#and i dont know WHY some people think his arc is becoming a completely different person

[virto-the-weirdo]

13 cards magic future AU

So this is basically me combining several of my smaller au ideas (ghost fedor au, clone puberty au, future au, magic superheroes au n whatever else came to mind) into one big au. I might shove more concepts into it if I come up with stuff.

On another note, this au, as big as it is, is completley unrelated to the rof au. Consider these different things.

Everything below the treshold!

Another important note, for this huge au, the theory that i wrote the other day abt how the cards work is canon, with a minor edit that after death, clone souls always return to the card world, they are magically connected to it

So if you want to catch up on that, heres the link to the post with the theory:

Anyhow moving on with the story:

it all begins with the regular 13 cards - clones are free, fedor is taking care of them

now, he wants them to become independent as soon as possible, seeing how emotionally and phisically draining it is to take care of 8 other people

after they got the paperwork forged, clones were now kind of legal citizens and could do a lot more such as get a job, go to university, move out etc. at this point, none of them are ready to leave the apartment, or dont have enough money for their own place. most of them goot jobs, kuromaku decided to go to university and has a part time job, and he also has a hobby on the side where hes attempting to decode what exactly magic is, how it works, and most importantly how cards work. sometimes other clones join him for the adventures, and at this time clones realise they can use magic with the help of their cards, but theyre still learning abt it so yknow not many big spells

now as time goes by, fedor becomes more and more tired, he thinks its cuz stress since hes basically parenting 8 ppl, but something larger is at play

he has been sleeping a lot latley, and it seemed fine untill it went out of hand

at one point when everyone was taking a walk together, fedor collapsed and seemingly fell asleep

when clones took him back to the apartment and he woke up, everyone realised he became somewhat transparent

fedor was fading away and they didnt know why.

it obviously had to do something with the cards and although reluctant, kuromaku theorised its because all of the clones have been free for a very long time, which naturally upset everyone because it implies they need to be trapped back into the card world in order for fedor to be ok again

also, later on they start to fear that, if fedor dies, they all might die with him, which is also a terrible option

thus begins the arc of learning abt the cards as clones race against time to find out how the cards work, why this is happening to fedor, and most importantly, how to reverse it. As they do, their number keeps dropping, because each time fedor fades more, a clone needs to go to the card world in order to slow down the fading process and buy them more time.

over time they learned more about the cards and their soul trapping mechanic, coming to the realisation that not only do they all have a piece of fedors soul in them, but that fedor is fading because his soul is currently incomplete

clones are linked to cards and fedor to clones, when all the clones are inside card world, fedors soul fragments are all in one place, so while they are there, fedors soul is more complete and not drained of energy

they also learn that there are still souls trapped in cardworld, maybe at some point the clones in the cardworld try to contact them in an attempt to learn what i just said (mybe they learn it from joker's soul but he asks for a favor in return, more on that later)

in the end they found out that, to cure fedor, they need to remove fedors soul fragments from themselves and fuse them back to him

seeing as how now they knew enough abt magic to craft and preform a spell, they do that, so fedor gets better in few days, but now all clones have only their own souls left in them

and with that arc closed a new one begins - the clone puberty arc

seeing as how the clones are now no longer connected to fedor like they were before, they start to change and differentiate more from fedor. some in more usual and some in more unusual ways

this is a very turbulent time in their lives as lots starts to change

fedor, although now cured, has a new problem, and its helping clones overcome the challanges of clone puberty, poor guy cant catch a break lol

anyways, clones resume their adventures, learning more about themselves and magic and so on, i already shared some headcannons for this part of the story so i think u get the gist of what u may expect, i have some comics saved up too

also somewhere here id expect some clones to move out and become more independent

also kuromaku is still studying and he lives in the dorm

and ofc the researching magic shenanigans still happend as there is still more to know abt the cards, lets say they havent yet grasped everything abt them, but enough to cure fedor b4

anyhow somewhere at the end of this arc, they are reminded of something by someone

basically, if we take into account that they got info they need to cure fedor from joker, he wants to cash in the favor and asks for his freedom (he probably communicates via spooky magic, mirrors or appears on his card or idk something like that)

not only that but there is this guilt upon everyone as they learned that there are still souls trapped in the card world

after a long discussion, even though they werent keen on the idea of more clones, especially not fedor, probably due to jokers threats and possibly nightmares and their sence of justice and morals or whatever, clones decided to free the rest of the souls, promising fedor they will take care of them

and so the new arc begins

the queens arc

clones, with the help of fedor, summon the queens and the joker, immediatley doing the seperating spell so none of the queens or joker have fedors soul fragments, as to avoid the fading situation from reocurring

now the queens and joker are very chaotic, excited to be free, and also probably having their own clone puberties

now this time, its on clones to take care of the new clones, fedor gets a well deserved break

at this point all the main clones are independent from fedor (also kuromaku graduated by now) so they have lots of opportunity for shenanigans with new clones as they attempt to show the queens the ropes

now joker probably has his own mini arc, hes like the most magical out of all of the clones n knows the most so he doesnt really need to be protected and taught as much as he needs to be contained cuz he screws around a lot

or not, mybe he flips everyone off and flies away to claim his freedom idk what weird fae creatures do these days

anyways, queens get to hang out with clones a lot, probably getting a lot of screen time if it were a show as they go trough their own stuff n misadventurres

kuromaku and nicole hang out a lot, bcuz nicole has an obvious passion for science n stuff, she goes on to follow her 'brother's' example and decides to go to a university, she has lots of fun explosive adventures

anyhow i imagine emma has lots of beef with og clones, being really rebellious and all but at the end of the day she realizes they just be wanting to help, and she chills a bit once they stop looking down on her (assuming they consider her as younger sibling that needs to be taken care of, while she sees them all as equals)

helen is excited to be here although a bit scared of this huge new human world, so she sticks around others a lot, trying to be as helpful as she can as she wants to repay them for setting her free

cleo... cleo is vibing. idk what else to say, she might go n become a psychic or something, scamming ppl untill others stop her, that would be a fun lil episode

anyways the magic shenanigans continue

after a while once queens are settled down as well, they all have their own lives, but theres a catch

they can all do magic now

after so long learning about it, each clone has learned a set of spells and abilities they can now use with the help of cards

and often when they do, they can firsth transform into their card clothes (magical girl style) and then be all superhero (or antihero or supervillian) abt it if they want to, but most of them are very responsible at this point and dont use magic that often as it aint needed that often

also if some of them do have some kind of superhero arc, they go under their card roles pseudonyms (for example, felix's hero name would be jack of hearts), and their identities remain unknown bcuz *magic*, probably some kind of cloaking psychic spell that prevents ppl from recognising them, even though they got no masks at all

they still have magical adventures here and there, kuromaku is still trying to uncover and scientifically explain magic n stuff so yknow, theres still lots of adventures to go on

there would probably be more characters that meet the clones n are friends or enemies or whatever

mybe some clones even start families

also just one note abt this au, it might be a bummer to some but like its my au so yknow

I do what i want

clones here are like a family and thus there is no shipping between them

Okay thnx for coming to my rambling about this giant au. I might post some sketches n stuff I have on it that I made for fun but dont expect anything too grand, this one is just for funsies.

I have some sketches and fics for it from all over the timeline saved up so you may expect those altho they may be angsty lol.

[calanthe-d]

All I can think about these days is The Magnus Archives podcast distributed by Rusty Quill, so I think I'll ramble about what I think other series' characters would align with/marked by which Fear (even tho I know that its more complex than 15 distinguishable labels but whatevs)

I wanted to start with Welcome to Night Vale for obvious reasons but I think One Piece would be funnier (two not at all niche interests but a very unlikely pairing) so here I go

Warning for spoilers with everything (except maybe after Dressrosa cuz I stopped watching and my knowledge is limited to the rest. Also I dont really know Jinbe so I'm leaving him out of the Straw Hats)

Disclaimer: the One Piece hyperfixation has passed a while ago for me and it's only started to come back recently so if I misremember sg tell me and I'll edit the post

Brook

I think its obvious, why the End. Many avatars/marked people died/had a near-death experience, so him being dead for a while and then a skeleton for 50+ years is - I think - worthy of becoming an avatar. He may not torment people (intentionally), but most new characters get a bit scared by a living skeleton.

He is also most likely been marked by the Lonely. If not for the fog and being lost for 50 years on Thriller Bark, its the whole being completely alone aspect of it. Him losing his entire crew. And the only wish, the only goal he has is to meet Laboon.

What is interesting is that (I think) music is mostly associated with the Slaughter (The Piper, Grifter's Bone), and other music-realted entities are the Stranger (the antique calliope steam organ) and the Corruption (may be a stretch but they described the Hive singing so)

Franky

At first I thought the Stranger cuz the uncanny-ness of his cyborg appearence but then realised that changing the body to be the most ideal version of you is a different entity's thing. The Flesh. But this one is tricky because he doesn't want to change other people's appearence and (I realised that this is not a requirement) neither does it out of obsession (at least I don't think its shown). So I'm up for debate.

Robin

For some reason, the Web came to my mind at first. She had to manipulate everyone near her to survive, didn't care about if she needed to destroy or kill someone. She definitely was marked by the Desolation because she lost everything dear to her. Then I realised the obvious answer - the Eye. She loves knowledge. She needs knowledge. She will do everything in her power to know. To find out a terrible secret, even if it kills her and destroys everything around her.

And y'know, she can have as many eyes as she can. Also other bodyparts which would be the Flesh but I don't feel like (for all its body-horror-ness irl) it gives the same feeling. She doesn't really think of it like we're made of these parts and are just parts of meat stuck to each other nor she uses her power to change her appearance, even tho she probably could give herself a few extra pairs of arms for convenience.

I think that she's still marked by the Desolation and/or the Web, the latter especially because of the Water 7/Enies Lobby arcs, but her manipulation might be just regular manipulation (like what Elias Bouchard does). And she was marked by the Stranger when Sugar turned her into a toy.

Chopper

Chopper is a hard one. He may be uncanny for both reindeers and humans, but I don't think it's that significant. The Corruption would also have potential, as he is a doctor, if Chopper would have an obsession with cleanliness (if he has, it wasn't shown). It'd be logical tho, for him to have a fear of illness, disease and such. You could also argue for the Flesh, with how much they joked about eating him.

Other fear with connection/association with hospitals/doctors/medical thingies is the End, which I think does not allign with Chopper, nor was he marked by it.

But I think the most fitting is the Lonely for him. A lot of the Straw Hat Crew could be marked by/alligned with the Lonely, but for Chopper, it's the only thing I can match to him. Living in an abandoned castle on top of an unreachable mountain, with an outcast witch, his family casted him away, almost killed him, and his father figure died, leaving him alone. Wants to help people but is more comfortable being alone, doesn't fit into society and is flustered easily. It just makes sense.

Sanji

I'd say he was marked by the Slaughter but I don't think he was personally involved in any wars or massacres during he was with his father (I didn't watch the Whole Cake Island Saga so correct me if I'm wrong), but he was stranded in a remote, lifeless island/rock for 85 days in the middle of the ocean and his biggest dream is an ocean, the All Blue. Yes, maybe the Slaughter brushed against him when he wanted to murder Zeff on that rock (and maybe eat him as well, I wouldn't judge) but it passed.

The Desolation may had a part in his early childhood until Baratie and came back a bit with Don Krieg, but I don't know how destroyed he felt during it. Anger, fear, yes, but complete loss of hope? I don't think so. And the Desolation feeds on losing hope.

His self-sacrificing nature isn't really Desolation-vibe either. It's more Lonely-coded, and he might as well could've been marked. Always the odd one out, had to stand up to himself, didn't feel like he deserves any intimacy and soft love. The only love he knew was always harsh, tough, and even if it was deep and genuine, it isn't what he always needed.

Usopp

With all the lying he should be with the Spiral... but he's awfully bad at it so I guess not. The paranoia/scaredycat nature of Usopp could stem from his deep fear of death and/or doom, which can be the End (and maybe the Extinction), and could have started because of his mother - when he could have been marked. But my mind always goes back to something else.

His cowardice and (exaggerated) arrogance, that may remind us (loosely) to one dear character from The Magnus Archives. Jonathan Sims. Usopp reminds me of season one Jon. Cocky, but only to cover a deep fear and paranoia. But its not just this small parallel. Usopp is an inventor, and has a great eye, almost inhumanly (ik ik, Usopp is not the only sniper nor the only one with observation haki but it fits). Tbh I didn't want to use one fear for multiple straw hats but in my opinion, the Eye is the closest to Usopp. He was also the one that defeated Sugar, an obvious avatar of the Stranger. Because he saw her. And then, Sugar develops a fear of anything that reminds her of Usopp. Sounds familiar.

Nami

I realised I need to think a bit more abstract with the characters and entities. For Nami, I was between the Buried, the Corruption, the Desolation, the Lonely and the Web.

The Buried because of the pressure she was under almost her entire life, especially after Arlong took over her island. I think its a bit of a stretch and the Buried is usually more literal so I'll leave it up to you. I thought of the Web because her manipulative nature, but even tho she might have the potential to use people and emotions to get what she wants, she has too much empathy and is more predictable imo.

What does fit, however, with her toxic habits, is the Corruption. I think her obsession with money (which is understandable, but what trauma is not), it could lead to her being corrupt. But. I think it never came to her not being able to choose between her loved ones and money. The other thing that has a potential but isn't a perfect fit is the Lonely, but only the 10 years that she spent in Arlong's crew. She sewered her relationships with the village people, and never got close to anyone besides her sister. But that's the thing. She never forgot her sister's, nor Bellemere's face.

I do think, however, that the Desolation feasted on her for a while because of Arlong. At first, when Bellemere found them and her original home (which was never named or was really talked about imo) was destroyed and burnt. She thankfully got a new, happy family in a friendly village. That later got destroyed. Her mom dead, her village in fear, hungry, hopeless. Then, the person that did this offered her hope. It was little, but she had to take it. As an 8 year old, she had to take up the burden of saving her village by working for the person that destroyed her life. And after 10 years of suffering, thieving, lying, hurting, she got close. So close. And Arlong took it away again. Then Luffy kicked everyones butt and all was good. But Nami is definitely marked.

Zoro

I thought a bit before my conclusion but it was kinda obvious. The Hunt. He was a bounty hunter for most of his life. He has only one goal and will cut up anyone that stands in his way. I think he matches the vibe. Also, he was marked by the Stranger when he got turned into a toy by Sugar.

I also think that he's marked by the Spiral. This might sound strange at first, but think about it. How can one possibly get lost this many times and in these stupid ways? Okay, everyone has mixed up their left and right a couple of times or whatever, some people just never remember, and people with bad internal maps exist. But Zoro is something special. On his own, he always go in the wrong direction. Which is just not what happens when someone doesn't know their left and right. Because those people by chance get it right like half the time. I think there was a research with a topic I no longer remember when the people who guessed performed better than the people who wanted to act like they didnt know. Zoro reminded me of this. I don't think he does this intentionally, so the only logical explanation is the Spiral is messing with him. What confirms this for me is a scene when they are in Enies Lobby, and before Sanji meets Kalifa and Zoro Kaku, Sanji tells him to go up the stairs. And he just turns before the stairs and doesn't go up. That's a bit mad, isn't it? And he doesn't have any brain conditions (that we know of) that causes it, so it's the Spiral having its fun with him.

Luffy

Luffy is an interesting one, because there isn't really an obvious fear that could be associated with him, if any. Or is there. We don't really see him being afraid that much, only when someone dear to him is in danger, but most of the time, he's still (kinda) calm and positive that he can save them. And when he can't, this is where the Lonely steps in.

He was abandoned by his father (sorry Dragon, but you were not a present father to him), never knew his mom, and Garp raised him like a wild animal, often leaving him to his own to survive. Shanks, his rolemodel (whom idk Luffy how many times met, my guess is not that much), also left him alone, saying that he wasnt strong enough. Then, Garp gave him away to social outcasts (sorry Dadan), whom were, again, harsh with him. And he met Ace, finally someone somewhat his age, also always tried to get rid of him, later get bullied by him and Sabo.

So okay, Luffy grew up without learning how to have a secure attachment style, what's the deal, it doesn't mean he was marked or anything. Well, these abandonments may not have broken the silly little Luffy, but when Sabo presumably died, he had a taste of what grief is. He even made Ace give his promise not to die. I would say its an End thing, but Luffy is not really fearful of his own demise (as shown countless times like in every fight he was in). So it must be a losing someone thing, that is more associated with the Lonely (or maybe the Desolation but idk, I don't feel the vibe).

So the main group is done. I wanted to do more but I ran out of steam so lmk if you want to hear me ramble on a bit more! Also, if you have other opinions, I am open to change my mind.

[likeadog]

really enjoying the geten + mla posting, when I read their arc they were very nothing burger to me but I love seeing ur thoughts

they honestly ARE pretty nothingburger-- curious had a thematically satisfying fight with toga but i feel she wouldve been a better one to keep around than, say, trumpet (sorry trumpet) but thats because as story constructs they have very specific roles and i think its fine! id like to know more esp about geten bc he ended up tied to the todorokis but i think they serve their purpose

however comma they do bring very interesting ideas to the table. actually for a very long time i deeply disliked geten for the whole. you know. darwinism thing. but after his last appearance i was like now hold on. hollllld on. this is very different from endeavors flavor of power obsession lets reassess this situation.

and his backstory is just really sad to me like we knew he hadnt gone to school because of his training but theres something about how sentimental and sympathetic he is when discussing it in 387 that it kinda clicks that hes a man (or boy) that has literally nothing other than his quirk and is not basing it on a hatred of weakness but rather on a desire to have a society that eliminates the seemingly arbitrary systems that resulted in his situation in the first place, and then you start thing about the OTHER implications, like okay, wait, schoochildren in japan start school at six. this means redestro came into possession of geten before he was six years old

hes also deeply aware of the condition of his family line and how he got there. to me, this reads not as him REMEMBERING these things, but rather him having been TOLD these things, likely by redestro. (which i could go on about and the name geten itself but) and its like, okay, well why would redestro tell him that? and you go, okay, hes never been to school, he knows redestro only as his benefactor and savior, he has no job, his family is not in his life, and you go

now hold on,

this child was isolated and used solely for his quirk, and says that without it, life has no other value-- because his life, in terms of assets or social capital, quite literally does not, a fact he is very aware of because of the man who benefits from him training his quirk

im not gonna get into the meta about each member of the mla and how they discuss liberation its long but either way, after hearing geten talk about the himuras and how peoples hearts need to change to accept the changing landscape of abilities (with the himuras bigotry contributing to their downfall), its like, oh my god, he thinks hes making a MERITOCRACY. which is very different from authoritarianism. which is not to say that his ideas are all coming from a good place like hes noted to be more than willing to commit friendly fire for the goal like if its not a "strong protect the weak" situation it is simply that "everyone has the opportunity to become strong and if they dont thats their own fault". its a ridiculously childish view of the world and entirely restricted to a narrow world view that was cultivated by the person who has complete control over his life and again, benefits directly from his disregard for human life and active willingness to kill en masse. woah!

and that? thats a little compelling thats interesting and i think the fact that like, hes clearly the victim of cult brainwashing makes him much more sympathetic and makes me want to see him have a chance at a life with some dignity howeverrrrr that does not dismiss the godawful ideologies hes internalized and the conclusions hes made about the world, which originate from a bizarre insular lifestyle and ergo are really interesting to explore.

also he really does remind me of the kinds of autistic dudes that are super into history and military strategy and like theyre not terrible people or anything but they do sometimes make explosives in their basement. i was friends w those guys in hs and in community college i think theyre interesting

[tojikai]

ok so in part 2 we got to see more of gojo x reader past “relationship”

i wonder if gojo knows about his mom thoughts about reader (her being a one night stand and nothing more) and why do i have a feeling Naomi wasn’t just lucky to be in the right place and right time…

she’s gojo’s dad assistant AND his mom approved her immediately 🤔🤔 even though Naomi comes from a completely different social circle…

i don’t think Naomi is a saint as gojo think, not saying she’s evil either BUT she might get a little help from the outside (gojo’s mom) to act the way she does. bc how come she goes from acting shy and apologetic when reader found them in the couch, to give reader tips how to be a better parent and allowing yui to call her mom 🤥🤔 make it make sense

like who in the right mind would take a toddler on a trip without both parents permission?? in many countries that could be considered kidnapping even if one parent is with the baby and they dont cross the border! - when i was six i went abroad with my mom and in order for me to travel, my dad had to sign a written permission otherwise i couldn’t exit the country and my parents were married…

gojo pissing me off when he was trying to defend naomi for the mama episode by saying he will propose to her…like that doesn’t change anything reader IS the mother and eventually naomi will be the STEPMOTHER she would still have NO say in how Yui will be educated bc she has/will have NO legal rights. she can give her opinion/suggestions to gojo BUT NEVER to reader.

Gojo has to open his eyes bc if he’s truly happy with Naomi - i don’t really think so - good for him but he has to stop making reader’s feel like shit just bc his gf goes crying to him when reader doesn’t share the same opinion as her. i also noticed as soon as gojo doesn’t share the same opinion about something, naomi becomes sad and gojo tries to either reassure her or slightly changes his own opinion 🤥🤔👁️ my mom would call that manipulation 👁️

Honestly speaking Naomi is the easy route, what were the chances they got together if reader never got pregnant? bet gojo would still be having one night stands and wouldn’t spare naomi a glance.

The reason why gojo x reader didn’t work was because they were two strangers having a kid and didn’t communicate with each other. gojo was the first to give up even tho he promised reader to give it a try. bc how come soon after he got with naomi and she was oh so perfect 🥴 how can you possibly compare the two relationships when one has a kid involved…

so the mysterious man could be sukuna (bc of the tattoos).

it’s been weeks since the last argument, reader was clearly suffering (her mom’s words to gojo)…

that’s why i don’t think in that specific moment (a stranger man opening - shirtless- readers door to gojo) the man could be a possible love interest, maybe more like a friend bc she was still in love with gojo and a few weeks can’t possibly erase her feelings for him and make her move on easily, some people can do it tho (i.e gojo with his new gf 🙄)

also from the last sentence why do i have a feeling gojo has already met this “stranger” before?

the scratches in the stranger’s back scream sex but the bruises on his face? it’s a bit sus

last but not least contrary to popular opinion i still wish for gojo to be endgame, for that to happen he really has to have a gigantic redemption arc for all tje pain he caused to reader, specially when he said he wished they never met and had yui together, thanks good yui is still a toddler and was sleeping otherwise 💔 rip gojo’s relationship with his daughter

cant wait for more

this a great take, nonnie !! i like how you analyzed the few words of yn's mom and deducted abt yn's conditions, bc she really wasn't in a great condition during those weeks. she even had to steer clear of satoru as much as possible, bc seeing him hurts her. although, I can't say which of these is true or not, i can definitely see where you're coming from ~ thank u so much for this, and im happy that you're enjoying the fic <33

[idcpxseur]

so lets start from the beginning

so lets talk pdh, right? cuz thats the very beginning. for the most part, im planning to leave s1 of pdh alone aside from upping the intensity of the bullying (to make it more realistic) and just generally feel more like a teen slice of life drama rather than a harem anime where the protag chooses the shittiest love interest imaginable.

im also adding some mental health stuff just to generally make this more realistic! so lets get into it, this is the structure of my pdh rewrite!

Let's start with our leading lady, shall we?

Aphmau Shalashaska is a 14 year old freshman girl who has been homeschooled starting from fourth to eighth grade. She starts the series off as naive, though not as innocent as many people believe. She is known as the school's sweetheart, though many people suspect that she hides her intentions with a saccrine smile. To the people who know her, though, they know that her words are true and her motivations are pure. She is a light in many people's darkness, though her own world is casted in shadow...

basically i changed little to nothing about aphmau's character, aside from changing the years she was homeschooled. i decided to make her more sheltered but not completely sheltered.

i think i'm going to tweak her backstory to make it make more sense. i want her to actually (kind of) know about her father. he sends sylvanna (barely any) child support for her, to which sylvanna just gives it to aphmau directly because it isnt enough to actually do anything with.

im also going to ramp up the bullying and make it actually effect her and how she interacts with people, especially her love interests and friends.

the ending arc for aphmau in s1 is that she grows more confident and learns to rely on her friends when she's having difficulties with things. she wont end up with any of her love interests, but the trio end up extremely close. her and aaron will also end up extremely close and he will be introduced to the friendgroup (i dont like how theyre all kind of seperate) but he'll kind of be the "friend by proxy" because it will take a little longer for them to warm up (not anyone's fault, aaron is just... harder to befriend because he's an awkward dude)

as for her realtionships, here's my general plan for them (i had to split it up so aaron, laurence, and garroth under the cut!!)

Aaron

"It's weird. I thought those two hated each other. But now they seem inseparable. I just don't get it."

"Aaron? Yeah he's pretty weird. He has this whole dark and broody thing going on but he's such a squishy soul! He's like a pitbull! ...People think I hate him? Why would I hate my best friend?"

Aphmau is going to have more of a brother/sister relationship with aaron, they will NOT be the endgame ship of this rewrite. i detailed this in my pinned post, but i will reiterate: i do NOT like aarmau for the creepy, predatory way it is written. therefore i will just simply not include it in my rewrite. dont like it, dont have to read it <3

their story arc will stay largely the same. they meet online as FC/Shu (although i probably will change their nicknames because those are LAME) and meet irl in werewolf class. despite aaron defending her in person, they heavily dislike each other and bicker constantly. aph doesnt know she becomes the alpha female and aaron doesnt know that she is the girl that he's been talking to this whole time.

as FC and Shu they become thick as thieves, absolute partners in crime. they ARE aware of their age gap and there is no romantic feelings. they see each other as siblings and treat each other as such. they banter and bicker and fight but they genuinely care for each other. "i hate you, FC!!!" "i love you too, shu" becomes a daily part of their conversations.

Garroth

"He's so stoic, but around her... He becomes so gentle that it almost feels like he's a different person. She's his world."

"I think everyone but Aphmau herself sees the way he looks at her."

garroth is the first person to fall in love with aphmau. he stays quiet about his feelings for fear of ruining their friendship although he does quietly dream of something more.

garroth was always the first person that aphmau called on. his quiet and more serious demeanor was sought out as a comforting shoulder to listen to. before they knew that they were childhood friends, they had always described themselves as "platonic soulmates" (the word platonic made garroth internally wither and die but he kept that smile)

after, though? they were practically joined at the hip. partly because of their mothers and partly because they just wanted to. there was a select amount of boys that sylvanna allowed in her house (the only others being dante and travis, after many trials of proving that they ONLY have platonic feeligns for her daughter and NOTHING more) and the only boy that doesnt get her heavy surveillance

and that's how aphmau falls. breaking down his serious walls and getting to see his silly and goofy side that he keeps hidden made her fall before she even realized that she was falling

Laurence

"There he goes again, another girl wrapped around his finger."

"Laurence? He's so sweet and gentle! Sure, he's a big flirt, but he means well. I know that he would be by my side if I ever needed him."

if garroth's love is a gentle misty rain, laurence's is a fucking typhoon. strong and loud and passionate. he doesnt fall as fast. he even teases garroth about falling for someone so easily, but he very quickly learns why garroth fell so hard.

when laurence discovers his feelings, he immediately made it incredibly obvious. however, if aphmau flirted back, he'd become a blushing mess.

there was always boundaries with his flirting when they were friends. he never touched her, not in a way that could be seen as romantic. his hands always stayed firmly to themselves. but once he falls? he cant keep his hands off of her (nonsexually, obviously). constant shoulder touches, brushes of the hand that he plays off "oh aphmau if you wanted to hold my hand, you could've just asked!"

cupping her chin and cheeks, leaning in close so he gets an excuse to admire her face. the list goes on and on.

aphmau notices this, but she just thinks that theyre getting closer as friends. what makes her fall for him, however, was his gentleness. he was always the first person to tell her that she was beautiful, how kind she was, how thoughtful she was. he was her #1 fan, her absolute cheerleader. she had never had someone tell her that and now to hear it constantly made her heart flutter.

unlike garroth, she realized that she was falling for him pretty quickly. and that was about the time she realized her feelings for garroth, too.

[theprinceoftheswamplands]

Speedballed all of Jojolion in one day

I have not been keeping up with my scheme of watching all of yugioh. In my defense I got preoccupied for one day and just have not watched an episode since.

Anyway instead I read all of JJBA Part 8 to finally catch up to the new part! Overall my opinions on this part are pretty mixed.

I definitely do feel like, between the notable minor trying to use mind wipe to get with someone and Joshu’s entire existence, this is adding to my long list of “red flags that will prevent me from ever recommending Jojo’s to anyone no matter how much I enjoyed it” along with the gorilla and the actual nazis helping out the good guys. Other than that though here is a list of random comments with literally no organization for things like good or bad. I’ll just write em as I think em.

The rock humans were very confusing in presentation, mainly in the fact that what we were TOLD about them was often incorrect. We were told they couldn’t crave love or friendship but… this is actively not true even in the story. We’ve seen them form attachments, we’ve seen them risk themselves for these attachments. Rock humans can clearly learn to care. Added to the whole change in their life cycle from solid 6 year stages to having a 17 year old “small enough to live amongst bugs” stage and the species as a whole really confuses me. Still, I do like the base concept and part of me does believe there are explanations to the former flaw. We are given our knowledge of rock humans through a tell dont show styled research report complete with the mention of hidden cameras and everything. It could be that the research is flawed and they do feel some kind of attachment. Perhaps rock humans can feel a sense of love but in a different way such as obsession or longing. There are explanations you can make but, all and all, I just don’t feel like the story conveyed it well if there was one. The 17 years thing is just straight up a retcon though. Overall I feel like both this random narration presentation spliced into scenes and the conflicting information does hurt the species, and thus the part, as a whole

Hat Josuke and Yasuho have an amazing character dynamic and are overall a really fun protagonist duo. The scenes where Hat Josuke kept telling Yasuho to look away before doing something violent and the scene where Josuke showed off his singing skills and Yasuho was smitten was hilarious

Let’s not beat around the bush, Go Beyond ranks as yet another random plot convenient JJBA power up. This however feels mostly intentional and integral to one of the themes of the part. Calamity being stopped by some unforeseen, invisible miracle. It is still a pretty lame ultimate ability though

The fact this part not only had most of its villains serve as villain of the week with limited focus on them other than their role in the fight and some brief background details but also had both characters who stuck around in the story who served as one use villains and characters who stuck around as one use HEROES made this part feel like it had a lot of wasted opportunities. Also I still can’t get over the fact that Walking Heart is probably the lamest stand in the series with probably the least potential for that Jojo styled creativity.

Joshu. Just Joshu. It is funny that people thought he was going to become less terrible as the series went on only for him to completely double down, but other than that there wasn’t an enjoyable scene with this character. Even him being treated like a punching bag by the world just felt… awkward and uncomfortable. It isn’t funny, it isnt gratifying, it’s just uncomfortable. Why did they direct a filler arc to this character instead of literally anyone else who could stand for more development?

I really liked the end of series Lucy Steel stuff. I don’t know, seeing her again as a sweet old lady was fun.

Overall seeing humans be much more aware of stands as a whole even if they didn’t know they were STANDS per se was the world building ive been wanting to see since forever. Even if the arcs with these randomly occurring stands were mid due to Joshu’s general presence, I always enjoy seeing these worlds fleshed out more.

I wish there wasn’t as many negative points here as there are, but I can’t deny there are problems. Still, I do like much of what this part has to offer under the surface. It doesn’t quiet have the rogues gallery of part 5 or as enjoyable as a cast of reoccurring side characters as part 4 and for sure is Tooru probably the weakest of the main villains character wise IMO, but I did find the part fun none the less and with Rock Humans now as a confirmed species and my GOAT Hat Josuke for sure to return to close out the Holly arc since I’d doubt Araki would just leave a driving character motivation so unsatisfyingly unfinished Im excited to see how future parts use what has been set up here

also I know it was part of the theme of his character, how he aimed for success and ended up dying to a random calamity in such a lackluster way, but I still feel like they could have done more with the king of bug autism.

[buffa-z]

ep 11

ace: seriously why do you not want to be my sister so bad

tsumuri: we're complete strangers

meanwhile theyre making the exact same expression just looking in different directions

tsumuri covering her ear when ace calls back to girori

even girori is getting fed up LOL his head breaking thru the "father" graphic

ok so actually looking at this layout of ace's five wish cards that means this is his fifth game? meaning that the length per game is usually closer to a year, considering he joined while in high school and is currently 21. doing the math, that means that this should be michinaga's third game actually, not fourth, so ill have to fix that. but thats crazy bc that means the game from the first episode was his first game

i forgot aces wish is to become staff

the glass pickup/put down cut fuck yes

girori: please punkjack you need to kill this guy

tsumuri: well hold on you cant say that

time for one of my favorite episodes

the log sound playing when keiwa scratches off the tanuki icon

even the child gambles - remember when this was a show about gambling? lets bring that back 👍

yuppp youre going in the labyrinth. i love that shot

neons outfit is so cute. too bad she has to run away from home

again this is a new build house, id place it around 2010 if i had to guess. which is really interesting to contrast with ace's older house and what it says about their situations

as much as i dont like neon's mom i also dont like her being posed as a hysteric next to neon's dad, making him seem like a rational actor and her a crazy woman

ace: im so fucking glad youre not staying in that house. (please come live at my house)

neon: ok back to business. why dont you just wish to find your mom?

ace constantly like interrogating neon's belief in him and her giving realistic measured answers and ace is like wow im actually so pleased to be talking to you right now

ace: the dgp wouldnt let me wish to see my mom bc of some unknown reason so i have to make increasingly strange wishes trying to look for her

the wall behind him:

ace confidently insisting his mom is someone worth fighting for, now its neon's turn to have silent doubts

THE FLOOR JUST DROPS OUT FROM UNDER THEM even tsumuri wasnt prepared

pack it up spy kids

LABYRINTH GAME TIMEEEEES

michinaga being the first to stand. well he has the most practice getting up off the ground

jamato pocket dimension

tsumuri: (passive aggressive reminder not to fucking tell the civilians whats happening or let them touch your id core)

michinaga feminist moment. you will not harass women on his watch.

keiwa is always hanging out with old people or children and i think that has an effect on her.

maid dress plus morningstar frankly goes crazy

JAMATO BUCKLE DEBUT the music is so good

DONT STEAL HER BUCKLE ASSHOLE

it is funny that the so called funk/metal/rock guitar sounds are distinctly not those characteristic of their respective genre. that is not metal guitar but good try

remember when the jamariders were a big deal

phone call from the gm and theyre all split up. i love the map graphic too

i honestly honestly wish that there were more games like this. i love the idea of jamato as almost like ants or termites whose evolutionary purpose is to turn human structures and lives into these twisted esoteric mazes that the riders have to navigate. almost like if a whole arc took place inside of the pandora tower

lets get the gambling back in here

girori staring down the phone that goes to archimedel: what did you put in my game you son of a bitch

oh wait yeah this is actually the first time we get to see archimedel and the baby jamato

theyre a little cutes tho

TOGETCHI CORE SPOTTED

at first i thought the vine collars were ivy but it looks like theyre actually a copperleaf or coleus variant

lets learn the puzzle!

ace: heres the clue im going to think it with my mind

neon: let me take a photo on my phone

ace like "lets share information what do you know" and neon is like "i dont know anything but my dad seems to" and ace is nodding like yes we will find and hurt your dad

i do like how much ace fights out of suit tbh

punkjack fucking with the code plaques lmao

michinaga: hey why do You guys want geats out

cut to geats baywatch running thru the manor

accurate corinthian pillars spotted!!!! this is a renaissance revival build if i ever saw one

ace loudly talking about all the dgp rules in front of civillians including keiwa. this is why tsumuri doesnt like you

lets go grandpa

uh oh grandpa

nago telling keiwa to help the man as if they still know each other

ace, who has never lost: come on stop being so pessimistic you have to believe you can win

LETS GO GOLDEN FEVER

luckiest guy on earth: just decide to be lucky

this buckle is a special glue that lets you walk up and down almost anything

i still so strongly associate the jamarider silhouette with buffa its strange to see just some jamato using it

and of course the music is crazy

lets get kon in here to kill everyone

dude you're getting your yucky bike tires all over my renaissance revival tile foyer

[lostcauses-noregrets]

gosh i just read some eruri fics staring from the oldest ones in 2013. its so weird because this was a time before isabel and furlan, before acwnr, seeing people write and wonder how levi might have been recruited. only seeing "erwin smith/levi" with no last name. and dont even get me started about the fics that are all 'they killed all the titans, the end :)' it was so SIMPLE.

it makes me so nostalgic because this series has been around for almost ten years now. idk man something about how much these things have changed gets to me TvT

Reading those old fics now is quite an experience now. It always amazes me when I come across fics from 2013 that absolutely nail Erwin and Levi’s characters, despite how little had been revealed about them at that point. I came to the fandom in late 2015 and by that stage we already knew Levi's backstory from ACWNR and chapter 69, we knew his name was Levi Ackerman, not Rivai Heichou or any other weird and wonderful variation, we knew that Kenny was his uncle, and we knew that he was so devoted to Erwin that he threatened to break his legs to prevent him from leading the expedition to Shiganshina. By that stage we were also starting to see the cracks in Erwin's facade, but we didn't really know how deep those cracks ran, and though we had glimpses of his ulterior motive, we had no idea of the toll Erwin's dream had taken on him, and the depths of despair he was sinking to, though we also knew that if he trusted one person above all others, that person was Levi. We also didn’t know that Levi would swear a vow to Erwin and remain true to him and to that vow for years after his death. Seeing how Erwin and Levi’s stories evolved month by month from chapter 76 onwards was a wild ride and not one I would have missed for the world.

Following any fandom for a long time can be a really strange experience. Although fandoms can be incredibly resilient and endure for years, decades even, after the source material has ended, participation in fandom is often quite transient. Fans tend to come and go year on year, so if you do happen to stick around in a single fandom for any great length of time, it can be quite a weird experience. You get to see new influxes of fans, each with their own interpretation of the characters, which can change dramatically over time as particular tropes and themes fall in and out of fashion.

The Eruri fandom has seen a huge influx of new fans over the last 18 months or so, which is amazing! There’s been an explosion of new art, fics, zines, and challenges. It’s been fabulous seeing this huge upswell of appreciation for characters that I’ve loved for so long, and it’s great that the fandom is big enough for everyone to be able to do their own thing.

It’s been interesting to see the tropes that have become popular over the last year or so. It’s no secret that I’m not a huge fan of Marley Erwin, as to my mind it’s a trope that often harks back to the ruthless manipulative Erwin fics that were current before Erwin’s true character was revealed. However I can also understand why writers are interested in exploring these aspects of Erwin’s character.

There’s also been a marked increase in the number of trans Eruri fics and artworks, many of which are being created by trans and nonbinary authors and artists. This is one trend that I love; it’s great that authors and artists are able to explore the whole spectrum of gender identity through these complex and nuanced characters. (Although I should also add that there have always been incredible trans fics in the Eruri fandom. One of my all time favourite fics is Irascible, which was written way back to 2014.)

I think it’s inevitable that creators will want to explore different aspects of characterisation depending on when they come to a piece of media and how they consume it. Binge watching or reading an entire series, and getting a character’s entire story in one complete arc, is a very different experience from following a series real time and seeing characters and plot being revealed layer by layer over the course of years. Of course it goes without saying that there is never a right and a wrong way to write a character, older fics are no better or worse than newer fics, and vice versa. The whole point of fan works is that they are transformative, we’re all free to explore and represent these characters however we choose. So perhaps the thing I love most about the Eruri fandom is that we’ve had so many incredibly talented writers and artists over the last 9 years that there really is something for everything.

Thanks for the ask Anon, and apologies for rambling!

[blockgamepirate]

(im sorry for sending an ask about this, i just personally didn't want to rb dsmp lore discussion on my blog but i had some thoughts on the techno post you made? feel free to ignore this completely)

I guess.. part of my (personal) reservation with the idea that ctechno had no idea of pogtopia's goals is that the majority of people aren't agreeing with him and wilbur.

frankly, wilbur's the only other person (to my memory) who brings up destroying the gov instead of just taking it over, while in the clips you showed tommy, tubbo, and quack all show that they DONT want that. why is he believing wilburs word on pogtopia's goals over anyone elses? ESPECIALLY as an anarchist, this should be a communal decision and not one made by the "leader" aka wilbur. and majority says no. at the very least, the lack of unity in making a decision (especially such a big one) should make him less sure about the shared end goal.

that, combined with the fact that he immediately put aside the opportunity to learn more about pogtopia's goals ("we'll burn that bridge when we come to it") puts a sour taste in my mouth because it instead feels to me like he instead didn't bother to try and communicate to make sure they had the same goals.

while i completely get the point you made abt wanting to avoid infighting (before a major battle especially), when multiple different people suddenly seemingly have a different goal than you, its something you should want to clear up to make sure no misunderstandings happen-- bc thats exactly how both sides end up "betraying" one another when in reality they were never on the same side to begin with. its not something that SHOULD be left to deal with later, so him pushing for that makes it feel to me instead that he just doesnt.... want to deal with it.

in short, i feel like despite what you said there was still reasonable doubt in the goals of pogtopia (via a lack of unity in the goal at hand) that techno just... didn't bother to look into or check beyond his intial thoughts. even with the rumors of a traitor, a majority of (or at least multiple) members disagreeing on such a fundemental point don't (to me) get rid of that existing doubt.

I understand your point is that he was out of the loop and thus came to his own conclusions on pogtopia's purpose, and i agree! i think instead the issues people have w techno and pogtopia is techno's not attempting to get into the loop, which is a pattern that continues into later arcs-- he jumps into things without full information on the situation or context, but assured that he's right regardless of how little he actually knows (eggpire, dream in prison, etc)

again-- i realize we have benefit of the omniscient viewer so signs become much more obvious to us, and even then characters are allowed (and encouraged!) to have fatal flaws like techno (often, imo) working off of incomplete information and not trying actively to fill in those gaps! but... idk, it still a point i also get feeling very irritated by (again, esp from our POV), bc he's so sure he's right when he's often clueless and it can be frustrating and unsatisfying to watch.

idk if this had a point tbh. i just wanted to talk abt your post i guess. thank you for reading if you got this far, i just needed a place to ramble to someone here but i didn't wanna linger on it i guess. i hope you have a great day/night ✌️

--enderspawn

I mean the thing is that the original members of Pogtopia were Wilbur, Tommy and Techno, right? With Tubbo joining right after.

And as far as I can tell, Tommy never said anything about wanting to reinstall a government, at least not when Techno was there to hear it, he was actually the one who on day one was talking about how they no longer had their titles and would be equal from now on while Wilbur was still clinging to the idea of being the president. Tommy was very insistent on "taking back" L'Manburg and on not blowing it up, but again: nothing about a government. (And as we found out later, Tommy didn't even want to be a president in the end. He wasn't actually motivated by political power, and honestly I think a lot of the time he was kinda just going along with it because he felt like that was what he was supposed to strive for.)

Tommy seemed to be satisfied with the plan to only blow Manburg up IF nothing else works, right? But there was never any talk about objecting to the anarchism afterwards.

On top of that, Pogtopia was effectively an anarchist commune, or close enough, despite Wilbur kind of taking a leadership role in an informal way, so it makes sense to assume that the people who made it and the people who joined it would approve of that kind of social system, right?

I mean is it a bit naive of him? Yes, definitely, but I really don't think it's unreasonable. If people are joining your anarchist commune and your vocally anarchist cause (as of after the Red Festival at least, when Wilbur gets on fully board the anarchy train), you'd think they would be fine with that. You'd think that if they weren't fine with it they'd start their own separate movement, or something.

(This is actually what I thought would happen at the time! I thought Wilbur, Techno and Dream would team up and Tommy, Tubbo and Niki would form their own group and then recruit others. But it didn't end up happening, probably because Tommy is too loyal to Wilbur to let him go, and Niki probably cared about Wilbur too much too. Idk.)

Or if not, then you'd think they would protest the anarchism a bit louder and even if Techno himself missed this, it wouldn't be weird of him to assume that Wilbur would tell him if there was so much ideological conflict going on. (And as we found out yesterday, Wilbur was well aware and kept Techno in the dark intentionally.) Techno trusted Wilbur to do the talking to the others, he even said as much in the stream after the Red Festival. Techno is obviously not very good at the whole socialising thing himself and he knows it.

But all Techno heard about was the whole "to bomb or not to bomb" question, and this has nothing to do with what you do afterwards. You don't have to bomb the country to make it anarchist after all.

Another factor here, which is another example of Techno being kind of naive, is that as he says in the narration of his video, he thought that the people who had been victimised by the government would understand better than anyone that such a system could not be allowed to stand. (He made this mistake AGAIN with Tommy after exile, thinking that surely this time Tommy would come to agree with him.)

So idk if this answer satisfies you at all, but I don't really have time to work in this any more than this, I've already spent way too much time on Tumblr today :| (this is also why I don't have the time to condense this down to a reasonable length either)

I guess what I'd say is that Techno was definitely naive and affected by confirmation bias and kind of a recluse and a bit of an edgelord individualist at least early on, which are genuine flaws of his, but I think his conclusions are fairly reasonable anyway. And he was being intentionally misled by Wilbur. Also he was very vocal about his own ideology and goals while the other Pogtopians never said anything to him about disagreeing with those goals, up until Quackity and Tubbo right before battle. "Taking back L'Manburg" just isn't specific enough here, Techno never had anything against reclaiming the country from Schlatt, obviously, he even made his fireworks in L'Manburg colours in support of the cause.

And I do think that there is more fault on the side of the other Pogtopians for leading him on, even if they did it unintentionally and just weren't considering his opinions. Which is what seems to have happened, they knew he was an anarchist but they just sort of dismissed the significance of this. Quackity is the first one to actually bring this up as a potential problem and he does it by accusing Techno of potentially becoming a traitor, not by trying to negotiate with him or hear him out. And Tommy just told Techno to shut up while they were talking about who the next president should be.

They all knew that he was an anarchist, they just didn't think it was important. I mean I think they just kinda assumed that he knew the plan, to be fair, after all Wilbur obviously knew it too, but it's still kinda dismissive lbr.

And to be honest this is something that happens in real life a lot too, to anarchists who try to work with non-anarchist groups for a common goal. Our concerns tend to be dismissed and it's kinda just assumed that we'll just go along with it anyway because we're usually the minority. And we tend to be the first ones to get kicked out when we're no longer convenient. That's my experience anyway. And yes, it does feel like we're being used when that happens. The difference is, I guess, that we usually see it coming because we've learned from history and past experiences. Techno apparently hasn't.

[ackerpreach]

This ending .... I can name 500 reasons and I will name them right now, because I don’t think I’m the only one who is upset with how things turned out. (Also, A positive message for all of you at the end)

MAJOR LEAKS SPOILERS/ READ WITH CAUTION

Update: after reading more theories from fellow RM bloggers, and sleeping over it one day, this entire chapter might be an april fools... Don't fully lose hope yet beautiful people. It's me just giving a review on a possible fake April fools chapter

After following this franchise since 2013, so nearly a DECADE. this ending is a pure disserve to the entire fandom. I feel like Yams has rushed it just for the sake of being done with the entire manga. So many things are left open, characters and their developemt are reverted back all the way to chapter 1 or are left even worse than that...

Mikasa’s worthless character development/ Aaronmika’s horrible toxic codependent relationship 

Oh honey... Let’s start with how horrible Isayama has treated her. We were all rooting for her, because we all felt like she was so misunderstood. She had a horrible childhood and imprinted on a guy who treated her like trash 99 percent of the story. And then, slowly but surely, she starts to realize she has to stop obsessing over him in the uprising arc with the help of a real man who treats her like a queen, more importantly, he treats her like a real human being. This man sees her for her abilities and that she has the power to be self dependent. She learned parts of herself, that she was able to work together with him like no one else could.  She learned parts of herself she was unable to do so if she kept obsessing about Aaron. All this love, care, mutual understanding and RESPECT these two shared. 

but...NAH FUCK THAT, right Yams?? Throw all this development away, all this bonding. Let’s make the main female lead even more yandere than she already was in the first season. Let her make out with his decapacitated head (like dude, this is also pure disrespect to Aaron’s dead body btw) and let her obsess even more about the guy who has treated her no better than a piece of toilet cloth 99 percent of the time. The guy who was never really appreciative in front of her for saving his ass billions of times, who always pushed her away, who yells at her and snaps at her whenever he can instead of reasoning and talking calmly with her in mature way. (EVEN PARODY YOUTUBE CHANNELS WHO DONT SHIP ANYTHING MAKE IT A TROPE WHERE AARON TELLS MIKASA HE HATES HER GUTS WHENEVER HE CAN) 

Then after all that, suddenly Yams tries to last minute persuade us Aaron’s always been head over heels for her???  He should have build their relationship better which he hasn’t even tried to do so... He must be thinking his fans are stupid for eating this from his hands.    

Like seriously??? What is this??? 

Isayama is just fully contradicting himself. It’s like someone tipped him off with a buttload of money for him to write Aaron like this to satisfy shipping needs and to cash in those extra money’s from it. Even if he tried to cater to Erem*ika, this is not how you write a loving and caring couple which people will root for. 

This next two panels just freaking infuriates me to the core of my soul. I can’t even describe how dissapointed I am with Mikasa. 

Why is she clutching that head so obsessively like that?  Why is she walking and turning her back away from her comrades? After everything they have done for her, after all they’ve been through?! After everything Armin has done? Standing up for Mikasa, beating up Aaron for hurting her. I feel like even Jean, Connie and Sasha have cared more for her in a healthy way.  Sure, Aaron cares for her romantically too apparently (What a twist Yams :)), but has he aided her to becoming a mentally healthier individual? Has he aided in her mental stability? The answer is a big fat NO!  All I see between these two after today’s raw Chapter’s are too Yandere obsessed individuals who have no clue on how to maintain a healthy relationship. 

Love should only go as far as the heart can endure and it seems like her character is not willing to be aware of that. Even Armin was able to let go of Aaron in those latest panels. Why does her entire character resolve around this guy??? I really do not understand. Her Ackerbond and her age is not an excuse for her to throw her life away like this. 

Shonen’s disgusting portrayal of women 

I’ve seen this countless of times in the many years I’ve watched anime. SasuS*ku from Naruto, Ichih*me from Bleach, Shinji and that oranged hair girl from Neon Evangelion.. Why do these women get decreased to simpletons with one single goal? And that is to obsess over a bland male lead who either treats them like trash or doesn’t notice them up until the last last chapter (LITERALLY WHAT YAMS HAS DONE). Some go even as far as the male leading wanting the kill the female love interest and yet the female lead is still in love with them???. It’s disgusting for him to write the MAIN female character this way. 

It’s dissapointing we believed in Isayama doing Mikasa’s character right. That she’s finally being able to let go of her codependency and to live for herself maybe live in Hizuru and find more about her roots???, but every single time she shows some improvement, it’s burried deep in the ground again by the Author. It almost seems like a lowkey kink of some of the male Mangaka’s to write about a girl obsessing over them no matter what. I see this so many times to the point that I truly stand behind it that some of them might have this fantasy. 

I wished he didn’t portray her last panels like this. Everyone else is living their lives while Mikasa is still grieving about him. I’m not saying she’s not allowed to grieve and everyone takes it at their own pace, but cmon... Show her living her life too. This is too much. Her being next to his grave and grieving him as her last panels just shoves it in our faces that YET AGAIN, BEING OBSESSED WITH AARON IS ALL HER CHARACTER STANDS FOR. 

I truly despise how Isayama handles her grieving, kissing his decapacitated head, carrying it around like some handbag, and her last panels being thissss.

The world leaving Paradis alone miraciously after all that??? 

It’s so weird and out of place with so many political feuds and disagreements between the world and Paradis, the entire Rumbling happening and we can see Mikasa just chilling outside in Paradis with no one bothering them. You can see the rings of the walls in the picture below.  I don’t know the exact reason behind as the manga is still in Korean, but from what I see, the story went the route of: throwing a happy ending without enough proper reason and  it was all fixed just like that in a snap! It doesn’t fit the entire narrative of attack on titan for things to be so peacful out of nowhere. When it comes to the narrative, how things work in that world, how hard it is to achieve peace, everything made somewhat sense up until chapter 138. 139 seems so so out of place...  It’s like I’m reading a chapter from a totally different manga. 

Aaron Yoghurt got defeated so easily/ Aaron’s character assassination

The build up on the first part of the rumbling was great, those kids carrying coins. You could feel humanity’s fear and Aaron’s hatred in those pages. As if he truly had a goal and he has turned away completely from his comrades and his closest friends with no return. The world seemed truly doomed, but he  got defeated just like that. He was in the nape all this time (because screw the warhammer power of hiding yourself elsewhere in his ginormous titan body). There is no master plan as we all expected, and in the end he just acts all yandere in the paths with Armin and that’s it... They massacared his entire character as well. Many fan theories created a better ending with his character. Him being reincarnated as Historia’s baby would be so much better. For him to still keep on seeking and to strive for power. It has always been his motive. It’s his personality from the start until chapter 138. Even if things are okay, to keep on going and to seek that adventure, but then.. He’s so weak and directionless suddenly.. It’s so weird... This is not Aaron at all???

Using Aaron for him this entire post, because I don’t want others to invade our tags... :)))

Historia’s baby 

The only panel we got from Historia’s child was this. Just a normal kid, normal life... Why did Isayama put so much effort in highlighting Historia’s pregnancy if it was nothing too spectacular anyway? It seemed he had major plans for this kid and for their development too??? It’s again, big plans, big developments, big relationship dynamic, but all  got thrown out of the window... 

Don’t read the next sentence if you are a minor :’) 

It’s like almost ejaculating, but stopping right before it and repeating that every single Arc.

My energy when writing about this chapter is the same as Nostalgia Critic and his hatred for atla the live action

In Conclusion...

I know us fans should not be deciding on how this story should end, because this is Isayama’s story after all, but I truly wished for him to wrap up things much more rounded. There are so many unanswered questions... Again, I think for the sake of being done with this manga, he rushed all of it. He’s become a millionaire from this story and now his pockets are jammed full, I guess he doesn’t need to put in any effort anymore, right? Perhaps a controversial opinion, but I really wished he cared for his fans a little bit more with this last chapter by giving some answers that make sense at least. It’s his fans who gave him this platform and the opportunity to tell his story and for him to at least give in a bit of effort especially in the last chapter is the least he can do. Rivamika being canon or not, he truly rushed it without thinking much about the entire story line. He expanded it so much, he didn’t know how to bind it all together.

Even after all this, I’ll still ship them in the headcanon type of way. I do give credit to Isayama for giving us a template for such a beautiful dynamic between Levi and Mikasa. He decides to waste it, but that doesn’t mean we have to.  I want to thank all the people with amazing writing skills, the ones who give us beautiful art like @carmenlee @phit chan @vialesana​ and many more. I want to remind all of you that we can create something beautiful of our own and we don’t neccesarily need canon lore for that. The art I’ve seen, the fanfictions I’ve read have touched me deeper than Isayama ever could at times.The Mikasa in our mind is appreciate of Levi, is mature, classy and has a strong will for herself. They spend their remaining days together peacefully. Keep writing, keep drawing, stay creative. 

I love you all so so much, I’ve only been publicly active since March, but thank you Rivamika fandom for giving me so much joy as a lurker these past 7 years <3

[liquidstar]

hi this is evilmario666 anon. im ok now and i realized that despite the misogyny that does exist on account of genre and perspective re:zero actually understands the subaru archetype of guy very well and i was jumping to conclusions too quickly based on what i was seeing. it was impolite and unfair of me and id like to apologize both to re;zero and you, i am no longer on the verge of a blood rage. thanks once more because i am genuinely having a ball of a time . lost track of arc numbers but im on the one where subaru accidentally SPOILERS kills emilia becaus he tries to reveal return by death

NO YEA ANON ITS OK sorry i didnt respond to ur first ask last night i was too tired to read long things lol

but i TOTALLY get how you feel like subaru early on legit annoyed me with his behavior, and it was completely intentional. not that he didnt have his endearing traits, i think the first thing that made me really like him was the fact that he got to know the names of the village kids and legit cared about them a lot because before getting to know them he just considered them and everyone around him as "npcs", and the village kids in particular arent "important" characters. (also dont take all of what im about to say as subaru hate, having read most of the story now i legit love the guy but im just talking abt his portrayal in the show in the early arcs)

basically arc 1 just served to introduce us to characters and concepts so there wasnt all too much of an arc there, subaru is dense as hell so he still came out of all that thinking he was gonna get his Isekai Harem Fantasy and so when he arrived at the mansion in arc 2 he literally treated all the characters like tropes (even before that though he would assume emilia's behavior based on what the tropey response would be). he just didnt see any of them as people and thats where a lot of the conflict came from, in order to overcome in that arc he had to actually befriend both rem and ram in a way that actually mattered, and he really did start to care about them as people and we know that because of the story he tells ram about the ogres.

arc 3 though addresses his mindset about this hero fantasy he has a lot more bluntly, because while he may have grown some in arc 2, he still has a huge martyr complex and places emilia into this role where he gets to be her hero even though she didnt ask for that, and their fight about it is simultaneously really satisfying to see him called out, and hard to watch because hes being such a child about it, hes so incredibly entitled to her at this point. the show luckily frames him as completely in the wrong and shows us the nastiest parts of this mindset in him. one of my favorite scenes in this arc is the one where he accidentally kills her, but just before that. when he rushes into the room and yells at her about how shes useless and unable to save anyone and we focus on her face, and she just says "why are you crying?" and the cut zooms into her eye to reveal that he was staring at his own reflection in it, he was talking to himself. that just perfectly describes what she is to him at that point- a beacon to project all his insecurity and doubt. re:zero loves using those eye-reflection shots, and i love seeing them because my absolute favorite theme in the story is "self-recognition through the other"

subaru does legitimately learn and become better, he acknowledges how shitty hes been in his convo with rem and it gets turned into a really sweet moment between the two of them, and it gets memed a lot but "i love emilia" is honestly a really good line because its in that moment that he stops trying to either run away or project and face his feelings genuinely in a way that doesnt throw her under the bus. by the time arc 4 rolls around hes so much more likable, and his dynamic and relationship with emilia becomes honestly really cute, the way they talk is sort of dorky and charming (spoilers, but even when they have another argument that calls back to the one they had in arc 3, you feel its coming from a legit place now, and when he kisses her he does so only after getting explicit consent and telling her its okay to dodge). hes so much more sympathetic and you really root for him. i loved the choice to not show any of his backstory until arc 4, the point where youre supposed to be on his side completely.

all that being said though its NOT a series i think is perfect nor do i think its super feminist, i just think its a good deconstruction of these isekai tropes and calls them out in a blunt way that i enjoy seeing. there are lots of things about it that i dont like too though, some of the character designs sort of bother me and seem antithetical to this, part of that is that the writer and character designer are different people but it still passed. but i still enjoy the story and characters enough that it doesnt totally sully my enjoyment of it (some are more egregious than others tho). at the end of the day im so along for this whole ride, i love the way it explores its themes, again especially the whole "self-recognition through the other" thing but also suicidal ideation and of course the deconstruction of what the isekai genre has become.

TL;DR: the series perfectly understands the type of nerdboy that watches isekai anime and wants to be sent to another world just like their favorite blank-slate nerdy protagonist and it directly calls them out, saying "no. youre not gonna be an OP hero who saves the day and gets all the bitches with that fucking attitude. youre not gonna be able to escape your insecurities via this escapism, you treat the women around you like trash, youre not entitled to any of this, youre just pathetic." and though subaru is a character that gets better many of the viewers of the series straight up plugged their ears to its themes so they can jack off to rem lol.

[vemuabhi]

Hii! It´s me popping here again! How are you doing? So, I would like to ask if you have a favorite Sanji moment and outfit (if it´s possible to chose hahaha) <3

Author san~~~ I'm doing good. How are you. And.... this ask... it took a long while for me to collect the pictures and scenes. I had so many scenes but I tried so much to cut them down to some of the scenes.

This is going to be a long freaking post. With cusses and spoilers.

Sit back and play a song for feels!

My Favourite Sanji scenes!!!

Warnings : Simping, Please be aware I sometimes cuss at that man because I love him. That is how I really am. I cuss the person that I love idk why. But not all the people I cuss are the ones I love. There will be a lot of difference and I'll respect that.

Disclaimer: This is solely my pure opinion.

There are just so many moments like when Sanji saves Otama or tries on his raid suit and all those but Tumblr won't allow me to post more than 10 pictures sadly. So I did the only scenes part here, I'll do outfits in other post and make sure I'll link it here too. Check it out also!

So.. yeah... here it goes. My favourite scenes of Snooj!!

1) Sanji VS Enel

the 1st thing I always remember about Sanjis Coolest scenes is the one at skypiea. Sadly its one of the underrated scene of the anime.

Sanji in this scene protects Ussop and takes the hit. See his smile at the end. Wait for it. The SanUso moment is so pure where ussop understands Sanjis feelings completely.

He stands still even after receiving the hit and then takes a puff of his cigarette and says "Thanks, I needed a light", then falls down. Please... why isn't he given more credit. He is an amazing chef and yes I know you see it but... he has his amazing fight scenes too.

I absolutely adore the way Sanji always thinks about so many things while he fights. I mean... he plays with the mind too. You see, in this same scene he made sure to ruin enels ark from the inside. He is like this in another movie too. Not only that, a scene in alabasta arc too, where he enters into the base of Mr. 3 and talks to crocodile.

2) Sanji saving the Vinsmokes

Even after facing so much of abuse, he still saved his father and siblings. Looking at them after saving their asses is a delight to watch.

This is the moment they all realise that Sanji won... he has become stronger without their genes and techniques.

3) Sanji shouts at Luffy for Ussop

As Ussop and Luffy start to argue about merry, Luffy almost says to pack up and leave but he was stopped in between because Sanji kicks gim in the face and shouts at him for almost saying Ussop should leave.

Sanji never lets anyone to talk about leaving (even though he left and had a huge ass arc for him). He really cares about his crew and hates and it is really shown here. Not only the ladies. He definitely cares about the guys of the crew too.

4) Sanji uses Knives to fight

Cmon... its the only fight of Sanjis that he uses knives. The person being a chef and using food to fight made Sanji even more angry. He was already trying to find Robin chan and got into this shit where another chef keeps his kitchen dirty and uses food, pissed him off.

He decided to teach him a lesson and got into the fight by using Knives (Improvisation on spot!) Isnt he excellent here.

5) Reunion with Luffy

Getting back to his King, his Captain Luffy was the only scene where Sanji smiled truly after coming to the Whole Cake island. Its way too adorable. Him realising what he truly wants and to know that his nakama would save him definitely if he is in any problem.

Their smile is definitely the most precious. Infact for me... their smiles are the one piece for me. The most valuable treasures.

Bonus scenes

* Sanji saving the Maid of Vinsmoke family

Never he lets anyone harm a lady. Its not him. I could add Kalifa scene here but... this is also a good scene. One of the reasons why I really respect him. Yeah it gets annoying some times but... still its just how he is.

* Him saving Tashigi because he heard her cry.

I know its Extra af but cmon, we are dealing with Sanji here. Its going to be like that.

* Sanji's Surgeries

He is the best plastic surgeon ever. I won't step back on this opinion. He just makes people to completely change their faces. There were 2 of these who were shown in the anime. I really wanna see more people though.

* AceSan and ZoSan moments

I definitely love these scenes so much. The Ace scene is just so beautiful + dreamy. He was so daamn polite and so nice with Ace. Yes Sanji is good with everyone if they are polite with him.

The ZoSan scene is perfect + precious. Yes this is the thirst quencher for me. I adore this moment very much. Please they could've kissed.

The next one is kinda personal and not that needed. So I suggest you to skip this.

Like Comment and Reblog this! And share your favourite moments of Sanji with me!!!

XOXOXOXO

But if you wanna read then go ahead.

* After Sanji and Pudding Kiss and also pudding cries.

This scene was so emotional and personal to me...

Its weird but... when she was crying, I was crying too. Idk why These feelings were there but... It was the moment I realised I liked that jerk Sanji. And... I actually dont like pudding. Everything about her felt a bit odd and not trustworthy. But... when she cried. I cried too. When I was rewatching that scene now again, I cried. I myself don't know why I cry watching that scene. I get so many mixed emotions and my feelings are not even clear to me. I don't know.

If you did read this. Thankyou for reading.

Like Comment and Reblog this! And share your favourite moments of Sanji with me!!!

Wait.. you say you didn't read my post on "my favourite outfits" then click here!!!

[felikatze]

Just wanted to say thank you so much for all the brainworms you have been giving me and my friends for the past few hours about Ayin and all the analyses you've been doing about him.

I have been losing my mind in the middle of the night thinking about all the things you've said, turning it over like crazy and trying to compare it with the gameplay I've had of Lobotomy Corporation and Library of Ruina.

Please do more analysis and share more of your ideas! Please? Please, with cherry on top? Please, I beg of you?

Especially if you have in-depth ideas of analyses for the Sephirah and how it relates to both their own characters and Ayin and Angela.

I thank you greatly in advance!

the implication that i've infected an entire friend group with my brainworms is power that will 100% go to my head i feel amazing. what else is analysis posting except trying to inflict people with the same thoughts bouncing around your skull on repeat

i DO have shit on the sephirah but mostly netzach, because i love netzach, and i in fact found my discord ramble about him (and chesed)

i dont have things on how they relate to A and Angela specifically because I mainly kept thinking abt Reverbaration Ensemble parallels... i have so many thoughs abt Netzach and Bremen.

(but if you want me to talk about, say, a specific core supression, or floor realization... i have a lot of thoughts on floor realizations.)

First off I am so sorry that you seem to think I'm smart because that means i have the perfect opportunity to inflict you with this

okay now we can get to the serious stuff

[transcript:

containment breach:

quick ramble abt lor again but i love the ensemble receptions so much. i'm at chesed's rn, and i know he's been chill the entire game, but him just refusing to comment on jae-hoon's tragedy seems, out of context, a dick move, but also is so important for chesed to do? he recognizes that another's suffering is not related to him, that he can't do anything about it, and that this is fine. The closest i'd describe chesed in lobcorp would be "activist burnout." Due to betraying the lab from garion's pressure, chesed was so consumed by guilt, he just blamed himself for everything and became more callous because it's already his fault, right? There's nothing he can do. But in lor, he knows what his responsibilities are, and allows himself joy where he can find it. I love the ensemble receptions bcuz they are just examplary of each patron libriarian's growth and i iqbfjc (sobs)

GOD this sure is a paragraph

also have to salute netzach for carrying his scene all by himself as the musicians of bremen just (animal noises) :pray:

ykno being online i realize that i'm not quiet at all i am a complete and utter chatterbox /end]

[transcript:

containment breach:

thinking abt netzach's scene where he doesn't talk to bremen, because he can't, but recognizes this who has not only lost themself in their own art but also their own suffering

i just i love netzach so much his entire character arc is abt learning to live with depression and learning to want to live again

so he becomes unable to understand, really, why someone would sacrifice themselves for their own art

when he started out just, similar yet different from bremen, completely submerged in his own misery

musicians of bremen reminds me i still have bremen bon bons at home i should eat those. they r tasty /end]

i wanna specifically dig into this scene more because i love that scene, a lot.

Art as we get to know it in the City is irrevocably tied to violence. Puppets are made of human bodies, music is played on bones and sinews. To the artists of the City, to create art is to make someone suffer. Rewatching Netzach's story bits, Roland describes it as doing nothing but seeking stimulation and being provocative.

Furthermore, there is a direct comparison between art and alcohol. To paraphrase more, the Pianist must've been one hell of a stimulant, like getting hit by a strong booze. A performance some are still hungover from.

Netzach's main struggle was addiction because of depression, and his growing appreciation for art is a continuation of that arc. He says himself that art and alcohol are linked.

However, alcohol is a step down from hard drugs. Netzach hasn't quit, but just that step down shows he learned moderation, which makes me very proud of him.

Moderation is what the other.. let's just call them artists, lack. I said in the screencaps above, initially, Netzach was lost in his own suffering, and the musicians of bremen are lost in their art. And if art is seen as equal to suffering, that just means Netzach and Bremen are more similar than expected. (Especially considering what we see of the musicians previously; they’re always trying to chase the same high they experienced listening to the Pianist by any means necessary. The addiction parallels are not suprising.)

I rewatched most of Netzach's lor scenes, and what rlly gets me is that in his first one, he seems almost the exact same as in lobcorp. He doesn't want to work, he got dragged into this against his will, he feels as if his accomplishments are futile.

But! He eventually invites Roland for drinks. He's not drinking to forget alone anymore, he's doing it as social activity. Furthermore, the more time he spends as Patron Librarian of Arts, the more he grows to appreciate art. Art is tied to suffering, still, but it is an expression of suffering. It does not produce any. Or should not, in any case. He sure wishes it wouldn’t.

So we arrive at his Ensemble Reception. This one makes a rather interesting comparison: art as the pursuit of the light. Let me elaborate.

To quote, “Honestly, I wanna tell people to stop doing the kind of art that requires ‘em to immolate themselves and others. Although, on the other hand... I can kinda see where they’re coming from. Art narrows your vision, after all.

You stop caring about the things around you. That’s how most artists seem to act, I think. And so, you indulge in the craft, not realizing that you’re throwing yourself and your surroundings into the fire you started.”

I pose this: Netzach speaks of his experience as Giovanni. Giovanni was a researcher who, when push came to shove, willingly sacrificed himself to advance the project, in hopes of seeing the light, seeing Carmen, again.

Though he dislikes Bremen’s actions, he does not judge them for it, because he recognized that it would be hypocritical. Even so, what shows that he’s grown is that he.. doesn’t want to see people harm themselves anymore. The focus here isn’t if Bremen hurt other people, which they have, but how much of themselves they’ve given up for their performance. He condemns the act, and not the people.

“If I can see that light once more... If I have to muster up the courage to reach it, I’ll gladly do it. It’s easier said than done, though; you need a lot of fearlessness for it.

And I guess you saw the same kind of light I was so desperate to see, yeah? Even if yours was a twisted creature... [...] Though, I don’t think I can tell you off like the others. At least I can see the reason behind it.”

He even explicitly mentions the light. The funny thing is, both Giovanni and Bremen tried to reach the Seed of Light, and Carmen. It’s tragically hilarious that we know Carmen is the voice the Distortions hear.

Hell, the more I think about it, the more you can just compare the Ensemble as a whole to the Outskirts Lab crew, down to Angelica’s puppet body and Carmen’s desecrated corpse.

“And I know pretty well that we have no right to devilishly pick apart each other’s way of art. I’m not very proud of mine, really...”

Netzach just.. gets it. I can’t remember atm, but I don’t think the other Patron Librarians really draw parallels like that. I’m seeing all the parallels now and I can’t unsee them ever. Bro.

His “art,” his way of protecting the light, is still violent. But he sees that perhaps it didn’t have to be, or rather shouldn’t be. I fucking love Netzach so much. His arc just means a lot to me personally, and I’d wager a lot of people who’ve struggled with mental illness would agree.

I’m not gonna get into Netzach’s floor realization here because this post is already long enough, but like, look at the specific flashback of Angela shown in Netzach’s story bits and contrast it to his arc of learning to want to live, and. Yeah.

[makiema]

Hi! About that one post about objectification in csm, what WAS the purpose? I didn’t think there was any, I thought Denji was that kind of person. I don’t mean this in a mean and derogatory way btw, I’m still kind of confused on some parts and trying to understand better! I just read it recently 😅

hiii anonie the purpose behind the objectification (and yeah you’re right in the beginning denji is a perv it’s not derogatory at all it is true) is to build up the Freudian motif in denji’s arc. this Freudian motif involves stuff Freud said about sexual attachment, repression and the blurring of boundary lines b/w sexual and platonic attachment in the absence of repression. im putting the explanation of how the motif works from the beginning till the end below the cut bc it got a little long

now the first thing we have to keep in mind is that denji is not only a boy who grew up in the absence of his mother so he doesnt know what motherly love/platonic love is he is also a social outcast, uneducated and extremely impoverished which makes him apathetic to society and in a sense, a little wild. so given that he is in puberty his sexual urges are well kind of at their height and also a new thing to him and he is never like schooled and taught to not project those urges onto random women. so ofc whenever he meets a new woman his libido and along w it his head just goes bonkers. now for normal people there’s actually layers of repression going on when it comes to the oedipus complex i.e. feeling a sexual desire for your mother [this is all freudian shit and its not like i believe all this but a large no of authors talk abt this so yeah dont think this is my opinion at all its just a popular psychology theory and also boohoo to freud for forgetting gay ppl] adolescent boys according to freud apparently have an oedipus complex on a subconscious level but thanks to repression [how does repression happen? in society (norms + moral codes) and thru social structures (family, school) we’re taught to separate b/w mother figures, sister figures, friends and lovers] the complex stays on a subconscious level; they don’t consciously project their sexual urges onto a girl who’s family (mother/sister) now contrast this with denji’s situation. none of the layers of repression actually happen in his case bc he never knew a mother and was completely cut off from society. so whenever he meets a girl despite their age or despite what kind of a bond might be possible b/w him and the girl in question he.....feels the need to do sexy stuff. however, over the course of the series we see this changing. first of all let’s sort out the different figures— makima (the mother figure) then power (the sister figure), then himeno (friend/superior figure) and then reze (the lover figure). denji’s bond with all these figures, in the initial phase, involved sexual and pervy stuff so basically a blurring of boundaries when it comes to different kinds of attachment. this same thing happens with shinji in evangelion with misato, rei and asuka. both denji and shinji are boys who never actually knew motherly love which makes it difficult for them to separate platonic and sexual attachment. for normal boys, this happens way before they interact with girls in society because a family structure, where they have a mother and perhaps a sister, teaches them how to distinguish platonic from sexual. so that’s why denji wants sexual intimacy with anyone and everyone and ends up objectifying them. but then in the end, he learns the difference. like when he feels up power but it feels empty. then when makima teaches her that there’s stuff outside “naughty stuff” which would give him emotional fulfilment. and then when he doesnt have sex with himeno because well he says its bc he wants makima to be his first but what he really means is what makima said about getting to know a person for emotional fulfilment prior to this got to him. he doesnt want random sex with women anymore. now he wants physical intimacy as long as there is emotional intimacy too and this happens with reze who is the real lover figure. after this we have the episode with power where they bathe together and theres that weird sex position (when power asks him to drink her blood) but denji says this doesnt feel sexy altho he knows power really well and theres an emotional connection so he learns to separate erotic love from familial love or sisterly love bc with power there is familiarity and comfort but no sexual desire. and in the end we have denji saying he really does love makima even after all that she has done and this time there is no fantasy panel of makima in lingerie cropping up in his mind. he only says he loves her. now this is a pure, platonic love that he feels for makima. it is the love someone has for their parent. makima + power & aki constituted his family (the social structure that puts a repression on wild sexual urges) if aki is the older brother and power the younger sister like makima said then makima is the mother. and this part was confirmed by fujimoto himself he says he named makima “makima” bc if we remove the “ki” it becomes “mama” which is what she is to denji [this is mentioned in the csm wiki] so, the love that he comes to feel for these three is indeed deeper than a frivolous kind of love or a momentary feeling of sexual attachment. also, in the aftermath, once he has grown enough to separate sexual from platonic, once he matures into someone who knows what empathy, affection and familial love is we see him get a daughter figure, Nayuta who is ironically the reincarnation of Makima, the first female figure denji felt sexually attached too. this is the poetic justice of the ending! we have a protagonist who’s fully outgrown his freudian attachment with a mother figure who took care of him and is now responsible for taking care of her instead but in the form of an adopted daughter. so the development kind of comes full circle. denji doesn’t objectify or crave sex with random women anymore and in fact now he’s matured enough to take care of a daughter with whom he has the purest platonic relationship and there’s no sexual connotation at work here like not even on the subconscious level. so yeah that’s why the objectification in the beginning was kinda necessary taking in consideration his pitiable position and also the development that happens through out the course of the manga. it also makes the conclusion to his character arc more potent and satisfactory :) 

[shoezuki]

Tommy's prison/revival arc isnt well written actually

Anyways ive been wanting to talk on it a while for a bit here but havent had the Time or like. The thought to. But im gonna go off now.

First off im gonna say im ASSUMING this stream and plot of tommy being in the prison with dream is written entirely by tommy and dream. Wilbur May be involved in the latest stream but im not sure.

Bringing tommy back to life after only three days of him being dead did practically nothing to progress plot, the characters, or audience's understanding. In fact i feel that it damaged Other characters' potential and plot and already established plotlines.

The 'development' aspect

A really, really easy way to see if anything has changed or developed through an arc or plotline is to straightup just compare the 'beginning' to the 'end' in terms of the barebones situation. So;

Beginning: tommy is trapped in an isolated prison cell with dream, his own abuser who has hurt him in the past, for an unknown amount of time. He's terrified of dream and being stuck there with him.

End: tommy is trapped in an isolated prison cell with dream after being killed then revived by him, his own abuser whos hurt him in the past, for an unknown amount of time. Hes terrified of dream and being stuck there with him.

Okay. This is simplified obvious. But the point stands. ALTHOUGH the troupe of 'going back to the beginning' is common in the heroes journey its. It doesnt work here. Has tommy learned anything? Has he changed as a character? Is the severity of their situation any different? Have we, as the audience, learned anything new?

Im going to expand on that last point because i think it has the strongest potential argument. Technically for progression in literature and development of plot/characters, things can Change without them being Aware as characters. It can change just by the audience's perception changing or being challenge.

Slight example: i've been reading a webcomic called Your Throne. Its a fantasy/political drama about a noble lady who entered a competition with another noble lady to become the empress. The main lady lost despite her being a better fit, and the comic starts with the main lady trying to assassinate the empress. Its assumed and stated by the main lady that she 'ruined her life' and so thats all the readers know. However, later in the novel we see flashbacks to the competition itself and find that the two ladies were extremely close friends, neither wanting anything bad for the other, but it was the emperor himself who manipulated both of them for his own agenda. Those flashbacks gave us an entirely different idea of who the real antagonist is and completely changed the two main ladies' relationship. THAT is how the audience's understanding of the plot and novel can be used to change the entire story. We dont get such here though

Some things that were brought to light during tommy being dead/revived:

Dream is capable of reviving people infinitely

This was already implicated and assumed. The book dream has being a means of reviving people has been around Technically since schlatt's death. This just 'confirmed' what was known

Time works differently/feels longer in the afterlife

This doesnt really impact much beyond emotions and implications. If we had more insight into what the 'afterlife' is like beyond nothingness perhaps so. But really it just makes it so wilbur being dead for what feels like 9 years and tommy having been dead for 2 months appeal to emotions.

Wilbur is evil

This one fuckin sucks i cant lie HSKSHSISSGEGDV. Like i was gon go on bout it and i will but it jus sucks. We have nothing to go on besides tommy's word, no examlles of what Horrible things wilbur said could make tommy assume this, etcetc. Ill most likely make a seperate post on how this feels like we're just going to get 'wilbur is a horrible villain' type with him. But still. I feel wilbur Not Being Good isnt a new development.

Dream is going to revive wilbur

This doesnt feel new either, part because phil had wanted to revive wilbur before (ill get to that more later) and that tommy had kept dream alive/initially imprisoned him with the idea of him reviving wilbur.

Dream believes wilbur will break him out of prison

Okau this makes no sense to me actually. I cwnt understand How exactly wilbur would be able to do this? Or why dream believes he even Could? Mans been dead for like 9 years and all we Know of the afterlife is that its black... nothingness. How would 9 years of that make wilbur capable of busting the prison open?

So. Yeah. All in all this plotline hasnt done anything new, developed things, or altered people's perceptions. We just ended up back at square one. Back to tommy being traumatized, dream being 'evil' and horrible and doing villain monologues, and them being stuck together.

Other characters and plotlines

Im pretty damn sure tommy's revival fucked up a LOT of other characters' plotlines and potential development. Honestly i feel this has a lot to do with the writers not communicating with other ccs well enough. But Ill talk about specific characters from least to most fucked over in my opinion:

Sam

He's the best off. He hqd been there during tommy's death, had been close to tommy, had majorly blamed himself and his own mistakes for tommy's death. His grief and self hatred was actually really heartbreaking and well done. The attached character of Sam Nook being unaware of tommy's death and simply waiting for tommy to return was a really good parallel to sam's own grief and anger. like it really snapped sam the guy who cares for tommy and wants to do Right by him back together with him as the Warden of the prison. Mixed personal life with 'just business'.

I feel it wouldve been nice to have him like. Have more time to grieve properly and come to terms eith tommy's death and his own involvement/influence over the events. Him finding tommy alive again Could be a means of him like. Facing his own grief head on if done well.

Ranboo

Mostly in the context of him and sam's argument do i feel it got screwed over. The weight of them yelling at each other and trying to find who to blame and the implications that Maybe ranboo was the one who caused the security breach that closed down the prison on tommy just.... doesnt hit so hard anymore. Because how can there be blame and arguments and a 'who done it' mystery when tommy popped up all fine again?

Puffy

I dony know much of her involvement or how she found out tommy died (besides metagaming shhhhh) but i saw her monologuing of how they 'failed' tommy and like. Her whole 'he was so young we the Adults failed him' spiel is like........... inconsequential? Now??? Like no dont worry he died but hes alright now.

Philza

BET YOU DIDNY EXPECT TO SEE THIS FUCKER!!!!!! But actually though i want to talk bout how this ties into phil. A LOT. for Zalbr ❤. But also because i see ppl tying phil to tommy's death n like nah shutup u doin it wrong. Ill go off more in a Wilbur Post. But essentially: i dont like that dream is now going to revive wilbur. I feel they arent going to tie philza into this Despite phil having originally been trying to revive his son and studying on it and Attempting and Failing. But now suddenly dream can just. Say some magic words and Poof wilbur lives? So we're just going to Kill philza's revival attempts plotline and leave that hanging? This made his efforts seem pointless and Wack like oh why didnt you just Say The Magic Words phil????

Niki

I feel really bad for niki. She hasnt been able to do a lore stream during tommy's 'death' (she tweeted she wanted to but her computer wasnt working) and considering her entire character.... that shit is important. We seen it with Jack Manifold how tommy's death impacted Him considering he literally wanted tommy dead. And since niki is in a similar boat to jack of trying to kill tommy and it being her Only goal...... thats extremely important.

BUT. i feel there wasnt any communication. Did she or anyone even know tommy would be revived? Did no one consider they could At Least let her do a single stream on it? Like jack manifold????

We couldve gotten a Really good niki lore stream. I genuinely was so excited for it and i dont regularly watch her. But we seen it with jack manifold which is why i dont feel he got screwed because mans genuinely did So Good he could pop off with anything n i think it works in His favour. But now........ for niki. Canonically she never even knew tommy was Dead. So its like nothing even happened for her. Is she just supposed to continue on trying to kill tommy with no progression?

What i think would work

This is more me being like 'hey @ the dsmp writers let me in' type speculation sbosegussgs. But i was thinkin on a Really easy way to 'fix' this without rewriting lore and the streams.

Dream should kill tommy again now that he's been revived and Leave Him Dead.

More development for the characters who are affected by his death Especially niki. More time for grief and self reflection and development

A chance for the audience to figure out what the 'afterlife' really is.

Dream is supposed to be smart and a master manipulator or something right? Why doesnt he use being able to revive tommy as a bargaining chip with sam for his own freedom?

The audience would now Know dream's intentions with tommy better, that this death isnt 'final', but we could still see other characters' grief and reactions and coping without it feeling cheap. Ive seen some 'but people dont know tommy is alive so hes still dead in their mind' but that sucks imo.

We'd know more on dream's ability to revive people and that he can just Do It on a whim (which i think sucks but hey im trying) but no one else would know this canonically

Okay. Im done. If you read this. Thankyou. I love you. Hmu.

[duskdragonxiii]

dusky in what ways do you think therapy would help q4?

I'll be honest i dont know the exact benefits of therapy ive only had counselling a couple of times bc it was free and i was on the brink but i do have so many many thoughts DJSKLBF

Every character in vanguard has thier own issues and while some of them are nuanced some of them are really really obvious

Aichi is very clearly depressed it's not even subtle and as someone who's been through situations that make Aichi's story relatable I think therapy is something he really needs but I've stressed before that Aichi even goes through relapses and such. Vanguard is what's helping him through it its the closest he's getting to therapy. Maybe it's from being bullied in school but Aichi has serious self esteem issues and the core of Vanguard is imagining yourself as the best version of yourself- It's really not a subtle message. Kai brought him into the world of Vanguard and it completely changed his life. Slowly but surely. Even his family note how happy he becomes after getting into vanguard and meeting Kai again. The development on aichis part is really slow but in fairness depression is just like that.

Misaki canonically has PTSD after the death of her parents (this was more severe in V series but at the same time it felt really brushed over which is a real shame) and similar to Aichi was depressed and had little interest in anything before being dragged kicking and screaming into a game she was so scared of. Once again Vanguard is the key to getting through- not over- her issues and she's far happier with her life now.

Kamui is easy to overlook bc he's younger and isn't as clearly distressed as the rest of the team but I think he has serious social issues. He's a popular kid among his peers and he thrives on enthusiasm but he's also vulnerable in his own way. He's intimidated by change and finds it hard to understand other people I think. He has a hard time feeling he belongs with people. One of those people who has so many friends but rarely lets any of them close. He found where he belongs in Q4 and thats why when he finds Kai hard to deal with he finds is especially hard. It's really hard to say what Kamui's issues are tbh but I don't doubt therapy would benefit him too. (I hc he has adhd and dyslexia but that's more of a me thing) Kai in particular has serious issues with running and hiding from his problems. He acts all cool in order to push people away. Obviously he's already fucked up from his parents death and the first person who got him to open up after that was of course Ren (and Tetsu) unfortunately as a result he didn't realize how high a pedestal he was putting Ren on that it absolutely shattered him when Ren turned out to not be the person he had been in his imagination (Don't give me any of that he changed bc of psyqualia thing, that's a metaphor and you know it and you're missing the whole point) and instead of trying to accept Ren as he was he ran away. This is addressed again in the Psyqualia Aichi arc when Aichi starts to get lost in his own power- giving Kai the painful reminder when once again someone he's connecting to might not be the flawless and innocent person he imagined them to be. The difference is, Aichi brought him close to a whole lot of other people and Aichi himself made him realize that he can't keep running and that's what brings him to his senses and able to face it.

Not Q4 but relevant; Ren has abandonment issues probably due to his shitty parents (although this is only really established in V series where things are quite different but i still think that's the case in the og) so when Kai didn't approve of his new self and worst of all walked away without even saying goodbye it sent him over the edge and he became the nasty and aggressive cardfighter we know him as in season 1- all because he wants Kai to come back to him. He has a single minded OBSESSION with Kai that's really not healthy- and while after season 1 he starts to get better he never truely lets go.

Kai and Ren could BOTH get over their issues if they would just talk about it but unfortunately they both have issues with communication that make it impossible- hence why cardfight is so important to them now. with thier imagination and putting thier true selves in this game it gives them something in common and a way to communicate through all the issues they have with eachother and at the end of LM though it's been really slow its clear that they ARE healing. It may sound silly, but Kai making an off comment about how he doesn't like the way Ren is dressed is a BIG thing for him. I could analyse this moment till the cows come home because its the first time Kai manages to express himself with words, clumsy as it is. What "I don't like the old you" really means below the surface is I know and accept that you have changed. And Ren's playful response being "Then you like me as i am now?" while he is being playful that in itself means I'm still not the person you want me to be I will never be that again but I'm happy that you can finally see me as I am. It's really important to me....

Anyway Sorry for this ramble i really feel strongly about cfv LOL welcome to my KaiRen agenda--