#or somewhat close to the books

[moondrifterr]

qibli and winter!!!!!

[clanborn]

pov myrtlebloom and finchlight steal ur girl

[shantechni]

Natsume's Fear of Thunder

I'm gonna be honest, this can hardly be considered an analysis. It's more of a "sporadic and unnecessarily deep observation" of how Natsume's astraphobia has been presented in the series over the years, both in the anime and in the manga. So, please for the love of God take all of this with a grain of salt.

Yes, I'm using the term "phobia" very loosely, but I'm not about to get into that rn. Natsume has an irrational fear and strong dislike of thunder, that's an undeniable truth.

Before I dive in, I'd like to briefly explain why, of all the little bits of information Midorikawa has given us about Natsume, this one is the one to ceaselessly bump around in my brain like a DVD logo. This series is not in the horror genre (it's serialized in LaLa DX after all), but it does get suspenseful, and pretty disturbing depending on whatever topic it touches or the types of situations the characters may find themselves in. I don't fault anyone, particularly Natsume, for growing up with valid fears and preconceived misconceptions about most youkai; they can sound scary, they can look scary, and they can do some scary stuff if they really feel up to it.

That's why I'm so fascinated to see Natsume develop and still harbor an irrational fear for something like the everyday phenomena of storms. He's landed himself in all sorts of trouble and has come face to face with many beings, both natural and supernatural, who didn't have his best interests in mind, and yet the clap of thunder somehow keeps its spot on the list of things that has him scared stiff.

Aight, spoilers for both the anime and the manga beyond here, you've been warned👏🏽

Our first introduction to Natsume's fear is near the beginning of chapter 42, when he and Tanuma accidentally stumble across Taki's home while seeking shelter from a sudden shower. He questions how Nyanko-sensei ended up at her home as well and the youkai, much to Natsume's visible dismay, cheekily explains:

That doesn't end up happening since the rain remained light until its swift end, and the mention of Natsume's fear is glossed over rather quickly to save him the embarrassment, but it's an interesting mention made by Midorikawa nonetheless since it adds another layer to whatever image the audience has of Natsume and the series itself. Nyanko-sensei, having been around this kid long enough to know a lot of his vulnerabilities and insecurities (even the ones his dreams unwittingly reveal to the youkai), has seen and grown accustomed to a side of him that the audience had yet to be formally introduced to for once.

Right about now, you may be wondering how the anime adapted this scene. It didn't💀.

While the start of the episode (S3 EP5) is a one-to-one recreation of the chapter with virtually the same dialogue and scenery, any mention of Nyanko-sensei following Natsume to pick on him when it thunders is nonexistent and entirely skipped over so the gang can go straight to cleaning out the storeroom.

Most fans who have read the manga will tell you how notorious the anime is for excluding some of the characters' lines or scenes that take place in the manga, or just straight up rearranging or changing up those same factors. Sometimes those alterations work wonders, and other times they leave more to be desired, mainly if you know what happened in the manga counterpart of the episode. This such example is one of the times that'll leave people scratching their heads and wondering what warranted getting rid of a scene so insignificant that it'd have no effect on the plot of the episode whether or not it stayed. The only answer I can think of for that is the directors likely wanting a smoother progression of events to make for a viewing experience better tailored for an anime episode rather than a manga chapter.

Or, they genuinely didn't have enough space in the episode to squeeze in that little bit, which I highly doubt, but what would I know, I don't work for them. At the end of the day, we didn't get to see that scene in the episode.

After some more anime switcheroo shenanigans go on behind the scenes, along with an original episode pulling a retcon during a lightning storm, we receive our next moment in a surprising scene from the anime team in S3 EP10 (adaptation of chapter 28). Though the scene itself is short and not exactly an example of Natsume's astraphobia, I feel it should still be included because of its relation.

The chapter originally starts with Natsume and Nyanko-sensei searching for a tree that was struck by lightning during a storm the night before. However, the anime makes an addition of their own by rewinding time to that very night and showing Nyanko-sensei excitedly watching the storm take place while Natsume is tied up with his homework.

Nyanko-sensei goes on to tease him by suggesting that he doesn't want to watch the storm because he's scared, but Natsume dodges the youkai's mocking and begins to tell him to close the curtain before a crack of lightning cuts him off and illuminates his room.

Not only does Natsume not simply deny Nyanko-sensei's claim of him being scared, but his reaction to the thunder is seemingly more sudden than Nyanko-sensei's. Both of these points could subsequently lead the audience to interpret this entire sequence as the anime's first acknowledgement of his phobia, and it'd make for a very intriguing choice on the anime team's behalf after taking their ommitance of the previous scene into consideration. It could be a stretch though ngl, I tend to stretch like crazy, it makes sense to close a curtain when a pet is being noisy—

Finally moving on from S3, we eventually reach the most overt instance of Natsume's astraphobia, and potential origin or exacerbation of it, in the S4 finale (adaptation of chapter 46). This three episode arc is a largely intimate and heart wrenching one as it focuses on Natsume's journey to revisit his childhood home before it gets renovated by its new owners, a task he initially denied himself the permission of doing before realizing Touko and Shigeru would never deny him something so personal. Of course, he wouldn't be Natsume if he didn't attract a youkai along the way, and he's being pursued by one that seeks to feed on the tragic memories he formed while staying with the Aoi family, who was strongly implied to be the first family (if not, one of the first families) he was taken in by after his father's passing.

One of those memories shown to the audience is a younger Natsume relaxing in a shrine while memorizing where his childhood home is located, all in the hopes of gaining more discernible memories of his father and no longer being a burden to Miyoko and her parents.

Unfortunately, he falls asleep at the shrine and consequently loses track of time before having his slumber disturbed by a violent boom of thunder. He's so frightened by the ordeal that he can't even bring himself to rush back to the Aoi family's place, and his exhaustion puts him back to sleep until he's eventually found by some of the neighbors who went out searching for him.

The anime, with the natural strengths it has over the manga, goes the extra mile by not only keeping this portion relatively untouched, but further setting up the scenery and depicting just how rapidly the area goes from peaceful to turbulent. The character animation and voice acting make for a splendid combination and do a wonderful job of capturing this image of a helpless childhood version of Natsume.

What comes soon after this scene is a depressing sequence of events on its own, even more so when we can see he's still reeling from the storm and believing he caused the Aois to get into trouble by not getting back before dark. The adults obviously don't fault Natsume for getting stuck in the storm, but he doesn't see it that way in his shocked state.

The way Miyoko reacts by throwing her frustrations onto him doesn't help either.

And so, after aimlessly running off in his last unsuccessful attempt to find his childhood home, the memory fades away with a somber note as his present self recalls the moment he finally stopped calling for his long gone father.

Now, one could argue that Natsume had his fear of thunder prior to his time with the Aois since we don't have much reference material to work with when concerning his short period of time with his father, and they could be right for all I know. It's common for children to be startled by loud noises and bright flashes since they just aren't quite accustomed to those loud noises and bright flashes being customary for weather disturbances. Natsume, who we know grew up to be pretty sensitive to the things that go on around him, may have been one of those children who felt apprehension anytime a bad storm rolled in, and his father may have been the one to quell his fears back then. So, if we go with the conclusion that his fear didn't originate here, then this scene likely could've aggravated it. But I'm personally leaning a bit more towards the concept of this being the cause of it (partly due to how appealing that conclusion is to the obsessive part of my brain).

His initial reaction to the thunder is seemingly one of surprise rather than fear, and his behavior suggests that he's more concerned with making it back down the mountain before the thunder halts his progress. Although he's seen trying to talk himself down and fails to do so with how relentless the thunderstorm is proving to be, he doesn't need to have preexisting fears or anxieties over thunder to resort to calming himself down.

The dialogue differences strike me as something to consider too, but they're likely irrelevant.

Setting aside everything I just ranted about in the above paragraph, I should specify that I'm not simply pointing to the storm scene as the singular root cause for his future woes. Many psychological problems often aren't so black and white that someone can definitively point to one person or thing as the sole reason for the existence of their psychological problems. And phobias obviously don't always develop as a result of going through or observing a traumatic event; people can grow to fear or strongly dislike something merely by its association with an unpleasant memory or stressful situation. I know I'm starting to stretch hard rn, and this part of the post is getting awfully wordy, just hear me out—

Going back to that aforementioned short period of time with his dad, it's plain to see just how innocent of a time that was for Natsume. He was playful and affectionate with his dad like many children growing up in a healthy environment would be at that age. He doesn't even appear to have an awareness of youkai (if so, only slight enough for it to not become a problem for him just yet). We're shown later on that he would commonly draw around the house too, as evidenced by the nearly two decade old pieces of artwork his father never removed from the kitchen area and closet.

Natsume even proceeds to make a comment about this childhood version of himself likely being the mischievous type for him to run around drawing on surfaces without a care in the world.

He undeniably had his own troubles at that stage of his life though, with one of those troubles being his mom and the empty spot left behind by her passing away. Apart from his heartwarming portrait of a family with both parents, he's also shown lamenting to Miyoko after the death of his dad about not being able to remember his mom. We've seen with those two examples that her absence indeed left an impact on him early on in his life, but he doesn't stay too broken up over her considering how little he got to bond with her, and he doesn't openly despair about the loss of his dad until his growing sense of loneliness and longing becomes too much for him to smooth over.

The point I'm trying (and admittedly struggling) to make here is that after moving in with Miyoko and her parents, the worries on Natsume's plate increased tenfold and weighed him down far more than he was willing to accept at first. Suddenly, this kid had little to smile about in life, taking a glance at his only picture of his parents causes grief and envy to flare up in his chest, he's afraid of being a burden to those who took him under his wing, he's eating less than Miyoko because he's concerned with coming off as too greedy, he feels responsible for Miyoko getting picked on because of his relation to her, he's still learning the way back to the Aoi family's home, and now he's surrounded by all of these weird creatures that apparently no one else can see.

Suddenly, he's no longer that carefree toddler we saw sitting on his dad's lap as the two of them watched over his late mom's garden.

I feel moderately certain about Natsume's experience with the storm, coupled with this pivotal and devastating shift in his life, being the plausible cause for him developing his irrational fear of thunder as a child.

After this arc, we aren't greeted with another scene featuring or centered on his astraphobia until chapter 85 (which doesn't appear to be adapted in S7 judging from the PV😭), and it focuses on Natsume, Tanuma and Taki viewing a limited exhibition at an old inn that has a deep history with youkai. Not too long after the owner engages in conversation with Taki, Natsume and Tanuma briefly comment on how peaceful the inn is making the both of them feel, and a sudden lightning strike cuts through the tranquility of the inn.

It catches everyone off guard and, unsurprisingly, has Natsume frozen in place as Tanuma asks him and Taki if they're alright.

Much like Nyanko-sensei's first time mentioning Natsume's fear, the moment doesn't last long as the gang soon realizes they'll have to spend the night at the inn while they wait for the sudden storm to pass.

By this point in the manga though, Midorikawa has evidently decided to make Natsume's astraphobia a recurring element of the sorts. She could've easily left his astraphobia as another facet of his that we get to see once or twice and never again since it's not serviceable to the story as a whole, but she's started using his phobia as an additional means of displaying his discomfort in any given situation. Having a thunderstorm suddenly appear during a moment of serenity, immediately after Natsume tells Tanuma the place is making him feel strangely good, was a brilliant move of jarring him. And it works especially well here as a sign of the looming threat that'll find its way into the inn over night and slowly creep upon the group the longer they remain there.

Midorikawa pulls this same stunt again to slightly greater effect in chapter 117, where Natsume, Tanuma and Nyanko-sensei happen upon the Kisaragi Manor and find themselves taking part in a ritual for summoning youkai.

It starts with the trio meeting up in the evening to view the bamboo lanterns, but a woman claiming to be in search of a mansion requests their help to find it before it gets too dark, as well as to avoid getting caught in a downpour should the drizzle grow heavier. While Tanuma shows interest in the ritual, and the people they meet are treating them somewhat cordially, Natsume is disconcerted by the arrangement they've found themselves in. He's surrounded by five women he's never met in his life, is once again in an unfamiliar place that feels weird in Nyanko-sensei's own words, and is thrown for a loop by everyone's enthusiasm with the idea of meeting youkai rather than being put off by them.

The group isn't even a minute into their summoning ritual when a huge boom of thunder shakes the room and causes a power outage, sending them into a brief stint of darkness until Hitomi relights the candle.

While waiting for the candle though, Natsume answers Tanuma's question by for once admitting that he's bothered by thunder, leading to Nyanko-sensei characteristically picking on his phobia by calling him a chicken.

Again, the moment is subtle and restricted to one corner of the page, but it sticks the landing. Instead of using the lightning or thunder as a sign of things to come as she's done before, Midorikawa uses them here as an integrant of an already somewhat concerning scene slowly veering towards being disturbing. In addition to selling just how uncomfortable of a situation this is for Natsume, it also depicts how far along he is in his friendship with Tanuma to be honest about an irrational fear we know he'd rather not speak of.

Alas, chapter 117 was our last time seeing thunder scare Natsume, at least until the next time Midorikawa chooses to use his fear to her advantage, unless the anime miraculously surprises us with its own original take as we've seen it isn't afraid to do. What we've been given so far though is plentiful in comparison to many other plot points or quirks that get reused or called back to far less than this one. I won't throw a tantrum if his never gets referenced to or utilized again (which I doubt will happen knowing Midorikawa's writing), but I eagerly anticipate seeing it again should it reappear.

It's captivating to watch this minor detail frequently make it's way back into the story somehow, to the point that it eventually cemented itself as a miniscule yet effective way of shedding different shades of light on the many complexities of Natsume.

[once-more-with-anxiety]

i can never be normal when someone brings up the sesbian lex scene because the first time I watched it I was on an airplane in the middle seat between my younger sister and my mother and. well. you can imagine how that went.

[chirrups]

OH SHIT VERY PRETTY GOG ART IN THE YEAR 2025!! AND ITS X HERMITCRAFT.. HELL YEAH

Love the species picks!!! I saw the second recent post first and I guess didn't properly read the description, but DID see the talon braces on Scar and went "Now hold on...." loe and behold, Hagsfiend Xisuma! I would perhaps suggest a slightly natch'd(? hagsfiend'd?) Hypno to give him the natched'ga (bad spelling; haven't read the books in years, but I mean the yellow-eyed hypnotizing magic that the Hagsfiends used in the Legends series). Also Joe has starsight. To me. Grian too but while Grian ignores it entirely, Joe gets weird about it.

YEAR OF OUR LORD 2025 AND HERMITS OF GAHOOLE IS BACK!

DASJHSJDHA THANK YOU! I just love researching to pick animal species to assign to minecraft youtubers, they should really give me a degree in it.

(au rambling + doodles beneath, you have been warned)

Nachtmagen!Hypno is such a powerful idea. Though honestly, I kind of want to keep magic shenanigans just to Xisuma due to admin + hagsfiend morality lore.

Instead of fryngot (the yellow-eye power), I would bend it a little to give Hypno some kind of fleck-power in a similar vein to Mist/Hortense in the books. Perhaps he was hatched in an area with a high density of flecks and it gave him a similar minor paralysis ability to a hagsfiend’s fryngot. Not enough to yeep another owl but enough to make them very uncomfortable (or he could just be like that, who knows).

But, Hypno being literally divined to have classically dark magic Nyra-style but just kinda being a guy is also hysterically funny to me.

Let’s compromise. Ambiguously-and-suspiciously-nachtmagen!Hypno who might have hagsfiend magic powers but also just might not. He’s awfully dark-feathered and ragged for a Tyto. No one knows. No one is even certain if Hypno knows.

On the Joe Hills point, YES! He does have starsight, how on earth did you read my personal notes for this au??? /lh.

And I’m completely with you, he is definitely soooo weird about it. He gives out prophecies but starsight doesn’t actually have words with the visions so I imagine it’s literally just him writing poems about his dreams and then reporting it to other Hermits like it's real-life fact.

He has something like a 50/50 accuracy rate and doesn’t actually make too much effort to take it seriously to begin with. World’s least reliable prophet except when he’s right which is sometimes.

Grian might actually have firesight to me (instead of starsight to match his colliering job) but I could also read it as him being just super paranoid and liking staring at flames a bit too much.

In this AU, he is very moon-adverse, and if we wanted to be angsty about it, I could imagine him not taking the idea that he has any celestial body-related power well at all (even if starsight is only related to stars in name alone).

In either situation, you’re right. He is ignoring everything, the future cannot reach him if he closes his eyes to it.

(I also just might just leave Grian's maybe precognition powers ambiguous because lore-wise because I don't want to stack his plate as op's special-est little guy too much.)

[icebluecyanide]

The show really giving us some strong sub!Yassen vibes with the "You don't have to think, you just have to act" quote, him letting Alex take command, and just Yassen general attitude in the show huh

[markantonys]

WOT season 3 episode 1 title is "to race the shadow" (source)

[kazz-brekker]

the climax of none shall sleep slaps so hard because 1. the characters think that they are setting a trap for a serial killer while the reader knows that he actually knows everything they're doing, and waiting for them to catch up with the knowledge that you already have is UNBEARABLY tense and 2. every single scene set in the asylum emphasize over and over again that they must NEVER allow simon any possible avenue of escape because he's too dangerous to let out so it's just a 10/10 decision for ellie marney to put emma in a situation where she has no choice but to hand simon the keys to his own cage in hopes of saving everyone

[magisterhego]

What did you think about Behlül’s relationships with Bihter and Nihal? Did he love either of them? Did either of them love him?

I think he did actually love both of them, but in his own way. He seems to have a tendency to have a great big romance that he quickly burns out and rinse and repeat with the next person he fancies.

As to whether he was loved, I'd say yes by both, but also in a limited way. I think he's kind of like the high school crush of a girl from a very small town, where the girl wants to date someone mostly because she thinks it's exciting at that age. And so her crush toward the guy develops more out of her daily life having a very limited pool of potential boyfriends, than out of any wow moment of attraction to that guy in particular.

For Bihter, I think she would have equally fallen for a different person who was young, handsome and charming, and consistently close at hand to observe.

But I don't know if she'd have slept with anyone who was not so casual as Behlül. His cheerful lack of morals and friendly persistence surely helped a bit to remove some mental barriers in her mind. With someone less happy-go-lucky, she'd maybe just have had lovesickness and stayed at that as a 'noble' kind of compromise between cheating and withering without experiencing real love.

There is a word I can't quite translate, 'prepustiti se' (to let yourself go, to abandon yourself to a feeling/situation, can be have positive or negative connotations), which I feel works for both Bihter and Nihal's feelings to Behlül.

They were first pursued by him and they seem to have almost purposefully convinced themselves into loving him. Both were lonely and desperate in different ways.

Bihter was in an unhappy marriage, I don't think I need to elaborate too much as she herself describes it all in a self-aware way in the novel.

As to Nihal, she was frankly somewhat neglected by her family. Yes, she's otherwise "spoiled", but they made huge decisions to remove her brother, and her governess, and her kitchen buddies, and didn't even tell her until the very moment it had already happened! Extremely frustrating and scary for such an already isolated girl. She lived from day to day not knowing who she could lose next, no wonder she got all emo.

So when the situation came that everyone was suddenly eager to marry her to a guy - one she already knew and trusted and casually bantered with - I think half of the appeal would be a young girl's physical attraction to Behlül as a man, but the other half would be the idea of finally keeping someone for herself (because her family couldn't very well decide to whoosh away her husband on a whim, lol). I can see why she'd accept the situation.

[jils-things]

right when this blog is born i have a funne confession

so theres this guy.

[theimpossiblescheme]

Somebody on YouTube pointed out the irony of the House of Mouse making The Black Cauldron when Don Bluth became much more well-known for making darker children's movies. I honestly don't think a Don Bluth-produced Black Cauldron would be any better, but it might have been interesting, if only to see what equally bizarre adaptation decisions they would have made.

[bones-n-bookles]

I need to make a fire kit here. I don't know any of the good plants for a nice bow or fire board or stick, or good kindling or cordage. I'm gonna fix that and make a fire kit. Idk how I'll get the info on those plants yet. May just trial and error my way through it. May get lucky and find a book or website or something. The knowledge on this stuff that I have in California was largely passed on to me directly by my mentors so idk how to go about like. Intentionally finding that information for an area I don't know well. But I'm going to find it and find out. I'm going to make my own cordage as well I think, though I may be lazy and use something else for the fire kit. I'd like to make a couple fire kits though, so we'll see. No clue how the fall/winter season will affect this, it never played a huge part in California.

Also I may collect some acorns and make some acorn pancakes or cookies???? There's hella acorns dropping rn. It's a good season to learn my oaks and make something from acorns.

[variousqueerthings]

my most parasocial want is to know what arlene's reaction to the great clown alan alda was those first few years, I understand that when they met she was a genius musician and he was a hapless philistine, and he made it his mission to make her laugh across the table for a whole evening, I get that they both ate cake off the floor, and that they walked around for the rest of the night rather than going home. there's a part of me that I'll never pursue that considers all of this from alan's perspective, in which he mentions over and over how much smarter and more worldly and compassionate than him she always was, in a way that suggests that his biggest addition to the relationship was always in trying to make her laugh, while otherwise being pretty penniless and a poor prospect (to begin with), and I just wonder how she felt for those first few years in which he'd take jobs in which he'd occasionally have to buy his own clown makeup, and the makeup being the wrong sort getting stuck on his face after wearing it all day in the hot sun, sunburnt clown look, and this was, I believe, after they already had two kids, so it did take awhile to get himself sorted as an actor in a way that was sustainable, and she's an artist too, but from his perspective she's an artist with both feet on the ground, and I wonder if that's her perspective too.

I guess it's that I relate a lot to some of alan's descriptions of his earlier self, and I wonder what it is that draws people to clowns

[thewickerking]

tbh. i love six of crows and grishaverse stuff and lot but i don't really give a fuck about jesper/wylan. i like both of their characters! jesper is my fave!!! And i like wylan! but the fandomification of them kinda ruined it for me. I was sooooo excited abt the ship when i first read the book but i CANNOT deal with the uwuification of wylan and hypersexualization and weird dominant shit with jesper. That just isn't true. and like. I knowwww I can have them exist in my own little bubble if I want but I don't really want to anymore :/

also. The end of crooked kingdom was a bad ending for them and im sick of ppl acting like it's cutesy. "To help with the poor black mans adhd and gambling addiction, he has a white rich boyfriend to give him an allowance and have full control over his finances and money he gets and also the house he lives in 🤭😖 #couplegoals" LIKE? EVEN WITHOUT THE RACIAL ANGLE ITS WEIRD!!! ITS NOT GOOD? and im NOT saying it's in character of wylan to abuse that power or like. Jesper in general. Like that's not what I'm saying. They're fictional obviously, but even so it's generally a balanced and healthy relationship and they're gonna be fine. But wow. None of u have ever thought about financial abuse as a concept and everyone LOVING their ending and gushing about how cute it is that they live together and claiming wylan is soooo nice and good to be helping jesper with his addiction and debt........ it's fucking weird and ive literally never seen anyone address it. Ever. Alsoooooo if not implied already it's craaaaaazy white savior-y. AND I LIKE WYLAN. I LIKE HIS ACTUAL CHARACTER not the incompetent baby fandom version of him.

Anyways in conclusion jespers my favorite character and its annoying having to sift through wylan/jesper ship art bc they're Canon and everyone always does shit of them together. Start shipping jesper with literally anyone else (or just make platonic art that doesn't heavily imply jesper/wylan) jespers got a great dynamic with inej and nina. This can be platonic or romantic to me. Hell, barely anyone acknowledges his intense fucked up crush on kaz. I'm biased and like to explore their relationship specifically (romantic or otherwise) and whatever. Ship him with matthias. Go wild. Also ppl bend the canon ships for inej/nina (AS THEY SHOULD.) but people RARELY do this for jesper and literally anyone other than wylan. and they neeeeeed to start doing it. "Make ur own content" I dooooo but that's never leaving my sketchbooks that's my private business (I project on jesper way too much to make public. It'd be embarrassing for me)

[cultivating-wildflowers]

*practices basic personal safety* just girly things 🥰

[surrender-souls]

it makes sense that, given alice is dreaming wonderland, the cheshire cat is like her truest friend there. she's always talking about her own cat, much more than any people she knows, so her closest friend in her dream would probably reflect a good friend from her own life