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cocogum · 9 months ago

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There’s something off about Yugo now.

‼️ SPOILERS FOR SEASON 4 ‼️

LEAVE AT THE WARNING IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE FIRST FOUR EPISODES.

Way before 2024 hit, when Tot was still teasing us with some snippets of Season 4 on Twitter, there was a time when one of his tweets made some people think about what he meant.

The specific tweet was made on the 10th of January of 2023 at 5:10 AM which showed a small scene of Yugo once said that THIS scene in particular was going to change Yugo forever

Here’s the full translation:

“Season 4 of Wakfu is going well my friends…Here’s a small snippet of Yugo that makes me want to cry. 🥲”

We didn’t know at the time what he could’ve meant by that or what that specific scene that saddened him was even about.

But now that Wakfu Season 4 is out, we were able to watch that same scene that happened in episode 3.

And omg it makes perfect sense now.

In his tweet where he addressed his feelings for the scene, Tot specified that this moment would be the last time we see Yugo, the last scene before saying goodbye.

Some people, back when the tweet was still recent, thought Tot might have been implying that Yugo would actually die or possibly gain his adult form through this scene where he’s surrounded by his mother’s blue hues.

But now that we’ve watched the actual episode where this same scene Tot was talking about took place, we can all finally confirm that neither of those two things happened.

Because what happened ended up being far worse than that.

Yes, what’s worse than Yugo dying or growing up to an alarming speed is nothing compared to what actually happened :

Yugo’s mindset changed.

When Yugo met the Eliatrope goddess for the first time (in this life at least), he explicitly told her that he does not know her, therefore, he cannot sympathize with what she’s saying to him. Yugo could see how she was crying when she told him, Nora, and Qilby she missed them as well as her other children and that she promises them she wouldn’t be away from them any longer.

Yugo doesn’t react to this, only Nora and Qilby truly understand the power behind her words.

But as soon as the Eliatrope goddess puts Yugo to rest for a while, the moment he wakes up was as if he changed his mind completely.

He claims that his mother is the purest of the pure and that she’s so perfect that she can’t express any negative emotions. Keep this in mind for later.

He truly believes what he’s saying and cannot fathom the fact that she may be imperfect in some ways.

His mind did a complete 360 to the point where he immediately joins the Eliatrope goddess, Nora, and Qilby’s cause. He changed his mind so quickly that even Nora noticed and brought it up.

When the assembly began, Yugo was proud of showing up first to welcome his mother and he proudly stated her arrival to the rulers. He had even told Joris that he insisted on being as forward as possible to the rulers and to welcome his mother appropriately.

Now, remember when I stated that Yugo does not believe that the Eliatrope goddess can express any negative emotions?

Well, it turns out he was wrong.

Not even a full hour passed, and the Eliatrope goddess was already in a full confrontation with one of the rulers, the queen of Bonta, Astra. When someone, especially a higher being, is claimed to be a pure being with no flaws, it usually means that they cannot even fathom the idea of expressing a negative emotion or struggling to keep it in.

But the reason why this scene was just so important to focus on was because THIS is supposed to be the goddess of love, the goddess that represents purity (no wonder people were beings suspicious of her. How are you gonna be called the embodiment of ‘love’ and yet express something that is out of your agenda?)

So the reason why we need to focus on this moment, is because the goddess hesitated.

This is what makes Yugo’s claims about her being perfect completely wrong.

And since his declarations were very much flawed, his current way of thinking can only mean one thing :

Something has gone wrong.

From what we’ve been able to witness from his slumber, Yugo was able to see how he and his siblings were created by their mother, how their original planet came to be, how their mother got thrown aside, banished by the other gods and ended up in the Necroworld, and how she got saved by Nora and Efrim.

To us, this sequence must’ve probably lasted for about three minutes or so but to Yugo, this moment lasted far longer than that. He must’ve seen the details, heard a lot of recrimination from the other gods, and seen his mother’s suffering from being cast aside. All of this pain and suffering that she must’ve felt was what made Yugo side with her and her cause.

But as much as his sudden want to be closer to her makes sense, it doesn’t mean that Yugo’s portrayal of his mother is true. Anyone can tell that the Eliatrope goddess had broken a very important major rule: DO NOT use a planet for yourself. She had betrayed the trust of the other gods without any explanation other than wanting to have children and making a world for herself.

Yugo saw it all and yet he did not think that she made a mistake. He does not care if she went against the other gods (creating a world for herself), he does not care if she wants to monitor the world (she has told this in front of all the authorities of the world), he does not care if she wants to infuse vigilantism (again, she told this in front of the leaders of the world), and he does not care if all the commanders of the world do not side with her ideas (he deliberately chose to follow her as soon as she left the assembly).

But it seems like even when he was not, at the time, sleeping under her energy, he didn’t care if people with bad intentions got paralyzed for some undetermined amount of time as punishment (he was watching Nora and Adamaï fight the rogues). That could have been an early hint that he would do much more than just stand aside and not say anything in matters like these but rather silently do what his mother wishes to do.

Since he embraces everything that she is, he embraces everything that she wants to do or has done.

Another thing I should mention is the fact that ever since he woke up, he started calling the Eliatrope goddess “mother”, implying that he now felt completely comfortable with knowing and understanding that she was truly his creator, mother.

As you can see, every time he addresses her, it’s always by calling her his mother, which is factually true, but again, he has just met her and is already completely enamoured by her. His admiration and respect towards her makes sense because he has seen everything that she’s been through while sleeping.

The problem is that even when he considers her perfect, he doesn’t seem to understand that the people around her (besides Nora and Qilby) DO NOT agree with her plans.

Yugo does not understand why Adamaï left because his intuition was telling him that something was very wrong about all of this (even though Yugo wasn’t too convinced by the Eliatrope goddess, he was still taking a neutral side at the time. Even though he didn’t completely understand his mother at that moment, this still counts as an event where Yugo did not think about the Eliatrope goddess’s ways even when his brother told him something was off. Also, if Yugo did see his mother’s suffering at that moment, he would have still most likely sided with her.)

Yugo also does not understand what the leaders are trying to say and how right they are (even though they have mistreated the Eliatrope goddess in the process). One of them, the queen of Bonta, makes very good points that the goddess should have answered and explained.

But instead of taking a moment to think about it or try to at least think about how the rulers are feeling right now, Yugo simply leaves them and goes right back to the goddess.

This is a very surprising decision of his because Yugo has lived his entire life in the World of Twelve. He has not only lived here but has met a lot of different people, gone through life and death for them, saved numerous victims and fought off enemies for them, and did all that in the same world where he is currently turning his back to the very rulers of it.

Tot wasn’t wrong when he said Yugo wouldn’t be the same.

And we’re starting to see it.

It’s becoming more obvious and I’m sure that at some point, there could be another fight between Yugo and Adamaï happening, or perhaps even a misunderstanding.

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weirdmageddon · 1 year ago

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since hes open to feedback im considering talking to james roach about giving jade the justice she deserves after her narrative shafting in act 6 and one-dimensional ooc-ness (and also being a plot device deprived of agency) in the epilogues. if i do im probably going to link to this post……

so james if i sent this to you and you’re reading this, hi! :)

you say, “i want you to know if youre having problems with the story you can come to me with it and i will hear you out”. first of all you are such a good dude and have such a good open honest approach to the fans. i need to get that out there, because i know you’re just as much a fan of these characters and world are we are. secondly, i don’t know what your plans for homestuck beyond canon are, but dave and jade’s poor handling is a problem in both homestuck canon (act 6, even act 5 fucking them over with “tell, don’t show”; see the latter half of section 1 of the post at > Dave: Deploy cloning apparatus. and section 2) and post-canon that has yet to be addressed.

i understand the nuances of making things flow in a story; things that have already been established can’t be simply retconned. i wrote this post knowing that in mind and hopefully working around that into believably timed and justified/needed arcs gives it more potential

jade is a character i care about so much, and many fans also. her dynamic with dave was one of my favorites but the resolution to their separation…is not even really a resolution. it’s hard to talk about one without the other since theyve always been narratively intertwined. or at least jade has

remember how they musically collaborated more than the other kids? (crystalanthemums is their surprisingly tender song dont forget. i saw that the weird troll grub versions of objects make a comeback in the upd8; make music a relevant part of homestuck in-universe again too </3) dave sending her sbahj furry poster in the mail? the first ones to use a collaborative fraymotif in the comic? kringlefucker and conksuck boot? literally collaborating on creating the right seed for the new universe? and then dave died in jade’s arms and they were separated for 3 years and then that never gets touched on because of the retcon and all the other endgame shit going on (and lets be real grimbark jade from before the retcon wasn’t a satisfying reunion either). we get like, a brief exchange of dialogue at the very very end that made you want to see MORE of them after the battle but it. doesnt happen.

and then in the epilogues jade gets warped into this oddly hypersexual ooc one-dimensional character meant to narratively get in the way of davekat and it’s so awkward and uncomfortable for them. and even THEN in meat timeline gets her agency revoked by the narrative with alt calliope. and in candy dave realizes he’s gay (i thought he was explicitly bi? didnt he call jane hot multiple times both pre-and post-retcon, and once call roxy a “choice babe” in pajamas before he knew it was his ectomom?? if you’re actually gay and in denial why would you have these subconscious freudian blunders). and being married to jade gnaws at him because of it which is. unsatisfying i guess and isn’t consistent with dave’s established sexuality…and then he dies leaving his probably concerned wife and becomes a robot. even if the “point” is that the epilogues are metanarrative commentary about storytelling and candy represents the kind of fanfic that goes off the rails with fanservice it doesn’t feel good when i still care about these characters and their established canons. and a lot of people are in the same camp as me regarding this. it’s still an uncomfortable resolution for their relationship

i really want to see jade’s arc overcoming being used as a puppet by the narrative and the space aspect. just some things to think about / consider that have been running through my head: she’s a witch, right? isn’t what she’s supposed to do is actively bend the rules of her aspect? feferi bended the rules of life by asking the horrorterrors to create dream bubbles so the deceased could still sort of “live” which had a massive narrative impact. who exactly determines that being spacebound means you are fated to be passive and alone? the author? alt calliope? how do we know alt calliope can be trusted or if she’s just projecting her experiences as the most passive class possible onto jade, who ironically has an active manipulation class but is forced to be passive for some reason? normal calliope wasn’t right about everything classpect-related either.

ultimately these things are up to you. you’re still the director of course. but i’m speaking to you, as equally caring of these characters as you and everyone on the team, as a hypothetical suggestion or just something to consider for a jade arc: i think it would do such good to jade and the comic as a whole to see her speak to the manager and recognize the power she has and take back the reigns over her own life and dignity. jade is MAD that she had her own possibilities for socialization and agency taken away from her. and with floralmarsupial, my beloved mutual floral who i went to homestuck high together with, i KNOW the potential they possess to write a compelling arc for jade harley. i think everyone knows too lol floral is THE compelling deep jade harley fanwork big name fan. i dont know what we got to lose. with you guys in charge now, and with the last we see of jade in hs^2 (now hs:bc) fighting callie’s influence and advocating for her own agency, really the only way to go from here for jade is up. (assuming she doesn’t permadie of peanut but i doubt that’s going to happen since she’s one of the original kids and it wouldn’t be satisfying storytelling. and it’s homestuck)

this statement so ripe with potential to me ^ and we’re left on a cliffhanger with jade going in this direction

i want jade and dave to be close friends who care about each other a lot and do silly stuff together again. this isn’t even a call to make davejade canon; it doesnt have to be romantic—i dont want a davekat davejade war to break out, you know? i know you’re trying to balance fan demands. but i just loved their dynamic a lot and i MISS it so much, homestuck act 6 didnt give us this and i wish their reunion had more that went into it. we’re past that point though

i want jade and dave to have a talk that’s like old times. something that isn’t awkward as hell or about sexual relations or drama or whos fucking who. just something for the two of them. something that grounds them in what made homestuck so compelling in the first place: character and friendships and these kind of interactions

i want to see them collaborate again. an idea i have is maybe they start a band or something since they’re both musically talented and also live together so they can make stuff together in person now. you’re a music guy you get it. tangle buddies. jam buddies

and maybe something more serious that concerns just the two of them. post-retcon dave never talked to jade about his thoughts when they fought bec noir right? knowing that jade would inevitably kill him with bullets through bec, but he couldnt warn her because he knows she wouldn’t go through with it, creating a doomed timeline? so jade thought all that time she killed him by accident��..what about all that guilt she must harbor? the first person she had in-person contact with since she was probably four years old, her best friend online, and accidentally killed him within just a few hours of meeting him? and never got to talk about it with him, let alone anyone, after three years? hello?? :(

these are the final lines of the last pesterlog between jade and dave before their 3-year separation (and basically all of act 6)

so uh…..this exchange really openly invites some kind of talk to take place even if it’s long overdue. among other things maybe. they need to hug or something. jade’s touch starvation is real, but not everything needs to be sexualized about touch. she’s lonely and starved of affection but i feel like it would be more meaningful if it wasn’t sexualized. just really basic platonic primal cloth mother needs. just like..both being human beings and having basic needs like this that jade’s been deprived of. who’s the person she would feel most comfortable going to? who does she have the richest history with throughout the webcomic? dave, right? her online best friend since childhood that always cared a lot about her? they have stuff to talk about

i feel like that would address the issue people had with jade’s out of left-field promiscuity in the epilogues and even leftovers of it in hs^2. not only do i think primal platonic touch starvation would be a more meaningful and evocative type of interaction to give them at some point, it wouldn’t rock the boat or create any ship drama (davekat has long since sailed and most people seem to be on board with it) and it would probably be really positive representation of these sorts of things which not only throws a bone to aroace people but just depicting this sort of thing normalizes the fact that two people can be close and not necessarily in an official relationship.

this is a good transition point to this post also which is basically an extension to this one. it’s exactly the issues i had. it’s on the nature of what they had going and how much they mean to each other but how the storytelling held them back when it was unnecessary

this breaks my heart. mr. roach and hs:bc writing team please i miss my favorite blorbo duo being happy in each other’s company. they were such good friends but circumstances pulled them apart. i miss when they created music together and talked about their interests and exchanged quips. i am such a well of ideas for stuff like this. show us how much they mean to each other again

if youre still reading this james thanks for hearing me out. if you wanna pass on to the writing team to look at and get their feedback on this i’d be so so thankful

“and to think that after all this he still chose to save her, like always, probably knowing he had little to no chance, just because he cares for her, her life and who she is beyond this moment, really meant a lot for them. i really, really was mad that this would be the last time they would truly ever be together in a way that to me mattered” — vintagegamebro

#homestuck #homestuck meta #jade harley #dave strider #hs2 #hsbc #hs

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ecargmura · 2 years ago

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Buddy Daddies Episode 12 Review + Final Thoughts: They Became a Real Family!

I’m holding back on the tears. This ending is so happy. I love it so much.There is no need for a season 2 as everything wrapped up perfectly without a need for a new season. Our daddies finally left the organization to become the real family they want to become with Miri. The way it was written was great.

Rei’s speech about the experiences he spent in the outside world and how Miri and Kazuki are so precious to him that if his killer blood overtakes him to the point that he cannot protect his two beloved people then his hands serve no more purpose was so powerful. Rei definitely changed for the best. He now understands what love is and what it means to have a family. It’s especially shown in the time skip where he can smile genuinely without any worries or burdens shouldering him.

Instead of killing both Ogino and Rei’s dad, only the former dies as he is the most dangerous while the latter stays alive, but it makes sense. If Rei’s dad dies, the organization will chase after Rei until he dies. He can’t have that and he knows the risk. Instead, Rei proves that his ability to love Kazuki and Miri are stronger than bloodlust, hence why he shot his arm to show his father his final decision. I think Rei calling him father before he left was symbolic in a way as the first time Rei remembers his childhood in Episode 3, he called out to his father as “Father” while the latter dismissed him and told him to call him “Boss”. During his venture back to his family’s house in Episode 8, he addressed his father as “Boss”. The fact that he called him “Father” and then left showed his act of defiance—the fact that he is finally out of the organization.

The action scenes are at its best for the finale. My favorite portion was Rei breakdancing to kick away Ogino’s gun. Speaking of which, I’m so satisfied with how Ogino died. He got impaled to the throat where he cannot mutter out his own last words and the book burns alongside him in the fire. I feel like it’s true karma on his part.

I think the issue of the dads hiding about Misaki’s death to Miri is handled well. Miri’s five but it would be hard for her to comprehend death, especially if she tries comprehending Misaki’s untimely death. The timeskip does imply she is aware of her death as she has a picture of Misaki on her desk and she talks to it fondly. I mean, at this point, there had to be a point where she learned about it.

The ten year time skip with the dads in their late thirties, Kazuki being 39 and Rei being 36, and Miri now a 15-year-old high schooler, shows off the happy vibe they all truly wanted. Now that they are no longer assassins, they opened a diner and have been operating it for ten years. That sounds like every fan fiction AU out there. I love the fact that they moved from the apartment to the seaside, enjoying their new life as a family. It’s a very peaceful ending and the life they deserve. I love the wholesome vibe the family have with each other. Everyone’s so casual with each other. Rei’s even cooking, but he can only cook French Toast. As long as Miri loves it, it’s fine by him. While they are together, Kazuki and Rei are not explicitly canon as this is not a BL anime, but a family one. It’s okay; they’re canon in my heart. The ending truly showed that they became family and that their bond remains strong even after a decade.

Final Thoughts

This is probably one of the best original anime I’ve seen in such a long time. It’s definitely one of my top family anime and these three are on my list of top anime families. The concept did seem like a Spy x Family ripoff at first, but it has proven itself to be more than that. I’m glad to have picked this up to review. I did not regret it at all. In fact, it ignites my reviewing passion even more.

The concept of found family between three broken people with no blood relations towards each other will always be a sweet concept. This show proves that you don’t have to be a man and a woman to be parents, two men can be fine parents as well (I want to see an anime with two women raising a child now). The chemistry the three main characters have are so good and the writing is excellent. The writers did a very good job of not squeezing in too much and not being too ambiguous or vague in showing and telling. They did a good job balancing everything from the comedy to the angst.

The execution of this concept of this anime was a bit rocky first with Miri being annoying and the dads being terrible parents at first, but as show went on, the annoying aspects disappeared and the show did solidify into a wholesome and comedic action comedy. However, my only gripe is that Rei and Kazuki’s bond is mainly told and not shown. Like it was shown subtly throughout the first seven episodes before being explicit with the bonding in Episode 8 where the flashback of when they first met occurred. I wanted to know more about their bond

The voice acting was top-notch. Toyonaga and Uchiyama have such great chemistry in their past works and to see them reunited again in this anime was pure bliss. I can’t wait to see another anime with them as leads. Hina Kino as Miri was great. She sounded convincingly child-like that suited Miri’s playful nature as a four-year-old. I’m impressed with how she delivered her lines without sounding too off (meaning that sounding like a child at first and then making the child sound older due to being voiced by an adult). Morikawa as Kyutaro was also great too. He always has a nice voice and to see it be used here is great. All the other voice actors were great too, but I want to mention Ogino’s. His voice actor is Mitsuaki Madono. If you look him up, he mainly voices bumbling villains like Adachi from Persona 4 and Hasta from Tales of Innocence or characters like Chopin from Eternal Sonata. Using such a deep voice made him unfamiliar. I had to look up his VA to see who was voicing him and that’s when I learned that Ogino and Adachi have the same VA; it’s still mind boggling to this day.

The OST is banging. I love the jazz! All the usage of jazz made the anime feel like a spy flick and it showed. Though, my favorite portions were the scores used in somber scenes like Misaki’s song. Her introduction in Episode 3 was beautiful with the way she sang “Don’t say good-bye.”

This is definitely an anime I’d recommend to anyone wanting to watch a family anime. Don’t let first impressions cloud your judgement with this anime; it’s a lot better than It looks. Give it a chance! You won’t be disappointed!

#buddy daddies #review #anime review #anime #ecargmura #arum journal #kazuki kurusu #rei suwa #miri unasaka #Kyutaro kugi #Anna hanyu #Ryo ogino #Shigeki suwa #winter 2023 anime #pa works #the happiest ending ever

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chronussy-bc · 6 months ago

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Train's & Sephiria's Ambiguous Relationship

Note: this is a post with little to no value for story analysis since my opinions can be bias and paranoia when it comes to this ship. This also gonna be long as hell with many parts so i that don't ram all the info in one place, and it will take a long time before I can write and post all of them.

So as I have re-read the manga to the point it became unhealthy, I can’t help but sensing something is going on between Train and Sephiria. They don’t explicitly show anything, but since the two are both the type to hide their true feelings when it comes to sentimental matters, their seemingly indifferent attitude towards one another (especially Train) just adds more to my suspicion.

Needless to say, Train is certainly a "special existence" to Sephiria. He is the first one she thinks of whenever something happens. While it is unclear if she pays more attention to his ability or him, she definitely does not mean to exploit him in a heartless way. It's true that she care for him a lot more than how it should be normally, to the point that Xiao Li can realize it. However, her organization and her Numbers always seems to worth her prioritizing more than he does, both rationally and emotionally.

It's a bit harder to tell with Train, however, since he ignores everything that has to do with Chronos. But he does trust Sephiria a lot, despite knowing how malnipulative she can be. It's important to remember that malnipulative people are the one of type he hates the most. He doesn't like controlling others or being controlled. He is outwardly doubtful of Rinslet, though not in a hostile way, because she has had some suspiscious attempts in the past. He holds Sephiria in high regards, even calling her captain after he has left. The rank addressing maybe just a slip of the tongue, but it shows how he does not object to her being the one who gives him order that much. His wish to leave mainly stems from the Elders and their rules.

There are hints across the story about how he kinda has a soft spot for her that I will elaborate below.

1. Volume 5:

This is when Sephiria was first introduced. It was shown in the picture here that Train froze on the spot for a short while when he saw her from the window. Since Sven noticed him going to see what’s going on down there and still did not hear him say anything, he had to ask Train about it himself.

While it must partly because he was not expecting her appearance, seeing that often people of her rank would not go to do business personally when it’s not a global-scale significant one, I believe Train’s reaction is still something special. Throughout the manga, Train is rarely taken aback by the presence of anyone, even from his enemies. Prior to Sephiria’s visit, Berze had also come across Train’s gang on the street, yet Train acted quite natural, despite having some secs of reflexive surprise.

In Vol.3, their meeting with Berze:

In Vol.10, their meeting with Echidna and Charden:

With Charden:

With Echidna:

He literally could not care less unless it was about the safety of his friends (Echidna’s case), and if you re-read, the way Berze turned up it’s much more dramatic than Sephiria in Vol.5. However, Train’s usual manner, even just for a short while, slipped only when he saw her. He was definitely well aware that Sephiria did not mean any harm, he knows she is better than that. And-yet-he-still-froze.

Another thing is how Sephiria addressed Eve on their first meeting. Given that she had discovered about Train’s whereabout, I suppose Sephiria would have also done some research on his partners as well, so she probably knew Eve’s name. Nevertheless, Kentaro Yabuki let her call Eve by the exact nickname Train gave her. It was weird, for someone as polite as Sephiria to act so out of courtesy, because up to that point she was a total stranger to the girl. Japanese people do heed the addressing seriously. Similar to Western culture, they will use last name, or must be name in this case (Eve doesn’t have last name), for people they aren’t as close with or superiors. Not to mention Sephiria addresses Train by Heartnet almost the entire series.

During that talk, Sephiria’s purpose for her visit was quite clear. She said that Chronos was intending to rely on the sweepers force to capture Creed and handed them the wanted poster, announcing that the bounty for his head was serious and stuff. With all that information, it is pretty obvious that she was asking Train a favor, seeking his cooperation. Yet, the fact that she was aiming to “use” him still disappointed Train somewhat, even if he could tell that her hands were tied.

The panel before this one was the one in which Sephiria confirmed that it was totally Chronos’s idea, and it is visible here that Train was a bit amazed by that news. After the realization, he smiled this ‘Oh-so-turns-out-you-only-come-because-Chronos-requires-my-ability-again.’ smile to her. But, what did he expect, like…for real? She had explained the circumstance and obviously did not mean anything else besides business. Optimizing every resource available has always been Chronos’s way, which he knew. Sephiria showing up at his door is enough to tell Chronos wants something from him.

Of course, being an experienced manipulative a** (sorry Sephie it’s true), Sephiria understood how he would feel. She noticed his unease at the offer and changed tactic, striking at his weak spot which is Saya’s death. This is the first time Sephiria tried to manipulate him in the story imo, and she always seemed to get away with it because Train did not wish to conflict with her.

Why saying she was manipulating? The fact that she came with Berze to Train’s place while it was unnecessary was proof. If it was just because she wanted to inform things and allow him time to think on the offer, etc…Berze could have done it alone. The trio met Berze before her, they had seen that he did not pursue bloodshed. It was fine to let him do the job. But being the woman whom he still holds in high regard even now, Sephiria had probably accompanied her deputy to raise the successful rate. She knows that her presence affects him in some ways. It could be said that she played it smart, but it is a kind of manipulation, or persuading strategy, for understatement.

#black cat #anime and manga #train heartnet #sephiria arks #shipping post #TrainSephy

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cryptfile · 4 months ago

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Hii!! Can I request frenchie from the boys x f! reader, maybe she's patching him up after a long day? <33

yes,,, thank you for this from the bottom of my heart, might went above with what you actually asked, but whatever, i’m living my best and just rolling with it.

⟢ mountains at midnight, [ frenchie x f!reader ]

summary — After a failed relationship, Serge knocks on your door half baked / half bleeding-to-fucking-death.

warnings — angst, some smooches, it's implied that reader is in her twenty-somethings, filthy mouth, frenchie is in loOOoOve here, some fighting, fluff in the end, usual the boys content aka violence, blood, drugs, mentions of murder, infinite sadness, if you’re a medic you might hate me, little nina is a warning herself.

side notes — hi lovely people on the internet! first things first: i've recasted frenchie to dev patel cause fuck zionists, also loved writing for frenchie, been writing about gen v on wattpad but this? a whole different level. word's on the street my ass latin, so you know now english is not my first language and if there's any mistakes is my own fault being just a girlie out here,, comments, reblogs and likes are appreciated and very much loved! thank you guys so much for the support.

It’s way too late when you hear the knocks on your door.

You’re not used to receive visitors in the middle of the night. Your friends know you hate people to show up uninvited so it’s almost a non-spoken arrangement: You sell the weed to afford med school and they keep you out of trouble.

So you can’t stop yourself from thinking the absolute worst when you hear the noise in your front door, already cursing cause you don't have these expensive cameras that allows you to watch who's outside: What if the police knows you’re selling weed? Worse. What if Vought discovered all about your nice ability of astral projection? Just the thought of it makes you grab the bat, trying to find something to defend yourself with as if it’s going to work against someone as powerful as Homelander.

When you open the door, it’s something similar to seeing a ghost.

Cause that's what Frenchie is to you. A fever dream you must experience after being so tired, after exhausting yourself with the damn residency. You've been doing turns lately in the hospital and you are drained all the fucking time, too many hours standing and trying not to fuck it up it’s now passing you the check.

But when he talks. Jesus fucking Christ, when he talks, you just know it's him in the flesh, stopping the world for a minute — "Bonne nuit," he says all normal like you understand more than just the basics of French. "Long time no see, mon ami."

How does he still remembers your address? How did he managed to get to your apartment when you explicitly said you don't want him anywhere near you? Your heart skips a beat when you're realizing the blood covering his shirt, the dirt on his skin, the bruise forming in his eye: he's injured.

It makes sense soon after, why he's there outside your place, surpassing the locks that protected the building and are supposed to keep people like him out yet, failed miserably. You let out a scoff, taking mental notes of talking about security to the building manager tomorrow.

"You need to go to a hospital, there's also a vet clinic a couple’ blocks away, both do the work" It's tempting. The thought of closing the door in his face after he was a complete asshole with you last time you saw him, but you cannot bring yourself to be cruel, to leave him standing while he seeks for somebody to stitch him up. — "Told you not to come here, Frenchie."

He's different now. He has now cut his hair in a different way, split lip while he pouts like he has loose a huge fight. He looks better, more composed even, but you don't let it slip while you look at him, debating if he won the fight he was involved in or if he just managed to escape, as usual, always in danger.

"Please," he says placing his hand in the door frame like he just read your mind, preventing you from closing the door. "Need your help, mon docteur."

When he looses balance you know shit's for real, quickly grabbing him by the waist as you take one of his hands to place it in your shoulder. He smells like blood, sweat, and weed, and it takes a minute for you to get used to it, being so intense at first when you hold him close to you that it stays with you even when you help him lay in the couch, already knowing it's going to be stained forever.

Fuck's sake. It's not physically possible to say no to him.

You hate him from the moment he's inside. Hate how he has you now all stressed looking for everything you need to prevent him from bleeding out on your couch, still trying to understand if you're worried about his well being or if it's actually about the fact that he could die in your apartment with good grams of weed well hidden, leading you to arrest under micro-trafficking and possible murder charges.

And when you see the large cut on his stomach, you know exactly why you guys didn't work out in the first place, why his way of living was so different than yours trying to keep a low profile, not used to get in trouble with superheroes, usually surviving. You hold your breath in as you notice the situation, his body bruised, blood spread all over like it was a medal.

“The person who did this didn’t do any harm to your organs” you say inspecting, lucky bastard. “But you're gonna’ need stitches.”

"See? I’m gonna' be fine, docteur" he says almost trying to keep you steady while you took the new-moon-shaped needle, that damn nickname you hate with all your guts. You know he would not come if it wasn't absolutely necessary, his gaze following you like he cannot possibly believe he's talking to you again after all that time promising not to. "Not planning to die on your settee."

"You're high" it's not a question but more of a statement. "So please, shut up if you are really not planning to die tonight."

You’re struck by his accent, the way he combined the words so easily while you worked on stitching his skin, finally stopping the bleeding as you can breathe in peace. Med school has been awful, but at least you can do decent stitches even under the dim lights of the lamps, looking at your work almost proud moments after.

Handled him like a fucking pro.

You seem to forget about the contact, being trained to be a doctor has hit deep down now that you can keep professional at all times, but for Frenchie, even after being pretty much stabbed, he managed to fill his mind with memories of you while your cold fingertips close the cut, to think, once again, that he does not deserve you at all, your meeting being a mistake he wouldn't do all over again.

He stills hallucinates about when he met you in your second year of university, selling weed in your campus parties making a pretty good list of clients for yourself. He remembers being so mad at you for stealing possible clientèle at the time, he was planning on beating your ass and scare you out until you didn't dare to sell at all. At least, that was the idea until he notices his potential nemesis. You.

He talked about the situation with Little Nina convincing her he could take care of the problem, but in reality, he chooses to make you his problem instead. You were just a twenty-something med student that stayed up late at night and sell plain weed in order to afford some stuff he knew you needed: How could he be aggressive with you?

He's almost whipped before even talking to you, after following you for a while without you even noticing, he's studying you like you're, indeed, the enemy. And when he finally talks to you in that stupid party, you finally seem to notice he's not there for a nice business, not when he's pulling you aside from all the noise.

You both are so different it's annoying, however, fits so good must be a curse.

You managed to work out the next couple of months, split the clients, the money, and there were no suspects until Nina found out and killed one of your classmates in response, leaving you surrounded by cops and detectives and a profuse sadness that never seemed to go away.

Frenchie is pretty sure you're one of the best thing he used to have in his life, utterly convinced that he must remain far from you after years of not talking to you, yet, he's unable to do it much longer. Maybe it's the weed, the fever and the pain all combined together, but when he noticed he was close to your place, he choose to seek for your help instead of turning to his teammates.

He's no good for you. Even after not being around Nina and changing completely. He's simply no good for you.

You work in silence, unsure of what to say at first. Your breathing is steady as you cover the wound with bandages, neck sore already after keeping the same position over the minutes without sleeping much all that week. Frenchie doesn't whine even when it hurts, making it easier to work with as you check other injuries.

When it comes to the split lip, you know it's going to be a thing.

"Thanks for patching me up," he says while you press the alcohol revealing a much smaller wound that you'd actually imagined, mouth's always bleed tons. "I'm just sorry for showing up so late, mon ami."

Inconsiderate. Your eyes dart the movements of his upper lip while he speaks, trying to clean the blood while it moves with no victory.

"Please talk to me princesse" he says soon after, crazy by your silence — “Please.”

Your eyes narrow in response, looking at him while inspecting his lip. “How did you manage to get so damn fucked up?” You wished you didn't ask, because you already know how he got it, how he was working now for a whole different group doing suicidal missions all the time, heard it from a close friend.

He stays silent for a while, and you cannot help but roll your eyes in response. You’re used to it, to the lack of information and the blatant lie he always used to tell just to reassure you, so instead, you continue cleaning his wounds with alcohol, pressing the gauze with less patience now that he regained the color of his skin. You’re simply not doing it anymore.

“Just stay still so we can do this fast enough” you say tired already, having to deal with him even just ten miserable minutes results in a classic headache.

Silence. You are dragged by the current into an awkward silence, inspecting the stitches and the bruises that now appeared in his skin. He’s warm to the touch in spite of the blood loss, and you cannot help but worry about his well-being deep in your mind, hating him for it: The guy disappears however he wants to, and now has the fucking nerve to show up like nothing ever happened? God.

It’s impossible to keep quiet for the next two minutes, specially when you notice he’s biting the inside of his cheek like he’s stopping himself from saying something stupid — “What?”

“Nothing,” he responds, avoiding your gaze. "I know you're mad at me, docteur."

"I'm pretty mad at you, you're right" you admit in a low voice, finally taking your utensils to the kitchen sink when you finish, cursing when you notice you got blood on your shirt. "That's why you're waiting an hour before leaving. Not involving in whatever is going on in your life right now.”

His pained expression makes you almost regret everything you say. He knew he deserved it, but it didn't stop him from being miserable when he hears you, the cold words lingering in the air as they repeated in his mind over and over again.

"Sober up. Leave after."

It's almost a command, and he hates the sound of it, far from the way he wanted you to command him in reality, the sound of your voice making him shiver. He hates every second of it, remembering why he kept far, giving you space to continue your life without him in the picture.

It stings on Frenchie’s chest, and you try to keep your pride high enough to not think about how much you actually missed him, how you're done with him after moving on at least twice since the last time you saw him, staring at the blood circling in the drain.

"I'm sorry, mon ami" he says when you pass close to him, grabbing the dirty towels as you search, in your mind, for ways to make miracles in that sofa, and you believe him for a second when he grabs you by the wrist, cause deep down you just want him to be sorry for all the shit he did, the lies, the danger.

You just started to sell weed again recently, and his sudden visit makes you so damn uncomfortable: You don't want to take anyone's clients, you learned that the hard way. "I'll never be able to make it up to you docteur, not even in a million years. Je ne voulais pas te faire de mal."

You don't fully get what he says, and you blame it on that fucking app that's been teaching you french all along, you don't even dare to look at him until you think you can handle his intense gaze, now burning in your cheek — "Created this huge mess just to leave me alone to the fucking wolves."

“And there will not be a day I won’t regret it.”

“You’re not going to be able to make it up to me even in a century, Serge.”

It happens all so sudden after, when he pulls you down slightly, enough to press the palm of your hand flat against his chest, the feeling of his heartbeat giving you straight up chills. It’s beating so fast you’re sure it’s abnormal, the expression of his face almost begging you to have patience with him, that he just needs you beyond explanation.

“Don’t call me like that,” he asks, and you’re just standing there, so fucking close, looking at him slightly blushed.

“Like what?”

“Like I don’t mean anything to you, coeur. Like we’re strangers.”

“I don’t know you, at all” you admit in a low voice, and it saddens you to say it out loud — “I don’t think I ever did.”

God. You don’t expect it, you don’t expect the visit, the way he enters to your life again through the main door, dissolving you completely. You don’t expect any of it, it catches you by surprise without giving you any time to even prepare yourself.

He somehow manages to make sit down close to him, composed now that the he’s not bleeding-to-death. And fuck, it takes a minute for you to adjust, to notice what you’re actually doing, the feeling of his hand holding your wrist making it impossible for you to leave, to even put some necessary distance, his breathing changing as you got closer.

“We’re not strangers, mon docteur, never would when my heart beat that fast for you. To me, you’re the most real thing in my life” he’s smiling, and you can’t help but look at him amazed of his way of always change everything around. “It’s visible you don’t want me here, but I cannot stop myself from coming every single time, tu me manques, coeur.”

“You miss me, huh?” you ask almost in disbelief.

“You are missing from me,” Frenchie corrects. He knows the world is a pretty fucked up place to be, but he just wants you to be okay, to avoid trouble and just live a regular happy life.

You are willing to reply, to say something about it, about the time you spend hating his ass and missing him at the same time, but you stay silent when you can feel his gaze following your every movement, when he’s the one that puts his free hand on your cheek, his touch being enough to warm up your face, staining your cheeks red.

It’s so intense. The lack of air, the way his eyes find yours in demand of something you already know.

“Please forgive me” Frenchie says, blatant sincerity. “I’m deeply sorry, mon docteur. I’m the worst thing you’ll ever met, and I cannot help but come back to you.”

His words echo in your brain, and you don’t know exactly when, but you lean into his touch, the palm of his hand warm against your cheek.

“Fuckin’ hate you.”

You don’t. You know you don’t hate him at all. It’s quite the opposite, and it weights on your chest as he smiles like he just got his life back in track again, like it’s everything it takes to make him really happy after all that shit he’s enduring day after day.

And you try put some distance between both of you seconds after, but your heart betrays you sooner than you expect and it’s all it takes for him to finally kiss you, a tender kiss at first that freezes you for an instant, his touch transforming in something else — Something your skin has already experienced before, a taste you’ve savoured long time ago. Makes you shiver when you realize how it feels not foreign at all but just natural, like something you already learnt but it’s kept in the depths of your mind.

He’s damanding when pressing his lips against you, and it clouds your mind for a second, a thick gaze that just makes you dumb at his touch. His hands on your hips are pulling you closer without even caring for his damn stitches, and it becomes intoxicating, the need to keep on kissing him, to have him close, you forget about Little Nina, the weed, and almost everything that surrounds you.

Heavy breathing you seemed to understand it all. Nose touching his as you get it. Maybe you do need to talk. Maybe it’s important to keep your guard down one last time. You cannot avoid him much longer, not when your own heart aches in need.

Serge’s like climbing a mountain at midnight: Just impossible.

#frenchie x reader #frenchie #the boys x reader #the boys #cryptfile // the boys #the boys fluff #frenchie the boys #frenchie imagine #drabble

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your3fundamentaltruths · 4 months ago

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This post came across my dash and I wanted to offer some gentle clarification on the canon vs. fanon for folks that may not be as familiar with the books:

It’s not actually canon that Edmund horsewhipped Colin the same day he died or that Edmund’s walk with Eloise where he was stung by the bee and went into anaphylactic shock resulted from Colin smacking Eloise. (In fact, the smacking isn’t mentioned in Eloise’s book at all.)

It is a heartbreaking possibility that can fit in the explicit facts and silences of the canon, which I wrote about in a Colin character study/Polin fic started pre-show and posted back in 2021 called an excellent father (and have written explicitly or implicitly into some other things). I think it may have become headcanon/fanon for some other folks over time and maybe spread a bit further than I knew to people who may or may not have read the underlying story – which is pretty neat (!) but I thought it’d be helpful to separate out the canon facts for those who might be interested.

(In case you're wondering, the starting premise for an excellent father is that, when they're expecting their first child, Penelope wonders - not for the first time - why Colin never talks about Edmund and in fact seems uncomfortable when Edmund is brought up by others and her trying to figure out why that is. It also addresses the arm grabbing moment from RMB.)

Below are copied the relevant notes from an excellent father detailing the bits that are explicitly in canon and my own extrapolation:

“1) in Romancing Mister Bridgerton, Colin remembers that he was horsewhipped when he was twelve for smacking Eloise: “Dear God, he wanted to smack her. He hadn’t done that since he was twelve. And he’d been horsewhipped for it. The only time he could recall his father laying a hand on him.”

2) Colin was twelve when Edmund died (besides doing the math, in The Viscount Who Loved Me, Anthony notes that his brothers were sixteen, twelve, and two at the time);

3) to the best of my recollection, there is no other mention of Edmund in Romancing Mister Bridgerton, which in itself is noteworthy;

4) per To Sir Phillip With Love, Eloise was walking alone with Edmund when he was stung by a bee and died;

5) in To Sir Phillip With Love, Eloise states that she doesn’t believe in striking children;

6) in Violet in Bloom, after Violet comes running when she hears Eloise screaming, Violet slaps Eloise when Eloise can’t manage to say anything but “Papa” and it’s noted that “that would be the only time [Violet] would ever strike a child;”

7) in An Offer from a Gentleman and Violet in Bloom especially (but also, I would argue, in The Viscount Who Loved Me and To Sir Phillip With Love), Edmund is described in ways that make him sound rather similar to Colin but no one ever comments on it in the Bridgerton series;

8) I’d drawn the conclusion described in #7 long before First Comes Scandal debuted, but that book really deliberately drove home the parallels between Edmund and Colin; and

9) in Romancing Mister Bridgerton, it takes more than half the book for Colin to acknowledge to himself that he’d known for years that Penelope had feelings for him. Even though the knowledge colored the way he treated her, he’d pushed it out of his mind because it made him uncomfortable. He avoids thinking of – allowing himself to think of, I think – the incident on the steps of Number Five that he clearly felt badly about in the moment. But if he knew that Penelope had feelings for him, he must also have known that it would not have been just embarrassing for her to hear herself singled out for such a vehement declaration that he would never marry her, but truly hurtful. If he could be in such denial about something merely uncomfortable for so many years, about a situation in which he behaved badly but not catastrophically, how then, would he deal with something truly painful to him personally, to the point of being traumatic, rather than just uncomfortable? How long could he avoid thinking about it? What would make him confront it? And how would he deal with it when forced to do so?

TLDR: once I realized Colin had smacked Eloise and been horsewhipped as a consequence the same year Edmund died, those facts combined with the fact that Eloise was having one-on-one time with Edmund when he died and that Edmund is only mentioned once, when referring to that incident, in Romancing Mister Bridgerton, coalesced into . . . this.

To be fair to Edmund, he did genuinely sound like a wonderful father and the punishment of choice seemed both 1) not well-aligned with his general approach to parenting and 2) period-typical.

Given that Edmund appears in every other instance to have been a good parent, I take the approach that the principal reason this was highly traumatic in this story was due to the timing of the incident as I’m depicting it. If, for example, it had happened a few months before Edmund died rather than that day or had happened then but Edmund hadn’t died until later and they’d had time to talk and spend other time together after it, it wouldn’t have had the same impact at all. It would’ve been something that happened once. But instead, it happened this way – as Colin’s last interaction with Edmund – and it’s not something he worked through because nobody ever talked to him about it. I think it would have impacted his ability to (and his feeling that he deserved to) grieve, even if he was not emotionally mature enough to understand or articulate that feeling at that age.”

I should also probably note that I wrote an “Edmund Lives AU” vignette where his best friend confronts him about the whipping and we see how he subsequently feels about it that may also be of interest: wrong

that 'have you ever been punished as a child?' line Pen drops hits different when you realize that in the books, Colin was horsewhipped by his father the morning before he died and then went to Eton where they literally had something called 'flogging Fridays' during the time he attended

like Julia, Miss. Quinn, what do you mean you just threw that information in as a random throwaway line that is never mentioned again? do you not realize how WILD that makes Colin's background?

He was twelve years old??? His dad saw him hitting Eloise and then horsewhipped him, and after horsewhipping his twelve. year. old. son. he then goes to comfort Eloise by taking a walk with her and the bee stings him and he fucking dies

Colin would be out here blaming himself for that death forever are you kidding me???? Wondering if he didn't hit his sister (when they're children playing together), would his Dad still be alive? Would he still have gone on that walk? Would he still have passed away as Colin sat sobbing in the stables, hurt by his hand?

And then he goes to Eton where the only time he had off was 3 weeks around Christmas, but still has to stay there, and 3 weeks in the summer when he can finally go home to Aubrey Hall?

This timeline is BONKERS. Like. . .we know Edmund dies not too long before Hyacinth is born, and she's born May/June. Colin's birthday? Yeah, it's in March. So you mean to tell me, the order of events of all this mess could be as followed: Edmund horsewhips Colin when he's 12 years old (sometime before March), he DIES that same day, Colin turns 13 (in March), Hyacinth is born (in June), and not a few months later Colin has to go to Eton (after the summer break. Social season is Spring and Summer, and ends either July or August, so let's be merciful here and say he leaves in August) and doesn't come back for an entire year?

You mean to tell me this boy has had what? Half a year to get over his father's death after he whipped him for a minor infraction and then he's waltzing into an institution where canings and whippings and floggings and bullying are the norm when he's a teeny tiny little boy?

How is this man not filled to the GILLS with trauma???? No wonder he's so close to his mum and listens to the women around him more than the men and never talks about his dad. And he still turns out so nice and empathetic and kindhearted? He still listens so much to Pen and is so gentle with her and has a good sense of humor and cares so deeply?

That man is never raising a hand to their children. He probably won't even raise his voice at their children. Oh my god.

#bridgerton #colin bridgerton #edmund bridgerton #penelope featherington #polin #meta #spec fic #character study

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ultraericthered · 1 year ago

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Anime Update V2 52

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 - Man, if I didn’t know that this anime was mercifully short, I’d probably have dropped it at around this point, and that’s NOT because it’s quality is bad in any way. It’s because it just so grim, bleak, and uncompromising it is in how it depicts realistic tragedy, tragedy born of unfortunate but natural circumstances beyond any person’s ability to foresee or control. It’s a touchy subject for any work of fiction to address, so this anime doing so in such a raw and real-feeling way does have to be commended. Also, now “M/ELDOY” is beginning to sound more and more like a cruel joke.

Hunter x Hunter - Aaaaand of course it wasn’t Ging who Gon and Killua got sent to meet, but instead Kite, who I very vividly remember from the first episode of the 1999 anime but can’t recall much from him in this version before now. He saves the boys from something called a Chimera Ant, which is basically if an ant was not so small, and tells Gon more about his past and how he came to meet Ging, who is still The Worst. What they don’t realize is that elsewhere, the Chimera Ant Queen has been nesting, and is trying to give birth...

Fruits Bakset - Two episodes that continue where we left off in terms of focus on Yuki’s character arc and preparations being made for the school’s Cinderella production. Almost every piece of Yuki Sohma lore that’s been presented to us in a fragmented way throughout the series now all comes together here, and along with it the truth behind Yuki’s feelings for Tohru that seemed to awaken in him back at the end of Season 1: Yuki looks to Tohru for a warm, loving, nurturing mother-like figure to be a presence in his life, despite them being peers. He explicitly states he loves her strongly in a way that is not romantic, but more akin to how a child loves their mother. Given the genre and the whole illusion of a “love triangle” between Tohru, Yuki, and Kyo, this is something hardly anyone could’ve seen coming but in retrospect it makes perfect sense.

A nitpick I have here is that two pretty obvious details got left out of Yuki’s reminiscing: his meeting with Haru, and the entire existence of the Prince Yuki Fan Club. Touching upon the latter would’ve been especially interesting since in theory, their very existence is a rebuttal to everything Akito ever said about Yuki, but in practice they not only reinforce the view of Yuki as something more or less than just a normal human with normal human feelings, but it’s all built around a fangirl’s image of Yuki, a Yuki Sohma who does not really exist. Yuki had to have felt that if they got to know the real him and his Zodiac secret, that club would’ve been over in an instant. The poor guy. :(

Re:ZERO - I sat and watched three episodes straight this time, since they were all following one continous thread. Well, last time I’d said I wished this arc had kept its focus on the different campaign camps of the Royal Selection. The very next episode, we get to see more out of Krusch, Priscilla, and Anastasia! Yes! The scene with Anastasia and how Subaru got totally played by her was particularly amazing. What an absolute girlboss! The action from there continued to be solid, with us meeting Otto, getting to see the mysterious and deadly white whale, and Rem sacrificing not just her life but her existence in the memories of everyone who’s not Subaru. And then Subaru returns to Roswaal’s mansion where he sort of inadvertedly kills Emilia with his shadow magic, which was horrifying. Then Beako shoves him out into the cold somewhere, which was sad. And then Betelgeuse and his cultist buddies show up again, which was great ‘cause that guy is just impossible not to enjoy watching. Finally, Puck shows his true self again, killing both Betelgeuse and Subaru, who is laughing mad as he freezes to death while hearing Puck’s rebukes.

And then, of course, came the moment - the famed “from zero” part with Subaru and Rem. Which I feel two ways about because on Subaru’s end, it is absolutely gutwrenching and breathtaking to see. The guy is at his lowest and makes his most pathetic bargain (”I’m giving up on Lagunica! Run away with me, Rem! We’ll live out our lives together elsewhere! Please!”) and when denied yet again, he breaks and lets out the tirade of self-loathing that had been building up inside him for who knows how long. When this tirade is met with unconditional, selfless love from Rem and her telling him all the good points to him that she’s come to like about him, that have made him a person whose life is worth something, who has made a positive difference in places and can yet still do so in a grander capacity if he were to pick himself back up and “start from zero”, Subaru slowly but surely has a change of heart and mental state, and it’s so beautiful. But on Rem’s end? This is a definitely a case where I feel the payoff to something is theoretically so good that the faults in the build-up to it actively hinder it. It’s not that it’s even written or executed poorly, but that earlier weaker writing just hangs in the air over it like a bad fart. Cute as Rem’s whole planned-to-the-last-detail image of what a life of her and Subaru together as a couple might be like was, everything she went on to say would’ve had that much more weight and power to it if her love for Subaru was not as heavily and explicitly romantic in nature. What also would’ve improved the scene would be if it wasn’t just Rem, as it only is just Rem because earlier writing in this arc had conspired to make it just Rem even when it made no organic narrative sense. Ram should’ve been here too, as unlike Rem she wasn’t just blunt and indifferent with Subaru before, she’s been downright mean. So to hear her of all people join in with her sister in telling Subaru the things about him that they find worth loving would’ve made for an even stronger, more compelling case to Subaru that his character and efforts aren’t all rotten, worthless, and scorn-worthy. That even at his lowest, he’s not hopeless, not beyond redemption, not undeserving of any love and kindness. ‘Cause as it is, just Rem did not entirely do it for me, so it feels off for me to just have to assume and accept that it did do it enough for Subaru. (The one thing I’m most glad about, though, is that Emilia was kept out of this moment. Her being there, or worse still her being the one to talk Subaru out of his funk and “save him with her love” would’ve spat in the face of Episode 13′s ending scene and sent entirely the wrong message. So I’m glad “I love Emilia” is all her role in this part was.)

Subaru ending this on an Endeavor-esque “watch me!” claim/boast suggests he’s definitely not changed yet, but he has gained more clarity and an extra dose of perspective that could shape the sorts of changes within him yet to come, so I do look forward to seeing that.

Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works - Just continuing to see and hear more detail than the Studio Deen anime ever gave us.

Symphogear GX - More has been clarified about the new enemy. Carol is an alchemist who wants to use her power to annihilate the world as vengeance for a mysterious something that befell her late father. Not only does she have three strange doll people serving as her minions and using alchemy as well, but they’ve now been shown to create “Alcanoise”, beings that resemble Noise but aren’t quite. Was also really interested to see more what Kirika, Shirabe, and Maria’s deal is these days - the former two are on probation and get to attend school even while serving to make amends for their terrorist crimes in the F.I.S, but poor Maria, she’s basically lost her entire life to the American douchebags who manage her career as the only means of keeping a clean image and not being locked up. Hope Tsubasa ends up helping her with this, as they seem to be bonding.

Eureka Seven - Captain Juergans and his troops seem to have been utterly defeated for the time being. Eureka continues to just be so weirdly adorable just by being the sheltered, brutally unfiltered alien girl she is, Renton continues to be a personification of cringe, and still not much is known about the Gekko State other than Holland being a crass, apathetic manchild and Talho being a tease. What I was most impressed by was how much I ended up feeling for Renton’s grandfather, who is a very flawed, not particularly pleasant to get along with old man but you can tell he does have love for his family in his heart and cares more than he’d admit. The worst part came at the very end - the debut of three children who Eureka “parents.” Uh oh!

Gintama - This was a pure “stays-in-one-place and is nothing but comedy, other anime references and fourth wall jokes” episode that also just happened to be a milestone episode and a hilarious one at that, so it was also much better to watch in its original language than in that Hulu dub, which was just so atrociously handled that it couldn’t be bothered to provide a fitting voice to the Ryuk cameo at the end!

Oh and boooooooo! Bring the first OP and “MR. RAINDROP” back!

#Anime Update V2 #Anime Update

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castielcommunism · 2 years ago

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I can’t remember when the john apologism starts in full force in the show so maybe this is a bit off but I think you can track the characterisation drift of dean based on how sympathetic the show is to john. because I think what happened is that the writers saw dean defending john and took that at face value - that john is worth defending despite his faults. whereas like, in the early seasons dean’s defense of their father was a central tension in his character. dean defends their father because he’s justifying his own coping mechanisms (submitting to his fathers demands and doing everything he was asked of), because dean has tied his self worth to his ability to be a good son. he can’t defend himself directly because he believes he’s not worth standing up for, but he can defend the guy who makes all the decisions that dean follows. dean is incapable of being his own person because he can’t escape his father. which is textually addressed in season 3. It’s impossible for dean to be his father’s vision of a good son because john is an asshole who will never give dean the approval he desires, and dean knows this but consciously decides to not deal with it because it’s easier to just let it fester, even after john is dead.

and I think if you take that example (the john apologism) and expand it further, a lot of what dean does in the early seasons is all for show - he’s a collection of quotes and opinions from other people (“do you even have an original thought?”) because he’s never been allowed to be himself. his macho tough guy act is explicitly a front. but I think what happens over the seasons is that that act just becomes who dean is, uncomplicated and straightforward. and like I don’t think it’s always completely incorrect to make dean a controlling asshole or default to some of his father’s behaviour (they even explicitly acknowledge that he’s aware of this in s6 with lisa), but a lot of the nuance of the earlier seasons seems to have been stripped off, so while the show pivots to be more about dean, it also becomes less interested in the dimensionality of his character, so you end up with large chunks of the show where he’s just kind of an asshole with no further reflection on the matter.

#dean.txt #dean studies #john

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luulapants · 3 years ago

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Meta: proof that Teen Wolf werewolves have knots

The fanfiction trope of knotting has long been relegated to the world of AU, PWP, crack-smut, and - at best - fanon. However, in this meta I will show how certain metaphors in Teen Wolf actually prove a canon basis for werewolf knots.

For those unfamiliar with the concept of a knot, here’s what you need to know: Stop reading. Scroll past this post. You are living in a blissfully ignorant Eden you can’t even comprehend.

Anyway.

To begin, we must agree on one basic supposition: the use of weapons as phallic or otherwise sexual metaphors. Obviously, as an MTV show, Teen Wolf wasn’t explicitly going to talk about monster dicks. Even human dicks were referenced only in vague camera cuts to condoms, everything implied nonverbally (including THAT Victoria Argent pencil scene).

Therefore, as the show did, I will rely on nonverbal metaphors.

Swords have long been used metaphors for the penis, sexual prowess, and the ability to maintain an erection, and Teen Wolf has its fair share of swordplay:

The modern L-shaped handgun may not look phallic, but it inherits the metaphor from its predecessor weapons, both swords and the longer muskets and shotguns. And you can always count on modern, ah, overcompensation...

When he’s not being Mr. “Must Shoot Two Guns At Once,” you may remember Chris choosing a different sort of weapon, specifically for werewolves.

A crossbow! The reason being:

Basically, because werewolves heal so fast, hunters need a weapon that stays inside them, stuck, preventing them from healing until it’s removed.

You are probably aware that the knotting trope is based on real-life animal attributes of canines, whose penises swell at the base during mating, trapping the penis inside their mate and ensuring their semen heads toward its target for breeding, rather than slipping out.

Are you picking up what I’m laying down here? Are you?

The arrow, while long and slender like a phallus, is not just a penis. It’s a penis with a knot that keeps it stuck inside. And the arrow is a weapon specifically used on werewolves.

“But Luula,” you may say, “wouldn’t they have had to address it? Scott had sex, and he would have flipped the fuck out if his dick did something like that.” Yes, but we saw Scott fighting off the shift when he got intimate.

Scott probably never allowed himself to shift during sex. He kept it under control. Since werewolves are fully human in shape except when they start to shift, we can assume that knotting would only happen when they begin to shift.

Not convinced? Alright, let’s go to our final piece of overwhelming evidence, which comes from Peter, arguably the most comfortable with his werewolf form and least likely to censor it for a human’s comfort. Let’s go to THEE (poorly lit) scene:

The rebar - clearly a metaphor.

However, Peter doesn’t stop at penetrating Chris with his phallic rebar. No, no. He has to make sure that Chris stays put so that Peter can achieve his goals. So what does he do?

He alters the phallus to make it impossible to remove. He knotted Chris Argent and left him in that sewer for a FULL DAY.

This concludes our meta. If you have any questions, please contact my attorney.

#teen wolf #teen wolf meta #i will not be accepting any notes my argument is infallible #petopher #chris argent #chris argent's phallic metaphors

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litres-of-cocaine · 2 years ago

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I think something interesting to think about as well is how Riley Jenkins influenced him and how he’s obsessed over that at least subconsciously for his whole life leading up to the Memoriam episode.

Reid explicitly states in the episode that he’d been dreaming about the basement scene and discovering Riley since he was very little, and given what Morgan ends the previous episode with - that growing up in proximity to the murder was probably the reason Spencer chose to work for the FBI - we could definitely call that obsession.

I doubt the writers had planned the storyline anytime before season 4 as they needed some new trauma to explore with Spencer without addressing anything else that had happened to him properly, but even in 1x10 there’s a reference to a recurring dream of Reid’s that involves a child that he is unable to ‘get to in time’. The episode shows that it’s bad enough for the rest of the team to start noticing and even for Reid to open up about it to Morgan which he almost never does to the same extent in an emotional sense in the early seasons. Although the dream does specify ‘a baby’ I think there’s still an illusion to the idea of youth and innocence being snuffed out where Reid is helpless, as well as the first dream that involves the Riley containing a literal baby - JJ’s, one of his closest friends and in a similarly connected position to him in the way Riley’s family was. Exploring that further, Morgan suggests that a baby in a dream represents the dreamer - in this case Spencer, which links again to op’s ideas about how his projection becomes obsession. He sees himself in Riley and in the sense of helplessness of JJ’s unborn child in his dream, and it consumes him. Reid only starts to butt heads with the team and other members of law enforcement when his personal connection to an unsub is questioned or jeopardised.

Like I say from a realistic perspective this parallel wasn’t in the works from 2005 and revealed five years later, but textually it is certainly significant for his behaviour.

As he says back in 2x18, he ‘’had his heart set on joining the bureau’’ from an extremely young age and it was a form of obsession, a desperation to find connection with criminality and murder.

So… my theory, that is predicated on pretty much just my own speculation, is that the real reason Gideon took an interest in Spencer was not because of his savant nature or ability to consume and articulate knowledge to a superhuman degree but because of his primordial captivation with behavioural abnormality. Because he obsesses. Gideon makes for such a good advisor to Spencer because they are the same in this manner, although they obsess in contrasting ways.

The bureau would have a huge number of consultants that wouldn’t necessarily be a bank of knowledge of everything like Reid is, but the BAU certainly managed to solve cases before Spencer joined, so it stands to reason that although his knowledge is incredibly useful, they are not invaluable. They can be found elsewhere.

The mentor and mentee dynamic that the show sets up has this subtle opposition within it where whilst Gideon cannot escape those who survived serial killers and those who didn’t, Reid cannot escape the associations he sees between himself and the unsubs.

In other words, Gideon is aligned with the victims and Reid the unsubs; two sides of the same coin.

Gideon has a whole book filled with pictures and names that justify why he does his job. Why he came back despite his PTSD. He keeps the book to save who he can, and remember who he can’t.

It’s part of what destroys him in the end, he can’t live for the dead anymore, where those who die (Alice) begin to outnumber the people that he saves. That’s why it makes such thematic sense for the scene where he narrates the letter to Reid about leaving the bureau to be teased as a suicide. It is a suicide in of itself - the surrendering of his obsession with the victims and victims to be is the death of who he is, his identity.

And why does Gideon leave a letter to Spencer but no one else? There are many parallels that can be made between him and the rest of the team (Elle *especially* but that’s not the topic of this post), Spencer is the only one who seems to obsess in the same way Gideon does. With the same ferocity over a specific group, anyway.

Gideon needs his list to remember but Spencer has an eidetic memory. He doesn’t need a book full of names to haunt him, his brain does that well enough.

Dowd, Nathan, Owen, Samantha, Adam, even Cat, and Tobias most of all.

And his connection to the unsubs probably originates from his place as an outcast - from being a prodigy, autistic (this is canon idc), and his mother’s schizophrenia - something he fears for himself. He is other.

The question is why Reid stays while Gideon didn’t, even when this neurotic connection to the unsubs seems to tear Reid apart in the same way Gideon’s fascination with the victims did.

As he says himself - ‘’I’ve been thinking a lot lately about why I stayed after Gideon left, why I didn’t take any of those other offers’’ …. ‘’and I realised, I don’t know, there’s something incredibly right about being here, with you guys.’’

Definitely, it’s because of the support of his team and the way he views them as ‘family’ the way Gideon probably didn’t. But also I think it is the only way his fixation can be satiated. Gideon’s victims at heart are ordinary people - he can find them anywhere. It was less about the individuals who were targeted in Gideon’s case but the fact that they were people before they were affected.

Reid’s obsession is about the unsubs, how their lives have shaped them, and the connection he feels with their motivations. It’s about the crime as much as the person. It can only lead him back to one place. The BAU.

I should be studying, showering, sleeping, doing literally anything else but instead, I am going to do a long post about a mentally ill blorbo because I am mentally ill myself.

SO! We all make fun of Spencer let me take my vest off and lower my gun for no reason Reid, it's a meme at this point- but that....tendency is a consequence of what I find the most fascinating about his character as a whole....his relationships- or more like, the relationships he makes up in his head.

Before I go into details I want to leave something very clear that anyone that has seen even one season of the funny cop show has noticed: Spencer is highly obsessive.

Now I am not talking about his fun little facts or that he likes star streak and doctor who obsession- those are hyperfixations, and even tho MY hyperfixation it's ruining my life, his are actually harmless and overall make him happy.

His obsessive nature had almost cost him his career, if not his life, multiple times.

If you stop to think about it in depth, why does Reid abandon all common sense when it comes to certain UnSubs, certain cases? well the most evident answer is that he projects whatever trauma of the week they decide to explore onto them- and yes, that is the nick of things. He pulled that stunt on Elephant's memory because he related to Owen's harassment story, he wanted to help Nathan because he understood being afraid of your own mind turning against you, he wanted to help Adam because he couldn't save Tobias. You get the drill- but....that is not always the case.

With the guy that Lindsey's dad murdered- Spencer didn't relate to him, he was just a piece of shit. How about Samantha? (I know there is a theory about William....doing shit to Reid when he was younger and while I can see it, for the sake of argument I will take her case into consideration) The father of the victim on "Identity"? I can name another example but this one I am going to save for last since it's the reason for me making this post-

And one can argue "Well, he is just a really nice guy" and while that is true- what I named before doesn't always apply, Spencer's compassion has a very clear, marked limit.

His relationships.

When Cyrus was killed in front of him by Morgan, Reid barely blinked- hell, he fucking SASSED him. Why? because he hurt Emily.

All sympathy he could have had for Cat before she ruined his life DESPITE kind of empathizing with her story based on what HE was going through went out of the window because she and her lil gang terrorized Penelope for months.

He felt compassion for Adam, but not for his father who he claimed was the true monster of this story in the aftermath.

When Maeve told her her ex was dead, he quickly brushed that aside to ask her if SHE was alright.

And ofc, we all know what happened in prison after his friend there was murdered.

Reid is often associated with UnSubs not only because of how his backstory aligned with their motivations (mental health issues, bullying, absent parent, losing a loved one) but because most of these crimes are passional responses- and Spencer can be extremely passional, to a point where it clouds his judgment.

Now...you might be thinking "ok that is all nice and good, but where does the obsession come into play? all that I know is that he is a cinnamon roll that loves his friends and has some really deep projection issues he really needs to work on" and you are not wrong, but what made me make this fucking thesis in the first place its something else....one of my favorite things to analyze about fictional characters in this kind of setting it's "the needs of one vs the greater good" thing.

Now let's be fr, we all as human beings will always, ALWAYS prioritize those close to us over literal strangers. Even among the best, most empathic people that is just how it is, that emotional hierarchy will always be there- what differentiates us is how much it affects our actions.

Now with a job like this, there will always be this conflict among the menbers- obviously, their families and even each other will always be a priority, but on working hours their focus HAS to be on doing their job, following the rules and just being as professional as humanly possible- even tho it sometimes kills them inside since it just doesn't feels right.

Reid actually doesn't face this debate that much- because all common sense, respect for authority and protocol goes out of the fucking window whenever he obsesses over a new blorbo lmao.

Had you heard the phrase "One death is a tragedy, a hundred is a statistic"? nothing rings more true that with Dr. Reid right here. He is able to keep his cool while touching mangled corpses and discussing all the shit that happened to them- occasionally looking horrified if it's messed up enough, but other than that he is able to keep the same level of professionalism and compartmentalization as his co-workers.

Annnnnnd then he gets to know a victim, a witness, or an unsub and the vest leaves his torso, his gun folds itself and his IQ lowers. Alot.

Let's get back to the example I put of the guy that was murdered by Lindsey's dad- in that moment he wasn't a murderer to Reid, in that moment all he saw was a teenager begging for his life and HE could be the only to save him- he couldn't. He obsessed over that instead of what the guy did and that lead him to desire to insert Diluid inside of him after 10 months of sobriety, not to mention being A BIG factor in what he does on Elephant's Memory.

"I thought I could save this one" was his response when Hotch scolded him.

Spencer literally can't forget shit. So he tries to make sure that when he knows someone, even if is on a dying moment like the mentioned UnSub, he can save them. He forms some kind of bond with someone and they stop being an face and a name adhered to his board that he is determined to save/get justice for because is his literal job and he is overall a good person. In his mind, it becomes his responsibility whenever that person it's saved, and when that crosses over obsessive territory and his job, that makes it mandatory to always put the need of the many vs the one (especially if it's an unsub) well....

It's when he spiral and puts his career/the case in jeopardy at best, and his life at worst, no to mention what that shit does to his already questionable mental health.

In the second ep of the tenth season, Reid confesses to Morgan that after killing the LDSK, it suddenly hit him and he obsessed over all the "what ifs", at that moment that guy wasn't the LDSK that almost got him, his boss and a hospital full of mortal hostages in danger- he was the man that Spencer Reid killed- and it only ended when he stopped obsessed over HIM and started to put his victim's faces on his wall, forcing his focus on them instead.

He was more focused on the father of the victim on "identity" than the actual unsub himself because years before he had stopped him from seeing his daughter, and had made enough of an impact to be remembered by him in the present. Thanks to that bond, that little relationship, Spencer was able to put himself between a highly emotional distraught father's gun and the man he wanted to kill, to protect him.

He didn't get to personally know Samantha until the end- but he got to meet the scumbag that raped her. Add that to the already soft spot he has for children and you have a very angry Reid ready to do literally anything to make sure this woman that didn't even knew him was safe.

And ironically enough, what prompt me to do this thesis wasn't even one of those nice touchy feeling moments Spencer had with someone he bonded over- either personally or on a parasocial level- but one where he was wrong, but was about to risk a whole case over it. Rock Creek Park.

In that episode, Spencer and this other girl are keeping watch over this mafia thing so this politician guy's wife cane come back (as you can see I pay attention to certain scenes more that others lmao) and you can see the exact moment where the mission....stops being Spencer's priority.

After hearing this girl's conversation with her mother, she stopped being "the maid" and became someone Spencer's "knows" and so this leads to....this

....why did I bother with that text block when this scene spills it out- Anyways.

I dunno why but Rossi's reaction always sends me to the stratosphere- he knows.

Anyways, turns out that the helpless maid was actually on it all along and Reid almost throws the entire case off over nothing- *slows clap*

Ok ok, this might seem like I am slandering my boy but as fun as it is to make fun of him, this is exactly why I love him. This recklessness as a result of tunnel vision it's....concerning considering his line of work, and his eagerness to go far and beyond for someone he barely knows just because he knows them, above everything else and he is there, and can't bare the thought of not doing anything for them., to have their death's imprinted on his memory.

In conclusion- he ain't lawful good/neutral like the first few episodes want to make you think, he is chaotic good. And a mess. And I love him.

#criminal minds #spencer reid #jason gideon #it is kind of depressing to think about it that way #tbh #but! I choose to believe that spencer is achieving what he mentioned in 7x11 #changing the world for the better #he’s content (if very traumatised) in his delusional obsession #and i personally love that for him #criminalminds #cm #derek morgan #criminal minds spoilers #also great post op! very much loved your analysis it gave me LONG brainrot

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ariaofsorrows · 2 years ago

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I think there is very little nuance surrounding Jotaro as a father. The fans either like to characterize him as a shitty father who cared about Koichi more (i will take this claim with a grain of salt because it’s usually memes or it’s made by people who sped read to part seven) or as an amazing father who cared immensely for his daughter. I am here to tell you that he is neither. I’m to address both those claims and try to explain why they’re flawed.

1. Jotaro is a bad father who fucked off to look at starfish or something

Now, I don’t exactly know the reason why Jotaro decided to get married and have a kid, but I can try to explain why he left them. I don’t think he left because he didn’t care about Jolyne and Ms. Kujo, but the complete opposite of that. After Stardust Crusaders, Jotaro began to believe that leaving people was a legitimate love language. After all, he left his mother to save her from the stand flu (and DIO), and his own father left to provide for the family. So, Jotaro learned from experience and example that if you loved someone, you had to be willing to leave them.

Also, the events of part three greatly traumatized Jotaro. Everyone needs to remember that he lost Kakyoin, Avdol, Iggy, and his grandpa for a few minutes because of enemy stand users. On top of that, he put a massive target on his back for killing DIO, and as we all have seen, he still has a lot of followers. If any of these followers caught wind that the great Jotaro Kujo had weaknesses a wife and young daughter, imagine all the horrible things that would befall on Jolyne and her mother. In fact, the events of Stone Ocean happen because someone found out that Jotaro had a kid. Anyways, the man was so afraid of losing his family to enemy stand users, that he had to be distant from them in order to draw said stand users away from them. As a result, he wrecked the relationships he had with his family. For people who read through SO and its entirety (while paying attention), this is fact.

Could there have been better communication between Jotaro and his family? Absolutely, but this is Jotaro Kujo we’re talking about. The same guy who thinks that everyone can read his facial expressions properly. What I want everyone to take away from this is that he left because he wanted to provide his family with an opportunity to live a life free of stand bullshit and the Joestar curse. He did his job so well that we the “omnipotent” readers only found out of Jolyne’s existence at the same time everyone else in the story did**. The only reason why we know about Jolyne’s connection to Jotaro before getting into SO is largely because of the internet.

*Now what about Jolyne being in jail and him not helping? Jotaro was a delinquent growing up!! Also, almost all members of the Joestar family have gone to jail at least once, so man’s probably thought that was a normal occurrence.

2. Jotaro is a good dad because he cares about Jolyne

I wholeheartedly agree on the second part of that sentence. There are several moments at this point in the anime and several more in the manga where Jotaro shows how much he cares about his daughter. He was willing to sacrifice many things to ensure the safety of his child. Now, is he a good father because of this? Debatable. All the love Jotaro has for his kid can’t negate the fact that he left her for many years. Hell, it’s explicitly stated that he missed several critical moments of his daughter’s life, like the time Jolyne was dying of a fever, and wasn’t there because of Morioh business. People who care a lot about children in their lives do not automatically make good parents

But despite his failure as a father, he’s trying his hardest to mend his relationship with Jolyne, and if it hadn’t been for DIO, and Pucci, and all the evil stand users in the world that were out to get him, they would’ve been a great dad. Unfortunately, that is not the case here. A lot more than just love and care is needed to be a parent. You need to put in the work, and for the most part, he didn’t.

TLDR: Jotaro Kujo is a loving father, but at the end of the day, he’s still an absent parent.

#jojo’s bizarre adventure #jotaro kujo #jolyne cujoh #happy fathers day #this is my first attempt at a serious character analysis #so it might be a little rough

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milevensoul · 2 years ago

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The very simple reason Mileven is endgame

.. is because it was ALWAYS meant to be end game.

All right look. I’m going to put this as simply as I possibly can.

Mileven is and always has been the core of the story. Yes, there are other people and characters that revolve around them but fundamentally, they are the two that hold the entire thing together.

Without El, no one else would’ve been involved in anything. Not Mike, not his crew, not Hopper, not the teen squad - no one.

Without Mike, El would’ve been taken back to the lab almost immediately and again no one would’ve been involved in anything.

The entire show revolves around them. Their immediate connection and love for each other is the central driving plot of the entire narrative.

All right now that that’s out of the way, let’s address a few things. (This got long so I’m putting in a cut)

It’s not realistic.

It’s a TV show about a telekinetic child and her rag tag group of friends evading multiple super power governments AND fighting D&D monsters. It’s not supposed to be realistic.

Even if this weren’t a sci-fi/fantasy show uhhh it’s still a show. Relationships, like everything else, are plot devices. They’re not real-world-y.

Well look at jancy/stancy/insert other ship here.

Not the core of the story. Literally irrelevant to mileven for that very reason.

Will.

Yes, Will is almost certainly in his feels for Mike and has been since season 1. That is nothing new and it’s not going to change now. Yes, Will is getting more obvious about it because... well, there’s a lot of reasons. However, Mike has never shown any deviation from El. Ever.

Mike doesn’t love El

Ok honestly this is the one not even worth addressing but let’s do it shall we? Mike has NO idea how to talk about love. We’ve been shown this over and over and over again. We were EXPLICITLY shown it last season during more than one monologue where he can’t say the fucking word except when it’s not *to* El and only in moments of extreme stress. If Mike didn’t love her, he didn’t love her last season and he wouldn’t have bothered keeping up with her via letters or calls. But he did. Because he does love her.

El has only ever seen romantic love expressed in one way: through explicit words and actions because her only romantic love exposure has been through fucking soap operas. Remember? That is where she learned it. To her, Mike not saying it means he doesn’t feel it because she hasn’t had any other kind of model to learn about romantic love.

Mike, OTOH, has likely seen his parents say they love each other several times but as Nancy explicitly told us in season 1, they don’t love each other. To him, the words aren’t important - it’s the actions. That is why when he said “I say it,” he wasn’t lying. He does say it, just not in the way El wants him to.

They’re “just” together because they’re comfortable and each other’s security blankets

Ok 1- not true. BUT

2- even if it were, yeah they’re each other’s security blankets? Like honestly my partner and I have been together for over a decade and you bet your asses we’re each other’s security blankets. We go to each other for comfort and love because that’s what people do when they love each other?

Mike just loves her because she’s a superhero.

So that year without her having powers? Umm? We just gonna ignore that he stayed with her and devoted to her the whole time? Ok

When he says she’s a superhero, he’s not just talking about her powers. He’s talking about everything about her. Who she is, what she does, what she’s endured. She really is the most incredible person to him and NOT because of her power.

I’m sure I have more but it’s after 2 AM and I just needed to word vomit before sleep.

They are endgame because they were written that way and the Duffer Bros haven’t seemed to have any deviation plans in mind for that.

#mileven #mileven is endgame

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myherowritings · 4 years ago

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Hey There, Roomie

— After being set up on a bad date with Ushijima, he insists on walking you to your doorstep. Not wanting him to know where you live, you lead him to Iwaizumi’s apartment and pretend Iwaizumi is your roommate.

pairing: iwaizumi hajime x reader word count: 4.0k genre: college/university au, fluff warnings: mentions of drinking, language, secondhand embarrassment, suggestive comments at the end, oikawa is meddlesome, awkward but cute confessions™!!

a/n: ur bad date is with ushiwaka ok i’m sorry he’s a nice guy but i had to make it someone HDJSJS,, also this is based on real life events except my friend who lived in an apartment near me isn’t cute like iwa-chan :( LMAOOO i hope u enjoy reading!!! xx sof

「 hq masterlist 」

“I assure you, you don’t have to walk me to my apartment.”

“It’s not a bother. I insist.”

“No, it’s fine.” Although you tried to keep a smile on your face, you were certain it looked more like you were baring your teeth at him. “Really. You don’t have to do that.”

Ushijima shrugged. “I told you, it’s no big deal.”

Your grin turned into a grimace as you stepped outside the car and headed towards your apartment complex. You managed to grit out, “Great. Thanks.”

A friend from your class had told you they had a friend of a friend who saw an Instagram post of you and thought you were cute. After they showed you a picture of him, you said the same. Little did you know it would lead to a mess of a date set up by said friend.

The date was at a karaage chicken place and it was filled with the most uncomfortable silences you had sat through since office hours with a professor who you were sure hated you. Ushijima was nice enough and it wasn’t the worst date ever, but the two of you just did not click. You figured it was partly your fault for agreeing to meet with him despite not having a single clue about his interests and never having talked to him once, but it was too late to undo it now.

He was a gentleman, at least. Offered to pay, held your seat out for you, drove you to your apartment complex, and, now, was trying to walk you to your doorstep.

The thing was, you did not want him to know where you lived.

You didn’t get red flags or feel threatened by any means, but having a guy you went on one uncomfortable date with know your exact address wasn’t really something that sat well with you. You’ve heard enough college horror stories to be wary. But, you didn’t have the heart to tell him explicitly not to walk you home… So the only solution?

Head to your friend’s apartment in the same complex instead.

“Do you know where you’re going?” asked Ushijima, examining you as your eyes darted around from building to building.

You’d been to Iwaizumi’s apartment before, but that didn’t stop you from looking lost and confused in this maze of houses. And it didn’t help to have Ushijima’s semi-condescending gaze on you the whole time. The worst part was, you were almost certain he didn’t even mean to be condescending— He just was. To you, at least. It definitely rubbed you the wrong way during the date.

“Yeah,” you laughed, walking past your apartment, “of course I know where my own apartment is.”

Iwaizumi’s place was just a few buildings north of yours, which you were quick to remember after catching sight of your place. You briefly wondered if he would be home on a Friday night, but quickly decided it wasn’t important. It’s not like you would be entering his house anyway. In fact, if all went well, he might never even know you were outside his apartment to begin with.

The plan was to have Ushijima drop you off at the doorstep (since he so unwaveringly insisted that he had to and it was no trouble for him to do so), tell him goodbye, fumble with your bag to “look for your keys” as he walked off, then—when he was out of sight—dash to your apartment and lock yourself in your bedroom for the remainder of the night.

A foolproof plan.

“Well, we’re here!” you chirped, standing outside Iwaizumi’s door labeled 237E. You whirled around to face Ushijima. “Thanks for walking me. See you around!”

“Of course.” He nodded but made no move to leave.

Your smile wavered. Was he waiting for you to enter your house safely? If he didn’t seem so innocent, it would’ve been incredibly creepy.

“Err,” you drawled, ruffling through your bag. “I’m just finding my keys. You can leave now; I don’t want to keep you any longer!”

“It’s not a problem.”

Your right eye twitched. What did he think could possibly happen in the time it took you to unlock your door and enter? While it was sweet—in a very suffocating way—it wasn’t what you wanted. After the bad date that was disappointing for the both of you, you expected him to eat his food and dip. Not see you all the way into your house despite the fact that, deep down, he’d much rather be in his own home. It was domineeringly kind.

Didn’t he understand how stressful this could be for someone? His obliviousness was overbearing, but you supposed you couldn’t blame Ushijima when you didn’t verbalize your discomfort to him.

“Everything okay?” he asked for what felt like the fifth time that night.

You chuckled nervously. “I guess I…can’t find my keys?” Looking at him sheepishly, you scratched the back of your head. “But, my roommates will probably be home soon! Or, they might be here now. I’ll just ring the doorbell when you leave!”

Ushijima blinked. “Why not ring the doorbell now?”

“R-Right,” you stammered, unsure whether you wanted to rip your hair out or cry in frustration. Maybe both would be good. “That’s smart. I can do that.”

He looked at you expectantly.

You winced, bringing your pointer finger to the white button of the doorbell. Before you even had the time to gather the courage to press it, the door swung open suddenly, startling you enough to let out a small yelp.

“Ah—! Iwaizumi!” you cried, eyes wide as you stared face to face with your very confused-looking friend. He glanced between you and Ushijima with a questioning expression, but you rambled on before he could say anything. “Hey there, roomie!” You batted your lashes, pleading with him to play along. “I forgot my keys again.”

Iwaizumi’s face displayed a look of pure confusion and you were certain he must never have gotten any acting awards when he was younger. His expression became even more puzzled when you wiggled your way inside the door, standing snugly next to his side.

After an awkward silence, you continued again, “Well, thanks for walking me Ushijima-san! And thank you for the date. Maybe I’ll see you around.”

If he noticed anything suspicious going on, he didn’t show it. Instead he simply nodded and wished you a goodnight.

Yup, there was definitely no chance of Ushijima wanting to ask you out on a second date. Not that you were complaining.

You shut the door—the door to an apartment that wasn’t even your own, mind you—and let out a sigh of relief. With your eyes closed and your back resting against the wall, you momentarily forgot you were standing in the entrance of Iwaizumi’s living room. That was, until you started feeling his heavy gaze on you.

Gulping at the intensity, you cracked your right eye open ever so slightly. “Yes?” you asked innocently.

“Yes?” repeated Iwaizumi incredulously, voice raised in exasperation. “You want to explain what just happened here?”

You had a sudden interest in your shoes as you shuffled in place. Iwaizumi was your friend and someone you considered yourself semi-close to— Comfortable enough to hang out with regularly and talk with almost every day, but not someone that you confided in with no qualms. And definitely not someone close enough for it to be normal to show up at his place unannounced. You were much closer to his best friend, Oikawa, but that was largely due to him finding out you had a big crush on Iwaizumi a number of months ago and feeling the need to tease you endlessly. Apparently, nothing brought people together like relentless goading.

“Another bad date,” you answered with a noncommittal tone. “A friend set me up with that guy you saw, Ushijima, and the date was so awkward.”

He folded his arms across his chest, pulling his white t-shirt snug around his biceps. You tried not to let your eyes bug out of their sockets at the sight. “And yet you let him bring you home?”

“I couldn’t say no! I tried dropping hints but he just didn’t get it.” You looked up, a sheepish half-smile on your face. “But I was smart enough not to bring him to my apartment. Hence why I came here. Roomie.”

Iwaizumi let out an exasperated half-chuckle, half-sigh as he motioned for you to come further inside. You slipped off your shoes at the doorway and followed him into the living room, taking a seat on the couch next to him. He rested his arm against the headrest of the sofa and you were consciously aware of his hand mere inches behind your head.

“Are your other housemates here?” you asked, curious as to why there wasn’t the usual amount of chatter and rage gaming from inside their respective rooms.

He shook his head. “They’re all back at their hometowns for the weekend.”

“And poor Iwa-chan is home all alone on a Friday night instead of out partying with friends?” you teased, reaching over to pat the top of his head mockingly.

Glaring at you for the nickname, he lightly swatted your hand away. “You’ve been spending too much time with Oikawa. His shittyness is rubbing off on you.” There was the slightest hint of amusement in his voice to let you know he was only joking. “And being home alone is better than being stuck with a bad date.”

“Ouch,” you cried, crossing one leg over the other and sticking your tongue out at him. “Yeah, sure, I would rather have been curled up in my bed than go on that date— But you didn’t have to call me out like that.” You pouted. “At least I got free food, I guess.”

He rolled his eyes with a snort. “If you were uncomfortable, you could’ve called me to come pick you up.”

Despite his gruff voice, there was a look of concern on his face. His eyebrows were furrowed and the corners of his mouth were downturned. Iwaizumi’s offer made you feel warm in the stomach, even if you were sure he was just saying it out of courtesy.

“Or better yet,” he continued in a murmur, “don’t let your friends set you up on dates with guys you barely know, dumbass.”

“Hey! Aren’t you and Oikawa the ones always telling me I need to go out and date more in the first place?” you said, huffing at his insult.

They told you your college years were your prime dating years and you might regret not going out with a variety of people now. When else would you have the free time and the patience to date, anyway? That was part of the reason you agreed to blind dates and set ups, after all. If Iwaizumi was insisting you date around, that most certainly meant he didn’t reciprocate your feelings for him. Meaning, you had to get over him somehow before the hurt could kick in, even if that somehow included less than ideal fraternization.

“I never said that,” he grumbled, shaking his head. “Why would I tell you to go on dates with other people? It was just Oikawa who said you should.”

You blinked in confusion. “But you were there and you nodded in agreement.”

He shifted his body to get a better look at you, a scowl on his face. “I did not. You were drunk and you probably thought my head was moving when it wasn’t.”

“Well, you were drunk too! Maybe your head was moving and you just didn’t know.” The lines between his forehead deepened and you laughed, unable to stop yourself from tapping the wrinkles with your ring finger. “Don’t think too hard; you might hurt your brain.”

“You really have been spending too much time with Shittykawa,” he said with a defeated sigh. “But whatever you think I said back then, it’s probably not what I meant. You shouldn’t date anyone unless you want to.”

The thing was, you did want to date someone. Iwaizumi. You were just under the impression he didn’t want to date you.

You shrugged. “What about you? Have you been dating people you don’t want to?”

He shook his head. “No. I haven’t dated anyone recently,” he admitted, averting his gaze from you for the first time that night. “I actually...am interested in someone, though.”

Your stomach dropped. Oh.

“But I don’t think they like me.”

Trying not to show him the crestfallen expression on your face, you looked down at your lap. You had been mentally preparing yourself to accept that Iwaizumi didn’t have a crush on you like you had on him—you were ready to face the harsh reality—but you were not expecting him to tell you he liked someone else on top of that. That was just a double blow to your gut.

You forced out a laugh, hoping it didn’t sound too strained. “That’s silly. Of course they like you.”

“I didn’t even tell you who it was.”

“Don’t need to,” you said diffidently, fingers toying with a loose thread on the blue sofa. “I already know. There’s no way someone wouldn’t like you back.”

Iwaizumi snorted disdainfully. “I wouldn’t be too sure about that. Them going on dates with other people and telling me about them after seems to be a solid indicator that they don’t.”

You froze, letting go of the string you accidentally pulled from the couch. Now, you wouldn’t say you were an overly optimistic person, but you still couldn’t help but think the situation he described was oddly familiar to yours. There was a large chance he was referring to someone else, but with the way you felt his smoldering gaze on your body, you wondered if maybe, just maybe, he could be talking about you.

“Maybe they think you don’t like them so they’re going on those dates to get rid of their crush on you— But only because they thought you told them to do so! And, honestly, the dates probably aren’t helping at all on getting rid of the crush; it just makes it get even bigger and bigger as they realize they can’t like anyone the same way they like you and now they don’t know what to do,” you babbled, unable to stop the word vomit.

After processing the words that you had just uttered, you slapped your hands over your mouth to shut yourself up. That was a little more than you had originally wanted to say… Okay, a lot more. You winced. You wanted to subtly hint that you were talking about yourself, not be so obvious as to yell it out with a megaphone and have a blinking billboard pointing your way.

Idiot, idiot, idiot.

You could only hope Iwaizumi was oblivious enough to let this whole thing go and assume that you were only speaking hypothetically. But he was smarter than that. You knew it. He may be a little dense when it came to romance, but even he couldn’t be dumb enough to misunderstand your conspicuous slip up.

Your stomach churned as you awaited his response.

“So,” he spoke slowly, keeping his cautious regard on you, “Oikawa was right?”

You blinked. That wasn’t the response you were expecting. But things just didn’t seem to go as planned today, you supposed. “What do you mean?”

“You do like me, then?”

“W-What? When did…” You gaped, trailing off as your throat tightened. “He told you that?”

“A month ago, he told me he thought you might like me,” Iwaizumi admitted, a rosy red darkening the apples of his cheeks. “But that was before you started going on those crazy dates, so I figured he was wrong.”

A cry of indignation escaped your lips as you heard the news. “Seriously?”

He nodded.

“No way!” you sputtered in disbelief. “He found out I liked you months ago— At the beginning of the school year! And then last month, Oikawa told me I should to get over you by going on a bunch of dates.”

Your brows were furrowed and arms folded as you glared into the sky, wishing Oikawa were there so you could yell at him for making a fool of you. Iwaizumi caught your gaze with a disgruntled look of his own.

“What on earth?” you groaned, burying your face in your palms.

“I’ll kick his ass the next time I see him,” Iwaizumi vowed.

“Please,” you muttered, a thousand thoughts racing through your mind.

Oikawa knew you had a crush on Iwaizumi. Why would he tell him behind your back? And was Iwaizumi’s response negative? Is that why Oikawa told you to date to get over him? Trying to understand Oikawa’s thought process was enough to almost give you a headache.

“But, wait,” said Iwaizumi quietly, effectively interrupting your train of thoughts. “Months?”

You peeked at him through the cracks between your fingers. “Huh?”

“You said you liked me for months now? Since the start of this school year?”

The heat rose to your cheeks in embarrassment. “T-That’s not the point—!”

“Because I’ve liked you for a few months now too,” he interrupted before you could deny anything. Your eyes shot open as you stared straight at Iwaizumi, just now noticing the serious expression on his face.

Was this a confession?

“Ever since that night we ditched our friends to stay inside and watch Godzilla instead of going to the party.” He shared a small, slightly sheepish smile with you as he recalled the memory.

In the beginning of the year before classes had started but everyone had already moved into their respective apartments, Oikawa decided everyday of the week leading up to the first day of school would be a good day to get shit-faced drunk. It was fun for the first three days, but by day four you were getting worn out, and by day five, just the thought of consuming one more jello shot made you shudder.

So when Iwaizumi—who you had then only recently realized you had a crush on—suggested you two sneak away to his empty apartment and watch some movies instead, you were more than happy to oblige.

“I thought you looked...cute that night,” Iwaizumi managed, his voice gruff and tentative. “It was funny how you were scared by the movies even though it was hardly even horror.” He snorted at the recollection, hints of a grin playing on his face. “And I may have realized then that I had already started liking you.”

You bit the inside of your lip to keep your face from splitting into a beam. Your eyes were wide open, almost as if you were in a daze and were only dreaming the events of this night had happened. Iwaizumi shoved his hands in his sweatpants’ pockets, ducking his head to hide his delight at this situation.

“You like me too?” you asked breathlessly. There was still a tone of disbelief in your voice.

He nodded. “Have for a while now. But I didn’t tell Oikawa about it until last month. And that’s when he said he thought you liked me back.”

At his words, you visibly relaxed. So Oikawa didn’t blab about your crush on his best friend— Though, in all honesty, maybe if he had, you could’ve had a relationship with him sooner. You leaned your head back against the headrest of the couch with a sigh. “Then if he knew you liked me, why did he tell me to date other people that night we were all out drinking together?”

“To piss me the fuck off.”

You laughed in surprise, not expecting Iwaizumi to sound so furious.

“He probably wanted to get me to disagree with him, that dumbass,” he hissed, a scowl forming on his face. Even with his nose scrunched and forehead crinkled, you thought Iwaizumi was as handsome as ever.

“Maybe Oikawa thought you wouldn’t confess without his help so he wanted to push your buttons and make you jealous by seeing me date other people,” you said, chuckling at the audacity of this situation.

Iwaizumi apparently didn’t share your amusement, since his scowl deepened. “I would’ve confessed without his unwanted help,” he grunted. But you knew he wasn’t too annoyed by his best friend. Oikawa never had any ill-intentions towards the two of you, and you both were aware of that. “I was a little jealous, though,” he admitted with flushed cheeks. “And I may have gotten a bit happier every time you told me afterwards that you didn’t like your date—especially tonight.”

You smiled shyly at him, only mildly embarrassed by the routine you two had picked up. Go on a date (usually prompted by Oikawa), wish your date was Iwaizumi the whole time, go home, message Iwaizumi about your bad date, repeat. But in today’s case, you went to him in person instead of texting.

“But I was dreading that one night you’d message saying your date went well,” he said, hands balled up into fists and gaze downcast. “Or worse— Not message that night at all.”

Your expression turned somber as you realized that while you were casually dating around to try to get over Iwaizumi, he was there watching you go out with other people. A feeling of guilt spread through you as you bowed your head slightly, wishing you had taken the chance to tell him your feelings instead of trying to toss them aside.

“Iwaizumi, I’m so sorry,” you said. “I didn’t even think about how it could be affecting you.”

“Hey, it’s okay.” He placed his closed hand on the top of your head, making you look up at him. He nodded once. “You didn’t know. And Assikawa was the one pushing you to go on dates you didn’t want,” he said wryly, though his tone was more amused than bitter. “But maybe now you don’t have to keep going on those bad dates anymore.”

Your heart skipped a beat at his words. Was he offering—?

“Y’know,” he said, “if you… If we…”

“Went on a date?” you completed, hesitant but hopeful. “With each other, I mean.”

“Yes. With each other.” He held his breath. “What do you think?”

After a beat of silence, your face split into a grin. You practically jumped off the couch in excitement, bouncing towards Iwaizumi to tackle him into a hug. He let out a surprised grunt, but caught you in his arms nonetheless.

“I think you could’ve saved me loads of wasted nights if you had asked a month earlier!” you laughed, burrowing your face into his chest— His very strong, very muscular chest that had no business being this comfortable. “To think all this time I could’ve been going on dates with you instead of random people I end up blocking a day after?”

His right hand rested between your shoulder blades while his left was lightly cupping the back of your head. He chuckled and you felt the vibrations through his thin t-shirt.

“We’ll have plenty of time to make up for it now,” he said, voice warm and inviting. “We can catch up on dates this whole weekend. Or just rewatch all of Godzilla again.”

“That sounds like the perfect date weekend.” The grin on your face never left as you stayed tangled in his arms. “And your roommates aren’t back until Monday, hmm?”

He titled his head down at you to see your expression, the corner of his mouth quirked upward as he smirked. “Yup. They’ll be gone all weekend.”

You two exchanged knowing looks, causing you to wiggle your eyebrows suggestively and make him laugh. His ears turned red and when you pointed it out he got even redder. You smiled at each other as you held him even tighter.

It didn’t matter what you two would be doing this weekend. All you cared about was getting to spend more time with Iwaizumi.

“Then we most definitely have a lot of catching up to do.”

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lazyliars · 4 years ago

Text

/rp

Before I get into it, I want to state that is EXPLICITLY an analysis of the Characters, and is not intended to touch on how the cc’s played them in a meta sense unless specifically stated otherwise.

Also, this is technically a part two to my other post, which took a more in depth look at Techno and Phil’s reactions to Tommy’s death. It’s not necessary when reading this post, but I don’t address their reactions here.

So. The question must be asked.

Are we [the Syndicate] the baddies?

Yes.

The End.

Why are the Syndicate the baddies?

They got damn logo is a wither skull.

The End.

That's not how this works.

Yeah, yeah. You’re right.

The Syndicate's goals as an organization are not inherently bad. They seem to have good intentions behind them, and the focus on the freedom of it's individual group members is important to remember when talking about it; It is not a government. There is no hierarchical power system. No one is forced to do anything against their will, or surrender any of their rights or power to remain a member. It is not a government.

I also want to address Techno and Phil backing Ranboo into a corner – I see them getting a lot of flack for this, but I personally do not think it is relevant to the greater discussion, or necessarily representative of any contradictions within the organization. It was clearly played for laughs, and after they back off they clarify to Ranboo that they won't force him. Then later when Phil and Ranboo are alone, Ranboo feels safe enough to express that he felt like he was pressured into it, and Phil assures him he is allowed to leave whenever he wants; He is not being forced to do anything, and he is not being coerced or blackmailed.

None of the Syndicate members have done any wrongs against each other in the context of the Syndicate, OR gone against any of the Syndicate's core principles.

That, said, holy shit are they the baddies.

Listen, there's trying to telegraph a meaning or message to the audience and then there's having your logo be wither skulls on blackstone. That is straight out of the skit I keep referencing, seriously.

Okay, but, they laughed at it! It was played as a joke, just like the Ranboo thing!

The Ranboo thing was improv, the Syndicate's headquarters were planned – the artistic choices that they made reflect on what role they want the build and the organization inhabiting it to play in the future storylines.

Wither Skulls kind of have some CONNOTATIONS. Techno is an English major, I don't think he chose the most threatening imagery possible on accident, and then joked about the way people would interpret it just to stir the pot. This reads as hugely intentional.

And beyond that, the jokes they make during this part aren't “haha yeah, we look bad but we're actually good!” they're “you can tell by looking at these that we're the good guys wink wink, this is good guy stuff right here :)” It is a joke about how they are definitely not the good guys. This isn't even a case of unreliable narrators, this is one step down from flat out saying the meta intent.

But okay, I hear you, I'm talking about things that haven't happened yet. The Syndicate hasn't used any Withers, they could be an aesthetic choice. Lets look at what they do in practice.

So, they barge into private property, assess Snowchester's right to continue existing based entirely on their own ideals of what Freedom is, and then only once Tubbo assures them that they have no standing leader do they grant the place their approval to, and I gotta stress this part, continue existing.

In my Quackity meta, I already talked about how Government in the context of a M1necraft RP cannot be compared to IRL Governments on a one-to-one scale. They don't serve the same purposes or have the same type of power. What I didn't talk about was Agency in the context of m1necraft governments.

In an irl government, if you are born into one, you can't really leave without committing a massive overhaul on your life, which can be expensive and difficult, if not impossible for many people. Even in a “benevolent” government, the simple physicality of where you were born can prevent you from leaving it easily.

The same hurdles do not exist in the Dream SMP. People who join M1necraft governments choose to. They want to, either at the beginning when they form one, or later on when they join up. So far, no Government has just Sprung Up and forced the current residents of an area to become dependent on them, except maybe the Eggpire, who's status as a government is... shakey.

And even when people want to leave or separate from the government, they have been historically able to do so without any trouble or any effort from said governments to stop them. Jack Manifold emancipated from Manberg. Fundy and Quackity both left to start new nations. In all cases they were allowed to do so without any attempts on the part of the governments to stop them, either through force, or institutions preventing them from doing so.

The most anyone has lost when leaving a government is their house, which is still usually their property anyway, and is something that is easily rebuilt elsewhere and is inconvenient to move anyway.

The only exceptions to this might be Schlatt exiling Wilbur and Tommy - but even then, they weren’t trying to leave, they were trying to get back in, and of course the original L’manberg revolution, where Dream attempted to force L’manberg back into the Dream SMP, which wasn’t even a government at that point in time.

I don’t consider Phil’s house arrest an example of a government forcing someone to stay a citizen - that was treated less as a matter of a citizen wanting to leave the country and more as a threat to national security. Still pretty fucked up, but it’s a different issue.

What I'm saying is, If Tubbo wants to create a government out in the middle of nowhere, threatening no one, forcing no one to join either through force or desperation, and allowing people to join willingly because they want to, then he should be allowed to do that.

The Irony of the Syndicate, a group of people consisting of some of the richest, strongest people on the server, going around and enforcing 'Freedom' that entails no one person having more power than any other, is absurd.

It shows an extreme lack of self-awareness and/or self-righteousness, as they seem to think that they deserve to be the ones who decide what constitutes a government.

Snowchester is a small independent nation - they shouldn’t have to live in fear of being obliterated if they don’t walk on eggshells to meet an arbitrary standard decided by people who’s only authority on the matter COMES FROM THEIR PERSONAL POWER. No one elected them! No one chose them! They were not “approved” by the server at large to enact this kind of law.

The Syndicate are not a government, but they are an unsupervised power structure exerting their ideals on a land that did not ask for them. Like, These people have invented an actual Authoritarian-Anarchist faction. How the hell did they manage this?????

Back on topic.

Tubbo shows them the crater left by his nukes. The reaction is oddly positive – the nukes are fine by the morals of the Syndicate, apparently. I'd argue that they come across as more impressed than anything else; they seem to respect Tubbo for having gotten ahold of “real” power.

(There's a few good memes out there about “We can excuse nuclear weaponry, but we draw the line at Government!”)

So. By the Syndicate's standards: A single person or group of acceptably equal persons with weapons of mass-destruction are only worth “keeping an eye on” because they might provoke other people.

Like, I consider Project Dreamcatcher to be one of, if not the most morally ambiguous thing Tubbo has ever done, largely because it was all on his own initiative. He holds some culpability for The Butcher Army and Phil's house arrest, but they weren't his ideas and he was mostly following Quackity at that point.

And Phil tells Tubbo, IMMEDIATELY AFTER SEEING THE NUCLEAR CRATER:

“Looks like you've reformed a little bit Tubbo, I'm proud.”

And it's fine. Crimes against nature? Fine. A sign of healing in fact!! Tubbo is having a sweeeelll time and he definitely didn't make these nukes specifically in fear of being attacked by these exact people! Tubbo is doing great. Tubbo is doing fine. Tubbo. is. FINE.

Anyway.

I don't think this presentation of the Syndicate was an accident. Looking at the greater lore of SMP right now, after the Egg is done, their list of enemies is slim, and considering that they seem solely invested in taking down governments, that leaves maybe Snowchester, Kinoko Kingdom, and Eret and the greater Dream SMP.

Snowchester has not been shown to be corrupt, evil, or have any intent to go down that route. The most ambiguous thing they've done is, again, is the nukes. Other than that, it's pretty much your average cottagecore snow village.

Kinoko is presented in an even more morally 'good' light, Karl having founded it specifically for his Time-travel library purposes, which are currently being treated by the narrative as a selfless act, if not downright heroic.

Eret is also a fairly 'good' aligned character atm. He's been on that redemption grind since the og betrayal, and doesn't seem keen on backtracking. He's actively tried to leverage his position as king to make things better, and hasn't been quiet about that. He was also 'validated' by Tommy*, a character who has been described both by his allies and enemies as “the hero,” so take that as you will.

What I'm getting at is, all of the current potential enemies for the Syndicate aside from the Egg, are currently being cast as 'good,' and if they were to be attacked, they would undoubtedly have the moral high-ground, unless something drastically changed.

The only potential shakeups I can think of is are a Dream escape and/or a Wilbur revival, both of which could draw the Syndicate's attention and ire, depending on how things go. That said, it's just as likely that either or both of them would join the Syndicate – Dream still has that favor, and Phil and Techno both seemed to think Wilbur would've agreed with their blowing up L'manberg.

Both of those characters are currently **villains – the fact that they're both prime candidates for the Syndicate is a huge indication of the direction it's going to go as the plot moves forward.

((*I know some people are gonna come at me for painting Tommy as the “deciding factor” of what is morally good, so lemme just stop you there. I'm not talking about Tommy somehow having the 'right' to decide who is and isn't good, and definitely not the right to decide who should and shouldn't be king. I'm saying that Tommy, a character who the narrative treats as, if not a good person, then a person who is trying to be good, was in support of Eret, a character who has also been trying to be good.

Eret doesn't gain the moral highground because Tommy said so, he gets it because a character who the narrative treats as trying to do better, acknowledged Eret's earnest attempts at doing the same.

**I'm referring to Wilbur here as a villain because Tommy seemed convinced he would be if he were to be brought back. There is always the possibility that he's wrong.))

So, to summarize this: I read the Syndicate as being intentionally positioned as future antagonists, if not outright villains of a future arc. They are NOT a Government but their goals are contradictory with their means, and it is important to keep in mind that they plan to enforce their own brand of freedom on people who did not grant them either the authority or permission to do so.

So, uh. Can you tell I loved these streams? They were seriously so good. I kept switching between Ranboo and Techno's POV's trying to keep up with everything. I still have to watch Niki's!

All in all, I'm super, super excited for whats coming next, egg stuff, Syndicate stuff, Tommy stuff, all of it.

#dream smp #tubbo #the syndicate #c!techno critical #c!phil critical #dream smp analysis #lazytext

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