#but actions have consequences! and just because it ‘was a different time’ doesn’t magically make it okay!

[boy-armageddon]

oh also random thing. as much as i loooove gj !!!!some of!!!! you guys cannot be saying “omg idc about how extremely misogynistic this was it goes hard” like all the time 😭 like yeah man sure their music from that era does sound good im not denying that. but idk man its at least a liiiittle iffy to me how these things are brushed off as “haha lol such a weird little detail” and not something that had an actual contribution to people participating in the scene being total douches

[oh-my-bindery]

Drarry: I love that Harry the hero is down for murder. But Draco the guy who comes from a long line of a family of dark magic is the one that hates murder (it's literally canon Draco can not kill anyone for shit) and it gives me so many feels. It's partly because I love healer Draco. But also because Harry is reckless and does not have a lot of self preservation. His idea of justice is like you die by the sword.

Definitely! I draw all my conclusions from canon.

Buckle up bc I went on a rant here

The way Draco is written and what we are shown of his actions and character, we can clearly conclude at least few things:

- Draco is a person who fights with his words, that cut deeper than a knife. He knows what he is doing and wants it to hurt. I believe he does it to feel better about himself.

- Draco can’t kill. He literally can’t kill. Even his wand (that chose him) is one that has the most difficult time turining into Dark Arts. It reflects on his character. He is different from his family.

- Draco is a very sensitive boy as we are told by Moaning Myrtle in HBP. We also get to see him break down and for the first time show his real emotions which is a new thing from him. Harry has never seen him cry. Which leads me to ask, why? All 6 years and no one saw Draco cry before? No one saw him express deeper emotions that his usual proud and snarky / bully mask? It is definitely connected to his family, most likely Lucius, as Narcissa is the one who even though believes in blood purity shit, never takes a Dark Mark, never fights for Voldemort, her main concern is always Draco. She has so much love for him. It is probably why Draco even knows that he can allow himself to cry, even if it’s on his own.

- Moaning Myrtle also tells us that Draco is lonely.

- On Harry Potter wiki and Pottermore (I think) it says that Draco was never able to produce a Patronus spell as he didn’t have a strong enough of a happy memory - well that’s sad seeing as Harry was able to do it with how shit his life was.

Draco is supposed to seemingly be rich, get everything he wants, he has a family that is alive , Mother who loves him SO MUCH, father that would she if anything happened to him (well he failed to protect Draco from the worst and then did nothing after the fact, continued being awful but that’s another rant), Slytherins seem to like him, he has some friends although I’m not even sure he likes them or if they like him (from canon we know that by Deathly Hallows - Crabbe and Goyle hate him. Draco never really liked Blaise (or wasn’t fond of him. He tolerated Pansy and had some trust towards her.)

So even though Draco smilingly has all, he doesn’t have a strong enough of a happy memory.

- Draco is terrified of killing someone, so much so he stops eating, keeps to himself and stops being himself when tasked with killing Dumbledore.

When Harry sees Draco in his Voldy visions - Draco looks terrified and broken when asked to torture Rowle - the sight of how Draco is being pushed into doing those horrible things and how much he could be suffering- canonically makes Harry try to get rid of the visions because he doesn’t want to see Draco torture people or if he refuses/ can’t- see Draco being tortured or killed.

- Draco doesn’t care if he dies. Why? Who knows? But he literally lies to his whole family that are depending on him to identify Harry as Harry Potter at the manor and he just doesn’t. He knows what are the consequences of failing to capture Harry are (probably being killed by Voldemort, him and his family.) and Draco knows it is Harry. If he was cruel and and awful person he would say “yep, that’s Potter” but instead Harry notices that Draco looks just as terrified, hands shaky as Harry was. Draco literally would rather have Harry survive and himself die than other way around. It is SO CANON.

And Harry wise

- Harry is super hot-headed as we know.

I think looking at his reaction when Sirius was killed, he literally sprung from Remus’s arms, shooting, shooting curses after Bellateix. He crucioed her. No, thinking, he just does.

When people whom Harry loves / cares about are killed or harmed Harry has no thoughts just do. Give them hell. He will deal with consequences later - he is bad at the ‘dealing with the consequences bit though. He doesn’t want to be a killer, and hates himself for being capable of it.

When Snape kills Dumbledore, Harry is in SO MUCH RAGE. He goes after Snape and literally uses Sectumsempra on him, knowing what it would do- if not helped Snape literally would die lol.

But when it comes to Draco and Harry almost killing him, knowing about Dracos Dark Mark, him being suspicious all year, being horrible to him all other years - ABSOLUTELY NOT ACCEPTABLE.

He leaves Draco alone even after he find out Draco was going to kill Dumbledore.

In conclusion, Harry would 100% kill for Draco, no questioning it. He wouldn’t feel bad about the person being killed but about the fact that he is capable to killing.

[antitheticallyargumentative]

I’m going to attempt to explain why the ending of Ted Lasso re: Jamie and his dad, bothers me so much. I know a lot of other people have made posts about this, and excellent ones, too, but I also have a lot of thoughts. These are just my opinions. Feel free to disagree. Feel free to discuss with me why you disagree. I love respectful conversations.

 This is gonna be long. sorry guys.

tw/cw- James Tartt Sr., abuse, The Amsterdam Thing

not detailed, but they are mentioned. proceed with caution and take care of yourself, please. <3

It is not the decision to have Jamie reach out to his dad that I hate. It is not even the decision to put Jamie’s dad in rehab (though I do think it was… A Choice.) To me, it’s very unsurprising that Jamie would try to reach out to his dad. Not just because of who he is as a character, but because of what this kind of lifelong abuse does to a person’s psyche. A lot of kids who come from abusive or neglectful homes have an incredibly hard time cutting off their parents. Even if they’re scared of them, even if they’re angry with them, there is still a deeply ingrained need to be loved, that maybe this time it will be different. They’ll mean it when they say they’ve changed. They’ll love me. Going no contact is fucking hard. It’s also fucking dangerous. As much as Jamie says he’s done everything he has to spite his dad, there is a part of him that deeply, desperately craves James’s approval. Of course he would visit him in rehab, because, if he’s in rehab, he’s trying, right? And maybe this time it will be different. 

But it won’t be. Because James Tartt has a pattern. A pattern of playing super dad, presumably where he cleans up his act and “makes an effort” with Jamie. Does father-son things with him, talks to him outside of asking for game tickets or telling him he played like shit (I’m hypothesizing here), lulls him into a false sense of security. And then what happens? Well, things like Amsterdam happen. And I highly doubt that was the only time he pulled that act. He likely also pulled it when he first came back into Jamie’s life, and probably other times after Amsterdam, too. What he doesn’t do, ever, though, is apologize, or take accountability for his past actions. Because James is a narcissist. At least, that’s what I would say. He feeds off Jamie’s fame and success to make himself feel bigger, important, entitled. And narcissists lack empathy. They struggle to take responsibility for their actions. They’re also, commonly, very manipulative. 

James is not an abusive piece of shit because he’s an alcoholic. He is both an abusive piece of shit AND an alcoholic. Not only does acting like he was horrid because he was drunk perpetuate the stigma of substance use disorders, it also completely takes away accountability.  James going to rehab does not change what he did. It does not fix what he’s done. It does not mean that he is magically going to win father of the year because he got sober. More likely, he’s going to continue to the cycle. I truly do not see a way in which we get to the happy ending of the show. Which brings me to my final point. 

This is not a happy ending. Jamie going to see his dad does not fix things. Jamie forgiving his dad does not take away from his trauma. Jamie should not have to forgive his dad, not for James, not for himself, not for anyone. The thing that bothers me most is that the show plays this scene like it’s closure. Like everything is OK now, and they have a good relationship, there’s no fallout, no consequences, nothing left the heal. And I’m sorry, but that’s bullshit. 

The things our parents do and say to us cut deep, at least in my experience. It doesn’t matter if they apologize, it doesn’t matter if they learn and grow, it doesn’t matter if we forgive them. That hurt stays. It sticks. You remember it. You feel it. There is no way in hell that seeing his dad wouldn’t be incredibly difficult for Jamie— just judging from what we’ve seen in the show. There’s no way it wouldn’t bring up all the trauma James has put him through, even repressed. It would not be easy. It would not be happy. And I don’t think it would be healthy. 

Whatever Jamie eventually decides to do regarding his relationship with his dad, whether its cutting him off or choosing to forgive him, which personally, I don’t think he should (but I also know that cutting off a parent is no easy feat), it would take time, it would take effort, it would be a struggle. It would take actually working through the years of abuse and trauma caused by his dad. And we don’t get any of that. We get “forgive <3” and problem solved! And honestly, I think that’s a dangerous message to be passing out. 

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. (Hehe, get it?) 

[absynthe--minded]

I’m less interested in the business of hot takes these days but I do think that it’s a little crazy that a major part of Tolkien fandom discourse is still centered around the assumption that we, the readers, are supposed to think that the narrative believes the Valar are correct instead of trying their best and just as fallible as anybody else.

Not only do we have on the page canonical statements from the Valar that they wonder if bringing the Eldar to Aman was a mistake (in the various debates on the Statute of Finwë and Míriel) but we also have Manwë admitting he doesn’t know what is going to happen in the future and the many many things they attempt that are in fact failures or mistakes or consequences that they are responsible for. Not foreseeing that Melkor hadn’t reformed was a mistake. Assuming that they had any right to try and meddle in elvish marriage was a mistake. Positioning themselves as kings and rulers instead of governing powers was a mistake. Refusing to take action to help Men or to more proactively fight Morgoth after the Darkening was a mistake.

I think a lot of people assume the Valar are evil or malicious or malevolent because they look at a lot of textually fallible gods and demigods who canonically don’t know the future and are making the best possible guess at what they should do and go “oh, they’re presented as authorities, so that means Tolkien thinks they’re correct”, but every other king or queen in the Legendarium is on a spectrum from “good person who occasionally fucks up spectacularly” to “selfish abusive bastard”; even someone like Aragorn isn’t perfect all the time and takes himself over the coals for his mistakes. Ruling is about being fallible. No one but Eru makes no errors, and in fact the Valar fail so spectacularly at being in charge that their punishment at the end of the Second Age is to have their influence reduced. They had a hand in letting the situation in Númenor and in Eregion get as bad as it was, and they aren’t any less in need of correction. Magic leaves the world gradually but it starts with the rounding of Eä and the declaration that things will change. (Also, Eru has a known Mannish bias, and Men aren’t Valarists and don’t revere the Valar as gods; they have a place in the order of creation but the relationships between Men and Ainur are very different from those between elves and Ainur)

I don’t think the Valar are evil, I think they’re trying their best, but it’s possible to try your best and even to be right about some things (or be more correct than Fëanor, which isn’t that hard) and still be a mess and still ultimately overstep your bounds. But that’s kind of the point - they aren’t uniquely positioned as ultimate moral authorities, they’re spirits of nature and fundamental forces who interpret their mandate to guard and guide the world as “we have the authority to make major decisions that are ultimately correct because we made them”. (this is another post, really, but I do think they made a mistake in creating Valinor and not trusting that Eru put the Eldar on the Hither Shores for a reason)

idk this is all very messy but I think both the “the narrative praises the Valar and says they can do no wrong, and look at all the objectively imperfect things they do, so clearly the narrative is advocating for immoral stuff” and the “the Valar actually are infallible and perfect and everyone who disagrees is wrong” crowds are missing the point - everyone in the Silm is messy, the Powers included

[long-song-a]

the eleventh doctor's arc truly comes so full circle! it’s the story of a mad gods hard, angry conflict between responsibility and fantasy. from the moment he crashes into amelia’s backyard, he’s like something of a fairy tale; a phantom, a wise man, a hero. a mad man who can disappear just as quickly whence he came. and when he returns, has the ability to turn one’s entire world around— without a single thought for any damage he may have caused along the way. he didn’t just forget his part in the time war: he’s quick to forget a lot, to go too far, to never look back. to never question himself. he hurries on to the next place, becomes a legacy within a few hours on some planet, in some time, and calls it a day. until he begins again. he is the dreamer of improbable dreams, because he requires that divide from reality.

he is “the man who forgets” because he needs to seperate himself from who he was, he needs this new perspective, he needs the worship, someone relying on him, and only him. “i took you with me because i was vain. because i needed to be adored.” eleven began his life as a goofy, kind soul who would happily spend his first moments eating fish fingers and custard with a child, and promise her adventure. the fantasy. yet he’s also a man who would disappear for fifteen years and never provide a legitimate apology. the avoidance of responsibility. (until the god complex, of course.) he calls the atraxi back to earth because it allows him to fulfil the role of a hero in some fantasy, to show off in front of amy, to be that whimsical, magical figure she saw him as when she was a child. to uphold that image. he wants to be a story, he doesn’t want commitments. not to mention the fact that amy literally dreams him back into existence, that her belief in him made him whole again.

the doctor hates endings. he rips the final page out of his books because he can’t stand the thought, the concept. he doesn’t want the adventure to conclude, he doesn’t want the reality to seep through. he doesn’t want the stories to ever end, because in his mind, he is the greatest story of them all. (i’m not even going to go into his arc in season six because i need a whole separate post for that. season six is the consequences of all these actions. and hoo boy. it is brilliant.)

the day of the doctor, i believe, is really the turning point for eleven. the man who forgets arc forcing him to face the consequences of his actions, to step down from the mad man in a box pedestal he’s reigned on for this entire incarnation. he finally takes full responsibility on trenzalore, by sending the TARDIS, and clara away so he can stand and fight for the remaining centuries of his life. he wants to run, to flee, the idea of staying in one place so very terrible (but he takes responsibility, sees the reality, sees he can't just help out for a bit, then saunter back into his box) and he stays. he sends away the TARDIS because he knows he’ll take the easy way out, and step safely inside her doors.

not to mention the hard, in your face symbolism of the christmas town in trenzalore quite literally looking like it came right out of a fairy tale. visually, this is how the doctor wants to live, he wants the whimsical, to live like a storybook. he wants only the middle of the book, before the conflict, before the hero has to make a hard choice. but when he does achieve it, when he arrives in that fairy tale-esque town, it becomes the reality he’s chosen to live, with more responsibility, more bravery than this incarnation has ever shown. he’s rewarded for his nine centuries of responsibility because he’s no longer running towards the fantasy. he can separate the difference, and can find happiness in staying put. he ultimately becomes the heroic raggedy man amy idolised far too long, he’s earned the title, he’s become the doctor.

[ikamigami]

Eclipse keeps saying he’s basically Moon, and with that in mind it makes sense why he treats Sun they way he does, both of the scapegoat Sun for their own personal problems rather than realizing it’s they who are the problem, lash out at him and hurt him in bouts of frustration because they  think he won’t fight back(and both were shocked when Sun was pushed too far and finally did), both believe Sun is just as evil as them and use any expression of anger(no matter how justified it may be) from Sun as evidence, when Sun tries to stop/talk them down from doing evil they verbally and even sometimes physically beat Sun out of their way, they see Sun as weak, stupid, and get frustrated at Sun being a “coward” and treat him poorly to “teach him a lesson(which in reality has the opposite effect, but they don’t realize/care about that, they also don’t realize that Sun only seems stupid because he was never allowed to learn, Moon refuses to let Sun learn about tech and Golden denied Sun tutelage in magic despite acknowledging his potential, and Sun being constantly told that he’s a failure and is stupid would definitely discourage him from trying even if he wasn’t already being actively barred from learning), they do bad things and let Sun face the consequences(people blaming Sun for Moon’s behavior, the Glamrocks getting angry at Sun for the chip incident, etc.), and even if they do realize what they did was wrong/pushed Sun too far(and to be honest Sun has a very high tolerance for all this but even he has a limit), they often do not apologize, Moon has only now started to turn this around and while Eclipse has softened somewhat he hasn’t apologize either, and if he is projecting on EPS Sun he’s sliding backwards, and it doesn’t feel like either have fully grasped yet how badly they both damaged Sun’s mind from their combined mistreatment, they’ve only started to, at least that’s how I see it

Yes! You're absolutely right, dear anon! Thank you!

You said everything right! I'm so glad that you shared your thoughts with me ^^

This is exactly the same I was thinking but you anons (sorry if you're the same anon that wrote previous things about Eclipse and Moon cause I'm not good with seeing the pattern of writing etc) always can put in so much better words 👏

I really appreciate that y'all are sharing your thoughts with me on these characters and such cause I'd miss on so much..

And I'm glad that other people also see that Moon and Eclipse and also other characters as well don't realize how much all this abuse and trauma affected Sun's mental state.. to the point that him moving on from July 16th it's not enough.. it won't just magically fix his damaged perception of himself..

And yeah there's still a long road before Moon and Eclipse till they realize how much their actions damaged Sun and before they try to actively help him.. Moon is trying.. but Eclipse is regressing and also having to go to a different dimension was like a great opportunity for him to escape from responsibility.. that he should at least apologize to Sun and try atone even if a little bit..

Also thank you for saying that both Moon and Eclipse were treating Sun like a scapegoat.. cause I've seen a pretty hurtful statement that apparently Sun was treating Eclipse like a scapegoat.. it was quite a long time ago.. and I remember getting a bit angry (a bit too much hence I apologized later) at person for using this word when talking about Sun.. cause Sun was a scapegoat in this dysfunctional family..

But these were the times when people still didn't see that Sun wasn't at fault for any of this.. and even if that person didn't have bad intentions writing that it was still not good usage of word when it comes to Sun a victim of abuse from both Moon and Eclipse..

And that's why I was angry.. because people were pushing the blame on Sun when he was a victim and many refused to aknowledge that back then.. and some still are minimizing Sun's trauma..

So thank you so much for saying that because it means a lot to me and I'm happy to see that I'm not the only one who saw that Sun was treated like scapegoat by Moon and Eclipse..

[ofj-art]

i actually think kyubey isn't inherently a bad guy. he doesn't have feelings, he was made for one purpose only: to save the universe. its not really his fault, that he doesn't know any better. and in the end, its for a nobel cause. just my two cents tho. i still think the "real" antagonist is homura, because of her selfish actions. don't get me wrong, i love the relation between homura and madoka, and wanna rip that little cat-looking-shit apart with my own two hands. but i just wanted to share a different spin on how to view the anime.

Ohohohoho Madoka opinions I see, don’t mind if I give my own take here. >:3c

I say this with a respect, because we’re all allowed to form our own opinions on media and such, but as someone who’s recently been gettin pretty damn into analyzing the series + rebellion, I can’t help but wholly disagree.

Starting off with Kyubey you gotta ask,

What makes someone a bad person? Their intent? Or their actions?

You’re right that Kyubey doesn’t possess emotions and their ultimate goal is to generate enough energy to sustain a universe being eaten by entropy. And I’ve seen several times before people feeling sympathy for Kyubey or thinking really he isn’t all that evil because the magical girls agreed to his contract.

But I think this falls exactly for the trap of his character.

He’s introduced in a way that is supposed to invoke sympathy, he’s hurt and running from Homura. He takes up the role of magical animal companion who reaches out to the series protagonists of magical girl shows to pull them into the fantastical world and plot. He is an allusion or stand in precisely for those characters. Of whom are entirely friendly and on the side of the protagonists. His appearance is disarming and cute, although a bit uncanny and unsettling the longer you stick around.

Kyubey doesn’t see himself or his kind as the bad guys, because why would he? He’s helping save the universe! And well, the girls agreed to this destiny, right?

But that’s an obfuscation of the truth.

Kyubey is manipulative and untrustworthy. He specifically targets the girls when they are at their most vulnerable. We’re introduced in a lighthearted tone enough, following Mami around as the girls consider making a contract. Mami tells her story and it indicates it was making a contract or literally death for her. She is without a family and lives alone, she entirely lacks a support network, because of this, despite only being a year older than the other girls, she puts on a more mature and put together persona.

She knows this life is dangerous but desires companionship and allies. She’s a victim of this system as much as the others, and once she dies a reality of magical girlhood is faced head on. There’s no denying or sugar coating it, and the whimsical cover of the nature of magical girls gets stripped away.

I’ve heard people say Madoka is indecisive in the series but I strongly disagree. Because it’s clear in her behavior that she abandons the idea of becoming a magical girl after the death of Mami. She has people she loves and can’t leave behind, she places her notebook in Mami’s empty apartment and asks for her forgiveness.

However, Kyubey hasn’t left. He is still stalking the girls. And each time they are presented with an option to make a contract there is a clear pattern. They are vulnerable, they are powerless, and they are desperate.

For the rest of the series Madoka is approached when she is stuck and her heart is breaking for others, true to her giving nature. She wouldn’t even be involved in the world of magical girls again if not for her best friend becoming one.

Kyubey tries repeatedly to take advantage of Madoka’s desperation and heart break for her friends, promising her power to stop all these bad things- if she just agrees. But it isn’t a bad handful of events- these are the specific consequences of a malicious system that Kyubey and his kind have intentionally constructed to trap innocent young girls and drive them into despair.

Sayaka makes a deal after seeing Kyosuke in extreme distress, she decides this is a noble sacrifice. She is unaware of Mami’s appearance being a front to the vulnerable girl that she is, because Mami only showed her vulnerability to Madoka. Because of that she holds herself up to this impossible standard of a courageous and pure hearted magical girl who fights for justice. And every time she fails to live up to that she severely beats herself up, until she’s caught into a spiral the system of being a magical girl is supposed to invoke. Helplessness.

Magical Girlhood is helplessness that lures young girls in with a promise of agency, when that couldn’t be farther from the truth. If you become a MG you are promised power and freedom and a wish, whatever your heart desires. It’s dangerous but don’t worry, it’s a noble cause, right?

But its purpose is to drive these girls into becoming witches. Kyubey purposefully isolates them, approaches them at their most vulnerable. He pits magical girls against one another, he lets them fight because the more they suffer the better it is for him- and if Madoka feels so helpless watching them, well, he has the cure. He speaks with a subtle manipulation, making the girls feel special, placing guilt or doubt in their minds to drive them to conclusions her wants them to arrive to, makes himself seem without accountability for what transpires.

Not to mention he very intentionally hides imperative information from ALL magical girls. About the truth of their soul contract. Absolutely none of these girls can give proper consent to the contract because he is shielding them from the full truth of it. That this is a death sentence, that all magical girls share a destiny of death. Or, in his real intent, a fate much worse than death. Becoming a witch, a physical manifestation of all of your emotional anguish, trapped in a prison of your own worst, torturous feelings. To be executed by the hands of another naive girl.

And even if he was entirely honest these girls still could not consent. Not when he targets them while under emotional duress to twist their arms into making a deal, and most of all not when these are children. Tweens and teens. Is Kyubey a bad person while he sacrifices girl after girl to the altar, while they don’t even know they’ve signed a pact to their woefully premature deaths?

There’s several allusions in the series directly to Faust, a tale specifically about making a deal with the devil. And even if Kyubey may lack empathy inherently, that apparently doesn’t stop him from being arrogant. He looks down at the girls for being creatures of emotion. He compares them to livestock. He believes he is 100% justified in lying and coercing these girls. But in what world would that make anything he did any less cruel and underhanded?

Is he absolved of being a bad person because he believes he’s doing the right thing? Is that not what most all people in the world who commit heinous acts believe? That somehow, someway, they are in the right?

I believe fully that lacking empathy does not make anyone or thing incapable of expressing compassion. Kyubey and his kind have been observing humanity for centuries, they’ve had direct access to the same kinds of knowledge as humanity, witness to the same experiences. If that isn’t enough for Kyubey to know better I don’t know what is.

But Kyubey only sees these girls as disposable fodder, and any suffering they have on the way down is a positive for his ends.

Onto Homura.

Homura, by all means, is the protagonist of PMMM. Not initially, and not the only one, but definitely a primary one. The entire story is wrapped around the consequences of her quest to save Madoka’s life, and ultimately in Rebellion we are brought to the fulfillment of her arc from her POV.

It’s interesting you bring up selfish actions, because I feel like the balance between selfless and selfishness is a theme in PMMM. And like the series shows in its other nuanced portrayals, this isn’t a black or white game.

Sayaka, for example. We get to see her full experience as a magical girl, she is the quintessential magical girl experience- hopeful start to despairing end. She makes her wish to help the boy she cares for heal, something selfless of her to do. But she also has her own wishes that this will make him favor her in some way. Kyubey deliberately guilt trips her about this, and as her opinion of herself lowers and lowers she casts herself into a view of cowardice and selfishness.

To her, especially operating under the noble ideal she has constructed out her own desires for doing good, for purpose, and Mami’s incomplete legacy, to be selfless is to be utter devoted to her cause. It is a bar she feels she has been failing to meet because she’s imperfect, she’s flawed and she grows tired and bitter and sad.

She is confronted with someone who directly contradicts her ideology, Kyoko, and initially this drives her to a rage. This was another reality of magical girlhood she was faced with, the cutthroat nature of survival, but she instead only saw a disrespect to the remaining echo of magical girlhood as justice and mystique that her time with Mami had painted. But then Kyoko opens up to her and she realizes she isn’t some evil person, it isn’t black and white.

Kyoko is selfish. She puts herself first always, or at least she’s resolved to. This is a direct influence of her experience with her father, with her own experience of selflessness- and how bitterly it ended. But like how complete selflessness is an unachievable ideal, her own selfishness is a coping mechanism- a survival technique. She admires and empathizes with Sayaka and reaches out to her, attempting to halt her rapid downward spiral. But Sayaka rejects this, because to her she’s determined complete selflessness is the only honest and good path. She continues to see in black and white anyway, her literally lowest point is portrayed in black and white.

With her inability to prioritize herself or spare herself kindness it kills her. But in turn her heartfelt desire for good and justice inspires Kyoko, and her final act is an entirely selfless one meant for Sayaka, the girl who dedicated on giving to everyone but herself. She sacrifices herself to give Sayaka peace and reach out to her, to comfort her tormented soul. In her final moments she prays, because deep down she started fighting for the same reasons Sayaka did.

All of the magical girls fight for good, all of them fight to be selfless. But it is inherently a losing battle because they are trapped within a predatory system. Kyoko adapted to survive, and to a different extent, so did Homura.

Homura is firstly, and foremostly, extremely traumatized.

And I don’t mean this to excuse her actions but her past with the prior timelines and the trauma it instilled onto her is integral to understanding her character.

She started off very similar to Madoka. Shy, unsure, without much autonomy. She meets Madoka, who is already a magical girl, and makes her first real friend in who knows how long.

In the initial timeline things go as they probably would have if not for Mami’s death. Without the presence of the full truth of magical girlhood, Madoka, instead of being coerced, is now willing and makes a contract for herself, though her wish is still to help another (saving the life of a cat). This speaks to her loving and sacrificial nature being with her through and through, even here.

We see it in the beginning of the series, Madoka is pulled in by the allure of becoming a MG because she craves purpose and agency. Kyubey promises both, you get power, a wish, and a just cause. Madoka comes from a loving home and good friends, she becomes a magical girl selfishly for her own fulfillment. But as we saw with Sayaka, acting for yourself is not inherently a bad thing at all. Or it would be a good thing here, if not for the underlying reality she is unaware she agreed to.

But despite Homura not becoming a magical girl in the first timeline until the end, they become friends. They care for one another, and witnessing Madoka sacrifice herself Homura is overcome with grief and sorrow.

And who else would that kind of vulnerability and desperation summon but Kyubey himself- with his offer.

So Homura gives up her soul to save Madoka’s life. She wakes up and starts the cycle over, confident she can now help her friend. They rebefriend one another, and she trains her powers. She’s still meek and unsure, but is determined and keeps pushing to improve, much to the love and support of her best friend.

That is until she dies once more. And then again. And again. And again.

Over and over Homura has relieved this month trying so hard to save the person she cares for. Initially she immediately informs everyone when she learns of the dark truth of the nature of witches and magical girls. This ends in disaster. She sees the girls around her die again and again, and always in the end, so does Madoka.

When we see Homura in the beginning of the series she is cold and distant. And we see in her recollection how much pain this causes her. But she has devoted herself entirely to saving Madoka’s life, no matter the cost.

Homura is not cold because she is villainous or uncaring, it is because it is necessity. She has done everything she can to strip herself of weakness to survive, like Mami, like Kyoko, like Sayaka. Shoving down her inner vulnerability to keep pushing forward to save Madoka.

You could say her actions are selfish because she will do whatever it takes to achieve her goal, but her goal is literally entirely selfless. She has seen Madoka cry and suffer and die over and over. The one person who has been unquestionably kind to her and everyone she loves.

Homura isn’t just letting the fates of the others become numb to her because she wants to, we see her try to stop Mami from engaging with Charlotte to the point Mami ties her up to stop her from intervening. She’s seen Sayaka fall into despair before and she knows there’s no use in stopping her progression. She extends her allyship and tries to cooperate with Kyoko to take Walpurgisnacht down. But her main priority will always be to save the person she loves.

And what she sacrifices the most to do this is herself. Trial after trial she has pushed herself forward because failure, because despair, meant letting Madoka die. Not just die, but be sealed to this horrible fate where you are doomed to suffer. Homura knows what becomes of magical girls, she has literally seen Madoka become a witch.

She’s also nearly given up, asked Madoka to become a witch with her, stay by each other’s sides. But Madoka wouldn’t let her give up, she saved her and asked her to go back in time. Madoka asks her to stop her from becoming a magical girl. So she won’t be doomed to suffer like this. And after promising, Homura has to end her life before she can become a witch in the absolute most heart wrenching scene I have ever witnessed- her scream of agony gives me chills.

But arguably, just as selfishness and selflessness cannot be cast in a black and white for the other characters you cannot do so with Homura. She is not just operating on her own desires or wishes but Madoka’s as well. She is endlessly putting herself in harm’s way to do so. And there are plenty of reflections in Madoka’s and Homura’s characters, but here lies an important difference.

Background, something you wouldn’t even think much about on Homura’s part.

Homura does not value herself, she is given literally no indication of family, was in the hospital facing a feeling of isolation and helplessness for who knows how long, and previously went to a Catholic school- assumably being raised Catholic.

Whereas Madoka doesn’t value herself much for not feeling that she is doing enough for others, she is still coming from a loving home and a proper support system. She wants agency, confidence, passion, and purpose. Things all exemplary in her mother that she looks up to. She wants to find something she can dedicate herself to and find meaning and identity in that.

Homura is alone. She does not value herself because she does not see herself as capable. She is given value through Madoka’s kindness and when that is torn away and she wishes to save her friend, that’s when she becomes a magical girl. Not even for herself, as Madoka initially had.

When Homura becomes more capable it isn’t through a process of learning to be more confident in herself or trusting her capabilities. Perhaps for a short moment as she gets her footing. But as the cycle repeats her strength is drawn from necessity, from a necessary adaptation for survival. She clearly thinks very little of herself. She even distances herself entirely from Madoka despite the pain this causes her because she needs to dedicate herself to finishing this cycle once and for all. She is not operating on making herself happy, and every time she fails she spares herself no kindness.

But Madoka wouldn’t want that for her, because she sees her heart. That she’s a gentle girl who cares a lot for the people she loves, for Madoka. She’s been transformed over the series from her trauma, tenfold to the other girls because of the sheer amount of cycles she has lived.

Homura knows more than anyone else that the only way to survive this cruel system is to work as coldly and efficiently as possible. Because kindness gets you killed, and Madoka is kind, and it killed her in every single timeline before. Every single one.

I think people often forget about the scene in Rebellion in the field. Homura has broken down into tears faced with the reality she was left with without Madoka. When Madoka ascended she was left entirely alone in her grief. Not only did no one know her traumas, but no one knew Madoka, the entire reason she dedicated herself to her mission. A mission she failed. She knew Madoka’s sacrifice was noble, but she was left entirely alone in a world where her best friend was worse than dead and no one remembered her.

Homura brings up how at some point she doubted herself and wondered if she made it all up. The absolute pain of doubting your reality in such a way, the isolation of her experience, the grief and loss. No wonder she ultimately fell to despair.

But Madoka comforts her, she holds her close and braids her hair, as though she’s trying to rebuild Homura back into the girl she was before all of this strife transformed her. She tells Homura that she would never leave her loved ones, and to be away from everyone would make her incredibly sad.

And Homura’s eyes go wide and hair comes undone as she realizes this. A wash of emotion, of relief to hear her affirm this and a feeling of… something else.

If you think about the circumstances of Madoka’s sacrifice, she does it when Homura is facing death. Her family is in danger from the witch appearing as a storm, her friends are all dead. Madoka uses her karmic destiny to make the ultimate sacrifice, the ultimate act of selflessness.

But there is no pure selflessness. What she did was unequivocally good, good for all magical girls. Even Homura spent her time after her ascension trying to honor Madoka’s wish. But in it’s selflessness it erased the happiness and future of Madoka. Her kindness spread so much good but at the sacrifice of herself. Not just dying, but a fate far worse than death.

And Homura has done this over and over again, she’s had Madoka make her promise to stop her from becoming a magical girl before. She has only ever been fighting for a world where Madoka can be safe and happy. And hearing this admission, notably within the labyrinth- with Madoka’s memories gone and the constructed circumstances of all the girls peacefully being magical girls- the Madoka telling her this is the Madoka most resembling the girl she knew in the first timeline.

And she is telling her that doing something as drastic as she did would make her unhappy.

I think there is of course something to be said about Homura pulling her down from Heaven. That she acted without Madoka’s consent, forcefully tearing her apart and erasing her memory to give her a peaceful life. She’s trapped between dishonoring Madoka’s wishes and sacrifice, while simultaneously acting on Madoka’s wishes and well being. But she has been operating on these cycles for so long- why would this time be any different. Another failure of a timeline, Madoka is still suffering, so she has to start over anew.

And I think her self perception is important in her portrayal as demonic. She thinks extremely little of herself, and not only that, but again, was raised Catholic. In the film we see the rooftop of the middle school and among the many small changes within the labyrinth we see it now resembles a cathedral. There are many religious themes, the teacher opens speaking on the second coming, about the end of the world. Madoka is literally a god, Homura kneels down and hangs off the feet of her statue.

Homura has been raised in a religion that teaches of sin and guilt and she is, for one, in love with another girl. She has been strung along by fate again and again, trapped within it. She has been taught to supplicate herself before god but now seeks to rebel against such.

Her self actualization is once again a product of her trauma. She acts in a twist of selfishness and selflessness. She labels herself as demonic, she fails to recognize her own sacrifices or value. She imparts vindictive wrath onto Kyubey and Kyubey alone, she allows all the other girls to live happily. She even separates herself yet again from Madoka, in a world she can control she does not force them to be close. She would not do that, and thinks too little of herself now, and determines rather that they shall end up enemies.

Homura is not happy at the end of rebellion. She’s alone. She has got her way but it is distorted, not because of her inherent character but a reflection of her experiences, of her self perception. We are left in a delicate state of a universe, waiting for Madoka to awaken once again. But in the meantime, she’s given opportunity to live a normal life.

I’d say by the end of Rebellion Homura is antagonistic by her own choice and action. But seeing the scene in the field, knowing the full context of her experiences. Despite regarding herself as evil I don’t think that she is, and in the upcoming movie I don’t think Madoka will think she is either. She even tried to kill herself in her witch form before Madoka and their friends eventually free them from Kyubey’s trap.

The self empowerment she does seem to project comes from her rebellion against fate, her feeling of satisfaction to no longer be trapped within it, to force Kyubey to take the burden of all the curses in the world. She finally has agency after being trapped in helplessness for so long. She was helpless before being a magical girl, and even more afterwards, trapped to the whims of fate. But now she has ripped herself free of it. But she doesn’t at all seem actually happy, we’ve seen her actually happy, and this isn’t it. And if this is her fate, it is, among the many tale of many other magical girls, a tragedy.

At least that’s my perspective/analysis. There’s more I could get into but this is long enough. Like I said, we’re all allowed to have our own opinions, I’m just trying to inform mine from what I interpret from my reading of the text. If anyone has actually read this all, thank you, and I’d love to hear your own opinions or takes!

[dragonturtle2]

The Collector’s Magical Kingdom of Appropriation

The Collector’s reign over the Boiling Isles is actually a huge illustrated metaphor of cultural appropriation. Sure, there are the more blatant signs of full on colonialism and genocide. We plainly see the entire native population is either enslaved or hidden away in fear, while Collector takes their territory for himself. But The Owl House has always spent time being a mirror held up to the consequences of the fantasy genre, and the desires of its fans.

Think of the stars with eyes that Collector uses to decorate the Isles, and deploys as enslaver drones. Why the star shape? It’s not just a reminder of how he/they are technically a little kid. It’s the overriding aesthetic of the Collector society. They seem to live in the cosmos itself, their clothes have celestial bodies all over them, and each one of them apparently had a phase of the moon stamped on their faces. So in order to make the Boiling Isles more appealing to himself, Collector stamped his local iconography all over them. He/They took one look at the native architecture and design and decided it wasn’t suitable to his wants. Along with morphing the citizens into wood and plaster, he gave them redesigned and rebranded outfits. Even the local ecology and vistas were crudely plastered over, to the point that a newcomer like Camila Noceda couldn’t distinguish what elements were original.

And these aesthetics are designed to wage war with each other. The inhabitants and architecture of the Boiling Isles are modeled after the free-range bizarreness of Hieronymus Bosch. The most mundane utilities are steeped in the macabre, and nobody even blinks an eye at. This reflects how the Witch civilizations have mimicked the dead giant that gave rise to their existence. Possibly how they’re so at ease with the very concept of death, since they live with the reminder of it’s inevitability, and how it can bring beauty.

What Collector prefers is an 80’s G-rated fantasy kiddie cartoon in the vein of Care Bears.

There’s also the metanarrative aspect with how Luz’s entire story has been passed on. The Collector has spent all these months play-acting Luz’s life; all her accomplishments, and all her sacred bonds. Yes it was King’s suggestion; “the Owl House” game. But Collector obviously loves it. Yet Collector has nothing but contempt for Luz herself, even as a concept. He/They get pouty or mopey whenever she gets referenced. We’ve all seen this pattern of thought with bad faith arguments from chuds online, when it comes to certain franchises. Where they don’t actually have any problems with the story or the particular tropes, they just get pissy when the protagonist is a female or person of color. Collector calls Luz “that human,” like who she was born as is an insult.

The only person Collector treats anything like a peer is King, because he is also a species that reaches Godhood. All the lesser species can be treasured pets, at best. The Collector shares a mindset (or at least outward habits) with bigoted gatekeepers, where the joys of a story or franchise aren’t deserved by people who don’t remind them of themselves. Even if those different types of people are the ones who created the story in the first place. Their accomplishments are only worthwhile if HE can use them, including stamping his name and face on them. Colonialism doesn’t just steal the fruits of labor, they steal your stories of the past, present, and future.

:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:

As an aside, the actions of erasure also extend to the only remotely real bond Collector has, King. Which isn’t surprising given that he’s literally redecorating and playing games with the corpse of King’s dad. The process King’s gone through is assimilation by way of involuntary adoption. King is dressed in Collector clothes, lives in a Collector palace (built atop his dad’s resting place), and learns Collector lore as he reads Collector bedtime stories. Meanwhile, his mom and auntie are living behind bars while they scrounge for their prescriptions.

Although this isn’t quite the intended assimilation like Collector has done for the entire Isles and witch-kind; he/they are just offering King what they enjoy most, which mostly defaults to what they’re already familiar with. That’s just normal for kids, and people in general.

I believe this is a different kind of warning Collector poses to anyone who enjoys stories, and all us involved in fandom. Not just the terror of artistic gentrification. It’s seeking out stories, characters and settings to only fulfill our own desires and preferences. Searching for only baseline wish fulfillment can trap us in a bubble that stops us from growing. Then if something is unique or incongruous, we either throw it away or end up mangling the interpretation. And when art is swept aside and destroyed, we’re also degrading where it came from. It’s creator, it’s people, and it’s country.

:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:

When King first came into his Titan power, I thought it seemed strange that it was a vocal attack. Just because the actual physical noises of the Titan - speech, language, cries - have never had any prominence in this show. Descriptions or theories of how that species have never been included in the lore reveals, or the musings or sayings of the local populace. The closest we’ve gotten is Belos’s original lie, “I am the voice of the Titan.”

I assumed it was meant to contrast with King’s squeaky voice and grand boasts being his main source of comedy. And just basic symbology about puberty. But after writing all this, I’m convinced it was setting up how to save the day from whatever Belos and Collector will try to inflict.

King will stand with his mother and sister (and hopefully aunt and Hooty) and they ALL scream out that what they have is perfect. They scream to prove they exist, and they don’t need to write any coherent song or reasonable argument to prove or earn that right. Their identity, their self perception and self respect, is their power. The most basic of expression can annihilate oppressors, as long is it’s honest. And of course, coordinated noise is a great opportunity for some musician to get involved.

Big thanks to @marztheincredible for Beta’ing the preceding essay concerning this very histories and complex subject.

[rainbow18]

Sonic Prime. Friendship is Magic Part 1.

What Thorn, Dread, Shadow and Nine are meant to symbolize to Sonic.

Thorn Rose.

The Boscage Maze Variants are mostly based off of the characters IDs, aka Some of the first thoughts that’ll appear in a persons mind when something happens.

Thorn was meant to teach Sonic to be more considerate of others feelings. The reason why She became a Monster is because The Scavengers ignored her feelings.

In order for Thorn to reform, Sonic used her feelings for the jungle against her by showing her what her actions were doing. Initially, Sonic attempted to get Thorn and The Scavengers to make up by trying to get everyone to talk about their feelings.

Eventually they did make up when Thorn became sad and the scavengers realized how much their actions upset her so they apologized for their behavior.

Later, The Green Shard is the only shard whose owner, Thorn willingly handed the shard over because Thorn’s feelings are the only ones that Sonic considered when looking for the shards.

Knuckles the Dread.

The No Place Variants are based off of the Characters Egos. Dread is meant to teach Sonic about Karma and what it’s like to deal with someone with his flaws. Out of all of the Shattered characters, Dread is the most like how a No Place Sonic would be like. If you don’t believe me, if Sonic were Shattered, would his No Place Variant really be all that different from Dread?

He would be either going Solo or be The Leader of a group.

He would be arrogant.

He would likely be abandoning people. (While Prime Sonic does come through, No Place! Sonic likely wouldn’t have this trait to keep his behavior in check.)

He would be breaking his promises/deals. (Ironically enough. Sonic’s deal with Dread is one of the only ones that he kept out of all of his deals.)

He would want to have fun.

Dread’s villain levels are based on Karma. He was a jerk but became more humble when his old crew didn’t care about him after he didn’t care about them. He started to get his ego back after the crew tried replacing him with Sonic, which ended up a disaster for them as Sonic didn’t know what to do.

When Sonic arrived in No Place to stop The Council from getting the blue shard, He hadn’t considered that Dread wants the shard. Dread acquired the blue shard through legitimate means, albeit he treated Sonic as just a way to get The Blue Shard. Eventually Dread turned against him by lying about him to the crew.

When Sonic helped Dread, Dread did help with Chaos Sonic. However As soon as Sonic went after the shard again, Dread went after him again.

Shadow The Hedgehog.

Shadow is all about forcing others, namely Sonic, to deal with the consequences of their actions. Although his does have a attitude problem and take things too far. Unlike everywhere Else, Green Hill is the only place that deals with proper consequences.

People may think that Karma and consequences are the same thing but they aren’t. Karma is pretty much “What goes around comes around” while Consequences is basically “Cause and Effect.”. Due to Sonic’s tendency to not think things through, he doesn’t really think much about consequences.

Shadow may not realize it but while Sonic and Eggman went after the prism directly, He is also indirectly responsible for what occurred. Had he not attacked Sonic, Sonic presumably would’ve showed up on time so Eggman presumably would have been stopped sooner.

Shadow can’t enter the shatterspaces and as Sonic mentioned, Shadow would probably have treated the Shattered Characters badly.

Nine.

In General, New Yoke is the Area that’s the most like what would’ve occurred if Sonic didn’t exist. (Rusty got Roboticized, the place was taken over, Nine kept being bullied.)

Sonic dealt with Thorn, Shadow and Dread. Nine is the last Villain Protagonist for a reason. The New Yoke residents represent The Prime Characters SuperEgos.

Nine is Sonic’s test to see what He’s learned.

Just like with Thorn, Nine is frustrated due to feeling disrespected and mistreated.

Similar to Dread, Nine copies Sonic’s own behavior, good or bad, when handling Sonic.

Just like Shadow, Nine wants to force Sonic to deal with the consequences of his actions and inactions.

Sonic will likely have to think about all of these things (Nine’s Feelings, what it’s like to deal with someone like him and the Consequences of his actions) together in order to understand why Nine’s angry and figure out how to calm him down. However to quote Sonic, he doesn’t do well with tests.

(Although for all of the characters involved, they should learn to communicate better.)

[mdhwrites]

Why Are Swap AUs So Easy For The Owl House and IMPOSSIBLE For Amphibia?

So first, I want to make this clear that this isn’t to knock anyone who likes Swap AUs for The Owl House. I’m actually making this blog because today I was kind of reminiscing about The Crow House, my own Swap AU and the best answer I have to the question of “What would my version of The Owl House look like.” They’re a lot of fun to consider because being in a different narrative role and the like would do to the story and world is a really interesting question. I will say that I have seen a lot of Swap AU art that is frustrating for this reason though as they feel a lot more like characters cosplaying each other, including personality, rather than actually exploring what they would be like in the other’s role.

I’ve also seen a lot less Amphibia Swap AU art... And I think there’s a good reason for that. See, with TOH, the narrative role IS also the character’s personality. Luz is the isekai’d protagonist who warms up to a mentor, changing them and the world she arrives in for the better (at least in concept). Eda is the grizzled mentor who will learn to be nicer by her student. King is just comic relief and then lore wise is important and so becomes incredibly wise to fit his expositional spot in the world. Amity is the love interest and brief rival. Hunter is that a second time but done worse and as a love interest to a less important character. The better the character is is usually dependent on how good the trope they’re pulling on, not because they themselves are really going to surprise you or stay consistent even. After all, once Eda becomes Mama Eda, she also loses a lot her snark and her criminal background because that’s no longer the trope she is despite that still having been part of her recent history. Or hell, the fact that once the curse is resolved in S1, it only is ever a plot device, including power up, for Eda’s character because its narrative role as a part of who Eda is and something that hurts her is no longer relevant to the writers.

That actually makes swapping people’s position in the plot less about what their personality does to the plot but how you justify them being in the role that the other was. You have to ENTIRELY change the show in order to make a Swap AU more drastic than that by things like having the swap with Luz be someone who doesn’t like magic and genuinely has no interest in this world so that they never connect with Eda. The person you swap with Amity needs to not be a love interest but a genuine rival who never connects with the other person. You effectively have to go with the edgy options for a lot of things and at that point you’re just kind of missing the whole retelling point of a Swap AU.

And of course there would be changes but more in dialogue and the like. This was something I struggled with with my Lumity stuff in The Crow House because I still wanted some of the highlights but with a spin by how I changed things with Amity (including in Covention actually being a real danger to Luz and that making her opt for a non-magical way to win the fight) but I was still worried about it coming off as too much like the show. Too much like things weren’t different because, well... So few characters acted particular to themselves and more to their tropes.

It’s like in Looking Glass Ruins where Amity goes “I do stupid things around you.” That is a GREAT line for Lumity’s archtype... But it’s not for Lumity specifically. Amity has actually done very few things that would be considered dumb and those that would be, she’s never faced consequences for. Even her parents or Boscha never actually get back at her for her actions against them and besides that? Usually it’s Luz who’s the fuck up but that’s just a part of her archtype. But the line fits the narrative role for where Lumity is at in their relationship, even if it hasn’t been earned, so the writers include it anyways because that’s just how the writing in TOH works.

And again: That makes a Swap AU INCREDIBLY easy. You want to say X character would act like this in this narrative role? You probably can find a moment that excuses it. I mean, we get like six different versions of Hunter in S2 because every appearance is effectively a different character than the last with MAYBE a little transitional moment like in Hunting Palisman. Like the writers did, you can just excuse a character acting a certain because they all meld together to become so similar and so functional eventually so... Why not?

This is the exact OPPOSITE of how Amphibia wrote its story though. The one I actually think is easiest to point out is ANYONE swapping with Sasha. Grime is a very strong person after all who ruled by force and fear. His soldiers were actually fairly loyal, even if they were unhappy. Anne at the start of the show isn’t the Heart yet so connecting the with the toads, who she’d find disgusting like she often found the Plantars early on, wouldn’t be possible for her. This is partially because she’s also lazy. Meanwhile, Marcy is socially awkward and somewhat absorbed in her own interests so she also wouldn’t be able to talk to the guards in a way that turned them to her side. Even if either did, they would have no control there. Grime would still be in charge: Period. They would just be the weird soldier and thus also have no power to do things like the escort Anne got or convince Grime to just raze Wartwood and instead be a bit sneaker and a bit more charismatic.

DRASTIC changes happen if ANYONE other than Sasha is the one in Toad Tower. Her manipulative side, her want for control, her willingness to hurt those around her if she thinks what she’s doing is better for them, or more fun sometimes especially early on, is what makes her such a dangerous villain. However, just as Anne was affected by Sasha, it’s really easy to imagine Marcy and Anne affected Sasha back and that’s why she’s able to connect with guards and their odd interests... At least until they’re wrapped around her finger. Her viewpoint as the girl who will make her friend’s lives better and never questioning that is a large part of her arc. Her personality had to be tested and SMASHED before she could become a better person, which is why she’s actually at her most confident in S2 because S1 was a setback. She needed rock bottom to realize her convictions were wrong.

Which just in general is a masterclass in how to write a manipulative villain, let alone one that thinks they’re in the right for all their decisions. Sasha is one of the best written characters I’ve ever SEEN and I’m still only halfway through S2 of Amphibia.

But even just Reunion shows how Anne’s malleability that made Sasha able to control her is also why she was able to become a better person that Wartwood could respect and trust. How much of that can be said about The Owl House? Amity ALWAYS feels more motivated by a crush, especially in S2, in her changes than any moral position she used to hold or a specific part of her that agreed with Luz’s outlooks besides “I also like Azura.” Eda literally makes no sense because in S2 we find out she adopted King which throws her entire first season personality out the window. Hunter feels like he restarts his arc three times because Luz, Amity and Willow all can connect to him on really basic levels that have more to do with backstory than they do with personality traits.

So in short... Amphibia’s still fucking awesome, I still want to finish it by the end of the month, but TOH does continue to be better for fanfiction in one way or another with the choices it makes.

[bionicghost]

One question I asked myself finishing the series is - why are Simon and Fionna chosen for this story. I think Simon makes a lot of sense, since his arc was so unfinished at the end of adventure time. Fionna and Cake also makes a lot of sense, because it allows them to leave the main characters lives relatively untouched - Finn, Marceline, Bubblegum, BMO, etc. while still having bringing them in through alternate worlds. We get Finn’s story 2.0 but with a different protagonist, who’s at a life stage more similar to most of the viewership - young adults depressed and disenchanted with capitalism who want the escapism of adventure time.

It’s more than that though, I feel like there’s a great simplicity in choosing Fionna and Simon as the main protoganists. They’re narrative foils - one wishing for a more mundane life and one wishing for a more magical one. One young and adventurous, one older and resigned. They’re necessary for each other to go on the journey they need to.

Fionna also is an act of redemption for Simon. As he reflects and realizes he was always framing himself first in his relationship with Betty, he gets the chance to redeem himself by prioritizing Fionna first and going on her quest and trying to help her. He goes across these magical worlds, barely complaining even though previously he hated the adventure in the woods with Finn. It shows the tremendous growth he’s gone through. Yet it’s a double edged sword where he also is trying to sacrifice himself, and I’m glad that Golbetty makes him confront that and realize that he still needs to value himself too. She doesn’t want him to punish himself, just reflect and move forward with his life.

Simon is also important narratively for Fionna, as she goes on a journey of being more mindful and aware of the consequences of her actions on others. Cake as an extension too. At the start, Fionna and Cake both run around causing chaos for Marshall Lee, Gary, the people on the bus, etc as they focus on only their own feelings of disenchantment. As they go through the worlds, but they start to realize their impact on the people in it. Fionna grows to really care about Simon, so much that she would hide the crown even if its her one ticket to an escape. Fionna and Cake show how much they’ve grown in the end, as they accept their world even if they might have to sacrifice themselves for everyone in it. They fight so that everyone can be okay, together.

Idk, I just think its really beautiful how much Fionna and Simon care for each other and how their characteristic of self-centeredness morphs into being willing to give up anything for each other and then finally into the more sustainable trait of prioritizing of themselves while they care for their loved ones.

[jq37]

Twice Upon a Time - Neverafter Mid-Season Questions

Hey Y'all! A LOT has happened in Never After since my last recap. School has had a stranglehold on me. But I wanted to pop in with some questions and observations before the next episode drops on Wednesday.

(1) I wonder if the PCs were supposed to leave the Lines Between so quickly? There was information implied to be there that they never got and they didn't really mean to leave so much as they started a chain of events that led to them being shunted back into their world.

(2) Speaking of, where are Scher and Muffet for that matter? Muffet was mentioned to have come with them to the Lines Between but they never asked about her so she never spoke. And they haven't asked about her since. And Scher is presumably still in the library, right? Wild that Tim hasn't tried to contact her yet.

(3) Even though we've gotten several lore dumps this season, there's still a lot we don't know about what's going on. Some of that info was prob in The Lines Between. Some of it is probably locked behind actions that the players just aren't pursuing (like those of them who have their books but haven't looked inside of them yet which is lowkey driving me crazy! Please play with the toy your DM gave you guys! Not backseating playing or anything, I just wanna know what's in there!) 

(4) I think the thing that probably gives me the most pause is the nature of the Times of Shadow. Because the "wrongness" in the stories of the PCs kind of fall into three distinct categories. You have Red and Roz, whose problems are that their stories did NOT go as planned. Red is supposed to be saved by the woodsman and that didn't happen. Roz is supposed to be saved by her prince, but he doesn't come. But then you have Ger and PIB, whose stories go exactly to plan. The problem isn't their stories. Their problem is what happens AFTER their stories. It's more an Into The Woods Act 2 situation with them. What happens after happily ever after. Consequences of their actions, you know?  You don't put work into your marriage? It frays. You put a miller's son on the throne with no expertise in statecraft and politicking? When trouble comes, he's useless. Their stories went off fine. It was outside forces (the war in both cases) that caused the problem. And then you Pinocchio and Tim who had their stories more or less--Tim doesn't really have a story--and then just kind of witnessed the darkness around them until their lives were made worse by outside entities--the stepmother and the Gander. So their lives were not all made worse in the same way, you know? It was different mechanics for all of them. So I'm wondering, is this all the same thing? Is ALL of this the Times of Shadow? Or are the T.O.S. and ill defined phenomenon caused by SEVERAL things going wrong that they haven't really parsed yet? Where do the authors fit in? To which degree CAN the characters have agency?

(5) OK, so the princesses. As characters, I am very pro princesses. I love Cindy, Snow's first appearance was great, and I'm excited to see everyone else, esp Elody (sidenote: I think it's a VERY good move that Elody is being brought over from the OG timeline so it's not gonna be Ger talking to AN Elody it will be HIS Elody). HOWEVER, these are rebellious and  zealous teen girls messing with cosmic forces without full knowledge of the situation. *I* remember being a zealous and rebellious teen girl without full knowledge of the situation. I had a LOT of bad takes. Free will is good obviously. But what is it that they actually WANT, you know? Do they want to get rid of magic so there's no more interference from the authors? We don't really know to what degree the characters are controlled by their narratives. Are they trying to prevent the Never After from being split apart like it was implied it was previously? And how are we defining "agency" and "story". Let me make this its own point. 

(7) Ok, so say you wake up and your house is on fire. And you can't get out. And a firefighter come in and saves you. Would you say your life is a story without agency? I wouldn't. I think it's perfectly valid to be saved from a threat that's beyond you. I don't think it's weak for a witch or a fairy to put a spell on you that requires another party to break. It doesn't mean your life didn't have agency as a whole. It means that you needed help one time. Everyone does sometimes. 

(8) And it feels kinda wild to have a small faction of people (some of them fully teenagers) being like yeah, let's make the world harder for EVERYONE because I don't like that I had a damsel moment one time. Which isn't necessarily what they want. We just haven't really gotten full details on what it is that they actually want yet. And there hasn't been a lot of asking of clarification questions. Closest was PIB last ep being like, "Hey can I vibe check Snow to see if she's on the level? It seems like she's REALLY hungry for this info." And they way Brennan plays the princesses makes me think he is aware of all of this. I'm just like, waiting for the other shoe to drop lowkey I guess? I would NOT be surprised if in a few episodes it's like, "Yeah you blindly followed this very flawed plan, here are the consequences of that." Just the fact that the stepmother and the princesses seem to have somewhat similar endgames from the little info we have would give me enough pause to make me want to dig deeper. 

(9) I'm not saying I'm team fairy either, for the record. I don't like that Turq was like, "We need to *fix* Elody." I'm just saying, this feels like a situation where everyone has a quarter of the info and there's a middle ground to be found. I would want more info before I went hard in on, "Let's burn the system" Like, I'm sure at least parts on the system do need to burn but you have to be so so careful before you set a fire in a BUILDING YOU'RE STANDING IN. 

OK, that’s where my head’s at right now! I’ve really been enjoying this season so far. I am just curious to see how the pieces of this puzzle fit together because there are a LOT of pieces and some of them are very meta. It’s a very ambitious story and I’m excited to see where it goes!

[sweetcloverheart]

Clover Rants Miraculously - No Defense

Spoilers for script/ s5 finale leaks below, so readers beware and all that!

“But why are people defending Lila and Chloe? They helped Hawkmoth and are cruel to Marinette for no reason!”

Look, if I have to choose between two teenyboppers acting out out of spite and a middle school celebrity crush and a grown man who’s actively making bad choices that are hurting his loved ones with himself not even giving a damn because “he just really loves his wife”, then the decision’s practically being made for me - especially if I’m told I have to treat said teenyboppers like they’re Satan incarnate solely because they’re big meanies to the MC instead of everything else they’ve done in series while the man in question has to be celebrated and given everything he wants despite all the pain and bs he’s put both the leads and entire city through because dead coma wife made him sad :C.

And at least the show was honest about Lila being that petty and egotistical enough to team up with a supervillain because it might give her power (and also ruin Marinette’s day) - half the stuff she pulls doesn’t surprise or upset me that much because I was told from the jump she’s a little jerk with no attempts to excuse/humanize it (or telling me I need to feel bad/like her or I’m “bad” too like with Gabe). Meanwhile, of the two times Chloe joined Gabemoth, one required him to go out of his way to manipulate and isolate her into saying yes (Like yeah, she was already told she couldn’t be QB anymore and shouldn’t have been that upset/shocked Ladybug got a different hero to help fight her parents, but that doesn’t change the fact that Gabriel and Nathalie purposely made Chloe think Ladybug didn’t want her help specifically so she’d turn on her more easily), while the other was Chloe...trying to get out of gym class and thus waits for an Akuma to just show up and posses her (as opposed to Lila straight up grabbing one from the air that just happened to be passing through and giving Gabemoth her own evil plan to take down LB just because), so that one was just a regular Akuma of the day plot with a minor twist. Otherwise, Chloe’s just a self-centered jerk who does whatever makes her feel like she’s the best but overall is frankly harmless (as Marinette and co either ignore her or quickly undo her nonsense) unless she’s throwing daddy’s mayor title around - something that was also told to me at the start. The fact that the show is only now trying to make these two seem like, King Ghidorah levels of evil/bad (especially when they took no time to help build up Lila to her future big bad status like they clearly wanted it to seem like due to never using her more) when they’re done nothing to really earn it (yes, even with the events of “Ladybug” and “Miracle Queen”) is...kind of silly, especially in comparison to Gabriel’s crimes. Yeah, they should face some form of consequence for the bullying and deliberate akumatization, but on a scale that actually matches those actions.

On the other side of it though, Gabriel is literally doing everything he can to make his son and said son’s girlfriend miserable as possible as he torments the people of the city into becoming his willing/unwilling goon squad to fight two magical teenagers for their Miraculous, yet we’re supposed to just see it as “a misunderstanding” and accept him getting rewarded with the wish and Emilie’s revival because “oh, just let the poor magical terrorist have his dead wife back! He really is sorry and feels bad about it - not enough not to use his son as a bargaining chip for an evil magical eugenics cult and backstab the heroine after she gives him a chance to repent and steal her magical objects to get the Wish, but he really rweally fweels bwad”. If Chloe has to be disowned and Lila forced into one of her many alt-identities as a result of their actions, then Gabriel should not get to have his happily ever after self-sacrifice, even if it does end up hurting Adrien in the long run.

[nahalism]

Have you ever beaten yourself down or felt defected because you couldn’t uphold a routine?

I am going through something like this now. I see people around me who, of course to varying degrees (but some excell in) getting their diet, sleep schedule, studying/working, exercising routine in check, having a plan. And whenever i try, for the love of me, i just cannot uphold it. I can’t be consistent, my brain just doesn’t work like this but i keep hearing that it has improved peoples’ lives so much, developing a routine and sticking to it. And i know me not having one is probably not in my favor (studying whenever i have the ”inspiration” to because otherwise my brain just shuts off no matter how i try to trick myself instead of regularly and smooth sailing through assignments as a result) can’t go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day INCLUDING WEEKENDS can’t eat regularly. So i try to improve myself and chase this but all it does is reflect to me that i am just not able to and it makes me feel even worse about myself. And i personally know people who ARE able to do all of that and i can see it pays off in so many ways, in their life. My thoughts get in the way, my feelings get in the way and they make me pretty much not functional for periods of time and i am not sure if these people experience the exact same „wall” and they consistently push through it or if maybe my wall is just a big higher and stronger than theirs sometimes. I feel like my brain is against me, truly. (Probably relevant to mention that i do have some mental problems overall which could be affecting all i mentioned and the way i function, it still feels so defeating to me)

such a long message, i am sorry. i hope you are love lately x

hey beautiful <3. my reply will be equally as long if not longer so no need to be sorry :)

yes. lol just, yes. ive been through the exact same feelings that you describe and even though i struggle less now, i struggle less only as a consequence of my ability to be kinder and more tolerant of myself, not because ive magically changed into someone different. — ill try to explain what i did to help but ill be honest, theres only ever been one solution for me which is to do the work. its hard, its lonely, no one comes to help, or to save you, they even stop pretend ing to care. people will try to support you, but despite best intentions may fall short or lack the capacity to give you what you actually need. so you have to be the one. you have to carry yourself over the finish line, often at the cost losing things, people and parts of yourself that you think you love and cant do without (its soul wrenching but worth the initial discomfort, i promise). every breakthrough is hard earned and often doesnt even feel like the cherry on the top that its supposed to be. so the only way to find the will to keep going is to enjoy the challenge of the journey and learn to love what choosing to 'carry your own cross' is developing in you.

1) the first thing i had to do was make that cross worth carrying for myself. not because id been told to do it, had to do it, or because 'self care' is important, but because I was priority enough to myself that i found the willpower to see it though. to make that possible i had to understand why i was my number one priority, and then make my actions reflect that. it sounds heroic but it looked like excavating my soul, saying no to anything i didnt want to do, and anything i did out of obligation. that included essays, exams, my job, friends, family. maybe that sounds extreme but i realised that all those things meant nothing if the person who was meant to be showing up for them didnt want to be alive/was in anyway unhealthy, or was so dysfunctional that they showed up as a semi sane version of themselves. my whole personality was a trauma response, and even despite the trauma i had to look at what i was doing to create the circumstances i was unhappy with. going from responding unconsciously to consciously choosing my actions was brutal. all of this sounds empowering but it often looks and feels shambolic & looks like being a fuck up. i literally appeared to the outside world like someone who had gone off the edge and was failing at life. for context, making the choices im talking about led to me retaking a year at uni, being a ghost to everyone and everything in my life, having panic attacks every night because despite feeling like i was doing the right thing i had no evidence it would work and no idea how id make it out & all this lasted for way after i graduated so people were looking at me crazy :). HOWEVER, its also how i learned to draw, how i restored my relationship with myself, how i found the passion and excitement to work toward a goals i had set (not the ones set for me). i also became confident for the first time in my life. like actualll self esteem and self knowledge. i hated being seen or perceived due to things id been through, and still struggle with that now tbh. so when i look at the fuller version of myself im embodying today, the multiple ways ive put myself outside of my comfort zone, (and the versions of me i know are to come) i know that the first steps began with following my gut and taking that initial leap of faith that honoured the truth of who i felt myself to be, not the pattern id been following/living in.

2) that first step is important cause when what you do what matters to you, you gain a different willpower (aka passion) that fuels what you do and why you do it. i spent my whole childhood with e.d's and unable to consistently work out/find working out pleasurable. however once i built a relationship with myself and understood what a body was and why it deserved my respect, working out stopped being about the pressure to be a fine babe, and about desiring mobility, full function of my vehicle and longterm health. i say that to say, sometimes its not that your undisciplined, but that your trying hard at the wrong things. (an undisciplined or inconsistent person doesn't keep trying at things despite failing time and time again...). another way to look at it is — a goat is not meant to be a sheep, nor a sheep a goat. theres nothing wrong with being either, but you have to know which you are. (this takes us back to point one: are the things you put pressure on yourself to do/be/accomplish, authentic to you or are you imposing them of yourself because of pressure/expectation/superficial reasons). if its the later, you cannot wait till you have the answers to change the direction your moving in. you have to pivot, take the next step in the direction that feels purposeful and deeply honest to you, and trust that even though you cant see the whole path, the next step will be revealed as you continue to walk forward. the mental illness doesnt go away, but it fades as your tolerance increases. its not meant to be easy, if you can remember that then you'll be okay.

3) you dont have to do it perfectly. you just have to do it. over time, ive had routines w/ varying success. my overarching interests, goals/priorities are the same, but they fluctuate which means i can struggle with consistency and seeing things through (not cause i dont want to be consistent but i feel like i change so rapidly as a person that i almost forget why i set certain goals for myself and why building the routine/proficiency in skill was important to me in the first place). in this sense, its hard to accomplish a goal if you dont relate to the version of yourself you were when you set it. so part one to this point is, i have to use my quirks to my advantage. i know that i tend to cycle through my interests every 3 months ish. so, i set goals that can be accomplished in 3 month cycles rather than over the course of a year. in doing that i achieve small steps toward the larger, more diverse vision of my life i have for myself, meaning i could have one goal - lets say financial freedom - and 3 projects over the course of 9 months that feed into that goal. this works for me because i know i can sustain deep focus over the course of those three months and so will accomplish what ive set out to do. — but whats key for you, is that you find out what works for you. if you start to embrace your needs and what makes you different, you can also embrace the ways it makes you and your approach unique and innovative. rather than a hinderance or a source of 'why cant i be like/function like everyone else'. ——— that leads on to the second part, which is learning to carry the good with the bad. e.g. — whilst the way i fluctuate makes me multifaceted, it also means that one month im focused on art (my style) & reading, the next i might be on philosophy and writing, right before i get back to gardening and portrait practice, then cycle back to learning languages or an instrument. that level of commitment to multiple disciplines means what could take me 3 months to accomplish if i had a single minded focus, gets dragged out into a year long affair. lmty, its almost as frustrating to make slow progress as it is not to progress at all. so sometimes i feel like ive come so far only to have achieved the bare minimum. ive had to learn to appreciate that slow and steady approach (rather than chasing immediate perfection which leads to burn out) and be grateful for the fact that even though its taking long, at least im moving in the right direction. eventually ill learn the skill of expediting each of my processes, but right now this is where im at. extending that kind of grace and mercy to yourself is the biggest part of this all. because if i know im not good at structure, and im specifically struggling with it at this moment, maybe i dont need to hyper-fixate on having a morning routine right now. maybe for the next few months, its not about doing yoga the moment i wake up (even if i know thats best for me) maybe i just need to do yoga at 'unspecified time today'. maybe i dont need to sleep at 10pm. i can actually start work at 10pm, and go to sleep at 6 am. as long as i do yoga, as long as i go to sleep, as long i *insert task*, that is enough for right now. infact more than enough, its a victory. so, work on your own schedule and embrace it. trust that you've set goals and failed before but that you are still here and still committed to getting it right next time, which means you are a trustworthy person who can rely on themselves to show up for themselves. the more you practice not giving up, the smaller the gap between your ability to take action, which means the greater your ability to develop the skill of routine. perhaps not a conventional routine, but routine just means habit. over the course of your life, you are building the habit of not giving up. or of consistently coming back to & developing skills you wanna build. that is the desired outcome, not the structure of how you achieve that, but the fact that you have achieved some form of taking action consistently.

last thing i want to leave you with is the way i see and feel you. you could have asked me anything, you could have asked me nothing at all, but you chose to ask me about how to improve your situation. in that sense, your words have betrayed what your will and your desire is. the things we desire today, dictate the person we become tomorrow, and so i know without a doubt that its not a matter of if, but a matter of when you achieve these routines, their outcomes (& so much more, you cant even imagine whats on the other side). <3. it takes a very special kind of grit and resilience to fail and to try again. you inspire me and remind me of the qualities that make humans truly beautiful, truly necessary and truly precious. so dont give up, dont go under. none of this is meant to break you, just pull out what is inevitable to who you are and what you are meant to be. it is going to be hard, but you are not alone even when you are alone, and when you make it out the other end you become a testimony for others, (& evidence that they arent alone either). keep fighting, i believe in you, sending big love & a big hug xx-xx

[asm5129]

RWBY V9 Episode 3 Analysis

On the way to the castle, Weiss stresses, once again

“We aren’t Alyx”

Clearly gonna be a very important issue

They can’t just follow someone else’s story

They have to make their own

The Red Prince is really the perfect distillation of how Volume 9 is balancing comedy and drama

He’s primarily a comedic character, but he also establishes more about Alyx, more about what happened in the Ever After since her story ended, and he represents the consequences of her actions. plus, even though he himself isn’t much of a threat, the casualness with which he sends two of his men behind the bushes to be beheaded is genuinely unsettling. He may be a comedic character, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t be a genuine problem for them if they piss him off (which inevitably they do, because he’s an entitled brat who gets pissed off at EVERYTHING. which, you know, he’s a little kid but...he’s also got way more power than most kids so i struggle to cut him slack for his immaturity)

“Did i used to be this unbearably pompous?” XD Oh Weiss, remarkably, you were not this bad

Surprisingly, the soldiers taking credit for the gift turns out very helpful

But Ruby, poor girl

She gave up Penny’s sword and it was thrown away like it was worthless

“How could you...” Lindsey Jones really giving it her all, and the facial expressions match her skill

Even if they can be put back together, as indicated by the Curious Cat later on, the panicked screams of these two soldiers make it pretty clear they’re going to fell all the pain any human (or faunus) would.

hell of a first impression. Goofy little kid, but if you piss him off he’ll have you beheaded without hesitation, and he gets pissed off at the slightest thing that doesn’t go his way. Every comedic thing he does is underlined with the fact that one of the first things we saw him do was order some of his soldiers beheaded for getting a color wrong

I feel like the butterfly with the bright blue wings will matter. It’s wings are way too similar to the wings of the smoking caterpillar-esque creature in the opening, not to mention how our attention is drawn deliberately to it multiple times. Checkov’s Butterfly, let’s call it for now

Little’s yes after helping compliment the prince is adorable

Love how this game showcases Ruby’s leadership style. She was given a bunch of literal pawns, but over the course of the game works to minimize damage and ends up working with her so-called pawns due to inspiring them and treating them like their lives have value, rather than them working for her

meanwhile the Red Prince actually already continues the trend of villains falling to their own hubris he decides to be cruel and make WBY pieces on the board before knowing what they were capable of So even though this world runs on different rules, the character work remains consistent

so...Neo’s probably next then...

Love the transformation sequence. Great animation, love the visual gag of yang trying to fight back and the magic making her punch herself in the face for it

“Now we’re all Littles!” Little’s perception of the world continues to fascinate me.

“No one’s going to get hurt....right?”

Ruby’s priority is always minimizing harm. Love it.

And of course...the Prince doesn’t answer her question.

I feel really bad for the pawns on the board..they're clearly super traumatized

It’s cool to see the girls working properly as a team again. We haven’t gotten to see them properly strut their stuff in a long while, thanks to the last several volumes hammering home just how absolutely unfathomable the odds stacked against them were, as well as the growing cast and the many fires they had to put out (metaphorical fires, sorry Watts)

Little continues to be adorable, cheering with leaves as pom-poms after Weiss gets her groove on

Blake’s blush is adorable and i can’t wait until the fated Bumblby kiss that finally wakes Yang up to the love around her

Again, the Prince is a comedic character, but the emotional pain Alyx put him through is very real, and our heroes are gonna have to deal with that because it seems Alyx has very much colored the locals opinions of humans. I am...incredibly intrigued about who Alyx is. I mean, her actual nature. I love how varied the interpretations of her actions are.

And again, our heroes inspire others to fight, instead of sacrificing lives unnecessarily. there is a sense of camaraderie. Ruby’s leadership style at work here.

“Little’s a mouse...at least i think.” “Sure!” Again, Little intrigues me with their way of looking at things.

And there he is--or his eyes anyway. The Cat.

the subjects of the red Prince hate humans so much the red and white pawns alike come after WBY, even after the White pawns just being inspired by them.

Fantastic combat scene, with some fantastic music.

Love the detail that Blake is running out of bullets. They’ve got limited supplies here.

“I”VE WON. Give up already.”

“We. Wont.”

The utter conviction. Ruby is not capable of giving up, even when she doesn’t have enough hope to fill a single jar.

:Love the shot that obscures her eyes. This whole sequence really shows how fraught Ruby’s mental state is. As her companions fight, She is moving around, trying to figure out how to help, ultimately just putting her head in her hands because she feels so paralyzed.

“Unable to do the one thing you were put on this acre to do” Well that’s awfully specific Cat.

Clearly this ties in with how the Ever After deals with identity and purpose. we’ll have to wait and see exactly how though.

The Cat clearly has serious authority here. The entire room immediately starts listening to him as soon as he speaks, including the Prince.

“You must play your game and win at any cost”

and him losing the game literally broke him. If you take away the things that we use to form our sense of self, we either crumble or we double down--the Prince here looks like he’s doing a bit of both.

Identity can be a fragile thing, especially if you build it upon a fragile base.

Haven’t seen many people talk about this but...I’m pretty sure the cat made him back off. Like, not just through his authority--he does something to the prince’s heart to temporarily dull the pain

Freaking love the M.C. Escher vibes of this escape

Ruby is literally carrying her team on her shoulders now. Things are gonna get rougher and rougher for our poor girl.

“Times change, you know, and so do we when it’s our time to change. Don’t you?”

our heroes are going to be very different people when they get back to remnant.

Also, that silver glow is DEFINITELY silver-eye-esque.

.

“You’re not nearly as interesting as the others I’ve met” So we know he’s met Alyx but...has this cat met any other humans, i wonder?

Rocking horsefly. Still a good pun.

And here we have two VERY different parts of the ever after right next to each other. looks awfully like a Light and Dark....perhaps similar to two douchebag gods we know of?

The Jaberwalker bleeds surprisingly normal-looking blood. That probably means something.

Is he kinda like Salem’s hound? that’s a wild thought.

“Fix”? That’s a new one for the Jabberwalker. What are you trying to fix, you intriguing creature?

Considering Neo was right next to Ruby as they fell, she wound up here quite a bit later. Just more evidence for some time shenaniganery this volume.

Neo is like...compulsively shapeshifting. There’s no purpose to shifting into Cinder and Ruby. And then her Semblance just moves out from her and becomes a bunch of her. Something is clearly off with Neo’s semblance, and i’ll be honest, it doesn’t feel like a semblance evolution. It feels..intentionally more unnatural than that.

Anyway Neo means business this volume and she just became expoenntially more dangerous...quite literally

[ecargmura]

Witch Hat Atelier Volume 3 Review

Between the reviews of volumes 2 and 3, I took a break from reviewing this manga. I fortunately got Volume 3 as a birthday present from my brother back in March! Thanks, bro!

I can’t help but to let out yelps every time I turn the page because this manga’s art is GORGEOUS! Like the cover page for Chapter 14? *chef’s kiss*. The cover of this volume? *chef’s kiss* Immaculate.

Chapter 12 is where Chapter 11 left off. Coco was about to get her memories erased but Tetia and Riche swoop in to save the day as well as Qifrey. They tell off the witch for being too rash with his actions. The witch examined Coco’s hands and realized that she didn’t use any forbidden magic, so they let her go while warning that there will be bigger consequences in the future.

Qifrey was proud for the girls. He even told Agott that she can take a test to rank up. Coco then tells Qifrey about the little vial of ink that she has. He noticed something off about it and holds onto it.

I really like how this chapter was written in the way that it wasn’t just Qifrey swooping in to save the day, but it was him, Tetia and Riche. You’d expect the child characters to be left out, but Shirahama gets them involved and I love that. It doesn’t make it look like they’re sidelined. I also like how Qifrey does his best to not make anyone erase Coco’s memories because he still needs clues to find the Brimhats and she’s his only lead. Coco was anxious about losing her memories because that means she’d lose her memories about her mom and the reason why she is studying magic.

I love that there is serious possible consequences for certain actions and they talked it out with reason instead of resorting to violence or magic.

Chapter 13 has Coco and Qifrey going to Kahln to meet with Mr. Nolnoa as he was the one who gave that little jar to Coco back in the first volume. His grandson Tartah brings them in. As Qifrey speaks with Nolnoa, Coco and Tartah develop a friendship as Tartah treats her wounds. However, it seems as if Tartah has issues of his own. While he is good at organizing magic material, he’s unable to differentiate color. He has silverwash, a type of colorblindness that makes a person’s vision all sorts of shades of silver. Because of this, he cannot become a full-fledged witch. Also, Qifrey did something that caused a bright light and when Tartah questioned Nolnoa, he feigns it.

I’ve always liked the Stationery shop in this story, so to return to it made me happy. I also like learning more of the world and people. Silverwash is an interesting concept and knowing that magic heavily relies on visuals does make one wonder how someone with a condition like Tartah become a witch, if it is possible.

Chapter 14 has the atelier go on a picnic. Coco learns about the five different tests in order to become a full-fledged witch; she took the first one, so she needs to take four more. The apprentices reveal about their goals with magic. Tetia wants to travel the world and help people. Riche wants to make her own magic. Agott wants to be a librarian. Coco just wants to learn more magic. It turns out that Coco’s having nightmares and it’s making her have trouble sleeping.

The picnic was nice and learning about the magic system and the girls’ goals made me feel more attached to them. Coco having nightmares about her mother’s death shows the insecurities that Coco hides within her kindness. She’s working herself so hard because she feels guilty for what happened to her mother.

Chapter 15 has Qifrey tries to uncover the mysteries of the mysterious ink in the vial that he made a mistake, causing him to get entangled in a sudden watery vortex. A Brimhat appears before him. It turns out that the mysterious ink was given to Coco by the same Brimhat watching over her.

In the morning, both Coco and Qifrey are tired. Qifrey wasted some tea leaves, so he goes out to pick some tea leaves. While the girls wait, Coco returns the Sylph Shoes back to Agott. Agott wonders why Coco’s so nice to her despite being mean to her in the beginning. Coco has no mean bone in her soul and just tells her that she didn’t want to give up.

She then faints as she’s sick! Qifrey takes her to the nearby hospital after receiving some help from Tartah.

This chapter was really interesting. Time and time again, we know that Brimhats are Qifrey’s goal because they took something from him. The fact that he missed an opportunity to confront the Brimhat caused him anguish. Qifrey’s not a good person. We’re not sure why he wants his missing item back, but we do know how dangerous these Brimhats are.

Coco and Agott’s conversation was heartwarming in a way. Agott really was mean to her in the beginning, but Coco never tattled towards her. Coco being a kind soul always moved my heart in a way. She’s super nice and all she wants is to learn magic in order to cure her mother. She can’t afford to wallow in petty rivalries and such.

Chapter 16 focuses on Coco and Tartah again. Tartah tries to help Coco after the doctors all ran off to check up on injured people from a nearby fire and they dragged Qifrey to help out. He is also an apprentice witch, but his future’s dark because of his inability to see colors. Despite this, he does his best to do things in ways he knows how. Coco, in her feverish state helps out.

Learning about how strict and prejudiced the Witch world is interesting. Just like in real life, society prefers the able-bodied, “normal” people while people who lack what is perceived as normal would be ostracized. Seeing Tartah working hard despite his disadvantages makes he hope he can become a witch someday.

Chapter 17 continues where the previous chapter left off. Coco and Tartah find the herb the latter was looking for and it helped Coco’s fever go down once a medic was able to come into the clinic wondering where her colleagues went. After Qifrey returns, Tartah asks him about the bright light, but they don’t seem to remember. In the morning, Tartah leaves for witch training, but tells Coco that she’ll become the greatest witch ever, encouraging her to keep going.

The friendship between Coco and Tartah is sweet. Coco made a friend outside out of the atelier. However, it’s not a pointless friendship as Tartah gives insight to what Coco’s missing with her glyph drawings while Coco gives insight to what he’s lacking. They work well together and it shows potential just in case there will be a time where Coco has to train outside the atelier.

It feels as if Tartah is implied to be her love interest, but it probably won’t happen. Tartah is more than just being a love interest with his silverwash storyline. He even promised to make a pen for her, so I’m sure that this pen will be her ultimate weapon. He will be important later on, I can feel it.

Overall, this entire volume was a bit slower. It’s more of a break before the big plot happens as seen at the end of chapter 17. I think this volume was necessary as it gives more insight to the world of Witch Hat Atelier and the concepts and customs. It got me engaged learning more about the lore.

The characters feel more fleshed out too, especially Coco with her inner guilt that’s causing her to have nightmares and tire her out to the point of not sleeping well. I commend Shirahama’s particular way of being very detailed, but also bringing out the whole picture. She gave Tetia some insight. She gave Riche some insight. She gave Tartah some insight. None of these characters feel sidelined and that’s a good thing. She’s giving characters as much spotlight as she can when they are in the story. I just hope she keeps this up when the story keeps going.

I can’t wait to read Volume 4. I hope we jump back into action soon!