#i was taking the screenshots as i watched and was too lazy to go back and retake all of them hsbdbsbfjsd

[starboykel]

an artist and his muse ⭑⚝²

pt1

artist! König x chubby!F!reader

!!content warnings: König is younger than canon, pistol mentioning, idk this is just fluff. Chubby reader. Extensive description of how to make a condensed milk cake. Maybe a bit out of character.

3,7k words — English isn't my first language, i apologize for any mistakes.

Since that day, you and König have been talking practically every day through the cellphone, König would often talk about his day and his new projects, sending you photos of the new paintings he was working on and recently, he started a new hobby: learn digital art. He would send you screenshots of his drawings, they were... Certainly something, it wasn't as great because he was used to work on a canvas with paint and such but, he was trying at least.

If he disappeared for 3-4 hours, you were sure he was just working on whatever his mind was thinking of, painting, digital art or even ceramic, yeah, he also started ceramic. He was trying to occupy his mind with something and it was obvious... You just didn't know he was trying to occupy his brain because you were everything in his mind.

König was having trouble painting because he couldn't focus on anything but you, his happiness was texting you everyday and looking at the selfies you send him anytime you were doing something mildly interesting, watching a movie, cooking, baking, oh god, baking, he could kill someone to taste those brownies you baked practically every weekend. He really wanted to ask you out on a date but he didn't have the guts to, you were such a pretty girl, who was he to think he had a chance with such a beautiful girl?

On your side... Well, it was the same. You were too shy to ask him out on a date, he was such a busy guy, he was painting and when he wasn't painting he was training his digital art and when he wasn't training he was doing ceramic, you didn't want to bother him. Your heart skips a beat every time he sends a photo of what he was working on, his face wasn't even on the photos but you were so in love it didn't even take too much to make you kick your feet and smile like a fool...

"Who are you talking to?" Suddenly, your father kicked you out of your thoughts, he was frowning and trying to peek on your phone as you were eating. You were already an adult but old habits never die to your father.

"M...my friend, his name is König." You reply, showing him the conversation, Anton takes a look and nods. "Your boyfriend?" He asks, you blushes slightly and shakes your head, "N-no, he's just a friend." You stutter. He gives you a look like 'yeah, sure' and then goes back to the living room, leaving you in the kitchen to finish your lunch.

You didn't have anything to do that day. You wanted to go out with your friends but they were all busy, you didn't have a photoshoot today, no modeling or something, so you would just enjoy the day, just being lazy... So you decided to bake a cake! Why not?

You looked for a recipe on the internet and found one you found interesting, 'Condensed Milk Cake'... Hmm, sounds good! And you have all the ingredients, luckily.

You grab the apron that was probably too old for its own good and protect your hair and start making the cake, it was therapeutic. In a large bowl, you pour the condensed milk, whisk in butter and the vanilla extract, over the bowl, sift four and the baking powder over the condenser milk mixture. After that, you grab the rice cooker, grease the interior with butter and pour in the batter, spreading it evenly in the rice cooker, you decide to top with some chocolate chips, put the cover on and cook for 20 minutes. After waiting, you pick a toothpick and poke the cake, it comes out clean so it means it is ready! You place a plate on top of the rice cooker pot and carefully invert. The scent of vanilla and condensed milk infested the kitchen. It was so good, you were proud of yourself, it looked delicious!

Your father walks in the kitchen, "What are you doing?" He asks, frowning slightly before he sees the cake, "Oooh, it looks good. Gimme a slice." He picks a knife and goes to cut the cake but oh no, your father didn't have the reputation of being the best cake cutter.

"Waaaaait!" You shouts, trying to stop him but your father was a man on a mission. He cuts a huge part out of the cake and walks away, you can practically see the evil smile on his face as he goes to his room, leaving you with less than a half of the cake... Goddamnit.

You sigh and decide to take a photo of the... Half cake you have, you grab your phone and try to get the best angle of it but yeah, a cake cut in half wasn't the most aesthetically pleasing thing ever.

Eating a slice of the cake while watching something was a pleasing experience at least, watching some old humoristic sitcom your father had on DVD since the 90s that he refused to get rid of was nice at best. You hear a notification coming from your phone and check it... It was König!

'Hallo, are you free tonight? I would be pleased to have dinner with you.'

You found it amusing how he always wrote it grammatically correctly, you could've never, sometimes you just forget how to write some words.

'Yeah, I'm free! Where do u wanna meet?'

'Meet me at the park, I am going to take you to the restaurant from there, at 7pm. Don't be late.'

You smile, he was always so assertive and direct sometimes, it was nice though, at least he wasn't confused about what he wanted and treated you well.

You start getting ready at 5pm, showering, doing your makeup, choosing the best clothing, fixing your hair, airdrying it and, oh god it's already 6:56pm! You run out of the house, forgetting to bring your lip oil.

You go to the park and look around for König, it was 7:04pm. You feel a cold hand on your shoulder, looking over your shoulder...

"Oh, hi Kö! How are you?" It was König! He didn't seem mad at you, good. He smiles and gives you a little pat on the head.

"I'm fine. Let's go to my car." Simple as ever. He takes your hand and leads you to the car, opening the car door for you. You two make small talk in the car on the way to the restaurant. He was wearing some nice clothes, a white button shirt that was rolled up to his elbow, black tailored pants with a belt and black shoes. It was minimalistic and he looked good on it. You could see some scars on his arms, that was interesting, maybe he wasn't always an artist.

The restaurant was nice, had a warm atmosphere and some relaxing jazz music playing. You order some alfredo pasta and chicken with some orange juice, he orders steak with onion, rice, salad, some rustic potatoes and... You lost track of the list after that, he was a bottomless pit. Oh, he ordered some apple juice for himself too.

"So, what do you like to do in your free time? When you're not doing paintings and such." You were the one to start the conversation, noticing that Konig was more of the quiet type and that, depending on him, the date would be mostly silence and eating.

"I enjoy... Uh... I enjoy television shows, I watch it when I'm... I'm not doing art..." He stuttered, not looking at you directly, you noticed that he was very nervous, his hands shaking, it was very different from the man you met before. Maybe you were starting to get under his shell.

Your soft smiles didn't help much. His mind was going a mile a second, his hand shaking and his body couldn't relax, he felt like everyone was staring at him, why wouldn't they? He's on a date with a cute girl while he looks like this giant freak, you probably don't even like him, you're just with him because you pity him youcangetsometingbetterthanhimyou—

"König?" Your soft voice slaps him out of his trance, his eyes focusing on your worried expression, "Are you okay? You seem... I don't know—" "I'm fine." He cuts you off, his hands still fidgeting underneath the table.

You were a bit confused and even a little shocked. He was so serious, confident before and now he's shaking like a wet cat. Well, he's trying to hide it but it's obvious, someone his size can't hide. You decide it's best to let him relax, stay silent for a while, let him recompose.

Well... His brain was going miles an hour, waiting for YOU to say something, to talk about something YOU like, maybe you could even forget he's there and just ramble away his anxiety... But that doesn't happen. He's waiting for you to talk and you're waiting for him to speak. Both so awkward, his anxious behavior getting into you, where you are scaring him? Why? What have you done? Did you do something that made him uncomfortable? Doeshenotlikeyouanymore-

Then, the waiter arrives after what felt not even a second, you swear you had just ordered not even 10 minutes ago. The waiter places your order in front of him and two of König's extensive list of food, the potatoes and the beef. The orange juice being placed in the middle for the both of you.

He awkwardly starts cutting his beef, the cutlery was so small in his hands that it made a task as simple as cutting a steak difficult. You eat your pasta, staring at nowhere as your mind is non stop thinking that you did something wrong. You both reached for the orange juice glass, his fingers touching yours before he flinched his hand away, just reassuring that he was scared of you on your worried brain.

The rest of the date was... Not cozy, just two looked like two pathetic wet cats that didn't know where their mama went and was scared of the world. He pays for everything, even if you insisted that you had money. You two step out of the restaurant, some significant distance from each other, and just... Staying there, waiting for the one another to say something.

"Look-" "I'm sorry-" You two speak up at the same time, eyes meeting in an anxious atmosphere, silence remains for a few seconds. "Hear-" "I apologize-" Interrupting one another again, the atmosphere getting tenser and tenser, you both take a deep breath, taking a step closer to each other. He let you talk first.

"I'm sorry, I'm not aware of what I did but I apologize for making you uncomfortable." You speak up, playing with the hem of your clothes as you try to sound not nervous.

He frowns slightly before sighing and nodding, "I'm the problem. You're not the problem, I've always been this... Social awkward, since I was a teenager. It's not your fault." He reassures, taking a step closer... Closer... Closer until he's right in front of you. He looks at you... "It's going to snow, you should go home." Before he lifts your chin and gives you a forehead kiss...

Then he turns around and walks away, you don't know that but he's panicking inside, his hands shaking and his heart beating like a drum, his face red as a tomato... That man saw you naked and is flustered because he gave you a forehead kiss! Men...

Well, you were blushing too, your mouth opened slightly in shock... The snow starts to fall, the cold feeling makes you feel even hotter inside, it has just started. You didn't know what to do so you do the same as him, you turn around and walk home... No, you can't do that. You stop in your tracks, turn back and start running towards him.

"König!" You shouts, making him stop and turn to see you. You don't know what you're doing and why but you feel like you need to do this. You reach him, panting, you weren't used to exercising. "I'm- I'm-" "You don't need to be sorry, it's okay." He cuts you off.

"No, that's not it, I-i... I-" You look up at him and you just... Can't finish your phrase, he's so handsome your heart beats and your brain stops.

He smiles softly and ruffles your already messy hair, "You shouldn't stay outside, you're gonna catch a cold... Wanna go to my place?" He speaks up, and honestly, he's being too damn bold, his heart feels like it's gonna explode out of his chest, he's trying to keep this cool guy persona but... That's not him.

You definitely didn't want to freeze outside so... "Y-yeah, sure." You nod. He takes your hand and starts walking to his car. This all feels too... Unbelievable... Damn, you're going to a guy's house after the first date? What are you? You silently judge yourself but König isn't like other guys... You hope.

The car ride back to his place was silent, some random song in German playing on the radio. His car was fine, definitely not the best or the most expensive but also not the cheapest, it was a nice car that had the necessary to live. When arriving at his place, the snow was already filling the streets with its soft whiteness, he opens the door and gets inside after you. The place was... Nice? It was a bit messy but it was comfortable.

"Make yourself at home. The TV has a little sound problem but nothing that will bother you, I'm going to take a shower, there's a few snacks in the drawers in the kitchen if you feel hungry." He welcomes you, giving you a faint smile before going to his bedroom.

You look around... Should you explore? Yeah, why not? As soon as the shower starts, you begin to wander around the house. The drawers were filled with snacks and the fridge with water, milk and egg... Nothing else. How did this man lived? Whatever. You go to the living room and turns on the TV, putting on your favorite show, yeah, the sound definitely has a problem but your ears would probably get used to it, it was some sort of faint static it could be heard on the background but whatever. As you wander through the house, the drawer closes to the door catches your eye, you open it and... A pistol and a dog tag. Your eyes widen slightly but then you frown, you take the dog tag and before you can read anything in it, a hand rips the dog tag from yours, your heart falls, your face going pale.

You gulped and looked at König, his face was dark, his eyes filled with disappointment, your eyes immediately went back to the drawer, not wanting to look at him, your hands shaking. He sighs and throws the dog tag back in the drawer and closes it. "Forgot to lock it."

You two stay silent for a while, before you murmur an "Sorry." Nervously. He shakes his head, "Don't be. It's okay to be curious... Just don't do it again." His voice was deep and dark, like if he was giving an order...

"... I'm gonna order some pizza. We can watch a movie, c'mon." He tries to sound more excited as he pulls you by the waist, leading you to the couch. You were still shocked, but trying to relax as you do breathing exercises. He tried to make small talk but you were still thinking about the pistol and the dog tag...

The pizza arrives not long after, he picks it up and goes back to the couch, placing the pizza on top of the living room mini table and putting on some movie on Netflix.

The silence was uncomfortable, the pizza munching sounds not helping. After half an hour, he pauses the movie and looks at you. "I have to explain something to you." He says in a serious tone. You look back at him and gulps, nodding.

He takes a deep breath, "I used to be a soldier, a lieutenant. I was in the army from 17 to 29, almost 30. I retired earlier because of my mental health, it was killing me from the inside." He puts his hand on his chest, "I had no choice. I've done a lot of things that shouldn't have been done and I regret it with my heart."

"You're... A war criminal...?" You ask, the tone quiet and uncertain. He shakes his head, "No... No, not that I'm aware at least." He chuckles nervously, looking away, "I've... Killed a lot of men. My hands are filled with blood... But I've never wanted it, I never wanted to be a soldier, to kill people. I've always loved art, and I'm doing what I want, what I love now and I can't escape my past, it doesn't matter where I go. My soldier self is part of me, I can't get away from it." He vents, his tone getting sadder and more self aware.

You nod, taking a breath and sighing, "I don't know how it feels, how it is to have such a hard backstory... Are you in therapy at least?" You ask and he nods, "I take meds.. I don't want to talk about it."

Nodding, you sigh, "I understand... I'm sorry for sneaking in your things, I shouldn't have done that." You clench your fists and look at your lap, feeling trapped, disappointed at yourself... Until, he takes your chin and lifts your face to look at him. "It's okay." He says, softer, making your heart beat faster. He gets closer... Closer... Closer, until your lips touch his. You immediately kissed him back, wrapping your arms around his neck. He smiles on the kiss and takes you closer by your waist until your legs are on his lap. The kiss is soft, like a make-up kiss, warm.

You were the one to break the kiss, your eyes meeting his... And he panics, "Oh verdammt— es tut mir leid— I'm sorry, you're just so pretty and I'm so awkward, I'm-" He freaks out, immediately taking his hands out of your waist. You smile and giggle.

"It's okay, I liked it." You take him by the cheek, making him look at you. "You- you did?" He asks, not believing you. You nod and smile, "Yeah." "Y-yeah?" "Hell yeah!" You giggles and kisses him, you taking the lead now. This one was much more playful than intense as the last one, you break the kiss a few times because you were giggling and he starts giggling too. He pulls you closer as he lays down on the couch, you getting on top of him. You two start laughing, apparently for no reason at all.

After relaxing, you two just cuddled, he was warm and you even warmer due to your weight. It was comfortable and the closeness was making the heart of the both of you relax. Him giving you forehead kisses from time to time. "Hey... You wanna sleep here?" He asks and you nod, "Sure, why not."

The night falls and you were used to showering before sleeping and you definitely needed one... But you had no clothes to wear! He was okay with sharing the bed with you and you didn't want to smell bad. So you asked for some of his clothes, he at first laughed but then gave you a shirt and some boxers.

For some reason, the water of his shower was freezing cold and had no heating option, so poor you. His shirt was bigger than your, that was rare, that never happened with your exes, it was nice to now have someone that was bigger than you, it makes your heart warm... and the boxers a bit loose but fitted better than the shirt, you put your hair on a bun with a satin scrunchie and go to lay with him. The heater was on so that was nice. "Goodnight." You tell him before he turns off the lights and lays next to him.

..."Can we cuddle? You're warm and I like your weight on top of me..." He asks a bit shyly, your heart beating faster. You look at him and nod, snuggling closer to him, he pulls you closer, getting you slightly on top of him. "Goodnight." "Night..." And you both fall asleep.

When you woke up he was already up. You stretch and yawn, going to the kitchen after fixing your hair (or trying) and he was already there, eating his breakfast. His eyes light up as he sees you, "Morning. I made breakfast! Eat!" He says, sounding excited. You smile and join him, it wasn't the best but it was good enough.

You two spend the afternoon together, watching movies, chatting, playing in the snow. At night, you were ready to go home. He drives you to your place, and in the door, he kisses you goodbye.

You get in the house, very happily, smiling widely and your father notices, he smirks. "Just a friend, uh?" He teases and you chuckle. "*Boy*friend now, dad." You correct him playfully and he rolls his eyes.

"I knew it.”

Sorry, this took too long!! I was in a creativity block and didn't know what to do but i hope this is fun to read!!! Love yall, stay safe, xoxo from Kel. Feel free to send me asks!

[clownsalot]

ok so anyway double first impressions and observations!! idk if ill be repeating any points other people have already brought up since im typing this without having looked through the milgram tag. and this probably won't be all that organized despite my attempt of neatening it up but ah well. i tried grouping my observations by point at least, but they're not in an order that follows the sequence of the mv.

also id like to preface this that firstly a) i don't have any personal experience with DID whether it be in myself or with people i know so please be patient with me if i say something wrong and b) for now please assume im going with the 2koto theory? not because i dont believe in the trikoto theory but because i haven't really dug that deep into it and so id be bad at spotting evidence of it myself

also im mostly going off of what i see visually in the mv since i haven't gotten to analyzing the lyrics yet

for now im referring to host mikoto and alter mikoto as bokuto and orekoto respectively.

the rest of the post under the cut!!

1. magazine/print(?) texture

the first thing i took note of was the magazine/print(?)(there's definitely a better term for this because just saying 'paper' doesn't fit. someone please help) texture that shows up when the mv kind of fragments. there's a lot of text that shows up like printed letters on a newspaper/print(?) that floats around.

how i find this interesting is actually in contra:st to the magazine texture on cat and the magazine/scrapbook format of this is how to be in love with you:

whereas kazui and mahiru center more on the clean perfect 'advertising' feel of magazines, mikoto's texturing in double feels more like the kind of crinkled old magazines you rip and mess up for collages in primary school.

it's kind of interesting, actually: with kazui and mahiru, it's their portrayals of the idealized romanticized forms of love and romance they're being sold. so with mikoto, is it the shreds of the idealized 9-5 grind he's been sold? since it seems to be implied in double and also one of the shots in undercover that mikoto is pushing himself too far for the sake of his work, and it's well known that the work grind in japan is crushingly brutal and overtime is not only expected but actively encouraged (i may be reaching with this one though? i dunno man).

2. the eye imagery

the next thing i noticed was that double has a lot of eye imagery. it's really interesting because it's like it's carrying over the feeling of surveillance from MeMe by replacing the camera povs that feel like spying on mikoto with more straightforward eyes on him.

what else is interesting to me though is the way the eyes watching mikoto in double contrast with the eyes watching fuuta in backdraft. as far as i can tell mikoto and fuuta are the only ones in milgram with eye imagery? but there's a difference in that while fuuta's eyes are disturbing partly because of the fact that they're semirealistic, mikoto's in contrast are a lot more abstracted in comparison. i wonder what exactly the eyes in double are supposed ro represent, since fuuta's are meant to represent judgement. given the stylistic differences between them im really curious as to what the similarities and differences would be between how they both view being watched? i can't come up with anything concrete at the moment though.

3. across the train carriage

i think throughout double there's a kind of shot composition/framing that shows up a few times, and it's that orekoto and bokuto seem to be across the train carriage from each other.

in the first image, it looks like bokuto is being reflected in the window behind orekoto, meaning he'd have to be sitting across from him in the train carriage. in the second, an identical pair of hands are overlapping orekoto's image, and since i doubt there'd be a mirror cutting right through the middle of the carriage in front of the doors, it'd have to mean that they're mirroring each other's actions from across the train carriage.

(you'll have to forgive me for it being in still images, i wish i could get it in motion but i am. not a gif maker. it's at roughly 2:16 though for anyone who needs it)

it also shows up in this scene which i like a lot!!! where the camera starts from a mikoto leaning haggardly against the train door looking at something behind the camera, who im assuming to be bokuto, before it pans up towards the ceiling and down again to the mikoto holding onto the bloody bat, who im assuming to be orekoto.

the Across the Train Carriage framing is really really really cool in and of itself and i love it!! but that panning shot has me rolling it's so good and i love it so much. the way it pans back down to orekoto so he's upside down makes it so disorienting and difficult to process especially with the scribbly effects over it. this could be reflective of how bokuto feels about this whole thing himself, but i donthave much of an analysis for this point, i just wanted to point it out because i think the directing of it is really really really damn cool

4. phone call home

yea i don't have an analysis for this part either, i also just find this sequence of events really really cool. just—the calmness of the phone call over the flashes of orekoto violently 'taking care of' the things troubling them!!!! it's the juxtaposition of the mikoto who calmly tells his mom that everything is alright and he's fine vs the mikoto that takes care of things for him that allows that kind of calmness to exist in the first place. it tickles my brain

although there is the thing of: if people are right that the mv visually distinguishes between bokuto and orekoto through the presence of eyebags, it is a little odd that the mikoto on the phone also has eyebags, implying that the him on the phone is also not bokuto. and i don't know what that's supposed to signify, but it's a little interesting to think about.

5. glitching Next Station screens

it's interesting to note that as the mv progresses the screens that show the train route and what the next station is get glitchier and glitchier. do any of the train station names correspond with actual train stations on the japanese train system? do they mean something else? im really curious, but my japanese isn't great and consists of only the 2 duolingo units i did like years ago, so could anyone please give me a hand with translating or point me to someone who has already translated it?

the constant appearances of trains in both MeMe and double is really interesting to me and i wonder what exactly it could be representing or what the significance of it is, especially since mikoto apparently bikes to work and doesn't commute on public transport

anyways, that's about it for all the things i took note of upon watching double the first two times, and i haven't done any especially deep analysis or anything. i haven't touched on all the mannequins either, mostly because im not reslly sure what they're supposed to represent and so don't really have much to say about them.

also hanae natsuki delivers a banger vocal performance once again!! ive never heard him miss in any of the roles ive seen him in, but he once again knocks it out of the park with mikoto. i haven't listened to mikoto's t2 voice drama neoplasma yet, but im sure hanae natsuki did amazing work on that once again, so im really excited to give it a listen!!

as for now though, i think ill have to look at everyone else's analyses of double to understand mikoto better, since even though i love him as a character and i like doing analysis im not as great at theorizing

[hunn1e-bunn1e]

Baizhu - Hawks-like Geo Vision User Reader

🐇.•°•.🐇.•°•.🐇.•°•.🐇.•°•.🐇.•°•.🐇.•°•.🐇.•°•.🐇.

I always put in a screenshot of the ask first before I actually start writing and this one is huge so it may look a bit disproportionate, sorry about that. I made it so reader's wings are there but when they're not being used they disappear like weapons do when their not fighting. They really only come into play when the reader is flying or when the use their ult or e skill. —Benny🐰

                                                                                                   

🌿•♡•🌿•♡•🌿•♡•🌿•♡•🌿•♡•🌿•♡•🌿•♡•🌿

🐍 Firstly; Dr. Baizhu here loves your laid back, devil may care attitude, it helps distract him from his rather bleak seeming fate. You always know how to show him the bright side of every minuscule thing throughout the day, it seems.

🐍 That confidence of yours is also quite contagious; sometimes, you can catch him strutting around Bubu Pharmacy like some sort of runway model. It's quite the entertaining display, I assure you.

🐍 You're quite the charmer as well, it seems. You're always able to get Baizhu flustered out of his wits with that lazy smirk of yours. You make his knees turn to jelly and his stomach feel all gooey and warm inside.

🐍 He loves how clingy you are, even if he blue screens for a couple seconds after first contact. He's just not used to this kind of thing. Qiqi gives him hugs, of course, but your touch is just... different somehow.

🐍 You love kids, you say? That's great! Baizhu would just absolutely adore it if you get along with little Qiqi. He definitely leaves her to you when he needs to go out and about to run various errands or pick up things for the pharmacy.

🐍 Your bird-like traits intrigue him to no end. Are you an adeptus perhaps, like The Conquerer of Demons or Rex Lapis? Or maybe you're a yokai from Inazuma or something. He has no idea, you should definitely let him conduct a full-body examination.

🐍 As a person who needs glasses, Baizhu is kind of jealous of how great your eyesight is. Though, he has to admit that your eyes are helpful to him in a way; you've somehow been able to identify a new species of Violetgrass... somehow...

🐍 You've made this poor man have to go and buy a whole storage chest with all the little nick-nacks you bring him. Not that he minds of course, the more the merrier. Weirdly shaped rocks, small chunks of ore, loose buttons, jewelry, flowers, etc.; he'll happily accept it all.

🐍 He loves to put on upbeat music to see you bob your head to it, it makes him laugh every time. Sometimes he'll even see Qiqi do it with you and can't help but join in too, it's actually really fun in his opinion.

🐍 Baizhu never actually knew you had wings until they suddenly materialized out of thin air. He thought they were beautiful; similar to a bird of prey's wings, like the Brownwing Falcons of Wuwang Hill.

🐍 When you took him out to Mt. Tianheng and let him watch you fly around it's cliffs and peaks, he was absolutely enthralled. Just how fast could those beautiful wings even take you? To him, you looked like an angel.

🐍 And when you showed him how you incorporate your wings and your Geo vision? By golly, Baizhu was over the moon with wonder!

🐍 You almost looked like you were preforming one of Yun-Han Troupe's feather fan operas. You're wings encased in amber as you spun and dove; taking out those evil slimes that threatened to harm your Prince Baizhu. Oh! It was like a fairytale.

🐍 Though, out of all of your wings' features, he enjoys how you express yourself through them the most. Drooping when you're sad or disappointed, quick little flaps when you're excited or happy. And of course his most favorite is when they puff up when you're showing off. He thinks it's cute.

🐍 All in all, Baizhu is deeply in love with you and wouldn't trade you for anything in the world. You're the person he wishes to spend his remaining years with, however many he's got left.

🌿•♡•🌿•♡•🌿•♡•🌿•♡•🌿•♡•🌿•♡•🌿•♡•🌿

🐇.•°•.🐇.•°•.🐇.•°•.🐇.•°•.🐇.•°•.🐇.•°•.🐇.•°•.🐇.

Wanna see similar content? Check out my Masterlist!

[my-favourite-zhent]

WIP Wednesday

I never get these done on time, sorry folks.

Tagged by the lovely @coreene (who's forgotten realms lore posts were super useful for some of the world building for this WIP, Wet Parade I'm looking at you!)

I shall tag @fistfuloftarenths @dustdeepsea @thisaccountisagainstmywill

@captainsigge @littleplasticrat @luvwich do as you like, when you like~

Below the cut is a snippet from chapter three of Fortune and Favour. What is Fortune and Favour? Well I started another long fic but haven't posted it here because I'm lazy and didn't edit the screenshot yet, muahaha.

In the distance he could begin to make out the silhouette of the temple.

“There, lass.” He gestured with his chin. “We're coming upon it now.”

“Oh!” She twisted and leaned forward in her seat, straining to see.

He watched as her shoulders sagged in disappointment and confusion. “Are– are you sure that's it?”

“Quite sure.”

“But it doesn't look anything like the illustrations, looks hardly like a temple at all. It's more like…” She was squinting now to try and make sense of what lay before her.

“A fortress?”

“Yes.” Her shoulders were tense now, finally she had realised something was amiss.

“Well we had to fortify it. Too vulnerable otherwise. Never know when they could attack.”

“When who could attack?” She whipped around to regard him. Though she tried to restrain herself, the concern was evident in her voice.

“Why the rival gangs of course. We didn't become the largest faction in Luskan by resting on our laurels.”

“You said you were a priest of Tymora.”

“It's more that I implied it.” He smirked.

“Let me down, let me down now.” The panic in her voice was rising.

“I could do that aye, and you could walk all the way back to the Cutlass through the muck. But you’d have to hand over all your maps and take the first boat out of Luskan.” She could hear the edge in his voice now, the unspoken threat.

“You can’t do this.” She protested. “I’ve worked on those for months.”

“And I’ve cut my way through every half-way competent rival for just as long, not about to let some fool girl show the rest of them how to waltz into my lair.”

“They're my maps! I can't graduate without a thesis.”

“What you seem to be failing to grasp is that I could've just as easily cut you down there in the inn. I'm being more than fair.”

She didn't have a retort for that and only stared at him aghast. He said nothing more, allowing her time to weigh her options.

Isolde turned back towards the fortress. The horse had continued on through their argument and they would be there before long.

“And if I don't get down? What then?”

“You stay at Clearlight as my guest. Help me find these passages. My folk and I will help you find the vault. You get your receipts, I get the gold and then you can go on your merry way. Less the maps of course.”

[depressopax]

Hii I hope you dont mind me requesting Howie again, but could I request a hurt/comfort scenario of him taking care of a sick fem!reader (she’s having a cold) I hope you have a great day and thank you againn :]

HIIII thank you for requesting again!! <3 And dw about it! I'm just glad you like my stories and want to request again :)) So if you have ideas lmk! :D Hope you like it!! Sorry for the wait! But here it issssss (The plan was to make all the characters on my BrBa/BCS masterlist but my brain is fried atm 😭 But I also added Nacho - because Ignacio Varga brainrot <3)

Taking care of sick reader | Scenarios

Fandom - Better call Saul

Pairing: 1. Howard Hamlin x gender-neutral reader 2. Nacho Varga x gender neutral reader Genre: Fluff, headcanons Warning(s): - Words: 0.7k Summary: How would they take care of their sick partner? English is not my main language, if I make any spelling mistakes please let me know so I can improve my writing! <3 » Masterlist || Request «

Howard

“Morning, sweetheart! Ready to start the day?”

You grunt in reply and puld the blanket over your cold body. Howard is already up, enthusiastic as always. But today you’re too tired for that. 

“Come on now… You’ve been snoozing for 20 minutes!”

“I don’t want to…”

His smile fades and he sits down on bed next to you.

“You alright?” He reaches out to stroke your cheek and notices how cold-sweaty you are. “Hmm… That’s not good.” 

“I don’t feel well.”

“I know, sweetie, I know…” 

I feel like he’d be like: YOU’RE SICK??? 😰 at first

But then be like: You’re sick… 💔 If that makes sense LOL

Probably scared of catching a cold etc

But he loves you - so it’s worth the risk 😌✨

Howard is the guy that helps you with everything once sick

He fixes food, makes sure you keep warmth and makes warm tea etc

He basically acts like a maid for you until you feel better lol

But he doesn’t mind, at all <3

He likes taking care of and spoiling you 

“Are you cold, darlin’?” he asks, proceeding to wrap a blanket over your shoulders.

“No, I actually feel quite warm” He looks concerned and feels your forehead “Your fever is not going down… Do you want something cold instead? Water, ice cream… Are you laughing?” “Sorry… You’re just so cute when you’re worried!”

Also… You being sick gives him an excuse to just sit back down and cuddle you

He allows himself to be “lazy” (aka taking a break and not overworking) when you’re around

He loves to set you down in the couch and put on some movie to watch together

If he can’t be at home with you - he texts or calls you at least once throughout the day to check on you 

It doesn’t matter if you only have a simple cold, he’ll take care of you until you feel ok again 

He probably would end up sick too 😭 “But at least we can stay home together now!” he says after waking up with the same cold you had. “...But Howard, I need to go back to work today” “...Oh ☹” But you’re of course there for him too until he feels better <3

Also - I found these two Howard out of context screenshots on my PC LOL, thought you might like them!! 😭

Nacho

“You’re burning up” Nacho mutters, still having his palm pressed against your sweaty forehead. “I’m fine, Nacho”

But the fever thermometer says otherwise.

“Yea… Fine, huh?” He scoffs and strokes the hair that's glued to your forehead, tucking it behind your ear. “Rest.” 

“But…”

“Rest.” His voice gets softer “Let me take care of you, ok?”

“...Fine.” 

He smiles at this.

“Good.” 

This man… (God, I love him, I need him <33)

He’ll be all 😐 towards everyone, all the time

But not with you.

Whenever you’re doing poorly, he’s right there. Whether it’s mentally or like in this case - when you’re sick.

He’s the guy that will grimace and be really judgy if someone sneezes or coughs in public, but he tries his best to not be a baby about it for you.

And he’s good at it

Truth is, he somehow likes it when you’re sick

Just because he’ll get to take care of you 

And have you all dependent on him

It takes his mind off all his troubles, and he can focus on you only.

He brings you tea, soup, painkillers… Whatever you need - whenever.

He also appreciates cuddling up next to you and watch TV, letting you pick out whatever

It’s just comforting to him - somehow - to feel your fever warmth against him.

Basically - he’s already a sweetheart, but becomes the most caring (and worried) boyfriend ever when you’re sick. <3 “Nacho, don’t be so close, I don’t want you to be sick too…” “I don't care.” he murmurs

…And eventually he ends up sick too lol

He’s really overdramatic about it 😭

Before meeting you - he’d overwork himself and not give a damn about resting

But since he takes well care of you - you of course do the same for him.

So when he eventually catches a cold, you’re there for him “Well look at that… Told you that you’d get sick.” “...Shut up.” “Will you let me take care of you?”

And of course… He lets you

Homeboy gets overdramatic af when sick 😭

He likes seeing you all worried for him - it’s cute lol

Nacho makes sure you’re cuddled up next to him all day 

And now it’s his turn to choose movies/series for you to watch with him

“Hey?” Nacho whispers after you’ve both shut the lights off for the night. “Hmm?” “...Thanks for taking care of me.” “Of course, Nacho. I love you” “Love you too”

If you guys liked the concept of this I can make a part 2 with the other BrBa/BCS characters! Lmk and thanks for reading <3 Been feeling down lately but I have plans on some stuff I wanna post this weekend :)) Looking forward <3

[front-facing-pokemon]

I just found this blog so I'm jumping aboard the plushie bandwagon.

First we got Absol. (i feel like maybe i should've taken a closer-up picture but it's the face sooo)

Then a Wooloo

And, saving best for last, this Leafeon plush I own... of which I swear on my life is official merch.

I also have some more eeveelutions (plus an eevee and a few more) but: 1. I didn't want to send too many. 2. Eeveelutions are more popular so I wanted to give some other people the chance to submit their own. 3. I don't know where my Pikachu and Snivy plushies are cuz I own too many stuffed animals.

Only reason I submitted Leafeon was so I could show off this ~masterpiece~ of a plushie I own. And it's face isn't the only thing wrong with it too lol. Also I just noticed I accidentally had one of the ears hanging back but I'm too lazy to go take another photo but i hope this amuses you nonetheless.

ALRIGHT THERE'S BEEN A LOT OF YOU AS I'VE BEEN OUT WITH MY FAMILY FOR CHRISTMAS HUH

let's start with these guys. beautiful. wonderful. i do not believe that that leafeon is official merch. this statement is baffling to me. welcome to the front-facing pokémon family. i love the eyes on that absol and wooloo is one of my faves. i was rather obsessed with it when it first came out and have a whole wooloo tag on my main blog because of it. though i guess i cleared that whole thing out recently so i don't anymore

let's get the nose ratings out of the way:

↑ this is a lie. 10/10 chespin

it's very wide and also 10/10 you're being too harsh. merry day to you too

circular face indeed. did i already post this one? if i did you can have it again

clodsire be upon ye. clodsire fans this is your treat until gen 9

this is a trend now. i think tumblr just crunched this image to hell for some reason so here's what the text says:

"Felt like joining the others for front facing pokeplushies [images] I have more pokemon but its early morning and these are the plushies that are easy to access"

i have not but i imagine "a moment" has long passed by now. my apologies but apparently today was an important day or something? idk

YEAH it's super unbelievably fucked up. i think i kinda remember the circumstance being a bit dire so everyone else was more worried about either 1. protagonist getting stomped on brutally or 2. saving the world from kyurem / the bittercold. i was totally under the impression that he was dead in that moment but i guess the characters may have known that he would just come back? i seem to vaguely remember partner being surprised that he came back and being like "but we watched you die :OOO" but maybe i'm misremembering that. i do create a lot of pmd lore on my own time so i have a hard time telling the difference between canon and fanon sometimes

two a day makes the world go round! this blog started when i started college, paused for 80% of my college career and now has started back up and i just graduated college a week ago. i would say "how time flies" but it has been a very, very long year

i've said it before and i'll say it again: gen 6 is my favorite gen, so you'll be seeing lots of favor for this gen from me in the tags i'm sure. maybe gen 6 is my excuse to start doing other things here. like that stream i keep talking about

if they put meloetta as a little obscure puzzle thang in sv, i'm sure they'll do something for genesect. i hope. at least for keldeo probably. genesect i'm not sure is very popular, unfortunately, outside of the tumblr crowd. if the general public's opinion on genesect is favorable, then maybe

okay and then i tried to scroll down further in my screenshots for more asks and saw the wobbly will smith in a hospital bed Gimme a Hug, Man that i copied from the "i get a little bit genghis kanghis" post so that's it. to everyone who christmases: merry it. it is today. although it's basically over by now so! merry boxing day for tomorrow if i don't say anything tomorrow. but i probably will. now i'm gonna go queue up today's 'mons because i haven't done it yet today. see you all in a few weeks when those post

[cinnamonest]

I'm now into the 5th season of hxh. As soon as I finish this series I will actually make a proper post but in the meantime I want to shout into the void how I feel about some of these bastards. Yes I was too lazy to turn off subtitles before taking hulu screenshots. I've been cutting into my sleep hours to watch this since the past week since I keep having to work overtime so this might be incoherent and delirious idk. I'm not entirely sure I'm awake right now. This might be a dream. Anyway

Hisoka was the only character I was familiar with by name prior to watching and like. I always assumed the pervert schtick was like a one-time line/single scene that people just took and ran with it. I was incorrect

I know full well this man would most likely kill me but like. I think I'd be okay with it. I think it would be a good way to go and I would probably accept it. I'd thank him even. I'd ask him to step on me while he does it. Or maybe I'm right at the threshold where I'm so pathetic I'm genuinely not worth killing which I think I'd also be okay with as long as I can still get knocked to the ground and have him step on my neck. Please sir

Also a large portion of me watching this, up until this past week, has been while I'm at home bc I've been home a lot recently and I often have a parallel play thing going on with my mother where in the evenings I'll watch something or play games while she browses facebook or reads her Bible/Christian books and she'll like pay half-attention and make comments every few minutes on anything I watch. In true parent fashion she's managed to be there for like every scene of random naked shots or weird moaning and says nothing, but once just looked up, made a face of deep discomfort and went back to highlighting her Bible. I think about this a lot. I'm sorry mom

I'm very weak to comic relief men actually and I have a triple weakness to token perv characters and furthermore my ovaries were created as such that men who are incredibly intelligent while also being astoundingly dumb are my kryptonite so my boy, be he as he may, dare I admit, does things to me. I think if you pulled the typical tease line where you say something about having a problem and needing a doctor to inspect you or just flash him he might die on the spot and that is very endearing to me. One could torment this man with the slightest of skin or sensuality it would be very easy. I appreciate you leorio

I want to protect Killua but like does he need it really. Like the "oh poor baby I want to hold him and squeeze him and never let anything harm him" urge is there because of my blatant maternal complexes but at the same time I know full well he does not need protecting and would realistically be the one protecting anyone else but like the urge is still there. I don't care. I WILL find something to protect him from and I WILL do it

Also very tsun. I can sense it. I know I'm dumb and weak and I would get snarky comments about it but that's okay. I would let the middle school aged boy bully me. I'd be okay with that

I think Illumi looks kind of like an insect. However he also terrifies me a little bit but I don't think that would particularly bother him. I think I could tell him both that he terrifies me and that he looks like a bug and he would have an entirely neutral response. Would probably just ask what kind of bug but may be disappointed if I name a non-cool bug. I'd probably say a grasshopper. I don't know how he would feel about that

I think what would be infuriating to me most is it is difficult to get much of a reaction out of this dude. Like you can be a total nightmare to have as a captive and the most you'll get is a :/ response. In attitude at least, like he'd probably still snap my wrist if deemed appropriate but would do it with just a mildly exasperated face/voice. I would try so hard to get a strong reaction and would never get it and that infuriates me. What right do you have to infuriate me like this bug man. Stop staring at me with them big ol eyes

I think if this man were to be living a normal life and not running with criminals he would wear socks with sandals on a daily basis. Like those thick white halfway up the calves socks and tan buckled sandals worn exclusively by boomer middle aged dads. And it's not the only trait he would share with middle aged men either I think he would care deeply about the quality of his lawn and mispronounce foreign things in a way that is borderline creative for how wrong it is. I think he just is a middle aged boomer dad trapped in a younger man's body. Release this man into a Home Depot and he will immediately adapt to his natural habitat

I am terrified of this man because due to who I am as a person I immediately evaluate all male specimens on what I think sex with them would be like, and cannot imagine a scenario involving this man where I come out of it without actual internal damage. Like you know how people joke about "rearranging your guts/insides" well this would be that but like actually genuinely. I think intercourse with this tank of a man would automatically necessitate medical attention. However do not mistake my horror for hesitancy because organ rupture is a price I will willingly pay for the experience of a realistic simulation of what I imagine it feels like to be a sick gazelle that falls behind the rest of the herd only to start hearing suspenseful nature documentary music

I cannot look at this man without my blood pressure immediately rising. I have never been simultaneously so strongly attracted to yet have such a strong desire to strangle someone. I think the worst part of this is that he would somewhat let me attempt to strangle him but would find it endearing and would start going on an analysis of my personhood and I will be real with you all that would peak my fury and I would become violent. And blah blah "understanding myself" hey man can you maybe not mass murder and go on your journey of self discovery by doing drugs or taking a road trip or something like a normal person in their quarter life crisis. Is that so hard.

As my fingers type these words I can feel my heart rate increasing and I am filled with immense fury and arousal at the same time. Why are you attractive? What is wrong with me? I hate it and I hate myself for it. I have to unironically take a break from typing to take a deep breath. I have to move on because I'm getting heart palpitations

Shalnark seems underappreciated. I love him so much but he also terrifies me in a way none of the others do. Like sure being blatantly cruel or loud or huge like some of the others is one thing but he's too cheery. It scares me on a visceral level. Sir why are you smiling like that. I do not trust it. Or rather realistically I know I WOULD trust it if I met this man as a stranger because I'm very gullible and that would not end well for me. This boy would probably be like one of the absolute worst people to end up stuck with once you get into it but that is very well hidden from the surface and I do not like that. I know I'm naive as all hell and I would fall for the same tricks over and over and I just know that would be used against me

On the bright side though this does mean he would actually fit the classic, original yandere trope since originally yanderes are supposed to be super sweet and cheery externally, so there's that

My skrungly. My tiny son. Y'all do not understand my predicament because I have a NEED to squish his face in my hands, I have an unbearable urge to pat his head and ruffle his hair, it is a literal physical intrinsic need like food and water and I need this but like at what cost. Is the price one I am willing to pay. The answer is probably yes actually. What are a few broken fingers for a moment of pure bliss. Likewise even if by a mere 2 centimeters I am taller than this man and that brings me great satisfaction. I hold great power in my hands. I would be sure to bring this matter up on a daily basis at great risk to my well-being

Baby boy you are the warmth of my soul and the love of my life and the brightest star in my night sky which is really saying something because you have about as much positive energy as a funeral. Regardless. Baby boy. Baby

I want Kurapika to know I love him. If Kurapika has 100000000 fans I'm one of them. I'm Kurapika has 10 fans I'm one of them. If Kurapika has 0 fans I am dead. If I were a shounen anime protagonist that just got the shit beaten out of me and I'm crumpled on the ground on the verge of unconsciousness and/or death I would have flashbacks and imagery of Kurapika go through my head and then I'd get a sudden burst of willpower and energy to miraculously get back up and kill the villain in a single blow. If I'm having a bad day and a singular thought of Kurapika passes through my mind it becomes a good day. Knowing Kurapika is a spiritual experience for me. I have a small orgasm every time my eyes are graced with Kurapika's visage. I think about Kurapika at minimum 127 times daily and if I fail to do this I will die instantly. I would protect Kurapika with my life. And by God I would gladly volunteer myself for clan rebuilding. Sir if you ever want to spread your bloodline I am right here. I will leap at the chance to spend the rest of my life as your personal incubator. I feel like he'd be paranoid and overprotective and lock me in the same house forever but you know what? I'm fine with that. Walking through our house at night will be like a semi-obscure 2000s Japanese horror rpg because every step you take there's a set of big red eyes staring at you but instead of weird Japanese demons its just pouty tiny kurtas. I am in physical pain because the most screen time he's had in ages is a phone call. Where is my boy. What have they done with my boy. If he does not return soon I will become violent

[my-mt-heart]

Thoughts on the Opening Minutes of TBOC

Below the cut in case people don't want spoilers. Also issuing a trigger warning because I'm including screenshots of the sides for that Daryl and Isabelle scene so I could go over what changed (and more importantly why it changed). Please keep in mind that if you are excited about everything you've seen this weekend, you deserve to hold onto it. I kindly ask that you just keep scrolling because this post isn't for you. If you're open to some critical thinking, maybe this will resonate. Either way, please allow everyone the space to feel what they're feeling. It's all valid.

The first thing I want to flag is that, though I didn't watch the opening minutes on AMC+, I'm aware that they used a Daryl thumbnail and kept the title as TWD: Daryl Dixon. If the purpose of S2 is to highlight Carol's return and focus on her side of the story, why isn't AMC trying harder to sell her? She can absolutely carry a show and boost the ratings, but they'll only be able to capitalize on that if they promote her to the fullest. The deliberate choice to exclude her where it makes a difference is baffling to me, or at least it would be if I didn't already know they care too much about catering to a specific male demographic who don't connect with Carol or even Daryl for that matter.

Melissa is amazing in all her scenes. She can communicate so much about Carol's headspace as she looks out at the broken boats, contemplating the distance between her and Daryl. The performance is so simple and yet so charged. Not a doubt in my mind that she is meant to co-lead this show, that there is no show without Carol’s side of the story to ground Daryl’s. The problem is that the writing just isn’t matching up. There should be substance to all of the material Melissa’s given, and at least in the opening minutes, there just isn't. I hate that the beat of her finding what she thinks is Daryl's walker got cut because that's a much clearer visual of what's at stake for Carol. She can't lose him. I love how Daryl's bike and crossbow are used to highlight a spiritual connection between them, but I hate how lazy it feels without insight into how and when Carol picked up those skills. Yeah, I can make headcanons for myself, but I'm so tired of twisting myself in knots to find the connective tissue when its the showrunner's job to give it to me so that the story flows better.

Same goes for Daryl's scenes. We understand that Daryl has "people" back home and Carol is "one" of them as it says in the script:

One of those people. CAROL PELETIER. Riding Daryl's motorcycle. As we left her (Ep. 106).

And we're meant to take the transition from Daryl saying "wondering if they're still thinking about me" to Carol on his bike as reassurance that "people" he's thinking about are not only thinking about him as well, "people" are also on their way to find him. But it doesn't tell us what Daryl's relationship with Carol means to him and without that, the storytelling becomes really uneven. Carol is putting all this effort into finding him because she misses him and she worries about him while Daryl stays ambiguous. It just makes me sad for Carol, more so when Greg Nicotero says that Daryl has no idea she's coming and that he may be too attached to his manipulative French family by the time she gets there. Is it baiting? Yeah, maybe, but I don't like that TPTB are making us sit with the unsettling feeling that Daryl might have to choose between her and the new family, trying to use our anxiety to get us to watch. It's unethical. I'm not okay with it.

Over a year ago, a page from 201 leaked online, and a few fans managed to save it before it was deleted. It included two scenes. The first, I already mentioned above, a scene where Carol is riding Daryl's bike, sees a walker that looks like Daryl, and fearfully goes to see if it really is him before riding off again. It got cut. Shouldn't have, but scenes that Caryl fans would enjoy are always the first to go for some reason. The other one made it to screen. It's the scene where Daryl and Isabelle are talking and he doesn't know if he's meant to be at the Nest/in France. It reads like this (trigger warning):

DARYL: How's that Kool-aid taste?

But Isabelle doesn't get the reference.

DARYL (CONT'D): I'm not sure this is where I'm supposed to be.

Isabelle scrutinizes Daryl. And even though she's afraid of the answer, she has to ask.

ISABELLE: You don't think you could be happy here?

DARYL: I dunno. Could you?

ISABELLE: ...Yes. I could.

If...what? A charged beat. It's clear there are feelings. They hold a look.

DARYL: The longer I'm away...the longer they're waiting for me. Wondering if I'm still alive.

Isabelle nods. Sympathetic to the fact that he has people as we cut to:

On screen, Daryl's dialogue is slightly different. There is no Kool-aid reference (thank god) or a "dunno" line to suggest he's conflicted. His last line addresses an insecurity that he's been forgotten, which ties back to Carol saying on the radio that he didn't need to worry about her, the implication in Daryl's head being that she was fine without him. His line sets up the transition to Carol, who is definitely not fine without him. Overall, I think the revisions make Isabelle's feelings more ambiguous (though there are enough cues to interpret that they're there if anybody chooses to, especially with the score) while Daryl is more adamant that he wants to go home. They aren't in the same frame when they "hold a look," which reduces the "charged" energy between them. So this is a good thing, right? The changes mean we got riled up for no reason?

No. The changes happened because we got riled up. There is such a thing as sanctioned leaks to allow studios to gauge audience reception before releasing content they aren't confident about, sort of like a focus group. Whether or not that's what this one was, the noise demonstrated that shading the scene as written would've hurt their viewership. That's why it's so important to be vocal about how we feel, even if it's perceived as "negativity." That's why I raise concerns. That's why I'm taking the time now to give my feedback on all the SDCC content even though I'm feeling pretty broken. It's hard and it’s scary because other fans are mean sometimes, but it's the only way to encourage AMC to course correct, whereas silence and/or finding the bright side in everything gives them permission to keep gaslighting their audience.

The one thing that can’t be helped is Zabel's and Nicotero's intentions. Zabel said in an interview he didn't intend to make Daryl's and Isabelle's relationship romantic. That was a lie. The intention to shipbait is right there in the sides that were approved for production, and it's right there in the SDCC trailer, which I will address in another post. I don't trust storytellers who think ageist tropes are necessary to get people to watch despite the significant portion of Daryl's fanbase who don't view him as the ZA's James Bond. I don't support storytellers who think they have to stick to an outdated formula instead of doing proper research on the characters to see what works for their unique stories and unique fanbase. I won't stick around for S3 to find out which lucky actress gets to be the new shipbait or which parts of Caryl's story get retconned. I can't make sense of a stagnant friendship narrative for them because that's not the narrative I followed on the flagship show. These guys make me too afraid to watch S2 even, which hurts because Caryl’s story is so important to me. I want to see it continue, and I want Melissa to get the praise she deserves. But I also want Caryl’s story to be in the right hands. It is with Melissa and Norman working as a team. Notice the difference in the quality of their interviews when it was just them and Louis getting to speak on their characters vs when Zabel and Nicotero were there to chime in (frequently)? I did, and it just makes me confused about the future of these characters.

Note: I apologize for the quality of the screenshots. They were blurry to begin with, but I also didn't want to post the whole page with the watermark in case it wasn't a sanctioned leak.

[walnutcookie]

langue de chat physically cannot take a break . like theyve had this mindset for such a long time that they need to keep pushing themself and strive to be better that they cant even Comprehend the idea of not working. like Huh?? stop.. doing things? just put everything down and do NOTHING? where would that get them? they didnt become a great lawyer by slacking off

in their new dialogue in the camping event they talk about how when their parents took them camping they sat in the tent and studied (and said it proudly might i add. they dont see anything wrong with this. they said it like a fond memory. theyre proud of their work ethic) and their whole entire costume when they literally just Dont know what to do with themself. they snuck their case files into their vacation they literally dont know what to do with themself when theyre not working

like if you look at their regular dialogue compared to their vacation costume is Crazy im too lazy to grab screenshots but like they use a bunch of ellipsis in their costume where their dialogue in their regular form is so much more confident ,,, theyre hesitant to relax. they dont know how to. theyve spent their whole life working as hard as they can until they inevitably burn themself out and they STILL dont let themself rest and then it turns into a cycle. i have a feeling most of their vacation was spent sitting awkwardly on the beach watching everyone run and laugh and theyre sitting there thinking about how badly they want to go back to work, to be in that cycle again because at least its familiar

And then they finally loosen up!!! they actually relax!!!!!!! in their costume lines they talk about actually enjoying their time and they dont want their vacation to end now ! so happy for them . im going to put them in a vacuum chamber. they deserve a little break here and there no matter how much they enjoy their job

[regulus-needs-swimminglessons]

Alrighty kids, dad has some thoughts to share.

I‘m talking about Helluva Boss episode 6 „Truth Seeker“… uhm obviously spoilers yk

Just to remind y‘all in this episode ma bois Blitz and Moxxie were kidnapped by some shady government people. They were eventually drugged resulting in one funky ass trip. What I wanna talk about is this scene:

(Pic is a direkt screenshot from the episode on YouTube)

In his drug out state Blitz finds himself crawling up these stairs with Stolas sitting at the top, taunting him the entire time. But lets take a look at the colour scheme. Because obviously I‘m not the first to notice what this looks like, especially considering the white feathers falling down and everything.

(Got the pic from the Hazbin Hotel Fandom Wiki)

Folks, lemme introduce you to Blitz personal stairway to heaven.

Now Heaven has always been a sort of scary concept to me (religious trauma says hi) the pure desperation I have seen in some members of my old church. It honestly terrified me more than their accusations and shouts of me being sent to hell to burn in eternal damnation. I see this desperation in Blitz here.

Imps are ranked lowest in hell‘s hierarchy yet Blitz managed to build an independent business and make a name for himself, he has a family as fucked up as they might be, but he needs the book (can’t spell the proper word, to lazy too look it up). He can‘t call off the deal without loosing everything he‘s worked so hard to gain.

But them something unexpected happened to him. Blitz found his heaven with Stolas. Going back to the first pic we can see that he in not only putting Stolas in a clear position of power here, he is going as far as putting him in the position of God. A crule unloving god, a paradise he can never reach without giving himself up completely. Their deal binds him, he is stuck watching, reaching out but never quite grasping. And to him Stolas is the puppeteer behind all this pulling on his strings making him do as he pleases but still Blitz can not help but want him. For more than the book, for more than just sex. Blitz wants Stolas.

Golden binds appear on his limps and yet he still continues his way up. At first of his own accord but when he shows a moment of hesitation Stolas is there with a chain around his neck to pull him up the rest of the way (not unlike the chains we see between overlords and the souls they own is Hazbin Hotel)

This is how he sees his relationship with Stolas. Blitz gives all the power over to him and he hates it. But quite like the souls in Hazbin he can‘t leave.

Lastly I wanna address the figures standing beside Stolas with the big fan things, because they too look like Blitz. He is serving Stolas constantly even when he hasn‘t even made it halfway up the stairs and not getting any acknowledgment for it. (this is of course what Blitz perceives / belives, because obviously Stolas wants nothin‘ more than to love this little guy)

I don‘t think Blitz is even consciously aware of all this shit. He just knows that there is a power imbalance (which is very real btw. no matter how much Stolas wants to ignore it) and he doesn‘t like it.

Welp I hope this made sense, was just something that was brewing in my head for a while so I thought might as well put it out there, offering my mind to the people’s judgement.

Have a nice day everyone!

[why485]

Back on the Heartcatch grind and oh wow I forgot how funny Erika is. I can't go more than a few minutes without taking a screenshot of Erika saying or doing something funny.

The episode before this (Tsubomi's hometown, backstory on her family, and a childhood friend) was a really good one. This show will back to back have really heartfelt episodes and then super goofy fun episodes right after and it's great.

This episode was a "very special episode" that was really just about telling kids to do their homework, with Erika as the stand in for the lazy kid who would rather goof off instead. I mean, yeah that's basically her anyway, but summer brings out her worst habits. Eating ice cream for breakfast, staying up all night watching TV or working on her own projects, and just all around being a slob.

Aside from just being very funny and a goldmine of Erikas, this one actually had a cooler and more animated battle than usual, with the fun twist of Erika being off her game and kinda botching everything and sort of rooting for the bad guys.

They make up for all this really great footage with a triple dose of stock footage to fill time but oh well. That's just the way it goes.

Meanwhile I'm still very eagerly awaiting the return of Cure Moonlight. Her design is so cool, and now she's showing up in the eyecatches and new ED (which I love), so I have to assume it's going to happen soon. Though as much as I love the second ED song (I really love it) the animation is... kinda bad.

It's hilarious too how out of place Moonlight looks in the whole thing. Yuri is such a dead serious character who has never smiled even once so far, with a distinct and more mature design, smiling and doing really goofy (and not very well animated...) dances in the new ED.

[wheelercore]

whats up with the wheelers and serial killer references are we just not going to talk about this

I would find the screenshot of Holly namedropping Freddy Kreuger but im far too lazy. take my word for it.

Bonus:

(you won't notice in the screenshot but you could go back and watch it for yourself- the moment karen starts that sentence holly notices the lights)

They literally got the guy who played Freddy Kreuger to play victor.

Lmao the grandfather clock chimes in the background:

I love Dustin and his thinking cap. Think harder my son.

[astranauticus]

post mortem for my orv animatic bc i have lots of thoughts and yall are gonna hear all of them (that is a threat)

first is the obligatory special thanks/plagiarism declaration section but a lot of the shots in this are inspired by the original changgwi lyric video which like. please watch it there's a reason this song is a classic animatic song on bilibili like the music is good but the video definitely helped. also speaking of bilibili, special shoutout to this arknights chongyue animatic that introduced me to the song that will haunt the next 8 months of my life!

the original inspiration was the thought that the verse of the spirit telling the story of its own death felt very yjh coded but it took like another week of stewing on it to have the idea of using the final chorus for the dkos arc which was the moment i decided i have to actually make this thing

going strictly by when i started putting pen to paper (pencil to ipad screen? whatever) this took almost exactly 5 months since i created the first drafts in february but the first 3 months ish from february until may were also my school semester so. most of the progress (id say about >60%) was done in the last two months of me working on this every moment i wasnt at work (or playing project sekai, for some reason)

also! funny little detail but counting the drafts and some discarded frames my procreate stack for this thing has exactly 49 artworks in it! neat little easter egg i guess (yeah 51 wouldve been more fitting but whatever)

this fully slipped by both me (at 2am) and my friend whom i sent the finished version to (fighting the flu) but in the final edit i didn't actually include the second half of the last lyric?? it's 'i will take you to the mountain god' i apparently just wrote 'i will take you' and never finished the rest LMAO

speaking of the lyrics i dont speak korean and im not a huge fan of most english translations of this song that exists so on multiple occasions i was so tempted to just use the chinese cover someone on bilibili did because then i'd at least be confident i know where the fucking line breaks were (there's one line at the end where im pretty sure i didn't edit on the line breaks correctly but that was more of an intentional compromise because the timings would've been off otherwise. anyway) tbh the only reason i didnt do that is the atmosphere and delivery of the original song is. really unbeatable like the cover's also pretty good but it doesn't quite achieve the same effect

also speaking of things i fucked up im aware i drew sys in the wrong outfit for the dkos fight but like. ok full disclosure my orv reference folder is a complete mess (theres like 400+ images in there. for some reason) so on net ive gotten character outfits wrong while working on this thing like at least 3 times bc id just grab a random webtoon screenshot from my folder and go w it. it's just that by the time i realised i fucked up i'd already finished drawing all of sys's frames and i was too lazy to go back and change all of them LMAO

anyway yeah some other random things i wanted to whinge about:

there's a lot of effects i wanted to do that didn't quite come across due to. lack of skill/time/patience/all of the above but the one im really annoyed about is the yhk postchorus bit with the 3 circles bc. first off i think i drew those while halfway dozing off on the train to school once because uh. yeah

anyway poor drawing aside id really wanted to recreate the sort of. drawn-in effect on the circles and lines that the original lyric video had but i could NOT for the life of me figure out a way to execute that in capcut so. here we are (also you cant put transitions on overlays in capcut so that's why those also looked so bad. youre welcome)

honestly my timeline for this in capcut looks pretty ridiculous bc if you want to do word by word animations/effects you need to pay for the pro version so my workaround was just to have like five thousand text layers with 1-2 words on it each (do not recommend btw)

speaking of the text im a moron so i kinda forgot to account for the text when drawing frames and wow you can tell. yeah next time im just hand writing the text fuck this

and i have some more thoughts that are. mild to moderate webtoon spoilers so past this will be the spoiler warning line

__________________________________________________________

actually my original plan was to upload this the day dkos dies in the webtoon but a. i genuinely did think it was gonna be yesterday like i dont pay for the early access episodes so i was just kinda going off orvtwt LMAO b. i could feel myself burning out on this like the last few frames i drew for this were fucking dogshit so i figured either i finish it soon or i wont finish it at all

i will probably still draw something for dkos' death day though for those who celebrate (basically when i was thumbnailing for one of the frames in this i ended up with one that didnt fit the video aspect ratio at all but still looks pretty good so im promoting it to a full drawing. so look forward to that)

like for an idea of how fucking sick of this shit i was by like. last week pretty much like for the last few frames of the dkos fight i straight up forgot to draw dkos' wings and had to add them in halfway through editing last night. like that's how fucking out of it i was by then lmaoo

looking back its actually kinda funny cuz the whole put this up when dkos dies thing was my plan since february but i had literally no way of knowing when that would be especially since the webtoon stopped going with the novel chapter numbers exactly (i could.. guesstimate but my original estimation was in june so yknow. real useful) but like i can find evidence of me panicking about that deadline since may. why did i do that

given that deadline i knew i cant really include stuff from the novel past the dkos arc but man. the amount of times i wanted to use something from later (ESPECIALLY 1863 arc). i actually have another idea i want to test out thats like full epilogue spoilers partially because working on this for so long made me realise i really want to make more epilogue content <- what

yknow how i mentioned discarded frames yeah i had to draw dkos' death 3 times because the first two compositions just never quite panned out. i mean the current one is also pretty unreadable with the colour scheme but trust me the previous ones were way worse christ alive

[kakashihasibs]

the character everyone gets wrong

sweaty soggy noodle man kakashi is who this is all going to be about so. I don't think everyone gets him wrong. a lot of people do but it's usually bc they're too horny to care lol

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

have you seen him? have you felt his vibes? he is lazy by nature and recoils away from most physical contact that isn't necessary to do his job (and even he doesn't seem to enjoy it). there are like 7 total people he even lets see his face (while knowing it is his face) and most of them are dead by the time he is 13. hang out? sure. do nice domestic couple things? sounds lovely. get naked and fuck? so an enemy can kill him or a loved one while he's distracted? no. he probably has tried scheduling his shits and showers with gai so he's never actually vulnerable. he's also so ace.

Aubu kakashi: "Tenzō I need you to stand outside the bathroom while I shit." baby tenzō: on it boss (thinks this is completely normal bc he is also in anbu)

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

uhhh that kakashi would not only have sex but would want you to call him daddy. that nearly 50 year kakashi who has never worn sunscreen in his life shouldn't actually look old/older. that a young looking kakashi is a health looking kakashi.

4. what was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person?

lol that insinuation that looking young is healthy

5. worst discord server and why

i have never been in a discord server longer than a few days. idk.

6. which ship fans are the most annoying?

facebook dude bro fans whoops i misread this. i thought it just said fans. but shipping fans? idk kakairu is a notp for me but the fans aren't overly annoying? maybe the painfully ooc readerx shippers. I haven't seen many in a while tho so

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

Iruka lol but only when shipped with kakashi. annoying loud-mouth chunin. whatever dude.

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

kakashi fucks and gai doesn't

9. worst part of canon

it's naruto man. everything after the land of waves arc lol

10. worst part of fanon

the bumbling husband and nagging wife characterizations from the kakairu fanon.

11. number of fandom-related words you've filtered

bruh lots idk lol

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

tenzō T-T

13. worst blorboficiation

i'm pro blorbo. i am rotating these fictional men in my mind at all times.

14. that one thing you see in fics all the time

i don't know.

15. that one thing you see in fanart all the time

fangs v-v and scars.

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

people who love kakashi but don't give a shit about gai. those two are like a packaged deal in my mind. can't have one without the other. they are eternal rivals after all.

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art

sometimes i just really need a deep dive into kakashi's head. i love the character study type stuff.

18. it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

younger gai and tenzō bumping into each other bc they're both watching kakashi stand at the memorial stone bc they're both worried.

19. you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like...

there is nothing i am mad/ashamed/horrified about but if you're wondering yes i do enjoy the fanarts of kakashi in bondage. lol

20. part of canon you found tedious or boring

the flashbacks are out of control. my memory isn't great but it's not that fucking bad holy shit girl

21. part of canon you think is overhyped

idk i feel like the parts of fandom i interact with are pretty realistic about how good something in Naruto is

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

Yaknow how Obito's dream that naruto sees is Obito is back in konoha and becoming hokage but Rin is still dead? like what does obito wish had changed? I think it's if Minato had recognized him. I think Obito was actually praying and hoping for Minato to realize who he was fighting. Obito had a seal on his heart. Minato could have saved him if Minato pulled his head out of his ass for more that 5 mins at a time.

23. ship you've unwillingly come around to

none. my kakashi stubbornness knows no bounds

24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

idk kakashi discourse is easy for me to ignore.

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

none. i love hatefulness drama and kakashi.

[myreallymachine]

Perceptions of Junjou Romantica pt.1

I reread Junjou Romantica.

And I liked it, I know it's a red flag; I admit it, and I don't regret stating this.

Okay, so last Saturday, December 03, between these midnight slumps, moments where everything you consider right starts to be questioned, is that Junjou Romantica came to my head, as a blurry idea.

I listened to the thought and after at least 30 minutes of online research, I found a translation page that updates the Manga, more or less up to date and without spelling mistakes, something that is always appreciated.

Before reviewing (this is going to take a long time) then I think it is appropriate to give the respective credits to this translation group:

Credits for the small screenshots I'm going to post to @hibonbl-scan on Tumblr and link to his page where I read the manga (at least the last few caps):

(in Spanish, bc I'm lazy man. Please see the image descriptions (ALT) to read the English translation of the cartoons)

BTW: This post is a translation for a last ONE.

I read the chapters before act 40.5 in TMO and Manga Dogs; please support @hibonbl-scans in their official pages and do not resubmit the manga to these platforms, because it is a demerit to the hard work that this group does for the readers.

Anyway, I'll stop chitchatting because this is coming for a long time, because it is about the avalanche of thoughts both good and bad, of what Junjou Romantica has meant to my life.

On goodreads I rated my review 4.4 out of five stars but… objectively it doesn't deserve more than 3.

Is Junjou romantica a bad manga?

The short answer is: Yes.

But then why did I score it so high?

Because the moment you put aside the bad time the first few chapters put you through, is when you start to highlight the good stuff.

So, a little context for you to understand the crossroads of my life:

My first BL anime, was Junjou Romantica, like a lot of the people who started watching yaoi. I watched it believing that Misaki, the main character, was a girl.

And I was shocked to realize that there could be a genre specific to gay relationships in anime. At that time, I only watched shojo (I also watched kuroko no basket, but I should dedicate another post to that), my epitome of romance was Adrian and Marinnete's relationship from miraculus ladybug, and I was 12 years old.

If I were to go back in time, I would have said to myself, don't watch Junjou Romantica until you understand that the attitudes Usagi exercises with Misaki are not romantic. THEY ARE TOXIC, THEY ARE WRONG and SHOULD NOT BE ROMANTIC.

I was one of the many girls who somehow approached yaoi believing that gay relationships, in real life, were based on abuse and possession which in manga/anime, looked good, but in real life is BAD.

Well, anyway, back then, as soon as I finished the bl anime page, I read the junjou Romantica manga, but I didn't remember anything, so I decided to reread it.

Current context:

I introduce myself; I'm a 17-year-old Chilean girl, who writes BL fanfiction since she saw junjou romantica. My romantic experience is not null, but the truth is that I've never felt in love. Nowadays, I can clearly differentiate the harmful attitudes of my environment and I can say that I managed to say NO to a relationship that was going to become something extremely toxic.

Disclaimer: the manga is not finished yet. But at this point the ending is pretty easy to guess and almost all the main conflicts are settled, so I don't think my opinion will change with the ending.

Also: Too many spoilers.

With this in mind, I can start commenting: Bring your beverage of choice, make yourselves comfortable because this started long and will go on long.

The plot: Usagi is a traumatized novelist, Misaki a traumatized boy but with a cool brother. Usagi and Misaki love each other. 💕

That the easiest plot summary.

I'm going to start with the good and the bad I'll analyze it later.

My favorite character is: MISAKI 🤧

I give a trophy to Misaki, for achieving this position in my heart. A real shame that within the fandom you are so underrated, all because of Usagi's sexy face. However, I didn't fall for Usagi's charms, and I can say that Misaki is one of the best developed characters I've encountered in manga.

WHAT????

When I was 12 I didn't appreciate it, but now. OMG.

Misaki needs real recognition, and so I'm going to start by highlighting what makes him such a mind-blowing character.

Misaki is an orphan boy, and he still blames himself in his 20-something years for this event, for this very reason is that he grows up to become an insecure man with low self-esteem and even comes to believe that he doesn't deserve to be loved.

It gives me certain vibes of Charlie from heartstopper, but worse.

HOW?

Now they're going to want to kill me, I get it.

Misaki, has all these complexes, besides being an orphan, having clear homosexual preferences that he represses and his older brother who has taken care of him, since his parents died, is getting married and, therefore, Misaki must become independent to not disturb the family environment that his brother will begin to form with great effort.

And I emphasize that bother, because Misaki throughout the manga we see him constantly repressing himself for fear of being a nuisance. He shuts up his opinions, his own desires, for the sake of the other person. He is too humble, so much so that it becomes painful. But Misaki grew up like this, it's the way he lives.

But everything I said, it doesn't end there, because the Misaki of vol. 1 changes too much to the Misaki we meet in vol. 27.

Misaki is my favorite character because we see him grow too much, so much so that I ended up in tears of pride just for him.

In the beginning he is, as I said, a snowball of insecurities, which if not healed, is going to end up getting bigger and bigger. His motivations (at the beginning) are basic: finish college, get married, work, and die. A life scheme that she considers boring, but at least it won't cause problems for the people around her.

Misaki, too, has a big issue expressing his feelings, he gets a mental circuit breaker and runs out of words even though he knows them well. He cannot express what he likes and dislikes; something that also contributes to the misunderstandings that occur throughout the saga

(and which add to the toxicity of the main relationship, at the beginning).

But in the end, Misaki not only accepts that he wants to be with Usagi for life, but is also able to express this clearly to her most important circle of people. He is confident enough in the decisions he makes that he can fearlessly reject people who want to go overboard with him. And furthermore, he brings to the relationship he has with Usagi no longer just as a stereotypical "tender Uke" figure BUT now he does so by supporting the very "super strong Seme" that Usagi is supposed to be.

Exactly. Misaki acknowledges that he's pivotal because without him, Usagi would be dead. At first, he says it as a joke, but now we realize that it's true. That their relationship works for the simple reason that they complement each other like a glove.

This is true love 💓. Because we are into something that is mutual.

Misaki can convey that he doesn't like something, maybe with a little more effort than everyone else; but he CAN. He is a boy who has grown into an adult who intelligently recognizes desires, ambitions, fears, and affection.

He transmits and receives love; in all spectrums of the word. As we see in the last vignette. If you only saw it you wouldn't know who Usagi or Misaki are, because they are equals. They consider each other as equals and respect each other as one.

Do you know how much it took for Misaki to identify herself as someone just as valid as Usagi?

Junjou romantica, to me, more than a romantic story is the journey of overcoming a troubled boy through sincere love. It's Misaki's journey, and how this is just beginning, assuming that it will hurt many times and cost; but with Usagi by her side she will be able to overcome the gaps.

There is a reason why the story begins when Misaki is so young. He is 22 years old, just finished college. That is to say, he has all his life and is going to keep learning. Junjou Romantica is the beginning of Misaki's journey.

My favorite scene with Misaki as the main character is when he talks to his sister-in-law about his relationship with Usagi. That explosion of information and feelings they had inside her for years is something magical. I was in tears from how proud I was.

Maybe it wasn't the best confession, but he told her everything he felt, he conveyed to his sister-in-law all the time he has invested in the relationship with Usagi. That it would be for life.

I was with Misaki, supporting him through everything, hoping for the best. I am amazed at how much he was able to convey with those words.

I felt his nervousness. At that point I was already crying, but I had to take a break when I read the following:

So short. So sincere and so meaningful.

I don't think I need to say anything else. Misaki as the best character in the whole manga. First point finished 😉

Now, I know what they're waiting for.

Who they're waiting for.

Usagi-San.

Is he a good character or a bad character, are his actions justified, should he be forgiven?

First, a little vignette of the men we're here to analyze.

One good thing I should point out: His obsession with teddy bears. That has a charm that's hard to ignore. Seeing a guy carrying a teddy bear all the time is wonderful.

In short; Usagi is a novelist, who has a bad relationship with his family and, in reality, knows little about human relationships. We realize this in the first moment, when he attacks Misaki, just for seeing him meddling in her things.

If I'm not mistaken, Usagi never had a steady partner before Misaki, but I want to sound like there was a thing with Hiroki, but I don't remember too well and, I don't really care either (I'll talk about my complicated relationship with secondary partners later).

Okay, so with that in mind, let's start with the bad stuff, just to get it out of the way.

What's up with falling in love with the brother of your biggest crush?

The younger brother, to boot.

I consider that to be the least realistic thing about Misaki and Usagi's relationship, because we're dealing with a replacement dynamic; which ends up affecting Misaki later on.

However, I think that if Nakamura, had the opportunity to remake the first volumes, that would be something that would change; because it is NOT necessary that in order to form a strong relationship between two characters it is mandatory that one has a crush on the other. Misaki's brother himself, is a living image of this. He never had any interest in Usagi in that way and yet, he considers him as her best friend.

(I will also talk about Misaki's brother later but wait).

The second thing I don't like are the attitudes Usagi has, I'll leave a little sequence, so you can realize this by yourselves.

Context: Misaki is talking to Usagi's family and Usagi appears out of nowhere.

I mean, I know it's a joke, but it gets a little murky when we actually realize that Usagi is the kind of partner who would put her boyfriend on a damn GPS, so she knows where he is.

It's controlling.

Still, we can salvage a bit of the reasons why Usagi is that way, so distrustful even of the person he loves; but I must stress that this doesn't justify his actions either. His controlling behavior stems from how much he has struggled to form stable relationships in the past.

See, in the manga itself we are told how for Usagi, Misaki is the first person to cry for him. We are even told that this is what caught Usagi's attention, how Misaki's empathy was so high that he expressed all the pain that Usagi held back, all by himself; despite the two of them getting along “badly” at the beginning of the story.

That's the word: “Irreplaceable”. The main reason Usagi controls Misaki so much is that he knows that he will never find someone who feels the same things, at the same intensity as Misaki does.

Now, does this justify his actions?

NO, NO AND NO.

Let's not confuse motives with justifications, they are very different things, but that we have to realize in order to understand the characters a little more. Because if we start defending toxic attitudes we will be in front of a red flag, and maybe we should start rethinking what we consider love and respect.

Now, let's talk about being possessive, and we don't have to go too far in the manga for the first signs of this attitude to come to light.

This character, who has been almost forgotten, was Misaki's first friend in the uni, when everyone ignored him.

And, in fact, he behaved as a cordial person with Misaki, he made him feel understood and integrated into that micro society that is the University. He even helped Misaki forget for a moment the insecurities that haunted him because he considered himself as his brother's replacement.

In other words, what I said in the first place. Direct effect.

Now. What ends up happening? That Usagi almost wants Misaki to be his. He stresses this to her on occasions where he tells him that he would prefer him to stay in the house 24/7, or in this house itself. Interfering in Misaki's personal relationships.

The good thing is that they're manga characters, so we're dealing with people who function on a scripted basis, but if the situation happened in real life, Misaki's friend would most likely have turned the other way.

Misaki wants to go out to eat with his new friend, but Usagi refuses because he finds himself jealous no longer that he has friendships, but that he is a man. He hates it when Misaki talks to other people, because in Usagi's mentality, that action in itself expresses a sexual interest on Misaki's part.

Which brings us to one of the first major conflicts.

Misaki, for the first time claims that he wants it and Usagi what does he do?

He represses it.

That contradiction is what I hate most about Usagi, who then later complains that Misaki isn't clear with his feelings, that he doesn't hide things from him, what-the-hell-doesn't-he-do. Dude, you in Act 2, when the two of you, in reality, were nothing, not even an official couple; you silenced Misaki.

How does the situation end? With sex and Usagi imposing himself as someone who has greater authority with Misaki and, therefore, must obey him.

I tried to cut the scene as best I could, because it is very explicit.

Honestly, this accumulation of attitudes is what makes Usagi a pretty despicable character to me.

It's a strong word, but unfortunately his pretty face doesn't help us to save points.

But well, not everything is bad with Usagi. But in order to highlight the good, it was necessary to identify how this character started in the story.

Because what I like most about Usagi, is how he recognizes that his past actions were wrong and tries to repair the damage caused in the future. Without repeating the same mistakes again.

For this we have to get to the beginning of the current arc, which I have called as “Confession arc” where the relationship of both, can no longer continue to be kept hidden and, therefore, Usagi understands that in order to form a relationship that is already “for life”, he can not continue to mistrust Misaki in such small situations.

It's not for nothing that the relationships that last the least are the ones with trust bumps. It ends up tiring both parties, and they fail as fast as they ascend.

So, the situation is as follows. We have Ijuiin Sensai, who is a mangaka that Misaki adores with all his life. He admires him greatly, but the only problem is that Ijuiin does harbor romantic feelings for Misaki.

This triggers several conflicts, as Usagi, again with his trust issues tries to “mark territory” with this mangaka. But this does not end up making Ijuiin himself see Misaki as a more “desirable” target. Following the logic that when you are forbidden something you end up wanting it more.

The interesting thing happens during Misaki's 22nd birthday, when Misaki and Usagi decide to travel and by the vagaries of life, Ijuiin meets Misaki. He confesses to him and even tries to kiss him.

At this point, we realize that Usagi, is watching everything from afar, seeing when he considers it an appropriate time to intrude.

The great thing is, Usagi doesn't intrude on this conversation. He does not decide to show himself, as he is confident that Misaki will be able to reject Ijuiin Sensei without further complications.

I think at this point, Usagi starts to put his toxic attitudes aside, and tries to carefully follow Misaki's actions. Something that is really appreciated, because up to this point, I always felt that Usagi, on certain occasions "happened to carry" Misaki, for and for his own benefit.

This vignette actually has more meaning than you think; it shows us that Usagi, despite being able to have it all, what makes her most happy is knowing that he is able to fully trust Misaki.

It makes him happy to know that the person he loves also fights for the same ideals.

Usagi is not a humble person, but we do not realize how in reality, the only thing he always looked for was that; love. Reciprocal and on firm pillars of trust.

My favorite Usagi moment is this one:

If someone says something similar for me, I would hold on to this one without a second thought.

In this sentence, all possibility of failure is left out. Usagi throughout the manga has shown us that he does not intend, for anything in the world to let Misaki leave his side. He has fought against the ups and downs, for that.

To go through this life with him.

That perfectly condenses the character's purpose and how something as human as living can be made better if shared with the right person. Usagi already met him, and this is Misaki, and he is not willing for anything in the world to let go of him.

The Japanese don't have a particular and defined religion; they actually share traits of various religions they have in their daily lives, and JR as such has never really shown too marked religious references other than the typical anime/manga ones, such as the New Year's celebration. But I could say that this is the first sentence that has such a marked religious meaning.

There are various beliefs of death; the Catholic one is that we ascend to heaven and live in paradise, in others there is reincarnation, Shintoism, where humans become kami.

But the fact that Usagi has referred to “this life” transcends the religious, because he makes it explicit that he believes that in the next life he will be a completely different person.

The great thing comes when we realize that one life is full of experiences and hardships and he is willing to spend it with Misaki no matter what. Usagi believes that when he dies, in the next life he is not going to have Misaki and that makes him make the decision to live his current life with Misaki as much as he can.

Therefore, I consider this to be one of Usagi's best moments, for the simple fact that it tells us as readers that this is his final decision and that he doesn't plan to change for anything in the world.

A true: "Till death do us part".

In short. Usagi gives for a lot to talk about, considering all the background of the Usami family behind, but I prefer to leave this section up to here to go to another point.

The best brother in the world?

As I was commenting throughout the post, Misaki comes as a package, so to speak. In fact, there would be no Junjou Romantica without Misaki's brother.

Takahiro Takahashi.

I'm bad with names, so I'll just call him Takahiro or brother, just so we understand each other.

I consider Takahiro to be too good a person, and you can understand at a glance where Misaki got all the humility from: From her older brother.

Takahiro instilled in Misaki the values of hard work, honesty, and simplicity.

From the very first moment, we realize that this character is completely devoted to Misaki, to the point of putting his own dreams aside to take care of his little brother.

Takahiro is aside from this, the biggest hero to Misaki, as he is always the first person he looked to for a second opinion or support.

However, I consider Takahiro, starting from the last arc becomes such a cool character that would lead me to rank him as one of the best siblings I've seen in manga.

Starting with the point that it is not too common for the main characters to have siblings.

THIS CARTOON IS TOO CLEVER.

Takahiro's main flaw is what you see up there; he still sees his younger brother as a child, who is not ready for the adult world. His wife tells him. That Misaki is no longer a child, that he should start seeing him as the independent adult he is.

This of course is going to reflect a shock to Takahiro, who has always sought for Misaki's welfare. Fighting for this with blood, sweat, and tears; defending Misaki from the obstacles that may come his younger brother's way.

But this made Misaki end up, in a subjective way; drowned.

Takahiro is overprotective, that's his biggest problem. Misaki is too important to him and for that very reason, he would like to be aware of everything that happens in his brother's life. He faithfully believes that he knows Misaki too well and trusts that Misaki could never hide information from him because Misaki, in one way or another, is "indebted to him".

Misaki, however, believes that the best way to settle that “debt” (which is the time Takahiro invested in Misaki's childhood), is to get away from Misaki. Letting his brother live a solitary life; with his own family, while Misaki tries to live the best life possible.

Now, clearly they will remain close siblings. I really love the brotherhood between the two because it looks too sincere.

On the other hand, let's have the conflict that occurs when Takahiro discovers his relationship with Usagi and his reaction.

IT WAS SPECTACULAR.

Because it was realistic, he didn't accept everything at the first time. He even gave a look of pure hatred to Usagi, who is his best friend, and took his little brother elsewhere.

I feel, somehow or other this is no longer about gender. Takahiro doesn't care about the issue of Misaki being with another man, but the simple fact that Misaki has managed to make a person who is not him, become someone precious leaves him too shocked.

I feel that if Usagi were a woman, the same reaction would happen. Takahiro doesn't understand how this guy was able to get Misaki to express his likes and dislikes with such conviction, something that even he couldn't achieve.

This hurts Takahiro, because he hates to know that despite all the effort he made, Usagi managed to bring out a part of Misaki that even he, as an older brother, did not know. It is hard to assume and for that very reason he is perplexed.

Also, there's no denying that he even feels guilty, since it was thanks to Takahiro that Misaki stayed to live with Usagi and, consequently, the relationship was established.

Which brings us to this other thing:

I applauded at this moment.

Simply spectacular.

Are we in front of one of the best sentences in the whole manga? I think so, because in this sentence Takahiro shows us that even he himself feels guilty of what Misaki has suffered.

He knows that one of Misaki's shortcomings is to apologize even for breathing, besides being aware that the reasons for this behavior are a result of the difficult childhood he had. And more than that, is the issue that Misaki is never going to feel totally “forgiven” for the death of his parents; we all know that they passed away from driving fast because Misaki was sick and this fact ended up marking Misaki for life.

Takahiro is aware that the weaknesses Misaki has are because of that. He never expresses what he feels for fear of a similar situation happening again due to a need of his, he apologizes for everything and tries to cope with difficulties too great for anyone.

The simple fact that Takahiro told Misaki that if he has a conviction (love for Usagi), he should hold on to it, is extremely important. Because it is the biggest gesture in which Takahiro realizes Misaki is letting go of that feeling of guilt little by little.

Now how does it affect him to know that his best friend betrayed his trust?

One image speaks for itself:

You know what? The fact that Takahiro hit Usagi made me infinitely happy. Partly because it was the punch I wanted to give him in the first few chapters, but in another because it seems like a very human reaction to me.

Yeah, I guess I'm a fan of human reactions.

Now, let's understand Takahiro a bit. He fully trusted his friend, for Misaki to study in the desired university; no one would ever think that your best male friend would end up with your little brother, who is the light of your days.

In Takahiro's own eyes, Usagi took advantage of Misaki; of Misaki's shortcomings when he was still “innocent”.

Something he's not entirely wrong about because coff coff first chapter coff coff.

At this point Takahiro would feel too guilty if Misaki's relationship leads to having painful consequences for his little brother, because he somehow “introduced” Usagi.

I love that Takahiro has told him that he will never forgive Usagi if she hurts Misaki, because that makes family a priority for Takahiro and that no matter what, he will always support Misaki. He treasures him, and as he has continuously repeated; Misaki is his greatest pride.

Anyway, Takahiro of my favorite characters 💖

-✦───────────-✧

Choice of favorite chapters/moments pt.1:

To no one's surprise, I consider the best scenes to be from the 3rd season equivalence of JR's anime.

So I'll give a brief description of the situation, my feelings, and the importance in the plot.

Misaki's 22nd birthday.

It is not difficult for me to infer why this moment is transcendental. First of all, there is the simple fact that during this moment Usagi understands that the fundamental thing is the trust he must build with Misaki and, on the other hand, there is the mere fact that it is a birthday celebration.

Birthdays, although they may seem stupid to many people, are actually something all too human that people do to get closer to each other. It celebrates one more year of the birthday boy or girl's life and wishes for many more.

Misaki's 22nd birthday, marks the beginning of the last arc, where important issues end and begin; such as college and the Usagi/Misaki relationship is put into further question by Misaki's older brother.

Marbles

It happens during Misaki's 22nd birthday itself, but I consider it a beautiful moment to ignore.

Basically, Misaki teaches Usagi that with marbles you can make 3 wishes and Misaki later realizes that she made the same wish as Usagi.

This makes it clear how such a simple custom as making wishes on marbles can actually have a big impact on a person's relationship.

Without a doubt, Misaki always surprises us with how much he makes us feel, with things as simple as that. Nothing extravagant, just sincere love.

Misaki realizes that he wants to live with Usagi.

Then Misaki's older brother starts to pressure him, saying that it is no longer appropriate for a boy, who is finishing college, to continue living as a “kept man” in Usagi's house.

In this context, Misaki is forced to spend a weekend with his brother and family, realizing how much he misses Usagi.

This chapter is actually very important, as something rather peculiar happens. We know that Misaki's older brother is one of the most significant people in her life and, despite having lived with him all her childhood, we realize that the four years or so that he has lived with Usagi have been enough for Misaki to no longer feel comfortable living in her older brother's home life.

Misaki realizes how much Usagi is missing in his daily life, how such a small action as spending a couple of days without each other is already too much.

They will say it's dependency… But I would call it.

Coexistence.

Misaki no longer sees Usagi's apartment as something foreign to his life, before it even felt uncomfortable. Now, he sees that place as the home he needs to recharge his strength. Misaki now realizes that he no longer wants to keep lying to his family about his reasons for living with Usagi.

Misaki wants to live his life with Usagi, in that home that the two of them have been forming little by little.

Clad in fond memories and overflowing emotions.

Which ends up triggering the following vignette, which I decided to include at this point because it is a direct effect of the above.

Bonus: Misaki with kiki.

I include this bonus because it is too adorable. It makes for a total icon. Just that, Misaki with a bow tie is the best. It's in these moments that I understand why Usagi is so crazy about him.

Who wouldn't be!!!

-✦───────────-✧

Honorable Mention:

Okay, this is the third ending of the anime and my favorite song of the anime. Simply spectacular. I highly recommend not only this song but all the Luck Life songs that are available on Spotify and on YouTube itself.

Now, a brief analysis of the song and its relationship with JR.

This is Misaki's song.

Maybe that's one of the reasons why I like it so much.

I could imagine Misaki in a karaoke singing it to Usagi. Because the song reflects how hard it is to express what he feels.

Even if I can't find the right words/ I want to tell you/ 'Cause just wishing won't change a thing./ I can't put it well,/ But I'll pour my heart into this voice/ So don't laugh - just listen.

This refrain aside, it reminds me a lot of the marble episode, how Misaki wants to be with Usagi forever. Sure he wants it, but even so he knows it won't change anything, so he decides to pluck up his courage and take the bull by the horns. He realizes that he can no longer be ambiguous or delay the inevitable.

Me pregunto si tú también/ tienes noches en las que piensas en mí.

We go back to the chapter of Misaki spending the night at his brother's house, feeling devastated at not being with Usagi. We all know that Usagi also felt the same way. In itself, I think this perfectly reflects the comfort level they have reached.

In this changing world, with the two of us unchanging/ You'd be by my side.

I have analyzed it throughout the post, but in short this is the main goal of the characters. To stay by each other's side forever no matter how much the world changes, even if they get older, even if there are new conflicts.

To stand by each other and face the modern world that changes without waiting for anyone. No matter what happens, Misaki wants to face that future with Usagi.

Do you see how much can be extracted from such a great theme song as this one?

┊         ┊       ┊   ┊    ┊        ┊✧°•

┊         ┊       ┊   ┊   ✧｡˚    ✦¤

┊         ┊       ┊   ✫•○

┊         ┊       ✦°•

┊✦°   ┊

✧ °¤    ┊ .  ˚

˚✩

Okay, so Tumblr won't let me post so many images and this is getting too long. I can say that this is the end of this first part of the exhaustive analysis of Junjou Romantica.

I'll be glad if you tell me if you share my opinion, if you think there's something I left out or, by the way, I'm wrong. I tried to make this publication looking at various perspectives and from a rather critical point of view, although, clearly, there are many things that I was influenced by due to my preferences.

In the next part I will continue with my favorite moments, I will talk about the secondary couples, I will make my predictions, I will also say other things I don't like and conclusions. If you have any suggestions or want me to take any specific topic from the anime/manga, in the next post.

I'll be happy to elaborate on it!

I hope you liked it! If so a reblog and a heart is appreciated.

[crunchchute]

HELP WANTED 2 SPOILERS

thinking about how small his hands are in these parts (sc from dawkos vid) its kinda. you know. being normal

also when his hand reached from the charging pod i first thought its just a human hand fhfhgh the lighting and everything made the stitching invisible and previously i just thought of him as huge with the biggest hands ever but seeing those dainty ones im like huhhhh no way thats him

shitty screenshot for comparison (too lazy to take more this one is old) you cant see much but if you know what blob youre looking at, your VR hands are like half the size of his

man and i still dont know how i feel about this. i wanted to see glitch again, but i was completely fine with not seeing him. like i fully believed that he Wont be in HW2, i even tweeted that before the game dropped. and IF he was to show up, then i expected a completely different form or just tiny hints (like the locked files for example, i liked that), but with what we got im just confused!! what is this lore here!! why is he back like this! what!! whos driving the plane!!

and people are already making more guesses about whos the player, cassie would mean this is post ruin and idk if that makes sense (was there ruined chica? i havent played thru everything yet and only know of SB chica) i dont know. thats a mystery. i also think its not quite it because of the ending and how we didnt see the pizzasim like this in ruin, did we? i gen dont remember and i watched ruin gameplays like 83 times atp

some saying its gregory, i dont think so. why wouldnt roxy remember him and such... at least its not just gregory

vanessa again? i dont know, that was my guess but honestly have no idea. perhaps its set during pre ruin and while she and gregory were setting up the mxes system? like that is my guess here, nothing else makes sense to me

cassies dad. i dont know. not enough proof for me? but the more i think about it the less im against it (with her speaking about him in past tense, if this was his demise, that would sort of make sense if he was the one giving the mask for her, but again need more proof. theres apparently some unused lines that could hint at it but i havent gone through unused stuff yet. i would still consider it as i did with ruinborn afton, if not for that creature i wouldnt even think of the entity being william but would have just stayed with the shadow bonnie theory pff) theres that one bonnie mask in PQ and perhaps the whole bonnie kid = cassies dad = hw2 player theory isnt all that bad

but i thought it might be vanessa and gregory? im thinking of PQ and getting rid of glitch and this 4th PQ is cool but confusing as hell but the thing candy cadet was saying about coming back and stuff idk its all a mess for me rn but yeah perhaps its not that deep and glitch is just that hard to kill off. he always comes back i mean uhh

OR wait wait. how i said mimic shed aftons remains and burntrap split back to glitchtrap and the mimic post SB? that makes sense no? instead of going buntrap -> mimic + entity, its mimic + glitchtrap Again and then vanessa wiped him for good and with gregorys help also locked up the mimic. thats it thats gotta be it right? shrimple as that

and vanessa and ggy while making the security nodes (im not 100% in it but im leaning towards it) something got in (the entity), because you cannot wipe him out, hes forever haunting this place. thats what you get for building this huge plex on top of his gotdamn house and farm and whatever. mansion. whatever he is in there. dear mr. fazbear entertainment, william afton is in your walls

anyway so that would beeee SB, PQ ending, they come back, get rid of any leftover traces of glitch and lock up the mimic, then cassie gets in in ruin. and hw2 would then take place sometime pre-ruin, we dont know how long it is so i would even say hw2 happened post-SB until ruin or it overlaps ruin (because were shown the ending scene with cassie but honestly i would rather see it happen pre-ruin and that just being a hint but i have no ideaaa)

people were also saying that cassies dad made the mxes system or vanessa but i think the system was like there originally for years if not thru the entirety of the pizzaplex' existence and vanessa and gregory only made the nodes to keep mimic inside and cassies dad was just a technician that has used the mask and stuff, i just dont know how it works with the og vanny mask which didnt yet have all the tech inside but perhaps that was just like an in-VR version of it in the first hw. man i dont know.

then theres the mxes entity player theory which is... eh, how would they function in reality? and why would they give cassie the mask if were hinting at some possession of mapbot? i dont like that idea past the entity being you know who and also getting rid of a past version of himself (glitch) man i need like a discussion circle

ooftroop and friends please make another video about this please (please)

one last thought, glitchs color seems to be magenta (or purple if you wanna say that) and the mxes system is that color, but the entity is more blue and idk what to do with that information. mr entity why arent you purple WHY ARE YOU BLUE literally my only missing puzzle piece if that mf was purple i would be 100% confident thats him (but im only 99% because he is more bluish but he is the same color as ruinborn who is afton to me and people saying its not, i dont understand you. what do you mean. what do you mean thats not frights corpse afton with his messed up face and bunny ears springing up out of nowhere. he is literally him)

when ppl say that the only people that disagree with everything being just the mimic and that dont get the current lore are just gacha kids, i WISH i was just a gacha kid making up random stories because this is HELL

also that hand puppet glitch is uglyyyy i want 10 (to put in a blender)