#but when i first saw this dragon + heard the battle theme????

[loafbud]

Malzeno takes a sip of the red juice

[yanderes-galore]

Could you do prompts by starbabytae 14, 19, and 21 for Aemond Targaryen?

Aemond has gone FERAL in Season 2... so I'm ready. S2 E4 has definitely given me ideas. End is a bit awkward as I was unsure how exactly to fit it with the prompts.

‼️POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOR HOTD SEASON 2 - ALTERNATE TAKE ON THE EVENTS OF S2 E4‼️

Prompts Here

Yandere! Aemond Targaryen Prompts 14, 19, 21

“I just want you all to myself. Is that such a crime?”

“That’s where you belong. Worshipping me on your hands and knees.”

“Maybe if I branded you, other people would finally get that you’re mine.”

Pairing: Romantic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Female Darling, Obsession, Swearing, Stalking, Mature themes, Typical ASOIAF themes, Potential Targcest (You replace Helaena), Manipulation, Sadism, Threats, Possessive behavior/Jealousy, Murder, Blood mention, Forced/Dubious relationship.

Aemond had gotten used to the fact he'd be overlooked. He wasn't king due to being born after his brother Aegon. He tried to settle with simply being a warrior for his king on top of Vhagar.

But he still hated it all the same.

Aegon, the whiny brat of a king and brother, always got what he wanted because he was older. As king he had all the say. Meanwhile Aemond was left envious and irritated at how incompetent his brother was as king.

Aemond studied like the good prince he is, he's even better in battle. He's a better tactician and doesn't sleep around like his whore of a brother. He doesn't understand. Why must Aegon be king simply because he's older.

What makes it worse? Aegon also got his first and only love.

You were betrothed and married to Aegon. Aemond had loved you since you both were kids, yet the younger prince was forced to watch as you married his brother. Not only that... but he had to witness the babes you bore for him.

The thought still makes Aemond seethe. He's tired of allowing Aegon, an entitled brat, get what he's always wanted. Aemond always thought he'd make the better king... he's always followed his duties...

He wishes you and him were betrothed instead of Aegon.

While you may not belong to him, Aemond still yearns for you. For years he's loved you. Even when you were married to Aegon he still fantasizes about how it would feel to have you as his.

Aemond always watched you from afar, swearing himself as your protector. On top of Vhagar he felt he was the one making decisions for this war. He's the one making plans while Aegon flirts with other women.

Aemond can tell you aren't happy with Aegon... Aemond could treat you so much better.

Aemond wasn't expecting the opportunity to act on his desires ever. At first he was just going to take Criston Cole to take down Rook's Rest along with Rhaenys and Meleys. Vhagar has been so eager for a fight.

Then he saw Aegon swoop in on Sunfyre... making him pause.

He should be ashamed... but the plan was too perfect.

It was too easy to swoop in on Vhagar when Sunfyre and Meleys were busy. Aemond just had to say one word and the whole situation would look like a freak accident. The thought of finally taking what he deserved makes him grin.

"Dracarys!"

The command is short, simple, but executed with a plume of fire from Vhagar as both smaller dragons are struck down.

Aemond took sadistic delight in taking out both riders. The fire from Vhagar was enough to make Aegon and Sunfyre crash down. However, it took some stealth tactics to bite the neck of Meleys to make the red queen fall with her rider.

By the end of the fighting, Aemond found himself standing in front of his burned brother on the ground. His brother barely moved, yet his breathing was faint. Aemond barely hesitated when he picked up his brother's dagger and hovered it over his burned brother's chest.

"I will be the one to make her happy, brother." Aemond whispers, not caring if Aegon even heard or not. "I will be king, I will win this war, and I'll do it much better than you did."

It's then Aemond does the finishing blow, tucking the dagger away before leaving. The sight of the blood trickling from his brother's chest indifferent to him. Criston Cole enters the foliage to see Aemond and the corpse of the king. The knight goes to say something, yet Aemond's remaining eye glares at him.

"It was a freak accident, that's all it was." Aemond hums, walking past the knight. "Say otherwise and I'll have you gutted by my sword."

The loss of Aegon was a much bigger loss to The Greens. In comparison, The Blacks only really lost one dragon and dragonrider. The Greens...? They lost their king.

Which leads to them placing Aemond in power in an attempt to regain control.

The death of your husband makes you... conflicted. You didn't really love him... yet you feared the vulnerability that came from having the king slain. You believed it was genuinely an accident caused by Aegon's rash decision to prove himself.

Completely unaware of the culprit hovering around you, coddling you and cheering you up like he didn't kill his brother.

With the death of Aegon, Aemond began courting you. You're a widow queen... and he's the new king. Naturally... you two end up being betrothed to keep up support for The Greens. The marriage is then scheduled to happen within the week.

Such an announcement brings rumors from both sides and supporters. The whole thing seems too convenient. Soon there were rumors of Aemond being a kinslayer, killing his brother just to take his wife.

Aemond could care less for such problematic rabble.

All he really cared about was making you his, let them gossip.

Aemond couldn't help the playful chuckle that poured out of his lips when he saw you pacing about your chambers. You looked so vulnerable without Aegon around anymore. Now you are his queen... one who should listen to him and love only him unconditionally.

Aegon never deserved you, at least Aemond promises to only pay attention to you.

"Here you are, love." Aemond greets, cupping your cheek. "Gods how I love you... I've always loved you...

Aemond leans closer to brush his lips over yours, you leaning into his touch obediently.

"I'm so happy to call you mine... It makes everything I've done worth it...." Aemond hums, kissing your lips. He craves your taste, your touch, always has since you young.

Now you're finally his to claim....

"I always hated the fact Aegon got to have you..." Aemond whispers, pressing your face closer to his own in between kisses. "I always wanted it to be me... always should have been me... but now you're mine...."

Your feelings for Aemond are... complicated. You loved him more than Aegon yet couldn't help but distrust him. It felt too... planned.

Yet you were scared to push.

"Aemond... it is scandalous to act this way with a recently widowed queen...." You whisper, yet Aemond only ignores the comment.

"Let the commonfolk think what they wish..." Aemond growls, pulling you flush against him. “I just want you all to myself. Is that such a crime?”

Aemond then chuckles, the idea of the common people and the royals knowing you're his a pleasing thought. To him, this is the ultimate revenge. Even now he despises his brother for taking advantage of the privilege he was given.

At least Aemond plans to use it right.

“Maybe if I branded you, other people would finally get that you’re mine.” Aemond teases, tracing his hands over the exposed skin of your nightgown. "Just as you should be...."

The way you shiver in his touch excites him. Be it from pleasure or fear, he doesn't care. Now that you're his... Why would he ever let go?

"Do you believe the rumors, Aemond?" You ask him in such a sweet voice, his one eye looking at you affectionately. He wonders if you can see the darkness in his violet gaze. "The ones where they call you a kinslayer?"

"Do you believe them?" Aemond asks, affectionately kissing your skin. "Do you really care what the common folk think?"

Aemond waits for you to answer, yet is met with silence. He chuckles at your conflicted gaze, kissing your lips softly. It really didn't change anything if you believed them or not... only two people knew the truth...

and Criston Cole was dangerously close to being hanged, anyways.

"Don't worry so much, love." Aemond whispers, pulling back a bit to view you fully. "You'll hurt yourself... just focus on me..." He kisses you one more time before sitting on the bed, hands on your shoulders. "Could you sit on your knees for me...?"

Obediently you listen to him, making Aemond shiver in anticipation. This was what he always wanted. You listening to him... coddling him... tending to only him.

“That’s where you belong. Worshipping me on your hands and knees.” Aemond praises, petting your head as he lays your head in his lap. "No need to worry about anything, my queen... I'll take care of it all for you."

You merely listen to your new king as he strokes your hair. This is all he's ever dreamed of. Aemond can't hide the dark smirk on his face as he gives you the affection he's always wanted to give.

You shouldn't look too much into rumors, you shouldn't worry about a thing, who cares about the fate of Aegon?

You have Aemond now... he'll fix everything... for you, the kingdom, and the seven realms.

[mirensiart]

Have you heard the TotK Colgera boss theme

YES

The wind temple was the first one I did since I love the Rito and Rito village was my fave location in botw

The way to the temple already had me vibrating in excitement cause of the wind waker references, like the floating boats??? Excellent

And then, when I saw colgera I was SO EXCITED cause of how it referenced molgera from wind waker too! Like so many WW references!!!

And like, I remember this vividly, I was having SO MUCH FUN just diving through the ice sections of colgera when THAT PART of the song started

The one that uses dragon roost island's theme, and I immediately paused, put my hands on my face, and listened with tears in my eyes lmao

Anyway the colgera battle was so epic, it's so sad that the wind temple was SO PEAK cause the others just didn't live up to it :(

[lucy-dulap]

Relationship questions for Lucy and Gamigin

(What if their ship name is Gummy? Idk I'll see)

1. Who makes the other blush and who finds it adorable

Gamigin blushes when he laughs too much and since he's constantly giggling when Lucy's around, he blushes the most. Lucy's too dense to notice, though.

2. Who sings in the shower

Gamigin. And he puts his whole pussy into it. He's voice isn't even that great, but the passion on display is adorable. While he was preforming in the bath once he hit Lucy's face and he's still apologising about it to this day.

3. What would their song to eachother be

From Gamigin to Lucy it would be "Romantic Flight" from the HTTYD ost

From Lucy to Gamigin it would be DSaF Dave theme remake. That's their two shared braincells doing a mating dance

4. Who emberasses the other in public with kisses and pet names

Gamigin mostly. He's very touchy-feely and he constantly kisses and hugs Lucy in public. But what really flusters Lucy are the pet names. Being called something painfully sweet makes them emberassed. They start to get used to it at some point and they call him pet names back.

5. Who curses and who repremends the other for doing it

Lucy curses a lot but Gamigin got used to it. If Gamigin even says a small wear word like "damn", Lucy would turn to him and scream "Cum iți permiți, măi, coaie?! Firiai dracu de nenorocit, fututi mortii mati, cine te-a crescut, ma?"

Lucy teaches Gamigin how to say swear words in Romanian though.

6. What small quirks do they love about each other

When Lucy messes up a word they spit and then do it properly and Gamigin finds that adorable.

Gamigin kitten sneezes and Lucy can't hold back the head pats after he does that.

7. Who makes the other laugh more

Whenever they're close to eachother they giggle. All. The. Time. Even during meals they crack jokes. That's why they always are forced to eat seperately, so they don't choke.

I think Lucy makes Gamigin laugh more, but only slightly. The way they say coaie always makes him smile.

8. Who gets jealous easier

Lucy, all the way. You don't get adopted by Leviathan by being a normal member of society. Lucy's very scared that Gamigin will find someone better than them and abandon them just like their parents did. They kind of have to learn to have faith in Gamigin's monogomy.

9. How did they know they were right for the other

Gamigin was hooked the second he saw them hurt and was informed they are human. A human? In hell? In need? He is going to take such good care of them and learn everything he can about humans.

Lucy was first scared of Gamigin's excitability, but they started to loosen up when Gamigin showed genuine interest in them. When they heard he's a dragon he rushed Ppyong to the human world to get the DVD collection. They needed to impress him. And impress him they did.

10. Who brings up the subject of kids first

Lucifer. When Lucifer realised that the two teens in his care get along so well, and since Lucy can ovulate, alerm bells went off in his head. He's not the biggest fan of drugs, but he'll make sure both you and Gamigin take your birth-control regularly. The last thing he needs is an unplanned pregnancy from the least prepared people in Hell.

11. Who's adorable when they're sleepy and who gets grumpy and irritable

When Gamigin is sleepy he can barely hold his eyes opened. He's the cutest little meow meow. He sits himself on Lucy's lap, presses his head to their collarbone and falls asleep.

When Lucy's sleepy they get very fussy. Usually it ends with them crying in frustration and falling asleep from exhaustion.

12. Who's more protective

Both are very protective of the other. Gamigin would call Leviathan 5 different slurs for trying to kill Lucy and Lucy will fist fight Bimet if he complains about 'a lizard' following them in their journey.

13. How do they express their feelings (words, visual arts, a song, etc.)

Infodumping is a love language, I swear. Also, pokémon battling. Lucy loves playing any type of format and they'll introduce Gamigin to pokemon showdown. They probably even have a soulink nuzlock. Gamigin will know how Lucy is feeling depending on what team they use and Lucy can tell how Gamigin is feeling by the jiggles of his staff.

14. Where would they go on a 3AM adventure

Lucifer's private study at first. Lucy is obsessed with Lucifer and they need to see his study. So, while Lucifer is sleeping, they would sneak into the room and mess around.

Lucifer knows this is happening, but he wants to let the two youngsters have fun thinking that he can't hear their crazed giggles. Kind of like a lion pretending to be hurt by its cubs

15. Who has a hobby that only the other knows about

Lucy wants to make a pokemon fangame and they have a lot of ideas around it, but they're too shy to share it with anyone but Gamigin. They both plan it out and both would beg Buer to use his Tartaros knowledge to code it into existence. Little do they know that Buer failed his CopSci and Coding classes.

16. How do they hype eachother up

Both yell like they're at a football match. You know this meme? It's them. They are here to support eachother until the very end as loudly as possible.

17. Who picks flowers for the other

Gamigin brings Lucy berries since he knows its their favorite food. Especially blueberries and raspberries. Neither bring flowers because they don't want to kill the flowers by picking them.

18. Which one wears the "I'm with stupid" t-shirt

Both of them at the same time while laughing about it. The only way they allow to be insulted is if its recicrocle. They'd kiss with this shirt on to make sure everyone knows that they don't mean it as an insult.

19. Who's the better dancer

As I've said here, Gamigin will be the happiest dragon in all of Hell for getting to dance with Lucy, but he won't be good at it.

Lucy isn't a great dancer but they can do a brasoveanca or something very simple like that. Anything harder than macarena and they just stand stiffly in the corner until its over.

20. Who infodumps and who listens with heart eyes

Haha, autism. Both. They both infodump and the other one just stand there like "I can't believe this is my boyfriend. They're so cool." The 'me and the bad bitch I pulled by being autistic' meme but both of them are autistic bad bitches.

[jackdollnan]

Poro Analysis

i know this is an art blog mostly but on occasion i like to make it a graphic design blog. Behold with only the finest graphic design heres my poro unicorn lore board. Contains Spoilers for all of the Music Festival Arc, Heart Breaker, Deviculum

I mostly was curious on what irl lore of the unicorn got added or adapted into poros creation. I'll go more specific about my points Under the cut. Lord i hit undo on this editor and it erased almost everything i wrotei had to rewrite most of the post :',C

Ars Goetia Amduscias Demon

The Ars Goetia describes Amduscias taking the Appearence of a Unicorn, as well as: all manner of Trumpets and Musical Instruments to be heard but not soon or imediately, and can cause the trees to bend and incline according to the Exorcists will. And Amduscias is often described as the one playing or in charge of the music that can be heard through hell, as well as having a thunderous voice and being asscoiated with thunder.

Poro's Character greatly tracks with the music Theme. Poro is shown to be a Sound and Music Specialist, giving Critique and concerning Invites to Students after their Performances. Poro's own Claim to Fame was being Delkira's personal Musician giving a battle Concert with Delkira.

Poro's own Character Design with that Piano lookin Cut, Cello Detail and Pinstripe Suit, Notes on the End of those side hair pieces, and carrying a Conductor's Baton

Poro's yells loudly once getting to the School about the Crime, according to Poro, of re-allowing the use of the Royal One(talk about a thunderous Personality). Poro at the End of the Arc, once convinced, and painfully, for Wett defects with Kirio and Wett of the Six Fingers who answer to the Thunder Lord, Baal.

The last bit about being able to cause trees to bend, in the last panel Poro with Kirio and Wett are seen entering Brush to exit Babylus. The thought of such tall dark Brush, despite atleast the spaced out Center of Babylus's Campus, covering an Individual as large and tall as Poro for a masked Exit- no Clue if controling Trees is part of Poro's Powerset but still an interesting coincidence alluding back to Amduscias.

Qi Lin

I wish i had more historical/primaray sources to look from but alas modern feng shui websites will have to do

The Qi Lin has stories about the Rarity of its Appearences. The Qi Lin only showing up when a great outstanding Ruler is present in Time or when a great Sage(mostly Confucius mentioned) dies. There is also a legend that an Emperor of China was at the Yellow River and saw a Qi Lin on the Water, as it walked it cleared the River and Surroundings of all the Dirt and Stuff and the Emperor saw the Symbols on its Back and used them to create the first chinese writing System.

The Bit about the outstanding Ruler and Sage seems to match up well with Events and Characters. Poro being very Loyal, even to Poro's own Detriment, to Delkira as, when ever someone mentions Delkira most Demons admire Delkira in this demon Kingdom(?) Country(?).

It even matches with Iruma's Setup, Sully calling on Poro to see Iruma in hoping Poro will be impressed to rank Iruma. Plus we all know Iruma will become the next Demon King via the Prophecy, Poro is witnessing the fledgling King.

Not that all Qi Lin have to have exclusively one Horn but with the overlapping Traits of its Dragon like Features, Poro's Design echos back to the Qi Lin with Poro's Tail having a smooth Underside, spikey hairy Outterside, not to mention the clattering Heels in lue of Hooves

As an aside the Ming Emperor, Emperor Yongel, was gifted a Giraffe, that was called, equated to, and or associated with the QI Lin, very smart on the gifters part. I thought this was so funny given Poro's size, no clue if Nishi intended to it to match up with Poro but lucky for Nish-sensei it works out.(3rd picture of section of court painting of said Giraffe)

European Medieval Unicorns (i recomend skipping to the Poro paragraph and back reading this one)

Unicorns had a variety of many myths, associations, and metaphors attached to them but the Myths from Medieval Europe stand out most prominently here. Its been a variety of Animals over the Years, its Predessor being an Ox, the Re'em from the Bible, Goats,Asses (Donkeys), Horses, overall some sorta hoofed Creature and one Horn.

The first main Attribute to this Unicorn Myth is the Unicorn's Horn having Properties to purify the sick and ill, specfically treat and cure Diseases and Poison. Those who were able to successfuly find and hunt would gain such a treasure.

Later on it gained another Adaptation - The Unicorns purifying Power later becoming intertwined with the Purity of virgin Maidens, that a wild Beast would only allow itself to be near/in the Arms of a Virgin Maiden because the Unicorn could sense/was in awe of a Maiden's Purity(and or the maidens Purity matched that of the Unicorns), only for it to be a Trap, for a Group of Hunters to come out from Hiding to chase/capture and the slaughter with perhaps some Level of Immortality from the Unicorn for the Unicorn to not fully die after all that. Other versions of the story have the virgin naked and the Unicorn does some sorta sexual encounter with the Virgin.(i can't make this up)

Later the whole Saga became Metaphors for Sex/Love/Marriage. People being reigned in and tamed by the Love or down -badness of their Partner/Spouse as a wild Unicorn is tamed in the arms of a Virgin. People eventually settling down and finding Love. - no relation to the modern practice/notion of a 3rd person joining only in the sex lives of a married couple.

There also became a very Christian Metaphor to emerge along side the love Metaphor. The power/essence of Christ was reigned in by a virgin Mary, mirring that of a Unicorn being allured to a Virgin. That the whole Hunt of the Unicorn was a metaphor for the Crucifixtion and Ressurection of Christ, with wild purifying powerful Unicorn parralleling the Goddlyness of Christ, its Hunt for the Crucifixtion, Its slight immortality with the Ressurection from the dead, and circling back with the purifiying Power of the Unicorn being drawn as a Metaphors for Christ the Redeemer.( i also wish i couldve made this up)

Lets get back to M!ik

Seeing Unicorns being described as wild Asses seems stunningly on Brand for Poro, with Poro's Abbrasiveness at times and trying to beef with kids this coincidence is pretty funny.

Poro's major Arc of the Music Festival is coping with the Loss and the never return of Delkira as Poro regrets never getting the chance to technically date Delkira and never being able to see him again. It's all the more highlighted when in Sully's flash back when Poro, in a sour Mood expresses how its been too long since Delkira's Disappearance. Despite finding more Comfort with Change after Iruma and Co's Performance Poro hard flips back into Copium once Wett talks about reuniting Delkira. this all reads to me of Poro being wild all around unless Delkira is present to be the one true love of Poro ala wild Unicorn and love Metaphor.

There seems to be a bit of confusion about Poro's gender based on Poro's Presentation and specifically language Presentation. English Pronouns i can't really say anything about not least since the manga is being translated from Japanese with different Features and Practices- no doubt this gave the translators some trouble on how to adapt the wording, maybe a bit more cumbersome to other Languages than English. For whatever its worth Poro mentions being a Maiden and a Lady in EN fan translation.

tho i did start a paragraph about Poro's Gender this speaks more about the Purity and maiden Aspect of the Myth with the Unicorns sensitivity of/purity matching that of a virgin Maiden's. The comparison feels most matching when Poro apprehends Wett after Wett tailed Poro and Poro goes(paraphrasing), I was feeling a yucky presence a maiden can sense that type of stuff, it's alluded to it being Poro's ability to hear the heart beat Pattern and read that off to the overall Mood and intentions (based on action) of a Person, but it also matches well sensing/reading Wett and the Antgonists' unpure Intentions and drive up their villiany Status.

this part is a bit more head cannon-y: Poro was doing a bit of maiden sensing on Eliza when she says, we'll pierce you with the finest sound, and Poro's own Quest/Hunt for Love, a kindred spirit to Eliza's, finding Love for Love's sake.

another head cannony one is Poro's lines crying, that Delkira despite not giving personal attention to the women around him, Poro still says he did eventually(and like a simp still be wanting Delkira). If Poro was reading Delkira's Purity or smth. This line kinda reads a little ambiguously with that whole maiden/purity sensing idea in the background, vs the idea that Sully had a secret love child with Delkira and it became Iruma. lmao you heard it guys Poro believes in the Iruma is a direct descendant of Delkira theory, just kidding. Too bad Poro couldn't sense Delkiras heart beat when Delkira ghosted them at the office.

a little incongruous to the previous point of Delkira being the one and only for Poro- is Poro's Preferences(not for Men in general) but the inclusion of the younger Students in Babylus, who are, i guess, Boys and, as Poro puts it, young Men.(Poro is so desperate for hitting on high schoolers at this age.) Poro seems quite Old being Contemporaries with even Sullivan and with the Students of Babylus seeming rather inexperienced with Romance it seems to track with the Myth, the Unicorn is sensing the purity of/allured by Virgins, or at least, those who have far less romance Experience. This is Unfortunetly why i argue Poro's influence to be aligned with this Version of the unicorn Myth, Poro's odd combo of a romance thru-line despite hitting on kids, and lines with equating to be a maiden it feels like it matches beat for beat of the medieval Unicorn myth.(Unless the qilin also has meanings of sex love and romance which it might, i could use more details).

And now its time for the Jesus metaphor, Oh man you thought i was done.

Going back to the Christian Metaphor for the Maiden lures a Unicorn, only for a band of huntsmen to begin pursuit and the Unicorn gets Injured and kinda dies but then lives. The Europeans found a way to Pack in a Jesus metaphor with the Wild Unicorn and its purifying Power repping Christ the Redeemer, the Unicorn only appearing in the Presence of Virgins Of course Mary, the subsquent Hunt repping the Crucifixtion dyin for ya sins and purifying horn, and the Unicorn living cause semi immortality and Christ live-dying with god or what ever the point of that story was.

Guess who else was invited to do some ressurecting, it is part of Baals plans to recruit Poro for Delkiras "reuniting," for Baal just straight up power grab. (honestly i didn't know much about unicorns before hand was not expecting jesus or the virgins thing to come up.) Blehh that means Iruma, Ali and Delkira, could be like the unholy demonic Trifecta, (Delkira)the Father (Iruma) the Son (Ali) the Holy Spirit not expecting to see iruma with another jesus parallel.

crack theories: Poro cleared Kirio of his Debuffs. It'll be a race see who will get to Delkira first catch Delkira as a Deer, or Ali or Delkira go full vampire Mode.

ok im done congrats for reading this far now you too get this cursed info

[ficretus]

Theory: Identifying Joan of Arc Voices in Jaune's story

One of the important aspects of Joan of Arc story that are seemingly completely absent in Jaune's story is Voices Joan heard. In aftermath of her village being sacked, Joan saw Archangel Michael surrounded by angels, he gave her purpose and informed her that she will be contacted by 2 more voices. In this theory, I'd try to find are Voices present in Jaune's story, who are they and what purpose could they serve in narrative down the line.

Starting with what I so far feel is the only voice I can identify in Jaune's story, Pyrrha. In my previous Joan of Arc timeline theory I identified Pyrrha as Archangel Michael. For the sake of time I'll link the theory here since its double timeline aspect plays some importance in this theory as well.

To keep it short in case you don't feel like reading previous theory, she matches some basic aspects of Michael (ideal warrior, patron saint of Joan's village) ,her death matches timeline placement of Joan's first vision of Michael, she was catalyst to Jaune's awakening. Additionally, I'd add something I missed in previous theory: one of the most important aspects of Michael is his battle with Lucifer, often portrayed as serpent or dragon. This matches well with Pyrrha's fight with Cinder and Grimm Wyrm, both having satanic symbolism (Fall can be interpreted as fallen one, Cinder is fire user, Grimm hand gives her seemingly reptilian features). Unlike Michael, Pyrrha lost that fight, her loss allowed Ruby to awaken and make Cinder "fall", once again matching the story of Lucifer.

This leads me to Theory 1: Pyrrha is the only "voice" Jaune will hear during his story, being his main motivation and guiding force. I am not particularly fan of this one, but so far it makes sense. While I will try to identify other 2 voices later on, so far Pyrrha is the only one making the impact. Voices as collective guide Joan, and so far we've only seen Jaune guided by Pyrrha (especially present in early volumes), leading me to believe that she collectively represents all of them.

Theory 2: Other voices will start appearing soon. To be clear, when I say voices in regards to Jaune, I am not talking about literal ones like Joan of Arc story. Voices are more representative of Jaune carrying their will and lessons Jaune learned from their encounters. As for who voices are, in Joan of Arc story, they are Catherine of Alexandria and Margareth of Antioch, both being virgin martyrs. This makes me believe that Jaune's voices also need to have their own theme. Theme I'll go in this theory is "people Jaune couldn't save". So far this is the one that makes most sense to me, but feel free to comment if you have different theming and candidates for remaining 2 slots. My candidates are Penny as Catherine and Alyx as Margareth. I'll briefly break down why I believe that.

Penny=Catherine

Catherine was scholar and is patron saint of scholars. This works with Penny, being both a robot and product of science. She is also patron saint of variety of professions like craftsmen, which works with her Pinocchio inspiration.

Villain of Catherine's story is emperor Maxentius who tried to bring her to his side through various means. Eventually resorted to torture and execution. During her stay in dungeon, Catherine converted many of his men, including the empress. Ever more paranoid Maxentius also executed his wife and some of his top commanders. This parallel works if you imagine Maxentius as Ironwood, growing more paranoid and villainous as story progresses. Catherine converting the empress works both with Fria giving her powers to Penny and Winter turning against Ironwood (especially since Maiden is represented as queen chess piece). Just like Maxentius, Ironwood turned on his commanders and "queen" for not following his orders.

Avoided certain death by spiked breaking wheel with the help of angel. This mostly straight forward, Ambrosius saved Penny from certain death. Breaking wheel became one of Catherine's symbols and if you want to tinfoil it hard, whenever Penny fans out Floating Array it looks like a bladed wheel.

Catherine was tortured through various means, including having her breasts ripped off. She sees vision of Christ who encouraged her, she then told her executioner to kill her. This somewhat works considering fatal wound Penny sustained is having her chest clawed by Cinder. Asking to be executed also works considering Penny persuaded Jaune to kill her.

Next one works with Penny's first death. After having her head cut off, Catherine's body was carried off by angels to mount Sinai, where it remained completely preserved for centuries, always oozing oil like substance. After being torn apart by Pyrrha, Penny's body was brought to Atlas to be rebuilt. Oil like substance works with coolant liquid Penny has a robot.

Alyx=Margareth

Was to be executed by getting swallowed by Satan shapeshifted into dragon. She survived it by irritating its inside with cross. Alyx had an encounter with Jabberwalker, draconic creature with some Satan parallels (demonic being created to prevent Ascension), she survived it using her knife (which is about as close as you can get to cross).

Reading or writing about Margareth was said to give indulgence of sins. This works in two ways since her adventures in Ever After were written by her brother as cautionary story and since Jaune upon completing his fairy tale role is given back his youth, metaphorically having his sins forgiven.

Multiple voices theory would give pay off to plot points in volumes 8 and 9. Because, what was the point of Jaune killing Penny or encountering Alyx if that's not gonna have any influence down the line. Vacuo portion of the story will be nice test ground to see if this theory holds any water.

Theory 3: It's Semblance related. Jaune can manipulate aura with his Semblance. Since aura is soul related, maybe fully realized version of his Semblance will allow him to communicated with the souls of the dead, literally hearing voices of martyrs. This one is most speculative and out there. I personally don't really believe this will happen, but I try to cover all bases.

Reason I suggest this theory is Jaune's Semblance awakening in Volume 5. In my Joan of Arc timeline theory, I equate Jaune saving Weiss to Joan saving duke of Alencon. She was warned by voices and told him to move away from the spot he was standing at. Some time later, artillery hit that spot and killed some nameless soldier. Joan saved Alencon's life thanks to her Voices and Jaune saved Weiss with his Semblance, if we fully equate events, then Voices=Semblance.

Theory 4: It's Indecisive King related. I'll once again link one of my previous theories since I go more into it there.

Long story short, Jaune=Joan=Widow from the story. At the end of the story, Widow put on Crown of Choice and saw the visions of the future which allowed her to resolve the story. Jaune will have literal visions after he uses Crown of Choice. Saints Joan saw in her visions were also carrying crowns, so that's another potential parallel.

It is also possible these theories are not mutually exclusive and we'll see Joan's voices realized through multiple ways.

Moving on to possible implications of Jaune either being influenced by his fallen comrades or having literal visions. What does it build up to?

Theory 1: Avenging Whiteknight

First I'll go for straightforward option. Pyrrha's death and her "voice" guided Jaune forward to find and fight Cinder. This is backed by Joan of Arc story where Joan is guided to meet Robert de Baudricourt (character which I equate to Cinder in my timeline theory). Jaune will continuously fight Cinder over the course of the story, eventually leading to him defeating her. This works with Theories 1 and 3, and partially with theory 2 I made above. Reason I paired this theory with Whiteknight ship is because Weiss is present during the major story points that contain Jaune's voices.

Jaune awakened his Semblance to save Weiss so she wouldn't share Pyrrha's fate. This is even referenced by Cinder taunting him that he is gonna let her die as well. So Pyrrha's "voice" or more specifically, lessons he learned from Pyrrha lead Jaune to awaken and save Weiss. If you believe that Penny is saint Catherine, this works once again. Penny's plea to Jaune lead once again to Jaune saving Weiss' life. If he didn't kill Penny, Cinder wouldn't have gotten distracted and would have killed Weiss on the spot. This theory rides what is seemingly current story trajectory (re-establishing Cinder as Jaune's personal enemy by making him kill Penny and Weiss' crush on him in volume 9).

Flaws I see with this interpretation is that if we go by multiple voices theory, there is no third voice. Alyx is odd one out and doesn't fit the mold here. So to complete this part of theory, we'll need new third martyr, preferably killed by Cinder and with something that can connect both Jaune and Weiss. It has potential to happen, but we'll have to wait and see.

Theory 2: Reedeming Knightfall

Here is my obligatory Knightfall shilling interpretation. Please understand, I only indirectly shilled for Knightfall in my previous theory and withdrawals are kicking in.

So yeah, Pyrrha is consistently guiding Jaune towards Cinder, but end point is Jaune redeeming Cinder, not killing her. Reason I go with this interpretation is because all three voices I listed in theory 2 and people Jaune couldn't save (although irony is that 2 out of 3 he couldn't save from Cinder herself). Cinder is on path that can only lead to her death and enslavement, she is doomed individual Jaune will save. Here is dandy little Cinder flowchart I made for my Indecisive King theory to quickly demonstrate that.

So, why would Jaune be the one to help her? Isn't Ruby more likely to do so considering she is the only one that can save her from her grimmification? Well, someone has to actually bring her to Ruby for that to happen and I have my reason to believe it's Jaune.

Indecisive King story. I'd suggest just reading my Indecisive King theory. Quick summary: Jaune=Widow, Cinder=King, King is plagued with visions of doomed future he cannot avoid. Widow used the vision of the future she saw and advice King gave her at the beginning of the story and helped him make the right choice.

It's consistent with my Joan of Arc interpretations. I'd suggest reading my Joan of Arc timeline theory. Cinder almost perfectly matches king Dauphin. Joan was guided by her voices to help the King. Voices in the story leading Jaune to help Cinder is logical conclusion if Jaune's story follows Joan's.

Alyx connection. Jaune's experience with Alyx will lead him to help Cinder in the end. Both Cinder and Alyx are selfish and villainous individuals who made the deal with powerful ancient being (Salem and CC respectively) to be granted their wish. Alyx had the crisis of faith after talking to Blacksmith and felt remorse for all the damage she did and wanted to make amends. However, she was instead killed by CC for breaking her promise. If we take Indecisive King into consideration, this could be valid speculation: Cinder's sees visions with the Crown (you could also make parallel between Blacksmith and Relic's ghost) and wants to make amends for all the damage she did. But instead of dying to Salem, Jaune saves her and allows her to be redeemed. This could explain why Jaune's involvement with Alyx was even present in the story.

Flaws with this theory is that relies a lot on speculative canon. While I can back most of these with literary references that seem to reference these potential future events, it's still up in the air.

What are your thoughts about the theories? Feel free to comment if I you have your own interpretations.

[sevi007]

TOTK END GAME SPOILERS!

LIKE SUPER HEAVY SPOILERS

No seriously don’t continue reading if you don’t want to get heavily spoilered for the final boss.

Still here?

....

...

..

Okay plenty of time to back out folks now get ready for SUPER LENGTHY POST

To give you a quick rundown so you can still back out if this is TL;DR:

* The whole final felt so packed with dread, hope, with sheer emotion, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. It was SO GOOD. I don’t remember when I had last such a rush of emotion in a Zelda. I think back in OOT maybe?

* THe music! God whoever composed the soundtrack did such a great job in this. The entire way to Ganondorf you have this eery kind of music that makes you get goosebumps - and then you jump down tohis lair, and the music gets even creepier and SWELLS and you feel like “damn I’m just descending into hell”. No really it was - so cool! And the first real fight against Ganondorf is utterly silent. Somehow, that made me even more stressed and focused. It felt like the whole world was holding it’s breath that I defeat the revived king now. And then in the final phase, it swells again, becoming so powerful and hopeful and I think I heard a few notes of older Zelda theme’s in there. That really got my blood pumping. Just - topnotch. Give those composers a chef’s kiss from me!

* THERE BE DRAGONS!

* I read that the designer for Ganondorf’s design was a huge fan of him since TP and was just let loose on the design for him here, and I think it shows! Ganondorf in his “normal” human state is already really cool. I think it’s an accumulation of many different Ganondorfs - I definitely saw a bit of the ones from OOT, TP and WW in there. Which you might say “Sevi it’s the same damn character” - I know, but they all seem like their own person still, right? As does this Ganondorf, but at teh same time, I think you can recognize hints of his other incarnations in his features, his clothes, the way he laughs. I can’t explain it well. And his Demon King Form? I mean, that’s SO Demise! That’s like he came back to his very first incarnation, while retaining all the hatred and anger and power he has acummulated since then. That’s such an awesome design that really makes you gulp when facing him, I swear! Bless the designer!

* When I said “wouldn’t it be funny if I could ride the White Dragon into battle against Ganon, imagine his face” - I was joking. Nintendo wasn’t.

* THE ENDING MADE ME CRY HAPPY PROUD TEARS

... so and that was the short version. Get ready for the long on in a second attached post. XD

[eurofox]

Like a dragon/Yakuza: The man who erased his name review

This was way better than ishin!. Lot's of spoilers

I had low expectations for this because I'd heard it was just planned DLC that was quickly turned into a full length game but it's great.

The story moves along at a far quicker pace than usual but that was to be expected, it's a small timeline that's confined to 7 and 8's story. I saw people say they didn't understand why this existed at all and that kiryu's story should have ended with 6 but frankly I'm glad we're getting more. I found 6's ending to be kind of shitty and I want to know how the bodyguard situation came to be

Kiryu is so fucking miserable in this game and the voice actor does a great job conveying it. Even all his little ordinary task phrases are just so fed up sounding. The end scene were he's breaking down actually had me tear up a little, first time in the whole series.

Akame is basically the Florist again, but less annoying. I was meh on her at first but she grew on me

The baddies are pretty good with how short the game is and shishido was a good rep for all the guys at the bottom who are left floundering with the dissolution. Tsureno was a great character, I'd like to see more of him. The kpop nishitani guy was ok, but I'd prefer they just killed him off instead of having him repeatedly survive.

The plot itself is the usual over the top nonsense, and it does tie it all in fairly well. Kiryu swanning about in the world's shittiest disguise required a serious suspension of disbelief though. As well as characters not using guns when they should have. I know some characters saw through the obvious bullshit but still. The castle ship not being found by police was also kind of silly but we've already had purgatory so whatever (i prefer castle to purgatory, more flair). The whole daidoji thing was strange at times, but I guess they'll flesh them out more in future games. The big final battle alonside the jimas' was cool, even if kiryu couldn't really acknowledge them. Felt bad for Daigo though, only one shocked he's alive and he isn't allowed to speak to the guy. Also LOL at Watase getting stabbed in his Peter griffin fit, so unnecassary. Also he didn't delete the footage he just broke the phone screen

Combat was really good, agent was a nice change of pace and yakuza felt powerful, exactly what i wanted after Ishin and it's low damage dealing. Rocket shoes are my new favourite thing, drones were a bit shite though. Progression is straightforward, no fuckign around with random trainers, just pay with your yen and get the moves. Did seem like my grabs failed most of the time though, but I did rush things. Some great Long battles, again an area I felt ishin was lacking

Music is fine, mostly the long battle themes that stood out. Can't remember most of the boss themes. Good karaoke selection.

Still lots of mini games despite being a kind of filler entry. Lots of master system games, although i found them all a bit shite. Live action hostess clubs are uncomfortable and weird. Sonic the fighters is great still. The joryu clan thing wasn't bad but I'm glad the DLC characters were included in the sale I found because fucking hell they were not worth it. All this time I wanted playable Daigo and when they finally allow it he only has a bare bones move set. The fucking AI daigo has more moves so what the hell?

Sub stories only being through the Akame network is odd. Half are really good ones with lots of throw backs to earlier games and half are tedious 'go there and fight this guy' for your colosseum team missions. I couldn't get one to trigger despite fulfilling conditions so there's that. Also the walk around missions are boring.

The akame network and the colosseum were used as filler during the story and that got old very fast.

Really enjoyed this game and I'm hyped for 8.

Things I liked:

Emotional gut punch of an ending

Cool throwback substories

Ghost substory

Akame isn't bad as far as female yakuza characters go and they didn't kill her off/send her to her planet that needs her at the end

Ties up things

Great long battles

Agent style is a nice change

Finally get Playable Daigo!

Things I didn't like:

Some tedious substories (red peacocks anybody?)

Kiryu's dumbass disguise

Obvious filler missions

Playable Daigo isn't very good!

[duhragonball]

Dream 9 Toriko x One Piece x Dragon Ball Z Super Collaboration Special !! (2013)

Okay, let me start with a disclaimer: I know nothing about Toriko and extremely little about One Piece.  No disrespect to One-Piece, but I didn’t like this special very much, because it’s basically crammed full of characters I don’t know, and the ones I do know don’t get a lot of screen time. 

So I wasn’t particularly excited to cover this one, and now that I’ve watched it, I can’t say it was a particularly great introduction to Toriko or One Piece.  All I really got out of this were a few good screenshots of DBZ guys. 

I’ve heard good things about One Piece, and I might check it out one of these decades, but I’ve also heard it’s over a thousand chapters long, and still going, so I might be dead of old age by the time I’m ready to try it.  And I have zero interest in Toriko at all.  For years, I kept having trouble remembering who the third guy was in this thing, and for some reason I kept thinking it was Bleach. 

So this is a good old fashioned crossover, like Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man.  Well, actually, all three properties are under the Toei banner, so this is more like an intra-company crossover event, like when the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and X-Men get together to do stuff.  Or Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.  Basically, in 2013, these were Toei’s “Big Three”, and they wanted to do a cross-promotion. 

I never quite understood how DBZ got roped into this.  There had been a Toriko/One-Piece crossover before this, but this one aired the week after Battle of Gods first premiered in Japan.  So there was a coordinated effort to promote the movie along with the two TV series. 

Personally, I have trouble buying into Toriko as one of the “Big Three”.  This feels more like Superman and Batman hanging out with Captain Atom or something.  And Captain Atom is like “Hey guys!  It sure is historic that we’re all teaming up like this.  The three greatest superheroes!” And Superman and Batman have to try not to roll their eyes at him.  I’m not saying this to bash Toriko or Captain Atom, but they’re not on that level and they know it.  I feel like I’ve heard One-Piece has already surpassed Dragon Ball on a number of popularity metrics, and while I find that hard to accept, I believe it, because I hear about it all the time.  They made the theme song Krillin’s ringtone in  Resurrection F.  Every time I hear about Toriko, it’s always this special, where he teams up with two much bigger franchises.

To be fair, Toriko had a much shorter run than the other two.  The anime ended in 2014, and the manga wrapped up in 2016.  So maybe it just had a smaller pop culture impact. 

But I think it might have something to do with the author’s history as a sex offender.  In 2002, Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro was arrested and convicted for violating child prostitution laws.  He was sentenced to two years in prison, but for some reason the sentence was suspended.  So if it sounds like I’m not showing the proper respect to the Toriko franchise... this might have something to do with it. 

Okay, so this crossover is organized into two episodes.  The first part is Toriko Episode 99.  The conclusion is in One Piece Episode 590. Apparently both of these are going to get an English dub when they air on Toonami March 4.  That’s like next week, but I don’t want to wait around for that, so here we are.

Here’s the skinny: All of these characters live in the same world now, apparently.  Just run with it.  The IGO has organized a special tournament, with the winner receiving the Carat-Sized Cattle, a delicacy so tasty and precious that... I don’t know.  I saw Goku eat a cloud once, so he seems like more of a “quantity over quality” kind of guy.  The Toriko characters are all about gourmet food, so I assume this is to keep them interested.  And I think Luffy is another hungry action guy in the tradition of Goku, so that’s enough to get him involved.

Anyway, the tournament is really more of a race.  A large crowd of people enter, but early into the event...

A giant antlion or something shows up and most of the contestants get lost in the sand.  Did they die?  Who knows.  All that matters are the characters who didn’t get slowed down by this, and they continue towards the goal.

Sigh... let’s go over the characters.  The Toriko side, from left to right is: Toriko, Sunny, Rin, and Koichi Hirose from Diamond is Unbreakable I mean Komatsu.  yeah, that’s definitely what I meant to say.  We never learn jack shit about Sunny and Rin, so I won’t have much to say about them.   Komatsu is some kind of chef, and Toriko’s sidekick.

I literally just finished watching this and I couldn’t tell you anything about these characters.  Okay, let me try a little harder. 

Luffy’s the stretchy guy with the hat.  He’s the leader of the Straw Hat Pirates. 

Nami’s like the team’s resident woman.  Like, if there’s a Pirate Crime that they can’t solve because the clues involve makeup, Nami will solve it for them, because she knows all about that stuff.  Also, she wants the Carat-Sized Cattle because its bones are made out of solid diamond, and she’s into money.

Sanji has a cigarette, so that’s kind of special, I guess.

Chopper looks like a deer or something.  Maybe an antelope.  I’m pretty sure he once teamed up with NJPW star Minoru Suzuki, so I guess he’s my favorite One Piece dude.

Franky’s a cyborg?  I guess?

Slash (aka Saul Hudson) was the lead guitarist for the hard rock band Guns ‘n’ Roses. 

Zoro is green and has a sword.  So he’s like their Piccolo, I think.

Finally we have... fuck, I have no idea who these assholes are.  Was Naruto in this thing too?  Dammit, I’m gonna be writing this all day. 

So there’s multiple paths in this race, so that allows the characters to split up and get their stuff in.  See, my problem with this whole premise is that these shonen franchises have a lot in common, and teaming them up like this really just exposes this flaw.  Most of the gags in this thing boil down to “Oh, you have  a horny guy on your show?  Well here’s the horny guy on our show!”  Like, I’m pretty sure the skeleton man has a little more to him than that, but we’re never gonna find out in an hour special featuring 45 characters. 

Also Vegeta shows up late, because no one even told him about this event, and he interrupts a showdown between Zoro and... Zebra, I think his name was.  They start fighting each other, which sounds like a cool little side-thing, but this is literally all it is.  The joke is that they’re fighting off-screen through the rest of the story.  So tough luck if any of these guys were your faves. 

Oh, hey, it’s King Kai.  And he’s not dead in this, which proves that the original theatrical cut of Battle of Gods didn’t have him dead!  The DVD release has halos on him and Bubbles, and I’ve known all along that Toei was gaslighting me, so this is my favorite part of this special.  Anyway, he calls Goku about a Space Crisis, so Goku just teleports away to deal with that other, probably cooler adventure.  Okay, so two things.

First, I really find it gratifying how they put over all the DBZ guys in this.  There’s some semblance of parity between Toriko and Luffy, but Goku’s clearly shown to be on another level.  They don’t even try to hide it.  He’ll knock out a second adventure while he’s slumming this one.  Goku doesn’t give a fuck.

Second, this is really, really annoying.  Just show me the cool thing Goku’s doing in space.  This little gag is basically admitting that the show would be a lot better if all these other characters would take a hike. 

So Goku makes it back just as the race is coming to an end, and he still manages to catch up to Toriko and Luffy, so they all grab the flag together and it’s a three-way tie.  But that just means we settle it with a tiebreaker....

So the IGO guy had prepared for something like this, and the stadium transforms into a combat sports arena.  The last man in the ring wins the beef.

Also, Mr. Satan fell onto the stage during the transformation sequence, so he’s in this thing too, even though he didn’t do the race part. 

So Goku works over the other two guys pretty well.  I like this fight, but let’s not kid ourselves, much of this is Toriko and Luffy double-teaming Goku.  They might have stood a chance that way, but then they turned on each other, and that borked it up. 

Anyway, they all cut loose with their full power (except Goku who never goes past Super Saiyan 1), and they destroy the ring, so all three of them lose.  Mr. Satan wins, because he managed to stay on the small piece of the stage that wasn’t destroyed. 

But Mr. Satan is a magnanimous guy, and the Carat-Sized Cattle is enormous, so he decides to share it with all three groups. 

So I think we’re into One Piece Episode 590 now.  Everyone sits at this big-ass table and eats and talks about how great the food is.  Cripes this is boring as hell.  Is this all Toriko does all day?

Aw, look at Marron, she’s so cute.

Toriko says some BS about how eating with friends improves the dining experience. Okay, but I had an omelet from Denny’s this morning and I ate it alone and it kicked ass.  Can I just say how absolutely goofy all these characters look when they’re in the same shot? 

Then Mr. Satan says the exact same thing Toriko did about the power of sharing or whatever.  Cripes this show is so damned redundant.  We have like eight guys in orange-red clothes, and four sex pests and this is just dumb. 

So then Piccolo and... two other people, confront the guy who organized the tournament, and they ask what the real purpose is to all of this.  He admits that it was all a plot to get a bunch of strong guys together to capture the Akami, a dangerous sea creature. 

I think the idea is that the Carat-Sized Cattle is so delicious that it lured the Akami up to the surface, where it then begins attacking all the superheroes.  Each time the Akami nabs somebody with its tentacles, it absorbs all their power and transforms.  Is this supposed to be a Toriko deal or a One-Piece deal?   Who cares?

So the gang splits up to find it, because the need to capture it in thirty minutes to cure its victims.  Unfortunately, it just gets stronger every time it nabs another one, and it even absorbs energy from attacks, so fighting it is pointless.

Toriko reasons that they’d have to hit it with a lot of energy all at once, so Goku proposes using the Spirit bomb, except that doesn’t work either, because the Akami sucks up the energy faster than Goku can gather it. 

So Goku asks everyone on the island to send him more energy, which... I don’t see how that changes the problem, but whatever.  The bigger issue I have is that we see a lot of characters sending energy even after they got drained by the Akami.  So what are they sending, exactly?

So Goku launches the Spirit Bomb, but the Akami manages to hold it off, so Toriko and Luffy hit it from the sides while Goku goes SSJ3 and fires a Kamehameha at the Spirit Bomb to force it down the Akami’s throat.  So that’s  a cool variation on the Spirit Bomb.  Nice touch. 

And that takes care of the Akami. 

So then they eat the Akami for dinner, because apparently it has legendarily tasty meat as well.  So wait... they had Carat-Sized Cattle and Akami on the same day.  Wouldn’t regular food just taste like poop after this?  Maybe I’m not supposed to overthink this gimmick.

Then we get these really long pans across still images, as the voice actors read their lines.  It’s really, really weak, and there’s like four of these in a row.  Is this standard for One Piece?   It just seems really cheap, especially for a big “event” episode like this one.  Maybe they blew all their budget on that SSJ3 Kamehameha. 

Also, they just show the same footage of Vegeta fighting those other guys, so that’s another corner cut.  I mean, damn.  I’m just gonna re-use the screenshot I took from the first half in protest. 

And that’s it.  I kind of hope they never do one of these again.  Also, Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro belongs in jail. 

[heylavellan]

dragon age prompts: magic edition

feel free to use these and reblog them! you may find it useful to use the first letter of the theme + number.

demons and spirits

you turned into an abomination and now i have to kill you

you turned into an abomination but i really dont want to kill you so we're on the run now

"i wasn't bisexual until i met a desire demon"

trying to explain to the love spirit "no, i can't have them because they are taken"

i didn't realise i loved you until a demon used you against me in the fade

there was this really weak looking spirit in the fade so i let it come back with me. turns out it was a rage demon who needed a break.

one character attracts these really weird spirits that no one's heard of. but they swear they really did meet a demon of narcissism while bathing in a lake and that a spirit of integrity was the only thing holding a ruin together

i was going to die, but this spirit is the only thing keeping me alive at this point. let's not discuss this. (they discuss it anyway).

we got into a big argument over the nature of spirits and demons, and a third person is making us do something together to get along.

im pretty sure you're a demon, but i'd rather live in this illusion than face reality

the circle

i know im just an apprentice, but i'm really down bad for the knight commander so can they be at my harrowing?

you sneak me books from the restricted section of the library and in return i dont tell the first enchanter that you also steal supplies behind the tranquils' back

"who's going to tell the first enchanter?"

i know i'm using blood magic, but the cats keep eating my favorite plant and i would just like it to stay alive. please dont tell the templars.

this sounds worse than it is, but i accidentally destroyed all the apprentices' phylacteries. what should we do?

so this really cute new mage came in and they're from a rival noble family. im not sure if i want to kiss or kill them.

sharing a lyrium bottle to see who can make cooler illusions.

you and i fundamentally disagree on a theory of magic, but a third person has to explain why we're both wrong.

alternatively, you and i fundamentally disagree on a theory of magic, but disproving a third person's theory helps us reconcile our differences

court mages

"respectfully, your highness, i cannot maintain perfect weather in the palace at all times."

"respectfully, your highness, i could maintain perfect weather in the palace, but it's a waste of my talents."

the heir keeps sneaking into my office and messing with my calculations to support the upcoming battle. please stop.

the commander and i CANNOT be in the same room under any circumstance because we will get into a fight

i'm really falling in love with one of the heirs, but i'm a mage so i really can't have them. oh, they're engaged now? ouch...

"why am i your court mage if you refuse to take my advice?"

"i can guarantee you that no one in this meeting is possessed."

look, my parents don't really care for the plight of mages. when i become monarch, i'll make sure mages are listened to

i understand those are your circle robes, but now you're in my court and you really can't wear something that ugly.

apostates

i don't get why anyone calls you an evil witch in the forest, you're quite nice and give me tea on wednesdays

so if your entire family are templars did they just let you be an apostate?

please don't call me an apostate. it makes me sound ugly. maleficarum makes me sound sexier.

you spent the past year chasing me because im a blood mage but do you really want to stop the hunt? do you really want to kill me?

i swear i saw my true love in the forest, they just changed into a mouse and ran away.

"nothing you say will ever make me trust an apostate."

you are the only apostate i've never handed over to the templars

i'm a grey warden recruiting folks, and you are way more competent than circle mages. wanna enlist?

tranquility

you are the reason i no longer believe all mages should be tranquil

something happened, i'm no longer tranquil, and i'm freaking out.

after being made tranquil, you were the only one willing to hire me. your treatment of me is unexpected.

i thought you deserved to be made tranquil, but seeing you after i'm not so sure

sharing our last kiss before we're both made tranquil

after being gone for two weeks, i come back and found you made tranquil.

"life would be better if i was just tranquil!"

[hobbs-deep]

current review and thoughts

so, after catching up on one piece here's my break down

i watched all the episodes pre timeskip in dub

-east blue saga was good, intro was fun

-the arabasta saga felt like it was playing the long game, little garden opened elbaf and giants to the world we the audience still haven't really seen a lot of that island (we saw it in big mom flash back but not really much else). drum island was a fun arc, dr. Kureha is amazing and i wish we had more time with her. and arabasta itself was turned into a sitcom for me bc i heard about the crocomom theory. so every time i saw croc fighting luffy i would say shit like "that's no way to talk to your kid!" other than that, good intro to the seven warlords

-sky island saga is prob one of my top fave sagas in op, instead of being super focused on all the battles as much the story was more interested in clever solutions, Usopp really shined in this arc, he felt more engaging with jaya and skypiea, the connections to Rodger also were very fun

--not a saga but the G-8 arc was some of the best writing i have seen in awhile. i know it was a filler arc but it covered so much, reinforcing the use of dials, the relationship the crew had and giving us such a believable scenario in this world. vice-admiral Jonathan was such a charismatic dude, we also got introduced to the Coup de Burst (although it wasn't called that) as an escape method. flying out of danger on a ship

-water 7 saga really took the story in stride, it felt like one piece was really finding it's pacing and the backstories didn't feel as long winded as before. the intro to the Ancient Weapons here felt more earned, long ring was a bit too much for this saga though

-summit war saga was the first time i felt that this is truly a larger world. that while we have been watching the story from the pov of the straw hats and their adventure this world keeps moving no matter what the crew does. the world got fleshed out and it was like when your a kid and it clicks in your brain that the world is bigger than you thought. post war arc hurt in ways i didn't think it would, but we got intro'd to my favorite character JINBEI

-timeskip was a good time Weatheria was a place i wanted to see more of

--i watched all the post time skip in sub and as much as i could through One Pace--

-fish-man island saga, good return quick and effective re-intro to everybody, BUT the actual arc on fish-man? it was so long. this was the arc that made me stop watching op in the first place bc the pacing was weird and it didn't feel like the story was progressing much. now that i've come back to it with fresh eyes it had a bunch of answers to questions set up in the east blue saga and intro'd JoyBoy by name.

-dressrosa saga was very raw. there was a bunch of concepts and things happening that made me want to punch mingo, and gas-fart in the jaw. the call back to Noland was amazing and this arc really kicked Usopp up my list of fave characters. Law got swept up with the crew and i want him fully adopted by the end of the series

-whole cake island saga, sanji's a dumbass. like his backstory was so sad but he was still a dumbass for thinking he could sacrifice himself and no one would come after him. big mom's backstory was in a word disturbing. the reverie (levely arc?) gave more depth to the world gov. i hate the celestial dragons even more now and want only bad things for saint charlos

-wano country saga is still happening, it's prob toward the end now but the whole under cover aspect bc it's a closed country was a cool concept. the straw hats really are showing their growth in this saga. the trust they have in each other and the "he's dead? yeah- no he ain't you might wanna check again" attitude was everywhere in how they acted.

im excited for the next arc and im glad i gave one piece another shot.

the more people told me to watch it the less i wanted to, but when they talked about the themes and stories being told i decided to give it another shot. glad i did.

im prob gonna go back and slowly re watch post timeskip bc i missed the filler.

[seeker-ophelia]

OK my dear, I am liking the way this tin foil hat is fitting.

Lets make some assumptions:

Solas was a spirit, became a person/elf, was bound to Mythal, and then broke free of her. – not proven, but not a stretch to believe.

Solas is biased towards Mythal – agree 100%. Theres no way that he can’t be. And if Biware sticks with the “legends don’t equal history” theme, it would be very on point to have Solas’s history be wrong (he’s also ego).

Mythal wasn’t all good – also agree. I think another one of the games themes is that not everyone is 100% good or 100% bad, they just are.

Mythal killed Dirthamen

Interesting. Why?

Dirthamen Lore: God of Knowledge (secrets), ravens [fear & deceit] & bears.

Mythal: Protector Goddess… but wait wasn’t she something else too?

Codex: Mythal the Protector Mythal offered to deliver justice when the People warred amongst themselves. Elgar'nan saw her wisdom and agreed, binding all to abide by her verdicts.

Mythal wasn’t just a protector, she was the Judge. And from this….

Some petitioning Mythal for justice hid jealousy, accusing those who had done them no wrong. She saw their lies, and struck them down. Others petitioning Mythal for justice burned with wrath for imagined slights. She saw their weak hearts, and struck them down. Those coming to her with clear minds and open hearts were granted judgment and protection, and Mythal harried their enemies until the end of their days.

Sounds like she was judge, jury, AND executioner.

Hmmm.

But why would Mythal kill poor Dirth?

First of all, lets use the word “kill” very loosely. Obviously Mythal “survived” her murder, and Solas didn’t “kill” the Evanuris, he trapped them, so “kill” here could be trapped or banished or just betrayed or actually dead.

Dirthamen was the God of Secrets.

Did Mythal want information he wouldn’t give? Did Dirth know a secret of hers and threaten to expose it?

Codex entry: The Lost Temple of Dirthamen Dirthamen is gone, he said. Our Highest One brings to us this gravest news. What shall we do? Where shall we go? What of the old secrets that burn within our hearts? They will come for us in the night Those who could steal the words from our lips And our god no longer rises to our defense. We claw at the walls, at the walls. Now we pray for a dawn that will never arrive. Our Highest One, he deceives us. The honeyed words that drip from his tongue We know the despair they mask. We disciples of Dirthamen know truth, now as ever. The Highest One promises safety. I shall protect our ancient secrets, he claims All that Dirthamen once granted us will be safe. But it is our blood he seeks A sacrifice dark and unholy A prison of evil to keep us in and all else out. …

So Dirthamen’s followers had a secret, and he, (I take this to mean Elgar’nan, “Our Highest One”) wanted it. Maybe the whole Evanuris wanted it. Or did they want it to be kept secret?

But what big secret could there be, do we know a big secret about the Evanuris?

*Warning, mild DA:TV Trailer & Gameplay ONLY Spoilers

*Warning, DA4 Spoilers

In Trespasser, when our Inky steps through the last Eluvian, we see a bunch of stone statues. We are led to believe this is Solas’s magic, especially when we see him turn the attacking Qunari Viddasala into stone. Strange power for a Trickster God.

*Da4 spoilers okay I warned you.

In The Dragon Age: The Veilguard Official Release Date Trailer, we see Scout Hardling battling darkspawn (beside Rook). She turns the darkspawn to stone, and whispers emotionally, “What is happening to me?”

Looks like Solas tearing down the veil/releasing the Evaneuris made some of his power get onto Harding. Is this because she was there at the ritual (seen in the Official Gameplay Reveal)? Or is this something else entirely?

Codex entry: Torn Notebook in the Deep Roads, Section 3 … Trying to remember that old bedtime song about Mythal. My mother sang it the night before the darkspawn came for my clan. It's the last time I ever heard her voice. Ir sa tel'nal, Mythal las ma theneras. Ir san'a emma. Him solas evanuris. Da'durgen'lin, Banal malas elgara. Bellanaris, bellanaris. Written beside each elven line is a corresponding phrase, likely a translation: I am empty, filled with nothing(?), Mythal gives you dreams. It fills you, within you(?), Making our leaders proud. My little stones, Never yours the sun. Forever, forever. Hahren said we had lost some of the old words. What if they have changed? Durgen'lin from durgen'len? Little dwarves, never yours the sun? What did Mythal do here?

Good thing I’ve been living in the Elvhen Lexicon for the past 2 weeks, lets use MY translation here.

Ir sa tel'nal,   /   I am one, (of the) not-thing / not-ing, Mythal las ma theneras.   /   Mythal gives you waking dreams. Ir san'a emma.   /   I am san’a mine, (I am _____ mine), * Him solas evanuris.   /   She molds the Evanuris’ pride. Da'durgen'lin,   /   Small rock children, Banal malas elgara.   /   Nothingness, now your spirit Bellanaris, bellanaris.   /   Eternity, eternity.

*(the word san’a or sana does not exsist anywhere in the elvhen lexicon – ask me for my breakdown if you want)

The only glaring difference is the word elgara, it does not mean sun. It means spirit.

Lets take some liberties with this;

I am one of the not-ings, Mythal gives you waking dreams, I am of her (Mythal) Who molds the pride of the Evanuris, Children of the stone, Your spirit is now nothing, Forever, forever.

This is a very interesting lullaby.

Why would a dwarves lullaby contain reference to Mythal?

When were the Evanuris ever underground?

Oh ya, when they slay the titan(s).

Reference Picture:

Horned Elf on the left, raised glowing hand.

Cracked titan, with beam of light, 8-pointed star in center of chest.

Bald elf on right, 8-pointed star in center of chest, not glowing.

We assume the figure on the left represents the whole of the Evanuris, but who else do we know who wears a horned hairpeace?

*Insert Picture of Flemeth.

Oh, Hi, Flemeth-Mythal.

And who do we know that’s bald?

*Solas has entered the chat*

So, this fresco could be detailing how the Evanuris killed a titan,

OR

This is Mythal, killing a titan, taking the Titans power/lifeforce/magic, and giving it to… you guessed it! Solas!

Solas means ego/pride, so if we re-arrange the lullaby a bit to make it more literal,

Him solas evanuris, could mean She molds Solas.

Mythal MAKES Solas out of the heart (or whatever) of a titan; Solas is the fusion of a spirit (remember Cole in trespasser “he never wanted a body”) and the heart of a titan.

And in taking the heart of the titan, steals magic (maybe also immortality? Who knows) from the dwarves.

Remember Harding? “What is happening to me?”

Maybe she absorbed Solas’ power when she was at the ritual, or MAYBE, dwarven MAGIC is coming back. Dwarves should have ALWAYS had magic and access to the fade but Mythal STOLE it.

But... What does this have to do with my man Dirth?

Another leap, what if Mythal did this (killed a titan to create solas) without the knowledge of the rest of the Evanuris?

Is this Dirthamen’s secret? Was it Dirthamen who wanted to tell the Evanuris Mythal’s secret? And she killed him for it?

Or..

*This is a screengrab from a YT video:

The Sword stuck into Dirthamens back in the fade statue is huge.

It looks like a greatsword. I agree something happened to Dirthamen, but I don’t know if it was Mythal.

Maybe random, but why is Dirthamen’s Wisdom – the reward for the Temple of Dirthamen Side Quest – a shield?

Why does a god of secrets and knowledge need a shield?

Shields are for protecting against.

His wisdom is to protect himself, from who?

Who wields a greatsword? The Mother/Protector/Judge? Or the God of Vengance?

With that being said, its also stuck in his back, implying betrayal, so who’s to say.

Like you said, everything we have been talking about has been incredibly circumstantial. No knows, except for Mythal (and Bioware), what really happened.

This has been a very interesting tin-foil hat, its really brought me on a journey, thank you for lending it to me.

Solas: She was the best of them. She cared for her people. She protected them. Solas: She was a voice of reason. And in their lust for power, they killed her.

Either Solas or Bioware is once again missing a few steps in the sequence of events that led to Mythal's death. I mean, let's be real here: if Mythal was truly someone who cared for and protected her people instead of treating them like objects and tools (unlikely given the whole magic well that forces any who drink from it to serve Mythal with her physically taking control of their body to force them to do what she wants even if the actions she compels them to undertake are entirely against their own wishes and beliefs situation, that's not exactly loving and protective behaviour) and the Evanuris were truly all eeeeeeeeeeeevil slavers willing to do anything for their own gain... she would not be any threat to them. That's why the magisters who practice large-scale human sacrifice are so feared; what they do is horrific, but they do do it for a reason. That shit does seem to give insane boosts in power!

And speaking of things being done for reasons: even if we believe that Mythal was the voice of reason among the Evanuris (possible, but given her general behaviour across the games... I don't know, I'm reserving judgement until we meet some of the others) and the others were all power-hungry, that doesn't automatically translate into them killing her. Sure, maybe they wanted her to stop nagging, but if they all ruled their own areas they likely wouldn't see much of her, and besides that in the legends we see they all seem to listen to her pretty willingly. And also... she's described as the leader of the pantheon. She was in charge. Assuming the legends have some basis in fact, she was the leader and mother figure most of the Evanuris were bound to follow and obey, and we know she does have a fondness for stripping notable followers of their free will (in fact she seems almost giddy about getting Quiz/Morrigan under her control). How sure are we that they didn't have very good reason to want her dead? It's not like Solas would admit to it given his blind spot for her, and it would make more sense than "She was nice and they were all Evil McEvil so they murdered her in cold blood for no real reason"...

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

The Voyage So Far: Paramount War (Part Two)

east blue (1 | 2) || alabasta (1 | 2) || skypiea || water 7 || enies lobby || thriller bark || paramount war (1 | 2) || fishman island || punk hazard || dressrosa (1 | 2) || whole cake island || wano (1 | 2)

ace’s execution is, in a way, the exception that proves the rule when it comes to one piece’s themes of blood and family. ace is set up to die for the crimes of a father he never knew and never wanted, and he does die here, but in the end he dies for the family he did choose, in the form of luffy, rather than the one he didn’t. 

god do i wish we knew more about ms portgas d. rouge. with ace’s storyline pretty much wrapped it looks unlikely that we’re going to be learning more about her than what we got, which in my opinion is an absolute tragedy, because what little we do know about her is amazing and she’s an absolute badass. oda give us more female ds please.

whitebeard’s power is so cool. it might be one of the visually coolest devil fruits we’ve ever seen, in my opinion. he he causes earthquakes and tsunamis while far past his prime; he pulls the sky apart with his bare hands. this whole arc is world-shaking, and whitebeard’s power is perfectly appropriate for it. 

doflamingo’s speech on justice and rightness is one of the most well-remembered quotes from this whole saga, and rightly so. i’ve always found it fascinating, myself, because he’s right. he dead-on hits how the one piece world works- the world government and the marines rule the world not because of any inherent actual goodness or justice or right, but because they won a war a very long time ago. 

in a way, this reminds me of blackbeard’s line of “people’s dreams never die” from jaya. i like how oda isn’t afraid of letting his villains be right about the themes of the story, sometimes even having better awareness of them than the protagonists. 

man, if i had to pick a single favorite spread out of the whole manga, it might be luffy’s marineford entrance. it’s so epic, and so completely unexpected for everyone else there. absolutely nobody was expecting strawhat luffy to drop out of the sky with a posse including two former warlords. it just makes me grin!! so much!! 

it also gets followed up by a solid two pages of just people’s reactions, from smoker’s “what the HELL is he doing with CROCODILE” to moria’s immediate incoherent rage, and i just love that the world and cast of one piece is so well-established and built up that we know exactly how all of those people know luffy and why they react the way they do. 

going back to what i mentioned in the last post about marineford being luffy’s conflict of interest arc, i’d say it’s also the only time where he isn’t the future king first and foremost. in this arc, before anything else, he’s a little brother.

there are a lot of what-if moments in marineford. moments where you kind of have to ask “what if this specific thing hadn’t happened, had gone differently?” would things have turned out differently? squard’s betrayal is one of them. does this change the outcome? would whitebeard have been able to survive if not for this injury? there’s no way to know. marineford is a lot of little tragedies, and they just pile up and up.

marineford has just so many incredibly striking spreads. all of the momentous moments (and there’s a lot of them, in this arc) are done full justice. this is such an image heavy post just because marineford is such an incredibly visually strong arc. 

conqueror’s haki is so cool and i love the way it’s set up and built up throughout this saga, with luffy’s constant inadvertent uses of it, from duval’s bull to marigold and sandersonia to the wolves in impel down, all leading up to this moment. 

i’ve heard people complain about conqueror’s as kind of a deus ex machina, but i honestly love it, it’s very cool and honestly i think it just seems to fit luffy as a power. if there was ever gonna be a character who turned willpower into a weapon, it would be monkey d. luffy. 

i’m gonna take this chance to talk about garp, because this sequence of panels is heavily implied to be garp’s thoughts just before luffy punches him down, and it hurts. garp is a flawed person who makes some bad choices, and there’s no arguing that, but i think it’s very obvious he really, really cares about his grandsons, even if he never could understand them as people and that they never would have been happy as marines. and that’s just tragic, really. 

the moment ace gets freed and the brief span of time where he and luffy can fight together feel so triumphant, and i think it’s one of the reasons the final tragedy of marineford hits so hard and feels so cruel, because luffy succeeds, here. he saves ace. he gives absolutely everything he had and makes it, and saves ace. the ultimate failure isn’t his. there was nothing more he could have done. 

the first time i was reading one piece, i hit this page (which is also the last in the volume) and had to put the book away, take the bus downtown, wander around for a few hours, and buy myself some candy and some new books before i started feeling okay again.

the thing about ace’s death, i think, is that it’s a tragedy, but it also feels so completely essential to the story going forwards and luffy’s character growth specifically that it’s really, really hard to imagine one piece without it. there are a lot of (really excellent!) fix-fics out there for marineford, and although those are often really good and their authors super talented, i think it’s really hard for them to ever hit the same way canon does with regards to this. 

i always think of this scene specifically in contrast to zoro and mihawk’s fight, back on baratie. zoro and mihawk are both people who believe in honor in battle, true victory or death, and that’s reflected in their fight, in zoro’s refusal to turn and run even in the face of imminent death, and mihawk’s respect for that resolve. whitebeard, too, is an honorable man. he refuses to turn to run, even when facing certain death. 

the blackbeard pirates, however, are not. 

i do enjoy how, just like roger’s, ace’s execution backfires tremendously on the marines. this was entirely a predictable outcome, too! this exact thing happened twenty years ago! the marines don’t learn. they don’t change. they’re so assured of their own rightness and power that they make stupid mistakes like holding a massive public execution after the last one blew up in their faces. 

(this is why they need coby so badly, for the record, and why it’s important that he still decides to become a marine after witnessing their corruption firsthand in shells town. the marines are long overdue for a reformation, one that orients them towards real justice.)

i really, really enjoy crocodile in this saga. mostly because he hasn’t been redeemed at all, he’s still pretty much the exact same kinda awful person he was in alabasta, he’s just on luffy’s side this time, and it lets us see him in a better light, when he gets angry at whitebeard for nearly dying or when he helps luffy and jinbe escape to keep the marines from getting their way. few of one piece’s characters are truly so one-dimensional as they can seem, and i really appreciate that. 

i really really love all the interactions between luffy, ace and sabo as kids. they’re so fun and bounce off of each other so well. even though we only see them together for a brief time, they really feel like siblings. (which of course only makes later events hurt so much more.

i’ve always been a little fascinated by the fact that it takes us this long to get luffy’s full backstory. it’s almost a fakeout, because we get part of his backstory in the very first chapter, and we’re kind of led to believe that’s all there is. it’s not until ace’s introduction nearly two hundred chapters in that we’re given any indication there’s more.

but at the same time, it makes sense. marineford is luffy’s focus arc, as arlong park to nami or thriller bark to brook. he hasn’t had a focal arc that’s really about him before this, while all his other crewmates have. it makes sense that this would be when he finally gets his flashback. 

i think it’s cool that dragon and the revolutionaries show up at the grey terminal fire, because it’s one of the only looks we’ve gotten so far into what their actual regular operations are like. and, of course, they’re saving people. i really like this about the revolutionaries, that helping people in trouble is basically their modus operandi, when pretty much everyone else in one piece’s world mostly does saving on an incidental basis if at all. 

i think a lot about how the last line of sabo’s letter to ace is also both of their last words to the strawhats. 

death in one piece always feels much realer and more impactful to me than in most other series, and i think this is part of the reason why: in one piece, we are always shown the mourning. nami at bellemere’s grave, carrot grieving pedro, ace and whitebeard’s funeral. 

there are fewer deaths, comparatively, than most other series, but they’re given so much room to echo. we’re still feeling the impacts of ace’s life and death in the most recent chapters of wano. it ties into the theme of inherited will and all the way back to hiriluk’s final speech, of men not being dead so long as they’re remembered. 

the picture of luffy at marineford always kind of strikes me. he looks so young and so solemn, and yet much more himself than he did when we last saw him losing his mind on amazon lily. i really like it. 

sometimes i just think about the sheer depth of trust and love the strawhats must have in each other to separate for two years, far longer than they were ever together, to solely dedicate themselves to improving for the sake of crew and captain. none of them even hesitate, and none of them ever doubt that the crew will be reformed at the end of it.

after all, luffy keeps his promises. 

[demonslayedher]

Any Kny character you've grown to love/appreciate more??

Thanks for waiting, Anon, I have been trying to really, really hard to narrow this down, but the answer remains: the vast majority of the cast. The only character I loved right away was Tanjiro and that love kept me watching, as with almost every new character I was like, "ugh, I hate this guy. Here I was, having fun being emotionally invested in a high quality anime, and this might ruin it for me." But then the instant I see a different side of their character, I'm like, "...Oh." To go into some examples...

Zenitsu: I could not stand him right away, I hate womanizers, and his conniptions would go on so long that they held up the story. But Gotouge/Ufotable strung me along perfectly, the first glimpse of Thunder Breath made me immediately pay attention and think, "oh, that was cool. I want to see more of that." Seeing him protect the box pretty firmly put him in the "I need to protect this child" box in my heart. And then the spider demon happens, and I'm sending desperate reaction messages to a friend like "NOOOOOO!!!! BABBBBBBBBBYYYYYYYY!!!!" And then he annoyed me all over again at the start of Functional Recovery, ahaha. It's hard to remember how annoyed I was because I'm such a Zen Stan now, and he was a very firm favorite of mine by the time I finished binging the anime up to the last couple episodes, which I waited for as they came out. Inosuke: He was one of the reasons I was curious about the series, I saw some promotional art and was super curious about Nezuko's muzzle (I was one of the people who thought it was some ancient scroll or something, haha) and the kid with the boar mask. The art I saw showed his face, and I assumed he'd be some kid with a cracking voice performed by a female seiyuu. As much as I love Matsuoka's performance now, initially, since I knew what his face looked like, I found it grossly off-putting the moment I heard it. Then every chaotic thing Inosuke did dug a deeper hole; I very quickly decided I hated him, especially when he started beating up on the kid I was starting to like. As his chaos subsided he just became a character I tolerated, and then this happened:

Images you can hear, am I right? This immediately flipped the "BABY" switch in my heart. It was also a lot of fun to understand the Inosuke memes I was seeing everywhere. So by the end of the anime, I loved, loved, loved, loved the Tanjiro/Zenitsu/Inosuke interactions and desperately wanted more (still didn't like how Zenitsu bothered Nezuko, though). I was so impatient for more, but the manga art looked disappointingly off-putting. I figured the anime was successful enough that there'd eventually be more of it, and I wanted to be patient, but then I poked around, read some spoilers, got back into Tumblr to look at fanart and memes, saw a spoiler image of Tanjiro affected by Muzan's poison and the binge-read began. (That's kind of a lie, but I'll get to that.) Let's back up a few episodes. There I was, having a great time, the guy who I forgot about from Episode 1 was back and haha, I guess everyone hates him, and the chick who I figured was going to be a medic who saves Zenitsu in the nick of time turned out to be savage, awesome. I was sending reactions to my friends who were ahead of me, and then we left off seeing the Pillars staring down Best Boy. And I...

Well. Uh. Here, I've dug up an old convo for you, my comments are in blue.

Immediately followed by a passionate vocal rant, which I have transcribed here:

“I feel like what happened was that the mangaka was sitting around with his assistants and was like, ‘welp, gotta make this whole cast of characters, they gotta be so-o-o-o many more levels of extreme than all the other characters I’ve had so far, which isn’t hard, because all of the background characters are cannon fodder and I’ve just gotta leave them all with black hair and no personality traits. So! Gotta go to the opposite of the spectrum with the BIG! POWERFUL! People so no-o-o-body can be normal.’ And so he and his assistants sat down, and they all wrote down just random words or traits, and them put ‘em all in a hat. And then for each character, they pulled out a few of them and said, ‘OK. We’re gonna put these things together, now we have a character.’ And he was probably also like, ‘Iiiiiiiiiiiii’ll flesh them out later. For now, they just need t’… be there, and make an impact. How do we make an impact? By making sure it’s super, super clear what their character traits are. Here, we’ll have this guy repeat the word //HADE//…. ////HA DEEE//// over and over and over… to show that he’s a /showy/ person. Because he /cares/ about that. And he //should// care because that is his character and that’s why he’s powerful.’ OH MY GOSH, it’s so dumb.”

......orz I feel like Genya looking back at how he acted at the end of the Final Selection. I'm sorry, Gotouge, I had not even encountered your love for these characters yet in your little alligator form. Nor had I encountered the yet unseen-sides of these traumatized dragons and tigers. ...*coughs* Um. So. I was pretty harsh.

So this was my mindset, I went into the manga not caring about most of these characters and just wanting more Kamaboko squad interactions and wanting to hurry up and catch up to the battle with Muzan. And it's worth stating that I didn't mean to read it at first. I encountered a few spoilers, and just wanted to look for the context surrounding those parts, and then hunt for the (non-existent) build-up to those parts, and so... uh.........

I read a lot of the manga out of order, and yeah, that did affect how much I cared about what was going on. I didn't actually properly process a lot of it until later re-reads. But to try to state some things simply about each Pillar:

Giyuu: He was just 'ok' to me for a long time, I could see the appeal for why people I knew were fangirling over him but he didn't do it for me. His soft spot for Tanjiro was indeed endearing, though, and I firmly liked him by the time chapter 200 came out and I was properly heartbroken on his behalf.

Shinobu: She was intriguing, and then I liked her as soon as I saw her savage side, she was one of the characters I went hunting for spoilers for.

Rengoku: That stare really put me off at first, but I fell for him over the process of Tanjiro falling for him. When I first finished the train arc I sat back and said, "wow! That's going to make for a good movie!" and then in psyching myself out for the movie several months in advance, I fell hook, line, and sinker and was totally excited for him each time I saw the trailers. And then the movie was *stunning* and I love him even more. Uzui: He was the Pillar I hated most upon first meeting them. I blame the repeated use of his catchphrase. But then when he let his hair down to sell the kiddos the change in design helped warm me up more to him, like, "oh, there was a human in there." It took a long time for him to become more interesting to me, and an uncharacteristically subtle journey to becoming a character I liked. I am currently getting more and more psyched out for him and eager to see how much more I'm going to like him with the shiny Ufotable treatment. Mitsuri: At first I didn't remember her name, I had code-named her as "Boobs." But I kinda had a feeling she was going to grow on me quickly, and I was right, she's one of my easy favorites now. Muichiro: Who? Oh yeah, that kid who always kinda fell to the wayside in my attention. I'd see a lot of Muichiro-themed blogs and hear a lot of little girls looking at merch and showing a clear favoritism of him, and I'd like always react like Muichiro and just be like, "...", and then when I read his major battles I was more emotionally invested in things going on concurrently with other characters, and I was still like, "...", and then two days ago I revisited a Muichiro scene and was suddenly like, "......OH!!! MUICHIRO!!!!!" Himejima: I never really hated Himejima, even if I found his first impression kind of wimpy (haha... oh, I was so wrong). I had a pretty easy acceptance of him too, so I would generally count him among characters I like, but if you were to ask me why, I'd draw a blank. It's kind of a weirdly mature, subdued appreciation for him rather than passionate fangirling. But weirdly when I was daydreaming the other day I found myself thinking, "if I had to marry someone in the KnY cast, it would be Himejima." So like, not a fiery romance, but I see him as my dependable, sturdy rock to grow old with??? What is up with you, sub-conscious?? Iguro: My interest in him rises and falls. Being a Mitsuri fan helped warm me up to his character in the first place, which was the emotional tie I needed since his backstory didn't grip me much (I found it a frustrating distraction while I was desperately reading weekly updates). Reading more subtle details about his character in the fanbooks has brought me around and made me more curious about him, like I'd really like to be a fly on the wall for the conversation he had with Uzui one day about their pasts.

Sanemi: Hahaha, wow. He was so unlikable in the beginning, wasn't he? His character design (yeah, the eyes) was really off-putting too. But then I got to know him and there was no going back, I got totally played. He's a character I'm pretty fond of now and one of the characters I've enjoyed delving into most in fanfic. To keep this answer from getting too long, for the vaaaaaast majority of the cast, I was initially like, "meh" or "OK" or "ew" but now am like, "EEEEEEEEE, I LOVE THIS TOTALLY RANDOM UNIMPORTANT SIDE CHARACTERRRRRRR" so you know... times change. And the more time I spend obsessed with Kimetsu no Yaiba, the more I like them all, so even the characters I'm lukewarm on will probably have their eventual days when they take over my heart and smash it.

[purplerose244]

My thoughts on Seabound!!! 🌊🌊🌊 (3/4)

SPOILERS ALERT!!!

Yep yep yep, I'm liking this season a lot! 😍 Although I hope we'll get into a more frantic situation now, like with more battles and more bonding moments (Nya and Maya hopefully, but with Bentho too 🦈🦈🦈)! We got half a season to go, I'M READY!! 😎😎

Alright, here we go!

GENERAL THOUGHTS

I do like the season a lot, maybe MoM was a little more cohesive? Idk but it's not a big complain, I still love it so far 😍

Also maybe I would've liked more interactions between Nya and Maya about how they've been apart for so long, they had a chit chat but I would've loved even more. Maybe with Nya saying that it was fine and she grew up only to realize she is still hurt by that, even though it wasn't Maya's fault. I still like how they did it, I wished there was more that's it 🤷‍♀️

While I do make sense to Maya's behavior, that while it seems a little different from Hands of Time it had its logic in my opinion, maybe Ray feels a little weird? He seems less courageous than before, and it was established that he is a hothead like his son so that came off as unusual 🤔🤔

But I do love the fact that he's here and he's bonding with his son, for real, I've been waiting for this for so long so I'm happy nonetheless 🤩

Maybe I'm just easy to please and I take all I can get idk 😅

THE STORM AMULET

Oh, are we gonna address the wind element? It feels like we haven't really seen a Morro reference since Hands of Time, that would be cool! 😍 I mean, why even mentioning the wind then 😅😅

Well what do you know, they tracked them, who saw that coming?... me, I saw that coming... we all did probably 🤷‍♀️

Jay took upon himself making a quick recap on how Ninjago will be destroyed this time, thanks Bluebell 👌

Yep nyeheh electricity makes Nya go crazy for sure ❤💙 ... wait it wasn't a Jaya pun?

Jay wear your seatbelt please, you risk you life enough 😅😅 Pff lol "are we there yet" and they are actually there, biggest plot twist I've ever heard of 😂

LEGO HUG 💜💜💜

And with someone who might as well join the League of Jay apparently 💙

I liked The Island yet it was not as exciting as I hoped for, but now understand the meaning of it. The ninja helped the keepers and they are all allies. Without The Island the moment where Mammatus gives Nya the amulet wouldn't be as meaningful

Is it just me or Nya looked even more gorgeous during that moment?... just me huh? Okay then 😂💕

Wait that's a fake? Wait... UNCLE POWERS?!? OMG THAT I ACTUALLY DIDN'T SEE COMING 🤯

Here I thought he was just messing around, he always makes things harder 😅 Or maybe better? I mean, they kinda missed a bullet on this one...

BENTHO IS SO SWEET AND COOL OMG HE IS ALREADY OUR FRIEND 💙🦈💙🦈

Jay somehow had his own TV show in the past and yet he's got that horrible acting skills wth 😂😂😂

Kalmaar is a very cool villain, like, deeply evil. Not only he's calculated and merciless, he stops at nothing to get what he wants. And the people that get in the way? He wants them to suffer because they had dared to confront him 😳

And yes the voice does help a lot, I'm sorry I'll keep saying it until the season is over 😂 (or even beyond? Please cast Giles again LEGO 🥺🥺🥺)

Awww Nya no my poor girl 😢 Jay wanted to hug her to comfort her he is so sweet my SHIP ❤💙❤💙

MOM PEP TALK MOM PEP TALK!!! 🤩🤩🤩 How cool was it?

Like, this isn't even Maya asking Nya to believe in herself, this is her saying that she KNOWS her daughter can do anything when she puts her mind into it. FINALLY SHE SEES HOW AMAZING WATER GODDESS IS 💜💜💜

MORE LEGO TEARS OMG THIS SEASON IS FILLED WITH TEARS 😱 Which... kinda makes sense considering it's a water based season 😂

Nice one, and now? NOW WE GO BACK TO KAI COLE AND RAY YAS!!! ❤🖤❤🖤

RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX

That is... surprisingly Egypt theme like? It feels like a title coming from the Fire Chapter of season 11... well we got two fire elementals so 😍😍

SPARRING KAI AND RAY

I REPEAT SPARRING KAI AND RAY!!! SPARRING KAI AND RAY!!! ❤❤❤ Lol Ray got old, but how can someone blame him? He did touch death while aging in Hands of Time, I'm just happy he is alive 😂

Yep, master prankster Wu, that's what I love 👌👌 I always thought Wu had become a father figure for Kai at the beginning, so seeing Ray and Wu in the same picture feels very wholesome to me 😚

Ah, uncle Powers, I both love you and hate you so freaking much 😌😌 But you make cool slides nonetheless 😂

ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME WITH BEAUTIFUL SMITH INTERACTIONS??

BECAUSE I LIKE IT KEEP GOING 🤩

Oh no you guys are stranded on an island whatever are you going to do?? It's not like you had already before and managed to survive (Skybound) or you got stranded on a rock in a sea of sand filled with giant monsters (Fire Chapter) or you were on a freaking COMET in SPACE (Rebooted). Yeee, this is the worst yet 🙂

I'm starting to think these ninja are just a bunch of drama queens so no matter what happens, it's always hopeless 😂😂 I feel like I'm kinda right on this one honestly 😛

Whoa whoa WHOA WHO IS NYAD THIS SOUNDS VERY COOL???

Aww I like that, while Ray told his kids stories about dragons and how they traveled through the Underworld, Maya told them about Nya the first water master that could summon whales 💙❤💙❤

Pff imagine if it turned out Nya was the master of fire, carrying a very water based name? Lol

Maya: I would know if it was possible!

Nya: Yeah, like she knows that I can control a bit of ice because it's frozen water

Maya:...

Maya: YOU WHAT

I find both interesting and very annoying that this explorers club thinks so highly of themselves, to the point the deny to aid even the FREAKING SAVIORS OF THEIR FREAKING LAND 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Misako got good reflexes after all, Kai was probably ready to melt this guy's face 😅

Oh, so a trial by Sphinx is a challenge? A mental one? A cultural one? A physical one? Idk but Misako is actually taking charge and that is cool I guess 🤷‍♀️

Okay this is kind of weird, how is Ray so afraid? Is it because there's fire?... did he... did he grow afraid of fire for some reason? Because it feels a bit off for now, but if there is a deeper meaning that could be interesting 🤔

Wait is that the riddle from Decoded? That's fire right?

IT IS FIRE 🔥🔥🔥

Lol at least in this one Kai wasn't completely ignored 😂 I know my flame babe isn't the most rational person, but I do like that it was an answer connected to his element where he used his head!

Ah Clutch, you really got no backbone 😅 And apparently you're the only explorer who doesn't, dang look at the others go! I'm having a bit more respect for them now 😚

LOOK AT SENSEI GO FINALLY!!! 😍😍 FIGHTING SCENES HECK YES!!!

Kalmaar: I'm your conquerer

Wu: so after skeletons, the serpentine, nindroids, the Stone Army, Chen's army, ghosts, oni, more snakes but on fire and people from a game, that makes you the tenth. Have a free cookie

Kalmaar:...

Wu: you're not special

Is this a little throwback to Possession too? Nya seems to always control better water when she doesn't actually think about it. When her feelings are free, so are her powers 🌊🌊🌊

Also this opens up more possibilities! Creatures connected with other elements might get summoned too! I would love something like that 😍😍

This was NEAT, or maybe I just missed Kai that much ❤ What's next??

PAPERGIRL

ANTONIAAAAAAAA!!!! MY GIRL IS BACK!!! All my girls are back in this season, I'm so happy 😍😍😍 And if she is here, sweet little Nelson has to be around and I cannot wait! Bring in the purple ninja! 💜

Owww Antonia's last day as a papergirl? Nooo why??

She's got a job at the... DAIRY DRAGON??? OMG OMG OMG IT'S THE ICE CREAM PLACE BRAGI TOLD US ABOUT ON TWITTER!!! 🤩🤩🤩 I remember the post, he was asking about names for the place and ice cream flavors. Now I can't wait to see what did he choose 🍦🍦🍦

UNAGAMI BABY HI HONEY!!! 🙋‍♀️ I hope he's doing great 😘😘

This is so cool honestly, Antonia got her own character arc going on! Living in a chaotic city like Ninjago City must be pretty dang exhausting 😅

Was... was that Dareth in the garbage can? Am I wrong? Poor brown ninja 😅🤎😅

SPINJITZU SWIRL, BANANAKHAN, ORANGE SERPENTINE, I'M DYING 😂😂😂

Their friendship is so wholesome, I'm so happy they are still together no matter what happens 💕

I thought Kalmaar wasn't much of a fighter but DANG he's got skills! Also the fact that he uses tentacles makes the fight very cool to watch! 😚😚

RAY RUNNING IN AFTER KAI GOT HURT HECK YES ❤❤❤

Well at least you tried Ray 😅

Ah, little cameo of the original Weekend Whip, always nice to hear it again... AND DO THE WEEKEND WHIP!!! 🌪🌪🌪

EVEN NELSON GOT CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT I'M SO PROUD 💜

I don't even know what is cooler, the kids being mad lads on their bikes, Kalmaar driving a TRUCK or Kai going full parkour on the buildings to follow them 🤯

I'm sorry... am I the only one that during the Kai and Kalmaar talk kinda thought of Jestro and Clay? I miss my boys from NK, they're even more at odds now 😭😭

KAI YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DIE OR EVEN TRY TO DIE GET BACK HERE AT ONCE 😱😱

Kalmaar just loves to make everyone feel inferior, gotta be his hobby 😶

Oh good Kai is back

OH NOT GOOD KAI IS NOT BREATHING?!? FLAME BABE I TOLD YOU YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO DIE 😱😱😱

Antonia, Nelson, you guys are now my heroes. You saved my fave, I'll be forever in dept with you ❤❤❤ Am I being overdramatic? Most likely, but Kai is one of the few that didn't almost die or did die in a dramatic situation and he is also my absolute favorite character so that... kinda keeps my sanity in check in this show 🥴

I wonder... does he still not know how to swim? He saved Lloyd in Possession but I wonder if he was only trying to float on the surface... THAT'S TERRIFYING

This episode was so adorable, I love Antonia and Nelson so much 💜💕💜💕 It's nice to see what the other people of Ninjago do while everything goes mad 🤣

Wait hang on my Ninjajan is a little rusty

"Ninjago City. City that never sleeps" well if that ain't the truth 😂

MASTER OF THE SEA

Like Master of the Mountain? Wait are we going back to Shintaro?? VANYA?? ANOTHER BEST GIRL RETURNS??? 💛

Hey hey hey, we got a full Nyad backstory! I really like when they do these little drawn shots, they feel more like legends! And... the ending sounds terrifying? Like, they wouldn't let Nya sacrifice herself and die... again... right? 😱

Bentho: and the world was in balance, until now because of my brother

Lloyd: and the Overlord before of course

Bentho: the what now?

Lloyd: the evil one my grandpa the first Spinjitzu Master fought?

Bentho: YOUR WHAT NOW

Why do I like this offscreen "hiiiyaaa" that sensei Wu does before actually going into the scene? 😂😂

No matter if they come from the underground or the sea, these are all snake-like creature with the same intellect 😅 Kalmaar and Garmadon would have a lot to talk about, sea king dealing with his minions does remind me of Lord Garmadon in season 2 a lot 😂😂

KAI AND RAY FIGHTING TOGETHER KAI AND RAY FIGHTING TOGETHER ❤🔥❤🔥❤🔥❤🔥❤

OMG Kalmaar is such a brat and petty villain I love him so much 😂😂😂 Yes I didn't even mention his amazing voice!... AH DANG IT 😳😳

*Misako kicks Kalmaar and is actually useful* 🙆‍♀️🙆‍♀️🙆‍♀️

*Misako gets taken as hostage immediately after* 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

KAI LITERALLY JUST GOT SAVED FROM DROWNING WHY MUST YOU DO THIS TO HIM!!!... and Ray and Cole and Wu of course, I care okay 😅

OMG that face 🤣🤣🤣

That some meme material right there

Whoa Vincent that voice just got super up when the Unsinkable showed up, it kinda sounded like Jay's lol

NO NOT BENTHO!!! 😢😢😢

Kai: Nya talks to whales now? (I snorted so hard at this 😂😂)

HECK YES NYA GOT THE AMULET!! 😍😍😍 ... we got, like, four more episodes to go so something needs to happen in between... do I need to be scared? I feel like I need to be scared 😅

Jay starting a fire then blaming Kai?... this is so in character I got chills 😂😂

SHARK BOY IS STAYING TO THE MONASTERY THIS IS SO PRECIOUS!!! 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩 I want all the shenanigans and we need to write fanfictions about more shenanigans and AAAAHHHHH 🦈🦈🦈

Bless these two fire idiots

They own my heart ❤🔥❤🔥 Also Vincent, this is supposed to be a fun little gag moment, your amazing voice acting is kinda distracting me 😭😭😭

ANOTHER LEGO HUG

YOU GUYS ARE SPOILING ME OVER HERE HECK YES 💙🌊💙🌊

Maya learned that her daughter is capable of everything, I love that. Nya simply understood that she doesn't have to give up when something gets difficult. She is AMAZING and can do anything she puts her mind into. She simply has to hold on until the end 💪💪💪

Omg Benthomaar playing billiard with the guys I already love this 😍😍

YES IT IS SHINTARO!!! THE UPPLY ARE HERE OMG!!! HI VANYA YOU LOOK AMAZING GIRL MISS YOU I HOPE YOU'RE DOING OKAY!!! 💛💛💛 ... I just really like Master of the Mountain okay 😅

I love how Vanya doesn't even question it. It comes from Cole and he said it needs to be protected? Done and done 👌

Wait what, did something fall?

IS THAT THE FAKE?!?!? WHAT HOW WHEN??? UNCLE POWERS??? OR KALMAAR DID SOMETHING??? SOMEONE??? I'M LEGIT CONFUSED AND EXCITED??? 🤯🤯🤯

Well dang, I didn't see that coming, now what Seabound? What do you have for me?

[randomshitwhenimhigh]

Oh

My God

I love the art cover, does it have anything to do with this

Blondes ain't my type. What the fuck is this witchcraft.

King looks so fucking cool, then again Katakuri does too, I need the silly trait. I didn't knew I missed Ben and Rayleigh until I saw them, but what a random character selection. Or... Not. *X files theme*

Law thinks he's sneaky. Big Mom is just abother kind of strong, she's an abusive mom, the supreme pain.

Fuck she's so strong, the soul eating thing is super handy. DAAAAAMN, power up she got bigger 😂😂😂 Bigger Mom. She's taking them seriously now. I just realized what Law's new goal is, the same as Robin's basically, Kid just wants to tear shit up. What a battle.

Yamato is one of my fave Wano characters, so fucking strong. YES, BUGGY SAMA HEARD MY PRAYERS, Brook is having a good fight.

No 😭 Sanji ༼;´༎ຶ ۝ ༎ຶ༽ shut up Sanji ( ⚈̥̥̥̥̥́⌢⚈̥̥̥̥̥̀)

I think Queen just came from seeing the can. YES SANJI, they'll never take your soul. All women will sleep better at night. Wait, did his brothers knew about this when they gave him the suit? Those absolute pieces of shit.

Sanji is such a drama queen, and calls Zoro out off everyone, how friendly of him, one would say they're best friends or something. I'm sure, I bet my ass, that there's a fuck ton of Zoro X Sanji content being produced on the last days and will continue to come.

Ok, I kinda get it, they're very passively aggressive sharing their feelings. I'll remake it:

S: Zoro, if I lose myself I'll need you to end me, I can only trust you to do this, my equal, my best friend

Z: Sanji, i don't understand there is no context at all, but I will only if you promise you won't die, because I'll be the one to do it, comrade

S: thanks and know that I, I've always cared about you, no homo but I really enjoyed our fights, I'm afraid I might lose that forever

Z: I still have no context, but me too Sanji, I have to confess I'm, I'm fight sexual and I like fighting with you the most

S: Oh Zoro

Z: Sanji, come back alive!

I took some artistic liberties, but really they're just subtext. The soundtrack to this was have you ever really loved a woman by Bryan Adams.

FUCKING LOVE IT, he has a super strong attack called Hell Memories, I died.

I just realized the cover is of first mates, but like Sabo is Dragon's first mate? Or like commander, I don't remember. So King is the first mate, did he and Kaido met at a S&M convention? Actually, a bar is more likely. And then Queen came up to sing karaoke and decided they were friends now, Kaido was drunk so he was like bros for life, King was left wondering his life choices.