#it doesn't /confirm/ anything to me but the fact that she has an entire arc left to play out in the Vale

[fromtheseventhhell]

The AFFC discarded outline doesn’t confirm QITN as many Stansa’s are already theorizing about (somehow it’s also Jonsa’s foreshadowing??) but it does confirm that she wasn’t meant to stay in the Vale as Lady and will eventually head North, once her chosen plot concludes to that point, which feels like it’ll happen end of TWOW. Especially with Sansa chosen plot (not one completely scraped ten years ago that fans are suddenly using as justification of show!Sansa who was a mash of five other character arcs and confirmation of her book plot) still holds massive hurdles for her to overcome

With Cersei, her bounty, marriage to Tyrion which affect her ability to inherit and proving her identity to the Northmen who believe she’s dead and will need proof after Jeyne is revealed, along with Stannis adamant about her not inheriting. If she does go North currently, alone she’ll die because of Winter growing more intense in the North and to march a Vale army if she gains them will require massive movement during the harshest Winter that’ll cause great loss to their army much like Stannis’ situation heading to Winterfell.

The discarded AFFC outline feels like it confirms the potential of a succession crisis once the Starks start popping up in the North will all their claims being pushed by different people with different agendas.

I agree that there will be a succession crisis, but I disagree that the outline confirms it because the elements have always been there in the story. "Arya's" marriage to Ramsay is being used to hold Winterfell, Wyman Manderly is preparing to back Rickon, Jon is legitimized by Robb's will, LF is trying to use Sansa's claim, and Bran is the Heir whose return is imminent. While some things are up in the air (Wyman's fate, when Bran is returning, the validity of Sansa's claim via Robb's will, etc.) it's very unlikely that all of this would be dropped so that only one Starklings claim is valid. That also doesn't mean that every Starkling's claim will be equally considered though, and I think the bulk of the conflict will be between Rickon, Bran, and Jon (I don't think either Arya or Sansa are heading North before the end of TWOW). As far as the outline interpretation...it's dubious at best.

There's no way I would interpret this as "take the North" if it hadn't been presented as such first. While it very well could say this, even the OP admits they could've gotten things wrong because of how hard George's writing was to read. And if it does say this, it's most likely in reference to LF laying out his plan to Sansa in AFFC. Outside of the death of the Mad Mouse, I don't think it tells us any more about Sansa's arc than we already know from AFFC and her TWOW sample chapter. There's just nothing compelling enough for me to change my previous predictions about where Sansa's story is heading.

[ticklinglady]

The Guild's actions during the story are so insane, when you think about them properly, you know? When I first read the arc with them, this moment hasn't really occurred to me, as I was too busy going nuts over finally seeing the names of the familiar writers, but now when I think of that... I am not sure, I comprehend how they managed to achieve such a ferocious reputation. I have already made a little post about how extremely dysfunctional the DOA members are, but at least those guys have a plan, which actually makes sense more or less, even despite the gang using cheatcodes/the Book. The same cannot be said of the Guild however archghhjkn. Like, what the hell were these guys even doing??? XD

So here are just some moments, which weirded me out the most

At first I'd like to address the entire story with everyone's favorite tsundere, Lucy Maud Montgomery. Her introduction leaves quuuuite an impression in the best way and nothing makes me happier than the fact, that she gets a chance to find happiness in the following chapters and actually becomes a reoccurring character! HOWEVER, her entire involvement with the Guild is super odd... I still can't wrap my head around her getting fired. She is a girl with a hella powerful ability, who got taken to the Guild from a terrible, terrible orphanage in order to fight for them in the war for the Book, so not only is she very strong, but she's also immensely dependant on the organisation and wouldn't do anything outside of its interests. Yet Lucy is also put under extreme pressure. As she herself puts it, the Guild doesn't tolerate failures and will kick her out the moment she screws something up.

Later we see that this is exactly what happens, when she messes up her first mission. Fitzgerald himself confirms that, since she failed and revealed her ability to the enemies, she's no longer useful, so now a powerful esper, like Lucy works for free as a... laundress?

EXCUSE ME??? WHEN HAVE THE GUILD MEMBERS EVER DONE ANYTHING, BUT FAIL AND REVEAL THEIR ABILITIES?

Let's be real, these dudes were successful like only once or twice...

This fact not only makes Fitzgerald look like an idiot for wasting such a talented and useful worker, because of one mistake, but also as one hell of a hypocrite, cause he is more than fine with everyone else fucking up. And in case of Lovecraft and Steinbeck: fucking up twice. To add to the oddity, we later learn, that Louisa genuinely cares for Lucy and despite her social anxiety actually stood up for her during the entire story, but even that wasn't enough to change Fitzgerald's mind on the issue, though Louisa is one of the few people, whose opinion he respects. Honestly, this is such a waste of a truly useful subordinate. And speaking of which....

The Guild has never even tried to implement Edgar Allan Poe during the war...

This man is actually rather op when you think of it. He can capture and neutralise literally any ability user in Yokohama (besides Dazai, Mori and Ranpo ofc) just by throwing a book at them. Seriously, as we see with Chuuya, they don't even have to read it, they just need to see the pages. Plus the book can be actually sent via email!!! So why has there been an absolute zero amount of strategies with the use of this ability??? They could actually try to catch Atsushi by sending him such email containing any of Poe's mystery stories and then safely carry him back to their base. And it doesn't have to be just Atsushi, it could be literally any of their enemies. Non-combatant, like Ranpo could use this pretty damn well to his advantage and it doesn't take a genius to understand the potential of the "Black Cat in Rue Morgue". But nooooo, it seems like everyone has just forgotten of Poe!!! (Tho to be honest, I can actually see this situation in a funny extra awfgbfggfjj. Not the main story however) The agency would never even learn of his existence, if he didn't personally decide to try to fuck Ranpo's life up. Like, what does Poe even do in the Guild? He's the master architect and, according to him, the third ranking man in the organization, but we never see him be of any use, so Idk. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Lucy at least got to do something, unlike this poor man.

Then there's the entire drama with the Guild's decision to destroy Yokohama. Where do I even begin...

First of all, Fitzgerald has no way of knowing that Atsushi is going to come to Moby-Dick to fight him. Poor guy is the Guild's primary goal and has already gotten himself captured once, so it would have been safe to assume that the ADA decided to hide him somewhere and not send him on any dangerous missions for the time being. That basically means Fitzgerald could have burned down not just Yokohama, but also the only person, who could actually help him find his precious Book.

But if we're to ignore this, let's also go with Wikipedia then~

"Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu. Yokohama is also the major economic, cultural, and commercial hub of the Greater Tokyo Area along the Keihin Industrial Zone."

..........................

Good luck making up for the destruction of THIS, Fitzgerald 🖕

And if this in itself wasn't bad enough, most people, including me, tend to forget that all Guild members are actually big shots in the American government, which I think is very sad. Because first of all, can you imagine any of the Guild members actually working as politicians?!! The sheer idea makes me hysterical avshbgj. Like, just consider Lovecraft working as a senator or something. This eldritch horror of a man leaves the ocean once in three years at best LMAO. Second of all, I have a feeling, that the destruction of Yokohama at the hands of influential politicians from a foreign country would have resulted in an international conflict or two~ Like as if random deranged rich Americans arriving in Japan, wreaking havoc over there and destroying the second largest city in the country wasn't bad enough, these Americans just HAD to be super influential businessmen and politicians. Louisa, my dear, I understand that it wasn't your intention, but it's as close to a declaration of war as it can get, you know? Fitzgerald may be ready to do anything to resurrect his dead daughter, but I'm not sure, that the execution of himself and the rest of the Guild at the hands of the Hunting Dogs is something he'd like.

(And here's another funny thing that stems from them being politicians 🤭 As @originalartblog wittily pointed out, Fitzgerald wasting all his money fighting sskk has probably resulted in a market crash and recession over in the USA)

I also have some other questions in regards to this entire plan, such as why did they have to waste Moby-Dick just to destroy Yokohama? Yes, it works in the short term, but in the long term they loose a super powerful fortress with the stealth mode and as the practice shows, you better have a safe base, unless you want another lemon freak to blow it all up. I mean, you could just ask Lovecraft to destroy everything for free. Or, if the device is the only way to stop the giant whale from crashing, why didn't Fitzgerald just take it to a far away bunker or something and waited things out there without the need to spend millions of dollars just to survive the explosion? (And it would have been extremely funny, if during the fight with sskk he just threw the device overboard) But I think I have already rambled for long enough already atxhghbgv XD

The Guild is an even bigger mess than the DOA and I think that's glorious 🙌

[kradogsrats]

Schrödinger's King in the Bird Box

Time for a return to the single topic that most torments me in this entire franchise canon: is Harrow in the goddamn bird or not?

Except not really. I'm not going to go over the evidence again. I've done it before. Almost everyone has done it before. It has only gotten stronger. At the absolute minimum, an attempt was made to put Harrow in the bird. That's not really disputable. I admit it. It's over.

This is actually the second time that I've struggled with narrative cognitive dissonance regarding a real core factor of this show (like not "what's the deal with Archdragon reproduction," but something that is clearly supposed to be thought about with the intent that it will eventually make sense), and eventually managed to rotate it so hard in my mind that the way I wanted to see it slipped out of my grasp and I saw it the way it's actually intended. Ironically, I think I may have been thinking about the Ocean arcanum at the time.

Anyway, what previously always bothered me about this question was mainly two things:

It would have a devastating impact on Ezran's character development if Harrow reappeared during s1-s3, but the timeskip and arc of s4-s5 made it so it would also be deeply weird for him to reappear before the show ends.

If Harrow is in Pip's body, both Viren and Pip's subsequent behavior, as well as how Pip is treated by the narrative on a meta level, make absolutely no fucking sense.

But... if Viren doesn't know whether the spell was successful or not? If we are meant to not know whether the spell was successful or not, because it's not going to get resolved in the show itself?

If we accept that the earliest point with any chance of the hooks for this plot being set is late s7—because yes, Aaron Ehasz would do an exact beat-for-beat repeat of Zuko and his mom—that both puts Ezran far enough in his growth for it not to be threatened by the "real" king returning, and keeps Harrow out of the loop for long enough that it doesn't really make sense for him to do anything but step down from the throne in favor of Ezran, anyway. As for Viren and Pip's behavior, if the show isn't going to advance that plot much further during its runtime, there's no reason for us to be constantly reminded of it. The setup has been made, and they can just let it stew because it's not actually relevant.

That being said, Viren's behavior actually does make a lot of sense if "is Harrow in the goddamn bird or not" is a question that is also tormenting him. To that end, I'll be doing some digging here on the nature and context of the body-switching spell, Pip/Harrow's behavior post-swap, and what the hell is going on in the Harrow section of Viren's dark magic dream.

The Spell is Made Up (Unlike All Those Real Spells)

First of all, I think there's been some long-term incorrect assumptions made about the body-switching spell. It's not a known spell: this is Claudia and Viren essentially flying by the seat of their pants... but we rarely stop to think about how that contextualizes the rest of the discussion around it.

The initial plan is to find the assassins and ambush them before nightfall. As Soren points out and Viren himself confirms: if they fail, the assassins will be unstoppable under the full moon and Harrow is as good as dead. Claudia decides to put her mind to that problem, so naturally she stops to flirt with Callum in the library and gets the inspiration for the spell from something he says.

(Fun fact: none of that happens in the novelization. Zero amount.)

She brings the idea to Viren, and they develop the spell from there. It's not really clear if Claudia actually knows whether something like that would be possible, but Viren does know that transferring the essence of a person can be done—he's got a nice little coin collection that proves it.

As for the snake, there's no way Viren "acquired" a two-headed soulfang serpent because he has a book somewhere on how to use a rare, malformed specimen of a dangerous Xadian creature to switch people between bodies. He probably thought "that's weird, but could be useful," or maybe whoever sold it to him just had a great sales pitch. A non-trivial amount of success at dark magic is in having access to rarer and more powerful reagents than your competition.

Anyway, what this means is that Viren has absolutely no idea what success looks like for this spell, particularly when using it on subjects of different species. When he describes it to Harrow, he is 110% talking out of his ass. He sounds like he knows exactly what the spell will do and how, and I think a lot of us kind of fell for that. He needs to sound confident, because if he admitted that he doesn't know if it will even work, with a possible failure condition of "snake eats your soul," well... a) Harrow rightfully wouldn't go for it, and b) he'd look incompetent, which is the worst thing ever.

When he goes to Harrow's room, he casts the spell... but did it work? I think that whatever it did, it did it in a way that Viren can't tell whether it worked or not. Maybe both Harrow and Pip passed out. Maybe Viren just didn't want to hang around for the aftermath—in the novelization, when he exits the room and runs into Callum, his eyes are still black from spellcasting.

Activities of Dr. Pip Harrow, Ph.D.

Probably the thing that has always bothered me the most about the entire Harrow-Pip theory is that yes, literally everything in the lead-up and immediate aftermath of the assassination points to that being exactly what happened... and then the narrative lens of the show completely drops the rope. Pip doesn't even appear in the novelization until Viren's pre-coronation scene, which is funny given his looming presence over half the scenes with Harrow in the show.

Pip appears exactly twice after the assassination—once in s1 and once in s2—otherwise he goes completely ignored. He's not in the background of Viren's office, or the throne room, or Harrow's bedroom. No one ever mentions him ever again. Ezran never mentions him again, in the show or in any supplementary materials. You'd think the boy who can talk to animals might have some interest in his dead dad's beloved pet... but who knows, maybe Pip has always been an asshole and Ezran's actually like "thank goodness I never have to speak to that dude again."

Anyway, in all of Pip's appearances, he behaves like... a bird. A trained bird—Harrow can rely on him not just fucking off—but he doesn't demonstrate human-like intelligence the way Bait does. That being said, Bait is essentially a main-cast character (at least as much as, say, Corvus... maybe even Soren) while Pip is a plot device, and even then it takes until well into the first arc for Bait to show the kind of complex reasoning and initiative that separates him from an unusually smart dog. Pip's human is also a stressed-out king, rather than a rambunctious ten-year-old, so he's probably a bit more sedate overall. I would personally bet, given the way the show has progressed with regard to Xadian creatures, that Pip is as intelligent as Bait.

The point of that is: even if Harrow's consciousness is occupying Pip's body, he's not really doing anything with it. He's pissy, sure:

But is that Harrow's pissy-ness or Pip's? Even if Pip is only as intelligent as a trainable bird, that's plenty intelligent enough for both grieving/confusion that their human is gone and holding a grudge against obvious assholes. Viren cages him, but is that because he flipped out and got bite-y? And was it Harrow flipping out, or Pip? Or is he caged just because Viren's of the general attitude that animals belong in cages? Those who fail tests of love... We just don't know.

A lot of us also, to circle back to assumptions about the spell, have tended to think of a body swap between Harrow and Pip resulting in Harrow flailing his arms around wildly and screeching... but again, we know literally nothing about this spell, nor do we actually know anything about Harrow's behavior after Viren leaves his room. Maybe his body sat catatonic on the bed until Runaan came in and shot him. Maybe Pip, being intelligent, was able to maintain the facade—once everyone's in the heat of battle, it would be hard to notice even significant deviations from normal behavior. Even if "Harrow" appeared to fight only halfheartedly, or give up entirely... well, he hasn't been the same since he lost Sarai. Maybe the spell only partially worked, and only half of his soul is inside Pip, with minimal or no influence over the bird body's behavior.

Viren does appear to take some precautions in case Harrow is alive inside Pip. The cage, for one... but he also has nearly all subsequent important conversations outside of his office. Like I said earlier, Pip's cage isn't rendered in the background of any scene, but since he escapes from Viren's office I'm assuming that's where he's been. Even if Pip was just out of frame in every scene in Viren's office post-assassination through end of s2, the only things he's seen are... Viren eating butterflies, and the conversation between Viren and Claudia about the mirror and her side mission to bring the egg back at all costs. He doesn't know about Soren's instructions to murder the boys. He knows about the mirror and Viren's obsession with it (which he could have known before), but he doesn't know about Aaravos. He may know that Viren stole his seal but only if Viren was stupid enough to stamp the letters with it in front of him (which... look, he could be). The only things he's really learned are that a) his sons are alive, and b) Viren lied to him and the egg is alive.

Now, realistically, if we were meant to hang on to the is-Harrow-in-the-bird plot thread because it's going to be significant within the scope of the show... I'd be expecting to see at least one cut to Pip glowering at some point during all these machinations. If it weren't for the mirror and Aaravos, I'd expect Viren to be yelling all his monologuing at Pip, too. But the show does none of that. Instead, the next time we see Pip, we see him peace-ing out of the show for at minimum the next three seasons, and possibly the remaining two, as well. If Harrow's in there... why? Did he go to find Callum and Ezran himself? It's not actually clear that he knows Ezran can understand animals, so it would be reasonable for him to think Viren is his only chance at ever not being a bird again. Maybe he thinks that chance is gone with Viren's arrest and would rather not spend the rest of his life in a cage. Maybe he really isn't in control of the body.

Back to Viren, though: since Pip refuses to demonstrate any behavior that could be taken as distinctly Harrow's, Viren actually has no idea at any point whether Harrow's in there or not. He doesn't know if Harrow lived. He doesn't know if he succeeded or failed. It's a constant reminder that he's almost, but not quite, in control. Almost, but not quite, good enough to achieve what he wants.

It probably drives him absolutely insane.

Did You Think You Were Somehow Getting Out of This Without Me Mentioning Kpp'Ar?

Just kidding, it's finally time to talk about Viren's dream. We've gone two entire seasons and a two-year timeskip without any mention of Harrow or Pip (though those maniacs dropped the fucking snake basket on us as an incidental but obvious prop early in s4), and then suddenly we get punched in the face by Viren's subconscious.

First, though, I do actually need to point something out in the scene with Kpp'Ar. Bear with me, I promise this is relevant.

Viren sealed Kpp'Ar's soul in a coin 12-ish years ago, and the coin has been sitting collecting dust in his secret dungeon for... some amount of that time. Now he opens the door and finds Kpp'Ar standing there, free—and I will note that I don't believe Viren actually knows how to free people from the coins, or whether it can even be done. His reaction is surprise, followed by suspicion and wariness:

When he encounters Harrow—dead—his reaction is horrified shock, which is fair since the last time he entered the room that way there was no surprise body chilling out waiting for him in it:

Then, when Harrow speaks to him, suddenly alive and unharmed, he drops straight into relief:

Some of this is undoubtedly due to the differences between Viren's relationship with Kpp'Ar and his relationship with Harrow. With Kpp'Ar, after that initial moment of confusion, he's absolutely determined to not show a single hint of ignorance or weakness—this is a trick, or a test, and a passing grade in "light verbal sparring with the mentor you're pretty sure you remember betraying" is a thing that is both normal to want and possible to achieve. For Harrow, who he wants so desperately to call him brother, who he walked into this very room ready to die for, before everything went horribly awry—he not only immediately and willingly goes to his knees, he literally prostrates himself.

... I'll give everyone a moment to get all the innuendo and suggestiveness out of their systems, because that's not the point. This time.

What is the point is that Viren's reaction to Harrow isn't disbelief, but relief. Hope. Kpp'Ar is supposed to be in a coin, and Viren immediately questions how he got out. Harrow is supposed to be dead but Viren doesn't give a second thought to how he's not. Fortunately, Harrow helpfully explains:

Fun fact: back in s1, we don't actually see Viren actually taking action against the assassins. We don't even see evidence that he re-entered the room at all—it's only Soren and Claudia who participate in Runaan's capture.

I haven't actually touched a lot on the complex shit going on for Viren, emotionally, throughout all of this—I mentioned it's was probably driving Viren insane over the course of the first two seasons, but let me elaborate. If Viren successfully switched Harrow and Pip, that means Harrow survived... but he expressed his feelings on the proposal in no uncertain terms, and there's a good chance he will literally never forgive Viren. I don't think Viren thought far enough ahead to consider how to get Harrow into a human body again, but I do think he's dragging his feet on it a little because if he can work things to his advantage—unite the Pentarchy against Xadia and follow through on the war Harrow was avoiding—he'll prove to Harrow that he was right all along. Any chance of that flies out the window with Pip at the end of s2.

If the body-switching spell failed, it means Viren essentially killed Harrow himself. That's the reality I think he grows more and more resigned to over the course of s1 and s2, when Pip remains unresponsive. He had no choice but to take the best chance at saving someone he loved—but this time, instead of saving Harrow, he murdered him.

In the dream, Harrow has not only survived, but credits Viren with his survival. He doesn't just dismiss Viren's show of remorse, but makes his own apology to Viren. He calls Viren brother. After an impossibly long nightmare, everything is okay. All is forgiven. Maybe there was nothing to forgive, in the first place. Maybe Viren was right all along.

Then it all turns sinister with the callback to the coin incantation, and we have a sharp return to reality:

The cinematography here treats Pip a lot more like how I would expect him to be treated in s1/s2 if we were meant to know he was actually Harrow. There's focus actually on him, instead of just other characters' reaction to him. He "speaks"—as I noted in another post—in raspy sounds very unlike his songbird chirps from s1. This is absolutely Harrow as Viren actually left him—even if he's not dead, he's in a warped prison of dark magic, a perverse mockery of himself.

Oh wait.

Harrow-who-is-both-human-and-alive was never an option, and what we've got now is mirror images of Harrow-the-dead-human and Harrow-the-live-bird, and they're going to do to Viren what he did to them.

Now, it's not that none of this makes sense if Viren knows for sure that Harrow is in the bird... but it makes a lot less sense and has less emotional resonance. If Viren knows Harrow survived as Pip, he'd be more likely to question Harrow's human form than his survival—the way he does with Kpp'Ar. He might be more guarded, expecting hostility—which, I will note, is what he gets when Pip enters the scene. Instead, because until now he believed that he actually killed Harrow in his attempt to save him, he's so relieved to see Harrow alive that for that one moment he loses all pride and is ready to beg for forgiveness at Harrow's feet.

Since legitimately none of this makes sense if Viren didn't at least attempt to put Harrow in the bird, we're left with Harrow maybe or maybe not alive, Viren having maybe or maybe not been the one to actually kill him (gonna be a fun one with the Runaan context), and a plotline that is definitely not going to be resolved in the remaining two seasons of the show. I'd be kind of surprised if they even did any more setup for it (like Callum/Ezran finding out it's a possibility, or even a hint drop like Runaan being all "it was fucking weird, he just sat there" or something) outside of future supplemental media.

Conclusion

Either Harrow is alive and in the bird, with the future intent being to do a spinoff story The Search-style, or we're in for a huge bummer of a "actually, it was Viren all along who killed Harrow, therefore Runaan is a good guy and we can all be one happy family" pile of absolute bullshit. Yes, they said Harrow's dead. Harrow's body is dead, we knew that all along. There's a note in the artbook that Viren was actually going to rip the shroud off at Harrow's funeral in order to publicly prove it's his body, because that is an extremely normal thing to do.

The show just treats it extremely weirdly because, even as the only person with any chance of knowing, Viren is in the same uncertain boat as the rest of us. (Actually more uncertain than the rest of us, since he's not genre-aware.) Also it's another chance to torment Viren emotionally, and they'd never pass that up.

Thanks for coming to my absolutely ridiculous TED Talk on this topic, I hope this screenshot now does as much psychic damage to you as it does to me:

[raayllum]

Do you truly believe that Callum is the only best thing that's happened to Rayla?

I don't think Callum is the only good thing in Rayla's life, but I do absolutely agree with her sentiment that he's the best thing she's ever had / that's ever happened to her. This is for a few reasons (mostly only talking about arc 1 as that's the time she's referring to, but I'm also gonna be touching on S4/S5):

In Bloodmoon Huntress, the long time headcanon of post-s1-s3 fans that Rayla was a relatively friendless / lonely child was confirmed. This makes Callum and Ezran her first real friends, and while she's more likely to lean on Ezran for support (in arc 1 at least) initially than Callum is, Callum is still more so her peer (due to being similar ages) and is her first and main Best Friend. For that alone, I'd buy her statement.

Then there's the other ways Callum has changed her life. He is:

The person who inspired her to actively work towards breaking the cycle past the point of 1) believing it was right for Zym to return home and 2) to make up for her parents' perceived/failures mistakes, as seen most prominently in 2x07. This is something she is willing to die for, and while Rayla is (unfortunately) willing to die for many things, this is the cause she believes in and feels centred in: "Every fibre in my body is telling me that [leaving her] is wrong [...] It doesn't just feel like the right thing to do, it feels like the right thing for me to do. It's where I'm meant to be." ("Look at yourself, Rayla. Who are you? What do you stand for? Once you know that, you'll end up where you were always meant to be.") Someone giving you a much more positive worldview that aligns with your values and sense of rightness is certainly a big deal (and a positive one, particularly for someone who's struggled with hesitating over what feels right for so much of her life.

Callum is the first person in Rayla's life to love her wholly unconditionally. While Rayla is deeply loved by all four of her parents, and I've gone on record saying that Tiadrin and Lain didn't do anything wrong, arc 1 sees Rayla brush up against the lingering cultural hangups and choices that make her family's love for her feel if not outright be somewhat conditional. She is shunned by her village (condition 1), while Ethari says goodbye to her and embraces her he still turned his back on her (condition 2), Runaan was heavily disappointed in her betrayal of him/the mission and left her (condition 3), and her parents put their duty over her / being her parents (condition 4). Callum says fuck all that shit. He refuses to leave even when she's pushing him away. He loves and admires her for the exact things she's been punished or shamed for ("You have true courage and a big heart" -> "Even when her own people might misunderstand and turn against her"). He says she doesn't deserve to be Ghosted, she doesn't deserve to be unjustly turned away for a mistake she didn't even make, he says and shows that it's okay for her to be scared and that she can (and should) rely on him.

This is even more intrinsically tethered given Chasing Shadows and the canon fact that Callum and his love for her 1) kept her from throwing what little remained of her life away entirely and 2) literally kept her from forsaking her name/identity/everything else that makes her Rayla and 3) gave her the courage to try and come home to somewhere she'd be safe and loved, even if she knew/felt she didn't deserve to. There's an underlying belief in Chasing Shadows we see carry through into S4 where Rayla truly believes Callum can do and overcome just about anything, and if he can do the impossible, then maybe so can she:

She backed away, close to the pit’s edge. The crowd shouted and screamed at her ears, their spittle landing on her neck. It rattled her. The human kicked dirt at her, and Rayla scraped at her eyes, angry—infuriated, even. Humans were frustrating. Humans were clever. Humans could do anything, they could be anything, they could take their own fates and change them—

It is for all these reasons that Rayla clearly considers him to be her family and the love of her life. She gives him the pendant (from Ethari to Runaan, then Ethari to her, and then her to Callum) as a symbol of both familial and romantic love. He seems to be the first person she's had serious feelings for and certainly the first person she's fallen in love with.

She was originally going to confess first (2x09) back when she clearly didn't have any thought or inclination he'd ever love her back, either. Then he did, and it elevated an already very steady and safe relationship to one that was good natured, even more incredibly supportive, and wholly unconditional.

And given how he supports and loves her in S4 and S5, I am even more inclined to think she's Right <3

[italeteller]

Juiz, Billy and the mechanics of Unjustice

Unjustice is one of the few negation abilities we don't fully understand yet, which I believe is a deliberate choice by Tozuka to get us when we least expect it. Much speculation has been made about it online, but we have gotten a few clues:

-Unjustice is likely a compulsory activation type - there'd be no point in Juiz covering her eyes unless she were protecting her allies from an ability that can't be turned off

-It only works when the user looks at the target directly, with her eyes uncovered. The glass visor on her helmet is probably made of a material that doesn't affect her ability

-It forces the target to do the actions opposite to their vision of justice - protectors attack, survivors self-harm, fighters stop fighting. Juiz herself says that her ability only has an effect when someone is acting by their sense of justice, so we can assume it's not like Untruth which negates anything

-There are times when Juiz looks at people with her eyes uncovered and her ability doesn't activate, which leads me to believe Unjustice has an additional activation requirement

But watching the Billy betrayal arc on the anime something clicked for me: I don't think Juiz can see into people's hearts the way Billy could. Otherwise she would've seen Billy's vision of justice when they fought. Juiz lost an arm because she misinterpreted his vision of justice, which she wouldn't have done if she had been able to see into his heart

Now, is it even possible that Billy could modify part of a negation ability? Yes. We do in fact see him do this twice:

-When he copies Unstoppable, his way of activating it is nothing like Top's. Top runs or physically moves his entire body, while Billy kicks the floor a few times then shoots off

-He also was able to use Unmove while blind by "seeing with sound"

And when you consider that Billy's vision of justice (I assume) is that only the strong should fight and the weak should be protected, it makes sense that he would gain the power to see into people's hearts and judge whether they're weak or strong

But if this is true, why only give this extra ability to Billy? He only ever gets to use it on one arc and then he loses Unjustice, so what does the series get out of it?

Well, we see Andy's very soul is tied to Fuuko's survival, and has in fact been that way since they joined the Union; we see Shen was being 100% honest about his dream of being the strongest in all creation, something that will come up again in the Summer arc; and we see that Juiz is bound to live and lead, which never comes up again

Unless...

And then it hits me. The confirmation to my suspicions of Unjustice having an extra activation requirement: I believe Juiz can only activate Unjustice when it fits her own vision of justice

She uses it on Andy and Tatiana when they're getting rowdy, because to lead she needs her underlings to follow her orders

She uses it against the Acks when they explicitly confirm they mean to kill most of humanity (which she wouldn't need to have asked if she could see into their hearts)

She uses it against Burn to save her own life

She means to use it against Rip during the Spring raid because he was attacking them with killer moves, and she successfully uses it to make him attack Spring, because they're inside his ability's area and if they don't kill him they'll all turn into cherry trees

And finally, she uses it on Victor when he tries to kill her. Victor even remarks that Unjustice had never worked on him before. These are people who've spent millenia together, and she never accidentally tagged him with Unjustice? This also leads me to believe Unjustice is a voluntary activation type, and the helmet and the shades were Juiz putting on an act so nobody would have a clear picture on Unjustice's powers. If it were compulsory, Victor would've been affected as soon as he tried to attack Juiz the second time. It wouldn't have taken until he was choking her for the effect to trigger

So yeah, I think I cracked it. I'm sure once Julia gets the abilitiy we'll get the full breakdown, but for now I feel pretty confident in my theory. What do y'all think?

[ichinoue]

"Well guys, it's 2023 and here's another dolt ranting about pronouns in the lust arc, just like the IH Fail essay that ended up being a fail in and of itself."

No its 2023 and people are deciding to keep ot real with you instead of deluding themselves and changing fhe narrtive to cater to a ship.

Respectfully, lets not speak on a language we dont know shit about, lmao.

Ichigo omits the pronoun when he tells rukia 'i've come to save you' in soul society that's because he was literally speaking to her, had been bickering with her from the previous page and had already told her he was there to rescue her back on the bridge - so he didn't need to specify to her 'who' he'd come to save: this is a typical example of "japanese omitting pronouns because they're obvious"

in the lust arc, ichigo is quite literally unconscious and unaware of his surroundings: in order to make it clear to the readers that ichigo recognized orihime, a pronoun (actually not even, he should have used her damn name like ichigo always did when he thought about rukia in ss) **needed** to be there without it, especially coupled with the fact that he speaks in broken japanese from that moment to the end of his transformation (i.e. he uses a mix of kanji and katakana, the latter of which is only used for foreign words, robots or - in bleach's case - hollows, and usually to signify that the speaker is just muttering sounds and doesn't understand the actual meaning of what they're saying), and the fact that he literally quite literally proceeds to throw orihime off the dome with absolutely no care for her well being, it's damn obvious that he had no idea who was yelling at him, he was only aware of the fact that someone was asking for help and got triggered by the word 'save'

"I mean this is just hilarious to me. Here's Orihime and Ichigo, literally placed together in side by side panels as Ichigo continues to chant about protecting...And ichiruki shippers are like, "hmmm well, it's not super clear who he's talking about because there's no pronoun so...I guess we'll never know 🤷‍♀️."

So being places together in panels side by side means he's referring to her? May I remind u he's just raised from the dead, and orihime is shocked as she processes what's happening. Those panels were to emphasise that. Not only have u attempted to educate me on the Japanese language and failed, you've now tried to say side by side panels somehow equates to the fact that he's referring to her? 💀.

"You think Kubo drew this^ entire page, at such a pivotal moment, to show that Orihime's...wrong? Like some sort of gag? She's just *imagining* that Ichigo rose up for her, but it's not actually true? That's...certainly an interesting way to interpret things lmao."

This was orihimes own perception of the situation. Orihime isn't a fact page, she's her own charecter with her own dialogue and thought. The fact she perceived it that way doenst mean its the case. She didn't imagine anything, it jsut looked that way too her, may I remind you she was the one screaming. She knows she's the person the screams belong too, ichigo doesn't. So of course she's gonna think it's here fault, common sense people.

You also proceeded to bring more asspulls and try and say how the databook confirms its about orihime when it was in third person.

"The readers aren't the ones who bound Ichigo to Orihime's screams (especially not you, anon, since you keep insisting it had nothing to do with her lmao). Kubo did that. That's how he meant for this scene to be interpreted: that Ichigo was bound to Orihime's screams. But you're still here fighting against it for some reason lol."

Did kubo tell u that he meant for the scene to be interpretated this way? Or did some angel come to you in ur dream and tell u that? If thats true, kubo wouldve simply added confirmation that hes talking about orihime by adding pronouns or her name. Instead he doesnt do that and has ichigo propell her away

He was bound to her screams, it's just that he didn't know the screams belonged to her, as long as those screams belonged to someone, he's gonna get up... that's who he is. It could've been anyone else screaming there and he would've stood his ass the fuck up, that's his charecter and what he does. Lmao you think this would go without saying, but the lengths ppl go for shipping is hilarious.

"Ichigo did know she was calling out to him. It was part of his internal monologue, as she's screaming, before he hollowfied. Whether the pronoun is there or not (because again, the pronoun for her doesn't *need* to be there to make it clear who he's talking about when she's clearly the only person screaming, placed directly next to a panel of him rising him up...) he could hear her voice. He could hear her calling him. He ruminated over ORIHIME'S screams and was bound to ONLY that purpose. Only her. "

He could hear her voice, he just didn't know it was her. Just that it was somebody, it's not that hard to grasp. There's nothing wrong with ichigo not knowing it's orihime but since shipping has rotten yalls brains, it has to be about the Princess hime, and not about ichigos own charecter, because everything has to be about orihime, right? (💀).

Your opinion on this probably won't change, that's granted as a deluded shipper. What also won't change, is the fact that this isn't an ichihime moment. U attempted to educate me on the japanese language and failed, I recommend doing more research time. I also reccomend not bothering to reply to things like these if ur arguement is just gonna end with "well ichihime is canon, deal with it" because it makes u look silly to say the least, and has nothing to do with the convo.

how i sleep knowing ichigo literally rose up from the dead for his future wife 🥰

[penguinkyun]

chapter 154 review (and 153 and 152)

due to the nature of these chapters this review will contain references to canonical csa, abuse and suicidal ideation along with references to canon one sided incest. if this affects any of you please click off and I'll see you next time! your mental health matters

before i say absolutely anything else: hoshino ai get behind me

while i did want to make a review for each chapter individually but since i couldn't, I decided to combine 152, 153 and 154 in this one because they're all a continuation of the same scene anyway. this will be primarily 154 though since the other two supplement it.

anyways. aughaughauhasufghauighasugh- *continued noises of agony* i want to eat this chapter. holy shit.

i had so many questions answered with this chapter (and like. got several more LMAO) and this was so so good to read

i have to comment on hikaru's characterisation because he's so utterly resigned to being unloved like all the light left his life the moment ai did. its sort of a mirror to how ai considers herself entirely unlovable too and it just hammers in the fact that they really some part of the understanding and acceptance both of them were seeking but unfortunately the factors weren't in the cards for them.

what does this chapter breakup do to the already established timeline of the uehara-himekawa suicide taking place in the year of dome preparations and 153-154 seemingly confirming that said murder-suicide takes place wayy before the twins are even born? i am not looking at it. i do not see it. i am absolutely not thinking of what this changes about aqua's no hoshigan arc. nope. not seeing it. timeline doesnt exist to me.

sorry to hikaru, but ai immediately going “teehee! no ^V^ <3” at his marriage proposal was incredibly funny. girl there are so many things wrong with you (affectionate)

anyways when i was reading this i was actually struck by how i could just. tell ai was lying during this whole breakup. its really remniscent of her fight with nino, because ai's defense mechanism is to fawn and find the right thing to say to fix the situation to try and descalate it and she does not like confrontation. and here its like...shes trying to break it off as clean as possible, throwing out every reason because she doesn't want to but she knows she has to both because she is utterly right that the type of relationship they have is not healthy for hikaru and that adding marriage + kids to that would be incredibly difficult and would just be Bad for the both of them.

it was just so bad in the delivery ai please oh my god. its actually a little bit funny if you ignore the. the breakdowns.

and its. just really really sad that both hikaru and ai blame themselves and hate themselves for things entirely out of their control, which hikaru thinking airis abuse of him was something he did and ai filled with so much regret even when she knew she was trying to make the best decision for the both of them.

anyways. also ignoring how the movie arc kinda fails in delivering the set up that wouldve made this chapter hit much harder than it already does. moving on!

i just really really enjoy how this hammers in the fact that ai really was just. an ordinary girl. she was a lonely girl trying her hardest to be able to love and give the best possible lives to the people she cares about and even her dvd is still just trying to do that. to give herself accountability in the future so that she can't back out of it by giving the DVDs to gotanda that maybe, she along with her kids can try for a family again. it is just so ai in a way that is utterly heartbreaking to read.

also uh. kamiki's assertion he did infact give ai's address to ryousuke would be a kinda a confirmation he wasn't entirely responsible if not for the huge sixteen year old corpse of amamiya goro in the room. wonder why the two of them were there at the hospital that night. wonder how hikaru got said hospital address when ai broke it off because she considered herself the burden rather than hikaru and thus wouldnt have given the hospital address to hikaru. wonder about all of that. also wonder about miss fuyuko niinos role in all of this. so many questions really.

(also justice for katayose yura. is she STILL in those mountains.)

as for this being aqua’s revenge plan, its exactly what i expected actually! we've been told over and over that aqua would not be able to kill kamiki, not without extreme damage to himself both mentally and probably physical if he went through with his suicidal plan. this revenge is as gentle as it is cruel. it thoroughly breaks apart hikaru's world — striking directly at his heart past every single denial he has offered himself for 15 years to slam him with the plain truth: ai loved him and he killed her. And he now has to sit with that regret of time lost for the rest of his life. but it's also so gentle as it offers everyone a release from the chokehold ai’s death has had on them. it offers everyone a chance to let go of those regrets and move on with their lives in freedom. even for hikaru, he is finally given the full truth and learned that he was infact loved

but as much as i like this revenge it feels…i don't know how to say it but its sort of a disservice to the struggles aqua has faced till now because this revenge is the conclusion without the necessary setup. ever since c.10, aqua has expressed intense suicidal ideation and has been incredibly depressed and that ideation got horrifically worse during the movie arc.

there has been no resolution to this intense downslide of his mental health with basically just ruby’s “You're my oshi and I depend on you”, Kana asking him not to die (framed comedically) and Akane trying to use kana and aquas crushes to fix him. none of this is a refutation of the core issue of his suicidal ideation: that he feels such immense guilt at having failed ai, to the point he believed he had to commit murder and die, for him to atone completely. none of that refutes his belief that he is worth less than everyone around him. So him reaching this revenge without any of the emotional healing required feels a bit jarring and there's no catharsis. after over 140 chapters of aqua feeling heavily suicidal to see him looking forward to his future is nice, but i'd have liked to see his healing yknow? to have him say point blank he wants to live

SHOUTOUT TO MENGO FOR DELIVERING IN FANTASTIC ART YET AGAIN....! HAPPY HOSHINO FAMILY PANEL MENGO ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME. AUGH. AUAHG I AM IN PAIN. AUGH. That page of Hikaru absolutely breaking down at the news Ai really, truly loved him, with no lie and just the desperation with which he presses his hand, his entire self as if he could just reach across the screen and hold Ai’s hand again. laughs in agony

although theres been a recent trend of ai's importance being downplayed to roid up grsr and this chapter feels sort of...the opposite? like the twins importance to ai was being downplayed in favour of intensifying the hkai relationship (but since this dvd is aimed at asking her kids if they want to be a family with hikaru 15 years in the future i guess...?)

oh hello ruby there you are i thought you had no idea about the revenge plan. her presence is interesting because im tentatively hoping we'll finally get a resolution to the AquaRuby debacle due to the way theyre paralleled to hkai. fingers crossed.

anyways ending on aqua literally sobbing as he delivers the final sentence to hikaru - that his understanding of ai was fundamentally wrong and because of his desire to have her for himself he lost both her and any possible chance he had of a happy ending.

fuck. break next week welcome to our favourite biweekly manga

[veliseraptor]

Soft/hard head canons for Shen Jiu 🙌

finishing off the last few of these in my inbox...this is an interesting one because like with other characters I feel like my headcanons for Shen Jiu in particular are less "hard" and "soft" than "malleable and story dependent" outside of, like, what we know textually. but let's see what I've got.

also sometimes as usual I don't know that I have headcanons one way or the other until I run into someone contradicting them, which I think has happened here but struggling to think of something specific...

hard headcanon: While the personality change from Shen Jiu!Shen Qingqiu to Shen Yuan!Shen Qingqiu is undoubtedly pretty drastic (and I really can't think about that plot point too long, it makes me feel Real Bad), I think a lot of the original goods' behavior is more self-fulfilling than inevitable or unchangeable. I mean, this feels like a definite theme in SVSSS generally (and in MXTX's works as a whole) - that people are not definitively and unchangeably Bad, that change is possible for people, even seemingly awful ones. (I mean, the entire arc of Luo Binghe's character transformation, for one.)

I actually think a lot of Shen Qingqiu's behavior was self-fulfilling prophecy - I mean, this is pretty firmly textually canon as of the Shen Jiu extras, I believe. He decides that people are going to hate him and therefore he acts in a way to justify and confirm that hatred. I love a self-sabotaging, self-isolating bitter asshole! I really do. That then calcifies, but not actually as much as I think Shen Qingqiu believes - he seems convinced that all his fellow Peak Lords will hate him forever so why bother trying, but we see in canon that they actually turn around on him fairly quickly when his behavior changes, which suggests to me a willingness to change their minds that I don't think Shen Qingqiu would believe in.

It is so firmly entrenched in Shen Qingqiu's head that he is loathsome and rotten and there's no changing that, that he can't imagine anyone seeing anything else. Given that, his expressed hostility is a way of warding people off at least from seeing any vulnerability, because it's not like he has anything to lose: in his head, he never had their affection or even respect. I think Shen Qingqiu would always be kind of bad at being a person and not terribly sociable, but I do think if he made an effort he would get more of a response than he would expect or believe would happen.

Also I think that at least one of the reasons he continues to push Yue Qingyuan away so hard despite the fact that he cares very deeply for him is because he wants to see if he'll keep coming back. Even if it's just out of guilt, and that's the last thing he wants, at least he does still come back, and that is, pathetically, better than nothing. Which just makes him angrier and makes things worse. Good times!

soft headcanon: The Ning Yingying question is one that I feel like I have a few different potential reads on - by which I mean to say, the particularities of the accusation that he was somehow inappropriate with her. The firm part of it is that I don't think he actually would make sexual advances on her (or any female students); my read on Shen Jiu is pretty firmly gay but sex-repulsed to the point that he's situationally ace. Where I do have headcanon variations is what, exactly, did happen - whether there was a misread somewhere by Yingying that got blown up as the forming picture of Shen Qingqiu as a lecher became more defined and absolute (i.e. reinterpretation of a past event that maybe felt funny in retrospect even if it seemed innocent at the time, or even something that felt a little awkward or inappropriate at the time but wasn't meant sexually, but that then becomes something bigger), or whether it was entirely false rumor, boosted by Shen Qingqiu treating his female disciples better than his male disciples and being particularly fond of Ning Yingying.

If the latter, then why doesn't she say anything? That seems like a pretty clear answer to me: in PIDW she's very much pushed into a passive role, and Luo Binghe is a strong enough personality with enough force of will that I can see her not feeling able to contradict him, and/or I can see her being convinced that it doesn't matter what she remembers, everything else is true and bad enough that one more thing is just going to ensure that Shen Qingqiu can't hurt anyone else, and/or that it's only fair if upsetting for Luo Binghe to have his revenge.

Basically: while I pretty firmly don't think Shen Qingqiu (original flavor) made any advances on Ning Yingying, I can see a few different ways that situation might have played out leading to it becoming another point against him at the trial.

I also wobble on how far I think the abuse went with Qiu Jianluo - whether it went all the way to rape or just ("just") the threat of it up to the point when Shen Jiu killed him.

[sokkastyles]

I want to address a few tweets I've seen floating around about Iroh, because I only ever see them mentioned by the crowd that believes that Iroh treated Azula so horribly, and I feel that's not quite the whole story. It's easy to see why people use them in their arguments, especially since they come from people who worked on the show, which adds an appeal to authority to the argument. I'm sure many people can guess which tweets I'm talking about right now. The first one, which mentions Iroh, is by Aaron Ehasz, in reply to a response to his now pretty well-discussed Azula redemption thread (which I will link if people aren't sure what I'm referencing.)

I have my own issues with Ehasz's proposal of Zuko acting as "Azula's Iroh," which I've talked about pretty extensively on my blog. While I'm not necessarily opposed to the idea, I think there is a very real danger in placing an abused kid in a position where he's responsible for the well being of someone who took part in his abuse. The way I've seen people use these tweets as "proof" that Azula "deserves" redemption, while insisting that Zuko, Iroh, and every other character that Azula hurt actually owe her, pretty much confirms that. As does the below reply.

And there it is. The implication that Zuko would "surpass" Iroh by helping to fix someone who hurt him deeply and who has never wanted his help, nor apologized for the hurt she caused him. That this would, in fact, make Zuko a better person, along with the condemnation of Iroh for not equally sacrificing his own well-being or the well-being of those he was charged with protecting from Azula in the series.

I don't necessarily disagree with Ehasz' reply (although my opinion is colored with a skepticism of the entire thread because I think we need to take anything a creative says fifteen years later about a project they are no longer involved in with a grain of salt). It is, as he says, a cheeky and funny line, not really meant to be taken seriously or indicative of Iroh's relationship with Azula in general.

But that's just the thing. I don't think the line was ever meant to show that Iroh doesn't see Azula's humanity. Especially because the context under which he says it is after Azula has just tried to kill him. Not to mention Zuko saying that he thinks Iroh is going to shoot down his feelings that he needs to protect himself from Azula in favor of "getting along with" his sister.

I and others have defended the line because it's not wrong for Iroh to say that someone who has tried to kill him needs to go down. It's also not wrong, and even necessary, for him to tell Zuko that it's okay for him to want to protect himself from someone who hurts him, even if that person is family. If we are going to take this line as indicative of what Iroh thinks about Azula, I think this is far more in line with Iroh's canon characterization, because I agree with Ehasz, Iroh isn't a character who would easily dismiss the humanity of someone in pain. But there's also a line between seeing someone's humanity and allowing them to take advantage of you or others. And that's an important thing to distinguish because people who hurt others are often invested in blurring this line.

The other tweet I often see, which also was recently flung at me, to make the point that the fandom or the writers or Iroh or whoever is just wrongfully against Azula, is this one:

I'm not gonna discuss the idea of Azula "needing" a redemption arc, because that's not really what I want to argue about here, and I'm neither opposed to nor in adamant favor of an Azula redemption arc.

I mostly want to talk about the second of Baldwin's tweets, because actually, yes, I agree. It does "seem odd" that Iroh can dismiss Azula like that.

And I'm not entirely sure if I'm missing the context here, but the thing is, it seems odd because it's not what happens in canon.

And again, I'm not sure what Baldwin is referring to, but every argument for Iroh's "dismissiveness" of Azula I've ever seen doesn't actually come across as dismissiveness of Azula at all. I already addressed the "she's crazy and she needs to go down" line, but the other examples I usually see are Iroh getting Azula a gift she doesn't like and Iroh not allowing Azula to hurt Zuko. Those things only come across as Iroh being dismissive if you actively ignore the ways that Azula hurts him and others and what those scenes are meant to tell us about the characters and their actions.

Just like with Ehasz having clout as a former head writer - and one who is often credited with some of the best character writing of atla - giving him some air of authority in these arguments, I think people assume that Baldwin, who voiced Iroh, must have some special connection to the character which makes him an authority. Not that actors making misinformed statements about their characters is particularly unusual.

But Baldwin only voiced Iroh in book three and beyond, and that gives us an explanation for why there might be that "odd" disconnect between Iroh's seeming "dismissivensss" of Azula in book two and the character who is a loving mentor to Zuko, willing to see the humanity in all sorts of people. Baldwin wasn't a part of book two Iroh the same as he is a part of the character in book three. He wasn't part of the creative decisions during Iroh's interactions with Azula in that book and didn't go on that journey with Iroh or share his thought process when he told Zuko that Azula needed to go down. Baldwin is defending the character that he knows Iroh to be, but not necessarily the Iroh he played, and without, perhaps, the full context.

Which is not to say that he's wrong. I just don't agree with him about what constitutes "dismissiveness" when you're dealing with an abusive person who isn't sorry for their actions and I think "everyone deserves a redemption arc" is one of those statements that sounds insightful in theory but don't think as many people would agree with in practice if you asked them if they thought x person deserved to be redeemed. Does Ozai deserve a redemption arc? Did Zhao? I also think we could debate about what "deserving" means in that instance. Does everyone deserve a redemption arc or does everyone deserve the chance for redemption, whether that chance is taken or not? And should that chance look the same for everyone?

I think people forget that Iroh is also a character who believes people make their own choices, that we choose our own destiny, and that we must. And he's pretty dismissive of Zuko when Zuko thinks his "destiny" makes him superior to others. He has obvious disdain for Ozai and Zhao, and it's clear where that disdain comes from when you listen when he says, for example, that he's never known Ozai to regret anything.

Iroh does believe in redemption, he tells Jet as much on the ferry ride to Ba Sing Se. But he also has clear disdain for those who refuse to change their ways, not despite his own redemption but because he knows personally that redemption is a choice.

All this is to say that I don't think Iroh would treat Azula dismissively if she truly were receptive to change. I don't even think he would or does refuse to see her humanity even when it's clear she has no intention of wanting redemption or that he's lost hope for her, as in the comics he does say that Zuko taking him to find their mother in the Search might be good for her. But seeing someone's humanity doesn't mean you have to make excuses for them, especially when that person has a repeated pattern of hurting you and others. And I think this is just as important to Iroh as a character because Iroh is as much a protector as he is a redeemer. As much as he believed in Zuko's redemption, he also encouraged Zuko to dispose of toxic outlooks and people in his life, because he had to do the same things. And as tragic and hard as that sometimes is to do, it doesn't make him less of a kind person.

[aihoshiino]

chapter 129 thoughts

Takamine confirmed! She's the B-Komachi member with the dog pin, which confirms that Watanabe is the girl with the frog pin. I honestly think I felt a bigger sense of closure over that than anything else in this chapter......................

Takamine's open hostility as portrayed in the movie is also interesting, though it does make me raise an eyebrow. It contrasts Kyun's description of B-Komachi from Viewpoint B where she explicitly says there was no bullying - even in 45510, the narrator only ever mentions one of the girls starting shit with Ai and never any internal nastiness. If the 45510 narrator is Takamine, this makes sense given that she's quick to insist she's just giving Nino some tough love and that hostility framed as reverence matches the 45510 narrator's entanglement of desire and spite directed towards Ai.

Still, it does feel like a nod that we should be taking the framing of the movie with a grain of salt - this is a fictionalized, dramatized version of events filtered through at least two very pissed off people, after all. Aqua, if nothing else, has good reason to make the people who were cruel to his mother look particularly bad and the screenplay has been described as a particularly malicious one.

Akane interacting with characters who aren't Aqua!!! Blessed be!!! Honestly, the Akane & Kana interactions this chapter got a good chuckle out of me, moreso than I was expecting. Akane's "i'm not having fun bullying her :)" [internally: i'm having the time of my life] made me do a solid out loud Sensible Chuckle. That said, I really do hope the movie arc takes this chance to progress their dynamic past this sniping, because as funny as it is... man, they've been doing this shit since before Tokyo Blade and I've said before that it feels so weird to me that the end of that arc ends on what should feel like a big change in the status quo of their relationship but it's largely just been the same hostility over and over and over again.

On that note, it feels odd we didn't get a reaction of any kind from him to Ruby's portrayal of Ai given how uncanny the similarity is, down to Mengo basically just drawing her as Ai with one hoshigan this entire chapter lol.

Speaking of Ai... I think the best way to nail down how this chapter made me feel was uneasy.

I'm hoping this is me focusing too much on something that's ultimately not important, but the idea that Ai's 'hidden feelings' were those of anger really doesn't sit right with me - especially with the implication that this anger was fundamental enough to Ai's person that Ruby needed to tap into it to properly portray her.

I'm not at all against OnK diving into the idea that Ai had darker, messier feelings than the ones we've been privy to. In fact, I think it would be a good way of resolving a trap it threatens to fall into sometimes, where Ai is a bit of a 'perfect' victim as far as storytelling is concerned and letting her having some blemishes would be interesting.

My issue here is more that this characterization of Ai hiding anger specifically is what feels weird to me - it doesn't feel like it coheres with the Ai we get such a clear view of in volume 1 and Viewpoint B. The impression I get much, much more strongly there is of deep sadness and loneliness, desperation and fear. If there is anger, it's pointed inwards at herself in frustration and self-blame, so the idea that Ruby needs to Be Angry to properly get across Ai's feelings on camera makes me more than a little worried for where the movie arc is going to go in terms of characterizing Ai lol.

Basically, I don't necessarily mind the story deciding to recontexualize Ai and add this new layer of hidden bitterness so long as it's actually consistent and additive characterization and not just replacing and retconning what we've been given before.

Again, though, this is in-universe fiction that has been dramatized and warped to suit a very pissed off person's malicious purposes, so I think there's some wiggle room in terms of how accurate it can be assumed to be in its portrayal of Ai herself.

I also have mixed feelings about the way Gotanda's directing is being portrayed, but that's something I'll be able to dig into and talk about more the more we see of it.

[itsclydebitches]

it genuinely surprises me that CRWBY wants to push this idea that the bees have been planned for ten years (idk if you're on twitter but yang's VA responded to someone who said 'wow this was planned for the past two years?' and she said '2? try 10' and an animator said something similar in another thread), because at least if they owned up about how they hadn't actually decided to do anything with the bees officially until fairly late in the game, they wouldn't basically be saying 'yeah we had this planned, we just never bothered to write anything confirming or alleging it for years because reasons'

it's just infuriating bc like you said, the straight relationships are not treated this way. pyrrha's crush on jaune, jaune's crush on weiss, and weiss' crush on neptune in the early volumes are all entirely unambiguous, despite none of them looking at the camera and spelling it out in dialogue. nora and ren's relationship is likewise unambiguous, or at the very least nora's interest in ren (leaving ren's feelings to take longer in the story to really be given form).

and EVEN IF we accept that they didn't want blake and yang to be aware of their own feelings for whatever reason (even if that's shoddily hamfisted in the narrative--they don't have any of the conversations they should have had post volume 6 to work through their feelings, leaving the confession in this limbo where it's simultaneously forced by the narrative and yet also like 'uh, duh? why are they so worried about confessing? what obstacles remain in their path that weren't clearly deemed unimportant by the fact that the story never cared to linger there?') there's zero excuse for the story not choosing to unambiguously confirm their sexualities.

blake could have had a conversation with ilia where she made it clear that she didn't return her feelings because her own lay elsewhere, not because she doesn't like girls (which would go a ways to alleviate some of the uncomfortable framing of ilia being the psychotic lesbian in love with her straight best friend and trying to kill her about it). yang could have had a brief crush on a girl in their beacon days, or talked about past relationships, etc. there's no reason for blake to be the first and only person yang ever shows true interest in, especially since blake has an unambiguous romantic history (with adam and also with sun).

especially since this is a world where, ostensibly, homophobia doesn't exist. (at least according to word of god) it's also not like this was a network television cartoon where they had to worry about BS&P or sneaking things past the censors! there were no censors to worry about! so if this was being planned for an entire decade, why doesn't it show?

I'm not on twitter, but I did see those tweets when they made their way over here. For the record, I personally don't believe it. I hate saying that because I'm not someone who enjoys accusing someone else of lying, but as you've established above, there is nothing in the story to imply that this was a decade long endeavor. I mean that quite literally. Yang eyeing the shirtless guys, Blake's entire romance-coded arc with Sun, the rejection of Ilia, Adam framed as a potential ex, Yang never once showing an interest in other girls, the lack of explanation for why they won't confess (AKA an established, long-term arc about one or both of them discovering their sexuality, coming out, overcoming homophobia, working through another relationship first, etc.)... The Blake/Yang subtext began late post-reunion - which isn't a bad thing! But why in the world would you pretend that it was in the works 5-6 years earlier?

I mean, we know one potential reason why. Right now, there's a lot of uncharitable conversation surrounding how the romance is being used to prop up a struggling show. So if you're hoping to draw in more viewers through your work's queer rep, it helps to present that rep as a celebratory achievement after a decade of work. It makes RT appear to have always been progressive and worthy of your time/money. There never was a fear of queerbaiting because this was planned from the get-go. There are no problems with the romance's writing because we knew this was the end goal from day one. No, no, pay no attention to how our queer employees are treated. Why would you doubt our allyship when we strove for a decade to bring you a queer main couple? Noooo, also please ignore that nothing was stopping us from giving you that in Volume One. Good romance has to be earned, remember.

My tone in the last paragraph heavily implies that I've made up my mind regarding why we'd get this narrative of the bee's development, but the reality is that I just don't know. Obviously. I'm not in the writer's room, I'm not in their heads, I will never be able to provide irrefutable proof either for or against that interpretation. But given how RWBY was written and given what RT has to gain from acting like this was always the end game (which is a lot), I think the most charitable reading (if not necessarily the most likely one) is that RT is subconsciously stretching the definition of "planned." Do I believe that they sat down at the start of Volume One, decided that Blake and Yang would be a couple, and then somehow spectacularly failed to write that story for the better part of a decade? No. Do I think it's possible that, given the nature of fandom, RT immediately picked up on the fact that people instantly shipped Blake and Yang (because they were partners, complimentary, if you've been in fandom for longer than five minutes you know that splitting the RW and the BY is easy picking), maybe joked about them and WhiteRose being a thing, spent a couple of years writing safe het romances while testing the waters, realized after 6-ish years that providing serious queer rep would prove more helpful than harmful to the show, stayed in the ambiguous 'Are they friends or something more?' stage to further cover their bases, and then at a time when the company was at its most vulnerable, give the fans exactly what they wanted, capitalizing on the gratitude by thinking back to those initial days of joke-y what-ifs and going, "Yeah! This has been in the works since the very start! That'll help get us renewed, right? ;)"?

...Yeah.

Honestly, a part of me doesn't care. Queer rep is queer rep, regardless of how it came about, and a few years from now the drama of it all will have begun to fad. From here on out, newcomers to RWBY will never have to deal with that potential queerbaiting. They'll start and end the show knowing that the rep exists and, likely, won't give a damn how it came about. But for those who do want to unpack that motivation, I'm personally of the belief that RT is stretching (at best) the definition of "planning" in an effort to make the company look as good as possible during this time. People are welcome to call me pessimistic and overly critical if they'd like, but I think it's important to keep in mind that RT is a company. They're not a bunch of home-bound fans writing simply for the joy of it. They're also not an individual, safely established author who can push the boundaries of their craft without fear of (much) repercussion. They're a company. Their job is to make money and though that doesn't preclude them from creating amazing art and taking great pride in their work, at the end of the day 99% of the writing decisions are based around what will bring in more viewers. I'd caution anyone to think critically about a saluting emoji and a very simplistic summary of - what we know having lived through it - was a very complicated situation.

[ggren-mainz]

Umineko - question arcs playthrough -> ep 1 - 9

last part - All parts and episodes - next part

A while ago i saw something super weird. So basically it was just a fanart of Sayo, literally normal think the only weird part was that she had longer hair? Anyway and it was tagged as umineko spoiler and i keep thinking, what was it??? Like obviously i don't wanna know but still. I reblogged it so maybe one day I'll get it, but it is true that i also didn't look close so maybe there was something i missed.

1- hell yeah you're so right kanon, at least some believers still exist. 2- as i said, i think she wanted to take Natsuhi first but because of the charm, Sayo was chosen. Sad.

I am so smart.

Battler then proceeds to say that he listened to the entire convo and asks (quite brutally) for answers, to which the servants say she exists, she doesn't have a physical form, and that he should stop profane her name.

Ah i get it....so they're the ones doing the hate sex.

Maria proceeds to belittle Battler and tell him to believe, while she and the servants all look in one place, as if they're seeing Beatrice. Battler laughs in their faces and says how he'll only believe when he'll see, thing which i severely doubt, as from my knowledge even after he sees her he still doesn't believe lmao. Battler the nonbeliever.

i mean yeah but like NONBELIVERS!! BEATRICE, GET THEIR ASS!!!

Battler the insensitive strikes again.

no way, cause as we have noticed this is the beginning of his epitaph. so like don't threaten me with a good time type of thing.

She'll say that Natsuhi lied about meeting up with Kinzo, or that she kidnapped him, won't she?

Ok i did not expect the receipt. But ok this is...interesting. How did he get out? is he out? Where is he? Is this the work of witches? That's the only thing that makes sense.

Those are some bold words thrown towards the person with the rifle. And i'd argue we can say she's innocent simply because Eva isn't dead lmao.

Nah she fr for this one, I'd also start shooting. Like there's a limit alright. Some bitches deserve to be put back in their place sometimes (despite my comments i actually think Eva is quite interesting, and definitely entertaining which id argue is the most important thing a fictional character should be).

While i do know she's wrong, from her pov she's absolutely right, like shes fr as well. But on an unrelated note, why tf are their boobs highlighted like that??? like why is there a line between them?? jesus i hate these artists sometimes.

Wait but like. Eva you're the one who put the recipe there and also the one who confirmed it being there? when is someone gonna point that out huh??

Bro thinks he's the shit huh. Let him speak ig.

shitty ass argument tbh. Like yeah from our pov it makes some sense, since we know Kinzo would want to cause more ruckus but from theirs, and even his tbh, this is a very shitty argument. ig it just puts into vision this fact we knew all along. That we can't be sure of anything at the moment. We aren't sure that he wasn't in the room, we aren't sure that Beatrice exists, we aren't sure if there is or isn't a 19th person etc etc.

But yeah that was basically their conclusion too, so good job. After that Jessica has an asthma attack and damn if that will not be used as something to kill her later. It's just too convenient.

THEY SAID THE NAME WEEEWOOOWEEEWOOO. And also didn't we establish before that it won't be all resolved? That's not what the epitaph says...

next part

[takaraphoenix]

In TOA, Riordan wrote that the entire camp was trying to find a mate for Reyna and that everyone but Jason knew about her conversation with Venus, making her the target of gossip, pity, and unwanted recommendations. He then had her join the hunters of Artemis and later declared on twitter that he wrote her as an asexual character.

Omitting the fact that no one at Camp Jupiter mentioned Reyna's love life in HOO and that that seems more like a indirect criticism to fans, does any of the character's conclusion make sense?

I mean, there was talk of Reyna's love life in HoO, specifically from Reyna herself who expressed interest in Percy, and before that from Jason about them perhaps being involved in TLH (before, ya know, Riordan retconned that there was never-ever-ever anything between them because Riordan has this warped perception that any other attractions invalidate the current one, so to booster Jason and Piper, Jason could not possibly have an ex-girlfriend).

It was part of what made Reyna so incredibly interesting in HoO, because she had unfulfilled romantic plotlines whereas Riordan tends to herd characters off like that ship was named Arc II and not Argo II.

That being said, I think that the conclusion both makes total sense as well as not making sense at all, so let me elaborate.

Firstly, the not making sense part. Her being asexual reads very much like an allo doing the most surface level reading up on aspec identities.

Because what he wrote for her very much reads more as an aroace identity than an allo ace identity, and thus reads like an allo author who doesn't know how to separate sexual attraction from romantic attraction and just conflates them.

If she were actually asexual, there is no... no reason to join the Riordan-version of a cloister (I have many negative thoughts on his interpretation of the hunt) and avoid all advances, there is no reason to hide away from romantic advances and avoid them all at all cost?

She'd still experience romantic attraction as an asexual person, so why shouldn't she go on dates, meet people, get into a relationship?

It would actually have been a great way to have her come out as asexual to her partner and explain that while she does feel romantic attraction, she may not be interested in sex (and I am saying "may" because many asexual people are interested in sex, despite not feeling sexual attraction).

All of that, coupled with the twitter outing, makes it not really feel... fulfilling. It makes it feel half-assed through and through, both in the research on this identity department, as well as the coming out. Because there is nothing more frustrating than when writers prove to be too incompetent to put their story on actual paper and instead of giving a character a fulfilling arc and a real, canonical coming out, they just post some random tweet like that's worth shit.

Sure, hearing the author confirm a queer identity even in a non-canonical setting can be rewarding in that it recognizes a queer identity, but... it's not representation, it's a cop-out. Representation happens in the canon medium at hand.

Now, if he actually pulls through with this and has Reyna come out in one of the approximately 125 coming PJOverse books that he's going to write? Because it is worth noting that we're not talking about a closed story here and that his tweet could just be a "hey, guys, it's a slow build up and the coming out is gonna happen later but I want to clarify that yes, this is canon". That's the good faith argument here.

And on that note, I want to say why it is a satisfying conclusion, particularly for me as an asexual lesbian.

One of my favorite characters of all time is ace? Holy shit, that's a massive win! A leading character in one of the biggest YA series of all time is canonically ace? Hades yes, that is amazing and could do so much for visibility and also for helping younger aces figure themselves out earlier (provided, of course, that he actually puts the conclusion in a book).

I'm an even bigger fan of late coming out stories. Stories of queer people who pretended to be like everyone else around them to fit in and may have even lied to themselves.

Because there's a modern trend of gold-star-ism. As in, these queers came out of the womb queer, they have always known they were x identity!! Now, those very much exist, but the amount of this kind of representation in media very much warps the perception. Because not everybody always knew and many queer people struggle for varying amounts of time with finding their identity.

It's never 'too late' to confirm a character as any queer label, because real actual queer people may go through allo/CIS/het pretenses before coming out and if you take a character you previously portrayed in such a way and give them a journey into realizing they may be any share of queer, that is still a valid portrayal of real experiences and, even if on a meta-level it may be a "retcon" in that the author may not have always considered this character queer, it still very much checks out in-universe as a realistic journey.

Lastly, I want to get into the part about indirect criticism of fans. The way you put that, I'm not a hundred percent sure what you mean, but I'm assuming you're referring to the many fans who headcanon Reyna, or go a step farther and think she should be canonically a lesbian. I do remember backlash from that side of the fandom in regards to this.

But... again, as an asexual lesbian, I don't entirely see a problem there unless you do not actually know what asexuality means. Because she could very well still be a lesbian. You could still headcanon her as a lesbian. So, this isn't exactly something Riordan did that spites and destroys that headcanon, and the uproar about it was equally... pointless? The only way this could have been an indirect criticism toward fans would have been if he indeed just conflated aro and ace, and if the fans who took offense, also conflate aro and ace.

So, that's my answer to your question. It is most definitely not a perfect way of handling this and I hope he does something more with this in future books that truly puts this identity into a canonical framework, I hope he differentiates aromantic and asexual identities here more clearly, but I'm glad for any representation to come out of even clumsy writing.

[clonehub]

Andor rewatch!

Andor doing such a good job setting up the environment. It's kinda funny tho that this bar place has such kicking music and it's so empty.

I said this before but the facial coding of this scene was apparent from the jump, and white men's insecurity around brown men when it comes to sex and what they believe they have a right to is a theme they maintain all the way til the end of this arc. These cops are both white men who want a white womans attention. The white woman goes for Cassian, which triggers their aggression and need to rectify the situation by exerting their dominance over him--hence why they chase him down and try to rob him.

"company town" is an interesting set up for an environment because it implies (to me) a level of control and surveillance over the entire area that all the participants are aware of even if they can't do anything about it. So these sentry guards having to be watched adds a layer of frustration to the lack of attention they get: they believe they have an audience, watching them fail. They're guards but they don't have control. It's control control control.

Looking at the background while Cassian talks to this woman, it seems the lead cop doesn't accept the advances of another woman that approaches them--she may be Black, but I can't be sure with the lighting. If she IS in fact Black/a woman of color, that only adds another layer to intersection of race and sexuality we see playing out in the....first four minutes of the series. Even the positioning of these cops as a permanent fixture of the background of their conversation cements that.

I wonder if this woman's response would have changed if Cassian had lied and said he was a significant other. I get the sense that (as many sex workers do) she would have lied back and said she didn't know anything about his sister. At least she kicks him out.

"scrawno". Their harassment also includes body shaming! One of the other cops calls him "little thing", which plays into the infantilizion of men of color as well. Cassian being viewed as both a threat and not is par for the course for white supremacy.

"employees are required to show ID upon request" Just like a typical cop to question the exist/presence of someone they don't like at the state level.

"what if he swum over?" I remember feeling like I'd been punched in this chest when I first heard this--this is the first solid confirmation of the racism metaphor/theme in this entirely interaction, and Cassian's looking into the camera is something I understand to be a fourth wall break as well as the point of no return emotionally in this scene. This isn't just Cassian Andor showing the viewer he's tired of being degraded; this is a Latino man looking at the audience as he faces yet more racist harassment for his ethnicity.

Cassian not moving is also a smart move. Cops are notorious for firing at the slightest breeze.

Dead from a freak accident. This is the first of several incidences in Andor where people actually respond to death as a jarring, scary thing--something that I feel doesn't happen often in star wars. I was shocked when I saw how they reacted to this man's death--the panic, the shouting, the "he's faking", the tears.

The lead cop now tries to convince Cassian to lower his guard and go into a police department with him--all the whole reinforcing the fact that Cassian is an outsider. "You didn't understand him", he says. "Come to the department with me, and I'll explain to my colleagues how you, the outsider that insulted us, are innocently at fault for the death of an employee of this corporate town. Trust the word of someone who just tried to rob you."

Cassian's cold killing of this cop is so.....so storytelling. I remember people being upset, but one has to ask why he was meant to believe that man at all.

[saltedsolenoid]

a rant about dt-17's finale and how it somewhat destroys the themes of the cartoon

ducktales (2017) spoilers for the finale under the cut. every day i tag spoilers for something more and more silly.

can i be honest with you guys? i kinda fucking hated the whole twist of ducktales' last episode. Now, now, i haven't watched it in a while (like five months) but my point still fully stands:

Webby being Scrooge's biological daughter was completely fucking unnecessary. Though I will admit that it has a few perks-- accidentally confirming that Scrooge was trans being one of the bigger ones-- the reveal ultimately serves to disservice the importance of found family.

Family of all kinds is the driving force of DuckTales, from Ms. Beakley to Lena to, hell, one could argue the Beagle Boys. For almost the whole show, Webby was meant to be the keystone of this entire theme. She integrated herself as an extra sibling to the triplets, she adopted Scrooge as her own uncle, and none of this was hampered by the fact she wasn't related by blood to any of them. If anything, this added to her character, by the idea that she never fit in with any of them, and her arc was growing to realize that a family full of adventures like she always wanted doesn't have to be a descendant of McDuck, that she could help shape that family on her own. This is especially important as you remember that in the early episodes, Webby had little say about how her life was lived, secluded from others by her overprotective guardians.

Many people also tend to say that Webby's being a genetic clone of Scrooge ''explains'' her extensive research to him. To that I say, no! That was a typical special interest for her, especially considering how she envied Scrooge's adventurous lifestyle at the time! And throughout the series, there are many parallels between Scrooge and Webby, such as their love for adventure or their almost blind-seeming courage, which proves that they were intrinsically tied through blood. While I do see some merit to that idea, this is much better explained by how she was raised in such close proximity to him and his affects left on the world. You spend years studying some guy, you're bound to pick up on his mannerisms and ideals.

A few other notes: I believe that the finale was horribly rushed, but that seems to be an effect of the production, so, whatevs. Going away from Webby, I also don't particularly like how May and June lacked their prior connection as Daisy's nieces. Although that connection was established, it seemed flawed and almost out of place. Also, the reason why Webby was made-- and this could easily be me just forgetting things-- lacked context or explanation. yeah, yeah, whatever, McDuck blood, but. I don't know. I think that the reason the writers added this subplot in was to explain Webby's ancestry, but there are just. So many better ways to do that.

Despite all my deep-burning hatred for the twist, I guess I do see the appeal, but I would find it much more rewarding if Webby actually searched these answers out for herself after seeing Della and the boys reunited, which, please do remember, she worked together with Dewey to do! She's a naturally curious person, she likely wouldn't just accept that she knows nothing about herself if she found even one inaccuracy to the story Beakley told her about her past. In a perfect world, I think that she'd see this as a new mystery to unravel and might persue it with Scrooge if timings were right, which would lead to a MUCH more emotionally satisfying conclusion to an arc about her heritage.

[swordswoman97]

Okay having finished the Zora's Domain main quest I have thoughts. Below cut for spoiler reasons and because I have a lot of thoughts.

So Yona. She's sure... There I guess.

Look I'm not the first person on the website to complain about Yona, but I still have things to say. I would however like to preface this with the fact that while I do enjoy Sidlink, it's more in a "oh that's a nice ship" way than an "OMG I SHIP IT!" way. I'm also 100% not a Sidon simp. I get why y'all are so into him, but there are other characters I prefer. However, I definitely understand the frustration with Yona, and I have my own issues with her inclusion.

Now I'm not entirely convinced Yona was included just to spite sidlink ships and even less convinced it was just to spite the people who found him hot. Especially considering, I doubt they didn't see the thirst art for Ganondorf and that didn't stop them from letting the designer go whole hog on making him physically attractive. But I'll admit I can't 100% rule out the possibility that sidlink shippers contributed to that decision.

Instead, Yona almost comes off as just being a narrative shortcut by the devs to try and add some explanation to Sidon not immediately jumping into trying to investigate with the player and possibly to try and make it look like Sidon has changed in the 3-5 years since BOTW which, tbh wasn't even necessary. Zoras live a long ass time, I'd guess somewhere between 300 to 500 years. Sidon and the other Zora not actually changing that much as like people would make sense. In Zora terms it hasn't even been that long. As for the arc thing, you could have gotten the same affect by making Sidon afraid of failing his people or heck, if you wanna keep Sidon's fear of losing more people he's close to, have him know about Dorephan's state and have Sidon afraid that if he doesn't keep the water flowing into that chamber clean, he'll lose his father. Same damn affect.

Then you have Yona herself. For one thing she is so flat. Her only personality seems to be that she's nice and she's in love with Sidon. That isn't a character. Then there's her backstory. While more domains of zora makes sense, it's more the fact that any of these domains are still in contact with Hyrule's Zora's Domain that falls flat. We know Yona and Sidon met before the calamity, but you expect me to believe that any of the other domains kept in contact while Hyrule was crawling with guardians, let alone apparently visited enough for Sidon to not completely or at least mostly forget Yona? Where does she even come from? Across the sea? In the sea? Past the desert? Across that giant bottomless pit surrounding Hyrule on two sides? How did she even get here considering everything else going on?

Plus, one of the new monuments (why were those replaced anyway?) confirms that their marriage was arranged, and makes reference to Sidon viewing Yona as a sister... Nintendo what the fuck?! I don't care if Sidon's feelings toward Yona have become "complicated" or whatever he calls it, Sidon marrying someone he viewed as a sister is fucking creepy.

And then their relationship doesn't even seem meaningful. Now part of it is probably the fact that by the time we see Yona and Sidon interact I was already pretty iffy about the whole thing, but the limited screentime we get with them does not work to sell me on the fact that this relationship is actually romantic. They call each other an almost sickening amount of pet names but that just feels weird due to it. Like, there are times Sidon came off less as actually in love with Yona and more as trying to force himself to be. Like this relationship is way too forced to feel like anything but a slap in the face.

Plus tbh while I haven't finished the game, they might redeem themselves later, Yona is just a part of the growing feeling I'm getting that the devs just didn't consider how things fit into the already established lore. Like, why is Ganondorf knocking around when Hyrule is being founded when Hyrule was very much already a thing when Ganondorf first showed up in OOC. How does Sidon have a childhood friend from another domain with the calamity causing problems for the last 100 years? Why do the sages all have the exact same weapons as the champions? And the same models? Like... were these speeches originally supposed to be given by the champions and they switched it at the last second and couldn't be bothered to make new models? I love this game, I am having so much fun, but this story is just... I have so many questions. I really hope things start making more sense as I get farther in.