#honestly the concept of these duo fascinate me

[rayfishandchips]

Left is Drift from Transformers spotlights Drift director cut

Right is Wing from Transformers Drift #1

the sensei/student heritage oOoOo, Drift in spotlight was like "because this is the right thing to do", your sensei is showing Drift I'm in tears

[nanakah]

hello hello, I took the alien stage pill. howdy fellow sufferers

Honestly, my first reaction to basically everything was "awww, they come in sets and are all without exception horribly doomed no matter their specs (loops cool music and vids)"

I'd seen some of VIVINOS' team works without realizing it was the same artist (my favorites being Beloved and Otomeroid) so it was rather shocking to learn of a "series" with a fandom as active/relatively large as Alien Stage without ever actually stumbling upon it before...

Anyways. I like the concept, and Hyuna+Luka in particular, a whole lot. In spite of all the jokes about only yuri and yaoi losing, my spider sense says they'll get their turn of crashing horribly soon and I wanna stay here to witness it burn beautifully, of course.

TL;DR OMG HYULUKA IS SO DELICIOUS

general yapping about all alien stage duos under the cut and some Hyuna/Luka considerations and theories

disclaimer: long, chaotic post ahead - i wrote most of it during revenge bedtime procrastination so I'm kinda just rambling/discussing my general impressions and vibes here instead of formatting it nicely or properly illustrating my points. good luck if you choose to stick around and make yourself comfy

alien stage impressions under read more - also SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

funny thing - I got into alien stage completely by chance after checking out some related vids to my Love and Deepspace twitter spree and avoiding my responsibilities. Ivan's Black Sorrow made a very strong impression and I loved his eyes, so I kept going deeper down the rabbit role and felt fascinated by the web of dynamics between the characters each time I took in a little more of the plot.

(His eyes are so cool and expressive.....I was already loving everything prior and was excited to continue, but Ivan was definitely the one to sell me on the concept more strongly and eat up the rest.)

It was interesting seeing "love" portrayed under such dire conditions and I kept wondering how come the aliens are so stupid they chose a 1vs1 PVP combat format with their beloved pets instead of the optimal formation of idol units and at least duos versus each other to utilize their feelings of love. Why would they do that?

That first innocent musing made me realize how clever the team behind ALNST is. The whole thing seems to be operating as a metaphor/commentary about how predatory the real idol industry is (the concept of anakt garden really sounds like the average idol trainee camp experience and the bonds they form with their group mates) and how heartless guardian (parental) figures can be in a society that is heavily utilitarian and barely gives agency to either their own children or sentient beings like animals that we keep as pets.

So in that world, the sacrifices of being an idol are literal and humans themselves are "pets" - with all the implications that come with "being dependent on a species that does not properly comprehend them". At times, the way they refer to the fandom of each character even seems to be tongue in cheek as to how "we" too are watching the story for entertainment and making fanbases for each character and reacting like some of the in-universe alien fans.

Therefore, it's no brainer that the answer to my initial question was: aliens/Segyein don't understand how to utilize human bonds and emotions to their maximum efficiency in the first place. They know interaction between humans seems to be important and produces more beautiful songs. However, they probably experience those feelings differently and most of them are likely unable to truly empathize with human pain, ethics or feelings. (And believe me, even some people have a hard time believing other species benifit from socialization, so aliens being that way is understandable). Perhaps the awful acts of the Segyein mutilating their pet human is no different from pulling a butterfly's wings to a human or injecting colored fluid into a flower. The glimpses of their buildings and tv show that they have the same sort of "do they have rights?" feelings and similar moral conflicts to what we have in the real world about species we don't understand fully.

I think it's really challenging to analyze a work attempting to guess future developments when you don't know the creator too well. In spite of looping OTOMEROID I wouldn't say I know VIVINOS and her team deeply as an admirer. But from the overall tone of the videos in her channel, I could pick up on a fascination with "extremes" of emotion and exploring the hypocrisy of society. Human/animal experimentation and materialism/religion/consumerism are topics that come up often. Love is also hardly ever portrayed as a simple or benevolent feeling alone - there's unrequited love, obsession, insanity, many facets of that feeling on the channel. Some works are more straightforward and focus on the visual presentation, others seem to have a deeper story behind it.

The technical quality of the Alien Stage MVs is extremely impressive, I had a blast looking at the patreon storyboards and feeling like "wow, a person actually made this". It seriously got me inspired to feel like drawing more to get out of my own artblock and to pick up on old OCs to show them some love. In the era of AI, this is a joy to get to feel. It all definitely feels like a well-put together labor of love. I'm super weak to things brimming with passion like this, it's contagious!!!!

Now that I've tried my best to make an eloquent opening and act like I'm not at all just a fangirl foaming at the mouth with this intense concept (I keep crying that I wanna see either Aka or Ohkawa try their hand at a death game scenario) and at the sight of a tragic toxic duo with a backstory of a deeply rooted mutual obsession/love and fall out (wiping drool out of the corner of my mouth as we speak), let's talk a little more about the story. In order to make sense out of my ramblings and projections, let me explain my thoughts on the other duos besides my bias first.

Mizi and Sua set the tone to their universe as well as serve as an explanation as to why "idols" work well to represent their conflict and struggle - I'm fresh out of Oshi no Ko here, so this feels equal parts like a comfort zone and everything but comfortable and hellish to go over again. But, to put it briefly, the adoration of someone as an entertainer that you want to support also overlaps with the word reserved for adoring "an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship" - idol.

Humans, stripped of their power and autonomy after arrogantly believing they were superior to everyone else and were the only beings in the vast universe, have been subjugated by other species. Because of the bleak, unforgiving circumstances they were faced with afterwards, the surviving ones were turned into luxury pets and stripped of their freedom. Free will made them children of God before, so people have forgotten all about the "God" who couldn't answer their prayers/save them. But, as Mizi says, the belief in God is innate to human nature. You are more likely live in this world successfuly if you have someone to look up to or a reason to survive.

When God seems so far away and so cruel...what they can do is look to each other as their "Gods". Because a belief in God is ultimately, a cry for salvation and acceptance...."The Bible makes it clear that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). He isn't just loving, but he is the very definition of love."Therefore, all characters are, in some way, looking for salvation and being constantly tested and brutally being forced to show off their humanity through the lens of how love affects them - and not at the privacy of their inner thoughts or anything. All of that in order to portray different aspects of "love", adoration and what it means to be human. To have a belief on the unseen - "what is essential is invisible to the eye".

IT'S ALIEN AMERICAN IDOL MEETS DANGANRONPA. WHOO.

(gOD I wish we could have gotten Luka vs Sua or vs Ivan in some way. That feels like it would be extremely close and entertaining to see. Am I losing my humanity? Why is my keyboard slimy? Am I becoming a Segyein ....?)

Of course, because I fell for all those deliciously doomed themes like the good CLAMP/Akasaka foolish nerd I am, I bought patreon access day one. Although some setting details were unexpected, I was pretty satisfied with my overall initial grasp on most of the characters. If you found me through the tags and didn't already follow me, my disclaimer here so you get to know me is that I easily gravitate to polarizing characters or doomed ships like a curse. There are also certain Themes that follow me like a plague and I could see some of my favorite characters' shadows on the doomed kids I liked right away. Like an itch to spot something more to what is being shown.

Therefore right away, Luka and Hyuna caught my eye big time. (literally, when I watched sweet dream I kept pausing and going - whOA WHO IS THE COOL GIRL WITH THE CIG. Wait wait wait show me more of the boy that looks dead inside overstimulated by the flashing lights!)

I don't really have any pretension to be quoted on anything here or say things verbatim (Patreon says it's fine to produce derivative content based on what's there, but as expected, it's enforced not to directly share it so I can't really go argument-evidence here by presenting it) and have only seen pictures of the artbook secondhand by a friend, so I'll have my fun here making commentary loosely based on extra content and sporadically showing off pretty MV captures.

Anyway.

We're introduced to this universe through the jarring cruelty of ROUND 1, contrasting a harmonic, beautiful, lullaby-like melody with a harsh outcome. Like Mizi, unless we got spoiled beforehand, we don't really know anything about what's about to horrifically transpire. And though she got education, it feels like the teachings about what death or the Alien Stage would be like were horribly sugar coated or distorted to her, as incentive to give their best performances - like sacrificing themselves was a good thing. The extra materials back this up with Mizi's first interview about "My Clematis" - it's like they're told they're simply going back to their "origins" entity (The Grand Ankt) and it's a pretty and peaceful thing. We're shown how bad humans have it in their society and simultaneously get a montage of a cute, healthy, heartwarming relationship between the two girls and a deep "pure" love, as well as feel the weight of Sua's sacrifice and how badly it hurts Mizi. You're told that Sua is her God, her Universe in a Godless world - only to have her ripped away and "God" basically slaughtered for cheap entertainment. Some of the extra materials put it as a certain "mutual love" between Sua and Mizi.

It's interesting how we're shown a stage and don't know what to expect at first - since the girls seem "calm" and happy to express their love, but there's an increasing sense of dread until the finality of Sua's death hits and the pretty, shining girl we see in the flashbacks becomes an empty husk. The MVs seem all to be roughly designed around creating a surprise at the end or recontextualizing something we have seen previously.

I won't discuss Till and Ivan at length at this time, because that would get too long and demands it's own post (I sure as hell rewatched Unknown, Black Sorrow and Cure many times though), but the key part for me here is - they similarly express "love", but through another facet - obsession of a one-sided love and the desire to reach salvation or a reason to endure the world because of that, too. To the point of choosing the chance of love over salvation, expressed by Till letting go of Ivan's hand when they had a chance to escape (not wanting to leave Mizi behind most likely) and Ivan's kiss and decision to strangle Till to give his own life in exchange for his/finally getting to express his "shallow emotions" he perceives as something that won't deeply scar Till (but it does, and it mattered, far more than he could ever have known). It's interesting that although Mizi calls Sua a God, they develop something closer to a balanced, mutual relationship, as much as their lack of understanding of "human relationship" allows - they connect deeply. Ivan, according to the comics, sees himself in Sua, but it's deeply frustrating how he couldn't build the same sort of connection with Till and felt like he could only maintain a bond through violence.

Mizi seems to be the only human who was raised in a "stable home" (her alien seems to actually love her closest to a mother), but that's not enough to protect her from pain - after all, the alien's reasoning was that if Mizi likes singing, she should join. Yolo! Your human baby's life is so short! Sounds like outdoor cat owners to me. Ugh. All other pet humans are going through some flavor of parental abuse, and it all reflects in how they express their emotions and what sort of decisions they tend to take.

Till, in contrast to all that, more closely resembles the definition of looking at Mizi like an oshi/idol as a comfort to run from the pains of his life - he always looks hurt or abused, but Mizi is like medicine that even watching from far away makes him feel "saved" due to nurturing that "first love" that is heavily idealized. It's interesting how his character that is first introduced as somewhat violent or wild because of the smashing guitar and "addict"/drug imagery turns out to be one of the most sensitive.

The cloaked figure of Mizi in Blink Gone seems to resemble a saint or Mary (mother) holding a child in her lap as he takes his last breaths. She rushed into the crowd in a desperate attempt to save or at least comfort him in his predicament. Till's final position even resembles that of being crucified.

All that, however, makes Till unable to see Ivan properly - who is constantly around him and yearning for his attention, protecting and loving him in desperate ways that he doesn't realize until the very last minute. He is also seemingly detaching himself from the "real" world as a very "pure" child (shown in the way he loves with full devotion and his artistic inclinations), which of course, makes Ivan painful to face - who is a grounding entity and a reminder of the real world. The one who touches his wounds, who is "there" and not unreachable like a flower at the top of a mountain. That love between Ivan and Till got expressed in a way that was painful to both, but a very human act of a clashing selfish and selfless-ness.

None of them are built for this. They're trying to survive.

So far, what I've got is...Mizi and Sua set a standard of what is closest to a mutual love that was growing together in a relatively equal and healthy way. Ivan and Till were reworked to avoid overlap with them and are chosen to portray the sense of an immature, obsessive love and clashing emotions. It's interesting to me how much the creators stress the "one-sided" and controlling nature of Ivan for behind the scenes, and I feel like this does not mean that Till couldn't possibly return his feelings - after all, the Actor AU does show great chemistry between them. It's more like, within their living conditions and because of the emotional immaturity of both of them, they literally could not see eye to eye - Till looking at an idol out of reach (Mizi), and Ivan choosing to seek out his attention through violent means that confused Till, thus he was unable to respond to the intensity of what he felt and grow into it.

NOW. TO THE MAIN COURSE THAT IS ROTTING MY BRAIN: HYULUKA.

If we've got all those bases covered so far...where does that leave Hyuna and Luka?

(This is the most Mello/Near-like I've ever seen another ship pull off. My inner 13 yo is screaming. They're both incredibly gorgeous. How is a hetero couple simultaneously so BL and yuri-like in DRAMA AND IMAGERY? CLAMP would be proud...)

You see, there's no official answer about the true nature of their bond yet.

But I have a lot of speculations. It clearly looks like a rotten, strangled-by-the-red-string-of-fate sort bond that is just up my alley. THE MOST FUN IS GETTING TO BABBLE BEFORE GETTING AN ASSERTIVE ANSWER. I'm all for making a fool of myself, so let's get down to it.

To put it simply - I believe Hyuna and Luka's role is expressing the extremes of the setting itself and what "to love" means within it, with a turn for the worse and the tragedy of "not understanding" even if there is love.

How do you conquer an oppressive world in which all odds are against you? Would you overtake it through rebellion or would you strike at it from within?

In a world in which God's teachings have become lost to time and difficult to believe, does love strengthen or weaken you? If it causes pain and destruction, can it still be called love?

I think Hyuna and Luka are standing at opposite sides of those beliefs, and cannot understand each other's mindset.

Seems simple enough to write Luka as a mere villain final boss since he seems to be enjoying himself at the evil death game and Hyuna as the nice rebel who wants to save everyone, right? But it's confirmed Hyuna wasn't really trying to rescue more people like she had an opportune moment to do for Mizi.

The artbook also says something incredibly interesting about what the "Luka Syndrome" mentioned in one of the MVs really means - Luka's prestige as a performer is raising the prestige of pet humans. He also believes "Hyuna would be safe with him" - Why is that?

I think they might actually have similar goals and a similar stubborness in which they believe themselves to be the correct one and the other to be pitiful and foolish. Hyuna is trying to overthrow a system that is well-established and has far more power or influence than them, therefore she needs to resort to drastic measures and flashy means to assert dominance over the alien society.

Luka on the other hand, feels like he is using the system against it and exercising his own humanity while at it. Rather than tackling the incredibly daunting task of being a rebel with guns blazing, Luka became a master of the stage in a way that makes humans gain influence and thus become more valuable.Even if I try to think of it as "he's just trying to survive", that doesn't feel enough - because whenever he is not on stage, Luka looks dead inside already.

Especially in the arts he looks like a younger child or teenager, except for the ones after he seems more consistently approached by Hyuna. It's hard for me to think what moves him is a survival instinct. He is also portrayed like the typical "golden kid" syndrome victim - someone so systematically beaten to satisfy their narcissist guardian figure and submitted to so much pain that they eventually absorb part of that mindset as a way to have agency and autonomy over themselves. It gives the illusion of being successful and thus that the abuse was "effective", but it's like a curse that is difficult to break from.

I think both of them are older for a thematic reason. It feels like it could represent what it feels like, as adults, to no longer be able to hold onto naive or idealistic things about the world or society due to ignorance and having to choose a path to express your ideas and reach your goals through your "work".

Hyuna is guns blazing and "adult pleasures" - singing to an underground stage, trying to scrub off the wounds of her past with alcohol, and it's interesting that her guardian alien is portrayed like an "absent" parent figure - they have an interest in humans, but doesn't care about watching Hyuna when she first was eligible for Alien Stage. I wonder if they even are the one looking for her at all - seems to me it's more of an alien police thing because of her "crimes". Under that seemingly "thick" skin though, it seems clear that Hyuna is deeply affected by Luka still, and the loss of her brother. She deals with her wounds by not really dealing with them at all and guess what - it's a weak point. Her song is uplifting and refreshing, but she clearly demonstrates that closing your eyes to trauma and purely moving forward doesn't make them go away. In that sense, Mizi is a way she is trying to "mentor" someone navigate through loss.

I love outcasts and mildly autistic-coded characters, so I gravitated to Sua, Ivan and Luka right away.

(Extroverted cutie and the doomest doomer of the bunch. As a side note, their character design alone and contrast is genius and gorgeous. I'd expect 90% of the time for Luka to be the designated BL character and hardly do I ever see his archetype paired with the sort of sharp, striking beauty that Hyuna has so I definitely got giddy with them right away. She reminds me a lot of Michiko Malando and Luka reminds me of Near, two characters I love a whole lot and funnily enough have the same mbti types the artbook describes them as - ESTP and INTJ. Ankt garden Luka looks somewhat closer to the AU versions of Luka, so gotta love both his origins and his twisted post-alnst/hyuun woo self)

I believe Hyuna bundles Luka with that trauma of grief and loss, and it's still unclear what their roles are in it and after the fact. While singing all in verses "We only get one life, so I'm living mine for me/'Cause I'm the one from your wildest dreams", Luka's face flashes through Hyuna's mind before even her brothers, like it's something that's always on the back of it and barely suppressed.

See...since VIVINOS loves the "more than meets the eye"/twist concept, something I'm expecting is for Hyuna's feelings not to be as black and white as blaming Luka and actually. It obviously was dysfunctional and isn't that....delicious???

I feel like a one-sided love or obsession wouldn't make sense to repeat as themes, and because of the heavy trauma associated in the backstory, it's not like a "healthy mutual love". To bridge the themes of MiziSua and IvanTill, I think Hyuna and Luka are being told in a way to express love as something that can also destroy instead of save, and their clashing ideologies come from a place of wanting to think "-I'M- right and want to be your god", instead of ever having been able to understand each other properly.

They have a similarly "corrupt" love that has a lot of guilt and regret built into it. Even with something awful as what happened to her brother, it's curious that Hyuna's mind first thinks of Luka in an "enamored" light - the scene looks pretty tender - but that's also attached to the weight of Hyun Woo's death.

I think It's likely that the twist is Hyuna having been the one who hurt her brother, even, considering the dynamic in these comics:

Luka and Hyun Woo compete for Hyuna's attention, and it's to be expected that none of them understand the boundaries and definitions of love too well. Hyuna and Hyun Woo seem to be naive and relatively raised in a decent way, submitted to superiority tests like the rest, but not directly abused. They seem to express their love for each other in a cheerful, healthy way, Hyuna probably because of her closeness to her brother (which is unusual for other pet humans to be able to do) is extremely physical in how she shows affection. She doesn't really reprimand Luka, and that creates an unhealthy dynamic in which Luka plays the victim - in spite of starting things - to enjoy Hyuna's attention. There is a cute comic that looks silly, but encapsulates it all:

Luka is a little shit that wants to be pampered. He knows he is physically weaker - if you come across a rabbit being hurt by a wolf, you wouldn't suspect the rabbit provoked it. So Hyuna constantly seems to take Luka's side regardless of what happened, wanting to have that protector role.

Luka on the other hand, has no reference of what it's like to be "loved". He is systematically abused and treated like an object - therefore, he perceives relationships in terms of "ownership". And I don't think Hyuna truly understands just what she is enabling when she encourages Luka to act the way he does or thinks his neediness is "cute".

Honestly, I think there's strong sexual abuse imagery in Luka's art and the presentation of his stage image as someone taking charge of their objectification. His clothing for stage always shows off his body one way or another and both Hyuna and him have this sensual imagery and approach to others, as if "reclaiming one's own body". The contrast of Luka's blank expression and the red collar indicating a mental breakdown in that artwork above featuring Heperu's shadow approaching him is truly chilling.

That boy has no reference of what a familial bond or love is like. And both his introspective nature and abuse seem to make it even worse for him to connect with his peers- in the artbook his only relationships listed are Hyuna and Mizi, in very negative ways. He is also said to have retreated deeper into his own world, because "no one can understand him". Again, checks out with the imagery of "gifted son" that is treated like a narcissistic parent's doll and that becomes desensitized to many things over time.

His alien guardian Heperu even looks vaguely phallic and Luka has body language of "trying to disappear" or soothing himself when not up the stage - hugging knees, looking smaller, sucking on sleeves, stimming with toys (rubik's cube). The scars on his chest seem related to the abuse of submitting him to pain to overcome fear and I theorize the scars on the side may have been for plastic surgery like abdominoplasty or even possibly removing ribs. Normally that would be done from the back, but hey - alien science, and he already had "tainted" scarred skin on the front, so it would make sense to try preserving his back. His waist is drawn really really thin. It's also mentioned that he had a strict diet even though he is a big eater - that is, Heperu is deeply violating his agency in accordance with Lookism.

Luka has all the makings of a really tragic character and reminds me of Kamiki Hikaru's construction in Oshi no Ko. A victim turned abuser in some ways, as a way to seek autonomy, self expression and living for their ideals and love, no matter how twisted it has become.

There's a comic that has a "flashback" of anakt garden and Hyuna being asked by Luka if she likes to sing. The POV of Hyuna's face looks as soft as Luka's does from hers. She tells him that they don't have freedom for anything else, but when she is up at the stage, it's like her life is "her own", so she likes it. The image of Luka singing as an adult suggests that even now, those are the words he pictures and that is the image of Hyuna that is alive in his mind.

In a way, both of them are deeply attached to the past, and while Hyuna wants to shut it down completely and regrets it having happened, Luka's feelings are twisted.

We don't know much about the kiss. Considering the "sucking on forehead" comics, I get the feeling Hyuna was startled by the sudden escalation from Luka acting as a passive, cute pet and jumping her with so much intensity, but may not necessarily have pushed him away. The following fight could either have happened because Hyuna became withdrawn as a result of suddenly becoming aware of the effect she was having on Luka and what their feelings for each other were (since previously, she might not have been able to tell the difference between being all over her brother and all over Luka) /or/ the scenario played out like the forehead sucking. She didn't dislike it, but Luka became insistent or they got caught in a way that Hyuun Woo had no context for, thus assuming Luka was forcing her.

And there is a third option too that now I think about it, seems the /most/ likely: the growing proximity to Hyuna made Luka's feelings of "wanting ownership and exclusivity" even deeper because of love and lust, as simply being assured he is "loved" doesn't seem to be enough for Luka. It could be that Hyuna in fact disliked his attempt of kissing her and became more distant to him. Thus, he orchestrated for Hyuna to take his side once again for validation in a reckless way - but the results were "better than he thought" when it resulted in Hyuun Woo's death. Because, that is a price so heavy that it feels like "wow, you actually chose me".

This scene is super interesting, I love Luka's expression. It's joyful in a "perverse" way. He was successful in trapping his beloved Hyuna. And it seems that the emotion is so intense, like he is finally free from the mask of pitiful wounded animal with no agency over himself that the sheer ecstasy might have caused a seizure or heart attack, hence his eyes looking glassy afterwards and his fingers finally turning the blue/purple hue we see on his older design.

Skimming through the patreon posts, I was pleasantly surprised to realize my gut feeling about Ivan and Luka having a similar core wasn't wrong. Sua in comparison is the scenario of someone who doesn't go off to the deep end as the two of them. It's often stressed that the team was worried about establishing Luka and Ivan as distinguishable - their personalities are similar, but their masks are different. Ivan presents himself as the "big bro", while actually being a boy struggling with properly expressing emotions that went as far as practicing smiles and expresions at the lake. Whereas Luka is like a porcelain doll and passive - austere, even...but what about his real self?

We're cleverly prevented from seeing an introductory MV for Luka, as round 4 doesn't happen. And for the subsequent videos, Luka shows himself partially by not disclosing his POV, but showing important sides of himself - the urge to control and the attempts to "become whatever is desired of him". A blank slate.

In a sense, that's implying to me Ivan and Luka's stage presence is an expression of their "inner selves", where their feelings and thoughts become bare. Ivan does so by casting aside his big bro warmth and stepping in as the image of a serious-faced, strongly devoted man that is coming apart at the seams with the weight of his immaturity, sadness, love and obsession.

Luka's stage presence is a distant cry from his image of passiveness and class behind the scenes. On stage, he is a seasoned performer and a calculating prince that enjoys pulling the strings to reach the ideal performance as seen in his inner world. He cunningly displays a different expression between the audience and his partners to achieve the ideal results. Luka acts like both a director and an actor while performing, in order to construct his vision - He's bold, confident and invades people's personal spaces.

(What a condescending little shit. I love him. His expression seems to be saying something like..."Done already? Hmph. I expected more of you. You need to do something for me to do my part and shine, too."

A point I theorize about Ruler of My Heart - Hyuna says in the artbook, I think, that Mizi reminds her of herself. Luka would be able to pick up on that also, especially since Mizi had just been broken by the loss of the one she loved most and formerly had that spark of "hope and dreaming high" in her eyes. Luka may have chosen the song specifically to have Mizi recreate the "role of Hyuna" envisioned for it - as in, he never expected her to be obedient at all. He was riling her up to feel what Hyuna might have responded like to this song. But the Hyuna in his idealization is probably "blazing, absolute and strong" - instead of shutting down and giving up singing. Mizi lets herself get intimidated by his provocation into silence, but when she loses it to punch him in the face with no regard for the consequences - like Hyuna surely would do - is when he finally smirks. It's also a mockery of letting emotions take her over, securing his win and further reinforcing he is "in the right". )

Another interesting tidbit is that Luka's personality isn't of the ethereal "pitiful-but-nice" character, but rather something that "fits VIVINOS taste". He is also compared frequently to Ivan in personality/mindset, who is described as a "bad boy" with a possessive/manipulative streak. If the sides of Ivan we get to see that related to Till are fairly tame and the team worries so much about contrast, that seems to imply that Luka embraces the more extreme parts left out of Ivan.

Even more interesting than that is the core of Luka's character inspiration - "the little prince", which I assume most people have read before. It's a children's book about an adult meeting a little prince from space and basically sharing life lessons.

If we look a little beyond the "cute blond kid"/moon motif...the most striking aspect about the Little Prince is probably the idea of the rose and the fox. The immature prince is taught the concept of love and responsibility by a wild fox - that to tame someone is to make them unique, and it's the time spent nurturing that love that makes it precious. The prince had been frustrated by a Rose he thought he loved, but grew annoyed by because he could not understand her. He also was confused upon realizing there were many roses in the universe, but his was too selfish and flawed. So is she not as unique as he thought? He starts missing the rose, and learns that there IS a difference - none of the roses are "his" or sound like "his" - because if they have tamed each other, going forward, he isn't just any little boy to his rose anymore - he is "the" boy, and she is "the" rose, unique in the universe.

This feels extremely relevant to a character presented as a "product" of gene editing and, basically, being created in a lab. The implication to me is that there may be many other "Luka"-like humans - the vast array of congenital diseases he manifests such as heart disease, Raynaud syndrome, asthma and chronic migraine all make him sound like their universe's equivalent of a white pug dog with dubious origins to boot.

What makes that test tube baby, raised by a ruthless alien that doesn't care about him as more than a way to vicariously live a life of success and luxury, unique in that case?

Love.

And my take is that, the fox and rose to his little prince are the siblings Hyun Woo and Hyuna.

(I'm suddenly reminded of the Vanitas no Carte Louis-Domi-Noé trio. Why do those never end well?)

IMO the rift created between Hyuna's brother and Luka wasn't necessarily there from the start. Before getting more strongly attached or opening up to Hyuna, Luka looks extremely detached. Hyuna's brother looked like the picture of excitement and youth, so it feels like he could have reached out to the quiet boy first and Hyuna tagged along. The settings mention something along the lines of Hyuna not quite being the origin of the "dreamer" outlook, but being inspired by her brother, and I can picture it.

Hyuna's MV All in and her relationship with Mizi painted to me the picture of a girl that is naturally attractive - her drive and sunny disposition are simply dazzling. But, underneath, there seems to be "something" doesn't it? I think Hyuna's charm comes from a mix of strength and vulnerability. She seems like the type of person to cope with humor and being flirty in order to lift people's moods and surprise them, but Hyuna herself can have quite heavy and serious feelings. The somber look suits her, and it's overall impressive that she didn't completely break because of her brother. It's like her innate talent for performing draws people to her, but at the same time she can sustain an illusion of "closeness", her true worries and wounds are kept deep inside and she doesn't let others truly see into her.

So.

What's shown in Blink Gone to me is that Luka's not merely surviving a death game, he is enjoying the show and trying to feel alive. To someone like him that probably already feels dead inside all the time and was "abandoned" by Hyuna, there is nothing much to look forward to. We don't know what happened between Hyuun Woo's death and their first alien stage run (quite a lot, since Hyuna even lost a leg) ot the timing of their relationship fall out. Given their memories and image of eachother, it does seem to be implied they were already going separate ways right after the incident.

It's likely that what connects Luka to Hyuna's memory the most is the feeling of performing itself - the one time he gets to be free. Luka acts like he is superior to the other pet humans for having "figured out" the system and feeding into it, and looks down on them for having no control over their emotions. But does he really have total control over his own?

In spite of all the abuse he embraced as his own will or believing he could truly get any power by playing the game according to its rules and "overcoming fear", someone as unpredictable and impulsive as Till is the natural enemy of someone like Luka. He had the upper hand as long as it stayed within his plan, but Till suddenly going as far as going back to the green light indicator was worrisome. Luka's Stamina is actually rather crappy, so if Till did decide to go all out, he might have been cooked.

I think, to Luka, it's probably about more than keeping himself alive. And Till flipping the game then would have made him waste his life on a performance that was supposed to be easy -and- it must be annoying that Till strayed off-script. My hypothesis is that he wants to reach out to Hyuna, still - either by increasing the influence of humans to shift the world closer to the one she envisioned, or by putting his life in the line at the stage as many times as possible to feel the "weight" of her presence as if she still were by his side or to grow so famous that she cannot ignore or escape him.

Deliciously hypocritical of him to look down on others so much, when Hyuna's unannounced presence shook him so badly he turned his back to the stage and stared at her with an expression we'd never seen before.

My take is that her walking in like this is seriously the worst scenario to him. Luka expresses in the artbook that he pities Hyuna and that her safety would have been guaranteed with him, so - because of his influence - I think he might actually have gone to the Alien Stage again to secure his power status AND request to keep Hyuna out of it. A condescending sort of domestication we know she would hate, but would keep her safe.

But see. Even if she wasn't under his care, being out there causing a ruckus is one thing - she's alive and kicking, not really in the slaughterhouse. He can live with that. So, he sings to his heart's content. And...

His sneering that people are suuuch rookies at controlling their emotions...

Sooo weak to let their emotions and regrets dominate them and make them lose sight of the stage, compared to his Super Competent self that can overcome fear and control his own heart rate...

All came back to bite him in the ass, like an idiot.

All other characters were pitted against their worst case nightmare scenario, and I doubt the Prince will be an exception. I really don't think his type of obsessive is wanting to be superior to or beat Hyuna at performing either, even if it's his guardian's mindset (it seems Heperu feels inferior to Hyuna's guardian and adopted Luka simply as a means of beating him - so seems very possible he will push for having the two face off and prove Luka's "superiority").

No matter what he does now, it's either Hyuna against Mizi at the risk of death or Hyuna against him. Hyuna's a wanted criminal - there is absolutely no talking a way out of that one. Not only that, Hyuna's bleeding from her wound already. Luka facing against Hyuna as the second time champion would mean being forced to choose - keep rulling the stage, or chose the one who was his guiding light in the first place?

The imagery from the sweet dream opening (as well as Luka having covered that song) is "release" - Luka dying at Hyuna's hand even if it's not something she can truly do with pleasure, no matter how much she copes with her past wounds by hating him. I wonder if it's a red herring or if it will play out, I particularly want whatever will allow to explore their character, feelings and motivation the deepest.

I don't think Hyuna wandered onto the stage for his sake - it seems like it's for Mizi, who is completely frozen. Hyuna probably has up until now coped with hating Luka because he represented everything she was rebelling against - the "system" itself. A nasty cog in the engine of the aliens who, even if not directly, ultimately were the cause of the entire context that stripped her away of her freedom and lead to her precious brother's death.

However...

My guess to what's happening here isn't "wow your outfit is so slutty" or "you've grown". It's more like...Luka suddenly looks too human.

He wasn't supposed to.

...Phew. That's all for now. The ADHD gets strong when I'm talking about something that tickles my brain, so I hope that wasn't too messy/unintelligible to follow with the back and forth jumping timelines or repeating points of interest I did.

Well! I really, really wish there was more for me to keep going, but for now I'll live with overthinking with what we have. I might do separate analysis/speculation for the MVs if I have a deadline I'm procrastinating on come up the time.

Bottom line is, I think all those characters are very interesting, but Hyuluka are the ones I'm rotating like a rotisserie chicken in my mind. Plz hurt me more VIVINOS team and thanks for the good fucking food

[animereviewsbykyranskye]

My current top 15 Anime and why

Because why the fuck not. I'm doing top 15 so that I have some variety behind it. Otherwise I would just be gushing non stop XD

Apparently numbers go big now - AND THEY GO SMALLER IF YOU TRY TO TYPE IN THE SAME LINE AS THEM???

comparison:

15

15 -

DA HECK????

(Edit: I was going to colour all the numbers because I wanted a rainbow. WHY THE FUCK FOR THEY CHANGE TO SMALL WHEN YOU COLOUR THEM??????)

Guess the titles of the anime get a small heading. Anyways. Onto the actual list!

15

Technoroid OVERMIND

Ayo. Starting out with a really random one. So if anyone were to look at my Anilist then they might be a bit confused. I decided I'd keep movies out of here as well as anything I haven't specifically finished. Also takt op. Destiny needs a re evaluation.

Anyways. This premise is so sick and I feel like they managed it really well. The characters were all really fun and the music was fantastic which is honestly the most important thing about Idol shows. I really like idol shows but often struggle with the stupid drama in them that just leads to seasons upon seasons that didn't need to happen or wouldn't actually happen.

In this they're just androids. The fantasy twist works so well for the genre and I honestly don't know why it isn't done more often. This way they can bullshit the drama and it actually makes sense.

Honestly my favourite character was Kite. He was great and his voice always gave me shivers. Especially his piece in the closing. Damn.

I don't want to go into full reviews with this, rather just gushing about things I like and stuff. I really don't think this got the recognition it deserves - probably because of it's deviation from the norm - but it would be cool to get some sort of sequel.

(Edit: There's a manga releasing apparently. Imma check that out.)

14

UniteUp!

Continuing on with the trend of idol animes apparently. UniteUp! was so good. As I mentioned in my Reviews while I watch of the show, it felt so grounded and real that other idol shows just don't seem to capture. These were all real people with real problems dealing with real life.

I also like how we had such a large cast of characters but it never really felt overwhelming as they focused on group dynamics and specific individuals rather than trying to cram every single person into their own arcs.

Once again the music was fantastic and by god was this show pretty gay. Honestly I don't know what the sentiments of others are, but the Anela duo definitely weren't straight and neither were Akira and Daiki. That bath scene says it all.

Anyways. If you want a fun time with a really solid idol anime, please check it out. I saw earlier that we're getting a season two soon. I am so looking forward to it.

13

Trigun Stampede

Damn! I don't even know what to really say about this one. The visuals are absolutely stunning - there is no doubt about that. The score and the characters are excellent. And how dare they leave us on that cliff hanger.

I have absolutely no history with this story and still need to watch and read the originally but I am really looking forward to seeing how the story adapts between the three.

You can ask my partner. I've already said we're watching everything trigun related as soon as we are done with our current show.

I'm really looking forward to season two. And especially seeing how this all pans out. Apparently there will be tears according to the fandom. Concern.

12

Re-main

Damn this show came out of nowhere for me. I watched it quite awhile ago and have been meaning to rewatch it again.

The premise is definitely a sports anime but honestly so different. All because of one thing. The fact that he is an amnesiac is such a fascinating concept to work with - especially with how he was before (trying not to spoil - can't remember when this comes up in the anime)

And then the ending?? Damn. They seriously set up that cliff hanger and I really hope this show gets a sequel.

I really can't say too much about it without giving away some spoilers but damn does it change up the formula and do it so fucking well.

11

Given

Given is great. Such a pure but heartbreaking portrayal of love on one side with such conflicting but also nurturing views on the other. Having the different realtionships throughout this is really well done how they all bounce off of each other. Especially when they entertwine it with the music.

As it is said. That is how they communicate - through the music.

I'm busy catching up with the manga and really hope the anime continues with it.

Also the fucking is just fucking gorgeous. It has no write to hit you that hard.

Also - something else that shouldn't be allowed to hit you that hard. Damn Mafuyu has had a difficult past. We love how he learns to heal and grow with Uenoyama at his side.

Anyways, moving on.

10

Bakuten!!

Okay. Who said a sports anime could be this pretty.

I love the art style and the music throughout all of this. I love the portayal and the evolution of these character - seriously all their arcs are great. The interactions of the team is so tangible and real.

I watch a lot of sports anime and I often struggle with some of the drama used within the sports - it feels like the only thing that ever fuels the story is the matches. Whereas in Bakuten - the character seriously fuel the story. You can understand their motivations much more than just - I want to play this sport and be the best!

I also feel like they really captured everything really well in the movie. The whole concept of wanting to sore is great and really well executed.

I also love the interactions they have with the other team. It's not just a once off competition or practice match that they face each other. We actually get tangible characters for the whole team and see how much they two teams are similar to one another. It's a very healthy rivalry that isn't normally this expanded on in sports anime.

9

Sasaki and Miyano

Yesssssss. These two are just absolutely amazing. Their whole story arc and relationship is just tooth rottingly sweet. They bounce off of each other so well.

And I love the fact of how slow the actual story is. They meet at the start of Miyanos first year (from what I know - I still need to read the novels) and sasaki's second and they only end up confessing just before graduation happens. It really plays out well and is so healthy.

There is no problematic elements like in so many BL stories which is such a breath of fresh air. And the fact that sasaki is very specific about making sure to maintain boundaries to ensure that miyano is comfortable is also excellent.

On a slightly different note - I still need to see the Hirano and Kagiura movie. Been dying to watch it. I've been keeping up to date with both manga and both of these stories are amazing. I love the dichotomy of the two stories and how they are coming to their own realisations of their feelings in honestly very different ways.

I also recently watched the dub of the anime due to some videos on tiktok. Fucking hell it is absolutely hilarious. Kellen Goff as Sasaki has no reason for being that good. Seriously. Damn.

8

Link Click

On a completely different note. Damn this one makes you questions your own morals and reality as you know it.

I really don't want to get into this one much as I do believe watching it blind is the best way to go.

The art style is fantastic and that opening hits like a truck it is so good. The characters just click (pun not intended) and you just understand their motivations and don't know which side to side with most of the time. It brings about such high moral dilemmas that will seriously mess with your brain sometimes and there is one episode that will likely make you cry.

Anyways. Season 2 has just started airing and I am so ready for it.

7

Buddy Daddies

Why did a show about two queer platonic dudes who adopt a child while beings assassins hit so damn hard.

The show jumps between episodes with backstory and episodes with them just being good dads and it is balanced so well. This anime won't end up getting a sequel most likely with how it ended but damn I wouldn't say no to one.

Rei is my favourite character and I relate to him far too much. His interactions with the world are so fascinating and his whole arc with Miri is honestly some of the best media I've seen.

I absolutely loved watching this show weekly and it always brightened up my day when I realised a new episode would be up.

If you would like further thoughts on this one then check the Reviews while I watch on it for more chaos.

6

No Game No Life

So. This was the first ever anime that I ever watched. It was a random recomendation from a friend. Look at where we are today.

This show is honestly just so fun. The characters are silly and the whole plot is just absolute chaos. I really enjoy the games aspect and how it was all incorporated into the world.

I can't even really say much about it. It is just a guilty pleasure of mine and will always hold a special place in my heart.

Also. Please can it just get a second season already.

5

Assassination Classroom

So. Unlike everything else on the list - this one I only finished really recently. My partner and I were watching it together. And to put it out there straight away. I cried. That ending was far too emotional.

I really enjoyed the humour throughout the whole thing as well as the constant underlying dread of the whole situation.

They also really played out Koro-senseis backstory really well. The teasing to it was excellent. I must say though that one of the twists seriously came out of left field. Like damn.

I've just recently bought the boxset and am reading through the manga. Once again. It's absolutely amazing.

Also the openings of them all jumping are absolutely fucking hilarious and you can't tell me otherwise.

If you want to know what officially sold me on the show was just in the first episode. (Note we watched in dub)

Don't ask me why but I found this to be the most hilarious thing ever. The absurdity and the line delivery was magnificent. I annoy my partner by quoting it atleast once a day.

4

Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan

Speaking of comedies. This show has no right to be this good. The absudist dead pan comedy in the middle of whats meant to be a TV show is such a random premise but just works so well.

Due to the nature of the show, the characters are extremely relateable. I especially love Kumatani and Kikaku.

If your on the same side of anime tiktok that I am then you have definitely seen/heard snippets of the dub.

I think this was the first anime that I originally watched in sub and then tried it in dub and actually enjoyed it. (I often find that whatever I originally watched it in is the only one I can watch it in - it's very difficult for me to change it)

The voice acting on both sides just works perfectly for the show. And that final episode and how they did it was the best thing ever.

Please just give it a try.

3

Angel Beats

Okay. Time for a hard hitter. This comedy like assassintaion classroom is fucking excellent but will make you cry, like damn.

In complete and utter contrast to No game no life, this was the second anime I had ever watched. I had found a video that gave some suggestions and thought I would give this one a try. When I say it destoryed me, I mean it literally. I constantly think about the end of this and I absolutely love revisiting it.

The twist and turns along the way are fascinating and I love how each one alters the characters and the narrative. Each of the characters feel unique - even the lesser developed side characters - with fascinating and complex backstories.

The whole thing just makes you question your own place in life.

2

Moriarty the Patriot

Another one I just randomly tried because I saw a video on tiktok. The first episode immediately pulled me in. I thought it was just going to be some simple detective story (At the time I didn't know much about Sherlock Holmes and who Moriaty was so I didn't have any of that to guide me into this story.) But nope.

I keep saying this but in this one I really mean it. The characters are built so well. The dichotomy between William and Sherlock - as the fandom would probably agree - is just amazing. How they bounce off of each other - i don't even know how to really descirbe it.

Honestly just go watch it.

And if you enjoyed the anime - please go check out the manga too. If the anime was done well - then the manga is done to lamost perfection.

This show was what got me into reading and then eventually buying manga. I now have every single one that is out.

1

Yuri!!! on ICE

Did I make the title gay? Yes.

Okayyyyy. This is just going to be me going on about how much I love this show. Bare with me.

So I was in an anime watching slump just before I picked up this show. I had been seeing some videos popping up talking about it and decided to give it a try (this was in 2020)

I immediately fell in love with this show. Literally everything about it. I ended up rewatching it three times over the course of a week. It got to a point where I was so upset that there wasn't more content for it that I just cried for half a day. (Ask my partner - it was chaos)

This show is the reason I now read fanfiction - all because I found a way to technically have more content for it.

This show holds such an important place in my heart that I sincerely cannot express it properly.

If you've never watched it - go give it a try. It would mean a lot - and hopefully one day we might get a season two.

----

Thanks for reading, if you managed to get to this point. I find it interesting how my explanations managed to slowly get shorter throughout the list as I just started becoming more emotional than factual.

I hope you enjoyed it and maybe grabbed a recommendation or two. If you'd like to know more or hear me ramble on more about anything in particular then please let me know.

[bonesandthebees]

If u wanna talk more about the tntduo detective au I am ALL ears 👀👀👀 but also totally understand if u wanna keep it a secret for now hehehe

honestly I have no idea where I'm going with it so I'll throw it to the wind and let you guys chew on it while I let it simmer lol

so basically I started watching true detective: night country the other night with my mom and I immediately got inspired (I have not seen the first season of true detective although I really want to watch it now and hopefully will soon). also, I've always had a fascination with the polar nights phenomena. I've gone on wikipedia binges before reading about Utquiagvik (the Alaskan town I'm fairly sure the town in true detective s4 is based off of) which experiences polar night for roughly two months or so, and I've also gotten a few videos in my Youtube recommended from a youtuber who lives in Svalbard which experiences polar night for nearly three months. so suffice to say the concept of a several month long night has intrigued me for a while, and finding a show literally set during that multi-month nighttime immediately piqued my interest.

and when I watch really fun things I usually get the urge to write something in the same genre. originally I thought about a crimeboys detective duo fic, but then I was like wait has anyone done tntduo as detective partners? because I know there's crimeboys detective fics out there but I don't know if I've seen many of them for tntduo. and I realized that would just be a very fun dynamic for the two of them.

so grizzled small town detective partners tntduo who bicker like an old married couple, seem to have a lot of shit in their past between them, work incredibly well together and bounce off of each other perfectly during investigations, and also have the kind of tension where no one else in the room with them can tell if they want to punch each other or make out just felt like the perfect vibe to dig into. all set against the backdrop of a frigid arctic circle town that's in the midst of a 2 month long night. and then someone gets murdered.

so this post doesn't get too long I'll talk more about the specifics of the au under the cut

so tbh this idea while it is tntduo /r, it wouldn't be that focused on that and more focused on the murder investigation going on. besides our two overly tired small town detectives that definitely aren't repressing any feelings towards each other, we have several other characters going about their lives as well! of course tommy is there. he's a junior officer who only joined the police force a year before the start of the story (also, yes I'm very acab when it comes to real life but I just wanna write one of those stereotypical murder investigation stories man).

anyway, tommy is only 20 and his dad, phil, was part of the force for most of tommy's life. once he turned 18 though phil quit because he'd always hated the institution of police (and government in general) (although like wilbur he was a detective) but wanted to have a stable job to keep his kid supported. phil was... not thrilled in tommy's career choice, but who is he to protest?

phil mentored wilbur during his early years in the force, and in turn wilbur mentors tommy. he's trying to teach him how to think like an investigator, and will often ask him questions to get his brain turning pieces of evidence over and try to get him to look at situations in different ways.

since quitting and getting that sweet sweet government retirement money, phil pretty much spends all his time at his bestie techno's place. techno is the town hermit who lives on the outskirts. he also breeds sled dogs (not formally he just has a lot of dogs since people need them in that kind of weather) and usually has 10 huskies at a time running around his cabin. techno might also be a retired eco-terrorist but wilbur knows not to ask too many questions about that and quackity is scared of techno so he's definitely not gonna bring it up.

niki is a phd student from germany working at the nearby arctic research station for her dissertation. she focuses a lot of her studies on climate change and all that. she and wilbur are best friends and has heard way too many drunken ramblings about quackity.

jack manifold is one of tommy's best friends and works at the oil fields that employ most of the town. he's trying to get placed onto a proper oil rig out in the ocean at some point since those jobs pay really well. he's friends with niki too, although his job and her research certainly cause a bit of contention between them.

tubbo is another best friend of tommy's. he's born and raised in the arctic town but he went off to a prestigious uni down south to get a nuclear engineering degree so he's not really around for the most part

sam oversees and manages all the oil pumps and makes sure things are running smoothly. and in turn, schlatt owns the oil fields. he and quackity have, uh, a history.

and lastly, ranboo is an intern at the research station that niki is doing her dissertation work at. they're also close friends with tommy, although wilbur and quackity both have only met them a few times. the whole story kicks off when they go missing one day, only to be found dead outside in the frigid temperatures within a few hours. that's when the mystery kicks off against the backdrop of a nearly three month long night :)

anyway I do have the overarching mystery figured out, but it's the actual specific plotting bit i'm struggling with. I really don't want to write the entire investigation but also I don't wanna just write a single scene bc theres so much going on in this universe I wanna show arghhhh. and also I love slowburn and I think the really weird tense dynamic tntduo have in this would be so intriguing with that layered on top of it. just arghhhh motivation and time.

hope you enjoyed learning about my brainrot over the past few days lol I already made a playlist for this fic even though I don't think I'm gonna write it it's so joever for me

[ilovebeingaturtle]

Besides 87 raph what’s your opinion on the other iterations just curious

Assuming you mean the other iterations of Raph? So! Cracks knuckles here we go-

First of all I really enjoy 90s Raph, just the fact? His ass keeps getting into trouble? Like first movie he’s thrown through a window, second movie he gets kidnapped by the Foot, this boy is accident prone and I love it AHA also his accent is super fun. I wouldn’t rank him tooo highly on a list of favourites? 90s!Donnie is my favourite live action turtle overall, but he’s great! And if you add on 07 as the fourth movie for this version of turtles he’s awesome, I fucking love the concept of the nightwatcher!!! And his dynamic with Casey in that movie might be my favourite version of the duo, good Raph all around pats his head

Feel like I should also add on my thoughts about Next Mutation Raph here too while on the topic of like-the live action turtles, but I honestly don’t have much to say yet AHA, I’ve only seen like four episodes so far and I think Venus is the only character I really like from it (she’s so lovely,,,my sweet daughter,,) OH also! Adding on again with live action, I think the fact that Raph is one of the singers for the stageshow tours is fucking brilliant AHA, something about him being musical inclined just feels right for me (maybe because 87!Raphael loves singing all the time so seeing other iterations do it makes me happy? Who is to say) also the suit designs are just really cute I love their goofy accessories

03! 03! I LOVE 03! One of the lamest Raph’s but that just endears him even more to me, his lines are just so. Cheesy and uncool, and they’re delivered with the gruffest thickest accent ever, it’s perfect. He’s also just such a good brother, he can be so patient and supportive, 03 has such a well rounded team man. Like the bonds are so strongggg, you really feel such a connection between all the turtles. Like I adore his back and forth with Mikey, him and Donnie’s dynamic I feel like I don’t even need to talk about and him and Leo are so sweeeeet. Oh! Also! Love how Fast Forward made him the tallest, it’s perfect boy had a growth spurt. (Oh, also I hope this isn’t cheating by bringing up 87, but I love the dynamic Turtles Forever gave him with the 87 turtles. Could it have been written better? Yes. But is the concept of him slowly warming up to them and acting like their older brother adorable? Also yes.)

I think if I’m going in release order IDW is next? In which case, YEAHHH THIS GUY! The idea that he briefly was alone after being first mutated is so fascinating, I like how it puts a new lens on his loner habits, he’s also just super caring and ah! Good Raph! Him and Pepperoni are adorable and I like how he was the one to reach out to Mikey when like-that whole situation was happening. I have more thoughts but ajshajshsjshajhs ya know-

2012 Raph is like one of my favourites, I think just the fact he’s so sweet and gentle sometimes is just really endearing, he’s the Disney princess Raph! Look at those Rapunzel green eyes, I love it. He’s also just so fucking funny, his dialogue is dripping with sarcasm he’s got quips and it’s great. Plus his dynamic with Splinteeeeeerrr was so fucked gahhhhI just love this little guy man! He’s a good little guy! Like usual I struggle to put my thoughts about 2012 turtles into words I just want to shake them around like dog toys instead

Okay so I haven’t actually seen the first Bayverse movie yet, but I really like Raph in the second! He’s fun! I really enjoyed how him and Mikey are a duo almost, they’re both team purple ooze and that was super fun. I kinda really wish Bayverse had it’s own spin-off cartoon to expand more, I think Out of the Shadows had some strong concepts and it just tripped over itself a lot AHA, oh! Also since this is kinda short, on the topic of movies I enjoyed Batman VS TMNT Raph a lot too, that scene where he talks down Batman and talks about family? Like that sold him for me, both good movie boys

I think Rise making Raph the big brother is amazing, it’s so cool to see things shaken up and his portrayal in the show really does make sense. He’s still recognisable as Raph, but we get to see how a character we love can be shaped differently by new circumstances. All Raph’s have that natural protector role but now we see how him being the ‘Leo’ would impact that-also that aside he’s just a super sweet Raph! I love how he’s still playful while trying so hard to get his brothers to work as a team, I wish we had more episodes where he tries to get them to do stupid training exercises. There’s just something so earnest about this version, you gotta love him

Mutant Mayhem Raph surprised me! If I’m honest, while I don’t find anything wrong with more violent and angry leaning Raphs they’re definitely not the iterations I personally lean to the most? 87!Raphael is my favourite so that’s probably a given AHA, but like this boy completely knocked it out of the park. I love how smug he is, this boy is honestly just happy to be here and he got quite a few laughs out of me. He’s a very well balanced mix of what has come before honestly, I’m super excited to see him in depth in the future. AND HIS WHOLE DYNAMIC WITH HIS BROS IS JUST SO CUTEEEEEE OKAY IM DONE AUSHAJAH

[skyward-floored]

Commentary maybe on the whumptober prompt(s) where wild gets turned into a fox? it's one I keep on going back to for how good it is!

Ahhh thank you! I’m so glad people like those ones so much, they were a little spur-of-the-moment if I’m being honest XD End of the month prompts tend to either turn out really good or just kinda... eh. Fortunately those were the former!

The prompt that spurred the idea was the “you better start talking” one, and that one just really took root in my head. The idea of a witch or something of the sort being fascinated by Twilight’s amulet (and its magic) somehow came to me as I was thinking about the prompt, and that spiraled to “well what else could happen with the amulet in this lady’s possession? What about the others? What happens then??”

And I looked at the prompts for the later days, and saw muffled screams and magical exhaustion, as well as manhandled, and the idea slammed into me like a charging ordon goat.

I debated for a long time who else to make the fic about aside from Twilight. I finally decided on Wild, since I’m still a sucker for him and Twilight as a duo, and then I wanted another person to be witness to the awful experiments the sorceress was putting him through. It needed to be someone who knew about Twilight’s necklace, so it was between Time, Legend, or Four (at the time).

I honestly don’t remember why I picked Four in the end— maybe because he’s the most squeamish about dark magic, but I actually was planning to have him be transformed as well. He was going to either be a hummingbird or a mouse, but I couldn’t quite decide, and the fic ended up going in a different direction in the end 🤷‍♀️ I do wish I could’ve slipped it in, but that’s okay.

I honestly considered making the whole thing a bit longer, having the whole chain be captured, and the sorceress mess with the varying magics of the group. Even considered having the sorceress break the crystal into pieces, and turn each of the chain into animals with them... but I ran out of days (and energy lol). I’m happy with how it turned out in the end though XD

Honestly a lot of the inspiration for the fic was that cutscene in twilight princess where Link turns into a wolf that first time. It’s obviously agony, he screams and passes out for who knows how long after going through it, and actually passes out the other first couple times he’s turned into a wolf as well. I got to wondering what it would be like having that happen in rapid succession, especially to someone who wasn’t used to magic like that at all, and... here we are lol.

I picked a fox for Wild’s animal form because I didn’t want to get bogged down in trying to decide the “perfect” form for him. And once I decided that, I waffled a bit about how the transformation should mark him, whether he should gain markings like Twilight or have his hair change like Legend, but I thought hair was more interesting (also kind of pretty in a way), and I went with that. I did momentarily consider markings a bit like the ones over his eye in his concept art though.

Think that’s all I have to say... oh, I’ll leave you with the fact that in my mind, I kind of pictured Wild’s fur as a fox shimmering a bit, kind of like the sheikah tech :)

[monokumafightclub]

For the DR ask game: 1, 3, 17, 20?

What was your first exposure to Danganronpa?

i think it was late 2012 i first started seeing danganronpa fanart floating around on tumblr, but i didn't start reading DR1 until early 2013. i had a VERY rough experience with school during that time, so DR felt kinda cathartic to me in some weird sense, especially nowadays when i have a better understanding of the series (and yes i am wholly aware that the american school system is radically different from the japanese school system, but y'know what i mean)

was going through a a depressive stint during 2013, so i interacted with the wider danganronpa fandom during that time, for better or worse. definitely an interesting era of my life, and there's a few memories from that time that i still treasure. but maybe i'm getting a bit too sidetracked!

3. Did you have a character you hated at first, and then fell in love with? Who and why?

tbh i never really "hate" a character at first glance, but i wasn't the biggest fan of hajime when i first read DR2 all those years ago. i'm a softie who liked makoto in DR1 all the way back then, but hajime i initially thought was "boring" and a bit mean. did come around on him some time into reading further, and he's honestly a pretty damn great protag. without going too heavy into spoiler territory, guy goes through So Much and has to deal with the rest of DR2's wild cast, the comedy potential is nearly endless and it's great seeing his other dynamics with the rest of the cast.

17. List five headcanons for your favorite characters!

-nagisa doesn't really enjoy candy as much as the other warriors of hope, but he does like mints. of course, the other kids have made fun of him for this ("Wow, you like the taste of toothpaste?") -toko HATES romcoms. syo's the opposite, but not so much in a "genuinely likes romcoms" way and more the "has a lot of run riffing on them" way. -one of the very, VERY, and i mean COSMICALLY few things that izuru genuinely likes is cats. -i know the thing with jataro is that his face is actually immaculate under the mask but i feel like his teeth would be a lil crooked. pretty-faced kid with a bit of a creepy grin, c'mon it's great -great gozu knows how to tiger drop. he will not sugarcoat it.

20. What is your favorite aspect of Danganronpa?

for all the years i've been on and off with this franchise, my favorite aspect will forever be the characters themselves.

for all of kodaka's faults with his writing (and hoo BOY are there many of those!), it's no denying he has a love of creating incredibly faceted characters out of such basic frameworks, and seeing how these radically different characters interact with each other is fascinating to watch. doesn't always stick the landing of course (coughteruterucough), but when it hits, he REALLY hits.

i think the strongest example of kodaka's writing with character dynamics is toko and komaru in UDG. as much as UDG suffers from a lot of problems and wasted potential in equal measure, the duo of toko and komaru is one of the most well-written character dynamics in the series, and it's great seeing their relationship grow over the course of the game.

but yeah, it's these kinds of things kodaka does with character concepts and dynamics that inspires me with writing my own characters!

[pkmnomegaverse]

🍩💐📣🪤💗 for Eilian?

🍩 DONUT - favorite sweet treat?

It’s probably telling this question is as tricky to answer as it is. Honestly I’ve always seen Eilian as not having a particular food he likes? Is a go with the flow, practical kind of guy. However, if there’s a specified sweet treat one of his parents makes, that would he his fav. It’s the nostalgia and familiarity that speaks to him. So while no ideas exist in my brain at the moment, that’s his fav sweet treat. My gut says it’s somehow Goh makes.

💐 BOUQUET - create a bouquet for them! what do those flowers mean? are any of the flowers their particular favorite??

Girl, why you asking me to hunt down flower meaning charts 🥹. Like it’s a cool concept in theory, but I’ve yet to find a good, easy to use site that seems legit. But here’s a thrown together bouquet with hopefully accurate meanings.

Iris (your friendship means so much to me, faith hope) - this is just the vibe he gives off

Red carnation (my heart aches for you, admiration) - his feelings for Jett

Holly (defense, domestic happiness) - combo of protective nature and has a very happy home life

Fern (Magic, fascination, confidence and shelter) - another “this is his vibe” plant

Fir (Time) - self explanatory with the time-travel thing he has going.

Sweetpea (goodbye, departure, blissful pleasure, thank you for a lovely time) - related to time travel stuff. Def has to leave some people behind once he figures out stable time loop isn’t letting him change things, but it’s not all bad

As for a favorite flower, while Eilian def has an affinity for plants, being a grass-type specialist, much like the sweet question, I don’t see him as having a favorite? Perhaps down the line I’ll decide he does but for now, I feel he’s more fond of all types vs one being his favorite.

📣 MEGAPHONE - how loud are they? what do they speak like? got a voice claim?

No voice claim cause the concept doesn’t appeal to me, but I tend to picture Eilian being more on the soft spoken side. Or at least soft spoken when compared to the rest of his family who are all loud and boisterous (with Horace as the only other one who is in the “normal volume” range with him).

Eilian likes to think he’s well spoken and thoughtful in what he says, and he is that a fair amount of the time, but he’s prone to getting a bit overly talkative when there’s a subject he’s passionate about. He’s very open with his thoughts as well so he tends to speak his mind on topics. Being raised in a family where everyone spoke their mind influenced this. Like I don’t see him as the brutal honesty type per se, but…leans more towards that in that in that’s he’s very open and straightforward.

🪤 MOUSE TRAP - what will always lure them into certain danger? a loved one in danger? a promise of something they are always searching for?

He's got that “hero gene” in him which leads to him acting the hero in situations where others are in danger. Even people he’s not particularly close to. He sees a person or Pokemon in danger, he wants to help, which someone cunning could easily twist that against him.

Eilian has a subtle arc to his character of wanting to help people and getting increasingly involved in time travel exploits to accomplish this, without realizing it’s at his own detriment. He thinks he is good at analyzing the potential consequences, but he’s not actually as good at it as he thinks. He’s short-sighted, which is why he would actually do well with someone more cyclical who can give him a reality check (I dig the idea of him and Jett being close friends/eventual lovers as Jett can be this person). Like I think Eilian is a self sacrificing person in a foolish sort of way. He’s a hero type. But he’s not the “Main Character.” So he doesn’t have that immunity to death that main characters have. So when the Celebi duo coerce him into traveling through time with them to fix problems, it causes more drama than intended (also I run with the idea of stable time loops so Eilian can’t actually change stuff in his own universe. Any real change is affecting an “AU.”)

The TLDR version of all of this is while Eilian doesn’t see himself as a hero type per se, it’s there. And when combined with his tinkering with Celebi and messing with time travel, someone savvy could fuck this boy over. Boys is about that “do what is right and be a hero”, life, which could he used against him.

💗 GROWING HEART - if they have a crush, is it noticeable? what changes when they're in love?

When Eilian has a crush, he tries to act casual about it in hopes the other won’t notice. But he’s bad at acting casual. I always see his crush on Jett as him acting really flustered once feelings set in, and Jett would def pick up on this. But since they’re friends, ain’t gonna take advantage, even if he’s chill with sleeping with a homie. Eilian would have to be the one to make the first move for Jett to peruse (still gonna flirt here and there tho, likes seeing Eilian gets flustered).

As far as what changes, I don’t think that someone being a “love interest” for Eilian fundamentally changes how he acts around them. Other than the part about him not being able to hide it very well. With Jett, Eilian very much tries to repress and not have feelings, but that’s more to do with him seeing his crush on Jett being hopeless. Were he to have feelings for someone else, he’d likely be more open to embracing those feelings. Still gonna be kinda obvious about it before he confesses, but is gonna repress less.

[nagirambles]

Hi hi! This is sorta a teensy bit off-topic, but I've yet to meet another aro Fairy Tail fan, especially one who is super into in-depth character analyses, so I got pretty excited when I found your blog!

I've got to ask, as an aro, how do you look at the ships in Fairy Tail without the amatonormative lens? What is your perspective of them? What's your favorite? (I bet you've been asked that loads of times, sorry)

Jerza is my absolute favorite ship because there's something so... so labelless about it, ya know? It's as far from traditional as it can get, and it's got so much depth and history between characters and the concept and existence of the ship itself to analyze and theorize!

OOooh fellow aro hi hi hi ❤ Nice to meetcha ❤❤❤

I'm pretty indifferent to the ships, I've definitely been asked a ton, but my general perspective is that 'hey, if it looks cute and seems fun, all the power to it!' and I don't really care too much about who genuinely ends up with who, whether in canon or fanon. If the dynamic is fun, romantically or otherwise, I'm all for it even if the ships and characters overlap.

When I was young, I definitely loved Loke and Lucy, because the Loke Arc meant so much to me. I also loved Natsu and Lisanna, because the tragedy she brought to the story with the reveal of her death brought so much to Fairy Tail's narrative.

When I look at ships, honestly, I see the romantic side of things as secondary to any other relationship they would have. I like better to think of their unique and potential dynamics, the story they're trying to tell, rather than the fact that they're going to fall in love or end up together at the end of the story.

Alzack and Bisca are the iconic gunsligner duo who've gone through travels and missions leaving their backs to each other. In Edolas, they're proud to show of their love and that's funny, but it stops being interesting when all they do is repeat their names at each other with no hint of their subtle personality differences, the way they meld, the way Alzack and Bisca would unhesitatingly protect each other, but are still strict enough to lightly scold when either of them lets their guard down. It was all gone, and eventually, everything about Alzack and Bisca was just the fact they had a cute daughter. They just became the 'nice FT background characters', rather than the bold and prominent duo that spearheaded the protection of the guild in Phantom arc.

Though, my idea of Fairy Tail ships is mostly on the fandom side of things, because I'm not too big a fan of how they are in canon. Nalu's the one I'm most indifferent about in a romantic lens. But of the other big 4, I adore the cute potential of the 'redeemed villain with a cute fairy' dynamic that Gajevy has. Gruvia is fascinating to me, because it's an interesting pit of the 'cool guy' and the 'girl that's not his type', and watching them grow from enemy to tolerance to eventually learning to understand more than just their horrible first impressions was an arc I wanted to see executed better overall.

And though I love Gajevy very much, it does sadden me to see all these characters get shafted for a primarily romantic narrative. Gajevy is a story of protection, so it's fine in the way I can see something important about Gajeel's redemption in their advancement, but there's little for Levy as herself.

But Gruvia, I'm always rather on the fence. I still don't understand why Gray rejected Juvia after GMG. I think Mashima was trying to enforce the Tsundere stereotypes on him, which, you know, he's never been a conventional Tsundere and that scene was hardly the picture of a boy hiding his embarrassment, so all it portrayed was Juvia blatantly ignoring his crude rejection, which set off my aro flight or fight response. Being an aroace who's never been able to openly say it in real life (because I live in a country where people don't believe ace people are real) has made Juvia's advances rather uncomfortable at times for me.

And it honestly makes me sad because I love Juvia all the way up to Fantasia. I wish the crush she had on Gray remained secondary to her character rather than become her main thing. In TOH, she wanted to impress Gray very much, but her priority was on contributing to getting through the tower as part of the group, and helping to save Erza (the scene where she tells Gray to go to Erza because she's in danger, at the start of the arc. She willingly told Gray to leave her side and go to Erza!). On Tenrou, she wanted to ignore Wendy's wellbeing to look for Gray, and she was actually miffed she didn't get to do it. I don't like that.

But from childhood to now, the only Big Four I truly invested all my heart into for their development? Jerza. Jerza is good. I'm indifferent to it now because eh, they're not really written all that well as a whole, but I love their story. It's not about typical or unconventional love story tropes like Gruvia or Gajevy, Jerza is the story of two broken people who adore each other, just desperately finding a way to be together again. It seems like the entire world and fate's odds are always stacked against them and they're never allowed to be together, but they're trying their best anyways. it's slow, it's gradual, and it's a genuine healing process that needs a lot of time.

A lot of people complain about the almost-kiss at the beach, but I don't get it. People complain Gajevy is rushed and then say that Jellal should have kissed her there, as if that isn't the pure definition of rushing a romantic development. It was perfect that they didn't kiss there, because they're not there yet. Erza just got out of a seven year coma and is busy picking up her guild's pieces. Jellal's just gone on a seven year redemption road trip, barely recovering from brainwashing and amnesia and imprisonment, and he's wildly a different person, mentally, emotionally, and physically, from the last few times they've seen each other. (All of those situations were also bad, trauma-inducing situations.) Heading straight into romance from there is just ridiculous. I love that he pushed it away and stated that they needed more time. That moment enforced one fact--- that they understand each other (they both know the fiancee is a horrible lie), like they've always been able to do when they were young and when Jellal allowed himself to be arrested for what they thought was life. It made them emotionally closer once again, without taking things too far. It was one step forward, and they don't overachieve with another step. It was beautiful, because they were healing, not as people who are romantically involved, but as two people. They're very human, in the fact that neither of them want to truly and officially get together without being ready for a relationship. I love that.

I love talking about ships, as an aroace. Though, I think what I want to see in a 'romantic' relationship is different from what's usually given in media. 

I like to describe romance the same way I enjoy fantasy and sci-fi. It's not real and a lot of the specifics and logic is dismissed as 'just how it is', but it's very enjoyable to feel involved in it, even if it's something I can never personally experience.

[redacted-headcannons]

Obey Me! Headcanon: Most Traveled Locations in the Human Realm!

Where in the human realm do the demons go?

Lucifer 

always visits the exact same spot if its for him time 

a small village in Greece

which is once a year and he stays for a week

its the spot Lilith fell to 

he lovingly touches the ground 

sobs hysterically and loses composure to the point of bursting into demon form 

the locals here started offering him fruit at the entrance of the village

lucifer hated it at first 

local legend and translations call him the “Mourning Man” or the “Morning Man” bc of his wailing and tendency to stay from sunset to sunrise 

Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej definitely do a segment on him 

Mammon

as much we all might think its Vegas

its actually the red light district in Amsterdam 

hes a patron there 

not bc he sleeps with the workers but bc he has a shelter in the middle of the district 

its disguised as a sex shop but its just a front for mammon to run a school for uneducated workers in the district 

used to sustain it with all his gambling money but the graduates decided to become self sufficient 

the shop half makes a ton of money off of tourists AND humans give him a “principal” fee? amazing 

its something he’s actually really proud of and won’t tell anyone about

he honestly only visits every few years and very secretively 

Leviathan 

its Piss Alley in Tokyo 

though Levi will get mad if you call it by its English name. The Japanese translation is Memory Lane 

the tight alleyways made him extremely anxious the first time 

a kind restaurant owner who was smoking outside brought him in for tea and snacks 

they also happened to be streaming some anime 

Levi couldn’t get enough 

though he found it recently he travels there once a month 

recently for Levi is like 40 years ago though 

the couple who owns the joint think that levi is the spirit of their deceased son 

bc Levi only visits when no one is wandering the alleyways or inside the restaurant

their suspicion grows when levi mentions he was in the navy once 

Satan 

doesn’t have a favorite place 

travels through South America pretty frequently 

he grew bored of literature on Greco-Roman history 

decided to say f*ck it and travel to a random spot 

it was definitely Barranquilla

then discovered different dialects of spanish in South America 

ran into a language block in Brazil 

cannot understand Puerto Ricans 

but the countries he visits keeps his mind going and the cultures fascinate him

Asmodeus 

as the self-appointed part boi he loves South Korea and East Asia in general

something about a more or less conservative culture going absolutely ballistic with some alcohol and lust makes Asmo go feral 

one of the few brothers to exercise his sin while in the Human Realm

the country in general has a crazy range of seasons, which Asmo is really jealous of 

also likes it because people tend to compliment him in obvious ways here like taking pictures, giving him gifts on the street, or being scouted by entertainment companies 

no one can quite place if he’s a foreigner or not 

also likes traveling with Levi but mostly for the fashion scene in Japan 

Beelzebub 

it’s an American diner in Tucson 

its open 24/7 and run by a father-daughter duo whose trying to pay for her education 

the father is a big burly man with a kind smile and he thinks that Beel is probably what a son of his would look like 

the daughter has a crush on Beel 

Beel politely informs her that he’s “probably” around the same age as her dad 

understandably, they are shook

they talk about how they can’t tell where his accent is from and are weirded out that his bright orange hair looks like it actually grows out of his head

despite their suspicions, they feed him as much as his human form can handle

Beel returns the favor by tipping generously 

not like $100 tips kinda generously 

but like a few months of rent kinda generously

Belphegor 

used to go on yearly unexplained trips to Greece with Lucifer 

hated them 

when he finally got permission to travel on his own, he went to Mongolia 

it was an accident 

but the fresh air, the large open planes of grass, and the silence were really welcoming to him 

he could watch the stars for another 1,000 years there if his brothers stopped trying to retrieve him 

he avoids people like the plague here 

but its okay bc they don’t know he’s there when he visits 

actually the nearby village’s children think he’s just an odd cow 

Barbatos 

enjoys trips to countries that border the Alboran, Mediterranean, and Black Seas

there’s just so much to learn in these areas 

he can never really choose a favorite place 

frequents the ruins of the library of Alexandria, the island of Cyprus, and Gibraltar

was there when the library burned 

the food in these countries are also vastly different from each other with seafood often the common denominator 

he loves it 

unlike the stagnant nature of the devildom, the ever changing paces, cultures, and people of these regions and countries keeps Barbatos overwhelmed and happy

Diavolo 

he actually thinks that visiting random churches is super funny 

made it three steps in the vatican before feeling super sick 

not from the holiness 

but the stench of overwhelming human sin 

when leaving he cackles because its just so very human 

is interested in what humans interpret as sin within Christianity because their concept of good and evil is so grey

he doesn’t get to the Human Realm very often 

but stays for at least a month every time 

[katsumiiii]

I Love To Hate You.

Part One: My Hatred Runs Deep....

maki zenin x fem! black reader

—> fluff + angst series....

Description: In this story reader has a burning hatred towards maki zenin, she find’s her unbearable, despising her very presence. On the contrary, maki has an unexplained fascination towards the girl, causing her to bother reader whenever possible. Soon, this abhorrence blooms into a passionate love unable to be contained.

Warnings: Slight gore, cursing, mild angst, slightly suggestive

Word Count: 1K

You hated Maki. No, that word was much too generous to describe your feelings for the girl. You despised Maki. You loathed how she acted as if she knew everything, smirking whenever you seemed to be confused about what she referred to as a “simple concept.” when in reality, she was just unbelievably intelligent when it came to knowledge about cursed energy.

You detested how she went out of her way to purposely get under your skin, swiftly throwing around seemingly light hearted insults, her grin — which always seemed to be present when you were around — growing once glancing at your furrowed eyebrows and your plush lips scrunched upwards into an unpleasant scowl.

Yes, your hatred for the girl ran deep. Deep along side the blood which flowed inside your veins, giving your very being life. And although it was well known that you hated, ah no despised the girl, she simply could not get enough of you. She loved your little witty comebacks, words laced with fire shooting from those soft lips of yours, like darts slicing through the cool air.

She adored your pouts, and the crinkle of skin which laid between your eyebrows as you harshly glared downwards at her upturned lips, eyebrows narrowing at the smirk adoring her pale face. She found it amusing, the reactions you made whenever she was present, it was entertaining to her, and not only her but others as well. Because of that, she made sure to annoy you as much as possible, and in this case that time was now.

“Maki please shut the absolute fuck up.” you grumbled, legs stretching further and further, trying to get yourself away from the infuriating woman.

Maki chucked at your vexed expression, your arched eyebrows furrowing just how she adored them to, lips down turned into a that delicious pout that captivated her each time it appeared. “Why should I? You seem to be enjoying my presence.”

“Ha ha, funny.” you replied, pace quickening as your annoyance increased.

“I know, glad you agree.”

From afar— if one looked hard enough — two teenagers peaked from behind their respective oak trees, both their heads were tilted as they gazed curiously at the pair swiftly walking a few feet ahead of them, watching their interaction closely.

“Hey Nobara.” a pink haired male called out rather loudly, causing his partner in crime to send him a deadly glare in return.

“Hush Itadori! We don’t want them to hear us! Y/N is scary when she’s mad.” the girl shuttered, her eyes closing as she imagined you standing before her, knife in hand, eyes gleaming with blood lust.

“Why do you think Y/N hates Maki so much?” the boy asked, ignoring Nobara’s request and continuing to speak at the same volume as before.

“I TOLD YOU TO SHUT UP ASSHOLE, DO YOU WANT US TO GET CAUGHT?”

“WELL YOU’RE NOT HELPING EITHER WITH YOUR SCREAMING!!”

“God, what are you idiots doing this time?” the sudden appearance of this new voice made the two squeal in surprise, eyes bulging comically out of their sockets, hands flinging forward to clasp the others. Megumi looked at the pair in exasperation, hands shoved deep into his navy blue pants pockets as he cautiously raised an eyebrow, almost frightened to learn what the duo’s motives were.

“Oh thank god it’s only you, you scared the crap outta us!” Itadori exhaled, gingerly letting go of Nobara’s hands which were intertwined with his own.

“DON’T SCARE US LIKE THAT ASSHOLE!!” Nobara howled, the image of you with a bloody kitchen knife still present in her mind.

“Alright geez, stop screaming.” Megumi rolled his eyes in false irritation, leaning his right shoulder against the same oak tree Itadori was supposed to be hiding behind. “You didn’t answer my question, what are you idiots doing?”

“Nothing!”

“Spying on Y/N and Maki!” the duo replied simultaneously, snapping their heads to peer at one another when their answers didn’t correspond. Megumi shook his head in amusement, softly snickering under his breath at their idiocy.

“Spying on Y/N and Maki!”

“Nothing!” their answers now switching, causing them to once again turn their heads to face each other, slightly glaring when they once again failed to answer Megumi’s awfully simple question.

“So you’re spying on Y/N and Maki...got it.”

“Hey Megumi, you’ve been here a while. Do you know why Y/N seems to hate Maki so much?” Itadori questioned. Nobara nodded her head beside him in agreement while slightly leaning forward, for she wanted to know the answer as well.

Megumi shrugged in response, his eyes fluttering shut as he kicked a lone rock which laid in front of him. “I honestly don’t know much. For as long as I’ve known them all they’ve ever done is argue. If you wanna know, you’d probably have to ask Y/N herself.” he rested his head against the rough wood of the oak tree, eyes opening to peer upwards at the setting sun.

“Hm no way am I asking her, she’s way too damn scary.” Nobara glowered, swinging her foot back and forth to make harsh contact with the tree in front of her, pieces of dead wood dropping to the ground as a result.

“You know what I think?” Itadori slumped against a bush directly behind him, resting his arms on each knee below him. His pink locks ruffled as the wind tussled each individual strand, some ending up brushing against his forehead. “I think Y/N actually likes Maki, she just doesn’t know it yet.”

“Pfft, yeah right!” Nobara cackled, brown hair bouncing as slight quivers erupted from the aftermath of her laughter, her eyes crinkling shut.

“Hey! I’m serious!”

“Yeah and so am I! No way in hell she secretly likes her. What is this, a romance story?”

“Shhh, before they hear us!!” the pair continued to bicker, words becoming louder and louder with every passing second. Megumi quickly darted his eyes away from the dulled sunlight, his own midnight blue irises settling on to Maki’s light green ones. Their eyes only met for a moment, but in that brief split of a second he noticed the inexplicable mischievousness present within her gaze, her cunning aura intensifying before eventually dissipating, eyes now resting on your body several steps in front of her.

Megumi sighed for what seemed to be the thousandth time in a span of 4 minutes, kicking his foot against the grainy surface behind him. “Yeah it’s a little too late for that.”

—> taglist: @mitsumya @myhoodacademia @mypimpademia @racistareversa @xetou @katsumox @blackweebtrash @koishiguro @yuujisbby @mads-fairy @asaincy @namjoonswifeyy @angiebug101 @amethyst09 @sisifromthed @lilsparkyswife @morosis-haze @solar3lunar @lightofcordonia

—> notes: let me know if you would like to be added to the taglist, also let me know if I forgot you from the taglist !! — yes ik not a lot of maki and reader, but imma get thea I promise —

[s1ater]

the 100/bellamy blake in a zombie apocalypse.

summary 📣: what the 100 cast and bellamy blake are like in the zombie apocalypse

warnings 🚫: swearing, ZOMBIES!1!1!

slater’s note 🗯: uh yuh i love the concept of the 100 x the walking dead/zombie apocalypse so...

➪ he’s a natural born leader that at first is very cautious on allowing others to join his group but then when he creates a camp and starts to rebuild (like alexandria, hilltop, the kingdom, etc), he’s very eager on allowing people to join

➪ he has such a soft spot for people who have sob stories and that honestly betrays him in the future, especially with children apart of other groups, trying to bait him to bring his community/camp down

➪ this man honestly loved being the leader when the apocalypse first started but as it continued on and things got rougher and rougher, it bears on his shoulders and the fun that he saw in it at first just leaves his head

➪ he holds literally all his pain/feelings in because he doesn’t know how to do anything else

➪ he needs to make sure everyone is safe, he’s the type of person to do headcounts every second anytime they’re doing scavenging runs in large groups

➪ “hey, where’s murphy? he was literally here a second ago?”

➪ or “octavia, you run off again... i’ll beat your ass.”

➪ man literally has no patience in the zombie apocalypse

➪ he goes psychotic/m.i.a at some point in time before he becomes a full community leader and like chops off zombie heads for fun and puts their blood/guts on himself so he can walk in their herds without being eaten (ex: like nick clark in ftwd)

➪ that’s so weird to say sorry 😭

➪ but deadass low key feel like he becomes depressed at some points but what keeps him going is making sure others he cares about are alive and well

➪ octavia is a literal wandering butterfly during the start and he has to work his ass off just to make sure she doesn’t die

➪ like she literally is so fascinated by the walkers/zombies that she’ll try to get as close as she can and almost die only for bellamy to pull her away quickly scolding the shit out of her

➪ “o, how many times do i have to tell you? the dead is not to be messed with.”

➪ octavia and lincoln are apart of two different rivalry groups, sort of like a romeo and juliette complex

➪ bellamy and octavia are such a badass duo, like her with her sword that she like finds in a museum (or something like that???) and bellamy with like a hatchet trying to get their group to safety

➪ raven is still the brain of the group and bellamy’s right hand man when it comes to getting out of tight situations with other rivalry groups

➪ she scolds him 24/7 and everytime he approaches her with a problem and before he can get a word out about it she’s like:

➪ “what’d you do this time?” or “who’d you piss off now?” and “what problem do i have to fix for you this time dear bellamy?”

➪ murphy is a literal MENACE 

➪ he’ll get himself in more dangerous situations than octavia and he does it so much it’s to the point the group doesn’t even try to help him

➪ he struggles real hard when nobody does anything for him but ends up having to save himself

➪ low key just dramatic and sarcastic but he’s what deadass keeps the group going even though he’s 99.9% reason of why most arguments start

➪ “shut up murphy, you don’t even know what’s going on” or “murphy you’re a fucking dumbass” or “murphy, the reason you’re even alive is because of me”

➪ anyways to end this, i’ll just say, at night, when bellamy needs to calm down, he stares up at the stars and just exhales, searching for the big dipper or signs he can recognize

taglist 🗞:

join my taglist babes!

@phantompogues

[thatlittledandere]

For the character meme, Ryuji Sakamoto and Rock Lee? (Also I took a moment to think about how they'd probably be very good friends if they were in the same franchise and for a full 10 seconds my mental illness was cured.)

YEAH THEY'RE BOTH SUCH GOOD BOYS WITH BIG FEELINGS

Ryuji

How I feel about this character

I love him I love him I love him GOD I want to give him a big ol' hug and k-kithjs his face a and cherish himand he'd make for such a good boyfriend and,,

I am not coherent even though I totally have actual Thoughts too my head is just full of loving-ryuji worms hiiiii

All the people I ship romantically with this character

I really wanted to answer this!! Everyone :D There are no bad Ryuji ships I want him to get allll the love and affection he can. In any form. I mainly ship him with Akira and sometimes Ann but yeah I can take content for any Ryuji ship that doesn't have any tropes I'm generally uncomfortable with.

My non-romantic otp for this character

Ann!! Bestiiies

My unpopular opinion about this character

So this probably isn't unpopular in the fandom but Atlus disagrees. He should be TALLER. He should be taller than Akira. Atlus let me in I'll improve your game by making Ryuji 179 or so

One thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon

You already know what my first pick is so let's skip to the second. I want the boat scene aftermath shot to Andromeda galaxy with no way to return why the hell did they think a victim of abuse from his dad (iirc) and coach getting beaten up by his FRIENDS, people he supposedly TRUSTED to be SAFE, was a good idea?? Talk about tone deaf oh my GOD. I get that they WERE relieved he was ok and probably still in the state of shock too but that was NOT a good way to express it. At all. And they made the protagonist just walk away too?? WHY DOES RYUJI ALWAYS GET NEGATIVE RESPECT

Lee

How I feel about this character

I would not have the energy to be around him for long irl but Lee is such an admirable character honestly. Not only the obvious hard work and kicking Gaara's ass but also how respectful and sensitive and genuine he is!! Sweetie. If anything happened to him I would kill everyone in this room and then myself.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Sakura deserves someone who CARES and we KNOW Lee would treat her right. And she respects Lee too! They would be SUCH an interesting pair but nooooooo a woman's true love is the emo kid she liked when she was 12 and has had like three positive interactions with

My non-romantic otp for this character

I like the concept of friendship within their team but they never really got many serious moments did they. Gaara and Lee would make for a fascinating duo too even if I never really got into the ship.

My unpopular opinion on this character

I used to think finding Lee cool was unpopular but then I joined tumblr so I don't think I have anything left lmao

One thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon

More moments outside battle where he's taken seriously. Lee is largely just comic relief :/

Character meme ♡

[citadelspires]

P1-Looking at how great your posts on how Anne,Sasha,&Marcy would interact with both the Duck nephews and Team Magic, I thought I may as well do one on them interacting with Owl House kids and add Sprig & Polly in there too to even it out. Who do you think the Calamity trio, Sprig, and Polly would get along with the best individually between Luz, Amity, King, Willow, and Gus? I'd assume Luz with Marcy (both fantasy nerds), Amity with Sasha (both not so good friends and maybe not so good parents)

First off, thank you I'm glad you enjoyed my posts about the duck crew! Secondly, I am so sorry it took so long to get to this ask, given how much I loved doing the stuff with the duck kids and amphibia girls the first two times around, these types of asks are my absolute favorites to get, so I decided to wait till I had the time to really put some thought into it and give it the response it deserves! That being said, lets get to it! (rest of the post under the cut cause wow this is long)

Ok so I do agree that Luz and Marcy would get along splendidly but I am saving Marcy for later because I have plans for her, along with a few factors that lead me to believe there's some interesting fun to be had with another combination. While Marcy and Luz both share the "enamored with another world" aspect, Marcy's approach is to enjoy diving into studies and making herself useful on commanded missions and such. Luz can't study for longer than a few minutes at a time, and while she's always down to help her friends, she's also perfectly content causing chaos in the home of a known criminal. However, there is a character from Amphibia who loves to engage in the daring adventure side of the world of amphibia, diving headfirst into whatever trouble they can find, regardless of how much they do or do not know what they're getting into.

Luz is a perfect match to go on chaotic adventures and have massive amounts of fun with Sprig. Sprig, especially at the start of Amphibia, is always the one dragging Anne along on all kinds of adventures in the wilds of amphibia, and Luz is the driving force behind exploring the boiling isles and finding new adventures and places to see, exciting things to do. Whether Sprig ended up on the boiling isles or Luz ended up in Amphibia, I'm certain one of the pair would immediately ask if there were any cool and potentially dangerous places to explore, and the other would be the first one to take them up on it. Sprig would get the chance to see more of what the people from Anne's world are like, and Luz would get the chance to see a little glimpse of that "PG fantasy adventure" she was looking for in the first place. Overall the two of them would have so much fun together, on that I am certain.

Next up, I will admit there are probably better characters for each of these two to get matched up with, so this is admittedly a bit of the two being leftover, but I do think I can buildup a pretty solid argument for the pairing. Willow and Polly is a strange duo on the surface. Polly is bold, loud, and aggressive. Willow is calm, quiet, and gentle. However I think there's some potential there. I think Willow is a really great person to keep Polly out of trouble, in the hypothetical scenario Polly is let loose on the boiling isles that would be a complete disaster(for the isles, Polly would come out of a fistfight with the entire emperors coven unscathed) unless someone was there to reign her in. At first Polly might be a little reluctant to be looked after by someone who is just another kid in her eyes, but we've seen bits and pieces of Polly where we're reminded that, as aggressive as she can be sometimes, she's still just a kid. She's not immune to love and affection, and I think Willow is just the kindhearted, loving person to help Polly feel a little more okay with not always being the strong brave kid she tries so hard to be. As a little bonus I think it would be pretty great for Polly to think she's got Willow and her softhearted nature all figured out after some time only to be taken completely by surprise by the sudden realization the moment Willow uses her magic that "oh hold up this girl is insanely powerful." To be honest that might be a pretty great experience too for her to see that power comes in many shapes and forms. (A lot of the people who are able to fight in amphibia are more agressive about it than willow is so it would be new for polly). This goes double if Willow meets Polly in Amphibia because I mean have you seen how much foliage is in that world? Dear Lord Willow would be a god.

(it is at this point that I realize how long this post is gonna be, maybe I should go put a cut up there somewhere)

For the third pairing I will now reveal where I decided to send Marcy. I would absolutely love to see interactions between Gus and Marcy. Just imagine it. I would argue that Gus is the most curious and inquisitive owl house kid, as well as the most inclined to actually be constantly studying new things instead of jumping right into them. Gus is a dedicated investigator (perhaps too dedicated) and Marcy can absolutely get behind that. Beyond that I think Gus would lose his mind to find another human in the first place, let alone one who can probably recite all of human history off the top of her head. Meanwhile with Marcy, she would be absolutely fascinated by everything and everyone in the boiling isles, and I can just imagine right now that every time she had a new question she'd pose it to Gus and Gus would be like "I... I don't know. *excitedly* I don't know! Let's go find out!" cue the two of them rushing off to investigate:tm:. Also! More than anything else i want Marcy to help provide suggestions to Gus on how to improve/expand his tunnels under hexside because I NEVER FORGOT THE TUNNELS.

With only two pairs leftover y'all can probably guess who's going with who. Unless you can't that would also be fair. I am kinda throwing a curveball with Sasha's I suppose, but I think it actually works out pretty well. Sasha and King have incredibly similar ideas about just about everything. While I think initially King would try to order Sasha around and it would get on Sasha's nerves severely, once that toned down, the two of them would get along really well. Sasha wouldn't see King as a threat due to his size and overall lack of power, and King would just continue seeing Sasha as a very strong pawn, though not out loud so she doesn't yell at him. I mean, we've seen what King would act like provided he became a teenager and it's honestly pretty in line with how Sasha would take over and be in power. I can absolutely see the two of them conspiring to run the whole isle, whether or not those plans ever actually come to fruition, I think she'd develop a soft spot for him.

And finally, I think there's a lot of untapped potential with Anne and Amity. While Anne is more coming from the past of the person who got pushed around and Amity is more the one who did the pushing, the two of them have more to bond over than it would seem. The core concept at the depths of each of their characters, is a chance for them to finally figure out who they are and what they want to be. With Anne it's been Sasha's presence and her need to be socially connected at all times that drove her to have a messed up view of friendship (friends are there to do stuff for other friends, like an exchange for their love), and the feeling she should just be quiet and let everything happen to/around her. With Amity it's the constant pressure from her parents to let them define her along everything she does and all of her relationships. Both Anne and Amity are in a place where, after spending so much time missing out on the chance to form their own identities and become their own people, they're finally starting to realize they can decide who they are. They're finally going to find themselves, and it's gonna be beautiful.

[sleepy-salami]

The Nie Brothers

Hi, thank you very much and sorry for answering late <3 I’ve already answered about Nie Mingjue, so I’ll go with Nie Huaisang.

How I feel about this character: I have a lot of conflicting thoughts about him, but also I can’t help but stan. I think it was very sexy of him to do what he did, I allow him 1 (one) violent revenge for his beloved brother, and I support and apologize his every action. I also think that a lot of his actions were seriously fucked up and no one is going to be his friend after that, including me. Yes we exist. I don’t know??? (c) In the novel we don’t really get to know him, and then boom, he’s the guy who started the whole plot? And it’s not even 100% confirmed, he’s still mostly in the shadows, which fits his role, but. Yeah. He’s fascinating as a concept, and has great potential as a character, and I love fandom explorations of him. And in CQL he’s fleshed out more in an absolutely delightful and relatable way, and I love this side of him so much.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: SangCheng the most, probably. I’ve also read one NHS/Mo Xuanyu fic and was Looking respectfully the whole time. But it wasn’t like, a relationship, more of a “Mo Xuanyu has a last wish“, but it painted both NHS and MXY in such a real, human light, I still think about it sometimes. Other than that, I think he needs a harem tbh. A whole bunch of muscular shirtless Nie guys who can carry their delicate and well-dressed Sect Leader in a fancy carriage on their shoulders because he’s too pretty to walk. It’s what he deserves.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: I’ve talked about NHS and NMJ already, so LET’S TALK ABOUT MENG YAO. Honestly, their friendship is something I’ve never considered after reading the novel, even though they are canonically friends before Nie Mingjue’s death. But then I watched CQL and wow they fit so well together, Meng Yao as a competent but mischievous BFF/babysitter to Huaisang’s chaotic sassy mess. And it makes the ending of their story so much more painful, because in a better world, under different circumstances, they could have been such a badass duo. (That’s why I consume every modern AU where the stakes are lower, no one dies and these two can be friends).

My unpopular opinion about this character: I don’t really like it when NHS is viewed as a “hero to Jin Guangyao’s villain” or their relationship as a “battle of two masterminds”. First of all, neither of them are masterminds, JGY is literally that gif of Gromit frantically placing railway tracks in front of the running cart; and NHS’s whole plan was perfectly described in that one post as “shaking up a bottle of soda and then handing it to Jin Guangyao to open”. Second, the amount of fucked up stuff NHS did during his personal vendetta doesn’t really leave him a chance to be a “hero”. He didn’t do it to make a world a better place, he didn’t care about the collateral damage, he wasn’t “good”, he was hurt and angry.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I want him to use fans as weapons. I think it would be very sexy of him. I’m a woman of simple tastes. Also “Surprisingly Competent Chief Cultivator Nie Huaisang” is something I’m very much looking forward to (just please don’t be evil).

(the ask post)

[shartlord420]

uhhhhh my obligatory iznmi character ask

How I feel about this character

IZANAMIIIIII!!!!!!!! [shoves persona lore in my mouth]

i eat

my feelings about izanami are inseperable from my feelings about the way the persona universe and the fascinating way it works and the lore in it, which is, "god this fucks so hard"

the concepts and the THOUGHT put into all of it are SO GOOD. its still atlus so mayhaps a little sloppy and not as clear as it could be at times, but like, the thought is there and the concept itself is so..... [chefs kiss]

obsessed with cognitive pscience 10/10 would study it, the metaverse, the way gods and personas and shadows work in this world, the way theyre formed, the collective unconscious, its delicious

and izanami themself!!!!!!!!!! funny little man. goddess supreme. peaked in adachis car seat adventure i would kill for that izanami they live in my brain rent free theyre unhinged

All the people I ship romantically with this character

[yet again lifts up Adachi like a little Simba to the sun]

I'm sorry I wish I was more creative but this

OH WAIT I DO HAVE ONE MORE

credit to my friend fro for this idea

enlil from pq2!!

My non-romantic OTP for this character

me, im izanamis friend now

My unpopular opinion about this character

hmmmmgghhhhhrrrrrghh still dont know what the popular opinions are but. uhhh

okay this is just me liking both marie and izanami as distinct characters primarily but i dont like the idea of them just fusing back into one being like the game implies at the end lol i want izanami to still be hanging around theyre just family now let them be seperate its fine izanamis a funny little man let them stay

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

points at your au

a social link would have FUCKED honestly, or just in general, being able to do more with izanami. i GET why not but ALSO. cmon. cmon. everytime i saw izanamis gay little ass standing out there on a rainy day i would get so excited let them have more than one line

and i would kill for more izanami and adachi interaction in canon, ESPECIALLY comedy duo dynamics along the lines of adachis car chair adventure