#and good foreshadowing

[sinkableruby]

do you think any of the other characters from Monogatari would be able to beat Ougi in a bmx race, and which of them do you think would cheat in the most interesting manner while trying?

KALKDFALKFDA i love how you phrased it like it's already understood that people would have to cheat to do it

ok the objectively correct but also boring answer is tsukihi. but shes a shoo-in so i dont wanna talk about her. she doesnt count she's unbeatable! realistically, if ougi were to be doing a bmx race and be faced with her, they would simply Not Race lol

ok first i will talk about the people who wouldn't cheat. (spoilers up to nademonogatari under the cut meaning nademonogatari is included)

kanbaru would not cheat she would want to do it fair and square. she would train for the occasion but she doesnt know how to ride a bike (semi canonically? idk how canonical the audio commentaries are) so she’d probably struggle, and even though she’s athletic i can’t imagine she’d win or get close to it (rip). karen would have the best chances of winning legitimately. i’d imagine she probably knows how to ride a bike bc shes got easy access since koyomi is always riding them. and her level of fitness is absolutely insane, so she could pull it off. but ougi has lots of bicycle experience, and does like tricks and stuff for it. and they can do crazy stunts without worrying about damage to the user. so its a toss up here, but karen could win. hanekawa would not win. ougi would not allow it, their pride would not allow it. hanekawa would try to win, as part of her rivalry with them. but ougi would probably rather die than allow her to win especially when it concerns a hobby of theirs so they dont its as simple as that. i dont think hanekawa would be too much of a challenge, but she’s very powerful and unpredictable so ougi would take no chances. eliminate with extreme prejudice. now for the last of the non-cheaters, koyomi (surprisingly). dont get me wrong he would absolutely cheat against like at least half of the other cast if he felt like he couldn’t win easily or if he started losing. but he would be way too terrified to cheat against ougi. and there’s absolutely no way he wins against ougi without cheating, i mean come on. ougi can do cool little tricks and knows all his weaknesses. i think he would keep up decently at first but ultimately be completely destroyed near the end of the race.

ok now for the cheaters 😈 (spoilers: none of them could win)

nadeko would cheat here because she would know that she has no chance of winning whatsoever if she doesnt, and she doesnt really like ougi all that much so she doesnt feel too bad about it. now the WAY she decides to cheat varies. nadeko would much rather rely on her own abilities instead of asking yotsugi or tsukihi for help, so she might draw a shikigami of anti-nadeko (or a more cooperative version with the same strength) to throw/boost her instead, which you could argue is technically not cheating because its still her own power moving the bmx. senjougahara really cheats? no dignity! she would act like shes gonna do it fair and square and then totally shamelessly cheat bc she doesnt think she can win at all. i think she would race normally, and then once ougi got far ahead enough she would try to cut ahead by going off the tracks and taking a shortcut. i think i can picture a universe where sodachi cheats so heres what she’d do. and she’s probably the most creative one about it. i think, given her penchant for careful and precise planning, she would add obstacles to the course. its hard to do and it would take a while, but its also hard to check for if you do it right. she wouldnt even necessarily have to buy materials either, assuming the race doesnt happen somewhere built for the purpose of bicycle racing. she could just move stuff from the general terrain around the course to make it look like it was something that happened by accident, while having knowledge of where the traps were and how to get past them. think like moving around rocks and boulders, small logs and dirt piles and stuff like that. stuff that could put the bicycle off balance, or would require slowing down or rerouting, especially stuff that looks deceptively harmless. shinobu would cheat, but not intentionally, she just has no interest in the rules and doesnt intend to learn what they are. so the moment the race starts, in order to “get to the goal the fastest” she goes off track. yotsugi ABSOLUTELY cheats, but probably not in an interesting way. she just uses unlimited rulebook to boost her bike into the air. i think she potentially maybe could use it to just speed up, but i think she wouldnt have the patience for that at all and would rather just skip the whole race asap. mayoi is unable to ride the bmx. she just isn’t good at it. she’s small and its kinda big and unwieldy so its just hard to do. i think her cheat would be the kind of cheat that doesnt really have much practical chance of succeeding long term, like tying her bmx to ougi’s so she can get pulled along. i think she’d try to frame it as like a cooperative thing like let’s get to the finish line together type deal. but i cant see her having the heart to actually betray someone right at the finish line, so she would just lose. she probably wouldnt care that much anyway

but the reason why not just hachikuji but none of the cheaters would have a chance at winning is because while ougi could potentially be miffed at losing, there’s no way they’d let a cheater slip by. and they’d have a lot of fun catching the cheats and working around them. they would examine for possible cheats based on the opponent and prepare countermeasures far in advance-- all in all, cheating is bad against ougi because its like when you pirate a game and the final boss becomes impossible to beat on your copy. youre ramping up the difficulty to such an extreme level that its better to just do it legit. ougi’s ability and desire to win probably increases exponentially if their opponent is cheating, as well as their enjoyment of the race.

here’s how they would deploy the countermeasures:

ougi would definitely anticipate the shikigami move and have some countermeasures in mind. i imagine they might try to convince anti-nadeko she’s being used for a silly purpose (she is) and make her not want to help, OR the much more Fun way they would go to the drawing in the notebook right before nadeko brings it to life and erase the arms without nadeko noticing. so it has no arms and can’t help her. oops! senjougahara’s move... it’s just kinda silly. i think it’s too silly for ougi to prepare anything really crazy. if anything they prolly just pick to do the race at a time + place where the shortcuts aren’t actually helpful at all. like construction blocking the way, rocky terrain, that sort of thing. and then they’d just do the race and win normally sodachi’s planning is her own downfall as usual :( ougi is very cool and just uses the added obstacles as like ramps and shit. and uses the ramps to go over harder obstacles, or just fucking lifts the bmx up somehow like in otorimongatari. and sodachi just doesnt have that kinda technical prowess, or the ability to predict that someone would be able to do that (which is reasonable). rip as for shinobu, she’s instantly disqualified so ougi just goes off track with her for the hell of it (and wins anyway, of course) yotsugi’s impatience gets the best of her here-- she’d have had a lot easier time if she had just tried to speed herself up, but by attempting a leap she leaves herself wayy more open to counterattacks. i think ougi would choose the most slapstick way of going about this so i’d imagine that, understanding that unlimited rulebook involves a lot of explosive force, they would bring a slingshot to the race. and they’d wait till yotsugi tried to use the rulebook and then with one perfectly placed projectile, knock yotsugi’s foot to the side juuust so, so that the angle of the leap is altered, and she goes careening away at high speed. teehee shouldnt have cheated! of course yotsugi would be fine even after a crash bc shes a doll, so its okay to go for more dangerous counterattacks in ougi’s mind. for hachikuji, she wouldnt have the opportunity to not betray ougi bc she wouldnt get to the finish line tow truck/three legged race style in the first place. she would be like “lets get there together” and ougi would just pull out a pair of scissors and be like “nope ✂” even though they know she probably wouldnt even try to win. they are just devious like that

so yeah none of the cheaters would win. ougi would want more of them to cheat so they could win anyway and have fun with it. like ooh youre cheating now i can be evil. honestly same

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Dog Meshi.

[seancefemme]

Maybe I’m what she needs to survive

[egophiliac]

LET THE BOY HAVE AN EDUCATION

officially at the point where we're starting to see where it's all headed and I am just going NYEEHEEHEE in delight at it all. ahhh...next week can't come soon enough...

[flickerintwilights]

okay yes you’re being very normal BUT. “what makes you think he was a hero?” “because he kills monsters.” “what makes you think that she was a monster?”

“not everyone who looks like a hero is a hero, and not everyone who looks like a monster is a monster”

“…and against all odds, he managed to find his way to a happy ending”

[ineffablyruined]

Okay, this post has me thinking.

What if those totally Aziracrow-coded suits are a Clue for not only what's coming at the end of S2E6, but I'm hopeful that it's about their future, too. Because look at them. LOOK AT THEM.

They are even separated by the window pane! The art department is so crazy for this.

We've got a beautiful black suit, perfectly tailored, absolutely stunning, and ready to go. Then we have Crowley. Beautiful, knows who he is outside of Heaven and Hell. Knows what he wants (Aziraphale, obviously). He's ready for the garden, ready for their cottage in the South Downs.

And we've got a light colored suit, that still seems to be in-process of getting ready. Hard to tell from this image, but it looks like it still has an unfinished collar, and is waiting for a sleeve to be sown on? It's not finished yet, but it's getting there. If that's not Aziraphale, I don't know what is. He knows he wants Crowley, but he can't quite separate himself from Heaven. He needs to go back and learn more about himself, to realize he doesn't fit there, that Heaven isn't the place for him any longer. And then maybe he'll be ready, too.

The suits are a METAPHOR.

This show kills me with every single detail.

[meowder]

I HAD A BRAIN BLAST WHEN I SAW THIS IN THE TRAILER

[miss-crazy-rose]

Ari: fuck the gods!

Minos: 😨

Hera: 🤨

Poseidon: 😮

Zeus: 😶

Dionysus: 😍 she’s amazing 😍

[sakuraspoke]

Tobias "Have You Seen My New Moustache?" Forge [x]

[littler3d]

If this episode got one thing right it was the reactions to Meleys’ head being paraded around. Like yeah the small folk would be upset and see it as a bad sign but also come to the realization that the dragons are just meat. They can die, see, the king showed us himself. Really sets up the future actions

[somewhere-in-wales]

Crowley and Job

I'm sure this has been written before but I haven't read it so here's my thesis:

The Job minisode is a metaphor for Crowley.

The Job minisode shows us that this God is willing to put her favourites through significant pain, to have them lose everything, to carry out the ineffable plan. In fact, God considers their favourites to be the only ones able to endure this and remain "faithful" or "good." Funny that, as we see Crowley - a Demon who has every reason to hate God and do a lot of evil - continually showing himself to have a stronger moral compass than the Archangels.

Job is stripped of absolutely everything he has, one after another. Starting with his livelihood, his possessions, his home and finally his most loved thing - his children (sounding familiar at all?). Crowley loses his status, his identity, his job, his flat and ultimately Aziraphale.

Job is angry but not at God, he's angry at himself. He questions how much he must have done wrong to not even know what it is he did (sound familiar?)

When Job talks to God at the end, the first thing she says to him is "You have questions for me Job?" and then she responds with a series of questions back to him. She isn't angry at him asking questions.

He then returns to Sitis, a broken man, to be saved by an Angel and a Demon who reinstate his children to him, having kept them safe the entire time.

How fortunate for God that a particular Angel and Demon pair have quietly ensured that some of the most disturbing plans of Heaven and Hell have never made it to fruition.

How interesting that we see Crowley going through each of the pains of Job.

At the end of S2, Crowley is metaphorically sitting, head in hands, wondering what he did that was so wrong to deserve this.

What if the answer is nothing? What if the answer is he did everything right?

[arcanegifs]

Happy 2024, Arcane fans! 11 more months till Arcane Season 2!

[sualne]

have some trans swan lake barbies

[unluckedtj]

something bad’s about to happen to me

why i feel this way, i don’t know maybe

[o-wild-west-wind]

there’s something about how Stede crossing out DEAD and circling ALIVE on the wanted poster like the silly little lover he is manages to be, like…the heart and thesis of the show all in one.

it’s baffling. it’s goofy. it’s a bit sad. it’s optimistic, despite. it’s love in action. it’s earnest beyond belief.

and—quite literally—it’s choosing live.

[cupcakecupid12]

Something that really bothers me about Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is that the professor being ai is technically foreshadowed throughout the game using their animation (if you look, any time they aren’t talking they are completely still, which in 3D animation looks unnatural), but because the game is so buggy, I put that aside as lazy animation and not foreshadowing.