#in stuff!! literally a win win
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9 people you want to know better
tagged by: @celia-the-pikachu
last song I listened to: uhhh technically probably something on the bg3 ost. but i don't know any of the names and i feel like it kinda doesn't count anyway. the actual last song i listened to was @/dootnoot7125's mashup of the concept of love from jet set radio future and twister from twewy linked there for your convenience
currently watching: i actually watch a lot of anime every season LMAO its kind of My Hobby. like. i'm watching 10 shows rn. 7 of which are currently airing. uhhh but top few for the season: bleach thousand year blade war, bungo stray dogs s5, link click s2, & undead girl murder farce which is like. i feel like it has a very specific audience in mind. and i am that audience. the jokes hit perfectly. to me <3 but im not actually sure if its like. Good. also honorable mention for jujutsu kaisen s2 and zom100 which i actually haven't started yet bc i'm gonna watch them with skerples but they both look really good 👍
currently reading: .......... ..... I think the last thing i read was the mononoke manga...? probably over a year ago now? unless you count video game dialogue bg3 i GUESS. uhhh actually visual novels should count imo. i haven't started it yet but i have downloaded the vn mamiya and i'll be reading that....soon ish? but also i'm going in blind and don't really know anything about it
current obsession: baldur's gate 3. in case you couldn't tell. ouhhhhh its sooo much fun for me i love it sooo much . not really much to say there just having a classic Good Time. also really happy seeing like Everyone getting into baldur's gate as someone who played the games on like. ps2 as a small kid with his dad. its awesome :)
as per usual i'm not actually going to directly tag anyone but if you see this and want to do it feel free to say i sent you!! and tag me so i can see your answers :3
#the fey speaks#if anyone wants to be tagged in stuff like this pls let me know!!#i get really paranoid and unwell about tagging people for reasons i won't get into#but if anyone does want to be tagged in stuff like this i'll like....make a list somewhere so i know who i can tag and ya'll can get tagged#in stuff!! literally a win win#oh also. to clarify.#once i start those 2 shows with skerples i'll be watching a total of NINE airing shows this season. which is admittedly more than average#usually i start with ~8-10 but by this point in the season i'm usually down to like 5..........#i also have recently watched a few non anime stuff like good omens s2 but nothing atm#anyway. @ ye who tagged me. high fiving you and shaking your hand!! anime mutual!!!!#i don't have enough of those tbh
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just thinking about hair and faces
#art#twisted wonderland#twisted wonderland spoilers#twisted wonderland episode 7 spoilers#twisted wonderland book 7 spoilers#i don't THINK this counts as face horror but just in case#face horror#for your daily dose of me losing my mind over anime characters#i don't know why the hair thing surprised me so much. i think because i thought it was funny that lilia named silver after his hair color.#like ha ha lilia is hilariously bad at names how cute and silly!#oh. oh it's kind of a Thing.#anyway i am excited to see where the heck all of this stuff with silver's various dads ends up!#we still don't actually know who killed meleanor!#we still don't know literally anything about dad draconia! (dadconia? dradconia?)#we don't know what happened to the macguffin gem with its magical dad-saving powers!#(surely this will not come back to save a certain dad at a later point. of course not.)#man i was not expecting episode 7 to be all dads all the time#i mean i'm here for it but#hey remember when the highest stakes were who was gonna win the big talent show#then robots started kidnapping people and now we've just escalated from there#episode 8 our cat is going to turn into a drippy ink kaiju and we're going to have to mecha battle him to save the world or something#each member of diasomnia pilots a limb and we gattai into a giant robot dragon and hold on i gotta submit this spec script to aniplex brb
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the leverage team would have had a games night… once. everyone cheated so much and in such increasingly extreme ways that all mentions of monopoly are banned in their headquarters (this makes talking about marks who monopolize the market very confusing)
#leverage#nate wouldn’t cheat but he’d be by far the most annoying still. like he’d conduct a whole Scheme to win and give a little monologue wheneve#he made a good move and everyone would want to kill him#parker woukd obvs be stealing money & cards and she’d move their pieces and swap their stuff#but also she’d try to use her turn to rob the bank#sophie would use neurolinguistic programming and dominate the board w properties#which somehow parker would literally never land on and that’s incredibly suspicious but none of them really know how she could possibly be#manipulating that fact? it’s logically impossible bc they’re watching her roll the die and move the piece and sophie knows which properties#she owns so it makes no sense. but parker is parker and she simply will not be caught (even by sophie’s properties)#hardison has studied monopoly theory (yes there are math theories on how to play monopoly) and /tries/ to abide by them but again. sophie i#manipulating him and parker is stealing from him (and sometimes oddly enough *for* him. new money ends up in his bank somehow) so it’s hard#so eventually he resorts to cheating like Everyone Fucking Else and does pretty well bc he rlly does know what sets he wants etc.#eliot is genuinely playing normally. no cheating no math stuff no schemes.#but he’s just sitting there fuming the entire time bc they’re all very obviously messing with the game and he Knew this was gonna happen bu#goddamn hardison & parker especially know how to get on his nerves (often purposely)#he calms down by making some snacks and. resorting to also cheating lol.#leverageposting
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CHAPPELL ROAN THE LATE SHOW [2.15.24]
#chappell roan#chappell roan edit#chappell roan gifs#red wine supernova#the rise and fall of a midwest princess#the late show#the late show with stephen colbert#sam edits#LOOK AT HER GOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!#she always brings her all to everything like. GOD. this really is how she sounds live!!! she's just THAT good!!!!!!!#my mind has been reeling since winning tickets & seeing her in october literally life changing#its so cool getting to see her do stuff like this now :') my pink pony girl has come so faaaaar
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same teacher, different lessons
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#sonic the hedgehog#dr. ivo eggman robotnik#miles tails prower#sonic frontiers#SPOILERS. THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS COMIC BY THE WAY.#SONIC FRONTIERS SPOILERS#smiles gently I can not believe I let sonic the fuckign hedgehog ruin my life#(I can I totally can)#hi <3 if you follow me because I drew this sonic comic. don't!#don't do it! follow me bc I'm funny and hot and devastatingly smart don't follow me bc I draw sonic stuff. bc it won;t happen again#I mean it. not bc I dont like or want to do sonic stuff. but bc I am literally in the middle of a job rn#one that I want to invest 100% of my time and brain in#this comic is actually an effort to win my brain back so I can do my job lol#because I finished miss penny snapcube's streams of this game and it force fed me emotions#I just! I just thought sonic would come tell eggman abt sage!! idk seems like something he'd do!!!#and also the whole thing abt letting the characters move on and have a future and change and develop#vs Killing My Baby Little Guy Daughter For Like Ten Minutes#thematically interesting! also for some reasons I had. a pretty easy time drawing this#I was mouthbreathing galloping like a horse to finishing this. Because I Need To Work#I didnt expect to have a good time with these designs tho idk why. probably bc I most suck shit at drawing animals#but to be fair yet again sonic and tails are little guys. theyre animal but theyre also like dudes. also sonic's design is kinda perfect#as far as character design goes he's really pretty goo- wait I made a continuity error hol on#okay. okay I fixed it. no problem. no matter 's all good now#okay. I go sleep now. today has been very noisy. but this actually got me through it okay#thank you sonic the hedgehog. that was pretty cool of u#have a good night guys! absolute freedom is probably really really sad#long post
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sometimes the simple truth of being alive just...moves me
#ava silva#avatrice#warrior nun#avatriceedit#warriornunedit#avasilvaedit#alba baptista#albabaptistaedit#it is a very big loving ava silva kind of day today friends#i am deep in my feelings about her#also alba is going to be a fucking massive star and win a shit ton of awards#also taking these notes as a chance to point out to this growing trend i see where people keep talking about ava like she's dead#she isn't#that's the whole point of the end of season 2#why bea let her go#she's okay#she's alive#and she's literally already back in the world#so let's stop with the ava's dead stuff okay? thanks#anyway#favorite character#number one#it's not particularly close#myedits
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You’re wasting all your faith on me
#my art#dark heir#dark rise#will kempen#james st clair#st kempen#anyways think it’s safe to say your saviour doesn’t look a thing like me!!!!!!#now I sleep see y’all next year#also I am sticking with st kempen as the ship name bc I personally love ship names with like double meanings that are thematic to the ship#eg victuuri sounds like victory and fits in with victor and yuuris motivations and drive to win and stuff#and jupeter for Juno and Peter bc they’re space gays and it sounds like jupiter lol#and with st kempen it’s like. yeah man James literally views him as St Kempen he’s the boy saviour come to save him!!!!#essentially what I’m saying is save me will kempen….will kempen….will kempen save me…..
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Harringrove and Max meet “Addams Family Values” bacause frankly - that’s the dynamic they deserved.
#harringrove meets the addams family#incorrect harringrove quotes#billy hargrove#steve harrington#max#big brother billy my beloved#(in)correct quotes#harringrove au#source: addams family values#au#edit#my stuff#[my stuff - harringrove]#[my stuff - siblings for the win]#I just LOVE the idea of Steve coming into this family of two#and getting to know max#and being like JEEEE-ZUS#'she's literally you but smaller'#(insert Billy being proud in the distance)
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Two all 2 people who follow my tumblr
GUYS THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT
If you’re of voting age in the US and not registered, PLEASE REGISTER NOW!
I’m endorsing Kamala Harris for president.
The fact that’s it’s even close makes me sick to my stomach.
You can disagree with Harris or Biden or their administration on a lot of things, but not seeing that she is clearly the better option is scary.
Queer people’s lives depend on this.
If you care about us, PLEASE VOTE
If you are mad at Harris for not stopping the genoc1de, remember that Trump will absolutely not stop it either and that he’s a moron who no one respects. I’d rather have a g3nocide overseas and have queer people (and poor people, women, poc) in the US protected than have a g3nocide overseas and not have them protected.
And if you say “well Roe v Wade overturned and other conservative laws happened under Biden” Remember this was the CONSERVATIVE supreme court that did this. And another Trump term will make the court even worse for decades. The implications of this are huge.
People are on the fence, it’s simple. If you care about your queer, disabled, poc, poor, female loved ones VOTE HARRIS. If you’re centrist and won’t vote because you don’t care you’re a pushover and a coward. If you’re farther left and think she isn’t left enough, yes you have a point but this is all we have, PLEASE use your brain and stop being chronically online and self impressed.
I don’t care if I lose followers for this at this point, I’m just out here doing everything I can, not to panic and want to hide who I am. A lot of people don’t have the options to move to another state let alone country and we just want to live.
I’m lucky to live in a very safe state but I’m still terrified.
Please care about us. Please vote.
#kamala harris#tim walz#vote harris#Harris is the only option#use your brains#harris 2024#please care about us#lgbtq#abortion#autism#you’re allowed to criticize her but come on be senseible trump is way worse#like seriously use your brains#tired of chronically online leftists who won’t suck it up and vote for someone just because they’re so stuck up#like about Palestine I get it#I support Palestine but trump won’t help them either#do people not understand??#there’s only two options and staying home or writing in is bad in an election this close#like one option is clearly better for us#only one option#if you care#please#i’m begging#i’m serious#if trump wins I’m gonna lock myself in my literal closet#the panic in my chest daily#I’ve started praying again even tho a god who lets trump live clearly abandons us a long time ago#that’s how desperate I am#but I think we’re on our own#please just suck it up and worry about the other stuff after the election#like actually gonna blame y’all dumb people if orange man wins
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The Pixies need to be villains in A New Wish just so that Hazel, canonical lover of paperwork and the predictable monotony of places it is done like the DMV (*cough*, autism, *cough*), can have so much fun with them that it makes them have a breakdown because they're not meant to be fun! They're meant to be boredom incarnate! They rob kids of joy, they don't give it to them! Who is this child? What is going on here?
#and cosmo and wanda laugh so hard they explode#hazel isn't even trying to be malicious she just adores following regulations and thorough procedure#her friends are miserable when the pixies are winning but she's having the time of her life#something something the episode could start with her getting insecure#about her unconventional interests and sources of comfort#like paperwork#and worrying that she's wasting her childhood not doing and enjoying more typical kid stuff#but she saves the day with the power of her special interest#anyway i need fanart of hazel reading da rules for fun#while cosmo and wanda stare at her. wanda's jaw is literally on the floor. cosmo is sobbing#fop a new wish#fop anw#hazel wells#fop pixies
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bribe comm for @ender1821 💅💅💅💅💅💅 enjoy yo FOOD
go check out @ender1821 my bestie bc she does stuff like write fics of them or smth GO FOLLOW RAHH💅💅💅💅
#geminitay#pearlescentmoon#oonwah13 fanart#fanart#shiny duo#just to let yall know and to expose my bestie uhhh im currently her private personal artist or smth that draws shiny duo for her#i draw for her in a freelance basis and all i have to do i draw them because she will literally suck up ANY content of them BAHHAHAHA#and in return i get stuff like food or other stuff#i see it as a win win because i love shiny duo too
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hey, remember 2.3? what was up with that event....
redraw of a thing from 2021 which was sorta a screencap redraw from that one cutscene
also oml albedo your in-game model... i am still so sorry to what they did to you and your hair especially.. i hope they go back and revamp it but i dont have high hopes for that happening 😔
#TWO ART POSTS? TWO DAYS IN A ROW? WHAT IS THIS#AND ITYS ANOTEHR TRANSMASC#no but ive literally only had the creative juices to redraw old stuff.... probs more coming so 👁👁#genshin impact#albedo#my art#bro my color game is significantly better. we are ballin and we are winning. we fucked around and we found out.#off topic but do you think my icon looks kinda naked n bare... idk after changing it back from my halloween one it hasnt been sitting right#with me.. i might just get the black bg back. i think thatd help.. hes getting makeovers for the diff holiday seasons tho.. i wanna keep th#t up. :3c
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An interesting little fun thing with team 7 is that you assume that Sakura's gonna, like, woobify and simplify Sasuke by putting him on a pedastal,cause her goal is centered around him and shes a 12 y/o fangirl so like of course her understanding of him is skewed cause she doesnt see him as a person, just an object of affection, right? She's can't get Sasuke, can't imprint on and/or traumabond with him like Naruto and Kakashi do. They don't see him with rose tinted glasses, because they've lived through their own Horrors and empathize with Sasuke's experience.
......right?
WRONG lmao!! They have too many ghosts!! Naruto's single-minded codependent ass won't get out of his own way long enough to see Sasuke for who he actually is, only able to empathize with the parts of his trauma Naruto relates to and not really capable of understanding him outside of the context of himself (because Sasuke is. His other half). And Kakashi is far too jaded to be fair to him!! He can't decide if Sasuke is gonna end up as a mini-him or a mini-Obito or maybe a mini-Itachi, but either way he ALSO is too traumatized to see Sasuke AS SASUKE.
meanehile SAKURA'S autistic ass may have dogshit empathy, but you know what she does have? A special interest in sasuke. Nothing better to do then give herself a degree in Uchihaisms. She can write character studies about him. she can read his soul. Whenever she says something about him she is right. Every fucking time! She is RIGHT!!!!
'sasuke would NOT compliment me this directly or explicitly express worry unprompted, especially if it gets in the way of his goals' correct.
'Sasuke shouldn't hide that curse on his neck its not healthy BUT if I tell anyone about it he'll never trust me again, which might be even more dangerous for him then the curse mark. Like he can probably handle the curse mark but no one else can stop him from ripping peoples arms off.' correct.
Speaking of! 'Sasuke would not hurt me even when he seems to be...possessed? whatever the only way to knock him out of it is to present myself as Alive and thus something to be protected rather then something to be avenged, because he gets really stuck in his own head about revenge' CORRECT
'hey so um. like. Sasuke's gonna leave Konoha. I'm not sure anything can stop him at this point and honestly I'm kinda starting to doubt anything should, so the only thing I could possibly do to help him at this point is ALSO defect.' CORRECT!!!!
#shout out to @Obihoe cause this started as a tag comment on one of your posts that got WAY too out of hand. just like old times lol#team 7#haruno sakura#sakura haruno#sasuke uchiha#team crackhead#naruto#naruto uzumaki#sasusaku#doesn't have to be but like. Yeah#for the record no disrespect to my boys Naruto n Kakashi I love them dearly. but like. they got their issues. that's half the fun of team 7#And Sakura has her problems with Sasuke too!! But her problems have nothing to do with understand him or his motivations or his personhood#and more to do with. Well. her absolute dogshit empathy. Emotionally disregulated ass.#'if you leave me I'll feel just like you did when your parents died' My beloved. Iconic. Great line. No notes. She's really just still so#inexperienced and naive that means she can explain and predict and KNOW him and his actions but still not empathize. She can say shit#like that with a straight face because she's never FELT loss like this before (except that minute she thought he was dead on the bridge)#so she can't imagine a worse pain. Just assumes it can't GET worse because she has no emotional concept of 'worse'. so it must be the same#she's literally the only person with a chance of convincing Sasuke to take her with him to Orochimaru because he's SASUKE of course she#knows all the right pressure points and keywords and concerns and stuff that she needs to convince him.#she's literally playing a little diolouge tree game with him. And maybe even winning up until that line! it's the dealbreaker
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The way fans on the st sub are almost all in agreement Nancy ending up with neither Jon nor Steve wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, and how they can even come up with a sleuth of reasons as to why, honestly pretty valid and fair reasons, but then are absolutely gobsmacked when fans merely speculate something along those lines for El is, quite something.
#el hopper#byler#platonic elmike#stranger things#this is coming from someone who ADORED mileven in s1-2#I literally skipped all of s2 in my rewatch before s3 aired bc I just wanted to see their reunion#then s3 happened#and I was confused at#A LOT of ppl are#and anyone coming to voice that confusion is ran off Reddit like they’re committing a crime#like would it hurt y’all to have some of the same common sense you have for el like you do with Nancy#??#I am more jancy leaning but also I just feel like it’s certain stancy ain’t happening#but I’m also not totally against Nancy wanting to be on her own for a while#maybe they’d imply jancy Will find their way back to each other#maybe they’re teamed up in s5 and wait until the very end to cement that certainty for each other#but I would not hate their stories if Nancy and Jon decided to live their own lives#FOR THEMSELVES#Nancy doing what she wants and loves#Jonathan doing what he wants instead of just doing stuff that helps people around him#and I’m not going to even get into the reasons why el and mike would benefit from living for themselves outside of their relationship#the attachment to the ship is stronger than any sort of attachment to the character#and when the things keeping them together are not strong to begin with…#that attachment is doomed and hard to watch and enjoy like idgi at all#also; all the pro-ronance comments on there getting like 30+ likes??#go ronance I guess??!??#idk if it’s because they think byler actually has a serious possibility while ronance has less build up#so they can sort of play with that idea without actually having to take it seriously…#at least ronance has a positive audience on there#a win is a win I guess 😭🫡
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In theory, Annabeth Chase is the responsible, mostly level-headed, no-nonsense member of the Seven.
In practice, Annabeth Chase is a math-obsessed ADHD girl that's been training to fight for her life since she was seven, has fought in two (2) wars by the time she turns seventeen, and is simply Too Tired™ to care about consequences of her impulsive thoughts, if she ever did.
What I'm saying is she pitches the dumbest hypotheticals to Leo and then they hole themselves up with limited food and sleep to try the idea out, no matter how stupid. Their cabins often join, sometimes others as well. It's a bit like MythBusters but with less regard for human life and even more explosions. Chiron and Mr D know Something Is Up if they haven't seen either of the two in too long.
#pjo#hoo#leo valdez#annabeth chase#annabeth pjo#in conclusion: they are impulsive#and they'll do whatever comes to their mind#they literally won't be able to rest until they solve whatever problem they have chosen this week#the rest of the seven are less sciency/mathy and so very concerned#also these two fight about their math skills all the time#Leo usually wins pure math stuff#Annabeth gets him back by knowing far too much trivia#they hate each other (affectionate)
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actually. @moonlarked you wanted someone to talk about near & light as parallels? cuz uh...
ok SO, my big hot take on near is something like this: one of the most common criticisms i see about near is that he is simply too apathetic/bored/uncaring/etc, and that because he is not as emotionally invested as L, his win against light doesn't feel nearly (lol) as satisfying as it could've been. this is a view that often frustrates me, but for a very particular reason— namely, while i think it is somewhat accurate in content, i think it misses a lot of important context (and also misses a lot of the importance of light's character arc, but we'll get to that much later).
one of the most important things to remember about the wammy's kids is that, whether they like it or not, each and every one of them is defined almost entirely through their relationship to L. this is perhaps more obvious in the case of characters like BB and mello, who are very Aware of this shadow being cast upon them and react in very overt, emotional ways (e.g. becoming a literal serial killer out of seemingly pure spite & desire to be noticed, idolizing him but in a very emotionally complicated, kinda detached sorta way, etc), but it is true for Every wammy's kid, purely because of how the house itself functions. these kids are being raised to be L's successor— the greatest (and second greatest, and third greatest) detective on the planet. this is the ultimate goal hanging over every one of their heads, and it places a constant pressure on every kid there.
oftentimes, i think (perhaps both out of story and in it, as well?) people get so caught up in comparing near to L that they forget he also falls under this umbrella— only, for near, his position is slightly different because he actually somewhat succeeds at the task? like, yeah, L never gets the chance to officially call near his successor, but between the fact that he's constantly called the #1 kid at wammy's and that he. literally does actually end up becoming the new L after kira, i think it's always been pretty clear what his path was going to be.
going back to my starting point, this is one of the main ways that near makes a really good parallel to light in my mind, specifically the light that we see right at the start of the series. in both cases, near and pre-DN light, we see a kid who has succeeded at everything they've been handed, and more notably, we see a kid who is bored out of his fucking mind looking at the prospects of what he's got.
in the case of light, this is maybe a little more realistic/easy to understand— light does well in academics, he does well in sports, he does well with people. he is likely to follow in his father's footsteps with something criminal justice/police/law related, but even if he diverges from that path it likely won't be too big of a deal, as he has shown himself to be capable in enough areas that he's likely to succeed no matter what. by all measurable standards, light's doing pretty good at the start of the series. and yet— there is something so distinctly and inherently Bland about his life before he gets the DN. i've said before that light wouldn't call the DN a curse even if he wanted to, but i think in that moment when he's telling ryuk he disagrees w/ his father after visiting him in the hospital, when he says, "I've never once considered finding that notebook and gaining this power a misfortune. In fact, it's made me happier than I've ever been." (ch.22) he's still getting at something real and truthful.
again, going back to my equating of boredom with depression in this series— light's life is pretty good by all measurable standards. he has a family who loves him, presumably more than enough money to get by with a pretty cushy lifestyle, and does well, honestly better than well, in every single system he is presented with. but even so, he's still unhappy. there is something in his soul that has not yet been satisfied. he's bored of the world, bored of his place in it, how easy it all is. what the DN really offers him is a challenge, entertainment— just the same as L, and just the same as ryuk.
near similarly suffers from this kind of boredom, though it is perhaps less overtly stated than in the case of light, L, and ryuk, and less easy to catch as it is not as realistic/common. again: near basically ends up the winner of wammy's house. he is the one to take the title of L, he's declared the smartest, bestest kid at wammy's, and he gets all the power and privilege that comes with such a title. but still— he's so. fucking. bored. much to the embarrassment of mello, this shit was never really a challenge to him. it's pretty obvious that near isn't really even all that attached to the title of L— don't forget that his first real introduction to the story involves him explicitly saying that he'd be just fine working with mello as essentially co-L successors. and this is a viewpoint that he holds onto until the very end of the series, actually, claiming that he was only able to best light due to mello's sacrifice. near doesn't really give a fuck about the rat race he's been slotted into, though it's perhaps for that exact reason that he ends up winning it anyway, and getting all the responsibility that comes along.
that being said, i think there are still two main differences between light and near:
light fucks up.
near never gets past his boredom.
in the case of this first point, i do not mean to say that near never ever makes any move/judgement that could be considered a mistake— mello killing the entire SPK is the first thing that comes to mind, which i see as blood on near's hands for the same reason that L takes at least some responsibility for lind l. tailor. rather, i mean that near never makes a such a monumental fuck-up that he has to overturn his entire worldview just to account for it in the same way that light does when he accidentally kills two people w/ the DN the first time.
it's like, if you've ever known (or been) the kind of kid who always got perfect grades in school, straights A's for K-12, only to reach college and suddenly bomb their first test and have an existential crisis as their only real achievement in life is crushed into dust, then you know light yagami. only for light, it's on a whole 'nother scale, because not only does he fucking oopsie daisy kill two people, but he kills in such a context that he can mentally manipulate it back into seeming heroic. i hate to say that suffering causes character development because that's terrible advice (it's how you react to terrible circumstances that matters, imho) but to some degree, yeah, having conflicts/hard times in life is just necessary to figure shit out sometimes. near (and L, oh goddd i need to write about L properly sometime) has so many things smoothed over and handed to him, and on top of that, he's a super genius very rarely fucks anything up, at least according to base logic. he doesn't even really consider the morality of anything he's doing until light straight up asks him in a desperate bid to keep talking at the end, it's all just logic and factors to consider.
this all leads to my second point, which is that near never really gets the chance to overcome his boredom in the same way as the others. ryuk at least gets his entertainment for a couple years, and light and L (and mello) get so invested in each other and their game that it literally kills them, but near just kinda. keeps going. he keeps being L, he keeps solving cases, he does the duty he was given and enjoys his toys... and that's it. he lies around, the only one left to live, never even taking credit for the end of KIRA, never gets another haircut, and keeps the title going. what a life, for a kid who dragged a god back down to earth.
sidenote1: toys
am i reading too into things? maybe. near's toys hold a lot of significance throughout the story in more specific ways, most notably the finger puppets he uses at the very end of the story while tracking different people's/kira's actions, though you could probably read some kind of meaning into every toy he has and the ways in which he plays with them. what i want to look at here though is more the general reasoning behind playing with them in the first place— a desire for a childhood he didn't get to have? a love of games more generally? (could track with him seeing the KIRA case, or really all detective work, as just another game.) you could also read into his toys as another source for near's apathy/detachment from reality, literally breaking every notable person around him down into a doll by the end of the story, speaking a lot to how alienated he is from the world (again, very similar to both L and light, there). i don't have much more of a point to make here, just wanted to add this in somewhere since it's one of his most striking visual character traits.
sidenote2: light's arc
going back to my point at the start of this post... light's character arc.
uhh. near winning is a good thing, actually. and i don't just mean that as a moral claim— DN itself as a story isn't really concerned with trying to answer any moral questions about good or evil or the justice system, so it makes sense & is fair to me that it doesn't try all that hard to answer anything along those lines by the very end of the story. what i mean to say here is that near winning is a good thing on the level of the character arc, specifically as an end to light's arc.
i made a post a while back while mid-manga reread talking through some of the reasons why L's death can feel kind of unsatisfying/paint the second half of the story in a less interesting light (hah) for a lot of viewers, with the main point i ended up on being that L wasn't really able to win because he never really had all that clear of a win state in the first place. i still kiiind of agree with this point, though i think there's a lot more i could add to that post... anyways. point is, i bring up that post because it touches on a similar thing to what i want to talk about here: light's character arc being a tragedy.
this is more speculation on my part, but i think another part of the reason why people get turned off to DN post-L death is not just the fact that L isn't really a playable character in the game anymore, but the fact that light's character arc takes such a dramatic twist after the timeskip. i talked about this a little bit in my little ramble on light & titles (which a lot of you liked, apparently!! ty for all the lovely comments on there, i love reading what you guys have to say ^w^), but light's character arc in DN is a tragedy to me, full-stop.
tragedies to me are cyclical— revolutionary, if you will. since all stories necessitate some kind of something to take place, a tragedy to me is all about a character beginning in one point, then continually getting hit by Event, after Thing, after Event, only to end up in essentially the exact same place that they started. any character changes or development that seem to happen throughout the story are ultimately nullified by the end— the main subject does not truly grow, does not truly reflect on their actions or traumas, does not move on. two steps forward is two steps back. even ending up in a position worse than they started is sometimes better than a true tragedy, in my mind, as at least then there is some chance they may still reflect or change or grow in the future, leaving the hope that they may still overcome this new circumstance later on. a true tragedy ends in nothing meaningful ever getting the chance to truly change, at least in the case of the main subject of the story.
light's character arc in the first half of the story is an upward, underdog kind of story. yes, light has the power of a shinigami, of a supernatural force that the rest of the world doesn't even know exists— but part of the real appeal of his conflict with L is how powerful L feels in comparison, having the wealth and respect and title to command a world's worth of forces against him. fuck, even taking down naomi misora feels like an incredible hurdle overcome, a teenager managing to charm and yap and flutter his eyelashes out of a shitty situation he was only just lucky enough to stumble across in the first place, to stop someone who could've ruined his entire plan with a few words. killing L was always going to be light's greatest accomplishment when it comes to his rise to godhood, not only because of L's great power but the comparative position of light at the time that he did so— not yet an adult, not even really out of school, perhaps barely out of his parents' house.
in contrast, light's arc for the second half of the story is a downward spiral. we see all of the consequences light has been miraculously avoiding smack into him like meteors in this half, his ever-growing ego torn to shreds as he's yanked back down to earth. and in comparison to the anime, the manga really beats this point into you, dedicating the entire second half of the story to light's fall from grace as he loses his mind and loses his humanity. like, while i do kind of prefer the manga ending to the anime, i have to admit that light's death there is fucking brutal. light goes through pages, chapters, purely dedicated to near tearing him a new asshole, only end the story bloody and delirious and crawling on his knees begging a god of death to fix everything— all just to die the exact same death as everyone else he's killed. i mean, look at these fucking pages (ch.107):
(that last fucking picture of him. clawing at the sky. it always fucking gets to me.)
it hurts to read this shit!! we spend the entire first half of the story watching this dude's rise to glory, the entire time stuck inside of his head, emotionally connecting with him even if we don't really mean to or disagree with his actions or question his morality. watching his fall back down, especially after all of that, is fucking painful— an in no way does near make the process any easier. if anything, his blunt, snarky bitchery, saying all the quiet parts out loud, calling light out for being a terrible replacement L and pointing and laughing at his failures to his face, only shoves more salt in the wound, only proves just how human he has been all this time, how meaningless any of his supposed "rise to power" ever really was. light got his fifteen seconds of fame, sure— but near is armed and ready to make sure that's all he'd ever get, that the name Light Yagami would never even be associated with the position he held for so long. six years was all he got— and it was all he was ever going to get, because light yagami did not do this for humanity, he did it for himself. all near did was collect the debt that L prescribed. he fulfilled his duty as told— nothing more, and nothing less.
i just have to wonder... is this why people hate him? because he has no sympathy for the fall? maybe. i don't know.
either way, i don't think i could ever really hate him. it's a big responsibility, being the only one left behind. but near has always been the one to hold such weights on his shoulders.
#death note#astronaut rambles#back at it again w/ the literal shower thoughts everyone#trying to get out as much DN writing as i can before classes start and take over everything aksdjflks#i think near is definitely in my top 3 DN characters oops i love him#btw i haven't seen a lot of the extra manga n stuff (?) related to wammy's so this is mostly just based off of the main manga#certified YAPPER applestorms here sorry L i like to win too#it's my homestuck roots i can't help it#also couldn't fit this in but... i like near's main color being white#it really fits the emptiness/void/apathy thing but in a different way#like it's not MU. it's not two fully black pages. but there's not a lot there either#not much room to be a person when you're built to be a computer ig#sighhh. these boys and their humanity#prospectively classpecting near as an heir of void. btw.#also sympathy for the fall would make a fuckin great band name#man i love writing these things. spinning my boys in my head#the DN fandom has been great on here lately love reading everyone's posts & seeing all the art hehehe <3#super long post#long post
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