#now i kinda want to re-read the exam arc

[justanotherpersonsuniverse]

SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 70 PN BELOW Lets fucking go cap! ok it’s the weekend, I have my own writing block and I finally finished my fucking assignments and handed them in, I’m practically free forever!! (exams loom in the distance, i willfully ignore their shadow)

I’ve started by reading from chapter 67 just to bring myself back into the mindset (and because they are hype as all hell chapters), this is faster than starting my like 7th re-read.

I even made myself a cuppa to really settle in, the vibes are immaculate, I played Bizet Carmen while reading this time

The dichotomy of Juleka:

I don't want to hurt anyone!

Extreme violence is efficient. 

The fact that we didn’t get ladybug trying to kiss rena when she was shot by dark cupid is tragic

This time i listened to shoot to thrill by ACDC, and Burn it down by awolnation for the badass parts

Anyway finally onto Fei, that only took me two hours (i briefly wrote shit so yknow, a good time!)

Fei’s tragic backstory be upsetting frfr, Like damn brother you watched your dad die in front of you? Do you need a blanket and a hug?

The tone change from “My life ended when my dad died.” to “summer was awesome!!” made me snort horrible it’s not funny- but it kind of is-

Oh my god Juleka got a break for weeks AND WE DIDN’T GET TO SEE IT??? Tragedy. (i’m kidding, so happy that she got a break <33)

Rose thirsting over Panthera in a crop top is too funny- you just know if it was anyone else Juleka would be pouting like “damn what do they have that I don’t?” 

Oop her hands still kinda fucked, curiouser and curiouser. I wonder if she has tried to practice her secondary power. Which rq, it was SUCH bullshit that LB gets two and the cat miraculous gets one in canon, so happy you retconned it

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OH MY GOD OK CAP I AM SO HYPE HYPE SHE GOT A MODELING INTERNSHIP?????? Like sure cause nepotism but i’ve been wanting to see Juleka try out modeling in a real environment for ages cause like thats something she is interested in yknow and i just- 

Augh, hype as hell. And an excellent reason for her to be going to Shanghai, I applaud your problem solving to fit Juleka into the show's narrative! I applaud it always, but this one was more difficult than usual methinks

I have pizza now it is 8pm

Anyways; NOO GABEY BABY DON’T BE EVIL VIBES TO JULEKA SHE’S JUST A LITTLE THING

Oh my poor awkward Juleka… Gabriel wasn’t helping but this is so funny, dude you vowed to kill this girl like a month ago open your eyes

I NEED juleka’s modeling arc to be a thing. Idk how into detail you went but i’m hoping for some i’m rabid i’ve been waiting for this for like 3 years

Oh airports SUCK i feel her anxiety so much, poor thing… i forced my friend to share her location with me one time so we could stalk each other, we never turned it off its kinda funny

… why is Anarka banned from airports?? Being “a living weapon” is so vague.

Killing myself rose and juleka are so cute- and obsessed with each other- every hour is insane

I love Juleka instantly becoming a disaster on baby’s first flight

Juleka instantly being on high alert around gabriel is so real.

“Right,” Mr Agreste’s face didn’t twitch nor soften much in response, just nodded in understanding and turned back to stare forward. “The opening of this store is essential to the future of the Agreste Brand, you two. Opening it much sooner is very good news. There will be other fun times with your friends.”

Hardass, fuck off!!

Poker with literal chips made me laugh- adrien would be terrible at poker

Spiderman far from home? Nah, Panthera Noir far from home. 

“Oh that building looked fun to climb.” please Juleka unhinged parkour arc when?? Like people turn away from her and then look back and she’s up a tree. 

HELP “bye bye bag” is so real-

She’s so scary, but I wanna ask what her hair dye is. Do it. Please. I think you would factory reset Nathalie and she would answer on autopilot

Awkwardly playing chess is so real, also; yippee!! Adrien and Juleka bonding even more after the acting debacle!!

“Knights were cute. Little pony’s. Rose always wanted to move her knights cause they reminded her of unicorns.” please this is literally my strategy in chess, i just move them around and sometimes i win because i confuse people so badly

LB overthinking chess is hilarious. 

Adrien POV???

YOU CAN LEARN MANY THINGS FROM JULEKA SUCH; HOW TO BE A CAT. sorry i just had the mad idea that Adrien might find out this chapter… i would go insane if that turned out to be right

“Knowing info about me is pretty easy when your Wikipedia is super detailed” that’s fucking depressing. Adrien baby that’s a terrible way to get to know someone and not the same experience at all- 

Gaelic is a real language!! And a bitch to learn- I briefly tried with my dad and we both gave up, we’ll just stick with scots english

“Where do you disappear during akumas?” hard hitting question Adrien, ten points!

And is also making me high key suspicious about him finding out, the vibes are there

Nah, nah evil. Gabriel spend time with your son goddamnit 

GET HIS ASS JULEKA YES GIRL I LOVE YOU

The fact that she thinks she isn’t brave sometimes infuriates me, like babe i get your insecure but your brave as hell. 

QUEEN SHIT JUST WENT DOWN THERE

Juleka ripped him to shreds hell fucking yeah.

Wait. why did she give him the king? Hawkmoth called himself a king… cue the x-files music

Who the fuck is this asshole? Fei. Kick his ass, i command thee. 

Oh curious, she has burn scars from the fire, i like this detail. 

I feel like Fei and Juleka will get along, based on the ever present rage against one guy

She is being used augh

“Your father deserves to be avanged.”

“He does.” UMM GIRL YOUR DAD WOULD HATE THAT WEREN’T YOU THERE FOR THE FLASHBACK??

I want Cash to gtbnrvice this asshole is just using her desperation for information- 

I want Juleka to scare him into telling them, as Panthera, i think she would be quite good at that. 

Juleka is a feral beast who needs her outside time (i like how she wants to run on rooftops a lot its cute)

LORE LORE LORE LORE 

Excited. The prodigious?? Tell me more silly cheese guy

Ummm. i need the prodigious to show up, i can’t remember if thats what Fei has or if this is future future foreshadowing, this is exciting

New arc unlocked: freeing the Kwami from their jewelery or the curse. 

Also; yes sadistic plagg in the face of the guardians temple being destroyed, you go girl

Guardian temple? Swallowed whole? Sounds frightening. What a feast.  HA

Model Juleka yippee!

Help- adrien your advice is trash-

Ok existential conversation, yes girl let me spiral-

No sick girl Nathalie let adrien speak i want to know what he thinks of the best girlies-

Plagg wanting to take him under his wing- Juleka saying he wants to replace her with Adrien- ITS ALL COMING TOGETHER. 

Nah if you actually do have a reveal to Adrien i am going to go buckwild- cause either the vibes of the chapter got me but i think I guessed before any of the concrete foreshadowing

Ok sick girl nathalie actually has some sound advice and is being lovely to Juleka 

Yes Juleka use your strength

FEI STEALING CAMERAS??

Get her ass Juleka, or- politely bite her arm juleka?!?

Juleka is just brawling in an alleyway- like damn sister- watch out for bruises you might not be allowed to model-

Oh god what if she took plagg during some of their scrapping- actually, that would be fine. Juleka would just go insane and fight her

Juleka; desperately grasping for something familiar and bantering with Fei

Fei: what the fuck is wrong with her?

Nicest mugger I’ve ever met real and true

Wait

NOO JULEKA THEY WON’T LET YOU MODEL LIKE THIS

YEAH KICK. HER. ASS. 

Plagg stays with Juleka yippeee!!

Help their dynamic is so funny- exactly what i was wanting. 

Juleka would want to learn how to disappear even better than she already does wouldn’t she

Nah not Fei thinking “well that was fucking weird” while juleka is like “Oh that was cool” Juleka is so weirdgirl core i love her

Oh shit she stole marinettes stuff Tiki is there- 

Kick the asshole in the balls Fei, i command thee.

I am so happy Nathalie and Juleka have some sort of alliance, in my as to be written huge tragedy based on Nathalie Gabriel and Emily (which is extensively planned), I think Nathalie is more similar to Juleka as a teenager. 

Adrien and Nathalie interaction- “yes we- we did it” agyuhtvrinjfeok love her. 

Marinette blinked vacantly, standing in the back alley streets of Shanghai with a paling expression on her face and her entire inventory ghosted from her person.

WHERE THE HELL AM I!?

HELP SHE’S SO FUNNY- i love disaster marinette please-

and thats a wrap for Fei! i started this before five and it is now ten pm- i did other things though.

this was awesome cap, I look forward to the next chapters and I shall review them tomorrow!!!!!!

I hope you enjoyed <3

GLAD YOU ENJOYED!!!!!!

[anti-katsuki-lounge]

Hii, how are ya?about the recents ask on kirishima and as a formally mha manga fan well... it makes me really sad and reflexive to think about the wasted potential and the negative way bakugo affects other characters :/ if only bakugo had actually changed and develop at least the situation would be more understable. Anyways recently re reading the manga i just wanted to say all those ask bring really good points, yet im sorry as an still kiri fan these days and feeling attachment to him i don't completly agree and have to defend him a little </3 can't really speak about other mha media but in the manga at least more clearly in the beginning kirishima wasn't in my opinion the yes man to bkg or dormant to his bad attitude, maybe these instants aren't very significant but they are still there, calling out all might to stop the exercise saying bkg is crazy and wanted to kill izuku, calling a jerk when he turn the other students agains 1-A, telling him not to be rude to shinsou, calling him an idiot for going his own way in the license exam, like idk it's frustrating because back in the day it really seem their relationship was going to be significant and develop so much more, kamino was the first significant step towards a right direction, it had an emphaisis in the story but then..well nothing happened after that, and that's were the problem starts which was really sad cause at that time their bond(never ship them) seem very sweet to me, bkg was still an horrible person and needed to do so much more to improve but in these instants it seem he still kinda had a soft spot for someone and gave a little reciprocity or a "kind" action(giving kr money), encouragement(the rappa fight flasback)at least in "his way" it was the only positive thing he had going on for me and i think so much more had to have happened after all of this, but then hori seem to forget completely about these two so we just had to assume they were friends now because we were told so thought never actually really shown except for the few(i can testify to this) interactions they have which all can paint this bad image of kr's purpose just to be bkg cheerleader and remind us that he "changed".

Excuse my english and all this blabler that became this really long ass essay but just wanted to share this with u, can't really hold some things against kr cause i still love him from a far and i'm sad that his closeness to that gary stue harmed his potential and sweet character that he still is cause he's not the only one that suffer from this bkg influence(that still doesn't make this situation better) will still read and love fix it's were they show him directly confront bakugou and take real actions that make bkg really change, take responsibilty and atone for all he's done

You bring up a very good point and it’s that Ejiro wasn’t always Katsuki’s “yes man”. Same thing with Denki. They vocalized disagreements with things Katsuki did. Sadly it’s once we hit the post-Sports Festival arc that the characters lose their sense of agency. Where they would normally voice their disagreement (even if it was brushed aside) became them supporting Katsuki every step of the way. Like I’ve said before Ejiro has some of the best writing in the series but it’s unfortunately sucked away by Katsuki the leech.

[hurlumerlu]

Naruto, Lee, Gaara pls : D

Ohlala, I haven’t read or watchedNaruto in a long while so I’ve probably forgotten many things, but Iwill try my best.(And I’m probably not going to focus oneverything post the rescuing Gaara (as Kazekage) arc because that’sthe last arc I was truly emotionally invested in.)It got long, so I’m putting it under a cut :

Naruto :do I like him : Ilove him a lot ! he’s a sweetheart. Even in his first arcs, when wewere more or less the same age, he gave me strong « mustprotect » feelings.

5 good qualities : - his compassion- he’s good with children younger than him in a way that is always striving to give them more agency (if that makes sense)- despite the unrelenting torrents of shit he finds himself in he manages to stay a kind, bright and hopeful presence (and it’s not like it comes naturally… it’s a series of conscious choices) Hats off.- his frog wallet denotes impecable taste, I will not hear otherwise.- he’s very good at thinking on the fly and outside the box (I feel this quality is often overlooked)

3 bad qualities :- his hotheated-ness (though he arguably grows out of it)- he can be a bit of a people pleaser (understatment of the year ?)- his insecurities (though again, i suppose he grows out of that too)

favourite episode/etc : his fight against Neji. Shows off his determination, his distate for the idea that you can’t fight destiny and that people can’t change, his pretty keen understanding of individuals (although he’s angry at Neji he understands him) and his fast thinking. Plus it’s just an overall really good and tense fight.

Otp : I don’t have any. I don’t mind Hinata/Naruto, it’s very wholesome, and I understand the appeal of Naruto/Sasuke, it’s certainly epic, but I’m not deeply moved by either.

Brotp : Naruto/Sakura/Sasuke. I love them, and I think they’re good for eachother on a friendship level.

Ot3 : Nope sorry, I don’t have any.

Notp : Naruto/Sakura. It’s just not going to work ! In fact, I appreciate that Naruto rejecting Sakura’s false declaration of love is seen as growth on his part (although I don’t think that false declaration really made much sense).best quote : it’s been too long, I don’t remember any.

head canon : at this point I mostly see this story through a complicated set of AU-lenses so… anyway he never became Hokage nor married anyone and he spends most of his time alternating between week-long fishing trips with Sakura and Sasuke (sometimes some of their friends joins them) and visits to Gaara. The courting between Hinata and him is a delicate dance that may never go anywhere but they both like it that way.

Rock Lee :do I like him : yep ! It’s hard not to. I thinkKishimoto hit gold with the concept of this character.

5 good qualities :- his generosity- it’s more about his character than about him but I like that he loses most of his fights- related to that, it’s not really winning that maters to him, it’s self-improvement and defending others- i find his habit of giving himself little challenges that will bring good luck if he wins them extremely endearing.- nice ninjustsu/genjutsu you got there. Rock Lee is just going to punch you really fast and really hard.

3 bad qualities :- his hotheated-ness - I remember his courting of Sakura as pretty cringe-worthy- look I know this is a shonen manga and I can overlook a great many shonen tropes that bother me but the strain he put on his body in the name of self-improvement is absolutely horrifying.

favourite episode/etc : That said his fight agaisnt Gaara is a really great fight and the badassery quotient is off the roof. And yes I realize that expressing horror at Lee’s injuries and then saying « I love that fight ! » is a bit of a contradiction but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Otp : I know you ship Lee/Gaara, and I find that intriguing and interesting, but I don’t ship him with anyone.Brotp : the other members of Team Guy, of course ! And I love when Gaara and Lee team up.

Ot3 : Rock Lee/his left eyebrow/his right eyebrow. The perfect team.

Notp : Rock Lee/Sakura. Not as much as Naruto/Sakura but it was just awkward.

best quote : sorry I don’t remember anyyy

head canon : he actually thinks that Tenten is the strongest in their team and is constantly begging her to practice with him (she indulges him more often than not). They consider each other siblings.

Gaara :

do I like him : yes ! Mostly I want to wrapp him in a blanketand give him hot chocolate or whatever sand ninjas like to drink.

5 good qualities : (obviously most of those come post character growth)- his kindness - I remember him as being very pacifist and diplomatically minded ?- I treasure the fact that he his quite soft spoken as it’s not a trait commonly found in this manga’s male characters.- his whole chara-design is really pretty great.- he came a long way T-T

3 bad qualities : I only find him one, really, and he grew past it, but, I mean, he killed a lot of people in quite gruesome ways. That’s a thing that happened.

favourite episode/etc : when he saves Lee during the fight against Kimimaro ! And then they team up and it’s really great. I remember being so tense when reading that fight for the first time.

Otp : Idk, Gaara/sand ? But no, really, same answer than for Lee.

brotp : actual brotp with his older siblings. Also his friendship with Naruto. (and again, the teaming up with Lee)

ot3 : None ! I don’t feel like Naruto is great ot3 material.

Notp : I don’t think I have a notp… but I really ahve a hard time imagining Gaara in a romantic relationship.best quote : I still don’t remember any XD

head canon : he’s a bookworm. He will read absolutely anything, from romance novel to gardenning essays, and he will enjoy it. He will need glasses soon enough.

[barid-bel-medar]

Aizawa is the worse teacher since 1-A can’t trust him due to his “logical rises,” he can “expel” you based on his personal standards over UA’s, basically expects his students to solve/fix their own problems or use other students to do it meanwhile can secretly train a student outside his class to replace one of his own current students. (Shinso was completely being trained to replace someone in 1-A you can’t convince me otherwise.)

You know what, putting this under a cut since this is Aizawa critical and I doubt if you're a fan of his you're terribly interested in reading that. Also really hoping this doesn't pop up in his tag since I really don't enjoy posting criticism of a character in their own tag...

It always kinda bugs me about how the kids probably don't trust really trust him as an educator and this is never touched on. I think the thing is that the kids trust him the sense they trust him to keep them alive, but it's kinda illogical that they'd trust him to either be a competent or trustworthy teacher; see the fact he's the one who repeatedly has the most failures between the First Year heroics course isn't really a good sign. Like during first trimester finals only Monoma fails for 1-B, and they all pass the Licensing Exam. We got multiple 1-A students failing finals and during the licensing exam two 1-A students failed, which is not a great look. Hell, Aizawa even acknowledges that between him and Kan, Kan is the better teacher.

I'd actually argue his plan wasn't to expel someone from 1-A and replace them with Shinso. The thing is, during the Joint Simulation arc part of the point of it is to see which of the classes he'd better fit in. Otherwise he wouldn't be on teams with students with both classes. I also suspect UA does in a sense have a certain amount of 'extra' spots in case a Gen Ed student shows enough promise during the Sports Festival or additional mentor-ship with one of the teachers (since I sincerely doubt Aizawa is the first to ever do it). You aren't really guaranteed one of the heroics kids will fuck up to the point they deserve to be replaced, while at the same time a Gen Ed or other track student who's interested in transfer, show they are deserving of a spot.

I also feel it needs to be pointed out if USJ had never happened, he'd probably never have had any interest in training Shinso. Like, we can assume it's very unlikely first of all he's ever actually taught one of the homerooms he's previously been given, and more likely has done a blend of administrative assistant and sub work. In Japan it's incredibly uncommon for homeroom teachers to not be students' homeroom teachers for all three years. Also when we do see what are apparently the Second Years he expelled the year before we get absolutely no hint that after he re-enrolled them he taught them. Actually I'd say, especially with the way the one student commented on it and the rather incredulous looks the others had they probably didn't. We get very little impression that he either likes or really wants to teach (remember, he's not even the one who sent in the job application as we're shown in Vigilantes). So I don't think he'd normally go out his way to privately train someone unless he's had a sort of traumatic moment like USJ. Though. I would also say it's not a great look that he's not giving any outside training to his actual homeroom students, especially in light of how some do seem to be struggling and while you can argue they get additional training at internships, not all of 1-A got internships at first, and only really did during the winter because the HPSC made it a requirement. Which does actually now make me wonder if in theory you can go through all three years without ever doing one in the past, or if it was purely a requirement for Second and Third Years.

But yeah there’s a lot of issues with him as an educator that I really wish the series would at least touch on more.

[ayzrules]

✶ 𝐇𝐗𝐇 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐒: 𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 & 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒, 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇 & 𝐃𝐀𝐌𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍   Long story short, I have been thinking about this for wayyyyy too long now and wanted to get some ~thoughts~ & analysis written down! This post is going to be...fairly long, lol. Apologies in advance :D

  Also, if you can’t see the last gif (the one for ‘holy’), click here. Tumblr keeps fucking up the image when i try to upload it :////

  This post is probably going to be about 2/3 yorknew & phantom troupe/kurapika focused, 1/3 chimera ants, maybe with some references to other arcs (including manga-only arcs) mixed in. so, ofc, tons of spoilers ahead! also, i realize that my blog theme is hard to read (and i’m p sure clicking ‘keep reading’ sends you to the og post itself), so i’m linking the post w/ full text copy/pasted in on my art backup side blog (which has a more legible font) here. 

✶ 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇   I’m sure absolutely nobody is surprised with me starting here - there is just. SO. MUCH. DEATH. in hxh. & right from the start, one thing I noticed that togashi really emphasized was the #4 and its connection to death. in japanese, chinese, and im p sure some other asian cultures the number 4 is pronounced like the word for death so it’s associated with death in general, and boy oh boy does the ‘deadly number 4′ thing show up E V E R Y W H E R E. we get to the hunter exam, and hisoka is applicant #44. kurapika is #404. i didn’t notice it at first, but this was so intentional holy shit. togashi is NOT SUBTLE.

  So pika & hisoka are, right off the bat, associated with death. okay. and then there are even more clues to drive the point home: hisoka is member #4 in the phantom troupe, kurapika’s birthday is april 4th (aka 4/4). 100% not a coincidence (!!). with hisoka, it’s pretty obvious why togashi’s throwing all this death 444444 stuff around - dude is a psycho murder pedo clown, literally gets off on killing people (and there’s also the fact that judas sits 4th from the left in the last supper painting, and he’s sort of the judas equivalent for the phantom troupe). with kurapika, though, it’s a bit more subtle and woven deeper into his characterization, which i LOVE. togashi puts the mans in blue & gold & white (traditionally ‘pure’ or ‘heavenly’ colors), makes him so fucking kind & so good-hearted.....when he’s not relentlessly pursuing his revenge, ofc. more on this in the next section, but pika = death. togashi has made that v v v clear.

  Backtracking a bit to hisoka, though, I also just wanted to point out the 4 is death symbolism in the fortunes too (GOD i love the fortunes): in one translation, he’s the false fourth moon, and in the og japanese (i think), he’s the false hare (4th in the lunar zodiac or w/e it’s called. i don’t know the japanese cultural influences here, but in the chinese legend that established the zodiac animals, they race across the heavenly river & the top 12 animals got zodiac slots. the hare finished 4th, so it’s #4 in the cycle). 

  And just as a final note, Tserriednich is the fourth prince of the kakin empire, and also another dude who has a hard-on for murder & other gory shit. again: togashi is not subtle with this, lmfao

✶ 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐘, 𝐔𝐍𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐘   As probably everyone who’s gotten to yorknew knows, togashi is so 0 fucks given when he wants to be. I mean there’s the whole thing where he just. took New York and decided, Yorknew. LMFAO, but also, he made the main antag of that arc be named chrollo lucilfer, sit around in a ruined church, have a reversed cross coat, pale & dark-haired/dark-eyed, generally dressed in dark colors, very terrible murder guy. liiiike......chrollo x devil symbolism game is 1000/10 at this point lmaooo

  And i know absolutely nothing about christianity in general, but pt/kurapika & yorknew arc is just so full of christian imagery/symbolism! one thing that i L O O O O O O V E though is how togashi really blurs the traditional christian-coded good/evil, holy/damned boundaries.

  Back to kurapika: he wears gold and blue, his coloring is very stereotypically ‘angelic’, he’s precious and good and kind. his chains are all about ~judgment~ and ~healing~ - some of the chains are also in literal cross shapes, aren’t they? And the chain dagger in his own heart...the imagery is very startlingly similar to the immaculate heart of mary, where the swords stabbing thru the heart apparently represent seven sorrows. IDK much about this stuff other than the visual similarities; literally had to google ‘daggers through heart christianity?’ to even get the name of that thing LOL. anyway, at first, it seems like togashi establishes him as the ‘angel’, the ‘good’, the ‘holy’ in the angel/devil, good/evil, holy/damned dichotomy between him and chrollo.

  But that’s not the end of the story. his entire storyline is driven by a huuuuuuuge giant desire for vengeance, first of all, and then there’s the scarlet eyes, which canonically are seen as demonic/cursed/what have you (according to one of the movies or smth? where they show pika as a 10 y/o?), and then we also have red eyes in modern culture being associated w pretty much the same thing (vampires, anyone?). the fight scene with uvo has everything in b&w besides the blood on his face & his red eyes & the moon (<<< more fortune foreshadowing & symbolism, i love to see it), and there are tonssss of scenes where he has to suppress his rage. so all of that is obviously not very angelic of him i would say LOL. in fact, what i find super interesting is that the scarlet/red eyes (which are ‘demonic’) is actually the driving factor behind his super powerful nen abilities; this ties in so well with the fortunes & death associations imo! the fortunes call him the ‘death-bringer’ in one translation, or ‘half-angel, half-death’, so that’s one side of pika = red eyes = death, but there’s also the fact that emperor time is literally draining his life force. so pika = death for both himself and others namely the pt, question mark?

  Now for chrollo: togashi’s devil symbolism is EXTREMELY overt with him, but i love the subtler jesus references too. the church thing, obviously, and the st. peters cross which is cuz st peter respected jesus too much & didn’t think he was worthy to die in the same way as him (or something like that, i am the most atheist person in the world & hxh is literally my entire christian education pls) but is also used as an anti-christianity symbol these days. bandit’s secret looks like a bible, lbr, and mans has a cross tattoo.

  Other things beyond visuals - 12 spiders, 12 apostles; hisoka’s betrayal, where member #4 can be thought to correspond to judas sitting 4th from left at last supper. and this miiiiight be a bit of a stretch, but i think the meteor city being the place of origin may also play into the blurred line between angel/devil and holy/damned here; meteors are defined as space rocks that are in earth’s atmosphere, becoming incandescent in the process. meteorites are for the kinds that actually reach the ground. and idk, lucifer was cast out of heaven / sky too right? so i think there might be some subtle fallen angel imagery/symbolism playing into the pt as well

✶ 𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 (𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒)   Last section yay! i don’t have as much to say about this, besides when i was making chimera ant arc edits & realized that there might have been some subtle gon/meruem parallels???

  So obviously, everyone knows that line killua says to gon - “you are light” - and then i was just remembering that meruem’s name means.... “light that illuminates all” (!!!!). maybe it’s a coincidence, but knowing togashi, i’m leaning towards nahhhh. there HAS TO be some kinda meaning there (!!).

  Going back to the events of the chimera ant arc....ooh boy. let’s see: gon is optimistic & hopeful even in the face of kite potentially being dead, killua says he’s light, they find kite & dude is fucked up, gon is pissed. gets all angry & ~dark~, especially during the palace invasion when he’s staring pitou down as she fixes up komugi. then the actual fight against pitou: more darkness, more anger, but through it all there’s still light, namely his jajanken being very orange & fiery lookin.....and that final sequence, where he puts all his possible nen he’d ever have into his ~final form~ or wahtever & turns into a male version of true form!bisky but dressed in a crop top & short-shorts (i am SCARRED, btw. s c a r r e d !). there’s just huuuge flashes of light as that’s going on, and it reminded me of supernovas or dying stars when i was thinking about it, where the star is like, collapsing under its own weight? & burning thru its own fuel, until there’s nothing left except a dwarf or black hole or what have you. one final, extremely deadly burst of light & energy before death.

  On the meruem side of things: born into a dark cave, exhibits a traditionally evil/cruel/wicked/whatever personality/traits so that has ppl associating him with darkness. then he gets to know komugi, starts to appreciate other aspects of humanity, seems like he could have actually turned into a decent person who doesn’t want to eat everyone - so that’s a ‘path to light’, maybe? - and then the extermination team yeets themselves into the palace, netero takes him out to bumfuck nowhere, they fight. netero’s fighting is just ALL light, from his giant ass golden 100-type guanyin bodhisattva to the poor man’s rose. again, there’s the sense of finality to it all, in a similar vein to dying stars: netero comes in determined to kill meruem no matter what, and we all know netero doesn’t flake. then we see netero get destroyed after the zero hand, and he triggers the rose, and everything is burning & on fire before the flames are put out and all turns dark again.

  But wait!!! pouf & youpi revive meruem and all he does is play gungi with komugi, even with the poison of the rose. he eventually dies, and the gungi pieces in that final shot of them together (i am BAWLING just thinking about it holy shit) has one that’s all white, one that’s a black ring and white inside. i assume all white is for komugi, who has never done ANYTHING wrong in her LIFE, so i like to think that the 2nd one is for meruem - born “into darkness”, literally & figuratively, but he turns something like ‘good’ by the end. it’s interesting how togashi has sort of gone for a bit of a subversion here: the hero going from light to darkness, and the main antag from darkness to light.

✶ 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍   AahhhhHHHHHhhh so if you read all the way down here through my LONG rambles, tysm! i would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear what other people think about all this, and i’ve FOR SURE missed tons and tons of stuff - chimera ants is just. SO MUCH. and i don’t know it as well as yorknew eeek.

  I’m not sure if i’m really ~knowledgeable~ in any other areas relating to hxh, so this might be the only one of these that i do, but i definitely think about some of this - esp all the religious symbolism & #4 stuff - a ton! so in the meantime, if it’s of any interest, i’m just going to shamelessly plug my hxh x religious beliefs/superstitions edit series :D lots of love to all!!!

[hematomes]

AJSJD cries i have to complete the things bUT HEY before i came back to reply i got thru that other pdf so now. mostly little things, and then write abt 500 characters in chinese for an essay (draft) and plan out an essay (already partially planned) and watch a version of mulan in chinese (eng subtitles tho). almost done ajsjjs

dw tho will take break eventually,, watch movie, maybe read some manga bc im dying to find out what happened in bnha, maybe watch jjk so i can finish s1 <3

YELLS WHAT IS THE ESSAY ABT AJD ALSO MOOD emotional support for essays is needed

also venti is on the horizon im v excited ajsjs. if only i had enough anemo gems cries

i am not on board with the overworking but i trust you so <3 congrats!!!

YES FINISH JJK god i caught up w the manga today and i rly need to re-read the last arc bc i just speedran through it the first time and now im lost

i have to comment a quote by jean-paul sartre cries it's horrendous and the professor is really vague about what she wants (like. we had an exam two weeks ago and the 2nd question was a yes or no + development to argue your stance but what she didn't tell us was that we actually needed to nuance the answer. so i got a 2/10 bc i only argued the positive and it kinda ruined my friday) so yeah, that's fun

YEAHHH GOOD LUCK GETTING THE ROCKS,,, im so excited for ayato, im mostly done w the farming and have him guaranteed i just need his banner to fucking COME)

[silverducks]

Game of Thrones - Jaime Lannister

A rambling character study of Jaime Lannister from Game of Thrones.

Part 1a – Jaime’s Character Arc

This post is going to look at my thoughts on exactly how I see Jaime’s character arc in Game of Thrones, based on just the show. But it’s also to set up my future posts where I explain why I find it so darn hard to understand why he had the ending they gave him. At least beside the obvious - because the writers wanted to.

Yeah I know; I’m late to the GoT train wreck of a final series. But I have a lot of thoughts and hence why I’m here typing away.

(And this is where I start to really go all English Lit exam analysis on you, so a warning for anyone who actually might be reading this post, LOL!)

My Intro to this series of posts btw, is here.

So, spoilers be below.

Ok, so to help explain why Jaime’s ending makes no sense, I firstly need to explain what exactly his character arc is in the show, or at least how I perceive it. As mentioned in a previous post on honour vs loyalty, for Jaime I see his character arc being about two, interconnected things – redemption and identity.

In series 1 and 2, he’s not a nice character – he’s a self-righteous, proud, full of himself, snob. He’s arrogant and cocky and says pretty cruel, snide things to characters we do like. And as we see him through the PoV of characters like *Mr Honourable Eddard Stark, Jaime is pretty despicable to say the least. And that is before we even get started on the whole pushing a boy out of a window because he caught Jaime having sex with his own twin sister. Oh and just as an FYI, Jaime is also called the Kingslayer because he killed the King he was sworn to protect. So yeah, most people watching the show don’t like him at the start, and neither do most of the other show characters we do like.

And from a story telling perspective, Jaime’s character can either get worse, better or stay the same as the show goes on. And in this story, he gets better, with a few slip ups along the way, and it’s fascinating and glorious!!

Like, I can think of nothing that even comes close to the amazing way Jaime Lannister’s character develops in Game of Thrones and how we as a viewer change in our perception of him.

But that only makes his ending so much more frustrating and disappointing…

Before I start rambling away though, just as a point to note; I’m using terms like good and better person and right and wrong quite loosely here. Obviously the world, even in a fictional world, isn’t all that simple. As that would be a whole other massive thematic and philosophical thesis, and it’s not really that relevant, just take the “general” meaning of the ideas, but with the understanding I know it’s a bit more complicated. Where I think it does become more relevant, I’ll expand on the ideas in that particular context. If I sound a bit flippant at times, it’s because of the whole black vs white vs grey, and how there are “rules” in storytelling that wouldn’t necessary apply to our own, real life reality. There are things that we need to take into account when we analyse characters in stories vs actual, real people. And on a side note, this is one of my favourite things about Game of Thrones, the complexity and moral ambiguity of both its characters and its story themes. But yeah, that’s a whole thesis in its own right.)

Redemption Arc

So, redemption. In order for us to start to like this character, and see him as a good guy, he has to go through a redemption arc. Like pretty much rule number 1 of storytelling. That means we have to watch him and believe in him becoming a better person. Conversations like the whole oath vs oath issue, or his chat with his father about his nicknames in series 1 makes us take notice of a character, maybe even be more invested in a character and their shades of grey, but it’s not really redemption. And considering how far in debt he is in the good vs bad guy department, he has a lot of work to do.

And my goodness, he does it. Like, I mean, this guys’ redemption arc is astonishing! He goes through so much, rethinks and challenges everything he once thought/knew about himself and his world, faces all his past wrongs and bad character traits and becomes not even a better person, but a hero! He goes from a bad villain who kills kings and pushes kids from windows, to becoming one of the main heroes we’re rooting for by the end of the story.

(A quick disclaimer here, like I’m not saying Jaime is ever, or ever will be perfect, heck, he’s human and this is Game of Thrones and Jaime’s more messed up than most. But when you think back from where he started and where he’s been, it sure is impressive – if we ignore his actual ending that is, LOL!)

And his glorious redemption arc all pretty much starts around the time he starts his fun road trip with Brienne in series 3.

So, just to give a few of his finer redemption points (and just remember his series 1 and 2 actions and our opinion of him in contrast):

He stops Brienne from being raped and gets his hand cut off for the trouble (Ouch! But suffering, especially from doing something good, gives lots of redemption points.)

He risks his life to save Brienne from being mauled to death by a bear. Like, he’s recently lost his sword fighting hand and has no weapon, but he jumps in the bear pit anyway and puts himself between the bear and Brienne. He then helps Brienne out of the bear pit first and then only just makes it out alive himself. Oh and if that wasn’t enough, he basically tells the bad guys that he’s leaving with Brienne, or they will have to kill him. Like he says this to the guy who not so long ago chopped his hand off. (Just think on that one a minute ok.)

He keeps to his promise/oath to Catelyn Stark and continues to help her daughters by giving Brienne a priceless sword and some stunning armour so she can find and help them. (This also helps Brienne, because he knows she’s not safe in Kings Landing, and gives her a purpose, because he knows that’s what she needs.)

Firstly offers to sacrifice his own life needs and goals and those vows he’s now starting to hold more dear to save his brother. When said brother then screws up that opportunity, Jaime then also helps said brother escape from being killed, going against his sister and father, who want his brother dead. (Yeah, the Lannisters are an interesting family… And you wonder why Jaime is a little messed up?)

Takes RiverRun without any bloodshed. (Like pulls off the perfect bluff in GoT siege history so that he can make sure his army succeeds, but no one is killed. (I don’t count the Blackfish, who chose to fight to the death rather than escape/get taken prisoner.)

Joins the fight for the battle against the dead, even if it also means renouncing his entire house and lineage and putting himself at the mercy and judgement of pretty much all his enemies and all he has wronged. (One of which has a habit of roasting her enemies alive with Dragon fire)

Oh and also risks his life in above mentioned battle against the dead.

A pretty impressive list imho, lots of redemption points there and that’s not even including everything else he does. Following the general storytelling themes of forgiveness and redemption, Jaime basically ticks all the boxes by all the good deeds he’s now done. And that’s one of the major reasons why we as viewers now love him so much as a character.

But that’s not all, of course. As we discover also in series 3 (a pretty important series for our Jaime), it’s not even just about him doing good things, but we realise as an audience we’ve (intentionally by the show) completely misunderstood him! Yes, he did kill the King he was sworn to protect, but only because said King was mad and was about to blow up the entire capital city where hundreds of thousands of innocent people live. And not only did he do this incredible honourable thing, but because it did go against his vow as a Kings Guard, he’s ever since been derided as the Kingslayer, Oathbreaker, Man without honour. A horrible set of nicknames that he’s borne, because he doesn’t think people would care or understand anyway. (Of course, I want to add in here that it’s partly the negative trait of pride too, thinking himself as the Lannister Lion, above having to explain himself to the sheep.)

Anyway, all this has worn him down a lot over the years and it’s messed him up good and proper. It kinda makes your own initial dislike of Jaime through *Mr Honourable Eddard Stark’s eyes seem a little unfair. Especially when the guy was barely more than a kid at the time (16 or 17 I think). And his defence mechanism to deal with this is one of the reason’s he is so cocky and arrogant – he uses his dry, often cruel humour, to mask that he does actually still care. In fact, it’s worked so well, I think at the start of the show, Jaime believes it himself; that he is a horrible, hateful person. But he did have that honour inside of him once; he did care and try to do what was right. And when you think back to his scenes in series 1 and 2, they take on new meaning now. He’s no longer such an evil arrogant, cocky knight we all pretty much immediately hated.

And as this revelation happens around the same time as he starts doing all those good deeds, it all helps work together to make us re-evaluate Jaime and grow to love him and become invested in his redemption arc even more.

(*I feel the need to add a disclaimer here, I do like Ned Stark a lot as a character. But it is interesting that as the show goes on, he almost does the opposite to Jaime – we see he actually isn’t always as good as we thought, that perhaps honour tripped into bitterness and prejudice a few times. That perhaps Ned, as much as we like him, is less full white and more speckled in shades of grey after all...(which makes him a more interesting and nuanced character imho, so rather than undermine him, it makes him more human.))

And when I rethink Jaime’s scene with Robb Stark when he’s captured, where he gives Robb the choice of ending the war if Robb can beat him in single combat, well, it adds even more depth to his character. Of course, Jaime knew he would likely win, as did Robb, so Robb refused. And as a viewer who was all Stark=Good, Lannister=Evil (except Tyrion) at the time, I was glad Robb wasn’t stupid or arrogant enough, like the Kingslayer Mr Jaime Lannister, to fall for that.

But then I remember the parallel in series 6, when Jon Snow (Stark=Good) gives exactly the same choice to Ramsay Bolton (Bolton=Spawn of Satan). Ramsay can either fight Jon in single combat, or they can all send their troops to die in their war. And as a viewer now, NOW! I think Ramsay is weak and awful for not agreeing (because he knows he can’t win too) and so sending all these soldiers to an early grave. Which is like 100% opposite for pretty much the same scenario of its series 2 counterpart. Of course, we HATE Ramsay and he has no, I mean literary NO! redeeming qualities, unlike Jaime, who we never, ever hated in the same way. But it does make you think about the whole idea of perception as well as actual deeds here. And that actually Jaime, you could argue, was doing the honourable thing by asking Robb for single combat, to spare the lives of both of their armies… I mean, obviously he wants to win the war, but maybe, he also wanted to spare as many lives as he could, too – like Jon in the series 6 equivalent. Maybe not so arrogant a request from our Jaime after all…

And another point to add in here, which further adds up to Jaime’s redemption arc, is Lady Brienne of Tarth. Yes, I’ve saved her to last for a reason, as she is, imho, THE catalyst for this amazing change we see in Jaime. If you’ll notice, a lot of Jaime’s good deeds involve Brienne and start happening around the time the two characters meet. And that very fact further proves that Jaime was and can be a better person.

He does not like her at first and she’s not quite your typical maiden. Not only is she a “beast” (to quote Jaime), but she’s a fighter, full of honour, self-sacrifice and steadfast in her purpose, and more than a match for him. Oh and she’s also his captor, dragging him to Kings Landing with a rope around his hands so they can trade him for the Stark girls.

So yeah, not the most cordial of first meetings. He pokes fun at her, trying to get her to snap, to prove she’s not as good as she seems. But she doesn’t, because she is that person, she is true to herself and not pretending. Unlike so many people Jaime knows, she is genuine.  

And he’s impressed by her skill and courage as a fighter as well. She is able to best him in the sword fight (granted when his hands are tied and he’s been sat in a cage for over a year, but he is like renowned for being one of the best sword fighters in the entire realm). Also when she fought the men who had murdered the women they found hung along the road – both as justice and to give the murdered woman a proper burial. She isn’t all talk, she can, and does fight. I bet Jaime wasn’t expecting that! And as sword fights are his thing, what he pretty much defines himself by and is most proud of, that’s a pretty big for tick from Jaime for Brienne right there.

Basically, she is a) an honourable person b) sticks to her oaths c) also able to fight (and therefore protect people) and d) refuses to let him get the better of her. The perfect, chivalrous embodiment of a brave, honourable Knight. A true Knight in all but name, whilst Jaime is now a Knight in nothing but name.

Now, I’ll discuss this more in the identity arc bit, but basically all this challenges Jaime, makes him rethink his own bitter images of himself and his world. She reminds him of his younger self, when he wanted to be that honourable Knight. And seeing this reflection of his younger, naïve and less world weary version of himself in Brienne, it helps to trigger this change in Jaime. It makes him remember who he once was, what he once stood for and believed in; that ideal that Jaime once believed is actually possible - of the brave, worthy Knight people sing songs about. And it started to make him want to be that person again. And this in turn, makes him want to start to do the right thing, to start to put honour first, which paves the way for his redemption arc very nicely.

I won’t talk too much more about Brienne here, because I think her relationship with and influence on Jaime deserves its own post. But I do think it is the specific personality of Brienne, together with the very fact that she is an ugly, “beast” of a woman, that triggers Jaime’s arc in just the right way and enables it to be so profound.

One last note on his redemption – I’ve said before it was partly his Lannister Lion pride that caused some of his suffering in relation to his nicknames. And indeed part of his arrogance is because he does think he’s better than everyone else (although not to the extent we first thought). He is the Lannister’s golden son after all and the Lannisters are basically the most powerful and wealthiest House in Westeros. It is a bad trait, yeah. But even this, even this! gets sorted out in series 8. From my list of redemption points, see the second to last point above – he faces judgement. Like a guy who had too much pride to admit he actually killed a King to help save hundreds of thousands of lives, actually, of his own volition, faces his enemies to be judged and to atone for what he has done wrong. Yeah, he also offers excuses at said trail, but if I’m honest, they do sound quite genuine to me. Is it any worse than what your typical soldier would do in a time of war? Fight in a battle and kill people? Try to capture the person (Ned) who’s wife captured your brother to avert a war? And we already know now he was justified in his killing of the mad King.

So, all in all, with this new insight into Jaime’s character, especially also seeing him through the increasingly positive eyes of Brienne (more on that later), who we know really is good and honourable, we have both a better understanding of his past actions, see his ongoing internal struggles and conflicts as he strives to do what is right and along with all his good deeds as the show goes on, we see him slowly (with lots of unfortunate set backs as well) become a better person. So come series 8, his redemption arc up to THAT scene, is glorious and basically complete.

And then there’s his identity arc. The other side of his character development, which is just as important for me and very much interconnected with his redemption.

(Like, seriously, there’s so much going on with this character that I could write essays, no a whole thesis I bet! I seriously can’t wait until I get to read him and Brienne’s chapters in the books and discover even more sides and shades to this character.)

But I’ve rambled on for far longer than I intended on his redemption arc, so I’ll save his identity arc for another day. (And hopefully it won’t be as long). Then we can get into the fun stuff like that hand he lost, that famous bath scene and his, how to put this, interesting relationship with his sister…

#If you were brave enough to get this far #Thanks for reading #And hope this made sense #Just my rambling thoughts #Yeah, I have a lot

[xcziel]

get to know me

tagged by @vishcount (thank you!!) and i'll follow her format bc making two posts seems a little much - i'm not that interesting!!

(hilariously, this post shows up as blocked for me bc of the tag 'joker' which? tumblr?????)

Part I

name: i'm an internet old, so i never use my real name online, mainly because it's spelled in a very unique way (thanks mom & dad) - i mean like, if you googled it you could find my home address in a few seconds kind of unique - but also, though i do enjoy the spelling, i actually don't like it very much when it's said out loud? (is it weird that my name written down is 'me', but my name aloud has never felt like 'me'?) always wanted a nickname but never acquired one :/

at any rate, i've had the username xcziel forever and i go by that 😊 (pronounced ex-SEE-zee-el, similar to etc. or ex-SET-er-ah! thanks @xia-xueyi for pointing out that it can be confusing to guess!)

rest behind a cut because it got long!

pronouns: she/her

star sign: i don't ... really *do* astrology? but technically saggitarius

height: 5'4" (162.5cm for the intl folks)

time: 5:43pm but these thing take me forever to type out so ... ???

birthday: playing the 'internet old' card again .. but it floats around american Thanksgiving depending on the year

nationality: american

fave bands/groups/solo artists: lumping these together because i just .. don't really do music much anymore. if you had asked me this back in my 20s i'm sure i would have had all kinds of opinions and things to share, but these days i actually mostly prefer to listen music from when i was a kid. part of it is also that as an old, i prefer to buy my music, even digitally, and i don't really use spotify - which does so much to enable diverse music exploration i admit! but i mostly have earplugs in all the time and music does not work for me as background noise, so...

so i guess my answer would be 70s disco and classic rock and 80s new wave artists? i've never liked any artist's entire discography and prefer greatest hits-type compilations, but i guess duran duran and def leppard and depeche mode would be considered formative? i love new order but specifically late 80s new order, NOT joy division. the only concert t-shirt i've ever worn was the cult? i loved sonic temple but i can't listen to most of it anymore though i still adore love removal machine. i think maybe if you get old enough, for some of us there's TOO MUCH good music and we can't pare it down anymore

song stuck in your head: jamiroquai's canned heat

last movie you watched: re: the above, i re-watched center stage, the 2000 one with zoe saldana and the mandy moore soundtrack, bc it's a happy comfort movie and i just got a digital version

last show you binged: i can't really "binge" very often bc after a couple of hours i need a break, so i guess i'd say the tgcf donghua on netflix since it was short enough to get through all in one go

when you created your blog: in 2012 i stopped lurking so i could post about the avengers movie

the last thing you googled: 5'4" in cm? lol before that it was chinese wrapped street food

other blogs: everything is here! i discovered i compartmentalize about as well as i tag reliably (😓) but i do have several automated ao3feed-tag style sideblogs. and i did, very briefly, have a *winces* hockey sideblog too

why i chose my url: ooh i know i've done this before, sorry if it's repetitive, basically it was the username i picked back when my family first got aol: short, unique combo of letters - 14-year-old me really thought about it! and then it wouldn't let me use anything other than my name. thirty-some-odd years later, trying to come up with a livejournal username that wasn't already taken and getting fed up, i plugged it in and went: good enough!

how many people are you following: like 760-something last i checked? although many, many, many of them are deactivated

how many followers do you have: idk i don't like looking at that stuff, but way fewer than i am following

average hours of sleep: it varies too much day by day, my sleep schedule is too wonky, i have no idea what the average would be

lucky numbers: 7? cliché i know, and again not really buying into it, but somewhere in my hindbrain i like it that my first, middle, and last names all have seven letters

instruments: none. i like singing

what i'm currently wearing: giant black t-shirt and baggy black drawstring shorts, standard sitting around the house gear

dream job: don't have one. if i did it would give me something to be working towards *sigh* this is how you end up in retail for decades, kids! but also, to quote a random post i saw in true tumblr fashion "i simply do not dream of labor"

dream trip: covered this one before but: back to the uk and some railway daytrips, or a really fancy northern cruise, atlantic/pacific either one

fave food: uhhh, don't really have a favorite but i'm almost always in the mood for pizza

top three fictional universe you'd like to live in: none really, if i had to still be me..maybe some kind of actually utopian future? but the pandemic has confirmed for me that i do NOT like living in interesting times, so most fictional story universes are RIGHT out. my favorites to read about like discworld or diana wynne jones' worlds would be way to chaotic for my comfort. possibly diane duane's young wizards universe would be safe enough to be okay?

Part II

last song: watching center stage made me think of my dance playlist so sunrise by simply red

last movielast stream: i don't watch streams or youtube often, so it was the same as you, vish! liu chang's birthday stream was SO enjoyable i screenrecorded the entire thing just so i could play it back (and maybe gif sometime if i ever get the drive to actually do it)

currently reading: well i just finished the translated quan qiu gao kao or global university entrance exam novel, which was sparked purely from catching a single rec post here on tumblr and basically just *falling* into this 166 chapter epic that is *amazing* and not coming up for air until i got to the end, which is typical novel-reading behavior for me (yes i was the kid who read through lunch period and got hassled by people who kept pestering me with "what're you reading" questions and yes i realize probably a lot of you on tumblr were too) plus, the new murderbot novel is out tomorrow!!!!! so that'll be where i end up next!

currently watching: the entire dmbj verse (that i can get my hands on) but ... sporadically and stopping at random different parts because the thing is ... this type of show is not really the kind i enjoy so much? so since it's more for "research" and learning character arcs (and let's be honest: shots of liu sang), etc. it's easy to get distracted by other stuff. i'm also watching the sleuth of the ming dynasty, mr queen, bromance, the expanse, re-watching farscape and stargate sg-1, just finished the falcon and the winter soldier, and then anytime something new and short gets introduced it jumps the queue. there are just. so. many. things. to. watch! (now i have to look into anti-fraud league too!? you all are cruel ...)

what is antipoetry to you: i ... don't really think much about poetry? i know what i prefer is usually the more basic rhymed kind like lewis carroll, emily dickinson, poe, coleridge, etc. so i suppose i don't have much use for classifying non-rhyming verse? i can appreciate stuff like rupi kaur which i guess would qualify? or that william carlos williams plums poem? but it doesn't really stick with me the way lyric-like verse does

currently craving: i never know what exactly this is meant to be in reference to ... hmmm, i would love a new high-concept, high production-quality movie like say, pacific rim, to be released, just for that massive, excited energy that comes with something new that hasn't already got tons of disappointing or conflicting history behind it - that would be so fun!!

other than that, right now, i mostly kinda want some fried fish? but that will have to wait until i go to get my second vaccine shot on wednesday since it's on the way there. i'd also like my internal body parts to settle down and fly right but it's been more than a month and they don't seem inclined :(((( maybe once i'm fully vaxxed i'll think about consulting somebody about it

tagging @foxofninetales @xia-xueyi @momosandlemonsoda @memorydragon @thewindsofsong @elvencantation @mylastbraincql @hesayshesgotboyfriend @aurawolfgirl2000 @smaragdine-galaxy and anyone who wants to! but never feel obligated and if you don't get around to it for like half a year that's totally fine, i am still interested!!!

[imaginethemultiversedoms]

Tangled Webs (Part 1)

Fandom: The Flash

Rating: G

Summary: When Ralph confronts the youngest Team Flash member about the powers she’s been hiding since the bus event, Parker (OC) has to confess she’s been moonlighting despite the ever-present danger of Devoe.

A/N: Hey, hey! I’m back! So as I’ve been slowly catching up with Flash, I’ve noticed that all of the metas Team Flash has dealt with are adults. In the context of the fiction, I find it hard to believe that kids weren’t affected by the explosion or the Enlightenment. Plus it is a good story concept of a teenager trying to juggle high school and superheroing. So here is a small piece of that I may turn into something more (notice how that happens a lot?)

For the sake of this story, it’s not completely important how Parker ended up being on Team Flash. She just is at this point.

I’ve also fallen in love with Ralph. He has great depth of character and a great story arc. It was bound to happen.

EDIT: Yes, I did just add a “part 1″. While the story is pretty much the same, I did change the dialogue a bit at the end to keep it more in Parker’s POV. 1: it keeps a better flow and 2: I’m going to retell this in Ralph’s POV.

So yeah, Tangled Webs is turning into something more.

"Hey," Barry touched Parker’s shoulder gently, "why don't you head home? We still have a couple hours of clean up to do and you have that history test tomorrow." Parker nodded and shut her binder, shoving it in her bag. She noted it was four-thirty - about her usual patrol time. “I’ll run you home.”

"Nah, I've got band practice anyway. Jo said they would meet me at Jitters. Thanks anyway." She noted with relief the team accepted the excuse. Only Ralph looked a little suspicious, but she figured it was because she was the youngest and a non-meta. 

Supposedly, at least.

Barry insisted on running her to an alley around the corner of Jitters. As soon as he left though, she breathed a sigh of relief and tugged off her bag. Ducking behind a dumpster, she pulled off her coat and stripped down to her leggings and cami top. Shivering in the late fall air, she pulled out a white and black suit, a prototype Cisco tossed for Ralph's new suit. It was still too loose in places, but it fits what she needed to do well enough. It was even warmer than the cobbled together suit she started out with a few months ago. 

She put her backpack on and pulled out her phone. Metal would do nicely for this patrol. Letting the sounds of Godsmack bang in her ears, she pulled her mask down. It’d been a good day for Team Flash. Hopefully, that luck would bleed into her patrol. Afterward, maybe she could even set herself up in a construction area for some quiet reading. She smiled at the prospect. Pointing her web-slinger at the top of the building, she launched herself from the ground and started her patrol. 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Parker sighed as her web hammock swung gently in the breeze. It had turned out to be a decent patrol. She caught a robbery in progress, webbed up the baddies, and deposited them in front of the police station. She was in even better luck that Captain Singh was the one who saw her. Joe would've probably recognized the jacket. 

Then she webbed up some asshole who tried to steal a kid's bike, helped someone with directions, and walked an elderly lady across the street. That lady also ended up buying her a sandwich as thanks. Now she found herself a nice spot at the top of the new office building under construction, studying for her history exam, with a great view of the sunset. 

"Gotta say, you found yourself a pretty great view, kiddo." Parker looked up from her studying, confused and alarmed. There was only one person she allowed to call her "kiddo". Not even Barry could get away with it. She looked all around but didn't spot Ralph. It wasn't until she heard him stretching on her left that she found him walking across the platform towards her. He was obviously trying not to look down. "Take it you're not afraid of heights?" 

"Never," she admitted softly. "How much trouble am I in?"

"Depends." He gestured towards the web hammock and she nodded. He stretched himself slowly onto the hammock, making sure it would hold both their weights. Parker wasn't worried; her webbing was stronger than spider silk. Silk…maybe that could be her codename... "Does the team know you were even on that bus that morning?" he asked, breaking her from his thoughts. She picked at a stray thread on her jacket. 

"No," she whispered. Guilt and shame filled her again at the lie she'd been telling her family for months. She knew Devoe was searching for all the bus metas and she should've told the team what really happened that day. Risking a glance at Ralph, she saw his expression said the same thing. 

"What were you doing on that bus that morning?" he asked gently. 

"That was the morning everyone was trying to get Barry out of the Speedforce." She glanced at Ralph, who nodded for her to continue. "I wanted to be there, but Joe made me go to school nonetheless. Said it was better if I just went to keep my mind off what was going on. But I couldn't stop thinking of being able to see Barry again, so after homeroom, I kinda..."

"Ditched?" Ralph supplied gently. Parker nodded. "And hoofed it to the nearest bus stop and tried to sneak on?"

"I forgot my money pouch at home." She caught his eye for a moment and smiled crookedly, remembering the drunk/hungover guy that paid for her fare and let her sit at the window so no creeps bothered her. "I still owe you three dollars, huh?" 

"Buy me a coffee and we're even," he joked. "And the powers?"

"There was a spider crawling on your bag when you were dozing. I meant to get it off, but the bus jerked and the spider bit me just as dark matter flooded in."

"Whaaaat?" Ralph gasped. "You mean you actually got bit by a radioactive spider?" Parker giggled and nodded. "Oooh, I'm so jealous! Wait, what happened to the spider?" Parker cringed. 

"Accidentally squished it." Ralph's lips curled up, disgusted for a moment. A question burned in her mind and before she could stop herself, the words slipped out. "How did you find me?"

"When Barry and Iris had me hypnotized, I remembered you a little more clearly," he explained. "At first, I thought you were being a teenager about school and quitting band, but your routine became a little too predictable" he pulled out his phone and pulled up a YouTube clip of the mystery spider meta swinging past and waving. Parker noted it was taken a couple months ago, shortly after her powers manifested. "Coupled with the routine of that mysterious spider meta swinging around, it didn’t take long to put it together." Parker handed him back his phone. 

"That doesn't explain how you found me." Ralph gestured at the webbing to the building. 

"You leave a trail, kiddo." She blushed and picked at her backpack again. He nudged her to get her to look up. His expression was worried, bordering on panic. "An extremely easy one too. If I could follow you halfway across Central City, what makes you think Devoe couldn't either? The man had a flying chair and is now taking over metas. It would be terrifyingly easy for him and we wouldn't know until it was too late." 

Tears burned behind her eyes as she turned away to stare at the bay. She knew the risk she was taking not telling. But she wanted to help her city like her friends. Then when she realized the juggling act between school and superhero, she knew she couldn't tell them just yet. Then came the comments about the spider meta, the video clips, and the mystery behind the spider mask. The lies just continued stacking up and when the team realized Devoe was tracking the bus metas, she was in way too deep. So she kept moonlighting and swinging and ignoring the ever-creeping danger of Devoe and breaking everyone's heart. 

Sniffling, she wiped her nose on her sleeve. "I'm sorry," she whispered. “Even though I knew lying about being on the bus would have disappointed everyone, I thought that if I could prove how good of a superhero I am, they wouldn't yell at me." She scrubbed at the tears that kept falling. "By the time we knew Devoe's intentions, I was in too deep. I just wanted to ignore the danger and keep doing what I was doing."

With a heavy sigh, Ralph reached up and wrapped an arm around the teen's shoulders in a hug. "I get it. I know what it's like to feel you live in someone’s shadow and want to prove yourself." He rested his chin on top of her head and sighed. "And the thing is, you have. I've seen the footage. You help people and relate to them. They love you, way more than Elongated Man." Parker looked up, surprised to hear the bitterness in his voice.

"People think you're cool too, Ralph," she insisted. "I think it's cool how you can stretch and stuff." Ralph grinned, looking both surprised and pleased at the compliment. She sighed, staring at the sunset. "They’re going to be pretty pissed, huh?"

"Oh, no doubt.” At the dejected slump of her shoulders, he hugged her again. "But I withheld crucial bus meta information too. I'll take on some of that anger for you." She looked up, surprised. 

"Really?" 

"Really. I can take it. Besides, we're a team now, right? I'll stand beside you." Parker grinned and hugged Ralph tightly around the middle. He laughed softly. Noting the sun was pretty much set, he pulled back. "Come on, break down this webbing and we'll pick up some Big Belly Burger to sweeten their tempers." 

"Are we going to drive there?" she asked, packing up her stuff. Ralph scoffed and put his mask back on. 

"When we have a faster mode of travel? There's a Big Belly on the corner of 31st and Park. Race ya there?"

She grinned wider and pulled her mask down and hood up. "Best swinger pays for dinner?" she asked, spider-crawling up the metal frame. She didn’t notice Ralph’s grimace, her mind on her growling stomach. That sandwich was a good three hours ago; a Big Belly Triple Decker with large fries sounded like heaven about now. 

"Yeah, I could go with that. Ready...set..."

"Ralph?"

"Yeah?"

"You're not just my teammate. You're my big brother too." For the third time that evening, she was surprised at her own admissions. While they were genuine fears and feelings, she had a hard time expressing them and usually resorted to some sort of action rather than words. She wasn’t ready to face the emotional war of telling the team she’d been lying, much less tell Ralph how much she looked up to him. But here they were.

She stole a glance at him and was glad that her mask completely covered her face. Even behind his eye mask, he was surprised and touched at the admission. Clearing his throat, he nodded. She could see his eyes glistening a bit, but he hid it behind a playful wink. “You might soon regret giving me that title, kiddo.” 

She lifted her mask enough to stick her tongue out. "You gotta catch me first. Ready...set...GO!"

[franeridart]

Hey! I wanted to ask something that has been on my mind for a while. When ever i see your arts for the bakusquad i think "oh i wish i had people like that in my life" then i start to think wait what about deku? I kinda have been wondering what do you think about baku owning up to all the things he has done to deku? He has done horrible deku over the years which are unforgiveable and have shown to have a deep affect on deku?

That was something i have been wonder for awhile! Not trying to start an argument or anything! I really adore your art and everthing you do i was just wondering about your input on the matter? I hope you a greay day! (you don’t have to answer this)

I don’t mind the question one bit, so don’t worry about that! But… well, all this answer is gonna be under the assumption that you read the manga, because honestly I can’t answer it in a believable way leaving out all the character development that went on in it? So if you don’t read the manga, I’m sorry this is gonna be a bit spoilery

Firstly, and I’m absolutely not trying to justify what Bakugou has done to Deku back in the past, I’m mostly just trying to explain the things as they are in canon, you said that what Bakugou has done to Deku has left lasting effects, but which are exactly these effects? Bakugou was a dick, sure, and he said and did things to Deku no thirteen years old should be said/have done to, but Deku actually appears to have gotten over his past with Bakugou way faster than Bakugou did. Deku cuts his ties with what Bakugou did to him when he picks Deku as his hero name, reclaims his past for himself, lets all his friends and their love for him overshadow what Bakugou did with an easiness that speaks of an incredible strength of character

Actually, Deku stops letting Bakugou get to him the moment he meets All Might and finds a way to become a hero - from that point on Deku’s story is nearly completely detached from Bakugou, aside from when Bakugou himself, being unable to just get over his complex, pushes his way back into Deku’s life. Every single time there’s a confrontation between the two Deku has the high ground gained from his lack of resentment towards Bakugou - he’s got nothing to prove to him, because he doesn’t care about what he did to him or his opinions about him, and you see that since the first fight they have (Bakugou loses specifically because all he can see is Deku, while Deku keeps his mind on the goal from start to end and ignores his one-on-one with Bakugou, in the end, to make his team win) then later in the Sports Fest (Bakugou spends it all wanting a one on one with Deku, Deku pretty much drops out of the games without even glancing at Bakugou once) then during the End of Terms Exam (Bakugou can’t bring himself to cooperate and is ready to fail, Deku actually yells at him for it, he’s not scared of him, there’s no emotional scar left there, he literally tells him that the reason why they can’t ever talk - he wants communication - is because Bakugou just keeps on yelling always) and so on

Deku keeps growing and growing and growing, the Stain Arc and his training with Gran Torino, the Camp, The License Exam, all the while taking from Bakugou to reach his own goals, letting go of his admiration for him to pick from other people, constantly learning and bettering himself, and all the while Bakugou is stuck in the past, unable to improve or take steps forward, because he’s too busy looking at Deku grow. This reaches its culmination in the fight they have after the License Exam, you read the argument they have and Bakugou’s side is all “why are you better why are you stronger why am I always behind you why did All Might choose you” while Deku’s side is all “are you kidding me you utter imbecile I spent the last sixteen years of my life admiring you and you’re still stuck on the idea that I’m looking down on you!” - about that, Deku does say it, that he admires Bakugou more than he admires All Might. That he knows Bakugou’s the worst, but he’s also got all the qualities Deku can admire in a hero

Like, what Bakugou did to Deku before UA is pretty hard to forgive, but… Deku did forgive him already. And to be completely honest the way I see it Inko, who’s someone Deku loves and trusts and builds his life around, did way more permanent, visible damage to Deku’s self-esteem telling him since he was four that there was no way he could ever become a hero than Bakugou ever did. At least Bakugou was scared enough of falling behind Deku to never dismiss the possibility of him actually making it, somehow (he used to say stuff like “if you get into UA I’ll kill you”, which, let’s be real, is incredibly horrible - what the actual shit, Bakugou - but still doesn’t dismiss the fact that there is a chance of him making it as much as “I’m so sorry Izuku” repeated over and over again does)

So yeah while I don’t think what Bakugou did in the past is something people should just forget, I feel like Deku’s moved on pretty early on in the manga and the one actually suffering from it for big part of the story is Bakugou himself (which I’m pretty sure is part of his atonement for what he did)

As far as owning up to what he did goes, I… well, I don’t think we’re ever getting an I’m sorry out of him, so if for you his owning up to it equates to him apologizing, at least for now I don’t think there’s any possibility of it happening. But the story has been forcing Bakugou to re-evaluate Deku since day one, and he’s actually admitted he was at fault before, has actually voiced the possibility of Deku having been in the right since the start (”If your aspirations were so much better than mines, does it mean I’ve been wrong my whole life?”) - he’s told Deku (in a roundabout way) that he accepts him as All Might’s successor, and has offered actual advice for him to improve his fighting. And Bakugou, while he doesn’t outright apologize, never pretends that what he did never happened, or tries to push the blame on people when he knows it’s his fault (for example Aizawa asking who threw the first punch and Bakugou without a second to spare answering “I did”, 100% ready to take all the blame, doesn’t even try to justify himself) and all of this might not be enough for you, but it obviously is for Deku.

Like, you might think that Bakugou’s getting out of it too easily (I personally don’t see it, considering how much he’s been suffering, how nothing has gone his way ever, but some people might) but when you keep in mind Deku’s actual canon reactions to what Bakugou does, when you think about him perking up when he thinks Bakugou’s complimented him, when you think about him actually smiling when Bakugou does compliment him, getting 100% hype when Bakugou offers advice, it’s pretty obvious he’s completely over what Bakugou used to do to him and he’s ready to have a civil, friendly relationship with him

And, ah, there’s that too. It’s true that Bakugou used to be horrible to Deku, but the key word here is used to - he hasn’t acted that way once ever since he entered UA, he’s changing and growing, bettering himself. The fact itself that the squad would gather around him, offer their friendships and love him, support him, laugh with him, when they’re all such sweet and loving and good kids, is proof enough that he isn’t as bad as he used to be. The fact that Bakugou used to be a bully doesn’t change that he’s becoming better, that he’s trying to be better, and I don’t think the actions of a thirteen years old with an inferiority complex surrounded by adults that used to let him get away with being a complete asshole as if it were normal should decide whether, once that kid grows up and learns and changes, he should be allowed to have friends and be happy or not

And all in all I don’t think Deku cares. Like, why would he. As I said, I do have the very distinct feeling he’s grown out of Bakugou’s actions pretty fast, but even if some things had remained with him, does Deku really seem to you like the type of person to hold a grudge against Bakugou big enough that he would wish for him to stay alone forever, even though he’s actually growing up? Deku definitely doesn’t seem to mind Kirishima, even though it’s canon he knows that Bakugou and Kirishima are best friends, that he’s known about it since before even Bakugou and Kirishima themselves realized. I mean, this is the kid that’s nearly died thrice to save Bakugou’s life, why would he be against Bakugou having friends

Anyway tl;dr I guess the original question could have been boiled down to “considering what Bakugou used to do to Deku, is it fair for him to be happy now?” and my answer is yeah! Because he’s atoning for it! Because he hasn’t kept the behaviour up! Because Deku doesn’t actually seem to suffer any permanent damage from their shared past, but seems to actually like Bakugou himself! Because as long as Bakugou isn’t actively being a shit right now, as long as he’s changing his way of interacting with Deku so that it might actually be considered positive, as long as he keeps on walking the path to become a great hero with right morals and will to do good, his efforts to become a better person shouldn’t be overshadowed by what he did in the past when he still hadn’t had any chance to grow!

Bakugou’s plot is a beautiful one. A heartwrenching, complex, right one. A starts from the lowest of lows to reach the highest of highs one. And his being allowed to be happy with people that actually turn him into a better person is integral part of it, imho

[zenosanalytic]

DS9: Tribunal to Prophet Motive

Overall S2 wasn’t really that much better than S1, though it did have a handful of eps that were genuinely “good” television. S3’s also spotty but slightly better. One S3 trend I don’t like is the SUPER heavy-handed selling of Kira/Odo from basically the first ep on, and how it comes entirely out of nowhere. Also, Keiko is royally and consistently shafted and ignored, which is frustrating as hell. They FINALLY give her something to do, and not only is it presented as a “gift” from her husband(which, Ick! Like she’s not following the going’s on in her own damn profession???), they use it to effectively write her off the show! Ridiculous >:(

Tribunal: Bad. What’s the point of doing a courtroom ep that isn’t a courtroom ep? Sure, I can understand the theoretical appeal of the irony of a trial episode about a show trial, but you really need to embrace the absurdity of the concept for it to work and they didn’t. Also, the Cardassians are one-note(like all the non-human species in ST), and their one-note is “Order”, so Cardassian law, even if entirely show-trials in practice, really ought to be procedurally meticulous. An ep about Odo, skilled in these procedures from his time as a Cardassian security chief, out bureaucrating a culture of military bureaucrats to stall for time while the DS9 crew finds dirt to blackmail the Cardassians with would have been great and probably darkly funny; this was just dull. Also, there’s no way the Fed would stand for a Starfleet officer being snatched out of a Fed shuttle in Fed space like that, smuggling weapons or no, or believe for one second the Cardassian claim weapons were on the shuttle in the first place, given their past experiences. This would have caused a major diplomatic incident, and the Fed embassy corps on Cardassia Prime would have been all over O’Brien like ants on a summer picnic.

The Jem’Hadar: Fun and Good. Trying to do something simple and succeeds. Quark’s rant to Sisko about Ferengi history is obvsl convenient writing rather than fact -in TNG they’re aggressive, needlessly violent cruel pirates who, I’m pretty sure, are explicitly slavers as well- but it SHOULD be right. They’d be more interesting as a culture built around a capitalism that never saw any profit in compulsion. Historically, while slavery pre-dated capitalism in Earthican societies, slavery as we think about it -dehumanization, brutality, murderous forced labor- has nigh-universally been associated with capitalism, and quite frequently with commerce(Greek, Roman, and American slavery were all basically built around ag production for commercial markets[though slave-artisans based in cities was a significant part of the Greek and Roman systems as well]). That internal contradiction, attached to a larger ethical distaste for direct, personal violence(and valorization of tattling that’d go along with the instinctive distress-cry DS9 gives to Ferengi), while still being the profit-driven thieves and schemers they are, would have been Compelling.

The Search is… OK. I mean, as television it’s fine. The plot doesn’t make any damn sense though. The Dominion makes it clear they don’t want the Fed entering their territory and the Fed’s response is… to infiltrate deep into their territory to find the Homeworld of their leaders and confront them with the only warship in the Fed fleet? This move is basically designed to start a war. Also, they seem to forget that they’ve had Odo come to the Gamma Quadrant before, so his whole “I feel drawn to this nebula” deal seems out of left-field. Also Also, they should have used The Defiant to add the Romulan liaison as a regular cast member, instead of bringing on Eddington and doing nothing with him. Having Sisko, who has had an excellent relationship with Odo until now, suddenly giving this speech about how he doesn’t like that Odo isn’t “a team player” is pretty ridiculous as well(and out of character. Sisko’s not a team player. His WHOLE CREW is made up of square pegs just like himself). Also Also Also, a Romulan security officer who spends a season or two building up relationships with the maincast, sashaying around being arrogant and cynical in Romulan kimonos during her off-time, gradually developing Maquis sympathies, becomes Sisko’s evil!Valjean and remains so until nearly the end of the series would have been a genuinely surprising character-arc requiring consistently good writing to sell, and kind of explain why, in later eps, the Romulans wouldn’t require one of their own to protect and operate the cloak. Or hey! Maybe her becoming a Maquis could begin as a plot to foment rebellion in the Fed, that’d be neat.

Equilibrium: Meh

Second Skin: Good in some parts, but that the journals would be what starts cracking Kira up isn’t believable and it just isn’t mindfucky enough. Also, Kira’s warmth towards her fake dad at the end of the ep didn’t feel earned. Maybe if they’d had her bond with him over having lost family in the Occupation.

The Abandoned: pretty offensively essentialist, really. Especially given the plotline later in the series(iirc) about a Jem’Hadar trying to break his people’s addiction to ketracel-White, which kinda undermines this eps whole “the Jem’Hadar have no will of their own and are genetically programmed soldiers that it’s useless to reason with” line.

Civil Defense: good. It remains unbelievable to me, though, that Starfleet wouldn’t have done a complete refit of the whole station the minute the Cardassians left, especially given the Star Trek obsession with hard-wired, analog computing.

Meridian: a noxious pile of garbage all round. The subplot is skeezy, but at least it’s in-character, well-written, and believable which the main plot certainly is not. I kinda wish that, if they were going to include such a scummy sub-plot in the ep, they’d at least made it a bit interesting by subverting expectations. At the end, have Tiron be at first taken aback, and then surprisingly pleased with Kira’s modifications to the program. He walks out, “deeply satisfied” with the program and pays 20% extra for it, compliments Quark on his “creativity” as a holodesigner with a slightly amorous look, Quark is clueless and confused yet pleased, Kira and Odo are absolutely mortified. Then maybe leave it around as a Chekov’s Gun; Quark makes a secret copy(of course), offering it to only his best customers, it leads to a small but noticeable increase in custom, then someday in a later season he checks it out and is Horrified to find he’s unknowingly made himself one of the most popular porn-performers in the sector :|

Defiant: fine as it is, except there should have been a bit about HOW the Maquis found out about the Defiant and knew about its cloak. This would be a good time to introduce the long-arc of the Romulan officer’s Maquis sympathies/attempts to use her position on DS9 to co-opt the Maquis and undermine the Federation.

Fascination: dumb and really Skeezy, Ferrell’s is the only entertaining performance in the ep, but, again, the smooch-directing of this series is uncommonly good. Also: Miles is not just a bad dad, but also a bad husband. Also Also: Bajor’s only 3 hours away in a runabout or shuttle for Frak’s sake? You can’t be bothered to go visit her?? People in Texas regularly make three hour drives every DAY.

Past Tense: One of my favorite eps of the series; heavily Nostalgic for me. Having now read To Say Nothing of the Dog, however, I do wish ST writers treated Time and Causality as more robust and stubborn than they tend to.

Life Support: The inevitable killing off of a past love-interest to free Kira up for Kirdo. Bareil was bland and boring anyway, even if his performances in S3 were much improved. Why the heck is the Kai negotiating treaties??? That the Kai and Vedeks plays a direct, institutional role in Bajoran politics needed to be established before jumping into a plotline about the Kai negotiating a secret peace pact with Cardassia. The subplot with Jake and Nog, which reduces the question of female personhood to a “cultural issue” in the context of Nog’s misogyny ruining Jake’s chances with a girl who never appears again(iirc), is repulsive in about a half-dozen ways.

Heart of Stone: Ho-hum. The Nog in Starfleet storyline is good, but they should have built up to it in previous eps. Wesley spends pretty much all his time before acceptance doing science experiments and apprenticing in various departments on Enterprise to build up his resume just to qualify to take the exams; having Nog accomplish the same task with a letter of rec is kinda |:T Also: wouldn’t Sisko have pointed out that, in the Fed and Starfleet, Nog’s “gift” would be interpreted as an attempted bribe and get him immediately arrested? Seems like an important cultural rule to point out to a Ferengi |:T |:T

Destiny: Good. Ulani and Gilora are obviously lesbians and I won’t hear another word on the matter u_u

Prophet Motive: Fun and Good, though the “evolved” talk re: social constructs and cultural modes was annoying.

Why are S3′s subplots so much better done than it’s main ones? I imagine the discipline of having limited time to complete them in has something to do with it. Some other observations:

A-plot B-plot structure is entirely standard in S2 and S3, probably because it’s an obvious way to include such a large cast, but then all the plots revolve around the same handful of characters, so the opportunity is wasted.

It’d have been nice if every species was given the same variety of clothing the Ferengi get to have. Having Caradassians wear mil uniforms IN THEIR OWN HOMES, and when they are scientists, is absurd.

DS9 continues the Trek tradition of having a real nebulous and unexplained relationship with money.

DS9 really needed more women writers and head-writers on staff. Why are male writers so bad at this???

I really need to get in the habit of taking notes while I watch so I can give more detailed reactions later -__-

[prophecydungeon]

uhhjhjhhhhh i read all 700 chapters of naruto in six days and i feel like im astral projecting, ama

i have no idea how Comprehensible this post is going to be but anyways

i’m... so surprised at how much i genuinely enjoyed reading this? honestly? like, i really really expected to kinda just make my way through this for the sake of nostalgia closure, i found myself actually really enjoying the series

i went in fully and completely spoiled so i think that actually added to my enjoyment -- on top of the nostalgia factor inherent in re-reading something that was literally my entire fucking life 10 years ago, it was really astounding to see that even in the beginning things were laid out to come full circle at the end, and i am SUPER impressed at the way some of the plot twists were foreshadowed and pulled off (e.g., orochimaru’s first edo tensei failing to resurrect yondaime because yondaime had used shiki fuujin SUPER fucking blew me away, and i am ASTOUNDED at the depth of character that itachi got) and deep in my big ol weenie heart it felt so good to read something that was literally about the power of friendship and faith in friends and faith in yourself, and about conquering loneliness, and about bullied and abused and traumatized children getting rescued by each other. the repetition of the theme of “you don’t have to do this alone” and of people (incl. the protagonist himfuckingself) falling into the mindset of “fuck you, i’ll do it alone” just to realize that no, you don’t have to do it alone, it’s ok to want to be alone but you don’t have to internalize your burdens, that was like. a glass of fuckin water, folks

plus uhh....... redemption arc for absolutely everyone? my jam. i dont care how cheesy it is, i loved it, i honestly don’t have any patience or emotional energy for sad stories where everyone is sad, and it felt so utterly satisfying to know that there was really only one character (aside from the final form bad guy(tm), who was a gal, and also a literal evil supernatural being) who died a villain, and he was only a villain because he basically did bad shit for good reasons / the greater good

it was really fucking ridiculous and over-the-top in so many ways but it actually managed to Do That, and stick that landing, and be fucking good and heartfelt, and all the ridiculousness/OTT-ness that started happening x1000000 at the end was like...... everything leading up had been so flat-out ridic that none of it felt out of place at all

except on that note im gonna burn all the fucking hetero lmao jesus christ.... im genuinely so pissed about hinata and sakura and i know there are people out there who’ve said it better than i ever could but it’s such a disservice to both their characters. it’s so fucking heartbreaking. i don’t have an issue with the concept(tm) of sakura/sasuke or naruto/hinata but the way the series executed it was so fucking  h y s t e r i c a l l y  bad and im so fucking upset. GOD

anyways im also fairly certain that this series is why im fucking gay but u know.. u know. there was so much that i hadn’t realized just how fucking formative it had been (sakura cutting off her hair during the chuunin exams... god) and all in all? this was good and i enjoyed it. i gotta go find my fuckign brain now

ETA holy fuck i forgot to mention how unbelievably fucking baller it was to see just how deeply rooted this series is in japanese mythos and theology. i absolutely did not know or understand how deep it went when i was younger and this time i think by combination of like, more general knowledge(tm), plus scanlations with editors’ notes, holy fuck that shit was so cool and so impressive

[icharchivist]

anon hxh part 1 remade. Hi err sorry for dissapearing i ended up watching hxh and got hooked and almost bingue watched until now, i completely forgot of liveblogging. Anyway i guess better late than never right?*sweats nervously* Abt it, i am really enjoying, i am on the episode 51? 52? i i think( i am on neflix so the numbers are different) yorknew arc *stares brokenly at the window*. I am really loving all the protags, Gon and Killua fast became my sons, Kurapika *sobs* i love him, alsoloveleo

hxh anon part 2. So i love both gon and killua. Kurapika damn, i am still shook/gross sobbing for him now (haunted eyes at the name yorknew arc) i also loved kura pretty early and still love him(and now i am suffering,) Leorio, damn leorio, i really like his character! His backstory and goal touched me so much. Like the only grips i had with leorio was... that gamble episode on the hunter exam arc bc leorio no, and yeah, overall i am really enjoying all the protags.

hxh anon part 3. The only thing that does annoy me is more a shounen trope/mentality that after... a few shows let a bitter taste in my mouth, in which killua and gon arent training as much as i would like to? like i understand rationally that they are 12, and boy, they at that age might not see how much training is important, especially considering certain events and that they need to master their nen relatively soon. Still love them

hxh anon part 4. I also love Melody!! She is such a sweet character and her goal and her power and and her backstory and her caring i just ;-;!! Canary also! Love her!! my heart broke for her when killua passed her on that scene when he reunites with gon. Amazing opening song! Omg I remembeed i absolutely loved wing and zishu and their relationships with gon and killua and wing method of teaching and idk i reazlly liked how wing is as a teacher!

anon hxh part 5 i think, my first reaction to hisoka was "calm down extra" and (when he attacked withcards the fake examiner and the examiner) "i cant believe hisoka origin story was that he used to be on yu gi oh(mostly bc of the meme of everyone in the anime using cards to attack people with guns)" Also there is never a episode in which i am hisoka wtf. But overall i think he is a good (written) antag (juST STAY AWAY FROM MY SONS)

hxh anon part 6, also speaking of antags, i want to fiST FIGHT THE ENTIRE ZOLD/YCK FAMILY(excluding kalluto and alluka), just just ugh. last episode when silva and the old guy fought chrollo i couldNT TAKE THE FIGHT SERIOUSLY BC I KEPT THINKING SILVA LOOKED LIKE A SUPER SAIYAN AND (i also knew chrollo survived so) ThEn The PArt Of Illumi Happened AnD Ia M sTILL SCREAMING (mostly bc of kurapika, the amoutn of heart attacks i had on this arc bc of wory for kurapika and gon and killua was too high)hxh anon part 6, aND SPEAKING OF KURAPIKA, I JUST look dude i loved his power i loved bu T godammit i worry for him far too much i just *internally screaming* also his fight against uvo i was also screaming the entire time then the end happened and *lays on the floor looking empty* let him be happy. and the last episode shook me i am just *screams and cries* over the fact he had to buy the eyes(THAT ARE FAKE!! FUCK) AND his empty look and and and *incoherent fetal position sobbing*

hxh anon part 7 hmm what more to comment? i guess this is it, i am re- oh yeah FUCK TONPA SERIOUSLY I WANTED TO FLY HIM INTO THE SUN, GING WHY WOULD YOU SHOW THEM THE GREED ISLAND THING WHY I KNOW THERE IS A ARC CALLED GREED ISLAND WHICH CAN ONLY MEAN BAD THINGS AND I JUST GING WHY. oH I LOVED mito and gon relationship! My heart exploded in gushing when gon was like "she is my mom" and i am glad their relationship is good!

 hxh anon part 8(end bc holy shit too much parts) i think i am forgetting to comment on some things but this is what is mostly appearing on my mind now. Anyway i am really really enjoying hxh so far, the history is very very good, the power building system also incredible cool, i love all the protags, the most of minor chara are very engaging and memorable and get that develop feel, the music and animation are astounding. Thank you for reblogging abt it and make me meet it, i am loving it

Nonny omg your full reaction is a delight :’DD Bless you so much for that!!!

I’m so glad you love everyone omgg your reactions are all amazing :’D I’m so glad you adopted all of them, and you get me when it comes to Kurapika! i’m still too emotional over everything about him ,, like you mention how cool his power is and i ‘m w i t h you, let him be happy, killing people is destroying him, it’s not good for him, and his power keeps draining him it’s too painful to see please let him b e happy D: and jfc, the eYES. Like he’s forced to buy THE EYES OF HIS PEOPLE for a SPOILED BRAT! And IT’S FAKE! but even there, jfc, it’s one of HIS PEOPLE. And even worse, omg, it’s like, part of his people sure, but he doesn’t even know WHO IT IS FROM. It could be his mother’s! it could be his best friend’s!! It could be anyone’s! anyone he had known! But he can’t know, he doesn’t know, it’s someone nameless, who has been objectified, and IT KILLS ME SO MUCH o(-( you have all the good reactions toward it dkjfhf

And ahh I feel you over everything!!! man this is such a good feeling in general jkhfdkjfhdf o(-(

for the training it didn’t bother me too much since well so far, they trained for a few months in heaven arena -the Hunter exams happened starting January the 1st, and the YN arc starts at  September the 1st, so the whole Heaven Arena arc happens during that meantime; which give them time to train, and even there Killua and Gon didn’t advance their Nen too far for now so kjfhdkjfh but I suppose if it comes back in many anime i can get why you’d feel lowkey annoyed by that!

Regardless!!!ma n I’m so happy you liked all the secondary characters so far ;;-;; and how invested you are in the kids and pika, it makes my heart melt, i love them so much i’m so glad ;;;

and omg the Hisoka’s reaction, it’s incredible :’D  I feel you tho omg. He’s lucky he’s well written or he’d belong to the trash.

bUT MAN I feel you for the Zoldyck too, that’s such a mess!! fdjhfkdjf

The YN arc is such a good arc to me o(-( and it’s so emotional and i’m so glad you’re enjoying it!!

and the Tonpa and Ging’s hate is A+++ thank u bless you :’D and I’m so glad you like Mito and gon’s relationship, they are so lovely and pure and I love how it all played out in the end, it makes my heart cry ;;-;; Gon you precious soul!!

When it comes to Leorio, boi, I’m so glad you like him despite everything!!  ye the gambling in the Prison exam is a little embarassing ;; Sadly, they removed a few Leorio centric scenes :/ Like, honestly, 2011′s adaptation is almost flawless, 9 times out of 10, it hits right where it shuld, it’s incredible, but it really did Leorio dirty!

Anyway I just wanted to make sure you knew about that, but there’s a few scenes so far that had been changed for you maybe if you’re curious but:

-Just, when Kurapika and Leorio fight on the Boat in the first episode and that the guy go overboard? In the anime, they made them both rush to catch him at the same time, while in the manga, Leorio rushes first to catch him which takes Kurapika aback - that’s one of the reason that leads Kurapika to then reconsider him

-The Zoldyck’s Door Challenge (read from here to when Canary appears), where basically Leorio was the most excited one about opening the doors, and Kurapika and Gon can individually open 1 Door of the Zoldyck House (so 2 tones) while Leorio can, alone, open 2 Doors of the Zoldyck House (so, 4 tones). For the record, Killua can open 4 doors, but that’s still quite a lot and the anime kinda neglected that to show Kurapika, Gon and Leorio open the door together?

-Also the end of the Arm Wrestling subplot in YorkNew (read from here to when they reach the underground arm wrestling context that ends up putting them on a hunt for the spiders), where basically when the mafia comes to their table, to ask them to join them in the underground, and they don’t want to fight them? In the manga, they request a arm wrestling context and Leorio decides to take it on and break the big guy from the mafia’s arm by doing so, he’s a good

-Also this scene had been deleted:

The only reason I was insisting for the liveblog was so I could warn you about those scenes because i’m a little bitter they didn’t make the cut! there are  still reading values to the manga I didn’t spoil tho if you’ll be interested later, but I think it’s worth knowing about. There’s just one big scene of Leorio remaining I’d like to warn you about when you’ll come to it dkjhfdf but ye :’D

 Hopefully it’ll make you appreciate Leorio a little more, I’m still a bit sad about it djkhfdf as I said otherwise, the anime is extremely faithful!

Also, I mentioned in my first post, I usually recommand reading Kurapika’s past before or during the YorkNew Arc if you want Even More Suffering, It’s just chapter 340.5 and 340.6, it was never put in the anime, and it honestly brings even more sadness to the YN arc if you ever feel like Suffering.

ANYWAY All to say I’m so so happy you like it so far and I’m so glad you got into it dkfjhdfkd i’m glad if my blogging could bring you interest to it and honestly? Your reactions are gold and I’m gonna cry over how perfect all of it is!

I hope you’ll have more fun as it comes!!! My inbox is still wide opened dfhdkfjhdf

Thank youu :D