#i understand the irony of using love in this - the version where theres a happy ending and no train haunting the story -

[tolstayas]

greta garbo as anna karenina and john gilbert as alexei vronsky in ‘love’ (1927) // mitski, ‘happy’

[kyu-bri]

Magia Rapport pt 2

@magiarapport​

August 24th prompt: What was your favorite event, and why? Is it because of gameplay or the story?

It’s hard to choose so I’m gonna just, gush a bit.

As you can probably tell I’m very biased toward the OG girls, I started Magia Record primarily because PMMM had become my new obsession and I wanted some sort of constant flow of content out of decade old anime lmao.

But another thing I think I hooked onto was Inu Curry’s writing. They really know Madoka Magica and aren’t afraid to really play with them- something the writers for a spin-off gacha game (as with most spin-off stories honestly) can be scared to do. Inu Curry made references, revealed secrets and built upon the story we already know- which lets be honest is what we always truly want from a spin-off series. Magia Record proper does this well by putting more magical girls into the world and letting us see things work out better for them than for the original cast, but what I really appreciated with this story was getting to see that old original cast get to get in on that, and these events managed to do that without watering them down any.

Under the cut is me going on for 3000 words about why I love these three events I’m so sorry. TL;DR at the very end-

I’ll go in release order,

A La Carte Valentine was one of the first if not THE first event I got in on. I was eager to bc 1 Gay Magical Girl Shit Guaranteed. And ofc 2 OG Cast participation.

I want to preface by saying I actually loved all the girls’ stories in this. I was very much still in a state of getting used to Iroha’s gang let alone trying to care about the secondary girls. I knew Tsukasa had this angsty Twins Separated At Birth Deal and liked seeing her home life (also I immediantly stanned Take. Regular well-meaning dude who has no idea whats going on just trying his best and hating his boss). I knew nothing about Ami except Cowgirl Meguca and getting the bulk of her personality in one short even I think really kept me from being absolutely sick of her, she’s just a cute silly teenage girl who could be in literally anything and I was able to just endearingly giggle at that. Hinano managed to do the heterosexual unrequited crush cliché without me groaning or missing any of her regular personality. Also was there a Ren part? I don’t remember because everything Ren does feels like a Soft Yuri Valentines Special. Also I love Momoko. Ok moving on to what I Really wanna talk about.

Madoka is genuinely my Least Cared About of the Holy Sextet. I don’t think she’s bad or even boring- Madoka has a depth to her character, like, really deep- but that’s not something ever really touched upon by the fandom. Even when people like her and make her the Heroine she’s Supposed to be, it’s usually in the context of “Girl who feels nothing but kindness and happy thoughts would cut off her right hand to feed to a hungry dog. Isn’t she so Good????”. And honestly, while I understand the point it was going to make, I wasn’t crazy about her sacrifice in the end of the series. (Team Homura “Rebellion Is Good Actually” ftw) All because I think that I’m an Adult Woman watching this like “You are 14yrs old and need to be home playing Sims and not sacrificing yourself for the greater good you stupid silly little baby girl”

So my point is here near all fan content I encounter tends to emphasize whats sort of my least favorite facet of Madoka. I don’t think she made the ‘wrong’ decision in the context she and the story were given, but it’s still a sad thing to show a depressed(!!!) insecure girl resolving to give away her very existence so that every other girl on earth has a chance to just Dream. Oh and they still usually die young. But that’s ok because then she takes them and lets them sleep peacefully forever in her Heaven Basement (Yes I am bitter stan Homura I would yank this savior complex infant girl out the sky too)

MY POINT BEING (The servers closing let me BLEED OUT ALL MY FEELINGS) This event did not do that!!! It made Madoka…….. EVERYTHING SHE SHOULD BE??? ALWAYS??? Showed her HOW WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO VIEW HER??? (Read: Happy and Alive and Confident at no foreboding or sacrifice of anyone else!!!!)

She is Sassy and Surrounded By Friends and Really Funny??? And we get this Ridiculous Oh My God On Crack metaphor about her being this all-powerful apocalypse bringing being which is representing her love for the universe through her Witch form of Wanting Everyone To Be Happy And Safe With Her??? And she still risks herself to save everyone as is her Thing to do but we get to have her do it without erasing her existence as a human being at the end and if that is not some GOOD SHIT????

Ok next:

NGL Sayaka’s (fav character, inarguable best girl, can u not tell) parts in MagiReco til like the last arc have always left me a bit disappointed. She was the only late comer of the OG girls from what I understand and it kind of gives her the air of what a lot of the second(/thirdary?) girls suffer from. You can tell the writers can’t even figure out a trope to apply her to to make her easy and two dimensional to write about so they just don’t know what to do. They definitely try to make up for it (especially in the anime which Praise Be but that’s probably Inu Currys doing) but she’s still lacking like, any of the depth of her personality. Which, I guess I could anticipate. Because most of the fandom tends to as well. (again)

Gonna stop complaining and get on with- That didn’t feel as much the case in her Valentine event. Sure it was still the same formula of “The Issue Is Kyosuke” but that didn’t play out as grueling as her personal story did with “Nine Episodes Of “The Issue Is Kyosuke””

There was one big glaring heart-aching detail of “Mami isn’t really there because SHES IN A FUCKING CULT RIGHT NOW” which kind of jarred the event out of the ho-hum silly valentines sidestory these events usually keep up.

Sayaka has this crisis about Doing Anything Meaningful With Kyosuke which we all know what That’s calling back to, but in this environment we get to have Kyoko come right up and be in a position with her to earnestly and affectionately Push Her To Do It. The lonely little tsundere bitch girl pushes her Not Friend to Give The Bastard The Gotdamn Chocolate Already and for a moment you can only think about What If’s and If Only’s. Sayaka’s is still the weakest of the threes stories in this event but it worked harder to show us different sides of the characters then 6 chapters of Another Story managed to do.

And then there’s fucking Homura.

I will be, eternally grateful for Kuro. As a character that becomes metaphorical for the 2D ways we initially viewed the feathers and just NPCs in games in general, and also like, giving Homura a friend she actually cares about that isn’t the tangled dark web of Bullshit she’s gotten tied up with Madoka in. Please ask me about all my AU’s where Kuro is Homuras first girlfriend.

Seeing Moemura in Magia Record has always been a bit surreal, we never really understand just what stage of Trauma this Homura is in because Multiverses Are Hell, but this event gives us a good chunk of a Homura who still has hope and faith both in the world and Madoka. Theres this wonder to her that while still bogged down by terrible experiences still has the energy to be Trying. And she sees a girl who used to be like her- which when you think about it is probably what Madoka saw in her- and she wants to help. Because Madoka helped her. And Madoka is the best thing in the universe and maybe Homura can be just a little bit closer to that.

Kuro is too far gone though, as is the reality frequently in this series, things don’t work out just because of circumstance. Kuro was a bullied, insecure little girl who realistically shouldn’t have had to become a rampaging monster because of it. We’re reminded of this being the reality of the Madoka universe. Homura, is reminded of this reality. Homura loses this one chance to bring hope into the world like Madoka brought hope into hers.

And then her story ties into the ending of Madoka’s. Madoka saves her life yet again, even as Homura continues to feel miserable and empty. But at least Madoka is with her. The girls then share a quiet, intimate Valentines together. And you sort of understand how Homura fell so far into the darkness that the only thing she was able to still care about and fight for was Madoka’s safety.

That shit slaps. It slaps you right in the heart and causes fucking bruising but then u want it to do it again because you’re masochistic and Meguca Is Suffering.

Anyway I hope Kuroe slaps our hearts more in season2

MOVING ON!!!!

~Nagisa’s Wish~

Ok, I don’t remember what got me so simp over Nagisa, I think it was the heart-aching irony that Mami adopts the witch that fucking ate her. But that is my baby now and I’d die for her. Fandom Charlotte whose pink and silly and loves her mom and is Mami’s cancer-riddled girlfriend is cool and all but she isn’t a tiny Halloweeny baby whose fucking bitter angry and manically obsessed with cheese due to PTSD.

I had saw a summary of Nagisa’s Wish reposted just to quickly explain Nagisa’s backstory, and as such immediately had to search out if that crazy ride was true- so I actually watched this whole event probably before I downloaded the game. It was surreal on its own but replaying it when it came to NA didn’t lessen it any- I got to process more of what I was witnessing and as result stanned Yu pretty hard.

I guess to explain my Emotions here, saving Yu for later- calls for me to just, describe who Nagisa is as a human being and my headcanons surrounding it all with what this event gave us. Whether you consider it canon or not it’s one version of events that we were given and that I am all for accepting.

Nagisa’s Mom was a celebrity, she could have been an actress though I also like the idea of her being an Idol. She met Nagisa’s Dad oh-so romantically and got knocked up- they very well could have been married but it doesn’t seem clear enough. He seems to have left too suddenly for legal matters like that. Nagisa is approximately 11, and while she seems to remember her Father, she doesn’t in the sense of having had a relationship with him or any feelings. Her Mother has to “explain” why he left, so Nagisa was probably still young even if not a baby. What I’m getting at here is the timeline for when Nagisa’s Mom Got Like That. Nagisa can remember her from before she was, and then says that she got sick after her Dad left. So what I’m wondering is did Daddy Momoe ruin this young rich girls life, give her syphilis and then leave her with a baby she was unfit to care for in poverty? I know half of this is running on anime logic but Holy Shit all the possible ways reasons and ideas for why things could’ve gotten This Bad.

Is it ridiculously dark and edgy that the original story we were given was “Girl wishes her dying mother could have her favorite cake but then realizes OOPSIE-DAISY I could have wished for her to Not Die instead!!!!” got turned into “11yr old hates her abusive mother so much she wants to make her suffer in the most symbolic way she can and then goes mental when she isn’t able to do it”??? Yes. But if I had the mental capacity to I have to admit I was in a position to be just as bitter at that age too. I can’t call it unrealistic. I may infact be projecting hard with how much I support and enjoy this backstory.

Anyway Nagisa was in such a state of trauma and distress at a horrifically young age when she died that it broke her mental faculties so severely that even when she came back as a literal Angel of God she had blocked it out so deeply and thoroughly she seemingly regressed to an even younger capacity and hyperfixated on the trait that she has before used to try to bond with her Mother who she had died hating.

And that also slaps u right in the heart.

A N D T H E N !

~Beachside Bonds~

Just the simple structure of this story was so enjoyable and nicely done. We finally get to see the OG girls in a context we wouldn’t be able to in literally any other scenario. They’re going on a summer vacation together and Homura is sentimentally journaling every single second of it. Is this mayhaps because she’s never gotten to be this happy and blissful with these girls she loves so much??? Of course this is are you not paying attention what the fuck. Homura is so optimistic and healed and hopeful she’s acting like what she might actually be doing as a normal teenage girl. (A heartrending contrast to the end of her Valentines Special)

We get nothing short of pure fluffy Slice Of Life shenanigans on the beach which even includes a bunch of the Kamihama girls that the OG crew knows! And they talk about it! And introduce eachother! And their friends commentate on it! Ren gets to see Kyoko Not Being A Bitch and then Sayaka teases her about having made friends and oh my god my heart is turning into cottoncandy as we speak Mom holy FUCK

Sayaka’s existence fucking matters in this story! It’s her families Hotel they’re staying at and she has relationships and memories with the creepy twins that live there and she talks like a fucking person??? And gives opinions??? That aren’t just copypasted “Justice is Good and Bad things are BAD!!!!”

Mami is fresh out of her fucking Cult Drama and she’s still trying to be cool Senpai but then she DECKS Homura in the face and gets scared by the ghost stories and then turns into pudding and waxes nostalgia at Kyoko out of nowhere IT’S ALMOST LIKE SHE’S A FIFTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL????????

G H O S T S ? ? ? ?

Y U ! ? ! ? ! ? !

(IS G A Y ! ! ! !)

This whole fucking backstory and truly horrifying Romeo and Juliet on Acid love and death story between Yu and her girlfriend and like if I wasn’t fascinated enough by Yu just being the creepy organ harvester before but apparently thats what she became after she literally made some sort of wish that erased all of her memories besides the nickname her sweetheart used for her and coincidentally also added to her the task of killing all Bad People?????

Yu made a wish to be able to get rid of All Bad People preserving the innocent version of herself who grew up with this girl and it was right after a failed double suicide attempt on fucking Doomed Lovers Cliff fucking Lifetime Will You Ever.

It then pairs with Homura whose PTSD gets to shine through a bit in being unable to believe any bad sort of Madoka which how could you try to force her to at this point while Also pairing Homura with Ren in the “Gay Love Saved Our Lives: Traumatized vers & Vanilla vers”

I don’t remember if there was a symbolic finale and tbh I have forgotten a lot of the details with Yu and her girlfriend Whatsherface because that shit was just so shocking and bizarre to read and much too painful to reread in a timely fashion just.

That shit hurted but it was full of so much love and hope both doomed and stolen but still was wrapped up in the comforting concept that This Is The Universe Where Homura Gets To Be Okay This Time.

She’s still scarred beyond comprehension and this ghost drama accentuated it all but at the end of the day this is still the Safe Universe where all of them are alive and the Holy Quintet are friends and they’re all going to be okay (Godoka & Aniplex willing) and so many of us love Madoka Magica because it shows girls fighting through the same pain we’ve been through and keeping their hope alive and here we get to see them actually find peace in a clunkily written fanservicey spin-off mobile gacha game and hey, that made me happy while I got to experience it. Thanks for the ideas and memories and tragic backstories and funny thirdary characters MagiReco I’m gonna take em all and Run.

Akjsladbfalkjfsbslk If you read this all without getting a migraine or blocking me ily thanks for listening!!!!!!

TL;DR

Me likey A La Carte Valentine bc it’s silly and gay and I simp Kuro

Me likey Nagisa’s Wish bc sawft baby is good and so are Tragic Edgy Backstories

Me likey Beachside Bonds bc Gay Ghosts and Our Girls Finally Get To Be Happy Peaceful(ish) Teenage Girls and that’s all I want for them ;w;

Reeses In Pieces ya’ll

1Ten 2More 3Words 4To 5Hit 6(3000 7Words 8Woo 9Boy 10Howdy

[simptasia]

yall got any,,,, Lost character headcanons

my jaw has dropped because that is the broadest question that can be asked of me. like, anon, whoever you are, i love you but for the record im like:

why yes anon i do have lost character headcanons! oh boy! oh golly do i!

jack: 

bi and autistic (thinks he’s straight and neurotypical, the sad bastard. his dad has tried to smoosh him into roles he’s not meant to be. jack gleans that there’s something “wrong” with him but doesn’t understand what’s doing on which just causes more stress and self-loathing)

actually its amazing how much of jack these two things explain because… yeah… that about sums it up

kate:

bi and she’s known it a while (and her and cassidy were literally dating)

it’s implied several times but isn’t made obvious so i guess it’s a headcanon that kate was sexually abused by her bad dad

pregnant with jack’s kid after they banged pre-ajira flight

her and claire are gonna raise kids together and get married

bipolar disorder

can’t fucking cook

has a fear of domesticity due to her upbringing and the fear that she’ll end up like her mom (and this is a big part of her issues with relationships in general. that and she feels she doesn’t deserve to be happy)

it’s canon that she projected her Bad Dad onto sawyer, so logically… naturally… i can assume she projected her Good Dad onto jack. sad

charlie:

bi and a trans man (known he’s a boy since he was 5. his family were very accepting of this. it’s other people in life that were not. like at school)

histrionic personality disorder

it would require several pages of meta/headcanons for me to explain how fucked up charlie is so just trust me on this. quick summary: internalized biphobia, transphobia, slut shaming, catholic guilt, self-harm and a need for attention so desperate it could cause physical pain. this is just the cake, over it is an icing of pride and faux-confidence to cover it all up

well that’s uncomfortable, anyways: fave colour is red, has a sweet tooth and his fave treat is banoffee pie (such a manc)

claire:

bi, didn’t know it until kate

autistic (yeah this legit started because “i think jack is” and thinking about it, the irony of christian shephard spawning autistic kids amuses me)

claire is into astrology so i apply that kinda lifestyle to her in general. like tarot cards… palm reading… yoga… herbal teas. that sorta thing

hurley:

his neurodivergence is canon but never stated, so based upon his symptoms (paranoia, delusions, hallucinations, etc) i feel he has a fictionalized version of schizophrenia. i also think he has depression

i also think he has some kinda learning issue, because he’s consistently shown to have issues spelling things (words involving “y”s trouble him)

i hc him straight but funny story, it was actually an accident: i was thinking about these things and was like “well, to me, it really does feels like hurley just likes girls in that way… whats the word for that?” and i legit paused for several seconds until i realised the word for that is straight. like, i literally forgot straight people existed. so, yeah, just wanted to clear that up

desmond:

he genuinely doesn’t know he’s hot (and that’s terrible) due to ugly duckling syndrome. he was very greasy and oily as a teen. bad hair, bad skin. but over time he got hotter and des just feels the same

bi (discovered things about himself in the army)

bipolar disorder

i got him as a theatre nerd during school all cuz of a throwaday line

his dad abandoned him and his three younger brothers. their mum was already dead at this point

grew up knowing spanish too cuz of his mum. oh and des is the same race as his actor and that’s final (half white, half peruvian)

he wanted to be a doctor to earn a better living for his little bros, but gosh help him, with all he had to juggle, he just didn’t have the grades

daniel:

besides his brain damage issues, also autistic and has anxiety. also synesthesia (of the sounds as colours and colours as sounds variety)

canon dan killed many rats for experiments, MY dan loves rats and has hundreds of them as pets (named after classical musicians) thank you lost for limbo verse, where all my dreams can come true

bi demi (des was his bi awakening)

this is canon, but really fucking loves driveshaft. this boy can say some shit about their music that’d make most people go It’s Not That Deep but fuck the haters, dan has a lot of passion and love in his heart. including for punk-classical experiment fusion, apparently… what a blessing

he’s so touch/affection starved, please help him

also i’ve pretty much given him triciophilia

vegetarian due to texture issues and inability to digest meat

he doesn’t know how to drive

charlotte:

autistic (random i know, i promise this makes sense to me)

bi and in limbo in a polyam relationship with dan n miles

limbo char has a hairless cat named jean luc

speaking of which, huge sci-fi nerd, espech star trek

in my heart i consider all lost ladies to be feminists in one way or another, but char is the most likely to go off about it (aka she’s Outspoken)

think of a language, char can read n speak it. okay this is Kinda canon, but char isn’t a very well explored character so here i am, super exaggerating little canon things. implied to be kinky? now hella kinky. couple mentions of chocolate? she ADORES chocolate now. yep

miles:

depression

aro bi

canon gave me “he’s sad so he’s shitty to people” so i really, really ran with that. because that is a character type that really interests me

it’s so hard for me to talk about miles headcanons without going into paragraphs of emotional analysis meta but im gonna try and keep this short: always had issues connecting with people, victim of ableism, has never had a romantic relationship (and he’s put himself into a ‘’fuck love/romance, it’s bullshit’’ mentality), didn’t finish high school, did porn once, hates his powers but can get some money outta it

post-finale eventually he and richard will be a thing. it’s not easy, but they get there. marriage and two kids. claire’s their surrogate

loves ghostbusters

also thinking about it, i’ve made miles the kinkiest. hardcore masochist (and i did this before i noticed miles jokingly going “this is hot” to kate choking him so like, go figure)

i see a punk boy with 15 face piercings, i think… he didn’t stop there

also i have him have tattoos too but i dunno what

i value friendships i imagine miles having with the women of lost. like naomi and char on the boat and in limbo. juliet during dharma times. kate and claire post-finale. like in my mind these are great and interesting friendships/dynamics and i love them but they got no coverage in canon. like, imagine any of these things. it’s so good??? so good

richard:

he and isabella were trying to have kids for years but she miscarried several times, so that’s why they didn’t have kids

he was 40 when his aging stopped. i chose this age so i could have a nice easy number to do maths with, since richard was ageless for 140 years, making him 180 by the finale. feels comfy. (also nessie was 39-42 when he played richard so this choice isn’t like, insulting)

yes he is 150 years older than miles and he feels very guilty about that

bi demi

the actual biological dad to daniel faraday. richard was detached and celibate for a hella long time until 1962 wherein he and eloise started to have an affair (because of love, richard is a good boy) which promptly ended when their son literally died right in front of their eyes

also they buried him

loves roller coasters and gardening

he doesn’t live in the Real World but he isn’t clueless about how things are changed. richard’s basically just an old guy. he’s evolved as people have evolved. eg. no, he wouldn’t be carrying any leftover sexism, racism or homophobia from the 1800s. that’s not how that works. he used to have these prejudices but he got better as society got better

in general it’s a helluva thing that richard bore witness to humanity changing so rapidly. like, 1867 to 2007? HOLY SHIT thats huge! both the technological and social aspects would’ve been enormous. so logically richard would have to be very adaptive to cope with this (it helps that he seems inclined to do whatever he’s told, even to the point of irrationality)

over time, see so many people die, he decided to emotional distance himself from the rest of the others

im missing, like, a lot of people. and like, theres more. of course there’s more. i write lost fic in my head all the time, i just never get it down. but uh anyways i lost interest in writing this clump of lists a while ago. so here ya go

also 

simptasia.tumblr.com/tagged/lost+headcanons

simptasia.tumblr.com/tagged/lost+text+posts

and also my search function. have fun