#not all of them are full analysis but they all get my point across just fine :)

[comment-day]

Some Resources To Help With Commenting

If you have ever gotten a comment full of pull-quotes, you know it is a joy to get as an author. You get to know exactly which parts of a fic stood out to someone! Which lines made them keysmash or delve into character or made it all click! Amazing!

If you've ever tried to write one yourself, you know that scrolling to the bottom of the screen to get to the comment box again and again is an exercise in frustration only matched by repeatedly closing your hand in a door while the fire alarm goes off. So. Here are some resources to help with that!

(Note: The high-tech versions below are for Ao3, but they replicate functionality Wattpad already has built in— you can comment line by line on that site! The low-tech resource linked below should work for any site that allows you to leave comments.)

The High Tech:

There is an amazing use script written by @ravenel which gives you a comment box that floats on your screen, which is detailed below.

It can be intimidating to install a use script, so @bourbon-ontherocks wrote a tutorial about it here:

For people who use Ao3 site skins, here's the code to make an Ao3 site skin and add a bookmarklet that turns having your comment box at the bottom of the screen on and off. Bonus: this will also work on mobile!

Here is an alternate Ao3 comment box that lets you open a box, type your commentary in the moment, and then send it down to the comment box at the bottom of the page, and then close it again! Includes an update by @aidaronan which was designed to work on mac and firefox!

The Low Tech:

Honestly I have been meaning to install one of these cool scripts, but I keep putting off installing them, so I just use my notes app. I open up a new note, and on my computer I put it behind my browser window so I can click to it, and on my phone I just keep it so that I can swipe across apps. So Then I copy-paste the quotes I want, dump them in the notes app, and put my commentary below! Simple, fast, and fantastic for when you are stuck on the bus for an hour.

So what do you comment?

What kind of commentary, you ask? I will be honest, a lot of the time the commentary is me going OH NO or keysmashing after lines. And that's also okay! I have been told so by authors before!

I know I have personally gotten comments where commenters did delicate character analysis after lines and those comments are in my treasured forever box, and I also have comments where someone went OH NO OH NO AOHNFDIOFNDISJFODISJIDJSIOFD YOU DIDN"T AUTHOR NO and I also hold them dear to my heart all the same. The author gets to know the reaction a work got from their reader! And that's fantastic!

The point of the pull quotes comment is showing the impact a work is having on you as you go through the work, section by section, and sometimes that's a digression about how this line made you think about the characters relationship and how he DESERVES THIS HAPPINESS, and sometimes it's responding to a heartbreaking line with twenty weeping emoji. The impact of opening up a comment email and seeing 10 lines of quotes of your own work will hit whether you have thoughtful commentary or you are rolling yourself into a little ball like an octopus and tumbling across the screen (ordinary standard unhinged comment I have left on the works of writers who make me feel Like That).

Go forth! Comment in detail! Let the authors know which lines made you go "oh no" out line in the kitchen as you made soup! Let them know about callbacks that you just realized and now you figured out the whole mystery! Let them know about how this one bit was so cute you had to step away from the computer for a sec! Let them know what you thought!

[doublel27]

I thought joong was straight? He is quite into dunk lips but beyond that i thought straight. I don't even read him as bi?

Look, I neither actually know nor care what Joong’s sexual orientation is. That’s between him and whomever he chooses to tell. And most of my Joong knowledge is adjacent to my knowledge of FKT, AouBoom, EarthMix and DaouOffroad because he’s close with all of them. I more know of him then know him, so I could be missing stuff.

I would say, in regards to your ask, Joong doesn’t appear to have the painful knowing that often comes along with growing up queer in a society that doesn’t want you to be that a lot of other queer people use as a tell to identify each other. The thing that makes us, as queer folx, hesitate or get shy when it comes to things straight people wouldn’t think twice of. And while I do use that in my analysis sometimes, I also know members of Gen Z across the world actively work to resist that shyness and that shame that comes with internalized homophobia and honestly the real-world consequences that can come from being proudly out.

What I do know is he is 1000% into the fanservice portion of his job. Now either it’s his job and he’s having the best time being gay for pay, its his job and he’s excellent at pretending to have the best time pretending to be gay, or he is just shamelessly queer and has said fuck the knowing.

This man is out here yelling into full concert audiences “where is my teerak” and when the audience yells back saying SHHH! he didn’t ask for them, he asked for Teerak! He’s hugging and kissing Dunk at every opportunity and posting various shots of Dunk’s bare waist in crop tops during this THK filming area. He strikes me as the kind of man who reads the RPF about himself. In The Heart Killers book fair panel this past week, he talked about his love of reading BL novels and imaging himself and Dunk in the lead roles. Take that for what you will.

He also expressly stated in an interview alongside Dunk this week that he insisted on being paired with a partner the same height as him. Specifically stating, he thinks it’s a stereotype that one member of an imagined pair/branded couple is always bigger than the other and he didn’t want to lean into it. He wanted to go against that narrative.

As @firstkanaphans and @respectthepetty pointed out, he has a shit ton of queer friends and has close relationships with the members of GMM that are most likely to be clocked as queer (whether they are or not is also not expressly public knowledge and some folx that people clock as gay are straight because femme isn’t exclusive to gay men) Which again, either he’s the most down for the cause straight dude that exists or he’s also queer. My stance is considering he and Daou talk about how close they were to starving trying to make their first shot at being idols happen, I hope they’re having the best time in Thai BL fanservice land being shameless and getting that money.

To end, let me paraphrase my beloved Kit Harrington: to believe you can tell the level of queerness someone embodies just by looking at them or listening to their voice or looking at their hobbies, you’ve missed the entire part of Heartstopper.

Which is why I keep all my speculating to mostly private convos and tumblr where I can pretend celebrities don’t live because we’re all mostly anonymous on here and this site is hell to search. Don’t @ folx on Twitter or on their IGs or their TikToks. Don’t try and out people with YouTube videos. Let the Schrödinger’s Gays enjoy their boxes.

I know I have other anons (I see you. I am maybe coming soon) but this required less work on my end to compile my answers.

[axenyan]

Hey!

I hope my ask won't come off as mean, I am coming here with genuine curiosity and love!!

I personally never saw the appeal in Ritsu and feel SUPER curious to see how other people (esp. ritsu enjoyers) see him! :0 What is it abt ritsu that makes him as appealing to you as he is! I have a hope that maybe reading someones enthusiasm and love for a character rambled on in text will help me find affection for the character too! :] (Happened with Leo.. tumblr made me a Leo enjoyer 😔)

- A huge kaito and zenji enjoyer

(Feel free to ignore this ask! I'm just curious <3 and again, sorry if this comes off as mean in any way ;;)

Hello!!

No no no, this didn't come off as mean! In fact, I'm super happy I received this ask🥺 I need more people to know how baby he is.

I'm not good at analysis, and English is not my first language, so this is just me rambling about why I love him. I also apologize for the grammatical mistakes I may have made >_< hopefully I can still get my points across!

Alright, let's go~!

I haven't posted the full pic of this art anywhere because it's an eternal WIP.

∘₊✧────────✧₊∘ How it all started ∘₊✧────────✧₊∘

A friend showed me Ritsu's introduction post because she thought Ritsu looked like the type I would fall for in terms of design, and she is absolutely right.

However, upon reading his quote, I was unsure if I would like his personality, so I took my friend's recommendation with a grain of salt.

∘₊✧──────────✧₊∘ Getting to know Ritsu ∘₊✧──────────✧₊∘

At the beginning of Sinostra chapter, I was still 50/50 about him because he is, ugh..... 😭 We never met him before, and yet he already had our info?! Not just ours, but everyone's?

Plus, bro keeps yapping and is also a bit forceful... That's annoying as heck. But then I remembered I have another favorite character with quite a similar personality: Sebek Zigvolt (Twisted Wonderland).

I tried to see if they had similar traits, and apparently, they did.

Apart from being in their first year of high school (baby!!!), they are resilient, pay careful attention to their appearance, talk a lot, and are keen on achieving their goals... but they're also a little obsessive about it, and the way they do their things could come off as annoying for other people.

And I was like... oh, hm. I'm starting to see a pattern here.

Then I continued reading the story and noticed several moments where Ritsu got flustered, for example, when Taiga called him out because of his handwriting.

It's one of the points where I realized he might be my next mistake... because I like characters who are difficult to handle and get flustered when being teased or when things don't go their way. 😭 Those characters make me say "I love you, you are so cute, but why are you like this??!" 😭 I feel like I can freely pinch their arm when they start being silly. 😭😭😭

After reading Sinostra chapter, I paid more attention to his campus dialogues and home lines. I had a discussion with my friend, and we concluded that he actually has good intentions, but the way he does his things is unusual. I think that's what makes him unique (albeit creepy at times 😭).

I'll take his affinity lv2 home line as an example:

“You’ve lost your notebook? Just a moment. …At 9:04 AM, it was inside the photocopier. Yes, I do have that information recorded.”

I mean, who the hell does that? I appreciate the help, but why does he know the location of our missing notebook just from his recording? Why?😭

∘₊✧──────────────────────────✧₊∘ Moments that make me go uefhuehgfu💞💞💞 ∘₊✧──────────────────────────✧₊∘

Being a little twerp aside, I like how he can be understanding(?) and open to new things.

He has a line like this. This is from the summer lines.

“You want to go and watch the fireworks? A rather childish request, but all right. So? Where would one go to view them?”

He thinks our request is childish but he agreed to go!!! Usually, a prideful character like him would just brush us off, but he didn't...

Another example is his ramen talk with Ren in episode 7. It seems he isn't used to eating food like instant ramen because he's been eating ramen at an actual ramen shop, but he is willing to try it. He even did his research before buying. 🥺

∘₊✧─────────────────✧₊∘ How I personally perceive him ∘₊✧─────────────────✧₊∘

Now that I've learned more about him, I think he is:

A good boy with a clear goal but a questionable way of executing his plan.

Adorable and round... I want to poke his cheeks.

Inspiring! I like how studious and organized he is. I even started writing more in my journal because of him.

Willing to try new things! I admire this about him!

Cute-- wait, I've mentioned that. Okay, he is silly. Please look at his action in episode 8 where he was mostly with Taiga. He did his best to keep a watch on his captain, literally doing everything he could, like using his stigma to be a doorstop 😭

In short, I find him endearing. I want to slap him at times but I still find him endearing. I don't know if it's a suitable word to describe it, but it's how I feel about him. `(*>﹏<*)′

Again, this is my very personal take on his character so I might be biased at some points, but I hope this could help you find a thing or two about Ritsu!

[stopper-my-heart]

Let's break down the sequence at the end of Heartstopper S1E2 and beginning of S1E3 — in which Nick is working on coming to terms with the fact that he likes Charlie and Charlie is a boy — focussing on Nick.

The whole sequence masterfully sets up our understanding of Nick and his headspace via a series of contrasts.

Warning: This is a gif-filled long post with sadness ahead. (If you'd prefer a happier take related to this sequence, take a look at my other post about it.) CW: Short mention of some homophobic practises/issues in the world at the end (those shown in the show at the beginning of S1E3).

The sequence begins with Nick entering his room, but it's filmed through his bedroom window, i.e., from the outside looking in. We don't even clearly see his face. The next shot is of a photo on Instagram of Nick with his rugby friends. To me, this is drawing attention to the fact that Nick is on the outside of his friend group.

The photo itself offers a stark contrast to this idea: Nick is in the centre of his mates, literally being carried and supported by them. His face suggests he's thinking about how the photo doesn't represent reality. The photo is captioned "lads", but Nick isn't a (stereotypical) 'lad'...and may not be 'one of the lads', either, if Nick let his rugby friends really know him.

There's then a brief flash of Imogen's Insta post, which is a photo of likely herself (the person's head is out of shot) and its caption is helpfully centred for us: "stay true to yourself 🥰🌸". (This deserves its own analysis tbh.) We see Nick slightly smiling at it, but we're physically very far away from him and only move incrementally closer.

Next Nick comes across Charlie's photo from their 'snow day'. Nick isn't in the photo, but it is a photo that he took, so although it's a public post that in a way 'can't' have the two of them together in it yet, he's not completely absent from it. Nick's face is immediately much more smiley.

The comparison between Nick's reactions to the different photos hearkens back to the commentary from Nick's mum earlier in the episode (which she made, y'know, the day the photo Nick just saw was taken):

All signs point to: Nick is not true to himself with his rugby friends, (maybe a little with Imogen,) but he is with Charlie.

Back to Nick— Seeing Charlie's photo inspires Nick to switch to his camera roll which is already scrolled to his snow day photos implying that he's looked at them another time recently to look at more photos from their snow day, prompting even more smiling and a tiny laugh. Not to mention, now Nick can finally see his genuine self in the photos he's looking at.

I've been focussing on the scenes with Nick so far, but this whole sequence goes back and forth between Nick and Charlie in their respective rooms and is set up as a contrast between them. Let's look at that comparison to understand the full picture with Nick before we continue on.

We see Charlie from a comfortable/typical-to-the-viewer angle, in contrast to our view of Nick which has been almost awkwardly straight on throughout this sequence, whether in front of or behind him.

Charlie is also relaxedly lying in his bed, directly engaging with his friend group to get their input on the situation with Nick (Charlie's on the inside), compared to Nick who is sitting on the edge of his bed, kind of hunched over his phone, scrolling through photos other people are posting (on the outside looking in, and still only looking in via photos that don't tell the full story).

There are further contrasts between them, too, of course. Charlie is confident about his sexuality while Nick is questioning, so he's not confused or scared by liking Nick the way Nick is about liking Charlie.

Charlie is instead feeling hopeful at the prospect that Nick might also be interested, and we leave him for the episode with his cautious excitement about Elle's news that Tara at least isn't into Nick.

Back to Nick— In the past, Nick's typically experienced or thought about his feelings for Charlie when he's with Charlie or when there are other people around. But this time there's no Charlie to distract Nick from the scariness with his Charlie-ness (and the positive feelings of liking him), and there are no other people around to force Nick to abandon his thoughts or put a mask on.

So when Nick has his moment of fully acknowledging his romantic feelings for Charlie to himself and wondering if that might mean that he's gay (and if so, what does that mean for him?), the contrast with Charlie's fairly straightforward hopefulness and attentive support network highlights how alone Nick is, and with something more daunting.

But Nick is strong and brave, and he's not going to let that stop him.

It's after this that we get the same shot as the first one, from behind Nick, except now the camera is inside the bedroom with Nick and getting ever closer. Nick then even turns toward the camera at the end. The question is: Who is Nick, really, on the inside?

He's ready to find out, even if it's scary.

But because there are no people close to him that Nick could talk to about what's going on with him — no friends Nick can reach out to about how he's feeling, he doesn't know how his mother would respond to this, Charlie is the one he's having feelings for so he can't really talk to him about it — Nick uses what seems like the only option open to him: the internet.

And then Nick is confronted with results about violent hate crimes, conversion therapy, opposition to equal rights, discrimination, not to mention some unhelpful quizzes...so much anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiment and the horrible things that that can lead to, all whilst he's having a complete identity crisis. Nick is so alone and afraid, feeling deeply confused and misunderstood — including misunderstood by himself — and his internet reading has not only not provided clarity or a sense of being seen, but it's even highlighted that Nick may have reasons to be afraid.

And because Nick doesn't have a support network he feels he can talk to about this, he's stuck with these feelings for now.

In conclusion: This sequence breaks my heart. (If your heart is also breaking, my related post may help heal it. Or I recommend watching Heartstopper. If your heart isn't breaking, I blame my post. Go watch the end of S1E2 and the beginning of S1E3 and then come tell me that your heart is still whole)

[crazylittlejester]

I'd absolutely love to hear what you have to say about Time 🙃 /gen

And, I hope you are feeling well. I think you said you were dizzy? I hope that gets better 🫶

I’m feeling much better, thank you!! I hope you’re going good as well :)

Sorry this took me a whole day to type out, but I finished!! I got it!!

I have a lot more thoughts, I had to cut a lot for the sake of making it readable and not obnoxiously long so I really hope I still get my points across well 😭 , but here we go:

An Abridged Version of My Thoughts on Time (I’m Insane I’m Sorry):

Okay so I’m starting off this whole thing by saying that 100% of this is my opinion and the research I did was done specifically to back my stance (which does not make it canonical fact. You can do research to back any point. You can do research to argue against my point, even). This doesn’t make my perspective or interpretation of a character the correct one by any means, and this definitely leans towards how I personally characterize and view him and is biased in that way because I’m the one who wrote it. All of you are entitled to your own opinions, you don’t have to agree with or listen to a single thing I say. In fact if you do disagree I encourage you to reblog and share your OWN thoughts so I can read YOUR perspective! I like seeing opinions people have and I love to see how differently all of us can view the same character /gen. I just that ask if you do do this, that you be kind and respectful to myself and others :)

This entire yap, analysis, whatever you wanna call it, is my perspective on Time and my thoughts behind why I believe he acts the way he does. At some point in all this I’m specifically going to focus on how he’s acting at the end of the Dawn arc and in the more recent updates. However in order to talk about that I wanna go to the beginning and talk about his past, the environment he grew up in, his relationships with others, and how I believe that has shaped the way he functions as an adult. My apologies now for being insane, unfortunately I have no life and also a lot of thoughts, and full access to a college library full of case studies- My professors would be so proud… Hope y’all enjoy lmao

Loneliness and Isolation:

One of the first things I noticed when I started playing OOT was this divide between Link and the Kokiri. Despite the fact that none of them know he’s actually a hylian, the bullying and teasing and the way they treat him for not having a fairy feels as though they’re making him to be different from them. Even Saria and the Great Deku Tree speak to/about him in ways that make it seem that, even though they care about him, they do see him as different from the others. (Granted, Saria’s treatment of Link is likely fully an unintentional thing. She doesn’t mean to be cruel when she makes her comment about how after Link got his fairy he could be a real Kokiri because she is a child and probably didn’t think about how that would come off to a kid who’s been arguably treated as less than for not having a fairy this entire time. She’s probably aware of how upset he’s been, but they’re children and I doubt she realized her attempt at comfort potentially made Time feel worse. The Great Deku Tree, on the other hand, referring to him as ‘the boy without a fairy’ immediately makes it clear to us as the player that Link is different from the Kokiri. He knows Link is hylian, which is something the player, Link, and the Kokiri do not know at this point)

Not having a fairy like the others certainly separates Time from the Kokiri because having a fairy companion appears to be a huge deal, something everyone has in common except for him. While it isn’t really on the same scale, I imagine this feeling of not having something your friends do could be, to an extent, comparable to how it would feel if all your peers had cell phones or social media access and you did not. (BAD EXAMPLE I KNOW BUT HEAR ME OUT.) The ability to consume media at such a fast pace and share jokes and trends with peers has become something to bond over, and being outside of that ‘world’ would leave someone to feel like they’re missing out on something they couldn’t possibly understand unless they get it for themselves. When your friends all have phones and you don’t, you have to sit there awkwardly when they all pull them out to text people or look things up, even if you’re doing something that doesn’t even require being on your phone, like going to the mall or hanging out. Sure they might show you a meme or two, but you can’t show them your memes, or share things and exist in the online world the way they do. Time could see and interact with the others’ fairies but he didn’t have that for himself, and I imagine it was probably hard for him to bond with the Kokiri because of it. Even if they were just playing a game or messing around and he wasn’t even being teased for not having a fairy of his own, those other fairies were right there as a constant reminder that Time didn’t have his own companion because he was, for a reason he couldn’t understand, different

Having played Skyward Sword and the beginning of Twilight Princess and seeing how both of those Links are treated by the people around them in comparison to how the Kokiri interact with Time, it feels safe to say there’s a good possibility he felt out of place and a little isolated by his own community. The way he was seemingly blamed for the death of the Great Deku Tree after finding out the life altering information that he is different probably did nothing but cause further divide between himself and the Kokiri in his mind, if not completely sever the connection he had between himself and that community

Do I think the Kokiri completely excluded him and intentionally tried to isolate him? No, I do not. However it’s clear that Saria was his best friend and the others weren’t always the nicest to him. It’s not too far a stretch to say he probably felt very lonely at times in his childhood, more so than the average kid

The theme of isolation and loneliness continues when the timeline shenanigans happen at the end of OOT and Time is now the only one who knows what happened to him. He has absolutely nothing to show for what he physically just went through and he can tell people about it all he wants but they’ll never understand because for them it simply never happened. Once again Time is isolated from this community he finds himself a part of because he’s different from them in a way they cannot relate to, driving a wedge between him and the rest of society. And Malon and Zelda are not people who would intentionally drive him further from feeling like he can belong, but they will forever be different from him in a way none of them now have the power to control. He formed relationships with them and with other people that were then erased. He knows a version of them that doesn’t exist anymore (in the timeline he continued to live in), and he’s alone in that. There IS no fix to that problem

Attachment Styles and Development

Relationships are crucial to child development and the connections formed when we’re young impact the way we create and view our relationships in adulthood. Peer relationships are just as important as parental ones because they play a different role. While your friends are the ones who have more of an impact on things like your music tastes, interests, and sense of identity/role within your group of peers, it’s your parents/caregivers who teach you right from wrong (often religion plays a part in that as well though not always), are responsible for feeding you and helping you learn new skills as a young child. Having a secure attachment and good relationship to caregivers when you’re young really impacts how you seek comfort as an adult and how you form relationships with others. Children whose parents or caregivers responded to their distress in unpredictable ways (by offering comfort sometimes and being unable to other at times, for an example) are less likely to seek out those figures for comfort or be soothed by them when the comfort is offered. I have no idea exactly how old Time was when he was placed with the Kokiri or what his mother was like, but I feel it’s fair to say the Great Deku Tree was probably the closest thing to a parental figure/caregiver (while he was living with the Kokiri) that he has any memory of. And I also feel it’s fair to say that as the stationary tree guardian of a bunch of immortal children, it was pretty impossible for him to support all of those kids’ emotional needs

Making this assumption based solely on Navi’s role in the story and what she does for us as players of the game: I feel like the fairy companions might almost be more of a parental/caregiver like figure to the Kokiri children than the Great Deku Tree is, simply because they’re able to be around them more. Navi helps Time (and the player) find things, gives clues, and helps the player with the game controls, so inside the actual game I think it’d be fair to say she (and other fairies) have more of a hands on role in guiding these children than the Great Deku Tree. And again, Time didn’t have that, not until his adventure started. He didn’t have a fairy companion while his friends and peers did, he was on his own. He wasn’t getting that potential comfort from a reliable caregiver the others were, which I believe can be partly responsible for how determined he is to solve his own issues. (Of course personality also has a play in things like this, and as we all know the hero’s spirit is incredibly fucking stubborn.) He was taught through the failures of the ‘adult’ figures in his life that the only one who’d be there to really comfort him was him

Identity and Relationships

Apart from feeling alone and not having the same types of companionship his peers did, I firmly believe Time seriously struggled with identity issues as well. Being told he wasn’t enough for the Master Sword yet, just to then be suddenly physically several years older and expected to operate as an adult despite having less than a decade of life experience, back to being shoved into the body of a child after living through horrors and accumulating scars that are now just gone doesn’t real make for the most confident, mentally stable of people. The message he most likely took from that was “You’re not enough as you are.”

He was a hero who saved a kingdom, then forgotten when everything was set back, and then abandoned by the one person (fairy) who went through it all with him after it was all done. If he’d felt alone or isolated in his youth before all that happened, I can’t imagine how overwhelming all those emotions were after all that. He needed Navi because she’s the only one who can really validate what he went through, she was the only one who could have understood him. She was a guardian and a friend and he couldn’t figure out why she left him, which must’ve just been absolutely devastating.

He was still just a kid, with no one to talk to about these issues. (Though he sort of works through some of them on his own through helping others in Majora’s Mask. Granted that left him with new issues even if it may have helped him work through a few old ones. I think there are quite a lot of similarities between Link and Skull Kid, but that’s a yap for another day.) I can imagine that both his identity and what he was supposed to do with himself were things he questioned constantly, and building relationships with people was probably very difficult for him when he hadn’t fully worked out himself. And he didn’t really have someone to comfort him or help him figure all that out

At a certain point, I think the feeling of being alone became almost a comfort to him. It was the most reliable thing he had, he could handle things on his own and that was something he knew for fact. He learned how to deal with his emotions and issues (maybe not in the healthiest of ways in his youth), and instead of being so suffocating, the isolation became something he could CONTROL. With all the instability throughout his childhood, the fact that he could reliably be on his own without dealing with the unpredictability of others was probably a relief. He didn’t have to worry about people leaving or getting hurt because he couldn’t protect them, but that didn’t really replace the feeling of loneliness so much as sloppily cover it up

Malon and the ranch are things that have been able to give him something he hadn’t had in years, which was stability and companionship. He’s been alone and isolated or dealing with loss his entire life, but she’s able to provide him with something steady, something safe to come back to. That’s been absolutely huge for him in regards to the healing process, because not only is it said in LU that she believes him completely, she’s literally his biggest supporter. And having a sturdy location and person to come back to at the end of whatever little trips he probably continued to go off to gave him comfort while still allowing him to keep that feeling of control over himself and his life. Sure not everything is perfect all the time and relationships are things that you have to put time, effort, and patience into, but he’s allowed to have his support and his much needed feeling of control over his life at the same time while living in that scenario. She loves him, she loves him very much and I have no doubt they worked together to get him to the place of comfort he’s at now. The panels from any of the ‘Malon’ posts are really the most relaxed we’ve seen Time for long stretches of time, it’s clear he’s been able to make a safe space for himself there

And now here’s the part where I actually talk about the recent comic update(s)!!!!!!!! (Yippee!!!)

Time is a very quiet, stoic character in LU especially when compared to the others, which are qualities that pull a lot from the hero’s shade. He’s the unofficial official leader, and he’s at a point in his life where he’s been able to work on himself and form healthy relationships (not perfect ones, but healthy ones built on communication which is clearly a struggle for him still but I cannot afford to get into that this post because that’s way too much. If y’all want a yap about that, ask me later). He puts a lot of stress and pressure onto himself, because he feels as though he’s responsible for these younger heroes, even though some of them have far more experience than he does

But in addition to this, he’s absolutely terrified of caring about people, and he’s not used to working with other people in this area of his life. Because no one sticks around, and if they do, what’s stopping the timeline from resetting somehow and taking their memory of him away? He no longer has the stability and comfort that comes with being alone because he’s forced to work with other people, other heroes who are equal to him in that regard, and people are unpredictable. And with unpredictability comes loss of control

Anger is an easier emotion for a child to process, and express themself through. This is why depression in children often manifests itself as anger. Children dealing with depression have a harder time managing and controlling their anger and can come off as snappier, inattentive, and reckless (obviously this is not the same case for every single child). While he certainly isn’t a child anymore in LU, I think Time is still someone who when overwhelmed is quick to anger, but this does not mean that he’s not kind. He’s incredibly kind and caring, and you can tell he loves everyone around him so deeply even though he’s probably a bit angry at himself for letting them all worm their way into his heart because he’s going to have to let them go some day. But still, some of that snappiness comes through even in his adult years and he’s a lot harsher with the others than I believe he intends to be. He’s not genuinely angry at them, he’s mad at the situation they’re in right now because he’s no longer responsible for just himself. He doesn’t have control anymore, and he’s probably back to feeling like a scared child who might be about to lose everyone again and he hates that

Twilight got hurt and he blames himself for it. He’s in an unfamiliar situation with people he cares a lot about who are all just as reckless and determined as he is, and he has absolutely no idea what to do with himself because in his mind if he lets something happen to one of these boys, that’s on him and he should’ve done better

Ough (A Continuation of ‘Isolation’)

In a way Time exists on a different level of the timeline. He retained memories of things that no longer exist, and he’s witnessed the rewritting of time over and over again. The timeline he was born in may no longer be the one he exists in, though it certainly branched from that original one. He has knowledge and memories of relationships that are real to only him in the timeline where he lives, and I would argue that because of this, he lives outside of society

Now this genuinely has nothing to do with anything I just wanna yap about something because The Voices, and it’s gonna be a fucking reach but if you’ve stayed this long you must find something appealing about my incoherent rambling so allow me to draw a genuinely insane comparison between Time and his existence in society and ‘The Lady of Shallot’, written in 1832 by a poet by the name of Alfred Tennyson. If you have no idea what this is, it’s incredibly short and easy to find with a quick google search, and I encourage you to read it. But for those of you who didn’t sign up for a poetry assignment today I’ll summarize

The Lady of Shallot is cursed to stay in a tower away from the rest of society and she’s unable to look upon Camelot with her own eyes, because something bad will happen if she does though she has no idea what. Day after day she creates these tapestries of what she sees of the society behind her through a mirror. She’s unable to look at it with her own eyes so what she creates is unable to perfectly reflect what it is the world has to offer. And she’s absolutely sick of it, she sees happy people wandering down below, knights riding through, she sees through her mirror what life is like for those within society and she wants to join them. She sees a beautiful man one day (Lancelot) and decides the curse is worth it, just for a chance to leave her tower, so she turns around and sees Camelot with her own eyes. She leaves her tower and goes to join society but by the time she gets there she’s dead

Now one of the meanings hidden within this is how artists are almost outside of society and that is how they are able to so accurately depict it, and that joining society and being ‘normal’ would make them unable to keep their unique perspective that isolation provides. But I’m going to be crazy here and draw parallels to a video game character because I CAN

Time exists outside of society and is isolated from every community he tries to be a part of because the differences between him and the Kokiri/normal hylian are so significant he feels like he doesn’t belong there. Despite having built his sense of identity back up, he still, to an extent, feels like an outsider. The things he’s been through separate him from being able to just be a normal guy, and he craves so badly to be part of a community he’s almost convinced himself he CANNOT join. The chain (and Malon, but mainly the other heroes) help him have something to connect to, because while they may not have the exact same experience they understand him more than anyone else ever could. He then tries to join society, something happens, and he dies a warrior full of regrets

Is it a reach? Yeah. But I like the poem and I can’t stop thinking about the parallels (that I’ve probably completely fucking made up at this point) every time I think too long about Time and it makes me claw at the dry wall and scream. I’m so normal…

Anyways, *weak cough* thanks for reading, if you did. It means a lot that you’ve supported my insanity. I hope this is coherent-

Thanks Emmie for reading through this for me 😭, and special shoutout to every single one of you who sent me asks yesterday to remind me to write this I love you all sm actually:

@trash-aged-like-fine-wine @rebornofstars @blueskybehindtheclouds @captainn-hook @ghosttoasts

[vryfmi]

[major book spoilers!]

a mildly long analysis of skull and Lucy's relationship in TEG in light of recent Stroud's interview answer.

also i need this video on my blog

[audio transcript of The Writing Community Chat stream:

CJ (host), reading a question from NeeveDaFoe: I need to know why Skull is more powerful than Ezekiel!!!

Jonathan Stroud: Well, I think the power that he has is through his connection with Lucy. I think, ultimately, the message of Lockwood & Co books, and indeed most of my books, is that you get your strengths through the connection with others, love and mutual support. So, our friend, the skull, ultimately, gains his power through the relationship he's built up with Lucy over the course of the books, despite all his rude comments.

CJ, laughing: Nice!

/end transcript]

it's not like i didn't know it beforehand, the message is very clear in the books and especially in how skull and Ezekiel are juxtaposed in their confrontation. that skull looks almost like his alive self minus transparency and gauntness of his features, while Ezekiel has barely anything that would make us think he used to be human. he's disconnected from reality, he views himself as an ascended being. meanwhile skull is there to be a sarcastic menace and definitely not to save Lucy bc he definitely didn't grow to care for her.

but the thing is that Lucy tried to put her trust into skull only now. it wasn't even her first decision when confronting Marissa and Ezekiel, far from it. she'd freed skull only when Lockwood came in and she wasn't afraid to face whatever was at hand alone. being strangled by insane old woman possessing her granddaughter's body or get ghost-touched by Ezekiel or skull at that matter — doesn't make much of a difference. she did promise skull to free him, she got the taste of what it's like to be stuck on The Other Side, so she delivered, trusting that skull won't hurt her nor Lockwood when the two of them were seconds away from taking Marissa down, even if it was the last thing she did.

saying that skull payed back Lucy for freeing him just doesn't seem right. she was feeding him empty promises the whole book to the point where both skull and Lucy knew that they had this same conversation over and over again to no avail. but skull kept bringing it up. while Lucy couldn't bring herself to trust skull even after all help he provided for her and her friends.

but her attitude changes once she meets skull on The Other Side, the person that he once was. or at least that what she thinks in that moment because that's the same skull she was talking to for the past 2 years. Lucy has a clear disconnect: seeing not just an obscure grimace in the jar but a whole person before her. it strikes that The Lucy Carlyle Formula™ button and she aches with sympathy describing skull's appearance, acknowledging that he passed away at young age, at her age. whether she sees her situation and her inevitable demise in him, or is simply struck with "there's more to just the skull (a literal bone), there's a person before her", Lucy has a full 180 on skull from that point forward. but it's too late and it's her fault. skull gets taken away and Lucy is left alone in the kitchen. how much did she regret not listening to skull, not trusting him, not getting to know him? apparently a lot judging by their second (technically third) run into each other on The Other Side:

A wave of something washed through me. Relief? Pleasure at seeing something familiar in this dreadful place? Whatever it was, it made me warm. (TEG)

[i know what you are]

but if Lucy had time to ponder, so did skull. it makes sense that he'd say 'Shared names come with trust'. i believe he told the truth there and he forgot his name for good but still made it clear for Lucy — it's a bit too late for getting to know each other, especially after Lucy was giving him a cold shoulder, when that hammer was still on her belt. for all he knew, Lucy and her friends could've had not made it across Dark London and he'd be forever trapped in Fittes basement or worse. in any other situation he'd have no one to blame but circumstances, but here it would've been Lucy's fault.

and yet, despite all that, despite all rude comments and headbutting, skull's more human than Ezekiel because of Lucy, and he's stronger than Ezekiel because he cares for and loves Lucy. not my words, Stroud's. whatever sick manipulations and control Ezekiel had over Marissa and vice versa, it stood no chance against two mean teenagers that fought their way through trauma with humor, sarcasm and gratuitous bum jokes.

now leave me alone to sulk over skullyle

[atiny-for-life]

Ateez's Full Storyline Explained - Part 27

Masterlist

Birthday (Unknown World)

We open on a letter and an envelope which is placed on top and currently being opened. The wax seal reads 'Ateez' while the letter in the back seems to be written by someone describing a dream they've had, or perhaps... a wish?

'-big wish!' '-high up in the sky-' '-soar above the clouds-' '-all I want to fly even higher ... up to the moon!' '-with twinkling stars all-' '-land on the moon-'

Right after, a child's voice is heard, reading out yet another letter detailing their birthday wish as we get a shot of a table covered in the same type of envelopes as the first one we saw: white with a wax seal showing Ateez's name in lieu of an address.

Pretty quickly, it becomes clear this version of Ateez has created an agency dedicated to making children's birthday wishes come true. In their dreams, that is, since that is where these guys are wholly in control.

The first time I saw this video, I was merely appreciating the stunning visuals of the shots, editing, styling and colors, but upon second watch, I thought: this is Halazia's Ateez again, isn't it?

The purple background we've seen with Halazia's Hongjoong twice, the styling choices, the personalities. It gives Matz, it gives Not Okay. To quickly explain myself, I've previously established in my analysis of Matz how I identify Halazia's version of Ateez and, while there were a lot more parallels there, I find Hongjoong's scene from Halazia in particular to be quite useful for detection.

The fluffy hat and purple lighting are easily implemented in other videos and were both also found in Matz to drop hints at a connection:

And what do we find here in this one? A purple background in the opening and during the chorus and, on top of that, a giant fluffy, purple hat on Hongjoong later in the video.

Additionally, all their behavior is also a lot more in line with the mildly unhinged personalities of the Halazia crew. They enjoy chaos, they like setting fire to things, they're like the Black Pirates' version of Ateez but even more out there. I'll also point out more parallels as we come across them from here on out.

To bring things more in line with the commonly known lore though, we should also pause on this flash of Seonghwa in front of a full moon - the moon phase in which the Cromer enables jumping between realities which these guys seem to love doing more than anything.

Last we've seen the Halazia crew was in the unit songs in which they were searching for healing after all the trauma they'd been through. To me, it would make sense they would then choose to reunite as eight and heal their wounds further by actually using their powers for good. And what could be more healing for the soul than making children's wishes come true?

But, of course, since these guys are just a touch insane, they don't just make the sweet and pure dreams come true, but rather the "funny" and... "a little dangerous" ones because anything else would be boring and, while in a dream, there's no harm in letting kids live a little recklessly.

The most obvious one of these children's dreams is the glow-in-the-dark bicycle with wings which we get to see both Wooyoung and Seonghwa ride throughout the video. Shoutout to Wooyoung's stylist by the way - the skirt? The hair? The cropped jacket and colors? Genius. He looks absolutely stunning.

Following their shots, the lyrics change, highlighting nighttime as is common for Ateez's songs. For them, the night brings chaos, it's when they're most active, it's when they pull off their missions and get to mess around with people's dreams. "The real battle begins now," is what Jongho says. And I believe which battle he's speaking of will become clear later on.

During this sequence of Jongho, we also get this shot of him with his reflection which reminds me of Not Okay where he was reaching for his reflection, perhaps seeing himself from another world, a better world, but those times are over now. It's time to face reality.

Before we then cut to Yeosang, we see a candle with a purple flame - hinting at Halazia again, I'd say.

After this, we get a sequence of Yeosang posing with the letters spelling out Birthday and the way it was edited to match the instrumental is perfect. It's camp. I adore it.

We then cut to a clock, showing it's shortly past midnight (I assume that's when they clock in for 'work'), as Jongho asks "Why so serious?" which is likely addressing the people whose dreams they are invading here en masse. Why are you taking life so seriously? Why are you not having more fun? Why are you not taking risks?

Following the chorus, which is all about escaping the work rut and instead choosing to party, skip Mondays, etc., we move into Hongjoong's rap verse where we quickly get another shot paralleling Not Okay, which was the latest music featuring the Halazia crew and was wholly dedicated to exploring the trauma inflicted upon them by their government.

In the lyrics, Hongjoong tells us they've been reborn and are now in charge of the mic. Their voices will now be heard, they get to make the rules and dictate their own lives.

And then he proceeds to end his verse by hypnotizing himself into unconsciousness.

Mingi takes over for him, talking about how it's his birthday every day, which is (apparently) not easy for him, before he gets more serious as we pan through the bullet hole in his birthday cake.

He says each day is a fight, and yet he parties on the stage, and that, if we want our dreams to come true, we should call him, which makes me wonder if this is how they promote their services to the people of this world. Is this a dream they put into people's heads when they come into their world? During a crescent moon, they'd absolutely have the power to do so after all.

Next chorus and we've got the classic arsony reference. It wouldn't be a video with the Halazia crew if there weren't fire at some point. Where the Z-World crew enjoyed playing with fire here and there (like Wooyoung in Fireworks), these guys will fully burn down a building any chance they get.

During this sequence, we also get a classic shot of Yunho surrounded by masked dancers which we've seen with the Halazia crew many times over - in Matz, in It's You, in Not Okay. It's yet another hint.

In the bridge leading into the final section of the song, we get a line that I believe is quite telling when it comes to their mindset as a collective.

"Chaos but paradise." They acknowledge most people's lives are chaotic, full of choices to make, uncontrollable, unpredictable, and yet it's paradise to them who grew up under a government which controlled every single part of their lives, mind-controlling them, trapping them in looping days without sunlight, each day like the last, not even a taste of freedom to be had.

When you lived like that until just recently then, yes, this is paradise. This absolutely unpredictable chaos is like heaven, so of course they wouldn't understand why we take our lives so seriously. Why do we choose to obey social norms when we don't have to? Why can we only dream up flying bicycles as children and later in life, we only think of work and money? After all, everybody could skip work and just have fun if they truly wanted to. No Android Guardians would show up to kill them over it like they would have in their world.

The fact that this line is then followed by Jongho's high note, screaming out "We're drowning!" is also really telling to me. They're not at all over their trauma yet, this is merely another step toward healing and understanding their new reality. They're having fun with people's dreams to distract themselves, but as they try to do just that, they're also forced to realize that people are struggling in every world they travel to, whether there is a government like theirs or not. No matter where they go, there's suffering in some way shape or form. There's no escape. And yet they keep trying.

The final shot, after a series of chants by the entire crew ("Don't want to stop, we're on the top!"), is of Wooyoung in his adorable little outfit falling through a glittery night sky, like Alice falling down the rabbit hole to Wonderland. It's a fitting parallel given how they're all currently choosing to live in Wonderland, the dream world, instead of living out in the harsh real world where healing would take so much longer.

[lovelyrotter]

okay but i actually kinda wanna know ur take on stridercest being canon compliant O_O <- autism stare

oh hey i am also hitting you with the autism stare. ill try to get my thoughts down in a way that makes sense to more than just me hahaha

bear in mind that im an epilogue lover and i think Meat/Candy are really valuable pieces that further all of the characters and are also hard canon in the sense that we're looking at just 2 post-game universe outcomes out of an uncountable number (the book in the picnic basket representing post-canon fanfic). i think the characters actions in the epilogues make sense and are satisfying to me. yes even jane (i love alpha jane and i will not do her the disservice of 'cleaning her up' w/o showing her work for it. thats not how you depict a character who grew up with fascist programming). i could totally go on a whole tangent about this specifically but thats another post lol we'd be here forever and its also not stridercest

but okay. canon stridercest. under the cut cause it got kinda long

basically it has to do with the cherubs and how their relationships and mating rituals are pretty obviously incestuous leaning even though cherubs dont have the human concept of Siblings or blood family. the cherub who predominates will search across paradox space to mate with another cherub who closely resembles the cherub they predominated which is like textbook Freudian sexuality. theres a lot of Freud and Jungian stuff in HS imo even if im kinda [wobbly hand gesture] at the validity of these theories applied to real life and real people. but theyre super fun tools and lenses to use in fiction and i mean. gestures at all of dave

so the incest aliens cherubs. the whole reason why im talkin about them is bc Caliborn is so incredibly interested and invested in the Striders in particular. caliborn as both Lord English and Lil Cal shapes earth NOT OVERTLY but more so embeds himself in earth society, but again, the Striders lives in particular. dave is full of incest jokes. hes even apparently got a list of his friends arranged in order of how likely theyd incest-elope with each other (thank you epilogues for this amazing factoid). he seems to think about it often enough to, yknow, Do That. have a good solid think about that and construct an organized list about it. bearing in mind dave makes jokes about stuff thats a) bothering him, or b) generally camping out in his brain. hes not even really aware of it most of the time (as we see in one of the openbounds where hes all 'why am i thinking about puppets???' after seeing dirk for the first time in that dream bubble. he is thinking nonstop about dirk at that point and going off his only frame of reference for ANY dirk, which is his bro. his bro who was most likely deeply warped by Lil Cal)

sorry for the long blocky paragraph lol. but now onto the next thing

Caliborn as Lil Cal is the centerpiece in the beta strider apartment. dave cant escape him and beta dirk grew up with him. what the fuck do you do when youre childhood comfort item is also the most evil creature across all of paradox space? if youre a dirk you try to fight it. but how long can you keep fighting something like that. its safe to say that bro was affected by Caliborns particular brand of perversion and sfw kink. i dont think i have to say how insidious abusive and toxic he is about those things. and looking at the truth of beta bro (16yo alpha dirk) you can start to see just how warped beta bro became. beta bro is a false dirk (still a very Real dirk but not the Truth of dirk. beta bro has been toxified and made infinitely worse by an absolute evil influence over decades of life. in 80s fuckin texas. presumably in the system. anyone would be fucked up after that)

so for this analysis/theory im stating beta bro as a false persona. using jungian terms he is apha dirk's shadow

both dave and dirk live with a fake, carefully manicured version of their bros. they live with personas (or shadows of their guardians on the walls. hello platos allegory of the cave). they dont actually know e/o and they dont until the striunion

alpha dirk especially grows up embedded in the Public Persona Of Dave Strider 400 years post mortem and completely alone with unlimited internet access. hes a self admitted expert on his bro and we dont get to see a lot if any of his early childhood but i can hazard a guess at how much he clung to that persona of his bro. he fuckin idolizes dave. he LOVES dave. right off the bat he is in some kind of love with dave and i think if you try to argue against that then thats you slippin. i think youre a fool and have to reread homestuck because i wholeheartedly believe the striders loving eachother is part of the win state

once again this is speculation cause we get barely anything about alpha dave, but from what we already know about him im guessing this bro-persona is

achingly effortlessly cool

oozing masculinity (toxic or not, not really interested in categorizing that although toxic coolboy masculinity IS something the striders contend with & is an important facet in their lives)

a skilled fighter

a dedicated moviegoer (hes a director need i say more. this one is probably the only genuine thing about his on-screen persona)

and now lets look at jake. someone whos grown up on pretty much nothing but movies, whos doubtlessly been influenced by hollywood and its idea of gritty 'main character' masculinity through that, and who also clings to more old-school ideas of manliness (think victorian/edwardian era gentlemanly-but-loves-a-good-scrum kinda manly. moustache twirly with a monocle kinda manly. basically everything that grandpa harley is)

but okay lets look at what jake wants to be. lets take a look at his teenager persona

achingly effortlessly cool (his own 'hollywood star' kind of cool also def influenced by his favourite characters like lara croft who is indeed achingly cool. you see him succeed in inhabiting this hollywood star persona on earth c)

oozing masculinity (the old school manly mans-man kind)

a skilled fighter (two pistoles always. harder to aim cause you cant use a free hand to make up for kickback. that takes skill)

a dedicated moviegoer (again one of the only genuine parts about his persona. his questionable-to-wretched tastes aside. but bearing in mind that the SBaHJ movies are intentionally bad which is what makes them loop around to good. such is the nature of intentionally 'bad' art. jake fuckin lives in this perpetual bad-good art loop. okay enough with the art tangent keep focused man cmon)

because dirk has obviously way more contact with jake i dont doubt he sees through jakes own (admittedly way more flimsy) coolboy persona but the point still stands i think. different flavours but the same kinda guy. dirk has a type and i dont think its a stretch to say that hes looking for aspects of the bro-persona he grew up looking at in other boys, much like the winning cherub looking for the one they lost in the cherub theyll mate with

also wtf is with dirks obvious boner for dave chasing him across paradox space to decapitate him huh?? the last few sentences in Meat are about that very thing. he wants to fuc fight dave sooo bad. haha remember how the cherubic mating ritual is one of the most violent and long running spectacles in paradox space? i sure do

[yggdraseed]

An Incomplete Analysis of the Sukunadome

I stress the point that this is an inherently incomplete analysis. It's getting late, I'm tired and unhappy, and… well, the fight isn't over yet, so there's no way this analysis could be complete even if I felt like it. However, it's on my mind, and I feel the need to start exerting myself more on these things. Sometimes sweat is the better medicine. I know this is a long one and doesn’t have any pictures, but if we all support each other, we’ll get through it together.

Full disclosure, I wish more people had gotten filtered by this fight and just stopped talking about Jujutsu Kaisen by now. Like yeah, I think it's great different people see things in different ways, but let's all be honest with ourselves here, most of the people criticizing this fight are not doing so with any sort of literary or artistic perspective or good faith. Most of it is Gojo fans who are still crying, seething, vomiting, pissing, and shitting over the fact that the character they attached their ego to didn't win Jujutsu Kaisen like they wanted. If this describes you, well, this post will probably do you some good, but I'm confident nobody who takes the stance that Gojo should have won would have the space in their mind for what I'm about to say about Sukunadome.

Because that's what I'm calling it. "The Sukuna Cycle" was maybe a little funny for a week or two, but like most memes about this series, it wasn't really based on the story so much as it was on an agenda. Kusakabe was part of the fight since Yuji and Higuruma entered, and up until Miguel, we knew all the combatants who would be tagging in were there. We knew Yuta was off dealing with Kenjaku and would return, we knew Maki was in play, and there really weren't a lot of switches. Just Choso leaving and coming back, Ui Ui retrieving Higuruma's and Gojo's corpses, and… you know, actually, I think that's it. Sure isn't as much as the "Sukuna Cycle" memes made it out to be, huh?

Okay, if you haven't noticed yet, I'm a big JJK fan and a big JJK fandom hater. I think JJK has the worst Western internet fanbase I've seen in a long time, with only a few oases scattered across the internet where you can find intelligent life. Like it's insane what kind of bullshit a person can convince themselves of.

However, I'm not analyzing JJK's fanbase, I'm analyzing JJK. Someday we'll litigate whether or not Lobotomy Kaisen was really funny enough to justify how badly it ruined this fanbase's ability to objectively, productively engage with with one of the most competently written and culturally impactful manga to come out this century. Today is not that day.

So Sukuna's got four arms and knows how to use them. He's got four eyes and so much sass one mouth wasn't enough for the amount of trash he's got to talk to the youths of today. Just on a basic level, having four arms would be such an insignificant power in any other Shonen as to almost be a joke. Yet with how jujutsu sorcery functions as a power system and how adept Sukuna is at using every possible advantage at his disposal - even going so far as to take what probably should be disadvantages and twist them to work for him - having the ability to make hand seals while fighting hand-to-hand, and being able to chant without interrupting his breathing, are inseparable from Sukuna's godlike fighting ability. I love how something seemingly so mundane is such a huge x factor for Sukuna.

We continually see how Sukuna is a complex, but fundamentally vile antagonist. He has a very rich, detailed view of the world, but one that fundamentally reduces every other human being to be his playthings and food. It's just that Sukuna says, "Don't like it? Then get stronger." It's a very Social Darwinist, late stage capitalist view to be coming from the Heian Era, and I think that maybe it's intentional. Shitty people are shitty in mostly the same ways, it's just they find new things to be shitty about or to use to be shitty with.

Like if that were all it is, it'd make Sukuna so effective as a villain to hate and would slot so nicely into Jujutsu Kaisen's overarching social and political commentary. Cruelty within suffering, selfishness as a strength and a weakness, the unfairness of how the strength to pursue one's agency is unevenly distributed and how the haves don’t realize how easily they could have instead been have-nots, it's all there.

But there’s this inherent charisma to Sukuna that I think is intentional. He has this noblesse oblige where he’s so inherently aware of his greatness that he doesn’t have a problem with giving credit where credit is due. Like he talks all the trash when he’s fighting Jogo, but where Gojo’s insults come across as puerile and blunt, Sukuna’s always displaying this wit to him. And when the battle’s over, he acknowledges that even though Jogo wasn’t as strong as him, he was stronger than most and could have gone even further if he hadn’t held himself back. He starts off belittling Gojo in their fight, but by the end, he expresses a profound respect and gratitude towards Gojo. Like it’s a very warped form of those sentiments, but I think it’s sincere. Even with Ishigori, when Sukuna fails to cut him the first time, he just acknowledges it was disrespectful to hold back and that he’ll give it full force the next strike.

Something to keep in mind is that everything Megumi warned Yuji about when it comes to ancient sorcerers applies to Sukuna as well. They’re not treated as uniformly, unambiguously evil anymore than anyone else in JJK is, and are acknowledged as having fundamentally different world views about violence and the value of human life. Kashimo, for instance, seems to value his life only because he’s able to risk his life and lay it on the line. They’re people from an era where children died so young that parents often gave them numbered names so as to not get too attached until they’d see if their kids actually were going to make it or not. If you didn’t give your whole life over to a goal, you probably wouldn’t achieve it. Whereas modern sorcerers, modern people, have all these complex and sometimes contradictory views and needs, ancient sorcerers show a tendency to shave everything away except their one singular conviction because that was what you had to do in an era of much shorter life expectancies and peril on all sides. You’d be very lucky to accomplish one life goal, let alone as many as people of today set out to achieve: graduating high school, graduating college, getting a job, starting a family, and hopefully having one or two passions on the side. Fundamentally different worldviews from fundamentally different periods of history.

And Sukuna is no different. His goal is simple: partake in the many colors and flavors of humanity through mortal combat in the arena of sorcery. Sukuna’s love for sorcery runs deep. He’s always curious about different cursed techniques, even ones that are pedestrian to a sorcerer of his level, like Nanako’s smartphone-based technique. He reminds me of a quote from Baki: “Someone who works hard can never beat someone who enjoys himself.” Sukuna has clearly put forth great effort to master sorcery, but clearly doesn’t see it as work. He sees it as just doing what he enjoys and is good at.

Unfortunately for everyone else, he enjoys killing and is extremely good at it. Sukuna is the ultimate ethical heat death of the “live for yourself, cherish your own agency, don’t let yourself be controlled” mindset that is the ideological starting point of JJK. It’s a very dark, extreme interpretation of Buddhist non-attachment, where even compassion is an attachment to ultimately shed. Sukuna lives perfectly freely, including being free from guilt or compassion.

Naturally, there’s an exception. All things seem to have exceptions. In Sukuna’s case, that would be Uraume. I’ve been fascinated by their dynamic since we first learned of Uraume’s allegiance to Sukuna during Shibuya and I still can’t wait to know more. Suffice to say, Sukuna dotes on Uraume, forgiving their mistakes and seeming to enjoy their company not just because of their service to him, but because their existence makes him happy. I’m reminded of Power in Chainsaw Man, how she was seemingly incapable of empathy or mercy until she met Meowy.

Honestly, Sukuna reminds me a lot of a lot of characters in Chainsaw Man. People who are trying to climb from this state of misery, of struggling just to meet basic desires, and learning to be human. Yet Sukuna is so strong he never needed to learn to be human. He never needed to cooperate with others to survive — or at least, doesn’t seem to believe he did — and so he never saw the value in it. And so he’s basically brute forced his way around having to undergo an arc like Denji’s, and has instead ended up a hedonistic black hole devising all these complicated philosophical arguments to justify what is, really, a very simplistic, predatory desire to only satisfy his basic material wants and creative interests and nothing else for anyone else.

But like, it’s not that simple. If you give to others, you get something immaterial in return. I can’t quantity it or define it, but I’m sure most of you know what I mean. The happiness that comes from taking care of others’ needs, and the deeper levels beyond that happiness. Like I do believe that’s the subtext behind Binding Vows as metaphor: that you almost never give without getting in return. You might not get the same thing back, in the same form, but being changed by the act of putting the needs and wants of others before your own even temporarily still is part of the exchange. It’s part of becoming complete as a human being.

Sukuna has defied that exchange and broken the cycle, and I don’t think it’s inherently for his own benefit. There are some thing about being human that you don’t just get to opt out of, no matter how much you claim you’re more than or less than human. Even if Sukuna doesn’t think he’s lost something of value, he has. And that something of value is inherent to the whole point of this final battle.

Jujutsu Kaisen is basically working on two big problems. There are lots of ideas at play in the series, but there are two fundamental problems for which every fiight, every character arc, every turn of the gears consitutes part of the calculus to solve one or both of those problems.

The first problem, a thematic and philosophical one: “How do you love and fight for something when you know you’re going to die?”

The second problem, a metatextual one: “Is there any artistic and social value left in the Shonen formula as it stands in the modern day?”

And this fight is, ultimately, where GeGe is showing their work. It’s where Yuji has to defeat Sukuna, if not in terms of out-boxing him, then in terms of prevailing over his beliefs about humanity and the world as a whole.

GeGe has stripped Yuji of everything that is supposed to determine the worth of a Shonen protagonist’s victory. He’s not fighting alone, he didn’t go off and train all by himself, he trained with a lot of powerful, smart people who helped him. And Yuji is arguably not even the most important participant in the fight. So why should we care if Yuji wins?

The answer is so simple it’s easy to lose track of it. Yuji is risking his life to rescue someone, his friend, from being exploited, and to save the people of Japan from being exploited. Even after everything that’s happened, Yuji plants his fucking feet and takes a stance that no, shithead, there is such a thing as the right thing. Maybe it isn’t obvious all the time, and it sure as hell isn’t always easy to know what it is, but he knows now with certainty what it isn’t: to exploit others or to destroy yourself. We can find our answers somewhere in-between.

Sometimes we can’t resolve our problems with a tidy solution that makes everyone happy and sometimes we have to carve a piece of ourselves out and give to something we won’t be sure to see the fruition of, but that’s just life. It doesn’t mean we have to throw away all hope for things to get better. Even if the world won’t become utopian, it can still become better, no matter how many nihilists hide their own inequities behind assertions that there is no point.

Nihilism is not a solution to the problems of life, it is the choice to run away and hide. To give into nihilism is to give up the fight even while other people are still fighting all around you.

So that’s the fucking point of the Sukunadome. Nobara already said it better than anyone else has before she made Mahito look like the bitch he was and always will be: “Sometimes you need to fight even when you know you can’t win.” Because you won’t always win and you won’t escape death, nor will you know what lies beyond death. However, you can still live according to your principles and fight for the things you see as meaningful even if other people don’t.

That is why so many characters have come and gone from the fight. All gave some, some gave all. Nobody is truly useless — even if Miwa self-deprecatingly jokes about being useless, she still was the one thing standing between Maki and Malevolent Shrine’s eviscerating hellscape. Even Amai’s sweets-conjuring joke technique saved Hana from a would-be fatal fall and helped to supply sugar to the brains of people using reverse cursed technique in Shoko’s triage. Larue couldn’t do much, but they caught Sukuna’s eye at the perfect time for Yuji to land a Black Flash, and that means something. It all means something.

Given how deeply GeGe clearly respects Hunter X Hunter, I want to end off by citing one of the quotes in Hunter X Hunter that has been the most impactful for me and I suspect has been about as impactful on GeGe: “It seems small things… infinitesimally small things… are needed to build the entire universe. The size of a thing has nothing to do with its power.” We always seem to direct our senses to the superlatives. The largest, the oldest, the loudest, the things that hit the hardest. But while it would be wrong to throw those out, we often lose sight of how many little, important things there are in the midst of those huge, important things.

Seeing someone’s smile when you remembered something they said that showed you were listening to them. The feeling of a warm breeze on a summer morning. The smell of honeysuckle on your walk home. Waking up to rain on a Sunday. The taste of watermelon. Getting married. Having your heart broken. Songs that make you smile, songs that make you cry — songs that do both, and songs that make you feel things you can’t describe. When you’re always looking to those immense, monolithic things, always comparing your seemingly small, seemingley meaningless life to them, you lose sight of just how meaningful all of it is.

Just because it doesn’t have cosmic, absolute meaning doesn’t make it meaningless. Every little thing that means something to you is worthy of being cherished. The people around you, the things that bring you happiness, even if that happiness is going to ebb and flow. It’s all worth fighting for and living for. It just takes bravery and conviction to keep fighting and keep living with authenticity and love. And if there’s an artistic value, a greater meaning to Shonen, now and always, it’s the unerring, unabashed belief that there’s a reason to aim high and not give up.

Because sometimes, life hurts. But if it’s just pain, Yuji Itadori will never stop. We’ll see what I have to amend, reconsider, or elaborate on when the fight is finished. I hope this gave some of you a new way to look at it.

[four-loose-screws]

Etie Personality Analysis - Original Japanese vs. English Localization - Fire Emblem Engage

I've received 2 anons in regards to Etie, so I decided to do a full reading and analysis of her support conversation chains!

Even if I've seen her supports translated elsewhere, I'll still add my own commentary to be thorough, and just because I like to talk about FE support conversations that much.

First, I'll cover this anon.

I think the description that Etie speaks more formally, and like an 'ojou' type, in Japanese is pretty accurate.

Here's some notes I took while reading her support conversations (Not going to go into too much detail here, hopefully I describe enough that those without a basic understanding of Japanese can follow along well enough.):

She always ends her sentences with desu and masu. Sometimes even de gozaimasu. (For those who don't know much about the distinct difference between formal and casual Japanese speech, sentences in formal Japanese almost always end with either desu or masu tacked on. Informal Japanese drops them.)

Her 'I pronoun' is atakushi. (For those who don't know much about 'I pronouns' in Japanese, atakushi is not inherently for noblewoman only, but noblewomen tend to use it.)

She ends everyone's name with the suffix san (Equivalent to calling everyone "Miss/ Mrs." or "Mr.").

She ends many of her sentences in wa (わ) - not inherently formal or feminine - but is a common speech trait of noble ladies. Maribelle (from Awakening) is another character that stands out to me as using sentence-ending wa frequently.

She sometimes uses the 'polite' version of a word when one exists, like okata. (Kata is a general word meaning "person." Often used like a pronoun. Adding prefix 'o' makes the word more polite.)

This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but gets the point across.

In conclusion, I agree that Etie speaks more formally in Japanese, but mostly in ways that just don't directly translate into modern English, so something getting lost in translation was inevitable.

In English, there's no equivalent to ending one's sentences with desu and masu. There's no longer a formal and informal "I" pronoun. There's no "sentence endings" in English grammar that quite compare to those in Japanese. Etc., etc.

That being said, the localization could have made other word and voice acting choices to make up for the ENG / JP differences, but I don't think they really did. Characters like Maribelle (from Awakening), and Clair (from Echoes), are identifiable noblewomen pretty quickly based on how they speak in localization.

It's hard to tell exactly what direction the Engage localization staff were going in with Etie without official commentary. Maybe she comes off as more casual on purpose, maybe not.

I hope that all made sense, even to those who don't know much about Japanese! Please let me know if you have any further questions!

-----------

Now, for the 2nd anon!

This anon is much more general, so there's nothing specific to respond to. I'll just lead into my full support analysis here.

In short, Etie really is as much of a workout and muscle building fanatic in the Japanese as she is in the English. She feels like an extreme final evolution of Effie's (from Fates) dedication to training. Where Effie being a workout/ muscle buff was more of a side result of her dedication to training to better serve Elise, and the localization played up the workout obsession part a bit; Etie's character leans hard into that angle straight from the original Japanese into English.

Aside from working out and building muscle, Etie's supports are also often centered around her tendency to rush to conclusions, then walk off before the other person has time to explain themself. The rest of the support chain is spent leading up to Etie realizing she made a mistake. With the misunderstanding cleared up, she happily becomes close friends with her conversation partner.

In my analysis of each conversation, I'll focus on discussing whether or not Etie herself and her personality come off as any different; but while we are on the topic, I'll briefly note anything else different about the convos as well.

Etie / Alear

Note: When I use they/them pronouns for Alear, it is to communicate that what I am discussing is true for both male and female Alear.

There's no big notable differences throughout Etie / Alear's C-A supports. Etie herself is the same in Japanese and English.

But as Etie is one of the playable characters under 18, there are several little tweaks to the Ring / S conversation that downplay romantic connotations.

Neither Etie nor Alear explicitly say they are in love in the Japanese by any means, but the use of words and phrases like 告白 (confession) and 離れずに (never be apart) still communicate that the Japanese conversation is more romantic. Still, the changes are very subtle. The main points of the convo are the same in Japanese vs. localization.

Here's my translations of the snippets slightly altered to be less romantic:

#1:

Localization #1: Alear: I’d really like for us to partner up. Japanese #1: [リュール] (Alear) …エーティエ。(...Etie.) 私のパートナーになってもらえないでしょうか…？▼ (I was wondering if you would become my partner…?)

#2:

Localization #2: Alear: Well…that’s not exactly it. Alear: I meant supporting each other no matter what. That’s why I’m giving you the Pact Ring. Japanese #2: [リュール] (Alear) あっ、ええっと、そちらではなく！▼ (Ah, um, that’s not it!) 私と特別な絆を結んでほしいんです。(I want you to make a special bond with me.) この『約束の指輪』を持つ、パートナーとして。▼ (And have this Pact Ring, as my partner.)

#3:

Localization #3: Alear: I’ve been wanting to bring it up for a while now, but I was afraid you’d say no. Japanese #3: [リュール] (Alear) 想告白しようと思ったのですが、(I’ve been thinking of confessing, but) 断られることが怖くて…▼ (I was afraid you would turn me down…)

#4:

Localization #4: Etie: From now on, we’ll always jog together. Etie: You and me are gonna run side by side for a million laps before we’re through. Japanese #4: [エーティエ] (Etie) これからは二人一緒に走りましょう。▼ (From now on, let’s run as the two of us together.) 人生という名の道を、片時も離れることなく。▼ (On this road we call life, we will not part for a single moment.)

#5:

Localization #5: Etie: Then let’s get moving. Last one back to the Somniel is a rotten egg! Japanese #5: [エーティエ] (Etie) さあ、参りましょう。神竜リュール様。(Then let’s go. Divine Dragon Alear.) あたくしたち、ずっと…離れずに、走り続けましょうね。▼ (Let’s continue running together forever… and never be apart.)

Etie / Clanne

No notable changes to Etie's personality here.

There's just a couple minor edits, such as this one in the C support...

Localization: Clanne slept with the pickles under his pillow.

Japanese: He chanted a wish that they would become delicious and exactly how she would like them.

There's a specific childish chant in Japanese, that people will sometimes sing to make something they are cooking come out more delicious. Equivalent to when people say "I made it with love." With that not translating over directly into English, the localization team switched up exactly how Clanne showed his dedication to making Etie a good batch of pickles.

Etie / Alfred

No notable changes to Etie's personality here either, nor to the convo itself. The localized conversation is a pretty direct translation of the Japanese.

A fun little trivia fact though: the Japanese specifically states that the weight Etie adds to her teacups... is lead. Actual lead. Yikes! I have no way of knowing if the localizers wrote that out on purpose or not, but it's understandable if they did.

Localization:  Etie: Well spotted. I did add some weight, in fact. Japanese:  [エーティエ] (Etie) 以前よりも鉛を大幅に足しましたの。▼ (I did add more lead then before.)

Etie / Céline

No notable changes to Etie's personality here either, nor the convo itself. The localized conversation is a pretty direct translation of the Japanese.

Etie and Céline really do just talk this much about tea.

This is the biggest change in wording I found, but it still conveys the same meaning. Etie is getting stronger, and had to have a new teacup made to keep getting stronger.

Localization:

Etie: I had it specially made. The old one wasn’t enough of a workout anymore.

Japanese:

[エーティエ] (Etie) 職人に頼んで作っていただいたんですの。(I requested an artisan to make it.) これでさらなる強化が期待できますわ。▼ (With it, I expect that I will get even stronger.)

Etie / Boucheron

So in the Japanese, Etie asks Boucheron if he's drinking any kind of supplements (like protein shakes or something like that) to get so muscular. She does not believe him when he answers no, leading her to assume he must be doing something more extreme, like steroids... In the localization, Etie instead accuses him of using something a little less controversial: magic (At least, I suppose magic is less controversial than steroids. I think there's room for debate there honestly, ha ha.)

#1

Localization #1: Etie: Ready to tell me what you’re mixing into your food to get those muscles. Boucheron: Hahaha, not this again. I’ve told you before that it’s got nothing to do with my diet. Japanese #1: [エーティエ] (Etie) あなたの筋肉についてですわ。(I’m talking about your muscles!) ブシュロンさんはどんな筋肉増強剤をご愛飲で？▼ (What kind of muscle supplement do you like to drink?) [ブシュロン] (Boucheron) あはは、またその話か。(Ah ha ha, this topic again?) そういったものは飲んでいないぞ。▼ (I don’t take anything like that.)

#2

Localization #2: Etie: So I assume that whatever you’re doing on the sly really works! Japanese #2: [エーティエ] (Etie) 何か素晴らしいものを飲んでいるに  違いありませんわ！▼ (So there must be something really amazing you are drinking!)

#3

Localization #3: Etie: Wait, are you using magic? Unbelievable! The lengths you’ll go just for some muscles! Japanese #3: [エーティエ] (Etie) まさか！　危険な薬物ですの！？ (No way! It’s a dangerous drug?!) だとしたら厳罰ですわよ！▼ (If so, that’s basically criminal!)

But as for Etie's personality, she's no different in the localization vs. the Japanese. This convo is another classic situation where she runs with an assumption her brain makes up entirely on its own, until clearing up the misunderstanding in the end and admitting she was wrong. And the entire convo is focused around body building, that is also very much like her.

Etie / Jade

This conversation was so directly translated in localization, that I have nothing to say about it!

Etie / Lapis

On the topic of Lapis, in the A support:

In the localization, Lapis says “taters,” then corrects herself to “potatoes.” In the Japanese, in this specific convo, Lapis does not start speaking in a remote dialect, then correct herself to hide her rural upbringing. She just speaks her line and does not correct herself on anything. However, Lapis does make attempts in other convos to hide where she is from - so I don’t see this as a change exactly, but the localization making efforts to reinforce established character traits, where English allows the wordplay.

Back to Etie herself, this conversation has no changes. Actually, it has a couple of examples that prove she really is this much of a devoted muscle-head in the Japanese as well!

From the C Support:

Localization: Etie: For me, bodybuilding is life. Japanese: [エーティエ] (Etie) あたくしにとって体作りは、(To me, bodybuilding is) 命と同じぐらい大切なものですわ…▼ (something of the same importance as life…”

From the A Support:

Localization: Etie: Dried potatoes? From a remote part of Brodia? Is that what I think it is? Etie: The high-calorie, low-fat starch that’s every musclehead’s dream?! Japanese: [エーティエ] (Etie) ブロディアの田舎の干し芋？(Dried potatoes from rural Brodia?) それってもしかして…▼ (Could it be…) 脂肪がつきにくく、腹もちがいいと 鍛錬通の間で噂の！？▼ (The rumored food that burns fat, and makes you feel full, spoken of by bodybuilders?!)

Etie / Yunaka

The localization plays up Yunaka's flavor text a bit. Here's an example from the C Support:

Localization: Etie: Hey, Yunaka. Mind doing me a favor? Yunaka: Whatcha need, pumpkin-seed? Japanese: [エーティエ] (Etie) ユナカさん。(Yunaka,) 少しよろしいですか？▼(May I have a moment?) [ユナカ] (Yunaka) なんですかな？▼ (What is it?)

This is not a change exactly, more of an addition; as Yunaka also had a unique greeting in the Japanese - "Yoropippi" instead of "Hiya papaya." To play up that trait of Yunaka's a bit, the localization chose to add more catchy sayings for her here and there. (I haven't read enough of her JP support convos yet to know if she says anything else like "Yoropippi" in JP.)

But as for Etie's personality, again, she was very directly translated in localization. She creates a misunderstanding that has to be cleared up so she and Yunaka can be friends by the end of the A support, and the first thing she's interested in about Yunaka is her muscles.

Etie / Goldmary

So there's a LOT that could be talked about with this support chain overall, more so than almost any other support chain in this game probably.

But staying focused on the topic of Etie's personality? There actually isn't much to say when you get right down to it.

She's the same as ever in the C Support. Her emotions get heated quickly, and she immediately defends herself as the person who should rightfully get to eat the potato/ root vegetable.

In the B Support, tensions are still building, and Etie and Goldmary personally attack each other even more. In Japanese, they fight over who's more attractive to men. In localization, they insult each other's priorities in this time of war. But the core theme is still the same: after getting off on a bad start, they now have an antagonistic relationship and fight over who's better than the other.

In the A Support, both Goldmary is the first to state that she wants to clear things up between them. Etie has an open mind to do so and put the past in the past, so the two can grow to become good friends. While the localization changed exactly what parts of their bodies Etie and Goldmary were... touching, the localized version of the conversation stays true to the overall point this time as well. The two don't have to despise each other for their differences and fight over who's better. Even total opposites can understand each other and come to be... friends. ...Or more. Up to interpretation I think.

So in short, there's no notable personality changes for Etie in this support chain either, I don't think.

Due to the localized and JP convos being so different, I also did a full translation of them. If you'd like to read them, they are linked below:

C Support - B Support - A Support

Etie / Fogado

No changes to discuss here either!

Instead, I have yet another support snippet proving that Etie is as much of a bodybuilder in the Japanese as she is in localization. A workout party is truly the best type of party to her:

Localization: Etie: Desserts are the opposite of a party. Fogado: Huh… I’ve never met anyone who hated dessert. Etie: Hate’s a strong word. I just love my muscles too much to load up on empty calories like that. Etie: What do you say to a workout party instead? Fogado: What kind of party is that? Etie: It’s where a bunch of people get together and do nothing but tone their muscles. Japanese: [エーティエ] (Etie) お菓子は…あたくしの敵ですわ。▼ (Sweets are… my enemy.) [フォガート] (Fogado) エーティエはお菓子が嫌い？▼(You hate sweets?) [エーティエ] (Etie) 嫌いではないですが、筋肉を愛する者にとって、(I don’t hate them, but for those who love muscle,) 余分な肉の増加は許せませんので。▼ (we cannot allow ourselves to gain excess fat.) それより、鍛錬の会なんて如何です？▼ (How about a workout party instead?) [フォガート] (Fogado) それって、何をするの？▼ (What do you do there?) [エーティエ] (Etie) みんなで集まって、(Get everyone together, and) ひたすら筋肉鍛錬をするのです。▼ (focus 100% on building muscle.)

Etie / Panette

And now for the last Etie support, according to how I listed them here!

This one is also very directly localized, so I have little to say. It's another example of Etie brashly rushing to a conclusion - in this case, that Panette is acting like a fake noblewoman - leading the conversation to be about the two clearing things up. In the end, Etie explains that she just wanted to know if Panette is also a commoner who rose to a higher social rank, and they sense they will be good friends from now on.

...And that's the end of Etie's supports!

I think the question as to whether or not Etie's personality is any different in localization is a good one. Many of us in the FE fandom know that Effie was played up to be a bit more of a bodybuilder/ gym girl in Fate's localization.

But almost any one of Etie's support chains quickly proves that her being obsessed with bodybuilding and muscles is no exaggeration in localization - it is all part of the more cartoon-y tone of Engage, even in the JP version.

And while she speaks more like a noble or "ojou" type in Japanese, making her English sound more casual, the otherwise direct localization of her support convos does not make her seem too different in localization. Overall, I'd rate her as faithfully translated into English from Japanese.

Thanks to all who read this far! I hope that was super informative for you, and if you have any further questions or would like to see a full support chain translated, just send me an ask!

[noellemadrigal]

When Bruno first meets Noelle in “La Rata Y El Profeta”

Art by the wonderful NS artwork 😍💚✨

I’m just waiting for my AO3 to come through and then I will finally be posting the first two chapters of my new fic 🥹💚

But in the mean time, here’s a little snippet from the draft of my first chapter!

For context, Diego is one of Bruno’s oldest and most loyal rats 🥹🐀

The moment Noelle meets Bruno, draft:

Suddenly Noelle felt a shift with the floor boards, causing her to lose balance and tumble down. She lifted her head up to see a large shadow appear from behind a tacky, red arm chair that towered over them. Noelle covered her eyes startled as she helplessly began to shake.

“Don’t worry chico” Diego placed his paw on Noelle’s shoulder to try and calm her.

“Oh hey mi amigos, I was wondering where you had all gone!” The shadow spoke, his voice soft and containing a slight titter.

She opened her eyes and looked up to see a curious and unkempt looking man kneeling above her.

“Well, who do we have here hey?”

Bruno smiled and slowly rested his hand in front of her. Noelle looked over at Diego who nodded his head reassuringly before she stood up and allowed herself to fall into Bruno’s palm, instantly feeling the warmth of his skin as he gently scooped her up.

“Looks like you’ve had a rough time”

He slouched down in his chair and began trailing his finger across her fur which felt so comforting to Noelle. She couldn’t help but notice he smelt so good too; with hints of sage and sandalwood. He pulled a handkerchief out from his pocket and began to softly wipe the mud off her fur whilst humming to himself. Noelle smiled and closed her eyes as she listened to the sound of his voice which seemed to embrace her with a feeling of peace and safety.

“Wow, rubia! You have very pretty fur hidden under all that mud” Bruno chuckled to himself. “And I bet you’re hungry too?”

Noelle nodded and let out a little squeak in response to Bruno. The other rats began to help themselves to a pile of food that was placed on a table situated next to his chair. Bruno grinned lovingly at his rats as they all began to feast on their dinner. He glanced down at the plate to see there was one piece left and passed it over to Noelle.

“I’m afraid sometimes food can be a little eh…scarce here. But we try and make do” He said, trying to sound a little upbeat. “Here, you can have mine…”

She smiled at his kind gesture and took the baked good from his fingers. She couldn’t help but wonder why he appeared to be living in the walls. As she nibbled on the piece of arepa her eyes began to analysis the room around her. It was full of random odds and ends, make shift lanterns, plants pots and piles of plates. Why did he have so many plates? There were pieces of paper pinned to the wall which appeared to contain painted art pieces of rats in different costumes alongside random doodles. A hammock was seen hooked up behind his chair which Noelle assumed he slept in, due to the lack of a bed. She turned her head as she spotted a little theatre which was placed on top of an old beer barrel behind her. Bruno smiled and pointed towards it, a proud expression forming across his face.

“Heh, that’s our stage for my world famous telenovelas!” he chuckled once again before shrugging his shoulders “well, I guess it’s only really me that actually gets to see them. And these guys too!”

🥹💚✨

[storiesbyjes2g]

3.183 Clarity

Desi reminds me so much of Less when she was a little girl. She was so full of energy and ran literally everywhere she went. I don't think she started walking until we got to high school. She always found something to get into, and Desi is the same way. She loves playing with the dogs, and they love it too, especially Rosie who constantly needs to play. Sometimes I think they might get tired of the tiny sim who is always imitating them and trying to speak to them in their language, but they sit there and let her do it, and it's so adorable.

Just as Desi is growing, me and Sophia are too, because this parenting journey does not follow a straight line. Its path is ever winding. Sometimes, it cuts across deep rivers, and I feel like I'm drowning. Most of the time, it stretches across little mountain ranges. I climb one mountain, get to the top, and celebrate my victory, only to look across and see the road scaling up an even bigger mountain. As soon as we learn to handle one situation, a new one crops up and we're back at the beginning. I keep telling Sophia, we're not bad parents; we're just learning. She still has these weird moments of insecurity, and I know it stems from her childhood. Despite how they treated her, Sophia's parents weren't necessarily bad. They never mistreated her and showed love in their own misguided way. When she was pregnant, we talked about how we would raise Desi. My childhood was better than hers, but it still left scars on me. In the end, we decided the best way to raise her is to be the parent we wanted. That's why I spend so much time with her. I want her to know I'm here and she is safe.

I don't think I've ever admitted this before, but I didn't always feel safe when we lived with Dad. My parents' separation and divorce was a very emotionally draining time on its own. Add to that Dad being too tired and depressed to do anything with us when he got home from work, and that made for a very anxious Luca. We didn't get the support we needed from him. That was the real reason I pushed so hard to live with Mama. She always made everything better when we lived with her on the weekends, so we moved back home. But then she drops this bomb on us that sent me back into a whirlwind of uncertainty. She destroyed my sanctuary, and it took nearly the rest of my life to find peace and stability. I want Desiree to know of nothing else.

Sophia's wish for her was similar, but she's so hesitant to execute sometimes because she's so inside her head, wondering if she's doing enough, if it's right, and how Desi perceives her. Analysis paralysis, they call it. I try to encourage her as much as I can, but I know this is something she needs to figure out on her own, so I mostly leave her alone. When I see her figuring things out, I want to celebrate it and say a more supportive and happy version of "I told you so," but if I call attention to it, that will make her self-conscious, so I just smile.

Desi is such an affectionate child. She's constantly reaching her little arms up at Sophia, asking for a hug, and I love that for them. I know it makes Sophia feel good and dispels all the negative self-talk she has going on in her head. At least that's how I keep myself from getting jealous, anyway. Sophia gets the hugs, and I get air kisses. Receiving the love you've given is such a rewarding experience.

Last week, when Sophia pointed out I needed to do a better job of prioritizing our marriage, I felt like I hit a wall. I spend all this time with Desi, feeding her, teaching her, soothing her, and all the things I'm supposed to do as a good father, and it still turns out bad. The answer to that situation is balance, of course, and in the grand scheme of things, that was a small mountain. I'm getting better at it, but I'm still working out the kinks.

What makes it tricky is the fact that Desiree is very social and the only child. Real talk? She needs a sibling. That is the cold, hard facts. But Sophia and I already had that conversation, so as much as I'd like to help her with that, it's not happening. For the moment, we are both her parents and her friends. I try to encourage her to play on her own because it's good for her development and imagination—and great opportunities for the adults to talk—but like I said, she's social. She loves hanging out with us, and I do too, but I'm beginning to see now how it's not necessarily the best thing for her. Not only does she want to be around us, but also she wants to dominate the conversation. She'll interrupt an ongoing conversation but get mad that we're not paying attention to her. Sometimes she yells "I'm talking" as if we're the ones interrupting her.

I tell her we're talking and it isn't nice to interrupt, but I totally get where she's coming from. It's in her nature to socialize, but doesn't have anyone her own age to talk to. That's why I REALLY need to get on this house search so she can be closer to her cousins. I'd love for her and Tami to be friends, but she's about to have her birthday. Enrolling Desi in pre-school would also help, but I don't think I'm ready to be away from my child for that long just yet. For now, I just need to get this family closer.

[cucumberteapot]

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - Afterthoughts

On Friday evening, I bought a ticket for ATSV and it wasn't until the remaining five minutes of the film did I hear gasps and squeals among the audience. Generally, theaters in my country are quiet during screening. It's only on rare occasions did I bare witness to my theater reacting in real-time to something that encapsulates the film and what it could mean for the characters in the future.

Warning!! Please watch the film before reading. This post will go into some heavy spoilers about the finale and some predictions for BTSV!!

It's truly astonishing how talented the crew for ATSV was to convey so much subtle information about Earth-42 Aaron Davis and Prowler!Miles with only five minutes left of runtime. However this analysis is around 1000 words long and I'd like to keep it as readable as possible. From the view of Earth-42's skyscrapers, it's clear this different New York has been overrun by the Sinister Six and we can theorise they'll be the primary antagonists of the next installment. However, until we get more information on them in the lead up to March 2024, I'd like to focus on our two new antagonists and not only their dynamic with Spider!Miles but with also each other.

If Spider!Miles takes after Aaron as Jefferson implies in this film and (honestly) the entirety of ITSV reinforces, then Miles G takes after his father. Or did. Which if we take the brief two minutes we meet him, this kind of tracks. Miles seems to have ITSV's Jefferson's no-nonsense attitude that's been informed by the death of his dad and Aaron's career. It would make sense if Prowler!Miles was more similar to Miles prior to his dad dying before being corrupted by Aaron's influence and the absence of a Spider-Man, where in Aaron's case he was enabled by Jefferson's death to go full villain-mode. When watching ITSV again and comparing to ATSV, it's so wild to see how different Earth 42-Aaron is not only with Spider!Miles but with Prowler!Miles.

In Earth-1610, he wanted to separate Miles from his life as the Prowler to protect him all the while serving as his laid-back, artistic uncle, but here the front is entirely for Rio. It's why when Spider!Miles hugs him, he's not caught off-guard because it's such an intense reaction from what should just be another day coming home from "work". It's because he's not his Miles. Spider!Miles has a lot of love for the people in his life and what he enjoys, whether it's his art, music and surrounding himself with friends and family although its hard. We see Prowler!Miles' room in Spider!Miles' conversation with 42-Rio and all the posters, action figures and journals are replaced with milk crates, a few books and a speed bag. Whoever this other Miles is has fully adopted the identity of the Prowler to the point where "Miles Morales" is the alter-ego - "I'm Miles Morales. But you... You can call me The Prowler."

But now we know who this Prowler!Miles is - What does he want?

Pull a Kingpin and find another dimension to bring back his dad.

Intercept Spider!Miles' dimension and take his place there.

Use Spider!Miles as a bargaining chip for the Sinister Six.

Or just straight up kill Miles Morales. Because why not?

Spider!Miles doesn't tell Aaron his uncle died in his dimension. He says, "I have an Uncle Aaron, too. I had one." The use of "had" is purposeful here because the writers are making a point of not revealing to Aaron (or Prowler!Miles who is listening in all this time) that his counterpart is dead because working as a villain got him killed. If Prowler!Miles doesn't respond to the knowledge of his father existing still alive and well in another dimension, then how would he reaction to knowing his mentor and uncle is dead there, too?

When Spider!Miles reveals his Aaron was the Prowler, we see 42-Aaron's eyes sink in the reflection. It's minor but it delivers so much characterisation as to what kind of person this Aaron is and his relationship to Prowler!Miles. For all of Aaron's faults in ITSV, he always assumed responsibility by concealing the truth from Miles and in his final moments, pulls Miles mask back over to conceal his truth from Kingpin. While this Aaron is far more terrifying, he's trying so hard to hide his own cowardice by letting his nephew take on the mantle of Prowler instead. It's why he smashes the punching bag near Miles' head when he says, "I know you don't want to be the Prowler."

Because, yeah. He doesn't.

And it's why he chuckles sardonically when Miles tells him he could be a "good guy"... because it's not about that.

This entire movie has never been about being a "good guy".

Miles hides the truth about being Spiderman from his parents when it's clearly harming his relationship with them. Gwen and Peter hide the truth from Miles about being an anomaly. Miguel is a hypocrite and attacks Miles out of self-projection and Jess just goes along with it. As for the other Spider-people, they also just follow Miguel's orders except for Hobie and Margo who are the only ones to help Miles escape Nueva York. Both characters take responsibility not by allowing Miles as an anomaly to cause havoc and destroy dimensions, but by identifying that Miguel has neglected his own responsibilities by acting as the aggressor in this situation and trying to control and exclude Miles' identity as a Spider-Man.

Before Gwen is forcefully returned to her own dimension, she shoots back at Miguel's principles, "We are supposed to be the good guys." and it makes him pause for a moment before repeating he and the Spider-people are just to convince himself they are doing the right thing.

By the end of ATSV, Gwen reconciles with her father about being Spider-Woman and collects allies in their search for Miles. While Miles, who has reclaimed his sense of identity and accepts both halves of who he is, unflinchingly stares down this shadow of himself that is equally self-assured in his own responsibility as Prowler but far more dangerous than any antagonist he's encountered.

It should be obvious by this point but this is why the phrase, "With great power comes great responsibility", is the thematic core of every Spider-Man film. It was throughout ITSV and ATSV and now waiting less than a year for BTSV in 2024, this theme of responsibility will resonate with every single character as they enter the third act of this trilogy. And whether it's living their authentic truth with the people they love and love them, or about owning up to their mistakes and choosing to do better...

I, for one, can't wait to watch.

[a-small-batch-of-dragons]

Hypermobility

Okay wait I have a prompt!!! If you wanna So I've been reading a lot of fics recently that are in space aus, with the whole humans are deathworlders concept (idk how this is common across my fandoms but it is so I'm binging them lol). And I had an idea based on recent irl events. – anon (long ask, cut for brevity)

inspired by my lovely @ghostofasecretary who has trained all of our friend group to look for hypermobility on account of our schlorpy joints :)

Read on Ao3

Warnings: none

Pairings: loosely implied analogical i guess, but as with most of my shit can be platonic or romantic you decide

Word Count; 1809

Remus glances up to see Virgil staring at Logan like his abdomen has spontaneously ruptured. He sees Roman out of the corner of his eye do the same. Virgil swallows heavily. "L," he says slowly, "what the fuck is wrong with your arms?" "Nothing is wrong with my arms, what are you talking about?" "Elbows don't bend like that!" Ah. So there was something wrong. Remus was right. Take that, human etiquette manual. Wait, shit, something's wrong with Logan.

Roman clicks at Remus as he comes onto the lab floor. Remus clicks back as he logs onto his station, sighing as he looks at the absolute mess someone's fucking made of the logs—seriously, it's only been one quarter cycle, how are they this fucked up already?—and Roman immediately leans over to see what he's sighing at.

"Wait, what's that?"

"Some xetron made an absolute fucking disaster out of the hadron logs."

Roman winces in sympathy and his carapace shifts. "Are you gonna do yours before you clean that up, or—?"

The last part of his question gest interrupted when Logan comes onto the floor, waving a brief hello with his fingers instead of his antenna—because humans don't have antennae, which was a pretty sharp learning curve for both of them when they'd been so confused as to why this human was refusing to talk to them or even show his feelings, they'd had a few apologetic shifts before Logan realized what was going on and explained everything—and raising an eyebrow when he noticed them clustered around Remus's station.

"Is there something wrong?"

"The shift before us messed up their hadron logs."

Logan rolls his eyes. "You'd think that for life forms insistent that their gravitational curves made them more naturally prepared for graviton scans, they'd have a better sense of how to record them properly."

"You're spellcasting on the acolytes, Logan."

Logan frowns, glancing at his tablet, before the equivalent phrase pings on the screen and he hums. "Ah, I see. Yes, well, if you'd like my help at any point, I only have the routine gamma sweeps to do this shift, so I should be amenable."

"Oh, I can do it, it's just a pain in my thorax."

Roman chuckles and heads back to his own station, probably to sneakily-not-so-sneakily ask some of the others on the shift who are fucking competent what the fuck happened. Remus gets himself ready to dive into the long and tedious work of redoing the spin increments and calculating the proper uncertainties for the right variables—honestly, do they even look at the readouts? It has the layout right there! And it's not like the other logs are invisible! Just look at the rows two microns above the empty one you're supposed to be filling out!—and manages to sink into a rhythm for the first half of the shift. Granted, he's absolutely muttering about how stupid it is that they aren't even calculating the basic momentum, let alone the angular velocity to account for the other celestial bodies in the middle of the waveforms, but it's fine, and Roman keeps up his running commentary of the molecular analysis machine that takes its sweet-ass time to do even the most basic of scans, and every so often he'll hear a small huff from Logan as he corrects their probe's trajectory, but for the most part, the lab is a quiet and serene place to be.

God, he can't wait until he gets rotated back to the engineering department full-time.

Like, yeah, he likes spending time with his brother, and the human's cool—he's really funny when he lets himself be, like his wit is drying than the mountain deserts on Cre-Ativa, and his facial expressions are fucking plat when their superiors are being xetrons, but there's only so much he can take of this quiet where not much happens. And he has to deal with the idiots who don't know how to format hadron logs correctly. This is the third time he's had to correct a typo that's rendered the rest of the calculations useless.

"I'm honestly about to recommend them for a review of the training course, that's how fucking serious this is."

"Maybe there's something wrong with how the keyboard is adapted for their limbs?"

"That would explain some of the typos, not all of them. And it definitely wouldn't explain why there's a massive formatting change about halfway through."

"Perhaps there's a shorthand they're using for some of the notes that we don't know about, and they're forgetting to correct them at the end of their shift."

"Yeah, but then they should tell us that, instead of—" Roman trails off and Remus looks up.

Logan is…stretching, yes, that's the right word. His limbs are extended over his head and his back is arched, but his upper limbs are…bending. Not like the way they normally bend, they're bending…too much? Not enough? The wrong way? Yeah, that's it. The wrong way.

Logan notices they've gone quiet and looks over. "Is there something wrong?"

"You're, uh," Remus stammers, "are you—okay?"

"Yes, I'm perfectly fine, what is it?"

"Nothing, nothing."

He and Roman exchange a look—the first rule in the human etiquette training manual was if they get weird, just roll with it for a reason—and get back to minding their own business. Admittedly, some of the errors do make more sense now that he's looking at it like it's some kind of shorthand he doesn't know yet, but that wouldn't explain why some of these variables are straight-up wrong and why they wouldn't bother to tell him what the shorthand is so that he's not trying to do the work of two shifts in the time of one.

Something he does appreciate is that the way the shifts in the lab are set up, opposed to engineering, is that sometimes there will be people whose shifts halfway overlap with theirs. So there's always at least one set of people that are staying in the lab while a changeover is happening and then there's not that risk that the equipment will be left unattended. Apparently they learned that lesson the hard way when the molecular exhibitor decided to go into overload in the five minutes where there wasn't anyone logged in, and nearly destroyed the matter wave projector on the station next to it. The justification was in the name of safety, but really everyone knows it's just so the higher-ups know exactly who to blame when shit goes awry.

Whatever the case may be, the door slides open to reveal the other human down here, Virgil, yawning as he makes his way over to his station.

"Hello, hello, everyone."

"Hi, Virgil!"

Virgil winces. "You are way too chipper this early in the morning."

"It's past the circadian half cycle, Virgil."

"Yeah, and?"

"I'm afraid you're going to have to acclimate to your schedule on your own time," Logan says, stretching again, "even though I'm sure your caffeine tolerance has—what? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Remus glances up to see Virgil staring at Logan like his abdomen has spontaneously ruptured. He sees Roman out of the corner of his eye do the same. Virgil swallows heavily.

"L," he says slowly, "what the fuck is wrong with your arms?"

"Nothing is wrong with my arms, what are you talking about?"

"Elbows don't bend like that!"

Ah. So there was something wrong. Remus was right. Take that, human etiquette manual.

Wait, shit, something's wrong with Logan.

"Logan? Do we need to take you to medbay?" Roman's already rushing out from behind his station. "There's a pack in the corner, I can—"

"Oh, for—relax, all of you, I'm fine."

"Uh-huh, yeah, fine, that's what I'd describe elbows that bend all schlorpy as, yeah," Virgil says, "what the—does that not hurt?"

"What? No, it doesn't hurt, look, your joints—"

"My joints suck ass but at least they're fucking bending the amount they're supposed to!"

Remus isn't quite sure how human joints are capable of such a surprising and invasive act, but never let it be said he's not curious. "Your joints are capable of performing anal suction?"

"What the fuck? No! It's a turn of phrase!"

"Oh. Disappointing."

"Ignore him," Roman says, "Logan, are you sure you're—"

"Yes, yes, I'm fine, I'm just—oh," he mumbles, prodding at his tablet, "what's the word for this in Common?"

"There's no word for schlorpy elbows, Logan—"

"Yes, there is!" He pokes around for a few more seconds before he lets out a noise of triumph and says something that the translators don't translate.

"It's what?" Virgil just shakes his head when Logan tries again. "I don't know what that means, bud."

Logan sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Okay, let me try it this way. What's it called when you are in a state of heightened energy and it leads to outbursts of things like running around, or talking too loudly, or being high-strung?"

"Remus," Roman offers helpfully.

"No, Roman."

"Are you talking about being excitable?"

"No, there's a specific word for it. It also serves as a prefix for being too much of something, or an overabundance of something."

"Too much—do you mean the word hyper?"

"Yes! Yes, that's it. And then what's the name of the thing that some people hang over cribs that have little stars or animals?"

Virgil stares at Logan for another moment. "You mean a baby mobile?"

"Yes, but only the second word."

"Mobile?"

"Yes, that's it. Then put the two words together—"

"There were probably so many other ways you could've said you were hypermobile, L, I'm just gonna put that out there—"

"Well, it got you to guess it, didn't it?"

"It's too fucking early for this shit."

"Again, it is afternoon—"

"Shut up."

Roman looks back and forth between the two humans, still twitching as though he's going to be asked to sprint for the medbay at a moment's notice. "So…is Logan…are you alright?"

"Yes, for the fourth time, I'm fine. Virgil's just a little excitable, that's all."

"You try being normal when joints are doing unexpected things," Virgil mumbles, more to his caf than anything else, but he reaches behind himself to pat Roman's carapace. "He's fine, his body just does that."

"But you said it bends the wrong way, how is that fine?"

"There is a thing known as hypermobility," Logan says, "it…oh, dear, it basically means that certain joints will bend…more."

"He's not hurt, that's pretty much all I know."

Roman looks like he's about to protest but Remus just clicks at him. They exchange another look as the humans settle back to work.

Humans are weird, just gotta roll with it.

These hadron logs, on the other hand—

"I'm gonna punt these flimflobbers into the next star we see."

"Can I help? They fucked up the carbon dating program as well."

"How do you fuck that up?"

"Ask them, not me!"

General Taglist: @frxgprince@potereregina@gattonero17@iamhereforthegayshit@thefingergunsgirl@awkwardandanxiousfander@creative-lampd-liberties@djpurple3@winterswrandomness@sanders-sides-uncorrect-quotes@iminyourfandom@bullet-tothefeels@full-of-roman-angst-trash  @ask-elsalvador @ramdomthingsfrommymind@demoniccheese83@pattonsandershugs @el-does-photography @princeanxious@firefinch-ember@fandomssaremysoul@im-an-anxious-wreck@crazy-multifandomfangirl @punk-academian-witch@enby-ralsei@unicornssunflowersandstuff@wildhorsewolf @thetruthaboutthesun @stubbornness-and-spite @princedarkandstormv  @your-local-fookin-deadmeme @angels-and-dreams@averykedavra @a-ghostlight-for-roman @treasurechestininterweb @cricketanne @queerly-fluid-fan @compactdiscdraws@cecil-but-gayer@i-am-overly-complicated@annytheseal@alias290@tranquil-space-ninja @arxticandy @mychemically-imbalanced-romance@whyiask@crows-ace @emilythezeldafan@frida0043 @ieatspinalcords @snowyfires@cyanide-violence@oonagh2@xxpanic-at-the-everywherexx@rabbitsartcorner @percy-07734@triflingassailantofmyemotions @virgil-sanders-the-gay-emo@cerulean-watermelon@puffed-up-bees@meltheromanstan@joyrose-fandomer@insanitori@mavenmush@justablah65@10paradox10@uhhh-hi-there-i-am-nervous@cutebisexualmess@bella-bugatti-frogetti-baguetti@ultrageekygirl

[helluva-insomniac]

“Poison” Deep Analysis

(Aka I had too much free time in study hall)

***Some of the questions are unanswered!!!***

Starting with the skulls:

This is one of the questions I have to leave unanswered! I can’t figure out if the skulls are just an omen of death and evil and stuff or if they have a deeper meaning in their design. One thing though I am sure of is any time in this video is when red skulls are used, it’s Valentino. Most red in the video is Valentino overall. (I’m also really liking the bisexual lighting lmao)

Right after the red skulls are used, there are skulls with an “Angel Dust” color palette. I have yet to figure out if these skulls truly represent Angel, but they are definitely used after the red ones to show that Valentino has authority over Angel Dust, which is why the red skulls are shown first.

Next, use of chains:

The chains are red, which agains means Valentino and the chains represent his control over Angel.

Glasses:

I can’t believe it took me so long to notice these!! Obviously Valentino being a dickhead.

Dancers:

The dancers here look exactly like the ones in the gifs released this year, so they are probably related.

(Sorry I couldn’t find a higher quality image)

And the ones in Poison:

I think this means the gif scene and this song are together, unless the dancers are shown in multiple scenes. (Return of the bisexual lighting!!)

The smoke:

The red streaks throughout are Valentino’s smoke, and are even further reinforcing the fact that Valentino has power over Angel.

How “Poison” is depicted:

Possibly one of my favorite points. The letters have another Angel Dust pallet to them, but the second “o” IS THE RED SKULL. This initially made me start this analysis. More of the “Val has power over Angel” motif.

“Every night I’m livin’ like there’s no tomorrow”

This lyric is really powerful along with the ones before it. Not only is Angel trapped, he feels it. This lyric is also very important because it changes later, to “Every night I’m wasted like there’s no tomorrow”, and that’s the first in this song (apart from the smoke) that says that Valentino is drugging Angel.

Angel streaks (??):

A lyric ends with pink streaks over the word that mimics Val’s smoke, but their pink color leaves me to believe that it represents Angel’s free will.

ALSO:

Going along with this, RIGHT after on the next word, Angel’s pink streaks are replaced with Val’s red smoke.

“Drownin’ in poison”:

At this point, Val’s smoke takes on a watery look. Once again showing the authority of Val over Angel and I’ve said that so many times and blah blah blah. But I think the style of it is really cool

“I’m fillin’ up my glass, but it’s always hollow”:

I really like the word choice here. But WHY DID THEY CHOOSE IT?? If it’s meant to be a “glass half full/half empty” thing, I’m assuming it’s Angel saying that his life is hollow and empty. In between this lyric and “full of poison”, the background turns from pink and on “full of poison” changes to red.

“I’m sick of the poison”:

During “I’m sick”, the screen is pink. On “of the poison” it turns red. Also Angel is expressing how he no longer wants to work for Valentino, but

“What’s the worst part of this hell? I can only blame myself”

I don’t think this lyric from earlier in the song is Angel expressing self-pity, but he may feel like he deserves the treatment he gets. That, or he was drugged or truly believed it was a good decision when he signed his contract with Valentino.

Last frame:

I had to remove one of the images I was going to use above so I could get the point across here because holy shit. As much as I want to be positive and say that Angel will get out of his contract nice n’ easy, I really don’t think that’s going to happen. I think that there will be at least a really bad fight between Angel and Valentino, if in season one Angel is released from the contract at all. Another scenario could be that Angel only gets out if Val gets exterminated or a being with high power (someone with power like Charlie or Lucifer or even a very high-ranking Overlord) forces the contract to be broken and Angel to be free.

Also: notice how “tomorrow” is in white while the rest of the lyric is in black. It’s either Angel’s final shred of hope or he has truly given up all hope. The skull reinforces my point above of this not going well for Angel.

————————————————————————

Please comment/send asks if you have your own ideas!!

I think Blake Roman’s voice for Angel is amazing!! I especially like that it is a bit more masculine idk why :) but like holy fuck!! I love this song so much it’s right up there next to Addict

(End- the rest of this is just notes)

Also: there are so many points that if I missed a few I’m sorry lol! It’s so easy to do an analysis on this and I might do one again on other songs when the show comes out.

Also also: I know some of the lyrics and some of my points have other darker/more sexual meanings, but I don’t have the time or mental capacity to unpack that lmao

[obsessedwithceleste]

What was the saying? Anon off cause we die like men?

I’m giggling sm rn can’t wait for mine. Also whoever submitted the first one we’re basically the same person so here 💍💍💍

I’m quite tall, with mid back length hair. It’s like a chestnut brown, and slightly wavy. Got blessed with assets on the top and bottom, definitely on the curvier side.

My interests include reading lots and lots of philosohy, playing all my instruments, martial arts and (weirdly) learning new subjects all the time. My most recent endeavour is computer science.

I’m an ENTJ, usually described as quite commanding. I enjoy taking on more of a leadership role, and can come off (as expected) quite rude and unforgiving. I beg to differ, because I know i’m quite the opposite. I definitely come across as such, but that’s because people haven’t gotten to know me. Id like to think i’m quite funny, I sort of have this knack for finding something in common with everyone and getting them to warm up to me. An introverted social butterfly of sorts.

Assigned as slytherin but i think my values can align with ravenclaw aswell. I’m quite diplomatic, in the right environments i can be very charismatic too.

I’m good with people. If it doesn’t benefit me i don’t really care that much, but in environments where it really benefits me or I have to, i become a completely different person.

I’m a no bullshit person when it comes to other people. I will happily point out what others won’t. I have strong values and stick to them, and people who don’t like that aren’t worth my time

In terms of relationships i am THE BIGGEST LOVER. I switch up so much. I love domestically sickening relationships, cooking for one another, lazy mornings etc. I think physical intimacy and ‘acts of service’ are the things i love. I would probably show my partner acts of service and quality time. I would also do physical touch, but if they’re the type to crave it too.

I really love when someone is obsessed with you. I think it gives a sense of security in a relationship. I’m very driven and need someone who can match that, but also need someone who can take a step back at times and bring me back to earth.

My music taste is just depressing. It’s all shoegaze and classical. In all honesty i can be a little all over the place, a sweetheart one moment and aggravated at everyone in the next, so someone who isn’t put off by that? dream.

My clothings is variable but i’m always well put together. Even if it makes me late, i always make sure to look my best (it’s what people first notice about you, so may aswell make the best impression)

Academically driven, i’d say i’m a high performer but i lack motivation. When i put the work in I excel, but it’s hard for me to focus.

I think this makes me seem super serious but given my reposts you can tell i’m very much a yapper, who says things that need to have me restrained 💀💀💀

I think my personal type varies largely from who i’d actually be best with so i won’t mention it.

If you asked my friend to describe me in three words (one of them has my tumblr, yes i’m taking abt you my fellow gatekeeping queen. Pls say this is correct): They’d probably say funny, messy (drama wise, not literally) and caring.

My family would probably say fiercely protective, lowk a bit mean but deeply loving

CANT WAIT!! I did just give you like a whole character analysis but WOOOOOOO

I’m living for your full on character analysis😭 hope I do you justice Queen🫶🏽

Pairing: Theodore Nott

Theodore is generally quiet and understated, but this boy has such a superiority complex. He always assumes that he’s the smartest in the room.

He takes so much pride in his academic prowess, but has an equally sharp and witty tongue.

The first time he meets you, you definitely take him down a peg or twenty. (Boy needs to be humbled fr) You’re able to match him in intellect and snap right back at him when he makes snide remarks which he finds infuriating, but also admirable.

When he finally realizes that he can’t beat you outright, he switches up tactics and turns up the charm. He’s then sent spiraling once again when it’s turned right back around in his face. (Takes a Slytherin to know a Slytherin I suppose)

When the two of you are eventually able to come to a truce, it’s like the puzzle pieces slowly begin to fall into place.

Sure one of you might get heated up every once in a while, but the other is always there to make sure it’s reeled back in.

Theo loves listening to you talk about all of your niche interests and ideas and happily sits with you for hours at a time (sometimes you catch him staring a little too long when you’re both studying in the library, but he vehemently denies it)

He’s a big fan of dry humor and thinks it’s so funny when you blurt out random, out of pocket shit.

He loves leaving silly little notes in places you’re not suspecting and tries to pretend like he’s not watching as you read each one.

At the first quidditch match of the season, he tries to casually suggest that you wear his jumper in the stands while you watch. Yes the one with his name written across the back in big bold letters.

After the game, you’re not even able to get a word out before Theo barrels over to you, sweeping you off your feet and into a bear hug. He’s sweaty and he smells horrible, but you can’t seem to mind.

Later that evening you both find yourselves curled up in your dorm room with warm hot cocoa smuggled in from the kitchens and stacks of books long forgotten. You’re chatting away but Theo can’t seem to string a single one of your sentences together as his eyes keep falling back to your lips and the animated way they’re talking about some guy named Aristotle.

He doesn’t really remember much of what you said after that as he crashes his lips against yours. It’s warm, and sweet, and you just melt.

The next morning you’re greeted by a nice, loud wolf-whistle from Mattheo, and you’re very sure that you hear Enzo mumble something about “it being about bloody time”.

His friends adore you though, and Theo just loves being able to tell everyone that he’s your boyfriend. You thought he had a god complex before? This is a whole new level, even for him.

Theo is completely and utterly devoted to you, always wanting to be close, preferably with an arm wrapped securely around you. And when that isn’t an option, it’s rare that you leave his eyesight.

He just loves doting on you, always making sure you’re fed, you’re not too cold in the chilly halls of the castle, heaven forbid you have to carry your own books to class. He can be a full blown mother bird.

Anyway, the two of you are sickeningly in love (much to the disgust of Mattheo) and you each have the other wrapped around your finger.