#like obvious death flags aside

[cerasus--flores]

"omg senadina is a second elysia!" girl that's a bad thing

[canonsinthehead]

Yuji/Sukuna/Choso Familiy & Sibling Dynamics Headcanons.

(this is old but imma post it anyway)

BIRTH ORDER & AGE

First, let’s address their birth order. So Choso is born first (obviously) followed by Sukuna and then Yuji. Ironically, they do possess many of the stereotypical personality traits we associate with your birth order:

First Born Choso (Second Parent/Older Sibling Curse): a severe case of “neglected older sibling syndrome”, overachiever/perfectionist/hyper independent, parental figure, difficulty expressing emotions properly, responsible. 25-26 yo.

(Cursed) Black Sheep Middle Child Sukuna: “unloved” child, when I mean black sheep I mean in a VERY bad way, isolated by age since Yuji is too young and Choso too old, independent, Rebellious as fuck, lone wolf, overall red flag, 19-21 yo.

Favorite Maknae/Golden Child Yuji: Obvious favorite child (by parents and siblings), charming, outgoing, creative, social butterfly, often needs reassurance, 15-16yo.

They used to be 5 siblings but the other 2 passed away (Kechizu and Eso), leaving only these 3. Their parents' history is a bit unknown and complicated since they are a reunified family.

Yuji and Sukuna’s dad raised them during their diaper years but that’s all before he passed away. As for their mom, she vanished without a trace, so they don’t remember much of her. Since she was their father’s second wife it didn’t affect as much either. This other mother who birthed Chosos and their two other brothers is also mysterious since they as well don’t know a lot about her either.

They all most of their care under Yuji/Sukuna’s grandad care but the old man couldn’t wait for them to reach the age right age to get out of his house especially Sukuna with all the trouble he caused. Meanwhile Choso was abroad working as a model, but then grandad passed away, he came back to take full responsibility of his only brothers left meanwhile Sukuna who just got released from prison/juvi went his own way.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First Born Second Parent Choso

As I mentioned before Choso has always been the most responsible type, but it is not completely true. When he left the household first, he went on a self-discovery quest. He tried different avenues for his life and made a decent of money as a legit model. Away from his family's eyes and under different stress, he got involved in various types of hard drugs that scarred his eyes permanently.

Grandad’s death motivated him to get clean and get his act together to take of Yuji. The passing of his brothers pained him the most and their grandfather’s death made him feel like he was abandoning Yuji by being away and leaving him alone for his selfish ambitions. He now works 2 jobs, one in data entry and another in graphic design.

He will not mention while being overseas, how he got mixed up with a weird crowd and witnessed darks things. Aside from a satanic cult and people with supernatural abilities, a man named Kenjaku seriously claimed to be Yuji’s mom. What?

Choso spoils Yuji to the fullest. He appreciates how Yuji genuinely looks up to him and respects his quirky/edgy personality and looks. Sukuna will never admit it, but he is envious of their close relationship/bond to the point of being a full-blown hater. Since their toddler days, he did all he could to destroy it while hating being associated with his two brothers.

Cursed Black Sheep Middle Child Sukuna

Well well… it seems like he always was like this vindictive evil ass kid. Since his younger years, he contrasted Yuji’s bubbly and sweet personality with his cruel and harsh tendencies.

Going from hurting kids in pre-school and middle school to beating up twice his height and weight in high school and beyond, he seemed like a typical hyperactive mean little kid, but it evolved into something sinister.

His room is a constant mess. Smells of weed, piles of clothes, and IS THAT A REAL SWORD AND A KNIFE COLLECTION ON THE WALL?!? He hides handguns and military grade snipers under his bed.

As I said, he got tattoos OVERNIGHT, many suspected he joined a gang around the age of 15 yo, the same period when he was hopping from one problematic situation to another. Getting kicked out of high school many times to end up in an alternative school (which he ran away from btw). In reality, he was a gang leader and already made a name for himself with few bodies under his belt.

At 17 yo, he was sent to juvie/prison, during that time nobody knew where he was and what he was doing. Cutting ties with him was not difficult, it almost felt like a relief since he has been exponentially wilding out since Choso left.

“I’m not gonna babysit you, bye.” He told Yuji, Before he vanished without a trace, leaving his younger brother alone behind. It's not like Yuji couldn’t survive without him (not going to happen with Choso constantly sending money from abroad). Their landlord exploited the teenager’s situation and kicked Yuji out of their apartment. Luckily Nanami was there to help….

Sukuna is the type to:

Blast his music with 1000% volume in his trap car windows wide open.

He tried to do a drive-by on Yuji and Megumi

Sneak out of his bedroom by the window

Matter of fact, many people will try to beat up Yuji thinking it’s him. Luckily Megumi is with him and the boy can defend himself

After moving into Nanami’s house, Yuji can live a normal life for a while. but 2-3 years later Sukuna shows up unannounced as if he hasn’t been missing for all this time saying “Yeah, I was in jail.”. nobody can verify this information.

He is by definition the male counterpart of baddies/city girls/bad girls of the world. And attracts them. He would sleep with them. According to rumors and a lot of “He Said, She said” saying he ate some of past his girlfriend’s kids. But always keep in mind he cares NOTHING about ANY women.

You can catch him at your local Travis Scott concert casually engaging in devil worship. Meanwhile Yuji in content forcing Nobara and Megumi to go see Megan Thee Stallion. Luckily Gojo and Todo are fans as well.

Sukuna is somewhere in the rough parts of town in a busted basement apartment with some white haired girl.

How is this man still breathing or standing when you can only see him eat Mcdonalds and Taco Bell.

Nanami raised his voice against him after he tried to sneak up on his wife during the night (You look delicious, come here!). This added to the months of Nanami being on high alert 24/7. He had to add locks to all bedrooms’ doors fearing he would attempt to kill everyone during the “ungodly hours of the night”

Sukuna listens to drill/Trap Rap. The hardcore type (anything adjacent to Baby Khia)

(NSFW) This guy has an unhealthy obsession with Megumi Fushiguro (it’s about to get devious…) he goes on and stalks the boy and pulls on him like;

 “Why don’t you join my gang my sweet little Fushiguro?” “We would make a perfect duo together, forget about my goofy ass brother” “I jerk off thinking about you” “Let me lick your feet”

Yuji got beat up bad the first and only time he asked why does Sukuna wears long pointy acrylic nails.

Sukuna is a proud cop hater; he’ll eat them for lunch.

He also commits armed robbery/home invasion without a mask and STILL not getting caught.

Favorite Maknae Golden Child Yuji

he is the type seriously ate glue as a kid

Was and still is a hardcore otaku especially when it comes to music and dances. His anime impressions are legendary.

Yuji has a weird habit of being extra touchy with the adults he is attached to, especially with hugs and burying his head in their chest. (mainly with Nanami & Choso). Nanami WARNED him not to do it with his wife or he will have to kill him. Himself.

His room is full of posters.

Will eat ANYTHING.

[itsthestutterforme]

Hey Rebel 1/2 (Alpha!Ari Levinson x omega!reader)

Summary: Ari tags along on one of your missions, nearly jeopardizing it when he catches a whiff of your intoxicating scent.

Notes: GIF is not mine, this is not a beta’d read, A/B/O dynamics, reader is Afro!Latina and a CIA agent, reader is very bratty in this series

**

“I see the target,” you said through comms. The loud bass from the music reverberated in your ribs as you push passed a few people in the club.

The club was a lot more busy than you anticipated which made your mission quite easy for you.

You preferred to work alone on missions but with this particular target was violent and the two of you had history.

He killed your partner and made you watch. He kept you alive to continue the torment of know that your mistake had your partner killed.

Though he wasn’t just your partner, he was boyfriend at the time. His scent was everywhere in your apartment, and when it slowly started to disintegrate in spaces he would hang out the most, you wanted to tear your heart out.

When his clothes stopped smelling him and started smelling like you, you had nothing left of him but memories.

He wasn’t your mate necessarily, but you he made you feel safer than any of your previous boyfriends had.

His death put you in second gear on your missions. Your accuracy increased by 23% and you spent every waking minute in the gun range or in the gym. You were a forced to be reckoned with and quickly became Ethan’s favorite agent.

And Ethan couldn’t have his favorite girl off on a potential murder mission without backup.

So he sent in a newer agent with a promising record in shooting accuracy for support. And he sent in Ari, his other favorite.

If the target made your cover, he was as good as gone. So you put your pride aside and disguised as an exotic dancer.

It was the best chance to get close to the target without immediately getting made.

You tugged at the bottom strap of your solid gold top to alleviate some pressure on your ribs. You were sure they gave you a size smaller than you told them so your breasts are practically spilling out.

The bottom was a measly and thin, it was very obvious that it was made of leotard fabric and tailored it to be a bikini bottom.

You had absolutely no breathing room in this outfit. Every inch of skin on your body that could be visible is shown.

You’re not necessarily used to your sternum tattoo and your thigh tattoos being visible to the naked eye.

Continuing through the crowd, a man slapped your ass as he walked by making you immediately tense.

You looked over your shoulder at him, watching as he drank your figure in. One disgusting man isn’t going to jeopardize your mission, so you continued moving.

The mixed scents of designations with smoke and sweat made you nose blind to anything else so you didn’t bother sniffing.

You made eye contact with the newer agent when he started speaking on coms.

“I count five guards,” he says, pressing and adjusting his Bluetooth in his ear.

A scowl made its way onto your face when you saw a larger man in an all black suit look in the new agent’s direction.

He flagged down another man and they converse for a few paces, sending occasional glances in his direction.

Shit.

“Do me a favor and stop messing with your comms. You’ve been made. Go to the rendezvous point.” You commanded.

“I wasn’t made.” “Fine then I’ll let Tweetledee and Tweetledum take you into the back alley and beat you to a pulp,” you snap.

His eyes widen when the two large men push their way through the crowd and beelined straight for him.

“On it. Sorry.” He rushes out the back door with them hot on his tail.

Letting out an exasperated sigh, you rolled your neck around until it cracked. “Maybe you should go easy on the kid,” Ari points out.

“I’m not going to let anyone jeopardize my mission, Romeo.” “Your mission?” you opened your mouth to respond when a man whistled over at you, motioning you to come over once you made eye contact.

“Care to give me a dance, sweetheart?” The man asks, pulling you into his lap and squeezing your waist eagerly.

“Anything you want,” Ari’s gaze darkened when he saw your hips moving sensually to the soft beat of the music.

You threw your head back, your box braids swaying around until the landed on your chest. The man pulled you even closer, scenting the sensitive skin below your ear.

A omega woman approached Ari with a tray full of drinks.

“May I offer you a drink, sir?” She bends down slightly so he could take a drink from his seated position.

“Thanks honey,” he took out his wallet and gave her a twenty for her consideration. Her hand caressed his palm when she gingerly took the bill from his hand.

She moved her hair to the side, exposing her unmarked gland. “I’m not interested,” he takes a sip of his bourbon once the omega moves away from him.

Ari hasn’t had genuine relationship with an omega that wasn’t sexual. He initially fell for the bullshit theory that philosophers create centuries ago about the match made in Heaven.

An alpha and an omega destined to be together by the Alpha Gods.

He quickly realized when he married Rachel that not every omega can spark that special connection.

Just because omegas weren’t easy to find in common society, doesn’t mean they’re all special. Now he’s found himself caught in a marriage because an omega got pregnant

Neither of them have filed for a divorce yet because of the immense amount of paperwork and money that would go into it.

Ari came to terms with the fact that his child spends more time with the babysitter than with her parents.

With him away on missions and Rachel spending every waking minute with her sugar daddy alpha, the kid doesn’t stand a chance at a normal childhood.

And it’s not like anything is going to change any time soon.

Ari was seated in a loveseat across the room for you. He watches you over the rim of his glass, still dancing on the man’s lap.

He tilts his head as he tried to decipher your thigh tattoos from behind.

“I didn’t realize how tatted you were, Juliet.” You rolled your eyes at Ari’s remark and had glanced over the man’s shoulder at the target.

Rumlow. You thought to yourself. The man he was meeting hasn’t up yet, but you needed to prepare yourself for when he does.

Your strategizing was cut short when the man cradled your neck, smoothing a hand over your gland.

You stopped your movements, narrowing your eyes directly into his. The smile slowly fell from his face and a low growl grumbled in your chest.

His hand slowly dropped from your gland and you snapped at him.

“Shit. I’m sorry,” he holds his hands up and you slid off his lap.

“Pig,” you walked away from him and made your way to the bar. You were going to be giving drinks for the rest of the night. Screw the dances.

“Well that wasn’t very nice,” “Fuck you, Romeo.” He smiles against the glass before downing the rest of the bourbon.

Ari couldn’t help but notice the frequent head turning from groups of men when you walk by. Followed by the sniffs in your general direction.

Ari had to admit, you had an interesting scent. Actually, there is no scent initially and no way of telling what designation you were.

The way you carried yourself, you could easily be mistaken for an alpha. But Ari had a sneaky suspicion that you weren’t an alpha.

You were an omega that took the strongest scent blockers he’s even heard.

He’s smelled your original scent before. It was a faint whiff, but he smelled it and he’s been drunk for it ever since.

He made the connect that you scent spikes through the scent blockers when you’re aggravated about something.

Luckily for him, he had a knack for being aggravating. Truth was, Ethan knew you were capable of doing this mission alone.

It was Ari who insisted on tagging along.

But you will never figure that out. Or maybe you will, you’re quite the sharp tool. “We have a long night ahead of us. So let’s just play nice.” Ari suggests.

“Don’t provoke me and maybe I will,”

You continued serving drinks, getting more and more annoyed with every slap on the ass you received.

Ari kept an eye on the door to any new faces turn up and after a while, you realized how quiet your comms have been.

It’s been dead silent for at least five minutes. And Ari never knew when to shut up so you knew something was wrong.

You looked around for Ari only to find him staring at you confusingly. You needed to talk to him but you couldn’t pull him aside.

Otherwise that would break your cover. Letting out a sigh, you set the tray of drinks down at the bar and made your way over to him.

“Follow my lead,” you said to him, putting your hand on his shoulder and sliding into his lap. He keeps his hands by his side as he looked at you attentively.

You held his gaze for a moment before moving your hips against him and rolling your body. “What happened to comms?”

“No idea,” he slowly slides down the seat, his hands gripping the arm rests for dear life.

“Do you know how long they were out?” “No,” he grunts. “Do you think they’re onto us?” “There’s a chance. Are they looking?”

You glanced over his shoulder and saw Rumlow with a dancer giving him a lap dance. He downs his drink and shakes his glass at the bartender.

You felt Ari’s body tense underneath you and you raised a brow at him.

“If you want this to be believable, I need you to touch me.” “I’m trying to be respectful,”

“Please. Don’t pretend like your eyes haven’t been glued to my ass all night, Romeo.” He licks his lips and rested his hands on your thighs.

The second his hand touched your bare thigh, you inhaled sharply. Heat spread from your thighs up your waist and chest, finally resting on your face.

Your mating gland throbbed painfully and you stopped moving against him. His grip on your thighs tightened when you tried to move off of him.

Ari groans as the same burning heat took over him, his gland pulsing at the same rhythm as yours.

Your heart sank in your chest when you made the realization. Your scent was spreading passed the scent blockers.

Ari’s hands move up your back and held you close, dipping his head to inhale your sweet scent of honeysuckle and warm honey.

You let out a fearful growl when the tip of his nose brushes the base of your throat.

Your heart continued to patter in your chest when you made eye contact with the group of betas looking over at you, sniffing in your general direction.

The anxiety caused your scent to spike and you attempted to leave his lap once again but he held you down.

“Let me go,” “If I let you go now, they will swarm you. Just trust me,” he says the last few words slowly, removing his grip from your back.

He takes a few deep breaths, moving your body with each breath. You looked over at the initial group of betas who crinkled their noses and looked away from you.

His husky scent of pine and sandalwood invaded your nose in strong wafts. He was masking your scent with his, staking an unwanted claim. You had matched your breathing to his, bring you out of your anxiousness.

You hadn’t realized you were digging your nails into his dress shirt. Releasing him from your grip, you slid off his lap.

And when you looked over at the target, he was gone. “Mission’s over,” you hugged your arms to your chest and beelined for the changing room before Ari could reach for you again.

He waited for you outside in the car and you had changed back into your black slacks and white blouse.

You had pulled your box braids into a low bun. Sliding into the passenger seat, you tossed your duffel bag in the bag and sent a text to the new agent letting him know you were on your way.

Ari watched you turn your face to look out the window once you send the text. You were actively avoid any interaction with him.

At least before you entertained him with snarky remarks and insults. This was much worse. He reverses out the back alley and onto the highway.

“So are we going to talk about what happened in there?”

“Nothing happened, Levinson.” “Bullshit. You felt something and it scared you.” “No I wasn’t. I was pissed that I missed another chance to take the some of a bitch down.”

“Yeah, sure.” He says skeptically. “Why do you take such strong scent blockers?”

“Because of what happened in there. I’ve always had an intoxicating scent. And it’s gotten me into a lot of trouble as a teenager so I suppress it.”

“It is very intoxicating,” another silence fell over the two of you and Ari looked at you but your gaze remained outside the window.

“You’re really not going to talk about it?” “No. I already have a lot on my plate with work. I don’t need this right now.”

“Our primal instinct doesn’t care about our human duties,” “You sound just like those ancient men in those history books,” you dismiss.

“Look at me,” “No,” “Look at me, omega.” “You’re not my Alpha. You don’t tell me what to do.”

“I’m not trying to tell you what to do. I just want to talk to you.” “There’s nothing to talk about,” “Yes, there is. Stop dismissing everything, Y/N. This is serious.”

And that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

You looked away from the window and said, “How serious is this, Ari? Hm? Is it life or death? Or just some stupid reason for Alphas to have complete control of another living being?”

You poked harshly at his arm and he growled at the tone you used and you emitted a growl low enough to make your chest vibrate.

“Y/N,” he warns. “I am not an omega you can just claim, Ari. If you try, I will make sure to make your life a living hell. So just drop it.”

You held his gaze for a few seconds before returning your gaze back out of the window. Ari made the conclusion like this was nothing like how they described it in the history books.

If you truly was his mate, then how the hell was he going to prove that to you? He had better luck finding a needle in a haystack.

**

Ari wasn’t sure what to do about pursuing you. Your inner omega was aggressive and untamed despite your calm human nature. You were strong for an omega and you made it clear that you had to be earned.

He spent weeks bring your flowers, contacting some of your coworkers to learn your favorite foods and wines. You didn’t trust him at all, but you decided to give him somewhat of a chance.

He took you on a date on horseback. Once he found out you grew up in el campo, he immediately researched the nearest horseback riding stable and booked a session.

He wanted to know as much about you as possible. From you of course, but you’ve been keeping him at arm’s length since you met him.

When he tried to lean in to kiss you after the date, you growled at him and retreated back into your house, leaving him completely dumbfounded on your porch.

You kept him on his toes, which encourages the chase. But Ari’s concern is that you never stop running from him.

That he won’t get the chance to catch you and he’ll lose you forever.

The last thing he had to remember between you was an argument. It was the day before he was set to leave for Ethiopia and wanted to see you before he left.

He would have been gone for weeks at a time and there was no telling when he would be back.

You were pissed because he hid the fact the was married from you. He thought you knew from Ethan but you hadn’t.

He replayed your argument almost daily in his head up until the drive back to your place after the assignment; his face would heat up at the mere thought of it.

“When were you going to tell me? Were you even going to tell me?” “Of course, I was- I thought you already knew.”

You scoffed and turned away from him to walk into your kitchen. “If I knew, I wouldn’t have given you the time of day.”

You took a glass from the cabinet and poured a bourbon on the rocks. “You barely give me the time of day now,”

“Any normal person would have gotten the hint by now and move on,” “Then I guess I’m not a normal person,” you down the drink in one shot, making a face when the burn lingers.

“Ari, I really don’t think this is going to work. You’re married. You obviously married her because you had some sort of connection with her. So focus on repairing things with her instead of starting new with me,”

“No. There was never a connection. I did it out of obligation.” “So.. does that make me an obligation then?”

“I want to be with you, Y/N. We share a connection whether you want to or not. So stop being stubborn for once and allow it to happen.” He snaps.

You met his gaze from across the counter and let out a long breath. “I think you should focus on your mission for tomorrow,” you said after a long pause.

He huffs and presses the palms of his hands against the counter. “Okay,” he said softly and left your house.

You waited for the door to close to lean your head against the wall. He wasn’t going to go away. So that means you have to.

Ari was immediately concerned when he was greeted by a for sale sign in your front yard when he pulled into your driveway.

He left the flower he bought you in the passenger seat and ran up the stairs. The front door was locked so he went around back to check if the sliding glass door was open.

He sighed in relief when the door smoothly slid open. Everything was moved out from the house and your scent has faded out, even in your bedroom.

He bowed his head when he realized that you were gone for nearly as long as he was on assignment.

Where the hell did you go?

He pulls out his phone and clicked on an unsaved number. On the third ring, someone answered.

“Well isn’t this a surprise. How’s it going, sunshine?” Lloyd greets. “Lloyd, I need you to do something to me,” “Name it,”

[acrossthewavesoftime]

top five things YOU have written 🫵🫵 that you're ok with sharing ofc :3

That's a very difficult and interesting question, thank you! :) I don't really know if I can pick five and rate them in a set hierarchy. I like many things I write, shorter and longer, finished and unfinished, so here are 5 that come to mind:

I don't write for it very often, but what I write, I enjoy writing a lot. The early 19th century AU which I came up with for @nordleuchten in which a few generations ago the Stuarts managed to produce some sort of heir, making the Hannovarians bog standard German provincial rulers instead of British monarchs. The man you know as George III and his heir, Prinz Georg stand to inherit the throne as it is expected that the Stuart line will come to an end in their lifetime. Georg is pretty much good old Prinny, who however decides to take drastic measures when he finds that being patronised by his dad as a grown man has become insufferable. He decides to take an alias and join the British navy, because what else cries freedom so much as watching romantic sunsets at sea? In the act of leaving clandestinely, he is caught by one Karoline von Braunschweig, a beloathed cousin acting as his mother's lady-in-waiting. Georg takes to life at sea like a duck to water despite the fact that it turns out to be nothing like what he imagined, and becomes a celebrated hero of the Napoleonic Wars. Hijinks ensue when his cover is blown, his brother Ernst tries to take over the succession, and he realises he doesn't actually loathe Karoline, quite on the contrary, really. Karoline meanwhile has to explain a big belly away, and George sails for a place called Trafalgar... It's all delightfully off and the real George and Caroline would probably disapprove, but sometimes, certain AUs are not meant to be very accurate, just a little silly.

Less silly and as far as my research goes, as close to history as possible, my story on Henry Clinton and Mary Baddeley. I have written so much about the two already, it's almost a novel. I am fascinated by the mutual respect, suppressed affection and surprisingly good documentation there is. Theoretically, their relationship is a communist party meeting worth of red flags; a power dynamic between employer and employee, a substantial age gap, Mary being very much reliant on Clinton's protection from beng sexually harrassed by an officer in her husband's regiment and him falling in love with her while she was pregnant with her husband's child are just the most obvious ones. Regardless of all these things, both, given time, found love. Let's hope I will finish it one day so we can have the big budget adaptation i'm dreaming of ever since learning about the two...

I have a similar thing going for the Graveses, which is a little more light-hearted in that both Mrs and Mr Admiral were two very outspoken people, with Margaret in particular passing judgements on people in her letters worthy of Jane Austen novels. There is some tragedy in that they met at a point in their lives where they both seem to have still been processing the death of a beloved loved one, and both helped raise a child that was not their own. Given their eventful lives, bubbly family and their very loud personalities, however, I think this one writes itself a little easier.

A Stuart AU in which Maria Beatrice d'Este, now Queen of England, has had enough. Identifying, in her mind, her husband's unchanging licentious ways as the reason why God takes all her children from her young, she decides to commit regicide when she realises she is pregnant once more, in order to protect this child at least; because if James is dead, he can no longer commits acts displeasing God, right? The flaws in her logic aside, she makes this last desperate attempt to suffocate James, the husband who has abused her for so long, both physically and mentally, in his sleep with a cushion, but fails as he wakes up. Fleeing England in the middle of the night, Maria Beatrice manages to find a passage to the continent and makes it to The Hague, where the Prince and Princess of Orange now have a political scandal on their hands. What ensues is an intense triangular situation in which everyone is faced with ghosts of the past; Maria Beatrice, who never wanted to get married and have children, is faced by the involuntarily childless Mary who would do everything to be a mother; William by his own conduct towards Mary when they were newly-wed, which he finds himself reminded of by some things Maria Beatrice recounts of her marriage, fearing he may have mistreated Mary, and all three of them by the question of who will one day be James' heir, Mary, or the baby, if it turns out to be a boy, Maria Beatrice is about to have? Includes such memorable scenes as the one in which William feeds a toddler potential pretender a waffle while engineering his ascension to the throne during a council meeting (hey, the waffle-thing at least is based on an event and person during his own childhood, so).

I'm currently writing a little something quite light-hearted featuring Louise de Kérouaille and exploring her perspective on her relationship with Charles II, which I find quite delightful.

If any of you want to know something else about the stories (since I don't post them to AO3), feel free to ask. :)

[thegeminisage]

ok, now that i've watched all of tos (none of the movies yet...) i am going to do the top ten worst and best episodes, according to Me. they are as follows:

WORST EPISODES

10. the savage curtain - idk who thought putting abe lincoln in a cage match with the vulcan version of ghandi against like, ghengis khan and space hitler would be a good idea. but it wasn't. i did like seeing the vulcan father of logic though like "im gonna go sacrifice myself for peace" ok king

9. i, mudd - all of the mudd episodes are bad. he's not charming at all whatsoever. however, this one is better than the other one because uhura gets to pretend to sell out kirk and they're SOOO cute about it. her little giggle when he PICKS HER UP BY HER SHOULDERS and tells her how proud he is. PLEEEEASE

8. charlie x - the entire premise of this episode is that the bad guy is just autistic. and then they make him live on a planet without people because he can't adjust to normal life ???

7. shore leave - obvious racism of this episode aside, the faux-irish jig that played while kirk was being menaced by his extremely unfunny old bully nearly drove me over the edge. we DO love a good mccoy death fakeout tho

6. a piece of the action - if i had any interest in gangster films before this it's all gone now. that being said. i loved when kirk drove the little car. he was so bad at it. he was so happy.

5. mudd's women - like he's literally just selling women?? and the plot twist is that secretly they're ugly?????

4. who mourns for adonias - this is just "what if ALIENS build the pyramids bro" except for the 1960s. nail in the coffin for this one was kirk proudly declaring they didn't needs gods - because they already had the One God, thank you very much!

3. the paradise syndrome - WHY WOULD YOU HAVE NATIVE AMERICANS MISTAKE KIRK FOR GOD. WHY. like i know why but Why. i think the very worst part of this episode was that it had an amnesia plot that would have FUCKED if you had simply removed the people. if there hadn't been people in this it would've been in my top 10 episodes. i think this broke me.

2. the omega glory - this is the same as the last episode except there's no amnesia, and also the "native americans" are white cosplayers who worship the american flag and mistake kirk for god because he can recite the pledge of allegiance yes really. if i had a nickel for every time this happened i'd only have two nickels etc etc at least kirk didn't knock anybody up in this one ig

1. patterns of force - why would you make your two jewish leads wear swastikas and then literally be whipped by nazis. i know he's such a bad person but not even william shatner deserves that. number one worst episode everyone says it's omega glory but it's this one

BEST EPISODES

10. plato's stepchildren - this episode is hard to rank because like it's both good and bad. the torture scenes were genuinely upsetting, especially the ones at the end w/ spock & nurse chapel, because they weren't just violence being inflicted on tied up guys, but they were SUPPOSED to be upsetting, like it was literally the point. and also this episode bears the distinction of THEEE kirk & uhura kiss. literally historic.

9. the trouble with tribbles - i feel like everyone's heard of this but it really is as good as everyone says. sometimes 1960s humor doesn't translate to 2020s humor but it was genuinely hysterical start to finish. also, the distinct trilling sound was so imprinted in my brain i recognized it in the 2009 movie where i had never registered it before.

8. the naked time - aside from the KING SHIT george takei pulled with the fencing this episode also contains the "i am in control of my emotions [sobbing]" moment and kirk & spock LITERALLY having a slapfight. this episode has everything. an absolute masterpiece

7. the empath - i feel like this paired with "the world is hollow and i have touched the sky" really made me a Bones Understander. i feel a little bad about that bc everyone says the characterizations in s3, or actually that the season as a whole, is kinda shaky? but i watched without knowing that and i feel like i Get It now. also, this was the only score i went and relistened to on spotify

6. tholian web - the spock & mccoy episode ever. there's so many things to say about this from the death fakeout to kirk's little space suit but what TRULY got me was the instant and totally nonverbal agreement to lie straight to kirk's face to both preserve personal dignity and troll the shit out of him (while chekov and sulu are like also silently laughing as they listen in no less). what this episode made me realize was that it's a good thing they argue all the time and make kirk play referee because if they were on the same side kirk wouldn't stand a chance. like he'd be finished.

5. the city on the edge of forever - ok, so, this episode made me feel like i was having a mental break. the time travel. spock's little hat. when he watches kirk kiss edith and then goes back into their room to pretend he didn't see anything. mccoy and kirk basically hugging at the end when edith bites it.

4. requiem for methuselah - the first time i watched this i was kinda like :/ because how does kirk fall in love with a woman in FOUR HOURS? that aside the ending scene blew my tits clean off. i paced around my house for like 30 minutes going "what the FUCK was that" because i couldn't simply lie down and sleep after seeing it. rewatching the episode with uh. new context made me like it a little better. but even if it had been garbage the last scene shook me so thoroughly it would still need to be on this list. i'm getting wound up just thinking about it. number one most shocking tos moment.

3. the dagger of the mind - look, i understand that this episode was technically just run-of-the-mill stuff as far as everybody else is concerned but they put james t kirk in a little brainwashing machine. and the machine was shaped like a chair. and it gives people amnesia sometimes. i don't know how i'm expected to behave normally

2. this side of paradise - this is the episode where a flower jizzes on spock and gives him feelings. and look: it's really funny, and there's a lot to love about it. but the ending where kirk hurls verbal abuse at spock for a solid 92 seconds WITHOUT STOPPING followed by: spock beating the shit out of him until he gets his logic back. i have rewatched this perhaps 1,000 times at minimum. what the fuck were they doing

1. conscience of the king - this episode got me into this mess. i don't think i can elaborate further without significant self-incrimination. let's just say what happened was i thought "oh i'll just watch this one tos episode for context for the fanfiction" and one month later i'm writing fic about [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT

ok, that's my list. i thought about doing honorable mentions for episodes that had scenes i liked even though the overall episode didn't make it into my top 10. but then i realized that would mean recapping basically the entire series and this post is already too long. i do have to give the pon farr episode a shoutout though because even though so much of it was offputting there was literally a titty window in kirk's shirt. like, it's the pon farr episode. ok NOW i'm done

[bumblehives]

hi tumblr i'm here to give a probably lengthy examination of amane momose from milgram n im gonna talk only about why i think she is a ramcoa / hc - did system as a ramcoa / hc - did system

if it wasn't obvious from that opener, i'm going to talk about ramcoa in an extremely vague fashion, but here's your warning for that either way!!!! if you do not know what a ramcoa / hc - did system is, this is not the place to learn about that!!!! im not going to explain what this is, only why i think amane is part of one!!!! if you want to know more about ramcoa n / or hc - did systems, please look into it on your own, as talking about all of the ins n outs of it would be far too triggering for me myself

ANYWAY WITH THAT ASIDE im using this as my cut - off point so this is where your warning ends n youre getting into my examination / analysis

first point : she is canonically in a cult. while people in cults are not always guaranteed to end up as systems of any kind, much less ramcoa systems, this combined with the way the people in the cult treat her is proof enough that she has endured enough trauma to cause a split in identity.

second point : the music video of "the purge march". in the music video, it opens on a wide, open plain with many children, all of which are holding flags and look identical to her, with one of them in the front, leading them. this alone can be reminiscent of a headspace of sorts or a part of one, especially with the many people in this one space that obviously isn't a part of the real world. of course, in a did system not all of them will end up looking like or identifying with the body at all, but my assumption here is that these are all programmed alters that are meant to behave and seem like amane at all times, only for slightly different programs or purposes. along with this, the one in the front that leads them reminds me of an inner - programmer or higher - up of sorts in a system. the scene where one of the children drops her flag on accident and is immediately reprimanded by the one in the front / in charge feels like an inner - programmer punishing a lower - programmed alter for not behaving or correctly carrying out her program. this is even furthered by her punishment being that of a drowning, while in the real world the punishment she received was likely waterboarding, so it's an inner - programmer using real torture that the body has gone through to further instill programs into the lower alter. along with all of this, immediately after seeing the loss of the cat she had helped, there's a scene that has her real - life counterpart flash into her headspace counterpart, the leader of the march. this seems like a really good allegory for stress - induced or situational switching, where a better - equipped alter fronts to deal with a situation that the alter previously in front wouldn't be able to handle. this often leads to amnesia for the alter that switches out, a subject i will touch on in the next point. immediately after switching, the march leader must realize that the death of the cat means that whoever was responsible has broken one of the cult's main teachings, to not interfere with destiny, as she immediately goes to her home and kills the person responsible ( presumed to be her mother ) for the cats death as punishment for their actions. this is only furthered by the fact that, in the last shot of the music video, it's not the real - world version of amane standing in front of the body, but the march leader.

third point : the music video of "magic". in "magic", the setting is much more bright and happy than that of "the purge march", but since it's not set in the real world, it feels like it could be another part or layer of her headspace. it feels like the amane that we follow here is a direct representation of her in the outside world, while the ones in "the purge march" felt more like clones or alters based off of her while still not being her herself. this could also be a part of headspace created for her so as to not break the illusion of normalcy and happiness that she has over her circumstances, as it's filled with happy anthropomorphic animals and depictions of her gods, who all adore her and guide her in life. these "gods" feel like more programmed alters that were put in place to keep her behavior in line and keep her from doubting the teachings as much, seen through how they all punish her after she helps the cat, but is immediately helped back to her feet and recovered after she seemingly learns her lesson. as opposed to the other music video, the loss of the cat after her punishment actually isn't brought up at all, leading me to think that she has no recollection of the cat having been killed at all, only of her "wrongdoing" and punishment. with this being the case, it's safe to assume that the march leader of the previously mentioned music video is the person that remembers this incident and keeps it as a warning for herself and every other programmed alter, keeping the memory as a sign that they are not to disobey their teachings.

fourth point : the lyrics in "the purge march". of course, all of the lyrics in the song are sung / said with a tone of reverence and formality, similar to a preacher of sorts. these lyrics seem to be sung mostly by the march leader, who speaks of things like repentance, disobeying the rules / being "bad", guilt, and disavowing things of corruption.

now to bring up specific lyrics that i think point to them being a system.

"good morning, ladies and gentlemen! it’s the beginning of a most wonderful day! however, there are blasphemers and silent by-standers, who would have it otherwise. we must not give into them, they are the ones that should be judged. with pure, unsullied body and soul, let us preach all that is true and right!"

this lyric gets me mostly because of the use of "we" and "us" rather than "i" and "me". were it just amane giving herself a pep - talk, the former pronouns would have been used, but it seems to be more of the march leader referring to all of the flag - bearers than anything.

"i disavow you, eyes corrupted must be crushed. so nary a sound can be uttered a second time, i’ll crush your throat too."

this is presumably sung by the march leader while punishing the flag - bearer ( programmed alter ) that dropped her flag ( failed in carrying out her program ). she references both crushing the eyes of the other as well as crushing her throat, invoking "see no evil" and "speak no evil". this is done while the flag - bearer is sucked into the ground and pulled underwater, all the while the march continues above.

"if you become a bad girl, monsters will come out. this is the magic that stops that from happening!"

this is sung / said by amane herself, and while it is a reference to the higher - ups of the cult, it very much could be a reference to the inner - programmers and other programmed alters of the system. she likely isn't aware of the system itself, but she does know that bad things will happen to her even if the others in the cult don't find out somehow. the "magic" that stops the monsters from coming out would just be avoiding their triggers / cues, which is probably something like purposefully disobeying the rules and other such things.

i could literally go ON n ON about this topic n why amane would be such good representation for a ramcoa / hc - did system, but that's all of the analysis that i have on this subject for now :33 thanks ofr reading if you got this far

[animehouse-moe]

Love reading your post about Vanitas. Thanks for sharing them. I also want to say, love how you wrote the reviews and analysis on anime and manga. Most blog that I know of, when they dislike something, they'll badmouth said anime/manga and that's it. But you wrote in details why you dislike something (not just said negative things about them but also there are the positive things about them).

Because of that, can I ask your thoughts about this? So my mutual and I loved Vanitas, but we cannot agree on the ships. They (my mutual) loved Vanitas/Jeanne and Noe/Domi but I loved Vanitas/Noe. I think it's obvious how Noe loved Vanitas. How about you? Based on the story which ships is more reasonable?

(Okay, I did not know if you agree with non canon shipping or not, if you're anti-shipping, please just ignore this ask. I still loved your blog).

It's all good! I think shipping, in a serious sense, is a central piece to the experience of media! Though that's a whole different conversation.

Spoilers for anime/manga of course.

Being forced to pick, with where we're at in the manga, this is a very very tough decision lol. I'd love to cheat and say I love both for different reasons.

It's really interesting how both ships mirror each though in how they're approached.

Where Vanitas is the initiator with Jeanne, it's the inverse where Noe is the one that pushes forward with Vanitas. Where Vanitas chases Jeanne initially for her hatred, it's Noe that provides the hatred for Vanitas directly. It's a very very interesting thing that's meant to draw the reader in I feel.

Similarly, look at how they've developed. The hatred of Vanitas was the initial catalyst for both, but the resolution of it was totally different. Jeanne's was immediate distaste, but she was unable to keep her distance. Noe on the other hand was closer to, "I don't like you, but I want to stay near you", which resulted in a totally different resolution. Jeanne's was all about showing Vanitas actual love and happiness, while Noe's was focusing on voicing his hatred and distaste for (pieces of) Vanitas.

Then there's the whole blood sucking thing, which is influenced by Noe's ability, but that's also sort of the point in the ship? Like, he's willing to give his blood up to Jeanne all of the time because at that point he considers it a one-sided affair where his feelings aren't in it (aside from the one romantic-y bite after Chloe), but because Noe can see into his memories with his ability he refuses Noe. It's a great piece to show the depth that exists with Vanitas and Noe vs the distance that Vanitas attempts to keep with Jeanne.

Now personally, maybe a bit of a hot take, but I think how they do the relationships, the Noe x Vanitas ship makes more sense because Vanitas is not the one that's initiated it. Vanitas talks about how he cannot love someone that does not hate him earlier on in the series, and while it's not quite true, I think it's an example of how a relationship with Vanitas should be approached, if that makes sense. If Vanitas is the one to initiate it, it's sort of a red flag (though Jeanne can just steamroll those red flags). So, having Noe initiate it puts Vanitas on his back foot and off his game to force him into points like the final episode did.

So, I might say I agree more with Noe x Vanitas? I think it's the better ship in terms of narrative, but I still do love Vanitas x Jeanne a great deal.

However, allow me to present the fresh hell that is my romantic chart for the series.

Death and trauma is a catalyst for romance in this series to almost a disturbing degree, so of course all the romantic affinities are all over the place. Anyways, allow me to begin.

Firstly, we have the line that exists with:

Domi loves -> Noe Loves -> Vanitas <- Jeanne Loves

But this is an odd one off the bat, because most likely, Vanitas does reciprocate the feelings of Noe, but not Jeanne.

Just take a look at the narrative. Vanitas promises to kill Jeanne (which is something that I believe will likely happen), while Noe is the one that is claimed to kill Vanitas in the end. The idea of killing a lover just immediately jumps out at you and continues with the theme of inverse with Noe and Jeanne.

Now, for the pieces that don't line up.

Vanitas doesn't reciprocate Jeanne's love because of her declaration of it. Straightforward and I'd already mentioned it. (though the questionable feelings that remained unaddressed through part 2 of the anime are there, there's just nothing to do with them yet aside from character analysis)

A new one though, which I think is very interesting is Noe's reasoning. Noe can't love Domi, plain and simple. He sees too much Louis in her. He simply can't love Domi because he can't see her.

Domi suffers from a similar issue. She can't see herself, so she loves Noe. He's her anchor in this life, the one thing that can still prove that she is Dominique De Sade, and not the brother that she looked up to.

Let's go further, what about Lucius loving Jeanne? Well, aside from it being a kid crush, I do think it has to do with his need to grow up quickly. He's in a position of power, and despite his ability is always looked down upon. Jeanne is the one that doesn't so of course the young boy loves her.

Speaking of younger characters, there's Mikhail. Despite Vanitas being a sibling, Mikhail sees them in a romantic context, viewing Noe directly as a rival and Vanitas as something to possess. I think in the context they see Noe as stealing their role as sibling, but due to their twisted version of it it comes off in the romantic sense. I really want to see more of Mikhail's character, because their romantic attachment to Vanitas is very interesting in how it plays somewhat similar to Jeanne's. Both see the character as their savior, but similar to when Jeanne first started voicing her romantic feelings, Vanitas treats it with more repulsion than acceptance.

Anyways, that was a bit of a heavy mess so how about a fun ship instead?

I'm a sucker for Roland and Olivier. That Golden Retriever and German Shepherd energy together is just much too fun for me. And the way they trust each other and work together consistently despite how much Olivier complains. It's just so great, and there's so much love from Roland but so much anxiety from Olivier. And they even go out to have little tea dates together and it's just so cute.

But yeah, to sum it up, if I had a gun to my head and was being forced to choose which ship was better, I'd probably say Noe x Vanitas. But on the low, I'm a bit of a sucker for toxic ships as well so Jeanne x Vanitas just gets me.

[the-world-annealing]

Aside from all the obvious takeaways as regards predstrogen (it should be allowed to make cartoony hardly-even death threats, ban processes should be more transparent, mass reporting is too easy, the ban system punishes long-running popular blogs specifically, it's just stupid to imply that Every Single Picture on a banned blog ran afoul of community guidelines), I think there's two actually interesting takes to make.

You can have perfectly unbiased and objective standards that will still end up disproportionally targeting oppressed people, simply because stress of online harassment + frustration with moderation for not fixing the online harassment leads to exactly the sort of situation we saw here.

Expecting more moderation, or better moderation, or more transparent moderation to fix harassment slash Get The Nazis Off The Site was never really a reasonable hope (and definitely isn't now). Tumblr lets you make infinite accounts, automated flags don't work, there's no business model that can fund a huge reviewer team, at some point you just have to bite the demoderation bullet and go 'alright, what do we at minimum need to keep the app listed and the gore avoidable'.

Anyway I made a post with a general gist of "either make a site text-only or make it impossible to see things you did not specifically ask for" a bit ago, that feels like it holds up.

[narwhalandchill]

OMG NOOOOOO FIRST DEATH 😭😭😭

was it burgh??? was it colress????? (well. almost him. got fucked over w double full para and sturdy and his hyper potion)

NO. FUCKING. BIKER STANLEY ON ROUTE 4.

anyway you need the full story so firstly.

i did clear burgh with ease as usual by overpreparing like hell. then as mentioned above proceeded immediately to almost lose two mons and risk my starter to colress and only got out bc he got no crits and his klink refused to use thundershock against pat the dewott for some reason despite clear opportunity so like thanks for the incompetence i guess.

anyway then i went for my route 4 encounter and got trubbish which . L. at least its dupe clause for a few future routes and encounters

because of this i ended up deciding to go for the relic passage and try my luck with the dust clouds for a drilbur so i could have a strong ground type. took 8 years for dust clouds to spawn for some reason but i Did end up winning the 80% and getting my drilbur. Who is an entire situation by herself bc. Well

i catch her i rejoice i got my desires encounter excadrill is broken and ive actually never really used one in gen 5 playthroughs before. welcome to the crew myyr.

check her summary.

modest nature 💀💀💀💀 well its a nuzlocke not like i can get another one so we will need to live with this.

anyway that tragedy aside lets input her stats into an IV calculator to see exactly what kind of goober we have in here for ourselves.

..... my girl with an atk reducing nature . Has 31 IVs in atk . 😭 (for non nerds that is the highest possible value you can have in an IV for any particular stat meaning. big number bigger)

well that sure is. [Duality.png]

anyway even with that sad nature myyr is a fucking monster so i keep her in the front as i go through route 4 despite lacking some levels (red flag). she sweeps with dig and metal claw alone its cool

except then. Stanley.

Stanley with the. timburr that uses . Bide . on the turn that myyr burrows in for dig . bide. being the move that takes all the damage the user takes while charging it. and unleashes double that amount after a turn of charging . with priority.

i watch as myyr obliterates over 80% of that timburrs health bar. with one dig . During that very same turn of charging. the turn after which the accumulated dmg is going to be released

the only reason she didnt 1hko with that dig was because she was underleveled. and now im facing down like. a bide thats absolutely certain to hit MINIMUM 90 hit points on the next turn. and Nobody in my team has that much hp to just tank and survive it.

....i need to sacrifice someone.

and like. with this being the team . it was. pretty obvious who

paprika the magby from virbank complex inner area (i counted outside and inside as 2 different encounters no clue how the Pros see it but w/e) . who just did a Honorable job clearing burghs bug types alongside fig the golbat and pat the dewott. paprika the magby with a special atk reducing nature and no physical fire moves . who didnt even get to evolve .

im so sorry paprika . but compared to all the others here . ur duty is done . i cant get you fully evolved bc magmortar is a trade evo . there are no gyms left that ask for fire. there are other fire types to grab in a pinch . i cant lose any of the others

thank you for your service paprika 😭😭😭😭🫡🫡🫡

and so he took the stage for the last time............ going down to that STANLEY and his terrible timburr.... only to be avenged by none other than myyr .

dear Paprika . your sacrifice will never be forgotten 😭

[cyberneticatoms]

no way is that MERCURY MIDWINTER..they’re a 32 year-old HUMAN notoriously known for being ARROGANT & RASH but there are some people who have seen them being QUICK-THINKING & DUTY-BOUND. if you ask me, they remind me a lot of being handed a folded flag, the smell of gunpowder, and driving so fast you’re pressed against your seat, but that could just be because they’re considered the TROUBLED, BUT CUTE around town. just keep an eye on them  &  see if their true colors shine through..

↳ 𝚀𝚄𝙸𝙲𝙺 𝙵𝙰𝙲𝚃𝚂

NAME: Mercury Damon Midwinter NICKNAMES: Merc (friends only) DATE OF BIRTH: November 10th (32) HEIGHT: 5'9 AFFILIATION: Skyport Mafia OCCUPATION: Delivery Driver at The Floral Dilemma / Private Driver for the Skyport Mafia FACECLAIM: Taron Egerton

TW: death

↳ 𝙱𝙰𝙲𝙺𝙶𝚁𝙾𝚄𝙽𝙳

❖ Mercury was the second born son of a normal middle class family, his older brother was the golden child. He was the accidental baby, chasing after his older brother for attention. Most of the time his parents pushed him aside in favor of his older brother. ❖ His brother though seemed to enjoy having him around, bringing him along despite their parents protests. As he grew older, he started resenting him more and more. Constantly being compared to him, either he met expectations by doing as well or he failed to meet them all together. ❖ Like their father his brother joined the military, moving through the ranks at a rapid pace. The expectation was Mercury would eventually enlist, something he dreaded knowing it just be another way the two would be compared. ❖ He'd started acting out in school, if he wasn't going to be famous like his brother he'd be infamous. His behavior only got worse after his brother died on duty. His parents turned the house practically into a shrine to his brother. ❖ Eventually running away from home, tired of missing his brother and tired over how obvious his parents were about which son they wished they'd lost instead. ❖ It didn't take him long to find himself in DFW, eventually being dragged to the Skyport Mafia after managing to carjack one of the Capo Turbo's cars. ❖ He didn't really have any options other than to join, working under Turbo. Splitting his time between being a proper soldier for the Mafia and annoying the hell out of his new boss. ❖ This is also how he met one of the other soldiers, called Umbra, the two starting off with antagonistic relationship eventually into one of mutual respect. With them nominating him to be the one to watch out for the Underboss' younger sister, having a proper job as a delivery driver. ❖ Essie was sweet and cute, despite how bad of an idea of it was, the two were flirting during their shifts and hanging out outside of work. Conflicted when he realized he had feeling for her and Umbra, eventually confessing first to Umbra. ❖ Which is how he found out the big secret, after Umbra stopped laughing, that they and Essie were one and the same. With the way things were in made more sense to publicly only date Essie, while continuing a platonic work relationship when she was Umbra. ❖ He's fairly happy with how his life ended up, even if he sometimes wonder what his brother would think about it all.

↳ 𝙼𝙸𝚂𝙲

• Has a few cybernetic enhancements, mostly designed to improve his reflexes.

[chibivesicle]

Trigun Stampede - Episode 10 - Humanity - or - Am I now watching Blade Runner?

Episode ten dropped this morning and here in my small two bedroom apartment there was indeed the wailing and gnashing of teeth as I watched the episode unfold.  I had unrealistic expectations for Stampede is the mantra I need to keep repeating to myself as I watch it.

Also, I still have some unanswered asks - I’ll try to get to them when I can but they aren’t a quick reply so I need to have the time and brain power to think about them.

The episode starts off with Vash and Wolfwood riding on their ostriches in the desert heading to July.  Wolfwood screams randomly while Vash listens to a timely news update - on an earbud!  His earring doesn’t even act like a phone receiver device anymore - I mean with all this sci fi tech could you had at least kept his ability to use the earring to hear someone’s voice?!?!?

Anyhoo, this then leads to the OP.  The action then shifts to inside the area where Meryl and Roberto are, now with lights allowing for us to see the room full of red plants.

Zazie the Beast asks them who can make use of the planet - Humans, plants or the worms?  Of course Zazie states that the worms are the planet which, okay you also think quite highly of yourselves worms.  That’s it worm domination is settled if it weren’t for the fact you need to use people to apparently destroy them?  But this is Studio Orange’s animation demo, no budget for writers.

Conrad approaches and is easily able to convince Meryl and a reluctant Roberto to join him.  Roberto utters death flag number one asking Meryl if there is a bargain sale on her life.  You mean your life Roberto, eh?

It is obvious they have no choice but to go with Conrad, they know he is their only link to Knives’ motives for the red plants and his approach to humanity.

We get Vash and Wolfwood in a sort of street in July which is 100% cyberpunk and Blade Runner inspired.  It gives me immediate vibes of Ghost in the Shell (the manga) and Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star.  We are in a very Sinocentric city compared to the vaguely American early 20th century vibes of Jeneora Rock.  Honestly Studio Orange, if you wanted to do cyberpunk, why don’t you just do that instead of trying to jam it into Trigun?  Or maybe do a reboot on Bubblegum Crisis and Bubblegum Crash if you want to work with an older IP.

We also learn from Wolfwood that July is wealthy and successful due to having a monopoly on water producing plants which has made them powerful.  Water is canonically a scarce resource in the manga but there was some on the planet but there was enough that people were able to successfully do some agriculture.  And wash their clothes based on all of the laundry lines between buildings in the cities.

Lots of red Chinese lanterns, maybe we are in the Ghost King’s city but the seal script is too easy to read.  Joking aside, the very desert vibe of the July MP and our previous bad guy of episode one just happens to be on patrol for funsies.  And looks so weird in the Chinese centric area.

However, this metropolis still has no people - with all of that urban density we should see the streets packed with civilians but nah, they aren’t out and about.  Additionally, are we now to interpret that the nameless July MP captain is possibly ethnically Chinese? 

Why am I even pondering this?  I know based on the lazy writing that the entire point of having the MP captain walk by is so that he can interact with Vash to prove some sort of superficial character development point.  In this case, it is for one of the other MPs to point out that his family died at Jeneora Rock and shoots Vash.

Wow, just amazing storytelling skills there!  I couldn’t see this coming at all.  I knew that this was going to force the reveal of Vash’s scarred body.  Which compared to previous versions is pretty good looking.

The ‘98 anime and the manga really worked to show the level of detail and the ugly/gross factor which was played for comic relief in both where Meryl and Milly walk in on Vash coming out of the shower with a towel around his neck and he blushes in embarrassment.

As Vash sits down across from them he with a scarred hand pops open a can of Kuroneko beer and explains he both doesn’t like people to see his scars but that he can’t run away from his past.

Studio Orange really did a disservice to the viewers by cleaning up Vash’s torso making it look clean and more sterile.  The original shows the nubbiness and the fact that Vash could hypothetically heal his scars per the manga but what is the point of doing it out of vanity when it would simply accelerate his aging and hair turning black?

The action turns back to Conrad who is explaining that Luida’s geoplant goals are too slow and passive and that he’s using humanity itself to survive.  I really miss that ‘Little Arcadia’ arc now . . .

We know exactly where this is going.  It is the classic, ‘It is okay to sacrifice other people because they were gonna die anyways.’ villain trope.  Yeah, just show them your high tech experimental lab.  By the way, that is the worst sterile lab technique I have ever seen - are you sure you are following proper lab protocols?

The blood stains make for a horribly cliche dramatic effect which made me laugh.  Conrad tells them that Knives is the perfect life form.  This is clearly a huge departure from the original manga, since he was never this actively involved in things in this sort of way.  I’d say that Conrad didn’t have a strong characterization in Trigun Maximum but he wasn’t a mad scientist drinking the Knives Kool-Aid.  He held his own trump cards against Knives who forced him to work for him.  In Stampede, it appears that he decided to go all into the cult of Knives as opposed to doing stuff at knife point.

We get the explanation that Conrad sees Knives as the ultimate life form and he’s trying to make more of them.  With the help of cloned cells from Knives of course.  For example a child we can all recognize, Elendira in the tank.

But she is translated with an ‘its’ power level being fairly weak.  Meryl stares into the tank with a sadness.

The fact that she is in the tank seems to imply that she still needs to hook into the system and isn’t a true independent like Vash or Knives.  The entire situation is the monologuing of a man who has completely lost it and sees all of his actions as justified with the Knives Kool-Aid.

Meryl feels pity for Elendira who is not pleased to hear this.  This puts her immediately into beserker mode and she creates a nail to blow open the tank.

What have you done with my QUEEN Studio Orange?  She’s now an unhinged 25+ year old plant-human hybrid child who doesn’t age as quickly as Vash or Knives?  I’m not even going to address the issues with this ‘update’ to Elendira’s character in the main summary.

This causes Roberto to grab Meryl and run, again while Conrad stands there and Roberto makes death flag number two.  He mentions worker’s comp to Meryl since she keeps getting them into risky situations.

Roberto and Meryl get chased to a large room full of red plants and oddly placed elevators in the middle.  This doesn’t make any sort of structural or design sense but, hey all of the timing in this entire story doesn’t make any sense.  Roberto is clear to Meryl that they are the bait that is to lure Vash in and they end up stuck between the elevator and Elendira.

Elendira gets more unhinged monologue time of her own about humans and their superficial judgements of others.  Everything is okay though as Roberto knows that Vash will pop out of the elevator when the doors open, so he pulls Meryl off to the side as a rain of nails comes after them.

Sure enough, Wolfwood bursts out and Vash hangs back to help them safely enter the elevator.

This gives time for Wolfwood to square off with an even angrier Elendira.

We see a quick glance of Roberto running oddly back and then a closer look at him holding his side as they enter the elevator.  We know that he’s been hit, though Meryl doesn’t know it yet.

Wolfwood destroys all of the nails and one broken nail cuts her as she falls in overly dramatic fashion.  Again, what have you done to my QUEEN Studio Orange?

Wolfwood being the jerk that he is in this version gives her crap and Vash timidly tries to care about her injury.

This only invites a scathing retort to Vash who is scum in her eyes compared to Knives.  For plot reasons, Wolfwood goes back to the elevator and makes Vash go with him, since it is his job to deliver Vash to Knives.

After this we get Roberto’s lame and predictable death scene with Meryl.  It is the follow up to ‘sempai noticed me’ to the ‘sempai died to protect me’ this now allows for Meryl’s character to have ‘growth’. 

She gets called by her full name and he gives her his Derringer.

I’ve said this many times before, but Studio Orange has done an amazing job with the animation of Meryl’s facial expressions since episode one.  Other characters seem awkward and fall flat but she’s been a highlight.  Her facial expressions - not her actual character which is a shallow imitation of her previous self.  But I can at least take the time and really appreciate how well they animated her.

While she considers Roberto’s request to accept his derringer, Wolfwood narrates to Vash his philosophy that to survive on this planet you have to hurt and kill others to protect others.  It is clear that Meryl is going to take some sort of action as she wipes away her tears with a look of resolve.

Before she pushes a button on the elevator, likely one that goes up.  Either she is going to help Vash - which would be a bit silly alone - or if her wits hold up, she’s looking for Wolfwood instead.

I really hope she goes for Wolfwood to help Vash.

After Wolfwood finishes his explanation to Vash, they part ways in a dark corridor.  I guess he was clear which way Vash needed to go to meet Knives?  This then sets up our reunion of Vash and Knives in July, which should kick off a July incident where Vash causes the city to go boom.

Knives is at his fancy piano and explains that the statue over him, is actually a plant from ‘back then’.  I’m unsure if he means back 150 years ago or from when he witnessed the final run of plants.  I want to say from 150 years ago personally - my gut says so.

Knives starts gaslighting Vash immediately.  Stating that Vash’s actions are based out of guilt from helping Knives get access to the computer to crash and destroy many of the ships.  If you are a peak villain you need to make sure your underlings have black and white morals, so Vash is just guilty.  Nothing else.

No one would argue that Vash doesn’t feel guilty for his actions and it does underlie many of his actions and intentions.  However, this does not make it mutually exclusive from the fact that he can love humans.  It is a huge theme of the manga how Vash is able to process his guilt, come to terms with it, face it and overcome and accept it which make him such a powerful character.  That does not matter here though.

The action bounces back to Wolfwood who apparently has a completed contract for his services within the Eye of Michael.  If you zoom in you can see that there is the added special note at the end stating that if Wolfwood completes the terms, the orphanage will not be used in future experiments.

Though the wording is that it is removed from a pilgrimage route which is a bizarre term to code for a location to take children for experiments from.  Wolfwood questions what the meaning of the paper is crumpling it in anger.  I mean, he could argue that Legato tried to destroy the orphanage anyways so can you even expect it to be upheld?  That would require more depth and we don’t have time for that so Wolfwood leaves angry.

Which results in the weirdest line from Conrad - that makes no sense in the context of Stampede.

He asks a man, holding his cross if he were able to lay it down?  Now, we decide to try to pull up a theme that needed to be explained from the beginning for Wolfwood but we didn’t have time for that earlier - toss it in here! Wolfwood then asks the question he was asked and leaves.  Conrad sighs and looks at a photo of him and Tessla!  On his freakkin’ desk.  This man is clearly off the deep end.

I saw this and thought, okay we are going to get our Tessla flashback. Good.  And then I get a flashback where Conrad is happy to see that Knives is alive and that he survived.  This means that he’d been aware of Vash and Nai via Rem before the crash.  However, he had no idea that the twins had survived and Knives threatens to give away his old identity.

We then see a bright blue eye on Knives’ hand and Conrad recognizes it and asks for forgiveness. 

I’m going to squint really hard and conclude that Vash and Nai found out about Tessla on the ship, found her remaining body parts and then Nai absorbed her parts into himself and that is her eye now looking at Conrad.  Creeeeepy!  Knives not only can absorb living plants into himself, he can also take dead parts?

However, with Conrad collapsing before him, asking for forgiveness does this mean that Conrad continued to experiment on Knives as well???? 

The action returns to Knives and Vash.  Knives activates a hidden trap door - because his is peak villain and Vash tries to stop falling with his tiny thread arm ability.  Knives declares that he is remaking his sick brother, tying into Conrad’s previous statement about sacrificing one of the twins.  Though he didn’t say which twin.

Vash then falls into a pool of water which likely isn’t just water but sci fi water something or other.

With that the episode ends.

My initial reaction was “Aaarrrrrggggghhhh, so much lazy writing and what on earth are they even thinking?!?!”

I will watch this season to the end, but there is no way I’m watching this any further if they leave it open ended with a time skip or whatever.  All of this feels like Studio Orange wanted to do a cyberpunk series or some sort of homage to that type of series and they got the IP to that odd under performing manga and anime, Trigun.  They never even stopped to ponder why it didn’t do well in Japan or why it was wildly popular in the States or how the original characters were well received in the original works.  It is almost like they figured, “Hey we have this obscure IP, it is fine to skim a bit off and then create our own dystopian cyberpunk series.”

No one can touch Cowboy Bebop, that series is too special for a remake (in the animated form, not the live action) so it will stand alone.  It is also an episodic series that no one can attack. Even though so many anime fans nowadays are aghast at episodic series when there are true merits to episodic storytelling.

I guess Outlaw Star was too 90s in a different way with the obvious alien cat girl, samurai chick and generic East Asian/Chinese vibes?  If they wanted cyberpunk they should have gotten the IP to Bubblegum Crisis and remade that.

Character comments:

Bill Conrad - Oh boy, did they really change him from the manga.  He was a member of the crew and knew Rem and found out she was hiding Knives and Vash.  He allowed her to continue to hide them.  Unlike Rem, he survived the crash and had set up a nice life for himself before being found by Knives and forced to work with him.

We all know that Bill Conrad is simply Patrick Stewart in manga form and that he was forced to do Knives bidding.  However, he still managed to deceive him and only revealed to Knives that when his hair began to turn black that he too was aging and would die.

Knives asks Elendira to confirm if Vash’s hair is also changing colors . . .

Before he kills Conrad on the spot.  He is no longer useful to Knives since he can no longer continue to use his power in an unlimited fashion. 

Did Knives think he could have unlimited power or did Conrad lead him to believe that in the hopes he could control or fight back?  Potentially both?

The main point is that Conrad was a part of the group who were involved in the Tessla experiments, however, we never know exactly to what extent, but that he is knowledgeable enough that he’s been working for Knives until his death.

This then leads into Tessla.

Tessla - Was the first independent plant that the crew learned about.  We know that Conrad and Rem were both there when the horrible experiments were performed on her which resulted in her death.  They then saved all of her remaining body parts in tanks for reference.  The entire thing is wrong on every possible level and knowledge of this event forever shaped how Vash and Knives moved forward in their lives.

It doesn’t take Knives long to undercover the files and they are curious to learn more - leading them to what remained of her body! 

However, Stampede hasn’t given us enough information to go on at the moment so we don’t know how they found out about this. 

Elendira the Crimsonnail - Has fallen victim to trans erasure apparently.  The 13th of the Gung-ho Guns, she was a force to be reckoned with wearing her pillbox hats, vintage suits and her suitcase full of nails.  I know that the translation isn’t the best where she’s referred to as a transvestite, but our language has been shifting rapidly over the past ten years and if this were translated now, she’d simply be referred to as a trans woman.

Apparently, Stampede doesn’t like to have too many adult women and this resulted in the shift of Elendira to a perma-child, which is just weird if she is a plant human hybrid. 

Roberto and Meryl - got their predicted death scene.  Are any of us surprised?  No.  Roberto did not contribute to the plot, nor did he do much of anything so of course he got his ‘moment’ to hand off a single gun to Meryl.  They were not the same as Meryl and Milly from the original as both were actively engaged in events and the fact that the two of them were always having interesting and dynamic conversations.  Wolfwood - completed a legally binding contract.  This doesn’t even make sense to me since - did he really have a choice in the matter?  No. Why bother to draft a contract and who the hell is even going to enforce it?  The NMP?  And he’s not dead yet!  Plus, the contract didn’t even follow its own note about the orphanage making it a sort of breach of contract by the writer . . . Vash - Passively walked right into Knives’ trap.  Wow, shocking.  Now, he’s going to get some sort of sci fi torture in the water pool to activate his gate/angel arm something .  . July then go boom? Knives - Wow, yeah.  Now he’s working with Conrad, he apparently absorbed Tessla’s eyeball into his arm before finding Conrad and he wants to remake his weak and sick brother.  He keeps the remains of dying plants as statues around him to remind himself to not make mistakes and he’s been hanging out in July and no one knows.  But based on his encounter with Conrad, the translation makes it sound like Knives may have been experimented on as well . . .

Zazie - The worms think very highly of themselves, however, they need to learn how to persuade others.  Speaking like you are the better species is not going to win over Meryl and Roberto to hear you out.  That’s why you lost to Conrad and Knives.  Honestly, no character in Stampede knows how to make a good persuasive argument to convince others to follow their cause or goals.

Wow, this meta has spiraled out of control and I really need to wrap it up.

1.) The writing continues to use so many ‘perfect’ timing instances.  I can’t take it anymore.  The entire elevator setup had me groaning aloud on my couch.  The scene where Vash is shot - is solely there to show his scars.  There were so many other ways to convey this point, like when he was on the uncrashed ship maybe?  Yet, Studio Orange lives for the most literal way to demonstrate things and it is well worn out its welcome for me as a viewer. 2.) The empty cities.  We’ve been shown the metropolis of the planet and it apparently isn’t December.  Where are the people in those massive buildings?  Wolfwood mentions they can buy as much munitions as possible but where does their food and drink come from?  I miss all of the normalcy of the original anime and manga.  Where are the cafes, the city squares, the children in the streets?

3.) The sci fi cyberpunk tone.  Baffles me.  Studio Orange had a creative vision which was not even remotely aligned with the source material.  The shift to a Sinocentric July also baffles me.  Let’s slap up some red lanterns everywhere and Chinese-ish decor elements to set the tone for July.  Is this some sort of hidden political message from the team at Studio Orange?  Is the water monopoly a fill in for something else in current events?  The original was much more Western US in the vibe but with international elements mixed in.  The characters are diverse and we still have that reflected in the population, for example Meryl and Milly hitched a ride with a woman who was clearly black. There were other characters who were definitely black in the manga. Yet, have I seen a single black character even in the background in Stampede?  No.  It was bad enough that they made Wolfwood white but apparently no one of any darker skin toned ethnic group made it onto those Project Seeds ships. 4.) Lack of diversity.  Thus, the lack of diversity of Stampede is killing me.  The entire main cast has light skin tones.  A subset of humanity is supposed to be stuck on the planet and that has not been reflected at all.  Wolfwood in the background appears to be foodie, as he rates the following dishes; curry, ramen and finds an incredible bowl of udon.  Clearly, there is cultural diversity and it had carried over to the desert planet.  The lack of diversity then extends to what was the complete change in Zazie and Elendira as well.  Zazie was a sort of non-binary character able to shift from host to host, implying that the gender construct was meaningless in their choices.  Elendira was a powerful trans woman, with excellent fashion taste.  Wolfwood didn’t even know what she looked like but was more than aware of her reputation.  Legato was canonically gay, but he hasn’t done enough yet to determine if that will be maintained as well.  My point is, what happened to all the queer characters? With that I shall wrap up.  My snark was strong with this episode and excuse my puns throughout the meta.

[hamliet]

Warning: Untamed spoilers!

Okay so, I finished the Untamed drama a couple of weeks ago, and I haven’t been able to think of much since. I loved it, but I also have issues with it (it’s probably because I tend to take this stuff wayyy too seriously, which I am sure you can tell by this very long message, lol). I want to read the novel, but I’m worried I will have the same issues and will be frustrated all over again. I came across your Tumblr and I wondered if you might have some insight?

The thing that worries me is the whole moral ambiguity theme and feeling conflicted about Wei Wuxian as a character. I’m kind of embarrassed to say this cause usually I’m the one arguing for more complex, multi-dimensional characters. Irl I’m always telling people to try to see things from someone else’s perspective, to think about the other side. So… I ought to like this… But I guess I was just really enjoying WWX as an uncomplicated hero/underdog, fighting against the man. I loved how self-sacrificing he was, how committed to doing the right thing no matter the cost. That kind of trope really gets me. It made me want to go protest in front of an oil company or something. I really had no clue that he was anything other than a simple good guy, except for Lan Zhan repeatedly warning him about using the black magic—which admittedly was kind of a red flag… (Whenever anyone says “I can control it! This extremely powerful weapon definitely won’t be used for evil!” that’s never a good sign.)

But, black magic aside, when his sister and Jin Zixuan died, I was really thrown off-balance. It really seemed like it was his fault (at least in part). I know the drama tried to blame everything on Jin Guangyao, but I’ve been told in the novel he’s more directly responsible, which honestly didn’t really surprise me, because blaming Jin Guangyao did seem kind of like an afterthought. It didn’t really fit the tone or theme of the story.

The thing is, having him (directly or indirectly) cause the deaths of two important main characters seems to imply that he had made some mistake—that we should be critical of him in some way. Or else, why would that have to happen? I know Chinese authors love angst, but if main characters have to die for the sake of drama, why not have them die at the hands of an obvious villain? The fact that WWX was involved in their deaths makes it seem like he did something wrong. But I didn’t really understand what. What exactly was his tragic flaw? That he was trying too hard to play hero? That he messed around with the dark magic and couldn’t control it? He was too proud, too overconfident? For me, the takeaway wasn’t really clear.  

As I said, I am okay with moral ambiguity. But WWX is different in that what is attractive about him IS his goodness, his selflessness, his willingness to sacrifice everything to do what is right. That’s why I loved him so much. But, by making him morally ambiguous, it kind of takes away from that. It almost seems like the author is criticizing those traits? Are those traits bad? I mean, I guess sometimes they can be. In my own life there are times I have tried to play hero, and as a result have screwed things up. But that seems like a surprising message for a drama like this. Or is it just that life is messy and even when you try to do the right thing sometimes it doesn’t work out? I didn't get the message.

And it was kind of painfully disappointing because I loved WWX so much! For his goodness. I almost feel more ready to forgive Jin Guangyao and Xue Yang for their crimes because, in some way, I don’t hold them to the same moral standard. Their goodness wasn’t what appealed to me about them. I feel like it’s very confusing to have a story all about moral ambiguity in a character who seems to be trying so hard to be good.

And then, when I talked to other Untamed/MDZS fans about this, and asked if the novel is more clear about this stuff than the drama, they were all like: “Oh, WWX is not morally ambiguous! He was just forced into a bad situation by the REAL bad guys! Only people who didn’t know him thought that he was morally ambiguous.”

Which just made me more confused. It’s like, if we are just supposed to love WWX and not feel conflicted at all about his actions, then why have him kill two main characters? And why keep hammering home the theme of moral ambiguity, which the drama did A LOT. (I mean they talked about it many times. It’s even in the lyrics to the song!)

And I was conflicted about WWX after the deaths. I felt like, after Jin Zixuan died, WWX should have realized his mistake for cultivating the black magic and have tried to get rid of it or something. But instead, he just goes back to argue with everyone and defend himself, starting the fight that eventually killed his sister. In the drama, he doesn’t really express regret about any of that, just sadness for what happened. He apologizes to Jin Ling for his comments about him lacking “maternal education,” but he doesn’t apologize for indirectly killing his father. It seems like the creators of the drama don’t really blame him either, and we are just supposed to blame the Jin clan and Jin Guangyao. But again, if we’re not supposed to blame him, why have him seem even partially responsible for those deaths? And why keep mentioning the theme of moral ambiguity?

I’m okay with redemption, but part of redemption is acknowledging that someone did something wrong. It seems like Untamed wants to have a story about redemption without actually recognizing his part in everything. Anyways, I know the drama really fell short in explaining a lot of things that were part of the novel. I wonder if you think the novel will explain everything clearly and all my concerns will turn out to be nothing? Or if the novel is similar enough that I might have the same reaction? I know I should just read it for myself, but it’s really long and I’m scared of disappointment 😅. I also told myself I would wait to read the novel until I deal with some things in real life, because I know that once I start reading I will not be able to think about anything else. As you can see, I am already not thinking about anything else and I should probably just read it, sighhh.

Anyways, thank you so much for kindly reading this very long rant. It is greatly appreciated. ❤❤

Hi! No worries about spoilers, I watched it long ago :D

In short: I think you would like the novel.

See, apparently protagonists aren't really allowed to be that morally complex or gray in the same way they can be in a novel, leading to all sorts of mishandlings and even fumblings of different elements of the adaptation. It comes across as contradictory in the drama because it is contradictory; they're telling you WWX is morally perfect, but he is demonstrably not, and fans of the drama kind of gobbled that up at the expense of the novel's characterization. Which is a shame, because the novel is so much more thematically rich. I mean, I think The Untamed adaptors did the best they could with the circumstances they had, but the novel is so much more complete and thematically tight, if that makes sense. (It's actually one of the few novels in existence that I can say truly milks every drop of potential from every possible character, situation, and theme.)

To kind of demonstrate what's different about the novel, I'll answer some more specific questions below:

why not have them die at the hands of an obvious villain?

So the funny thing is that the premise of the novel is that they are searching for a villain (because society is always searching for a villain), only to realize there is no villain at all. WWX is one of the few characters who truly realizes this in the end and has compassion for JGY. WWX is a good boy.

As I said, I am okay with moral ambiguity. But WWX is different in that what is attractive about him IS his goodness, his selflessness, his willingness to sacrifice everything to do what is right. That’s why I loved him so much

Alas, so this is where I'm going to try to explain that while it might sound like I'm saying the novel might be less appealing to you, I actually don't think it would be!

WWX is a complex character, and admittedly no one in the novel is black or white, good or bad. Yet, the traits of his commitment to doing what he thinks is right, as shown in the show, are still very present. WWX is very pure of heart in the novel; he just also is very human.

Honestly, I'd say that WWX is a perfect idealist in the novel. His ideals are good, too. There just sometimes are not good or right options to choose from because their world is so messed up (society is the real villain, so the villain is simultaneously everyone and no one); sometimes it's levels of wrong to choose from. Also, as an idealist, when his loved ones die because of him (which does happen even more directly in the novel than in the show), he sinks into despair and gives up on everything, even goodness, briefly, which is what leads to the massacre he's known for committing and also his own death. But when he wakes up resurrected as Mo Xuanyu and gets another chance, he's still idealistic and hopeful enough to take it; he's just a little wiser about his limits this time.

His goodness and his love with LWJ (a societally scandalous relationship) offer society a glimmer of hope to change the entire world from monster to human--that's the point of the novel! So if you think of him as a beacon of light, you're in luck.

“Oh, WWX is not morally ambiguous! He was just forced into a bad situation by the REAL bad guys! Only people who didn’t know him thought that he was morally ambiguous.” Which just made me more confused. It’s like, if we are just supposed to love WWX and not feel conflicted at all about his actions, then why have him kill two main characters?

Ex-frickin-actly. You can blame censorship for this!

It seems like Untamed wants to have a story about redemption without actually recognizing his part in everything.

Again, I applaud your point because this is exactly the thematic contradiction that the censorship created. Said contradiction doesn't exist in the novel.

Anyways, if you do end up reading it, I'd love to hear from you!

[acourtofthought]

You know why I'm confident Elain and Lucien are endgame, aside from the obvious. (We know how the mate bond works)

SJM made a conscious decision to change Lucien's mate from Nesta to Elain when she realized how bad those two would be. She decided Elain was BEST AND BETTER SUITED for Lucien and Cassian for Nesta. She wanted them happy. The journey to endgame doesn't matter, she's already said she likes to put her characters through hell before HEA, and let's be real, Cassian and Lucien (more so Lucien) went through HELL, Cassian only suspected Nesta was his mate and could do nothing as she drank herself to oblivion, hurl insults at him and sleep with other men. Lucien knows and has to deal with his own guilt, wondering if maybe he had known sooner he was destined for another that Jesminda would be alive, while also fighting his instincts for Elain. It's all part of Sarah's plan that she literally laid out for us when she mated them, did she not say she'd set up tension? ARE WE NOT TRACKING TOWARDS IT. It's called storytelling, lol. Elain and Lucien jumping into each others arms was never going to be believable, and besides, SJM said one she likes for her FMC to explore before settling. That's literally all Elriel is, a distraction. It wouldn't have been hard for Sarah to make Elriel true mates, even have Mor and Grayson as roadblocks to overcome, but nope.

Elriels can stalk and harass and push their narrative all day, I could care less, I'm not taking their intrepertation of the text serious OVER THE WORDS THAT HAVE COME FROM SARAH HERSELF IN INTERVIEWS. Who we all know included Elucien in headcanon vacations as well, don't recall her saying Elain and Az 🤭🤣

At least Eluciens aren't in SJMs comments leaving death threats and tweeting that they will kill themselves if she doesn't make Elriel endgame, or literally trying to blackmail BB, when HOSAB leaks came out they continued to tweet at BB to confirm Elriel is endgame or they wouldn't stop sharing the leaks online. DESPARATION - if that's the behavior they have to resort to. Also, really proves they know deep down Elriel was a red herring all along and they are desperate for SJM to change her mind, so resorting to threats is all they have. Including bullying and harassing the fandom, I think the truly believe if Elriel is "popular" SJM will think to herself "oh, you know what, let's me prioritize Elriel" please.

This isn't SJM first rodeo with warships, people argued Chaol and Celena would end up together, the Rowan hate was real. Celeana and Chaol had a legit relationship, got to know one another, slept together, and still were not endgame due to the same red flags Elriels has, same with Feyre and Tamlin, you should've seen the Tamlin stans back then. Some are still around and not very nice people, they are bitter. I imagine the same will be said of Elriels, when their ship is confirmed good and dead they will cry fanservice and or become antis. I just hope the fandom ignores them like we do the other antis now. My point, Sarah and her team have been through this before and it didn't matter to her if Tamlin or Chaol stans were hurt, she writes what her heart desires. These are her characters after, she knows the best and in ways we are readers never will, because we aren't in her head.

If they have been nicer, maybe I'd feel sorry for them. I don't after watching for years the harassment and disgusting behavior againts Eluciens.

Also, HAHAHAHAH that SJM introduced a new female character to Azriels story, the mate parallels are real and they hate it so much they villianized a very sweet character, as an Elucien, same shit, new character to hate, Lucien was the villain for years. But Gwynriels have what Elriels want, a real possibility of a mating bond and if that isn't further proof Elriel was never intended as engame, I don't know what is. 😂🤭

And the first time SJM ever started to tease Azriels LI was during ACOSF, funny she never did prior when Elain had been around since book 1. It's almost as if a new character promoted SJM excitment for Azriels story. I wonder who that could be??

Elain will be with her sunshine in the end. ☀️

I'm so sorry for how long it took me to respond. I was slowly moving through anons prior to Elucien week then sort of stopped all together during that week so we could all focus on the prompts. I think a lot of what you said is much of what the Elucien / Gwynriel fandom feels. I do understand why the Elain and Az situation is confusing for some people because they are two pretty major characters and it is strange to introduce him as a LI after Elain finds out she has a mate only to have it fizzle. But SJM hasn't shied away from two guys vying for the same girl when you consider the history between Dorian / Chaol / Aelin, which you touched on. She was willing to get messy and create tension / jealousy between the two males though I don't think she's ever done it in reverse (two females fighting over a male). And though Aelin didn't end up with either, there was a lot of confusion as to who she was going to end up with. So based on that, it's not that strange for Az to be thrown into the Elain / Lucien mix especially when we couldn't have Elucien getting together all the way back in ACOMAF. To me, he's been a red herring, trying to throw us off the "will they / wont' they" track because Elucien is her first couple to be revealed as mates straight away and it doesn't make for very good storytelling to make it obvious they'll end up together. This series has been building for a long time and while I realize her recent books do move things in a certain direction, that doesn't mean the things she's said in the past are always irrelevant. For example, during the same interview she realized Elucien's bond took her by surprise, she also said the moment Nesta and Cassian sat down at the table together, that was it for them. That they were at one another's throats in the best way possible. But ACOFAS and the start of SF didn't really show us that they were "IT" for one another. Nesta chose to sleep with other males over Cassian, he told her to leave the NC, he told her everyone hated her, she refused his gift and told her to leave him alone. None of that mattered because they still ended up together, exactly like SJM told us in 2015 / 2016. So there's no reason to assume with any sort of confidence that Elucien is any different. An author could change her mind yet again but does anyone really see it happening that way? "Nesta and Lucien will be together." "Wait, they would cause one another too much pain so I'm scrapping that idea." "Wow! I never expected that! My character spoke to me and surprised both Lucien and I and Elain is the one for him! While he and Nesta would have made one another's wounds worse, I don't see that happening with Elain and Lucien" "No, no. actually, Lucien shouldn't be with Elain or Nesta. I think Elain will be with Az instead!" I think most times when a ship falls apart for an author it's because someone else makes sense to them. Not a ship falls apart because THAT character makes better sense but that falls apart because a THIRD character makes better sense. I think there is a lot of toxicity from both sides of the fandom but I will say, for the most part, I think Eluciens and Gwynriels have developed certain behaviors as a defense mechanism to E/riels. It's not necessarily the best way to deal with things however I do think people can only take so much before they feel like they need to fight back in some way. At some point, a person can only take so many taunts and being told their stupid, misogynists, abuse apologists, etc. before they do stand up for themselves which the other side likes to then play victim too. I just look forward to the day where we all get confirmation so we can enjoy the series for what it actually is rather than what we imagine it will be.

[rescuefield-a]

Is Neil really that bad for Claire tho?

i... can't tell if this is a crack ask or not lmao so i will give a few reasons anyway:

- first of all neil is even older than chris, and even though he and claire both in their 30s we can assume that neil has been leading the ngo for a whole lot longer than 2011 ( he moved after fbc was disbanded so he was around at least since 2004-2005 ) and had a very unprofessional relationship with claire specifically. i think lure her closer to him was always part of the plan but at some point it was just a somewhat real relationship kept hush from HR ( claire never says he's her boyfriend in front of any of the other terrasave members for instance, but every now and then she says stuff that earn some bombastic side eyes AT IT SHOULD )

- claire undermines his leadership in so many ways and while he never speaks on it he seems kinda annoyed. he pulls her aside in a corner to ask if she has any information on stuff he knows nothing about even though he's the leader of the organization and should have direct contact with washington. even on sejm island with all his little obstacles and shit, claire always comes through and rises above. the fact that he thought he could make deals with alex wesker and walk away with no repercussion already says everything about he's not as cut to be a leader as the people at terrasave thought and the other organizations probably caught on that too

- in the hq party scene claire looks slightly exhausted and miserable, and sure it might just be that the years of fighting are catching up on her but considering her last appearance before this whole ordeal is supposedly infinite darkness, the contrast is so stark. i might be biased on this but i will still blame it on neil lmao

- neil has ALWAYS done weird shit that people let slide in favour of keeping him as their leader. claire herself says that sometimes she doesn't understand him and what he does but he's just like that so yeah, which is bullshit excuse for her pretending not to see all the red flags leading to his betrayal. her judgement was clouded by many factors but ultimately being as close as they were, the fact that she never thought to investigate on him is disappointing ( for her ). at least considering her dating record, you know

- as far as affection and love go, at the end of the day neil was okay with claire dying on that island. or maybe he thought natalia wouldn't have worked and she would have been next. that rises a point of what would have happened next like, was he going to use uroboros and live forever with claire AND alex? he miscalculated everything clearly. the only moment he showed an ounce of affection to her when he tried to reach for her face while transforming just to shove her away ( a direct parallel to CV though steve did it better in my opinion )

- he proves to not know her at all by suggesting for them to rule together while turning into a BOW. claire had already checked out of their relationship the moment she saw alex infect him "as punishment", and after that things only got worse. he tried to kill moira which like, is also a big no no to claire for obvious reasons. claire is not power hungry, and fighting bioterrorism with BOWs is just not something she's interested in. her i love you to death switch apparently turns off so fast when she's not met with the idea of the relationship that lives in her head, we've seen it happen before so again it was naive of neil to even suggest that since she basically almost ended a years long friendship for similar reasons ( but that's a whole other story i think i have given enough reasons lol )

[benefits1986]

dey/tu/mee

Hello, love, emeeeemmmm. Tabi.

"What are your thoughts on marriage?"

"Do you see yourself getting married?"

"Syempre, gusto ko ikasal. Ikaw ba?"

Whenever I get these questions, syempre ang lala ng sagot ko.

"Marriage is a social construct."

"Kamusta mga married people sa circle mo at sa pamilya mo?"

"Anong lagay ng home life mo? 'Yung totoo."

"Why get married when you can live together and get pets? Less complicated. Less mess pa just in case, alam mo na."

"May galaw na ang divorce sa Pinas. Next question."

Red flag na red flag ako in all levels. Hahahahahaha. Shemay. But, in the spirit of Christmas and all ganaps, sige. Let's friggin' revisit this burning question. Maiba naman.

So far, pinaka interesting counter argument dito na nakuha ko ay something like:

"Alam ko na gusto ko at kaya kong ikasal at mag-pamilya. Gusto kong may makasama sa buhay. 'Di naman masama na 'yun dream ko 'di ba? Pero, puwede naman na walang kids."

OPAKKKYUSIII. Sino ka diyan kahit super basic naman ng sagot?

I went back to getting to know XY kinda late kasi akala ko nakapila na ako ng landas. 'Pag kasi XX, 'di naman 'to topic kaya for me, red flag agad 'to which is malabo 'di ba? 'Pag usapang XY talaga, iba ang tono at toyo ko. Ganun talaga e. 'Pag kasi may legalities na ang mga bagay tapos may-sa harap ng Diyos at madlang pipol, iba na ang takada. Coming from a place where na-apply ko ang concept ng "Blink" sa mga weddings na na-shoot ko na medyo marami-rami na rin naman, makikita mo talaga na marriage is but a social construct at times.

May mga weddings pa nga na solid talaga pero ayun, nagkakalat sa socmed dahil nga millennials are in their era ng level up na ang adulting that comes with shitshow szn din.

Sabi ng bestfriend ko, 'di talaga obvious 'pag may gusto akong nilalang. May mga specific examples pa ako na tingin ko talaga obvious na obvious ako. Of course, we go back to the roads na: E kasi naman you make all people feel special when they're not. Back then, isa 'to sa mga malalang sagupaan namin kasi I really felt I was slapped so hard. Na parang kasalanan ko pang I'm wired this friggin' way. These days, he tells me na ang solusyon e maging upfront ako dahil kaya ko naman talaga. Ayoko lang. Shemayyyyy.

So ayun na nga. What are my thoughts on marriage?

Ang aga pa masyado pero dahil maraming ganaps ng Q4, tara. Usap tayo. Lels. 'Yung "from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part" hay nakooooowwww. 'Di 'yan basta-basta binibitawan lalo 'pag aging millennial ka. I think kasi sa edad ko na 'to, sadly ang dami na talagang naghihiwalay which makes me question why and why not 'di ba? Listened to a podcast din na expert divorce lawyer na 'di pinayagang mag-set up ng booth sa wedding expo sa US kaya naman, mas may meat and bones na rin 'tong construct ko. Emeeemmmssss.

Mga tanong na kaya mo ba talagang itawid 'yan vow na 'yan kung ngayon palang e napaka-paepek mo na? Kasi ako, I don't tap out once I'm in. For sure 'yun. Avoidant ako, true. Pero sa mga connections ko, I really try my best kaya 'di talaga ako magse-settle lalo 'pag nakikita mo 'yung micro signs na 'di sanay 'to sa inconvenience. 'Di 'to tatagal sa hassle at hirap ng totoong buhay.

Speaking of "settling" may na-come across na "settling in" versus "settling on". PAKKK-Q malala. Decision kasi ang marriage na would end up on either divorce or death, sabi nga ni Atty. And sabi rin sa mejj fresh podcast: the most dangerous person a woman comes across with is her husband. Tatay ko: Tama naman. Hahahahahaha. PAKKKK. 'Yan din kasi isang tanong ng tatay ko lately. Kung naging mas mabuting asawa raw ba siya, sana raw andito pa mom ko. Me: Tigil mo na 'yan, huy. Isipin mo na lang na validated 'yung studies dad. At 'di ka nagiisa sa sanlaksang ulupong sa mundo. Kidding aside, mom wanted the best for you, me and her favorite child. Ganun lang 'yun. Sabi nga sa Miss Saigon, I'd give my life for you. Woohoooohuhuhuhuhu.

May takot din kasi talaga ako na either na sabi nila 'di ba, 'yung level ng pagiging nanay ng nanay mo, malaki ang chance na 'yun ang benchmark mo bilang nanay. Me: Nooooo. Sorry. 'Di ko kaya at all. Hahahaha. Kahit nga mga 50% ng performance level ng nanay ko, 'di ko talaga ma-imagine na magiging ganun grind ko just in case mapunta ako sa marriage sphere. Mom loved us too much talaga and syempre 'di ba, though toxic siya, iba 'yung pagmamahal niya na mala-Lily Potter pero Asian mother dragon version. Ganernnnn.

And another thing, syempre, with marriage comes kids. FUCK. Ang sagot ko talaga dito: Menopause be mine para tapos na. Tatay ko: 'Pag mag-asawa kayo, matic na 'yung kids, 'nak. Ganun talaga 'yun. Parang tanga naman na may asawa tapos walang anak. Pero mahirap talaga sa babae. Sa aming mga lalaki, sperm lang, oks na. Iba rin naman ngayon. Nagaalaga na rin naman mga tatay. 'Di tulad namin noon. *Sabay luha ng slight si ungas* Me: Boomers bombing.

'Di ko talaga kasi ma-imagine na may lalabas na bata sa akin. Pota. 'Yung ire, 'yung possibility ng C-section. Kakanood kasi ng Sineskwela at Discovery Channel Pro Max since the 90s kaya naman it's too graphic and kadire talaga. 'Di ko talaga ma-gets 'yung "bringing a child in the world" shitballs na 'yan at the expense of that tiny hole na ma-stretch ng malala.

'Yung hassle na 'di biro na nakikita at naririnig ko sa mga okay na okay na nanay na self-giving to the point na they gave up their career and their lives for their kiddos. Jusko. Nangingilo ako. As in. I admire them so much talaga as in. Kasi sa generation na 'to, iba na. I'm not going after validation na external ha. Pero the stories, the behind-the-scenes are just soooooo maddening. 'Di rin madaling maging tatay kasi naman apart from the funds na talaga namang 'di biro, mas may pressure na rin mag-show up and grow up sila ngayon. Pero sa babae talaga ang mas pressure. Perioddttzzz.

Forda record, I've raised kiddos but not sa infant era nila. Though honestly, 'di naman super hassle mag-alaga kasi sabi nga nung mga momshies na kilala ko, lalabas talaga 'yung maternal instincts mo sa ayaw mo at sa gusto mo. And in fairness, kahit mga legit na party girls nagiging mainam na nanay na mismong ako nangingilo sa mga linyahan na: Anything para sa anak ko. Me: Wow. May ganun. Actually, 'yung hassle part is feeling ko talaga is hindi ako good example. Tats pa lang mhiema. Piercings pa lang. At lahat ng mali ko sa buhay, wala na. May nanalo na sa pagiging palalo. Byeee.

Pero ang bubog ko talaga sa kiddos area ay eto. I don't want to risk my potential kid to take care of me at his/her/their expense. I've seen it. I've gone through it. Kaya naman, wala akong pake na mom got an autoimmune disease. 'Yung strong feeling na may 50% chance ako na may bad genes. Wala na rin akong pake sa gene pool.

Pero, natatawa ako kasi nung sinabi sa akin ang similar storyline nung friend ko na two parents are C patients malala, sabi ko: Mhie, true love knows no fear. And for sure, aalagaan ka niya. At ganun ka rin. 'Di mo naman sure kung anong meron today and tomorrow kaya I say, go. Push. --I meant this talaga saka ayoko lang din masayang ang mga engagement shoots nila. Emmeemmmssss. Madali talagang mag-payo 'pag hindi ikaw ang subject at predicate noh?

I'm at the point where in kung puwede walang marriage, mas okay for me. However, eto naaaaaa tayo. Kung may makaka-go beyond sa fears and toyo and kabaliwan ko na 'to, I'll consider. Shemayyy. And sabi ko nga, 'di kasi ako takot mag-isa. Default ko na 'yun. I still stand by that. 'Di rin ako takot na just in case I get to an old age which is still debatable, I know I'll come through. Kung paano, ako na bahala doon. And this time around, while I have a solid and stronger connections sa crazy fam and sa chosen fam ko, just in case someone comes along, I think I can consider na rin. OPAKKK. Consider! Consider settling on and not settling in. Shemayyyyuyyy.

And sige, forda standards naman... sige, we will be a bit gentler. Hahahahahaha. Eto na naman tayo. Not gonna let the basics and the core go pa rin, pero tama nga naman best friend ko, it's time to demolish my double standards, for once. LUH. I know you're happy... I know you're happy right now... something has changed within me... something is not the same... Weeked na naman pala ang takbo noh? Tapos ending: I'm flying free... defy grabe teeeh. LOL. Malapit na ang showing neto. Abangan. CHOOOZZZ.

Ang hassle mag-demolish ng inner and outer demons. Jusko. Is it even worth it? Hindi ko sure pero wala namang kasing sure sa mundo. And when you're faced with something na real and possible, naiiba rin ang takbo. 'Di siya madali. 'Di siya walk in the park. 'Di siya lullaby, pero tignan natin. No pressure pa rin pero this time around, this is me trying to give things a chance. And giving me a chance too. I'm failing at it badly since I'm on training wheels, syempre.

Note to self: 'Pag tinanong ulit ako ng ganito, mas magiging intentional na ang sagot ko. Abangan. Sana lang wala akong toyo 'pag napunta sa usapan na 'to. Try ko talaga best ko na i-challenge 'yung sarili ko na: Is this kid actually growing up? Puksaan na ba?

[ghiblihearts]

anime review: dahlia in bloom (up to ep8 SPOILERS)

It should be no surprise to anyone, but this had a slow start before. But that's to be expected with this category of anime - a cozy isekai with very low, if any, stakes. This usually means that there are very few sources of conflict, so if you're looking for something to sink your teeth into, this probably isn't the anime you're looking for.

Dahlia spent her past life working herself to death (literally spending her last moments at her desk), so she promised herself that she would enjoy the one she finds herself in, where she is the daughter of a magical artificer. In this world, magical artificers invent everyday objects that infuse minor magic to better the lives of people (ep1 spoiler: for example, Dahlia wants to invent the magical equivalent of a hairdryer using a fire crystal). Her father encourages her natural curiosity and talents, and she grows up to have a knack for inventing things that could genuinely help a lot of people. Creating magical artifacts is the joy in her life, and she wants to help as many people as possible.

Diving into spoiler territory now, but I had initial issues with the animation for the first 2 episodes. I've never been a fan of pretty obvious cgi in anime, and where you can point out the places where the animators might be trying to cut costs a little. Some of the scenery really took me out of the immersion of the world, but I told myself I'd try to overlook it if the story interested me. But unfortunately, it didn't grip me during that time either. I liked seeing the established rules and limitations of the world (what artificers could do, their role in this fantasy world, etc.), but for some reason I just didn't like Dahlia's dad. I just didn't gel with him, was a bit suspicious of him from the start. I also didn't like the impromptu engagement thrust upon Dahlia, and hoped above all hopes that she didn't actually start falling for this guy. His red flags popped up the second they were locked into that engagement, and I honestly didn't want a 'redemption' arc for him if he was the main lead.

So I took a break from it for a few weeks, and returned to it when I had a few episodes to binge at once (my preferred style). And I don't regret my decision for a lot of reasons:

A lot happened, and I noticed that the time skips seem to be quite substantial - like learning that between the 2nd and 3rd episode, 2 whole years have passed since Dahlia and her fiancé have been engaged, and I genuinely choked a little on my drink. But I appreciated this jump, because it saved us from seeing more of what could have been a painful and annoying(ly forced) love triangle between Dahlia, her fiancé and his lover (who is clearly more scheming than she appears to be, but that might be revealed more in the next 4 episodes).

Dahlia is surrounded by a cast of people who all care about her and support her. Aside from her ex's girlfriend, she doesn't seem to have encountered any potential enemies for herself, and her potential is seemingly endless! Her intelligence is allowing her to create artefacts that are being mass produced and in great demand (no doubt because of her memories of her past life helping her to find 'modern' solutions problems in this fantasy world). So far she has not only invented a handful of greatly successful products, but become the CEO of her own company with the help of her friends and allies. To some this might seem boring, and I get that - but to me the lack of obstacles is what makes these kinds of stories all the more cozy! You're not worrying about how she will suffer - you're watching in comfort knowing she will succeed.

We learn more about Dahlia's father through her interactions with other people, and these flashes of her father's hidden character are bittersweet. But it's quite refreshing to see Dahlia being exposed to a side of her father she didn't know existed - it makes every new reveal, every anecdote about him feel like a little 'pang' of sadness, I suppose, realising that there's yet another part of him that she didn't get to see. She only saw the happy-go-lucky, drunken side of him, meanwhile he was building supports for her in secret. But I personally think that's as far as the show will go into exploring her grief. This is a cozy anime, after all!

The love story.. we're getting little more than crumbs so far, in my opinion, but I am a SUCKER for friends-to-lovers!! I think it's being done quite nicely, but Wolf is down BAD already and I love it! Honestly, I think he fell for the person he met in the first, regardless of the fact that as far as he knew it was a man who was helping him (Dahlia in disguise). As friends, they encourage the parts of each other that society has taught them to repress for appearances' sake, and they find comfort in being able to be their true selves' around each other. Their friendship would be such a lovely foundation for their future relationship, in my opinion. Although Wolf seems to be much more aware of his feelings and is holding back out of respect for Dahlia's comfort and feelings, Dahlia is still very much in the oblivious phase.. but it's only a matter of time! Though, yet again, I don't feel like there is any risk of any romantic drama because, yet again, this is a cozy anime - no high stakes!

The highest stakes that seem to be the concern at the moment is the pressures of Dahlia's new business venture. Starting a new company will likely stress her out (though she'll tough it out like a champ, no doubt) because things are moving at lightning speed, and I'm not sure if she'll be able to keep up with the stresses of meeting orders and deadlines, while still managing to love every part of the process as an artisan. Perhaps that will be the final 'conflict' in this series - her finding balance between being a business woman and an artist at the same time (a lesson I'm sure a lot of artists find themselves trying to learn in real life, so it would be interesting to see how the story tackles such a lesson, if they do!).

Either way, I'm enjoying this show a lot more than I thought I would, and I'm really glad I picked it up again! Looking forward to seeing how the series wraps up..

(I only recently discovered that Dahlia in Bloom is made by the same animation studio that made Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion! I really enjoyed that series so the fact that I'm enjoying this one makes sense!)