#like at this point if i see someone who backs this group without criticism i just block on instinct i don't have the TIME--

[eclipsecrowned]

what's y'alls weird fandom red flag? what apparently innocuous or normal statement raises your hackles to high heaven? i just saw someone no irony whatsoever say developers did not intend a game with multiple branching arcs to have players go through each storyline, and instead have a 'different experience' between each player and the one route of four (five with DLC!) they choose. to defend their favorite route having no closure/catharsis/lore.

anyway three posts later i found the apologia blaming everyone but their fav faction for the genocide they actively carried out pre-canon.

[rxmxa]

𝐥𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐮𝐩 ❤️‍🔥

my ideas + observations on what lilith aspects might look like in daily life <3

Lilith-Sun Aspects: Getting noticed right away by people especially when a group setting, being liked by people on the surface level but secretly they disapprove or frown at your actions when you turn around, men judging you, standing your ground at all costs, not knowing when to back down, being a natural leader, challenging societal norms with who you are and forms of self expression, walking into a meeting or class wearing a bold outfit and peoples heads turning but not a word is uttered, getting dress-coded at work or school, your boss or teachers feeling uncomfortable to say something to you, people feeling like you are being "messy" when you question the norms, not addressing rumors. knowing you're gonn stir things up when you are walking into rooms and not caring, being told to change, being told you're too much, men wanting to date you but then wishing you would be "easy to work with" or wanting to date you and then get mad when they can't dominate you, you thinking "what don't they fucking understand? I just don't want to be like them" being afraid of your individuality not being recognized that you go to extremes at some moments

Lilith-Moon aspects: the type of people to actually answer with the truth when you ask them how they're doing and then you're kind of shook because you thought they were gonna sugarcoat and be like "I'm fine" being painfully honest or blunt, talking about feelings considered taboo (like no one really likes to talk about how they are jealous or bitter or other shit like that, they just hide it or project it) but lilith-moon will say they're feeling that shit. this reminds of the song wildflower by billie eilish. this aspect is women talking shit about you, having trauma with you, women in your life judging you or pointing fingers at you for not falling into the "good girl" category. being told you're wrong for how you feel, feeling intense or moody and other people being able to pick up on it, other people seeing you as magnetic but also unpredictable and they can admire you for being real with them but it also might scare them, mom saying you are a wild child or just too much to deal with when you get "emotional", you wanting to yell "no im not fucking okay and im not gonna sit here and pretend I am"

Lilith-Venus aspects: men want you and see being with you as a challenge, they want to be with you to show off but then get mad when they cant change you, being called a "tease" or saying that you lead people on, men lying about you, spreading rumors about you, men saying they "talked to you" or dated you after texting you LMAOOO.. just fucking lying! being villanized for your beauty, your beauty feeling like its making you a target, women seeing you as competition, women spreading rumors about your beauty (oh she probably got this and this done or oh she shes only pretty because xyz), men in relationships looking at you and thinking you are manipulating them when you're not doing anything, feeling like anything venus related (beauty, art, relationships) in your life gets distorted, your relationships always feeling like a battlefield, being sensual + in tune with your femininity and then people expect you to tone it down, you might do something like wear red lipstick or heels or a nice dress and be told its too much but someone without this energy in their chart probs wouldnt get that reaction, you wondering "what's the difference between me and her? Why do they treat her like that and me like this?"

Lilith-Mercury aspects: being blunt, hurting someones feelings without meaning to, getting criticized for whatever you say, trying to be more "polite" but then it feels so exhausting, cursing a lot, cursing from a very young age and/or in professional settings, saying what other people refuse to say for the sake of being polite or because its a "superior" this is the person that in the meeting will the supervisor "In my opinion, this isnt a good idea and it isnt helpful to us", people talking shit behind your back, the person who dissects other peoples words down to the stutter, punctuation and fucking COMMA! How did they say it? What word did they say first? lilith-mercury will read between the lines and force you to say what you are refusing to say or putting in a passive aggressive manner, might refuse to engage with passive agressive people until they say it with their chest, "could you repeat that?" energy, "what did you mean by that?" energy knowing damn well what they meant, talking about politics at the dinner table during the family reunion, talking about sex in the break room at work, playing the devils advocate, reading smut, writing smut, loving dirty talk. trying to use their words for something good but people always making them feel like everything they say is just always wrong, pausing before they strike with their tongue, hating small talk, feeling uncomfy with small talk, people trauma dumping or ovesharing or vice versa, feeling suspcious of people that use pretty words with them, they wonder "What do they want from me? They're trying to get something from me...."

Lilith-Mars aspects: the first to get to moving and get shit down, getting easily annoyed at people that dont have the same drive, being angry at weak people or people that cant keep their word, "Are you gonna help or just fucking stand there?", being seen as abrassive, people avoiding you or shrinking back because of it, men wanting to compete with you, people feeling threatened by your ambition, the type to get nice things in life and people spread rumors that you had to xyz to get it, people thinking you're being confrontational or too angry when you address something face to face and up front, feeling out of control with your anger as a kid, people trying to push your buttons to try to get a reaction of you and then acting shocked when they do, fiercely independent in their routines, working out intensely, craving intensity in relationships, lines blurring between love and war "If I'm going to be the bad guy might as well get something out of it"

Lilith-Saturn aspects: a major dislike of authoritative figures, feeling resentful at being told what to do, wanting to do the opposite of what you do, "im not following this rule just because its always been followed", setting your own standards and expectations, "I prefer to find out for myself", questioning the system or cultural and societal norms and traditions that you find antiquated or unfair, people respecting you for your disciple but wishing you were easier to boss around, other people saying you're too cold or detached but you just dont wanna give them the chance to fuck you over, finding peace in the space between order and chaos and you perfecting that mix, wondering if life would be easier if you were "softer", choosing to form your own opinions on people, "thanks but I can decide for myself", feeling like you're held to expectations other people aren't

Lilith-Pluto aspects: not afraid to talk about the ugly shit in life, the taboo, trauma, control, power struggles, fear, jealousy because youve been familiar with it before, people being a little afraid of you, people saying youre too intense or even dangerous, people projecting onto you and getting mad or "disgusted" with you when you see right through them, being able to pick up on changes in peoples mannerisms, digging deeper in conversations, people suddenly confessing things to you, people not understanding why they feel drawn to your presence, people either approach it or go in the other direction, you come across as someone who has been through a lot but its only made you stronger, "im not afraid of the dark parts of life", going through something traumatic and years later thinking about it and coming to realization that you wouldn't change a thing, that it made you who you are, being okay with being seen as the villian in someones story

[ihavenomouthandimustmouth]

It seems like a lot of the anti-transmasculinity/transandrophobia discourse revolves around the ideas that either this does not occur, does not occur in real life, or is just transmascs viewing criticisms of transmisogynistic transmascs as oppression, so here’s a story.

I live with some other people around my age, and I stopped using my deadname with them earlier this year. it hasn’t been that long, about 3 months, but generally, they use my correct name with an occasional mistake, usually followed up by a correction. one of them, however, just cannot seem to stop deadnaming me, often without correcting afterwards. when they do notice they’ve gotten it wrong, it’s usually followed up by a big thing about how they don’t know why they’re so bad at it or blaming it on being drunk if they’re drunk, but often not an apology.

an additional piece of this—my partner, who is a trans woman, changed the name they use around the same time, but this person almost always gets her name right. this person knows me a bit better/longer than they do her, but not that much better/longer, and generally, when I am around them, my partner is also there. (adding a cut here because this is gonna be long)

I talked with my therapist about this at my last session. I was seeking advice on how to handle it, but I also spent a lot of time just complaining and running through different incidences of this happening. I ended up telling her about some of the weird things this person said to me when I first started socially transitioning, including them saying that they were sad when I came out because they (direct quote) “didn’t want to stop seeing me as a genderless elf” (???!?) (I had previously identified as nonbinary and used any pronouns) and followed that up by saying that they hated men, which they then followed up by saying “not trans men though” (which like okay but then why bring that up in this conversation).

In talking my therapist, I circled back to the deadnaming issue and said that I thought this person was doing this to me and not my partner because my partner is more feminine than I am masculine (in social behavior and the way we look as two people that have not started medically transitioning). my therapist pushed back on this and said that, based on all the things I said, it seemed more like this person just didn’t want to see me as a man.

this blew my mind a little because I, a transmasculine person who spends way too much time on trans and transmasc internet, did not put the situation in this context while my therapist, a cis woman who is supportive but not super aware of the trans experience, did. it made a lot of sense though, and fit into the context of my other experiences and interactions with this person.

this person is a nonbinary person who has never identified as or been seen as a man. they are supportive of trans people generally and of their rights. they are also someone who believes that woman are inherently better than men. this generally doesn’t have much of an impact on the cis men we live with—for them, this more comes as being around for jokes that might make them a little uncomfortable, but doesn’t stop them from being seen as men. for me, this means I have to deal with the fact that this person doesn’t want to see me as a man and deadnames me accordingly, seemingly because they see me transitioning as a loss.

my point here is that when transmasculine people say that there are issues they face specifically related to them being transmasculine, that’s not a lie or a hypothetical. there is a stark contrast between the way this person treats my transfem partner and myself (and, after talking with someone who’s lived here with this person for longer, other transmasculine people who have lived in the house). they are supportive of trans people as a group, but not of transmasculinity, and I have to deal with the consequences.

[rie-092]

CHILDHOOD FRIEND

✶﹒ yandere! kim raebin x childhood friend! reader

honestly, i can't see kim raebin getting close to a woman who is completely stranger to him. so, let's just say that you were the daughter of their neighbour who is also his childhood friend.

we all know how introverted kim raebin was, so you had a hard time on getting close with him. because he always avoids you, or if you ever found a perfect time to talk to him, he always hisses making you blink. because for someone who looks like a bunny, kim raebin sure acts like a cat around you.

but wanna know how the two of you got close to each other? it's simple. it's because kim raebin accidentally saw you playing a guitar at a school event back when the two of you were in third grade. and boy, he was overjoyed! because this was the first time that he saw someone interested in music just like him!

at first, kim raebin was really shy when the two of you played or rather spent time together while playing various music instruments or making songs. but expect that after that, he would be so clingy. clingy to the point that he would follow you around like a damn puppy. at first, you thought that it was cute— not until you knew that he started stalking you around when you didn't hangout with him for a few days because you were too busy with school works.

what did you do? of course, you confronted him. but look, even though kim raebin has a problem when it comes on socializing with other people. it wasn't the same with you, because this guy knew everything about you. from your likes and dislikes, your habits, hell, even your measurements! that was the main reason why he easily changed the flow of the argument. he easily made you think that you are the one who's imagining that he was stalking you just because you missed hanging out with him, damn this smart guy.

kim raebin is so damn good when it comes to manipulating you into thinking that you were always the wrong one. forcing you to hang out with him without you thinking that he is actually forcing you. but, don't worry because kim raebin will never hurt you, he swear.

that's why when you heard that he got scouted on a certain entertainment company. you were overjoyed about this. because raebin will finally be able to achieve his dream and of course, you will be able to escape his clutches.

but, boy! kim raebin is a smart guy. because a year after kim raebin became a trainee, you got scouted too, by the same company that scouted kim raebin. how did that happen? you have no fucking idea. the only thing that they said is that they liked the song that you sent to them when you didn't actually send them one of your pieces. but who in the hell did sent it to them? you couldn't helped but to wonder. of course, it was a certain black-haired bunny who was overjoyed when he saw you confusedly stepped onto the company. and kim raebin— along with cha eugene who pestered raebin to introduce him to you welcomed you with the usual excited expression of his.

fast forward, when raebin debuted on testar, you also debuted and became the main vocalist, main rapper and lead dancer of your group. raebin liked the fact that everyone shipped the two of you. when does it start again? when you and raebin got invited to a certain variety show where the two kpop artists got partnered with each other and do certain tasks to see how compatible they were with each other. and seeing how the two of you easily do those tasks without even getting shy with each other, the host couldn't help but to ask the reason behind it. and when the two of you said that you were childhood friends. the internet got into chaos, fuck, childhood friends? everyone loves that kind of trope!

and now, he can visit you anytime he wants. seeing you and him eating together? it's fine, you were childhood friends after all! but seeing you getting partnered with a kpop artist who is not raebin? expect that everyone will criticize that idol because of that.

and raebin was satisfied with what was happening. he loved the fact that he was able to tie you down with him without you realizing it. it's fine even if you get into a secret relationship with other famous people. because once that was discovered by the public. he just needs to act pitiful and his and your fans will do the work to force you break up with whoever that guy was.

look, he likes you. he respects your decisions and choices but seeing you with other people makes his skin crawl. so, can you stay with him and do him a favour just like the old days, will you? because if you do that, he will gladly remain still and take care of you and protect your career.

“ i'm doing you a favour, you're just too irrational to see that right now, (first name).”

[just-a-ghost00]

How can you improve ?

This PAC is meant to provide you with general advice to help you improve and move forward on your path. This is going to be a very simple reading, with only two cards for each group.

Group 1 - 8 of wands & Justice

You need to combine your creative power drive with careful execution. Your ideas and desires are worth exploring but you should proceed strategically. Act before any little hint of doubt can slither in your mind and stop you from moving forward. Don’t give yourself the time to hesitate but don’t be careless about it either. This is a difficult thing to do but if you manage to get into action at the precise point where you’ve thought about it enough without overthinking it, then you’ll be good to go. The second thing I am picking up on is communication. It is important that you clearly communicate your boundaries. Without exception. No matter who is standing in front of you. No matter how good they were to you. If someone crosses a boundary, it is mandatory that you call them out. No one gets a free pass, you deserve to be respected no matter what. You are no doormat, no punching ball nor a stress ball. You are a loveable human being and you should be treated as such.

Group 2 - 2 of cups, The Devil

Having the devil as an advice card feels a bit counter intuitive 😂 Combined with the 2 of cups, on top of that. To me, in this case, this represents sensuality and pleasure. Your key to improving is to allow yourself to indulge in whatever guilty pleasure you have. Want to eat that cupcake ? Go for it. Thinking about going on a vacation ? Fly as soon as you get the chance. You’ve been running in circles wondering if you should send that love confession? Don’t think twice. Allow yourself to be happy. Allow yourself to exist. You deserve to live. You deserve to take up space. You are allowed to laugh. You are allowed to have fun. You are allowed to love and be loved. It is not a sin to do what you like because you want it. It is not forbidden to let your guard down and just allow yourself to be. You are enough. Be in that receptive energy. Go with the flow and take things as they go, one step at a time. Slow down. Enjoy your life. Find your rhythm. Find your joy. Explore. Connect with people. Form partnerships. Do not deprive yourself of something out of guilt. You can never regret doing what you love.

Group 3 - 7 of wands, Hierophant

As the 7 of wands represents competition among other things and the Hierophant maturity, I feel like the first piece of advice is to be the bigger person. If anyone is coming at you with a bad vibe, do not even bother answering back. Don’t give them a taste of their own medicine, no matter how tempting that may sound. Believe me you won’t be feeling any better afterwards. The true victory lies in being able to tame your demons. The second piece of advice is to not give up on learning. If you’re a student, keep going and don’t give up on your education right now. If you wanted to learn a new skill but you feel like that would be too hard for you, don’t let that stop you. Keep pushing. Keep fighting for your goals and dreams. Seek for knowledge in everything and everyone. Take any opportunity presented to you as a lesson that will only make you wiser and richer. Don’t take things personally. See the bigger picture. Notice the patterns. Read between the lines. Don’t let yourself be fooled by appearances and look for the finer details. I’ll give you an example by using my own personal experience. My father was acting a bit oddly lately. He kept criticizing me every time I was doing something that I found enjoyable. At first, my reaction was to feel offended and it made me angry so I would be acting aloof as well. But then one morning I just sat for a minute or two after one more episode like this happened and I realized that the implicit message was that he was feeling sad and lonely, and the reason why he was acting that way was because he envied what I had and wanted to be a part of it. He envied the fact that despite not feeling very good myself, I was still able to do fun things and enjoy myself while he thought he couldn’t. Now if you look at that from an external point of view, you would say that had he allowed himself to do the same, he would have felt better. Which I would agree with. But being caught up in his mental fog, he didn’t realize that and instead thought that nagging at me would get me to pay him more attention when it generated the complete opposite.

[volcanocraft]

hiii how did you like the wild life finale?

This seems to be a really contentious subject for the fandom and that's wonderful! I always enjoy when opinion is extremely diverse on a topic, i genuinely believe it contributes to a safer and more creative environment.

I think a lot of people forget that critique is ultimately derived from hope and love, it takes real time, dedication, and focus to understand and verbalize what they mean. Both parties want to see their series doing well. It would sincerely suck if everyone was so indifferent to the ending that one opinion homogenized the consensus of the fandom. It would be even worse if no one was allowed to voice their concerns or favourite moments in fear of betraying an established community narrative or attacking the ingenuity of the games.

Negativity comes from the same place optimism does. I have seen opinions I both agree with and heavily disagree with fundamentally, and I am ultimately very grateful to see both!

Thanks for asking my opinion. I don't think I would've written anything about it if you hadn't asked. Here you are!

The Good

Grian, Jimmy, and the ever present Cain Instinct

"It was always going to be this way, Jim." <- Said by someone who has a very normal relationship with a man hes known and attempted to nurture for around a decade.

I have to remind you that this is the second time Grian deliberately intended to end Jimmy’s life series, the first time is when they were Southlanders and he "snapped" at him for not taking his warning seriously.

I literally can't say anything that Grian hasn't said himself. If you watch his finale episode, he's constantly staring at Jimmy and thinking about how he could kill him right here and now. He switches to his sword, fidgets, stays silent while Jimmy and his group prattle on. Literally licking his lips and thinking about what to do. Ultimately, he chooses to strike without any chance of retaliation in the one place Jimmy feels safe in. And then when Jimmy is dead, Grian assumes he's watching him and says to his literal ghost "I love you"

Zombie Mechanic

I think this was a genius way of reintroducing the members who died early on. I don't think the series would've been the same without their revival. It was a super fun mechanic and their reduced health and commodified status balanced it out for me. You watched them lower your friend's casket into the ground but the next day he's back and he hugs you and you do not see any warmth in his eyes.

The Powerful Homo-eroticism of GemJoel [Canonized Edition]

The influx of gemjoel art was one of the best things in the entire world for me. Can you fucking believe i predicted it too. Now people refer to Joel as Gem's wife. This is everything I could have ever wanted. I've done three lines in celebration. Their dynamic was amazing too and i love that my inbox got flooded with anons as soon as any one of them said something incriminating. it's too bad they didn't battle it out for winner at the end with blood and tongue...

Good-FUCKING-Bye Canary Curse

I started getting really annoyed with how this specific fanon interpretation of Jimmy began to bleed into every single analysis of the series, creating relationships between characters and themes that were not there. I would argue that Jimmy himself barely believes in this supernatural phenomenon. I'm a hater and I only like it when I can fetishize watcher lore in a biblical sense.

The Bad

Leading Cause of Death... Snails

"You either loved the snail mechanic or you didn't" I say as someone who neither loved or hated it. But I think the fact that the snails ended so many peoples finales and contributed to so many deaths is a very valid criticism. I will say that Lizzie's snail and Skizzlemans whole episode kind of make it worth it, because it was just so fucking funny

I Wouldn't Have Attended Trivia Night

This is ultimately the point where I dropped off engagement wise. I think the trivia should have been minecraft-mechanic related and not about traffic life. "How many crafting recipes use wool?" Some of the questions were niche which makes sense because they were about specific moments. It doesn't matter if we think that lilac and poppies were important, no CC is going to, and the pool gets even smaller when you eliminate everyone who wasn't involved in that moment.

Conclusion

Personally, not my favourite. I think it lacks a lot of nuance the other series really cultivated with their simple mechanics which relied a lot on the ingenuity of the player themselves rather than situational opportunity. You could probably tell I lost interest because not even gemjoel could save me when I stopped posting about it. I got a lot of casual enjoyment out of it but that's it. I also eventually started feeling sore that the deaths were very coincidental. If you want a taste comparison, my least favourite life series is Secret Life and my favourite is Limited Life.

Some of the complaints I've heard is that there was not enough time for players to create alliances, flesh out cross-faction dynamics, or hold meaningful conversations. I disagree. There was a lot of motive for the players to collaborate and figure out the gimmicks together. They would even frequently congregate on the field at the bottom of the mountain. I think the wildcards helped make every conversation count and they could've talked at length if they wanted to (the G's did pretty often; as did Cleo and Bigb during the eating episode). There were a lot of chances to immediately take one another out but they decided instead to wait. Alliances were established and kept: the bamboozlers were ride or die for eachother, the spanners were tragi-comedy incarnate, and if cooperation's not your thing, you had team BET barely holding it together. People frequently encountered one another. I thought it was good.

Despite how I personally feel about it, I actually think its one of the best life series "objectively" in terms of content and watchability. There was genuine anticipation in seeing what happens each week. Each perspective was very personal because at that point it was about reactions and adaptability. If this was my first introduction to the life series, I'd be really pleased. But it does set up a kind of false impression of what the general theme of the series is. I guess you can think of this season as like... the beach episode [extended edition]. I did not get the impression the players were tired of the mechanics. The advent calendar format kind of does lend itself to a forced and rushed wrap-up finale.

[cindersnows]

i think as viewers we find it easy to sit back and judge each character until their motivations are explained to us in detail like with purple and king and chosen. even with victim its fairly easy to guess a portion of why she is doing this. and that's partially because avam is just made to be like that so all audiences can understand it and why the characters do what they do, and also partially because it's a little difficult to do more subtle storytelling when you can only express character feelings through their body language (and the body language has to be fairly exaggerated so that everyone can understand how the character is feeling).

so then as a result when we see green falling deep into the hole of social media it's easy to scoff and judge and say come on green, do better. we see it as him just getting too cocky again- look at green with his ego and his need to seem cool, he's sucking up to people again so he can get validation. and people understand that, they're even comparing his arc to purple, but they're forgetting to actually see things from his point of view.

like yeah. green was mean to yellow! and that was a kind of assholey thing to do, agreeing with people when they say yellow didn't do much. but like people do stupid shit all the time, especially to get approval. green hearting mean comments wasn't him on his villain arc, he probably barely thought about it. haven't you ever done anything without thinking or made a joke in bad taste. honestly it's a little ironic how quick people were to jump on him when he did something kind of mean, it reminded me of actual cancel culture! fascinating shit. we really are a part of the story.

anyways green started off as the weakest. he tries his best to be good at other things, first building, then music, but for some reason whenever he does well in something his friends get jealous or upset. (he pours himself into that thing and unintentionally ignore s or snaps at his friends--- its a repeating pattern at this point). it's mostly because their competitive spirit, something which is seen in a lighthearted manner but has gotten them killed or hurt on multiple occasions and i feel like they're going to have to address that at some point. whenever green sets boundaries, they're ignored, even if cg think they're just acting in the greater good.

hell, even purple, we've barely seen them interact after s3- who's to say purple wouldn't just scoff at him as well? she's already not very experienced with actual friendships (based on the way they just expected green to brush the betrayal off in parkour, they acted more like it was a small disagreement than a full on issue), so he may just assume this is how friends are.

basically the point of this is to say, no one ever celebrates his success. obviously he's competitive with his friends too, but having been at the bottom of the group from the start, he's visibly very insecure about this stuff, and having people attempt to kick him down during every success he gets (which he works very hard for) will lead to him needing validation from elsewhere. clearly, social media is supposed to give him this.

but like someone in the community pointed out, now he's appealing to hundreds of thousands of people instead of just 5 or 6. the praise is awesome, but seeing that people still have criticism of him just makes him throw himself into his work even more. it also probably functions as a form of escapism for him; he's so busy working, editing, writing, he barely even notices that his friends are avoiding him. it's possible he's purposely using youtube as a way to ignore his gut. anyways, blue's still willing to hang out and record with him, so what's the issue? (it's not as if blue is the least confrontational of the cg lol)

i have. been in this exact position. the moment you make anything, you're looking straight at the numbers. it becomes what you think of in the morning and during the creation process. you're skimming comments for keywords--- good, bad, more, less, etc. you listen even when you don't mean to. yeah maybe the guy was a little mean about one of my friends but ultimately it's just constructive criticism! it's not like she'll see this anyway. it's fine.

and yeah green needs to stop being so obsessive but i think he deserves to break down first. like what ash said--- he expresses his negative emotions the least out of everyone, he barely takes breaks, it's going to come crashing down. and i think when cg confront him about his behaviour he deserves to yell at them for the way he gets treated. it really hurts when all you are is the butt of the joke even when they mean it in a lighthearted way. if the arc just ends with green being knocked down a peg as usual, i will be very fucking upset because he's literally already at the bottom of the ladder, what more do you want?

[pandorasword]

Just saw your post about the members reaction to Chaeri and JK, and I wanna know what they thought about Hongjoong and Chaeri? Hell, I even wanna know what ATEEZ thought about their relationship too!

-♡♡

Hi!! 🫶🏼

I’m so embarrassed by how much time has passed since I got your message—I'm so sorry for the wait! It’s been such a busy and stressful time for me 🥹

Thank you for your question!

Chaeri as the 8th and youngest member of BTS.

BTS

The members quickly learned to consider themselves as a family. Living together and sharing everything since their teenage years, their bond has always been similar to that of siblings. This, for better or worse, includes constantly meddling in each other’s lives, both for fun and to take care of one another. This extends to almost every aspect of their lives, including romantic relationships.

It was impossible – and, in reality, Chaeri didn’t even try – to hide the growing bond between her and Hongjoong from the other members of the group. On the night of the party where they met, Taehyung and Jungkook noticed them, which inevitably led also to the last member of the 'maknae line' finding out about the news. They were the first three to know:

Taehyung was very surprised. Being Chaeri’s best friend and never having heard her talk about Hongjoong before, their union initially seemed a bit strange and rushed to him. Only later, when she confessed to him that at the party, she had approached Hongjoong with the intention of annoying him and Jungkook - who had followed her without her consent - and only later did that situation turn into something more significant, including the desire to normalize relationships among K-pop idols, Taehyung realized that such behavior was typical of Chaeri.

From the moment the relationship between Chaeri and Hongjoong became something more serious than just an excuse to create a scandal in the industry, V showed his support. However, he frequently asked her questions designed to make her reflect on her relationship, asking if it was really what she wanted or if she had just been swept up in a situation that made her feel good but that she didn’t truly desire.

The way Chaeri proudly showed off her relationship to everyone, without fear of judgment, inspired him and made him proud. It even led him to decide to be braver himself, giving the public clear hints about his own relationship, though in a less obvious way.

The first time he met Hongjoong as Chaeri's official boyfriend, one might have expected him to say the classic line, "If you hurt her, you'll have to deal with me." Instead, he said, "If she scares you to death, don't come looking for me. She scares me to death too. But I guess that's her way of showing love”.

Jimin was taken aback. He knew that the situation between Chaeri and Jungkook had reached an even more critical point than before, but he did not expect that the two would actually try to date other people. Their constant fighting, more or less hidden from the eyes of others, was causing stress and sadness for the group, which felt helpless in the face of that dramatic situation. Therefore, he tried to understand and support Chaeri's decision to date Hongjoong as much as possible.

Jimin had always been very reserved about his relationships with the media, aware of how much the K-pop scene could destroy even the most beautiful and genuine connections. Seeing Chaeri, on the other hand, not hide and proudly show the world her sentimental commitment filled him with pride. He knew that she was fighting to normalize the situation for all idols, giving them back their freedom to be human in the eyes of the public.

And while he was initially unsure about Hongjoong, Jimin warmed to him at some point. He liked how Hongjoong carried himself, and with being the leader of his group, he could guess what kind of person he was: responsible, serious, dedicated. Three qualities he believed were essential to be able to romantically connect with someone like his female teammate.

However, what impressed Jimin most was Hongjoong's approach to Chaeri's strong and overwhelming personality and the way he respected her boldness rather than trying to suppress it as many other men would have done.

Although he had never said it out loud, he was grateful to Hongjoong for standing by Chaeri's side at a time when few others could have done so, which was when she ended up on forced hiatus from the BTS.

As the oldest member of BTS, Jin had always seen himself as the “big brother” of the group, ready to offer advice or tease anyone who found themselves in a new relationship. To him, Chaeri was like a little sister, and he wanted to make sure that anyone she dated was worthy of her, which is why he began to “investigate” Hongjoong. He asked around and read articles about him and his group, eager to determine whether he was truly interested in her and not just looking for personal gain.

However, no article or information was more helpful than observing them together and hearing Chaeri talk about him. In the end, this led him to deliver his “verdict”: he approved of the relationship.

True to his style, Jin expressed his approval with a touch of humor. “So, he’s not scared off yet?” he joked with Chaeri, smiling. “Good for him! I barely lasted an hour when we met because of your bratty attitude.”

But beyond his playful nature, he also found moments to talk to her seriously. “I can see he cares about you. So just make sure he keeps caring about you as much as you care about him”

For Jin, Chaeri’s happiness was the most important thing. He was proud to see her openly embracing her happiness, knowing how much she had suffered in the past from having to keep her previous relationship hidden.

Yoongi, when he knew about her relationship with Hongjoong, didn’t comment immediately and took a step back, preferring to observe and let Chaeri share as much—or as little—as she wanted. To him, relationships were personal, and he respected her decision to make her relationship public, understanding how it could be both liberating and daunting in their world. He had always been the type to keep his thoughts on love and relationships close to the chest, so seeing her put herself out there made him feel both proud and slightly worried for her.

One evening, some time after the news broke, noticing how serious their relationship was becoming, he decided to give Chaeri a single piece of advice: “Just make sure you’re doing this for yourself. Don’t get caught up in proving something to anyone. If it makes you happy, that’s what matters.” 

Yoongi just wanted to make sure she hadn’t made the decision because she was angry or disappointed about her past with Jungkook, aware of how such emotions could lead to choices she might regret. He wanted her to approach this relationship with a clear mind and an open heart, unclouded by past wounds.

He knew Chaeri well enough to trust her judgment, and he trusted that Hongjoong would take care of her the way she deserved. But still, he kept a watchful eye, not to interfere but to be there, if she ever needed him. 

While he didn’t express it often, he deeply hoped that this relationship would give her the peace and happiness she deserved.

Ever since they’d started working together, Hoseok’d come to see her as his little sister—a role he took seriously, complete with protective instincts and a healthy dose of skepticism about any guy who showed interest in her. He’d seen her grow, struggle and evolve, so the idea of someone else now playing such a significant role in her life brought out his big-brother side in full force. In the beginning, Hoseok wasn’t entirely sure about Hongjoong. He hadn’t heard much about him before and wasn’t quick to trust anyone who’d suddenly become so close to Chaeri. 

Honestly, he didn’t like the situation at all. Chaeri was vulnerable because of what had happened with Jungkook—a relationship that had ended disastrously not long before—and all the signs, at least on the surface, seemed to point in one direction: Hongjoong was taking advantage of her to gain more fame and visibility for himself and his group. Or, at least, that was what his brain had convinced itself of the moment the “overprotective brother” alarm bells in his head went off as soon as he heard the news.

He would only come to realize, gradually, just how wrong he’d been as all the “evidence” he thought he’d gathered to support his theory started to crumble, one piece at a time. It had been Chaeri who approached Hongjoong first, and she was the one who decided to make the relationship public; moreover, Hongjoong genuinely seemed to care about her.

It took meeting Hongjoong in person to get some answers, though that first meeting felt more like an interrogation. Hongjoong would probably describe it as intense, maybe even intimidating. Despite the polite smile, Hoseok’s questions cut straight to the point: what were his intentions with Chaeri? Did he understand the level of scrutiny that came with dating her? And, in no uncertain terms, was he ready to treat her with the respect she deserved?

Namjoon, as the leader of BTS, felt a natural sense of responsibility for all the group members, but with Chaeri, it was different. Over the years, he had become particularly protective of her, looking out for her in a way that came entirely naturally—like an older brother with a younger sister. Although he wasn’t as openly intense as Hoseok, he, too, felt some skepticism and concern. He wasn’t used to Chaeri dating anyone (outside of Jungkook), and he had the sweet but misguided notion that no one was quite good enough for her.

“You know how much pressure comes with going public. Once things are out there, there’s no taking them back. I just want you to be sure this is what you really want—not just for yourself, but for the two of you together.” Living a life like theirs meant that any information shared with the public would be engraved forever, and he felt it was his duty to remind her that, once that choice was made, there would be no turning back.

He would never dare to question Chaeri's emotional intelligence by suggesting that she was choosing the wrong person to start a romantic relationship with; it was simply his instinct to protect her that compelled him to keep a watchful eye on the two whenever they were together. Deep down, he recognized her ability to make her own decisions, but the protective instincts of an older brother lingered, making it difficult for him to let go completely.

He felt better, however, knowing that Chaeri would have someone by her side while they would all be away due to the mandatory military service that, by now, was getting closer and closer.

Jungkook's reaction to Chaeri's relationship with Hongjoong was complicated, to say the least.

He knew she was a mischievous type, and when he first saw them together at that party, he became convinced—albeit annoyed—that she had set up that little act just to get back at him and Taehyung for following her to the party, despite her not wanting them there. But discovering that their connection had instead grown so serious that she had decided to make it public threw him completely off balance.

Jungkook couldn’t help but think back on all the wrong choices he had made during his relationship with Chaeri, choices that, forced or not, had led him to that moment: having to watch the love of his life fall for someone else.

The truth is that he’s never fully accepted it—and he never will. He won’t ever choose to be in the same room as Hongjoong unless circumstances force him to be there, and he certainly won’t ever choose to have even the smallest interaction with him. To Jungkook, Hongjoong would always be a reminder of everything he had lost, a constant presence of the love he let slip away. Even if he knew, deep down, that he couldn’t turn back time, a part of him stubbornly refused to accept the reality of Chaeri’s new relationship. It wasn’t that he wished her unhappiness, but he couldn’t bring himself to accept Hongjoong as a part of her life—or, by extension, his own.

Jungkook’s feeling of bitterness only grew stronger as the weeks went by. He saw Chaeri almost daily, whether at rehearsals or during group events, and every time he saw her smile because of him, it was like a quiet punch to the gut.

It didn’t help that the others had slowly begun to accept Hongjoong. While Hoseok still kept an eye on him and Namjoon was ever-cautious, they’d grown used to the idea. And to Jungkook, it felt like they were all moving forward without him. He’d find himself spacing out during conversations, lost in memories of the past, back when he and Chaeri were inseparable. It was all so bittersweet—he wanted to support her, he truly did, but he was haunted by the constant, nagging feeling that he was supposed to be the one by her side, not some stranger.

Whenever he saw Hongjoong, though, he managed a polite nod, maintaining a veneer of professionalism. But his politeness was brittle. Every interaction with him felt like stepping on thin ice, a forced act that concealed the simmering resentment he couldn’t quite shake. It was painful, and he felt as if he were trapped in a story where he’d once been a main character, only to be slowly written out. 

Everyone claimed that true love meant letting someone find happiness with another person. He was convinced he genuinely loved her.  So why was it so hard for him to accept it?

ATEEZ

Before Hongjoong decided to talk to their managers about dating Chaeri, he knew he had to discuss it with his members first. This made him particularly nervous, but he knew he couldn't delay it any longer, mainly since Chaeri had expressed her desire to make their relationship public. For example, when he went to New York to see her, Chaeri and Hongjoong posted photos from an identical location, causing the internet to be filled with theories and suspicions about whether they were dating, trolling the fans, or soft-launching a relationship.

He wasn't nervous because the boys didn't know, quite the contrary. Since the night of the '98 liners idol party, a gathering of idols born in 1998, when he and Seonghwa had returned from, and the latter had not waited more than a second to tell the others about him and Chaeri, the younger ones had not stopped teasing him, also knowing the little crush he had on her ever since she found some time to go up to them in 2019 at MAMAs and tell them how much she had enjoyed the cover of the song they had brought to the stage.

Fortunately, his fears were unfounded. The boys didn't react negatively to the dating news when he shared it, and their managers reassured them that they could handle any potential scandal. 'Having Chaeri linked to one of you would surely increase attention and, consequently, your turnover' they emphasized. Fortunately, KQ loved the media exposure this would bring.

And, what to say? The boys couldn't be anything but happy about that, could they? Their leader seemed pleased with that relationship, and their reputation would greatly benefit from Chaeri’s impact. However, Ateez would soon learn that Chaeri in their lives would become more than simply 'Hongjoong's girl who benefits his mood and our career.' 

Each member reacted differently based on their personalities and relationships with Hongjoong and Chaeri. 

Seonghwa and Hongjoong had always shared everything since they were just trainees. Being the same age and both feeling some sort of responsibility to the members had bound them together more than with the others. Because of this, Seonghwa couldn't have been unaware of the 'little' crush his best friend had toward the only female member of BTS. A crush that grew exponentially over the years, peaking in 2019.

Seonghwa teased him about it since pre-debut and never stopped, even when the two became a couple, leaving him hugely surprised. It’s a tale as old as time to have a crush on a public figure, and usually, people never end up dating them unless they get a once-in-a-lifetime chance, and for Hongjoong to get that chance? Seonghwa could think of nothing else but the fact that life always shows you something you would never expect.

Despite initial disbelief, he was proud of his member for being the first to have a public relationship, as he showed a nerve many idols did not have.

The guy also likes to tease Chaeri about how soft she can get with Hongjoong since she always tries to pass herself off as someone who is not particularly sweet or romantic. That makes her and Joong very similar, in his opinion.

Yunho was thrilled. His reaction was, perhaps, the purest and most genuinely enthusiastic of all. 

From the moment Hongjoong had confirmed his connection with Chaeri, he couldn’t hide his smile and a bit of surprise at the thought that their leader, his hyung, had won the heart of Chaeri and felt a bit bewildered at the thought that she was now a constant presence in their lives.

His excitement about the news, however, wasn’t simply about Chaeri’s fame. His happiness came from a much more genuine place. He knew how much Hongjoong’s intense work schedule demanded of him, and knowing he’d found someone who could make him smile and offer a bit of comfort was something that gave Yunho happiness.

As the main dancer of ATEEZ, Yunho felt an irresistible and inexplicable urge to talk for hours with Chaeri, who held the same role in BTS, about the dance icons they admired, favorite styles, the best methods for learning choreography, and so on. 

When it came to dance, Yunho found a new source of motivation and inspiration in Chaeri. Having the opportunity to work with her as ATEEZ’s choreographer, even if only for a limited time, made him genuinely happy; he greatly appreciated how Chaeri took each of his suggestions into account, making him feel fully included in the creative process of their performances.

While most of the others reacted loudly, swept away by enthusiasm or curiosity, Yeosang received the news of their relationship calmly and silently, as he had not yet formed an opinion about the situation; speaking without having thought it through first was not his style. Not that he was indifferent; on the contrary, the idea that Hongjoong had started a relationship with someone so significant in the music scene, fascinated him more than he let on. Yet, as was typical of him, he preferred to think deeply before saying anything.

In fact, Yeosang felt happy for Hongjoong. He knew well how much their leader had sacrificed for the sake of ATEEZ and how he had always acted as an emotional shield for the others. The thought that someone could finally take care of him, just as he did for his members, gave him a sense of peace. If Chaeri could provide that kind of balance for Hongjoong, that was already enough for Yeosang.

However, despite his reserved demeanor, Yeosang couldn't shake the thought that this relationship might somehow influence the dynamics of the group. It wasn’t jealousy or envy, but rather a healthy concern for their equilibrium. At a time when ATEEZ was growing and reaching new milestones, he feared that the notoriety of such a public relationship could distract Hongjoong or even create tensions with Chaeri's international fame.

For this reason, he spoke privately with Hongjoong to tell him that he would support whatever made him happy, but that he needed to make sure that he found the right equilibrium, for himself, for ATEEZ, and for BTS.

The ice between him and Chaeri finally broke when, noticing his somewhat distant and thoughtful demeanor, she decided to "test him" with jokes and playful remarks, trying to make him laugh and lift his spirits whenever she was around.

When San was told the news, he decided to become one of the most welcoming people Chaeri would ever meet. If Hongjoong put so much trust in her that he made their relationship public and made her an official part of their routine, it meant that he could trust her, too, and that she was certainly a special person, an idea that was later solidified as he began to get to know her more.

For him, it was new to see his captain, always so focused and dedicated to work, let loose whenever Chaeri was around. He was the first to realize that Joong didn’t just have a simple crush or attraction toward her—he was completely smitten. This realization filled San with joy, both because he could see how happy his hyung was and because teasing him about it was going to be even more fun. And oh, he never missed an opportunity to do so, knowing he’d succeeded with his jokes whenever Hongjoong threatened to beat him up.

San was among those who didn’t worry at all about the potential repercussions this might have on their group. He had complete faith in Hongjoong and their agency, and if they believed the situation could only benefit them, then he firmly believed it too.

From the start, San took it upon himself to make their dorm a bit more “girl-friendly” in subtle ways, often reminding the other guys not to leave laundry outside their rooms and occasionally bringing an air freshener or candles with softer fragrances.

Chaeri, along with Hongjoong, had started taking care of all of them through small gestures: giving them decorative items for the dorm, bringing food almost every time they met, and listening to them in moments of difficulty. For San, it was only right to make her feel like a true member of their family.

Mingi was less worried about the implications of dating someone as high-profile as Chaeri and more curious about what she was like behind the scenes. He'd seen her charisma on stage, of course, but knowing she had somehow captured the heart of their hyper-focused captain made her all the more interesting.

When she started hanging out with them more, Mingi was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to talk to her. He found himself chatting about everything. She laughed at his quirky jokes, and her genuine reactions made him feel instantly comfortable. Chaeri was even surprisingly willing to listen to his ramblings, which most people couldn’t keep up with for long.

What Mingi appreciated most was that she seemed to care about all of them, not just Hongjoong. It didn’t take long for him to open up to her the way he would to a friend, even showing her some of his scribbled lyrics and ideas—something he rarely did with people outside the group. She encouraged him to pursue his creative ideas with enthusiasm, which meant a lot to him, especially coming from someone with so much experience.

Mingi noticed little things about her and Hongjoong’s dynamic that the others might miss. Like the way Chaeri would glance at Hongjoong to see if he needed anything or how Hongjoong’s shoulders relaxed just a bit more when she was around. While he didn’t tease his leader as much as San or Wooyoung did in front of Chaeri, he made sure to join in whenever she wasn’t around.

Wooyoung was the most excited. It was almost too good to be true— despite his hectic schedule, his beloved captain had found love. And not just anyone, but Chaeri of BTS. And oh, if he wasn't a BTS fan.

His fanboy heart was thrilled, enough to make him almost obnoxious with his numerous questions towards his Hyung that went from 'Do you think she will introduce me to Jimin sunbaenim?' to 'If, technically, BTS are like siblings and we, technically, are like siblings, does that mean that if you and her are together, she is my sister-in-law and us and them will become one family?' It is unsurprising that, to most of these questions, Hongjoong simply answered with a somewhat annoyed 'I don't know.'

The vague and rather bored response to Wooyoung’s questions made the members wrinkle their noses, perhaps too eager to pry into their hyung's relationship and then into the dynamics of such a famous group as BTS. After all, he was dating an idol in one of the most prominent groups ever. He felt their captain needed to give them a few details to satisfy their innocent curiosity.

Wooyoung was the first to break the ice with her and treat her like one of the family rather than an unexpected addition to their already large group. It took only a few days before he started referring to her as 'Noona,' and he is known to blush, in an innocent and non-romantic way, at most of the things she says to him.

Jongho is a private person who, unlike many other group members, highly values his privacy and, therefore, deeply respects others' boundaries. So, he didn't seem particularly interested in the news of his hyung's relationship. After all, it was normal for them to have partners, right? The only difference was that the girl was one of the country's most famous and influential figures. At first, Jongho thought that it might have been better for the group's well-being and harmony if Hongjoong had found love in someone who wasn't always in the spotlight, but in the end, he was indifferent to their relationship as it was their business.

For this reason, at first, he couldn’t understand the cheerful atmosphere with which almost everyone else had welcomed the news. It wasn’t the first time one of them had started dating someone (obviously keeping everything strategically out of the spotlight), and to him, the fact that Hongjoong was with a famous person rather than an ordinary one didn’t make any difference. That’s why he didn’t seem particularly enthusiastic.

However, as time passed and as Chaeri became more and more embedded in their group dynamic, Jongho could not help but get to know her better. He noticed that despite her fame, she approached everyone with humility, a quality that many celebrities in their circles display only when they are in the spotlight. Although he was less experienced than her, who had debuted five years earlier, it happened more than once that Chaeri asked him for advice on how to keep her voice so steady during performances, which amazed him and filled him with pride.

His respect for her began to change drastically for the better when, after a movie night organized by the group, she stayed behind to help tidy up, despite the fact that it was late and she had a busy schedule the next day. When Jongho told her she did not need to, she replied that it was nice to contribute, since she now considered them a second family.

I wanted to thank @littlestatesman for helping me a few months ago by giving me more information about Ateez than I had, and especially my Boo, @alixnsuperstxr who helped me with the entire drafting of everything written. Thank you so much for your friendship and support ❤️

taglist: @alixnsuperstxr | @bts-dream | @enchantingbrowneyedgirl | @ycuvi | @cosmicwintr

[weirdsht]

My Field of Flowers - LoTCF & Reader

a/n: this prompt was in my notes for the longest time, but i didn't manage to do it justice so i'm high-key sad... Oh also this is heavily inspired by fairy tail's Ankhseram' s curse (the curse of contradiction)

tags: male reader, platonic relationships only, dragon half-blood & reader, cale & reader, based on chapter 458 onwards, passive detrimental thoughts from reader, open ending, possible ooc cale

English isn’t my first language so there will be grammatical errors

Pls don't repost my work anywhere without my permission

Constructive criticisms and any kind of interaction are more than welcome

Requests are currently closed but my ask are still open (read pinned)

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“…Hyung?”

[Name] softly asked as his gaze landed on the half-blood that was supposed to be dead. Well, at least that’s what everyone told the man. They all told him that his hyung was dead and that his never coming back.

Nonetheless, he was here, in front of [Name].

He was weak, he looked like a normal human. The air of elegance and power around him was almost gone.

But still, he was here. He isn’t dead like everyone had claimed him to be.

That’s enough for [Name].

He tried to reach out to the Dragon half-blood, but an arm stopped him from doing so.

It was Dorph’s arm. Of course it was, who else would it be after all?

“You mustn't [Name]-nim, that bad hyung has betrayed your father. We don’t want you being tainted.”

The man retreated his hand. Dorph’s voice and actions were soft, as if [Name] was the finest jewel that would break if handled wrong. However, that jewel was already shaking even after being cared for so meticulously.

[Name] did not dare argue. It was obvious in his eyes how he wanted to be by the half-blood’s side, but no words came out of his mouth. Dorph looked back at the man and smiled in satisfaction after seeing [Name] follow his orders.

“Take that calamity– that boy with you.”

Cale who had been watching the exchange heard the Dragon half-blood whispered. His brain was still in disarray, but he had enough wits left to tell Cale to take [Name] with them.

Of course, Cale isn’t someone who would trust an enemy so quickly. For all he knew this could be a last-ditch effort to have the upper hand.

The half-blood knew he couldn’t be trusted, but he still insisted.

“White Star will take a huge blow if you take him. That kid also doesn’t know how to fight back, I can guarantee it.”

As if to prove his point White Star arrived and the first thing he did was look for [Name].

White Star gently smiled at [Name] as his gaze landed on the man. It was as if a father was looking at a beloved child. However, that affection is unreciprocated as [Name] becomes even more scared upon the reincarnator’s arrival.

[Name] became even more scared after the bastard whispered something in his ear.

“B-but hyung is with them–!”

“Hurry up, before White Star forces that calamity to use his powers!”

The so-called calamity tried to plead with White Star at the same time the Dragon half-blood whispered to Cale. Urgency dripped with every word the chimera spoke. He even almost sounded scared at the man’s ability.

It made Cale scoff. He still doesn’t know the whole picture, but this was enough to finalize his decision.

“Choi Han!”

The young master shouted amidst the chaos and the enemy's monologue. Choi Han immediately knew what to do. He quickly yanked the mysterious man and ran towards where Cale and the others were.

With that, all of them safely teleported to Marquis Stan’s territory.

[Name] was dizzy. Both physically and mentally.

He had no shred of clue what was happening. One moment he was behind Dorph, then all of a sudden this swordmaster grabbed him and now it looks like he was underground.

The poor man was scared. Most of the people he met wanted something with him. They all sought him out for what he could provide for them. This is especially true with powerful people.

And this group is full of just that.

Nevertheless, he said nothing. He merely followed everyone while staying as quiet as possible. His hands strongly gripped the back of the distraught Dragon half-blood’s clothes. As if that cloth was [Name]’s last lifeline.

Honestly, it could be.

For all he knew they could force him to use his ability to its maximum capacity and then he would die.

As much as he didn’t mind dying he didn’t want the aftermath of using his ability.

“This kid has an ability called barren. Calamity, explain it yourself. You’re not a kid anymore.”

What a flimsy excuse… it was obvious that the half-blood just wanted some thinking time.

Still, [Name] complied and started introducing himself to Cale.

“I’m [Name] and unlike hyung and White Star I’m a normal human with a normal lifespan.”

The weird introduction made Cale’s eyebrows raise. But he said nothing and waited for the man to continue.

“As hyung said I have an ability called barren. The best explanation for it is death for everyone and everything as long as I will it so.”

Ah, suddenly the nickname “calamity” is starting to make sense.

“Of course, it’s not without a price. I can kill anyone in the world at will but it would cost me my life.”

[Name] proceeds to explain how the price is his own lifespan. Every time he uses his powers his lifespan shortens. Hence why all this time White Star used it sparingly.

“I… I’m not really allied with the White Star. He found me on the streets one day and discovered my ability. Since then I’ve been forced to do whatever he wants me to…”

His voice shook as he spoke. Fear and anxiety apparent with every word. However, truth was also there along those things. He might be shaking in his boots, holding onto his hyung like his life depended on it, but his voice and eyes showed Cale that he spoke the truth.

“We’ll talk more later. For now, we need to get that earth attribute power.”

Unfortunately, things became hectic after that. The next time they got to talk was after Sheritt and Raon found out the truth about what happened to the red egg.

“Thank you.”

[Name]’s voice was sincere as he thanked Cale.

“For what?”

“For giving my hyung a choice. It means a lot to him. More than he is willing to show.”

Cale’s insolent tone was drowned out by [Name]’s genuineness.

“What about you?”

[Name] made a humming noise at the redhead’s question. Asking him to explain what he meant.

“You were never given a choice.”

A serene look glazed over [Name]’s face and for a moment Cale couldn’t help but think about how odd this pair of “siblings” are.

“Seeing my hyung have the possibility to redeem himself is good for me. It’s enough.”

The ability user’s voice became quieter, more content.

“You see young master, I’m a blight. It’s why my family abandoned me. Someone like me should never exist. Did you know that at first, I couldn’t control my ability? I would accidentally kill the trees and grass around me.”

A distant look glazed over the man. He wasn’t with Cale anymore, he was back in the past. Back in his childhood memories.

“I hate White Star. I never wanted to kill so many living things, but he made me do it. He said it’s for the greater good, but I’m not an idiot… Still though…”

[Name] choked up a bit, as if his next words had to be forced out of him.

“I’m thankful to him because he taught me how to control my powers. It’s because of him that I can talk to you peacefully like this.”

Cale wasn’t sure where this was going, but he still listened. Not an inch of him moved from his position. Record unknowingly working hard to take in [Name]’s words.

“What I’m trying to say is that this moment of peace is enough for me. Being able to talk to everyone without having to worry is enough for me. In fact, this is already too generous for a calamity like me.”

That glazed look in [Name]’s eyes disappeared as he came back to the present.

“Ah, I’m sorry I spoke a bunch of nonsense. I’ll be retreating in my room now. Please call me if you need anything.”

Cale didn’t say anything as [Name] bowed an apology before walking in the opposite direction.

He wasn’t stunned or surprised per se.

It was just that he saw himself in [Name].

Not him as Cale Henituse, the young master of a wealthy noble family.

But him as Kim Rok Soo, the abused and battered child who had long given up. The child who had succumbed to the whims of the incompetent adults around him. The man who only woke up every day because he hadn’t died yet.

And maybe it was because of some twisted self-satisfaction. Maybe it was Cale projecting into [Name]. But the moment the man had turned his back the redhead made a promise.

A promise for no one else to hear but Cale only.

A silent vow that he would give [Name] all the possible choices he could give him. Ensure that he’ll find out the joys of living, of not being in pain.

Cale silently vowed that he would put in the effort just so that [Name] could enjoy his own small field of flowers.

[madschiavelique]

F8

(i had written this in june and forgot to post it. after seeing you guys agree a lot with this post about isekaid reader i just had to put it out there)

What if Tav is conscious of the quick saves and the F8s, but not the rest of the team ? What if they remember every moment where their adventure companions stood on the very precipice of death or on the extreme of it ended up soulless, laying on the ground like a bag of cold limbs, deprived of any life ? 

What if they used F8s in the hopes that somehow, on the next try, no companions would receive a critical hit that would bring them to the abominable sight of matte eyes, missing the glint of light that shines when one’s spirit still remains ?

Perhaps then someone else could replace one of your companions in the group? Perhaps by using Withers' hirelings you could prevent the others from being affected?

Imagine one night after a long day,, you’re by yourself next to the campfire for the long rest.

The stars have been piercing the black sky like pins in the web of night for a long time now, and it's your turn to keep watch.

Everything was quiet, so quiet, too quiet. It was a sharp contrast between the little crackles of the fire taking hot splinters into the air, and the raging storm of your mind.

Your eyes are immersed in the flames, as if they alone held the precious strategy that would allow you to overcome the horror of the many deaths you wanted to prevent.

You consider the strategy you might employ for the next day. Maybe start with a small bomb? No, if the range is missed it could cause more area damage than necessary. 

Maybe throw a bottle of grease to slow them down? Except that if any sparks flew, it could get complicated.

Then maybe shoot an arrow of many targets... 

‘Can't find sleep ?

You could have expected any of the companions. But the one who came to see you was Karlach.

“No.” you replied simply, without taking your eyes off the fire.

“What’s on your mind soldier ? You’ve been… absent minded today.”

Absent minded was a euphemism.

You had seen up close all of your companions nearing the party wipe, more than a half of them on the ground trying to get their death saving throws as the rest of the party barely had any health remaining.

And out of the few dialogue options you had for her tonight, between them all, was : 

[PERSUASION] Nothing, it’s a bit of a personal matter, you’d find it very boring.

The rest of the options were either too rude for your taste, or would ultimately lead you to unveil of the true reason you were here. You knew that, it wasn’t the first time you were having this conversation.

The dice to roll was 15, and you had no guidance to get from Shadowheart, nor friends from Wyll. Barely a good bonus, you’d have to deal with it.

The first roll was a miserable 4, luckily for you, you had as many points of inspiration. The second roll was a 10. 

Maybe you should embrace it and tell her ? you thought.

The next was a 7, and the one after was a 14. 

Was the game really pushing you to reveal your situation?

Your last roll came, a natural 1.

“Come on, you know so much about all of us at camp !” she said as she sat down next to you. “Let us know more about you.”

You weren't surprised that it was Karlach who came to talk to you. You'd seen the video of Karlach breaking the fourth wall a while back, before you were transported into the game. But it intrigued you, why should she come at this precise moment of rumination.

“I just wonder... why can't the past just die?” you say, turning to her.

“I guess because sometimes you gotta kill the past yourself ? Or something like that, I don’t know, probably something wise about it. I could ask Gale if you want ? I’m sure he’d bounce on the occasion to talk about something that requires his intelligence!”

“No please, don’t get him up.”

Gale would ask too many questions, too many right questions, and would never get away from the subject. This was the last thing you needed at the moment.

“Why do you wonder that ? Something from your past chasing you ? I could take care of that.”

“I doubt you could.” you scoffed.

“Oh come on, there’s nothing that can surmount us.”

You observed her for a moment, her undying joy and energy feeling so natural. How could it feel so natural ?

“You’re not real.”

The sentence came out of your mouth, dialogue options all gone and unneeded.

She frowned, confused as the joy that inhabited her calmed down.

“What ?”

“You’re not real,” you repeated, the emotions twisting your throat.

“What do you mean ?”

A sort of panic slowly took hold of her as a heavy rumble echoed in the distance, like thunder.

“You remember all these memories, you feel all of these emotions.”

The rumbling grew louder, the ground beginning to tremble. 

“Your anger, your joy, your sadness.”

The camp floor cracked, Karlach standing up suddenly.

“None of them really belong to you.”

Beams of green light passed through the fissures of the cracked floor.

“Because you're not real.”

Your eyes landed on Withers, his gaze urging you to do the right thing.

“F8.”

A moment passed, and before long you were back in front of the campfire.

Back with your thoughts, with your torments, with heavy choices. 

They can't know, at least not yet.

______________

i wrote this while listening to this and gosh it matches so well

[fumifooms]

Namalin

Namari x Falin

Easy short rarepair spotlight post for prosperity~ This one I didn’t think of on my own for once, I don’t know if it’s just I forgot the decided-on ship name or what but I remember seeing really nice art and a couple posts about it that I can’t find again 💔 Namalin warrior you are out there and not forgotten ty for making me see the light

I like that Namari’s critical of Falin! I have a whole character analysis on Falin if you’re interested, but it’s generally well noticed that people around Falin idealize her a lot. Laios, Marcille and Toshiro all put her on a pedestral of ultimate goodness in the world, a saintess if nothing short of perfection. Sounds like Chilchuck felt sort of creeped out by her vibes, uncomfortable because he couldn’t read her, so unlike Namari it seems he preferred steering clear of her rather than debate opposed ideologies like he usually does. Makes sense if unlike Namari his issue is with her cryptic aura rather than the stances she does show. "… The dungeon is no place for soft hearts" my ultimate namalin scene <333 It’s fun because while this scene is there to show us a lot of things, mostly to establish Falin’s characters better as it’s the first flashback of her we get, the conflict in it is more than anything else Falin vs Namari in how they contrast and clash and approach situations differently. Namari wants security in swift effective violence and thinks Falin too soft for her own good when she prefers a pacifist approach and promotes compassion even for the "undeserving" in Namari’s eyes. Falin steps between the battle ready Namari and the ghost, fearless. Falin effortlessly gently exorcises the ghost without one step back, quickly. Falin proves someone wrong. Falin proves someone wrong.

I love thinking of Namari being surprised when she learns new aspects of Falin. I like Falin having the power to shape people’s views on her. With Falin ships the most fun part for me is usually that point where Falin/the relationship becomes a clean slate: the person realizes they haven’t been seeing all of her, realizes there’s more of her they hadn’t noticed or that she hadn’t shown, that there’s change, a shift in the views on each other and the dynamic a bit.

Namari often feels like an external view looking in to me… I need to make a proper analysis on her but like. I made a lamari post once (analytic more than personally invested rip sorry) and I go with the same Namari take here, I think she’s someone who tends to have an outsider view on people and relationships if that makes sense, she’s a coworker before anything else and she’s content staying at a distance, she’s not objective per se but she tries to keep feelings out of her choices and how she sees people (her lil arc on not staying to save Falin despite the existing camaderie but in the end asking to work for the Flokes more because she wants to stay with them). She’s serious no nonsense on the job but friendly off the job and likes having casual friends, but she’s not… She doesn’t really feel connected to the group. She’s so focused on doing her job, even if she does get impulsive and passionate and too assertive for her bosses’ tastes, so focused on working her reputation and life from the ground up that that professionalism and attitude limits her social life. It doesn’t help that her reputation makes her widely judged, so she probably enters social spaces on the derensive. The closest person she was to pre-canon as far as we knew was Chilchuck and even they have a very "coworker I get along with" dynamic more than friends, with a similar sense of boundaries, humor and world view. Also like canon says a few time, the party didn’t really try to get to know each other well pre-canon, didn’t hang out after work often no one knew where Marcille was from and no one thought that was weird (also how no one had the instinct to ask about Senshi’s past) etc, the notable exception is we’re shown Namari and Chilchuck hitting taverns together and having a grand time. Everyone’s fine with things as they are, they get along decent even if not everyone considers each other friends exactly. Where I’m getting at is that to me, it feels like she tries keeping emotional distance. Emotional distance from people in general being something which in my interpretation of Falin is also present, which would make it a theme and common thread interesting to explore imo. But yes like, Namari looking at Falin, and how everyone treats her, and being more skeptical, seeing her for what she is a little more, maybe even uncharitable. "Why is everyone treating her like she’s all that? She’s gentle sure but seems like a doormat to me" and then one day she comes running up with her mace ready to cave in someone’s face to protect Laios. So yeah… Keeping her distance but one day Falin offering her some gentleness that feels very too personal for someone who’s not used to being genuine and simply showing that they care… Them talking a bit which leaves her stumped and mindblown in a quiet way when Falin defies her expectations. Namari growing on Falin when she stays and decides to open herself up more, or when Falin ends up reading her really well like she’s shown to do with her parents and Marcille’s worries. She’s very attuned to worrying and why and when different people do it especially when it comes to when they worry for others, perhaps because she does a lot of that too, so I think she’d nail down how Namari does care for the rest of the party and it’d make Namari feel seen both in a warm validating way and in a scared naked way.

We see in the tentacles chapter that she’s someone’s who’s very protective and looks out for her peers in a tough love way. She’s overbearing but it’s because she wants everyone to have the best chances. I like that she’s very confrontational and somewhat pushy and rude, but it’s tough love, it’s protective care: asserting herself to better protect and defend. The opposite of Falin’s type of care, quiet and self-sacrificial devotion. They’re barbarian x healer but they’re also bodyguard x bodyguard in their attitude and role. … What I want for them is slow burn slice of life of being coworkers and slowly getting to know each other better, pretty fluffy, but god, put this way they’d have the potential to be such a hot layered mess of insanely mutually devoted codependence… Falin taking a hit for Namari and Namari being scarred by it forever, lots of arguments about it, my god.

I like that she’s the fighter to Falin’s healer. I looove thinking of scenes of Falin healing Namari, necessitating touch and like, a moment of slowing down and sitting together in silence, too intimate, the perfect opportunity to connect that neither truly want to take until one day they do. I love how onesided I imagine the relationship would be at first. Again, as per my interpretation of Falin, I think Namari would have all these little observations and opinions on Falin meanwhile Falin really doesn’t think of Namari much at first. So Namari thinks a lot about Falin and thinks she’s got her pinned down but hasn’t (not that she’s fully wrong, she’d have credit and confront Falin on some of her flaws like the doormat thing), while Falin is very passive about Namari and doesn’t think deeply about her or anything but she read Namari’s insecurities and logic well. Not unlike how Laios was the one who seemed to understand Namari’s way of care the best in the party in the tentacles episode, and how he was very understanding of her choice and reasons. In Falin’s case it’s more like, the objectivity of passivity… She cares about Namari less than Laios who generally seeks to form bonds, so her lack of investment allows her a neutral perspective. In that way another parallel with Namari that I’m drawing, except Namari lets feelings from her opinions seeps in more… Onesided beef my beloved. I’m going insane save me this post was a mistake. I think Falin takes the crumbs of friendship and love where she can without expecting or asking for anything more than what’s offered, and I think her relationship with Namari (or anyone really) would start out the way it did with Marcille: the other takes the initiative and they end up spending time together, Falin is friendly but unattached until the bond gets gradually and wordlessly strenghtened through regularly spending moments together. So! I think Namari would need to take a lot of the first steps, which since again she’s confrontational & argumentative and doesn’t hold herself back on that front that could spark a lot of conversations I think. Ooor since Falin cares about Namari less than Laios and Marcille she allows herself to be bolder herself lol. Or also circumstances force them to spend time together like dungeon party getting separated shenanigans.

I think their personalities match cutely, I think falin would try to protect namari like she does others but also Namari simply doesn’t need protection, just support. And I think they’re complementary in that way that Namari’s friendly but also won’t sugarcoat things, and I think if she takes an interest in Falin it could go from there and she could develop some understanding of her and idk like an intrigued crush….

Namari wants stability & security & to, like, not be judged and rejected and exiled lol, to find her nest her pack the place where she feels good and wanted in. I think having a fitting partner would help in that (similarly to how the found family with the Flokes seemed to. Oh another parallel, Falin’s top priority is protecting Laios her brother and what Namari are a family figure) and I think Falin would fulfill that cozy protection and that warm ‘being seen and not judged’ feeling. But also Namari would run up to her and yell about her trying to sacrifice herself ever.

Another fun thread to explore: post-canon guilt for not having gone to save her. Sure, they weren’t close, but they had some nice memories, didn’t they? Namari cares, and it stings despite herself when it feels like people think she doesn’t. Oh it wasn’t a lost cause after all, oh it’d have worked out, oh I could have stayed loyal and it wouldn’t have compromised myself in the end. Wanting to apologize to Falin, or just ahnging out with her and sharing a moment after she wakes up. And tangent but that’s interesting to think about… Narratively, I think the purpose of Namari and Toshiro in the story, beyond strenghtening the theme of "seek to understand what is different from you and promote unity despite them" and fleshing the cast and worldbuilding, is Toshiro’s purpose was being a foil & tool in Laios’ arc (trouble connecting with people) while Namari’s was being and a foil & tool in Marcille’s arc (standing up for ideals without being out of touch with harsh realities and needs). They are the conflict that push our protagonists to grow— and they explore different ways of dealing with a situation or topic, different ways of growing into themselves on that end: Laios needing to listen to others more and Toshiro needing to focus on voicing himself more to be able to connect, Marcille needing to learn ideals sometimes cost too much and Namari needing to internalize that ideals are sometimes worth risks (not only to be able to find a reasonable but fulfilling life balance, but also to get in touch with their compassion: Namari restricts her own too much and Marcille is too harsh on people she deems to be breaking values, like Namari not risking her life and career for a friend with no promise of success, or even like how Namari is harsh on Falin’s way of doing things : too gentle, too soft, too idealistic) (similarly to Chilchuck’s arc with Marcille too, and he also plays a hand in advancing that arc in the Namari chapters). We are getting far from namalin sorry ummm preview for future analyses like Toshiro’s contrasting approach to grief and accepting loss.

More post-canon namalin! Thinking about a timeline where… Namari is fond of Falin finding herself and going off to do her thing. "Finally!" she thinks. If she’s still for hire, maybe Falin would want her to come along, either as guide or bodyguard <3, she knows Namari has a lot of good avice on a lot of things to give, plus they’ve worked together before. She hires Namari and they travel for a bit. Travel would do Namari good too I think, even if her end goal is to settle and I think Falin’s would be too eventually. Seeing sights that light her wonder for the world and going places where people don’t know her story, don’t recognize her face or her name. Them, feeling free. Finding a companionship that feels uplifting instead of stifling or charged. Namari having been too in her head about reputation and social games and money that they hit the roads and spend time in nature and it’s like, woah. I’ve been living in a small world with made up rules.

Ahh yes romance, Namari and Falin kissing after 3 years of not really knowing each other despite seeing each other every day then 2 months of wanting to spend more and more time together until they’re an inseparable duo! Workwives. I want them to stand next to each other during campire time and Namari cracks little jokes and Namari laughs. I want Namari to gift Falin a bug caught in amber and for it to be their wedding/promised to each other thing.

TLDR

Rowdy but levelheaded barbarian x gentle healer that will also cave your face in with a mace I like it…… They’re an interesting duo of mixed stuff. Protection being your purpose and what you’re worth for, literally being a meat shield (Laios, Tansu), finding your individuality recognized and validated through a growing bond with the other. Sticking around as a love language. Also bug immortalized in amber and it being beautiful.

Nevermind this wasn’t short. Um! Anyways.

[thefandomenchantress]

A Very Long Morgie Analysis

Warning: As the title says, this is a very, very long post. You should fear that keep reading button. /j

So I watched Descendants 4 with pretty low expectations a week or so ago, since I heard a lot of people criticizing the film. I’d watched the first three Descendants and thought they were a very fun kind of over the top, and figured that this one would be similarly kinda cheesy but hopefully in a charming way.

The first time I watched the film, I liked it. While I thought the beginning of the movie’s plot dragged slightly only for a far too hasty conclusion, I figured that with a supposed part 2 coming, things could possibly wrap up nicely in the future. That was my mindset throughout almost the entire film…Until suddenly Morgie got a scene.

This is a post mainly for people who’ve seen the film, but just in case I’ll explain the scene. Morgie, son of Morgana, is assigned as look-out during the villain heist. He then makes an amusing comment about what the signal should be if he sees Merlin, and no one answers him. We leave his character for a bit before coming back when Merlin returns to his office, about to catch the villains. Morgie does his signal as planned, and when Merlin looks at him, he hides behind a branch as though that’s going to do literally anything to hide him.

By the end of his little dose of screen time, I was quite amused and wondered how I hadn’t really noticed him earlier in the film, since his character archetype seemed right up my alley. After a day or two, my curiosity peaked and I decided to watch the movie again, but this time pay lots of attention to him whenever he was in a scene. I both wanted to appreciate his character more as well as reevaluate the movie after my first viewing, wanting to decide if it really was ���bad’ like people said it was (spoiler alert: I had fun watching it the second time as well, while it is flawed it’s a fun movie and I like it and I will die on this hill—).

On my second watch, I realized that Morgie is surprisingly pretty well-characterized for a character that doesn’t have too many speaking lines. And I really wanted to hyper-analyze his character and all that, so now I’m making a very long post about it. I really just need to ramble for a bit because for some reason I have become deeply fixated on this character and NEED to blurt out all my thoughts.

So without further ado, how about we watch this movie for a third time and point out every single little thing about Morgie and appreciate it? Let's go!

(There's also my theory about how the new and old timelines work below all the movie analysis, in case anyone just wants to see that).

YAY HE SAID HIS FIRST LINE WOOOO!!! After a whole 48 minutes, the best character has finally entered the movie /j.

Now on to actual thoughts and stuff. Morgie's first ever words in this film are, "Son of morgana", which, from an out-of-universe perspective, can be easily explained by the movie needing us to know who he is, since he's one of the two completely unheard-of characters in the villain gang.

But Uliana, notably, only has her relation to Ursula mentioned after her verse. So the "son of morgana" line didn't have to be the first thing to ever be said by him, but it is.

That could just be because it flows best from a music standpoint, but in-universe, I think it could possibly represent how Morgie got into the villain gang in the first place.

You see, while I was trying to dig up all the Morgie information available before I made this post, I found these blurbs:

(From an official Descendents book, 98% sure it's called "Descendants: The World Of Auradon: Royals And Villains").

Notably, Morgie's entry says he isn't the most well-liked in the group. But in that case...How is he still in the group??? The villain gang don't exactly seem like the types to keep someone around just to be nice. So here's what I think the reason is.

Uliana wants to be the most feared person at the school. She wants to surpass even her sister when it comes to being mean and scary. And that means that her gang has to be mean and scary. And when she hears that the literal son of Morgana--Morgana, in this universe, seems to be a very powerful sorceress who almost took over the world--is attending her school, she knows that having him on her side will definitely give her more of a powerful, evil image. Afterall, if the son of one of the most powerful villains was willing to follow her, people would think that she must be very mean and scary.

Of course, she needs people to know that Morgie is the son of Morgana, so I wouldn't be surprised if she asked him to mention it the first chance he got, and he listened to her.

This was all a very long way of saying that Morgie says this line first possibly because Uliana told him to, since having evil, scary people on her side makes her look better. And it's also interesting that the first words he ever speaks are about his relation to someone else, not his own character, unlike all the others in his group.

But we're not done with this shot yet! I also want to add that the Son of Morgana's name is Morgie, which means that Morgana has joined the long, long line of Descendents villains who basically just name their children after themselves, (probably because they view them as a sort of mini-me). I wouldn't be surprised if his name was actually Morgan, though, and Morgie's just a nickname.

Also, something I noticed is that, if you look at the book-pictures above again, Morgie's paragraph is in past tense, while Morgana's is in present tense. Morgie's being in the past tense makes sense, since we know that in the future, the villain gang in Rise of Red no longer exists, all of them being their own solo acts. But Morgana's paragraph being in present tense means that she is still alive, powerful, and presumably still wants to take over the world. So I guess that means she's technically a candidate for antagonist in the next movie. But I'll get back to speculation about that sort of thing later.

Now we can finally talk about the next moment, haha.

(Morgie is the one singing the line here)

The first time I watched this I didn't catch that he called Uliana hot but--Yeah, he did. Which means that he either thinks she's so hot he must declare it to random strangers, or Uliana specifically asked him to say that she's hot. Either way it's kind of hilarious.

I am genuinely unsure as to whether they are trying to get us to ship Morgie and Uliana because:

-On one hand, we've got Morgie not being well-liked, and him "desperately wanting Uliana to like and respect him". Which seems to imply that, at least to some extent, she does not like or respect him, or at least not as much as Morgie wants her to.

-But on the other hand, we've got Morgie calling her hot, staring at her longingly, and Uliana calling him 'honey' later in the movie. Disney what do you want from us--

Personally, after reading that Morgana is cruel person who doesn't care about innocent people and who's first priority is world domination, I guessed that Morgie probably didn't have the most loving upbringing. It could've possibly been something like Red's, where his mother could be 'kind', but only if he did what she said and helped her take over the world and all that. In this scenario, Morgie tries his best to follow her lead, but most of the time still doesn't do well enough to satisfy her and fails to get much validation or love from her. When he goes off to school, he tries to get validation and love and respect and all that from Uliana instead.

But that interpretation sort of implies he sees her as a stand-in mother figure, which makes me think that no, them being a couple doesn't feel quite right.

But it's not like that interpretation is canon or anything, it's just something I came up with. So it can't prove that he has no romantic interest in Uliana and that's why he's so desperate to please her. But I did want to share my thoughts on that matter, so here you go. :)

Aside from Morgie getting hit by Uliana's tentacle and falling over being really funny, there is something else interesting that this moment made me notice.

I read somewhere that a character being lower in frame than another, or lower from a high angle in general, can symbolize them being less powerful. And I noticed that there are a few scenes where Morgie does crouch or appear at a lower angle than the other villain gang members, which reinforces the idea that he isn't the most powerful/well-liked member and is at the bottom of the totem pole in the group.

I don't know if I'm reading into that too much, and I don't know a lot about film-making techniques so maybe that's not completely accurate, but I thought that was interesting.

There's nothing too important about this one, I just think that all the villains frowning or glaring while Morgie goes :D is really funny. He looks so head-empty in this moment.

Morgie uses 80's slang confirmed!!

Also, Uliana lets Morgie call her Uli. Considering the fact that Uliana says her full name (Uliana) is what will strike fear into people's hearts, her letting Morgie use a semi-cute nickname is fun. It proves they're at least a little close, since she didn't sock him in the face for calling her that, especially in public. She cares a lot about her image, so her not minding definitely seems to imply she cares for him at least a little bit.

I don't have much to say about this one, I just think it's amusing.

Though the fact that so much of Morgie's dialogue can go unheard/unnoticed without captions on or on a first viewing is interesting. I couldn't actually hear the 'wicked' line, I'm just trusting the captions. And both this line and the last he says while not on-screen, which seems to put the other's reactions in more of a spotlight than what he's saying.

I suppose this is part of the reason I found Morgie harder to notice and keep track of when I wasn't putting my undivided attention on him. Throughout a good chunk of the movie, he's treated as nothing more than Uliana's lackey. Him not having too much to do besides follow her is true to his character, though. His entire role is all based around doing anything to gain her affection. He cares about her more than anything, and sometimes that leads to him not being a character of his own. Which is pretty cool, if done purposefully.

Hm, I've noticed that Morgie's main ship in this fandom seems to be Hook and him, and is this one moment the reason for that? I've heard people say they have chemistry on-screen, but after watching the movie a few times, they only have a few close moments from what I can see. This and introducing Uliana are probably where their friendship is most prominent. Hook and Morgie definitely seem the most dedicated to Uliana, so they are similar in that regard. And the ship is cool, don't get me wrong. I suppose I just wonder if there's some sort of logic behind it, or if it was more of a "ah yes two conventionally attractive men it's shipping time" situation, haha.

This is an interesting frame, because Uliana is suffering as she's turned into a...uh...flamingo-squid-human hybrid? And you'd think that Morgie, since he cares so much about her, would be the most distressed. Instead, in this moment he seems to be smiling (not sure if you can tell as much in this screenshot, though). This could mean a few things:

As stated in the Descendents book, Morgie is rather dense and still hasn't realized that Uliana isn't fooling around anymore and is in genuine distress.

He is happy Uliana is in distress because that means he gets to help her, and she will feel grateful for that and like him more in result.

As shown later in the movie, he likes animals enough to even learn how to mimic the sounds they make, so he's just happy that two of his favorite things are being combined, haha.

Some sort of theory about him secretly not being super loyal to her, though there's not much of a case you could make for that other than this moment in particular, as far as I'm aware.

I'm not sure which one I believe, though I think I'm probably leaning towards the first one, even though possibility 2 would be quite interesting. After all, he looks very visibly worried when she falls into the fountain later, so him just not realizing at first probably lines up the most.

Not too much to say about these two moments, besides the fact that they once again showcase how desperate Morgie is to please Uliana. First by him being the first person to try to help her (but he fails and falls over, which he seems to do a lot). And second by him being the first to sprint out of the courtyard after her. Though it seems Hook caught up and got him to stay with the others to cut off Bridget and Ella at the other side, since we don't see him running behind Uliana anymore in the next shot, and then we see him standing beside Hades after we move to the fountain scene, implying he went the way Hades did instead.

(Side note, I think that Morgie's the one who shouts 'Uli!' but the captions just say student so maybe not, I can't tell).

Okay, so, the captions claim that Hook says this line, but not only can we see that Hook has his mouth shut as he pushes branches out of the way, not speaking, the voice also sounds way more like Morgie to me. Originally, I was going to use the nickname Uli as evidence that it was Morgie, but then I remembered Hook also calls her Uli earlier in the movie. So I guess I can't prove anything, but I'm 99% sure this was a mistake on the caption-er people's part.

To get on with the actual scene, Morgie compliments Uliana in an attempt to comfort and please her, though it doesn't seem to work like he'd hoped it would. Other than the last scene of the movie, this is probably the only scene that remotely shows that maybe she doesn't like him as much as some of the others, like the book claims. But more on that later.

I had a hard time getting a good frame of it, but I wanted to point out that Morgie kinda froggy-hops on the first two stones in this scene, before jumping across them normally. Whether he stopped because he realized the others weren't doing it or because he simply remembered that he is Not A Frog, I found it to be a fun detail and wanted to point it out.

Pfft, he's so eager to participate, his worryingly excited vocal delivery never gets old to me here. You could also argue that this is another lower-in-the-frame moment, since he sort of crouches and then rises up here.

It's noteworthy that Morgie is the only one of Uliana's gang to not come up with his own idea for a way to get revenge on Bridget. Which at first glance seems like a strange choice, since all the members getting individual lines is a chance to characterize each one a little bit more. And that's especially valuable with a character like Morgie, since most kids probably don't know a lot about Arthurian legend and therefore Morgana. And Morgie's not even actually her, he's her son. Meaning in his limited screentime, they really need to put the effort in to make his general personality clear.

But the fact that Morgie just copies someone else's answer does characterize him. Like I said earlier, at least to me, Morgie seems a lot more eager to participate in the conversation than to come up with ways to punish Bridget for what she totally definitely did. In fact, he begins to climb on top of the rock-thingy to jump off it and excitedly repeat Hades' idea before Hades even has a chance to finish his thought (he's still on "we could"), meaning Morgie was probably going to excitedly parrot whatever Hades said no matter what it was (or maybe that just happened because the actor didn't have enough time to climb up, jump, and say the line if he waited until Hades finished speaking but shhhhhh).

This would imply that Morgie doesn't really care as much about evilly getting revenge and whatnot as much as he cares about getting to be included in the conversation and following what the others are doing. This may be getting into more headcanon-y territory, but Morgie seems to crave the love and companionship of his friends, and I think this scene sort of demonstrates his want to do what they deem as good and acceptable and what will make them happy rather than come up with anything on his own.

I suppose that's one thing that makes his character morally grey to some extent. Sure, he doesn't seem to take as much direct joy/satisfaction in torturing Bridget, but he still cares far more about his friends' approval than her well-being. As long as his friends are happy and want to keep him around, Bridget and anyone else's happiness doesn't matter.

I have no idea why they put in a random shot of Morgie jumping in the middle of the song, but it's really amusing to me so I'm happy they did. I just needed to mention this really quick, I find the hard cut to Morgie dramatically jumping off something way too humorous not to.

Off-topic, but since it's sort of implied Morgie likes animals at the end of the movie, I like to think he feeds this guy sometimes, and when asked why he'll say sadly, "No one comes here besides us anymore, so he hasn't been able to eat any innocent people in a long time :(" like it's this terrible, tragic backstory. Idk I just think it'd be funny. Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Ah yes, the scene I keep mentioning. The one that made me go, "woah, he's funny and has a discernable personality :0". The one where he asks what the signal should be and all that.

This scene finally shows us what the Descendents book from earlier kept claiming, that he wasn't the most well-liked among their evil clique. When Morgie talks, Uliana rolls her eyes in exasperation and walks off, not answering his questions. And the others follow suit, ignoring him.

For most of the film, Morgie seems to be on even ground with the other members, and at first, I thought maybe that wasn't on purpose and they just wanted to shove this in at the end, like how most of the ending was rushed. But now I'm thinking that maybe the reason Morgie isn't as well-liked is being shown throughout the scene, revealing why it's only more obvious now.

You see, Morgie's easily excitable personality fits in when Uliana and the gang are all just messing around, like how they were laughing and making jokes at someone else's expense earlier in the movie. Morgie just has to cackle evilly behind Uliana and be supportive. But when they try to do more 'serious' evil things, like this heist, his attitude doesn't translate quite as well.

Uliana wants to be taken seriously as the threat, and I assume the other villain gang members do as well. They want to be evil and scary and tough and all that. But Morgie doesn't really have a more serious, threatening mode. Well, he does, like when he's trying to be threatening during his introduction. But when there's no bystanders to impress, only his friends, the real Morgie isn't the serious type. He's still energetic and excitable, even in situations such as these. And the others find this a bit grating, since they want to be real villains. They don't want all of this to be childish or a game, they want to be taken seriously as villains. They want to be real villains. And Morgie's demeanor isn't as cut out for that sort of environment. Or at least his natural demeanor isn't, and he has trouble reading when they want him to be more serious.

Side-note: I swear I love every line this character delivers, something about the way he talks makes my ears happy. So I just wanted to point that out really quick.

"Ah yes, this extremely small branch will guarantee that no one will see me! >:D" I find this very funny. I want to say this isn't very smart of him, but I mean it works and Merlin doesn't see him so you can't argue with results--

Anyways, Morgie impersonates a few animals and hides behind a small tree branch. I thought about screenshotting all the animal noises but they're pretty straight-forward and for this you just need to acknowledge that they happened, so I didn't.

Morgie is the son of Morgana, and presumably has the capacity to be an extremely powerful magic-user like her. Which means there are a lot of cool magic things he could be doing. So I think the fact that we are directly shown that shape-shifting and mimicry are the skills he focuses his energy on the most, is important. Well, I suppose it's possible he isn't using magic to mimic the animals, but I've always assumed he is. And even if he isn't, the fact that even in scenes where he's completely alone he's still mimicking something else is rather telling.

...

...Oh, wow, we finished analyzing the actual movie! Yay! Time for one last thing, then!

Apparently, there was a deleted after-credits scene where Morgie finds the sorcerer's book. Unfortunately, I couldn't locate the original post, which supposedly came from Morgie's actor. It's not that I doubt it's real, I don't know how someone could fake this photo, but I would've liked to see it and know what he said about it.

(Warning, a lot of this gets even less objective than it already was, and most of it is just me theorizing with varying degrees of evidence to back my statements).

So what implications does this photo have? Well, it confirms my suspicions that Morgie being forced to stay behind wasn't for nothing and was setting up something else. I heard there was a lot of cut content in Rise of Red, and the fact they thought the 'Morgie barks like a dog scene' was important enough to keep over other things seemed telling.

If there was a scene dedicated to him finding the book, then him finding it must somehow be important. But in that case, I'm guessing we'd have to assume that Morgie can open the book. After all, if he can't open it, what's the point of him finding it? And it sort of ruins the original timeline, too.

If Morgie can't open the book, then that means all of the villain gang couldn't open it. And in that case, how would they prank Bridgette in the original timeline? They couldn't, because none of them would be able to read the recipe and give the cupcake to Bridgette.

However, if Morgie can open the book, then things make more sense. I wasn't sure if I was going to share my whole theory here, but so far I haven't seen anyone have the exact same idea as me (though I haven't read every Morgie post out there, so it's possible), so why not share it?

What if the thing that changes the timeline isn't that the villains were able to get the book without getting caught by Merlin, it's that the villain gang knew Morgie could open the book?

Let me explain.

Let's start with the fact that I don't think we often acknowledge, at least in my experience, how random of a choice putting Morgie in this movie was. They could've chosen any classic Disney villain to be in this movie, yet they chose Morgana. A character who has never even shown up in any Disney project, besides a live-action film and Sofia the First. They could've chosen to round out the pirate trio from the second movie and added in Gaston, or chosen one of the core four's parents from the first movie, or picked literally any famous character from any Disney movie ever. And yet, they decided to go with not just Morgana, but the son of Morgana.

And personally, I think that if Morgie really was just a throwaway character, they probably wouldn't have gone through the effort of making a whole new character instead of just choosing an already established one, like with Hook, Maleficent, and Hades. There has to be a reason they did this, right? Anything Morgie did in this movie could've been accomplished by anyone, since his only large contribution to the plot was being a look-out and failing.

And there are two things I realized. One, that being the child of a villain basically gives you automatic redemption arc privileges in this franchise. The core four, the pirate trio, and Red in this movie are all proven to be good deep down in the end, and we're supposed to see them as heroes. And for some reason, they decided their new character couldn't just be Morgana, it had to be the son of Morgana.

My guess is that they want to be able to push the "Oh their parents taught them that being evil is right but deep down they're a good person" angle they did in all the other movies with the Descendents. Especially since it would parallel Red, who's basically the main character of these movies, even if Chloe is at a close second.

The second thing I noticed is that even if you read just the first paragraph of Morgana Le Fay's Wikipedia page, it says that a significant aspect of her character is her unpredictability when it comes to being good or evil. She has the potential for both, and since they seem to have decided to just make Morgana evil in this universe, I'm guessing that trait is being handed down to Morgie.

They needed a morally ambiguous villain who could open the book in order for the timeline to work properly, and choosing a villain we know is 'evil' thanks to their movie, wouldn't allow that. So obscure villain's son it is.

Alright, so if we assume my logic makes sense and isn't just incoherent rambling, Morgie can open the book. How does this tie into the way Chloe and red changed the timeline? Here's what I've come up with:

In the new timeline, Red and Chloe steal the book for the villains and the villains take it, opening it in front of them just to brag and getting frozen. Red and Chloe take the book and, assuming that Uliana and her friends can't go to the dance, leave the book behind off-screen. In the deleted scene I think they left it...Is that their room? I genuinely can't tell, but Morgie finds it. Possibly via following them after seeing them leave the building, since we know that the trip from Red's room to Merlin's office is in direct eyeline of the tree.

But even though Morgie found the book, the prank isn't enacted in this timeline. If Morgie can open the book, why is that? After all, he could just do the prank for Uliana, right? Well, here's what i think happened:

Uliana and the gang don't know that the book is enchanted so that non-good people are unable to open it. That's why they try to open it without a second thought. Which means there are two possibilities going forward:

Morgie did indeed follow Red and Chloe back to their room so he could get the book back for Uliana, and overheard their conversation about how the book proves Red is a good person and won't turn out like her Mom, etcetera. When he finds it, he's aware of what could happen when he opens it, unlike his friends.

Morgie doesn't know about the enchantment on the book when he finds it, because he didn't follow them or couldn't hear them through the door or something else.

Both options, for my theory, garner the same outcome, it's just that things take slightly longer to happen.

If we go with the second option, Morgie is unaware that opening the book with no side effects means anything and after he opens it, he decides to show Uliana and the others the book whenever Merlin gets the spell off of them and all that. But when they do meet up, Morgie asks how they got caught before he shows them anything. And Uliana's answer would be something along the lines of, "That stupid book was enchanted and froze us in place! Only some goody-two-shoes could open it without that happening" (she would know because she heard Chloe's explanation of the spell when her and Red were talking). And Morgie takes a moment to process that...Uh oh, wait, that didn't happen to him. Why didn't that happen to him? Cue Morgie having an identity crisis as he realizes that the book doesn't seem to think he's a bad person, even though that's what he's supposed to be. He's the son of Morgana. He's part of a group that knows their actions are bad and they don't care. His entire motivations are around getting his mother, Uliana, and whoever else to give him validation for being good at being a villain.

But according to this book, he's not one.

Morgie tries to play it off and decides not to show them the book. Uliana and the gang are all about being evil, and they are all he has. What if this was the last straw and they kicked him out of the group because they think he's not evil enough? He'd have no one left.

He's decided that he can't tell them about the book, but what if they figure out that he has it? As long as he has the book, it's a liability. So, he does the only thing he can think of.

Burn it to a crisp.

And with the book destroyed, the prank can't happen. The recipe that can turn Bridget into a monster is no more.

If we went back to those first two options and say Morgie knew about the spell when he opened the book, then everything is the same except the book gets destroyed sooner, the night Morgie's friends are still frozen and won't be able to catch him actively sabotaging their revenge plans.

So that's the new red-and-Chloe timeline. What about the old timeline? Well, in that timeline, let's say Uliana doesn't feel the need to show off and open the book in front of Red and Chloe, so they escape Merlin's office unharmed. That means they get to meet up with Morgie, and whenever they open it, they're around to see that oh, Morgie isn't frozen, that's weird.

And they can't know for sure why, since they don't know what the enchantment is or what its qualifications are, but they do know that Morgie can read the recipe and do the revenge plan, so Morgie is able to read the instructions and they're able to prank Bridgette.

And ta-da! That's how the timeline got changed! At least in my mind, there are probably tons of other possibilities, but this is the one that made the most sense in my head.

And with that, the post is finally finished! I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts or ideas on this! Despite this being an analysis, a lot of it is dictated, at least slightly, by my own opinions. Morgie is the centerpiece of the timeline changes for a reason, haha. With such a large fanbase compared to some other pieces of media I like, I'd love to hear what the masses have come up with and like or disagree about in this post.

Thank you so much for reading if you've made it this far! I can only imagine that if you have read all this, you're some sort of Descendents or Morgie super-fan, and for that you have my respect.

[sixosix]

IT WAS ALL BY DESIGN | KAVEH

tags second chance, angst and fluff, time-skips, DARK HUMOR, lovers to exes to lovers again, profanity

written for art @aanobrain, who i made a bloodpact with saying that if i were to write this they’d write me xiao, so here we are. hope u like it art

a/n wc 4K kaveh lore spoilers but i didn’t follow the canon timeline. kaveh meets al-haitham BEFORE the palace of alcazarzaray. also this has two parts

next part

kaveh first saw you when he was presenting his nth draft proposal to his fellow group members.

it’s stressful, it’s a mess, kaveh is lost, and so, so tired. this group is certainly the worst one he’s had yet, but he’s too far deep to back out now.

tamara sighs deeply, like a tired mother, and kaveh’s temper flares, “i understand your need to express your love for aesthetics, but don’t you think that it’s unwise to sacrifice practicality?”

kaveh’s jaw ticks. “sacrifice? i’ve already explained that i’ve thought of every detail to consider. give me something to work on, actual criticism, without just slandering my ideals.”

tamara enjoys insulting his beliefs because she is nothing like kaveh. or maybe it’s because he is nothing like her.

it always is like this. snobs treat his proposals—bursting at the seams with unique ideas yet never neglecting quality—like a joke, and they never get past getting called drafts. he never gets past calling any of his first proposals a success.

“the outside world wouldn’t be as lenient as we had been to your designs, you know,” another of them says. one of his mentors. “tamara is right. we don’t have to get too detailed. here, listen, what if you just change up the strange curve of this wall? and this pillar you…”

outside world, kaveh thinks bitterly. he had already dealt enough with the outside world, but keeping him cornered against a wall he had been building against them was far worse than that.

yet he can’t say this. he’s said enough already. if tamara’s face were to get any redder, he’d lose the opportunity for the materials collectively funded by these people.

kaveh sighs, defeated. “i know. i’m sorry i snapped. i’ll take in your suggestions. what did you say must be removed first?”

“hold on,” one of his group mates speaks up. anis leans her chair over to another table, tapping the shoulder of someone kaveh is sure he’s never damn seen before. “hey, what do you think?”

you squint at kaveh’s work, unfazed by anis interrupting your studies. kaveh doesn’t want to, but he can’t look away. “i don’t understand some of it, but it’s nice. this building would look beautiful in the jungle.”

anis returns the front of her char’s legs on the floor. “ahh, you think?” she muses, handing the paper over to you. “well, an outside perspective is just as important.”

with a pen in your grip, you point at somewhere kaveh can’t quite see, blocked off by the back of the paper. it’s blocked off your face, too. “could use a bit more ornamental flora. too little over here if you’re going to already add it. life doesn’t just come from bright colors, but other forms of life as well.”

“spoken like a true amurta darshan.”

you huff proudly, lowering the paper and revealing your smile. kaveh stares, and stares.

knowing how to appreciate beauty as he does is a trait he has always admired. he secretly takes your suggestions to heart, planning to pull another all-nighter for a few sketches. this is the beauty of the akademiya; why he never gave up as soon as he was first brought down—he learns so much every day.

his heart races just at the thought of it. it’s been days since he felt this.

kaveh wonders if he’ll see you again and doesn’t get much time to think about it again when he’s pulled back to reality, back to yet another proposal that’s been erased so many times, it looks more like a smudge of ink than something kaveh would proudly call his.

kaveh sees you again in the house of daena hunched over a book with your face pinched, sitting next to someone, and he thinks that might’ve been when he fell in love.

but no, that can’t be right. that’s not how love works. it takes time, courage, long nights, restless mornings—this is just him a few feet away from someone whose words he admired.

this must be more like passing by a picture that caught his interest. this must be more fleeting, more like what he deserves, like how the yolk is shaped perfectly on his breakfast for the first time in weeks, how the weather is perfect for smooth construction without disaster, or how his mother did not at least cry too much in a day.

he had only been trying to pass by and continue annotating the book he promised himself to get back to, which happened to be slotted on the shelf in front of your table. it’s sheer luck. and he might’ve taken advantage of it.

the student next to you is speaking. cyno, kaveh recognizes belatedly. “do you get it? because wave could refer to the motion of your hands, but it could also refer to an ocean’s wave, or what is the result of the wind blowing over the surface of—”

you clutch your head. with your eyes off the books scattered across the desk, kaveh sees this as a sign to turn away, a small smile on his face as he listens to your voice. it’s pleasant, much more than the ones he hears all the time around him. “please, cyno, have some respect for your senior and have mercy on the bags under my eyes.”

“i am,” cyno says sternly. “i am cheering you up. perhaps it’s because you aren’t under-sand-ing my jokes.”

when kaveh risks a glance, you throw a crumbled paper onto cyno, which he catches with unblinking ease.

“don’t make me call tighnari here,” you threaten, holding a pen to his face.

“is he going to give me pun-ishment?”

“cyno…”

kaveh gets his wits about him again and realizes that he had been picking more books than he needed, just in time to hear more of cyno, unfortunately.

“did you not understand? you see, the word punishment has pun in it, which is what i’m—”

“that’s it.” the sound of a chair sliding across the smooth floor echoes in the quiet halls. “you sit there alone. think about your actions; i’m going to get lunch without you.”

kaveh takes a step forward, you do so backward, and you catch each other’s eyes from the synchronized movement.

somehow, meeting your eyes makes his heart jump to his throat. he can’t tell if this is better or worse than when you were just at a different table and he didn’t have the chance to speak with you.

it becomes a moment too long: kaveh gets nervous, spinning around on his heels and pretending to look for more books. this is unlike him. his head aches trying to think about it.

once you leave, kaveh approaches cyno.

“cyno,” kaveh says with a smile.

“kaveh,” cyno acknowledges. “why were you just watching us? was there something wrong?”

kaveh’s blood drains from his face. “was it that obvious? was it?”

cyno nods. “you’re terrible at acting casual.”

kaveh sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “ugh—whatever. cyno, hey, listen. that person you were with…”

“y/n?” he tilts his head. “did you need anything?”

“no, no.” kaveh repeats your name in his head, and files it away for later. “do you want to get lunch?” he asks, which he later realizes is an unspoken invitation for a new side of cyno he wishes he didn’t know. the puns hurt his head more than frustrating clients.

kaveh sits by himself in lambad’s tavern, lazily rocking his glass back and forth.

he’s made friends. plenty. but he’s not sure if he can confide in them if he were to go to them in this state.

he thought could consider al-haitham as one, but that blew over on his own face some time ago. it was a mess. kaveh’s not sure which hurt more: when he felt his own spite with how he trembled in spitting al-haitham’s name, or the fact that someone he almost considered a best friend seemed unfazed at all when they both knew that they wouldn’t talk to each other the next day.

al-haitham removed his name from the thesis, and kaveh tore up the copy he had of it. but unlike al-haitham, kaveh couldn’t bear the guilt and pieced them back together.

now they haven’t spoken for a while.

and he sits here, frustrated to the point of near tears.

he’s never felt as lonely as he feels right now, burdened by the stress accumulated from all those years with no one to tell him that he’s doing something right, that he’s going in the right direction. it feels childish, but when he closes his eyes, he can vividly imagine someone patting his shoulder, telling him he’s proud to call him his son, or someone pulling him close, kissing his forehead, telling him that she’d come back for him.

kaveh picks up the glass and takes a long sip.

“are you even allowed to drink?” someone says, too close to him.

kaveh inhales sharply, unfortunately breathing his drink along with it. he chokes on it, and some dribbled past his lips as he turns to the sound of the familiar voice.

you quirk an eyebrow. kaveh wants to gape.

“it’s coffee, and i’m allowed,” kaveh mutters hoarsely, flustered. how long have you been there? were you just watching him?

“but you’re pretending it is alcohol?”

kaveh looks away. he was hoping that no one would notice his dramatics.

“it’s funny,” you tell him. kaveh wasn’t really hoping to appear funny in his sorry state.

you call for lambad and tell him you want your usual. when lambad returns, he hands you a half-full glass of what kaveh could smell as alcohol. maybe he should’ve done the same, but his goal was to feel awake enough to finish his due project, not intoxicated and slurring his words together.

“well?” you turn to him, your cheek against your palm as your arm rests against the counter. “are you gonna act like it and bemoan your regrets?”

students of the akademiya have started to become familiar with the fact that kaveh is a one-of-a-kind genius. names like light of kshahrewar started to circle the halls loud enough for kaveh to hear it from rumors and to his face when they asked to collaborate with him or when they ask for too much of his time.

he was expecting you to do the same. he wouldn’t even blame you if you tried because he wouldn’t hesitate to say yes. yes, yes, i want to.

there is no liquid courage here, just the presence of you and his muddled mind finding it far too comfortable.

“my mother remarried,” he says.

you blink, pausing mid-way through drinking your fill. “oh…?”

“i’m happy for her,” kaveh says, confident, firm.

“here’s to that.” you clink your glass against his.

you weren’t taking it as a happy statement. he doesn’t want sympathy, but he knows that whatever you’re thinking is the irrefutable truth. perhaps you were mourning with him because he, too, knows that there’s nothing content about him when he has to reassure himself out loud.

kaveh wants to ask so many questions. he wants to pull out the stacks of papers shoved in his briefcase, ask you what you think of it, listen to you tell him that you understand its beauty, but it’d be more beautiful if he weren’t so afraid and confined in someone else’s ideals. he needs to hear you say it because he knows you’d say the exact same thing as he wants.

instead, he sits quietly, watching you from the corner of his eyes, entranced.

and kaveh—he’s longing. or maybe he’s just starting to feel loneliness. 

“so, what happened between you and al-haitham’s group project?” you ask, wearing a smile that spells out you know exactly what you’re getting into.

“oh, don’t even get me started,” kaveh groans.

the night ends with his heart a little lighter than it was before. (this is still fleeting, right?)

it seems like after that, you’re just everywhere and always by his side. kaveh loves it. especially when he’s too caught up with the world and needs someone to distract him enough to remember that the world is splendid.

despite his desperate attempt at drowning himself in coffee in hopes of being able to remodel at least three rejected drafts, he doesn’t get anything done at all.

he knows that giving in and offering to help out everyone who asks him for it isn’t healthy. he knows it, and he sees the effects on his face, the paleness of his skin, and the mess of his hair.

when kaveh stares his paper down, he can almost see himself on it. not a reflection, but a shadow. it looks like a bird’s nest. he might as well get feathers to go with his hair and complete the look.

someone taps his shoulder, and kaveh somehow doesn’t feel like reacting accordingly. “kaveh, is that you? are you kaveh?” the stranger asks, all in one breath.

it takes him a few seconds. breathing in and out deeply. he turns around, hopes the eyebags on his face aren’t as heavy as they feel, and smiles.

“yes?”

“ah!” he recognizes the student. a few years younger than him. he can’t quite come up with a name right now. “thank goodness. they told me that you could help me with this, i knew you wouldn’t disappoint.”

“oh,” kaveh says, quiet.

if any of his friends were here, they’d glare him down, tell him that he’s going to bleed himself dry if he even thinks about saying anything aside from no. but they aren’t, and kaveh’s heart is bleeding out instead.

“what is it?”

“kaveh!”

you come stumbling in between him and the younger student, whose eyes bulge out of his eyes. he seems to be shaking, if kaveh were to look any closer.

without warning, you throw an arm over kaveh’s shoulder, leaning down to press your chest against his shoulder blade. kaveh’s breath hitches.

you tilt your head to appraise the cowering junior. “oh,” you say, as if not realizing he had been there all along. “daneh. did you need anything?”

“no. no, no, i don’t,” daneh splutters. “i’ll take my leave, i think— i think i should— please excuse me.”

while daneh runs off, kaveh tries to recall his breakfast and the procedure he did in his head to calm down and give himself the boldness to meet your eyes. what is happening to him?

dried fish fillet pan-fried until crispy, served in creamy, white sauce, sprinkled with mint—

“kaveh,” you say. your voice is too close to his ears, which he is sure is turning red.

—kaveh, kaveh, kaveh.

“y/n,” kaveh says, defeated, the grip on his quill faltering. “what was that about?”

he thinks he can feel a grin, and he badly wants to see what it would look like on your face. “i don’t remember telling you my name.”

curiosity wins. kaveh can’t help but smile along with you when he sees it. “you did it on purpose?” then, “cyno told me.”

“you asked around about me?”

“yes, i did,” he says, almost petulantly.

the way your mouth tips to one side more makes your beam come off more smug. “is that so?” you say, and kaveh feels like he’s bared himself to the world. “what’s this?”

kaveh follows where you’re pointing. it’s a mindless sketch he was practicing with; he doesn’t remember drawing half of it. “i was… oh, i don’t know, i just needed a break.”

“this is what you do on your break?” your fingers hover over the page as you trace the curved columns and drooping roof. “green. they look like leaves,” you tell him quietly.

kaveh’s smile turns softer at your sincere awe. “i know.” he wonders what’s going on in your head, then wonders if he’s worth knowing. “what do you think’s missing?”

“i’m no architect, but it could use a bit more of a… splash, you know? color. maybe some—”

“ornamental flora?” kaveh finishes for you. “you’re right. there’s no need to worry about this, though. i must have been on autopilot creating this.”

“straight to the bin it goes? what a shame. it’s stunning.” there’s a seat right there, yet you insist on being pressed against him, bent over, still too close to his ear. you talk about beauty, and kaveh asks himself if you’ve looked at yourself. “i suppose i don’t understand how geniuses work. you are one of a kind, light of kshahrewar.”

then he is suddenly so aware of your hand having trailed upwards, resting on his nape. as you move, your skin rubs absentmindedly on where the hair fades. he shivers.

he hates that title. he feels like he doesn’t deserve any praise he receives at all. yet when you say it—

“you blush a lot,” you point out. kaveh wants to dig a hole and lay there forever. “it’s cute. your expressiveness is charming.”

“don’t—just say that.” his face is so, so red.

al-haitham finds him alone at the same table that night, unable to focus on anything but his racing thoughts. something is wrong with him, he’s sure. he’ll have to pay tighnari a visit and retrace if he’d picked the wrong mushroom.

al-haitham—and kaveh doesn’t know how he’s managed to figure it out so easily—makes a face that would be the closest thing to a smile. “i like y/n,” al-haitham says, out of the blue.

“what,” kaveh says flatly, coiled up like a cat prepared to pounce.

“smart enough to pull you back down and smart enough to make you listen.”

“it’s—” kaveh wants to say it’s not like that, but he goes silent thinking about it. “fuck off. you wouldn’t get it.”

al-haitham tilts his head to the side. “you’re the one not ‘getting it’.”

thankfully, al-haitham leaves him be. they are still on awkward terms, after all.

“oh,” kaveh says intelligently one morning. oh, no.

tighnari’s ear twitches. “the star of the show is here, finally.”

“everyone,” kaveh starts solemnly as the door slams shut behind him. the wind blows, and kaveh’s hair flutters, looking like he came straight out of those films.

“how has dealing with your recent client been looking?” tighnari asks with a smile. cyno and al-haitham nod because they probably didn’t think of even asking that. it’s why tighnari is kaveh’s favorite.

but he is not here to talk about that.

kaveh slams his briefcase on the table, rattling their glasses. “i’m going to confess.”

al-haitham makes a face. “who are we confessing to?”

“not we, al-haitham. stay out of this,” kaveh says. al-haitham’s expression doesn’t change. “i’m going to confess, and it’s going to be so romantic. no one can say no.”

“i would say no.”

kaveh glares, snatching his glass. “al-haitham, just be quiet. the adults are talking. this isn’t about you.”

“you invited us out here,” al-haitham points out.

cyno tilts his head. “to y/n, right?”

“about time,” tighnari sighs.

“yes, to y/n. and what do you mean about—” kaveh huffs, getting red in the face, flustered. “hey, aren’t you guys going to stop me? tell me this is a bad idea and that i’m going to ruin this meaningful friendship i have with y/n?”

“everyone wants you to confess already,” al-haitham says, as if kaveh is stupid for not realizing that. maybe he is.

cyno hums thoughtfully. “if i stop you, i think y/n will murder me with bare hands.”

“oh,” kaveh says, pleased. whatever that means. “alright, then, thank you.” he downs the glass of water—it was al-haitham’s, most likely, judging by the incensed expression on his face—and grabs his briefcase again.

“where are you going— kaveh, hey, where do you think you’re—” tighnari smacks his hand on the table, yelling after kaveh, who’s already by the door.

kaveh’s confession is messy, quick, and probably not as romantic as he had hoped, stumbling over his words and feeling as brave as an infatuated schoolgirl.

“pinning me against the shelf like this is quite the move, kaveh,” you say, and kaveh snaps back to reality. “why are we hiding?”

“sorry,” he splutters, backing off a bit but not enough to have you far from touching him. “i don’t want—someone could see us.”

“now, why are you afraid of that?” you grin, sly enough to make kaveh comprehend that you know exactly what he’s called you over here for. you do the—the thing again, where you trace shapes on his nape, and he shivers helplessly.

“i like you too much,” kaveh says, his face too red to be passed off as sunburnt.

suddenly, all the confidence he thought he had when he left the tavern dissipated. “you know what i mean. can you—no, will you… ugh, i’m not doing it right—”

you meet his gaze, and you don’t look away, the long silence starting to grow distressing for kaveh.

“kaveh,” you say softly, and that’s when kaveh’s expression crumbles. it could be because of how you said it, carving his name with your mouth so tenderly, but really, it’s because he feels like you wouldn’t look at him the same way ever again.

“yes.”

…wait.

you cup his cheek, pulling him closer to you by his hips. “yes, yes.”

“wait,” kaveh says, “really?”

you bristle, tilting your head down. are you embarrassed? kaveh feels a thrill run down his spine. “yes. about time—we finally did something about the unbearable tension between us. so, if you’re willing to have me…”

“yes, yes,” kaveh says, to all of that. “god, yes.”

embarrassed, you bury your face on his shoulder. kaveh can’t hide how fast his heart is beating when you’re directly on top of it. when you’re in it. “but listen, kaveh, i don’t know if i can stay here in sumeru forever. and i know it will be hard. so if you aren’t—”

kaveh is too happy to think too hard about that.

“no,” kaveh says, “no, i still want to try. please, let’s try.”

“okay,” you breathe, smiling brightly. “kiss me already, will you?”

kaveh prays and prays and thanks their archon that this isn’t fleeting. don’t let it be, not when he has you, and he has already found out your lips meld perfectly with his.

lord sangemah bay commissions him.

in the first few minutes after dori told him that she could care less about what he wanted to do with the place, kaveh didn’t know what to do with himself. he wanted to do everything, but when all of it comes rushing at once, he’s frozen in place instead.

he takes a step in the direction of the house of daena, then another, and another, until he’s sprinting and his heart is racing enough to have a smile crack across his face.

he spends the night in there. he feels crazy; other students can sense madness in his eyes. they all leave him be, as if they know that once they ask, kaveh will never stop talking.

kaveh feels his wrist sore, but he can’t stop. he wouldn’t be able to if he even tried, not when he thinks of a sinking leaf for a roof, windows shaped like petals, and your words—

kaveh pauses, glancing at the clock that has definitely been spinning faster than he remembered.

it’s sunrise. he gets back to work.

“you’re grinning ear-to-ear,” you say, poking kaveh’s cheek. “you’re not telling me something.”

kaveh isn’t. but only on purpose. he takes your hand and uses it to kiss the back of your palm as he blinks up at you, the embodiment of innocence. “what are you talking about? i told you about it. dori commissioned me, and she said that i’ll be in charge of the approval of the design and the construction process…”

while kaveh explains all this, gesturing wildly with his hands, he trails off when realizing you had just been staring at him fondly. his heart skips a beat or two.

“why—why are you just staring like that?”

“it’s hard not to.”

he kisses you square on the mouth, the blueprint of the palace of alcazarzaray hidden beneath his palms, and he thinks he’s never been happier.

(and under the same stars, the withering slithers in, and everything crashes down faster than kaveh could even say please, no.)

a/n art if you’re reading this i didn’t tell you but this is actually a second chance fic cus i remember you saying it’s one of your favorite tropes 🤧 but anyway ty for reading!

[thedoubteriswise]

I keep seeing complaints that people responding against anti-voting propaganda content are being "condescending" and "patronizing" and therefore are hurting their own cause. to a certain extent, I understand the point being made; it's true that people don't respond well to being insulted or feeling like they're being insulted. I've made this point many times before myself. but some of the takes I'm seeing have me at the end of my fucking rope, so I'm just going to reiterate three points that are less about this specific conversation and more about political debates in general:

refusing to consider the meat of someone's valid argument purely because you don't like the tone they're taking while making it is shitty behavior, and it's a great way to end up with factually wrong opinions. we've had a whole conversation about this in recent years; it was pretty hard to miss.

saying or implying that someone is a bad person (or annoying, or cringey, or whatever) instead of addressing the meat of their argument is an ad hominem attack. it's a logical fallacy. there are plenty of times where it doesn't matter and it's not that deep, we can make jokes, fine. but when forming your actual real opinions, it's critical that you agree or disagree with an idea, not with the people who are having it.

I've seen plenty of posts that took a hostile tone. I've also seen plenty that didn't, yet were still described as being patronizing. at this point, I'm not sure how people can phrase their arguments without being accused of condescension, because part of the problem with this topic (and many others, to be fair) is that people who need to hear corrections to their own thinking have gotten extremely attached to a specific way of conceptualizing how american politics work that isn't reflective of reality, or have linked their identity to engaging with politics in a specific way that has been sold to them as "radical." we've got a lot of people more interested in maintaining a sense of identity or catering to their own moral scrupulosity than in getting real world results that would actually line up with their stated values.

I do think that some people's frustration in combating this comes out at condescension. that's unfortunate, and I agree that it can be counterproductive. but I think there is also a strong element of people hearing that their political strategy is ineffective, dangerous, and poorly considered, and experiencing that as an attack to their identity, moral beliefs, or in-group. this is an extremely common phenomenon; a great recent example of it is conservatives who resisted mask and vaccine requirements - the things they were saying and doing were materially harmful to themselves and others, but telling them that was attacking something they had folded into their identity, so they pushed back even as they personally suffered the consequences of that decision.

my point is, if you have a negative response to hearing that your choice not to vote and to keep publicly discouraging voting is irresponsible and going to have undesirable results, it might be because the person saying so is being a dick about it, or that they generally suck as a person. I truly can't dispute this, the world is full of assholes. But a) does that make their argument factually wrong? what evidence do you have of this? does it hold up against the point they're making? And b) are they really being a dick, or are they simply challenging something that feels personal to you?

[sankatsuka]

Backlit Lens Flare and CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY Discussion - Reigniting The Passion Lost to Peer Pressure

Everyone wants to have a place to belong, where the hard work we pour into the things we love will be seen and appreciated by people. But what happens when you decide you will never find this place and resign yourself to a life of solitude, only to be proven wrong by a group of people who insist on your wholehearted hard work? And it only later dawns on you that you will someday have to part ways and you will lose the miraculous place you finally found.

This is what I like to think Rui Kamishiro encapsulates - the battle between being yourself and wanting a place to belong. How easy it is to get swayed from what you love when you think you've found this place and start to subconsciously dedicate your passion to this place instead, to the point that if you're not aware enough, you can forget the feelings in your original passion (resulting in the hesitation and doubt in Curtain Call). After all, nobody is the same, and if you focus too much of your passion on them, that passion becomes about them and not yourself. Ultimately, it is how not acknowledging a healthy boundary with people who are different from you can affect your passion (Shiho as a character is very integral to this).

Warnings:

I believe the entire WxS plot is meant to be misdirection.

Personal interpretation of Rui and several characters by inferring from text.

I believe Rui is a flawed person with no bad intentions, so there will be criticism of his character here. I really suggest turning away if it upsets you.

Spoilers for all WxS unit stories up till Backlit Lens Flare (as well as for Saki, Shiho, Akito, Mafuyu and Mizuki's characters up to their most recent stories)

Edit (11/2/2024): Made multiple edits as always, but biggest change is talking more about the foils in CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY and Kitty's message. Edit (12/2/2024): Compulsory mention of Rui's mom and how he was set up for failure from way back then. Edit (12/2/2024): Expansion on the parallels between Rui and Mafuyu - what it is that makes them the CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY and Jackpot Sad Girl. And a summary on how three commission parallels supports this interpretation of CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY about Rui's characters. Edit (13/2/2024): Lets add a bit more about how Resonate with You criticizes Rui's actions in Curtain Call. AND MANJI ALSO BEING A SLANG MEANING EXCITEMENT, STILL APPLIES TO TSUKASA IDC!!

Rui's character in the story starts off as someone who has thrown the part of himself who wants to have fun making things with people after being repeatedly let down by them. The early times with Wonderlands x Showtime helped him remember that desire from childhood to find a place that accepts that desire, that he criticizes Tsukasa for not appreciating WxS - for not realizing the best shows can't be accomplished without friends.

"--The best shows can't be done alone."

Following the fallout, Tsukasa and WxS' continued insistence and appreciation of him makes him start to see them as a place he can finally belong to. The place he's searched for for so long since childhood. That when he saw Tsukasa get hurt, he became swayed from doing the things he wanted to do for the first time and he hadn't even noticed it - because Tsukasa might leave him like his classmates had, so he has to hold back so as to not disappoint him further. This resulted in Tsukasa and Ruis second argument, with Tsukasa being angry at Rui for lying and holding back - which I later argue is the exact same feelings in his FUZAKERUNA in CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY.

"This is surprising. I didn't think I'd ever feel this way." "Being afraid of losing your place, and then being unable to face the actors who seriously respond to you - this is a failing as a director."

However, this entire ordeal ended in Rui acknowledging his weakness, putting the whole deal behind them and moving on with the show, as KAITO advised. (Spoiler: it isn't weird at all to say that this happens again, with how he deals with it so indifferently like this.)

And then in Curtain Call, he becomes painfully aware that everyone may leave someday for their dreams--

"Someday, the day we will have to depart will come... For both me, and everyone."

Doesn't this just seem like a repeat of Halloween in a different way? He's scared they'll all leave him alone. One can say that Curtain Call ignited the exact same fear of being left alone and losing your place that Rui felt in Halloween - and his reaction feels exactly the same too: acknowledge it, put it behind you and move on to doing what is best for the best shows. After all, Rui lives for the best shows, because it is what makes him most happy - albeit Backlit Lens Flare suggests how he doesn't actually fully remember the joy and passion for shows he had as a child (discussed later). The best way to put it is - Rui feels like a walking corpse of his childhood.

Normally, when you realize this possibility of parting in the future, you talk to your friends about this (see: Saki Focus 3, Get Over It). But Rui refrains from talking to the people he should be talking to (WxS) and proceeds to go for the most obvious decision for his dream by joining Arklands. Only after Asahi turns him away does he go for the next obvious option he sees - the reckless decision that he would do everything in his power to achieve everyone's dreams together. And he can so confidently chase it because he's smart, only to be put down in Backlit Lens Flare lol.

Rui has really just been powering his way through the things he finds unpleasant, as KAITO had told him to in Halloween, ignoring the bad parts and doing everything for the sake for the best shows. You can really, really argue that KAITO's advice in Halloween seems very, very morally ambiguous now lol. He doesn't think ahead of what is the best choice and what would make him happiest - it's as if he's avoiding the very line of thought of how he would do post-WxS. Compared to Shiho in Focus 1, 'Resonate With You', who shows how she has thought it through and is happy enough just spending time with Leo/need for leisure - Rui doesn't even reach this line of thought of what happens next.

I think that he avoids thinking properly about these stuff because he wouldn't have a proper answer to it. Can he really trust Asahi when many other people have disappointed him after showing some interest before this? On the other hand, he's argued with Tsukasa twice and everyone is still enthusiastic - WxS is the only place he's ever felt secure.

"There were a few people who saw my ideas and said, 'it would be interesting if we could do it'." "But even those people gradually became reluctant with the more new ideas I brought to them."

It may generally be underestimated in the story just how much Rui doesn't inherently trust people and actors.

Even CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY begins with 'Nobody's listening anyway. Music's all just fashion, players leaving the field after devouring dead sounds one night.' which can be interpreted as people who became reluctant after they spent too long around Rui as he says to KAITO above, innit.

And then, Backlit Lens Flare happens and Rui encounters ??? (Sakaki). Sakaki immediately identifies the problem with Bakuno's acting, pinpointing it to the directors instead of the actor. Rui was not able to.

Remember, the freelance option isn't permanent - there's the possibility someone may be recruited away (It's a story for another day that he is only really worried about Tsukasa instead of the whole WxS but doesn't realize this). Rui paying attention to their growths first of all before his own is testament to how he's trying to make sure they quickly grow so they can achieve their dreams together:

"...It seems it became good stimulation for both of them right away." "...I also need to more proactively study from this opportunity."

So even now, Rui is more worried about WxS over himself. He prioritizes making sure they are getting something out of the freelancing gig over himself. Only after watching them was he stimulated to do his best too - and here comes the question, where did his drive to be proactive for his own passion go to?

Sakaki's ingenuity finally pops this question to Rui's mind. Had Rui's brain not been filled with the worry of losing his place, he may have been able to think more clearly and just as quickly reach the same conclusion as Sakaki. If he had been filled with thoughts of what was satisfying for himself instead of how he could stay with everyone, he may have been able to create a much better film (see: Shiho Focus 3, Stick to Your Faith). In fact, why is he even so bothered about falling behind Sakaki, when Rui isn't even an adult or a professional director himself?

It's not normal to be bothered about that: Nene was never hard on herself for not being as good as Kazamatsuri, because it's a given she's far away. But she does get upset with herself when she realizes she had looked down on Sakurako and naively seen her as an equal. You only react that way with people you see as equals if you're secure.

Perhaps, the passionate person Rui used to be would have admired Sakaki and want to learn from him out of a pure love for shows instead. And not be so bothered about how he was falling behind professionals.

We see Rui fail twice in the story: not figuring out the problem with the scene, and not thinking ahead of personalizing the script like Ohara had. (There is a third time too: how Tsukasa and WxS seem so moved by Bakuno's performance that Rui played no part in - meaning there are others who could easily replace him - if the emotions in this discussion hold true). And it's no wonder it would have him start questioning and blaming his obsession with WxS for it - if he had not been preoccupied with them, he may have avoided his failures altogether, and even if he did, he wouldn't have been this upset.

It's like a hit to his ego. Is how he's acting and behaving really the same boy who loved shows and would do anything for a show that would satisfy him?

Right now, it's as if Rui is trying hard to protect his position as a talented genius that surpasses everyone so WxS will need him for their dreams and want him around. No one can replace him; only he can achieve their dreams for them.

But Sakaki and Ohara prove him wrong.

The closing lines of Backlit Lens Flare, where he focuses on his own feelings towards directing instead of anything WxS learned, implies this self-realization of how he had been behaving. Rui is finally focused on himself.

"I'm disappointed that I didnt come up with this method, but strangely enough, I feel refreshed." "Directing... really is interesting."

FIRST UP. WHY DID YOU NEED TO COME UP WITH THE METHOD. SECONDLY, WHY ARE YOU REFRESHED. It makes sense to me as someone who's been carried away a lot: when you realize you lost sight of your original intentions and began worrying more about so many unnecessary things, you feel bitter at your mistake but relieved and refreshed you've finally been woken up.

To me, all of these feel like they're pointing to Rui being afraid of losing his place in WxS. So he has to be capable of solving everything, achieving everyone's dreams, so they will need him for it and they can keep staying this way. Before this, it seemed like a normal human emotion he had just never experienced before, but now, it's starting to show it's actually detrimenting his passion.

This is what I believe the theme of trends are playing into in CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY - doing anything you can to make sure there will be people to hear and appreciate your music, and the spite in realizing you've lost yourself in that pursuit. Money is the artificial love you receive by catering to people so they would stay and listen to you. It's heartless, but following his character, it seems the crowd he's referring to is WxS. Because they have their strong individualistic dreams and just won't simply stay with him as he wants them to, he has to keep worrying about keeping up with them (Tsukasa mainly):

But still, here, there, everywhere, loners, manji, Gen Z, even monkeys want it.

Loners=Rui Manji (a sign of good things to come)=Tsukasa (being surrounded by good luck charms; kanji 天 being associated with heaven; inviting Rui to WxS) (edit: manji is also a slang for excitement, which Tsukasa literally is for Rui) Gen Z=Nene (digital age, playing video games) Monkey=Emu (in Rui's picnic card and Emu in Sky's Edge)

(In NY2, Emu ended up drawing tons of big luck omikuji, and Tsukasa is surrounded by monkeys in Island Panic - so you can suggest their roles are reversed. But the robot monkey Tsukasa in picnic suggests Tsukasa isn't a real monkey.)

Curtain Call and Backlit Lens Flare together show how not addressing and expressing fears properly and simply moving on changes nothing. Self-awareness and powering through is useless advice - anyone who's had troubles with lovers, friends and family know you need to talk and accomodate each other. Or not, is it even feeling loved and cared anymore, isn't it just about control then?

In Resonate with You, Shiho makes Leo/need think through their choice to join her into becoming a professional, rather than accepting them right off the bat. She knows from her prior experience working with people that half-hearted musicians would only fail, suffer and drop out. It is only by Leo/need wholeheartedly declaring their intentions of facing music sincerely and seriously that Shiho is convinced that they can all do it together for sure. This is such a contrast to Rui in Curtain Call where he decides on his own that he will find a way for WxS to achieve their dream together, while barely thinking at all. And he winds up focusing so much on making sure WxS stays together. You need to think it through, face the future seriously and talk properly. NOT JUST LEAVE IT THERE!!

Or else you'll lose sight of your original motivation from focusing too much on things that don't really matter as much to you: you'll just end up half-hearted.

Further proof that Backlit Lens Flare is Rui's realization of his half-heartedness since Curtain Call, is that Tsukasa gets angry at him in CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY like he does in Halloween. It isn't even a desperate shout to save someone - it's like a look of pure judgmental disappointment, as if they've been through this already. Stop lying.

He already shouted in anger in Halloween. If that didn't reach Rui, then there was no point in being all angry anymore.

Rui was repeating Halloween, trying so hard to protect the place he belongs to and forgot what he himself truly wants. From there, the lyrics in the entire CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY are self-explanatory: what happened to the things you wanted to sing? (I was so happy with the lyrics because it was exactly what I was thinking in Curtain Call but no one seemed to care).

One thing you can never take away from Rui is that he is a very, very passionate guy. He loves what he does that he would spend every waking hour of his day working on it. Even if he's become a shell of his former self, his body is still naturally drawn to shows (Samsa Kanade reference heh). And Rui himself believes himself to be purely passionate too. So when he realizes that passion has been thoroughly dirtied, it makes sense he's as angry as he is in CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY.

In Anni 2, Rui says he didn't know what he wanted to do like Mafuyu, but then he corrects himself to say he THOUGHT he knew.

"Actually, in the past, I didn't know what I wanted to do." "No... I should say that I thought I knew, but I actually didn't know at all."

For a brief moment, Rui thought he was just like Mafuyu with nothing to call his own. Until he quickly remembers that he did indeed have something he wanted to do, but claims to have been mistaken.

Why did you briefly relate to a girl who felt like she had nothing she wanted to do like everyone else, if that isn't a sign of his current state of mind - feeling like he has no dreams like WxS, and having to keep up with them so that he can feel like he belongs (discussed later in the parallels with Cinema). His lost passion became more evident at this point of the story.

If you 'thought you knew', then that means it was once a genuine feeling too. Even if you're alone, doing what you love is still fun - Shiho in her Focus 3, 'That Day, The Sky Was Far Away' demonstrates this. Although she had been let down by the bandmates, she was still fine alone because music made her feel better. And she even inspired Mihane because of her enthusiasm. After all, what you love to do should make you happy to some extent.

In comparison, Rui seems to have forgotten that shows were actually fun in middle school (probably because Stick to Your Faith never happened for him). When he approached Mizuki, he was standoffish and didn't think to introduce Mizuki to the fun of shows even when they expressed some interest in it. Probably because he couldn't even remember it himself. But being able to make that decision suggests he did still have some semblance of emotions that felt like shows were fun. Once again, a walking corpse of his chiildhood.

In the end, it's like he already lost this original joy for shows since middle school, and then grew even more confused about what made him happiest with the new joy he experienced after finding a place in WxS. He hasn't been able to wholeheartedly enjoy his passion because he's been continuously rejected, and he thought he was having fun when WxS accepted him - but in the end, that fun was from finally finding a place.

Update: Tetrad gives more implications of how Rui had gone astray post-Curtain Call. Tsukasa and Rui sing together, "We're facing the same direction", but Rui appears troubled. It's like Rui can't declare that he is chasing his dreams as confidently as the rest of WxS. Deep down, a part of him probably knew this even before Backlit Lens Flare happened but was afraid of facing it.

I would further go on to associate CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY to both Kitty and Cinema which its imagery resembles. The card set takes place in Shibuya where Kitty takes place in, and Cinema uses the same director's cut + Tsukasa's trained card directly mentions Cinema on the billboard.

There's also the naming that is clearly based on Jackpot Sad Girl - which I think just goes to highlight how both Rui and Mafuyu have the power through it mindset that it lands them dead and sad respectively: people need to reconcile their differences with others to truly love and feel alive (Rui) and people can't endure stress for too long without getting depressed (Mafuyu). Both ignored their human needs and thus this is where they wound up.

The parallel with Kitty feels like it's also within the overall messaging - how facing things can lead to losing yourself even more when you aren't mentally prepared and have no clear-cut answer (sounds similar to what Rui carelessly did in Curtain Call, doesn't it?). In Mafuyu's case, she seemed about ready to change herself again to please her mother, and in Mizuki's case, opening up to Niigo would make them more sensitive to what they say and probably even change themselves so as to not be left alone. Mizuki has even expressed this sentiment once by dressing as a boy in middle school, when they already knew they loved cute things since childhood and was even reaffirmed by their sister.

In Our Survival and Escape, the point is made that it's BECAUSE Mizuki never opened up to Niigo that they were able to protect their heart. Compare this to Rui, who bore everything about himself to WxS by not holding back with his performances and past and thus gained their unconditional acceptance. As a result, he becomes swayed by them when he realizes that things would come to an end and becomes preoccupied with stopping it even at the cost of himself - his passion. If Mizuki had similarly put their utmost trust in Niigo like this, it wouldn't be surprising either if they quickly get swayed to stop expressing themselves too if one of them ever expressed dismay (hinting that they would leave).

Thus, in order to find the answer to real love, you have to protect your heart first, even if it means running away and distancing yourself from others (Kitty). But unlike Mizuki, Rui was taught from childhood to simply not care about what people say, so he has never been aware of just how much words can affect you (compare the advice Mizuki's sister and Rui's mom gave them: completely different). This winds him up in CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY, where he's unknowingly adjusting himself for WxS to not leave him.

As for Cinema, both songs capture how Akito and Rui's struggles and fears at the time feel like the exact same - being left behind and losing your place because you weren't enough, to the point of losing who you really are (Akito pushing himself to be passionate to match everyone else, Rui falling into the trap of peer pressure to match everyone else. What they envy in 'everyone else' is how they want things that Akito and Rui don't feel like they really care about and view as meaningless. But in truth, they don't care about it only because they're more concerned about belonging - they've always had it deep down in them.).

But in Akito's case, VIVID BAD SQUAD directly reaches out for him when he pushes himself far too much and forces himself to suffer to make up for his lack of talent. That's why Akito is reassured that even at his weakest and most pathetic, there will be people there who refuse to leave him alone. So Cinema feels like Akito freely lamenting on how he's different from the people, that he can't keep up with them, but with VBS by his side, he feels like it's fine to find and pursue who he truly is.

On the other hand, CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY feels like Rui's suppressed spite from having to keep up with WxS in order to not be left alone. Because everyone else will betray him, it has to be and can only be WxS who've endured him until now. It's the first time he found people who would stay, so he's desperate not to lose them that he would subconsciously change himself so he can keep matching their needs. And the realization makes him spiteful, because he's lost what was fun for him from that need to change for others to stay. And he's left to stay lost to the very end, because the only way right now for him to be himself and stop worrying is by others matching him instead, but there is no way to 100% control people - compared to Akito who found his answer by coming to terms with the impossibility to control yourself to be someone else. Because VBS was there to accept him as he was when he was trying so hard to be someone else.

Rui will probably eventually realize he has to just accept he's lost his passion from the fear of being alone and stop lamenting controlling everything around him, once he gets tired of it and reaches his limit like Akito in Stray Bad Dogs.

Suddenly everyone started up onto a nonsense scenario (Whatever you do, wherever you look, there's a traffic of influencers.)

It's just like a movie, exactly like a movie. (But still, here, there, everywhere, loners, manji, Gen Z, even monkeys want it.)

No matter where you go, there's a story. (Just give me a punchline, its meaning can be whatever.)

Cinema and CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY are like the perspectives of two boys who feel like outsiders to the world, but one is actively trying change himself to belong somewhere and the other finds himself suddenly facing peer pressure when he used to not care about belonging somewhere. It's even contrasted in Akito's customer service front and Rui's indifference to school terrorism that they are foils of one another in a society. And probably why Akito hates Rui too - for taking any means necessary to achieve what he wants without a care for people, when Akito has spent his life working hard to be equals to people in order to belong.

[More similarities in lyrics, in no particular order (CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY in brackets):

Traffic’s already jammed up now. Oh well, nothing I can do about that anyway (Whatever you do, wherever you look, there's a traffic of influencers.)

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this.” "What was it supposed to be like then?" (What happened to things you wanted to sing about?)

Back then I'm sure it was there. The thing that I envisioned was there. When was it that I... (There must have been something you wanted to sing about.)

What are you playing at? Who are you trying to be? There's no way you could be that, right? (At this rate this will never end. What you want definitely isn't money.)]

Maybe it's coincidence, but the lyrics in Cinema also reference Curtain Call very early on:

Someday it'll be bye-bye when the end comes, so Smile for the curtain call and applause.

Cinema is accepting of it and faces it head-on. Rui still avoids it.

And Cinema also captured what happened in Backlit Lens Flare with Bakuno. Something Rui couldn't figure out on his own without Sakaki and Emu:

If you're not suited for the role, Then just rewrite the script!

This is as if implying Akito realizes early on that people are all different, and there may come a time you have to part because of your differences. So you don't have to keep worrying about fitting in - try your best to be yourself instead and smile when it all ends.

This is something that Rui hasn't faced at all, so it's pretty meta that he hadn't thought of matching the actor's individualities. It seems he's lived with the belief that directors have to adjust themselves according to the level they believe the actors are on and actors have to work their hardest to live up to the director's wishes at all times - because the director knows best. Instead of truly understanding their actors for who they are as individuals and what they individually need.

"I always try to cast actors in a way that brings out their strengths." "That's why I always get you to play the role of a type that is easiest for you to match."

And this becomes a regret for Rui in the same story - realizing that he hadn't thought enough about what Tsukasa really wanted and needed.

"...I feel a little regretful that I hadn't thought that far."

Nene's surprise at Rui's words further imply that this isn't how he normally is. That he wouldn't be thinking so much about people and their personal needs.

It isn't therefore surprising that he agrees with and commits to the mindset that he has to power through his emotions without speaking to anyone. He expects that from his actors, and applying it to real life, it means that your role and scenario have already been decided from birth and what was left was living up to it. It's frighteningly similar to the lyrics in Engeki, which I wasn't even thinking about. Except it wasn't forced on him but rather something Rui decided on his own, with no harmful intent from the people who fed that mindset. Even before KAITO - it was his mother who unknowingly instilled this in him:

"People are people, I am myself. If you take care of what you like, someday you'll be able to make friends too. Like how I met your dad." (i.e. don't bother with the painful things around you, just keep doing what you do and keep going until you get there.)

And hence why this commission is full of firey anger. The story tramples on the way Rui has lived until now, proving him wrong when he thought he finally found his answer by powering through his fear of losing WxS. How it made him realize that he had at some point been driven by something petty like being with friends forever and lost the passionate part of him, the one who would do anything to satisfy himself. He's realized he's no longer having fun like the child he used to be, evident from the lyrics that start off with how he no longer has anything he wants to convey.

"Now let's all laugh. Aren't views more important than art? A terrible price for the virus. So what will you do? Is that really fine?" The lyrics are as if Rui is finally realizing that everything he's been doing, making people smile up until now, has been just for views (for WxS to stay around), and it finally makes him question, is this what he really wants??? Where did all the passion, fun and self-satisfaction that he thought he was making shows for went to???

(This is a more literal translation, the popular TL translates it as Then what do we do? Was that how it was supposed to go?)

I don't know if it's clear now - but in conclusion, CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY feels very much like Rui realizing how he was more focused on protecting his place over enjoying what he does. The first lines of the song do seem to be screaming a spitefulness in not being able to just do what you enjoy: "No one wants to listen (...), I don't have anything I want to convey (...)"

That's why CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY is an ironic name, appearing on the director's cut to imply they're filming a movie of Rui's life. How Rui had been living dead against his own self - falling victim to peer pressure (trends) to protect his place in WxS. Until Sakaki reminds him of the heights his true self wanted to reach and reignites the passionate fire for theatre inside him.

In summary, to simplify it, CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY's parallels come together to tell a complete story about Rui Kamishiro (biased but idc): 1) Jackpot Sad Girl: The unhealthiness of Rui and Mafuyu's mindset of powering through what they think they want without properly talking to people. 2) Kitty: How putting your trust in people can sway your heart and steer you away from what you truly want, something Mizuki knows and thus avoids but not Rui. 3) Cinema: A combination of Jackpot Sad Girl and Kitty - how a person with Rui's mindset is left feeling angry and confused when realizing he has lost himself from having his heart unexpectedly swayed by people. This is foiled by a complete opposite like Akito who has lived a life with no reason to truly call his own and is bitterly aware of how it is all because his life has always been completely defined by other people.

(Man, I LOVE the Cinema foils so much. Akito and Rui are such perfect opposites I LOVE THEM.)

And finally, from the end of CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY:

Devoid of soul, music remains silent Unheard lyrics conceal their essence; without playback, music loses its meaning. Thus, modern music is pronounced deceased.

YES. YES. DEVOID OF SOUL AS I SAID, HOW RUI KAMISHIRO FEELS LIKE A WALKING CORPSE OF HIS CHILDHOOD. PLAYBACK!!! LOOK BACK AT YOUR PAST AND FIND YOURSELF!!! REMEMBER THE JOY AND PASSION YOU CAN'T GIVE UP RUI-KUN!!! Stop trying to keep people around, face solitude and be brave: what's most important is to be yourself!

Backlit Lens Flare felt like a reawakening for Rui, and it's why it's one of the best stories alongside Pandemonium for me. If Tsukasa is completely avoidant, then Rui is full of blatant lies. But of course because the writers will never clearly describe the emotions in WxS stories, I can't confirm this is the intended interpretation. It's just my own personal interpretation that I enjoy best and makes most emotional sense to my personal experiences.

But my opinions are bound to change because there are soooo many ways of seeing things. For now, this is what I think of Rui Kamishiro in Backlit Lens Flare and CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY.

[anti-katsuki-lounge]

Saw someone saying that most people in the "bnha critical" hashtag mostly just "suck deku's dick" instead of actually criticizing the story. The same person also had another post basically saying that the reason why midoriya gets treated so poorly by the narrative is because every other character's traits were "erased(?) to make up for midoriya's bland character*" * I don't remember their exact words, but they said something similar to that

Those two posts gave me such a headache that I blocked them immediately

I really hate it when people say this.

I’m going to be honest, as someone who likes Izuku, there’s things you can definitely criticize about Izuku’s character. I think that he’s far too naive in certain situations and doesn’t get called out for it much. Him trying to see good in Overhaul is one of those instances. I think he suffers immensely from selective intelligence. He’s supposed to be great at thinking on his feet yet it takes him very long to realize that he could be throwing more kicks. I also think that as the story progresses, he becomes far less creative with his quirks. You get some rare moments like him using Black Whip from his mouth after being inspired by Tsuyu, but we rarely get these moments of his intelligence anymore. He’s also not allowed to really reflect on his past, so he’s extremely stagnant in regards to his views about things such as his quirkless past and the bullying he’s suffered from Katsuki.

However, Izuku isn’t a bland character. The problem is he has a bad writer. We could’ve seen more of his and Ochako’s relationship. Unlike many other relationships, the two are built around the idea that they constantly have each other’s backs. I wanna see more of this. I wanna see more of them bonding. Maybe Ochako asks Izuku for some hand to hand combat training. Maybe Izuku learns more about Ochako’s life/ her hobbies and tries to plan things for them to do that they both enjoy. Maybe they can have a heart to heart about constantly being underestimated and being a part of a group that is looked down upon (Ochako being poor and Izuku being quirkless). With Tenya, maybe the two can study together. Tenya’s great at retaining information but Izuku’s better at being creative, so they can help each other there. They could talk about their feelings of anger and how they feel they have a large legacy to uphold. With Shoto, we can have Izuku and him explore what a normal healthy friendship is like. We can have them confide in each other about the abuse they’ve been through and about their relationships with their moms. These are things that could easily be explored with a character like Izuku and Hori has set up the building blocks of Izuku’s character that allows for these things to be explored. The problem is that Hori doesn’t do any of this. We’re expected to believe that the DekuSquad are close knit with each other, but we don’t see them interacting in anything that isn’t related to heroics. We don’t see much of Izuku’s creativity anymore. He has numerous quirks, but even if some overlap with the others, there are cool combos a hero nerd like him could come up with, but instead Hori would rather have him do the exact same things over and over again. The way Hori writes Katsuki also hurts Izuku’s character. Outside of the first chapter, Izuku’s never allowed to show anything other than fear and admiration for Katsuki. He’s never allowed to be unique or else he’ll utterly surpass Katsuki in something (Katsuki’s latest B.S power up is an example of this). He’s not allowed to reflect on Katsuki’s bullying and the effect it has on him nor is he able to hang out with anyone without Katsuki being nearby or involved.

Long rant, I know, but the point is that while there’s certainly things you can criticize about Izuku’s character, most of the issues with Izuku doesn’t come from being a bad character but from being written by a bad writer who prioritizes other things over developing his MC