#not to belabor the point but

[dharmafox]

Rewatching Ayakashi "Bakeneko" after seeing the movie, I realized something. It's not just the movie's Medicine Seller or mononoke or even character design that feels "softer" than in the series. It's the everything. It's the whole tone. It's the sense of humor, more light and playful than the grim humor of the series. It's the degree to which the characters are relatable, understandable, or even forgiveable. It's the gentleness of the emotions they express and the degree of sincerity with which they express them. It's in how even the most awful characters show that they were better people once and that those better people are still in there somewhere.

The movie looks on humanity with a much kinder eye. In the series, the focus was on acts of brutality, largely committed by men against women, and about the rage and violence they awakened and perpetuated. Even though the patriarchal structure of the shogunate is behind the situations of the women in the Ooku, the Karakasa is not driven by violence or vengeance. It kills horribly, but when its Regret is revealed, it's far more about grief than rage. Its Truth, Kitagawa, doesn't bear a grudge against anyone--she simply can't move on from what she lost. The Karakasa's Regret is a true Regret: a longing for what was thrown away, trapping those who created it in a never-ending search for their own hearts.

So Karakasa is kinder. It's a very different kind of story.

[bixels]

Scary Sunset.

I'm concepting things way outta order in this story, but I'm sure you can piece things together. Context is for a storybeat where, after defeating and capturing Adagio (thus having all three sirens in her possession), Sunset enacts her revenge plot to release the sirens on Canterlot as Thea discovers she's been manipulated. In a confrontation, the two scuffle and fight over the siren orbs while Sunset struggles with her conflicting wants and emotions.

[the-mpreg-guy]

also the way i see people talk about how they think castiel should react to dean and jack’s relationship is very funny. i cannot see castiel intervening by telling dean to “apologize” to “his son” because first of all that’s THEIR son

[itspileofgoodthings]

I saw a friend the other day and she was like “have you read the great divorce” and I said no “and she said well it’s very hard to explain but basically the souls in heaven are more solid than the souls in hell and I just wanna tell you that you’re getting more and more solid every time I see you” and when I say that’s one of the most personal things anyone has ever said to me

[soma-prime-incarnon]

[pikahlua]

OK, I'm someone who's been gunning for the "Katsuki's villain foil is All For One" probably longer than anyone, been theorising this for over a year, and I have dozens of drafts abt it (I just turned on anon, my MHA account isn't my main anyway so...) and I never posted because it was getting too long. I think I had these since Bakugo died? If I had posted them with me saying "Bakugo will fight AFO at the end of this!", y'all would've called me crazy. Y'all could've called me a madlad, but noooo, it happened LOL

I think a few people have already noticed parallels, as there are some parallels in Yoichi and AFO's interactions Bakudeku in Ch 193. I noticed them too, and there were a few posts going around abt it, never realising the implications (since it would mean that AFO is the villain foil as he's the only one who had such similarities to Bakugo).

I mean chapter kept putting Yoichi and Midoriya together, obviously connecting the two. But where does that put AFO?

Bakudeku can be considered "siblings" since they knew each other for as long as they can remember. One was gifted and strong, while the other was quirkless. The gifted one telling the other that since they're quirkless, they can't achieve their dreams (Compare Ch 1 Bakugo to AFO's statement about Yoichi).

Yes, people are saying that AFO is terrible and Bakugo shouldn't be compared. But I think that's exactly what makes them foils. Horikoshi described Bakugo as the "light that would never surrenders to the dark", and AFO is the complete opposite, someone I would describe as "the darkness that never comes to the light".

They're the ultimate representation of "good vs evil", and that's why Horikoshi had pitted them against each other.

And AFO being Bakugo's foil makes sense as it goes in line with something Best Jeanist has said in the past. "What makes the difference between Heroes and Villains?" The villain foil theme actually started with Bakugo.

What makes AFO and Bakugo mirror each other? Look at how AFO looks down on the weak, calling them all "extras", the way he called Bakugo a "pebble in his path" the same way Bakugo did.

Rather than motivations and origins, it's through their behaviour especially towards others. AFO is more extreme, but he calls and views others that are "weaker" as "extras", he looked down on the person "closest" to him for his weakness. He once believed that "might makes right" and acts upon it. He view himself as "God". (Remember how Bakugo's hero name has "God" in it??? Hehe..)

And I feel that there would be more parallels between them once we get to see more of how AFO views Kudou, because he seems to be angered or even "threatened" by him in a similar sense to how Bakugo was to Midoriya. He is the extreme representation of Bakugo's past.

Katsuki means "victory over the self". Of course, the best way to finish your character arc is to beat up a character that represents your past LMAO

All through his arc, he had to see his weakness, and even through foils like Endeavor to face his mistakes. All For One is the final step.

Of course, for Bakugo to fight unwaveringly, he had to get his "rising" moment and also apologize to Midoriya. So that he can truly become the light that opposes the dark. To truly distinguish himself from the villain, like what Best Jeanist told him.

(Sorry if I got anything wrong, I was inactive around MHA for a while, so I could be misremembering, but hell yeahhh, this is what I've been waiting for lets gooooo!!!!)

I think you've got a lot of good stuff here, and yet... My apologies, anon, normally I wouldn't lead with this point I'm about to address, but I must address it first or else no one will read past this point and instead run to dogpile me in my askbox.

While I understand where you're coming from, it's just not tenable to argue the relationship between Izuku and Katsuki is akin to that of siblings.

Some people would make this argument from what may seem like a shipping standpoint, but I'm going to make it from a cultural one. At no point in the manga are Izuku and Katsuki ever referred to as nor behave as nor speak like they're family. There are important hierarchical and social expectations present in Japan for siblings that are different from what's expected of friends (note that even twins are still distinguished as the older and younger brother). Izuku and Katsuki treat each other as peers, social equals, NOT as a big brother-little brother dynamic. Their dynamic is best described as that of childhood friends. Childhood friends is an important trope in Japan, and one can't just gloss over it and pretend like siblings and childhood friends are equivalent or that they work the same as with western story dynamics. They're not and they don't.

And the social distance between Izuku and Katsuki is VITAL to the way their characters and relationship work. Izuku has to be unrelated to Katsuki--a "pebble in his path," some random extra--for Izuku's heart to shake Katsuki so badly, for the "meddling where you don't need to" theme to apply to Izuku rescuing Katsuki, for Izuku reaching out to be so offensive to Katsuki. So for reference, you can accurately describe this relationship parallel with Yoichi and AFO as "they knew each other since childhood," "they don't remember ever not knowing each other," "they have always been a part of each other's lives," etc. But I must stress the trope you're invoking here is childhood friends. It's okay, you don't NEED BakuDeku to be "like siblings" to make these parallels work. They grew up together, and that's sufficient.

Sorry to nitpick on that.

Anyways, I do think that there is something intentional on Horikoshi's part about Katsuki "Self-Victory" Bakugou facing off against All For One as if AFO is implied to be one of Katsuki's "selves" for him to defeat, particularly his old self he's already basically defeated in every sense except somehow fighting it out physically.

Can I tell you a secret though?

I'm not convinced MHA ends after Katsuki vs AFO and Izuku vs Tomura.

No, I don't mean like a falling action epilogue. I just mean...

Heroes Rising didn't end when Izuku and Katsuki sucker-punched Nine. It didn't end when Nine had been bested in fair combat. It ended after Nine employed a desperate gambit to win no matter the cost and became a giant purple butterfly rage monster.

What I'm saying is...I kinda think AFO will successfully transplant his quirk into Tomura or something.

[unfriendlyamazon]

started vampire joey fanfic i had an image for the start and an image for the end and we're just gonna have to figure out the in between

[lunarreverb]

Help, my Durge told Astarion he could drink her blood before I knew that Gale's date night was gonna trigger that same evening

What did he see? What did he seeeeeee

[acheemient]

Hi!

Your local neighborhood acheemient here to say: it's okay to be wrong. It's okay to say you don't know the answer to something. It's okay to admit fault.

You know what's not okay? Being a dick.

[blondiest]

i know in my heart shit is going south when i have like 10 tabs open on surrealism and imagism for this WIP

[queenvernage]

what if i....... ran at full speed to throw my body between yours and the ground....... and you...... landed safely in my arms....... and then i made a cute little quip that is both a call back to earlier banter and a subtle implication that you should stay in my life a little longer (to repay my pain and suffering)???

[vaultsixtynine]

my biggest complaint about aw2 so far is that it's got an intensely painful level of handholding and i feel like it takes maybe 2-3 times as long to "reach" certain conclusions that the player has already reached and not in a way that makes the player feel smart, just mildly annoyed that they had to do a bunch of extra clicking for the game to catch up / so they don't break sequence

[quenthel]

ok be real are they actually adding new shit to companion quests and overall story or are the additions focused on like romance content? bc i swear i barely noticed huge changes in bg3's general writing where it uhm... for the lack of a better word "matters"

[itspileofgoodthings]

I don’t mean to be cheesy but. I think this is a beautiful life. 😭😭😭😭

[kamamo1]

Not to get in too deep in the Weeds about it, but who thought it would be a good idea to have Si Spuerrier be the one to finally write the Mystique + Destiny = Nightcrawler plot? Like ignoring the fact that they should have brought back Chris Claremont to pull that trigger because it was his original idea and he's the reason why anyone would care about any of those characters today, but like fine you don't ask Chris, Spuerrier still isn't even in the top 10 of writers I would have do this plotline because as a writer I don't think he's able to do an emotional or satisfying payoff that is this 40+ years of a smoking gun plot.

Also why have Spuerrier do it now for when about the whole Kraokoa era Destiny and Mystique haven't really interacted with either Kurt or Rogue in any meaningful or interesting ways, so there's not like meaningful set up or an added weight to what should be this total bombshell?

Idk it just smells of Marvel going 'Fine, we did it. Happy now?' to the fans and not like planning on continuing this thread in any interesting way.

[sinners-go-to-drink-the-wine]

anon I just don't agree, and that's ok.