#had a conversation abt who might die

[lenny-zesty]

place your bets nerds.

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[yellowymellon]

my crippling obsession with Elio is back at it again so here's some takes and theories

i think elio's main strength isnt his curse/blessing to see the future but his monster ability to analyze the situation accordingly and read people's emotions/thoughts. Since his ability only allows him to see the multiple possibilities of the future, that means he still has to maneuver his human resources optimally on his own.

He seems to be great at mind games, knows how to read people's hearts as sam said, and appears to be a pragmatist who doesn't mind sacrifice. i mean we're talking abt the guy who foresaw the crisis of the luofu long before the matrix could ever and did nothing, the one who orchestrated the fall of Jepella Brotherhood so that the Annihilation Gang succeeds it only for them to fall too and allow acheron into penacony, the one who foresaw sunday's plan and only acted last minute. all because the time had to be right.

and ofc i'm going to mention his concept art, i know it was a deal breaker for many but personally? I LOVE IT. A master manipulator hiding behind high trusting features and his young age? i know this point of view goes both ways but i think him being young (by anime logic he looks YA to me) actually adds more depth. Elio has always been fascinating exactly because he's mysterious, there's many possibilities to what he's truly like. A boy who witnessed the demise of the universe in nearly every possibility, doomed by fate yet fights against it. does he curse his powers? does he feel obliged to go through all this? or does he latch into that tiny hope he saw? does he not care for the innocent or is he like kevin who realized sacrifice is a must?

i also initially expected him to be an older man but im used to young anime prodigies lol if anything him being younger sets him for doom and tragedy.

Aside from his physical appearance, i think we all agree that Elio is the black cat, but lemme cook here....im 100% sure (would be funny if im wrong) that Elio doesnt physically move from his HQ. why? cuz they always avoid mentioning his appearance. not when he recruited kafka nor with SW, the only 2 so far that elio personally recruited.

"A man, a woman, a metal humanoid, and..."

"There is a chance she will stop to investigate the can. Then, take the chance to throw this ball at her feet. I will take over and converse with her from there. "

in kafka's case it's implied that elio would converse with her through the ball, and it also further implies that elio works with 'contractors' who arent part of the SH, some speculate the rest of the umbrellas on kafka's splashart might be them.

also, this is too funny to pass so ill put it here :

"There is also a chance that Kafka will ignore the can. In that case, just throw the ball away. You will die, but death will come for everyone. As for the future that you yearn for - I will realize it."

heck i even believe the rest of SH dont know what elio looks like. it makes sense that elio would be cautious and hide his identity, he even uses another alias. this world has factions that can manipulate and access memories after all.

About his powers...idk why there's this misconception in the fandom? but we can simply conclude from kafka who's the second in command and the only other person to swear loyalty to elio that both of them do not believe in a predetermined fate.

actually nvm i know where the confusion comes from, it's the script. how the script works is still a mystery but in kafka's companion question she answers by a no (truth) to whether fate is predetermined, that alone is the answer to elio's belief. if else why would he waste his time trying to change a fate that cannot be altered? So he's lying to his companions now? kafka says his powers see the many possibilities of choices that merge to make the present. i dont think the script is part of his powers but just his compiled knowledge of the actions ppl will take, and many of those choices and actions converge to create the same result, therefore there's a fate that can't be escaped and that is the script, and that's the only destiny that exists.

now in the SU, there's an interesting occurrence :

Fuli adresses us as Elio even though we are akivili in the SU, this lead to theories abt elio being akivili but i'd beg to differ. fuli also addresses us as nanook. so are we saying nanook is akivili and elio? i think this links fuli with elio more than anything and here's how :

We know that elio is trying to kill nanook, and to that he created TB with the help of an unknown aeon. Elio's powers might seem like they're a gift from terminus, the aeon of finality, elio could have the identity of an omen vanguard, but his design just like sunday's has some Order elements, making him a potential follower of the order. Fuli being on Elio's side makes sense. there's no way elio can know of ppl's existances in this very vast universe solely from watching intertwined fates. SW only caught his attention after she proved herself against screwllum, meaning he isnt able to know of everyone. and his ability doesnt allow him to peak to the past, so he cannot possibly be aware of everyone's deep desires right? thus fuli granting him their memories allows him to understand better how to reach out to them. let's take sunday's letter as example, how is elio aware of the dove and how much it meant to sunday?

i think fuli's message means something along the lines of time is running out. on the other occasion of fuli's appearance they show us a memory of kafka hmmmm

but wait! it gets better. i was reading fu xuan's lore and i couldn't believe the extra possibility, here's this :

"The girl did not open her eyes, yet she could already see the world around her condense into solid form from nebulous mist, see all possibilities fade and leave behind the solitary, absolute, and faultless "choice." "

isnt this awfully similar? indeed there's differences in their powers and how they use them. fu xuan uses the eye to see the one true possibility from all the others, with it she can keep exploring the many possibilities, this at least is very alike.

do you realize what that means? nous actually isnt just a space robot, they cook, they cook too good and they might be the one on elio's side which is CRAZY to say the least. if fuli can help elio see the past and know of things he otherwise cant know, then nous would be able to do the same because they know everything there's in the world, and can help modify TB to store the stellaron. ISNT IT CRAZY?? MAH BOI IS FAVORED! but that only convinces me that terminus is more and more useless lolz

also we see fu xuan possesing a third eye, in elio's case his eyes are totally changed, unworldly.

think it's worth mentioning that fu xuan isnt able to see TB's future meanwhile elio is able to and even a supposedly unreliable heliobi :

this isnt the first time we were compared to nanook or told that we will ascend i just don't have the proof lol, with that in mind what does elio want to accomplish? maybe TB was created in naook's image? from their memories? so that someday we overtake them...maybe Elio might've created a person who wouldn't deviate from his script to ensure their ascension. Kafka never told us the 3rd way to kill an aeon .

On another hand ppl are speculating that the one who talks in the dreamscape pass is elio, im not sure abt that tbh...they mentioned aha twice for me to think it might be sampo lol but elio makes sense, and if it's truly him then oh god he is silly lolol

some also say the voice of narrator at the end of penacony might be elio since CN recognized the va, i play in jp and i think it was shimono hiro? i was like this is too popular of a va to be giving to a narrator TT

Also it seems like some plot points are inspired from a game called ghost trick (IT'S GREAT!! AND I FEEL RLY EMPTY INSIDE) once I finished it I finally understood something that I didn't before, what it meant for terminus to go to the past to recite the prophecy of the future. Not spoilers dw

anyways i feel so much better now ty for reading all the way!

[nnnyxie]

BAE I‘M ABT TO ABSOLUTELY GO OFFFFFFG

So Fan!Izu is also plaguing my mind… Fan!izu x Artist!reader?? Imagine??? It starts in maybe middleschool…Izu discovers Readers Art account full of All might and they connect over their shared love for him…this friendship thing continues for a few years but they loose contact when reader deletes their art blog seemingly out of nowhere…so then there‘s a time skip until he’s a pro and Reader has a rather successful gallery of exclusively hero paintings…feeling themselves drawn to Deku (crazyyy imagine that) and painting him all the time…an especially big painting of Deku alongside Allmight is being displayed by them right now..clearly visible through a huge window in the front of the building

So now the fun part

Izu is on Patrol, or even better in a heavy fight, he swings by while doing god knows what and spots the painting and suddenly the world stops, he recognized this style…everything comes clashing back on him, the late nights of talking and making up theories about all might and all the intimate conversations they shared…how they opened up to eachother and everything, while he is distracted the villain gets in a nasty hit

Reader being the hero fanatic they are has been following the fight hidden inside (has no idea that Izu is their ex online friend situating thing) conveniently possesses a healing quirk and quickly rushes outside..maybe recovery girls grand child or something (YOU SEE WHERE THIS IS GOINGGG???) but their quirk works a little ✨different✨so they have to kiss him specifically on the lips and as soon as their eyes meet they just pause and stare, both their eyes widening

But they have no time to process this- as there is still a villain going about their shenanigans so reader Just smashes their lips together and Izu goes to fight and win and bam reunion

I be writing whole fics in your Requests I don’t even know what to do with myself😭

I’m sorry🫶🏻

#𖢥 izuku anon

IZU ANONNNN I LOVE THIS AND I LOVE YOU!!!!

this is such a beautiful idea!! i want to eat you!!! /pos

you were fairly small in the art community back in middle school— which resulted in little to no commissions.

but— there was this one boy who absolutely ADORED all of your all might fan art!! after you finished one drawing for him, he’d commission another.

you had to let him know that he’s allowed to basically buy in bulk— plus the bulk prices wouldn’t tear up his wallet!! though— he was always happy to pay you extra. he insisted, even.

with all of these interactions, it led to a friendship!! you would talk about all might’s recent battles, general interests, school, etc. of course, you never brought up quirks. you felt that there was no reason to! plus yours was…….. interesting, to say the least.

the friendship started at the beginning of middle school and lasted until the end of it.. before you just,,, disappeared.

and you went years without talking— years without the video chats and voice memos. years without the hero conspiracy theories. years without late night embarrassing stories. just— years without each other.

he didn’t know why you left and it hurt him. he mourned for years over the loss of your friendship. why didn’t you tell him you were leaving? why didn’t you try to contact him again? what happened? were you hurt? did you… die? he cried over this.

and he had fantasies of meeting you again one day. he made up scenarios of him saving you from danger— or of him just randomly running into you while he was patrolling during his work studies. or you just finding him. he’d fall asleep to these, hoping that they’d come true.

one lucky (sort of?) day, izuku was thrown through your gallery— glass shards flew everywhere.

for a moment, you paused. everything disappeared and it was as if only he existed. “izuku?” you whispered. his previously closed eyes shot open.

he looked at you— he looked— surprised? hurt? happy? confused? it was like he was going through the five stages of greif except— instead of greif it’s whatever the hell that’s going on between you two.

izuku rushed to get up but, he couldn’t— he could hardly sit up. he was bleeding an awful lot.

“don’t get up! you’re hurt!” you kneeled and pushed him to lay down. “where have you— what?” he held his injury, there was a large piece of steel in his side. “i said don’t get up! you have a damn piece of steel in your side izu!” you panicked— should you take it out and heal him? but that would— oh god that would be embarrassing. but, it’d save him… maybe you should just suck it up and do it?

“bite on this.” you reached for the silk painting next to you and shoved it in his mouth. his eyes widened, realizing what you were about to do. you pulled the steel out of him and watched the blood nearly gush out—

you leaned close to him, were you really going to do this? i mean— it’s part of your quirk so, it shouldn’t be weird, right? and, even so, it’s just a kiss. a kiss on the lips. a kiss that would definitely make an already weird situation,,, weirder… but, it’s to help— so you just suck it up.

“i’m sorry,” you took the silk from his mouth and kissed him— the kiss was longer than what your quirk called for… but, extra measures??? yeah……..

his injury healed quick, thankfully. there was still fighting outside. the villain’s yells caught izuku’s attention. realizing that he was, in fact, still taking down a bad guy with his partners. “i’m going to be back. don’t disappear again. please?” you nodded.

and just like he said— he was back. it was past dark now, your window was able to be restored by a sidekick with a reversal quirk. he was happy to see that. “hi,” was all izuku said when he walked through the door. he looked both anxious and excited. “hi,” you breathed out, this was kind of scary.

he looked around your gallery while making his way towards you. there were various portraits of himself. ranging from traditional, digital, abstract, realism, mosaic, and silk. he was both flattered and impressed.

he reached you and stared. taking in the fact that you were actually here.

“why did you leave?” izuku asked after a long silence.

“well it’s not like i wanted to… art was just something my parents didn’t want me to do… and they took it all away, i guess.” he frowned a bit, how could a parent not support their child’s ambitions? it appalled him that they didn’t.

“did you try finding me again?” he asked. he remembers the countless hours he spent searching for you. “i did and— i was able to find you.” “then why didn’t you reach out?” his face, his expression— it was gut wrenching. “i thought you would’ve hated me so i just… didn’t.” he looked bewildered. as if you just said something so heinous and unforgiving. “i wouldn’t— i wouldn’t have hated you,” izuku’s eyes were watery. “i’m sorry, izu.” he shook his head no, “i understand, okay? you don’t need to apologize.” he sniffled.

the tension was nearly suffocating— you didn’t know how to respond. i mean— what do you say to that?

izuku noticed the obvious anxiety you had.

“so uhm… deku is a cool hero, from what i’ve heard,” he joked. then you remembered the multiple pieces you had of him— you wanted to die.

“oh god,” you groaned in embarrassment and covered your face. izuku smiled and uncovered your face, “your art is really amazing.” was he trying to kill you? like— his smile?? he’s so pretty??? how can a guy be so pretty?? genuinely, he’s so much prettier in real life than in pictures— it’s ridiculous.

“uhm how about we catch up? maybe over uhm dinner tomorrow?” izuku asked, his face was flushed red— again, he’s ridiculously pretty. “i’d love that.”

[horizon-verizon]

Phoebe Campbell saying about Baela and Rhaena “There’s a little bit of tension because of their separate upbringings, Baela was raised with grandma & grandpa, Rhaena by stepmom and half siblings. Rhaena feels quite a lot of resentment there.”

So... that garbage fanfic wants to put the dragon twins against each other ?? They aren’t Arya and Sansa, Baela and Rhaena actually love each other, and unlike Sansa, Baela never bullied her sister. And why would Rhaena resent the fact that she had to live with her stepmom and half siblings ??

This is if--and only IF--Phoebe is correct in how the show will decide to characterize Rhaena, and since they literally acted the character, shot all the scenes, and haven't gone on record with bad takes, I think we don't have much a reason to suspect otherwise.

Link to the article that came out today and what anon refers to:

BranwynHlfwitch over at Twitter has a whole thread pointing out other stuff how Ryan Condal has never had a great grasp on the plot or really of history & historians.

I think that part of it is they are trying to develop these characters for their larger roles they're planning during the Dance & the way they decided to go about that is to create conflict b/t the fan fav sisters. And I think they might try to to argue or imply that she is resentful bc of not just second-son syndrome, but basically Baela was picked by their grandparents to be closer and let Rhaena be. Why not both of them, if they are already seeming to break tradition? It will likely folow the theme of silent rejection the show allows the audience to quickly assume from episode 6, where Rhaena bemoans Daemon ignoring her bc of her not hatching an egg...which I already talked about.

Baela--for a very dumb reason--becomes the "ward" of the Velaryons & Rhaenys wants Corlys to name Baela as his heir...presumably without consulting Daemon, the girl's father or Viserys, the head of the house Baela is actually a part of and who would determine how his house's possible heirs inherit what over other candidates...bc Baela & Rhaena are both technically still in line for the throne though they aren't titled as princesses. Just way down and the claims would get stronger the more people before them die...which we already see in the bk.

Anyway, Baela is seemingly older than Rhaena instead of being her twin as by canon; she has a dragon where Rhaena does not; she is, bc she is older, taken to Driftmark to learn the ways of a leader as if she might become the head of a house or whatever even though we also know that Corlys has definitely not named her his heir by his & Rhaenys' conversation in the last episode (so for 6 years why is Baela there without being named when they could just visit each other--her and Rhaenys--by ship and dragonback [pic below] idk, the spectacle of it?).

And while Rhaena loved her dad, loved her stepsiblings/1st cousins-once-removed & I believe that Rhaenyra was a great stepmother to her, because the show did not show us their lives, they will take advantage of that and present us with a lot of stuff like this--breaking lore and going along with the breakage to build their own tale but also sometimes not showing a logical progression from that point of breakage [again, lok to the link abt cradle-bonding].

Yes, there's the argument that Daemon is merely worried over Rhaena's being singled put and left out or belittled, sidelined, for not having a dragon as he felt being a second son/child even with his dragon...but again, look to my post about cradle-bonds and the history of dragon bonds he supposedly knows and it becomes still dumb when he still ends up doing the very thing he's supposed to have feared for his daughter, to her.

Would it have helped if the writers actually developed these people's lives before the Dance and actually think through their plot decisions if they planned to make Rhaena-Daemon's deal this, absolutely! But we have what we have.

Show!Rhaena could come to just resent her sister for all this perceived favoritism.

I may be wrong, who knows.

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

the beach conversation is insane actually im always being so mean to 13 for how closed off she is but it's insane what she does here like "ive never been able to", "it's what my life is", "not because i dont want to"

shes like sorry yaz i cant give you much but lets play doctors and students and reenact the anatomy lesson dr nicolaes tulp you be the doctor and the students and i'll be the body hang on let me hold up a lamp so you can see what we're doing

shes like sorry yaz i cant give you much i locked my hearts in this rusty vault and lost the keys but if i had a spare i would give you it i swear i promise i know thats not enough but i'd give it to you

"i cant fix myself" is how she starts. "i'll be fine, in the end, hopefully" she says like an hour after regenerating after describing just how much it fucks her up and how scary it is and how painful and how much of a gamble, really, how much of a leap of faith and hoping for the best, hoping for that net to appear because if it doesnt......... theres no backup

are you alright, doctor? are you okay? yaz has asked a hundred times without getting an answer. and now she finally does and it seems to recontextualise every dodge that has come before. stop asking, it's not the end yet, theres still time, a little more patience, i will figure it out, i will be able to give you a yes eventually im sure of it.

but now it is the end, regeneration looms again, time is running out, and this endlessly delayed answer sounds like a resignation. i cant do it. not in time. maybe not ever. but definitely not before the plane crashes and i take you down with me. i broke the universe and i cant fix it. it's too late. i dawdled too much.

and what this could have been, but isnt, because neither of them take it this way, think of it this way, because theyre too much alike, and not like this at all, but what this could have been, in intention and reception, is a request for help. i give up, i cant figure this out, but can you? the doctor doesnt mean this, and yaz has always been too attentive to the limits, too respectful of the doctor's boundaries (from "who, me? no. never doubted. don't know what you mean" in ghost monument to "can we just live in the present") to misinterpret it this way. so theyre on the same page. a page, as always, decided on by the doctor. but it does make the perfect set up for the finale

because i do think, sort of, that yaz fixed it. not you know the millennia of trauma but the specific inability of 13 to trust people. the clara/river/missy/bill my-friends-die-or-are-not-what-they-seem-or-both cant-hold-anyones-hand-but-my-own inability to trust her friends are her friends and they will not like explode into gore and viscera if she touches them (which now that ive said it i bet is what she has nightmares about. perfect match with what i think yaz has nightmares about which is the doctor exploding into gore and viscera and not being able to do anything abt it. actually the best idea i think ive ever written abt what yaz has nightmares about is "or you take off your coat and youre wearing dynamite", but i digress) that, i think yaz sort of fixes when she saves the doctor and saves the world and i think if 13 had lived she'd have trusted yaz after that in a way she couldnt before and maybe even that realisation of "you saved my life" in that weird malleable state of post-pseudoregeneration might have had a hand in why 14 is the way he is

[neko-chans-teashop]

Theories for Obey me! Nightbringer

These are from pages of my journal, which I posted a bit earlier.

• The Demon King

So basically People keeps talking abt Solomon being MC's replacement, Barbatos, Diavolo, blah blah blah. So We theorize that this might be a while during after the fall right?? And who gave the brothers their titles? The Demon King of course. He might make an appearance, and I'm looking forward to it more than Lilith.

• Raphael

If Raphael is the 3rd Celestial Realm exchange student, why isn't there a human one? Raphael's purpose might be to watch and observe Simeon, to avoid him from turning against the Celestial Realm. The reason why Simeon might rebel against the Celestial Realm is in my next theory.

• Simeon being demoted

Most people talk about Simeon being demoted from Seraphim to Archangel, so I'm gonna give my theory about that. Simeon was close to Lucifer and his brothers, so maybe he stood up for them. He might've had a conversation with Michael about making them stay, or something like that. This also might be why he was demoted, to avoid his reputation being tarnished if he ever fell. Of course the Celestial Realm didn't want another Seraphim to fall right? If he stood up for the brothers, his chance for turning against the Celestial Realm is big.

• Solomon and Barbatos

Solomon has been mentioned to have Barbatos' grimoire, which allows him to have complete control over Barbatos. Maybe Solomon controls Barbatos more than Diavolo. If Solomon is the big bad here, then that would be likely bc of their bigger roles here in Nightbringer.

• Thirteen

Thirteen is a Reaper, a creature that watched over the Life Candles of humans, angels, and demons. It is mentioned that she once cause Beel's life candle to burn a bit faster and almost extinguish. Maybe Thirteen, or another reaper was involved in a plot that made them related to Lilith's death, such as extinguishing or causing Lilith's candle to burn faster.

• Lilith's Death

Beel said that Lilith was shot by an arrow, which caused her to die (if I remember correctly) She had extreme injuries, but since she is an angel, she could've healed it. Since her brothers are high ranking angels, she could be one too. But her life was hanging by a thread. Maybe a reaper was involved and worsened Lilith's injuries by making her candle burn faster, and it was all predicted that she would go to Devildom and such.

Those are all my theories, just to clear my head.

[ottoslab]

not to be extremely predictable abt the characters i ask abt but do you imagine any of the p7 are still around during or right before the future au? i know they are. Old. but i always am fond of the concept of like the old folks helping out at the camp after pn2.

Im always so very tossed up about how and If the p7 are still around during the aac timeline . But for the sake of “it would be funny if,” I will simply say they Are. (And ramble more about the thoughts ive had about a couple that might Not be and Why under a cut bc its kind of depressing)

Otto will never die and will never leave the Motherlobe much to Hollis and Truman’s dismay. The older he gets the more powerful he gets. He continues to contribute, arguably with increasing efficiency, but as each year passes he gets less and less concerned about getting caught doing things outside of the parameters of Psychonauts rules. “What are you gonna do? Fire me? Lmao” *goes back to working on his death beam that he just made because it was funny.*

I have this hc that at some point Sam makes it her mission to renovate the Lumberstack Diner as the Questionable Area? becomes more profitable over the years. And i think Compton working as a cook there would be a nice little job for him to have while in retirement. Cooking is like the one type of stress he can handle i think. Hes so so scared but in the comfort of something familiar so its less likely to cause him to start blowing things up.

Bob and Helmut deserve a nice little retirement home and I think theyre the primary residents of the Gulch (next to maybe Cassie and Compton?) They supervise (re: sometimes run into and chat with) Raz and his team who have basically taken up their own residence in the Gulch. Perks of being teammates with agent Aquato and Zanotto is that you dont have to resort to dormitories.

I’m not sure what’s up with Cassie! I don’t think she’s doing much either, probably also sticking around the Gulch. Though i think through the support of the others she at least gets Slightly more involved with the Psychonauts or going out into towns to do book signings so that she doesn’t become a complete and total recluse again.

I think Ford and Lucy are out traveling a lot while they’ve still got the time to. Making up for a whole lotta lost time n all that, giving each other time to talk and jazz. They’re not around a lot but they visit often!

Ok. And a very specific less sweet outcome for Ford and Lucy under the cut

When i run through which characters it would be like. Narratively “Best” to have passed away around the AAC timeline, my mind always immediately jumps to these two. Like obviously I think some characters would be more likely to have died before them (looking at you my friend Bob) or ones that could be more impactful in other directions (Cassie and Compton having to learn to exist without one another) but considering their last narrative experiences in Pn2 was finding each other again for the first time in years, it feels like any of those four (Bob, Helmut, Cassie, Compton) passing away would just be a disservice to prior storytelling. And Otto will never die, as I’ve said, so don’t even worry about him <3

I just think a lot about a story in which Ford and Lucy pass on before Raz can ever really reconcile any of his issues he had with either of them. A story in which he’s happy to see them getting along and traveling together, but every time they leave he holds his breath and counts down the days until they make it back and he can guarantee they’re still alive and he goes “This time, this time I’ll say something,” and then he doesn’t because how do you even bring up that conversation after all this time.

And then eventually they pass and it’s almost poetic, really, going at around the same time. But he never got to say anything to them, never got to reconcile and barely got a goodbye. And now he has to learn how to deal with that. How to deal with the fact that they’re still everywhere, in True Psychic Tales issues, on murals, on old pictures, inherently buried in the history of the psychonauts.

And i dont know. I think it’s an interesting story to explore. In a hypothetical real Psychonauts future story, you enter the story with some characters trying to question Raz about something theyre worried about that he always cuts off or dodges before you get to hear, but the lack of any mention of Ford or Lucy is so absent that it’s palpable. Stuff like that.

[therealslimshakespeare]

my dearest darlingest marina i need you to know you have broken me quite thoroughly and i might never ever forgive you for it as long as we both shall live ! ❣️

to clarify- ive been saving "let's fall out of love" to read later ever since you posted it cuz i didn't feel ready- didn't think i was emotionally stable enough to read it then. well, tonight ive been clearing out my list of unread fics from last year aND GODDAMN WAS I EVER RIGHT ABOUT THAT.!!!

started getting all weepy and shaky before that first courthouse bathroom conversation and i didn't ever stop 😭 sobbed so hard and for so long at the unfairness of it all (for both of them !) i gave myself an asthma attack and had to stop reading.. what really broke me was e's bittersweet and somewhat detached realization on the courthouse steps that all their kids had flocked to laney during the divorce. couldn't stop thinking abt how badly i would've wanted to tell jesse off for being sharp to his daddy, and the knowledge that elaine COULDN'T, that it wasn't quite over yet and she still had to save face for a bit longer despite how much it killed them both, despite being the only person who could truly understand just how deep elvis was hurting right then and having been the one who'd made a whole life out of loving him hard.......... the idea of him resigning himself to having lost that forever (false) and her having to go against everything in her nature to let him ache a while longer,, oh it just shattered my spirit to bits right then and there. oh god im gonna start crying again just thinking about how lonely they both made each other 💔💔💔

im literally inconsolable, even with the reasoning behind it/ knowing how it ends beforehand, and having those future timeline fics to fall back on did nOT SAVE ME like . dear GOD woman how is that even possible?!?? if i had any shred of humanity left in my body id wax poetic for three more paragraphs abt how that speaks to your truly absolutely outstanding talent as an author and worldbuilder, but alas i think i cried out everything that was keeping me sane sometime in the last half hour and now i have to go lie facedown on the floor in my hallway and die abt it all instead 👍 fantastic work as always i love all your work so much forever etc etc 💗💗💗💗💗💗💗

ps: it took me the better part of an hour to type all this out since ive lost the water content of approxinately a small ocean w my tears and am doing physically poorly in response 🫠🫠 so thanks for ur patience in this trying time 😔🙏

I spun around in circles upon reading this like my poor coon dog when she had a stroke -jovially of course. Like this is the stuff every writer dreams of getting for feedback but holy smokes, your talent for screaming? Beyond my wildest dreams. I’ve always told you how much I appreciate your time and enthusiasm to tell your thoughts Mary Hope, and now is no exception. My babe and co-author @elvisabutler deserves the pleasure of reading what we’ve wrought, as well. I’ll be halving all your medical and psychiatric expenses with her. 😏

Tbh, despite knowing both imminent and longterm reconciliation was to happen after this segment, we were just as cut up about tearing them apart as you were to read it. In fact, it was worse than all the lead up fics where the passive aggressive accumulation of grievances came across as hurts but ultimately only aggravations. This is just…PAIN. Funny how what was untenable before a tragedy suddenly appears to have been idyllic after it. Anyways.

Thank you for reading, here’s some Kleenex, albuterol and do know the sequel to this divorce is in drafts, so not finished AT ALL but it is in the works.

Not that it’ll hurt much less than this one. 😈

[wrongcaitlyn]

need more apollo and darren lore to see if i can relate them to back to december

you can ONE HUNDRED PERCENT relate them to back to december if you just ignore the tiny detail of them not breaking up in december (but like, who cares because it’s the VIBE that matters and in this case the vibe is definitely accurate)

i will definitely be adding more apollo and darren lore…let’s just say… archery world championships happening soon…. olympics in one year…. kayla’s an icon mastermind…..

but! some little notes in specific relation to back to december

i know you may think this is apollos pov, but after looking over the lyrics again to refresh my memory… it’s from darren’s perspective. 100%

I'm so glad you made time to see me / How's life? Tell me, how's your family? / I haven't seen them in a while

apollos family!! not referring to his dad. duh. but darren’s prob just talking abt like the 1-2 times he met will and austin as babies, he hasn’t seen them since so “a while”…. sure darren, that might be a bit of an understatement

You've been good, busier than ever / We small talk, work and the weather / Your guard is up and I know why

small talk is SO real with them. they’re so awkward esp rn. they don’t know how to talk to each other. apollo says “nice weather we’re having” completely unironically and darren responds “oh yeah it’s nice”

cue silence for like 2 minutes until apollo asks how his coaching is going and more and more stilted conversation

AND!!! they’re both busier than ever!! apollo returning to being employed (kinda? i mean, he has a job so) and darren with olympics being next year

Because the last time you saw me / Is still burned in the back of your mind / You gave me roses and I left them there to die

i don’t wanna spoil exactly how they broke up… bc me and wronghuntress had like an hour long convo abt pollen lore a few weeks back and. guys. when i tell you i am SO fucking excited to write it‼️‼️

HOWEVER. this line. is very. very. very. fitting. from darren’s pov that’s all i’m saying hereeee

bc ik in one of the other chapters i said that apollos like “i ruined his life” and he DID but also like. it’s messy. it’s so very messy.

So this is me swallowin' my pride / Standin' in front of you sayin' I'm sorry for that night / And I go back to December all the time

not technically in front of him but!! the phone call!! abt kayla!! him swallowing up his pride, and there wasn’t necessarily an apology for the… things that happened, but it’s a step forward

It turns out freedom ain't nothin' but missin' you / Wishin' I'd realized what I had when you were mine / I'd go back to December, turn around and make it alright / I go back to December all the time

change it to march and make darren a singer instead of an archer and this would be one of his songs😭😭

These days, I haven't been sleepin' / Stayin' up playin' back myself leavin' / When your birthday passed and I didn't call / Then I think about summer, all the beautiful times / I watched you laughin' from the passenger's side / And realized I loved you in the fall

god… this timeline is actually SO real. if anyone’s making a pollen playlist out there (i should probably do that when i have timeHDKDJD) THIS SONG‼️‼️‼️

anyway ofc apollo is associated with summer in darren’s brain… and also apollo def thinks of summer too when thinking of darren :)

and oh yeah, ofc apollo’s in the passenger seat. bro probably grew up with drivers and doesn’t have his license.. rip sun chariot!!! (he gets his license eventually, ofc, but only bc it’s to drive will to school)

I miss your tan skin, your sweet smile / So good to me, so right

But if we loved again, I swear I'd love you right

i mean, do these even need to be explained? well darren, i can assure you that you WILL love again. it’s what we all need

okay so. i can’t really. explain the rest of this stuff. but here are the lyrics that stand out to me SOOO much because of how they broke up. that is all i can say for now!!

And then the cold came, the dark days / When fear crept into my mind / You gave me all your love and all I gave you was goodbye

And how you held me in your arms that September night / The first time you ever saw me cry

thank you so much for the ask!! it’s been a while since some pollen content but i swear it’s coming soon :))

[rollercoasterwords]

Any tips for writing great angst?

had 2 think abt this for a bit bc as i've said before my writing process is largely intuitive but!! here's what i've come up with:

1 - read angst <3

this might seem like basic advice but! i would be remiss if i did not mention that part of the way i learned how to come up with angsty situations was simply by reading a lot of angsty stories. now when i write if i'm trying to come up with angst i'll often find myself thinking about what stories have stuck with me in the past and what made them so heart-wrenching.

2 - muddy the waters

i find that when i'm trying to write a heartbreaking story, including a clear Wrong and Right character often diminishes the angst. for example--if two characters are fighting, but one is clearly framed as The Bad Guy and the other is clearly framed as The Victim, the story can of course be sad, but it sort of falls into an easy emotional logic to follow of sympathy for the victim and anger at the bad guy. the stories that i find stick with me much more are ones that include conflict with no clear right and wrong side, where you can understand where both characters are coming from and sympathize with both while also understanding that they are hurting each other. i also prefer these types of stories because i think they tend to be in conversation with the reader more, whereas stories with a clear Good versus Bad setup are kind of just feeding you a script of what you're supposed to feel much of the time. so even if you do have a clear antagonist in your story, i find it more compelling if there is more to the antagonization than just some Inherent Evil.

3 - make it unfair

when something bad happens, most people's first instinct is to look for a clear reason or for someone to blame. additionally, i think a lot of people will instinctively try to find ways to sort of "lessen the blow"--to make the Bad Thing that happened hold some greater meaning, or to say things like "they're in a better place now," etc. that is all perfectly understandable when seeking comfort in the wake of a tragedy--but if you're trying to write angst, take that comfort away! if you want to kill a character, make it abundantly clear to the reader that that character does not want to die, that they have so much to live for, etc etc. make bad things happen randomly, for no reason. make bad things happen to people who don't deserve it. make bad things happen that don't lead to any greater good, that perhaps even make things worse. make bad things happen that were so easily avoidable, but for whatever reason just could not be avoided in this instance. if you really want to twist the knife, a good way to do it is by leaving the reader going, "it's just so unfair!"

4 - leave problems unresolved

this ties into the last point, because again, what is goes back to is taking away the comfort that we seek when something bad happens. if your goal is to write really intense angst, then one of the best ways to do that is to leave whatever problem is causing strife unresolved, or at least to avoid giving a clear resolution/happily-ever-after.

anyway! hope that's helpful :) i'm happy to give like. more concrete examples of any of these points if anything wasn't clear or to try and elaborate more, but...yeah. i feel like these are just some overarching things to consider when you're trying to decide how angsty you wanna make something!

[braemjeorn]

some scrambled thoughts post moving (2023)

i might need to watch the series again to catch some details so excuse me if I'm confused about the obvious. but spoiler alert, to those who haven't watched it.

me when the temporary teacher got stabbed: (blinks)... i mean I don't like you, not that I want you to die either. oh well.

so what was bang kisoo looking for loitering in the school like that? his files to better his report? the files of the ones with powers to verify things? maybe han byul's memory card too? to observe what had happened in the gym? to pick up a fight with kanghoon? man i lost somethings really...

...so kisso wasn't the one to sabotage that jumpboard?

it was that temp teacher/agent?

anyway what is wrong with that tempt teacher honestly - did he sabotage kisoo's ankle just to find out if he has power or just out of sheer distaste like...?

gosh i hate him now, but he died! we'd never know his motives!

(the way this drama have 20 ep but i still have questions)

(it's the flashbacks. too many flashbacks when we could've gotten new scenes. i always hate this abt kdramas)

on the good side, kisoo going soft and protective with han byul when he realized the NK agents aren't here to play

that was a really short and sudden ship but o ma gosh the potential

hyewon too deserved more screen time - like suddenly moving schools too?

like honestly a bummer that they're graduating college - bongseok, huisoo, hyewon, han byul, ganghoon and kisoo would have been such a good friend group (or pairing, if you want it that way. the potential is there, honestly)

anyway about kanghoon - takes-his-duty-seriously class president kanghoon

wanna see him working as an agent/civil servant in the NIS

working under that seagull guy? *rubs hand excitedly* is gonn be fun honestly, man we need a SEQUEL we really do!! the next gen of supers is gonn wreck some stuff, i can feel it!

i came to this show to see mihyun and doosik but ended up being such a fan of guryongpo

mr ryu was the topmost actor in the wikipedia page so i was like, oh he's the main main guy turns out!

he came to any scene and i was like "guryongpo! he's alive! huisoo appa! 희수 아빠 멋있다! 희수 아빠 화이팅!!"

best man, best partner, best husbando, best dad

i thought frank rolling over him with that truck again and again was bad but then he had 200 gang members breaking his bones with their cars like... you've been through a lot sir.

episodes abt his and jaehee's married life was either the cutest or the most heartbreaking like staph, my heart cannot heal itself

unconventional couples are the cutest i swear by it

huisoo >< jaehee: helps lost adult men on the roadsides

juwon >< jaeman: protective dads

on a more depressing note, that useless jo principal might have orchestrated jaehee's accident.

maybe just to see if huisoo has powers. the wife dies as consequence? not my problem, i'm just gonna wait in this car.

his death seemed excruciating. well deserved, i might say.

and Frank still didn't die either lol not even fire stops him

curious as to what he's gonna do next 0.0

(crack suggestion: he can work at the chicken shop and they can rename the shop as immortal chickens)

(i don't know how huisoo got yongdeuk to work at the shop but if she can persuade her dad to take in a defector, she can persuade him to take in an assassin that once wanted to kills him)

(that's jaehee's passion running through her)

is elias gonna be worse or what? also a korean native?...gotta see that episode again to look at the boys

another thing i feel robbed off: reunions.

moonsan and guryongpo needs to meet up I NEED TO SEE IT

code names?? f- that, name's kim doosik. you're my hyung now, let's work well together.

THEY WERE PARTNERS FOLKS, PARTNERS. DOOSIK LEFT JUWON HIS KNIFE GAH

THE KIMS AND THE JANGS NEED TO EAT DONKASS AND CHIKIN TOGETHER!!!

(imagine the conversation abt huisoo and bongseok relationship will go abt lol)

(JW: sunbae, i respect you a lot, i'm glad you're back, but that's my only daughter-- DS: hyung, i just got to know my son again this year-- MH (towards the kids): i knew it, you two are just the sweetest!)

you know, for someone who doesn't know if her husband is alive or dead for 13-14 year but constantly waits for his return by leaving hints, mihyun is very composed at seeing dusik just landing on her rooftop

i don't know if i should credit that to her training as a black agent or toughened up by being a single mum for that long

but she didn't even react at seeing jang juwon at the teacher's office although it's been like, 24 years and suddenly you're here coz your kid's in the same school as mine? coincidence? I think not! this institution is more slippery than fish!

mihyun's really cool like, she's still that sharp and quick even after doing office jobs, farming, single-parenting and managing a restaurant. what a role model. you really don't forget your training huh?

Yellow Man Bongseok - Bunggaeman being his inspiration is just--

oh i also really liked how that NK agent pulled the trigger like you wanna look inside my loose sleves. wepl, surprise bish! the mechanics and how it's shot is just *chef's kiss*

you know for some scenes that we were robbed off, it's a lovely drama

i like action movies a decent amount, and this hits the spot. korean style,especially.

really really REALLY looking forward to that sequel now, gosh just give it to me.

[tenten18282]

I mean I cried bc poor Time has been through so much and had so little choice about his role in any of it, and then on top of that he feels like he doesn't deserve companionship :') (plus he's gonna be through MORE WHY did he have to get his eye mutilated HASNT HE BEEN THRU ENOUGH *shakes fist at the sky*) but I did smile when Wind half-teased him abt acting tough and held out his hand to help him up and the four reunited! So I do think it was comforting :D just also sad, and not likely to last bc they have their own individual journeys to get to in the end (though I really hope they'll keep contact!)

But I've also seen some really bitter takes about Time, in the "your past was awful and your future will be filled with its regrets and you can't do anything about any of it, you won't get a happy ending" kind of way, and yours strikes a lot sweeter :) like... "you might be hurt, and lonely, and not certain if you can make this happiness last, but as long as you're with them you can breathe easier, and the memory will carry you through the hard times." If that makes sense? In general you just set the atmosphere and emotions really well! I felt like I was right there with the Links, deeply worried with no way to show it and nothing but dark thoughts for company as Wind waits for Time to wake up, or sitting by the fire and watching it crackle, listening to Time and Wind's quiet conversation, the silence of the night creating the illusion of being the only ones awake in a sleeping world...

You've single-handedly made me love Wind and this possible relationship of his with Time so I dare say you're utilizing him very well!! And yeah you really get that feeling across, that he's very worried about Time but doesn't want to overstep because he gets that Time is more than capable and doesn't want him to think he's implying otherwise... like all the help he offers is strictly of the practical kind and only just hints about feelings, to make sure Time knows he can reach out any time he wants :D That multi-layered "let me help"... It's really sweet. And ooh I really love those headcanons! The elegy of emptiness and Link being the last one who needs to heal is so lovely and so in line with his character :D

This got overlong again so hopefully you weren't joking about the asks XD and a blog about your thoughts on the kid quartet would be awesome! Yeah comics take so long and so much work to make, but honestly I'd just love to hear about how you write their characters in whatever way is easiest for you :) though the way you have of showing-not-telling with the comics is truly breathtaking! Also it's rlly funny to imagine them growing up into LU and Wind suddenly going from eldest to youngest lol, I keep getting the mental image of him still trying to big-brother them while being like half their size XD

Welcome back…..!!!!!!!! [Reply under read more]

Ah, that makes more sense… yes the hero of time indeed is a really tragic character. It's an aspect i really like drawing about him!!!!!!!! I guess it's one reason all my stand-alone pieces of him are mostly somber…..

Wind probably called him out on it directly as i feel like he's probably tried to pull the "strong guy" persona at least once during his adventures, so he gets to be cheeky about it hahaha I like the idea that they keep contact, but i really doubt it…. though they won't mind much! Even if they're apart they know they're all going to take care of themselves, and have fond memories to keep them company, like you said! (Ignoring that i hc that two of these links die early in their lives….. but that's not really relevant at the moment, ha ha…..)

I'm glad you like my specific interpretation of time! I always want to follow zelda's wacky horror, where in the games there's both tragedy and happiness, so i hoped the same went for all of these characters (even if i also understand some of the more bitter interpretations of Time, I get seeing him be vengeful... but maybe that's because I felt the need to be bitter about it in his stead lololol)- im quite happy you felt so immersed! and the more wind fans the merrier, he deserves them and i really dont mind people sending asks like these, i love talking and hearing about this topic, i have a lot to say….!!!! and i really agree with what you say here, it makes me super happy ♪

I'll probably make a blog soon-ish so i can talk about my ideas and some extra stuff without interrupting this blog, i have some stuff to take care of first before i can continue drawing these four,,, In any case, your last sentence reminded me of this doodle i did a while back, so i thought to send it here lol

[s1ll13rg00s3]

what a dim fkn lesbophobe.. ofc most prostitutes don't enjoy most times the crusty johns f*ck them but if they're osa they at least have the capacity to enjoy sex involving males and their dicks which lesbians innately do not. it's overdramatic to say that every single encounter a prostitute (who had picked this job) has is SA, that's trivializing the very meaning and victims of SA. there absolutely are het and bihet women who enjoy being promiscuous and getting railed by random males and have decided they may as well make money from that as incomprehensible and dangerous and anti-feminist as it is. but lesbians could never willingly be with a male, so yes, ofc if a male r*ped me - a gold star lesbian, it would be 100 times worse for my psyche than a fellow woman r*ping me. that is not the say that r*pe isn't always traumatic. female heteros can't ever really relate to this because they are female themselves and are attracted to males who oppress them so they'll never understand how revolting the very idea of any physical contact with a male is to us, the softest seemingly consensual hetero 'love-making' 🤢 would still be aggressive r*pe to a lesbian. on the other end, most het women will never that viscerally disgusted by the idea of intimacy with a woman, they don't desire it, but they know and have female anatomy themselves and female genitalia isn't as weaponizable and physically endangering as male either. if you asked most het-attracted women, they'd still choose to be assaulted by a woman if they were forced into such an awful choice. most of them are so lesbophobic and heteronormatively brainrotted anyway that they wouldn’t even perceive lesbian sex as 'real' so being r*ped by a woman wouldn’t be as traumatic for most. so while all r*pists should die eternally in the pits of hell no matter the compatibility of their orientation and their victim's, you are simply lesbophobic and insanely cruel if you think that the doubly inhumane: homophobic and misogynistic 'corrective' r*pe isn't most horrific and traumatizing to lesbians in particular.

So first of all i think you're like completely misplacing your anger, hope it made you feel better to type all that out at least? Like I think you've misunderstood my post maybe lmao, because the POINT of that post about "no prostitutes are lesbians because any real lesbian would kill themselves rather than get touched by a male is very unkind TO LESBIANS who have been sexually abused by men or prostituted. But maybe because I suggested I think its fucked up to say that "osa" women suffer less from being raped you don't care abt the rest.

So to clarify, I dont think attempting to quantify who suffers from rape "the most" is a reasonable conversation to have, it's neither helpful nor compassionate to any victims of sexual assault.

You can recognize that corrective rape is awful (it is and I've never said otherwise) and think that.

Why do we need to build a hierarchy of the different types of sexual abuse and assault lmao? Who does that help? What gives you the right to quantify the pain of other people as well? I could hit you with "well what about victims of incest?" Or something like that and maybe you would double down or make a concession "well okay, under those circumstances MAYBE it's as bad for """osa""" women to be raped as it is for lesbians" but the point of what I'm saying is actually I think that this conversation is gratuitous and I think we've lost by entertaining it at all. You can have a conversation about factors which might exacerbate the suffering caused by sexual assault/abuse without devolving into "and that's why none of you will ever suffer like *I* have suffered" etc and so on. Why does it even seem attractive to you to feel like no one could ever understand how particularly damaged you are? Would you not rather try to relate to people who are trying to reach out through similar experiences to you than like languish alone like this? Like refuse to let people relate to you and then claim that they can't/won't? Idk lol

[my-castles-crumbling]

hi! its incredible/intrusive tjoughts anon. honestly its nothing serious i just want advice lol.

so basically i identify as pan(tomantic) and non binary (transmasc).

basically i have this cousin who im REALLY close eith since shes the only family close to my age (we have a year differencs)

basically i do live in a very homophobic place, as i think ive said before but i think that she might be queer (bi specifically)

and here are my proofs:

1) the subtle one being, when its just the both if us watching something all she points out is how beautiful/amazing/gorgeous wtc the women look. nothing abt the guys. (not that im complaining cz women serious do slay)

i know that she also likes men because i remember watching this scene with her and one other cousin where the guy (wesrung a ehite) shirt fell into the water and was coming out (of the water).

me, personally, i was disgusted and i thiught my cousins would share the same opinions. nope. they rewatched the scene twice i think, their eyes were glued onto the screen ans they were both red.

2) the second one being, as ive mentioned before, i am a religious person qnd so is she. but we have this tradition where we go onto the roof and just talk about stuff we normally would never talk about. we basically kid of vent to each other too.

and there we've talked alot about queer people, and being a religious queer person and its clear that our views on the topic are very similar.

(i never bring up queer people bcz im scared of giving myself up, and usually people do not go around asking others abt their opinion on them. and yeah i feel like she was relieved when i explaijed that the last thing i wanted was for them to die)

niw into the veey obvious tells:

3) my cousin and i were bored so i took out markers and we decided to draw on my leg (dont ask me how we decided that that was the best thing to do.) but basically out if everything she couldve drawn, she drew the rainbkw but as a bi flag.

i saw it and when i pointed it out, she kind of looked panicked? so i just left it.

4) this one is like glaringly obvious tell. basically obv everyone knows, the tt algorithm works overtime and honestly i rarely get anything im not interested in.

so me, obv i have short hair, and when im sleeping/when im alone with other women you could easily tell that wtv is happening is not straight cis shit.

but basically i was changing so i just shed off my outer layer, underneath i was wearing this like sleeveless sweater and i had tracksuit bottoms underneath. my hair was oulled back in a half bun.

tell me why she says oh you look like thise masc lesbians in my tiktok fyp.

like FIRSTLY what are the masc lesbians doing on ur feed?? how have you watched them eniugh to know the specific terms??

basically idk if im maybe reading inti this but sometimes i genuinely feel like im going mad and i want to kind of come out ti someone irl cz i litr need someoen to see me, and recognize my efforts.

so. i just need advice, cz she knows quite alit if the terms as well, and ive noticed that homophobic people usually do not. (e.g. my brother does not know anthign other than gay and lesbian and queer cz he likes to throw them out as insukts)

but she does know, not all, but quite a few. (i only know nearky all cz for a while my obsession, idk what people call thus but basically i become obsessed with a tooic, research alot about it and then just leave it?. was like all the different types of labels and which umbrellas they fall under. so ive done alot of research on this matter which actually freaks alot of people out)

ive just realised i actually ramble alot so thankyou for making it this far lol

(also i just got hiccups wriitng this and theyre OISSING ME KFF)

Hi!

I feel like it's a pretty good assumption that your cousin is open-minded. I think it might be a good idea, next time you guys are having a rooftop conversation, to bring up queer people you know. Celebrities, mutual friends, etc. Ask her how she feels about those people. If she's cool with it, that's a good signal that you can come out.

Also think about- if you've told her other secrets, has she told other people? If not, then you can trust her with something like this.

As far as your cousin's sexuality- I'm not sure if you're reading into it. But remember, even if you come out to her, she might not return the gesture even if she IS queer. She might not be ready, and that's okay! Just continue to be a safe space for her no matter who she likes.

[eliasdrid]

Three thoughts: since everyone and their mother calls build the best rider and I had a relatively mid experience with it and I see you had an awful experience with it…

number three but I put it first bc it’s the most important: why didn’t you like it? Sorry if you’ve made posts abt that—

number one, what do you consider the best rider show?

number two, have you seen kamen rider geats?

3 - Oh that wretched show (Kamen Rider Build)........................ I'll leave my full answer for last so I can just do a "read more" and spare people of spoilers for the show. The TL;DR is that I have a love/hate relationship with it, it starts really well but then it uh, it's like the show just forgets itself? does that make sense? I don't know, it disappointed me... My message to the world is: if you want to watch it (in my opinion) up to episode 33 it's pretty good, it gets worse later.

[note: edited this to be less harsh bc I liked a lot of the show in the end despite my issues with some choices and some people might think I didn't like anything at all]

1 - This kinda spoils the options for the poll a little but whatever. I got into toku this year with sentai so I've only watched Shin Kamen Rider (the 2023 movie) and then Kamen Rider Den-O (2007), Kamen Rider W (2009) and Kamen Rider Build (2017).

I don't think any of the shows are perfect but I think the most satisfying experience overall from start to finish was Den-O because it's a bit silly but consistent with it? So it's pretty enjoyable.

2 - Funny story... I started Geats but I couldn't click with it. I do think a lot of the suit designs are SUPER pretty though. Kamen Rider Geats, Cross Geats and Na-Go are my faves for sure (from the images and material I've seen).

3 - OK So let's do this. I have actually not done a list of all my issues with this show here in my blog but I have complained a lil to people I know and who have watched it (and shared my opinions). This is my personal opinion and I want to preface this by saying I'm a sci-fi nerd and I might have set the bar too high because it looked really promising to me.

SPOILERS FOR BASICALLY EVERYTHING IN THE SHOW

I'll get to issues related to characters first, I think that's easier:

Vernage could have been really interesting but she is equally under and overutilized when convenient to the point she's always doing everything with her last breath (until she does actually die... ) and shows up so sporadically you almost forgot she was still alive when she shows up again. It's wild because when she's introduced you're like? Oh? Will she give us lore and then die? Perhaps a clue to a secret weapon? Some secret power up? no!

Misora is never developed to her full potential despite going through a lot of stuff during the entire show. She could have had a more active relationship with Vernage and tap into some martian knowledge or be able to channel Vernage's power willingly but :/ Her dad literally ends in a coma and she is like... mostly unaffected? Doesn't talk about him? Idk, I'm not saying she should henshin because that's unrealistic with this show but she could have worked with Vernage to take revenge on Evolt for that (via helping the team). I WILL say, she does have her sad moments and her actress does a really good job, it broke my heart when she had her final conversation with Evolt!Soichi. But off that? She's an internet idol ^w^ and the glue that has to hold the team together even though she's like LITERALLY 18-19 and everyone else in their mid 20s and up???

Insanely enough Sawa's friend to spy to friend to spy to friend thing is decently executed so I can't complain much here.

Y'know what I can complain about though? Kazumi! Kazumi is such a character that I wanted to root for because he is so much about community once you get to know him and he has this good caring leadership vibe to him. This guy commits and this guy finds middle points and he can't forgive Gentoku but he asks anyway that he joins them and he even encourages him later to try and follow his father's footsteps. HOWEVER. HE IS A FUCKING CREEP OVER AN IDOL AND THAT UNFORTUNATELY IS MISORA. Bro is 29 years old demanding respect from Banjo and fangirling over a girl that is like... a real human being... who he actually gets to know. I thought their relationship would be... realizing she's a Real Human Being With Thoughts And Feelings but he never stops being a weirdo and it was uncomfortable... ☠

Isurugi Soichi... (not Evolt) underutilized as hell... we get this reveal that he can talk to Evolt near 33 and I thought "OH! Maybe he can influence him? Maybe this is what has been stopping Evolt from wrecking absolute havoc?" but as you might know/guess, this was not the case. There was a LOT of potential for a parallel with Him being posessed by Evolt and Misora being possessed by Vernage and Misora coming to terms with the fact that her dad got the worst alien buddy out of the situation but... they don't do this.

Evolt (Evolt)... my major problem with him is that the show literally tries to sell this "monster that didn't have feelings before" story on the last arc and it just... doesn't work? Because yeah, he's an asshole but like he clearly gets frustrated and excited and he clearly had a lot of feelings driving him around otherwise he'd not have gotten attached to the same human body for 10 YEARS and only hopped out of it when his "vessel" was complete.

Banjo, I got here finally, I deserve a medal. Not my kind of character but overall he's fine? The whole alien thing is done in the most boring way possible imo, idk how they did that but hey! The show is in such a hurry to go through as many small plots as possible near the end that it went super fast?

Sento! I can't talk about one and not the other! Overall Sento is a well done amnesiac protagonist until they make him go back to his old self to undo character development near the end for what feels like ages (I think it was just two episodes though?) and then he remembers and io and behold! he's Sento again but can remember some things from before. I have no words, it felt like he was going to stay like that for a second and all his character development would be undone. I think he could have remembered without having to go through that, I think he could have had conversations with himself without them just making him forget his friends so Katsuragi could have ONE chat with Gentoku. I think he was prone enough to monologue that he could have started remembering after Evolt by just. Literally talking to himself and finding his old self within him... like we could have had the same thing without the weird moment. I also think the whole arc with his dad suddenly coming back was poorly written... because? Suddenly he's not THE Genius and also Build wasn't "originally" meant for him even though it's hinted MANY times that it was Katsuragi who developed the Kamen Rider System entirely/mostly on his own. I think I could be ages here so I'm gonna move on by saying: it was bad.

Gentoku... my meow meow... I'm biased, overall I liked his character development and the Rogue drama was interesting? (it has a couple problems and more torture/blood than necessary maybe tho). His whole deal felt more straightforward than the rest and before he becomes a bit of a "joke" (with the identity fashion crisis and then the awkward moments) he has some really good moments of redemption. I really liked his speech in 39 when he feels bad about fucking up with Utsumi and is too injured to fight. ("Im not writing at 2 am edit": He has good character moments after 39 too! I understand they needed to kill the tension a little by making some fun of him and I liked some of it; the nepotism bit was really good! and his sacrifice was meaningful)

Honorable Utsumi mention because: what do you mean he was a cyborg??? That was so out of the blue and meant absolutely nothing because it's not... anything. For a show that did decent hints about things Utsumi suddenly being a cyborg because "haha his nickname was cyborg" and they maybe did one joke on an episode intro... it's really lame. Off this (which I needed out of my chest) he has a lot of missed potential and could (and should) have replaced Sento's dad as Evolt's "main" scientist because uhh he literally did the Sclash Driver and was very talented? Did the writer just... forget that? I guess so! It'd have been more interesting for sure if he had been working all along against Evolt fearing he'd betray Nanba but no.

I'm gonna go over plot things as quick as possible because I got too wordy with the character stuff:

The Pandora Box. I get it, it's a very convenient excuse but for a thing that Evolt seems to have created himself... they sure throw a last minute "but he doesn't know about this secret panel" I think... I think Evolt knows his funny little box for destroying planets and consuming their energy better than anyone on Earth...

The Sky Wall and the Pandora Tower. It'd have been SO much fun if, as I had hoped, the Pandora Tower was a massive labyrinth they had to figure out to get to the top and stop Evolt or some sort of ritual over a period of time...

The Show is called Kamen Rider Build! They do not build shit during the final episodes. I guess the Grease power up but he dies as soon as he uses it so that doesn't count. They literally got most of everything "solved" around the time Katsuragi made the Genius bottle so! They decide to reuse the Hazard Trigger to do something that is never hinted at (or makes sense if you ask me)... they don't even modify it 😭😭😭😭 They could have done something like before the proxy battle when Sawa and Sento do the modifications for Tank/Tank and Rabbit/Rabbit and have the team help Sento assemble a new device before fighting Evolt but no...

"Let's make a new world instead of properly defeating the bad guy" coward move! It also conveniently erases everyone's character development even if Sento and Banjo are "the same" in the new world it's just, a weird choice (I've been told they get their memories back in the specials or something but still ????)

Evolt destroying the world at random suddenly for his own amusement was really just an excuse to do the New World thing sellable and was really weird specially after the Be The One Movie in which he CLEARLY doesn't want Earth destroyed. He Loved Earth. He spent 10 slutty slutty years posing as a DILF and 3+ of them causing problems on purpose. BE REAL.

Also having Gentoku and Kazumi die was another way to make the "new world" thing more easy to digest because "see :( our friends died we need to bring them back :(" (idk man they were pretty decent at fighting, they could have not died!)

FINALLY. On the New World thing: A Post War scenario with the Kamen Riders helping rebuild the country and Kazumi and Gentoku in leadership positions, Misora reconnecting with her Dad and Sento trying to figure out how to use the bottles for good and more practical uses than fighting would have been much better...

anyway this got super long, I'm so sorry. Thank you for coming to my KRB talk. Kudos to you if you made it to the end, I probably have even more thoughts on this but we'd both be here forever. I'm locking this because people are weird about shows sometimes and I have seen people insist that Build is Really Really good when it's like. mid at best if you have to judge it from start to end.

additionally: I refuse to watch the specials <3 the movie (Be the One) was fine though, tbh it felt more on sync with the show than the finale. Even if they introduce the Blood Tribe guys only to kill them off. The Buid/Cross Z fusion bit was fun too!