#but post-timeskip i think he's seen as much more competent

[waitineedaname]

I was thinking about this post comparing sqh and jgy, and then this chart happened. this is less about what they're Actually like, and more about a combination of intentional persona + public perception of them

[raquellemonsta]

Hi girl! Me again!

Still can’t stop thinking abt that amazing tobio fic that u did which I requested, I NEEDD a part two or like a timeskip where they’re datinggg. I’m dying to know what their dating life is like when their pre-dating time is already as hot and fiery as u wrote it!! <3 along w the media n stuff like they’re obv they’re gn be so slay n espesh u write it so i alr know I’m gn love it sm!! So looking forward to it <33

golden (timeskip!kageyama x model!reader)

here it is! I love these two so much. I'm sorry this took so long, oops. disclaimer: you'll have to suspend your disbelief, I know in the manga he technically was 19 when he went to the Olympics but he's aged up here so that both of your career paths make sense. I am very sorry if that takes you out of the story at all </3 I hope you love it anyway!

wc: 2015 words

(part 1)

your relationship with kageyama tobio is nothing short of a dream. everyone can tell just how in love with him you are, and he's just as whipped for you. the two of you are meant for each other.

it's what all the tabloids, your closest friends, and even your parents say to you every-time you see them.

you can't agree more; he's the perfect man for you. tobio is able to understand the weight of being in the spotlight, millions of eyes on you, and he keeps you grounded. he's been your date to every social event, awards show, concert, sporting event, you name it. at the same time, you both are always there for one another, even with no cameras around. tobio's your safe space away from all of the pressures of being famous (and just being human, too). he's anything but a pr relationship, that's for sure.

which is why you're so excited, today of all days especially.

your boyfriend is competing in the 2016 summer olympic games, one of the most impressive feats an athlete can accomplish.

even if tobio can be quiet, not bothering to talk about what it is he's thinking about most of the time, you know that this has been a dream of his since he was a little boy. it's quite literally the farthest he can go in the sport he's loved forever, and he gets to do it with his close friends by his side, too.

your heart swells with pride just thinking about it. you're so happy he has this opportunity.

the unfortunate consequence of it, though, is that you haven't seen him in two weeks. well, that's slightly dramatic. he's able to text you occasionally, but nothings the same as waking up in his arms. other than games, of course, he's restricted to practice and the olympic village.

the only times you've really seen him in-person are watching his games, where you have a limited time afterwards to hug him before he's whisked away from you to start the same cycle over again.

it's been very lonely without him. your friend even sent you a twitter post someone had made about how sad you looked and how 'no one ever sees [you] without [your] boyfriend usually'. you kind of laughed at that, both at the ridiculous picture taken of you and at the fact that the caption might be true.

you miss him so much.

that's why you're both excited and nervous that today is the very last possible match: olympic finals.

entering the (at this point) familiar arena, you make your way to the side designated for japan. your seat is pretty close to the front, but still high enough so that you can see all of the court. that part is important, since your tobio rarely stays in one spot when he's out there.

you pull out your phone, shooting a text to your friend and then one to tobio, despite the fact that he definitely won't see it until after the game. you're pulled out of your focus by a man with a microphone held to your face.

"miss japan! miss (l/n), are you excited to be here today?" he looks at you excitedly, camera aimed at your face.

you can never seem to escape the 'reporters' from random news sites, especially here. it's not too surprising that they want to know your reaction to your boyfriend being in the finals. you don't want to seem rude, though, so once you recover from the shock of being interrupted, you respond calmly.

"of course i am. i'm lucky to have someone i know and love playing, too." you smile at the camera, waving to anyone who will end up watching this (which is always more people than you think). you can practically hear gushiken-san talking about what a great client he has. 'so humble!'

"yes, kageyama tobio. his performance has been amazing these past few games." he looks at you, expectantly.

"i think his performance is always amazing, but i'm also biased," you joke.

the man smiles at you, the two of you going back and forth for a few more questions, mainly about you and your most recent projects (shouldn't they be focused on the event you're at?), along with digging for any possible hints on where you'll be modeling next.

finally, he thanks you for your time and you're left alone. your attention then shifts to the court, where brazil has gone out to warm up.

your heartbeat picks up its pace, nervous and excited simultaneously.

it's almost time.

when the japanese team walks out, your eyes immediately fall onto number 20. even his warmup is flawless. you barely register the time passing, gaze locked on tobio like he's the only man on earth.

the whistle, signifying the end of warmups and for the teams to lineup, brings you back to reality. this is really happening. this is what he's worked so hard for.

this is his destiny.

————

finals. olympic finals. a game away from total victory, or bitter defeat.

his heart has been pounding for the entirety of the last set. tobio has always been able to keep his cool during matches, but something about the pressure of the biggest match in the entire world has managed to creep into his head. it even cost the team a point earlier. a foot fault has rarely ever happened to him before, yet here of all games it would. tobio knows he has to put that behind him, though, especially with the score now.

28-27. match point. and he's up to serve.

slowly moving back behind the line, a chill goes down his spine. the arena feels dead silent, despite the sheer number of spectators. he closes his eyes, pushing out a final exhale as his ears barely register the whistle.

this is it.

his entire life has led up to this exact moment. his serve undoubtedly making or breaking the game, and his reputation. it feels as though the weight of the world is on his shoulders, crushing him and depriving his lungs of air. like sinking deep underwater, he's nearly swallowed whole.

a saving grace is waiting for him, in the form of you. he pictures your beautiful face, smiling up at him like he's the only man in the entire world. like he's invincible.

tobio knows you're watching him right now. what are you thinking? about that missed serve earlier, and how lame he is? no. that thought is quickly swiped away. he thinks of how you'll run up to him as soon as the game is over, win or lose, take him in your arms and kiss him like no one is watching. he can't wait.

with complete precision, he tosses the ball up, going through his footwork as if in slow motion. he's done this a million times before, and yet this is different.

at the apex of his jump, he meets the ball. he swears he can see you now, hands over your mouth, gripping tightly in anticipation. he's sure he's never slammed the ball harder.

the ball drills into the back left corner, shanked by brazil's opposite.

the arena immediately becomes deafening, shouts and cheers erupting from every single side of kageyama as he barely registers that he ended the olympics on an ace. his teammates are crowding him, excited (especially bokuto), and yet all he can think of is you.

the next several minutes are spent awarding the medals, kageyama standing with his team on the first place podium. despite this being one of the greatest moments of his life, his face lacks a visible smile. he's glancing around the arena, searching throughout the crowd.

a tap on his shoulder finally pulls him out of it, though he turns around to be met with the girl he was looking for, you.

his eyes widen for a split second before you basically throw yourself onto him, hugging him so tightly that you can feel the cold medal through your shirt. tobio's arms quickly wrap around you, and even despite the sweat you move closer to him.

"i'm so proud of you." you smile brightly, amazed by this man that you're lucky enough to call your boyfriend. your hands have found their way to his cheeks, thumbs at the edge of his lips.

kageyama's never been big on pda, but he just won an olympic gold medal and has the prettiest girl in the world by his side. he can let a kiss with you slide, especially when you're looking at him like that.

you drown out the cheers and ignore the flashing of several cameras, lost in your love for tobio. it's only you and your lover, locked in a kiss full of emotion and yet simply enough to convey your feelings.

when the two of you pull away, it's like you suddenly remember just where you are, and you feel slightly shy (which is shocking, for you). tobio, on the other hand, is smiling down at you. really smiling, the smile that he told you people always thought was 'creepy', but you loved because you know it's genuine.

unfortunately, the two of you are pulled out of your moment together.

"kageyama, that was absolutely amazing! how are you feeling after such an amazing moment?!" a reporter rapidly speaks, trying to be heard over the loud environment. unlike the one interviewing you earlier, this woman appears to be from a more official american news station, trying to get an interview from the man who won japan the game.

tobio looks between her and the camera, confused, before he leans into the microphone.

"i love my girlfriend," comes his very choppy english. you can't stop yourself from smiling brightly, the camera turning to focus on you behind him.

he pulls you away after that, and you shoot the reporter and cameraman an apologetic look before following after him eagerly.

"thank you, hon." you joke, commenting on his earlier answer to the woman.

he looks to you. "it's true."

you lean up to kiss him again, hands tenderly holding his shoulders.

"i know. you're so sweet to me… can i wear your medal for a sec?" you eye the big circle of gold.

kageyama can only roll his eyes at your quick shift, though he still ends up taking the medal off and over his head, placing it on you like you've just created all of the stars in the sky.

—————

"tobio, what flavor should we get? i'm stuck between strawberry shortcake and fudge brownie." you stare through the glass case at the grocery store, pondering about the endless assortment of ice cream.

in the reflection, you can see your boyfriend aimlessly looking around the aisle, before his eyes catch onto your figure. you catch his lips turn up so subtly that you'd have never noticed it if he wasn't the love of your life.

he ponders your statement for a second, before coming up next to you and opening the case, grabbing both of the cartons you listed. you look up at him, confused.

"why not both?" he turns back to you, small smile still present.

you smile brightly at him, entranced. he's so perfect.

"i love you, tobio."

"i love you, (y/n)."

you let yourself fall into his side (the arm where he's not holding the ice cream, of course), wrapping your arm around his back as he does the same to you.

on your way to the self-checkout, you snatch one of the magazines on the edge of an aisle, plastered with a photo of you and tobio after his medal was awarded. you skim the bubble in the bottom right corner, one questioning any talk of marriage between the two of you.

you jokingly point to the bubble, showing it to your boyfriend.

"what do you have to say to this, hm?"

tobio eyes it, quickly reading before he smiles at you and kisses your head. he turns away to pay for the ice cream, ignoring your question.

"hey!"

"patience…"

[fencer-x]

Hi ! For the Final Stroke part 2 , I saw in a post, that someone said that Haru said he wanted to swim with rin until the end of his life. Is it true ? I would be very happy if so ! Because this account has advance info on the movie too :) And do Rin and Haru follow the same voice at the end ? Can we say that they are canon, or at least the most hot of the other ships ? I'm a little confused with makoto's 'suki', but I know the movie is full of rin and haru so hope you answer me <3

Thank you ♥️

I don't believe Haru ever explicitly says that. Perhaps they're extrapolating from Haru's imagined conversation with Rin--how he wanted their conversation at the end of FS1 to go--where he says "I want to swim in the lane next to yours at the next tournament!" and Rin responds "I want to walk along the same path as you going forward!" Rin's can be considered to reference a shared future together (and because this is Haru's fantasy, this is something he explicitly wanted to hear) lasting longer than just the next tournament.

"And do Rin and Haru follow the same voice at the end ?"

Are you asking if they're following the same path at the end? (if not, sorry XD please ask again) It's unclear if Haru has become a professional swimmer--he's balked at the notion in the past, and Rin's (and to a lesser degree Ikuya's) decision to go pro probably made him hesitate even more.

However, several things should be considered:

(1) He seems to have dropped out of school to focus on his rehabilitation, so he isn't swimming with his school team.

(2) He's been competing internationally, but not necessarily in FINA competitions, as he prepares to make his formal reentry into the swimming arena.

(3) He initially balked at the idea because he didn't want to 'be Rin', convinced that his approach to swimming was not the same as Rin's. Throughout FS2, though, he comes to accept that the person he is now isn't the same as he was before, he's matured, and he is no longer scared of 'becoming ordinary' once he hits 20, determined to wait longer (which is Haru for 'I'm going to keep swimming competitively and making a name for myself').

To me, the above suggest that he's either gone professional like Rin and Ikuya or is heading there, because he has no intention of giving up competitive swimming now. Swimming at so many international tournaments, without the support of a school team, makes it seem to me like he's taking that next step, standing alongside Rin and Ikuya and Albert.

Are they 'canon'? No, absolutely not. None of the ships are (no one gets paired off, not even the girls, which I love! Everyone's still free [no pun intended] to ship what they want or imagine the characters' futures how they like).

But Haru and Rin will be much more 'together' now than they ever have been before, and Haru is finally where he said he wanted to be: swimming in the lane next to Rin, which we have seen is a place that lets him swim his fastest and most freely without pain. We can probably presume that there were some conversations had to this effect that we didn't see during the brief few months' timeskip, where Rin almost certainly said the words that Haru wanted to hear in that initial fight they had in FS1: that he wanted to walk the same path as Haru going forward.

I personally can't think of a better way it could have ended for them, as they're going to be together forever now, essentially :)

As for the Makoto stuff, Makoto never said 'suki' to Haru. As a child (probably age 10 or so), he repeated Nagisa's 'suki' to himself when suggested he be open with his thoughts and feelings if he liked Haru, but that was in the context of, "He's not just a random kid, he's someone you're fond of, your best friend, so you shouldn't treat him like you treat everyone else--be more open with him and tell him what you're feeling, that you're worried about him." It wasn't a romantic 'suki' explicitly (though I won't blame any shippers for reading it as such). I went into this in detail here. I don't think it's all that confusing really -- Makoto was remembering the first time he was taught by someone that he needs to TELL Haru the things he's feeling instead of assuming they're understood implicitly (which is funny cause Haru has the same problem XD). He did say he loved Haru's swimming, but I don't think anyone's going to argue that's romantic in itself ^^;

[warlordgab]

Nami analysis: Luffy will definitely become the Pirate King

This was originally meant to be a collection of a few Nami character moments to defend her from the trend of hate against her. But, a friend of mine got me to make an actual analysis about her given the recent manga developments. It's mostly about some aspects of Nami's growth throughout the series.

Let's start with one memorable scene from Skypiea...

...when Nami kept panicking, Luffy told her she shouldn't stop acting so pathetic for she's a companion of the future Pirate King.

Here, Luffy makes a connection between their success and the certainty of his dream. As in Nami shouldn't fear because Luffy being the future Pirate King means they'll always succeed at the end.

After Luffy gets BFR'd, Nami makes this her earnest belief. Instead of submitting to Enel in fear, or playing along with his plan to ensure her survival, she draws enough courage to take a firm stand...

...and face Enel on her own.

There's even a subtle symbolism in both scene. When Luffy is giving Nami the reason why she shouldn't panic, he gave Nami his treasured hat. And when Nami is about to finally challenge Enel, she grips Luffy's hat. (Oda is an amazing writer!!!)

It's subtle, but you can see Nami drawing courage from Luffy, his values, and his dream, to challenge a monster she had no way of beating

Oda decided to continue Nami's character growth in the movie he wrote, Strong World.

After realizing Shiki (and his army of mutated animals) headed towards East Blue, which included the hometown where her sister and other loved ones lived in, her first response was looking for Luffy...

...instead of panicking like she did in Skypiea, she sought the person that could reassure her everything would be all right. We went from symbolism to something a little bit more straightforward.

Even when Shiki defeated the East Blue team, Nami managed to keep her cool, so she could mess the plans of a legendary pirate who could easily crush her. Even when was caught and left to die, she didn't give up and proved she was willing to die to protect her hometown.

Huge displays of selflessness and actual courage. However, it's interesting to see that, as character moments, they were built upon her growth in Skypiea and Arlong Park. Why can we say that?

In Arlong Park she realized there are burdens, and even emotional luggage, she couldn't carry on her own so she had to rely on others to keep going. In Skypiea, she drew the strength needed to face overwhelming odds from Luffy.

Now, Luffy described Nami as their vanguard against Shiki, which indicates he knew that Nami was trying to fight Shiki's army from the inside. But, she never planned to carry this burden on her own. Luffy instilled in her the belief that being the companion of the future Pirate King means they'll suceed regardless of the setbacks they may suffer. At the end of the movie, we get the twist that Nami not only believes in Luffy...

...she gets embarrassed about the recorded proof of her faith in her captain when she realized Luffy didn't hear it. Arlong Park and Skypiea laid the groundwork for her belief, while Strong World solidified it.

Also, it’s worth noting her stand against Shiki is reminiscent of the brave attitude displayed by Silk (Nami’s earliest prototype) from One Piece’s first pilot: Romance Dawn V.1

A girl who was more than willing to fight in order to protect her hometown and her loved ones regardless of the foe. Was that intentional on Oda’s part? Who knows...

Now, how did Nami character change post-timeskip?

If we stick to the manga, everything they've been through so far had strengthened her faith and trust in Luffy and his dream. We can see it in the Wholecake arc...

... when facing Cracker, Nami declares with absolute confidence that the fact Luffy is the future Pirate King is pretty much the guarantee of their victory. Not everyone invokes a NLF when talking about Luffy.

So, when Sanji goes as far as brutalizing Luffy, and trash-talking his dream, Nami's response was... 

...which makes a lot of sense given how her confidence on the future, and part of her growth as a person, are tied to Luffy's dream.

The disrespect Sanji was forced to show now can be used as a contrast given recent developments; when Nami was in a life-or-death situation, scared and helpless before an enemy she couldn't beat on her own, she was offered a way out: disavow Luffy's dream of becoming the Pirate King...

... However, even when facing certain death, having no other way to defend herself or run away, Nami couldn't lie about Luffy becoming the Pirate King, not even to say her life. In the japanese version she answers: "Luffy will become the Pirate King... definitely"

We've seen Nami lying to weasel her way out of danger, but this time, she's literally incapable of lying about the fact Luffy will reach his goal. From her perspective that's a truth you simply cannot deny or reject under any circumstances.

That's an outstanding display of loyalty, but the overall theme connecting this moment to previous showings is "faith."

From Skypiea, she was told being a companion of the Pirate King ensured success, in Strong World, she was embarrassed to admit how strong was her faith and trust in Luffy. Post-timeskip, we now see her shouting it confidently to the enermy, and now she believes in Luffy so much, that not even facing death can make her say otherwise. That's how you develop a character!

I know I left out the Drum arc, Water 7, Shabaody, Fishman Island, Punk Hazard (Bellemere would be proud), Dressrosa, and Zou... but, it would take months and a kilometric post to cover hundreds of chapters worth of development. I only covered the essentials.

If you want more, check out the author's works; the manga and the Film series (SW, Z, and GOLD).

Point is, Nami is a great character who truly deserves to be described as “queenly,” not only because Oda said so, but also for her progression during this long-running story

BONUS:

Finally, I’m going to address an ugly trend in the west. Nami had been getting a lot of hate as of recent years. Even highly influential figures within the fandom tend to put down Nami. Many belittle her character, and they even compare her to other series’ characters that get treated as “chew toys” by their respective fandoms.

Why so much hate for Nami’s character?

Short answer: she has been dealt a bad hand

First, her role in the story and the crew puts her at odds with fans of characters they usually hype as greater figures of authority and power within the strawhat group. She commands too much authority, and that make fans pretty insecure about their favorite character’s position.

Along with this factor, there’s the fact she’s the most “human” in a crew (and a world) filled with superhuman people. Haters probably feel that someone so normal shouldn’t have so much agency. Specially when compared to other women

Speaking of which, that’s another reason why Nami gets so much hate. Her role as a heroine, and her superior navigation skills, makes her an incredibly important character to this story. And that makes the fans hyping other females see her a threat to their favorites’ position, like some sort of competion.

Which leads me to the other point people hate her: Nami’s relationship with Luffy. She’s closer to Luffy than many other women, which include more powerful and overhyped girls, and yes I said girls, because there’s more than one powerful female characters getting that hype

Last factor I’m going to mention is the pettiest of all: the way she responds to other characters. You probably realized that she reacted quite well to Inuarashi’s and Tonoyasu’s compliments, right? Well, thing is many fans want her to respond in a similar manner to their favorite character(s). Problem is that she doesn’t...

She’s a fiery woman with a lot of agency that doesn’t fall for flirting nor physical aesthetics, while challenging the main characters’ decisions, and/or questioning their idiocy. Meanwhile, there are physically stronger women who are far more submissive and/or subservient...

Overall, she’s on a bad position in the west.

Regardless of what haters feel or think, Nami is an amazing character that deserves as much love as she gets in Japan (probably even more). So, screw the morons trying put her down and/or failing to understand her worth. She’s the “queen,” and people should bow

[aiyexayen]

re: that "I'll live for you post" - WHERE'S THE ESSAY

this post? [innocent face]

alright, alright, JUST TWIST MY ARM WHY DON'T YOU, just force me to talk more about my boys!

4.9k word essay under the cut

Wei Wuxian

Let us take a look at Wei Wuxian first. Wei Wuxian has no problems throwing himself in-between the people he loves and danger, or even certain death. Hell, sometimes he just throws himself into it for fun and profit!

To some extent, putting yourself in danger to help others and being willing to die is something of a cultivator thing in general, a hero thing in general, right? And Wei Wuxian is a prodigy, exceptionally strong and clever, so he has more reason than most to be a little cavalier. But most of the point of training so hard as a cultivator and getting strong and aligning yourself with a sect is kind of so you can be in real danger of dying as little as possible, one would presume.

So we're going to set aside the danger-as-a-profession thing for now, because I think it's only tangentially related.

The real point is, Wei Wuxian is sacrificial to a fault. If there is a problem, he decides he's the one who needs to fix it. And his first go-to solution is to throw himself at it, to give up anything of himself if it's viable. As clever as he is, if he finds a workable solution that involves his own sacrifice, he doesn't stop to look for anything else.

Some of it is pride--not wanting to admit he needs help from anyone else, and the shame of being seen as weak.

Some of it is arrogance--a very natural kind given his competence, the presumption that he knows best in a given situation (neurodivergent arrogance walking hand-in-hand with self-esteem issues is always a fun time).

Some of it is appropriate--ranging from his own moral imperative to protect the weak and do what's right to his understanding of his place in culture and in his own sect and relationships.

Some of it is a natural bent toward caretaking, "fixing," and heroics--someone has to do it, so it's going to be Wei Wuxian. He won't hesitate to take initiative in any other area of life, and this is no exception.

And some of it, yes, is a lack of value placed in his own life--between a more youthful, dramatic perspective on 'I would die for you/for this cause' taking priority in his worldview, and some genuine self-esteem issues. Issues largely stemming from his uncertain place in the world growing up and his uncertain relationship with parental/guardian/master and other familial figures, all stewing under the surface and brought to light sharply when the world went to shit and choices were made and he lost or seemed to have lost everything from his reputation to his home to his extant support structures. The paranoia and voices in his head (the ptsd and resentful-energy-as-ptsd-metaphor both) only drove that home.

Basically, Wei Wuxian was already trending in some unfortunate directions but his circumstances and the people surrounding him kept him grounded, and the events of the story as it unfolded really pushed him all in. No one thing or one person--even Wei Wuxian himself--is really to blame for that, which is the beauty of the story really.

I also think Wei Wuxian started to buy into some of his own stories at his lowest points--the things he said or came up with, lies he told publicly, justifications he made for his choices once the heat of the moment and the panic was over. Justifications he made to himself and to others. He purposefully led people to believe much that was incorrect about him and his character and his status, to which the response was distaste and horror, and even though he planned it that way in order to push everyone away I really think he started to believe it himself. Depression and trauma are just really fun times.

I'm getting a bit off-topic.

The point remains, Wei Wuxian is extremely sacrificial. He comes by much of it naturally, and not nearly all of it is bad or melodrama or angst or even unhealthy or problematic. It's one of his good qualities, too, and it's one of the ways he knows how to love.

All of the threads weaving together to make Wei Wuxian and the situations he finds himself sacrificing things in are all true, but it also really comes down to love. He loved Jiang Cheng enough to sacrifice his everything and risk his life doing so. He loved his sect enough he was willing to sacrifice his right hand. He loved his sect enough to sacrifice his very ties to it. He loved Lan Zhan enough to sacrifice their friendship. He loved Jin Ling enough to sacrifice himself to the curse he got in the Nie tombs. (And more!)

Wei Wuxian loved, and so he sacrificed. Thus, the initial post.

Jiang Cheng

Let's switch gears for a moment and talk about my darling Jiang Wanyin.

Ah, Jiang Cheng, Jiang Cheng. Taking the initiative and sacrificing at the drop of a hat and so forth are not really characteristics of Jiang Cheng's the same way they are for Wei Wuxian.

And yet, is he not also a disciple of Yunmeng Jiang; is he not also a young hero? Has he not pride, and the incentive to do good?

Does he not also see love as sacrifice?

Zi Zhizhu was his mother. The woman who sacrificed to get Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian to safety. The woman who killed herself and crawled across the ground to hold her husband's hand in death.

You think she wasn't Like That the whole time? You think Jiang Cheng picked up nothing of such behaviours from her, even before that day?

Hah.

Besides which, there's absolutely an underlying theme of Jiang Cheng trying to be like Wei Wuxian for much of their lives.

Partially just...Wei Wuxian, strong and clever and popular shige, always manages to get credit and glory and good stories and good favour, exemplary of the Jiang motto--the one Jiang Cheng's own name is tied to. They were supposed to be shuangjie, besides. How could he not want to be like him at least a bit? If nothing else, it's a little brother's curse.

And partially this is also due to Jiang Cheng's parents and that whole Situation.

It was complicated for so many reasons, and absolutely left Jiang Cheng feeling inferior to Wei Wuxian. As though he needed to be more like Wei Wuxian, to emulate him, in order to be worthy of his title and station and inheritance, something that turned out to be categorically untrue in the end. There are many kinds of leaders, and many kinds of strengths.

As an aside, I personally think that's something Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan knew, themselves, as adults and leaders and political figures in their own rights. Adults often don't realise or think about how the things they say can influence children's entire worldviews and senses of self (why, no, I don't speak from experience, why would you ask such a thing ahaha).

Jiang-zongzhu and Zi Zhizhu got a lot of their own relationship difficulties and misunderstandings and conflicts and conflicting attempts to want the best for their children (and ward) tangled up in everything. I think if they'd ever been able to speak plainly, if they could manifest into the Ancestral Hall and speak to Jiang Cheng, they would say so.

Just as Jiang Cheng would have cause to be horrified by much of what Wei Wuxian believed about himself, I think Jiang Cheng's parents would have cause to be horrified by much of what Jiang Cheng believed. (I mean, and Wei Wuxian, probably.)

Anyway.

Jiang Cheng has plenty of reasons to aspire to those same ideals of sacrifice. And it's not just aspirations, either--we see him follow through.

He walked outside from that inn, saw Wei Wuxian in danger, and made a decision in the space of a single breath--a decision with full understanding, too. He knew he was giving up his entire life for Wei Wuxian's. He said goodbye in his head.

I would argue (and I'm sure I've said this before somewhere too) that his sacrifice was the purest example of this in the entire story.

Perhaps some of it is that many of Wei Wuxian's sacrifices are premeditated and just about all of them have alternative solutions that don't involve him just diving in and giving pieces of himself up.

That isn't to say that Wei Wuxian wouldn't see a sword aimed at Jiang Cheng and take the blow himself. But we never see him do that, exactly. As much as Jiang Cheng has internalised this ideal of Wei Wuxian's, he both encounters fewer of these situations and has other problem-solving tactics in his repertoire.

The way Jiang Cheng hates himself doesn't lead him to think of himself as disposable. I could get into a (very amateur) discussion of negative schemas formed in childhood and their various similarities and differences, and the different ways Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian's brains appear to work (Jiang Cheng sees himself as inferior, while Wei Wuxian willfully dehumanises himself in other ways), but basically, it's simply a different set of psychological issues.

But! When he is faced with the choice, Jiang Cheng absolutely dies for the ones he loves.

He loves his sect and his family, and he internalises love as sacrifice, and when it comes down to an extreme moment he chooses to die for them.

And then he doesn't die.

And then the war happens.

Jiang Cheng's Growth

There are a lot of reasons for Jiang Cheng to grow in this area, and I think it starts with inheriting the sect.

(This leads to excellent thoughts about What If Wei Wuxian Had Somehow Become Sect Leader but that's an au for another day.)

If sect heir was a position full of responsibility and reputation management, how much more so is zongzhu? Jiang Cheng is suddenly responsible for all these people. Whether he's good enough or not doesn't even matter. The job is there and it's inescapable and he's the only one there to do it.

I'm absolutely sure he still has all kinds of inferiority shit he's dealing with by post-timeskip and he only just gets to touch on some pieces of resolution by the end of the story, with the one person still in the world who would even know anything about the life that gave it to him.

Jiang Cheng has been responsible for people before, in small ways--night hunts and such, I'm sure, and he was certainly in charge of the Yunmeng Jiang disciples who went to Cloud Recesses. But being at the top of that hierarchy entirely is such a different matter, and he did so at a very young age and in a very fraught time.

The fact that he had to deal with all this new responsibility and duty to people more than his family and to causes greater than the first people in need he encounters is a huge perspective shift. Especially as a sect with nothing to give and no wiggle room where it comes not only to basic resources post-war, but to things like reputation and political standing. This is, of course, a huge facet to the conflict between him and Wei Wuxian (and the Wen remnants) at that point in the story.

But on a personal level it also speaks to the sacrifice thing. If Jiang Cheng sacrifices his life, he is not just sacrificing his own life anymore.

When he gave up his life for Wei Wuxian, he had not yet inherited. His parents were only barely gone. There was nothing to inherit. There was no surety of there ever being something to inherit ever again. Everything else was already gone. It was only the three of them, barely surviving, running for their lives. It was only him and Wei Wuxian in a street, and one of them had to die.

But once he inherits? He's a commander. He's a leader. He has all the knowledge and all the networking connections. He has the reputation. He has the social standing. He might still have a long way to go in developing his skills, but he has a natural leadership ability and he does have training appropriate to his station.

What happens if he personally sacrifices his life? What happens to all of that? What happens to everyone depending on him?

That's not very satisfying, very epic-worthy. That's not very dramatic or romantic. It's gradual, and messy, that kind of change and realisation. Becoming that kind of person. Making choices based in that reality. Deciding that you do not belong to yourself.

And I think it really comes to a head when his siblings die.

I think it comes to a head personally. Not just in his role as Jiang-zongzhu. We don't see Jiang Cheng choose not to die, in as many words. But we certainly see him choose to live.

Or, perhaps, we see the evidence of that choice.

Jiang Cheng could have faded away. He could have started delegating all his responsibilities, gotten help from other sects, trained up a replacement. He could have made such things necessary by getting more and more reclusive. He could have pulled a Qingheng-Jun.

Hell, with a-jie gone already, he could have just said fuck this and followed Wei Wuxian off that cliff, and if you don't think he wonders about that sometimes--at least at first--then we have very different interpretations of Jiang Cheng as a person.

And no, none of those are sacrifice. But at some point, he still chose to do the opposite.

He chose every day to live for his sect, to keep growing it into something powerful and secure. He took that vow that he made and he fucking stuck to it.

And he chose to live for Jin Ling.

I don't half wonder if that was a bigger driving force at first than anything else.

Jiang Cheng could absolutely have left Jin Ling to be raised by his Jin family in the absence of his parents and fucked off to hide away in Yunmeng and had nothing to do with him. He could have done a lot of things, let himself develop in a lot of ways, unhealthy ways.

But he so very clearly did not.

Jin Ling and Jiang Cheng have a close relationship. Jin Ling defers to Jiang Cheng, is answerable to him on night hunts and beyond them. It's never questioned why he's basically just in the Yunmeng Jiang party by himself. Yunmeng Jiang disciples answer to Jin Ling in turn, follow his orders without question in the absence of their zongzhu. It's a Yunmeng Jiang disciple who hands Xianzi off to Jin Ling outside the Guanyin Temple in Yunping, and Jiang Cheng is intimately familiar with Xianzi's commands and is apparently a trusted person to give them (which, we find out, Jin Guangyao is not.)

As much as Jiang Cheng is not good at saying what he means, and especially after everything he's been through his softer bits have grown harder and harder carapace around them, Jin Ling never seems to misunderstand what Jiang Cheng means. They snipe at each other and snark and bitch and roll their eyes and so clearly love each other.

Jiang Cheng's love for Jin Ling shines brightly the second you know how to interpret Jiang Cheng, and Jin Ling absolutely does. Jin Ling's trust in Jiang Cheng is incredible.

Jin Ling is practically Yunmeng Jiang's heir, and practically Jiang Cheng's son.

That sort of thing doesn't just happen, because you're related or whatever. In fact, the story goes out of its way to present blood relations not being close, especially father figures.

Which means from a young age, Jin Ling knew Jiang Cheng's love. Jiang Cheng, struggling young zongzhu of a struggling newly-rebuilt sect, who just lost everything, barely more than a kid himself, figured out he needed to not only stay alive, but needed to live for Jin Ling.

He needed to teach him everything, needed to figure out how to be the best of his own father and mother, and the best of Jin Ling's father and mother, and live up to every lost bit of love Jin Ling should have had, and try, and try, no matter how unworthy or unfit or inferior he felt. No matter how much he fucked up and didn't know. No matter how much grief he was dealing with. No matter how many people hated him and how few friends he had. No matter how much there was to do. No matter how overwhelming the endless tide of days, of forever in front of him felt, horrible and empty of everyone that had come before. Jiang Cheng still chose to live.

He carved out that new life because of love. He didn't die for anyone, and he didn't die for anyone's memory. He lived.

"I never thought I'd be worth the work it would take to piece myself together," but he did, for his sect, his disciples, his family's legacy, his siblings' memories, and Jin Ling.

And, as a bonus knife, the things we see him chide Jin Ling the most for? Are specifically things Wei Wuxian would have done, and even things he would have done in following him. Grandstanding, not asking for help when needed, wandering off alone, making unnecessary sacrifices.

Wei Wuxian's Growth

That brings us to Wei Wuxian coming back. And, well, the boy still has a long way to go. He goes through a lot of kinds of growth post-timeskip. And I think this is one of them.

For one, he's already fucking died once.

Honestly, almost ironically, that death wasn't even fully a sacrifice. Perhaps in some ways it was, in some ways he internalised that it was. But regardless, after all his sacrificing, he finally died. And, much like Jiang Cheng's sacrifice, it didn't stick. He woke back up. Albeit 16 years later.

Now, he wasn't keen on dying, or he maybe would have just gone back. But that doesn't mean he'd suddenly decided to live for anyone rather than die for them.

And, indeed, we still see that side of him come back with him in full force. He starts off by deciding he will just live this new life without Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan altogether.

I think, for Wei Wuxian, this matter of sacrifice ends up being tied into a lot of other pieces of his growth--none of it happens independently of each other.

First, he is shown and told that he is wanted. That's the first thing. He cannot simply go on without inconveniencing/endangering/roping anyone else into his shit because his ties to other people don't work in only one direction. He is wanted.

Lan Zhan wants to be at his side, has not forgotten him, and loves him unwaveringly. That is a huge first step, right there at the beginning, when Lan Zhan grabs his hand, and they make eye contact, and by the time Lan Zhan turns to look away Wei Wuxian is grabbing his hand back desperately and that pretty much says everything it needs to right there.

The idea that Wei Wuxian can act at all without having any negative affect on anyone tied to him is something we see even outside the concept of sacrifice--how many times before his death, even before his defection, do we see him say things like "you can insult me, but don't involve the Yunmeng Jiang sect" like. Like. Wei Wuxian please. That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works.

So I think him realising that other people will willingly be tied to him and there's nothing he can do about it, that his actions affect the people who care about him all the time, is something he still has to learn/relearn even after everything that happened leading up to his death. I think, in particular, Wei Wuxian realising that it's not just his mistakes and fuckups that affect people, but his intentional actions, too. Like sacrifices. Even if they're at his own expense. Because people care and that's okay and good.

Lan Zhan drives that home with things like noticing that Wei Wuxian has transferred Jin Ling's curse to his own leg, and then insisting on carrying him.

Lan Zhan notices. Lan Zhan cares. This act of sacrifice does not end with Wei Wuxian suffering. It has cascading effects, even something this small. It is, perhaps, more effective a lesson on a small scale with fewer complexities woven in, than it would be on the larger scale issues he dealt with before his death.

This idea that his sacrifices affect people beyond him is carried through the rest of the story, too, from the way everyone seems to fret about him after the Burial Mounds and Lan Sizhui runs to hold him, down to the fact that he has to answer for how his sacrifice of his golden core to Jiang Cheng affects Jiang Cheng. Both the absence of his own golden core being a catalyst for a lot of other shit, and finding out about the core transfer actually fucking Jiang Cheng up. Which, it turns out, Wei Wuxian kind of knew would happen, he just thought he could get away with not dealing with it if he kept the secret better.

Wei Wuxian can't escape his sacrifices and his actions having an effect on those around him, the ones who care and the ones he cares about, or even the object of his sacrifice, and he really does have to have that hammered home.

He also deals with growth related to his pride and arrogance. He learns how to be weak, he learns how to have alternate forms of strength, he learns how to let others in, and let others stand with him.

Most of this is related to Lan Zhan, and I've already covered it at least somewhat in another meta, but it relates back to this, because those are two driving forces behind his sacrificial nature.

If Wei Wuxian is allowed to be weak, is allowed to hesitate, is allowed to go to others for help, is allowed to look for alternative solutions, that sets a better precedent for cutting down on the habitual self-sacrifice tendencies.

Additionally, he learns that others can and will stand with him in his sacrifices, when they are necessary.

Look at the way he pushes Lan Zhan away on the steps of Jinlintai, but Lan Zhan steps back toward him, and draws his sword, and declares his love before heaven and earth, saying in as many words that Wei Wuxian need not walk his path alone, and they fight together.

And the next time Wei Wuxian goes to sacrifice? In the Burial Mounds? He doesn't even think twice before volunteering Lan Zhan to stand with him. His entire plan revolves around the idea that Lan Zhan will stand with him--without even consulting Lan Zhan--and in doing so, they may be able to prevent Wei Wuxian from actually sacrificing his life.

Already we see him internalising a lot of that growth. He doesn't need to grandstand or prove himself; he doesn't care what everyone there thinks of him, and for the ones he does care about he is secure in their regard for him. He doesn't first attempt to sacrifice himself and be bait to draw the fierce corpses away while everyone including Lan Zhan runs off. He doesn't have to be convinced to accept Lan Zhan as part of his plan. He doesn't have to have Lan Zhan simply stay behind and then deal with the addition of him later.

Compare, if you will, the Xuanwu cave. Wei Wuxian absolutely expected everyone else to leave while he drew its attention, and Lan Zhan staying was not part of his original plan. Yes, later on they attacked the Xuanwu together, but that was different entirely. At first, he was just being bait to get everyone else to safety.

In the Burial Mounds? He's already worked Lan Zhan having his back into his plans.

It's still a sacrifice, but he's come a really long way about it.

So now that we've mitigated some of the sacrificial tendencies, modulated their effects on his choices, we come down to the "live for you instead of die for you" issue.

My positing that Wei Wuxian has reached this point by the end of the story has a lot more to do with having seen the patterns of his growth, watching the way he interacted with Jiang Cheng regarding the issue of the golden core transfer being revealed, watching the way he interacted with Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan in general evolve, and watching him allow himself to have more and more attachments by the end of the story. And getting the overall vibe that living is now important, and there are things to live for in this world now that he's back in it.

However, if I had to narrow it down to one moment to exemplify this, I would point to the moment where he's caught around the neck by Jin Guangyao.

Wei Wuxian absolutely knows that if Lan Zhan sheathes Bichen, they're all fucked. Lan Zhan could easily take everyone here who would fight him, but not if he sheathes his sword and seals his spiritual power. And at this point it's increasingly likely that if they let themselves be captured they're simply not going to make it out alive. None of them. No matter what Jin Guangyao says.

Lan Zhan's best chance for survival and Jin Guangyao's best chance at being brought to justice/captured are one and the same in this moment--Lan Zhan keeping his sword, and either taking Jin Guangyao down himself or escaping to go fetch the assembled sect leaders and such at Lotus Pier.

Wei Wuxian knows this. It's why he begs Lan Zhan to be okay with his death and to do this Right Thing anyway.

Lan Zhan is not, and does not.

I don't think Wei Wuxian is surprised by this, to be fair.

But he could have ensured it would happen. He could have ensured that Jin Guangyao would go down. He could have ensured, more importantly, that Lan Zhan lived. He could have prevented Lan Zhan from sheathing Bichen to begin with.

He could have sacrificed himself.

It would have been incredibly easy at that point. All he had to do was fight back instead of hold still. Jin Guangyao was not bluffing, probably, though he just as surely knew if Wei Wuxian died then he was next, he counted on everyone wanting Wei Wuxian alive more than they wanted him dead. So if Wei Wuxian had tried to fight back or escape, he would have died.

Jin Guangyao would have been shocked, very very briefly. The resulting chaos would have seen everyone in custody who needed to be. Perfect.

And, you know, Lan Zhan would have been once more Wei-Ying-less.

Wei Wuxian very notably does not make this sacrifice. Even if it means they get captured. Even if it means they likely die together instead of only one of them dying. Even if that math is terrible on the surface of it.

He doesn't make Lan Zhan watch him die again. He doesn't presume that his loss means nothing. He doesn't presume that his life is not worth it, that his sacrifice is worth it.

Wei Wuxian actively chooses to live. He chooses to live for Lan Zhan. For the chance that they will both find a way out, and if they don't, then they are together in this and that matters more.

And he keeps making that choice. At no point in the confrontation with Jin Guangyao, for all those hours and hours and hours of back and forth and monologuing in that damned temple, does Wei Wuxian try to grandstand or throw himself sacrificially into the mix in any way. He is always working with everyone there to whatever extent possible, to the ends that everyone (including people he cedes the political superiority to) decides upon. He releases ownership of the situation, of needing to fix the situation, of needing to fix the situation by giving himself up.

I've been writing this so long I'm starting to lose the threads of my own thoughts, but yeah.

By the end, I think Wei Wuxian learns a lot and grows a lot and finally hits the point that Jiang Cheng hit years and years prior.

"I never thought I'd be worth the work it would take to piece myself together," but he was confronted with the idea of it again and again until it had to stick, and so he did. For Lan Zhan, for Lan Sizhui, for Jin Ling, for the other juniors.

I do think there will always be some element of self-sacrifice to Wei Wuxian's character that remain unchanged. He is a caretaker and a fixer at the heart of him. He is a big brother and I think maturity has only expanded that trait. He's also notably not a leader, and to some extent he does belong to himself both more and less than he ever could before his death.

But that doesn't have to be a bad thing. And it doesn't negate him embracing the idea of living for the ones he loves, getting better for the ones he loves, and letting them keep him in their lives.

I'd like to think that this piece of character growth is another significant thing in favour of Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng being able to forge not just a healthy relationship but a healthier relationship post-canon than they may have ever had before, or at least in a very long time.

[ryuichirou]

Lord God Savior of All Ryu, I ask for but one noble request. lol i just wanna see all your AUs. Like, I always here about them in replies and stuff but I've almost never seen what they actually look like. So if you could just tag pics of them or doodle (they can be super bad 30 sec doodles too, it don't matter to me) them, I would be the happiest, most joyful little shit ever.

Anon!! Thank you for being so interested in our AUs and wanting to learn more about them. It was a very good excuse for us to go through the list of the AUs, doodle them, revisit some of the older ones, etc. So yeah, your wish is granted lol

Here’s the majority of them, we decided not to include those that we’ve barely talked about and thought out... I’ve put tags for those AUs where we have at least something posted. Most of them are something we haven’t even talked about at all and they don’t have a single sketch, but I liked drawing chibis for them way too much. Sorry, I used your ask lol

We have a general tag for our aus and specific ones for some of them, but sometimes an au from here is not tagged separately, so you might have to use this general tag...I tried to fix it, I don’t think I missed anything, so it should be ok now! ;w;

1. Space AU. It’s a story about a space expedition.. which turned out to be not exactly what everyone planned thanks to Erwin. What a commander! 

2. Tribal AU. It’s a story about Eren becoming a part of the tribe where Erwin and Levi live. 

3. Babysitter AU. Levi is a babysitter to Eren and Zeke, unfortunately for Zeke, who’s 17 and not exactly thrilled about being babied. Sometimes there’s kid Erwin too. We’ve never posted anything related to this AU, I think, and I don’t think we will. There’s another AU related to this one, but 19yo Eren from the paths (he has the memory of the manga events) keeps kid Eren company as an invisible ghost, while others think that kid Eren is cursed or something.

4. SnK AU. A classical one, where Eren has dreams about the plot of SnK, but when the story stops progressing, he decides to kidnap Levi to make the plot go on. Erwin finds out later... and keeps Levi in the basement because he wants to know the ending too lmao plus it’s hot.

5. Mines AU. Erwin gathered a team for his wonderful plan to find a treasure, but it’s not like the rest of the team needs to know where they’re really going. Zeke’s particularly terrified to find that out. Despite its name, they spend the majority of time in the forest. Also, there’s a timeskip of 11 years. 

6. AU with Neetwin who’s a history teacher. We don’t tag this one though, it’s not like it’s our AU. So now it’s a Neetwin tag, although one of the drawings is with adult Levi... eh, who cares. 

7. CC AU (cleaning company). Levi works in a cleaning company and cleans up Neetwin and hobo Eren’s apts. They need a lot of work. Yes, they make their apts even dirtier to make Levi spend more time there. 

8. Prison AU. Damn this one is good... we came up with it before reading the timeskip in the manga, so Eren’s appearance doesn’t really match his age, he’s 17 lol Levi is a mafia member who goes to prison because he need to kill one of the inmates (who later became Zeke) on Erwin’s (Levi’s boss) request. Eren’s his personal guard, although Eren works as a regular guard too.

9. King Kong AU. It’s an AU where the Beast Titan is King Kong lmao Zeke is having fun killing dinosaurs... Levi, not so much. Thank Erwin for his wonderful plan of going to this island.

10. Rus AU, basically just characters living in Russia. Because ofc we will have this type of a setting... Damn, I thought we drew this one more often, huh. 

11. Sea AU. Mainly our modern AU, we use it as a base for other modern stuff for the most part. Levi’s getting two boifrond rings, he lives with Erwin, Eren visits them often, Zeke bitches a lot, fun times with and without Zeke, stuff like that. There’s also a subplot (11.5) where Eren gets “kidnapped” by a witch, so Zevi have to find him and bring him back. Titans exist in this AU, Eren and Zeke are titans, and all of them have military training, but Erwin and Levi retired some time ago. We don’t have a tag for just a modern setting, though. 

12. Cult AU. Eren lives on a farm and has a whole village of his followers. He also has cursed animals... and I think we’ve told about some of the plot points in replies. Erwin’s really into all this cult stuff because it affects reality for real, so he asks Levi to follow rituals, although Levi came to ask Eren to go back to normal life and finish the fucking school. 

13. Serial killer AU. Eren’s a serial killer, duh. Never posted anything with this one, unfortunately, but Eren got disappointed in the police when he was a child, so he decided to fix the situation himself, while Erwin and Levi, as a part of a special department, investigate his “fixing”. It also has a time skip. I really need to redraw at least one sketch...

14. Hospital AU. Levi gets into Marley trying to make Eren go back, but it’s not that simple because Eren doesn’t want to lol Basically canonverse with this small change.

15. Hobo AU. Eren and Levi are hobos, Zeke wants his brother to stop living under a fucking bridge. Later Erwin takes both of them under his roof because he really likes Levi, but he can’t leave Eren alone.

16. Doggies AU. AU where Eren’s a wolf and Erwin’s a doggo. Levi got Erwin because he was a retiring trained dog and sniffed enough drugs in his life, and Eren... his “owner” found him on the streets and lied to Levi about Eren being a dog. Later Eren turned into a magnificent beast and now he doesn’t want to leave. There’s also Zeke, but he belongs to Xavier. 

17. AU where Eren wants to become a mangaka. The first post is self-explanatory, although I’d probably make some changes now if I cared enough. There’s also a time skip where Eren ditched his manga and became hobo!Eren. His editor was pissed lol 

18. Scolopendra Eren AU. You know the drill, and I’ve talked about the plot in some of the replies. 

This post doesn’t show up on the tag for some reason.

19. Ghost Eren AU. I should’ve named it combini AU... Anyway, I’ve talked about this one a lot, although poor Erwin gets neglected a little bit lol it’s hard to compete with a ghost when you’re just a mere stalker... but a very invested one. Eren likes Erwin here, they’re vibing on the same malicious-towards-Levi wave. 

20. Shark Eren AU. It’s just for us for funs, Eren’s a shark, and Levi’s there to help him fight depression. Eren later escapes into the sea.

21. Midsommar AU. Levi and Erwin get an invite to go to the village from Yelena, Eren’s a part of a cult who is kinda attracted to one of the newcomers... Such a good movie, we need to draw them properly. Both Yeagerists and Eldians are a part of the cult, they don’t have any specific rules by which I categorised them... Although not all characters are present, and some of them (Jean, I think) are newcomers who will join the cult later. Sorry, I don’t remember much. 

22. Silent Hill AU. It started with Erwin peeking into Levi’s apartment, but now there’s Eren too... We haven’t thought out this one, I’m bad with Silent Hill AUs for some reason. 

23. House Eren AU. Eren’s a house, and we’ve explained how it works too, so just check out the tag. Levi actually lives there with Erwin, but I don’t remember if we’ve mentioned it or decided to skip this info. 

24. Eren pack AU. It’s an AU where Erens of all ages (6 of them, I believe) are a little bit feral, and they have wolf ears and tails, and they live in a specific place and Levi visits them every day and takes care of them. They love Levi. Here’s the only post that survived, and here’s a link for a twitter post which I never got back on tumblr after it got deleted. 

25. Trailer AU. The story is about Levi who has to live with Zeke for a month as his slave because Erwin lost him in a game of cards lol To be fair, Erwin lost a lot of money and their whole flat, and Zeke gave them a choice between that and Levi (he’s horny ok), and Levi agreed. Zeke even put Levi on a chain, although Levi doesn’t even try to escape...

26. Flower shop AU. Eren’s a plant, and he brings death to the whole planet. He keeps Levi alive though, as a treat for himself. We’ve explained some of the stuff in the replies. 

27. Blair Witch AU. It’s pretty much explained in this post, and if you saw the movie, there’s nothing for me to tell you. Everything that’s different from it is in the post lol 

28. Corpse AU. Eren’s a corpse, Levi’s a pathologist who works on difficult and mysterious cases alongside the police. Eren later comes to life along with a couple of other bodies...

29. Antichrist AU. Zevi adopt baby Eren, but Eren’s a fucking satan. He loves Levi, but Zeke... not so much. Zeke loves Eren to death, though. Eren would love to organise that, but first he needs to grow up a little bit. It doesn’t mean that he won’t torture his parents during his journey. And everyone else who interact with them.

30. This one doesn’t have a title, but it’s an AU where kid Eren went missing, and Levi goes into the forest to find him. Levi owns Erwin who’s a good doggo and helps him find Eren. It turns out Eren killed two adult dudes, and he has paths!Eren telling him what to do and how to do it... Paths!Eren has the memory of the canonverse.

31. Zombie apocalypse AU. There’s only one drawing with it though, but basically Levi builds himself a wonderful place to survive the apocalypse, and he keeps Zombie Erwin in the basement in hopes of Hange finding a cure. Then Eren joins just because he can and because Levi’s very awesome. Eren has a boner for the apocalypse and enjoys every second of it. 

32. No title, but Eren was casted away from the canon universe for the rumbling, and now he’s a mythological giant wolf who lives in a deep very old forest. He was very surprised to find out Levi exists in this universe... So he kidnapped him ❤️

33. Halloween AU. You’ve seen this one, it’s a story where Jean, Connie, Sasha and Eren get into the wrong house and find a ritual instead of a Halloween party... So after saving the child who, as it turns out, is not really a victim, they decide to ditch him at Eruri’s place.

34. Okusan AU. Levi’s a housewife, Erwin is a cuckold who’s really into adultery. He invites both Zeke and Eren from time to time to act as Levi’s husbands, and they (Levi and Erwin) almost get caught because the “husband” suddenly came home... Sorry, we’ve read too many doujinshis lol

35. Island AU. Erwin loves sending Levi to dangerous places to get souvenirs for himself, and now it’s time for Levi to get a crystal from a very isolated island full of strict rules in terms of interacting with outsiders. We have a cool idea for a two part drawing (like with our flower shop au), but it’ll take us ages to complete anything at this rate... I have like two sketches on Patreon for now, but damn this AU has so many cool visuals we wanna draw... It’s another cult AU with people living on Paradis (more like one village in the middle of the island), isolated from the rest of the world. They don’t welcome strangers, and Levi has three months to find and steal that crystal, although it’s not that simple.

36. Erewan. Not exactly a full AU, but Erewan’s a cursed animal plushie who kills people and loves Levi a lot. 

37. Cat AU. Everyone’s a cat (duh). Not really our AU, but it has its own tag, and it’s only asks. 

38. Tiny founder Eren AU?? Again, not really our AU, but now it has its own tag. 

I’ve also found the reply where I talk about how characters’ relationships work in some of the AUs, you can check it out too. I thought it was fitting for a master post. 

[kendrixtermina]

It REALLY annoys me when ppl single out Edelgard as the one who ‘needs the MC’.

Edelgard carries through her plan wether Byleth is there or not; She’s just less lonely, can do more stuff like she actually wants to, and may escape without dying in the process, but she was fine with being an unsung hero/dying for her goals & her goals are at least partially  accomplished (slitherers & Rhea removed from positions of power, more competent ruler); If she wanted to escape alive Dimitri & Claude would probably have let her go. But she got what she wanted & went out on her own terms.

 Likewise, Claude can survive everything and even  ‘win’ in both AM and CF. (what he wants is a more stable Fodlan, a ruler interested in peace with Almyra and to get the Alliance out as unscathed as possible, & he mostly gets that. Slightly less so in Silver Snow.) It’s just that in VW he is much more successful, he gets all the answers he wanted & was able to grow a bit less cynical. 

The one who really crashes & burns without Byleth there is Dimitri. He’s not really acting out of values or a plan but just reacting to his emotions & misguided sense of duty & only in Azure Moon does he get to a point where he is doing deliberate action that actually produce the results he wants/truly cares about. 

And don’t get me wrong: That is in part ‘cause the deck is really stacked against him both through the chaos in his country & his personal situation, and like, I get that it’s part of the appeal; AM is supposed to be an underdog story & a lot of the catharsis comes from finally giving the poor guy a break. (and Dedue, too! ...and Gilbert I guess but he’s not typically the one ppl are excited about) 

And i mean, needing/accepting help is only human. 

But like, maybe Edelgard has a few moments where she’s really glad to have someone to tell her doubts to,  and because she’s very self-critical once you get to know her & has kind of been in doubt about her own humanity since the procedures she’ll underestimate what she might’ve done on her own. 

But... have you even SEEN Claude’s support chain? It’s ALL gushing. In Dimitri’s case it’s more in the plot cutscenes, and veeery blushy too (as Dude!Byleth/Dimitri shippers correctly point out all the time) I’d say that Claude’s mindset is actually changed very profoundly. In Edelgard’s case she tries to convince/recruit you the whole time & you need to explicitly choose to join/back her (twice!) to even unlock her route. There isn’t actually a single scene where Edelgard wants to do some drastic thing & Byleth talks her down from it (unlike in Azure Moon which is filled to the brim with such scenes)... instead you get the A support where they’re both mutually jelly at each other’s stronger points. Besides in the dialogue there’s all this emphasis on how she’s finally found someone who measures up to her as an equal, they’re evenly matched in the SS reunion cutscene, she’d designed as an obvious foil/rival with similar powers/background & basic personality as Byleth etc... whereas with Dimitri you stay in the ‘mentor’ role the whole time.Uunless you marry him but then you’re defs the Big Spoon despite the actual sizes. (Claude meanwhile is explicitly the mastermind post timeskip; Byleth works for him & he’s trying to subtly bring them around to his more enlightened way of thinking & tip them off about Rhea)

So why is Edelgard singled out? Could it be... tits... XX chromosomes... nah, these days everyone knows that Gender is actually in your hypothalamus. Or is it just that phenomenon where ppl don’t want to see ppl they think of as enemy carricatures doing normal human things? Imma be charitable and assume it’s that. 

Corollary: Claude gets sort of the reverse treatment with ppl pidgeonholing him as “the always chill one” who “does fine on his own” & downplaying his arc in Verdant Wind. Granted, he’s the one who has living parents that were ostensibly positive influences, but he had a super fucked up life too & it affected him deeply as well. The man probably sleeps with a knife under his pillow, ppl. Like he plays a lot more defensively & opportunistic on the other routes, & laments not cracking the mysteries. He always had that hidden side to him that’s actually idealistic dreamy & even romantic but he doesn’t let that out until he grows to have more faith in VW. 

[dimimagines]

L for dimitri? good luck on the new blog✨✨✨❤

Thank you for the luck uwu. And of course you can have L for Dimitri! We’re giving him the L

Dimitri x Reader Fluffly Alphabet: L for Love confession!

This one will take place pre-time skip! If you’d like post-timeskip instead, feel free to send in another ask!

You were nervous, the ball was coming up soon and you really wanted to ask Dimitri to be your date to it, as you’ve held feelings for the prince for a while now. But you also knew that there were many others in the academy who pined for his affections. Could you truly compete with them all?

“Nervous, huh? Just ask him, the worst he can say is no, and I’m sure because it’s you, he won’t say no.” Ingrid said with a smile, giggling a bit.

“Are you sure, Ingrid? I know you’ve been friends with him since he was a child but... Look around us, there are so many other girls who like him too. Maybe he has a crush on one of them, I mean, why would he like me when he can have anyone, right?” You sighed in defeat, with your head hanging down.

Ingrid frowned and shook her head, “You’ll just have to trust me on this one. Be a little confident in yourself, there are plenty of reasons why someone would want you. You’re so kind to everyone, and you’re always willing to help those who need it. He’s always valued people like that, you know.”

You nodded, “When you say it like that, I guess I have no choice but to trust you and your judgement! Have you seen him? I’ll ask him to the ball and confess right now!” Determination flowed in your eyes, as you straightened up.

“He’s probably at the training grounds right now, but if he’s not there, then the knights hall would also be a fair guess.” She said thoughtfully. “Anyways, good luck, i know you can do this.” She encouraged you one last time before waving and taking her leave.

As you were making your way to the training grounds, you bumped into the man himself, Dimitri.

“Ah, Dimitri! I’ve been looking for you, if you have the time. I’d like to talk with you in private about something” You started, a small blush making it’s way up your face. You attempted to fight it down as best as you could; didn’t want to be too obvious after all!

“You’ve been looking for me? I was actually looking for you as well. I wanted to ask you something... privately as well.” As he talked, you could have sworn you saw a faint blush on his cheeks. Perhaps your eyes were playing tricks on you, as it disappeared as fast as it came.

“In that case why don’t we go... to the goddess tower? Er, not in it, but, nearby it?” You suggested, mentally cursing yourself in the head, was that too obvious of a location? He nodded with a smile, as he gestured for you to walk first.

“That would work for me, after you” He offered, before walking besides you. Upon arriving to the location, you leaned against the wall looking up to the sky. He wordlessly took his place next to you, glancing over before he cleared his throat.

“If you don’t mind... I’d like to talk first?” He asked, glancing over once more for reassurance. You nodded your head and turned to face him, curious to know what he had wanted to talk about.

“Actually I... I apologize if I’m coming off as too forward, and I want you to know that regardless of your answer, I’d like to remain friends with you. But I wanted to ask you... If you could go to the ball with me? Or perhaps, to be even more to the point, if you’d like to consider... dating me” He finished, his face red as he averted his eyes for yours before firmly resolving and making eye contact with you.

Your head was spinning, had he just? Yes, he did! He just asked you out! He beat you to the punch! Did.. Did Ingrid know he liked you back? Is that why she was so confident? In your never-ending loop of questions, you were quiet, as Dimitri waited on for an answer.

“Please say something, anything... Anything is better than silence” He panicked. You jumped out of your thoughts with a gasp and nodded frantically.

“Y-yes! To both that is! I would love for both things to happen- Actually I, I was planning to confess to you as well. You beat me to it!” you managed to get out, a little too excitedly. This time, it was his turn to be shocked, as a grin slowly made it’s way to his face.

“I... I see then. Yes, let’s go to the ball together and start dating. With those words, I think you’ve made me the happiest man in Fódlan.” He smiled and held your hands.

“Thank you, so much. I look forward to spending more time with you in the future”

[bae-leth]

After competing GD has your opinions on the BL ending changed? I recently completed BL (after doing CF and GD) and it's been my least favorite of the routes although I still liked it. I felt that Dimitri focused more on short-time happiness and didn't change that much for the long term unlike GD. Like in GD both the goddess's children and those who slither are mostly gone thus preventing any more future conflict. But in BL they're both still around, but weakened, and the world is much the same.

Yeah I’m of the opinion that the gd route does not deserve the final boos it got

okay HOOO I’m going to use these two asks to talk about my opinions on BL and GD! (no opinions on CF yet because sadly I am still on.... chapter 2.... sobs)

(spoilers for both GD and BL ahead)

Out of the two, I still prefer BL, but that’s mostly due to my own preferences. Right up until release, the main reason I wanted to play 3H was to see Dimitri’s character arc for myself - that’s why I jumped on BL faster than Felix runs from his feelings, and finished it way quicker than GD. Not that I didn’t care about the other characters (I love them all to bits hhhh and watching them grow was a joy) but Dima was definitely a priority for me. Experiencing his story was the highlight of my playthrough, and I definitely have a lot of bias towards the Lions as a whole...

However! Some things did fall short for me. Dimitri not having a coronation scene, for one. I am... still so mad about that.... One of the biggest was the lack of Lions + Dimitri character interactions post-timeskip. Dimitri has really interesting dynamics with the rest of his house, but you never really get to see them being explored both pre/post chapter 17, since it’s primarily Byleth helping him through his trauma. Of course, that’s a given, because Byleth is a MU and would naturally get the spotlight, but aaa... I really do wish we saw more of ‘team collectively helping Dima heal’, rather than ‘team makes interesting observations but never really get the conversations they deserve.’ I guess I expected something like this because BL is such a character-driven route.

The pacing was something I actually thought was alright in BL. GD though... hhhhHHHHH

imo they tried to fit way too much in Deer. There was a lot of emphasis on Edelgard + rescuing Rhea right up until chapter 19 or so, and then she’s swept aside... really quickly? 

The Shambhala stuff gets dropped on you for literally one chapter. It’s a very cool map! but you only see it for a single chapter before uhhhh Nemesis comes out of nowhere. And then you get a whole load of lore dropped on you right before you fight Nemesis. 

The pacing was just so tight in the Deer route, and I really think it’s because they essentially fit most of the Lions’ ‘taking down Edelgard’ chapters and then tacked on the Shambhala/Nemesis stuff at the end (because Hubert has a letter for them.... Ah, Hubert..). 

I really enjoyed the premise of fighting Nemesis and the Elites in Deer (Claude in that final cutscene was just. chefs kiss MWAH) but I wish they had more of a buildup. Same with the slitheries, too - Thales got a grand total of one chapter before he was obliterated.

ALSO WHY DO THE ELITES NOT HAVE SPECIAL PORTRAITS... SOBS.... I WISH THEY DID.... I WANT TO SEE WHAT MISS FRALDARIUS LOOKS LIKE....

Regarding the slitheries: in BL they are wiped out, but the game never really tells you this (especially if it’s your first route, like it was for me!). You end up killing Cornelia, Arundel and the... Myson man? (I’m sure he’s important, but all I remember about him is him pissing me off LMAO). So in BL you do end up dealing with the slitheries, but it’s never really touched upon at all, since the whole route itself primarily focusses on Dimitri and his character arc. I’m fine with this, since they’re explained when you play GD (and presumably Church) but honestly from what I’ve seen, the slitheries just seem to be a weak point in the story overall. :/

tl;dr I like both BL and GD! but GD deserves more justice for its ending. 

also i was totally convinced that Nemesis would be the final boss for church route.... but he’s the final boss for Deer... so now I am confused :(

[perfectackeracy]

“When the story stops sucking...”

Ok so you’ve probably noticed my lack of reviews and activity in general. Even the anime didn’t make me raise my voice more than usual lately. 

I’m gonna make it short: my lack of activity on meta and theories is mostly due to a lack of passion and interest regarding the manga events. It’s been since April that I haven’t written anything globally consistent, and it was mostly because the chapters were devoid of an interesting topic to elaborate upon. Everything I wanted to say was scattered in my asks and I had no motivation to sum everything up.

When I first started this blog, I mostly held theories about what was going outside the walls, what were the enemy’s true motivations and how the story could end. Even after the dull battle that was RtS, there was still something to elaborate upon: who was Zeke? What’s going to happen to Reiner and Bertolt from now on? What’s located inside the basement? What is the truth behind the world? Back in the day, I was more passionate on character analysis and what lies behind their motives.

The first major ragequit I’ve experienced was two years ago: two of my favorite characters died for some cheap, unnecessary drama (that wasn’t that unnecessary when you analyze Isayama’s words). At that time, when the basement’s secrets were revealed, I was more interested in how things can turn dark on Paradis than attachment to what’s left of the characters, since my favorites were on the other side of the ocean, dead or dead inside. Still, the prospect of a dark Eren following the wrong path because he can ws interesting enough to keep me interested.

Then we’ve got the Marley arc. An arc I was more than happy to follow, with an exclusive point of view from the fighters located on the other side, a team which has my favorite and a bunch of kids I came to appreciate. Naturally I would deliver as I’ve always delivered up until a certain point. You had Reiner dealing with the pain and the guilt accumulated through these years, the interactions between the group of warriors, an empire on decline, Zeke’s questionable motives, Eren’s presence that will ultimately cast doom, not only on Marley but also on the rest of the world, including Paradis. 

Then the SC came and things weren’t as interesting anymore…

It’s almost as if the SC’s reintroduction brought anything I didn’t want out of the series: we’ve got the same dull fights since RtS, the same plot-armored cast, the same sob comedy we had an arc ago and Zeke’s character who currently looks like an expy of Light Yagami and his 456138D chess consisting in anticipating everybody to accomplish his goals. The entirety of Vol. 26 was more a deception than a satisfactory volume.

We’ve transitioned from a geopolitical festival to a full-fledged battle with a twist at the end, as well as some flashbacks, and the whole thing was either dull or laughable. Let’s review this point by point to show you how disappointing this whole mess was.

The action sequence

To summarize the whole battle: Eren transforms into the Attack Titan, the Warhammer had him cornered, Mikasa saves him at the last minute, Jean and co. barge in and defeat the Marleyan troops, Warhammer has more resources but Eren can put two and two, Porco comes to Sister Tybur’s rescue but overestimated Paradis, Porco was saved by Pieck, Zeke comes in, Zeke has to act, Armin nukes the harbor, Porco gets distracted and fucks up, which leads to Zeke being captured and Pieck fucking up, as Pieck was about to be finished, Falco and Magath interfere, the kids hide Pieck, Porco fights against Eren but panics in front of the zeppelin, screw up and allowed Eren to use him as a nutcracker, Porco almost dies but is rescued by a suicidal Reiner, everybody boards up safely and fuck off from Liberio with Zeke, another titan power, and the last remaining cadets, one of them successfully killing a soldier who had death flags on her for a long time.

To be frank, I’m not sure how people can think it’s a good battle overall. On one hand, you have a bunch of soldiers in gear with titanium plot armor and on the other hand you have a team of warriors who need to be ridiculed through and through and pass for incompetents as Eren does his job without suffering any consequences during the battle. The most active, Pieck and Porco went from careful to suddenly disoriented, being put down by their enemies just like that, not making this fight even equal. It’s not even close to RtS’ sense of battle, where the SC was backed against the wall before returning the situation with crappy tactics. Here, we’re witnessing an emergency plan working rather well. Too well even. 6 deaths in total? Really? On the other hands, you’ve got Marley depleted from two more titan powers, Pieck’s panzer unit and a couple of soldiers.

Concerning titan fights, Porco and Lady Tybur held their own against Eren but were wrecked not so long after they gave their best. Porco in particular is a huge contradiction, who went from prideful (vs. Levi) to careful (to Pieck) to outright rushing everything (seeing the Colossus and seeing the blimp). It was a bit embarrassing on his behalf.

The battle also recycles some common elements that are quite tiresome to watch: Mikasa saving Eren when he’s getting backed in a corner, Armin’s basic plans -that nobody could ever guess-, always working while everybody acts like a clueless moron around him, Jean being contradictory… For an arc supposed to illustrate the divergence of the main trio, there wasn’t much to show except both Mikasa and Armin being disappointed in Eren’s actions.

Even the major deaths of this arc were neither shocking nor impactful. The most shocking deaths I can recall were Udo and Zofia’s because they were kids, but they weren’t painted as prominent characters in the cadet batch unlike Falco and Gabi. Next we had Willy Tybur, whose death was expected in the same chapter he died in, his sister, who had a fair chance to only serve as a placeholder to be eaten, and Sasha, who not only had red flags being painted all over her (killing the guards in front of Gabi, being the only one not wearing a breast plate), but was the subject of Isayama’s planned death (from Oita’s Q&A, March 2018). Sasha was already a non-character at this point, and him spending a whole funeral (when no other character got this privilege) was just plain obnoxious.

The characters

I’m still amazed -and not in a good way- by how bland the main staff became. Supposing it was remotely entertaining to make me root for them, my thoughts would’ve been something other than “Jesus fucking christ when will someone die already Gabi please shoot these fuckers”.

In simpler terms, Eren is by far the most entertaining character of the SC so far. While I understand the need to oppose Eren to his comrades in terms of ideology, his opponents are either uncaptivating or uninteresting to watch.

Armin is, of course and by far, the biggest offender. From the victim of Eren’s actions, he’s the one who opposes Eren’s individualistic views, but his character -or rather, his lack of- makes it hard to sympathize with. Simply speaking, a simpleton like him would’ve been better if he didn’t enjoy himself like an idiot after not only inheriting the CT, but also living at the price of Erwin. His unexplainable mastery of the CT at the same level than a natural like Bertolt, as well as a poor copypaste of the sad giant who never wanted this feels at the same time forced, redundant and bent over for the character’s convenience. The way a gary-stu would. To add more on the injury, Hange, the commander, passes as a complete buffoon in front of him, going as far as to praise his basic plans and compare him to Erwin. When you combine Isayama’s interviews and his position in the story, the way he comes off as a special snowflake feels unwanted. Even more when he got to live at the expense of two -potentially- more interesting and more popular characters.

In the end, we’ve got an amalgamate trying to narrate the story to Annie, who wasn’t seen for six years, but who was used as a confidence pillow. Considering Armin is a grown man who, in the end, chose to go with Eren and used gary stu nukes against Marley, am I supposed to sympathize with this? You know, it’s a good thing Armin tanked in popularity. His character was borderline insufferable in the former arc, and in this one, you just wish someone would mercy crunch him.

Fortunately Armin is by far the worst, but other members have their characters suffering post-timeskip. Special mentions to Hange and Levi. Hange either switched between the eccentric clown and the serious commander. While I’m ok with them being less competent than Erwin due to the pressure, they’re also a vet losing all their team members and yet displaying the personality they always did before timeskip. It’s no longer the squad leader specializing in research, but the commander, sometimes incapable to maintain a serious side, like when Yelena introduced the anti-Marley soldiers. While there’s a certain pressure coming from Zeke’s directives but also Eren’s decisions, their whole character is somewhat lackluster. Going from almost leaving the strategies to Armin to outright try and be friendly with Eren while he’s, once again, jailed, right after scolding him.

Moving on to Levi, while he held his promise for later I’m under the impression he became a meme without convictions more than anything. All he does in these chapters is threatening Zeke, which can be fun the first time but quickly becomes annoying, since we’re getting back in the old ways where Levi lacked development and was simply the clean freak, who also happened to be Paradis’ strongest soldier. He doesn’t have much usefulness in the story except being the sharp razor cutter of the group. Considering what Isayama said in the character directory it had to be expected, but it’s still annoying.

The character I’m feeling sad for so far are Historia and Reiner: Historia because she still doesn’t know what she really wants and bends again to someone else’s demands, even giving her body to fill the conditions of a potential savior, all at the expense of her freedom, pride and happiness. I’m surprised she agreed with Kiyomi’s conditions so quickly, however. Meanwhile Reiner was feeling suicidal up to the point of letting himself die. Had it not been for Gabi and Falco calling him, Porco would be dead. Still disappointed the volume didn’t end on his point of view. Besides, I was expecting him thinking about Bertolt during his coma, since Eren picking him up was similar to how Bertolt picked him up as they were kids. Yet another blueballing moment for Bertolt’s closure… Oh well.

Jean is more or less okay. His character is consistent, but he feels to much like an underdog in comparison of other characters who have been put in front. He’s still the same guy who acts tough but still has a moment of hesitation. I still don’t get why he’s used for convenient survivals, especially when he decided to not toss Gabi and Falco away from the blimp. Gabi, a trained soldier, killed Sasha, who was one of your besties for a long time? Ok let’s not throw them out and blame Eren on this whole fiasco!

I’ve said my mind about Floch, but him becoming a fanboy of Eren was unexpected and I’m curious to see what role he’s going to play in the future. Connie’s reactions to him teaming up with the man who was responsible for his village being devastated is too lackluster. Still, him describing Sasha’s loss as a part of him dying was touching.

Sasha was practically a non-character whose death would’ve been more impactful if it was set on for earlier. Isayama let her not only for the sidelines for way too long, but she ended up being the only “major” death on Paradis, with a couple of death flags on her. The result was not only predictable, but quite obnoxious with the over-extended funeral. Her character never got past the food jokes and Isayama is adding another layer of grief and mourning. Layer that could be shortened and used for something else. If there was another one I’d say ok, but this extra mourning is just really unnecessary. No character, not even Erwin, had this treatment before. Is it happening because Sasha doesn’t require much plot significance like Marco?

Gabi deserves my appreciation however. Her motivations to become a warrior were touching and understandable if you’re a member of a minority who strives to be accepted among other folks who sees you and your upbringing as inferior.

Zeke is a complete enigma. His actions are the ones impacting the plot the most and I really don’t know what to make of this. His movies are clear and at the same time they aren’t. Clear in the sense that he plays everybody like a fiddle to reach some goal. Unclear in the sense we don’t understand precisely what this goal is and what pushes Zeke to do this. Whether it’s for the common good or his own safety. The keikaku master exposition is becoming old if we keep exploring yet again what’s happening on Paradis on the third year. It’s cool Zeke is at the origin of both solutions and conflicts, but nothing is really explained.

The current plot

Or more accurately, monkey shenanigans 2.0. They’re not really the most compelling but they’re interesting enough to follow the series monthly. Despite that, we’re getting more questions than answers with all these chapters. If Zeke sides with neither camp, what is he fighting for exactly?

Since vol. 26 was mostly battles, not much questions have been answered to, and in the end, we’re spending more time with Paradis’ cast, getting more and more unlikeable with each chapter, falling into their own ways, rather than finishing with Marley, a cast we’re accustomed to since vol. 23. It would’ve been much better to end the battle of Liberio on Marley’s point of view first, then explain the flashbacks after. Engaging on an exposition dump was a clumsy move, and ending the battle to see a bunch of soldiers attacking another nation like terrorists acting like a bunch of clowns feels off compared to the settled tone.

Plus, so many scenes could’ve been shortened or skipped to insert other character moments instead. Sasha’s funeral comes to mind. You could’ve cut it half and have Historia thinking about Ymir when Kiyomi made her a proposition. The food jokes are outdated anyway and they make the story feel more embarrassing to read than comical. Same thing as Levi threatening to make a sopa de macaco. Still a tier better than food jokes, but still annoying.

The sudden transition to Paradis really makes me wonder, overall, why I should care about these fucks while the Marley arc started with another perspective? You just can’t let things unfinished and have an exposition dump in the meantime.

[ganymedesclock]

So I've been going through your meta and you mention how Lotor doesn't seem to like to kill or simila-esque things several times while defending him. But... Lotor has the highest kill count of any other Galra on screen we've seen (besides Zarkon).

So I’m racking my brain here trying to think of Lotor’s kill count and that’s what this post turned into. Feel free to check my work here- I’m going episode by episode. Gonna make a follow-up that’s more psychological.

s2e9: Acxa operates on Lotor’s orders, enters the weblum, splats a bunch of gut flora in the name of survival, IMO that’s not really a kill.

Acxa kill count: 0

Team Sincline kill count: 0

s3e1: it’s possible Lotor killed his first opponent in the ring, we see them fall down and not afterwards. That said, usually to-the-death combat is not how gladiator arenas work, so I would suspect not, especially when Lotor deliberately makes a point in this scene that he believes the empire is needlessly aggressive and this is one of the major talking points Throk brings up repeatedly as differentiating him from Lotor.

(Personally I’ve always found it odd people cite this as Lotor attempting to hold the moral high ground, because you have to remember the empire’s morals are not our morals. Lotor is attempting to appeal to the empire, in which case he’s stubbornly sticking to what the empire views as immoral behavior. He is not practically gaining anyone’s sympathy)

Either way, you can take that as a maybe-tally.

Lotor explicitly spares Throk here and faces no other entities.

Lotor kill count: 0~1

s3e2: Acxa leads operation on Puig, orders zero fatalities to which none of the other Generals respond negatively or show any disagreement with. We can thus assume even entities like the guy Narti knocked off the roof and the individual Acxa shot were not given life-threatening injuries.

Lotor himself does not attack during this and the ensuing battle against Voltron. He orders the Generals, mostly Zethrid, to direct attacks first a grazing shot on the Black Lion and then a direct barrage on the Altean castle. He also dispatches a large swarm of fighters, but, with the exception of Raht, and Shiro and Keith stealing fighters, we do not see living pilots in those fighters- they’re drone-piloted, and that swarm was killed by our heroes.

Lotor kill count: 0~1

Generals’ kill count: 0

Team Sincline overall kill count: 0~1

s3e3: Overwhelmingly, no additional fatalities, though this isn’t really a statement on Lotor as much as it is that he’s fighting the protagonists. That said, Lotor explicitly states intention to flush the Lions out for capture one by one, suggesting he doesn’t intend to shoot down the Lions as-is.

Late in the episode Acxa orders in two fleets to cover Lotor’s butt and they merrily leave them to their fate. This doesn’t strike me as a kill (if it is, you have Our Heroes to blame for being the entirely knowing and unapologetic murder weapon) but you could possibly fault it as Acxa specifically who makes the call, and Lotor / Zethrid / Ezor / Narti was aware of her actions and had no qualms with her setting those fleets up for a one-sided battle with Voltron without warning them.

 Team Sincline overall kill count: 0~1

s3e4: Mostly doesn’t focus on Lotor and company. Zethrid mentions previous attempts to dislodge the comet failed explosively and that wasn’t fun for “your pilots”. Again, something you can potentially fault them for but chances are better than 50-50 that aforementioned vague number of pilots were robots, not people.

I’d lean towards robots since Lotor in s3e1 talked up a great deal of the value of genuine loyalty in people, and in s4e5 this is emphasized in that the generals are clearly the type to re-evaluate if it isn’t worth staying and reacted that way to one time of Lotor killing a subordinate- which would suggest it’s highly unusual / Lotor generally doesn’t throw “his people” like lambs to the slaughter. (Hell, he even screened Voltron for general competence before throwing them at the rift, suggesting he didn’t even want to take that risk with his enemies)

Either way, Lotor wanted to retrieve the comet, not watch his ships splat like a bug wasting resources, so that’s not really a kill.

Lotor’s gamble pays off, though, Voltron emerges with the comet, Team Sincline makes a few precise shots, steals the comet, and ducks out.

Team Sincline overall kill count: 0~1

s3e5: At long last, some actual murder.

We don’t see Raht’s final moments after he’s drawn into the ship. It is operating at Lotor’s behest, but, it’s worth noting that Raht would have arrived on a ship full of very displeased half-galra and Zethrid was agitating for blowing him the fuck up earlier, so we have no idea who all was involved in the deed. It was pretty much a joint effort and at bare minimum, our likeliest parties would be Lotor and Zethrid as the ones that actively expressed Not Meaning Raht Well, with the others as accomplices/watching and not caring. 

By my estimate on Lotor’s personality, I’d imagine he’d leave the dirty work to Zethrid, but that wouldn’t exactly exonerate him since Zethrid would be operating either explicitly or implicitly with his full approving sanction.

Either way, someone on Team Sincline definitely murdered Raht once they captured him, rocketing us up to:

Team Sincline overall kill count: 1~2

s3e6: Lotor and company attack a base. Acxa shoots some drones, the two teams brawl it out (with both black paladins absent, for shame) Zethrid is itching to bump that maybe-one kill count to a maybe-two. Acxa rains on her parade, Narti takes out Throk with her nonlethal mind control powers.

The team appears to have set Throk up to take public humiliation instead, leaving him to the empire’s punishments, at which Lotor has pretty clearly no sympathy. Sorry, Throkykins, maybe you should’ve rethought your situation the last time you plotted a coup and then tried to murder him for political gain.

This doesn’t add anything to the kill count, ultimately.

Team Sincline overall kill count: 1~2

We won’t see Lotor and friends again until...

s4e1: This picks up on the tail end of a timeskip spanning a few months. That said, Keith confirms that hide nor hair of Lotor nor his generals have been seen in that time, and Haggar corroborates on Lotor’s end by chiding him for distancing himself from command and ignoring the coalition planets, not making overtures to maintain them. This nicely tells us that unless Haggar’s sent more spies after Lotor which he’s disposed of, in this time frame he hasn’t been in any situations that’d really open up opportunities for death.

Team Sincline overall kill count: 1~2

s4e3: The beginning of the end for poor Team Sincline. Lotor, while attempting to flee the attack of his parents, comes to the realization Narti is the bug, and, thought process / knowledge of the fact unclear, kills her where she stands and flees the scene, not discussing the matter with the other generals. 

Lotor kill count: 1~2

Team Sincline overall kill count: 2~3

s4e5: We resume with Team Sincline, not up to anything murderous but doing irresponsible things with rift gates. This fails, Acxa stuns him with a shot, he ejects Zethrid in full space suit and gets the hell out of Dodge. Very civil proceedings, all things considered.

Lotor kill count: 1~3

Generals kill count: 0~1

s4e6: I’m really not gonna count the drones and battleships destroyed during the chase. The drone fighters are, again, robots, and we’ve seen our heroes mulch them in the thousands so that really doesn’t qualify as murder, and in the case of the battleships, all Lotor does is skim the surface of a star running away from them. It’s on Zarkon if his leadership demands people copy his fugitive son’s radical stunts in ships that can’t hold up nearly as well.

End takeaway:

Lotor kill count: 1 confirmed [Narti], 2 potential [initial gladiator, unlikely | Raht, likely; if not directly, ordered another to kill him ]

Team Sincline kill count: 2 confirmed [Narti | Raht] 1 potential [gladiator, unlikely]

I’m not sure how this measures up to other empire’s kill count, but that gets into rather dicey business- we can get a fairly clean count with Lotor because Lotor doesn’t affiliate with, say, slave work camps e.g. the Olkarion Commander which would by their very nature (and how he’s shown to push the Olkari past the point of exhaustion) kill a lot of people but it’d be very difficult to get an accurate number on them since the writers aren’t going to show us bodies being loaded into mass graves. And a lot of the other antagonists’ kill counts aren’t high only by virtue of protagonist intervention- otherwise Prorok would have committed genocide at the Balmera by leaving its entire population stranded to die with it.

It’d be pretty hard for anyone to match Zarkon’s kill count though, given he’s had ten thousand years of violent destructive policies and just his explicit confirmed kills include at bare minimum a large majority of a spacefaring kingdom (Altea) which would potentially put him in the millions.

[sol1056]

followup on shiro

following up on my post about stereotypes, and now to talk specifically about Shiro... First off, he’s got too many unusual elements to be a stereotype. My suspicion is the problem you’re asking about has its roots in the EPs/writers thinking it’d be slick to play with story conventions, and didn’t realize their mistake until too late. It’s the most likely reason for their bewilderment that a not-insignificant chunk of the fandom assumed the story would be Lance-centric.

It’s not stereotypes. It’s more like a movie’s opening shots making you think it’s a Dracula movie, and you’re like, cool, except halfway through the movie forgets about Draclua to focus on his valet. You’re gonna be mighty pissed if you’d settled in for Dracula and suddenly you’re forced to watch some tertiary character mend buttonholes or press a dinner jacket until the credits roll.

Ultimately, what I think we have here is a conflict between conventions. The part of the audience brand-new to the story seems to also be the part using a pro-fic (published, original works) lens. The part of the audience who remembers some/most/all of the original story seems to be using a fanfic (derived works) lens. There’s a fundamental disconnect between the two, though, and both require seeing Shiro as expendable. 

It’s a huge risk to mess with convention -- especially if your intended audience is less-savvy/younger. It takes seeing/reading a wide range of stories to roll with reversals and subversions. Kids just haven’t had the exposure. But all you really need is a viewer most comfortable with conventional storytelling patterns, and you’ll have a viewer who’ll feel betrayed when the show doesn’t meet those unspoken expectations.

Behind the cut: the conventions of prologues and character introductions, S1 with Lance as implied protagonist, S1 with Keith as expected protagonist, and why neither works with Shiro in the frame. 

the conventions of prologues and character introductions

Basic rule of stories: introduce the core POV first. Although most often also the main character and the protagonist, that’s not necessarily so -- but it should be the character who’ll provide our ‘view’ of the story. It’s also the character who’ll go through the biggest arc, as a result of their experiences. Frex: Watson as core POV, while Holmes is main character; Aang is the hero but Katara’s arc as core POV is far larger. 

A prologue bypasses this ‘first introduced’ assumption. If we get a series of quick scenes (or a cold opening) and then a jump to seemingly-unrelated location, a significant timeskip, or whole new characters, we’re going to think ‘prologue’ and start over. 

VLD gives us prologue as background; the three characters are roughly equal. Sam speaks first, Matt is named first, Shiro has the bulk of screentime post-kidnapping. POV is mostly balanced between them. We’re given every reason to think them one-shot characters sacrificed to demonstrate the bad guys are really bad, and thus, our protagonist isn’t among them. So when we see the time/location stamp, we adjust and assume the story begins in earnest, here. 

Rewatch the opening ten minutes or so. Here’s how we’d categorize the characters, based on when and how they’re introduced: 

First to speak and be seen: Lance, protagonist/core POV. 

Next to speak and be seen will be secondary characters. Either sidekicks like Hunk, or contagonists (signaled by mysterious agenda and/or low-key antagonism) like Pidge and later, Keith.  

After that, antagonists like Iverson, and mentors/guides. 

Since Shiro is narratively identified as the same guy from the prologue, his return means he’s someone experienced with the monomyth’s underworld setting. That makes Shiro the guide who delivers the call to adventure. If your knowledge of story structure is relatively conventional, the combination of Shiro’s return and his positioning in the introduction-order means you could freely write him off as a plot device, existing solely to gets the hero (and the rest) involved. 

Except that’s not at all how it works out. 

profic lens: Lance as implied protagonist

For most of S1, you could watch and assume the categories I listed above, without having your expectations challenged. There’s contagonist development (Pidge’s family vs Voltron), with Lance getting some shiny moments (protecting Coran, shooting Sendak). Sidekick development for Hunk and the Balmera; again, Lance stays in the foreground: flirting with Nyma, coming up with a non-psycho way to deal with the sentries in the Balmera. One could reasonably write these off as minor arcs befitting secondary characters, and that this story’s chosen to front-load those rather than show them later.

Meanwhile, Keith only surfaces as a foil (racing the lions, getting needled), and Shiro can be seen as a placeholder leader. Given Lance’s introduction, we could expect a predictable arc: he starts as less-competent or less-valued, and by story-end he’ll be a capable, valuable, leader. In this light, Shiro represents the stasis that’ll get broken when Lance moves into true hero position.   

It wouldn’t have been hard to take this route: give Shiro a reason to stay with the rest when they infiltrate the space base, and have Lance go with Allura, instead. That would’ve put Lance at the emotional forefront, as the one she rescued. Follow that with Lance using Blue to break the station’s hull, and it’d close the circle with him rescuing Allura in turn. He’d move from core POV into main protagonist. Obvious next step is for Shiro to step down, the story would contrive for Lance to slide into place, and the remainder would focus on his growth. 

fanfic lens: Keith as expected protagonist

Let’s circle back to the fact that of our core five, Keith is introduced last. This is a sharp break with profic convention but totally in line with fanfic convention. Fanfic doesn’t need to waste time introducing and establishing a protagonist when readers already know who it is from canon. As a result, fanfic frequently delays the main character’s appearance while the story introduces the side characters who’ll be playing roles in the story.  

From this perspective, allotting time to Pidge and Hunk makes sense. Both have been greatly to moderately rewritten for this new version, so they get mini-arcs to showcase those changes. Viewers familiar with the original Voltron already have a ‘protagonist’ in their minds. They were probably confident that once that was of the way, that pre-existing protagonist would come to the forefront. 

Those viewers were expecting Keith to become a plot-driver by the end of S1, which he does, somewhat. He’s the one who discovers the druids and quintessence plot point, after all, and he does it solo. The rest work jointly, which is common for secondary characters. 

Note that once again, the obvious next step is for Shiro to step down, and the story should contrive for Keith to slide into place. Since the story’s also established a strong emotional bond between Keith and Shiro, it’s possible Shiro might stick around as a mentor. But still, if Keith’s going to claim the protagonist’s leadership position (per the source material), then Shiro’s got to vacate that slot. 

the real problem: Shiro doesn’t fit either lens

If they’d taken the profic lens, we’d have Lance in Black by now. If they’d taken the fanfic lens, we’d have Keith in Black... which we did, but now we don’t, again. For either convention, the Ulaz arc should’ve happened in S1, as another two-parter. By its conclusion, Shiro would’ve been gone completely, or at least relegated to the background as a mentor.    

But not only does Shiro never segue into that mentor-only role, he takes the lead, and holds it (and takes it back, too). And while he’s older than the rest by some amount (never fully defined, for inexplicable and frankly stupid reasons on the part of the EPs), he’s still not the seasoned adult; Coran fills that role. Shiro’s also visibly damaged inside and out, between his prosthetic and his struggles with PTSD -- and instead of returning with knowledge to impart per a guide, he returns with mostly questions and fuzzy guesses. On top of that, the narrative is quick to pit Shiro against Zarkon (although this is muddied by Keith taking on Zarkon solo, in the S1 finale).

And then in S2, Shiro provides almost all the plot movement. He remembers Ulaz, which sets off a chain of events (complicated by Zarkon, as much as that blunt-force character can complicate anything) that leads directly to the Marmora, the team’s first allies of note. The S2 finale pivots on Shiro, too; his recovery of Black’s bayard provides the last piece needed for the team to defeat Zarkon.  

Shiro’s disappearance at the end of S2 comes late, relatively speaking, but still, here we finally have a vacancy for the protagonist to fill. Except not: the lack of finality -- the disappearance, rather than death -- means there’s no closure. (For a good example of this, see Gurren Lagann, where a main character’s death-speech grants closure and thus doubles the emotional gut-punch.) That means questions linger, shadowing anyone who fills the empty spot, and those questions effectively make Shiro even more central, despite his absence. 

Any way you slice it, Shiro gets way too much noise for a secondary character. Especially if he’s meant to be a character that -- by conventional standards -- exists solely to validate, and give way to, the real protagonist’s leadership.  

This went on too long, but of course now I have thoughts on what prompted the story structure to end up like this. Another followup coming soon, stay tuned.