#first member spoilers

[haine-kleine]

'the villains were irredeemable insane sadistic terrorists too far gone to deserve to live' and it's just these guys

[nnjthndr]

Joels kind of like a shonen mc in wild life especially the finale, where once he declares you part of his "family" you can't hurt him. Not that you can't try to, everybody except gem and grian tried to kill him many many times, it's just when they do they can barely graze him, hell half the time he's not even aware that they're trying to kill him and even when he is he just shrugs it off (there is something deeply wrong with him)

[bei-b]

Yoon Jeonghan: master of brain games bonus:

[fergus-cousland]

the other Talons seeing lucanis very publicly spare illario and taking note of the new First Talon's walking talking open wound, exposed nerve, physical embodiment of his bared throat. no one tell him he's shown them one way they can Get to him.

[kittyoverlord]

Dang (Jacob) stabbing me in the fucking heart with his lines/character decisions.

This on the back of this incredible moment:

Did not expect Dang to be the character I related to the most, but I'm not mad about it.

[originalartblog]

[ the Murase AU ] (part 1)

(part 2/2)

Chuuya leaving after the Dragon's Head Conflict means that he barely (IF he did) had access to the Arahabaki files (post-DHC gift), and never got to see his parents (executive promotion gift). Ranpo is not gonna stand for his detective skills being questioned, and since he was challenged while deducing Chuuya's past...

[hamable]

Brennan: Blimey me once, shame on you. Blimey me twice, shame on me.

[theresa-draws]

she spent ten years trying to move on from the past, only to have it all come crashing down when his regret found her first

[suffarustuffaru]

so i talked a bit about reinjulisuba on this blog in the past like in this one ask but now ive made a quick and easy diagram summarizing their whole deal <3

[powersandplanetaries]

Thinking about Kristen Applebees, fleeing a hostile home for people who fully accept her but still feeling guilty about not being there to "shield" her younger brothers...

Thinking about Penny Luckstone, with 18 siblings who are all definitely loved but she's still helping her parents run the house and struggling between duty to a family she loves fiercely and pursuing her own dreams...

Thinking about Aelwynn Abernant redirecting her parents' scorn for Adaine, again and again, not always kindly but eventually, finally standing up to her parents when it became clear what they were willing to do to her little sister. "But Father, Adaine's just a baby..."

Idk guys having some real normal thoughts about the role of eldest daughters in Fantasy High.

[hollenka99]

Siffrin is so funny in the loops where he helps all of his friends because he keeps telling himself he's a bad person, manipulating them all into liking him. And all I can think about is

Like buddy, they already liked you before the loops even began. What are you talking about, 'manipulating them into liking you'?

[nydescynt]

Thematic Analysis of Hades II: Why You Can Never Go Home

(At some point I might make a video on this, but for now sharing my thoughts via textpost. Spoilers ahead!)

So the text of the story of Hades and Hades 2 are Zagreus breaking out of the House, and Melinoë breaking in.

But the wild thing (and the reason Hades 2 is much more interesting to me) is that both games actually have almost inverted themes from that text. Zagreus is intent on uniting a household; Melinoë is discovering the home she's fought to return to is rotten to the core.

Zagreus, despite his entire textual goal being to leave his home and family, is narratively & thematically working to bring the family and household together. His mother comes back and is reunited not just with him but her husband, mother, and entire extended family. Achilles and Patrocles, Orpheus and Eurydice, Asterion and Theseus: Hades is a story of people metaphorically coming home and making peace with where they are (Sisyphus, Thanatos, Orpheus). Everyone basically gets a happy ending, credits roll, problems all resolved or en route to be solved. Everyone is home.

(Important to note: we never see a human in the first game. We see shades, and gods, and monsters, and the closest you get to a mortal living thing is the satyrs. This is a story concerned with the realm of the gods.)

In contrast, Melinoë has no home - besides being estranged from her childhood home, she literally lives in a tent. In case the theme was too subtle, presumably.

Now, she has been fighting her entire life to become powerful enough to return home and reclaim her family - that seems Zagreus-adjacent on its face. However, there isn't a home to return to- Hades is in shackles, the rest of her family trapped in time. At this point in Early Access, on both a metatextual & diegetic level she quite literally can neither make it to Mt Olympus or into Zagreus' room - she cannot go home, she cannot meet her family.

Consider the others: Odysseus' presence seems to tie into the idea of a long journey home, but this is an Odysseus who lived and died and now has other (inhuman) priorities. He loves them, but has no interest in reuniting with Penelope and Telemachus at this point. Nemesis dislikes her siblings, and is more concerned with the equal application of "justice" than whether it has any reforming effect. Narcissus and Echo eventually talk and part more amicably, but that's the best that can be said about their relationship.

Hecate refuses to be called Melinoë's mother: she will not distract from the "true" family that Melinoë has no memory of ever meeting.

Instead of Ares and Dionysus (enjoyers of chaos and least affected by the toxicity of the family in Hades 1) we have Hestia and Hephaestaus- a goddess who helped murder her father and a god constantly belittled by his own family. Their tense and frequently bitter interactions with the other Olympians are evocative of the central theme being explored: what if there isn't a home to go back to? What if your family is unforgivable? (What if you want to forgive them anyways? What if you need to?)

This theme is why Arachne is in the game, and Athena is not: likeable, first-helper-of-Zagreus Athena turned Arachne into a spider out of petty anger. How do you reconcile that?

Moros (lovely, kind Moros, who gushes at Odysseus like a fanboy) and his sisters the Fates did horrible things to mortals out of boredom. The same mortals whose bodies you can see stacked up like cordwood in Ephyra, who you repeatedly claim you are fighting to protect from Chronos. Moros can neither confirm nor deny that the current events could have been set in motion by the Fates. How do you reconcile that?

Polyphemus raises sheep. He genuinely loves and cares for them, is protective of them. He also eats them, and is confused when Melinoë implies a contradiction.

How can you love someone and be willing to kill them? For survival? For fleeting satisfaction? For vengeance?

Is Chronos' willingness to eat his children so morally heinous that it makes him worse than every cruelty the gods have wrought? Worse for who?

[yellowvixen]

Rough art, but wanted to show Dr Daria's colour scheme! (From here). Heavily based on her canon colours lol

For context, this is a New Yoke version of Maria who didn't have a version of Shadow at all and survived to adulthood. She's in her late 40s and thinks her relatives (the Chaos Council) are stupid and very much stands against them

[the-carlos-cow-eyes]

Also, RIP Alice, you were my favorite and I loved your relationship with Billy :(

[hello-eeveev]

my opinion on the last hour of e95 is that Liam and Marisha are consistently incredible scene partners. it doesn’t matter if they’re doing romance or irritation or best friendship or intense conflict, they kill it every time. they play off each other so well. their scene chemistry is ridiculous.

[californiannostalgia]

I have verbally shouted out loud every time my ships in the bells hells had a Moment

I have never shipped so hard this is like. unprecedented.