#because he can 100% bottom and still get his ego inflated

[allastoredeer]

About the whole "Alastor is always top because his ego wouldn't let him be a bottom" aside from the fact that Luci has even bigger ego... but to have the King of Hell being all horny because of you and doing all in his power to make you feel good while you just lying there and do nothing?

I'm projecting but I personally would have the biggest ego boost ever lol

YOU'RE NOT WRONG ANON.

YOU'RE NOT WRONG.

If we're basing Alastor's willingness to bottom on ego, well then, looks like he just became a bottom boy.

LOL but seriously??? Lucifer, the King of Hell??? Doing everything in his power to please Alastor??? To make him feel good???? To pleasure him??? Willing to do whatever Alastor wants??? Without Alastor having to do much in return???

Tell me that wouldn't be the biggest fucking ego boost for him, I dare you. I dare you.

You know, even if Alastor isn't all that into sex in this scenario, I can see him having sex with Lucifer just for the high of seeing him in that state, all horny and breathless and doing whatever he can to please Alastor. Especially if this Lucifer loves pleasuring and doting on his partners in bed, which he always does in my brain, so he's all the more willing to do what Alastor wants.

Alastor's ego has reached astonishing new heights.

[bokunoheroanalysisforthefuture]

Alright kiddos, it is time for! The last chapter of the opening arcs / battle trial! Wherein we continue Katsuki's mental breakdown! <3

I’m considering doing some kind of end-of-arc(s) summary / personal thoughts thing after this as a way of sort of compiling my thoughts on the story as a whole so far, as well as just being open to answering your general ideas and open questions / suggestions about the story and characters and whatnot so far (and I guess to come?) So have at it, I want to know what you all think about these first eleven chapters as an introduction to the series / characters / plot / whatnot.

[No. 11 - Bakugou’s Starting Line]

That is… a lot less damage than I thought there was. Like, it still looks pretty bad, but not to the point of ‘it’s going to collapse if someone breathes funny’ bad like I was thinking before. The active explosion of the panels before this probably added to that impression. Also, the building is a LOT smaller than I thought it was?

And speaking of Katsuki’s mental breakdown! He’s just standing there in complete shock while Tenya is comforting a vomiting Ochako, and Izuku is passed out on the floor. Someone points out that the losing team is almost unscathed while the winners are down for the count - they lost the battle but won the war, so to speak. Tsuyu points out that it’s just training though.

(to the tune of ‘Final Countdown’) It’s a mental breakdown~ (kazoo solo)

But in full seriousness, this is the first true moment we see of his worldview being smashed open. Like, he was definitely shaken with Izuku’s actions back with the sludge villain, but Katsuki was just more quiet and sullen. Here? Here he’s just had one of the pillars he built his entire mindset around - that Izuku was weaker than him - torn down as violently as the wall he blasted open. He is not okay with this. He’s sweating, he’s shaking, he’s probably about five seconds from collapsing to his knees and screaming. 

Fortunately, he’s mostly knocked out of his own head by All Might showing up and placing a hand on his shoulder, telling him to head back so he can get graded. Katsuki doesn’t really seem to be listening as All Might goes on about how whether one wins or loses, they can come out ahead by learning from the experience - instead he’s watching as Izuku is taken away on a stretcher by two transpo-bots to the nurse’s office. 

In the monitor room, All Might announces that the VIP of the battle was Tenya, much to said boy’s surprise. Katsuki is looking pretty gloomy and stuck in his head, while Ochako is still struggling with the lingering nausea. Tsuyu asks why the VIP isn’t one of the hero team who won, and All Might asks the class if any if them can guess at his reasoning. 

Momo raises her had and says she does, and then explains that Tenya had best adapted to the scenario. Katsuki’s actions were motivated by a personal grudge, and his use of destructive attacks indoors was foolish. Izuku’s performance suffered from the same faults. And Ochako lost focus halfway through and her final attack was haphazard - if the weapon had been real, the attack would be unthinkable. Tenya, on the other hand, formed an actual counterstrategy, and thought about what the struggle would be like. His only fault was being too slow to react at the end, and the hero team only won because it was a training exercise with exploitable restraints. 

Tenya is touched. Meanwhile, the rest of the class is stunned silent, with All Might shaking because she said it better than he could. He hesitantly adds that Tenya was a bit too stiff, but otherwise she was correct. She huffs and says that they need to start at the bottom and work up - if they don’t cheer each other on, they won’t even become top heroes. Her name is also introduced here, as well as the fact that she’s the number one recommended first year.

How’s Katsuki doing?

Eh… we’ll come back to you in a bit. For now, the other battle trials! Shouto and Shouji (hero team) versus Ojiro and Hagakure (villain team), in a new location. The heroes are both quiet, while Hagakure is getting hyped up and taking off her gloves and boots to go full stealth mode. Ojiro is a bit flustered at that, thinking that it makes sense for someone invisible, but that it feels unethical.

(Which is, I’m guessing, that comment that her ‘hero costume’ is being buck naked, which honestly, I refuse to believe. If the support companies can make a costume for someone who goes impermeable (which, by its own definition, would mean light goes through as well, ergo ‘invisibility’), then she can get one as well. I think she’s just a troll who says the costume is nothing to fluster others - I mean, considering she does like hidden camera shows, and they tend to do those weird stuff to surprise or discomfort people, it would fit in line with her character.)

Anyways, when the hero team is sent in, Shouji is listening in just inside the building with several arm-ears, right before they shift into really concerning-looking mouths to relay information. Shouji tells his partner that one is on the north side of the fourth floor, while the other is on the same floor barefoot - clearly, the invisible one is trying to ambush and capture them. Shouji also gets a title card and an explanation of his quirk, Dupli-arms: he can replicate his own body parts at the tips of his tentacles!

Shouto warns Shouji to get out, since it’s about to ‘get frosty in here’. Their opponents think they’re playing a defensive game, but it means nothing to him. He then proceeds to show off just what he means by ‘frosty’.

Yeah, that’s a bit OP there. Poor Ojiro - and definitely poor Hagakure, who got frozen to the floor with bare feet. Shouto walks in and says to bring it on, but that fighting without the soles of their feet will be painful. All Might and Kirishima are shivering in the monitor room from the cold, with All Might noting that neither Shouto’s ally nor the weapon were harmed when he immobilized the enemy; Kirishima says that he’s too strong. 

Hagakure’s hurting where she’s frozen, and Ojiro is freaked out and not even trying to break out as Shouto walks past and puts his left hand of the weapon, giving his team the win. Shouto apologizes to them as the ice steams away, Ojiro shocked to see how quickly the building is warming up. As Shouto finishes melting the ice, he declares that they are in different leagues - and we get his title card!

Number two recommended first year, quirk Half-Hot, Half-Cold (which I think is supposed to have some greater pun or sound better in Japanese? [Hanrei Hannen] I suppose does roll a bit better, but hmmm…) His right side can freeze things and his left can burn. His range and limits are unknown - what a beast! 

(Katsuki, meanwhile, is biting his lip to keep himself from saying anything - likely another blow to his preconceived belief that he was the strongest right while he’s trying to come back from the last one.)

We get a brief summary of what the other teams did: Sero and Kirishima played villains and defended with Sero’s tape as traps around the room. Tsuyu went along the walls while Tokoyami had his quirk primed to attack. Jirou scouted with her quirk while Kaminari kept a charge prepped in his hand, and Mina threw a ot of acid around, a bit of which burned Aoyama’s cape. 

We transition to the end of the class, with All Might telling everyone well done, and that besides Izuku, there were no serious injuries. He complements their teamwork and says they all did splendidly, considering it was their first exercise. Someone in the class mentions that after Aizawa, a straightforward class that that was almost a letdown. All Might walks away, saying that the teachers are free to have no-nonsense classes if they like, and that he’s off to give Izuku his evaluation, letting them know to get changed out of their costumes and head back to the classroom before he runs off in a hurry. Mineta notes he seems to be in a hurry, but that he’s also so cool.

All Might glances back, seeing Katsuki in the back of the class still in a gloomy state. He thinks about how Katsuki is ‘a bundle of conceit’ and how the most inflated egos are often the most fragile. As a teacher, he needs to give the boy some counseling, but for now, he has to save on his time, due to only having enough strength to get through a single class.

Which, considering All Might’s limit before USJ is three hours, seems a bit weird, so let’s do some math.

The villain teams have five minutes to set up, and the heroes have fifteen to get to the bomb after that - twenty minutes. With five rounds, that’s an even hundred minutes for the exercises, not counting those that ended early. With all the time saved from Shouto’s instant take out and assuming average times for the others, we probably have more like eighty minutes spent on those exercises. Of course, we can then add time for getting to and from the buildings, as well as the assessments of each match and determination of the VIP. So that can probably bumped back up to 100 minutes, maybe closer to 110? Which would just fit within the bounds of a double-class period for Japanese schools (which are fifty minute classes with ten minute breaks in between). 

Japanese classes have four periods before lunch and three after. The ‘canon’ schedule has heroics lessons happen THROUGH lunch period, which makes no sense when they need that energy in order to be able to fight. I am also skeptical of fighting right after lunch, when that makes it more likely for them to throw up if they take a bad hit, ergo, the reasonable time period for these lessons is the last two periods of the day - thus giving the kids about an hour for food to digest and energy to get into their systems.

I think this is also added onto with how Izuku doesn’t freak out after this over missing a class, which makes sense if it was the last one. Plus, well, scheduling the most exhausting and injury-prone class at the end of the day means that anyone who needs to rest a while actually can without missing important things - and that the kids won’t be too tired to pay attention to whichever teachers they would otherwise have afterwards.

...right, my original point. All Might is supposed to have three hours, but gets stressed out after using just two hours here. I can get that maybe it’s three hours total, but holding it for two continuously without chances to ‘unflex’ and rest for a bit might be straining on him still? Or maybe he just spent some time that morning doing hero things and so ran out of time a bit early. 

Anyways, I think I’ll end this off here, since it’s about halfway and we did get through quite a bit. Next time, we finish off the opening arcs of the series, and then I guess I do some Q&A / personal thoughts so far / narrative analysis / whatever? I guess send in questions or thoughts or whatever you guys have, and I’ll answer them after the next post. 

[blame-canada]

Sympathy vs. Empathy: How Stan and Kyle Differ as Characters

Hello everyone! I have a long post here that was discussed in a group setting that we wanted to put down into proper essay format, so I’ve done my best to do just that. Hopefully this makes sense, and you enjoy what we’ve theorized!

A large group of us were having a discussion about the most recent episodes and seasons that have been coming out for South Park, and we came upon the topic of the apparent deterioration of Stan and Kyle’s super-best-friendship. Some of the conflicts we noted were the handful of times that Stan and Kyle have shown active disinterest in helping each other in the most recent season (21). One of the largest examples has been Kyle refusing to want to help Stan find a solution to his grandfather’s drug smuggling situation in the episode “Hummels and Heroin,” insisting that he did not want to “get involved” in Stan’s problem. Notable for Stan is his lack of care for Kyle’s concerns about Heidi in the episode “Doubling Down,” where he states that Heidi and Cartman are not their “business,” wanting to stay passive in the conflict. On the surface, both of these reactions seem to continue the troubling trend of them growing further and further apart, but after attempting to take a deeper look into their characters as a whole, we came up with some possibilities for why these could have been their reactions beyond them simply growing distant as friends. Full essay with visuals under the cut!

In the past, Stan and Kyle have been incredibly co-dependent in their friendship. They are different characters with different motivations and personalities, but looking into their past as friends, they both act as someone to ground the other in times where they may get carried away. This is true of both of them, and not just one to the other. Neither appears afraid to call it out like it is when they see something is amiss.

For Kyle, a good example is the episode “Crack Baby Athletic Association” in which he joins Cartman in creating a new ‘sport’ which capitalizes on the needs of babies born with addictions to crack. Looking at this episode, I think Kyle convinces himself that he is morally correct in working with Cartman at first- he seems intent to believe that what he is doing is beneficial to the babies. Stan immediately shuts him down as soon as he learns about the situation, however, and does so very bluntly by saying that Kyle sounds like Cartman. Kyle then spends several scenes from the episode trying to explain to Stan why what he’s doing is actually a good thing to do. Stan remains unconvinced, and Kyle continues to flounder. Stan sticking to his expression that Kyle is sounding like Cartman is what helps break Kyle out of this haze that he’s created around himself that convinces him that he’s doing the right thing, and allows him to eventually find his own truth.

Pictured: Kyle justifying crack baby basketball to Stan (top), Stan retorting that he sounds like Cartman (bottom). Both from “Crack Baby Athletic Association.”

An equivalent example for Stan is “Butterballs,” when he gets so swept up in his movement against bullying that it becomes dangerously good at inflating his ego when his campaign goes viral. Kyle repeatedly tries to pull Stan down from the high of his fame, but when Stan doesn’t really listen to him, he just gets frustrated, and actually ends up predicting the future (“…when you’re naked and jackin’ it in San Diego, don’t ask me for help!”).

Pictured: Kyle taking a stand against Stan in “Butterballs.”

These are just two examples of times where these two have attempted to ground one another when they caught them going too far into something. So if there is a trend of them doing this for each other, why have they been neglecting to do this in the most recent episodes? What we came up with was how we defined their core characteristics, and how they act differently based on these two things: Kyle acts on sympathy, and Stan acts on empathy.

We came to the conclusion that Kyle acts on sympathy based on his previous interactions throughout the show, but most noticeably in how he reacts to Cartman in times of trouble. In the episode “Jewpacabra,” Kyle helps Cartman out of the hole he’s dug himself, even though he is the apparent target of Cartman’s antics. There have been several other instances of Kyle coming to Cartman’s aid, despite being Cartman’s favorite punching bag. This speaks to not only his strong sense of morality, but also to his sympathetic roots- Kyle feels bad for him so he wants to help him, because he thinks it’s the right thing to do. Kyle feels bad for the babies in “Crack Baby Athletic Association,” and so he wants to do something to help them and it appears that Cartman is doing that with his organization. With this in mind, the reason that Kyle didn’t want to get involved with Stan’s drug problem was because he didn’t feel sympathy for Stan’s situation. He held Stan to the standard that he understood that what he was doing was wrong, along with his own previously-seen inclinations toward self-preservation and apparent lack of empathy (”You’re Getting Old”/“Assburgers” are a good example of Kyle deciding to preserve himself instead of help Stan with his problems). Stan was stuck in the situation with his grandfather because he didn’t feel like he could just leave it as-is and risk his grandfather’s life. Because Kyle also didn’t see the threat to Stan specifically, he didn’t see a reason to feel bad for him and act.

Pictured: Kyle leading Cartman home in “Jewpacabra” (top), Kyle brushing off Stan’s cry for help in “Hummels and Heroin” (bottom).

We concluded that Stan is, contrastingly, largely motivated by empathy, which is most easily seen in how he reacts to various forms of activism, such as his involvement in saving the whales in the episode “Whale Whores” and the calves in “Fun With Veal.” Stan reacts to situations based on how he would feel in someone’s shoes, the textbook definition of empathy. Another great example would be the episode “With Apologies to Jesse Jackson“ where he spends the entirety of it trying to understand Token’s feelings before realizing he could never fully understand as a white person. This was him admitting that he couldn’t fully empathize, which he struggled to do for the entire episode before finally ‘getting’ it. In the case of “Butterballs,” Stan initially felt a drive to do something about bullying to help Butters. Even though his intentions didn’t stay pure, the fact remains he felt empathetic for Butters’ struggle as a victim of bullying where none of his other peers around him did the same. Under this lens, the reason Stan did not feel inclined to help Kyle figure out the deal between Heidi and Cartman in “Doubling Down” is because Stan could not empathize with Heidi’s situation or Kyle’s concern for it. He didn’t try to do so either, so he was largely disinterested in the problem where Kyle was intent to change it (note that Kyle’s sympathy/morality motivated him here- he felt bad for Heidi and thought intervening was the right thing to do.).

Pictured: Stan asking for assistance in saving the whales and dolphins in “Whale Whores” (top), Stan telling Kyle it’s not their business to intervene with Heidi and Cartman in “Doubling Down” (bottom).

Stan has historically shown more signs of being extremely loyal to Kyle in a way that Kyle has not always reciprocated, which the sympathy vs. empathy claim could also contribute to. With Stan’s connection to Kyle more emotional and his approach to life more empathetic, it makes him appear inherently more loyal to his friends. His ego can get out of hand if unchecked and he can get selfish at times, but more often than not his initial reaction to things is in regards to others as opposed to himself. He was ready to donate his kidney immediately upon learning that Kyle may need it to live in “Cherokee Hair Tampons,” even with the disclaimer of “even if it hurts a whole lot.” In comparison Kyle left Stan hanging at the end of ”You’re Getting Old” (mentioned earlier), expressing that Stan was “a bummer to be around” and that he couldn’t be a part of it as opposed to sticking with Stan to help him out of his funk. While this speaks to Kyle’s tendency to self-preserve more than anything, it also shows a lack of empathy when faced with his best friend’s struggles.

Pictured: Stan offering his kidney for Kyle in “Cherokee Hair Tampons” (top), Kyle expressing that Stan has changed negatively in “You’re Getting Old” (bottom).

Even though these theories help explain why they seemed despondent toward each other’s difficulties in season 21, it’s still apparent that the two of them have grown apart. Kyle has, throughout season 20 and season 21, been making some pretty big, potentially faulty decisions, and it’s my own theory that the reason he continues to make these embarrassing mistakes or choices is because Stan hasn’t been there to ground him the way he has in the past. Without someone next to him to help keep his head clear and conscience focused, Kyle goes off the rails with his ideas and his actions, and I’ve found myself thinking, ‘what are you doing?’ more than once. Without Stan, Kyle is out of control, and it just goes to show how dependent they really are upon each other as a unit. If Stan and Kyle were still close, I feel as though Kyle may have been much less involved in the more recent dramas of the show with Stan there to help rein him in. While the same claim can’t 100% be made for Stan, the reason for this is mostly that Stan has not had nearly as much time in the spotlight as Kyle more recently, so it’s hard to say how their drifting has affected him as well based on canon evidence. I find it significant, however, that in the finale for season 20, Stan was dashing out of his seat at a moment’s notice when Kyle requested something of him that seemed urgent- a show of his intense loyalty even when seemingly not as close as before.

With all of this said and done, it helps make Stan and Kyle’s recent reactions to one another a little easier to swallow for me, knowing that it could potentially boil down to their characters and not purely because they’re no longer interested in each other. It felt as though we had solved a puzzle coming up with this possibility. Do you think we’re totally off the rails with this one? Feel free to respond!