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len-yx · 3 days ago

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Mydei’s glaring queer coding (fixed)

(By the same person who did the twitter thread :))

First things first. Please be normal if I get something wrong. I have put so much effort into research (I am so dedicated to doing that stupid thread justice) and would like to be spoken too as if I’m an actual person who got something wrong and not like some evil being sent to intentionally spreading misinformation. I know people are much more forgiving on here than they are on twitter but my anxiety was fuck all after that original thread and I’m pretty nervous putting myself in that same situation but am desperate to not have that thread be “The Mydei queer-coding thread” that people use as reference when talking about Mydei’s queer coding. That’s all. Apologies for rambling. Onwards we go!

Amphoreus draws heavily from Ancient Greek (and Roman) influences. Greek (and Roman) armies were known for the fact same-sex relationships were viewed pretty uniquely. It was common and even encouraged for soldiers to form intimate relationships. I do want to mention (though not very relevant to Mydei’s queer coding) that despite this, Greece was not that queer normative (mostly). Yes, gay sex was typical, but it was still considered shameful to be penetrated and the most accepted form of two men in a relationship was pederasty. Which was a relationship between an adult male (usually of higher class), and a young boy in his teens. Really the higher class were the only ones that didn’t have to be concerned about judgment and their specific role in a relationship. I suppose Mydei is upper class anyway. So. This was all just something I thought was worth mentioning.

All of Mydei’s Kremnoan companions had references to Greek history tied to Alexander the Great (it’s actually very interesting I advise seeking out the meanings of their names yourself (and it’s further evidence that Mydei’s ties to Alexander the Great is far from coincidences and unreasonable stretches)). Hephaestion specifically is a reference to Alexander the Great’s closest friend and potential lover of the same name. Both the real Hephaestion and the one from HSR die of illness rather than in battle, how both were expected to die, leaving Alexander/Mydei to mourn alone. Hephaestion’s (HSR) death has extra attention drawn to it by not only being the last to die of the companions but also both Mydei and Hephaestion emphasising their close friendship. Calling one another things such as “dear friend”, “most trusted companion” etc. And with a real life comparison for this death it only emphasises how big of a deal Hephaestion’s death is meant to be for Mydei.

Funnily enough Alexander the Great’s mother, Olympias, actually claimed to be a descendant of Achilles who Mydei also has multiple references to.

There are many versions of how Achilles gained his immortal body, one being that as a baby his mother dipped him in the river Styx, holding onto him by his ankle. Similarly, Mydei’s immortal body was made known/gained (I don’t believe it’s clear?) after being thrown into the sea of souls also as a baby with a matching ”Achilles heel” in the form of his tenth thoracic vertebra.

The exact intent of Achille’s and Patroclus' relationship is very very debated. And Homer isn’t responding to my emails for an interview. But I do want to remind everyone that this isn’t about “was Achilles and Alexander in relationships with their best friends” (though neither of the two’s queerness is actually up for debate, they both had multiple romantic endeavours with men) but about how some of the reasons historians believe why the two were queer are used in Mydei’s character and why I believe this was intentionally done by hoyoverse. Achilles and Patroclus have been a symbol of close male relationships since the myth was realised, Alexander the Great even comparing his relationship with Hephaestion to the two. I’ve seen a few people saying that Phainon has some looser similarities to Patroclus however I have not yet read The Iliad (I just don’t have the time I’m very sorry) so I can’t speak on how intentional these similarities seem.

However, Mydei and Phainon do parallel another duo very deeply, Mydei’s own parents, Queen Gorgo and King Eurypon. Mydei and Phainon’s first meeting was a duel lasting ten days and nights that ended in a draw, the same as with Eurypon and Gorgo’s infamous first meeting at the Kremnos festival. Except instead of a close companionship forming after their draw, Eurypon promptly proposed to Gorgo. During 3.0 when Phainon challenges Mydei to a competition to see who can kill more titankin, he uses the phrasing “Just you and me. Let’s recreate the original Kremnos Festival.” On top of that, in 3.1 while retrieving Phainon from the trial we run into ”Chartonus” (quotations because it’s within the trial) Mydei tries to ask “Chartonus” where Phainon is and “Chartonus” has an angry rant before throwing Queen Gorgo’s signet ring at him. The ring isn’t brought up again until Mydei and Phainon’s goodbye. Mydei waits until the last moment to question if Phainon was the one who told Chartonus about his mother’s ring. Phainon’s response is just “who knows” but it’s pretty clear that the audience is at least meant to believe Phainon was the one who told Chartonus about it. There is one other thing that may tie Phainon and Mydei’s relationship to Eurypon and Gorgo. However it’s pretty much theory crafting and even leaks so I’ll just leave it at that.

It’s become almost a pattern in HSR to have deeply queer coded duo’s be compared to animals, specifically a predator animal and a prey animal (e.g. Acheron and Blackswan.) During the scene in the baths the bath sprite compares Mydei to a lion and Phainon to an oryx before describing the dynamic between the animals. Cut to a black screen with the two moaning due to the hot steam and the bath sprite continues describing the lion hunting the oryx in detail reminiscent of the “Rondo Across Countless Kalpas” animated short of Acheron (a variant of a lesbian character) and Blackswan (a woman who’s relationship with other female characters are placed on a higher pedestal) doing the tango. The bath scene is very much a mix of a joke and fanservice but in the context of a rather genuinely queer coded relationship I am treating it as a more genuine innuendo. Just before deciding on the bath competition we get to see Mydei’s internal dialogue and him struggling to figure out how to comfort Phainon after failing the demigod trial, intentionally creating a more intimate atmosphere. Phainon uses rather suggestive language when proposing the competition such as “Maybe we both need to relieve some stress” deliberately creating a charged atmosphere.

In the end Mydei’s character is deeply intertwined with historical narratives of male bonds, grief, and devotion that have been read through a queer lens for centruies. Whether through his parallels to Achilles and Alexander the Great, his profound connection with Phainon or Hoyoverse’s own storytelling patterns, the intent behind his characterization feels undeniably deliberate.

#mydeimos #honkai star rail mydei #hsr mydei #mydei #queer coding #character analysis #hsr #honkai star rail #phaidei #myphai

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inexplicifics · 2 days ago

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Re: Taking care of the trainees in Kaer Morhen.

I'm imagining some poor sleep-deprived Crane who is desperately trying to find a way to put the chicks to bed, and at his wits end thought of a lullaby, maybe that'd help? Instead, he came up with the Witcher ABC's:

Arachas are awful and always aware, they lay in wait so always beware. Bruxa shriek loud and very achy, drink black blood and she won't wakey. Cockatrice come in many sizes and shapes, aard it down before it escapes. Drowners are dull and dreary and numb, kill them quick, don't be dumb. Endrega are seemingly everywhere, yes, even there. Fiends are frightening foes indeed, stab, then step aside with speed. Ghouls are common as sunrise, don't trust the dead, surprise! Harpies have high shrill voices, if you think they're pretty, you should rethink your choices. Imps inspire mischief and irritation, fuck, I need a vacation. Jumblehogs are just something I made up right now, but they look a bit like a cow. Kikimore will jump out of the ground to eat you messy, a tasty treat, fat and fleshy. Leshy will hug you very tight, but it's not a very nice hug. Myriapodans might be a mystery we should lay to rest, so they're not the best for a weapons test. Nekkers are nasty little creatures unloved by all, and they have this really annoying chattering call. Ogres are deep sleepers, wake them, and you'll sleep deeper. Plumards pluck pots and pans to beat you with, they're not very strong though, so take the hit. Rotfiends are rotted and dead, and I really want to go to bed. Shaelmaar are shiny and super adorable, but it's not worth it, wyvern hide is more affordable. Tomtar are a nice little daydream, they're not as nice as they seem. Ulv's are just really big wolves, really, but you should stay way from them, ideally. Vukodlaks are bigger than ulvs and werewolves to boot, stay at a distance to aim and shoot. Wadislaw is a bloke I saw in Novigrad once, he was a real ponce. Xylophones are instruments to play on, if you want witchers to stay gone. Yaguars are spelled Jaguars and are really big cats, I should've used that for J, alas. Zebras are striped horses and they don't exist, but if they do, tame one and bring it home. Q I forgot but lets say it's a quokka, smiley things who sacrifice their kids like I'm a'bout'ta'!

Jaskier puts a tune to it, and it's the greatest (worst) ear-worm that has ever existed.

This is delightful, thank you so much!

#questions answered #accidental warlord au #poetry

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 1 day ago

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This just come to me when i play the en tapis rouge event.

In one of the scene when we meet eric in the event, Vil said he never get bullied when his main memory after his ob is him getting bullied.

Is it just him, didn't see it as a bullying issues cause he can fight back/because he thought it childish, in denial or he just doesn't want to be seen as someone weak in front of his junior? Cause i have heard that in some country/school, if they found out you were bullied it means you're weak and knowing NRC students prone to violence and bullying each other, being bullied may also be seen as label of weak students(may also associate with Ighnihyde since not many can fight back the bully like savanaclaw).

Or maybe this is so his father didn't worry? He did mention he and eric aren't always being together that much and when they did they do health and beauty related. So maybe Vil himself lied to Eric about his school life's and if he ever asked to bring friend maybe he said that his genuine friend(the other is just school friends or acquaintance) is only jack which make the lie more believable. So Eric may or may not know about it and Vil never tell him about it cause he didn't want to make him worried(this actually also make me think because of Eric being genuine happy seeing Vil's "school friends")

So far in the story and vignettes, we never heard bad memories of Vil and Jack together regarding the bullying pass the line of "they think you're a genuine bad person and want to beat you up". Like we never heard if it only physical bullying or also done another kind of bullying we see in drama and anime.

So i was wonder if it only just because Vil can fight back & he genuine didn't see it, he is in denial, he doesn't want to be as weak or he doesn't want to make Eric worry.

I wouldn’t say that the scene of Vil being bullied is the “main” memory after his OB 🤔 It’s more like… something that contributes to the overall pressure to perform/to be a certain way and feeds Vil’s need for public validation. After all, we also see film staff commenting on Vil’s professionalism (which isn’t necessarily bullying), as well as positive comments and encouragement from Eric. (I have an analysis on Vil’s motivations in book 5 if you’re interested in the topic!) We don’t know how truly common this bullying from Vil’s peers was outside of this one instance. Maybe it actually wasn’t common at all, since I don’t recall any other examples being mentioned.

I don’t see a reason why it can’t be a combination of all of those things instead of just one of them? The only one I would perhaps exclude is Vil being in denial. He doesn’t seem to be rejecting any of the bullying or critique he receives. Rather, even as a child, Vil is fixating on them far too much and equating his self-worth to the opinion of others. If he denied that he was bullied at all, then he wouldn’t place as much value as he does on what they say, he wouldn’t be pushing himself to work as hard has he does to “prove them wrong”.

As I mentioned in the analysis linked above, Vil had to mature extremely fast due to being a child star and seeking to make a name for himself without the publicity boost from his already famous father. You have to be tough to deal with the barrage of criticism coming at you from both the entertainment industry and the public, as well as know how to properly conduct yourself in work settings + with fans. He cannot show weakness, and doesn’t become comfortable being more childish and vulnerable (via giggling or laughing naturally) until late book 6.

Vil is capable of fighting if things escalate. Maybe he feels more secure in stating he isn’t bullied because (as Grim points out), Vil is perfectly capable of defending himself or exacting revenge on those who challenge or offend him. Again, this is a means of showing his own strength and independence—a continued and learned pattern.

The mindset of “I have to be strong” is further enabled by Night Raven College. The (unofficial) tradition/rule at the school is “the weak obey the strong […] losers don’t get to have a say.” Vil projects an air of superiority not only because he is in a position of power, but because he could easily take students in combat, and the social culture of NRC promotes this way of thinking and resolving disputes. Only the victors get what they want—as well as the respect and the obedience of the losers. We’ve seen Vil successfully pull this off in many other instances: book 5 with Ace/Deuce/Epel, Beans Day with Savanaclaw mob students, book 6 with Idia, and more. He was already steadfast before enrolling, but at NRC, the behavior is perpetuated and this serves Vil well.

Side note (since the ask seems to have implied Ignihyde is often the victim of bullying whereas Savanaclaw, who are physically strong, dominate)!! I think you’re thinking of physical acts of bullying and strength—which, don’t get me wrong, are valid—but I think shows of power and bully aren’t limited to just that. Octavinelle and Scarabia, for example, can be extremely catty and snide. Furthermore, there’s magical strength and skills to account for, as well as other forms of bullying: financial, verbal, emotional/psychological, cyber (which I’m sure Ignihyde mobs excel at, if Idia’s Dorm Uniform vignettes are of any indication).

Vil had always been strong, but that strength has essentially become diamond armor after years and years in entertainment and studying at NRC, a place which enables his attitude. The fact that Vil denies being bullied in front of his father may just be a consequence of all that previous experience with his armor on. He’s so used to it, it’s insignificant to him now.

I also get the sense that Vil wants to be seem as mature and grown-up to his dad. For example, Vil speaks somewhat formally to Eric, referring to him as “Producer” and gently scolding him for taking the time off of work to eat with him. (Him wanting to find success in entertainment without his father’s name getting involved also plays into this.) The other half of it seems to be that Eric himself expresses worry about his son’s social life. He mentions that he often had to pull Vil out of school for various gigs, meaning that Vil was not able to be around kids his age too much. This is why he’s so happy to finally have the chance to meet some of Vil’s NRC chums. If Vil intends to reassure him show that he is capable of standing on his own, then naturally that would come with reassuring his father that no one is being nasty to him. (Besides, even if they are, he is perfectly equipped to handle them.)

Last thing I want to comment on is Vil’s friendship with Jack. I have to wonder how significant this actually is…? Because Jack was mentioned in Vil’s post-OB flashback—but this friendship is rarely ever mentioned outside of like a few throwaway voice lines where the two mention working out together??? Like, Vil and Jack don’t seem very close. I believe part of this is because Vil was usually away for work obligations + to travel with Eric and one of them (honestly forgot which one) moved away at some point. Did they reconnect at NRC, or were they just always in touch anyway…?

It doesn’t seem like Vil even talks to his dad about Jack; Jack was not brought up in their conversations. This is strange because this clearly was not the case for other hometown events; Marja seemed to have heard of us before we arrived in Harveston, and Dylla was VERY familiar with Yuu, Ace, and Deuce via phone calls with her son. Yet Eric shows ho similar familiarity with Jack…? Weird, maybe he and Vil aren’t that close after all?

But yeah!! 😅 Overall, I definitely think it’s a combination of factors that just continue to feed into one another. This has convinced Vil that he has to perpetually have this image of being strong, mature, and cool—even to his own family.

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miwiheroes · 1 day ago

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Dropping Byler Evidence Every (Other) Day Until Season 5

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . Day 36: Byler's Common Romantic Tropes . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ .

There are many many times where I get asked what is your favourite byler proof or what is the most convincing byler proof. I could talk about light and imagery and symbolism but y'know what's even more convincing and simple to me? The fact that Byler literally has these extremely common romantic tropes attached to it, but nobody seems to notice because they're two boys. It cannot be a coincidence that they have all these different tropes attached to them -- its clearly planned out to help the pairing's romance come to fruition, otherwise it would make no sense.

1. Playing Cyrano

Definition: Traditionally in film, to "play Cyrano" is to have a more physically attractive person (Person A) hit on the object of their desire (Person C), but the words that are winning them over are being fed to Person A by someone else who is in love with Person C and knows them better (Person B). In every case, Person C originally falls in love with Person A because of the words they say, but upon finding out who really said those things, they end up falling in love with Person B. Some examples include Cyrano De Bergerac of course, Friends, Modern Family (though it's played as a joke), Back To The Future.

This is literally the painting plot, but it's not played out in the exact same way, though it's similar. Will (Person B) is obviously in love with Mike (Person C) but doesn't feel he can actually tell him those things because he doesn't think it will make him happy. This is a misbelief.

Now, technically, having Will refer to his feelings as El's feelings (Person A) is not the same as the original Cyrano trope. However, Will believes that he is helping both Mike's self-esteem and Mike and El's relationship by doing this, as he thinks that is what they both want. This is obviously an extremely selfless act. Now, these words obviously make Mike feel like he can finally say "I love you" to El, because Will reminds him of them right before the confession. So in S4, we have part 1 of the "pay-off" to this trope.

If we follow along with the trope, then hopefully, Mike will find out that those words are really coming from Will, he will actually fall in love (or realise he's in love) with Will, all because he's always been touched by those words. He'd also be touched by the selflessness of the act, and this selflessness usually inspires some loving feelings in Person C toward Person B.

So if Mike looks like he's falling in love with Will here, it because he literally is, he just has no idea yet.

2. First Girl Wins

Definition: Commonly in romantic plot lines, the first girl introduced — either overall or as a potential love interest — has a very good chance of ending up with the protagonist. She's often presented as someone who knows the protagonist better, stays in love with the protagonist despite his obvious non-reciprocation, etc. The First Girl will rarely be the first one to confess her feelings or admit them. In fact, she's much more likely to be the one who does it last. The logic behind this is that she's the one whom the main character loves (even if he doesn't realise it himself), if she showed him romantic affection, then he would immediately choose her.

Will being in love with Mike is literally the classic 'I know you better than she does' trope but it's gay. There are so many times in S4 especially where Will is presented to have a better understanding of Mike than El and the audience is supposed to feel bad for him. For example, when he's the one Mike goes to about all his problems, and when Will judges whether they should go to the movies based on Mike's body language. The viewers are supposed to feel frustrated that Mike isn't seeing what is right in front of him.

Having Will be in love with Mike from the beginning and having their first scene together literally show that Will can't lie to him, and that he's selfless, is insane to me. What would not make sense is for all this to happen, for Will to be presented as such an ideal match for Mike, just for him to be used as a tool in their relationship. As if that's a reward.

There is a reason that the writers haven't shown Will make any real moves toward Mike -- they're saving it for the climax of the show, aka when Mike ends up 'choosing' Will.

3. The Promise

Definition: When characters call a "promise" into the spotlight as something that can never ever be broken, this always backfires for the character that says so or the characters involved in the promise. (The most famous example of this I can think of is literally in Tangled lmao) This can backfire in a number of ways, but the most common are: the promise was never going to pan out, the promise would end up hurting the protagonist or sacrificing them, the promise will start out as something good but end up trapping them.

I've touched on this trope much more in this post, but as a summary, basically in this scene above, Mike draws attention to the definiton of a promise as "something that you can't break. Ever." This immediately dooms Mileven for me. It's clear that Mike is going to make some huge promise about their relationship to El and this is either going to hurt Mike or it will trap both of them in something that they feel far too invested in to go back on. Which is exactly what happens.

Mike promises to go to the Snow Ball with El. He says those words when she seemingly is about to die (in S1). This promise does not pan out because she 'dies'. UNTIL season 2, when the Snow Ball actually happens. Which means this promise can only happen in the other sense: it is trapping the protagonist. But Mike isn't just promising to go to the Snow Ball with El, no, he's promising to be with her, keep her safe etc. What he thinks is keeping her safe so that he won't lose her is by being in a relationship with her.

I really recommend the post I linked, because it goes way more into depth, but yeah. Insane parallels happen.

4. Interruptions

Definition: I'm sure you can safely assume what this is, but this is when two characters seemingly have a romantic interaction and seem to be building up to something intimate, but something out of their control stops both characters from doing this. This interruption is often paired with both characters looking embarrassed/ acknowledging the interruption to further romantic tension. These moments are made with the intention for the climax of the romantic plot to seem more satisfying.

This happens to so many ST couples after romantic moments, including Lumax and Jancy, but this happens to Byler in S4 four times. Yes, you heard me right. Four TIMES. They really really wanted us to make sure we see them as romantic didn't they?

Pictured above, Mike and Will both have a slightly flirtatious moment before they get interrupted by Jonathan who they are shown to swing their heads around and look at.

After Byler have an intimate moment of gazing into each other's eyes, they get shocked and gasp because they hear something outside the house that could possibly interrupt them.

On top of the car in the desert, after Will says something that might imply that he has a 'truth' that Mike won't like, Argyle interrupts them, showing a shot of Mike and Will stopping looking at each other.

In Hopper's cabin, after Mike grabs Will's shoulder and reassures him, they hear people outside and there is a shot of Mike's hand still on Will's shoulder before they look at each other one more time and leave the couch.

I mean this trope is as literal as it gets. In the script of the "cool, cool" scene, it literally says "this intimate moment is interrupted". HELLO???

Anyway, as I said before, you don't accidentally write this many commonly used tropes into a story without the characters actually doing something about it. There are also even more other common tropes that I didn't talk about here because it is not worth going into for a whole post (these include the holding hands trope, the selfless confession trope etc,). Basically, I just can't believe they would do all this for no reason. It also makes no sense for this to be done for queerbait purposes. Writing Byler this way is no easy way out.

#byler #byler endgame #mike wheeler #will byers #byler nation #stranger things #byler evidence #byler proof #miwiheroes daily byler

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carcassolie · 14 hours ago

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Well idk about you but as someone who's been into astrology and all things related to human behavior for 10 years, I appreciate the people who at least try to understand themselves and the people around them but not all of them are gifted with emotional intelligence. Even when they're wrong, it gives us a reason to understand why they made such a conclusion and why they are stuck somewhere.

The ones you're speaking of are probably those TikTok ones that migrated to Tumblr these recent years. They probably don't even know that astrology isn't just the sun sign, or don't even know that Hellenistic astrology exists.

As for those people with pattern recognition, they exist, they're the type of people to see life in cycles, how history repeats itself, they're not rare nowadays but I assure you, it's confirmed that 99% of them are spiritual (even when they don't follow a spiritual path). Many different typologies confirmed this and I've seen them around here (including you). In the daily mundane, these people aren't common and possibly seen as "stupid", but when it comes to philosophies, astrology and all, they're the best.

I understand your anger, but you really can't do anything about it☹️ because not everyone thinks the way you do, not everyone will agree with me also. Instead, we should basically just encourage people to learn at least the basics. I'll remind you that most people that are interested (not practicing) astrology all come here to learn about their future spouse and if they're gonna succeed or not. instead of insults and focusing on the problem, we should take it from another angle and get the people to ACTUALLY appreciate what astrologers do, how they read, and it's not just non sense but an actual study with its rules and applications. What you're saying is something akin to stop using ai art, but only the minority will listen. It's a sad reality tbh but the only thing we could do is have these types of people (most of them, young girls) not get too brainwashed by the superficial.

There are two types of people here in our community, those who are realistic and honest, the others superficial and generalize everything. I believe we must see both sides, because if you wanna solve such a problem you gotta understand why those people make such biased views, it could be their trauma, or they're just a hater, or more.

It's like this with every other community that studies humans, let it be tarot, typologies, palmistry, even those silly pseudoscience, probably medical too. You can't change how people think and process their logic, but you can certainly CHANGE what they think about.

Tbh your feelings are so valid, but these events are happening everywhere, not everyone will respect what you fully believe in nor practice, you should focus more on those who want to actually believe and make a change🥲

Astro observations are so funny cause you can tell when certain "notes" are just vent sessions about specific people with random placements slapped on the title.

You didn't "observe" anything, you're just mad at a specific Scorpio Venus.

#astro observations #astro community #astrology #8th house #do some research #you can learn a lot #speak only on what you do know #astroblr

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yarameijer · 2 days ago

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Raimon GO Trio: Growth

So I was busy answering an ask for AR, and then realized I got super carried away with it and didn’t really answer the ask anymore. Yet I’m also having too much fun with this particular analysis, so I decided to make it a separate post!

The ask was originally about Raimon GO Trio headcanons, and moments in which Original Raimon Trio saw themselves in the GO Trio. Anyway, things happened, and… oops?

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The relationship of the GO trio is one based on growth, I think.

To start, I need to talk about the original trio. Endou, Kidou and Gouenji have always had a friendship based on equality and mutual respect. They were equals from very early on in the anime, if not the start, I think (it’s been a long time since I watched it so I’m a little skewed on the details). Kidou and Gouenji were both established as phenomenal soccer players from the start. Endou was not, but he was the captain and that gave him a certain, status, I suppose might be the word, as well. The three of them have always had this sense of equality to me that the GO trio lacked for a very long time.

As for mutual respect; Kidou started on a different side, but he has very clearly been impressed by Gouenji’s skills since before the first episode even started, specifically challenging Raimon to draw him out and face him in a match, and he was relatively neutral to Endou but eventually started to respect him even while they were rivals. With the exception of the first two, three, episodes, Gouenji has always had a friendly relationship with Endou and (as far as I can remember) never fought his authority as captain, and he’s had a friendly relationship with Kidou basically from the moment he joined the team. Despite some hostility at the start, Kidou and Gouenji have always deferred to Endou’s position as captain. And I think we all know Endou’s opinion. There were some bumps in the road but the three of them have always held mutual respect for one another, and their friendship has always had that respect and equality as its basis.

Shindou, Tsurugi and Tenma are very different.

From day one they were hostile to one another and that lasted for a very long time, and unlike the original trio they didn't even respect each other to balance it out. Shindou and Tsurugi considered each other enemies and just had a general bad opinion of the other; Tsurugi was cruel and sort of crazy, to be honest, and saw both Shindou and Tenma as an enemy, although Shindou was probably the bigger threat in his eyes (now I'm thinking, despite the Gouenji-Tsurugi parallels, it's also possible to compare Tsurugi and Kidou as they were both originally antagonists, but Kidou never seemed as bitter as Tsurugi to me (it's been a long time since I watched the originals, so I could be wrong)). Shindou seemed very self-absorbed in the sense that he took all the weight on his own shoulders, like he thought that he was responsible for everything and needed to solve all problems primarily alone. Tsurugi was a Seed and his enemy and Tenma a troublemaker and distraction.

Tenma here would be the exception, but that didn't matter because originally Tenma held the weakest position. New to a team, good at dribbling but horrible at everything else, younger than Shindou (which, especially with Japan's focus on age differences, really doesn't help the equality thing) and generally discarded by both Tsurugi and Shindou. Sure, he respected Shindou and he didn’t have the same hostility towards Tsurugi as many others, but it didn’t matter because he barely had a voice on the team. Sure, he talked a lot, and I mean a lot, but people didn’t listen.

The three of them were a mess no matter how you look at it. You couldn’t even refer to them as ‘the three of them’ because they had nothing in common, no relationship to speak of.

As we all know that eventually changed, and it kept changing. Tenma got through to Shindou, Shindou started treating Tenma, if not as a friend, at least as an underclassman - as someone he had a responsibility towards to care for. Tsurugi became a tentative ally to Raimon, and they had to put up with him, and eventually he switched sides completely (still kept to himself a lot though). Tenma gained more confidence in his place on the team. They struggled, they fought together, they had to encourage each other and that builds bonds. To be honest, I don't know when these three became friends, I'd have to rewatch the anime for that, but I think it took a while even after they initially set aside their differences. Even during the last match of season 1, Tsurugi still refers to Tenma as ‘’Matsukaze’’ in his head.

(Another fun thing that makes them less compatible compared to the original trio - their positions. Endou, goalkeeper; Kidou, midfielder; Gouenji, forward. Defense, bridge, offense. They’re spread out equally over the field. The GO trio, though, consists of one forward and two midfielders; mismatched.)

Anyway, their relationship is constantly evolving. From enemies, to (tentative) allies, to sort of friends. I mean, there’s an obstacle simply in the fact that Shindou is older and therefore put in the ‘senpai’ role (seriously, don’t underestimate how important age differences are in Japan). Then there’s Tsurugi being a pretty quiet individual. They might be on friendly terms, even call one another friends, but they wouldn’t be good friends.

Tenma’s and Shindou’s relationship in season 1, to me, never really seemed like friendship. Tenma very obviously respects Shindou and depends on him and thinks he’s great, but he also sort of puts Shindou on a pedestal. Shindou seems, eventually, very fond of Tenma, and to be honest I think Shindou is actually the one to call him a friend first; less of an age barrier for him, and Tenma is a bit too shy to declare his captain a friend first (seriously, it’s easy to forget but especially at the start of the anime, Tenma is very shy). But especially as long as the barrier of Tenma putting Shindou on a pedestal exists, they can’t really be friends in the deeper sense of the word.

Tsurugi and Tenma, on the other hand, have learnt to work together and depend on one another by the end of season 1. It’s not very pronounced but it’s obvious (especially when they use Fire Tornado Double Drive) how much Tsurugi really depends on Tenma (and accepts that!), while Tenma is just super friendly and nice towards Tsurugi. At some point these two became friends, but gosh don’t ask me when. (I want to add here: we see clearly in season 1 how much Tsurugi depends on Tenma, and while we don’t see that sentiment returned, I do believe it already exists at that point; at the very least, Tenma’s reaction to Tsurugi’s kidnapping in season 3 speaks volumes.)

I haven’t mentioned the friendship between Shindou and Tsurugi much before, but that’s because they’re really hard to pin down. The one thing that stands out to me is how great of a team they are together, even, or maybe especially, without Tenma. We don’t see the two of them interacting as much as we see either of them interacting with Tenma, but what interactions they do have often occur during matches - I can’t really pinpoint any examples but to me it’s always felt like there was no real need for them to talk so much. Tsurugi goes along with Shindou’s strategies always without ever asking for explanation; he’s got a healthy respect for Shindou’s mind, I think, and seems very good at picking up clues from him. Which, to Shindou, probably makes him the perfect ‘’pawn’’ in his strategies, since Tsurugi is 1) a real ace of the team and 2) really good at responding to him instinctively. They’re very quiet together, and a very good team. They didn’t respect each other at the start, but once they saw eye-to-eye? Hell yeah, and I think that defines them for the entire series. Shindou never treats Tsurugi like an underclassmen, not like he does Tenma. When did these two become friends? I don’t think even they know - actually, I think they might not have been friends if Tenma hadn’t been there to be the bridge between them, but when it actually happened? No clue.

Anyway! Then there’s the next big change: Tenma becomes captain.

It always stood out to me that Tenma didn’t stop calling Shindou ‘captain’ until Chrono Stone. I always wondered why Tenma was still captain in Chrono Stone, since Shindou was out of the hospital at that point and they never discussed the - what initially seemed like a temporary - captain switch in the anime. I mentioned in an earlier post that I headcanon that this switch happened because Shindou insisted on it, because Shindou didn't want to be captain and felt Tenma was better suited to the role. This conversation would've taken place somewhere between season 1 and 2, or potentially somewhere in the first episodes of season 2. That's also why Tenma switches from calling him ‘captain’ to ‘Shindou-senpai’, and that's the start of the newest change in their relationship. It quite literally forces Tenma into being on more equal footing as Shindou, as captain to former captain. Obviously this switch is gradual, as we see him doubting himself quite a lot in Chrono Stone and growing into the position as the season goes on.

Now I have to wonder how Tenma and Tsurugi's dynamic would've changed in response to Tenma becoming captain. I actually imagine that Tsurugi had a very easy time with it; he’d been following Tenma’s lead quite a lot in season 1 already.

Finally, season 3. It starts out pretty great, actually - their teamwork is great. One thing of note is that Tenma, at least, switched to calling Shindou ‘Shindou-san’ somewhere between season 2 and 3, I'm not certain about Tsurugi - he doesn't often call Shindou by name but I think he already called him that? Or switches multiple times? - but it shows that Tenma is much more comfortable with Shindou than before. At least, until the start of their disagreement over the Inazuma Japan team.

Season 3. Damn, what a ride.

I mean, I’m sure everyone remembers Shindou and Tenma in this. Pretty hard to forget, really. Shindou’s angry, frustrated, incredibly emotional and basically seems to revert back to how he was at the start of season 1. He seems to be taking it all out on Tenma and Ibuki; which while not fair is at least understandable. Tenma’s constantly disagreeing with him, someone Shindou believes should have the same opinion as him, whereas Ibuki keeps on challenging him.

The funny thing is, this doesn’t affect their teamwork at all.

In the first episodes, it’s Tsurugi, Shindou and Tenma basically doing all the work during the matches, and it is their incredible teamwork that gets the team through the first stages of an intergalactic championship, which, damn, is pretty impressive if you ask me. They’re arguing but still in sync, and I love that. The three of them have always been a great combo when playing soccer, whereas outside of that they definitely weren’t - they’re perfectly balanced yet horridly incompatible. The contradiction is incredible with those three.

Something else I noticed is that, even after Tenma’s been captain for quite a while, he still follows Shindou’s orders without question, and Shindou still orders him around without hesitation. And yet Shindou doesn’t overstep; he’s very clearly not trying to be captain anymore, and in the instances Tenma thinks he’s wrong, Tenma is not afraid to disagree.

Tsurugi, during the early episodes of season 3, is really the eye of the storm. While Shindou seems to have a pretty short temper around Tenma, that’s not the case when he’s around Tsurugi, and there’s multiple instances where he asks for Tsurugi’s opinion. At the same time, Tsurugi doesn’t make it any harder for Tenma, either; he really stays out of it. Lmao he basically saw Tenma and Shindou fighting and went ‘’oh hell no I don’t want any part of this’’, so he’s really the neutral ground between them (and then he gets kidnapped pretty quickly, sooo…).

Of course everything gets turned upside down when they find out about the whole alien thing, and though Shindou doesn’t argue with Tenma anymore, he does put a lot on his shoulders.

He’s not wrong, per se, but way to put pressure on the kid! Which, fair, he is the captain, but Shindou, honey, c’mon. You know Tenma. You know how he’s gonna take this.

So yeah, I don’t think that Tenma at any moment in Galaxy beyond the first and last episode is actually happy. Even when he’s cheerful, he’s constantly trying to keep a team that’s falling apart at the seams together - do you see the parallels here with Shindou in season 1? - or gauging their mood, or dealing with internal conflicts, or arguing with Shindou (and to some degree Tsurugi), or dealing with the stress of being the captain that has to save the entirety of humankind. Even when he's laughing, there's no way he's able to let go of that fully, no way he can be carefree. Despite outward appearances, Tenma in season 3 is so fundamentally different from Tenma in season 1. There’s no freedom, no fun, no ‘wind of the revolution’ when that is exactly what his character has been about all along. He's restrained. He's pushed into a mold he doesn't fit into, by everything and everyone around him, and the ones who know him, who could've put a stop to this - they don't see it happening. An extra interesting detail is, Tenma rarely reaches out to his friends when it's about himself or his issues, it's only when they notice that something's wrong and confront him that he actually opens up. And Tenma, in season 3, has become a lot better at keeping up appearances - understandable, since the whole spiel is that he has to be the captain, has to keep everyone's spirits high, and he cannot allow them to see him hesitating and worrying. It's actually probably not a good thing that he learns that lesson, because it means it'll be even easier for him to smile and say he's fine and divert people away from the fact that he's struggling. And then to add to that, Tsurugi and Shindou, people he would usually depend on and let down the mask for, aren't there.

Y'see, in season 1, Tenma is never really alone - despite the rocky start, he’s got Shinsuke and Aoi. In season 2, he’s alone for a while before Fei comes and by the time Fei betrays him, he’s got Raimon with him again. In season 3, Tenma is cut off from Raimon, pushed away by Shindou and Tsurugi, not opening up to Aoi, surrounded by a team that expects things of him as captain that no one has before, and Tenma is alone. And he has to deal with that. Learn from it. Grow with it. Find himself again, and he does. And that is the growth Tenma goes through in season 3.

To be honest, all three of them have their own stories in Galaxy, kinda like in season 1 but whereas in season 1 it converges from separate places to the same path, in season 3 it’s the opposite - they come from the same story and then split up. Tenma with his learning how to stand alone; Shindou with letting go of his steadfast opinion; Tsurugi with, uh, getting kidnapped by aliens?

Not gonna lie, one of those three doesn’t quite feel the same as the others…

Seriously though, Tsurugi’s arc in Galaxy is a little less introspective than the others, I think. Now that I’m thinking about it, maybe it’s about stepping up more? Previously he just went along with Raimon a lot. He’s a relatively quiet character and happy to leave the decisions and speeches to Shindou and Tenma - to be honest, in Chrono Stone when he was acting captain for one of the El Dorado/Raimon teams against the Second Stage Children, I was a bit startled before remembering that canonically, Tsurugi was captain previously. He never seemed to care much for the position. Like I said, he’s always followed along with Tenma, and he’s always been easy with following Shindou’s commands as well. But in season 3 that switches - he’s left alone, but it’s very different from Tenma’s situation. He’s becoming much more proactive in trying to convince Lalaya that her planet sucks, that she doesn’t need no man to be Queen, and most interestingly to me - the whole development with him becoming captain of Faram Dite. He steps up in a way he doesn’t really do in the rest of the anime.

To be honest, Tsurugi’s a hard character to pin down because he’s so quiet and composed most of the time. One thing about him, though, is that he’s got a major guilt complex. Just look at the whole situation with his brother, the fact that he blames himself has driven him for years before the anime even starts. It’s the reason he’s with Fifth Sector. After Tenma and Yuuichi give him that much needed reality check, Tsurugi backs down a lot and stays quiet. I think, and mind you this is all speculation - I think Tsurugi is afraid. Afraid of making choices, afraid of speaking up, of speaking his mind out loud. He follows Tenma, and Raimon’s, lead a lot, and while I think he does agree with them and doesn’t hesitate speak up after they already did so, I also think for a long while he would not be the first one to openly speak his mind. He’s been through a lot. He’s made mistakes, big mistakes (coughcough-joining Fifth Sector-coughcough) that you can’t blame him for considering the situation and the fact he was a literal kid when he joined Fifth Sector, but with what we’ve seen with his guilt complex with Yuuichi, who’s to say Tsurugi doesn’t blame himself? It’s like he needs the confirmation from Raimon that yes, this is the right choice, before he decides to speak up.

And in Galaxy, that changes. He’s left alone, no example to follow, dealing with a girl who’s even more afraid of making mistakes than he is, and for good reason. Lalaya has the lives of an entire planet on her shoulders, and she reaches out to Tsurugi because she has no faith in herself at all. Kind of like Tsurugi has no faith in himself either unless an outside source - Tenma, Yuuichi, Raimon - confirms it. Suddenly this girl is looking towards him for his approval on her decisions, same way he’s always done, and she doesn’t see what he does - that she doesn’t need it, that she can stand on her own. And Tsurugi committing to helping her, making that his priority rather than getting back to the Earth Eleven - and then, of course, switching sides and joining Faram Dite, knowing Earth Eleven won’t understand, Tenma won’t understand, won’t approve, and doing it anyway. For the first time in a long while, Tsurugi makes a choice because he believes it’s right, regardless of what anyone else thinks. That’s his character growth.

This already is eight pages, but now I’m committed, lol. Two down, one more to go!

Shindou Takuto. Honey, what a mess you are.

I could talk for ages about the impact that his rich kid life and likely demanding family would have on him. He’d be one of those ‘’piano lessons, Chinese lessons, fencing lessons’’ kids that get so much pressure put on his shoulders at a young age, to be perfect, to be worthy of the family name. I don’t think his family’s necessary neglectful or bad or anything! He gets to play soccer a lot, and it’s clearly because he likes it. But I do think that Shindou is an incredibly intelligent kid, and he’s always been pushed to perform the absolute best in whatever he does. It’s why he cracks under the pressure in season 1, when everything is falling apart around him, when the one thing he’s got for fun, because he loves it - soccer - becomes just as stressful, or even more so, as everything else in his life.

Season 3’s interesting, because from every damn side, Shindou is told he’s wrong.

A team of amateurs, when from basically his first appearance in season 1 it’s so damn obvious how much the Raimon team means to him. It’s a disgrace, not to him but to his friends, and Tenma - who should by all means agree with him completely - doesn’t seem to care. His plans are denied, his ideas are denied, except during matches. And these amateurs are just trampling over everything he believes in, everything his friends have worked so hard for, everything he holds so dear and hurt for and cried for and they don’t even have the grace to care. No wonder he hates them. No wonder he hates Ibuki, because Ibuki doesn’t understand a single thing about it but still has the gall to pretend he’s worthy of the position of keeper. Ibuki tries but not because he gives a damn about what Shindou believes in, but because of spite (I don’t actually think this about Ibuki lol, but I think Shindou would, I’m writing this from his perspective). The Inazuma Japan team spits on everything Shindou and his friends have fought and cried and bled for and he’s told to suck it up. No wonder he’s angry.

But, of course, things get a little better when they do start trying, for real, and keep trying. And then the whole hahaha-hey-you’re-actually-fighting-aliens thing gets revealed, and, well, new priorities and all that.

But still, Shindou’s stuck in his own head. Still dealing with a team he may or may not even like (don’t recall tbh). And at this point, Tenma’s retreated into his shell again (which, fair enough! Shindou hasn’t exactly been supportive and Tenma’s insecurities are acting up! There’s no way he’ll be the first to reach out again if he’s not sure it’s welcome - but Shindou, at this point, has missed all of Tenma’s angst because he’s keeping it quiet, so Shindou doesn’t know to reach out either! Which is also fair!! But they’re just in a continuous spiral at this point, rip) and Tsurugi is kidnapped by an alien queen like five episodes into the whole space adventure, which I’m gonna say is a fair reason not to have great communication at the moment. Also, honestly, both Tenma and Shindou not realizing something’s wrong with Tsurugi is a bit questionable but they both have so much going on in their own heads, plus the pressure of, y’know, trying not to get the earth destroyed, so I’m gonna give them a pass for this one.

Anyway. Shindou is put in a situation where things are, to him, completely spiraling out of control. He never wanted any of this - in fact, he probably was super excited for the international tournament, to just have fun for once and now the whole Grand Celesta Galaxy mess happens, poor kid. He has an idea of how things should be, within the team, at least, and he has such a hard time letting that go. He’s bad at adjusting. He’s not like Tenma. He doesn’t see the good in people as easily as Tenma does, he doesn’t adapt as easily as Tenma does (the wind is adaptable, haha) to this situation, doesn’t go, ‘’okay, I’ll make the best of this’’. He’s prideful, and used to, while not everything going his way, at least knowing his place, about having a certain image of the world around him, good or bad, and for once it doesn’t match up to his expectations at all, and he can’t change it, can only get through it. I’m very tired right now so I don’t think I can explain it very well, my words aren’t working (I’ll probably make a separate character analysis for Shindou at some point where I touch upon this again), but I think that Shindou is a person who needs some sort of control. His whole theme is music, being a music conductor, the strategist, calling the shots, and in Galaxy that’s taken away and he doesn’t know the stage, or the players and that might be similar in a way to Chrono Stone - but in Chrono Stone he still has the majority of his team, his support system, and in Galaxy he only has Tenma and Tsurugi and I just discussed why that whole thing isn’t working out. All he can do is get through it... alone.

Isn't it funny how that's a reoccurring theme with all of them?

Y’know, now I’m reminded of his Kami no Takuto hissatsu. How he directs the entire team like it’s a play or an orchestra. They do exactly what he wants them to and maybe that’s lulled him into a false sense of security. It might even go beyond that - his family demands perfectionism, tells him that if you just work hard enough, you can get everything, be everything, you want. That life will work how you want it to. But it doesn’t. He can’t strategize the entire world to his liking, and that’s okay.

And the fun part about all this? By the end of Galaxy, these three haven’t reconnected.

Oh, it certainly seems like it, because they concluded their own respective arcs. Tenma learns how to be captain and how to be true to himself. Tsurugi learns how to make his own choices and stop being afraid. Shindou learns to be patient and let go of his preconceived notions. They learn their lessons but they never talk about this. They grow, again, as they always do throughout the entire series, and rarely if ever do they talk about it, but why should they? They were together for the entire journey, right next to one another, so why should they tell each other what happened when they’ve all witnessed it?

Except in Galaxy they don’t. They weren’t on the same path. They’ve missed things, and now they’re, sort of, still assuming that the others will just understand because it always worked that way, right? So they don’t talk. And by the end of the season, they haven’t talked, despite the misunderstandings and the hurts. And oh, that’s an opportunity for angst I’m having so much fun exploring in my stories😈

Okay, I got like, so carried away with this. How did this turn into a character analysis for the Raimon GO Trio?? How did it get so long?? This was never the intention. To quote AR!Tenma…

Oops?

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slaaverin · 2 days ago

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I wonder why most Jikookers think Jk loves Jimin more than Jimin do him when it’s clearly opposite. Maybe they are influenced by grant gestures JK does once in a blue moon while Jimin is consistently taking care and loving him.

One of the obvious example is 2 incidents in AYS. jk was riding motorcycle and Jimin was worried saying to be careful of cars but jK ignored him saying I’m good which Jimin said atleast reply with a ‘ok’. But Jk was thinking whether army will be worried about this and confimred he rides the vehicle carefully. See how he was completely tone deaf to Jimin’s worry ?

second is in the forest. Jimin asked him to go slowly and enjoy the view multiple times while Jk was rushing, clearly walking too fast and away from Jimin as if he was trekking alone with his cam. And Jimin subtly shaded him saying how immature it is as Jimin, when he was kid, used to fastly walk to finish first as he wanted to he’s good at it than his peers but now he take it slow enjoying the view.

JK is often unnecessarily praised to waiting for jimin when he does it once or twice but 90% time he just avoids Jimin who walks slowly.

I am tired of this discourse. Aren't you tired? I'm tired.

Can we stop this "Jk loves Jimin most" "Jimin loves JK most" For fuck's sake how hard is it to understand they are simply two different people who love in different ways? It doesn't mean they don't love each other just as strongly, simply that they show it differently. And it's FINE. Are we in kindergarten? Is this a competition?

The two example you picked. Please.

The first one. Of course he dismissed Jimin's worry. One, JK knows how to drive, it was not his first time riding a motorcycle. And secondly, have you never experienced a loved one in your life telling you to "please be careful" "please stay safe" "please bring a light jacket because you will be cold" and you just roll your eyes and say "yes yes I will" without thinking too much about it?

JK is a confident dude who thinks can take care of himself (and he can, as most people), so idk maybe he doesn't feel like pushing the fact he needs extra care from Jimin? (But I don't think he minds it either, just he's not gonna play victim or anything like when Jimin was talking about his cold)

I don't know is he so hard to read??? He never dismissed him in a harsh way? Just like "I know, but I'm a big boy don't worry" which is a perfectly acceptable reaction to have from anyone? Jk is a free spirit as he put it and it just shows. So what? Does it mean he loves Jimin less? Absolutely not, it doesn't mean anything in particular.

Can we stop changing perfectly normal interactions into some kind of twisted toxic ones?

Because you know most people wouldn't see any of this in a negative way. Yet you're making it negative. It talks more about you than about JK.

And for the second one.

Each person walks at their own pace. Jungkook is amused at Jimin's slowness and Jimin to justify himself (because everyone thinks their way of walking is the best way) tells this little story and they giggled and the whole thing was very cute and fun and just shows they are different and once again, so what?

Aren't you nitpicking and inventing stuff that doesn't even exist?

He doesn't "avoid" Jimin, he just walks as he wants to! And many times they're walking side by side. What even are we talking about here???

When I walk especially while traveling with people I walk always waaaay ahead of everyone and spend most of my time waiting for people. When I travel with my mom she's especially slow and I always make a fuss with how slow she walks and even make fun of her. Does this mean I don't like my mom? That I avoid her?

Common sense people, common sense please I beg you this ask is so ridiculous

Once again a perfect example of someone choosing very minute details and making a truth out of them without seeing the whole picture

Did you forget how JK took care of Jimin when he was sick? Even made a little stone tower and prayed for him? How he cooked for him several times, wanting to make the best carbonara possible, for Jimin? Did you forget how Jimin was down in Sapporo and JK was trying to cheer him up? How JK made Jimin giggle repeatedly? How many time he praised him, calling him pretty and encouraging him? How worried he was when Jimin got injured? How he was trying to help with music? How he shared his food?

JK said again and again how happy he was to be on these trips with Jimin.

If you didn't see any of this then I'm thinking you are willfully blind or just a 12 year old.

Nobody in their right mind would try to put jikook's love to each other into some kind of counting of points competition "he did more, no he did more" Are you hearing yourself? The only people making things weird here are you. There's nothing wrong with their own individual ways to show love because guess what? They are different people! Shocker I know.

If you can't take them both as they are and love them as they are without putting your own toxic views into it, then don't even bother.

And if you're a solo hating on the other, your fave would probably be ashamed of you.

I don't want to read this crap in my asks again for real. GROW UP.

Thanks

#ask #that I wish I could forget

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canmom · 3 days ago

Text

oh no she's talking about AI some more

to comment more on the latest round of AI big news (guess I do have more to say after all):

chatgpt ghiblification

trying to figure out how far it's actually an advance over the state of the art of finetunes and LoRAs and stuff in image generation? I don't keep up with image generation stuff really, just look at it occasionally and go damn that's all happening then, but there are a lot of finetunes focusing on "Ghibli's style" which get it more or less well. previously on here I commented on an AI video model generation that patterned itself on Ghibli films, and video is a lot harder than static images.

of course 'studio Ghibli style' isn't exactly one thing: there are stylistic commonalities to many of their works and recurring designs, for sure, but there are also details that depend on the specific character designer and film in question in large and small ways (nobody is shooting for My Neighbours the Yamadas with this, but also e.g. Castle in the Sky does not look like Pom Poko does not look like How Do You Live in a number of ways, even if it all recognisably belongs to the same lineage).

the interesting thing about the ghibli ChatGPT generations for me is how well they're able to handle simplification of forms in image-to-image generation, often quite drastically changing the proportions of the people depicted but recognisably maintaining correspondence of details. that sort of stylisation is quite difficult to do well even for humans, and it must reflect quite a high level of abstraction inside the model's latent space. there is also relatively little of the 'oversharpening'/'ringing artefact' look that has been a hallmark of many popular generators - it can do flat colour well.

the big touted feature is its ability to place text in images very accurately. this is undeniably impressive, although OpenAI themeselves admit it breaks down beyond a certain point, creating strange images which start out with plausible, clean text and then it gradually turns into AI nonsense. it's really weird! I thought text would go from 'unsolved' to 'completely solved' or 'randomly works or doesn't work' - instead, here it feels sort of like the model has a certain limited 'pipeline' for handling text in images, but when the amount of text overloads that bandwidth, the rest of the image has to make do with vague text-like shapes! maybe the techniques from that anthropic thought-probing paper might shed some light on how information flows through the model.

similarly the model also has a limit of scene complexity. it can only handle a certain number of objects (10-20, they say) before it starts getting confused and losing track of details.

as before when they first wired up Dall-E to ChatGPT, it also simply makes prompting a lot simpler. you don't have to fuck around with LoRAs and obtuse strings of words, you just talk to the most popular LLM and ask it to perform a modification in natural language: the whole process is once again black-boxed but you can tell it in natural language to make changes. it's a poor level of control compared to what artists are used to, but it's still huge for ordinary people, and of course there's nothing stopping you popping the output into an editor to do your own editing.

not sure the architecture they're using in this version, if ChatGPT is able to reason about image data in the same space as language data or if it's still calling a separate image model... need to look that up.

openAI's own claim is:

We trained our models on the joint distribution of online images and text, learning not just how images relate to language, but how they relate to each other. Combined with aggressive post-training, the resulting model has surprising visual fluency, capable of generating images that are useful, consistent, and context-aware.

that's kind of vague. not sure what architecture that implies. people are talking about 'multimodal generation' so maybe it is doing it all in one model? though I'm not exactly sure how the inputs and outputs would be wired in that case.

anyway, as far as complex scene understanding: per the link they've cracked the 'horse riding an astronaut' gotcha, they can do 'full glass of wine' at least some of the time but not so much in combination with other stuff, and they can't do accurate clock faces still.

normal sentences that we write in 2025.

it sounds like we've moved well beyond using tools like CLIP to classify images, and I suspect that glaze/nightshade are already obsolete, if they ever worked to begin with. (would need to test to find out).

all that said, I believe ChatGPT's image generator had been behind the times for quite a long time, so it probably feels like a bigger jump for regular ChatGPT users than the people most hooked into the AI image generator scene.

of course, in all the hubbub, we've also already seen the white house jump on the trend in a suitably appalling way, continuing the current era of smirking fascist political spectacle by making a ghiblified image of a crying woman being deported over drugs charges. (not gonna link that shit, you can find it if you really want to.) it's par for the course; the cruel provocation is exactly the point, which makes it hard to find the right tone to respond. I think that sort of use, though inevitable, is far more of a direct insult to the artists at Ghibli than merely creating a machine that imitates their work. (though they may feel differently! as yet no response from Studio Ghibli's official media. I'd hate to be the person who has to explain what's going on to Miyazaki.)

google make number go up

besides all that, apparently google deepmind's latest gemini model is really powerful at reasoning, and also notably cheaper to run, surpassing DeepSeek R1 on the performance/cost ratio front. when DeepSeek did this, it crashed the stock market. when Google did... crickets, only the real AI nerds who stare at benchmarks a lot seem to have noticed. I remember when Google releases (AlphaGo etc.) were huge news, but somehow the vibes aren't there anymore! it's weird.

I actually saw an ad for google phones with Gemini in the cinema when i went to see Gundam last week. they showed a variety of people asking it various questions with a voice model, notably including a question on astrology lmao. Naturally, in the video, the phone model responded with some claims about people with whatever sign it was. Which is a pretty apt demonstration of the chameleon-like nature of LLMs: if you ask it a question about astrology phrased in a way that implies that you believe in astrology, it will tell you what seems to be a natural response, namely what an astrologer would say. If you ask if there is any scientific basis for belief in astrology, it would probably tell you that there isn't.

In fact, let's try it on DeepSeek R1... I ask an astrological question, got an astrological answer with a really softballed disclaimer:

Individual personalities vary based on numerous factors beyond sun signs, such as upbringing and personal experiences. Astrology serves as a tool for self-reflection, not a deterministic framework.

Ask if there's any scientific basis for astrology, and indeed it gives you a good list of reasons why astrology is bullshit, bringing up the usual suspects (Barnum statements etc.). And of course, if I then explain the experiment and prompt it to talk about whether LLMs should correct users with scientific information when they ask about pseudoscientific questions, it generates a reasonable-sounding discussion about how you could use reinforcement learning to encourage models to focus on scientific answers instead, and how that could be gently presented to the user.

I wondered if I'd asked it instead to talk about different epistemic regimes and come up with reasons why LLMs should take astrology into account in their guidance. However, this attempt didn't work so well - it started spontaneously bringing up the science side. It was able to observe how the framing of my question with words like 'benefit', 'useful' and 'LLM' made that response more likely. So LLMs infer a lot of context from framing and shape their simulacra accordingly. Don't think that's quite the message that Google had in mind in their ad though.

I asked Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking (the small free Gemini variant with a reasoning mode) the same questions and its answers fell along similar lines, although rather more dry.

So yeah, returning to the ad - I feel like, even as the models get startlingly more powerful month by month, the companies still struggle to know how to get across to people what the big deal is, or why you might want to prefer one model over another, or how the new LLM-powered chatbots are different from oldschool assistants like Siri (which could probably answer most of the questions in the Google ad, but not hold a longform conversation about it).

some general comments

The hype around ChatGPT's new update is mostly in its use as a toy - the funny stylistic clash it can create between the soft cartoony "Ghibli style" and serious historical photos. Is that really something a lot of people would spend an expensive subscription to access? Probably not. On the other hand, their programming abilities are increasingly catching on.

But I also feel like a lot of people are still stuck on old models of 'what AI is and how it works' - stochastic parrots, collage machines etc. - that are increasingly falling short of the more complex behaviours the models can perform, now prediction combines with reinforcement learning and self-play and other methods like that. Models are still very 'spiky' - superhumanly good at some things and laughably terrible at others - but every so often the researchers fill in some gaps between the spikes. And then we poke around and find some new ones, until they fill those too.

I always tried to resist 'AI will never be able to...' type statements, because that's just setting yourself up to look ridiculous. But I will readily admit, this is all happening way faster than I thought it would. I still do think this generation of AI will reach some limit, but genuinely I don't know when, or how good it will be at saturation. A lot of predicted 'walls' are falling.

My anticipation is that there's still a long way to go before this tops out. And I base that less on the general sense that scale will solve everything magically, and more on the intense feedback loop of human activity that has accumulated around this whole thing. As soon as someone proves that something is possible, that it works, we can't resist poking at it. Since we have a century or more of science fiction priming us on dreams/nightmares of AI, as soon as something comes along that feels like it might deliver on the promise, we have to find out. It's irresistable.

AI researchers are frequently said to place weirdly high probabilities on 'P(doom)', that AI research will wipe out the human species. You see letters calling for an AI pause, or papers saying 'agentic models should not be developed'. But I don't know how many have actually quit the field based on this belief that their research is dangerous. No, they just get a nice job doing 'safety' research. It's really fucking hard to figure out where this is actually going, when behind the eyes of everyone who predicts it, you can see a decade of LessWrong discussions framing their thoughts and you can see that their major concern is control over the light cone or something.

#ai #at some point in this post i switched to capital letters mode #i think i'm gonna leave it inconsistent lol

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demonslayedher · 1 day ago

Text

Yoriichi Type Zero and all that could have been

You know what would have been great? Seeing someone with vision like Kanao go up against Yoriichi Type Zero.

That's all this post was meant so say, but now that I'm thinking in those terms, though, it seems Yoriichi Type Zero had not be used for actual training for a long time before Muichiro came along and demanded to use it, and its existence was a rumor even among the Hashira. Kotetsu's father had only recently passed away and it was already in a state of disrepair before Kotetsu tried to protect it. This means it either had not be used in a long time because upkeep is so difficult, or it had suffered damage in its previous use (after all, Yoriichi Type Zero was developed with a purpose--to make demon hunters stronger and more capable).

So, if we consider the last decade or so (Kotetsu's early childhood), it is possible that another Hashira had used it and damaged it, and it has been hidden ever since. And perhaps that Hashira felt bad about the damage caused and agreed to keep it a secret. Sounds like something Kanae might do.

However, if Kanae had used it, I doubt she'd have caused damage like what Muichiro did in one session, mainly due to being a more considerate person but also because not many people could hold their own against it so quickly. Muichiro is a genius who felt sufficiently challenged but still trained safely with it, at the expense of cutting off the doll's arm, presumably to protect himself since even his sword got damaged. Someone who is not necessarily a swordsmanship genius may have needed to work their way up to being able to use it in the same capacity.

This means that if a Hashira--for the sake of argument because it would challenge her Flower Breath vision, Kanae--had formerly used it with permission, she'd have worked her way up to that (or to the limits of the doll's safe use) with the help of Kotetsu's father.

Anyway, it is fun to toy with the possibility that she could have used it in canon, but I don't find it likely. That puts this more in the "Wouldn't it have been cool if Kanae had trained with Yoriichi Type Zero and this enabled her to defeat Douma!?" AU territory.

Kanae, the not-necessarily super inherently strong Hashira, being the first to defeat an Upper Moon would be so cool. Upper Moon Two, no less!!

Kagaya would be thrilled. Himejima would be stunned. Uzui would be so annoyed. Sanemi would be... well I don't know Tecchikawahara would be so proud, both of her (who he hypes up even more because he's a fan of the girls) and of Kotetsu's father and whole family line. Might have assigned him more people to help with the maintenance. Akaza would be freaked out by an Upper Moon having been defeated by a frail-looking girl, but hey, there's an upside to it. Shinobu would never, ever stop bragging about her sister. Just think how openly smug she might be to the other Hashira when and if she takes up the Insect Hashira position. She'd bug everybody so much.

Sure, this might come at the expense of Kanae's vision, or a limb or two. But if Kanao managed it with the help of Inosuke and Shinobu's poison in large part thanks to the Final Form of Flower Breath and how she was already so good at tracking motion and detail, then maaaaybe giving Kanae the chance to improve this skill could have been enough. After all, she stood her ground against Douma well enough to have managed to escape instead of being eaten. She was probably so close.

Granted, Rengoku was also so close. There were probably a lot of Hashira eaten by Upper Moons who thought they were so close.

Maybe a lot of tides could have been turned by having Yoriichi Type Zero be more functional. It would only be a fraction of the influence Yoriichi himself had on strengthening the Corp, but it would still be significant.

To conclude on how things are always so close, it's a common criticism that Muichiro's solo battle against an Upper Moon looked easy. Might I remind you: --It wasn't solo. Without Haganezuka withstanding attacks to keep Gyokko distracted, Kanamori having forged and delivered a new Nichirin blade, and Kotetsu providing the Breath of Life, Muichiro never would have survived or won that battle (helping others really does come back around to helping yourself!). --Muichiro's true genius was unlocked in that battle. As Yuichiro said, when Muichiro is fighting for others, that is when his unlimited potential comes through. --Muichiro had just caught the Mark from interacting with Tanjiro. It's supposed to make things look dramatically easily for the person who attains it. The Mark is probably the only reason Muichiro didn't fall down dead immediately after that battle. --Like Tanjiro, Muichiro had just Shonen Manga Leveled Up thanks to a training session with Yoriichi Type Zero. This is how training works in shonen manga; it just does. That session was important and fulfilled the purpose of Yoriichi Type Zero. It was not just a chance to show off the difference in skill between Muichiro and Tanjiro, it was for Muichiro's benefit and survival.

And Uzui would probably be so annoyed to hear of it later and how he could have trained with this mystery tool too, if only he had heard of it. What a lousy ninja to have not heard all the rumors.

#kny fandom theories and meta #too many characters to tag but #kocho kanae #kochou kanae #tokito muichiro #tokitou muichirou #kotetsu #yoriichi type zero #tsugikuni yoriichi #kinda

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