#i kind of need to be able to justify interpreting the guy as a character first yanno?

[betweenlands]

2 episodes into this longplay series and i am🤏this close to doing That Thing I Do Sometimes and introducing an entirely new mcyter into the fandom ecosystem because i think he's fun

[amazingdeadfish]

Blue and Violet Scenes/Ideas that never made the cut

Self Indulgent post ahead, but I kind of wanted to share some of the things that had been part of the early stages of BAV but were cut out when I finally started publishing! Most of this stuff was either cut out due to my interpretations of the characters naturally changing and/or I simply realized that these aspects simply could not fit the story I wanted to tell (or, they are just silly things I simply could not fit into the plot line. OR, I forgot about them and didn't remember these things existed until now 💀).

Starting off strong with a thing I actually wrote a segment for (an idea that was relatively recent compared to the ones down below): During Colours, Baihe and Macaque were meant to visit the ruins of her house and try and salvage any bits and pieces which might help them find her parents. In the end I had decided that, Baihe would have done that already before Macaque found her on the park bench. I just think that that moment between her and her old home should just... well, it's a moment that belongs to her. Something Macaque didn't need to bare witness.

Extra Info: This is where Baihe was originally meant to find the old photo of her, her parents, and Māo as a kitten. And... Macaque is there in the background. Stealing an air fryer that managed to survive the wreckage (this was in fact written into the draft of this segment).

Next is- well, it contains a bit of a heavy topic. It's about Mayor and LBD and... erm...

In the published version of TQFTSK. Macaque betrays the Chief and locks them in the Calabash and this inevitably leads to LBD telling Chief to cut off their hair. Originally, this was not going to be the only thing she would do.

I have incredibly mixed feelings about this concept, but basically, after Chief especially failed to get the key and 'let' Macaque escape, LBD would have had severe insecurities about the Chief being on their own and the idea that they would never be able to get anything done without her. So, she made them wear a collar. So that every time they didn't do anything right, the needles imbedded into it would dig into their throat and- well, it was basically torture. She would have called it 'necessary discipline'. Of course, the collar would not be visible to anyone. It only appears when it's 'necessary'.

But this was an extremely early concept that I threw away in the bin after realising that this was not what I wanted LBD and Mayor's relationship to be like. While the initial idea behind this was to really empathize the fact that LBD owns Mayor and is extremely controlling, the idea of a physical collar ruins that aspect of their relationship. It's a visual and painful representation of their relationship, sure, but it made their relationship too negative and, well, Mayor loves her. And I knew it needed to be important to at least give you guys some sort of reason and some sort of argument as to why that admiration and love would be justified. The collar was just too much, and it didn't fit either of them.

Side Note: One thing I think subconsciously happened though, was the needle thing. LBD ended up killing Ling with tens of thin needles piercing through their body. So, not a collar, but the basic principle of needles being used for pain... remains. It may or may not be to do with the idea of 'stitching up a puppet to fix its mistakes'.

Moving on, a more silly one this time! Somewhere near the beginnings of all of this (all the way back when I had only planned to make TQFTSK and Colours), there was going to be one single chapter (in Colours) dedicated to the Mayor going through all the stages of grief (eventually I'd come to the conclusion that they needed a lot more than one chapter to do all of that lmao). As a part of their bargaining stage, Macaque was going to stumble upon them in a bar and- unfortunately, being the curious nut he is, decides to stick around and just listen to the Mayor drunkenly mope.

PSA: No, this would not have ended in drunk kissing. This was meant to end in a snotty nosed Mayor and Macaque promptly leaving after he'd had his bit of listening to their misery.

Another thing was that Mayor was meant to be able to see souls! This particular story feature eventually just evolved into Mayor simply being able to judge a soul by looking at their eyes (hence the whole, "eyes are the gateway to the soul").

Another Note: This whole idea was also meant to emphasize the fact that Mayor has no soul and, how whenever they look inside themselves, there is no colour and there is no soul (that is, until they get their soul back). But, well, I figured their eyes alone would be able to do all of that just fine without this ability.

Now, as ashamed as I am to admit, originally I had completely bought into the Baihe, Macaque, and Mayor family dynamic. So, in the beginning, this was what was going to happen.

But then I decided Baihe was not going to conveniently be an orphan or have shitty parents for the sake of this dynamic. No, no no no. She will have loving parents, character development, and she will be more than just a character to fill in the slot of 'the child'. Whenever I write Baihe, I always strive to not use her for the sake of developing Macaque and Mayor's characters. No shame to those who like this dynamic though, its a good one and it's so silly (I still like it to be honest).

Now, let me tell you that there are a LOT more unused concepts than this. It's really just a decent slice from a never ending pile of WIPs and shower thoughts scribbled onto a doc from all the way back in like... 2022-23.

[transmascutena]

Hey I found your blog kind of at random coincidentally right when I started RGU after putting it off for a long time. I grew up on toonami and I like going back to the "classics" for any form of media, so it's an obvious choice.

The reason I delayed watching it for so long is kind of odd; when I perused the Wikipedia summary way back when the blurb for (i think) ep 30 had the line something like, "Utena realizes she has fallen in love with Akio against her will." My knowledge of the series was 1) Akio is bad guy and 2) Utena is heroine, and something about that plot point just soured me on the entire thing. It was mostly a personal issue, my own phobias around corruption and loss of control, so I wasn't in the mood for a story of falling victim to that, especially a protagonist I'm supposed to empathize with, and I also just hate that trope. "Oh no, I love Bad Person so I will now do Things I know are Bad because Love." That can certainly be well done but I think it's more often the sign of bad writing from writers without the skill or patience to adequately portrayed a character arc. I found a few fan blogs and essays about the seduction of Utena, and how it's allegedly done in universe as very calculated, meticulous and believable.

I can't say exactly why but the entire concept just repulsed me. I think difficult subjects definitely should be discussed in media, so the reluctance was out of character for me. Eventually I found myself thinking about it so much I decided I had to just sit down and watch it just to be able to make up my own mind. I guess I just figure that Big Bad Seduces Hero and She Dies but also Wins Somehow?? is such a dumb plot that it can't actually be the content of a show that is so highly regarded.

I suppose I don't actually have a question for you, I just wanted to write out my reservations to somebody, but maybe you have some insights on it. Because I'm also learning from your blog that there's a scene that some people can't decide is rape or not? The hell? I guess I just don't want to sink hours of my life into this and then find a gratuitous rape scene that's trying to be Deep and Artistic.

Maybe that's my question, is the hype worth it, and does the show justify it's use of sexual violence in your opinion? Thanks for reading this, I mostly just needed to type it out.

to be quite honest i think "Utena realizes she has fallen in love with Akio against her will" is a bad summary of that episode, that i don't think really gets across what the episode, or the show as a whole, is about, so i don't blame you for feeling hesitant because of it. utena, at least in my interpretation of the show, is not and never was "in love" with akio. she is being groomed by him, and is being convinced that she is, but even then it's more complicated than that. it's just as much about the structure of The Family as it is about romance for example. it's about how the lines between the two often get blurry under patriarchy, and how that vagueness can be used to take advantage of kids who don't know better (utena especially because she does not have a family, and does not know what a family is supposed to be). there is so so much to this that i can't get to it all here, but if you're worried about it being a cliché plot executed badly, don't be. there are so many layers to it that say so much about how these systems work in real life, and it absolutely lives up to the praise people give it. but, you know, it is a heavy subject and it is portrayed that way, so be aware of that going in.

as for the rape scene, it is pretty unanimously agreed upon to be rape by the fandom, and the only reason there are a few people who disagree is that they don't know what the concept of consent means. that being said though, the scene itself is not gratuitous at all, nor is it at all explicit, really. it's clear what is happening for sure, and it is absolutely upsetting and uncomfortable, but the only thing that is actually shown is the character's face. the show as a whole does not really have any nudity either, if that tells you anything. the sexual abuse is there and it is not subtle, but it is always depicted with respect for the victim, and nothing is ever show that isn't strictly necessary. it's really impressive to me, to be honest. the scene is there for a reason, and it is important to the plot/character arcs, because the show is about (among other things) commentary on systems of sexual violence/abuse. the show absolutely does "justify" it's use of sexual violence, because it's about not only why it's bad, but also how and why it happens.

[smashjewels]

Trans Masc Naoto Shirogane (my take)

Hi I’m finally getting around to finishing persona 4 golden and I need people to understand that I love Naoto so much. (my multi fandom is showing)

I also need people to understand that while yes, the game states that Naoto isn’t trans and is content with being a girl, Naoto’s story still resonates with trans people and arguably makes more sense if he were trans.

Naoto isn’t trans in canon, but there’s substantial evidence for people to see him as such.

So I’m gonna rant abt it a little

- “Seeing Naoto as trans is MORE harmful than Naoto being a girl”

The point being brought up here is that those who hc Naoto as trans are forcing this identity on him, just as transphobic people do onto others.

The main flaw with this is that Naoto isn’t a real person. No one is “forcing” a gender identity because they can’t. They’re not real. This would only be valid if in canon there was a character who forced Naoto to present as male, but there isn’t.

- “Saying Naoto is trans is like saying Mulan is trans”

Mulan dressed up as a man to protect her father, a clear reaction to the situation at hand. Naoto chooses to present as male in every aspect of his life ever since he was young. Naoto’s mother was a renowned detective as well, it doesn’t make a lot of sense for Naoto to be completely convinced he has to be a man in order to be a detective.

- The workplace sexism topic isn’t handled well

While I won’t deny that sexism in the workplace is a problem, the game barely highlights this. The only part we see of Naoto being discriminated against is because he’s young. The game tries to explain an issue that it never shows, there’s no evidence to the audience that Naoto would’ve been treated any differently had he present as female.

Naoto’s family is also said to be a long line of renowned detectives, some of which have had to be female.

Naoto’s shadow talks about how he’s lonely and just a child. He also says that he’ll “never cross the line between the two sexes” the shadows say the fears and inner thoughts of a person.

If Naoto’s story had been more focused on workplace discrimination, his shadow would’ve said something like “I don’t want to be a boy” implying that his expression as a boy is unwanted but forced because of workplace discrimination.

It isn’t though, it focuses on Naoto’s insecurities about never being able to change the fact he was born a woman, something that’s very similar to the trans experience.

- Naoto’s character arc is based around self acceptance, this can work for the trans hc and canon

While in the game it’s displayed as Naoto coming to terms that he doesn’t need to be a boy, and it’s okay for him to be a girl regardless of his occupation, this can work just as well (if not more) for the trans hc.

Naoto’s self acceptance can be presented as “I don’t have to medically transition/be born a boy in order to be a boy”

This could also explain Naoto’s apparent fear about gender reassignment surgery with how it’s presented with his shadow.

- “Naoto being trans would be sending the message that you can just transition to avoid systemic discrimination”

Crazily enough, trans people also face discrimination in the workplace. And this is also assuming Naoto’s arc would be about a character transitioning for convenience when obviously there’s a lot more to that to transitioning.

- Naoto doesn’t mind when people see him as a boy, even when in canon he identifies as a woman

This implies some kind of non-negative view of him being a boy, this implies that he doesn’t just do it to be not discriminated in the workplace, it’s part of him and his identity.

edit: I think it’s important to point out that it’s not wrong to perceive Naoto as a woman, as that’s what the persona 4 canon is, but the point is to rather justify the interpretations of Naoto as a transman and debunk common statements made against the hc

Anyway Kanji is gay bc he has a crush on a guy who he perceived as a guy, not cause he’s a man with feminine interests

[theamityelf]

while reading your Koma/Kamuaegi fics I kinda started wondering about the end goal of the pairings you have tagged. Like it might just be me being blind or not grasping it because they’re still wip and only have a few chapters and I’m not used to reading stories the way you write them. or reading slowburns?but I don’t really see to much of a physical attraction between the characters ( to clarify I don’t mean in like a sexual way or whatever) but it only really seems that komeada likes Naegi for his talent or Kamakura’s only interested because of the emotional responses he gets out of it. What I’m trying to ask is are we gonna get that romancey stuff or are you going for a more queer platonic route. Again this might just be me not being able to pick up or notice the signs cuz I’m stupid or whatever, I’m kinda new to your tumblr and your fics so I wasn’t really sure and decided to ask in a ridiculously long ask lol.

This is a tough question. (And no worries about the length of the ask!) I can only give my own interpretation, because I feel like different people can feel or think differently as they read it, and I think the readers' interpretation is also valid. (Also, I get self-conscious when I talk too much about my own writing, because I feel like I come across as arrogant, but I'm getting over that. 😁)

I would say that Kamukura and Nagito aren't in a place where they can have uncomplicated reasons for liking someone, if that makes sense? And you're right to point out that kind of in both cases, the initial pull for them is that they see a good feeling (Nagito would put it differently, but it's functionally similar) and just hurl themselves at it, and the good feeling happens to come from Makoto. That's not to say he's incidental to the whole thing; they don't get good feelings from him for no reason. They get good feelings from him because they've seen who he is and something in them feels soothed, or comforted, or awakened, or whatever else. They just have roundabout ways of expressing or acknowledging those feelings.

In Nagito's case (and I assume, for him, we're talking "A Panel of Hope Experts"), he's not just attracted to Makoto because he's the Ultimate Hope, but also (among other things) because Makoto didn't want Enoshima to die and Nagito desperately needs someone to tell him he doesn't deserve to die. His Ultimate Hope title gives him a level of authority that means Nagito feels justified taking his word for it when he says he deserves to be alive, but he probably wouldn't be wrapping himself so tightly around an Ultimate Hope he didn't fully trust to keep reinforcing that he's worthy of life.

The fact that both Nagito and Makoto are so in need of reassurance means that it's pretty easy to imagine a scenario where they just kind of...maintain each other? Like, Makoto's "You're not trash, and you don't deserve to die," for Nagito's "Nothing that happened was your fault, and you're worthy of being called the Ultimate Hope." In Chapter 7, we see Makoto listening to Nagito's praise and taking comfort in it, and we see Nagito really enjoying being listened to and kind of relied on. And I would say that feeling that existed between them there is fertile land for something nice or something super dangerous.

But I'm getting off-track. Generally, for Nagito, I would say that any genuine attraction he feels for Makoto, he is unwilling or unable to think of it as such, because the moment this stops being service of the Ultimate Hope and starts being, well, kidnapping a guy he likes and trusts because he can see an excuse to do so that fits with his personally-held convictions, then he loses his justification for pursuing what makes him feel good. In Chapter 3, when he thinks about the fact that he finds Makoto "pretty", his next thought is to compare and contrast his beauty to Enoshima's. In Chapters 5 and 6, he becomes very conscious of the wind because he considers it an excuse to touch Makoto's hair. There is a point where he is explicitly waiting for the wind to blow so that he can touch Makoto's hair again. These are manifestations of, as Hajime put it, "interpersonal attraction" that are separate from his "ideological worship".

In Kamukura's case, I would say that he usually just doesn't consider himself subject to feelings in general, let alone attraction to anyone, and as a result it doesn't occur to him to think of things that way unless he's given a ton of evidence. In "Property Rights of the Ultra-Talented", I think he pretty much does consider himself attracted to Naegi, but in "Despair's Throbbing Heart," he's not there yet. And both of these are Yandere Kamukura stories, so that informs things. Not to spoil, but he is (going to be) a different kind of yandere in "Property Rights" than he is in "Despair's Throbbing Heart". And I don't think enough chapters there are up yet for me to go into more detail without spoiling, lol.

I guess TL;DR is: Nagito and Kamukura are not super reliable narrators or expositors of how they feel or what they want. I don't think I can speak to the end goal of the ships, really? I can say that they like each other and that they are not in the best place emotionally to express those feelings in a healthy way. I hope all that made sense, lol.

[qllie]

i saw someone on hoyolab arguing that Ei isn't a bad mother, she didn't "abandon" Scaramouche she "set him free" which is actually a hilarious take lol

"No officer I didn't 'abandon' my one month old by leaving him in a dumpster I was actually setting him free to be able to live a life without the shadow of my responsibilities" LOL

like I guess maybe it's a little different for Ei since Scaramouche was able to walk & talk, and he didn't need to be fed or cared for to live. But like he still knew nothing about the world that she released him into with no support lol.

I mean I'm not saying Ei is evil or anything, but I think she's pretty clearly meant to be a flawed character??? Like idk it's kind of annoying when people accept the internal flawed logic of a character within a story as absolute fact on how you're supposed to interpret it??? Like yes of course Ei herself felt this was a good decision at the time, BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN THE STORY ITSELF SUPPORTS HER ACTIONS!!!!!

idk I thought it was funny that they were saying it was actually a good thing for her to do tho.. And some people were saying "well he's a puppet??? if you made a doll and threw it away would you feel bad???" But like Scaramouche is sentient tho???? He's not just a mindless puppet... Like that's kind of the main point of his story quest that even though he's a puppet he still is as "human" as anyone else... Idk man people sometimes just accept absolutely what the story tells them like they just hear "he's a puppet'' and go "Okay!!!!!"

Like it just bothers me when people don't actually think even slightly deeper than the exact words of the text idk... like Ei's choice of abandoning Scaramouche being harmful is pretty clearly presented in the story I don't understand how you could not pick up on that just cuz Ei said "I did it for a good reason I think maybe." Also didn't she somewhat regret it anyways since she gave him her Gnosis????? So like even Ei doesn't necessarily think it was right????

I mean in general Ei makes some pretty bad choices and like. That's kind of important for her character? She choses to hide away and oppress her people for the sake of "eternity" and learns that making it so nothing ever changes is bad actually. Like she realizes her past decisions with the Shogun and hiding away were bad!!!!! Which is important for her character!!!! Like if you say "Oh Ei actually made all the right choices cuz she was sad her sister died and she was doing what was best for everyone" you're literally reducing her character down to nothing idk

I mean it's not just Ei I feel the same for other characters (like Scaramouche lol)... justifying every single bad decision a character makes is annoying because like. Sometimes the characters mess up, and that's okay!!!!

Also like... what makes a fictional character "redeemed" and a real person redeemed are different. Like if Ei was real and abandoned her son and killed her people but later was like "erm maybe that's bad" no way anyone would forgive her lol. And if Scaramouche slaughtered an entire island and later was like "well this guy told me my friend didn't like me anymore so that's why:( anyways I'm in college now" no one would forgive him either. But they're fictional characters, so it's okay to like them even if they did very serious things wrong you know???? You don't need to justify their every action!!!!

[stars-in-a-jam-jar]

So like. Functionally. The concept of Media Literacy is the ability to, with some level of proficiency, comprehend and interpret a text; not just as in being able to read the words and process the structure of the sentences, but to derive an underlying ethos from that text. It's the difference between 'I like Ritz and other salty snacks' and 'Lotta nuance to a Ritz cracker if you really pay attention'.

I think at the core of people saying media literacy is dead is the attitude amongst a slowly growing (or at least slowly growing louder) contingent of people attempting media analysis who try and Come To The Correct Conclusion and the way that attitude clashes against Most Other Things. The people saying they know the one thing this art is Actually saying and Actually about say people are either foolishly blind to or willfully ignoring The Important Parts, so they say media literacy is dying. The complex soup of people who think those people are being ridiculous for one reason or another say those guys aren't actually engaging with the text on its own terms, or under the lens it is meant to be seen, or with the proper amount of grace and good faith, or any other way to criticize someone's approach to media analysis. So they also say media literacy is dying.

This further clashes against casual enjoyers who only consciously know their own personal tastes and intuitively vibe check pieces of media based on what those tastes are. Either you own being a casual enjoyer of a thing and chafe at all the people talking over your head about What's Actually Going On And What It's Actually About/Saying/Implying/Endorsing/Whatever, or you feel the need to be on the same level as everyone else and try to articulate and justify intuitive vibes-based things inside yourself using the only language available to you, which is often other people on the internet. This is a bonkers unreliable way to develop and articulate an argument, opinion, or interpretation about anything. Like, example, I initially got as interested in media analysis as I did when I was a middle schooler because I watched Friendship is Magic and there was a very active community of randoms making videos about it on YouTube. Most of them were doing high school freshman levels of analysis on these pony cartoons for elementary schoolers, which was incredibly convenient for me, a 7th grader with a lot of expendable energy, because it felt novel and challenging without being inaccessible to hear words like 'continuity' and 'character development' and 'metaphor' getting thrown around and broken down. However, it is important to note, I was Also paying a lot of attention in my PreAP English classes IRL. I graduated highschool with a college freshman level of English literature education and media literacy, at least according to them institutions what say who's smart and who's smartn't.

If I was dismissing my English classes out of hand because I figured 'I have other plans for my life, I don't need to dig into this gay little book about boys at a boarding school.' (Go read A Separate Peace) 'What was the takeaway from Lord of the Flies? People are weird and do bad stuff to one another, idk.' 'Why are we reading Shakespeare? Romeo and Juliet is depressing and I don't care about any of the other ones.' If I'd decided not to expend the energy becoming excellent at media analysis, I'd still be at that level I was in the 7th grade, kind of understanding that character development is important and things *can* mean other things and reference older stuff like myths or historical events, but not having a backlog of experience and texts I've paid close attention to which I can then apply to this random weird indie game or that shakily executed anime or that Really Visceral black humor podcast.

So basically what I'm saying is it boils down to a combination of too many people talking, too many people talking past eachother, and a lot of really underqualified analysts attempting to participate and muddying the waters.

"Media Literacy"

I know it is a problem, but everytime I hear someone say "Media Literacy is dead", I just hear someone saying "I'm so much smarter than these idiots!", like they themselves already know everything about how media literacy works, have never had an uninformed or biased take and that stories have ONE WAY they can ever be read or experienced or understood.

But maybe I'm misunderstanding the trend, so let's get this out: when people say there is a media literacy crisis, what EXACTLY do you mean?

[linkspooky]

The Protagonist of Another Story

Aren’t protagonists just the worst? Just assuming everything revolves around them you know, like they’re the main character of some story? Gege has stated several times they want to write a story where no one single person is right, where they can’t always be correct no matter how good those intentions are. I believe he’s continuing that theme by now introducing another protagonist just like Yuji, who assumes he’s the hero of this story and making them fight each other. More on the relationship between Yuta and Yuji under the cut. 

1. Heeeeeeeeere’s Yuuuuuuta.

A stated by Gege themselves in their commentary for this week, Yuta’s central character trait is his indecisiveness. In other words, Yuta is lacking so much in confidence that he doesn’t make decisions for himself and instead relies entirely on what other people say. 

Yuta’s central flaw he’s confronted with in volume zero is his codependency towards others. He relies on other people to validate him, to tell him that he’s a good person and that he’s worthy of living. 

There’s nothing wrong with this desire, it even parallels Yuji’s in a way. Yuta wants to be surrounded by others who tell him it’s okay for him to keep on living. Yuji wants his life to mean something, he wants to help others so he’ll have plenty of people surrounding him when he dies. It’s basically the same desire, a desire to help people and be needed by people so they won’t have to be alone. 

However, there’s two layers where this behavior can also be a problem, especially when applied to Yuta. Maki is the first one who calls it out. Is Yuta actually a good person, or is he merely acting like one to treat him nice. 

Yuta is entirely passive, and rather than active control of circumstances he tends to play the victim and pretend to be helpless. He believes himself to be a good person who hasn’t done anything to deserve what’s happening to him, and that can make him blind to his own faults. Like a person who has been bullied in the past, who acquire a victim complex, and now sees any kind of conflict as someone attempting to bully them. Yuta doesn’t seem to ever realize when he might be in the wrong, because his view is that in every situation he’s just a good innocent person being bullied. 

Passive isn’t good, it’s just passive. Yuta has a hard time seeing when he’s at fault in situations. Such as when he believed for several years that it was Rika who cursed him, when  in fact it was the other way around, he was the one who cursed Rika.  

Yuta is also, someone completely codependent. He’s so afraid of losing people that he can’t function without them. This also informs the reason why he cursed Rika, because he himself couldn’t let go of her. Yuta learns in volume zero that he has to let go of old friends, because he can always form new friends, he can always find new reasons to keep on living, however he clearly hasn’t completely conquered this flaw. 

His lack of faith in himself, his codependency, is what ultimately leads to his indecisiveness. He can’t have faith in his own decisions so he puts faith in the people around him instead to reassure him and back him up. However, this makes him insanely protective of the people around him, because if he ever loses him then Yuta’s fragile world comes crashing down. He is entirely dependent on the people around him in order to keep living. 

Yuta doesn’t actually care about the world at large. He doesn’t even care enough to argue with Geto about his points. He’s not even sure that Geto is the bad guy, he literally just wants to kill Geto for hurting his friends. 

For Yuta, all that matters is protecting his small little bubble of friends. He’s learned that he can make new friends,but not that the world exists at large outside of his greater bubble in sorcer society. 

2. Me, The Protagonist of Reality. 

So, Mahito kills one of Yuji’s friends right in front of him. Yuji then swears bloody violent revenge, doing whatever he can to take down and kill Mahito, unable to move on until he’s punished Mahito for the crime of killing Junpei. 

In this situation, Yuji is the good guy, and Mahito is the bad guy, right? Therefore Yuji is justified in only thinking of Mahito as someone he must kill. However, Yuji has a tendency to assume that he is the good guy in every situation. Yuji believed in a very simple story, that he was good and the people he was fighting against were evil. 

Even when the story grew more complicated, Yuji just decided he didn’t have to think too hard about his role in things. He didn’t have to think about the bigger picture, he just had to kill his enemy. 

Mahito is very much a straight forward bad guy, but the problem with this line of thinking is that not every situation is going to be as black and white as it was with Mahito. The problem with the decision to just not worry about it and not think things through, is that when you get into one of those gray situations you won’t be able to realize that you’re in one. Killing for revenge is wrong, because it’s not usually a straightforward story. Now, Yuji is on the opposite side of the story. 

Yuji’s direct actions cut Inumaki’s arm off. It is a very grey situation. Yuji made a choice to walk around with Sukuna in his body, knowing Sukuna might be able to take over at any time. At the same time it wasn’t Yuji’s intention to hurt Inumaki in this way. 

The same way that Yuji doesn’t want to think about the moral grays in his situation. It’s very likely, that Yuta doesn’t want to think about how his situation must be gray as well. Yuta right now sees himself, as Yuji saw himself to begin with, someone killing for revenge in order to punish them for hurting a friend. 

I really think it’s much more interesting if Yuta actually does want to hunt Yuji down, rather than secretly pretending to be on his side all along, because it’s a direct consequence for both of them declaring they don’t need to think about these things. If you don’t want to decide for yourself, then others will make your decisions for you and you get used. 

Straightforward revenge has always been a mistake for the characters before. When Choso wanted to kill Yuji as punishment for killing his brothers, the consequence to that was him nearly killing someone who could have potentially been another of his brothers. This might be the parallel to the Choso situation, Yuta wholeheartedly believes that Yuji is an enemy he must kill and it’s a consequence for both of them. 

They both think they’re on the good side. They both believe they’re on the right. Yuji wants to help people, and Yuta wants to protect his friends but they don’t think of the greater interpretation of their actions, because they both assume they’re good. 

However if they can’t both be the good guy then what else can they do? PROTAGONIST BATTLE! COME ON, PUT YOUR DUKES UP!  WHOEVER SURVIVES GETS TO BE THE REAL MAIN CHARACTER OF REALITY. 

[psychewritesbs]

Chapter 173: Tokyo Colony No. 1, part 13: Dark ≠ Evil + The meaning of Tsumiki’s name + Takaba vs. Gojo

Happy JJK-Sundaaaaaaaaaaaay! 

Y’all.

I love Jujutsu Kaisen.

Because of the way my brain works (basically overthinking almost everything and looking for the thought process behind behavior in others), I have a hard time consuming most media because most of it is too predictable.

That’s why my favorite anime/manga are usually psychological in nature--Zankyou no Terror, Sonny Boy... Jujutsu Kaisen.

Or anime/manga that use familiar tropes and yet remain highly unpredictable: anything CLAMP, Haikyu!!... Jujutsu Kaisen.

Right. So...

Dark ≠ Evil. The idea that darkness is inherently evil is a cultural bias in the West propagated by the Judeo-Christian religion. 

Dark does not need to equal evil. 

Just think of how seeds need to be nurtured in the darkness to germinate! 🌱 I didn’t just baby talk that imaginary seedling.

Dark ≠ Evil

When people assume that darkness = evil they are looking at “darkness” as a symbol and concept through the lens of the Judeo-Christian religion. 

But there are interpretations of darkness that do not involve the concepts of “good and evil”.

You can go Google “darkness in Buddhism,” “darkness in Taoism” and “darkness in Shintoism” if you want to get a gist of it. I have to say these depictions of darkness are probably closest to what I envision when I use a term like “Dark Megumi”... not to mention Carl Jung’s definition of the shadow.

Why those religions? Because Japanese Buddhism and Shintoism are the philosophies most likely to have influenced JJK and I personally like a lot of their esoteric teachings. 

I just felt like clarifying that because I’ve used the term Dark Megumi quite a bit and I’ve seen comments float about the interwebs about Megumi being evil vs being a good person and this or that. 

I personally don’t headcanon Megumi is evil just because he is going to go through a “Dark” arc. To me it’s more along the lines of “dark night of the soul” meets “his repressed self is going to have the spotlight moving forward” and then he’ll learn something from it because #life.

Dark ≠ Evil.

There is a lot of nuance to Megumi that is hard to put into words (which is a lot to say for someone who vomits words about Megumi as much as I do. AND, especially since I keep trying to explain the thing because I want to understand it in myself). 

Think of Megumi’s personality like a continuum. On one end is the Megumi we saw from chapters 1 through whenever he entered the colony. This is the Megumi that is in the light, the Megumi we can see that we all fell in love with.

At the other end of the spectrum is a Megumi that we had not been able to see because he was hanging out in the shadow, he was in the dark.

That Megumi hiding in the dark is creepy af and I love how Gege depicts just how despite his cool and collected “personality,” he’s actually pretty sadistic and gets super excited to fuck shit up fight.

Just look at his smile ffs.

Imagine this was your yearbook or Driver’s License photo. You’d be voted in for “most likely to kill someone”.

That’s why I’ve been (rather painstakingly) writing about Megumi’s extreme duality and how Megumi rejects both dualities in other people--which means he rejects them in himself.

I'll keep writing about Megumi’s kind, compassionate self. But I will also keep writing about his “darker”, repressed self because, just as Gojo said in chapters 3 and 4, Jujutsu Sorcerers are a little cray cray.

I didn’t miss the point, I just expanded on it. That’s what I do. I overthink. It’s not always the healthiest behavior but that’s why I meditate and do yoga.

Also, you know Megumi is a good old jolly, morally gray mess of a character when he can justify devaluing another’s life so that he can kill them for the “greater good of all”. 

I feel like this is Gege getting all Philosophy 101 with his readers.

Anyways... moving on.

So... in chapter 168, after rather brutally and violently killing that one guy, Megumi dissociated from his actions.

This chapter, I thought it was funny to see Megumi casually having a conversation with someone he had just mortally wounded.

You know. Just your average conversation with someone whose future you just ended. Just Megumi being cold blooded af.

Megumi just feels no remorse whatsoever. He totally checks some of the boxes for someone with Antisocial Personality Disorder.

If this was Yuji, or any other human being, he would be having some serious existential angst about it. And I have to say I absolutely love Yuji’s perspective on the matter.

But this is Megumi we’re talking about here, and the boy has a clear perspective of whose life matters and whose doesn’t in his eyes. 

For those he cares about he’ll put his life on the line, for those he doesn’t he is RUTHLESS AND UNFEELING... And I love it, and I can’t wait to see what Gege makes of his character arc because being “unfeeling” is nothing but a defense mechanism.

And going back to the blurred line between “good and evil,” we have Reggie giving Megumi all of his points.

If this was Sukuna, who is in fact irredeemably evil, he would be taking those points with him straight back to hell thankyouverymuch. If only because “if I can’t have them, neither can you.”

Reggie might be doing one last good deed on his way out from this plane of existence but... 

Gege just casually dropped a super cryptic message. 

Like wtf dude. Is it foreshadowing? I don’t know AND selfishly hope it isn’t. 

Gege has already teased the idea that Megumi might become a “puppet of carnage”

And now Gege is not only teasing the idea of Megumi being toyed with by fate and becoming a clown before he dies, he’s very casually introduced the idea of a pre-determined fate vs. free will.

Fck... I love Jujutsu Kaisen.

So given the religious symbolism of Angel coming down from the sky, the idea of a pre-determined fate vs. free will, and the symbolism of the clown...

Akutami Gege. 

What in the world have you got in mind for Megumi?!

The similarities to Chainsaw Man’s Aki aside (which is super unsettling because who knows what an unhinged Megumi would do)...

I also couldn’t help but be reminded about the cog symbolism in JJK and how Sorcerers are cogs in this grander machinery that is the JJK world. Aside from Jujutsu Sorcerers as cogs, cogs can also be a symbol for fate and destiny.

And since we’re talking about pre-determined fate vs. free will here... every single one of Megumi’s actions moving forward is likely to be what seals his fate as a “clown”.

Death is also another interesting symbol. If you are into tarot symbolism, then you know that the Death card is not a final destination, but a symbol for change and transformation.

AND...

I was literally just listening to a podcast in which it was mentioned that red herrings are used to keep the audience from guessing what the outcome of a story will be.

So this could very likely be a massive red herring.

Honestly, maybe I am in denial and this is face-value foreshadowing that Megumi will die and I am just over here doing mental gymnastics to convince myself otherwise, but... until then, I am sticking to @justafrenchlondoner​‘s theory that Megumi will survive to unite the clans. I’d pay to see that happen.

Also he’s my favorite. Please don’t kill him Gege.

But... can we please talk about Tsumiki’s one-panel cameo?

For the longest time I’ve been wondering if Tsumiki will be nothing more than a plot device for Megumi’s motivation.

And then we get chapter 173.

Holy 💩, Batman. I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore...

The meaning of Tsumiki’s name

So this came up because the question of whether Tsumiki is a sorcerer from the past was brought up.

The short answer is that we don’t know whether she is a sorcerer from the past or not until Gege reveals more about her. And, I do wander whether her name might hold a clue... 

(And as always, take with a grain of salt. Exercise them sexy critical thinking skills of yours!)

Since the kanji in characters’ names in JJK is not only very revealing of their personality but also an important part of the story... I started to wonder if the same was true for Tsumiki’s name.

For example...

You have Yuji’s name as a play on words about his unwavering humanity.

Ryomen Sukuna’s name literally translates to “twin/two-face + mask + something that drives evil away.”

Megumi’s name is a play on words on blessings and bowing/respect to darkness (shadow). Because darkness ≠ evil.

What about Tsumiki?

The kanji for Tsumiki is made up of 3 characters.

津美紀

津 (tsu) is the kanji used to represent the concepts for haven, port, harbor and ferry.

美 (mi) is the kanji used to represent beauty and beautiful.

紀 (ki) is the kanji used to represent chronicle, account, narrative, history, annals.

If you read it at face-value, Tsumiki's name could mean "haven + beautiful + history".

You could interpret her name to mean something along the lines of "beautiful history that serves as a haven"--which, if you think about it, is sort of congruent with how Megumi remembers her.

Tsumiki is a haven for Megumi as the one and only constant source of love and affection in a world that all but abandoned him. More importantly, she symbolizes all that is good about him--this is one of the reasons he rejects her.

HOWEVER... and this is just speculation, what happens when you get creative with the kanji in Tsumiki’s name? 

The thing about the kanji for 津 (tsu) is that it is also the kanji used in words like tsunami and tsunami earthquake. This would be a very interesting development because an earthquake and the tsunami that ensues is an incredibly destructive force of nature.

I still don’t know if the panel below is foreshadowing, but I have to wonder why Gege would draw Tsumiki in a panel where Megumi is talking about how “as long as he sees someone as a good person, he doesn’t want to see them die (no matter how dangerous)”. 

Why not draw Yuji instead? Since this is a conversation between Yuji and Megumi from chapter 9. Why Tsumiki whom we knew nothing of back in chapter 9?

BUT I was also surprised to find that 津 (tsu) is also used in words like 天津御祖 (amatsumioya) imperial ancestor and 天津乙女 (amatsuotome) celestial maiden, just to name a few.

I feel like this is a bit of a stretch but the whole idea behind 天津 (amatsu) is that it means imperial and heavenly and uses the kanji for heaven and harbor/port/haven.

As for the kanji for 紀 (ki), it is a character used to define a specific period of time in history.

You can confirm all of this using online kanji dictionaries.

Am I doing mental gymnastics to come up with these crazy ideas? Yeah maybe 😂. I’m pretty flexible because I’ve been doing yoga for years.

Is Angel actually Tsumiki?

Uh. 

I don’t know?

I don’t think anybody can know with 100% certainty until Gege confirms it. 

For all we know Tsumiki’s cameo is a red herring and Gege is just laughing at us. If I was him, as the author of a manga read by millions of people world-wide, I’d be doing my best to troll the fandom by giving them what they did not know they needed.

Sorry, I’m all over the place today.

Back to chapter 173.

What we know is that the sequence in question starts with Remi running from Kon who is slobbering after her.

There is one of two things happening here: Either Megumi was making sure she’s ok, or Megumi was trying to kill her.

I thought I was on team “Megumi was trying to kill her,” but after much deliberation, I decided I’m on team “Megumi was making sure she’s ok”. 

Megumi had been protecting Remi and worried about her all along, so the idea that he was trying to make sure she’s ok is consistent with past behavior. 

The only way it makes sense in my head for Megumi to try to kill her is if he’s lost conscious control of his shadow--quite literally and figuratively and psychologically.

This is when, just as whatever is going to happen was going to happen, “Tsumiki” interrupts him.

So wether “Tsumiki” is saying “that’s no good to kill her” or she’s saying “that’s no good to look after her”...

The interesting part is not just the meaning of what she says, but that, as @justafrenchlondoner​ pointed out, Remi hears Tsumiki’s voice.

So if Remi heard the voice, then this isn’t Tsumiki’s voice disguised as Megumi’s moral compass in his imagination, but rather Tsumiki’s actual voice--or at least a female’s voice.

I also cannot get over the word choice.

“だめだよ” (dameda yo = “that’s no good”) is an expression used to communicate how doing something is not nice or not a good idea to do so.

In context, it comes back to whether Megumi was looking to make sure Remi was safe or trying to kill her.

But if that wasn’t mindblowingly insane as it is...

Right after this happens, Megumi collapses and Angel comes down from the sky right above him. 

And Angel comes down in such a way that she looks like your average Judeo-Christian Guardian Angel. This was an image many of us grew up with.

But instead of looking after children, Angel is looking after Megumi.

The fck is happening right now? 

But there’s more...

On top of that, said Guardian Angel in question is wearing a turtle neck (most images of Tsumiki show her wearing a turtleneck top), has a hairstyle that is slightly similar to Tsumiki’s, and is coming into the scene just after Remi heard the voice telling Megumi “it’s no good”.

Either way. I can’t shake off the feeling that despite Gege using the symbolism of a Guardian Angel here, there is something sinister going on.

And yet...this could still be nothing but a red herring! 

Honestly, at this point... who knows?

Gege is unpredictable af and that’s exactly why I love JJK.

I think that for the most part it’s a pretty accepted idea within the fandom that Tsumiki would not approve of Megumi’s actions. i.e. Him killing others for her sake.

But with the way these events unfolded... is this Gege subverting expectations?

Wasn’t Angel supposed to be in Tokyo Colony No. 2 anyways?!

And... did Megumi know this was happening already but said nothing?

The way the panel is presented: “shut up stupid sister” feels like there had been communication going on between them that the audience is not aware of.

And of course... Gege leaves us with a massive cliff hanger as he makes his way to Northern Japan where Yuta is kicking ass and taking names in the Sendai colony.

I swear Yuta is the creepiest character ever in the best possible way. It’s always reassuring to know that he is actually quite the sweetheart no matter how sinister he looks.

OH! Speaking of Yuta, I am sure you’ve already seen but it looks like tickets for the JJK0 movie go out on sale on 2/25 in North America for a premiere of 3/18.

3/18 is also when the new Downton Abbey movie premieres so I guess I’ll be at the movies all day going from “rich Brits bemoaning their luck over tea at their French Riviera vacation home” to “2D characters dropping deep truth bombs like love is the greatest curse of all” in one day. 

Takaba vs. Gojo

Don’t hate me Gojo stans but... in a battle between Takaba vs. Gojo, my money is on Takaba 😂😂😂. Just because Gege is a massive troll.

I would pay money to see Gojo and Takaba go all out in battle with each other. I headcanon it would be the equivalent of the Japanese version of the Looney Tunes being Looney.

Just absolute and unadulterated ridiculousness.

Happy JJK-Sunday y’all!.

Personal

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for joining me this week as always.

You know... I had a very rough week the week prior to this one and when I sat down at the computer to write an essay I just felt so much better. This experience made me realize that writing these essays/nerding out is serious therapy for me.

I have to say I’m super grateful to Jujutsu Kaisen for helping me tap back into what I love.

Also...

This may or may not have been me...

[sketching-shark]

LMK fandom: Oh, what do we do about this guy who has nothing but hurt Xiaotian, tried to replace Sun Wukong and his crew, hurt Tripitaka and ordered servants to cannibalize a monkey? Oh I know! We’ll turn him into our little meow meow~ he’s so innocent and Sun Wukong is obviously the villain!

What doesn’t help is this idea is perpetuated by multiple fan fic writers and artists for some reason. Especially some aus they make that turn SWK into a bastard for the sake of the story rather than considering cultural context and thinking they should be respectful.

And almost everyone lets them get away with it just because the art or fanfic is good and they get so popular that no one can point what is actually wrong without feeling like they’re going to get attacked.

I'm starting to feel like my blog is the one anons go to specifically to vent their frustrations about the Six Eared Macaque in his lego monkey show form & the associated fandom lmao. But I guess this makes sense, as I’ve had fun quasi-dragging him before & will in fact use this anon submission as an opportunity to have my own, to put it academically, bitch fest about not just this fandom's favorite protagonist-traumatizing meow meow, but about the way villains are often treated in not just fanon, but increasingly in canon works as well. But same policy as with the last anon; I'll post my opinions below the cut, and as fandoms love to say, don’t like don't read if you don't want to see me dunking on the six eared simian & common fandom tendencies towards villains.

Oh man I would say where would you even begin with this but anon you’ve pretty much started yourself with my main gripe with a lot of ways that the Six-Eared Macaque is portrayed in fandom; there seems to be this unspoken agreement that his acts of violence towards Sun Wukong, Qi Xioatian, and Qi Xioatian’s loved ones are either to be framed as somewhat or totally justified, to be immediately forgiven/excused, or to simply & completely be ignored. Like friends maybe this is just me not seeing the proper posts but while the fandom is inundated with art and fanfics of Macaque as a generally decent individual & a true member of team good guy, I have yet to see one person address the fact that this monkey literally kidnapped & mind-controlled Xiaotian’s best friend and father figures & forced them to brutalize Xiaotian while ol’ Six Ear looked on and laughed (X_X). Like this kind of fandom villain treatment is definitely not something that’s solely at work for Monkie Kid, but it is kind of nutty how fandoms will swing between yelling that people should be allowed to like villains without even mild critique, and then will just flat-out not address the villainous behavior, and will even bend over backwards to frame even characters who committed genocide as just poor innocent widdle victims who need a hug. At its worst, I’ve even seen tons of people in a fandom get really angry at other people who don’t like a villain, and will even start accusing those people of hating real-life mentally disabled or abused individuals all because they don’t like the fandom’s favorite literal war criminal. The Monkie Kid fandom is FAR more chill & better than a lot of other fandoms I’ve come across in that regard, but that is an exceedingly low bar, & the tendency to woobify certain kinds of villains-- as with Macaque and the extreme emphasis on his bad boy/sad boy thing--is very much at work.  

 I’ve also talked before about a kind of monoculturalization of certain character interpretations and story beats in fandoms, and one of the more popular ones that seems to be applied to Macaque a lot is the “hero actually bad, villain actually good” cliche, as observable from the general fandom assumption that Mr. Six-Ears he wasn’t even slightly lying or remembering things through a rose-tinted or skewed lens when he gave his version of his and Sun Wukong’s past. Like at this point it seems the possibility that people WILL NOT even consider is that Sun Wukong never did & still doesn't care that much about the Six Eared Macaque (in JTTW they weren’t sworn brothers & in Monkie Kid the only thing the monkey king really said to Macaque before attacking him was a pretty contemptuous "Aren't you ever going to get sick of living under my shadow?," & responds to his "beloved friend" getting blown up with "You did good, bud" to Qi Xiaotian, who did the exploding), or that their original fight may in fact have mostly been instigated by Macaque. After all, to repeat what this anon summarized & what I've said before about their original JTTW context (& in an example of the things that do feel like it's often lost in translation) is that the Six Ear Macaque was a villain not just because he beat up the Tang Monk, but because he wanted to take over Sun Wukong's entire life and identity so he could have all that glory, prestige, and power for himself. To quote the macaque himself from the Anthony C. Yu translation, "I struck the T'ang monk and I took the luggage...precisely because I want to go to the West all by myself to ask Buddha for the scriptures. When I deliver them to the Land of the East, it will be my success and no one else's. Those people of the South Jambudvipa Continent will honor me then as their patriarch and my fame will last for all posterity." And in order to do this, the Six Eared Macaque had apparently made Sun Wukong's "little ones," his monkey family, his captives through either trickery or force, and gotten a number of them to take on the appearance of Tang Sanzang and the other pilgrims. It's also made clear that in very direct contrast to Sun Wukong, he doesn't care about these monkeys beyond how they might serve him. In fact, after Sha Wujing kills the monkey posing as him the Six Eared Macaque not only all but immediately replaces him with another, but also "told his little ones to have the dead monkey skinned. Then his meat was taken to be fried and served as food along with coconut and grape wines." So this monkey is not only willing to risk the lives of a lot of other monkeys for his own personal benefit, but is also a literal cannibal. And yes yes, I know a lot of people have argued that Monkie Kid shouldn't be considered a direct sequel to JTTW & that's fair enough (for example, Sun Wukong probably shouldn't be smashing anyone into a meat patty in a children's cartoon lol). And of course, it needs to be noted that there are a buttload of really out there & really cursed pieces of media based on JTTW & that were created in China. Yet the above description is the oft-ignored in the west original facet of the Six Eared Macaque's character. And it is this selfishness, entitlement, and treatment of other individuals as tools for his own self-serving ends  that is, from where I’m standing, still very much present in Monkie Kid. Like besides repeatedly going out of his way to physically and psychologically traumatize Xioatian, with the last episode Macaque seemed to be going right back to his manipulative ways. I’ve seen people frame their last conversation as Macaque softening to Xioatian a little bit, but personally that read a lot more like that common tactic among abusers where even after they’ve hurt you they’ll dangle something you want or need over your head (in Macaque’s case, the promise of desperately needed training and information about a serious looming threat), with the implication that you’ll only get it if you do what they want you to, such as, in this case, Xioatian going back to Macaque as his student even after having been so terribly hurt by this monkey, which would give Macaque power over Xiaotian and probably Sun Wukong as a result. And it is this violence and manipulation that it seems the fandom at large has tacitly decided shouldn’t even be addressed, instead leaning more towards a (and this is an exaggeration) “Six-Eared Macaque my poor meow meow Sun Wukong has always been bad & has always been wrong about literally everything” reading. 

And while it is the case that I am not Chinese and feel that as such it would be best left to someone who actually comes from that background to provide more context into how common interpretations of the Six Eared Macaque from China may clash really badly with the stuff the western fandom creates, it also must be noted that, as much as we all want to have fun in fandom & in spite of all the out-there versions of JTTW from China, we westerners should recognize that there is a very long and very ugly history of western countries stripping other cultures’ important religious and literary works for parts & mashing them into their own thing while implying or even insisting that what they present provides a true understanding of the original piece. And while I trust most individuals in regards to Monkie Kid are able to step back and think “this is a lego cartoon and not a set guide for how I should understand JTTW” (especially given the insistence that JTTW and Monkie Kid should be considered there own separate works) there does nevertheless seem to be something of a tendency to take the conclusions people come to, for example, about Sun Wukong’s characteristic in his lego form & then assume that’s just reflective to Sun Wukong as a totality. I imagine a good portion of this is due to people not reading JTTW & especially to not having easy access to solid information or answers about JTTW’s many different facets (like geez awhile ago I was trying to get a clear answer on what is considered the most accurate translation of the names of Sun Wukong’s six sworn brothers & got like 5 different responses lmao), but that tendency to take a western fandom interpretation & run with it instead of doing any background research or questioning said interpretation is still very much at play. As such, & as made prominent in the way people have been interpreting the dynamic between Sun Wukong and the Six Eared Macaque in the lego monkey show, tbh it does seem kind of shitty for western creators & audience to sometimes go really out of their way to ignore all of this original cultural & narrative context for the sake of Angst (TM) in Macaque's favor, demonizing Sun Wukong, and shipping the monkey king with his evil twin (X_X).

And speaking of which, even beyond the potential inherent creepiness & revulsion that can be inspired by this specific ship given common interpretations of the og classic's original meaning (again, it's my understanding, given both summaries of translated Chinese academic texts I've been kindly provided with, my own reading of the Anthony C. Yu translation of JTTW, & vents from a number of Chinese people I've seen on this site, that the Six-Eared Macaque is commonly interpreted in China as having originated from Sun Wukong himself as a living embodiment of his worst traits, hence why only Buddha can tell the difference between them & why the monkey king is much more slow to violence after he kills the macaque), I'd argue that in the face of all the uwu poor widdle meow meow portrayals lego show Macaque is, especially if you include JTTW's events, still in the role of “Sun Wukong but worse” as he is very much a violent & selfish creep. Like he was basically running around in JTTW wearing a Sun Wukong fursuit, but there he had the sole reason of wanting to replace Sun Wukong wholesale so he could have all the good things in the monkey king's life without actually having to work as hard for them. But if you combine that with Macaque now claiming that he used to be best friend with Sun Wukong in his pre-journey days (something that's made funny from a JTTW context given that that status actually belongs to the Demon Bull King lol), his original violence has now blown into this centuries long and really unhealthy obsession with the monkey king. Like he's apparently gone from wanting to literally be Sun Wukong to being so obsessed with getting revenge on Sun Wukong that he's got basically nothing else going on in his life. Like he's only appeared in two episodes but...does he have any friends? Any family? A career or even a hobby that DOESN'T center the monkey king? Anything at all outside of his "get revenge on and/or kill Sun Wukong/use his successor as my personal punching bag” thing? Like dude! That is extremely creepy and extremely bad for everyone all around! As I’ve said before, this seeming refusal to see beyond the past or to do something that doesn’t involve Sun Wukong in some capacity is a trait that makes Macaque an interesting and somewhat tragic villain--he even seems to be working as Sun Wukong’s reflection in a mirror darkly, with lego show Sun Wukong pretty clearly not being able to heal from his own past which is hinted to be defined by one loss after another, and with Monkie Kid even kind of having these two characters somewhat follow their JTTW characterizations in that in the latter half of the journey Sun Wukong often gets sad & starts crying in the face of what seems insurmountable odds (& Monkie Kid Sun Wukong does seem to be hiding some serious depression behind a cheerful facade), whereas the Six-Eared Macaque retains a worse version of Sun Wukong’s pre-journey characteristic of getting pissed and lashing out if things don’t go his way--but it’s also what would make any current friendship or romantic relationship between these monkeys horrific. Although to be fair even the fandom seems to recognize this in an unconscious way, in that a lot of the art & fanfic seems to swing erratically between them kissing & screaming at each other in yet another example of bog-standard fandom adulation of romanticized toxic relationships lol.  

At the end of the day, of course, this is nothing new. You'll find versions of this dynamic across a ton of fandoms and now even canonical work. And as such, I can only look at this kind of popularized relationship dynamic with a kind of resigned weariness whenever it pops up, & my frustrated question with the popularity of this kind of pairing is the exact same one that I have for a multitude of blatantly toxic villain/hero ships, given common fandom discourse & the tendency to either ignore or justify the villain's actions & demonize the hero: if you're THAT convinced that everything is the hero's fault, if you believe THAT much that the hero is the one in the wrong for the villain's pain and their subsequent actions, then why are you so set on them not only becoming a romantic pair, but framing this get-together as a good thing? Like I know we contain multitudes but that's waaay too many contradictions for me to wrap my head around. And it definitely doesn’t help that one branch of underlying reasoning behind this kind of pairing seems to be the ever-present “you break it, you fix it” mentality, where the assumption is that if you’re in a failing, abusive, and/or generally toxic relationship (platonically or romantically), if you put in enough time and effort & attempts to compromise, you’ll be able to restore/have the relationship you dreamed of, even with someone who hurt you really badly. And this assumption isn’t limited to fandom: I’d even argue that it’s everywhere in the culture, hence why a lot of people feel like they “failed” if they have to get a divorce or make the choice to leave an unhealthy friendship. Personally, I feel like people could really benefit from more stories about how it is not only the case that the people you hurt don’t owe you their forgiveness & you can still become a better and happier person without the one you hurt in your life, & that while it can be really hard it can also be a good thing to leave a relationship, even if it’s one that once meant a lot to you. 

  But in all honestly, from my own perspective this kind of pairing is starting to read far less like enemies to lovers and far more like a horrible fantasy where you can pull whatever shit you want, even on the people you "love," & never be held accountable for your terrible behavior or even have to consider that maybe you were in the wrong. It's another facet that makes me larf every time I see people insist that fandom is an inherently "transformative" or "progressive" form of storytelling like friends you are literally just taking status quo toxic monogamy & rebranding it as somehow beneficial & romantic (X_X).

But as to anon’s last frustration, it is hard to know what is the appropriate response with this kind of thing...like for my own part I’m keeping my frustrations to my blog & now increasingly to posts that you would have to click on the “read more” button to see what I have to say, but I totally get the hesitation to give even a mild critique to big names in a fandom. Like I've now seen it happen repeatedly where someone who has a big name in a fandom will make something that's kind of shitty for one reason or another, someone will message them with some version of "hey, that's kind of shitty, you shouldn't do that," and the typical response is either to blatantly ignore the issue completely, or more popularly to make a giant crying circus that seems deliberately geared towards stoking emotions on both sides of the, for example, fiction does/doesn't affect reality issue so that something that didn't even have to be that big a deal gets blown out of all proportion, with the big name often framing what often started out as a very mild critique into a long crying jag about how the initial response to their kind of shitty thing was so mean/cruel and they're just a poor innocent & that YOU'RE the true racist/sexist/bigot etc. if you don't agree with their opinion. It must of course be noted that there have also been numerous instances of people taking it too far the other way & sending not just big names but smaller creators literal deaths threats over stuff like innocuous ships which like holy hell bells people that’s a horrible thing to do. But for the big names at least, the end result of all this fighting is usually that once the dust has settled they have more attention/fame/money/power in the fandom than before, and with anyone who might have a problem with their stuff feeling afraid to voice their opinion lest they be swarmed by that person's fans. In that way fandom does often seem to increasingly be geared towards presenting an “official” fandom perspective about various facets of a piece of media instead of allowing for a multitude of interpretations, and with criticism, no matter its shape or form or how genuinely warranted it may be, being hounded out of existence. I feel like a lot of this could be made less bad if there wasn’t this constant assumption & even drive to think that a different interpretation of or criticism of your favorite work of fiction or your fanwork isn’t a direct claim that you are a thoroughly loathsome individual (& maybe also if people cultivated an enjoyment of learning things about important works from a culture outside their own, even if what you learn clashes with your own initial understandings), but I guess we’ll see if that ever happens. 

So these are my general thinks about the Six Eared Macaque’s current fandom meow meow status & some of my bigger gripes with fandom tendencies as a whole. I stand by my idea that the most interesting & beneficial route for Macaque moving forward would be a kind of “redemption without forgiveness from the ones you hurt” arc--as I think was done pretty excellently with the character Grace in Infinity Train--and if for no other reason than gosh dern this monkey really needs to cultivate some sort of identity beyond his “Sun Wukong but worse” persona. 

[cleromancy]

i ran out of steam earlier but i do think the "why *now*" question is really significant. and part of the answer to that question has to be "because it was the last issue of red robin before the fjucking reboot" (and tim is unfortunately one of those characters that had been on an interesting trajectory that he will probably never get back on; without the conditions that lead him to that place over 7 irl years hes not gonna be the same guy), but i also think that tim deciding to kill a man under these circumstances (essentially, because he wanted to, because he thought he could stomach it, and because the timing was convenient), is different than if tim really thought it needed to be done, or if there is ever any element of urgency or something tim thinks this will prevent. those conditions were specifically explicitly not met.

i said in my original post that i think the endgame of the attempted murder was the confrontation with bruce, but it also ends with some somewhat incoherent narration from tim which. i mean, whether you want to interpret it as "fabnic is not really so good at the part of writing that involves stringing words together in order" or tims continuingly disorganized speech and thought patterns (<- which is also backed up by his occasional forays into grandeur, and he has one on this page, a baffling assertion that gotham is his city. Timothy where is tjis coming from).... where was i going with this.

tim: [almost murders a guy]

tim: [lies to his favorite person in the world about it]

tim: [gets yelled at by his mentor]

tim: i am doing so great the future is looking so great the city belongs to me maybe if i want the world is my oyster actually i can do anything everything's coming up red robin

like .... yeah baby. sure, okay.

what i was getting at here is that i do think in tims garbled half formed intentions lurking underneath his meticulously plotted *murder scheme* tim was thinking his endgame--which, again, he knew dick and bruce would find out about and he only ever intended to have enough plausible deniability to *justify*--he was probably trying to leave gotham, or rather get kicked out. what he lands at instead is this:

which is when bruce essentially gives tim the warning that hes on thin fucking ice and--to my reading--any casualties that *bruce* thinks he should have been able to prevent that he fails to prevent, bruce will hold him as personally responsible for as he would for *premeditated first degree murder* (or, at the very least, i believe thats what tim hears bruce saying). and then bruce leaves tim alone on that rooftop.

and i am 100% one of those people that believes there were casualties in his little exploding the league bases thing, or at least it was too strong of a possibility to completely discount. no matter how he tried to clear them out beforehand, there was no way to account for all the variables, which tim would know. in fact he knows it firsthand bc towards the end of robin theres an explosion tim couldve prevented but doesnt, that kills 2 children that were only there in the first place bc of tim. anyway this is conjecture more than analysis here, but i do think hes aware the casualties of the league scheme were a possibility, but isnt willing to look into it any deeper. plausible fucking deniability!

but he does know Bruce wouldn't accept "this was the only way out i could see except dying" as an excuse for potential casualties and most likely bruce is going to eventually find out. he is pretty much on borrowed time already, so why not just... like... stop waiting? and at least kill somebody on purpose this time that he at least also kind of wants to kill? force that confrontation now, burn that bridge now, and maybe at least get a consolation prize (murder) out of it? do it on his own terms? control it?

except he couldn't do it.

anyway im just going to drop this panel from robin 178, for no reason in particular

he is just doing. so great. hes doing so great

an underexplored aspect of red robin 26 (the one where he sets up a weeks-long rubes goldberg scheme to kill captain boomerang only to choke at the last minute) to me is the impact tim thought this would have on his place among the bats. like what he thought would happen *next.* because he absolutely did consider it and wasn't at all surprised by dick and bruce showing up afterwards to talk to him about the choices he made that day.

to start with. why now? there was no particular event that made him decide to do it. tim does say he heard harkness was trying to regain lost power, but in context its not reasoning behind his decision, it was an opportunity to kick his plan off.

and i think its fair to say tim was never gonna be able to go through with it. that was never gonna happen. but he *thought* he could, and he decided he was going to, despite repeatedly questioning what the hell he was doing. he explicitly makes the points that he thinks its wrong, he knows his dad wouldn't want him to, and he doesn't believe itll even be more emotionally satisfying than bringing harkness to justice. and yet thats still the plan! for weeks!

and he does set up an emotional failsafe for himself which he calls plausible deniability, where all he did was manipulate events so that he expects harkness to be killed by victor fries by the end of it.

except ofc when it comes down to it tim cant let fries kill a guy, which he takes to mean he wants to do it himself. any interesting moral questions here about who would potentially be at fault are very tidily sidestepped as irrelevant. bc i mean to tim they kind of are. his veneer of plausible deniability was always an excuse. the interesting thing here for the character is that this means he's willing to do away with that plausible deniability, and intends to follow through regardless. (i went back to delete some images bc i ran out, but he does explicitly say theres a change of plan and he's gonna kill harkness himself.)

this is the point he dispatches dr fries, which he calls in to 911, and follows harkness. bla bla confrontation bla, and harkness fuckin trips off the edge of the roof.

the implication here to me, with the way tims flashback is framed as an interruption and the way harkness goes from saying he has no idea who the hell tim is to saying tim doesn't have the stones, is that harkness was babbling this whole time, and that's just what actually makes it through to tims ears. and i also think the implication here is tim being like ".......heartbreaking: the worst person you know just made a great point." hes like shit! hes fucking right! i *dont* have the stones to do this!

anyway. the next page we have dickie and damian show up. hi boys!!

so to recap. tim decided he was going to murder harkness himself rather than using a proxy, *called 911 knowing the other bats would hear it,* and went off to do the deed.

i have a lot of thoughts about whats going through dicks and tims heads here lol. but i want to get back to the point. this is the segue into the reveal that bruce was also there the whole time, he knows what tim had been planning to do, and now hes yelling at him for thinking about killing harkness at all.

(side note its always dickie loving hours in this house and. you just know dicks thinking of blockbuster here. oughe.) .....i also get the impression that dicks "timmy down the questionable-choices-well" senses were tingling somehow from the 911 call (which, i cannot stress this enough, only even mentioned fries), and i think him and damian most likely fucking hauled ass to get there, which is also fun to think about hehe

AND THE COWL COMES OFF WHEEEEEEE :elmofire:

(ok actually i am going to derail here for a minute i gotta spell it out. tim kept it on when he was talking to dick bc he was lying to dick by omission. he wanted dick to think well of him, and he doesn't believe he earned the praise--most likely thinks dick would think less of him if he knew the extent to which tim had planned the whole thing. the end result--not killing harkness--does not, in tims mind, count. what dick was saying was "I understand how hard it was to not let him die, and i love you," and what tim heard was "i know you were always going to make the right choice, because you care about doing the right thing." and when you interpret it the way i do--that the deciding factor for tim was actually that he *couldn't* do it, not because he changed his mind? yeah, tims not gonna be looking dick in the eye anytime soon.)

but anyway. buce:

and the thing is that if you don't look at it from the *batshit* bruce-and-tim-mutual-god-complex perspective... tims actual non-thoughtcrime actions began and ended with a series of misdemeanors, no matter how successfully he arbitrated the end results. again any actual moral questions around hand crafting a bespoke scenario tailored to end in a mans murder by inciting another to kill him are completely sidestepped, bc to both tim and bruce its cut and dry; its just murder using another person as the weapon. tim never once actually believed the plausible deniability thing and there was no tangible difference to him btwn manipulating an intermediary, doing it himself, or even *just letting harkness go splat.* it was all fucking talking points for the sake of argument, he was preparing to play devils advocate against bruce to defend his own choice bc. this was always the endgame.

and

which like. i cant help but think of batman 424 bc, well, im the jason todd think-abouter:

and im officially out of images for this post but what happens next for tim is bruce flying away vs in jasons he tells bruce "i guess i spooked him. he slipped." and flies off in the back of a big silent panel of Angst Buce. i love how completely fucking opposite these scenarios were for the both of them but ykw actually thats its own fucking post.

all this just to say tim planned to murder a man in cold blood *fully knowing* dick and bruce would find out. tim can't even face dick when dick tells him he did good, and the confrontation with bruce feels almost like tim did the whole damn thing just to prove a point to bruce which is. hilarious bc it WORKED to that end even though tim did not actually kill anybody at all. like that was a pretty significant thing that happened. tim very much did not kill digger harkness.

(i also think its significant that this issue is like immediately after tim tries to give cass her batgirl outfit back and shes like "...No." and hes like "please i miss you so much 😭 just come back to gothammmm i dont care what name you go by you could even be black robin if you want that would be fun right cass we could be red robin and black robin together? no? what if we put your name first? ....no? .....okay just promise youll think about it... bye............" [paraphrased])

anyway. *holds tim drake up under the arms like simba* Perceive him

[six-of-ravens]

also not to rant all day but I saw a post earlier tangentially related and it made me realize why I have such a problem with a lot of recent YA (and was part of the reason why I got annoyed with Seasonal Fears, which I'll use as an example bc it's freshest in my memory):

I feel like you can hear all the fucking Twitter arguments the author has had on-page. Like, I feel like some authors spend more time trying to convey THEMSELVES and THEIR OPINIONS on socio-political issues, or (in SF's case) waste a ton of words trying to explain why a thing the internet has decided is Bad, Actually (ie. beefy jock boyfriends with fragile chronically ill girlfriends) is Fine in this scenario, because undoubtedly a bunch of randos on twitter took them to task for it, and instead of saying "yeah, I'm writing this, you need to stop making assumptions in bad faith" they went "oh shit everyone who reads this book needs to know exactly where I stand and that I would never write a Bad character so they don't use the most bad faith interpretation to come for me!!!"

Like I didn't need a ramble every other paragraph about how Harry from SF is good and kind and supportive and not abusive or an asshole, and oh gawd if he has a steamy thought about Mel it's all over! like, author. you told us they've been dating for like 4 years at this point, I don't need a disclaimer that he's Not a Rapist every time he thinks about her. He doesn't even do anything terribly questionable on-screen except some mildly poor driving due to exhaustion and distraction by magical shit, and yet every action comes with a (*not a bad guy here's a paragraph about it)

Also I feel like this is contributing to the idea that every book an author writes has to be a direct reflection of themselves and their thoughts and feelings on certain issues, and every book needs to be treated as a manifesto of their current beliefs, and I hate that. The more you give into the idea that you need to justify and bargain and plead with your readers to think of you as a normal human and not a monster, via a FICTIONAL STORY THAT YOU SHOULDN'T EVEN BE A PART OF, UNLESS YOU'RE MAKING SOME AUTHOR SURROGATE LIKE LEMONY SNICKET, the more you contribute to people not being able to write books with grey morality or villain protagonists or thought exercises instead of clear black-and-white morals without getting hunted for sport.

And like, I get the idea. but THE STORY DOESN'T NEED AN (A/N LISTEN I KNOW I WROTE A BEEFY STRAIGHT RICH FOOTBALL PLAYER BUT HERE'S ME PRETENDING TO BE HIS INNER MONOLOGUE JUSTIFYING WHY HE'S A GOOD GUY AND WOULD NEVER HARM HIS GF, A NORMAL THOUGHT PROCESS EVERYONE HAS ALL THE TIME NOT REFLECTIVE OF MEAN THINGS PEOPLE SAID/MIGHT SAY ABOUT ME ONLINE) EVERY CHAPTER. If it relates to the story or is natural for your characters to say or think, cool, but I don't need your poorly-disguised flustered rants practically titled Twitter Might Cancel Me For This So I'm Trying Harder To Explain Myself. It's HELLA boring.

[sarahjtv]

BNHA Chapter 319 Spoiler Analysis: Found Family

Holy crap what a phenomenal chapter!  This arc in general has been great, but this chapter might be one of my favorites of the arc.  Not just because it focuses on Class 1-A (I’m so glad to see the kids again), but because of the growth we see in these kids in general especially Bakugo and Shoto IMO.  Like, holy shit ESPECIALLY BAKUGO!  I stand by my opinion that Bakugo is one of the best developed characters in the series.  There’s so much I want to say about this chapter and I’ll try my best to do so if my poor injured left hand will let me 😭:

The chapter starts off with the first of 3 colored pages we’re going to get over the next few weeks to celebrate 7 YEARS OF MY HERO ACADEMIA!!!  CONGRATS, HORIKOSHI-SENSEI!!!  This series revived my love of anime/manga and really helped me in some really rough spots in my life.  I will forever be grateful towards Horikoshi for bringing this series to life and blessing us with such an incredible story full of beautiful characters.  MHA may be a little overrated, but I still think it deserves all the love it can get.  

Anyway, the color page.  It shows Uraraka, Iida (who has red eyes here, so IDK why the anime gives him blue eyes though I do think they work better for him personally *shrugs*), Shoto, Tokoyami, and Bakugo after basically figuring out where Deku went.  Bakugo is shown tearing up his letter (which says something like “Thank you for being there, Kacchan”; there’s more but I can’t translate it 😭) and you can kinda see some bandage wrap around his arm where he was stabbed.  Also, both Bakugo and Shoto still have some visible injuries on their faces and Bakugo’s hands, so they’re still recovering from the War.  It’s a really pretty page in general and I can’t wait to see what the next 2 color pages are going to look like.  I also kinda want Horikoshi to take a break after this too again so he doesn’t overwork himself.  Maybe he’ll treat himself to the MHA: World Heroes Mission movie 🍿.  

So, Shoto and Bakugo have figured out that Deku is most likely with Endeavor, Hawks, and Best Jeanist.  Problem is that none of them are answering their phones.  I like that Bakugo calls Best Jeanist “Pair of Denim Pants” 😂 and Shoto’s image of Endeavor is still a very angry version of his old man.  Shoto’s still making amends with his father, but he’s still not THERE yet.  Regardless, these kids are smart enough to know that something’s up.  Especially since All Might hasn’t returned to UA either.

It’s basically confirmed by Ojiro that because classes have been suspended, our Class 1-A kids are still 1-A; they haven’t moved into their second year yet.  That clears up the confusion on whether we should still refer these group of kids as 1-A still or not.  

Now Bakugo’s showing how much of a genius he really is despite his personality.  Bakugo figures out that the Top 3 and All Might are working together as a group based on how they all connected with each other back at Central Hospital.  Also, Bakugo concludes that All Might snuck Deku’s letters under their doors while Deku started running.  Ultimately, Bakugo does know more about Deku and All Might more than anyone else does.  He’s been around his childhood friend and he’s admired his idol longer than most people have.  Bakugo understands how bad the situation is and he’s ready to take action.  

As are the other kids.  You can see how determined they are and you can see Kirishima’s black roots coming in 🥺!  Even Uraraka gets some shine here by bringing up the idea to trick Endeavor to come via getting help from Principle Nezu as Endeavor was a UA student.  It’s really interesting to see Ochako in a more serious roll than usual, but I actually like it.  I hope she’s still as bubbly as she always was at the end of the day, but she’s definitely matured and grown a lot over the corse of the series.  Even the simple things like her hair show it as it’s not as floaty as it was before.  I love it when Horikoshi shows small details like this.  It adds to the characters and stories a lot.  Also, the art in this chapter is amazing.

And now it’s Endeavor vs. Class 1-A in a much needed conversation.  All the kids are wearing their school uniforms to make this as formal and serious as they can.  EVEN BAKUGO IS PROPERLY WEARING HIS TIE YOU KNOW SHIT’S ABOUT TO GO DOWN!!!  And, I must say, Bakugo looks damn good with a tie 😳.  You can also get a decent height measurement on the kids here if you want.  Ngl, sometimes I forget that Shoto’s about 2 inches taller than Bakugo.  It’s definitely the hair.  

Shoto’s the first to step up and he scolds the hell out of his old man.  Rightfully so tbh.  Endeavor shouldn’t have ignored Shoto’s calls even though I kind of understood why.  Shoto reminds Endeavor of their plan to stop Dabi though thankfully that’s what’s pushing Endeavor forward so he hasn’t forgotten.  Shoto calls his father “Endeavor” and gets mad at him fro leaving Deku and All Might alone.  The rough translations say he called Izuku “Deku” here too btw.  Endeavor has no response.  I think this anger Shoto’s unleashing is very justified and has been burning inside him since Deku left UA.  His best friend just up and left him and his friends with nothing but a letter to kinda explain things.  Also, Shoto and the rest of 1-A (minus Bakugo) have basically been lied to for about a year.  I’d want answers too if someone did that to me.  

Bakugo steps in by putting a hand on Shoto’s shoulder (🥺) to calm him down a bit and to say his piece.  Ultimately, he thinks what Deku is doing is right, but that the way they’re all doing it is wrong.  I love Deku and All Might, but they’re sacrificial idiots.  They care more about others than they probably ever will themselves.  That’s how All Might lost his OFA in the first place.  It’s because of that that All Might doesn’t have it in him to stop Deku from going down this path.  They shouldn’t have been left alone.  Someone should’ve kept a closer eye on them.  I know the Top 3 were all worried about getting too close to Deku before, but really, someone should’ve been watching them closer on the sidelines.

The next page is a really cool drawing of Endeavor flinging his phone to the kids to catch.  The previous panels showed Endeavor with this face that’s regretful and I think he realized something: That Bakugo is right and that the kids might be better off finding Deku than he is.  So he basically gives the kids his GPS on his phone.  Those are just my thoughts, but it does look like that.  I don't think Endeavor’s just going to up and give up though.  He’s probably going to start rethinking things though.

As Sero manages to catch Endeavor’s phone, he and the rest of the kids think about how even though they’ve only known Deku for a year, they still think of him as family and cannot let him go down this thorny path alone.  They’ll carry the OFA burden with him if they have to.  They can’t smile without Deku around.  These kids truly have become a family over the year.  It’s amazing to see.  Everyone’s like a brother and sister and it’s really nice to see.  I just love Found Family stories, guys 😭❤️

And really quick, I want to focus on my ❄️🔥 boy, Shoto, really quick.  As he’s thinking about Deku, he mentions how shocked he still is about Deku keeping OFA from them and how Deku thought just a letter would suffice.  He has this sad look on his face like he’s trying to say: “I still can’t believe my best friend hid this from me for so long.  Why?  Did he not trust me?”  That’s just my interpretation.  Still, I can’t imagine how upset Shoto must feel.  I think he still cares a lot about Deku enough to go out and find him, but he’s gotta feel some sort of betrayal.  More so than the other students outside of Bakugo because, again, Deku was essentially Shoto’s best and closest friend 💙😭

Endeavor is rightfully worried about letting the kids out in the state of Japan right now, but now Principle Nezu speaks up and praises the kids on growing up so well.  He’s also took into account Deku's feelings about his mission which is why he agreed to the team up.  Also, Deku’s still welcome back to UA whenever he wants thank god ☺️.  He’s a student who has to be protected.  There’s a cute panel of Uraraka and her mom crying happily after getting her acceptance letter too.  Not 100% why this is shown other than Acceptance Letter part, but it’s cute to see.  Maybe Ochako realizes how much Deku needs to be protected or something.

As for the refugees, Nezu had the security system strengthened in time for the Cultural Festival earlier, but they never used it before.  It’s call The UA Barrier.  God, how strong is this thing?  Is it strong enough to stop Shigaraki who was able to Decay the last barrier?  This seems like something that’ll be used in the final battle TBH.  

So, Nezu trust the 1-A kids to bring Deku back home.  Which is exactly what they plan to do as all 19 of them enter Kamino in a badass full page.  I actually wasn’t sure if all 19 of them were there at first since I couldn’t find Shoto for the life of me, but then my eyes saw the BIG-ASS ICE WALL IN THE BACK AND I THOUGHT “OH THERE HE IS!!!” LOL 😂 

The next panel actually does show Shoto with Momo as they capture the villain from the last chapter.  Momo politely calls Bakugo “Bakugo-san”, but Bakugo demands that he be called his insane hero name: “GREAT EXPLOSION MURDER GOD DYNAMIGHT”!  I CAN’T WITH THIS DUDE SOMETIMES WHY DO I LOVE HIM SO MUCH 💥🧡

Deku sees his friend and wonders why they came.  Ochako answers because that they were worried about him, but Deku tries to convince everyone (including himself) that he’s fine.  He’s obviously not and Bakugo calls TF out on him!  He even drops a good F-bomb for good measure.  Bakugo mocks Deku for trying to act like All Might and asks Deku if he can even smile right now.  I actually really like it that Bakugo’s calling Deku out on his shit.  I think Deku needs some good tough love right now to knock some sense into him.  Who would be better to do that than Katsuki Bakugo himself?

As Deku is trying to convince everyone that’s he’s fine (while still looking like a demon btw), there’s a small focus on Iida.  Actually, a few panels this chapter have focused on Iida.  Maybe he’s remembering the time Deku saved him back when they went up against Stain.  Deku saved him then so it’s now Iida’s turn to save Deku.  Also, Iida hasn’t gotten much focus lately and I really like his character, so I’m glad he’s being brought back to the forefront again.  Also, I like hearing Kaito-san’s voice in general so I’d be happy to hear him again (thanks for that one, Haikyuu).

The final spread shows Deku telling everyone to move away while Bakugo, Iida, and Ochako get ready to stop him.  IT’S DEKU VS. CLASS 1-A!!!  WE’RE ENTERING CIVIL WAR FOLKS!!!  Seriously, though, this is great.  I was thinking that it would be just Bakugo and a few other students finding Deku.  Instead we got the whole class.  And looks like that “helping hand” thing will happen later because we got a battle to fight first.  

Bakugo’s become a damn fine leader and I love to see his growth every freaking time🧡! I like how Iida has his hand on Bakugo’s back to support him btw.  It’s weird that Shoto’s not in this page though.  He’s one of Deku’s best friends, so I would think he would be in this page along with Bakugo and his first 2 friends (Ochako and Iida).  Maybe Horikoshi’s saving Shoto for a more 1-on-1 conversation with Deku.  God, I hope that happens because I think along with Bakugo, Shoto deserves a good talk with Deku the most.  

Honestly, I’m not sure who would win this battle.  I’ve been going through scenarios in my head on who would win, but I can’t come to a solid answer.  Class 1-A has 19 versatile Quirks under their belt and they have more energy than Deku to fight, but Deku still has 6 insanely powerful Quirks that he’s been practicing for a while.  The kids could probably win if they strategize enough and use Deku’s exhaustion against him, but again, Deku has OFA and multiple other Quirks.  If he could beat Lady Nagant, one of the best snipers around, he might be able to beat the 1-A kids.  He could just escape with Smoakscreen, Black Whip, and Float if he wants to really.  That would put 1-A on another wild goose chase.  There’s also Deku’s Danger Sense which will be a pain to deal with.  Also, Deku said that he’s as strong as All Might was in his prime with Fa-Jin and OFA combined.  Only AFO and Shigaraki were strong enough to take on THAT.  Plus, we still don’t know what the 2nd OFA Holder’s Quirk is yet.  Deku might use it in this battle.  God, I have so many theories in my head now.  I think this battle will be awesome, but ultimately, I want Deku to come home 😭💚

Me reading and loving My Hero Academia: 

[out-of-this-dimension]

Hypothetically Rewriting Assault’s Story + Some General Assault Opinions

There’s a game my husband and I like to play when we watch a movie, play a game, or read a book that has a story that we don’t really enjoy or we enjoy certain parts of but not others.  We look at things we’d keep and things we’d change and we build a story from there-- sort of like an AU but we don’t really go into the writing part, we just stick to theorizing and mapping a general story.

I decided to play that game with Star Fox.  Not because I think Star Fox has a bad story but because sometimes I think the stories could have been handled better.  Note: for the rewrite game, I only really look at story, even for video games, I don’t really look at gameplay mechanics, but I do understand those have a lot to do with story potential so I do take it in as a factor... I just don’t bother to “rewrite” the mechanics, if that makes any sense at all.  Some of my list today will include boss encounters but I wouldn’t necessarily say those are mechanic-related... more like “event-related”.

I’ve mused a bit in the past about rewriting Adventures and Command and I do have plans to do a mock up of an Adventures remake eventually.  However, today I was thinking about how I would go about handling an Assault re-write in particular.  Much like Command and Adventures, I don’t have any beef with the core story but I do think there’s a few things that could’ve been better about Assault’s storyline-- like they had good ideas rolling but they didn’t quite refine them.

Under the cut because SUPER long.

My basic feelings on Assault are pretty positive.  I think the game is generally just fun and I like that it feels like the natural progression from SF64.  I liked getting to see planets we haven’t seen since the N64 era in better graphics and I liked seeing Star Wolf return.  I also just thought the aparoids were neat enemies. 

Generally speaking, though, when it comes to Assault, I think it suffers from the thing it tries to push the most-- the story.  I think a lot of people get caught up in thinking the story is better than it is because it’s the first game since SF64 that really follows the same Star Fox vibe without retelling the Lylat Wars.  Don’t get me wrong, the overall plot is great but the execution and pacing are... wonky.  Certain characterizations also take a hit in some regards but no one really talks about that when Command exists. That’s something we’ll talk about later on with this post.

That being said, Assault really does have a lot good going for it.  An absolute banger of a soundtrack, some great dialogue, a neat story synopsis, the introduction of cool characters like Panther and Beltino (who existed but was always off-screen), and just good levels.  

So, here’s what I would add, I suppose, if I were to somehow have the ability to rewrite Assault.  Originally I had this in paragraph form, but I’ve made it into more of a list under topic segments with main points bolded for your viewing pleasure.  Some of these points might be considered nitpicky and while I do understand that yes, this is a game about space animals, I do hold the developers in high enough regard to make a game with a continuity that makes sense.

The Story Changes

- Reduce Pigma’s storyline in Assault.  This is the biggest one for me because a bulk of the plotline feels like a giant chase to just get at Pigma and it feels like it derails from the actual plot with the aparoids.  We only go to Sargasso because of Pigma.  We only go to Fichina and then back to Meteo again, because of Pigma.  That’s 3 levels in a 10 level game devoted to just tracking down Pigma and chasing him.  While it makes the build up to fighting Pigma kind of nice, I personally feel like the plot could be reduced to 2 levels.  If Assault overall was a longer game, I could see them making it 3 levels.  Overall, though, in its current state, I feel like the side plot overstays its welcome and the aparoids promptly get shoved to the side in favor of “Oh no, we gotta get to Pigma!” And I get the main motive here is to show how the aparoids affect people and because of the build up, it does a good job at showing how utterly terrifying the aparoids are.  But it’s still too long given the length of Assault’s story. The only alternative to this is make Assault longer, which... honestly, it should be.  

- Revise the scene with Tricky.  I’m obviously not well-versed in dinosaur biology but I’m pretty sure dinos didn’t grow that fast from what studying I HAVE done.  And why is he suddenly king now?  Did his parents die?  He seems not affected by this at all?  Like it’s a funny scene with him, Fox, and Krystal, but it’s odd if you really look at it.  Give us, as players, more context because I’m still not even sure what happened to make Tricky suddenly the leader and... big.  As a note, you’re gonna hear me gripe a lot about the Sauria level in this post.

- The Star Wolf + Peppy sacrifice is a low effort way to raise tension/stakes and then cop out.  Oldest trick in the book, imo, is to act like you’re going to kill off important characters only for them to be alive miraculously.  And let’s face it, as an audience we all know they aren’t going to kill those characters because it’s Nintendo and those characters are too beloved.  I would’ve forgiven them for only doing this with Peppy or Star Wolf, but when you tack them both together and throw in the fact they make it seem like you’re going to have to kill General Pepper too... yeah, it’s just a bit much of the same trope over and over again.  I wanted to put a note in here about how I’m fine with the Great Fox being “sacrificed” but overall, it needed to return to the series because of it’s icon status, but I think that’s more of a gripe at Command instead of Assault.

- Keep Pigma alive.  This will conflict with a point I have later on about the game consistently having characters cheat death for easy drama points but with Pigma, I would’ve kept him fully alive... but maybe with some physical damage from the aparoids.  I understand he’s semi-alive in Command and tbh I don’t know where I stand on that.  Why keep Pigma alive, you might ask?  I feel like his character has a lot more potential than being “just the greedy guy”.  Like he’s got good potential future villain material for future games and... if I’m honest?  I just don’t see Nintendo wanting to keep Pigma dead so why even bother killing him off?  They couldn’t even commit to him being dead in Command anyways so it seems very moot.

- Bring Bill and Katt back.  Assault is acts a bit like a big reunion of all of our SF64 favorites but our two favorite side characters are suspiciously missing.  Wouldn’t Bill be out on the front lines fighting against Andrew in the beginning?  Or maybe back in Katina?  And wouldn’t Katt inevitably show up in the midst of the invasion, maybe to pointedly check in on Falco?

- Bring Andrew back for the final fight. I think Andrew being defeated early into the game is fine overall but I think bringing him back in for a reunion final fight against the aparoids would serve to really solidify that it’s really everyone vs the invading aparoid force.  It would show that not only is Star Wolf willing to put aside their differences but so is basically everyone in the Lylat System in the name of survival.  Imagine the Venomians and Cornerians working together against an aparoid fleet, giving Star Fox and Star Wolf time to attack the queen?  I just think it’d be neat and it’d open up the potential for some fun banter mid-mission.  I do understand that quite a few people consider Andrew canonically dead after Assault but personally, I feel that his defeat left his fate questionable (I’m a staunch believer that unless there’s a body, they’re probably alive, especially for Nintendo games because, again, they never like to kill people off) so him returning in Command never really bothered me.  

- In general, reconsider some of the character portrayals.  Unfortunately, when a series has a different studio for each game, character portrayals will inevitably have inconsistencies.  While I give Namco a lot of credit for putting in oodles and oodles of detail into the game (particularly the levels), I think they failed in their portrayal of Fox, at the least, and Wolf is a considerable offender as well.  While it’s obvious that Fox in Adventures was effectively modeled off of Sabre even in terms of personality, Rareware was at least able to justify Fox’s newfound jaded attitude with the passing of many years and a distinct lack of steady income, resulting in the team being in disarray.  Assault’s Fox is a stark contrast to his cynical interpretation with seemingly no explanation other than maybe “Oh, I have more money and a gf, maybe I should behave myself”.  As if the sudden change in personality wasn’t random, Fox also just seems very blah, like a blank slate stereotypical shooter game protagonist dude with little to no emotion.  Wolf is less obvious but gets slated into a mentor-like role midway through the game and ends up in a respectful rivalry with Fox... which there’s nothing inherently wrong with that except for it happening abruptly (and, I mean, Peppy is right there).  But I take less issue with this and more of an issue with the fact that there’s an entire level establishing that Wolf now runs a crime den with effectively what seems to be an army and no one bats an eye at this.  He doesn’t even call on them to help with the aparoids.  Did they all die when the aparoids attacked Meteo?  Are they safe somewhere else?  Where do they go?  How was Sargasso able to operate without the CDF being on their doorstep with warrants for arrests?

- Don’t kill all the dinosaurs.  A bit of a dramatic statement but the ending screen that showed all the damage to Sauria really bothered me.  While I understand that the dinosaurs had less of a chance against the aparoids than a more technology-focused society like Corneria, I was a bit disappointed that the decision was made to just state that a lot of tribes had been wiped out.  I know this could easily be retconned in a future game and I feel like it should be.  “But why, Amalia?  Why are you disappointed by that?”  1) It’s a little too grimdark for my tastes.  2) The fact it all happened off-screen felt very hand-wavy.  And 3) It brings into question the entire point of Adventures.  Why did we bother to save this planet if it was going to be reduced to rubble and ash 1 year later?  Where were the Krazoa in all of this?  Why did they not make an appearance at all to try to stop the invasion with their alleged powers?  It just raises too many weird questions and I feel like Namco didn’t think it through too much.  Which I mean, sure.  Family, kiddo game.  I’m not asking for bigbrain plot and lore but I’m squinting at this bit because it does feel very contrary to the lore from the previous game.

- Make the aparoids more relevant.  As nice as it is to have a random bad guy from another galaxy, I feel like there was more that could be done with the aparoids in terms of their origins.  Tiny things, mind you, not huge revelations.  Off the top of my head, they could have been tied into Krystal’s backstory to help alleviate some of the complaints that she was too random to be added to the series’ main cast.  Alternatively, they could have been a product of Andross or even a weapon prototype from Corneria that fled the lab (I actually thought the game was leaning in that direction for a bit then just Nothing Happened).  I get that the vagueness of their origins leaves room for people to speculate and speculation is nice but... when you leave too many things unknown, it starts to feel less like giving fans room to interpret and more like just doing random things for the sake of it.  I think a lore tidbit here or there would work wonders for the aparoids instead of leaving them as just borg/zerg clones.

Level-Based Changes

- Add either Aparoid RedEye or Aparoid General Scales as a boss to Sauria.  Given that this level mysteriously lacks a boss, which is just weird compared to the other levels, I think that they had the opportunity to add something cool to go along with the cinematic feel they were going for with Assault.  Assault’s cutscenes do play in a movie-like fashion and it’s clear they’re trying to make the game as epic as possible.  It’s a shame they had so much fodder for a great boss here but they failed to go through with it.  Alternatively: Add a Krazoa-Aparoid fusion.  Why?  Because Star Fox is about cool epic sci-fi and that would be cool epic sci-fi incarnate.

- Add a boss to the Aparoid Homeworld Level, aka the penultimate level.  Another one I felt was personally weird that there was no “final defense system” to challenge the team.  Would be cool to do an aerial battle over the aparoid planet with some giant flying aparoid.

- Be kinder to Sauria.  The level had some good homages but overall was incredibly small and incredibly short.  It felt like a bone tossed to Adventures fans but was not entirely true to the setting built by Rareware.  I’m... not even sure where the Sauria level is supposed to take place?  I presume it’s Walled City but it doesn’t really have the same color scheme or aesthetic?  Also where is my revised Adventures music?  Why do all the other levels get it but Sauria doesn’t? 

- Put some of those funky items from the multiplayer into the main campaign.  I don’t know why some of these things, items especially, were omitted unless it was purely due to time constraints.  I remember having missile launchers and jetpacks in the multiplayer and was a bit sad that they were not in the main campaign.  Retuning the levels and adding those in would be a nice breath of fresh air for the more tedious on-foot missions.

- More levels.  Self-explanatory.  Still sad we didn’t get the Zoness or Titania levels in the single-player mode.  

I think all of the above changes would improve the game, though I recognize all of this is being said 16 years later after lots of time to contemplate Assault’s weaker points.  I’m not entirely certain how long Star Fox Assault took to develop but given that there’s obviously quite a bit scrapped from the game (an entire arcade mode was scrapped as well), I’m going to assume that the studio felt pressured to shove the game out the door and into the hands of customers.  It’s a shame, really, because I think a little bit longer in the oven would have done a lot of good.  Still, the product we got was good in its own right and a game that many people look back on fondly.  I haven’t gotten to replay it in years but I hope to quite soon.

You might wonder why I bothered typing this all out and I guess my point was this-- Assault was great but it wasn’t perfect, and while a lot of other games fall under a crushing amount of scrutiny, Assault seems to dodge it.  And don’t get me wrong-- I adore Assault.  But given that not many takes exist out there about rewriting it, I decided to give it a shot.  For variety’s sake.  

I do want to a mock up of a revised Assault story, which I think I will get to work on after completing this while all my ideas are still fresh in mind.  So stay tuned for that sometime in the near future.  I will also be doing my Adventures mock up at some point but probably not for a little bit as I do wanna focus some of my free time on actual fic-writing.

Anyways, if you stuck around this long, thank you for reading!  Have any changes you’d like to see to Assault if you could time machine your way back to the early 2000s?  Feel free to post in the comments, I’d love to read your ideas!

[filipinoizukuu]

I saw your post about the FA's translations, and I totally agree. Sometimes, when they do not translate accurately, is to make it sound better or cooler in English, but it just ends up taking away a lot from the context and characters. We know how one of the most affected character interpretations is Katsuki's, a main character, no less. And Izuku and Katsuki's relationship too, which is something super super wrong, considering is deeply intertwined with the main plot of the series, thus if someone misinterpreted their dynamic, this person would miss a bigass chunk of the message the story has.

Here is the panel you mentioned before btw

I remember when I read this, only 10 or 11 chapters into the manga (?), and I was like "...I'm...pretty sure this guy didn't say that" khshsjdhs

OK FIRST OF ALL LMAO HELLO MANG!! THANK YOU SO MUCH AND DW ABOUT IT I TOTALLY GET WHAT YOU MEAN !!

(this is your warning for a long post ahead!)

In any case, I still think you're very correct on this! Not to ramble a bit, but Horikoshi's particular talent in developing the plot of MHA is actually very very brilliant and there are a lot of blink-and-you'll-miss-it details that together, assemble the big picture of what MHA is.

Translations are such an integral part of being able to understand foreign media. MHA or otherwise. The simplest of details say a lot about a character and often times make or break a series because everyone knows that strong character dynamics are what carry even the shittiest of plots.

First and foremost, I want to clarify that because of the nature of fan translations and the fact that most of it is volunteer work/ written out of pure enjoyment of the manga--we shouldn't judge these fan translators too harshly (if at all) for interpreting it the way they want to. FA, as far as I can tell, is a fan-based group that works out of donations.

The first thing I wanna bring up is that when it comes to fandom and its works, there are two types: Curatorial and Transformative. Now, the transformative part is something that must be very familiar to a lot of you. Fanfiction, fanart, and most headcanons fall under Transformative Works (i.e. AO3) because they are all about transforming the canon world to fit each individual's personal preferences. Meta-analysis posts and Character Breakdowns are also classified under this.

Curatorial on the other hand are fandom interactions made with the explicit purpose of being as close to canon material as possible. This is working out the logic of quirks, for example, or memorizing as much canon content about your favorite villain as possible. These are more cold, hard undeniable facts that lend themselves to the DIRECT VISION the creator/author had while making this media. If you were to ask me my opinion on this, this would be the moment where I tell you that the Curatorial side of fandom is where fan translations should (for the most part) fall under.

What people need to know though is that oftentimes, fan translations do not.

Translating isn't and has never been a one-is-to-one process. There are hundreds of thousands of aspects in a language that make it so that it isn't perfectly translatable. Colloquialisms to sayings to dialects, to just plain-out words that don't have a proper English translation to them! Manga is made by and for a Japanese audience, so obviously in a lot of instances, there will be cultural nuances that will not be understood by anyone who hasn't immersed themselves in Japanese culture/language.

So what does this mean then for fan scanlations?

It means that a vast majority of translators teach themselves to only get the essence of the message. They take the dialogue as they understand it and translate it to something of their interpretation. When language and cultural barriers exist, translators do what they can in order to make it understandable to the general populace. This means making their own executive decisions on how they see a character speaking. In example, if they see Todoroki using very direct and impersonal Japanese--one translator might interpret it to mean that Shouto is stiff and overly formal, while another may see it as him being rude and aloof.

The problem is, translators are fans just like us.

Like with the image Mang posted above, the translator based the usage of curse words off of their understanding of Bakugou's character. The lack of foul language in the original Japanese might have made the translator think "Oh. There just aren't enough Japanese cusses for his character." And took that as an initiative to make Bakugou's lines more colorful and violent because this was working off of the image Bakugou had had at this point in canon.

But Codi! You may cry. Wasn't it proven multiple times that Bakugou prefers concise and short lines? They should've known better!

Yes. Maybe they should've known better. But tell me honestly in your first watch-through of MHA, did you perfectly understand Bakugou's character either? Did you catch the whole 'direct and no flowery language' aspect of his language when you first saw Season 2?

Most people don't. I only really understood this fact after I'd read multiple discussions of it and even double-checked the manga myself. These are the kinds of things that only become noticeable with a sharp eye and some time to scrutiny. But the fact of the matter is that when it comes to fan translations, the clout and recognition are always going to go to who can post the quickest.

Am I excusing erroneous translations? A bit, I guess. It's hard for us to go in and expect translators to catch all these errors before release when we ourselves only catch these errors like 4 months in with a hundred times more canon context than these scanlation groups did at the time of its release.

Still, there are plenty of harms that come with faulty translations.

When a translation is more divorced from the original's meaning than usual, it creates a dissonance between what is actually happening versus what the audience sees is happening. This looks like decently-written character arcs being overruled and rejected by most of the readers because of how 'jarring' and 'clumsy' it seems. By the time translators had caught on to the fact that Bakugou was more than just a ticking time bomb, we were already several steps into showing how significantly he cares for Deku.

The characters affected most by these translation errors are often those with the most subtle and well-written character arcs. A single mistake in how the source material is translated can make or break the international reception of a certain character to everyone who isn't invested enough in them to look deeper into the canon source.

It creates hiccups in plots. Things that seem out of character but really aren't. Going back to MHA in specific, the way that inaccurate translations hurt both the 'curatorial' and 'transformative' parts of the fandom is that people have begun to cite them as proof of the main cast's characterization.

Bakugou and Todoroki are undeniably some of the biggest examples of mistranslation injustices.

Katsuki, in a lot of people's minds, has yet to break out of the 'overly-aggressive rival' archetype box that people had been placing him in since Season 1. One of the most amazing aspects and biggest downfalls of Hori's writing was that at first, nearly every character fit into a very neat stereotype for Shonen Animes (Deku being the talking-no-jutsu sunshine MC, Uraraka being the overly bubbly main girl, Todoroki being the aloof and formal rival). He made the audience make assumptions about everyone's characters and then pulled the rug beneath our feet when he revealed deeper sides of them to play around within canon.

What made this part about Horikoshi's set-up so good though were the many clues we were given from the very beginning that these characters were more than what they acted like. Even from the very first chapters, for example, we learn that Katsuki (as much as he acts like a delinquent) dislikes smoking because it could get him in trouble.

That is just a single instance of MHA's use of dialogue to subtly divert our expectations of a character.

Another example is when they replaced 318's dialogue of the Second User saying that Katsuki "completes" Deku with him saying that Katsuki merely "bolsters" him. This presents a different situation, as that line was meant to reinforce the importance of those two's relationship as well as complete the character foils that MHA is partially centered around. By downplaying their developed connection, it becomes harder for the MHA manga scanlations to justify any future significance these two's words have on each other without mottling the pacing of the story.

AKA, it butchers the plot.

With every new volume, there are dozens and dozens more of these hints and bits scattered around! So many cues and subtle foreshadowing at the trajectory of everyone's character arcs--yet mistranslations or inaccurate scans make it so that we don't notice them. This is what I mean when I said that some character arcs are being done great injustices.

Until now, many people can't accept that Katsuki Bakugou cares for anyone other than himself (much less his rival and MC, Izuku Midoriya), nor can they accept that Todoroki would ever willingly work by Endeavor's side. The bottom-line then becomes that because of people missing heavy bits of characterization that become very plot-significant in the future.

When it comes to the point where people can no longer accept or fit their interpretation of the earlier manga events to what is happening in canon, the point of a translation fails completely because it has lead people to follow an entirely different story.

TL;DR - Fan scans are hard. Translating is hard. Don't get too mad at fan translations, but also maybe don't treat them as the catch-all for how characters truly operate. Thanks.

Side note: DO NOT harass FA for any of these things. FA is actually a pretty legit and okay source for scans (they've been operating since like 2014 ffs), but regardless of that they still don't deserve to get flack for their work. You can have any opinion or perspective of canon that you want, I don't care. These are just my two (more like two million tbh) cents on translations. I suggest reading takes from actual Japanese audiences tbh if you wanna know more about the source material of MHA. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[disapoitment]

Am I about to overanalyse another throwaway gag? Absolutely! This time it's from the classic season one episode, Napoleon Brainaparte.

So, towards the very end of this episode, our poor, beloved mice are about to meet their tragic end. They're threateningly informed that an afterlife awaits them, and as they cower in what they believe to be their final moments, the viewers are given a glimpse into their heads...specifically, what they each imagine heaven to be like. This scene surprised me on my first watch, because it was pretty unexpected. And surprisingly...sweet?

Let's start off with Brain's idea of heaven, which is shown first.

Right off the bat we have him surrounded by a chorus of Pinky angels. This is one of the rebuttals I have for people who doubt Brain cares about Pinky...I mean, if I didn't like someone, I definitely wouldn't include them in my idealised afterlife, nevermind multiple versions of them!

Uh, I digress. The thing I actually want to draw attention to here is the fact that Brain actively desires Pinky in his life (or, afterlife, in this case) and can't imagine existing, in any form, without him. We've seen it time and time again, from the episode "Snowball" to that one story from the comics, but this is one of the earliest, most apparent instances of it in the show. This scene alone proves to the audience that Brain isn't using Pinky to reach his goals, but genuinely sees him as a friend and a companion. And maybe there's an unhealthy splash of codependancy in there.

To take this a step further, an afterlife is commonly portrayed as a sort of perfect world; a place of eternal happiness, even. It's safe to assume from this daydream that Brain subconsciously associates Pinky with the same joy and contentment associated with heaven. We can even interpret this scene as Brain viewing Pinky as an angel, which is not only heart-wrenchingly sweet, but makes a fair bit of sense, all things considered.

After all, though Brain himself tends to shy away from explicit displays of emotions and empathy, he's been established to admire these traits in others. In "TV or not TV", he claims to find Princess Diana (who was well-known for her activism) attractive, and he repeatedly praises Pinky's kind nature throughout the series, even when it directly interferes with a plan. He even sabotages his own plots when Pinky objects for moral reasons, eg "Inherit The Wheeze", and then there's the iconic instance of him DESTROYING his own machinery after tearing up over Pinky's Christmas letter. I believe this is why Pinky is an angel in Brain's eyes: he's compassionate, he's pure-hearted, and he's innocent. Well, innocent in the sense of intention, at least. Pinky represents all the things Brain is too afraid to be himself, lest morality get in the way of his goals.

On top of that, Pinky always stays by Brain's side. He's the only person/mouse who has never left him, hurt him, or betrayed him. It's natural that someone so lonely, cynical and self-loathing as Brain would view his polar opposite as a literal angel...or, even more impactfully, a full chorus of them. Of course Brain's idealised heaven has himself as an angel too, but I'd say that's either his ego coming into play (he's both self-hating and conceited) or just to serve as a visual signifier that he's...um, dead. The flock of Pinky angels is what I'm focusing on here, because the sheer amount of them in comparison to Brain highlights them in this miniature megalomaniac's reverie. And also because it's more interesting to take the analysis in this direction! ♡

Honestly, there's not quite as much I can say about this segment of the scene. Brain is on a throne, so presumably he's imagining himself ruling...heaven? Good for you, Brain!

It's very in-character for Brain to put himself as the centrepiece of his ideal afterlife, and as much as I love this little guy, the angel imagery is obviously ironic. Whether intentional or not, this can be connected to his egotism, as well as his belief that everything he does, no matter how severe or morally corrupt, can be justified by the end goal of ruling Earth and making it a better place. I don't believe that Brain genuinely sees himself as an angel when it comes to his purity, but rather that he thinks all his sins can be forgiven if/when he becomes the "benevolent dictator" (his words, not mine) of the planet...or maybe that's just what he tells himself to be able to sleep at night.

He looks noticeably very content and calm as an angel. I would go off on a tangent about how this is a version of Brain who is finally freed from the burden of his never-ending cycle of failure, and that this suggests that he needs to break out of his world domination obsession to ever be truly happy, but...I'll spare you.

Oh, Pinky. Poor, poor Pinky. He's so selfless that it stings :(

It says a painful amount that in his idea of heaven...he's not even in it. I don't think he hates himself, yet he's so good-natured that he ends up neglecting his own desires for the sake of others. In this scene, he has literally forgotten to include himself in his own idealised world. I hate to say this, but this could be a result of his codependent relationship with Brain. He's so focused on Brain's happiness and goals that his life almost revolves around him at this point, and as I mentioned before, they fall apart without eachother. Pinky pours his heart and soul into helping Brain, partly because he genuinely believes Brain will make the world a better place, and partly because he'd do almost anything for Brain's sake. His love for Brain is so strong that he's the focus of Pinky's own paradise.

What I find significant is Brain taking the role of every single angel in the fantasy. He's portrayed as a sweet and wholesome creature wearing a cute smile, a stark contrast to reality. Even just him being an angel in the first place implies that this is how Pinky sees him. A big part of the latter's motivation to help Brain take over the world, though scarcely mentioned in the show itself, is so it can become a happier, nicer place for everyone. As a determined optimist, Pinky shares the desire to improve the Earth, and so views Brain as a sort of hero, someone surely worthy of a halo and wings.

His view of Brain as a good person can be explained further when we consider that he doesn't mind being bopped (and in some interpretations, downright enjoys it), can shrug off any verbal abuse, and clings onto any snippets of warmth he receives from Brain. The things others would raise their eyebrows at are things Pinky ignores or adores. I think it's safe to say that, overall, Pinky is the type to focus on his friend's positive traits and simply ignore most of the negatives, as seen in "Pinky's Plan" when he gives an extremely sugarcoated description of Brain to the world leaders. Because of all this, in Pinky's mind, Brain truly is an angel. It's bittersweet, really.

And here we have it again. Brain on the throne, ruling. This is all Pinky truly wants—for his friend to be happy, fulfilled and at peace, making whatever world he may rule a better place. There's not an awful lot more to say now, since this is just a repeat of the scene from Brain's fantasy, but I think that's the most heartwarming part. These two mice are working towards the exact same goal, and yet their reasons for doing so are quite different: Brain to rule the world, Pinky to make his friend smile. It's almost poetic in its simplistic beauty. The voice actors said it best when they described the show as a "desperate love story", and the little scenes like this only prove that to me.

Welp, that's all I have to say for now! I haven't reached this hard since I tried to get to the chromatica oreos on the top shelf in Tesco. But this was fun, anyway! Thank you ever so much for reading :'D Your patience must be incredible! 💕