#i’m evil and irredeemable sorry

[crockettmarcel]

seeing sarah again has got me feeling a hundred levels of guilt for all my fics. sorry that i keep thinking of new scenarios for you to be kidnapped in miss reese i hope you can forgive me

[macabregoria]

looking at the ib tags and coming away with the thought that wow some people really need to (re)play this game and take time to actually understand what’s happening in it

[peapod20001]

Ough. Curse of changed oc name

My problem isn’t having to change the tags on their posts, it’s inconveniencing my friend that has oc tags for my ocs 😭

[simplegenius042]

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[elina-sakura]

It always felt weird and infuriating to me how instead of just having the characters develop into what they want them to be (or see to make sure the path to what they want for their characters doesn’t contradict their end goals), they just add stuff on and try to pull one over to the audience like “see, you were wrong, the characters have always been like this” even though we had no build-up or hints about this and even retcons previous events and characters.

Instead of having Derision try to claim that Chloé has always been a master manipulator and tortured Marinette while retconning previous episodes and never explaining why she never acted like that in the beginning of the show, they could have just had Chloé grow into that person to show how far she has fallen (not a perfect solution but it would have saved us from all the retcons at least).

And for Lila, they could have just stuck with her being a liar and maybe a manipulator once she is a part of the class friend group. Or if they want her to become a manipulative mastermind, they could have had her grown into one through her time in being Gabriel/Hawk Moth’s agent.

Gabriel? Maybe don’t give him irredeemable moments like Chat Blanc and Ephemeral and especially him magically manipulating Adrien, and don’t use his wife passing away as a justification for his actions (if you don’t want Chloé’s actions to be justified by her mother’s actions—which it isn’t by the way—then maybe apply the same claim to the magical terrorist—among other characters as well).

It’s honestly funny how the episodes that calls out the criticisms about how we should be patient for the end of the story, only to pull stuff over like Chloé in Derision and Lila somehow always being a manipulative mastermind without doing a good job hinting or setting up the reveals at all (I’m not sure if it’s because of this weird rule that every episodes must be self-contained in a way for new viewers, but that doesn’t excuse the bad writing decisions they made).

Miraculous Ladybug has a problem with its writing.

The biggest problem is that the writing has this NEED to justify itself, justify its actions.

Oh Chloé not getting a redemption, lets make her so much worse than she was so we can drive the point home.

Lila is this manipulative mastermind? Lets make it so every single person believes her and she actually has multiple identities.

Gabriel is actually redeemable because his motive is saving his wife, Lets have him Monologue in nearly EVERY episode that this is the reason. Who cares if all his other actions go against this noble goal and that he only shows Adrien care when he wants to manipulate him.

Oh people are judging our stuff without seeing the end, lets make an episode (several) calling out that criticisms.

[hellspawnmotel]

Saw your latest art about Chara.

Absolutely love it!

Although I can’t help but wonder, what is your take on Chara anyway? Sorry for asking, I’m just curious.

Oh, no problem! Umm it's.... complicated? lol. Chara is a pretty broad subject...... I think they were a very troubled kid who, in all honestly, probably wasn't very good to Asriel as a friend or a sibling. They could be pushy, violent, and manipulative. They loved Asriel, as much as Asriel loved them, but sometimes that isn't enough, and who knows whether they intentionally poisoned Asgore or not, or why they laughed about it later.... it's been common to justify or try and explain Chara's more questionable actions as misunderstood or taken out of context, but tbh I don't think we actually need to do that. I don't think, even in the worst case scenario where Chara purposefully hurt their family at every moment we see it, that makes them a demon, or irredeemable, or that they even NEED to be redeemed. At the end of the day, Chara was a child who committed suicide- whether the intended outcome was to free monsterkind or to destroy humanity, or just to die. Even with the least charitable interpretations taken as gospel, shouldn't they still be worthy of love? Isn't the whole point of Undertale that anybody can become a friend and be understood, if only you reach out to them?

(I'm also a firm believer that Chara is the narrator no matter the route, which informs a lot of their personality to me, and also means that we get to decide their arc as a ghost. That makes way more sense to me than a story like this just going uhhh yeah that kid was pure evil the whole time or whatever lol.)

[season-of-hope]

Okay NOPE. Can’t take it anymore, gonna ramble on this.

OF COURSE ORCS HAD FAMILIES YOU DOLTS

If this has caught yous unawares hi, I’m will. I like Rings of Power because even if it isn’t true to text it has that feeling I got from the og trilogy that the hobbit kinda lacked. I’m not want to defend it mind you, it’s just a show and I don’t have to. BUT WHEN ITS TOLKIENS OWN WRITINGS! Se that’s a different ball game.

Apparently a lot of people are angry at Rings of Power for portraying Orcs as having families. Said family below. Orc dad on the left, mum on the right, and baby orc swaddled in mum’s arms

Some people (you know what kind of people) got angry at this nuance added to the story. Not knowing that this is nuance that Tolkien himself added

Here is some stuff Tolkien wrote or felt about the orcs:

1.Was very uncomfortable making them irredeemable.

2. Wrote many orcs being as loyal to their comrades as the heroes

3. Wrote that they multiplied in the manner as the children of Ilúvatar (men and elves) I.e. they had sex to breed.

4. Gave them their own culture

5. Made it clear they HATED the dark lords. either because they wanted to be in charge or because they just didn’t want to be their fodder.

They were not mindless fodder. Soldiers in service to an evil being, sure. But it was strictly black and white. The only reason we never learn the ultimate fate of Tolkiens orcs is because he didn’t want to write about the fourth age.

Sorry, just….this is just really frustrating how dense you could be. It’s not even that you have to read the lord of the rings, or Silmarilion. You can literally look this stuff up.

Okay, ramble over. Gonna go lay down

[rachetmath]

RWBY x Video games pt 2

Ruby: Okay so this time we were paired or geouped for some games. Me and my team were in Borderlands.

Jaune: Really? Which one?

Yang: All of them.

Jaune: *laughs* Okay. Okay. So who was right, the hunter or the deemed villains?

Ruby: Simple it was-

Weiss: Villains.

Blake: What?!

Yang: Babe we have to admit in a world like Pandora it might as well be the insane, and probably the most irredeemable place to live in.

Ruby: Doesn't matter. Jax is more evil than all those psychos. He knew what he was doing.

Weiss: Yeah but he was trying to get rid of psychos and provide people who are less crazy a safe place to live. Even though it's madness considering he’ll tax people.

Blake: What about the twins?

Yang: I mean shoot they were more of an after-product. They might as well represent that being a hunter ain't all what it is cracked up to be. Cause there will always be somebody bigger and badder who will one-up you in every way. Not just that they probably have brought more order to Pandora than we ever did.

Ruby: But-

Jaune: Okay! Forget I asked before you tear each other apart.

Ruby: Fine. Anyways what games were you guys in?

Nora and Ren: It Takes Two.

Yang: Oh. I mean it's easy considering-

Nora: No, we had issues.

Ren: A lot of them.

Nora: But the levels were beautiful. And Jaune.

Jaune: ?

Nora: If you ever want to talk I’m here.

Jaune: Hm.

Ruby: Wow you and Jaune have… tension.

Nora: I know.

Yang: Anyways, what about you, Jaune?

Jaune: O well I was by myself-

Emerald: Oh hell no. You lying ass bitch.

Weiss: Woah, hold on, Emerald why are you mad?

Emerald: I was with his pussy ass in the game. It took hours to get out.

Jaune: Cause you couldn't let me do my objectives.

Emerald: And make the game easier to where the Grimm will suspect us? No.

An incoming message saying, “The objective is to clear the game. The NPCs would have made his job hard enough considering there is no save button. You just made it more difficult for him by getting in his way. You could have stood still.”

Jaune: See.

Emerald: Well I gave you a fair shot.

Jaune: Please, it took you killing me I don't know how many times for me to even want to settle the score. By the way, I didn't appreciate the dry humping.

Emerald: Fuck you.

Jaune: Fuck you too. Don't be mad because I managed to outplay you. You are just trash.

Emerald: Okay. See-see we can fight. We can settle this now.

Jaune: Girl I will have you on your knees, begging. In fact I will have you scream my name and call me ‘Daddy’ like you ain't my daughter.

Nora: Are you two trying to insult each other or-

Emerald: Yes!

Jaune: Probably both.

Ruby: I feel disturbed to ask but what game was-?

Jaune and Emerald: Death Loop.

RWBY: Ew.

Nora: Gross.

Ren: I mean-no, I- I second that. Ew.

Emerald: *blushes* Shut up!

Ruby: Anyways where’s Oscar?

Oscar: Here.

Ruby: What game were you in?

Oscar: I wasn't in a game.

Jaune: What?!

Emerald: Don't tell me you have been sitting here the whole time.

Oscar: Yep.

Jaune: Oscar we are going through hell trying to stay alive. You didn't think to go and try to find us a way out?

Oscar: Sorry.

Jaune: Damn it!

Emerald: Stupid ass- Hazel made a damn mistake sparring you!

Jaune: Hey now don't get out of line.

Emerald: Or what?!

Jaune: I-

A door appears.

The message said, “If you two need to blow off steam then take a break here.”

Yang: Seriously? Like they are that tense to-

The door closes immediately with Jaune and Emerald gone.

Blake: *jaws dropped*

Weiss: They-they… impossible…

Ruby: Weiss claim down I sure-

Emerald: Ah~ Yes~ Harder. HARDER!!!

Ruby: Oh I hate being wrong.

Weiss: Fuck.

[snowberry-pie]

“astarion’s arc isn’t about ridding himself of bad coping mechanisms it’s about freedom // let evil characters be evil” okay but the bad coping mechanisms thing and the freedom thing are narratively tied to one another. the story is literally about how rising above shitty learned behaviors is the only way to be truly free of your past otherwise you end up trapping yourself in the very cage you were trying to escape. is this thing on

fascinated by some people’s refusal to engage with Certain Narratives through the lens of anything other than cynicism. tbh

[cry-ptidd]

Laura genuinely makes me so sad, like I cried all silly sometimes ago cause we have a similar past but I went on and she’s like you know..stuck and I wouldn’t want that for anyone :( even if she’s fictional and a killer. I just wish to be kind to her for a moment and tell her a lot of women or really humans feel her pain, that it didn’t turn all of us into monsters. I guess it’s why I’m attached to her because I get it I do, but also…why I hate characters that have SA in their backstory cause it’s really depressing. She’s an amazing character but I can’t help but still wish her punishment and somehow through it all. Peace. That she gets all the punishment she needs and gets some peace right after..a good for good slumber. Even if she doesn’t get that, or feel worthy of it.

This ask actually made me a bit emotional, im gonna be honest. It's one of the most sincere messages I've gotten i think? I am very sorry about what you went through and I will do the same thing you'd do for Laura and tell you to please remember you're not alone and that i believe in you as a person, and that you're still able to move ahead despite everything that's hurt you.

Laura is a character built on cruel irony and tragedy, and many of her aspects are an exaggerated version of views that i also have because of my own trauma (aversion to men, aggression, anger, spite, stubbornness) and the crimes and attitude that would make her an irredeemable character are here to kind of cement the fact she went way too far in her revenge and how being hurt an turn a person into a monster.

But, i rally have to agree with you. Holy FUCK do i pity her. She's not reveling in her evil, she's not actively trying to do more harm (not anymore), and she's just in a state of permanent self-loathing and isolation, where her punishment isn't satisfying to watch or even really clear. You don't really wanna root for her morally, you just kinda wish she'd just... stop. And take a long sleep. Just like you said, a proper, defined punishment, and then let her sleep.

I think this ask sealed the deal of me giving her a canonically somewhat "happy" ending? Maybe a mild one? Where she starts to settle down and indirectly heal alongside Integra and Seras post-canon. A household of damaged women growing alongside each other. Im sure her Creator can decide on a rightful punishment when she passes. Let's just give her a bit of leisure for now.

[theonceandfuturequeenoftarts]

Harry wandered back from Dumbledore’s office in a daze. He continued to question what he could possibly learn about how to defeat Voldemort by taking a trip down memory lane, as he had since these meetings had started, but now he felt added stirrings of discomfort. Like his skin was a size too small or he’d walked through an invisible spiderweb.

Voldemort, back when he’d been Tom Riddle, was… very much like Harry. Dumbledore could say that their choices defined them and made them different or whatever, and maybe he was right. But seeing how Riddle was talked about by the matron, how Dumbledore treated him in that first meeting – it made Harry realise how very easily he could have been the evil outcast, if anyone had listened to the Dursleys’ lies, or found out about his parseltongue abilities, or if he hadn’t already been lauded as some hero since he’d been a baby. As much as he didn’t like the fame and the wild mood swings of the magical population’s attitude towards him, Harry knew those expectations had guided his path and moulded who he was becoming.

Dumbledore’s actions were… well, unkind was possibly the nicest way to put it. He had instantly judged an eleven-year old as irredeemable, pretended to light all his worldly possessions on fire, and didn’t seem to find anything wrong with how he’d acted even sixty years later. Yes, Riddle hadn’t exactly helped his case with that talk of hurting things, but Harry had seen that desperation for connection, for belonging, that he’d once felt.

And then there was the added fact that he was being shown private moments from Riddle’s history. Harry knew how he’d feel if someone was shown his memories of life at the Dursleys. He still hadn’t told anyone about the cupboard under the stairs, and the rest his friends only guessed at.

Maybe he was reading too far into things, or projecting his own situation. Maybe Ron and Hermione were right and his saving-people-thing was showing. After all, hadn’t Riddle grown up to be a megalomaniac who led a hate group that murdered and tortured muggles and muggleborns? Maybe there should be limits to Harry’s empathy.

But Harry’s secret power was love, according to Dumbledore. If caring was what differentiated him from Voldemort – and especially since he couldn’t seem to stop it even when it left him gutted, cold and alone – then dammit, Harry was going to care.

So, Harry did what he did best (?) and leapt headfirst without looking.

Ducking into a dusty, moonlit classroom, he leaned against a desk, pulled out a bit of parchment and quill, and started to write.

Voldemort,

So, on a scale of one to ten, how pissed would you be

Hope you haven’t murdered anyone lately oh wait it’s you

Hey. I wanted you to know that Dumbledore showed me the memory of you receiving your Hogwarts letter. At the orphanage. With the whole fire wardrobe thing. 

I feel like I should apologise. It definitely seems like an invasion of privacy and I didn’t want to know, but now I do, and I’m sorry?

Is this weird? This is weird.

Anyway, I also saw the matron talking about you, but I know that sometimes people lie for stupid reasons, so here’s a one-time opportunity of me asking for your side of the story. If you want.

You probably don’t care.

– Harry (Potter)

Before Ron or Hermione found out or he could think better of it, Harry snuck up to the owlery and tied the letter to a nondescript school owl. (Hedwig was incensed that he would use another bird and pecked at his head a few times before flying off to the rafters to give him the cold shoulder, but there was no way he’d send his beloved owl off to Voldemort. Sorry, school bird.)

He returned to the Gryffindor common room as soon as the owl flew off, putting the letter as far from his mind as possible. After all, it wasn’t like he’d receive a response.

(thus, friends absent speak)

[sweetcloverheart]

Clover Rants Miraculously: Painting With The Same Brush

You know, I think the most saddest (and kind of funny in an ironic way) things about “Derision” and other episodes/scenes like it is that in the writers attempts to get Chloe to seem “irredeemably evil” to the audience, all they’ve done is make the rest of the cast look bad. Like those scenes don’t effect my view of her because the show already told us Chloe was a brat and bully from the get-go, so learning about the date prank and her forcing Marinette to stay home and the entire plot of “Collusion” and “Confrontation” just come off as learning nothing new. Complete net-zero information. Meanwhile...

Bustier (and by extension Damocles and Mendeleiev) looks like an even worse teacher for ignoring her misbehavior and constantly putting the onus on Marinette to solve the issue if things were this bad already, especially when “Revelation” shows she’s so oblivious to the things going on in class that she's actually genuinely shocked Chloe hasn’t been doing her own homework for the entirety of her middle school career and then some. Like I know the fandom likes to joke that she’s a kindergarten teacher at the wrong school and “haha public education sucks because teachers bad” but DAMN woman, are you telling me you never side-eyed how similar Sabrina and “Chloe” homework tended to be even once (or maybe Sabrina’s just that good at forging handwriting like I often headcanon)? Just how little is FD’s overall funding that no one ever tried double checking this stuff?! No wonder Chloe treats y’all like a joke!

The class comes off as pretty fairweather/uncaring as Marinette was being bullied by Chloe for years (especially since it was stated in canon that Marinette had no friends until “Origins”) but only are only now seem to care about it. Even with the potential excuse of “Well Marinette grew a backbone/they’re less scared of Chloe now”, “Derision” showed the kids cared less about Chloe’s opinion than they do now and were willing to comfort Marinette after the prank, so what was stopping them from openly helping her out up until “Origins”?

The school faculty, despite Chloe having a reputation for exaggerating things and being purposely petty when demanding “punishments” when she feels slighted, constantly not only immediately believing her when she’s clearly making stuff up, but also still refusing to put their foots down (waiting until the grand coincidence of an Akumatized!Bustier forcing Andre to step down as opposed to, IDK, showing solidarity and care for their students by choosing to refuse Chloe’s demands and meeting her threats head on?). Again, what is the school paying you for?

Kim looks like a complete jerk now seeing as how he doesn’t seem to see anything wrong with that he did to Marinette in “Derision” and gives a rather poor apology afterwards - one he had to be shamed into rather than realizing and giving it on his own. Heck the only reason he even gets Akumatized over it is because everyone else was riding him on how messed up it was and he got fed up with it. It also kind of puts into question why Marinette is so friendly with him/still gave him a Miraculous if he participated in what was such a traumatic event for her. And that’s not even getting into poor Ondine having to hear her own boyfriend call another girl (whom is established as a huge jerk) “The prettiest girl in the world” Kim bby I’m so sorry the writers are doing you so dirty

Sabrina’s upgrade to Miraculous holder/her redemption feels even more unearned now because like above, she shows no remorse for her actions in “Derision” or the bullying she’s been (willingly in some parts) participating in for the last four seasons and before then, and only ends up leaving Chloe because Lila takes her spot as Chloe’s bestie and she hated having to share (and because their latest scheme in “Collusion” potentially involved jail time for her if they got caught) instead of genuine disgust at Chloe’s growing nastiness or her own mistreatment because of it. All those years of waiting and fics about Sabrina finally breaking free and realizing she could be better - rewarded with her instead abandoning Chloe to save her own skin and hopping onto the SS.Marinette because it benefited her more (and again, doesn’t involve jail time) rather than genuine regret of her actions. So inspiring

Andre basically allowed Chloe to get away with using his position as mayor to mistreat her classmates+the citizens and flaunt her status as his daughter for years, and only starts caring/putting his foot down when she starts doing it to Zoe and only for Zoe (the “good” non-blood daughter that the original script had him state he “liked better”) before he immediately abandons her to Audrey the first chance he gets, despite understanding what a terrible and abusive person his wife is - And let’s not forget him calling his 14 year old daughter that he raised “heartless” and terrible (to the man who frequently overrides his own child’s freewill with magic mind you). What’s worse is that the show plays this off like it’s his reward for having “suffered” under Chloe’s demands and that it’s all her fault he’s a terrible mayor (like he hadn’t often willingly broken laws or abused his position on his own with no prompting from her for his personal benefit). I’m sure all the neglectful dads who replace affection towards their children with gifts and indulgences watching feel totally respected and represented now.

Poor Sabine and Tom already get a bad enough rep as it is thanks to some of the story decisions made *COUGH*A//doration*COUGH*Ladybug*COUGHCOUGH*, but now we’ve been basically informed that they knew Marinette was being bullied to the point of actually pretending to be sick and...did nothing. And not even in a “We want to help but we’re limited thanks to school bureaucracy and/or our own financial situation” way but at “Yeah we know you’re terrified of your classmate tormenting you again and that this constant slew of harassment from all sides is slowly destroying your mental health but we’re just gonna tell you to buck up”. Yeah, they gave her Socqueline keeping an eye out but that ultimately ended up doing nothing to really protect her in the end

Zoe, for all her goodness and being portrayed as a “better redeemed!Chloe” as her claim to fame, does nothing to make good on her promise to love Chloe no matter what in “Queen Banana” and watches her half-sister being abandoned by her entire immediate family while reaping all the benefits from it (Not to say that’s her fault or she’s required to, just that it’s...well, not a good look for her tbh). While Zoe isn’t obligated to put up with Chloe’s mistreatment (and she isn’t), it def makes her look super hypocritical to claim to love Chloe “even if the whole world hates [her]” and then do/say nothing as her stepdad basically leaves her half sister to suffer from the same fate she escaped from in New York.

Adrien, despite having a front row seat to how awful and nasty Chloe can be to people who aren’t him and watching her torment his classmates for the past 9 months in canon, only now ends their friendship - and over an event that happened a year ago when he wasn’t there that she isn’t sorry for, when she’s been doing worse since he arrived with no remorse then either, with his only response back then being to chuckle and go “Chloe will never change” like a wistful friend. After 5 whole seasons of handwaving his handwaving of Chloe’s bullying, they only now have him care, with the catalyst being that Marinette won’t give him happy-smoochy-times because of whatever happened - and then make it worst by having him try to kill Kim for it, after having him have a near mental breakdown over accidentally giving the terrorist responsible for every one of his current life issues a death sentence with the same method (and also trying to do it to another akuma victim). My sincerest condolences Adrien please join Kim in the “You got screwed badly by the episode narrative” corner

Like, I genuinely have to wonder how they wrote out those episodes and thought anyone involved looked good afterwards. Peoples opinions on Chloe can’t sink any lower than they already are (and if they can, that’s mostly because they already disliked her), but you aren’t making her look worse by slinging mud on everyone else, even unintentionally.

[crabbbage]

like i do not claim to be MORAL, here. i claim to not want to pay money. not the same thing at all

while i do believe in freedom of information and shit i sometimes dislike the positing of piracy as a fully moral thing because then as soon as there’s not an undoubtedly evil company you’re pirating from people balk. i am not here for activism. i am here because i do not have money

[evie-doesnt-write]

Very telling that those people who say “Snow was evil and *insert mental illness as an insult* right from pg.1” are the ones who think he was more sympathetic in the movie (he was not; compare Clemmie’s attack in the book vs the movie and Snow’s reaction. In one, he experiences guilt and fear and has a whole mini-storyline about, in the other he just 🧍‍♂️ when it happens and then never thinks about it again).

I’m sorry but trying to be different from the ‘I can fix him<33’ crowd by removing all his nuance and not understanding his character and then calling anyone who doesn’t end every sentence with “…he’s an irredeemable PoS since the start” a white male villain apologist, is not a sign of critical thinking or literacy and you have entirely missed the point Suzanne Collins was making

[venjamyra]

Lyrics – Same Shade as Concrete by Circle Takes the Square

WOLFWOOD WEDNESDAY (～￣▽￣)～

feels a little funny to be making fanart of a manga that started before I was born with music that came out when i wasn’t even one year old yet…

lineart and various inane ramblings (manga spoilers ahead) about this comic that haunts my mind below the cut (its a lot…)

Okay, here’s the line art for anyone who wanted to see it without spoiler talk:

wow, so cool. Sometimes I like the lineart better in some ways and the colored version in other, different ways… I wonder how to find a good middle ground…… such are the mysteries of life

Onto the brain rot!!!

Okay, so this whole piece is kind of showing Wolfwood’s journey toward ‘accepting’ that he is an assassin. He has killed people. And his belief that he is irredeemable, this is just who he is now, stained with blood.

I’m gonna talk about panels 1,2,3, and 4. Those are just in order from top to bottom, so panel 1 is him firing the gun, and panel 4 is him in the river of blood.

So panel 1 is establishing that this is teenage Wolfwood, and he’s killing someone. YES I used that one painting as a reference (The Fallen Angel by Alexandre Cabanel). I don’t know anything about it, but it looks cool and I like the idea of an apparently evil character crying dramatically. Throw a gun in the mix and you have me curled up in a ball crying about Wolfwood. Wolfwood isn’t crying here, but I hope the reference shows the implication that he’s crying internally.

Panel 2 is directly contrasting with panel 4 with the volume of blood. I chose the blood to just barely cover his hands on purpose, NOT just so that I didn’t have to draw more hands lmao. Lots of blood on his hands symbolism throughout, because he has his whole thing about it. Anyway, this is like, the specific amount of blood where Wolfwood finally feels too far gone. It’s reached his hands, he can’t come back from this.

shout out to the people who helped me find this panel earlier 😅 @markcampbells @grymmdark

The crosses are there to establish his being surrounded by the Eye of Michael, trapped into this pool of blood. I know with the three crosses there’s some heavy crucifixion symbolism going on. It was honestly unintentional, but if I had to come up with something for it, I’d say in Wolfwood’s mind in this moment, he is the one crucifying people (Jesus, whomever). Again with that ‘too far gone’ stuff. He ‘knows’ who he is now, and it is not a savior. I’m not Christian as an adult and the only thing I did in Sunday school was question the adults or quietly judge them for their logical fallacies so idk if this makes sense in Bible-lore 😭 lol sorry.

Panel 3 hits home on the bloody hands thing, big motif. And then the gun pokes through the panel to give us this connection to the final panel, where we see a second drop of blood, coming from Wolfwood’s own hand, presumably filling the river he’s in. So the entire river is made specifically of blood from his hands, not just blood he spilled.

Panel 4. The big one. Okay, I heard that willow trees represent peace. I don’t know if this is bullshit, but I guess they can mean whatever I want ✨. Wolfwood is not fighting the flood here, just floating along, basically. He’s not relaxed, he hates this. But he’s come to some kind of acceptance. He feels (false) peace that this is just who he is. If he doesn’t get to control who he is or what he does, at least he knows that. This is not the time or place that I’d like to talk about themes of control and bodily autonomy in Trigun--we’d be here forever lol--but its totally that stuff. The willow trees contrast with the crosses here. It is no longer the Eye of Michael holding him in, trapping him in this pool of blood. Now, the willow trees (peace, acceptance) that are grown from his own mind/coping methods are what keep him trapped. I like to imagine the crosses are still beyond the trees, causing the trees to serve as both a wall keeping Wolfwood in and a wall keeping the antagonism of the Eye of Michael out. This is also visual because willow trees look much nicer than mysterious creepy crosses.

The comic basically ends where Wolfwood begins in Trigun. Yeah, he’s got his silly moments, but on a deeper, less superficial (sub-superficial…ficial…?) level, he really believes himself to be stuck in life, unable to change. In the last panel, he’s naked because he’s vulnerable; this isn’t the suit and a charming smile, this is him as he sees himself.

This idea of Wolfwood feeling acceptance with his shitty life drives me insane. In volume 8, after he kinda does his normal assassin work again, he is so fucking sad and angry. I think he tries to tap back into that idea of acceptance, but he can’t. He’s been through so much and seen so much with Vash that he just can’t accept it anymore. Like with the song lyrics as they’re used in this comic, is someone (Eye of Michael, Chapel) goading him into standing in this pool of blood and staying there even as it rises. And then here, he gets a little taste of freedom and just fucking pulls himself out!!! If I feel inspired I could make a part 2 one day where he’s pulling himself out of the blood river or something idk.

All manga panels are courtesy of Trigun Manga Overhaul!

Oh and some fun drawing things before I go. Important disclaimer: I do not claim to know what I’m doing.

The first pic has the guidelines I used to create shape and draw attention. I saw someone say that using simple shapes helps with composition so I’ve been trying that? It seems cool, I like it. And the second one has my lines to remember where my light source is. I kind of shade based on vibes, which I want to work on, but for now is fine. But the idea is that even though each of these panels has days/weeks to years between them, they all have one light source that extends across the comic. It comes across as a ‘lower’ source relative to Wolfwood in the first panel, which feels dramatic. By the time we get to the last panel, it comes across as the sun, high in the sky. I did this because it felt cool.

okay love and peace and go listen to the emo music my older brother showed me yippee!!!

[acepalindrome]

I’m almost sorry I blocked all the really wild Izzy Antis, I wanna see them frantically scrambling to convince themselves that he’s still the one dimensional irredeemable force of cartoon evil.