#i write so much meta i bet all my new meta will just come with a works cited of old meta cause thats just how much i meta

[blazinghotfoggynights]

If I am basing whether I think Buddie will happen on season 7 alone, I am going to have to say no. I think a lot of the last minutes rewrites were done to accomplish quite the opposite.

My take so far:

Tim seems to be in love with the Tommy Kinard character. Maybe he was originally intended to be a plot device, but it is obvious with the rewrites and forced in scenes that Tim Minear is really invested in Tommy and wants Lou on 911 much more. I believe that season 8 will be used to cement Tommy's place as a regular and even push him to the forefront, ahead of long-time recurring characters like Karen and Ravi. I think he will even get more time than Hen and Chim. I think the only way we don't get a big push for Lou to return and be the next breakout star on the show is if the main cast members all push against it. (Tim seems to be obsessed with the characters who made the 118 a racist, misogynist hellhole. 😒Ijs. Gerrard is back when anyone with RL corporate experience knows someone like him would be blacklisted by any organization that doesn't want to be sued into oblivion. I am sure DeLuca will make an appearance as well. I will probably write a meta about that entire situation.)

From 7 x 4 onward, in interviews and in the show itself, Eddie's heterosexuality has been stressed repeatedly. Buck finding his person has been heavily hinted at. Buck is chasing Tommy shamelessly. Tommy's problematic behavior is being ignored and justified by the writer himself. It is spun as positive, which fans are eating up. This is the setup to separate Buck and Eddie for good and start building up 911 to be the BuckandTommy show.

The absolutely loony arc of Eddie chasing his dead wife's doppelganger served it's purpose. It cemented Eddie's obsession with women. It placed a focus on Eddie's obsession with being with a woman, needing a woman, and being driven by a woman.

Christopher moving back to Texas is possibly the foundation for a Ryan Guzman exit. Christopher probably becomes comfortable in Texas and Eddie, the way he loves his son, will make the decision to go where he is. Maybe Ryan goes to Lone Star. Maybe he doesn't. But it will seal the coffin on Buddie for good, force all fans to accept BuckTommy, open the door the the new power couple, and set up Tim's boost of Tommy's character and Lou's more prominent place in the cast. I can actually see if 911 gets a season 9 and beyond, Lou being pushed to the front. With Ryan gone, and as Buck's partner, Lou could easily jump over every other member of the cast to become the second main focus. I think Buck will remain the primary focus in the foreseeable future,because he is a fan favorite. However, if the Lou fandom continues surging, even Oliver could find himself playing second fiddle.

I think Oliver is completely comfortable with portraying a queer character. But is Ryan? Just because someone did something in the past doesn't mean they are willing to do it now. I think there is a lot going on behind the scenes that is never going to be revealed while the show is still on. Maybe a few years after, someone will spill the tea, but not now. I know which members of the cast I am betting on speaking out first, post show.

Why is no one in that cast, other than Lou, bringing up Tommy or his relationship with Buck? Even the other half of that relationship talks about his coming out and realization arc, his growth, and being in a relationship, but he doesn't give the relationship itself the time of day. Buck and Eddie's dynamic was still being referenced a lot even when Buck is in a whole ass relationship with another guy. That's interesting.

I know the BTS clips are short and fun, but can someone provide one where Lou isn't obviously being ignored and if he is a part of it, it isn't awkward and forced?

[lemonhemlock]

Do you think sansa will use the knights of the vale to take back winterfell not only by her name but by also pleading to free Arya(jeyne) from ramsay? i feel like learning what petyr did to jeyne will also put a final nail in petyr's downfall, whether she finds that out before or after thats its not arya i feel like petyr's downfall by sansa is pretty much cemented by this plot point

Well, of course, I can't say for certain, but there are few elements in Sansa's story that need to come together:

revealing her true identity;

freeing herself from Petyr;

the Vale inheritance - Harry the Heir? what is to be Sweetrobin's fate?

finding a husband for Sansa (eventually);

Jeyne & Theon need suitable endings as well - Theon is connected to all Starks, but Jeyne is particularly connected to Sansa;

Arya's return, so ultimately Jeyne will not remain "Arya Stark" forever;

Jon's resurrection and him not being in the Night's Watch anymore ("It shall not end until my death");

the Boltons are pretty much asking for their comeuppance.

These all can certainly converge into reclaiming the North under Stark rule. It's a fair bet that the Knights of the Vale will also play a part in this, not just because we've already seen that in the show, but also because they are the only army left who haven't really been militarily engaged yet. So my hunch is that GRRM is keeping them intact for this purpose.

I can't imagine that Sansa will not be very interested when the news reaches her that Ramsay Bolton is married to an Arya Stark and I also can't imagine that she will react well to the news that her childhood friend has been tortured and forced into this plot. So it's not looking good for Petyr. He has to die of something, right?

Now, this doesn't have to mean that the books are going to be as straightforward with Sansa's story as the show was. Maybe she'll go through another sham marriage before fulfilling these plot points. Only God, GRRM and his editors know, not any meta-writing fan.

[lucabyte]

ADORE your Siffrin gender essay. I appreciate the focus on using direct lines from the game and providing references. You put into words well from what I saw in the game as well and explained it all really well.

Very sidenote from but hell yeah aroace Ash

*does a sick kickflip and high-fives you*

yeah evidence is swag i love evidence. I don't know how else to put it LMAOO. okay let me try and be coherent

I think as an OC creator first and foremost I interact with canon characters, especially of smaller works like this, with a very "what was the author intending? what did they want to tell me, the audience?" mindset.

I specify as like, as an OC creator because of like... I think its a dual-pronged thing.

I know what it's like to write a guy and try and imbue them with knowledge that i Have but they will never be able to just Say Aloud Via Their Mouths (because some characters will just never say some things), but that there's always evidence for the authorial intent SOMEWHERE if you can just triangulate enough pieces...

I have a big beautiful playground full of guys to project my identity unto whenever i want to (hits a larger than average number of my ocs with the aroace nonbinary beam) and that means both a. I come to (well-written) canon characters with a mindset that, oh thank god, they AREN'T mine. I get to use this to explore someone else's mindset, try and decenter my own experience, practice whatever empathy they are leading me to practice. and b. I've already learned that variety is the spice of Character Creation and i'm on the prowl for new things I haven't already made or seen. And amab NBs are not. Commonly seen. So I latched onto that motherfucker like a crocodile about to death roll him and started scouring for supporting evidence.

So yeah. I come at the text with I think, a slightly different angle than the usual "just playing in the fandom space for fun". which like. i AM having fun. i almost feel bad how much fun i'm having, sorry to my ocs who are collecting dust LOL. But it does mean I'm presumably coming at this from a weird angle to begin with, thus, my want to treat it like a more academic endeavour where I Cite my Sources and point out where I'm getting my ideas from.

I also like. haven't interacted with fandom at large for. a number of years. so my barometer on how much I have to explain myself is WACKY. this is what you get from only hanging out with lit and classic students who can't make a gay catboy without psychoanalysing them to the Nth degree. But again I'm having fun so we stay silly.

And i am SO glad that i wasnt the only person drawing these conclusions. Glad to see people immediately going "oh yeah i thought this!!" because like. i dont read other peoples meta. i had NO idea if this was just gonna like. go down like a lead balloon because I'd stepped on everyone's collective toes instead. Glad it does not seem to have in these first couple hours at least

also yeah sidenote god ash ketchum is so aroace. He's only got time for one partner and that's his pokemon partner motherfucker. No time for romance he's on that Seeing The Wonders Of The World Grindset. that complete blank nonreaction to being kissed by serena never fails to make me lose my shit thinking about it. sorry girl you have bet on the wrrrooooong ponyta

[kaus-quietis]

Lav's All-smiles Problem-solving Roooooundtable ch108 edition!

Welcome, welcome! To Lav's BSD ch108 discussion! Delivered to you via my funky dove Eliott, acting as my mystic messenger. These are random thoughts I had after reading this brilliant chapter, which, writing-wise, made the best possible use of Fedya's character, expanding it even more without even betraying his backstory. Maybe a backstory isn't needed after all, just look at how much FUN he is right now. I am in BLISS

Putting aside the fact that he is literally carrying the plot at this point, come sit with me, I make you a delicious Chinese black tea with rose petals and casually share my thoughts. Hello there, dearest Kat, yes, "where is Lav when you need her?", I am here, I offer you a hug, and to all my friends here who share the sentiment, I hug you too.

A. Before you say ANYTHING about "oh but? maybe Fedya is telling the half-truth? or a half-lie? what if his ability really is the evil one?", my brothers and sisters in Christ, listen to yourself. This man functions almost on a meta-level of character consciousness: he changed his facial expression and aura so convincingly, his tone, his speech, his posture, even the shade of his eyes, fooling not only Sigma, but the readers as well. We are used to characters changing the shade of their eyes when they change mental states or have certain (new) decisions in mind, we as a community are so used to this, all it took was one panel from the Conjurer doing this trick for so many of us to actually believe him and start, yet again, to spiral down the "what if he is good but his ability is evil? what if he is two entities? what if?" rollercoaster. This is so amusing to me, and in a meta-sense must be amusing to Fedya too. While speculation can bloom again based on this, I wouldn't be putting too much effort into reading into his lines here. I take it as a trick. It worked splendidly, almost like it attacked the fandom's major concerns and theories about his character and weaponized them against everyone. That's a meta-kind of tomfoolery. Trolling, if you will. I LOVE that Asagiri made him bamboozle every reader like this. His character so far goes into the best direction, it cultivates and expands his traits and skills in the best way. But let's pretend Fedya really is telling a half-truth there, which is there being an opposition between him and his ability. I talked about this in my essay (see pinned post), there really seems to be a divergence at the core of his character, but it manifests subtly, not like what we saw in ch108. Then again, not even on that can we arrive at any conclusive statements, because if we remember that, of course, "crime and punishment are close friends", it could well be that he and his ability are partners, and you bet I imagine they would BOTH indulge in peak tomfoolery like this together, if that meant one of them switching in and the other out for a sec. Remember, dear souls: aside from his "higher mission", abstract as it still is lore-wise, Fedya's keyword is "fun" or "entertainment", repeatedly. And oh he himself is even more fun now~

B. if Fedya would have wanted to mortally wound Sigma, he'd have chosen a more suitable place to stab him; it looks like a abdominal, lower quadrant, lateral stab, a deliberate choice, I would say, that technically avoids critical, most vascular organs (kidney and spleen for example) and main veins/arteries. I am no doctor, but from what I gathered, Sigma won't bleed out fast at all, and if untreated might get a deadly infection in a longer time (not counting the possibility of septic shock if we assume the knife penetrated and heavily opened an intestine). Sigma needs a medic asap (our queen Yosano when?), but will likely be conscious and quite able to move around and whatnot. Like I argued in my essay, Fedya most likely does not want to kill Sigma, or anybody for that matter, because keeping everyone alive to fulfill various roles and see how their will tosses them in all kinds of directions is more fun for him, more entertaining, but also more useful. He is a long-term strategist, like Dazai. "Our beloved monsters" ❤

C. Fedya evidently exerts some serious mental torment on Sigma, by making him stand by his choices, his will, just like he always desired. The flip side is that Fedya takes his time, or should I say gifts Sigma his time, in which he teaches him the full lesson of what Sigma wants. The responsibility that comes with acting on your own, the terror of facing the consequences when choosing on your own: right now, to Sigma, this freedom is terror. But Fedya is never a one-dimensional character. It's most probable he calculated and devised strategies for both possibilities (a. Sigma with rekindled determination touches him; b. Sigma backpedals on what he decided and does not touch him). The irony is that both scenarios are an affirmation of Sigma's will, because, while the first decision can be seen like foolish bravery, the second one can also be seen as wise self-preservation, if the circumstances so demand it. BSD is not a black-and-white series, diving head-first into danger is not its definition of bravery or heroism. BSD was always about measured decisions, ones the characters take upon themselves willingly. It may be time Sigma does that too, in his own way, and Fedya wants to see that. Why? Well, my guess is because it's fascinating to watch humans grow, and Fedya lives for the entertainment that comes with it. It is actually more interesting if we remember his line from ch42 (“People can be so simple… They truly believe they are thinking for themselves. (…) They don’t want to think they’re being led by the nose”): the pattern is, Fedya puts others under harsh circumstances, and then, under pressure, lets go of them, waiting for their free decision, the true test and expression of their hearts, so to say (which could make a superb discussion if we make a parallel between Kunikida and Sigma, since essentially what happened to Kunikida is happening now to Sigma, except Kunikida did indeed break down, but thanks to healthy support from his comrades he slowly regained his sense of self, and stronger than ever at that time, however… Sigma is alone, isn't he? but what if he needs to be in order to finally get a hold of his own self?). Anyway, how much of that expression is free, or how much is guided or manipulated, is a debate in itself, since it implies relating the freedom to the individual vs relating the freedom to the external factors and possibilites.

D. I do need to underline, just like Fedya also underlined it: Sigma already made his decision, right there when he still tried to get the gun before getting kicked in the face. Fedya moved on to the next step: testing how strong Sigma's will is when an actual chance to act appears. Sigma already accepted the physical pain, but how will he face the mental anguish? That is more Fedya's territory, a "specialist" of breaking people by simply knowing them thoroughly and choosing the right words. But now we gained new info: even in close combat, apparently, Fedya is not to be underestimated. That was a rather strong kick, anyway. But more importantly, he completely turned the tables in a situation where he would be in a total disadvantage. * chef's kiss * that was very bungou stray dogs of him.

[demonslayedher]

Faster than a speeding train, things that ran through my head while watching this episode:

--This episode was full of fanservice, pure and simple. But meta service? Well, that was a tease.

--Like that close-up on the evening newspaper? There was a big headline that warned people in the mountains to be careful of bear attacks, but the dates were just blurry enough that I couldn't make them out. Dang it, Ufotable!

--But as for that close-up on the missing persons posters at the beginning, if you're looking for names to use for people who already disappeared on the Mugen Ressha, there's a 20-year-old Yamazaki Chiyoko, a 12-year-old girl named Setsuko, somebody with the last name Okuda… not that I believe the mystery woman who got left for dead but left uneaten was among these people, she's only been missing one night and is already expected to make a full recovery with no scars. Including not a single scar on her heart, and she'll have the ongoing protection of the Corp! What a princess! And just… an satisfactory plot device. After all the emphasis on how demons are horrid and leave irreparable damage on those whom they effect, her experience and Rengoku's assurances that she'll be totally fine sort of cheapen this.

--To that effect, Rengoku-san made a better point later in the episode, after Fuku apologizes for assuming demons don't exist. It's better proof of the Corp's hard work if people can go on thinking that, never having been affected in the first place!

--For as morally outstanding as Rengoku is, honesty doesn't appear to be an important virtue. Or at least, dude has no idea how to make a convincing lie. "I'm a bentou seller." Yes. Sure you are, Rengoku-san. I'll bet that after Speedy's attack at the garage, the workers are later going to look to each other once everything calms down, and somebody's going to say, "you know, I don't think that guy was sent here by the railway HQ."

--And Speedy, as a villain, just… ugh. I'm glad Rengoku-san made short work of him and just shut him up.

--I just… I need to sigh again for all the hype I felt for this episode, only to find the writing so… siiiigh….

--Like, I respect that they had constraints in how much they could affect or reframe the plot which comes thereafter, so they chose instead to dig (too deeply) into the lore behind "umai" just as a way of providing fanservice because everyone loves Rengoku-san. And we do!! We love the unnecessary cape flip! We love that he defeats demons with ease! And I certainly love that he has a heartwarming moment hearing that Fuku's mother and grandmother were saved by Shinjuro and that he is emulating his father, and how he wants to tell his father this good news that the people he saved all those years ago are still well, thanks to him. He wants to see if good news like that will do anything to reassure his father of the worthiness of his efforts. I love this quietly sensitive side of Rengoku-san, who is just as prepared to not have such news have any positive effect and will just make his father lash out.

--But……. I don't think they actually did Rengoku-san's character any favors with all this emphasis on how much he loves and respects food. "Don't drop your anpan" is so… not an important thing to focus on in this situation, and taking a bit bite out of food that's not his, well… it's cute and funny, but I feel like it would had been more in keeping with his character for him to catch the anpan and give it back and go on asking questions about his mission. And then showing more disgust for the demon when Speedy steps on the bentou instead of, like, when Speedy's got his nails digging into the boy's flesh, is kinda… kinda not showing Rengoku-san's strength in accessing a situation and zeroing in on what needs to be taken care of. But, sigh, if they had to use the bentou as a plot device, I guess this was a clumsy way to do it.

--Siiiiigh.

--Man, they had me so hyped with all that emphasis on atmospheric settings, the Corp members rushing toward the train (and supposedly about to meet their deaths, as we know there's already been victims before Rengoku arrived), and a Corp member who we'd never see again after this… but again, Ufotable only felt enough flexibility to do fanservice, not stakes.

--And just… the whole…….. running faster than a speeding train……….. okay, I'll let this one slide, Pillars DO run fast, Rengoku-san HAS moved this fast in canon.

--If Enmu brought Speedy there as a decoy, I wonder how he did it? "Hey, I need to attract the Demon Slayers' attention for a few days. Be slow and coy with it, leave them presents on your trail." "Why in the world would I do that??" "If you do a good job, I'll tell your idol Upper Moon 3 how cool you are." "IT'S A DEAL!!!!!"

--Leaving all my disappointments aside, there are things I find endearing in this pure and simple fanservice filler. I find Fuku-chan and her granny sweet, and I like that Granny reacted to the sight of Rengoku right away, and acted believably for someone who has had a run-in with demons in the past. Ufotable is totally committed to this bentou lore being part of the plot too, what with making merch and gallery displays themed around the bentou vendors. It was indeed fun at the last Toei Movie Studio event to go on a make-believe set of this shop, complete with all the signs and items on sale. :D

--And that boy in the blue haori, and the girl who takes the lead once the team of back-up arrives? How can I not like them? (And knowing me, how can I not feel tempted to want to write fanfic about them?)

--Ufotable showing off their soba animation skills is funny, and impressive. I wound up picking up a sweet potato bread for breakfast this morning to be on-theme for a Rengoku episode, but I regretted later that I didn't get anpan and pick up soba for lunch.

--But also… yes, I am a victim of fanservice. Rengoku-san is unnecessarily cool.

--But like

--HIS NICHIRIN-TO

--OH LORDY

--UFOTABLE, THERE ARE CHILDREN WATCHING THIS

[princesscolumbia]

tl;dr - I put ponies in another fic, but only for a few chapters

So, real quick, minor confession...this fic is actually one of my oldest, and it's not on this site.

Hey, easy, easy, let me explain.

So way back in 2005, I had a flash of inspiration. See, back in the 90s and carrying into the 00s, we didn't really go on forums or (even older) newsgroups if we wanted to avoid spam in our all the everything, we got on mailing lists. The Big One for fanfiction was the good ol' FFML, or "Fan Fiction Mailing List." What fanfiction? Yes. Which fandom? Yes. There was no division of franchises here. You were just as likely to encounter Trek as Xena, everything from Ah, Megami-sama! to Zoids. There was also no curation. The crap was flowing, and caught in the stream would be the occasional diamond, and it was up to YOU to determine which was which. And we called our porn "lemons." If the fic was leaning toward spicy we had a citrus scale. Orange was a little eechi, Lime was "there's plot, but expect to need some 'private time' later on." And so VERY much of it was anime-centric. (Sidebar: The late, lamented MythrilMoth and I first encountered each other while active on FFML)

One of the biggest fandoms in the FFML was Ranma 1/2, with Sailor Moon being a solid second place, though still trailing by quite a margin. It's not a stretch to say that, at the time, Ranma 1/2 was the largest single fandom active in the US-centric portions of the Internet (which, thanks to the heavy hand the USA had in creating the Internet, was a pretty sizeable portion of it). This was objectively provable, too. Not only was there the Penultimate Ranma 1/2 Fanfic Index, something none of the other fandoms needed, let alone had, you could go to fanfiction.net and show a list of ALL the fandoms sorted by number of fics, and the one having more works than any other by a LOOOOONG margin was Ranma 1/2.

So the fandom started curation, which is necessary when you have that many fics. (and the War of the Churches, which is one of the earliest online shipping wars, which is like talking about the Punic Wars when the subject of world wars comes up...and The Bet, which the less said about that, the better) There were so many fics that we had to split them into multiple meta-categories, some of which you'll easily recognize:

Continuation

Divergence

Crossover

Fusion

Lemon

Spamfic

There was obviously some mixing between them, but relevant to this is the Crossover and the Fusion.

Crossovers are kinda obvious, and introduced one of the most enjoyable, if WAY overdone, tropes of the FFML: The Fukufic. Take some Ranma 1/2, add some Sailor Moon, and viola, one fukufic. The catch was, they were all crossovers (except for one notable exception...which I really should dig up again sometime, it's a fun one), simply because direct fusions would dilute too much of either Ranma 1/2 or Sailor Moon.

Now, not that anyone saw this as a problem, mind, we just kinda shrugged if the subject came up and moved on.

Until one day, I was pondering this. (I mean, c'mon, you know me by now) "Fusion is where you take two properties and 'fuse' them together in new but recognizable ways," ponders I, "...so what would fission look like in this context?"

Naturally, my mind locked onto the fukufic, and the fanfic Fission was born.

Fission

Ranma is having A Day. The usual wacky relationship hijinks wind up with him tripping while running from his self-declared love interests (it has to do with martial arts, several foreign laws, and an okonomiyaki cart...long story) and falling off a roof (...again, long story) to pass through a stream of water from a broken pipe, triggering the magic that cursed him to turn into a girl with a splash of cold water. But today the wacky cranked right up into the weird when he DIDN'T collide with the other person who also happens to be standing in the spray of water. Usagi is having a pleasant day, actually. She's spending time with her boyfriend, taking in parts of Tokyo she doesn't normally get to, and in all enjoying herself when she gets a call about a monster attack. She ducks into an alley and starts to transform into Sailor Moon when a pipe bursts and sprays her with water right as someone...doesn't collide with her falling from the roof above. The destiny of both Ranma and Usagi has been altered by a random accident that nobody could have planned for or anticipated. Nobody around them is even remotely prepared.

The principal conceit is this: In the most unlikely of unlikely events, both Ranma and Usagi's respective magics to turn them into their other half are active at the same time when they collide. This "splits" their respective destinies, spinning off events and introducing characters that would completely rewrite their lives going forward. Ranma would get a Senshi team and their own "silver crystal" artifact and royal destiny, and Usagi would get a gender-swapping curse and a whole slew of romantic entanglements. Making this happen has been an incredibly fun challenge.

Plans and Schemes

I did not, I promise, intend for there to be a hiatus of any sort for Fission. I had, in fact, encountered a MASSIVE PILE of inspiration and jotted down a HUGE amount of notes for nine books worth of material about this new world in which there would be time travel shenanigans, a Xenomorph on an abandoned Mercury research base, and a look at the world of the Silver Millenium 1,000 years into the future.

But, as happens so often with me and in a recognizable pattern I wouldn't know about at the time because this was the first time it happened, I burned myself out. A move was involved, my marriage was experiencing challenges, and we were trying for a baby. This doesn't even factor in my career obligations, church activity, or social interactions which...yeah, most of it I wouldn't have chosen and only did because...okay, stopping there, this isn't a rant about my failed marriage.

I tried over the years, up to and including putting out a new chapter here and there, but I kept running into various forms of burnout.

Then the divorce happened.

Needing some sort of outlet, I started writing Double Trixie Trouble, and while it was just silly fluff, it was relatively easy to squirt out a chapter or three and just toss 'em up, but then the whole thing started getting complicated, and I started burning out again. By that time, though, I'd started writing Lost Little Wolf as a catharsis piece, and that wound up even more popular than DTT. And suddenly I couldn't not write LLW, it was metaphorically draining the ugly, puss-filled blisters that were my severely maladapted responses to the divorce.

On the plus side (and yeah, there's lots of plus sides), I did land on my soon-to-be-legally-changed new name of Chrystal Amber from the writing of it.

Then I went through my homeless period, and I've written about that quite a bit during the author's notes for My Empire of Dirt, as well as the severe injury I sustained during that time and the long road to recovery.

And during that period of time, I began to get nearly itchy to write more for Fission.

Outlines and Brainstorming

Fission has always, from day one, looked like this:

Pluto takes a vacation, this is widely considered to be a mistake

Ranma and Usagi 'collide' in a freak accident that could only happen to them. Owing to their already crazy lives, they don't realize how big a deal it is and promptly forget about it

Ranma and Usagi both start experiencing some "bleedover" from the other person, but since it's very minor and still within the realms of "crazy shit I have to deal with," they still don't think much of it.

Ranma turns into a new, not quite mirror version of Sailor Moon and gets her first senshi, Mercury, who winds up being Konatsu, the "Genius Kunoichi" as a not-quite-mirror to Ami's "Genius." Meanwhile Usagi gets her first suitor

Mars appears, additional bleed happens between the two "sides," Usagi experiences her first gender swap

Venus appears, more bleed, Usagi encounters another rival

Jupiter appears, Usagi can't hide her changes from the rest anymore, plans are made to meet

Ranma's "Inners" unite as a team, Usagi gains a new suitor

The two groups of Inners meet, the meeting is sabotaged by the BBEG but they wind up fighting along side each other and start to compare notes

Shampoo encounters Hotaru, offers to train her, coincidentally becomes the new Saturn

Ryoga receives a package promising to cure him of his curse. It changes his cursed form to a girl and becomes the new Uranus

Ranma receives a package with a key and a cryptic note saying he/she will know who it goes to

Akari initially rejects Ryoga's new cursed form, prompting Ryoga to go on a suicide mission. Trying to rescue new-Uranus, new-Moon realizes that only Akari can save Ryoga and the key is for Akari. They rescue Ryoga and Akari admits she still loves Ryoga, no matter the form

Ami advises the BBEG that's been after both teams is The Doom Star, named Nemesis by some consipiracy theorists in the 70s

They split into teams, do a three pronged assault, find Nemesis has a senshi, crack the Dark Planet, big space battle scene, huge martial arts, much wow

The day is saved, the teams start interacting, epilogue

This has been, from day one of writing the first words on the screen of the job I was holding at the time, the way things were going to go. I knew even then pretty much exactly what I wanted to do with this story.

Let's drill down a bit (I'm going somewhere with this, I promise):

Jupiter appears, Usagi can't hide her changes from the rest anymore, plans are made to meet

As with everything else, waaaay back in 2005 when I first started this monster, I had a specific idea how Ukyo would be introduced as Sailor Jupiter:

Ranma's team gets an invite to a concert in Jubaan

Three youma disguised as human pop stars reveal they've been siphoning energy for the entire concert tour, they get the upper hand on the senshi

Three members of the audience step up to do a counter-song to the youma

Ukyo turns into Jupiter, tipping the scales

Senshi win, headlines next day are about the Senshi openly appearing on video, but they aren't the usual senshi

Like I said, this has always been the plan, all the way back in 2005-2006.

Another Fandom Enters the Chat

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic entered the scene in 2010, and you all will know that part of the story.

But sometime around the time I started coming out of my trauma haze from being homeless and injured, I started re-reading my old fics and starting to figure out next-steps to continue the stories.

And I'm looking at the three monsters that are set to appear as energy draining singers at a concert... ...waaaaait a minute!

It was...PERFECT! I just needed three kids to step up, and heeeey...

Of course, if you know me at all then research will be involved. Thanks to pony names being, for the most part, based on nouns, this wound up being cake. I will say the names for the Sirens were more of a challenge, simply because the modern Japanese music scene uses a LOT of loan words from English and so I had to really dig to find the actual Japanese words for "Adagio," "Aria," and "Sonata," but I did find them.

Oh yeah? Fine! *conforms your gender*

2005 was...a different time for the queer community. It legitimately felt like we were on the verge of fracturing off the gender presentation parts of the community from the sexual attraction parts, and asexuality wasn't a thing most of us even heard about. (I wouldn't for another 2-ish years after that) Compounding that is the fact that my fanfic is built on a foundation from the 1980s, and yes, everything you've heard about how bad it was worldwide for queer folk is true. We barely made it out of that decade. Ranma 1/2 is a product of its time, but even for that it's VERY subversive. The whole thing is practically a study of teenage gender issues and nonconformity, by the end of the anime Ranma basically declares they're NB using the language available at the time, and Konatsu is known to be AMAB, but is treated as a woman. Any time the NWC tries to make Ko-chan 'act like a man,' it's shown just how very bad at it she is.

When I was writing Fission back in the mid-2000s, it wasn't a big deal to have Ranma be a guy who turns into a girl and back and that was that. There was no "they/them" we could use without looking like absolute weirdos. Konatsu was a pre-op transexual at best, so when writing for the ninja, you used he/him, end of story. If you review the chapters I wrote prior to my unplanned hiatus, you'll note that while Konatsu is in "civilian" guise, I use he/him. When a senshi, I had to do freakin vocabulary and grammar acrobatics to not use a pronoun at all. I wanted it to be clear that being a senshi in this universe is pretty much the ultimate form of femininity. Yes, they can crack a planet on accident and one of 'em can sneeze at the wrong time and alter history, but they're girls who are feminine and can kick your ass.

On this side of a transition, being where Konatsu would want to go if she could do so and afford it in the 1980s, I just couldn't bring myself to continue with the joke. It's ultimately kinda mean and I didn't feel comfortable with it. This "chapter" (consisting of chapters 10-12 on AO3) was me taking steps to address this in a plot-conforming, in-universe way and not break the flow of what I'd already written.

You're still here?!

Go read the fic!

[rabiosass]

I see a few dadson ukus fics once in a blue moon on ao3, but nuclear family ace/face fam fruk (or single dad uk) has garnered most of the popularity when it comes to those characters on tumblr. Even some usuk shippers a few years ago don't ship in anymore and strictly does father-son gen content with them. Not sure if it's antis scaring them off or just the old dadson ukus creators left and new fans seem to mostly just like fluffy domestic stuff.

Hello anon !

Yes I noticed a similar concentration of facefam content when i entered the fandom like 2 yrs ago. I ended up muting and blocking the tags ages ago because I couldn't stand it lol. So now I am very happy not seeing any of it!!

Single dad uk is cute (hell, I've written single mom nyo England) but I do get kind of tired of it when i'm in the mood for actual dadson.

I agree with the hypothesis that the creators kinda just migrated to other fandoms. I bet they're still writing dadson to this very day haha.

I think in general the popular fans just don't really delve into that taboo dynamic as much (which is perfectly fine and they're in their right to do and talk about whatever they want on their accounts). I guess i'm just not looking in the write places lol. Basically I'm more on the prowl for meta and fics that do incorporate the incest fuckery and don't shy away from it. They are lovecraftian immortals after all and their notion of what is and isn't normal is the perfect jumping off point to dive into a topic like incest.

Nevertheless there is also a place in my heart for those modern dadson brocon aus too!!

If you have recommendations of those dadson fics I'm all ears!

[absolutelydw]

Can I talk my shit again?

No, really. Can I talk my shit again? I talk shit. I will talk shit and won’t refrain from doing so. It’s me. I’m not talking shit about people, places or things to be malicious. I just simply was born with the gift of gab and I just happen to be the funniest person I know. Look at me talking my shit, again. -wink-

Look. I absolutely WISH I could be a no fucks given, uninhibited blog writing superstar. But the way my “corporate baddie” 6yr old son havin, single mama life is set up? Would not support such a thing. I admire those people. In fact I strive to be those people… living carefree not worried about a thing. BUT until my poor unfortunate soul of a sperm donor and my strong manifestation of being a multimillionaire stay at home wife/mama/Bravo network housewives celebrity lifer align.. I must keep life a bore… on the World Wide Web.

Fine with me. less more… more the less. But. Ma’am’s and sirs, this week has been mind blowing. I say this. Manifestation is real.

Energy is real.

Divine timing and Gods plan?

ABSOLUTELY REAL. I’ve seen nothing but angel numbers, signs, messages in a bottle lately, all of the things and all of it makes me equally gitty, excited and nervous for the future… because I know if I put my mind to it, the shit comes. It comes in strange ways… but it comes. It also makes me sad- to a degree because what I thought “was it” is no longer it. What I thought was what I wanted, no longer serves me… and it scares me.

10 years ago, you couldn’t tell me shit.

I didn’t want kids, I now have two one living who runs my life and other as a guardian angel. Possibly may even want a third if we’re being 65% honest. (No typo. 65% percent)

The thought of marriage made me want to slit my wrists, and donate my blood to the American cross as a hobby. Now I know I’m no man’s lady of the night or desire to be and could potentially* be a man’s wife. In the words of Tiffany “New York” Pollard… I want my name dropped, meaning I want to be married. I’m not messing around with you.

I was hit with the realization the other day that some men really think money makes them attractive… for me, it does not… and the more you talk about it, it makes me look at you as a cornball… a fuckin Frito Lay corn chip, if you will. I think I read somewhere that the richest people wear the simple clothing… okay, alright. I didn’t read that but you get it. I don’t even want to use this man as an example because for me personally… and most people I know… we do not find him attractive. But here it goes..

Mark Zimmerberg, Facebook “Meta Man”, rich? Absolutely… does he brag about it? Willing to bet 85% of the change in my purse he doesn’t. To be completely honest? I don’t care that much about his net-worth. However, what I do know is that he doesn’t need to walk into a room and disclose how much he’s made in the last 24hrs. Im sure he’s proud of his success but it’s absolutely repulsive to feel the need to do so.

all men should strive to be like Mark… don’t be Mark. Lol but strive to be LIKE mark and keep your accomplishments you’ve obtained within the last… few months to yourself. It makes the girls and some boys drier than the Sahara desert and we’re just trying to stay hydrated.

Last thing, because I’m on a tangent, leading down the road of who the hell knows what..

I will continue to stay in a positive state/space, shoot for the stars, hope to land in soft clouds next to mr. moon and remain open for what’s to come.

Pray for love, clarity, and the strength to remain, mentally, physically and emotionally strong and grounded. All the while manifesting the NEXT YEAR of my life to be closer to the images on my motherfuckin vision board.

I’m a good person who says fuck a lot but I deserve everything I want.

In jesus, geezus, and yeezus name.

Amen.

xo, dw.

[manlyquail]

So excited for this, and for the like... two people (ha, two...) that may follow me my brief silence this time wasn’t due to inactivity! No sir! In fact I’ve been working on this >: 3

Unlike other variations of this where I usually find out late or the week of and try to rush out stories on a day to day basis, my current work is getting my ideas and storyboards down for *every single item* on this list, writing them and editing them ahead of time, and then being ready to slam down two fic uploads each day of this week!

Thus far I’ve basically got the entire Admin list down (Atlas Ball I mean come on, I bet so many people would be reading more of my variation if it had White Rose in it!) and have started on the audience list for storyboards. Some of these have been a little harder to come up with good ideas more than others (I mean “Weiss Crying Over Ruby’s Heavy Ass Weapon” definitely sent me for a loop), but I’m pretty confident in what I have down.

As a small aside and funny thing, the way I sometimes brainstorm or get into writing is to actually write as the characters talking about the stories they’ll be in, so I have a fun document that’s just a back and forth of Weiss and Ruby discussing their ideas for these stories... it’s all very Meta but it helps me get in character and bounce ideas off of... myself :D

Anyways, it’ll be exciting to vomit out 14 new fics in about a month, I think in one fell swoop I’ll catch up to my number of Bee fics, but it’s all so much fun!

The Official White Rose Week 2023 Prompt Lists are here!

Some important things before we get to the prompts:

White Rose Week happens on June 10th-16th 2023 and one additional day for a Free prompt day! “Free” meaning anything you can imagine, not literally the word free. But always remember to follow the rules, speaking of which…

If you are participating in White Rose Week, you must read and follow the rules found here. If you break some specific rules, you will get strikes (up to three strikes) and you can potentially be banned from participating.

Please remember that my team and I have busy lives outside of this blog so if we’re slow during the event to reblog stuff or reply, please be understanding and patient. We will greatly appreciate it.

Anyone who wants to participate has about 4 months before the event! Please have fun and don’t stress about whatever work you want to submit for this. Happy creating!

The Lists:

Voted/Audience List

Body Swap

Scar kisses

Vampire Schnees and Vampire Hunter Ruby

Time travel Ruby searching for a reincarnated Weiss after every death

"WAIT! That was YOU?!??!!!"

Wolf/Werewolf AU

Secret Identities

Admin List

Atlas Ball

Homecoming

Weiss Crying Over Ruby’s Heavy Ass Weapon

Vtuber or streamer or youtuber AU

Childhood Promise

Maid Cafe AU

Ruby is a single mom with a baby and one day Weiss babysits and the baby starts calling her mom

GO TEAM COMBAT SKIRTS!

Header Credit: @thegreatweissshark Thank you Sharky!

[centaurianthropology]

What ‘Our Flag Means Death’ Did for this Older Queer Fan

I’ve been trying to articulate what feels special about ‘Our Flag Means Death’ to me for a while.  I’ve been active in fandoms since the ‘90s, back when webrings were your best bet for good fan content.  I have seen a lot of shows come and go.  And I got very used to my fandom experience going something like this: find a new show or movie or book or other thing, write a lot of meta about character motivation and plot structure and costume choices, and often find a pairing I found appealing.  The chemistry was usually good, with variations on antagonistic, friendly, or other chemistry.  And if I was lucky, the show would drop a few hints that there was something there.  You learned very quickly to be grateful for scraps, and to never expect too much.  There was never, NEVER an expectation that a queer pairing would be ‘endgame’, or would ever be manifested in anything more than a few lingering glances and the actors and maybe a writer or two being all for the relationship EXCEPT. 

Except the producers, the studios, the audience.  It would never be accepted.  So it was confined to glances.  And that I understood.  I could appreciate that.  I knew that, if they could, those writers and those actors would have gone there, but gay marriage being legalized seemed like an impossibility, queer cinema was treated as niche or arthouse, and the only queer characters allowed on network shows had to be sidekicks who never had sex.

After that came the era of the queerbait.  Showrunners were more aware of fandom in the mid-2000s, and really wanted that sweet sweet audience retention.  So some shows started to lean into the possibilities of queer relationships.  They played up that things might happen between characters on screen.  It was no longer “we want to, but the network/producer won’t let us”; it was “maybe there is something there! *wink* *wink*”, only to turn around and inevitably claim that the audience misinterpreted, that there was nothing there and never had been.  It was somehow less than what we had in the ‘90s, because then at least we knew we were never getting anything, we knew that the writers had pushed something as hard as they could and they felt as shitty as we did that it wasn’t going to happen.  This was, well, bait.

And yet I don’t really think I understood that feeling of being baited, because I never got the canon queer ship on screen.  Whenever I saw the bait, as a fan who had been around and seen the talks in the ‘90s about queer rep on network TV, I knew that it was bait.  I knew that they would never follow through because everyone was convinced that two men kissing would end their television show.  So no matter how much they teased the audience, I knew it was lies, and I didn’t feel like it hit me as hard.  I told myself it didn’t hurt.

Now we’re in a new era where queer relationships are directly confirmed by creators, but there’s always still this halting before the final hurdle.  “These two men are in love,” they’ll say, but then turn around and say, “but it’s so elevated and pure and perfect that they would never sully it by smashing their faces together.  So they’re definitely in love guys!  Just don’t expect them ever to show that physically.”  Because gay love is now in vogue, but gay kissing and God forbid gay sex are still that bridge too far.  Even shows with great queer rep that aren’t explicitly billed as queer romances will stop before the kiss.  

And this doesn’t feel like asexual rep or an embracing of queerplatonic relationships, because it definitely doesn’t feel like they deliberately set out to write that.  No, it always feels like they wanted to have their cake and eat it.  They want the queer fans that will come to see a queer relationship, but they don’t want to lose those fans that they are still convinced will stop watching when two mens’ lips touch (it’s different for women, because straight men love lesbians, and so they get a pass for ogling reasons, which ...  is a whole different story, and a whole different long post, frankly).  

And then comes David fucking Jenkins, who seems like an impossibility.  He is an apparently straight white cis man in his forties.  He is the exact sort of demographic that you would never expect to deliver a meaningful queer story, or a story with explicitly anti-racist or anti-colonialist beats.  On first glance, he’s every other showrunner who’s tried to pull a fast one on queer audiences before.

But as this article shows, there was something different ticking away in his head.  He watched Star Wars and came away with the impression that Finn and Poe were the couple with chemistry.  He saw how fans treated Kelly Marie Tran and John Boyega and wanted to do better.  He’s almost blissfully unaware of the long history of queer fans getting ignored, then baited, then told that gay sex or kissing would ‘lessen’ such a wonderful relationship.

So he set out to write a queer sitcom about pirates.  And since it was a romcom, of course the two leads were going to kiss, because that was the point of a romcom.  That’s what the audience signed up for, and to turn around and give some bullshit line about how their mouths touching would lessen what they had was inherently ridiculous.  A romcom has specific beats, sure.  They were inevitably going to be separated by misunderstanding, but there was also an agreement with the audience that it wouldn’t be forever.  

And the kiss sealed that deal.  It showed that he had none of those weird hang-ups or beliefs that if he showed two men kissing, his show would be over.  And you know what?  He was more right than he could have ever imagined.  What he was doing was, in his head, simply following through with the agreement established by all romcoms.  It wasn’t remarkable or revolutionary.  It wasn’t until he was surprised that more people weren’t believing it was a romcom by the moonlit scene in episode 5 that he started to understand something was happening that he hadn’t been privy to before.  I think it was only after that that David Jenkins did a deep dive on queerbaiting, and realized how pervasive it was, how even the queer audiences weren’t willing to believe what was obvious on screen.  That, in the words of Lucius: “This is happening.”

And they didn’t believe it until the kiss, because that’s always the line that shows aren’t willing to cross.  When he stepped over that boundary he didn’t even know existed, he had an audience ready to go to war for him.  Because he had delivered.  There was no waffling, no bullshit.  He just delivered.  And after that, well ...

The audience flocked to him.  They campaigned, made cakes and Twitter storms and were unrelenting.  They were a groundswell for a show that had gotten no advertising, no buzz, no press before its airing.  It’s clear that HBO Max had the same old attitude that he had crossed the line with that kiss, and that the show would flop.  But it was the opposite, and instead of tanking his show, it got him a renewal.  

And I myself felt such a lightness in my heart after seeing that.  Even with the darker end the season had, I knew that this was a romcom, that our lovers would be reunited, get over their miscommunications, and would be together in a meaningful way.  David Jenkins had the idea, and then he filled his writers room with people to bring that idea to life, to push back and buy in.  Queer people, people of color, people of different cultures.  This is the move of a man who has a dream to write a diverse, queer story, and knows that he has a good idea for it, but also knows that he needs people who have lived those lives to help him avoid stumbling blocks that he never could have seen.

Seeing this leads to the extraordinary result of writing that is well aware of how queer characters and characters of color have been treated by the media, and how queer fans and fans of color have been treated too.  It also led to him going on his own journey of discovering, realizing why people reacted the way they did, why they were hesitant to believe he would deliver, and why they would fight so hard for his show when they did.  It was effervescent, like drinking champagne, to finally just ... have this.  For it to happen both with the writers knowing it was something special, and the showrunner not understanding why it wasn’t always so easy just to deliver these stories.  Just to see the chemistry and go for it.  Just to treat characters with respect and still let them be silly and ridiculous.  To have an entire world that feels queer friendly, beyond the queerness of the lead characters.

It only really hit me recently, when I heard that tired old excuse of “they love one another, but kissing or sex would cheapen that relationship, so they’re in love, but not in a sexual way”, and I was finally sick of it.  Because David Jenkins and his silly gay pirate show showed that it’s bullshit.  He showed that your audience booms when you finally set aside the fear of two men kissing, and just pay off the relationship.  When you embrace queerness not just in words, but in deeds.  It took OFMD to finally rip those tolerant blinders off me and for me to think, “Oh, just say that you don’t want to show two men kissing because you think whatever audience you have will think it’s gross.”  Just say it.  Just be honest instead of trying to parade this as a better form of queer representation.  I wouldn’t like you any more, but I would respect the honesty.

Finally getting what I always secretly wanted from a show--but would never admit that I wanted because I knew I would always be disappointed--has taken away my ability to tolerate whatever excuse showrunners trot out for not taking that final step.  OFMD opened my eyes.  It woke me up to realizing that I had spent twenty years pretending I wasn’t hurt when a show teased a relationship they never intended to pay off.  I haven’t felt so giddy about a show in years, and I have *never* felt so giddy about a queer genre show (because I’ve never seen one before that delivered so well on both being queer and on being genre)!  This was not a show billed as a romance, but a show about pirates, but it delivered such a lovely romance and such a lot of silly pirates!    

So thank you, David Jenkins.  As you went on your journey of discovery about queerbaiting and how it made you feel, I have been on a similar journey.  And you helped me get there.  You and your silly gay pirate show.

[dent-de-leon]

I can't tell if so many members of the staff are pro-sheith because it's such a good ship or if it's because they know it's going to be canon. Honestly their support for it is what made me think it could become canon in the first place. I can't be the only one.

Well, staff support doesn’t mean it’s going to be cannon, but it certainly helps I think. I’ve just answered an ask about how I think staff feels about sheith and the possibility of whether or not they’d make it cannon here. And I’ve discussed staff’s views on lgbt representation, so I don’t think there’s too much more I can really go into in terms of that. 

If we were to just look at sheith from how it’s presented in cannon though, I think there are a lot of interesting things about their dynamic that really set them apart from other potential ships (and give it a better shot at being cannon). And this starts right with their introduction; Keith’s shift from raw rage to tender softness when he looks down at Shiro, the way he breathes out Shiro’s name–his very first line–and then reaches out to gently turn his head to the side. It’s a very emotional scene, and one where you can clearly see Keith’s pain. Keith’s rescue of Shiro means you automatically associate one with the other right at the start; I don’t think that’s accidental. And it does seem like the intro of a possible love interest to me. 

The fact that so much of Shiro and Keith’s past is purposely hidden from the viewer is also just…really curious to me. What reason could they possibly have for that? We know from Joaquim that “[Keith] latches onto Shiro at times because Shiro’s sort of the only thing that can really calm him down and keep him in check.” We also know that Keith tells Shiro “If it weren’t for you, my life would have been a lot different.” 

So we know that Shiro made quite the impression on Keith, but what in the world did he do? How is it he literally changed Keith’s life, and what exactly was their relationship like prekerberos? And why in the world is their backstory such a mystery that the writers feel the need to be so secretive about it? What is it about Shiro that makes Keith feel so strongly about him, that makes Keith live in constant fear of losing him? 

Something else that really drew me about sheith was all their thematic parallels. Their roles, reactions, and reunions feel inevitably fated–like a fairytale. The way Keith follows this siren call out into the desert, searching for something, anything, because he “felt lost” but then finds Shiro of all people, looks him in the eye and says “Then you showed up.” Also, right after Ulaz tells Shiro “The Blade of Marmora is with you” Keith frees Shiro–with his Marmora blade. For Shiro, this gives the added thematic implication of Don’t worry, Keith is with you. There’s also the added parallels between Sven being given a dagger by his love interest Romelle, Keith’s mom giving a knife to Keith’s dad, and the fact that said knife is not only what Keith uses to rescue Shiro, but also ties them together during the Marmora trial. Other parallels include but are not limited to: 

Keith pilots the right arm of Voltron, which is also the arm that Shiro lost

The implication that by being the right arm of Voltron Keith is also Shiro’s “right hand man,” and how this reflects their dynamic in cannon

The way both their bayards combine to form blazing sword 

Keith and Shiro both undergoing this internal struggle with the notion that they’re a monster, that they both belong to the galra empire; of everyone on Team Voltron, they’re the only ones who can really understand the other’s pain over that on such a deeply personal level

All of Keith’s parallels to Black and all of Shiro’s parallels to Red

Repeating dialogue back to one another, which strikes me as really romantic honestly. Exchanges of “It’s good to have you back” “It’s good to be back” and “Patience yields focus” is something completely unique to sheith. No other pair has a go to phrase they recite back and forth to one another, and it’s just really sweet. Also, the way Shiro looks so touched when he says to Keith, “That really stayed with you, didn’t it?” It means something to him that Keith remembered 

The way they keep getting torn apart but always come crashing back together. Like they’re caught in each other’s orbit, like against all odds they’re just meant to be 

The way they both anchor one another; Shiro being the only thing that can really “calm Keith down” and Keith always being the first to try to snap Shiro back to the present during one of his flashbacks, always trying to be there for him and center him–like Shiro always did for him 

Keith and Shiro maintaining a facade in front of everyone else, but opening up to each other when they’re on their own–allowing themselves to be vulnerable and painfully honest with one another 

A lot of Shiro and Keith’s scenes mirror one another. Just looking at visuals, I think this is especially obvious with Keith saving Shiro in the pilot and Shiro’s rescue of Keith in BOM. Again, I personally just happen to read parallels like these as romantic 

I think the role that Shiro played in Keith’s galra arc also demonstrates just how close they are. Before season 2 (and even after) it was very common for fans to write aus that focused on a romance with Keith tied to his galra reveal. Whoever the chosen partner was, fans would often show them 1) Noticing the change Keith was going through before anyone else, 2) Comforting Keith, and 3) Offering to keep his secret or defend Keith if the rest of the team distrusted him (which they often did). For a while, this was a common theme in fan works. And the thing is? In season 2, Shiro is that character. Out of all the paladins, Shiro is the one who picks up on Keith’s self-loathing and isolation, is the only one who reaches out and tries to help. Asks him what’s wrong, if he’s okay, if he wants to talk 

He’s also the only one there for Keith’s trial and galra reveal. This is a defining moment of Keith’s character development, and of all the paladins, Shiro is the sole witness to it. When everything with Marmora is said and done, the rest of the team doesn’t even say goodbye to Keith. But Shiro does. He pulls him into a warm hug, and the focus on Keith’s tender expression is just the sweetest thing. Keith is so emotional in this scene, that it actually humanizes him enough to unnerve Allura–who turns away almost guiltily–because how can she say Keith is a monster when he holds Shiro so close and affectionately? 

Shiro offers nothing but unconditional support in the wake of Keith’s galra reveal, something that no one else does. This was such a prominent trope in fandom before season 2, that I can’t believe people hardly ever acknowledge the character who actually did it. Because it does feel like Shiro’s role in Keith’s galra arc is often dismissed in fandom or cast to the wayside in favor of fanon–which is something I’ve never liked. At any rate, Shiro’s role is one that was kind of romanticized in fandom a lot before season 2. That’s at least interesting, I think. And it shows that Shiro is always a support Keith can rely on no matter what. There are also a lot of noticeable parallels between sheith and kallura (another ship people seem to feel staff has been building up romantically) in season 2, so that’s interesting. 

Also, really quickly, but everything with Keith’s trial strikes me as kind of odd if Keith really just sees Shiro as a brother figure. For one thing, the fake Shiro calls all of Team Voltron Keith’s family–“We’re your family,” he says–but the fact that Keith moves the focus of the conversation to Shiro proves that he thinks of his connection with Shiro as running deeper than what he has with Team Voltron (all of whom we know he also sees as found family). But there’s something about the line “Your friend desperately wants to see you” that evokes a sense of unrequited love to me. As much as I look at it, to me, that line just does not read as brotherly. Desperation is not the word I would use to describe someone talking about their bro. Desperation implies a sense of desire, a sense of longing for what one will never know, a sense of agony over that desire. 

When commenting on this scene, Josh said that “[Keith’s] constantly scared he’s going to say or do something wrong and he’s going to lose Shiro.” Again, nothing about that sounds brotherly to me. With someone who’s a sibling (or like one) you wouldn’t feel so insecure as to believe they’ll walk out on you any second and just leave you all alone. You’re not so scared of losing them. But Keith being worried that one wrong move will cost him his bond with Shiro? That sure sounds a lot like someone who’s fallen for their friend but would never admit it for fear of scaring them away. 

And for someone like Keith, who’s deepest fear (according to the paladin quiz) is apparently feelings, I think it makes sense that Keith would hide any possible feelings for Shiro. Especially given his fear of abandonment; Shiro is Keith’s one longterm, significant relationship with someone. The possibility of ruining that friendship by bringing unwanted romantic feelings into it is definitely something he would avoid. I also think it says a lot that, while many people zero in on the brother line (simultaneously ignoring the “we’re your family line”) and insisting that sheith can only be read in a platonic context–at the same time, there are lots of instances of fans replacing Shiro with Lance and treating the scene as romantic. So, whatever someone’s personal shipping preferences, I think the scenario itself–“your friend desperately wants to see you” and that friend manifesting as your greatest hopes and dreams, your deepest desire–can easily be seen as romantic. 

So long story short, yes. I think there’s a lot of precedence for sheith already covered in canon. I can see why plenty of people on the staff either ship it or support shipping it; in my opinion, they have the most well developed dynamic in canon, and they have so many scenes that just demonstrate their intimacy and implicit trust. Whatever their relationship grows into, I know I’ll still love it a lot. 

[tolkien-feels]

You know how Luthien, Ereandil, Elwing, Elrond, Elros — that entire family represents hope, a chance at salvation, victory against all odds, mercy. Even Aragorn's name means hope. And oh is it not painful that it's Estel's and Arwen's children that become the villains in the fourth age, (and at such degree that Tolkein couldn't write of it? Here you'd think first age was bad) and maybe it's a blessing that Elrond wouldn't get to know of it, even if he has to live in ignorance....untill Dagor Dagorath, that is.

This got long-ish and. slightly off-topic if I'm being honest? Sorry

You know, I think Tolkien was very right to abandon the New Shadow storyline. For all that the First Age is extremely sad, it's never gratuitous pain. It's often undeserved by the characters, but from the point of view of a reader, it doesn't feel like Tolkien is just hurting characters and destroying kingdoms for fun or shock value. There's a story worth being told and we're being told it. Unless Tolkien could find something interesting to tell, the New Shadow would be just... the fall of Numenor 2.0? From peace and prosperity to self-inflicted evil is a story we've been told before, and it's very tragic and worth telling in its tragedy, but to see it happen again would be just mindlessly twisting the knife, I feel. It's not even that I feel like the Fourth Age has to be blissful, it's just that if you're going to tell that story, then you should have, well, a story to tell. Another way of putting it is that if Beren and Luthien die and Dior's life is a nightmare, then well, it'd better be a damn poignant nightmare, or else I'll feel like I'm just having my emotions toyed with for no good reason.

....but that's all on a meta level. If we assume that the Fourth Age does happen like that, and Tolkien, like me, simply thought that's not a story that needs to be written, then I think that much like Elrond presumably grieved the fall of Numenor but kept alive the hope that evil can never wholly triumph, I would probably be really sad to see the story develop, but would also be sure that more painful evil will necessarily lead to even more moving heroes. That's maybe not something that works out in the real world, but in Tolkien? I wouldn't for a second think Aragorn's line and Arwen's line both failing mean that the Children of Iluvatar as a whole have failed. I'd be devastated because my blorbos's children are my own children and of course I'd love it for them to be good people, but I wouldn't quite say that Aragorn brought no hope. I bet that the limited peace he was able to secure was enough to allow someone, somewhere to live in safety and freedom until the time comes for them to be heroes. (Not that I measure worth of action in terms of goals accomplished, anyway.)

So like, is it painful? Yes. Does that mean Estel’s hope was, after all, in vain, as were the hopes of everyone who came before him? I wouldn’t say so. The great thing about Arda being a Great Tale that never ends is that literally anything bad that happens cannot be permanent. It’s just the nature of evil in Tolkien. It’s painful, but it’s like... keep reading. After the New Shadow there will be a New Light, because that’s how things work in Tolkien, and then we’ll say “Oh, look, Aragorn didn’t fail, you can see how that story continues until this new happy ending!” If Tolkien had written the New Shadow, and the Fourth Age was a horror show, then well. Let’s see how the Fifth Age goes. No Age is ever going to be perfect bliss, but if you can somehow find a happy ending even for Children of Hurin - the Shadow can’t touch them after death, and the entire family remained brave and true to the end, and there’s always the Dagor Dagorath and Arda Remade to look forward to - then I think it’s hard to imagine that the Fourth Age could reach a level of darkness that is too dark to ever manage to get a happy ending.

To put it more simply... If the Fourth Age proves to be the darkest Age yet, to the point where you can compare it to the lowest point of Frodo and Sam’s journey - “Well the First Age was like Gandalf falling in Moria, but the Fourth? The Fourth is Mordor” - then there’s always either Hope Unquenchable or Endurance Beyond Hope, whichever is applicable. Does that make sense?

...I probably still would find it very painful to read each and every sentence, though, so I think you’re right.

[hunxi-guilai]

Hey, Hunxi, any chance of getting that meta about Crouching Tiger recontextualizing qinggong because I'm not sure what the difference is between "supernatural spectacle" and "oblique superhuman ability." Certainly Crouching Tiger was the first time I saw that kind of martial arts on film but I've assumed that's cause I'm a dumb white American. (Realize this is wildly off-topic, I'm just interested in it.)

(a follow-up to... this post, I think? not me elaborating on this ten months later)

so this ask sent me digging back through my old files, since that line referenced a paper I wrote in my first year of college, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and completely ignorant of film genre theory and the liberation that comes when you realize that all genres are simply constructs of society and marketing and have only as much power as you give them

but! before 我看开了, I wrote an embarrassingly long paper trying to split hairs between depictions of the superhuman, the supernatural, and the flat-out magical in East Asian martial arts film, which functionally meant that I was looking at portrayals of 轻功 qinggong (lit. "the art of lightness" aka wire fu) across different eras of wuxia cinema. was this essay fun to write? you bet. was it a good essay? well.

anyway, threw some relevant selections under the readmore

(obligatory disclaimer that I barely know what I'm talking about and I knew even less in my first year of college, everyone should just go read Stephen Teo's Chinese Martial Arts Cinema: The Wuxia Tradition if you want a thorough introduction to the genre and its history)

So it might help to know that I had set down the following definitions for the purposes of splitting hairs:

superhuman: "tied specifically to the abilities of each character, especially the physically impossible actions employed in fight sequences"

supernatural: "elements of the filmic world that break the laws of nature, science, or reality, and is often associated with a degree of spirituality or otherworldliness"

magical: "any set of supernatural abilities involving its own skills and technique that can stand independently from regular hand-to-hand combat, though the two may be intimately related"

(I think it's worthwhile to mention that the wuxia genre's relationship with quote-unquote "realism" is a fascinating and dynamic balance; as the genre goes through phases and new waves, this relationship can be emphasized or eschewed entirely, often depending on directorial style and/or market popularity. there's also a longer conversation to be had about "realism" in the traditions of Chinese art and theater/opera, but that's absolutely out of my area of specialty)

are these good definitions? not particularly. I don't pretend this was a good essay, but it might help contextualize some of the statements I make below

here's some analysis, borrowed primarily from David Bordwell, of King Hu's editing style in his wuxia films and how that factors into the "realism" of the martial arts depicted:

The boundaries of reality have always been porous in the genre of martial arts film; cinematically translated, this tendency manifests in what David Bordwell describes as the aesthetic of “The Glimpse” in King Hu’s filmography. Through a strategic form of editing, the fighting action in Come Drink With Me (1966) and A Touch of Zen (1971) lurks on the edge of visibility, creating the illusion that the characters literally move too quickly for the camera to catch up; or, as Bordwell explains in his comprehensive dissection of Hu’s filmic technique, Hu “frequently stages, shoots, and cuts his action so that it becomes too quick, too distant, or too sidelong for [the audience] to register fully” (Bordwell 118).

and specifically, King Hu's rendition of qinggong:

...Hu was far more concerned with “dignify[ing] and beautify[ing]” the “feats” of his warriors “without tipping them into implausibility and sheer fantasy” (118). This devotion to a semblance of reality appears in Hu’s portrayal of qinggong – or rather, his lack of portrayal. An established component of Chinese wuxia literature and film, qinggong can be literally translated as ‘the skill of lightness,’ or, as Stephen Teo puts it, “the skill of applying weightlessness” (Teo 32). Characters proficient in qinggong can soar across rooftops or leap twice their height from a standstill, land safely from great heights or save love interests from death-by-falling. In its most conservative depictions, qinggong is a superhuman skill that stands at the limits of believability and hypercompetence; in its most liberal renditions, qinggong becomes a stark indicator of the supernatural in a film. In Come Drink With Me, Hu exercises restraint in his portrayal of qinggong by illustrating it through a series of negatives – where Drunken Cat (Yueh Hua) was one moment, he no longer is by the next time the camera/Golden Swallow (Cheng Pei-pei) looks at him. Instead, Drunken Cat has inexplicably appeared across the river, leaving the viewer to presume that Drunken Cat has utilized his ability of qinggong to move in the time the camera looked away. In discreetly portraying qinggong in offscreen action, Hu minimizes the supernatural...

In the iconic bamboo fight scene from A Touch of Zen, Hu utilizes swift cutting and editing (his average shot lasted around 4.5 seconds) to depict qinggong – again, at the edge of visibility (Bordwell 127). In a fight-ending series of acrobatics, Yang Hui-ching (Hsu Feng) leaps off bamboo trunks to dive down from the treetops. Rather than openly utilizing wire-work or slow motion, Hu gives his characters more airtime by “adding more fleeting actions – a foot striking a tree trunk, the flash of a body twisting and spinning to keep aloft a split-second longer,” but never pulling back for a long shot that would expose the supernatural/superhuman ability for his audience to see (Bordwell 131). The addition of these “fleeting actions” create a semblance of physics in Hu’s world; Yang’s slippered foot pushing off of one bamboo trunk in one shot is followed closely by her leaping towards another, suggesting causality in a series of illusions created by Hu’s masterful use of constructive editing (Bordwell 131). Through his cinematic ellipsis, Hu hints at the superhuman capabilities of his characters but refrains from displaying it directly on film.

so, that's King Hu and wuxia in the 70's. it's not that there was no wuxia in the 80's and 90's (that is, after all, the heyday of Tsui Hark and Chu Yuan and somehow, Wong Kar-wai getting in there a bit with 《东邪西毒》 Ashes of Time), but I was a sleep-deprived undergrad and jumped straight to the 21st century:

In stark contrast to the frenetic, fragmented qinggong of King Hu, Ang Lee and Zhang Yimou present an ethereally graceful and beautifully serene version of weightlessness [...] In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Jen Yu (Zhang Ziyi) often employs qinggong to leap into the air from a standstill to escape, chase, or attack. Later, in Lee’s homage to the bamboo forest-battle in King Hu’s A Touch of Zen, Jen Yu and Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-fat) clash intermittently on the treetops of bamboo, which sways seductively in an oncoming storm. As the two soar past each other, Lee’s skillful manipulation of wire-work shown lovingly in his long shots creates the sense that the warriors are not creatures of the earth, but supernatural beings of the air who must touch down on the bamboo to keep from drifting away into the sky. Likewise, in Zhang Yimou’s 2002 film Hero, each assassin can soar backwards out of range of weapons, break into flight while charging to meet an enemy, or change direction in mid-air. [...] The result: a mythical, timeless aura that emphasizes the fantastic and romanticized aspects of an imaginary ancient China.

(digging through my old files again, and this analysis owes pretty much its entirety to Kin-Yan Szeto's chapter "Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: gender, ethnicity, and transnationalism" in The Martial Arts Cinema of the Chinese Diaspora, which is really a very good piece that puts Crouching Tiger in its rightful place)

it’s worth noting that depictions of qinggong/flight aren't necessarily constrained by the development of cinematic production and special effects--for example, Tsui Hark in Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983) was freely and liberally using wirework shown on-screen as well--but I’m fairly confident that a direct line can be drawn from Crouching Tiger and Hero’s depictions of qinggong as graceful flight to the liberal use of wirework in wuxia/xianxia film and TV today. As Szeto writes:

"Unlike previous wireworks used for the sake of spectacle, Lee employs the long shot to expose the supernatural power of the flight so as to enhance and express the emotion of the characters. Both technology and capital allowed Lee to break physical laws in imagining the flying sequence. He took a literal approach to making these fantastic legends into live-action visual images with the help of modern technology, transforming the dreamy imagery of soaring warriors from wuxia novels onto the screen...Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s use of long shot to record bodily movements purposely tries to differentiate itself from the fragmented flight sequences of Hong Kong martial arts films and the special effects that enhanced Spider-Man. Lee’s reworking of the wuxia and martial arts choreography and filming techniques thus becomes significant in a film production targeted at transnational film markets." (58)

Szeto then goes on to analyze the use of qinggong as spectacle and its function in a deliberate (self-)Orientalization and mythmaking on Ang Lee's part, but that is much too deep of a dive for this tumblr post

revisiting this essay several years down the line is fascinating because what Teo previously presented as the genre split between wuxia vs. shenguai (神怪, literally 'gods and monsters,' a more fantastic genre than wuxia) doesn't quite map onto my current understanding/usages of wuxia / 仙侠 xianxia / 玄幻 xuanhuan as genre designations. I'd love to hear Teo's take on modern wuxia dramas, but I feel like he wouldn't be caught dead watching them, and anyways, genre/genre definition isn't all that important at the end of the day, just a fun theoretical framework to hang some tumblr meta on sdlkfjsdlkjf

[strawberryjamsara]

Keiji and Sara’s relationship throughout yttd

In which I analyze the found family dynamic between Sara and Keiji then nobody reads it. But jokes aside, I realized back when that anon asked me for my thoughts on Sara that I had enough thoughts on the relationship between these two alone for its own meta so here goes. What Sara and Keiji’s relationship means in the grand scheme of yttd.

ALSO THIS IS NOT SHIPPING SHIPPERS GET THE FUCK AWAY

Sara when she meets Keiji is distrustful of him. And how can she not be? The guy has some creepy bags under his eyes, doesn’t seem to care about the situation, and for no reason is gravitating towards her. And his response when she asks why the hell he keeps putting a random stranger in charge? “Because you’re cute.” Yeah. I’d stay within 50 feet of this guy too Sara. Especially when he’s not spilling a word about himself.

Alright we might as well get the gross part out of the way. To clear things up. In the Japanese version, the word he uses “Kawai” can be seen as a more fatherly word to use with a kid. But the comments about going on dates from himself and from Shin? Those are still there. And I still think they’re really uncomfortable and wish they weren’t in the game period but we can get thematic significance out of them.

We still don’t know Keijis reasons in game for being attached to Sara. My theory? She’s his handicap. He was told to get close to the higher scorer who could easily backstab him, and he’d be stuck with her. It just kinda makes sense to me. But since that’s just a theory I won’t lean to heavily on it for support. But let’s talk about his comments.

Keiji… well, it’s shown at many points in the game that Keiji just thinks of himself as doomed to be a bad person. It can be seen during his day two negotiations when he calls himself a killer and explains he can’t even trust himself so Sara shouldn’t really bother and more explicitly so is the classroom scene between him and Ranmaru where he says he isn’t fit to protect Sara because of his sins. The flirting is both a way to distract people, and to put distance between himself and Sara. He’s not really “protecting” her.

Okay gross bit nobody wants to talk about is over I promise we won’t talk about it again. Let’s talk about Russian Roulette. In this scene, Keiji once again tries to make Sara the leader with no explanation, but then, Sara yells at him, something he didn’t expect. And through this he actually reveals something huge. The source of his trauma. His shooting. For Keiji to have actually revealed something that big, I think that this is the first moment he began to see Sara past whatever reason he first started making her a leader. This is the beginning of their bond.

This bond gets solidified over chapter 1-2s investigation. Keiji is still putting her in charge because his handicap said to build her up for whatever reason, but they’re able to have chats, and she keeps picking at his armor. He reveals his dark sense of humor to her, and she, suspicious just sort of keeps him at arms length. Also she rides his shoulders to screw in a light and he complains which is funny. The scene post Nao also helps the two of them sharpen investigative skills together, as they discuss the mystery of Miley, and Mishimas head.

Then another significant scene. The white room. I call this scene significant because, instead of letting Sara investigate the gruesome scene of the first trial, Keiji for the first time, allows Sara to walk out. Something that will become relevant later but until then, Keiji has begun to put Sara’s well-being above serving whatever purpose he had by building her up. So keep that in your pocket while we go over the main game.

There’s only two points for the main game I want to cover. While Keiji and Sara do put their heads together a few times, Sara still doesn’t fully trust him, so I will only go over 1. When Shin brings up Kai’s emails. Keiji has been fully logical this whole time, questioning everyone’s alibis including Nao’s who he saw the emotional plea from, but when Sou brings up potentially damning evidence of Sara, he just asks if he read the emails wrong. 2. When Sara is panicking over being chosen for the final round, Keiji loudly shouts “GET A GRIP SARA!” With a serious expression. Before quickly backtracking and going back to a devil may care expression. This shows he is both already emotionally attached to Sara, but unwilling to stake himself towards giving himself to a new cause.

Anyways, he stops her from pressing the button blah blah blah, onto chapter 2! I’ve made a post about this before but it seems as early as here, Keiji is trying to talk Sara down from pushing herself further. But at this point, Sara has already dedicated herself to the role because her best friend died due to her priority to protect everyone. Keiji sees the problem and he tries to get her to rest up, but he still doesn’t spend the time to have a serious talk about it because as he says in the classroom. He isn’t fit to protect her. He doesn’t think of himself as a good person who can help her. He thinks of himself as a murderer and he doesn’t allow himself to recover from the trauma.

Sara however is starting to rely more on Keiji. He’s been willing to comfort her in her times of grief and furthermore, she has something to relate to him on. They both have deaths of important people in their lives they feel responsibility for.

There’s also the fact that Keiji sees a lot of his old self in Sara. An idealistic person, being beaten down, and worrying over the idea they might be becoming a bad person. He feels the same as her.

Not to mention… Keiji follows through on his promises. He actually tells Sara about the person he respected like he said he would which establishes a further sense of trust.

However, something that tears that sense of trust apart is the tokens scene. When Keiji doesn’t even let Sara hold 50 tokens, it raises suspicion. Sara already knows he shot a person- what more could he have to hide? That scares her away. The negotiation event is an attempt for Keiji to win back her trust. But it slowly turns into Keiji’s self-loathing session. And his declaration maybe Sara shouldn’t trust him.

However, time passes enough (and Keiji supports Sara enough in the final attraction) for them to get together and investigate in 2-2. And there’s a lot of moments I can talk about there so I’ll be just doing a few rapidfire things. So first, Sara is in peak weird girl mode and Keiji can hardly control her chaos. Second, Keiji makes a full on decision at one point to go against Sara when she’s putting herself in danger of getting caught for their search so they can hide. Third, his response to “I don’t intend to die” when he asks “will you die with me” is that’s a good answer.

And fourth… a moment I really wanna touch on… Keiji watches something that could easily incriminate Sara. It’s not just some word of mouth thing like with Shin who lied about things several times before this point. But in that moment, he still relies on Sara and says he wouldn’t feel bad betting his life on her. The message is clear. Keiji supports Sara unconditionally.

Now let’s talk about Keiji totally dropping Sara’s ass with the card trades.

The way Keiji makes his trades is very telling. He first, steals a keymaster card from either Sou or Kanna to give to Sara. This is supporting Sara, but it’s doing it in a way that supports his view of himself. That he’s a scumbag who would steal someone’s immunity just to give it to someone he likes more. And would a shithead like that be “worthy” of sacrificing themselves and taking the card for Sara? (And he knew she had it. Qtaro had to tell him for their plan to happen) no. Instead he essentially opts for a revenge plot. A plan to ensnare Shin and kill him for pawning off the sacrifice to Sara. Basically, he wanted to fuck up Shin like how he fucked up Megumi. Nice going Keiji. This is… kind of his low point in the story.

But 3-1….. man this chapter hits in all the right ways. I don’t remember 3A that much, (although I do know that Keiji shows a lot of concern over Sara potentially being triggered by Joe memorabilia) and also if you fail the Keiji Midori fight you can have Sara attempt to tag Keiji and he rejects. And how can we forget… the mr policeman flashback. As Sara says, this is Keiji’s first time opening up on his own.

And then… coffin saga. Sara through everything is not willing to let Keiji die. Although she’s had her ups and downs with him, leaving him to die is inconceivable to her with everything they’ve been through together. So she opts to sign the contract both times she is offered it.

Keiji clearly is somebody important to Sara. Important enough that Ranmaru bringing him up is enough to snap her out of her murderous trance. Enough that she throws logic out the window when she has a sign he’s okay.

Likewise, the scene in the classroom for Keiji is… a huge step. When he’s alone with Ranmaru, who is unstable, in that classroom, his priority is Sara. He turns his back to the threat to hold Sara and try and make sure she’s okay- dumb move, but it shows how far he’s come.

And again, I want to reiterate- Keiji is Sara’s anchor. At the banquet when Sara is about to give up, she imagines Keiji talking to her which brings her back in the game. Much like Joe did back in chapter 2. The message is palpable. Keiji is Sara’s new Joe. And when Keiji comes back to comfort her? He’s now fully willing to sacrifice himself. It winds up not being needed seeing as Qtaro is the one that died. But in that moment, we see Keiji has made a huge leap from chapter 2. He almost sacrificed himself for Gin. And he would’ve used his final moments to comfort Sara. He’s embraced that he’s a father figure. He allows himself to be a good person.

Anyways I don’t know how to conclude this and I’ve been writing for hours. Bababooey.

[rhetorical-ink]

Haikyuu!! SPOILERS: Chapter 401, How We Connect the Dots.

**PENULTIMATE SPOILERS BELOW**

I just posted a video with my live reactions to the chapter, but here are my highlights, because FURUDATE YOU MADMAN GENIUS. This chapter connected so much together. So, let’s do:

My Top 10 Thoughts on Haikyuu!! Chapter 401:

10. Of course. In true Furudate fashion, he has Kageyama block the spike from Hinata, BUT, what Kageyama doesn’t realize is all the training on the beach Shoyo has done to prepare for such a moment. And that heel kick! *swoons* Also, someone reacting to Season 4, Episode 9 of the anime, where Hinata kicks the ball back to himself called this happening all those months ago...Furudate is next level at foreshadowing. Not that we didn’t already know that.

9. Hey, remember how in the VERY FIRST chapter of Haikyuu!! Shoyo did this crazy run across the court to score? Yeah, Furudate knows we remember. And he pulls this -- and Kageyama’s beautiful reaction, only for --

-- Only for it to all be a DECOY. Kageyama, you made this monster, you know. I love that Shoyo has come all this way from wanting to score all the points to accepting that the decoy DOES have a vital role to play, and in this instance, it’s allowing Bokuto to score the winning point for the MSBY Black Jackals. Just look at that smile! And of course, Tanaka and Asahi KNOW the power of Hinata as a Decoy...because they’ve been in Bokuto’s shoes before. 

8. UGH, the aftermath of that moment is glorious, which will detail down below -- but I love Shoyo and Kageyama’s interaction, though. How they’re still keeping track of each other’s wins and losses, exhausting Miya, hilariously, and showing that they’re on equal footing now, after all these years. This chapter is just cementing the last several chapters’ worth of character development. 

7. ARE YOU SHIPPERS READY FOR YOUR FOOD?!

Because these next few pages were healing my shipper heart. I mean, yes, the Kagehina fanbase is raving right now, but let’s talk about THESE ships below, starting with:

Tsukishima x Yamaguchi:

So, Tsukishima, of course, is not sappy about any of this and just points out how the season’s just getting started (ready the fanfics, y’all). 

And of course, Yamaguchi wants to watch Tsuki play! Yachi says she’ll come too! I LOVE how just like he was with Akiteru, he doesn’t want them to come watch (even though we all know he’ll love it when they’re there). Now, some people have commented that Yamaguchi could be with Yachi, but y’all...Yachi is in Tokyo. Yamaguchi and Tsuki both live in Miyagi. I can’t wait for all the Sendai Frog/TsukiYama fanfics!

If you’re looking for an extra Kagehina crumble, just look at the end of this adorable exchange between Romero, smol adorable Rubens, and Shoyo (who perfectly crouches down to talk to him MY HEART I CAN’T), to see Kageyama notice that Shoyo can speak multiple languages...oh, honey! If only you know about Hinata and Pedro’s marathons of DBZ in Portugese and English! ^^

Also, Furudate WE SEE YOU. We see you being meta and implying that now Haikyuu!! is over, he’s moving on...Akaashi’s line about going forward hit me hard...it’s like he’s telling us, the fandom, that going on to start something new isn’t so bad. SO YOU SAY. 

BOKUAKA NATION -- WE CANON NOW, RIGHT?!

I love that Akaashi gets to interview Bokuto (IS HE GOING TO BE THE STAR of the Volleyball manga Tenma Udai is writing?! He would be PERFECT for it!) and how happy Akaashi looks, even if he and Bokuto realize how differently they view the term “normal.” 

ALSO, it’s implied above that Akaashi, Bokuto, and Tenma were going out for drinks...which now....we know that it’s just Bokuto and Akaashi, since Tenma was going home. Uhm, FAN FIC WRITERS ASSEMBLE!

I also love that Udai joins the club, along with Fukurodani’s coach and manager, of people who realize that Bokuto and Akaashi are weirdos but they are weirdos together, so it’s fine. 

Keeping the “Ship Train” going, we get little bits of Shimizu x Yachi from the bathhouse before the Inarizaki Match, where Kiyoko finally acknowledges she is okay showing her legs...thanks to Yachi’s words. I also find Suga wanting to know “the tea” on the situation to be adorable. 

AND FINALLY, YES, Y’ALL:

I was spoiled with Kuroo’s return, but seriously, Furudate, you saved him for the end here so INTENTIONALLY. 

Because OF COURSE Kuroo would work for the JVA. As a promoter. CONNECTING people...with Volleyball...because that’s the Nekoma way.

And FURUDATE ARE YOU SUGGESTING TO US THAT KUROO AND KENMA ARE BUSINESS PARTNERS AND COLLABORATORS BECAUSE MY KUROKEN HEART IS SOARING -- 

-- and let it be known Atsumu Miya rightfully doesn’t trust Kuroo, and neither does Sakusa. A nice SakuAtsu crumb where we actually see Sakusa agree with Miya without sacrasm or question! Poor Shoyo is a salesman’s dream, though. I mean, Kuroo does look a little sketchy in some of those shots...BUT....

6. Kuroo’s speech about sports was SO fitting. Seriously, everything he says here is BASICALLY what makes Haikyuu!! such a great series. I DID laugh out loud at the line about “hardly anybody dies.” 

*Flashbacks to “Dead Daichi” meme*

5. It’s taken us the ENTIRE series, but Kageyama finally talks to Kindaichi and Kunimi. This was so heartwarming, seeing Kageyama wanting to play WITH THEM. AS A TEAM. This made my heart expand three sizes. The character development on Kageyama, and Kindaichi, is through the roof.

I also LOVE Kunimi the most in these panels. Kunimi is a MOOD. 

Y’ALL. I’VE WAITED 400 CHAPTERS FOR THIS PANEL OF THESE THREE HAPPY AND BECOMING FRIENDS AGAIN.

4. I love that Hoshiumi doesn’t see Hinata as a Rival, but as someone that is going to help him show the rest of the world the strength of someone who doesn’t have height. I also find it interesting that we see the Japanese Olympic Coach walking out just as Hoshiumi gives us that beautiful gaze. So...does Hoshiumi know he’s going to be on the Olympic team, with Hinata, maybe? Foreshadowing, perhaps?

3. Okay, okay, I held it together until this page. 

It wasn’t Ushijima’s panel with Washijo that got me.

It wasn’t Saeko and Akane reuniting, though that was sweet. 

It wasn’t the three “Pure Captains” reuniting, though it made my heart happy.

It honestly wasn’t the five first years together, either. They’re all so happy and having a laugh at Kageyama’s expense, and as beautiful as that panel is.

SUGAWARA IN LINE TO GET KAGEYAMA’S AUTOGRAPH.

That is what got me. 

Him in line, so meekly, to get the autograph of his kouhai, the man Suga joked would have to tell about how much he learned from HIM when he was giving out interviews and autographs...I just...Sugawara made me cry. That is all. 

2. Then there’s this last page. 2021. 

"We overcame difficulties and stand here.”

Furudate really said “screw you” to Covid messing up the timeline.

Yes, seeing Kageyama and Hinata in their original jersey numbers was amazing, but I think we all saw that coming if these two happened to get on the Olympic team. 

What I want to focus on are the two countries we see included in the bottom corner here. We see: 

Brazil -- and some fluffy haired man carrying the flag for the team.

And we see the United States -- there’s several American Flags and stars and stripes on the shirts of the crowd, there.

SO, HEADCANON TIME: 

* Oikawa was on the Argentinean League, so could he play for Brazil? It’s not likely, but not impossible....BUT, I don’t think that’s it.

I don’t think Oikawa is on Japan’s National Team for the Olympics.

If he is on the Olympic Team, I think he’ll be on America’s. 

Why? Because, and this could be because I’m the biggest IwaOi shipper, but Iwaizumi was still in the United States with Ushijima’s father at the end of Chapter 395. And if he’s still there, there is no reason why Iwaizumi couldn’t be a physical trainer alongside Ushijima’s father for the U.S. Olympic team. And why wouldn’t Oikawa trek over to the States to be on the same team as Iwa-Chan’s working with? I’m probably wrong, BUT -- 

We also still need to see Seijoh’s banner, and as others have theorized, how fitting would it be to see Hinata, Kageyama, and (probably) Ushijima on the team facing Oikawa? I just....I’m betting money that Oikawa shows up in 402. I hope we at least see him on the Olympic Stage. OIKAWA DESERVES IT. 

1. So, who are we missing that hasn’t been shown yet?

We still need to see the rest of Nekoma (Lev, Yaku, Yamamoto, Kai....could they be in the stands or on the Japan team? I guess we’ll find out!)

We haven’t seen Daishou and Mika -- I would love to see them watching or narrating in the audience during the Olympic game.

And finally, yes, we’ve seen Tendo in the Chapter 395 flashback, but we’ve never seen what he’s DOING. Furudate has shown us with every character what they’ve been doing since the timeskip....EXCEPT TENDO. I’m calling it that he’ll appear one more time next chapter, too.

So....guys....I’m staying off of Social Media from Wednesday to Sunday next week, to prep for the last chapter and not be spoiled. I’m going to do a live reaction for YouTube, and I’ll post it here. You can see the one I did for 401 now. 

Furudate, this series has been immaculate. Time for one more round.

Let’s all cry together next week.

[vrishchikawrites]

About YZY leaving YMJ/JFM with her kids Post-WWX Arrival

Dear Dee, feel free to delete or ignore this or post it, whatever floats your boat. This just stuck in my head after those posts and I had to blurt it all to someone. Thanks for taking the time to read my word vomit.

So I had to do this instead of an ask because it got long and I wasn't sure how many asks it'd need or how short I could cut it down without losing parts of the argument. And then other things came up as I was writing and, well.  Well..... >_>;;;; 

But you know, after that post/ask you had about YZY fics saying 'Fuck U' to YMJ/JFM & leaving both with her kids, I had a sarcastic 'yeah right' attitude about it. Mainly due to a lot of negation emotions to such an abusive (and delusional) bitch, partly due to how she wouldn't do that since it doesn't seem to be something her sort of character would consider either because she'd think of it as 'losing' (losing what, IDK, it's why I consider her type of person crazy) or she legit wouldn't think about such a viable action.

But then later, in the shower, I seriously went 'Wait, she can't fucking do that' and it wouldn't be about how MXTX uses her as a part of the narrative but entirely about the/their culture in the novel; the actions that have and would be taken in response; and her entire toxic personality as well.

1) We already know that the sects and the cultivation world in general is sexist, elitist and so Capital T 'Traditional' to the point that it's starting to petrify and any deviancy from this is an exception rather than the norm. YZY might be a madame of a great sect (for what that's worth considering how shit of a madame she's been and the titles she's chosen for herself) but she's still a woman even with her high rank and the things she's personally accomplished.

Even if she was in her rights to leave a 'bad' marriage, she'd be the one who'd get scolded more instead of JFM by her natal family, her former husband's family and by their entire society at large even if she had a few singular supporters. Because That's Not How Things Are Done in their society and I do believe that such a thing was rare even when it was accepted method by the upper echelons. Especially since it would have to be done by more than YZY simply deciding that She Wants Out and just- goes and Gets Out. With no serious allegations that would allow her to divorce or separate from YMJ/JFM without the input from her family, JFM's family and, I think, possibly some measure of compensation as well. And no, having or bringing in a 'bastard child' is not a serious enough offence for such a humongous decision. I think something more along the lines of treason or crimes against multiple, high-ranking parties would be more along the lines. Maybe.

And even if she does this, she'd be considered 'Used Goods' (such a terrible comment) and there'd be no other good/proper marriage prospects for a divorced woman with children let alone a woman like YZY with her entire abrasive personality and attitude put off even easy-going JFM.

(If she'd been widowed then it'd be more forgiven but I consider that a Real Bad End since, IMO, it would lead to the sudden and inevitable decline of YMJ either via mass exodus of disciples and/or residents of LP; being merged with another sect due to it's unstable leadership; or create an internal political war 'cause I bet you anything that the YMJ Elders/relatives (if they have any) Would Not Want YZY in charge of YMJ when she's already proven herself such a shit betrothed let alone madame.)

2) Speaking of families, while YMJ/JFM/LP as a whole might be glad to see YZY's back, I don't think her natal sect, MSY, will be glad to see her come storming back after all the effort they put into getting that particular marriage alliance with YMJ. And if she brings her children with her? Oh man, oh boy- mother or not, that could be considered as kidnapping or line theft (is that a thing?) especially if YZY is also seriously considering divorce proceedings and raising them as Yu and not Jiang. That could give leave to, for anyone more unforgiving and maybe JFM if he's pushed enough, disown both JYL and JWY from the Jiangs through no fault of their own (though I'm sure YZY would make it so as well as blame JFM for her own decisions and mistakes).

Therefore, any inheritance or benefits they might gain for being legitimised children of a great sect are forfeited. JYL will likely lose that betrothal with JZX because JGS will drop it like a hot potato and JWY won't be a sect heir because YZY literally decided to remove that by deciding to raise JWY as a Yu, no matter their blood relation to JFM. They leave him, they leave YMJ and everything attached with it. Which is if YMJ/JFM doesn't demand MSY to give back their heir/ess and to punish YZY for her actions. Or send all three of them back for the appropriate reactions/decisions.

Their society would demand no less in reaction because, to them, it would seem like YZY had gone mad and JFM would look weak (or weaker) and imply that YMJ is vulnerable and exploitable if JFM doesn't do something in response to her actions. That's not even getting into what the other smaller sects may try to do in an attempt to curry favour with YMJ or what LLJ or QSW would try in order to destroy or diminish YMJ. And whether JFM chooses to demand his children back or not, it may not change the fact that this may give him reason enough to choose a nephew or niece to be the new sect heir especially if, even after getting rid of YZY's poisonous influence, JWY grows up to be his mother's child more than his father's or even his own person.

Either way, such a thing would bring great backlash on YZY, and MSY as well as the collateral. No one would want to give face to her or her children because it would bring up some very uncomfortable questions and scenarios to the other sects- specifically, what would happen if the female members of their clans/sets decided to follow the footsteps of YZY and leave with their children and heirs. Especially if they use it as an excuse to leave for their own comfort and whims and not some legitimate wrongs and dangers. That would create some more restrictions on women thanks to YZY

3) And lastly, if any one of those idiot YZY stans think that she'd ever give up the status of being a madame of a great sect they'd be as crazy or crazier than her. YZY is all about status and power and face. Specifically, her status, power and face and how people in her reach reflect her or 'insult' her. She is a selfish, terrible, abusive and toxic person and can only see people in regards to how they would benefit her and the elevation of her and in no other way. Especially her family. They cannot be their own person, they can only be an extension of her and gods forbid they go against her.

We can see this in how she treats the people she supposedly loves. JFM? Arguments day in, day out along with accusations and slander of cheating, having one(1) supposed 'bastard' and being 'in love' with CSSR. Which all seems sus as hell. And that's when she's actually there and not out 'night hunting'. Even her 'training' seems to border on unhelpful rather then helpful if my vague recollections of juniors fainting from exhaustion can be relied upon (please call me out if they're not or find proof).

JYL? Berated by not being 'strong' but not helped at all to be 'strong'. It doesn't help that YZY seems to believe in the same standards strength in their society- that is, of martial masculine strength which does not and should not apply to JYL who has been said to be sickly. Which means h should have been learning a different way of cultivation/fighting anyway.  If that was something she wanted and had been offered in the first place- which I doubt. That isn't even getting into her repeated generational trauma mess of a betrothal which was decided only by those 'sworn sisters', accepted by her as a way out of her terrible home life and puts her squarely within reach of JGS who we know to be a womaniser, rapist, predator and a possible ephebophile considering we don't know the exact age of his youngest 'conquest' or the age of MZY's mother when they met which could be anywhere from 14 to 21.

JWY? Gods, so much meta on him and his(non-) relationships with his parents that I don't think I can contribute more to it. It's been all said and done. Unless people want me to stir the pot by saying that, maybe, just maybe, YZY resents JWY as much as she 'loves' him.Either because he's her son and yet never manages to 'accomplish as much' as WWX or because he's a boy and therefore, more benefits and allowances than a girl/woman- more than anything that YZY ever got without either a fight or screaming at someone about. *shrug*

So, in conclusion to this sudden an unexpected essay that I wrote(I'm so sorry about that, I thought it would be shorter -.-;;;;), YZY leaving YMJ/JFM with her kids? Impossible. Not without some sort of personality transplant or a complete AU. She's too prideful, too bitter, too angry, too everything negative and little positive. She's a resentful product of the values and restraints of her society taken to the extreme negative with a willingness to inflict her pain on others to an abusive degree. But she's also too obsessed and reliant on those same values and restraints to keep up the image of her status. So her? Giving those up? You'd be more likely to see WRH as a doting grandfather than that.

---

Dee - All of this is true and yes YZY leaving YMJ is highly unlikely. While there will be consequences if she decides to leave, she does canonically lives separately from her husband. They seem to be in a situation where they are married but living separately, which was a common way to end a marriage (at least in spirit) back then. She essentially had all the perks of being Madam Jiang but fulfilled none of the responsibilities.

Afaik, her training the Jiang disciples is a donghua thing? I may be wrong but I recall she spent most of her time nighthunting.

As for taking her children along with her- that's completely impossible. At that point, children were the property of the father. She could leave but she would've never been allowed to take JC.