#for context: both are used when one eye doesn't need correction

[hillbilly---man]

If you ever feel incompetent at what you do, just think about this optician I talked to today who tried to argue with me that a balance lens and a plano lens are the same thing

Imagine going to school for years to learn about glasses and then being confused over why someone might prefer a lens with a prescription over one without a prescription

[evilfrogcereal29]

ANOTHER NIKTO X READER I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE I WAS GOING WITH THESE SPECIFIC SCENARIOS JUST COME TO MIND DJDHSKS

this is made with a fem!reader in mind, I try to write everything kind of GN, so sorry, but gender is kind of important for this specific piece cause reader's mistaken for a man and doesn't correct anyone to hide their identity

Tw: drinking, swearing, google translated russian, probably a bit ooc Nikto, I make him a lil softer than he probably is.

Nikto x Disguised(?)!fem!reader

- "You're pretty small for a guy"

- you were more than used to that sentence by now, and you never once saught to correct or challenge anyone on it. Who cared? There where more important things than whats in your pants, and it was better that everyone thought you you a man anways.

- You were very private about your identity, you had friends and family back home you didn't want getting wrapped up in this shit. You've seen how petty people can be for just a little bit of revenge.

- you wore a full suit of gear that masked your feminine form, including a helmet with a built in voice changer. (You sounded similar to that of a metro-cop from half-life 2, but with way more clarity)

- You didn't even push the man narrative, everyone just naturally started using he & him for you, unaware of your past or who you really were.

- You were, for the most part, one of the guys. Your file even stated you as male. A serious oversight by the higher-ups.

- So then why was Nikto currently pointing a gun amd looking at a woman in *your* armor?

- *Funny timeskip that i added here because I thought it'd be a bit confusing jumping between these two bullet points*

- You often frequented the showers late at night, it was the only time you could wash yourself uninterrupted by others prying eyes.

- You never realized how often you and Nikto barely evaded seeing eachother. You’d finish, disappear from the showers back to your room, and Nikto would come in, with the same idea of a late shower as you within a few minutes to as soon as 30 seconds after you departed.

- Tonight though, maybe by fate, you both got the idea at the same time, unfortunately for Nikto, you walked just a little faster.

- Nikto almost immediately turned around when he heard the water running, there was no point. Yet there was also frustration, and an overwhelming urge to confront whoever it was. Who the hell was showering at this hour?! He’s never had this problem before, who was deciding to give him problems tonight?

- He cracked the door open, head peeping inside, his eyes widen big at you- whoever you were- in his fellow solider's suit.

- Now it should've occured to someone as intelligent as Nikto that this *was* his fellow solider, but he had known you for a while, and had never suspected anything before, he would've known if you weren't anyone you said you are...right? Had you truely bested Nikto?

- He pulled out his gun right as you seemed to notice him, letting out a yelp. You were a confident 'man' on the battlefield, but now, you were red in the face, caught in a web of lies you didn't even mean to string.

- *Timeskip from earlier ends here :3 there will be more timeskips tho because my ADHD ass LOVES giving context*

- "ублюдок, ты кто? Where is our teammate? What did you do to him?" He growled, cocking his gun and aiming it right at the girl's head.

- Your eyes are wide, as big as half-dollars, and threw your hands up into the air.

- "Nikto its me! Its me!" You plead. Only receiving a sneer and angry grunt

- "You think I'm a stupid man, маленькая девочка?!" He yelled, stepping closer, finger twitching on the trigger, his bloodlust rising.

- The running water is the only thing breaking the terrifying tension in the room, you're mind is racing, how do you get this killer off your back. You needed to prove who you were. Think! Think!

- "Please don't shoot- let me prove it, I can prove it's me Nikto. I-..." You feel your cheeks heating up, god this was fucking embarrassing, and Mr. Emotionless here is the last person you wanted to slip up with. Even if you did prove yourself, he might kill you just because he felt a little angry that you didn't tell him personally. You gulp at that thought.

- Nikto grins under his mask, amused, truely, his gun lowers a bit.

- "Go on." He muses, "tell me something only HE would know." He smirks, thinking about how he's going to lay your body in the shower and watch the blood seep down the drain.

- *Time skip backwards again here, cause I love me some backstory :3*

- Your mind races. You and Nikto weren't 'friends' per se, but you had a past, you had met him right around when he had come out of rehabilitation after his sickening torture. He was worse back then, he would snap on teammates. He snapped on you, pinning you to the wall once, eyes dilated and filled with a primal kind of rage, he pressed down on your neck.

- "Мы сломаем твои кости, как стекло, маленький муравей."

- You had picked up some Russian from being around him and other fluent operators, knowing a decent amount, and in that moment you knew just enough to fear for your life.

- Thankfully Minotaur was in the area, and while he enjoyed watching a good scuffle bewteen two soldiers, he knew very well that this one would end with you dead, breaking up you two with very careful wording and while staying a very far away distance from the still ravenous, blood-thirsty Nikto.

- Surprisingly, you didn't completely avoid him after that, not like you could, the allegiance seemed to love put you two on the same team. Something about the variety of both your skillsets.

- It was true, you had to admit. You and Nikto worked very professionally on the field, quick and easy kills, communicating everything with head & hand gestures instead of talking. It was preferable for the both of you. And always ended with success. So maybe thats why you always ended up near eachother. Still, you always tried to give the Psychotic man the benefit of the doubt. Knowing the story of his past, as told to you by Rodion, you couldn't help but feel a twinge of empathy for the broken man.

- It eventually built up to you having a very personal moment with Nikto.

- You were on a long-term mission, you'd been deployed in Yakutsk, Russia. Yes, one of the coldest fucking places in the entire country. Reaching nearly unalivable conditions- In your opinion- but of course Nikto never complained, he liked the cold after all.

- You had shacked up in an abandoned home on the outskirts of the city for the night. You laid on the one of the dirty mattresses left there by the old tenants, whoever they were.

- You shivered and shook like a rabid animal. Unable to sleep from how cold you were. Even in your full body of armor, it wasn't doing enough. You had those crap emergency blankets but even they, and the addition of the thin poo-stained mattress beneath you, didn't help with the very persistent cold that seemed to seep in through every crack of the home possible.

- You can only assume Nikto is fast asleep, at least, until you hear a soft humming, one that turns into soft singing, its gruff, and deep, but as you continue to listen, you find it rather soothing.

- "Здравствуйте, девочки Здравствуйте, мальчики Смотрите на меня в окно...." He sang, tapping his foot to a beat in his head. It seemed there *were* moments where nikto wasn't being mentally tortured by his own mind. Instead, filled with a melody from childhood.

- You rolled over and saw Nikto sitting criss-cross on the other mattress, his mask was slightly lifted up, but it was too dark to make out anything but the outline of his chin, and there was something in his hand, a bottle of Vodka.

- Now that you found weird, Nikto usually wasn't one to live up to the stereotype, in fact, he barely drank at all. Sure, he did drink lots in his youth, and still did a few lines of coke or toked off the occasional blunt when the offer somehow came up, but he was sworn off alcohol for the most part, especially vodka or anything strong, it gave him extremely awful headaches, he was hangovers bitch.

- You finally sat up after a few minutes, alerting him to your presence, his singing ceased and he pulled his mask back down over his mouth quickly, shooting you a dangerous glare.

- you frowned through your helmet that you kept on, blinking tired, dissapointed eyes at him.

- "Don't stop, I didn't know you could sing like that Nikto... Or that you drank-"

- "Господи, заткнись, сука. ты ничего обо мне не знаешь" he said defensively, you couldn't recognize every word but you recognized every swear, flinching at his vile language, but recognizing the slight slur in his words. A sign of inebriation.

- "Nikto...? You're drunk?" You try to ask, but he follows it up with a quick and defiant 'no' and more swearing. You let him, knowing better than you argue with the bullish man. Let him stop seeing red, than you could keep talking.

- "So.. what about tonight made you finally want to drink, I thought you liked the cold?" You ask, tilting your head.

- "I'm not drinking cause I'm sad." He corrected you coldly, setting the bottle down beside him, "The opposite actually."

- Nikto was...happy drinking? You didn't think normal people did that, but than again Nikto wasn't normal so- you supposed it made sense.

- "Whats the occasion?" You ask after a moment of consideration, and now that you thought about it, it was a bit rude, let the man be happy. occasion or not.

- "Everything is... Quiet tonight. I think we're just happy to be somewhere that feels like home." he says, tapping the side of his head.

- You're happy for him. He deserves moments like these. You find yourself scooting closer, settling down beside him when he doesn't shoo you away.

- "Tell me about your home, Nikto." You ask politely, taking him by surpise, catching him in a moment of vulnerability in his nostalgia and drunk-ness. The usual softness in your real voice, even with the voice changer, was present.

- He goes on to describe his early life to you, albiet, in bit and pieces, it's obvious he's holding back, relinquishing some details while stating others blantly. He also just doesn't remember much. Everything from birth to 5 years old is a blur for him. He just remembers his older brother and mom, and a vague outline of a father figure, but he left before Nikto's 6th birthday, Nikto can't remember his face or the sound of his voice anymore.

- He pointed out the song he was singing earlier, he listened to it often when he was a younger man. It reminded him of his mother and brother, of sitting at the dinnertable eating warm meals as a family whenever they scrounged up enough money to have the luxury of doing so. The laughter and love they shared, even if things around them were lackluster.

- He details early life in the military, his becoming of a spy and his... Eventual Downfall and capture.

- "One job, I got messy... I wasn't looking where I was going I..." He trailed off. He stopped telling his story and you reached a hand out, resting a hand on his shoulder.

- "Its okay. I get it. You don't need to tell me anymore if it hurts." You reassure, seeing the way he tenses under your pitiful touches.

- "I deserved it." He tried to continue, but you interupted him

- "None of that now. Just shut up and think about the now." You scold, noticing the wide eyes stare Nikto gives you.

- No one has ever told him to shut up before. He felt the heat rise in his cheeks underneath his mask, thank god he was wearing one.

- "Sorry." He muttered, and now you both sat there a bit stunned and quiet. The moment you were experiencing together left the both of your heart's racing, wondering a million things about the other.

- You because you had never seen such a soft, apologetic side of Nikto before, a man with no regrets, no empathy. He seemed so... Human?

- And Nikto because he couldn't believed he was being so soft and apologetic with someone. He always had his walls up. His mental fortress guarded with maximum security at all times. But you caught him when the Vodka- 3/4th a bottle of it that he found stashed in a drawer somewhere in the shack- had him weak, and you didn't take advantage of him. Didn't judge or even really cast much pity towards him. He didn't like being pitied. Fucking hated it actually. But here you were, rubbing his shoulder, which wasn't exactly an *unwelcomed* gesture, and sitting in silence with him. The voices were at bay tonight. Right now. It was just him, or whatever was left of Andre.

- "I used to walk 4 miles to school every morning in the freezing cold, and almost got hit by a pickup truck and stolen by a pack of wolves doing it." He suddenly blurted out, the previously warm vibes of the room returning as Nikto casted the past out of his mind. You were right. He was being too emotional, he should focus on the now.

- And right now, the booze brought him back to fonder memories, ones of childhood mischief and near death experiences.

- You looked at him with wide eyes and couldn't help the burst of laughter that followed, something that Nikto didn't find insulting, in fact, he was smiling too, underneath that mask.

- "You think that's funny, just wait til I tell you where I got my first tattoo..." He chuckled with his thick, russian accent.

- You and Nikto shared stories all night. And never once did Nikto question it, like when you told him you took ballet, or when you ripped your prom dress, or even when you told him about your first boyfriend. He shrugged it off. He wasnt exactly as straight as a board either. And the military exposed him to people from all walks of life.

- Of course, Nikto still thought you were a *man* at this point. A very effeminate acting man, but a man none the less.

- *Time skip ends here SORRY IF U HATED THAT SJSHSK*

- But now Nikto's world was flipped on it's head, as you combed through your mind, you find yourself going back to that silly song he sang. Trying to recall the words.

- "Здравствуйте.... дев-вочки.." you started, cringing at your poor pronouncations of the words and shrilly little singing voice.

- Nikto's eyes widen in recognition, all former sneers and snickers long gone. He wasn't joking anymore, and it seemed you weren't either.

- "Здравствуйте, мальчики..." You continued, your cheeks growing impossibly red, "С-Cмотрите на меня в окно.."

- "That's enough. Stop. Stop it." Nikto demanded, aiming his gun right at you again, "how do you know that? That night?"

- "Cause it's me Nikto! I'm a girl!" You exclaimed, getting annoyed yourself. You practically just performed for the bastard, and now he was still trying to shoot you, just like you figured.

- There was a moment of silence. And Nikto stood there, as if needing to process everything that just happened.

- "Put on the helmet." He demands. And you don't defy him, placing your helmet on, the change in your voice is like night and day,

- "I didn't think it mattered this much, I'm sorry." You said genuinely. Your voice deepened to it usual state, confirming your indentity.

- There a few more moments of silence before Nikto coughs, grabbing your attention. He straightens himself. Lowering his gun and putting the safety back on. There's a sense of embarrassment in his movements, he's tense, and avoiding your eye contact.

- "It...it doesn't matter. We'll just shower tomorrow morning." He says and hurries off. Another vulnerable moment with you, what was wrong with him?! He hated himself right now. For having never realized, and for having threatened you.

- Nikto did hold you in high regards, not that he would ever tell you or another soul. He respected your dedication to the work, and after that night in the cabin, a mutual but unspoken trust was formed bewteen the two of you. You never had a moment like it afterwards. Well. Until now.

- You don't dare go after Nikto in that moment, but you want to. It's late, and if you woke everyone else up and made them aware of the situation, only god knows what would happen. So you shower and head off to bed, replaying senarios in your mind, planning what you'd say to Nikto first thing in the morning.

- Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you see it, he beat you to it.

- You were still sleeping when a heavy-handed Knock came to your door, sending you scurrying out of bed for your gear. You reach for your helmet until you hear the voice on the other side.

- "Hey... Its Nikto...let us in, please." He says, his voice gruff and demanding as usual but theres something else there....Pleading? Hoping?

- You freeze, fiddling with your helmet before deciding its not worth it. You quickly move to open the door, making sure noone else is around before ushering Nikto in.

- He takes a moment to look you up and down. You're not wearing any gear now. Just some plaid pajama pants and a white tanktop.

- He sighs, shaking any stray thoughts from his head. "We should talk. About last night." He finally states, and you agree with a simple nod, motioning for him to sit next to you on your bed.

- It feels like last time, except the cards have been flipped, this time, it was your secrets that were being spilled, and Nikto had the questions.

- "Why?" He asked flatly, "why hide your gender?"

- "Why hide your face?" You fire back, rolling your eyes at him like it was obvious, "for privacy, same reason as you, as Krueger. We don't want anyone knowing what we look like, our identities" you said, using another member of the allegiance, Sebastian Krueger, as an example.

- Nikto's eyes dart down in thought, and he nods, "I see."

- Theres more silence, it seems that was a recurring theme between you two, long bouts of silence. Never once did either of you try to force conversation. It came naturally.

- Nikto really appreciated that about you in this moment. It allowed him to get his thoughts straight, arguing with the voices for a bit before he opens his mouth again.

- "No one has to know." He says, like its that simple, and stands up. He starts for the door and you move to follow, a hand on his bicep.

- "Nikto wait- that's it?" You ask, confused, but what did you really expect? Nikto wasn't the type to gossip. If information needed to be gathered and brought back his superiors, he would. But that wasn't what he was asked to do.

- "да, that's it." He said standing the in the doorway with finality.

- He shut the door behind him with a click and you stood there dumbfounded. Did any of that really just happen, or was all of this one big dream you were about to wake from?

- You pinched yourself with a winced and cursed under your breathe. This was reality. Could you really trust Nikto with this secret? Without blackmail? Without shame?

- Apparently, yes. As you would come to find out. In fact, you soon realize that this whole incident only made you and Nikto somehow closer.

- In battles, during tight situations, he was always there. Freeing you from the enemies grasp, carrying you with a bullet wound in your back. He was your personal guard.

- He wasn't being more protective just cause he knew you're a girl, he knew you were deadly. He's seen what you're capable off. No. You come to learn Nikto does this as a display of affection. Subtlety showing his appreciation for keeping his secrets, and in return, he keeps your's, and keeps you alive as well.

- After one particularly long mission, you're walking alongside each other, covered in dirt and grime, heading to the showers as the sun set and everyone heads for bed.

- You two showered together now, of course, broken up by thin curtains. It was a bit intimate, but it was an easier agreement than an already insomnia ridden-Nikto getting up at ungodly hours of the morning to shower.

- As you're walking together you nudge him gently, "good work today. You still fight well for a guy your age." You tease. Nikto knew full well you were hiding a shit eating grin under than helmet of yours, grimacing at you.

- "Yeah, good work to you too... For a girl." He says back venomously, earning him a playful punch.

- "Bastard! Don't be so loud about that!" You scold while whisper-yelling, but Nikto can still hear the smile in your voice. And knows its in jest.

- "It would be a shame if the others knew what a pretty little woman you really were."

- "It would be a shame if the others knew about the smiley face tattoed on your buttcheek."

- Both of your faces are red and concealing mischievous grins. This was you and Nikto's relationship now. Learnings eachothers secrets, and using them to pick on eachother. Playful banter.

- Everyone around base notices what you two are doing...just FUCK already you two... Damn. The tension is killing everyone.

- You and Nikto will probably end up together after a while more of this, its inevitable. You're just unjudgemental enough to deal with his freak, while also being one of the only solider's on base willing to put up with his terrifying, intimidating aura for long periods of time!

- Nikto always kind of liked you, as a man, and even now as a woman. And sharing your secrets only solidified that attraction in his mind. You were his милый, and he would keep you and your secrets safe for as long as he lived.

AHHHH HOLY FUCKING SHIT SORRY IF THE END FEELS RUSHED I TRIED TO CONCLUDE THIS LONG ASS STORY, I DIDN'T REALIZE HOW MUCH YAP I HAD IN ME😳

The song Nikto was humming is Кино - Алюминиевые огурцы, and was inspired by a comment on my post about Russian and Austrian musc left by @weepingmagazinesandwich and once I heard that song I knew I had to use it in a writing piece its just so sweet. The two playlists were made btw I just never publicly posted them (also cause Nikto's list is chronically short, and Krueger's playlist is already almost hours long) so- idk if y'all want those posted but lmk👍 I hope you enjoyed this- whatever you'd call it. Idk what to call the reader in this. Disguised!reader sounds so silly.

I have a sfw agere krueger drabble comin out soon, and I just started writing big chunks of the hubby!gromsko x reader hcs.

[yesimwriting]

Importance

a/n i don't even feel the need to justify my taste in evil men anymore lmao, here's a drabble as i try to figure homelander's 'voice' :))

Summary: Homelander begins to reflect on your sort of friendship when you come over to watch a scary movie.

Warnings/info: me writing for a character for the first time so pls be nice

----

Humanity's connection to fear has always been a subject of fleeting interest to him, a concept that's only occasionally managed to become more than a shift of hormones and heart rate.

Now, though, with your legs pulled beneath you on his couch, body angled towards him, yet eyes still glued to the screen, Homelander can't believe he's never given this kind of adrenaline a second thought.

"You okay?"

The question seems to bring you back, your head turning towards him. "Yeah." What the response lacks in certainty, it makes up for in determination. He can see it in your soft nod, in the way your fingers press into your knees.

The nerves you're doing your very best to hide are so different from your usual demeanor. An investigative journalist who's always running headfirst into danger, who never lets fear of retaliation get in the way of your writing, can't get through a scary movie. It's such a prevalent dichotomy, Homelander has to work at keeping himself neutral, at remaining focused on what's in front of--

"Stop," you mumble, the word far from harsh.

He lifts a shoulder in a partial shrug without removing his arm from the back of the couch. "Stop what?"

You tilt your chin downwards, your lips pulled into the start of a pout as you attempt a glare. The expression is so particularly you, it briefly seizes some remote, unnamed aspect of his being that lives deep inside of his chest. "Stop making fun of me--I told you, horror movies make me so jumpy, none of my other friends will watch them with me anymore."

Other friends. The reminder of the others that get to be recipients of your kind smiles and reassuring glances is usually enough to taint his mood, but there's a warmth to the phrase that redeems the sentiment entirely. He's more than a friend, he's the only one that's here for you.

Homelander straightens slightly, arm shifting forward until his fingertips are against your shoulder. For the briefest second, there's an increase in your general tension, a stillness that doesn't suit you. The implication of tension digs at him--he's been this close to you before, closer even.

Before the thought of rejection can fully latch onto him, you're easing, spine relaxing against the couch's cushioning. The new position is enough encouragement for him to continue, his palm coming to rest against the fabric of your shirt, the loose collar letting the side of his hand feel the warmth of your bare collarbone.

He remains steady, leaning into what he knows as he offers you one of his more subtle, yet openly heroic smiles. It's the kind of look he'd use to comfort an almost-victim, the gentle curve of his lips a silent promise. I'm here. You're okay now.

You watch him in that way of yours--eyebrows drawn together and eyes bright yet not exactly admiring in the way that he's accustomed to. His inability to understand that particular look is what drew him to you in the first place.

"I'm not making fun of you," he says, voice leaving no room for argument, "I'm just making sure you're okay. It's why you wanted to watch this with me, right?"

It's not so much an exaggeration as it is a stretching of context. You had mentioned wanting to watch the movie, but not loving the idea of watching it by yourself. You hadn't meant anything by mentioning it during your coffee shop catch up, you never do. Your words are usually free of both probing and placating subtext.

"I wanted to watch this with you because we're friends." There's a genuineness to the correction that jabs at him. He has no response, but you don't seem to mind the silence.

A high pitched scream and a flash of color has your attention drifting towards the screen. Your adrenaline spikes, a fact you attempt to dismiss by leaning into his touch. "It's nice of you to check in, though."

The acceptance leaves him feeling a little warmer than he did a moment ago. You have a way of doing that. "It's what I'm here for."

You look away from the screen, the corner of your mouth tugging itself upwards. "All in a day's work for America's favorite hero."

"This is top priority."

You let out a breath that feels like more of a laugh. "I feel important."

The movie steals your focus, a fact that a part of Homelander is grateful for. You're too distracted to think of what contemplating your value might do to him. He swallows, a pointed dismissal of the uncomfortable feelings probing at his chest.

You move slowly, legs straightening and feet finding the floor. Before Homelander can overthink the changes, you lean towards him, your head coming to rest against his shoulder.

[only-the-shippers-can-bully-nrmt]

(Original Japanese on the left with translations under the break, Fan Translation in the middle, and Official Translation on the right.)

Saw some things flying around that have (unintentionally or otherwise) been giving people the wrong idea, so here are the comparisons to show that, yes, Miles was referring to Phoenix near the end of the second Miles Edgeworth Investigations game. Miles does bring up Gregory too, but Gregory being "that man" during the famous "shines brilliantly" scene was actually a change in the official English release that does not line up with the original Japanese version (even MTLs will get across the Wright meaning).

Also, "shining brilliantly in one's eyes" can be both how a son might look up to his father but also how a ruffly prosecutor might strongly/romantically see his courtroom partner; the line is simply intense enough to not easily carry the label of an "average" relationship. We don't need to elaborate when we tell family members/friends/significant others "I love you" (even if it's at the same time) for similar reasons, and I don't see anyone arguing that this means that Miles must see Phoenix like a father because he grouped them together in some form.

TL;DR: The official translation mucked up some context and stuff happened because of it. Keep shipping and feel free to use this as a reference post because the shippers did not misinterpret anything. We can have a conversation about how the change affected the moment, but the original context is still important and Phoenix was part of it.

Besides the translations, there are other points under the break as well, including a bonus of one of the nice and harmless additions the official translation changed/added with the "saved me from myself" line:

Translations (provided by a friend of mine who knows Japanese; edited at times to sound more natural in English or help get across the intended meaning)

........以前、 ある男が言っていました。

……..In the past, a certain man once said:

被告人の唯一の味方になって あげられるのが弁護士だと。

the only one willing to be the defendant's ally is their lawyer.

依頼人を信じることで、《真実》に近づいていく････

By believing in the defendant, the truth draws closer....

その男の姿は、私の目にも まぶしく映りました。

The image of that man was so bright in my eyes, it was engraved into my mind.

There's a bit more added here for clarification's sake and people like me who have a habit of taking metaphors too literally; essentially, the first part that's in the game is saying that the sight of "that man" was so blinding that it stuck in Miles's mind/memory eternally, so the translation in the fan version is correct in a direct translation and what it means is closer to the official.

(fun fact that if you go for an MTL, a translator may translate what in English was "image"/"sight" as "appearance" or "figure" which is technically accurate but obviously not the intent when translated, just as "so bright"/"shining brilliantly" may become "dazzling"; doesn't mean I won't mention it for people to imagine/have fun with though :3c "That man's figure was so dazzling in my eyes." my god)

法廷で戦う父と、同じように････

In the same way my father fighting in court does….

(without the clarification it's more like "In the same way my father fought in court...." but as above, message is clearer this way)

しかし、それはあくまで その男や父の生き方です。

However, that's just the way that man and my father lived their lives.

This is the big one since it makes a clear and blatantly obvious separation between "that man" and Gregory himself.

Here's another translation in a reblog of the post I linked, which follows even closer to the fan translation and is more straightforward.

My asks are open for any further translation clarifications people may want to make (don't want to bog down reblogs when edits can simply be made) but this was a long-winded way of saying that the fan translation was super on point with accuracy and the only thing of note is the "burning into memory" that the official one has to help get the point across (though I think more was definitely lost the way it was done).

Other Points

1 - Staying on the official translation, its use of "that man" is rather... bizarre, even if one hasn't seen the original. Such a use is typically for:

someone the game wants the audience for figure out on their own (so the character knows it but the player needs to go talk to the person themself once they figure it out)

someone who the character speaking isn't really familiar with (like, "oh yeah, that guy, I kind of remember now")

someone the game tries to keep secret a little longer for the sake of mystery (example being the fan translation where Ray refers to Gregory without a name drop for the build up that Ray worked for him)

Miles using the phrase and then saying "my father" in the very next sentence made me do a double take because I was totally caught off guard by how it was done.

The shot of Miles sepia toned in the courtroom (the fourth shot) doesn't even make sense anymore if he's only talking about Gregory since obviously he's never seen Gregory from across the courtroom while Miles has been behind the prosecutor's bench (nor do they do a camera slide as if Miles is only imagining himself across the courtroom from him; it flashes to white instead). It only makes sense if he's taking about Phoenix.

2 - Looking at it from a fan's perspective, it makes 150% sense why "that man" would immediately be associated with Phoenix in the context of the moment. Not only did the last case of the first game have that exact thing too ("In a situation like this… what would that man do…? What would he who can turn any desperate situation around do…?"), thus making it a near-perfect continuation of that, but "a defendant's only ally being their attorney" was a huge part of the original trilogy.

In fact, the official translation actually actively makes it weirder to leave Phoenix out of that bit because of the change "a friend to the friendless" it did, which catapulted me back so violently to Turnabout Sisters - the first serious case in the entire series - that it could've put me in a coma.

This is even disregarding how important the whole "trusting clients" and "finding the truth" stuff was in cases, especially 2-4.

It's like, "ah yes, Mr. Fender, that was yours and my father's life, not mine and also no one else's; honestly, not a single other important person in my life who I could have mentioned comes to mind" lol)

3 - From my own personal perspective, I'm not stirring up a fuss over shipping, it's not about that (though shippers getting thrown under the bus absolutely sucks). I'm far more baffled that it takes the already-not-around Phoenix and chucks his mention away for later.

4 - Anyone lamenting the loss of "shining brilliantly" for something else without the context has every right to be confused and should not be criticized for it. Shipper or otherwise, most wouldn't imagine for a second that the end of Miles's arc/self-reflection would have a significant change that takes 50% of the original meaning out.

This taken into account with my comment about the visual aid of Miles behind the prosecutor's bench in sepia during that very line furthers this. Obviously people will (still) think it's about Phoenix.

5 - I only linked to one of the comments/posts I saw in case I was accused of making things up. I don't actually recommend approaching/confronting anyone because I don't think it's worth the time/effort, so this is more for anyone who felt gaslit/like they'd gotten it wrong or wanted the actual evidence. I did check the blog of the person who I linked and they made a long answer to a person who was complaining about the people complaining about said post, but hadn't made an edit to their original post telling people that there were misinterpretations being made.

That's not actually me being aggressive in any way (it's their business and their blog), but pointing out that it's not something important to people like that. I'll also grant that some might simply not know enough about the fan translation/original meaning to get it, so don't stress about it is all I'll say. :)

6 - Here's the "saved me from myself" line as promised, congrats on listening to me babble and making it all the way down here~

[rhiaarrow]

Hello, hello! The Ghostie with the penchant for long rambling walls of text here to give her unwarranted two cents on the current disagreement between the Tubblings and the Crows!

I'm offering my take as a purely unbiased outsider

(Yes, us Ghosties may be married to the Tubblings but when I first joined the Qsmp Fandom I was a Crow and a Crow only, before I died and became a Ghostie. Thus, while I like both qTubbo and qPhil I don't watch either of them often, ergo unbiased :D )

who has no real reason to attempt to villainise or place either character on a pedestal because to put it bluntly, they are not my cubito.

Without further ado I will begin my ramble.

Today's ramble of course comes with the disclaimer that with me not being a qTubbo or qPhil main there may be areas of their character that I'm not aware of since I don't watch every single one of their streams! Feel free to correct me on literally anything you think I've mischaracterized about your main just please be understanding that nothing is done with malicious intent! :)

I'm not attempting to paint either character as a villain in this ramble, I'm just publishing this in hopes to allow each community to understand that neither cubito is perfect and that's okay!

Okay! For anyone missing context; the current disagreement began when Tubblings expressed feeling happy that Chay was able to be a kid around qTubbo as opposed to being serious with qPhil then the Crows reminded the Tubblings that qTubbo is also attributing to Chay's hero complex through him acting as Chay's egg and asking Chay to protect him. Which has caused both sides to instinctively protect their cubito and is causing arguments within their communities.

As a Ghostie who is more than willing to write 1000 words to raise awareness, and is frankly sick of infighting within the QSMP fandom (it's why I left twitter, please don't bring it here 🫠) I figured I'd try to help 'squash the beef' if you will.

Polite discussions about cubito conflict is fine, going for each other's throats over character takes...yeah let's not do that! :D

Firstly, everyone has to recognize that Chayanne has an almost toxic hero complex. He's had it since the beginning of the server and while neither qPhil or qTubbo is doing it on purpose they are BOTH feeding into it!

He has an overwhelming urge to protect others with no regard for his own safety or wellbeing at times. In the beginning it only extended to eggs. As the older sibling he had a sense of responsibility over them, which was cute! But now it's borderline toxic although it's become so normalized as such a core part of Chayanne's character that no one recognizes it's no longer a healthy mindset.

Now Tubblings can make the defense that qTubbo isn't being entirely serious or that he doesn't truly expect Chay to put his life on the line for him but I watched him look Chayanne in the eyes and BLAME HIM FOR NOT PROTECTING 'HIS EGG'.

Even if that was immediately reincarnated qTubbo who was a little fucked up in the head, even if he no longer fully blames him, even if qTubbo was joking at the time, he looked that kid dead in the eyes and told him it was his fault. Tell me again how qTubbo isn't unintentionally feeding his complex?

Yes qTubbo allows Chay a more carefree space away from his overwhelming need to protect his younger sister and a space to be more relaxed.

Yes qTubbo is joking about a lot of things and a lot of the out of pocket shit he says isn't intended to be taken completely seriously.

BUT you cannot fully disagree with the Crows when they say that qTubbo feeds the complex too. BECAUSE HE DOES, JUST NOT ON PURPOSE THE SAME AS qPHIL!

qPhil is so used to his son being the strong warrior that he doesn't realize that that character trait is actively damaging his son's mental state. His attention is divided between Chay and Tallulah and since Tallulah is more open to talking about her issues he often isn't as attentive to Chay.

Is that a bad thing? Yes!

Is it intentional on qPhil's part? No!

Is it something the Crows need to recognize that qPhil does which unintentionally allows his son to continue to struggle with his hero complex? Yes!

qPhil loves his son unconditionally AND qPhil feeds Chayanne's hero complex are two statements that can and do coexist

qTubbo let's Chay be more of a child AND qTubbo feeds Chayanne's hero complex are two statements that can and do coexist

And as long as both the Crows and Tubblings are willing to understand that neither cubito is perfect and THERE'S NO USE FIGHTING OVER PIXELS then we're good!

- Sincerely a Ghostie who just wants to try to bring understanding between the two fandoms by utilizing her rambling skills!

AGAIN, any severe mischaracterization you feel I may have included is unintentional and feel free to correct anything you feel like I'm misconstruing, they're not my main cubitos so there may be somethings that qTubbo or qPhil mains find to be untrue to the source

HOWEVER if you're gonna call me out for mischaracterizing a character simply because I'm bringing up their flaws and you can't accept a character has flaws, kindly fuck right off :D

[vxsellie]

hello all 🤗 ive been overthinking & listening to hozier (literally me in a nutshell) and so i'm gonna be doing a deep dive on the song talk because it's eating away at me

the thing is, all of hozier's songs can be interpreted differently & thats what people love about them. they can be morphed and personalized depending on who's listening. so i can't say that my thoughts are 100% correct, bc they aren't. it's my personal opinion, so pls bear that in mind

anyway!

the song opens with him explaining the greek myth of orpheus and eurydice — where a man goes into the underworld to bring back his dead wife, trekking all the way down & making a deal w hades, only to lose her a second time by breaking said deal

lots of people focus purely on this verse when they talk abt the song, but i don't think that this is what's important.

like, yes, the way her perceives the controversial myth is interesting blah blah blah, but let's dive into WHY he's talking about it maybe? why he literally retold the story when he usually just briefly mentions myths, expecting us to already know every single greek myth in existence (love him for that even tho it drives me insane when i have to do extensive research just to listen to his music)

see, he myth is only mentioned once throughout the entire song, and it doesn't center on what most people do when the story is brought up. hozier doesn't debate on why orpheus turned around, how eurydice died, what pact he made with hades, etc etc. he simply tells the story for context & focuses on what's most important / why the myth exists in the first place — their love.

not only does he focus on the real, rawness that comes with being in love, but he makes this the entire point of the song. and how he does this, well, that's the real kicker 🥳🥳

he. makes. love. the. narrator.

like WHAT??? he makes LOVE the narrator???

he fucking tells the myth in the perspective of love itself, calling himself (aka the narrator) the voice that brought orpheus to madness when finding his wife's corpse & the grief that drove him into the underworld & the all-consuming devotee that made him break the pact w hades & the reason eurydice forgave him in an instant even though he lost her only chance at life again. LOVE is telling this story and i cannot be convinced otherwise

following this verse of orpheus & eurydice's tale, he says "imagine being loved by me"

he's literally telling you to picture being loved by love itself.

the song goes on to list more examples of where love exists — mankind's obsession with death and sex, needing the "sweet feeling of release" in both of these things despite them seeming to be complete opposites to the naked eye.

and! this further pushes the ideals that love can be brutal and raw (death) whilst simultaneously being sweet and intimate (sex).

also "i'd be the last shred of truth in the lost myth of true love" is basically saying that genuine love is rarely found anymore, nigh impossible in its manmade divinity. he says that the thing keeping that one last thread from breaking — which would cause love to be completely lost to the world — is love itself. HIM.

and then he goes on to repeat that line after each example he gives. "imagine being loved by me", saying that despite the pain and grief and awful truth that comes with loving someone, everyone craves it in spite of the inevitable & will forever search for something as genuine as the love that orpheus and eurydice had. even though it's a tragedy, it's what we all want, right?

in conclusion, idk if i want to strangle or kiss andrew for creating this song

[libelelle]

OBLIGATORY DISCLAIMER. my opinion on Silver is by no means the single correct one nor do i think it should be, do what you do idc. we're all here throwing him at a wall repeatedly for fun

Ok so. whats the point i wanted to make. oh yeah right

SILVER THE HEDGEHOG!!!! FUCK!!!!

his character is so interesting this is a character for sure. im screaming and crying etc etc. the unfortunate part is NO ONE GETS HIM. i see a lot of interpretations that cherry pick his personality and experiences and it just! isnt it! he is a complicated character!

trying to simplify him down to 🥺innocent soft boi🥺 doesn't work, not only cause you're ignoring his DEBUT GAME (NEVER FORGET HE TRIED KILLING SONIC) but also because you just disconnected him from his entire backstory and motivations. i see people making Silver into a "cinnamon roll" guy and it always makes me grimace because... do you know WHY he is clueless. do you know why he doesn't get things or is too trusting or this or that. its because he grew up in the apocalypse alone. he hasn't experienced anything normal or healthy in his entire life. and since these traits, which are used to make him into the innocent cinnamon roll, are a result of growing up in a very abnormal environment, are symptoms of having never been in social situations and never had a normal day-to-day life. this means you can't ignore the OTHER characteristics that result from it. by this i mean hes very independent, very stubborn and aggressively mean (i recommend watching any of Silvers interactions in the Rivals games. he is extremely confrontational and a very good example of the kind of behaviour i'm talking about). but since this doesn't fit the bill for the character that you want him to be, you remove the context. him being clueless has nothing to do with his background. hes anxious cause hes a smol bean, not because hes been drowning in responsibility and trauma for as long as hes been alive. hes kind because hes innocent, not because he chose to be despite it all

"but linnea! what about IDW! hes very innocent in that!" INCORRECT BUZZER. IDW is not the same. i'll admit, the writing isn't always what i want or expect for Silver, but there's something important for you to note here

Silver is ✨Recovering✨

from my perspective at least. what i see is Silver, who has actively been working together with other people for MONTHS. he has friends, a support net, as well as hobbies. these are things he didn't have before, and being with these people, in both calm and hard times, helped him. So what we are seeing isn't the trauma responses, we're seeing the result of being acclimatized into a healthier and safer position. that's why there's a change in behaviour. this doesn't mean hes a soft boy now. AGAIN hes complicated. be careful not to boil him down to a single trait. in IDW we still see moments where he experiences difficulties because of his past. examples include when he met Whisper, Failed Social Interaction and said this:

he struggles with boundaries! of course he does! he's still getting the hang of being around people

then also recently when he came to help Sonic in 58:

he is struggling!! with nothing to focus on! his default is fight fight save the future fight!! he's not used to normal life and that makes him anxious and frustrated, unable to focus on things he cares about, as we see in the future growth comic in the 2022 annual

there are likely more examples but idc. need to finish this post. continuing, Silver is complicated, meaning that even when he is aggressive and tunnel visioning on a task, he has more going on. one thing i fucking lovee LOVE love about Silver is that he has hope. fuck if i were him i think i'd have given up. THOSE horrors? every day? no thanks

Silver feels anguish and frustration and fear. this being said even at his angstiest moments he has hope. you cannot look me in the eye and tell me that Silver fought through every horrible disaster, coming back to a newly devastated world every time and decided to continue with no hope for a better future. he is determined and he has hope, even if he has to fight tooth and nail for it. Usually when i think about Silver and his odd optimism, i go back to '06, when he's having his moral crisis over killing sonic.

"To kill someone to save the world... is that really the right thing to do?"

it would've been understandable if he decided it was the right thing to do, even if sonic was someone who was kind and loved, because that's just how bad the world is. maybe its just me, but the way this thought broke through in spite of his bull headed focus on destroying the iblis trigger speaks to me about his nature as a person. even coming from the bleak world he came from and even with the tunnel vision he had, he still considered this one persons life to be important too.

he is, at heart, a very gentle and kind person. he is, at heart, someone who is strong and who wants to help others. a version of Silver that is sad all the time, unable to see the good in the world (a phenomena i don't see much of thankfully) isn't true to Silver as a character because its missing that core trait to his character, that he wants to help because he cares.

Silver can't be one or the other. one way ignores his background and his trauma, which leaves out important parts of his personality, the other just abandons a very integral part of who he is.

the point really is to say that (slaps roof of Silver) this bad boy can fit so much layers!

[thestupidhelmet]

I guess I just can’t imagine feeling that entitled and forgetting that I’m just a fan. As a creator myself I can’t rly imagine how I’d react if someone was like excuse me no, I know your art and your characters better than you do akshuallllly

I believe framing it as entitlement is the wrong way to think about it.

I can speak only for myself, but I see a variety of different but still canon or in-character ways for characters to develop. Not any of them is necessarily "right," which is to say not the One True and Only Path a character might take.

But whatever path a fictional character does take needs to be a path that character would take based on their personality, goals, emotional wounding, flaws, internal and external stressors. I don't have to like the path, but if it's one that doesn't break the fictional dream, I'll believe the character is capable of making that particular choice.

An example from That '70s Show. Jackie and Fez developing a romantic relationship is an in-character possibly in season 2 because of the episode "Eric and Kitty's Night Out". Had Jackie's development continued in the direction that episode points her, it would have led to a romantic arc between her and Fez. I wouldn't have liked it, but I would have accepted it as canon because the path made character sense at that time.

(But every episode after "Eric and Kitty's Night Out" provides a different context for Jackie's "realization" that she likes Fez romantically. Those post-episodes both corroborate the episodes preceding "Eric and Kitty's Night Out" that depict Jackie's non-romantic interest in Fez and show directly and indirectly that her "realization" is a misguided interpretation of her feelings of jealousy. Donna helps Jackie jump to her initial conclusion, but Jackie soon understands that she is jealous of the attention Fez gives to his girlfriend instead of her. She's not romantically attracted to him. She craves his worship.)

Had Jackie developed romantic feelings for Eric, however, on the show, I'd call, "Foul!" because it would be completely out of character for both of them. Jackie consistently expresses that she does not find Eric aesthetically or sexually attractive. Further, she's directly depicted as being sexually repulsed by him. Eric is shown to feel similarly about her except in the season 5 episode where Hyde convinces Eric that Jackie is "hot" when her personality is taken out of the equation.

But, generally, Jackie plays an antagonistic sibling role to Eric whenever Laurie isn't on the show. Eric even uses the same specific devil and hell insults on Jackie as he does Laurie, minus the slut-shaming.

Despite that I find the Jackie/Eric romantic intriguing, I can't consider it a canon, in-character pairing because it's simply not. My personal interests don't distort my writer's/reader's eye.

Speaking of equations, good writing does have a math-like aspect to it. 2 + 2 = 4. A character's personality, goals, trauma, flaws, established behavior + internal and external stressors = a character's choices. When I see in a show that the writing depicts two plus two as equaling five (character-wise), it's glaring.

I know that two plus two equals four, and pointing it out does not come from a place of entitlement but of a desire for truth. In the case of fiction, character and emotional truth. I want to correct the equation, but in fiction X can represent different but equally valid numbers to solve the equation.

A show's writers, unfortunately, too often put an invalid number for X that doesn't solve the character equation but collapses it in favor of a plot they want to pursue or any other reason that is not based on proper writing technique. Consistent characterization is an inconvenience they ignore.

A story (in whatever medium) must make sense. In college and selective post-college writing workshops, the students' (and teacher) are tasked with finding the flaws in their peers' stories, what breaks the fictional dream. We must, in our own writing and that of others', be aware of the characters' development and arc(s). What is working and why. What isn't working and why. Again, to make sure the story's equation is solved organically and logically.

In The Office (US), Greg Daniels (the creator and showrunner for most seasons and the final season) decided that Jim and Pam would separate in the final season and not reconcile until the last episode. John Krasinski (the actor who played Jim) was very tuned into the audience's reaction to the Jim/Pam storyline and saw that it wasn't good.

John told this to Greg and said that he worried Greg's plan (already written and partially filmed) would essentially destroy the show for the fans. They wouldn't be able to rewatch it happily, having experienced a traumatizing end for their favorite pairing.

Fortunately, the show's creator listened to John, to the fans, did a reshoot of the end of one already completed episode and re-edited under the wire then had the last few episodes rewritten to reflect Jim and Pam's reconciliation. This was absolutely the correct, in-character choice -- because the fans recognized a flaw in the equation, not the creator, and John (the actor) also recognized the flaw.

This wasn't the first time John objected to a character development on The Office. He also nixed the John-kisses-Cathy storyline proposed in season 8. He said the audience would never forgive Jim for cheating on Pam in any way. It's out of character for Jim, and instead the show depicts him as doing everything he can think of to get away from her in his Tallahassee hotel room. Again, someone who was not the writer knew better what a show's character would canonically do.

For John Krasinski and Leonard Nimoy, their fidelity was to the characters they portrayed. For many fans, including myself, it's the same. A sense of entitlement is not what I feel. I recognize when characters are written against their natures and want the equation to be corrected. TV showrunners and writers have a lot of external forces weighing on them from the industry and/or personal ambitions that undermine the characters they created or are tasked to write.

A sense of entitlement would entail, for instance, being blind (wilfully or ignorantly) to or simply not caring about character consistency so that the characters they ship become romantically involved on the shows they watch. Justifying their desire not with facts (i.e. what the characters actually say and do on a show) but with distortions and misinterpretations. Then attacking the showrunners and writers for not catering to their desires.

That '90s Show does not depict That '70s Show's canonical future (no idea if this is the reason for your asks, Anon, but it's relevant to the conversation). Canonical, well- and long-established facts from T7S are changed, distorted, or erased to create T9S's fictional dream. T9S is not a corollary of T7S's equation. It's a different equation altogether, using some of the same numbers but in different ways.

That's a fact, substantiated by statements made by T9S's creator Gregg Mettler and the show itself, and it's also not a problem as long as fans recognize -- in T7S's series director's statement about T7S S8 -- that T9S "is an alternative universe". In other words, not canon to T7S.

I enjoy That '90s Show as it's own thing, but I neither consider it or am satisfied by it as a canonical future for That '70s Show from both a fan's perspective and as an author.

[theroundbartable]

The weapons of populism

There is something very interesting I've learned the past couple weeks. Both through watching the American election and talking to both Trump and Harris supporters in comments.

I am someone who is easily manipulated, so I do keep an eye out for the methods people are using on me and I'll try to show you how this affects me mentally.

As most leftists, I've been taught to question arguments, I've been taught to provide evidence to my claims and to even question that evidence. What I wasn't taught is how to properly weaponize that power.

Leftists are tend to infighting within their own bubbles. We're doubting each other and that's what's helping us question ourselves and finding new solutions to problems. And we can accept when we're wrong.

This does not work on the right wing. Right wing voters aren't to be disenchanted. Actual right wing populists won't change their minds. But people who watch your debate in silence might.

The Right wing's goal isn't to learn anything, their goal is only to win the argument. By any means possible to look appealing to people who sway in their opinion and are searching for a strong role model to follow. And who doesn't want to be on the winning side?

So, they will use the power you've been taught, and they will use your own tools to paint you as a liar.

They discredit your sources. The people they are trying to convince aren't expected to check the sources. If you provide a source, this is ammunition for them, because all they have to say is 'the Link doesn't work' or 'you haven't understood your own source' and then they have won. Because what are you going to say to that? That you're unable to question your source? You have to explain your own source in a long winded text? Are you going to say: 'no, YOU didn't get the source!'?

They will insult or infantilize you. They will call you a child or to grow up. This is a distraction. It puts them in a higher position than you, so anything you say after will sound like you're throwing a tantrum.

They will refuse to provide evidence or sources. Not only for the reason above. Last thing I was confronted with used the line: 'It's not my job to educate you'. That is, in populism circles, a powerful tool. Because it makes you look stupid, it makes your attempts to educate them look like you're desperate. I had someone actually trying to tell me that my source wasn't credible because it was the first thing I found on google. You know? Like evidence becomes more credible when it's impossible to find.

Right wing populists can't be disenchanted. I've watched an entire hour of a German Youtuber called Dekarldent trying to talk to a Nazi by showing him facts. Fashists don't care about facts.

They won't budge from their claims. You've discredited them? Congratulations, two arguments later, they will circle back and use the same bs argument again.

The agenda. The person I talked to accused me of just following an agenda. The irony is that they were defending Agenda 47. The word agenda in a normal sentence is negatively connotated, so it makes you look like a mindless sheep who's just repeating what they heard somewhere else. Combined with you using sources to prove your claims, it makes you look stupid.

Using famous people as 'source'. This is not evidence and it's not something they need evidence for because the quotes they use are usually correct and well known. That alone makes them credible but they usually miss context. Quoting Trump as a 'credible' source is the most pathetic thing I've ever seen, but it's happened to me before.

And lastly, because I'm counting these off my head, hypocrisy.

The tools above can be used in a colorful mixture of idiocy but they are often one thing: hypocritical.

While they refuse to provide evidence, they will expect you to give them sources. While quoting people who are the reason why X (Twitter) added the feature to fact check posts, they will tell you your own quotes are said by liars. Or that you're a liar. Whichever fits them best at the moment. They will tell you you're not budging from your own claims because you're a radical when actually they've given you no reason to change your stand. Calling someone childish in an adult argument with scientific evidence is a tantrum. They will also, most likely, call you a hypocrite.

They are and they do what they accuse you of.

I'm not going to tell you how to confront them. I'm just trying to show you the effect these people have. You can be 100% in the right and still feel like you're losing the argument.

I wanted to provide you some insight on how that feels. And how I think swaying parties look at this kind of warfare. Use this knowledge wisely.

[holy-rarepairs-batman]

Does Qi Rong "Deserve It?"

Before I dig into this, I want to explain context. This meta came about because of a few tweets and tiktok comments I saw recently that said Qi Rong deserves how he's treated by Xie Lian and Hua Cheng in canon, and I want to look at that, specifically pointing out the arguments I see people raise often; namely, that he deserves how he's treated because of all the atrocities he's committed. The atrocities listed are usually some combination of the four I talk about below: the carriage, Lang Qianqiu's family, cannibalism, and humiliating the main pair.

I want to look at all of these a little closer, with canon source quotes and my own experience with working with kids, to see if how he's treated is justifiable, or not.

1. Dragging Hong-er behind his carriage intending to kill him

The novel directly contradicts this and says that his intent was not to kill him. Vol 2, ch 26 shows Qi Rong saying explicitly that he "was careful," and that Hong-er "won't die."

If you don't trust Qi Rong's words, there's further proof. Despite the doctors being shocked by the fact that Hong-er is sitting as if uninjured, they further confirm that Hong-er's injuries will be healed without problem. While they are severe injuries, Hong-er was not injured grievously enough that he was going to die, which helps with believing Qi Rong's own words.

Now don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying Qi Rong shouldn't have consequences for what he did or that it was okay. He absolutely should have some kind of punishment for it! And he does get punished for it!

The first thing is he gets his carriage taken away, the object that allowed him to cause hurt in the first place. This is a great consequence, because of how much he hates it, on top of it being the thing he used to hurt. He is also to be confined to his room in solitary confinement for a month to "reflect."

Neither of these consequences will erase the hurt that's been caused, but nothing can. However, as the goal of consequences is to keep an unwanted behavior from repeating, both of these are actually very appropriate consequences for his actions. They keep him from being able to repeat the behavior, and if he had the correct tools to understand what he's reflecting on, he could do better in the future.

Unfortunately for Qi Rong, he doesn't have the tools to understand, and no one asks him why he did that or explains to him what he could have done differently. Since Qi Rong likely already has PTSD and has been spoiled and indulged in the palace after his father's abuse, when no one explains, he genuinely cannot understand what he did wrong, so he does not get better.

The point here though, is that he's already received a very fair consequence, even if he views it as unfair. Bringing it back up and punishing him later for it, repeatedly and violently, is not going to do any good, and actually will make him worse. It's the same reason you don't punish a child six hours after an action that needs correction, because they've moved on already and don't remember it or relate the consequence with the action.

(It's understandable why, I'm not talking at all about whether Hua Cheng is justified in his anger and hate for Qi Rong. I'm only talking about Qi Rong.)

2. Killing Lang Qianqiu's family was to hurt Xie Lian

Not even sure where this came from considering we know from Vol 2, ch 22 that Qi Rong didn't even know the identity of Fang Xin. He didn't know it was Xie Lian; none of his actions were even remotely done with Xie Lian in mind.

Killing the Yong'An royal family was revenge for Qi Rong, both for the fall of Xianle and subsequent treatment of Xianle citizens, and revenge against his father, who he hated. An eye for an eye. And Lang Qianqiu is entirely justified in seeking revenge for that, even expected to, cultural speaking.

Qi Rong does deserve to be punished by Lang Qianqiu.

He does not deserve to be punished by Hua Cheng or Xie Lian for this. The only one who deserves to punish him is Lang Qianqiu. The only one justified in deciding how to do that is Lang Qianqiu. Point blank.

3. Cannibalism (sub point - even the heavens think of him as gross, so it's justified)

Qi Rong is a ghost. I don't know why fandom seems to think cannibalism is unique to him only? This scene from Vol 2, ch 13 shows ghosts thoughts on eating humans pretty well.

Certainly, if Hua Cheng were against cannibalism in general, or if he thought ghosts deserved to be punished for cannibalism, he wouldn't allow it in his city. He's one of the most powerful ghosts, the ruler of the city, I don't believe that if he disliked it, he couldn't get rid of it.

So if he doesn't dislike it enough to get rid of it or punish any of the ghosts that live in Ghost City, why should he be allowed to punish Qi Rong for cannibalism? I don't understand why fandom thinks it's Hua Cheng or Xie Lian's right or duty to punish him for that.

Not only that, but even the heavens don't call him vulgar just for the cannibalism. They call him vulgar because they think of him as a copycat. They're proud, arrogant assholes who become gods based on their own actions (which is why Shi Qingxuan's ascension is a scandal and covered up). A copycat is classless.

They also call him vulgar for being loud and annoying and cursing. Basically, he has bad manners. How does that justify being beaten?

(Spoiler: it doesn't).

4. Repeatedly humiliating Hua Cheng/Xie Lian

I'm not even going to expand on this for long, but seriously?

Qi Rong is humiliated and talked down to constantly, for the laughs. But he does the same back and now being punched into the ground is justified?

Qi Rong is treated horribly in the novel, repeatedly and cruelly. It's vicious, vindictive, and not justified at all. I'm all for him having consequences for his actions and being held accountable for the shit he's done wrong, but these examples fandom uses are not it. They're just revenge gone too far.

In conclusion...

The thing I think people don't realize about Qi Rong is that it's SO hard to see accurately how he's treated, because he's so often used as the comedic relief character. His dramatic reactions disguise the severity of his other people treat him. To me, that's what makes him so tragic and compelling as a character. It's not on purpose, but the use of him as a literary tool disguises so much of his actual treatment, just like it disguises his childhood and past by burying it in plain sight.

And that's part of why he's such a tragic and compelling character.

[ihearyou-jikook]

there's a scene in bon voyage s3 e6, when the members were eating and jhope mentioned that tae and jk were sleeping upside down and hugging each other's legs, i found jimin's reaction to the info kinda sus. the scene was overall weird, jimin was sitting down when hobi finished talking, with no apparent indication of standing up, and suddenly they show jimin's reaction and he's like "wae (what)!?!?" but he's standing up, and then another cut to hobi confirming the story, then the camera goes back to jimin who is seated again and says "that's weird". do you think they edited some of the conversation out?

Anon, this moment makes me 😆🤭

Sorry for making you wait. Let's go go go!

(Had too much fun with this one, it is quite long >.<)

Here is a clip of the moment

Cr. Full video here

Let's Quentin Tarantino this. Do I think this was a sus moment? Do I think some of the convo was edited out?

Yes, to both. 👀

JM going from sitting to standing up without us seeing it happen didn't stick out to me too much only because in content like this (Not just BTS content), editors tend to show multiple viewpoints of a moment and I'm guessing JM stood up when we saw the close up of Hobi explaining what he saw. You can also see Hobi's eyes are looking upwards as he's talking.

What gets me tho is JM's initial reaction to Hobi, going eh?! And then needing to clarify what he just heard lol.

Then we cut to JM saying "왜 그래" with that face and that tone.

Side note: I'm not Korean and I'm not fluent in Korean. I have been learning for a while. I'm somewhere between beginner & intermediate and understand that context, tone, and the words used, explain so much when it comes to the Korean language. That's why I wanted to highlight this next part.

Let's talk about the sub-titles here for a moment.

The translator decided to go with "What's wrong?"

This is correct, but it's not the only meaning of those words. "왜 그래" can also mean the following depending on the tone, context, and intonation (rise & fall of voice): "Why is it like that?" "Why are you like that?" "Why are you acting like that?" "What's going on?"

This is a great post about how "왜 그래" can be used.

IMO, JM's tone sounded like it had a bit of a bite behind it. There was no rise in his voice at the end of the words to sound like a curious question. And his face was a little more on the serious side. Again IMO, something like "Why were you like that?" seems more accurate.

He gave off a WTF? vibe.

Back to the question about edited-out parts

I think it's hard to say if anything was edited out right before JM said 왜 그래 but I definitely think the reaction to what JM said was edited out.

There could have been more conversation, but I honestly think there was probably awkward silence after him saying that. 🤣

Because JK & V were both awfully quiet while Hobi was explaining, other than initially asking "Did we?" "Who did it?" There was no laughing, no smiling.

To me, it felt like JK & V were starting to sense JM's unrest with the whole thing and so they decided to stay quiet since an upset Mimi is not what you want to deal with. An upset Mimi is a feisty Mimi.

Look, we always talk about JK being the possessive one but I just think JK is louder about it than JM. There are 2 possessive men in the Jeon-Park Household.

While JK does do some type of skinship with all members, I do think JM enjoys his boyfie privileges. That there are just some things JK doesn't do often with others. And it was probably weird to hear that they were hugging each other's feet especially when JK is sensitive to smells 🤣

Before I go, I have to bring up our president Hobi.

Like, Hobi.

Why do I feel like you're snitching on them to Mimi??

🤣🤣🤣

That's the funniest part about this moment to me. After bringing up the situation to JK & V, Hobi is literally telling this story to JM.

I love Hobi. I miss him!

Thank you for the ask Anon. 💜💛

For you, Happy Jikook inc...

Cr. Daylight

[nebulousjoy]

Sonikal: In this essay I will-

This'll be my deep dive into the rare-pair Sonikal - Sonic the Hedgehog/Tikal the Echidna - that I'll refer to if/whenever people ask me why I ship it and how it even works.

If this ends up getting reblogged, please note that I'll probably refine the text here, making corrections n' whatnot, as time goes on! So be sure to check the original post if you want the most up to date version. Also, do remember that everything in this post is of my own opinions. You can agree or disagree with them, makes no difference to me.

If such a lengthy post for something like a ship seems weird to you, that's fine. I just like talking about said ship, in this instance.

—

Why do I ship Sonikal?

I believe a functionally healthy relationship between them could and would work, with both of their characters remaining as true to their canon depictions (however sparse in terms of Tikal) as possible. Mind you, since Sonic hasn't officially had a romantic interest and has demonstrated an aversion to Amy's affections, one has to use deductive reasoning and context clues within Sonic's character to surmise how he would behave if he were to form romantic affections for someone. With Tikal, the same goes, though doubly so as more effort is necessary due to she hardly being present enough in SA1 for her full personality "range" to be hinted at. Headcanons for bridging gaps / filling in holes are unavoidable.

(I'm aware an element like this is unnecessary in the eyes of many of fandom's typical shippers, but I'm the kind of person who NEEDS plausibility in ships for me to care about them. So, this is important.)

I think their dynamic would be extremely cute and wholesome, for reasons I'll get into when I describe how they would interact with each other.

The gamecanon versions of Sonic and Tikal are the primary focuses here. I don't know enough nor care about the comic versions of either to consider them.

How does Sonikal work?

The pairing is only remotely possible if we choose to deviate from canon, and allow Tikal to exist naturally. In SA1, it's unclear what exactly happens to her or Chaos after the story ends, but it's obvious that they aren't actively around in the world's setting.

There's a few paths one can go to expand upon Tikal's new life, but I like to go with something a little contrived but not theoretically impossible: Tikal gets given her physical body back from the M.E., as Chaos' wrath being quelled means the seal on him has no reason to stay active. It's implied in SA1 that Tikal's physical body is no more as she roams as an orb of light, so with the seal now being void, why wouldn't she get her body back?

This is turn draws the questions of "where would she live?" and "what would she do?". My answers for both of these are...Chao Gardens! Taking care of Chao! It's obvious Tikal grew fond of them in the past, and I don't see any reason why that would fade in modern time. Since the city of her clan has been mostly swallowed up by the earth, crumbling to ruin, she doesn't have a stable place to live. I feel she would turn to Chao Gardens to be her new homes, where she can live peacefully alongside Chao and take care of them.

(It also makes sense for her to live on Angel Island with Knuckles, but to keep things simple, let's go with the Chao Garden idea.)

This scenario is satisfactory to me enough, as where Sonic and his friends themselves live are normally kept vague in the series anyway. Amy and Tails apparently have their own houses in the games, but it's never been explained how they obtained them or if they still have them, so *shrugs*. Suspension of disbelief is basically required for the Sonic world.

SONIC

Being devoted to maintaining and enjoying his freedom is a core aspect of his character. He just simply isn't Sonic if he lacks this trait. This getting sacrificed to make a ship involving him work is a BIG no-no to me. Additionally, the character isn't Sonic if he lacks his canon benevolence and intolerance towards injustice. He cares for the people around him and helps those in need if he comes across them, which has been demonstrated many times in the games at this point.

However, Sonic does not come across as the physically affectionate type in canon. That actually doesn't impact the depth a relationship can have though, as there's MANY ways someone can express affection without kissing and cuddling being predominant. Intimacy has multiple layers with multiple manifestations, and none are greater than the other.

It's always possible to have a relationship work for him where his needs still get met - *without* his partner's needs getting unfulfilled in the process. If Sonic somehow realized this, and met the *right* person, romance isn't out of the realm of possibility for him generally speaking.

TIKAL

It was clearly depicted in SA1 that Tikal is very compassionate. She was very gentle and caring towards the Emerald Shrine's Chao. She tried many times to dissuade her father from his power-hungry, warmongering ways. She stood firm against him when he stormed the Emerald Shrine with a group of warriors, up until she was knocked aside. The societal hierarchies of the Knuckles Clan have never been revealed iirc, but as Pachacamac was the leader of the clan (and had shown he cared about getting what he wanted even at others' expenses), defying him like that most likely had severe consequences. That didn't stop her from trying.

This implies Tikal has a strong will and sense of bravery. She hates injustice and does what she can to stop it. She cares so much about doing what's right, and protecting the world itself, that she choose to seal the rampaging Perfect Chaos away in the M.E. - using her physical body to pay the price. Since chaos energy "turns one's thoughts into power", I see that act as proving Tikal also has a strong sense of conviction, going hand-in-hand with possessing a strong will.

Lastly, from her talks to her father of how greed leads one down a path where they will mindlessly consume more until they likely meet an end of self-destruction, Tikal too has a sense of wisdom. Or, emotional intelligence. However you want to describe it.

Other aspects of her character have to be assembled using headcanons, but frankly, these traits alone hold enough water for the next section.

SONIC & TIKAL TOGETHER

They've interacted canonically, in the tail end of Sonic's story and the last story in SA1. Their moments were fairly standard and naturally revolved around the story, but still! It's neat that they have.

One interesting moment is after Chaos floods Station Square. Tikal beseeches to him that Chaos needs to be sealed again, but Sonic being as intuitive as he is shoots that down, knowing it wouldn't solve the problem of Chaos' anger in the end. This highlights Tikal's desperation in the moment, but also hints at a trait of she tunnel-visioning whenever her composure is lost. Maybe it was just in that moment, maybe it's a habit she has; who can say for sure?

But me bringing up them having met in canon goes into how they could interact if they were to meet up again. Sonic, being the caring guy that he is, would definitely be very keen on speaking to her more in-depth compared to before - seeing how she's been doing and all that.

I also think Sonic would feel genuine curiosity about her. He got glimpses of her life, rather the bad moments in it leading up to her clan's extinction, so I can see him wanting to get to know her better as a friend. Because, Sonic for sure would view her as a friend. He so easily befriends others that it makes sense.

Tikal would respond in kind. She must've formed a strong enough amount of faith in his abilities to have shown him those flashbacks, and it's natural that she would want to know him better too. They'd form a carefree friendship, both sides being cordial with one another.

Their Chemistry

It's their friendship that allows more to develop between them. Assuming Sonic takes a break from his usual globe-trotting to hang out with Tikal in a Chao Garden every now and then, they would spend a fair amount of time talking and relaxing together.

The kicker here is that they do have a notable amount of personality traits in common, and they're the ones most apparent; arguably important. They're both benevolent, dislike injustice, and stay true to what they believe in. Sonic of course harbors a love of life itself, and I do think the same applies to Tikal, as her sacrifice proves she cares deeply about the world and the life in it. She not only opposed her father to protect the emeralds, but to protect the Chao as well.

We've seen Sonic's playful and sassy side plenty, and while Tikal hasn't exactly shown the same sides in canon nor has anything signaled it, I doubt she wouldn't mesh well with it. I can even see Tikal being like Sonic's "hype girl" funnily enough, laughing at his jokes or having a "Oh you're so silly <3" reaction to them. It's even better if Tikal bounced off of Sonic's antics with her own secret playful side, and who knows, maybe she does have one (I like to think so personally). It wouldn't be out of place if she did.

In general, there's nothing about either of them that makes it implausible they'd form chemistry. They could bond over many things.

Their Feelings

I'm not sure who would catch feelings first, and it honestly doesn't matter. Both of them would form an attraction to one another without either realizing it at first, but I do have the hunch that Tikal would more quickly identify that she feels a certain type of way about Sonic, to where calling him a mere friend doesn't feel quite right. She'd hone in on this, while I can see Sonic just going with the flow in regards to his own feelings, not noticing the change in how he feels about her until it gets outright brought up in some manner.

Namely, Tikal could voice her thoughts just to get them into the air; off her chest. Speaking on how much Sonic means a lot to her, and she feels closer to him than she has with anyone else. Whatever time they do spend together fills her with joy. It's reasonable for Sonic to not catch onto the implications and be pleased that she does like being around him, or...his intuition kicks in and he starts to suspect something is there. What exactly, he doesn't know. But still.

That could be the first domino to fall, leading into a chain reaction. Maybe he starts to look at Tikal in a way different from before. Maybe he pays closer attention to how she behaves around him, and whenever Tikal can interact with his other friends, especially see how she is with them. Sonic is smarter than a lot of people give him credit for, and when he gets interested enough in something to pay close attention to it, he'll perceive a lot of things. Maybe Tikal notices this change, and she too starts to subtly "study" him to see what's up.

To hurry along and keep this already long post from getting even longer: eventually a boiling point would be reached. I do like the idea of Sonic being the first to properly touch upon their bond going to a different level. He'd need to have a more serious conversation over it, but once he sees that Tikal is on board, the ship sails.

Their Relationship

Tikal is very understanding. By the point they each learn of the other's feelings, she would know fully well that Sonic does not want to be changed. She would not want him to change anyway. His happiness would be extremely important to her, and he keeping to his love of traveling the planet is what she would want - first and foremost.

Sonic would recognize and greatly appreciate this consideration. A relationship to him had always symbolized he being anchored down and his freedom compromised (Amy and her habits of chasing him and wanting them to get married pinned that in his mind), but Tikal making it clear that's not what she wants would bring him immense relief. And would in turn make him feel like she does truly get him.

In a similar fashion, Tikal would remain committed to her role of nurturing Chao. She has overall less responsibilities to the world compared to Sonic and less of a perpetual wanderlust, but she does not want anything to come between her and what she wants to do. Not that Sonic would DO such a thing, he'll never boss anyone around, but still. They'd be on the same page. None of what they hold dear need to be given up to make things work, and the other's happiness is just as important as their own.

Above all else, they each would want one another to be a permanent part of their world. Nothing more, nothing less. That would remain set in stone, no matter how often they're far apart physically. Because, in the times they are together, it makes them that much more special.

Besides, Sonic would ABSOLUTELY bring Tikal with him during some of his travels. She's been out of commission for the last 3,000+ years after all, she's missed out on a lot! Sonic would be thrilled to help her experience new things in this modern era, be it sightseeing in countries or taking her to scenic places he loves. The girl would be pumped to see the world, and create new memories with Sonic that she can enjoy for the years to come.

This isn't even acknowledging some fanon theories about Tikal being immortal if she were to ever actually return & hang around in modern times, but that can be discussed in a different post.

TLDR: Sonikal works because both Sonic and Tikal can reasonably make the relationship work without sacrificing important parts of their characters, and their relationship would have a nice flair of true significance on top of that. They would have the kind of romance that's not over the top or even that conventional, but still very intimate.

So...yeah. My intentions for writing this weren't to "convince" other people to ship them too, just to shed some light on why I do. Thanks for reading all of this, if you did! 👋🏾

[languagestudymaterials]

わけ - definition (2)

What does ～わけ mean?

The same post in much higher quality is here

In this #Japanese with anime post, we will take a closer look at a mind-bending structure belonging to the realm of modality and, unfortunately, is usually omitted in translation. It's not that it has to be omitted; it happens that English just sounds better or makes sense without it (in most cases).

Examples in this post are from Jujutsu Kaisen Season 1 and Season 2.

Extra grammar: 

というわけ vs. わけ  

わけ vs. から/ので

Before we dive in

わけ is truly a mind-bending structure, and knowing just the dictionary definition is not usually enough. The examples provided in textbooks seem to be okay at first glance, but when you start analyzing and comparing わけ to other structures and grammar points, you quickly realize that you haven't fully grasped the concept it actually represents.  

Long story short, though. In a lot of cases, わけ can be translated to 'so' or 'then' (: as a necessary consequence; Merriam-Webster).

However, in many cases, English translations don't need to include 'so' or 'then' because things can be simply understood from the context. As readers, we don't need extra lexical help to understand that something is a consequence of something else. The brain fills in that information naturally on its own. Japanese, though, decided that having extra lexical help could be useful. 

Note: This article doesn't explain the meaning of structures like わけにはいかない or わけではない. They do have their English equivalents.

I also managed to compile a short list of things that literally enlightened me while struggling to understand what わけ really means and why we need it to sound natural.

In many contexts, わけ indicates that the partners in the conversation share some knowledge.

You really need context to be able to use it. If you were to just enter a room and say a sentence containing わけ, it wouldn't make much sense. 

It is used as a reaction/to react to someone else's statement (dialog) or to your surroundings. It shows that you have realized/understood something. Could be paired with だから, それで、なるほど, which are placed at the beginning and わけ at the end, for example:

だから、五条先生強いわけだ。 Ah, so that's why Gojo-sensei is so strong. 

Context: We were wondering why Gojo is so strong, and we just found out (someone told us) that Gojo is a six-eye user, and that made us realize why he is so strong.

It is used when the speaker performs a monologue. In this case, we can distinguish two possible situations:

emphasizing inevitable consequences of some actions, i.e. You eat a lot of sugar, so naturally you will gain weight.  If you don't add わけ to such a statement, it will be fine as well, but it will sound like a dry fact. However, during a lecture or a conversation about eating habits and their consequences adding わけ will give your sentence the nuance of  "And as you know...".

the speaker wants to restate/sum up their own words because their first explanation was unclear. It's like saying "I mean..."; "In other words..."

It is used to restate/paraphrase someone else's words (or your own words). Could be paired with つまり. For example, someone described something to you, but it was complicated. You want to make sure you understand the statement correctly, so you paraphrase it using easier words. You will end that 'easier' sentence with わけ or というわけ.

Used to give the reason for what the conversation partner has said or to state the logical conclusion. Remember that both parties in the conversation need to have the same knowledge. For example:

「田中さんが亡くなったそうだ。」" I have heard that Tanaka-san has died recently." 「本当？心臓発作だったというわけだな。」 "Really? That must have been a heart attack." (source) Context: Both of the speakers knew that Tanaka-san had some heart problems, and one of them drew a logical conclusion.

わけではない is used for correcting false impressions 

In English, the tone of your voice and intonation will change the meaning of your sentence. In Japanese, though, such changes can be expressed through particle/verb ending choice. A good example can also be ～てしまう.

Consider this sentence: 

I didn't invite him to the party because I didn't like him.

It could mean either: 1. I don't want to party with people I don't like. (から) 2. I had other reasons not to invite him, and not liking him wasn't one of them (わけではない)

Even though there are ways to translate わけ into English, it's often omitted in translations. 

'Because ' in English is used to provide reasons, but it doesn't really matter if your conversation partner shares knowledge with you. 'Because' can convey completely new information or information already known to everyone for clarity's sake. わけ, on the other hand, speakers must have some prior, common knowledge.

In the following parts of the article, you will find more information related to the above points. 

Definition of ～わけ

According to Jisho, it is a noun, and because it is a noun you negate it as a noun, and it conveys the meaning of:

conclusion from reasoning, 

judgment or calculation based on something read or heard; 

or it just translates to (as a standalone word)

reason; cause; meaning; circumstances; situation​. 

Stefan Kaiser in his book Japanese: A Comprehensive Grammar defines わけ as

a structural noun [...] used when the speaker realizes that there is an explanation or reason for some occurrence or phenomenon. Or [...] used when the speaker realizes that some fact or occurrence is the result of some other fact or occurrence. 

The author mentions that it can be translated to 'so' or 'then'.   Following this definition, let's analyze our first example from Jujutsu Kaisen. 

JJK; S01 episode 02 or 03; Yuuji just moved into the school dorms

君の中の宿儺が力を取り戻すために指の在り処を教えてくれる. 君は器である同時に探知機、レーダーでもあるわけだ. 

To regain its power, the Sukuna you consumed will direct you to the whereabouts of the fingers. You are a vessel as well as a radar. 

To better understand this sentence, let's look at more context.

Yuuji has already eaten two of Sukuna's fingers. Since the fingers resonate with each other, he can kind of guess where they are or at least sense their presence (to some degree). Given those facts, we can surmise that Yuuji works like a radar, and that is what Gojo implies by using わけ.

In essence, わけ marks a logical conclusion or result based on some known facts.

Some known facts: Yuuji ate the fingers, they resonate with each other, and he's a vessel...

The conclusion from reasoning/realization: ...you’re a radar. 

Notice that the English translation did not include any phrase that would introduce 'conclusion'. It is implied. You could include, for example, 'And that's why...' or something along those lines, but the whole line sounds better without it.  

Let's elaborate on it, though. For those of you who don't overthink life or grammar rules, such short dictionary entries might be enough, but I'm a professional overthinker and I just need to know.  

～わけ as a modal structure

This section is full of proper linguistic discourse, but don't shy away from it. It might actually help you deepen your understanding of this structure. Japanese grammar books for teachers, and grammar books written in Japanese, list わけ as a modal structure.

For a complete guide to modality, go here ⇒ Link Click

Modality is about a speaker’s or a writer’s attitude towards the world. A speaker or writer can express certainty, possibility, willingness, obligation, necessity and ability by using modal words and expressions. Speakers often have different opinions about the same thing. (Cambridge online dictionary)

Simply put, modal structures help you convey a variety of subjective nuances, for example, instead of saying, I'm wrong, you can say, I might be wrong (might is a modal verb). Let's see what subjective feelings わけ helps us convey: 

Certainty or Conviction: わけ is often used when the speaker is confident or certain about the reason they are presenting. It signals that the speaker believes something is true based on their understanding or recognition of a situation.

Explanatory or Justificatory: It is commonly used to explain or justify a statement or action. It adds a sense of "it makes sense that..." or "therefore..." to the statement, showing that the speaker is not just stating a reason but also expressing their conviction or perspective on that reason. 

 Subjective Interpretation: わけ reflects the speaker's subjective interpretation or understanding of a situation, making it a modal structure because it conveys the speaker's attitude and belief. 

An interesting observation has been made in an article titled 「わけだ」文と「からだ」文の意味の違いについて by 牟世鍾 and 宋洙珍 (I'm sorry, I can't decipher their names).

「わけだ」文が表す理由は、対象から納得し、それを理由として位置づけたもの、つまり、話し手が何か認識の過程を経て位置づけたまさにモダリティの形式であり、そのような認識․納得の過程のない直接的な理由を表す「からだ」文とは異なっている。

 Which roughly translates to: 

The reason expressed by the sentence わけだ is that the speaker is convinced by the object and positions it as the reason, that is, it is the very form of modality that the speaker positions through some recognition process, which is different from the sentence からだ, which expresses direct reasons without such a recognition/convincing process. (translation: mine)

In summary, the passage explains that わけだ places emphasis on the speaker's mental activity by which they become aware of, identify, and understand something (recognition). It involves perceiving, acknowledging, and comprehending information or stimuli in a way that leads to an understanding or recognition of a particular fact, concept, or situation. からだ, on the other hand, is more direct and simply states the reason without highlighting the speaker's internal thought process. 

The article also states that

納得の形で提示した理由の文、つまり「わけだ」文は「からだ」文に置き換えられるが、その「からだ」文は「わけだ」文が持っているモダリティ的な意味はなく、単なる理由を表す文になってしまう。

Which translates to: 

The statement of reason presented as a form of belief, i.e., the わけだ statement, can be replaced by the からだ statement, but this からだ statement does not have the modality meaning of the わけだ statement and becomes a mere statement of reason. 

"A mere statement of reason" refers to a straightforward and explicit connection between the cause and reason; there's no room for confusion or subjective interpretations. Modality, though, is all about subjective interpretations. For example, in the sentence "I'm late because of traffic," "because of traffic" directly links the cause (traffic) to the effect (being late), making it clear that traffic is the reason for being late. There is a straightforward connection between the two elements. 

Okay, let's leave modality and that linguistic talk and move on to something lighter. However, continue reading this article to find out what is the best possible interpretation of Gojo's  わけ.

A learner-friendly definition of わけ

After many talks with my Japanese teacher, we managed to pinpoint some reasons for using this structure and what speakers want to convey by using it. Our main goal was to determine why in some cases わけ is a much better option than から.  

Let's go back to our Jujutsu Kaisen example:

君の中の宿儺が力を取り戻すために指の在り処を教えてくれる. 君は器である同時に探知機、レーダーでもあるわけだ.   

To regain its power, the Sukuna you consumed will direct you to the whereabouts of the fingers. You are a vessel as well as a radar. (official translation) 

In this case, and as you will see in other examples, わけ most likely conveys: 

general/obvious statement. It means that all parties involved in the conversation share the same knowledge and the speaker just confirms everyone's understanding.

the speaker indirectly (through わけ ) asks "You understand, right?" / "You know what that means, right?"

Gojo realizes that Yuuji has enough information to understand his situation, but may or may not know the implications. Yuuji may not know/be sure what all of this means. 

Gojo first provided Yuuji with a result and then he stated the reason why achieving this result will be possible. This can also give わけ the meaning of "So no wonder why you work like a radar."

In essence, わけ is used when there is shared knowledge about the situation and the speaker reinforces/confirms everyone's understanding, even when not prompted to do so.  If we replace ��け with から, we will end up with a sentence conveying completely new information to Yuuji. The context of this sentence would have to be different as well.  

The original context involves Gojo walking Yuuji around the school and talking to him about the jujutsu world and Yuuji's position in all of this. Yuuji did not ask any questions during their walk, as some things had been explained to him before. 

However, if Yuuji was oblivious to his situation and what having eaten the fingers meant for him and the jujutsu world, Gojo would have to provide him with some dry explanations/facts.   The important factor here is 'being oblivious/not knowing enough'.

Let's replace わけ with から then. 

[...] 君は器である同時に探知機、レーダーでもあるから。

To regain its power the Sukuna you consumed will direct you to the whereabouts of the fingers. Because you are a vessel, a locator as well as a radar. 

In English, it still might make sense, but as I mentioned at the very beginning, わけ is often omitted in translation. In translation, we call such cases 'problems with equivalence', which means that one language has something that the other doesn't have or doesn't use it as often as the first one. If Gojo used から, it would imply that Yuuji didn't know that he was a vessel, that the fingers resonate with each other, and therefore he could be of help to everyone.  The exchange between them could look like this:  Gojo: In order to regain its power the Sukuna you consumed will direct you to the whereabouts of the fingers.   Yuuji:Why? / How come? Gojo: Because you are a vessel, a locator as well as a radar.  Let's analyze another example from Jujutsu Kaisen.  Nobara just joined the team; S01; Ep03

でかい霊園があってさ、廃ビルとのダブルパンチで呪いが発生したってわけ There is a big cemetery, and the double whammy with the abandoned building caused the curse. 

(again, no English equivalent of  わけ)

というわけだ / ってわけだ are just more elaborate ways to express logical conclusions. It's often used with な-adj and nouns. There's a separate section on that, too.

In this case, Gojo gave our main trio two reasons why the curse might have shown up in the abandoned building. The building and the nearby graveyard are those reasons.  

If we were to explain the use of わけ here in linguistic terms, we could say that わけ is used to emphasize that the occurrence of the curse is the logical result of the combination of two factors: the large cemetery and the abandoned building. It suggests that there's a logical connection between these two elements that led to the curse. It also adds a sense of logical inevitability.

However, explaining it through our 'learner-friendly definition' we could say that Gojo used it because: 

all of them share the same knowledge, namely they all know why curses are born and what the combo of an abandoned building and a graveyard means (general/obvious statement). 

It's not like they pulled up to the building oblivious to the world around them, and Gojo had to teach them the basics. Even though they did not ask any questions, he was confirming their understanding of the situation through わけ.

Gojo through わけ also implies something along the lines of  "And as you can see..." or "As you probably already realized..." 

It could also be the case that they immediately realized that the curse was there, but they didn't know why/weren't sure why. Gojo did not waste time, and instead of waiting for their questions, he supplied the missing information himself.

If we modified the sentence with から, it would still indicate that the curse occurred because of the combination of the large cemetery and the abandoned building. However, it would imply that the main trio didn't know that the connection between the curse being there and the vicinity of the graveyard and abandoned building mattered.

The conversation could go like this:  Gojo: There's a curse in this building.  Them: Why?  Gojo: There is a big cemetery, and the double whammy with the abandoned building caused the curse.  One more example from Season 1, Episode 2. 

さすがに特級呪物が行方不明となると―上がうるさくてねえ   観光がてら はせ参じたってわけ 

As one would expect when a special-grade cursed object goes missing, the higher-ups won't shut up, so I stopped by while I was out for some sightseeing.

In this case, 'so' perfectly captures the meaning of わけ, as Stefan Kaiser pointed out in his book. 

A missing special grade cursed object is a big deal and sorcerers shouldn't take such cases lightly, which Gojo points out to Fushiguro, namely "[...] the higher-ups won't shut up."  

Both Gojo and Fushiguro know about it as they belong to this community, which means they share knowledge. 

While Gojo is telling Fushiguro why he came, he isn't providing him with new information. In this case, わけ has the nuance of "So you probably realize why I am here." 

Because they belong to the same community, Fishuguro understands that ignoring special-grade cursed objects isn't the best of actions, and Gojo just reinforces/confirms his understanding.

One example from Season 2, Episode 8 

準備ばっちりってわけだ。

The presence of わけ in this example might not be so clear at first glance. However, the English translations official and unofficial alike somehow manage to capture the meaning of わけ through "I see," which by many learners is instinctively translated to なるほど, though.

As always, we need more context.  

Gojo since entering the Shibuya station began to collect information about the situation. He noticed some things that helped him understand/realize what was going on, namely his opponents (Jogo, Hanami, and Choso) prepared for the fight with him.  

Through わけ, Gojo shows his realization. At the beginning of this article, I mentioned that わけ can be used as a reaction to someone else's statement. In this case, Gojo is not reacting to someone else's words, but to his surroundings. 

In an alternate situation, Jogo or Hanami could also tell him: "Hey! We did this and that!" And Gojo could reply with: "Is that so? It means that you prepared yourself then" (drawing a logical conclusion/natural consequence).

Summary

So let's summarize what we have learned about わけ so far.               

わけ is a modal structure, which means that the statements marked by it aren't facts but opinions/beliefs/thoughts.

It can be used interchangeably with から, but the nuance changes, and in some cases the meaning.

It marks logical conclusions, which by nature aren't hard facts.

It can also be used to give advice or make general statements based on a logical conclusion.

というわけだ is a more formal and elaborate way to provide a conclusion because there are more reasons stated and this helps us summarize everything.  

わけ is used to explain the reason or cause behind something. It helps clarify why a certain situation occurred or why someone did something.

It is often used to provide an explanation or justification.

All parties involved in the conversation share some knowledge / have the same information. 

You can't really use it without context, as opposed to から, which can be used without any context.  

It conveys the nuance of "As you probably already realized..."  or indirectly asks, "You understand, don't you?" 

というわけだ / ってわけだ for restating some facts 

Apart from というわけだ / ってわけだ being a "more elaborate way to mark logical conclusions", it can also be defined as a structure that paraphrases someone else's or your own words. 

わけだ and というわけだ don't really change the meaning of the sentence, but というわけだ is used when the speaker provides more than one reason for something. It is often used with な-adjectives and nouns as opposed to わけだ, which is often seen after verbs. It's not a hard rule, though. 

What does paraphrasing mean and why do we do that?  

Paraphrasing means that you're trying to use your own words to show how you understand someone's statement. You have analyzed someone's statement and you drew a conclusion.

We do it because we are not sure of our understanding; in a way, we're asking our speaker to confirm our understanding. Modal meaning applies here as well.

In the previous examples, Gojo wasn't restating someone else's words. He was the one to introduce the information. 

However, in the example below, Principal Yaga is restating Yuuji's reasons for joining the jujutsu world.  

The interview with Yaga; S01; Ep02

それが呪いの被害となると看過できないというわけか

Yaga just asked Yuuji why he wanted to join the jujutsu high school. Yuuji told him that leaving Sukuna's fingers as they are (unprotected/unsupervised) is dangerous. Yaga drew a conclusion from that, namely: 

JJK; Chapter 3; Viz Media

In this case, we actually have something that is considered the equivalent of というわけだ namely, "So you're telling me that [...]". However, remember that not every "so you're telling me that..." needs to be translated to というわけだ.  

In the very first chapter, the very first thing Fushiguro says to Gojo is, "You're telling me that someone is keeping a special-grade cursed object in a place like this?!" Fushiguro wasn't restating/paraphrasing Gojo's words.

We can assume that before this panel Gojo told Fushiguro: "There's a special-grade cursed object in the outdoor thermometer box." Fushiguro saw it and just repeated Gojo's words in disbelief, it was sort of a quotation.

Translation problems

In the above examples, わけ could be translated to 'so' or 'then,' but the aim of translation is to make sentences in the target language sound as natural as possible. We could rephrase all of them and include 'so' or 'then' or even any other synonyms, but if the context is clear enough, then including extra lexical help is simply redundant.  

Here, we're also dealing with audiovisual translation, where the number of characters in a single line of subtitles matters a lot. Too many words in a single line may hinder the understanding or slow it down and lower the overall experience. And yes, even such short words as 'so' can do it.

Sources

https://briefjapanese.fun/how-to-use-wake/

my Japanese teacher and his native Japanese teacher 

Stefan Kaiser, Japanese: A Comprehensive Grammar (p.285)

[onewomancitadel]

As a preface I just wanted to say that I'm really glad I stumbled on this page; I had dropped RWBY but your analysis and Skimming Eye (which is incredible btw) pulled me back in. I'm curious as to your interpretation of the Paper Pleasers and Jaune (aside from the dad angle, which is kinda fun to think about). I personally saw it as a setup for Jaune's Ascension, allowing him to regain purpose after being disillusioned and return to youth (hopefully with the hair). Thank you for your time.

Yay, enrichment in my containment. Thank you anon. That's very kind of you to say, and thank you for reading my fanfic.

I admit to being delighted it made you watch RWBY again, though I take no responsibility for the emotional damages. tee hee

I don't commit to any premature conclusions; there are a few ways they could play it yet. The idea of rebirth (which Jaune currently rejects) is significant. The set-up right now is that Jaune is old and disillusioned and has lost his life; he's given himself to waiting.

Would you marry a literal rebirth (magical transformation) with a symbolic transformation? Yes, and most prominently - I may be repeating myself here - this is the set-up for other characters in the story (Cinder, Oscar) who will go through the same thing. What happens to him will tell us what to expect with them. Even Penny has already given us the foreshadowing of what may happen to Ozma.

They've set the stage-and-scene, so it's just a matter of following through. Once you consider the evidence (king reborn as a prince) and how that can be followed on through, it does make one wonder. The problem is that the prince doesn't remember his life as the king, but I doubt that will be the case in Jaune's context (and separately in Oscar's, he similarly has 'too much life'). I think the threat he might forget is just to give more narrative weight to whatever twist eventuates.

You might see under my Jaune tag that I've written about rebirth as a theme in his character arc and the connected autumnal imagery, and I still think this is significant with him. So right now, with what they committed to this episode, a depressing resolution is off the cards. I would tentatively assert that. It's not fair he's been alone, it's not fair he's been left in Ever After, we know martyrdom has been rejected with him, right now he's terrified of rebirth and change and confronting who he really is, so that is the organic direction to take him. It's just how that's in question, so then you need to start asking practical questions.

Of course, as I remarked briefly in an errant post, if it's as simple as a magical fruit that makes him old, it may not be all that complicated. The psychological journey is the hard part. Practically whatever form it eventuates will convey the ideas we need.

Right now Jaune and Ruby are most closely going through separate awakenings to spiritual aridity. So his transformation is probably going to happen in respect to hers. That's at least how I would tie it, and how it's been tied so far. What does that tell us about the things they'll have to do, and the ideological evolution of them both? I really think it's an exciting direction to take them, especially depending on future narrative developments. What heroes do they want to be? What do they have to confront to understand themselves, and the people around them? How do they accept the pain of being truly alive?

I agree: hopefully with the hair. I think that if they did keep that, honestly, it would visually represent a merging of him then and now. No exaggeration, when they revealed his new hair back during V7 I was like, oh okay they've abandoned Jaune because this makes him look like a joke, and I don't know if this happens to be a course correction in response to that, but it is conceptually interesting. It's possible to twist that into something meaningful, anyway, if I were writing by the seat of my pants.

My summary of how much has changed regarding his character this episode: really I think this has struck the possibility he won't be saved off the books, and a physical transformation to represent a symbolic idea is clever. Then you get the interesting interplay of an older character who's also young, which is like Oscar, with an experience which has alienated but also empowered him. Suffice it to say, it sets up a lot narratively. Who else has been alone, tormented, and isolated for that long?

[katie5000]

Ok, here's episode 7 from OP's blog. This one didn't piss me off quite as much.

One comment was on how Wolfwood and Vash don’t need to become friends since it is Wolfwood’s job to take Vash to Knives.  That is totally correct - however, the ‘98 anime and manga both make it a point that Wolfwood and Vash become friends as it adds to their character development.

And I still think they're gonna go in this direction. Be patient. There's three or four episodes left, at least in this season.

The episode starts off with everyone panicking as the Sandsteamer is off course and under attack.  And it is heading straight for Hopeland.  Cue Wolfwood panic even further!  The map labels the Hopeland Orphanage but the dialogue indicates it is also a town.

There was a small town at the base of the cliff in the prior episode's flashback.

Honestly, it would have been best to label it as the town of Hopeland and note it has an orphanage through context than making that the key landmark.

That's fair.

The original stated that the Church orphanage is located 300 iles from December according to Wolfwood.

It did. But again, this series is not that series.

Again, the fight sequence between Wolfwood and Livio is brutal and the July MPs remark that the two of them are monsters.

Well, yeah. What would you think if you grew up knowing nothing about Lost Tech or weird cults, and then found yourself watching two men with overpowered guns shoot the shit out of each other only to immediately heal themselves right after? They understandably noped the fuck out of there.

While this is happening, the Bad Lads gang is raiding the Sand steamer and not really doing that much honestly.  They are doing a hit and run.  No B.D.N. - personal sadness.

I have to admit, I was also disappointed that he wasn't there. I thought for sure that there would be a standoff between he and Vash while Wolfwood fought with Livio.

We had more 2D flashbacks about them and Wolfwood is resolved to take him out by insulting him and pretending him like he does care.

You mean "pretending like he doesn't care." Otherwise this sentence makes no sense.

Anyway, Wolfwood is trying to steel his resolve to do something that he doesn't want to do, but feels he has to do.

...when he goes to shoot him at point blank range, his shot is knocked off course and destroys Zazie’s monitoring insect. This is where he turns to Vash in shock, since this is one of the few times Vash has fired his gun in the entire series...

And now that Wolfwood knows that the insect was there, it becomes clear to him why Livio was there - meeting him was no coincidence.

Vash keeps pushing him to try to find a way to connect with Livio...

And Wolfwood listens. Wolfwood watches Livio change the magazine in his gun using a characteristic flick of his wrist. There is a flashback that shows kid Wolfwood doing this same thing with a cigarette lighter to show off for kid Livio. Kid Livio is impressed and attempts it himself, but can't do it. In the present, Wolfwood takes out his cigarette lighter and flips it the same way, in an attempt to connect with Livio again. It works, at least partially.

But all of the brainwashing from the Eye of Michael kicks in and he staggers about pointing his guns at Roberto, Meryl, Vash and Wolfwood . . . before he snaps and shoots himself in the head and falls off the steamer.

Okay, I have to admit this shocked me the first time I saw it.

Wolfwood is clearly concerned and looks over the railing and notices a car that he knows is likely Legato and others. 

..."Clearly concerned?" Wolfwood is freaking distraught - even he's not sure that Livio could heal from a head wound. But yeah, he sees that car, and that just confirms that none of it was coincidence.

Legato...state[s] that Wolfwood’s ‘lack of faith’ is an issue and in order to get him to serve Knives better they need to destroy everything he cares about; Livio and the orphanage. Once Wolfwood no longer has these important connections, it will be no problem to control him...

Jesus Christ, OP, and you were saying just last week that you missed Legato's sadistic tendencies. Well, there they are.

...In the last episode we already had Legato establish that this version of Wolfwood has a very strong will and attachment to others...

And this is what Legato is trying to break. Legato had nothing as a broken man himself until Knives came along, and then Knives became his everything. Now he assumes that if he can get Wolfwood into a state where he has absolutely nothing as a broken man, then he will make Knives his everything as well.

What is throwing me for a loop is that Legato is the ‘religious’ one in this version.  That was squarely Wolfwood’s thing in the manga and ‘98 anime.

Not necessarily. In Trimax, Legato says that when Knives spared him and allowed him to tag along after destroying the town he lived in, he was "born anew" or "born again" - an interesting choice of words.

He seems to (based on his dialogue) believe that faith in something is greater than emotions.  Yet, in this episode, we do get some actual anger from him in his voice as well as a more sinister facial expression indicating our bad boy has emotions.

Legato wants to believe that his faith is all he needs, and that everything else (including emotion) is unimportant. But I would imagine that from time to time he "slips" and his emotions get the better of him - he is not as "devout" as he'd like to be.

(Incidentally, this is probably the "good word" that Legato talks about wanting to spread - if one just has enough faith, one doesn't need anything else anymore. Not emotions, not attachments, not anything. However, this line of thinking only serves to betray Legato's underlying trauma and mental instability.)

He seems to be going through somewhat villain motions...

What do you mean, "somewhat"?? He's absolutely going through "villain" motions. Everything he's done so far has been villainous.

I’m also missing his Knives worship.  We have no indication that he’s a man craving validation from a person he’s obsessed with.  Granted, we didn’t get that early on either, but he made it clear he was there for Knives’ agenda.

I mean, he's made that clear here, too. Legato outright states in the previous episode that Wolfwood will be the "Punisher" of heretics in Knives' noble plan, and you even said yourself, OP, that Legato is trying to destroy everything Wolfwood cares about so that he will serve Knives better.

As for Knives worship, well. The official website quite literally states in Legato's character profile that he worships Knives like a god - just because we haven't seen it yet doesn't mean it's not there at all. I have a feeling that we'll be seeing Legato interact more directly with Knives soon.

Part 2.

[sakuraswordly]

Drafts: Pit and Naminé our precious children.

Peter: You're a naughty one. How come you don't listen to your mother?

Pit: But the reason why we always escape some situations is because of my mother.

Gilgamesh: Pit, I heard that!

Peter: *chuckles*

Pit: But whenever someone is ill, Big Sister, Punch always goes to cure the person, so people or many lives look for her.

Peter: When Punch sees someone cry and says no one needs them, she wants to tell them that's not true. She will be there for them; that's who Punch is.

Peter: You don't like it?

Pit: It's not that I don't like it....

Peter: Then?

Pit: Punch......my mother prevents me and Naminé from going there.

Peter: It's because Punch and I are worried. When PUNCH and Punch were young they made mistakes.

Pit: And the reason why they lost so much was because of the burden they shared, I understand.

Peter: But listen to us anyway, I don't want to lose you again. Even though you're once Aithusa who was treated by Morgana, Morgana also worries about you. She's afraid that you might turn out that way as well.

Pit: Yes sir.....!

.

Pit: *Nervous that Punch's still mad at him*

Punch: *Gazing eyes at Pit with a happy smile makes Pit's happy*

Pit: Mother, why a fish can't close its eyes? Don't every fish go to sleep like us?

Punch: That's correct. Fish don't have eyelids like humans do, so they can't close their eyes. Instead of eyelids, most fish have a protective membrane that covers and protects their eyes. This membrane is often transparent, so it doesn't obstruct their vision. Since fish live in aquatic environments, their eyes are adapted to help them see clearly underwater, and they don't need to close them to sleep or rest like land animals do. Some fish might "rest" by becoming less active or by going into a more stationary state, but their eyes remain open the whole time.

.

Punch: I'm going before both Pit and Naminé wake up. I can be at ease after I come back.

Gilgamesh: You can take Mulder or Scully with you but I guess that's not necessarily huh....

Punch: I'm sorry for spending all of your treasure on medical treatments.

Gilgamesh: *Nod* You know what Pit said to me.

Punch: What did he say?

Gilgamesh: "Stop pretending to be nice and just work!"

Punch: *Laugh* I'm a lazy one you know. I....I miss all of them.....

Gilgamesh: Go quick. If Pit wakes up, he'll start fretting again. His stubbornness is exactly like Peter's.

Peter: Gil! I heard that!

Punch: *Laugh* See you soon!

Peter: Gil......about Naminé.

Gilgamesh: Huh......she WHAT?!

.

Naminé: Big sister, Punch!

Punch: What?! How come don't you listen to me?!

Naminé: You don't listen to me either!

Punch: *Soft laugh* so do you dislike me?

Naminé: Oh no! Our mother is the best in the whole world!

Punch: Hehe don't you mean Peter?

Naminé: No, it's you, Ma'am!

Punch: *Chuckle*just a sugar word....

Naminé: What's a sugar word?

Punch: A "sugar word" is a term that refers to words or phrases that are sweet, pleasant, or endearing, often used to convey affection, warmth, or sweetness in communication. The term can be applied to language that is deliberately chosen for its charm or emotional appeal, such as calling someone "honey," "sweetheart," "darling," or "love." These words are typically used in intimate, affectionate, or romantic contexts and serve to make the interaction feel more personal or caring. In another sense, "sugar words" can refer to language that is overly sweet or flattering, sometimes to the point of being insincere or manipulative. In this case, the sweetness of the words is intended to influence or persuade the listener in a subtle way

.

Punch: Naminé. What are you going to be when you grow up enough?

Naminé: Be like you!

Punch: Like me?

Naminé: Yes, a mother who's pretty and has so many talented uses to save many lives and be a great leader like you!

Punch: Then Mr Gilgamesh would be disappointed.

Naminé: That's too bad! I'm a girl so I cannot be like my king.

Punch: *Laugh*

*Thump Thump*

Naminé: Big sister, Punch, hide me!

Punch: Huh? What's wrong?

Naminé: Hurry!

Punch: Oh.....*Chuckle*

Gilgamesh: Naminé had disappeared! Peter and I couldn't find her! Punch. Did you know-

Naminé: My king!

Gilgamesh: Why you...?! You should've told me if you were going?!

Naminé: Then you and big brother Peter wouldn't have let me go!

Gilgamesh: What a cheeky one huh?! Come here!

*Laugh*

Gilgamesh: I should ask "our mother" to acupuncture you so you can listen well.

Naminé: Really?

Gilgamesh: If Punch does it one more time just acupuncture her!

Punch: Yes.

Naminé: I'm sorry my king. I won't do it again! Our mother wouldn't do that, would you?

*Laugh*

Naminé: Why acupuncture is so important?

Gilgamesh: Acupuncture is a traditional medicine practice that involves inserting thin needles into specific points on the body to stimulate energy flow, or "Qi" . The goal is to restore balance and promote natural healing.

Punch: The weirdest is your items are all gold!

Gilgamesh: Oh shut up! I made by myself you know! You should be proud!