#kino details

[biddy-biddy-biddy]

something silly

[thegothicchangeling]

I watched the blood sweat and tears mv multiple times, and there seems to be some discourse in the fandom over whether Ambessa miscarried. One argument agaisnt this is that the child she sees in her vision is Kino and shes pregnant with Mel in the video. Though I do think the fetus shown is definitely Mel, I don't think it's the same pregnancy.

The gold eyed fetus isn't shown until after we see Ambessa when she's older. In her first pregnancy, she looks like she couldn't be older than twenty, and we know based on Mel's age and how old Ambessa appears in Arcane s1 that she probably had her daughter when she was in her early to mid thirties.

Also, I don't think the stone child represents Kino. I think it represents her younger self, or maybe how she imagined her unborn baby would be.

Additionally, there's a squelch near the beginning of the video, before Ambessa's vision, that implies blood. Though there's a spear sticking through her, she's holding her belly. That context clue basically confirms to me that her baby didn't survive.

Another thing: when Ambessa sits down on her throne, there's a close up shot of her flat stomach. We all know that in Arcane, every detail is intentional.

One more thing: there's a spear in her. Even if it's above her belly, injuries often cause miscarriage as a means of protection to the pregnant person. When you need to heal, you can't have something sapping your strength from you.

[frosty-tian]

Been on the furry grind lately.

She may be sweet and caring but don’t be fooled, she can suplex people with much ease and literally butts heads with fellow antler-havers as a past-time.

The flowers on her antlers can be replaced with pretty much any accessories, usually it’s the managers who decorate them (they all have fun).

[animeglitch]

[elleskinner-justart]

Today is her fictional birthday so let's spam the dash with some Mako-chan sketches!

Makoto Kino is best girl, I will hear no arguments at this time.

[let-them-fight]

jar jar was never annoying btw the world just couldn’t handle his unmedicated adhd swagger

[claitea]

finished the dlc! enjoyed it a lot :D

[aikawa-kazuki]

I'm kind of sad that my edit didn't get many notes ): it took me so long to clean that up but hey at least I got new lockscreen with nick serving full pussy

[kino-rogers]

we won't talk about backgrounds but i hc that Kiwi (she/they), my Bullet Train oc, is a Rave Rat and they absolutely manage to convince Tangerine and Lemon to go to raves w/ them, just cause of what they wear out to them and of course, she uses that scary dog privilege to their advantage 🤭

all this to say i drew Kiwi in a rave fit pfff

[ominous-light]

I am once again drawing OCs

[hunny-lamb]

Thinking about how in OK! 1998, the ribbon in Laurey's hair in Act 1 is a torn strip of the same fabric as Curly's shirt ,,,,

[peachdues]

ALL THE THINGS WE LEFT UNSAID — PROLOGUE + TEASER

Tengen’s Bundle of Joy • Secret Pregnancy AU

A/N: surprise! Have a first look at Tengen’s installment of my Bundle of Joy series.

This fic will be multi-part canon-AU. It is a non-linear story (alternating between Then and Now) and double surprise! It will be a slow burn (just because they fuck doesn’t mean they’re in love!)

CW: MDNI • this story features explicit sexual content • secret pregnancy • angst • mentions of injury/head wound • these two are stubborn as fuck lmao

PROLOGUE

“The Sound Hashira is rumored to be in this region. Some mission.”

Your comrade’s off-handed comment freezes you in your step.

“Where.”

Your fellow Kinoe shrugs, unaware of the way your eyes dart anxiously around the clutter of wooden homes and ramshackle shops, as though you half-expect the silver-haired swordsman to leap out from the shadows at any moment.

“It’s not like we get details of the Hashira’s missions shared with us,” he brushes you off with a yawn. His arms fold behind his head, his gait lazy and far too casual for someone of his position as he struts lazily along an uneven path that leads to the small building marked with a fading, painted wisteria crest. “We might be Kinoe, but we’re still bottom feeders compared to them.”

You hum in half-hearted agreement, but your attention to your fellow Slayer — to your mission — flounders as the knowledge you’ve worked desperately ignore explodes out of the mental bottle you’d shoved it into.

Beneath the ever-tightening buttons of your uniform shirt your stomach has begun to swell. Slight; not yet noticeable to the naked eye, but sure as hell prominent when you’re fighting to close the last two buttons or fasten your hakama pants.

You thumb absently at your belt — now loosened two notches. Perhaps you’ll take a cue from the Love Pillar’s book and opt for a skirt. At least the waist would sit higher up, the pleats, offering cover you’ll need while you figure out what the fuck it is you’re going to do. It won’t be long before your secret is exposed; before word inevitably reaches the jewel-crusted ears of the very one you want most to avoid.

You’d be more useful dead.

A callous thing to say to a subordinate, let alone someone who’d risked their neck on more than one occasion to preserve his. And, for all the testiness that had built between you over the years, a resentment born of your mutual inability to confront the other honestly, you hadn’t expected him to resort to that.

You’d known he regretted his words the moment he hurled them your way, but it was too little, too late. And it hadn’t stopped you from leveling his ire with your own, your response a series of poisoned darts you were only happy to launch right back his way.

I look forward to meeting your expectations.

But it was his regret, perhaps, that led him to grab you by the bicep as you’d tried to leave, that yanked you back to face him, breath heavy and pupils dilating.

The crack fissuring across your chest had been dulled by the way his hand swallowed your arm; how his mouth crashed into yours, and the powerful movements of his body. But once he’d collapsed atop you, panting and spent, the wounds he’d inflicted turned raw once more, the salt of his sweat preventing your blood from clotting where he’d torn your chest clean open.

You manage a furtive shake of your head, dispersing the memory of his body and his violence from your mind. This is not the time for you to pick at the scab over your heart, not after you spent the better part of the last two months trying to force it to form. For now, you need to focus on getting the hell out of here; to get as far away from this desolate corner of the earth before the universe decides to throw you back at him.

Before he knows.

Your comrade prattles on, bragging over how he’s been lucky enough to see the Sound Pillar in battle, oblivious to the smirk settling on your lips in spite of yourself. The Kinoe you’ve traveled with seems unaware that in detailing the way the Corp’s great Uzui had appeared out of thin air to save him and the handful of other slayers cornered by a particularly fearsome avian demon, he’s admitting to his own ineptitude in finishing off the beast on his own.

The Hashira don’t come unless hope is lost; the fact Uzui had appeared at all meant they’d been done for. Yet, he wears the boast of having needed his ass saved by one who’d undoubtedly disposed of the demon with a painful swiftness like a badge of honor.

You know better.

For all the ways your fellow swordsman brags over having witnessed the Pillar’s great display of strength, you’ve seen him weak. Not only that, but you’d been the direct cause of such weakness; you’d broken him down, made him give into temptations he believed he’d suppressed.

But that weakness has led you here — chewing on your thumbnail in a fit of anxiety your comrade remains woefully ignorant of as you try banishing the memories of the Sound Pillar’s weakness from your mind.

More, you’d begged him, sweaty and panting and delirious. More.

He’d obliged you — enthusiastically so. And the way you’d fallen apart in his arms showed you that you were just as weak as he.

Not once had he bothered to apologize for what he’d done; what he’d said. And his too casual pronouncement that your death — as gruesome and violent as your profession demanded — would be a better convenience than for him to work through his own bullshit was a slash through your chest even his most fervent apologies wouldn’t be able to stitch back together.

Not that you thought he ever would offer one — but the image of him dropping to his knees and begging you for forgiveness you wouldn’t allow yourself to give was a small comfort to your bitter heart.

Besides, you’d claimed the privilege of having the last word by not saying any at all. Instead, you’d crept away from the inn, leaving him asleep on the discarded heap of his uniform in the room you’d been forced to share.

You’d given him exactly what he’d given you — nothing. And that vindication had been as sweet as it was short-lived. Now, you’re stuck with the consequences of your own pride and weakness without any idea of what to do about it.

Feigning indifference where Tengen Uzui was concerned, however, is your speciality; a skill you’d perfected just as surely as you’d mastered shadow breathing. Thus, the mask of cool neutrality is easy to slip on as you listen to your comrade continue prattling on about skill levels and techniques to improve breathing styles, chiming with a mildly interested nod when necessary.

And you plot; plot your escape from this tiny fishing village, plot how best to guard the secret you know won’t remain such for much longer. Running away from your problems had always been far easier than forcing yourself to choke them down, and this time will be no different. Of that much, you’re certain.

Coward, a voice that sounds suspiciously close to Uzui’s hisses in your head. Coward.

And so, you continue to strategize your best chance at avoiding the storm brimming on your horizon as your fellow Kinoe continues, too consumed by his blustering to notice how your had drifts to your stomach, resting on the hidden curve where the Sound Hashira’s child grows.

—-

BONUS

“The baby — the baby —“

“Where?” Tengen surveys the wreckage scattered around you, ears carefully pricked for any cry, any smaller, weaker heartbeat, but for all his strain, he can discern none. “Was it a village kid?” He jostles you as much as he can, trying to force your eyes into focus. “Where, Y/N?”

But you only keep muttering the baby, your brow furrowed, your head twitching as though in dissent, though it remains limited where it is braced in the crook of Tengen’s massive arm.

He swears under his breath as your eyes roll into your head, your lips straining to form the mantra you cannot stop repeating, even as your breath turns shallow and raspy. Two fingers find the pulse point in your neck, and Tengen swears again at weakened beat of your heart.

“You don’t get to die.” He snaps at you, hand slapping lightly at your bloodied cheek. “You don’t get to run away. Not now. Not again.”

He needs to figure out where else you might be injured — that way he can help, can stabilize you before the Kakushi arrive. You’re not taking the easy way out this time. He would stand at the gates of heaven or hell itself to block your way, ready to haul your ass right back to life so he could chew your ass out the way you so obviously needed. And once he did, he can put this volatile, tempestuous thing between you to rest. He can free himself of the bonds you’d snapped around his wrists the moment you first sized him up and cut him down with a few, caustic words.

Then, he might finally be able to let you go.

Gritting his teeth, Tengen surveys your body. Your head wound is the most prominent, but no matter how much blood mats in your hair and streaks down your face, he knows better than to assume that it’s the worst you’ve sustained.

Gently, his hands smooth along your body, and he notes every odd bend, every lump along your joints that does not belong.

“The ba — baby —“ your voice grows fainter with each word, and Tengen can only see a sliver of white peeking out from between your eyelids.

Beneath the dark crimson of your blood your skin has turned ashen.

“Y/N.” The hoarseness of his voice has nothing to do with the smoldering flames and thick smoke that has burned the village to its skeleton. His hand slides to your abdomen, ready to position you in his arms so he can run with you, can tow you to the nearest Kakushi. You will not die; he forbids it, he forbids you from even trying —

His hand settles on your navel and freezes.

Beneath the flush of his palm is a curve; an outward swelling of your stomach that had been hidden under the loose fit of your uniform shirt, but under his touch, it is unmistakeable.

A bump. A sizeable bump extends from your abdomen.

The grunts and groans of the houses and structures giving way to the crackling flames fall away, his ears filling instant with a high-pitched ring that pulses in time with his thundering heart. The sweat rolling down his neck turns cold, his chest tightening until his lungs burn. Slowly, his eyes drag back up your body until he finds your graying face once more.

For one, brief moment, your eyes flutter open and search wildly before landing on his, wide and frozen in his horror.

“The baby.” You say once more, in explanation and confession. And then your eyes roll back into your skull and you turn limp in Tengen’s trembling arms.

[ecargmura]

Dandadan Episode 7 Review - A Mother's Love

If Episode 4 hasn’t put Science Saru on the map for high quality animation, then this episode surely did. I haven’t read the source material, but even as an anime-only watcher, I can definitely see the love and passion the studio puts into this. It’s crazy how a Japanese anime studio owned by a Korean person can make such invigorating quality.

The rest of the fight with Acrobatic Silky was animated well. I love how the kids outwitted her by running away just so her hair gets caught in the nook and cranny of the warehouse. Okarun manages to defeat her by going full throttle. However, their victory isn’t a happy one as devouring Aira caused her to die. Turbo Granny explained that since she’s an ordinary person, being devoured by a spirit would easily kill someone. I sort of like that detail, honestly. There’s no anime logic about how she could survive this. She’s dead and that is what the rest of the episode is about. 

What I also like is that seeing her dead easily causes Momo and Okarun to start doing what they can like telling Turbo Granny to call the ambulance and for Momo to resuscitate her using her psychic hands. Though, it does feel odd that a group of teenagers know how to resuscitate someone so skillfully, even if it’s an attempt. They’re both not doctors and are on the opposite spectrum of them. The only way she can be saved is having Acrobatic Silky connect her aura to Aira’s like connecting two cords together.

That’s where the highlight of the episode comes in the form of Silky’s tragic backstory. Man, it broke my heart seeing Silky’s life before her unfortunate end. She was a single mother working as a prostitute alongside several jobs in order to provide for her and her beloved daughter who was her entire world and her purpose for living. Her daughter was sweet in that she was essentially her light in her life. She worked hard in order to buy the red dress that eventually becomes what she wears as a ghost and she was also teaching her daughter ballet. The tragedy comes from debt collectors or mobsters coming in to assault her and then they later took her daughter away, which is severely tragic because the sequences of her life before the tragedy shows that her daughter just celebrated her fifth birthday. If the mobsters are related to trafficking, this means that her daughter’s fate became that of a trafficked child and that’s horrendous in itself. Also, props to Hina Kino for voicing the daughter. She's excellent at creating a child-like voice, especially with how she wailed.

Silky’s dance sequence before meeting her end was seriously beautiful, yet so tragic. The scenery with the starry night was gorgeous but Silky starts dancing. Ballet is an elegant, graceful and poised style of dancing and that’s how she decided to meet her end. The way it was animated was so gorgeous. Also, if you noticed, Silky’s dancing was used in the full music video of Dandadan’s opening song.

There are some people out there wondering if Silky’s daughter is Aira. She’s not. When Silky became a ghost, she could only stand listlessly until little Aira came and mistook her for her recently deceased mother. Realizing that she had a daughter, Silky latched onto Aira and decided to protect her until it became obsessive and psychotic. 

This sequence also showcases why Aira behaved the way she did earlier. She’s a narcissist primarily because of what her father had said about her needing to become stronger in order to let her mother be proud of her once she sees her again. That was why she developed a high self-confidence in order to one day show her late mother. She may have been insufferable before but the memories have completely humbled her. The way she hugged Silky just so she could have solace and not be forgotten in death was such a powerful scene. This shows that underneath her pompous attitude, Aira had a kind heart. My opinion of her instantly changed after this. Wow. I legit shed some tears.

I wonder if Dandadan’s story is just encountering a ghost or an alien and learning of their stories or what not. There doesn’t seem to be an overall grand scheme of things. I like that honestly. It’s just a story about kids encountering the supernatural and learning a lot of life lessons amidst the craziness. Please correct me if I’m wrong. Anyways, what are your thoughts about this episode?

[fallenrocket]

Normally, I don’t like it when a protagonist is dropped into a new situation and immediately starts taking over. You know the type--they know better, do better, and don't listen to the naysayers who've been banging their heads against the wall all this time. It really annoys me.

But with Cassian Andor, he's somehow able to come in and shake things up in a way that genuinely works. On both Aldhani and Narkina 5, he arrives and quickly becomes indispensable.

On the Aldhani mission, Cassian really does know better in some respects--that's part of the point. He's thrown into a group of rebels with a lot of dedication and certain skills but not a wealth of experience, and his practical knowledge is crucial. Whether it's small details, like how to arrange themselves when posing as Imperial troops, or critical skills, like piloting the freighter to make their escape, he becomes a vital member of the team. However, he doesn't steamroll over everything the others do, and he acknowledges when their ideas/plans are strong, like timing the mission so they can use the Eye as cover.

(It also helps that, at this point, Cassian is more invested in his own survival than in the mission itself. When he puts his foot down and insists on piloting the freighter himself, it's not because he automatically thinks he's the best; it's because he's the only one with experience flying a craft like that, and he feels most comfortable putting his life in his hands rather than someone else's.)

Then there's Narkina 5. Again, Cassian doesn't charge in with a “shut up and listen to me” attitude, instantly superior to people who’ve been there much longer. Instead, he collaborates. It's not "Cassian Andor's prison escape plan"--it's an effort by a number of people, and he just does everything he can to help flesh it out and refine it.

So much of Narkina 5's structure is designed to divide the inmates, ensuring that they won't band together by instead pitting them against each other. The least productive table gets fried every single shift--someone's success is always someone else's loss. But Cassian forms relationships. At his work table, he’s a natural leader, doing extra work to help Ulaf and giving Taga the credit for a good idea. He shares observations and plans with inmates from other tables, and he never gives up on getting Kino to join their side--no matter how many times Kino tells him to get his mind off escape, he repeats, "How many guards on each level?" He rejects the Empire’s divisions and is working hard to help everyone, not just himself.

The strongest example of this comes in "One Way Out," when Cassian urges Kino to be the one to address the prisoners. He doesn't have to be the one in charge, out front. He doesn't have to be The Leader in order to lead. When something matters to him, he'll gladly work to make it happen, largely behind the scenes and without much credit, giving others the inspiration they need to step up.

If the balance had tipped just a little too far to the other side, Cassian could've been caught up in a trope that irritates me. But as it's written and performed, this quality is one of my favorite things about him. The Rebellion is going to be so lucky to have him.

[rolling-veins]

AU in which Hans Landa was a part of operation kino from the beginning

My ramblings from twitter: -I thought this up because when I first read the inglourious basterds movie description, it mentioned an undercover agent (who I thought to be Landa rather than von Hammersmark at the very beginning before the scene with Shosanna) -I just wanted Shosanna to work with the basterds -I have no idea how she gets on board. Maybe Landa mentions her to the basterds and they get her on board. Maybe he doesn’t get her family killed here. -Landa is still known as the jew hunter because he still gets on board only after the basterds are formed (1944) -Idk details -I would assume the german basterds survive, and so does Hicox and Von Hammersmark. So Aldo is in his usual getup instead of his Italian cover -Marcel also survives. I need Shosanna and him to be happy together -Landa doesn’t get swastika carved in his forehead -in this AU quite obviously the basterds and landa met much earlier than in the movie

[thegothicchangeling]

Thinking about Arcane's love of detail and how Mel is the only one in the show to ever refer to her later brother, Kino, by name. Ambessa refers to him as "your brother" and later "my son". Elora also refers to him as Mel's brother.

Is this meant to signify a close relationship? Is it meant to hint that Mel sees and accepts Kino for who he is? It would definitely make sense, with Ambessa disapproving of his views on war.