#meta tag;

[keikakudori]

I'm very interested in how Aizen would have reacted right after his loss to Ichigo to questions from Central 46 or other people (yk rangiku, izuru, shunsui maybe) who would like to talk to him about Gin Ichimaru, asking him why he killed his follower. Will he be honest at least in the fact that he knows that Gin betrayed him? How will he feel hearing their questions?

Well, the short answer to this is fairly simple: Aizen wouldn't be saying shit to anyone, especially not if they're asking him about Gin and what happened during Deicide. It's not their place to know anything about that.

The longer answer is much, much more complicated. Time for a read more. This answer's going to be fairly extensive.

Aizen is, and always has been, an extremely private individual. He's allowed very few people to get close to him and no one's gotten as close to him as Ichimaru Gin has managed to do. Kaname and Momo put Aizen on a pedestal, with Kaname going so far as to all but worship him whilst Momo truly believed he was nothing more than her gentle, kindhearted captain. The point here is that neither of them truly saw Aizen as a person; they only projected onto him their ideal image of him. Kaname venerated Aizen like unto a god and Momo's emotions over Aizen were colored by her affection and love over his kindness and warmth. Even his Espada idolized him, even though Aizen already warned them not to trust him; he very clearly stated that that wasn't anything that he remained interested in. It's actually quite intriguing that, for a man who wanted to fill the vacant throne in the heavens, he actually never has enjoyed being worshiped like a genuine god. There's something that could be said about that.

None of them actually beheld Aizen properly and the Espada followed him out of fear, respect of his strength, or because they genuinely did believe in him.

Gin, on the other hand? Gin actually perceived Aizen, saw him, right from the first time that they met. @godkilller and I have built a very massive dynamic for them, and we're ever discovering new facets of how they are, how they feel, and how they behave with one another. So when I say that Gin saw Aizen, it has to come with the caveat that for the first time in over a century, Aizen found himself not only seen but perceived on a level no one else had given him since he'd been a young boy. All it took was that first meeting on that night when Aizen watched him kill the old man Third Seat and the resultant way that inspired Aizen to take Gin underneath his wing.

And, above anything else, it has to be remembered that Aizen's character has always been one defined by loneliness. He was around others, but Aizen never truly belonged with others. Did he ever really feel accepted into the Division? No, not entirely, and a major factor of that was Shinji who kept him at arm's length, especially emotionally, but remained willing to fuck his lieutenant after some years had passed. Meanwhile, Aizen was, at that time, deeply in love with him. And we all saw how that went; eventually, Aizen's anger and growing hate for him burst the dam and Aizen decided to commit murder for a number of reasons.

But before that happened, Gin showed up in his life and genuinely changed the trajectory that Aizen was on. In a very real way, Gin saved Aizen from himself and the path he was heading down. He managed to pull Aizen from that brink of total despair and despondency. There is no way I can possibly overstate how important Gin became to Aizen, but it can be seen in canon; Aizen's behavior in the Blood War after Deicide is far, far different from how he had been prior to that point after he revealed his ambitions to all of Soul Society. He's withdrawn. He doesn't want to engage in conversation. He's downright apathetic to everything going on and, for that matter, he's become something of a death seeker.

And it's so very obvious when you think about the biggest factor of why that is: Gin isn't there to engage with him, or to make sure that Aizen doesn't hold onto that malaise for an extended period of time. Aizen is very literally full of depression and given his behavior in the final act, there's no way you can convince me that he isn't trying to get himself killed.

The point of stating all of this is because I always have to find ways to convey and emphasize just how profound Aizen's attachment to Gin became; even platonic, it's a genuinely massive loss for Aizen. Throw emotions into that mix and it becomes much, much more painful.

But even without the emotions or anything romantic thrown in, it's still clear that Gin appealed to Aizen in several ways. There was, of course, Gin's raw potential, even at such a young age which excited Aizen to no end, but there's also the fact that he challenged Aizen and was unpredictable to a greater extent than anyone else ever has been. Even Urahara Kisuke couldn't make Aizen guess what he'd do the way Gin can and Kisuke is, as we all know, a very prepared man for any fight. But he's still predictable to Aizen who can come up with countermoves if he really wished to.

Gin, though? Gin kept him guessing and that was a genuinely large part of why he became so important, and that isn't even touching on the fact that Gin was able to become a viable death-threat. That alone captivated Aizen's attention, due to the fact that not only did Gin manage to consistently be unpredictable to him, but he also managed to force Aizen to acknowledge that out of everyone he knew, Gin remained a genuine source of providing even faint flickers of fear and kept Aizen on his toes.

There's also the fact that Gin never idolized Aizen, never put him on any sort of pedestal, and never once tried to be obsequious towards him. In fact, Gin's been downright bratty and sharp-tongued towards Aizen in many ways and instead of being an irritating factor? It was only once again a reason why Aizen found his relationship with Gin to be so appealing to him. Gin's willingness to challenge him, call him out on his actions and behavior and words, and carrying a genuine threat of being able to not only actually harm Aizen but to possibly kill him?

How could Aizen have resisted that kind of appeal?

The fact that Gin was able to perceive him and see through those careful illusions of himself he'd built up in the public eye was absolutely one of the strongest factors for why Aizen took Gin under his wing and soon trusted him above even Kaname was absolutely one of those facets of their relationship that is always important to remember, too. It was that, more than anything, which really made Aizen decide that he wanted to keep Gin close - but the other factors are equally important. Aizen had no one to challenge him for years and given that no doubt brought a profound ennui to his life, Gin was an open breath of fresh air.

I did say the longer answer would be more complicated, didn't I?

Aizen's dealings with the Central 46 are always going to be the same; contemptuous needling or a lack of a response at all. I'm pretty sure if he hadn't been restrained the way he was on the day of his trial in that kangaroo court, he probably would've killed all the replacements to the original slaughter that he, Gin, and Kaname undertook when they were setting their plans into motion. He would never answer their questions, at all, even if they didn't pertain to Gin. He just generally holds that body of bureaucrats in constant disdain. The most they'd get out of him is his mouthing off which is what led to that sentence of 20, 000 years. He has no reason nor desire to ever be polite to those individuals and I imagine that won't ever change. He knows the secrets of the Seireitei and he knows how much those old men will prefer to focus on his actual crimes rather than ever ask him about what happened with Gin as it is. If they ever did ask a question about that, it'd probably be only in passing. The result would be the same, however; Aizen just would not answer them and never plans on doing so. He might, however, be thinking of how nice it'd be to drop a full-chant Kurohitsugi on them all.

But, as for those others...

I don't think Rangiku or Izuru would technically be allowed to speak to Aizen, given what I've read between the lines of what was being done to him leading up to his trial, but if they were? The answer wouldn't change at all.

Aizen is, as I said before, an extremely private man. He wouldn't even be able to begin processing his own emotions over such a profound loss, let alone be able to answer the questions that others posed to him; not very easily, I should say. So if Rangiku and Izuru came to him to ask those questions, Aizen would probably use all manner of ambiguity, bending of the truth, and generally talking circles around them until he managed to make them leave him be -- that is, if he even answered them at all at that point in time when he's beginning to process what happened, or at least to begin realizing that what occurred was his own fault.

He knows, of course, that Gin had an attachment to both Rangiku and Izuru; Rangiku was his Academy classmate and someone who obviously holds Gin in high regard and Izuru was his lieutenant and with him since the day that Aizen decided the most competent of the recruits would become second-in-command to Gin, which is a factor I think some people forget about. But also, Aizen thought of Izuru as the most competent out of all the potential lieutenants that he was considering for Gin and Kaname and therefore picked out Izuru for him. Kind of like a present, you could say. A very weird present, but a present nonetheless, because he wanted Gin to have the advantage there.

So, if they were allowed to see him, they wouldn't get very far with him. If Aizen doesn't want to answer a question, he is quite good at simply closing his mouth and staring the person in question down. I think that'd be how he'd handle it if Izuru and Rangiku were trying to get answers out of him. To him, what passed between himself and Gin is theirs and he isn't willing or interested to let anyone on the outside of that dynamic behold the nuances and complexities therein, especially if he and Gin were involved with one another. It's, quite simply, not their place to know and it isn't information that will be useful to them.

Out of all of the three people listed, I think only Shunsui would be able to get any kind of response that might remotely come close to being an answer to such questions, if you tilted your head upside down and squinted. But only remotely as Aizen wouldn't give him very much information either and anything that he possibly would say would only be surface level at best, nothing that can be confirmed easily or, alternatively, the information would be only what everyone already knew. I do think that Shunsui and Ukitake would be the first (and, perhaps, only) people who'd recognize it if Aizen and Gin wound up in a relationship together and I also think that Shunsui would be able to know that there wouldn't be any good answers, even if Aizen and Gin weren't involved. But it wouldn't stop him from asking until Aizen decided enough was enough and simply chose to remain close-mouthed and make it clear that he was done.

Pertaining to the emotional aspect? Oh, he wouldn't be enjoying any of those experiences. Aizen came out of Deicide wounded by what had happened, deeply so. Their asking questions of him when his emotions are already a tumult within him, trying to find out any information on why he did what he did, wouldn't be something that he'd show. But if capable, he'd absolutely do his best to shut them down and shut them out. Asking questions that pry into the privacy of a man emotionally devastated won't do any good and instead of getting angry with them and shouting? Aizen's much more likely to just, simply, shut down and do nothing, say nothing, until they leave, especially since those questions would be pertaining to Gin. It's an awful mess and Aizen really isn't a man who's good at handling his emotions in a good fashion.

So, in sum, I don't think that he'd ever give anyone a comprehensive answer, if he even answered any questions about Gin in the first place. It's a subject that's both too personal and too painful for him to ever speak on to anyone else and it'll remain that way for years, even decades, perhaps even centuries. He's a mess, especially once everything really starts to sink in for him, and there's nowhere for him to turn for support or help, especially not when he's locked up in Muken.

[mycroftrh]

Far worse, in my opinion, than the famous “he wouldn’t fucking say that” is “he WOULD fucking say that, as part of his facade, but you seem to think he would mean it genuinely”

[kenobihater]

tragedy enjoyers when a character perpetuates the cycle of violence they themselves were a victim of

[tofixtheshadows]

I've been thinking a lot lately about how Kabru deprives himself.

Kabru as a character is intertwined with the idea that sometimes we have to sacrifice the needs of the few for the good of the many. He ultimately subverts this first by sabotaging the Canaries and then by letting Laios go, but in practice he's already been living a life of self-sacrifice.

Saving people, and learning the secrets of the dungeons to seal them, are what's important. Not his own comforts. Not his own desires. He forces them down until he doesn't know they're there, until one of them has to come spilling out during the confession in chapter 76.

Specifically, I think it's very significant, in a story about food and all that it entails, that Kabru is rarely shown eating. He's the deuteragonist of Dungeon Meshi, the cooking manga, but while meals are the anchoring points of Laios's journey, given loving focus, for Kabru, they're ... not.

I'm sure he eats during dungeon expeditions, in the routine way that adventurers must when they sit down to camp. But on the surface, you get the idea that Kabru spends most of his time doing his self-assigned dungeon-related tasks: meeting with people, studying them, putting together that evidence board, researching the dungeon, god knows what else. Feeding himself is secondary.

He's introduced during a meal, eating at a restaurant, just to set up the contrast between his party and Laios's. And it's the last normal meal we see him eating until the communal ending feast (if you consider Falin's dragon parts normal).

First, we get this:

Kabru's response here is such a non-answer, it strongly implies to me that he wasn't thinking about it until Rin brought it up. That he might not even be feeling the hunger signals that he logically knew he should.

They sit down to eat, but Kabru is never drawn reaching for food or eating it like the rest of his party. He only drinks.

It's possible this means nothing, that we can just assume he's putting food in his mouth off-panel, but again, this entire manga is about food. Cooking it, eating it, appreciating it, taking pleasure in it, grounding yourself in the necessary routine of it and affirming your right to live by consuming it. It's given such a huge focus.

We don't see him eat again until the harpy egg.

What a significant question for the protagonist to ask his foil in this story about eating! Aren't you hungry? Aren't you, Kabru?

He was revived only minutes ago after a violent encounter. And then he chokes down food that causes him further harm by triggering him, all because he's so determined to stay in Laios's good graces.

In his flashback, we see Milsiril trying to spoon-feed young Kabru cake that we know he doesn't like. He doesn't want to eat: he wants to be training.

Then with Mithrun, we see him eating the least-monstery monster food he can get his hands on, for the sake of survival- walking mushroom, barometz, an egg. The barometz is his first chance to make something like an a real meal, and he actually seems excited about it because he wants to replicate a lamb dish his mother used to make him!

...but he doesn't get to enjoy it like he wanted to.

Then, when all the Canaries are eating field rations ... Kabru still isn't shown eating. He's only shown giving food to Mithrun.

And of course the next time he eats is the bavarois, which for his sake is at least plant based ... but he still has to use a coping mechanism to get through it.

I don't think Kabru does this all on purpose. I think Kui does this all on purpose. Kabru's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder should be understood as informing his character just as much as Laios's autism informs his. It's another way that Kabru and Laios act as foils: where Laios takes pleasure in meals and approaches food with the excitement of discovery, Kabru's experiences with eating are tainted by his trauma. Laios indulges; Kabru denies himself. Laios is shown enjoying food, Kabru is shown struggling with it.

And I can very easily imagine a reason why Kabru might have a subconscious aversion towards eating.

Meals are the privilege of the living.

[descendant-of-truth]

Shipping is fun and all but I swear every single time someone makes a comment, whether as a joke or in a legitimate analysis, about there being "no other explanation" for a pair's interactions, I lose just a bit more of my sanity

Like, no, you guys don't get it. Romance is not about the Amount of devotion, it's about the COLOR. the FLAVOR of it all. a character can be just as devoted to their platonic friend as they are to their romantic partner, and they don't love either of them more, just differently.

But because the majority of people still have it stuck in their minds that romance exists on the highest tier of love, I'm stuck seeing endless takes that boil down to "these two care about each other too much for it to NOT be romantic" as if that's the core determining factor to how literally any of this works

In conclusion: stop telling me that I don't understand the story if I don't interpret the leads as romantic, I am TIRED

[gammija]

nothing personal but this kind of comment rlly exemplifies to me a disconnect between canon and popular fanon jmart characterization because they almost literally had this conversation in canon - except, their lines are swapped!

jon, for all his scared grouchiness, is a secret romantic, while martin, for all his forced optimism, is at his core a pragmatist

[galedekarios]

while i did a gifset to showcase an armour set, i was also intrigued by just how different the animation is for the wizard class vs gale's unique animation:

wizard class animation

gale's unique animation

it's amazing to see not only just how quickly gale performs the somatic component of the spell, but also his efficiency of movement compared to the standard wizard animation.

there's a world of difference here, the difference between a wizard vs a prodigy, an archwizard and chosen.

[tealvenetianmask]

Blitz is going to be the death of me.

Right before the crystal, when he thinks that Stolas is really breaking up with him, he straight up begs.

"Stolas, please, I need this book. Please."

Uh huh the book . . .

"I need this book, Stolas. I will do anything.

Looking down (maybe telling himself, "I knew this was coming eventually") and then looking up, trying not to cry.

Despite . . . his everything here, I'm pretty scared that half the audience will think this is really about the book, and I'm not ready for the bad takes yet.

[biboomerangboi]

Hua Cheng essentially cockblocking himself for possibly all of eternity will literally never not be the funniest thing MXTX ever wrote.

Xie Lian was pretty much completely in love with him the second he saw those lanterns (and completely oblivious about it) and then we get the wonderful first kiss underwater moment and Xie Lian is basically drawing hearts around Hua Cheng every time he sees him. While like quietly dying cause he literally has no idea what to do with it. Like at this point he doesn’t even really understand that he is head over heels totally gone for this man.

Until Hua Cheng is like I have a beloved I just haven’t won them over yet. Which he thinks is perfectly reasonable because his self esteem is the worst and he doesn’t understand how he could have won Xie Lian over yet. (He’s only on step 22 of his Marrying Dianxia 3000 step Master Plan ((that he debates throwing out on a regular basis because he doesn’t deserve to even dream about wanting Xie Lian)). So course he’s like yeah I have this wonderful noble beautiful beloved I just haven’t won them over yet wink wink nudge nudge.

But Xie Lian is like oh of course obviously I don’t deserve nice things and fuck I actually wanted him so badly I’m actually in love with him and now I will resign myself to never being happy for his sake. (Their combined self esteem is truly a so low it’s a hole in the ground which is hilarious because they think the other person is to good for them and unattainable forever because they literally have the same neurosis.) So he starts boxing up his feelings forever constantly wanting Hua Cheng and feeling guilty about it and literally dying inside because he wants Hua Cheng like he’s never wanted anyone.

Like essentially books 3 and 5 only happen because Hua Cheng has now cursed them both by saying he has a beloved because Xie Lian believes he isn’t wanted and therefore any nice thing Hua Cheng does is just him being nice and not Hua Cheng pulling out steps 23-34 of his plan thinking he still hasn’t won Xie Lian over. (He has he so has but he shot himself in the foot so badly it’s painful to read).

Like thank the Gods Hua Cheng is so unhinged and created the cave of 10000 Gods cause Xie Lian would literally be at his own wedding to Hua Cheng still convinced he wanted someone else and this was in fact a thing they were doing to solve a case together otherwise.

Like he needed something that unhinged to put 2 and 2 together otherwise he never would have caught on he’s Hua Cheng’s beloved. Meanwhile Hua cheng is like 🥺 he’s going to think I’m a weirdo now and I’m only on step 50 of the plan 🥺 like the two of them wouldn’t have been fucking nasty 2 books ago if he just kept his mouth shut and didn’t cockblock himself so violently.

[das-a-kirby-blog]

get you a king who cares each and every one of his subjects

[bloominglegumes]

i love normal guys doomed by the narrative

[keikakudori]

what are aizen’s thoughts on love?

For his thoughts on love, Aizen's thoughts can best be described as complicated. That is, to put it lightly and to describe them in a single word. Of course, where Aizen is concerned, a single word is typically wholly inadequate.

In another vein, his thoughts on love could be that love is dangerous for him. If we're talking about strictly canon, then it's true that everyone that Aizen cares about becomes lost to him, be it through death or through his own actions. Of course, when speaking strictly canon, it's also true that one could cay that Aizen barely cares about anyone when that is not true in the least. We do see Aizen care about others, but how deep that caring actually goes or how genuine it is remains what you truly have to question when all's said and done. He doesn't care about very many people.

And when you look at the fact that the list of people he cares about isn't very long? It becomes even more tragic, honestly. The only people that he's depicted as being close to in canon are Kaname, Gin, and Shinji. That's it. That's all the people on the list, and obviously Aizen is far closer to Gin and Kaname than he is to Shinji.

So yes — Aizen's thoughts on love are that it's probably better if he doesn't love anyone. It's probably better if he doesn't let anyone love him, either. That way lies pain and a sensation of a near inevitable sort of loss. After all, if he doesn't let anyone close, then he won't hurt anyone else, even inadvertently. It's something that helps to compound the sense of loneliness and isolation that he experiences around most people.

Though he will not say so outright, Aizen did kill his own mother. It wasn't intentional. It wasn't something that he wanted. Yet he still did that. He learned it in the Academy when he and his then-classmates were learning about the necessity of controlling their reiatsu around others and training with the basic precepts of that ability. Aizen has always been a very intelligent individual, and he put the information together swiftly. He understood that her death had been his fault because of himself and his own power. It might've been that moment when he began to realize he'd not find someone else to share his views.

Yeah. Lovely, ain't it?

Outside of canon, the amount of people that Aizen cares about only has one or two other names on it; a few of the Espada, Celeste ( @fenixias ), Hiyori ( @viciousvizard ) and that really isn't much of an amount. Of course, given events in canon, the Espada that survive are left to understand he's betrayed and discarded them - such as Aizen's actions with Hallibel - and he has destroyed his relationship with Shinji and Hiyori with his Hollowification experiments.

Then there's the fact that Aizen kept the promise that Kaname asked of him and killed him as a result of that promise.

As for Gin? No. He never wanted Gin dead.

Aizen's first experience with romantic love remains his own experience of how to grow bitter and rotten thanks to how Shinji handled him and their relationship, if it could even be called a relationship. In a very specific way, he was treated almost like a mistress. He was hidden away from others. He was neglected. He was very literally kept a guilty secret with their relationship being kept under total lock and key by Shinji and his own way of treating his lieutenant, which was to say not very well. The nights were rare when Shinji would not immediately push Aizen out of bed after they'd been intimate or left on his own and they were left to sleep together until the morning light and Aizen cherished those nights deeply. But they were few and far between, happening rarely and therefore the resentment was left to build up slowly in Aizen.

He doesn't hate Shinji, not the way he used to but he does feel a certain resentment and bitterness towards him along with love. He does still love Shinji - and is still in love with him in a small way - but it's become something coarse and thorny. So it is that his first real experience with love became something twisted and, unfortunately, left a profound impact on him as a person. The impact is something that still echoes down the years and we see some of it in how Aizen treats Momo, with that seeming closeness but ultimate indifference. Shinji left Aizen damaged but not incapable of love or caring.

Kaname and Hiyori he loves as friends. It's simple. In a very real way, they're among the only friends he's ever had.

His mother he still loves with the simplicity of a child; Naoko's presence in his life is still very much there, even if he lost her when he was still barely more than a toddler. That love lingers and is unlikely to ever vanish. But the fact that he lost her during what is known as the formative years for a child also left a significant impact upon him as a person. It instilled a feeling of I'm too much; I'm suffocating; I'm too much to be around. I hurt people I care about. deep into him and his soul and that pain has been something which has shaped so much of how he views himself and his own power with resentment.

Mind you, this isn't conscious thought on his part. It's the kind of view that takes outside help to clarify or an external force to bring it into focus.

To add yet more complexity, Aizen's view of love is also that it's dangerous. This one is a more conscious line of thought, if not something that is active in his head. The knowledge of how love is dangerous ties into his emotions for and towards Gin. Aizen is aware - well aware in fact - that Gin has every ability and readiness to kill him. He's highly aware of that fact. He's also aware that if he were to ever confess his emotions towards him, that would provide the younger man with power untold over Aizen. In truth, Gin's rejection could be enough to shatter Aizen outright. Equally, Aizen does not try to show this emotion. He realized it long, long ago on a night when Gin told a stupid joke over one of their latest victims, a joke which had Aizen laughing, and then he realized. So he buried it almost immediately.

And while Aizen may not speak his feelings or even let it close to conscious thought? He does show it in his actions with Gin. He shows it in how he smiles at him indulgently when Gin's being chaotic. Sharing his food with the younger man is significant because they both come from the same sort of background in the Rukongai. He allows Gin to steal his yukata and his kiseru on a regular basis. He shows it in how he'll corner Gin in order to get medicine down his throat (and how many times he dragged him to the Fourth when Gin was really sick), accepting that he'll be fought the entire time. He shows it by sharing himself with Gin.

It is, in fact, love which spurns Aizen onwards in the canon divergent verses to display so much.

Aizen may still be in love with Hirako Shinji in a way, but that love is vastly eclipsed by what he feels for Gin. In the red!verse, this love he carries is enough to have Aizen ready to lay siege to Silbern practically on his own; the monster is there for what is his. In the f!verse, the love Aizen carries for Gin is what finally helps him to achieve Bankai for the first time in his life. In the zombie!verse, that love has become rage and Leviathan has shown itself at last to try and take Gin away from Gigi.

I know some people may not understand this kind of emotional extremism from Aizen, but he's been trapped in Muken for two years. That's two years of total isolation and sensory deprivation. He might be over-correcting, or even overcompensating. But it's equally true that Aizen does feel emotional extremes at times which is why I don't think the fact that his thoughts on love would be something that is easily clarified. He thinks it's messy. He thinks it can be ridiculous. He thinks that he's better than that foolishness. And yet he's very much a man who does feel love and is capable of loving others. He loves Gin so much that he'll break the world rather than lose him again.

tl;dr? Aizen's thoughts on love boil down to "shit's messy no thank you" whilst absolutely being in love and devoted to Gin.

[howemuginative]

[shellem15]

Can I just say, I really appreciate how Critical Role plays the Devil trope straight. There's been this phenomena in a lot of modern media (I'm not going to mention specifics but I'm sure a few examples pop up in people's minds) where Hell and the Devil aren't scary or malevolent forces. Hell is portrayed as being basically the same as our world just "edgier", and the Devil is a pretty decent guy actually. Heaven are secretly the real bad guys!

But Critical Role doesn't do that. In Exandria, Asmodeus *feels* like the Devil. He's malevolent and manipulative and terrifyingly powerful and he hates you, personally. We never see that type of portrayal anymore! And it's amazing! And he still manages to be sympathetic and tragic without losing his edge!

And the "Good Gods" are portrayed as flawed without being secretly evil or something! Like, actual nuance? In my Heaven/Hell dichotomy? What!?

It's just such a breath of fresh air after so many "The Devil was right, actually" stories. So props to Matt and Brennan and the cast.

[knowmypower]

please understand my vision of meta knight and bayonetta (brawl and wiiu champs) being doubles partners now

original

[malaierba]

My unpopular (why) opinion is that Toshiro's and Falin's relationship (platonic obviously) is quite beautiful and if fans weren't so odd about shipping they'd see how very sweet it is that Toshiro started liking Falin when he realised she's an odd but gentle person, when he felt a sense of kinship that he likely never felt before.

From what we see they got along, Falin has a positive opinion of him, on the few instances when we actually see them talk (beyond just memories of them talking but no actual dialogue being shown to us) it's obvious she feels comfortable enough to be completely honest and transparent with him, while still minding his feelings. She likes the guy well enough, she doesn't want to hurt him.

The marriage proposal is actually so interesting... The way they communicate with each other. Falin let's Toshiro down gently, and reveals something so intimate about herself, how she's behaved until now, what she wants to do in the future, that she'd like to visit him again!

And Toshiro is so gentle. He obviously cares about her so much (and water is wet BUT im talking specifically about how it's portrayed in this scene). If what Maizuru says is true, that was the second time he made a "selfish" request ("marry me and come with me") but he simply asks this from her and offers reassurances, "I'll make sure you're comfortable", but he's not you know the Hardass some people pretend he is.

And what I love the most... When she rejects him not only does he accept it gracefully, he's inspired by her declaration that she wants to be more independent. Why did Falin say that? To spare his feelings further? Or because she knew that this realisation, which meant so much to her, would resonate with Toshiro too?

Gonna get personal but. I'm aroace, hello. I've had a few friendships go to shit because someone confessed to me and I rejected them. And exactly one where the person accepted it gracefully and our friendship, after surviving an awkward moment, blossomed.

Like. Relationships CHANGE, and they can develop and deepen and strengthen in many ways, regardless of the dynamic they take on. When aspecs say "friendship can be as important as romance" one of the things we mean is, allow romantic love to go back to platonic love and be stronger regardless OR EVEN because of it.

Like. How beautiful, that these two recognised a bit of themselves in each other, and knew how to approach the other. How beautiful that Ryoko tells us "their friendship survived a rejected proposal, when the commonly used trope would've made their friendship unviable from then on".

How beautiful that narratively Toshiro's sacrifice is never played for laughs or made fun of or devalued because """he didn't get the girl""', but instead the manga says "it didn't pan out but it wasn't a pointless sacrifice because Toshiro genuinely cared for Falin as a person, and always did what he thought was best even when it went against his normal behaviour." How beautiful that Falin wants to meet his friend Toshiro again, that she thinks to tell him "I'm going to start being an active participant in my own life" and Toshiro thinks "I think I need to start doing that too".

How beautifullll that a rejection ended with a promise to meet again, it's so beautiful am I insane? Can someone hear me hello?

The love was there and it mattered, but it's even better. The love shifts and survives because the care is genuine, because when you truly care about a person you'll want them in your life in whatever dynamic suits everyone involved the best. Because love, whether romantic or platonic or a mix of something else entirely, is selfless.