#an a support with the development of this dynamic post timeskip would have been so interesting

[incorrect-threehouses]

https://www.tumblr.com/summonerruoste/639864066558558208/part-23-of-the-censured-sapphic-series-in-fe3h. The localization really removed a lot of queer text in 3H. Leonie and Lysithea not getting an A support is insane.

Oh they GAY gay, y'all weren't kidding

Damn you fire emblem localisation

[beanghostprincess]

Something I adore when it comes to Sanuso is that their relationship canonically has a type of development we don't pay much attention to. We do talk about their remarkable scenes together but not the differences between them and the time they take place.

When they meet they do not get along. Like. At all. They start yelling at each other and arguing and honestly? It makes so much sense keeping in mind their personalities and differences. They just don't click.

Then Alabasta comes and Sanji returns Usopp his goggles. It's not a grand gesture, but it's intimate and nice and they are crewmates, after all, so of course he would do it. Sanji is just kind like that and he cares so much for each of them, so he gives. And I don't think Usopp is used to being taken care of like this, so he takes. Also, we already see them interact as friends, so we can say they are a family.

Now this is when the huge development starts taking place. Because even if their dynamic of constantly arguing and personalities clashing, Sanji sacrifices himself for Usopp (and Nami <3) when the fight against Enel happens. In fact, Sanji and Usopp spend all of Skypiea together, basically, and despite the comedic banter, Sanji seems to be keeping an eye on Usopp constantly. Worrying. And it's not only from Sanji's POV, because Usopp also keeps clinging onto Sanji and looking after him so he doesn't do anything stupid (like almost killing himself getting electrocuted, thank you).

So we've established not only a friendship, but a bond strong enough for Sanji to protect him in instinct. Although it's not like Sanji cares much about his own well-being for self-sacrifice to be considered a privilege, he would do it for anyone, but!! The way in which they show it on screen and portray their relationship and how Usopp is actively worried about him too makes it seem like they want you to focus on them.

We see a bit of them throughout the show but my favorite thing is how they go from not being able to stand each other to Sanji kicking their captain so he doesn't tell Usopp to leave the crew. He doesn't take any sides because the fight isn't his anyway and he is aware of what they need to do in the end, but Sanji also understands Usopp better than anybody else and his favoritism at this point is so damn obvious it hurts. He doesn't only hit Luffy but is obviously more affected than the rest of them by Usopp leaving. He stays with him during all of Enies Lobby and supports him constantly. He gives him what he needs, space, but being close enough to watch how he's doing. He offers him some type of alliance. It's not only "I'll do what you can't and you'll do what I can't" but "You trust me and I trust you". And we know he means it in a way for Usopp to trust in his abilities and to also trust the crew in general, but it feels so... Intimate that it's more of an "I get you. I understand" than anything else.

Then it becomes even more painful but horribly obvious how close they are, because Sanji loses Usopp during Sabaody and the scene is just so damn focused on them only (ft Brook at first. I love him). Sanji's desperation to protect Usopp and sacrifice himself for him and Usopp refusing to let him do it because he won't escape without him...

It's the little things that make their relationship so well-written. It's not only the constant parallels but also the subtle development they have. Their relationship goes through so much.

And then they barely have any scenes together post-timeskip but at least we got a picture of them stargazing together during the Marineford arc so that's something--

Although we can never forget how Usopp still trusts Sanji to protect him because during Punk Hazard he is always relieved when he sees Sanji's face (even though it's Nami) and because during Wano Usopp just assumes Sanji is going to be the one protecting him. So we might not have much of them now, but their development hasn't been for nothing.

[raayllum]

It's hard to tell because it's only been some posts but you sound somewhat frustrated with pre-season discussions happening elsewhere for The Dragon Prince? In any case, I thought you might appreciate the note that some people certifiably do like Rayla and Callum as characters perfectly well (I know I do at least and have since the start)?

I'm sure you're aware of it already but it felt somewhat like it'd help you not feel like you're typing into a void of dissent for enjoying them and the show concurrently? Even if I'd disliked the time skip in some capacities (I didn't particularly, I thought Rayla had good instincts wanting proof of death etc she just perhaps should have taken more backup for higher success chances if at all possible) Stella's introduction would have won me over entirely anyway.

There's no shame in being easily charmed by adorable animal characters, after all! She really is cute and also useful in limited capacities, like Bait.

If you wanted an actual ask with the above I suppose that I'm intrigued how similarly you thought Bait and Stella functioned as extended powers/company of their respective people and in the group?

Mostly on twitter (which is a reason to stay off twitter) but, in all honesty, it's mostly because it's annoying to see people use ship names or main tags for their complaining (I have "tdp critical" blacklisted or whatever for a reason y'know). Like as someone who truly deeply loves every character and every part of the show, when Claudia or Terry or Aaravos or anyone else gets promo I'm thrilled and intrigued and theorizing. And there's a minimal but loud portion(s) of the fandom who are either currently expressing (or have a track record) of annoyance when Callum and Rayla, as main characters and as the show's consistently most developed dynamic (which, I want to stress, has been the case even in s1 and s2) dare to be main characters and have marketing, there's an uproar of complaining. (Again, not the majority, but still baffles me that it exists at all.)

It'd be like if I complained about ATLA being primarily about Aang, its main character, for the majority of the show's run because I thought Toph needed more of a character arc (she's the least developed of the gaang bc she comes in s2 and has a general self-acceptance arc that doesn't need a ton of steps, for ex).

Sometimes favourite characters are there to have minimal screentime, execute their story purpose, and highlight other characters' arcs. The divide between characters where that's generally understood (Gren, Lain, Tiadrin, Opeli) vs characters where it's not (Aaravos in S4/S5, Runaan) again irks me because of the inconsistency, and therefore bias accordingly affecting judgement. Which maybe isn't fair - most people, myself included, are in fandom as a hobby, and for some people that means not evaluating their biases and not wanting to adjust their expectations; I just can't imagine doing anything else

I think Bait mostly serves as emotional support to Ezran and a lil guy to Talk to for Callum (2x05, 4x02) when a human character wouldn't quite make sense or is gone (Rayla is his usual confidant, for example). Stella is more interesting to me from a structure standpoint as 1) a character connected to the Star arcanum who thus far doesn't really need to be, so I'm curious there and 2) a juxtaposition to post-timeskip Rayla's "we can't save everyone" that her big heart and soft insides is still there, and still something worth listening to.

[crambonn]

My thoughts on kumadust

I find kumadust to be a very... interesting ship.

The dynamic is very fun, don't get me wrong! But as someone who has researched extensively about age, generation, etc. in the game, there is still something quite.... iffy about the ship, so I have compiled some information on the ship that will let you decide for yourself whether you ship it or not.

Note: Previously, I made a post detailing the age of Mother 3 characters. Within it, I used the debug room as evidence for Kumatora's max age being 17. I will admit that there likely are some inaccuracies with that, as Mother 3 was heavily rushed and the debug room was not intended to be seen past development, making it not a perfect source for canon.

Let's get started.

Now, here are some facts that are NOT in support of kumadust

The dialogue at the end where (presumably) Duster says to (presumably) Kumatora, "You're really cute, now that I look", is actually said in a much more platonic way in the Japanese version. Like how you would refer to a younger niece/sister/someone young. It's said like this: かーわいいなー

Kumatora grows by one pixel after the three-year timeskip, indicating that she was not done growing before- meaning that she had to be at most 16 years old. Duster, on the other hand, is shown to never grow at all throughout the game. In fact, he's even called おじさん (uncle) at one point in the game, meaning that he's likely been an adult for a relatively long time.

Ionia says Kumatora is "the most beautiful you've ever been now", so that means she's just come of age. Not a particularly good age-gap.

As for facts that are in support of Kumadust

Kumatora does work at a club that likely serves alcoholic drinks (evident by Thomas), meaning that Kumatora would have to at least be 20 years old to work or enter a bar.

(As a counterpoint, however, we can tell that there are very minimal child labor laws in place in our pigmask society here. The minimum working age in Japan is also 15. An argument could be made that Kumatora lied about her age because of the excessive makeup, fake name, and the presence of Skinhead and Neckbeard before she presumably joined.)

Puberty, if delayed, can last past the age of 16. I wouldn't rely on this though because there is no information to back this claim up unless if I am missing something. Please reply if there are any inaccuracies in this post.

In the Japanese version in chapter 2 when Wess accompanies Duster, some of the older villagers will say something along the lines of "wow! You've grown up so much!". They could just be being nice, but unless if Wess managed to seal away his son from the rest for all of his young'in years, then it's possible that Duster could be younger than how he is portrayed. His behavior/mannerisms/appearance could be caused by the sheer amount of stress placed onto him by Wess.

They're often shown together in official Mother 3 pixel art.

Popularity-wise...

Personally, I neither support nor do not support kumadust. I think the dynamic is very cute but I'm quite iffy on the characters. Please feel free to write your opinions below!

[gascon-en-exil]

Who Can Say if I've Been Changed For the Better?: Ferdibert Does Wicked

This concept has been a bit in building. It started from a much-loved cover by Hubert and Ferdinand’s VAs inspired by their support line and the broad observation that these two are a musicals couple who absolutely would sing their feelings in all manner of theatrical AUs. It continued through my later observation that there’s ample material to carry that idea even further, albeit with a shift outside of Crimson Flower for a better tonal match. Still, I’m not quite sure what to call this project; it’s not really a headcanon nor is it fanfic by any means. I’ve written a handful of longform character/narrative explorations before, although when it comes to FE I’ve previously been inspired to do so only for Jugdral characters. That setting is somehow both underdeveloped and deceptively dense - and I suppose in a way you could say the same of Three Houses as well, insofar as it’s been incredibly popular for fan content of all sorts.

Regardless of what this post is in terms of my fandom output, the following isn’t exactly a Wicked AU as such. Rather, it’s how I would envision a hypothetical blend of the non-CF routes of FE16 centering around the Eagles trio and set to the structure and songs of the musical as organically as possible. There are no 1:1 analogues with characters and plotlines from Wicked, because few if any would exist without a lot of tweaking; to use the VA cover example, Ferdinand might be a decent proxy for G(a)linda, but the mere presence of Edelgard substantially complicates Hubert’s claim to the Elphaba role. The similarities only unravel further from there, but I did my best.

Writing this out gave me the opportunity to play around with Edelgard’s character as a way of addressing what I and many others in my circle have long considered to be some of the major problems with her canon presentation. For Ferdibert meanwhile I got to make use of my headcanons for how their relationship would develop outside of their support line, in a way that mostly preserves Hubert’s delightful evil wickedness. Add some ruminations on how one would splice together the non-CF routes in a dramatically satisfying fashion, some snark directed at the non-character of Byleth, and a bit of background Dimidue/Lions OT5 for spice and that just about sums it up. Enjoy this…whatever this is.

Act I

“No One Mourns the Wicked”

The show opens on the citizens of Adrestia celebrating the death of their emperor and the end of her bloody war. Ferdinand rides in, resplendent on his steed, and is hailed as the new Duke Aegir as he relates to the crowd the news of Edelgard’s death at the hands of the combined army of liberators. The “Are people born wicked?” flashback sequence is replaced with a summary mostly in pantomime of Edelgard’s backstory: the Insurrection, her being taken to Faerghus and then returning, and then being experimented on by the Agarthans before agreeing to work with them. Notably Hubert is not named or referenced anywhere in this song, appearing only as a boy at Edelgard’s side at appropriate times during the flashback.

“Dear Old Shiz”

Someone in the crowd finally brings up Hubert, the emperor’s vile and murderous minister, and accuses Ferdinand of having been his friend. With Ferdinand even more flustered than Glinda since his “It depends on what you mean by friend” definitely carries sexual undertones, so begins the flashback to Part 1. There’s an equivalent intro of Garreg Mach, so one may feel free to insert any headcanons for school songs here. The following dialogue scene establishes the student body in general and the dynamic of the Eagles trio in particular: Ferdinand pompous and eager to one-up Edelgard at any opportunity, and Edelgard and Hubert cold and dismissive toward his antics and just about everyone else for that matter. Edelgard is instantly enamored of the quiet new professor, of course. Because the room assignment conflict doesn’t make a lot of sense with the monastery’s setup, instead Ferdinand is incensed that Edelgard is chosen as the Eagles’ house leader over him even though it’s been ages since a Hresvelg has attended. Neither Nessarose nor Morrible has an exact equivalent (although Seteth can act in Morrible’s role as the academy’s main authority figure), so the segue into the next song ends there.

“The Wizard and I”

Now alone together, Edelgard and Hubert have a brief dialogue outlining their villainous plans for the school year. This establishes Hubert’s hypercompetency but also how detached and professional Edelgard is around him. Then comes the song, now “My Lady and I,” which serves as Hubert’s character introduction. In tones more sinister than Elphaba ever reaches - you know he’d have fun with “When people see me they will scream” - he outlines his history with his lady, that he delights in serving her because she validates his work ethic and gives him an outlet for his ruthlessness and cruelty. Where Elphaba fantasizes about the Wizard removing her green skin, Hubert instead goes full Nice Guy, believing that once he’s given Edelgard her continental empire and crushed all her enemies she’ll be so grateful that of course she’ll put out for him.

“What Is This Feeling?”

You could rip the tone of this one directly from the Ferdibert C support and change nothing - homoerotic subtext included. I like the thought of Hubert replacing Elphaba’s deadpan one-word summation of Galinda with a mocking imitation of Ferdinand's most memetic line: "He is Ferdinand von Aegir!". The chorus can be made up of any number of other students excluding Edelgard, who’d happily agree that Hubert is ugly, creepy, and downright unpleasant.

“Something Bad”

The content of this song and surrounding scenes would have to be completely altered, but they work as a necessary reminder that the plot of Part 1 is still going on in the background of all the school drama. Seteth runs through the major events up to Chapter 9 of the game, including the bandit threat, Flayn’s kidnapping, and the experiments on the Remire villagers. The audience/accompaniment for this exposition dump ought to be Dimitri and Claude with Byleth as a silent observer (more on them later), with Edelgard brushing off the news and eventually being the one to shut down the song as Morrible does. There could be some small side character moments in here as well particularly involving the Lions and Deer since they get so little focus in this story.

“Dancing Through Life”

Speaking of which, this was an awkward sequence to place. It matches up chronologically with the ball in Chapter 9 and the main part, Fiyero’s, is a dead ringer for Sylvain and his flirty, hedonistic nihilism (“Nothing matters / but knowing nothing matters!”), but it’s hard to tie into what’s going on with the Eagles trio particularly with the Ferdibert timeframe preserved, i.e. unlike Elphaba and Galinda they don’t become closer until after the timeskip.

As such I see this song as an opportunity for little vignettes with the other students: Dimitri angry over how Dedue’s talked about and hoping they can share a dance (fitting contrast with the coldness of Edelbert), Felix prickly between Dimitri’s recent outbursts and Sylvain’s showboating, Claude hinting toward the bigger picture with Hilda flitting between her excitement over the dance and knowing more than she's letting on, Dorothea casually taking note of Edelgard’s fascination with Byleth (see just below), Bernadetta as a wallflower who doesn’t want to be disturbed (a setup for Act II), etc. Thanks to one of the Forging Bonds events in Heroes I had the thought that the "You/we deserve each other" through line that later gets attached to Nessarose can become one for Dimitri's relationships, with Felix initially throwing it out at him and Dedue and the two of them then turning "We deserve each other" into a romantic line...and then an ironic one and finally a triumphant one come Act II, by that point with Felix et al included as well.

I’m not sure that the following scene of Galinda and Elphaba bonding on the dance floor really needs an equivalent, although it could be altered to something Edeleth-related. In any case Ferdinand ought to get a dance scene of some nature, so he can try to show up Edelgard as he brags about in canon.

“Popular”

It would be a travesty to have a musical starring FE16’s cast and not give Dorothea and/or Manuela a solo. This song works quite well for the former, and it doesn’t intrude on the Ferdibert development with the aforementioned timeframe and how the lightly sapphic vibe doesn’t translate well to two guys. Dorothea has taken note of her good friend Edie’s crush on their mysteriously wooden professor, and she senses the opportunity for a makeover. Not as exaggerated as Dorothea trying to make over Hubert, naturally, but I still think this works out well. Also, Galinda’s observation on leaders, “Did they have brains or knowledge? / Don’t make me laugh! They were popular!”, is darkly comedic when said to Edelgard.

“I’m Not That Girl”

This song comes with preceding dialogue scenes for setup, so those first. Edelgard emerges fresh from her makeover (given her general hot for teacher fixation, I’m thinking she’d lean pretty hard on the naughty schoolgirl look) to Byleth silently grieving Jeralt’s death - bad timing there. She’s as callous about it as she is in canon, only now with more clumsy flirting, and while it’s impossible as always to tell if Byleth notices or cares Hubert most certainly does. The scene segues into the Eagles trio together, with Edelgard alluding to the upcoming events in the Sealed Forest and indicating that Hubert should meet up with her later for some more villainous scheming after he’s ditched Ferdinand. Ferdinand, indignant about being left out of the loop as he is in canon, grumpily points out that he was a much more splendid dancer at the ball than Edelgard, makeover or not. To his utter surprise, Hubert acknowledges that this is true before leaving. This leads into the actual song, altered from homoerotic via triangulation of desire to an outright sexual awakening for Ferdinand. He realizes that part of his jealousy toward Edelgard is that he wishes Hubert were devoted to him instead, and tells himself not to get his hopes up because he’s, well, not that girl or even a girl. We shall of course leave aside how anyone could be attracted to someone as repulsive as Hubert; that’s part of the inherent comedy of this pairing.

“One Short Day”

This was the hardest song to place in this whole project. The touristy trip to the Emerald City just doesn’t have an analogue in the story of Three Houses, especially not late in Part 1 when tension is mounting toward the upcoming reveal and war. It took me a while to realize that it works wonderfully as an Edeleth piece: Edelgard invites Byleth to Enbarr for her coronation, but that scene is left offscreen in favor of a light romp through the city that further highlights Edelgard’s crush as well as her emotional immaturity in spite of everything she’s about to do. She just wants to have a fun day out and take in the sights and eat sweets with her beloved teacher, and it’s all very “Edge of Dawn”-esque where Edelgard knows she’s about to do terrible things that will change everything forever and hopes to prolong the time until she has to take that step. Adjustments to the lyrics could even work in reference to that song to make the similarities more apparent. An awkward/funny issue here is that I envision Byleth to be totally silent throughout this musical with no sung or spoken parts, which would naturally make them having a duet impossible and make Edelgard’s fascination with them even weirder. Even their gender should be left ambiguous throughout, somehow never confirmed if it’s m!Byleth or f!Byleth. It would take a lot of reworking, but I can see the value in it.

“A Sentimental Man”

The core of the Wizard’s character is not all that different from Rhea’s. Both were thrust unexpectedly into positions of authority that required them to enact a large-scale deception to maintain their power/safety, and both are driven somewhat by parental feelings. The tone of the Wizard’s songs doesn’t align well with Rhea, but once you cut out the vaudeville and do some rewording I could see this one working as Rhea addressing her child (among other things) Byleth at the Holy Tomb just before the Flame Emperor reveal. Of course the dramatic irony hits differently; Rhea knows who and what Byleth is whereas the Wizard doesn’t learn about Elphaba until the end of the show. Nonetheless this would still establish Rhea’s character and motivations as well as set the stage for the impending betrayal.

“Defying Gravity”

Said betrayal being Byleth’s, who decides to stand by Rhea and condemn Edelgard as the Flame Emperor when she arrives with her army. This is another song in parts that would need to be broken up. Edelgard gets the bulk of it, but the middle sections between Elphaba and Glinda could work as a kind of separated duet with Edelgard and Hubert attempting to convince Byleth and Ferdinand respectively to join them. Because of Byleth’s silence only Ferdinand can reply in song; only he and Edelgard add the “my friend” bit to the end of this segment, to illustrate the unevenness of Edeleth and Ferdibert at this point in the story. Then things turn to full bombast, albeit darker than in Wicked proper. Edelgard does the belting, Hubert’s sinister laughter reverberates below her (would it be too tasteless for him to be leering up her skirt the whole time?), Ferdinand has Glinda’s mournful “I hope you’re happy!” toward Hubert, and through this and the reprise of “No One Mourns the Wicked” the major events of the timeskip are enacted in pantomime or silhouette. Byleth tumbles off a cliff, Rhea is taken captive as is Dimitri but Dedue rushes after him, and Claude makes a tactical retreat. Side note: “And if I’m flying solo, / at least I’m flying free” is classic Edelgard fixating on Byleth and forgetting that Hubert exists.

Act II

“Thank Goodness”

A surprisingly tough one here. The core of the song, pivoting around the double meaning of “I couldn’t be happier,” suits early Part 2 Ferdinand perfectly, second-guessing his choice and, outside of CF, melancholy about fighting his homeland. In terms of plot it’s an easy translation too, with the crowd announcing the terrible things the Empire has been doing to win its war - persecuting believers, abducting civilians and turning them into Demonic beasts, consorting with inhuman shadowy figures who can disguise themselves as ordinary people - and the assembly working as a way to bring together the leads of the three routes: Byleth, Dimitri (who had Dedue always at his side and thus never had a full psychotic break), Claude, and Seteth, with Ferdinand representing the Adrestian resistance. It’s only the wedding announcement that’s hard to pin down, and I toyed with a number of ideas including Dimidue making yet another public declaration of devotion to one another or Ferdinand planning to follow through with his arranged marriage to Bernadetta they have in their supports (which makes more sense in light of the following sequence). In the end though I don’t think the marriage element is strictly necessary, leaving the song as a means of catching up with the cast five years later and seeing them united against Edelgard - with Ferdinand’s private regrets the only sour note.

“Wicked Witch of the East”

More a dialogue than a song, but still important. Bernadetta is arguably the Eagle other than Hubert most comfortable supporting Edelgard, because all Edelgard has to do is put Count Varley under house arrest for Bernadetta to sing the emperor’s praises. I can also see her as the same sort of self-centered, negligent ruler that Nessarose becomes in Wicked, not because of an unrequited attraction but because of her reclusive desire to be left alone. I see this scene playing out as Hubert surprising Bernadetta at her estate, angry about rumors that she may be helping the rebels and/or engaged to Ferdinand if going with that plot point after Edelgard has done her the favor of locking up her father. He’s fully prepared to, ahem, “persuade” Bernadetta, but before he can break out the torture implements Ferdinand arrives asking for her to support the rebels’ cause.

Farcical, sure, but it gets the two of them together again after five years and underscores how strong their UST has become in their time apart, with Hubert too flabbergasted to attack a known enemy and Ferdinand expressing how happy he is to see Hubert again despite everything. Each learns that the other isn’t as happy about his chosen path as he’d hoped, in Hubert’s case because his lady has grown ever more distant from him as the war has dragged on. Bernadetta cuts through the tension by bringing things back to the song (sort of) and blurting out that she knows both sides are marshalling their forces near Gronder Field. Ferdinand is too caught up in the fraught romance angle to do more than leave with this new information, but Hubert recovers enough to condemn Bernadetta for her flagrant misrule (venting by inference his frustrations toward Edelgard in the process) and resolve to set her on fire for her treachery.

“I’m Not That Girl (Reprise)”

The Gronder rematch happened offscreen - and Bernadetta was indeed set on fire - and on the Imperial side Edelgard is left increasingly frustrated over her losses and hurt that Byleth still refuses to listen to her and continues to fight her regime. You may notice that I’ve shuffled around the middle of Act II, necessary at this point in order to better line up with FE16’s story and Hubert and Edelgard’s separate narrative climaxes while also ensuring that those climaxes don’t overlap too much. This song is only a brief reprise, but it’s a significant one; Hubert finally realizes that Edelgard will never love him. It’s also kept gender-neutral, because Byleth.

“As Long as You’re Mine”

That segues naturally into this moment. Ferdinand sneaks into Enbarr using his unexpected stealth powers (I usually talk about Dedue having them, but Ferdinand shows he’s no slouch in his Mercedes supports) and encounters Hubert. Their UST boils over in a furor of awkward, impassioned sex and also this song. I like the idea of rewording some of Fiyero's lines to incorporate Hubert's acidic snark: “Maybe you’re brainless, / maybe you’re wise.” It’s all very desperate and sensual, ending with Ferdinand taking Elphaba’s line about feeling wicked for the first time - which will have a dark reverberation two songs from now.

“Wonderful”

Again, axe the vaudeville and it’s a solid Rhea song. There’s just the small problem of Rhea being captured at this point in the plot; I thought about moving this number toward the very end at first before reconsidering. While Hubert and Ferdinand are rolling in the sheets, a distraught Edelgard confronts Rhea in prison. Rhea responds to Edelgard’s frustrations with Byleth with her backstory in song, much more somber than the Wizard but, like him, still willing to rehabilitate her estranged listener. The bits of this song about the nature of history are especially relevant to what Edelgard falsely believes about the church and what she views as her own legacy, so I could see this as an interesting character study on what Edelgard actually wanted with her war apart from dragon genocide. There’s a lot that could be done here in the dialogue surrounding those revelations.

“No Good Deed”

However the interrogation of Rhea turns out, Edelgard takes a leaf out of SS Dimitri’s book and visits Byleth alone at the monastery, only to be as harshly rebuffed as is possible to be without the rebuffer speaking. Then comes this song, which was incidentally the one where I realized that Edelgard would need a major role in FE16-does-Wicked even with the Ferdibert focus. Hubert fully embraced his evil wickedness long ago and wouldn’t think twice about being wicked or being perceived as such, but Edelgard is a different matter. Here she breaks down, admitting that her good intentions were largely selfish and that she regrets that her war has cost her any relationship she could have had with Byleth (continuing the joke at his expense, Hubert goes unmentioned when Edelgard names the people she’s lost/failed). It ends with a foreshadowing of her Hegemon form, the sign that she’s abandoned all pretense of goodness and become truly wicked.

“March of the Witch Hunters”

Another ensemble/vignette piece, checking in with the various members of Byleth’s army as they prepare to storm Enbarr. Dimitri hopes for the chance to forgive his stepsister, Claude has big plans for the continent and wants to remove the threat Edelgard poses, Seteth is desperate to find Rhea, and Byleth…is there. As in many of the songs, the self-righteousness of the crowd here rings more sincere and less hypocritical than in Wicked given Three Houses has actual villains, but it still works.

“For Good”

The song that inspired this whole thing, now with many paragraphs of context to set it up instead of only some fluff based on the Ferdibert A+ support. Ferdinand sneaks into Enbarr (again) ahead of the battle, and their second love ballad is more somber as they resign themselves to their fates. As in the VA cover, Hubert refuses to ask forgiveness for anything and Ferdinand is fine with that.

“Finale”

Wicked reduces the final battle from The Wizard of Oz to silhouettes backed by sections of “No One Mourns the Wicked,” and that’s what comes here: Ferdinand and Hubert facing each other in battle, Edelgard becoming the Hegemon before being defeated and then dying as in AM’s final cutscene, and Dimitri taking the throne with Dedue at his side and proclaiming his intention to do all he can to restore both the Kingdom and Duscur - and that his first act as king is to announce that he and Dedue have decided to open their marriage up. This is met with much manly cheering and stripping and someone (Ashe?) saying incredulously that he didn’t even know they were married. End silhouettes.

The final scene with the Wizard and Morrible becomes Claude, Seteth, and Byleth rescuing Rhea. Rhea names Byleth her successor as leader of the church and says that she will go into quiet seclusion and do what she can to correct her mistakes. This all suits Claude just fine, who tells everyone that he’s off to take care of some other business and that Byleth will make a great archbishop - and also they can have the Alliance, no big deal. As with the King of Faerghus’s gay orgies, the King of Almyra’s grand ambitions are too large for this story to do more than allude to.

Next, Ferdibert does a version of the Elphaba/Fiyero scene, with Ferdinand revealing that he had Hubert spared on the condition that he help root out any remaining Agarthans and that he remain under house arrest at the Aegir estate. Ferdinand was also required to assume governance of the Empire, because Dimitri wasn’t getting that dumped on him as well. They can be together, but the general population can’t know that Hubert survived lest Ferdinand’s reputation and basic ethics be compromised…which in a darkly funny hypocritical twist then segues to Ferdinand pontificating before the crowd at the beginning of the show, reprising “For Good” with Hubert until they’re drowned out by “No One Mourns the Wicked.” Thus the story concludes on one of my favorite things about Ferdibert: perhaps even in this non-CF continuity Ferdinand wasn’t changed for the better by falling in love with the Most Wicked Man in Fódlan, but they’ve both been changed….

[corpsentry]

LAUNCHING MERRILY DOWN THE PATH OF SIN AGAIN

ao3 mirror pairing: atsumu/hinata rating: teens featuring: post-timeskip, side bokuaka, black jackals dynamics, sakusa suffering, author’s weird oral fixation

Hell yeah. Miya Atsumu is in love.

“Shit. I think I cut my gum.”

They’re having dinner together for some reason. Bokuto probably roped them all into it to stave off his boredom, but he offered to pay, so Sakusa went along with it, and because Sakusa went along with it, Hinata went along with it, and because Hinata went along with it, Atsumu went along with it. He suspects Hinata would’ve said yes from the start, but Sakusa started lecturing them on the perils of Korean BBQ restaurants, so Bokuto staved him off too with the cash thing. Sakusa is a practical person. Sometimes.

Anyway, Hinata winces as he says shit I think I cut my gum. Then he smiles like he’s really happy about it and Bokuto’s eyes go all round like volleyballs and he slams his hands on the table. Sakusa tells him not to put his hands on the table. Bokuto ignores him.

“Are you okay?” Bokuto asks.

“Yeah,” Hinata says, making a weird face while he feels around in his mouth with his tongue.

Atsumu tries to think of something intelligent to say and draws a blank. “Let me see,” he says instead. He’s sitting next to Hinata because Sakusa doesn’t trust Bokuto to share a grill with him. Bokuto is sitting next to Sakusa because he can’t share a grill with him but he wants to either try to get to know him better or piss him off. If nothing else he’s definitely succeeded at the latter.

“Huh?” Sakusa stares at Atsumu like he thinks he’s stupid, which he probably is. “The fuck are you trying to see?”

“The, uh,” Atsumu begins, but Hinata opens his mouth for him for some reason and he forgets to finish his sentence.

“I can taste blood on the right side of my mouth,” he offers.

“Uh,” Atsumu says again.

Bokuto stands up and leans over the table because Bokuto is immortal and will not be wounded by the likes of a Korean BBQ grill. “Do you need a flashlight? My phone has a flashlight.”

“Who the fuck doesn’t have a flashlight on their phone,” Sakusa says, staring at Bokuto like he thinks he’s stupid.

“Me,” Hinata offers. Hinata is using an iPhone model from the Stone Age.

“Stop talking and let me look at your gums,” Atsumu says, looking at his teeth. He has made a discovery: Hinata has very nice teeth. This aligns nicely with the other nice things he has noticed about Hinata’s face, like his eyebrows and the softness of his mouth. Hell yeah. Atsumu is in love.

“You’ve been looking at his gums for over a minute, Atsumu. Have you found anything.” Sakusa.

“Yeah,” Atsumu confirms. “There’s a cut.”

“Shit, where?”

“There.”

“Can you show me?”

“Oh, no.” Sakusa pushes his chair away from the table. “Atsumu. Don’t do it.”

Atsumu is really fucking confused. “What am I supposed to not do?” He’s still thinking about Hinata’s face. You have to get really close to someone to look inside their mouth. Close enough to kiss them. Is this what intimacy looks like?

“Are you gonna put your fingers in his mouth?” Bokuto, in a moment of clairvoyance, has caught onto the source of Sakusa’s terror. He sounds proud of himself.

“Are you?” Hinata looks at him innocently.

Atsumu puts his fingers in his mouth.

    ::

    Sakusa Kiyoomi followed Inarizaki’s match against Karasuno in his second year of high school from a livestream on his phone because he wanted to minimize contact with the crowds in the gymnasium as much as possible. The match being an Inarizaki match, had attracted an especially large and diverse crowd of spectators. Nonetheless, they were united by the fact that they were all screaming. At first they were screaming because the Miya brothers were winning. Later they were screaming because the Miya brothers were losing. Then they finished losing, and Kiyoomi scoffed at them behind his mask while he wondered how Miya Atsumu was taking the fact that he had blown his first match at the Spring High.

Later he would recall the way Atsumu had looked at Karasuno’s orange-headed number ten. Kiyoomi, being the calm and logical person he is, would detect the complex twist of fascination and admiration that lay behind the twins’ duplicate of the freak quick. He might even begin to form a coherent thought about Atsumu’s motivation for executing such a shaky attack. This would involve a careful perusal of the few years of friendship between them and an evaluation of Atsumu’s taste in sports, men, and sportsmen. Then someone would cough in his direction from thirteen meters away, and he would get so mad at them he would forget all about it until he met the two of them again as teammates in the MSBY Black Jackals and Atsumu put his fingers in Hinata’s mouth.

    ::

    “Dude you have to tell me why you did that,” Bokuto says. He’s leaning on Atsumu’s shoulder because he’s drunk and it’s a Friday. Bokuto only drinks on Fridays. This is a fact of life. If he could have it his way he would apparently drink on several days but Akaashi the shounen manga editor vows to wipe out seven generations of his family if he does. Therefore he abstains.

Atsumu wishes he would abstain from leaning on his shoulder. “I do?” he wonders aloud. He is drunk as well. Luckily Bokuto is more drunk so Bokuto cannot admonish him. Atsumu holds all the power in this situation.

“Yeah dude you were blushing like crazy.” Drunk Bokuto doesn’t use punctuation. It does not register on his list of things that exist in the universe. One time Atsumu made a bad life decision and crashed at his apartment; that night he overheard Bokuto talking to Akaashi the shounen manga editor on the phone, sounding like a bullet train with a caffeine addiction. Every once in a while Bokuto would fall silent. Then he would make an abrupt sound like a deflating balloon, presumably interrupting whatever Akaashi was saying, and there would be no more silence to be had for the next thirteen minutes. Atsumu felt very sorry for himself all night. He also felt very sorry for Akaashi, but less so since he had chosen to saddle himself permanently with Bokuto unlike the rest of them.

“Dude.” Drunk Bokuto says dude a lot.

“No,” Atsumu says.

They have almost reached the train station. Atsumu can see it blinking in the distance with its glowing signs and other artificial shit and he is so fucking glad for it. He manhandles Bokuto into the station and props him up against a pillar once they reach the platform. Bokuto’s coat is slipping off his shoulders. Atsumu pulls it back up.

“Do you think he was weirded out?” he asks later on the train. The soju he chugged after sticking his fingers in Hinata’s mouth is wearing off and primal fear is starting to set in. Suddenly he finds himself deeply regretting everything he has done since Hinata joined the Black Jackals. Spending so much time practicing that quick attack with him was a mistake. Buying him chocolate as a joke for Valentine’s Day was a mistake. Walking back to the train station alone with him after spending too much time practicing that quick attack, watching the way Hinata had laughed at his dumb jokes as they moved through the neon blur of the city was a mistake. Now he's in love and Sakusa's going to make fun of him. Sakusa has alien-like sensors installed in the back of his head which allow him to notice everything important in life before Atsumu does. Ah, Atsumu’s drowning in regret. He’s going to die.

“Nope,” Bokuto says cheerfully. “Hinata’s a good guy.”

Atsumu broods. “Good guys can be weirded out too, y’know.”

“Nah. He likes you.”

“What are you, psychic?”

“Hell yeah I’m psychic.”

    ::

    Bokuto is not psychic. He’s just a fundamentally nice human being who gets an endorphin kick out of supporting every single person who comes within a hundred-meter-radius of him. Okay, Atsumu wants to say. Okay, so you want to support your teammates and your friends and shit. That’s great. But what if two of those teammates are At Odds with each other. What if you have to pick one.

Atsumu and Hinata are At Odds with each other. On the bright side, they’re both old enough to draw the line between work shit and personal shit so it doesn’t spill over into their professional lives. They are alarmingly civil during practice. The Black Jackals continue to get their ass handed to them by the Adlers. On the dark side, Hinata won’t so much as breathe in his direction off the court, which is pretty fucking miserable.

The best part is Atsumu doesn’t even realize he’s being ignored until Sakusa points it out to him. He’s spent the last week in denial and is actually growing kind of comfortable with this new lifestyle. He doesn’t have to deal with the fact that he has feelings for the guy who pissed him off in his second year of high school; he also doesn’t have to deal with the fact that he stuck his fingers in his mouth last Friday. Maybe Atsumu should just end his friendship with Hinata Shouyou. They can start over as business partners. Make a joint venture.

But of course, Sakusa points it out to him. “I know you think you’re being really fucking slick by ignoring Hinata all the time, but I must sadly inform you that he’s actually ignoring you as well,” he says, examining his nails absently. “Plus I think he’s trying harder at it.”

Sakusa smells like eighty-five different brands of shampoo. “I hate you,” Atsumu says.

“Your hatred means nothing to me,” Sakusa replies, unfazed.

    ::

    The first time he and Hinata played together in an official match, Atsumu remembers thinking that he was glad he let Osamu set up his onigiri shop and pushed ahead with volleyball alone after all.

He figures he’ll always be a little bitter about how his high school volleyball career ended. It’s like how he still hates the everloving shit out of spicy food but has developed a tolerance for it due to his teammates’ dietary preferences. The sensation will never be pleasant, but he gets through it. He drinks a shit ton of water. After their meal he treats himself to dessert from a nearby convenience store and makes someone else pay for it out of spite. Sometimes they agree. Other times he winds up paying for his souffle cheesecake himself. But fuck it, whatever, it’s sweet.

The first time he and Hinata played together in an official match they unleashed their new freak quick in front of Kageyama Tobio and like half of Japan’s previous high school volleyball circuit. At the moment in which the ball he set went up in the air and Hinata made contact with it, Atsumu had the distinct sensation that the rules of the world had been quietly rewritten. It was akin to having a fully-grown deer ram its antlers into your chest, shattering your ribcage instantly. He couldn't hear himself anymore. Just the crowd.

Take that, he said with his eyes after Hinata scored that first sweet, sweet point, smiling at Kageyama like a switchblade. Hinata’s ours now.

Upon closer examination, what Atsumu actually meant to say was: he’s mine.

    ::

    Why didn’t he say that, you ask? Because he’s a fucking idiot, of course. By this point Sakusa had already caught on to his feelings. If you had looked carefully at the background you would have noticed him squinting at Atsumu at various points throughout the match with three percent more intensity than usual. The rest of his attention was reserved for the ball, but he devoted three percent to Atsumu. This is Sakusa we’re talking about. Three percent is significant.

    ::

    There is a boring romantic subplot in one of the manga that Akaashi’s magazine serializes. Unfortunately it’s about a boy and a girl, so it was probably destined to be boring from the start. But the brilliant thing about it is both the girl and the boy realize they have feelings for each other in chapter thirty and then proceed to make zero progress in their relationship for the next two hundred chapters.

“Why don’t they just get together?” he asked Akaashi once. They were having hotpot in Bokuto’s apartment. Because it was Bokuto’s apartment they got Akaashi as a freebie. Akaashi had brought wagyu beef.

“The author doesn’t feel like it.” Akaashi’s glasses kept getting fogged up by the steam. He looked like a character from a detective movie.

“Oh. Is the author single?” asked Atsumu, who was single.

“Yes,” said Akaashi, who was not single.

“Are you hitting on my boyfriend?” Bokuto called from the bathroom. They ignored him.

“Aha,” Atsumu said triumphantly. “I knew it. The author clearly has no experience. It pisses me off that they keep hinting at their feelings without getting to the point.”

“That is fair.” Akaashi had decided to take off his glasses at risk of stabbing someone in the face with his chopsticks.

“Alternatively, you could remove the romantic subplot altogether. I doubt much would change.”

Alternatively he could chase Hinata down after practice on the way to the train station. It would be snowing, because snow is pretty and makes everything look soft and cinematic. Atsumu would call out Hinata’s name as he approached him from two hundred meters away. He would be out of breath because everyone’s constantly out of breath in romantic cinema. Hinata would telepathically know that Atsumu was here to confess his undying love for him and hide his blushing face in his scarf.

Alternatively, they could have dinner together at a stuffy candle-lit restaurant. Only this isn’t a manga, and Akaashi isn’t the editor, so Hinata is still practicing serves in the gym when Atsumu appears in the doorway, still reeling at the realization that he’s been ignored for a week.

Well then. He scrolls through Instagram to pass the time.

    ::

      When he’s done, Atsumu offers to help Hinata with clean-up. “Thank you,” says Hinata rather reluctantly, still not breathing in his direction.

“You know,” Atsumu says, feeling very tired. He’s too tired to beat around the bush. He has decided to eat the bush. “I can tell you’re ignoring me.”

Hinata creates distance under the guise of picking up loose balls. “Mm.”

“Why?”

Hinata squats down in front of a ball. Atsumu walks over and squats down beside him. The ceiling lights are fierce and bright above them, and Hinata’s face is tilted away from it. Atsumu can’t read his expression but he can see his ears, which are pink, and the side of his neck, which is pink as well. In this position, from this angle, Hinata’s musculature is even more stunning than usual; biceps, shoulders, back. This shouldn’t be a surprise given that they’re all adults now instead of petty high school kids with grudges as big as clenched fists. But if asked right now what the prototypical volleyball player should look like, Atsumu would point at Hinata and say: that guy.

“Sorry about sticking my fingers in your mouth,” he says quietly, folding his arms together over his knees and resting his chin on top. And then, in a flash of inspiration: “Also, I’m in love with you. I hope your cut healed properly?”

Hinata finally lifts his face up into the light, and Atsumu is reminded of watching the rising sun spill across the surface of the sea in a NatGeo documentary. For a second he looks absolutely lost. Then he knits his brow, stares hard at Atsumu like he’s trying to do calculus in his head or something.

“About the cut,” he says, hesitating. “Why don’t you find out for yourself.”

Atsumu chokes.

    ::

    It’s not like he hasn’t been in love before. In high school he had a crush on Kita Shinsuke that was so debilitatingly bad, he never even told Osamu about it. But Kita Shinsuke didn’t have a debilitating crush on him and he never went pro. They didn’t wind up as teammates again several years later when Atsumu finally figured out how to style his hair properly with gel. Kita vanished off the radar after high school with that unnerving smile of his. They haven’t seen each other since.

Anyway, Atsumu has a lot of complicated feelings for Hinata. At first he was pissed at him for teleporting off to Brazil for two years, and thinking that he could still brute force his way into a Division One team immediately upon his return. Then Hinata actually did that, and Atsumu spent several weeks sulking about their new teammate by refusing to so much as breathe in his direction. Eventually Sakusa sat him down in the empty locker room one morning and looked him straight in the eye from two meters away and said you want to set for him don’t you. After thinking about it for a while he realized that Sakusa was right. He wanted to set for Hinata Shouyou. Back in high school the feeling had arisen mainly out of spite and childish frustration. Now it was genuine.

So fine, maybe he likes Hinata a little more than he should.

They’re not high schoolers anymore. They’re old enough to know where to draw the lines between work shit and personal shit and risk-taking and stupidity. They’re supposed to know themselves better by this point. Like what’s your favorite alcoholic drink. What’s your taste in men and sports and sportsmen. Do you believe in miracles.

Do you believe in—?

“—This,” Hinata says. Atsumu realizes belatedly that he had missed the first part of his sentence but before he can try to figure it out Hinata fists a hand in his shirt and yanks him forward.

Oh no, Atsumu thinks. Hinata’s smiling. All crooked like a semicircle of sun. All pretty-like.

“Since that’s out of the way,” he says brilliantly, warm breath fanning out over Atsumu’s cheeks, moving closer still. “I hope you don’t mind if I just—”

Atsumu closes his eyes and lets Hinata pull him in. He’s old enough to know where this leads.

    ::

    They’re having dinner together again for some reason. Bokuto roped them all into it to stave off his boredom because Akaashi the shounen manga editor is in Hokkaido on a business trip, but he offered to pay, so Sakusa went along with it, and Sakusa went along with it, so Atsumu went along with it, and Atsumu went along with it, so Hinata went along with it. The truth is they almost always go along with Bokuto’s whims because Bokuto’s a fundamentally nice human being and Akaashi brings the fanciest ingredients to their hotpot parties. It doesn’t actually matter if Bokuto offers to pay. Someone will start the reluctant-yes-train and then the rest will join in and before they know it, they’re all ducking into the doorway of a restaurant together.

“So was anyone gonna tell me that two of my teammates are dating,” Bokuto says, waving his chopsticks around grandly while Sakusa attempts to shield his risotto from the onslaught of loose rice grains. “Or was I just supposed to find out from Omi-kun here?”

Hinata’s eyes go wide. Atsumu, who had been chewing on a fry, doubles over coughing.

“ATSUMU. ARE YOU OKAY.” Bokuto’s feet are on the table. Sakusa is seeing God.

“Shit.” Atsumu winces, feeling around in his mouth with his tongue. “I think I cut my gum.”

“Let me see.”

“Uh, Hinata, you don’t have to do that, actually—”

“Are you going to do that thing again?” God bless Bokuto and his endless store of curiosity towards all things chaotic and doomed in the world. God bless Sakusa who has ascended to the next dimension. God bless Atsumu's poor gums.

Hinata beams at Bokuto. “No,” he says slowly, bright as a bonfire. “I’m going to kiss him.”

God bless them all.

[ks-caster]

The 100 Season 7 Episode 4 - Post-Liveblog Recap

Okay, so I liveblogged an episode for the first time - and it turned out to be a nice way to stay focused through the commercial breaks. Might continue to do that for the rest of the season.

But TBH I started doing it just so I could bitch about the CLEAR AND BLATANT LACK OF A SCENE WHERE SANCTUM!KRU REALIZE THAT BELLAMY AND ANOMOLY!KRU ARE MISSING. That was an important scene that the whole fandom, more or less, has been waiting for the entire time for various reasons. 

How do the characters react? Who figures out that something’s wrong first? Does Clarke sense Bellamy’s absence because they have a bond? Does Emori go looking for her space sister to comfort her other space sister only to find her missing? 

(Actually, she does. That’s my headcanon and I’m sticking to it. Might fic later. Accounts for Emori’s complete absence while her bestie Raven is falling apart.)

Edit: here's the fic!

Anyway, back to the episode - whoever was in charge of editing really really dropped the ball. Missing realization scene, poorly ordered Raven and Clarke scenes. The music during the Dev-and-Hope montage was a nice touch but just too loud enough that I really had trouble telling what they were saying - and the pacing would have felt better with just one show of teenage!Hope before we got 20-year-old her. The cut from Orlando agreeing to train Anomaly!Kru to 5 years later was WAY too abrupt for me to get a feel for the character and relationship development that they were trying to shoehorn in in order to create conflict at the end. I got where they were going with everything, but in a I’m-reading-a-newbie-writer’s-fanfic-because-I-love-the-story-concept-and-want-to-support-them kind of way and not in a I’m-watching-a-show-made-by-experienced-professionals-and-paying-for-the-privilege-in-ad-revenue kind of way. Disappointing.

Jumping around here for a bit: I gotta say I’m loving the makeovers this season! Hair and makeup did a great job on bringing back the old Raven without losing the maturity they gave her, giving Murphy and Emori their Gucci Royalty Vibes without losing the feel of their individual styles, and making Hope look like she can’t find quite the balance between feral forest girl and innocent shut-in who can’t bear to take a life (which is accurate to her character, of course). 

And Echo! So I really, really didn’t like her makeovers in seasons 5 and especially 6, because it felt like they were trying too hard to make her look pretty in a 21st Century kind of way. She looked softer, more vulnerable, which really contradicted her character traits - but I thought that might’ve been on purpose, to show a change in her (that she did indeed allow herself to become softer and more vulnerable for her family). And her post-time-skip (not that one. Or that one. The other one. There’s a lot of those. Bah.) look feels like a return to herself; she’s beautiful but in a no-nonsense, don’t-forget-I-can-cut-your-throat kind of way. (Is this because I just really love the butch look on woman and am myself a butch woman? Maybe. But that doesn’t mean I’m wrong.)

Side note: Where the hell did they get clippers on Penance? Those haircuts were entirely too even to have been done with scissors. I’ll buy that Gabriel and Orlando shaved their heads and their perfect round cuts were growout, but Hope and Echo? Electric clippers. Like I said I like the looks, but guys, there’s no way.

I liked that I got a better feel for Hope’s character this episode - she’s trying so hard to be like her mom and Aunty O and all the heroes they told her about when she was a child, but the truth is she’s been in one real battle, she froze, and her best and only friend died. And since her only role models were these incredibly strong people who didn’t give up, back down, hesitate, that wouldn’t be an easy thing for her to get over. (Given that Diyoza was pregnant with her for two entire seasons, I’d really like to have more time developing Hope’s character - or even the same amount of screen time but go easier on the timeskips, lol. She keeps having growth/maturity/life experience spurts so it’s hard to keep up with the development that we’re shown.

So, 5 (7? Wasn’t she 22? There’s still 2 years we missed right?) years after watching her friend die, and 5 (7?) years of blaming herself for freezing, she’s put into the same position, and she stabs some lady in the neck. Kid didn’t steal her coping mechanisms! All joking aside thought, the kid basically relived her trauma in real life - honestly her reaction was 100% valid.

I’m sure I’m supposed to be upset by Echo’s choice to kill the remaining gold-head people. But I think the only reason that’s supposed to bother me is that she promised (ish - she was real explicitly clear that she’d do what was necessary to rescue Bellamy and them were the breaks) Orlando that she wouldn’t. I think I’m supposed to care about the fractured relationship between AnomalyKru and Orlando.

I don’t. I don’t know if it’s the super-fast timeskip (it was weird enough to see the changed dynamics in SpaceKru when I deeply knew all of the characters AND we got time to see the changes play out) or the fact that I didn’t really get to know Orlando in a way that made me super sympathetic to him (I’ll get to that in a minute) or if it’s just that he was smart enough to know he was being played from the start (see Navy SEAL mom didn’t teach you how to swim and Echo again being 100% clear that killing people might still happen) and walked right in anyway. Either way, his betrayal wasn’t enough of a motivator for me as an audience member to be bothered about how things ended between him and AnomalyKru. I kind of shrugged and moved on.

More on Orlando... So The 100 has had several plotlines that center around people doing dangerous, terrible and downright ridiculous things because of their religions; see the kidnapping and conclave of freaking children killing each other to become commander, Gaia’s whole character arc + starting a new religion around Octavia/WonKru betraying that religion to go back to their old one centering on Madi, WHO IS GODDAMN TWELVE, all of Sanctum and season 6, the Sanctum conflict here in season 7, and now this goddamn Bardo Disciple shite.

Now I’m not dishing on real life religion or religious people - I happen to have one of those myself - but the plot of some-people-take-their-religion-way-too-far-drink-the-koolaid-and-hurt-people-around-them has been done and done and done on this show. And now here we have Orlando, who was a high-ranking member of his religion, drank the koolaid, cast out, still a true believer and therefore dangerous because his perspective is fundamentally skewed. I don’t know anything about this religion but that it’s militarized (they can arrest people) and think that sentencing people to 10 years of madness-inducing Geneva Convention violations and then bringing them back to their families two days later is okay. I don’t really want to know anything else, because I’m worried that the show is going to work hard on making this religion scarier than the Sanctum one (needing to one-up themselves with the big bad, of course) which just keeps making the commander religion look humane in comparison. 

Which it wasn’t. But I digress.

So Orlando was kinda’ cool, but getting in too deep with a fundamentalist who was complicit in his own abuse by said religion (and so who knows what he thought was okay to do to other people) and then it ended badly.

Cue shocked Pikachu.

Moving on. Clarke. Baby. After the harrowing experience of the radiation destroying the radio so you couldn’t say goodbye to your mom when you were supposed to go to space, then missing your time window and getting left behind on Earth, and the radio broke them too so you couldn’t even be sure your friends would leave in time until they blasted off, and then calling Bellamy every day when you knew he couldn’t hear you, and ALL OF THE FREAKING LAST SEASON WHERE YOU WERE POSSESSED AND WOULD HAVE GIVEN ANYTHING TO LET YOUR FRIENDS AND DAUGHTER KNOW BOTH THAT THAT WASN’T YOU AND THEN LATER THAT YOU WERE ALIVE and THEN your MOTHER getting possessed and you had to check to see if it was really her and it WASN’T. Clarke. 

After all that terrifying inability to communicate.

You leave Gaia behind to warn everyone of the danger. INSTEAD OF CALLING THEM ON A PIECE OF HANDY TECHNOLOGY OR TAKING A QUICK TRIP BACK YOURSELF. TO TELL YOUR DAUGHTER WHERE YOU WERE GOING. YOU DON’T THINK THAT MAYBE MAKING EXTRA SURE THAT EVERYTHING GETS COMMUNICATED CLEARLY AND IMMEDIATELY MIGHT BE A PRIORITY.

And then Gaia gets kidnapped. Honestly, cool! Not ‘cause I’m rooting for Gaia to be hurt (I don’t care all that much about her tbh) but I LOVE Indra and I want her to have more screen time and development this season - and or the chance to cut people up with her sword - and kidnapping her daughter seems like a great way to facilitate that.

*Looks at list* Oh, right, Jordan. I forgot you were here. Honestly I can’t figure out what the fuck is going on with you, and since I’ve had a whole season of not connecting with you because the story was too busy focusing on external plot... I don’t see that changing any time soon buddy. Sorry.

Oh and that FrEaKiNg PrOmO! 

My garbage boy! My chaos gremlin! My excellent-at-impersonating-a-deity-even-if-it-goes-against-his-programming! What are they doing?! 

I’m torn between NO DON’T HURT HIM and YES HURT HIM BECAUSE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AND BRAVERY BWAHAHAHA. At least I know there’ll be Murphy and hopefully Memori content in the next episode. That’s the good shit. It’s the only thing left about this show that still feels “pure,” not that I didn’t know what sort of darkness I was signing up for when I started but just because he and Emori are sort of the last light in the darkness, and it’s nice to get a break periodically.

[sakumosowainthirst]

What's the shipping dynamic behind claudeleth? :3 I'm trying to study their characters

Sorry to answer this so late; life’s been a mess lately, but isn’t it for everyone?

The thing I like the most about Claudleth is that it’s clear they mutually respect each other, more than with the other lords, imo.  Even before the timeskip, Claude respects Byleth and acknowledges their power.  Though he starts out wanting to use that power to achieve his goals (which isn’t even as insidious as some people make it out to be, as you find out later), by the time the skip happens, it’s clear he sees Byleth as an equal and a dear ally.  I kind of feel like, even when not shipping them, the overall plot gives a lot of subtle hints that at the very least, Claude loves Byleth, sort of how Robin canonically loves Chrom, even if they marry other people.  Not-shipping them, it would probably develop into a familial/platonic love, and they’d be very close post-war.  It’s clear even outside of his support line that Claude trusts Byleth with his deepest secrets.  When shipping them, his A rank in particular is Claude sharing his dreams with Byleth, stating he wants to build a new world together with them.  It’s a very soft and honestly hella-romantic support.  I remember saying out loud during that scene, “None of this sounds platonic, Claude.”  It legitimately sounded like a proposal, won’t lie, lmao.  In the actual proposal, I give mad props to Joe Zieja in the English dub, because there is so much nuance in his delivery.  It’s soft, tender, and caring, but also bittersweet and melancholy.  It makes the scene really powerful and poignant.  Joe’s performance throughout the game is superb, tbh.  There’s a slight shift in how Claude speaks to everyone versus how he speaks to Byleth in private, particularly during postskip.  With others, he has this aloof but commanding, “anime hero,” voice, but alone with Byleth, he speaks in softer tones.  There’s a subtlety you wouldn’t really get if you were just reading the lines versus hearing them acted out, and it really highlights how Claude trusts Byleth damn-near completely, which, considering one of Claude’s biggest flaws is he’s very guarded and slow to trust, is saying a lot.  It’s just...*chef kiss* sublime.

I have other thoughts, but they’re kind of spoilery for Claude and for their endcard, so I’ll just say that their ending feels very satisfying.  Some people are a little disappointed it doesn’t specifically state they married, but I maintain the endcard as it’s described is peak romance, at least imo.  You can absolutely infer there is marriage and peace through their hard work in their future.

Personality wise, they are very much, “Type A Sunshine Chaos Energy Personality/Type B Reserved Quiet Energy Personality,” which is a balance I adore in and out of Fire Emblem ships.  I feel like Byleth’s personality blossoms in different ways depending on the route, and with Claude and the Golden Deer, I think Byleth would become more upbeat in general.  With Claude as an influence, I think they’d smile more and learn to fire back at Claude’s quips with their own sass/snark.  Much more laughter and learned sarcasm than the other routes.  Claude even states in a line at tea pretty lategame that Byleth has become more expressive lately, and one of the good options is to blush. xD  Also, I think there’s a small touch of, “moronsexual,” energy there, because Claude is absolutely an intelligent dumbass in my mind, lol.

So ye, sorry to write this huge synopsis, but that’s kind of how I see them as a pairing.  :3

[jancys-blue-bayou]

Yeah so Stranger Things 3 was painfully bad

Yeah yeah big negative post about ST3 coming up. Just... holy shit, my expectations weren’t exactly high but jesus I didn’t think it’d be this bad. Wow. Mindboggling to think it was made by the same dudes who made season 1, it feels like a different show. Some of the worst writing I’ve seen in a long while, parts of season 3. This got very long because it was very bad so it’s under the cut. Starting with the few positives and then away we go...

Of course there were bright spots, I thought what we got of Jancy was generally good (just wish there had been more of it. Just like... more lines between them, a few moments could’ve gone on longer...like after the awesome hospital fight scene jesus just let them fucking desperately embrace and profess their love for each other, it was awesome how they relentlessly kept going at the monster to save the other but can we please just have a few more seconds for a comfort moment after?) I liked how they handled the fight btw, apart from the Oliver Twist comment yeah yeah heat of the moment but still felt OOC with that loa a blow. Nancy and Karen scene was nice and um... well Max and El bonding was nice. And um... Mr Clarke! And I kind of dig Murray.

My main issues with it:

- The product placement. Jesus Christ. Okay, ST has always been a show with noticeable product placement. But it’s gone from things like a Coke can prominently on display on a table in s1 (El crushing it with her mind) to literally having a straight up ad for Coca Cola in the middle of a tense scene. That’s the big offender that made me go wow you’re really doing this to yourselves huh, there are many others ofc (everything at the mall ofc, Slurpees being in hyperfocus for a bit, and a lengthy talk about Burger King. These smaller things one by one wasn’t the worst but all combined jesus it was too much, all added together and then bam the Coke commercial was wow... Congrats on the like 80 sponsorship deals and esp the new ST themed arcade hall by Coca Cola hope it was worth completely selling out for.

- Relatedly, the original fucking song. Holy christ talk about jumping the shark. That was the oddest, cringiest, weirdest shit I’ve seen in a long time. Gaten’s a great singer don’t get me wrong, but there’s a time and place for it and an original song stuffed into the middle of the tense climax of the season is not it Duffers. Just a blatant cash cow, hoping to bring in more money via the song.

- Robin. Sorry but holy cow what a Mary Sue. Hey here’s this super cool girl who’s cool™ and funny™ and super smart™ and NOT Nancy (like they seriously for real said in a scene, they actually for real had to pit Robin and Nancy against each other for no reason). And she conveniently has these specific skills needed for the plot (which she gets involved with for no real motivation other than having nothing better to do, lazy writing). Said skills were so over the top unrealistic it completely sucked me out of it. To start with, this random girl in small town Indiana in 1985 speaking French, Spanish and Italian um... does Hawkins High have the most amazing language department or what? Very un-american in that case... and okay then, her knowing those languages wouldn’t help jackshit with understanding Russian. Russian is a notoriously difficult language to learn and it is not related to the Romance languages at all, Robin knowing those languages and oh, having “a good ear” bc she’s in band (?!??! what?!) wouldn’t help her at all. Having the alphabets on the wall and listening to strange words in a foreign language she has no understanding of would never work. No way for her to understand what is she’s hearing, what letters are in the words just, nothing. It’s completely ridiculous. The good thing is she’s a lesbian, crushing Stobin that made me LOL. Btw, I don’t get what age they were writing her as? She’s still in school but later says she and Steve was in the same class, and she knows who Nancy is but Nancy, who is still in school, doesn’t know her even though presumably they’d be in the same year at little Hawkins High? Was it just sloppy writing or what?

- Too. Much. Plotting. What happened to “this season is about the characters” um there was just so much plot stuff and action sequences and barely any character driven moments at all. Those intimate moments that made s1 amazing. Generally regarding plots felt the Russian plot was messy and not well-written also what happened to the US government as the big bad? Unless they’re setting up a big Cold War thing for s4. And felt the zombie thing was wasted, could’ve been used differently like I’d have thought it’d be used like the MF spreading it’s influence over vaster areas and being harder to keep track of etc.

- Too little Will. Will’s whole thing with feeling left out etc was just dropped halfway through it felt very undercooked. His arc was just dropped wtf.

- NO BYERS FAMILY INTERACTIONS WTF. The sequence in the first episode when Jancy has overslept and Joyce wipes the lipstick off Jonathan was cute (but could’ve been even cuter I’d have preferred a short fluffy Jancy moment here just as they wake up before they realize they overslept, bc we didn’t get much pure fluff, and then it’d been awesome if Joyce would’ve just called Nancy into the house to mess with them). But like... that’s kind of it. For the Byers family. Talking to each other in the whole season. When they partnered Jancy with the kids many thought awesome we’ll get Byers bros talking and teaming up (and Nancy and Mike) but there was just nothing. Not even a family hug after the battle at the mall, just Joyce hugging Will, with all this tightknit little family has been through you telling me Jonathan wouldn’t join in?

- No Will and El bonding wtf? SUCH a wasted opportunity. They’ve built this unique awesome connection over s1 and s2 and now in s3 would finally be able to bond normally for real and... nothing.

- Turning Hopper back into an even bigger jerk than he was at the start of the show, neglecting all his character development. What was the point of the whole El and Hopper thing they devoted so much time to in s2 if Hopper’s back at it with the yelling and all now? And jeez his constant whining to Joyce about every man she interacts with holy christ that got annoying. Generally Hopper was such an annoying asshole this season I was so tired of him by the time he “died”.

- TOO MANY CHARACTERS. Jeez, I know I’m on about it all the time but jesus christ there is way way too many characters in this for 8 episodes which hurts the narrative and screentime for interesting characters is just... yeah.

- Speaking of screentime, did we really need that many identical generic fight scenes between Hopper and the Russian guy? Jesus Christ it’s so boring watching fight scenes like that, so repetitive (compare to the hospital fight scene which was dynamic and awesome). Also regarding screentime did we really need to devote so incredibly much of it to Steve and Robin being comedic relief while drugged? Yeah yeah mix light and dark and all that but jesus christ at that point in the narrative shit has hit the fan lean into the dark.

- Totally expected of course but still, the furthering of Steve Memeington. My god they actually had him literally call himself daddy... christ.

- The Billy and Karen/all the other middle age women remains gross and bad in a billion ways. Also completely pointless for the plot, they could’ve come up with any other way to get Billy to the factory. And what did it give Karen in development? Just the realization that yeah I’m tired of my husband but I’m not leaving my family and I’ll stick with him just ‘cause? Okay but did we need her almost sleeping with a kid a year older than her daughter for that? Icky. Also the editing of the scene where Billy hits her was so weird. Also that was weird as fuck.

- The ending. Okay christ my main gripe with this is because of a point above: No Byers family interaction at all! Joyce and Hopper talk briefly about her thinking about moving once or twice but she never talks about it with her kids... obviously she did in the timegap but we need to see that to build to the thing. Having no Byers interactions the whole season and then just oop we’re moving is so weird. I’m also not sure if Joyce’s motivation for moving (her bad memories of Hawkins) would be enough. For sure an argument for it, but an argument against is the one Hopper presents to her (and though he’s not around still there’s still a support system around them there, especially for her kids which she loves above all). Speaking of her loving her kids above all, she knows they love their friends/girlfriend/boyfriend to bits, have walked through fire with them and are each others support system as mentioned, would Joyce really just uproot them from that? There’s also some purely practical things that stuck out to me immediately: the timeskip for the epilogue makes it so they move when the schoolyear is already well under way and Jonathan has started senior year, feel bad for Jonathan there in a number of ways. Also, how the hell did Joyce manage to sell her house and what did it fetch? Her rundown house on the outskirts of a now infamous town with an incredibly bad rep? Even if the buyer bought it for the land the land doesn’t look special, just find it hard to believe she could get much for it. And where did they move? Where did she find a place? And work? Did she have something lined up or? I guess we’ll see.

- Oh and speaking of work, that was another thing that was just dropped, the mall killing downtown and the protests just fell out of the story. But, with what happened to the mall wouldn’t business come back to downtown (possibly reason for Joyce to want to stay if Melvald’s going out of business was another reason to move).

- Sorry but Mileven took way too much space.

- Again, no Jonathan and Will actual brothers bonding. But a whole lot of Steve and Dustin meme fanservice wank.

- Erica is just the sassy black girl trope non stop the whole season and nothing else and it’s so grating and... I was gonna say disappointing but I had no faith in the Duffers regarding this. Just because a bit character becomes a meme doesn’t mean they need to become a main. *cough* Steve *cough cough* Sorry.

- Last but not least, the woobiefication of Billy. Uggggghhhh. Disgusting. And having Max cry over him WTF?!?!?!?!?! staaaaaaahp.

[charismastaticarchive]

@valorwilled [ ( multi - muse established relationships meme ) ]   

😍 ROMANCE BLOOMS. *bold is my character, italics is yours.

annette/dimitri: i haven’t made a FULL canon divergence write-up, but based on all the things we’ve complained about, my dimitri is a little different than canon. but the way i’ve changed dimitri makes this relationship VERY SHIPPABLE. in essence the ship has three moving parts to it/phases. 

in the first phase (pre-timeskip), when dimitri and anette form their canon c/b support, dimitri is a very nervous young man. he hides it with his chivalrous, hardworking, princely persona, but underneath that, he is not one to make friends very easily or approach others. but he feels a familiarity with anette--the same she does with him, for having heard so many stories about her from her father. while he does express almost manic embarrassment about the stories gilbert told her about him, he actively wants to talk to her, he makes an effort to talk about his childhood with her, and he’s kind with her, even though he is rather nervous, and does have the funny habit of talking to himself.

in the second phase, (beginning of post-timeskip), dimitri is a changed man. he’s violent and rude. but annette has dealt with other violent and rude people in the past---and MY dimitri is still available to talk to, and will listen to others despite the rudeness he would treat them with, though he tends to seem to be conversing more with himself and the dead. i don’t think anette would put up with the rudeness. she’d be scared of him---but i think she would also treat him much as she treated felix, at least for one B Support-esque conversation, that would make dimitri honestly think about the mean way he treated her.

in the last phase, the “starting point” of my canon divergent timeline, rodrigue does not die, but dimitri is gravely wounded before fleche disappears mysteriously (due to those who slither’s influence). this last phase, dimitri is visited by his friends as he recovers and is unable to fight or seek the vengeance he requires. he will never stop having hallucinations or delusions (and he will in fact still be violent & coarse to begin with)---but he becomes mentally stable again over time & with the grace of his friends. anette, i imagine, is one of his biggest allies!!!

and i imagine, though this is very overly romantic, that they share a very Beauty & The Beast relationship lmfao. but WHERE IT GOES FROM HERE IS WHERE I WANT TO PLOT AND STUFFFFFF.

claude/dimitri: for this route, i would be interested in claude and dimitri being a rivalmance, to use dragon age terminology. while all three lords do not agree with each other---i think dimitri and claude are most ideologically different, as dimitri is something of a centrist in fodlan politics terms. i want to rp them having debates with each other in pre-timeskip, and then their relationship post-timeskip being about war shenanigans side-by-side, as they work to defeat the empire AND maintain a friendship despite claude wanting to change the world, and dimitri only wanting to fix duscur AFTER he gets his revenge. 

this isn’t as developed in my mind, but i picture a lot of political intrigue and terseness that gives way to ‘i only get so mad at you because i know you’re capable of better.’ ‘well, i only get so mad at you because you treat me like an idiot.’ etc. its rivalry-to-friends-to-lovers, but the emphasis is always on the rivalry and the friendship imo.

claude/edelgard: okay this is like my het otp for fire emblem right now lmfaooo except NOT HET AT ALL BC THEY’RE BOTH GNC BICONSSSSS I LOVE THEM... i want them to work together to make fodlan a better place! honestly, i would prefer this to fall the canon black eagles route where edelgard spares claude, but the ones who slither have not yet been bested. can you picture edelgard calling for help from the master tactician in secret---because i can, and I LOVE IT. this ship is built on RESPECT but also FLIRTATIONS. and yet i picture them as so repressed with each other, which i love. very victorian romance, no touching until they’ve actually started dating (and they never manage to quite say it out loud besides in jokes), and even then its just the touch of a hand to her back, a hand grazed against his cheek...

dorothea/edelgard: okay this ship is so good and underrated. so what i want here is basically just. dorothea never expected the empress would be her best friend. it feels too good to be true. she bends over backwards to impress her---but edelgard just wants dorothea exactly as she is.

paimonia/edelgard: POST-TIMESKIP, edelgard finds her love continues to ache in her chest. she sees her teacher again and falls in love all over again, and is suprised and mystified and in wonder & awe that they have not missed a beat. still, i think the most interesting thing of plotting this will be that edelgard HAS changed, it’s been five years in between them. while edelgard is still the fierce idealist revolutionary we all know and love, part of her is fearful, part of her is more insecure than ever, and she panics sometimes---with only paimonia to catch her.

paimonia/claude: u KNOW i’m here for some claudeleth. the only lord/byleth ship where the lord calls them ‘my friend.’ like THE EQUALITY OF IT ALL. but also i can see claude/paimonia on other routes, claude sending paimonia letters from secret messengers and spies. always wanting to be by their side....

paimonia/dedue: this ship’s ESPECIALLY cute with my dedue and your paimonia in particular because they both HATE crowds and love solitude. they are both quiet and kind, and the greenhouse is their special garden to just be themselves, quietly alongside each other....

😀 FRIENDS FOREVER.*bold is my character, italics is yours.

claude/dedue: claude mentions dedue in his speech against racism, and yet they never even TALK?! imagine dedue being the only one that knows claude’s secret because claude trusted him to tell him. dedue wants rights for every oppressed country, same as claude.

ignatz/sylvain: okay the LADIES’ MAN and the OPPOSITE OF THE LADIE’S MAN. i’m picturing a HITCH situation (a la will smith and kevin james), BOYS GETTING UP TO HIJINKS, IGNATZ NOT WANTING TO GO ALONG WITH THIS AT ALL, SYLVAIN DETERMINED TO MAKE IGNATZ A MAN WORTH WOOING, but also sylvain is really really bad at girls actually and ignatz is... disgusted. but they are friends, even if ignatz thinks sylvain is gross af.

esther/sylvain: i just want to interact with ur ocssss pal... LET ME AT EM...

dedue/esther: you mentioned EXPLICITLY that esther is pro-duscur rights and dedue would LOVE THAT, though he might talk to her about toning it down for the sake of her reputation... still, i see esther making dedue more confident.

dorothea/dedue: two muses without parents or ‘real friends’ find each other and find happiness side by side! both of them getting on each other’s nerves like siblings, but having each other’s backs... idk i just vibe with this lol.

😇 FAMILY VALUES. *bold is my character, italics is yours.

dimitri/paimonia: we talked about byleth being like dimitri’s THERAPIST MOM INSTEAD OF LOVE INTEREST BUT LISTEN... what if we made that... INTENTIONAL. paimonia being the parental figure dedue hasn’t had in years. this could be cute and good for character development---especially if paimonia doesn’t WANT to be dimitri’s parental figure and they have a long talk about boundaries, only for paimonia to feel forced into the role anyway, and it’s angsty and character development-y and good.

edelgard/fleche: post fleche’s brother dying, edelgard steps in. ‘nuff said!

👿 RIVALS TO THE END. *bold is my character, italics is yours.

dimitri/fleche: there’s a CERTAIN period of time in which dimitri and fleche are in the same place, and they both do absolutely nothing. i want them to talk. i want fleche to manipulate and dimitri to prove what an asshole he is. THIS MIGHT JUST BE A SINGLE THREAD BUT I NEED IT!

edelgard/dimitri: i find their dynamic really, really interesting, because edelgard could be so MEAN to dimitri, but she’s really, really not. i want to see their relationship unfold pre-timeskip, them trying to get closer for their own reasons (edelgard because it’s better to have the kingdom on her side for diplomacy, him because he wants to be close to the only family he has left). it’s mostly awkward, but it could be kind of sweet---up until things are REVEALED, AND IT HURTS EVEN WORSE.

dorothea/sylvain: i want a FULL HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL SHARPAY VS GABRIELA CONFLICT HERE. DOROTHEA BESTING SYLVAIN AT HIS OWN GAME---SEDUCING GIRLS AWAY FROM HIM WITH PLATONIC TEA PARTIES AND NOT-SO PLATONIC “SLEEPOVERS”.... SYLVAIN AGHAST. YOU CAN REJECT HIM ALL YOU WANT BUT WHY WOULD U STEAL HIS GIRLS.... meanwhile dorothea is regarded as hero, while sylvain plots against her to turn the tides in his favor...

[oddjobsqueen]

The Canonicity of GinTae: Pt.3

Pt.1

Pt.2

Pt.4

READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

There are still a lot of hints that we haven't touched on regarding the relationship of Gintama’s power couple, and many many more tip offs from Sorachi that will prove why GinTae has the best potential of becoming canon. In the past posts we’ve chewed over some of the direct hints from the author, including how Gintoki and Tae are always paired off in important arcs, and we've also delved into the details of their relationship, all of which support the argument that GinTae is canon the epitome of a fulfilling and ideal relationship.

In Gintoki x Tae’s relationship, rather than just watching each other's back in high octane combat, (which is the typical way for Sorachi to show off the bonds that have formed between 2 characters,) the quite moments shared between Gintoki and Tae like in Benizakura and Silver Soul demonstrate that there's a special kind of care and intimacy between them. Their relationship is build on more than just battlefield camaraderie; it's grounded by mutual regard, great chemistry and compatibility. Gintoki and Tae have interesting dynamics and clear understanding of each other, they work as a team in raising Shinpachi and Kagura and in protecting their town and everyone in it, and their relationship doesn't only centre around one thing. They regularly spend time together and don't only hang out when it's convenient. They communicate feelings, even shared many small, private moments that no one else will ever know about. Tae heals Gintoki’s wounds, and sees in him what he didn't yet see in himself. In return Gintoki would fight to the death to protect her and everything that's important to her. Being with Tae also benefit his character in a manner that being around other characters doesn't, like unleashing his caring and vulnerable side. Most importantly they love each other to the point where their happiness literally relies on the happiness of the other. Yagyuu, Kintama, Beam Saber, and BFY and many other arcs and episodes have all testify to that.

Now that we have laid down the beauty of GinTae and understand how solid their groundwork is, it's time to dig out the hints that are hidden under Sorachi's narrative pattern. As I've mentioned before, Gintoki and Tae are the only 2 characters that have a harem, so we're gonna compare the characters in their harems and draw a parallel between the details of their characterization.

Many of us have noticed that Sorachi took his cue for GinTae's relationship and development from many of the canon pairings like TatsuAya, HijiMitsu, and Kanshichiro parents. Meanwhile, other ships that have been alluded as being not canon have the same pattern of narrative as well. This gives us an idea of the kind of love story Sorachi prefers to write and take seriously.

So, in Gintoki’s harem we have Ms. Masochist and Ms. Fanservice. Over in Tae's, there's the Pervert Police and Queer Tomboy. Since Kondo is Sacchan’s equivalent, Kyubei is Tsukky’s. Their similar roles in Gin and Tae's lives are even clearly noticeable in SS arc when they reunite with Gintoki and Tae and admit their reasons for joining the war. But that’s not all there is about their similarities, which is why we’re going to dissect the parallels between all these characters and prove that Sorachi didn’t build these harems for romanticsubplots, but rather for the characters to help and learn from each other and their love interests so they can develop and grow as a character. I'll put up a table below so it'll be easier to compare.

ps I still can’t figure out the best way to insert a table but I’ll keep improvising, hopefully this way everyone can see clearly how the characters in both harems mirror and contrast each other perfectly.

Image link for full size

More parallels between Kyubei and Tsukki: 

Image link for full size

I mean, this speaks for itself, if anyone was wondering if the above characters were cast in the same mold, the answer is...YES! It is unmistakable that these 4 characters are written for the same purpose, I mean, 2 stalkers and 2 admirers, samurai for Tae and ninja for Gin? If only there had been more clue. Well, now there are! Kondo had been rejected, and Kyubei is friendzoned by Tae. Gin too has expressed his disapproval of Sacchan's attitude towards him and his nonchalance about Tsukuyo's personal life. If that's not enough to determine the girls' chances with him, given the heavy parallels Sorachi designed for the two harems, we know we can look to Kondo and Kyubei’s relationship with Tae to understand how Gin feels about Sacchy and Tsukky.

Add these harem parallels to our pile of evidence-based analysis and you'll see why GinTae is the most logical pairing in Gintama. It even trumps the idea that some of these characters are intended for the MCs due to their 'similar past and design'. It is in plain sight now that Sorachi didn't design parallels to foreshadow a romantic subplot or because two characters belong together. OkiNobu is another example of a pairing that shares a lot of similarities but their potential was dismissed by Sorachi, despite a lot of western fans thinking that they were meant for each other. Nobume may not have develop a crush on Sougo, but on top of having similar design and backstory, they also gave off a considerable amount of sexual tension when they were around each other. All of which meant nothing of course, because theme pairing was a cheap way to write romance and it doesn’t hold a candle to the true companions or the official couple of the series anyway. In my opinion, in OkiNobu’s case at least, Sorachi just meant to explore their characterization in the opposite gender.

No matter how you view it, all these alternative pairings are very different from the kind of romantic relationships that Sorachi has approved of, where typically the girl's role is to keep the guy on the straight path and bring out his soft side, and the guy's role is to make the girl happy, the kind of an ideal and fulfilling relationship like what Gintoki and Tae have. The harems in my opinion are false leads used as a subverted trope, in order to add depth to the characters, and, well... to troll the audience. And now with Kondo and Kyubei having already moved on, it's only a matter of time before we see how their stories foreshadow Sacchan and Tsukuyo's fate in the timeskip. Whatever it is that Sorachi plans for them, how they deal with their feelings would be the only thing that will allow them to move forward.

And on that note, I hope this serves as proofs that none of the rival ships come close to GinTae so we can finally focus on the only pairing that matters. Moving forward...

[daughter-of-mamalilith]

My thoughts on Voltron Season 5 (Probable spoilers, so be careful.)

Hunk is precious as always, lovable, supportive, little clumsy. He doesn't have to change a thing, he's doing great.

Coran is still great too. I appreciate that he's cautious when it comes to Lotor. He's a good father figure, cares about the safety of Allura and the Paladins.

There was a timeskip right at the beginning that I wasn't expecting.

I figured we'd start off with a Paladin vs Lotor debate about whether or not to let him close. Nope, we start off with he's been there a while, telling them all the Galra's secrets.

Lotor.... I do love him, because he's an interesting and complex character. He's smart, very smart. He can fight if, and when, he needs to. And he's got a lot of secrets, plus a dangerous amount of charm. You never quite know what he's thinking or planning, and I love that. He's not static, he's very much dynamic, and it's wonderful.

But he's struggling with his Galran ancestry vs his Altaen ancestry. Which gives him even more chances for character development.

Lance seems very jealous of our Galran Prince (EMPEROR LOTOR!!!!!!!) Anytime Lotor and Allura interact, he visibly reacts. Especially when Lotor proposes (yes!!!!) an alliance with Allura. Not marriage, just alliance. .... For now. (Not gonna lie, I've shipped it for a while, just hoping Lotor would become an ally of Voltron.)

Shiro's having problems guys. And you remember Narti, well now Shiro (Kuron?) is Haggar's looking glass into Voltron's plans. I honestly didn't catch that until I read some other posts about it.

Pidge doesn't think things through well when it comes to her family. She's willing to throw everything away, make any sacrifice, to get her family back. Which in other circumstance would be admirable, but she wanted to hurt Lotor. She was willing to send him to his death. It makes me worry about her too.

Keith was barely there, but the times he was, it was great. And he met his mom, aw! Also Kolivan is kind of a dick. Like he had to know, right? RIGHT?!

Allura is a wonderful badass. I love her. She does what she has to, even when she's doubting herself. She's equally intelligent as Lotor, but she doesn't have the same violent upbringing as him, Alfor was all about peace. So when faced with the task of proving herself, she chooses to not fight. Which insures that she passes the test.

Speaking of that moment, it's very telling of how Lotor and Allura were raised, and by whom. Allura was raised in a time of relative peace. She was trained to fight, but it was the main focus of what she was taught by her father.

Lotor was born after Zarkon and Honerva were corrupted by the quintessence. He only knows a time of war. He was taught to fight as a main focus, and he continues to struggle with that. He probably always will. He had "Victory or death" beaten into him, and it's instinct to fight. He wants to move past this, wants to know another way to live, but it's difficult.

Also...... his interactions with Allura are so cute!!!! Not creepy, not trying to force her into a relationship. Maybe he likes her, maybe he just sees her as a strong ally and potential friend. There's clearly respect between them, and there's the potential for a romantic relationship, or a fond friendship. He's not stalking, kidnapping, or drugging her, and that's a huge improvement from past versions of his character.

[thedivergingpaths]

The Diverging Paths: What Could Have Been

So in light of a post I reblogged recently (and also just other discussions elsewhere) I’ve decided to tackle my ideas and opinions about how Three Houses could have done a more solid job at diverging paths (hehe because of my blog name).

These opinions are both my own and my own as developed by reading stuff, some of which I have reblogged here and some of which I just read. Just a sort of disclaimer and FYI.

So here we go!

White Clouds

I think the differences should have been more prominent, not just in the occasional cut scenes, with changes in lord dialogue and group dynamics. Important, especially for the shared beats of the game, but each route should have had distinct beats and not just shuffled up dialogue for the same beats.

To clarify, what I mean by beats is story beats - i.e. like scenes and the content that goes with it.

I do think White Clouds should still have similar missions and objectives across all routes, because I think it would help demonstrate how divided Fódlan became following the war and five years during Byleth’s absence.

So there should have been more distinct missions, or even if they were the same, maybe shuffle what exactly happens. Like while leading the Black Eagles, maybe instead of confronting the church invades in the tomb, they are confronted elsewhere because of a failed diversion by Edelgard and Hubert.

And some of the missions that really should be Faerghus missions - Miklan and Lonato - should be Blue Lions exclusive. There are other rumblings going on in the grand politics of the three nations, as seen in paralogues. Maybe instead of Hilda’s being the main one to discuss the conflict with Almyra pre-timeskip, maybe there’s a mission because of civilians at the border during a skirmish and the Golden Deer are sent to deal with it. It would be a good way to plant the seeds of Claude’s dream of open borders by actually, you know, exposing us to the wider world and having to make opinions based on people and not boogey-men. For the Black Eagles, we could actually do things in the Empire and meet the main players there rather than them just being mentioned or randomly appearing once the war begins.

Certain things I feel would need to happen to keep the main plot of the Empire vs Everyone Else going, such as Flayn’s rescue, Monica’s reveal as Kronya, the Battle of the Eagle and Lion, etc., etc.

Verdant Wind

Verdant Wind should have been grander in what it achieved. Claude wants to open up the borders of the world and foster understanding, and while some of the insulation and the whole war isn’t really something he can control, the world should have felt bigger in the Golden Deer route.

The Almyrans become allies and Claude is their Prince Khalid and yet we get very little of them and only one Almyran character appears in the second half of the route. I think it would have been interesting, and fun, to have had a few diplomatic-ish (tho because it’s fire emblem, inevitably having some sort of battle) missions with other nations, like Almyra, but maybe even Dagda and Sreng and a few other close nations that we even no less about, like Albinea.

For the Fódlan war, I think that the confrontation with Edelgard should be a little different. The cutscene doesn’t really fit, so maybe a different one where Claude and Byleth get ready for the final death match, but then Byleth holds Claude back as Dedue appears to avenge Dimitri and Duscur, even though Edelgard didn’t cause the Tragedy of Duscur, Dedue doesn’t know that and she’s also working with those who caused it so. I just think that it’d be good closure for Dedue before he leaves to mourn. Also ~collaboration~ in toppling the war.

And so, after the war in the immediate fall-out, I think the confrontation with the Agarthans/Those Who Slither in the Dark should still happen, but not culminate in Nemesis’ resurrection. As great as that cutscene is, I think having more efforts to try and reconcile with the Agarthans would be more interesting. Let there be non-homicidal Agarthans who just want to live in their caves with the shiny tech in peace.

Azure Moon

I feel like the route should have started more in Faerghus. Part of that country was annexed to the Empire during the five years of Byleth’s absence, so I don’t think it’s unreasonable for Edelgard to make appearances there.

And in some ways, that would be more heartbreaking because Dimitri is in his kingdom, and his friends and followers are trying to get him to save their nation, but all he sees is Edelgard. It would be more of a blow to what choice he makes. He’s choosing vengeance over salvation. Until, of course, he begins to recover and really looks at what has become of Faerghus and figure out what he must do to end the suffering.

Also Dedue should be more involved once he returns because not only is he Dimitri’s retainer, their bond is a lot deeper than Dimitri and Byleth’s so Dedue should have had a stronger hand in Dimitri’s recovery arc.

Crimson Flower

It would be interesting if the route split wasn’t decided whether to betray the Church or turn on the Empire, but how to handle the war once Byleth returns from their five-year absence.

Like, let us either embrace the villain route - and potentially show how our allies who have a very different sense of morals start cracking under the banner of the empire - or let us challenge Edelgard’s motives and morals and goals.

I’m pretty sure that a lot of Edelgard’s anti-church and crest stance is really just nonsense fed to her by the Agarthans - particularly Thales - so that she could set Fódlan on fire for them. There were possibly similar lies told to Nemesis, honestly. And I think that should affect the trajectory of the game.

Embracing the villain route entrenches the Agarthans deeper into Fódlan politics, even though Hubert and Edelgard says it leaves a bad taste in their mouth, but both groups are taking advantage of each other. And obviously this would culminate in the battle with Rhea and her death. Basically, keep the route more or less intact but really drive home that this maybe isn’t the good and moral choice.

On the flip side, a Byleth who challenges but still cares for Edelgard might succeed in Edelgard at least considering she’s on the wrong path. And here I think the main foes should be the Agarthans. Essentially, abandon the war for a more internal one. I feel that the Kingdom and the Church would still be thorns in the Black Eagles’ side - because they’ve been at war for five years and Rhea is very angry at Edelgard and Byleth’s actions - but they’re not the focus. I think this route would be interesting to find out more of the depth of the Agarthans’ manipulations throughout history, their experiments, and maybe have a moral crisis when Edelgard realizes she’s just been an attack dog all this time.

Silver Snow

Really two big things:

1) I think the catalyst should be for this route is a Byleth who would not choose a house back in the pre-timeskip era. They end up a sparring master (replacing Jeritza once he leaves, but is like, a supporting teacher with him prior to that) and so we can forms bonds across all of the houses.

yes, this is to make it more painful when the war happens and all those kids you knew are grown up and killing each other

2) Byleth’s background should also be revealed in this route, and the history of the Nabateans as a whole. There’d be something poetic about returning to Zanado and having at least some of the battles, if not the climatic one, there. A sort of closure.

I’m not sure whether Rhea’s dragonic feralness should still happen or not, depends on how things go with the whole “well, time to talk about genocide and a dead society” goes I guess.

A Final Thought

I  think it would be appropriate if Byleth, the avatar character, could decide whether they became the supreme ruler of Fódlan/the archbishop (since it varies what they are by route) because while I get why the characters would hoist this onto Byleth, it seems to be more following “remember the past games where people were fulfilling their divine destiny as king, guess we’ll keep going with that!!! :)”

I just think it’d be neat to go “nope” and be able to nope off into the woods or something haha.

And it wouldn’t change anything but the ending slides, so it would really just be an Aesthetic choice, but it could give even more variety to the ending slides since most are basically the same, just some phrases swapped out depending on the route and pairing. Some are outright different which is cool, but most aren’t.

[creative-type]

The Problem with the Chunin Exams

Though I didn’t know it at the time, Naruto was my first anime and my first anime love. I was exposed to it through the American dub as a kid without realizing it was Japanese or based on a comic. In my defense, this was before we had internet at my house, and at best I was only able to watch it every other weekend because my dad had cable and my mom didn’t. 

I dropped the anime when it started into filler hell and switched over to the manga in high school. I started at the timeskip and caught up to the weekly release around the Naruto-Kakuzu fight. Over the years I grew dissatisfied with the story, though I don’t really have a single moment where I gave up on it entirely. There was a slow decrease in excitement, going from eagerly waiting for the latest spoilers, to reading each chapter as they released, to dropping the manga entirely, and only picking it up again to see the final arc through and being incredibly frustrated with the finale, wondering week to week just where things went wrong.

All this to say, I’m not writing this as a hater. I loved Naruto like I love precious few stories, and though I don’t feel that way now doesn’t stop the series from holding a special place in my childhood. I reread the first 87 chapters to prepare for this - seeing many of them in the manga for the first time - and what I read reinforced what I’ve thought for a long time:

The Chunin Exam arc occurred too early in the series. My reasoning is under the cut, but be warned that long post is long. I regret nothing.

I don’t want this post to turn into a Naruto bash-fest to make One Piece look better in comparison, but in my analysis of the build up to the Arlong Park arc, one of the points I tried to make was that by letting the series build organically to an emotional peak tho “big moments” don’t feel cheap and are much more powerful to the reader.

Naruto starts much faster than One Piece does. It establishes Naruto as a character, introduces Team 7, and gets through the Wave Mission arc by chapter 33. In comparison, chapter 33 for One Piece was the middle of Usopp’s recruitment arc and had yet to have the series’s first, for lack of a better term, epic moments.

The problem for Naruto is that the Chunin Exam arc starts in chapter 34 with the introduction of the Sand Siblings. There’s no time to wind back down, no time for the audience to catch its breath, and no time to explore some of the milestones that were made in the Land of Waves.

And I’m not just talking power ups here, although that would be nice. There are several emotional significant moments for several different characters that are left hanging. I think the most obvious is Sasuke, so we’ll start with him

Team Seven’s Lost Development

Sasuke has a ton of focus even in these early chapters before the Uchia’s took over the plot, and I think it would be fair to say that Naruto and Sasuke are less main character and rival and more deuteragonists with branching stories that interconnect at key points of their lives.

This is taken from when Sasuke saves Naruto from Haku during the climax of the arc. Note the past tense. At this point in time, Sasuke no longer hates Naruto. Through the whole Wave arc there have been moments showing the evolution from Naruto and Sasuke’s relationship from a bitter one-sided rivalry into them actually acting like teammates. The Naruto-Saskuke dynamic is arguably the most important thing in the entire series, and the audience can’t be expected to believe later on that they have this super strong friendship without scenes like this. 

Then immediately after the Wave arc we get this

The relationship has soured once more. Sakua even says a few pages later that their relationship is worse than it was before the mission.

I don’t call shenanigans on scenes like this because Naruto and Sasuke are both emotionally stunted orphans unused to interpersonal relationships. There’s a good chance that they don’t know how they’re supposed to react after going through such an emotional life or death scenario. 

However, I can and will call shenanigans on events like the Valley of the End or the entirety of Part II because the author never shows Naruto and Sasuke growing beyond this petty antagonism. Instead of being written as two outcasts regressing to avoid dealing with the feels of the Wave arc, the Naruto-Sasuke dynamic stinks of sticking to the status quo. 

Sasuke and Naruto aren’t the only ones hit with this, but I tend to give Sakura more of a pass because her character growth happens during the Exams. There are several little hints of Sakura’s increasing awareness of how far behind she is from the boys sprinkled throughout to early exam chapters before hitting the bulk of her character arc during the Forest of Death. There’s even a nice little moment during the written exam where she actually considers someone other than Sasuke for what feels like the first time in the series

The problem here is that this development isn’t given enough set up. I would trade six panels of Sasuke looking cool to see just one interaction between Sakura and her parents. It is absolutely abysmal character writing that we learn about Sakura’s former friendship with Ino from Shikimaru and their rivalry from a freaking info box

Why did Sakura become a ninja? What do her civilian parents think about her being in life-threatening situations as a 12 year old girl? How does she feel about being the only (besides Naruto, as far as she knows) to graduate without a bloodline or family jutsu? What’s the deal with her “Inner Sakura”, is she just repressed, or is there some sort of split personality going on there? Does she have a crush on Sasuke for any reason other than his alleged cuteness? Why didn’t she ever apologize to Naruto for saying that she was jealous he was an orphan, even though he wasn’t present at the time?

Whether intentional or not, Kishimoto made Sakura a very unlikable character early on. I for one remember despising her when first watching the series. And you know what, that’s okay. Each member of Team 7 has enormous personality flaws, and having them slowly overcome said flaws makes for a strong narrative.

The thing is, it takes more time to develop an unsympathetic character than it does one who is sympathetic, and Sakura gets the least character development out of all Team 7 (Kakashi included). This is exacerbated by the fact that she is physically the weakest and does the least during fights - a huge flaw for a main character in a battle manga to have.

Lastly, Sakura’s greatest assets - her intelligence and superior chakra control - are rarely presented as useful. In fact, during her fight with Ino she falls into a basic trap, and the only thing that saves Sakura is her willpower...split personality...whatever the Inner Sakura is. It’s not really made clear and never shows up again.

And speaking of ignored plot points, remember this?

Do you remember Kakashi’s reaction to the possible weakening of the seal keeping in the Nine-Tailed Fox? You know, the innately evil demon monster that can level mountains with just one of its tails?

Yeah, that never gets addressed before the Chunin Exams.

Sakura and Sasuke have an excuse because they didn’t actually see Naruto, but Kakashi is never shown pulling Naruto aside and asking him what happened or taking steps to keep it from happening again. Naruto - the Leaf Village’s Number 1 loudmouth ninja - never asks what happened or is worried that he might lose control to a monster.

Also recall that Naruto decides on his Ninja Way during the Wave arc, yelling it out for everyone to hear because of how upset he was about having to fight and nearly kill someone he liked. This clashes with the current system, a fact Kakashi points out, but Kakashi doesn’t warn Naruto about the potential dangers of this line of thinking, nor are the ramifications of having kids act as child soldiers ever explored.

It’s things like this that make the time taken between major arcs so, so, so important. Not only does it give the characters (and audience) time to process what happened, but quiet moments can lead to incredible character growth, or at least set up later growth that in turn becomes more powerful and realistic because it was properly set up to begin with. 

Establishing Secondary Characters

When rereading the primaries for the third round of the exams, three fights stick out as carrying the most emotional weight: Rock Lee vs Gaara, Hinata vs Neji, and Sakura vs Ino.

I’ve already touched on the travesty of the Sakura-Ino rivalry, and while Rock Lee was also introduced during the exams, his motivation and character were established pretty well during the early parts of the arc.

That leaves us with Hinata vs Neji (and later on Naruto vs Neji). Now, out of the Leave genin introduced during the exams, only Ino and Hinata have any real connection to Team 7, and considering Hinata’s place as possible love interest to the main character, she’s arguably the most important to the narrative. Not that she’s ever treated that way, but I digress. Her wholehearted, albeit silent, support for Naruto sets her apart from almost every other character thus far, and her timid, gentle nature is a nice contrast to, well, almost every other character thus far. 

(In case it’s not apparent, I really enjoyed Hinata in Part I. I’ll try to keep my bias to a minimum) 

In addition, Hinata brings a nice spin on the “hard work trumps natural talent” theme that at this point was important to the story. Unlike Rock Lee and Naruto who (supposedly) are neither talented nor from powerful families, Hinata is a character from a powerful family who has no talent, and has to work past her weakness and overcome the burden of being the heir of one of Konoha’s most prominent families.

We learn none of this until her fight with Neji.

Time is an integral part of tension, and previously establishing conflict would go a long way in getting rid of some of the more awkward exposition dumps. For the Hinata-Neji fight Kishimoto has to explain 1) the byakugan 2) the gentle fist style 3) chakra points 4) how Neji and Hinata are related 5) Hinata’s struggle to better herself and 6) Neji hatred of the main house/fatalist mindset. 

That is a ton of information to try to get across in a short period of time, and this isn’t an isolated thing. These mega info dumps aren’t quite as pronounced during Rock Lee and Sakura’s fights, but they’re certainly there. To be fair, it can be hard to convey to the reader what’s going on without some kind of commentator character, but nothing kills the flow of a fight by cutting away from it constantly.

Lastly - and this is again pulling back and looking at the series as a whole - Hinata is basically ignored after this fight, so whatever character development she gets is lessened because there’s no followup.

To be fair, I am just talking about Hinata in this instance. Neji goes through significant growth during the rest of Part I before being mostly ignored in Part II. Because of her injuries Hinata a non-factor during the invasion, and obviously she wasn’t picked to recruit Tsunde or retrieve Sasuke.

This lack of focus has the unfortunate side effect of making the Hinata-Neji fight nothing more than a reason to hype the Naruto-Neji fight. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with hype, and in fact it’s necessary when looking at the arc as a whole. At the same time, it’s also clear Kishi had no idea how to handle the ensemble cast he’d created during the exams.

This mishandling of secondary characters becomes an even bigger issue during Part II, when Shikimaru becomes the only one of the former rookies to get any sort of character focus. Hinata is a favorite of mine, but I don’t buy her love confession anymore than I do Sakura’s, because she’s never seen interacting with Naruto. She is in love with the idea of who she thinks he is (much like Sakura and Sasuke, to be honest. Maybe Kishi should just stay away from romantic subplots.)

I mean, it’s well over 100 chapters before Hinata’s confession is even addressed in canon. I don’t think they have a word for how terrible that kind of writing is.

Fixing the Problem of the Chunin Exams

It can be almost impossible to have “slow” chapters while trying stay up in Shonen Jump’s popularity polls, and I don’t envy the mangaka trying to plan their manga under crushing schedule of weekly serialization, but using the power of retrospect, this is how I would have gone about fixing the problem of the chunin exams.

Firstly, I would have had at least a few of the other rookies be present in the first chapters. Ino would have been a good one to slip in the background when introducing Sakura.

Secondly, I would show the entire rescue the Fire Lady’s cat mission. This might seem stupid, but it would give a baseline for Team 7′s teamwork ability, and give Sakura a chance to show off her brain. For example, Naruto and/or Sasuke could attempt a simple henge only for Sakura to tell them that a cat will still be able to smell them. Something simple like that to establish she’s not absolutely useless.

Thirdly, during the Wave arc I would have Kakashi assign Sakura alternate training, planting the first seed of how far behind the boys she is in terms of ability. This could be anything from working on a jutsu to practicing infiltration to being responsible for setting up booby traps around the house for protection (which would not only make her immediately useful in the Wave arc, but be a nice call forward to the traps she sets during the Forest of Death).

I’d have Team 7 run into Asuma, Ino, Choji, and Shikimaru upon returning from Wave, introducing the concept of the Rookie 9 and Sakura’s rivalry. I would also have Naruto ask Sasuke if they want to train together sometime. In this scenario Sasuke reluctantly agrees, but during the training Naruto asks who Sasuke’s brother is and why Sasuke would want to kill him. This goes about as well as can be expected,  thus souring their relationship into the canon state I pointed out earlier.

Forced to train alone, Naruto runs across Hinata working on her taijutsu after Kiba and Shino have gone home for the night. I don’t know if Hinata’s shyness would let her speak in such a situation, but Naruto sees how hard she’s training and tells her to keep up the good work. 

Alternately

Team 7 could run across Team Gai at some point, and the audience is introduced to Kakashi and Gai’s rivalry. The Sasuke vs Lee fight from the exams is moved here, while Neji acts like enough of a douche for Naruto to hate him on principle. I kind of like the idea of Sasuke respecting Lee for working to beat someone stronger than he is, which would give Sasuke an added anchor to the village outside of Naruto (for added tragedy when he defects/humanizing him in the present) and give another reason for Lee to chase after Sasuke later in the series.

I would also put a scene where Kakashi asks Naruto about what happened when the seal weakened and/or telling the Hokage about the fox. This would also be a good time for Naruto to first contemplate telling Sakura and Sasuke that he’s a vessel for the fox.

No matter what happened, I would do a repeat of the team’s first cat mission just to show off how far our band of lovable ninjas has come.

Lastly, when Kakashi hands out the application for the exams I would have Sakura talk to her parents about it, or at the very least get their reaction. It would not only give Sakura greater depth but also be a good chance for some world building.

All of this could be done in a chapter or two and without breaking the flow to the exams. Hell, Kishi could have sent them on another C Ranked mission to another country and get in some sorely-needed world building and set up some of the political side of the chunin exams. The possibilities are endless.

In Conclusion 

The older I get, the more convinced I become that it’s the stuff that goes on between major story beats that’s most important when developing a story’s emotional tone. It’s a little thing, but it gives a story depth. Unfortunately, it’s a thing that Kishimoto failed to do, and it’s a flaw that only worsened as time went on.

Agree of disagree, thanks for taking the time to read the ramblings of a disenchanted fan. Going over these early chapters reminded me of how good early Naruto was, flaws and all. I don’t regret all the time I’ve put into this series over the years regardless of the omnishambles it turned out to be.

But hey, at least there’s fanfiction.

[alexistitania]

Just my two cents on the Nalu situation right now

I’ll just start by saying that Nalu is my favorite OTP in FT, and I love it with all my heart. And, I entirely support the kind of closure they got in the last chapter. Lemme explain.

So I see most Nalu fans are disappointed because Natsu and Lucy didn’t kiss or confess or weren’t explicitly confirmed as a couple. Especially since some other ships were canonized pretty explicitly. 

Listen, there is absolutely no reason to feel disappointed, and by the end of this post, I’ll try to make you believe that, the way I believe it.

First, let’s just say, I think the fandom’s making such a fuss about it, when in reality, there’s not much to it.

People are analyzing the hug scene, theorizing, thinking up reasons why this or that... And that’s ok, that’s great, I like doing that stuff too, it’s fun.  Maybe you want to believe Lucy wasn’t ready, or Natsu wasn’t ready, or both, or the atmosphere wasn’t right. Maybe there’s that too, but I don’t think that’s what this scene is about.

I’ll just say this right away: Nalu was canonized, in its own way.

Same as the other ships. All the ships got the kind of closure they were pretty much set up for, including Nalu. 

The other canonized ships were explicitly romantic from the start. And explicitly romantic canonization is what they got. And even those canonizations were very distinct from each other.

Just a short overview of the other ships, so I can make my point.

Levy has had an obvious crush on Gajeel from pretty early on in the series, and Gajeel confessed during the Alvarez arc that he wanted a family and a happy life with her. So, their canonization was Levy whispering something about a “baby” in Gajeel’s ear, implying that she’s either pregnant or wants to make a baby. It was fitting. 

Juvia has loved Gray since the beginning, and they committed double suicide (a.k.a. lovers’ suicide) in the Alvarez arc, with Gray confessing he wanted to protect her (which in Japan is pretty much confirmation of romantic feelings, when a guy says it, although the western audience might miss it). So, their canonization was Gray being more open about Juvia being “his” (and, implicitly, him “hers”) and protecting her from other men’s unwanted gazes at the party. Again, fitting.

Erza and Jellal had so much development in the first half of the series, it was obvious that they crushed on each other as kids, and they even had the almost kiss after the seven year timeskip. You could say they reached the pinnacle of their development with the almost kiss, where they pretty much acknowledged each other’s feelings, though silently. But there was an understanding nevertheless. And now they just need to act on those feelings. I agree that their canonization could have been more complete with this last chapter, but it was still heavily implied in typical Jerza fashion. ”Always passing each other by”. But not for long, since it’s a happy ending for everyone, so we’re supposed to read between the lines here. This was somewhat fitting too, though there could have been more.

You’ll notice that in each of these ships, at least one party has had obvious romantic feelings for the other since the beginning. In Jerza’s case, both parties.

Now, Natsu and Lucy are different. They started off as friends, then became best friends, then “more than friends, less than lovers,” as Mashima clearly states. Just this quote is enough of a hint.  Their relationship is fundamentally different from the rest too, because out of all the ships, they had the most “mutual” moments, they had the most screentime, they had the most development. Now, it’s just a question of whether that development was romantic or not. 

Thing is, and I say this as a huge Nalu shipper, it wasn’t explicitly romantic like the other ships. Now, hear me out.  Their development wasn’t the kind of romantic that other ships that I mentioned received. Rather, it was heavily implied as Romantic in the Future. 

Natsu and Lucy have the potential to become that “best friends to lovers” trope. And, I truly believe they will, but not right now. 

That’s what the hug scene was all about.

I think the fandom was too fixated on the idea that, for some reason, things between them needed to take the traditionally romantic turn right away, like the other ships. But that’s just... not how it is. 

Natsu and Lucy already have all the requirements for a healthy relationship. What they don’t have is the kisses and confessions. What they don’t have is the change of dynamics toward something more openly romantic. What they don’t have is the lovey-dovey stuff. But, that’s just it, they don’t need that. 

The relationship dynamics of the other ships needed to change and take a romantic turn, because they just weren’t complete yet. Their developments have been about reaching this point that they reached in the final chapter (expect for maybe Jerza, but it’s obvious they’re implied in the same way for the future, and one could argue they were already mutual post-almost kiss). 

Nalu’s relationship dynamics doesn’t need to change, they are perfect right where they are in the last chapter. They are complete! It’s all about characterization. Neither Lucy nor Natsu ever made it one of their goals to be with each other as a couple, like the other ships did.  They just want to stay with each other forever. The promise of forever is all the reassurance they need. That’s how much trust they have for one another.

I truly believe that Natsu and Lucy know they are special to each other. Special as in, something different than friends. But they don’t see their feelings for each other as something that needs clarification or manifestation in the form of a traditional romantic relationship. They don’t need to prove anything.

Their feelings are already manifesting, very clearly. It’s not all about kisses and confessions. There’s much more to romance. To say otherwise would just be shallow, I think. And I’m glad Mashima included this kind of portrayal of romance too. 

One day, something even more beautiful will bloom between them, but not right now. Right now, they are not on that level, emotionally. But one day, they will be, and they can feel it. They both know it. That’s what the hug scene tells us, especially at the end, where Natsu says they’ll be together forever, and Lucy has that look on her face that tells us she understands what he means by that. 

It’s just a small glimpse at what will eventually be, just not right now, because they are perfect as they are at this point in their development. 

That’s why Nalu’s closure was perfect, for them! 

If it was any other ship, it wouldn’t have been satisfying. But, this is exactly where Natsu and Lucy should be at this point in time. In the future, they may add on what they already have, with more romantic stuff. But right now, they don’t need to.

Mashima said in an interview that he wasn’t sure if he wanted to write Natsu and Lucy romantically (as fans seemed to pressure him to), and now, I totally understand what he meant by that. He didn’t necessarily want to write them as a romantic couple, but to convey a more profound idea of romance. He didn’t want to write them like the other romantic couples he wrote, he wanted to make their relationship their own.

They don’t need to be, and they shouldn’t be like any other ships. There is no rule saying that they should follow one specific pattern. They can go at their own pace. 

Right now, they just need to know that they will have each other forever. That there’s no need to rush, that they have all the time in the world to let their relationship grow naturally, to have its own flow and progression, unlike any other. They have forever to become anything they want and are comfortable with, in time. 

And I think that’s absolutely beautiful. This is exactly why they are my favorite ship in the series, and I see them as nothing less than canon.