#and it's much funnier to speculate on it that way

[blagueofchaos]

trick or treaaatt<3

You get this mysterious and slightly unsettling Facebook marketplace listing I screenshotted the other day labeled cryptically as "pets", which shows only a variety of seemingly empty boxes!

Are they invisible pets? Are they small insects? Did the pets they intended to sell in them escape, leaving them to sell only empty boxes? Are they boxes that one leaves out to attract a pet? Are they portals to a secret realm of pets? The world may never know because I am not spending $5 on that! But I guess metaphorically I am stealing one and handing it to you, so you get to find out!

[rayshippouuchiha]

I know it’s a joke in the Little Trash Mouth AU that Izuku licks his hand and Overhaul immediately gains Izuphobia (fear of Izuku’s everything) because surely his mouth is a cesspool of germs. But considering his quirk let’s him eat toxic/poisonous things, wouldn’t that mean that his body is constantly sanitizing itself? I think it would be funnier if Izuku is honestly the most germ-free person in existence, but nobody would ever believe that. Kid just doesn’t get sick.

I could very much see this as being the vibe. Because look, Izuku's stomach?? Low-key a black hole. There's speculation that Hisashi's quirk wasn't just fire breathing, that maybe he had like lava gut or something which is why Izuku is the way that he is.

Aizawa drags Izuku to Recovery Girl, convinced this kid is gonna be patient zero to some kind of super virus and Recovery Girl is just like "this child is clean to a degree that frankly scares me??"

Izuku only got sick one time growing up and that's when he was around five or six. He vomited blood, slime, and chunky bits he couldn't identify, slept for 12 hours, and woke up fine.

Unbeknownst to him that was his quirk manifesting and restructuring his entire system.

[theaceace]

I know that canonically (show-wise, at least) St Hilarion's worked to cover up Charles' death, and nothing was ever really done about the disappearance of Edwin and the other boys, but even so, do you think the school has a reputation for being haunted??

I'm imagining Niko following various ghost-hunter groups online, especially when the agency doesn't have many cases going on, and occasionally the boys will mirror hop over to an interesting-sounding location, and they'll even get a real case as a result

So when she tells them that one of the teams is planning to investigate St Hilarion's (either it's been closed for a while or they have special permission to go during the summer holidays), Edwin and Charles steel themselves and decide to go, in case there are other ghosts there that need help ('can't imagine a worse place to be trapped for the rest of my afterlife' says Charles, who has been to literal hell. Edwin, who spent 70 years in literal hell, agrees)

So they go, with Niko and Crystal as moral/emotional support, except when they get there they realise they've fucked up and are there on the same day/night as the ghost hunters. They could come back some other time, but what if there really are ghosts here that are suffering? No one wants to take that chance, so Crystal uses her powers to convince them that she and Niko are there for work experience, or are friends of a friend, or are here to replace one of the tech guys who called in sick

Both Charles and Edwin are tense and uncomfortable returning to the place they died - Edwin had gone there after he escaped Hell because he didn't know where else to go, but they've built themselves a home now with the agency. This isn't like before, when it was the closest place to familiar he could find. Charles, meanwhile, feels colder and colder the longer they're there - his hair is wet, there are bruises flaring and spreading, and a faint rattle in his chest that would have become pneumonia if he'd lived long enough

But they need to be sure there aren't any other lost ghosts stuck here that need their help crossing over, so they keep going

(maybe, as a consequence of a door to hell being opened in the school, there are unusual happenings, maybe there's still a place where the line between earth and hell is very thin, maybe there's some fragment of a demon left behind, and they can do something about it)

Anyway, the most important thing is that Charles, either accidentally or in a fit of pique at the whole situation, knocks something over just as one of the paranormal investigators is asking for spirits to make their presence known. In fact, this happens repeatedly - the boys move things, change things around, their presence is detected somehow with the equipment. Crystal and Niko are doing their best to distract the team and ruin as much of the footage as possible, and at least once the boys do something on purpose, maybe because someone is being a creep to the girls (and yes, they both know that Crystal and Niko are more than capable of taking care of themselves, but this way scares the asshole more and is also funnier), and then also to fuck with their readings

Anyway, it's coming to the end of the night, the problem has been identified, and whaddaya knows, of course it's in the attic where they both died. This is fine, why wouldn't it be fine. They get started, draw some (invisible, ghostly) runes and start working their magic when, of course, the paranormal investigators turn up, because this is thought to be the most 'active' area of the school, and the body of a schoolboy was found here in the 80s

Yeah, they try to contact 'any of the boys who disappeared in 1916' and Charles. It would be fine if they weren't so irritatingly loud, Edwin's trying to concentrate, and Charles is now shivering and dripping wet, but they managed to ignore the team right up until they start speculating that Charles was killed by one of the angry spirits from 1916

At which point, Charles - half visible, clearly enraged, looking very much like the half-drowned and frozen kid he was, like a proper ghost - tells them to fuck off already before they get hurt, they don't understand anything, and how dare they give a shit now when it's too late

Which is, of course, the exact moment Edwin finishes the spell, and causes some sort of a magical rebound that fritzes the cameras for a second, throws furniture around, and knocks them all flying. When the cameras start up again, they catch Edwin kneeling by Charles, holding his hand, and softly telling him that it's ok, it's over, they can go now. Charles sniffs and smiles and knocks their foreheads together and says yeah, let's get out of here, and together they fade from view

The investigators think this means gay love can pierce the veil of death and save the day that now that the truth of their story is known the ghosts have moved on, and it's all thanks to them! How beautiful, how wonderful, how affirming! Perhaps one of the boys from 1916 tried to help Charles, and when that didn't work, they both stayed to try and protect other people from these violent spirits, and now their unfinished business is finished! It's so tragic and touching story

Charles and Edwin, who are putting their tools back in the backpack, roll their eyes and smile at each other

On the way out, Charles swipes the memory cards from the cameras, Edwin inscribes a couple of sneaky runes on various pieces of equipment to fuck with it, and Crystal uses her powers to make sure they all remember a couple of details differently, so later they won't be able to agree on a bunch of stuff

The episode they were trying to make can't be released, their social media posts about the experience are full of details that don't match up, and fans are bitterly disappointed

Crystal and Niko watch the footage Charles stole with Jenny and the Night Nurse back at the agency. Jenny turns it into a drinking game. Charles does a dramatic reading of the posts with added commentary while Edwin pretends he's not laughing. They buy t-shirts of the paranormal investigators and wear them ironically. They leave anonymous comments

Just. The dead boy detectives having to work around ghost hunters, in a world where ghosts definitely, tangibly exist

[bonniepop]

title: of rumors & wrong assumptions parts: 1 / 2 / 3 character: iwaizumi hajime words: 1,200+ warnings: violence towards oikawa's person. experiments in chem lab. notes: i think this is one of my funnier fics so of course i had to bring this back! (also i am not compensating for forgetting about this website at all!)

—

life would’ve been so much easier if you’d ended up having a crush on literally anyone else instead, but noooo. you had to go and have a crush on oikawa's best friend.

oikawa's probably gay best friend.

“i’m telling you—iwa-chan is not gay,” oikawa insists with a hushed voice, leaning over the beaker he poured water into earlier, his face so near the bunsen burner it was giving you anxiety.

“what the fuck, oikawa,” you nearly cry, shoving his face away from the open flame. “get your face out of there!”

your palm presses over the goggles on his face and he yelps. “ow!” he pouts and pulls away his standard chem lab goggles, running his hand through the red marks pressed against his skin. “that hurt!”

“would you rather i let your face burn off in case it exploded?” you shoot back, grabbing a pen and writing down your observations. “also can you get back to work? this is a partner lab report.”

“that’s just water,” he snaps.

"there's an open flame!" you practically shriek, but he ignores you.

"—and i’ll read your notes later.” he says the last part dismissively, and you had to stop yourself from launching your pen at his face—like a gladiator spear through one of his eyeballs.

life would've been so much easier if you'd fallen for literally anyone else, because their best friend probably wouldn't be an insufferably annoying volleyball captain that you'd ended up being partnered with.

at first, it made you giddy. this was your chance—be friend the volleyball captain, make friends with iwaizumi, flirt, fall in love, and live happily ever after.

okay, you're thinking too far ahead. but it was a great setup. until oikawa'd said, "i need to talk to you about something," with that something being... righting... his best friend's reputation.

is there any possible way to get run over by a truck? while inside a laboratory on the third floor of a building?

“anyway, he’s not gay,” oikawa brings up again, louder than the last time, and you sink down against the table and groan.

you can feel your table mates look back at you suspiciously, and you pray to every deity out there. someone, anyone. just open up the earth and swallow me whole.

“oikawa,” you bark, peering over your shared equipment with sharp eyes. “can we not talk about this here?”

he shakes his head quite vigorously. “no! we need to discuss this. because you are wrong, and i am here to tell you that you are wrong.”

your face wrinkles into a scowl. “i really don’t wanna talk about this,” you grumble, looking away.

you don’t even know how he knows. as far as you remember, it was a speculation you’d mentioned to your group of friends in jest, and two days later, oikawa—who had sweet talked your previous lab partner into switching out, apparently; if you think about it, this was all her fault for agreeing—started pestering you about it.

“add the iodine and stir,” your teacher says, and dutifully, you grab the smaller beaker and add the brown liquid, noting the color change when you stir.

“seriously!” oikawa insists, “he’s not. believe me.”

“wh—” you point your pen at him and glare. “you know what, i will remove your name from this lab report if you don’t work on anything in the next—”

you watch him grab his pen and, without looking, scribble quickly on his notebook. “there, done.”

your jaw unhinges, unreasonable, murderous irritation flooding your entire body. “you didn’t even—”

“now get your second beaker,” your teacher instructs, and you use it as a distraction to stop yourself from lunging at your lab partner. “add the remaining water, hydrogen peroxide and fabric starch.”

you take a deep breath and reach for the materials—which were near oikawa’s elbow. when your reach comes up short, you glare at him. “maybe you’d like to help me?”

“oh, sure,” oikawa goes, plucking the materials and placing them on the center of the table. “there you go.” 

you count to ten in an attempt to prevent yourself from hurling the second beaker at his head, opting to focus on the experiment instead.

“anyway, i—”

you nearly slam your hands on the table. “look, oikawa,” you tell him, leaning closer. “i don’t know how you found out about that, but it was meant as a joke. i didn’t mean it, and whoever told you that? give me their name. give me their name, so i can find them, break their phone, and burn their house down. end of story.”

he blinks. “so you don’t think he’s gay?”

you lean back. “if he is, it’s none of my business.”

“but he’s not,” oikawa whines. “what made you think that in the first place?”

you give him a bewildered stare. “what? why wouldn’t i think it? he’s obviously in love with you.”

his face morphs into one of complete and utter shock, and then he booms into laughter, which makes the class turn towards your seat at the very back. he sheepishly quiets down at the call of his name, your teacher evidently not as amused as he is at his new discovery.

“he’s not in love with me,” oikawa denies at a much softer, but not any less irritating, volume.

you ignore him. “he’s so scary but he turns sweet around you—”

“sweet? sweet?” he’s wide-eyed and appalled. he aggressively points to the back of his head. “is throwing volleyballs at my head sweet?"

you defend, “i don’t know what you’re into—"

"do you know how many almost-concussions i've had because of him?! i'm basically a fall risk at this point!”

“now, transfer everything in beaker 1 to beaker 2,” your teacher calls, interrupting your argument. “note the time.”

he stares and shakes his head. “anyway. well, that’s not the case. at all,” he declares, leaning forward to continue the rest of the experiment. “we’re just friends. you note the time.”

“sure,” you say, signaling for him to go once you track the seconds on your watch. you scribble in your notes when the liquid changes color. 

the bell rings, and students are shuffling to dump their liquids in the giant erlenmeyer flask at the back of the room.

your former lab partner smiles at you as you both dump your waste liquid. “seems like you and oikawa had a lot of fun,” she chirps.

not at all. “he’s okay,” you say before you part ways. when you get back to your desk, she notes that oikawa is waiting for you and that you walk out of lab together, bickering.

while the rest of the day went ahead as normal, for the next day at school, you were not granted that same luxury.

“hey,” one of your friends asks over lunch, “are you and oikawa dating?”

your fist clenches in surprise, and the juice sent ricocheting through the straw and into your throat makes you choke. “what?” you ask, coughing, and wiping at your mouth with the back of your hand. “where'd you get that?”

the rest of your friends meet gazes. “we heard you were really close in lab yesterday,” one of the girls says.

“yeah, like an old married couple,” another says.

your brain is going into overdrive. what? said who? “we are absolutely n—”

someone calls from outside your classroom. someone with very familiar and annoying voice, someone who you've, quite frankly, had enough of.

you look up to see oikawa, waving merrily at you. behind him, iwaizumi’s stony face is dark and threatening.

the girls around you giggle, and you flush, hunching over at your desk in an attempt to hide.

this cannot be happening, you think despairingly. not only was your crush probably gay, he also thinks you’re dating his best friend.

the best friend he was probably in love with.

“fuck me,” you groan into the wood grain of your desk. "fuck me so very much."

[shigayokagayama]

one of my favorite little things in mob psycho (and one of the reasons i think that, despite it being a relatively complete show, theres so much room for fan speculation and fanworks expanding on it) is all the little details of things that you see or get mentioned for a second for a gag and then never mentioned again because leaving it to the audience's imagination is way funnier than any elaboration ever could be. like for example, teru's movie being a fake horror movie called "flying dead pig" that exists solely on vhs and is apparently extremely hard to acquire. even though the actual contents of this movie are never explicitly shown (literally all we know about it is what i listed above) we can use those details along with teru's taste in general to conclude its probably one of the strangest cinematic experiences ever crafted. like, in my mind's eye this movie is like if that film about the serbian government through the eyes of a pigeon were real.

[neonfretra]

does anyone want to discuss hrpf outside of shipping + written fic context . because i think about where what i do sits in relation to it all

for brevity i will be referring to the real person as the player and the fictionalized interpretation of the player as the character

to get things outta the way, i dont think theres very much you can say about real life people before you start crossin into real person fiction (rpf) territory LOL

transformative art is rpf. speculation is rpf. narratives is rpf. the second you start steppin away from a direct relay of the facts as is, we gettin in ficticious waters IMO. its really a neutral thing to me and my ethics begin and end at "dont show people who dont wanna see"

and its real funny to think about how i do art just because it feels like i set up way less barriers compared to people who DO write fic . i see all this talk about making sure you make your stuff login exclusive, about not sharin it to the people involved, disclaimers about how its in fact NOT a reflection of reality that your favorite athlete is mpregnant and YOU are are mfather.

and i just hit post and call it a day LOL

TO BE CLEAR there is definitely layers to it in the sense that i see similar amounts of caution with say ship art or certain degrees of raunch.

shipping in the rpf scene is funny to me in the sense of the tendency to treat shipping as THE exclusive rpf thing. like no i dont think my tomas tatar fanart is 1:1 on the reality front either. for example, nj devils hairline is not that far back and thags the only inaccuracy.

heres the kicker: mmy foot.

most of my doodles tend to evoke a degree of characterization or narrative. yeag maybe its a little less 30k slowburn and a little more fabian zetterlund shot putting a man but. that is fictional, that is a character

im not saying that rpf defines players more than the reality of them does but i do believe it does enforce certain views

in the spaces i hang around ive noticed the narrativization around certain characters being part fueled by the information that is filtered by reporters and part interpretations bounced back and forth by fandom . and when you have eyes on a story, its easy to pick out information solely as it agrees with you

maybe the most prominent narrative ive seen for the sharks has been macklin celebrini having a jock dad -> therefore he got daddy issues, joe thornton houses him -> therefore mentor and father figure joe thornton? where even though i havent seen any direct relay of information from any players (though ivent been looking LOL) a lot of the discussion around it revolves around this common understanding that it just is (the funnier part is arguably that will smith hockey has been doing more for this narrative for patrick marleau BUT NEITHER HERE NOR THERE.)

and its really interesting to note HOW fandom warps or weaves the story by going off common tropes or dynamics to make sense of the public facing parts we do see, which is what i think is magnified through the lens of fanworks but not (necessarily) CREATED by fanworks

which is where i feel my work is part of the. ecosystem??? life cycle??? and then we all return to the dirt and the worms eat us???

how much or how little we define the gap between player and character changes from person to person. i simply do not have that goin on here. devin cooley eats joey daccords hair take it or leave it. annnnd main tag that

other times i feel we wear the divide thin are when there is headcanon that uses facts about the player (ie a lot of ship talk) or when the character becomes the kneejerk understanding of the player (ie liveblogs. very fun way to get a read of a communitys feelings on something because of how immediate the reactions on it are)

the point of this post isnt to shame or interrogate people about participating in rpf, im not looking for those sort of feelings, im fascinated by fandom culture as a twig off the old branch and i would love to hear other perspectives on the same topic (and different communities! i dont have much involvement in fic. which is. a massive hole in my perspective on this probably)

is it possible to cross the line from rpf to plain old original content LOL (the answer is intent i know but. walk with me here its fun to think about)

naturally theres a degree of "original character" to every depiction . you gotta make up some amount of it. theres no clear separation OF rpf and original content because everything is about borrowing. you make characters with inspiration from other things. its near enough universal for someone who deals with characters to have at some point lifted a character directly out of their original context and made them their own.

its not just their face or name or some other physical attribute that makes it rpf id also argue because i have seen people using attributes of real people as "claims" for origubal characters (like a "faceclaim" to say "this is how i imagine my character to look")

on top of that there is fluctuating interest on actually depicting the player, with approaches that i have heard of ranging from "character that shares the quantitative aspects of the player and thats IT" to "character that was made heavily referencing to things the player has said/done"

its interesting when certain players in rpf have a consistent character! which trends to be in teams with a more active rpf oriented fanbase (vs interest mainly in the real life hockey played), comparing the fandom of kraken to the golden knights on tumblr for instance. its also interesting to note that more popular teams just have more rpf centric leans. because there are more people to write rpf. i mean also we are on a fandom centric site and rpf bridges that gap from narrative/character fueled media and sportsball more LOL

(if you like sports from a purely sports oriented angle do you enjoy watching it? genuine question. because at what point is it "i could just be doing this myself" because ive hit that point with other things before LMAO)

i do call the difference being more "fandom" oriented but IDK if thats correctly using the word or just less syllables. and on top of that i cant exactly tell you if its popularity or stand out personality that holds more sway. though then again i guess those two traits arent separate from each other necessarily. or even that those are the only two factors to broad appeal (probably popularity with another player is up there. but im not trying to find a formula for most attractive to make rpf of)

to return to the kraken because that is the most rpf oriented team i follow, i do notice when players portrayed consistently. i can definitely tell you like. one or two character traits about players i do not follow the media of solely from liveblogs and art. complexity of the character varies by a lot, though i do think its interesting to consider the hows and whys.

a trait or interest being highlighted by media (i tend to see this in offical media coverage that gets spread by jokes) -> the character heavily revolves around this feature in jokes or casual reference, with heavy personal interpretation

media pushing a narrative by following a more cohesive timeline or story structure (i usually see this in fanworks. easier to identify the influence of IMO) -> fairly consistent character backstory or , at least in the broad strokes of it

just general agreements about tropes that are appealing with little basis on the player -> this is usually the more relationship focused character interpretation

there isnt usually just one factor (and this isnt an exhaustive list of factors) to one characters history. unless its a super new player on the radar.

its definitely a character that belongs to the fandom! as in the unique character to the unique community! its actually really funny how they evolve. you could probably fingerprint someones influences if you tried hard enough. with how new the kraken is (and the fact the fandom leans more towards being united as one body than any other team ive seen so far) it does get pretty easy to get it down to the post but. do your own treasure search. I wont deprive you!

(also its EMBARASSING... what if the people i mention SEE... im SHY...)

harder with an older fandom like the sharks there are so many dead and defunct sources or jokes so widely spread that it gets hard to locate the origin . because dead and defunct sources. though i think its growing a new ring around the fandom tree because of the newer players! so its a thought. to think about how different events influence the size and activity of a fanbase and to ask how different fans from different. eras? of a fanbase interact (or dont).

again i notice this in the sharks fandoms by comparing fans from the playoff contending sharks era (last playoff season was 18-19? start is a little murky but ill toss out that 2012 was the year tomas hertl was drafted because tomas hertl was an era of the sharks LOL a whole 12 years! i know people younger than his professional career and those people are catching up to me in height. humbling!) and fans from when the sharks were very much not playoff contending (quite an amount of the current active fans LOL). not sure if theres much to say without looking stupid. different jokes, notable players, friend groups, feelings towards other teams. all still feel very strongly about general manager mike grier scattering players like dandellion seeds to the wind.

(AGAIN. HOPING NO SHARKS FANS NOTICE THIS. IM SHY)

how many sharks fans havent seen logan couture on ice

again i am saying all this as someone who ACTIVELY participates in this BTW!!! does anyone notice that players i dont know definitely have a flatter "whatever is the funniest thing to say" angle . or that characters of players i know a few things about have like one punchline . or even that certain characters are consistent and not just bound by direct interpretations of one moment (which i do a lot of when im liveblogging) (dont get your hopes up for anything new here, the character usually is "pathetic and a little bit of a bastard")

i keep writing these disclaimers like. if someone disagreed this strongly they would not be reading this far. hi! is anyone still here. is someone still reading.

i have created life and i dont know to kill it.

i talk about one of my depictions of a player as a separate character (that is to say, a SEPARATE character from the character intended to represent the player) and i have NO idea if this is like. an OC? a defamation case in waiting? my spawn? do i have to pay childcare. does anyone know who or what im talking about or has the character been festering in my mind like an infection.

is it just me???

my advice to you: if you dont want somethin to come back dont give it a name.

consider dissecting your personal and the more widespread fandoms take on players and characters! its fun for me but i also just like taking things apart ^_^ i fear i may not be as analytical as this post demands i do a lot of restating information and thats it

[notnights]

So obviously it's still too early to properly analyze the exact relationship dynamic between Jax and Gangle in canon. I promise this is less of me trying to find legitimate proof of any character speculations, and more just a string of very quick, messy personal thoughts on the topic. Context and motivation for their behaviors are likely to be explained in future episodes, and until then there's still quite a lot of uncharted territory left to explore. (Although I will say that both these characters are surprisingly more active and engaging with each other upon rewatch. aka, their willingness to be around one another seems mutual, the bullying is not.)

The only information that we can currently gather about Gangle are her canon appearances, the preview screenshot Glitch posted on the official account and to a lesser extent, Gangle's concept art sketches: Alot of it being about her fixation and dependency towards her comedy mask. We don't know whether she's fixated on the actual sensation being happy 24/7 or just the ability to appear joyful around everybody else just yet, or What her real-world equivalent of the mask was, or even if there ever was a real-world equivalent to begin with. But, Personal indictment is that she does genuinely want long term companionship and meaningful connections with other people. Or at the very least, not be subtly ostracized out of social convention. I think she believes that curating her outward demeanor might change the way others perceive her, and hopefully the way they interact with her as well. It doesn't really help that each of the circus crew are all a bit too much in their own heads to notice, one way or another. Even if they do mean well at the end of the day, it's never quite what she's really looking to accomplish. (It also doesn't help that her digital design is so detached from being human either, she's essentially a flat face on a piece of string. One can't really blame her for trying to make the most of what she's able to display tbh.)

So far, we know Jax is apathetic, violent and generally antagonistic towards everyone in the main cast, sometimes deliberately towards the girls. I think it isn't all that farfetched to believe he latched on to Gangle because she was malleable enough to target without facing most of the consequences. Subsequently, there's also the idea of him relating Gangle's tragedy mask to her willingness to comply: It's an emotional vulnerability for her (She already sees herself as less deserving of human interaction in this state, she won't have anyone else to go to, she doesn't seem to like being left alone). It's not farfetched to assume Jax sees the tragedy mask as a more "complied version" of Gangle, more entertaining and easier to string along. Me thinks he prefers it, but again. It's too soon to tell. Anyways something something designated role in group activities something something internalized self-worth I think Gangle and Ragatha have very similar philosophies when it comes to people pleasing and it almost makes me believe in the theory that they secretly don't get along even more.

(btw plz feel absolutely no pressure to respond to any of this at all - Again, very messy thoughts that I barely had time to collect. Ribbun is an unexpected infection with unfortunately very thought consuming brain fodder to me personally. Have a nice day.

I like these thoughts! It'll be really interesting to see how the Comedy and Tragedy masks work for Gangle.

I do agree Jax probably prefers Tragedy Gangle as even if it's only as deep as "she's funnier like that." And Gangle is the easiest victim for him in that state.

We've seen everyone (but Kinger, who Jax kind of doesn't bother too much, and you could argue it's because Kinger doesn't give an entertaining reaction) fight back against Jax's behavior in some way. Ragatha yells at him, Zooble isn't afraid to get physical, and we can tell Pomni had death on her mind when he threw her off the truck. The most Gangle has done is timidly resist for a few seconds before compiling. Steps on her mask, pushes her, grabs her and puts her in the drivers seat, she doesn't say anything.

She has a couple of bite back words, but then Jax just bites back and it shuts her down. Which is interesting because when Ragatha yells at him it's clear he thinks its funny and merely snarks back at her, often getting her to yell more. He gets different reactions out of everyone in the group and picks different entertainment from that. Gangle might be the one he knows he has proper control over.

As for the Ragatha and Gangle thing, I was really interested in the fact no one cared when Gangle broke her mask in the pilot, not even Ragatha who is our outwardly most caring. You could say it's because she had tunnel vision on Pomni, but I immediately interpreted it as, yeah Gangle's mask breaks all the time, she's crying all the time, eventually people stop caring. The boy who cried wolf, etc etc.

Even if Ragatha doesn't have direct conflict with Gangle, the fact Ragatha is someone who internalizes everything, and projects a positive outlook, I imagine someone like Gangle would make her pretty uncomfortable.

Here Ragatha is trying her darnest to keep it together and remain positive, meanwhile Gangle is crying all the time behind her.

"It's not so bad here Pomni, I promise!" as Gangle cries in the background.

Gangle being a constant reminder of how Ragatha, and maybe all of them really feel about being stuck here. Too early to say if Ragatha resents Gangle for this, or how she really feels about it. But if she does that's so sad because (we also don't know yet) Gangle has no control over these feelings, it wasn't her choice for her avatar to work like this.

Which honestly could be a good allegory for how certain people view mental illness in the real world too. Ragatha being a loved one who's uncomfortable with Gangle's moods, or even believes if Gangle just tried hard enough like her (example: keeping her comedy mask safe) she'd be fine. Ooh sad comic ideas.

[redlightspellsdaanger]

Thierry and Nicolas - and Martijn.

Need to write this down to organise my thoughts because I'm seriously fascinated with the dynamics between Thierry and his co-drivers.

Yes, he clearly has a very good relationship with Martijn and they work. But whenever he is asked about him - and in these interviews people tend to pile on the praise even if it's not quite like that - it feels he is almost going out of his way to sound as detached as possible ("you don't have to be friends", "we already end up spending so much time together, so it's best to not mix personal time", etc). It is almost cold. If you didn't see the way they interact you would think they don't mean much to each other.

Which takes us to Le Divorce, as he called it himself - with Nicolas Gilsoul.

The facts are known. Surprise parting only a mere days before the start of the season, both saying it was the other's decision and none of them going into details. Speculation: contractual reasons aka money. (in a very interesting podcast dated January this year Thierry actually said the confidence wasn't there anymore and he alluded to important changes in Nicolas' personal life that had an impact also in their work)

This split could have blown up in the media in a different way but none of them was really pointing fingers in public. To me it came across not as hard feelings - but hurt feelings on both sides.

One looks at how Martijn speaks about Thierry and you can clearly tell he sees him as the boss. My perception from the interaction with Nicolas was completely different. They seemed equals and level in every way.

They joked they were like Yin and Yang, that they complemented each other (N the funnier one, T the more serious; T the less affected by pressure, N would take a few days to turn the page, etc).

But in the middle of it all, you could tell they were extremely close.

With Martijn, instead they highlight how similar they are. In terms of approach, how seriously they take the job. And we have to remember that Martijn is a ray of sunshine but he sat down in the car with Thierry, zero testing together and no shakedown, and drove to a podium in Monte Carlo. He is not there to play.

People get more experienced with age, been there, done that. It's entirely possible Thierry has also changed overtime, older and more seasoned, responsabilities, a lot of pressure and time running out to win.

I can't help but think that the situation with Nicolas marked him deeply.

He doesn't want to be closer to Martijn. Professional aspect aside, he just wants someone who he is at peace with and clicks the same way he does, that they are in synch and that above all, requires no effort. He does not want to have friendship or emotions in the middle because it will make it harder if things go wrong at the job they have to do - he literally said this.

Relationships also work like that. You break-up from a very intense relationship, with incredible highs and devastating lows, and next thing you want is just something...simple.

Funnily enough, T+N remind me of Brocedes in a way. Except that Brocedes is a Hollywood story (full of pettiness, big words, high stakes, a lot of drama) while T+N is an European tale. Understated, lurking in the depths, hurt feelings but no fireworks. Two people who probably didn't stop liking each other but could not continue together.

There's so much I have missed, so this perception I have of the situation could be completely off the mark! It's a work in progress.

If anyone who reads this wants to share their own opinions ideas, I'm all ears!

This is the podcast from January which is quite insightful, on You Tube.

[diminuel]

The comedic tragedy of Dragon is that he is perpetually terrified of being like Garp in all the ways he is not and is blind to all the ways he is exactly like his father in exceptionally funnier and more embarrassing ways (not a boot licker, but is extremely easy to provoke into very stupid and meaningless pissing contests.)

Haha, that is very possible. I think he might have been pretty hot-headed too in the past, taking unnecessary risks, having disproportionate reactions to things, etc. I can see him just being angry at everything.

Garp is also extremely volatile and he is violent, he toys with the lives of people he says he loves just because he thinks they can take it (or must take it.) Since Dragon had to grow up under Garp's fist of love and (I'm speculating) his expectations that Dragon should excel in a system that Garp himself has resisted Dragon might try to over correct? But he's just so damn angry because he wants to change the system while Garp at best passively accepts it and at worst puts his wishy washy sense of justice over his own family.

As a consequence I can see Dragon withdrawing completely. Not just from the marine, but also in terms of his family? He tries to erase his past (especially once he has Luffy) completely, not even letting Iva or Kuma close.

Just... *clenches fist* Dragon's such a mysterious guy.

(Also I was overthinking this so much that the carrots I've had on the stove for tomorrow's lunch turn into charcoal. I will never forgive Garp for ruining my carrots. :P)

[ckret2]

What if the axolotls animal existence on earth is influenced by the Axolotl, somehow, and they are like, made in his image?

I don't plan to explain why there are axolotls in different dimensions.

The thing that's always bothered me about "oh this species is actually alien" or "was created by aliens or magic" is that earth already has a pretty solid fossil record. We know what creatures the axolotl is closely related to. It wasn't randomly plopped on earth fully-formed.

Pretty much any "aliens made this species" plot has to either ignore this fossil record, or else come up with some kind of complicated explanation for why the fossil record has been fabricated (which risks ducking into the same turf as some of the more unsavory conspiracy theories). No thanks.

The only way to say "aliens influenced this species" while working with the fossil record would be to say "yeah this species IS based on aliens, but they still evolved naturally on earth, which means some kind of power was influencing and directing the evolution of earth creatures, possibly for billions of years, to ensure that eventually this ONE species would be perfectly formed—" and for what? Why are we going to all this effort? We're not writing hard sci-fi about speculative evolution.

Axolotls are on a bunch of planets in a bunch of dimensions. "Why?" We don't know. "Why not?" Funnier that way.

[the-furthest-city-light]

Question just for funzies I do not ship them, but do you ship mishanks?😂

I’ve just seen a variety of people who shipped zolu, ship also those two together. (Your fics are the ones that really sold zolu for me tho so thank you 🙏)

Shanks is one of the few characters I ship with basically all his major ships. Benn Beckman? I'm a sucker for the captain/first mate dynamics obviously. Buggy? Childhood not-so-unrequited lovers. Tragic. Gorgeous. Actually hilarious how pathetic they both are.

Mihawk and Shanks are interesting to me as individual characters so far with a potentially really interesting history. I really like the interactions we've gotten with them in canon. I like the theory that Shanks used to be Mihawk's only real rival for the title of "greatest swordsman" until Shanks lost his arm (which tbh just makes Zoro's willingness to cut his own feet off even funnier if true). It's not something that's really been explored in canon or elaborated on but they clearly have some kind of history there. Mihawk met Shanks's boy and booked it to whatever island he was hiding out on (in the new world??? How???) Immediately. It's an interesting reaction if nothing else.

Also, spoilers for egghead and Wano flashbacks below the cut.

My personal pet theory is that mihawk may be the one who inspired Shanks to get back into piracy in the first place. Mihawk was at Roger's execution and witnessed the birth of the great pirate Era. We know from the flashbacks that this invention inspired despair in Shanks, and he took a break from piracy for a while after.

We don't know what got him back into pirating, but imo, Mihawk seems like a likely option. Shanks never really saw Buggy as a rival (which isn't to say Shanks doesn't like or respect buggy, just that he never saw himself in competition with him the way it seems Buggy did with him). Mihawk calling Shanks out on his apathy when he clearly cares so much about the world and Roger's legacy (and whatever it was that had him crying when Roger and Co. Returned from Laughtale) would be a really interesting situation to witness Shanks in, and it would actually kind of mirror both Mihawk's initial meeting with Zoro ("don't despair kid, you've got a ways to go before you should think about giving up") and Shanks' role in Luffy's life as someone who inspired him to go to sea in the first place.

A lot of this is speculation obviously and I'll be interested to see how Oda characterizes Shanks and Mihawk's relationship and/or past going forward. But I can see something like this making for a really interesting foundation for a romantic relationship. We just don't have a ton of context!

[l-in-the-light]

Chapter 1130 commentary

I have been procrastinating about this one for a while, because... two weeks break for One Piece manga? Damn, that hits hard. But now I'm catching up with my commentary :D I kinda liked doing the poll last time so let's try it again :3

Now, it's time to reveal the answer from the last poll. Before the spoilers were out, people voted mostly for "Luffy saw someone he knows" option, but just before the chapter released the scales became 50-50, and after release "Elbaf" option won, no surprise there, lol. But what if I tell you the correct answer was actually option D (something else)? :D

Because look what he actually saw:

And you're thinking: he saw Elbaf! He said it himself, right? Everything is so huge! Yes, that's right, but in previous chapter he reacted with "ah" like it's something he didn't see in the castle itself but recognized as familiar, and he saw big things already inside the castle. So what caused him to have that huge smile?

Here you go, this is your answer. Now look at the picture of snowy landscape outside the castle and everything should be clear now ;)

Luffy really missed some snow! You might think, that's because he didn't see any for some time already, right? Actually... Immediately after leaving Drum Kingdom and going through way too hot Alabasta, Luffy wanted snow again. He got to see it again only at Punk Hazard (where he also meets Law, so it's two of his favourites together, no wonder Luffy was so thrilled all the time there, lol), and then nothing till Egghead. What do you mean Egghead? Don't you all remember? It's originally a winter island, so when they were approaching it, it was super cold and snowy!

So actually Luffy had some snow already just last arc/few days ago, but seems it's never enough for him, haha. He's already excited to see it again.

I gotta say it's interesting how Luffy loves snow so much while Law grew up in a snowy and cold North Blue. But this time I'm not here to speculate on Lawlu, let's move on with the commentary :D

I took that from the chapter's title page. Interesting how the houses only in Amigasa Village have those kind of roofs made out of straw in a form of a komuso hat. Law wore one just like that in Wano, to hide his identity. It's also a real thing that travelling samurai who turned monks used to wear in Japan. Too bad we never learned anything more about Amigasa Village, besides the fact they weave hats made of straw, apparently. The name of the village itself, Amigasa, is also a name of a hat made of straw and used for some traditional folk dances. Seems Amigasa's bond to weaving hats out of straw runs very deeply. Too bad we couldn't stay in Wano forever.

I kinda adore the fact they said Rodo would be happy to be called "the shame of Elbaf". Rodo is more quirky than we thought he is, and he was already pretty quirky when he got introduced to us in his full roleplaying glory in last chapter. Whatever you say about him, you just gotta respect that this guy would wear the title of "shame of Elbaf" like a badge of honor :D also if you love Strawhats outfits in Elbaf you should never forget who made them for them. That's right, our guy Rodo himself, with his own nerdy roleplaying hands :D you should be grateful to him!

Oh, so it's a regular thing Rodo actually does, he steals intruders to play with them like living dolls in his lego city. Omg. I already thought that might be the case, but it's kinda funnier when it's confirmed now. I wonder what the Giants do with the intruders normally, when those don't land in Rodo's RPG dungeon. They just mention "we will let Elder Jarul (whoever that is) know as soon as we find them", hm. Seems Hajrudin's group is responsible of taking care of intruders. This kinda lowkey shows that Hajrudin has quite a lot of authority or at least responsibilites.

Luffy of course wants to immediately go and say hi. To be honest, if his crew trusted his instinct more often, most of One Piece arcs wouldn't even happen the way they did, lol. Especially Dressrosa. Imagine if Luffy asked people if it's true Mingo abdicated, just like he wanted to do at the very start. And here as well, this decision of Strawhats not to trust Luffy's guts, is gonna have bigger consequences.

Just wanted to point out the "..." bubble. Why is it even here? Is someone again withholding some information from us, the readers? And why in this moment? If it was Strawhats thinking "Rodo won't answer you, we knocked him out", it could have been shared with us, it's not any new piece of information after all. Curious.

Appreciation moment for the Strawhats getting through their rope bridge challenge :D Chopper is carrying Nami, helping her and reassuring her as well! Zoro is taking the lead while Sanji tries to stick to Nami instead, in case she would need him. Poor Usopp, shivering from fear there, lol. Let's take a closer look at him.

Poor, poor Usopp! He's trying his best, okay??

A cute Zoro-Luffy moment. Zoro immediately notices that something caught Luffy's attention and Luffy shares without losing a beat, expecting Zoro to know exactly what he means. They're best buddies ever since the beginning of the manga and it's never gonna change or get forgotten :3

Cute Zosan moment. Even before Zoro declares what he wants to do, suddenly Sanji catches up to him, grabs him and denies him. By this point, Sanji can perfectly read Zoro's mind already and reacts in time before Zoro says what he wants to do, lol. Let's be real, Sanji probably figured him out exactly when Zoro asked Luffy "what's wrong".

Many people point out that those two grew really close in Elbaf, and I totally agree. Before WCI it was mostly Zoro closing the distance between them, now it's reversed. Perhaps Sanji learned to appreciate their bond in more open way than before (as in: he's holding back less, not just feeling suddenly more affection towards Zoro, he had it for a while already), because he knows now how it feels to almost lose it and be afraid to never see any of them ever again. In WCI he was convinced he won't be coming back to Sunny, after all.

Another mystery solved. So that was the "wild beast" they heard "roaring". Interesting that they heard Loki even when locked inside a castle, hm. Maybe it's because Loki is tied up to Yggdrasil and whenever Yggdrasil shakes it affects the whole Elbaf? Just like the giants in the detention centre said, world will crumble if Yggdrasil gets burned or damaged.

Let's look at the rest of the crew still left at sea. The Reliable Four, lol. It's funny because they're indeed the most dependable ones in Luffy's crew and they're all together here. Franky looks great in those clothes, Jinbei is of course hard at work, Robin's full of hope and confidence (which is always infinitely heartouching to see!), and Brook... Brook, when he's together only with the adults of the Strawhats, actually behaves very responsibly and sane, not even cracking his usual skull jokes and he's providing helpful arguments. Brook definitely knows how to be serious and seems he does that depending on who he is stranded with at the moment :D

This reminds me of Tekking's comment about One Piece world; just like our real world, it's affected by it's own inflation rates, lol. I might be laughing at that, but actually this is a remarkable tiny detail that adds to the worldbuilding and makes this universe feel really alive. At the end of the day, it actually follows similar rules to our own reality, hm.

Also poor Dorry and Brogy, they're not used to shanenigans of this world. They did kinda spend 100 years dueling on Little Garden, cut off from the current events. I guess they will have to postpone their duel to death ;)

I can't with this photo collage. Imagine writing a story about Luffy viciously murdering Vegapunk, but you print THESE photos to illustrate it, lol. Luffy laughing happily and Vegapunk doing some silly face. Way to prove your point there, Morgans. I bet he was snickering to himself when he was choosing photograps to this particular article, lol. That guy has some silly sense of humour, I gotta give him that.

Everyone figured it out almost immediately, but I will still say it. Yep, this mark was probably drawn on the photograph itself by no one else but Vivi. She couldn't stop the press or force Morgans to change his article, but she managed to smuggle in a message of her own and it's meant for Luffy and Strawhats. It's the very same X mark they showed to themselves when parting ways at the end of Alabasta, the symbol of their unity, friendship and belonging to same crew.

Vivi is hoping that it can give the Strawhats idea as to where she is (hiding at Morgans), but also this is her way of telling them not to worry and that she's alive and well. She knows it's officially reported she's missing and she knows Luffy and Nami well and expects them to be very worried. Of course it also a sign proving her loyalty and showing that she's still one of them and didn't forget, and that she probably really wishes they could all reunite soon. A pretty clever message :)

Of course Franky, Brook and Jimbei have no idea about any of it, because they joined much, much later. Robin seems to recognize it, but she was their enemy at the time, so she has a very vague idea. Brook reaction is quite puzzling though, he's keeping his thoughts to himself, and a bubble with three dots appears for the second time this chapter. I wonder what does Brook know here and why isn't he saying anything outloud. Could it be that when Robin said "it seems familiar", Brook is actually thinking the same thing? I wonder why would it feel familiar to him, was the X mark used for something else in times before Roger sailed the seas?

Seems this is officially the moment when Luffy reaches similar standing to Shanks, interesting. They point it out to us, to make sure we won't miss it, hm?

You gotta admit Lilith can be a little shit sometimes, lol. They indeed risked their lives to save the Vegapunks, but she's joking at it so lightheartedly now like it's no biggie, and finds this whole situation simply amusing. I wonder if that's a hint towards Vegapunk's own sense of humour as well, if so, he was quite a curious fella.

Huh, interesting. So Elbaf works on rule of seniority, which seems more important than whatever a royalty wants. They're even excused at calling him just a whipper-snapper, huh. That explains why an Elder was mentioned before, Elders must be the ones who actually hold the power in Elbaf. Anyway, seems the oldest Giants are the ones that always get priority in any matters.

The phrase "Trouble in Elbaf" is also interesting. We know that Elbaf is a nation of war or even birthplace of war. Is Hajurdin's task to stop any inside wars from happening? Is that the usual job description of a King's son? This is already not what I would have expected from their political system. It's possible that king in Elbaf isn't even the highest position, from the sounds of it, or at least not in the terms of having absolute power.

And then they mention Loki, another prince of Elbaf. Seems this one is really strong, if all the warriors had to work together to catch him up and chain him. Apparently he's not right in the head, killed his own father (the king, which means Elbaf currently doesn't even have the king! It's likely Elders are governing over the country now, at least till new King will step up), apparently because of some legendary devil fruit (what's that fruit? your guess is as good as mine, but if it's a nod to Odin then I kinda expect a flying type fruit).

But is Loki really as bad as they paint him here? Let's see, he tried to flee because they wanted to crucify him, I mean... who wouldn't flee for their life in that scenario? Especially if he thought he had a chance to actually escape.

The most curious part is them calling him "accursed prince" from the moment of his birth. Sounds to me like either fate was at hand (Loki was simply born under worst combination of stars) or his birth was prophetized. Perhaps even before he was born someone with clairvoyant powers could already predict Loki will bring the end to Elbaf. The person in question himself says he will destroy "the whole world", but I don't exactly believe it. In Rodo's little miniature of Elbaf it was enough to destroy Yggdrasil to destroy the world. Since we now know that Elbaf is literally located in most part on the tree itself, damaging it in any way would lead to the end of the country, so it would be the end of the world but only for the giants who live on Elbaf. Apparently pirate giants crews are a rarity which means most Elbaf giants live on Elbaf their whole lives. We know there are other giants in the world, but they're not very common, unless Saul tells us more about any sort of giants communities outside Elbaf.

I can't help but symphatize with Loki personally. We heard of "accursed" people before while they themselves did nothing to deserve being called this way. We had Duval who was born "cursed" just because of his looks (I wonder if swirly eyebrow was part of the reason, actually), and we had Doflamingo calling Luffy's D bloodline as "cursed". So far no one who was called "cursed", especially since their birth, be it for their looks or a single letter in their name, didn't turn out to be a bad person. And that's why I'm willing to give Loki a benefit of the doubt. I don't know his actual story, but so far it sounds to me like he was subjected to crucifixation for something that was never his fault: being born with "a curse".

As to why he killed his father, I have no clue, but it's possible it was the king who gave the order to crucify Loki. Maybe Loki had no other choice. I'm sure we will find out what's exactly the deal with that, for now I will refrain from blindly guessing around, but the things I already deduced does seem rather logical so far.

Now this is interesting. Why would Loki be called shame of Elbaf? Again, Duval was also shamed for something that wasn't his choice: his appearance (and possibly a swirly eyebrow), and he was made to wear a helmet (though that was probably mostly thanks to the wanted poster of Sanji at the time). Speaking of Sanji, he was also called Judge's greatest shame, and why was that? Oh right, because he was an empathetic, weak human. He was a child that didn't meet the expectations, was told to work 10 times harder than his siblings to catch up, but Sanji was more interested in cooking instead. What if Loki is the same? He might be simply not meeting his own father's expectations. We know he wanted to marry Lola, a human, and perhaps that's frowned upon (if Rodo's reaction about Giants working under humans is anything to go by).

It's also sort of implied Giants kidnap humans who try to approach Elbaf. Hajrudin's group mentioned that they're on guard against "intruders" and since we know already Elbaf Giants don't really leave the island much, the intruders can mean only one thing: humans. I'm not sure I like this implication. I guess Strawhats are safe, because they're treated like an exception, the same with Shanks and his fleet.

I have a feeling that maybe Loki isn't such a bad guy after all if he likes humans more than the rest of the giants. Now Hajrudin also likes *some* humans like Strawhats, but I doubt it expands to all mankind, they're probably an exception for him as well. Meanwhile it's possible Loki simply likes humans and wishes for Elbaf to be openly welcoming to them. That would put an end to the current order of things in Elbaf, but would that be enough to call it "end of the world"? Yeah, maybe that's not yet the full story.

And there he is! He looks sooo cool, not like that weird blob from Lola's memories, just look at him, lol:

You gotta ask how close to the truth this depiction even was. Would other Giants really be so overjoyed and would Loki really give Lola a flower? Heh. He's got that air of a gentle giant who wouldn't even hurt a fly, huh.

One thing worth noting is that he has his eyes covered, which could suggest he indeed inherited some dangerous powers from his father (in mythology it was actually Odin who lost one eye in exchange for wisdom, so he could see everything that happens in the world and understand the hidden truths. The mentioned wisdom was ability to understand runes, btw). We know in mythology Loki is said to be the god of deceit and trickery though, so it doesn't exactly line up. It's also worth noting that he has something under the bandages, we can see part of the helmet sticking out, it reminds me of Hajrudin's helmet:

Anyway, Elbaf is hinted to be a story about brothers fighting each other for power, which would be Loki against Hajrudin. I wonder if there will be a twist to it somehow. Will Loki turn out to be the trickster everyone expects him to be? He does stick out his tongue in similar way to another trickster we know of, Doflamingo, heh. Just look at it:

And also let's appreciate the cool country Elbaf is. It's basically just mountains beneath the tree's trunk, then a whole land supported by the branches. Many people speculate there will be a sky island up there, at the very top (though the top of the tree looks like it's covered in snow, like a summit!). There are waterfalls on that tree, that is really cool. And there's a huge ass sword, and you know it could have belonged only to some ancient giant, damn. There is also some huge ass castle in the branches to the left of the picture, probably the place where the king lived. We can also see some huge buildings and smaller settlements, the latter seems to look like the houses in Big Mom's story, I mean those:

And there are some cannons at the end of the branches as well, hanging high in the air, interesting! I wonder how much of this country we will end up seeing. It's kinda odd that we're going to start the arc with an explosion though (releasing Loki, because we all expect that to happen, right?). No other arc started with a big bang like that before, are we really going that route now?! Very unusual, maybe one big event will chase another, like in Hitchcock's movies, if releasing Loki is our starting point and not one of the peak moments of the arc, haha.

We reached the end of my yapping about the chapter, now I wanna share my sad reflection about Elbaf at the end. Remember this comment Oda said in latest Jump Festa?

"If Luffy and crew manage to make it out of Egghead safe and sound…do you think they might go to…THAT island? I mean, I thought up a route for them that doesn’t involve it but…I'm not sure I could stop Luffy, even if I wanted to."

Many people thought Oda meant Elbaf when he said "THAT island", but since we are on Elbaf now and Oda clearly had to go through many weird loopholes to get this result (kidnapping Strawhats ship, RPG session with Rodo, the Green Fairy), I start to think he really *wanted* the crew to go to Elbaf instead and tried his best to bend the story to make it happen. So what was the island he didn't want Luffy to go to, it it wasn't Elbaf?

My bet is Hachinosu. We almost actually got that result, if only the newspaper dropped when the crew was all together. Luffy would then learn that Law lost to Blackbeard and he would go to give him payback for him - it would be his last straw, he already has enough beef with Blackbeard to pick up this fight. But Oda, by kidnapping half of the Strawhats, made sure that Luffy doesn't learn the news just yet and so would go on an adventure in Elbaf, just like Oda wanted him to all along.

I mean, it does make kinda sense, doesn't it?

I wonder what the struggle to obtain THAT thing could be. Law's hat? LOL. Indeed if Blackbeard took it after the battle (and you know he totally did, to keep as a trophy and to bait Law), then that hat will become Hachinosu's biggest treasure. Pfff.

Anyway, it was sitting on my mind for at least a month already, so I'm glad I could get it out of my head finally. I still can't believe Oda didn't make Law reappear even for one frame in his birth month... I feel betrayed :(

[lostshots]

thoughts on shadow generation

now that im done playing the story here are some of my thoughts:

the cut scenes are so good, although the detail on the model's fur/texture is a bit distracting (it's not a bad thing)

the flavour text is great! we get to see some insight on maria's and shadow's relationship on the ark, as well as the other characters relationship towards shadow

maybe it's the fact that this is my 2nd sonic game, but it's boring that all enemies have the same attack pattern: staying still until you come closer, then they shoot projectiles

hades 2 spoiled me for combat lol

it's so nice to see shadowing emoting again

i approve this game for people awful at platformers (signed by me, a person who sucks at them)

its really easy to fall off the ledge or miss homing shots at enemies/bounce pads if you arent paying attention

removing lives is handy

there were some areas i couldnt find, so i had to use a walkthrough just to get back to mephiles' area once i had all the keys

actually i fell off the path going to the black moon, so i had recollect rings and figure out how to get back up there again. not fun

i spent so long on the last phase of neo devil doom bc i kept running out of rings

sucks there's no checkpoint for that, but it is the final boss

would have been cool to see shadow introduce his friends to his family, but time paradox i guess

wish the doom morph could be activated at will so i can show maria squidow

actually rouge not commenting on his wings is a missed moment (dont think i saw mention of it in the compilations)

There are a lot of callbacks and references to past events

The anniversary manga is one of them (shadows name origin)

Shadow and Maria's relationship is a standout

some speculation:

Sad that shadow probably ended worse off emotionally at the end of it

if the timeline is intact, gerald probably died enraged at shadow too, since even his past fatherly feelings didnt stop him from writing over shadow's mind

there's no way they wouldnt expand on maria's little sister since they added her in

they probably dont know about ivo/eggman since there's no mention of him in the journals, and maria doesnt mention cousins

so eggman might have been born after the ark tragedy

which makes it funnier that shadow will be older than eggman, and his adoptive uncle

someone else mentioned it, but it's surprising that they deconfirmed the mural theory, since gerald respected the land too much to explore it or see the master emerald shrine

maria mentioned being surprised that he popped out as a hedgehog, and gerald's journal just calls him a sturdy biped. which means the species was not planned

so shadow really is a black arms in the shape of a hedgehog

there goes the theory that there's a hedgehog donor out there

would have been funny if it was a male hedgehog that donated some samples

then shadow gets 3 dads yay

actually would gerald go far enough to use maria's DNA to create shadow? for the gene compatibility if he managed to remove some of the markers for NIDs?

the manga showed blood transfusion, and that would only work if he had a suitable blood type

apparently it is possible for animal blood to be used in transfusion, just not worth it bc of antibodies?

someone who knows about biology correct me, i just did a quick google search

that would make shadow a black arms/human/hedgehog hybrid (if hedgehog dna was even used)

overall, very fun, and the main story can be completed in 6 hours.

now let's see if i can finish all the achievements after beating sonic gens...

[felixravinstills]

the disaster that was our presidential debate made me desperate to distract myself so i came up with a fun little idea.

the disaster that was the panem presidential debate between ravinstill and snow

oh wow! that debate would probably be equally a trainwreck! I'm honestly having trouble picturing how exactly it would go down! It depends on what elections look like in Panem? Like I wouldn't put it past the Capitol to have devolved into backroom politicking taking priority, so I'm unsure how much talking about issues would matter... It could leave a lot of room for drama and digging up dirt on each other though. Just a lot of old gossip could be brought up.

lol, I'm so sorry this was supposed to be a fun idea and then it turned into me speculating about Panem elections, and I feel it definitely took a darker turn than intended:

Can the Districts vote for the President of Panem? This is really important, because more people being able to watch the Games was implemented by Snow, so if they are able to vote, then (this being probably the first presidential debate those people can watch), I feel like Snow would anticipate performing for their sake more than Ravinstill candidate (I know you and most people have Felix being Ravinstill heir and he would honestly be funnier to have up against Coriolanus, but I have my beloved(?) Ravinstill OC Marius who I think would fumble just as bad). You know I know this was supposed to be fun, but now, I'm thinking how fucked up it would be if Coriolanus won through a combination of both the Capitol's Hunger Games fans and through votes in the Districts.

(Actually going back to your Festus helping Coriolanus win the presidency and thus breaking Felix's heart more idea from your Felix/Festus/Persephone love triangle. I do think that people with business in the Districts may have more sway in who the Districts vote for if they do vote (you know because they can give people work bonuses and other incentives to vote a certain way), so I imagine that Festus might have heavily influenced the District 7 vote)

...

Anyway, uh, sorry for getting derailed from your main point! also heads up, I had a thought that got dusted off after reading your fic, so you might be hearing me ramble in your inbox shortly

[short-and-ugly]

Really normal length Skoodge analysis

Gonna just start with the simple things. Things you can get from watching one time alone. Maybe. Probably not I don't think you people think about him enough to gather any of this. No. I'm sorry I love you all. I'm just a specific level of detached from average not-Skoodge viewers and don't know what all is expected. It's that one meme "Even when compensating, experts in any field will overestimate the average person's knowledge."

It's rough. Let's get into it.

Speech is probably an easy one! Yeah? Yeah.

A lot of the things he says are very literal... there's a lot of tacting things that are currently happening. A lot of stating the obvious.

("I'm afraid!")

Admittedly... this is probably a byproduct of him not being a "main character." His dialogue is a lot less important than that of characters like Zim and Dib. But it's still worth talking about! I'd like to think it's genuinely just his personality to be obvious and talk about things as if people aren't already aware of them. Maybe even have him be a bit tone-deaf. That's more headcanon territory though! So let's walk on past that before I confuse myself and all of you.

DOUBLE NEGATIVES...!

... only happen once. In the background. While he's being talked over by a bunch of teammates.

("Yeah; really that's actually good and more logical cause I don't really wanna make a chain or nothing like that.")

His speech is a lot more casual and, in transcripts for unfinished episode(s)(?) almost innocent!

frothing at the mouth at this one actually i dont like it. not good. this is just exposition. he would not fucking say that (probably wrong) (this was written by the shows writers) (it still makes me angry)

This one I just wanted to add because it's silly. Look at how silly he is. He's just a fun loving guy. Why does his mind go to dancing straight away? We'll never know... the inner machinations of his mind are an enigma.

Skoodge reads as... more impulsive than anything (and maybe a little anxiety-riddled but that might also just be me projecting). He doesn't strike me as a critical thinker who really tries to like... weigh the consequences of his actions. He just does shit and when it doesn't work out he does more. I imagine that's what most irkens are like, actually, now that I think about it...

His gut instinct must be controlling him because if it isn't then I honestly can't find any good explanation as to how he's survived for so long.

Which perfectly segways me into something a little more analyzing-like:

Skoodge is a cockroach.

He got shot out of a cannon and still comes back to the Empire. He... really does seem to believe that being here will help him out somehow. As if it hasn't already been proven that nothing he will do will satisfy the society he hails from.

Desperation can make you do desperate things; and Skoodge's entire character just reeks of desperation.

From apparently being considered to eat his own skin (before being deemed too much by the network) [no screenshot available because I don't even know how I'd begin to look for it] to the more canonical screaming-like-a-baby whenever something happens to him, it kinda makes you wonder how the hell he even got to where he is in the first place.

Now, this is more speculation than actual evidence, but I think it's a fair enough bet to say that Skoodge earned his title as an invader. He has no height to propel him forward in society, so whatever he did would've had to've involved sheer tenacity and an inclination for survival.

He is almost definitely, genuinely, afraid of death. And because of that, he just... doesn't die.

I know at an objective view, he doesn't die because it's funnier that way, and helps with jokes and gags, but like... c'mon. This is a deep analysis post. I'm allowed to get a little indulgent with it.

Treading into more theorization-territory here.

Irkens are raging Xenophobes.

And Zim fits this bill perfectly! He's slotted himself into this mindset without any issue, making up... unique slurs for humans and other things he comes by. Because he tries too hard to be a perfect irken. Maybe. That's a topic for someone that's insane about Zim, not me. This is about my guy.

If Zim is the perfect representation of an irken soldier (on a purely superficial level), then Skoodge is an outlier. Not in that he's good at his job; he's supposed to be! No, rather, his differences lie in his temperance. His composure, whatever you call it. He is far too complacent and even possibly a bit meek, if you wanna go ahead and call him that.

You see that? That right there is respect for a... honestly almost certainly, by irken standards, inferior species.

Now, this could either mean one of three things.

Either A) Skoodge is not space racist (best case scenario)

or B) Skoodge lacks self-confidence; not seeing himself as superior, and thus being compliant and respectful to the obvious figure of authority in front of him.

or C) Skoodge does not have respect for his Empire (very unlikely, seeing as the only reason he's still here is because he's trying to gain a promotion from said Empire)

Shooting down option A immediately with this dialogue here (Battle Of The Planets)

Sorry folks... he is very much so still space racist.

As for option B...

I'm going to be completely honest here. I think I've been interpreting this wrong in my series. I have a whole lot of complex reasons explaining why Skoodge doesn't have much confidence, but honestly, he reads as more... chill. And down-to-earth, than he does as self-loathing.

There is possibly evidence of him having a more quiet and subdued personality, instead of just him not being a xenophobe; and it comes from the very first episode!

Crying in front of the tallest at the Assigning. Admittedly, Larb cried too; but he at least had enough push in him to say something.

Skoodge doesn't. He's even disheartened by the Tallest's initial jeering of him! Which admittedly, might not be the best example of low self-esteem, because those are the literal Leaders of his fucking Empire... but it is definitely a shift from him being the proud, confident, short-and-ugly invader that he's shown to be in Battle Of The Planets. Invading Blorch must've really (rightfully) inflated his ego.

Which he normally lacks.

He lacks ego, but that doesn't mean he lacks confidence. He knows that he's good at things in spite of his flaws, and takes pride in it! Even though that pride ends up shooting him in his own foot. Sad.

And why is it that he lacks ego? Every other irken thus far (sans maybe Sizz-lorr) has demonstrated just how... important. It is for them to have one. How almost ingrained into their nature their egos are. Why does Skoodge not go on to boast about his glory when any other irken in his situation would? Again, it's going to be another one of those things that I just can't be too sure about, but I'm going to hazard to say that it's because he's so physically flawed. Short and ugly. (Probably the reason why his uniform is stained. Why put forth the effort to make your uniform look good if it's impossible for the rest of you?)

There is. Almost no doubt in my mind, that he's had to fight tooth and nail to get to where he is, claw his way to the top. And if he's done that, he knows the struggle of being lower? He knows because no matter how high he gets, he'll still always be that "lower"? augh. what the fuck.

Skoodge has been humbled by this because he's been reminded of it at almost every point in his life. He doesn't boast to inferiors because he knows that there is nothing to boast, that he is technically one of those inferiors. Because even despite his successes, someone will always go on to point out his flaws.

Which really brings attention to Battle Of The Planets, to the Tallest pointing out his flaws. He just had his greatest success. Purple gave him one flaw, he gave another. And he gave it proudly.

... SECRET FOURTH OPTION D YEAHHHH BABY!!!!

FAWN RESPONSE.

With his inclination towards survival it would make sense to reason that he's only polite in front of potentially-threatening company because it means that he's less likely to get pummeled for being. Anything else.

Being polite is just as credible a survival technique as anything else! We just don't get to see any other irkens using it.

Skoodge is. Competent. He conquered his planet first!

He's a good invader. And that's probably because he knows when to run.

He's very vocal about it, if he knows (or thinks) that there's someone around to assist him. Silent with his impending doom (ha) at the Assigning, but very very loud when being chased down in the canyon by the hogulus in Hobo 13.

Now, I don't know about you, but irkens don't really strike me as the kind of species to back down from anything. To me, they read as more of a "do it or die" kinda group. Again, this whole trait kiiiinda almost begging to be pegged as outlier. The only thing that makes me on the fence about this one is, again, the fact that it's a cartoon and Skoodge's fear might be for the sake of gags.

That doesn't really explain this though. He has literally no reason to be scared here. In this specific scenario (Day Of Da Spookies! unfinished episode) he's disguised as a human. Every person there is none the wiser to him and his alien nature. He's just... like this...? All the time? Apparently? Maybe?

Or maybe! There's other things at play here!

Skoodge is competent...

... but.

A friend put it into better words than I could:

His brain turns to mush whenever he's around Zim.

(Honestly, the volunteer line might actually add on to his possible lack of self-respect? Hard to say if it's that, or if he's just that desperate to give respect at the sign of any spare bit of authority, even if that authority comes from an irken shorter than him.)

It makes me wonder if most of what we've seen of him is just Zim's influence on him. Scared at the Assigning? He didn't know Zim was there, so that had to have been genuine. Saluting to an inferior species? He had to have known that Zim was there, because Zim introduced himself first (and very loudly at that), but I think it was also genuine because Zim wasn't directly influencing him?

Screaming because of the hogulus and running like a child from some humans? Those are almost definitely Zim's doing. I just. Don't know How.

Screaming is a weakness, I think; at least it should be (in the eyes of irkens), and when Skoodge does it he does it because he seems convinced that Zim will help him. And yet Zim never does! Skoodge has no reason to believe this!

But still, believe he does.

They had to have been... kind of close? At one point in their lives.

Potentially. I don't know how close a person can get to Zim, but Skoodge has just barely managed to do it, by virtue of the fact that he is quite possibly the only living thing in the universe that can tolerate being around Zim for more than five seconds.

And his cockroach-itude. That definitely helps. You can't be killed by Zim's passive destructive radius if you genuinely just can't fucking die at all.

But that explains nothing of his weird eagerness to do things for Zim. It borders on obsessive. It might actually be obsessive, since he's apparently been living in Zim's vents ever since the events of Hobo 13. Without telling him.

Skoodge is fucking deranged. Skoodge doesn't even register as a blip on Zim's radar of people-to-acknowledge, but he will still always just do things for him, and be excited to, too!

I don't know what's wrong with him. The less easy and definitely one too many steps detached from canon explanation would be that he views Zim as the ideal irken and strives to be like him. The easiest explanation would be that he just really likes Zim.

Gosh. Even that still raises the question of how or why he would. Zim is fucking terrible to not just him, but everyone. He is unbiased in whose life he ruins.

And Skoodge is perfectly content with just letting Zim ruin his.

man. i hate him. i really really do.

[utilitycaster]

I will say the current discourse becomes a lot funnier when you remember that Imogen suggested to and in front of Laudna (she did it more than once!) potentially siding the Vanguard AFTER one of them murdered her in cold blood just to get a rise out of Imogen -

- and *somehow* that hasn’t had the lasting impact on fandom that Orym fucking nodding at Laudna as she kills someone who just tried to murder them has?

Truly, bowlgate could *never*.

Hey anon,

Honestly while this is all very speculative and based on the relatively small cross-section of the fandom I see, as a person who will not touch Reddit and barely checks Twitter, the Orym and Laudna stuff feels cut from the same cloth as Bowlgate.

For reasons I cannot accurately pinpoint, though I have my theories, since I started watching and joined the fandom with the start of C2 there seem to have been people - maybe the same people, maybe there's been turnover - who have decided any interaction Marisha and Liam's characters have that isn't clearly entirely amicable (and some that are) is in fact an act of hostility. This has always baffled me, given that in Campaigns 1 and 2 they played characters who are particularly close, and that in Campaign 3 Liam's character is very much in homage to Keyleth. Insofarasmuch as I know the lives of the cast (ie, I don't), they seem to be extremely good friends, and from what I see at the table they have remarkably similar styles, a shared love of character conflict, and excellent chemistry (platonic or romantic). It has never made sense to me how intensely some people pit them against each other, either as Beau and Caleb or as Laudna and Orym, particularly when Marisha and Liam have never seemed to have even an ounce of rancor towards each other.

It feels very much born out of the "the only way to be a good character (or fan) is to be entirely deferential to my personal favorite character" mentality, and I've always found that mentality to be...deeply sad, honestly. I've said before that it baffles me that people watch a show with an ensemble cast of 7 players and act repulsed and offended when it's not a solo act. And for a fandom for a show where we just, demonstrably, treated a 3.5 hour episode as "unexpectedly short?" That is a huge amount of time to sink into something where you are miserable every minute that Laudna, or Marisha (or whoever your favorite character or actor is) isn't in the spotlight and leading the charge and given the royal treatment - let alone to watch CR with what appears to be an assumption that nearly everyone else at the table is actively out to undermine your favorite actor. That sounds exhausting and painful, and once I started thinking about that it made much more sense how vile and bitter these comments about an extremely mild choice from Liam and Orym is; because it's not really about Orym. It's about the nature of the show itself, which has always been the case and is unlikely to change. It might be other long-untended resentments as well. I'm reminded, tangentially, of how when I was frustrated with FCG as a character early on, I'd occasionally get people piling on in my inbox for utterly unrelated criticisms not of FCG but of Sam as a player that I found really offputting and which often made me pretty uncomfortable.

I do wonder if these people are not just upset that Orym (and Liam) are simply present; but if they are also frustrated with other things - perhaps with the campaign generally, or perhaps with Laudna herself - that they are afraid to admit they feel given how much they have staked their identity on their fandom preferences. Which again, sounds terribly lonely and draining and something to be pitied, irritating as it is for the rest of us.

Anyway, I think the best thing for everyone in the fandom not trapped in that particular mire of bad faith, cognitive dissonance, and curdled resentment to do is move on. I actually found it really heartening how many people on my post about Laudna's anger at Orym being entirely about the power from the siphon and nothing personal to Orym were like "until I saw this post it did not even occur to me that there was another interpretation of this scene." I certainly haven't been as good about this as I'd like to be, but I've really been trying as of late to approach the above paranoid reading mentality by depriving it of oxygen. In addition to the interesting conflicts brewing, there's been some great lore drops as of late. How about that portal?