#i think its also important to keep in mind that this isnt like the end

[uldahstreetrat]

so, my non spoiler review for dawntrail:

I fucking loved it.

really and truly I think it built upon the exact themes I have loved so much from previous msq in ways that aligned perfectly for some very good symbolism and parallels. even to my own ocs! many new characters to this story reminded me of my own that I have written within this setting and I couldnt be happier about that. <3

[strawberryseeded]

ok took me long enough to notice (+20 yrs) but apparently ppl usually change topics every few minutes while conversing with each other instead of wanting 2 keep going on and on abt an specific topic they care abt for 3hrs straight

[rikusahoge]

"But be safe. No reckless stunts."

On Sora and Riku's respective recklessness as showcased in the series, and what it means for their relationship

Under readmore because i am going to talk a lot

As an aside: Im going to be pulling from the Japanese text, though I am not a native speaker or really any kind of speaker, so take what I say with a decent amount of scrutiny. I'm more than willing to be corrected on these conclusions!

One line that has stood out to me in kingdom hearts is the repetition of "no reckless stunts!" and similar phrases. If you examine the original text, three slightly different words have been used to mean "reckless", which I'll include below (pulled definitions from Jisho, mostly)

無謀 (mubou): reckless, foolhardy, rash, ill-advised, mad (scheme)

無茶 (mucha): reckless, absurd, unreasonable, ridiculous

無理 (muri): impossible, unreasonable, unjustifiable

Importantly for what i want to talk about is how "muri" is used in situations where a character wants to express that something is impossible (think of a character giving up all hope due to an insermountable obstacle in front of them, they may mutter something like "muri da...") keep a pin in this, it will matter toward the end.

Also note that each of these words starts with "無" (mu), which usually means nothingness or absence of something. The definition of this kanji isnt super important, it's more important that its presence ties these three phrases together in a really unique way as i hope to demonstrate.

what i propose is that both Sora and Riku are depicted as reckless characters, albeit in different ways. The established pattern I've noticed is that Sora: "mucha" & Riku: "muri". I will tentatively refer to "mucha" as "rash" and "muri" as "impossible" (despite that it does also mean other things in some cases! bare with me it'll make sense)

Dialing back a bit, we have seen countless moments of Sora acting rashly. It is one of his key character traits and it tends to get him in trouble. He has a big heart, and is quick to anger.

Sora's response to loved ones and helpless innocents that have been put in harm's way is to repetitively bash things with his keyblade (and ask questions later).

It's Sora's rashness that allows Org 13 to use him to complete kingdom hearts. The extreme end of his rashness is showcased when he stabs himself to release Kairi from his heart.

Tldr. I think it's pretty well established and easy to argue that Sora is one to leap before he looks.

Now, Riku might be a little harder to sell as reckless, because of how well he tends to hide it. He carries himself as a role model for Sora, and tries to be the responsible friend. But if we look at his patterns of behavior, despite how he carries himself, he is quite reckless!

Without thinking of the consequences, he rushes the open door when destiny islands falls to darkness, eventually succumbing to it himself. He lashes out several times at Sora, particularly dangerously when he fires off a dark firaga in Hollow Bastion. He closes the door to darkness with Sora without knowing what would happen to him if he was trapped in the realm of darkness. When Sora is asleep, he sacrifices his form to defeat Roxas, without any assurance that he would ever be able to get his old form back.

We see Riku's recklessness too in the fight against Xemnas. He recklessly throws himself in front of Xemnas twice, hurling Sora away from danger and taking a very nasty blow to the hip. I'd count his dive to save Sora in DDD among these, mostly due to his risk taking behavior when it comes to saving Sora. Finally of course we see it in KH3, with his ultimate sacrifice. (but i think importantly, this scene isn't just recklessness, but I'll explain in a bit)

So tldr. Despite Riku's mask of level headedness and resolve, he has been shown over and over to take massive risks without caring for the consequences. Which is pretty reckless, in my opinion!

Sora and Riku's recklessness, mind you, is also called into question by Yen Sid, who tells Riku the reason he kept Aqua's fate a secret was to keep Riku and Sora from staging a "half-baked attempt at rescue"

He says similar in Japanese, but i want to just note the word he uses when he describes the rescue attempt as reckless (highlighted for ur convenience):

(the highlighted word here is "mubou", it will come back later in an Important way, so keep it in mind)

he's *basically* saying that if Riku, or worse, Sora, knew about Aqua, they would have recklessly marched into the realm of darkness to rescue her. Because he knows they are both ... Like that.

I would be remiss to not mention that Sora's impulsivity and recklessness is something Riku admires! After Yen Sid tells riku not to be rash, and Riku excitedly tells Mickey he's ready to help save Aqua, Kairi observes that Riku has changed, and he's more like Sora. Riku asks if that's a compliment, but I think it's clear that he feels it is. He says it's more Fun to just follow his heart, which is sora-esque. (;_;) This is also something he brings up to Sora when they're on the dark margin together, that he's jealous of how Sora can just follow his heart. It's clear Riku has started to embrace his more impulsive side, to follow his heart like sora does. This is important later!

So now that I have my premise Mostly set up, I'd like to highlight a handful of scenes that I thought were really telling about how Sora and Riku relate to the terms "mucha" and "muri", respectively.

Let's start with Sora and "mucha".

The first instance i have found "mucha" used is in Olympus Colliseum.

lets recall How Herc initially loses his power in KH2, and compare it to the movie.

In KH2, Herc is tricked into leaving the colliseum unguarded by capturing Meg and hiding her in the underworld so that Herc and Sora must go to her rescue. Hades sends a hydra in to destroy the colliseum while Sora and Herc are busy fighting heartless and Pete and rescuing Meg.

Upon seeing the destruction in the colliseum, Herc falls to his knees, and you can visibly see his colors fade to a more ashen complexion, similar to his appearance without his powers in the movie. He calls himself a piece of shit basically and Meg helps him up to limp to safety, leaving Sora to defeat the Hydra (ahem sora helping riku walk in twtnw after xemnas fight anyone)

(Herc even has a second journal entry for his Desaturared form.)

You leave the world after defeating the hydra and jumping up on its back a few times, and after sora d & g are named true heros. Yay. But Herc doesn't have his power back yet, which will later be addressed in the second episode.

Herc's loss of power is much different from the movie. In the movie, he agrees to let Hades take his strength for a day in order to keep Meg from harm, and release her from the contract she had entered with Hades (iirc). This was all so Herc wouldn't get the chance to save Olympus from the titans that Hades revives in order to take Zeus' throne for himself.

Herc still tries to wonderboy his way into rescuing the town, and fights a giant cyclops. While he lacks physical strength and gets pretty much Pummeled, he ends up beating the cyclops with his wit - but in doing so, a pillar is knocked over. It is about to crush Herc, but Meg pushes him out of the way, and is crushed to death.

She gives her life to save him, which in turn returns strength to Herc, because the contract was only good if Meg remained unharmed.

What I'm mostly trying to say here on this tangent is Herc's loss of power in KH2 specifically is very reminiscent of Sora losing his keyblade in Hollow Bastion, which is later echoed in the keyblade graveyard when he feels he loses his strength to fight after losing his friends. I bring up the movie to show how bizarrely different it is from the Kh2 plot, perhaps precisely to make the parallel between Sora and Herc stronger (and the parallel between Herc and Riku, by the way - Herc falling to his knees, losing his power, and giving up, only for Meg to walk him to safety, is a parallel to Riku losing his will to fight and press on after the battle with Xemnas - Sora refuses to let him and in the same Exact way he helps Riku walk on)

So Hercules, when faced with the impossible wavers, and loses his strength and will to fight. This is important so keep it in mind. Impossible/Muri isn't stated here as far as i know, but it's important that he is feeling utterly defeated and unable to win.

The second visit to the world is when we first see the term "mucha"/reckless used as far as I was able to find. Hades casts Meg into the Soul Hole and Herc dives in to save her without hesitating (mechanically to write Herc out of the boss fight, but)

We later see Herc emerge with Meg, his godly aura restored (he is Radiant!) something that *should* have killed him. and should have been impossible. But his desire to save her was so great, he recklessly dives in, without knowing that he will succeed. Luckily, all he had to do to prove he was worthy of godhood and power in both the game and the movie was to use the strength of his Heart rather than his fists, as a true hero does:

Sora scolds him and tells him not to do anymore crazy stunts after this reckless dive to save Meg (screenshot makes it look like herc is saying it sorry lol) and that is where we can see the term "mucha" being used in Japanese:

instead of crazy stunts, Sora moreso says "but don't be reckless (mucha)":

to which herc responds:

"people always do stupid things when they're in love" (note he doesn't repeat reckless, he says "baka" lol)

so here we have a direct link between herc's sacrifice when he dove in to save Meg, the restoration of his power/Godhood, and acting recklessly (mucha), without Fear or Doubt, to save someone he is In Love With. put a pin in this because it's all connected.

Now moving onto KH2.9 and KH3. From the start of the game we are told Sora has lost the Power of Waking, and his Entire goal in the game is to regain it, wake Ventus, and prepare for the battle in the KBG with Xehanort.

The Power of Waking is already a very vague, disney-esque power, essentially the power to free sleeping hearts from slumber (and first introduced to us in DDD, particularly in terms of Riku waking Sora up in a sleeping beauty retelling but I'm getting ahead of myself)

Yen Sid suggests that Sora go to Olympus for clues to regain his power, as Just Like Sora, Hercules also lost his power, but was able to regain it.

It's pretty straightforward, but in the interest of not making this post a fucking novel ill try to keep it short. Herc tells Sora he's not sure just *how* he got his powers back, just that he wanted to save Meg with all his heart when he (recklessly) dove in to save her. The game is trying to tell Sora that it's the Power of Love that brought back Herc's strength, and that Love will be key in bringing Sora's PoW back, too.

Specifically, I think that Herc's story and the other worlds Sora visits are saying that it's True Love that will bring Sora's powers back. Acts of true love in KH3 are framed as courageous, selfless, and performed unconditionally.

Despite the visit to see Hercules, Sora still doesn't gain the PoW. He has an idea of what he needs to regain it, but he has to visit multiple Disney worlds to learn more about the power of true love and sacrifice (well also separation but thats not as important to this post) before he's ready to test it out for himself.

After Arendelle (i think) we get to another important cutscene where Riku, Sora, donald, goofy, & mickey meet up with Yen Sid to discuss the progress they've made on their respective journeys. Sora wants to go to the Realm of Darkness with Riku & Mickey because he's worried, but they Won't let him because he doesn't have the PoW. Riku does the fondest laugh known to man, eliciting a bit of anger from Sora, but explains it's because of what Yen Sid had told him earlier - that had Sora or Riku known about Aqua being trapped in the RoD, they would have recklessly gone in to save her.

he's pretty much directly quoting yen sid here, just like he does in English (saying half-baked instead of reckless too). So basically saying here Sora would have marched into (the dark world) recklessly (had he known where Aqua was) - again using "mubou" like master yen sid.

Interestingly, when we get to Sora telling Riku to not be reckless in the dark world to Riku, he's not repeating the same word for Reckless that Riku is using (Now this might be just a flow of the conversation thing, which i certainly cant confirm as a non-native speaker but i think it's still notable)

Sora says something similar to what is said in English; with a few distinctions. A rough translation would be "but don't overdo it, call me if anything happens" (need I gripe one more time that english localization cuts out sora telling Riku to call him; which is why he spends the rest of the time apart from Riku wanting a call, and why its so unhinged that Riku triangles for sora and basically summons him. I DIGRESS)

This line is translated as "but be safe, no reckless stunts" in English, which serves as a callback to what Sora tells to Hercules in KH2, (further solidifying a herc/riku parallel) but IMPORTANTLY, Sora is NOT even saying the same thing he said to Hercules in the Japanese script. He's saying something else - 無理しないで (muri shinai de), which is usually translated as don't overdo it - but literally means "don't do the impossible". This will be important later when I talk more about Riku so keep this in mind.

We immediately get Donald saying "Sora's the reckless (muri) one" (abbreviating for simplicity) but Jiminy disagrees. In English he says "He's not reckless, he just doesn't think!" but in Japanese he says this:

Which i know im going to butcher any translation I do, but Jiminy is basically saying "[Sora's] not muri he's mucha". That distinction is important enough for Jiminy to make a joke about it. That Riku might actually be the one who is overdoing it/trying to do the impossible (muri), while Sora is the one who runs headfirst into danger recklessly (mucha). Which, i think, is quite fitting, given the actions theyve done through the series.

Importantly we get one more instance of "mucha" which I think really ties Sora's trait "recklessness" together nicely, and puts into perspective what the repetition of these phrases is doing from a story telling perspective.

After Sora finishes up the remaining Disney world visits, S, D, & G find out that Chip & Dale have lost contact with Riku & Mickey. Sora is very upset at this, and is Determined to save them (Riku) (with all his heart). Sora has NOT GAINED THE POW at this point, and they don't know how to even get into the RoD, so Sora opts to "let his heart be his guiding key" to find his way to Riku and the RoD. (Recklessly I might add, he hasn't called or talked to Yen Sid or consulted anyone about it lol)

He arrives at Destiny Islands and mysteriously finds Master's Defender which happens to be the key to getting him into the RoD. Right? Well. We know from the glossary that the established method of reaching the RoD is with a keyblade of darkness, through dark corridors, or with the Power of Waking.

Others have argued this (see SRT) but it's heavily implied that Sora regained the PoW on his way to rescue Riku. That he used it explicitly to get into the RoD is where people tend to be a little caught up in the details, because it *does* seem like Master's Defender plays a role, which begs the questions - is it a keyblade of darkness? What the fuck was it doing there? etc. (literally saw on a kh wiki that sora got into the RoD because Masters defender was a keyblade of darkness, which is unconfirmed currently lol) It's also not traditionally what the PoW looks like. There's a huge door that appears, Sora isn't using the kingdom key, he doesn't burst out of Riku's chest. Etc.

HOWEVER. I think with the context of the narrative arc Sora is going through, the foreshadowing present in the game, and The Reckless Rescue angle can at least prove that he DID regain his power here, regardless of whether or not he explicitly used it to get into the RoD. I'll try to briefly summarize the points I've seen made before I add my own.

After the visit to Olympus, Sora explains to Yen sid that he didn't regain his power but he still learned a lot. Yen sid stresses again that sora needs the PoW, Sora gets pouty, and Goofy cheers him up by saying "maybe something will trigger it real soon". Shortly after a bit of banter, there is a knock at the door, and Riku and Mickey walk in. The camera kmakes a point to show Mickey off to the side, then pan up to Riku as he walks in to close the door, who is centered in the view (almost as if we are watching from Sora's POV, who is anticipating Riku's appearance in the door).

Putting this side by side is a little unfair, since it's not an immediate jump from Goofy saying this to Riku's entrance, but it's pretty in your face about just what (or who) might be key to reawakening sora's PoW.

We also get some heavy handed foreshadowing in the next visit to Yen Sid's tower, right before Sora tells Riku to not overdo it:

Yeah. and he does, importantly, get the power of waking, not BEFORE he comes to the rescue, but BECAUSE he comes to the rescue.

Now for my contribution since I stole the last two/three points from other posts. Just before Sora enters the RoD, he tells D & G to stay behind and that he has to go alone. (Sigh, yes, this scene is a parallel to Riku using the PoW to save Sora in DDD - it *has* to be him, and him alone) D& G protest, but eventually relent. But Donald doesn't let Sora go without saying this:

(In English, Donald says "you promise to be good?" inexplicably) but in Japanese he tells sora (basically) "Don't be reckless" - aka. No Reckless Stunts, complete with the use of "mucha" (recall Donald in the previous scene was the one to call Sora "muri" before being corrected by Jiminy). This is similar to what Sora tells to herc, so we are pretty much full circle on this scene being a callback to Herc rescuing Meg in KH2.

Like Herc, Sora does the reckless thing. Like Herc, he heroically dives into the abyss to rescue his loved one with all his heart.

Like Herc, Sora regains his power the moment he resolves to rescue Riku, even if it is not made explicitly clear to Sora OR the audience (perhaps the fact that he regained the PoW is why he is able to save aqua, too)

I could probably go on about this and what it means for Sora for a long time, but I think it's high time I actually wrote about "muri" and Riku's recklessness, so let's rewind a little.

I've already brought up how Riku relates to Herc in terms of his recklessness and heroics, but theres a few more things to add. of course. I'll recap with pictures of one of the parallels i've already discussed:

So here i think at least metaphorically, we can argue that Riku has lost a bit of his "power"- or rather, his drive. After everything is over, he just collapses, ready to die or be left behind. Sora WONT let that happen. So Riku asks Sora to lead. He confesses to some of the jealousy and superiority he'd been feeling over Sora for the past few years, and seems to be trying to find a new direction in his life, having now repented Quite a bit for the sins he committed in KH1.

Riku's entire purpose for fighting after KH CoM and KH2 was to wake Sora up, keep him safe while he does his keyblade weilder duties, reunite him with Kairi, and send him on his merry way. Sora refuses to let him leave, and demands that he comes home with him. So he does. but without his jealousy over his feelings toward Sora, or without his feelings of guilt and feeling he needs to make it up to Sora, what is left to drive him to keep fighting?

DDD gives him a pretty strong answer - it's where he both rediscovers his sense of purpose and gains the Power of Waking in the process. And his dream eater powers too. btw

Riku's journey in DDD is, simply put, not really about passing the mark of mastery exam and becoming a keyblade master. it's about remembering What he lives for. remembering his promise to Terra, and how those feelings have evolved - from wanting strength to protect the Stuff that matters as a child, to, in DDD, discovering that the "stuff that matters, like his friends" was Sora the Whole time, and that Sora is actually a "precious best friend" that he wants to protect. It's About recovering his strength, like Herc needs to do in KH2.

So how does Riku regain his "strength"? By Sora-style taking a reckless dive into the deep abyss of Sora's heart to wake him using the PoW.

(Not once was I able to find any mention of "recklessness" here, or any particular language that ties this moment together cleanly with what happens in Olympus Colliseum in KH2, but the repetition of diving down into an abyss to rescue someone (with all your heart. etc) is Enough of a parallel to make the connection between this scene and Herc's dive to save Meg)

It is within the deepest depth of Sora's heart where Riku is interrogated by three pieces of Sora's heart about what he's afraid of, what he cares about more than anything else, and what he wishes - All canon answers involve the mention of "precious" - "taisetsu" (sorry im not explaining this one im going to just assume you know what im talking about if you are a soriku that reads meta you should know.) - to lose something precious, my precious best friend (fuck da english localization for this one), to recover something precious that I lost. It is here that we see Riku's simple "protecting important stuff" become "protecting something precious/my precious best friend" (note that this hasn't quite become "taisetsu na hito"/precious person but hes getting there)

Ansem the wise is there i guess and he tells Riku that his 3 answers are what were the key to waking sora up, and I think, importantly, are what give Riku his "strength" back. He has rediscovered his purpose, which is, to him, protecting Sora (with all his heart)

Continuing into KH2.9 we have another couple scenes that will both complete Riku's development from protecting stuff that matters to protecting a precious person and also continue to make a strong connection between him and Hercules.

It's been pretty well established that these two scenes are deceptively mistranslated, but i'll go over it again

Herc here is saying "taisetsu na hito" which is translated to "person I love most"

The EXACT phrase Mickey uses to tell Riku why he's feeling more powerful and fearless in the RoD, in the literal next scene in 2.9. They were supposed to be VERY CLEAR hit you over the head parallels but, well. SENA said fuck gay people i guess.

Riku repeats what Mickey says into his hand ("strength to protect my precious person") and recalls his promise to Terra, to protect the things that matter. (again it's implied it's always been about protecting sora, he just didn't have the language or understanding of himself yet to know how to say it)

There is absolutely no room for nuance here. This is explicitly framing Riku's feelings for Sora on par with Herc's feelings for Meg eg. explicitly romantic. And that it's his ROMANTIC LOVE for Sora that is what gives him his strength - not just to protect Sora, but also to do THE IMPOSSIBLE

phase ??? of my argument will now commence hang on to your butts. (i wrote this all in one night im tired)

Now that ive Exhaustively set that up. lets actually get back into discussing what I initially set up - riku doing the impossible "muri" thing.

As a reminder, Sora tells Riku to not "attempt the impossible/overdo it" in the RoD. And to call him if he needs him.

So Riku, instead of attempting the impossible in the RoD by facing the demon tide, does call Sora, which ends up being what saves the day! Yay!

I have bad news though! Riku is terrible at listening to advice when Sora is in trouble.

Now recall what I mentioned earlier about the fall of the guardians in the KBG and Sora's subsequent breakdown being a parallel to Herc losing his power in KH2. Sora *fails* everyone here, and he explicitly states he is worthless, without strength, when he loses them. It's very in line with Herc losing his powers in KH2.

(just putting these in here to hurt you and myself)

So, we get the Herc parallel, but it stops here for Sora. He doesn't do some grand self sacrifice for Riku to prove his heroism and regain his "power", but i think theres a reason for that beyond it just being Riku's time for the spotlight but I am getting there.

In the english localization, Sora says "we've lost, it's over". It's a subtle change from the Japanese, where instead of "it's over", Sora simply utters "muri da--" ("its impossible") (in the wettest saddest voice you can imagine)

It's at this moment where I do truly think we're meant to make the connection between Sora saying "its impossible" and Sora telling Riku to not attempt the impossible. It fits in nicely with Sora telling Herc to not do reckless stunts, with the slight change in language from "reckless" to "impossible", and with the impending self sacrifice. Riku knows that beating back the demon tide is impossible. But he does it anyway (compare to how, when faced with a much smaller demon tide, and he was losing, he listened to Sora's advice and called Sora for help instead of attempting the impossible)

So we have Riku's ultimate true love sacrifice for Sora, which both takes his life and grants him a spot upon an alter in Olympus, perhaps symbolically giving him some sort of ascension for his heroic deed. And again tying his sacrifice intimately to Herc's.

Because Sora and Riku are both "herc" and "meg" here I am going to make a little bit of a reach. Recall that I went through the effort of recapping the climax of the hercules movie. for no reason. There is a connection though even if it's loose, and i would kick myself for not including it.

In the movie, Meg, like Riku, protects a powerless Hercules from impending danger in her own act of true loves sacrifice. Her death gives Hercules his strength back (partly due to contract BS but it's still a romantic moment). And her death is what drives Hercules to dive into the Soul Hole to rescue her soul at a potentially great cost, which is what ultimately restores his godhood (showing his strength of heart). Riku sacrificing himself for Sora can be seen to be more like the events of the Hercules movie, Riku standing in for Meg - Sora does have to restore Riku's heart after it's been taken by the Lich, after all, much like Hercules brings Meg's soul out from the Hole. And Riku's sacrifice is what gives Sora the resolve to keep fighting. (not arguing with anyone who thinks it was only kairi because it wasnt lol)

So Riku attempts the impossible here, and ultimately he is rewarded. An interesting nuance is that the phrase "attempting the impossible" isn't meant to be taken as a challenge. From what ive read from native speakers, the phrase Sora uses really is better translated as "don't overdo it" as it is less about proving yourself to be able to overcome crazy obstacles and more about keeping your expectations in check. But Riku is reckless, and following his heart, which he learned from Sora.

I hope I've properly illustrated how Sora and Riku are both painted as reckless in different ways, and how the language used in KH3 is making direct references to Herc's reckless heroics in KH2 and in the actual Disney movie. And how these reckless acts are showcasing how much these two love each other, because I still have one more point to make. Namely, how this ties into Cinderella, and ultimately KH4.

In Terra's route of Birth By Sleep, he happens upon a distraught Cinderella, who has had her dress torn up by her step sisters. She was planning to go to the ball, but cannot, because it is "impossible" (muri)

Terra tries to console her. It's all very reminiscent of the scenes of Herc's, Sora's, and Riku's defeats.

After Terra fights off the unversed summoned by Cinderella's negativity (toxic much..), Out of the blue, the fairy godmother appears and makes everything better. She fixes up Cinderella with a dress and a ride to the ball, and sends her on her merry way.

She explains to Terra that she appeared to Cinderella to show her that her dreams *can* come true and that she typically appears only to people that have a strong belief in their dreams. Terra says he believes in dreams but you have to work for them, to which FGM responds that simply believing in dreams is already a difficult thing on its own. (Ventus also compares Terra to Cinderella. btw. because of his strong dreams)

Now. Sigh. Im not the only person that has pointed this out. The FGM quite literally appears to Riku, but only after a year has passed and they have no leads on Sora, and after it's implied that Riku is starting to lose hope.

In the limit cut, you can see Riku's sad wet puppy dog face as he talks about how hard everyone is working, and how they haven't found anything at all. He says "if Sora is really out there, don't you think we would have found something by now?" - Again, he's losing faith in his dreams of Sora's return. This is important.

I do not have the strength to go through and find all the times Riku told everyone to believe in Sora in KH3. It's a lot. And the last thing we hear him say Near Sora, is to let him go on his suicide mission to save Kairi - to BELIEVE in Sora (#wish).

So one, we know the dream Riku believes in is Sora, and two, we know he is starting to lose his belief in his dreams, like Cinderella before the ball, when he dress is destroyed.

Right after it's clear their is no lead through the data from Org 13, FGM appears, just like she did for Cinderella. And she tells Riku that His Dreams Are Literally A Key To Find Sora (that hes quite literally been #dream drop distancing into sora's dreams while hes in unreality is already so much without the FGM being there to explain this to him but KH is crazy!)

One last thing to really drive this home. The FGM brings Riku and Kairi to the nameless star to bring the three keys together.

And what does she tell Riku, before he leaves?

"Be careful. Do not attempt to do the impossible."

---------

if you read this whole thing... well... im proud of you. I know i definitely missed stuff, because it would be so hard to go through all the games and really dig for the use of this term especially when I dont speak japanese at all. and because i wrote this all in one night. But dont hesitate to comment or reblog if you have anything to add. I freaking love kingdom hearts

[kniveschaudefender]

hi !! can you do a gideon graves x male!reader who owns a flowershop? (if you dont do male readers thats ok lol, gn!reader is good too)

Better than Any Boquet

(a Gideon Graves x male flowershop owner! reader)

EEE MY FIRST REQUEST !! (TYSM ANON IM LITERALLY SO HAPPY ABOUT THIS) ALSO I DO ALL GENDER READERS !! SO MALE READER ISNT A PROBLEM AT ALL !!! ^_^ (ALSO I WILL SAY THAT THIS SUUUUUPER LONG. I DIDNT KNOW HOW TO MAKE IT ANY SHORTER BUT PLS DONT BLAME ME IM BARELY STARTING 🙁 ) BUT I RLLY DO HOPE U ENJOY BC THIS HONESTLY TOOK ME SO LONG TO PUT TOTHER. BUT THANK U AGAIN !!! <3333 (also this isnt proofread so)

Gideon had been acting..strange lately. The league noticed, his employees noticed, even he noticed ! But, nobody could seem to pinpoint what exactly it was.

He had been going out more, being a little bit less harsh on certain people, and the biggest thing people noticed was the amount of flowers around now. Of course nobody dared to ask, heavens no ! But still, it was strange. It’s not like he was a big fan of the flowers himself, but for some reason he had so many around.

Eventually, it had started as a routine. Day after day he would do the exact same thing ! Saying he needs to go do something ‘important’ out, taking his leave, and ending up in the local flowershop. But why ? Its not like he was there for the flowers, no. He had a better reasons.

He walks in, his mind somewhere else before hearing something that completely snapped him out of it. A simple, “Good morning, Mr, Graves!”

< Thats > what he was here for.

The nice owner, thats what he was here for! How could we forget? How could he forget such a nice boy, the same boy who helps him every day no matter how many questions he asks or how many times he ends up repeating them. He even remembered his name! Not by the fact that he’s THE Gideon Graves, but by the fact that he comes in every day to his shop !

Will he ever admit its for him? Maybe later. But right now? Certainly not ! He can’t lose such a ‘friendship’ with this lovely boy he’s met ! For now, he simply comes in, looking for him at the desk in the front. Asking things such as “How do I take care of these?” or “What type of flowers would go best with this event ?” . Simple things to hide the fact that he’s only there to see him and to hear him talk.

After about an hour of mindless questions and small talk, he comes home, once again with a boquet of flowers in hand. He couldn’t help it ! He HAD to buy flowers every time he’d go in there, or he’d leave feeling a bit bad. So, there he goes, grabbing another empty vase and putting some water in it, then placing the flowers inside.

He sighed, looking around at all the flowers he now had. How long could he keep this up ? How long could he push his feelings for this boy away and just keep going and buying flowers, never making a move?

It honestly didn’t take long, he was running out of room for flowers and was so head over heels he couldn’t help himself anymore.

Though, for the first time he couldn’t help but feel a bit afraid. Would you like him? I mean yeah, he does have quite the name and ego, not to mention the billions he has in cash, but would you really find him attractive? He guessed he’d just have to find out.”

He spent about a week thinking about this.

Infact, he spent the whole time trying to distract himself, he had forgotten to go to the flowershop. After the week, he had finally decided to go say something. Thats when he remembered. He spent the whole week away from YOUR presence after being there non-stop for a few months!

Now he was really worried. He probably made you sick thinking something must have happened since he stopped coming for a whole week!

So, off he went! Sprinting down the street to the flowershop, holding on to his glasses for life. His plan? Say everything through a letter. He couldnt get himself to say it to your face, no matter how big of an ego he had.

He comes in, pushing the door open, almost falling over as he catches his breath before looking up. And there you were, making direct eye contact with him as you out new fresh flowers in a certain section.

“Mr. Graves! There you are! I was wondering where you’d been.” You say, giving him that same, sweet smile.

“Please..call me Gideon.” He says, closing the door behind him as he comes in entirely. “I have something..a bit more important for you this time.” “Anything! What do you need, Gideon?” He liked how you had listened without a question.

“I need a boquet of roses, the best ones you’ve got, and I need you to put this letter in there. But, I’d like you to read it first.” He says, handing the note to him. “I need these by 5 p.m today, and I’d like for you to write me a reply on the letter of what you think.”

With that he mutters a “Thank you” and runs out quickly, not even giving you a chance to respond.

You stand there, a bit dumbfounded. But, there was no need to go chase him down and question him. It seemed simple enough. So, you grab the roses, picking the best ones as he’d asked. Then, the letter.

You grab the letter, opening it slowly, then is when you get met with something..suprising.

“Sorry about the leave, I couldn’t be here for this. All these visits were never about the flowers, it was about you. I wanted to get closer, but never knew how. I’ve liked you for all these months, and never knew how to truely say it. You were always too kind, and quite the handsome man too, giving me that smile every day I walked in, no matter how clueless I was about anything. Especially the flowers. But you always listened to me. But, I do love you and everything you do a lot. And I would love to have you by my side. Because to me, you’re better than any boquet.”

[howlsofbloodhounds]

I was thinking about killer and his emotionlessness in st2. And people struggling to portray that in writing (for those who wanna portray it), but based off some personal experiences I won’t go into specifically, maybe here’s some ideas for anyone who needs them.

Maybe write his emotionlessness aspects as a firm belief, integral to his sense of self. Write it as a deeply ingrained coping mechanism that was only encouraged and reinforced by the people around him, who wanted him to be and behave that way because it meant they got what they wanted from him—consistently shamed or invalidated or worse if he showed an emotion that wasn’t wanted.

He has detached from himself, the body, his surroundings; most things don’t feel or seem real, including himself.

because killer thinks of himself as emotionless, and he very likely doesn’t feel some emotions such as guilt or remorse or even love in an emotional way and struggles with empathy which are things trauma can absolutely cause, its also important to keep in mind that it is abuse and trauma that has caused this.

Trauma and abuse has led him to dissociating and numbness, repeated everyday violence and murder and abuse has been completely normalized and accepted as a part of his existence.

His apathy is a result of all of this, constantly being pushed to his limits emotionally, physically, and mentally over and over.

Due to the circumstances of his world, the abilities of Resetting and the like, even death has become the norm. Both of himself and others. He is surrounded by so much of it that it no longer means anything to him.

His thoughts of things being ultimately meaningless, his knowledge of the Players making him believe that no one really has free will in the end. It all only makes him disconnect from himself and his body.

However. Just because killer does not believe himself capable of emotion, does not mean he isnt expressing any. His body can still react to things—crying when stressed, flinching and wincing in pain—even if Killer himself just doesn’t understand stress or enjoys his own pain. Especially if the pain wasn’t “that bad” in his eyes.

You can write it as if Killer believes his body sometimes does things on its own without his say so. Grabbing things without his awareness to fidget with because he needs stimulation, attempting to stab someone if even being touched causes his body to react negatively, as if the touch was painful or frightening. Constant fidgeting and shifting, and getting frustrated about why it can’t just stay still.

(He might eventually face a bit of resigned acceptance to this, eventually just having to accept that the body apparently needs to do these things. And no matter how hard he or anyone else tries to get it to stop, it’s impossible, and likely to just make the fidgeting ‘worse’.)

If his body cries from stress, he’d probably be extremely confused; steadfast believing he doesn’t feel anything, and just wipes it away—perhaps dissociating even further or getting frustrated, because he doesn’t believe thats something he’d do.

Experiencing cognitive dissonance, because the action of crying suggests something’s wrong but he feels..nothing. Neutral, as he always does. Or if hes physically hurt during a mission, his body could be crying from the physical sensations and yet killer is mentally riding the high of “finally” experiencing emotion.

If someone is berating him or verbally abusing him, he might be confused by the body’s tears because there is no physical harm. He doesn’t feel offended or hurt by what this person is saying to him, so why would he cry. He doesn’t think it’s logical, and thus will rationalize it away as just something up with the body.

He might look back during his moments in Stage 1–happiness, fear, guilt—with either a sense of detached confusion or maybe amusement, believing that other side of him to have been rather dramatic. Maybe he’s even curious about why the world seems so much brighter when someone like Color is around.

Because killer doesn’t connect the body to himself in his mind, he probably has a hard time visualizing it or showing any care for it beyond making sure it’s functioning and still useful. And he doesn’t really feel any empathy for it either.

It is also very possible to have people react to the way he doesn’t react—such as simply standing and quietly watching whenever nightmare punishes someone in the gang, not seeming bothered by it at all, as opposed to anyone else who is witnessing. This can be compounded by any signs of dismissiveness and downplaying what happened.

You can have people treat him differently, react to him differently, either being disturbed/uneasy by his appearing to not have any emotions—no anger, fear, hatred, disgust—in situations they feel he should.

Appearing unbothered or unphased by things said or done to himself or others as if they don’t matter—either because it is normal for him, or because he is so commonly dissociated that no one notices that he dissociated in these moments.

Others may even be outraged and offended by his apparent lack of concern or compassion, and even more may interpret him as being arrogant. Others may make it a personal thing to try and provoke from what they believe an appropriate response to be from him. (They’ll probably end up being killed or mortally wounded in this case.)

Writing people’s reactions to him and his lack of reactions, besides those big dead black eyes and empty grin, will definitely help set him apart from others around him.

He will likely struggle to accept the idea that he can feel genuine emotions; and may outright reject or rationalize/intellectualize away anything that contradicts this belief of his. He may avoid anything or anyone that provokes reactions he doesn’t understand—as a form of self protection. Especially if someone or something has convinced him that his emotions are inconvenient, useless, weak, or dangerous.

It’s also quite possible that hed be reluctant to acknowledge his body’s needs or emotions, to let it “speak” in a way, uncertain of how it will react or what it will make him do. Especially if his body has destructive breakdowns when repressed stress and pain catch up to him, and it makes him feel out of control.

Automatic responses like sweating, shaking, changes in breathing, temperature fluctuations; all are likely to be observed in a detached way and not really linked to any specific emotional state. Insomia, changes in eating habits, and chronic pain are likely to be some biggies for him.

He probably doesn’t actually know why his body appears to be in so much pain—besides the amount of DT accumulation and the history of physical trauma—but he’s more likely to take some twisted glee in being able to feel it than care about where its coming from or why.

He’s probably also likely to have a decreased immune system and might be prone to sickness, due to the results of chronic stress and the results of repressing it all; but he’ll probably over intellectualize it away.

Another form of self protection for him could be his typical silly, dumb, hyperactive facade being a deliberate choice on his end. Because it not only leads to people overlooking or underestimating him, it protects him by keeping people away.

If he pretends to feel what others seem to want him to feel in certain situations, they’re less likely to start pestering him and trying to provoke reactions from him. It also helps keeping people entertained, makes him seem unpredictable, and most of all, doesn’t allow anyone to look at him and find him lacking. Find him boring. Enough to potentially get rid of him, or replace him.

He may not may not actually care about others’ opinions of him—praise or criticism—but people sure seem to want him to, so he’ll pretend to if it’s beneficial.

[kelocitta]

Hey I was just wanting to ask if you some tips on drawing Slugcat legs. I really want to be able to draw these little cuties and I have everything else done but the legs (specifically poses and action) is really tough for me

It'll depend heavily on how you actually wanna do their legs, but since your asking me I'll assume you like how i do them- I draw them digitigrade when in motion, which basically means that the weight of the animal is carried on the on the toes (the other is plantigrade, which means the back of the foot makes contact with the ground when moving.) This is important since it changes how the leg tends to be formed and rest, but slugcats have a lot of flexibility here.

The other thing to keep in mind is that slugcats are *sleek* and tend to be smooth no matter what pose they're in, so you can hide the specifics of the legs under this and squash and stretch them as you see fit. Think about how fur or feathers tend to hide exactly how the body looks (and thats why so many animals look weird when wet and all that stuff lays flat) As for how I do it, I try to keep slugcats to a tube or triangle shape with most of the weight/fat being in the hips and tail. In most cases, you can get away with just imaging the leg as a flexible ball, and treat the foot as a point (like your pulling on a water balloon). The further the foot from the body, the more that ball stretches. The specifics of whats going *on* in the ball can be hidden unless its its really stretched out

Mentally I don't put much thought into it, but if you need more structure think of the bones of the leg as three sections- the foot, fibula/tibia (Lower leg bones) and femur (Upper leg bone/thigh). Digitigrade and plantigrade tend to favor certain positioning, but ultimately the only major focus is on how the foot functions. Digitigrade in particular tends to favor this sort of 'z' formation even when fully stretched (Humans, in contrast, are plantigrade, and our legs can be fully straighten out even if they still fold the same way). So if your going for that you'll always want to keep a bit of a 'z' shape even if your stretching it waaay out. When at rest, I keep the foot of the slugcat flat. But anytime it's in motion or would be active they shift weight to their toes. You could keep them fully plantigrade, but personally I think digitigrade allows for easier shows of motion and more natural looking action shots with the upright posture if you dont want to stretch the leg out fully. Also i just like the look of it more. (If you want to get into biology more, this would normally be hard on the legs weight-wise, but I like to imagine slugcats are mixed tripedal rather than strict bipeds, and make use of their tails as a third grounding point.)

And heres a very quick run over some of the official cutscenes to show similar:

I personally just wing it when it comes to the sizes of those sections, but a general rule of thumb is that everything gets shorter as you go down- the upper leg has the longest bones, then the middle leg, then the foot. A lot of that is hidden in the body of the slugcat, but keeping that in mind might help keep the leg length feeling natural. (But the biggest secret is that your drawing a fake, stretchy blobby animal so you can bs a lot and be imperfect and honestly just do whatever in a lot of cases and not end up with something that noticeably wrong. This DOES get a little harder if you draw them more lithe or cat like, just because that exposes the leg more) And lastly, if cutscene art isnt helping and you might benefit from a real life reference- rather than using an actual cat I would actually recommend mustelid like a ferret, otter or stoat. They're plantigrade rather than digitigrade, but their form and posturing is a little bit closer to the slugcat and it might help with visualizing the way the legs can sink into the body. I will give a heads up that these are little predators so general search results do tend to show them hunting small animals like mice, if your sensitive to that stick to domestic ferrets for safer results.

Just remember to fatten them up- they're way longer and thinner than slugcats are

[sassykinzonline]

thank you @heavensculled for reminding me to make this post through your post.

okay so.

theres a reason that naruto specifically phrases his double-suicide the way he does: hes answering the question posed to him by itachi.

theres a misconception that naruto is stubborn and stupid. naruto is steadfast in his conviction, but like anyone who truly believes in something, he is always thinking deeper about what his convictions mean and how to get there. he also doesnt discount information or ideology just because of the source-- he is rather literate, likely due to his skills with empathy. we know this because of his conversation with nagato.

so if itachi, someone he knows to be extremely important to what he cares about and knows that person intimately, why would he discount itachi's perspective on it? and by the time he actually makes his proposal, he is now aware of itachi's truth and his true feelings.

recall that actually in the little gay heart-to-heart glitter space (GGS for short), naruto says hes "not gonna lose", not that he doesnt plan on dying. so obviously he has a different goal in mind than "live or die". we also know that before the GGS, this is how "blows are exchanged".

no kill shot from either side. although this was just said...

what can we gather from this? that a certain someone is full of shit, and naruto now has re-confirmed this (just like with "i spared your life on a whim"). but whats the reason naruto cant actually die?

so now naruto knows this. he also knows this after sakura is almost killed:

naruto also knows that an implicit part of the plan involves neverending pain that will only end with death, because its intended to bait all battle from every shinobi in one direction. this is the start of it:

as i previously joked about, naruto's confession/proposal is calling a bluff but also a way of stating his intentions. we know this because in the actual battle he says:

in summary, naruto's lovers' double suicide plan isnt about bending someone to his will. its the opposite. it's his final guess at putting together all the things he has understood until now, and presenting it as his position. this is the stand he is taking. it's a promise, because he never breaks his promises. part of the final battle is a test whether to see whether or not he can keep the promise alive:

why would you be mad at someone youre trying to kill for almost dying? hmm...i wonder.

in any case, naruto's final guess is the right one.

and he proves himself after all, and it's a happy moment...but not just for him.

[poichanchan]

Hiii, someone relatively new to the phandom having just played through p5r, but can I ask how the swap au premise works? I'm curious what your own takes might be on how the situations for both joker and akechi happened to lead for them to be on opposite sides in comparison to the game! I tried to look it up a bit, but there's a lot of different headcanons, but I love your concepts so much I wanted to see if you had any particular thoughts on the setting :3

Hiiiii welcome to p5 brainrot jail haha! (genuinely though, welcome and im happy you enjoyed p5r!) Everyone has their take on swapAU, I specifically wanted to play with the idea of Goro and Akira swapping their ROLES ONLY.

In my AU Goro Akechi is still the son of Shido who is largely out of his life. Goro's life is a mess, his moms in rehab, and he is sent to Tokyo on probation (to his mother's friend Muhen the owner of JazzJin). I've adjusted Goro's life just enough to have him keep his childish love for justice. He finds his found family in the PT. Goro is a Snarky, whole, intelligent, a little mean, energetic, gets flustered, but also is passive and observant when he needs to be. HIS ROUGH LIFE MADE HIM GRUFF AND HONEST BUT HE ISNT JADED. Akira hates how shallow and transactional his life is. He has his awakening, ends up on Shido's radar via the research group he has in place to explore and exploit the metaverse. Akira's parents probably work around the research team somewhere and didn't think too hard about what they were getting their son into... a mix of negligence and wanting to get more opportunities as a family/bootlick. From there he has his forced 2nd awakening and gets ensnared in Shido's conspiracy. There is a lot of resentment in his life because of this, and when he is faced with Goro's existence, the literal SON OF SHIDO WHO HAS THE SAME POWERS yet life turned out so different for him because their roles are swapped its terrible. Akira is also very good at adapting to who he talks to like in canon. He is good at socializing and charming, thus the detective prince facade becomes a thing to help him gain access to deeper levels of mementos blah blah blah

Akira is also rationalizing a lot, he is seeing himself weeding corrupt people out, a hero getting hands dirty and sacrificing self for greater good. The metaverse is his stage. And he is THE showman. Detective prince Akira is more sweeping/showy/charismatic/flirty, his joker vibe comes through more normally. APART from the resentment Akira has for seeing Goro live his life the way he does, the resounding ITS NOT FAIR he feels in his heart, he also reeeeeally want the stupid phantom thieves to 'cherish your normalcy. stop messing with my plan. how fucking naive do you have to be to think THIS is justice?' COLD SEETHING FOCUSED FURY FROM AKIRA Its such a mess lol But i think hit Akira in the places that would make him play out the detective prince and Black mask bits without losing too much of his own flavor. His rationalizing is important, otherwise i felt he would feel the moral conflict harder and withdraw instead of being showy and sweeping. Also for their social links i have thoughts, i think detective Akira's special place would not be... jazzjin. I think he would drop by like canon Akechi drops by Leblanc, but nothing more. I have in mind a place up high at a height, something like the Shibuya Sky observation deck as a place he personally visits often to reflect and stare at the massive view of the city from. It felt right to have him up there looking down alone but comforted by it. Plus eventually share the view with Goro who he sees as this actual fated rival for all the reasons above. Their outfits are the way they are because i did not want to change them too severely in colorpallette or essence but wanted to play up some parts of their personality and represent it in the outfits. AND BECAUSE THIS IS A SHUAKESHU BLOG I NEED TO STRESS THAT because they are less jaded, because Akira is bolder and flirtier and Goro is more stubbornly optimistic about this dark world akira sees, they get closer alot faster, which makes the whole black mask and interrogation room bit very messy/

added pix to make post spicier THIS IS A MASSIVE POST BUT IM GLAD YOU ASKED BECAUSE I DUMPED MY THOUGHTS IN ONE PLACE FINALLY. there are some other things ive thought out a tiny bit, like hobbies etc but i put them down later when ive developed it more etc @ anyone reading, thank u for reading and these are my personal thoughts i am thingying to entertain myself!!!!! dont be mean to me thanks ;v;

[zonatcannibalism]

Ok my billy thoughts after yesterdays ep

The William/ billy thing is definitely not like the comics and IMO does harm the character. I get why doing the "he was always like this" thing was too complicated for a tv show (and one they haven't even introduced mephisto in yet) but i would prefer it if he kept his memories of being a kaplan and was just... Different. And could read peoples minds.

However i do have hope that this can go well. I don't think that the end conclusion for his character is going to be "im not related to the kaplans im billy maximoff and fuck this random jewish family". I mean. The only thing he remembers are Tommy and his 3 years with the kaplans. When he told Eddie he wasnt William kaplan he didn't fully say "im not that dude at all who tf is that even" he said hes something "more" and "not entirely." Yes, he comes to the revelation that he is billy maximoff. Whoever if were talking writing, i dont think that the personality crisis ends there for him. Billy is an important character in the show. He has 3 more eps left and unlike characters like alice and jen who allredy found what theyre looking for on the road, he is still actively walking it in search of his goal. There is still development to be had for this character. He didn't just solve his entire internal conflict in episode 2- everything about the way he behaves after that episode shows hes still conflicted as fuck. Yes, he knows where he comes from, but he doesn't really know yet what it means about him as a person. He knows he is billy maximoff, but he doesn't know what being billy maximoff means.

And then we get into the subject of Tommy.

Listen, all writing rules say that there is no magic rock at the end of the road making wishes come true. They get what they're missing (NOT what they're looking for) as they walk the road. If the person writing this knows what they're doing, Tommy isn't going to randomly appear at the end of the road. Billys want for Tommy isnt just the cute brotherly bond- it is his want to belong and really have that sense of certainty and security of who he is. His arc isn't over yet, and thats why he keeps walking the road- he still has that want for belonging and knowing how to live as who he truly is. So. I think that at the end of the road he is either-

1. Realise he has something important with rebecca and jeff, embrace being their son with being a maximoff and live happily ever after as a nice jewish witch boy.

2. Get William kaplans memories

3. Be left on an open note and have his arc completed in another marvel show or movie

Anyway i think if top 2 happens he is going to start going by billy kaplan, showing him reaching a place of fully being comfortable with his identity and knowing who he is and where he belongs. Which will also tie him to comic billy.

However. That is what would have happened if i would be writing the show. That is the progression i would give his character. Everyone on the show is doing a really goor job, but i just can't forget that they are the same people who seemingly wrote in a fan favorite character with huge implications and then said "ha that wasn't real heres a bunch of dick jokes."

Anyway i hope they don't fuck this shit up.

A bunch of really cool details from the episode:

- the dogs name is greg. As in greg norris??????? That is funny as fuck

- billys parasha is about the death of nadav and avihu- the sons of aharon. There is a lot more detail you can go into with this. Its really good symbolism. It also means we can semi accurately track his hebrew and gregorian birthday. Oh the things i am too lazy to do.

- they are reallllllllly walking the line with this eddie dude. I feel like if the fans like him they're going "ha eddie is just another nickname for theodore say hi to teddie altman" and if not they're giving them an off screen break up and just saying billy has a type.

- Agathas boner family reunion shirt lmao

[sporksaber]

I have never really liked sasusaku, but arranged marriage sasusaku au. Writing as the thought comes to mind so they may not be endgame.

So sakura comes from The merchant clan. The harunos are super important to the village and its really important not to piss them off. At 6 years old sakura starts insisting she wants to be a ninja and her grandmother, the clan matriarch, agrees that she can join the academy and become a ninja if she does well.

The uchiha meanwhile, are approaching the point of no return with their political instability. And then they hear that the granddaughter of the Haruno head is now training as a ninja and they see the perfect way to reestablish a foothold in the villages power structure and a buffer between them and danzo.

So 6 year old sakura ends up at dinner at the uchihas to meet sasuke. She hates him. He's a spoinled brat who keeps hiding behind his mom and loudly whining about anything and everything, and little sakura was very mature for her age. She has a few nice moments pf interacting with itachi about the academy before sasuke realizes his brother's attention isnt on him and gets between them, but all the other adults dismiss her completely and dont even properly speak to her.

Sakura decides she hates all of them.

The arrangement goes through.

(Mikoto is not happy about it, her baby is only 6. But she figures that it's not set in stone since a proper engagement cant happen until theyre 16 and a traditional marriage has to wait until 19. The haruno also dont fully expect it to go that far and are fully aware that the uchiha are trying to gain advantage in the village, but theyre ready to milk this for all its worth. Itachi thinks it's adorable. The uchiha elders dont care how it ends up as long as they get what they want. Danzo is furious and the third is staying out of it (because he sucks) while the other clans are biding their time until they see how this is going to go.)

Sakura being engaged(to be engaged) to sasuke does change her dynamic at the academy a bit. She does have other kids who mess with her at first, but its shut down by sasuke and some other aolder uchiha. This pisses sakura off because while it wasnt a battle she wanted to fight, that didnt mean he coild fight it for her. She befriends ino on accident and encourages her friends crush on sasuke because she does Not want him. His fiance hating him kind of puts a damper on ino's crush though.

The engagement is enough to keep the massacre from happening.

Sasuke doesnt like sakura in the way that he doesnt realize he kind of likes her. At some point her getting mad at him makes his heart flutter. Also, uchiha are possessive by nature and he sees her as his (the reason why he stepped in when other kids were making fun of her).

The other uchiha at the academy think its the funniest shit in the world even though they would never let that kind of slight towards the main family slip in any way. If you find sakura having one of her onesided arguments with sasuke because he was following her or something you can also find several older uchiha kids making aggressive eye contact with eachother, mentally daring eachother to slip up so they can laugh without worrying about someone snitching. (There is a rare occasion where shisui, who often volunteers as the uchiha-haruno liason, is found actually laughing his ass off at their antics. The other uchiha still dont laugh though, because being blackmailed by shisui is way worse than getting chewed out by an elder.)

Their engagement is known among the clans and the civilian politicians, but its not exactly common knowledge. Not everyone knows. Naruto doesnt know, and he still jas a massive crush on sakura.

So team 7's genin dynamic now becomes sakura hates sasuke who likes sakura but more than that just knows theyre going to be together forever because that's how its always been, sasuke hates naruto because hes an idiot who has a massive crush on sakura, who also hates him because he's an idiot who has a massive crush on her. And naruto sees sasuke as his ultimate rival (just in ninja, he straight up does not realize that sasuke likes sakura. He thinks theyre just wierd friends the way her and ino are kind of wierd.).

Sakura and sasuke are able to quietly sit next to eachother without issue by the time theyre graduating, theyre frequently together whenever sakura isnt with ino. Thr sevond naruto shows up an argument immidiently starts though.

In kakashi's romance novel language, its a classic enemies to lovers love corner set up. And kakashi is Invested. He thinks this is the funniest shit ever.

Now onto graduation. Im dropping the wierd kidnapping expired milk plot. The narusasu kiss still happens though. Naruto pranks kakashi, kakashi says he hates them and gets himself added to sakura's List.

Sakura likes hanging out with ino and learning chakra theory and does not answer her dislikes or goals for the future (which are, respectivly, marrying sasuke and not marrying sasuke). Sasuke likes his brother and tomatoes, dislikes naruto and people trying to take what's his, and wants to takeover the police force. Naruto likes ramen and sakura, dislikes the three minutes ot takes for ramen to cook and sasuke, and is going to become hokage.

The bell test goes pretty much the same as canon in that they fail the first part, except this time sakura and sasuke have a onesided argument early on, sakura's genjutsu is some flavor of her actually being married to sasuke and she starts gagging when she breaks it (and she does break it, she's been put under genjutsu by other uchiha before), and sasuke tries to start a brawl with naruto when he claims he's gonna get the second bell for sakura. Naruto is tied to a pole, sakura and sasuke feed him, they pass the test.

Kakashi is promptly accosted by first his cute kohai itachi (who wants him to take training his brother seriously) and then a haruno contingent (who want him to take training sakura seriously). He then meets the other new instructers to bemoan his cute students and their families only to be told he needs to take training them seriously. No one understands him.

(He goes to bed with the image in his mind of kushina and minato yanking him aside in the market to make fun of him and then tell him to take training naruto seriously. Not even his own brain understands him.)

Im trying to think ahead and decide where the funniest moment for naruto to find out that sakura and sasuke are engaged. And what ideas would be good for the time skip because i dont like the timeskip and sasuke's not defecting anyway.

Ive decided earlier is better.

The first month of training is always d ranks. So there's some training but mostly kakshi kicks back to make fun of them as the pull weeds and chase cats. On one such mission kakashi is laser focused in on them as the secret comes out. He wishes he had popcorn.

So naruto is bumbling around and knocks into sakura, who is caught by sasuke. Naruto turns to start apologizing while sakura revs up to start yelling at him when the old lady theyre working for calls them "such a cute pair." Naruto starts yelling because theyd be a cuter pair, sakura starts yelling because Gross, and then sasuke is like, "well she's my fiance."

Naruto sputters and sakura groans. She tells the old lady that theyre not technically engaged yet, but is mostly drowned out by naruto and sasuke's ensuing brawl.

Kakashi watches for as long as he could before the damage they were causing became too much and he was forced to step in. Sakura just wants to dissapear.

Now naruto's sitting there with some comedically sized bruises, crying and asking if its true. Sakura sighs and says yes and he colapses to the ground.

Its all very dramatic.

Cue uchiha family+team dinner, which sasuke finally agreed to because he wants to be like, look at my family with My Fiance. The only time Kakashi has ever been on time to anything because he doesnt want to miss a second.

Sakura is already there talking pleasantly to itachi about chakra pathways (itachi has been getting her books since she was little, i dont think i ever mentioned that. Itachi still thinks they are adorable and is fine with bribing her to come over with increasingly rare books). Sasuke eventually stopped trying to force them not to interact after the first few years and is fine with it as long as he is also sitting directly next to them.

Kakashi is giggling to himself as naruto is ushered in by mikoto still looking shell shocked. His entire world has been turned on its head.

Dinner starts formally and then drifts into casual conversation. Sasuke makes eyecontact with naruto and scoots closer to sakura, who just gives him a wierd look before ignoring him. Naruto makes a noise like a dying cat.

Mikoto pulls him into conversation, smiling serenly (he's so much like kushina). He says some things that are red flags. Eventually after he mentions that he has a hard time buying groceries sakura offers to go with him in the name of team solidarity. Sasuke promptly offers to also go, "you hate shopping," "if its bc we're a team then the whole team should go."

So they go shopping. And the entire time sasuke is trying to mess with naruto subtly while sakura glares at him because he's being clingy like he is to itachi. Sakura is explaining how to choose produce and calories and nutrients and raising a disparaging eyebrow anytime a vender tries to say something about naruto being there. (The harunos are not ninja, they can say what they want.) Naruto is torn between giving her his full attention and bristling at sasuke's behaviour. Overall it's a very fun trip.

This brings us to the wave arc. Same as originally, naruto demands a cool mission and the hokage agrees (once again, theres some extra political moves going on. The og version of the team doesnt have strong political power). In comes tazuna.

Their sendoff has a bit more fanfare this time, with itachi and mikoto saying goodbye to sasuke and itachi giving sakura a new book and some snacks for the team.

When sakura first see the puddles she looks at kakashi but he shushes her. Literally. She is offended.

The two ninja pop out and "kill" kakashi. Sakura falls back into protective position and casts her own genjutsu. Naruto freezes and sasuke takes out one ninja and kakshi pops back up to take care of the other.

It continues like canon. Zabuza shows up, sakura's once again on defence, kakshi is caught and then the boys free him, haku spirits away an unconcious zabuza. They get to tazuna's with sakura taking lead and the boys carying kakashi because she's the only one who knows medical information. (A note: with the uchiha clan alive sakura and sasuke are already aware of kakashi's eye, and sakura has been briefed on what to do with chakra exhaustian.)

Sasuke takes this moment to continue taunting naruto with the fact he's engaged to sakura. Sakura does not appreciate sasuke's praise as a tool to mess with naruto. Tazuna is very confused.

I think kakashi continuing with the mission at this point is out of spite towards everyone who assumed hed be a bad teacher, might as well prove them right.

Kakashi goes to teach them tree walking but sakura and sasuke already know. He moves them to waterwalking, which sakura gets very quickly and is then sent on guard duty. Its at this point that the feelings of isolation naruto has really hits home. Not only are they engaged theyve had years more training than him.

Sakura talks trade routes and infrastructure with tazuna. She also helps carry heavy things with chakra enhanced arms. (I dont remember what fic i originally saw this in, but i love the image of sakura casually picking a steel beam that it usually takes 4 to 6 men to carry as they watch in awed confusion. Im definitly going to give her an oversized weapon later.)

The big moment of divergence here is that i want haku to live, so so does zabuza. So sakura, with her merchant family's knowledge that a jounin might know but a genin never would, speaks up naruto style, "instead of dealing with thugs like gato who are inevitably going to double cross you, wouldnt you want the strength of a village again?" zabuza gets pissed before sakura reveals that theres anlther coup forming with strong backers.

Ive lost steam at this point, rapid fire.

The invasion still happens during the chunin exams because i want the 3rd to die. The uchiha are able to cement their new goodwill status in the village and sakura naruto and sasuke are on civilian duty during the battle.

I think itd be funny to still break up the team. So sakura gets promoted. Theres some political stuff that goes into it (a wedge between her and sasuke is a bonus to those who are still against the uchiha clan) but also she did well and tsunade has a minimum she needs to fill.

Tsunade mercs danzo prerty early on too.

Post chunin itachi takes naruto shopping while sakura is busy, sasukes is pissed. Cue brotherly bonding.

At the end of wave the whole team started getting touchier with eachother (started by sasuke clinging to sakura to prove he could and progessing to reassure naruto that he was a teammate they care about.

At some point after they all start displaying casual affection between eachother shisui starts a rumor that all 3 are dating.

With sakura busy with chunin training sai is put onto their team. It takes awhile for them to get used to it.

Naruto and sai become roommates.

They have study sessions at naruto's place because he'll need better knowledge of politics if he's going to become hokage.

Sasusaku is endgame.

Im dome for now.

[sieglinde-freud]

grabs ur hands dm ur reasoning rn *looks at you with my big eyes*

YOU GUYS ARE PEER PRESSURING ME WTF... but ok im just gonna post it here then hi tc thank u for the ask :) going under the read more because my initial ramblings were literally 3k but let me see if i can chop it down. cw: LONG. also pic for reference so we know what im talking about

so the placements all assume the only headcanon thats real going into this is that the morgans are siblings. no canon second parents which means no chrom!inigo or anything like that they all have single moms or whatever idk not important but just clarifying none of that is impacting their placements because i dont want to think about that

black eagle placements were the most fun because the fun thing about that route is that it splits into two more! one thing thats always bothered me is that when that route splits, the only thing that changes is that you either lose edelgard or hubert or you lose flayn. are you really telling me those are the only three students with enough free will to not let byleth pick the rest of their life for them? ferdinand would NOT go to the church i dont care!!! this is something they fixed (kind of) in warriors but in general when picking the black eagles i wanted to keep that in mind too

so kjelle was the first character i looked at and went “i know where you go.” i think she looks at edelgard and goes “you are everything i want to be and more” because what edelgard fights for and how she accomplishes it. kjelle is a very “the strong must protect the weak by any means necessary” which is kind of harsh when its presented to the player in awakening but it is literally edelgard’s whole philosophy. and kjelle is very egotistical (not hate i love her ass so much underrated fav!!) she thinks incredibly highly of herself so for her to bow down to anyone they would have to 1) echo her ideals and 2) be stronger than her. sorry shes never bending the knee to dimitri and claude i dont give a fuck she doesnt like those men. i think she’d understand edelgard’s idea of putting power in human hands and fully commit to the ends justify the means. this isnt really a gameplay rewrite thing im trying to do but if byleth picked the church she would leave. also… please. please please consider edelkjelle… okay guys… for me……..

on the opposite side nah was my second immediate “ohh i know what im doing with you” and its because if byleth picks edelgard, shes out!! granted, i could just put her with lions or deer but how is that fun. its not. nah, being a manakete, would probably be much more understanding of rhea and willing to reach out. being a manakete is probably a pretty isolating experience for her, ylisse or fodlan or otherwise, so i think her finding solace with rhea and flayn and seteth during her time at the academy would allow her to get closer to people more like her, and understand on some level why rhea is the way she is and why governs the way she does. though, still being housemates, she’d befriend edelgard and i think she’d admire edelgard’s conviction and maturity during the academy arc. but when edelgard betrays the church i think she’d take that very hard, and i dont think anything edelgard would say to her would get her to turn on what is basically the family she never got to have (theres also second gen angst potential in here somewhere…)

inigo was interesting to think about and i did almost saddle him in with golden deer but i like the potential of him with edelgard a lot more when i really sat down and thought about it. im pulling more from his characterization as laslow i think but at first i wasn’t really sure if i had a case for him picking between the empire and the church but i decided to go with the empire because i do think in the time he has with edelgard, he’d be a voice of reason for her (to hubert’s dismay). edelgard’s problem is that she has literally no outsider pov and is going based on her own sense of justice that, while its based in good intentions, has a lot of unintended consequences and failure to acknowledge how it impacts everyone else. i think inigo could take a unique role, similar to ferdinand (or lorenz to claude, felix to dimitri) in that he challenges edelgard but on a much more friendlier level. the thing about how that role normally plays out is that its formed on some personal grievance rather than genuine better interest of the people, and i think of all the lords, edelgard needs a friend the most (its why shes so attached to byleth???). and just looking at how hes able to handle xander in fates and how much more introspective he becomes, i think it’d play out similarly here. also i think with the forces of him and dorothea combined they would give ferdinand the worst bisexual panic of his life. ik i mentioned felix/inigo WHICH I STILL LIKE but imagine the layer of angst if they are on opposing sides… ok thanks

was on the fence about gerome until beloved mutual (hi woocy :3) convinced me he would be beagle and im completely down with that. for me, i struck out blue lions immediately. so after that its just a matter of do i think he fits in better with BE or GD and quite honestly. for some reason golden deer gets the rep of being the meme house but aside from lorenz looking a little funny anf claude putting up a facade YOU ALL FELL FOR this straight up is not true. the funny house is black eagles and by GOD it would piss gerome off to be there. i dont think they chose their houses, by the way. i think they got to fodlan and rhea vibe checked all of them immediately so he didnt have a say in this. not only is he stuck with inigo, hes stuck with watching kjelle—the strongest warrior ever probably the only one in the second to match him in terms of raw strength—stumble over herself over their house leader because wwaauuw women pretty LIKE COME ONNNN. though, i do think he’d respect edelgard for her strength, and theres a lot of interesting dynamics for him to explore. dorothea pissing him off, bonding with petra over their enjoyment for wildlife, he would definitely be training partners with caspar, and i think he’d actually be like. really good at talking to bernadetta? maybe seeing her reminds him of how he was when he was younger. maybe he gets her out by introducing her to minerva. much to think about. but in general he would keep mostly to himself with standard gerome “cant get close to people that i cant guarantee will stay with me” fashion i think he probably wouldnt be as close as say someone like inigo or nah would be with the house. so when the time to choose a side comes… i dont think he’d have the relationship with edelgard to pick her. i think he would oppose her ideals, and go with nah, if not flee fodlan entirely because omfg who careeesss…. WHO CAREEESS his ass is in wyvern valley (no i think he’d fight. but he’d def consider dipping)

m!morgan is here because i think it would challenge him. guy who is so cute so earnest so ready to be happy in school learning everything hes ever wanted hoping to come home and make momma proud and oh my god he got put in the most crazy house imaginable. whoever his professor is is probably like wow morgan you have a gift for tactics! why dont you try managing the class for a mission? and being morgan he’d go YES ABSOLUTELY!!! unfortunately this house has hubert. and ferdinand. and bernadetta. and linhardt. and caspar. the thing about robin and the shepherds is that most people immediately respected robin as their tactician and robin was able to connect and befriend most of them fairly easily because they were mostly all sane and normal people. the black eagles are most definitely not and have you guys seen that black eagles seating chart post? well. i just think it’d give morgan a hard time and between him and f!morgan its funnier if its him. also splitting him from the justice cabal for timeskip angst sorry. also i think it’d be cool if he took edelgards side. i dont actually know which way he’d lean thats a tossup like this is a character that i could believe would trust byleth’s judgement and go with them but if its edelgard i think that could set up fun conflict between him and nah. grima vs naga part 2!! though i actually did have him for blue lions first if only because of the three houses the blue lions probably need a tactician type the best but. i like this one better.

so for blue lions i immediately clocked owain like look at this guy. i think owain would see the house of cool knightly chivalrous types fighting for justice and being cool and having swords and i just think he’d be in heaven. i also think, to him, dimitri would be a figure to look up to similar to lucina, but with the difference that they are not family and owain might put him on an even higher pedestal because theres this sense of familiarity he had with lucina thats not really there anymore? kind of similar to ashe and dimitri. and when the timeskip comes, i think he’d be endlessly devoted to dimitri even still, never forgetting who he was before and striving to bring him back, still thinking of this idolized version of him, even if it puts himself at risk. i also think in general, owain would thrive in the blue lions house. felix, ashe, ingrid, dedue, annette— those are all prime support partners for him that have a lot of potential. the blue lion house is very… the way that they are. and something owain shows in fates is that though hes very good at using his theatrics to ease people, whether that be on purpose or otherwise, and by god do the blue lions need it. look at them… jesus.

cynthia is in the blue lion house for similar reasons but i think she has a key difference from owain. while i think owain is the type to go down with the ship, i think cynthia might actually serve as an opposition to dimitri and potentially go against him in a similar fashion to felix and annette in thats hidden in the games files and was never put in the game (WHEN IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN. dimitri doesnt get enough push back in azure moon!! another post for another time though). in their time at the academy, while owain is fangirling over dimitri, i think cynthia would too at first. but fodlan is very different than ylisse, and in particular faerghus treats its knights and specifically women knights very differently than cynthia wouldve otherwise been treated. i think this would push cynthia into questioning faerghus’s ideals (especially in getting close to ingrid who im sure she’d find friendship in) and eventually dimitri in how he seemingly upholds those ideals. when he goes down a darker path in the timeskip, she’d probably take felix’s more critical approach, and i think she could turn on him. for the empire? probably not. but i dont think she’d be as down as owain or ingrid to keep following him when hes not taking accountability for what hes doing. she might find her way back once hes come back to himself but who really knows. not me (<- girl who is writing all of this)

yarnes a funny pick because lions are supposed to be brave and fearless and hes a Rabbit. but obviously yarne would be very aware of that irony and i think it could serve as a push for him to come into that bravery, and thats something i think the lion house could help him do. i think he’d look to dimitri for solace similar to how he does with lucina, and dimitri would be very happy to provide that for him. when the timeskip comes and dimitri is lost, i think yarne would have to find it in himself to abandon that anxiety for a bit to come help ease dimitri, sort of repaying him for his initial kindness (read: i want eyepatch scary dimitri to find stress relief in petting a big ass bunny). also i dont need yarne to be in the same house as petra and marianne for him to interact with them. dont worry thats a thing. also if youre a real one you recruit marianne to blue lions everytime. no i dont know how they’d handle bringing a taguel to fodlan i dont really care either

for severa i think, even if she would rather not admit it, justice and loyalty are very key parts of her character. its buried underneath her mean girl attitude and like five pounds of trauma but its there. and what are the blue lions if not loyal knights with very LOUD auras of sadness? she would be similar to felix in terms of their views on knighthood, and obviously her whole thing with cordelia would put her at odds with the whole dying for your king/for glory thing faerghus has going on. similar to cynthia she’d be very critical of faerghus and dimitri except she’d be that way to his face. she doesnt have the same personal beef with him the same way felix would, and might be a little more like how i imagined inigo would be to edelgard, criticism with the better interest of the greater good rather than formed of personal beef. in the end though, i think she would stick with dimitri. also i think she’d have insane sexual tension with ingrid like i dont think theyd like eachother but like. my vision… do you see it.

bradys in lions partially due to mutual influence (hi zorua) but also because i ended up liking his potential with the lions as opposed to the deer or eagles. he’d have a very cute friendship with mercedes and annette i think, playing violin for them and having tea party gossip sessions. i think he and dedue could bond over being kinda scary but doing what they can to ease people’s fear of them. since thats an insecurity for both of them that brady purposefully takes steps to get rid of (ex: him hunching over is so that he can be eye level with children and people shorter with them so as not to come off as intimidating or more powerful) i think brady could help with that. though if im being so real i dont think he would like dimitri. i think he would stay and stick around and help dimitri get better. but i dont think he’d approve of his bloodlust and be very open with his issues in regards to how dimitri handles and carries himself. sorry guys im not meaning to have dimitri catch so many strays here 😭 i love the guy i just also like when theres conflict here i promise

laurent is in the golden deer because i think he and claude would be very like minded people in terms of trying to discover the secrets behind fodlan and what that means and how to better navigate fodlan as uncharted territory. theyre both foreigners, as are all of the second gen kids, but thats something claude keeps under wraps that i think laurent would be able to tell very quickly (not that it was hard. claude doesnt hide it well its just that everyone in fodlan is either stupid or all the smart people are kept away from him) that claude is from almyra. i think this knowledge could help him serve as something of a confidant to claude. obviously he wouldnt tell laurent everything but when claudes supposed closest allies are lorenz (guy who hates him and prays for his downfall) and hilda (girl who is racist and from a racist family) its just like. well maybe claude should have another friend who is normal adjacent at least, and laurents not the type to go blabbing anyways. obviously both lorenz and hilda (eh. well.) get better about their mindsets post timeskip but i think in the time of the academy laurent would be a very valuable friend for claude and vice versa. in general laurent would do well anywhere because i think most of his interest would be with the technological and scientific advancements of fodlan which is flexible, but i think, with rhea purposefully halting progress and claude being the main guy who wants truth above all else, this is the best spot for him. could hear an argument for him going to edelgard (potential recruit out of house recruit fs) but i do like him with claude a bit more. gerolau angst also.

lucina is in golden deer because i dont want her in the other two houses but also because i do think, similar to laurent, she’d be very valuable to claude and vice versa. awakening world building is horseshit but from what little we do know there is quite a bit of political discourse that lucina probably knows quite a bit about. even if her timeline was thrown into war when she was young, she probably had some form of royal training and can help claude navigate fodlan a little bit. i also think coming to fodlan would just be a very refreshing experience for lucina as the burden of everything is no longer directly on her shoulders, and i think she’d be looking for a broader perspective on life and finding another purpose for herself now that grima is dealt with. i think claude would be able to help her with that and i think she’d be genuinely interested to learn of his homeland once she figures out where hes from (i do think laurent beats her to the conclusion but not by a lot. remember this is lucina aka marth aka woman her disguised her own royal status and was very successful at it. just saying). also while i did say that golden deer is in fact not the meme house, i think they are more light hearted overall in terms of character (does NOT mean meme house or funny house. look me right in my eyes and say the house WITHOUT hubert and linhardt is the meme house. fucking liar) and i think lucina would love that. i want her to get the chance to be silly and childish for a little bit. characters like raphael and marianne and lysithea might help her heal that inner child that she never really got to let out and i just think the golden deer house would be the best place for her

morgan is here because i didnt want her and marc in the same house thats too easy. but while i think claude is the least in need of a tactician type character, him and morgan would be sooooo funny so cute and i need someone who can keep him on his toes. i think he blurts out a plan and morgan goes “ermmm ackchully” and half of the time her rebuttals are complete nonsense she just wants to argue. i think they both enjoy it. i also think, similar to lucina, a light hearted house would be a little better for her. shes much more prone to mischief than m!morgan is i think and i think the deer would benefit from that if only so she can target lorenz and make me laugh. i also think separating the twins would make for fantastic angst down in the timeskip but for now shes just hanging out having fun being a piece of shit. #girl also i think its funnier if one morgan is absolutely thriving and the other is barely keeping his shit together and by god it is way funnier if its f!morgan getting away with everything

noire is here because. i. could not think of a reason for her to go anywhere else! i thought about putting her in beagles but i dont think making that choice between the church and edelgard would be as interesting for her? and i dont think putting her in lions would do anything for her. i think the best lord and the best house at helping her through her issues and being understanding of her mood changes is probably claude and the deer. i could see hilda and leonie reaching out to her, or ignatz and her getting on pretty well, but im not quite sure on the specifics of that. my least thought out placement but also it doesnt matter because it keeps the placements balanced to put her here. i’ll have to give this one more thought…

anyways if you can believe it this is the cutdown version. i know right. i hope i didnt forget anyone that would be really embarrassing

[suffarustuffaru]

How do you think Subaru and Otto could actually work out like long term relationship work out

INTERESTING QUESTION ANON i think it depends on whats going on with the situations they get into or whats happening in the timeline theyre in but i think ottosuba in any sort of longer term relationship (as friends or romantic partners) would work out in one of several possibilities:

good ending!! they stay good friends for the rest of their lives, resolve all differences, recover a bit from their respective insecurities and traumas over time, and stay close :) otto may or may not get hung up on subaru a bit in the back of his mind (bc he probably wants subaru carnally judging off of the Details that rezero staff keep adding into otto side content) but he’d do his best to move on 👍 and ultimately theyd be happy!! yay happy ending!! this is the best case scenario.

their relationship tragically explodes in their faces due to Too Much Conflict and it may or may not end in some death

Somehow. Against All Odds. In Some Sort of Alternate Universe…. subaru and otto are dating romantically and they always need each other anyway in any universe so im just gonna assume theyd probably get married and be attached at the hip (good ending) or be. you know. their typical codependent selves and make each other simultaneously worse and better.

but either way metaphorically i think theyre basically married regardless of how they define their relationship bc they Do need each other. they are staying by each others sides forever if they can help it.

i think in general though if we’re talking more of that main route complicated friendship, imo i think realistically on ottos end there could be somee sort of unrequited romance there (too many little details about ottos attachment to subaru that add up and heavily remind me of rems attachment to subaru). subaru isnt privy to it and neither of them fully know about each other, as much as they do still Know a good amount of things about each other. i think that their current main route dynamic is like i said either gonna end in tragedy or itll be rocky for a while and then eventually end happier.

i dont think theyd get into a romantic relationship ever as they are now in main route unless you mess around with the timeline a bit. ottos otto with his avoidant tendencies and his desire to help subaru as much as possible so of course hes gonna be the type to stand by and be happy for subaru at his wedding or whatever but be dying inside a little knowing itd never be otto there. and subaru shows far more romantic interest in emilia and previously rem obviously, but julius is way up there of course. otto is a best friend but not a lover.

otto fully admits to subarus face that he cant date a woman as he is now bc she wouldnt be his priority. the most important thing to him. bc otto is otto he probably means his career goals (being the emilia camp internal affairs minister and getting his own store) but the line is so open ended it makes total sense imo if he also meant prioritizing the emilia camp in general—especially subaru.

i think otto is currently at that level of clinginess that even if he went to eventually date or marry someone who isnt subaru, he’d still think of subaru. and its not that subaru doesnt want and need and love otto or see him as lesser than subarus other loved ones, bc subaru really really cares about otto and loves him unconditionally, but when you think of who subaru thinks of and turns to first, naturally youre probably thinking of beatrice or emilia or rem or julius. of course every dynamic subaru has with different loved ones of his is special in their own ways, otto included, but otto continually seems to be shadowed when it comes to subaru.

and otto of course knows that. hes not the First to be there for subaru. he knows this the moment he starts interacting with subaru more in arc 3 and 4 and witnesses subaru do so much for emilia. when otto also witnesses emilia caring so much for subaru, excitedly rambling about him to frederica while otto watches quietly and wonders why hes jealous of emisuba’s closeness. otto watches emisuba quietly again and realizes why they care so much for each other, why subaru fights so hard for emilia. otto is bitter when subaru doesnt ask him for help bc otto was there always following in subarus footsteps. otto goes out and risks his life while emisuba argue and then eventually kiss in the tomb. otto watches again as julius’s existence further threatens otto’s insecurity of being useless to his loved ones and julius fits in with emisuba while otto cant.

i do think its interesting to note though that otto of course steps back because he wants subaru happy, and bc he also cares about emilia too—but otto gets defensive with julius for all sorts of reasons. my personal theory is that theres also a sense of loyalty here bc in ottos head, sure hes not gonna be like subaru’s Lady. but ottos the Closest Man in subarus life, right? (until julius comes along after otto spends a year living with and serving subaru.)

its also interesting to think about how this compares to otto if, where the dynamics with ottosuba are slightly reversed all bc otto IS the first person to be close to subaru. otto isnt a dog following at subarus heels in the same way anymore, hes not a shadow—theyre both in the light instead as equals, and instead of otto supporting subarus dream, its subaru supporting ottos dream (of opening a store and running a successful business!! which they kinda did bc they got their own market stand!!). inadvertently theyre also supporting each others Implied dreams: curing their loneliness and having someone at their side who truly cares for them and spends all this time with them. main route ottosuba also support each other of course but theres far more cost with all the trauma theyre going through and the conflicts rising between them that theyre not fully aware of (rbd and both otto and subaru hiding info/parts of themselves away).

in a general long term, ottosuba would have to put everything out in the open and be fully honest with themselves and each other to the best of their ability if they want to still have their friendship by the end of all of this bc all the lies and insecurity is tearing them apart :((

otto and subaru are people who need to be needed. they kind of try to secure love towards them at times by becoming indispensable to other people, they submit to other people with their own insane devotion and theyd go to any lengths.

with ottosuba specifically, otto is the first to die for subaru and reach out to subaru first, even in the white whale loop bc otto goes back for subaru after regretting pushing subaru out of the wagon. subaru knows otto is willing to die for him. subaru in arc 8 thinks about how he needs otto and how it would suck for otto to die, and in general, otto is a source of safety and dependability for him. otto is smart and capable and loyal, he can solve problems that i cant figure out by myself, and i can count on him and tease him. that sort of sentiment. subaru to otto is the first person to actually want otto, the first person to Literally claim otto as his (arc 4 wn subaru joking about otto being “his side toy”, but also the otto’s diary episode where ram calls otto subarus accessory and otto admits he likes it), the first person to actually want otto to stay to the point of hiring otto without his consent, the first person to—like otto with subaru—search for otto first by sending ricardo to save otto from the witch cult.

ottosuba get into a feedback loop where they need to be needed, and they need each other and acknowledge the other has things they dont have (otto’s calculating nature, subaru’s idealism and determination). otto is also different for subaru bc hes someone he can pull along in a way subaru cant with other people his age in his life—otto has to be teased and poked and prodded and pushed and normally subaru doesnt get this sort of role, and otto needs someone who can be pushy like that so he can actually be pushed to admit he Wants Connection. at the same time though, otto leads subaru by the ear, instructing and helping subaru with strategy and demanding subaru turn to him for help, pushing subaru to accept it for once. its a true feedback loop for sure !!

hypothetically speaking if they were in a romantic relationship itd just be like their usual dynamic as friends but with extra steps. theyre as clingy as ever, but either way…. they have issues to get past. and i think itd have to start with otto, bc due to rbd subaru is Incapable Of Talking all that much about that anyway. ;-;; ottos the one whos literally holding back, and he needs to be honest about his general insecurities and try to communicate and admit stuff like “im scared we’re all going to get hurt so i keep wanting to do anything to stop that from happening” or “i feel horrible just not being able to do anything while the rest of you are out risking your lives bc i dont want anything bad to happen to you and i Need to do something to help” or “maybe i just need you to keep needing me so that i know you wont leave me behind again” or “i thought that the only thing i was good for was literally staying in your shadow and doing all the shitty stuff that you cant” (hahaha otto does not know about subarus bad case of stockholm syndrome and dying and being tortured sooo very much ;-;;;;;).

i think itd take a lot of work to get past the current hurdles in their dynamic, especially with rbd making it more messy, especially with subaru not being able to talk about it, especially with ottos Shit probably is gonna hit home for subaru bc hes felt Similar, especially when ottosuba as a dynamic mirrors other ships like emisuba (otto is the subaru, subaru is emilia) and remsuba (codependency and sacrificial tendencies :,) ). so this is all gonna be uncomfortably close to home over and over for subaru, otto is allergic to vulnerability too, and otto is once again in the shadow of everything subaru is so. if they want a healthier dynamic everythings gotta be in the light <33333333333 </33333333

anyway and i think in long term either they fix all their shit or they sort of fix it by being Unhealthily Attached At The Hip At All Times. the latter would just be Extra Codependency Speedrun Any % where its like otto if where they live together and spend time together all the time except if they get separated for two seconds the abandonment issues start showing (that subarus had for a long while but ottos been slowcooking since his backstory). they hear the other needs them for something (this happens often) and immediately drops what theyre doing to run over there. they either fight to sacrifice for each other in weird little cold wars or theyre working scarily in sync bc if one person goes the other Always Follows like a damn guard dog. theyre not a duo, theyre one and the same. ottos control freak ass gets to pull subaru around and Protect him. subaru keeps a close eye on otto and Protects him, but lets otto lead him around as much as subaru likes to push otto’s buttons a bit. its kinda like their pre-arc 6 dynamics but dialled alllllllllll the way up. theyd be like the remsuba sort of sweetness where its unhinged af and most definitely not the healthiest thing in the world but if it works it works right ahahahahahahh…..

i also think in general a romance between ottosuba would be highly domestic yeah but in the old married couple way. very similar to how their friendship is anyway. being simultaneously hopelessly helplessly fond but also so very annoyed but also i see you everyday, so of course im annoyed (i love you). stop drooling on the pillows when you sleep >:<<<< dont stay out of the house for too long. dumbass. idiot. and i think on subarus end for ottosuba romance to start he’d have to 1. recognize ottos feelings are Probably Not Entirely Platonic and 2. i think if subaru did ever gain more Romantic feelings for otto itd be more subtle for him? ottos the one who falls head over heels like hes gonna give himself a concussion, subarus the one who has otto there as this nice constant until subaru realizes one day that he erm Needs and Wants Otto So Very Much. waiiittt a goddamn minute you Like Liked me this whole time????? thats INSANE…. (has never been wanted carnally by another guy before).

anyway i hope that makes sense anon 👍👍 ty for the ask :3 sorry if i answered it a little off bc i misread ur ask or smth ;-; but i hope you enjoyed reading this regardless 👍 anyway have some posts that remind me of them ;-;;;;;; —

[lazyveran]

Oh lazyveran the fire squad is HORRENDOUS!!!! I love it. Please, elaborate on Azula's particular role in and thoughts on this awful little smorgasboard. Does she feel conflicted about how Katara is changing the dynamics? Dies she even register anything changing? Whats her relationship like with Zuko in this au. What does a day in the life of the squad look like and what does it look like to Katara, who isnt steeped in decades of intricate rituals. Please 

genuinely gives me such joy to make them so awful. terribly terribly nepo babies that will ruin ur life. long rambles below cut hehe

SO! azula is. well she doesnt think there's much wrong with it. i mean, on an intellectual, psycho-analysis level she knows ty lee is a insane, mai is also insane and her brother is [redacted]. but ultimately she doesnt see anything wrong with any of their dynamics because she has LITERALLY no one else as reference. the insane social isolation azula went thru as a child soldier and ozai's fav little nuclear bomb means its difficult for her to parse out toxic or harmful relationships she may have and ultimately, use and utility comes first in any relationship. the fire squad are simultaneously her most trusted confidants, her closest companions, people she'd entrust with her life and legacy and the weight of her father's, and later iroh's, missions to AND assets to be used, strings to be pulled, and loose ends to be monitored. plus she wants to gossip with them. shes the princess, it's her agni given right to bitch and moan abt the peasants!

azula's mindset is all layers of fucked, basically. im aiming for a vibe in which azula herself has no idea how she really approaches and feels for her friends. its emotionally complicated, azula is horrendeous at understanding that kinda thing. the fact that she's so hyperaware of her position as royalty means she locks herself desperately into that role and doesn't allow herself to go beyond it. that implies a distance between her friends she halfheartedly attempts to keep. but the bottom line is that she's insanely loyal because they invest that back into her. azula's a woman who values devotion above all else. she's desperate for it. You Have To Stay. Everyone Else She Loved Has Left Her. STAY. FOREVER. to do so will be to assist and witness her eternal glory and the shining legacy she will deliver to the nation. she will elevate them to the greatest heights, reward their loyalty tenfold!!! JUST STAY. DONT LEAVE HER. NOT LIKE THE DEAD ONES AND THE GONE ONES-

(also, azula is narrow minded in a sense. she understands people implicitly but believes her own personal goals are the Ultimate Ones. everyone wants power, glory, legacy and the love of a nation. they have to, right? why else would she strive to achieve them, if it's not the perfect pinnacle of all human endeavour? she wants to reward her most trusted friends with what she percieves is the ultimate prize in life, so does so from this weird half distance as a princess. shes really weird. her love language is probably acts of service (and all she knows how to do is kill))

azula and katara's relationship is awfully complicated. for a start, azula presumes domination within the relationship. it's sort of something azula just. takes for herself. as her nature, and because katara isnt initially someone she wants to dig her claws in to force them to Stay. she fully expects that she will simply have some new woman near her sometimes and she'll get on with Important Work with the besties. then katara KICKS HER ASS, FORCES her to look and see katara as someone equal, someone worth respecting and listening to. ultimately she does come to respect katara, and that unknowingly starts to change her. as in, azula gets bullied into it. repeatedly. and getting frostbite that one time. and in her draw towards katara, azula begins drifting from the (not at all realised) dependency on her squad and more towards katara. because she has an equal! and thats!!! azula never really thought she'd HAVE one! katara is her WIFE, there's no presumed distance to keep!!!!! so she gets super duper obssessed with that. she wants to eat katara alive, she's enraptured by this woman.

so.. the worst siblings ever... zuko and azula were alone in the palace with only each other for years after ursa's disappearance and azulon's death. it made them so tremendously dependant on each other. azula believes that her brother is the one thing she can protect, wants to save, is her final piece of family and something good and there's no one else, NO ONE else. HE HAS TO STAY. it's very intense. the fire siblings trust each other implicitly and convince themselves that they're going to be stabbed in the back by each other. they're tied together in blood and want to kill each other and constantly butt heads and argue and contradict each other. and they're the united front of the last of ozai's line. the only ones who understand what it was to be a child of ozai and ursa. azula wants to bite zuko's head off and zuko constantly wonders if azula has been sent by a dark spirit to bring endless suffering to his life. true terrible siblings that would raze a country to the ground for the other, then slide a dagger into their back while they watch it burn.

their day to day life is a little boring, really. ty lee flits in and out of the palace on whims. if court is fun, she'll go. if there's a gala, she's there. if its boring? she'll leave to some FN island for a month and a half making connections, meeting nobles, being entertained, probably picking up a WEIRD hobby and/or romantic partner for a week. she sends a bajillion letters back abt her travels - that azula diligently reads and that mai dgaf abt and gets the synopsis off of azula. then ty lee returns, and rinse and repeat.

mai is officially a political advisor, representative of her father and close confidant of the princess-general azula. in reality, she fucks around the palace pursuing whatever she wishes, and conducts a very very terribly obvious affair with zuko that half the goddamn nation knows about. she's happy coasting along, dipping her hand into politics and national affairs every now and then to keep up apperances, and acting as a spy for azula when she wants to. they have a nice little setup.

azula is quite literally busy from sun up to sun down. she's got one billion projects constantly; ranging from political, scholarly, artistic, so on. she manages her own little spy network, she manages half the nobles in court, she micromanages the nation's finances. she's so insanely busy, and thats how she likes it. she always has time for tea with mai and training with zuko somehow. and zuko is much the same. he's never alone in a room, and always has a pile of work to get through. as the crown prince he's heavily involved in all flavours of meetings and consultations. he usually leaves the noble shmoozing to azula, though. he hates them.

they all work together pretty cohesively, since they were born and raised into these roles of nobility. katara was. not. katara absolutely, desperately DESPISES the fn royal court. no one tells her fucking ANYTHING about the tiny intricate sublties. its all very ridiculous to her. the stubborn, proffessional distance everyone keeps with each other is the worst of it for katara, who grew up in a very loving community that has no issues about physical or emotional intimacy. it's terribly lonely. she's stubborn enough to keep bashing her head against the wall trying to work her way through it, bc she refuses to be excluded from the halls of power of her new life. she's also kind of upset that despite being married to azula, she rarely ever SEES her, hardly gets the chance to know her (and connect with the one person she's allowed to have in the endlessly lonely palace halls). azula is simply so absorbed into her duties (and avoiding katara) that they only glimpse each other in their shared quarters. to katara's irritation and mai's distaste, those two seem to be the only people who see each other regularly. its really not a fun time for katara. she stumbles and makes mistakes and it's only then she ever gets to see her wife - and it's always azula's ire that she gets to recieve. toxic yuri.....

SO. thank you for asking abt this. i hope my complete word vomit makes a lick of sense. i adore talking about this au. peace and love on planet azutara

[wiihtigo]

wiihtigo.tumblr.com/post/743934944739557376/ okay enough about Nell dying. what about that bad ending 2 with Casey dying 👀

grimacing at you sort of mournfully

similar to nell I think it happens during some big event- not as big as a crisis event alien invasion like nell but a citywide threat..(otherwise known as a regular tuesday in gotham), nell is out as ladybug helping out along with some gotham regulars (i imagine batman and nightwing are skulking around) shes not working WITH them exactly. theyre just out and shes also out at the same time and theyre fighting the same things. you see.

casey tags along sometimes when ladybug is out doing her thing because she lowkey doesnt respect nells job and thinks they can just combine patrolling and hanging out, BUT this time she actually stayed home. shes just laying on the couch, maybe scrolling her phone or finding something to watch on tv or dozing off into a nap when something hits their building. For the kind of big show-y jackass-y destruction thats happening in the city ive had it in mind this is a joker stunt. Not that thats super important even, hes not directly involved with casey blowing up. Anyways something hits their building and casey is crushed or...pierced by debris. She manages to fish out to phone (now cracked to shit) and calls nell for help (her reasoning being that nell will treat her as priority and come get her and help her ASAP meanwhile the ambulance's and police in gotham are pretty busy already)

Luckily, Nell picks up and immediately hears something is wrong even though casey (delirious and in shock) does not open with "there is a wooden beam lodged in my ribs come fucking get me" and instead is like "um...are you almost finished with work i think you should come home now. someone broke your window. its cold in here" but her voice is really strained and shes breathing kind of hard.

Nell is already speeding away but hes really far from their apartment and these stupid henchmen just keep getting in the way and its hard to keep casey talking when casey is usually the one DOING THE TALKING. but they do. keep talking together i mean. nell is kind of short with her at first because hes also kind of freaking but once casey starts panicking near the end when hes starting to realize hes cooked he starts lying to him telling him that hes almost there hes almost up the stairs and to just hang on a second more (hes like 20 blocks away)

at first casey was like. freshly in shock. so she wasnt talking about things like they happened. she asks nell to come home and clean up the glass on the floor because if she looked down and sees the blood coming out of her she was going to flip out or something. but the longer nell takes the more she starts to get scared and desperate and whiny (notice how i can find ways to insult her even as shes dying..now thats love) the more nell lies to her the more her solid faith in ladybug saving her ungrateful self is wavering. shes never let her down before! casey always follows nell/ladybug around and gets into trouble and nell always picks up her by the scruff of her neck and drags her back home. its basically what their relationship was built on, nell taking a random criminal home and promising to keep her on the up and up. nell is big and tough and strong and confident and independent and stable. these are all qualities casey really liked about nell right from the get go and its why, aside from being given a rent free place to live in, she stuck around this long even through the less desirable traits of hers and how insufferable she finds her sometimes.

in her fear (and pain) she starts swinging wildly between anger and pleading like "why arent you here yet!??! do you think im gonna die?? are you even coming?? are you doing this on purpose because youre mad at something i did.? WELL IM SORRY! FUCK! WILL YOU PLEASE COME GET ME NOW!!!!!!' (im sure this isnt doing anything to help nells stress levels. can someone tell her to relax?)

Nell.....did the smartest thing anyone has ever done in the history of the world, and before, when he took the call and nightwing noticed his alarm and comes down to say "hey is everything ok--" he brushes him off and speeds off to go deal with casey himself. Because casey is his responsibility and he doesnt really like nightwing. or any of the bats. nell is self sufficient, over confident, and (quoting from marty) "she has tunnel vision and chronic independence syndrome and by viewing caseys wellbeing as her own responsibility she has inadvertently doomed them" (unquote) (crowd booing sfx)

he could have asked for help from someone who could fly, or asked oracle to patch him through to an ambulance to get to the apartment faster than she could, or accepted nightwings offer to help knowing that hes more experienced than she is as a hero or done any number of things that would have to involve swallowing his pride, but he didnt and when he arrives back home casey is already gone

to be fair she wasnt really thinking straight. but wow, way to go nell. you really fucked that one up. can we cancel this heinous heinous bug?

when i compare our intrepid heroes death scenes in my mind i lol bcuz nell is like (coughing up blood) fuuuck i cant believe i loved that stupid girl. oh well. bleh. but casey in her last moments is like NO NO NO NO NO I DONT WANT TO DIE STOOOOP WTF WTF WTF

i think shes so panicked and frantic and scared in her last moments the complete opposite of nell accepting death and feeling content she did everything she could have (at least in regards to crimefighting that day)

she probably didnt even think it was a possibility until the last minute. shes so self confident. too self confident. some might even call it...stupidity.

in the way nell is letting her eyes creak shut thinking about a phantom image of casey and is just filled with regretful sadness, casey is not thinking fondly on ANY memory shes clutching onto her phone and wishing nells voice would jump out of the speakers and be there in front of her and carry her away and keep taking care of her FOREVER i mean keep financially supporting her until shes casted into the new scream film. she cant accept shes going to die. she wont accept it. she did so much hard work for so long to make something of her life and it was all just going to end in one night...she finally found a friend she could stomach the company of, actually enjoyed the company of, and it was all for nothing. AGAIN! these are depths of despair only previously felt when booster FIRED HER! she doesnt ..blame nell, exactly. well she kind of does. but its different than it was with booster. she put the full brunt of blame entirely on booster to shield herself from the possibility .. maybe her own choices and actions have something to do with the outcomes in her life? (NO NOT POSSIBLE) she is angry at nell for not being there. but shes also sad and confused and scared and all these mixed up emotions and even though shes angry at nell Somewhat she also...eugh....CARES about nell, and she thinks that nell also cares about her. (unclear in what way. and now we'll never know..SAD) so she isnt casting hexes on her like she had with booster, who she knew didnt really give her the time of day like ever. she just wishes she wouldve been there with her

but when have i ever given casey anything she wanted.

again, i advise you to go knock down martys door if you want more nell deets but im told ted and michelle support him through this (and isnt that more than casey ever got in the canon end? see..not so bad)

im also told he doesnt tell spider, caseys mom, about casey dying until 8 months after the fact. which im sure just about drives that poor woman over the edge. nell bishop are you ready to die..?

[gingersp1ce547]

I think q!cellbit’s treatment of q!pac starting with that first message during the fed worker murders stems from the fear that q!pac will inevitably betray and abandon him like he did on that island after their escape from prison. That fear causing him to want to keep control over q!pac by weaponizing q!pac’s fear of him. Which then conflicts with him also wanting q!pac to be happy and safe causing his self-esteem to continually sink.

Its one part of the continual cycle of q!cellbit falling back onto the violent and manipulative tactics he learned and had to use to survive during his time in the hunger games, the war, and prison when he or someone he cares about is threatened, feeling shame about the fact that he does so but justifying it by saying that it’s because thats just the way he is instead of acknowledging that he is not his trauma responses.

By this explanation, the reason q!cellbit left the first message during the murder of the federation workers would be because of the first part of the explanation (acting because of the fear that q!pac will betray him again) after noticing that q!pac’s fear of him had resurfaced. I would also argue that his fear of betrayal and abandonment was exacerbated by the disappearance of the eggs and the 2/5 of the favela five being missing in the nether or in a coma (i’m not counting felps as missing because felps)

The same can be said for a majority of their interactions during purgatory 1 (&2 depending on if cc!pac has purgatory 2 be canon for his character).

However this explanation also accounts for the few interactions in which q!cellbit is not hostile to q!pac, Most notably their short talk after the warzone event on day 13 of purgatory.

In this talk q!cellbit says that q!pac did well today before walking off. This is important because during the event q!pac got a kill (or maybe 2? I need to double check) on q!cellbit.

With that knowlege, it would be expected for q!cellbit to react with anger and violence at loosing some of his control over q!pac but he doesn’t because at the end of the day he cares more about q!pac then he does himself. He wants q!pac to fight back, he wants q!pac to not fear him both because if q!pac isnt afraid of him he has less reason to betray/abandon him and because he knows his actions cause q!pac distress and are wrong (q!cellbit saying that the posters q!pac put up around chume labs are valid is a good example of this)

To go more into theory territory, I can see q!cellbit wanting q!pac to be the one to put him out of his misery and be the hero of the story.

During the happy pills arc, q!cellbit consistently acknowledged q!pac’s strengths and intelligence. He’s under no false perception that q!pac is weak of mind or body but he also knows that q!pac’s fear of him when coupled with his low self-esteem leads him to not use his strengths.

I think that in q!cellbit’s mind if q!pac can overcome that fear and self-doubt than there is no reason that q!pac can’t stop his vicious cycle of violence and self-destruction.

[cult-bull]

Crowns - Symbiotic or Parasitic? Thoughts

So like, I think It's pretty much established that its at least partially the crowns who create gods.

It takes worship and favor, we have the lore tablets telling how someone created the first gods and people like clauneck and his siblings. The owl has a crown, since they too are a god. Crowns and gods go hand in hand, forever.

But crowns can also make gods it seems. The Bishops all weren't godly to begin with, they found their crowns or the crowns found them. They might not have even been properly sentient before finding the crown, depending on how the game treats followers and their anthro forms in comparison to the more animalistic enemies, like the spiders in Silk Cradle.

It is possible the original god who made the gods and clauneck made the crowns as well? Either enough for each person created, or like, crowns to give to people who proofed themselves through worship and gaining one of their own?

Possibilities, possibilities. But in the end, one cannot go without the other.

So? Are the crowns good or bad for their godly hosts? Why are they like this? Because the red crown tells us they can speak, and they can push their hosts into a direction of sin specifically.

We can also see crowns digging down into a host god/godly being.

Chemach's Crown digs into her head, and is heavily implied to be a partial cause for her behaviors and obsession with the gods

Most notably because she isnt supposed to have a crown to begin with! Neither she nor her brothers are out right gods, more like, demigods with a purpose. And Clauneck nor Kudaai wear anything resembling a crown, if we dont assume Clauneck hiding one in his tent of a body

Yet in direct contrast we have Shamura and their crown, visibly showing it also dig into their brain.

Now we have two options as to why.

Either The crowns digging into their god host is just part of their nature. However, I dont personally feel like its that likely. Aside from a crown like the red crown being able to move freely and become various things, other crowns on damaged bodies dont even show hints of their tendrils like these two crowns do. See the more damaged forms of Leshy and Kallamar for example were both have flesh showing but the crowns dont appear any more dug in than usual, in Kallamar's case even only partially sitting on top. Seeing how visible Chemachs tendrils are even without any damage to her physically, I do think wed see at least a hint more.

So option 2 is that the crown is digging into Shamura to help keep their brain alive and functioning, similar to how the other bishops had their godly powers help them stay on top of their conditions (See Heket and her speaking) and how they are affected once turned into powerless mortal followers.

This does imply the crowns actively trying to keep their host alive, which does make sense. Without a god, it doesn't seem like the crowns can do much on their own. The bishop's crowns sit on pedestals in the cult and are in a vague maybe dead maybe dormant kind of implied state.

I don't think a crown could actively take over a god though through this. If the host dies, then the crown is out of anyone to let it actually do stuff with, and breaking and taking over a mind is not an easy process if we look at Chemach, since I don't think being chained and hanging up in a self-made temple of sorts is what that crown was going for while digging into her brain. Meanwhile, Shamura's, and through implication, the crowns of the other bishops, try to keep their gods as functioning as possible.

Its a win win if all goes well, you get worshiped as a god, gain power, the crown gains more power (possibly allowing for speech and movement to begin with), and if its of any further importance, the path towards sin, seeing how the red crown can actively shapeshift into a snake like form exactly mimicking the absorbed sin looks like.

So maybe "Sin" itself is what the crowns are made from and they set up a loop that keeps them to continuously receiving it? Or maybe its more of a primordial built in goal of theirs to be a service to the gods by their original creator.

How and what exactly crowns are is an entire mystery of itself for me, but a delightful one! And I do personally not see them as a potential threat to a god itself, unless the crowns have expansive personalities who could choose to just really dislike a fella they're stuck with.

I still have lore areas to explore in the game and pieces to find so who knows, maybe I'm just missing something in game which clears everything up, but until then, ill be happy with what I have.

I do hope we get more about them though. The clear distinction yet hand in hand motives of crowns and gods is just too fascinating.