#juxtaposition of good and evil | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

the-east-art · 27 days ago

Text

Code Lyoko Lets Go

Because a couple of ya'll (specifically @magicalpoptarts and @imjustheretofangirl003) invited me to infodump about Code Lyoko! So I will! There will be a readmore eventually cuz no way this is gonna be short.

Disclaimers first: I have not watched Code Lyoko in (ooof) probably a decade or so. This is what I remember which mostly means the parts of the show I enjoyed the most! That said you are welcome to fact check me by going to Youtube and watching the entirety of the show for FREE because it's all on youtube on Code Lyoko English Official. Hell yeah.

Code Lyoko is a French animated TV series from 2003 that ended in 2007. Code Lyoko, at a glance, is a Monster of the Week type show where four students at a boarding school combat an evil computer program by diving into a digital world. Very notably this show chose (in 2003!) the badass style choice to have the real world be 2D animation, and the digital world be 3D animation

Everyone has giant foreheads and I love it. Clearly the 3D animation is old, but I absolutely love the choice to have these two style going at once as a way to differentiate the two areas.

Our cast:

Odd Della Robbia - My fave. Usually relegated to Comedy Relief but also can be thought of as The Heart. His lyoko form is a kitty, what isn't there to love.

Ulrich Stern - More reserved and serious, he's the straight man to Odds' hijinks as well as roommates with Odd which creates *drama* between the two. He's athletic and has a lot of parental pressure.

Yumi Ishiyama - Also reserved, she's kind of a badass with both brawn (athletic) and brains (she can man the super computer which I'll talk about more later) She also has a lot of familial pressures - I think her and Ulrich are really meant to contrast and pair together (and indeed they are each others romantic interests). Her Lyoko outfit (ver 1) is one of my faves!

Jeremy Belpois - The computer genius nerd! The guy in the chair! He never receives a Lyoko Form (technically he went in there once but we never get to see what he looked like). He's a goal-oriented (workaholic) kind of guy and he's the one that first discovered the whole supercomputer.

Aelita Schaeffer - Just born yesterday character type, a significantly softer girl in juxtaposition to Yumi. She was a sentient, amnesiac being that already existed in the supercomputer when it woke up, and for a long time it isn't clear if she is a person or a program, and working to get her into the real world is a big plot point.

Xana - The big bad. the evil computer program. Xana I don't believe ever has an actual appearance, just different monsters and forms that it controls and manifests through. Xana wants to... destroy humanity. I don't remember if there's ever a reason given why, but Xana does a great job at being evil!

And that's the main cast! Honorable side character mentions

Jim is one of the teachers at the boarding school, a tough exterior and a heart of gold. He is usually the closest to discovering what the main cast is up to.

Sissy is the resident Mean Girl with a crush on Ulrich. She also ends up becoming closer to the cast and gets more depth over time.

Kiwi is Odd's dog that he hides in his dorm.

Edit: I forgot William but to be fair I don't really care about him lmao. He's a competing love interest for Yumi's affections. The group attempts to bring him into the fold and it does not go well. It's actually a good plot beat - for the group to try and bring in more help and for it to go poorly, which gives reasoning why they don't bring more people in in general. I just don't care for the love triangle.

The Plot:

One day, while looking for computer parts, Jeremy Belpois finds an abandoned factor and a giant computer inside of it.

After turning it on through the controller room he learns about a sentient computer program that lives inside of the computer that has just been awakened, named Aelita. Aelita has no memories and simply woke up in the strange digital landscape of Lyoko - a strange place that appears like a forest with trees like pillars and endless pits between pathways. She is attacked by strange creatures, and takes shelter in a place called a tower.

Unknowingly to Jeremy, this also woke up the evil program known as Xana. Xana can take over towers (which makes them light up red) to create a connection to the outside world. Through that connection Xana wreaks havoc through a variety of means. this can mean basically creating monsters from stuff like creating a monster teddy bear, taking over peoples minds, controlling electronics, etc. Xana has a wide variety of abilities and the show never really states limits but like, in a good way that means that it doesn't usually get *too* stagnant.

Eventually (I really don't remember how) Odd and Ulrich and Yumi get involved with Jeremy, who figures out the the cause of the strange things happening in the real world are coming from the super computer he woke up. With Odd as their guinea pig (and eventually the others join) they use a strange room to digitize their bodies - a person steps in, Jeremy runs some programs from the Lab/Interfacing room, and they appear in the digital world of Lyoko, leaving the scanner they were in empty.

Their appearances and powers in Lyoko are determined on some subconscious level. When they appear in Lyoko they fight the monsters there and do their best to help Aelita get to the towers. Aelita basically has a key integrated into her that she can use on towers to shut them down. When she does this, the screen lights up with 'Code: Lyoko' (WOAH THATS THE NAME OF THE SHOW)

After Aelita does this, Jeremy runs a program he calls 'Return to the Past' which sends the entire world back in time to whenever Xana activated the tower. This undoes all the damage that Xana causes in the real world, and the only people who remember the world being reset are people who have been to Lyoko before (the main cast, naturally, although the first time he did it Jeremy had not been to Lyoko before so he also forgot the events that occurred). A Return to the Past does NOT bring people back to life, however, which maintains the stakes of any given situation as property damage can be undone, but if someone is killed that isn't something that can be fixed.

This is pretty much how the episodes progress - The Lyoko Warriors (the main cast) have something happening at school (a dance, a test, they're learning something in Science) and Xana begins to interfere with the real world, usually in a way that directly affects one of the Main Cast. The main cast then need to find a way to escape to the Supercomputer and get into Lyoko (since they aren't actually allowed to leave the school grounds - the cast getting stuck because of teachers or because of other commitments is a common dramatic beat). They go there, beat the monster, and get Aelita in the tower. In the overarching story they work on figuring out who Aelita is and if they can get her out of the computer, who made the computer in the first place, and how to defeat Xana for good while also navigating interpersonal conflicts and teenage drama.

They're teens so they get to the factory through the sewers using skateboards and scooters. It's great.

Misc Stuff:

There are four sectors in Lyoko, providing some variation in vibes, but they're all pretty bare bones. Eventually they discover another sector that's like the heart of Lyoko which is also pretty simplistic (it was early animation idk what to tell you). THEN they learn that if they travel through the digital ocean they can go to OTHER Lyokos (which disappointingly all are like copies or look the same the one we're familiar with).

Speaking of the digital ocean, all of the land areas and platforms of Lyoko are over what is called the digital ocean. The digital ocean is dangerous for our protagonists - if they call into it their code will be lost and they will, unable to be brought back to the real world. There are several tense scenes where the main characters have to kill the other or kill one another BEFORE they fall into the ocean.

When the Main characters die in Lyoko they appear in the Scanner room visibly shaking and gasping, leading to the common belief that the pain they experience in Lyoko translates to real world pain - including the feeling of death!

In order for people to go to Lyoko someone in the lab room has to activate the scanner programs. This is usually Jeremy, but is sometimes Yumi and I think eventually Aelita can as well? But I like the way that certain characters need to be able to get out of whatever sticky situation they're in to get the whole thing working - a minimum of two people needed is nice. Jeremy eventually also is able to code various vehicles for the crew to use in Lyoko.

Initially Odd had a future sight ability but it gets taken away partway through season 1 and I will ALWAYS be bitter about that.

The show reuses A LOT of animation because of the tight budget. My last rewatch it started to bug me, but I probably wouldn't mind as much now. (the scanner animation they reuse is actually my fave I love it every time) It also has some real pacing issues where several episodes in a row can feel really repetitive as the characters bang their heads against a problem and it feels like it ends the same way every time.

Ultimately what I love about Lyoko is the characters and the concepts. It's a show I think is RIPE for a good remake and re-imagining. The using the two versions of animation was really clever, the teenage monster of the week was exactly the kind of thing I loved to fantasize about when I was a kid, wishing that was my life haha. The designs are fun, the stakes are good but not TOO serious, and a lot of the story and characters I think could be expanded on or changed, such as giving Xana more of a background and adding more variety to the Lyoko world itself. (and maybe fix some plot beats I am unsatisfied with?????)

There were some seasons after 2007 in like uhh 2013 or 2015 or something??? Called Code Lyoko evolution, but the 2D portions of the show were now live action. I uh, never watched it.

If you have any questions or want to chat more about Lyoko let me know!!!! I love this show!!!! I loved watching it without any context for what was going on as a kid and I miss it!!!!!

I also really like the Gargage Kids Pilot (The Code Lyoko short pilot). It has a lot in common with the end product but also a lot different! Ulrichs Lyoko design is a completely different model and Lyoko has more dimensionality to it, some of their powers look like they cross over to the real world, and the vibes of the supercomputer factory is way different. (warning though the CGI models are UHHH rough looking. This must have been like 2002? BE NICE OKAY)

#code lyoko #cl #aelita #odd #odd della robbia #aelita schaeffer #ulrich stern #yumi #jeremy belpois

83 notes · View notes

paperclipninja · 2 years ago

Text

Middle of the night GO thoughts after reflecting on a couple of comments that the 'you're being silly' scene is actually not just the adorable soft exchange I have been caught up in. I mean it is, but it also isn't.

And it got me thinking that the whole of season 2 is like this, almost the entire time we have two truths in play. The whole season is one of duality.

A few examples (there are many more woven throughout but just to illustrate the point):

Right off the bat, the opening scene, it's both ominous and hopeful. Aziraphale is restrained while angel Crowley full of abandon; one angel is aware of the danger of questioning, the other is naïve. Both are experiencing the same moment in rather different ways. It sets the tone of the season immediately and puts in motion this layered truth within the story.

The minisode with wee Morag and Elspeth, the entire graverobbing premise presents us with the dual truth that digging up the dead is bad but the selling of the bodies to the surgeon, thus contributing to saving lives, is good.

Aziraphale grapples with the duality here, justifying the actions of Elspeth by convincing himself that one truth is greater than the other. We also see that Crowley is far more able to recognise the complexity of multiple truths being valid depending on circumstance. This whole minisode feels like Neil showing his hand a little bit, the duality is so explicitly addressed, meanwhile we, the audience, are engaged in a larger unfolding story in which we are observing similar layered truths playing out in different ways.

Now the scene that made this whole thought process unravel, still one of my favourite scenes and will remain so, is the "smitten, I believe...you're being silly" exchange. It is both tender and awful.

Here we have Crowley, expressing his very real fear of JimGabriel, opening up to Aziraphale that he doesn't feel safe in the bookshop because of the constant fear he will wake up, and Aziraphale just looks at him with heart eyes and tells him he's being silly. This flags so loudly that we're watching two characters who are experiencing very different versions of their current reality, due to past experience, yes, but also, Aziraphale and Crowley each have their own idea about the right way to react to the current situation.

It's been pointed out by many before me, but the ball is another example of incredible juxtaposition and an extraordinary display of two truths existing at once. It is both incredibly romantic and an actual nightmare.

It is reflected, once again, in the way Aziraphale and Crowley are experiencing it, we know one character is caught up in the romance, the other in the horror show, but as a viewer, we are being tasked with holding both truths in our mind simultaneously. And both are true.

Aziraphale the entire season is both giddy in love and completely dismissive of Crowley. It is adorable and infuriating at the same time.

And yes, it is a reflection of the very duality the entire premise of Good Omens presents us with - that something can be good and bad at the same time, pure and corrupt, that the entire binary of Heaven and Hell/good and evil is flawed because those concepts can and do co-exist.

But the way it is seen in the interactions on a personal level this season is what has leapt out at me. It's why I think we see people falling into different interpretations of a lot of the scenes and moments, because they are more than that, they are observations. We are often observing two sides of the same coin, and both are true. The sheer genius of it and the way it is a mirror to the characters and the entire concept of the show we are observing is, quite frankly, mind boggling.

And it all comes to a head in the final fifteen™. There is so much duality in play here that it is no wonder there are hundreds of posts untangling bits of it and trying to extract the meaning from within the many layers. It's because we are given two truths in this final scene that are both heartbreaking.

Crowley loves Aziraphale and wants them to be together, free at last. Aziraphale loves Crowley and wants them to be together, free at last.

BUT

Aziraphale wants to use the system to keep them both safe. Crowley wants to escape the system to keep them both safe.

And then all the moments of duality between them throughout the season reach a critical juncture: Aziraphale in love but dismissive, Crowley understanding that Heaven = good is too simplistic and trying to compel Aziraphale to remember the lesson from Edinburgh ("when Heaven ends life here on Earth, it'll be just as dead as if Hell ended it"), Crowley trying to use the notion of romance to counter the nightmare with a desperate kiss.

It's a complete inversion of those two truths in the opening scene of the season, the entire scene is at the same time ominous and hopeful, but it is Aziraphale who largely being naïve and Crowley who is aware of the danger.

I mean, it was all spelled out for us really, this duality and the fact that those multiple truths in play were always going to come to a head. It was all there, wrapped up in this quote:

"What does your exactly mean, exactly? I feel like your exactly and my exactly are different exactlies".

#good omens #good omens meta #aziraphale #crowley #aziracrow #honestly don't know if this even makes sense #middle of the night thoughts and all that #good omens thoughts

983 notes · View notes

liittleemiixeer · 8 months ago

Text

I know this theory has already been thought but I wanna delve deeper into it. I think the man who appears at the end of s2 ep1 is Abel. I know there have been theories about him being a demon hunter, but some of the reasons I'm not that sure he is one are tied to the circumstances of his appearance and the context provided by the narrative.

[long rant ahead hehehe]

Both look unusually pale and have a similar face structure, and the contrast of white hair vs. black hair makes me believe he might be the abel to his cain lmao. The contrast suggests an obvious juxtaposition, as if they were meant to be two sides of the same coin.

We know Cain hasn’t visited Heaven in a long time, and his strained relationships with the other immortals hint at a larger, unresolved conflict (they basically gossip about him going against his own family). AND let's not forget the deeper context here. In the biblical narrative, they're the first children of Adam and Eve. Then, Cain kills Abel out of jealousy after God favors Abel's offering over his own. But what if in HSR Abel never truly died? What if he survived and is now on a mission to confront his brother, perhaps to stop him from causing further destruction or to seek vengeance for what he did to him?

If Abel somehow endured, it would make sense for him to appear now, especially after we’ve just learned about Cain’s alternative, more destructive form. Besides, the fact that Pileon, a demon, is the one who finds him is rather telling. If this character were a demon hunter, it seems unlikely that a demon would be the one to discover him in such a vulnerable state—bloodied, weakened, and seemingly at the end of a fierce battle. The timing of this man’s arrival—just as we uncover Cain's darker nature—is too precise to be coincidental.

As a philologist, plotwise, him being Abel would certainly make sense in the context of the story's themes—of survival, moral conflict, and the struggles between heavenly and demonic forces in a world devastated by apocalyptic events. His return could add a layer of depth to the ongoing narrative, representing a force of justice or redemption against Cain's darker tendencies.

Moreover, if this mysterious character were simply a demon hunter, his appearance might lack the same emotional and thematic weight. However, as Abel, his presence would be deeply significant and would make great storytelling. He would embody not just a force of opposition against Cain, but a figure who brings moral complexity and personal stakes to the narrative. He could even represent vengeance, adding layers to the conflict between good and evil in a world ravaged by apocalyptic forces.

With all that being said, if he ends up being a demon hunter or something completely different, I'd really like to see a compelling reason for it. Something that works as a plot device that deepens it even more. Since Alexandra is doing an amazing job with HSR, I don't doubt her, she'll excel at it!!!

#romance club #rc #rc lane #rc hsr #rc cain #heaven's secret requiem #rc heaven's secret requiem #rc theories

118 notes · View notes

venomvalley · 2 years ago

Text

THREE'S A COMPETITION

pairing: leon kennedy x reader x ada wong

summary: Both Ada and Leon have something to prove, and they choose you to settle the score.

words: 4.8k

warnings: 18+ for the love of god (threesome, reader has female-gendered anatomy but uses gender neutral terms, oral sex for everyone, orgasm denial, praise kink, light choking, rough vaginal sex, porn with feelings, smoking)

notes: this is my magnum opus and i dont think i will ever do this again (me when i lie) so enjoy it while u can!!! also ada and leon banter but do not touch each other bc this is about ME i mean US!

Within a lavish hotel, some ten-thousand miles from HQ, the three of you sit. The other side of the earth, a room bathed in shadow.

How you got here is an enigma. Why you’re here is even more lost on you. Half-bet, half-promise between your current lover and his ex. The desperate crawl of a long-lasting feud that refuses to die. The final form of brewing spite. A proving ground��your body declared the field.

This is more than good versus evil. Umbrella versus victim. Personal, vindictive.

The idea is both terrifying and… well. Extremely arousing.

Ada, perched on the edge of the bed, ever cool-countenanced, mysterious in a way only she can be. Beautiful and dangerous.

Leon, leaned back against the dresser, guarded by crossed arms and a straight-line mouth. He hides his thoughts well. Agreed to this on the principle of proving her wrong.

I know what we like, Leon. There’s no competition here when it’s fact.

And now, here you sit cross-legged on the bed, thumbing at the soft sheets. Sheets that will be ruined by the end of the night.

Ada tilts her head, brushes silky hair behind an ear. “Well? Do we just plan to sit here and stare at each other all night?” You meet her eye, and painted lips curl into a grin. “Come over here, beautiful.”

The woman is magnetic, voice a siren song that you find difficult to disobey, smooth to the ears, massages some repressed part of your brain. You understand now. Leon’s attachment to her. All the mystery, an opaque shroud that even you grew curious about at one point. Several, if you wish to be truthful.

She toes off her heels and turns to your approaching form. Reaches out a hand to steady you.

“Don’t worry about Leon. He’s a sore loser,” she says. Curls a hand around your waist, the other settling over your nape. Burning in their intensity. “Let’s get started.”

She kisses like she fights: dominating, moves with strict calculation until your breath grows heavy and a whine starts in your throat. Her tongue licks into your mouth, flicks soft against your own, and your hands rise to comb through her hair.

She pulls away with a hum, ghosts a thumb over your bottom lip. Teasing, a taste test. “My shade suits you. Don’t you think, Leon?” She takes your chin in hand to turn your head.

He pushes away from the dresser and walks toward you, eyes severe in their emotion. “Yeah. Cute.”

Anticipation thumps away at your chest. This is happening. It’s happening, and it’s weird and awkward and you’re already wet. A fact that should leave you embarrassed, but you buzz head-to-toe in anticipation.

What does that say about you? You don’t really care, if you’re being honest.

He lowers into a crouch before you and tugs up the hem of your dress, movements impatient, fingers hot as they map out the flesh of your thighs then hips then waist. Then you sit before them in just your underwear, and Ada breathes out a laugh.

“Sensitive, aren’t you?” she asks, glides a finger over the seat of your underwear. Laughs again when your hips seek her touch. “Wet already.”

A pair of lips attach to your neck, a flash of blond hair in your peripheral. He’s perfected your body. Knows exactly where to suckle, how to bite, when to ease off. You tilt your head to the side to provide easier access, arch your back when a pair of lips bite the curve of your breast.

Drowning. The only way you can describe it. Two opposite personalities, a direct juxtaposition between shows of confidence. Leon knows you, draws on muscle memory for his expertise, weakens you with ease. Ada knows the universal, guesses with frightening accuracy what makes you tick. She’s a people-reader, clever, skillful. A master of her craft.

You weren’t expecting an equal playing field. Not by a long shot.

Leon pulls away then pushes you back to the bed with a firm hand against your chest, lips twitching at your surprised huff.

Ada scoffs from between your legs. “I was in the middle of something.”

“Don’t be so slow next time,” he says. Shifts forward on his knees to hover over you, fingertips trailing the raw-suckled skin on your neck. “This shade suits you a lot better.”

Your chest flutters, a birth of butterflies as he smiles down at you. Short-lived when slim fingers spread your legs and tug aside your underwear, and you break his gaze to stare down the line of your body. Ada, bright-eyed and grinning, lipstick smudged from your kiss, hair the messiest you’ve ever seen it.

Leon’s quick to pull your attention back. Grabs you by the throat, kisses you hard on the mouth, and you curl a hand around his wrist in silent order to stay. To squeeze.

“They like it rough. Noted,” Ada says, warm breath fanning against the lips of your cunt, before the slick heat of her tongue jolts you.

Your jaw relaxes at the sensation, as she licks over you in long, languid strokes, and he pulls away. Presses a tender kiss to your cheek.

He understands the overwhelm, knows how difficult multitasking can be, and you sigh out in thanks. Couldn’t keep a rhythm if you tried, from the agile way she curls her tongue, her pleased hums when you bite back whimpers and moans. Too early into the night for you to succumb, to break apart.

She presses her tongue inside you, swirls up against sensitive nerves, pulls out to lick hard over your clit. You find it difficult to stay your hips, to still your hands, and Leon groans when you grope at the bulge inside his jeans. Cusses harsh under his breath.

When the pleasure grows, when your thighs begin to twitch and your breathing deepens, you cling to him with shaking fingers that dimple the muscle of his bicep. Press your forehead to his shoulder. Whine mournfully when she slides two fingers into you then pulls them back out.

“Oh, Leon. I almost don’t believe it.” She says it almost pitying, in such a sweet way that leaves you no choice but to look down at her.

After catching your eye, she spreads middle and ring finger, shiny beneath the light, your slick stringing between them. Tilts her head to inspect the sight, then sucks them into her mouth. Closes her eyes with a hum.

“Fuck me,” you hiss, drop your head back against the sheets, and Leon huffs out a breath.

“She’s a show-off.”

Ada slips both fingers back into your cunt, ends each smooth thrust with a curling pressure against your g-spot. “Show-off and confident are two very different things, though I can see how you’d confuse the two.”

Leon rises onto his knees. Fusses with the zipper of his jeans, and your vision starts to blur at the edges. Too much heat, too much sensation, and the sight of his heavy cock, ruddy at the tip and slicked with pre-cum seeks to fry your brain completely. “I figured insults would be above you by now.”

You curl both knees toward your chest, panting hard as numbing pleasure coils at the base of your spine, and she laves her tongue over the bud of your clit. Soothes a hand up the back of your thigh when you jolt. “I’m more interested in what’s below me. Aren’t you?”

You grip his pant leg until your knuckles drain of color, and he looks upon you with forest-fire reverence. A ruination that darkens his gaze, the soot of leftover trees—seeing you for the very first time. His cock twitches, drips sticky onto your belly.

That’s what this is, isn’t it. A shifting of roles, a different dynamic. He hasn’t seen you like this before. Ready to orgasm on someone else’s fingers and tongue. Very talented ones at that.

And Ada notices. Of course she does. She pulls away and leans back and you think to knee her in the jaw because you were right there, so fucking close. The beginning of the end, a white-heat char down to your bones. Until she crawls over you and brushes slick fingers against your bottom lip.

“Be good for me and open up,” she says, voice a calming purr. What else can you do but obey? Her fingers slide heavy against your tongue, and you close your eyes at the first taste of yourself. “No. Look at Leon.”

Again, you obey. Your eyes meet his as Ada presses deeper, and when you suck at her fingers, his jaw tenses beneath the skin. She pulls out, gives you an open-mouthed kiss, drags a hand down the valley of your breasts.

Leon drips onto your belly again, and this time, she notices. Gives a short-tempered scoff. “Leon, you’re making a mess.”

“Can you blame me?”

She gazes down at you, reverence akin to blue flame, scorching in its severity. Drags fingertips over the curve of your twitching belly. “I guess not.”

You reach out to her. Dip a finger beneath the hem of her dress. “It’s unfair that you’re the only one fully dressed.” You sound as fucked-out as you must look, throat flayed raw, words slurring together.

“So you can speak.”

“Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I haven’t really had the chance.”

She coughs out a laugh, tugs her dress up and off. “You should really take a break from Leon.”

He pulls you into a sitting position, keeps a hand on your back when you find yourself unsteady. When you find that all the blood in your body has pooled between your legs. “And you never appreciated my jokes.”

She’s beautiful bathed in moonlight, slivers of pale that cut through the curtains. Slender, toned by her work.

A mercenary, you remind yourself, who deals with the enemy. But you left that shit at the door. Made a promise to each other that, for tonight, none of it matters.

You suppose that they’re no strangers to this arrangement.

The thought sours your stomach.

A slim hand rests on your knee, and when you look over, she tilts her head. Dissects you with dark eyes. Whatever she sees makes her hum, pulls her closer. “I think our little bird is having second thoughts.”

Your face numbs, almost in shame. “No. No, it’s not—“ You stop yourself with a shake of your head. Swallow thick. “Is this really just about me?”

“Who else has it been about, my dear?”

An arm circles around your waist, coaxes you into a recline against Leon’s chest. He presses a kiss to the curve of your shoulder, follows with his nose the line of your jaw. His cock fits heavy against your lower back. “It is very much about you. I would never lie about that.”

Ada’s brow furrows. “For the record, I wouldn’t either.” Despite knowing what you know, the roots of her manipulation, you believe her. She doesn't seem the type to go this far, to wield sex like ammunition after knowing how vulnerable you’ve made yourself. But you could be wrong. You often are about these things.

Still, you believe both of them in good faith, and the inner turmoil eases.

When your body relaxes, the room ceases its tension. Ada understands to keep her distance, to allow you the chance to decompress within the cage of Leon’s arms. She understands, but she stays. Keeps that hand on your knee.

It’s tender, uncharacteristic—no, that’s unfair. You only know her through anecdotes, glimpses of red, the ghost that has haunted your years-long relationship. None of your assumptions have been fair, and that’s on you.

Okay. You’re okay. A conclusion that you share aloud.

“You’re sure,” Leon says, more statement than question, and you nod your head.

Ada leans forward, slots her lips against yours in a sweet kiss, pulls back just enough to say, “Maybe we should let you decide. How do you want us?” Her tone registers quiet, serene to the ears. A gentle nudge, a reassurance. Appreciated.

“Lay back,” you say, and she obeys, a perfect mirror to earlier orders. A flip of the dynamic.

You feel powerful. Unbelievably so.

When you turn in Leon’s arms, his gaze softens. He offers up a precious smile, wide and adoring, and you’ve never loved anybody more in your entire life.

“You sure you’re okay?” he whispers, and you kiss him in response. Pump a fist over the length of his cock until he groans into your mouth.

You glance over your shoulder to Ada, say, “I’ll be right with you,” and your chest soars when she laughs out all breathy. A pretty sound, like mid-spring windchimes.

You scoot back then bend over to take him into your mouth, softened down to half-hardness. An oops on your part. Nothing a conveniently-placed tongue can’t fix.

For every detail he knows about your body, you know his just as well.

“The view is picturesque from here,” Ada says. A hand curves over your ass, fingers dancing close to your labia. “I wish I had a camera on me.”

Leon sighs out shaky, breath ending on a moan when you swallow half his length and hollow your cheeks. And you try not to think about the fingers sinking into your cunt, lest you lose your rhythm or damn it altogether.

“Think mine’s better,” he pants, as you quicken the bob of your head and gently massage his balls with a cupped hand, and he spreads his knees further apart—a welcome of the sensation, a form of begging that you’ve familiarized yourself with.

The pleasure from before begins to build, settles a brew in your belly, between your legs. Filled at both ends by two different people, connected by such strange circumstances, laving you with their attention and expertise and it’s too much in the best possible way.

The head of his cock chokes off your moan when it enters the sheath of your throat, and a large hand encircles the back of your head. A light pressure that leaves sparks setting off between your legs. You swallow around him, Ada adds a third finger, and she makes a noise of surprise when you gag then clamp down on her fingers.

You pull away to gasp, rest a cheek atop his thigh, and milk him with a slick fist. Ada proves relentless against your g-spot, relentless in the silk of her voice, forming words meant to tease, to edge you closer, a master of composure. All fueled by your bitten-off moans and chest-deep whimpers and your heart is fit to burst inside your chest. Leon fares no better above you. The faster her hand moves, the faster yours does. Until his thigh tenses beneath your cheek and he tugs your hand away with a heaving sigh and a cant of strong hips.

Still, she doesn’t stop. You push back against her hand, a silent desperation, a begging that she insists you vocalize.

“Ada. Ada, please, please, can I cum? Please?”

She stops. Pulls out and away—what is this, the second time now? The third? Your body has been reduced to static numbness. Your brain is nothing but slush. You know you’ve puddled up the sheets by now.

You take back everything you said. Fuck her.

“That’s cruel. Even for you.” Leon’s tone teases a smile, and you force yourself up to your knees. Utterly betrayed.

“Good things come to those who wait. Pun very much intended.”

“Maybe she’s better left out from now on,” he says to you, pulls you close with a hand curled about your waist.

Ada stops you with her own, plants a kiss on the side of your neck that sends you to shudders.

“Face me, beautiful. I want to show you something,” she says. You glance back at Leon long enough to watch him roll his eyes. “Pay no mind to him. You’ll enjoy this.”

You straddle his hips and he curls an arm around your middle, just beneath your breasts. Presses a tender kiss to your cheek, then your jaw, then the racing pulse of your neck. Your cunt swallows him down to the base with a wet schlick, tight and velvety and so fucking good, and he groans through clenched-shut teeth.

You bounce on him for a few shuddering moments, a half second of emptiness before the delicious fill. He’s hotter, harder than you’ve ever felt him. Almost trembles beneath you, thighs tense in an effort to hold himself back.

A slick heat curls over your clit and you gasp out, clutch tight around his cock, drop your head back onto his shoulder. Ada braces her hands against your thighs when you attempt to close them. An overwhelm of the senses, a shock of coiling pleasure, and you ground your body with a tight fist of her hair.

They aid each other in lifting you up, both you and him on your knees, a hand wound about your neck to keep you angled back—enough for Leon to begin long, languid thrusts. Your breath catches in your throat, and you choke out a mewl when Ada seals her lips around your clit and suckles.

Every muscle in your body goes rigid. Your lungs seize. Never. Never have you felt like this before. So fucking good, an uncontrollable pleasure, a hand forced flat atop a burning plate. You think you might die like this. Might faint from slick tight thick circling—she seeks to rend you apart, and each glide of his cock sends you closer. An abyss, a nothingness. What was this even about? How did you even get here?

It doesn’t matter. It doesn't goddamn matter anymore.

You catch your breath on a sob, body jerking to get away, to press closer. You need more. More. More please god please more—

“Harder, Leon, please—“

The hands about your waist squeeze tighter, and he angles his hips to fuck up into you, cockhead brushing against sensitive nerves in long, heavy pumps that empty your freshly-working chest of breath.

He exhales staccato whines as you tighten around him, as Ada hums against your flesh.

“That’s it. So good for us, aren’t you?” he pants. Cuts off his own words to pull you closer, an embrace almost crushing, as if willing your bodies to meld together.

His hips begin to slap against your ass, and you would be jolting if not for Ada’s grip on your hips. If not for the cage of his own arms.

Your orgasm hits in a sudden wave that leaves you trying to curl in on yourself. You flutter around his cock in a tight rhythm, and Ada laughs against your flesh—you know she feels it, too. Neither of them let up, grant you a break. Keep the same intensity that led you to drowning as you are now.

When the aftershocks subside and they still continue, and the overwhelm morphs into pleasure-pain, you cry out with a sharp fuck! and shove Ada’s head away. Leon slides out of you and sits back his haunches. Without them bracing your worn body, you collapse into a heap amongst the dampened sheets, into the musk of cologne and perfume and woodsmoke sex.

“Okay—“ you pause a moment to heave for breath. To swallow with a dry click. Someone hands you a glass of water. The other helps you sit up, and you guzzle down the entire thing. “Okay, no more orgasms for me. Fucking christ, there’s no way that was just one.”

“At least three, I think,” Ada says, reclined back on the bed with a sharp, boastful grin. “I told you that you’d like it, didn’t I?”

If the wet spot on the sheets has anything to say.

But now that you’re sated, they’re… not. She glistens between the legs, a coat of clear honey that you need more than want to lick off. And when you glance back at him, he smiles in that pained way you recognize as I’m gonna be nice and respect your wishes but I need to cum so bad it hurts.

A new plan, then. Their needs breathe into you a second wind. You settle on knees and elbows between Ada’s spread legs, arch your back to welcome the stretch of his cock. In one glide, he bottoms out, balls tight against your clit. Levels out a breath as he twitches inside you.

Beneath you, Ada smiles. Low-lidded, luxurious. Plucks a dusky nipple between thumb and forefinger. The most captivating woman you’ve ever known. Arguably the most beautiful.

“I haven’t done this in a while, so,” you dissolve into a sigh when Leon spreads the cheeks of your ass and quickens his thrusts, breathing out a stuttering sigh.

Saintlike, she finishes your thought with a reassurance, swiping a thumb over your cheek. “It’s like riding a bike, sweet thing.”

Between choked-off moans, you manage to lick over her with the flat of your tongue. She tastes just like you thought she would, earthen and musky, and the jolt of Leon’s hips presses you further against her.

Drowning. Bathed in fire. She curls a hand over the back of your neck and sinks into the sheets. Once again, bathes you in lulling praise, and your nose bumps against her clit as you sink your tongue into her. Keeping a rhythm proves difficult, with the way Leon grows increasingly desperate. Close. His noises give it away, closed-mouth whines that he expels freely, that leave you clenching tight around him.

You replace your tongue with a finger, then another when her cunt squelches around you, sucks both down to the largest knuckle. She moans when your lips latch onto her clit, when your tongue curls tight over the sensitive flesh.

Leon’s fingers dig hard into your hips. Ada’s nails bite into the skin of your neck. So much attention, sensation, the pleasure-pain that you welcome as heat begins to coil in your gut all over again.

He peaks first. Fills you sticky and thick, breathes hot and groaning over your back. You tighten around him, follow each jerk of his cock as Ada’s thighs twitch underhand.

His warmth leaves you, the mattress beside you dipping with his weight, and he gives a loving caress to the expanse of your calf as you work her over—with her heavy grip on your head, you couldn’t move if you tried.

Unlike Leon, she’s quiet when she cums. Breathes heavy and slow, laves you with pet names, with so good, that’s it, just like that. Flutters tight around your fingers. Tilts her hips up to meet your mouth.

By the time she pushes your head away, your mouth and chin are wet with her slick. She collapses to the bed, sated and huffy, coaxes you over with a wave of manicured nails.

“With a performance like that, I just might take you home with me.” She wipes your face with a corner of the sheet, and Leon makes a noise in his chest, already half-asleep. “All jokes, I promise… maybe.”

You’re exhausted. A bone-deep satiation that leaves your limbs watery, that leaves you envious of Ada’s composure—minus her ruined makeup and flushed cheeks.

You’re exhausted, but you wake Leon long enough to tuck him beneath the sheets, and he reaches out to you, a silent request to join him. How could you ever resist?

Ada disappears off the bed as he curls around you, breath hot against the back of your neck. A few moments before his chest evens out in rhythm, and Ada crosses the room before you to sift through her bag. Pulls out a pack of cigarettes.

“You smoke?”

She turns to you with a shrug, a figure kissed by windowed moonlight, dark eyes filled with starshine. “Only after sex.”

You slip from beneath the covers, the heaviness of Leon’s arm, and move to join her. “Don’t tell me you bought a whole pack for this.”

“It’s a special occasion,” she says, swipes an affectionate thumb over your bottom lip. “Want one?”

After removing the plastic and the foil—a fresh pack—she offers up a cigarette. “Why not?” One you take.

You don’t smoke often, if ever. Took on the habit during a bout of teenage rebellion, but Leon hates it. Caught you once after a stressful mission and lectured for half an hour like a disappointed father.

But he’s asleep, and you deserve to indulge sometimes.

Well. Maybe you indulge a little too much.

She leads you onto the balcony, over to the cushioned chairs and the side table already prepped with an ashtray.

“So. Did you have fun?” she asks, and the spark of flame bathes her features in soft orange.

She’s kind enough to spark your own cigarette, cupping her hand to shield the lighter from the wind. “Of course I did. It was… well, a lot better than I expected.”

“What did you expect?”

“That’s my point.”

Her mouth widens into a grin, smoke curling in front of her face. “I had fun, too.” She glances over to the room you just left, sinking back into her chair. “Leon clearly did.”

“I think we might’ve killed him, actually.”

The two of you share a laugh. A soft thing that mingles with the breeze and the thick curl of smoke. Tender, intimate.

“He really loves you, doesn’t he?”

You look through the windows of the balcony to where he lay, stretched out beneath the sheets, moonlight paling the features of his sleeping face. “I hope so.”

“No. He does. Trust me.” Smoke billows from her lips as she speaks, and she flicks her ashes into the tray. “What we had… well, I see the way he looks at you. It’s different.”

You huff out a laugh, take a slow drag of your cigarette. “It’s so funny. You’ve always been this looming shadow. A ghost from his past that I constantly felt like I had to outwin. I was jealous of you for so long.” Beneath the stars, she’s even more beautiful. All smeared makeup and soft features. “But I get it. You’re mesmerizing.”

She laughs—genuine and warm, a stretch of straight white teeth. “I’m flattered. But there was never a competition. It was always you.”

From your peripheral, he stirs. Rolls away from the window, pulls the covers over his head. Your cigarette burns bright orange. Lipstick stains the filter.

“I should probably work on my insecurities, huh?”

She crosses her legs at the knee, skin brushing warm against yours. “You’re good for him. Better than I ever was. Don’t ruin that.” You give her a soft nod, and she tilts her head. Seeking something in the features of your face. “I’m serious. He deserves peace for once in his life.”

“That’s all I’ve ever wanted to give him.”

She holds pain. Lots of it. Unspoken, compartmentalized, swallows it down like sharded glass. It’s in her eyes when she looks at you again.

“Was this ever about the bet?” you ask, moving closer. Breathing in the smoke she exhales.

“You’d really like to know.”

“That’s why I asked.”

She looks down at her hand a moment, inspects the burn of the cigarette, and you expect her to answer with silence.

But she adjusts her posture, leans back against the chair. Looks up at you beneath long lashes. “No. That’s all I’ll say.”

“You really can’t give me any more than that?”

Her eyes roam the features of your face, eyes that grow soft, lidded. “You have nothing to worry about. Not from me, at least.”

“That’s not what I’m asking.”

“I know. But you look like you need the reassurance anyway.”

You don’t understand her, and maybe that’s the point. She speaks in riddles, protects her intentions inside the locked-up cage of her chest.

You wonder if anybody knows the real her. Ada, beneath all the glamor and the mystery. Does she even know herself?

With a quiet sigh, she extinguishes her cigarette, burned all the way down to the filter.

“You’re leaving,” you say. More statement than question.

“I’ve overstayed my welcome.”

She leans over the arm of your chair. Slots her lips over yours in a tender kiss, warm and languid. Soothes a hand down your chest. A goodbye.

“Take care of yourself, my dear.”

A small peck, a lipstick-smudge gift to leave you with.

“I should be telling you that.”

“Oh, I’m always careful.”

You watch from the balcony as she sneaks inside. Begins gathering her clothes, packing her things. Every bit the ghost you’ve always tied her to. Every bit the entrancing woman you’ve learned her to be.

She leaves as quickly as she arrived. Leon never stirs.

You smother your cigarette and go to him, curling up beneath the sheets again, and he greets you with a rosy, sleep-drunk smile. And you find it impossible to love him more, but you do somehow.

Ada was right. This was never a competition.

#resident evil #re4r #leon kennedy x reader #ada wong x reader #leon kennedy fanfic #ada wong fanfic #my fics #ns/ft #fic: three’s a competition

2K notes · View notes

i-need-of-a-hobby · 4 months ago

Text

i have so so so SO MANY thoughts about tdp s7, which i will break screaming about in the coming days (sorry for anyone following me for my frequent ramblings on dbd or the marauders, who now gets me shedding tears over a kids show)

but what i want to start this is: claudia still thinks of herself as a good person, and i think that's absolutely fascinating.

i don't know if it's delusion or trauma or both but even after everything she'd done, claudia still tells soren "im still nice, i'm still me" and she means it. she genuinely thinks that the killing and violence she's participated in is justified, and while i do think there's a lot to be said on the nuances of who is considered "good" or "evil" in this show, i think most of us can agree that she's too far cross the line to be considered a misunderstood hero.

but there's also the juxtaposition she creates here, since her own heroic status casts soren as a villain in her story. and in her final scene with him, she may have a point. soren told terry he was willing to do whatever it takes to stop aaravos, while claudia refuses to kill him.

i genuinely don't know how i feel about it all but i will be posting more rants soon

#tdp #the dragon prince #the dragon prince season 7 #tdp s7 spoilers #tdp claudia #tdp soren #mystery of aaravos

89 notes · View notes

larsisfrommars · 2 months ago

Text

It makes me insane that the solution to making Xander Harris less frustrating is (to me) genuinely and blatantly being motivated by complex reasons for hating vampires and not just feeling rejected by Buffy over Angel. Or at least if that’s what was even partly intended in-canon they could’ve made it more obvious.

To elaborate there isn’t actually a lot I would change about the character other than his more hurtful/negative actions having more direct consequences. Regardless of whether/how much he’d learn from those consequences. I think characters are more fun flawed and messy and confrontational!

Xander’s unnuanced distrust/hatred for Angel would be SO much more interesting if it wasn’t in large part about not getting in Buffy’s pants. It makes him look overwhelmingly petty and selfish when it (and he!) could be framed in a much cooler way. If only they’d let him actually express WHY he feels the way he does. Instead of just, y’know, being confrontational and not getting into the root of the issue.

There’s evidence in the text that could’ve taken his story in this direction too! Jesse and his death as a human and his death as a vampire (by Xander’s hand, if only by accident) should’ve mattered more to the overall story! Xander being gung-go about killing vamps and other monsters could’ve been more about revenge and a genuine desire to not let anyone else experience that!

I honestly think what makes him structurally unsound as a character aside from the typical Whedon-isms assigned to him; are the same problems the story has as a whole with constantly contradicting itself on whether vampires are actually inherently evil and unredeemable on the whole or not and what a soul even means/does when you have one.

This is canon in my head, and it’s also so important to me that the deaths that the show glazes over matter. I want characters like Jesse and Kendra to haunt the narrative WAY more. I like Xander more than most people and I cuss out the writers’ internally for doing him soooo dirty istg when the whole concept of diving deep into the fact that “The Heart” of Buffy hating vampires more than anything, in juxtaposition with Buffy’s integral attraction to them can be SO good.

#just watched revelations #where Xander expressed in equal measure the reasons I hate and also love him #messy messy bastard #meta #btvs #BtVS meta #Xander Harris #xander harris meta #Nicholas Brandon #buffy the vampire slayer #buffy summers #angel btvs

65 notes · View notes

primediscipleofthekingofthieves · 2 months ago

Text

I'm a little late to this because it was episode 41, but if I may Worlds Beyond Number post on main for a second,

There is that moment when Suvi is coming to terms with the fact that she is using the justification machine to tell a story on behalf of an unalloyed good, and that those lies look the same regardless of what they are used for. They feel the same regardless of whether they are rationalized as 'good' or 'evil' and the mechanics of it are the same.

At that moment Ame is using her little folk magic and pocketfuls of remedies, to poison, to harm, in that casual way that she has. There is a consistency of witches, an ease with which their workings mold the world, that looks the same regardless of whether you try to understand them as 'good' or 'evil' and I think it was a fun juxtaposition.

#worlds beyond number #wbn pod #the wizard sky #ame the witch #the wizard the witch and the wild one

44 notes · View notes

crowdusk · 3 months ago

Text

One Piece Chapters 1134 + 1135

SUMMARY (I simply cannot be concise so I thought I'd add summary points for anyone who doesn't want to read a whole long piece. Clown music though because even the summary is long. I can't help it.)

Also you can find previous Elbaph thoughts/predictions here.

I believe Elbaph’s current culture of peace and absolute non-violence came from Harald (who was probably an idealist) and Mother Carmel, who was – and is still – seen as a holy woman and saint by the giants. Her rhetoric was all about ‘everyone living together in peace’ in a superficial, unrealistic and one-dimensional way that hid and enabled a lot of violence. Including, of course, her literal job providing military assets to the World Government in the form of orphaned children to be made into spies and soldiers.

Mother Carmel’s infiltration may have led to Harald developing a relationship with the World Government (which he probably wanted Elbaph to become a part of), while we know that the Five Elders are wary of giants and have always sought to co-opt their strength. This might explain how the two Holy Knights looking for Loki were able to teleport into the castle (I believe there must be physical rules/limitations to the magic circle transport, e.g. some kind of physical anchor to the place you’re going).

This arc is going to look at and explore questions around peace and violence. Peace by and for whom? For example, ‘peace’ can look like the people at the center of society living without disturbance or discomfort while those on the margins suffer and are silenced (neoliberalism). Peace as defined by the absence of overt conflict doesn’t mean there is no harm or violence – it can be repression, manufactured consent, etc. True peace cannot be imposed from the top, it must be collectively built. And so forth. Conversely, violence and conflict are sometimes necessary to protect what you care about (your treasures), as we see with the Strawhats. Creating a peaceful and knowledge-centric society doesn’t have to be at odds with warrior culture, since being willing to put your life on the line is important in some instances. What will happen if external factors threaten Elbaph’s treasures?

Last review, I talked about how I think one of this arc’s central themes will be the juxtaposition of reality and fiction, truth and lies, stories and lived experiences. Illusions will shatter and false gods/idols will fall – I think the giants’ idolisation of Mother Carmel and Harald will end, one way or another. For the latter, I don’t necessarily think he was evil. More so that he was just one person who made mistakes and had flaws, rather than a perfect king who only ever brought wonderful changes to Elbaph. On the other hand, Loki may not be a god but he could have the powers of one, and I think the first impressions we got of him will be changed and shown to be misinformation to recast him in a more positive light. I think he had a good reason to kill his father, and that the events of Harald’s death are another false story that must be clarified. Oda loves a good character twist. (Honestly if Harald turns out evil, I’m here for it).

I also said in my last piece that I thought there would be internal divisions, and I still think this is going to be the case. For example, we don’t know why Hajrudin initially left Elbaph – could part of it have been feeling stifled by the loss of warrior traditions? This would make sense, since he wanted to follow in Dorry and Brogy’s footsteps. However, I think we might just see more of a spectrum of positions, rather than, say, two clear factions. Nevertheless, I still think the Strawhats will have to bring a lot of people together to fight a bigger antagonist, maybe even including Loki (as the potential king??) – but they’re pretty good at that.

Last time I wrote about 1132, I was still a little unsure about Loki’s vibe, but I didn’t think he would be the big villain. This is now pretty much confirmed for me and I think will become even clearer once we get the truth of his backstory. The more we see of him, the more we see a silly side – one that hides genuine care for people under a violent and fearsome facade. I think he’ll probably end up as an ally (even if he’s still morally ambiguous). Classic case of Luffy’s gut being right once again. I am particularly interested, though, in what this means about Loki’s proclamation that he’s the sun god who will destroy the world. Is it metaphor? Does he want to declare war on the WG? Is he still going to do some fucked up things? Unclear. But I still think divinity, myth and belief are key to Loki’s character and his juxtaposition with Luffy, and I’m interested to see exactly how.

I wrote about strength after chapter 1132, and I still think it’s going to be an important theme. What I’d like to add is that I think it will be specifically about strength in relation to pride, and warrior culture in general. Essentially, it will be about why people fight. Why people want to be strong, and why they take pride in it. The Strawhats fight for what they care about, especially people. This also includes things that carry the wills of people who have died, like the books of Ohara, or even the concept of people’s dreams. This arc will look at warrior culture, and the difference between a warrior society and an oppressive/hegemonic society which uses violence (fear and the threat of death) for extraction and control. Fundamentally, all these themes are about power in relation to collective freedom, and what it means to live a good life. There is rightful pride in being able to fight from a place of knowledge and connection, to fight for what you love and believe in (including people’s freedom) as opposed to the soulless genocide and extraction from those considered less deserving of life.

I think the declaration of the warriors at the feast might also be a foreshadowing of exactly what the Strawhats will do in Elbaph. Understanding and protecting their ancestral pride as warriors, and helping them reconnect to it as a country. Freeing them from ignorance (revealing the truth of what really happened with Carmel, Harald, and Loki). And saving them from being destroyed (this one’s pretty self-explanatory, but I believe it will be to do with Yggdrasil).

Ok if you’re here for the full whammy, yay! SO MUCH HAPPENED IN TWO CHAPTERS. GAH. Let’s just get straight into it.

So, in chapter 1134, we open with the strawhats meeting Saul outside the library. I don’t have much to say about this part thematically (same with the previous chapter) because I think it’s pretty straightforward. I’ll summarise: I loved it, Luffy poorly copying Jinbe was extremely funny, the reunion did actually make me cry, and I am forever crying over Robin just – being happy now. Being relaxed, content, smiling more, bonding with Bonney. My heart, my heart.

We also see Lilith introduce herself to Saul as Vegapunk, and explain to him (and us, for the first time!) that she has brought a “perfect re-creation” clone of Vegapunk with her. She plans to settle down in Elbaph and build a new lab. Ok, cool. Honestly, I’m a little eh about a Stella comeback (because I think it’s more interesting for him to be embodied by just his satellites) but just because that’s the plan doesn’t mean it’ll go smoothly, or happen for sure. On the other hand, I’m genuinely pleased that there’s a potential to bring Kuma back, not that he was ever never actually dead. We’ve had so many hints that there’s hope for him. Plus, he’s one of the characters that truly just went through the worst of the worst over and over for the sake of liberation and his loved ones, holding onto faith throughout. I think he deserves to be a father and be happy, I don’t care if that’s cheesy. But again, no guarantee that will actually happen.

Love and Light Only

We then see the Walrus School where the children are educated and hear that it was founded 20 years ago by Saul, at the behest of the former king, Harald. Once again, huge huge kudos to the assistants because wow. I want to live there. What follows is Luffy’s encounter with some of said children, who turn out to be, well, absolute wimps. They don’t use ‘bad’ or potentially insulting words, and they’re not going to be setting out to sea to fight ruffians when they’re older. They’re learning in school, rather than being trained to be warriors. In fact, as their teacher Ripley tells us, being a warrior nowadays isn’t fashionable, because “insults, violence, pillaging, war” are just “not the world we live in anymore”. [Side note: the number of beautiful giant women Oda is giving us??? It's tough out here for a gay]. Absolutely nothing even close to violence or antagonism are allowed, not even petty insults, specifically by the children, which tells us this is very much the way they’re being raised and taught. It’s giving weird, cloying, toxic positivity. I was even going to say there is no war in Ba Sing Se, but I don’t think we’re dealing with brainwashing here – just insularity and idealism.

We see this reinforced by the repeated mentions that Elbaph has very little connection to the outside world – they don’t pay attention to it, they don’t get news coos, they just mind their own business. Interestingly, we also know that any “intruders” immediately get captured (presumably to be vetted and potentially kept out if they risk disturbing the peace). I honestly can’t remember if the news coo thing has come up before in the context of non-WG countries, but I don’t think so? Anyways, that’s pretty bad. Like, if a country isn’t in the World Government (which, remember, requires paying literal tribute to the Celestial Dragons) they just don’t get information about what’s happening in the world? Wild stuff. In some ways maybe that’s protective, but in other ways, extremely dangerous.

On the topic of language, we also immediately see ways in which these cultural rules are being broken. The way Ripley speaks is rougher, as she herself calls the kids brats and says she teaches by “negative example” (do as I say not as I do). So we’re seeing a clear generational rift in culture between what Ripley later says is the “last generation of warriors” (presumably she’s around the same age as Hajrudin, Loki, Rodo, Gerd etc) and the current children. When we meet Collun, we also immediately see that the way the other children treat him isn’t exactly kind. Despite strictly following rules around things like name-calling, they outright say they hate him. He replies in kind, but it’s not hypocritical of Collun in the way it is for the other children. He’s clearly the rough “wild child” who’s following the older warrior culture, whereas the ways in which the educational system is teaching ‘non-violence’ clearly doesn’t preclude them from excluding or being rude to a kid who’s different from them. In fact, they’re just following the rules and it’s ok to be mean to him because he’s always causing trouble and not following the rules, so he deserves it. They even basically imply why are you here. I think this kind of petty behaviour isn’t abnormal or horrendous for kids, but it does highlight to me that the kind of ‘peaceful’ culture Elbaph is aspiring to feels extremely one-dimensional, oversimplified, and somewhat superficial. Even the way Ripley talks about it feels so smoothed out and idealistic, which is strange coming from the mouth of someone who still looks and behaves like a warrior. What happened from one generation to the next?

Ripley goes on to say Harald’s policy was “don’t fight other countries – trade with them!” Sound familiar? Yeah. Those were exactly Mother Carmel’s ideas for the giants a hundred years ago, when she lived on Elbaph. This was following the dissolution of the Giant Warrior Pirates because Dorry and Brogy had started their century-long duel on Little Garden, when she appeared as a “wandering holy woman” and ‘saved’ some of their crew from execution by beseeching the marines for forgiveness and an end to violence. The giants understandably see her as a saviour and saint who performed a miracle. We only learn later that this was a stunt pulled in collaboration with the marines and the World Government, which allowed her to gain the trust of the giants and infiltrate Elbaph as a child trafficker.

Now, I’m not saying Harald was aware of Carmel’s true nature, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was inspired by/agreed with what she was saying, thus starting Elbaph’s current era of ‘peace’ with the Giant Warrior Pirates out of the way. Carmel was a perfect human link to the WG who could help Harald carry out his ideas, while her saviour position in the eyes of other giants helped him convince his people. This is important, because that means this peace was potentially built with a foundation of deceit tied to military strategy. Carmel wasn’t operating alone – she was specifically selling orphaned children to the WG to be marines, spies and agents. We see her talking to and dealing with CP0, who work directly under the Celestial Dragons and the Five Elders. Mother Carmel was a morally putrid money-hungry old hag, yes, but she was also an instrument of the WG. We also know that the WG has long been interested in harnessing and controlling the power of giants (from Carmel talking about getting giant children into the navy, like John Giant, to MADS’ and later Caesar’s gigantification experiments). In a world based on power inequality, oppression and authoritarian domination, the giants are military assets – if only they can be assimilated into the system. And who is easier to indoctrinate and control than children?

To be clear, I think peace with a focus on education and knowledge is great! I would love for the world to be that way. And I definitely don’t think the “goal” of this arc should be to renounce those ideals or simply go back to being a completely war-based culture. Knowledge is extremely important in One Piece – that’s quite literally a central theme of the whole series. And of course, we are shown time and time again how horrific and devastating war is. However, history – why and how things come to be is crucial. Is something coming from people’s informed collective desires, or is it coming from the decision of one person/a few people? Is it something that benefits everyone? Is it growth from a place of understanding, or historical amnesia and bypassing material reality? The truth is that right now, the One Piece world isn’t past “violence, insults, pillaging, war”. It’s very much full of those things, specifically because it is rife with inequality. Elbaph so far has been sheltered from these problems, but what happens if the problems come to them?

This is one of the central questions I believe Elbaph is going to grapple with. What is peace, and what is violence? How can true peace be created? Can violence truly be eradicated from the world? What different kinds of violence are there?

I think the books from Ohara, the Owl Library and Yggdrasil are going to be of crucial importance to these questions. We know that Yggdrasil is extremely important to Elbaph, and we also know that accumulated collective knowledge and education – as represented by the books – are beyond precious. So, the giants have something to protect that isn’t just their own lives: they have a collective treasure. I wouldn’t be surprised if threats to these treasures are the catalyst for the giants’ reconnection to their warrior natures. Pillaging and engaging in violence just for the sake of it or for sadistic pleasure is unnecessary and cruel, but being a fighter and a warrior in order to protect what one cares about – one’s treasure – is important. All the warrior cultures we’ve seen so far in One Piece have shared this reason for their strength, from the Shandorans protecting their sacred ancestral lands and history, to Wano with Pluton, and the Minks with their poneglyph and Zunesha.

Elbaph can be a peaceful nation that focuses on education and knowledge, and still be able to protect that knowledge if necessary through maintaining relationship to the core aspects of their warrior culture: honour, courage, strength, skill, freedom, etc. I think that’s also where pride can sit, in the space of being strong enough to do what’s needed to protect life, dreams, love, and what we care about. This is, after all, what we see time and time again in pirates like Luffy and the Strawhats – that fighting and strength are absolutely not everything, and look different for everyone, but are ultimately important to protecting what’s important to us. There is pride in embracing one’s dreams, taking action, resisting oppression and injustice, and having a strong relationship to life and death as warriors do. As an aside, I do think Usopp will be a key person who inspires this shift and re-invigorates the giants’ pride (big speech time!).

Ideals and Idols

Two things jumped out at me in this section of the chapter. The first is that multiple people have referred to Harald as a “great king”, or something along the lines of ‘beloved by everyone’. Now, that’s not so strange. He could’ve just been a really caring or charismatic leader. But the emphasis makes me a little suspicious about what was going on behind the scenes, especially since we know what Mother Carmel was really doing, but the giants still don’t know the truth. They still see her as a holy figure and miracle worker who saved them and even cared about Linlin, a “god of disaster”. I think it’s no coincidence that the figures of Harald and Carmel have been set up as key figures of this hundred-year period who are idolised by the giants, and the illusion is going to crumble at some point. I believe the truth about Carmel being the epitome of ‘peace and love’ hypocrisy will come out, and so will whatever truth about Harald. Again, to be clear, I’m not saying I think Harald was evil or had bad intentions – it’s more likely that he was tricked and manipulated by Carmel and the WG because of his idealism. I think he probably wanted to make Elbaph part of the WG (in order to pursue his goals of peace and trade), he wanted Elbaph to open up to the world, and he wanted ‘peace’ in the sense of blanket non-violence.

That last part we already saw expressed with terrifying clarity in a child Linlin, when she locked a bear and a wolf in a cage to stop them fighting because “fighting is bad”. I won’t get into analysing that metaphor right here (I think I’ll make a separate post) but it is so on the nose – forced peace and non-violence is itself violent and creates more violence, especially because it requires imposing your will on other beings and taking away their freedom. Peace for whom? And by whom? I believe the truth of Harald’s engagement with the WG, and either his collaboration with them or his mistakes in dealing with them will come to light, and I’m sure Loki’s reasons for killing him are related.

In this way, Harald opened Elbaph up to infiltration and engagement from the WG, who I’m sure were only waiting for an opportunity to gather intelligence and start undermining the giants’ power or bend it to their use. Like I said previously, I strongly believe that the Warland giants had ties to the Ancient Kingdom and the events of the Void Century. It would absolutely be in the WG’s interest to bring them over to their side and disconnect them from any remaining traces of that history. In fact, Mother Carmel’s House of Lambs also centered around the idea of ‘reforming’ children and helping them leave their ‘problematic’ past behind. This same idea of reform has been used to describe Elbaph itself. This treats history as something to bury and leave behind – something shameful, rather than something to acknowledge properly, learn and grow from. And of course if we know anything about One Piece at all, we know that forgetting or erasing history is literally one of the most central problems/mistakes/evils of the series. We see this further shown in the fact that Ripley is the one to bring up Nika to Luffy, and that she specifies she’s from the last generation of warriors tells us that the children might not even know about him. Why would they, if he’s a warrior god and they’re actively being taught to be anything but warriors? It gave me chills, no joke.

So the ‘peace’ in Elbaph feels especially uneasy right now, despite Ripley’s words. There are antagonists working for Garling/Imu on the island. There is what seems like a red herring of an antagonist (Loki). There is misdirection and mystery galore. So many illusions and false stories to be shattered. False idols to be toppled. Funnily enough, the one story we know is real right now is a literal living myth (Luffy’s Nika form), who is also just a guy. Ideals and idols need to be brought down to earth for real living people to connect with materially, instead of being held aloft and out of reach. What did the arc open with? Rodo pretending to be a god. We’ve also had another character claim to be a god in Loki, meanwhile we know Celestial Dragons (including the Holy Knights) pretty much believe themselves to be gods. Yeah, I’m reiterating my point that ideas of faith and divinity are going to be crucial in Elbaph. In fact, I will put it out here right now that we’re going to get more information about the Lunarians, who were also called gods (I have a whole theory about that).

Updated Loki thoughts

The last thing I wanted to talk about is some updated thoughts on Loki. Basically, he’s a tsundere?? Love to see it. It seems that at least part of the unhinged and violent temperament we’ve seen from him so far is a facade, since his long-term friend ‘Shaggy’ says “I’ve realized recently that those fearsome words of yours hide your kindness”. We see that Loki has a friend he’s never met or seen, but known for a long time through den den mushi conversations. He empathises with said friend’s recent traumatic experience, saying it hurts him to hear it, while overreacting when they call him kind. Typical bluster, which seems to compensate for what is a sense of compassion and understanding. Not a heartless villain, then. This of course consolidates the idea that he isn’t how he appears on the surface and how he was first introduced, and that Luffy’s instincts were right. This does make me feel much better about their ‘promise’, even if it will still probably end up causing chaos. On top of that, it reinforces my feeling that he reminds me of Law, and will probably end up as an ally to the Strawhats in some way. Maybe by the end of the arc he will even be restored as the king of Elbaph, potentially alongside Hajrudin. Speaking of which, I went back to the previous chapter where the Giant Warrior Pirates were talking about Loki and Hajrudin, and the description of Loki as “another official child” of Harald makes me think Hajrudin is probably his illegitimate half-brother. But we’ll see.

All of this has me thinking about the other giants calling him the “shame of Elbaph”. Initially I thought this might be because his actions are considered dishonourable, and I still think that’s probably the case. But having had the developments about Elbaph’s cultural shift, I wonder if part of the dishonour is just doing any kind of violent acts in Elbaph at this point. Thinking about how the other children treated Collun, and talked about insults, is there a sense that anything ‘barbaric’ on the island is shameful? Have they maybe even been taught to be ashamed of their violent past as Warland? I wouldn’t be surprised. And if so, that makes me even more worried about how that happened and the consequences of such revisionism and reform. As I said earlier, it’s one thing to want to change and improve, to move forward collectively for everyone’s good. It’s another to completely reject the past and bury it. Shame can be an important part of reflection and acknowledgment, when deserved, but it can also prevent real growth. I worry that Harald and Carmel’s approach was just to give Elbaph a PR-style culture change that has left them with a flimsy and fragmented social structure. One that is particularly vulnerable to hegemonic influence and external danger.

Speaking of which, my thoughts on the two strangers (I’m going to call them Holy Knights because I’m pretty sure they are) looking for Loki are that they are either here to kill him, or to influence/recruit him somehow. I’m sure they’ve had intel on the situation in Elbaph, including the fact that there is no king since Loki didn’t ascend to the throne. Given that it seems Harald wasn’t a threat to the WG, I assume they know that Loki is different somehow. We also know that the Holy Knights are essentially the military special forces unit of the Five Elders/Imu, so I don’t think they’re there for a tea party. Even if their mission involves diplomacy, I think violence and threats are probably part of the plan. Hence, persuading him of something (with force if necessary) or assassinating him. We saw Loki has a “special” bounty, probably because he killed his father and/or has a legendary devil fruit, so it makes more sense to me that the knights are there to take him out. Plus, from a narrative point of view, if Loki is a rebel compared to his father, and is likely to ally with the Strawhats, he’s probably a character that is going to be set in opposition to the World Government.

I don’t have much to add to what everyone’s already saying about the Shanks lookalike Danks, other than I agree it’s not Shanks and is either a relative or a clone, especially with the way clones keep being brought up. They’re clearly very powerful if the bandage person is anything to go by (bandage-bandage fruit?? the way they used it to break the guy’s bones was something), and I’m hyped for more. I’ve been waiting to see the Holy Knights since we got the God Valley flashback. I’m so ready for new villains. I'm also pretty scared, since we're getting a feast at the beginning of an arc. That doesn't bode well for the ending to me...but let's enjoy the good vibes while they last.

Honestly it feels like these last two chapters just left us with more questions than answers, and knowing Oda, we might not get those answers for a while! But let’s see. The opening parts of an arc are always the most fun to me because of that.

Bonus favourite bits:

Saul asking why Vegapunk's a woman and Lilith being like "who gaf"

Robin being happy always

Chopper and Robin library time I cry

Ripley being excited to see Nika Luffy, and Luffy's response

BIG ANCIENT OWL!!!!!!!! I LOVE

Bonney, Chopper and Robin on giant books

Luffy's interaction with Collun - truly big brother

the way Stephen Paul translated the kids' speech (vylence, vishus)

the new outfits, very cute (especially love Jinbe's)

the Jarul gag????? unserious