#and also from several analysis that I got from other ppl

[rubywolf0201]

YOU GUYS DON’T UNDERSTAND LIGHTER! LIGHTER PRESENTS TO HIMSELF AS THE COOL, STOIC BODYGUARD TO THE LEADER OF THE SONS OF CALYDON! HE PRESENTS HIMSELF AS A SUPPORTING BACKGROUND CHARACTER TO THE SONS OF CALYDON! HE SEES IT AS A DEBT AND REPAYMENT FOR BIG DADDY AS A WAY OF BRINGING HIM OUT OF THE HELLHOLE THAT IS THE FIGHTING ARENA WHERE HE IS TREATED AS A CIRCUS ANIMAL! LIGHTER PRESENTED HIMSELF AS SOMEONE WHO HAS MOVED ON AND MADE PEACE WITH HIS PAST AS EVIDENCE WITH HIS TALK WITH BELLUM IN 1.2 AND EVEN ANDREAS IN HIS HIS AGENT STORY BUT IN REALITY HE IS STILL A BROKEN MAN IN THE INSIDE. HE NEVER GOT CLOSE TO ANY OF THE GIRLS ON A PERSONAL LEVEL NOR DOES HE EVER TELL THEM OF THE DANGERS DESPITE ALL OF THEM BEING CAPABLE FIGHTERS OF THEIR OWN IS BECAUSE HE IS SCARED OF LOSING THEM LIKE HIS OLD COMRADES. YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW HE FELT WHEN SOME RANDOM GRUNT OUTED HIS PAST AS AN UNDERGROUND FIGHTER AKA THE TIMES WHERE HE WAS PUT AS SOME CIRCUS ANIMAL FOR ENTERTAINMENT AND THIS GOT MADE PUBLIC TO CAESAR, BURNICE, LUCY AND THE PROXY SIBLINGS, WHICH DISTRESSES LIGHTER BECAUSE HE DOESN’T WANT THEM TO KNOW ABOUT IT. WHEN CAESAR TRIED TO DELIVER THE SPARKSTONE TO AN ETHER CORRUPTED CINDER LAKE, NOTICE HOW THE CAMERA SHOWS LIGHTER’S REACTION FIRST WAY BEFORE LUCY! HE KNEW THAT CAESAR IS GOING TO DO A MOVE THAT IS GOING TO GET HER KILLED AND SO BOTH HE AND LUCY TRIED TO STOP HER! AND WHEN HE THOUGHT THAT CAESAR DIED, HE TOOK OFF HIS SHADES BECAUSE ALL THIS TIME IT SYMBOLIZES HOW HE HIDES HIS TRUE FEELINGS ALL THIS TIME. WHEN HE THOUGHT THAT CAESAR DIED, REALITY SUNK IN THAT HE FAILED TO PROTECT SOMEONE CLOSE TO HIM! YET HE PUT ASIDE HIS OWN FEELING TO COMFORT LUCY, SOMEONE WHO IS CLOSE TO CAESAR, HE CHOSE TO PRIORTIZE SOMEONE ELSE’S FEELINGS OVER HIS OWN. HE TRIES TO STAY STRONG FOR THE SAKE OF LUCY! WHEN THE PROXY ALERTED THEM OF DANGER, LIGHTER WAS PREPARED TO FIGHT BACK BECAUSE HE DOESN’T WANT TO LOSE SOMEONE ELSE AGAIN AFTER THE PRESUMED DEATH CAESAR BUT THANKFULLY CAESAR MANAGED TO COME OUT UNHARMED DUE TO SHEER LUCK! HAVE YOU EVER NOTICED THAT DESPITE SPENDING TIME WITH THE GIRLS, GOING OUT ON ERRANDS TO BUY THEIR STUFF AND EVEN HUMORING TIME, NONE OF THEM EVER GOT TO KNOW LIGHTER PERSONALLY?! HE NEVER ONCE SHOW HIS VULNERABLE SIDE TO ANY OF THEM BECAUSE HE DOESN’T WANT TO BURDEN THEM?! AND LET IT STAY THIS WAY BECAUSE HE WANTS TO BE THE CHAMPION FOR THE SONS OF CALYDON! HE RATHER TAKE OUT THE PROBLEMS THE GIRLS HAVE ALL ON HIS OWN! BECAUSE DEEP DOWN, HE LOVES THEM! HE DOESN’T WANT TO LOSE THEM THE SAME WAY HE LOST HIS COMRADES. IF HE LOST THEM, THEN WHAT WAS THE POINT OF HIM BEING ALIVE?! LIKE LIGHTER, THE RED SCARF OF THE SONS OF CALYDON IS HARBOURING SU*CID3 THOUGHTS BECAUSE OF THE FACT THAT HE IS THE ONLY MEMBER ALIVE! HE IS STILL TRYING TO PIECE HIMSELF BACK TOGETHER! HIS FINAL TRUST RANK HAS HIM REQUEST THE PROXY TO NOT TELL ANYONE FROM THE SONS OF CALYDON ABOUT IT! HE DOESN’T WANT ANY OF THE GIRLS OR BIG DADDY TO KNOW! YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW EVEN THOUGH HE SEES THE GANG AS A WAY TO REPAY THE DEBT BIG DADDY DID FOR HIM, HE WANTS TO BE CLOSER TO THE GIRLS BUT HE DOESN’T WANT TO OUT OF FEAR AND ALSO DUE TO THE TRAUMA HE SUFFERED!!! YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW THERE ARE TIMES WHERE HAS DOUBTS ABOUT HIS LIFE DECISIONS AND CONTEMPLATING ABOUT THE CHOICES HE MADE!

TLDR; LIGHTER IS FUNDAMENTALLY A BROKEN MAN BENEATH THE TITLE OF THE CHAMPION FOR THE SONS OF CALYDON!

[rainsoftenings]

pls give us ur analysis on transfem nonbinary tenma 🤲

hello ken!! of coarse... preemptive disclaimer before anything else that i myself am not transfem nor do i claim to speak for them. i have just simply observed that a lot of the problems tenma seems to face are also rlly common transfem-specific issues. you can make a fairly strong argument for a transfem tenma reading imo. putting this under a cut bc it got kind of Long

ok in order to talk abt this. we have to talk abt eva. i am not naive enough to write off eva as all bad bc she DOES have redeeming qualities and is not to blame for everything that happened to them. but i do think eva was uniquely bad for their already poor self-esteem and that they likely latched onto eva as hard as they did in order to feel Normal. from the information we are given abt their childhood both in the main story and in Another Monster, as well as lunge's observations that they don't even fit in among other japanese people, it's clear tenma has felt marginalized and/or stripped of agency for a very, very long time. their family dynamic (cold mother who openly favored their half-siblings over them, father who pressured them to become a doctor for his own personal gain. their only sibling who still talks to them only does so bc he wants them to take his job) as well as their willingness to bond with people who hurt them (it is specifically mentioned that they made friends with their childhood bullies, who called them a sissy and left them alone in the woods. this only happened bc they were impressed with tenma's bravery in staying out overnight) seems to have led them to minimize their own desires and become extremely meek. arguably them fleeing to germany in order to escape their father's desire to have them work at his hospital was their best attempt at fighting this, but it backfired bc the heinemanns immediately picked up on their vulnerabilities and exploited them.

back to eva. where udo preying on tenma's insecurities and desire for approval was certainly intentional, the worst part abt their relationship with eva is that i dont even think eva was consciously aware of what she was doing to them/their feelings in general. she is very much a person whose life was meticulously laid out for her in advance and when it diverged from this plan she ended up at a complete loss. her insistence that they did "everything she asked" (with the sexual implication being extremely obvious) as well as them acquiescing to doing things they don't like in order to feel worthy of her love (to the point of even letting her pick out their outfits!)... well, it reads a LOT like comptop to me. it seems very similar to the relationship between trianon and oenone from serious weakness at times; though they differ in several key aspects, it's clear that when they got together both tenma and eva were looking at each other more symbolically than holistically. to tenma, eva was the normalcy and love they so desperately craved; to eva, tenma was supposed to not only be subservient to her (bc she cant imagine not being doted on), they were also supposed to be the Husband and rake in lots of money for the hospital, in essence putting them to the same end as their father initially wanted for them without consideration if that's what they actually want. losing eva causes tenma to get a fuller picture of who she rlly is very quickly, but it takes eva So much longer to do the same for them. and the heartbreaking thing abt this is that even though eva backstabs them several times and makes attempts on their life, whenever she's in danger they instantly go to great lengths to save her. it's second nature to them

this damaging selflessness doesnt extend to just eva, either- it's arguably the entire basis of their character. i think it's very interesting (read: sad) that in addition to their kindness simply biting them in the ass multiple times/tenma deliberately disallowing themself anger and smoothing over relations with ppl who have betrayed them in the past bc theyre so desperate for anyone to be their friend or ally, this is nearly always paired with bodily neglect. we literally see tenma struggle to eat consistently over the course of the manga, from smth as simple as a waitress deliberately offering them extra soup when she sees that theyve not eaten anything, to stuff as dramatic as them collapsing in prison from lack of food and sleep and needing hospitalization. im tempted to highlight the contrast between grimmer having a picnic with them out of nowhere and eva deliberately ruining the picnic they tried to have with her too but i feel like that's fairly well trodden ground analytically, but it still deserves a mention here. they are notably more gaunt by the end of the series than they were when they started out, i think it's most obvious when you see they've cut their hair back to its original length and it serves to emphasize that they'll never be the same person again. i think it's also noteworthy (though certainly unintentional) that urasawa uses them growing out their stubble as a marker that their mental health is yet again at its lowest. i am reminded of the time i took a dissociation test and it gave me a result that ppl with eating disorders typically score. i don't think i have one, just dysphoria, but with tenma it seems a lot like both at once.

put all together, and given the themes of the manga? i dont think transition would save tenma. not even close. but they should do it anyway if only because it would be an easy way for them to start being kinder to themself again, a skill they badly need to learn. if they could just take that first step toward giving themself a little mercy i think they would be a lot happier with themself. they already have two kids who love them completely unconditionally, i think having that extra support would be great for them! and also i think they're hot and i'd like to see ppl draw (NORMAL, NON RACIST) art of them in dresses and with sweaty small boobs and so on. Sue me ngl the nonbinary part is simply bc i think theyd feel some distance from womanhood after having been excluded from society in multiple ways for so long, that little extra bit of dehumanization tends to manifest in weird ways wrt ppl's internal perception of gender. and imo theyd be so tired by the end of everything that i highly doubt theyd enjoy being thrust into an entirely new set of gendered pressures and just want to skip the whole business. but i am open to any and all permutations of transfem tenma. i want them to be happy!! in conclusion:

[gold-rhine]

Sub! Heizou x GN Dom! Reader

A\N: Repost bc my previous blog got shadowbanned.

Warnings: nsfw, overstim, slight degradation, spanking, leash play, anal sex, cock stands for strap\cock as usual.

Wordcount: 3k

I don’t think there needs to be a lot of analysis to justify Heizou being a sub, it’s fairly intentionally in your face in both hangout and ahem, birthday “yawning” art, because that’s the most most obvious bottom “O-face” since Gorou’s “moaning and tearing up over the bowl of onions” emoji.

Like in two endings he straight up says out loud his confidence is partly a facade and he’d really love for someone else to sometimes step up and take the charge, but no one does bc ppl think he’s too smart.

”Haha, well, as you might see, I’m a little less confident than people might think.”

“And everyone around me thinks I’m so smart that I should be able to handle every case on my own.<...> But you’re different. Unlike them, you don’t have that kind of prejudice towards me. <...> So I’d like you to decide whether we should expose the truth or not.”

He’s not a pushover and he’s not a pillow princess-y type, but he’s also not a brat. He’ll encourage you to take the lead and won’t criticize your choices, but he will *evaluate them*.

First of all, on how well you’re keeping up with his hyperactive ADHD goblin nature, and second, he’ll leave the unspoken puzzle and see if you’ll manage to figure it out.

He’s open for experimentation and fairly shameless, but how far he’ll go pretty much depends on if he judges you competent enough for this.

Like, meeting him in the hangout starts with him openly calling Traveler “so dreamy”, and then he lets the Traveler decide what course of action to take, but only divulges hidden information after the Traveler showed that they have a deeper understanding of a situation and connected several puzzle dots themselves.

His inner conflict is when it’s immoral or not to withhold information and does it depend on how capable a person given this information is. The law does not really factor into this, Heizou will act on his own principles instead.

Like in the hangout case he only tells the Traveler that he will follow their choice (see above) after the Traveler presents him with the evidence and proves they have sound judgment.

So he’d *LIKE* to let someone else make decisions, but he wants to make sure that someone else is qualified. So he won’t like outright lie, but he will withhold context if you don’t show him that you get it.

Then he can get quite clingy, like telling Traveler that he’d love to have them as a partner all the time, haha he’s joking, he wouldn’t want to be so greedy…UNLESS???

In a situation where he does trust the other person’s competence, he likes to feel helpless, overpowered and needy, if you indulge him in it. His ideal situation is where you understand that he’s smart and capable himself and he doesn’t strictly need you to take charge, but would enjoy it.

He wants to have fun without anyone making it too weird, and he wants to know you have a clear head on your shoulders, that’s it.

One day while you’re walking down the street near your home, a group of obvious miscreants runs by and a young man in white shirt and brown shorts follows them. The last of ruffians shoves him while they’re running past you and you catch him to stop him from hitting a corner of a house with his head. When the bandit looks back, you instinctively shield a man in your arms with your shoulder, and the bandit obviously judges it not worth the trouble, runs away.

When you look at the man you’re holding, he’s looking up at you with a wide smile, bright green eyes twinkling.

“Oh, thank you, my savior!”

“I didn’t do anything,” you say, putting him upright. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, sure, I’m fine!” he suddenly pauses, looks you over and says in a weaker tone, leaning into you. “I mean, I’m a little not fine, nothing major, but perhaps if someone could look after me for just a little bit?...”

You take him to get coffee just to keep an eye on him and end up talking for hours. His name is Heizou, he’s flirty, fun and cute, has ruffled mauve hair and little twin moles under his eyes, asks more questions than he’d like to answer about himself, wears a choker and a shirt that leaves his sides bare, and would very obviously love to get dommed from how he talks to you. But you cannot in good conscience take advantage of him now, because his eagerness might be an effect from the shock, so you let him go.

Day later you talk with a neighbor and he mentions how the young detective who from his words meets Heizou’s description just caught a group of pickpockets.

“Detective, huh?” you ask out loud, and some things that didn’t make sense before fall into place. Like an exaggerated weak affect and how eagerly he pushed himself on you.

Couple of days after you walk into a confrontation in one of the secluded courtyards on the way to your home. There’s Heizou and opposite of him a group headed by the large white-haired oni. It looks incredibly awkward and staged.

“Oh, it’s my savior again!” Heizou says coquettishly, smiling at you. “Hello there! It seems you’re just in time to save me once again.”

“From what?” you say calmly, crossing your arms.

“From being mugged, of course.”

“So these guys need to be arrested, huh?”

A tall oni starts shifting nervously, looking back and forth from you to Heizou.

“Hey, hey, we didn’t agree on…”

A green-haired woman elbows him and he stumbles.

“I mean, you can’t arrest us, we’re big bad bandits, rawr!”

You ignore him, looking Heizou straight in the eyes. He pauses for a second, then pretends to be fainting in your direction. You catch him, rolling your eyes. Green-haired woman punches the oni in his side and they run away with the entire group.

“Oh, thank you,” Heizou says, looking artistically disheveled in your arms.

“No problem, Detective,” you say coldly and he tenses, straightens up.

“So you know…”

“Yeah. And I don’t appreciate being played for a fool.”

“Listen, it’s not like that… It’s just that I... I wanted you to treat me like a sub, but you didn’t do anything after we first met, and I thought maybe if you see me in an even weaker state...”

“I didn’t do anything because you seemed too irrational from shock. If you just told me the truth that you’re detective and were fine, you’d be spread on my bed few nights ago.“

He blushes, but his green eyes light up.

“I would? Oh, I mean, I am fine and we cleared the misunderstandings, so?... Um? About spreading?“

You shake your head, narrowing your eyes.

“Only come to me if you’re ready to drop your bullshit. I’m sure you can figure out how to find me, Detective.“

“Hey there!” he’s bouncing on your threshold a day after with the widest obnoxious smile, and you wouldn’t see the tinge of nervousness under it if you weren't paying attention. “So you said I can come if I dropped the bullshit and um, you can pat me over, including cavity search if you want, to make sure I haven’t got any on me”

You roll your eyes, hooking your fingers under his choker, pull him close and kiss him. He stumbles for a second, but then melts, throws his arms around your neck and presses against you. You can feel him getting hard as you pull him towards the bedroom and then throw him roughly onto the bed. He looks up, his green eyes sparkling in delight.

“Cavity search?” you say incredulously, crawling over him to slide your hands under his shirt and pulling off both of his layers. “That was terrible.”

“I know, I know, I panicked,” he moves his arms to help you get the shirt off, then pulls frantically at the ties of the armguards. “I was going to say you have a search warrant, but somehow it turned into a cavity search.”

“You’re lucky you’re so cute,” you grin against his cheek and pull his pants and underwear off in one smooth motion. He gasps, and when you grab his ankles and forcefully spread his legs, he blushes but looks you straight in the eye, already fully hard and breathless in excitement.

“I am? I mean, of course I am, but do tell me more about it.”

You kiss him instead, roam your hands over his slender body, and he arches under you, moans against your mouth. You slide your hand down, close it over hard, twitching cock and he whines, bucks his hips against your palm.

“Oh yeah,” he whispers feverishly. “Yes... Don’t be afraid to treat me rough…”

“Oh trust me, I won’t,” you grope his leaking cock and balls in your hand, firmly like you own them, and he whines sweetly, looking up at you with excitement in half-narrowed eyes. When you slide your hand down and circle his entrance, he comes immediately, pressing himself against you.

You chuckle, kissing him.

“In my defense, I spent some long nights imagining you touching me, so I’m not taking criticisms on how quick I came,“ he mutters, squirming under you, cheeks blushing brightly.

You grin and stand up, moving away.

“Well, you’re not getting away that easily, kitten. I’ll be back shortly.“

When you walk back to the bed, he has finished taking off the last piece of the guard and is waiting for you, naked except for the elbow-high fishnet gloves and a choker.

“I have something that I think you would like,” you smirk, showing him a leash and he gasps, visibly lighting up.

“Have you thought about becoming a detective yourself? That’s spot on.”

“It wasn’t a very hard deduction to make,” you hook your fingers under his choker, lifting him up, and he follows, grinning under the bitten lip. He’s so lovely in how blushing and eager he is while you’re closing the leash on his neck, looking up at you from under the ruffled bangs.

You turn him around, so that he leans against the bedrest and he giggles, settling down on his knees.

“Oh, great, I wasn’t sure how to breach the subject of… consequences of being naughty.”

“You don’t try playing hard to get, do you?” you grin, slide your hand from his intentionally arched back to caress smooth skin of the perky ass, obviously and eagerly presented for you.

“No, why, would you want me to?” he shoots you a sharp glance over the shoulder, analytical even now.

“No,” you say pleasantly and slap his ass, hard. He gasps, shudders, but arches even more, presses quickly reddening, tender flesh harder against your hand. You spread him and run your fingers between his legs.“I like it when you’re being open.”

“I don’t see the point in denying the obvious,” he says, still sounding mostly collected, if a little breathless in excitement. “And if I don’t show what I want, how will I get it?”

You strike his ass again, several times in a row, until it’s blooming red and he’s whining quiet and sweet, then you stroke it.

“Very logical of you,” you say, squeezing his sensitive ass while he’s squirming needily under your hands, and kiss the sharp curve of his shoulder, move his ruffled hair aside and get to his neck. “Unlike the stunt you tried to pull earlier.”

“Oh well, I miscalculated,” he says airly. “And it’s not as if I was trying to deceive you, it’s that I know that once people hear who I am they misjudge… the way I’d want to be treated. So I just wanted to make sure you get the right impression.”

You tug on the leash, pulling him close, his back against your chest. He gasps, arches his back and rubs his ass against you.

“Or you could’ve just said so honestly, you dumbass,” you run your hand over his chest down, close it over his cock and kiss him, still tugging on the leash. He kisses you back, eager and a little sloppy, rocks his hips, rutting against your palm.

“Well, taking your advice on speaking openly,” he whispers breathlessly after breaking a kiss, his eyelashes fluttering against your cheek. “I’m close again and I want to come from you fucking me.”

“Good boy.”

You pull him into your lap, over the strap\cock, and he squirms, straddling your knees. You catch his chin, while he’s lowering himself over onto the head of your cock, make him meet your eyes, his own hazy green, cheeks bright in blush, pink lips half-open and taking short feverish breaths. You put your hands on his hips and push him all the way down until you’re fully buried in him, and he moans, shuddering and arching in your arms.

“Ah! Oh yes, yeah, like that, oh fuck…”

He rides you, his hips moving rhythmically and his hard cock bouncing against his stomach, but when you close your hand over it, he whines, digs his fingers into your shoulders.

“Please, no, I’ll come too soon if you touch me…”

You let him go and chuckle, pepper kisses over his neck, chest, lick over his pink hardened nipple, while he’s whimpering pleas and fucking himself on your cock.

“You’re really such a slut, aren’t you?”

“Yes, fuck, I love it, I love how your cock feels inside of me, please…”

You tug on his leash, making him arch, suck on the tender juncture between his shoulder and neck. He comes just like that, screaming, his movements turning frantic. You push him down on his back, roll over him without taking your cock out.

“Can you take any more, kitten?”

“Yes.. yes, please keep fucking me,” he’s trembling under you, but says this firmly, looks you in the eye without hesitation, his ass clenching around you. “Use me like I’m your toy…”

You lift his legs up, pressing his knees against his chest, exposing his ass and thighs, still pink from spanking. You can see his oversensitive red cock getting hard just from being spread and exposed like that, and when you thrust deeply into him, he screams and tries to lift himself off the bed, writhing under you. You grip his hips and fuck him hard, hitting his prostate, until his mouth is going slack and his eyes roll over, his pleas turn into incoherent moans and whimpers.

You lean down, cock buried deep inside him, kiss the corner of his mouth. He whines, his arms tightening around your shoulders and his hips rolling to take you even deeper.  

“You've been very good, kitten,” you whisper against his parted lips, his green eyes glittering with held tears. “Come for me, baby.”

He comes after a few thrusts, clutching at you, and you fuck him through it until he goes limp. Then you slide out of him, let him curl against you, his chest heaving, trying to catch his breath. You hold him and gently stroke his hair until he stops shivering, giving him time to come to senses before you’ll move to clean up.

“How fast will you want me to leave?” he asks, quietly, but his voice is firm, neutral. “I know I can be annoying in large doses, so if you need me to get out, I can…”

You silence him with a kiss, slow and sweet to calm him down. “It’s okay, kitten, you don’t annoy me. Don’t worry about it, just rest.”

He freezes for a second and then suddenly presses himself desperately against you, clutches at your shoulders. You stroke his hair, neck, sharp knobs of his spine soothingly, whisper sweet nothings in his ear until his body relaxes. He rubs his cheek against your chest and looks up with a cheeky grin.

“I am lucky that I’m cute, huh?”

[drawnaghht]

btw, if you liked my post analysing just the magnet "holsters" in Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles, I'm eventually gonna post more outfit description/analysis! just cuz I've already been writing some longer descriptions for a while now - that's one of my fave things to research and write about, since it can be good art reference for my own drawings, and especially since I can go through the episodes looking for anything new to write down or connect :)

Also, thank you so much for the replies on my post! LOVING the reactions I'm seeing on it, I didn't expect this to do numbers at all but I'm pleased people enjoy reading me ramble about details in a show I like haha xD I don't usually get replies on my other fandom posts, so this is very surprising, even here. I'm touched!

Replies below! :)

@ranarenee - I already replied to you on the original post, but I genuinely just wanted to feature this comment cuz I'm glad ppl are having a positive reaction to this post xD

I also think it was probably a bit easier to animate them! in addition, because it provides an interesting change of technology in the world of Usagi Chronicles, it means that it might have become more interesting to design this hypothetical descendant-world. I'm sure they might have also just thought it was an interesting and unique element of what they were making, but from Art Director Khang Le and Stan Sakai's CBCC interview, and the SDCC@ Home 2021 panel I remember it was mentioned a few times how many clever things they found to make the production spending smaller on the more trivial things.... so the magnetic holsters feels like a thing that might have hit many birds with one stone, so-to-speak. You have the easier drawing of boards and maybe a few things made lighter for the 3D crew (no extra models or rope to animate, for example), but you also have a pleasing design element to give the main fighters in the cast - Usagi, Gen and Chizu - as well as other characters who would happen to wear weapons on their person aside from Karasu-Tengu. Like mentioned in the post, Kitsune is an interesting exception here, because of course, she's based on UY Kitsune who is also not a direct fighter or anything, but also, the world of SR appears to be at peace of some sort, and it's mentioned several times that there were wars at some point, so not many ordinary citizens of Neo would even have these unless they wanted to use or carry weapons every day. Kitsune wants to blend in with this ordinary citizenry and does so quite well.

I just thought of this today and I guess my post sort of mentioned it, but this existence of the magnets also seems to imply some hierarchy of income or money flow. Kitsune doesn't have any because she doesn't need them and she wouldn't spend money she doesn't have on them anyway. Chizu is Lady Fuwa's favourite student despite how she treats her - and gets the best undercover gear, so like Gen and Usagi, custom magnets. I suspect also that Chizu deliberately somehow got herself assigned to the temple-job (headcanon for now), or perhaps hoped it would be something like that, because she didn't want to get any of the more victim-heavy missions the Neko Ninja do. Gen obviously has spent his own money on the holsters and they are there out of pure practicality - can't be a bounty-hunter without wepons, can you? So the magnets seem more like they're ordinary but custom for the outfit. And Usagi, as discussed before, possibly inherited them because of the clan mon adorning the inlay of the magnet.

@kinokothere - thank you!! I will probably continue making posts like this even if I have no audience! why I made this blog at first was to collect my SRTUC fandom theories and drawings under a more organized platform compared to twitter, where this specific fan-account started. I now write almost explusively about SRTUC so you can bet I have way fewer notes than if I wrote about shipping or something else popular for example xD

Thank you @0yasumi-0-ya-su-mi! it's a fun little world-building detail that I really liked when I started wtaching and I hope other fans also include it more in their work x3

@umhuhwellthen x3 thank you!! i love seeing reactiong tags like this one!

[voiceofsword]

everyday i wake up and remember that Rinne got flustered when Shinobu genuinely told him that he was genius.... i have many crazyb scenarios floating in my head because of this info

its like. your telling me that all it takes is for rinne's unitmates to say ONE genuine compliment towards him to make him short circuit and lose the act ??? and your telling me niki has NOT taken advantage of this???? COULD YOU IMAGINE THE POWER HE WOULD HAVE IF NIKI JUST KNEW THIS INFORMATION???

i hc that rinne's unitmates (esp niki) will just randomly give him a genuine compliment just to see him flustered and be the one embarrassed for once, like some strange sort of karma or something

OK LOL THIS IS MY SECOND TIME WRITING THIS, I WROTE OUT A WHOLE ASS ESSAY AND TUMBLR DECIDED TO WIPE IT CLEAN....I WROTE LIKE 600 WORDS WITH SCREENCAPS AND EVERYTHING THE FIRST TIME and now its 1.5k words. 

ANYWAYS YES YES YES ANON.... I TOTALLY AGREE i think about this a lot.. asobi club my beloved. i also think the crazyb scenarios have SOOO much potential and i loooove thinking about stuff like this as well because its always nice to take the more outwardly confident charas down a peg. because why not. im a sucker for niki having the upper hand for once ❤️

now i will proceed to provide 500 examples and analyse them because i also think about this facet of rinne’s character a lot (the one that becomes timid when good stuff is said about him, or how he’s actually a Nice Person but covers that up as best as he can) and i would like other ppl to think about it a lot too. this is basically just a hc/small analysis dump post so sorry anon for you have opened the floodgates 

i love every aspect of rinne’s personality but this side of him, the one that grows so easily flustered around others when he’s caught off-guard, is the best imo. he doesn’t really show it around most ppl, only niki, hiiro, and kids (like shinobu!!) because those are the only ppl that bring that out, bc theyre so earnest, so genuine in their intentions, that rinne is forced to confront reality As Is instead of dance around the subject.

a lot of the cast is convinced that rinne is this unapproachable, eccentric, inconsiderate asshole (which is true, at times - he’s carefully developed this persona so if he wants people to see him that way, it’s what they see) but when they actually put away these boundaries a lot of the time ppl see that he’s just. some guy (a silly example of this is chill yellow where hokuto, tsukasa and keito try to enlist his help to help them ease into “villain” roles for their auditions, and when rinne sees their efforts he’s so bewildered by it all he puts his wild image to the side to be like what the hell? you guys are all freaks???)

gonna split this into several little sections but for example, with niki i think niki doesn’t realize he can take advantage of it because a lot of the time these advances from rinne are met with complete disbelief. granted niki doesnt really think to compliment rinne often, it’s usually the other way around. so when rinne is being completely earnest, unabashed in his devotion for niki, niki turns around and goes “what??? what?” like he cant understand that such nice words are being said to or about him. THIS IS A TOPIC FOR ANOTHER TIME THOUGH, we’re talking about rinne here…. sorry i am physically incapable of not making everything even a little bit about rinniki….

of course this grants rinne an easy way out: instead of addressing that he’s being fully serious and owning up to these feelings his kneejerk response is to be like “kyahaha, stuupid niki! i can’t believe you’d fall for that!” but we all know he’s dying inside. it’s obvious. there’s only so many genuine, loving remarks a guy can make towards his guy best friend before the audience starts catching onto the fact that maybe he’s not actually joking, and that his guy friend just has severe self esteem issues, and is also plain stupid (endearing). IF NIKI OPENED HIS EYES HE COULD HAVE RINNE ON HIS KNEES….. WE’RE ROOTING FOR YOU…..

that’s exactly what happens in this scene, and they go on to play bicker because thats. their love language, i guess???? they’re weird. i love them

also we all know how rinne reacts to niki asking to kiss him in hot limit. regardless of how you interpret his reply (whether hes upholding his hometowns customs, being shy, or trying to make sure niki is serious about him..) most ppl can agree that after all of his advances in main story and towards niki In General he was probably freaking out, but handling it very well

niki is simply too reactive to respond to rinne’s genuine comments and be calm about it… i dont think he realizes rinne truly means all of them and his view about himself is too low to just accept the compliments and when niki gets flustered, rinne gets flustered too, but unlike him becoming speechless like he does with other people, rinne combats it with humor, b/c this is the sort of thing he and niki are used to. this, however, is not how he deals with affection coming from other people…..

gonna attach the exact scene i think you were talking about here, but when compliments come from those younger than him, like hiiro and shinobu, his initial reaction is a lot different

i’m going to link the tl for nursery rhymes as the op does not want their tls reposted, but this is the exact chapter that i think you’re referring to, the interaction itself is at the very end in case other people would like to see.

rinne points out that there’s no clever retort to shinobu’s genuine compliment, that there’s no banter he can build off of to “defend” himself - so he’s left feeling shy, and exposed. ofc its not shinobus intention to make him feel bad and idt rinne feels bad, necessarily, it’s just jarring.

rinne has a very cultivated persona that he’s built from the ground up from the end of his solo career to his current career in crazy:b. there are times this mask “slips” and he’s brought back to a similar personality to the one he had as a child in flashbacks or himself as a 17 y/o in hot limit, where he’s more meek, quiet, careful with his words, not purposely inflammatory. usually, he’s really good at keeping up appearances! look at his reputation in ES as a troublemaker with a complete disregard for everyone around him!

but when he’s confronted by people who are more “pure”, who don’t question his intentions from the get-go, he is at a loss. rinne is good around most kids because there’s no sort of “prejudice” against him, for lack of a better term; the people that this sort of thing happens around would be 1) people he loves and trusts entirely, who have known him before this persona even came into fruition (niki, hiiro) 2) people who aren’t immediately defensive around him, who don’t see him as a bad guy and trust him inherently (shinobu, for example!! sora, too! i feel like asobi club is a perfect example of this, both the story and the club itself!)

now hiiro… rinne replies to hiiros compliments in a similar way to how niki replies to His, because there’s a deep trust there between the two even though they’ve been apart for several years, and there’s enough trust for rinne to shut hiiro down completely, and get entirely flustered. i think a lot of why he’s like this with him stems from the fact that up until now hiiro was unable to express his love for his brother, or namely, he wasn’t allowed to, because of how they grew up.

rinne’s used to loving his brother, caring for him, but not the other way around, because in their hometown they were both raised with the idea that hiiro is a “liability”, that his role was to be rinne’s advisor and nothing else. for that reason and many others, rinne left his town, both because he was sick of his lack of liberty as well as being told that loving his brother was wrong, that he had to treat the one person he treasured at the time badly, that he was meant to be a leader and nothing else.

rinne goes on to explain this several times during the main story, but this is my fav instance of it b/c it hits really hard

any type of love from or towards hiiro, in this case familial, is foreign to him. so when rinne goes 5+ years without seeing his brother and his brother eventually learns that being affectionate towards rinne is okay, he’s obviously going to be a bit flustered! he’s not used to it! and hiiro is very loud and proud about it too, which probably makes it even worse for rinne. AND EVERYONE ELSE.. hiiro is not the best at picking up social cues but that is ok. it’s like when you learn something new and want to keep doing it so you dont forget and because its exciting!! hiiro is learning how to love and rinne is happy for him but he’s not equipped to deal with that .

NOT A SCREENCAP FROM IN-GAME BUT I THINK ABOUT THIS VIDEO SO OFTEN… hiiro being excited to perform with his brother and rinne is so speechless at his enthusiasm he’s like y-yeah. I LOVE IT WHEN HE IS RENDERED SPEECHLESS!!!!! 🗣️🗣🗣

the very end of main story (ch5) is dedicated to rinne talking about how he’s been told he’s wrong his whole life over every little thing he does, and i think that provides such valuable insight as to why rinne is the way he is? and why he can’t respond to genuine compliments coherently. even tho he presents himself as self-assured and does whatever the fuck he wants at this point i still think he suffers from berating himself, and it shows whenever he’s being self-sacrificial and justifies bad things happening to him with “well, i deserve this”. even though he’s come a long way, it’s always hard to unlearn harmful behaviors learned from youth

i dont rly know how to end this off because i went on such a tangent answering this hc ask IM SORRY ANON…. if u wanted me to draw smth please send another ask idm at all i just had to ramble because i love rinne-kun very much. i think he deserves the world, and just like hiiro, he is also learning to give and receive love without restraint, just in a different way. in the meantime i will relish in him getting embarrassed every time someone says smth nice to him 🙏

help me

[sadiecoocoo]

@bradleyenthusiast

Okay, so the relationship between Brad and Jessica, to me, doesn’t seem like the best relationship. (I’m probably gonna end up making a lot of point u already made in some of ur analysis posts lol… I’m also kinda biased when it comes to stuff abt Jessica cuz I don’t rlly like her that much for a few different reasons)

First of all, it doesn’t even seem like Jessica wants to be dating Brad. She seems sarcastic whenever she’s talking to him (I believe this can be seen in S1 Ep6), she’s basically cheated on him several times, and she gets mad at him for trying to fight a weird hitler clone??? Like girl you don’t wanna be on that side of the pitch forks

Another thing, in S1 Ep6 when Jessica is affected with the weird love potion shit (not Morty’s best moment :/) Brad doesn’t get mad at her, but rather at Morty. This stands out because Jessica was clearly making moves on him, and Morty honestly seemed a little uncomfortable at how the potion was working (that might’ve been a later scene I can’t remember). This means that either Brad got tunnel vision and saw Morty as the threat, or that Jessica does this often.

Also, when Jessica broke up with Brad (shown off screen) she decided a couple of days later to go out to lunch with him. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I think that if you just broke up with someone you need to have a decent no contact time period. If you don’t and you see each other again when emotions are high only bad things could happen (ei. You fall back into a possibly toxic relationship, or you get into an argument that has no purpose other than to make the other person feel bad). I would also like to note that this can happen with any kind of relationship, so if you are having trouble after getting away from a toxic friend, do not try to talk to them so soon after, it’ll just make things worse trust me I know 😭

To focus on Brad more and why Jessica gets mad at him, he is a little hot-headed. He rushes into fights that can generally be solved with talking it out. He also tends to bring ppl down while asserting himself and Jessica (while also giving her a backhanded compliment that she responds sarcastically to… if ur in a relationship and something like that bothers u, say something abt it please, don’t take that shit) like when he was telling Morty to back off of Jessica he really went for the jugular in insulting Morty as much as possible, which was really uncalled for.

Of course, if Brad felt genuinely threatened by Morty crushing on Jessica, I can understand why he’d try to make Morty feel like shit. However, he should not feel actually worried that Jessica would leave him for Morty (who everyone in the school thinks is a loser so he rlly doesn’t stand a chance with anyone in HHH… sry Morty I still love you) this leads me to believe that Jessica has a track record of cheating, be it on Brad or someone else.

TL;DR basically, their entire relationship is a subtle red flag in my opinion. Both show signs that they don’t really love each other, and they probably get into fights often… I doubt there relationship would go much further than high school. Also I’d say this is a bunch of subtle red flags because to anyone else it’d look like a normal relationship. I mean it’s never really be questioned in the show if it was healthy, it was just pointed out that Jessica gets annoyed with Brad a lot

[afreakingdork]

Alright. I gotta ask. I’m doing a reread (I just read the new chapters and then go back to my reread spot) and after dissecting the brothers hero/villain parallels (sorry for jumping back and forth between A03 and here btw) I started paying more attention, and noticed in several instances of conversation there’s people doing stuff in the background (chapter 11 comes to mind) and so, as the very long lead up to my question is out of the way-

Are those ppl in the background expressing secondary emotions of Donnie and Reader. Ex the man running by when Donnie is saying “you say these things so easily” as if to point out he’s also trying to emotionally run away?

Deep Raccoon Thoughts

🦝

i don't mind the back and forth at all! /gen

For posterity's sake, let me put what you wrote here so it'll be together for anyone else curious. This is from a comment on chapter 19 of Weak Spot on Ao3:

Also, I see what you did there. I started thinking about how Leo was monologuing, and how the whole speech made me more wary of them than anything Donnie’s ever done. And it got me sniffing around the scene. The villain is the one that monologues. The villain attacks before the civilian is out of the firing range. The HERO preoccupies himself with getting others to safety. The VILLIANS pop up at an inconvenient time and try and wreck the heroes plans. insert Kronk from emperors new groove oh yea, it’s all coming together.

This is an awesome analysis and deserves it's due across all platforms!

Yes, 100% you are correct. All the little background details exist to enhance or play along with the scene in the way you've described. Sofa likes to say that I 'don't waste words' and I suppose that's true! It's both an exercise because Sofa has also accurately pinged me as a 'maximalist' writer. It might be wild to think that while my work is so wordy that I'm also trying to only include the bare minimum, but I do intend for that to be true.

Thank you for letting me talk about this! What fun~

[riddlerosehearts]

🐍 same, there were many things i did not enjoy about HoO but leo is one of the highlights i will always treasure from it. in fact I made my OC just so I could make them be friends with him bc it's like an old childhood dream of mine 😭 it's several years late but i will do it anyway. have u ever made any pjo ocs?

I read your post and i agree with you so much!! EN did jamil so dirty and just the few changes they made to his lines flipped the entire dynamic between him and kalim and basically completely erased how tragic and difficult their situation is, and portrayed jamil as basically just someone throwing a fit over something easily changeable when it isn't. I play on JP so I was so surprised to see the changes EN made, it sucked seeing so many ppl hate my fav

oh nooo yeah if both riddle and jamil are in the athena cabin i have no clue who'd become the head counselor... this is so hard, if only we could have more than one :(. Kalim'd def be in a different cabin at least, but just him being around camp would make it so much harder for jamil to be himself, it hurts my heart. there are so many ways you can write this and it all has so much angst potential. on the other hand you're so right abt the missed leo nico friendship bc i always intuitively felt they could've be good friends without knowing why, but your analysis puts everything into words and makes me even sadder we had such a missed opportunity... like cmon rick....

idia labwear groovy but nico is actually so funny - nico ominously approaching cats with his hands out like the grabbing emoji when nobody is looking and completely unaware how scared the cats feel, meanwhile all he wants is to spend some time with kitty before the chain sneezing sets in

I love your ideas abt the outfits I think they fit super well!! if i get around to doodling the characters in a twst au i'd like to reference your ideas if that's okay with you! They'd both probably attempt to wear the uniforms as a full set in the beginning then decide it's way too much of a hassle/feels too stiff (totally not an excuse to want to draw them in the full outfit), then begin modifying things so it felt more like themselves, though at least I think they both would like the ignihyde uniforms better than the other dorms, igni's seems more casual and practical than the other ones imo. for some reason i feel like the savanaclaw colours would look good on leo, i just picture yellow being a nice colour on him - but leo in savanaclaw would just be like him stuck with a ton of jocks feeling confused why he's even there lool

also imagine leo meeting ortho, he'd be so fascinated that something like ortho was possible and be inspired to make a robot of his own (twst festus origin story?) idk if there's a robotics club but i could see that being leo's club of choice, nico maybe board games... which means he'd meet idia and azul omg, what do you think?

sorry it took me a bit a longer to answer this time. i haven't!! i don't make OCs super often in general, i don't even really have one for twst haha, but i love seeing all the creativity other people put into their OCs.

yeah exactly!! i do keep up with the JP main story updates and have read most of the JP events through fan translations, but i started by playing on EN. and i feel really lucky that i recognized the words for master and servant and could tell they were mistranslating some things, because i can imagine that otherwise i would've come out of it hating jamil for "betraying" kalim too. instead i loved him and was a little annoyed with kalim until book 5 showed more of his growth. i don't ship jamil and kalim but i do love both of them and it's sad that the complexity of their dynamic got watered down so much... i will note, though, that the app is rated E10+ on the google play store and 4+ on the iOS app store, so my guess is that higher-ups at disney thought the actual story wasn't kid-friendly enough.

something else to keep in mind with athena kids that i actually sort of forgot about until recently, is that they're all claimed from birth and therefore are pursued by monsters from birth :( and then also the fact that athena is a virgin goddess who just sort of gives babies to people who might not have been prepared to have one... i bet that would make things so much rougher for riddle and jamil. some other ideas i had are that if jamil's parent was a minor god, it could be nemesis (goddess of revenge) or terpsichore (muse of dance). and for kalim, if his parent was an olympian it would be either dionysus or apollo and if it was a minor god it'd be tyche (goddess of luck and fortune). like you said, there's so many different ways i could see their story going in an AU like this and they'd all be so angsty.

if you wanna see more analysis on how nico and leo fit together there's some stuff i've reblogged from others in my valdangelo tag! not all of it is necessarily romantic, i just basically use that for anything about the two of them--and a lot of the reasons why people like the ship are reasons why they'd work platonically as well. but yeah one of my biggest criticisms of HoO is how even though i like all the new characters for the most part, i feel like their relationships to each other were largely defined by romance (and i don't just mean the actual couples, but also the frank-hazel-leo love triangle for example) and a lot of potential was missed because of that!

oh yeah go for it!! feel free to use pretty much any of these ideas we've been brainstorming as basis for your own headcanons and stuff, i don't mind at all. and like i've been saying, if you did draw anything for this AU i'd love to see it. i can definitely see that about leo and nico both trying on the full uniform and then quickly deciding not to bother with it anymore lol. i imagined them both not wearing the tie because i just think nico wouldn't really want to and that leo might not even know how to tie one AFSKJGHDF. do you think leo would add any other accessories or personalization to his school uniform? also, i was thinking, i totally agree that they'd both like the ignihyde uniform, especially nico because it resembles the bulky jackets he normally likes to wear! but i wonder what nico would wear for a dorm uniform if he transferred to ramshackle... according to one of silver's voice lines at least, they canonically don't have one, so maybe he'd just wear, like, a my chemical romance shirt and call that a uniform lol. or keep his ignihyde uniform and confuse everyone.

omg, i love the thought of leo meeting ortho and being inspired to make festus because of him. he'd definitely be so fascinated by everything ortho could do. as for the clubs, i saved this excellent post about NRC's clubs for reference a while back, and since no other existing clubs were mentioned in either of the camp vargas events, i assume that that's all of them. but afaik there's nothing that says leo couldn't start a robotics club, and i'm sure there'd be people willing to join! out of the existing clubs i can totally see nico being in the board game club, i think that'd be a lot of fun for him.

[alienmiilk]

it isagi/kurona fic

and i took so long writing it i ended up w a lotta thoughts so this is the post-fic thoughts post

i live in fear of kurona getting eliminated so i want u all to suffer with me but at least he has isagi here, and they still have a bumpy road ahead of them but for now getting back into each other’s lives is what’s important, they can work on the other stuff later

i tried experimenting with a new pov swap style, maybe it’s a little confusing? i didnt want it to be one person’s fault only, they both were left heartbroken by the other and ran away from the other. hence the swaps

i also thought a lot about what his ego could be, and his character in general (it made me cry lmao) but it ended up being too analysis-y so it got cut but, some of its left in there tho

just take my notes

in this canon kurona's really good at carving fruit and can make a shark outta an apple

i like making references to my own fics, so if u've read desire more u might spot the lil things i did here n there in general, desire more focuses a lot on heat, this one focuses on the cold (i hope its warm by the end tho !!!)

also I know there’s several ppl in bllk who are playing for the sake of playing w others but this is krn’s pov yea

thank u for reading! the fic and this long ass post i might add to later if i think of something bc my memory's bad!

[death-envoy]

Well I mean if you put back the titles of hero and villain, Metroman and Megamind in the end were just two beings trying to live in a society

What's important is that they don't let the assigned roles of them to be who they want

They both wanted a change

If you notice their appearances,you can tell they're quite old,with the fact that they've been playing hero and villain since they were literally kids. Which means that this is the story of two adult men getting identity crisis and how they deal with it

Megamind made a point that his existence was defined by Metroman,by being a villain. The only way he can feel relevant in living is by getting beat up by the hero,which pointed to severe insecurity

Metroman on the other hand isn't free of problems,he was the hero didn't mean he had no problems ppl need to fucking know that everyone has problems,not only them. Actually it's interesting how he was the first one to realise the nonsense of it all,he fought his greatest nemesis ever since they were kids,it wasn't funny at all how a childhood rivalry ended up like this,like the only big thing that define them. He also had insecurities of his own when he realised all he did in his life was playing the hero,nothing else

Metroman was indeed the first and only one to point out these two are mere products of society,they aren't exclusive from it, they're a major part of it. They served as it's despair,its happiness, it's safety, it's danger. They're the faces of the society

I like how in the end, Metroman encouraged Megamind to be who he wants by saying "My time is over but my friend, it's your time now" meaning that it's his time to show them all what he can do and prove his true worth. It's like saying "You aren't tied to be the villain. Is it time you be the hero too"

They don't switched roles,they break out of the roles

They're examples that we're tied by the chains of society but we can still be free from it if we want

Not to mention Megamind got the best girlboss ever in the end, Roxanne. She's actually great, she wasn't simply the damsel in distress,she had her own story and personality too. She doesn't even romantically like Metroman, he's just some guy to her!!!!

This movie breaks its tropes so bad yet so good

Yess exactly, i don't have much to add because your analysis is perfect (!!!) but god yes Megamind is peak cinema

[sanchoyo]

anyway. youtuber OC AU

-mira would have a sakura-hime/magical girl manga/anime focused analysis and theory channel. all of her videos are like 3-4 hours long and involve corkboards. she posts on a very strict regular schedule. she WILL argue in the comments too. until masayume is made the comment moderator and she is RUTHLESS with blocking comments that even dare suggest her girl is wrong, lmao. masayume is well known as her mod and will usually leave very long comments of her own on mira's videos (she is also one of the first ppl to view each of them) that will get voted to the top (and theres always people replying like 'how are you so fast and also on ALL of her videos??' and other people being like 'lol hii mod masayume thanks for your hard work <3!!' she doesnt have a huge following, it's kind of niche, but there is a Small dedicated fanbase.

-persimmon's channel has an ungodly amount of subscribers, like well over 5 mil. she does GRWM/makeup stuff and storytimes + vlogs. shes got a very chill vibe while talking abt the most insane stories u can imagine. and then sometimes she'll upload a wildcard video like 'i made a wardrobe app then programmed my mirror to it so I can play dressup IRL before getting dressed' and people are like. are you an engineer too, what?? and she'll just drop the github code for the thing with easy instructions like nbd. all of her titles are lowercase and theres never clickbait even if they can sound like it 'the time i worked at a shady cafe with a dark secret in the basement'...

-aqua would have the vibe of very early poppy content. like kind of ominous artsy stuff that isnt very long or its just her filming tiny snippets of things she thinks are cool and posting with no description. she had no following until some rando found it, got confused, and posted to reddit, where a bunch of theories about it got started. people are convinced its some kind of ARG and are trying to solve it. theres nothing to solve, but aqua thinks its really cute and will make references to the ARG/fake hints because it seems like people are having fun?? shes not actually TRYING to be weird or mysterious about anything?? occasionally she'll cameo in persimmon's videos and people are like 'crossover of the century?? how do they know each other???'

-sapote would be someone who had a lot of controversies/problematic content in the past but since has mellowed out and just does random podcast guest appearances and has her own now that she posts to youtube only. she will have the most random guests on from both the mews and aliens side and talk about basically anything. a lot of people dont like her still but no one can really deny her content is very entertaining (trashy reality tv kind of funny) and she's gone viral several times. when people find out her and persimmon (who has a mostly positive rep) are related they lose their minds and persi ends up having to block all comments abt sapote on her videos. she's the type you'd think 'wow i used to watch them all the time as a kid, wonder what theyre doing now..' then when you check you're floored at how much she's calmed down!!

-queen has a science channel where she explains really difficult concepts in accessible ways, usually in bite-sized videos to make them even more digestible. arilla would keep her on a good schedule for posting (I do not think she would have a decent schedule on her own, he would basically be her channel manager) her videos would have a verrrry high production value. she would be a youtube darling whose praised for being unproblematic and helpful, until the internet goes CRAZY at some big scandal she does. if youre wondering what the scandal is you'll have to watch a like, 5 hour explanation video because its so convoluted and several other youtubers of other genres are involved?? she goes awol for like a month to lay low them comes back with a ukulele apology. it is very passive aggressive and never directly addresses what shes apologizing for, either

-cara would not be a youtuber. she's a tumblrina.

[llycaons]

ep21 (pt 1): jyl the mvp!

oh god oh fuck I forgot how emotional the last one ended. jyl pulling wwx inside to get a look at him and everyone's crying 🥺

😭😭😭

this is so funny. jc what are you so worried about? your brother hearing that you looked for him for 3 months? which you did? he's so silly and emotionally constipated. that is a totally normal thing to do for your family

I remember ppl being SO mad at jgy for saying the same thing to nhs in fatal journey before a Mandarin speaker had to step in and be like 'that's actually a normal thing to say to someone grieving, he wasn't being rude or inconsiderate' which. jgy is so gifted with social graces, of COURSE he'd say the appropriate thing at that time

this is so dramatic lmao. I know how you die old man and it's pretty embarrassing

ah the dramatic look over the shoulder bc he misses his boy best friend who HE pushed away wwx you mess

literally shut the fuck up sect leader yao you would be dead and powerless without the protection of the jiang clan you owe your life and your clan to this family be polite

wwx saying this is very 😮 but it immediately cutting to jc is ALSO 😮 and I don't think its intentional

oh my sect sect leader ouyang???!!

ofc the lans get put in rooms that have a name like that

wwx getting sick of everyone there and just getting up and leaving. politically not great but he lives his truth. I think along with missing lwj he just got sick of the old sect leaders congratulating him for torturing and murdering a man, and then hounding him about his sword

jc I am so fucking proud of you I could cry

the kicker is that jc is for once saying the RIGHT thing, compared to his usual sarcasm and aggression and sneers. but wwx is the one in these episodes who's not cooperating. he's being deliberately contrary, vague, and disobedient. he's not playing nice with jc or the other sect leaders. and I can tell why politics is the last thing on his mind given the fact that he just pulled himself out of three months of utter hell and he's still traumatized, but it doesn't help. his defense mechanism of joking and dismissal to cover his severe trauma and his massive secrets doesn't make him look very good either. it's so sad bc it's all he can do though!

also this is a grade A eyeroll from jc here. impressive

do not break my heart like that wei wuxian

*cues the observation that wwx is wearing his robes in the way that corpses being prepared for burial are dressed*

it is very annoying when fans create content where wwx is unwilling/unable to meditate when 1. how the fuck do you think he formed his core in the first place and 2. it's clearly an important part of his process as a demonic cultivator as well

jyl is being so supportive and compassionate about chenqing in a way that literally nobody else is. she compliments it! she compares it to her mother's most powerful tool!

I think the other translation is 'to give a full account'. I think chenqing's name is really neat, I love reading analysis for it

kill me. and wwx's face after she says this...

she's like the only person here who halfway knows how to approach someone with trauma. express your love and support and concern but don't push them. allow them to tell you on their terms, in their own time. don't make it the only thing you talk about. don't make them have to ask not to talk about it. lwj gets a little better at this but it takes like 20 years

and who else says this!!! who else thanks him!!!! im going to cry

jc and wwx both take a great deal of comfort and guidance from jyl in these scenes - she's level-headed, compassionate, affectionate, caring, and gives solid advice that her brothers can act on. and she stands up for wwx in ways that jc can't or won't. love her

literally shut the fuck up jzx I know how you die

see jc!!! this is what you SHOULD say to those assholes who won't leave you alone and who question your leadership! THAT'S what's called showing a united front!

on the other hand, given how things progress I don't doubt the jins would invent some pretext to attack the jiangs if jc didn't go along with them so it's not like simply saying this would have solved things. but man, this was a good deflection

[cmyknoise]

my whole thing about the stream today was something felt... odd? i can’t place it. i’m just getting my thoughts out, this isn’t like /neg or criticism i just. thinking ig.

c!eret had spent the first good portion of her stream praising l’manburg for what it stood for, how it was home to people, how it was strong and nothing has come close to it since. she spends her whole life at the moment keeping records and keeping up the history. she says she fears what history might forget. how the members and events of l’manburg is already villainized, people are being painted in bad lights when they were never bad at all. 

he spends several minutes just. talking wilbur up. how he was a good leader. how he wanted to revive wilbur because people needed the moral boost that wilbur brought. that wilbur had good wants and intentions, and in the end he was just... eret admitted that in the end wilbur mentally was at his lowest, that things had definitely weighed on him, but not once in this talk did he ever blame wilbur, or bring up he was at fault for anything? 

then wilbur arrived, very clearly not intending to speak to eret. it seemed he was trying to sneak past the museum unnoticed. the first comments he makes is about armor. he does that thing where he stands a block above eret. he fumbles on his words a lot. he gives an, admittedly, not the greatest apology! 

but then.. eret demands a better apology. now, ppl have already criticized a lot on whether there was any grounds for that sort of thing, and they’ve done analysis on what was said, what could’ve been done better, etc etc (highly reccomend @sajdd or @tobi-smp for some of those). 

but it feels like a switch was flipped. 

it could’ve been c!eret finally letting out all her thoughts that had built up or. i don’t know, really i don’t. but watching it i’d gone from :D to :(? so quickly  because there were just, several minutes of prolongued praise that sounded like wilbur might finally be told he meant something? or that his creations meant something, after spending so long being berated over those things by himself or others. and it felt like we would also get a moment where eret could explain a wide number of things- but instead we got “you’re not a good person” “you did awful things”. and it just. it felt like a switch was flipped and it was just. it was jarring, it really was. 

it felt bad too because wilbur went so quiet, and wilbur almost never goes quiet, and he started to stand under eret, a block below, which is this huge minecraft-language thing he’s been doing. and then there was the proper apology- where eret gave a better apology and wilbur did but... it had then gone to ‘you’re not so bad’ 

which feels like- positive remarks to negative remarks to neutral remarks. 

i dont get it

i love c!eret so much, and i love c!wilbur. something felt off and i can’t articulate what or why past this, im very tired. but uh, yeah. those are some thoughts from me. i dont feel like doing in depth analysis on c!wilbur or cc!wilbur’s acting and how he acted in face cam like i usually do bc like, im just rlly tired rn. maybe later. but uh, anyway yeah. thats all.

[i-want-my-iwtv]

Am I correct in assuming a chunk of VC fans left tumblr during the 2018 purge and then a bunch when Anne passed? It seems like the vast majority of VC accounts I’m finding are paused at Dec 2018 or Dec 2021 exactly. Like the last posts are the news of her death. (I’m new here and this place is like a ghost town but then there’s tons of old VC art to found)

Hello anon! Good question.

I would say that yes, there was a reduction in fan engagement/accounts at those times. It was also because of:

The news about the AMC adaptation of Interview with the Vampire, which has divided the fandom to some extent, and people have been hesitant to post about it for reasons I'll dig into a bit more below the cut. News about the adaptation has dropped periodically, but probably the biggest news was around Aug 25, 2021, when actor Jacob Anderson was cast to play Louis. For the next few months, the fandom reacted, and it intensified up to and through Dec 2021.

There have also been an avalanche of anonhate/mean-spirited comments on some of VC fandom's fics on AO3. It seems to have calmed down by now, but I'm out of date on that.

TL;DR: Anyway, this is all to say that there were several "events" that led to a quieter fandom, but if you go into the #vampire chronicles tag, or search for character names, you'll see content! We still have fanartists producing fanart, people doing meta analysis posts, and writers posting fanfic.

We did have a vibrant gift exchange in Dec 2021, too, you might want to check that out, and find some active VC ppl through that: @vcsecretgifts 😊

A bit longer response:

Yes, there was a purge, particularly of our more nsfw fanartists in 2018 😥

Yes, I think news of Anne's death divided fandom, too. There was a wave of "joke" posts about how we could now post VC fanfic, and the fandom found that somewhat distasteful (to varying degrees) bc we had been posting the fanfic for years; Anne had long since given up that battle. She had gained an understanding, if not support, of VC fanfic, years ago:

In 2012, Metro reported that Rice developed a milder stance on the issue. "I got upset about 20 years ago because I thought it would block me," she said. "However, it's been very easy to avoid reading any, so live and let live. If I were a young writer, I'd want to own my own ideas. But maybe fan fiction is a transitional phase: whatever gets you there, gets you there."[136]

Anyway. Hit the jump for more, cut bc the AMC series is still a contentious topic, and I am providing a way for ppl to scroll past, if they prefer to do so.

---

A major thing that divided the fandom was the incoming information about AMC's adaptation of Interview with the Vampire into a TV series, and the changes to canon that they have announced. On August 25, 2021, Deadline.com announced one of the major changes in the casting of Jacob Anderson:

There were/are a lot of accusations of racism thrown at people who were/are disappointed about this, causing a split in the fandom. Several other updates on the series increased this divide. I have some info about that in #IWTV AMC tag, and I think this post sums up my feelings that, in general, some people want a faithful adaptation with as little change to canon as possible, to see the story that they fell in love with; other people want to see the story updated and are eager to fall in love with a new version that breathes new life into it. The arguments over which approach is better led to a friction where it felt like no one could talk about their reasons without the conversation escalating into fights, so I think a lot of people chose to withdraw from the conversation. Fair enough, no one is obligated to engage in a discussion that they don't want to.

As I mentioned, there was also an avalanche of anonhate/mean-spirited comments on some of VC fandom's fics on AO3, which if I recall correctly, was right around that time, as well. Again, I'm not up to date on that, but it seems to have calmed down.

I'm hopeful that we're at a point now where people can see that there's plenty of space in a fandom, some people can be thrilled about the adaptation, and other people can be not thrilled, and everything in between. I'm going to watch the show, I'm curious about it as an AU, it'll be interesting to see how the showrunners handle the changes they made.

[o-king-of-suns]

Hi ^^ I've recently found ur blog and read ur meta. Ur analysis is great! I'm kinda new here but I've seen so many ppl talk about Levi's guidebook page, referring to it as "the confirmation of what Levi was solely fighting for in the final battle i.e revenge by fulfilling the promise" I'm sorry if this has been pointed out before but as a Levi fan who believes otherwise, I'd love to read ur interpretation. Also u also believe the GB is implying this? I think ppl are having the wrong impression.

Hi! :) Thank you so much! I am glad you liked my meta! English is not my first language, so I try my best to express what I want to say.

Almost everyone agrees that the final guidebook is just an ABSOLUTE hot garbage! xD At this point that no one is taking seriously anymore! xD It straight up contradicts what happens in the manga, has VERY reductive and nonsensical descriptions of the characters and is FULL of errors.

The main reason to why many people have issues with Levi’s part (apart from it having nothing new or because it mainly focused on the promise) is one word that was used in the text that has been translated by some biased people into “obsessed”.

I asked 3 Japanese people (including my teacher) about the word that was used in the text and the meanings that I was given were: (be) dedicated to; have an uncompromising commitment to ; to really focus on; to be determined to; etc. From what I understood, this term is always a headache as it truly depends on what the writer wants to convey and what it “feels” right in the context. "Obsessed” is like, the most reductive reading of that word, and it's the exact word that Er_ris chose to use xD

Japanese is often qualified as vague, and it CAN leave room for interpretation. For example, the word (きれい) Isayama used to say Levi was the opposite of Rorschach could mean "pretty" or "clean" based on the context, but here's the thing: Rorschach is notoriously ugly, so it makes sense that Isayama meant that Levi is "pretty" (and it IS officially translated to "pretty" ), but I have seen MANY Japanese people say that Isayama meant "clean" not “pretty”! This word meaning in the text literally and solely depended on Isayama's intention even causing translators to get confused and translate it to “pretty”! If we look at the context of Levi’s character description in the last gb, the last line mentions that after his final mission, Levi “meets his friends with a calm heart”. Why would Levi be able to meet his friends with a “calm heart” if his entire arc was about him being “obsessed” with a personal goal and revenge?! Is this why he salutes them and they salute him back in the final chapter?! I am 100% sure that the word “obsessed” was not the one that the person who wrote the description wanted to use.

Now let’s stop talking about language translation and focus on Levi in the manga xD Is the gb version Levi the same Levi whom Isayama described as "as an existence more superior to myself" during Levi’s statue reveal just last March?!

You know, when I asked my native Japanese teacher to help me translate Isayama's statement about Levi, she sent me a 4 minute voice note breaking down the terms Isayma used and explaining how much respect the person speaking (Isayama) has for the person he's talking about (Levi). I was embarrassed to tell her that the person he’s speaking about is actually a fictional character lol

Isyama used 頭 の上がらない which literally means “can’t raise someone’s head” but it actually means “can’t raise someone’s head in front someone else for how much respect they have for this person”

Now let’s look at Levi’s actions in the manga to see if we can reach to the same conclusion.

Levi is one of, if not the most, perceptive characters in SNK. In one the official short stories, he was described as a person who is able to “know the true nature of Man”. For Levi, Zeke is a man who cheered with satisfaction as he threw rocks through fifteen year olds. He’s the person who nonchalantly explained to Levi the process of gassing an entire village of unsuspecting civilians and flinging them into an eternal nightmare in order to weaponize their bodies. Zeke’s manipulations are the origin of almost all of Paradis’ problems, whether it’s encouraging Marley to ramp up aggressions or pulling shady shit with Kiyomi, Yelena and the Jaegerists that destabilizes their already vulnerable island. And what’s worse - because we’re reading a story where torn-up characters are often excused by circumstances of coercion or perceived necessity - he doesn’t care. He feels no remorse. He wants to do this. Levi doesn’t know Zeke’s ultimate reasoning of course, but he recognized through the smoke of the campfire a man who doesn’t give a fuck about the wishes and agency of others. Who will force his own will on a race of humans and call it mercy. AND YET, Levi stays with him for  A WHOLE MONTH in the forest bringing him books, drinks and a pillow to sit on. He keeps asking him about what happened in Connie’s village trying over and over to understand him. And then the guy transforms Levi’s own teammates in front of him, forces him to kill them and taunts him with their suffering. Levi perceives a person who’s arrogant enough to consider his cruelty compassion as he decides whether the lives of their children are worth living.YET, Levi decided to keep him alive because he believed that it is what’s the best for Paradis; a decision that eventually caused Levi’s severe injuries and the activation of the Rumbling!

During the final battle, Levi offered to act as a bait for Mikasa so she can try to bring back Armin and risks his life TWICE to save Jean and Connie risking his chances to ever fulfill his promise to Erwin.

Please tell me now that these are actions of an “obsessed” man who is only focused on killing Zeke and revenge.

The first time Levi mentions the vow after the time skip, he says: “Erwin, I think I will be finally able to fulfill the vow I made to you that day. Your deathS had meaning. At last I will be able to prove it”  Levi clearly associates giving meaning to his comrades’ deaths WITH fulfilling his vow to Erwin. This is the line that proves that the vow has always meant something more.

Levi made a promise that came to represent the fulfillment of the goal all his former Survey Corps comrades laid down their lives for. Slaying the Beast Titan took on symbolic stature, a tangible way of giving their sacrifices meaning - especially in a world where the circumstances had drastically shifted and enemies, allies, and other were suddenly seen from a completely different perspective.

In Ch. 136, Levi remembers his friends and reflects upon their sacrifices and what they meant. They did not sacrifice their lives to “trample the lives and hearts of others”.

We never got a SINGLE panel in which he says that he fulfilled his promise! In the last apparition of his fallen comrades, Erwin isn’t even in the center. He salutes his fallen comrades for devoting their hearts for humanity and they salute him back for honoring their sacrifices.

If there is one thing that Levi was “obsessed” about, it is him trying to give meaning to the deaths and sacrifices of the people who truly devoted their hearts to humanity and whom he truly loved

[sewer-sermon]

[LEANS ON AN EXPENSIVE PILE OF MEDIA ANALYSIS] SYMBOLISM MISSILE INBOUND

two themes i REALLY love using for both of these guys is light & darkness, and for crackpot specifically, water & drowning. i played w the light deliberately a LOT in this one fic i wrote- crackpot being caught in phobos's shadow for the whole fic as a symbol of hys inferiority, up until phobos starts seeing hymn as an equal, where hy starts being the one to cast a shadow (and eventually they're both bathed in light together! :3)

i think the power dynamic between them was always a bit of a spot of bother in their relationship, and i think the light displays that nicely. w this specific piece phobos is casting a shadow over the whole of nexus city because the entire city is his creation, his legacy- it was designed in his image, and even in death his ego haunts every square inch of the place. and crackpot, left behind in the wake of his death, can't seem to escape phobos's influence for the life of hymn and move on- as long as hy chooses to stay in the city, hy'll remain pinned under that shadow, that echo of what hy lost. not only that, but the echo of someone greater than hymn- someone who was more powerful and well known. hy doesn't like to admit it, but i think there is a bit of jealousy in crackpo for how much more influence phobos had over people :] hy emulates his leadership partially out of admiration, but partially out of a straight up desperation to be the better version!

all the same, phobos's eye casting a light has to do with the other half of his death- crackpot being suddenly put in the limelight without him. losing the only person to stick up for hymn, make an effort to listen to and elevate hymn, be a rock to cling to. there's a sudden pressure trained on hymn to be independent, to be a leader and fill in the gap phobos left behind. hy's finally got the stage to hymnself and all the theater lights are on hymn, and god do they burn HOT.

as for the water and the drowning, i also did a bunch with this in another fic- its to do with the fanatics' obsession with buoyancy and staying afloat- for crackpot, drowning means failing. and just being generally, impossibly overwhelmed with so many things- memories, emotion, pressure, guilt, it's like an awful torrent and its crushing the air out of hys lungs and all hy can do is sink into it, sink deeper into the stubborn refusal to move on, deeper into delusion and madness(💥).

(drowning is also a reoccurring nightmare of hys because of the facemelter incident in my headcanons- that one really awesome time where hys face skin Straight Up Melted Off due to dissonance poisoning, being the reason why hy's never seen without a helmet or a mask! hys work helmet was kinda pooling with hys own blood & that definitely Felt like drowning to hymn)

the way the cityscape gets progressively less cohesive & detailed as it goes down into its reflection in the water DOES have to with dissonance :D with crackpots severely dissonance-addled perception of the world around hymn, more and more of the world seems to devolve and make less and less sense around hymn :]c till its almost comparable to the distorted funhouse reflection of yourself you might see looking into water! (it also, sort of has to do w hys super 'rose colored glasses' view of phobos's leadership & behavior- hy kind of deliberately tends to ignore the Awful horrendous things phobos very muchly did for the sake of loving him :])

I HOOOOPPPEE all of that was cohesive & coherent enough. i fucking love talking about the THEMES and the SYMBOLISMS of my own art so badly but i never get to i thank you so badly for indulging me [gripping ur shoulders like that one jpeg rn]

I REALLY LIKE YOUR INTERPRETATION/ANALYSIS OF THINGS YOU LEFT IN THE NOTES TOO!!!! I THINK IT IS SO SO BEAUTIFUL. THAT PPL CAN TAKE AWAY THEIR OWN MEANINGS FROM ART N I ESPECIALLY LOVE HEARING WHAT OTHER PPL TAKE AWAY FROM MINE :DDDDD

shadow of your legacy/limelight of your absence, or something like that

Phobos dude you've got to stop haunting the narrative man. You're giving this bird new and innovative forms of mental illness not yet conceived by man