#does it show i learned and then theorized more things as i went

[sp-ud]

So back when "Edge of the World" aired, I made a post noting the main variations of titans we saw Here, so I thought I'd take a look at the new (likely) titan we see in "For the Future".

This guy, BTW. If you don't know what I'm talking about. From when Luz was briefly in the "In Between Realm". They were also upside down this is just a flipped screenshot. They're giving Luz a little wave.

While my 1st instinct is to go "This is the Boiling Isles Titan aka King's Dad's spirit or something!", let's see how that holds up.

So the 1st thing that instantly clocks as "off" to me is the hands. The BI titan is shown to have 5 fingers, while our new guy seems to have the same 3 that King has (and the trapper's disguises also have).

There's also the lack of obvious spikes jutting out from the shoulders or legs, but that could just be due to the low quality and odd lighting. And the lack of wings the BI has could just be due to them being in the water. Plus the obvious lack of a size difference could just be chalked up to "It's his spirit, not the actual guy."

But then, there's this.

In the halls of the Archive House, there are paintings that line the walls that seem to tell the Collectors (both our Collector and the general species) story

And while the closer one seems to be of a titan trapper wearing a skull and an adult collector with our Collector also trying on some titan skulls, I want to focus on the one further back.

Look familiar? It should.

Because it is the exact same, but now complete, mural from King's original home.

Now, at first I didn't notice this until I was literally making this post, but there's something very important in the complete one that was eroded away in the other mural. Down by what we now know to actually be a depiction of King's dad on the right's feet. (Unlike the original assumption that the titan trapper on the left was King's dad)

An egg and another, much smaller titan. Which explains why this mural of what originally appeared to likely be the moment a titan trapper struck down King's dad, appears in the place he was supposed to grow up in.

Because it's supposed to be a mural showing how much King's dad cared for him, how he died protecting his egg. That was (quite literally) the missing piece from the original mural.

But what about the other smaller titan we see here? And I'm assuming it's an actual titan due to the fact it has a drawn lower jaw, unlike the disguises the TT use which always have large scruffs to disguise the fact they're only wearing the top half of a skull.

I think this is the titan we see stuck in the Inbetween Realm, who waves to Luz. This is who might have drawn the mural after King's dad was struck down.

As for why they're in the In Between Realm? Well, what's the (literal) key component that both Luz and Belos were initially missing? Titan Blood. And I think they've been stuck there a while, which would explain why no one was seemingly ever coming for King after he hatched, despite the fact Jean Luc and the other stone guards only were there to stop intruders, not raise him.

But then I remembered that oh yeah, the Collector has a line where he says it was King's dad, aka the BI Titan, who locked him in the In Between Realm.

Unless... unless we have something else wrong, or more accurately, assumed something wrong. Now, while we do have confirmation from crew members the BI titan is King's dad...

But... who's to say the King's dad who died and became the Boiling Isles and King's dad who sealed away the Collector (and seemingly got trapped in the same realm) are the same King's dad?

Yup, I'm saying King has two dads, one who fought off the titan trappers and perished with one last cry to his unhatched son, and one who sacrificed himself to seal away the Collector to hopefully help guarantee his son would grow up safe.

But that does leave one more question. Why is this proposed 2nd dad drawn as barely taller than King's egg? Well aside from "it's an artistic recreation, so maybe they either drew themselves smaller to emphasize how BI Dad was protecting them, or King's egg bigger so it was obviously present", which I believe is partially the case, but I think there might be more explanation for this.

And for why all the drawings of conquered titans show them not wearing clothes, even though the TT wear clothes as a part of their disguises (Which are clearly implied to be believable), and this In Between Titan also seems to have at least some kind of jacket or coat on.

Along with already being noticeably even boney before death, having extra things like more fingers and well-defined claws, and the spikes some of them seem to have grown from their body.

Or how exactly King's parents expected to take care of him in that small place, as once again, the stone guardians clearly had no idea how to actually raise him. The little dude was literally eating bugs.

Getting back to my actual point, I think titans aren't naturally... well. Titan-sized. I think it's something they transform into, likely when threatened by something that they can't take on at their normal size. They grow into these larger, more monstrous forms, which obviously their clothes aren't meant to handle.

This also has the added benefit of making the TT a little less horrible. Because it means that just because the skulls are small enough for them to wear, doesn't mean they're from not fully grown titans, they could be from adult titans who just didn't transform before death.

Alright, I have no idea how to properly end this post so I'm just gonna...

TL:DR; I think the Titan seen in FtF isn't the Boiling Isles Titan (AKA King's Dad), but is the Titan who trapped the Collector (AKA, also King's Dad). Because we have crew confirmation BI is King's dad, and the Collector said King is the kid of the guy who trapped him there, but there's nothing saying these are the same King's Dad.

Oh and I theorize that maybe titans can size-shift.

[ramons-elevator]

Bad mentioned on his stream that all the dead eggs lives impacted how different we treat the eggs on the server and I realized that EVERY egg death changed history on the server and how we treat the eggs.

Juanaflippa- Obviously her second death made everyone very weary with the beds (and the admins bc i believe they made the beds harder to break). But her third death with sweeping edge and how everyone needs to be careful around the eggs with swords.

Tilin - Their death kinda goes hand in Juanaflippa about how NOT TO USE SWORDS around the eggs. But also Charlie went into eggxcile because of Tilins death and that snowballed into Gegg. Also helped with Luzu’s character and how he switched to Arin and with the computer/Code.

Chayanne- Technically chayanne lost their first life to neglect BUT the nightmare Phil, chayanne, and Tallulah had i believe introduced ‘nightmares’. Also it made the admins disable some born in chaos mobs and made Philza even more paranoid about the island than he already was.

Bobby - his death was the first permadeath we had since the trio died. It hurt a lot and made Forever realize that his death could have been prevented. Thus making Forever build the Ninho and make everyone very cautious of everything.

Ramon - same with Chayanne’s were his first death was to a Blaze but his nightmare was significant. It made the admins make solid ground rules about certain things and make sure everyone knows the rules about reinforced bases.

Leo- Her death with whales made everyone realized how fucking beefy and super dangerous the whales are. Also that you shouldnt just AFK anywhere. That you should try to be in a safe place before AFKing.

Dapper - His first death was SUPER significant. It made people realize that the code is learning and adapting. Thus made Bad, Forever, Cellbit, and Etoiles go to Luzus computer and explode it. Which lead to Forever getting pieces of the computer and getting the motivation to try to bargain with it. Which lead to Cellbits betrayal and enderchests getting banned. It also gave the most insane book by Cucurcho which is “Perfect for you or for me?”

Richarlyson- His first day nightmare gave us that the eggs have first day immunity. Then his actual death showed us that uhh fuck bulls and that Mike blames himself for Richas death to this day. Also gave us Imortalyson and kinda Richarlyson’s mindset of ‘fuck it we ball’. All he has ever known is one life.

Trumpet - THE MOST IMPORTANT DEATH ON THE FUCKING SERVER HOLY SHIT. Yes Trumpet died from neglect but his death lead to the Theory Bros. For those who dont know, Bad went to Maxs house to comfort him about Trumpets death and one of the ways he tried to get Maxs mind off of Trumpets death is talk about how weird the island is. Thus Bad and Max theorizing about the island and the rest is history. Also it lead to Max and Bad interacting more and kinda making Max talk to more people around the island.

Tallulah - Her nightmare with Phil and Chayanne has significance as stated above. But her death with the Code is significant because it was the first time Forever saw an egg’s death. It deeply upset him and made him a lot more serious about the eggs. Also again made Philza more paranoid.

Pomme- She hasnt died yet but her nightmare I would say is pretty significant. Kinda with Ramons nightmare, it helped give the players, admins, and audience some more rules on things and what the admins can/cant do. It also made everyone realize “Holy shit theres a weapon that does 50000 damage and will one shot you and destroy your armor” which is terrifying on its own.

Everything is so significant on this fucking island and every egg is extra significant to this island. No death is taken in vain. They truly shaped the island and everything we know about it

[shikai-the-storyteller]

Is that really JuanaFlippa?

Based on everything we know right now, the answer is "no"

What's more likely is that this is a Binary Monster pretending to be JuanaFlippa.

On a meta level, we know the admins of dead QSMP Eggs said they won't reprise their roles, but it's no fun to base lore analysis on meta alone, so here's a lore explanation for my reasoning:

First, and perhaps the most obvious explaination: JuanaFlippa never had cracks in her shell. She died long before the event where all the Eggs got kidnapped and were returned with cracked shells, yet this "JuanaFlippa" had cracks. What's interesting to note here is that during the Election Dinner when the fake Chayanne and Tallulah tried to trick Phil, he immediately pointed out that they didn't have cracks in their shell while the real Chayanne and Tallulah did. Perhaps the imposter was trying to overcompensate for their previous mistake by adding cracks to JuanaFlippa's shell not realizing that she never had them in the first place.

The reason why I specifically say this is a Binary Monster is because of the signs she left:

We've already seen the Binary Monster(s) try to replicate regular non-binary writing before when Etoiles encountered the fake Dapper and fake Tallulah (the book he showed Forever pictured below):

"My Dapper me na name" —> "My name is Dapper"

We know the Codes are constantly evolving and learning, so naturally their writing is getting better too (though we can clearly see 1s and 0s and other errors in "Flippa's" signs despite this).

But what's the Code's motivation in doing this?

In the past, we saw the Code(s) mimic Eggs because they wanted to attack and kill Presidential candidates— but that's a pretty recent development. Remember: before the elections, they were attacking the Eggs (though they also attacked Maximus and Cellbit at one point). The motivations of the Binary Monster(s) has always been unclear, and there's a lot of potential roads we could go down while theorizing, but in the interest of keeping this as relevant to the current discussion as possible, I'll focus on just one:

We have strong evidence to believe that the Binary Monster didn't want Islanders to stay on the island. It kept attacking the Eggs and leaving behind signs that said "Last Warning," strongly implying that it was trying to chase them away.

HOWEVER: shortly before the elections, QSMPGlobal tweeted an image of the Binary Monster above the Federation building.

[ Note: I thought I had this photo saved, but I didn't. I've been scrolling through their media tab for 5 minutes and Twitter crashed, so I'll have to add this photo later. It’s very late and I am so so tired. ]

This is the first time the Federation acknowledged the existence of the Binary Monster, and afterward, it said Islanders wouldn't need to worry about it attacking them. Why would the Federation suddenly acknowledge this physical embodiment of a mistake, an error, on their (supposedly) perfect Island?

The answer? The Federation took control of the Binary Monster. Why else would they suddenly deem it "not a threat"?

We could clearly see the Binary Monster deteriorating over time during the election arc. It looked shabbier and shabbier as time went on during the election arc. Something was clearly wrong with it (perhaps whatever the Federation was doing to control it hurt the Code in some way? Maybe the Federation experimented on it and made their own Binary Monsters?) But I digress-

The next time we see the Binary Monster after the Election ends is on Tazercraft's recent stream this week. Not only does it have a new upgrade (the strange OP sword Cellbit + Etoiles saw records of), it also ignores Richarlyson and opts to take a swing at Pac and Mike instead.

Now here's where things get really weird.

Earlier this week, we also saw the Binary Monster on Etoiles' stream. It didn't attack him, and instead leads him to a sharestone, which teleported him to a portal. He's given this image, then is kicked from the QSMP with the message: "The Nether Awaits."

So what does this have to do with JuanaFlippa?

...Well, that's the question, isn't it?

This is where things start getting murkier. I want to draw our attention to two specific things Flippa said before she left:

"It's not safe out there for me."

"Please keep this a secret."

The Binary Monster has already proven time and time again it's a force to be reckoned with. Why would it need to hide? Is it so that it can get closer to Charlie? (And if so, why? To mimic him? To get information?) I think a likelier answer is that the Binary Monster is trying to hide from the Federation itself.

Perhaps whatever the Federation did to shackle it— whether they experimented on it or copied it or whatever— left it damaged and weak. Or perhaps it isn't damaged at all; it just needs to lay low and needs someone else to do its dirty work for it (like sending Etoiles on a quest to find that strange shield in the Nether).

Unfortunately, a lot of this amounts to speculation because we simply don't have enough information yet. (It's also very very very late for me, so this analysis is purely driven by sleep-deprived madness and love for QSMP lore and JuanaFlippa).

Whatever's going on, we need to be very careful and think carefully about this being's motivations. Like Cellbit said: "Eyes always open."

Anyways, feel free to share your thoughts in the tags or comments or whatever, it's always fun hearing what people think of my analysis posts. You can find other analysis posts in my QSMP Info and QSMP talk tag.

[rockatnothing]

Season three of From has got me screaming, crying and throwing up!! I love it!!

Here's a bunch of random thoughts I have from episode five 🐦‍⬛ ngl I don't remember any character names so forgive that please lol

I'm theorizing that Fatima is being turned into one of the monsters. She was eating rot and was drinking Nicky's blood. Plus, she couldn't get into the colony house in a previous ep. I'm thinking the eating rot might reflect whatever happened inside the monsters to make their internal organs dry up. Honestly, I think all of the monsters were at some point human and then got turned. I think there was a mass turning sometime in the 60s because of the monsters based on their costume design. Perhaps they figured out how to kill all their monsters but as a trade off they got turned. The life Fatima could be holding is the birth of a new monstrosity.

The town and everything feels like an escape room to me. There are rules the world follows and things get more intense when the people find something new. Like with the phone/radio. There was a man in S1 Jim talked to and now we're talking to Thomas. If all of this was meant to destroy the people then why have someone warn them about Tabitha digging or returning. This world works in a specific way where there are ways to solve the horrible mysteries and active various entities helping the people.

Which reminds me of the whole thing with Tabitha and Victor's mom. It feels crazy how deliberate the town picks people. Plus that Tabatha isn't the only one that has had visions! I think all of the characters who hallucinate fit into roles. Like the town needs someone to see the kids, the symbol or the dried up woman in colony.

Who is the dried up woman??? Is she a ghost like the other dead we've seen or like Boyd has seen? She doesn't feel the same because she looks immediately scarier than the other dead. Maybe she has different motives or a different purpose narratively.

I'm glad Victor is talking to people about the past and thank god it's Sara who can help put puzzle pieces together.

I want a big reunion with Victor, Jade and Tabitha. I like their dynamic and want them to talk to Boyd because I feel like they'll solve some shit. I do kinda love the lack of communication tho. It makes things tense and you kinda know these plot hound characters WILL argue regardless.

I'm going to go crazy when Victor sees his Dad. I feel like the writers might make me cry again lol.

It was so funny seeing Kristi and Kenny have a heart to heart, then cut to a wide showing Jade just off screen. It brought a fun sleep over energy to it. Especially when jade went fuck it, wanna hear some weird shit?

In season 2 I found Randall annoying and a good antagonist. Then, as he got isolated and cicada-d I started sympathizing for him. Yeah he was a dick, but like damn he has nobody in hell. Then seeing him get picked out by the monsters and getting left alive on the ambulance really made me feel for him. I can't wait to see if he'll call out Boyd for leaving him or really how either character will react in episode 6. I hope Randall lives because it'll be a lot more interesting if he does and I want to see more of him.

I want to see Marielle and Kristi be sweet together. I love my sapphics 💚💚💚 I do like how Marielle is proving herself as a nurse and her caring for Fatima is helping her feel grounded. If something goes wrong with Fatima and the baby then I feel like it'll be a big blow for Marielle emotionally.

Julie and Ethan deserve so much better. Their dad, Jim, is obsessed with the mystery and can't pull his head out of his ass to be there for his kids. Plus I bet he's going to be super protective over Tabitha now she's back. Like let your wife be the plot hound and learn your lesson you need to protect the kids you still have. I just feel bad Julie and Ethan are thinking about what will happen when their parents are gone. It sucks.

I want to hug Donna; she is being pushed beyond her limit.

For a sec I thought Donna recognized the new cop character when the cop ran in. But it could also be a Holy shit more shit to deal with kind of reaction.

I bet the cop character has some sort of connection to one of the main characters. Like all of the new characters from season 2 ended up playing a significant role. This cop has to bring something. If not I hope the cop and Tabitha have an interesting relationship since they entered together.

Tabitha can find someone better than Jim and that better person is bisexuality

I like how before they kill minor characters they have tended to be present in episodes prior to their death. Like Nicky's death wasn't on the same level of emotional devastation as Tian Chen dying. But Nicky still felt like a real person in this world who died and not just the red shirt of the ep. The writers are doing an amazing job and I hope that keeps up.

[marshmallowprotection]

Any hcs of Saeyoung and his days trained by the agency? I saw some pretty messed up ones and it made me tear up a bit remembering that he was just a KID

Saeyoung's time in the agency is far from joyful. It is the worst experience of his life because he sold his autonomy away for the chance to keep his brother safe, and it was for nothing in the end because Rika and V didn't keep their promise.

There isn't a lot of concrete evidence as to everything he went through during his time in the agency, and due to how much he pointedly jokes about his experiences to cope, it's hard to tell the truth from the lie he put in to make you doubt the validity of what actually happened.

So, if anything, I think it's important to point out that the agency did send him to California to study computer science. He went by a solid alias during his time there, Chilyoung Choi, and this is revealed in the diary Rika wrote for the Special Believer box. He went missing before the graduation ceremony, and the newspaper clipping Rika had was proof the agency wiped all the data of him being there which made a lot of students question if he was even there or not.

It seemed like his existence was a question meant for a scary story online about how someone never existed at your school but you all collectively remember this person for some reason. So, imagine that, Saeyoung is no older than fourteen or fifteen, and he's in America, no choice but to learn English and other languages as fast as possible to acclimate and not be suspicious, and he has to remain out of sight at all times as not to make a lasting impression on others, but be good enough to ace all his classes without fail.

He doesn't even get to enjoy the experience of being in school or making friends in school. Sure, it's implied he did speak to others sometimes, but that... that isn't a fun experience. I think that had to be hard on him, because Saeyoung loves to learn and if his life wasn't cruel, he would stayed in college to learn as much as he could for as long as he could. It was another slap in the face that he couldn't live a free life, but maybe, just maybe, Saeran would be able to experience a life like that.

It's a note of contention between Seven and Vanderwood when Seven slacks off. He procrastinates doing much of his work, and I think he does that for a reason. Most of the work he's doing is dirty work that wealthy people want to pay off the agency to take care of so they don't have to worry about getting their hands filthy. That means the work he's doing in the field and through cyberspace aren’t things he’s morally okay with.

After all, if you're going to pay an agency to take care of something for you, you are not a good person, and even if you are, what you're asking for from the agency is more likely than not illegal and would be considered taboo or unforgivable in the public world 9/10 times. For a long time, I always theorized that Saejoong Choi was amongst those who paid the agency, and hot damn, I was proven correct in the RAE. That goes to show how dirty and underhanded the agency is when it comes to work.

Anything for the bottom dollar.

Anything for greed.

Part of the reason why he avoids doing his work until the last minute has to do with the kind of work he's doing. I feel like if his target is innocent and he doesn't want to do what the agency wants him to do, he puts it off as much as humanly possible and tries to find other ways to take care of the problem first.

If that doesn't work, the only reason why he procrastinates is because he doesn't want to go through with doing what he has to do. In the end, he doesn't have a choice, and neither does Vanderwood, they’ve got guns at their heads and that’s why Vanderwood doesn’t fucking ever mince his words and tells him to get over himself and DO IT. He does it, and he long lost the reasoning to tell himself to think about the morality of the situation.

It'll happen to Saeyoung eventually, too.

But, as much as Vanderwood thinks of saving his own ass first, we all know that he covers for Seven, too. As much as he reasonably can in a situation, anyway, doesn't make Vanderwood the best person, but I do think his soft spot for Seven is important because it shows a good reason why some people soften to Vanderwood in the end. He has a good heart underneath everything, and even if he has methods to do things that most people don't agree with, he still wants to look after his brat.

Seven doesn't want to hurt other people who don't deserve it. But, he doesn't have much of a choice given the fact he sold his life away for his brother. He doesn't regret that choice, but he has to live with it in ways he never imagined when he made that deal as a kid. Ways that haunt him every day, even after the agency is dismantled from every angle imaginable.

Now, I think most people are well aware of the fact that Seven has had missions where he has to dress up to get close to his target. There are a multitude of reasons why an agent would have to dress up, and sure, not all of those reasons are horrible, sometimes you need to wear a tuxedo to get into a party. You have to look the part otherwise you're going to stick out like a sore thumb.

But, I don’t think most people who see him dress up think about the implication of his words. This is a snippet from his Diary that you can look at in the RFA box. Saeyoung has been a member of the agency since he was a teenager, and it doesn't blow past me for a second to think about the fact that they'd have him dress up to fill a role to get their targets to drop their guard long enough for the kill.

Saeyoung dressed up as a maid because there was a "maid fanatic." I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't like the phrasing of those words and I never have. There is some creep at the event he attended and the only way he could get close to this creep was by dressing up as a maid to get this guy to look at him. They used the fact that he's a scrawny teenager / young adult to their benefit, knowing that if he is there playing a helpless damsel, their targets will eat it up.

The amount of sexual harassment and WORSE that Saeyoung has experienced is something I don't think he's even begun to unravel. I do think as well that the agency giving him the opportunity to don a new persona on missions also helped him explore his gender identity and fluidity. He feels comfortable as a woman when he's the one who has a say in his look, and while no Saeyoung fan agrees on what label he's comfortable with, nonbinary, genderfluid, trans, or a cis guy who simply loves to crossdress or do drag—it's an interesting to see how we all view his exploration of gender.

I personally think he's genderfluid, and he doesn’t mind whatever pronouns you use for him, but if you deviate from using he/him as your default, God there’s a look of euphoria on his face the likes of which you have never seen before. “Pretty girl” and “Good boy” hit the same for him but the former really makes his eyes sparkle. My headcanon, of course.

Though, I think sometimes he has a complicated relationship with his identity because his self-discovery happened not because he decided to dress up and learn more about himself, but because the agency told him he had no choice but to dress up. He doesn't want his experience in the agency to taint what he sees when he dresses up, which is why I think he does what he does in the chat room to receive compliments now and again from the other members. He ends up fishing for compliments because he wants them to come from a genuine place, not from some creep he has to get rid of for work. 

I think it'll be better for him once he's out of the agency and he can explore his identity comfortably, and his MC can play a role in helping him feel validated in his sense of self, regardless of how you headcanon him. Because, more than anything, I think he deserves to have an experience that makes him feel good when he dresses up, allowing him to overcome the damage the agency did to him and embracing that he can identify and express himself anyway he wants to and nobody can take that from him. 

Most people are aware of the warehouse phone call. He spent days in a warehouse behind enemy fire and the only consolation he won out of that pain was the Honey Buddha Chips they paid him off with for the "trouble". He spent those days thinking he was going to die within an instant, one wrong move and he's dead, and that's one of the hard traumatic events he's gone through that he hasn't unraveled the way he needs to. 

I cannot even begin to imagine how agonizing it was to sit there, no food or water, knowing that if he made a single sound, they would kill him without remorse. 

He isn't just a desk agent who hacks his way into what they tell him to. If they tell him to go out into the field, he has to and that's that. He doesn't have a say in the matter.

He's mentioned visiting Antarctica and I believe a few island nations before. Again, you can't tell for certain just how much he's joking and how much of the truth he's telling you, so you have to take it with the smallest grain of salt and work out the realism. But, it's clear to me in my mind that he's had to travel to places just to take care of a mission and those missions put his life at risk.

He's trained not to defend himself but to attack first. He doesn't keep guns in his bunker but he knows how to use one. He knows best how to defend himself in a fight, considering that the car he used to take you with him was bullet proof, and that's not something you do in the average life. You don't just get a bulletproof car for no reason. You get it because you're scared for your life.

I make it abundantly clear in most of the posts I write about him to remind people just how paranoid of a person he is. It's not healthy, not in the slightest, but if you understand where he's coming from, it makes sense why he reacts the way he does. Saeyoung is afraid of dying and he’s right to be afraid. Not only does he need to be scared of his father and how fast he could be erased, he has to be afraid of all of the people he has pissed off during his time in the agency. He is not short on enemies.

Plenty of people don't like him and that's one of the reasons why he was afraid to let anybody get close to him. It's not that he's afraid of letting himself be loved, although, that is something he does have to learn how to accept, it's more so he's afraid of people being tortured because they love him. Bad people will exploit your weaknesses and if you own those weaknesses close to your heart where anyone can see it, they will know how to hurt you. 

Honestly, there are a lot of things he went through during his time in the agency, things that I don't think will ever be able to account for because it's going to take him a long time to open up about what happened to him. He always puts the needs of others before himself. He's going to get better about that in the future, but you're going to have to be gentle with him as he begins to unravel all of the things they made him do to survive. He's not out of the water yet but at least he's willing to trust his partner with his heavy heart. 

[ecargmura]

Pokemon Horizons Episode 54 Review - Exceedingly Suspicious

To be honest, when it comes to Horizons episodes, I really like episodes like this where it builds upcoming plot points for the story. Not only can I see Spinel, but I just love learning more about Horizons’ story. Man, having a story-driven Pokemon anime really does wonders for me. It gets me as invested as the characters. There are three sides to this episode: the kids, Friede and the Explorers and all tie in very well.

For the kids, it’s more focused on Ann as she reunites with them. She learns about Terapagos and even aspires to challenge the Pokemon League. I honestly love the friendship she has with Liko; she even befriends Roy and Dot too! They both encourage each other in a way. Liko’s stories about traveling aspired her to go to Paldea. Ann was the one who told Liko that the decision to make a big step forward was her Pokemon. This encourages Liko to believe that Terapagos was the one taking them to Rakua and not the other way around. Their friendship is so wholesome. I don’t get why people have this ridiculous theory that she’s a spy for the Explorers or is going to betray Liko. I think the cutest thing about the kids is that they all have their Pokemon outside of their balls. Yes, even large sized Kilowattrel is out and about too. All four of them have two Pokemon each, so it’s probably easier on the animators to give them distinct personalities and more hilarious interactions like Ann’s poor Dewott running away from Tinkatink because she wanted to smash its scalchops.

For Friede’s side of the story in this episode, I think it’s the highlight as he’s digging into more information about Terapagos from asking Liko and Roy about the pink haze that appears whenever a Hero Pokemon shows its memories to Friede going back to the company he used to work for. Remember back in Episode 18 where it was stated that he quit his job and was just idling on about before forming the Rising Volt Tacklers with Orla and Ludlow? Well, we finally get to see what company he worked for before quitting. I really like that there is more Friede backstory included in this episode! Friede used to work for a company called Exceed and it harbors a mysterious crystal called the Eternal Blessing—also known as the Rakurium.

Maybe it’s me, but there’s something a bit suspicious about that company. Friede’s former boss Crave says that he’s ordered to hold onto it and it’s an order he cannot disobey. From who, I wonder? There’s also the fact that Spinel snuck in with ease and even eavesdropped in on Friede and his junior researcher Yanga’s conversation. When Friede went to the basement floor to find the Rakurium, he was attacked by three security Pokemon despite having ID and permission from Crave. That’s really suspicious, isn't it? Also, the fact that Spinel took the item and that Zirc and Onia were spying on him shows that he has some motive that doesn’t follow the Explorers.

And speaking of the Explorers, a huge reveal has happened. Gibeon is finally shown and he’s revealed to be Amethio’s grandfather! I wonder if he’s his actual grandfather, like one of his parents’ father or a grandfather from way back who happened to live a long time. Since he knows who Lucius is and Lucius has descendants of his own, one of them being a grandmother, I’m assuming that he’s his great-great-great-great grandfather; I’m sure Amethio says grandfather because he’s technically his grandpa and people normally don’t really say “great-grandpa” or such, right? Correct me if I'm wrong. Amethio also mentions having a father and it’s implied that his father took a path different from Amethio and Gibeon that made him scorn him when mentioned. Given the suspicious nature of Exceed and how Crave got his hands on the Rakurium, I theorize that Crave could be Amethio’s father and Gibeon’s son-in-law. There should be a reason why half of Amethio’s hair is black, right?

According to Orla in this episode, the Brave Olivine is halfway complete! She’s focusing on upgrading it, so who knows how long that’ll take. Given that each chapter seems to take about 24-25 episodes, I’m safe to assume that the third chapter will end somewhere in Episode 70 or so. I honestly can’t wait to see what the rest of the arc has in store because I’m really enjoying this arc! I also really like how calm this episode is in a way. What are your thoughts on the big reveals and plot progression?

[reineydraws]

Hello, I am the anon who theorized about Zoro's background. Now I'm thinking about the rest of the strawhats! But I understand if this is outside of your interests, since most of your op art is about akataka family

Today I got Sanji. (I expect him to be really good at figure skating, considering his fighting style!).

Childhood: Judge decided the boys would go into hockey and Reiju into figure skating. Sanji, however, did not perform well thanks to his father "teaching style". He actually favored figure skating and would practice it with his mom - Sora being a retired athlete. The rest of his family reacted badly to him liking a "girly" sport, but Reiju trained with him in secret.

Teen: under the guidance of Zeff, Sanji learns to love hockey. However, he started denying any love for figure skating after leaving his birth family. The rest of his brother all went into different winter sports

I imagine the pirates suffer a heavy loss, and everyone goes into specialized training (the time skip, if you will).

There comes the Kamabakka, which I imagine is an organized group of gender non-conforming people who are either:

A) Figure skaters

B) Hockey players with strong figure skating backgrounds

After training with them, his skating style gains much more speed (sky walking)

hello again anon!!! i am always interested in strawhat content haha, and zosan was actually my entering point (i just ended up latching hard onto akataka lol) so im totally happy to talk about this!

(btw this is anon's prev ask about zoro's bg in the op hockey au.)

i actually love the idea that sanji struggles with the gender stereotypes of it all, and how he starts with loving figure skating but ends up getting into hockey anyways! and i love the B option for the kamabakka!!! sanji learning to skate so fast it's like he's walking on the sky!!! 🤩 also the idea that they might do a drag-on-ice show... love.

and now im just thinking about a pirates team for-charity show put on with the help of the cross guild, where mihawk performs, but also gets zoro to do something and zoro finds out sanji also used to do figure skating and they end up doing a pairs thing together. also, sanji in a dress and figure skates... 💘

re: the "heavy loss" i've said before that ace probably ends up suffering a career-ending something bc of shitty ref akainu during a pirates vs whitebeards game, so i suppose i'm imagining less of a specialized training, and more of like an existential "what does this mean for our careers" sort of thing for the players, and the guilt they must feel.

and then rayleigh (or maybe kuma? who can be a sports counselor? who perhaps had trouble with some higher-ups trying to manipulate him into falsifying some health records so some players can keeo going even tho it wasn't recommended? idk) encourages them on the off-season to seek something else besides just hockey training, and luff goes with rayleigh, zoro ends up moving back in with his dad (mihawk) for the summer, and sanji discovers the kamabakka, etc etc etc.

but ye, love the food for thought! thanks for the ask!!!

[ariaste]

Hello hello! If it’s all right with you, I would like to vent for a moment: Back in the day, I used to be really into BBC Sherlock. I know it was bad, but it was “Be Gay (solve) Crimes” and I couldn’t resit. One of my favorite parts of the fandom was reading fan metas. I enjoyed reading your ridiculously long meta! I am not very clever and I enjoy reading people noticing things that I can’t. It’s fun watching people passionately pick up clues and put them together.

I don’t think I’m the only one getting superwholock flashbacks lately. Sherlock also tried an unreliable narrator in S4 and it was an absolute shit show. People thought thought the finale was fake, it was so bad. TBH, the entire show was a dumpster fire that thought it was more clever than it was. Moffat was a good writer for single episodes for DW, but a garbage show runner. And they called us crazy for picking up what they were putting down.

But Good Omens gives me a spark of hope. It is unashamedly queer, fun, drinks its respecting women juice, and, unlike moffatiss, I think Neil and the crew may actually be clever enough to pull something big off. I adore the Discworld series and Sir Terry, and I have faith Neil will to do right by him.

Good Omens is restoring my faith in nerdy queer fiction and reminding me why I love fandom so much. Please keep up the crackhead theories. I love them 💕

Thank you, that's very kind!

(Ended up writing a very long reply about the response to my essay and also about queerness in media. Idk why i am writing such long posts these days SORRY LOL. Anyway I'm putting it all beneath the cut so I can tag it without clogging people's dash or the tag pages)

It does make me sigh a little when I see people scornfully comparing my long essay to The Johnlock Conspiracy or saying that they're having Sherlock flashbacks, because the both the contexts of the shows and the methodology of the theorizing are VERY different. To my mind, a more direct comparison of methodology would be the Gravity Falls fandom's "Stan Has A Secret Twin" theory. Writers and showrunners DO like being sneaky and clever from time to time, and many of them are much better at it than Moffat is.

But whether or not my theory is right or not is... kind of irrelevant to me? I wasn't out to force anyone to agree with me, AND writing it was a really fun way to spend a weekend, AND I'm proud of the work I did and the story I told, AND it felt good to have a satisfying workout at the Brain Gym. So even if I'm proven utterly and completely wrong, I won't feel like I wasted my time. :)

Good Omens is a great show, and I am SO HAPPY to see it (and other shows!) embracing queerness, sharing the fans' enthusiasm for the story, and honoring and respecting the fans' love rather than punishing them for it. As more and more time goes on, I think we're going to see more and more shows like that, because some of the people who grew up reading tumblr discourse are going to be showrunners themselves one day, and they'll have learned serious lessons about what it feels like when the audience is met with love rather than disgust and disdain. In fact, we're ALREADY seeing more shows like that than we had 10 years ago! There is so much canonical queerness on-screen these days that the me of 10-15 years ago is ASTONISHED and feels wealthy beyond counting. Of course, there is so much further to go, but man... when i was a kid, we had to walk uphill in the snow both ways just to see two dudes making sustained emotional eye contact, and we were grateful for it. (Jokes but also.... kind of real tho)

We've seen the exact same thing happen in scifi/fantasy publishing in the last seven or eight years, too! (Went off on a long tangent about Queerness In Media from an insider perspective, continuing below a cut so I don't clutter everyone's dash)

Even as recently as 2013--ten years ago--you might not have even been able to get your book published if it was openly gay. Hell, you might not have been able to get an agent to represent it, even. It would have been labeled "unmarketable" and passed over; if it DID get published, the queerness would have been camouflaged and downplayed and hidden in the marketing as much as possible--you wouldn't have known by looking at the cover that it was queer, you wouldn't have been able to tell by reading the back cover that it was queer. In literally 2016, seven years ago, a few months before I got my first book deal, I remember having a conversation with a friend and being very very worried that if I wrote books as queer as I wanted them to be, I would be "pigeonholed" as "ONLY writing Gay Books", that I would be passed over for any of the publisher's marketing budget and publicity efforts, that I would be sidelined and ignored... In 2016, I thought I was facing a choice of writing stories with more "mainstream appeal" OR writing the books I wanted to write and potentially undermining the rest of my career.

That didn't happen, thankfully, because in the next couple years there was this incredible explosion of queer scifi/fantasy. You see, ten to fifteen years ago, a truly stunning percentage of my colleagues -- writers, editors, publicists -- were writing and reading fanfic, and they carried their tastes and story-hungers with them as they grew up and got Real Adult Jobs at publishing companies. And suddenly, as if out of nowhere, a lot of us came of age all at once and there was this absolutely enormous wave of queer SFF that in my opinion has brought us into a new golden age of the genre: The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir, The Chorus of Dragons series by Jenn Lyons, She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker Chan, Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, The Tensorate series by Neon Yang, Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki, The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders, the Birdverse books by RB Lemberg, The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickenson, The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri, Reforged by Seth Haddon, The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson, Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell, The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin -- and these only the ones I could remember off the top of my head in 30 seconds, and I have a flavor of ADHD that makes my brain go blank when people ask me to think of specific examples of things! It is harder for me to think of a SFF book published in the last 7 years that ISN'T queer.

And then almost exactly a year ago, my book A Taste of Gold and Iron came out with THIS COVER:

Which. Is not so much a step forward in openly queer SFF as it is a fucking gauntlet thrown down in challenge. I cannot impress upon you strongly enough how much I would not have gotten this cover 10 years ago, and that's if the book was even accepted for publication in the first place. This cover SCREAMS gay fantasy romance. There is no attempt to hide it or camouflage it. It is advertising exactly what it is, right up front.

I got the absolute privilege and honor of having this cover--and I do consider it an incredible honor--because of the work that all my colleagues put in with their own work. Each queer book that got published wedged the door a little wider for the next one, and then a little wider still for the next one, until finally someone could get their foot in the door and squeeze across the threshold, which opened it a little wider again. So when I look at this image, I don't just see a beautiful cover that I am delighted to have on my books--I see an entire history of slow, steady progress by so many incredible writers who risked damaging their careers just to drag us to a point where a book as gay as this one could get a cover as gay as that one and STILL get the full and enthusiastic support of both the publisher and the audience. And the most incredible honor and the most humbling privilege out of all of this is the fact that the success of this book meant that the door was wedged open another little bit, that I got to contribute in this small way to the efforts of everyone who came before me, so that ones who come after us will find the door flung wide -- or that there's no door left at all to block the way, because we've collectively torn it down.

So yes, @eyona, I think that having your faith restored little by little is a very good thing, and I am delighted that Good Omens is doing that for all of us. And what's even better is that even if Good Omens doesn't play out exactly how we want it to, that's... kind of okay? Because there is always the next one, and at the very very least, Good Omens is wedging the door open further so that the next one can have an easier time of it. We don't have to walk uphill in the snow both ways just to get a moment of emotionally charged eye contact anymore. We don't have to starve anymore, not like we used to back in the bad old days. And that alone is a wonderful thing. :D

[fromtheboundlesssea]

HotD Season 2 Episode 5 Live Watch Thoughts

I feel like if we find out parts of this season was written by AI, I would not be surprised.

Lannister soldiers I can use for edits later. ✌🏻

Ooooo LIONS

Are those men from Tarth?

The actor does a decent job of mimicking season 1 Jaime’s slight tone.

Love how we have Aegon actively seeking and even listening to Alicent’s advice while Aegon instantly silences and ignores her.

“Your father knew this” the man IGNORED them until YOU asked him to, Alicent.

“As you well know.” Yeah, Aemond, why didn’t you stop that.

Aemond, Criston is the only person there to have actually fought Daemon, and actually win.

I like that her children still refer to her as “mother” even in public.

I like that we are blocked from Aemond’s emotion when he is in side profile with the eyepatch.

I wish we had Aemond actually feeling bad about Jaehaerys, because we got nothing of that in the show.

I personally feel they have been avenged and he still does not feel like he has enough to the point where he does not mourn his trueborn nephew.

Are we going to have Corlys call Rhaenyra out like he does in the book? Apparently not he put on the pin.

Did the actor who played Corlys loose weight or are his clothes less bulky?

Here is Lord Commander Westerling? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to have Rhaenyra lean on him rather than this random Kingsguard that has only really shown up as a major-ish character this season.

Are they making up Targaryen offspring? Making up a Targaryen princess? Would this man’s grandmother’s grandmother have even been a princess? They weren’t crowned, what, six generations ago?

Honestly, the Dragonseed stuff was risky anyway, but they are making it sound truly stupid.

Onto Daemon’s A24 movie? Will we see Rhea? Anyone want to bet?

Oh? He’s going to see Viserys?

“You can’t possibly still be angry about this.” HIS SON DIED AND HE HAD MURDERED HIS WIFE! MY DUDE?!?!?!?

Vague Rhea mention at least?

And don’t what? Name Rhaenyra heir or send you away?

Saving Hodor flashbacks tbh

Daemon is truly losing it.

And why is he not blaming Alys? Who is arguably the weirdest person in the keep besides him?

And Simon Strong is so freaking chill.

Is Daemon leaving? Oh? Oh?

Ah. The weirwood tree.

Alys is the most consistently written character and it is so ridiculous.

“She never even wanted it.” She didn’t care to learn either.

“Viserys never wanted it himself” really? He could have thrown his lot with Rhaenys then and not set his claim forward.

Also, not gonna lie, I have never pronounced Alys as *Alice* in my head.

So dragon singing or something is a thing? Why can’t we hear Tom sing in the show? He has a band doesn’t he?

Also, we never knew why Daemon was doing what he was doing last season when he was singing?

Are they going to make up Dragonseed like they did Targaryen family members?

Also, why isn’t the woman dragonkeeper bald too? Wouldn’t bring bald be wise or did Ryan & Co also not like the idea of bald women.

Seasmoke is gorgeous btw.

Ah, so she lost a very loyal Kingsguard for this. Great. I would have ended the search for Dragonseed there tbh. It’s not wise to lose allies.

Corlys, did you ever think that perhaps your bastard kid you have ignored for years would be happy to serve beside you? Wow. You’re as bad as Viserys when it comes to thinking your kids you’ve ignored would be happy to follow your orders.

Addam is so freaking fine.

And Dyanna. Someone theorized that’s where we get Gaemon Palehair with the brothel woman.

Feasts? Ah. It’s the stupid rumors. Love that the woman turned so quickly on Aemond.

“Never while our smallfolk went without.” Ummmmm. He had a whole hunt when there was the possibility of invasion.

Oh? So you want to be feared Rhaenyra? Where was this after your son died? Where was this when you had a chance to take Alicent?

The characterization is so slow.

MEN? Did more happen?

Is the riot when Rhaenyra has King’s Landing? Or was that Green propaganda?

“This becomes you.”

Darksister was a woman’s sword and would work better for a woman.

Why are we getting more Hugh and his family getting all this characterization when you can have Nettles or even give Addam more characterization. You know, someone who was actually loyal to their precious Rhaenyra even when SHE turned on them.

And who cares about the Gullet? Have the Lannisters bring in food from the Reach? Do Ryan & Co not realize the Hightowers are in the Reach?

AEGON WAKES!

I love how relieved Orwyl is about Aegon.

UGH. I DON’T LIKE BODY HORROR STUFF.

Tom still good looking despite the scars.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have Helaena or Alicent to step in?

And F you Aemond. His characterization is becoming so cartoonish and 1-dimensional.

RHAENA

*sigh* so they will replace nettles. Can’t they just have it be Morning instead?

And that baby dragon’s CGI blending into the real background is not great.

And Rhaena holding a dragon toy 😭

That shot of Rhaena is beautiful.

Is Jeyne Arryn actually going to have more to do? Can’t she teach Rhaena about being a lady of a grand keep?

Will they have Rhaena be at fault for Aegon and Viserys being lost?

And so Alyn dies/cuts his hair?

How ironic that Alyn will become lord eventually.

I really do wish Addam had silver hair.

Also, couldn’t people assume they are another Velaryon’s bastards?

Only half-way done and I am still bored.

“I am tired of being protected.” And what about your protection of your son?

*sigh* are they going to allow Helaena to fight too?

Will Rhaenyra still be sorry that Alicent and Helaena were caught in the crosshairs this time when she is the one to do it or no?

Oh, so they are going to have Rhaenyra sending aide to King’s Landing 🙄 Will they turn on her faster when she can’t give them food anymore and SHE is the one to throw lavish parties, or is that going to be Green propaganda as well. Meaning it will be propaganda the Blacks used on the Greens as an uno reverse?

And Alicent sitting beside Aegon. 🥲

“What will he be if he lives?” Alive?

So they do remember the Reach.

Maester Orwyle is the VIP.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” 🥲

Love the hair up look!

Lol Gwayne clocks it. Lol

“You were always his favorite.” Interesting.

Daeron mentioned!

I love the mix of joy and sadness in Alicent’s eyes when she hears about Daeron 😭

Gwayne telling Alicent she did her best! 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 Not denying her faults, but not blaming her entirely. 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

And Criston waiting to leave until she acknowledges him.

Helaena!!!!

The stupid dog 🙄

Also???? I thought the gates would have been closed to the water? Why couldn’t people have left through the water then?

HOW ARE WE STILL AT 26 MINUTES LEFT?!?!?

“The Queens” 🥲

You just got food. And now you’re flinging it.

Oh? Alicent had a cut like Rhaenyra now?

And Larys denying Aegon his pain meds.

I really do wish that Larys wasn’t so obviously a bad guy because this conversation could be viewed as more genuine.

So was Alys blamed for Larys?

Goodwill version of the Tyrion/Jon conversation in season 1 of GoT 😒

So they could get Aemma’s actress back for this?

Honestly, this whole thing feels like an Anime arc where Daemon gets a redemption. Or Daemon going through the Bad Place to get to the Good Place.

Did Alys kill Glover?

I guess so.

Again, instead of Hugh and the other Dragonseed, I would have preferred to spend time focusing on Alyn.

Also hate they didn’t just kill Laenor in season 1. It would have added to Rhaenyra’s character tbh and would have given her an interesting dynamic between herself and her elder 3 children.

He questions them because Daemon is the only one seemingly doing anything after HIS BROTHER WAS MURDERED.

I heard rumors that Mysaria and Rhaenyra would have a romantic plot line and I hope the heck not. Because imagine getting together with the girl whose lookalikes you gave to Daemon to bed.

I think Mysaria is being honest or deceitful to gain Rhaenyra’s favor, which does not do well for the writers because she truly is not a well written character. She is just there and does not actually have any impact unless the story needs it.

My eyes are ROLLING in the back of my head.

Rhaenyra, a woman just told you about her sexual trauma and you start making it sexual.

This is because fans were pissed about Missandei not taking over the bedfellow role of D I am sure of it. And I absolutely hate it. It makes it seem like Rhaenyra is incapable of having adult relationships unless they are parental or sexual/romantic. 🙄

This was, once more a bad episode.

Promo Thoughts

So Jace is changing his opinion now?

Again. The show is just… bad.

[koalaforlife]

Eren Kruger or Eren Jaeger?

This is something that bugged me since the moment I saw Grisha scream "Is this what you wanted, Eren??" (after annihilating the Reiss family). Which Eren was he talking about?

Hear me out.

Eren Kruger was the one that sent Grisha into the walls to retake the founding titan. Eren Kruger was the one that first said "you have to keep moving forward. Even if you die. Even after you die. ...This is the story you started, right?"

And then Eren says the same words when he manipulates Grisha in his memories. Now, I wonder, how does that translate exactly in the scene? What does Grisha see or hear?? Does he hear an unrecognizable voice that dictates things in his head, and attributes it to Eren Kruger? Or does he actually know it's his son's voice? Similarly, what did Kruger think of or hear when he said "If you want to save Mikasa, Armin and everyone else..."? Who really is pulling the strings? We never see confirmation that Eren went as back as Kruger to dictate him that mysterious sentence, the only thing we know is Eren accessed his dad's memories and that's how he knew some things, and after also reading the journals, he knew about Kruger and what happened then. We never see him have a mindblowing moment where he realizes he went back in time to change the course of history, as it is implied happened when he kissed Historia's hand.

Now, the rest of that scene after Grisha killed the Reisses and told Zeke he had to stop Eren pretty much hinted at Eren Jaeger being behind all this, but I really wonder what exactly Grisha saw, and when he became aware that he was tapping into future memories, or rather, he was being shown future memories, and most importantly, when did he know that it was his son doing all this, and how did he learn that? It's something I'd like to know more, how do these glimpses of the future get shown to the Attack Titan users, by who? Eren also got some, as well, right? So who shows them? *cough* ymir? *cough*

And can we really know for sure Grisha meant Eren Jaeger when he said "Is this what you wanted"? I don't know but I find it fun to sort of theorize that it could have been Kruger instead and that he thought he just heard the same words that Kruger had said to him before.

If anyone has more proof against my theory please share, I'm sure I forgot some important details or lines and my theory isn't as strong as I'd like it to be. Like I said, I just found it fun (now, when I randomly remembered that scene lol) how that line could be quite ambiguous.

[stacotto]

*Inhale for four, exhale for four* Alright, let's get into it.

Guess we'll just start at the start, Asticassia is far more wrecked than we could see at the end of episode 20, death count is probably in the scores if not hundreds, and the survivors are basically in a refugee camp. Earth House and Suletta out here doing their best to make everyone comfortable, which automatically makes them the GOAT house. Petra's alive...ish! Mio's President now, for whatever that's worth, Quinharbor is a bombed-out crater, and those slimy Peil crones somehow managed to once again pull the "we didn't know this unethical thing was being done right beneath our noses" card (even if they really didn't know until someone else told them, I wouldn't put it past them to want a piece of that pie). More on them later.

The meeting between Earth House, Guston, and Belmeria is a perfect example of what I like to see in an infodump; nothing is said that characters in the room should already know, everything is news to someone. I really really dig now Suletta handled relaying her nature as a clone, and maybe feeling a little smug that my headcanon that those flashes of Eri's memories of the Vanadis Incident really were a full memory share between the two. And of course, Suletta understanding that there is probably no reasoning with Prospera, but no unnecessary angst beyond that. I like it, it's refreshing. Also hot damn, we've been theorizing about a "Caliban" Gundam for months and this is not what any of us expected but I'm not complaining; it really is thematically appropriate that Prospera's creation would be piloting the machine named after Prospero's servant.

Now to the real spectacle of the episode: The Space Assembly League charging headfirst into something they should know could not possibly end well. To paraphrase what I've been saying about Quiet Zero ever since episode 16; "You may have your guns, but I control all the triggers". You literally cannot fight against it with any conventional weapon. The only way to fight against the QZ Data Storm network is with a Gundam of your own, and Sophie Pulone showed us exactly why even that is a toss-up. The more I think about it, the more I feel we're building up to a reveal that Suletta may have actually inherited her sister's affinity to the Data Storm, it just might need a little push to fully manifest.

Miorine really cannot catch a break here. She may be President, but that pales in comparison to the world falling apart around her. Quinharbor is in ruins. Her father is still in a coma. The League has popular support to dismantle the Group by force. It's really telling that Sarius is the one telling her "Look, I'll take the L on this, you keep the Group together" but she completely refuses to sacrifice anyone else, one of my favorite tropes when done well. It'll be interesting to see what her next move is.

Ah, Elan Ceres Number 5. Curious as to how he went from Ur's cockpit to sneaking around Asticassia but that's neither here nor there; he's finally given up the act (and genuinely apologized to Suletta, that was good) and is joining up with the heroes for the final act, which I appreciate. He says "no Gundam" which does pique my curiosity as to how he's going to contribute - Enhanced Persons are no doubt chosen by the Peil AI for piloting skill, so I doubt that he won't be piloting period - but I do get the distinct feeling that he's going to pay the CEOs and Elan Prime a visit...with bullets.

Welp, guess we know who's piloting the Schwarzette whenever that comes up now; Lauda about to follow in the infamous footsteps of one "Graze" Ein Dalton. I do kinda hope that someone can snap him out of it before it's too late; most likely candidate is probably Petra if she can wake up soon, given that A) He's definitely going to try and kill Miorine, so that knocks her out, B) there's no way he's going to listen to Guel after learning he's the one who killed Vim (even if it was by accident in self-defense), and C) Suletta is still the "Mercurian Wench who ruined everything" in his eyes. If he can't be reasoned with, Guel's probably going to have to kill him, I'll put my chips on that.

We in the endgame now.

[m1st1x]

RUIN Theory! - Candy and Costumes

Spoilers for the RUIN dlc up ahead! I’m gonna be honest—when I saw the RUIN dlc, this is not what I thought I would be theorizing about. This would’ve been last thing I thought of for my bingo sheet! .

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When you’re going down to the deep deep basement, you run into Candy Cadet, which gives you some nice foreshadowing that I was not expecting. I’m realizing I should probably look at the previous games more, because he does appear in Pizzeria Simulator as an animatronic you can buy. Candy Cadet is in pretty good condition though, all things considered. The other animatronics we’ve seen that survived that fire look terrible in comparison (namely the Blob, Burntrap, and the animatronic from the basement, though they all are a bit dubious with their origins). Candy Cadet does look different design-wise though, which puts into question whether we can trust the designs of other animatronics (another example of a changed design is possibly the Blob, who is speculated to be created from Molten Freddy’s remains. Their head being the Funtime Freddy head makes more sense overall, so I’m considering it a retcon moment). That could be good for my previous theory about the animatronic in the basement being CB / Scrap Baby.

Beside that, as you give Candy Cadet more coins, it gives you a story. Here’s the full thing so you can make your personal theories and have more context for my own;

“Now I will tell you a story about a mother and a little boy who lived alone in a cabin in the dark woods. There was a monster in the woods, but the mother caught it and kept it locked in the basement. The monster always made scary noises at night, but the mother would tell the boy not to worry because it could never get out. Then she would sing the boy a lullaby to sleep. One day, the monster stopped growling and instead, listened and learned the lullaby. The next day when the mother went out to find food, the monster sang the lullaby from the basement. The little boy heard the lullaby and opened the door.”

Following that, a loud, warning siren-like noise blares.

Like the other stories, it seems to be a parallel for other events. Specifically, Cassie being lured down to the basement by the “monster.” The real question is who the mother is. My first thought was Mrs. Afton or the Entity trying to stop her from helping the animatronic, but I realized that probably wasn’t the case. Given that it says the monster copied a lullaby, I’d say that the mother adjacent is probably Gregory. Cassie only went down when Gregory left and the monster called her to help in his voice—the going out to get food parallel. Unfortunately, it doesn’t give us much to work on from there. The story is mostly just foreshadowing for what’s going on, warning Cassie not to go down. It does make me wonder though, how does Candy Cadet know all this stuff?

Another thing I noticed is that the animatronic in the basement wears a destroyed lion mascot costume in the “scooper” ending, which reminded me of the white tiger that the mimic uses as a symbol for itself in the books. This is yet another connection to the animatronic in the basement and the mimic, showing the parallel through two large feline characters. There aren’t any other felines that I know of in the franchise, so it isn’t just a coincidence. Lions are often used to symbolize strength, courage, and justice (also royalty, but I can’t see how that would connect to anything). I’m not sure if that has any implications for lore, but it could have something to do with how that animatronic feels or its purpose. Maybe it has some justice it needs to fulfill, for whatever side it’s on.

EDIT: if Gregory is the mother in Candy Cadet’s story, why does it say the mom caught and trapped the monster? Is it because of the supposed earthquake that trapped it? Did he find it and decide to lock in away with the security? But Gregory had said that it had been down there a long time, wouldn’t that make Henry or someone at Fazbear a more likely suspect? What about Vanessa? The nodes do look like rabbits. If so, then why? She’d have to have done it near the beginning of getting hired, but she would’ve been corrupted. I wouldn’t think Glitchtrap (or whoever/whatever it is) would want to leave it down there. If it is William or William adjacent, it would probably want to let it run free. Maybe it’s even a mix of both Gregory and Henry.

EDIT II: I noticed that Candy Cadet says “I am a Candy Cadet” instead of “the Candy Cadet,�� which makes me wonder if there are multiple. It would explain the design discrepancies.

EDIT III: another candidate for the mother is Cassie’s dad. He was a technician who loved Bonnie and collected old Fazbear trinkets. He could’ve possibly locked the animatronic down there.

EDIT IV: if the mother was Mrs. Afton and the boy was Gregory, it could possibly explain why he knew about it. If he went down before and got killed/nearly got killed, then he would be all too aware of the animatronic down there.

[certainenthusiastfan]

The newest helluva boss episode has got a lot of people theorizing what happened between blitz and his twin sister, Barbie wire that has caused barbie to want nothing to do with her brother when she is one of the few people besides loona that he cares about.

Some say he burned down the circus from a solo act gone wrong that killed his parents, made fizzorali lose his limbs and made barbie get addicted to drugs to cope with the loss of her career and family and why blitz is hated.

But I have a different theory of what happened which led to Barbie’s addiction and how blitz came to have many toxic relationships.

To me, it all started with Fizzorali; and the twist, he never lost his limbs to an accident, but gave them up willingly. As we know fizz is a popular clown who was once blitz’s best friend until things went wrong, and I think it happened when he meets mammon the demon king of greed. As his popularity grew it seems mammon found out about fizz and wanted to make him a deal to make him a star, and with blitz and Barbie’s dad cash he would be more than willing to have the circus be run with his star clown with the king of greed banking them.

But as fizz’s popularity grew, so did his own greed and he begins to become snarky with blitz and condescends him for not being good enough, something that burns him inside as that’s what his dad always did. In season 1 episode 2 when octavia was a little girl we saw the robot fizz and blitz was working there still, and what noticed is that he didn’t have his white scars so the accident didn’t happen yet at that point. And since loo loo land existed back then is can imply that cash and fizz signed a contract with mammon to turn the family circus into loo loo land with fizz being the star, while blitz becomes resentful of fizz for not only always stealing the spotlight but also becoming a jerk who thinks he’s better than everyone else and is no longer the sweet kid he was, with fizz starting to taunt him with, “Does anyone love you, Blitzo?”

Which then leads to the second tragedy that eventually leads to the family circus, and the family, ending.

In the past we saw a poster with blitz and barbie as acrobats with their own show called “the amazing imp twins”, showing that barbie wanted blitz to be a star and, besides their mother, was the one who supported him and like blitz was disgusted by what fizz has become since she would have known since childhood as well.

Barbie would be considered the circus’s second star with blitz’s acrobatic abilities getting more recognition, but that wouldn’t enough for their father as fizzorali tells him that he’s cutting him out of the deal and buying out the circus entirely and kicking him and the others out.

Desperate and angry, he would become dependent on barbie, and as he trains her hard every time he eventually comes across a drug that is said to enhance your energy and help perform better; H-8.

Eventually barbie starts to become dependent on the drugs and it starts effecting her performance, and she eventually starts taking more drugs to cope with the stress. It becomes so bad that blitz would try to do solo acts whenever barbie was out of commission, which always ended in a disaster. And at that point he had no idea that cash got his sister addicted to drugs.

Then it all came to a head when one night during a performance, barbie started slipping up in her acrobatic routine and that was when blitz finds out about not only the drug abuse, but also H-8 that their father constantly forced her to take. To say blitz was furious is an understatement as he and Cash get into a altercation and learns that fizz took away the family circus and Cash was making his sister the new cash cow.

As barbie started going haywire from the drugs the people thought it was part of the show and started laughing, making blitz lose it like he did on the sitcom as he remembered how he adopted loona and how scared and alone she was as he blamed himself for not knowing what his sister suffered.

Which leads to blitz giving his dad and fizz the ultimate F you and quitting the circus and disowning his father: he burns it down and finds a gun, pointing it at a flabbergasted cash trying to reason with his enraged son, only for blitz to say in a cold tone, “the O is silent!” And pulls the trigger, making his father his first kill.

Afterwards he takes barbie to rehab in hopes in getting her clean, but she becomes enraged thinking he’s abandoning her and tells him he’s just like their dad and fizzorali and that she put in the hard work for her routines and, ultimately, ruined her career. He was hurt but assumed it’s the drugs making her say those things, but the nurse knew in this situation blitz had to be away from her so she can recover even though what happened to her wasn’t his fault as their father had scarred both his children who have cut ties with the circus.

This also leads to blitz having trust issues as fizzorali betrayed him in the worst way, and his father for what he did to his sister and why he keeps people at arms length as he fears the same thing will happen again, but also believes he will hurt them the same way his father did or fail them like he did barbie.

Which is what’s happening with him and stolas.

What do you guys think?

[theblindinfidel]

Hey! Here are my Photobomb thoughts I posted as a response on Reddit haha!

Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS

Hi! Nice to meetcha! I’m glad you posted this because I’m curious to see what others will say as well!

When I first got into OMORI, I was actually not into any ships outside HeroMari and Sunburn. Sticking to the game and whatnot. It all started when I saw the cutest little meme on Twitter that Shrimp had posted and it featured photobomb. I thought:

“Hmm. I have never thought about this.”

And thus, I went down the rabbit hole and began to really enjoy it, even through watching my friend play the game. I really enjoy the childhood to lovers trope and I can get behind an enemies to lovers trope, though I don’t really see them as enemies.

So we can see the parallels between RW and HS. Sunny depicts a somewhat accurate representation of how his friends were in their childhood- (Aubrey and Kel arguing, Aubrey standing up for what she believes is right regardless of the consequences, Sunny always being regarded as quiet, Kel being goofy and oblivious but still a great friend with good morals, and Hero being the level headed member of the group.)

That being said, I believe there are definitely some truths in how the members perceive each other and their relationships to one another.

I really enjoyed how Aubrey was so worried about him in headspace. Even when his memory was being erased in Sunny’s mind, she would continuously get sad at his absence and grew distraught the longer he was gone. This is, of course, before she forgot him, alongside everyone else. She lamented about how she missed how he’d brush her hair and always gave him positive feedback. From this, it’s clear she cares a great deal about him as her friend.

When we switch into the Faraway segments, we learn she was actually the one to introduce Basil to the rest of the friend group. She grabs his hand and brings him along to introduce him. They are seen in the calendar art to work well together and you learn about them running a lemonade stand together and making fake plant decorations for the treehouse.

He calls Aubrey cute more than once which is neat because it shows he was much more outgoing when he was younger, albeit a little insecure. Now it isn’t specifically a romantic “cute”, but cute nonetheless. He could have been trying to push Sunny to agree or maybe he did like her a little but wanted to support Sunny. When he called her cute at the beach scene, his sprite turned away from her which I thought was a small thing that could be missed. Almost like he was a tad nervous to say it.

Those are all cute little things, but their dynamic is also intriguing.

Something people often miss about Basil is he is actually a relatively mischievous. You can see this from how he plays poker in the flashback, taking pictures of people when they least expect it (like Hero giving Kel some brotherly love), and a general humor in the way he lightly pokes fun but you wouldn’t expect it from him because he’s Basil.

He tends to cheer his friends on and genuinely believes in the best for them. He supports Aubrey’s cause to dye her hair pink which is also sweet.

Basil isn’t an angel, he has his flaws and issues, and he certainly isn’t an UwU flower boy by any regards. He could hold his own, he just doesn’t, he’s more of a pacifist. He DOES get angry and he DOES have moments where he is spiteful. (Bedroom encounter)

Then we have Aubrey. Aubrey in her youth was always nice to Basil and was quick to try and make him feel better about himself and he was receptive to her. It can be assumed or theorized they knew each other for awhile before they met the gang because they were neighbors, separated by a street, and she felt good enough about him to have him meet everyone. Aubrey isn’t the type to drag along some random Joe if she doesn’t feel right about it.

She and Basil both grew up in broken or weird homes and that is something only these two can really understand as opposed to Kel and Sunny (tho later on Sunny will understand the concept.) This is honestly a big deal as a kid because you feel comfortable with people like you. This is more of an emotional thing, a bonding kids don’t usually talk about, only feel. So my idea is they had a pretty solid friendship as kids built on trust and understanding. There was no judgement.

As time went on and the incident happened, Sunny, Basil’s best friend, went incommunicado. Basil, as we know, stayed out and eventually got the photo album back from Sunny even though it was ruined. That had to of hurt really bad. Regardless, he kept it with him and Aubrey eventually found it and BAM, bullying.

Lots of people have wondered why she bullied him so bad over that, but I think there’s a reason and it ties back to their friendship.

Remember when I said a lot of it was trust? That trust was murdered that day she found the album. It was shocking because Basil is Basil, how could he do that? It had to of hurt because she seemed pretty confident he would have at least told her of any anger he harbored. She felt abandoned and angry. Now this doesn’t make what she did right, it was really crappy, but she feels a ton of remorse as shown in the bad ending and to be honest, it takes a lot to apologize to someone when you are in the wrong, in front of friends and a friend’s caregiver at that! This shows she isn’t some demonic force who wants to belittle everyone. Aubrey has a heart, it can be in the wrong place at times and maybe even a little selfish at others, but when she sees she had done something wrong, she is quick to be angry with herself.

In the official art book, she is shown to be crying at the Lake Scene. She didn’t mean to almost kill him, she only wanted to push him away. This of course, parallels Sunny and Mari.

Their dynamic is interesting because Basil is really passive and hides his emotions and tries to stay gentle, although failing at times, and Aubrey being more loud with how she feels and failing when she goes too far. At their core, however, they both care a lot about each other, Basil going as far as trying to talk to her repeatedly while knowing the outcome, and Aubrey breaking down when something terrible DOES end up happening to him. She is shown in the hospital room visiting him which further indicates she really cares and is worried.

Also, big note here. It was Aubrey who recommended to everyone that they stay at Basil’s house the night Sunny has an encounter with him.

To summarize, there is a lot of cuteness and closeness in their friendship. Aubrey and Basil both come from a childhood of turmoil and have the depth to really understand each other in a nonjudgemental way if they wanted to try. The game has shown countless times how much they care for one another, and despite all odds, they end up friends again at the end. (Depending on how you interpret the end, but as far as the themes go, I’d say they do. Basil has been known to forgive quickly, as per the headspace version and pretty much everything else.) She would always stick up for him and would be taken aback by his teases and he’d be flustered and a nervous wreck, but it would be really cute.

They’re both also very nostalgic individuals! (Basil keeping the album, Aubrey then keeping it and returning to the hangout spot often)

In my experience a lot of angsty people take their angst out on the people they’re very close to if they feel they’ve been wronged by then. Hence her reactions to Sunny and Kel as well. She feels alienated in the same way Basil does, as though there is something innately wrong with them and that people won’t like them for them. They go about it differently but I think that would make them more comfortable with one another.

I like the concept of Aubrey having Basil branch out into things that he normally wouldn’t do and Basil just being a gentle person who can help her chill out. I think they’d set each other off or maybe be bad influences on each other, but more so in an innocent way.

I’m more of a timeskip person myself, I don’t think it could happen immediately after canon, but that’s just me.

Sorry for the ramble I’ve been meaning to write all this down anyhow!! Also it’s very late where I’m at so if something doesn’t make sense let me know!

[emblazons]

I feel the same, no offense to theorizers ofc because people are free to theorize and have headcanons. But also it is important to consider what the writers are intending here and recognizing their story bits. I feel like people just kinda go... too over the board with some of their theories/headcanons here and I'm like... it is fine and all to think about those things but are those things really fitting for what the writers are likely intending? I also am not that fan of people saying the Duffers are lying about things, first of all, yeah ofc they're not gonna just gonna openly talk about everything, but the majority of the time what they're saying are not lies, lol. So it's just kinda weird to see people claiming the Duffers are intentionally lying or just outright lying about what they say regarding certain plots and the story choices they made... that just does not make much sense to me. While doing promo and before that ofc the writers are just gonna be vague about certain things, that does not mean they're intentionally lying about the majority of the stuff they say in regards to the story they're telling.

Agreed! Honestly, don't have a single bit of issue with people theorizing and writing out their thoughts for how the story should go to their hearts content, especially knowing I do the same in my own way. It's fun, it keeps you invested, and ST has done a phenomenal job at giving their audience just enough detail to ask questions, while still leaving a ton of room for fan theorizing & artistic expression.

As for people going overboard with thinking their headcanons are what must happen in the show...it was actually my experience with listening to theorists right before Vol II taught me to manage my expectations in a healthy way rather than hold tightly to what I thought should happen (lmao). It was July when I realized that not a single person in this fandom is working with as much information as they'd need to precisely guess what goes on in Matt & Ross' minds...which was confirmed for me when only one theorist of the literal hundreds I read pre Vol II had even 50% of what went down written out correctly when it came to what "The Piggyback" ended up meaning in the actual show.

Tbh, its just that I realized its literally impossible for any one person to know every detail of what will happen—and even if they did get it 100%, it still would have only been an (admittedly educated) guess. That's not to knock theorizing at all; I love it lmao. I just think it becomes less about the show and more about you being right when you think The Duffers are lying to you when your specific hopes aren't what happens, or even saying that Stranger Things suddenly "fell off" because its not done the way you would have written it. It just seems odd to assume that every bit of the story down to the exact details needs to be what you theorize or perceive is "right"—something we knock other sections of the fandom for doing all the time, but that we somehow avoid in ourselves because we (rightfully) managed to catch the queer coding + narrative setup of Byler.

All that to say: in listening to The Duffers, I've never felt "lied to" any differently than I have Noah or Finn saying they "don't know" anything—even if they do know every detail, they wouldn't be able to say that anyway LMAO. The Duffers are sorting through their wants for the story the same way any author does, and what they enjoy might not align with how I would tell the story if it was mine—which is why I've decided to look for the core themes, narratives and arcs for general direction points rather than specifics, personally.

I like learning what inspired The Duffers, what their taste in movies and other art are, and how they've structured their previous plots for hints as to what I might expect to see come S5...but I'm not holding any of my own theories, never-mind anyone else's, with an iron fist. Matt & Ross + the 2000 other people working on ST got me this far enjoying the ride, so I'm gonna do something radical and just. Trust them to get me to the finish line. If its disappointing after its all ended, we'll talk about it...but for now I'm okay lmao.

Thanks for the ask!

[beardedmrbean]

You taking 22 hours to answer that anon is fine. Hell I would be fine if it took 10 years as you had a family matter to attend to

Now another black thing https://x.com/monstereagle91/status/1782124996111847729?s=46

Okay let me use my assassin Yasuke ideas vs the usual modern black characters are written

Actually it came from early access games when they did colonial thus slavery. In ac black flag your first quartermaster is a runaway slave turn pirate named Adewale who you meet when before you escape the doomed treasure fleet

Oh yeah the ship in the game is supposed to be the theorize ship that escape the storm.

Now Adewale enjoyed the pirate life, but as stated that he never had the same joy as the other golden age pirates and during the story he does stumble upon the assassins and templar because of his captain Edward did as well….well more because he stumbled upon a traitorous master assassin and accidentally gave away the West Indies brotherhood bases.

Ugh sorry adhd. But Edward and Adewale had a fallout, Edward eventually stop his foolish chase to become rich after most of his pirates friends did and properly join the brotherhood like Adewale did.

Now there are standalone dlc called freedom cry where Adewale ends up on Saint Domingo and oh boy they NO problem showing the cruelty of slavery as much they could in a 2013 game even in the database. But there was no Templars involved in the running colony. As that did not matter for freedom cry story show that the assassin brotherhood main cause is to fight for the freedom for all humans.

So yes Adwale played the seeds of the Haitian revolution. Though it was established in the psp game ac liberation that the Saint Domingo assassins were radical and François Mackandal was a extremist that took a twisted view on the brotherhood which lead to the 1751 port au prince earthquake

Sorry for the set up, earlier in the game Edward asked Adewale if there was any place he wanted to go back to. Because at the end of the day Edward was to have enough wealth to tell his father in law to piss off.

Who he later learned was a Templar who let his daughter/Edward first wife die from a fever. No wonder Eddy took care of him after going back to Britain

Ah, I feel like I’m a Tolkien lore detour. But Adewale mention he had no place to go back to and the jackdaw for the time being was his home.

Now to Yasuke, it stated that the devs did change his past a bit. Where he was the only survivor on a slave ship where everyone, including his lover, was killed. And in he eventually ends up under Oda and began a samurai apprenticeship

Iirc, he did have his own house and had a servant. So I think it very likely he would have become the first foreign samurai if not for the hojo incident

What I have a nunace approach with him.

But given he was in Japan for 3 years prior to him disappearing from records. I think they are going with a “foreigner who want to protect his new home” as the basic for his desire to unify Japan in red story.

Also him being an unknown factor to the Templars, as Akechi told then to send Yasuke to goa India, for a bit.

And ac like to do parallels, so it very likely the Japanese brotherhood will be fractured just like how Japan went back to civil war and it up naeo and Yasuke busy rebuilt it

But if I was a head writer on red, I wouldn’t Yasuke as a black ™️ character. I would writer an immigrant who want to protect his new home. Of course I would tackle the whole no ganjin law the Tokugawa set up (though I have a HUGE hunch William Adam is going to join or be ally of the brotherhood to go between Japan and other countries)

But I using universal themes, like coming from nowhere, adapting to a new place. Calling it your new home

The issues when modern black ™️ characters is that activists presume that no one else had slavery ancestry, being oppressed or fucked over by the government

I mean just about everyone did, but no one cling onto the past. Or lionizing their og oppressors or what black Americans did why the Dahomey because they have the same skintone

Wait I heard Indians did with the Mughals….but they been fighting against the lionization the Mughals recently

Sorry I just point out how modern writers treat black people like aliens vs humans

I know you're good I still like to be prompt if I can, had to pop out real quick last night so this one is delayed too now, lol.

ya this is gonna confuse people.

story starting Oh yeah the ship in the game is supposed to be the theorize ship that escape the storm.

Kinda how it worked IRL for William Addams

Now Adewale enjoyed the pirate life, but as stated that he never had the same joy as the other golden age pirates and during the story he does stumble upon the assassins and templar because of his captain Edward did as well….well more because he stumbled upon a traitorous master assassin and accidentally gave away the West Indies brotherhood bases.

Oopsie

Ugh sorry adhd. But Edward and Adewale had a fallout, Edward eventually stop his foolish chase to become rich after most of his pirates friends did and properly join the brotherhood like Adewale did.

FMA time, hopefully without Nina and Alexander this time

So yes Adwale played the seeds of the Haitian revolution. Though it was established in the psp game ac liberation that the Saint Domingo assassins were radical and François Mackandal was a extremist that took a twisted view on the brotherhood which lead to the 1751 port au prince earthquake

I need to not do this tired because I saw "François Mackandal" and I was gonna say there's something fishy about him because I thought his last name was Mackerel

Sorry for the set up, earlier in the game Edward asked Adewale if there was any place he wanted to go back to. Because at the end of the day Edward was to have enough wealth to tell his father in law to piss off.

That does not say "Alphonse" I'm dumb, dyslexia and tired reading don't mix so I'll do the rest in the morning, but leave all that so everyone can have a hearty laugh.

But given he was in Japan for 3 years prior to him disappearing from records. I think they are going with a “foreigner who want to protect his new home” as the basic for his desire to unify Japan in red story. Also him being an unknown factor to the Templars, as Akechi told then to send Yasuke to goa India, for a bit. And ac like to do parallels, so it very likely the Japanese brotherhood will be fractured just like how Japan went back to civil war and it up naeo and Yasuke busy rebuilt it

I like this and the stuff before too, nice thing about historical fiction, even with real people, is you can fiddle with details.

But if I was a head writer on red, I wouldn’t Yasuke as a black ™️ character. I would writer an immigrant who want to protect his new home. Of course I would tackle the whole no ganjin law the Tokugawa set up (though I have a HUGE hunch William Adam is going to join or be ally of the brotherhood to go between Japan and other countries) But I using universal themes, like coming from nowhere, adapting to a new place. Calling it your new home

I could see people getting ticked off if he's not tokenized, lot of anti-racists get mad if you don't play to stereotypes for some reason.

The issues when modern black ™️ characters is that activists presume that no one else had slavery ancestry, being oppressed or fucked over by the government I mean just about everyone did, but no one cling onto the past. Or lionizing their og oppressors or what black Americans did why the Dahomey because they have the same skintone Wait I heard Indians did with the Mughals….but they been fighting against the lionization the Mughals recently

Ya pretty much everyone did in one form or another, slavery is a pretty solid historical thing right up till the 1800's when some people decided that should stop.

Sorry I just point out how modern writers treat black people like aliens vs humans

Part of that is concern over being "canceled" for writing just the wrong thing, which is one of the big reasons it's all gotten to where it is now.

And the audience is also berated if they opt to not consume something because the only reason could be that they're racist.

Racism is killing creativity, but not the kind of racism people want to talk about.