#having zero personality traits from his parents

[theatre-mqn]

More Separated AU content

Because this AU has been stuck in my head and this movie is taking over my life.

(For anyone who’s new here: this au is essentially just what if Gwi-ma got to Rumi before Celine did, and huntrix ended up never being formed because of it)

A very rough concept sketch for separated au Rumi:

Rumi:

"Raised" by Gwi-ma, though "raised" is a subjective term given the guy is not a good father, mentor or parental figure whatsoever. In fact he's probably the worst dad you could think of in-universe

Because she's half-human, Gwi-ma is constantly holding the fact that he let her live over her head — reminding her that she killed her own mother, and that she doesn't belong in the human world or the demon one — that she's a half-breed and a mistake, and he's the only person (demon?) gracious enough to let her belong.

She hears his voice in her head constantly. Most of the time when she slips up to the human realm, it’s just to distract herself from it and get away from him for a bit.

Zero self esteem. If you thought canon Rumi was bad, imagine her living in Actual Hell with every single demon present being completely ready to tell her that she's a mistake and they hate her at any given moment

She still has a natural connection to the Honmoon, and because she's half human she can sort of pass back and forth through it with relative ease (i say relative because the demon side of her does not have a fun time with it. Being on the wrong side of the Honmoon hurts). That's pretty much the only reason Gwi-ma didn't have her killed on the spot — he just needed a pawn that could walk freely amongst the humans without getting disintegrated, and he figured that if he could train a hunter to obey him and him alone, the Honmoon would have no chance of ever fully forming.

Despite her being sent off to the surface on multiple occasions, usually for scouting purposes/some random mission that usually involves fighting the one (1) single hunter who's still in operation, she's never really been able to convince herself to take anyone's soul, which is something Gwi-ma finds infuriating. She can't help it — her connection to the Honmoon already means she has a sort of gut instinct to protect, and she spends a lot of time amongst the humans because most of the demons frankly just don't want her around, which means she just can't bring herself to hurt any of them.

Jinu is a sort of older brother figure to her in this universe (in the context of this au the man would've literally watched her grow up. rujinu is out of the question i fear). He's the only person who sort of understands the shame that Rumi feels about her own identity, and one of the few demons who's actually willing to talk to her about it.

She looks relatively human on the surface compared to most of the demons, but she still has a few odd (?)/off-putting behaviours and traits that come through a lot more since she's been more exposed to the demon world than she has to the human one. She's terrifyingly silent all of the time, scares animals shitless because of the natural Uncanny :tm: air surrouinding her, purrs like a cat from time to time, and her eyes glow in the dark.

She's fought Mira on multiple occasions, usually because Gwi-ma keeps sending her on missions that usually end in her either distracting the hunter while the demons go do whatever it is they're meant to do now, or getting caught by her while wandering around and instantly engaging in battle.

She usually wears a Dokkaebi mask to hide her face, both from the demons and from the humans from time to time. She used to wear more traditional Korean clothing like a lot of the demons did when she was younger, but once she started slipping into the human world more often she starts dressing in more modern styles.

Jinu convinces her to buy him merch when she's on the surface. Nobody questions where she got the money from

Mechanical claws —> Gwi-ma won't let her use her hunter weapon, so she has a crudely-made clawed gauntlet that he bullied some demon that used to be a blacksmith into making for her.

Horrible wet cat creature I love her

Zoey:

She moves back to Korea a lot later in this AU, which is part of the reason why Celine wasn't able to find her while she was hosting the idol-auditions-that-were-actually-secretly-hunter-auditions.

She still loves writing and composing songs, but unlike in canon, this version of Zoey doesn't have the same found family/safety net that comes in the form of the other two hunters to support her.

The first time she works up the courage to post a song she wrote online she gets dogpiled, and without anyone to support or encourage her it ends up killing her self-confidence and her motivation to write/post new music. She does still write from time to time, but most of it ends up scrapped or hidden away in a notebook that she keeps under lock and key.

She has a hard time fitting in and finding friends when she first moves back to Korea, and essentially ends up living alone in an apartment watching marine biology documentaries all day and avoiding social interaction as much as possible because she's worried she'll mess it up again and make everyone hate her.

She does however instantly become enamoured with Mira's music and with Mira herself but shhhh. She listens to it on loop and has showed up to one of her signing events before

Unfortunately Mira had to run off to fight another pack of demons before she was able to realise that Zoey was also a hunter. That probably would've made things a lot less stressful

The first time she meets Rumi, it's while the latter is wandering around the human realm just to avoid having to deal with Gwi-ma for a few hours. They bump into each other at a convenience store, and Rumi seems oddly interested in hearing Zoey ramble about turtles and music theory.

They end up meeting up at that convenience store a couple times a week just to talk, and while Zoey does notice Rumi's… general weirdness that comes about as a result of being raised by demons, she doesn't really acknowledge it because. Well frankly she's too happy to finally have a friend to be complaining about why said friend has eyes that glow in the dark or suspiciously sharp teeth

Surprisingly the closest anyone in this group ever gets to being Relatively Normal. Which isn’t exactly a high bar but it’s also rare that Zoey of all people is the voice of reason so

Mira:

A somewhat popular indie singer/songwriter and the only one who's actually initially trained by Celine, because she's the only hunter that Celine is able to find.

She shows up at an audition that Celine holds in an attempt to find whoever the other two hunters are and gets clocked as a hunter almost instantly

She and Celine fight a lot. She's not exactly great with authority, and Celine still hasn't gotten over losing both her best friend and the only thing she had left of said best friend in the same night, so one is naturally rebellious and the other is somewhat passively resentful and overprotective.

They do not have a healthy dynamic at all — Mira is not well-adjusted enough to be going around killing demons, and Celine still hasn't gotten over her own failures so she ends up projecting them on the only hunter that she's been able to find and somewhat train.

Speaking of training — Mira doesn't really get as much time to learn to fight as she does in canon. Without the other two hunters present, the Honmoon is already tearing itself apart, so she kind of just has to figure out how to kill the demons through trial and error alone, hence why her fighting style is a lot more reckless and frankly somewhat unhinged.

She once hotwired a car and drove it directly into a water demon. Celine had to pay a couple thousand dollars in damages

She and Celine also usually have to go on hunts together purely because Mira alone isn't enough manpower to slay an entire pack of demons, which means that they usually end up shouting at each other over one thing or another while murdering every demonic entity within a five mile radius

She's also not having the easiest time coping with the responsibilities of being a hunter — she's the only one who's currently active, if we're not counting Celine, and because all three hunters are separated from each other, the Honmoon is essentially in shambles. Mira is holding it together through spite and spite alone.

It doesn't help that she's not nearly as successful as she is in canon (mostly because she's quite literally destined to be in a three-part harmony but is forced to do a solo act), because her parents will not stop bothering her about "getting a real job" and "giving up the starving artist act". They spam her comments and posts, relentlessly call and text her until she blocks them, and only reason they haven't shown up at her place of residence to harass her in person is because Celine's sanctuary is fairly out of the way and hard to find.

It also does not help that Celine sometimes reminds her of her parents.

Rumi essentially becomes her arch-nemesis at one point because Gwi-ma keeps sending her to keep Mira occupied and stop her from killing the demons that are taking people's souls. Or, well, Mira thinks Rumi is her arch-nemesis, Rumi is too busy having an identity crisis to notice.

[pejite]

Hi! Today, I’m sharing a list of mods that I consider essential for playing historical gameplay in The Sims.

I often have friends who want to dive into the Decades Challenge but aren’t sure which mods to use or where to start. So, in this post, I’m going to share the mods I personally use and think are indispensable for creating that authentic historical experience.

Deaderpool's MC Command Center: This mod allows you to manage and modify many aspects of your game, including handling pregnancies, university careers, and enabling teen relationships so your Sims can marry earlier, among other features. You can also enable autosave and adjust the length of a Sim day.

Lumpinou's RPO: This mod enhances relationship dynamics and expands pregnancy features. It's extensive, with many modules, and once you've tried it, you won't want to play without it.

Pandasama's Realistic Childbirth: Offers multiple realistic childbirth options, including natural bed births and spontaneous labour, adding depth to your Sims' family lives.

MizoreYukii's Arranged Marriages: Allows you to arrange marriages for convenience. Parents can agree on marriages for their children, but breaking the arrangement won’t be easy.

Necrodog's Carriages and Horses: Adds functional carriages, enhancing immersion. While it doesn't work with the horses of Horse Ranch pack, it’s still incredibly useful.

Kuttoe's Enlist in War: It will allow your Sims to enlist in the war. Whether they live or die will be random, but if they survive, they'll receive the Veteran trait, a lifetime pension and some lasting traumas.

JaneSimsten's Regency Romance: Perfect for simulating the Regency era. It adds class differences, property ownership, etiquette skills, new traits and careers, events, and widowhood. Though inspired by the Regency era, it works well for later decades too.

SimKatu's Reading Animation Override: Changes the reading animations, with different ones for men and women, making your Sims’ reading time more immersive.

Zero's Deadly Dickensian Sicknesses: Introduces the risk of diseases like Tuberculosis, Typhoid Fever, and Cholera. It’s incredibly realistic with its contagion system.

Adeepindigo's Healthcare Redux: A comprehensive health mod that adds various illnesses and treatments, including tuberculosis and (early access) cancer. While Sims can buy modern medicines, many illnesses can be cured with natural remedies.

Adeepindigo's Simulated Endings: This mod will enhance everything related to your Sims' deaths, allowing them to take out life insurance and designate beneficiaries, arrange funeral preparations, and introduce stages of grief for your Sims.

MizoreYukii's Functional Broom: Adds a functional broom with its own animation, letting you keep your Sims’ homes clean without resorting to modern vacuums.

Triplis's Quit or Join School: In case you need your teens or childs to quit school.

The Kalino's Farm Animal Set: Expands your farm with more animals, including goats, sheep, ducks and more, in addition to the standard cows and chickens.

JaneSimsten's Write With Quills: Replaces your Sims' pens with quills, adding a touch of historical accuracy.

JaneSimsten's Sidesaddle Override: Allows female Sims to ride horses sidesaddle, as they would have in the past.

JaneSimsten's Parchment Computer: Replaces modern computers with parchment and quills, complete with their own animations—perfect for pre-typewriter eras.

Frankk's Language Barriers: More realism to sims being from different worlds.

Rs4ella's 1920s Grade School Homework Override: Changes the look of the kids' homework book to a 1920s style, but it works well for earlier periods too.

Xbrilliantsims's Toddler Bathtime Overrides: Replaces modern bath toys and sponges with more era-appropriate items when bathing toddlers.

Lunamoth's Historical Infant Carriers: Swaps out modern baby carriers for fabric slings, suitable for any historical era.

Lunamoth's Rope Pet Leash: Replaces the modern pet leash with a simple rope, making it look more appropriate for historical gameplay.

300yearschallenge's Historical Baby Bath Override: Changes the baby bath seat to a more suitable design, or you can opt for

Sassymissollie's Invisible Infant Bath Seat to remove it entirely.

JaneSimsten's 5 Day Work Week: Choose Your Own Work Hours: Lets you adjust your Sims' work schedules for a more realistic experience.

JaneSimsten's Marksmanship Skill: Adds a marksmanship skill, allowing your Sims to practise shooting and hunting, with the hunted animals available for cooking.

Littlbowbub's Ye Olde Cookbook: Enables your Sims to cook historical dishes, perfect for low-income Sims in older settings.

Basemental's Basemental Drugs: Although mainly known for adding drugs, it’s commonly used for its smoking features, letting your Sims smoke cigarettes and cigars like a proper Victorian gentleman.

MizoreYukii's Children/Toddlers Can Die of Anything: Allows your child Sims to die, useful if your storyline requires it.

Ayoshi's Phone to Notebook Replacement Mod: If phone elimination mods are causing issues, this mod might help. It replaces the mobile phone with a small notebook, which could pass for a mini Bible or an old-fashioned notebook.

JaneSimsten's Extra Cross-Stitch Patterns: Adds historically accurate cross-stitch patterns.

[silasoctakiseron]

I understand why this is the case, to be clear, because what we see of his character is extremely limited, but I find that so much fanon characterization of Colum Asht relies on the presumption that he's a normal person. Specifically, that he's a normal person who could be rehabilitated by people treating him normally.

In context, this is generally true, because he exists primarily in relation to an obsessive religious zealot whose external socialization consists primarily of telling people about themselves with zero regard for whether that's a normal or decent thing to do in context. Because we see Colum, with very few exceptions, constantly attached to Silas throughout GTN, he looks significantly more like a regular person who's sort of being forced to drag around a purse dog who bites. I believe no one has ever deserved to step outside for a cigarette and stare at nothing more than Colum; again, I understand where the characterization comes from. I do however think it's wrong. This post is very long. Sorry or whatever.

Colum Asht is deeply, fundamentally Eighth. I've talked before (warning: another long post) about the fact that Houses have individual cultures, rather than personality traits. Colum is exactly as bound up in Eighth religious practices as Silas is, even though those religious practices are explicitly used to oppress him into an early grave rather than elevate him to a position of power.

Until the full implications of Lyctorhood come to light, at no point does Colum ever reject a wholehearted embrace of Eighth beliefs. I think a lot of people consider the argument he has with Silas in ch. 28 to be a criticism of the religious beliefs Silas embodies, and I sincerely could not disagree more. Colum is angry about the fact that Silas has grown into someone who could be deliberately duplicitous and lie to another person to take advantage of them. He might be angry about the institutional processes that made him that way. He does not believe that this means that he, personally, should have expanded rights over his body or that his cavaliership to Silas is something he could or would walk away from. He does not believe that Silas is wrong with regard to his attitudes toward the Ninth as a whole.

We know this because Colum isn't exclusively following Silas around throughout the book, and he takes actions independently that are still indicative of deeply ingrained religious bigotry. Colum is perfectly allowed to talk to other people, but individually refuses on principle to talk to Gideon one-on-one or be in a room with her outside of a specific social context. Colum is explicitly not apologetic about taking Gideon's weapons from her when she comes into the Eighth's rooms despite being aware that it places her at a disadvantage and requires her to trust people who actively distrust her.

Even when Silas is present and seems to have more power over Colum's actions, Colum isn't uncomfortable doing things like asking Gideon to leave a common space entirely so Silas doesn't have to try to consume food and look at her at the same time. He wholly expects Gideon to acquiesce to this, not happily, but at least without argument. Colum isn't at all fazed by Silas accusing an entire room of people of being faithless sinners for refusing to bow to the will of the Order.

Silas' methods aren't Colum's methods, and Colum seems normal in comparison to him because he's significantly quieter about his beliefs and doesn't always follow Silas to every rhetorical extreme. Colum tends to do the polite thing where Silas is extremely blunt. He won't be in a room with Gideon or speak to her alone, but he'll bow to her before he leaves. Colum is sitting at the Fifth's dinner party speaking to Babs in some way that sounds normal enough for Babs to keep haranguing him, while Silas is telling Ianthe her parents should have been willing to experiment more when she was born dying/dead. Either way, neither of them acknowledge Harrow's existence.

Colum doesn't disagree with the basic religious principles on which Silas generally acts. Colum is fine with that shit. If Silas hadn't tried to resort to lying and taking advantage of another person to achieve his ends in a manner offensive to Colum's sense of honor and morality, there's zero evidence that Colum would have found anything else about his conduct objectionable enough to raise as an issue.

All this to say that I think if Magnus Quinn invited Colum for a pint he would show up and be reasonably respectful and courteous the entire time while calmly saying what to literally any other person would be the most deranged religious claptrap they'd ever heard. Colum thinks it'd be more humane to simply nuke the Ninth out of existence too fast for anyone to feel it rather than conducting a systematic inquisitorial dismantlement of the church involving spiritual torture. Colum is referring to necro/cav relationships using insanely antiquated and offensive terminology that he genuinely believes is the polite and considerate way to talk about them as opposed to deliberately derogatory language more commonly employed on the Eighth. The second Colum leaves Magnus orders himself five shots and includes them on his expense report.

[bamfkeeper]

Red...?

RQ: 'Hello! I adored you Dad!Nightcrawler story! And wanted to know if you could make this possible headcanon since it seemed funny. So Kurt's parents are Azazel&Mystique so what if his kid gets traits/mutations from them? (Like it skipped a gen) Like red skin from Azazel or Mystiques abilities/scales. It may be humorous to see/for Kurt to handle' -@aphrodite4lover

Pairing: Kurt Wagner x F!Reader // Warnings: None I think lol.

A/N: I love this, actually. I know his parents were re-written as Mystique & Destiny, but for the sake of this, Kurt's parents are originally Azazel & Mystique. Yes ofc here's some hcs. Added a few things to make it interesting. Also I know that's a red bamf not a baby just pretend it is okay 😭

When your little one came out you were both surprised to see that they weren't blue like expected...but red.

As you held your little one, you were a bit confused, of course. You looked at the red infant, their little body soft but lacking Kurt's fuzz and instead had carefully placed soft scales. They adorned the baby's shoulders and upper arms, cheeks, a little on the forehead, down the spine and shoulder blades, and of course the thighs.

The signature spaded tail was there, and the baby did have three digits like Kurt, but nothing else resembled him at all.

You loved your baby, but you were just a little worried. Kurt wasn't sure what to think either. He knew you hadn't cheated, heavens no. Plus...mutations are random.

Azazel would have a field day if he heard that Kurt's child ended up red instead of blue. The asshole might even make a comment about mating you but...that's a whole other scenario.

The baby always favored you too, which he sort of understood since you were the mother, but your child always cried and he could never soothe them. "Ach, bitte....calm down, you have food and you are clean...why do you cry?" he tries to hard, rocking, bouncing, cradling.

He gets a little jealous when your baby calms instantly when in your arms. "They do not like me, liebling..." he frowns and pouts.

As your little baby grew, they proved themselves to be a little devil indeed. Kurt felt himself being run rampant, the toddler ran after him and Kurt could barely keep up. Your child was slippery and extremely cunning for a toddler.

Kurt tried to help them teleport, assuming your child inherited his mutant ability, but as they watched him disappear and reappear, they instead shifted from a red toddler to a blue one, taking on Kurt's appearance if he were a toddler again.

So...great. No teleporting, red skin, and his mother's ability?

He wasn't upset, just...very surprised. His shock made your baby laugh, giggling in amusement as they continued to shift into different appearances.

Not only people, but they could also shift into animals.

The baby did inherit his wall-crawling. You often found them hanging out on the ceiling, hanging from it and chasing each other around on the walls.

You felt a little insecure or worried, thinking Kurt might have some resentment towards you, even though you had zero control over the development and outcome of your child's mutation. Kurt could tell you felt bad, and he always reassured you.

"Mutations are so strange, liebe...please do not fret. I love unser Kind...they certainly were a chock when they came into the world." he teased lightly, kissing your cheek.

Your child was just as mischevious and troublesome during their teenage years. Very rebellious and the complete opposite of Kurt. It was rather entertaining, the two literally opposites in appearance and interests.

Your child took on a lot of bad habits, displaying both Mystique and Azazel's personality more than your own or Kurt's. It was hard to deal with at first, but you figured they were just trying to find themselves.

Your child struggled with identity, (take with that what you will it can be implied with whatever you like!), the shapeshifting and everything else was hard on them. Also the fact that they looked nothing like either of you made it hard. They felt like a red black sheep, and their behavior was just them trying to deal with it.

After you both sat down and spoke to them, you got to the bottom of why. It was an emotional night for you, Kurt, and your child, but it ended in tearful hugs and many 'I love you's.'

Kurt loves your child no matter what they look like and who they decide to me. They will always come home to you and Kurt.

Thanks for reading.

*BAMF*

Dividers by @/adornedwithlight

Cover Image: Amazing X-Men (2014) #1

[starmocha]

Ok now I'm curious, which one of the kids is an actual 95% innocent sweetheart? (cause I figure MC's menace genes are always present in some way so it's never a 100%) or the closest to it?

Is it baby Coral? 🥹🥹🥹

Ooohhhh ok, this is how I see their genetics working lol

Snowdrop — 95% Zayne in terms of looks, personality, and behavior, but MC's 5% menace gene is there to wreak havoc. As he grows older, that gene gets stronger and will soon dominate over most of the personality traits he inherited from his father 💀

Birdie — 50% Sylus, 50% MC. Baby girl is a perfect blend of her parents' genes. 🙂‍↕️ But Sylus delights when her mom's personality traits shine through (when she's mad/feisty lmao).

Coral — 60% Rafayel, 40% MC. A near perfect blend of both, but his Lemurian side is slightly overpowering MC's genes. Baby Coral is the sweetest out of all the toddlers. Aside from his lullaby time with Rafayel (non-negotiable, zero leniency. he must have his lullaby time with his dad 🥺), he is the most easy-going of all the toddlers and rarely gets upset or cause trouble (intentionally).

Starlight — 10% Xavier, 90% MC lmao baby girl inherited her father's hair and eye colors, and narcolepsy......and that's it. 💀 Her personality and behavior are mostly her mother's, but Xavier adores that, so he's thrilled that his daughter is practically a mini-MC he is so whipped for them both lmao 🥹

Pilot — 100% Caleb 2.0 in looks, behavior, personality, and the cilantro-hating gene, I fear. Baby boy took one look at his mom's genes and went "nah, I'm good, ma 🙂‍↔️" 💀

[demonslayerunhinged]

Unhinged analysis — Demon Slayer Mark Series d=(^o^)=b 💪

In Search of Acceptance — What Determines a Person's Worth? (Part 1)*

Muichiro's character, journey, and development are some of the most underappreciated and overlooked in the series. This is a shame because I see his story as a commentary on gender expectations of young boys in the form of emotional repression and stoicism to be 'useful' in society.

So let's begin this analysis from the very introduction of his character.

Who is Muichiro Tokito?

When we first meet Muichiro, we're not given a lot of information about him, aside from the fact that he's constantly spaced out. He isn't shown to have any proper sense of identity, and along with his forgetful nature, lack of emotions, thoughts, and opinions about anything. But then we do see something, two things actually; when the Master reveals that Tanjiro has met Muzan and when Tanjiro interrupts the Master when he's addressing the Hashira.

He expresses interest in Muzan and annoyance at Tanjiro's disrespectful interruption, so much so that he's the only one who reacts by pelting Tanjiro with stones. So we've seen two emotions so far, curiosity and annoyance. He isn't completely blank, just muted. The strongest emotions are the ones that breakthrough is his love and respect for the Master and his hatred for Muzan.

Next let's move on to his character design:

Similar to Sanemi, there's nothing on his uniform that gives us a clue to his personality and identity outside of being a Demon Slayer. His uniform is practical in concealing his movements from demons, but aside from that it's plain and blank, pointing to his lack of identity.

We get more information about his personality from his reintroduction in the second episode of the Swordsmith Village arc. he gets into an altercation with Kotetsu, who refuses to give him the key to Yorichii Type-Zero, a prized possession and family heirloom. At Kotetsu's refusal, Muichiro gets to bullying him, first with words as he attempts to put Kotetsu in his place by stating the difference in importance between the swordsmiths and the Hashira.

“There is a vast difference between the value of your time and a Pillar’s time.”“Swordsmiths are unable to fight, they can’t save people’s lives either. Other than making weapons, they’re useless.”“Get a clue about your position before making a move. You’re no longer a baby.”

When this does not work, he then moves on to attempting to bully Kotetsu physically and is stopped by Tanjiro. Tanjiro notices that there is no hint of malice in Muichiro's words, which tells us that he's simply stating what he believes to be true.

So where does this mindset come from?

The Useless, Worthless Boy

One of the things that I noticed about the twins is how their differences tell us a lot about the gender expectations of boys in society. Yuichiro possesses qualities that are prized and encouraged in boys and men—He's tough, strong, determined, capable, and most importantly unemotional. After their parents died, he was able to take up the responsibility of taking care of the household and taking over his father's job as a woodcutter with the single-minded purpose of taking care of his soft-hearted 'useless' brother.

Muichiro on the other hand is soft and weak as seen in the flashback where he struggles with carrying just one log of wood whereas Yuichiro has carried a dozen or so. He mentioned in the light novel that he wasn't able to do simple chores like cook rice or even use a knife. He's optimistic, soft-hearted, soft-spoken, and emotional; possessing traits that society considers useless in a boy/man, a sissy if you will.

Yuichiro seems to think so too because he not only mocks Muichiro for his 'uselessness' but he also berates him after Amane's visit by belittling his abilities and desire to become a swordsman. This has been interpreted by a lot of fans as Yuichiro hating him or him just being an emotionally abusive dick.

But if we simply listen to his outburst, we'll see that Yuichiro is not simply being hostile to Muichiro. But as we see from his outburst, his actions do not stem not from any real malice but from his fear of losing his little brother just like he lost his parents. In his mind, kindness, and optimism don't have a place in this harsh, cruel world that took their parents away from them. Anyway, despite his true intentions the message was clear to Muichiro, and the damage was done; traits such as kindness, and optimism are worthless and by extension Muichiro is worthless.

Then we had the demon attack, which echoed the same sentiments to Muichiro—their lives were worthless.

*I'm sorry but every time I watch this scene, seeing Muichiro holding Yuichiro, them huddled in the corner with Muichiro shaking in terror looking so small and helpless, it brings tears to my eyes. They were just babies! Fuck that can-opener-hands-looking motherfucker!😭

Anyway, the demon saw them as easy pickings who would not fight back and would not be missed by anyone because after all, like just Yuichiro said 'What can a couple of 11-year-olds do?'. But the thing is that even the smallest, most conflict-avoidant creature will bite back when pushed to the corner, especially when it's to protect what's important to them.

Muichiro was successful in killing that asshole demon, but the damage was already done. Yuichiro had bled out and even though Muichiro was able to make it back to him, the adrenaline from fighting the demon wore off, leaving him too exhausted to go call for help. As he watched his brother bleed to death, I reckon that he felt a sense of guilt because the only reason he was alive was because Yuichiro protected him, putting himself in danger.

I bet that Muichira was thinking that if only he was stronger, if only he wasn't so weak, so…useless, then maybe Yuichiro would still be alive. His brother was right to hate him, he was useless and stupid things like kindness, optimism, and weakness have no place in this world and all it does is get people killed, his mom, his dad, and now his brother. To have those traits is to be worthless, and even when his memory fades away due to the trauma, he still has those beliefs. Subconsciously or probably even consciously, he adopted the traits Yuichiro possessed that he believes will give him worth.

He trains his body to become strong and skilled to match Yuichiro's inherent strength. He also adopts Yuichiro's seemingly cold, callous, and emotionally repressed nature, especially his lack of tact, which he uses to berate anyone who possesses any trait different from what he deems 'useful'. To him, those people are like the old Muichiro—worthless, and this is what he tells Kotetsu.

“Swordsmiths are unable to fight, they can’t save people’s lives either. Other than making weapons, they’re useless.”

Part 2 will be about the significance of Muichiro vs. Gyokko, his mark and how he unlocked it, as well as his healing process.

*reposted as cake slices for easy digestion

[andre-and-cal]

Thoughts on the mental health issues Andre and Cal were struggling with? Just plain old depression that they chose to indulge further in, or was there something more going on?

Hey Anon!:) I can definitely give my input! This is sososo fun cuz I love psychology and my mom is a psychotherapist…

I might make a Cal version if you guys want one?:0

What were the mental health issues Andre was experiencing?

To start off, I don’t believe Andre fits into any specific diagnostic criteria. He is deeply and psychologically disturbed, yes, but he exhibits traits of a couple different mental health disorders— and he doesn’t necessarily meet any. Sometimes, people just kind of snap prior to committing atrocities, but I also don’t think that Andre and Cal simply “snapped”.

Andre only really talks about how he’s angry and wants revenge for the fact that he’s been relentlessly picked on for his attire. He’s inadvertently painted himself in a more stereotypical light, as he seems like a violent figure right from the start. Rachel had already told Cal about how she believed Andre was the “violent one”… for which he agreed.

He does definitely have some anger problems that he’s needed to work on, but I feel like it isn’t only anger. I think he also feels misplaced in his life and is filled with a lot of negativity. He believes that no one, not even his parents, can change that… so he accepted that. He kind of believes his life isn’t getting any better.

He and Cal experience a shared sense of alienation, and thus, while Andre had already formed this firm “construct” within his head, Calvin’s presence only then completed the structure right down to the very foundations. Meaning that, essentially, Andre had already begun to develop a sense of deep-seated emotional flatness and even detachment, and after he met Cal, he’d learned to embrace the suck with open arms.

The Army of Two is an echo chamber. Andre and Cal only really have each other— or that’s what they think, at least. But they only encounter each other’s beliefs, so they have this permanent assumption that they’re each other’s best interests.

Andre’s emotions are also quite “muddy”. He isn’t an overly outgoing person, and I believe he doesn’t feel comfortable accepting many people into his personal “circle”, which only really consists of his family and Calvin. This isn’t always a call for concern, however, as there are many people who are introverted and feel similarly.

I think that sometimes, Andre thinks too hard about Zero Day and experiences brief periods of self-doubt. Yet, he pushes these feelings away, even though it may feel like it’s eating him alive sometimes.

Additionally, I believe that Andre is mostly rational, albeit to a frightening degree. Because of this, he doesn’t fit into many psychiatric disorders, as he exhibits some traits from antisocial, narcissistic, and schizoid personality disorder.

In conclusion, Andre carries that recklessness (executing a pre-meditated attack), significant deprivation of empathy (ignoring the operator calling him on the phone), aggression (hitting his steering wheel out of frustration), and impulsivity (committing suicide with Cal) as seen in antisocial personality disorder. However, he also possesses a bit of the entitlement (villainizing Brad Huff and Iroquois High School, generalizing his classmates), delusions of grandeur (calling himself and Cal “gods”), and desires for infamy (planning to flee the country with Cal) present in narcissistic personality disorder. Andre is in touch with reality, too— he experiences no symptoms of psychosis. I think that he also socially withdrew by refusing to go to prom, and he is aloof— even unfriendly— toward some as well, as Rachel mentioned he wasn’t nice to her at all. This correlates to schizoid personality disorder— yet, once again, he doesn’t meet enough of the criteria to be diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder specifically.

Hence, the mental health disorder best fitting Andre, in my opinion, is other specified personality disorder.

[ckret2]

All of Bill's stock history and tastes that you mentioned are things he did after Euclydia, but nothing suggests that he had those tastes in Euclydia or there is something that made him a weirdo in Euclydia besides his mutation or his eye fetish.

ok let's break this down.

Nothing suggests he didn't have those tastes in Euclydia. There's no compelling evidence to suggest he was normal for a Euclidean. Take out his mutation and we don't know anything about what he was like in Euclydia except:

he had squeaky shoes (normalcy unknown—although, in humans, squeaky shoes are often used to help children with physical & neurological development issues learn to walk)

he wanted the crusts cut off his sandwiches (normalcy unknown; but the fact he had to remind his mom suggests it wasn't normal)

he could be manipulated into drinking his medicine with curly straws (normalcy unknown; the fact that he's specified as a "picky eater" suggests it's abnormal)

his birth was allegedly celebrated with a best baby award, holiday, and free knives (normalcy unknown, possibly a lie)

he didn't learn to tie his shoes until age 16 and called shoelaces fascist (the fact that his parent(s) apparently recounted this as an amusing anecdote later suggests it's abnormal)

it's heavily implied he murdered his optometrist, and possibly his family at around the same time (i'm just gonna take a leap of faith and assume this is abnormal for Euclideans)

So his normalcy score is "unknown but dubious; might be abnormal; might be abnormal; unknown/untrue; abnormal; abnormal." And that's everything we know.

At any rate, if we want to know what he was like as a Euclidean, it seems a lot less sensible to go "well we know next to zero facts about his childhood, so that must mean he was normal" than to look at what we do know about his personality and assume that... y'know... it came from somewhere. We have no reason to take it as a given that he only developed those personality traits post-massacre.

Plus, saying "he was normal except for his mutation" is sort of like saying "he was an introvert except for what a big fat party-loving attention-hungry extrovert he is." It's like saying "Ford was normal except for his mutation"—okay except Ford isn't normal, his entire life is shaped by being abnormal, everything he's ever done is a response to the tension between pursuing kindred abnormality versus seeking validation from normies, and all that is caused by his mutation. What person are you talking about if you're talking about who Ford is without his mutation? There's no Ford left.

Similarly you can't just excise the trait that made Bill who he is and act like you're still talking about the same character. Like yeah sure I guess he probably would be a lot more normal once you remove the trait that alienated him from everyone else he knew, led to him enduring medical trauma from toddlerhood, and caused his grade school classmates to chant "Cipher, Cipher, he's insane, starting fires with his brain." "Bill's a normal Euclidean once you remove his personality." Sure, that technically isn't a false statement.

"or his eye fetish"—okay, so we're talking about my version of Bill, not canon Bill Cipher? In that case:

he dropped out of school by equivalent-to-age-14 to run a cult (weird)

he claimed the third dimension was real and people who didn't believe in the 3rd D thought he was crazy (this part is kinda normal, and caused by his mutation)...

... and claimed that it was where heaven is, and people who did believe in the 3rd D thought he was crazy (this part is weird and NOT caused by his mutation)

by middle school he was telling his bullies that their moms fucked the family dog (weird) (also, when I rewrite that scene, in honor of the precedent set by TBOB, I'm probably going to change that to Bill telling his bullies he fucked their moms)

he handled all his homework by not doing it, all his tests by cheating on them, and getting caught at cheating by crying to his mom about how his teacher was prejudiced against him so that she'd get mad at the school before the school could tell her he'd been cheating & she'd get mad at him (weird)

he resolved an argument with his mom by murdering her at like 15 and then went right on leading his cult (incredibly weird)

he publicly went on a screaming tantrum that made national news against respectable scientists because he'd told a bunch of lies he KNEW were false and they went "you'd have to be dumb to believe this stuff" (weird & a terrible idea)

he publicly issued a million dollar bet against the entire scientific community as a teenager when he knew full well he didn't have a million dollars (weird & an even worse idea)

he ravenously devoured so much cosmic horror literature that when he met an actual cosmic horror and it acted normal he had a full mental breakdown over it not being horrifying enough (incredibly weird)

by the time of the massacre, he had developed into the kind of person who would respond to the extinction of his entire dimension by pretending he meant to do that, kidnapping a bunch of neighboring people, throwing a nonconsensual zombie party, and declaring himself god-king (unfathomably weird)

These are just the things that have already happened in the fic. I could cheat and tell you all the things that made him a weirdo that haven't come up yet, but I won't.

So sure, some of the things that currently make him look weird to humans are normal for Euclideans; but no, he wasn't normal for a Euclidean.

And on top of all that, he figured out he had an eyeball fetish after he left Euclydia ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ because he hadn't done any romantic/sexual experimentation by the time of the massacre (slightly abnormal) because—he would subsequently discover—the only thing that gets him going is grotesque higher-dimensional non-euclidean aliens (very abnormal).

[seaemberthesecond]

i would love for you to get into those declan-adam-hennessy and the declan-adam-mor triangles

I'm SO glad you asked asdfgdgsgs. Let's get into it, shall we?

The commonality in both these triangles is that, a) the characters involved are all demented foils of one another and b) Ronan is at the center of them.

Declan, Adam, and Hennessy are in tdt the three most central people in Ronan's life and their characters, narratives, and back stories all parallel each other. It's a bit of a joke in the fandom how similar Adam and Declan are, but I don't see people talk about how similar Declan and Hennessy are.

There's a bit in MI right in the beginning where Hennessy thinks "[Other] People revealed themselves when they smiled." Compare this with Declan who's described over and over as hiding his smile from people for precisely this reason, who has "an illuminated, specific smile no one would ever see." What this points to is that both these characters view the world the same way, they operate through masks and secrets and lies and paranoia and are vigilant for it in other people. Both of their characters are deeply informed by the abuse/neglect they faced at the hands of their parents and by their relationship to dreams. Both Declan and Hennessy cultivate a codependent relationship with the dreamt people in their lives (Declan with Matthew, Hennessy with Jordan and the other girls) where the dreams rely on them and need them, cannot live without them, because they think without that dependence they'll leave them and won't love them anymore. They both want to distance themselves from the memory of Niall and Jay but ultimately end up recreating their patterns of behaviour and hurting the people they love.

It becomes even more interesting when you add Adam to the mix, because 99% of the things I outlined above are things Adam shares with Declan and Hennessy, and together the three of them are in orbit around Ronan. All three of these characters are people that Ronan loves deeply and has a profound connection to and all three of them are abused kids.

Except!! While Ronan has no problems acknowledging Adam's and Hennessey's troubled upbringing and extending his own brand of compassion, when it comes to his own brother he very firmly slams the shutters down over his eyes. Even when the evidence is overwhelming, even when he sees his brother's personality traits and habits reflected in two other people very close to him who have both been abused, Ronan does not, cannot accept the darkness in the underbelly of his own family. Think about how deeply affected Ronan is by Adam's abuse, how seriously he takes it, how he reacts to Hennessy's trauma, and there is none of that compassion for Declan. Nada. Zero. Zilch.

You'd think that the natural conclusion to this thematic arc would be that through this Adam-Hennesy-Declan triangle, Ronan realises the injustice of Declan's childhood, acknowledges that his parents were flawed people, and reframes his understanding of his own life and family, wouldn't you? Hah. Jokes on you.

The Declan-Adam-Mor triangle works along similar lines. All three of these characters are ambitious, driven, coldly practical and ruthless when they have to be, often disassociated from their own emotions, and - you guessed it - terribly abused. Niall and Mor's relationship is mirrored by Ronan and Adam's (the cycle, Ronan, the cycle!!).

Declan is a twisted reflection of Mor and Adam is a twisted reflection of Declan. In the original post where I mentioned these triangles, I said that they were reinforced if you read Declan as someone who was sexually abused and I think that's especially true for the Declan-Adam-Mor throughline because it deepens the parallel between Declan and Mor and reify's his mistreatment by his family, thereby making it more directly comparable to Mor and Adam.

Of course, the greywaren ending kind of defanged both these parallels, but in the nobel prize winning version of tdt that lives in my head they are alive and well and have a mouthful of teeth with which to chew on me. And they do. Frequently.

[37-children-of-the-dreams]

End of Season One (Part 15)

Hugo’s backstory is putting my bachelor’s degree in psychology to the test. Wish me luck.

Hugo wasn’t born out of love. He was a bargained child. Basically, Hugo’s mother only saw him as a chance to live the rich life via the Ravenlock family, but Hugo’s an illegitimate child, he can’t really give her what she wants because she isn’t the wife, just a mistress.

Holy shit. If I have to put a timeline on when Hugo could’ve remember being abused, the earliest I could do is from age 3 - 5, which isn’t great as Hugo’s mind is starting to understand what’s truly happening and is comprehensively trying to understand why his mother hates him. He had a horrible childhood and that was only with one person.

1.7 is the infanticide patch. They really show parents willing to murder their children for gain. But, I guess this means that Hugo’s red eye is the Ravenlock eye. Now, I would like to remind people that heterochromia is a random genetic mutation. This means that which ever side of Hugo’s family had the gene and he inherited it. Sad that this trait made him a victim when it gives him such a striking appearance.

If you’re surprised that a Bangboo is his inner demon, you’re not alone. Yet, it kinda makes sense, Bangboos are seen as these trusty creatures that guide people through Hollows. Having his inner demon take the form of a trusted guide is like telling Hugo to follow his darkest desires. A very clever storytelling imagery.

Intrusive thoughts. These don’t come from nothing, they were there for years because of the abuse he went through. Yet, since his mother might still be alive, he never went through with it.

Hugo has really good points to hate her. His mother had zero idea that bringing a child in this world, when she was the mistress, was never going to work. Hugo didn’t ask to look that way, never asked to have hypoglycemia nor did he ask to be an illegitimate child. It was all her fault, not his. But he knows killing her won’t help because she’ll always be a pitiful person compared to the son she gave birth to.

Go Hugo. While he can be insane and dramatic at times, he knows went he has to be mature and that his choice is his and other people’s choice is theirs. Also, are you sure you aren’t thinking of Lycaon?

Good. Hugo knows killing her will not help. What happened can’t be changed, but his future is still changing and he can move on.

Hugo, despite being a strong person now, is still a victim of childhood abuse and trauma. He was neglected, he was tortured and he was never given love by anyone other than his sister was she was taken too soon. He has every single right to hurt his family but he didn’t until he realized that his father would hurt others. He worked on himself to become stronger not for revenge on his family or because of others, but for the child who couldn’t protect himself.

Well, you are Hugo anyway. Just the thoughts in the back of his head.

[writers-potion]

Do you have any nicknames? Not stereotypical ones like “honey, sweetie”, but ones that maybe a character won’t like at first but grows to love??

Character Nickname Ideas

Hmmm this is actually a tricky one to answer.

Each character will have their own set of cultural backgrounds, quirks, strengths, weaknesses and relationship dynamics, which can all contribute to a nickname.

Here are some common things writers do for nicknames:

Shorten their given name. Mireya becomes Rey. Christopher becomes Chris.

Alter their given name. If you add a “y” sound, it implies the person using the nickname thinks of the character as young or childlike. So Alexa becomes Lexie. William becomes Billy.

Base their nickname on a physical trait. This can be straightforward or ironic. The large man is Tiny. The pretty girl named Honor is Bell/Beauty.

Pick a personality trait. School kids might call your main character Sassy Cassy. The con man might be called Prince Charming because of his smooth-talking skills.

Base their nickname on their profession or an accomplishment. So many characters are called Doc, Prof, or Chairman.

Base it on Monsters: ie. Balrog, Loch, Golen, Orthros, Baal, etc.

Base it on Mythology. Lots of authors have used names from Greek/Roman mythology, and readers have loved it!

Here are two personal examples:

Use initials. My name is Junhui Lee, and those who aren't familar with Asian names struggle to pronoun it correctly. So I just go by "JH"

In Korean culture, (1) people's names are usually three chracters: ie. Jun+hui+Lee and (2) We put surnames in front, not at the back of our names: ie. Lee Junhui, not Junhui Lee. Close friends would address each other as "surname + first character of the given name". So my friends would call me Lee Jun.

A character not liking their nickname

Doesn't necessary mean it has to be a funny nickname. They can dislike it because they somehow feel like only their parents/siblings call them that, or they feel childish, or the tone in which the other person says it is too teasing.

Depends on the origin and meaning behind the nickname. Was it made up by bullies in primary school and its just happened to stick? Was it given to them by their late grandparents? The anme

That said, here are some examples!

Vivienne: Vivvy, Vienne, Viv, Vee

Niamh: Nia, Neeve, Iya

Athena: Ath, Thea

Hazel: Haze, Zelly, Elle

Bloom: Bee, Bloomy, Blommer, Bloo

Coral: Cora, Coralie, Cori, Coral-B

Alaric: Larry, Lars

Ulysses: Ollie, Ulie

Adin: Ade, Ad, Bin, Dinny

Nicolas: Nick, Nico, Nicky

Daniel: Dan, Danny, Dannyboy, Niel

Adreil: Ad, Adri, Riel, El

Louisa: Lulu

+ this list because I've been trying to come up with nicknames for my bloothirsty character...

Steelshot

Crank

Rigs

Skinner

Skull Crusher

Wardon

Zero

Ironclad

Iron Heart

Billy the Butcher

Mr. Blonde

K-6

Hell-Raiser

Harbinger

Finisher

I hope this helps :)

[londonhalcyon]

Hi, I’m personally writing my own fanfic on MC and Merula so I want to ask about some tips about writing complex characters.

Wow, I’m honored that you would ask me! That’s a huge compliment.

And uhhhhh good question. So much of the way I approach writing characters is by feel, which isn’t helpful advice at all. It’s tricky to list out tips because I don’t actively think about it while writing, but let’s see if I can break it down. This might be long.

For one, I don’t try to write complex characters; I try to write people. All people are messy, with their own contradictory emotions, desires, thoughts, and actions. It’s important to keep that in mind.

Characters are not defined by their surface level traits. They are not action figures that parrot the same three lines when you push a button. I see younger and newer writers fall into this trap all the time: they’ll take a character’s most common traits and make them their only traits. For example, Merula, who is often snarky and mean, will be written as only snarky and mean, no matter the situation or who else is involved. Real people instead behave differently in different moments.

Understand the character’s motivations. Their motivations drive all their actions and reactions from moment to moment. What do they want? How far are they willing to go to get it? What do they care about? What would they sacrifice? When would they throw in the towel? These motivations may be big (e.g. protect the love of their life) or small (e.g. buy a pasty without setting the food cart on fire) and may change with the scenario. A lot of writers like to jot down the answers to these questions as a form of brainstorming. I don’t; I prefer to work out each character’s motivations as I write, which is why my earlier fics feature more “prototype” versions of those characters.

Establish consequences for the character’s actions they didn’t predict. People are unpredictable, and so is the way they respond to each other. Have you ever told a joke that flopped? You expected people to laugh and they didn’t, leaving you floundering for what to do next. How other characters react to your character—and how that character reacts to their reactions are important details to think through. Merula, for example, is often mean by default. Realistically, not everyone is going to tolerate that—not all the time. If someone gets upset with her in a way she didn’t expect, now what is she going to do? Backpedal? Get defensive? Double down? It depends who she’s dealing with and how she feels about them, as well as how much she’s willing to admit she’s wrong in that moment.

Put yourself in the character’s shoes and walk through every moment of their story with them. This is my entire approach to writing—and what I unhelpfully said I do by feel. I drop my characters in a situation and write their actions and reactions beat by beat, thinking through their thoughts and feelings as I do. You have to figure out how to get into the character’s head. There’s a lot I don’t have in common with Merula. My parents aren’t murderers or fascists. I had an awesome childhood and have an incredibly loving relationship with my family, who support me in everything I do. But I had zero emotional regulation as a teenager. It was easier to yell or cry than process anything I felt (yay secondhand generational trauma). Because of that, writing a character who poorly deals with complex emotions, and who can’t stop herself from lashing out even when she knows it’s wrong, is as easy as looking in a mirror. Find ways to connect with the characters you write, or, if you truly have nothing in common, then listen. Listen to how the people around you talk and act. Take in their words and mannerisms and find inspiration there.

Let’s walk through an example together. In the “Poffle for your Problems?” one shot, Barnaby shows Merula a picture of Lily, prompting this reaction from Merula:

“I still miss her,” Barnaby said.

Merula almost said something cruel. Then she almost said something dismissive. When she realized there was no one else around to hear her, she said the truth instead. “Me too,” she whispered, because Barnaby wouldn’t judge. He never did.

Motivation/characteristic —> action/reaction

Barnaby wears his heart on his sleeve. —> He freely admits to missing Lily.

Merula doesn’t process her emotions well. Barnaby being able to admit aloud something she struggles to even think about upsets her. —> Her knee jerk reaction is to say something cruel as a form of defense.

Merula just had a lot of fun with Barnaby, who is one of her only friends. She doesn’t want to drive him away. —> She catches herself and changes her intended comment to something dismissive so she can still pretend she doesn’t care.

Merula realizes there is no one in the room who would judge her if she did admit to caring about Lily. She hates not being able to deal with her feelings as easily as Barnaby does, but he makes it safe for her to take a stab at it for once. —> She admits to missing Lily too.

Like I said: beat by beat. (Notice that my bullet pointed breakdown is longer than the actual scene. This is by design. Avoid spelling out absolutely everything for your audience. Less is more.)

Writing realistic characters takes practice: both practice writing and practice living. I’ve been writing fanfic as a hobby on and off for about fifteen years, and I’m still learning every day. Honestly, out of everything I’ve shared so far, the best advice I can offer is to get out in the world and interact with other humans. Listen carefully. Ask good questions. Observe. If you can get a feel for people, you can get a feel for characters.

[fure-dcmk]

FINALLY WATCHED THE MOVIE first impression rambling >>>

[MILLION DOLLAR PENTAGRAM SPOILER WARNING]

HEIJI WAS SOOOOO COOL. HANDSOME. TERRIFIC. the first 20 minute is just me losing my mind from all the heiji details

>> heiji and kid bantering about fairy lips in the intro. kid going your fault for not noticing hmmp! <- huh? are you a tsundere heroine

>> HEIJI ORIGINAL DUFFLE BAG!!! CAMEO-ING IN 2024!!!

>> 4 new outfit from heiji that fits him so well... handsome guy

>> a fairy lip redraw. i died

how the hell did heiji brought his bike with him all the way in HOKKAIDO. you can almost way osaka to tokyo is only half of the travel to hokkaido how many day trip would it take to reach that far. also a jp tweet i read once brought to question how a high schooler was able to use the high way. did he brought kazuha with her in this extreme trip? with the excuse that he's going for a kendo tournament... when his bigger agenda is to confess. everything about the bike being there doesn't make sense but i give it a pass for being cool 😁👍

and the heikazu scene.,.. i came there fully expecting to not care at all but they actually made me invested. ran was SOOOO CUTE her excitement directly influenced me to also want to see heiji succeed. heiji asking if the legendary 100 million night view is better than big ben and ran agreeing just to placate him for the sake of her otp 😭

THE STUN GRENADE! the fact that kazuha immediate reaction is to protect heiji ears.... her self sacrificial nature a call back to mermaid island in the most subtle way 🥹🥹🥹 heiji shocked eyes was so cute. and heiji confession speech isnt cringe and is actually cute! shocker! (sorry trauma from heart anniversary lines its so awful im dnfuebdjfjf) devastated such an ideal confession scene was wasted. but its from kazuha trying to save heiji SO FORGIVEN

need to make sure ppl know im a momiji enjoyer. all her faults are forgiven purely cuz she is funny. let a rich girl be delulu !

also loove how they keep cannonizing her keen hearing from m21 THIS IS THE APPEAL OF KAZUHA THEY GET IT

touichi gifting a lost national treasure to his little brother yuusaku for winning the macademy award, as well as keeping in touch with him and gifting various trinkets.... meanwhile keeping his own son completely in the dark that he's alive this entire time...

conclusion 1: worst parent award goes to kuroba touichi 🥳🥳🥳

conclusion 2: ah he's definitely a brocon huh

kills me that everyone is dejected that the katana with the star shaped guard is a lost treasure. meanwhile its quitely sitting in kudo yuusaku's store room cuz his big brother gifted it to him LIKE SDJDJFF!? turning your justice leaning lil bro into an accomplices. the gag potential here is so made for me

shoutout to sonoko who took up haibara's usual information provider role. every scene with her was animated so cutely IM SHOCKED m27 doing excellent job at showing off her cuteness. there is a fun parallel to think about, sonoko was the first person heiji went to to get information on kudo's whereabout, and now heiji is also going to her for information ♥️ heiji-sonoko friendship crumb thank you for the food

this movie really play a lot with the crumbs from kendo school tournament arc. heiji-ran friendship makes me want to cry, ran efficiently karate chopping hijiri to make sure theres no distractions for heikazu 🥺😭 ive been convinced on okita's cuteness the past 3 month cuz if the okita fanart boom in my corner of jp twitter but watching it for myself... he really have it bad for heiji LMAO wdym "it's boring if hattori ain't here~" how much did you say this for kaitou kid to catch that its a good trait for an okita disguise. im glad this movie give a good balance of real okita and fake okita, m10 still makes me so sad for having ZERO real hakuba 🥲 kid's dosu e~ is so moeblob

ah i still got so many word vomit on this movie it seems to be never ending 😭😭

my final review of the movie is this is my no 1 fav conan movie of all time, 2nd place is bride of halloween. i still havent rank anything below that properly. im truly entertained by this movie it got so many characters i care about with a lot of bombastic scenes. as much as i want to say my ultimate fav is m7 and m21, both of them are kinda... slow with all the deduction talk. im here for eye candy after all 😔 mixing kid's energy is doing wonders for the tone of a heiji movie. heiji's presence is also doing wonders for KID as well cuz gosh!!! KID has never emit this much childlike moe blob energy. heiji and conan being the straight man to kid's prank is the dynamic really help to emphasize his whimsical energy

and the final theme i caught; parallelism where hijiri is willing to do anything to protect his father's legacy only for us to find that its all for naught.... now why does this sound familiar 🤔🤔🤔

rewatching the movie tomorrow so ill probably do another ramble on it

[veganpeachpie]

I just finished Sunrise on the Reaping, and I am rather surprised to find I was a little disappointed.

(spoilers ahead)

In no particular order, here are my problems with the book:

I honestly could not bring myself to care about Lenore Dove at all. Maybe it was just the lack of page time for her, but her and Haymitch's relationship felt really superficial and I found it hard to see why he feels she is the love of his life. It made sense as a teen fling, but I think it should have been deeper for me to feel the stakes of this world. Haymitch was constantly talking about her being the love of his life but never gave much substance for me to understand why they were good together. She also seems like Lucy Gray 2.0, which I was not a fan of. I get that they're both in the Covey and grew up in that same culture, but I wish she had more personality traits other than Musical Rebel Girl Who Loves Birds.

I also kind of hated the term "Newcomers," and I cringed a little every time they used that term for the group. It didn't really feel accurate to what they were (I'd say they were more underdogs than newcomers), and the term was way to peppy for the Hunger Games. I thought the other names they threw out were much more accurate to their position (Dark Horses would have been such a cool title), but "Newcomers" was very much forced down the throats of the readers.

CAMEOS. Now I'm in favor of a good cameo when done tastefully, but the first few chapters in particular were soaked with them in a way that felt like fan service. Haymitch is Katniss' dad's best friend! There's Katniss' mother! Lenore Dove is related to Lucy Gray! Plutarch, an important guy from an influential family, is on camera duty for District 12 for some reason? I suppose it made sense that Katniss' parents and Lucy Gray's relatives would be there, but the fact that Haymitch knew all of them and ran into everyone on reaping day just felt forced. I did like Mags and Wiress' appearances because they explained who mentored the tributes without victors from their districts and how Haymitch became connected with the rebellion in the first place, but the others were unnecessary and were distractions from the main plot.

President Snow was so sloppy and showed too much weakness. In the original trilogy, everything he did was calm, calculated, and secretive, but here he exposed so much weakness to other people. One scene in particular was in Plutarch's house, where Snow was suffering from poison and allowed Haymitch to see him in that state, as well as the fact that he asked Haymitch for the milk from the fridge. I understand an interpretation of this scene is showing Snow's power and how even those who hate Snow and the games wouldn't kill Snow in that moment of weakness, but it was still a sloppy-looking move on his part. I also hated how Lucy Gray's performance was shown to Haymitch at the end when he was in the apartment. Weren't the 10th games erased from memory? Why was he pulling that footage out to show to Haymitch of all people?

Why did the games feel so easy? In the original trilogy, Katniss was constantly rationing, hunting, and gathering, and I thought Haymitch would have a harder time in the arena because he was limited to the food in his backpack. But, particularly in the first part before Ampert's death, he was eating food constantly, seemingly without fear of running out? And then every time he was running low, a pack would be found or a parachute would show up with an abundance of supplies? He was never really starving or struggling like Katniss and Peeta did, and only mentioned hunger once, if I recall correctly. Everything fell into his lap without much effort, including the tools needed for the rebellion attempt, which I will get to next.

Haymitch appeared to have zero regard or concern for his family and Lenore Dove (love of his life and bestest most perfect person who ever lived, in case you forgot) throughout the entirety of the games. I guess perhaps he was banking on not winning, but he was behaving extremely recklessly for someone with family who could be punished for his actions regardless. It's not even as though he wasn't aware that that was something the Capitol did, as he had talked with Beetee and was fully aware that was the reason for Ampert's reaping.

[fantastic-nonsense]

im soso curious, i need to know... why is tim a child of apollo? bless u for not going with fanon<3

[referencing how I decided who the Batfam's godly parents were in my PJO AU WIP]

People like to sort him into Athena because DC has spent the last few years emphasizing how smart he is and how he's better at the more “cerebral” and detective aspects of the job. But Tim’s most prominent pre-reboot traits are not actually his detective or tech skills: they’re his reckless, impulsive bravery, his ability to analyze and think very quickly on his feet in dangerous situations, and his "power of friendship" idealism.

He's a people person; it's one of his greatest strengths. Tim is like...physically incapable of going somewhere and not making at least one friend while he's there. Hell, when he ran off to travel the world on his "fuck you, I'll find Bruce on my own" trip he still managed to pick up his own little crew of assassin friends along the way. Making connections and talking to people and relying on others for help is how he successfully navigates being a hero, as he himself notes on multiple occasions:

"Did you think I was going to run all around the city, desperately trying to save everyone all by myself? I'm not Batman. I have friends." -Red Robin #12

Tim loves his family and friends, and losing so many people he's close to within such a small timespan sends him off the deep end in multiple ways (trying to clone Kon, fighting Dick to get the Lazarus water, isolating himself from everyone, fighting with Dick and running off to find proof that Bruce was alive on his own, etc).

At his core, Tim is an idealist who becomes a hero for no other reason than a) a broken man needs help and a broken family needs mending and b) if Dick won't go back to being Robin he might as well do it, because someone has to be Robin. He sees what will happen if Bruce stays on the path he's on and says "no. I'm not going to let that happen." He's a hero because someone has to help, and he's able and available to do so. He doesn't work on cold hard logic and facts. He works off of gut instinct and then uses his big brain to go find facts and logical conclusions that support those instincts.

Tim was never going to be an Athena child.

So I started thinking. At first, I wanted him to be a Hermes child; it seemed right to frame his parentage around being the child of the messenger of the gods given how he became Robin. But that's not really him, either. Apollo, within the scope of both classical mythology and the PJO-verse's depiction of him and his children, fits him better.

While modern culture tends to zero in a lot on Apollo's status as the god of music, poetry, and the arts (for good reason), Apollo in classical Greek mythology was first and foremost known as the god who (for lack of a better term) helps his people. He's the god of the sun, of light, of medicine and healing, of prophecy, of truth.

Tim comes into Bruce's life at a time when Bruce is at his absolute lowest point. Jason is dead. He's estranged from Dick. He's failing in his mission to save Gotham. He's highkey passively suicidal. And Tim takes it upon himself to fix that. And he does it by being a solid, bright, stable presence in Bruce's life and an extremely blunt, truthful messenger of the future he sees: Batman needs a Robin, and if Bruce doesn't have one he's going to die.

And I didn't abandon his intelligence in the calculations: Apollo is also the god of rational thinking, order, and knowledge, contrasting and working in harmony with Dionysus (the god of irrationality, chaos, and passion). He was also known to be the god whose job it was to interpret the will of Zeus to humankind, which I thought was appropriate for a boy who spends quite a lot of his time being the living communication translator between Bruce and everyone around him.

So. Apollo child.

............also I thought it was funny to make the god of youth the father of the boy DC refuses to allow to age.

[demonslayerunhinged]

Unhinged analysis - Demon Slayer Mark Series d=(^o^)=b 💪

In Search of Acceptance - What Determines a Person's Worth?

Muichiro's character, journey, and development are some of the most underappreciated and overlooked in the series. This is a shame because I see his story as a commentary on gender expectations of young boys in the form of emotional repression and stoicism to be 'useful' in society.

So let's begin this analysis from the very introduction of his character.

Who is Muichiro Tokito?

When we first meet Muichiro, we're not given a lot of information about him, aside from the fact that he's constantly spaced out. He isn't shown to have any proper sense of identity, and along with his forgetful nature, lack of emotions, thoughts, and opinions about anything. But then we do see something, two things actually; when the Master reveals that Tanjiro has met Muzan and when Tanjiro interrupts the Master when he's addressing the Hashira.

He expresses interest in Muzan and annoyance at Tanjiro's disrespectful interruption, so much so that he's the only one who reacts by pelting Tanjiro with stones. So we've seen two emotions so far, curiosity and annoyance. He isn't completely blank, just muted. The strongest emotions are the ones that breakthrough is his love and respect for the Master and his hatred for Muzan.

Next let's move on to his character design:

Similar to Sanemi, there's nothing on his uniform that gives us a clue to his personality and identity outside of being a Demon Slayer. His uniform is practical in concealing his movements from demons, but aside from that it's plain and blank, pointing to his lack of identity.

We get more information about his personality from his reintroduction in the second episode of the Swordsmith Village arc. he gets into an altercation with Kotetsu, who refuses to give him the key to Yorichii Type-Zero, a prized possession and family heirloom. At Kotetsu's refusal, Muichiro gets to bullying him, first with words as he attempts to put Kotetsu in his place by stating the difference in importance between the swordsmiths and the Hashira.

“There is a vast difference between the value of your time and a Pillar’s time.” “Swordsmiths are unable to fight, they can’t save people’s lives either. Other than making weapons, they’re useless.” “Get a clue about your position before making a move. You’re no longer a baby.”

When this does not work, he then moves on to attempting to bully Kotetsu physically and is stopped by Tanjiro. Tanjiro notices that there is no hint of malice in Muichiro's words, which tells us that he's simply stating what he believes to be true.

So where does this mindset come from?

The Useless, Worthless Boy

One of the things that I noticed about the twins is how their differences tell us a lot about the gender expectations of boys in society. Yuichiro possesses qualities that are prized and encouraged in boys and men—He's tough, strong, determined, capable, and most importantly unemotional. After their parents died, he was able to take up the responsibility of taking care of the household and taking over his father's job as a woodcutter with the single-minded purpose of taking care of his soft-hearted 'useless' brother.

Muichiro on the other hand is soft and weak as seen in the flashback where he struggles with carrying just one log of wood whereas Yuichiro has carried a dozen or so. He mentioned in the light novel that he wasn't able to do simple chores like cook rice or even use a knife. He's optimistic, soft-hearted, soft-spoken, and emotional; possessing traits that society considers useless in a boy/man, a sissy if you will.

Yuichiro seems to think so too because he not only mocks Muichiro for his 'uselessness' but he also berates him after Amane's visit by belittling his abilities and desire to become a swordsman. This has been interpreted by a lot of fans as Yuichiro hating him or him just being an emotionally abusive dick.

But if we simply listen to his outburst, we'll see that Yuichiro is not simply being hostile to Muichiro. But as we see from his outburst, his actions do not stem not from any real malice but from his fear of losing his little brother just like he lost his parents. In his mind, kindness, and optimism don't have a place in this harsh, cruel world that took their parents away from them. Anyway, despite his true intentions the message was clear to Muichiro, and the damage was done; traits such as kindness, and optimism are worthless and by extension Muichiro is worthless.

Then we had the demon attack, which echoed the same sentiments to Muichiro—their lives were worthless.

*I'm sorry but every time I watch this scene, seeing Muichiro holding Yuichiro, them huddled in the corner with Muichiro shaking in terror looking so small and helpless, it brings tears to my eyes. They were just babies! Fuck that can-opener-hands-looking motherfucker!😭

Anyway, the demon saw them as easy pickings who would not fight back and would not be missed by anyone because after all, like just Yuichiro said 'What can a couple of 11-year-olds do?'. But the thing is that even the smallest, most conflict-avoidant creature will bite back when pushed to the corner, especially when it's to protect what's important to them.

Muichiro was successful in killing that asshole demon, but the damage was already done. Yuichiro had bled out and even though Muichiro was able to make it back to him, the adrenaline from fighting the demon wore off, leaving him too exhausted to go call for help. As he watched his brother bleed to death, I reckon that he felt a sense of guilt because the only reason he was alive was because Yuichiro protected him, putting himself in danger.

I bet that Muichira was thinking that if only he was stronger, if only he wasn't so weak, so…useless, then maybe Yuichiro would still be alive. His brother was right to hate him, he was useless and stupid things like kindness, optimism, and weakness have no place in this world and all it does is get people killed, his mom, his dad, and now his brother. To have those traits is to be worthless, and even when his memory fades away due to the trauma, he still has those beliefs. Subconsciously or probably even consciously, he adopted the traits Yuichiro possessed that he believes will give him worth.

He trains his body to become strong and skilled to match Yuichiro's inherent strength. He also adopts Yuichiro's seemingly cold, callous, and emotionally repressed nature, especially his lack of tact, which he uses to berate anyone who possesses any trait different from what he deems 'useful'. To him, those people are like the old Muichiro—worthless, and this is what he tells Kotetsu.

“Swordsmiths are unable to fight, they can’t save people’s lives either. Other than making weapons, they’re useless.”

The Significance of Muichiro's Fight with Gyokko

We all know that the fight between Gyokko and Muichiro is the least liked in the series so far and the most shat on, with fans calling it mid and lackluster. Especially when compared to the final battle against Gyutaro and Daki in the Entertainment District arc.

But I disagree. First off, not every fight has to be a spectacle. The best fights to me are those that tell a story or a battle of ideologies between the opponents that ultimately result in the development of the protagonist. Second, Demon Slayer is a character-driven story, so the plot is secondary to the development of the characters, and instead, we focus on their journeys, which include their battles. Demon Slayer's antagonists are usually a twisted or exaggerated representation of our protagonist's inner beliefs, fears, and desires. They serve as a mirror that forces the characters to look inward and examine and overcome their false beliefs and inner demons, so to speak.

Gyokko is a twisted representation of Muichiro's view on worth and usefulness. This might seem obvious, but the demons don't value human life, and with Gyokko this disregard is even more apparent by his usage of the swordsmen's bodies in his 'art pieces'.

We also see his disregard in the way he callously spat out the body of that poor swordsmith he ate in the beginning when he entered the village. Rest in peace random swordsmith dude, your only crime is that you had good taste in pottery 🙏🏼😔.

So anyway, Gyokko's view of humans as worthless and insignificant is a twisted version of Muichiro's personal beliefs about worth. This is why Gyokko's comments unlocked his long-buried memories because they were similar to the words uttered by the demon that attacked the brothers, and subsequently also mirrored the words said by Yuichiro.

But here's the thing, Gyokko's disregard for Muichiro and the major mistake that caused him the fight was that he underestimated Muichiro because all he saw was this tiny boy and these weak swordsmen. After all, what can two little boys and two human swordsmiths do against a powerful, old, immortal demon like him? It's just like that can-opener demon said—their lives are worthless. He considers them insignificant, so insignificant in fact that he puts little thought into his methods of killing, like trapping Muichiro in the water vase and sending his little fishies to attack Kotetsu instead of just killing them immediately.

This is also why Haganezuka's lack of attention enraged him because it made Gyokko's presence insignificant. The demon wasn't worth the attention, which to Gyokko made him feel insignificant when it should've been the other way around.

In his attempt to correct things to their natural order in a sick version of 'notice me senpai!' he underestimated not only Haganezuka's intense focus on that autism-fueled sigma grind, but also underestimated Muichiro's abilities and Kotetsu's resilience. By the time he was ready to face Muichiro, it was too late. His hubris and underestimation of Muichiro, the swordsmiths, and the perseverance of the human spirit are what ultimately led to his downfall.

Muichiro's Mark

“For the sake of someone other than yourself, you can tap into an infinite strength.”

Remembering his past and most importantly his brother Yuichiro is what allowed Muichiro to unlock his mark. His core wound was that he as a person was worthless, which is why he adopted his brother's cold and callous attitude but upon revisiting his memories he realized that his brother never hated him and admired his kindness and even considered it as a strength that only the 'chosen ones' possessed which he tried so hard to protect it.

Nii-san did not distance himself from me on purpose, he treated me with importance even till his last breath. He said the “Mu” in Muichirou was the “Mu” in “Infinity”.

Yuichiro recognized his brother's worth and loved him for who he was, but it was his fear of losing Muichiro just like he lost his parents that caused him to lash out, to become hardened and angry. Then, when they got attacked, that was when his true feelings came out. Kindness is Muichiro's strength, when pushed to the brink, it was his brother and the need to protect him that gave him the courage to face and kill the demon.

It was also what made him save Kotetsu which in turn was what gave Kotetsu the resolve to save him too. While one might argue that he saved Kotetsu because of Tanjiro's words, I believe Tanjiro just planted the seed. It was Muichiro who decided to not just save Kotetsu but to protect him at the cost of his own life. He wouldn't have done that if he didn't have some semblance of kindness, even the most viable seed would fail to grow if the soil is dead.

Side note: When Muichiro unlocks his mark, it presents as two clouds on either side of his face. I believe that marks that manifest on the face are representative of the bearer's self-identity and perception. The fact that there are two clouds is representative of his connection to his brother, which I think is a really neat detail.

Revisiting our past and facing our trauma is hard as hell. It's probably one of the hardest things to do when undertaking therapy. While it seems comfortable to repress the trauma, doing so may also hold us back. By facing our demons and accepting the parts of ourselves that we, the people in our lives and society deem worthless, we would be able to unlock our true potential, and I think that's what the mark represents for Muichiro.

So What Does Determine a Person's Worth?

“I am no longer that Muichirou who is empty inside.”

Well nothing. Muichiro's journey of self-acceptance tells us that every one of us has inherent worth. I also believe that his story is a commentary on how boys are expected to repress their emotions from a young age. Boys are conditioned to believe that having and especially expressing traits like empathy, softness, and vulnerability is a sign of weakness, and to be weak, especially as a man, is to be worthless. The same goes for women and girls as well, where you have to display 'masculine' traits to be taken seriously.

Muichiro is a soft boy. He loves making origami airplanes, he is soft-spoken, sweet, and has adorable descriptions for his fellow Pillars even when he didn't have his memories. But he's also a badass who decimated a demon with his bare hands at 11 and became a Pillar in just 4 months. No part of him is more useful or worthier than the other, they were both instrumental in all his actions. When he realized this and his inherent worth as not just a warrior, but also a human being, was he able to achieve his full potential and most importantly to heal.

Perhaps he sensed the emotion in Muichiro's voice, because Himejima abruptly smiled. "Forget it. I don't think I need to worry after all."

In Conclusion, self-acceptance is the way to go, never underestimate anybody including yourself. No matter how weak you perceive yourself to be when the time comes for the sake of others, the people you love, and most importantly for yourself, you too can tap into infinite strength ❤🌫.

The quotes are from the unofficial translation of A Promise of Tomorrow

*Yay! I finally made a DS mark post! Sorry that this took so long, guys! 😖 This post went through many rewrites, fat trims and additions, like when I decided to add a 'title card' because I just love to make myself suffer. I might make edits because I'm sure there are some things I've missed and mistakes I've made, but anyway I'm glad to have released something a little substantial to start this series.