#it’s just. a very important part of his character

[ruckis--rookie]

Apologies is if this is coming out of nowhere or comes off too strongly but I came across this post in a YT short and this is a subject I'm very passionate on. I wanna tack onto this a little bit, especially in regards to the Mario movie.

I know Charles didn't want to voice in the movie because such a strenuous amount of lines would put a strain on his voice, which is completely understandable. At the same time I know for a fact there are dozens of impersonators that would have lined up in a heartbeat for the part.

I know that there were arguments made about why the originals wouldn't work in a movie setting. I have my arguments debunking quite a few of those. Namely:

It would be too grating to listen to over a long period of time 1. That's bull, if you're a real mario fan you'd shell out cash to watch it anyway regardless of the VA (case in point its box office sales despite the VA cast very clearly being name over talent). 2. I've heard beautiful comic dubs and songs by impersonators who do spot on impressions and I have yet to get tired of them.

The OG vocals wouldn't work well for scenes serious in nature. THATS. BULLSHIT!!! AND I HAVE THE PLAYLIST TO PROVE IT!

People underestimate what a true VA is capable of. I've heard sovern lines delivered beautifully. voices coming from Mario Mario and Luigi Mario of all characters. VAs are just as important to making a character come to life as anyone else, and not a lot of people understand just how much work goes into it. They truly are the unsung heroes of the world of animated fiction.

This movie took me aback because of how afraid I was they would mishandle it. Much to my pleasant surprise they balanced action with comedy very well. But as good as the movie was I would be lying if I said that the voices weren't a bit little jarring as someone who's wholly pretentious about voice acting and specifically voice acting.

Old news but I’m still salty about it, it really shows how shabbily voice actors are treated that they got fucking Chris Pratt to voice Mario in the Illumination Mario movie instead of Charles Martinet; who I would argue is basically to Mario as Mel Blanc is to Bugs Bunny.

And it’s not like he doesn’t have range, because you wanna know another one of his major voice acting roles? Paarthurnax from Skyrim.

Yes, the guy who said the line “What is better - to be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?” is also the voice of the funny wahoo man.

We really don’t appreciate voice actors enough…

[causticsodaa]

Sakura and Suo stopping each other

That’s it. That’s the title of the post.

This probably isn’t intentional and is just me reading too into both of these scenes, but I speculate these particular moments in Chapter(s) 50 and 75 have many similarities + differences at the same time and could parallel each other, or at least show how Suo and Sakura’s relationship has subtly developed over time.

For starters, both of these scenes open with Sakura/Suo looking out for each other amidst their battle, with the other person too pre-occupied to notice their concern.

These scenes also involve someone losing control during their fight (with KEEL being Suo, and Roppo having Kanji almost punching Sakura)

Suo and Kanji are stopped; however, it is Sakura who restrains Suo, while Kanji gains back his self control before he can manage to hit Sakura.

Then we get a few pages of exposition which involves Sakura/Kanji refocusing their priorities (I’m being brief about this because this part isn’t that important right now lol)

It’s also important to note that Sakura’s allies were being overwhelmed before these two moments, causing him to be more alert/distressed:

And we have the obligatory dead wife flashbacks, of course.

The main thing that sets these scenes apart, however, is when Sakura and Suo interfere with each other, and the context behind it.

In KEEL, Sakura stops Suo from losing control, insisting that there are more important things to do rather than focusing on one person (even though Nirei had been hurt)

Though Suo questions Sakura at first, we can see how quickly his thoughts shift when Sakura admits that he’s really mad at himself [for failing as a leader].

We see Suo calming down the more Sakura talks (even though he tries to escape from his grasp in the middle of it). Suo soon rationalizes and agrees with Sakura, even teasing him in classic Suo fashion to deflect from his strong outburst earlier.

Then we get one out of the two meaningful introspections that we’ve received from Suo so far right after:

Keep in mind, most of Suo’s internal dialogue have consisted of one-off quips about the situation around him, with them being enclosed in thought bubbles.

We barely see any sort of meaningful internal dialogue from him otherwise (compared to the other prominent characters such as Nirei, Ume, Tsubaki, Endo, and Sakura who is the MC) This writing choice is probably deliberate in order to keep the mysterious/unknown aspect of his character consistent.

The only other time we see this from Suo is in Noroshi, and his introspection is, once again, about Sakura.

This moment in KEEL is not only important for Nirei and Sakura’s developments, but it is also highly important for Suo; especially because we see two hidden aspects of his character drawn out by Sakura and Nirei. In essence, Chapter 50 main focus is on Suo, a character who is so closed off and ambiguous, and brings him to the limelight (given that the chapters title is literally named ‘Extreme Emotions’, which refers to Suo’s outburst).

In Roppo Ichiza however, things are different. This scene mainly focuses on Sakura, since we constantly see his internal dialogue echo throughout the chapter.

When Kanji gives out his orders, we can see Sakura doubt himself, both internally and externally. Suo, being the observant person he is, probably picked up on this.

So when Kanji yells his cue, Suo immediately rushes to grab Sakura’s hand and drags him to Shizuka, instead of letting him follow Suo himself.

Unlike KEEL, this interaction is very blunt and straightforward. It is a simple one-pager, rather than the multiple paged dedicated to their previous confrontation in the shipyard. Though Sakura protests, Suo merely reassures him of their main objective, and Sakura just lets Suo take him away.

We even see Sakura verbally resisting, while Suo had physically resisted before.

But after Suo says his words, Sakura immediately doubts himself again, wishing that he could do more in this situation.

I believe that this contrasts Suo’s introspection back in Chapter 50. Though Suo looks up to Sakura and even feels that he can never compete with him, Sakura himself doesn’t even think he’s enough [as a person]. It really shows how the other people in Sakura’s life really respect him, while Sakura can’t even respect himself.

In the end, Suo and Sakura look out for each other in times of need, and guide each other when necessary despite resistance; a push and pull relationship.

Also, it’s really cute how Suo and Sakura didn’t even let go of each other in the next chapter. Like Shizuka is right there, what are you guys even doing lol

[jweekgoji]

The Beast Wars Bee!Maximal!Reader is so cute! I wonder how the Predacons would react to 🐝 being on the opposite side and how they would be in their yandere mindset

Yandere!Predacons/Bee!Maximal!Reader [BW]

tw: yandere themes, mentions of stalking, kidnapping, posessive, sadistic behavior, toxic relationships. additional: gender-neutral reader, maximal!reader, bee!reader word count: ~1,7k characters included: Megatron, Terrorsaur, Waspinator, Blackarachnia, Tarantulas, Dinobot a/n: looove beast wars requests. this genuienly pulls me out from the state where I don't have any inspiration at all. tyy

Megatron

It's no secret that Megatron despises maximals. For the sake of fulfilling his plans, he has almost no shame, as long as it involves what he is so eager to obtain. The golden disk, universal control, a new, still completely untouched stasis pod of the maximals... He just has to get it first!

When he first sees your form, it is new, bright and already tarnished with that filthy, vile symbol of the maximals on the surface of your metal. His teeth practically grit from the realization of defeat. If he had one more minute of time, he'd finally get another underling in his army!

Megatron doesn't know how to love. Proud, narcissistic, with a self-importance complex, there is not a single being in the entire galaxy (except, of course, the Decepticon leader Megatron himself!) that can in any way equal his greatness. In his optics, you start out as just another, reckless fool who took the wrong side of a centuries-old war. Isn't it obvious who the winner will be?

His infatuation with you doesn't begin immediately. You're only a lost opportunity to be a predacon, and now an enemy that stands in his way. But with each time you interfere with his plans, slipping out from under his claws at the very last moment, he can't feel that fire of obsession that backs up his spark.

It seemed that no matter how hard his subordinates tried, his attention was always focused on you. As soon as one of the predacons mentioned you, a slight but awfully satisfied smile appeared involuntarily on his face.

You must be his. It is the emblem of the predacons and nothing else that should be forged on your chassis. Maybe if he ever finally gets his hands on you, he'll personally scratch the logo on your frame so that no polish can ever hide his marks.

Terrorsaur

It's hard to call any of the preacons the least bit likable every time you stumble upon one of them in search of the next mission, but Terrorsaur has always had an exceptional ability to get on your nerves.

Being one of the few maximals able to stay in the air, you're just destined to constantly bump into the red predacon, whose mere voice cuts your audials every time.

Terrorsaur, for his part, finds a special pleasure in stalking you and making it his own goal. No matter who you're fighting, he'll always attack you from behind, drawing you somewhere to the side where you're forced to turn your attention to him alone.

Being in Megatron's shadow, Terrorsaur can't surprise you with extraordinary strength or mind tricks, but unlike his obnoxious leader, his skill at witty eloquence helps him get your attention for a while.

Terrorsaur has no pity for the 🐝, no matter how much he longs for them to be near him. However, he feels no pleasure in constantly, mindlessly hurting each other. Don't you see? You're just perfect for each other! Together, you two can crush all your enemies. Of course, with Terrorsaur as the leader and you as his loyal right hand. He's sure to save a spot next to him for you, no matter how hard you hit him.

The beef would remind me of the fight between Rodan and Mothra, he.

Waspinator

Oh, I don't know which of you should empathize more. Considering how often poor Waspinator finds himself in the most painful and violent situations at the end of the day, and it doesn't matter if he was with maximals or predacons, I really feel sorry for this lackluster wasp.

However, the nature of your beast mods only adds more hostility between the two of you. In a way, you two are personal enemies to each other. For 🐝 darling, Axalon is something akin to your personal hive. It is your home; your friends are extremely important to you.

Every time the predacons invade your territory and threaten any of the maximals, you feel as if it's a personal attack against you.

Seeing your “natural enemy” appearing on the doorstep of your base, it's understandable that the first thought in your mind is to defend your home. When your maximal allies notice you getting into a fight with Waspinator, they are so worried about your state! After defeating the predacons, Rattrap and Cheetor come running to check on you, only to notice suspiciously familiar pieces of green metal left on the ground...

You would think that your relationship to another insect is no secret at all. Despite how many times you've left him barely functioning, picking up his own head in his hands, you notice how desperate Waspinator can be.

Waspinator is the safest yandere option of all the predacons, in my opinion. He genuinely loves you, and even if you decide to take mercy on him, noticing how his own comrades neglect his spark will only increase his adoration more. The constant “my queen!”, or “pretty bee-bot!” is always coming your way, with that characteristic buzz.

Blackarachnia

It's hard not to empathize with her, knowing the sad fate of the spider lady. Having been a maximal before the crash, her possible happy future with those who could have been a true family to her has been stolen. And yet, the spider lady's confidence is to be envied.

Ever since she joined the predacons, the spider has been nothing more than another problem for you. Whereas you might be able to deal with Waspinator or a Terrorsaur given how easily they can be distracted with just a flick of your servo, Blackarachnia is sneaky and cunning.

It seems that no matter what move you make, the spider always seems to know everything several steps ahead. Having spent hours watching you, she has no trouble at all in immediately wrapping you in her web, leaving you to struggle in vain to break free of its shackles.

Her quiet, gloating laughter leaves you with no hope. This is the moment; you will die like this, and you will never be able to see your friends again. As the spider's paws swing at you, you only close your optics in anticipation of the impending strike, only to be met with nothing but silence from your captor.

The next time you decide to look at her again, giving her a questioning look, Blackarachnia rolls up her optics. You can be such a silly darling sometimes, she thinks, did you seriously believe she would kill you? She might be bad, but not like her fellow predacons..maybe.

Blackarachnia has a hard time accepting her feelings; being a predacon she thinks her interest in you is wrong, and you'd probably be better off without her. Her tainted, 'bad' predacon spark is no kin to your perfect, heroic one.

Another one of the predacons you'd find easy to get along with. No matter how often you try to get her on your side, she won't give up who she is now. Especially since she enjoys playing with you, occasionally leaving her traps in the form of spider webs stashed in flowers.

Tarantulas

Tarantulas can probably compete with each of the predacons on the level of sadism and cruelty, and for you, each meeting with him feels like very personal torture.

This spider may not be the most skilled fighter, but every time he tries to capture you, he becomes more and more dangerous. At first, he nearly kills you by threatening to drink all your fluids to the last drop; another day he kidnaps your friends in an attempt to lure you out of your base. Do you get one day of peace? Probably not.

Tarantulas is a violent and brutal yandere. It doesn't matter to him whether you're a maximal or not, as long as you play any significance in his plans. He genuinely enjoys your pain, and perhaps the only thing that has really piqued his interest in you is how sweet you taste.

None of the predacons are surprised at his habit of devouring poor organics just for fun, but the sincere look of disgust on their faces doesn't hide how insane their scientist is.

Tarantulas is, somewhat, intoxicated by you. Your flavor acts on him like a drug, making him crave only more. In a way, it saves you. What good will he get out of you if you die? He will happily keep you on the brink of life and allspark, without the ability to make the slightest move. You should be more grateful that he's feeding you at all.

Dinobot

Megatron's loyal subject has always been different from the other predacons. Without remorse, he possesses a sharp tongue, constantly challenging the leader, which often left him not at his best.

He's not the most open about his feelings either, and in fact, there's nothing here to give you any sign at all that he cares about you. His spark always lies towards the predacons, but after cycles of unsuccessful pursuit of empty ideals, a sliver of doubt slowly lingers in his processor.

His interest in you is born from a small thing. It could be your loyalty to your allies. A desperate desire to protect them, if only at the cost of your own life. It could be that in one of your battles, you decide to show him mercy after seeing a gaping, deep wound in his chest area. For whatever reason, the maximal, despite the conflict between the two sides, helped him.

From now on, he feels he owes you a debt of honor. As an honest, noble warrior, he appreciates this unexpected act of kindness, which is why, now, you always have the two-meter-tall lizard standing behind you like your own guard dog.

Yandare Dinobot is one of those who would rather always follow you than take you by surprise and show himself in front of you. He shouldn't be anywhere near you at all, let alone being nice to the enemy. What a shame. He'll still spend the next night hiding somewhere in thick bushes, not that far from Axalon.

[charliebug3]

I probably should have included it in my original post but it was kind of a spur of the moment thing, but in a reblog I mentioned the reason I made the post to begin with was because I remembered someone who wholeheartedly credited the creation of the Daedric Princes specifically to Kirkbride, which was just genuinely incorrect, and this happens frequently with more than just the Princes. Strangely the character’s creation I see second-most incorrectly attributed to MK behind the Princes is… Tiber Septim??? It’s just baffling to me because as a fan I do as much research as I can into different interpretations of lore events and such (from in-game sources) so to see people ignore the fact that Tiber Septim has existed as an important lore character since, again, before MK even wrote for TES, is more than mildly infuriating. Especially due to the fact that what Kirkbride DID contribute to Tiber/Talos lore made it a confusing mess, at this point the only way I can reckon with The Arcturian Heresy’s canon is that it must just be in-universe propaganda and lies BY Tiber Septim (because he himself shows up calling himself Wulf in Morrowind) to try to discredit anyone else involved in his rise to power. Which would be fine if the community didn’t take everything MK writes as gospel, meaning “Talos is 3 guys in a trench coat” theory is somehow the prevailing theory among the TES community as to Talos’s origin when it… just doesn’t work with what’s established in Daggerfall nor does it even work as a retcon because again, Zurin is directly called The Underking by the word of-god text section at the very beginning of Morrowind.

That bit is personal though because MK did directly write Varieties of Faith, meaning he himself wrote the words “Associated with Zurin Arctus, The Underking” in Magnus’s description. And yet MK stans still hold up TAH as 100% truth and I just. Hhhh. There is a perfectly good sun/moon parallel with Zurin/Tiber and Magnus/Lorkhan set up directly in Kirkbride’s writing but instead we get to play 2 truths and a lie (to be fair that’s expected from a series that has always had an unreliable narrator but the fact that the only development Talos got in Morrowind was contradictory means we’re effectively at square 1 with no information at all). The only saving grace is that The Prophet from Knights of the Nine’s in Oblivion and 36 Lessons of Vivec both point towards Tiber and Zurin fusing and becoming Talos so at least it’s something to go off of but it just personally pains me as a Daggerfall fan to watch Zurin Arctus’s character get watered down to “uhhh Tiber Septim’s lackey” in Morrowind instead of expanded upon. Like the man objectively committed suicide, stating he didn’t want to meddle further with mortal affairs, and then got subsumed by Talos (easily the most meddlesome Divine) afterwards, and it’s just. Not addressed??? Cmon guys please I beg of you I need more people to catch onto that part of the lore instead of “muh Arcturian Heresy Wulfharth is the Underking Talos is 3 people”

Sorry I am just dropping an entire new rant onto your reblog I did not get enough sleep last night to be concise LMAO this rapidly descended into blorboposting

If I see one more person credit Elder Scrolls's worldbuilding to Kirkbride I'm going to crash out. Everyone who says that should be forced to play Arena and Daggerfall for a mandatory 10+ hours and see that most of the series's major worldbuilding happened before MK was even a writer or concept artist. And even then MK didn't actually do much of the writing for Morrowind, either, he wrote a few lorebooks that make no sense and actively conflict with other parts of the game (ex. The Arcturian Heresy saying Zurin is not the Underking when the GAME'S OPENING CUTSCENE accredits a quote to "Zurin Arctus, THE UNDERKING"). And yes this could theoretically be in-game lying but then so is 36 Lessons of Vivec which is the other major thing Kirkbride wrote, which would mean that basically all of MK's major canonical contributions to TES lore would be lies lmfao

Put some damn respect on TED PETERSON'S name, he's the real fundamental TES worldbuilding writer all the way from the beginning with Arena, through Oblivion. History of the Empire, On Oblivion, 2920, Feyfolken, The Warp in the West, and so many more fundamental lorebooks in the series written by HIM. There are, fairly obviously, many MANY other writers for this series. It's been going on for decades. But since everyone seems determined to attribute all of TES lore to one guy, at least pick the correct one

[ariays]

The Significance of Kitty & Minho Bookending Both Season 1 and Season 2 in XO Kitty

Yes, I'm here again with another analysis because why not?

So previously, I mentioned the term bookending. & I just thought that it would be nice to elaborate on that.

So firstly, what is bookending?

It is a storytelling technique where a narrative begins and ends with the same event, character interaction, setting, or theme. It is a method that is often used to create symmetry, reinforce themes, highlight character growth, or foreshadow key relationships.

Storytelling is rarely accidental—especially in romance-driven narratives like XO Kitty. One of the most deliberate yet overlooked narrative choices in both Season 1 and Season 2 is how Kitty and Minho’s relationship is bookended—they are the first and last people she interacts with in both seasons. This framing technique is often used to subtly highlight a relationship’s significance, and in this case, it strongly suggests that Kitty and Minho’s story was always meant to be a slow-burn romance.

When two characters are both the first and last interaction in a season, it’s rarely coincidental. It is to:

Signify that the relationship is central to the protagonist’s journey.

Showcase how much their dynamic has evolved over time.

Foreshadow their long-term importance to each other.

For Kitty and Minho, the fact that this happens in both seasons is a strong indication that their connection is not just a subplot—it’s one of the core emotional arc of the story.

So let us break it down:

Season 1: The Beginning & End with Minho

First Interaction: The first person Kitty physically bumps into at the airport on her way to Korea (signifying the beginning of her journey) is Minho. This is their very first meeting, setting the tone for their playful, sometimes antagonistic, but always high-energy dynamic.

Last Interaction: The season ends with Minho’s confession—a moment that completely shifts their relationship. And instead of rejecting him outright, Kitty smiles. It’s a small but telling reaction—if she truly felt nothing, there would be no hesitation.

& before people come up to say that the smile was only shown in Season 2 when they re-shot the scene...

This is a screenshot from Season 1 where you can see her slight contemplating smile (with About Love by MARINA playing in the background, mind you).

Why It Matters: The fact that Kitty’s first and last interactions in Season 1 are with Minho shows that he was always meant to be a significant part of her story. The show could have ended the season with anyone—Dae, Yuri, or even a solo moment of self-reflection. But instead, they chose to end with Minho’s confession. That’s not an accident—it’s intentional storytelling, subtly planting the seeds for future development.

Season 2: The Pattern Repeats—Minho Comes First & Last Again

First Love Interest She Sees: In Season 2, the first love interest Kitty locks eyes with is Minho. While Dae is technically present (standing right beside Minho), the camera deliberately focuses on Kitty looking at Minho. This is a classic storytelling technique used to subtly emphasize a character’s importance to the protagonist.

Last Interaction: Once again, the season ends with Minho and Kitty. But this time, things are even more emotionally complicated.

Kitty realizes her feelings for Minho, but she’s too scared to confess. She convinces herself that he has moved on, and the fear of rejection holds her back. Meanwhile, Minho is actively repressing his feelings. After his failed relationship with Stella and seeing Kitty’s complicated emotions regarding Yuri, he convinces himself that moving on is the only option. He even goes so far as to swear off relationships entirely.

Why It Matters: The fact that, once again, the season ends with Minho and Kitty means their story is still unfinished. No matter what happens in the middle, the narrative keeps circling back to them.

The Parallel to K-Drama Romance Structure

In K-dramas, the first person the protagonist meets in a new place often represents fate or destiny—and Kitty’s first physical interaction in Korea was with Minho at the airport.

The “first and last” interaction trope is often used to signal who the true endgame is—the person the protagonist starts and ends their journey with is usually their true match.

By structuring both seasons the same way, the show is subtly preparing the audience for their eventual romance.

The Parallels Between Season 1 & Season 2 (Between Minho & Kitty)

While XO Kitty explores multiple love interests, Minho and Kitty have scenes that directly parallel each other from Season 1 to Season 2. These mirroring moments serve as a way to track their emotional development and reinforce their importance to the story.

Season 1: Minho watches Kitty and Dae at the party → Season 2: Kitty watches Minho and Stella dancing at the ball.

In Season 1, Minho was unknowingly affected by seeing Kitty with Dae. In Season 2, Kitty experiences the exact same thing—showing that now she’s the one realizing her feelings.

Season 1: Minho sees Kitty in slow motion, feels attracted to her, then panics when he realizes it's Kitty and screams "NO!" in denial. → Season 2: Kitty sees Minho in slow motion—not once, but twice.

Minho’s slow-motion moment in Season 1 was a comedic way to show his growing attraction, but in Season 2, Kitty has two slow-mo moments of her own—this time, with much more emotional weight, showing her realization.

Season 1: Minho saves Kitty from the fire on her skirt. → Season 2: Kitty saves Minho from his family's reputation being tarnished by Stella's plans.

In Season 1, Minho literally puts out a fire for Kitty, protecting her. In Season 2, Kitty does the same thing metaphorically—protecting Minho from a social firestorm that could have hurt his family. Can I also add that both scenarios happened in similar settings? One is on stage while the other is back stage.

Season 1: Minho confesses, "I think I fell in love with you… a little bit… or a lot." → Season 2: Kitty has an inner monologue, "I have fallen for Minho… a little bit… or a lot."

This is the most important parallel. Minho was the first to confess his feelings in Season 1, but by Season 2, Kitty finally acknowledges her own feelings—mirroring his words exactly. The fact that her confession was internal rather than spoken aloud adds tension for the upcoming Season 3, setting up a major moment where she will have to verbalize it.

The Emotional Progression Between Bookends

Season 1 starts with Minho being dismissive of Kitty → Ends with him realizing his feelings and confessing.

Season 2 starts with Kitty locking eyes with Minho first → Ends with her realizing her own feelings, but being too scared to confess.

Each season follows a clear pattern, showing that their relationship is evolving step by step. The reason it hasn’t happened yet is because both of them have been in denial, not because the connection isn’t there.

Foreshadowing for Season 3

If Season 1 was about Minho realizing his feelings, and Season 2 was about Kitty realizing hers, then Season 3 will likely be about them finally acknowledging their love for each other and acting on it. Their bookended interactions and season-long parallels have been leading toward something bigger, and Season 3 will be the moment they finally break past their fears and come together. I think we can expect a major confession scene from Kitty—one where she has to face her feelings out loud, just like Minho did in Season 1.

In Conclusion

The bookending of their interactions in both seasons, paired with their direct scene parallels, is not a coincidence—it’s a deliberate narrative choice that:

Establishes Minho as a consistent presence in Kitty’s life.

Marks their relationship as a key focus of the series.

Shows their emotional and relational growth.

Foreshadows their eventual romance.

By structuring both seasons the same way—starting and ending with Kitty and Minho—and including multiple mirrored moments between them, the show is subtly telling us that their story isn’t just important, it’s inevitable.

This isn’t a random ship gaining popularity—it was always part of the plan.

[ajedisith]

Damian is a key character for the SpyxFamily story moving forward. He had the fourth most panels after the main three in 2024. Endo focused quite a bit on Damian so far, from his developing friendship with Anya, strained relationship with his father/family, deep connection with Emile/Ewen, and positive interaction with Loid. This leads me to believe that he will have a bigger role in the upcoming story arcs. Afterall, he is the son of the supposed villain of the whole story. And I do believe Anya and Damian are the central dynamic of this story, at least for now and how Endo set it up 100+ chapters in.

Although him and Anya are not yet friends, they are on their way to a friendship. Their relationship grew a lot from him being a very mean bully, to him sabotaging some of his chances at personal happiness in favor of Anya’s comfort. He is the first person in the whole story to hear about Anya’s telepathy from Anya herself. That’s a huge deal. I believe it foreshadows that he’ll learn the truth and they will be the only two to know about her telepathy for a while before anyone else finds out (ie. his friends, Becky, etc).

Moreover, I find it interesting that Damian first interacts with Loid in a setting where he is both vulnerable due to his father’s looming presence and guided upward by Loid’s encouraging comments (regardless of how fake they were because they may be more genuine later on). Damian is left with a positive impression of Loid and it’s likely he will have more interactions with the Forgers that will leave him wishing he could have that for himself.

Endo also emphasizes both Damian’s strained family dynamics and stabilizing friendship with Ewen and Emile.

His dysfunctional and depressing home life is meant to be a contrast to Anya’s peaceful and fun one, illustrating that found family can be just as powerful as a “real” family. Damian and Anya find themselves in these contrasting environments and, as we’ve already begun to see, they will play an important role in the pair’s dynamic moving forward. Damian craves Anya’s family dynamic, a present father figure like Loid, and loving mother like Yor, while Anya understands Damian’s desire for his father’s approval, because she herself doesn’t know for certain if Loid actually loves her. She mostly thinks about two things — operation strix and Sy-On boy because deep down she wants Loid’s approval and love.

Damian’s friends are one of the few stabilizing aspects of his life. They are a constant, reliable part of his life and their presence humanizes him and creates a space for him to grow as a person instead of the machine that it sometimes feels Eden Academy wants him to be.

It’s always fun to speculate about the future story, so if I’m wrong, that’s totally okay! I love hearing about what other fans think of the future Damian and Anya, so please do share your thoughts!

[utilitycaster]

Wait. So CR3 ended with Liliana, Ludanis, technically Predathos (within Imogen or something?), and all the gods all still alive (though technically in mortal form)?

I understand that sometimes it's journey before destination and the story is more important than the finale of the story but....W-what was the point??? If the BBEG Cult Leader who kicked this whole thing off to kill the gods and the gods are both still alive what was the point??

So Liliana was alive, Ludinus was alive (having used Clone or similar), and Predathos ran away because the gods assumed mortal form and there was nothing to eat on Exandria.

Really, while again I have my many critiques, the actual only part of this end state I think is a genuine mistake is Ludinus.

I think that Imogen deciding to join with the Volition and assassinate Liliana would have been a compelling character moment for Imogen; when she didn't do that I felt that Liliana dying when she chose to defy Ludinus would have been a compelling character moment for Imogen. When that also did not happen, my general feeling was "I don't really care about her fate, but it doesn't matter at this point," so her ending is one of the many "yeah, that's fine I guess" ones this campaign delivered. I don't think she's a good person, but I also think that now that she's just a regular-ass sorcerer and her cult leader tried to horribly murder her and then disappeared she has no motivation to continue committing crimes so yeah wandering around figuring out who she is now makes sense. It's still not interesting; most of my criticism in the end is "this wasn't very interesting."

The gods becoming mortal was genuinely interesting and any critique I have is how poorly it was signaled, how irrelevant it made any of the excruciatingly dull circular discussions throughout the campaign (and how hypocritical and stupid it made the characters as a result, not that that wasn't a problem from the start), and how malformed the logic of what this means mechanically for clerics was. But that is an interesting change, to me, especially since the Divine Gate is now down. Idk I think it's possible for the cycle to genuinely begin again; I mean, wizards figured out the rites of ascension before. Will one of the gods-become-mortal undo their own bindings, or will some wizard studying this phenomenon hit on the formula? The party (and fandom) discussion of Who Gets Power was rendered completely pointless but like, the actual concept is great.

Ludinus, however; honestly it makes no sense either way because not only did he do nothing to narratively earn any kind of redemptive ending [if I say "earn" know it's narratively because he is a pretend guy and the people who act like fictional characters are real and should get capital punishment are Calvinist freaks]; I don't see why he'd just hang out making tea unless he somehow thinks the gods are genuinely gone, having missed out on the happenings after his form was killed. Like, look. I do not believe that you have to kill the bad guy to have a satisfying ending, but you do need to follow through with the implications and this doesn't seem to have done so. The only possible ways this fits with his character are either that he's biding his time to do some other bullshit (possible, and if he pops up in a one-shot or miniseries to do villainy and get murdered I'll grant this), if he somehow hasn't found out and thinks the gods are dead (less likely but admittedly pretty funny, and if he lives out the remainder of his life in an isolated cottage, blissfully ignorant, thinking he got his revenge when he never did, that is a boring option but see above, this campaign usually went with the boring option for character development so what else is new), or if we somehow managed to get an ending that is more unwilling to give someone any kind of follow-through in the end than Ted Lasso, which is embarrassing, and I liked Ted Lasso for what it was.

[starvingnarcissistmusic]

I've had this drafted forever and I'm not entirely sure why I didn't post it. Oh well, better late than never!

MAL DU PAYS (the song) fun facts:

(Like the original post, spoilers for Act 5 ((and also 2hats)))

- Originally, after finishing the game, I wanted to write a song about Loop. They're one of my favorite parts of the game and I really loved their character, but I ended up scrapping that idea very early on, as I couldn’t really find a personal tie to anchor the song to me. While I did want to write a song about the game, I didn’t want to write something that didn’t resonate with me and my musical “mythos” in some way. It's a fan song, but it's also a Starving Narcissist song, and I felt it was important to strike that balance. MAL DU PAYS (Monophobia) only got released because I felt that it was something that fit into the larger body of my works even without the context of the game. So in the end, I chose to write about Siffrin, as I found them a lot more personally relatable. The final version, lyrically, is almost like I’m using Siffrin as a vehicle to write about my own feelings. Some lyrics are his, some are mine, a few are both of us, it’s a weird sort of style I’ve never really written in before.

I do have some leftover lyrics from the scrapped Loop version, though!

“There’s a you you’ll never be, across the cosmic sea / Who has everything you wanted, now it’s everything you need; is it over yet?”

- I think originally the song had a lot more of an exhausted vibe, but with most of the stuff I write, the tempo usually gets faster the more I play it. At some point in the writing process the song channeled more of a manic energy than I had originally intended it to. Loud and shouty is kinda just my default lol.

(The first ever demo for the song, recorded September 15, 2024. Features some slightly altered lyrics!)

- The title was also subject to change! I think for a while I was going back and forth on just calling it Homesickness, mostly because I was a little nervous that my song’s name was technically a late game spoiler. Half the reason I wanted to even write the song was because I thought MAL DU PAYS would make a great song title though, so in the end I just sucked it up and went with my gut. The alternate title was also not set in stone, I think originally I was considering just calling it Mania or Paranoia, but I thought those would be a bit generic. Eventually, I settled on Monophobia, because I felt it was apt in describing the song as a whole. I write a lot about loneliness, and Siffrin is afraid of being alone, so it felt fitting to name the song after the fear of it. (And also, a bit more superficially, I thought Monophobia made a better song title.)

- The song is the only Starving Narcissist song on a nylon string guitar, and it's also the second song in a completely non-standard tuning (third if you count ITWYW?, but that's just a half step down from standard). MAL DU PAYS (Monophobia) in DADF#BD, with a capo on 1.

- THIS SONG HAD SO MANY REVISIONS. I don't think I've ever had this many versions to a song ever. It got so bad that I made a specific folder just to hold all the different variations I had for the song. They're not all too different from each other, and they're all built on the same take of the song, but I was playing around with mixing and structuring and vocal layering and its a whole mess. Honestly, the fact that it's a song about a timeloop makes it probably the funniest song this could have happened to.

- And that's about it! To end off this little fun fact post, here's a little something I wrote for Genius (where lyrics for this song and all my others are posted! plus annotations I write! <3) about the song. The response to MAL DU PAYS (Monophobia) has been pretty wild, and I'm glad it managed to resonate with people, even some who don't even know the game it's about.

That's all. While I guarantee this year will probably be slower for Starving Narcissist, rest assured that I am working on stuff, just very slowly. There's a very low chance I'll ever do something as flagrantly self indulgent as this song, but whatever I do end up doing, I hope you're around to see it.

In the meantime, stream the song on spotify! or buy it on bandcamp! or even just go watch the lyric video i made for it (please i spent like a week on this)!

Thanks for everything, see you later <333

Happy one year anniversary to In Stars And Time! tldr; i wrote a song about it. if you wanna skip all the gushing and just listen to it, click here. (spoilers for act 5) If not, behold this big rambly mess of a thing i wrote:

So funny story, I kind of wasn’t planning on releasing anything for the rest of the year. The album wore me out, and the only other idea I had sort of fell through, so I was content on just letting the album be the only thing of note I would make in 2024.

… and then, in September, I played a little RPG called In Stars And Time. beat the whole thing over the course of three days, then spent the next couple weeks ravenously consuming all the fan content I could get my hands on. my friends have been forced to stare at my siffrin pfp every day for two months straight at this point and frankly i think they are tired of me talking about it.

i love the art, i love the story, i love the music, i love the characters, i love the world. siffrin sort of immediately became one of my favorite protagonists like,, ever. and it definitely did not help that i am also a scrawny forgetful person who has to regularly fight off the part of my brain that convinces myself that All My Friends Secretly Hate Me.

I’ve never really been so called out by a character before. The spiraling, the deflection, and the agony of being a stranger to yourself. the yearning for something you cant even name, because how could you? you cant even find the words on your tongue. not being able to tell anyone how you feel because its just easier to live with it, easier to let it eat you from the inside out then to bother anybody else. its easier to keep the mask on, stick to your lines, let the show go on.

all that hit just a bit too close to home. so i did what I usually do When Things Hit and wrote about it.

(like i said, spoilers for Act 5; It’s pretty devoid of context but they’re spoilers nonetheless)

MAL DU PAYS (Monophobia) is a song about cyclical burnout, self-estrangement, and homesickness. It’s half about Siffrin, half about me, but mostly it’s a rumination on loneliness and the hell that is the self.

Out now wherever you listen to music.

“How can you be homesick if nowhere is home?"

[bestworstcase]

Genuine question, but where did you pick up "the Brother cult is a common religion in modern day Remnant" from? At least, I'm pretty sure you've said this before on here; my memory is pretty bad lol.

I'm just curious since I've been rewatching RWBY lately, and i remembered that, and I thought it was interesting bc I never once saw or picked up on anything that would suggest that in canon (unless it's like, a headcanon on your part, in which case feel free to ignore me, I'm not here to needlessly criticize a fun headcanon if that's the case loll, i have my own fantasy religion headcanons bc I'm unhinged abt worldbuilding).

If you don't mind, I want to explain my reasoning/thoughts on why I don't think the Brothers are worshipped on modern Remnant (feel free to pick them apart):

-> Qrow says that "not many people are super religious these days". Mind you, I don't take much stock at all in what characters say, especially not in RWBY (i frequently side-eye characters who speak on the Oz merge who aren't Ozpin himself, Light, or Jinn), but i feel like this would be an odd thing to say if it wasn't true. This is supported by The Shallow Sea fading into just a 'fanciful creation myth', as well as none of the main or even side characters being religious (though it could be bc it's just not important) nor discussing religion. Churches don't seem to be common (aside from the one in v4), and imagery of what seem to be altars are scattered and infrequent. Religion is also never brought up when discussing the kingdoms' governments either. So, so far, Qrows line holds true.

-> When Qrow talks about the Brothers, RNJR never really shows that they recognize the story, or at least that they don't put weight on it, unlike finding out the Maidens are real. They're just like "...okay so why is that important", unlike how I imagine religious people would react to finding out their God(s) are real. Plus, Qrow has to explain it to them; if it was a well known religious story, I'm sure the writers would have written it more like "So, you know [insert religion name]? Yeah, according to Ozpin, that story is real. In case you aren't familiar, let me explain it for you... [insert convenient lore dump for the audience]". Plus, the way Qrow phrases it gives me the impression that it's an obscure story. Weaker point, though, I'll admit.

-> In any of the times that we see what *might* be evidence of religion (i.e. the candles/altar in the White Fang in v4, the church in Ruby's v4 short), there's no religious iconography depicting the Brothers (at least, nothing that I've caught). In general, there doesn't seem to be any dragon imagery in modern Remnant (again, nothing that I've caught yet).

-> It's depicted as a fairytale. When Ozpin asks for Pyrrha's favorite fairytales, the first thing she says is The Tale of the Two Brothers. It's also in his fairytale book, something i feel would've been a controversial (if extremely funny) decision if it was a popular religious story (like if you put Jesus' crucifixion in a book including rapunzel and Cinderella).

-> Also, there's no common sayings including the Brothers (like how fics like to have the characters say "Oh Brothers" and other variations).

-> And, in general, Oz's inner circle really wasn't at all concerned with the Gods or really even the Divine Mandate. All they knew was that the Gods created Remnant, humanity, the Grimm, and the Relics and promptly abandoned Remnant, and that "If someone were to collect all four [Relics], they'd be able to change the world." And that that's "exactly what the enemy wants." So they only know the absolute basics of the Mandate, and the way it's worded implies (to me, anyways) that Oz worded it in such a way that cautioned against collecting the Relics (which is very interesting to me. This also tracks with how he depicts the Mandate in TTOTTB). So in general not even the inner circle feels like Brother/Light followers to me, just Oz followers (in general i imagine the events of the infinite man made him learn that bringing up judgement day is a Bad Thing, considering before bringing it up the Circle flourished, but after spreading the message, it was immediately destroyed. Instant karma. Poor dude). Though this starts leaning into the territory of my theory that Oz actually gave up on his mission (which like, could be wrong, but I'm holding onto it until I'm proven wrong), and I'm sure you don't wanna hear that one lol.

In general it seems to me like there isn't a Brothers-centric religion so far, even though Remnant still has organized religion (albeit uncommon). But I'm honestly not sure if I missed anything? I'm sure as hell not the type to comb through every background to see if I did lol.

Sorry for the long ass ask. Take your time answering, and have fun picking apart my reasoning. Please be nice abt it tho 👉👈 I just want to know your thoughts and if i missed anything that proves it's a modern day religion :)

-🌙

okay. first, at the risk of being condescending: religious people believe that their gods are real. you know that, right? religion is not a big game of play pretend. people who practice religion do so because they believe in it.

yes, religious people can and do experience doubt. but a religious person whose doubting and questioning leads them to conclude their god(s) aren't real don't continue to practice the religion they don't believe in. i mean, they might make an outward performance of doing so if it's unsafe for them to leave and they're likely to keep cultural practices and even moral frameworks--see: ex-christians who are exactly as dogmatic and puritanical about whatever new belief system they've adopted--but people who don't believe in gods don't practice religion. 

this:

They're just like "...okay so why is that important", unlike how I imagine religious people would react to finding out their God(s) are real.

is a fallacy you're making because (i presume) you aren't religious and have never been so; i suspect you just don't have any frame of reference and consequently you're projecting your own skepticism onto the hypothetical religious people in your imagination. to be clear, i don't mean this as a personal attack on you--this is a very normal thing for people to do when we're trying to conceptualize experiences that are profoundly different from our own.

my background though is evangelical christian. i was raised in a staunchly religious household attending church 2-3 times a week; i attended a christian school until transferring to public school in fifth grade; i've been to bible camps and conferences where they teach you how to evangelize to nonbelievers and that kind of thing. i'm not talking fundie cult here, to be clear--this was a relatively-by-evangelical-standards socially liberal and theologically mainstream nondenominational protestant church--but christianity was the central organizing structure of my life until i left home. i'm agnostic and fundamentally disagree with the moral framework of christianity but i know a lot of very devout christians and i'm very familiar with the religious praxis. 

(including what genuine, good faith evangelical proselytization looks like--not door-to-door like what e.g. mormons do, or street corner chick tract fundie cult behavior, which is what non-christians typically think of as evangelism. but that stuff is a tactic high-control religious groups use to strengthen identification with the in-group through rejection and alienation by the out-group--evangelical churches that aren't culty don't do that, and in fact the idea that door-to-door and street corner preaching is an isolation tactic used by predatory religious groups is something that was first explained to me in sunday school by the people who taught me how to evangelize. put a pin in this for now.)

so: i'm not imagining hypothetical religious people when i say this, i'm imagining a few hundred specific religious people whom i personally know and how they would react in an equivalent situation. 

what qrow does in 'a much needed talk' is he sit the kids down, goes "not many people are super religious these days… there's a lot of (false) gods people have made up throughout history, but y'know, these two are real. here's the truth…" and then tells them a simplified version of the two brothers creation myth. 

he doesn't do anything to prove that these two gods, in particular, are real. he gives zero evidence. he doesn't even demonstrate that magic is real. this isn't "finding out" that the gods are real, this is uncle qrow doing a little impromptu sunday school lesson like that's an explanation for why some lunatic attacked us earlier. this is like if some rando tried to grab you on the street and pull you into an unmarked van and i saved you and me and the van guy clearly had some sort of history because he knew my full name so you asked me "WHO WAS THAT GUY. WHAT THE FUCK" and i said okay sit down, the first thing you need to know is that in the beginning, god created the heavens and the earth…

regardless of your personal religious beliefs or lack thereof, you would probably go "…what. does this have to do. with the van guy who ATTACKED ME" because that's like, truly a bizarre non-sequitur. but it's not like God Himself is descending from the heavens in a flaming whirlwind to demonstrate his existence. it's just me telling you he's real. 

if you're a christian, in this scenario, that is not in any way a revelation to you. that's akin to, like, "the king of england is real." BIG IF TRUE?--you know this. you already know this. if you are a christian then you believe that the christian god exists and is the one true god. in this hypothetical scenario i'm telling you things you already know and believe foundationally to be true. a devout christian would probably respond more in the vein of "amen! god is good!" but one whose practice is casual--the christmas-and-easter christians--and secular christians would absolutely be "okay and…?" in an equivalent situation to 'a much needed talk.' 

hell, come to that, i'd be asking what this has to do with the crazy guy who tried to kidnap me if i were in that situation. who cares that my dead headmaster was a true believer or whatever i want to know about the guy with the knife! you feel me?

the type of person whom i can imagine making a big deal out of qrow's little creation myth are:

reddit atheist types who cry and scream and shit bricks if they have to talk to somebody who believes in a god; you know. the kind of person categorically incapable of talking about religion in any capacity without at least one sneering "sky daddy"?

someone with no previous exposure to this religious tradition or anything remotely like it. imagine if i were to sit you down and earnestly tell you that the only Real Gods were, like, the hero twins who descended into the underworld to challenge the lords of death to a ballgame. you'd probably be like "HUH??" because hunahpú and xbalanqué are not a cultural reference point you're familiar with in the way that you're familiar with the crucifixion of jesus christ.

like, all religions are fucking weird. the christian gospels are not remotely less weird than the popol vuh, or whatever. you're just familiar with the essentials of the gospel story--even if you're not and have never been christian--because christianity is culturally dominant in the west. and the familiarity makes it normal. unremarkable.

invisible, in a way. 

this is something the writers of rwby really get. if something is normal and ordinary in the world of remnant, the characters don't pay attention to it, even if it's bizarre to the audience. to use a non-religious example, civilians don't know what aura is! it's not common knowledge! we know that because jaune's never heard of it, civilians in vale are shocked and confused when penny stops a truck with her bare hands, and oscar (who has dealt with "occasional grimm" before) has no aura training and doesn't know what a semblance is. but to the rest of the characters, aura is a completely mundane aspect of their day to day lives and they're a little taken aback by characters like jaune and oscar who don't know about it. 

with that in mind, i want to really underscore something about the things qrow tells RNJR in 'a much needed talk' and the way the kids react. 

because. first, qrow gives them the same intro level rundown on the maidens that pyrrha got in v3--offscreen because that's shit the audience has already heard and don't need to be rehashed. the kids are like, "that's a lot to take in," and jaune in particular is like "this is all very sketchy, what the fuck is actually going on." 

THEN, apropos nothing, qrow drops "not many people are super religious but These Two gods are actually real btw" and an abbreviated creation story, with NO proof and NO apparent connection to the maniacal cultist who ranted and raved about his body and soul belonging to his goddess-queen who sent him to "retrieve" ruby for her. and none of the kids express the slightest bit of skepticism about this super out of left field sunday school story, no one is like "what the fuck" or "are you drunk"--ren just goes "okay but how. is that relevant." 

whereupon qrow finally tells them about the relics hidden under the schools and salem wanting them and that BAD THINGS will happen if she gets them. and then, jaune the skeptic goes: "alright, so let's say we believe all this--there really is this crazy evil being behind these attacks, not just some thugs trying to become powerful. why doesn't the world know?"

THAT'S the part he finds outrageous and difficult to believe. not that the two brothers are real, but that SALEM exists. salem. these kids literally JUST got attacked by a lunatic cultist who kept babbling about MY GODDESS HER GRACE THE QUEEN and directly stated that he is cinder's associate and referred to the white fang and torchwick as pawns, but the thing that makes them go "wait but this is crazy and makes no sense" is qrow explaining that there's a malevolent entity called salem who orchestrated the attack on beacon and sent that guy to capture ruby. like, objectively, from a purely logical standpoint, that's the least unbelievable thing that qrow tells them. 

but people aren't rational agents. and one thing this scene does very effectively is establish the relative normality of each major chunk of information through the way the kids react:

maidens? "there are four special people who can do magic without dust? and when they die that power passes on to someone new? that's. well that's a lot to process but. sure."

brothers? "and this is relevant how?"

salem? "that's crazy how could someone like that possibly exist without everybody knowing about it? why should we believe any of this!?"

salem is so fucking far out of their previous understanding of how the world works that they all kind of have a kneejerk "that! can't be real!" response even though tyrian shouted from the literal rooftops that he's working for a 'goddess' who was behind the attack on beacon.

but the maidens? they have a frame of reference for magic--magic is what anyone can do with dust, and ruby…petrified a massive grimm with her eyes somehow a few months ago, so like, it's not THAT unbelievable to accept that an old story about four maidens who can do magic without dust is true, apparently. 

whereas the stuff about brothers… nothing. not one of these kids so much as blinks even though. again, from a purely logical standpoint, the creation of remnant by the brothers is the most fantastical part of qrow's explanation. but the kids don't react that way, because it's normal to them. ergo they're either casual practitioners of brother-worship or brother-worship has cultural hegemony in vale and mistral, where RNJR grew up.

now! it's actually a simple matter of text whether the second possibility is true or not and this is the part of the answer where i have to just say: you're factually incorrect actually. 

-> In any of the times that we see what *might* be evidence of religion (i.e. the candles/altar in the White Fang in v4, the church in Ruby's v4 short), there's no religious iconography depicting the Brothers (at least, nothing that I've caught). In general, there doesn't seem to be any dragon imagery in modern Remnant (again, nothing that I've caught yet).

there is a big statue of the dragon brothers smack in the middle of the train station in mistral. one gold, one dark. very unmistakably a depiction of Those Two. this is in v6 so if you're only up to v4 on your rewatch you can't uh, be expected to remember. (<- i am just unhinged enough about fictional religion i can tell you off the top of my head that yang and ruby swear by God in v1 but the ship captain in v4 swears "by the gods" and i think that church in ruby's character short implies maiden-worship on the basis of the statue of the cloaked young woman in front, details of this kind just stick in my memory for nerd reasons.)

[as an aside why would… the white fang… have an altar to mankind's gods… like. there are no faunus in 'the two brothers' and the culturally dominant religion among faunus is worship of the god of animals, as ozpin notes in his commentaries on 'shallow sea' & 'judgment.' the trappings of religion that we see in the white fang's private spaces are… obviously… god of animals-worship. this feels half a step shy of saying "well the altar in salem's war room doesn't have any draconic iconography, so therefore brother-worship isn't a thing." brother-worship is explicitly not the only religion in existence!]

-> Also, there's no common sayings including the Brothers (like how fics like to have the characters say "Oh Brothers" and other variations).

in v7, 'pomp and circumstance' specifically, ironwood says "brothers know you deserve it" in reference to RWBYJNR receiving their huntsman licenses. and a quick round up from the novels:

after the fall: "thank the brothers you found us," said by a bit character.

before the dawn: "thank the brothers," said by octavia; "by the brothers," said by finn asturias when he learns what his kids are planning

roman holiday: "thank the brothers," said once by neo's mother and once by a bit character. 

there are also general exclamations of "my gods" or "by the gods" and general references to "the gods" both in rwby proper and ancillary materials, with "gods" being in far more frequent use than the singular "God"--gods, plural, doesn't necessarily mean the brothers every time, because qrow does make a point of noting that remnant's people, collectively, worship "dozens" of gods. but it is pretty evident that the dominant religion across the four human kingdoms has more than one god, and the coincidence of that with, taking the novels into consideration, characters from literally every kingdom except mistral which has a honking big statue of the brothers in its train station swear by the brothers… yeah the dominant religion globally is brother-worship. probably not in menagerie. but in the four human kingdoms, yeah. 

-> It's depicted as a fairytale. When Ozpin asks for Pyrrha's favorite fairytales, the first thing she says is The Tale of the Two Brothers. It's also in his fairytale book, something i feel would've been a controversial (if extremely funny) decision if it was a popular religious story (like if you put Jesus' crucifixion in a book including rapunzel and Cinderella).

…and the second is 'the shallow sea,' which is also a religious myth. 'the story of the seasons' is alsowhat we'd call a myth, not a fairytale. 'the girl in the tower' is the only story pyrrha names in that scene that is actually a fairytale per se. in general the delineation we make between "fairytale" and "myth" in the real world, as discrete genres of folklore, doesn't seem to exist in remnant--legends and fairytales scattered in time, and all that. the conceit of rwby is about engaging with fairytale-as-myth, so this is a very intentional blurring; like, this is a narrative where maiden-in-tower IS the creation story, fundamentally. rapunzel is orpheus is prometheus and that's how the world was made.

and that's the kind of thing that we as the audience have to just accept as a fact of the fictional reality, because… like… gestures at 'the shallow sea.' 

ozpin included THAT one in his book of fairytales, too, and in his commentary he explicitly describes it as part of a closed(!) oral tradition whose inclusion he deliberated for fear of being disrespectful. he devotes more than half of his commentary to justifying the choice to include it, and the rest to describing the myth's cultural context to his (presumed human) readers. he asks forgiveness for "overstepping himself." 

and it is very obvious, in the way ozpin talks about 'the shallow sea' in particular and the book generally in his forward and afterward, that his concern is not "it is grotesquely horribly disrespectful to place this profoundly meaningful and important creation myth (of a culture that is not my own) in a collection of frivolous fairytales" but rather "this book is meant to be a collection of profoundly meaningful tales drawn from all of remnant's cultures and i believe this one is too important not to include, but i am also acutely aware that it is a closed tradition to which i do not belong." the latter is still out of pocket, but the simple fact is that a character who so obviously knows that publishing a story from a closed tradition without permission is Not Okay and so obviously feels immensely conflicted and guilty about doing so isn't a character who would blithely denigrate a myth like this by publishing it in a book of trivial fairytales. and a character who would denigrate the myth that way wouldn't agonize over whether it was important enough to be worth violating the closed tradition. 

and then you consider that, out of the twelve stories ozpin put in this book, three are explicitly religious creation myths ('the shallow sea,' 'the judgment of faunus,' and 'the two brothers'), two others are myths describing the origin of natural phenomena ('the story of the seasons' and 'the gift of the moon'), and one is a mythical culture hero ('the infinite man')… so fully half the stories in this book aren't actually fairytales. they're myths. 

so the inclusion of 'the two brothers' is less cinderella-and-christ than it is "here is an eclectic collection of folklore from around the world" in terms of what would be equivalent in the real world; and… like, 'the shallow sea,' 'judgment of faunus,' and 'the two brothers,' the plain text of these stories is clearly and unambiguously religious in nature, and ozpin explicitly discusses them as such. 

his commentary on 'the two brothers,' in particular: "there are many versions of our creation story […] but certain elements are always consistent: they arrived from a realm outside of our own and together created the universe from nothing. and then they left us on our own." and "whether or not you believe in the brothers, or in this story in particular […] like the twin gods, we are intricately connected to each other" and, um:

Even if the gods aren’t real, even if they don’t return to judge us for our deeds, we should act each day as though they are arriving tomorrow. In the end, we will be the arbiters of our fates. We will either create a beautiful, peaceful world and live in harmony together or destroy ourselves and our planet, and the gods will judge what we have chosen.

remember how i said i'm intimately familiar with, specifically, evangelical christianity and what actual evangelism entails? not the deliberately off-putting door-to-door shit but proselytization for the purpose of bringing new people into a church that isn't a predatory high-control group?

the way ozpin talks about the brothers here, and the way qrow talks about them in 'a much needed talk,' is christian evangelism 101.

"not many people are super religious, these days." you know who says this type of thing? like, fucking constantly? evangelical christians. never mind that christianity is the majority religion in the US by a significant margin (66%!)--evangelical christians inhabit a constructed alternate reality wherein they're an embattled minority shining candlelight into a sea of darkness. (many of them accomplish this by deciding that most other christians aren't real christians; the classic protestant move of course being "catholics aren't christian" but your average evangelical takes a dim view of like. any denomination that isn't their denomination and when i tell you the nondenominationals are the worst offenders in this regard... lmao. anyways)

"not many people are super religious [christian] nowadays. people believe in all kinds of different gods and creeds, but there is only one true God"--this is literally just how evangelicals talk. both to each other and to non-believers they're hoping to interest in the church, although the tone depends on who's listening. internal discussions of this nature are strategic in nature--how do we reach people and speak to them effectively in these godless times? what is the right balance between presenting ourselves and our faith honestly while still creating a welcoming and accessible space for people who don't know jesus? how do we share what we believe with people who just don't care? and so forth--whereas the framing with nonbelievers is that it's innate in human nature to crave purpose and meaning and that everyone seeks fulfillment but few ever manage to find it because none of us are born knowing where to look, etc. 

meanwhile in his commentary ozpin is doing a fantasy repackaging of the pascal's wager tactic, which like. i have sat through literal educational films on the rhetorical use of pascal's wager in effective evangelism. "well, if i believe in god and i'm wrong, i'll have lived a good, moral life and lost nothing; if you don't believe in god and you're wrong, hell" is one of THEEEE evangelist talking points. ideally, one used to open a conversation with friends and/or people who have indicated interest in talking about your faith in some way, especially if they ask "what if you're wrong?" because then the idea is to demonstrate that you're not rigidly dogmatic in your faith but instead you've given serious thought to the possibility that you might be wrong, and thus show that you understand and empathize with the nonbeliever's skepticism so as to build a genuine rapport. (whether it *works* that way in practice is highly dependent on like. charisma and actual meaningful ability to click with non-christians, which a lot of devout evangelicals… just can't even when they really earnestly do try, but ozpin as a character does have the charisma and the knack for connecting with people that can make this approach effective at getting irreligious people to give "hey, come to this church thing with me?" a shot.)

i cannot emphasize enough that after the obvious one of "directly openly stated religious beliefs," the reason ozpin and qrow specifically read to me as highly religious characters is because they talk exactly like evangelicals in secular company. they talk about and share their beliefs about the brothers the way i was taught in church to talk about christianity. 

you don't go banging on people's doors or harassing them in the streets. nobody fucking likes that and it makes people not want to go to church. you don't go around with a stick up your butt about the non-christian people in your life not being christian. what you do is treat people with kindness and respect and draw firm boundaries for yourself to keep yourself safe (<- unironically growing up in an evangelical christian household is a huge part of the reason i am SO comfortable just fucking saying no to things i don't want to do and i think this is the one thing that evangelicals really have on a LOCK) while being open and honest and unapologetic about your own faith. you save the bitchy judgmental gossip and fire and brimstone garbage and like, talking about the eschaton for when it's just true believers. 

evangelical christianity is an eschatological religion, by the way. in case you didn't know that. evangelicals believe that we are living in or on the cusp of the end times and the political action of evangelical christians in the united states is motivated in large part by a desire to enact the prophesied conditions that will herald the second coming of christ. for example a lot of evangelicals like trump because they think he's a divine implement of the great tribulation. evangelicals are obsessed with and actively trying to enact the apocalypse. and rwby is straight up the only fictional story i've ever encountered that understands how an eschatological cult operates because you can NOT advertise that shit. it FREAKS PEOPLE OUT. you keep the "i want the world to be riven by unprecedented catastrophe and suffering so i can be taken up to heaven in the rapture while the wrath of almighty god crushes what remains as grapes in a winepress" between yourself and the other doomsday cultists. 

it's not like. SECRET. it's in the bible. but very few non-christians bother to actually read the bible and the ones who do are just not going to have the cultural context to know how very deadly serious evangelicals in particular are about the book of revelation or how much of a core pillar the eschatology is to evangelicalism; meanwhile american evangelicals are knowingly deliberately voting for the apocalypse. similarly,

“We must take back our gifts,” the God of Darkness said. “Reclaim our power and wipe this experiment from existence.”

“I disagree,” the God of Light said. “And we promised to share in the fate of our joint creation.” He gave a mighty yawn. “Let us rest, and when the time comes, we will see what Humanity has become in our absence. At that point, we will judge them. If they are worthy, we will take their forms and walk among them as equals. If not, we will take back our gifts and start over elsewhere. What do you say?”

“Who will decide whether they are worthy?” the God of Darkness said.

“Humanity will make it plain. If they come together in unity and find a way to destroy the evil in the world and within themselves, then they are worthy. If not … we will let them burn,” the God of Light said.

“So shall it be.” The two brothers agreed. But even in rest, they needed some distance from each other. Each dragon transformed himself into a new continent at one end of their world.

And there the dragons still sleep, until the day that the gods will waken, rise, and judge.

ozma's mandate is not a secret. the apocalyptic final judgment is clearly and emphatically spelled out in the myth of the two brothers, which he included in an anthology of tales intended for the general public and annotated to the effect of "i believe this one is true and even if you don't you should act like you do. btw. because it's true" YEAH MAN WE GET IT. 

(he also asserts apropos nothing in his commentary on 'the gift of the moon'--a myth that does not mention the brothers at all--that the sun is a "celestial gift from the all-powerful god of light," so either 'the gift of the moon' is brother-cult doctrine or ozpin is pointing at a myth from another tradition and making it about his god.)

the main difference between ozpin and your average evangelical is that ozpin fears the end times because he doesn't believe anyone will be spared. but his behavior is the same. his way of presenting his religiosity in a way that minimizes and obfuscates the eschatological intention at the core is the same, if not more intense because the material reality of his situation, as the accursed chosen one literally commanded by God Himself to immanentize the eschaton, is a lot more terrifying and desperate. 'the infinite man' is quite literally a veiled autobiographical story about how he figured out that he CAN'T… go around just… TELLING EVERYBODY… that he's MAKING READY FOR THE FINAL JUDGMENT.... because people don't fucking like that and will kill him and put his cult to the sword about it.

that emphatically does not mean that he doesn't still believe in it; it means that he has, in the same way that evangelical christians in real life have, figured out how to code-switch. there's the public face for mixed company where you're friendly and humble and make a concerted effort to live by the virtues of your faith while being open and unapologetic about your religious identity while maintaining a posture of respectful invitation toward everyone else and engaging in meaningful ways with people you personally know to gently encourage them to explore your faith…

…and there's the private face for when it's just you and your fellow true believers and you're talking in intricate detail about how current world events line up with this or that prophesy about the end times. ozpin in public is the mixed-company evangelical to a T. and ozpin in private with people who have been informed of the whole situation re: maidens, relics, salem is like "i am the divinely-ordained champion of the gods and we must stop her from getting her hands on the relics that My Schools were built as fortresses to defend."

in 'the lost fable' these kids literally hear the god of light say with his whole chest that mankind will be found irredeemable and destroyed if they are "unchanged," and they do not even blink. 3.75 volumes spanning months later, they STILL haven't really registered that the god of light holds the view that not a single person alive on the planet RIGHT NOW TODAY deserves to live. why?

because they knew that part already. not the precise detail of ozma being the one who's meant to decide when the world is fit for divine judgment and actively invite the brothers back, but the final judgment and the need for humans to be United when the day of judgment comes lest they be burned to ashes? They Knew That. it is invisible to them except inasmuch as salem embodies, to them, the danger that mankind will be condemned, because it's normal. regardless of their personal religious beliefs or degree of religiosity, they're all familiar with this story to the point that hearing God Himself promise to exterminate everybody didn't even mildly startle them. they knew. 

like. fundamentally. the story as-written and the way the characters present in the lost fable do not react whatsoever to the divine ultimatum does not make sense unless every single one of them already knew the story about the dragon-brothers who created the world and then departed and will return to judge humanity's worth, to either reward them with completion or wipe them from existence. and because the kids seem to fall in the zone of irreligious to casually religious the simplest and most likely explanation is that there is a global hegemony of brother-worship, akin to christianity in the west. 

taps the sign. and this sign too.

like. in one sense it's a question of your frame of reference and specifically whether you know what deeply religious people are like and how an eschatological religion actually functions in the real world or if your mental model for what this looks like is drawn from, like, pop culture fundamentalist caricatures. i can tell you that the way qrow segues into and tells the brothers creation myth is something i can imagine almost verbatim coming out of the mouths of elders in my parents' church and that ozpin's commentary on the same myth is a point-for-point translation of christian evangelism into his fictional religion. i can tell you that your presupposition that a religious person "finding out" the god(s) they believe in really do exist would feel any kind of surprise or revelation about it is baldly incorrect in a way that leads me to believe you have zero real personal experience with religion or religious people. i can tell you that your presupposition that the secular democratic institutions of government in the kingdoms means there can't be a religious cultural hegemony of brother-worship (or any other religion) is, again, just factually not correct.

but in another and, in many ways, more important sense: rwby is a story about a religious conflict. there are two gods who destroyed the last world and a promised day of judgment that will be ushered in by four divine relics, each guarded by fortresses that act as the central hub for each plot arc, and the overarching narrative conflict is about a power struggle between two people--the immortal agent of rebellion against the gods and the divinely-appointed chosen one tasked with preparing for the final judgment--fighting for control of these relics. that's the plot. 

why are you reading scenes where the characters intricately involved in this power struggle talk about religious matters like the existence of gods and divine relics and divinely-ordained tasks as evidence that these characters… aren't religious? why are you reading actual myths that are textually presented as religious stories as… not a religion? why are you looking at a character commanded by God Himself to unite mankind, who in the present day speaks incessantly of the importance of unity and existential threat of division, who annotates the aforementioned explicitly religious myth with an exhortation to act each day as if the gods will return to judge you tomorrow, and concluding that he… is not religious and does not fundamentally believe in any of it?

what do you think a religion is?

and in this story, of all stories--when the central narrative conflict is overtly a war over divine relics left behind by the gods for the sole purpose of bringing about the final day of divine judgment--why in the world is it your baseline assumption that religion is not something that matters very much within the world of the story? why do you take qrow saying "not many people are super religious these days" completely at face value to mean "most people are agnostic/atheist and religion has no cultural relevance whatsoever" even though the next thing out of his mouth is "but these two gods are REAL" and even though, a single volume prior, his colleague said "what we're telling you goes against hundreds of years of human history, religion" and insinuate that consequently the truth would cause uproar and panic to justify keeping the maidens a secret?

i think that ozpin and his inner circle are religious because they speak and act like it and the core purpose of their "brotherhood" (as they call it) is to safeguard the divine relics while they publish religious myths about their gods and talk about how those gods are real and nothing is more important than keeping the divine relics safe. if it acts and looks and quacks like a duck and repeatedly turns to the audience to say that it believes in ducks, i believe it's a duck. i am not going to say "well it complained one time that there aren't a lot of ducks left in the world, so i think it's actually a chicken." that's nonsense. 

[luckymousey]

Thoughts about Ace’s dreams (parts 249-256) (mostly things I liked)

⚠️English is not my first language and there will be SPOILERS if you haven't seen Ace's dream⚠️

THEY UPLOADED BOTH ACE AND TREY’S ENTIRE DREAMS, LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOO

Ehhhh, well, I was planning to also write about Trey’s dream, but I felt this was getting too long, so maybe the day after tomorrow I guess?

Warnings?: swearing and possible gramatical mistakes

Soooooo, we left it when Grim was shaking Ace like a soft drink, let’s start!

Ace telling them to stop pranking him is ironic considering he’s the one who pranks everyone everytime (I bet he once pranked Deuce by giving him a store bought egg and told him a chick would appear from it if he gave him enough warmth)

SEBEK STARTING TO EXPLAIN EVERYTHING TO ACE, I ALREADY LOVE HIM SO MUCH, I know he is just doing it for COMPLETELY different reasons, but yeah (tbh, I started loving him more when he admitted liking reading books, I’m also a bookworm :3)

And he’s so determined to fight Malleus, awww, he loves him, but he also knows that they can’t let Malleus’ negative emotions take over him.

The part where Ace asks Sebek if it’s something bad to live in a dream that you can be happy in, is like ( ; _ ; ), so fucking sad and selfish, he is like accepting the fact that it was not reality what he was living, but he was so fucking scared to accept reality itself and he really didn’t consider other people’s opinions (personally, I feel I would LOVE living my dream life, but I’m sure that with time, I would feel that everything around me is fake, beause my real friends wouldn’t be there, my real family would’ve be there, everything I love wouldn’t be there, and that would make feel me so miserable)

Ace saying that if Malleus is left alone in the real world because of his own fault reminds me a lot of the time he told Riddle that he had no friends because of himself, it might have sound cruel, but really, Malleus, my boy, what you’re doing is not good 😭 (and he’s, I do think that Ace’s comment to Malleus was also unnecessary, but let’s be realistic, they’re both doin wrong things)

For some reason, I feel Ace would be GREAT as a lawyer, maybe some rude comments about the other party, something that’s not tolerated in trials, yes, but he’s quick when it comes to biting back.

Ace not wanting to fight Malleus because he calls themselves “ordinary students”?? EXCUSE ME!? That’s not my Ace! My Ace fucking fought against his dorm leader knowing he was way weaker than him (I repeat, he’s so fucking scared of accepting the reality, like, we can see it thanks to these little things, the little changes in the character, he prefers to be a coward than to lose his friend 🥲)

I want to say this again, there are some parts and lines of Ace that reminds us of the Heartslabyul Arc (like when he said he won he listening to someone who looks down at others), but there’s a big difference: Ace was not scared to fight against Riddle, but he’s now scared to fight against Malleus, and yes, Malleus is one of the 5 best mages in the world, but this is not about the opponent, it’s about the fact that he will change his whole personality to get what he wants, in Heartslabyul Arc’s case: beating Riddle and becoming dorm leader (that was out of pure rage tho), in the Diasomnia Arc’s: hiding in his dream, because there, Yuu can stay with them forever.

ACE RAN, I KNOW IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A DRAMATIC EXIT, BUT I COULDN’T STOP IMAGINING HIM RUNNING LIKE AN ANIME CHARACTER WHO’S EMBARRASSED AND RUNNING AWAY WITH A VERY NOTICEABLE BLUSH ON THEIR FACE

Sebek not understanding Ace’s words and desire to stay in the dream is understandable for me, he had no friends before, and in this point of the story, he is still not very close to his classmates, so he doesn’t understand why a friend is so important for Ace (and Malleus is more like a person who he admires, but he idolizes him so much that I doubt he calls him “his friend”, while Lilia is seen as his master and Silver more like a competitor).

I don’t know if you noticed this, but I love imagining different scenarios when something happens, so when everyone was explaining to Sebek why Ace got angry and why it was (partly) his fault, I imagined them trying to explain something to a baby.

ORTHO ADMITTING HE WOULN’T BE AS WORRIED AS HE’S BECAUSE OF IDIA, HE’S THE BEST LITTLE BROTHER ONE CAN HAVE 🥹🥹🥹🥹

And Sebek realizing that Ortho is right, awwww, I can understand why some people hate him, he is constantly shouting and being kind of rude, but I see him like a kiddo who’s still learning.

I used to watch the episodes without sound because I usually watch them at night, but how that I got wireless headphones I can’t unheard the way they said “Cater Diamond”, they’re like, “KeiTO DaiAMonDo”, I know that's how they pronounce it, but I really can’t not laugh everytime I think about it.

Idia and Leona agreeing they’re just helping because they want revenge!?!? That’s so funny for me, they’re straight up insulting Malleus in front of Sebek.

And after that, the moment where Silver scolds Sebek arrives.

THAT'S RIGHT SILVER, YOU TELL HIM, YOU TELL HIM, SHOW HIM WHAT YOU LEARNT FROM YOUR HANDSOME FATHER, I LOVE YA SEBEK, BUT YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN

Honestly, the reason I'm so excited is because I’m trying to prepare myself for that part.

Silver LITERALLY rubbing on Sebek’s face the fact that he reacted like Ace when he told him everything was a dream is something I didn’t know I needed to hear, it was so satisfying. (I’m going to admit it, I just love people getting scolded because of something they did that was clearly bad)

“REFLECT ON YOUR ACTIONS!” Is something I feel Lilia usually said when he punished them as kids and then Silver learnt it (i bet all my money that Lilia constantly used that phrase when the kids didn’t want to eat his nutritious food)

Some of the characters being surprised by Sebek sudden lowering of tone is something that will always make me at least chuckle, it doesn’t matter if it’s in the manga, the game, the novel, fanfics, fanmade comics…; it’s just so fucking funny for me.

When Silver said it was better to have Ace as a friend so he can help the, in defeating Malleus sounded so bad, like he was already planning how to become Ace’s friend to use him (don’t hate on me, I know he didn’t intend to, but if you read that phrase without context, you will definitely think he’s a villain)

LEONA, WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN WITH LEAVING ACE BEHIND BECAUSE HE WON'T BE OF MUCH HELP, ARE YOU FUCKING WITH ME!? YOU DONT GET TO LEAVE MY BOY BEHIND.

AND YOU TOO, CATER!? YOU TOO!? I THOUGHT YOU WERE A GOOD SENPAI BECAUSE YOU PROTECTED DEUCE AND GRIM IN YOUR DREAM, FUCK THIS AND HE WANTS TO MESS UP WITH ACE, DONT, LEAVE MY BOY, WELL, DONT, DON'T LEAVE MY BOY, WAKE HIM UP

Deuce doing his delinquent pose when he got frustrated of thinking to much, hehehe, I love that pose

YESYESYES, DEUCE, GRIM, YUU, GO GET YOUR TSUNDERE-ORANGE-BOY

Ortho don’t worry about them, Yuu and Grimm have gone through 6 overblots together (I’m going to cry so fucking hard if Grim ends up over blotting because of all those fucking black stones he eats), and now they’re with the seventh one

Oh, damn, Cater should be an actor, I really thought he was going to leave Ace behind.

FORGET WHAT I SAID ABOUT YOU, CATER, I LOVE YA SO MUCH

Cater like a proud older brother 😭: “I’m happy Ace got such good friends”

Omg, Cater is so intelligent, by just having contact with ‘darkness’ once he already knows how it works (but he’s really putting the hand in the fire just for his junior, Trey is one of the most understood characters, but he’s also so underrated when it comes to his relationships)

Wait, wait, wait, I just thought about this, it might be something dumb, but it really just appeared in my mind: Cater doesn’t want to get very close to anyone because of his trauma of constantly having to move and, as a consequence, he has to cut off all his relationships done in the place: and now, he’s literally doing anything possible to save his friends (if he now can consider them as friends), I don’t know if he started to open up, but it would be so heartwarming to see 😭🥰

I love when the characters say: “eh?” Yes, buddy, eh, eh, eh 🦆

All the Caters saying: “Aye, Aye, sir!” It’s soooooooooooo peeeeerfect

“It might hurt a little, but be patient, Acey~” -KeiTO DaiAMonDo, 2025

NAURRR GIRL, THE SUDDEN FIRE!? That was too fast, both Riddle and Trey would be way more dissimulated if they were trying to discover if there’s really a fake Cater.

Leona said they weren’t going to help Cater because he didn’t ask for it, but I like to think he’s trusting him (I know that wasn’t the case, let me be delulu)

And Leona calling Cater “Heartslabyul’s number 3”??? THIS IS GOING STRAIGHT TO MY MAFIA AU

Riddle’s change of tone from rude and strict for Cater and sweet and kind for Ace!? 😂, yeah, that’s definitely not happening irl

“You can have a happy life here, blahblahbla” oh, shut up, I know you’re darkness, but shut up

Ok, Leona, I know you trust Cater and everything, but please, let Silver and the rest help him, he’s going to disappear with the darkness

*right in the other part of the island*: Cater saying how ugly everything looks, not giving a fuck about the danger he’s in 😃👍

ACE ADMITTING HIS INSECURITIES, NOOOOOOO, MY BOY, YOU'RE PERFECT THE WAY YOU ARE, YOU ALL WILL DEFEAT MALLEUS WITH THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP (or not)

Like, I don’t know how the hell the darkness manage to say the most contradictory things 🤣, Deuce would never say he’ll learn from Ace, over his dead body

Awww, Leona trying to break Idia’s tablet just because he asked if he was talking about himself (he was right)

HJKSJKHKHJHKJSHKJ, EVERYONE IS BEING SO ✨SLAY✨, SILVER SCOLDING SEBEK, CATER SMACKING ACE WITH THE TRUTH, WHAT'S NEXT!?!? TREY FINALLY GIVING MRS. ROSEHEARTS WHAT SHE DESERVES IN RIDDLE’S DREAM!?!?

“At that time, I couldn’t say anything properly…thank you.” “It’s too lame to only challenge those who you can win against!” “Cater-senpai…this is so unfair…isn’t it!?” “I only have to wake up, right!?” You heard that? That’s the sound of my hearts breaking, and the fact that he’s crying while trying to smile??? ANIPLEX, YANA TONOSO AND TWST, YOU BETTER PAY FOR THE REST OF MY THERAPY SESSIONS 😭😭😭😭😭

The fact that both Ace and Deuce’s last memory to wake up is their reunion in book 6 is so special, so tears-flooding-down-my-cheek reaction from me 🥹

ACE IS BACK MY PEOPLE, HE HAS FINALLY WOKEN UUUUUUP

Cater saying: “Leona, guys! Help us!” In such a princess and cheerful way, he would nail it in EAH’s Damsel in Distress class

Ace first words to his friends was literally about Deuce’s way of talking…that’s so him ✨🥹✨

Deuce and Grim hitting Ace, yes my people, those are my little stupid boys

And Cater’s excuse for using magic against Ace was literally: the ends DOES justify the means

And Ace telling Yuu that next time they wake him up it needs to be more gentle!? I don’t know if that was romantic or not, but Ace is definitely someone worthy to be Malleus’ love rival; he was the only one who directly dreamed with Yuu!

My first reaction when Ace reminded Leona of what he did at the Magift Tournament was: “don’t talk to me or my man like that again”

“I wasn’t crying! And you all came running to me looking pretty happy!”…OF COURSE WE WOULD BE HAPPY, YOU DUMBASS, OHANA MEANS FAMILY AND FAMILY MEANS NO ONE IS LEFT BEHIND

And then Cater takes a photo of Yuu, Adeuce and Grim to celebrate they’re back together, yessssss

For the third time, Ace’s lines are like a reflection of what he said in the Heartslabyul Arc: he told Trey it was his fault Riddle became like that, because he constant spoiled him; and now, bam, he tells Silver he and Lilia pamper him too much

As usual, Ortho snitches on everyone because he is a pure angel who doesn’t want to get bitches, so he tells the truth about Sebek 😈, let’s go, Ortho, you’re doing great, who will be your next victim?

Near to the end of his dream, Cater uses the good old one: if you bother us too much, I’ll tell Riddle😈

“Red demon”!? HAHAHAH, LEONA KNOWS ABOUT NICKNAMES, LET LEONA GIVE YOU A NEW NAME TO YALL

Then we’ve Idia: “Actually 🤓, we’ve to visit the red demon, BUT, I plan to wake his best pacifier.” (Man, Idia is just slaying with anything he’s saying)

ADEUCE STUTTERING AND THEN SHOUTING LIKE MAGICAL GIRLS TO CHANGE CLOTHES IS MY TOP 1 FAV MOMENT IN THE WHOLE DREAM

And, of course, Idia’s new line: “This is! The fresh scream filled with torture feels so good!”

(Unpopular opinion: Cater should’ve been filming the WHOLE time)

Another mirror-reflection-scene: Ace wanted to make Malleus apologize, just like in the Heartslabyul Arc with Riddle.

And last but not least, Ortho snitched on Sebek for the SECOND time, that smirk of his, he knows what he’s doing, that boy, that boy is so dangerously intelligent.

And in the end, we didn't get Ace's brother's face reveal 🥹

I'm going to do a satanic ritual

This is the end of my opinions on Ace’s dream, hope you enjoyed it!

[ropebunnykant]

i always headcanonned all fk characters as switches but now i realize we've only ever seen firsts character portrayed as top and khaotungs as bottom yknow with the famous thrusting in ofs and kantbison red room scene. even if they had different dynamic it wasn't explicitly portrayed why is that? i wish we could see a change in the bl industry

oh yeah, it's definitely a thing in the bl industry where they classify one as the top and one as the bottom with zero nuance or change from series to series, and i think that's part of why top/bottom discourse can get so aggressive in the bl fandom. it's almost always the bigger/taller/more "masc" guy that gets the top role and it pushes such a problematic notion about how gay couples "should" interact and it's deeply annoying! especially because people in fandom will then get so attached to these ideas and the way they act about it is like. straight up mean and gross. like why do you care so much that some people think that first's characters occasionally bottom? why is that such a big deal for you?

and in a way it does circle back to the issue with people insisting on bison being a sub despite the fact that he, canonically and explicitly, is a dom. again, people have these fucked up ideas about the way gay couples should be and because bison is smaller and cuter and more feminine and we have also seen him explicitly bottoming, he has to be the sub. which is just extremely reductive and just repackaged misogyny and homophobia! (which, i've actually been thinking since the pilot trailer about how the inherent misogyny that comes from those assumptions also kind of feeds into the way misogyny was replaced from taming to the heart killers and the way those dynamics manifest in the show. like there's something VERY interesting about the lucentio/bianca couple aka the more "traditional" couple having their typical "top" as the man of the couple and their typical "bottom" play the woman vs the katherine/petruchio having the "top" playing the woman! there's a commentary going on there, i think, but unfortunately i haven't gotten to really writing anything about that cause usually there's so much else going on in the show that i kind of forget about that aspect sdkjfsdf)

that all being said, i also don't think fk's characters are necessarily forced into those boxes because of the industry at large, if that makes sense? like i feel like they're one of the few branded pairs that aren't put into those roles just because first is taller/bigger/more masculine. because the thing is, with akkayan we never actually see them having sex on screen, so we can't actually know for sure the positions they use. and while we see it with kantbison and sandray, i also think context is important.

with sandray, i think ray is just meant to be a character that has his preferences, and on top of that he's spoiled and sand is always going to give him whatever he wants. those things are part of their characters even without getting into their sexual dynamics, and one thing about jojo is that sex in his shows are actually a lot deeper than people realize - so, it makes sense that with that dynamic in mind, sand would be more "the giver" and ray "the taker" when it comes to sex, so to speak. and then with kantbison, i again think it's meant to play at the fact that bison is the dom. i think bison in a lot of ways is MEANT to seem contradictory to that kind of idea, and i also think he kind of gets off on that idea. like, i was actually talking to may @deliriousblue about this earlier, but i think it's why we see bison bottom, why we see him lean into his cuteness, why we see him call kant daddy. he likes leaning into the idea of a traditional sub while actually being the one in control! it's like a power thing for him.

i also just think firstkhao have been very lucky in the fact that in all three of the series that they've been main couples for, they've worked with very progressive and very queer directors. i mean, golf, who directed the eclipse, is trans and an activist and i believe used to be a member of parliament before they were forced out, if i'm remembering that correctly? and then jojo directed both only friends and the heart killers and jojo has never been shy about making his characters as queer as possible beyond just the aspect of having sex with the same gender, yknow? he also has never been shy about making his characters switches, either, or having them talk openly about positions, so again, i don't really view fk as being necessarily stereotyped - more that jojo specifically is a director that will use those stereotypes and the way the industry perceives things to his advantage, if that makes sense. like i think about how he chose to use firstkhao and forcebook in only friends for sandray and topmew, and then had neomark, who were an unbranded pair, for the couple that didn't end up together. like people complained about it, but again, i think it was jojo using the way the industry is set up to his advantage while also challenging those norms in other aspects of the show.

this got like. aggressively long for no reason, but basically i do agree that there should be a change in the way the industry puts their branded pairs in boxes, but i honestly feel like fk are one of the few that aren't ACTUALLY in that box, if that makes sense sdkjfhskf

[roodles03]

Hazbin Hotel Angelic Wings Theory

Something I thought of while falling asleep last night, is that after Vaggie regains her wings, they become retractable.

Vaggie regains her wings in Hello Rosie, but as we can see in the next episode they're seemingly gone

But later in The Show Must Go On, it's shown she can just pull them out at will and then retract them when she wants later.

Now comparing her to another Angel of her kind (exorcists) Lute ALWAYS has her wings out and it appears she CANNOT retract them. (This also applies to Adam but I don't think he counts as a true exorcist angel)

This may also apply to Vaggie herself before she was brutalized and attacked by Lute. As she has her old set of wings at all times.

(Yes, TORN off, not CUT off. Lute didn't use angelic weapons to cut off Vaggie's wings, she TORE them off with her bare hands. That's why Vaggie was able to grow them back)

So perhaps having your wings physically torn off in some way, when you grow them back it has the side effect of making them retractable. I was thinking that maybe the animators just don't want to draw the wings at all times but clearly they do for other angels and other winged characters so this seems purposeful.

This also seems to apply to the seraphim angels we see, Sera and Emily. They ALWAYS have their wings out and it doesn't seem they can retract them at will.

Now, who else is a Seraphim who CAN retract their wings?

Yes, it's Lucifer.

In fact, it seems Lucifer highly prefers to keep his wings retracted. Seemingly only using them to fly, fight, or show off. They also appear to come out automatically similar to his horns when he goes full-demon.

Now I actually did go back to the opening storybook sequence, and Lucifer has his wings out the ENTIRE time rather than just before which does make this a bit confusing.

But I do find it really odd he only has half his wings here, just before being thrown into hell, despite it not being a side profile. As an artist I really see no reason for that choice, it wouldn't really affect the silhouettes too much because they show overlap in earlier scenes. It just seems super odd here. But at the same time, there's no way to know the true intention of why they drew it the way they did. Maybe it was to make things appear clearer, it could be foreshadowing he lost half his wings? Who knows. I don't have an answer for this part.

But It's also important to note this opening scene was narrated to us as if it were a storybook being read to a child. Narratively, It's a simple narration/exposition of a previous event in the story. A lot of shows do this and leave out the details in order to actually show us what happened on screen in a flashback down the line. And to make that actual flashback more satisfying and NOT feel like a waste of time, they most definitely had to leave stuff out of this initial exposition. (Plus you still want mysteries to keep viewers engaged) Think of the Roo, Root of all Evil Theory, or how they don't talk much about Eve at all. This could be stuff they intentionally left out in case they do have a flashback of this moment later in the series.

So it's entirely possible that they purposely left out Lucifer getting his wings torn off to make it a surprise for when they do actually show us the fall of humanity, and in turn, Lucifer's fall.

Of course, you could argue that Vaggie and Lucifer CHOOSE to retract their wings while the other angels don't, but the fact that no angel we know of besides them does it, and they're both fallen angels, one of which we know FOR SURE had their wings torn off, it raises enough eyebrows for me.

Basically, I think it's very possible that through the evidence of Vaggie's wings being retractable after growing them back, and every other angel we know of never retracts their wings and has never had their wings torn off, it can be assumed that Lucifer might have had his wings torn off as punishment when he was sent down to hell.

[abyssalpeach]

in the case of the people vs. bell's hells...

and also the campaign 3 finale overall. disclaimer: this is gonna get long bc of my propensity to yap so i'm gonna simultaneously try to keep it short but also put it under a "read more." spoilers will be referenced throughout.

i wouldn't call these rent-lowering gunshots, but i desperately need some of the folks in this fandom to get a grip. so instead i'm asking: walk with me. hold my hand. i am looking you in the eyes and want this fandom to be a nice place. please forgive me for any attitude but i am tired of being talked down to.

"they never faced any consequences" consequences are the result bad dice rolls. of which they had plenty. if you think their narrative choices should have resulted in more punishment, say that. but i think you missed the part where they have targets on their back from several factions and now-mortal deities and you need to kill the cop in your head.

"it was too confusing and the pacing was bad" i don't even disagree with this takeaway. i will say this was actually the easiest campaign for me to follow. m9 is so fun, but was very narratively scattered at times. however, i think this is just the nature of ttrpg/actual play. it's not scripted. it's messy and sometimes you'll zone out about it. sometimes what the players want isn't what grabs you personally. it doesn't mean they're wrong or bad to play it that way.

"i fell off c3 and everything i've heard about the finale is stupid" fall off, then. totally fine, i'm not here to stop you, sincerely. and not to hurl cliches, but with tabletop it really is more about the journey than the destination. without context, you are missing too many pieces to pass judgement. that's all i'm gonna say on that.

"the other PCs were just so much better" i gotta say this one seems like a skill issue lol. there's not a single party i haven't loved with my whole heart, but they satisfy different purposes or dynamics! vm was destined for greatness. m9 was destined to pull important strings. bh was destined to shake up the order of things. they were supposed to be controversial in-world. they're salt of the earth, rising far beyond their stations ever expected. they became important at work and it very nearly ruined their lives.

"it was like sitting in a philosophy 101 class" praytell what philosophy classes that you've sat in discussed the ethics of magic, direct divine involvement in human* lives, and potential outcomes that would come along with killing all the gods or releasing something called the god-eater. look. i grew weary with the rehashing of these conversations too, really i did. that said, i think it needed to play out this way in order for the finale to go the way it did.

allow me to explain. one of the defining qualities of bell's hells was how different they all were. whether it's their perspectives, life experiences, backgrounds, desires, aspirations... you get it. this was the point. they were bound together by compassion and love for each other. and this extended to those they stood for personally, and those their friends cared about. it was how they approached ruidus, the gods, the people of vasselheim. and they walked the walk and trusted the process, prepared to face anything. including death.

*obviously including all exandrian/ruidian races beyond just human

"the finale cheapened the ending of vox machina" it didn't. i'm sorry but it very fundamentally did not and if that's your takeaway from a change of circumstance ~30 years down the line, i am worried that you are too lost in the sauce due to favoritism. if your takeaway from vax being allowed to return to the material plane is that now his conclusion from 30 years ago was just him going on a work trip, that is a you problem.

the narrative doesn't treat it like that. the characters don't treat it like that. the cast doesn't treat it like that. let me repeat myself: if you think vax's c1 ending is now nothing more than a glorified work trip, that is a you problem.

life goes on. the state of the world is changing constantly, especially in a world with gods and magic and different planes of existence. matt allowed these players to have direct involvement in the ways it changes. if vax was allowed to return in some capacity as a result of those changes, the cast made that happen. it wasn't even on bell's hells priority list! this was a natural change of circumstance. if that's the kind of thing you find upsetting, maybe unpack that elsewhere.

i'm gonna wrap it up here but i hope you keep this in mind: if you don't like a thing anymore, you can absolutely drop it. you don't need anyone's permission. but what i ask is that if you want to engage in thoughtful conversation and criticism about it, you keep these things in mind.

i don't believe this show or cast to be above criticism. i have plenty of critiques of my own. but the campaign three finale was the opposite of bad. it was the most satisfying conclusion we could have possibly gotten. it was the culmination of the last 3 years with almost everyone who encountered bell's hells and honored the last 10 years of their hard work. i am so so proud of matt and the cast and i think you should be too.

[bunnwich]

I just found out a Prince of Egypt Musical exists, and one of the addition songs— 'footprints on the sand'— really gives me Leona vibes

(Spotify link to the song)

https://open.spotify.com/track/40PqpFQdrylghRZgY36W8G?si=wATkespmQyar931PNnNc8A&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A7MOGTYjo3ifwHDBf0EBE71

(Genius lyrics)

https://genius.com/Original-west-end-cast-of-the-prince-of-egypt-footprints-on-the-sand-lyrics

So since you're— at least in my view— one of the Leona experts, I was wondering what your thoughts would be on it!

Not that it fits perfectly; no song ever really fits 100%, after all. But I think it has strong Leona vibes

Leona VS The Weight of Insignificance

(Ahhh sorry I am just getting around to this.;-; BTW DFGHJK I’m flattered that you consider me a Leona expert??)

So this is pretty cool because I didn't realize there was a Prince of Egypt Musical? I’m a big fan of the animated movie and of musicals so I’ll have to listen to the rest someday!

So, I think in general the theme of “Footprints in The Sand” is about the idea of “trying to leave a mark” in life, but feeling like it won't matter in the long run and also exploring the insignificance that we all feel as people.

That being said, I can see why this song made you think of Leona! It brought up some feelings about what being second-born in a royal lineage means and how that can make someone feel insignificant just in concept. The spare heir if you will. 

It's interesting because it also made me think about how Leona has such complicated feelings about his title too?

Like on the one hand, he feels like he's “forever in the shadow of Falena” but at the same time, I DO think a small part of him secretly enjoys the mobility of not having the reasonability of king and therefore the first few lines of the song before it fades into him sounding more melancholic made me think of this.

(AND ALSO since we’ve seen how he would handle being king in his Chapter 7 Dream OOF.) My thoughts on that: X

The second son– My father's wrong (THIS LINE TOO) It's got to be the easiest role on Earth Just play around Just play along Enjoy the bounty of my birth So what's today's amusement For this second son? Which one shall I choose from so many kinds of fun?

I think it leads back to the age-old conclusion about Leona’s character (that his dream really hammered home), is that being king is NOT what he truly wants and it more comes to feeling worthy as a person as if he has to “justify” his own existence of feeling useless. It’s more about the kind of attention he craves. To be useful, respected, adored. 

The song mentions the fear of not leaving behind a legacy and feeling the weight of your own insignificance as a person. I can see how both the characters of Moses and Leona both struggle with “finding their purpose” and not being able to see their own worth like others who care about them do. 

It made me think of the song (also in Prince of Egypt) “Through Heaven's Eyes” which I feel actually continues this theme. The idea that even if you can’t see your OWN value that everyone—has their own innate value as people—and that in itself is meaningful.

A single thread in a tapestry Though its color brightly shines Can never see its purpose In the pattern of the grand design And the stone that sits on the very top Of the mountains mighty face Does it think it's more important Than the stones that form the base?

For Leona—the people he acts as a mentor to like—Ruggie, Epel and Savanaclaw as a whole—have a pretty high opinion of him despite his flaws. And the fact that he can’t always see that and appreciate that value that he unconsciously and consciously brings to them reflects this. He has and will leave an impact even if it's not as “important” as a king. And he could do even more good if he actually tried to do so.

I think it’s a lesson we all struggle with TBH, the whole: seeing our inherent value as people and it’s def why I think Leona is a more relatable character than he first appears in twst. :3

Thank you for sharing with me though! I love finding stuff like this! I hope you have a wonderful day/night!💚

[charmwasjess]

AHEM. Dooku for 2/3 and 18, 25? Or dealer's choice? Anything you like 👀👀👀👀👀

OH HEY FRIEND :D Thank you so much!!! I answered the first two here <3 <3 but I kind of went wide with 25 so I pulled in some dealer's choice. :D Couldn't resist.

18 How about a relationship they have in canon with another character that you admire?

It was so tempting to write you a Sifo-Dyas essay here. Please accept this coupon for one unhinged Sifo-Dyas manifesto, to be redeemed at a time of your choosing. <3

But today, I’m thinking about Mace and Dooku. God, there’s a part in that Shatterpoint novel where Mace obsesses over the fact that he could have killed Dooku on Geonosis - he could have gone for Dooku’s head instead of Jango’s, and how much death and suffering would he have saved? And the fact that he didn’t, he went after Jango, not because he didn’t realize the importance of that decision, but for the plain fact that he didn’t want to kill Dooku.

I think two things are so interesting here - of course, I love the way that Mace vouches so hard for Dooku in AotC, and I love all that implies about the personal relationship and respect as colleagues between them. All that it hints about Dooku's post-exit relationship with the Jedi Order.

I also think it’s interesting that the questions doesn't seem to be if Mace could kill Dooku. 

Here’s the part where I just pornographically imagine the duel between Mace’s Vaapad and Dooku’s Makashi and make uncomfortable noises. Arguably the two most aggressive forms, I think that fight would be insane. Mace is 6’2/1.88m, while Dooku has a few inches on him, Mace is younger and very powerfully built, so Dooku isn’t going to get his usual default “I can just reach further than you” advantages. Also, the way Mace dominates the terrain - I’m thinking of his duel in Sidious’s office - is going to be a big problem for our Count, who thrives on space in a fight and carefully balancing Makashi’s more delicate aspects with his ability to control the environment via the Force - ie, drop pieces of the architecture on his opponents heads. Cool fucking fight, cooler what-if. 

What does the Separatist movement he just started look like if Dooku is captive or martyred?

 25? What was your first impression of [Dooku]? How about now?

Well, my VERY first impression of this character was quite negative. Like many fans, I was enraged to find that we were getting this character and not Sith lady concept art (who would turn out to be future Asajj). Old man Sith?! Who used to be a Jedi? NO WE HAVE OLD MAN SITH WHO USED TO BE A JEDI AT HOME. 

But when I first became a Dooku maniac, I spent a lot of time working backwards trying to find the actual good person the monster used to be. What was the dramatic tipping point, how much was Qui-Gon’s death a factor, how could Dooku’s fall have been stopped or redeemed? 

Now the more fascinating part to me is how an actually good person becomes a monster. To me, that’s actually started to be more interesting than my old fascination with finding some big reason. I love the almost ordinary factors in his slide toward darkness - loneliness, depression, helplessness, the unwanted child compulsive urge to impress the wrong people, plain old sunk cost fallacy. He can be a surprisingly uncommitted Sith. He chains himself to Sidious. 

Someone once summed up my one true fix-it fic, “Five Days to Murder Sifo-Dyas,” as “Sifo-Dyas saves Dooku using only the power of his dick,” and while that's funny, they’re right. I really think any very simple change in Dooku’s story could have got him back on track. The fascinating fact is, it didn’t. Dooku's missed connection with his own humanity and goodness.  

Talking further about impressions of the character, although maybe this gets into 6. What's something you have in common with this character? territory, is that I’ve grown up with Dooku. Getting into Dooku when I was a kid and now liking the character as an adult, I realize I relate to him fundamentally differently now vs then.

Dooku and I don’t share a lot of personality traits, and I’m nowhere near his age in the films, but now I’ve been a teacher, I know how that rewires your brain. I know what it’s like to be a whole ass adult, but still meaningfully reckoning with your own ugly origin story. And god, am I fucking worried about the end of the world. His problems feel so much more real to me now.

I think both he and Sifo-Dyas have a core trait of “oh my god, what’s happening, why doesn’t everyone else SEE this, I have to do SOMETHING” driving their characters’ actions. And while I obviously don’t agree with either of their actions, I think that’s never been more relatable to me than now in 2025.

[hollowed-theory-hall]

Hi ! I hope I'm not bothering you. I tried looking through your blog and I didn't find an answer to this question, though I'm à bit new to Tumblr so I hope I didn't just miss it! But I was wondering if you had a headcanon/idea on Harry's reaction if he were to meet his parents/Sirius back in time. You know, like these stories where he is sent back after the war/when he dies and wake up in the 70s/80s ? (Also, your blog is just sooo interesting! I love your ideas)

Hello 👋

And no, i dont think i talked about this before.

Like, this is fic territory, so you can go a lot of ways with this, honestly. It also highly depends on when in the 70s/80s he goes back to. Like, is James still the bully from SWM? Are we going for later in the period toward his death and are generous in his character interpretation? Is the war raging full force already, or is it the first years when no one really knows what it's going to become yet? Is Lily still friends with Snape? After or before Sirius ran away from home?

There are just a lot of details regarding the exact point in the timeline we chose that can really affect Harry's reaction. Similarly, when Harry goes back in time, it can be just as important. During OotP, Harry stops idolizing his father as much, so it would definitely affect how he sees him. Also, if say, it's a Harry in early PoA who goes back in time, he'd be sympathetic to Peter and think Sirius is the traitor. After GoF, I think Harry would react really badly to Peter, etc.

But we're talking post-war Harry (as you mentioned), who, let's say, meets his parents and Sirius at the same age he is, so all of them are recent Hogwarts graduates and full-time Order members who live on James' money in his house. Peter and Remus are also part of the Order, but not living with the Potters and Sirius trio.

I mentioned in the past I think Harry looks like a decent mix of his parents, but the combination of his hair + glasses makes everyone see him more as James. Point is, he looks very obviously like James and Lily's kid. And James, Lily, and Sirius aren't stupid. They're gonna be able to tell it's weird. Especially if Harry appears out of nowhere in front of them.

Honestly, I think Harry would cry a little seeing them alive and well. Post-war Harry would have some concerns about messing with time, but then he'd look at them again and go "to hell with it" and warn them about everything, I think. Like, I think he would just tell them. Especially if it's not post-war Harry, but one at the moment of his death. If he just appears next to a living James, Lily, and Sirius I think he'd have a little breakdown.

I mean, he is tired. He is traumatized, in pain, he just got the courage to walk to his death to save everyone, and here are the people who should've been there to protect him and make sure none of it would happen. The people who died so he wouldn't, and then he had to die anyway.

Like, that's gonna be emotional. It's gonna be painful and joyous. I think he'd think he's dead at first, that this is the afterlife, but when none of them really knows him or what's going on, that would be a pretty big clue he traveled in time (unless he knew he was traveling in time, of course, but that really depends on the fic).

Now, this Harry knows about the Horcruxes, and he knows exactly where all of them are. He's gonna speed run this killing Voldemort business, that would be like, a high priority of his. But I think he'd hesitate about walking to his death again after getting to know his parents and Sirius. At the same time, he'd wonder if he does it, if he dies again, he would return to his own time and Ron and Hermione. Becouse he loves his parents and Sirius, but he also loves his friends from his own time he left behind. The living ones who might now have a better life for what he changed in the past.

Basically, plenty of space for this sort of angst if you want it.

I think he'd end up really weirded out by James, in a way. Becouse, while James would treat him like family (therefore great, James was clearly loyal and treated the people he cared about really well), he would probably not act how Harry always imagined him to. Not that they wouldn't get along, but I feel like they'd have more tension in their dynamic. Becouse Harry knows about the bullying that he even lied to Lily about, but he also just really wants to love his dad. I think, if James really did grow up and become a little less arrogant with war and loss, they would get along better. I think though, even with a younger James, Harry would find him funny when he isn't being too obnoxious.

Lily would also not be who Harry imagined her as, not exactly, but I think they'd get along great. I think they just operate on a similar wavelength and have a similar sense of humor. Harry’s definitely gonna ask her about Snape, too (because he saw his memories already), and I think Lily would really not know what to think of Snape with what Harry tells her (though, you know Harry's gonna sugarcoat it becouse it's his mom and he doesn't want her to be upset).

And I low-key think a time-traveling Harry who meets a 19-year-old (he was born in 1979, he's a November baby) Sirius would have a little crush on Sirius. Like, the fic doesn't have to go that way, but Harry is likley going to be waxing poetic about Sirius Black’s haughty looks, silver eyes, and elegant black hair throughout the whole story becouse that's just realistic and how Harry is.

Sirius is also the one in this group Harry is closest to (yes, he knows Remus, but he wasn't as close to him as to Sirius, and if Harry met 18-year-old Peter he just might kill him on impulse or ensure he can't betray them again some other way). So Harry would probably still feel closest to him. I also think he misses him the most. I mean, he missed James and Lily all his life, he never really knew them — missing the concept of them is par for the course for him. Sirius and Remus, on the other hand, these griefs are new and so much more painful.

Personally, I like sending Harry back when the Mauraders (and him) are still at school. For more tension with James and so he wouldn't have the solution for the war already in his hands. Also, it could be really fun if he goes back in HBP, so it's after Sirius dies and after SWM. Also, he'd get to meet Snape (the prince) as he writes in the potions book and have a little breakdown over that too, so like, that could be fun.

It's not the most organized, becouse you can take this premise in many ways, but these are some of my thoughts. Obviously, Harry's reactions really depend on the exact circumstances and what kind of story you want to write.