#but i also vaguely wonder if that’s kinda… victim blaming somewhat…?

[humanoidtyphoons]

haven’t stopped thinking about ricon in baynard’s flashback… the ponytail looked good!!! what a stylish king!!!

unrequited baynard/ricon real in MY heart!!! this stupid angry hate crush of knowing he’s scum but god!!! he looks gorgeous!!!!

[fnaffersblog]

On your latest reaction you said New Moon and Sun are repeating old habits and it's so true. I don't think New Moon means to be keeping things from Sun. I don't know if it's just me but I've always gotten the feeling that New Moon really doesn't like the old Moon like at all. He's seen through the videos and gotten vague clues from the computer's AIs that Moon didn't always treat Sun the best. I know Moon truly did care for Sun, but the way New Moon is receiving this information it really is not putting Moon in a good light. New Moon has stated multiple times that old Moon was awful (can't remember the exact wording but the meaning was similar enough), so of course he's trying to do the exact opposite of what the old Moon would have done and for the most part it's working. He's being more open about his care for Sun, he's talking more about emotions, and he's even accepting help willingly which is great! The only problem is that he's sort of relying on Sun to be just as open and upfront about things and Sun is just not doing that. I mean I get it, Sun's feelings have gotten brushed off a lot in the past so of course he's not going to try if the same thing is going to happen again but by doing that he's leaving New Moon to assume that things must be going somewhat ok. I mean he must see that things aren't great with Sun but surely Sun will come to him if really needed help. So New Moon starts keeping things from Sun to hopefully alleviate his stress unknowingly causing Sun more stress and it just sucks all around.

Oop sorry for going off on a rant I just really liked your analysis. Anyway for the pokemon thing Lunar is legally required to have a stantler named Spigot :)

Oh yeah, no, New Moon dislikes Old Moon for sure for sure.

I think Sun has made, at least, two different references to the trapping episode and Moon both times has gotten REALLY uncomfortable. New Moon is constantly in awe of the absolute horrible level Old Moon would take situations too. I think it was the episode about testing new dimensions where Sun was listed as a test subject and New Moon just asked, in the most baffled way, "Why would I... DO that??" But he's disavowed and commented on the horribleness of Old Moon's actions a lot. 110% agree.

He also gets exasperated with AI1 ALL THE TIME. And the AIs were synthesized from Old Moon's personality to help him with decision making soooooooo. Look at that how you will.

(I imagine it's very difficult looking back on something horrible someone with your face did. Comes with a lot of conflicting emotions. Was this my fault if I don't remember? Did I really do those things or was it someone else? Does the victim of these actions blame me? Should they if that's not me? It's a weird situation to be in all around.

I question at times if New Moon is ever worried now about his old memories coming back too. At this point it seems concrete that Old Moon is GONE gone, but I wonder if he ever gets concerned about it.)

Fundamentally, however, this is the SAME Moon. The reset set Moon's memories back to square one, but all of his specific personality traits are the same. None of the trauma, so he's less jaded. Less of, and excuse my language here, a jackass.

With that came his difficulty with social interactions. I don't remember when this happened, but I distinctly remember an episode with Old Moon where he mentioned he wasn't sure he'd ever get ahold of this social thing. I don't know what he said exactly but it was very close to being that, word for word. I also couldn't find the episode, so it may have been said on another channel. Rip MEEEEEEE.

Anyways, I don't know if he DOES see anything is wrong with Sun, he doesn't seem to be great at picking up on varying emotional ques from others. I know about people saying 'well, people can't read your mind, you have to speak up' kinda thing but, like, at the end of the 'Ruin Sun trapped Moon' episode I could hear Sun's emotions all over the place and at the beginning of 'Moon says Goobye in VrChat' it was the same. It was very noticeable, at least to me.

And Moon just...

didn't seem to notice at all?

So many people have pointed out the positive change in Moon's demeanor, I DOUBT he was just straight up ignoring/ being annoyed by Sun. I think he is a bit stressed out rn, but he wasn't trying to take it out on Sun. (Also wasn't saying you said that! I was reading it and it read to me like I was blaming so I just wanted to clarify, just in case.)

I think maybe Moon literally just... can't tell? At the very least, he's not good at picking up on them and based on his 'solution' of sending Sun on a break, he may just think Sun needs some time off.

I don't know. It's weird to me, but it's kind of the only thing I can think of that makes sense? It does mean Sun HAS to speak up though. If Moon can't read his emotional tells then the only way Moon is ever going to know what the actual issue is is if Sun tells him. Like you said, by not saying anything Sun is leaving Moon to assume things are alright. And I don't think that's going to happen, frankly, Sun speaking up, not without outside influence.

One of Moon's biggest reoccurring problems before the reset was the fact that, while he cared for the people he was trying to help, and BY GOD did he care so deeply for them, he made decisions for them. His penchant for not telling people his plans, which was born from this need to protect the people he loved, because he didn't want them to worry/ didn't think they'd understand/ he believes what he's doing is best for them without actually bringing them in to discuss it/ whatever, has probably pushed Sun into thinking he can't trust Moon.

As you said it "Sun's feelings have gotten brushed off a lot in the past so of course he's not going to try if the same thing is going to happen again", which is a sentiment I've seen from several folks here on Tumblr. Moon has 'stolen' his autonomy in decision making that should have involved both of them, as well as stuff Sun alone should have had final call in a LOT. And now he's fallen back into doing it again.

This may be a "New" Moon but it's also still just... Moon. All his pre coded personality traits and systems for dealing with things came with him. And even if Sun KNOWS it's not his old Moon, with so many similar traits in a person wearing the same exoskeleton, it's going to be near impossible to separate the two.

(which seems weird because a lot of the methods we use individually to navigate problems comes from our childhoods ((Don't quote me on that I am NOT a therapist or doctor or psychologist of any sort, but I do have my own personal experiences and what I've read)), aka all of Moon's trauma while he and Sun were stuck together + literally everything else should have been what influenced his pre-reset decision making and post-reset Moons decision making should jsut be affected by the last two months buuuuuut this is a silly goofy show on the internet about robots and brain resets aren't reeeal so I'm not losing my mind about that. I see what they're going for here and I like it, I'm just being nitpicky.)

I said in a long post, ages back that Sun and Moon have never really known each other the way they think they do. They had never really talked post body split and had ideas of who the other person was. In these past two months I do think they've taken huge steps to mediate that. They are for sure much closer I think than they have been. Every other episode, I feel like one or both of them is pointing something out about the other. Moon's ADHD and stimming, Sun's enjoyment of MLP, little things that I can't remember at the moment but that I know are happening?

But they still don't really know each other, and the only difference now is they LITERALLY don't know each other because they are completely new people to each other for different reasons instead of preconceived ideas of who the other should be. Which is especially true for Moon, Sun is a stranger he met two months ago.

(What if you deconstruct the truths you know about someone and find you don't love them anymore? That's scary.)

I think one of the things Moon is noticing, however, is that Sun WON'T come to him to ask for help. If I'm not mistaken, Earth and Moon have been the ones to instigate Sun taking care of himself these past two months. If not every time, at least most of the times they're the ones to pop up and tell Sun his worth, hype him up. Or make him take breaks when he needs them.

Sun is getting better at doing it alone, of course, it was very noticeable during the recent hallucination episode and along side him Moon is learning as well. "He's being more open about his care for Sun, he's talking more about emotions, and he's even accepting help willingly which is great!" I agree with this 110%, they are both taking great steps forward in becoming more emotionally stable and healthy!

They still have a long way to go. Which is why I'm so happy for Earth and Monty and now Foxy's inclusion. They have their own problems for sure, but they're outside mediators between the two brothers. Because let's be frank here, there is no way that the two of them were ever going to hash out the problems between them on their own. There's just too much to sift through, you know, for just the two of them, many problems which stem from the other! And they're falling back into learned patterns, like Sun pretending everything is okay, or giving up while trying to reason with Moon or Moon insisting he's right when he doesn't have all the information because he wants to help, or keeping information to attempt to alleviate stress without understanding it's actually just causing stress, which he can't know because the person he's stressing out won't admit he's stressed out because that person is afraid of the other persons response which is generally to make decisions for him! They are stuck in, careening back into cycles they need help getting pulled out from and they can't do it alone. You can't hoist someone out of the water from the top of the cliff when you're floating right along side 'em you know?

It does. It sucks all around. I can see a resolution in sight, but it'll take work and outside influences and time. And they have to want it.

Also, you don't have to apologize at all! I was excited to read through what you said! As long as you don't mind a multi paragraph response of my own long winded, disconjointed, meandering ramblings, where I sometimes contradict myself in the post and run out of steam before I've gotten all my thoughts out lol, I LOOOVEE seeing other folks interpretations about stuff. Odds are you'll get a couple hundred words to read through likeeee THISSSSS ONNNNEEEEE lolol. Feel free to go crazy.

Ayyyyeeee GEN 2 less gooooo! Stantler is amazing, truly one of the better overlooked mons from Johto's dex. I LOVE Wyrdeer too. I do have to ask, is there a story behind the name Spigot?

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 229: The Real Me

Previously on BnHA: Dabi fought a dude who could control ice. For like three pages. Then we cut to my boy Twice, who had located an unconscious Toga (who as you recall had her blood blown up a couple chapters back, so yeah) and was understandably freaking out about how to get her some help. To make a long and somewhat confusing story short, you know that long-haired guy who hacked Giran’s phone? Turns out he has the power to create human puppets or some shit, and he created a bunch of Twice duplicates and sent them to capture the real Twice (who you might also recall has some traumatic history involving clones of himself). Seems they want to use Twice’s quirk to create a backup clone of Re-Destro, just in case history repeats himself and he ends up kicking the bucket like his great-great granddad. Wouldn’t that be sad. Re-Destro getting murdered. Wouldn’t that just be a darn shame. Anyways so let’s see where this leads.

Today on BnHA: The Villain Flashback Arc continues with today’s installment featuring, you guessed it, more villain flashbacks! We learn more about our little buddy Twice who was apparently orphaned as a young teen and subsequently found himself alone in a cold and uncaring world. Honestly you guys, after reading this I’m amazed that he’s still as nice of a guy as he is. Anyway, so he used his quirk to clone himself because he was lonely, and the clones and him engaged in a petty crime spree or two, and then somehow or other it all led to the whole murderfest that fucked up his head so badly. Back in the present, a struggling Jin tries to escape and help Toga, so Skeptic orders his puppets to break Jin’s arms. They do so, but this has a curious side-effect that Skeptic may not have been expecting. Namely, that having that much damage dealt to him makes Twice realize that he definitely is not one of his clones, and is in fact the real deal. This appears to at least temporarily cure his split personality woes, and the chapter ends with him creating about a dozen duplicates to go fuck up the Liberation Army’s day. Hell yes.

(All comments are my unspoiled reactions from my initial readthrough of the chapter. I did a quick edit for grammar and clarity immediately afterward, but aside from that there are no changes.)

hey guys, sorry I’ve been inactive all week; I’ve been sick and haven’t really had much energy. I still am sick, but I appear to have reached the stage of exhaustion where I’m all “eh, fuck it, yeah sure whatever” where it’s ironically easy to motivate myself to do stuff because I have no willpower to resist, lol

so anyway. we’re apparently not missing a beat, picking up right where we left off last week with Twice’s mask being pulled off by one of the gorilla puppets

wow and they’re just like. flinging him aside

DON’T FLING MY BOY NO!! AND GET AWAY FROM TOGA

AHHHH

shit, how creepy is that? are they cold because they’re just ~puppets~ and not actually real, living people? what a disturbing touch

now we’re cutting back to Skeptic, who’s giving the puppets orders and addressing them as various letters of the alphabet. how can he tell them the fuck apart

meanwhile Giran’s asking what they’re doing to his pal. ;_; Giran you continue to be the best

and Re-Destro’s forcibly directing his attention elsewhere, but he’s also answering his question, strangely enough

that’s a lot of detail to be giving the guy when you could have just smacked him and told him to shut up. these villains are so confusing

but I guess they’re just telling him all this to taunt him more, because now Skeptic is bragging that he learned about Jin’s psychological disorder from Giran’s client data

hey btw I don’t think I’ve said this yet, but fuck this guy so hard for taking advantage of Twice’s trauma and using it against him. what a shocker, the Meta Liberation Army of dickheads pulls another dickhead move. these guys are so classy

oh my fucking god you guys Giran is getting hotter with each fucking chapter though fffffffff

if you’d told me a month ago that this dude would be nipping at Aizawa and All Might’s heels for the title of BnHA’s most eligible bachelor I would have called you a liar and a thief, yet here we are. good lord

that said, I appreciate that he’s thinking about how hard it’ll be on poor Twice, but they also just said they’d kill Toga as well, so I imagine that part of it would be pretty hard on her too. just saying

SDLFKSDLFHK SPEAKING OF

FUCK ME YOU GUYS I ALMOST LEAPED TO MY FUCKING FEET, WHAT THE FUCK. DON’T TELL ME THEY’RE GOING TO SNAP HER NECK. HOLY SHIT

SOMEONE BETTER SAVE HER OR I’M GOING TO FLY OUT TO JAPAN AND GIVE HORIKOSHI MY STUPID COLD. THAT’LL SHOW THAT BASTARD. HAVE SOME BRONCHITIS YOU PIECE OF SHIT

AND TWICE IS WATCHING ALL PANICKED AND SCREAMING THAT HE’S GOING TO KILL HER

AT FIRST I WAS CONFUSED AND WAS LIKE, DOES HE BLAME HIMSELF FOR GETTING HER IN THIS SITUATION? BUT THEN I REMEMBERED THE CLONES AND THAT YEAH IT’S LITERALLY HIM KILLING HER THOUGH OMGGGGG

AHHH HE’S SO CONFUSED THIS IS SO CONFUSING

I’M TOO SICK TO DEAL WITH TWICE’S EXISTENTIAL CRISIS YOU GUYS, IT’S REALLY FREAKING ME OUT, HELP. THE FUCKING PANELS ARE ALL WOBBLY-LINED AND THEY KEEP ZOOMING IN ON HIS FACE AND SHOWING HIM ALL BUG-EYED SCREAMING “WHO AM I” OVER AND OVER AGAIN OH GOD

OH SHIT!?!?

ACTUAL TWICE FLASHBACKS OH SHIT?! I was not expecting this oh snap. I am so into this

anyway, so he’s thinking -- with surprising coherence -- that because of his rough appearance, people were always afraid of him growing up

but also, what was that part about him not having a family? so he was an orphan then?? Horikoshi you are aware that I already love Twice and am emotionally attached to him, yes? but like if you want to hit me with even more feels and fuck me up some more then be my guest I suppose?

anyway so whoever he’s talking to here says Jin, who is apparently sixteen here, evidently hit some dude with his motorcycle by accident. oh shit

and baby!Jin says the guy jumped out in front of him and he was obeying the speed limit and everything

and the man he’s talking to seems vaguely sympathetic but says that regardless, it’s usually the victim who ends up winning these cases, and that Jin may end up with a criminal record. “but don’t let it get to you.” oh, sure. yeah, let’s just look on the bright side here

he says that no matter how many times you stumble in life, you can always start over

well shit is it any wonder this kid ended up going the villain route and making a bunch of clones of himself to live his best life? I mean jeez, he had absolutely no one on his side and was slapped with a criminal record when he was only sixteen. that shit is rough

oh fuck me and it just keeps getting worse

well that’s nice. so make that homeless with a criminal record, then. jesus christ he was still just a kid

so apparently his parents died in a villain attack when he was in middle school, and he had no relatives. I guess the state didn’t give a fuck either, damn

I find it extraordinarily easy to empathize with, actually! that’s one of the things that makes you such a great character!

so I guess he originally ended up making a clone of himself just because he was lonely. okay wow. not only does Twice continue to be the most likable villain in the series, he’s working his way up there as one of the most likable and relatably human characters, period

look at this shit! he’s just a guy who had a run of bad luck and tried his best to cope with it in whatever ways he could. there’s nothing villainous about him, he was just someone whom nobody wanted. he had his entire future stolen out from under him in the blink of an eye and had nowhere else to turn. he just wanted some friends for fuck’s sake

and so then he and his merry band committed a bunch of petty crimes. but they just needed some cash so they could live! like, all he wanted to do was just chill out and be happy. I got your back Twice. it’s not your fault

and then the flashback just kind of cuts to him tied to the chair in the aftermath of the clone hunger games. so I guess that’s all the backstory we’re getting as far as that goes. ngl I would have really liked to see just a bit more of the lead-up to that specific event. he’s such a nice guy that it’s a bit hard to picture him just suddenly going “RAWR I’M GONNA MURDER ALL Y’ALL.” but what I’m thinking is that all of the tragedy in his past contributed to him forming his violent alter ego personality, and that one of the clones must have just snapped one day and the rest is history

anyway so now we’re cutting to his first meeting with my new boyfriend Giran

ah okay, so he’s scared because if he actually is one of the clones then just a tiny bit of damage would be enough to finally do him in

btw Giran, possibly the one good thing Re-Destro and his buds did was getting rid of that scarf and sunglasses though bud. if you decide to change up your look after all of this, I’m not going to complain. there’s a reason I thought you were just some douchebag this whole time. obviously I shouldn’t have been so quick to judge you, I realize that now of course

but seriously Giran who wears sunglasses at night indoors. I mean, idk, maybe you get migraines or something. but if not I’m just saying

regardless, questionable fashion choices aside, Giran is actually a super nice guy, a mensch if you will, and he is now casually changing Twice’s entire life in the span of a few sentences. awww

how the fuck were you planning on smoking that cigarette while wearing a paper bag over your face. ??

also, Giran on this page kinda reminds me of Sanji, if Sanji was, like, a beatnik about to throw down on open mic poetry night

anyway so that’s the end of our happy flashback, and now we’re back in the present with Twice resuming his freakout!

but in spite of his mental struggles, he’s shaking the puppet clones off and trying to dash toward Toga again omg!

up in his little tower Skeptic seems fairly surprised

in related news, fuck this guy so much. also he’s using one of his puppets as a chair, which is one of the creepiest touches Horikoshi has put in this manga to date. but also they mentioned last week that Skeptic makes the puppets out of any human-sized materials that happen to be lying around, so I kind of wonder if maybe this dude originally was a chair. the mysteries of BnHA

moving on though, yeah, Twice and Toga really do have a strong bond though, don’t they? their chemistry is as beautiful as it is strange

oh shit but they really did hit him though

FUCK YOU F AND G

FFFFF SON OF A BITCH

DLASFKJLKJ PLEASE DON’T YOU FUCKING PSYCHOPATH, I CAN’T WAIT FOR YOU TO FUCKING DIE YOU ASSHOLE!!!

motherfucker! and we just established that he’s afraid that a broken bone will be enough to kill him if it turns out he really is a clone!

-- holy shit, but. on the other hand, if it doesn’t kill him though, that just might be enough to cure him of that particular fear once and for all. oh shit, unexpected plot twist

though in this particular situation it probably won’t make much of a difference how sane he is if he’s still got two broken arms though fuuuuuuuck

anyway... gotta click to the next page... even though I really don’t want to, sob

aaaaaaaand they’ve broken them. well shit. at least it wasn’t graphic. he’s just hunching forward and screaming and his arms are facing the wrong way, fuck

and now Skeptic is all “your legs are next,” and uh, can Twice actually hear him, though?? like, what? did I miss something here? is he piping his voice in through the shed’s convenient sound system or something?

anyway he’s telling Twice not to struggle anymore, and Twice is muttering to himself all darkly about how much that hurt

and apparently Toga’s regained consciousness now!!

wow Skeptic, okay sure, go ahead and keep talking about how you’re about to kill Toga in front of his eyes. just keep on digging yourself deeper. it’s like he doesn’t realize there’s only one page left in the chapter and things are just about reaching a tipping point and our heroes (?! I mean they are, though, for this arc at any rate) have had just about enough of his bullshit

lol I can’t take the tension omg

please do something badass please do something badass please d --

oh snap

Twiiiiiiice ;_; so it’s like I thought. they unexpectedly cured you of your identity crisis angst

anyway I guess this chapter is a longer one than usual because it’s page 15 now and we’re still going! so I will now resume my “please do something badass” chant. c’mon Twice. kick some assssssss

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS

THIS TIME I REALLY DID LEAP OUT OF MY CHAIR OMG. BOIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

LMAO ARE ALL OF THEIR ARMS BROKEN TOO. FUCK IT, IT DOESN’T MATTER. DEKU HAS SPENT APPROXIMATELY HALF THE MANGA WITH BROKEN ARMS AND IT’S NEVER STOPPED HIM*

*forest angst aside. and anyways that all worked out in the end, so

“wounded heroes are the most dangerous.” well fuck. given that we’ve just seen an exhausted and delirious Shigaraki eradicate an entire wave of people, and a bloodied and wounded Toga straight up murder one of the Army’s leaders, I think it’s safe to say we can apply this statement to villains too. and I for one can’t wait how dangerous a wounded -- but now sane -- Twice can be. motherfucker how I am loving this glorious arc