#in a degree of tragedy

[waywardted]

“Sometimes you meet these people in your life and it's not meant to work out, but they change you for the better. Actually sometimes the strongest love can be someone that you never touch. I think it makes it much more powerful."                 - Cristin Milioti on Once

[salbertwolf]

The earth shattering realization the game you have played is the only one like it, there is no other game, there isn't a world like it and you are cursed with that knowledge and abandonment for it, you are happier to have known and experienced the joys of playing, have come out wiser for it, but you'll never get anything like it again.

[echo-of-the-eye]

The fact that all they had to do to make me ship jayvik is turn them into jmart 2.0. I'm not really a big shipper so I never really saw the appeal of it in s1, but then! They made them so similar to the one ship I'm actively insane about. So now I'm insane about jayvik just by association.

[ravenlilyrose]

The eternal conflict between:

“The most interesting thing in a literary sense would be tragedy and a fate worse than death”

And

“I just want everyone to be happy and chaotic and go to the same cafe every Tuesday and adopt a cat or dog and maybe a few kids.”

[captain-danwilds]

Minyard is the 12,514 most popular last name in the U.S. (according to 2010 Census data), which makes it an uncommon name, but not unheard of. Yet whenever I see the name Minyard in the wild, I automatically think "how can this be an AFTG AU?". The brain rot is too far gone and I will just have to keep living like this.

[finalgirlsamwinchester]

was meaning to write a serious and thoughtful meta on this shot as the show's first use of metatextual framing (a story within a story) linking its premise to the war movie as a genre (the show as a fascist gothic work) but yknow what. scratch all of that lmao. the only thought that matters is: the moment you really start thinking about the show as a reactionary post 9/11 power fantasy, you can't stop.

[fullmetal-scar-simping]

Regarding the last reblog:

Scar's death in the 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist anime is narratively poignant, characterized to perfection, and builds on the themes that were core to him and the show beautifully.

While watching Brotherhood, all I could think, particularly during the Scar vs Bradley showdown "If this fucking story kills Scar it will be complete unmitigating trash." Because a show that has already royally failed its themes regarding genocide, racism, and imperialism tossing the one named genocide victim six feet under would be narratively bankrupt.

But as we all know, in mangahood Scar lives. Disastrous writing averted! But the cost is that of recuperating him as an agent of his own people's full colonization. So I circle back to fma 03 and have an even greater appreciation in the way a character death, when written with a respect for the story's themes, who the character was, and what pillars of the overarching story this character holds up, can truly enhance all of these facets of a narrative.

And like I've mused before, there is a meta-narrative formed by the contrast between fma 03 and mangahood. That it is more true to the character, more noble, to die as the radical who frees a people from an invading armada than it is to survive for the express purpose of becoming a cog in that very same machine.

I have never been mad at fma 03 for having my fave die in triumph and reclamation of a lost familial connection. But I have been frustrated at the disrespected version of my fave possibly facing death, and deeply disappointed at his survival being little more than a narrative tool to declare the virtues of a 'cleansed' military in the epilogue.

It's not about whether your fave lives or dies: its about the purpose it all serves to the stories and themes.

[faaun]

my research partner and i are huddled in a blanket in paddington waiting for a too-late train i already miss you and you and you

[diamond-dangeresque]

do you understand the words coming out of my mouth.

[klbzplb]

quick sketch color practice thing

(scene from chapter seven of i am weary with contending! by the amazing @ari--anon . i am not the biggest fan of the drawing but the fic is the best thing i read in my life so. genuinely its so good. its a masterpiece.)

[valeriefauxnom]

A Subtle Running Theme

So, a day or two ago, I had the sudden realization about a theme in Abyss that I'm not sure I've seen addressed: 'getting what you wanted in the past that you no longer want now' and how that might influence the ending. Major Abyss spoilers up ahead!

Take Guy, for instance. He, of course, wanted to kill Luke fon Fabre.

He doesn't any more. He wants Luke to live and live well.

And yet...

Asch dies nearly instantly after he finally declares he intends to accept the 'Luke' identity:

...and then Luke follows in short order, despite his fervent wish to see what was done to his family returned to the Duke's.

Jade's another case.

His original intent when he first started working to create replicas was to use them as replacements for the originals, just as substitute bodies to revive the dead, memories and all. He worked and worked hard to find a way to make this dream come to life, modifying the means by which replicas are made in an effort to increase their stability (by means of switching to 7th fonons as their origin fonon).

Since then, he's moved on to believe that such a thing is just flat out impossible. That the dead do not come back, and that everything he did was a fool's errand.

But then, his 'impossible dream' of the Big Bang suddenly is possible. He gets to see it with Star, the original successfully taking over his replica's body, his mind intact...and now is faced with the prospect of it happening to Luke.

Which, again, is a thing he no longer wants.

Jade, shortly after: ...But this time, I do hope that the answer I’ve produced is incorrect.”

I also quote, from a talk between him and Dist, it's clear that Jade is trying very hard to avoid acknowledging the reality for what it is, that Asch will almost be guaranteed take over Luke's faculties and body in the near future, whilst not trying to appear weak to Dist:

Dist: ...Regardless of what caused his death, we can assume the Big Bang had begun. Jade: ...It may not have begun. Dist: What is that supposed to mean?! You're the one who finalized the theories on perfect isofons! Do you not believe your own research?! The Jade that I knew – Jade the Golden Child – isn't someone who would say something like that. ... Dist: Or is that replica that important to you? More than your best friend, Saphir?! Jade: The dust on the floor has value compared to you. Dist: Listen, Jade. The Contamination Effect cannot be prevented. Even with your talent.

Despite this attempt, Dist recognizes that Jade is not exactly happy with this fact, and tries to console Jade, while displaying his own perspective of 'memories=person' that Jade has moved on from. You know it's bad when Dist is attempting to console Jade in his own warped little way.

What had been his greatest dream is now a worst nightmare: Luke, as confirmed on Eldrant, would have lost his life and mind regardless if he survived the freeing of Lorelei, all to be a backup to the currently-dead Asch.

Hell, I can extend this to Natalia, too. She, in essence, wished for Luke to stop being himself the past seven years. To hurry up and re-become that prince charming she saw in Asch before his 'amnesia'. And soon he will, just as she has started to learn to appreciate Luke for his own merit instead of just being the inferior reflection of Asch.

Luke himself is not immune, either.

Starting at act two, Luke is increasingly depressed. He goes from passively wishing that maybe he ought have died to actively thinking dying would be the best for the world.

Enter Tower of Rem, where he finally decides that he actually wants to live. Lo and behold, it's exactly then the universe then decides to ensure a death in the near future for him via fonon separation. Not just that, but his journey's course leads to a duty that will kill him. Doomed twice over to certain death.

And that's not all. Another struggle he has is determining his own self identity. He finally resolves to want to be his own person, be able to have his own mind and body separate from just being 'Asch's replica' or 'Asch' at all in any capacity. This is a big thing that starts to anger Asch in the ending, as Asch has his own complicated feelings on Luke's independence from him and what it means for his own impending death (that I could and might rant about in another post).

Again, though, even that is possibly contested in the ending.

In short, Jade, Luke, and Guy all got what they wanted at the end of Abyss... just not what they wanted in the present.

---

So, uh, yeah!

I see a lot of arguments that it just has to be Luke in the end, that he's the protagonist and thus is more untouchable/more likely to be revived than less central characters like Asch, and that it would be against Abyss' themes of self-determination to have that mysterious figure be anything other than Luke in body and (complete) soul.

However, with Abyss also consistent in its 'be careful what you wish for' narratives that come back to bite and bite hard the good chunk of the cast, I would argue it's entirely possible to have the ending be but another case of this corruption of past wishes.

[capriszn]

personally i loved arcane s2 more than the first, it was so so beautiful and memorable and visibly crafted with love!!!!! i cried constantly throughout eps 4-7 and held my breath for the final episode and yall can complain about pace and unanswered questions all you want, i don‘t really agree that these were actual issues.. and then it got gayer too so ofc this show is going down in history now as the best animated series since avatar but u didnt hear that from me ig

[qsmpbutwithsignlanguage]

quackity used his law school education quite a bit during dsmp lore and i would assume also for the qsmp election. he flexes that law school brain of his, it's just not always done so in a typical court room manner.

You're so right, anon. I just constantly find it hilarious that it only seems to come in handy during Minecraft.

[name-doggo]

One thing I really wish the FF Community would Stop doing is Removing All Nuance from the Parents in Those Stories in order to Make Them Abusive Supervillains who Never Loved their Kid.

Like... In the Four Years I've been here, and for how Small the Community really is, you'd be surprised how many Times I've seen it-

[spirithunter-deathmark]

I definitely think Mary was being genuine whenever she talks to Yashiki about saving the mark bearers and expressing her gratitude for carrying on Saya's wishes

It would be easy to say that oh that was all an act on her part so she could kill Yashiki much easier but by him pacifying all those spirits he makes hos mark weaker no? So if Mary goal's was to get rid of Yashiki why give herself a handicap? If the blue end audio drama is anything to go by with seeing Yashiki get possessed and ultimately get destroyed as a result from it, I'm of the belief that Mary is a good person and probably wants to be a good person, but the nature of being sacrificed to be turned into a doll and that being almost a curse in itself has had the tragic result of warping her into a sinister corrupted version of herself much like the spirits such as Hanayome before her

[tamaharu]

dahlia hawthorne and lolita and being trapped in a story where youre already dead by the time youre caught up to the present and youre rendered as a ghost no matter how much agency you attempt to exert and even when you were alive your attempt at a quiet life was derailed by the very person who you employed to help you which in turn propelled you towards your own doom and youre blamed for it over and over again??