#but i like the thought of them getting dragged back into the narrative after years of isolation in the void

[jukebox-wait]

the more i draw them the more disheveled they become

[fanfic-lover-girl]

Double Standards: Malfoys vs Potters Edition

It's interesting how people view the Malfoy vs Potter men. The Malfoys are often considered shallow while the Potters are lauded for befriending the "downtrodden".

James Potter befriended Remus Lupin, a disadvantaged werewolf. He and his friends became animagi for Lupin. That's great and all...but then why was Remus so hesitant to go against the status quo and speak out against the marauders - to do his job as prefect?

And James treated Wormtail like trash too.

‘How thick are you, Wormtail?’ said James impatiently. ‘You run round with a werewolf once a month –’

Nice to say that out loud where anyone can hear, Jamie.

‘Put that away, will you,’ said Sirius finally, as James made a fine catch and Wormtail let out a cheer, ‘before Wormtail wets himself with excitement.’ Wormtail turned slightly pink, but James grinned.

“Lily and James only made you Secret Keeper because I suggested it,” Black hissed, so venomously that Pettigrew took a step backwards. “I thought it was the perfect plan… a bluff… Voldemort would be sure to come after me, would never dream they’d use a weak, talentless thing like you… it must have been the finest moment of your miserable life, telling Voldemort you could hand him the Potters.”

You really don't get the vibe that Sirius or James held little Petie in high regard, do you?

It can't be more obvious that Sirus and James were top dogs and Peter and Remus were just add-ons.

As for Harry, where to start with him? He shows little empathy for other people and has a nasty habit of describing people in dehumanizing ways (eg. Aberforth, Salazar Slytherin, Marcus etc). He has probably described Tom Riddle, the guy who murdered his parents, as attractive more times than his own girlfriend Ginny. He latched on to Ron because of his family and honestly, Hermione feels like a pity friend at times. Harry hardly likes being around her without Ron. Harry has another nasty habit of giving his best friends the silent treatment until they come crawling back to him, even when he is in the wrong too (re firebolt for Hermione and Ron believing Harry entered his name in the goblet of fire).

‘Hullo,’ said the boy, ‘Hogwarts too?’ ‘Yes,’ said Harry. ‘My father’s next door buying my books and mother’s up the street looking at wands,’ said the boy. He had a bored, drawling voice. ‘Then I’m going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don’t see why first-years can’t have their own. I think I’ll bully father into getting me one and I’ll smuggle it in somehow.’

Yet, no one seems to give Lucius and Draco any credit. These people are supposed to be snobby, pureblood supremacists. Yet, even though Harry was dressed in decrepit muggle clothes, Draco still engaged him in conversation. Draco had no idea who Harry was, had no clue he was famous at the time, and still made several efforts to talk with him and continue the conversation even when Harry was cold and aloof.

And Severus Snape moved off to the other side of the Hall, away from Lily, to where the Slytherins were cheering him, to where Lucius Malfoy, a prefect badge gleaming upon his chest, patted Snape on the back as he sat down beside him …

Lucius knows 'Snape' is not a pureblood name. He could see Snape's clothes were probably old hand-me-downs. He knows Snape is way below his class. Yet, he still welcomes Snape warmly to Slytherin. What reason would he have to fake pleasantries with a poor half-blood? I doubt Slughorn or the other bigoted purebloods would care if Lucius left his seat in disgust at Snape's presence. Even as adults, it is indicated in the narrative multiple times that Lucius holds Snape in high esteem. Draco held Snape in high esteem too despite being a halfblood.

The same Snape that James Potter tormented for no good reason - because Snape existed. Instead of targetting the purebloods like Avery and Mulciber, James and his delinquent loser gang went after Snape, the poor half-blood. Harry literally did nothing as Snape lay dying in the same shack that Lupin almost killed him in two decades prior.

Harry describes Pansy as being pug-faced...yet Draco still dated her. Even though Crabbe turned on him, Draco still grieved for him afterwards. Compared to Harry who only dates the prettiest girls and body shames other girls if they don't meet his standard and only cares about people who do things for him, like him and are loyal to him. It's only when the people he dislikes die for him that he changes his tune and suddenly they become great people.

How can people say the Potters are less shallow than the Malfoys??Draco and Lucius will always be high-class elitists who believe in sticking with their 'own kind' but give credit where credit is due.

[cryptid-intraining]

Thoughts about the Mexican GP and the season so far.

Very happy at yet another Ferrari win, would have loved the 1-2 but I'll get into that. Any points taken off Lando is great in my books and it's starting to look like McLaren is now at risk of losing the WCC as well if Ferrari keeps this up.

As a Max fan, he absolutely deserved those penalties but I think anyone complaining about how unfair it is, is being silly. He did the move, got the penalties. That's fair. Fucking around and finding out is a gamble all drivers make at some point, sometimes getting those penalties is a price they're willing to pay.

My biggest issue with the narrative and criticism Max has been getting about those two incidents is that it was sloppy driving. I think Martin Brundle called his second move a "red mist" moment and I think in light of what Max has said about the incidents, that is just untrue. I think it's fairly clear to see it was a calculated decision that Max made as soon as he realized that the RB20 did not have the power to hold the McLaren behind. In his own words, without the penalties he may have ended up ahead of the Mercs but Lando probably would have won the race.

He dropped a possible 13 point loss to 10. That's a championship move, that's how you win the WDC. Race wins and podiums don't matter to Max at this point clearly (yes he would prefer to be winning, obviously) his goal going into every weekend is just about finishing higher than Lando or as close to him as possible. That car does not have the tools for him to go offensive and outscore Lando every race so of course he will do anything in his power to ruin Lando's races and slow him down and get in his way. It's strategy.

And dragging that car back from 20s of penalties to P6 was a feat in and of itself, especially if you look at the races that Perez and Piastri had. Especially Piastri, considering he had the whole race and superior machinery and ended up in P8, behind Max and KMag. Really not a good weekend from him overall.

Onto the Ferrari's. I honestly don't know what to say, Carlos was incredibly strong all weekend, well deserved win. But once again it feels like Ferrari sometimes really struggles in managing to bring home a 1-2. They're often too afraid of their drivers fighting out front which is fair but asking your other driver to lift and coast every five minutes or so was a ridiculous call that cost them the 1-2. You cannot LICO on hard tyres for the majority of a race and keep temperature in them, which makes you lose grip and nearly crash as we saw. Charles was very lucky and very quick to catch that snap before it put him in the wall.

Not taking away from Carlos' performance because he was just the quicker driver that weekend but once again when he comes under pressure from Charles he tries to get Ferrari to pull team orders. It's something he has done time and time again and it gets a bit frustrating to see. If team orders had not been established prior to the race, he had no grounds to come on the radio and comment on Charles closing the gap in the first stint. If I heard that radio message without context I would have thought Charles had dive bombed him or something, it was ridiculous.

Now, I know Carlos was asked to lift and coast too but I think in context to Carlos' radio message and the weird atmosphere between them after the race (could be reading into) I don't think Charles was particularly happy with the strategy.

And finally McLaren. I think we are so wrapped up in the hype of having such a competitive season that we're not seeing what this year is going to end up being for McLaren and that is: disastrous. They've been so shockingly indecisive this whole season and I think if Ferrari keeps this performance in the last leg of the season it is going to cost them the WCC as well because they've just been acting like they've got it in the bag and I think that's the key difference in attitude between McLaren and Red Bull, to some degree Ferrari too. Max himself has said it, even if he's 50+ points ahead he's not going to let Lando pass him easily because that's not how you win. Dropping your guard and thinking you're safe is how you lose, coasting to a win is how you lose, if that was how Max Verstappen raced he wouldn't be a three time world champion and he certainly wouldn't still be 47 points ahead.

But it feels almost like McLaren are just assuming that the WCC is safe because they have good drivers and the fastest car but I think there is a possibility they're going to walk away with nothing and it's going to be very embarrassing for them because everyone expected immediate performance from their drivers once given a championship car, that's what everyone has been saying about both Lando and Oscar for the past few years, that they're championship material and they just need the car.

I don't disagree, I think they both will get a WDC eventually but it's put them both on these pedestals of performance that they've just been unable to live up to yet. Lando has not been consistent, he has shown he has a long way to go in terms of wheel to wheel battling and needs to improve his ability to make calls and strategy decisions on the track and Oscar has to be more competitive in qualifying if he wants to pose a threat to Lando.

And the team needs to pull it together if they want to win. Stop asking your drivers so much, don't let them call all the shots on strategy because it doesn't work. Sometimes when I hear their radio messages I actually start to lose my mind because why are they having full conversations? It's too much information for too little. Drivers should never be that involved in the strategy, it's distracting for them and shows everyone else how little faith the strategists seem to have in themselves. It feels like they're improvising as they go.

All in all, I think this season is going to do more for Max's reputation than any other championship season he's had. 2023 was dominant and incredible but people will always just say he had no competition and therefore it means nothing which is an insane thing to say about the most successful singular season in the history of the sport, 2022 for some reason people just write off. Once again, they'll just say he had the best car so of course he'll win, and 2021 is obviously fraught with controversies that overshadow what was objectively a brilliant season for Max. But 2024? It's showing that he does not need the fastest car to win. Not even the second, but the third fastest car (at points the fourth) and he's still 47 points ahead.

It's brilliant. Hasn't won a race in months and he's still winning. In a car that at points didn't even turn, with an engine that seems to want to fail every other weekend, with a practically non-existent teammate, and a team that feels like it's falling apart around him.

But it's just the car. Okay, so where's Lando? Oh, right, 47 points behind.

See you in Abu Dhabi.

[reading-stains]

soukoku fics: recs and reviews

look, i really like fanfiction. and i've always felt people sometimes don't give good enough reasons to actually read a lot of it. if you scroll down enough, you'll see i did that too. so i thought i'd help out some people that don't know what to read tonight. you'll notice i took my reviewing seriously hgdsafvkhagsv i'll add more in my reblogs as i go on with this review style, but for now, here are three fanfics that pushed me to do this. fair warning, they're long ones.

A Lesson in Thorns by arkastadt

Word Count: 454,556

Tags: Arranged Marriage, BSD Beast!AU, Canon Divergence, Slow Burn, Character Death, Heavy Angst, Happy Ending, Ghosts, So Much Smut

Review:

As one of the longest fics I’ve ever read, it took me three days to read it, and a lot of lost sleep. A Lesson in Thorns is a journey that no one is truly prepared for. It’s surprising, I think, how one only notices the slow burn in the beginning, and forget they didn’t start out together in the end. So many things happen in the span of those fifty chapters, and so many feelings arise alongside their events. The reader watches Chuuya grow into himself, despite the haunting (hehe) that surrounds him by the end. Dazai becomes a man wishing to live, despite becoming a ghost of who he used to be. It’s quite magical, the way the story builds upon itself. What is usually some home, this piece makes an empire. 

This author appealed a lot to the wants and needs within these characters, making a paced build up to the challenges the characters face. Furthermore, there is a wonderful line of thought that is unwavering, consistent to the very end. The reader meets Chuuya getting ready to be married. A deal has been struck with the Port Mafia, and as the leader of the Sheep, Chuuya must marry their boss. A questionable and confusing task, but Chuuya has no more cards under his sleeve, and he has to save Shirase from the pending prison sentence. He walks into where he is to be married, looking to find a wrinkled, aging man. Instead, he faces the bandaged limbs and cunning eye of Dazai Osamu, and the story truly begins. 

The reader already knows it’s not a choice left for random that Dazai takes Chuuya under his wing. It’s already stated that on the first day in his position as the boss, right after killing Mori and sixteen months before he and Chuuya marry, he finds the redhead. A search that is broken down as the story unravels, and an effort that builds them and breaks them apart and puts them back together. 

This fanfic is clearly derived from a lot of the factors pointed in Bungou Stray Dogs’s BEAST light novel, which in my eyes makes it all the more interesting. I tried to give a short insight into the beginning with as much care as I could without creating any spoilers for the reading. I guess from me, all my notes just say it’s worth it. This fic really drags you through so many stages of feelings and excitements, and it builds off from them until you reach a new peak all over again. 

On Deathless Feet by AbsoluteNegation

Word Count: 71,848

Tags: Caretaking, Controlling Arahabaki, Canon-Divergence, Port Mafia and Post-Port Mafia, Smut

Review:

There are some stories that find themselves tucked into a hidden corner. It does not make them any less, and it does not make them any better, it just makes them quiet. Which in turn, when they are finally found, makes them all the more surprising. That is how I feel about On Deathless Feet, tucked in a corner of Ao3, and all incredibly surprising. 

Written with a nonlinear narrative, the reader meets the famed Double Black in different moments, recently met, in the middle of their rise through the ranks, at the brink of their end, after their disconnection with years of silence. AbsoluteNegation makes a wonderful story threaded in different moments, contextualizing their uncomfortable return to each other with interruptions back to their old lives before Dazai’s split from the Port Mafia. The author mainly focuses on Arahabaki, and Chuuya’s relationship with understanding the singularity as it slips out of control. Dazai is sent in to help counter it throughout their time together, and long stretches of contact are needed to get it down to normal. 

With a state of constant carataking, the two are thrusted into communion, needing to learn to accept living with each other for the time being. It isn’t a foreign feeling, seeing the other there, but at the end of the day it’s hard for the two with all that past. A past the author explores in detail just as much, not holding back on making it layered and pretty and very intense. They are creatures of passion, that’s what drives this ship and makes it so loved, and the author doesn’t shy away from building on it. Just as well, however, does the author place their own touch to their relationship, with the care and devotion the two also experiment between them. This fanfic is a welcomed balance to the rockier roads often explored surrounding these two. It never lacks sharpness, but it definitely warms the heart.

music for our funeral by itotypes

Word Count: 67,723

Tags: No Smut, Angst, 70s, Musicians!AU, Drug Abuse, References to Child Neglect, Songwriting, Artistic Lyricism

Review:

Music for our funeral by itotypes is a breathtaking composition, and there is not much like it. Set in the 70s, the author explores the surrounding setting of the rock genre, and writes a story of struggle and connection. Starting out with a run-away teenager, we meet Dazai’s lackluster perfection, the narrative often picturing him as a clinical artist. After leaving home, we watch him make himself something, and see him survive until he looks to live. Meanwhile, the other side of the piece plays with a striving perfectionist, and a reckless guitarist, in the form of Chuuya. The man comes from a struggling family (a stark contrast to the origins of his partner), and finds himself lost in the music. 

An interesting part of the story is that we get to know the characters before they meet. In a way, it allows the reader to explore the lives privy to the explosion, and before the pining and intensity that sparks between the two. One of the most appreciative factors that make this story one of my personal favorites is the usage of images throughout it. With beautiful lyrics exploring the essence of a character’s beliefs without them needing to admit it to themselves, there is a clear view into the conflicts and selfish needs that each character has. 

This author’s work is best described as an ode to music. It comes as a surprise at times, the way words fit together in reverence to this branch of artistry. Yet the fact that it’s done through another form of storytelling, through the use of words on a screen instead of notes on one’s ear, makes it all the more captivating. There is no question this is a must read. 

[galebrainrot2024]

Gale x Tav Enemies to Lovers Part V

Gale’s POV. I know I’ve been switching between the two and the last part was his perspective and I think this is the best artistic choice to move the plot forward, I think how Gale navigates Tav’s silence is a more compelling perspective. Not to worry, you’ll get Tav’s too, just next ;) 

still editing and such atm, but enjoy!

Twenty five days. For twenty five days Gale remained on the sidelines waiting to be beckoned into battle. Waiting for Tav to speak with him, to apologize. The more time dragged on, the more irate he became and the more the gnawing in his chest grew. Gale was in dire need of a magical artifact and refused to be the first to yield. He would ask the others before he asked for her help with this again. If she wanted to ignore him, fine. He had locked himself in a tower in isolation for a year, after all, cast out by his former lover and goddess of magic. He was accustomed to being ignored and to ignoring. 

The idle mind was Gale’s primary enemy, apart from the absolute and tadpole in his brain. The first few days, Gale thought little of Tav’s avoidance. They must be ashamed, he thought, embarrassed to broach him. Yet, she didn’t so much as glance in his direction and avoided the campfire when he was preparing their meals. Due to the incredible amount of downtime he now had, the meals grew in sumptuousness to his companions delight. He even managed to salvage stale bread they looted, turning it into delicious, crusty toast for a strew. Tav dodged Gale expertly, rivaling Mystra’s ability to deny attention, shutting him out except for necessary pleasantries. The tension between them made their companions exchange knowing glances during meal times, awkwardly dancing around the lingering animosity that seemed to fester whenever they were near each other. 

After the first ten-day of the cold shoulder, Karlach was brave enough to poke her head into Gale’s tent where she found him sulking. “Oh, come on you, quit sitting around and eating dirt. Enough skulking, it’s too fucking sad mate. You’ve licked your wounds long enough and won’t even give us a bit of gossip of what you’re on about. Let’s go do a bit of exploring of our own, the fresh air will do you some good.” 

Gale started, his head snapped up from the paper he was inscribing. “No.. I couldn’t possibly,” he said, casting his eyes back towards the paper. He felt Karlach come up behind him and he flipped it to conceal his ramblings. 

“Alright… keep your secrets.” She said, winking at him. “Now come on, I’m bored.” She danced back in forth on her feet like an eager puppy. Gale couldn’t help but smile, her optimism infecting him as much as his dark mood. 

“Fine. I’ll indulge you.” Gale said, rising from his seat and then winced, grabbing his chest. “Oh, for the love of the gods…” Gale doubled over for a moment, groaning. Karlach rested a hand on Gale’s back and he winced from the heat of her hand. 

“Oh, sorry!” She pulled back her hand and kneeled beside him. “Woah, easy. Are you alright mate? Need a magical item or something?” 

“Actually..” Gale’s eyes widen and he raises an eyebrow, “If… if you’d be so kind… I’d be indebted to you.” Gale had needed one for quite a while and refused to ask Tav for one and she had not offered. Tav’s evident lack of concern for his condition made his stewing worse, made him conjure up countless monologues that he would inflict upon Tav, the narrative he spun in his mind dangerously untrue - but, such are human emotions. 

Karlach shrugged and took off one of her rings that Tav given to her earlier. Gale knew the magic in this ring to be especially potent and shook his head, “Oh, I couldn’t… this is too much.”

“Cut it out and eat the damn thing, would you? I hate being left at camp and refuse to let us sit around moping. It’s too damn depressing and there’s already enough to be depressed about.” Karlach insisted and Gale absorbed the magic, but the orb felt insatiable. 

Karlach sensed his distress and Gale’s face contorted in confusion as he wondered. “It doesn’t seem to be having the effect it should… it’s no matter. I can endure it.” His voice was strained and he grunted as he pushed himself up by his knees, gesturing for Karlach to lead the way. 

She grinned and cackled. “Fuck yes, let’s go go!” 

*** 

Karlach started tossing rocks into the brook, trying to skip them, her tongue sticking out of her mouth with focus. “FUCK!” She protested and Gale let out a hearty laugh. 

“Oh, I’m sure you’ll get it soon enough.” He sat on the grass behind her, watching as she searched for the perfect, flat stones to skim across the calm waters. 

“I used to be so good at this.” Karlach huffed, bent over and searching the ground. “All that time in the hells and I forgot how to do the little things. It’s maddening. Ah HA!” She exclaimed triumphant and lifted an oval, smooth stone to show Gale. “Lookie here, this one will do the trick. Watch this.” Karlach spun and flicked the rock and Gale bit the insides of his cheeks as it sunk eagerly to the bottom of the brook. “Oh come ON.” She let out a defeated sigh and laughed at herself. “Well. That was anticlimactic.” Gale admired this quality in Karlach, despite set back and failure she didn’t allow it to dampen her spirit. If only he could say the same for himself. 

Karlach came to sit beside him and laid back on the grass, a long piece of it in her mouth. The edges of it singed from the heat. “Alright. Indulge me. Why is Tav avoiding you.” Gale started at her question and shook his head but Karlach sat up, her tone suddenly serious. “You can either tell me or I can ask Tav at dinner for a bit of a show. Which would you prefer?” Although her tone was playful, Gale knew she was one to follow through on her threats. 

He sighed, the weight on his shoulder’s ever burdensome. “Where to even start…” Gale ran his hands through his hair and fingered his earring thoughtfully. “The.. the night of the party we had a bit of a disagreement.” 

“A bit is an understatement.” She looked at him suspiciously, “We couldn’t hear what you were saying, but your raised voices weren’t exactly subtle. Besides…” Karlach says, sitting up, “You were always at Tav’s side before that. Now she doesn’t even look at you and you avoid one another like the plague. It’s not exactly subtle and we all have our theories.” 

Gale cocks an eyebrow and then squeezes his eyes shut, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Tav… well, the long and short of it is this: we were both students at Blackstaff Academy.” 

Karlach’s laugh interrupted Gale and she slapped her knee. “I fucking knew it. I knew you two were too familiar with each other.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“It’s a vibe man, I don’t know. If you could see what I see,” she said, fiddling with a new stone that she chucked into the water. “I thought for sure you were hot for each other.” 

Gale felt the blush spread across his cheeks and he laughed blackly, “Oh. Well. Certainly hot in one way or another.” He sighed again, continuing, “Tav was rather angry I did not disclose my remembrance of her, despite her doing the exact same thing, might I add.” He said, raising a finger to point it at Karlach as if to emphasize his point. “We.. were sharing a moment in the Weave.” Karlach’s look of confusion indicated his need to explain so he did so, in respectful terms of what it meant to have that connection together. “After that, when she had seen I knew.. she was furious. I’d seen her that way in our youth and when she confronted Kagha... I didn’t expect it that night. She said something rather cruel and has left me to solitude and idle the days away. And I, for one, will not be the first to break the impasse.” 

Karlach smirked and laid back on the grass. “Do you think your stubbornness might be a hinderance to you in this situation Gale? Respectfully, I mean.” Gale pursed his lips and his silence gave her answer. “Ah. Well. When the two of you decide to be adults and speak to one another, make sure I’m around to see it. Wouldn’t want to miss any of the fireworks.” Karlach turned her head to look at Gale now and her tone was sincere, “I appreciate you sharing this with me. It can’t be easy - you’re a tightly locked book, you know, and your secret’s safe with me.” 

“Oh, good,” Gale said and snorted a bit, grinning, “I’d hate to add to Tav’s avoidance of me. If she knew I was telling you this.. well, I doubt she’d take kindly to it.” 

Karlach scoffed, “Agreed. The two of you have that in common. Both so sure of yourselves and yet so afraid to be honest with each other. A hard truth, mate, but a truth all the same. You’d have thought you hated each other.”

Gale grimaced, “You have no idea how close to the truth you are.” With that, they let the silence drape over them and Karlach returned to skipping stones, the sounds of the breeze wafting through the leaves and birds song sending Gale into reverie. 

*** 

“Will you travel with us?” Tav didn’t look up from her porridge, her voice tight and the companions froze expectantly - the question was directed at Gale and he paused, intaking his breath through his teeth. Twenty five days she had waited to speak a word to him. 

“Suddenly in need of my help? How big of you, to swallow your pride. To what do I owe the pleasure?” Gale said in an almost sing-song voice and he heard Karlach snicker. Shadowheart’s mouth was agape and the rest looked at Tav, the glower she shot to Gale dripping with distaste. 

“Will you travel with us, or not?” Tav said through gritted teeth, her eyes fixed on Gale’s. 

He grew hot and his heart pounded wildly. It was the first time she looked at him since that night and he had forgotten how much it made him stir. Gale softened a bit, admiring the ferocity of her gaze, glancing down to her lips. She likely tasted of this mornings brew. Gale shook his head and glanced away, clearing his throat. “As you wish.” 

With that Tav nodded curtly and stood, beginning to collect her gear. Shadowheart and Karlach scarfed down the rest of their breakfast, readying themselves for the day. 

“Oh darling, I’m hurt,” Gale heard Astarion’s melodic voice waft through the air and he cringed, “I thought we had something special,” Astarion pouted at Tav. Gale had seen how close he and Tav had been as of late. It made Gale’s innards writhe and knot, making him sick to his stomach in a way he hadn’t felt in quite some time. 

“Please just stay here,” he heard her say to Astarion - her voice was still kind despite her dismissal of him. Gale watched as Astarion squeezed her shoulder in an overtly familiar way, leaning down to whisper something in her ear and Astarion glanced at Gale. A slow, wolfish grin spread across Astarion’s lips as if in a challenge. As if he meant to goad him. Gale’s vision blurred, envy flaring its ugly head. Gale turned away to prepare for the day ahead. 

[thestrangestthing89]

Catching up on some of the behind the scenes stuff. My take on what we have seen so far...

Mike having a similar look to season 1 is so good for him. I think it shows he is more comfortable with himself. He's going back to his roots when he was the character everyone loved. So I think we will get a more authentic Mike and Paladin Mike back right off the bat.

I like the blue polo with the yellow collar. And it looks like his jacket is a little green in the video with him and El (like a sage green/greyish green color). It reminds me a bit of the color block polo he was wearing in S3 which makes me wonder if Will is going to have a matching one this season too.

Mike and El's relationship closely resembles Nancy and Steve's. El broke up with him with the From El letter and he knows this. I've written about this a lot so I'm not going to get into it here, but the fact that at the end of S4 shows a 2 day time jump and after this point Mike and El aren't even talking and they are rolling their eyes at each other is meant to indicate that something happened with them during that time jump that wasn't good.

The fact that S5 seems to pick up a couple years later (judging by El's hair) I think is further proof that they already filmed part of S5 back when they were doing S4. The part that picks up right where S4 ended I think was already done. So I think this is where we will get to see a clarification of what exactly happened during that 2 day jump and get confirmation that Mike and El broke up already.

Their relationship was defined as being immature and made both of them feel badly about themselves. They were already at a point where they wanted it over so there is no reason narratively why that needs to drag out over 2 years when neither of them is happy.

Especially considering Mike's new look where he is dressing more like himself. They have established for 2 seasons that Mike isn't himself when he is with El. So him acting more comfortable and looking more like himself all points to him and El having broken up a while ago. He had time to figure out what was authentic for him already over a time jump.

I think Mike and El's conversation has more to do with reestablishing a friendship. They didn't communicate well when they were in a relationship and El dismissed Mike's feelings a lot (the conversation about bullying being one of those times), so I think it's possible they drifted apart during the couple year jump because I think it's hard for Mike to trust her. I saw people comparing it to the train track conversation back in S1 and I think that's accurate. That conversation was meant to indicate the first time Mike started seeing her as a friend (even though they really didn't reach an understanding here the way he thought). But I think this time it actually will establish a real friendship in a way that was different than before.

I do think think it's likely Mike and Will are together at this point in the beginning of S5. But either way I think a lot of this conversation with El has to do with Mike telling her how he feels about Will and them being honest with each other for the first time.

Mike and El have very few one on one scenes together. I think I can count on one hand the amount of conversations they have had where it was just the two of them and a group wasn't around them. To me, this indicates that this conversation is actually important. Unlike a lot of their other conversations where they weren't communicating well or they weren't acting like themselves. But I think in keeping with the pattern the show has always had, this is likely the last one on one scene with them until the end of the season. They tend to not interact much in the middle of every season so I would be surprised if there was much more content with just the two of them.

This scene is very platonic just based on their body language. They aren't close or acting in any romantic way. And again, the fact that they seem comfortable indicates that they have had time to reflect on their relationship and heal from it. Mike is never comfortable around El in S3 or S4. He is never comfortable with her touching him or being close with her. So the fact that he is here, is further proof to me that it's already over. He isn't pretending anymore (I think he was done with this by the end of S4).

Another thing that makes me think they haven't spent much time together over a jump of a few years is Mike directly telling Will in S4 that he wished he spent less time with El and more with him. He already made the mistake of not spending time with Will and regretted it. He isn't going to do that again. So I think it's possible that he has been spending more time with Will to make up for it and ended up pulling away from El. And this conversation in S5 is meant to be an acknowledgement of that and the fact that he can have a romantic relationship with Will and a platonic one with El at the same time. Two people he has been struggling to have a relationship at the same time with since pretty much the beginning of the series.

Very curious to see what Will's look is because I don't think it's a bowl cut. I always thought that hairstyle was meant to indicate him holding on to his childhood and all of his trauma. If he has a new look I think it's a good hint that not only is he more comfortable with himself but that him and Mike are already together at the beginning of S5. The show has already established that the two of them are only comfortable with themselves when they are together. Mike being true to himself is a good thing. It shows he learned and grew from his immature behavior in the past few seasons. I would be surprised if Will's look doesn't indicate the same based on where his character arc left off at the end of S4.

[dokidokitsuna]

BLADE_Princess

…I’m glad this AU idea came along, because I’ve been in WIP hell for so long…I really needed some reward doodles that I could actually feel motivated to draw~

So about 1 in 5 Kirby AU ideas takes shape as a game concept rather than a normal narrative, and this is one of those, the first one that’s JRPG-inspired. ^^ The main protagonists are a 5-member party of villains, but these two are the central characters, whose choices can affect the outcome of the story.

Blade The title character, who eventually becomes the most powerful in the group…due to a debilitating sickness that slowly destroys her mind and body. After losing her home, family, and entire civilization to similar strains of bio-magical warfare, she alone is resurrected by a strange wizard and his evil allies, and agrees to take part in their plans. During the story, Blade is continually confronted with memories of her past, and the destruction wrought by her happy family on the rest of the universe. She starts to wonder whether they all deserved to be exterminated, as her illness progresses and the idea that she should rejoin them consumes her thoughts. Meanwhile, she gradually loses control over her actions in the present, and in the end is torn between begging her adoptive father for help, or using the last of her self-awareness to take him down with her, for dragging her into this hell in the first place. +++ In this AU I really tried to break away from my usual depictions of the characters, and I think going from my usual portrayal of Dark Matter Swordsman as a classic “crouching moron hidden badass” to this more somber, sensitive character is probably the most dramatic example here. ^^; A little of that old characterization remains, however, as she’s not much of a deep thinker…she only joins the adventure because war is all she understands, and because Magolor really does remind her of her own father. Whether she remains fully loyal to him, or tries to choose a different path before the end, is up to the player, I guess. ^^;

Magolor The secondary protagonist, and the leader of the group. After his previous attempt at world domination centuries earlier, he’s back for a second try, and this time he’s assembled a whole team of formerly-defeated villains to help him out…including a strange alien girl that, until now, he had written off as a failed experiment. During the story, he comes to realize that the universe has changed a lot since his younger days, and that maybe his ultimate goal of taking it all for himself might not satisfy him as much as he’d hoped. Whether this shifts his priorities or makes him more hungry for destruction, desperate to feel something, is up to the player. And whether he decides to show concern for Blade’s suffering, or purposely take advantage of it to accelerate his plans…is also up to the player. ^^ +++ Since I’ve written so many Magolors over the years (I think I’ve done at least 10…I do have a problem, yes) I’ve formulated a basic breakdown of the essential aspects of his character: Charisma, Deception, Sweetness, Fury, and Bloodthirst. So every time I make a new Magolor, I try to emphasize different ones. For example, for Dream Alliance Magolor I downplayed Fury and removed Bloodthirst entirely, creating a very heroic and likeable version of him to serve as the main protagonist. This time, I’m going to downplay Charisma and remove Sweetness…so I’m sure you can guess what this version of Magolor is like. ^^; By default, he doesn’t really care about Blade, and reciprocates her concern for him only as far as it helps him manipulate her. I don’t think seeing her in pain would actually affect him emotionally (he’d probably just be wondering how much longer she’ll be useful…); what would get to him is her flipping the script and lashing out at him, even if she ends up backing down. Y’know, some tangible proof that his influence is having an effect on her, and that, in a strange way…she might be the only person left in the universe who still cares enough about him to truly be hurt by him.

[avelera]

Vibrating over Daniel’s ending.

I’d love your thoughts on what it means for next season?

(And any other thoughts you have about the finale are so welcome 🙏)

Heya! I actually wrote up my thoughts here.

But, short Daniel-specific version:

I think we'll get Louis-as-Lestat's-agent inviting Daniel to interview Rockstar Lestat for his next book and Daniel salivating at the chance to do so.

(Very different tonally from what I was expecting, btw. No joke, I thought the falling books were going to be Lestat crashing through the ceiling to kidnap Daniel for an interview so he could tell HIS version of the story lol, but I can see why they went for a tearful Loustat reunion instead and how kidnapping Daniel wouldn't have worked with that, funny as it is in my head).

The good news is that I believe we'll get Daniel's snark throughout Lestat's book since that's been the framing device of the show so far (though, there's less of a "mystery" to unravel in Lestat's narrative than in Louis's so... who knows, maybe they will break the format since you don't need an investigative reporter with Lestat to drag secrets out, Lestat literally can't shut up). Honestly, I am SALIVATING to hear Daniel tear Lestat's narrative limb from limb lol.

The bad news is that I think, sadly, that if we dive right into 1-2 seasons of The Vampire Lestat, we won't be getting the space to explore Armand/Daniel and why that happened and if Devil's Minion happened in the past until a theoretical Season 5, if we follow the books and leave the end of TVL to go into Queen of the Damned, where that beat takes place.

IF we do that, sadly, it means we'll have to wait on the full explanation of Daniel/Armand.

HOWEVER, I also wouldn't put it past the show to actually do more interweaving of past and present than that. Have some modern stuff like Daniel/Armand/Devil's Minion in the present day while we're ducking in and out of Lestat's trip down memory lane to 18th century France.

GENUINELY, even as a writer, I don't know how they'll tackle the order of events given that means it'll be a LONG time before we get an explanation for stuff they set up in this season like Daniel's turning and part of me thinks they won't wait THAT long because the eagerness to learn this info is here now, and might not be there in a couple years, people might have forgotten by then.

That said, they also introduced Raglan James, the villain of Vampire Chronicles Book 4, the Body Thief, so that actually signals that they're willing to seed things very early before the pay-off, UNLESS they remix the order of the books significantly and Akasha gets pushed back.

It actually would kinda make sense to push Akasha back she is an EXCELLENT final boss and Body Thief is a bit of a come-down after her so I wouldn't totally blame them for swapping those two books in terms of the order we see their events in. But maybe not! They've been surprisingly faithful in a lot of ways. Regardless, I trust their discretion.

And finally, my hope when we DO finally get Devil's Minion, we're going to have the modern Daniel/Armand juxtaposed with the 1970s one, ending in Armand refusing to turn him in the 1970s, wiping his memory (perhaps knowing that vampirism would drive young Daniel mad, as it canonically did in the books, but old Daniel is made of sterner stuff now) and then we flash forward to the present and old man vampire Daniel and Armand and whatever THEY'VE got going on (hopefully: Daniel domming the shit out of Armand the way he always wanted).

So ok, I lied, I had more thoughts, lol!

[mythtakens]

here are my Eddie Diaz specific wishes for the beginning of season 8 because the only way out is through and if I think too hard about where this season as a whole ended up and that bizarre lackluster finale I’ll have an out of body experience:

have this Eddie and Chris storyline actually mean something. if you’re gonna do this drastic traumatic thing in such a rushed way you have to do something with it. Could some time apart be good? sure! maybe! but don’t just have Chris gone and offscreen not speaking to his dad and never seen at all until they arbitrarily decide Eddie has done enough penance that he can be narratively rewarded by having his son back.

as good of a dad as Eddie is and as much as he wants to give Chris the space there’s still a big difference between not breaking down the door of a bedroom and a distance of 1000+ miles for months. let him go to Texas as the PARENT. bring Chris into the narrative. he’s older and more aware now, so have his decisions matter. have him face the reality of living with the Diaz parents who historically are probably not going to give him the freedom and respect he’s used to and let it become clear how different Eddie has always been in his approach to him… show us some flashbacks of Eddie’s own childhood, let Chris come to a deeper understanding of his father! let them actually talk about Shannon and what happened with Kim in a real way… let him fully realize his dad isn’t perfect but he tries so hard and let Chris recognize him as human and the value of what Eddie gives through that. if it’s about Gavin’s availability something like this can still be achieved in an arc of a few episodes if it’s given actual time and focus

let Eddie have a real confrontation with his parents about all of this. They flew from Texas to California in the middle of the night without a word to their own adult son and acted like it was their right to let a 13 year old make the call about his own parenting while Eddie was vulnerable and panicking. Without prior knowledge of the situation, without letting anything cool down. Let him tell them that was THE WRONG THING TO DO! Don’t have him get interrupted, don’t let them talk over him about how they know better, don’t let one of them drop dead while he’s letting his emotions out. Eddie always feels like he’s being punished when he does something for himself because, well, the narrative punishes him. DON’T PUNISH HIM.

let him tell Helena how deeply it hurt him when she said he was dragging Christopher down with him all those years ago and how this felt like a second instance of that, let him feel betrayed by the way Ramon handled this situation regarding HIS fatherhood and HIS son after all the time they’ve spent working on their own relationship, let him tell them they DON’T know better than him because he makes mistakes because they did too! let him tell them he’s a good father! let him feel like a good father! he is one!

if you want to explore who Eddie is when he doesn’t have Chris and only has himself to look after then actually do it. let him look after himself. For himself. don’t have him only be miserable and still feeling like a failure months later, don’t let him keep circling the drain just idealizing what he and Shannon had. Devin is great but my god… we need to let Shannon rest. As nuts as it was I tried to roll with the doppleganger storyline because I thought well, at least this will lead somewhere and ultimately be a catharsis even if it’s wild. but like then even that wasn’t fully formed and was twisted into a punishment and fresh trauma so?? whether he finally goes to some sort of grief group or gets to heal his inner child or whatever else, let him actually get something out of also making himself a priority in his own life and quit repeatedly destroying the ground under his feet and blaming himself with no end in sight

does Eddie deserve to get to a more mentally healthy place (especially after whatever the fuck all that was)? yeah! is healing linear? absolutely not, and I do love that this show doesn’t shy away from that with everyone’s respective trauma. but mental health is also not a game of punishments and rewards where keeping his own son around is what he gets for whatever passes for model behavior as decided by his parents and an emotional teenager. nobody has to earn the right to love or happiness or to keep raising their own child by sanding down all of their jagged edges and they’re usually very good about showing that so give him that same grace

okay this isn’t Eddie but literally fucking stop… repeatedly torturing Hen and Karen and their children. Stop it. stop. Right now. Stop.

kill Gerrard in a sharknado

[stupendousfoxthing]

The way you shippers get defensive when someone points out the inconsistencies in your logic and narratives should be studied because why are you getting so defensive? I didn’t send you an ask in bad faith and I certainly wasn’t trying to save you from shipping either but as a blogger when you put out certain information and open your inbox for people to send asks, shouldn’t you be ready to get asks that disagree with some things you say? I was honestly just trying to hear what you thought about the ever changing narratives because i noticed that you are one of the more non delulu tkk blogs on tumblr but you got so defensive and even a little insulting for what? Is your ego so big that you can’t handle people challenging your beliefs or questioning your logic? I wasn’t planning on dragging this topic because I honestly just wanted to get your take on one thing but let me see how many things you can disagree on or how many more insults you have in you. Ofcourse you can choose not to post it, it all up to you.

“I've been in the fandom for almost a decade, and a Taekooker since 2016, I promise you they did not just become a thing in 2023”

Ofcourse taekook didn’t just become a thing in chap 2 and neither did all the other numerous ships we have in BTS. They all didn’t start now but the fact that a ship has always existed and seems to get more attention at a certain time doesn’t mean that ship is real. I have seen tkkrs argue that taekook is one of the OG ships so that means something. Yes, it means that people were able to spot their closeness and bond very easily because of how obvious it was but that doesn’t mean that bond and closeness remained exactly the same through out the span of 10 years and that certainly doesn’t mean the ship is real. How long a ship has existed doesn’t determine if the ship is real or not.

“Meanwhile, despite that previous anon going ass over tit trying to make it look like it was Taekookers narrative that changed, it didn't. At all”

Tkkrs, or most tkkrs narratives changed and it will continue to change. If you don’t know that it did you are either not very aware of what most tkkrs say or you are lying. Are you trying to tell me that tkkrs didn’t go back to, “the company is separating them and forcing Jk not to mention Tae” after the Taennie incident? Before this, tkkrs said taekook were finally free and they could be themselves but after taennie what did tkkrs say? I have literally seen tkkrs send asks to tk blogs commenting abt the increase in tk content. What were the narratives when most tkkrs felt like they didn’t get enough tk content? It is beyond ridiculous to claim that tkkrs narratives didn’t change when all you need to do to know that this isn’t true is to visit some of the biggest tkkr accts on twitter and search their tweets from the era before chapter two. I am aware that tkkrs are not monolith but you can get an idea of how much a narrative is accepted within a fandom by how most of them react to it can’t you? Ofcourse there will always be those who don’t agree with the narratives but from my observation, majority of tkkrs did. I have noticed that the tkk community on tumblr is a non toxic one but don’t think that just because few of you on tumblr aren’t negative, the rest of the tkkr community isn’t because you need to visit twitter, instagram, tiktok and facebook to see what tkkrs there do and say.

“For people who thought Taekook weren't close until they were very close in 2023, the cognitive dissonance has got to be louder than a jet engine. “

Are you trying to say that after all the years of BTS being together you don’t think some of their dynamics changed over time? You don’t think some members at certain points grew closer while others grew more distant? Just because taekook seemed visibly closer in chapter two doesn’t mean they didn’t go through periods where they grew a little distant. That is perfectly normal in every relationship whether you like to accept it or not and maybe if some of you took off your shipping lenses for a moment, you would be able to see things a little more clearly. People didn’t just start thinking Taekook weren’t close out of thin air. People started thinking they weren’t close because they gave people the impression that they had grown a little distant and this impression was further strengthened by them barely been seen together and a very visible shift in their dynamic which even taekookers noticed at the time and complained about or are you also about to tell me that tkkrs didn’t complain about something feeling off with taekook and then convinced themselves that the reason for that was because the company was keeping them apart? Will you say this didn’t happen too?

“But the truth is that when the group was given the freedom to go their separate ways after a decade, freedom to pursue their lives and goals as individuals, Taekook remained at each other's side. In the way we always believed them to be.”

This is where you lose me because there was never a time when members were required to spend time with each other except when working and if you believe anything contrary to this, you are too far gone. Even while living together in the dorm, they were not required to spend off time with each other if they didn’t want to were they? Have there not been a few instances where Tae mentioned that he didn’t know Jungkook’s rooms while they were on tour? Would you say the company also forced them apart them or hid them? We are also talking about members who moved out of the dorm in 2019 and were free to spend time with who they chose outside of work because they weren’t bound together by the same living area again but taekook still didn’t seem to spend time together did they? They had a break in 2019 but taekook didn’t see each other at all did they? I mentioned other moments like on birthdays where they also mentioned not seeing each other to celebrate with each other and you said it is jkkrs narrative, well I don’t know what jkkrs say about that, I am speaking based on the information we all got from the members themselves or are you saying that if we search we wouldn’t be able to find things like that which they said? The only difference btwn chap 1 and chap 2 is that they didn’t have to do group activities anymore and see each other frequently at work. They temporarily dispersed but only as a group at that time because they had already dispersed individually way before chapter two as they didn’t live together anymore. It’s not like they were given any extra freedom they weren’t allowed before. It is beyond ridiculous that these are the narratives you have to cling to inorder for things to make sense. Do you think that before chap 2 the boys were held prisoner and forced to only spend time with certain members? So what do you mean they were given freedom as if they were all locked up together before? Yes they had freedom to do solo activities for the first time and not only work as a group but this freedom had nothing to do with who they choose to spend their time outside of work with. If your narratives were true, then yes we probably wouldn’t have seen much of taekook on official content since some tkkrs claim they were edited out of official content but we would have seen or heard about them hanging out in their free time like we did in chap two wouldn’t we? Instead didn’t we constantly hear of or see them both choosing to constantly spend time with other people? Tae mostly with wooga squad, Bogum and some other friends and Jk with members like Hobi, Jm and his 97 line friends and then taekook confirming themselves that they didn’t see each other or spend time together? During their break didn’t Tae choose to travel with his wooga squad and didn’t see any of the other members for the entire break, while Jk hung out with his friends (wasn’t that when we got the mijoo scandal?) and also with members like jihope? When they had some time off in 2017 didn’t Tae travel with his family and Bogum and Jk with Jimin? After PTD in LA didn’t Tae travel with his family and Hobi’s to Hawaii to vacation there while Jk went back to korea? These are instances where they had free time and choose to be with other people instead of each other over the years but you say they prioritized each other in chapter two? You keep saying taekook spent time together but then you show a twitter post from the time when all members were still living together and the other proof you have are noises in the background of lives or sightings with no proof whatsoever. Didn’t taekook themselves make it clear that they weren’t involved in each other’s lives as much? Is this a lie too?

Now you say that in the one moment where they were free to do their own things they choose each other. This would have made sense if all the members were deep in schedules or free at the same time but taekook still made time exclusively for each other but this wasn’t the case was it? You cannot say people choose each other or made time only for each other when everyone else pretty much wasn’t available because of work and they were the only ones who had some free time to hang. Isn’t it instead an issue that at the moment when all the members schedule aligned and they were still together as a group but living separately Taekook didn’t spend time together but only did when only their schedules kind of aligned out of everyone else’s? It’s just like saying that two people made time to be together just because they were the only two left at home while everyone else had to go out to work. If we saw other members constantly hanging out in different pairs and taekook with each other then ok, that would have made sense but other members didn’t do that and we know for a fact that all of them were busy. Taekook are friends so they can hang out when they want to and also in their free time but your narrative that they prioritized each other over anyone else just because they hung out the most just isn’t true. This narrative would have also made more sense if taekook kept up with the constant hang outs even after they both got busy with their own individual stuff and Jk stopped being a couch potato but they didn’t did they? When taekook hung out alot we could tell because of the knowledge they both had of each other and also the fact that Jk shared 7 first with Tae but it was obvious to anyone who isn’t biased that it wasn’t the same after they both got busy with their own stuff. When Jk made 3D, RM and Yoongi heard it first, Jk didn’t know if Tae’s album had been announced already, Tae didn’t know about the process of Jk’s album and Jk himself said he didn’t know where Tae was and that he didn’t keep up with the members all the time. This was very different from taekook at the beginning of the year who had alot of knowledge about each other because they hung out alot in their free time don’t you think? If all the members were extremely busy at the same time including taekook and they both still made time to be with each other, then I would have seen your point but right now, you are the one not looking at things from every angle. You are only paying attention to the angle that favors your argument.

“ It was not work, it was not any other obligation that kept them together during that time. _Their_ time.”

Someone hearing you say this will think that taekook both did everything in their power amidst busy schedules and loads of work, jumped through hoops to make sure they spent time together. They wouldn’t believe this happened when Jungkook had nothing doing and used to spend 6 days in a row at home doing nothing. Ofcourse it wasn’t work or any other obligation that kept them together at that time, it was their friendship and the fact that they had time on their hands to spend with each other like normal friends do. None of the other members need work or any other obligation to be with each other. They spend time with each other when they can and when they want and other times they spend time with other people in their lives and as Jk said, don’t keep up with each other all the time. Just because it is in the past you are trying to act like taekook have always spent time together when there is more than enough evidence showing that they didn’t at some point and not only because we didn’t see it but because they said so themselves but I guess we should continue arguing with them about things they said while continuing to believe that the sounds in the back of their livestreams or made up sightings with no proof are proof enough that they spent time together.

The way you shippers get defensive when someone points out the inconsistencies in your logic and narratives should be studied because why are you getting so defensive?

You asking the questions and me answering puts me in the defensive position by default. This is just another example of how all of your asks have been in bad faith. You send me something you want a response to, and when I respond I'm "defensive". In the most literal sense I am in the defensive position here. Do you see how that works? You didn't point out inconsistencies in my logic and narratives, because the logic and narratives you asked about aren't even mine.

I didn’t send you an ask in bad faith and I certainly wasn’t trying to save you from shipping either but as a blogger when you put out certain information and open your inbox for people to send asks, shouldn’t you be ready to get asks that disagree with some things you say?

So you do know how this works. You did send me three asks in bad faith. I explained why. There's multiple reasons these arguments you brought here are bad faith ones. If you weren't trying to save me, you were trying to save other "delulu" Taekookers and you can start your own blog for that if you want.

I was honestly just trying to hear what you thought about the ever changing narratives because i noticed that you are one of the more non delulu tkk blogs on tumblr but you got so defensive and even a little insulting for what? Is your ego so big that you can’t handle people challenging your beliefs or questioning your logic?

And the "changing narratives" you asked about were things that you had twisted them into yourself. Narratives that were never mine, that had no logic, and that I'd never seen anywhere. Narratives like "Taekook are real because they're never seen together". You even had to backtrack because you know that was absolute bullshit that no one had ever argued.

Ofcourse taekook didn’t just become a thing in chap 2 and neither did all the other numerous ships we have in BTS. They all didn’t start now but the fact that a ship has always existed and seems to get more attention at a certain time doesn’t mean that ship is real. I have seen tkkrs argue that taekook is one of the OG ships so that means something. Yes, it means that people were able to spot their closeness and bond very easily because of how obvious it was but that doesn’t mean that bond and closeness remained exactly the same through out the span of 10 years and that certainly doesn’t mean the ship is real. How long a ship has existed doesn’t determine if the ship is real or not.

🤦‍♀️

I had to post your starting "point" in its entirety because oh my god, we have gotten nowhere. No one said, and I certainly didn't, that how long a ship has existed or how much attention it gets is what makes it real. You're starting off again with some twisted logic that makes no sense and trying to act like that's my or other Taekookers' position. This is crazy. I talked about the fact that I've been a Taekooker since 2016 to establish that I've been here for a while and my narratives haven't changed, and that specifically the Jokers' new fave talking point that Taekook weren't close until 2023 is false. You want to talk about changing narratives but I can't say "I've been here since 2016 and my narrative hasn't changed?" I'm not saying that to argue for the validity of the ship itself. You seem to have some sort of reading comprehension issue and it's tiresome to have to answer to absolute bullshit like this.

Tkkrs, or most tkkrs narratives changed and it will continue to change. If you don’t know that it did you are either not very aware of what most tkkrs say or you are lying. Are you trying to tell me that tkkrs didn’t go back to, “the company is separating them and forcing Jk not to mention Tae” after the Taennie incident?

No they didn't. So I either agree with you or I'm a liar now? 😂 The only "narratives" I had during this time period is that Tae got way bolder in his queer expression, and that they were busy as hell and had very successful solo debuts, but that Taekook stayed Taekooking. Jungkook talked about Tae before and after the "Taennie incident". How would the company even separate them in solo era? They clearly didn't. After the "Taennie incident" we saw them at Yoongi's concert and they arrived, watched, and left together. They wore the matching Sweetheart shirts, Tae supported JK at Inkigayo. 😭 Whatever narrative switch you're talking about once again was not mine.

Before this, tkkrs said taekook were finally free and they could be themselves but after taennie what did tkkrs say?

Free to what? Come out? You use these no nuance set-ups to try to make everything a gotcha and you fail miserably. No one expected them to be free to come out or that risks didn't continue even after the group went on hiatus. Taekook were exactly as free to be themselves as far as their relationship is concerned before and after, which is what you're talking about.

I have literally seen tkkrs send asks to tk blogs commenting abt the increase in tk content. What were the narratives when most tkkrs felt like they didn’t get enough tk content?

What. What Taekook content? Do you consider all of the solo era outings and moments as...content? I don't know about you, but "content" to me is official releases from the company. There was no marked increase in Taekook "content", and if you want to argue with me about my position on that go read my first response to you and the "drought" I called overexaggerated. I'm done with you after this, but it would have been great if you had considered even a single thing I actually said before coming into my inbox with your third essay.

I have noticed that the tkk community on tumblr is a non toxic one but don’t think that just because few of you on tumblr aren’t negative, the rest of the tkkr community isn’t because you need to visit twitter, instagram, tiktok and facebook to see what tkkrs there do and say

Do you think I live here? 😂 I'm well aware of the toxic mess on Twitter where I have over 100k accounts blocked. Instagram is a cesspool. I don't know why you think I'm interested in answering for the positions of some of the worst and dumbest people in the community when I place no value on what they have to say myself. Go ask them. If you're trying to use that to point out inconsistencies in MY narratives and logic, you can understand why we have a problem here.

Are you trying to say that after all the years of BTS being together you don’t think some of their dynamics changed over time? You don’t think some members at certain points grew closer while others grew more distant? Just because taekook seemed visibly closer in chapter two doesn’t mean they didn’t go through periods where they grew a little distant. That is perfectly normal in every relationship whether you like to accept it or not and maybe if some of you took off your shipping lenses for a moment, you would be able to see things a little more clearly.

Where did I say that. I'm 42 years old, I'm well aware of how things change. That's not what you asked me about and you kind of just shot your own argument in the foot here. People changing over time, circumstances changing, is not the "narrative" changing. Do you know what a narrative is. It's a story of connected events. Over time. Through changes in people and circumstances. Do you get how those changes can happen within the narrative? If you can't grasp that that might be the core problem here.

People didn’t just start thinking Taekook weren’t close out of thin air. People started thinking they weren’t close because they gave people the impression that they had grown a little distant and this impression was further strengthened by them barely been seen together and a very visible shift in their dynamic which even taekookers noticed at the time and complained about or are you also about to tell me that tkkrs didn’t complain about something feeling off with taekook and then convinced themselves that the reason for that was because the company was keeping them apart?

Once again, I do not care what other Taekookers complain about. I have zero complaints. A Taekooker who is "complaining" about Taekook is the kind of person that would get an instant block from me and over 100k people on Twitter have.

This is where you lose me because there was never a time when members were required to spend time with each other except when working and if you believe anything contrary to this, you are too far gone. Even while living together in the dorm, they were not required to spend off time with each other if they didn’t want to were they?

I didn't lose you, we were never on the same page. And you did not get the point I was making about them working and living together. They were required to spend time together working, nowhere did I say that working and living together forces a relationship to happen. You came at me with, the point you backtracked on, that Taekook were never seen together. I was saying there is no point in trying to argue that Taekook did not spend enough time together in chapter 1. You can try to break it down and say "But they didn't spend THIS day together", but as I also said that is not what I do. I don't know their day-to-day and I don't need to. There is a ton of their time unaccounted for. What I believe is the narrative that has emerged for me when looking at all of the connected events over the years. That's it.

The rest of your essay goes on the exact same way and I'm tired, but I'll post with my added notes. I don't think responding to all of this will accomplish much, because I can see that you are going in circles with the same "logic" while missing the basic point of these three attempts I've given to answering. I'm not blocking right now but if I find myself in the mood to answer you again I'm doing it with this essay. This is plenty. You send me more of the same, I'm deleting it.

[st-peculiar]

Exit Music (for a Film) by Radiohead is kinda lining up with Teddy and Colin’s narrative really well and I’m having thoughts. Gonna start with Teddy and then move to Colin and I’ll see where I go from there.

Tmagp Spoilers below fair warning

First off, the title itself. The first time we meet Teddy is when he’s leaving the OIAR to work elsewhere, seemingly very glad he’s moving on. From what I can tell with the limited time and I formation we have of him, he never really liked his work at the OIAR, and the place as a whole. So, the title of the song itself is symbolic of the end of an era for him. Or so we think.

This set of lyrics, the opening lines. So much is packed into this for me.

So. Something obviously had to drive Teddy over the edge to go to Lena and to tell her that he quits. We know that he had been working at the OIAR for quite a good few years prior to the canon timeline, of which is still very vague to the audience; so the first lyric applies to him in the sense that he finally broke from a cycle, he “woke up”, perhaps in more than one sense.

Not much to say on the second lyric except that perhaps that can reference to the catalyst for his self-termination from the OIAR? Something just a little too upsetting.

And the last two; I think these can speak for themselves. “Today, we escape,” -> him quitting initially, “We escape.” -> the going away party.

Has anyone ever thought about why specifically the very first recording we get is of the going away party? Yes, it’s what sets up the arrival of Sam, but it also sets up another thing. Teddy’s departure and his subsequent fall. I think it was saying “you can leave, but we know you’ll be back.”

Like a misplaced puzzle piece.

The last two lines of this one piques my interest.

In regards to Teddy, this feels almost omniscient, almost like an overlying feeling. Something feels vaguely wrong about leaving the OIAR, like he’s doing something he shouldn’t be. And you know what happens after he leaves? Hell, not only begins to break loose, but slowly unravels like a ball of twine. A butterfly effect variation of sorts.

Some people have brought this up before, but I needed to put it here as well; the possibility of sabotage in a career related sense for Teddy. He didn’t get the initial job he left the OIAR for because of “team cuts”, or something of the sort. That seems like the thing that would be told outright to any applying persons no? It was a sudden thing. While I’m not exactly sure of the timeline of this, I’ll make a best guess here; then, sometime after, Teddy gets a new job. For those who have listened to tmagp 29, I think we all know what happens. Ergo, butterfly effect. Somehow, Teddy has gotten pulled back into something strange, and needed someone to help him. Enter Alice. Then, exit Alice. Quite a lot can be taken from their brief conversation and I fear I don’t have quite the brainpower to pick it apart fully at this time.

This sequence is just. It’s something phenomenal to me in a way.

It’s all about trying to keep your balance. Imagine you’re on a tightrope in a circus performance. There are weights dragging your arms down, your feet are bleeding, and all you can think is “keep standing. Keep standing.” There is no net beneath you. There was once a net, but it was folded away because someone thought your act could use a little… something.

Keep a cool head. Keep standing. Stay balanced. Do not fall. Do not fall.

Alice was once the net, in a way. Then, she got pulled away by something, someone, bigger than them both.

“I can’t do this alone.” Do you guys realise what this means to me? Teddy needed to talk to Alice about something important, specifically about his job. The job we know nothing about. What happened. What the fuck happened. Teddy sounds so weary in that brief phone call. I also picked up on the slight sense of anxiety from him, but that could just be me. But he was definitely worried about something.

And then there’s Colin’s place in this set of lyrics. Just barely hours later, Alice gets yet another call from someone who is asking for help, someone who is her friend. That call is haunting me; everything about it feels really just. Raw to me. There’s so much desperation in his voice. He needs help. Such a big part about Colin’s character is that he never wants help, nor does he think he needs it. Then there’s this. Turn me around twice and push me into a grave already.

The first part of this one seems more metaphorical than anything to me.

The “chill” is the surmounting aura of wrongness that climbs higher with every episode leading up to the s1 finale. It’s the strange happenings that are being collected and filed by the OIAR, it’s FRE-d1 continually becoming less and less machine as more incidents are washed in and read by Chester, Norris, and Augustus.

The “song” is nothing more than blind hope. Blind, foolish hope.

The second part to this one, however, is something that makes my head wrap into itself with interpretation. It’s another omniscient-adjacent feeling, addressing to “it” as “you”. It’s all very Colin to me. The “it” is FRE-d1. It’s the one thing that makes Colin completely snap. It’s laughing at him, taunting Colin with its ancient, unworkable hardwiring. It’s been slowly pushing Colin to and over the edge for the entire season, and it all climaxes to that one phone call.

That one, desperate phone call.

This is mainly about that first line.

We don’t know what happened to Colin, what really happened, after he hung up. I need to know desperately. But I’m going to take this in the sense that Colin’s violent obsession with figuring out FRE-d1 finally consumed him, very likely in more than just the mental sense.

What I think is that Colin has been turned into an external. Just think about it. What I gather from what we know about externals is that the common ground for most of them is obsession to some level or another, and we know that Colin was deep in that trench.

I have a very vivid image in my head of Colin sitting in the computer room of the office with the technology slowly growing over him, almost like lichen or moss. It melds with his skin, seeping into his flesh. It’s grotesque and looks like something agonizing, but Colin’s face is just. Tired. Exhausted. He gave his final hurrah. His phone sits fallen next to his limp hand, still opened to Alice’s contact page, his head leaned back against the wall. Hooded eyes, deep circles beneath them.

Both he and Teddy were destined to fulfill something greater from the beginning, and their tragedy lies in the way they both reached out for a hand, and was never given one to grasp onto.

[bullet-prooflove]

Torn!Apart Series Part One: Nothing To Tell - Jubal Valentine x Reader

Tagging: @crazy4chickennuggets @kmc1989 @oureternalbond  @trublu2u @greenies-green @darqchilddaydreamz @proceduralpassion @burningpeachpuppy @evee87 @delightfulheroshoeflap @iworldlywriter @helsinkibaby @penguin876 @justamadgirlinabox @a-noni-love @brownskinbaby22

Jubal is in love with you.

Rina can see it. It’s in the way he looks at you, the softness in his gaze when he gives you that smile, the one that she thought was reserved only for her. His palm brushes over your lower back, thumb trailing over the fabric of your shirt. There’s an intimacy in that touch, one that she recognises from their own time together.

There’s nothing sordid about your relationship, no rules are being broken. The two of you work in different departments, apparently it started after you left his command.

She finds that infuriating because it looks like Jubal did right by you, whereas Rina was his dirty little secret for the best part of a year.

It isn’t fair she thinks as he stands in her office, discussing the details of the most recent case. You get this version of him, sober, clean-cut. She’d gotten the other side, the dark, edgy Agent who functioned on coffee and booze.

“You didn’t tell me about her.” She says quietly as he turns to leave.

He pauses before turning back towards her.

There’s a reason, he doesn’t want Rina to know about you. He knows she’s vindictive. When they had met up to discuss the McMay case, he had seen her for who she really was. He didn’t know how he blocked it out back then, the booze he thought had clouded his perception. She was ambitious and calculating, at the time he liked that. He thought he knew the extent of it. It wasn’t until he confronted her with the possibility of setting McMay free that he saw the ugliness. The need to control the narrative. When she’d come onto him that night, he’d turned her down.

It wasn’t just because he had feelings for you. There was the red flag being swiped in front of his face, one he had blatantly ignored eight years ago because he’d been chasing a good time. If you get into this now, he’d thought, she’ll drag you down with her. She’d step on the back of anyone if it meant getting to the top of the ladder and now here, she was the Assistant Director of the New York field office. Both his boss and yours.

“There’s nothing to tell you.” He says with the shrug of his shoulders. “My private life is my own.”

“Hm.” She says flicking open the file in front of her. His gaze strays down to the picture in the corner and his heart thuds a little harder in his chest because it’s yours, the one from your FBI I.D. “How do you think she’d feel about going back to UC operations?”

“What?” It comes out like a rasp, there’s dread flooding through his system because he recognises the look in Rina’s eyes. He’s seen it before, when she goes after a suspect and now, she’s coming for you.

The thought of you going back to Undercover Ops, terrifies him. He knows how hard you worked the first time, to get your feet back underneath you, to reclaim your identity. You’d flourished once you’d set down roots, reconnected with your family, made friends, created this happy, full and vibrant life.

When you’d disappeared for those three months to become Nikki Delphino again, it had left its mark on you. It had taken some time to reacclimate, to come back to the woman that you were. The one that he loved.

He remembered the nights that he would wake up and find you pacing, the runs that you would take to punish yourself, to get out of your own head. He doesn’t want that for you, he doesn’t want you to vanish from his life again, doesn’t want you to lose yourself.

“With her skills she’d be an asset to them.” Rina relays. “Imagine the work she could do for us.”

“Rina…” He begins but he’s at a loss because his heart is breaking, he knows what this decision will do to you, how it has the power to destroy you. “… please don’t do this.”

“Why shouldn’t I?” She asks him harshly. “Why do you get to be happy, and I don’t?”

He doesn’t have a reason, he really doesn’t. His voice is rough when he opens his mouth to speak, because he can feel his soul beginning to shatter.

“This is about what I did to you eight years ago.” He says quietly. “I own that, I did that. Your problem is with me and if you want to demote me, fire me, lock me away in the basement I won’t fight you just please don’t do this to her, she doesn’t deserve it.”

“And I did?” She asks him, the venom spilling out of her as she rises to her feet. “I deserved to be used? To be chewed up and spat out because you didn’t want to tell your wife about us.”

“No.” He says firmly. “You didn’t deserve that.”

“Tell me something.” She snaps at him, jabbing her fingertip at your picture. “What makes her special? What is it about her that you are willing to give up your whole career?”

Jubal looks at her helplessly, he knows she sees it, she has to. That’s what’s got her so worked up, she’s realised that he’s in love with you, that the two of you have something that she had never had with him.

“You know why.” He tells her.

He sees the agony on her features, the knife sliding between her ribs and plunging into her heart. She averts her gaze for a second, processing the knowledge before she turns back to face him, her expression hardening.

“End it.”

He shakes his head.

“I won’t do that.”

“End it.” She commands. “Or I will transfer her back to UC Operations and you will never see her again.”

“Rina…” He implores, his voice breaking as she closes the file and sits back down in her chair.

“End it Jubal.” She orders him. “Or I will.”

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Like My Work? - Why Not Buy Me A Coffee

[rokkenjimaisland]

my friends started ep5 last night! smth that stood out to me this time was the comment that "now that he was back on rokkenjima, battler was slowly reverting back to how he had been six years ago". eps1 and 2, the only two message bottles that had been found and the groundwork for the legend of the witch, are written by sayo, who only really gets to write battler as she remembers him from six years ago. meanwhile, tohya, writing ep5, of course has all of battler's memories and is able to write him into a more nuanced person...but chooses to continue making piece!battler true to sayo's interpretation of him.

i'm not personally of the opinion that the metaworld stuff is part of the forgeries/stories tohya and sayo write, but i do also think this could also sort of bleed through into why battler is so much more serious and pensive in ep 5 and 6 after he gets his cloak...because tohya knows more about what sort of person battler ushiromiya really was and is getting closer to being able to "release" him from himself.

and you could even drag this in to why battler is constantly forgetting about ange in ep 5 lol and needs to be reminded to fight on her behalf. ange doesn't feature in sayo's stories at all and the battler she writes she only wants to be concerned about solving beatrice's mystery and nothing else. meanwhile, tohya obviously wants battler to care more about his family and for that love to feature more strongly while he also tries to parse out his own complicated feelings irt ange wanting to meet him and coping with the fact that kyrie always hated battler (the stark increase in kyrie-battler bonding scenes from ep3 on is crazy). anyway these two different "battlers" in a way might be a reason why metaworld!battler's personality is so inconsistent. because the authors who wrote the fiction that is "battler ushiromiya" have different ways they want to write him, different priorities, different "loves" they want battler to hold important in his heart. sayo and her idealism of battler means of course she doesn't want him to be concerned with anything else, but tohya has other reasons why he's writing, and that's going to feature more in his tales.

just thought it was interesting that in one way tohya actively chooses to uphold sayo's battler-oriented fictions as truth (i.e. battler still basically acts like he's 12 on rokkenjima) but also challenges them in others which creates inconsistencies in the narrative and metaworld!battler's overarching personality.

[eternalglitch]

Right okay so slightly different from my usual programming but after three years of Rise brainrot the turtles have been finally vacated and I must discuss my new blorbos with great fondness at least a little. (Do not worry about my ongoing fic. That is almost my own personal blorbos at this point and I must see them off to a happy ending.)

So I've always had terrible auditory processing skills, to the point where I have made it through one (1) podcast despite my many attempts otherwise and thought this meant I was locked out of the fun dnd content.

And then one of my favorite fanfic authors from a few years back started reblogging Dimension 20's Neverafter art.

Now I had at a problem because if they endorsed this and then I spotted a character that literally seemed to be crafted to fit my interests, I had to at least poke my head into the show. So I sat down and watched episode one.

That was about two weeks ago. Almost immediately I dragged more friends into watch parties to catch up to the campaign and have gotten a SOLID chunk of my close friends into it already. This campaign is something else, the way it just grabs you in a way that I thought would never happen for me for a dnd campaign.

So (and some Neverafter spoilers ahead) Neverafter is a story about fairytale characters fighting against their "destiny" or "roles." As the world changes and their tales progressively darken, they start learning about the concept of authors, and how bad things happen to them just because an impartial outside force finds it the most interesting. The horror of being the wrong version of the story, of knowing your story should have been happy and is not. Or knowing that your story is destined to be tragic and you have no say in the matter.

And honestly every single character is compelling in their own way!

Pinocchio is the one that lured me into the story. A puppet that was given life and, after completing the traditional narrative to his story, breaks his promise to the fairy and lies to save his father's life. His lie transforms him back into a puppet, where he becomes entangled into lying more and more and more and backed into a corner by a cruel warlock patron that is essentially holding his father hostage. He's snapped his own nose off because although his own rules (his nose growing) are still in place, the world has changed. His back is against the wall and this is a scared child trying to save his dad. (He's also hilarious and swears like he just learned what the word fuck is.)

Sleeping Beauty is a victim to her story being events that happen TO her but at no point does she get allowed any initiative. When she wakes up to find no prince waiting for her, she has to learn that maybe waiting for her happily ever after isn't what would make her happy and she has to take matters back into her own hands.

Puss in Boots (Pib) is seemingly (there's more to it) a normal cat that happens to have also tricked an entire kingdom before fleeing and abandoning the kingdom to a dark fate. He lies for fun and is a great partner in crime to Pinocchio.

Red Riding Hood is a child that killed her own family when the big bad wolf gave her lycanthropy before begging her to kill him. She's a girl that is seeking parental love and guidance, and she views herself as a monster unworthy of the very love she seeks.

The Frog Prince is what I consider the dark horse favorite; Gerard got his happily ever after and his standard story happened, but after marrying his true love and time passed, he started to turn back into a frog. As his wife and him argued and started seeing each other's perspectives less and less, he became more and more froglike. Now that she's gone missing after heading off to war, Gerard has to face his own cowardice and come to terms with what really was the thing that drove a wedge in between them. (I love him. So much. He's extremely flawed and such a three-dimensional character.)

Mother Timothy Goose is a man that lost his child to an evil goose called the Gander, and is currently being hunted down by the same creature. He accidentally entered a contractual three wishes deal with it, his own wish being to find a way to save his dead son. This has granted him a magical book that has much deeper abilities than merely bringing his own son back from the dead, and he's one of the people that can help right the wrongs going on in the land of Neverafter even as he is hunted by the Gander as it tries to make him use his final wish.

So, yeah. I recommend trying it if you like horror and fairytales. It's fun. (I am not normal about it.)

[erstwhilesparrow]

god there are so many little bits of outsiders that make me want to chew glass. in an effort to exorcise some thoughts:

there's something really fantastically horrifying about how much visual and mental space the maze takes up for almost all of the server's run, contrasted with the fact that we learn in the owenge q&a that the maze is one of multiple scenarios, built by STARR for a handful of seasons and ultimately meaning nothing. all this about learning the maze, this structure that was the outsiders' whole world for what they believed to be years, and it was a set piece that might not ever be used again. i can't stop thinking about the fact that on the literal actual minecraft server, the maze was built floating in the sky, and like, yeah. it was for this one server and nothing else. i get why you'd build it like that, in terms of practical concerns, but god. to know that thing never even touched the 'actual' ground.

hey. cc!owen PLAYS A GOOD FUCKING HEEL. oh my god he's good at playing the bad guy. this is not like thoughtful analysis at all but being able to hear so clearly the shift in tone when he goes into hunting mode, the willingness to just let things sit in silence, the way he completely sells a character's absolute conviction. the way when he has a knife in his mostly-empty hotbar during Spill Your Guts the distance between the currently selected slot and the knife right next to it feels like a tangible weight somehow!

speaking of which. please tell me the berries in his hotbar during his demon killing spree aren't raspberries. i can't actually identify them because i'm not familiar with the mod but i think if they're raspberries i would simply explode into a million bits of confetti.

hey remember how there was a giant underground reservoir beneath the clearing containing the skeleton of some enormous creature? was that fucked up or what.

hey also remember how one of the last written records left by the people who died in the frozen clearing was about how at least their friends got to die peacefully, in their sleep? remember how the maze was full of notes scribbled on pieces of paper and scrawled in blood on the walls trying to warn them, begging them to get out, hoping against hope that their last words might mean something? remember how mohwee's last words to the outsiders were take care of each other? they tried so hard to look out for each other, and whether they ever did it especially well is an open question but MAN. you can't say they didn't try.

even after deciding apo can rot down in the prison, owen still says, "the next time i see him is when i go shackle his hands together, and drag him through that maze to get him out." in the wake of the [don't dirty my name again] conversation, owen promises rasbi, "we came up together, we're gonna get out of here together." even with his faith in -- and i think i will argue that this is accurate phrasing -- the world shattered, owen has no concept of actually leaving either of them behind. he can't even imagine it. ;-; .

i don't know what the event is called in canon so i'm going to refer to it as [the clearing event with the scuffed mcc energy], the one where acho drowns, and it delights me that the nature of the medium is such that sometimes when owen says something, it becomes true because he said it. (i mean, this is true for all of them, but i say owen because he's the one i watched and he has an interesting degree of narrative control by virtue of having such a comprehensive pov.) acho didn't die in a way that minecraft the game would necessarily call a death, i'm not convinced what happened to him was distinguishable from what the characters call being 'downed' in the maze, but because owen said it, on some level, yeah, acho did die in there. isn't it so fun how you can kill someone by saying they died? reach back through linear time and make true what wasn't before? and i think about this and i think about how often owen declared apo dead, and how it makes apo not just a ghost but a sort of schrodinger's cat. apo is alive except no he isn't except yes he is. reality is so frighteningly malleable in mcrp.

[batbeato]

been thinking about persona and its depiction of motherhood. or: what it doesn't depict.

this started with me being annoyed that there is yet another dead saintly mother in persona 5 tactica. then I started considering: wait, when are persona mothers not saintly? when are persona mothers human? and the answer is: almost never.

I cast my mind back, thinking over all of the prominent depictions of mothers in the series. I think the one that stands out the most to me is Maki's mother in Persona 1. She loves her daughter unconditionally, but she also screws up sometimes, and doesn't spend enough time with her sickly daughter in the hospital, causing her daughter to resent her.

After that, the next one I can think of is Junko, from Persona 2. She isn't nearly as prominent as Maki's mother is in the narrative, but her focus on beauty over her child is certainly something of note that I wish the story had explored more (even if, as a girl who married a teacher and gave birth a short span of years later, as far as I remember, her obsession with her beauty and youth is understandable). In the end she seems to regret her actions and how they affected Jun.

Then we have Yukari's mother, Persona 3, who Yukari doesn't get along with due to how they dealt differently with her father's death. It's a big rift between the two that only slowly begins to heal, and that shows that both sides are human and how they were hurt and split apart by a tragedy that they might have better dealt with together.

After that... We have very little. What mother figure exists in Persona 4? We have Nanako's mother, who died tragically but is referred to as a loving and wonderful woman. What mother figure exists in Persona 5? We have Akechi's mother, who died tragically but is referred to as a loving and wonderful woman. Same with Wakaba, who is distorted by Futaba's perception of her, but is ultimately a kind and loving mother. Persona 5 Strikers? Akane's mother. Persona 5 Tactica? Toshiro's mother.

If we consider the Confidants, in Persona 5 we do have Shinya's mother, who... is overprotective, yes, but also loves her son very dearly. There is no resentment, merely concern that goes too far.

There are many absent or missing mothers in Persona, all of whom are said to have been loving and kind and wonderful woman. Several times, people will repeat lines about the unconditional and wonderful love of a mother. There are so many loving and kind and wonderful mothers that it seems like recent Persona games take for granted this idea that "mothers will always love their children", which seems rather ridiculous when compared to the presence of abusive fathers (Akechi, Ryuji, Akira in Strikers, and now Toshiro).

This sort of double standard, wherein lines about the unconditional love of a mother, even when their children come from men who are cruel or unkind to them, are spouted whilst men are shown to be abusive, annoys me. It is as if women must have some sort of inherent goodness, some inherent quality of motherhood which men lack, that makes men more prone to abuse.

The Persona series is no stranger to having issues with gender - look at the depiction of drag in Persona 4 and 5, the one-off transgender woman in Persona 3 who was depicted as predatory, the trans NPC in Persona 2 who wants to rip men's dicks off - but I don't think people often talk about how it choose, in recent years, time and time again, to depict mothers as holy saints.

I was playing Tactica, watching Futaba insist on the love of mothers and Toshiro's cognition of his dead mother insist that she loved him dearly, and I thought: why? Why is this trope of the saintly dead mother so pervasive in recent Persona games?

I hope it stops soon.