#he also probably could use a sword

[humans-are-tasty]

[non-un-topo]

Thinking about Yusuf and Nicolò as young men again

[millidew]

maizuru and milsiril are my favorite fucked up dungeon meshi mother figures

[completeoveranalysis]

[1]

Chapiter 182 - A Night For Vows

In which BATTLE HUSBANDS. 

Listen I don’t even care what else is happening we have the return of Battle Husbands. I’m happy.  

It’s giving the same vibe as the opening for Chapiter 17, but upgraded! They’re in battle, but now they’re facing the same way because they’re on the same page, plotwise, emotionwise, and directionwise. They’re not fighting different battles or aiming for different goals anymore - they’re united on the same path. And they’re no longer disguising their feelings through joviality or putting on a front. Now they’re both serious. 

In another contrast, the chapiter 17 cover had them in opposite colours, which is relatively common for them, but this new cover actually unites them visually. They’re wearing the clothing in a way that matches their personality, but the colours are vastly the same - white all over with the emblematic flames, a slash of black across their middle, as well as across their wrists. The only actual point of difference is in their faces - where Kurogane has black hair with a white band, and Fai has the opposite, but even THAT is brought in line with the other through other elements - ie, The symbol on Kurogane’s white band is an exact match for the one at Fai’s waist, and they’re visually RIGHT next to each other, so you can’t miss it! Kurogane also has a long looping cord across this waist, in white, while Fai has a black cord tying his hair back, with the same kind of tassels. 

Also! In the Chapitre 17 cover their weapons were crossed in an X (a visual clash) while here they they’re angled to be held in the same direction. This brings the visual focus towards them both, together, in the middle of the page, with their differing styles now united in the same goal. OH, and the physicality of their weapons? Before they held the weapons BETWEEN them. The X of the weapons actually kept Kurogane and Fai physically apart (as if they were on opposite sides of a conflict), but now the weapons are on the OUTSIDE, bringing Kurogane and Fai RIGHT in close to each other, with the weapons on the outside. So now even physically they're together, closer to each other than anything else, and on the same side of any conflict around them.

So they're aligned now, both symbolically and physically, and it's with intention from the characters themselves. They’re worked for this, and they’re choosing it deliberately, and they DESERVE it. 

Also like, a FLAME SCYTHE? GO OFF Fai that is INCREDIBLE.

And OOPS I totally forgot that the cover will have splash text as well. What does it say.

The translation I have is something along the lines of:

“Measuring and delimiting one another

Even so, those days come to pass. 

Tonight, the men shall

Link those swords.”

Which is potentially the most homoerotic way they could have phrased that and I strongly approve.

[hirazuki]

Me, episode 1: Oh, a relatable protag! And a relatable female protag, at that. Sweet! That never happens.

Me, a few episodes in: Wait, the protag really is going to be my character? The one I identify with the most? Seriously? It's not going to be a strange, at least somewhat sinister, seemingly hostile male side character? It's gonna be a female character and the protagonist? That's insane, that literally never happens... what's the catch??

Me, more than halfway through the season: ... huh, I guess Maomao really is it. Okay, then ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Me to myself, after episodes 22/23:

[wignalluvion]

something something formal events at the Tower and Sion is not impressed

[t-u-i-t-c]

Chapter 5: The Sure-Kill Fangs

[science-lings]

You could combine the idea of Zelda’s dragon features spreading with the idea that not all the gloom was purged from link’s body? When he has a particularly bad episode, Zelda’s light powers are the only thing that can bring him comfort/lessen the pain. That also introduces moral conflict where Zelda doesn’t want to see link suffering but link doesn’t want Zelda to harm herself for his own benefit

ooooh tragic... bc i feel like the situation would be like, either she uses her magic to keep the gloom at bay so he can keep the use of his arm and not be in a whole lot of pain or he has to get his connection to the gloom severed, literally. So at first the decision is easy, with her secret stone, her light power comes so easily and at first there are no obvious downsides.

Then she starts gradually growing scales, and her teeth and nails get sharper and a little bit iridescent, and at some point little horns start to grow from her hairline. It's a little troubling but Zelda still thinks it's kind of fascinating and none of those are really much of an issue, but no matter how much they slow his treatments to get her own changes to slow, it only keeps progressing for both of them.

And while Link needs her light power to keep his sword arm, it gets to the point to where Zelda's more mental symptoms from her time as a dragon are getting worse, she's disassociating more, she's going into trances, her thoughts and memories are getting progressively foggier and who knows what could happen if it gets even worse. Would she start to lose her memory? Would she start to forget who she is? Would she forget where or when she is?

Even if it means sacrificing his sword arm, they have to put a stop to it before she hurts herself even more, and after some arguing, they both come to the conclusion that it needs to be amputated. It showed no signs of getting better the whole time she had been treating it, it would always return just as strong the next day.

Perhaps before it was Rauru's light power in his arm that kept the disease at bay, and each bit of pure light magic from the shrines weakened it's grip on him, but it was never enough, and there may not even be enough light magic in the world to combat it without consequences.

So at some point, they have to accept the arm as a loss. It's a small price to pay really, none of the sages died in the fight against Ganondorf, any other sacrifice was so minor that they're lucky the most debilitating thing lost was the swordsman's most essential arm.

[aromanticasterisms]

iansan relevance right off the bat let's fucking go

[kaerinio]

no, because george is sick for lining quentyn and young griff up together, and putting "the sun's son" and "the mummer's dragon" right next to each other. because in both cases, they occupy this duality. quentyn is literally the sun's son, but his targaryen ancestry and his play at being a dragontamer makes him a mummer's dragon. and, young griff could be the sun's son through elia martell if his alleged identity as prince aegon is true, but it's more likely that he is, in fact, the mummer's dragon, as hinted by illyrio himself. smth smth blackfyre and women's bloodlines . . . which would also play into the significance of targaryen descended women smth smth.

[darkvolley]

I know it hasn't been confirmed that the gazing eye can only be on a keyblade, but it sure does feel weird that out of all the weapons it's on, only one of them isn't a keyblade(Riku's first sword). Like, that just doesn't feel right somehow.

[fionnaskyborn]

On a scale from one to ten, how based of me is it that I took the GGST survey for the second time just to put a BlazBlue character that appeared in exactly one novel and then never again in one of my three "additional character I would like to see the most in the future" spots?

[dulcewrites]

can you tease anything coming up with cassandra and aemond? also, are you definitely going for just one more baby boy? I miss them <3

I’m currently trying to write the driftmark thing. I’m focused on gett part 8 of fcc out rn, but once that out I hope to focus on this. I’m leaning towards the twins options not even gonna lie.

[specialshinytrinkets]

[ID:

You do [caps] not [end caps] need to kill off a character for 'emotional impact', or 'realism'. Especially if you've given readers / watchers time to bond with said character. Come on.

/endID]

im starting to think you guys dont like it when stories make you feel things

[inmirova]

Clara vs Rory DW companion poll is so funny to me as someone who initially stopped watching halfway through 11's run bc I didn't like him very much and only started rewatching/finishing the series in December. everyone talking about how much Clara sucks makes me excited to meet her

[qqueenofhades]

I think its genuinely fascinating how Biden has somehow become the bad vibes sin eater for the party. I'm seeing people who were doing the whole "voting doesn't matter both old men are the same" pivot hard into voting as harm reduction. The anti voting rhetoric has COMPLETELY lost The Youths on tiktok. People suddenly remember the good things the Biden administration has done but don't associate Harris with any of the things they didn't like. In my swing state volunteers are signing up in droves. People feel ENERGIZED, the vibe shift pre and post Biden dropping from the race has just been insane

Y'know, that is a... good way of putting it. It's also why I'm quite sure that Biden has probably been planning it for a while. I don't think he was intending to step down, and didn't want to be forced out at the drop of a hat, but after he realized that the circus was never going to stop until he did, he did the honorable fall-on-his-own-sword thing and definitely, DEFINITELY spent some time choreographing this behind the scenes. Because while the roll-out has been very smooth, it could just as easily (as many of us were expecting) have been a total disaster, and that doesn't happen without SOME planning. It's also entirely possible that the campaign staff flipped from Biden to Harris are superhuman, to come up with a massive online roll-out, new branding, new signs (they had plenty of 'em in Wisconsin yesterday), new everything, but I'm guessing it's a combination of both. Biden has spent his entire political career being underestimated, and after we literally made a meme out of Dark Brandon juking the Republicans out of their shoes, we should definitely give credit where credit is due in how masterfully he pulled it off.

Because we have had eight years defined by the central question of Whether The President Is a God King Who Should Serve For Life (the MAGAts obviously think yes), the sheer idea of a president willingly giving up his power BEFORE he had to is also novel and admirable. It's sad that this is the case, but so be it. The Republicans also got a heaping helping of Be Careful What You Wish For that was undoubtedly brilliant; they've been yelling for years that Biden is old and frail and can't serve and should step down. Biden went "lol okay" and gave it to them, and now they're fucked.

Aside from that, on the most basic level, it's far, far easier to see the actual difference in the parties with Harris as the nominee, just because it shows that one party is willing to make progress and reflect the new demographic reality and social mores of America, and the other one is not. Now to be clear, Biden deserves an incredible amount of credit for coming out of retirement (he was ALREADY 77 years old when he became president and had had decades of a long and respected career in public service behind him) to fight, beat Trump, and deliver an incredibly successful presidency. He held the line against authoritarianism at home and abroad, he rescued the trashed American economy and managed a world-leading recovery from Covid, he stood up for democracy, he spent four years filling the benches with liberal judges to reverse even some of the Trump/McConnell hack job, he finally passed comprehensive infrastructure investment and the Green New Deal under the name of the Inflation Reduction Act -- and so on. Many of these priorities had been languishing for decades or were completely trashed under Trump, and he could not have done so much in just 4 years without all that age, skill, and experience. Hence why all the Ageism!!! was (aside from being a Republican/media smear job) dumb. He's able to do the job because he has had decades to study. Turns out that makes you actually pretty damn good at it.

Yes, Biden could not do as much as he wanted or originally planned, had to deal with MAGA Republicans and Joe Manchin/Kyrsten Sinema sabotaging him the whole time (lololol Manchin, possible possessor of the World's Biggest Ego and with Trump around that's saying something, popping out of obscurity to self-righteously announce he would not be willing to be Kamala's VP. YEAH ASSHOLE. LITERALLY NOBODY ASKED YOU. NOBODY WHATSOEVER. NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS AT LEAST WE WILL SOON NO LONGER HAVE MANCHIN IN THE SENATE). And yes, Biden made some serious mistakes of his own, because he IS from an older generation and a different style of doing politics/different beliefs that no longer resonate with the younger segments of the electorate. But this old white Catholic guy at the age of almost 80 still managed to be the most progressive president ever, coming in at a moment of incredible domestic and international crisis and getting us safely to the other side, and all cynicism, criticizing, and caveating aside, he deserves an incredible amount of credit for that. I mean that absolutely, and I am very grateful.

As I said, willingly relinquishing that power takes guts, and when Biden saw the writing on the wall that he had to sacrifice himself, he took his time, he didn't jump too early, and he didn't jump too late. On the most basic level, it becomes a hell of a lot easier to make the "both parties are not the same" argument when one is running a (comparatively) young brown woman and the other is still running their loathed felonious old demented orange traitor. Most Americans are not plugged into policy minutiae and details. They look at Biden-Trump, they see two old white guys. When you take one of those old white guys away (who goes in a self-sacrificially heroic manner and in sharp contrast with the coup-happy fascist) and put Kamala Harris in there instead, it generates an obvious jolt. People can see for themselves that there is a real difference that doesn't rely on closely reading news and tracking complex policy, because as noted, most Americans simply don't. The brown first-generation American daughter of brown immigrants is a quantifiably different story from "old white guy career politician," which for better or worse is how Biden was seen, especially the old part. We needed that establishment expertise to beat Trump in 2020; I still think Biden is the only one who could have done it, and as noted, we owe him a great debt for doing so.

However.... 2024 is not 2020, and it is not 2016. There has been this HUGE and unbelievable swing to Kamala because she represents the antithesis of what the last eight years of Trump-induced anger, fear, panic, chaos, and hatred has stirred up. That's why people are so ready to rally around her, just as they were (I daresay) around Obama in 2008, after the exhaustion, chaos, war, and mounting economic misery of Bush. Trump has been out of office for the last four years, but his shadow over the American political landscape has been omnipresent. Now people know that we finally have a real chance at getting rid of him forever, and just as Biden was uniquely positioned to capitalize on that in 2020, so Harris is now. Which is why, however tough it will be, she has a real shot at winning. I can guarantee the Republicans know that, and are shit scared. Because the Black Lady Army of Democracy has indeed arrived in force to Get This Shit Done and I don't know about you, but I found that incalculably comforting:

Yikes! All lined up for Kamala pic.twitter.com/Dt4OCDp7WX

— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) July 24, 2024

This, at the most basic level, is what scares fascists the most, it's exactly what we need now, and what Harris is uniquely positioned to mobilize, along with her gangbusters appeal to young voters:

This is the energy we need. This is what Biden saw and planned for and which he launched us into, and where all that experience and age paid off. This is why people, even people otherwise disengaged, disillusioned, or checked out of the tedious and mind-numbering drudgery and depression of American politics, are responding to it. Because it's easy to understand, it offers hope, and it tells a very simple story that is nonetheless long overdue:

Thanks so much, Joe. Go absolutely waste that orange fucker, Kamala. We got your back.