#lessens the death imo

[lavenderjewels]

Spoilers/Leaks for JJK 247❗️

I read this when I saw the fan translation was out and have been SO busy since, so my thoughts are everywhere. But Yuuji!!

Liked this chapter, although very sad over Higuruma (my favorite new character of the culling games ;-;). I expected many deaths with the Big Boss fight and unfortunately he had a lot of death flags and not much of a future :( Despite the Nanami comparisons both from fans and in the manga, he’s been a huge comparison to Yuuji for me too, with their guilt, “death wish,” and desire to fulfill their role. Not a mentor like Nanami or Todo, but closer to an equal in their attitude and approach. His fate makes me curious to what Yuuji’s will ultimately be.

I actually think Higuruma’s death was fairly well done. It’s clever that Higuruma thought of using curses from dying to his advantage. One of the better (side character) deaths in JJK, although I’m slightly confused on how RCT works since Higuruma got it. Are Sukuna’s slashes too deadly and quick for Higuruma to heal from?? If it wasn’t for his last words being a way to strengthen Yuuji, I’d say there was a chance of survival, but that’s extremely unlikely.

I’ve only quickly looked online and have both seen comments that Yuuji isn’t fast enough to defeat Sukuna and also that the blood technique was Yuuji’s??? I’m not a powerscaler so I’m possibly missing things, but I don’t know what sprung up those???

Expecting Ino (part of that new gen.) and Choso to survive this fight. At least with Choso, he needs to live long enough for Yuki’s sacrifice to not be thrown completely in the garbage.

I’m enjoying this fight SO much more than the Sukuna vs Gojo (although not as much as the recent Takaba vs Kenjaku or Yuki/Choso vs Kenjaku) especially from the protagonist side, but I mostly want Sukuna lore soon. There needs to be something else to make his character more captivating if this fight will continue. Or else it might feel repetitive and uninteresting to have the same routine of characters dying to him. There were a LOT of fans making fun of Sukuna being a cursed or neglected child, but I don’t mind having backstory, especially if we get more into his whole thing with cannibalism. On top of that, the protagonists need a small victory or perhaps even an update on Megumi for the same reason.

I’m not sure if Yuuji has RCT, but I’m inclined to think that him being unaffected by Sukuna’s attacks was a result of either being a cursed object from Sukuna’s CE or (possibly) eating his brothers (also cursed objects). Love seeing Yuuji fight and I hope Higuruma’s death isn’t in vain.

Honestly, the way this chapter ended was very cliffhanger-y and I’m expecting something to go wrong OR a classic shift of perspective. I don’t have much else to say because the direction of this chapter depends more on what I see following it. Sukuna still hasn’t used his fire powers, revealed what the hell allows him to have those powers, etc.

Hoping for some good stuff in later chapters (sooner rather than later), mostly with Sukuna’s character or the fight progressing. At least there’s around a year left in JJK—need that to be enough to conclude this and Kenjaku’s backup plan (along with character conclusions).

[megaderping]

I think one of my problems with the "Akechi dying is better for the themes of P5R and Joker's character growth and mourning" is like... Okay, but what about Akechi? That framing makes Akechi more of an object to Joker's character, IMO, whereas I think that him surviving in the max confidants ending has so much fascinating potential for Akechi having to live with his mistakes and move forward. He went in expecting to die, to have a simple final act of freedom... But I think him being forced to keep living, to face every day one at a time, to find ways to make peace with what he did and live in the world is just infinitely more compelling from a storytelling standpoint. For Akechi, I think it's a better outcome because it's lacking in elegant simplicity. Even if he lives, he was still willing to die for the sake of everyone's freedom. His survival doesn't erase that. It may "lessen" Joker's choice to reject Maruki's reality, but I think it also makes accepting that reality incredibly cruel, when a strong enough bond with him is enough to save his life and make a miracle happen. Mona describes the world itself as cognition. In P5's vanilla ending, he says it was the PT's bonds that allowed him to continue to exist as a cat in the real world. Given the significance of a maxed confidant making him appear in the postcredits, I believe that it is very simple to read his survival being because of that bond. That wish that they both shared, as confirmed by the Royal artbook. If you prefer exploring the grief and mourning, that's completely fair, but I think there are many ways to interpret Royal's themes, and Akechi living in a harsh reality where you can't escape your past but you can heal and do better is still very on point with what P5R is all about. Unlike P3, which centers more heavily on death, P5R simply touches on it as a part of its greater narrative. And even in P3, you can save a certain character from death via player choice and connections. So, yeah. :p

[danwhobrowses]

I'm not sure how much good this vent will do, I'm not even sure I want to post this vent after my last one, but I'm writing it just so it's out of my head and into words because it seems once again fandom has chosen to send vitriol Ashton Greymoore's way.

What for? They talked to a 'specter' of the primordial titan within them, through their connection to the earth, the natural flow of creation and destruction. They ask what will happen to the world, it responds that it'll endure, they ask what of the people, it responds that the strong will survive and the weak will be remade into something stronger, to which Ashton replies they think they understand. To fandom this means that Ashton is becoming a fascist, that they have a 'Make Exandria Great Again' attitude for wanting the Primordials back, that they need to be beaten up or 'get what's coming to them' in order to change their mind, and I can only sit here and stew and wonder if this hate is really well-founded? Ashton is among my favourite characters in C3, I get frustrated by them at times too but if I think about it a big percentage of my frustrations is more towards people disliking them than me disliking things they do, or Matt setting up scenarios that doesn't do them any favours towards the fandom that hates them. Some of these are knee-jerk reactions of course, but for others it does feel like they have it out for Ashton, and I don't wanna engage with that, which makes it quite lonely when most of the fandom hones in on it.

For the most part I can understand how the whole 'the weak will be remade' bit can be taken badly; it's definitely iffy, but every other plan we have is also very iffy. The Release Predathos option literally involves unleashing an entity that wants to genocide the gods, the Maintain Status Quo option ('option' the status quo imo is impossible, in my mind the Gods can stay but the dynamic will still have to change) maintains a relationship where the gods pick and choose who they feel deserves help, using their power to covet more power, strongarm and demand loyalty, and overall choose fellow gods over mortals when the chips are down and not owning up to it. We should also remember that entities can speak in riddles, 'remade into something stronger' doesn't necessarily mean death; it could mean to adapt and grow, to become strong enough to bear and overcome it as many of the PCs of Critical Role have done with their hardships and trauma. It's worth reminding that the sad truth is that people will die whatever outcome happens - the aim is always to lessen the amount but if the Gods leave it's a power vacuum, if we linger too long it's a Calamity, and if the Gods stay it's a holy war on a more wild and less organized scale - and that Ashton isn't saying they approve of such death, merely that they think they understand. The commune doesn't tell Ashton which way to go; it only tells them that the world will endure, there will be change and it will change people, trees will still grow, the wind will still blow, the waves will still flow along the coasts of the sea, and people will survive. I know the interpretation can differ from people thanks to Matt's patented vague or riddle-mounted choices in phrase, but I also think if it was the Wildmother who told Orym or some other follower that 'nature is a cycle, everything must adapt to change or else it'll die - this world will change, but it will also survive' nobody would be calling Orym a fascist, people would accept it because the Wildmother's domain is nature, and nature is not always kind.

While we're mentioning Orym - and because this is gonna come off as critical I must preface that I like and enjoy All of the Hells, that's not changed - I also gotta call it out here because it does very much feel like the people who hate Ashton hate them for the reasons they love Orym. Both are stubborn, they're diligent in their personal code, they care deeply for their friends and would give their whole being just to keep them safe, they believe in the Hells' power and greatness more than each member does and more than they believe in their own, but Ashton gets the hate mainly because these fans agree more with Orym on the god stuff. What confuses me though is how these same haters can despise Ashton for being consistent but love Braius, the literal Devil Worshipper who secretly is on board with the Chase Away plan only so he can help the Devil rule the world, the compulsive liar. Where's Braius' scrutiny? A world under Asmodeus will be a far worse 'survival of the fittest' scenario, why does Braius get a pass in all this stuff huh? Because he's funny? Seems people ignore the whole morality talk when they're discussing Braius' dedication to Exandrian Satan.

I find it irksome too that even the group seem to criticize Ashton reaching out to Primordials too - as if that wasn't what we wanted them and Fearne to do anyway. They don't dislike the gods simply because they're a 'great entity', it's because they're a great entity that holds power and doesn't use it equally or fairly; they pick and choose who to help, a lot of the time in Ashton's experience for their own self-service, but they won't prioritize mortals over another god no matter who cruel or heinous the god is being, and the following of these gods are so intertwined with politics that most religious motivation also ends up being political. Ashton has no connection to the gods, they reached out and got nothing, an Angel looked at them and made them feel like nothing, but they do have a connection to the Primordials; from the Earth Golem to the Titan Empress they're literally a vessel of, they experienced something significant in their connection to the Earth, so I don't like how that they're almost mocked for having it. In addition, Ashton's behaviour during this commune differs because of that connection, but also because the titans are a natural flow; they don't demand or test or politic or prejudice, and despite being a Great Entity in its own right it never made sure Ashton felt small for their own satisfaction, they asked a question and got an answer, it's the same reason Ashton has disdain for most political leaders but likes and respects Keyleth, Allura, Kima, Pike, and (eventually) Percy despite also being people in power. To call on Orym and the Wildmother as an example again; Orym's an Air Ashari, the Ashari are guardians of the Elemental Planes - made from the Primordials - not tied to a god, but nobody criticizes his connection to the Wildmother despite both not being a follower and his culture being more tethered to Primordials and their descendants. I'm not saying it's all correct for Ashton to want things to go back to how Primordials ruled, but we must remind ourselves also that we only know a story written by victors when it comes to the Schism - a story which could very easily have been altered and edited to make it feel more justified for the Primes and mortals to actively genocide all the Primordials, the native species and creators of this world, and desecrate their remains to make weapons, soul anchors, and cities - the specter didn't say 'fuck em, all mortals should die' after all, if they believe mortals would survive then they must be at the least tolerant of mortal existence. Why is it okay for god followers to say they wanna keep the world with the gods they have a connection to (and I'm not saying they aren't) but Ashton is out of line for wanting to have a world which has something active that they also have a connection to? It seems rather unfair to allow one side to have and the other to have not, picking and choosing because our audience's bias has spent more time with the gods, Ashton wanting something they can connect to doesn't feel all wrong either, the Eidolons still exist with faint worship hiding away so they're not smited by the gods, why can't faith exist so they're not in hiding? I sincerely doubt the Punk Rock that is Ashton is asking for the Primordials to fill the Gods' roles the same way the Gods have been running things either, they want to break the throne remember? There needs to be a balance in ideals and practice of course, and in an ideal world there could even be a more fluid and all-inclusive Exandria where gods and Eidolons live harmoniously with mortals without hierarchy and class systems, I think Ashton could happily live with something like that, they did say the world needs 'a little chaos' to call back to Matt hinting that the current world doesn't have enough.

Which leads us to those wishing violence upon Ashton - and I really don't like that. People who say 'hitting them over the head is the only language they understand' seem to misinterpret Ashton as if everyone around them have been on their hands and knees begging Ashton to reconsider and them ignoring valid points and pulling a Leroy Jenkins. In reality, nobody is actually talking to Ashton about it, a lot of the frustration with Bells Hells right now is that they aren't talking to each other, even about the end goal! Ashton has valid reasons for their thinking, so being violent isn't gonna change their mind; undermining, dehumanizing and trying to effectively bully anyone let alone someone with chronic pain and low self worth will never truly convince them to your way of thinking. All people understand the language of violence, but that language is not used justly, those who truly wish violence upon Ashton don't want it in hopes it'll force Ashton to change their mind, they want it for their own satisfaction of seeing them in pain; so they can further push them away from the rest of the group and go 'that guy's not one of us', make it so the people Ashton calls family after a lifetime of loneliness, confusion and abandonment - the people they promised they won't abandon, and have kept true on that promise even at their lowest - make them feel small and worthless, and force them into box where they can't be themselves, and I hate that people would want to treat them that way. Ashton IS capable of listening; they've stepped back and trusted the other Hells to do their own thing even when it's ridiculous like staging a play where they pretend to be Ludinus to trick Unseelie emissaries into thinking that he attacked them, they listened to the gods even when they didn't have to like they promised they would and despite it being very personal they held themselves back for the benefit of the group, and if the group talked to them calmly where they were all allowed to healthily discuss the pros and cons, the ideals and compromises, and the risk and reward of all plans that have been proposed then they would listen, and they would try - you don't need to slice bread with a broadsword.

Will Ashton 'get what's coming to them'? Maybe, but what is that exactly? We only assume to know the full vision of what Ashton wants to act on. All of Bells Hells are gonna face the consequences of the choice they make on Ruidus - when they finally make one that is - in and out of the world they live in, so won't that apply to everyone? So what for Ashton? do people want Fractures 2.0? Does everything Ashton wants in life have to blow up violently in their face? Family, Closure, their best friend's safety, why does 'what's coming to them' have to be something aggressive and harmful? People change through positive reinforcement and good experiences too! Caduceus Clay would remind you that it's love that makes people. Don't mistake this rant as me wanting Ashton to be exactly as they are now, I too want to see growth from Ashton and we ARE seeing it happen; I see it in small instances where they think twice about rash actions and try not to fly off the handle, when they sit just to listen or understand or to defuse tension, and that when they're going somewhere or doing something they let the group know in advance, those who think Ashton hasn't changed since ep. 1 aren't paying close attention, but that doesn't mean that they don't still have more ground to cover. I believe that Ashton grows the most through kindness; when they're treated like a person and not a blunt instrument or a nuisance, and I hope what's 'coming' for Ashton isn't rejection, bitterness, and isolation, but acceptance, empathy, and for someone - if you know me you'd know who I'd want it to be - to convince them that they are worthy of living, that they're special not because of their powers or blood or because they have died and been put back together again (honestly, it does irk me a little that both Keyleth and Imogen chose that for titles and to brag to the Matron, I know it isn't intended this way but sometimes it feels like saying 'your best defining quality is that you've died a lot') but because while they have every reason to hate everything they still chose to be kind to those who deserve kindness, they have a good heart and they mean well. Are they perfect? No! They're in their 20s very few people irl have their lives together at even twice that age, but I want them to have good things in their life; things that help them feel happy and safe and like they can still feel comfortable in their own skin without having to appear more 'palatable' for people who've already decided that they don't like them. I want them to know that they've always deserved to live and they still deserve it now, I want that not just for Ashton but for all the Hells, and hopefully they'll all live to have it.

And most of all I want the people who hate them to be wrong about Ashton Greymoore, and I want Taliesin to prove them wrong.

[genericpuff]

I simply don’t agree that Aphrodite sleeping with zeus was coercion. Eros was rightfully going to be punished for doing the same crime as persephone. Aphrodite was the one manipulating zeus into sleeping with her again to lessen his punishment. (And they had a previous relationship/fling considering Eros is his GRANDSON and Aphrodite definitely hurt Hera in that process as well) if Eros was innocent I would understand the viewpoint but Zeus was doing his job and he is scummy for being so easily swayed but Aphrodite was perfectly scummy as well using sex to get her son off the hook.

I don't entirely disagree with some of the points you raise (that Eros had committed an act of wrath that led to this whole thing to begin with). That said, I think that more proves the point that Rachel's framing could have been more clear, as it's why the debate of "is it coercion or not" even exists in that scene. Yeah, she was totally attempting to get her son off scot-free from committing an act of wrath, but then the plot expects us to also root for Persephone to get off easy, who still gets a trial. It might not be a fair trial, but the implication with the Eros / Aphrodite / Zeus scene was that Zeus was just gonna go straight into punishment without even bothering to give him a trial to plea his case. And unlike Persephone, Eros didn't go to insane lengths to hide it from Zeus and Hades (which was more why Zeus took such offense with Persephone's Act of Wrath in the first place - he didn't care that she killed people, he cared that she killed people and then hid it from him and his brothers.)

Apparently Artemis and Apollo were outright celebrated for committing an act of wrath.

(notice how Zeus shifts the goalposts from it being about the death of 300 mortals to it being about Eros harboring a mortal?)

In the original Greek myths, acts of wrath were common. Poseidon would drown sailors at sea, Aphrodite and Eros would toy with the emotions and lives of mortals who had wronged them, and Demeter has created an entire dang season that resulted in the starvation of mortals en masse.

So in LO, which is it? Are acts of wrath something that need to be taken to trial? Or are they not that big a deal and Zeus is simply an asshole who picks and chooses who he punishes? Because when taking how he treated Persephone's act of wrath into context - as well as Artemis and Apollo's - then him deciding to punish Eros right then and there seems a little unwarranted, I don't blame Aphrodite for trying to think on her feet. I'd like to think if he was willing to offer Persephone a trial, he could do the same for his grandson, but evidently not. He didn't even know Apollo and Artemis were his kids yet back when he rewarded them for murdering people, so his relation to them can't even be used as a "well clearly he's biased towards his kids".

If it's meant to highlight how unfair of a king Zeus is, then flipping the script from Aphrodite to Zeus offering sex as a bargaining chip would have made the intention a lot more clear. That said, I do still agree with the notion that Aphrodite was clearly backed into a corner here knowing fully well that her son was about to be unfairly punished for something that wasn't even being given a fair trial or route to defend himself. That's why I argue that Aphrodite is still a victim of coercion, even if she's the one who "offered first". It says more about Zeus that Aphrodite even felt the need to go that far in the first place IMO.

[pavlovianpanic]

For Sam: Does Sam feel like she’s a final girl archetype, and how does she feel about it? 

How did her feelings for Hannah affect her choices going into the prank, and how or what did she do to lessen her role in it, if anything? What did she feel about Hannah going into the snow, and did she want to follow her? Does she, in any timeline? Would she, if creature!Hannah found her in the mines, let Hannah eat her if it meant sustaining Hannah? Did Sam’s love ever develop that far, could it?

i don't think sam actively sees herself that way, not in the way josh sees people as tropes. sam understands them, but she doesn't live or die by them, which is ironic because that trope is what saves her life usually. but as a person? no, she doesn't see herself that way, especially because a final girl insinuates she is the only survivor, which she typically is not. if sam is the only survivor, then i think ... she might start to see that in media more, notice it more, and it is a haunting thing to try and disassociate with. it reminds her less of herself and more of josh, i think. the way he sees the world is now all over, and she's starting to understand him in his death in a way she couldn't in life, but she had to be that role to understand him, feel me?

this post i wrote about sam and hannah really dives into it, i think. it covers like everything about them as far as what we know and have seen, thus what i can surmise.

but going into the questions that post just did not answer or address:

to brief ... no, which i do talk about in my post, she did not want to go after them (hannah and beth respectively, but this means hannah specifically). i know this because she tells mike not to go after them. that is sam telling him that, not anyone else, and the others just sort of listen very easily to that. yes, you could infer the "i think you're the last person she wants to see" line as just to mike but everyone that's there and awake in the snow before beth leaves is actively part of the prank. in theory, hannah would want to see none of them, but if sam lacks true guilt or association, you would think she a) as an athlete would feel comfortable going after them because she also knows this place better than the others assumedly being hannah's bff, b) she is hannah's best friend, and c) the odds are better for beth now. but sam, as i have talked about, is very self-motivated. everything she does is to preserve herself, which is fine, it's needed to survive this situation, but it doesn't always bode well for others. no one is perfect. but hey, maybe in another life ... another timeline? maybe. until dawn is more stringent on their timeline multiverses than say life is strange is imo.

sam loved hannah, i think, and i do talk about that, but they drifted, which i also talk about. i do not think sam would submit to hannah in that way, hannah was always submissive to sam (and everyone else), thus that dynamic cannot change. sam knew hannah as dead. this is not hannah (to her). this is something else using hannah's body. it can't be hannah. it can't be hannah or she'll come undone entirely.

because of sam's innate ability to want to live and survive, at least as we briefly play her, no, i don't think she would give herself to hannah. she would do anything to escape and survive, even going against creature!hannah, which is now her active enemy. the whole dynamic with creature!hannah and sam is very interesting, the way she can kill sam is very "you stabbed me in the back" as a lot of hannah's kills are symbolic.

[veliseraptor]

Top five spiciest untamed opinions!

man, I've been in my own little corner of fandom for long enough that I feel like I struggle a little to parse what is spicy of my opinions and what isn't, but here's a go at it

The Untamed is a show with complex, morally grey characters that's telling a slightly different but not inherently inferior story. Maybe I'm just a bit defensive about this, and I have with time come to appreciate a lot of things about the novel over the way they play out in the show, but The Untamed was the first version of the story that I fell in love with and I think at least some of the criticisms of it overstate the degree to which it morally simplifies the story. I think, whether because of requirements of censorship or other reasons, that the moral messiness of the story is subtler, I don't think it's absent, and while Jin Guangyao in particular falls victim to a pretty intense villain edit the narrative still has plenty of sympathy for him (even if the audience, all too often, does not). I think it's telling a slightly different story (as others have discussed), but I think it's a strong adaptation that still works with the underlying themes of the text.

However, that being said, The lessening of Wei Wuxian's culpability, as in the introduction of the second flautist, weakens his character. I feel like the character of Wei Wuxian as we see him in The Untamed still has the recognizable flaws of the character from the novel - I think the degree to which they're sometimes claimed to be toned down is overstated, which I think I've written some about before. He's still at least a little arrogant, causes problems, has a definite temper, and doesn't always respect other peoples' choices, among other things. But what The Untamed does do is remove some of his culpability, or at least temper it - both for Jin Zixuan's death and the massacre at Nightless City, which are two moments that contribute to a strong tragic arc in the first life, which makes for a more powerful (imo) arc in the second life. Removing, or at least lessening, Wei Wuxian's culpability for Jin Zixuan's death and Jiang Yanli's death makes him more a victim of circumstance than of his own human flaws, and at least for me, a character who is doomed by their own flaws is a far more compelling one than one who just happens to fall victim to outside forces. It makes him, I would argue, more passive and less of an active force, and I think the culpability for those two deaths - and the loss of control that causes it - makes for a more powerful narrative than that of a man who is victimized by someone else's actions.

Jin Guangyao was a good Chief Cultivator. I see people talk about him as though he was corrupt and evil and just plotting all the time, but the Bad Things™ he does mostly happen before his tenure as Chief Cultivator and, even taking those into account, have a limited impact on the world at large (with the exception of Nie Mingjue's death, but even that I would argue has more personal repercussions than broader political ones). As far as his responsibility for the cultivation world at large, we have no evidence prior to his downfall that he is negatively perceived by people, except for the fact of his birth/origins.

this is more MDZS-related than Untamed specific, but: MXTX deserves praise for writing "problematic" and messy queer sex, but it's just not hot. I don't have a whole lot to add on this one, but one of my least favorite parts of some corners of The Untamed fandom are people who are thoroughgoing MXTX antis who are quick to cry about the ~problematic~ aspects of Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian's sex life (which, honestly, I think are overstated a lot of the time, as is the weirdness of the sex scenes); however, in my opinion, the sex scenes as they stand just aren't very sexy, and I don't think that's intentional (as it arguably is in SVSSS). The sex scenes may be a shortcoming in the text, perhaps, but not the one certain people think it is.

this is again a stronger argument in the novel but I think it's present in the show as well: Jin Guangyao and Wei Wuxian are "there but for the grace of god" foils, but not in the sense of Jin Guangyao being "Wei Wuxian if he made bad moral choices" but in the sense of "who Wei Wuxian could've been if his circumstances were different." I've definitely written about this before and how much it drives me nuts the way people treat narrative foils in this story in general as Goofus and Gallant style duos, but this is a specific one. I think Jin Guangyao is an example of a story that runs alongside Wei Wuxian's, but ends in a different place, and I think the story isn't saying that he ends in that place because of something inherently worse about Jin Guangyao, but because of the way his circumstances happen to diverge from Wei Wuxian's in specific key ways. In some ways his ending is even a near beat-for-beat rewrite of Wei Wuxian's death, and Wei Wuxian receives the grace of a second life not because of any inherent merit, but actually because of his bad reputation. I think this goes for Xue Yang, too, actually.

I absolutely know I'm forgetting things and there are probably things back in my bitchy opinions tag that I could dig out, but here's at least a few that came to mind.

[the-s1lly-corner]

How about headcanons for Lamb (Cult of the Lamb) with a wolf significant other?

Lamb x wolf!reader

oooo sheep and wolf dynamics my beloved-- whether it be antagonistic or otherwise the aesthetics are just so nice imo notes: reader is gn, reader is a wolf, follower reader, lamb uses they/them pronouns, something something the strong protect the sweet but its interchangeable between the two of you cws: mentions of canon typical violence and death

You easily tower over them, but to those who are aware of the lamb and their accomplishments... they tend to cower over them first than they do to you- oddly enough

They love your floof, they love diving their hands into the extra fluff around your neck and chest.. it's always nice to them, simply running their fingers through it after a long day of tending to everyone else

They want to take care of you, yes they know you're big and strong, and you're more than capable of fighting and working. But they want to pamper you, or at least make things easier for you!

Let them do nice things for you- they'll lessen your workload and let you have more leisure. More gifts- anything for you

You get... some jealous looks, but your stature deters most from doing anything to you

They sometimes out their finger on your nose and downturn your snout to make you look at them straight on- no real reason for why they do this, whenever you ask Lambert simply says that they like getting a close look at your eyes

....you get the feeling they do it because they think you look funny with that angles....

They'd fight for you anyday and anytime, the moment they sense trouble they're going to come to your aid

And you do the same for them- from shutting down bolder cultists that are making uncomfortable requests to defending them when going on a walk in the lands of the old faith

They insist that you don't need to do it but there's an air of relief- that there's someone who always looks after them... it's nice being on the receiving end....

[dyaz-stories]

okay so i fucking hated the airport scene and i need to exorcise it by explaining why and making it everyone else's problem

jujutsu kaisen spoilers up until chapter 236

Okay, so to preface this, my main issue is that this part of the chapter strongly clashed with my interpretation of Gojo's character and, in my opinion, isn't a suitable farewell to him. I know that some people will read this and think "Oh, so you're just mad that things didn't go the way you wanted" and... yeah. You know, I didn't like that something I didn't like happened. That's not unexpected, but if you're not interested in reading that, I totally get it! I just want to go into more detail about why I wasn't happy with the way this went.

I also want to add that I have no qualms with Gojo dying. I'm not thrilled by the way it happened, but this happening is fully expected within shonen codes. I get the significance of it and why it needed to happen for the story Gege wanted to tell. That's fine by me.

Now, to the airport scene.

We'll start with the first panel, mostly as an illustration. This panel shows, from the uniforms to Gojo's glasses and his expression, that we are in the presence of "high-school Gojo". This is reinforced by the presence of Geto, particularly because the only time when we've seen the two of them interact normally was during the Hidden Inventory Arc.

On top of that, Gojo, throughout the airport scene, acts more 'naturally' than he does in the manga, Hidden Inventory Arc excepted. I'd argue that with his students and with everyone following Geto's defection, he tends to have this 'wall' up (both literally and metaphorically). He doesn't talk to them with this kind of ease.

My issue with this is that it very much reads like character regression. It's been a decade since high-school for Gojo, give or take, and for his farewell I don't find it interesting to portay him not as he was, but as he had been.

The obvious answer to that is that this depicts Gojo in the time period during which he was the happiest. I don't wholly disagree with that — especially considering the emphasis in this arc about 'the loneliness of the strongest' and the fact that this was likely the only time when he didn't feel lonely.

I just regret the lack of distance with this idea. Even if it was the time when he felt happiest, he wasn't his teenage self anymore. I wish this had been reflected more. Like I said — this, to me, doesn't feel like a farewell to who he was at the moment of his death, because I'm not seeing the Gojo I'd seen throughout the manga.

Another, less obvious counter-argument could be that this emphasises that Gojo was stuck in the past and couldn't move on from his years in high school. I don't think this is particularly proven as true through the manga. The importance he gives to training his students and his belief that they can become stronger than him seems to show an interest in the future, not the past.

This is the next one. My issue isn't with Sukuna being stronger than Gojo (I don't care about that). Considering the central part Mahoraga plays in Gojo's demise (as Sukuna states right after)

the line about the Ten Shadows feels icky to me, but whatever on that front as well. No, what annoys me about all of that is that considering all of Gojo's confidence up until the end, it... makes him look like a cocky idiot? Which, okay, isn't that far off when it comes to his characterization, I'll give Gege that, but it was always warranted up until that point. Being unable to see danger coming to that degree, especially with the Six Eyes, is kind of ridiculous.

It also lessens the importance of Sukuna's supposed admiration for him, imo.

It cheapens both his death and his character to me.

I'm fully aware that people have used this as proof of Gojo's selfishness and essentially as showcasing his adrenaline addiction, and I get that it would make sense if that was your read on his character, but it came out of left field for me.

Another answer to that argument could be that this is Gojo's perception and doesn't reflect the reality — maybe he thought that but Sukuna didn't — however considering the timing I can't help but feel that we, as readers, are at least supposed to receive it as fact.

This one is less of a criticism and more of a note. It's not uninteresting as far as characterization goes. I think it doesn't come as a huge surprise that Gojo would feel that way but I do regret that this was never explored before. I'm not convinced it was hinted at all that well either, and it doesn't help that the one example we have of him being 'adored' is Miwa being a fangirl. Once again, I regret that we don't see anything about his students here. I think it would have been warranted.

This is probably my favorite panel out of the bunch, which I don't think is going to come as a surprise. This feels like a callback to him being a teacher. I like it.

Okay, this is probably my least favorite part of this. Nanami has said things of this nature before, he's called Gojo egotiscal,

so it's not new that he believes that. However, that is echoed by Haibara (and other people apparently, hence "we all thought that") and also by Geto, since he's the one who concludes "was just proven right by your actions a second ago". I have to assume Geto, in saying that, is referring to Gojo's fight against Sukuna.

I kind of fucking hate that. First of all, what Nanami says is something that I considered to be blatantly untrue in the manga. As far as I'm concerned, Gojo was constantly portrayed as caring deeply for his students, wanting to leave them a better world, and while I don't think he wanted to protect people the same way Itadori does, it's not like it's absent from his motivations either.

(The second panel is him asking about the people that got trapped in his domain expansion, while in Shibuya. This showed he was worried for their well-being. His decisions in Shibuya were also motivated by his decision to limit human losses.)

Geto essentially agrees with what Nanami is saying, which I think is intended to tell the audience that Nanami is right. That's who Gojo is, the person who knows him best even tells you that. Again, this feels very high school Gojo, without the decade of character development and of caring for kids that he has necessarily done since then. It's also telling us that Gojo fought Sukuna because he thought he would enjoy it, not for any sort of higher purpose (I do also hate the "I had fun" panel that comes earlier, in case you were wondering lol).

I also think that this removes any notion of responsibility which Gojo would have shouldered by choice, which I think contradicts other parts of the manga. Honestly, to me, Nanami's take here is so far removed from what I had received from the manga up until that point that it's kind of jarring.

As mentioned before, due to Geto's intervention, I don't think this can be interpreted as "just Nanami's opinion". Due to Gojo's lack of disagreeing and the fact that this chapter is his last, I do think it's intended as the 'true interpretation' for Gojo's character, by the author that is (is it going to stop me? No, but I think authorial intention is interesting to look at/try to find).

This one I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt to, because considering Gojo's conversation with Nanami at this point, he could be talking about Nanami. If he is talking about himself (and I do think that is the case), I want to put it on the record that I also hate it! Again, Gojo not caring about the students he's leaving behind, to me, does not feel 'right' or in character, and they're not mentioned once save for that one throw-away line about Megumi.

I'll discuss this real quick before concluding: is it a dream? I don't think it's that important here. Regardless of whether that's Gojo's hallucination in his final moments or truly the afterlife/the antechamber before reincarnation, considering the position this half-chapter occupies in the story, I don't think it alters my reading of it.

With that being said, I'm leaning towards it not being a dream in part due to Nanami's line about Haibara, which echoes exactly what we saw when Nanami dies.

This line is for the audience in my opinion, not for Gojo.

So where does that leave us? Well, to me, the heart of it is what I said earlier: this feels like a goodbye to high school Gojo, not the one we see through most of the manga, and that was who I wanted to see, and the one who I believe deserved this farewell.

On top of that, for the most part, the characterization of Gojo as done by other characters borders on character assassination, in my completely personal and admittedly biased opinion. It's not at all what I would have wanted him to go out on. Leaves a very bad taste in my mouth and makes me feel silly for caring.

What a sad way to go.

I typically conclude these kinds of posts by saying that I'm happy to discuss what I've said if you disagree, however for this one, I hope I've made it clear that my issues lies with the disparity between my interpretation of Gojo and this scene, as well as just what I would have liked to see, and it's therefore very personal. I do think that if Gege wanted me to have this interpretation of Gojo he didn't do a good job of getting me there, but if you disagree and you liked this scene, you know, more power to you. I don't think that means you're wrong. I just had a bad time reading it and I wanted to talk about it. With all that said you can 100% disagree obviously, but I'm not looking for a debate.

[elderscrollsconceptart]

***SPOILERS FOR NEW ESO EXPANSION BELOW***

---------

Did they officially make TES a official multiverse of sorts or am I totally misreading the new ESO expansion lore.

Like we sorta have a multiverse-esque stuff with dragonbreaks and whatnot but I appreciated the fact those were more vague and mostly just worldbuilding tools to explain lore discrepancies. They were never (IMO) meant to be anything more than that..Until now I guess? Again I may be misreading everything in the new lore.

If my read is correct the new lore is saying "oh yeah there's whole other timelines with X and Y and all this Z is happening".

Full on canonizing whole other separate realities/timelines just lessens the stakes in the mainline TES reality and everyone and everything involved in it.

Besides Dragonbreaks there sorta been hints or implied stuff like alternate realities, but tackling it head on is..IDK...Its not BAD per se but it's sorta too much? Too upfront? I like it when TES keeps things beyond the mainline reality/universe vague.

It opens up TES to have "backup" realities where the writers can tell any story they want without touching the mainline universe. Looking at that as a longtime Marvel comics fan I just groan because it feels like the kind of storytelling I hate in pulpy comic books. Alternate timelines/realities get abused to death in fiction and are increasingly a sign of a lack of imagination. They can exist in a series's lore but making them a main part of your series is not a good idea. Multiverse can be cool but 90% of the time they get abused to death by lazy writers.

Making multiple universes just lowers the stakes in the universe you care about.

Oh X character died? Don't worry, they're alive in this other universe/timeline so they can just hop on over! Dont like how this evil but cool villian is a bad person? Dont worry, theyre an edgy anti-hero in this universe so you get to root for them without feeling bad!

Multiverses CAN BE COOL but they open up your series to a whole slew of opportunities for bad writing and lazy storytelling.

Do characters deaths even mean anything if theres a million differnt versions of them out there in other timelines?

To quote a certain space opera science fiction series: "No one's ever really gone"...

I wanna be clear, the new lore isn't BAD I just worry it's a sign of bad storytelling opportunities in the future.

[bobbydagen24]

comparing the writing in the first film overall with the writing of the Third so people can Hopefully see what my problem is with TBT.

first off lets start with the two films big emotional music numbers that are meant to showcase meaningful character Growth that being "" True Colours ""

and "" Better Place "" now the main Difference between these two is that despite what some negative reviews of the first film said at the time Branch's character Arc wasn't literally just wrapped up in this one song like Bro zone's was in TBT.

True Colours was the climax to Branch's arc but it wasn't literally the only piece of Branch's arc throughout the film we had small hints under his uncaring exterior that he was actually a good guy who just wasn't good at showing it.

like the fact he saved Poppy from those spiders and when he tried to help her come to terms with Creek's supposed death even if his way wasn't 100 percent perfect.

and of course after finally opening up about his grandmother he showed more signs of trying to change for the better helping Bridget by giving her his love poem to say to Gristle Jr.

afterwards attempting to join in on the Snack Pack's happy screaming over Creek still being alive and even pulling a little High five Joke on Poppy showing clear effort of attempts to change beforehand.

he also attempted to comfort Poppy and the others when they opened the locket and Creek was gone and they assumed he was dead and all this leading to True Colours which was the big moment for his Arc.

Bro zone didn't have any of this before hand instead all their moments prior to Better Place are either them being Jerky or its mostly comedic gags with not real flashes of posotive character moments for them that could help with their Arc.

anyway back to True Colours despite technically getting what he said he wanted at the start of the film ( that being for the other pop Trolls to finally stop seeing the world as all cupcakes and Rainbows and finally see the Dark sides of things )

he was actually disheartened to see them all this way and worked to help them get out of this state which he was all too familiar with.

anyway one thing that makes True Colours work better than Better Place imo is

1. Branch still has agency in the choice their all about to die and well his choice to try and lift up the other people's spirits doesn't effect that at all.

I find it very powerful how he still chooses to be happy in that moment and tries to lift the spirits of everyone around him despite the fact that for all he knows his worst fear is about to come true their all about to be eaten by Bergens aka the very thing he's spent most of his life terrified of.

but with Better Place his Bros don't have agency so it isn't a meaningful character moment their literally imprisoned and forced to take part in the Harmony in order to save their own lives its not even just about Floyd anymore.

its sorta like if Branch only sang True Colours to lift everyone's spirits because he needed them to all have access to their longer Hair Powers so they could lift the lid on top of the cooking pot in order for them to escape.

kinda lessens the impact of the scene a bit doesn't it? 🤔🤔🤔🤔

and as I said before True Colours would be a cute scene on its own but if it was literally the only scene that was meant to show Branch's character Arc and growth then yeah it would still fall flat imo but it isn't because the movie made sure to have lots of other little moments.

showing Branch making the effort beforehand so True Colours was just the final result and not literally the only action taken in his Arc.

unlike Better Place where

1. the Bros Agency was taken away so they literally did the Harmony for selfish reasons and

2. it was the only moment meant to show their character Growth which just isn't how character Arcs work.

you don't get to have characters showcase a whole bunch of flaws and frankly crappy behaviour and then have their Arc be wrapped up with a single action that isn't even all that noble no character Arc works that way.

the writing of the first film understood this and did a Fair amount of it Right but TBT didn't understand this at all.

I'm not an Expert writer but this is all fairly Basic stuff.

[chocolate-cream-soldier]

Ok rant time so putting under the cut //

This is about the whole Peggy/Dottie and Agatha/Rio parallel thing that people keep talking about and yes it's been bothering me. I mean, we are what, kind of 2 months after the show's finale now? so I get to rant a little, and I won't do so on other people's posts and art cause I am not an asshole duh so this is the best way to get it off my chest ha ha…I've seen the parallel gifsets and I have seen some posts floating around about it and every time I see them I am like but but that is so not a parallel!! It really isn't… other than it being a kiss between 2 women and them both being marvel properties. Because then by that standard every wlw kiss is a parallel of each other lol!

Peggy and Dottie are antagonists ( u can read it as romantic. I am not gonna stop you. Hayley and Bridget had great chemistry) but there's no history between them prior to the show. Peggy doesn't even clock Dottie as a threat initially. The reason why the kiss comes off as a surprise to her, she never anticipated it and that's why Dottie was able to get so close without rising any suspicion…

Rio also didn't anticipate the Kiss and that's why she initially failed to realize that it wasn't just a kiss but also Agatha siphoning her power and surrendering to Death!

so if we are counting the surprise element as the parallel then ok this one I'll concede.

But that's the end of it right?

The two kisses are fundamentally different in intent and visualization. I need to know that people understand that, cause if not you are really reducing the magnitude of the vidarkness moment

The Peggy/Dottie kiss is a ploy , it's for shock, to frame Peggy and get her locked up, to buy Dottie time to execute her masterplan, also Dottie initiates the kiss and Peggy suffers the consequences so even from a purely visual angle they don't match up.

In contrast the vidarkness kiss has so much heart to it, Agatha chooses to kiss Rio and the consequences are faced by both, it's not merely done for shock value, they have been building up to it, this was the culmination of a season long narrative arc, for Agatha to finally reconcile her loss of Nicky and her love for Rio and that they can co exist cause she realized that the blame doesn't lie with them, that sometimes boys just die, that out of death comes life and viceversa, that life runs in tandem with death. So her choosing to sacrifice herself by surrendering to her love, it puts to rest (it might be temporary but still) the war that had been waging inside her, the immense guilt and heartbreak that they were both dealing with. Love can't conquer all neither can it lessen the impact of grief but as we all know and hopefully believe- it does persevere.

The point is-I know most posts are tongue and cheek but it doesn't take much time for it to shift in tone and for nuance to get lost in the process. I have seen that shift happening, people being annoyed that the only time we get to see women kiss in mcu they are just getting conned or that it's a cheap trick( or queerbaiting) but that's so not the story when it concerns Agatha and Rio. I don't really get bothered with bad readings when it's some random dudebro but when it's people who claim to be fans doing this, it definitely grates on my nerves. Not saying you can't have a different take, and this show had it's limitiations, the lack of a backstory for Agatha and Rio is still a stinger for me personally, but I also liked the show for what it managed to explore and I appreciate the care that they put in making the show. So I guess I just want to encourage these kind of creatives and want them to feel empowered and bold enough to create more diverse stories. I know this is * piss on the poor* website but please please I need people to stop reducing stories into 5 sentence badly written summaries as if it's been generated by chatgpt, cause that's really counterproductive imo.

// that's the rant, sorry anyone who stumbled upon this suddenly and had to deal with my wordy and somewhat nonsensical ramble lol. I will shut up and go back to scrolling for pretty arts and fics on my dash now. Thanks and goodbye.

[lloydfrontera]

actually we are talking about it making lloyd see as arcos falls and breaks his neck while he's completely unable to do anything but watch??? sick and twisted oh my god

first of all, ouch. second of all, how dare you. and third of all, ouch இ௰இ

this is one of the changes from the novel that, while i don't completely agree with it, i do acknowledge it makes the even more impactful.

don't misunderstand me! lloyd's entry for arcos' death in the novel is heartbreakingly sad, just look at it

[This is the first time I have chosen to write in a journal. I am sad. The count got into an accident. He was simply enjoying horseback riding like usual. He was riding through a path he often enjoyed taking. Who would've imagined that a weasel would appear and surprise the horse into suddenly jumping? Who would've imagined the count would fall off and hit a tree branch on the neck? The physician says we should wait and see, but... I'm not so sure. I'm just sad.] Flip. [The count woke up after a day. He says he can't feel anything below his neck. But he forced a smile and tried to calm everyone down. He said that he was fine. That it doesn't hurt because he can't feel anything. That he's comfortable since he's on his back all day. He flashed a bright smile. And those were his last words. Right now, the countess is quietly weeping in secret. To be honest, I want to cry too. However, I should go out and comfort her first.]

like i said. heartbreaking.

however. making lloyd watch as it happened?? absolutely evil. i love it <33

i do think marbella's is sadder in the novel tho :((

like

this is fine. but.

[The countess doesn't talk anymore. She doesn't say a word. She no longer smiles and tends to her garden. I picked up the trowel for her lest the overlooked flowers wilt. I hope the freesias bloom beautifully this year and lessen her grief.] Flip [The freesias have bloomed pretty. But the countess can't see them. In the morning, I knew that something was wrong when I heard Emily scream. No one would have thought that the kitchen once filled with everyone's laughter would be where she passed. No one knew until last night. Could it be that she missed the count, who passed away before her. I must call Julian. He should be in the capital. Now our manor, once warm, feels cold a desolate.]

this is better. imo.

i just,,, lloyd tending to marbella's garden,,, picking up where arcos left because he's not there anymore to help her,,,, hoping the flowers will be beautiful that year so she won't be as sad anymore,, and then the reveal that she won't see them any way because she's gone, they're both gone and now their home, lloyd's home, is cold and lonely, empty of the people he loved.

(also i take so much offense to the idea that lloyd would've missed julian's funeral for being 'out of sorts'. he didn't know. he didn't fucking know. he tried to get julian to come home, he wrote to him and when he didn't get an answer he sent ggoming to get him but it was too late, julian was already dead, he was already gone and lloyd never got to see his little brother again. he held his parents' funeral and then held his little brother's and then he tried so hard to comfort sheherazade and even tried to get her to move back home because he was worried something would happen to her. he didn't fucking miss julian's funeral.)

anyway. good episode. i liked it ( •̀ ω •́ )✧

[ragnarokhound]

puts this on your list of things to do

Skcnwksks *adds another stone atop the mountain, and the world sinks another inch closer to hell

But okay fr. I actually read Knight Terrors: Robin today, and with the enormous grain of salt that I am working mostly with fandom osmosis, esp re: their established relationship, I think they alllllmost wrote something that worked. Almost. Long rambling nitpicks under the cut:

I think if they had about three more pages they could have established Tim and Jason's relationship and their problems with working together a little better; and either cut Babs out as the middle man who introduced their individual issues to the audience, or used her more effectively as a mediator.

They very clearly wanted to showcase two problems: Tim is working himself to death trying to save everyone, and Jason is suffering by insisting on working alone. Good! I like this concept. It's annoying to me that Babs is the one who tries to reach out to both of them about these issues, gets rebuffed, and then is never heard from again. I'd much prefer it if they tried to talk to each other on their own and it went poorly at first, only to be forced to open up in the nightmare realm. It would tighten up their combined arc if they'd had one single conversation before the Inciting Incident occurs.

Like, don't get me wrong. I am waffling about this because Babs is a good entry voice to help introduce our primary actors. She is the person they have in common, and by having her be the voice in their ear, we see that other people in their support networks are worried about them.

But man, why not just have Tim monologue to himself about being ready to wrap up his third bust of the night and consider hitting up Jason to see if he needs help on the intergang drug bust he's in the middle of. It could be on Tim's way to the next place he's going, demonstrating that he's stretching himself thin and looking for even more to do; even with people like Jason who he isn't all that close with. And then Tim and Jason have their own snarky conversation (with some veiled flirting) about not needing each other's help or each other's nagging, and that's when the nightmare mist hits.

Because the story is only tangentially about people other than Jason and Tim. They're both too wrapped up in their own problems to notice other people reaching out to them about their fucked behavior. So Babs could have been used as a yardstick for each of them - Tim dismissed her fears at first, Jason hung up on her outright - but only if she comes back.

If Babs had also been there at the end to check in with them, yeah, it might have lessened the impact of Jason's plea for help and getting only Tim in response, but it would have been the indicator that they were now ready to hear the worries expressed by their loved ones. A very *clear* indicator of what has changed in the narrative that justifies Babs' involvement in the first place. You could have her come in right as Tim and Jason are catching up after the initial plea, having just escaped her own nightmare (*editors note: see Babs' knight terrors issue, lmao). She could groggily direct them to someone who needs help. All three of them are working together now, Tim and Jason are on their way to opening up to more people; huzzah

And hell. If you want to justify why Tim knows stuff about Jason he shouldn't - or why Jason might know something about Tim that he shouldn't for that matter - a little extra time spent together in the nightmare zone is great for that. Make them see each other's worst memories. Make them see each other's defining moments. Make it the twisted, terrible, self-directed-blame version of events that exists in their heads, and then they can separately call bullshit.

You literally put them into a shared mind palace!! Why did Tim know that about Sheila? Because he just saw it in Jason's head. How does Jason know Tim has a savior complex too big to shoulder? Same deal. IMO, this would have made their insistence that the other person is better than they think much more natural. It's not an empty sentiment because 'I've literally seen what you think of yourself and I am telling you that it isn't true'. (They're in a shared mindscape. Why not imply that they are seeing what the other is seeing too. That they're having a shared experience and are privy to each other's thoughts, emotions, and memories? Easy to do. "I feel like I'm walking to class in the 10th grade...but when I was that age, I was 6 feet under." "And I'm positive I'm picking up ammo for a gun I don't own. I think it's safe to say we're sharing a dream.")

I'm also ??? about why the nightmare zone let them talk at all?? Maybe that's something that we don't have time to explain/ it doesn't need explaining, but if I were a terrible nightmare creature and I was menacing two people at once, I simply wouldn't let them exist in the same space. Isolation is key to breaking someone's will. If you let them talk to each other they could help each other. Fool. Buffoon. Literally the only reason to let them talk to each other is if you think they'll make each other worse lmao.

There was a clever visual trick in which Jason hits the void barrier and Tim sees the ripples he makes - but iirc that is the closest we get to an explanation of how they might be breaking through to each other. And it happened after they were almost done with their second conversation. Too little, too late, IMO.

Arguments could be made that they were able to break through because they were approaching a hard limit. Jason hears Tim again when he yells at his double to shut up, when Jason himself is just about ready to throw in the towel. The moment of deepest despair, the realization for both of them that they're not cut out to solve the problem with their current method. Something something, breaking the pattern - but why let them, unless the nightmare can't do anything about it? I do like a monster with a secret weakness, so I'm willing to let it slide now that I've talked it out lol but still. It feels like an unearned conversation when the only convo they had before was mostly exposition.

Anyway. Tldr; if the writers had a few more pages and shown us Tim and Jason's conflict with each other rather than water it down via Babs (OR BROUGHT HER BACK TO TIE IT ALL UP WITH A BOW) it would have been a tighter & more interesting story.

[bnhaobservation]

If the manga industry wasn’t so brutal I’d like to imagine we could have gotten a longer if not better story of the “saving the villains” narrative.

I don’t think it would be a stretch to say HK not being able to get any good breaks to be able to take time for himself really pushed a significant burn out in him for the manga and it, imo, amplified his writing faults and themes were dropped out of desperation to just get it done. I do think it’s not solely the industry’s fault, but it played a massive part with how demanding it is. This man had his health and career on the line during its run, and I’m glad he’s at least free of it for now. Of course all of this is just speculation and imagination, but knowing stories of how grinding Japan’s job industry is (esp for manga) I can see how it could have led down this path.

Is this meant to be a response to my "Was the savior trio really a savior trio?" meta?

Anyway, you've a point. Undoubtedly the manga industry being so brutal did no favours to Horikoshi.

@greenhappyseed has written a wonderful post in which they also list how Horikoshi grew progressively more and more worn out.

If Horikoshi were allowed to rest more and work at a pace that wasn't to cause him health problems, his work would have probably been higher in quality, never mentioning if he were to be given more artistic freedom he might have produced more original things (though this doesn't necessarily mean the mainstream public would have liked them... but innovation has to start with something).

Horikoshi could have thought at better solutions that would have allowed him to have his tale progress in a more smoothly manner. It would have probably helped him to avoid continuity mistakes.

However I do wonder if this would have helped 'saving the Villains' or if they were planned to die from the start.

For an author, murdering his Villains it's the easiest choice, and many authors choose to just do so because it spares them of the ethical problem of leaving murderers alive while, at the same time, not forcing them to live more years in pain.

When, instead, authors decide to spare someone, they usually toss them in a redemption arc of some sort, making them regret what they did and help the Hero heroically.

This is indeed the case of Aoyama, Gentle Criminal and Lady Nagant.

It was however really, really hard to toss in a redemption arc for the league after the Paranormal Liberation War, as due to the destruction of the world as they knew it, Japanese people were out for blood of the League... especially since the League had to fight also in the final war.

We see how Machia did willingly help fight AFO but, due to his high death count, Horikoshi prefers to give him a heroic death instead than saying his efforts to bring down AFO balanced his past mistakes (as he did instead with Aoyama, Gentle Criminal and Lady Nagant) or gave him some form of indulgence that lessened his guilt and therefore his punishment.

This would mean by 2019, the year in which the Paranormal Liberation War starts, Horikoshi was already planning on having the Villains die because he was constructing around them a situation too bad and too big to save them.

However it's probably before that. In August 2018 Horikoshi said in an interview:

Interviewer: “Villains who are not capable of being saved.” Is there anyone in the BNHA world who’s like that?

Horikoshi: I think if I answer that question, it will be a huge spoiler, but characters like Muscular who find great happiness in killing others would fit this category. If there comes a story about a villain being saved, then I feel like there needs to be a reward for that.

Interviewer: “A villain that should be saved.” Would Shigaraki Tomura apply to this category?

Horikoshi: Yes, I think so. I think that we have gotten to the point where Shigaraki can no longer turn back though. How should I put this, if I say more, I feel like it’ll dampen your imagination, so I won’t explain in detail. All I can say is that I hope you look forward to the expansion of the story from here on out.

How this translates?

Muscular doesn't die in the story, he ends back in jail, but to Horikoshi this doesn't mean he gets saved.

Tomura should have been saved, we know till the end Midoriya wanted to save him... but to Horikoshi it was already too late for that. August 2018 means that Horikoshi was printing on magazine the final chapters of Volume 21 so we are at the Pro Hero arc, basically when of the current manga only half of it was done... and back then Tomura hadn't done much yet, just attacked U.A. high, kidnapped Bakugou and stole the bullets from Overhaul... but with the Pro Hero arc likely Horikoshi had already planned Meta Liberation Army (in which Tomura is attacked by it and destroy par of Deika) as chronologically they happens in part at the same time, and, if he had planned that, very likely he had a vague idea for the Paranormal Liberation War.

So yes, undoubtedly the harsh situation of the manga industry wasn't doing Horikoshi any favour even back then, and possibly Shounen Jump too pushed for murdering off the Villains, but when their death is planned by so long... I don't know if the manga industry finally relenting and letting Horikoshi write in peace all that happens... let's say post Pro Hero arc... would have allowed him to change the fate of the Villains. It would means to hugely change the planned plot of the Paranormal Liberation War to make it bloodless, not so devastating, to make Dabi's dance not include Dabi murdered 30 'innocent' people (which were all, except for one, Villains by the way).

I don't want to say it would have been impossible... I can think to some ways Horikoshi could have made it work... but sure it would be very, very hard and would require the story to take a very different direction... or would require the ending to take a different approach to Villains and society, which I don't know if Horikoshi wanted to take.

All this to say that when something was established so long ago... it's hard to imagine how things could have gone differently... and if the grand plan would have been to put Tomura and Himiko in two extra tubes next to Touya's for some months before they too were to die... well, honestly I'm glad we didn't get that.

But I still hope the japanese manga industry will improve. The way it's heading I fear it will end up destroying it's artists. There's only so much a person can handle.

[randomnameless]

I really don't like the way you say a Laguz is "dead" or not a Laguz anymore if it can't transform. You'd be bothered if somebody said a person died or became less than human if they were paraplegic or severely mentally handicapped, right?

Good thing that people transforming in animals who lose said ability because they got a mixed-race baby don't exist in real life right ?

I'm sure the argument of "you'll be crippled if you get a baby with people X" was used in nauseabond RL circles during darker ages, but I'm sure that's not the kind of comparison you wanted to make anon !

Death is of course a metaphor, Almedha and Lehran are still alive and kicking through FE9 and FE10.

However, through the course of those games, if you played them or watched a lp, players realise that Laguz identity is tied to their ability to use their respective powers, in opposition to beorcs who don't have the same abilities.

A Laguz is thus a human who can transform in a bestial form and use their inherent power. Laguz societies put a lot of emphasis on this ability to transform and the inherent "strength" of their kin that we are told they base some system of government according to it (strongest becomes king).

(don't ask me why Tellius devs decided to tackle the "good savage" trope by having literal animal people, but it sure was a decision)

Now, Almedha and Lehran cannot transform anymore.

They cannot use their powers anymore (Lehran's inability to sing, thus fulfil his part of the promise to the goddess was one of the reasons behind his initial mental breakdown !).

They have, as Tibarn notes it, no scent anymore : I don't think scent here means what kind of perfume they're using, but something more in the lines that their core being changed and he, as a Laguz, cannot recognise it to the point where he's confused and wonders if she's a beorc or, neither beorc nor laguz...

As someone with chronic illness, I do not think I'm less than human because a pair of lungs don't define identity or "humanity", but in the Tellius world, for Laguz, being able to use their various powers define who they are.

Deghinsea is blunt like a hammer, alas he's not wrong : Lehran "lost" his "birthright" and this loss isn't treated like Largo's loss of his arm.

Short story : Laguz who hold hands with Beorcs and get a kid will lose all (but not the ability to use a sending Stone ?) of their powers and while they feel like they are no "true" Laguz anymore, the other Laguz can't recognise them as kin either.

Irl people who deny humanity to people who are, in your own words, "paraplegic or severely mentally handicapped" are pieces of crap and, imo, should be avoided at all costs, but we're not talking about irl, but about the fictional setting of Tellius that I find more and more shitty with the years.

In Tellius, a Laguz who fucks a Beorc, for themselves and for the rest of the world (hell even with their world's mechanics, iirc Sephiran loses the wind weakness bird laguz have ?), stop being Laguz, i.e. as a Laguz, they effectively die.

Laguz who turn feral and have their minds erased can still, thanks to herons, switch between forms (Rajaion).

Almedha cannot.

Laguz who were tortured and lost, due to said torture, the ability to use their wings, still can use their powers and transform (Rafiel).

Lehran cannot.

I'd be very happy, anon, if a future remake tweaked the ending for those characters and pulled some shit like "with the support of his friends and family, and mayhap the help of the goddesses he so faithfully served, Lehran finally managed to hum a galdr" and something similar with Almedha.

It would lessen, somewhat, the main plot sink of that verse that can be, and was, summed up as "Racism bad, but miscgenation bad too :S"

[phantom-thieves-official]

i'm doing ng++ of p3p because i failed to max all my social links last ng+ lmao. anyway I really like the p3 cast a lot. I've played p3 and p5 and have seen a full playthrough of p4g so I know the cast from all 3 games. and obv p5's cast are my darling little guys. but I really do like p3's cast a lot, too. I don't think there's anyone in sees that I dislike. i have a clear favorite but past that it would be difficult to rank them tbh.

I think I've said this before, but imo p3 has the strongest overarching thematic elements of the persona games I've experienced and has several characters that reflect those themes both in sees and outside of it, which is another thing I like. there are so many characters in this game learning the meaning of being alive, or making their own meaning, or learning how to live on after loss or guilt, or making peace with the reality of death & dying.

(LMAO shitty analysis under the cut, this post got so long)

Aigis is learning what it even means to be alive in the first place; to feel and grow and change. She is learning that life always comes followed by death. To be alive is to connect with others; to love. But to love always means to grieve; to face loss and pain. To live is to change and grow and feel everything life has to offer; the good and the bad, the joy and the sadness. It's all two sides of the same coin, one can't exist without the other. You live, you care for others, and in the end someone dies and the other is left behind. But it's worth it, even when it's painful.

Ken is struggling with finding a reason to live after a tragedy, stuck between anger and grief; ultimately clinging to the hope of vengeance before he comes to see that living life that way is no way to live at all. His meaning is to kill his mother's murderer, at first, and when that's done he plans on dying himself. But he doesn't get that chance; and then his whole purpose for staying alive is gone. He has to find a reason to go on without his mother and without a purpose anymore. And he does - he decides there are still things in the world worth living for; worth fighting for. He decides his meaning is to live for his mom. to live for shinji. to go on and face forward for them.

Akihiko is dealing with the 'accepting death' part. he's stuck in the past; in the guilt he feels about his sister and the inability to accept that she's gone - he never could have saved her, and living his life in the single-minded pursuit of strength means he's been blind to other things; being strong doesn't change the reality that people he cares about will die, inevitably. He can't accept it, and he strives to be strong enough to protect those he cares about. But no amount of strength can change the fact that people die. This is reflected even as far back as the fire that killed Miki - he says he wasn't 'strong' enough to save her. But even if he'd been strong enough to get past the adults holding him back, no amount of strength could have gotten him through a burning building to rescue her. He can fight it all he likes, but reality is that people die. he does come to see this; to realize that he can't save everyone. that there's more to life than being strong. that bad things happen and sometimes there really is nothing he could have done - and yet life goes on.

Shinji's living a life of atonement for his guilt. His life has become defined by the accidental killing of Ken's mom; he sacrifices everything he can (up to and including his own life) to atone for that mistake, but it doesn't make it go away. It doesn't bring her back; it doesn't lessen his guilt or Ken's pain. It just drives his life into the ground. He dies believing that he deserves to - that his death in defense of Ken is right. he doesn't get to learn that destroying yourself over guilt doesn't fix anything and it doesn't help anyone. His life's meaning becomes to atone for his mistake; everything else gets thrown aside - his friendships, his future, his own health and wellbeing. To him, his life has no value anymore. he's dying and he knows it; he accepts it. he thinks that's the only meaning his life can have anymore - to die as a final act of repentance for his mistakes. But living just to die isn't really living, is it? Living in the past, blinded by guilt, that's no way to live, and his life has meaning beyond what he feels - there are people who care about him and a place he can make a difference. but he doesn't see it. he and Akihiko are both clinging to the guilt that hangs over their past, but only Akihiko gets to learn that clinging to the past and carrying that guilt around forever isn't living; not really. it's existing, but not living. They both make their lives completely about their guilt. It's only with the loss of Shinji that Akihiko is able to see where they both were wrong.

Mitsuru is facing the struggle of making a life for herself in the face of what she's expected to do as heir of the Kirijo group - she's stuck saddled with expectations of a life she doesn't want; has to accept that living a life where she bows only to others' whims and expectations is also not really living. It seems life is happening to her rather than her living it at times; she has to take an active part in deciding her future because there's no meaning in living your life to other peoples' specifications.

Junpei even gets some topical thematic moments with Chidori. Her life has no meaning to her, and neither does her death - at first. She doesn't care one way or another what happens; if she lives to see tomorrow or not. But then she meets Junpei and suddenly she does care, because there's something (someone) in her life that makes her feel. And despite the fact that now she does fear dying, she still gives her life for Junpei. And Junpei wasn't very serious about anything, his life and future included. But now his life is Chidori's life, too; she lives on in him, she died so he could live. Her love for him allowed him to live, and his love for her inspires him to work harder in his life so he doesn't waste the sacrifice she made for him - she gives his life new meaning by making it her life, too; she says 'if you can't take life seriously for your sake, do it for my sake.' Junpei's love for her shows Chidor that there's more to life than the cold apathy she's used to. Chidori's sacrifice gives Junpei a literal second chance at life and gives him a newfound purpose & vigor for life. And if you do things in game correctly, you can encourage Junpei to keep seeing her right before strega breaks her out, which leads to her reviving after her death (in reload, he brings her flowers that she is able to take energy from to revive) which brings it full circle - Junpei's actions thus revive Chidori and allow her a second chance, this time without the memories of the experiments done on her, personas, or the dark hour. His actions give her a second chance at a normal, happier life. It's so poetic - they give each other purpose; she gives everything so Junpei can live on, and his devotion to her enables her to come back and live the life that was stolen from her by the Kirijo group when they chose her for their experiments. In the end, they can't be together - whether because Chidori is dead or she's revived and doesn't remember Junpei. But in both scenarios, neither one regrets it. Chidori doesn't regret sacrificing herself to save Junpei. And Junpei loves her enough that although it hurts him to be forgotten, he's just happy to see her alive. I could make a whole post about them alone. Junpei's new purpose is to live on for Chidori's sake. And if Chidori comes back, she gets a new chance to define her life and find meaning even though she'd initially been denied that opportunity.

Akinari is fighting the 'what is the meaning of life' battle. He's sickly and suffering, and he's bitter about it. He feels there is no point, really. He's accepted his condition and the looming death that awaits him, but takes no pleasure in having been alive at all. When faced with the cold reality of dying young, he decides there must be no meaning to any of it. What meaning could his life possibly have, anyways? His life is defined by his illness and the knowledge he will die soon; he hasn't made room for anything else. But he learns that even a short life has meaning - he just had to find it. You can't wait for someone else, or fate, or god, to give your life meaning. You have to make it yourself. He'd been so busy asking why him; why this sickly dying body; that he hadn't actually found any meaning in his life at all. But he does. Maybe it's something small like finishing a story. Maybe it doesn't change the world. But it's there. I think there's something to be said about the alligator in his story as a mirror of himself, too. The gator, sad and alone, with no purpose, dies before finding any meaning in his life - but his legacy lives on. Even when he could never know, he touches so many lives indirectly; even when he felt he had no purpose or meaning in his life, there is meaning there. he may not have seen it, but it was there all the same. One life touches other lives, which go on to touch other lives, like ripples in a pond. Meaning in life exists for everyone, whether they see it or not. AND you can talk to his mom at the end of the game and she says so many sweet things, showing how even when he didn't see it, his life had meaning to her. even when he felt bitter and lost; like there was no reason for him to be alive in his sickly, miserable body. His mother felt so much joy in each day she got to have with him - for her, his existence was meaningful regardless of anything else. His life had meaning the whole time. he couldn't see it, but it as there.

and, of course. the protag. idk. do I have to explain this one. the meaning of their life is all the people they've met; all the bonds they've forged. they've touched so many lives around port island, and each person they've met has touched their life, too. and in the end, they make the ultimate sacrifice - not out of guilt like shinji, but out of love. They love the world and their friends. they know there's meaning out there, even though so many people think otherwise and are wishing for The Fall. And ultimately, even though nobody but sees will ever know, they decide that dying so the world can live is a sacrifice they're willing to make. it's like the gator in Akinari's story - the world will be touched by the protag's actions, even if nobody knows. In the future, people will sit outside and feel the sun on their skin and that will be part of the his legacy - just like the gator, who dies and leaves behind a pool of tears that become an oasis for the animals of the forest. he leaves something behind that will touch lives even long after he's gone.

um. anyway. this game is so rich with themes about life and death; about accepting both and finding meaning in both. this isn't a carefully thought out theme analysis or anything just some off-the-top impressions. so don't roast me if its kinda all over the place lmao