#an arc I decided existed...one chapter ago

[missremember]

Chapter 7 of HoAS is here! Thanks, NaNo, lmao.

I was really looking forward to writing the fight scene in this one. This'll probably be my last (Kirby) update of the year, so consider this my gift to you all, lol.

[the-lonelybarricade]

Take My Hand, Wreck My Plans - Chapter 2

Summary: Fresh after her third, and final, breakup with Tamlin, Feyre decides a one night stand is exactly what she needs to get him out of her system. Except, her one night stand with a violet-eyed stranger ends up being far more than she bargained for.

-

Or; the one where Feysand gets knocked up from a one night stand.

Read on AO3 ・Masterlist・Previous Chapter

-

Feyre couldn’t look at her phone. Not without feeling nauseated.

There had been many—countless, Nesta would argue—idiotic, brainless things that Feyre had done in her life. There was the time she’d left her passport locked in a hostel safe and had driven three hours on the motorway before she’d realized. There was the time when she’d snuck one of the bottles of vodka her father used to keep stored in the freezer and decided she’d get away with it by replenishing what was consumed with water, only for their father to discover a frozen bottle the following evening. Or, worst of all, there was the summer she’d given herself bangs.

They were all inconsequential in retrospect, now knowing how each of those little mistakes panned out. But at the time, they had felt world-ending.

And maybe there was a solace to find in how trivial those moments felt in reflection. Like one day in the future, Feyre would look back on herself now and laugh softly, saying, Remember how scared I was? I thought the world was coming down around me, but it was only just a new path forging.

That was a nice idea, except this new path was not solid stone, steady underfoot. Nor was it gravel, rough and uneven, easy to slip and unforgiving beneath a fall. No, this new path was quicksand. There was no standing still; there was no scraping together her bearings. This path decided that she was moving one way or another—either sinking to the bottom, suffocating in her own indecision, or scrambling forward in an attempt to keep her head above the surface.

And maybe there wasn’t a way forward at all. Maybe there was only going down, like she was trapped in a sand dial, feeling the ground shift and fall away, every ticking second measured. It certainly felt like there was glass sealed behind her—she knew there was no going back. There was no undoing the purple eyes and velvet laugh and stupid black dress.

Would she one day laugh about this? Who was to say. She wasn’t laughing now. She was fighting the bile creeping up her throat as she sat on the cool tile of her bathroom floor, glaring at the porcelain bowl because it was better than glaring at her phone. Feyre couldn’t say for certain if it was morning sickness that had triggered her nausea or the text that had woken her up.

Feeling better?

Feyre was running out of excuses. A stomach bug only lasts for so long. It was becoming a matter of time before someone busted down her door and demanded she go to the emergency room.

Yes, she texted back.

The response was immediate. I have the day off. Breakfast at 10?

Sure.

It was an effort to heft herself from the floor. It was more of an effort not to grimace when she saw her reflection in the mirror. She fixed her eyes on the faucet, on her shaking hands cupping the water, scooping it into her face, and then into her mouth to rinse out the bile.

She didn’t look that different, not really. There was no pregnancy bump yet. If anything, she’d lost weight. Nausea could do that, but so could guilt. Six weeks ago, she’d had sex with a stranger, with Rhysand, and now there was a life growing in her stomach.

Google said a baby was roughly the size of a pea at six weeks. If that was true, then the weight of keeping this secret made it the heaviest gods-damned pea in existence.

“Have you told him?” Alis said in greeting as Feyre ambled into the kitchen.

Steam curled from the mug in her hands, carrying the scent of freshly roasted coffee. Feyre resisted the urge to cover her nose.

“No,” she said, evading her roommate in a wide arc.

Alis arched a brow. “Will you tell him?”

The bitter smell was so affronting that Feyre could think of little else. A gag built in her throat, which she did a poor job of hiding by darting for the fridge. It was the empty stomach. She needed to eat something, or she was going to puke again.

Feyre settled for an apple and took a long time chewing before she turned back to Alis. She swallowed. “Eventually.”

“The longer you wait—”

“I know,” Feyre interrupted.

Of course she knew. It was all she’d been thinking about. But how? How did she look him in the eyes and say, I’m pregnant? She couldn’t even do it in the mirror—and she’d tried. There were a thousand versions of the script she was constantly writing and rewriting in her head, all those words swirling until they had become a living creature of mist and shadow. One that loomed over her shoulder at all times of the day. She’d somehow convinced herself it would only become real if she acknowledged it.

Alis said little else. She was the only one who knew, by virtue of being on the other side of the door when Feyre had taken her pregnancy test. Though, Alis wasn’t dense, and it wouldn’t have taken her long to peg the morning nausea, the aversion to certain foods. They didn’t say much about it. Not yet. Alis had only offered her unilateral support and given Feyre time and space to dissect her maelstrom of emotions.

And three days ago, when Feyre decided she was going to keep the baby, Alis had said simply, “Then you need to tell him.”

A firm, unwavering reminder she’d repeated each day since. Feyre clenched her teeth to keep from snapping. She knew that, in her own way, Alis was being kind. Time would only exacerbate the issue. But objectivity did little quell Feyre’s kindling irritation. Words bubbled behind her clenched teeth, building into a pressure that made her want to scream: no-fucking-duh.

She didn’t scream. She politely took her apple and her keys and murmured that she would be back soon. Maybe she could have shut the front door with less force, but at least now she could blame her Archeron temper on her hormones.

Feyre rapped her knuckles over the steering wheel. She was parked outside the cafe, and through the large glass pane at the front, she could spot him sitting inside. His posture seemed relaxed enough, his handsome face angled down towards his phone. A second later, hers pinged from its mount on the dashboard.

I’m here. Are you close?

She met her own eyes in the rearview mirror. Blue, like an overcast sea, their mother had always said, reasoning it was why her eldest and youngest were such forces of nature. There was a swelling storm that Feyre could never escape, because it lived inside her. And now she could feel the tide in her chest retreating from the shore, pulling further and further back, and she knew it would crash if she went inside, that it would swallow them both whole.

Be a big girl, she told herself. Go in there and tell him the truth.

She took a deep inhale. Held it, hoping it could hold back the tide, too.

Then, it was only a matter of unlocking her door. Walking the few steps towards the front entrance. Listening to the pealing bell as she pulled open the door.

“Feyre?”

Blonde hair swam into view. The greeting was so unexpected, so startling, that Feyre released the breath she’d been holding.

Then it all crashed down.

Brows pinched together. “Feyre, are you okay?”

Mor had the sense to keep her voice at a whisper. From the way she glanced over her shoulder towards the man hunched over in the booth, it was clear she had put together who Feyre was here to see.

Tears sprung into Feyre’s vision—not because she was crying, but because she couldn’t breathe. The tide was surging around her, clogging her throat, and she couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t—

Mor grabbed Feyre by the shoulders and pushed them out of the cafe.

The early Autumn was as indecisive as Feyre. Yesterday, she’d been sweating through her t-shirt. Today, the air stung her cheeks. Maybe the weather had seen a kindred spirit, a storm that could never quite find stillness, and decided to take pity. The cold calmed her, embraced her, reminded her where she was. Outside. With Mor. Where there was plenty of open space and fresh air. The blockage in her throat loosened. She took a gasping breath, then another.

“You’re okay,” Mor soothed.

“I’m okay,” Feryre repeated. To assure Mor or herself, she wasn’t certain.

Mor took in Feyre’s strained voice, her flushed cheeks, the nails digging into her palms and gestured towards one of the outdoor tables. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Maybe… maybe a trial run could be a good thing.

Her eyes drifted over Mor’s shoulder to where Tamlin sat waiting at a table inside. If she glanced at her phone, she probably had another text waiting from him. Growing impatient.

“He can wait,” Mor said, not unkindly.

“Yeah,” Feyre rasped. “Talking would be… nice.”

It was a little too cold for the iron chairs, which seared through Feyre’s leggings. But the cold calmed her, and she appreciated the privacy. The lack of sounds and smells.

Mor was ever-patient, waiting for Feyre to speak.

When it was clear that she wouldn’t, Mor said, “How have you been? That was some night out, huh?”

Right. That was the last time she’d seen or spoken to Mor. Feyre had been meaning to respond to her text—Heyy! Fun night? 😏

And the follow-up one a day later. My cousin is asking for your phone number. Is it okay if I share it?

They’d both seem innocent enough and at first, Feyre hadn’t answered because she’d felt a twinge of guilt for not staying long enough to meet Mor’s cousin. Then, because Tamlin had showed up at her door with a bouquet of apologies and she hadn’t known how to explain to her friend that she’d taken him back. Nor how to explain to Tamlin that she’d had a one night stand during their breakup.

Then she’d found out she was pregnant, and she hadn’t said much of anything to anyone.

“Yeah,” Feyre said, numbness growing where her legs pressed to the chair.

“And now you’re back with Tamlin,” Mor said slowly, waiting for Feyre to fill in the gaps.

The iron latticework of the outdoor table was much more interesting.

Mor sounded disappointed as she probed, “You said it was the last time you guys were breaking up.”

Feyre mustered all the cheer she could force into her voice. “It was the last time. We’re not going to break up again.”

She’d felt much more confident about that line when she’d said it three weeks ago to a disapproving Alis. Already, Feyre could feel that creature slither over her shoulder, hissing into her ear. If she turned, its pupils would be slitted into two digital lines that begged her acknowledgment.

“Right,” Mor said. “And yet, you came into this cafe looking like you were about to burst into tears because…?”

“Because I’m pregnant,” Feyre blurted.

And there it was. That creature turned real. She felt it reach through her chest and tug. Suddenly, all of that sea water she’d swallowed a moment ago came rising to the surface, and her body regurgitated the words that had been drowning her.

“It’s not Tamlin’s. It’s… remember the guy I met at the club? The one with the purple eyes? It was supposed to be this stupid, drunken one night stand, only first names—I don’t even have his number, Mor. I have some nameless, mysterious baby daddy, and I haven’t told Tamlin because I know he’s going to be…” she blinked back the sting in her eyes. “He’s going to be so furious with me.”

Mor was gaping. Whatever she’d expected… it clearly hadn’t been that.

Waiting for her friend’s reaction felt like treading water in a deep, bottomless ocean. But at least she wasn’t drowning anymore. At least the creature had receded back into the shadows, and her breathing was shallow but still filling her lungs.

Then Mor’s eyes flickered over Feyre’s shoulder. Her expression morphed into such panic that Feyre whirled, only to be met face to face with those shocking purple eyes so wide that she could only assume he’d heard the whole damn thing.

“Feyre,” Mor croaked from behind.

But Feyre couldn’t tear her eyes away from Rhys. In the time since their one night stand, Feyre convinced herself she’d exaggerated his appearance. Three shots of tequila could make anyone beautiful. But here she was, stone-cold sober, fighting her jaw not to drop at the sight of him.

The same short black hair she tugged beneath her fingers was now slightly wind-swept, some of it falling to his face in endearing curls that she concluded were purposefully arranged. He was wearing a navy sweater with a white collared shirt beneath—infuriatingly put together, where she was still sniffing back tears, dressed in her same paint-stained clothes from yesterday.

She’d prepared scripts for him, too, though she always imagined he was someone she would take years to track down. That she’d have time to prepare what to say to him, how to move forward knowing their lives were irrevocably entwined.

“Feyre,” Mor said again after awkwardly clearing her throat. “Meet my cousin, Rhysand.”

Cousin. The one who wanted her number.

“Oh,” Feyre whispered, so many horrible details clicking into place.

Rhysand mustered enough composure to manage a strained: “It’s great to see you again, Feyre.”

Feyre dropped her head into her hands. “Oh my god.”

A chair scraped against the pavement.

Mor said, “I’ll give you two a moment alone.”

She peaked between her fingers, just enough to watch Mor retreat towards the cafe. Likely playing guard dog to ensure Tamlin didn’t stumble upon them. She heard Rhys walk around the table, his footsteps light, as if he were approaching an animal he didn’t want to startle. Then, a pair of broad hands swam into vision as he gripped the back of Mor’s deserted chair, his brown knuckles paling.

He didn’t sit. She could feel his gaze like a leaden weight, so heavy that she couldn’t gather the strength to raise her head.

“When did you find out?” He asked eventually.

Feyre searched for any accusation in his voice, but it was gentle. She lifted her head, finding that some of his shock had thawed, though his expression was unreadable.

“A week ago,” she said.

“Have you…” He rubbed a hand through his hair. “Do you know what you want to do?”

This is where she braced herself. She knew her voice was creeping towards defensive as she said levelly, “I’m keeping the baby.”

Rhysand swallowed thickly. Nodded. “Okay.”

Okay. That knocked her a bit off guard. The lack of questions, of demand for her justification. She’d been preparing for a fight with Tamlin and felt stranded in the face of such simple, ready acceptance. It had to be a trap.

“It was my decision,” Feyre said, plowing ahead. “So I don’t expect anything from you. You don’t need to be… involved. I have no delusion that we’d ever be some perfect nuclear family. If you want to just walk away, this is your chance.”

“And,” Rhysand broached with such caution that Feyre’s spine straightened, “if I want to be involved… would that be okay with you?”

“We’d need to work something out,” she said, ignoring how her voice cracked. Mor’s family came from money. She could already imagine the legal proceedings, the paperwork, the negotiations over days of the week and alternating Christmases. At least Nesta was a lawyer. “I don’t want to get the courts involved. But if it goes that direction—“

“It won’t need to,” he said. “We can play it by ear, do whatever feels right. I just… I’d like to be involved. Starting now.”

The excruciating weight of that small little pea plummeted in her chest. “Starting now?”

Rhys nodded. “If you need someone to drive you to the appointments, or if you need me to pitch in for baby supplies. I’m… I want to help.”

“I’ll think about it.”

His face fell a little.

If she shut him out completely, a lawyer was guaranteed to come knocking at her door. Feyre added, “It’d be nice to get to know you before anything else.”

“Would you like to grab a coffee together?”

“As friends,” Feyre hedged. “I know we—” An image flashed in her mind of those fingers in her mouth, between her thighs. She tried not to flush. “—you know. But I have a boyfriend now. And I’m not looking for you to be my…”

She searched for a word but found none that quite articulated what, exactly, Rhys would be to her.

Baby daddy?

“I just want us to be friends,” she clarified.

His perfect lips, which had once expertly kissed and licked and teased her, edged into a smile. “Then would you like to grab a coffee together as friends?”

“Yes.” She smiled back and found that the pea in her stomach didn’t feel quite so heavy. “Not today, though. I’m, uh… meeting my boyfriend.”

“And I’m meeting my cousin.”

“Right.” Feyre reached stiffly into her pocket, retrieving her phone. “Why don’t you give me your number, and I’ll text you?”

The iron chair practically sighed in relief as Rhysand released it from his death grip. His motions were stiff, too, she noted, as he punched in his number and handed it back to her a tad too mechanically.

Their fingers brushed as she accepted it back, and she felt for the second time that day like she couldn’t breathe. Their eyes met, held. “You say the word, Feyre darling. Any time, any place, and I’m yours.”

She thought she might have said something back or just stared dumbly at his obscenely beautiful face. She couldn’t remember, and he didn’t say anything else before he nodded his goodbye and chased after Mor.

It took Feyre a long time to find the willpower to follow after him, back into that cafe, and breathlessly apologize to Tamlin for being late. And she pretended she couldn’t feel a pair of violet eyes watching her as she sat across from Tamlin, forcing a smile.

[elia-liendy]

A little analysis about Beelzebub

I'm liking the game a lot and one of my favourite characters is Beelzebub, so I wanted to do a little analysis of his character based on the little information that we have currently of information about him.

Spoiler warning about the personal story about Beelzebub (Selfie) card (part 1 and part 2) and the comics of : Bael, Beelzebub (selfie), Amon.

Leak waring about Beelzebub butt card.

I currently never met Beelzebub in the main story, I'm on chapter 2 and stuck as I am writing this.

But I also think that we never met Beelzebub to all the 4 chapter available at the moment because if you go to 'album', you can see which GC you have and how many you missed it and of who you missed it. And there isn't yet an option about him or Abyssos/Avisos.

I think Beelzebub himself will show for the first time or at Gehenna or Tartaros, since in his description it says to spend most of his time there, but only later we will have to seriously have his "kingdom arc".

Before talking completely about Beelzebub I want first to talk about his kingdom, because I think, even minimally, that each kingdom represents/reflect it's king personality and doings.

(honestly I don't understand if his kingdom is called Abyssos or Avisos, but I will use the first to name the kingdom and the second the organisation)

In Abyssos there is an entertainment district and a casino, the existence of these things, makes me connect that Beelzebub is a party animal, and consider having fun something really important or something of his begin as a person.

In fact in the comics we see a Beelzebub that is always doing something fun such as begin on the beach/vacation (Amon comic) or hanging out whit the other kings (levithan selfie & mammon butt comics).

And seeing him in one of his many tentative of run away from his job and responsibility as king, and failing this time. (Beelzebub Selfie)

[immagini 2]

I put this last image not only cause Beelzebub looks like a fucking chad, which is hilarious to me.

But also it shows the "darker" side of him, better to say that it shows Beelzebub strength and serious side of him and the fact he actually do his job.

And made me also think about Beelzebub not using his power while he is trying to run away in his selfie comic. Could he not wanted fully to run away? Or wanted to have a little distraction before continuing to work and wanting to actually get cached? Or he just doesn't use his power to run away cause he fully believe/knows he is able to run away whitout using them?

I'm saying this cause he was catched whit s bear hug, and it's said in his description that his powers doesn't follow any kind of laws, and if he wanted really, really to "escape" he could have use it easily.

I also recently discovered that after Solomon death (B.C. 931) Beelzebub decided to completely run away from his kingdom and never stepping on it again, or at least till now.

In Bael description it says that Beelzebub is specifically targeted by angels, and since Bael takes Beelzebub identity, he have to fight all the angels that come to Beelzebub. But why he have to do so??

Not long ago I read a theory that says the reason why Beelzebub is Always on the run since B.C. 931 and targeted by angels it's because he is involved to the death of God and Solomon.

I would also add one of my personal theory: remembering Solomon death lead all the demons he made a pact whit, extremely restrained by the contract still existing.

And I believe that Beelzebub is one of the Demons that got extremely weak and/or unable to use his power, making him a really easy target for angels, reasons why Bael has taken his identity, is it to protect Beelzebub by angels since he still can use his power.

But at the same time Bael made believe to the angels he is Beelzebub, Abyssos civilians seem knows that right now, at the "throne" there is Bael replacing Beelzebub since they miss Beelzebub. (Abyssos description)

But I could completely wrong, we really don't know actually the reason why and I hope in the future we will get an answer about it.

I also think that only whit MC influence in future chapter he will return back to Abyssos, after breaking solomon contract and/or whit some persuasion.

Or not, Beelzebub is a impulsive and unpredictable person that does what he wants most of the time, like 9 time out of 10.

but I think he will return, because even very subtly it is shown that Beelzebub cares about his his people and kingdom.

He personally gives piercing all Abyssos citizens to shown that they are from Abyssos.

And I also read somewhere that Beelzebub doesn't scribble on Abyssos walls (I don't remember if this last thing is canon or a headcanon, so take this information whit a grain of salt)

But it's shown more than once his care for his friend Bael.

Bael comic is one of my favourite comic at the moment.

I love how it shows Beelzebub and Bael relationship, I love it how's it show a new side Beelzebub personality and his guilt, and I love that last panel of Bael smiling and the little drawing.

Specifying more, I want talk about Beelzebub guilt and behaviour in this comic.

The comic shows Beelzebub feelings about the situation of Bael using his identity:

Whit a flashback to, what I think is, the first time Bael impersonated Beelzebub.

It shows Beelzebub shock as he see Bael taking his identity in front of the angels and also it show Beelzebub running away from the fight as he is begin called a coward by other Devils and Beelzebub insulting himself as he is running away (and when he returns back to bael completely wounded by the angels).

I'm sure there is a specific reason to why Beelzebub acted this way, especially cause on the Amon comic there is a Beelzebub that isn't scared of fighting or is weak that it have to run away.

Here I will stand again on my theory of how Beelzebub can't use his power because of the pact he made whit solomon and his death.

I also want to talk about how at first Beelzebub was exited to talk whit Bael about a back joint therapy in Gehenna that he wanted to do at first, but taken back his words whit a "I'm not actually serious about it, I'm joking/only talking about it".

remembering to the fact how this can mean such a burden to Bael since he is impersonating him, and how they need have minimal differences.

after Bael decides to change topic whit a joke saying "if you want to change your look, why don't we dye hair together (implied of the same colour) " to lighten up Beelzebub mood.

In the comics it look like Beelzebub his a person that hide his problems behind his extroverted personality and momentarily forgets about his problems as he distract himself to wait pick his interest.

Going to the next topic, I want to talk about his description.

Free - mysterious - doesn't follow rules - hearty and lovely

Are key words on his description that catch my eyes the most and I want to analyse each one for themselves:

Free - we can see many times how much he is a free spirited person, not really linking to work and always on the run in search of entertainment and something that catches his eyes, this is also why on the same day you can see him in two different countrys.

Mysterious - more than mysterious, he is pragmatic, a bit hard to read at first, and since always on the run you never know what going on whit him and inside his head.

Doesn't follow rules - I think this is self explanatory.

Hearty and lovely - WHERE?????? BECAUSE FOR NEITHER IN HIS SELFIE CARD HE IS?? HE IS MORE OF A BITCH THAN LOVELY.

Seriously the first time I read the story (part 1) I literally wanted to punch him in the face. (I still do every time I re-read part 1)

I really don't understand this, since it's never shown this part of his personality or hinted.

Even considering Bael comic, he doesn't really look or act "hearty and lovely", he is acting more of a person that cares about his friend.

In the 2nd part of the story( still Beelzebub Selfie card), MC and Beelzebub begin to do the doings and he encourage MC as MC takes their times, but he isn't "hearty and lovely" even there.

He is for sure a flirt and kind of a bastard in the first part. While in the second, he is kind of patient, he doesn't make fun of MC "inexperience" and even encourage MC to continue and go harder.

Which I really liked, not in a horny way, but liked in "enjoying the character personality" way, and honestly before reading the second part I trough he would make fun and insults MC in a kinky way, but he didn't which surprised me in a positive way.

Maybe in the future it will show his "hearty and lovely" side, but for now that side doesn't exist or is hidden very well.

Plus at the end I wanna talk about his Butt card:

At first in the card I looked at his (ass) crying face, seeing him acting this "childish" because of a syringe, made me consider if Beelzebub have a "childish" personality. It true since he scribble everywhere, and he doesn't to his job (homework), but he doesn't really look that childish, more than acting like a kid, he acts more of late teenager that doesn't want to study and go to the disco

But then I got confused, is he scared of needles? I don't really thinks so since he have his ears pierced, and he himself pierce every Abyssos civilians, he shouldn't be scared of needles. Is he scared on needles only when it's about syringe???

Recap of Beelzebub personality:

Beelzebub is impulsive and blunt person that loves to have fun and always on the run of that fun and never following any kind of rules as he loves his own way of freedom.

But also a person that under his care free personality shows his depth as character: affection to the people he cares, even guilt and regret to his own action to even call himself as "useless" to the fact he isn't able to help his friends and even Kingdom that tries to hide by his party animal personality.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

I really hope whit this Recap of his personality, I didn't watered down my whole analysis.

I finally finished my analysis and I wanted to thank you to everyone who read this and also to say sorry about:

the possible grammar errors, miss typo and repetition, I tried my best to write something that have a sense.

the possibility that this analysis may be superficial, which is something I really didn't want to do.

[artbyfinnbrown]

Screenshots of my favourite moments of Re:Zero Arc 6: (part 2) (the emotional rollercoaster of a lifetime)

Subaru may have lost his memories, but he hasn’t forgotten the importance of committing to the bit.

“Everyone is physically attractive” - a thing that people who are only attracted to one gender definitely say.

Subaru: So what are we? Julius: (How am I supposed to explain that I want to be friends, but he’s going through a one-sided “rivals-to-lovers” arc towards me?) Julius: We’re… friends. Yeah. Subaru: ? Why was there a pause there?

There’s not one left to remember left to remember Rem. But worse then being entirely forgotten, there are people who know that no one remembers Rem. This is messed up.

No you didn’t Subaru. You said exactly what you where supposed to.

I’m glad it’s canon that Subaru has watched magical girl shows (or at least familiar enough with them that he has the poses memorized)

So I know the Gluttony IF exists, and because of that, on a logical level I know that Subaru wasn’t going to go through with the plan to read everyone’s books of the dead….

But I was not comfortable with how close he got.

Yeah at this point, Subaru has lost his memories, has been possessed by [Natsuki Subaru], and is being haunted by the memories of Meili, leaving him in a very unstable state, mentally. To top this off, Reid (who is supposed to be a trial) is roaming the tower, the tower is also being attacked by a horde of witchbeasts. Also in a previous loop it looked like everyone killed each other? And then the whole tower was swallowed by a shadow? And there hasn’t been an explanation for any of this yet.

So I’m with Subaru. What IS going on.

Like I mentioned before, logically I knew that Subaru wasn’t going to kill all of his friends….

But that didn’t stop me from breathing an audible sigh of relief after reading Subaru reach that decision himself.

he’s a good person he’s a good person he’s a good person Natsuki Subaru is a good person he still cares about them he still cares about them he still cares about them-

Rather than Screenshot the entire chapter, I just decided to screenshot the title. Just…. This chapter. They trust him. They saved him. Emilia trusts him. Emilia saved him. And in return, he’s going to save all of them.

No Beatrice, Subaru’s actually completely right about all of this.

Fellas, is it gay for a man’s appearance to make you except things of of him?

(Not necessarily. But I guess if you want to read it that way, you could)

Rather than try and make my own, less funny joke, I will instead refer you to the words of tumblr user Liquidstar:

it’s so over….

we are so back.

HA GOTTEM

Subaru: I’m Nothing like [Natsuki Subaru] Also Subaru: (does the exact thing Natsuki Subaru would do)

Call me crazy but I’m starting to think that Subaru Natsuki and Subaru Natsuki are the same person.

It’s so over….

oh it is so over.

So I love the whole exchange in the corridor of memories between the two Subaru’s. So rather than screenshot the whole thing, I just made this meme:

We are so back

OH WE ARE SO BACK!

Huh. I feel like this is going to have an effect on the whole…. Royal Selection thing. Maybe it’ll be fine though.

Fellas, is it gay to um... to uh… literally blast your enemies with a rainbow?

(Not necess- Oh who am I kidding. We aren’t escaping the gay allegations with this one, fellas)

Huh? I am now very curious about what exactly happened 400 years ago.

Nooooooo Shuala! I wanted her to learn that her master wasn’t coming back and come to terms with that! I wanted her to be able to leave the tower And see the world! I wanted her to be allowed to make connections outside of her devotion to her master! I wanted her to have friends! Shuala deserved better.

So that was Arc 6.

I feel like my heart was torn out, sent on a rollercoaster ride, was stabbed a bunch of times, Was put back together with tender love and care, and then was shoved back into my body. And then that process was repeated several times.

I guess I’m off to read the short stories, the EX novels, and the IF routes now. Or maybe just lie down and emotionally process everything some more.

[linnetagain]

Following up on that last Anon’s ask, I’m trying to decide if Good Men and Monsters is up my alley. I love The Season (we know this), I love the First Light series (had to laugh at the “oops figure skating” author’s note in one of the most recent chapters; I’m torn between wanting All Season All The Time and eagerly awaiting wedding bells in And All Things End), and A Good Heart is just objectively, categorically cute (can confirm, read it again just a second ago, can we expect to see who I assume is Bear-But-With-Wings in First Light? All Astarions should have a kitty, it’s just the rules), and what fools these mortals be is queued up to read as soon as I’m done writing this.

Obviously, GMaM is your only fic rated E. That’s not an immediate turn-off, given Astarion and Gale’s canon backstories. I probably would have clicked through already if it was just that, but I was wondering if you could elaborate further on a couple of the Gale tags? Specifically “Priest Gale” and “Gale doesn’t have the orb but he is catholic so.” Real-world religious trauma is tricky for me. Obviously canon!Gale has religious trauma surrounding Mystra, but what relationship does GMaM!Gale have with his faith? Is it just your standard “Catholic guilt,” or is it something more? And where this one has smut (assuming it’s consensual bloodweave smut, and not referring to the rape/non-con tags, and Gale is a Catholic priest, does that mean by being with Astarion he breaks his vows?

I would love to be able to read everything you write, because I adore the way you write relationships (particularly as a demice/demiro myself), but I have to be careful about religion in fanfics. Whether I end up reading GMaM or not, I hope you are able to have the time to write Part 3 to your satisfaction, because I can tell it means a lot to you and your readers. Hope you’re having a good day!!

Hello!

Thank you as always for your kindness and enthusiasm I appreciate it so much 💕

Ooof, yeah, I wish this was an easy one to answer but it is not.

I am writing Victorian 'Catholic' Gale from a position as a queer person who was raised catholic and I know I'm bringing my personal experience into that. Where Priest!Gale is in the fic is a place where a lot of queer people have been with religion, I think - he believes that there is goodness in the world, and he wants there to be more of it, and for his whole life he's been told the only way that can be achievable is through God. Specifically His God. If he finds joy or - heaven forbid - pleasure anywhere else, he is Bad. And he copes with that a lot by pushing away from having to address that incongruence and the guilt he carries for it, focusing on trying to do his best to be kind and helpful and improve his parishioner's lives.

A lot of his background character arc in the fic is him beginning to challenge that because Astarion's sheer existence is challenging that, and trying to discern where the line between God and What People Say God Says lies, as well as whether he believes in God. Which is fun when you throw in the supernatural and occult as a fact of existence. It's also established that it's not a new struggle for him. Hea dealing with internalised homophobia and unconscious bias for sure, and he doesn't always handle it in the best way.

The E rating is for consensual soft smut I have planned for act 3 which is of indiscernible levels of explicitness at the time of writing, but yeah, the non-con tag is in reference to Astarion's background which is very similar to in-game. It is mentioned but only briefly, and off-stage, as it were.

I hope that helps you make a decision and if it's a no for any reason please don't feel bad, it's important to look after yourself!

[neopoliitan]

TEAM RAIN: ARC 4 CH7 - THOUGH THE HEAVENS FALL (PART 1)

A WRITE UP FOR THE REST OF TEAM RAIN: CHAPTER 7

This is the big reveal and it's a lot of LORE so I decided to split it into 2 parts. You finally find out what the Braiths are :)

We open on Marron Armona’s shocked face. She exclaims “You’re their father?!” as Teams RAIN and PALM face the stranger. 

Wil Lincoln pushes through the crowd and tries to land a punch, but is stopped by Irving who catches his fist with a metal hand. He reminds Wil that the stranger pulled them from the car wreck, and recommends restraint. Wil softens.

The stranger holds up his hands and admits that while he is the father of the Braiths, he has no hand in their current dealings. He surmises that the teams have bad blood with his children, and asks them to sit around the fire.

Robin tells the man that Kamala killed her father. Marina adds that they hold their mother and brother hostage. Akane says they tried to kill her family, and Irving recounts the citywide Grimm attack launched on Avon.

Lucius looks bereft at this news, and slowly assumes they mean to bring the Braiths to justice, whatever form that may take. He supposes that before they make any final choices, it would be best if they heard the whole truth.

THE BEGINNING

The stranger’s name is Lucius Braith. We cut from his wizened face to a younger version of him some thirty-odd years ago, in a lab. He bears a striking resemblance to Viorel’s masculine form, or perhaps a less muscle bound Gardner.

Lucius recounts that he was something of a phenom in his youth, working professionally for Mantle scientific research since fifteen years old, but the story of his children begins when he was thirty - with his semblance.

We see young Lucius holding a metallic cube, some sort of paperweight, as a white aura effect glows around it. Old Lucius explains that he had “given his soul to science, and it had been accepted,” - that his semblance allowed him to perform a “biopsy” on his own aura, extracting it and applying it to inanimate objects.

Young Lucius approaches a lab partner, Alden Rossi, who is tinkering with robotics, and expresses glory at the potential applications of his semblance. Alden scratches his head as Lucius proposes studies on the very nature of the soul, that they “could finally understand the boundaries of that which once seemed beyond our comprehension.”

Young Lucius holds the cube up to his eyes. Narrating, Old Lucius explains that aura may be a crucial tool in humanity’s arsenal, but modern science still knew very little about it.

The kingdom of Mantle was still struggling even this long after the Great War, and it took little to convince the Council to give their support. They were so desperate to keep Lucius from finding better options overseas that they would approve whatever Lucius asked of them. The ethical concerns were almost nil - he was a promising young mind and he swore that he would only conduct research under the strictest of conditions… though he was the one who set the conditions.

We flash forward again. Lucius is overseeing construction at a location further north than any man had ever been on Remnant by that point, far from the prying eyes of both man and Grimm. He christened the facility Zenith, named for both its geographical location and his desire for it to be the pinnacle of scientific research. 

Due to the questionable ethics of experimenting on the human soul, only the brightest of Mantlean minds were brought onto the project and sworn to complete secrecy. For all intents and purposes, Zenith did not officially exist.

Another cut forward, and Lucius is inside the completed facility, showing other scientists blueprints in the conference room seen in Arc 3, Chapter 1.

Now the facility was complete, he would begin work on his magnum opus, the P.R.I.S.M.

Another cut, and we see Lucius standing on the gantry in front of the machine Kamala, Viorel and Roderick visited in Arc 3, Chapter 5. In the present, Old Lucius narrates that it took a few years and many sleepless nights, but he finally completed it.

Young Lucius places his hand inside the machine as Roderick did in Arc 3, Chapter 5, and is similarly zapped as the biopsy is taken. The screens to the side of the machine light up green in success, and Young Lucius allows himself a relieved smile.

His present day self explains that the P.R.I.S.M was designed to artificially recreate his semblance, and expand on it. It took a biopsy of one’s aura as well as a tissue sample. His plan was that - by cultivating both - he would be able to create life.

We cut forward again to Young Lucius in an elevator, some time later, on the ride down to the P.R.I.S.M. As he walks along the gantry, Old Lucius narrates thusly;

“The gestation period was shorter than that of a natural human. It was only a few weeks before we again returned to the P.R.I.S.M and saw the result of the experiment.”

Young Lucius opens a hatch on the P.R.I.S.M.

“We were unsure how long it would survive outside of the machine. We had to remain cold, scientific and unattached.”

We see a newborn baby inside the machine. And Old Lucius concludes…

“So, naturally, the first thing I did was name her Kamala.”

[wyrmmaster]

I decided to watch a bit of the new Bleach anime as a "might as well" type deal. I got like 10 minutes in before I closed it and was like "I am not getting back into Bleach".

So then I reread Bleach over the past few days.

It holds up pretty well. I was a bit surprised at how just being able to hit "next chapter" on a cliffhanger really takes the edge off a lot of the more meandering and frustrating parts. The first half was still pretty great. The more iconic fights are still absolutely bangers (Grimmjow and Ulquiorra in particular), a lot of the plot is less ass-pull than "huh, actually, that kinda makes sense if you think about it" because you just read the ~context like an hour ago as opposed to a year. The emotional beats are still decently impactful. Also, watching Kubo's art improve over a 15 year period in a couple days was fascinating. I enjoyed myself.

The main takeaway though, what I actually got from the whole thing:

This one?

Still Best Girl. It's not close. Teenage me was right and I still Absolutely Would The Antelope.

Adult Nel has like 100 panels total screentime but it doesn't matter, bro. Someone mentions Bleach and I think of Ichigo first but .0002 seconds later it's the 3 on Nel's back. I got to the point in the Hollow World arc where her kid form shows up with her dumbass servants and was just kind of vibrating waiting for The Thing

to happen. This is AFTER Ulquiorra nearly kills Ichigo (effortlessly) and sends him into complete despair by showing he's only #4, and being pushed to his absolute limit by #6 who was actually playing fair and being amicable. It was obvious she was a bit more important than just Random Child simply because she was an arrancar but #3? Even after the (ostensible) power increase of the 10 from her time it was a wild jump

The past visions of her being arrogant and superior to the weak ass misogynistic loser Nnotria (along with that arrogance being her downfall because she refused to take him seriously on principle - him working with Szayelaporro was Entirely out of her scope of what he was willing or able to do). The instant mood swings from cold and in control to Ichigo Must Be Tackle Hugged. Her absolutely dunking on present-day Nnoitra is still legendary despite the outcome because she was weakened from the get-go and if she'd been slightly more ruthless to what she still saw as a weakling she'd have ended it before her time ran out

Then 380 chapters later she finally reappears and is just her usual goofy affectionate self with a side of casually Asserting Dominance on Grimmjow for telling her what to do. Queen shit. Deserved so much more spotlight.

The funny part is Kubo seems to agree. Apparently he's spent the post manga years simping for her, making her co-ruler of the hollows with Harribel despite the latter being the top dog previously (and implicitly stating if Grimmjow fucked around he'd find out), making her super important to the politics of the setting by being the one the shinigami want to use to make a peace deal with the hollows, and even giving an alt of her a second stage of her Resurrección (that fucks)

Buddy even retroactively declared her the curviest woman in the series over Rangiku and says his swimsuit alts of her in Brave Soul are the greatest swimsuit art to exist.

... He might not even have been using marketing hyperbole.

[kokichis-dead-dove-club]

Bear i came to tell you that your blog has been the reason i stopped being an anti like a few years ago. So i was always a bit of a hypocrite back in my anti days one of my core memories include writing a wattpad rant chapter on how people shipping abuse is evil and how warrior cats smut is illegal and ruining my life while i had warrior cat rule 34 open on another tab. I justified it as that I was just inspecting it you know studying the enemy's moves. One day I was on tumblr and I stumbled upon a firetiger blocklist(??) and my mind blew I didn't know there were so many of them I thought that was like a rare thing that died out in 2015 and people have officially stopped shipping any problematic pairings since then because I haven't seen it and because I haven't seen it personally that means it doesn't exist. Anyway I clicked on ur blog and scrolled down the wc/art tag and I thought it was just so cool especially the bramblehawk pieces (of course as I was looking with great interest I periodically shook my head dissaprovingly in order to signal that I Did Not Endorse). Which has done something to me. After a few days my brain was permanently rewired just by those posts existing. There was no character arc. I was just an anti one day then I woke up tomorrow and decided I'll just simply stop and shipcest sounds fun as hell and that was just it I literally don't remember having any inner conflict about that. I just stopped and started drawing holly and ash kissing. So yeah thank you for the apparently incredibly powerful and life-changing wc art (scrolling down ur blog rn and it still looks cool as hell. thumbs up emoji i am on laptop <3)

holy shit i have never been given a bigger honor in my entire LIFE i'm printing this ask out and framing it

i'm so glad my bramblehawk ravings Changed You 🫡 💖

[thrilling-oneway]

Idk why but it feels like they’re dropping the ball with everything tsukasa related recently. Do they just not know what to do with him anymore?

Nah, I think the previous Tsukasa event was really good, I think this time they just. Needed an event here and he was the only viable option. They're doing two events for every troupe and Nene is obviously gonna be the opera house and they're clearly planning something with Rui too so yeah. Tsukasa. Honestly I think this event could have been really good for him if the writing was better.

Like. They say in i think it was chapter 1 that he needs to learn to act physically in character. Like sure he can run around and do stunts and swordfight but can he do all of that as someone else? It's a pretty interesting thing to look at. Only they rely heavily on plot convenience to show his development. Like they bring up core strength (this is consistent with past stories) and flexibility (this is not consistent at all) as things he needs to work on, then drop these in favour of parkour and how fast he can run?? I understand that the parkour was smth he needed to do for a show, but couldn't do so he was disatisfied with his performance. That's totally in-character and makes even more sense when you read his card story and realise he already lost out on the lead role (shaking colopale WHY DID YOU LEAVE THAT IN THE CARD STORY). But the running is literally Not Relevant at all and only exists as a conflict for plot convenience with the plot device thief charatcer.

The issue is that the thief thing is too... Plot device-y. Yeah yeah wxs typical funny shenanigans but ultimately Tsukasa doesn't really learn much because while he learns the stunt in the end it just... Is completely disconnected from his acting. He improves the running and the parkour but does it as himself, and while the people mistake it for being part of the show and he has to improv, this is after he did all that. So he didn't learn how to do physical theatre in-character... And if the writers decided that it was in-character for the role, Tsukasa has gone back to acting characters similar to himself so again not really learning anything new. There's a really good scene with Daigo in chapter 5 or 6 where he talks about how he figuratively hit a wall and that was kinda the highlight of the event for me (aside from emunene crumbs in Nene's card story lol, and this one shoutout to how much Tsukasa trusts his friends in ch7).

Also they completely forget the thief as soon he's caught lol. Turns out he was a kleptomaniac ex-troupe member but they literally don't bring it up until partway through chapter in in a scene that quite literally begins with "So did you find out who the thief was?". Or something along those lines I'm paraphrasing. It wasn't good asfhsgsdjsjks

I think they do know what they're doing with Tsukasa and what I have read of Star of the Story makes it pretty clear. Tsukasa's current thing is improving in different aspects, like playing smaller roles like in SotS (which he still needs to work on iirc), but it felt like they didn't really know what to do with this event specifically, well they did they just executed it badly and used plot convenience so it could even happen. Oh well maybe this will play into a future Rui event somehow considering he was the one who said he thought Tsukasa needed to work on his core strength for stunts like. Ages ago. Not that Tsukasa worked on his core in this event but WHATEVER I NEED TO STOP COMPLAINING.

Tsukasa6 will probably be in the next wxs arc so they'll probably be back to more relevant stuff for then. Especially since that arc will probably be the "Rui and Tsukasa realise they are going to graduate high school soon and Tsukasa has mentioned multiple times in supplementary materials that he wants to go abroad at some point and they kinda need to work out what they're gonna do and how this will affect wxs" arc (or as I've been calling it: wxs disbandment arc 2 <peggle 2 gif attachment>). So that's fun. But yeah I think they know what they're doing they just needed to pad for time here so Daigo's troupe got two events.

[fandomsandfairytales]

Happy 1 year anniversary to Annaáuchiwee!!!

(I know it was started long before a year ago now, but a year ago is when the first chapter of the first book was published on AO3, so that’s what I’m counting as its anniversary.)

I love this series so, so much and I am SO glad that you two, @thegreenleavesofspring (Bri) and TAC (The Anonymous Coauthor), decided to write it and put it out into the world. Honestly, this is one of my favorite series ever, and Bri, I feel extremely privileged to get to talk to you about it and freak out over it with you. Plus, I am thoroughly impressed by how much you and TAC have written and are still writing!

I admit, I didn’t start reading Óhchikaape—the first book in the series, for those who haven’t read it—immediately when the first chapter came out. I knew of its existence fairly early on but didn’t start reading it until several chapters were published, and then I was hooked. Every time I see an email update in my inbox, or I see a chapter update post from Bri on Tumblr, I immediately want to drop what I’m doing and read the newest chapter. (I follow that impulse probably 90% of the time XD the 10% of the time I don’t, it’s because I have something more pressing that I must do before reading it, and making myself have the self-control to do that thing or things first is quite difficult. Sleep only occasionally gets counted as a reason to wait, lol.)

For anyone who’s following me—or reading this post—who hasn’t read this series, I highly, HIGHLY recommend it. Here’s a one-sentence summary, written by Bri: “Annaáuchiwee is slice-of-life about a reformed reprobate biker thug and his feral Crow family, and how he goes from being an unapologetic reprobate to a good husband, father, and cowboy (with some human trafficking breaking up on the side.)” The series has fantastic characters, an engaging plot, and complex, meaningful relationships. If you like redemption/healing arcs, found family, sacrificial love, and lots of humor mixed with seriousness and deep emotions, you will probably love Annaáuchiwee. Read it here: https://archiveofourown.org/series/3728485

Once again, thank you so, so much, Bri and TAC, for writing and sharing this wonderful story. It’s been an incredible journey thus far, and I can’t wait to read more. To another year of Annaáuchiwee! *raises glass in a toast*

(Also, I feel like it’s worth noting that you two were mostly responsible for getting me interested in a TV show—Longmire—and a music artist—Ian Munsick—because I would not have been nearly as interested in either if not for you guys and this series. So thank you for that, as well.)

[panda-puma]

Luffy's "I know exactly who I am"

Warning: Don't read unless you are up to date with the Manga Chapter 1070 and OPLA! (or don't care about spoilers!)

(still not available in the Anime)

(One Piece Live Action, Episode 2)

Very long post ahead:

(First of all, appreciation for Iñaki's awesome acting, knowing exactly how to look intense, eerie and God-like through the whole Live Action. And look how the hat makes a perfect Halo or Sun around his head...)

This will probably be a little over the place, but bare with my silly brain.

At first this scene can just look like he reinforcing his own dream and regaining confidence after all the doubt Buggy has tried to inflict on him, and it probably also is that! But with the intense expression, the music and the wording... I think it's also a message to readers that are up to date.

Nowadays we know that the Gum-Gum is just a name used to hide the real name of Luffy's fruit: the Mythical Zoan Human-Human Model: Nika (Sun God)

(Chapter 1044, Wano Country Arc)

The World Government has since its origins (after the Void Century, 800 years ago) tried to control this Fruit, and Vegapunk states that there's no mention to this "Gum-Gum" Fruit anywhere previous to that, so this new name is just a way of the Government to hide the importance of the Fruit and make it as unappealing as possible.

(Chapter 1069, Egghead Arc)

Who would want to be rubber, anyway? Anyone who hears about it thinks it's a silly power and wouldn't want to eat it.

(Chapter 585, Post-War Arc)

But here's the thing: it doesn't matter that the new Devil Fruit Guides or Encyclopedias have no information about a Fruit.

If we go way back to Enies Lobby, we get to see this explanation by Lucci (another Zoan fruit user): you learn the name of the Fruit when you gain its power.

(Chapter 385, Enies Lobby Arc)

Lucci specifically states that the Fruit itself will reveal its powers and name to you once you've eaten it and gained its power. Luffy gained his power long time ago, when he was a child, and his goal started changing as soon as manifested his powers.

He went from: "Take me with you on your next Voyage!!"

(Chapter 1, Romance Dawn Arc) To: "I've decided to become a Pirate on my own!" after eating the Fruit.

(Chapter 1, Romance Dawn Arc)

At first he was just content with being a Pirate in a crew, but suddenly he has a definitive goal: being the King of the Pirates (to achieve something else).

(Chapter 1, Romance Dawn Arc)

(Chapter 585, Post-War Arc)

(Chapter 1060, Egghead Arc)

In the first chapter it is also shown how his personality changes:

Luffy was a very sad and angry 7 year old, who wanted to desperately escape from his horrible life (loneliness and abusive Grandpa). He only smiled when people were nice to him, or when he was listening to pirate stories.

It is not until after he eats the Devil Fruit that he starts to smile and laugh on his own, looking at the bright side of things even if he gets teased.

(Chapter 1, Romance Dawn Arc)

It seems clear that the fruit changed something in him that was way more than just his body, but in the manga one doesn't think much of it until you read the Five Elder's description of his fruit (ch 1044) and remember Lucci's explanation (ch 385).

If the Fruit communicated its real name and abilities to him, he should know exactly who and what he is.

One could argue that he specifically states he is not a Zoan in Punk Hazard while talking to Momo:

(Chapter 685, Punk Hazard Arc)

But maybe he doesn't consider his fruit as a Zoan, as he doesn't really turn into an animal. (Zoan comes from the Ancient Greek and means "animal" or "beast"). Luffy's Fruit enters the same category as Sengoku's: a Human-Human Fruit.

(Chapter 585 SBS, Post-War Arc)

(Chapter 1044, Wano Country Arc)

Gear 5 is Luffy's awakened form, one that he couldn't use before because his body and mind were not ready to catch up to his powers. But that doesn't mean he didn't know about it's existence.

In this form, Luffy manipulates his surroundings giving everything he touches the properties of rubber, just like the awakening of Don Flamingo. But is it just that?

(Chapter 1070, Egghead Arc)

I believe we have been seeing him manipulate reality since the very beginning of the series, inadvertently thinking it was just typical main character things. Yes, everything usually goes how he says in the end, just typical in a MC... But is it? Or is it an intelligent way of covering his real powers behind the typical shonen clichés?

There's so many instances where Luffy and his powers feed directly from people's hopes and prayers (just to name a few: Skypea, Enies Lobby, Thriller Bark, FishMan Island, Dressrosa, Wano...), and all he asks is for people to have faith in him.

When people have faith in him, reality changes in his favour.

(Even with Ace's Execution, the one instance where Luffy failed... he actually achieved what he said he would: to free Ace from the Marines. Ace was killed not because Luffy couldn't save him, but because he stopped running away.)

Going back to OPLA: this is Oda's opportunity to explain things in a different way and medium, to hint to things that are very far away (like how they showed that Garp is Luffy's grandpa so soon in the series, because it made it more interesting sooner).

Then we have the scene were Luffy wishes for Zoro to be by his side, and to wake up.

I can't stop thinking about how... intense this scene is. How they wrap it with eerie music, so you know something special is happening.

We are in front of a Miracle.

(One Piece Live Action, Episode 6: The Chef and the Chore boy)

Luffy closes his eyes, concentrates and makes a wish. Or not even a wish, he just states that he needs Zoro (to fulfill his dreams).

Luffy manipulates reality a bit, even in this early stage of his power (Gear 1) and, seeing how he phrases everything he wants, he seems to know it. (for example, the way he always says "I will" instead of "I want to")

In OPLA it seems clear that Zoro was not going to wake up from Mihawk's attack, no matter how strong and resistant he is. Even if Mihawk said it wasn't his time to die... He would probably not make it without external help.

Luffy doesn't really know what to say, for a while. He is shocked and shaken in his beliefs, as he thought believing in Zoro would already make him the greatest... but instead his friend got badly hurt. With that and everything that's been said around him, he is losing faith in himself.

But eventually he understands that he needs to express how much he needs Zoro out loud. Why would that be, if he wasn't conscious that his needs and desires get usually fulfilled, even more if they serve his goal?

He concentrates and says "I need you, Zoro", and nothing changes. Why? Well, Zoro is there. His body is there and he is alive, even if just barely. It's not like he has really gone anywhere. Then Luffy, seeing that it didn't work, reformulates his way of saying what he needs: "I need you to wake up".

And then the Miracle happens: Zoro starts really recovering and immediately wakes up. He then makes the vow of never leaving Luffy's side until they reach his objective, fulfilling his needs.

This is not Zoro being awake and just teasing him, or him just waking up to the voice of his Captain. No.

This is a Miracle. This is Luffy consciously using his God-like powers and his destiny to get Zoro back from the dead.

And that's why Zoro can never die. Even in Wano we get a look at that:

(Chapter 1038, Wano Arc)

He was supposed to die, but Death couldn't finish the job. Something is protecting Zoro from Death, and it's probably how Luffy has tied Zoro to his own destiny.

And I am going to finish this post here, because I need way more space for my theories of Luffy, the others and One Piece in general xD

Thank you for reading this huge and all over the place post ^^

[ruleofvee]

so emotional over this au idea that i had to share

(thank you to @nc-vb and @laughteronsilverwings for helping develop this <3)

two-three years before the events of the sumeru arc, cyno is caught snooping into akademiya records, suspicious of their actions. out of fear of what he could uncover, and a need to get him out of the way without anyone questioning it, cyno is forcibly exposed to the contents of a divine knowledge capsule, driven to madness, before being dumped in Aaru village. reports say he often looked out towards the desert, almost longingly with what little sense he had left.

One day, cyno goes missing. the inhabitants of aaru village try to find him, of course, but unfortunate timing means a sandstorm rises and covers his wandering, stumbling tracks. it's concluded that he wandered into the desert that he loved so much, and perished in the sandstorm. he is grieved, the news is sent to his loved ones. but his chapter is closed.

seemingly.

what actually happened was the temple of silence got their hands on him again. feeling both an obligation to cyno, and excitement over the potential of uncovering how to destroy forbidden knowledge, the temple decides to try their hand at healing him...by tampering with his memories of the knowledge.

The idea is good. the execution is not. they are powerful mortals, but mortals all the same. cyno regains some of his lucidity, but traces of the knowledge remains, causing mood swings and lapses into renewed delirium. he is trapped between worlds, between lucidity and dreaming, between the past and the present, between the here and now and the dreams of 500 years ago. the temple recognizes the usefulness of this, and decide that cyno can be their link to forbidden knowledge, to the gods of old.

little do they know that someone else - or the remnants of someone else - has much the same idea.

the memory of rukkhadevata is both saddened and intrigued by the half-delirious general that fades in and out of her world. he barely knows who he is, and yet he is devoted to her in a way that is truly humbling. he clings to the memory of a god that isn't his. i want to save you, he says, and she doesnt have the heart to tell him that she is long past saving.

but he can save someone else. and it feels so much like taking advantage of him, using him, but...but he is her only link to reality. the only one who can still hear her weeping.

and so, rukkhadevata lies. she tells him that she is trapped beneath the akademiya, that she is being used to craft a new god. that she cannot fight back. that she needs him, her general, to free her.

she is a memory that cannot be saved. kusanali, however, is alive and deserves to live. and rukkhadevata will regret this for the remainder of her ever shortening existence...but kusanali could have no better protector.

and cyno could have no better god.

[buttercupshands]

So I've read ch 421 spoilers

It's a mess. I've been really patient with final arc even though I disliked some of the stuff happening enough for me to dissappear for a year or so.

Even if I dislike AFOmura with passion, at the start he was interesting to really explore how the quirk singularity was supposed to work. Without any "new being" sadly, I was curious what would happen and yet... Nothing.

Okay then what about Toga, Dabi and Spinner? What about their battles? Nothing really

Dabi was the most enjoyable of what was left of LoV with Toga close second. But they're both basically dead at this point. Spinner just existed for a couple of chapters, talked and then poof mission completed nothing else needed of him.

Toga's final chapter is still satisfying, it was similar to Jin's final chapter in a way.

Well what about the new chapter? Nothing

Tomura after 419 had basically become a background noise, maybe he'll come back one day. But not in this chapter.

This chapter is basically AFO talking like him losing Yoichi isn't something that happened 100 years ago. Are we supposed to care that he's sad and doesn't feel anything?

AFO trying to use his "tragedies" like he'll suddenly get a character development from it is just annoying.

Tomura's body in AFO's control now looks even more like a corpse rather than a normal body. Just let him die amd take his body with him if you don't want Tomura to live anymore. I don't care how sad AFO might be from suddenly understanding that his goal is hollow. About time

And now. Getting help in the finale of any arc is honestly something a person reading Shonen manga would expect and it's like a norm rather than an exception.

Except... Izuku is literally quirkless again. What can he really do now? No one really knows that he just decided to throw everything away just for the "crying child that needs saving". People already voiced how dumb that was and yet here we are with "crying child" saved, hands restored, but now there's no way to defeat AFO again.

And the worst thing is is that I actually tried to think about the arc and Izuku's role in it as something good for a long time and it didn't pay off at all.

I still like how he's paying attention to the fact that it's an All-Might merch, but sadly that means he doesn't pay needed attention to what he's going to do now and no one is actually capable of helping him in the moment.

It might as well end in "everyone believes that it'll be okay!" and stuff and that's it. That's all we'll get.

And I'm just lost at what to even look forward to in this finale. But maybe when it'll come out in a volume format I'll understand it better like I did with Izuku leaving UA arc. I basically just skipped it, looking at the leaks sometimes and only after it was finished I read it, two years after it came out I didn't bother watching anime version until this winter.

In the end all we can do is just wait and see, I'll still be doing sketches and stuff, but for now it's really not great or even just good.

(it still looks good tho, since Horikoshi is still Horikoshi)

[zaenaris]

I spoke with someone (who is anime only) and they told me that Koko wouldn't probably have gotten as much obesssed by money if he saved Akane and that Inupi was the one to have need of operations or he or he would have sseing how much Akane was upset because of her little brother's state.

Personally i'm not agree. Koko and Inupi were probably friends for years because Akane acted very familiar with Koko, so she knew him for a while.

And i'm sure that losing Inupi would have had a most terrible impact on Koko, because his feelings for Akane were a puppy crush and when he would have grow up our of it he would be shallowed by guilt to have not even thought to Inupi, to not have had enough money to save him. The feelings to be empty, the feeling to have been a horrible friend, the feeling of shame, and the guilt to not have saved him....it would have destroyed him.

He recovered from not have been able to save Akane and has Inupi to be here and to patiently wait him to get over his obessession but surely he wouldn't have recovered to have lost Inupi because nobody would have been here for him.

Maybe Akane would have tried to help but maybe Koko would have distanced himself from her because she looks too much like Inupi.

I agree with you @naehja

I understand that for anime-only people it may be difficult to understand immediately Koko and Inupi's backstory, there's a lot of new info, a lot of trauma and guilt involved, I understand it can be overwhelming and even readers had to re-read the whole story, analyzing the situation because, while I believe Wakui wanted Koko and Inupi story to be treated as a romantic one, (because the way he writes them and the tropes he uses for them, are strongly romantic-coded), I understand there are many levels of reading in their whole story and that

1)maybe Wakui wanted us to read it as romantic but decided to leave things a little ambiguous, just because, or

2)or what we saw in the manga is the best he could do, given the industry isn't the most queer-friendly around;

3)or he purposely decided to let readers free to have their own interpretation, romantic or not

but ultimately, if even now, when the story ended a year ago and we have plenty of confirmations regarding Koko andd Inupi's feelings for each other, manga readers still insists that Koko was an insensitive asshole that used Inupi "because he looks like his sister", then I fear we have a problem.

But this person you talked with is an anime-only, they still don't know how their last meeting before Bonten arc goes, etc etc, so I can understand if they are confused.

The problem is that many times people forget that, trauma or not, kissing your male friend when you're a boy yourself and you're perfectly aware of you you are kissing and what you are doing, isn't a very super-straight thing to do, especially when the writer made Akane (that in-universe represents both Koko's guilt and conscience) said to Koko "kiss only the person you like".

I understand many people (*cough*homophobic dudebros, generally*cough) prefer to see boy killing and do the worse thing to each other, but boys liking boys do indeed exist.

As us kokonui shippers always said, and as it was recently confirmed once again in the exhibition by Wakui in the extra chapter, Koko's crush on Akane was just that, an innocent crush that naturally faded; it became a major trauma only because Akane died an Koko felt guilty he couldn't protect her: at that point it wasn't even bc he had a crush at that time, it was because he felt he failed her, a nice, gentle girl, a person he cared about and that didn't deserve that terrible fate.

We know that in the end, with time and Inupi's help, Koko gets over -or at least, start to understand he can live without- his trauma and choses to be with Inupi as he always wanted, but without guilt.

In the end, if Akane survived and Inupi died, there would have been no one as close as Inupi has always been to Koko to help him, as you said.

Akane probably only knew Koko as Seishu's friend, otherwise they'd had no reason to interact, and Koko would have felt even guiltier for not thinking immediately to his friend; of course he'd be happy Akane is safe, but he would hate himself even more for not saving Seishu. I fear he would have kept making money but this time there would have been no one around trying to make him reason and make him realize he could live a life without his guilt, because, as we said, I doubt Akane and Koko would have any reason to interact without Seishu and in time, as we saw, Koko's crush was meant to fade anyway.

[tirkdi]

⭐️!

I’d love to hear anything you’ve been wanting to chat about or are particularly proud of from A Hundred Lifetimes Ago

(Or Shadow of War, whichever you’d prefer!)

oh hmmmm okay let's see!

I wrote A Hundred Lifetimes Ago over a long period of time (I started in January 2021, though there was a while where I didn't touch it for over a year) which gave me a long time to consider where I was going to run into problems while writing it. For many months I had a feeling it was going to be the chapter where I had to make the two of them fall in love, which turned out to be chapter 10 ("Aleksander")

I had a bunch of small bits written but no image in my mind of the arc of the chapter, or really how to piece them all together. On a walk one day I realized I didn't have to figure it out from first principles and I could take advantage of existing work that had been done in this area; shortly after, I decided to anchor the scenes in that chapter with concepts/themes/lines from the Song of Songs. Once I figured that out, the chapter clicked for me. (excluding the sex scene, lol. writing that was a nightmare)

Not every scene in the chapter has something from that poem, but about half of them do I think? Lots of the settings and activities are taken from the poem, there are a few direct quotations, and there's one short scene that is just a Grishaversed bit from the poem itself. My beta reader didn't notice any of the references and it worked fine for them, which is ultimately what I was hoping for – I needed the structure as a way to pull the chapter together thematically for myself, to anchor the scenes and the mood, so that I could let the characters do their thing from there. And I liked the implications of having so much of it from Aleks' POV – he was literally living a love poem and unable to admit it to himself.

[alovelyburn]

Rambles About the Golden Age Arc Addendum: The Lost Chapter

This is what I was going to post two weeks ago but I ended up rushing the Hill of Swords for Vday instead. So here we go!

I meant to do this months ago, but I’m lazy—uh I mean I didn’t For Some Reason. But after reading about Miura’s thoughts on the Lost Chapter I decided look at it again and, well, the pages were out of order on all the sites. So I tried to track down the correct order and ended up reading about it and blah blah anyway whatever who cares here we go.

Rambles About the Golden Age Arc Addendum – The Lost Chapter

So for those who don’t know (not a lot of people, but hey there may be newbies), the Lost Chapter is the original Berserk Chapter 83, God of the Abyss Part II. It follows directly from the pages where Griffith’s soul or astral form or whatever departs the physical plane and goes forth to become Femto. So okay here’s some of the leadin for context:

Griffith’s spirit departs the physical plane by traveling through a water-like abyss (which is very reminiscent of what’s going on with Guts in the current chapters, I might note). This is actually especially interesting because later in the series Schierke remarks that the ocean supposedly leads to the astral plane - the actual ocean, that is. This one I assume is more of a metaphorical/spiritual ocean.

Anyway, there, he is confronted by the reality of the Sacrifice he chose, and is shocked at the horror of it. This is kind of a sidenote but there is some question as to exactly what he thought would happen when he took that deal, because he doesn’t appear to have known it would be that.

He’s also surprised that he doesn’t feel anything about it. At this point, as Griffith’s last tear falls, an off-panel voice chimes in to explain his lack of emotional response....

“When suffering so profound as to make someone rip himself apart is confronted, a heart is frozen.”

I think I said this way back in Golden Age Rambles 16, but this is one of my favorite (and imo one of the most important) lines as far as Griffith’s character is concerned. Because it suggests that his emotional suppression is at least in part a trauma response - it also confirms that this emotional deadening, which is a result of the trauma response/his confrontation of his suffering, is the reason he doesn’t feel anything - as opposed to it being, for example, because he’s a sociopath. Sigh.

We are given an explanation for the existence of behelits, which Miura later clarified in interviews as being solidified souls whose faces are skewed due to their fragmentation and lack of ... being a person as yet. Love that for them.

Finally, Griiffith encounters...

A pile of flesh that he refers to as God.

And that’s where we transition into the Lost Chapter.

So originally the chapter I am about to discuss was the chapter after this, but when the chapters were collected, Miura had it removed. There’s been some discussion as to why that was, but officially his explanation was that it gave away too much too early and that something as extreme as an on-panel appearance by God should be saved for the end of the series.  He also said that he didn’t like to nail down the limits of the world and wanted to keep things flexible in case he needed to change something.

From there, a lot of discussion has been had about whether the story “counts” or not. My position is basically that it’s fairly safe to assume that this or something like this happened during Griffith’s ascension, because it seems like the main reason he didn’t include it was more because it was too revealing than because he changed his mind. And while he did want to have the option of changing his mind, ultimately nothing he did ever contradicted it, and there were references and minor cameos that seem to confirm it.

So I personally consider it to be pseudo-canon, like broadstrokes canon, but with the understanding that details may be inaccurate. Nonetheless, I also consider it an extremely interesting and informative chapter when one wants to try and unlock the secrets of what the series is trying to say.

So here we go. I’m putting the entire chapter up. The pages are presented in their correct order – most websites post some of the pages out of sequence. It doesn’t really make a huge difference to the meaning, but it does change the flow a little bit. The order that follows is confirmed based on raw scans.

Okay so this is pretty basic – Griffith recognizes this as probably God, and its confirmed. One nitpick I do have is um, literally the NAME “Idea of Evil.”

Normal disclaimers apply - I’m not fluent, correct me if wrong, etc etc I proceed in good faith.

So this is a little weird because it’s another case of the Kanji saying one thing and the furigana saying something else. The name is given as 魔の源形  - something like “the form of the source of malevolence.”  with furigana over 源形 being the katakana for “idea.” So what it’s actually saying is Ma no Idea - fairly translated as Idea of Evil, but what it means is that it is the physical form of the source of malevolence/evil/etc.

...I mean it basically means the same thing, but I think for me when I see 魔の源形 I think of something like the Endless from the Sandman, which follows from some of the later dialogue, because as much as people assume that having “ma” in its name means it is, itself, malevolent it’s more like the spinner of malevolence, which brings me back to the Sandman, because while Dream embodies dreams, he isn’t, himself, a dream. He’s the thing that makes dreams, see what I mean? Well I’ll probably get more into it later.

In the meantime, Idea of Evil is fine but it does seem to be a descriptor rather than a name, and I do find the longer and more awkward translation a bit more useful in understanding what this deity is.

Moving on!

It’s saying “that” is God not “this” is god which I guess sounds nitpicky but for me if it says “this” it’s more up close - I’m the idea of evil, i am god! vibes. Whereas “that,” to me, feels more of a neutral, “the source of evil is god/" kind of vibe.

It’s kind of like the flame/making mistake thing I went on about with Guts before, like it doesn’t change the fact that he’s talking about Casca, but it changes what the fact that he’s talking about Casca means.

One of the interesting things from the twitter festival of Miura quotes was this thing about how the faces that overrun the landscape during the eclipse represent that this is the collective will of humanity. And I’m bringing this up because its the same faces that are visible in the ocean of souls. Its also a similar face to what comes out when the behelit rights itself. So that all tracks.

The most important thing here, though, is this concept of the common consciousness beyond individuality - humanity’s collective consciousness or, as Griffith eventually says, “where they will become one.”

It’s this collective will that is really the most powerful force in Berserk - even IoE serves this will, and it is this will that seemingly reshapes and controls the nature of reality - like splitting the astral from the physical worlds when humans lost their faith in supernatural things.

So I talked about this before, but one thing that I notice people tripping over a lot with the whole “Griffith is the desired savior” thing is that people have a hard time I guess divorcing themselves from assumptions that are rooted in the real world, whereas Miura specifically and explicitly rejected those assumptions within the framework of Berserk’s world.

What I mean is, when people see Griffith – who is a demon with some nasty crimes to his name – presented as humanity’s chosen savior they assume this must be a farce, right? Because how could someone like that be humanity’s chosen one, it must be a big act and hes actually just the fake savior and someone else is the real savior.

The problem with this is that Humanity’s will within Berserk is extremely ambiguous of intent right, like it’ll get into this later, but the great desire of humanity was not to be protected or saved from harm, it was to have reasons for the harm they experience and thus their will gave birth to a God who did not stop their suffering but rather provided a purpose behind their suffering. Similarly when Griffith restores the world to the shape desired by humanity, that world is exponentially more dangerous than the world before his return.

But this isn’t really presented as being awful as such – it’s just the nature of humanity to have dark feelings and to experience and inflict suffering. That doesn’t mean it’s all they do, but it’s a strain that runs through mankind and that duality is what gives rise to someone like Griffith, who encompasses both sides of the species.

Also another reason to bear in mind that IoE isn’t a name - it just makes Griffith’s question make more sense - “why did humans give birth to this will called God” is appropriate because it is the embodiment of the concept of a kind of intent.

Which also creates the ambiguity of “hell.” I keep going back to the archangel/demon lord thing with the Godhand, because it’s not just lipservice, it’s a genuine part of the worldbuilding of Berserk. Griffith looks down at the will of man and says it looks like Hell – he’s shocked that humanity’s will could be so cruel, but at the same time he recognizes that same cruelty inside himself, as well.

And God responds with, some people call it Hell, but it’s just part of the larger whole, and it’s a place that reflects human nature.

As I’ve said before, when Griffith says he feels that evil inside himself, it isn’t Miura telling us he’s a sadistic psychopath who was evil all along, it’s Miura telling us that every human contains the capacity for evil, including Griffith (because he’s human).

I feel like a lot of (western, again) fandom struggles with this stuff (and by struggles I mean doesn’t notice) because we’re so used to... “human” being synonymous with good but you kind of have to shed that to ‘get’ Berserk.

And again, it is IoE that serves the will of man, not the other way around. Or controls destiny to create what humanity desires.

And here’s where I’m going to talk about the Sandman, haha.

I kind of struggled with how to conceptualize the Idea of Evil, because this is a deity born to dispense pain and cruelty, but it does not, itself, appear to be particularly malevolent. It’s just kind of doing its job.

And that’s when I started thinking about the Endless.

This rundown might not be as necessary as it once would have been due tot he Netflix show, but suffice to say Sandman is about Dream, who is the  anthropomorphic personification of dreams, but also the king of dreams, and one of a family of anthropomorphic personifications that each embody, control, and dispense a certain thing. Destiny, Death, Despair, Desire, Delirium, and [omitted for spoilers].

Anyway the thing is, the Endless embody a concept, but they are also created by the need for that concept. As the lore goes, Destiny is the oldest because he is integral to the existence of life. Death came next, because all living things die. Dream was born to give form to dreams. But the thing is, even though they control and create those things, they are not, themselves, those things. Death isn’t dead, she’s the person who collects souls. Dream isn’t a dream, he’s the one who makes dreams. But most significantly, and this is why it sticks in my head as hard as it does, if one of them dies, another incarnation of the same concept appears, because the job of being and dispensing that thing has to be done.

Now, I’m not saying IoE will die, I have no idea, and I’m not saying that if someone stabbed it, another heart or a brain or something would turn up - I’m not even sure IoE can die since it states that the world itself is its body but the point is, cruelty and pain and suffering, those things all existed before IoE did, and in fact it was the existence of those things in a chaotic and pointless state that created IoE to begin with. It came into existence to create meaning and order to what already existed, and to give it a reason for existing.

“It was established that you would be here since a distant past. By influencing the lower levels of human consciousness and merging blood with blood I created the lineage that would give birth to the man you are. To pave the way for the times you would be born in, I manipulated history. and created an appropriate context for you. All the encounters you have had so far were all a part of the destiny that led you here as well.”

Now, going into the Griffith specific stuff. This is has always fascinated me because if you think about it, basically IoE is saying that everything in Berserk to date (and presumably everything that follows) is arranged to create the circumstances under which the specific person that Griffith has been designed to be will make the choice that brings him here.

One of the things I learned in psychology yars and yars ago is about this concept of psychological free will vs. like I guess religious or spiritual free will? Because ok there are multiple was to conceptualize what it means to have free will, right? We have the more standard version: are our lives planned out for is in advance by an outside force (typically a deity), or are we free to do whatever we wish to do? Free will vs. Predestination.

Is there such a thing as being destined to die tomorrow or does whether you die tomorrow or not rest entirely on what you choose to do? And if there is such a thing as being destined to die tomorrow, are there ways to prevent that from happening or is trying to fight it just hubris in the face of powers beyond your comprehension?

But there’s also the psychological concept of free will: given the interaction of your personality and your experiences and your capabilities and this Thing that Happened, is there really more than one thing that you could do, or is it inevitable that you will make the choice that you made because its who you are?

If Person A is rushing to work and comes across someone having a medical emergency on the sidewalk,  is their decision about what to do (stop, ignore it, call 911 and keep going, etc) determined wholly by the kind of person they are, or can they just do whatever? And more to the point, even though there is nothing stopping them from doing any of those things, are they themselves, being who they are, able to do anything other than the thing they end up doing?

Berserk is interesting because its take on fate is something like a combination - the end is set by IoE, but the way you get to that point is by IoE setting up your life in order to shape you into being a person who would make the choices necessary to arrive at that point. Unlike traditional predestination - that greek tragedy stuff - there’s your destiny and fighting it is hubris, because that fate comes for you rather than you necessarily arriving at it - the only thing that makes an endpoint inevitable is how perfectly maneuvered people are so that when you arrive at every crossroad, even if you theoretically could go left or right, because of who you are, there’s really no way you would go anywhere except the way IoE wants you to go.

This is why I often say Griffith was designed to be strong but also designed to shatter when hit in the right spots. He has to be strong to get to where he went, but he also needs to be fragile so that when the time comes, IoE can put the right things in his path to push his specific buttons and get him to do what he has to do. This is one reason I struggle with the idea of blaming Griffith - on one hand there’s the argument that individuals have to take responsibility for their actions regardless of why they’re undertaken. But at the same time, I can’t help thinking... there’s no person in existence who wouldn’t break if they literally had God arranging the entire world into the specific configuration needed to break them.

More than that, though! If you think further into it, it also means Guts was designed to be someone who Griffith would desperately love and then be abandoned by.  And that means Guts’ life was designed to create a person with all these insecurities and strengths and weaknesses that makes him the person he is. It’s all very interesting to me, these questions of free will and predestination.

It does, however, lead me to wondering about the edict he gives Griffith at the end of this chapter.

More on that in a minute!

(boy do I hope that was all coherent)

So, here’s the thing that explicitly curbstomps the idea that Griffith was specifically sent with the rule that he must destroy things and ruin humanity. I mean break it down, right – IoE is a servant of the will of humanity, ergo its desires are humanity’s desires. Griffith, being human, therefore is a part of IoE just as IoE is a part of him, and thus his desires are also IoE’s desires...

お前の行い自体が種としての人間に相応しものになるだろうたとえそれが人々の苦しみてあっても救いであっても。

So that’s the original Japanese line.

Which, as far as I can tell (and anyone better with Japanese than I am please do feel free to correct me, and I’ll fix it) means something like:

“Your actions in themselves will be appropriate to humanity as a species even if it means hardship/pain or rescue/salvation for humanity.”

As a pretty interesting sidenote, the word used for salvation, 救い, specifically references religious salvation. So there you go. Antimessiah/Messiah.

In any case it does put the lie to the idea that Griffith was given the instructions to destroy things or ruin things or make people miserable, like his instructions are literally just “do whatever, and whatever happens will be appropriate.” That said, remember “Your desire is my desire as well.”

I really think Griffith is at his prettiest during this chapter despite being half-formed for most of it. But anyway.

Ever think about what this encounter must mean to him? Half of Griffith’s motivation is the desire to see what he’s capable of and where destiny will lead him.

So okay now we get back to psychological free will. Because obviously Griffith wasn’t sent with the instructions to do a specific thing, just to do whatever he likes with the assurance that whatever he wants is also what IoE wants by the nature of Griffith’s own humanity.

But okay, that does raise the question of whether GRIFFITH has free will (in the psychological sense), right like... at the end of the Eclipse, the other Godhand seem to indicate that they already know how this will turn out – Griffith will bring an age of darkness on the world, at least for a while. Similarly, before he’s even incarnated, Slan is sending priests visions that say he’s going to unite all of humanity into one nation.

So like, inasmuch as the IoE is part of humanity’s will and vice versa, it seems like it knew where this was going even as it told Griffith to do whatever. And this may be difficult and abstract to convey and I hope I can phrase it properly, but what it says to me is something like... Griffith acts freely on his desires, but his desires are in line with IoE’s desires (which are in line with humanity’s desires) specifically because he was designed to be a person who would have those desires. As such he does what he wants, but what he wants to do will inevitably result in ending up where IoE is trying to get, whether he is or is not specifically choosing to try to create that effect... because the outcome of our actions isn’t always what we intended.

And this isn’t me trying to let Griffith off the hook for the age of darkness - I’m not even convinced the age of darkness is a bad thing in the long term. I’m more saying that regardless of what his intentions are, the outcome of his actions will inevitably be in accordance with the destiny woven by IoE and desired by mankind’s collective will... regardless of whether or not that outcome is what he was aiming for.

Sidenote: Griffith chooses his own form, which makes me wonder what was going on with Ubik.

And then he heads into the world at large.The swirling of the ocean of souls echoes his reincarnation at the end of Conviction.

And the end.

Okay so like, what I get from this is basically... Griffith was created to be the person needed to fill the role he’s filling, and God designed the world around creating him (and presumably did the same to create say Void or Slan). Whatever his intentions are, the actions he takes and their outcomes will ultimately align with humanity’s desire, which is also IoE’s desire.  

This is kind of what I mean when, for example, someone suggests that Femto raped Casca in order to create the demon baby that would ultimately become his vessel and I say... I don’t think that’s why FEMTO did it, but it may well be why it was done.

But what really strikes me about this chapter is how it sets the stage for ... the stage that is the Berserk world. What I mean is, and I’ve talked about this before, the way the Godhand behave and especially the way NeoGriffith behaves, is very performative right like they want an outcome and they move things around like pieces on a chessboard and then they do the things needed to nudge humanity in the “right” direction which is something I’m sure to talk about a lot once I get farther into Millennium Falcon. Which isn’t unusual in itself, but because of who and what they are, they can move massive pieces, like... plague outbreaks or the merging of the astral and physical worlds. The Godhand’s manipulation of human history is epic, but then of course their creator goes a step beyond and manipulates centuries or millennia in advance and on a much larger scale. But in the end it’s all the same thing it’s just a matter of degree, and...

It kind of makes sense that Griffith is one of them, because that’s really what he was doing on a human scale even when he was human.

Anyway, that’s it, back to Millennium Falcon next, thank you for listening.