#like; retroactively explains all his actions

[uu-tella]

Full panel under the cut

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

Why the Alpha Timeline is the Alpha Timeline

I figured I'd make a post, since it's pretty subtle and I think it genuinely passed a lot of people by? Homestuck is made up of a lot of words, haha.

The alpha timeline is described by Doc Scratch, functionally, as "the timeline that causes LE to exist."

The path which alone has my absolute mastery is the alpha timeline, a continuum I define as that which boasts exclusive rights both to my birth and to my death, two circumstantially simultaneous events.

Aranea also gives the explanation that the alpha timeline is the one where reality is perpetuated.

AG: Reality itself is using you and many others to propagate its own existence. Strictly speaking, there is only one path to its successful propagation. 8ut it still permits you to make choices.

Caliborn also states that his quest as a Lord of Time is coming to terms with the inevitability that everything, ever, in all of time, will be because of him - that he'll be the one to shape it, including the circumstances of his own defeat.

uu: AS A LORD OF TIME. I THINK I'M GOING TO MASTER TIME. NOT WITH MY BRAIN. WHICH WOULD BE TOO HARD. BUT WITH MY INSTINCTS. uu: LIKE IN A WAY THAT WORKS WITH MY NATURAL IMPULSES. SUCH AS MY AMBITION. MY WILL TO COMMIT MAYHEM. MY DESIRE TO PUNISH THOSE I DESPISE. uu: SO IF I WANT YOU TO BECOME STRONG. SO YOU CAN CHALLENGE ME LATER. AND I SEE EVIDENCE. THAT YOU PROBABLY BECOME SUCCESSFUL. uu: I THINK TO MYSELF. WHY SHOULDN'T I BE THE ONE TO MAKE THAT HAPPEN? IF IT'S GOING TO ANYWAY. uu: I THINK PART OF MY PERSONAL QUEST. IS TO BECOME AT EASE WITH THE FORCES OF INEVITABILITY. uu: INEVITABILITY THAT ALL THINGS SHOULD AND WILL FALL IN MY FAVOR. THAT ALL CAUSALITY ANSWERS TO ME. AND THAT ALL OUTCOMES NOT ONLY SERVE ME. BUT CONSIST OF MY BEING. uu: SO I FEEL THAT. THE MORE I GROW IN POWER. uu: THE MORE STUFF IT SHOULD TURN OUT I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR. uu: UP TO AND INCLUDING. EVERYTHING THAT EVER HAPPENS. uu: EVEN IF IT HAS TO BE. uu: RETROACTIVELY.

Aradia's stint as stewardess of the afterlife is explicitly described as "service to the lord of double death," and Dave explains that he acts instinctively - like Caliborn does - to fulfill the conditions of the alpha timeline. It's also worth noting that their classes, Maid and Knight, are roles that directly serve a Lord in the real world.

TEREZI: LUCK1LY YOU M4K3 4N 4DOR4BL3 H4NDM41D TO TH3 M4ST3R OF D34TH, 3SP3C14LLY 1N YOUR CUT3 CH3RRY P1X13 3NS3MBL3 ARADIA: you think so?

GG: well youre from the future right? GG: dont you know already if itll work? TG: yeah more or less TG: i never really studied how it went down all that closely TG: i just figured when the time came to sort it out the right thing to do would be obvious TG: like it is now TG: managing the loops is a balance of careful planning and just rolling with your in the moment decisions TG: and trusting they were the ones you were always supposed to make TG: by now im pretty used to having my intuition woven into the fabric of the alpha timeline

I'm starting with all that so I can explain that the GAME OVER timeline doesn't end when the time players disappear from it, like doomed timeline offshoots normally do, because it IS the alpha timeline: the sequence of events that causes GAME OVER to occur is the sequence of events that Caliborn/Lord English have chosen: one where (nearly) everyone dies, all hope of victory is lost, and his servant, the Condesce, gets to claim the Ultimate Reward, perpetuating the same misery and oppression in the new universe, and presumably all universes to come.

We see from Caliborn's chess match with Calliope that his (and by extension, LE)'s modus operandi is to follow the rules to the letter, while manipulating his opponent, tricking them with "shitty twists". It's always been explained that LE's actions have been "sanctioned by paradox space," that is, everything he's doing is explicitly allowed, nothing he's doing is against the rules - including the fact that he must be defeated. He has, via his mastery of time, perfectly engineered a situation where the only viable reality is the one where yes, he IS defeated... in the dream bubbles, by the dead and doomed, whom he sent to the dream bubbles in the first place via Condy, Jack English, and all the other boss fights. And his will, his ideals, are imposed on the new universe in spite of his defeat.

In a completely Watsonian read of the text, Lord English is an incredible villain because - subtly and unsublty - he IS basically responsible for every bad thing that ever happens, ever, to everyone. He has legitimately been the puppetmaster pulling the strings the entire time, pretty much all because Caliborn is a huge asshole who loves to hurt other people, and wants to do it as much as he can, to as many people as he can, for as long as he can.

But I think he's especially interesting through a Doylist perspective, through a reading of the text as a coming of age. Homestuck is a worth riddled with theme and symbolism, and thematically, Lord English represents everything that these kids need to overcome in order to mature into kind, empathetic adults who will be one day responsible for the care and oversight of a new universe. He represents selfishness, sadism, greed, destruction, oppression, fascism, murder, genocide, and hatred. And also literally the patriarchy.

And, you know what? Don't take my word for it. Here's Andrew Hussie's commentary from Book 6 Act 5 Act 2 Part 2:

Much of the logic [for who contributes to Lord English] orbits around these negative traits associated with men, or more specifically, the “toxically masculine” aspects often linked to certain male personalities. Dirk has a lot of these traits, which are central to Dave’s feelings of tension and abuse concerning his bro. The intellectual aggression, the power of assertion, the knowitall-ism, the mansplaining. That’s a lot of Dirk stuff when he’s at his worst. Equius shares a lot of those traits too, with some different points of emphasis. Both of them have this creepy-guy streak running through them, with strange or offputting interests, and seem to get a quiet kick out of making others uncomfortable through demonstrations of these fascinations. They are actually pretty similar characters in this way.

He's invited into the trolls' universe (and, by extension, the kids' universe) via the Dancestors, in an original sin kind of way. I'll let Hussie explain on their Formspring (emphasis mine):

We learn more about the troll race, as a once peaceful species and such before kid-ancestors as players scratched their session, though the short term relevance of this is mainly as a preamble to Scratch's religious story. Establishing an Eden-like paradise from which there is some departure through sin is sort of the boilerplate basis for religious lore. ... The failed players from peaceful Alternia made a classic "deal with the devil" move by causing the scratch after being given a choice by the mother of all monsters. (Echidna. Hey, she's a big snake!) By doing so they brought Scratch into their universe, and therefore all the things you'd expect that comes with summoning the devil.

The Dancestor's "departure through sin"? It was the fact that they couldn't get their shit together and grew up inside the Medium. That's why they're the age they are, 9 sweeps - adulthood by troll standards. They aren't kids anymore because that's the ultimate sign of having failed to do a coming of age. Symbolically, the Dancestors represent a prior generation of grown-ups that fucked everything up, leaving a huge mess for their descendents to clean up after. In fact, Doc Scratch even describes the alternate choice Echidna gave them:

The heroes could either accept their defeat along with the extinction of their race, and put no others at risk.

In other words, they could have stopped LE if they'd simply chosen not to Scratch. But once more, in line with their behavior up until that point, they chose the selfish option, and bore descendants into the world they ruined. They're immature, nasty, mean-spirited, cruel, callous, and shallow on purpose, because their role in the story is antagonistic. They're aligned (even if unwittingly) with Lord English, as they're the ones who directly invited him in via their failure to grow the fuck up.

There's also a reason why SBURB/SGRUB directly tie achieving godhood and reaching the Ultimate Reward to planetary quests fundamentally designed to help children mature. God-tiering is supposed to come at the end of one's quest, as achieving it directly teleports you to the Battlefield for the final boss.

AG: I really think how successfully they mature is tied to success in the game. It challenges the players in all the ways they need to 8e challenged to grow, which is different for every individual, and veeeeeeeery different for every race. AG: I don't think we were so hot at that aspect of the game. In fact, I'm sure we were quite awful. Hell, even I wasn't that gr8 at it! I actually just kinda fell ass 8ackwards into the god tier, to 8e honest.

And there's a perfectly functional Watsonian explanation for this - in order to increase the odds that the new universe will successfully propagate new universes, it's ideal to leave it in the hands of kind, mature people. But the Doylist explanation is, again, even more interesting.

Hussie has spoken extensively about the comic having always been about two things at its core: first, a creation myth... and second, a coming-of-age. These are complimentary themes, as Homestuck also makes statements about society and its effects on kids. In the real world, the kids of today become the voters, revolutionaries, and lawmakers of tomorrow. In Homestuck, they create, and are responsible for, a new universe.

I always saw HS as an exploration of young people developing relationships over the internet […] There’s a lot more to HS than just that obviously, but if there’s anything which it’s been about through and through, it’s modern kids relating to each other from afar, developing as people and growing up.

In fact, all the initial kids' entry artifacts are metaphors for "departures, loss of innocence, and sometimes the journey from childhood to adulthood outright." John biting an apple, symbolizing the act that cast Adam and Even from Eden. Rose breaking a bottle, the act of christening a boat, and an item integral to the main means by which she relates to her mother, alcohol - an adult substance. Dave hatching an egg, literally the act of bringing new life into the world. Jade shooting an effigy of her dog, both symbolic of Old Yeller, and of breaking a pinata, an act often done at quinceneras.

There comes a point in childhood where the child stops being a child - the safe, familiar, comfortable world that they knew stops existing, and they can never get it back. They are thrust into a world that is alien and massive, and forced to grapple with the weight of their future duties. They deal with losing their guardians and finding direction in their absence. They must decide how they want to grow up, and then are responsible for shaping the society that comes after them. In other words, SBURB/SGRUB in this metaphor represent adolescence.

Within that context, God-tiering is actually interesting because it symbolizes adulthood - a semi-permanent state that a child is supposed to reach at the end of their SBURB/SGRUB journey. And, in fact, it's treated that way - none of the characters reach god-tiering the "proper" way... and of our god-tiered characters, nearly all of them have some sort of emotional struggle with growing up too fast. Vriska with the expectations of her shitty society, Rose with her emulation of her mother, Dave with his abusive brother, and the Alpha kids with substance abuse (the jujus) and romantic drama.

Anyway, sometimes when Mario's running sideways he gets a star that makes him magic and invincible. OH. YOU MEAN HE BECOMES TRICKSTER MARIO. Yes, but less stupid. So for a while he becomes flashy and hyperactive and nothing's challenging anymore. He just starts barreling over mushrooms and leaping over pits as fast as he can, then gets to the end and jumps on the flagpole and that's it. Mario "wins". But the point is, he didn't really win. That magic star was actually devastating to his development as a human being. WHY. Because he skipped over many critical trials on his spiritual journey. Mario NEEDS to stomp on all those mushrooms. He NEEDS to bonk those bricks with his head, for the sake of his personal growth. By using the star, he is denying himself many powerful moments of catharsis.

Like... I dunno... seems pretty blatant to me!

So with Homestuck so firmly being a coming of age, and with the Dancestors - whose primary failure is that of unrelenting immaturity - being cast in an antagonistic role, doesn't that make Caliborn's position of ultimate final boss extremely fitting when we take this conversation into account?

You may be destined for bigger things, but you’re still an atrocious, stupid child. And you may have won the “game” with your sister, but that doesn’t mean it was the best thing for your development as a person. You had her dream self killed, which is not an opportunity your species typically gets. So she died prematurely, instead of allowing the conflict within you to settle itself naturally. In short, you forced your predomination to happen a little too early, and now you’re stuck. STUCK? Yes. Your personality is stuck in some sort of cantankerous prepubescent limbo. You are going to be a stunted, miserable tool forever.

He's literally a child who chose to stunt his own growth so that he could reap all the game's rewards for himself. Someone who so stubbornly desired the selfish, greedy, and immature option that he was willing to hurt himself to achieve it. Caliborn - and by extension, Lord English - is a direct symbol for the refusal to mature, to be kind, to care about other people. By including Dirk, Gamzee, and Equius at their worst, he also comes to represent misogyny, toxic masculinity, the patriarchy. He's the Condesce's master, and so by extension, he represents fascism and oppression; as Doc Scratch, he gets off on abusing girls, and so he also represents predators and abusers. And his goal is to perpetuate himself, his ideals, what he symbolically represents, down every successive generation. Much like how these cycles of abuse and oppression seek to perpetuate themselves in the real world!

And that's why the alpha timeline, the GAME OVER timeline, is the way that it is: it's one where Lord English WINS. In Lord English's version of the story, everything is fucked up forever. He might be defeated, as is the timeline's inevitability, but his politics, his bigotry, and his ideals live on.

Except.

Our Breath player gains a power that literally unsticks him from time.

Now, personally, I don't believe that the ending we got is the one that was originally intended. I don't feel the need to elaborate upon that here, but suffice to say, given how clearly and consistently these themes are set up throughout the entire rest of the comic, it just makes sense to me that the ending we got, where characters stay dead, never finish their character development, etc. etc., is a MASSIVE tonal and thematic departure, which smacks of external pressures and influences. Everything after [S] GAME OVER is soft canon to me for this reason. But there's things that survive in it that are really really interesting, so I'll mention some.

First, the pre-retcon versions of the characters still exist, as we see from (Vriska). That means that everyone who died in GAME OVER would not necessarily have stopped mattering to the plot. I firmly believe that the original ending would've seen Lord English confronted by the GAME OVER (characters), who would also have the most karmic claim to beating Lord English's face in. This would also satisfy his whole deal of playing by the rules - he knows he HAS to be defeated, he just gets to choose the circumstances of his defeat; without realizing that John's retcon powers can rewrite a timeline, he would've set up his own death to be in the bubbles, at the hands of the already-dead, while Condy claims the Ultimate Reward - thus making it so that he still wins in the end.

But Breath represents freedom, choices - and the retcon powers are something John gains mastery over after completing his personal quest, which we've established is directly tied, both literally and symbolically, into growing up and maturing. By becoming a kind, empathetic, mature adult, John is able to choose something else.

Second, that the Ultimate Self is brought up at all, which seems to me like it would mitigate the bittersweetness of the (characters) from GAME OVER staying dead - because, in my head, the original plan for the retcon was that it would bring everyone back, and therefore, all the (characters) from GAME OVER would live on through the surviving post-retcon gang, who will eventually achieve Ultimate Selfhood, as Davepetasprite^2 says they will. This would also directly mirror the words Godtier!Calliope gives to her counterpart:

CALLIOPE: bUt then... CALLIOPE: what shoUld i do? CALLIOPE: you don't need to do anything. CALLIOPE: be who you've become, and who i didn't. CALLIOPE: consume the fruits of an existence i could never understand. CALLIOPE: live.

Third, there's just so many outstanding plot threads, even for the characters that DO survive. Jake's prophesized to defeat Lord English, Dave never actually gets over his hesitance about time travel and defeating Lord English, Karkat has multiple means of bringing his dead friends back to life and doesn't say anything, Vriska and Terezi still aren't 100% reconciled, Gamzee's tragedy is never addressed, Jane, Dirk, Jake, and Roxy never really figure out their situationship, etc. etc. etc. ... to say nothing about all the plot threads left dangling for the characters that stay dead.

And finally...

Isn't that just kind of a better story? One where the kids get to grow, change, learn from their mistakes, and create a better, kinder universe, after defeating the avatars of cruelty, oppression, and immaturity?

Is it just me? Haha.

[zev-rynna]

I am made aware of the controversy around Jiyan on how he became the general and the terrible story writing from the writers part.

Jiyan has been called names like “Run-away General”, “The Faux General” etc etc, and the complaints that Jiyan is a hypocritical character that judged Geshu Lin’s decision making and yet made the exact same decision Geshu Lin made in the end.

Honestly speaking, I don’t doubt the possibility of terrible writing on Kuro’s part but I wonder if this also reflected the complexity of human nature in the sense that there’s just no perfectly evil/bad person (in this case Geshu Lin) or the perfectly good/right person (in this case Jiyan)? Maybe it was written this way, but wasn’t properly done? Idk..

This is going to be long, bear with me…

Geshu fought the battle and was almost winning, and he has lost too many people to back off. And in his “conversation” with Jiyan, he did also highlighted that backing down and running away will not do justice to all those lives he carried behind his back. It’s true, when it’s war, if you decide to back down knowing you could’ve won, you have nothing to explain to those who have lost their lives in previous battles. Geshu Lin carried all those lives with him, and in his knowledge, the retroact rain’s effect was relatively unknown to him, and his arrogance or overconfidence may have resulted in him disregarding the significance and danger of the unknown. And Geshu Lin was born a warrior, fighting to win battles also means sacrifices have to be made, and therefore his actions reflected his values.

On the other hand, Jiyan was born a medic. His values revolved around saving lives, and the purpose of winning certain battles is to ensure better lives for his people. So if a war caused too many sacrifices, is that war still considered a win for his people? And so with his knowledge and his instincts on the catastrophe that may happen due to the retroact rain, with no Geshu Lin in sight, he made the choice to save as many people as he can by ordering a retreat. I believe at that point, he has no intention to override Geshu Lin’s authority or to made Geshu Lin the “bad guy”, but solely to save the people left to save before they all perished.

But the society (Jinzhou citizens) will need someone to blame. This is the reflection of how humans are like. When loss is too big and incomprehensible, the tendencies to blame become prevalent. In that situation, without knowing all sorts of context, Geshu Lin led to the death of the people and Jiyan was the one who ensured lives saved. Jiyan naturally became the hero and Geshu Lin the villain.

I don’t believe that Jiyan personally wanted to reprimand Geshu Lin or try to taint his reputation so it can make his “promotion” to General more believable. Yes he did not agree with Geshu Lin’s ideals, but I don’t think the whole “Geshu Lin was the cause of this tragedy” talk was started by him. It was the people who needed a hero and someone to blame during the difficult times. Then he was chosen to be General, and when you get to a position like that, confiding in people to tell them how you truly feel becomes a luxury because people start to rely on you and in order for them to respect you and able to lead an army, you have to be composed, and mask all forms of doubts.

When Rover came as prophesised, Jiyan was seen having a “conversation” with Geshu Lin before the war, and Jiyan was mostly quiet on his part. You can sense his doubts manifesting as he is about to make the exact same decision Geshu Lin made years ago, and he questions himself. But then again, Jiyan was flamed incredibly cuz of the irony that he did in fact made the same decision Geshu Lin did, but Jiyan was in the luxury to make that decision knowing what he knew, and having Rover by his side made the odds significantly better. And this was what made the fans/anti-fans so bitter about Jiyan because this was pure hypocrisy at play, especially it made Jiyan looked weak cuz everyone knew the outcome may have been the same as years ago if Rover was not present. But that’s the thing, if Rover was absent, I don’t think Jiyan would’ve made the decision he made.

The tragedy was that Geshu Lin was too quick to be burnt on the stake by people who were desperate to find closure. And the situation Geshu Lin was in, made this grey in the sense that no one truly knew what happened at the war zone and Geshu Lin did not have everything that the people know now about the Retroact rain and Rover to made the war of his time a success. Jiyan has that, that was his luck. But how does one blame Jiyan for that? After all, luck is an also huge component of strength. And probably (just a speculation) - the irony of Jiyan making the same decision as Geshu Lin may be a foreshadowing of Geshu Lin’s return to mock the hypocrisy of the entire ordeal, including the people who blamed him.

The whole situation where Geshu Lin was strongly blamed as the villain and Jiyan was depicted as the hero and the best person ever was so overly exaggerated, I don’t think this was what Jiyan meant for to happen. And I know a lot of people say that “well but Jiyan took all those compliments bla bla”. But he was promoted to general though, he cannot just come out and disregard what people said about him because he needed these people’s vote of confidence, and during those dark times, he is in no position to show any form of doubts. But it doesn’t mean that he didn’t mourn the loss of respect and reputation of Geshu Lin when he’s alone.

I’m upset Jiyan got too much hate for this. This was a perfect depiction of how complex humans are and how things cannot be black and white. It’s so nuance that I’m not sure if I properly explained it in words.

Then again, I really like Jiyan’s character, although I have the admit, the writing was terribly done, which may have caused so much backlash cuz of all the unsaid things. I felt that with a little bit more of explanation on the plot and Jiyan’s thought process would’ve significantly helped with Jiyan’s character building. Now Geshu Lin is so well loved cuz everyone felt that Jiyan stole all that belonged to him. I wouldn’t say Geshu Lin was entirely innocent despite the fault of the people who were quick to blame him, but that’s for another day.

Again, there isn’t a perfectly evil person, just like there isn’t a perfectly good person. People are complicated and one action does not justify the other.

[jp---v]

I don't need to, but I'll explain my Bakugou hate because I want to.

Long post. Beware

When I started reading the series I was the same age as the characters. Looking at my interests you can probably guess that I was bullied, but instead of getting all sad, I got angry at the people treating me poorly.

So as soon as Bakugou was introduced, I didn't like him. Seeing someone my age verbally threaten and physically attacking people without being punished just really put me in a bad mood whenever he showed up.

Then certain parts of the fandom got incredibly toxic, and suddenly the author is pandering to the worst of them

But the problem keeps getting worse. The entire world warps to kiss his ass. He got everything he wanted at every turn. He deserved nothing and got everything.

Immediately established as a long-term bully. His bullying is then retroactively justified by the world itself saying that Midoriya is worth less than Bakugou as a person.

Why did Aizawa, who was famous for expelling students, not so much as give Bakugou detention for trying to attack Midoriya on the first day of school?

Why didn't All Might punish him for using that gauntlet in the Battle Trials?

Despite all of his actions so far, just since being accepted into UA, the other students still want to be friends with him. They actively choose to spend time near him.

Why is it never mentioned how him(and Kirishima) attacking Kurogiri and getting in Thirteen's way is a large part of why the USJ played out how it did?

His speech at the Sports Festival

Everyone wanting to be on his team, but he doesn't know any of their names or quirks.

Trying to make an unconscious Todoroki fight back in the finals

Aizawa constantly excusing all of his behavior, circling back to my point about the world itself justifying Bakugou's shitty behavior

Attacking Midoriya in the Final Exam.

How did Sero fail his exam by being carried out but Bakugou passed?

At the Training Camp, he actively tried to go fight the villains that have openly stated were trying to capture him. Making himself an easy target and hindering the people trying to protect him

During the Rescue Operation he somehow managed to hold his own against the majority of the League of Villains on his own? Really?

He forced Midoriya to break curfew and just starts attacking him until Midoriya fights back. It's caught on camera and Midoriya somehow gets in the same amount of trouble?

And for some reason he gets let in on the secret of One for All after being such a monumental asshole since forever, despite the fact that even Inko doesn't know? Or literally anyone who would be, like, supportive of Midoriya?

He failed the Provisional License Exam, but don't worry there's a special make-up class just for the people that made it into the second half. Everyone who failed in the first half will have to wait for the next exam.

Oh wow, flawless victory in the Joint Training Arc by displaying teamwork out of thin fucking air that was really just him barking orders at the others.

For a while we just get his usual brand of egotistical asshole-ery and now being needlessly shoved into places where Midoriya's actual friends should be. Or even any of the other side characters. Horikoshi, give them some screen time

But then the war arc and the vigilante Deku arc all just get down on their knees to suck his dick so hard that his quirk evolves and his heart explodes. And I finally get a glimmer of hope for the series to finally stop shoving him down our throats, but no.

Edgeshot decides that this one kid is so important that he will sacrifice his own life to save Bakugou specifically and no one else is on his level of importance.

Going back a step; That apology was pure fucking lip service. Not a single goddamn thing changed in the way he acted afterward. He had a couple of "soft" moments when he wasn't actively screaming and cursing, but that's it.

And Horikoshi keeps fucking doing it.

Somehow each and every thing has to include Bakugou or be about how it's effecting Bakugou or has to mention Bakugou.

The majority of the (much more interesting) cast has been completely forgotten, and Midoriya's characterization got taken out back, given three rounds to the head, skinned, washed in bleach, and hung out to dry, but Oh Wow! BAKUGOU'S HERE!

I said it before and I'll say it again, I'd throw a brick at him.

These are only the broadest strokes of what happened too. If I reread the entire series I could write a massive in-depth character analysis, but that's too much even for me.

[linkspooky]

overhaul with his quirk likely never had to face consequences if he accidentally injured one of his subordinates he could just heal them

Hello, kiddos.

This is the perfect time to explain the new term I just coined called: Narrative Gaslighting.

Narrative Gaslighting is not:

Breaking Show Don't Tell: A story failing to properly demonstrate in story something, usually a narrator tells you about a character, or setting. For example: Telling us Endeavor is on a journey of atonement, but never having him take any action in story to show this.

Retcons: Short for retroactive continuity, an ongoing story, a new story detail revising something in the past often changing or imposing a different interpretation of previous described events. For example, in doctor who the reason why Wilf wasn't at Donna's wedding in "The Runaway Bride" is because he apparently had the Spanish flu. Retcons aren't necessarily bad, because sometimes you get cool new ideas, like Wilfred objectively the best doctor who character.

Plot Holes: An inconsistency in the narrative. These are sloppy storytelling but they're not usually done onpurpose.

An Unreliable Narrator: The classic example of this is the Agatha Christie novel "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" where the narrator / perspective character is the murderer, and hides his role in the murders the whole novel until hercule poirot exposes him. This is a character in the story deliberately misleading the audience, either to conceal a twist, or sometimes unreliable narrator adds to characterization, like a character says something untrue and you're supposed to go "no that's wrong" and it turns out the character is lying to themselves.

Narrative Gaslighting is when a narrative deliberately tries to mislead you, straight up lies, or just insists that that did not happen totally happened guys. Much like real gaslighting it makes you question what you just read. The intent is to just manipulate you into read the story way the author wants you to instead of what's written.

The ask that anonymous sent to me is an example of narrative gaslighting because it's insisting upon something that's blatantly untrue. Overhaul faced consequences, he lost both of his arms and could no longer use his quirk, he was jailed and kept in isolation so long he was reduced to a state where he couldn't do much more than beg for someone to help restore his father figure from his coma. The main character also seeing Overhaul in such a desperate state, instead of agreeing to help wake up Pops who was in a coma (and innocent of the whole affair with Eri mind you, he told Overhaul to stop) instead put a condition that Overhaul is only worthy of human sympathy if he apologizes to Eri first.

Another example of Narrative Gaslighting is the narrative insisting that Deku is someone who "is possessed by a drive to save others that eclipses all common understanding" because his action of not wanting to save Overhaul directly contradicts this, but Horikoshi still wants us to believe Deku is an all-loving hero who's the embodiment of "Heroes who Saves" so he just straight up lies to manipulate us into seeing Deku the way the narrative wants us to, even if it doesn't align with his actions at all.

Here is another example of narrative gaslighting, where a story just insists upon events that are patently untrue to the point where it makes you question what you just read.

No he didn't. No he did not. You're lying. You're a liar.

[nyaagolor]

Just finished Higurashi Arc 7 (Minagoroshi) and imma be honest with yall, I was not really vibing with the plot twist until i started thinking about it less as something to take at face value and more something to engage with as an extended metaphor. Higurashi as a complete work has four major thematic categories to me (agency, community, delusion, and fate) and Himinizawa Syndrome feels more narratively satisfying as an interconnection of those themes than as a home-stretch scifi twist (hear me out)

Ryukishi has an interview where he talks about his reasoning behind the plot twist, explaining that he wanted the audience to challenge their implicit biases around the ideas of mental illness and agency-- namely "if someone commits murder under the act of a drug, why are they not culpable when someone who does the same under the effects of a severe mental illness IS culpable?". From a metatextual standpoint, this serves as a challenge to the audience, but I think this framing has implications for the themes as well. Minagoroshi spends a lot of time focusing on the interaction between the themes we've been introduced to throughout the series, namely in the sense that if enough people believe something, it becomes reality. This is used in the context of Rika's miracle, the ostracism of Satoko by the villagers, and the delusions experienced by the "infected" themselves. It's not about the actual reality of the situation-- if a delusion is such a strongly held belief to an individual or community that it inspires action, that belief "becomes" real, and this is the part I think applies to Himinizawa Syndrome and Takano

The way that Takano talks about Himinizawa Syndrome and the way that people are encouraged to act based on her words is a pretty good mirror of the symptoms of the "disease" itself. She self isolates, operating entirely based on her own skewed view of the world and the people around her while engaging in conspiratorial thinking and retroactive explanation. Keiichi, Rena, Shion, and Satoko all develop Himinizawa Syndrome, but we see throughout the arcs how many people and situations act as instigators to exacerbate preexisting traumas and mental health conditions. The disease also only starts progressing when they're in Himinizawa, not "far from their queen" like Takano suggests. The fact that the nature of the delusions-- from their actual content to their frequency and the lines of the thinking the characters go down-- are extremely specific and more associated with the individual traumas and illness we know them to have further pushes me in that direction. Despite Takano insisting that lymph node itchiness is a symptom of Himinizawa Syndrome, the only people who experience it are those who knew about it beforehand. We have the benefit of knowing the loops, but Takano's "explanations" of symptoms feel more like working backwards from observable but likely unconnected events rather than something based on reality, which is exactly the kind of rationale that Rena was experiencing in the height of her own delusions

While I do think that Himinizawa is textually supposed to be an actual Thing, it makes more sense to me to view it as Takano's own false belief, made into a tangible reality because she believed in it enough to convince others of the same. We never see the "tragedy" that's supposed to happen after Rika's death, only that people acted because they believed it was coming. This-- the whole "a shared delusion becomes reality and thus fate itself" thing-- feels very thematically satisfying as a sort of final conflict for the series. Takano, the big bad villain, is stuck in a self fulfilling prophecy in a way, taking agency in such a way that she falls victim to her own actions. She believed so strongly in a "curse" that it became real, and ironically enough under her own definition, she is the one suffering from this "disease" she created the most

(Also Ryukishi loves tackling political issues so the idea that the local rural Japanese government of 1983 would misidentify and mistreat the mental illnesses of some teenagers isn't that out of left field to me)

[contentment-of-cats]

WIP bit: Reckoning

It gave him something to do. Kallus and Zeb left, Hera and Jacen looked about to go anywhere but Coruscant. Ezra collected retroactive combat pay and - in a move that unsettled him deeply - a bonus for his actions at Lothal. Not so much his actions, but his kill count. He tried to explain the last decade with Thrawn and failed miserably to bring anyone around to more than, "Hurhurhur, blue man smart and bad."

One chucklehead publicly proposed invading the Ascendancy, but Chancellor Organa shut it down fast. She wanted him to meet with her brother, with other Jedi, but Ezra was hesitant. Everyone moved on, except him.

"I want to go talk to Pyrondi." He didn't know he intended to say it. It just fell out of his mouth and stirred a thunderwasps' nest. Oops. "We go back a long way."

She's tried to kill him, though they never met.

"Ilyana Pyrondi will as soon shoot you as look at you - and that's if you're lucky. She's one of Thrawn's proteges, part of the corps that left the Seventh with Faro minutes before the Purgill showed up." Hera didn't shout, exactly. She had to speak loudly over Chopper's cursing. "Could you not get yourself killed within a month of getting back, Ezra?"

"I want to ask why she's the most classified person I've ever seen." Mothma kept her face smooth, a politician's mask. "Since nobody here's handing out anything more than a runaround."

Chancellor Organa looked right at Mothma. "Her file was sealed by the Senate."

"The Chancellor has the authority to unseal it, right? No? Why? You're the Chancellor!" Ezra threw up his hands, anger coming quickly. "Why in the hell is everyone avoiding knowing the enemy? What the hell did the Senate do that they're so ashamed of that they don't want anyone to know for six centuries?"

"It's not that simple. There has to be a quorum before I can unseal it - and I don't have one."

Ezra looked that word up and snorted. "Then I want to ask Pyro herself."

"She... may not be able to talk about it." The older man was a clone representative named Sevs and while Ezra might be a bonehead, he did have some empathy. "The Senate could have ordered the survivors chipped."

"The survivors of what? Why happened to turn her into someone who could talk a whole fleet into mass suicide?" Ezra was alarmed when the man's hand went to his head. "Ser Sevs? Are you all right?"

"Genocide. It was genocide." Sevs gasped, eyes rolling and wide with agony, shoulder spasming. "Gerrera did it. We covered it up. They ch-ch-ch-"

"Get a kriffing medic! What the hell is wrong with you people?" Ezra's heart sees Rex, Gregor, and Wollfe. He bolted out of his chair, reaching for the old man. "Easy. I've got you. I'll get the chip."

"Always... slaves... We are... always...slaves."

Ezra saw it in his heart, hooked into the body's neural net like a parasite. A guard reached for him, telling him to move away.

"Touch me, touch him, and I will kill you. I've killed so many that you'll just be one more." His hand rested over the chip and in the Force he started to unravel the web of pain and compulsion.

"Touch him and I kill you." Hera. Bless Mom. "Medics are on the way."

"General Syndulla, it's not that easy." The Bothan guy. His signature in the Force was like greasy food that gave you a bellyache. "There are nuances to consider, and consequences. Please believe that no harm is intended."

"Harm doesn't have to be intentional to happen. The term is 'collateral damage' if I remember correctly."

There. That's it. Filaments only particles thick start retracting, withdrawing into the chip, Ezra fumbles to soothe the damage left behind. Sevs grips his arm, eyes wide in wonder.

"I want him in protective custody. Call my brother. I also want to know why a prohibited control device is implanted in an elected representative to the Senate - and how many others there are."

"Chancellor Organa. Leia. Please-"

"Senator Mothma, if you and others want to start explaining, now's the time. Tell me things I don't know. Start with Senator Sevs."

[cfr749]

they didn't lie about him being dead, they thought he was. what they lied about was that they knew he stole money and intentionally killed the two members of their unit, believing he killed himself accidentally. they lied in order to keep him from getting declared dishonorable and a traitor because his family would lose his benefits. the fact that they lied to the government on official documents would get them both retroactively dishonorably discharged. if they confess everything, that's what would happen because their statements are the only proof of what the guy did. if they arrest him on something new, its not necessary to tell the truth about the past and it would just be his word against theirs if he tries to rat them out for knowing what he did. hope that makes sense 😂

Hi anon - thanks for the explanation! What you explained does makes sense and lines up with with what I understood from last week, but it still doesn’t totally come together for me.

If they had enough doubt about Ray being dead to feel the need to make the murder pact, why on earth would they have falsified the paperwork? Unless there was some deep personal connection with Ray's family, why would they do something that would ultimately make it impossible for them to hold Ray accountable for his actions and seek justice in the future (if he did end up being alive)?

I get that it was a nice thing to do, but it was also illegal, dishonorable, and, like you said, put their entire careers on the line. By lying, they also robbed their squad mates' families of the truth and their own opportunities to seek justice and / or additional compensation. I just don't buy that making sure the family of the man who killed their squad mates got benefits was more important than all of those things.

Finally, if it truly just came down to their word against Ray's and there’s no other evidence to corroborate the truth, why even bother to insert the falsified paperwork as the reason they can’t arrest him? Not arresting Ray because they knew they couldn't prove their accusations is way easier for me to believe and understand than the idea that they were simultaneously making a pact to murder a man while falsifying paperwork to help that man's family (no matter how deserving).

And if there is evidence (and I'm sure Ray has some), we're back to Ray being able to bring them down with him if he goes down for any reason.

Regardless, I have now probably made us all put more time and thought into understanding this plot than the writers did in creating it 😂, so I'm gonna let it go and focus on all of the Chenford feels tomorrow.

Thanks for taking the time to respond anon!

[schrijverr]

Haunted by Your Own Final Words

Post-s02e03: Help Is Not Coming, Hen tries to deal with nearly dying in that hotel, of recording her final words just in case.

On AO3.

Ships: Henren

Warnings: near death experience aftermath

~~~

Hen can’t get it out of her head. She tries, of course. Of course, she tries. She wouldn't be a good firefighter if she didn’t have some tricks up her sleeve to forget the hard days. However, putting a hard day behind you isn’t the same as having your final words recorded on your phone.

She hasn’t listen to it yet, hasn’t even changed the name from untitled in her app. She just opens her phone sometimes to look at it.

The message isn’t long, only 1 minute and 36 seconds. But she can still remember every single word she uttered on it. She can still remember that burning need to leave something behind for the ones she loves, so that if she died down there, they’d know how much they mean to her when they recovered her body.

Right now, she tries not to think about how she didn’t say any of those words when she actually got home.

Of course she told them that she loved them, but that was it. When showing them Paisley, she mentioned how she helped her rescue Kat, but never told them how Paisley also helped rescue her from that garage.

Hen doesn’t feel the need to inform them of just how close she’d been to not coming home. Of scaring them like that retroactively.

She made it home. She’s safe. She should be fine.

However, knowing you’re safe, that you’re fine, isn’t the same as feeling it. She still feels that same pressure on her chest, that crawling need to get herself free. That scared refusal to die like Russell, who’d given up fighting and who died on her watch.

Russell isn’t her first loss, far from it, but the one that hit the hardest in recent times. It could’ve so easily been her in his place. Could’ve been her that was trapped. That stopped fighting. That didn’t make it home.

So, she sits in the station, looking at her phone. At that audio file named untitled that’s 1 minute and 36 seconds.

She meant it when she said that she didn’t stop fighting, that she won’t. They’re going through a lot with Karen only just returning home and Eva suing for custody, but Hen knows she’s going to fight until she physically can’t anymore. It’s just a reminder that with her job that can’t is closer than she might like.

It’s not healthy to think like that. If you get stuck on how dangerous it all is, you’ll freeze up in the field and get yourself killed. The better course of action would be to remind herself that she didn’t die in that building and the recording was for nothing. A just in case that wasn’t necessary, thus can be deleted.

However, every time she has managed to convince herself of that, she opens her phone and goes to the message, only to freeze when she sees it. She hasn’t managed to delete it.

1 minute and 36 seconds.

Is that really how much she has to say? After years of marriage and raising a kid together, did she really have nothing more to say than that to the love of her life? If she had died there, sitting on the garage floor next to Russell’s corpse, would those 1 minute and 36 seconds really be all that is left of her? Does she have nothing more to leave behind?

Ever since her troubles with Karen – since she stupidly decided to sleep with Eva – she has been wondering who she is. If she is a different person now.

She knows she isn’t. She wants to fight for her family, for Karen, she more than proved that during the earthquake. But what if she had died down there? Would those few words spoken be enough to console Karen? Would it be enough to explain to Denny why mama was never coming home?

Maybe she should re-record a message, one that explains everything better, just in case. But if she were to die on this job, her body might not be recovered. And her phone can break. She could entrust someone with a written note, like Athena. Athena can be trusted. But that feels like too much of a suicide letter.

Hen isn’t suicidal. She refuses to die, actually. The fear that still clings to her is the fear of a person, who doesn’t want to die. The last thing she wants to do is worry everyone. It’s the whole reason no one knows about the audio file on her phone.

She lets out a sigh. A part of her wishes the alarm would sound, so she’d be forced to put her phone away and focus on something else, but of course that never happens when she wants it to. So, she remains stuck.

Her gaze drifts over to the other. Chim and Buck are egging Eddie on in the work out area, trying to get him to lift more and more weight, while Bobby is working on dinner in the kitchen.

If she wanted to talk to someone, now would be the prefect time to get a moment of privacy with Bobby to get it off her chest. However, she doesn’t want to talk. About any of it. She just wants to put it behind her and move on. It was a bad day, nothing more.

Sure, LA is still recovering, buildings everywhere are still under construction and they have to remember where the roads are fucked up whenever they drive to call. But the worst is over. They are no longer pulling bodies out from the rubble, no longer finding the few ones who survived for days below the rubble. It’s fine. Everyone is fine. Hen is fine.

She should just fucking delete that audio file. She knows she’ll keep fighting for her family, that she’ll make it home no matter what.

However, instead of clicking on delete, she clicks on the title, her keyboard coming into view. She renames the file to final words. It isn’t much, just 1 minute and 36 seconds, but Hen knows that next time she might not have a moment to record even that little.

It’s her little compromise. Not a whole new note, not something premeditated, but something more than nothing. Just in case. She hopes Karen never has to know that file exists on her phone, but know it’s there… it helps.

Hen knows that it’s a little fucked up that knowing that message exists helps, but she can’t change that it does. She wants to shake it off, leave it behind her, but none of her other tricks worked. She’s had close calls before, but never so close she felt the need to have her final words recorded.

Having that happen to her, made her realize how lucky she was. Not just to be rescued, but to have the time to record those words.

She knows it would be healthier to delete the message all together, but no one who is a fire fighter is entirely healthy.

And for now, having that message there, is enough for her to concentrate, to do her job knowing that if she doesn’t make it, her words will make it home and Karen will never have to think Hen planned those words, while still having the closure of knowing that Hen would never willingly give up on her and their family.

She doesn’t want to leave things unsaid every again, even if she can’t bring herself to talk about it right now. Maybe one day in the future, she can tell Karen about that day, how she nearly didn’t make it home. Maybe then she can finally delete that file, but not yet. Not now.

So, she nods to herself decisively as she takes one final look at the audio file and its new name, before closing the app and moving it to the very last slide of her phone screen. Out of sight, out of mind and all that.

With that done, she puts the phone in her pocket and makes her way to Bobby, hoping she can sneak a few bites before dinner, since it’s likely to be interrupted by the alarm. She is trying to move on, if having her final words in her pocket is a part of that, then so be it.

[all-hallows-street]

Theory: Who was conspiring with Nick?

In season 2 of the All Saints Street donghua Nick's goal is to take the Demon King's powers from Neil. His first attempt by making a deal with Demon King directly fails (S2E02) and he would later get a call from a shadow figure (S02E04). That is how we learn that he was not working alone; someone was helping him find a method to absorb the Demon King's power.

As of now (Season 4) nothing has been revealed about this figure even if they still appear in the opening and Nick has turned 'good'. Because the Demong King story line is wholly original to the adaptation, there is no hint as to who this person might be in the manhua either. That can't stop me from speculating. I have three theories right now as it who could it be. Spoilers for two yet to be introduced manghua characters.

First Suspect: Will Bovil

First, I'll start with my least likely suspect. Will was introduced in Chapter 386; his black horns indicate that he is from a noble lineage of demons. He is very powerful, probably the most powerful out of all the demons in the series right now. He and his family could easily be rewritten to be connected to the Demon King (who coincidentally has a black color scheme) in the adaptation.

Outside of this tenuous connection there is also the note that Nick receives being written in ochre yellow. The eye color in the official illustrations is flexible. Most of the time all demons will have a yellow eye color, but in the most recent 7th anniversary illustration Will and his brother have the most intense yellow shade eye color that matches with the note. An even weaker connection is that the scheme for the clubs line (The one with Will as king) in the 6th anniversary deck is yellow, admittedly for the 7th anniversary the color scheme is now purple.

The weakest point of this theory is that none of the actions taken by the shadow figure fit Will's apathetic character at all. He isn't one to seek power, or anything outside of being with Sasha really. It would be too OOC and while the adaptation has significantly changed some characters (Damao being the biggest example) I think it could be a step too far to make Will a villain.

Second Suspect: Witt 'Iron Fang'

Iron Fang is a commoner vampire introduced in Chapter 412. He befriends Lynn online to scam him, but Ira stops him and turns him in to the police because Iron Fang is an international smuggler. Iron Fang is the closest that we have to a straight up 'bad guy' in 1031 WSJ. One of the most recent fantasy AU comics (Ch 780) makes him a confidant that betrayed the king Lynn to usurp his throne. If anyone could be a villain in the adaptation is him.

As he is a smuggler it would also explain how he got the book and later on the 'wand' to extract the Demon King's powers. Iron Fang also displayed a disdain towards angels, giving him a motive for why he would want to awaken the Demon King: destroy the current peace between evil beings and angels.

The biggest point against it being Iron fang, is that he was introduced too close to when the anime was being released. March/April 2020 was the first strip where he appears. Season 1 was released in April 2020 with season 2 releasing in October, but obviously the donghua was being worked on way before that. However, Iron Fang could easily retroactively be made to be this shadowy figure even if back then they had no idea who this character would be. Which leads me to...

Third Suspect: New character

The dongua has created a few, admittedly nameless, characters. Mostly the supernatural league leaders are all original and of course the Demon King himself. I can see out suspect being a new character, maybe someone to contrast with the Demon King. Previously I was rambling about the demons' yellow eye color matching a note, but you know what group is also associated with yellow/gold?

I think an angel villain would be an interesting twist, but I'm just a humble reader and this is just my opinion. Right now, anything is possible, and I trust the team behind the adaptation to cook up something good.

Thanks for reading my insane ramblings and if all my theorizing turns out to be MatPat levels of wrong you are free to make fun of me for like a month.

[jemmo]

idk what else to say about this ep other than i think im already head over heels in love with this show, and this ep was more than enough to seal the deal for me. it was just the perfect ep 2, and I already cannot talk enough about how much i adore just how much time this show feels like it devotes to its characters. like their time on screen just feels long somehow, in the best way, like im not getting rushed through the story or just going from plot point to plot point. the story is comfortable to just put these people on screen and let a scene play out for as long as it wants, take that first scene when mohk first goes into day’s room, or any scene around the fishtank, it’s not pushing you through these scenes to get to the point of them, bc the point is the scene, so mohk can take his time noticing these things in day’s room, or day can spend as long as he wants looking at that fish tank bc those actions, and the length of them, are what tell the story. they are the point. its mohk being one of the only people let into day’s room and being that attentive to his surroundings and figuring out who he is beyond his sight, and and its day savoring those moments where he can see the world a little better bc that’s the highlight of his day and he deserves to have that happiness stretched out as long as possible. it tells the story bc what the show devotes time to is what these characters are devoting their time to, literally mohk is devoting so much of his time to being with day, and devoting in the sense that while he talks about the big paycheck, easy job, the time he spends cleaning up, looking at day’s things, doing things for him, trying to give him experiences and joy, it betrays him. he can say whatever about his reasons for being here but what we see him devote his time to, what the show shows us, how much it shows us, it tells us everything. and for day, we see him repeatedly listening to the little prince, and im not gonna explain the metaphor, we all get it, but again despite what day says and how he behaves, pushing mohk out of his room and locking himself away, it betrays him too, bc he’s devoting all this time to wishing he wasn’t lonely. but just like in the book, it’s not easy for him, it’s not just about going out into a world that scares him, he needs someone to ease him in, to devote their time to him, come at sit a little closer to him everyday until that fear starts to subside. and here mohk is everyday, trying to find the ways he can connect with him, even if to him it’s not something he’s trying to consciously do. time is just beautiful in this show, and i feel like it’s gonna be such a good way to watch the show going forward knowing it is about this impending loss of sight, that time is limited, and yet now it doesn’t feel like there’s any rush at all. and i think it’ll be great to feel the pace of the show changing as the story progresses towards that, and i think retroactively it’ll be rewarding to know that when we could, we did savour all those moments, and took all the time we wanted.

[shouts-into-the-void]

One of my most hated fanfic trends is where that pre-Despair treatment by his classmates is depicted as totally okay and not them being unreasonable. It's especially noticeable in RP blogs or Hinanami fics. They'll often depict his behavior in the second half of Chapter 4 as his default characterization, and have him spend every waking second going after the Reserve Course students and doing nothing else.

Which not only ignores the context of him having been mindwiped, having his first impression of the Reserve Course being the discovery that they apparently destroyed Hope's Peak, and the real source of his anger and depression being the discovery that the class are all terrorists (while being left in the dark about the brainwashing). But it kind of misses the entire point of the whole "talented vs non-talented" theme to have the locally mentally ill kid be the sole cause of the conflict.

Like I'm not against the idea of going against canon, and depicting the rest of the class trying to give him a fair shake. I think there's plenty of friendship interaction potential between him and a number of the class (e.g. Sonia, Imposter, Mahiru, etc.). But to retroactively pretend like they were being completely fair to him and he just brought the ostracism on himself is bullshit.

I think a lot of people also miss the fact that the reason Nagito is so outright antagonistic to Hajime about being a Reserve Course Student is because he feels betrayed. He feels a kinship with Hajime due to their mutual love of Hopes Peak, the two were the closest before everyone turned on him, and he's canonically in love with him. So to find out that Hajime is actually not only talentless, but responsible for destroying the academy they both love and plunging the world into despair?

That's not to say all the rudeness is only because of anger, Nagito's actual personality is actually kind of just like that because he has a God Complex and is more intelligent than all of his peers. Any time he breaks character or looks down on someone, he is kind of a bitch, but more in a "I'm smarter than you, please stop arguing with me when you have no idea what you're talking about" way.

I really do wish people would lean into the potential relationships he has with the rest of the cast more. I don't think there's any way Chisa would have let them keep mistreating him, and I was annoyed that her attempt to explain his actions to the class (which actually did get through to them!) got glossed over in favor of the "Everybody hates Nagito" gag.

Some thoughts on potential relationships:

I personally hc him as besties with Sonia post-canon. Not only because she's the most forgiving, because I feel like the fandom makes her do a lot of emotional labor, but I think they would have similar tastes in novels and I think Sonia's own eccentricities would mean that she isn't as off-put by his weird behavior.

I don't think he would be close with Mahiru, because as much as she's caring and doesn't want him hurt, she's also just very judgemental and I think her tendency to verbally attack people would negatively impact his recovery. I think they would get along, but until she learns how to get past her trauma with her dad and stop letting her friends commit crimes, I think it's at a respectful distance.

While Mikan and Nagito are MLM/WLW Hostility™ I do also think they're friends. They like to bitch at each other, but if anyone dares insult the other they Will Destroy Them. I have always thought of them as working quite closely together during the tragedy for whatever reason, it just seems right in my brain?

I also feel like people miss the wild potential of Nagito just adopting Monica. Like, he raises her from like 10 years old until she's a teenager (I'm assuming she's like 14-15 in the anime?), Monica finally gets someone to actually take care of her instead of abusing and abandoning her, and I'm supposed to believe that they just never speak again? Also Nagito saving and caring for this child after spending his childhood an orphan who was put into dangerous situations a lot is a really great parallel.

I like to think he and Akane do a lot of their recovery at the same time because they're both pretty wasted away by the time they wake up, and they bond little by little. They celebrate when one of them moves up a weight class, but Akane recovers faster so by the end Nagito has to remind her not to break his ribs when she hugs him in joy.

Nekomaru is very helpful in coaching him through his physical recovery due to understanding the limitations of a severe health condition and his experience as a team manager. There's definitely a lot of encouragement on Nekomaru's end because a lot of physical therapy can be embarrassing when things that theoretically should be easy aren't. Basically: Akane, Nekomaru, and Nagito all end up as unlikely gym buddies?

Those are just some of my thoughts and headcanons, absolutely take or leave any of that.

[joelletwo]

(second post) extensively noted im RLY unclear on a lot of endgame gintama. i am disabled and it makes me a bad reader and im irritable abt it and i dont really want anyone to explain things to me on this Specific post lol. im just thinking things thru to myself.

hard to hold a lot of sugi's gayass trauma mental processes in my head all at once. the elisions between destroying the world [math symbol] destroying gintoki who stands in the way of that as a universal constant [math symbol] destroying the political foundations of the country from the inside using connections with the same forces (this guy does NOT understand the larger background plots of gintama and isnt sure if this is correct ->) that in part got his teacher killed and set this whole thing off* [math symbol] destroying himself.

(*side note i think there was a real missed opportunity to bookend all of sugi's political maneuvering which was treated by the plot as. SIGNIFICANT. and extensive. and effective. and one step ahead of all the chars we see pre-utsuro reveals. by revisiting it after the utsuro reveals and coming down on his schemes as either ultimately fruitless and really just getting him in over his head bc he didnt understand the real forces at play OR still effective bc sorachi wanted to retroactively say he and katsura understood all the shadowy background shenanigans. but zura kind of takes over the role of political maneuverer. but worse and stupider.)

(not a WHOLE lot under the cut its just getting unwieldy as a post.)

like if he just wants to kill himself why does he have to take the world down with him (katsura planning a beautiful death seppuku line). if he's doing this out of love for gintoki (canon fact.) why does gintoki need to be broken.

but if i stop trying to untangle what materially he means by all of that then i can understand sugi's actions post-execution as kind of in parallel with my understanding of oboro and utsuro's, which is to say, they are acting on behalf of what they think are universal laws of nature both because they believe in them and also to push the world to the breaking point to test their immutability and prove their fatalistic worldviews right or wrong. [with gintoki as the main tool to do so.]

sugi's inability to reconcile gintoki's decision to save them over sensei bc he cant understand how he'd possibly deserve it + resents gintoki for going against their understood mutual sensei as number one priority + grieves for gintoki having to bear that cross. um. turns into the desire to. destroy the world that made gintoki cry -> gintoki is an unshakeable barrier of protection in front of that world -> prove that the world sucks and isnt worth protecting by making it into sugi's own most pessimistic conceptions of it from childhood that shouyou had started to prove him wrong about -> push gintoki to a point where he will realize that he chose wrong and sugi was meant to die instead

and in parallel. avenge the death of the man who had shown him a better path in life -> throw away the life that man had sacrificed himself to protect -> um if i go down this path i just start rewriting reductionisms' proofs on seppuku and bushido again. waves hand. take the contradictory tragedy as laid out.

like utsuro trying the open mind+open heart gambit for one life and then immediately giving up. and oboro. well oboro is harder to unpack and summarize for me. but he serves utsuro's goals in service of his own goal of. proving rebellion like he and shouyou tried is futile? takes it upon himself to destroy shouyou's legacy to prove it's okay that shouyou-the-concept died. idk a lot of layers going on in oboro its not important to focus on here.

the. making a half-step of progress into a better world that you're having to pioneer and imagine into existence. and then, when u fail under the world's pushback, deciding to undo all that progress with your own hands. and one guy says no, it's still possible, and im going to do it. and you're like. what if i made it as hard as possible so that if u succeed despite that u realize my dearest hopes with IRREFUTABLE proof so that i dont have to face how scary it is to try without knowing if its even possible.

WHIIIIIIIICH. i find all of that incredibly sexy on all of their parts. i enjoy it a lot i like it when humans act out of irrepressible existential fear bc fuck man. living is scary. thats basically the backbone of every gintama antagonist and gintoki [who carries on shouyou's desire to fight and win against his own nature, and thus is himself an antagonist].

whiiiiiiiiiiich. makes it so interesting that these three specifically. other than bansai lol. are the ONLY!!!!!! real casualties of the story conclusion. that gintoki DOES carry thru and realize all their hopes of the world for them by beating them as obstacles. AND they dont get to live and see the fruits of it. but im not prepared to unpack what that means narratively at this point in time.

[gayofthefae]

Notes: this is all the Duffers’ fault aka this whole idea was inspired by the line used in the Stranger Things diegetic soundtrack “even as I wander, I’m keeping you in sight” implying a level of self awareness during Mike’s relationship with El or even some awareness before based on the use of keeping as something to maintain from some implied “before”.

Thinking about bi Mike saying when he developed romantic feelings for El he realized that he had had them before.

And now that I’ve said it out loud, thinking about the complexities of Mike realizing that what he had felt/been feeling for Will was romantic because of the romantic feelings he was developing for someone else.

And then being in mourning so obviously he’s not just gonna jump tracks back to Will again as if nothing happened and then he’s torn. For the year and a half since. 

Thinking about Mike acknowledging his feelings for Will at the same moment he acknowledged his feelings for El and this fascinating idea of one not being able to exist without the other. THINKING ABOUT MIKE REJECTING THE IDEA OF HAVING FEELINGS FOR EL BECAUSE IF THAT’S WHAT ROMANTIC FEELINGS FEEL LIKE THEN THAT MEANS THAT-

oh i am thinking thoughts

and then I put a bunch more in the tags so I’m not reformatting them but here

#whether it's like THE answer that the duffer's are providing or have planned or not i just think it fits into the puzzle in such an interest#ing but aligned way i'd never thought of before#it explains his hesitancy to admit his feelings despite being insecure about not having had a crush yet#it explains his projection and seeming torn#it explains his focus on el as the second/more recent person he developed feelings for and trying to equate that to being a separate instanc#e from will#like because he started having feelings for her second that means that his feelings for will should end soon and he will transition to el#he realizes he's had feelings for will but he tries his best to treat it as: i learned some hard to swallow information about myself. that i#HAD feelings for Will#but it isn't that#and then it bleeds into the retroactive repression theory and the compartmentalization of yeah i had a crush on him no biggie though because#i don't anymore so it doesn't even really matter actually so idk why we're even talking about this really#he's using his self awareness as an excuse to equate it to being past he held off acknowledging 1/2 of his hand in hand feelings he knew he#as torn but tried to focus on el even though he was still emotionally pulled to will and that pull overrode the commitment to singular roman#tic focus in the instances that he realized it was negatively impacting will. because not losing Will will always be more important to him#than whatever shit he's dealing with in his own head. it's like that threat of losing people grounds him. reminds him of the consequences of#his actions and the ripple of his repression and he snaps back into acting on his emotions of getting Will back and he'll deal with the#emotional and romantic repurcussions of that later but it's the instinctual priority

Oh my god also the SHED SCENE as it plays into this whole idea? This a very exciting new avenue to explore. Okay, Mike going through the grief without El but still having those feelings for Will and that same applicable instinct to save and help and comfort him overriding the idea of socially “right” or acceptable and just acting on his feelings and something about the way that scene is shot and the way everyone turns around to face them and how he isn’t sitting in the place everyone sits when they talk to Will and how it was impulsive. impromptu. Nobody expected him to talk in that moment. It was just Joyce there. He stepped up to help and maybe he wasn’t even sure he was gonna tell that story. Maybe it was a conscious choice or maybe it just fell out of his mouth, I honestly don’t know. But thinking about that same prioritization instinctively that he’s shown to disregard social ideas to focus on El and actually allow himself to pay needed attention to Will as well (not saying social pressures is all that makes him pay attention to El just that it does influence his lack of focus on Will) coming up in the original supernatural context.

Thinking about how El showing up made Mike feel better after Will was dancing with that girl. But how Will’s presence and comfort made Mike feel better after El “died”. And how it’s always been this exchange that we knew about but his self-aware feelings never had to actually be addressed until season 3 because he was mourning but she was also dead supposedly so at the very least he no longer had to decipher between or prioritize those feelings until she came back. And then her coming back was a good thing but then they were both there and he had to face that El’s presence hadn’t erased his feelings for Will. Maybe he thought that his feelings, like their presence, would be mutually exclusive. Because even if he had feelings for Will in season 2, it was in El’s absence. So maybe he felt fine in the idea that that was the nature of their existence. And then he was comforted well El showed up - distracted from Will and that girl. Thus, again, telling him that they could exist separately. 

Even when the summer came he wasn’t actually struggling to balance them that much. He had both of them - maybe a bit more focus on El just in his routine tardiness but besides that pretty balanced. He maintained the relationship he always had with Will because there’s no harm in that, right? And likely hoped that because he was in a romantic relationship with El and not in one with Will that that would even the scales and he would get over this thing with Will as long as he didn’t reinforce the romantic aspect and it would be fine but then shit hit the fan and we’ve already been over that a million times including in this post so. If I think of more, I’ll make more edits. :) Excited about this new perspective. I love when things just    fit  !

[frownyalfred]

I follow you because of Borderline, but I've been watching your responses to asks about your a/b/o fic and it sounds like you're really trying to be respectful of the trans experience. So thank you. As a trans person, a/b/o often feels very transphobic. I know some trans people like it but to me it just feels like a way for cis people to trans their blorbos without actually dealing with what it means to be trans because "oh its just a/b/o." Maybe some people can separate the two, but I can't.

I haven't read your fic but im glad to see that someone out there is putting so much thought into this. Also it's hilarious that your solution to the Snyderverse was "fix it with a/b/o."

Cheers

Hi anon! Thank you for popping in -- let me retroactively apologize to you and all other followers who aren't into the a/b/o asks. Please know you can blacklist any of my tags (a sky of honey or a/b/o mention) at any time.

I really appreciate you sharing your perspective here. I've seen the process you mention in action before, and I can see how hurtful that can feel to trans individuals. It's a very blurry area in fanfiction, I'm learning.

I think when I started with that original shitpost, it was genuinely because I thought Bruce's somewhat erratic behavior in BVS was hilariously, if somewhat seriously, better explained by him being a defensive, nesting omega who'd lost a pup. So I teased folks with the idea that knotting would solve the Snyderverse, but it was actually more about Bruce's relationship with his own gender identity and how it interacts with Jason's loss and his mission.

I think, outside of a/b/o smut fics, authors have a lot of trouble when writing about this topic, just because we have to do so much worldbuilding. I'm not saying you have to focus on the universe's discrimination or gender roles if you don't want to, but it's kind of inevitable if you're moving outside of smut. There's just so many implications I keep running into.

Above all else, I want to tell the story I have in my mind in the most respectful and considerate way possible. I want to talk about Bruce's, Jason's, and even Lex's challenges with their dynamics without diminishing the experiences of gender and gender expression others have.

Thank you for sending this ask, and I hope you and any other anons feel comfortable sending questions, criticisms, feedback, etc. I can't promise I'll answer every single one, but I promise I read and consider them.

[abandonedcyberpunkspidermech]

About Canon Events:

I have some things to say about the Canon Events in Across the Spider-Verse:

(Edited because this got flagged as mature for some reason)

1. How on every Earth was Peter B. Parker on Miguel’s side regarding Miles at any point? Like… the dude said that the reason he stopped being a pizza hobo, got back together with MJ, and had Mayday is an anomaly who shouldn’t have been Spider-Man. And if Miles wasn’t Spider-Man, Peter and him don’t meet (or at least don’t stay together long) and Peter just stays his loser self. Or… desurvivalizes. And doesn’t have a family. I’d get it if Peter was like “look, I’ve personally seen screwed up stuff when Canon breaks, but I’m just trying to figure stuff out for myself since my world apparently broke Canon when we met and is still fine, so something’s a miss”, but he doesn’t do that.

2. The model Christopher Miller put on twitter makes even less sense.

If this model of the multiverse as a web with lines representing realities intersecting at nodes representing Canon Events is to be taken as correct, then…

1. Only a finite number of realities must go through each Canon Event, not every reality as Miguel claims.

2. Each reality must go through exactly two Canon Events, not all of them as Miguel claims.

This “Web” doesn’t even align with Miguel’s claim that all Spiders must go through all Canon Events. That’s not even a Web, that’s a bundle of cables.

3. The morality of the Spider-Verse trilogy is dictated ENTIRELY by how the rules of the multiverse work.

Look, every Spider is a hero, even Miguel. The reason the Spider-Society is against Miles trying to save his father is because they think it will wreck his universe and the entire multiverse, and the only reason Miles thinks it won’t is because he thinks he can “do both”. You’d want to root for Miles, but you need to know what happens if Miles saves his father to see who’s right in this. If nothing bad happens, Miles is right and the right thing to do is save his father and the multiverse. If something bad happens (that can’t be fixed), Miguel is right, Miles can’t and shouldn’t save his father, the Spider-Verse trilogy and it’s hypetrain end with a confirmation that Miles shouldn’t be Spider-Man, and Miles probably has like 3 months tops before he gets fridged/retconned in comics. And just for the record, if the choice is ABSOLUTELY between saving one person and an entire world, Spider-Man will save the entire world. Just ask Insomniac Spider-Man, who let his Aunt May… desurvivalize… so they could work out the antiserum to Devil’s Breath. Once we know how canon works for real, the moral dilemma becomes resolved immediately, and this feels like it could be a weak point.

4. We don’t know enough to confirm or debunk Canon yet.

Okay, yes, we know that Earths 65, 616, 1610, and 42 are all intact despite their Canon being broken in a number of ways, and that’s enough to motivate people into taking action against Miguel, but…

On Earth-50101, after Miles saves Inspector Singh and the quantum hole opens up, the Spider-Society IMMEDIATELY moves to contain it, knowing exactly what it is. And back on Earth-928, Miguel confirms that, if nothing else, THIS is something the Society has dealt with before to varying degrees of success, and Miguel correlates the quantum holes with Canon violations. This indicates that, if nothing else, there is some correlation between the Canon, quantum holes, and perhaps the Spot, since you can see a darkness encroaching upon Earth-50101’s Alchemax before Miles saves Singh and maybe even before Spot gets his power boost (I only saw it once in the theaters). This lead to:

5. What IS the case with Canon?

No idea. You could say that it can only be people within a specific reality who can affect that reality, but that doesn’t explain how Dr. Ohnn stopped Miles Morales of Earth-42 from being but without repercussion. It’s possible that Spot caused Canon retroactively (as in, somehow overheard talk of it, realized it was BS, but decided “Hey, why not try to make this true to be a jerk to Spider-Men”), but time travel is a can of worms, tense trouble, and Internet fights BTSV may want to steer clear front. They might even go with the comics’ Spider-Totem route for all anyone knows.

6. For that matter, how can Miguel predict anything to any degree of accuracy? There are thousands of realities with equally many variables. Being able to predict ANY Canon Event shouldn’t be possible by the mathematical laws of probability.

I may add onto this later, but my point is that Across the Spider-Verse makes its audience ask a LOT of questions that Beyond the Spider-Verse needs to answer to be satisfying.