the subsoil

magnus (who is very much in love with his wife and he's pointing it out every chance he gets) is in charge of looking for martita

harrow is in charge of regina george twin (and yandere twin)

abby thinks regina george twin is the most relevant one

apparently also they're flooded with the rain

which was me last week, so I feel you fam

and we get our traidtional quote, this time by real dulcinea

"Is this really how it happens, Lady Pent?" "No. It's not" "Does it get—better than this? Do you know?"

real dulcinea is saying goodbye to palmolive and the love of my life, who I refuse to accept is in any way harmed in any timeline

and harrow "felt something in her core, though she did not know precisely what it was"

palmolive had a filmsy and we love flimsies because they have what I have started to call "harrow texts"

or "texts which can only be read by harrow"

OP is still ranting, a continuation of the egg rant

I'm gonna transcribe all of it and bold the new part, for my own access, even though everyone who has me in their dash will hate me and block me

The eggs you gave me all died and you lied to me so I did the implantation myself you self-serving zombie and you still sent him after me and I would have had him if I hadn't been compromised and he took pity on me! he took pity on me! he saw me and he took pity on me. And for that I'll make you both suffer until you no longer understand the meaning of that goddamned word. Him I'll kill quick because she asked me to and because that much he honestly deserves but you two mummified wizard shits I will burn and burn and burn burn until there is no trace of you left in the shadow of my long-lost natal sun

could the self-serving zombie be emperor john? could gideon the first be one of the people alluded to? has Annabel Lee anything to do with any of this? since OP mentions a long-lost natal sun? who's "she"? has gideon's mom anything to do with any of this? is this totally not related? is this the actual present? does 'mummified wizard shits' stand for lyctor? because I kinda live for that

ortus, on the other hand, sees an S

ortus in this timeline knows how his dad died, apparently

and we end this part with harrow and ortus finding rusted pipette needles

CHAPTER 22

harrow has killed 13 planets in this practice, which is insane and nobody's asking any questions about it

she was dreaming with ice cube barbie annabel lee and she told her to wake up

harrow mentions the sword sleeping next to her in a loverlike position and it reads like a gideon body pillow to me

remember when I said we should have flushed not!dulcinea into space?

GUESS WHO WAS RIGHT

nobody ever takes the not!dulcinea threat seriously but me

I have to do everything around here

she's a zombie now, which is protozoa's revenge from behind the veil

there's a moment in which she trips but still looks at harrow and it's very creepy and well narrated but I can't help but think of the dracula dead and loving it scene with hypnosis

"it was as though a magnet were stuck in the meat, a magnet that craved some polar force within you" wonder what THAT is about

much like the sleeper/waker, not!dulcinea can pass through wards apparently

harrow goes to wake up yandere twin and says "septimus is walking"

yandere twin doesn't understand at first "the name that had never been cytherea's" and later says "tell her I want my arm back"

which relates to the fact that I've been thinking

if real dulcinea is there in the gideon-less ver

how was not!dulcinea even involved?

because harrow seems to have memories of killing her, of fighting her, of her doing damage in some way, of her being a threat, of her doing it to lure emperor johnny boy to canaan house

so we have some big missing link between the gideon-less canaan version and the emperor's bolthole timeline

she can't be the sleeper/waker, because harrow wouldn't call her "septimus"

so harrow remembers not!dulcinea posing as real dulcinea, which does not happen in the gideon-less version, as far as we can tell atm

AGAIN, DON'T TELL ME ANYTHING, LET ME BE IN DISTRESS

last but not less important

remember not to hint me anything at all and thank you for being patient with me all this time ♥

#luly reacts to tlt #harrow the ninth #harrow the ninth spoilers #the locked tomb #tlt spoilers #the locked tomb spoilers #long post #gif cw

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am-i-the-asshole-official · 11 months ago

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AITA for vaguely coming out to my boyfriend's aunt at Thanksgiving?

As you can probably guess my bf and I are a gay couple. There was a mostly unspoken - just bc it didn't need to be spoken - agreement that we'd be acting like we were just good friends at his family's Thanksgiving bc they're Catholic and he's generally just not ready to be out.

It was just me, him, his parents, and his visiting aunt... who was decidedly very butch. Like undeniably. There's the standard old-lady-with-short-hair look but then there was this genuinely bulky rural woman who is unmarried at 60, never had kids, and outright told me that her friends essentially called her a masc name AND that she was here instead of home bc the "close friend" she usually spends holidays with passed away this year. It all just added up like crazy. Idk if my bf's parents have put it together themselves and/or if they just ignore it or what, and actually even my bf denied it when I first brought it up but I think he's just struggling to reconcile his upbringing with who he is and whatnot.

Anyway, that last part about the aunt's likely partner was during a private moment between the two of us, and it really sealed it for me. I started to offer condolensces and she immediately changed the subject to ask about the "close friendship" between me and my bf-- plausibly innocently, but I just felt it was right and I more or less confessed to her that I had really strong feelings for him.

And that's ALL i confessed. I didn't actually say we were dating. I just alluded strongly to the like, "we are the same" type vibes and that her nephew is like, my dream man. I didn't imply anything about his sexuality. For all she knows, I have unrequited feelings for him or something. And I know she's definitely gay herself now with how she reacted, AND she made it pretty clear she wasn't gonna tell her brother or his wife. She's chill.

So the issue is that I recently told my bf about this, knowing he would at least be upset that I didn't tell him sooner. And I'm totally ready to accept the flack for being a coward about the honestly on that part. I figured he really ought to know about his aunt, if nothing else. But he's also upset that I said anything to her of that nature at all. He insists it's the principle of the thing, that the lack of consequences mean nothing and that I should have just assumed the worst and been more careful, etc. And like, I did feel a little bad about my big fucking mouth in the moment, but ultimately it felt like a nice and important moment of connection. But WAS I the asshole for not being more careful? Like really?

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

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red-man-of-mustache · 6 months ago

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Namedropping

Hey everyone! We're gonna take a little detour today/tonight to talk about something that's happened between me and someone you might know at @askwendyokoopa. I labored with this because in all my time being on/off tumblr I've never had to make such a post as this. Usually, if I block someone or someone blocks me we both move on like normal people. In this case though, I was appraised of the habits of this person along with my own experience with them and I proceeded with a block only to be met with them hopping on another account to blatantly get around said block then, when I refused to engage further they name-dropped me. Here's the post in question I'll be addressing throughout.

But, let's begin shall we? I'll start by talking about me. This'll be a long read and I know I'm asking a lot but please read it in full if you interact with his person.

I hope I've tagged this appropriately, if I haven't let me know. I'll also be reblogging this for the day crowd.

My blog is a safe place. I rp Mario as very campy, bright, and happy-go-lucky so I extend that to my general post pattern. I take my name and reputation quite seriously and as stated just a second ago I wrestled with making this post but I cannot let what they've said go uncontested. If you're reading this and you interact with them then this isn't me damning you or claiming I won't interact with you because of it but this is simply a cautionary tale. With that being said, for the more sensitive bits of proof, shoot me a DM or hit me up on discord(available upon request) and I can furnish you with even deeper details than I plan on going into in this post.

I have always avoided airing out my dirty laundry so to speak when it comes to any aspect of my life on this blog. Although it is "my" blog and I can post whatever I want, again, this is a place of uplifting and an escape. Rare is it when I'll post about how I struggle with certain things or if I feel dejected from a certain community and so on. I made a post a few months ago talking about my substance abuse and how I overcame it. In that same post I spoke about my mom, her alcoholism, and how she injured me in an altercation we had. I did that to be open because these same struggles have impacted my time on here. I was heavily self-medicating during my last run on tumblr and although I was present it was because I literally wished I didn't exist at the time. It all culminated into last year, spilling into this year. You can read that post for that information. I won't entirely retread that ground here.

It's a heavy subject and it's a dark contrast to what I usually post but I did so in case anyone could take strength from knowing I made it through a major struggle such as that.

Now this is a post about @askwendyokoopa,whom we'll refer to as Wendy for the rest of this post, why am I talking about me first? Well, once again, I've never blocked someone and seen them 1. try to circumvent the block with another account(one that perpetrates what I've come to have an issue with on them, more on that later) and 2. have that same person namedrop me for that block as if I need to convince them I don't wish to speak with them anymore.

Yes, I did.

Truly this song & dance is new to me. Again, I take my name(url) very seriously so to call me out as if I've done something wrong to you for not wanting to speak to you?? That's my right, you can't play victim just because I didn't give you a college thesis. This is the internet, if I don't wanna communicate with you I just won't.

I don't make vague posts about people I don't like, nor do I vaguely allude to me going through a tough time(at least I try not to, if I have those incidents are few and far between) I'll outright say I'm not feeling it or something along those lines but even then I have to be going through hell to make such a post. I also refuse to put it on my moots and followers when I feel inadequate because I'm here to lift you up not the other way around. If you choose to drop a compliment on my writing or personality, great! I deeply appreciate it and it motivates me to keep going but I'm here to give a boost to everyone around me through Mario. He's been with me since I was a kid and always a figure of inspiration in how he faces down trouble. I could use a bit of that in my adult life. I just wanna share that with everyone else.

I've actually been sort of a monolith my whole time on Tumblr and you know what? It's gotten me into a lot of trouble I can't lie. I'm doing my best to break that pattern by being upfront with how I feel, speaking to people more even if it's just to say "Hey I like your blog" or something simple along those lines. How can I claim to wanna provide a morale boost to people if I'm as reclusive as I (still) am? Doesn't make sense which is why I've been moving to change it.

This is not to name me a victim by the way. All this person did was namedrop me and mildly annoy me/make me uncomfortable but I've spoken with actual victims of their harassment and that was actually the last straw. So if anything I'm getting off light, I'm only doing this to clear my side of things and provide clarity for why this is happening.

I met Wendy way back in the infancy of my old @red-man-of-archive blog which I'm sure is obvious that it was the same URL you see me using now when it was active. Things were casual but consistent. IC Wendy had a crush on Mario but he usually never reciprocated and just moved on. Was it harassment back then? No. We didn't talk OOC and kept things "business" as I'll call it. They were amicable and their portrayal was pretty accurate in my opinion of course. Nothing funny going on to my knowledge.

Fast forward to me going through the various issues I did, being unable to even keep up with basic blog activity, and then going on extended hiatus. I tried coming back but had lost my phone number by then due to financial reasons and I decided this was the chance I needed to start over. So I did! I remade the blog September of 2018, archived the old one since I was still somehow logged in on my phone at the time and moved on. I don't think Wendy was around when I started over but they did come around. And to clarify: it still wasn't harassment. Things were casual, when threads ended they didn't have a foul word to say.

I end up dropping out again from tumblr, still in the storm that is my life. Not even a full month later either. I'd pop in for spurts of activity but it never lasted. Didn't see hide or hair of Wendy during this period.

Then we arrive at this year. Nearly three years after my last posting. I had quit smoking(THC) completely, I'm on the uptick in my job/finances, and I'm seeing a therapist. Took a look back and I've been reclusive, posting from my little cave this whole time and I came to the realization that if I want any staying power I need to put more of me out there alongside Mario. So, I start approaching people OOC more and trying to be forthcoming in where our threads are going or if I'm liking/disliking something.

Coming back to Wendy. When I got back so-to-speak I went through my followers to see if anyone was still active. Three years is a long time after all. I came across her again: Wendy. I looked at the timestamps, saw how far back they'd posted but they were among the people I felt comfortable enough to message despite the inactivity. Ironic.

Now, I can't show chat messages between us because when I blocked them the messages were nuked. I don't feel like attempting an unblocking to revive it but I'm about 90% sure they can see my posts anyway. Bear with me a little longer on this narration.

They get back to me after a bit and we start chopping it up. We catch up and I'll be 100% transparent in saying yes I did go along with everything being suggested. We started an entire thread based off innuendo but it was quite ham-fisted and when I stopped replying they began to pester me "Did I do something wrong? Can you not find another acronym?" even going so far as to start interacting with me through a different post and asking in character why I didn't reply.

That thread and the in character incident are gone unfortunately as I deleted them. But, I've got more than that to share. Innuendo isn't inherently bad nor does it go outside of what I do here as Mario.

By this point my patience has been tested and I realize this isn't the same amicable person I used to deal with. I can't speak for others OOC but I will say they hijack posts very often to ramble in character with this self-referential tone that makes it quite obvious this isn't Wendy(the character) speaking but the mun or simply turn things inappropriate. A few examples, we got

Just bizarre, plus it's AI

Again, weird, but not a blockable offense. They've at least put the bare minimum of effort in to tag it, I guess right? Well, around the time the gears were turning regarding this person's odd and pushy behavior there was someone within a server I've joined who made an announcement about them given they've had experience with this person. Unfortunate experience it seems.

They detailed a lot of things as did a few other moots of mine but one thing in particular stuck out to me. They claimed that this particular person used a whole host of other blogs to stalk/harass them. Then I remember this post.

Wait a second... going to their profile proper we see

Then if we hover over Pom Pom we see

So, not only do they have a laundry list of accounts at their disposal but they use them to circumvent blocks, and then will talk to themselves using these same accounts.

I don't wanna associate with someone like this. And this is just the tip of the iceberg, if I haven't convinced you yet, contact me through tumblr DM's or discord and I can let you know what else I know because their rap sheet is longer than their muse list.

They mass follow people within communities they're active in and even if you block this main blog, they could be on your follower list and you don't even know it. Thusly, I am going to suggest you block this person and their list of alternative blogs, and move on. If I still haven't convinced you, once again hit me up privately because I've got more personal stuff to share that doesn't belong here per se.

I don't wanna see this person victimize other people and that's why I took the time to put out this warning. All that talk earlier from me about "uplifting people" but I'm making a callout post right? Well, once again, I didn't want to originally because I thought I could just move on. But, this is a chronic pattern of behavior exhibited by this person and I don't wanna see them victimize someone else. If me blocking them didn't get them up in arms enough to namedrop me and play the victim themselves we wouldn't be here. Plus, I wasn't the only person addressed in their little callout post.

So, that's the scoop on why I blocked askwendyokoopa and why I believe you should too. They are not worth your time or energy.

The rabbit hole goes deeper but I've rambled long enough.

My discord is available upon request if you'd like to discuss things further. This will be my first and last time addressing them/this situation publicly. I don't do drama and in a month it'll be ten years since I started posting on tumblr. This has never happened to me before and I'd like to keep it that way.

Thank you.

#ℳ ➙ Player One | OOC |#tw: drama #call out post #drama #tw: harrasment #askwendyokoopa #tw harassment #tw drama #red man of mustache

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rutilation · 9 months ago

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Once upon a time, I noticed something funny was going on with the weather in one of the chapters of Chainsaw Man—it doesn’t snow as early as September anywhere in Hokkaido, you see. And then, I noticed the calendars were constantly trying to trick the reader. Things spiraled out of control from there.

Right off the bat, if you’re new to this particular red string-laden cork board of mine, I’d invite you to read the two other metas I’ve written on the subject—the subject in question being the weird, ambiguous, and deceptive portrayal of the passage time in Chainsaw Man. The following will mostly serve to develop my thoughts from those previous posts, as well as to catalogue temporal inconsistencies both old and new that I haven’t talked about yet. While I’ll bring up things from my other write-ups, I’m not going to thoroughly summarize them here. I also want to note that I don’t have some unified theory of everything to explain what’s going on and why. At this point, all we have to work with are data points and vibes. There’s a puzzle being slowly filled in, but we don’t yet have all the pieces, or even a concrete reason as to why there’s a puzzle in the first place.

Before I proceed any further, there are a couple assertions I made in my first essay which I feel ended up being irrelevant—I no longer think there’s any significance to the fact that several of the months alluded to in the story coincide with the beginning of the week, and, with regard to the hydrangeas on chapter 72’s calendar, I ended up making a much more thoughtful write-up on its potential meaning in hanakotoba several months later. That said, the hydrangeas’ association with early summer in Japan is still very relevant to the topic at hand.

With that out of the way, I’ll start by sharing my thoughts on the latest instance of temporal weirdness—one which was blatant enough to have captured even the attention of readers in the cheap seats, as it were. In chapter 146, Barem claims that the apocalypse, which ought to happen in July of 99, is half a year away. But, the calendar/fart chart combo in Denji’s apartment in chapter 119 indicated that the story was in March (of either 98 or 99, depending on whether that calendar started on a Monday or not,) and the calendar seen in Asa’s apartment in chapter 135 seemingly moved the clock forward to April of 99.

I’ve seen people put forward a couple of possible explanations—maybe there were several lengthy time skips between each of the three aforementioned chapters, or maybe the ‘March Farts’ chart was out-of-date, and the otherwise-unlabeled calendar in the apartment was actually flipped to a different month.

Both of these explanations, however, have massive holes in them. In chapters 145 and 149, both Nayuta and a nameless Public Safety agent claimed that the events of the prior arc happened “the other day.” While that’s certainly vague, it outright precludes a substantial time skip. You’d only use that turn of the phrase to talk about something that happened a couple of weeks ago, at the very most. What’s more, the fact that it cropped up twice in quick succession makes me think we’re meant to pay attention to it, and take note of the impossibility of timeline as it’s been presented.

As for the other explanation, while I could see Denji forgetting to take down the 'ol fart chart, I doubt he'd leave an out-of-date calendar up on the wall. He and Nayuta are both busy people, after all. In keeping with established precedent, the calendar on his wall could begin on either Monday or Sunday, and it lasts 31 days. There are only two months from 1999 that could match: March and August. Since one of those is *checks notes* a month after the impending apocalypse, I think we can safely say this calendar could only be for March. Even if we were to momentarily forget the characters' assertion that there hasn't been a substantial timeskip, and look to 1998 for a calendar that could match that of Denji's apartment, it could still only match March of that year.

That's to say nothing of how you have to get Denji's calendar to match up with Asa's a dozen chapters later. Once again, the only pair of consecutive months that match both calendars is March and April of 99. The only other pair that's even close is December of 97 and January of 98. Which is. Unlikely.

Now that I've done all that table-setting, I feel this is a good time to remind you all of that ‘7’ emblazoned across Asa’s calendar. Don’t you love it when July is half a year away, but also three months away, but also happening right now?

In short: the timeline is an indecipherable mess at the moment. Frankly, I’m not sure I should trust Barem’s word any more than I do the calendars or the weather. If both of those can lie, then why can’t he? People have been grasping for a cut-and-dry explanation; but the fact of the matter is that it doesn't exist. We're trapped in March-uary, and the fandom has to come to terms with that fact sooner or later.

So, let’s stop trying to make sense of it for now, and simply look at this conundrum in the context of those other temporal anomalies, because it bears an uncanny resemblance to the weirdness surrounding the timeframe during the Gun Devil arc. To reiterate some observations from my earlier essays, chapter 72’s calendar potentially matches three months from 1997: June, September, and December. The actual timeframe confirmed a few chapters later was September, but the heavy snowfall in the scene would have made more sense for December, and the hydrangeas featured on the calendar itself bloom during Japan’s rainy season in early summer, corresponding to June—which is also the date on chapter 79’s cover page. The calendar from chapter 135 does something similar. When read alongside the calendar from chapter 119, it makes the most sense to assume that it’s depicting April of 99, but the ‘7’ across the top of the calendar would indicate that it’s actually showing July of 99, as both months start on a Thursday. But, the flowers decorating the calendar don’t match with either of those implied months. While they are very small, I’m fairly certain they’re camellias; if you take a look at stylized camellia patterns on kimonos, earthenware, etc., you’ll find they look very similar to the flowers here. Anyway, camellias bloom in winter in Japan; and winter is what’s ostensibly been confirmed as the true timeframe for this arc. To make a long story short: Fujimoto pulled the same trick twice. As for what said trick actually means, we still don’t have enough information to say.

Now that we’ve examined that latest instance of weirdness, I’d like to talk about some things that have been going on in the background prior to this point. For the purposes of a different meta, I reread Chainsaw Man several months back paying attention only to background details instead of the story, and in the course of doing so, I found a whole lot of additional red string for my corkboard.

Starting with Part 2, things get weird as early as chapter 99. The chapter starts off with a weather forecast warning of a dangerous heatwave, advising listeners to be wary of heatstroke, even indoors. Now, even accounting for the fact that we’ve been given contradictory information regarding the timeframe of the story, this shouldn’t be happening. Depending on whether you believe Barem’s account or the calendars’, this moment takes place in either early spring or late winter, neither of which could possibly match this weather. The fact that the forecaster clarifies that this is a serious heatwave also precludes the term from being used as hyperbole to describe weather that’s merely unseasonably warm.

In the same chapter is an additional detail I’d like to draw to your attention to: the timestamp on Asa’s TV. As the name implies, it’s listing the hour of the broadcast, and not the date. However, the number on the timestamp, 6:12, ought to ring familiar. It’s the same number as the date on the cover page of chapter 79. As I went over in my first meta, the 6/12 scrawled on the photograph from chapter 79 was, in my view, the moment that Fujimoto showed his hand, and made it clear he was messing with the timeframe on purpose. While later chapters would confirm it outright, I think the timestamp was already foreshadowing that the weather was obfuscating the story’s actual timeframe.

Another thing that wouldn’t happen in March-uary can be found in chapter 100. Note the abundant flowerpots that Asa and Yuko run past, which are all being grown outside, and not in a nursery or greenhouse. I can’t confidently identify everything, but I do see what appear to be sunflowers, spirea, rudbeckia, yarrow, roses, Easter lilies, carnations, primroses, and tulips. With the exception of the final two I listed, all of these flowers bloom in either summer or late spring; I probably don’t need to impress upon you how bizarre it is for those sunflowers to be blooming so early in the year.

While we’re on the subject of flowers, though, let’s talk about the two outliers for a second—the tulips and primroses. Tulips bloom in early spring, and primroses bloom in winter. According to Part 2’s calendars, we’re in spring, and according to Barem, we’re in winter. We’ve thus got two representatives of Part 2’s dueling timeframes in this panel, and they're being crowded by harbingers of summer. Hmm…

Anyway, I’m not the first person to have noticed how weird the weather is in early Part 2, and I’ve seen it suggested that the reason it’s so warm out is because the Fire Devil was affecting the climate as it powered up through more and more contracts. Seeing as fire probably counts as a primal fear, its devil would certainly be powerful enough to make that happen. However, that explanation could only account for unseasonably warm weather circa Part 2. But, the thing is, Part 1 also had its fair share of weather and flora that didn’t make sense, and mostly in the opposite direction: it was consistently colder than it should have been.

There are only two things we know for sure about Part 1’s timeline. It’s been 13 years since the Gun Devil appeared in November of 83, and the latter half of the Gun Devil arc takes place on September 12th 1997. Less certain, but still readily apparent, is the fact that Part 1 doesn’t take place over a very long stretch of time, with its famously brisk pacing leaving little room for long time skips. With that in mind, let’s talk about some temporal inconsistencies I noticed in Part 1.

The earliest sure instance I could find in Part 1 was in chapter 41. Look carefully at the chapter’s opening scene. On the very first page, there are fallen leaves littered across the ground, and, throughout the rest of the scene, you can see leaves drifting through the air in the background. This all seems pretty autumnal to me. In Tokyo, the season for fall foliage runs from mid-October to mid-November. So, how is it that there are there leaves on the ground when the story is, at this point, set an indeterminate-but-short amount of time before September 12th? What’s more, the festival with fireworks which Denji and Reze attend a few chapters later would strongly imply that this arc takes place in summer. While neither of those things are strictly confined to a certain time of year, they’re both synonymous with summer in the Japanese cultural consciousness.

(I know the official colored release doesn’t depict this scene with fall colors, but from what I’ve heard, Fujimoto didn’t have any input in their coloring choices. Case in point, later in the same chapter, you can see that the colorists seemingly mistook a decorative stalk of wheat in Reze’s café for lavender, and colored it purple. In any case, I’d rather not have my analysis rely on something that I’m not 100% sure Fujimoto had a hand in, or even oversaw.)

That brings us to our next example. In chapter 54, Santa and Tolka are introduced in a snow-covered forest, once again in that nebulous shortly-before-september-12th space. This is completely ridiculous. The only climate harsh enough to skip straight from summer to winter would be that of the tundra, and given that they’re in a forest full of bare, deciduous trees, their little cabin isn’t even as far north as the taiga.

Next is a return to chapter 72—the chapter that started me on this weird little odyssey in the first place. While I already discussed how it shouldn’t be snowing at that time of year in my first essay on the subject, upon reread, I also noticed that the weather in this chapter is inconsistent in addition to being unseasonable. Compare the scenery of the grave visit to that of the exterior shot of the inn immediately afterward. In that first scene, there are several inches of snow on the ground, and all the trees have bare branches. But, surrounding the inn, there are no signs of snow—not on the ground, not among the trees, and not on the roof. What’s more, while the trees were bare in the prior scene, outside the inn are deciduous trees and bushes that still retain their full foliage. While Fujimoto’s usual modus operandi has been to strongly imply a certain timeframe through context clues, before throwing out conflicting information a few chapters later, I think this is the only time thus far that we’ve had seasonal dissonance occur within the confines of a single chapter. Considering that a lot of The General Temporal Weirdness seems to center around chapter 72, it seems fitting. One last thing I’d like to note is that two blank calendars bookmark the beginning and end of this chapter. Spooky.

That about covers all the data points I mentioned at the top of this essay, but before I discuss the subject of vibes, I’d like to talk in more depth about why I think this is all worth cataloguing in the first place. As I discussed in my first essay on this subject, when I initially noticed all these little inconsistencies, I assumed they amounted to the negligent mistakes of an author who did not care about the passage of time in the story, (or know how snow works.) But, upon reflection, I don’t think the inconsistencies present are the sort which would arise from disinterest and a lack of care. For one thing, the narrative itself places a lot of gravitas on certain dates, such as both appearances of the Gun Devil, the 6/12 on chapter 79’s cover page, the Future Devil’s whole shtick, as well as the looming apocalypse in July of 99. If you don’t care about the passage of time, and don’t see its dramatic potential, then why make it a recurring motif in your work?

I also don’t think Fujimoto would bother with the song and dance of giving us incomplete breadcrumbs of calendar dates if he just wasn’t paying attention to the month or season. Remember that blank calendar I mentioned earlier? There’re actually quite a few of them. In addition to the one occasionally seen in Aki’s apartment, there’s another blank calendar in the school Denji and Reze break into, and, while it was shown in some detail once in chapter 119, the calendar in Denji’s apartment has been completely obscured ever since, hidden from view by either speech bubbles or panel borders, even though the apartment’s other trappings, such as the stickers on the door, or the two aloe plants, are consistently included in the mise en scène. What I’m getting at here is this: if Fujimoto doesn’t want to be beholden to a timeline, couldn’t he have just made all the calendars in the manga blank, and let the pace of the story be determined by vibes alone? Alternately, if he didn’t want to pay much attention to the passage of time, but still wanted the verisimilitude of a concrete timeframe, he could have just, you know, settled on a timeframe, and let the occasional, fully-visible calendar clue us in as to where the story is at. It’d be a one-and-done thing.

But, what we have instead is a hodgepodge of blank and partially-obscured calendars, out-of-season heatwaves and snowfalls, ominous thematic touchstones of doomed dates and a fear of the future, and this bizarre tendency to have the calendars begin on Monday (but only sometimes.) If Fujimoto simply doesn’t care, then he’s making an awful lot of extra work for himself with this steadily growing pile of temporal anomalies. If he wanted to, he could have just. Not done any of that. But he does do all of that. So, whatever this is, it warrants taking seriously, and asking ‘how’ and ‘why.’

And what questions those are indeed! When I wrote my first meta, I was careful to note that while the fudging of the space-time-continuum was certainly deliberate, it was also, more likely than not, purely symbolic. These days though, I’m not so sure. The last several months’ worth of chapters, along with my own reread, have unearthed a whole lot more than a tucked-away photo of hydrangeas, and a singular freak snowstorm. The more these incidents happen, the more frequent and blatant they become, the more I start to wonder if there isn’t *something* that’s actually happening here, diegetically.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself, because the question of what it all means is a pressing one regardless of whether any of it is literal. I don’t claim to know the answer to that question; all I’ve got at this point are vibes, vibes which I delved into in my first essay on the subject. Something, something Picnic at Hanging Rock. Something, something, chapter 72 feels like it takes place in a little snow globe suspended outside of time. Something, something, the endless aquarium arc is a literal snow globe suspended outside of time. Something, something, catastrophe and apocalypse are set in stone and carefully notated, all else is formless and vague.

Since then, I’ve also noticed a consistent theme emerging regarding the incidents in Part 2. The July(?) calendar, the abundant flowers, and the heatwave all seem to gesture towards summer, and thus, towards the coming apocalypse. The feeling it gives me is that the future is so eager to arrive that it’s flowing upstream into the present. The world is already ending, and the apocalypse is already here. Whether or not that’s what’s literally happening, it seems to me that’s the metaphorical intent.

Questions I still have:

Why did Part 1 have an ongoing motif of being more wintry than it ought to be?

What’s the deal with aquariums in this story, anyway? Weren’t they also mentioned in Reze’s little song? That’s three times now they’ve shown up, and twice they've had something to do with time.

If any of this is literally happening, then why do no characters notice or comment on it?

Why were these events so much more concentrated in chapter 72 than they were anyplace else in the story?

Here at the end, I’ll indulge in a bit of speculation. If time is truly, literally distorted in the story, then why is it so? What’s distorting it? In keeping with my observations about a summer that’s eager to arrive, I think that whatever is causing it is radiating the distortions out backwards through time. The cause has yet to arrive, but the effects can be observed spreading out like ripples in a pond. It’s all invisible to the characters, much like how gravitational waves from the big bang are imperceptible to us in our own reality. In my fanciful musings, two possible sources for these ripples have sprung to mind. I think they’re caused by either Pochita or the Death Devil. Perhaps the Death Devil’s accumulated power is so great that her future descent to will tear at the fabric of time. But, I find Pochita a more tantalizing possibility. What if, at some point down the line, Pochita (or perhaps Denji himself after a powerup) eats some sort of load-bearing devil that really should have been left alone. What would happen if he ate a devil akin to Future or Cosmo? What would that do to weave of reality?

Idk at this point. All we can do is wait for whatever derangement Fujimoto shows us next. Maybe Fami will show up next chapter and casually mention we're actually in March of 96. Personally, I'm hoping for a fourth aquarium. Thanks so much for reading.

#chainsaw man #i know in my heart that this contains typos unseen #but i am so ready to finally be done with this

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keepthemacramesecret · 1 year ago

Note

I thought I'd essentially memorized VALL, I skimmed it again to make sure, and I'm still not seeing 1895 or 1901? I can imagine ACD vaguely alluding to 1875 as being twenty years ago; I can't imagine any way he'd state it was 1901. At any rate. It's the late 1880s, the exposition in FINA is condensed for the sake of Watson's sanity. VALL is my lodestone, I shall not be moved.

sdfdk ok yeah thats what i meant by 'the least explicit' date, because the only date given directly by watson is that its a jan 7th in the 'late 1880s' but that is. vague. so that 1875=20 yrs ago is exactly where im getting 1895, but theres other information you can pull dates out of:

they are both living at baker street, which neatly cuts around the stated late 1880s date as basically the only block of time it CANT be

the bicycle company mentioned 'rudge-whitworth bicycles' was founded in 1894 (but in fairness it was a merger of two existing companies so we can give watson a pass for just using the contemporary brand name at time of writing)

douglas' personal timeline: he left chicago at least 1885 (about ten years after the events of pt2) > ettie died > one yr in california alone> 5 yrs in california with barker > left california 6.5 yrs ago (5 of which in sussex). this puts us squarely in At Least 1898 but we dont know exactly when ettie died so it could be any time around then.

Billy the Page: So at this point we have it narrowed down to some time between 98 and 02 (when watson supposedly moves out to queen annes st), if we want to get any more specific we can look at the pageboy. VALL is the earliest published mention of Billy the page (not counting the gillette play in 1899), but hes also mentioned by name in THOR which has to take place october 1901, and MAZA where he clarifies that EMPT is 'before [his] time] (again ruling out the 1880s). Theres also no other stories set in the post-EMPT baker st era that mention a page so it seems like he was hired towards the end of that era, and since hes still there in 1903 hes probably pretty new in THOR, and theres Certainly no page in 98.

Other temporal clues: From there we can look at the Jan 7th date , and 'A long series of sterile weeks lay behind us.' The only januaries between 99-02 that have an empty preceding december are 1901 or 1902. For other reasons in my timeline i think its unlikely billy was there by january 01 (neither he nor a generic page is mentioned in PRIO) so i've put VALL in january 1902, but for that post i said 1901 because really theyre equally likely.

the moriarty situation: i will happily grant that the FINA exposition is condensed for narrative convenience, but im inclined to take them both at their word when they describe holmes' investigation of the gang as being about 3 months from when he first heard of moriartys name, and all of that again takes place while watson is in paddington/kensington, and famously, in 1891. even if you're working w the idea that watsons marriage wasn't real the french government case immediately prior to FINA is a high profile one that was reported in the papers heavily, so i think we have to concede that holmes hasnt been home in those months to take on another case. my solution has been basically to ignore all of the references to moriarty because they basically... dont make any sense. and id rather take FINA/EMPT as the primary source for moriarty information than a novel written in 1914 fully 20 years later. so i think that the case went more or less as watson wrote it but with a different organised crime figure unrelated to M who he didnt want to give extra publicity to (which especially makes sense if its a more recent story from the early 00s rather than events from nearly 30 yrs ago).

BUT basically all of this past the outright stated timeline of douglas' travels is conjecture and thats what makes it fun! it all depends on which things we think watson has disguised or altered in his writing of the story, so where i've gone with a general rule of 'hes more likely to change specific dates and names and leave story details alone' theres a thousand other approaches and theyre all just as reasonable.

which was really the point of the original post.

i LOVE that vall is a messy timeline that breaks everything around it and made me reread like 6 other stories to figure out where it fits, and i love that none of that matters anyway because, leaving the watsonian perspective for a moment, its having so much fun playing around with the established holmes mythos and structure and characters and what else are we here for <3

#sorry this is so long #my husband will corroborate that if u get me infodumping abt my holmes spreadsheet i will just keep going #and the vall timeline especially is one of the most ridiculous #huge respect for taking it as your lodestone tbh because even the stated date is so vague... godspeed...#a #acd holmes

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spinningbuster98 · 2 years ago

Video

youtube

Mega Man X4 (Zero) Ending

(Insert funny ha-ha meme joke here)

Ok strap in ‘cause this is a long one.

Gameplay wise the only things of note are the General, who I am convinced was not fully designed for Zero since hitting him with a sword is pretty damn awkward, and Sigma who can either be easier or harder than he is with X: easier because Zero cand dish out more damage but also harder because Zero doesn’t have X’s armor uphgrade so he takes more damage, Sigma’s rock launching attack especially is the bane of my existance since it’s random and you basically have to pray he doesn’t spam it too often.

No it’s the story that’s going on that we gotta talk about

Of course there’s the whole deal with Colonel and Iris which is just amateurishly told: we don’t know who these people are, the game never spent any time trying to establish their relationship with Zero, and yet we’re supposed to care about their deaths, Iris especially who really has no personality and is the perfect poster girl for a female character specifically designed to die so that the hero can feel sad.

Also if you’re wondering what that orb that Iris uses is: it’s Colonel’s core. Colonel and Iris have a whole backstory that the game never even alludes to but rather just spares for secondary materials such as artbooks and dev interviews, which is impossibly frustrating from a storytelling perspective and a franchise-wide issue unfortunately (even Classic is guilty of this as I’ll get into later)

However the part I wanted to focus the most on was the flashback where we see Zero fighting Sigma

On its own merits the scene does what it sets out to do pretty well: it follows up on the idea that Zero was made by Wily which was previously teased by X2 and this game’s first Zero cutscene by showing us how unhinged he was in the past but without outright telling us he’s a Wily robot and while still making us wonder what happened to him to make him good eventually. The early X games mostly tried building up to some grand finale and really pushed for Zero’s mystery and his inevitable confrontation with X, so this scene is actually really good in pushing said mystery forward and also keeping fans off the edges of their seats for whenever said mystery gets properly adressed.

And therein lies the issue: it never was properly adressed.

Sure, X5 tries to follow up on all of this by giving us some....vague answers, which is fine, not everything should always be blatantly spelled out for the audience, I don’t need Wily to come flying into the scene with his UFO telling us that he was Zero’s creator all along since it’s made pretty clear already with all the imagery and allusions.

The issue is that no game has ever truly explained all of the questions that are brought up by this scene, which in another work of art would be ok to me, but the x series’ writing has never garnered any kind of....trust in me to believe that the series just didn’t know what it was fully doing with this, because some details about this scene have been revealed in the past.

In additional materials.

Of questionable canonicity.

Which gave us information that was sometimes contradictory with other things.

Ok let’s do this generally ok?

Question #1 Why is Zero acting like a crazed lunatic?

A few years ago a developer document was discovered, dating since before X1′s release, featuring a rough outline of the X series’ storyline, indicating that the devs at the time had at least a general idea of what they wanted to do.

The document mentions that Zero was created by Wily to be the most evil robot ever, but was accidentally turned good by the Maverick Virus (more on that later), which would normally turn good robots evil.

The Megaman Zero Official Complete Works also mentions this idea in one of its pages:

however said page specifically mentions that this information was only considered during the series’ conceptual period and as such may not be canon. I think we can safely assume that it isn’t, given that this page also claims that the Maverick virus originated from....X? Yeah no that’s explicitly contradicted by the games

Even the X1 document may not be 100% canon, seeing as plans can change over the years and it doesn’t mentions the Virus secondary function as a way to explicitly reprogram Zero into being Wily’s ideal robot as mentioned in X5.

In general I think the idea of Wily purposefully making Zero so violent he’s uncontrollable to be just plain dumb, especially since X5 shows us in its bad ending just what Wily wanted Zero to be like and it sure wasn’t the irrational lunatic we see in the X4 flashback

In 2010 a timeline of events was posted on the japanese official site for the Megaman Zero Collection. This timeline introduced the idea that Zero had a flaw in his programming which made him ultra violent, forcing Wily to seal him in his capsule, which was also chock full of Maverick Virus, the same virus that, as seen in X5, has the potential to rewrite Zero into being loyal to Wily.

Now this makes much more sense. I’m....not too keen on the implication that Zero wasn’t infected by the virus despite being exposed to it for 100+ years but only being infected once his armor was damaged since 1) damage received has never been shown to affect wether or not a robot is infected by the Virus, even in X5 Zero isn’t all that damaged when he gets fully infected in the bad ending, and 2) you’d think Wily would consider this tiny detail before stuffing his creation in a capsule with a Virus of his own creation. My own personal take is that Zero was already infected in the sense that the Virus was in his body but was simply not affecting him outside of the occasional headache (which is supported by canon, since X5 explicitly states that huge and very potent amounts of the virus are required to fully “fix” Zero, what kinda bug did Wily accidentally put into Zero’s brain Jesus Fuck), but by damaging his head (as in the flashback) this allowed the Virus to affect his damaged components thus only having a partial effect: curing him of his insanity but without restoring his memories of his creator nor his mission, thus resulting in the Zero we know and love.

The main issue with this timeline is that it was taken off of Capcom’s site years ago and thus this information is no longer officially available. Of course this doesn’t deny the fact that capcom once used it and claimed it as canon, but as of now this means that there is no longer any fully official explanation as to why Zero behaved like he does in that X4 flashback

Question #2 Why does Zero become a good guy?

All sources consistently point to the Maverick Virus affecting him, however the specifics vary: the idea that the Virus was meant to fix him was however essentially confirmed in X5.

Question #3 How does this relate to Sigma going Maverick?

This is something the games themselves have utterly failed to convey aside from a throwaway line in X8.

All secondary materials mention Sigma being infected by the Maverick Virus, however the specifics on how the infection occurred vary between official sources and widespread fan interpretations mostly born from the extremely vague way of the series at handling all of this stuff.

The official stance, as far as I’m aware, is that Sigma was infected by the virus as it was leaking from Zero’s capsule and was thus airborne inside the lab.

Many fans however spread this idea, which I don’t know where it originated, that the Virus passed from Zero to Sigma, changing hosts.

Ok so...

1) Why would the Virus do this? How could it sense that Sigma would be a better host since Zero was beating the shit out of him?

2) We never see the Virus simply change hosts under any circumstance. It’s a virus, it multiplies and spreads infecting multiple people, it’s not a single parasite jumping from host to host.

3) The idea that by leaving him for Sigma, Zero turned good implies that Zero was created as a good heroic robot and was thus given the Virus to be evil, which is stupid as it implies that Wily purposefully made a good robot for his world domination plans and then later developed an evil virus to fix his blatant oopsie. C’mon.

I know that this last bit was fan stuff but I wanted to adress it anyway

So basically the mystery setup by this scene has never been properly adressed by the games and information about it was only dripfed to us through secondary materials of questionable canonicity which sometimes even clash with each other

I love Zero for his character but his backstory is a giant mess, or at least has been told as one, this is one of the biggest writing screw ups in the franchise outside of X6′s existence.

This is a big reason why I want an X9: the chance that they might finally fix this mess

Y’know the whole Wily and Light backstory that MM11 showed us and which really added lots of layers to Wily’s character? The general gist of that backstory had been a thing in the series for DECADES, but had only been reserved for secondary, obscure materials. Would you have ever guessed, by playing all the other games, that Wily had a personal vendetta and inferiority complex towards Light? He never spoke to him on screen before MM11 sans a brief concersation to him and Megaman in MM10!

If MM11 could finally show us the backstory to the series’ main villain after 30 years, giving him some really interesting layers and finally making things between him and Light crystal clear to fans, then I don’t see why this couldn’t be done for Zero’s backstory and that of the Maverick Virus. This is important stuff, it’s the basis for the entire conflict of the X series!

Rant over. X4 (and the X series in general) is my go-to example for Story-Shit-but-Game-Good

#youtube #megaman #megaman x4 #my gameplay

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gerogerigaogaigar · 1 year ago

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The Pixies - Doolittle

Way back when I said that Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain was the best rock album of the 90s I did a little google search to remind me whether this album came out in 89 or 90 to see if I had to amend that to second best. Doolittle is one of my top ten albums of all time. The atmosphere maintains a sense of apocalyptic intensity even at its calmest moments. From the manic screaming on Tame right to the surf punk of Wave Of Mutilation. There are deceptively intellectual themes running through Doolittle too. Death, and torment run through the whole album with a strong focus on biblical violence. Dead recalls the story of David and Bathsheba in brief which leads to the the most amazing lyric of all time "Uriah hit the crapper". Gouge Away is about Samson and Delilah, and Monkey Gone To Heaven alludes to biblical numerology. A lot of lyrics are also deliberately vague leaving the meaning of the songs obscured surrealist imagery. Wave Of Mutilation according to Frank Black is about businessmen driving their cars into the ocean to commit suicide and Here Comes Your Man is about homeless people dying in an earthquake. All of this says nothing about how catchy these cryptic songs are. The melding of punk, alternative, surf rock, and generous use of triads and Hendrix chords leads to a discordant but focused album that manages to be infinitely catchy despite being extremely noisy. More than anything Doolittle, despite being fairly eclectic with it's sound, evokes a very cohesive mood. It's a weird simmering anxiety that sometimes bubbles to the surface but is never relieved. All of punk and alternative music has come home to roost in Doolittle and honestly if music had stopped right after it released that would have been fine.

The Wailers - Catch A Fire

There were a number of reggae acts in the early 70s that managed significant international success, but none quite as universally as Bob Marley and his band The Wailers. Catch A Fire was their fifth album, but it was the first to make it big in the states. The production is slightly nicer and that definitely allows Bob Marley's soulful voice to shine through. Marley definitely had a richer texture to his voice than most of his contemporaries and that likely helped him become a household name.

Black Sabbath - Paranoid

I'm gonna go ahead and say it. This album is overrated. After War Pigs we get two completely throw away tracks before hitting a sort of stride and then ending on the fantastic Faeries Wear Boots. Honestly most of this album is good but not great. I like it, but I don't think it quite stacks up to their debut, Master Of Reality, or Heaven And Hell.

Madonna - The Immaculate Collection

Hey Rolling Stone, can i ask a question? What the fuck do you think you are doing? You already put two Madonna albums on this list and now you're saying a hits collection tops them both? Every album she released in the 80e was good actually. You could have put one of those on here. Her self titled debut, Like A Virgin, and True Blue are all worthy of being on this list. If you scrubbed some of the outright garbage from this list you'd have room for all three of them and more!

Adele - 21

An album that is bad all the way through is just bad, and an album that is bad with one or two good tracks is frustrating, but opening with two very strong songs and then delivering nothing but banal piano ballads for the rest of the album? Thats torture. It makes me so mad that Rolling In The Deep and Rumor Has It are really good songs that show off a blues rock side of Adele that she never ever visits again. If orgasm denial was an album it would be 21 by Adele.

#500 album gauntlet #pixies #the wailers #black sabbath #madonna #adele

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nixthelapin · 8 months ago

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I’m kinda in the middle tbh.

On the one hand, all the points you brought up point to at least poor planning if not none. Not to mention how they avoided explicitly saying Adrien is a senti even at the end (they heavily allude to it, but only outright say Felix is one). Chat Blanc also comes to mind when thinking about Gabriel not using the Amok ring.

But then there’s also Emilie dying from a mysterious illness (though she’s actually said to have disappeared rather than died to keep it super vague, which I think was a bad decision), and the Peacock hidden in the painting safe (and not using it right away because it’s broken).

And to play devils advocate for Miracular, I think Cataclysm has a weaker effect on someone wearing a miraculous (see Claw Noir and Monarch), though that’s being a bit generous. And for not using the ring until later, it could just be a situation where Gabriel doesn’t like to use it (maybe as an agreement between him and Emilie), but once he starts to for small things, it snowballs and becomes easier for him to do it more and more.

It’s hard for me to say one way or the other because the writing for the whole show isn’t super consistent. They weren’t even originally allowed to do much of an overarching story because the studio only wanted it to be a villain of the week episodic show, until it gained an older audience and they finally allowed it (because the writers had been pushing for it before, and even snuck in some hints of things), so changes did have to happen that made a shift. And beyond that, we all know they aren’t the most high quality writers.

So I guess to conclude, I think aspects of things were planned, but because of the disagreements between writers and the studio, the show itself doesn’t really reflect that.

Though I fully believe Kagami being one too was shoehorned into it. I think it could’ve been interesting, like with that creepy deal going on with Gabriel and Tomoe, but it was pretty much played for shock value and to shove her off to Felix as a consolation prize.

Hot take

The whole adrien is a sentimonster storyline is only a thing cuz the fan theory is so popular and the show wanna give us a fan serves. Don't believe me just watch miracular adrien doesn't go crazy after getting cataclysm like how senties usually are according to the lore. And in the early season gabriel doesn't use a ring on adrien every 5 second unlike in s4 onward. So yeah that's my reasoning to believe that the show don't plan the senti adrien plot from the start.

And i still don't get why they made kagami a senti monster?

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wooahaes · 2 years ago

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lean on me

pairing: non-idol!vernon x fem!reader [kept vague]

prompt: uh. slight comfort for me tbh.

word count: 4.2k~

warnings: reader is pretty much outright stated to be a victim of parental abuse, but it’s left vague as hell what her parents did. some anxiety about meeting his parents for the first time (but the actual meeting is completely unwritten). one alluded to fight that gets resolved. long distance struggles. also some allusions to sex as a topic in general (both in the beginning and later a comment abt seungkwan being willing to leave the apartment for a bit if they wanna bone). minimal editing (like less than usual sdfkhdsf)

daisy’s notes: oh to have a person who’s okay with taking things slowly...... and also comforting my insecure ass when i’m scared of being hated by the other person’s family...

There were certain things that people said whenever the topic of long distance relationships came up, and... honestly, you were pretty damn sure you’d heard most of them, if not all of them. The bullshit “long distance doesn’t work,” the “it’s a lot of hard work,” sometimes the “but how does the sex work?” (which you’d always respond with a sharp “none of your fucking business, buddy.”)... there were a lot of things people couldn’t wrap their head around when you told them that your boyfriend was in a completely different country than you. To the people who claimed they never worked, you liked quoting the fact that you’d been dating Vernon for almost a year as a way to shut most people up. To the “hard work” thing, you admitted that you knew that, because it was. The question of how you knew that he was himself and not some weirdo came from your story: you met him in person.

See, you studied abroad for a semester. You met Seungkwan, who became one of your fast friends, and he was the one responsible for introducing you to Vernon. Neither of you had felt anything at first, which was probably surprising to some people. He was always Seungkwan’s cute friend (like most of Seungkwan’s friends) who remembered your boba order and would always swing by with snacks for when you were studying. He remembered your favorites, too. You always thought he was sweet, and you liked the way his eyes lit up whenever you came by with a new recipe to try out because you always wanted him to taste-test for you. Looking back on it, you kind of had to wonder why the two of you didn’t get together sooner. Maybe it just wasn’t the right time yet. He was your friend until you went back home. The two of you made an effort to keep in touch, sometimes resulting in telling the other to “go to bed, loser,” with a promise to talk more later.

Honestly, if it weren’t for your friends and his... the two of you probably would have never gotten together. Your little movie “hangouts” were common enough on the weekends neither of you had to work, the two of you send pictures of things that reminded you of the other, you were... kind of hardcore flirting, to be honest--but neither of you were ready to actually talk about it. You heard that long distance rarely worked, if ever, and that it was hard. If it weren’t for your friends sitting you down and encouraging you to just sit and talk to Vernon honestly about what the two of you want (and his friends doing the same--he later told you it felt like he was getting scolded by, like, five different older brothers because all of them individually heard from Seungkwan that he’d been pining for you), you wouldn’t have done it. So the two of you made time for a video call, and you figured out what you wanted.

Which, in the end, was each other. If things didn’t work out romantically, it didn’t mean you had to stop being friends--or that you couldn’t try again later down the road, when things were easier. You weren’t against the idea of moving to be with him, if you were honest, but that would take time and effort and you’d need to dedicate a lot into doing it. Yet it had been ten months since that talk, and the two of you were still going strong. The power of late night/early morning conversations and calls when neither of you were busy with work, and movie nights to check out whatever the two of you had been wanting to watch. It definitely made your bond stronger. Plus, you liked to think that the friendship leading up to it helped solidify your presence in each other’s lives. You still wanted to kiss his stupid cute face silly, sure, but that was pinned onto a hopeful “someday” when the two of you met in person again.

You’d already met his sister around five months in. He’d sent you a screenshot one night of her texts asking when you were going to come to visit in person, the following texts cut short. He later confessed to you that she was glad he’d found someone he was happy with.

can you call right now? it’s really important. i just want to hear your voice.

When you gave him the go-ahead, on your way home from work in a very quiet bus, he called you barely a second later.

“I know I should say it to your face,” he said, “but I just needed to tell you that I love you. You don’t have to say it back yet. Just... I love you.”

That’d been the first time either of you said it. The cheesy, loose “love you”s had come before, but there was something... intimate about putting that “I” in front of it. You couldn’t say it back--not yet--and he never held that against you. That was part of the reason you realized you loved him, too.

So you decided to be honest with him a few days later. You asked how serious the two of you were, he said he liked to think you both were pretty serious, and you told him outright that you agreed but he’d never meet your parents. He’d been confused (something you’d never blame him for), and you told him that you wanted him in your life but that he’d never meet your family. It honestly pissed him off, and he pushed a little too much. You dodged the subject every single time he brought it up in the past about how your parents were doing, only sticking to a vague lie that they were “well,” and he didn’t want to put pressure on you but--were you serious about him or not?

You ended up hanging up then and there and telling him that you’d talk to him tomorrow. When he tried to prod you to call him back, to talk this out, you told him you needed the time to get everything together first. The space between it all wasn’t just for him to calm down and clear his head, but for you to build some confidence because you needed to be completely honest if he was going to stay in your life. You’d never forget the way he told you that you didn’t have to say anything you weren’t ready to say during that next call, that if you weren’t introducing him to your family then you must have a reason. He was upset in the moment, but that didn’t justify the way he’d gotten angry with you.

You told him you cut them out the moment you were financially stable enough to, and that he was never going to meet your family because you’d never let them hurt him or any person you cared about. The only thing either of you had to apologize for after that conversation was for hurting each other. He was justified in getting upset, even if he didn’t have all the facts, because hearing something like that would hurt. You were justified in not telling him your “tragic backstory” (as you put it, trying to break the tension a bit) because it was a hard conversation to have with someone.

It only served to make your relationship stronger in the end.

You saved up to fly out to see him. Both of you did, actually--he finished getting his certificate in programming and he’d moved onto a better back-end job that paid so much better than his old job making boba tea. He promised you that he’d greet you with one in hand the day you came to see him. Vernon promised to introduce you to a few of them, too, since they turned out to be good friends who watched out for him--especially someone named Seungcheol. You heard plenty of stories about how he felt like an older brother to him. You joked that you’d have to tell the others he said that.

Which, admittedly, set him off on a really long ramble about how many people in his and Seungkwan’s friend circle knew each other. It was like serendipitous realizing how connected it all felt. Like fate. You’d meet them, too, when you came out there.

But tickets abroad were expensive as hell, and both of you knew that. The trip kept getting set back. The first time, the two of you tried to spring for that summer. Your laptop was slowly dying out, and you put aside money for that instead. Then again the two of you talked about maybe figuring out something for September, and then again in October. Every single time, it felt like your plans fell through. You said that maybe you could work something out and come visit him in February for his birthday.

Then he called you mid-November and told you he had your Christmas present all figured out and he was going to give it to you right then and there. He told you to check your email, and you saw the flight receipt.

“Vernon, you didn’t.”

“Listen... My parents kinda pitched in?” He leaned back in bed, watching your face. “I know we’ve talked about it before, but they really want to meet you... And they really, really don’t want to do it through a screen unless they have to.”

You told him a few months ago that meeting his sister through video call was easy. Meeting his parents was infinitely harder. What if they hated you? He hit you back with the “c’mon, baby, no one could hate you,” before saying that he genuinely thought you’d get along with them great. They knew how much he loved you. If they didn’t, they definitely would soon enough.

“It’s been almost a year,” he said. “Listen, I tried to go to you,” he frowned. “Do you hate it?”

“You just gave me a ticket to go see your stupid face,” you buried your face in your hands, already feeling the tears welling up. “I love you. I just...” You took a deep breath. “This is a lot to process. Give me a moment, yeah?”

“I’m gonna grab a drink,” he said. “Take all the time you need, baby.”

You waited until he closed his bedroom door behind him to finally let go, already crying. Out of joy, because you wanted to see him. Out of stress, too, because meeting his parents was... terrifying. And in person? For the first time? They wanted to meet you so badly they were willing to pitch in? Vernon only had good stories to tell about his parents and his sister, and you thought she was lovely when you met (a little funny, too--you liked her spunk when she told you that he was lucky to have her as a sister). This wouldn’t be so bad, would it?

When he came back, you told him you’d do it.

“Are you sure?” He frowned. “I’m pretty sure I can cancel--”

“No, I want to do it,” you said. “I wanna meet them, too.”

He smiled at you. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” you nodded. “I mean... We’re serious, y’know? It was going to happen sooner or later.”

You trusted him, and you hoped that he got that message loud and clear.

Every single day leading up to your flight was a countdown. Seungkwan sent you a picture of a calendar Vernon had bought and hung up, physically marking off days. You called him cheesy. He told you that he was only gonna get cheesier when he saw you again. The two of you had been on video call the night before your flight as he watched you pack away everything. In less than forty-eight hours, you’d be in his arms.

“You know I’m gonna cry, right?” He said, cross-legged on his bed with a bowl of cereal in his hands. “Like. Baby, I’m gonna cry so hard when I see you.”

Three weeks with him. You were still kinda floored he saved up so much. You did the conversions and the round-trip ticket was over four thousand for you. Between rent and food and everything else... How much did his family pitch in? The guilt was going to rest with you for a while, but you’d try to push it aside.

“We’re gonna both be crying, dummy,” you hummed. “Is Seungkwan driving?”

“Oh, fuck yeah,” he said, “there’s no way I’m gonna be able to drive. He doesn’t mind.”

You folded a shirt, tucking it into your bag. “I owe him.”

“Don’t.” You could hear the sound of his spoon hit the edge of the bowl. “He wants to see you again, too. Just... Not as much as I do.”

You’d hope so. But you just smiled to yourself. “You know... I have to change flights four times. But it’s worth it.”

“Get one of those travel pillows,” he told you. “I’ll send you the money--”

“I can buy a travel pillow, you dork,” you rolled your eyes. “I’ve already cleared everything with my bank, by the way. You’re not spoiling me this entire trip.”

“That’s what you think.”

Loser. But he was your loser. “I’m-”

“We,” he started, “are buying you dinner your first night here. Seungkwan wouldn’t let me treat all of us, and I didn’t want him to buy all of it.”

“You should have!” You could hear Seungkwan call out from the other room. The door creaked open a moment later, and Seungkwan was in frame. “He already helped buy you a ticket. I can buy us dinner. Tell your boyfriend to be reasonable.”

You giggled, pulling out your good jacket. It cost a pretty penny, but the thing was sturdy and warm and Vernon had already warned you about the snow. “Hi, Seungkwan,” you said. “Please steal his wallet from him.”

“Travel safely,” he told you. “I’ll never hear the end of it if you don’t. He was already moping about how he wished he could afford first class because he wanted you to be comfortable--”

Seungkwan was shoved away by Vernon, who turned back to you. “Because you do.” He set down his bowl. “I’ve gotta shower before work, but I’ll see you soon, right?”

You smiled to yourself. “Yeah,” you said. “I’ll see you soon. Love you.”

“Love you more,” he said. He had that sappy, love-struck smile on his face again. You wouldn’t trade it for anything else. “Sleep well, baby. Goodnight.”

Sleeping came easier to you than you thought. Packing and getting everything in order was a hassle anyway, especially because you had roped a friend into driving you to the airport at two in the morning.

Four flights were... more than just a hassle. You forgot to get the pillow and your neck was beyond sore by the end of it. Two domestic flights, one international that left you in Tokyo for not even an hour, and eventually you landed in Seoul. Throughout every single step, you left messages to Vernon along with pictures of you waiting for each flight. The last one, sent around five in the evening for them, was a picture of Vernon holding up your favorite boba order with Seungkwan a few steps ahead as they returned to the car.

You gathered your carry-on luggage and made your way through the terminal, dressed as cozily as you could be. You saw Vernon and Seungkwan before either of them saw you, and you had to bite back the urge to drop your bags and run. To hug him as tight as you could and never let him go. Instead, you just smiled and curled your fingers as tightly as you could around your bag.

Vernon, on the other hand, saw you and immediately shoved the boba into Seungkwan’s hand as he took off running to meet you halfway. Before you could even say anything, he wrapped you into his arms and squeezed you as tight as he could, that giddiness having taken over completely. If you ever doubted that Vernon loved you, it disappeared the moment he laid eyes on you. He was already crying, mumbling incoherently about how he could barely sleep last night knowing that you were on your way to him. You finally let go of your bag, hugging him tight back as you buried your face into his hoodie to hide your tears. It was just as sappy as you expected it to be, even when he handed you that damn cup of boba with a forced smile. Like he wasn’t just sobbing on you about how he dreamed of being able to hold you.

The three of you returned to their apartment soon enough. You’d tried to spring for a hotel or rent an apartment, but both Seungkwan and Vernon said that you should just save your money (to spoil Vernon, in Seungkwan’s words) and stay with them. If either of you wanted alone time, Seungkwan promised he could make himself scarce (and maybe you’d consider that offer later, after you met your boyfriend’s parents because there was no way you’d be able to relax enough beforehand). He carried your bag for you, hand in your own as Seungkwan opened the door ahead of you.

The moment you made it to Vernon’s bed, you crashed for a nap before dinner. Just a small one, because none of the sleep you managed to get was worth anything. He curled up next to you, pulling back into his arms and holding you tight.

“Hey,” he said before you could start to drift off. “I love you.”

It was different hearing it in person. You already knew that you’d never want to hear it any other way. “I love you, too.”

“Can I kiss you?” He asked quietly. “I... I really don’t think I can wait any longer.”

You didn’t, either. So you kissed him, and he smiled against your lips. When you broke away, he pulled you back into his chest and told you to go ahead and sleep. He’d be right there when you woke up.

Dinner with him and Seungkwan went well. In a sense, it felt like you’d never left. That the three of you were just grabbing dinner again one night after classes, except this time Vernon kept giving you these cute smiles like he still couldn’t believe you were right there. If it annoyed Seungkwan in any way to third-wheel, he said nothing about it. Both of you had toned down any PDA during dinner, and things worked out fine. You changed in the bathroom, getting ready for the night before returning to see your boyfriend already dressed and ready for bed. He just watched you, that same fond look in his eyes as you were only putting your things away. He told you he’d cleared space in his closet for you. You’d hang things up properly after you slept.

“So?” He asked, propping himself up onto his side. “How does it feel?”

You looked back at him. “Which part?”

“Being here.” He smiled at you. “With me. Meeting my parents soon.”

That last part made your smile fall a little.

“Talk to me,” he said. “I know you’re scared.”

“It’s not that I’m scared,” you sat down on his bed. “I’m just... overthinking it again. I know you said they’d love me, but what if they don’t?”

“They will.” He reached out, gently tugging you to move in closer. “They know I love you. You’ll have stuff in common with mom, at least. Don’t worry about it,” he pressed a peck onto your knuckles. “I’ll be right there with you.”

“You aren’t nervous?”

“Should I be?” He smiled, but then it fell. “I mean... Yeah. I’m nervous,” he played with your fingers, “like... you’re meeting my parents. I thought we were serious, but that kinda makes it a little realer, y’know? I mean... I think it means we’ve gotta start talking about what comes next.”

“About me moving here?”

“Do you want to?” He paused. “Let’s not talk about that tonight. I know it’s a lot.”

It was. You laid down next to him. “Do they know?”

“About your family?” He asked quietly. “Are you gonna be mad if I say kind-of?”

“Vernon...” You frowned. “What did you tell them?”

“I didn’t tell them anything specific,” he said. “It’s not my thing to tell. But mom kinda asked about whether they would be meeting future in-laws, and... I dunno, I kinda had to tell them that you cut contact and had really good reasons to.”

You watched him carefully. He wouldn’t lie about this, but... “That’s all?”

“I promise,” he said. “I wouldn’t just tell them everything. I know it was really hard for you to tell me that stuff...” He traced a finger down your palm. “I mean. I told them you’re really nervous, but that’s it, I swear. They just know not to bring up any stuff about future in-laws.”

After a moment, it hit you. “Does that mean you wanna marry me?”

“Maybe,” he smiled at you. “I mean... If you really wanna move over here, us getting married someday could help...”

“Aw, Vernon,” you giggled. “Does that mean you like like me?”

There was that gummy smile you loved. “Yeah,” he said. “I like like you a whole lot. Did you think I didn’t?”

“I dunno,” you hummed. “The plane ticket wasn’t enough...”

“How about a ring?”

You jerked back at that. “What?”

“Nononono--” He said. “Not like that. I mean. Kind of like that, but not like that.” He took your hand into his. “So, like... I told you about couple rings, right? The whole... “you celebrate a hundred days by exchanging rings” sort of deal? It kinda means you’re serious.”

“Are we?” You teased. “So it’s like... serious, but not “wedding really soon” serious.”

“I mean, if you wanna call it that,” he stretched out a leg, tangling it with your own. “I just thought it could be kinda cute if we went and picked them out tomorrow. So when you go back... You can think of me when you see it.”

You knew he’d be sappy. “You really want to?”

“Yeah,” he had slowly been moving in closer. “I mean... There’s some really cheesy stuff about dating culture here, but I kinda like this one. If you’re not into it, we don’t have to--”

“I like it.” You shifted a little closer. “Are your parents going to say something if they notice them?”

He went quiet. “My sister might. But that’ll be more towards me than you,” he tugged you closer. “Listen... I wouldn’t have talked to my family about you if I didn’t think they’d love you. They know I’m serious about you,” he gently cupped your face, “and they know I love you a lot. I’m gonna be right there beside you the entire time.”

“It’s just...” You took a deep breath, fighting back tears. “I dunno. It feels like... my own parents couldn’t love me, so how can someone else’s?”

“Your parents were shit, baby,” he said. “You told me what they’ve done to you. Anyone would be lucky to have you as a part of the family.” Vernon looked into your eyes, smiling. “Alright? The only thing that might happen is they might love you too much and never let you leave.”

He knew how to make you smile. You settled on teasing him again, “So you want me to leave?”

Your boyfriend had basically been pulling you into his embrace like a koala and you were teasing him like that. “I want,” he said, leaving you in suspense for a moment, “to get a cat together.”

“Babe--”

“Just think about it,” he said. “Like... We could go pick out a cat to adopt. It’d be like our child.”

You were thinking about it.

“And,” he said, “they make little onesies for cats...”

“Vernon--”

“We could pull a really funny prank on my friends about a baby reveal...”

“Hansol.”

“And it’d be really cute,” he said. “Like. I promise, it’d be really cute. Do you wanna get a cat with me?”

You wanted a life with this idiot and he already knew that marriage was on the table. “Yes, dummy,” you said, “I wanna get a cat with you.”

He smiled. “It’s cuter when you say it in person.”

“What? “Dummy”?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m your dummy,” he chuckled. He snuggled you into his chest, almost like you were becoming his own personal teddy bear. You knew for a fact this was not how Vernon fell asleep--enough late night calls where he passed out proved that to you. He shut his eyes, though, and kept an arm securely around you, your head pressed against his chest so you could hear his heart beating. “I’m yours,” he said out loud, like it was a promise to you.

You shut your eyes, listening to the steady beat. “Yeah,” you mumbled. “I’m yours, too, dummy. I love you.”

Maybe taking the big steps wouldn’t be so scary after all.

#wooahaes.fic #seventeen imagine #seventeen x reader #seventeen x you #svt x reader #svt imagine #svt x you #vernon x reader #vernon x you #chwe hansol x reader #chwe hansol x you #chwe vernon x reader #chwe vernon x you

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miraculouscontent · 3 years ago

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We’ve talked before about Chat in “Copycat” lying about his relationship with Ladybug and how Ladybug’s kept in the dark about it, which is still an absolutely valid criticism and everything, but what we don’t really talk about is exactly how much the episode goes out of its way to make sure that Adrien/Chat is the one you feel sympathy for:

- Marinette’s subplot involving Adrien’s phone (rather than her simply being overwhelmed with other things) so Adrien specifically is burdened, the episode only showing his struggle with seeking out the device in order to ask for the audience’s sympathy

- Plagg is naturally a more morally-gray character than Tikki and thus is taken less seriously when he’s making a point, lowering any impact when Adrien is called out for being jealous

- Ladybug is made to be overflowing with more confidence/arrogance than usual, such as outright calling Chat “annoying” (which one might see as too harsh even if she’s right); this is also right before she adds that Chat has “never lied to her,” again lowering any impact of Chat’s actions when he’s being praised for his “honesty”

- The scene where Chat vaguely alludes to the fact that he got himself into a jam (of course not directly stating that he was the one who caused Theo’s akumatization) forces in the reminder that Ladybug wasn’t there, thus diverting a portion of the blame onto her

- The last moment with Chat Noir is him mumbling to Ladybug (going unheard by her) about how she “crushed his crush,” leaving the audience’s last impression of him in the episode to be something that - yet again - shifts blame/outrage onto Ladybug and makes him look more sympathetic

- Theo is the villain-of-the-week, also being designed to at least appear older than Ladybug and Chat Noir (see: facial hair and having some form of job/studio), meaning that he’s more likely to be portrayed as a “creep” and thus people are less likely to sympathize with him even if he makes good points; the audience is less likely to throw blame onto someone if the person said someone slights is a person that the audience personally dislikes/doesn’t care about

- As an extension of the last point, Copycat is purposefully exaggerated and unlikable, his actions being intentionally unnecessary and over-the-top to give the impression that this is unfair to Chat regardless of whether he was lying to Theo; Copycat is written to not combat what Theo’s problem was, as rather than wooing Ladybug as Copycat to show her what a “true gentleman who doesn’t treat love as a thing” is, Copycat merely becomes a criminal to slander Chat’s name in what is a wholly spiteful act

- Ladybug is ultimately the one who apologizes to Theo in the end; by apologizing, she is admitting guilt to him, herself, and the audience that she had done something wrong, and yet Chat had done no such thing despite being the actual cause of Theo’s akumatization; this compounds with Theo telling Ladybug that he “knows about her and Chat Noir” (implying that he won’t be making any attempts to get closer to her) which defaults to a supposedly good thing because of the “Theo is a creep/the bad guy here” and “less obstacles to the love square = yes“ logic

Basically, the episode is almost scientifically designed to ensure that Adrien is sympathetic and Marinette is not. Marinette’s problem/concern about an embarrassing/awkward confession is brushed off/joked about, Adrien/Chat is made to struggle/look sympathetic in both forms, and the show makes absolute sure that anything involving Adrien/Chat circles back to Marinette/Ladybug in some form so that she can be blamed for everything in the episode.

#((Thanks Theo reference for this thought.))#((idk if this is at all fascinating to anyone))#((a Critical Thinking Lesson for the day I suppose))#((or maybe a writing analysis and little things you might not think of that stack up.))#((Definitely keep this in mind for particular episodes because it applies there as well))#((such as ''Syren'' where Ladybug is - again - the one who apologizes to Chat.))#((And ''Chat Blanc'' with how the last moment with Chat is Ladybug being happy that he's there and giving him affection.))#category: salt #episode: Copycat #salt: chat noir #salt: writing #((For the record: a handful of these things aren't bad/wrong on their own))#((and it's when they're all compounded together that it becomes an issue.))#((There are a lot of little pieces in the episode that might not be thought about initially))#((but are there to subtly manipulate the audience emotionally to lean them towards the conclusion the show wants them to draw.))#((ALSO for the record:))#((Marinette makes a mistake in a GENUINE attempt to get closer to Adrien))#((Alya suggested that she go and delete it and Marinette wholly intended on showing up to the event after deleting the message))#((but didn't anticipate Adrien's screen lock and panicked.))#((She ends the episode with - again - the INTENT to fix her mistake and get closer to Adrien properly))#((but Alya urges her to put the phone in Adrien's bag at the last second when Adrien is suspicious of the finder of the phone.))#((Chat - meanwhile - makes a mistake SPECIFICALLY out of jealousy))#((he was suspicious of Theo from the start and OUTRIGHT lied))#((no accident/panic; just his possessiveness and jealousy of A CIVILIAN WHO HAS VIRTUALLY NO CHANCE WITH LADYBUG.))#((He didn't just inconvenience one person but MULTIPLE with his actions))#((and even when he ''tried'' to solve things himself... Ladybug still had to come in and save him.))#((THAT is the difference.))

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thegurlwhoisntthere · 3 years ago

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Encanto x MCU Spider-Man crossover

Okay, so I was in the shower and I started thinking about an au where Mirabel got Butterfly wings as her gift, but also my brain said okay, but Encanto MCU crossover, and I was like, you raise a good point. So,

Encanto is set in modern day, nothing rlly changes in the town tho, because magic. Anyway, Mirabel’s gift ceremony comes and- no gift, same as canon. I was thinking that when Bruno has the vision, this time he takes Mirabel with him and they actually leave, but I don’t like that, so instead he still goes into the walls, but not as long.

I’ve seen a lot of different theories as to how Mirabel was treated after she didn’t get her gift, and I think the change was both gradual and immediate. Like, some people started treating her different right away, while others took a bit longer to brush her aside. I think the first year after, she had to deal with a lot of neglect because Abuela didn’t want her in the village as much, both for reputation and the fact that she doesn’t have a gift. During this time she picks up her sewing and other hobbies, which is great, but the lack of social contact is really not good for growing children. It doesn’t help that most of the family is also going through it because Bruno left and they’re confused (both about that and the magic not giving her a gift)

I think Bruno saw this in the walls and it reminded him of the beginning of how people started treating him before outright ostracizing him, but he tells himself it’s different, this is only temporary, they’ll go back to normal soon, and in canon, I think it might’ve gotten close, but not here, or at least, Bruno reacts differently here. Because he keeps telling himself it’ll go away, they’ll go back to normal and before he knows it, it’s been a year and Mirabel is turning 6 and he realizes, No. It’s not going to be fine, and Mirabel can’t continue to grow up in an environment where she’s constantly being overshadowed and neglected.

It’s not intentional, he knows that. He knows that Julietta and Pepa and Agustin and Felix don’t mean to, they’re trying their best when they’ve also got the weight of Abuela’s expectations on their back. Abuela kind of is doing it intentionally, because she’s scared and traumatized and thinks it’s for the best, but that’s not important right now.

What is important, is that Bruno makes a decision to go back. He goes to Julietta first and he explains where he’s been and why (mostly leaving out the prophecy, only vaguely alluding to it) and tells her that Mirabel needs a change, and that, while she could grow up like that, she shouldn’t have to and she deserves better, (Agustin is included in this conversation after the initial confrontation between Bruno and Julietta because bro really dipped for a year with no explanation and yeah, she’s not happy about it). They eventually agree that Mirabel and Bruno should leave the Encanto. I would say they could just move out and live somewhere else in the Encanto, but everyone already knows Bruno as creepy guy and Mirabel as the ‘giftless Madrigal’ and that’s not the kind of Childhood Mirabel deserves. They somehow explain this all to the rest of the family and set off to a new place.

Now this could easily be one of those fics where they leave with no warning and stay missing until something happens and the family goes looking for them, but that’s some stupid ass bullshit and we’re not doing that.

In this au, everyone knows that they’re leaving. There are tears and goodbye hugs and they walk them all the way to the mountains. Once they get to their new home, they send letters and keep in contact with eachother, sometimes Mira and Bruno go back to visit, they don’t intend to stay gone forever or cut off their family, they just need some space where they can grow in a safe place away from the questionable moral decisions of Abuela and the villagers (at least Abuela had a reason, what’s up the villagers literally being mostly trash except in the last song?).

Anyway, they end up in New York in 2007 because MCU Peter was born in 2001 and in this au, so was Mirabel. I was thinking about who I might ship Bruno with, but I couldn’t really think of anyone so I was gonna say, really nice and sweet OC Husband (because I don’t think that man is straight), but for some reason my mind went “Mr. Delmar” and I was like, Why? And my mind said, because wouldn’t it be funny if when Peter asked “how’s your daughter” he was talking about Mirabel, and so that’s my headcannon.

There’s a lot of meeting people and other details that I’m gonna gloss over for now because this is getting way longer than I meant it to.

So, I mentioned Butterfly wing Mirabel, right? Well in this au, Mirabel has either a mutant gene or an inhuman gene, I’m leaning towards Mutant because of the stressful situation that triggers it.

I imagine her and Peter (and Ned and MJ) are best friends and they’re 14 and Peter’s been Spider-Man for about 3 months. He fights more Comic-booky villains here because plot. Anyway, one day, one of his villains attacks the school they all go to and Peter’s fighting them and everything, very scary and stressful to a bunch of teenagers, but that’s not what triggers the gene.

No, what triggers it is when she goes home and enters her room, she’s greeted by the sight of one of her Best Friends low-key bleeding out on her floor while wearing the Spider-Man costume.

Just imagine, two hyper 14 year olds, one of them is on the floor, kind of freaking out because he didn’t know what to do and found himself at Mirabel’s house and she just walked in, and the other freaking out because holy shit, my best friend is on the floor bleeding and they’re SpiDER-MAN?! when all of the sudden, two bright, colorful butterfly wings just burst from her back and now they’re both freaking even more.

The whole situation is really confusing and they’re both yelling and screaming. At one point Bruno hears them and investigates and is just like 👁👁 why me. And weirdly enough he’s the one to calm them down and deal with Peter’s wound and they talk it out.

That’s all for the plot for now, but elaboration on Mira’s wings:

They’re colorful butterfly wings that she can manifest at will. She can change the colors and size and they’re practically indestructible. Only stipulations, she can’t hold them when she’s unconscious (obviously) and she can’t make them bigger than twice her height, which is still kind of a lot, but still. When she’s still learning to control them, they sometimes pop out and curl around her when she’s surprised or frightened. When she eventually starts going out on the street with Peter (because obviously she would, what do you take me for?) some people call her ‘The Butterfly’ and she’s like, “no I’m Mariposa” and they’re like “that’s literally just Butterfly in Spanish” and she like “exactly”

I might write more of this later, whether anyone wants it or not

#mariposa #Mariposa!Mirabel au #encanto x MCU #encanto x MCU crossover #mcu spiderman #peter parker #mirabel madrigal #encanto bruno #encanto #butterfly!mirabel au

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monstrousproductions · 2 years ago

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OK so bear with me for adding onto an already giant post but! This ask made me really curious about what is said about Jonah in rabbinic literature. This is all from the wikipedia page 'Jonah in Rabbinic Literature' (thanks, wikipedia!) and the citations are mostly from the Yalkut Shimoni and the Zohar, two collections of Torah commentary. I'm not Jewish and I was never very good at exegesis so I'm mostly just relaying what the wikipedia page told me with some light interpretation, so set your expectations accordingly!

My first favourite thing is that when Jonah ran to Jaffa to get the boat to Tarshish (possibly Tarsus, as vaguely alluded to above), he missed the boat by two days. But God had sent a wind to drive it back into port - a wind which only affected that one particular boat, and no others. Rather than seeing this and thinking, "hm, maybe I shouldn't play games with a god who can do that, maybe actually God is still God even when you're on a boat," Jonah - being what we in theological circles term, "a dumbass" - takes this as vindication of his genius plan!

In his glee, excitement and certainty that everything's coming up Jonah, he goes against normal custom which I assume was a half now, half later kind of deal, and pays for the full journey up front - some even say he paid the whole value of the ship, which, why, Jonah? Why would you do that? Love that he paid that much just to be chucked into the ocean, RIP my best beloved.

My next favourite bit is on the boat. The sailors have woken Jonah from his panic nap and established that yes, this horrendous storm is all his fault, but they're not about to just outright murder a guy without a little sure evidence it's the right thing to do! So they take Jonah and they dangle him over the side of the boat, dunking him up to his knees. And the storm quiets down! and they pull him out and the storm picks up again. And they dunk him again, a bit deeper, and the storm quiets down even more! And they DUNK the prophet of God, they DUNK him like a COOKIE in the name of SCIENCE.

Even then, they're still not wild for the murder thing and as they chuck him overboard they're like, making direct eye contact with the sky like, "You know this isn't on us, right? This is not on us!"

And then we get to my absolute favourite part, which is what the Yalkut Shimoni tells us happened while Jonah was in the fish (or rather, what wikipedia tells me the Yalkut Shimoni tells us happened...)

So first, there's a nice bit in the Zohar that mentions that the fish has eyes like windows, or perhaps has a kind of light-emitting pearl hanging from its ribs so it's not completey dark inside. I think it works better as a Sheol metaphor if it's dark, but also, fish-eye windows is a banging aesthetic.

But then the fish tells Jonah that, originally, he was supposed to be eaten by the Leviathan - the OG sea monster - and not this nice handsome fish. Which I suppose must have the implication that the Leviathan is now still out of Jonah but is going to eat the fish too?? Because Jonah asks to be taken to the Leviathan to try and save both his life, and that of his new friend/house/transport.

Upon meeting the Leviathan, Jonah.... "exhibited the seal of Abraham". Which. Um. OK so this is where my caveat above about not being Jewish and also not having been a very good theologian in my day, it all comes up here. Because I'm like hmm OK so is that uhh.... Is that his dick? Like, the sign of Abraham's covenant with God? Circumcision? It kills me. It kills me. I laughed til I cried. He's just down there flashing his junk at this scary sea monster and it works because the Leviathan sees it and runs two days away.

Which also like, I'm sorry Leviathan but are you worried you'll get smote? Because this guy is already in a fish in the bottom of the sea, I know he's one of God's chosen people and all but let's be honest, that's not a circumstance under which I would assume he was one of God's very favourites.

The fish, meanwhile, is delighted! He's so thrilled at not getting eaten that he takes Jonah on a little tour of all the interesting sights at the bottom of the ocean, like "here's where Moses crossed the Red Sea, here's the big treasure chest that opens every few seconds and squirts out bubbles, here's some crabs that eat wood". And Jonah has three days of... a pretty good time, actually!

But God is like, hey! I did not send you down there for a jolly holiday, young man! And sends another, different fish "where he would be less comfortable". This fish is a lady fish and is pregnant, so Jonah's all squashed and cramped inside her - I imagine him with his knees around his ears as these very annoying little baby fish keep asking him if he has any games on his phone. And that finally pushes him to pray to God and admit that OK yeah maybe he can't "outrun the Almighty" or whatever.

Finally, another thing that really cracked me up while talking to a friend about this all was when we were talking about the people of Ninevah. Like, they repented immediately. They just were like, oh shit, we were doing a sin? My bad, dude. Sackcloth and ashes, posthaste!

(A funny aside - there's a decent argument to be made for Jonah originally being written as a parody or satire, and someone is quoted on the wikipedia page as saying the idea of even the animals of Ninevah fasting in repentance is... "silly".)

Which makes Jonah's fury even funnier, and also his reticence to go in the first place, which these commentaries explain as being about his unwillingness to make God? look bad? I don't really follow it fully, I think it's saying that if he went to Ninevah and everyone repented and then didn't get smote, then nobody would believe God could smite people. Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but I'm a 21st century Quaker so who knows.

Anyway, that's all from today's issue of You Said Ramble, So I Rambled. Now I'm off to write my mid-budget, hyper stylised Jonah film adaptation starring Dev Patel as Jonah and Adjoa Andoh as the Voice of God.

I would listen to a audio drama about "your boy jonah" but also, tell me about your boy! Here is a free space to ramble. Please info-dump.

Free space to ramble?! Don't mind if I do!

So, in case anyone is unfamiliar with the story of Jonah, it begins with Jonah minding his business and suddenly being called upon by God to go to Ninevah [the capital city of the Assyrian empire] to call them out for their sins. Instead, Jonah seals his place in my heart by running away from God.

I just find it so immediately endearing that his reaction to being given a divinely ordained job to do is to absolutely nope the fuck out and run for the hills. It's not just hilarious, but it also feels so honest? Like yeah sometimes we know rightly what we're supposed to do, either because of the leading of the spirit or because of our own morals, and sometimes it's fucking terrifying!!

So he runs away, he gets on a boat to sail off to Far Off Lands (poss. southern Turkey) and obviously... God knows. Because it's God. You can't just duck behind a tree and suddenly God forgets you're there lol And God is big mad and sends a storm that threatens to break the ship into matchsticks. The sailors are terrified - I imagine them as these hardened sea-faring men who are used to all sorts of things, and this storm is so fierce they're absolutely terrified.

And Jonah... is fast asleep. Conked the fuck out on one of the lower decks, like he isn't moments from being smithereened. Running away from God is a tiring business, I guess! Also, as a chronic procastinapper, I can't help feeling like he just felt like he had too much on his plate and decided napping is way less scary that That Whole Mess.

So the captain drags him up and demands that he pray to his god because clearly the gods of the sailors are not paying attention lol But they also want to know where the storm came from and why, so they draw lots to see who's to blame? And of course Jonah draws the short straw.

And then this bit I imagine Jonah being super sheepish about OK. Because in this era and place, it was quite normal to accept that other people's gods were real and powerful, but they just weren't your gods. But different gods have different areas of power, so the sailors ask Jonah who his god is. And very grudgingly, Jonah admits that ummm yeah ok so actually his god is... the one who created the sea and the land.

And I imagine there's this moment of absolute silence as these sailors take in the fact that this guy has pissed his god off and who's his god again? Oh yeah, only the one who MADE THE OCEAN which is currently trying to KILL THEM.

"So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea."

But Jonah doesn't drown! God sends a fish to swallow him up, and he sits in the fish for three days and prays while he's in there, because actually all things considered it was pretty neat of God to send a fish to swallow him instead of letting him drown and he's like "I think maybe I have got close enough to death and I would like to stop having an adventure now and go back to being all the way alive."

Which is very cool having his time in the fish being this sort of pseudo-death? Like he was getting a little taste of it. And he even talks about it as being in Sheol, and being out of sight of God and longing to be alive and back where God can see him.

So God tells the fish to vomit him up and tells Jonah again to go to Ninevah, which this time he does! It's a huge city, it takes three days to walk across it, but Jonah made a promise and he sticks to it. He walks and talks and the city repents and God relents from whatever punishment he was going to send.

Which, in a turn that never fails to touch my heart, makes Jonah... absolutely fucking livid. He is so mad about this decision. He's like, "I fucking knew it!! I knew you weren't going to smite these fuckers!" and God is like ??? excuuuuse me ???

And Jonah - I love him so much - he storms off, he stomps out of Ninevah and builds himself a little hu and he sits in his hut and he stares at the city, wishing hellfire and damnation on everyone in it, and sulking like nobody on earth. He is raging and I love it.

But it's the fucking Assyrian desert, it's hot as balls and even in his wee hut, Jonah's got the sun beating down on him. And God makes this plant grow next to him for shade, which Jonah is pretty pleased about - until the next morning, God sends a worm that attacks the plant and kills it. And also throws in some scorching winds and fiery sun for good measure.

And Jonah's lying there about to pass out and he's like, "I would literally rather be fucking dead" and then we get my favourite exchange in the whole Bible:

But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

I just love it!! He's having none of it! He is furious and he is feeling more righteous and miserable than any angsty teenager ever could and he's telling God straight out, "You have pissed me off like nobody has ever pissed anyone off before" and I love him so much!!

And God points out that he's that angry about the plant dying, which he didn't even grow or tend to, but somehow it's not fair for God to not be particularly keen on destroying an entire megatropolis full of people and animals who by the way God is responsible for and cares for? Double standards much? And the book ends! It's made its point and off it fucks.

Also there's a bit at the end there where it describes the thousands and thousands of people in Ninevah as "not knowing which is their left hand and which is their right" which I assume is a metaphor for not knowing right from wrong but which I also just love as such a read. Like, "Really? You expect me not to look after these people? Look at them. They're morons, Jonah. They're the kind of morons who would think, oh, I don't know, that they could hide from God in a boat."

I just love how angry Jonah is, and how afraid, and how human! And I love that he has this sassy back and forth with God and that he gets angry at God and argues and has to get put in a fish for a time out. It feels like such a close, bickering sort of relationship and I think the world would be a better place if more people felt like they could look God in the eye and say, "YES! I AM ANGRY!! I AM SO ANGRY I COULD DIE!!!"

#the jury's out on whether or not we'll have dev doing full frontal nudity to scare off the leviathan #long post #just in case anyone actually does filter that tag #otherwise sorry not sorry here are all my thoughts and words xxxx #fun fact hebrew was the only module in undergrad that i failed and had to resit #also i was taught by a man with a very strong rural Northern Irish accent #these facts combine to mean the only thing I can now say in Hebrew is 'good morning Moses' as uttered by a Ballymenan farmer

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incorrect-ikevamp-quotes · 3 years ago

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What’s your opinion for Leo’s reaction to finding out the mc was immortal as well- not necessarily a vampire, maybe they’re some other type of supernatural. I’m really curious because Leo seems like he’s mainly in love with the mc bec they are human.

Hi lovely!!! Always wonderful to see you, hope you’re well! 💛💛💛💛💛

Tbh I think my opinion remains the same about something like this? I'm going to link to an ask I wrote up a while ago, only because it's v pertinent to the subject matter and good background for what I’m going to expand on here.

That being said, I'm happy to kind of tl;dr/expand on what I talked about there. Basically I had the feeling that Leonardo choosing MC as a lover was more circumstantial--regarding the state of his life in the moment, regarding his general feelings about vampires and vampire society, and regarding his unresolved trauma as a young kid.

I guess my answer to that question--and forgive me if it seems like a cop out--is that it really depends, I feel? I think his attraction has a lot more to do with the kind of person somebody is, their sensibility, more than it has to do with mortal vs immortal. If it was an immortal MC that showed ridiculous fortitude and self-control, measured patience and maturity, I really don’t see him not noticing that? I think he would be wary at first (assuming it’s all a front) but with time would likely feel a great deal of love if they were interested in a life together. If they were able to see and understand what he needs and answered those needs, I guess I just really doubt his ability to say no. It’s all he’s really looking for, and the fact that he hasn’t found it after so long really speaks to his frightened evasiveness and the rare nature of that kind of unshakeable strength.

I also think a lot of his hinging away from purebloods (true immortals, in other words) is that he 100% does not want his familia having any involvement in his meaningful relationships. Which might be why he shows more acceptance towards turned vampires, or potentially different supernatural beings.

But I also don’t like giving a vague answer without some kind of explanation as to how I got, to that conclusion, so a boatload of analysis follows below the content warning.

Spoilers for Leonardo’s route and a few mentions of JPN ver content:

I think he has less of an obsession with the idea of mortality, and more like a constant association of goodness and freedom and maturity with humanity. And while it's understandable, there are signs that--when he has the proper time and space to heal--his views seem to soften from those extremes. I mean his decision to live with Comte is pretty much his first step in that direction; it was him acknowledging for the first time that vampires aren't inherently loathsome or incapable of normal living. (On a revealing note, I think it says a lot that he agrees with MC that she is living in a “wolves’ den” but also feels the need to clarify the men are basically the domesticated equivalent. They don’t pose the same threat other vampires typically do to humans because of their lifestyle and sire.) Additionally, his tsun-like behavior towards Comte also seems to solidify this concept for me: Leonardo’s trying to come to terms with something he's sworn to reject since he was young, but also can't entirely deny that Comte is as chill and mature as purebloods come lmao

[There was also an event in the JPN ver–which seems to be approaching the ENG version rapidly, though only the first part is here right now–in which Leonardo fully offers to turn her. MC is essentially on her death bed, and Leonardo doesn’t want to lose her after so little time together; it’s MC that rejects the future as a vampire out of sheer principle. Even more noteworthy is that, when a reincarnation of MC is reunited with Leonardo in modern times, he is revealed to be exceptionally shaken by that loss. There are suggestions he can’t take losing her again, which could mean succumbing to the desire to bite her.]

Two things I feel are necessary to hit home:

The first being that, at least within the storyline so far, the most mature and human-like vampires we’ve seen are Leonardo and Comte. They seek to emulate the maturity they see reflected in the human beings they’ve known all their lives. Given how vampire society and their hierarchies work, I get the feeling humans are nothing more than amusing tools to them--a way to survive and creatures to exercise control over. There’s an objectification and delusion that comes with what I’ve seen, and I think it’s important in this discussion? If the vast majority of vampires behave this way (because I’m ngl, Leonardo and Comte don’t seem very keen on remaining in touch with other vampires all that much) then it only makes sense they prefer the company of humans who can at least share this sensibility of “been there, done that--stop hurting people bc you’re bored/repressed, grow up.”

One event story where this was exceedingly evident was actually Leonardo’s proposal story. If y’all remember, an old pal/acquaintance of Leonardo’s finds out he’s gunning for a human woman and basically goes “lmao not on my watch.” His name was Adam iirc, and he felt he had every liberty to try and pressure Leonardo into turning MC. Failing that, he insisted they should break up and not be together anymore. Now, on the one hand, it’s fair to say that he was looking out for Leonardo in a way–he didn’t want him to end up miserable and alone when she was gone. But at the same time I feel that Adam’s behavior is deeply revealing of vampire society as well lmao. He doesn’t really try to understand the situation, just immediately assumes it’s the only appropriate outcome. It does insinuate a lowkey cultural disdain for humanity: they are imperfect, they do not last or cannot have real value without preservation. If Adam was really Leonardo’s friend, wouldn’t he realize that Leonardo considers vampirism nothing more than a burden that he would wish on no one, much less his future wife? Additionally, wouldn’t he also keep in mind that Leonardo considers human beings beautiful just as they are? Since he fails these basic requirements to understand Leonardo, my impression is that he is influenced by the larger vampire culture to some extent. Furthermore, it underscores just how thoroughly Leonardo has been trained to keep his cards close to his chest for fear of ridicule/violent reprisal: no vampires know his true feelings on the matter because he would be vehemently rejected outright.

[One can also offer that maybe Adam wasn’t being malicious, maybe vampires find human women they fall in love with all the time and turn them (or any other permutation of companionship that occurs), so he doesn’t understand why Leonardo wouldn’t. But even then, to try to force them to break up if she doesn’t turn? A bit overkill imo but also revealing--Leonardo’s will is being ignored for the sake of upholding a kind of ill-founded superiority complex lmao]

While Leonardo does have a somewhat overbearing need to control the pacing of his relationship and who sacrifices what, I don’t think it’s wrong to be cautious--to want to think things through. I think it’s fair to be afraid that the person you’re with can’t handle what you’ve seen/known. But that also leads me to a core issue I have with MC: she doesn’t inspire much confidence that she can handle the life he’s lived, and that’s a problem of both incapacity and incompatibility. I have to wonder how he reacts when he’s with somebody at the same maturity level, or at the very least somebody with whom he can see her strength with time. When MC’s life was dying out he was desperate enough to accept biting her because he didn’t want to lose her–human or not. It’s MC that rejects this solution, which leads me to further believe that he just doesn’t care about the divide when it comes down to it; it has more to do with his difficulty with being vulnerable and fully trusting someone to care about him. (Assuming they also have the fortitude to stay hopeful and relatively strong over the course of a very long life.)

In line with that, the second thing I think it’s important to acknowledge is how deeply hurt Leonardo is as a result of his family treating him like a fool/black sheep. He outright says and heavily insinuates that his family would write her off as worthless, that they’d never accept her--that's his first thought:

Leonardo: “My familia would call you frail. I think you’re strong and beautiful. You do more with your time than we try to do with ours.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MC: “And those letters were from your familia?”

Leonardo: “Yeah. I don’t talk to them or see them anymore. We don’t agree...on a lot of things.”

[Brief intermission here. But lmao. Who does that sound like? If any of you guessed Isaac, that’s exactly what I’m alluding to. Isaac says in his own route smth along the lines of “Why bother trying to get through to people when no amount of talking does any good or gets you any closer to being understood?” Which also explains the way they get along to uncanny degrees: they find comfort in making things/researching because it means being able to avoid the distress that comes with being blatantly misunderstood by others. Their pain simply comes in different dimensions; for Leo it’s about loss and hiding who he is out of fear of rejection, for Isaac it’s about betrayal and people turning on him--ultimately abandonment for both. But I digress, back to the main argument.]

Leonardo: “Once they discovered my location, they began hounding me with letters again. They don’t want me to be with just anyone...They want more purebloods. I’m no more than one half of an equation for them.”

There is a clear implication that his desire to choose somebody that truly makes him happy means jack shit to them. They keep talking over him and trying to wear him down to force him into what they want. It’s no wonder--imo--that he has such a hard time just saying what he wants in his life, to feel like he has the freedom to wish and pursue anything freely. It’s no wonder he just expects MC to spit on everything that’s important to him. It appears as though only other human beings in general and Comte have ever come close to understanding him.

At some point MC realizes that his insistence on being compagni provvisori was originally just another act of sacrifice, and that he was fine with giving up his time and a little privacy if it meant she would be safe. The thing she doesn’t seem to realize in the course of this--and he struggles to say it until later on--is that it stopped being blind generosity. He really did start to fall in love with her, and that’s the whole reason things became even more messy; because he didn’t anticipate not being able to let go on top of the vulnerability. And it’s a big part of why he’s hesitating to speak. He feels he has no right to those feelings, and that he’s imposing on her--not that he’ll be welcome.

And when she did finally admit those feelings were welcome, it was compounded by the parroted views of his family and larger vampire society as a whole. Saying that she herself wasn’t enough, that she had to become a vampire to make him happy. Imo that sounds very potentially retraumatizing given his experiences (people trying to force him into marriages with other vampires who didn’t remotely understand or care about him because it was “the right way of things”). It’s no wonder he freaks out and does something incredibly stupid and insensitive–which is pretty insanely ooc for him.

Leonardo: “...It shocked them. Quieted them down a bit. Hard to get peace when your familia is immortal. Grazie, cara mia.”

Leonardo: “You’re strong, and you’re kind. So probably you won’t cry while I’m here to see it. But when I’m not looking, you’ll cry. If I had done that to you (bitten her, in other words), you’d still be crying when I wasn’t watching... Maybe it’s selfish of me, after what I did, but I just wanted to make you happy. You always look pretty, cara mia, but your smile takes my breath away...It’s not your destiny to love someone who will only make you cry.”

This man literally cannot handle anyone deeply sad or in despair. He’s always going to try to cheer people up and care about them, but general tragedy/emotional discord affects him very powerfully--and it’s likely a reflection of what I’ve mentioned before. He can’t bear to see people feeling helpless or miserable because he’s just been there too many times to be able to cope. He wants to help and heal (even if he’s suffering from prolonged compassion fatigue), but he knows that his powers are limited--even if he is a pureblood.

And the thing is? While it’s misguided to believe she would cry alone when it comes to the context of healthy romantic love (bc the idea would be that you lean on each other when something upsetting happens) he has zero reference point. He was not born as a result of authentic love (his parents never married, he was the result of a procreative arrangement), his family talks over every wish and belief he has and they still claim it’s done out of love/honest concern for him. One can only imagine the serpentine and obnoxious lengths to which his family has deceived or tried to force him into reconnecting with them. Every person that ever did know him/care about him in a real way is gone. Love, for him, has only been a series of losses that left his heart hollowed out; I don’t really blame him for expecting further disappointment and isolation and exhaustion.

He’s also not wrong in the sense that he partially saw MC do what he outlined, and it’s a big part about what he loves about her. When she was feeling alone and lost–powerless–all she did was shrug and move forward. That doesn’t make it hurt any less, but focusing on what you can do instead of what you can’t do is healthier. And they both have the tendency to hide when they’re in pain or feeling lost, all because they don’t want to trouble anyone. Remember that when he says this, it’s a reflection of himself too: because even if he was heartbroken beyond measure, all he would do is hide it every second; he would never expect anyone to see right through him or care.

I mean I tend think of that one post I saw that talked about how people often see themselves as a social burden when most of their life has just been a series of neglect and loss. They don’t really have a concept of “you’re not heavy because I want to stay with you. It’s my choice to care about you.” How do you feel worthwhile an existence when four hundred years later your family still won’t treat you with basic dignity. The men in the mansion also all look to him for guidance and soothing because of the kind of person he is–he’s either silent in the periphery or helping. He never betrays so much as an inkling of insecurity or distress.

I mean the whole reason Leonardo comes to the mansion is because he has absolutely no issue helping Comte in a pivotal time of need without seeking much of anything in return. Remember that Comte explains how Leonardo came to the mansion in response to Comte’s distress about the future. This makes sense considering Comte was rapidly trying to stop Vlad by beating him to the punch, and had only enough time to plan the basics. He had no certainty things would work out, much less that his boys would thrive. But Comte, unlike the boys, has become acutely aware of how much Leonardo is hiding his fatigue and despair in the course of being helped. As such, he wants to return the favor--and tries to be a good friend to him as much as he can (handles his insane familia, keeps things light and silly time between them, takes him seriously as a person, doesn’t pry beyond what’s fair.)

[I also think of that psychology concept of “the good enough mother.” It’s not always about being perfect every second of your life. It’s about paying attention and acting where it really counts. I feel like people who grow up under an enormous burden of neglect or parental/mentor abuse have a hard time coming to terms with the idea. This notion that just trying is enough for a lot of people, that showing them they’re not alone is enough to make difficult memories bearable. Because it’s the oppressive silence and apathy that tends to kills people, imo--not people who mean well. But Leonardo doesn’t really understand any kind of reciprocal or non-self-emptying model because the concept is beyond him. He has no experience with it beyond Comte and a select few humans he’s befriended.]

Let’s continue on this point of MC crying where he can’t see her, shall we? The reason this scares him so much is not because he doesn’t care, or doesn’t want to make the effort. It’s precisely that he cares to the point of madness. It’s that he is legitimately convinced nothing he has to say, nothing that he can do, no part of him is enough to ease what she will have to trade away to stay with him. The core issue is not one of disregard or objectification, I find it to be more about his belief that he just isn’t enough. He doesn’t trust that anyone can love him to the point where just the sight of him or time with him can heal. And while there is a foolishness to this belief, it’s understandable when you consider where he’s coming from. You can call it selfishness, but it just feels involuntary--he has a lot of fear when it comes to love.

I mean Comte even says it himself? His words here always strike me: “I want you to understand, it’s because he cherishes you just as you are--more than he cares about his future or his well-being.”

Comte is openly identifying the way that Leonardo has a tendency to give more than is healthy. That Leonardo isn’t hesitating because his feelings are lacking, he’s doing it because he knows it’s going to hurt like a bitch trying to love her and never ask beyond what feels reasonable. (Spoilers: no request is reasonable. That’s the problem here. He’s convinced he deserves nothing.) Therefore turning her into a vampire to stay with him is--consequently, to Leonardo--out of the question. This is the literal hingepoint at which Comte and Leonardo divide; Comte simply tells MC he’ll take full responsibility for asking so much of her. He intends to make her happy with every single resource and skill he has at his disposal. Even if he doubts his ability or fears losing her to vampire rhetoric madness, he’d rather try than live with the regret and immediate loss. Leonardo is more resistant because of his dour outlook, that her fear of immortality is never going to be something that either of them can overcome. And/or he’s likely afraid she’s only going to regret being together after so long, and might succumb to the ridiculous sort of power/greed complexes vampires seem so attracted to by nature.

I think Leonardo is still coming to terms with the idea that he isn't alone in the world in a lot of ways, and I think he's also coming to terms with the idea that immortality does not equate to evil. Sure, human beings on average are probably more open to flexible modes of thinking and living compared to vampires--their maturity is in some ways guaranteed due to the instances they're forced to adapt to survive. However, just one look at the ruling class and oligarchies of all kinds (even just stubborn human beings) reveals how they are not immune to the same sort of megalomania, arrogance, and thoughtless violence purebloods/vampires are capable of.

So I guess I hesitate when it comes to the thought that he only loves her because she's human. If anything, I think he loves her for the fact that she's very rooted in reality--not quite so bound by the extremes that trouble him. It's one of the many reasons I believe Leonardo needs a lot of maturity and patience; the ability to differentiate between his panicked/overwhelmed/hurt reactions versus his calm is a skill in and of itself considering his capacity for concealment. To say nothing of getting him to slow down when this happens, too.

I suppose I think about it in a way that’s similar to how Napoleon’s main story narrative is framed. While Leonardo’s route doesn’t focus on the grandeur of being a former emperor, there is a clear insinuation here that he also craves normalcy? Just a little life, with a person he loves dearly, where he can rest and be himself for once. I think because he gives off such an appearance of steadiness, people fail to see that he is barely holding on--not to mention the kind of experiences he’s been deprived of (the exact security and understanding he so expertly emulates).

Closer to your question, it’s worth mentioning that Leonardo’s life goal for a while was the creation of an immortal human being--in that he fully recognized human beings could not offer what he needed as they were.

He loves humans because of their adaptability, their frequent desire to keep seeking out hope and making the best of the broken pieces they have. But then again, it has more to do with the nature of how frequently that sensibility occurs in humans vs vampires (and immortality in general): mortality does demand some level of necessity to change and grow. Which is one of the largest trauma points for him; the vampires around him just refused to grow up, always demanding at him like children and obsessed with their power complexes.

Thing is I also don't know enough about vampire society to know how correct this perceived ratio is. However, given Comte's similar avoidance of other vampires and general inability to live with them (he and Vlad were literal childhood best friends and Comte can't stand him anymore lmao) I think Leonardo may have more validity here than people give him credit for. Which begs the question--why did he quit trying to make a human immortal? What was it that stopped him? Was it the horror of what needed to be done to achieve it? Or would a potential companion start to fall more in love with the idea of immortality than they do with life itself/him? I think it’s a worthwhile question to ask, given the disdain he seems to aim at Shakespeare in particular--once human, but now emulates all of the violence and insatiability marked by vampirism.

This is where the transition from human to vampire/immortal contains another hingepoint: is Leonardo so incapable of finding a middle ground because he feels like any choice he makes will be a wrong one? Marry a human, deprive them of a normal love where they can grow old together. Marry a human and turn them, what if they are reborn with immortal wounds/psychological harm? What if time proves they get bored of him or hateful, what if they begin to act like the predatory purebloods he hates so much? Marry a pureblood/immortal, and be hounded by his family for heirs--risk being with somebody who will never love him or their children, and only inspire more misery in the world.

Does it make sense how this can really start to become an anxious downspiral for someone like him? How the personal insecurity and life history comes together to just compound stress endlessly?

That's the thing that's important here, I think. Leonardo just needs somebody who is open-minded, firm, and not easily deceived. If one takes a look at Leonardo's main story route, the whole reason everything goes to shit so disastrously is because MC stops listening at a critical point. Granted Leonardo could have been more forthcoming for sure, but when she started assuming Shakespeare was right instead of seeing how Leonardo was feeling/reacting, she responded in ways Leonardo wasn't prepared for. He never wanted to shake her faith or insinuate whatever she is is not good enough for him, and tbh I think Leonardo downspiraled because it was just the same thing all over again. What he is--a vampire and immortal--keeps ruining everything he wants with his life.

#asks #ikevamp #ikemen vampire #ikevamp meta #ikevamp leonardo #ikevamp leo #ikevamp saint germain #ikevamp comte #can you tell i think too hard about these things kjhdglshf #sorry this reply took me a little longer than i meant to--but i really did want to do the topic proper justice!!#leonardo is such a dear person to me and I can't help but sympathize #people are free to disagree with this but it's just how i feel about the topic #the more i see about him in event stories--the sense this his trembling heart is slowly easing--the less i can believe such things matter #to him all that much tbh #i also think the event where he loses her is just all the more telling too?#i feel like if it really was a matter of principle and not love he would have just accepted it #humans have a v short lifespan--what can be done #sort of reaction #but that's not how he reacted at all: he was a man beside himself with dread and sadness #and even when he meets her reincarnation he can't help but want to be with her again #iirc he starts shaking at the slightest mention of when she died--and shows a lot less ability to resist the urge to turn her #so anywho brief summation is that i think this is more about so many sad boy hours and fear of widespread immortal megalomania #than it is abt hatred for immortality #he has no confidence good things can last without being warped--and that's the key issue here #'nothing gold can stay'#long post #rambles #not incorrect quotes #if you manage to read this without falling asleep i applaud you ajkhldghkfjsdg #thanks for the ask tho--i love any excuse to yell abt leo <333

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floralovebot · 3 years ago

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I'd love to read more about what you think about how often they get in trouble! And since you said Riven would get flack for Musa's songs, do you think he'd get flack for having dated Darcy?

FUCK YEAH DUDE

Fair warning, this is a bit long!

So, for the Winx, I said that most to least likely to get in trouble was Musa, Stella - Bloom, Flora, Tecna, and then Aisha. And for the Specialists, I said Riven, Sky, Brandon, Helia, and then Timmy. Again, I do think who's the most hated greatly depends on the planet and culture, so how often they get into trouble also depends on this (for instance, Stella having a more laid back approach to certain things may get her in trouble on Zenith, but not on Solaria).

Musa: The classic problematic. It's not that she's a bad person, she's just in the news a lot. Sometimes it's about another heartbreak song, sometimes it's about a fight she had with Riven in public, sometimes it's about her dry humor and sarcasm being interpreted as mean, and other times it's about some vague tweet she wrote and never deleted. She advocates for a lot of good stuff and definitely uses her platform to try and change things so she's not the worst celebrity out there, but she also tends to speak before she knows everything and that can occasionally be a problem. She fiercely defends the others when they get into trouble and constantly vagues "news sources" (aka drama sites) so people still view her as a little negative by proxy. (Also, some people think her being a fairy of music gave her an unfair advantage in the music industry and that she isn't actually talented.)

Stella - Bloom: I'm putting them on the same level because I think they're both fairly similar in how often they get into drama. As princesses who often get involved in things, their every movement is under scrutiny. Stella handles it a lot better than Bloom due to her media training and being watched since she was young.

Bloom usually tries to stay out of the negative spotlight but that often makes her seem avoidant of important issues. She does speak up about things but it's usually after days of editing and rewriting her words so she gets accused of only talking about something because people wanted her to. She also tends to get nervous answering anything about politics or Domino so that makes people reluctant to listen to her words. Then there's the obvious drama with Sky. While they aren't as public as Rivusa, things get out quickly and when they're in a heated moment they tend to forget about their surroundings. People from Eraklyon tend to hate both of them because Bloom is "too loud and angry and just being rude" and Sky is "forgetting his place and rising to the challenge, not a great sign for a future king". On the flip side, Bloom has saved the magical universe multiple times and continues to do so. Basically, she's one of those celebrities that you either really love or really hate.

Stella is another classic problematic! Again, it's not that she's a bad person, she just gets noticed a lot. People accuse her of being classist and ignorant just because she's royalty. They also hate whenever she spends a lot of money on things like clothing and makeup because it's seen as a wasted expense (since most of her money pre-S3 was coming from her parents). People absolutely see her as a spoiled brat that can't read the room and doesn't deserve to be queen. Stella often tries to prove those ideas wrong in very subtle ways because she knows outright denying them would only further the problem. But just like the others, she spends a lot of time advocating for the good and for the better. She also cares deeply about her friends and it's obvious to everyone, even the people that hate her. So while she is in the news a lot, most people can see through it and support her. But she does still get into trouble for her shopping sprees. Her spending a lot of money on things is largely why people sometimes have trouble being on her side. It's almost always seen as a spoiled princess move and a large factor in why people think she's classist and/or ignorant.

Flora: Flora is interesting because a lot of people initially assume that because she's a very shy and nice girl that she won't get into any drama. So it's a complete surprise when she argues with people online and starts calling people out. She's often fighting for the right thing and she rarely gets her facts wrong, but people hate getting called out and they hate it when someone they think should be quiet and nice goes to town on their ass. Even the people that agree with her often think she's too aggressive in her replies (while others think her tone is fine). Flora also isn't extremely open about her personal life outside of fighting crime with the Winx so that doubles her online persona as being just mean and "too political". People say that she should just stick to watering plants and leave the politics to the actual politicians. She responds by calling them hypocrites since they were just asking for celebrities to use their platforms. She gets called out for thinking she's a celebrity. She responds that she has a large platform and people follow her for her work. It's just a constant cycle and she never runs out of things to say (which isn't bad, but it always gets her into trouble). Tbh, I can also see the exact opposite where Flora just doesn't get involved in anything because she's too busy posting pictures of her plants and random dogs she sees but, I think eventually the need to defend her friends would win out and once she gets a little taste of activism, she wouldn't stand down (yknow how she constantly berates the Winx for wanting to attack the controlled animals? Basically like that. She has very strong moral opinions).

Tecna: I had some trouble with this because I almost wanted to put her last but overall I think her general personality would get her into trouble more than what happens with Aisha. Tecna is often blunt and she doesn't necessarily hide when she doesn't like something. So sometimes reporters will come up to her and ask her a question and she'll just hit them with an "I don't want to talk to you." and then walks away. Tecna doesn't see anything wrong with this because she views being honest to the media as relatively important as they could easily find out if she's lying through spying and technology. Overall, people just see her as a little too honest and she gets into trouble a lot with being open about not wanting to interact with fans a lot or being cautious about press.

Aisha: It's a bit surprising that a princess is the last on the list no? Andros has a very good handle on things like media and press, and while they definitely aren't controlling it by any means, most news sites know not to mess with them. They're very strict on things like personal boundaries and privacy and try to protect anyone who could be affected by the media (celebrities, online personas, royals, athletes, etc). Aisha also has the best media training out of all the Winx and is really good at knowing what to say and what to share. People know just enough about her social life through sns that they aren't constantly asking about it but not enough to try and cancel her for anything. She's almost seen as the goody-goody of the bunch since she just doesn't get into a lot of drama (and when she does it's handled extremely well).

Now the Specialists!

Riven: It's no surprise that he's first I mean cmon. With Musa being the most "problematic" of the Winx, Riven is bound to get his fair share of scrutiny. People absolutely judge him for having a past with Darcy. Although... I really don't think it would be the biggest factor. While he did genuinely like Darcy, she used magic on him multiple times to manipulate his thoughts and then later betrayed him. Riven wouldn't want to put unnecessary hate on all witches, but he'd also be mad enough to eventually allude to what actually happened (he'd never outright say it since it also hurts his pride). Most people accept that he got manipulated by Darcy and assume that the entirety of the relationship was based on that, which Riven doesn't like either, but trying to defend her wouldn't exactly help his case. On the other hand, the relationship he does get hated for is his relationship with Musa. Musa definitely shares the good and cute stories about them too, but her sad/angry heartbreak songs are always the ones that get remembered. People assume he's a lot worse than he actually is and whenever Musa or one of the others tries to defend him, they just assume Riven manipulated them into doing that. However, after S4, people get a lot more understanding of the relationship and there isn't as much hate towards him (he does still get called out for being a bit brutish though).

Sky: I almost put Sky as first, but then I remembered he's royalty and definitely has a PR team. Still, he gets into a lot of drama. The Diaspro/Bloom situation was blown out of proportion and every news site was reporting completely different things. To some, Sky is a dirty cheater that lied to his wife and got some random girlfriend, "who knows how many other girls he's talking to! Someone get his phone records with Stella". To others, Sky and Diaspro were happily engaged before homewrecker Bloom came in. And to others, Sky was just the prince trying to protect his identity and got wrapped into some catfight. No one knows what actually happened with them but a lot of people start to assume Diaspro was in the wrong once it's confirmed Sky is officially dating Bloom. They start actively hating her when she tries to magic her way into a relationship with him. And that's just the relationship stuff! Erakylon's politics are so weak and absolutely crumbling before our eyes. Sky would constantly get asked about specific things to try and break him and it doesn't help that the media sites from the other royal characters are the ones doing it.

Brandon: Is this ranking a bit surprising? Idk? But anyway, Brandon would literally just get hated by proxy. Most of his "drama" includes what's happening with Sky and/or Stella. If one of them is getting into trouble, then people are bringing him into it for absolutely no reason. Brandon knows more about Eraklyon and Solaria's political climates than he will ever need to know. While he doesn't have as much media training as Sky, he does have to follow some rules just so Sky doesn't get into trouble for what he says. That means he can't speak up about as many issues and he certainly can't constantly defend his friends from harsh words. He tries to get away with it by liking comments instead of making his own. It helps a little.

Helia: Helia gets into the same exact trouble that he gets into with the Winx fandom. He's quiet and he shares absolutely nothing about his personal life. He's an artist but he doesn't post about it nor does he talk about it. He avoids talking to the press and when he does its always vague answers that could mean anything. Helia cares a lot about Saladin and Red Fountain's image and we know that what he does affects said image. So he treads very carefully and doesn't involve himself in anything. However, this is largely what gets him into trouble. People hate that he's not open about anything and some even go to the extreme of thinking he's suspicious. While Saladin's legacy largely protects him from this, it doesn't protect him from the media and random people constantly asking about his personal life. Helia also rarely if ever defends the others online (1. as he almost never looks at it and 2. because he doesn't want to get involved). He comforts them and gives advice to their face but no one else sees that so people often call him things like "pretentious, two-faced, avoidant, etc". People are also weirdly suspicious about his relationship with Flora because "it can't be that good right? there's definitely something suspicious about them".

Timmy: Timmy's just a genuinely nice guy that rarely gets into trouble. He chooses his battles (so to speak) very wisely so when he does defend the others online, it's almost always something a majority of people will agree with. Almost all of his social media is about the latest in technology and gaming so he's pretty big in those crowds but most media sites can't really do anything with that. Sometimes people from Zenith see him as weird but they recognize that he's a good match for Tecna so they're okay with him. By the time all of the Specialists are truly in the spotlight, he's already gotten buffer and more confident so those issues from S1 wouldn't be a huge deal either. The others also speak highly of him so no one really doubts that he's a good specialist. For the most part, he just doesn't get into trouble and when he does it's always connected to someone else rather than something he alone said/did.

#hmmm not spell checking akjdghjdagh #Loved this!!!#i loved thinking about this it was amazing #winx club #winx headcanons #ahh... imagine if rainbow recognized that the winx are celebrities outside of giving them random concerts at alfea #like. imagine the drama!!#would love to hear more thoughts about this because i Love this topic rn #best discussion the fandom has had in months

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