#meta // rea

[futurefind]

//Do you ever think about "Reamom" Master au. That is, au where Rea is 1. ~30 y.o Chaldea staff (cryptid to mage society proper, the Heart of chaldea thats done so much work to work on the entire staffs bonds, unity, and morale, even per-apocalypse. ft unofficially adopting mash and olga and those two having a strong bond) 2. long since eliminated from Master candidacy bc her circuitry is 'allergic' to Rayshifting and then 3. intentionally becomes/stays the (primary/acting) Master anyway because Ritsuka Fujimaru is a gd KID and god help her they're not being turned into Atlas if she can help it.

Do you ever think about how, while the heart of FGO stays the same— Rea's a perfect fit for canon Guda barring only her sparkles and their canon interest in mecha— it just... utterly flips the framing of its themes? From a shonen-esque coming of age story where growing up means taking on the world and being responsible for your impact on it, in the most extreme and horrific way possible... into a story about parenthood/caretaking, and an unwillingness to surrender any responsibility, even to those who can and/or should share in it, because it's not just your job to be Responsible, but to protect as many people as you can from that responsibility?

On how much no matter hard you can try to protect the ones you love, even- especially- children, you can't shield them from The Horrors that are intrinsic to life In A World? That taking it as a personal responsibility, as a personal failing, can and Will break you unless you learn to finally surrender and share the burden of Responsibility?

That there's no preparing for a life that leads into an empty nest, no matter how long you keep your kids in arm reach where it's safe, because it's rooted in everyone dying on you? That a career you love and home you cherished and children you adore can't save you from when the only thing that's left is a graveyard of even more dreams than bodies.

[pink-of-hair]

🌂 the last post on this blog literally works on us btw

🌂 we have defense mechanisms to someone doing it to fuck with us in a hostile setting (that are roughly equivalent to suddenly punching them in the face) but that aside if we get swappy too much (especially if we haven't swapped too often recently) we can get close to or across the line into that state.

🌂 if anyone wants to do it on purpose in a fun way

🌂 we're all ears

[amarriageoftrueminds]

It's a complete double standard to treat Bucky alone as if he is culpable for what he is used for under mind-control, but none of the other mind-controlled characters.

.

Clint Barton, Erik Selvig, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Daniel Sousa, Bruce Banner, Antonia Dreykov, Yelena Belova, the other Black Widows, the people of Westview and Wanda's other targets, arguably also Carol Danvers.

(oh, and STEVE HIMSELF when he is put in the Winter Soldier role in What If!)

Mind-control is framed as a state that has to be deliberately stopped before a target can do the right thing -- when it's Helen Cho or Luke Cage or even a pig being controlled.

But not when it's Bucky. As per TFATWS, we're told the Winter Soldier was in there all along and Bucky is just innately like that, deep down.

Bucky doesn't get to be welcome into the team after someone used him to try and kill them -- like Clint and Daniel Sousa are.

Bucky doesn't get admitted for psychiatric care, like Erik Selvig was.

(Not until two years have already passed and there's a foreign diplomatically-immune trillionaire footing the bill. His own government laughs at the suggestion of him being allowed even a lawyer.)

He never gets to be in a support group, like all Kilgrave's victims.

(Just has a horrible state-mandated therapist who palpably does not give a shit about him and forces him to do things that make him worse.)

The horror of being controlled is never addressed for Bucky like it is for Clint, Erik, Jessica, Bruce, Yelena, even for minor characters like the people of Westview.

(For them it's a 'violation' but for Bucky it's his own fault. He wakes up from being controlled by Zemo, after screaming for him to stop, and what does he get? 'Which Bucky am I talking to?')

We're supposed to be horrified when a pig is mind-controlled, but not Bucky. We're to blame him for what he was mind-controlled to do.

It's implied Luke Cage possibly does blame Jessica for something she did while controlled ...but he is then controlled himself. So the narrative punishes that viewpoint by subjecting him to the same horror. It's framed as a victimisation of both Luke and Jessica, by Kilgrave.

Kilgrave's fault -- not Luke's.

In regards to Hydra's proxy crimes, Bucky doesn't get that. Even the language used to describe his freedom (a pardon, not an exoneration) implies he had to 'admit' he committed crimes before being legally forgiven for them. And it still comes with conditions, hoops he has to jump through to prove he's not bad.

We see Bucky having a nightmare about what he was used for (not, eg. of being tortured). But it is framed as a terrible thing that happened to someone else. Not as a terrible thing that happened to Bucky, too.

The writers can frame mind-controlling people as a villainous aspect of Wanda, Kilgrave, and Johann Fennhoff's character, but never acknowledge that Bucky is therefore a victim not a perpetrator. Even arguably 'brainwashed' (not mind-controlled) characters like Nat and Carol are let completely off the hook, without consequences.

.

All of these 👆 people get to be '100% innocent' but Bucky, alone, is guilty and should be punished?

It's clear the creators know perfectly well Bucky is not to blame, they've decided they just don't like this one guy in particular. 😕

🤡 Markus and McFeely 🤡: “Yeah, Bucky’s just a POW who had his entire agency explicitly removed in not one but TWO ways but he’s for sure guilty because we don’t want him to have fruit salads with Steve”

[jojotichakorn]

so, in the midst of me constantly thinking about and analysing phum, i didn't write that much meta on peem or really think about his reasoning too much. for a long while, i dismissed his slightly erratic behaviour as a response to phumpeem's initial meeting and how their relationship has been set up because of it, but this episode solidified the fact that that's not it.

instead, for whatever reason, peem is insecure.

the most damning piece of evidence for this, i think, does not involve phum at all (and that is exactly the reason why it's such good evidence). though the majority of this post will still be about phumpeem lmao.

so, when peem claims that there is nothing going on between him and phum, kluen says that means he still has a chance, which gives us this confused face:

nothing in the world could produce this reaction in these circumstances, aside from insecurity. kluen isn't phum. he and peem don't have any bizarre backstory together, and he is very direct about his romantic pursuit. he explicitly said he came to the camp to hit on peem in front of all his friends and he reiterated the sentiment by saying what he did in this scene. the only kind of person who would need a clarification, when things are laid out that clearly is a person who is insecure and therefore has a hard time being sure about the fact that someone likes them and/or is actively trying to hit on them.

now, onto the star of the show: phumpeem! what do we know about peem's pov of their relationship at this point? 1) he has fully admitted that he likes phum, to the point of literally calling himself out on even trying to deny it. 2) he is happy about the fact that he likes phum. we are leagues away from the possibility that he has any issues with phum or the fact that he has a crush on him, which we have so much proof of, whether it be him actively enjoying the fact that phum is trying to get his attention, him looking at phum as if he hung the moon and calling him prince charming, him literally giggling and kicking his feet at that memory the next day, him instantly forgiving phum because he genuinely trusts him and thinks he is a good person, even if he makes mistakes sometimes, or any of the other clear signs that he is enjoying what's going on between them, both in the moment and in retrospective.

and now, let's take a look at all the moments from today's episode through the lens of peem's insecurity in himself and security in his feelings / phum:

him acting a little weird and distant after hugging phum the whole night, very reminiscent of the way he acted the day after their first kiss. both times after moments when peem made the first move.

him acting genuinely confused about phum's behaviour towards kluen, despite getting a fairly clear confirmation that phum is jealous when he literally bribed a child to get peem away from kluen. this is definitely not a "what a weirdo" face, this is a "wait, what's going on here?" face. he does not get it.

him claiming there is nothing going on between phum and him, despite clearly wanting that something and being in the depths of the talking stage, which is definitely a real relationship stage to him, as that was how he described chain and toey to q.

him looking a little heartbroken, when phum says he wants to call off the deal, as if that would actually mean that they stop spending time together.

him confirming that that is indeed his fear, when he literally looks terrified at the prospect and fully asks to continue being phum's "slave".

him not being able to admit why he kept the flowers

or making up a lie about not having finished the painting, even though he definitely has, because he literally said so to his aunt.

and him answering a question with a question, needing to hear the fact that phum likes him directly first, before he confesses back. which, in all this context, just doesn't read as stubbornness.

all of this makes sense, if you consider the fact that peem is insecure and is afraid of reading into other people, when what he's trying to glean is their opinion of him specifically.

one big thing that he constantly repeats (this moment is far from the only time he says that in this episode alone) is asking phum to tell him what he thinks directly. mind you, unlike phum, who is just constantly deeply confused about everyone and can't take implications for shit, peem is actually absolutely incredible at understanding what other people's feelings are, even when they don't tell him directly, as long as the feelings in question aren't about peem.

he also manages those small bursts of confidence, like kissing phum first or reaching out to him, but they are not long-lasting and are often followed by bursts of denial and shyness, which is extremely common for someone who is insecure but also impressively brave.

and here is your key to pre-relationship phumpeem and the reason why we are on episode 10 and they are still not dating. insecure x insecure can be hard at times. they both need the other to outright state their feelings, and that is just not easy for either of them. but they are getting there. together 🫶

[allyriadayne]

could you talk more about the daynes post robert's rebellion?

SURE

first of, this is mostly my hcs, speculations and a mix of things i must have read back when there was the height of asoiaf meta in 2013 because there is almost nothing about the daynes post robert's rebellion. so bear with me.

just to set the scene, the members of house dayne left after the mess of the rebellion were the unnamed older brother of ashara and arthur, the lord and father of edric; allyria the youngest sister that i headcanon to be much younger than her older siblings seeing as she is betrothed to beric dondarrion who is was in his twenties per agot so i don't think the marriage would've occurred if allyria was in her middle thirties or forties if she was closer to ashara and arthur; edric, twelve years old, beric's loyal squire; and gerold aka darkstar head of high hermitage, also in his twenties? around arianne's age.

(c) Eddie Mendoza for the cover of A Song of Ice and Fire 2025 Calendar

under the cut because i'm crazy

i don't know if the books are ever going to make clear what happened at the toj-starfall zone but we can be sure only that ned went from one to the other with lyanna's bones and supposedly baby jon to return dawn to the daynes. ashara had a baby of father unknown and shortly after ned was there she took her own life, body never found. i go back and forward in thinking if ashara's brother lord dayne was there with her when ned went or if he was one of the dornish commanders defending the targs. in any case, his presence was completely zero during this time so i think he was too injured for a time or too sickly in general to do something to reestablish the dayne name in dorne after arthur being an important part in elia's disgrace and indirectly, her murder.

because yeah after arthur and ashara's death and going by the books there is zero mention of them, even in the chapters set in dorne or others about dornish characters make no mention of them. and it's strange considering that when you read awoiaf and f&b, the daynes are The knights of dorne. queen nymeria marries a dayne, sends a starfall king to the wall, meria martell commands a dayne to burn oldtown, arguably one of the most powerful cities of the time, out of all the sons of daeron ii and myriah martell, maekar marries a dayne, the only dornish lady. it could be nothing OR something but i think it does mean something. we see there's no daynes in oberyn's party in kl or speculation in general about the new sword of the morning beyond remembering dear old arthur. they've fallen completely into obscurity. the house was reduced to a young girl and its child lord.

edric's dad dies before agot (he doesn't seem to afflicted by his death when he meets arya if he were less than a year dead, inheriting the lordship at such a young age would've been dramatic to him), i would say just after becoming a page to beric dondarrion at 7 yo and i headcanon the marriage between beric and allyria was brokered at this time too. this was part of a fic i was writing like 500 years ago but i think lord dayne must have known he would not live too long, not to see edric grow so he must have looked for someone to prepare and take care of allyria and edric after he died. betrothing allyria to a marcher lord is......strange. if a dornish person would have to be married to someone it would go like this 1) not from the reach 2) not from the marches in that order, there is too much bad blood. the daynes have a longstanding tradition of killing oakhearts so marrying allyria to the heir of blackhaven and giving him his only heir, lord dayne entrusted a complete stranger with the future of his house.

beric would've been in charge of teaching young edric just about everything. he would be living in the stormlands for almost half his live, learning from a his maester and how to govern a stormlands' castle. meanwhile, allyria in a few years probably around agot time would be ready to marry beric when she reached her majority. she would've been the defacto ruler of starfall in edric's name when lord dayne dies, i think the idea was to swap when edric gained his spurs: he would return to starfall after a successful run as a tourney knight, probably gaining some recognition from whatever beric was tasked with at the capital (rip king) and then accompany allyria to be married to his knight master. andddd fin.

the thing is. allyria being so young during the rebellion, lord dayne absence for whatever reason and then dying, let the younger members with no connections in the wider dorne political context. it is said young children go to the water gardens and it's fun yeah but it's def a starting point for politics for many lords. it's close to the martells and it's an opportunity to make friends with future rulers, /everyone/ is going. the daynes didn't have this. allyria was probably very young when the rebellion happened (i think no older than 5) and for obvious reasons she was not sent to the water gardens; as for ned, i think lord dayne could not secure an invitation, this or he died too early to even try. if allyria had gone, she would've been for sure one of arianne's companions, she has both the breeding and the standing, but NOT and it's crucial, the reputation. see what arianne has to say in affc about gerold's standing:

"He is highborn enough to make a worthy consort, she thought. Father would question my good sense, but our children would be as beautiful as dragonlords."

it's must be passé to associate with the daynes at this point. think of the conningtons losing all standing when joncon lost the battle and was exiled.

in any case, allyria, more than edric, grew in obscurity. as of the books she's betrothed to a marcher lord nobody knows if he's alive or dead, has a missing nephew and it's in charge of one of the most ancient first men houses of westeros. sad! at least ned is having more fun. which leads me to darkstar. i see his thirst to prove himself, his notoriety as a cruel knight as another way to separate himself from what the main branch has fallen into. he is in his twenties so he was probably affected by the same dark cloud as the others.

"If I led a quarter of a million men to death, would they call me Gerold the Great? I shall remain Darkstar, I think. At least it is mine own."

he wants to have what arthur had, but not be the sword of the morning, he wants something that it's his own, as he says. he may want the sword and the fame like arthur, but not to be associated with another's bad luck so to speak. it's very telling that he's called one of "the most dangerous man in dorne" and what is the sword of the morning if not this? he's a dark mirror of the daynes pre rebellion, just like allyria would've been a renown beauty just like ashara is she wasn't cloistered. something something gerold and allyria as mirrors of what could've happened to ashara and arthur if they hadn't the protection of the monarchy.

i once read gerold is meant to have young ned's plot after germ scrapped the five year time skip and i think this is half true. i do think there is something to be done about dawn the sword and i think gerold is going to steal it and do something with it, something ned can't do because he's /still/ in the riverlands. i don't know what but i think it ties nicely with the theme of deconstructing the noble knight archetype. arthur is only great because he knew how to kill.

writing this i had a breakdown about the parallels between arthur and gerold

to finish this rambling i want to say my hopes for house dayne in what is left of asoiaf is 1) ned alive 2) gerold steals dawn 3) and like. something. honestly i will take anything at this point about allyria. DOES SHE EVEN KNOW? my poor girl and 4) if germ wants to clear the toj situation then it's fine.

thanks for asking and to anyone reaching this point lol. this is mostly general but if you want to talk about anything specific just message me! k thx muah!

[oshiawaseni]

Trails of Love Hori's been paving down in the build up for the series' ending

Part I: The Shape of an Eternal Bond

Romantic Love. Falling in love. When we break it down, what really is it, but a deep emotional connection formed with someone, an overpowering instinct that screams at you to protect that person, and the vulnerability you allow yourself to succumb to when your logical 'self-preserving' mind and it's hurt-proof walls is completely overrun by your heart's most based need to be close with them, the object of your affection.

And who shows these feelings for each other the most in BNHA? Bakudeku, right? Of course it's them.

It's something so obvious and yet this somehow feels overlooked by almost everyone in the fandom: I’ve never actually seen Izuku feeling happy or excited about his relationship with Ochaco, nor elated about getting to spend more time with her. But Izuku and Kacchan? The feelings they both have of longing to be closer to the other and every single action they took for that, chaotically and passionately smashes the "stable pleasantness" of IzuOcha right out of the park.

Izuku views getting to speak 'normally(?)' with Kacchan as a miracle on the exact same level of importance as being mentored by the greatest hero of their generation (and his U.A. room looks like what it looks like). This scene gave the cutest 'Work life: check. Love life: check' vibe.

Is it really all that surprising that BKDK have had plenty of development in this area while IzuOcha has had almost none? In fact, as BkDk became closer, the "expected end game" pair has gone in the opposite direction. And why does this not strike odd to "bkdk canon" doubters or the fans that ship IzuOcha? It really is no coincidence how many moments we’ve accrued about this mutual feeling and attraction that exists only between Izuku and Katsuki.

I want to be closer to you. I can't imagine life without you. vs Why are you so confused when I show you I care about you, too?

It's so simple - but maybe it being so simple is why this is not something we really stop and take a minute to think about specifically. About how this 'obvious' concept of two people desiring to become closer is one often shared between lovers and those who are falling in love.

And how that fits with bkdk because this longing for deeper connection has existed between them almost since the beginning... and we haven't been talking enough about it.

I want you to think about the true feelings and meaning lying behind these moments that have inspired the writings of many fic and meta:

Izuku's desperation and suffering at Kacchan being taken away...

the hurt and loneliness that pools within Katsuki's heart from his fear of being left behind (and alone) by Izuku...

the regret they both felt in not using their own hand to reach out and connect to each other (believing their hand 'wouldn't be enough') and putting those feelings aside to prioritise their boy's rescue and safety...

the distress Katsuki felt in facing his biggest fear of all - losing Izuku for good - forcing him to become a true hero, for his sake...

and the total overwhelming despair Izuku felt in realising he didn't make it in time and he had lost his hero.

This is it, this cover was Hori locking them in. Holding his Kacchan so precious, placing his hand gently over his heart, trying to somehow connect to it. The appearance of an enraged and protective alpha ready to strike down the monster who did this to his mate. This is the vision Hori wanted to draw for bkdk and it cemented the deep romantic love and bond that's been growing between them, rewarding those of us who have picked up on their trails of love and causing meltdowns baked in confusion for the rest.

They've had many scenes like these throughout MHA. Scratch a little at their surface and what lies underneath every single one of them is the pining desire Izuku and Katsuki both share of wanting to be together. The need for the other to be by their side and within reach.

And they don’t share this feeling with anybody else.

It’s always been this way exclusively for them and I think this aspect of their relationship was established by Hori to tell us they will stay feeling this way forever.

If Izuku is right and he takes back everything and the course of their future gets put on track again, then maybe the idea of them holding onto each other and never letting go isn’t all that far from reality.

After they graduate, I can't imagine these two not choosing each other every single time, until the very end of their days: becoming a hero wonder duo, moving in together, living their best domestic life complete with their adorable husbands banter (but repackaged into something so much more loving and soft which befits them), nurturing their relationship... letting themselves fall deeper in love...

It's so easy to imagine this all happening, simply because of their desperate need for closeness to one another in the manga.

They can’t imagine their life without the other.

Their love is a multi-threaded story that's been told to us over, and over, and over again. Through Izuku and Katsuki's every action and by the mouths of others (which I'll be covering in my next post).

I honestly believe that since the beginning, Hori has been carefully leaving trails of their passion for each other, simply to say this: While this series may be coming to a close, Izuku and Katsuki’s bond, that brings them only closer and binds them tightly together, will transcend the very last of their inked pages and never end. ❤️

Part Two -> Intro & Compress

[l00rem]

Gibeon & Amethio are related, but they are not father and son.

So, ep45 had me applying my clown makeup as I was a firm Gibeon is related to Amethio denier and that has uh clearly been proven true by that final scene… but I still don’t think they’re father and son like most people seem to be saying. First, let’s start with Gibeon’s physical condition.

It seems clear by his position in the reveal that he suffers with functioning properly, this is further demonstrated with Hamber’s ‘Gibeon is awake’ comment. Considering he’s at least over 100, this is probably him abusing his mortality coming to bite him in the ass or some injury he sustained when Lucius kicked him out of the Rakua gc. And while pokemon never acknowledges topics like sex for obvious reasons, I doubt the writers would ignore the fact that Gibeon is clearly not in any condition to be breeding (dude only holds like 3 min meetings before going back to bed, he could never last that long in a physical activity such as that)

Now, this brings me to another theory i’ve been seeing: Amethio is some sort of clone/ artificial human being. I can see why some people think this, but i don’t think it’s going to happen. I just think it goes against the themes horizons has been setting up about generations (ex: ep34 where Hamber and Diana both pass things down to Liko and Amethio) i think it would be weird to have all this stuff about ancestry and then just throw in ‘oh and amethio’s not human btw’. It’s also just a really dark existential topic for pokemon, i know they can go dark and have done artificial creation before but that’s always been strictly for pokemon at least to my knowledge. I think people who believe in clone theory are getting too caught up in their Amethio and Hunter from ToH comparisons- ofc your free to theorise what you want but I just don’t see this happening.

To give some more solid proof that Amethio isn’t Gibeon’s son, let’s look at Liko’s ancestry.

As we can see, hair does seem to matter when it comes to being directly descended from someone. All three have the same hair pattern, even if we can’t see the brighter blue for Lucca’s. Compare this to Lucius’s hair:

It’s been made very clear that Liko is a descendant of his somehow, but this isn’t as direct as a great grandfather because then Diana could’ve literally just asked her mom who the man in the photo was to learn they’re related. Lucius resembles them somewhat but there are very clear differences.

Likewise, this seems to be the case with Gibeon and Amethio’s hair differences. They have the same colour scheme of white and black, but the way the two colours are separated are completely different. Just as Lucius and Liko’s family both have that sticky outy bit of their hair, Amethio and Gibeon both share that little white antenna although Gibeon’s is positioned differently.

So here’s my proposition: Amethio is related to Gibeon the same way Liko is related to Lucius.

Perhaps then Amethio is some distant relative to Gibeon who he located at some point- likely he didn’t have any family and so when Gibeon pulls up with his ‘oh hey we’re related’ spiel Amethio jumps at the chance for any form of connection. It’s not clear how much Amethio knows regarding Gibeon (he didn’t even know why he wanted the pendant after all) but perhaps Gibeon uses his condition as a further way of manipulating Amethio: not only does Amethio work for explorers to get Gibeon’s approval but also to find whatever he needs to not die so he won’t lose his last chance at family?

I also believe this is supported by all the Amethio-Liko parallels the show has been building up. It’s likely that Amethio’s backstory could be a dark mirror of Liko’s where the Explorers are to him what RVT is to Liko. Although, Amethio’s situation takes the ‘found family’ part more literally and instead of experiencing happiness he gets moulded into a child soldier…. yaaaay…

So then why does Gibeon actually need Amethio? Aside from the obvious meta reason, it’s likely Gibeon speculated someone with his blood could function as a Lucius detector (the pendant only stopped being dormant after amethio came into close contact) and this is also one of the reasons Amethio gets booted off the mission as he’d already performed his purpose of confirming the pendant was related to Lucius. Perhaps there’s something about Amethio’s ancestry which doesn’t apply to Gibeon that’s important? Or maybe Gibeon just put an easily exploitable child to good use.

Either way, there really isn’t a happy explanation for Amethio’s circumstances. Poor guy :(

I’ll potentially be eating my own words in a few months when we learn more about Gibeon and Amethio’s relationship but hey it never hurts to theorise. Hopefully we learn more stuff soon and that Amethio doesn’t get locked into off screen jail for another 11 weeks 💀💀

[theweeklydiscourse]

Baghra was always a terrible mentor and we were gaslit into thinking she wasn’t.

I was scanning Ruin and rising to find a few passages for a Darkling meta I was in the process of writing and I happened upon a very interesting conversation between Baghra and Alina. In this conversation, they discuss merzost and its potential consequences as Baghra scolds Alina for seeking the firebird. Baghra’s argument is both contradictory and unhelpful, serving only as a condemnation of Alina’s efforts to defeat the Darkling. There is no wisdom in this exchange, only judgement from an old woman who has no idea what she’s talking about.

So let’s break it down.

Alina confesses that she dabbled in merzost and Baghra responds in her usual ominous and vague manner, grabbing Alina’s wrists for dramatic effect. She warns Alina that merzost can only cause misery, citing the creation of the fold as an example and seems to imply that Alina might journey down a similar path. Baghra gestures towards the inherently corruptive nature of merzost and expresses concern for Alina’s potential. Interestingly, it was exactly her use of merzost that allowed Alina to thwart Aleksander at the end of Siege and Storm. Alina also contradicts herself: “I didn’t do it myself” but “I used the connection between us, (…) to control the Darkling’s power.” she creates a disconnect between herself and the use of merzost as a way of softening the blow. She claims that the merzost was involuntary, but at the same time uses words that signal her activity as opposed to the passivity she initially professed.

This is a small example of Alina’s tendency to claim helplessness and deny her agency. Truthfully, she did use the merzost to save her friends and try to kill Aleksander, a sacrificial act to defeat the big bad. It almost worked, it was effective at warding him off for a time while they regrouped and recovered from the ambush.

Now THIS is what really set me off. Alina argues that she may not have a choice in wether or not she uses merzost to defeat Aleksander and honestly? She’s right. At this point, the narrative has told us that negotiation is not an option, Aleksander is on the war path and the consequences of not fighting him could cost thousands of lives. All of this is presumed to be true and yet, Baghra still takes up this aggravating “holier than thou” attitude towards the pursuit of the firebird.

Baghra: Wow Alina… you’re going to sacrifice the life of this INNOCENT animal for the sake of your own power? This poor innocent bird? I can’t believe you would be so cruel.

Alina: People are dying Baghra.

Baghra’s framing is so manipulative. She’s straight up accusing Alina of being a power hungry villain who would gladly sacrifice an “ancient life” for HER own power. Bitch, since when has this been where we draw the line? Baghra acts as if killing the firebird for the sake of an amplifier is a testament to Alina’s greed but Alina HAS NO OTHER CHOICE. She clutches her pearls at the notion of Alina killing an old bird to save the country as if she hasn’t ranted at length about how dangerous Aleksander is. Baghra has spoken of Aleksander as the apocalypse personified, and yet when presented with the most viable option of defeating him she cries: “but think of that poor ancient life!”?

In the same exchange, she completely dismisses Alina’s peaceful resolution of being merciful to the stag and mocks her for suggesting such a childish idea. But notice how she suggests no other alternative? If she’s so passionate about protecting this ancient creature, why not propose a plan to defeat Aleksander that doesn’t require killing the final amplifier? Instead she scolds Alina for her greed and derides her for doing what is necessary to save the country. Alina tell her that no one is strong enough to stand against an army of shadow soldiers and Baghra STILL dismisses her efforts to do the right thing.

It is here that Alina acknowledges her intentions to seek power and uses sound reasoning to do so. She is the only person strong enough to stand against Aleksander and NEEDS the amplifiers to win. “Abomination against abomination” but I don’t see you offering any alternatives Baghra. If this hag cared so much about preventing an all out magical war maybe she should’ve been proactive during the centuries where she witness Aleksander’s rise to power.

Baghra’s “warnings” are complete nonsense and devoid of reason. It is her reacting to Grisha power with disgust and expressing contempt towards Alina for giving a damn about the country’s welfare. But what do we expect from Baghra? She’s always been more concerned with preserving decorum and her own moral purity than taking a stand against injustice. She does not offer sage advice, only condescending and vague bullshit that validates her self righteous martyr complex.

[lunanoc]

so probably against what should have been my better judgment, i went ahead and actually wrote “meta”, except it’s only borderline meta because it ends up veering off into crack theory territory and is also insanely long, but i figure since it’s now too long to be posted as a discord liveblog like it was supposed to be, i might as well just. post it here (in several parts because no one wants a 10k post lbr)

disclaimer: i like to be transparent about where i’m coming from, so just know that i have not finished reading all the books yet. currently i’m practically through everything, books and extras included, up until and including sand sea part III, so anything i talk about relating to that is my own reading experience. i’ll sometimes reference later books i’ve either read snippets of, or talked about with people who have (and verified the information as best as i could), but because i lack full context for those, any mentions of those elements are automatically grain of salt and relegated to crack theory. for everything i have read that i can grab quotes for, i’ll be providing clear references to the specific chapters of the books they’re from

also, blanket spoiler warning for the books

but that being said, let me actually get into this thing:

king shang of lu, the iron-masked gentleman, king mu of zhou, the queen mother of the west, how they’re connected, who they might be, and what that could mean for the larger dmbj narrative

PART I: KING SHANG OF LU AND THE IRON-MASKED GENTLEMAN

writing this shaved years off of me, the rabbit-holing was insane, and there’s still no clear answers in the end but welcome to the ride i guess

starting off here, the problem with these two characters is that we have conflicting information about them from three different sources that all give a different version of the same story, all of which are various degrees of dubious for different reasons. and you could say ok but really, who cares i do apparently about these two because in the larger plot they don’t really amount to much in the end

BUT

given both the things we learn by the end of sand sea (and elements that pop up in later installments) about all the various parties involved in what’s essentially a subplot, and the fact npss goes into so much detail with such a deliberate throwback to something all the way back in the first book, i don’t think the fact that the various versions of the story of king shang of lu sometimes blatantly contradicting themselves is a mistake, but is rather proof of deliberate obfuscation of the truth. npss tends to like revisiting sometimes seemingly anecdotal or trivial things from previous books to connect them with a subsequent revelation, or open the door to a different interpretation of them, so that he’d do it here isn’t all that surprising to me

the three versions of the story of “the emperor” (or the ruler of the state of lu), king shang of lu, and the iron-masked gentleman we get are, in order of appearance:

version 1 from a silkbook found in the purple jade box in “king shang of lu”’s coffin (Book 1, Ch. 26, Purple Jade Box)

version 2 from xiaoge himself who gives an opposing account to the previous one that he supposedly read from a warring states period silkbook he found in a song dynasty tomb (Book 1, Ch. 26-27, Purple Jade Box / Lies)

version 3 from the powerpoint lesson given by the wang family to li cu (Sand Sea Part III, Ch. 132, 133, 134, Lesson / King Mu of Zhou / Deception)

the first two accounts are both from book 1 and immediately follow each other, but neither of them quite fit with the last one, or at least it would seem so. you could argue this is simply because book 1 was when npss was still trying to figure things out both with his plot and characters, so the final account given by the wang family is a retcon, and while that’s always possible, like i mentioned, npss likes to connect things and tends to either incorporate these kinds of seemingly obscure and irrelevant details for a reason, or simply retroactively fleshes them out to revisit them at a later date and shed a new light on the bigger picture. so it’s more the fact we just don’t know which things he implements deliberately from the start and which ones he ties back to retroactively, but in the end seeing as the result is the same it doesn’t matter much. what does matter is that he does it pretty consistently, so it’s safe to assume he’s also doing it with this particular story (side tangent, but i like to think that npss has shown he’s a big fan of something called chekov’s gun and no i won’t elaborate on that or else i’ll be here for hours but google that if you’re interested it’s fun)

so tldr; i basically just want to argue that by intentionally bringing back this story with obvious divergences, it might be a way to shed light on something else that informs king shang of lu’s story while placing it as a puzzle piece in the bigger picture of dmbj lore

but let’s break down those three different accounts of the story of king shang of lu

the first account

i’m going to tldr; most of these for the sake of clarity, but i’ll be referencing the various chapters all these bits are taken from if you want to verify any of it

technically the first real account of king shang of lu’s story we get is what’s written on the stone slab in the hall with all of the coffins in the seven star palace that says that he was “born with a ghost seal and could borrow ghost soldiers from the underworld” (Book 1, Ch. 10, Shadow), but i’m not counting that as a full-blown version of the story because it’s not dwelt on all that much and mostly serves as a preamble for pangzi to later posit to wu xie that it’s a bunch of bs and was probably just an exaggeration meant to mythologize king shang of lu given that the tomb itself is a weird anachronistic mix of western zhou and warring states architecture (which is an important argument but maybe not for the reasons you’d think)

so i consider the first fleshed-out version of king shang of lu’s story we get to be the one wu xie reads off of the silkbook he and wu sanxing pull from “king shang of lu”’s coffin, and is one that very quickly gets debunked within book 1 itself multiple times, so while it may seem easy enough to write off, it’s not so much what it says that’s interesting, but rather why it exists in the first place

this version of the story essentially relates the life and deeds of king shang of lu, recorded on what’s supposed to be a warring states period silkbook pulled from the man’s own coffin. it talks about how he inherited his title from his father and was a lowly grave robber lord who was cruel and greedy, and how one day he gained from a snake demon/spirit in a tomb he excavated “two treasures” in a “purple and gold box” (this will be important later) which are never explicitated, although wu xie speculates one of those treasures to be the ghost seal as its acquisition is directly mentioned in the text. the snake comes to king shang of lu in a dream and promises to make him a high-ranking official and teach him how to use the treasures in the box if he spares its soul (he doesn’t). and so king shang of lu becomes a military officer under the command of the “emperor” of the state of lu. in his later years, however, he starts to get old and sick, and so the “emperor” demotes him back into being a lowly grave robber, and he starts to fear death, so king shang of lu goes to his military advisor, the “iron-masked gentleman” or 铁面先生 tiemian xiansheng, in search of a solution. the iron-masked gentleman then tells him that something called jade burial armor, a treasure from ancient times, exists, and that it can keep someone young forever. so king shang hunts and hunts and scours tomb after tomb until eventually he finds a western zhou dynasty tomb which will later become the seven star palace where he discovers a corpse wearing the famed jade buriam armor. iron mask takes the corpse out of the armor, subdues the blood zombie it turns into, and then helps king shang of lu fake his death in front of the “emperor” so he can be buried in the tomb he built for himself on top of the western zhou tomb he’d found (Book 1, Ch. 26, Purple Jade Box)

however

this version is quickly debunked twice in pretty quick succession, and then a third time a bit later, still in book 1, but before i get to that, a few extra little details i want to point out:

to be fair literally no one (who doesn’t speak chinese and is reading the original text anyway) would be able to guess either from the translation or merebear’s footnotes that “iron-masked scholar/gentleman” or 铁面先生 is not in fact necessarily meant to be taken literally. it’s partly an idiom. 铁面 tiemian is an expression that can mean “someone who is upright in character”, in other words someone with a positive reputation. so this man isn’t necessarily implied to have worn a mask at all (i think he did, but that’s also for later)

the purple and gold box that’s mentioned in this version of the story is the one wu xie finds in the hands of the corpse of the green-eyed fox (who’s also wearing the belt that has the qilin blood clot wu xie accidentally swallows can you believe, which is also another detail for later) that’s accompanied by a key in the corpse of a woman next to it (Book 1, Ch. 22, The Eightfold Treasure Box)

the second account

before we get into the first version of the story more, let’s briefly take a look at the second one. the first version of the story is first debunked by the second version of the story which is told in abridged format by xiaoge pretty much right after wu xie finishes reading the silkbook. he says that the silkbook’s account is incorrect because the person in the jade armor isn’t king shang of lu, but iron mask who faked his own death in order to escape the systematic execution king shang of lu enacted on all the people who knew about and/or helped build his tomb. he then snuck into the seven star palace and disposed of king shang of lu’s body before taking the jade armor for himself

xiaoge explains that he found this story in a song dynasty tomb he’d robbed a few years ago that contained a complete silkbook that turned out to be iron-masked gentleman’s memoirs (Book 1, Ch. 27, Lies). and you’d be inclined to believe this version of the story over the first one because it’s xiaoge telling it, and xiaoge usually isn’t one for intentional deception unless it serves a purpose, even less so if it’s verbal deception (literally the only time i can think of him openly lying rather than lying by omission is when he disguises himself as professor zhang). except even this version is called into question multiple times. the first time is by wu xie himself, who while choosing not to confront xiaoge about it, senses that xiaoge seems uneasy when wu xie presses him on the point that if it’s true that two people were pulled out of the jade armor in that tomb, then why is there no second blood corpse. xiaoge answers that he doesn’t know because iron masks’s memoirs only mention it briefly, and that maybe king shang of lu was pulled out early enough that he didn’t turn into a blood zombie. technically there’s the mummified body they find in the sacrificial ding cauldron next to the coffin with the monster at the entrance to the seven star palace whose head is cut off that could fit that description (Book 1, Ch. 9, Ancient Tomb), but in any case xiaoge according to wu xie looks like he’s lying. the second time this version is refuted is by wu sanxing, but i’ll get to that when i get back to the first account and how it also gets debunked

arguments against the second account 

i already mentioned xiaoge isn’t typically someone who’s into overt deception as a course of action unless it’s strictly necessary (and even then). it’s always possible he was either acting on a compulsion from the heavenly gift or under some order from chen pi ah si (since he was working for him at the time, even if i doubt this to be completely honest) or even something else, so it’s mostly my own assumption that he’s not actively deceiving them by fabricating a story, because xiaoge’s deception usually relies on omission rather than a concentrated effort at producing an elaborate lie. so really, the only fact we can be certain of is that he has an “uneasy look in his eyes” when he talks about the lack of another blood corpse, and that wu xie gets the impression he’s lying, which is a sentiment wu sanxing apparently shares because they look at each other in that moment and silently agree. whether this means xiaoge was *actually* lying, or that wu sanxing was taking advantage of xiaoge’s unease to further his own deception (re: arguments against the first account i’m getting to in a bit) is really up in the air

however

i’d like to think if xiaoge was lying and there was nothing more to it than that, he wouldn’t make it so apparent that that was the case given he only ever really projects visible upset or discomfort at anything when it’s related to his memories or lack thereof, and only much later in the story does that start to extend to allowing himself moments of vulnerability, or just his own brand of open concern for wu xie and pangzi. but this is all happening in book 1 where wu xie, as perceptive as he is about people, doesn’t know xiaoge yet, and so doesn’t know his tells. therefore that he can tell xiaoge is visibly emoting when it’s xiaoge is noteworthy in itself. also, given that book 1 takes place at a time when xiaoge’s memory was still very much lacking and fragmented, and he was likely still working for chen pi ah si partly to search for his memories, i wouldn’t be surprised if his unease was visible because the confrontation of both the first and second versions of the story started triggering his memory in some capacity, or it might have even triggered the heavenly gift senses into letting him know that there was something of importance in these stories since the particular episode of it he’s going through at the time gets a bit fast-forwarded from the seven star palace onward seeing as not too long afterwards xiaoge goes into the gate at the end of book 3

something else that’s worth mentioning is the logic behind these memoirs of iron mask even existing. why it would be in a song dynasty tomb is up for debate and probably irrelevant (although it does to be fair align with king mu’s motives of perpetuating grave robbing for deliberate dissemination of information), but mostly i question how he could have written his memoirs if he faked his death and slipped into the jade armor himself shortly after, unless he waited a significant amount of time before doing so and lived his life in hiding, which is also possible given there’s nothing more we know about him. but more food for thought

arguments against the first account

let’s go back to the first account from the silkbook for a bit and take a look at the other two times besides xiaoge’s second account where this version is debunked:

the second debunking comes from wu sanxing as he and wu xie are waiting around in jinan while panzi is in the hospital, and wu sanxing comes back outraged bc when he tried to have the silkbook they brought back from “king shang of lu”’s coffin, he was apparently told it was a forgery because the gold in it was too pure to have dated back to the warring states period, and so was necessarily more recent, though how recent is never specified (Book 1, Ch. 29, Purple-and-Gold Box). he then suggests to wu xie that he thinks it’s xiaoge who snuck into the tomb ahead of them, and with his skills successfully planted a dupe to trick them. i’ll get back to this eventually, but again, while it’s not impossible, it feels unlikely to me that xiaoge would extend so much effort in deception unless it served a clear purpose he agreed with, which is why i’m not convinced he would have blindly been following orders from someone like chen pi ah ai. and xiaoge would likely not have gone to the trouble of making a fake silkbook either, so the idea would have to have come from chen pi ah si, which then brings into question what motive chen pi ah si would have had to go to such lengths to deceive wu sanxing. again, really the only time we ever see or hear of xiaoge making an effort at deliberate deception is when he disguises himself as professor zhang, and while we never get an explanation for the reasons behind that, that’s more likely to have stemmed from feeling like he had to conceal his identity rather than wanting to deceive if that makes sense. in any case, i don’t know what tangible reason xiaoge would have had to deceive wu sanxing and his team with a fake silkbook even if he’d been acting on chen pi ah si’s orders, because would chen pi ah si have had a reason to go to the effort of creating a fake silkbook to deceive wu sanxing with details so specific that you quite literally have to have been in that tomb before to know them?  

the third debunking of the silkbook version is ironically a reverse uno from xiaoge directed at wu sanxing when he, wu xie, and pangzi are stuck in wang zanghai’s tomb in xisha (Book 1, Ch. 63, Chain). xiaoge’s just recovered a massive amount of his memories related to the first xisha expedition, and very bluntly tells wu xie that not only is the silkbook from the seven star palace a fake, it was wu sanxing who planted it there. to which wu xie obviously responds with “wtf no you did”. to which xiaoge then replies completely deadpan as he does with “no, it was your sanshu, he and da kui dug a hole under the tree to do it, probably why da kui had to be silenced”. which leaves wu xie very torn about what and who to believe. and mind you this is also a little before they find the inscription on the wall from “xie lianhuan” accusing wu sanxing of murdering him. honestly it’s possible xiaoge is telling the truth if you consider that wu sanxing might have planted a fake if he knew ahead of time what the silkbook contained, what the seven star palace was, and basically faked his own way through the entire thing

it wouldn’t necessarily surprise me because he does sound very pretends to be shocked in the delivery of many of his remarks (but again, how much of that can you attribute to this being book 1), and while he did bring wu xie along because he was trying to ease him into the game with the wangs, it’s possible he was prudent enough that he would have made wu xie’s first tomb experience take place in a somewhat controlled environment. which doesn’t mean he’d necessarily been there before, just that as entrenched in the wang shit as he is, i wouldn’t be surprised if he’d known even vaguely what the seven star palace represented and what could be found in there. he did know about the snake cypress and about the stone used to subdue it, and while that doesn’t necessarily mean anything seeing as wu sanxing is a highly experienced tomb robber, it’s worth noting that the only times we’ve ever seen those trees is in the seven star palace and in the snake mine in gutongjing. in other words, always somewhere connected to longevity and The Secret and all the parties involved in that power struggle

but then again, we don’t really know how much wu sanxing knew about the wangs and the zhangs etc, so it’s all very up to interpretation. if he did in fact plant the fake silkbook though, it might have served the purpose of making sure there was something to string wu xie along to push him towards xisha and the conspiracy, but the copper fish ended up serving that purpose in the end. nothing really elaborates on this silkbook again, so we don’t know why xiaoge would speculate that wu sanxing was the perpetrator, unless it was because he’d just recovered his memories of xisha (but even then xiaoge doesn’t accuse people so firmly based on impression alone) or he literally saw wu sanxing do it

regardless of who did it, the bottom line is that it’s safe to say the silkbook was probably fake and was placed there intentionally, both because as wu sanxing points out, it is suspicious that wu xie would conveniently only be able to understand what happened to be key portions of the silkbook relating parts of king shang of lu’s life, and because it mentions the purple and gold box in it, which when opened, wu xie discovers contains the first snake-eyebrowed copper fish

to me this actually pushes suspicion more heavily onto two parties in particular: wu sanxing and the wang family. because to be able to forge a silkbook that would specifically contain passages tailored to wu xie’s knowledge of old chinese and not run the risk of him either knowing more or less than speculated, you would have to have extensive knowledge on wu xie as a person on a personal level. and to be fair, this idea hinges a lot on the silkbook being put into that coffin for wu xie specifically ti find, so i’m working on assumptions again, but if this were the case, then only wu sanxing and the wangs qualify to fill that role, and in some ways the wangs even more so because this kind of covert manipulation is very much the way they do things. xiaoge would not have known wu xie to that extent in book 1, if at all, and while wang zanghai himself is a tempting possibility, he was obviously in the seven star palace long before any of this took place, so it can’t be him. in fact, the only thing that ties wang zanghai to any of this at all is the purple and gold box containing the copper fish, since whether or not the box had originally been there and he simply emptied it of its contents or brought it in from outside, he’s the one who placed the copper fish in it

as to why if it was wu sanxing who planted the fake silkbook he would shift the blame onto xiaoge, my theory on that would be that xiaoge was another convenient means of stringing wu xie along into the xisha expedition mystery by virtue of him being zhang qiling and therefore both highly mysterious and suspicious, as well as personally involved. part of me wonders if part of the reason wu sanxing went to chen pi ah si to hire xiaoge specifically because he was added insurance that he would have the means to trigger wu xie’s curiosity, and provide a first clue to lead him into the It conspiracy. wu sanxing did use the picture of the expedition team to explicitly tie xiaoge into it along with the copper fish story, so there’s that to consider

the third account

which finally brings me to the final version of the king shang of lu story, which is the one given to li cu during the wang family powerpoint lesson. this particular version also overlaps with the story of king mu of zhou and the queen mother of the west, but i’ll get to in another part of this meta. so this version of the story is mostly ironically both the version that most blatantly contradicts the first two, while also being the version most accurate to the tiny introduction we get to king shang of lu at the entrance of the seven star palace that says he was “born with a ghost seal and could borrow ghost soldiers from the underworld”. the only real issue with that this third version has it’s told by the wang family to li cu, so just by virtue of it coming from obvious wang propaganda, it’s immediately suspicious by nature

going back to speculations about who planted the fake silkbook version of king shang of lu’s story in the seven star palace, it then also raises the question of, if the wangs were the ones who did it, what motive they would have had not only to do so, but to tell the story in that particular way, only to then tell a completely different one to someone they consider a candidate to join them. in my opinion, the only thing that makes this third version hold water is that given how it’s explained to li cu, and how wang xiaoyuan (the girl who passes by the window during the lesson) has the same version of it, the wang family believes this version is true, and by virtue of that, it gains a little more credibility, bc suspicious as they are and twisted by their own biases their version of history may be, the wang family is nonetheless well-informed for the most part. not to mention because the narrative has the wang family consistently mirror the zhang family and the way they function so perfectly it’s almost eerie, it stands to reason that the wang family also dabble in historical revisionism when they can, so putting out a fake version of history onto a fabricated silkbook seems up their alley

i’ll get into king mu of zhou separately because that’s a whole other can of worms, but this final version of king shang of lu’s story begins between the “emperor” of the state of lu and his advisor, the owner of a fox mask “with ancient patterns that often appeared on bronze ware” (Sand Sea Part III, Ch. 132, Lesson). the “emperor” asks his advisor “around 1000 BC” (fyi the original says 一千年上下 which amounts to “around 1000 years” but it’s more of an approximation and can technically encompass the warring states period too) as a hypothetical whether or not it’s possible “to prevent people from dying”, to which the advisor answers that he himself doesn’t know how, but he does know where to find something that can “beneath the loess inside the mountains”. he then goes on to tell the tale of king mu of zhou to the “emperor”, and of how he was given an elixir of immortality by the queen mother of the west that he likely hid inside of his tomb centuries ago

it very quickly becomes apparent to the reader that this story is an obvious ploy by the owner of the fox mask, who in sensing that the “emperor”, while tempted, is reluctant to cast all appearance of morality aside to deploy his troops to rob king mu of zhou’s grave, calls a “strange man” to the court who’s “believed to be a descendent of the zhou emperor” (that is to say king mu of zhou) “who was able to communicate with the underworld”. the ruler of the state of lu thus gives this “strange man” a jade seal and seals him in an iron coffin deep in a well for 49 days, saying that if he can come back up from it with the ghost seal in hand after having successfully spoken to king mu of zhou, then it would be proof of king mu granting him permission to rob his tomb and take the immortality elixir from it. and so this “strange man” does, in fact, come back, not only with the ghost seal in hand, but with an imperial edict written by king mu of zhou himself that granted him the title of king shang (殇 shang meaning to die young or at war) as well as all the contents of his tomb

the ruler of the state of lu then uses this to make several leaps in logic to justify being in the right if he deploys his troops to rob king mu of zhou’s tomb, because if this “strange man” can communicate with the underworld and was given a title relating to dead people, then surely that means that this strange “king shang” is likely dead himself, and that king mu of zhou chose him as his heir after he’d died. it’s a very convenient out for the ruler of the state of lu to say that he’s only helping an esteemed deceased elder to recover his birthright if he makes him a general and lends him troops to go find king mu of zhou’s tomb (Sand Sea Part III, Ch. 133, King Mu of Zhou)

it’s also quickly obvious to the reader that the owner of the fox mask and this newly minted king shang of lu are in fact working together, given it was the former who referred the latter to the state of lu’s court in the first place, which is something i’ll come back to in another part of this meta. from here, under the ruler of the state of lu’s orders, king shang and the owner of the fox mask, together with more grave robbers who also wore fox masks (as according to the wang family, foxes would live in graveyards and grave robber’s tunnels at the time, and so grave robbers associated their imagery with the profession), began their search for king mu of zhou’s tomb and the immortality elixir it supposedly contained. while this version of the story of king shang of lu more or less ends here, you could assume the rest of it might follow along the same lines of the first two versions, and maybe it does. you’d then assume that the person king shang and the owner of the fox mask (who’s by then inferred to be iron mask from the previous two versions) find in the western zhou tomb is king mu of zhou, who they then divest of the jade burial armor to take for themselves

however, one very important detail in this version compromises this assumption: king mu of zhou isn’t actually dead, and he thus gave king shang the edict personally (Sand Sea Part III, Ch. 134, Deception). what this means is that the ruler of the state of lu was duped presumably not by two, but three people, all of whom were working together to find the jade burial armor for who appears to be king mu of zhou. in other words, where the other two versions of the story have two key players, this final version suddenly introduces a third one, and that changes things. how much it does is what i’ll be getting into in the next part on king mu of zhou more specifically

(tbc in part II and part III of this madness)

[futurefind]

//The horrifying realization that, esp early on, Rea had every reason to procrastinate getting her injuries from Bulga healed and thus minimize scarring because that way she can, literally, try and hide her (direct) scars from TWS by burying them underneath other ones :')

Something something and how Rea tries to 'handle' her ghosts by burying them under the bodies of others'—whether it's the ghosts of others' struggles and trying to help them, or more of her own but ones she's far more comfortable with :')

(And also smth smth how Rea's extensive scarring from repeated and regular experimentation means she only accepts magical healing from others (barring like, her hands, neck, and fingers?) and handles All of the first aid 'management' or w/e firsthand and thus Literally handles all of her worst wounds by herself so help her god)

[pitchlag]

Rvb19 thoughts in no particular order

Yeah so. I still think s13 is The capping point for me and all that comes after is hypothetical/simulations or whatever.

First of all. No, you fucking don't get to separate Grif and Simmons.

Having the groups act hostile towards each other (or just the Reds against Caboose again) right after Chorus was a a big enough of a crime already. But those two are a package deal.

So what the fuck even happened in the SoC fight? Why would they let Tucker just walk out in the aftermath? I guess Carolina booked it to go after him bc why else would she leave Wash alone again, after he was supposedly injured?? Also Doc dying, wow rude. Donut and his VA are free to enjoy their break but where' was heeeeeeee where'd he goooooo he was barely mentioned at aaaalllllllll >:(

Sarge's death speech was surprisingly long and clear even though his lungs were probably pierced, cauterized or no.

On one hand I have a hard time seeing Sarge dying peacefully in a bed instead of in battle but he didn't have to stay at that doorway after they got back. He didn't have to die there. I'm glad he went back for Caboose though cuz that is one his boys (even if he's a dirty Blue).

Grif and Simmons talking about him at his grave was pretty good scene and so was the campfire reminiscing one but again, Sarge didn't have to die and I refuse a world where Grif and Simmons would go their separate ways like that. No wonder Gus and Geoff were shocked to find out this was the last season.

I got so excited the second I recognized Tex's knuckle crack ;o;

So close to a proper Tex and Caro combo, though I do get that they wouldn't work well together because of their history and different fighting styles :( Still, even if AI boosted, Tucker shouldn't be anywhere near good enough to go against both.

Also they got Kathleen back for Tex, John Erler for North and Samantha Ireland for CT??? Couldn't have seen that coming. Also Miles was aight doing Elijah Wood's voice but I guess a lot of it was helped by the voice mods.

Beta may have been "a failure" and Sigma is a bitch but his speech at her felt really off. She was still a major part of Alpha and the memories of Allison were the reason the rest of the pieces came to be in the first place. The Meta collective tried to catch her both in cases of the og Tex and Epsi-Tex, so Sigma full on rejecting her and the rest not reacting at all was really weird.

"This time, I'm not based on his memories, I'm based on theirs. And I always kicked their asses." A nice change of pace re: Beta as Alpha's/Allison's "failure". ....

Chex has embedded itself deep into my brain, so of course I Felt Things seeing them interact one last time fr fr. Tex finally got to go out with some agency of her own, yet we've come a full circle, they're back together again as Leonard and Allison. At least one good ending. Easily the best part of the movie.

Security working from home extremely funny, but the bit went on for too long and video calls w/ technical issues bc haha relatable feels like an overdone trope already

Felix being included as a part of the Meta was kinda weird? He never really interacted with the armor or the AI to warrant it I think.

Niner and Sheila :)

No Junior :(

So uh. Tucker got no closure re:Epsilon's death and just kinda. Walks it off after the possession is over? After Wash and Memory!Doc had that talk about the things an AI in your head does to you??

Speaking of Wash:

I know he's always been linked to memory and I actually like how they handled his brain damage in the Shisno Paradox, but I just have a very different image of how he feels about the PFL folks in the aftermath. To me Carolina always seemed more like the type to feel regret over how things went with PFL; she was kind of in a leadership position, had her tragic relationship with York and she felt taking down the Director was her duty.

Wash did arguably have a lot more positive ties to others than she did during the Project, but he was ready to burn it all down while in Recovery duty. I always thought he would have a lot harder time moving past his own trauma of getting left behind to get back to the good memories. Regrets about Doc I can kinda understand since they had time to work together while at Chorus after Wash's villain arc was over, but again, the man carries a grudge like it's a badge of honor. He didn't exactly get closure with his former teammates, aside from collecting the AI from their dead bodies after he'd been left alone following the fall of the MoI and after South shot him in the back. It's interesting how differently Shisno trilogy and S19 handled how Wash and Carolina feel about the whole thing, but I'm glad they stick together regardless. I love their relationship so much.

Wash staying silent when the recovery unit is broken..... Ngl I'm kinda obsessed with how he and Epsilon never got closure

I still don't have interest in checking out Zero....

Woulda been a lot better if they just let Trocadero do the music :( As predicted, the movie OST lacked the personality the series OST was built on and somehow including one track from them felt a bit of an insult. A reminder of what could've been. Also I didn't like the "oohh this part is super loud because movie" bits

Tragically obvious how rushed the production was and how they had a lot less people and resources to work with

If Shisno was a mixed bag of some high highs and a lot of lows, this was relatively steadily ok. Some dips, at least one peak. Not nearly as good as what precedes it but. ok. I can take it as one possibility

Sigh. The funky space marines are finally free. (I'm not, these fuckers seem to continue to fail evacuating my brain)

[rubylize]

Powers

Summary: You have Powers and finally told Barry.

Pairing: Barry Allen x reader

Word count: 1,059

Warning: none

Not edited, but I will edit it later.

“I have powers.” The words came out of my mouth like air blowing randomly during the day. I had to do it. It was time that I told him. “What?” He asked, turning off the tv and turning all his attention on me. I looked down to my hands not wanting the attention. “Barry-“ Before I continued I took a quick glance at his face. It was full of confusion and concern. Before looking down again, I could see his mouth open and close.

I felt him move closer to me. “I’ve had them for a while but I don’t use them. Sometimes I can’t even control them! You know it’s just so frustrating. I’m sorry I kept it from you. You can break up with me if you want. You probably don’t wanna date a metahum-“

My voice was quiet, fast yet slow. Barry interrupted me by grabbing my face gently. “Don’t say that. You don’t know how I feel about you,” he told me softly. “So how do you feel?” Those words came out hesitant. I didn’t know if I was ready to know what he felt. My eyes roamed the living room, avoiding his eyes. “Look at me.”

It took everything in me to look at him but I did. “I don’t care if you’re a meta human Y/n.” His beautiful green eyes were looking at me. “Being a metahuman doesn’t make me love you any less.”

Barry and I talked things out. He was very supportive. He didn’t care that I was a metahuman. I appreciated him for that. He was always there for me when I needed him.

“We should go to StarLabs.”

My eyes widened. “StarLabs? Why?” I was confused as to why he wanted me to go there because Dr.Wells killed his mom. “You’ll see.”

We went to StarLabs. “Barry, what are you doing here?” Iris said a little harsh, noticing me. “It’s time to tell her.” I gave Barry a confused look, while he just smiled. “Tell me what?” I asked skeptically.

“So this is your lover?” I heard behind me. I turned around to see Harrison Wells. In the flesh. My mouth fell open. “Harrison Wells?” I gasped, even more confused now. “Can we have the room?” Barry said. When they left he sat me down. “Uh Y/n I- I’ve been wanting to tell you something,” he explained while scratching the back of his head. I gave him a look to continue.

“I’m the Flash.”

I blinked at him. “What?”

“Look I know. I’m sorry. I didn’t tell you sooner. It’s just.. you knowing, isn’t safe. Believe me when I say that telling you has always been on my mind.” I nodded cautiously at his words, listening intently. “Caitlyn can do tests on you and we can work on your powers, so you can control them.”

“Barry, forget that. I’m still processing that Dr.Wells is alive and your okay with it!” I threw my hands in the air. “That’s not Harrison Wells. He’s from Earth 2.”

“Huh?” All his words were scrambled.

“He’s from another Earth.” My hands rubbed my face, still slightly confused. “Okay..” I am still immensely confused.

“Are you mad?”

“About what?” I asked.

“That I didn’t tell you?” He replied, as if it were a question.

I tilted my head to the side. “No? Should I be mad?” He quickly shook his head, yet let out a sigh of relief. I cleared my throat and he looked at me confused. “Sooo about my powers. Something I didn’t mention is..” I looked at him, seeing that he was listening intently. I quickly grabbed his hand and sped us in circles a few times.

He looked at me in amazement and let out a laugh of excitement. “You have the Flash’s powers!” I nodded. I didn’t know if that was a good thing or not. It was hard for me to control. “That’s so awesome!”

Caitlyn did tests on me and confirmed that I was a speedster. The whole entire time during those tests I stared at Barry, I was still worried for some reason. He stood by my side the whole entire time. When Caitlyn was done he led me to the hall in StarLabs. “Why are you still worrying?” He asked me. “I don’t know.” I replied truthfully. “Y/n I like the way you look at me, but with warmth, love, and reassurance. Not with worry.” I smiled at him, feeling my heart warm. “I’m sorry. But I think I’m just scared, Barry. This is a very large step I’m taking,” I told him, while looking at the ground. “Hey,” he said softly, catching my attention. I looked back up, “I’m gonna be there through all of it. Everything you go through, I go through, okay? We’re a team.” He chuckled, “We’re the flash.”

“Like literally,” he said jokingly. I laughed at his sillines, he pulled me into him while smiling widely. “I love you Y/n. Everything you go through-“

“I go through,” I said at the same time. He nodded at me. He slowly leaned in to latch his lips onto mine. I gratefully kissed back. My arms rested on his shoulders while I caressed the back of his neck hairs, his hands were around my waist pulling me close. I felt like I was floating. I think I finally knew what a leaf felt like, slowly roaming through the sky with the wind.

Once we parted, “I love you,” I told him, since he didn’t really let me say it back. He pecked my lips once more and told me we could start training now. I agreed and learned a few things but it took some time. It was honestly scary, but with Barry by my side was easy. He helped me and so did Cisco and Caitlyn. Joe had been psyched knowing that I was a speedster, he was worried as well though.

Team Flash saw me grow. They supported, trained with me, and took care of me. They were my team. Barry was by my side. He was my rock, my anchor, he was the person that kept me going. I loved every part of Barry and he loved every part of me. Working with him is such an honor. Being speedsters brought us even closer than we were.

[swordsandarms]

I sometimes wonder why certain sections of the fandom reas those.Like noone in the series is some sort of an innocent pure baby, so I don't get why Dany is get treated as some sort of the most evill character ever...The series is a dark one ane should accept no character is innocent

1. This is probably the most rational post I've about why Daenerys is so hated by fans of female characters in particular. Female power is something only to be wistful about for any others, particularly in the way she gets to have it. And it's not even like to get and keep her power is an easy journey, or is god forbid lacking in difficult concessions. Particularly, there can't be multiple kinds of women's positions of power, they need to have cat fights for crumbs, and ought to do that as per male validation.

2. For the male characters fans it's more obvious and I shouldn't have to look for a meta - how dare a girl be more powerful than them and be a threat to men always being on top.

The sexist GOT show had male leadership leaning on both of these principles. They made a mockery of a female led group of characters of note they brought together to surround Daenerys, gave them cheesy "woman power" quotes, had them make out for a minute of the two they were of one party so they can have some use for male gratification amirite, then "put them in their place" by killing them one by one.

Then they airdrop show!Sansa in, has her hilariously employing the perfidy of various men who laugh at the idea of them females wanting power ahead of male relatives (flashback to the melodramatic framing of same character being portrayed as bitter over a male relative being declared to instead - WANTING AND DENIED is where women's idea of power should reside for 7.9 seasons out of 8).

A cringe fest of how supposedly a merely being some guy with almost nothing to your name prevails over time and effort gains in your own name as a woman, contradictory to the point of the actual FAegon in the books, made to face the cold fact his aunt is the self made Dragon Queen and he is nothing, going to her as a beggar (like watching that Barbie movie part where Ken learns about the patriarchy and confidently shows up at the hospital asking to be made a doctor - except only one was meant as a parody). Then the woman has... hysteria.... because a boy doesn't like her. The end.

So it's really not about how "dark" Dany is. If she is ruthless, she has the audacity to do what men do instead of knowing her womanly place. If she is lenient, she proves she is a bad leader than any other for being a weak woman (Point 2). If there is to be a female lead, she will be a manic pixie girl of a feudal's Lord PATRIARCHAL HEART who will be condescending to other women in public and affable to men, dropping 'smartly' whispered hints in secluded corners that will make them SEE HER ❤️❤️❤️ and reward her!! She's different ❤️❤️❤️ (Point 1).

[luscinai]

powers &. abilities: a long overdue post. gonna put this under read more ! i'll try to make it as short as possible, but it's basically what it says on the tin—an explanation of lu as a metahuman and her limits, as well as what the lazarus pit did to these powers after her resurrection.

— regeneration: defined as the renewal or restoration of a body, bodily part, or biological system after injury or as a normal process. placed first because this was cadmus' original goal with her particular lab—to make assassins with better durability and survivability. her regeneration allows her to mend any injury or bodily loss so long as she's alive. however, it isn't an instant process; for example, it takes ten days for her to regrow a lost leg. she's still very much vulnerable like any other human otherwise, and can die with enough fatal wounds.

— superhuman durability: what it says on the tin. note that this is only durability and not strength, and it's as much trained as it is part of her regeneration. she won't be able to measure up with other metas in this regard.

— fortikinesis: also called physical force manipulation, or, by definition, the ability to create, shape and manipulate physical forces, including gravity, kinetic energy, tension, pressure, friction, etc. you get the idea. manifested when she's 3 as an unintended side effect, woven into her combat later on. primarily used to enhance her forces in her current combat even with her capacity to influence external forces: more strength to her punches, more speed to her step, and a constant state of low gravity that allows for leaping long distances or landing from skyscraper heights without a grappling hook. her max speed on ground is 40 mph ( ~65km/h ), topping at 85 mph airborne ( ~137km/h ). in theory, this power has infinite growth potential, kneecapped by needing to divide half of it into reinforcing her body lest it falls apart due to her own force enhancement.

— presence concealment: the power to hide and conceal oneself. due to her inability to control this power as a child, kate had to equip her with an anklet with bells ( lovingly called cat bells ) in order to perceive her. manifests when she's 8. note that she's not invisible so much as she can't be perceived even when she's standing and moving in plain sight, and can still be seen should others use devices to look at her such as cameras.

— detection: the ability to sense the presence of anything, in lu's case, living beings. limited, and does require touch. example: for her to sense living beings in a building, she needs to be at least touching part of it, or the ground near it. granted, it's not skin contact, and it does enhance her sixth sense to an inhuman degree, but it's not something she uses often as there's rarely much need for it.

now. with all the definitions and limitations out of the way, we get to the fun part: the lazarus pit's effects.

piggybacking off of micki's own description of the lazarus pit because i think it fits—"the lazarus pits are equal parts magic and science". the resurrection is one thing, definitely the magic part, but the science part comes in where bodies are unwound and then remade, enhancing her powers in the same turn.

— fortikinesis: much better output. lets her control forces to a larger degree, thereby allowing her to weave her powers into people and dispatch them by way of cardiac arrest and similar. does require some body contact with them, and is her primary method of killing after her return.

— superhuman strength &. durability: a touch. a tad. once again most of her superhuman strength still comes from her fortikinesis enhancing her forces, but there are improvements to it, with the pit pushing her genes to their best limits.

— other details: her lifespan shortcomings are rewritten, but it does mean she ends up with a head full of white hair for the rest of her life and a pair of vaguely ominous cat eyes. part of the charm, really.

[huskymaine]

10 Foreshadowing of Kakashi (and Obito)’s story on Wave arc

Inspired by @professor-of-naruto ‘s tags on this post that I agreed so much and prompted me to make this rare Kishimoto appreciation post. I may have some beef with Kishimoto’s writing choice, but there is a reason why Naruto series is so well-liked. Kakashi is one of character who is very satisfying to rewatch because his whole story is unveiled little by little with some hints on the prior, and Kishimoto delivered it (quite) perfectly.

As Kakashi fan, reading Wave arc after knowing all Kakashi’s past story, feel so different and I noticed many details that would get callback on future chapters. I compiled 10 of them, but probably there are other hints that I miss, feel free to correct me anytime.

1. Heroes’ tale start with a bridge

Probably the most obvious similarities on this list, but still very noteworthy. Wave arc is practically the mission that started Naruto’s journey as hero. In the mission to protect the construction of a bridge, Naruto learned to empathized with Inari, learned about Haku’s philosophy and the reality of shinobi, to then he used his ultimate technique of “Talk-no-Jutsu” for the very first time, a.k.a Naruto’s ability to touch people’s hearts by his words and determined actions, that made him the Savior.

While in the past, on a destruction of a bridge, unfolds a tale that shaped Kakashi’s journey as the formidable hero we all know and admire. Just like Naruto learned many things from Wave arc, Kakashi also got many things from Kakashi Gaiden arc, like his Sharingan, the first time he safely used Chidori, along with his prime philosophy “those who abandon one of their friend are worse than scum”. And in narrative standpoint, both arc and last monologue are treated as “the start of hero’s journey”.

I personally like how Kishimoto drew hopeful atmosphere of Naruto with the finished bridge, 

in contrast with bittersweet feeling of Kakashi panel along with the destroyed bridge.

2. “Please understand him. He has his own side of the story”

There are many things that I feel disconnected with Naruto fandom regarding Kakashi’s character interpretation, but perhaps one of the most memorable whip-slash for me is how most Naruto fandom portray Kakashi as this rigid sadistic military teacher. For example, this video summarized fandom’s collective agreement that Minato is the soft nurturing teacher while Kakashi beats his students left and right during training. I was like, yeah Kakashi has his stern moment, but it was started and ended on Bell test. After that, he’s actually a very gentle teacher just like Minato, if not more. And we’ve shown this even since the early Wave arc, when his student Naruto scolded Inari harshly and Kakashi tried to explained Naruto’s circumstances to Inari. 

Just like Minato explained the circumstances of Kakashi that made him utter such harsh words to Obito (the difference is in Wave arc Kakashi is the one who took the initiative).

And then both of these gentle senseis tried to instill that, despite those harsh words, Kakashi and Naruto actually care for Obito and Inari in their own way.

(seeing those two panel next to each other made my heart flutters, like boy you really grew up beautifully from a bitter boy to a gentle man)

3. Rule-breaker dads, their tragic death, and their changed sons

@panharmonium​ already made an outstanding meta about this (must read!), that Kaiza’s tale is eerily so similar with Sakumo’s tragic story, both violent and quite frankly dishonorable death in front of their sons as the result of “disrupted the order of the land”.

And just like Inari ripped his dad’s photo from the family picture, Kakashi also never spoke about his father ever since his suicide. After those tragic deaths, memories of their dads must be so painful for both little Kakashi and Inari.

It was not shown but very likely on that panel above little Kakashi had the exact same face as Inari when he watched Kaiza’s death.

4. “Hero is real, and does exist!”

Our MC Naruto, after hearing Kaiza’s story, felt motivated to train more and be a hero like Kaiza, similar with how Obito validated Sakumo’s heroic action to Kakashi after hearing Sakumo’s story.

It’s up to interpretation, but I think Kakashi rose up a little from his chair when Naruto made his declaration. Considering how much Kakashi noted how similar Naruto with kid Obito on War arc, I wonder if he saw Naruto’s back and reminded him of Obito’s back on this scene

5. Familiar Kyuubi chakra

On Naruto’s first Kyuubi awakening, non-Konoha shinobi like Zabuza and Haku were understandably had no clue about the nature of chakra that they felt. They just sensed that it was appalling and dangerous.

But Kakashi immediately recognized the power, noting how foul and evil it is, how it’s familiar to him, with a little bit denial because it’s Kakashi we are talking about here.

(sometimes I admire Kakashi’s “innocence”. After everything that happen to him, he still had in him to be surprised when the universe decided to throw some shits on him. Bijuu break-out on your first combative mission? Yeah after your friend turned into Bijuu bomb things like that might as well happen in your life, Kakashi)

400+ chapters later, we’ve shown why the chakra felt familiar to him, because Kakashi is one of people who sensed Kurama’s chakra even before the Kyuubi incident, the incident that took his Sensei’s life.

6. Break the mask

Honestly my personal favorite parallel because how neat and detailed Kishimoto made them to the point that I squealed hard when I put these side by side. This one is actually more about premonition of what would happen in later story than parallel from revealed backstory, but the scene when Naruto Kyuubi-punched Haku to break his mask,

has the exact same proposition with the scene of Tobito rasengan unmasking that happen like 583 chapters later, down to the angle, body gesture, even line separation between each panel. 

After noticing this, I am like 99% sure that Kishimoto already planned Tobito plot-twist (and the major line of Kakashi’s past team story) on Wave arc.

7. “Who are you?”

Speaking about unmasking, there’s a nice little foreshadowing about Tobito plot twist on Wave arc. This cover is from the early chapter 16, the cover that mark the first Obito appearance on Naruto series. Obito who is one of 2 main Big Bad in War arc that happen like 600+ chapter later (I don’t count Kaguya and Black Zetsu is a background party who shamelessly took credit on the last minutes), but Obito is also the inspiration of Kakashi’s philosophy of valuing comrades, that he passed down to Team 7 on Bell Test. 

The said chapter also the first time Haku’s face were shown behind his mask. Haku, who is one of 2 main antagonist on Wave arc, but also the one who gave Naruto his philosophy to be strong for the sake of protecting his important people.

These last two points, along with the clues that Kishimoto threw ever since the introduction of Tobi, should made it obvious that Tobito plot twist was planned since the beginning. I think people who still thought that Tobito is a retcon till this day just can’t understand how clever Kishimoto’s storytelling works. 

9. Shinobi 25th rule

The damned rule that literally no one uphold except perhaps Kakashi (which is not healthy at all my man please cry more!) got mentioned first by Sakura on Wave arc.

And it was talked again on Kakashi Gaiden by Kakashi, obviously. While the rule was treated like off-handed trivia on Wave arc, this no-crying rule is like, big deal on Kakashi Gaiden. They even had a chapter titled “Crybaby” to emphasis this point.

The arc also shows that this 25th shinobi rule is apparently applied to all shinobis regardless of their nationality.

(I don’t like this rule at all please tell me someone remove it in the end)

9. Willingly jump in front of Chidori

This point is the content of the post that inspire me, so yeah I add it for good measure, hehe. But seriously, Kishimoto made a very nice (not for Kakashi) parallel between the shocking way (pun not intended) of Haku’s death by throwing himself in front of Kakashi’s chidori,

It’s so similar with the scene of Rin’s death, along with their last word being the name of someone they loved (platonically or romantically) and willing to die for.

There’s also notable change of Kakashi’s attitude on the battle after Haku’s death, from being not really invested to the fight apart from his job and protecting his students,

to take the fight personally and quite possessively, along with gentle treatment toward the deceased Haku.

Haku’s death by his Chidori possibly reminded Kakashi of the devastation that he felt when Rin committed suicide on his hand. Both scenes also has panels focused on Kakashi’s bloodied hand after he did the deed unwillingly.

10.”Do you really mean that?”

After Haku’s corpse got kicked by Gato, Zabuza who was still deep in shinobi mentality nonchalantly acted as if he valued Haku only for the service that the boy could provide to him.

Just like Kakashi in Kakashi Gaiden diminished Rin’s earnest help as “her job”.

Hearing that, Naruto and Obito understandably pissed off and yelled about how both Rin and Haku cared for Kakashi and Obito with their whole hearts, beyond their role as allied shinobi.

Facing those cold words, Naruto also tried to ensure whether Zabuza truly meant for the cruel things he said.

And Obito did the same to Kakashi 100+ chapters later.

This segment also got a nice callback on War arc like 500+ chapters later, but this time from Naruto to Obito.

Yum, me love some parallel, preferably with hundreds of chapter gaps. Just like @mabledonut​ said, I want to know how Kishimoto thought on how he crafted his story with such big chapter gaps and callbacks because it’s just fantastic.

Tl ; dr = I really wanna see Wave arc from Kakashi’s point of view. Because I can totally see after Team 7 came back to Konoha, Kakashi laid down on his shuriken bed, contemplation how the hell after he finally passed a team and accepted them as his responsibility, the first combative mission that they had turned into A rank mission that push the majority of his button trauma. Then after Kakashi realized that he was stuck with them for the next years and beyond, he was like,

(unbeknownst to him, Team 7 shenanigans is the world’s way to give him a giant therapy program)

[pixiestickie]

Ok this is kind of a weird ask but that new scene in the manga where Jamil seems to be jealous of Azul lives in my head rent free and I love assigning songs to my favs- does Jamil fit the vocaloid song "God-ish" to you? Reading the lyrics kinda reminded me of him.

I really enjoy reading your character/ship analysis and wanted to know what were your thoughts on this and if you would assign any other song to Jamil(⁠´⁠；⁠ω⁠；⁠｀⁠)

HII !! ok so ill have to start with a confession: I don’t listen to music (at least not as much as the avarage teen i am an anomaly) so i dont usually happen to associate songs to characters

ive nevr heard of that song BUT i checked it out and its a BOP. i reas the lyrics in the wiki and i do think it fits !! one could also make it about kalim as well. jealousy is a big part of jamil’s character, so i think this song bangs and fits him. i hope i didnt get this part wrong but i also saw some parts about dancing and jamil loves dancing so that makes it even more jamil core

as an animator i can definitel envision an animation about jamil to this song :))

btw so so glad you enjoy my endless rambles and analysis 😭😭😭 im shy about them but hearing people enjoying them really motivates me . so tjank you sm it means a lot to me i will rxplode

ANYWAY because of the fact that i dont listen to music that much (even if i do have 1 playlist), i dont have songs that fit jamil off the top of my head. i have “bitter choco decoration” which fits him WORD BY WORD but its such a meta song… if that even makes sense 😭 i can also think of is first love / late spring (YES IM GIVING YOU A MITSKI SONG LEAVE ME ALONE) about jamil and kalim’s dynamic

another one i used to have in mind was “aishite aishite aishite”, but like, a very specific translation. people have translated and interpreted it in many different ways to the point i associate one translation to jamil and another to azul 😭