#possible arc? Idk will discuss with my brain.

[andreajingling]

[ Connection Established, Transmitting Recording... ]

[ Transmission Success, Received File 'BLIEXP78-D1172024' ]

[ Beginning Playback... ]

The frame centered on a darkened laboratory, a few lights emitting from around the area, all shining on a single figure, sitting in a rolling chair, looking at the camera with deep, sapphire eyes, and a deep-set gaze into the camera, as a smile crept up on their face..

"I did it."

"I DID it."

"What most here think IMPOSSIBLE, nearly happened. So many have dreamed of, alternate WORLDS, realities that, only SOME could dream of.. Those creative minds that forge their own paths, their own worlds, their own STORIES.. They're out there. And I so nearly made contact with them.."

The figure shifted, their expression falling as they glanced to something off to their left, letting out a small breath, as their right hand twitched, and their form tensed..

"So near.. Yet so far.."

Their form turned back to the camera, their expression now one a combination of despair, hatred, and disgust..

"The piece I reached this night and, this ATTEMPT, was the dimension in between all realities.. From my research, this can take different shapes, but seemingly functions the same.. It serves as PATHS between different 'Weak Points'.. If I were to find my way back there again, and be able to roam in the freeness that I desire.. I could find it. I could find that one kink, the one thing I never knew.. WHY, THEY, COLLIDED.."

The figure was tensing up, but grabbed their left arm, dragging in a long, solemn breath as they shut their eyes, sparks of red electric, something, bouncing off of their arm, and crystalizing in the air..

"No.. No.. Focus on the path. Focus.."

They let their arm go, slowly looking back at the camera, that same red spark crossing their retinas like a spider's web.

"Needless to say, these results have been, fascinating, to say the least. I will be devoting more of my time in my studies towards Project: Overdrive. That could be the push I need to open a gateway, to an entirely different world.. I could be the first existent being in this world, besides the Writers, to move from one timeline to another, without major shift in my thinking, personality, and story."

"The Prime, could exist in another world, with another M E . I can show them the might, of The Prime.. I will SHOW them, M Y might.."

The figure shut their eyes again, grabbing their arm as the sparks and electrical type energy intensified across their body.. It was a full minute before they looked at the camera again. Their eyes were now fully webbed by the red energy, even it being visible within their throat as they spoke, it emitting a crackle as they did.

"Regardless of, future, motives, this development could be very, very interesting indeed.."

"Bliss Labs Experiment Log 78-D1172024, end. Andrea, out."

[ End of Video Recording. ]

[hellaverse-critical-confessions]

I’m gonna throw something out that bothers the writer side of my brain a bit-

it’s really starting to bug me how basically all of the hell royalty we’ve seen so far is in a relationship with someone of a lower class.

with Stolas and Blitz that’s supposed to be one of the hurdles they have to overcome in their relationship; Stolas is royalty and Blitz is an imp and their relationship of looked down upon. Blitz feels like Stolas is just using him to get his rocks off, and Stolas was arranged to marry someone of his class yada yada

but Ozzie is in a relationship with Fizz. and then you have Beelzebub who is in a relationship with Vortex- and hellhounds are supposed to be lower on the social ladder than imps! Hell even in Hazbin we have Charlie, the princess of hell, dating Vaggie, a sinner.

idk I guess it just bugs me that one of the things that is toted in Stolas and Blitz’s relationship arc as something we should care about them overcoming is just thrown around, ignored, and never really brought up for discussion. Part of the appeal of their relationship dynamic is that forbidden love between a prince and a peasant

if royalty dating those of a lower class in seen as bad, why do we keep seeing these relationships again and again? Why is the commentary around it so minor, relegated mostly to “blink and you’ll miss it” comments or a newspaper clipping or just ignored all together? It just makes Blitz and Stolas’ arc seem so trivial and nonsensical

I mean if Viv really wanted to I think she could have made this work and used these relationships to help Blitz and Stolas get some perspective and have other characters to relate to- but instead we get some Schrödinger’s classism where the forbidden dynamic is only brought up when it matters and to create drama

"Schrödinger's classism" is a good term for it. Something that either exists or doesn't depending on if it's possible to milk for more Stolitz angst points in that very moment.

[riacte]

i never really paid attention to it but wow false and ren. they really do hover around each other huh. they r like bugs

Hiii anon thanks for the ask <3 I'll use this to talk about them and them in fanon because I have thoughts woooo (and I'm vibrating with excitement because I'm listening to the HC Grand Prix at the same time)

You said it exactly— like we all know they're buddies and stick together, but most of the times, we don't really notice it because it's just natural. Nondescript even. Like of course their pixels are next to each other in the background. Of course they're hanging out. It's not flashy or anything, they're just there.

[long and winding analysis that goes off in a Direction, will definitely not be maintagged, mentions of shipping and the fandom's worst enemy (comphet / heteronormativity)]

Pairing up

They're like those anime characters who are fully fleshed out individually, but for some reason, their screentime is tied together and they're always shown next to each other. That was actually my first impression of them back when I only watched Grian in HC6 lmao, every time Grian flew over the fantasy district he would casually go "that's False and Ren's bases" and my brain was like "hmm new names :) idk who they are but they stick together :)". Like you know when you're new to an unknown cast of people so you try to comprehend and memorise them as efficiently as possible? And so you start sorting the cast into duos / groups so it's easier to remember them? That was me trying to compartmentalize the hermits in HC6. Grian + Mumbo. Iskall + Stress. Scar + Cub. Joe + Cleo. ZIT. False + Ren.

It did not help that from Grian's POV, there was a part in the civil war arc when he collabed with False to prank Ren because they thought he'd pranked her and so my brain was like "weeewoooo I still don't know who False and Ren are but they continue stick together, and that's convenient for my internal sorting :)))". And that mutual association genuinely never stopped lmao (it only got worse).

Shared audiences?

I've talked about this on privtwt: False+Ren as a fanon duo (like duo Duo as in desert duo) is strangely niche even though they do stuff together all the time and they're both fairly popular on their own. And there is so much intermingling between their audiences— I know this is the case for all hermits' audiences, but it seems especially obvious between their audiences. I know in a stream Ren said he met up with False and they had a discussion like years ago about the two of them hosting a meet and greet with fans in a restaurant (that didn't happen) and internally I was like "yeah, that'll only work if they have a solidly integrated fanbase so no one feels left out in the restaurant WAIT. That's literally what's going on here".

Funny how when I was writing this, an anon sent an ask about Ren's chat basically being full of False emotes LOL. Integrated audience kinda real <3 like, even if you only watch one of them and don't actively watch the other, you still know and think of the other fondly.

Different styles? And sticking together

Actually outside of yayyy fun minigames, to me at least they have quite different styles + ways of presentation? Which feels slightly different from the above duos I mentioned? So I totally understand why people only main one of them and don’t watch the other (but still aware of the other obviously). In terms of taste and personal preference, I’ve been here long enough to know what loyal False mains generally like and what loyal Ren mains generally like. (Like, very verrrry generally.) Ren’s the dramatic roleplay storyteller and False is like, sneaky and shifty and has a wry sense of humour. They’re both funny and charming in different ways. I would say Iskall and Stress have similar presentations (“aha? AHA?”) even though they excel at different things. Cub and False are also similar to me— competent and cool people who are nonchalantly chaotic. And we all know Ren and Martyn’s instant chemistry and their similarities. It’s why a lot of Ren fans gravitated to Renchanting and Rendoc for their dramatics and flirting in the way some False fans gravitate to Fress and Falseren for the fun/mildly hysterical/teasing/sweet/pranking moments.

BUT

False and Ren bounce off each other well— it’s the playful tension and the sudden mutual whiny energy like “noooo don’t leave me🥺” but they start hitting each other 0.5 seconds later. And of course the mutual clinginess. I know people have made jokes about how they’re both smart and competent people individually but when they get together they suddenly become the silliest sillies and share one braincell <3 and I know people (read: mutuals in my DMs) have joked about Ren’s currently extremely obvious bias for her (it's as big as the BRR sign I swear 😭) and the usual “orbiting around each other group recordings”. Compared to other duos, they don’t get paired together bc of similar presentations / style. They get paired together because of the chemistry and they share so many moments lol.

Tldr: they make for entertaining on-screen interactions. It’s fun watching them rotate around each other and punch each other off things. And they do this so much that 1) everyone’s aware of it 2) everyone’s used to it.

Branding? (Or the lack of it)

Last I checked, their tag has 46 fics on Ao3 and 16 of those fics are from me (I love being spiders georg). As with every pair that's not the juggernaut pair, realistically the actual number of fics that actually focus on them is less than what we see. And you know how sometimes for the "niche" pairs, there's more ship fic than platonic fic? (Actually I think for most pairs, there's more ship fic than platonic fic.) That's also not it, they don't even have 20 ship fics. Like clearly, the current fanon interest in them is not ship motivated versus *gestures to whatever is happening in the general shipping chaos post 2021*.

What I concluded is that they lack the kind of branding that for example Convex possesses. I think it's kind of because... they're an ubiquitous constant throughout the years. They don't need a storyline or a named group to tie themselves together. No matter what they're doing, no matter what characters they're playing, no matter which servers they're on— they just kind of stay in each other's orbits. But they don't play it up or anything like hashtag SHIPrendoc or Renskall or whatever. They don't even have a proper fanon name ffs (outside of fairy pirate grotto or whatever in HC6).

(Although imo this is likely to avoid comphet irl shipping because God forbid a man and a woman are friends :))))) heteronormative irl shipping / truthing was an annoyance for years (pre the HC6 boom). But strangely enough, modern anti hermitshippers on Twitter rarely bring up the real problem of truthing in public comments and instead target people making Scarian fanart in a small corner or whatever. When many cases of Compulsory Heterosexuality literally exist in YouTube comments. But I digress.)

Ren and False are just there, pranking each other and basing together and playing five million minigames and being casually supportive of each other. Like, their biggest shared "storyline" that left a strong impression on fans / converted fans was probably MCC9. We all still talk about it today the way Ren and Martyn still talk about 3L Renchanting. And MCC9 was in 2020 when they'd already done a lot of stuff together prior to that (eg. literally being neighbours in HC6).

And the thing is, they do collab semi-frequently. In like every Hermitcraft season. In recent memory, we've got the Blue River Raceway of course, but we also get those pranks and minigames and random silly interactions like Ren breaking into False's eagle and False pranking him at her elytra race. It doesn't need to be big and theatrical in classic Ren fashion (I remember the Renbob / Falsewell storyline in HC6; her nonchalance and confusion was so funny in contrast to Renbob's hippie demeanor).

And I kind of like the way they've kind of (?? or not???) escaped from the intense duo-ification from the fandom. Okay, to be fair, I know I am the worst offender of the duo-ification of them (with my desperate do not separate agenda), and maybe I've had a negative effect on the fandom, so feel free to throw me off my soap box. I remember how hermitblr as a collective suddenly lost it when they split in MCC17. We took them for granted, we all got to used to them being together, we got used to seeing them in the background, and then suddenly they’re not??

So we’re all kind of aware of them. But it’s not a terribly big thing…. until it is.

It's the same on the M/CC Reddit. Everyone knows they're iconic. But nobody makes a post about how we need more False and Ren duo interactions because they already interact a lot. It's just a natural constant. They don't really need a spotlight because they're just... here doing funky cute friendship stuff.

But if they ever, for some reason, become a mainstream duo on twt in its mainstream duo way with some [insert random noun] duo name, I will be so 🫠😒🔥💥🔥💥. But I literally cannot see this happening unless they team with Grian / Grian adjacent people in Life series. But even then I think they’re kinda exempt because everyone’s so used to them lol. It’s not like a shiny new uwu duo. It’s like how Stresskall is just Stresskall. Or Jleo.

(Actually, speaking of Stresskall, the entire Stress-Iskall-Ren-False group would make for an interesting fanon discussion bc it’s essentially made out of very solid and fan favourite duos. But not now. Team FRIS my absolute beloved though.)

Also, thinking about the ensemble HC fics I've read and how they're just casually kind of chilling in the background. Ren is usually paired with Doc (both platonic / romantic) but False is usually somehow mentioned in a passing comment. Same with False who's usually with the Hermitgals in ensemble fics, but there's also passing comments about her hanging out with Ren. Again, it's just a natural part of the background. Trivia that's sprinkled in between.

And that's why I think I'm so 🥺🥺🥺🥺 because it doesn't need to be big and grand... it's all the little moments <3 they have such a fun and playful dynamic and all the love for minigames <3

I don’t know if this is comprehensible or I’m just going crazy and overthinking things no one thinks about. But writing this was fun at least <3 If at least one person gets maybe 30% of this post (whatever it is), I'll be happy haha.

Post sponsored by the three people who liked my tweet from months ago 🥹

[peony-pearl]

There are so many factors at play with Zuko and Iroh’s relationship that could be delved into but were just never really addressed in the show

There’s the obvious ‘son replacement’

There’s Iroh wanting to steer Zuko away from Lu Ten’s fate (and essentially Iroh’s as a former proud prince and general who lost his son to his blindness in serving his own father)

There’s the betrayal aspect in which Zuko really did make the decision of what he wanted after Iroh begged him to take a look at himself (and then Zuko apologized for it later when he probably really didn’t need to)

There’s a bunch of little strings tying things together that just kind of fray at the end with no real closure.

Iroh begs Zuko to ask himself who he is, and what he wants. Iroh is hoping Zuko will find a future for himself there in the city since they no longer have one in the Fire Nation; but there’s most likely a definite motive in that he can watch Zuko grow up in peace unlike Lu Ten under Iroh’s care as a surrogate son; a second chance. Iroh is desperate and coddling and smothering. And when Zuko shows signs of old habits related to Ozai, Iroh gets scared. Going back to Ozai means losing his ‘son’; and Zuko being put back in danger that Iroh can’t protect him from; protection he didn’t give when he was scarred, but he can offer now in Ba Sing Se in the form of a makeshift family - but that’s not what Zuko wants. Both Iroh and Zuko have a tied sense of trauma that leads to a desire that seems selfish at first, but it’s out of a desperate want for family and love that they’ve lost and are wanting to reclaim.

It’s at the point where, again, I think Iroh should have also apologized to Zuko when they reunited - both for his expectations for Zuko to just turn away entirely from wanting to go home and for his anger in the prison. I think there’s actually a good bit of rebuilding on their relationship that could have happened, but they backslide with Iroh returning to Ba Sing Se at the last minute and to the Jasmine Dragon, which imo symbolizes a HUGE backstep since that was a place of hiding true identities even though it was Iroh’s dream job (I’ll get to more conflicted feelings on the Jasmine Dragon eventually). But for Iroh to straight up deuce out immediately after a reunion in which he could have now been Zuko’s only family post-war? uhh bad.

But also, Zuko and Iroh’s relationship could have begun a new transformation if they’d have been able to go through with Azula’s redemption arc. In my happy brain Iroh does stay in the Fire Nation (he gives the Jasmine Dragon to Jin/moves it to the Fire Nation or something idk) so he and Zuko can make sure Azula is getting care/that Zuko’s reign is beginning as smoothly as possible because there WILL be those who feel like a usurper and traitor has stolen the throne; they went from one ruler to another overnight; and even with the Avatar having been the one to defeat Ozai, Zuko hasn’t been around for 3 years and then was branded a traitor and then suddenly was on the throne - that’s grounds for some heavy questioning.

But back to the topic, I think it would be interesting if Iroh was still trying to get Zuko to have leadership qualities he was trying to stamp into Lu Ten, until Zuko finally snaps at him. Iroh realizes what he’s doing and he takes a step back. One day while checking in with Azula she can tell he’s not himself, and she teases ‘who spit in your tea this morning?’. He looks at her and knows that any discussion of his relationship with Zuko is bound to be sour since they still don’t have much of one, and he was highly prepared for her to be a casualty of war during Sozin’s Comet.

But he led his son to being a casualty.

He tells Azula he’s not sure how much more help he can be. His guidance is old, and he is still so affected by losing Lu Ten that he finds himself trying to reel Zuko back from anything risky.

Azula scoffs. ‘Must be nice to have someone so concerned about you.’

This hits Iroh; his realization that no matter how much he and Zuko could come together, other members are hurting. Whether the divide from favoritism or from different sides of a war have split them, they are still in pain from what each other has or hasn’t done.

Can he be the guide Zuko needs? Or could Iroh become something new for both him and Azula? Could he become someone new for himself and to keep honoring his son?

Iroh tells Azula he once asked Zuko to think who he is and what he wants; to which Azula replies ‘you didn’t ask him what he needed.’

and it’s at this point that Iroh makes the realization - he’s the one learning from the younger generation; especially Azula, who he was once an enemy of. If his guidance is outdated, then it’s time for him to listen, and if he’s going to be the same person ever again, it’s to be the patient man he allowed towards an angry Zuko, but this time it’s so Azula can have a safe soundboard so she can recover. It won’t be easy.

But they’re alive. And they can keep trying so long as they don’t give up on each other, and they don’t revert back to the safety of old habits and being who they think the other wants them to be.

[garbage--account]

for the ina11 ask game 2, 7, 10, 22, 30!!

Oh boy hehehe (TW : long ass post)

2. What your favorite OG season and why ?

No hesitation : season 2, the alius arc. Because looking back, i think it made or solidified what inazuma eleven is. The wacky plot, the tension, the plotwist, the characters, the places, the dramas, the villains, the development, etc. (I must admit i like it so much because of Fubuki but the others reasons still go) You can't tell me season 2 isn't legendary. Period 💅

(Side note : ironically, i used to hate that season at the beginning the first time watching it because i was so emotionally attached to S1 characters i didn't like what pain they had to go through. The anime was mostly wacky, and suddenly it was sad 😢)

7. What is your favorite ship ?

Trick question. It actually depends on when you ask me. I think my first ship was GenSaku, then i used to be a die hard GouFubu shipper, i kinda like EnKaze because of doujinshi on youtube. When i grew older, i was really into SomeFubu and i was surprised of that. In the AreOri era, i liked Haizaki x Asuto (idk their ship name sorry), then AfuHiro, NosaIchi, and the crack ship ever : HiroAtsu (it makes sense to me ok?). Currently, SakuSasa altered my brain chemicals (Level 5 made us waste no time to ship them in chapter one). I actually enjoy all ships as long as it can make sense in canon (not mandatory actually see HiroAtsu) and the fanon about them is bombastic (the fandom literally made me like a polycule ship aka the break trio and i wasn't ready for that 😭).

10. Most evil adult antagonist ?

Canon : Garshield because trigerring a war is not cool + blackmailing children to let you make experiment on them is 🤮

Emotionally : Irina. Not only that bitch almost have the same name as me and mistreating children, especially your own son, really ?

Fanon : we made Kageyama even worst in fanfiction (i am living for that)

22. What is your favorite intro and outro ?

In summer, i blast Jounetsu de Mune Atsu at full volume to imagine i am chilling in a tropical island and the most handsome man to ever exist comes to invite me to set the dancefloor on fire with the most extra and dramatic dance possible while people watching are aroused n jalous. In reality, i have to work and i can't dance. Was it too much information ? OK, moving on.

For my fave ending, i hesitate between Ruuysei Boy and Maji Bomber. Shoutout to Seishun Oden to emulate early France Gall's carreer in the 60s for a late 00s anime about sakka bois.

30. Do you have controversial opinions ?

You can judge if it's controversial or not, but here goes nothing :

Nosaka is a bitch and i hate him

Atsuya (S2) is more an allegory of loneliness, fear and guilt than a spirit possessing Shirou's body or a legit alter ego. Fubuki was never meant to represent DID or mental disorder accuratly but to teach us something more general through his character development.

The Break Trio are men of culture (not a hc, i can explain, it's not that kind of culture).

Level 5 made Aphrodi appear rarely but at the pivotal moment in the seasons on purpose to add him an aura of mystery so we have no proof he is not a god and we can't argue with him. (He is also an allegory, he is the obstacle to deal with to go from zero to hero).

Kozoumaru is a bitch and i hate him.

By adding brainwashing or magic, Ichihoshi's backstory could have been 1000x better.

Asuto is not a Tenma copycat or a bland character. Did you see him throwing hands at Haizaki and Nosaka at the same time and punching his "dad" or did i watch a different version of AreOri than everyone else ? He is just the most normal and down-to-earth protagonist so far and IE fans hate that because we like our main boy unhinged af. His only ick is that the scenarists forgot him during Orion but he had good bases to write a banger about him. (@ghostreader16 and i have a blast discussing him)

Shinjou shoud have not been a good guy.

Midouin is forgettable af but everyone agrees with me.

The new Raimon manager, the big tiddie green hair girly : she's amazing 💘💖💗💗💗💓❤️‍🔥

[prettyboykatsuki]

I don’t thing Toga is dead or Bkg. I think that they’re going to have this whole drawn out thing where OFA transfers to everyone (like the bkdk in heroes rising ((i think it’s heroes rising))) Anyway I think it’ll be like a redemption thing for everyone where they all like team up like when Izuku in the opening says ‘This is the story of how I became the greatest hero’ or wtv idk it’s something along those lines. Anyway. I think it’s about all of them coming together as one hero (sort of) but also I’m probably wrong bc I tend to over analyze (autism) idk if this is relevant to anything you are discussing so sorry. I am wading into the waters to perish goodbye

i agree with this to an extent actually... tho idk if everyone will receive it i do have some confidence that bakugou will receive or become apart of it(thinking about that Vague Ass Quote from hori always) since the movies became canonized i will once again be very surprised if him taking the mantle of ofa with izuku is not integral to the final arc. plus it alligns completely w bkgs character that he ends up once again being the very symbol of victory but i digress

to me theres no instance in which deku takes on the last fight on his own in the first place so i can see everyone becoming part of ofa and working together. kind of like the ending of naruto in that sense lmao. it will likely be all of class 1a putting everything they've got towards it (once theyve all finished their individual arcs) and then bkg saving deku for the first time or deku saving him one last time so ofa becoming apart of that equation isnt actually that far fetched to me. that being said im unsure if that means bkgs physical body will live forever. a meta account i rlly enjoy has several theories abt bkg beocming a vestige or part of ofa instead of dying and i can see that very well.

anyway. not abt bkg rn kjdfbjkd. but i dont think u are overanalyzing. i keep saying bnha is predictable and i really do think it is but i dont mean that negatively at all. many of the major choices it makes completely align within the stories logic so if anything can be predicted it can be possible as well. this doesn't feel all that far fetched to me esp given the name of the quirk is literally One For All LMAO. it would honestly make less sense for only izuku to have it? and it's a quirk thats strength compounds based on how many peoples powers it touches. like i dont think thats actually that far off fkdjk.

i cant say for sure tho!! i suck at theory crafting because my brain does not follow story logic super well. im good at character analysis ONLY. but i can see it at the very least which means its v possible.

[honeyfizzly]

Not genshin related but instead yttd related. Just some speculations and wild guessing- beware of 3b spoilers

Alright so in Sou route rn there's only 4 survivors while Kanna route has five (smh Kanna route gets all the love huh).

So that means that in Sou route, not only will everyone get one of each role but also the death game will definitely end because there would be only two survivors left after the main game.

My bets on who's getting what role for Sou route is-

Sou with Keymaster (yttd seems like looping back to the begging with things, so having Sou lie about having keymaster first game and then actually have keymaster last game feels fitting).

Since only the people alive in this route are the ones who killed Kanna, I feel like he'd definitely try to get himself voted off to kill everyone or maybe he has an actual redemption arc this chapter and the roles of Sara and Sou are switched from first main game to last (like Sara lying about her role for whatever reason while Sou is guiding the discussion idk why she would but I feel like it would just be cool lmao)

Sara with either seer or she actually has sacrifice this time (like how she found the sacrifice card under the table but didn't get it cause she already had keymaster). Seer is the only card that Sara has never picked up or had so it's a very likely candidate, maybe she would see that Sou is the keymaster and assume that he would try to kill everyone because of how they killed Kanna. Sacrifice wouldn't trigger Sara as much as it did in chapter 2 because she repressed her memories of Joe, and also Sacrifice holds the most power in this game as well.

If Sara does get seer then two other candidates for sacrifice would be Gin or Keiji, maybe if you chose Alice dies Sou route it goes to Keiji or if you chose Reko dies Sou route it goes to Gin.

I could totally see a situation where you get the choice to save either Gin or Keiji.

I think it would pretty ironic if the final survivors of the death game would the girl with highest survival percentage and the man with the lowest.

Also if Sara was sacrifice and did managed to get voted off, you'd get the choice to either save Gin, Sou, or Keiji.

For Kanna route I feel like Kanna would the be one with the seer (since she lied about it in the beginning as well and it just feels fitting) or maybe keymaster

And reko/alice with commoner probably

Sara would have either seer (if Kanna didn't get it) or keymaster (I don't see Sara getting sacrifice this route)

Gin either has commoner or sacrifice

And Keiji either has commoner or sacrifice

I'm less sure about the roles this route cause it wouldn't be the last main game for them, because there would be three left unless sacrifice wins. The death game is meant to go on until only two or one person is left.

Also everytime during sacrifice's death, there's always the button. In Joe's death, sara kept pressing it. While in Nao's death, Sara couldn't press it at all. Idk why this stood out to me but it did

Also new rules keep getting added with the main games it seems, with chapter 2 updated the rules with trades and ties. Maybe some new rules could be adding new cards, a new way to trade cards, ect.

Also there's still some mysteries that are unsolved

Where's Mishima's head

Mishima is suspicious in general- he's the only candidate that passed the first trial who's wish we don't know (besides Keiji and I feel like this is gonna be important), and he shows up every chapter. I feel like he isn't actually the mastermind (I don't feel like there's "one" mastermind like danganronpa) but he is suspicious.

Who was in Sue miley's room? I personally place my bets on Meister since he looks all bandaged up but it could very well be a dummy who didn't actually die, Kai perhaps (since slitting your wrists is actually one of the most survivable methods of suicide I think), or a character we don't know yet (pfft watch it be Ryoko lol)

Who was Sue miley talking to in chapter 2? I don't think it's midori or Meister since the person seemed (the way the person talked didn't seem like how they would act), or anyone we actually met before since Sara and Keiji didn't recognize the voice. It could be that Rei (I think that's the name) person in Ytts that is revealed to actually have been apart of the group before being forgotten (in Ytts when someone dies they are "forgotten" so I think that's the implication with Rei).

So maybe Rei was a possible Candidate but ending up dying before the death game could ever start like how Midori did and their right to the death game was forfeited.

Next up is why was the Joe painted taken during Sou Route. When Ranmaru goes to rest and Sara leaves him before a while before coming back, the Joe painting is stolen. I think the implication is that Ranmaru took it cause in Kanna route that dosent happen. I just find it kinda silly that Ranmaru is jealous of an painting of Sara's dead best friend that she can't even remember. I just find it silly, and I don't know if it'll be addressed in 3-2.

Also who's Sara's real dad? Most of the cast in yttd is missing an father or parents (Possibly because they're parents mightve been in on the deathgame too, since Asunaru has information on them since they were children). A tiny theory of mine is that the person who Keiji killed was not Joe's dad but instead actually Sara's. It dosent really have that much proof other than I think it would be cool and both Sara and Mr. Policeman have red hair.

What got Sara into the deathgame? Sara never signed the contract so what brought her in? The only two candidates for wishing Sara in are Mishima and Keiji since we don't know their wishes. I could totally see an situation where Keiji wished that he got the chance to reconcile with Mr. Policeman's child (since he killed their dad). I'm leaning towards Keiji being the reason why Sara is here but not Mishima since Mishima and Sara don't really have an connection.

Though I guess it would be funny if Mishima wished to have more students to teach and since the death game is probably revolving around Sara, Asunaro just took that has a chance to shove her in.

What were Joe and Kai talking about? In the survalince it shows Kai and Joe both talking, seeming serious but there was no audio so we couldn't tell. My bet is that Joe was confronting Kai about being Sara's stalker or having some connections with Asunaro, Joe isn't as dumb as the fandom makes him out to be imo so it seems reasonable that he would notice that.

Alright I spilled out my brain now, time to wait 50 years for the new chapter byeeee

[not-delicious-milk]

So i was randomly scrolling through as you do lol and saw your timeline on the mindmap and how you said that Yuuji is a suitable vessel because Sukuna's blood might have become strong enough, do you think it could also be a case of genetics and Yuuji being a practically identical match genetically to Sukuna hence why he is a suitable vessel?

Also with the theory going around about Brain bring Yuuji's "Mother" do you think that is where his memory manipulation technique could possibly come from and why Brain is so interested?

wow this is gonna suck bc it’s on my phone but let’s go

i think that whatever relationship sukuna and yuuji have left some amout of genetic material in his body. i’m not sure if it’s directly that he’s his descendant — gege has stated that sukuna had no children, though of course he could just be trolling — but i think of what the brain said in shibuya about how the body and soul are the same. i think that part of the reason why yuuji can house sukuna without harm coming to his body AND suppress his soul is because they share some genetic material or otherwise have some overlap concerning their bodies. maybe yuuji is his reincarnation, or had genetic material implanted in him in utero, or is distantly related to sukuna through other means. or maybe he’s just sukuna’s direct descendant. whatever it ends up being, i think that something is definitely going on. it would be much easier for yuuji to merge with sukuna, as gojo stated they had in chapter 2, if they already shared genetic material, blood or some other physical congruence.

it was stated by gojo that the appearance of sukuna’s vessel was part of the “wave of power” in the new generation, and later during the spv arc it was revealed that gojo’s birth was the catalyst for this, that it forced curses to evolve and become more powerful, including dormant cursed energy in potential sorcerers. what if sukuna’s blood relation or whatever it is to the itadori family was distant and weak enough that they still weren’t suitable vessels? they don’t seem to be sorcerers, although pappy wasuke gives off the air of knowing at least something about sorcery, but they bear a striking resemblance to sukuna from what we’ve seen. and yuuji was born after gojo. maybe because of that wave of power, sukuna’s dormant influence was strong enough to make him a suitable vessel — probably having to do less with genetic material since that’s not quite how genetics work, but indirect influence on his cursed energy and body development. idk if that makes any sense but basically the little itty bit of sukuna that was in yuuji was enough, after gojo’s birth and the forced evolution of curses, to actually influence yuuji beyond physical resemblance to sukuna and cause him to be ridiculously strong and capable as a vessel.

so think of recessive genes as an example. through generations and generations of “carriers” it might never manifest, but given the right catalyst — an environmental stressor, reproducing with another carrier and getting the recessive gene from both parents, et cetera — it can suddenly show up almost out of nowhere. real life examples range from brown eyed parents having a blue eyed child to serious genetic disorders and illnesses.

now imagine, if you will, that that recessive gene suddenly became a dominant one because of, oh i don’t know, a certain blue eyed baby being born and shifting the equilibrium of the world.

imagine if a child like that is about to be born, or potentially about to be born, but there are complications with the mother and she dies. if you were an incredibly patient body hopping sorcerer with a vested interest in seeing that child born, what would you do?

the brain states that they altered peoples’ brains with idle transfiguration to make them suitable vessels for cursed objects, at the end of the shibuya arc. the relationship between the brain and cursed energy is an in-universe enigma, but it seems like changing the structure of the brain can forcefully awaken a technique or make someone able to handle a cursed object. yuuji most likely is not an experiment in this sense — creating sukuna’s vessel is a rather ambitious first attempt, and the brain didn’t have access to mahito’s cursed technique when yuuji was born, so they didn’t have a reliable and precise way to alter people’s brains to change their relationship with cursed energy. it’s possible that the brain STUDIED yuuji to determine what, exactly, made him a suitable vessel in order to be able to replicate it, but that would require already knowing that he would be a suitable vessel. either yuuji was an incredibly risky and ambitious experiment from birth, intended to be a vessel for sukuna, or the brain had some reason to know for a fact that he was one. such as being related to him.

jogo asks after yuuji’s first death whether it was “worth wasting a precious finger to determine the strength of sukuna’s vessel”. that suggests the brain was double checking to make sure yuuji could house sukuna freely and without limiting his power, since it resulted in sukuna taking over to fight the cursed spirit. this wasn’t to check if yuuji could handle consuming more fingers. the brain seems to be very sure he can.

with the cursed wombs, the brain states that sukuna’s fingers are an exception when it comes to cursed objects — that they are powerful enough to influence their surroundings even when sealed in the form of dormant fingers, and that they can choose their vessel. other sentient cursed objects, such as the death paintings, can reside in any vessel, albeit completely taking over their hosts. there is no relation between the objects and their vessels in this case, and the cursed objects can exercise their full power at the cost of taking over the host’s consciousness.

it’s possible that the brain wanted to make sure that being suppressed by a suitable vessel still allowed for a curse to use its full power, i.e sukuna, but that’s just me theorizing.

in terms of the memory manipulation thing, gege has stated that it’s not a technique and that the causes were different for todo and choso’s cases. i’m not inclined to fully believe him because again he could just be lying his ass off to distract from the very real similarities between the cases. i’ve seen some interesting theories concerning it, such as that it’s a technique that uses positive cursed energy, that it’s a defense mechanism, that it has to do with the soul like mahito’s technique, et cetera. i don’t think it’s why the brain is interested in him — that most likely has to do with his status as sukuna’s vessel. i find it suspicious that the brain knows so much about his body and how it will react to sukuna (for example telling the disaster curses that should yuuji eat one finger a day up to 20, he would most likely retain control, but if fed 10 fingers at once he would temporarily be overwhelmed) AND how it seems that they already knew he was sukuna’s vessel even before he consumed the finger — someone else said this in the notes of my other post, don’t remember who, but when discussing with the disaster curses after yuuji’s first “death” it seemed like he’d been part of their plans for a while and that they knew he was sukuna’s vessel before anyone else did. but! the memory shit is very suspicious and i am looking very hard at gege for an explanation.

gosh this got long. i will probably cross post this on twitter because i kind of popped off. anyway yeah

[prodigious-ladybug]

wishmaker thoughts

in terms of it being a single installment in the larger narrative of miraculous ladybug, i don’t have a lot of thoughts on wishmaker other than ‘haha cool someone knows both of their identities at the same time wonder where this will go’ bc like. i am unable to separate myself from the idea that i absolutely cannot judge something (in this case, season- and series-long arcs) until i see it in its Entirety, in its Proper Complete State (which i know doesn’t exactly mesh with television as a serialised art form but jhdfghj wtvr thats a whole other discussion) so i don’t, and won’t, really have an opinion on luka knowing their identities until i see what the show does with it

on the other hand, in terms of its own merits as an episode (as in, the parts of the episode that are self-contained and are supposed to have their own story arc within the 20min) wishmaker was probably one of the weaker episodes of the show? alec’s akumatisation practically came out of nowhere - the show usually does a pretty good job of setting up the through lines that lead to a character’s akumatisation right from the start of the ep (you know, like with actual foreshadowing and good writing and shit) but wishmaker felt more concerned with the interactions between luka & adrien & marinette than having the villain feel natural within the story. which is all well and good, like this episode is about those three and should be focused on luka’s relationship with adrien & marinette if it wanted to have the proper impact of luka finding out their identities, but it just seemed like the episode couldn’t balance being both a run of the mill, monster of the week episode and an Event episode at the same time (that being said, i doubt this episode would’ve been enough to hold its own across a two parter so i get how the unbalance arose). instead of throwing alec’s characterisation out of whack they couldve used his early screen time to lead up to his akumatisation more naturally - surely something about being a tv presenter and having to be fake all the time for a living and not staying true to what his younger self wanted or SOMETHING would like. be putting him down in the dumps or smth. idk. that’s just off the top of my head surely the writers could come up with something more substantial. and yeah this might take away some attention from the emotional core of luka, adrien & marinette but it’d at least 1. tie in with the theme of the episode and 2. set some precedent for his negative feelings instead of him getting akumatised in like. ten seconds hgfdfghjk

the only other thing that kinda rubbed me the wrong way was how wishmaker’s power seemed especially contrived, even for this show? like i Know half of the akumatised powers are to either get ladybug and chat noir to kiss (contrived for the sake of romance which is. generally fine in a romance show and also approved by my shipper brain) or reveal their identities (which actually ties into the plot and the villain’s motivations and therefore makes it...not really contrived) so wishmaker being used to reveal their identities is fine. but um. the leap hawkmoth made in how his powers would do that is. wild. it’s like:

reveal people’s childhood wishes

???

reveal lb & cn’s identities

profit

and again, i know hawkmoth has given an endless list of powers to people that make you think ‘what the fuck was he hoping to accomplish with that?? what did he THINK would happen?’ and i’m all for hawkmoth having dumb plans, being soundly beaten and then having to figure out smarter ways to beat lb & cn, but i guess my problem here is that in this episode he was actually proven RIGHT. like he had no guarantee that lb & cn wouldn’t have childhood wishes a la dino man and mr banana, but he really put out this fairly weak akuma with the immediate assumption that it would reveal their identities and like?? if viperion wasn’t there he’d have achieved it! (well, idk abt ladybug, he’d at least probably hit chat noir, which is. an interesting au to think about). the link between revealing childhood wishes and revealing lb & cn’s identities seemed like a massive leap in logic to me (more than this show usually makes), and idk if anyone else felt that when watching the episode but like kjhdfghjk hawkmoth buddy can you explain your thinking for just a second like i’ll accept what you’re doing i just need to know why the fuck you’re doing it and how you got there

but other than that! i really really liked this episode and i was hyped up the entire fucking time!! i had to keep pausing it bc i was getting overwhelmed LMAO. i guess one thing i will say so that this doesn’t seem like a wall of negativity (which i swear i didn’t mean for it to be, there were only two (2) things i didn’t like about the episode that i felt weakened it, it just takes me a billion words to get to my point) is that however they handle luka knowing their identities in future episodes, i fucking loved the way they handled it in this episode. for some background, i’ve honestly never cared much either way abt luka, i have zero negative feelings about him, it’s just that he has the unfortunate case of not being a character type i particularly care abt, and the writing hasn’t done anything much to endear him to me. he’s fine, and i certainly like him more than other characters, but i’m pretty much as neutral on him as you could get. UNTIL THIS EPISODE! okay not really, something abt him agreeing to be friends with marinette in crocoduel made me go ‘:) what a nice boy :)’ BUT! THIS EPISODE! i’m proud to announce i’m officially a luka stan. LYING BALD-FACED TO LADYBUG? KING. LYING TO LADYBUG AFTER THE SEASON OPENER OF HIM GETTING AKUMATISED OVER MARINETTE LYING??? i am SO here for internal character conflicts YES! this is what i WANT! set up a character who has a strict line in the sand and put them in a situation where they’re forced to cross it anyway, and see what happens next!!!! i really would not mind a whole character study on luka after this. like....the fucking intrigue.......why did he lie, and how does he feel about it? does he regret it? does he consider it a necessary evil? i’m sure all of this will be answered in like. a single line from him five episodes down the road bc that’s how this show handles shit like this but. those last few minutes were really just straight bangers i’m still not recovered

well this was. longer than i thought it’d be. and again, i liked this episode a lot, idk what compelled me to write all this out. i usually don’t have a lot of formulated thoughts like this after an episode of ml; i think that it was just bc there were a couple things i could actually critique in the ep that it made it easier to pick apart my feelings. but anyways!

TL;DR wishmaker, in its self contained elements, felt a bit weak as an episode bc 1. alec’s akumatisation was mad rushed and 2. the way his powers were used to further the plot felt contrived to me (yes, even for miraculous). but, in the episode’s over-arching elements within the season/show, i immensely enjoyed it, primarily because of the amount of intrigue it set up in 1. luka’s characterisation and 2. the possibilities emerging from luka knowing lb & cn’s identities

[kachinnate]

,,,,okay i know i just said i wasn’t going to talk about the deh movie but actually yeah imma talk about it for just a sec bc y’all actually make me legitimately distressed sajkfndsmjkgds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLQ_A0H1otc i dont have the braincells to do a shot by shot analysis right now but here’s what we’re lookin at

under a readmore because ghhhhhhh

firstly, let me lead with this: yes, from what we know, there’s a lot of things wrong with this movie. 

the worst, in my humble opinion, being the bts treatment of the (very few) actors of color, and the lack altogether of any production team members of color. that’s something that should be acknowledged, talked about, and fucking dug into especially at the current fucking period of time we’re living in. it’s unsurprising, but disgusting nonetheless, and it set this movie up for failure from the very beginning. i’m a white person so by no means so i feel inclined or like i have any authority in saying what one should feel wrt all of that, however i will say if there’s to be a boycott in not watching this movie, that should 100% be the reason why. it’s fully poc’s choice whether or not to forgive the production team or give this movie a chance for the irredeemable shit it did in regards to handling the movie’s production. the movie imo definitely doesn’t deserve their forgiveness, but again, that is not for me to say. 

there’s some little things too that i can’t fully think of off the top of my head - like, the whole making larry connor’s stepdad thing fucking irks me, for example, but, like...... listen.

if you know me like at all, you know my favorite word is nuance.

so, i’m going to say it outright: the way you people are approaching this three minute trailer shows literally.... none?? no nuance ??? is it no-nuance november over here or ???? like i’m begging you i’m BEGGING YOU to put aside your pre-determined prejudices against this movie and like stop pretending to be a renowned film critic for ten seconds because it’s really not as outright fucking abysmal as you are saying!! and also it’s possible to have opinions that aren’t completely fucking polarized to one side because guess what, the deh movie? a piece of media! what is the shit y’all are constantly preaching about having the ability to consume media critically ? because you’re trying to cancel a fucking trailer based on the contents of the trailer alone !!!!! hello !!!!!!!!

media is bound to be problematic. if y’all were as quick to judge any movie as you did this one, guess what you wouldn’t be watching any movies like ever <3 

anyway lets get into the parts that are probably going to get me cancelled lmao 

ben platt - listen. LISTEN. listen i know he’s too old to be reprising evan we ALL know he’s too old to be reprising evan i’ve heard this same argument since the announcement was made we get it we all know. haha he’s a grandpa yes bestie ur so right ur so funny wow. i do agree that we should’ve maybe had a not-ben-platt evan moment but here’s some things to keep in mind: the arguments of “oooh ABF is right there !!!!!!” 1. who’s to say he was available? 2. the environment of a movie is so, SO much different than that of a musical -- as much as you wanna pretend you know everything from just a trailer, there’s no way of knowing what scenes were added that might’ve made the movie like.. idk possibly more intense story-wise not even COUNTING the fact that just inherently a movie set is different than a musical one? like yes ben platt might be just being used as a device but that’s probably not the sole and only reason. Also, if i see One (1) more comment about his FUCKING HAIR 😃 first of all it’s not that deep like... if you’re so distracted by an actor having their hair different that’s on you, but going as far as to call it bad or distracting or being like Vehemently a way about it? y’all i know it’s most likely not your intention but that is literally just ben platt’s natural fuckin ETHNICALLY JEWISH hair sajknfgkjds!!!! i’m not the first to make this point, but like dsjnfkjdsg!??! y’all are being so mean about it and for WHAT? again, maybe not intentional, but it reads as like high key Very antisemetic and you should.... maybe not 😳 be that way

connor. the thing about a trailer is that they don’t show you all the scenes because they want you to come see the movie. right? can we agree on that? all the connor scenes in the trailer had SEVERAL hard cuts, omitting a lot of the scene -- like the computer lab scene! we see the beginning of it, there’s a VERY obvious hard cut, and then he’s running out! in my opinion my first watch through of this trailer i had a very like “:// hmm all these actors feel a lil like dry”, but man oh man the comments ive seen about connor. holy shit guys. this boy gets 7 minutes of stage time in the actual musical, and the whole thing is we DON’T KNOW VERY MUCH ABOUT HIM. not to burst your bubble, and i by no means hate connor, i love me some good connor lives fics and stuff, but everything we write with connor being alive? that is !! speculation on our part !!!! those are headcanons and us using the little context we have!! connor doesn’t have any significant development IN THE SOURCE MATERIAL that is being adapted into a movie !!! you 1. can’t fully judge a character with already limited screentime in a 3 minute trailer, 2. can’t really call what connor has canonically in the musical as in depth character development !! what is his arc then !!!! he pushes evan, goes to the computer lab, has an outcast loner kid moment, gets upset, takes the letter, DIES. sorry stans, that’s just how it is !! and, AND, everything in between, all the idiosyncracies, that depends on the actor playing connor! speaking of, you know who the actor is playing connor in the movie? that’s right, colton ryan! so, i don’t know, maybe... have some trust in the process, in an actor who ALREADY has played connor on broadway???? and also trust that you will get more connor content then u are seeing from a 3 minute trailer!! dhgnijsdg and some of the comments on like his appearance specifically? like are you really made that he doesn’t have long hair?? they kept his nails and his rings but nahhh the hair was apparently a MUST HAVE (even though like.. not all connor actors on broadway always had/have long hair but w/e).. REGARDLESS. tldr on THAT , the movie would have to do a pretty shitty job if they want to take something from someone who doesn’t have much to begin with and i think y’all are being extremely harsh on this point 

jared. honestly i’m a bit worried too about the like... name change, because it does have the potential to be taking out some representation, but... they did change the name to fit the actor’s ethnicity? it’s a really [hmm] topic because, again, from a trailer and from what we have been told we don’t KNOW a lot of the context, but i think it’s important to remember that uh.. jewish people aren’t just? always white ?? there’s a possibility they changed the last name to fit with the [ethnicity] while keeping him jewish?? ofc there’s the possibility that they Didn’t and ... again hm that’s its own thing altogether but just reiterates the point that you can’t knock a whole movie just based on the trailer. you can’t talk about things you know nothing about. 

alana. same thing as before, you can’t.... completely bash a character based on a 3 minute trailer. there was discussion about how she seemed ‘shy’ when talking to evan, which like.. maybe she is but also that scene was them talking in a library like if u actually take notice of what’s happening in the scene jdskngsd though i do share the general consensus with many others that she won’t get a lot of screen-time but that’s neither here nor there 😔 moving on

scenes and the setting. one of the things i was most like.. tentative about in regards to a switch from a musical to a movie was how they were like... going to do certain scenes? naturally, a lot has to be different when we’re going from a minimal stage set to an entire movie with like.. settings. there are going to be new scenes because a movie lends to have like, physical places that aren’t just [evan’s bedroom] and [murphy kitchen] and [implied school]. so new scenes, new conversations, slightly different pacing.. this is all to be expected right like are y’all geneuinely surprised here or ........

there’s a lot we aren’t seeing yet because this is a TRAILER. again i already mentioned this re: connor but like... again, y’all are making some Claims that just... fucking outlandish. there are so many moments in the trailer that are very obvious Hard Cuts. you don’t have all the information yet. you are angry at a tiny fragment of something that is confusing you because you don’t have all the context. is there a chance that some of this shit is just genuinely Bad? yeah but you really cannot 100000% say it with your chest and gauge it without seeing the movie and understanding what that scene is in context. lowkey uhhh saw some jokes about the zoe scene in the car and :’))) ? jesus? christ????

concluding thoughts because my brain hurts but like. you don’t have to like the movie. you don’t have to WATCH the movie. like all media if you choose to consume the movie you should do so with some CRITICAL THOUGHT. but, just like the novel (and i do not want to have any discussions about that i don’t care if you think it’s good Or bad that’s not what this is about) you guys are going in this WANTING to believe it’s bad and completely polarizing your thoughts on what this is going to be. yeah, maybe there shouldn’t be a movie. i genuinely think we could’ve gone without. but it’s just a piece of media, it’s not a progression like all your (musical is good, novel is bad, MOVIE IS WORSE OH NO) posts are suggesting. they are all just. different pieces of media stemming from a source. at the end of the day it’s just a fucking movie. if you already hate it so much, guess what? you don’t have to watch it! you don’t have to put so much needless fucking hate into a 3 MINUTE TRAILER. you can stop being performative and dissing it for its poor treatment of POC while then going on to make fun of ben platt’s hair and just targeting a different group like! please !!!

i’m not trying to be a fuckin’ advocate for this movie because there’s so much opportunity for it to suck, i do Not have high hopes for it, and i’m not even really sure i want to watch it (i bought the novel when it came out and have yet to read it, and i’m sure the movie will like.. elicit very similar vibes from me lsdngjkdsg like im just not uhhh feeling it) but y’know what? watching the trailer did not bring forth the fucking onslaught of hatred in me that apparently has fuckin posessed all of y’all and like djnsgjksdg plagued my dashboard for this whole evening. don’t come into my inbox trying to like.. argue with me about this (preemptively im turning off anon because i like i Can’t lmao) this is just like... a rant i needed to get out of me real quick. 

SO. tldr for now: have critical thought about shit you consume, there’s no ethical consumption under [the film industry], you can’t judge a movie entirely on its trailer, and y’all need to calm the fuck down 

[frogtanii]

🔮 👋👁️💧👄💧👁️

👏i👏was👏happy👏30👏minutes👏ago👏

NEVER HAVE I EVER WANTED TO STAB A WOMAN IN THE THROAT AS MUCH AS I WANT TO STAB MEIKO RIGHT NOW-

im glad that osamu has his head out of his ass already, and his redemption arc has started, but at this point, idk if i can accept iwaizumi, dachi and osamu as routes in the story anymore 😭

(or maybe any route but atsumu's for that matter- congrats j, you have convrted me into an atsumu simp-)

what i interpret from the happenings between the miya twins is that atsumu, in addition to being the 'angel' in the story, in a sense (as ive read from other anons' analysis), he didnt want to choose between y/n or his brother, he just wanted his brother back. he wanted what they had before the woman drove the wedge between them. and he was willing to forgive and wait for him to not just try to be better, but to work at being better.

osamu, on the other hand, let meiko corrupt atsumu's good image in osamu's mind and in whatever daze he was in, blindly following meiko for whatever validation he achieved from her, osamu let go and forgot about the trust and bond he shared with atsumu, his brother. as a result, he lost his brother in the temporary bliss he found with meiko. osamu really needed to hear atsumu's reminder that he loved him, (aaaaand that he loved his best friend too, and no way in hell was he gonna choose between them,) and that little reassurance that he can still run back to his brother after that whole fiasco. lord knows the last time the brothers had a heart to heart.

am sorry if this is repetitive to what others have already said ajdbjsnsj or if it doesnt make sense, my brain is slowly shutting down-

on other notes, LORD SAVE YAICHI GIVE HER PATIENCE AHAHAHAHAH. atsumu is such 🥰 a 🥰 simp 🥰 (highkey, same though-), and hopefully suna and osamu can eventually discuss their feelings, their friendship might never be the same again, and the wounds will take time to heal, but hopefully they can work it through.

for the headcanon portion of my ask, i wanna put out an idea for a route that i though of while typing this out-

•y/n deciding not to date any of the boys following pf and deciding to take a vacation with the money she saved up, and taking a "journey to self-discovery" thing,because upon her contract ending, she never felt so free and she wanted to embrace the feeling as much as possible without having to look at her s/o's face and being reminded of the difficulty she endured as an influencer of sorts in the hyper house. 😌

if my math is correct, it might be around early evening when you reply to asks next, so I HOPE YOU HAD ENOUGH HYDRATION TODAY MAAM 🤨, enjoy you next meal! you need sum nutrients 😌, AND PLEASE GET ENOUGH SLEEP its very good for the self 😌.

LOVE YOU BESTIE! YOU'RE DOING GREAT SWEETIE!

💪👁️👄👁️ sending baddie vibes!

p.s. im sure that we, your readers would love it if you branched out and grew as a writer! if you do make a mha story, i gotta brace myself for how you'll portray the characters and make me question everything i know and feel about the character HAHAHAHAH (deadass though, with your writing, you can make me loathe or love a character i didnt loathe or love before-)

but at the end of the day, its your blog, and your decision, just know that there are people rooting for you! 💘

AHAHHA I LOVE THIS !!!!! n ur analysis of samu n tsumu is lovely kith kith kith && the route idea???? gorgeous hehe >:3 && ahaha i shall see abt the mha route ty for ur support <33

[rupertgayesarchive]

That ask and your answer about what if Sam was out of hunting and never left Stanford because Gabriel wanted to stop the apocalypse and threw him into a pocket dimension and I’m like. Obsessed. primarily with gabriel and how Sam would go.

I think he would stick Sam in a like… you remember when Zachariah stuck sam and dean in the office job and it was a parallel universe but also it was real life? like coplanar planes, I think Gabriel would elect to do that instead of his you’re going in my alternate universe, because it’s less detail consuming and I think Sam would notice small things that were off like how he figured out it was him in mystery spot.

You said Sam deserves to have the apple pie life but if he was comfortable with that it wouldn’t like.. work he wouldn’t be ready to ever confront Lucifer or anyone. i agree but also I don’t think he would stick with his normal life. like in the zachariah episode he had a normal life and fake memories of that but he still wanted to hunt and help people and also figure out wtf was happening. I think in this scenario Sam would still be psychic because I love that but Gabriel would probably try like… suppressing his visions and such, because they would lead him back into possible angel business. I think he’d still get little snippets because that’s fun and having reminders in that that the supernatural like.. exists and ppl are getting hurt, I think that would overrule his want of complete normalcy and even his spite toward John.

I don’t think he’d go back into hunting like, completely because I want him to have something good and also be semi well adjusted. but like we saw in the terrible life episode I think he’d like.. if he got bored and started looking up strange deaths well now he has to go help them!!

also it is sooo fun to me if he starts realizing something is wrong but he doesn’t know what. like in mystery spot I love that trope sooo fucking much also in s1 sam gets back into hunting through John Winchester style revenge quest and I want to give him a reason to start poking around that is like.. for himself and not anybody else. he can have a little obsession over it as a treat because i like seeing him be a bitch <3

i think initially when Gabriel found out the apocalypse was like in motion and Sam was at Stanford he’d have an opportunity there to do something without revealing to other players that he is alive because he was pretending to be a trickster. like he’s very much in this for self preservation and if he did some time traveling shenanigans, or disappearing both Winchesters and maybe even Adam out of nowhere, I think he’d worry that the angels would take notice. Randy your vessels!! But Stanford gives him a natural window to hide a key player. he needs to do away with Adam too so Lucifer can’t possibly have a true vessel to fight.. maybe he can kill him in a freak accident because I find that funny. sorry this is long and it will be getting longer

anyway I think as time went on Gabriel would pay like less meticulous attention. he’d still keep away like key players but as other people also started trying to stop the apocalypse he would become more relaxed also he’d be overconfident in himself like in changing channels. I think this would lead sam to notice more stuff that just doesn’t make any sense and maybe start looking for dean or even his dad, or going out of his way to look for hunts. maybe get involved in magic because i think he deserves to be a witch. wait actually that’s how he should find Dean. i think Gabriel would hide Dean from Sam and vice versa, and he didn’t foresee Sam using magic or anything. Also at this point it’s been years and I think Sam is more invested in this than his like… normal life. he’s more well adjusted but I can definitely see him just impulsively quitting his job to figure out what the fucks happening. Also I think he’d feel animosity at dean during this for not being there and not helping him, even though that anger doesn’t make complete sense. sorry i like the early seasons salmon dean reconciling and learning to like each other and sam realizing Your Parents Are People and I would like to see it with them having like, completely different lives and also some fun miscommunication bc of Gabriel. also sam having to reconcile dean having cas OHRHDHJ also dean and cas trying horribly to cover cas being not human is so fucking fun to me. unless this happens during a cas is dead time period which is fun in a different evil way.

I also think dean would only stop looking if he though Sam was dead, but I think… Gabriel might have hidden him but other people ARE still meeting him even with like altered memories. so I think angels or something can sense that Sam is alive but they don’t know where and I think they’d gloat and use it to taunt dean that he is like.. suffering while his brother is living a perfect normal life. Also because this adds another miscommunication that can be discussed and end in reconciliation in a way I don’t think would feel contrived and is in line with it the characters. it’d be Amelia s8 but Sam would be like (Sam voice) I did look for you!!! where were you when I needed you! also I want Sam to find out John died and he’s in absolute despair while cas is standing there like oh yes that’s so awful your father was an. absolutely a man😔😐🏳️‍🌈

idk when this would occur and i think every season offers like… different flavors of enjoyment for an audience of just me. like s7 proto widower arc?? Sam reconnecting with Dean during TMWWBK when he is not familiar with the dean and cas dynamic and has to be witness to Trying So Hard To Be Loyal. additionally that would be fun because bobby is there and dean is like, covering his ears and back talking bobby regarding cas. and if they’ve taken pains to hide cas being an angel Sam being like .who is this to Dean. is suchhh a fun concept.

WAIT post goodbye stranger. or maybe Sam can show up pre goodbye stranger to watch dean go from clingy after cas gets back from purgatory to wrongfooted to like ANGRY. well not Angry… to dean having dean emotions. when cas is off with the tablet ignoring him and he feels betrayed. and this Sam isn’t as close to him so he doesn’t know ANY details until Dean stats divulging them as they reconcile. ALL GOOD OPTIONS..

also if this happens during s6 i think it would be nice if cas started collecting allies, and at the same time as Sam trying to figure out what was keeping him away from dean and the angel business Cas could figure it out FIRST and use Gabriel as an ally against Raphael but he’d feel like he has to hide it from dean and sam. like in this scenario. actually any time I talk about s6 hypotheticals Cas’ conflict IS the A Plot. the Winchester’s were on a side quest idc. s6 is a fun time for these reasons but i don’t like it as much because Cas is still in the process of like.. formative development.

okay one last thing I’m SOOO sorry for my essay. you said if Sam was dispossessed the apocalypse would just.. not happen. i agree to like, a certain degree, because I do think they could have found another way but all of them would have been dust compared to swan song. so maybe Gabriel semi succeeded but instead of stopping the apocalypse he just… prolonged it. this changes a lot but if either Michael or Lucifer didn’t have a viable vessel I think the angels would scramble to actually for real stop the apocalypse but others would still want it to happen even if it was like.. Perfect they just want it to be over. this provides angel politics which I am in love with and we can still have like TMWWBK development for cas. I don’t know where I’m going with this sorry

op this is a lot, this is so much. i love it, i hope you have a google doc open somewhere and are typing away furiously.

now i didn't rewatch a lot of spn past s3 (surprise) in part bc i can't handle the brain damage and some scenes are seared into my cerebral cortex in a way that induced a temporary bout of eidetic memory, meaning i'll never forget the crypt scene in Goodbye Stranger for as long as i live. that being SAID, my s6-s7 knowledge is not as firmly coalesced. so because of that i'm letting your thoughts roam free as i don't know how accurate my own takes would be? but i feel like without sam there, like... hm. would dean even be the same person... would the past however many seasons even OCCUR remotely similar with sam out of the picture for literal years? we might be looking at a completely different world at that point.

my other theory is that the s2 plot of special children - we know azazel was raising a new 'crop' of psychic kids. i think that was a plot thread that they ended up dropping anyway, but if they didn't i do wonder if we'd be dealing with a lot more shenanigans like in s1 and s2 except with kids? and dean and cas trying to figure out what to do with these young psychics that might be turned into a vessel for lucifer or - whatever they wanted to do with those kids. hm.

i also question if purgatory would be a thing. like it probably would come up and be on the table, but maybe the godstiel arc wouldn't, bc if like you're saying dean and cas are together at this point, like. cas might have grown to love humanity (not just dean but like 99% dean) to the point where he might not be doing this risky gambit for more souls. and if gabriel is still around, cas may start petitioning gabe to help throw his archangel weight around against raphael while he tries to do the actual strategizing.

i think sam would still have his visions, like you said, and then maybe those lead him to dean or to a case that dean is also on? or if angels are more well-known later on, he tracks one down, maybe cas, maybe not (if it's NOT and it's one that works on raphael's side. ohoho. the possibilities...)

[gelatoromantorchwickneopolitan]

Okay, Roman’s on the island. How do you want things to play out?

Arrrrrgh, I've been constantly thinking about this during the last two days, but still hasn’t been able to come up with a coherent plot! (Actually 99% of the things I come up with start with Roman discovering RWBY+J there and starting make fun of them in the meanest way possible like a bastard he is) Surely, I want Neo somehow to be the first one who discovers Roman is there even before she stumbles upon other 5 people stuck on the island, because I think if she encounters someone from RWBY+J first that would lead to the meaningless fight. I want to see their REACTIONS - both Neo’s and Roman’s - after seeing each other again! Maybe disbelieve and confusion overcomes them at first... but I ALSO WANT THEM TO FEEL THE WAVE OF INSANE HAPPINESS WASHING THEIR HEARTS ONCE THEY MAKE EYE CONTACT! I want to see Neo STARTING CRYING WHEN SHE REALIZES SHE CAN’T HUG HIM CAUSE HE’S NOT FLESHY ANYMORE ( (╥﹏╥) I want them to reminiscence about what they went through in the past (maybe... with flashbacks... pleeeease... okay, I think we’ll never get flashbacks of them being together-together but no one can forbid me dreaming). I want them to talk about everything that happened during the Fall of Beacon! I want Roman to tell her about how he really died, tell her that Griffon ate him cause he was stupid enough to stay outside the ship in the area full of Grimm overcome with grief and anger trying to cane Ruby to death cause he thought Ruby killed Neo by sending her in the flight through the sky crawling with monsters!!! I want Neo to tell him about what she did after his death, about her revenge quest, targeting Cinder, then teaming up with her and trying to target Ruby, and also snivel to him about how unfairly Cinder treated her (like... there were moments when she looked genuinely hurt... Idk did she really expect Roman-like kind of behaviour from Cinder or what that meant, but she certainly needs a shoulder to cry on about this). I want Neo with the help of Roman to finally realize that all this time she has been of the path to self-destruction, and if she proceeded she’d certainly waste her live in vain (heck, this is exactly the reason why Roman got himself killed in the first place). Roman surely doesn’t want Neo to get involved with Salem and her doomsday cult anymore - including fighting against her. He’ll probably beg her to stay behind all this shit that’s going on in the world. (Though... is there is a place on Remnant truly safe from Salem). He’ll earnestly ask her to move on from his death and start a new life despite how painful this process is. To finally dissociate her sense of self from him. To find out who she is without him, because before she was limiting herself in a lot of aspects just to stay with him (and after his death we’ve seen she’s much more capable and skillful in a tremendous amounts of things than Roman was). “This is just a part of you... don’t forget about the rest.” Sure, there were only two of them against the world before, but now things changed, and she’ll need to create her own life without him step by step. And Roman would wish her to live a long life making crimes on the run. “Don't be afraid! Get up, get going, A step everyday, I'll meet you there” Maybe he’d advice her to try to establish meaningful relationships with other people in future to heal from emotional trauma (platonic I mean. I can’t imagine her getting once more in the romantic relationship ever. especially with someone from the cast. and ESPECIALLY with someone of main characters age - from the first moment I saw her I knew she’s much older then they are. besides, that soulmate thingy really owns my brain.) And Roman’d assure Neo that in the end of her life path he would be waiting for her here... in the afterlife... (Fuck. I’m crying. I’m gonna get up and make a break.)

Okay, I’ve returned. How would this affect her interactions with Ruby and co? I don’t think that we’ll see Neo’s redemption arc in the upcoming short volume. They can’t still be arch enemies since they’ll need to cooperate somehow in that place to find the way out (and maybe there is some danger there, the gods don’t seem to be super cool and kind guys to leave people in a totally safe place after death lol), but I don’t anticipate them to become best friends and go fight Salem and Cinder together. I always viewed Roman and Neo’s nature as exclusively self-serving (with the only exception they made is for each other). That’s why I can’t see Ruby and co talking her in their team as a fellow illusionist aside Emerald. I can see Neo joining their team only to spoil Cinder’s life - but that would mean she learned nothing from conversation with Roman, and that’s not what I want. Well, maybe, CRWBY has some brilliant plan for executing her redemption and incorporating her in the plot of Volume 10 and all the upcoming volumes (they never cease to amaze be), but at least for now I highly doubt that would happen. Neo was a last minute addition to the Atlas arc, and I was pleasantly surprised to see animation making sucha  big focus on Neo’s emotional reactions in this volume. That means we can fairly suspect her moving in a phase of self-discovery in Volume 9. But I also have a feeling that we are getting near to the end of her story in the show. 

But... Neo and RWBY+J just parting ways after getting out of that place? Sounds more likely to me that her joining the forces of good. But sounds very dumb from the point of narration, yeah... So, we’re coming to the other idea - Neo staying in the Underworld with Roman while someone who was already dead (for example, Pyrrha) comes back to Remnant. I’ve already discussed this topic with @queeniebedeart and admitted how pointless that would make all progress in the character development she might make while talking with Roman and would reverse the important gains on the front of reconstructing the self-identity. Queenie suggested her view on how CRWBY can combine the plot of Neo developing the sense of self and the plot of Neo staying in the realm of the dead with Roman to help RWBY+J. Well... if they really find a way to merge all of this together without ruining already pre-established in the show idea of the importance of moving on after the death of the loved ones... I would be HAPPY to no end, cause my brain just can’t get rid of the mental image of Neo and Roman waving from the beach to the heroes who are returning back to Remnant. 

Honestly, I want only one thing: Neo reuniting with the real Roman’s soul. Not some kind of illusion or mind trickery which makes everyone see what they desire to see (Roman in Neo’s case). Pleeeeeaaase, nooooooo, my heart won’t take it if that actually happens. ╥ω╥

Gelato reunion. Even for a couple of minutes. That's all I'm asking for.

[not-poignant]

Hi Pia! I'm a huge fan of your work and deeply enjoying FFS rn, it really shows the love and care you've put into this world and characters and it's an amazing read 🥰🧡

Idk if you've actually answered this question before or if it's a bit too much? So feel free to skip it. Do you have any advice on how to write a therapist and sessions with them? And to go along with that, a therapist&patient relationship that doesn't feel inauthentic but that's a healthy one?

I've had to visit both psychiatrists and psychologists a couple of times along my life, which has almost always been a positive experience to me, but when I get down to business and want to write a character going to therapy, I fall into a bunch of the psychoanalytic clichés US films have hammered us down with, even if I'm not from an Anglophile country!

Thanks a bunch in advance!! Ilu, have a nice start of the year🧡✨

Hiya anon!

I have a few thoughts about writing therapy sessions so I’m just going to put them down in no particular order.

Firstly, I don’t actually think it’s always a good idea to write therapy in stories, and a lot of the time I avoid writing it even when a character is actively seeing a therapist. This is particularly true in The Wind that Cuts the Night where all we see of Alex and his therapist are snippets, and nothing more than that, because therapy sessions would slow down the pacing, focus and value of the story.

Where possible, characters don’t see therapists, but talk to people in a way that is therapeutic, usually with love interests or members of the ensemble cast (Augus and Fenwrel in The Court of Five Thrones, Jack and Eva in The Golden Age that Never Was, Jack and North in From the Darkness We Rise/Into Shadows We Fall, Cullen and Cassandra, Cullen and Bull in Stuck on the Puzzle). All of those characters need therapy, but writing therapy sessions tends to slow down the pace of a fic pretty dramatically, and even I had misgivings about writing Efnisien’s sessions with Dr Gary at first because I’m acutely aware of the fact that:

1. Therapy sessions can be draggy and boring 2. They often take away important emotional realisations from other characters, ruining potential hurt/comfort and character relationship development moments with your actual cast / love interests 3. Fiction is meant to be fiction, not reality. 4. A lot of therapy sessions are actually not that interesting to sit in or write or observe, which is why writers do often find themselves falling into certain cliches while writing them to make them more interesting. Even I cut out huge chunks of sessions to get to the more interesting parts, lol. 5. You can write a character going to therapy without writing the therapy. You can just choose to have the character remember bits and pieces of the session later as it’s relevant to their life. 6. Therapy is different for everyone, and some readers (myself included) don’t enjoy reading it when the therapy is a kind that doesn’t resonate or feel right.

So you really need to ask yourself why you want to write therapy specifically, because a lot of the time it gets boring or - as you point out - falls into cliched territory. Writing a character going to a doctor a lot in detail for regular injections is boring. Writing them thinking about how they have to do this in brief while their love interest is sympathetic to them getting those injections is more interesting. Writing a character suffering from an illness that they need regular injections for, with their love interest comforting them? Interesting.

Falling Falling Stars is a unique fic in that Efnisien has no one before he meets Arden, except for Dr Gary and Gwyn. If you’re writing an FFS style fic, writing therapy sessions might be appropriate. It might be worth really thinking about the kind of fics you want to write, why you want to write therapy, how that will affect your pacing, etc.

If you’re still dead set on writing therapy sessions, then I have some suggestions re: writing more realistic/healthy therapy and how to find that knowledge yourself, and I don’t really know how to shorthand some of it:

1. Get books on therapy that are designed for the therapist. These are often expensive, but sometimes libraries stock them - and university libraries in particular will often have photocopy abilities (or you can just photograph the pages you need) because these books look at how sessions should be structured. Books with case studies are ideal, since they often show dialogue chains between the client and therapist. Books that obviously deal with the mental illnesses you’re planning on writing about are the most ideal.

2. With a view to this, learn about different therapeutic modalities (for example are you trying to write psychology or psychoanalysis or both? Are you writing social work? Are you writing cognitive behavioural therapy, dialectical behavioural therapy, expressive therapies, narrative therapy, transcendental therapy?) Be aware that different modalities have different session structures and learn what they are. Wikipedia is your friend, but your closest friend will be actually acquiring textbooks on the subject. This is a pretty significant financial barrier at times, I’ve been collecting books like this on psychology since like 1997.

3. Learn about your character’s mental instabilities that require them to go to a therapist and then look up the most recommended forms of therapy for your character’s specific issues. Will they suit your character? Why/why not? Will they have a therapist who realises and switches modality if it doesn’t suit? Or will they be lucky and find someone who helps them straight away?

4. All therapy sessions have a structure to them. And therapy often has a narrative arc through the course of therapy over many sessions. They should generally have the attempt at a beginning (greeting / setting up the problem to be discussed), middle (highlighting the source of conflict or inner conflict) and end (helping the client to focus on less stressful things, possible homework assigned, and potentially talking about future work/sessions). Learn this structure. Even if you’re not writing the whole session, you need to know where in the session you’re writing, beginning/middle/end will be different tonally. Structures will be different per therapeutic modality, and a therapist that knows many different modalities (like Dr Gary) will often be using slightly different structures each time depending on the character’s mood/issue.

5. In a healthy therapist/client relationship there will be the ability to discuss boundaries, grievances and the therapist won’t be revealing much about their personal life at all (unless anecdotally it’s super relevant and even then it will be deliberately vague). This is one of those things that will - in many cases - make for more boring sessions on the page, depending on the ‘client.’ For example, if you’re writing someone seeing a therapist for the first time, it might realistically take months or years before they start showing progress or trust. That’s not interesting (there’s a reason ‘therapy fiction’ isn’t a genre), so of course it’s tempting to shortcut into more dramatic moments.

*

I would say if you’re finding yourself leaning towards more cliched or dramatic forms of writing re: therapy, your writing brain may sense that the entire scene/s may not be suited to the story, and is trying to find a way to make them more interesting to yourself and the reader. If that’s not the case, then a lot more research is needed! It’s time to sink many hours into actually understanding what you’re trying to write. This doesn’t matter as much if you’re writing unrealistic or unhealthy therapy, but it’s 100% necessary when you’re trying to write healthier therapy depictions.***

Also a couple of sessions of experience is a start, but you might want to watch or find a way to watch more therapy sessions, because you’ve missed out on experiencing longer arcs, different modalities etc. (This is where my hands on experience with 19 therapists since 1995 is actually really helpful, lmao - I’ve had close to like 800~ sessions by now, with good and bad therapists; I cannot pretend that hasn’t given me a knowledge base that most people don’t share). You can still learn that stuff via research, MedCircle on Youtube is a good place to start, since it offers 30 minute snapshots on what CBT and DBT sessions will look like etc. and has some great playlists.

Most fics I’ve read don’t do a great job of depicting therapy, but the Babes!verse series by @rynfinity has probably some of the most realistic and still really interesting sessions I’ve read as an ongoing arc. The series is long, because it needs to be re: what it’s dealing with, but it’s great, and I definitely recommend looking at another example of how an author tackles these sorts of scenes. Out of the Mouths of Babes / The March of the Damned are the two intertwined series.

I apologise if this sounds discouraging overall, or daunting, but I just want to stress there’s a reason that I’m often not writing therapy in my writing, as anything more than the occasional scene with a non-therapist, or snapshots that are reflected on and that’s it. Falling Falling Stars is the exception to the rule, and unless you’re writing an exception to the rule as well, it’s really worth reflecting on the first six points I wrote - it’ll save you a fuckton of time and research. And if you go ahead with it, I wish you well! :D

*** Also disclaimer: But I still am writing very indulgent therapy that is not beholden to being either a 100% healthy or 100% realistic depiction. The fact is, real therapy sessions are pretty boring for observers except for maybe ten or twenty minutes in the middle at times.

(ETA: It’s just occurred to me that therapy fiction does exist, esp. in the mass media, but that it is - afaik - all unrealistic, dramatised or unhealthy. But if you want to watch a great show - I highly recommend In Treatment with Gabriel Byrne, just by aware that it is depicting, for the most part, unhealthy dynamics which are more character studies than anything).

[aerltarg]

2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 26, 27 from ask game

2. Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP?

oh, it's actually hard to answer bc pretty often my otps can work as brotps for me as well. it also means that when i can't ship some characters they don't work for me as friends either. not to mention that in asoiaf i'm open to many ships, and if i'm not very passionate about some it's not a sign i can't see them in romantic light.

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?

may i say any sansa ship? 😭 as well as sansa herself lmao. idk generally i can't ship characters i don't like because i'm just not interested. and it's not to say i don't like book!sansa (show!sansa is another case 💀), i just don't find her arc as intriguing and epic as arcs of some other characters. however, it's absolutely her obnoxious fandom's fault that i don't want to touch anything about her now, pairings including. sansaery? pass. sansan? i used to have a soft spot for them in my heart but now? nah. sansa x anyone? pls have mercy, she's already a fandom bicycle.

and jonsa ofc. i would never mind some crack ship as i do this one if not for their obnoxious stans that did way too much to list there right now. but this burning desire to persuade every rock on the street that your crack ship is canon will never stop being ridiculous lmao

also braime. tbh i used to low-key like them but some of their stans weirded my away lol. i get that not all of them are like that but still. it's generally my great pain when i see braime/brienne/jaime stans who are also dany/targ antis. every time i see them i cackle and run away as fast as i can crying from disappointment lmao. it's really a pity because i'm either very neutral or like in my own way all three of them.

6. Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?

jonrya it is! i never hated them, you know, but they never were more than siblings and brotp to me. however, later i encountered the deluded crack ship fandom that shall not be named and understood that if there is any possible romance for jon with any of his sisters-cousins we all know which one it will be lmao. also their stans are very sweet and i really like many of their takes on arya and jon! i generally love relationships of jon and arya very much so it wasn't that difficult in practice to see them in a quite different light.

7. Is there anything you used to like but can't stand now?

meta culture lmao. reading different analysis and interpretations of the text used to be very interesting to me (and still is tbh but in other fandoms) though asoiaf is a different case. imo many people aren't honest in their so called theories and analyses. i get that all of us are biased but some "meta writers'" denial of their own biases influence fandom in a bad way. it looks like too many people run to them to get answers to their questions about any minor detail as if they were grrm himself. yk instead of using their own reading comprehension lmao. you see how this meta culture ruined fandom just looking at the most delusional stans and shippers who spread their agenda by writing endless text posts full of nonsense and bullshit but styled as oh so intellectual and thoughtful analysis. it's insane how many people actually buy it and don't check canon accuracy of such claims themselves. it got to the ridiculous point when random people try to argue with you with some far-fetched embarrassing "theories" as if they were canon facts or quotes straight up from a fanfic because they read somewhere some other confused soul's post and got from a context that this quote is canon (despite the fact that it wasn't written in grrm's style at all but some people can't use their brains even if their lives depended on it it seems).

anyway it's become too long and rambly already so tldr. because of such "neutral unbiased" analyses i got the habit of fact checking almost everything i see in such posts. there's only a small amount of meta writers from targ/dany/jon/arya stans that i trust because i know by practice and following them for some time that they don't pull anything out of nowhere, back up everything they say with canon quotes, don't decontextualize anything and (that is the most important thing to me) are reasonable and open to discussion unlike so many bnfs nowadays.

8. Have you received anon hate? What about?

ah, not in this fandom yet, god bless! i think i'm not loud enough for the needed amount of time to deserve it lol. but since i'm not going anywhere soon maybe one day i will 😂

9. Most disliked character(s)? Why?

robert baratheon and tywin lannister, obviously. tbh it's pretty hard for me to hate any characters because you know. they're fictional lmao. just lines on paper, they can't hurt you. and even such dudes as tywin or robert don't get real distaste from me if they're written well enough. my problem with them lies not only in their canon crimes and shitty consequences of those but in fandom's (or at least some parts of it) unwillingness to acknowledge that they're canonically written as shitty, not as stan/pity/worship material. tywin isn't as clever as some think and robert is a coward outside of battlefield, not to mention some absolutely disgusting denial of his nature from targ antis only because the man happened to be the most vocal targ hater in-universe so these folks feel like he is their main book representative and whitewash him completely lmao

10. Most disliked arc? Why?

uugh idk even. i'm either low-key interested (or used to be at least so i can stay pretty neutral for the sake of nostalgia lol) or too indifferent to really care.

11. Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn't? Why?

all my faves have their own crowd of haters i'm afraid 😭 but let me say rhaegar. even among some dany/targ stans my man is so misunderstood lmao. it's not even his fault i dare say it's fanon about his half-imagined crimes that somehow got widespread to the unbelievable degree. and when i say they're half-imagined i'm being very generous actually. ofc he isn't perfect, no one in asoiaf is. and yes, he's a pre-series dead minor character but almost all little information about him is actually positive, not to mention the narrative itself that doesn't paint him as a villain or just a shitty dude. on the contrary, he's an idealized to some degree dead prince who could've been a good king (like some other historical targaryens, jacaerys, baelor breakspear, aemon son of jaehaerys, etc.), a mysterious yet tragic figure. i have much to say about why it's so popular to shit on him in fandom but yeah. his haters should send their complaints to grrm instead, no one forced the man to write him like that lol. and i mean that no one has to like him ofc. but it's misinterpretation of the text to claim he was intentionally written as a villain or smth by grrm.

12. Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn't? Why?

i don't know if it counts as unpopular but i would say tyrion's arc as a whole because i enjoy his character and like in my own way. i can get why some people don't like him but this man will always have his own place in my heart i must admit.

13. Unpopular opinion about XXX character?

is this unpopular tho?.. ok but renly wouldn't make a terrible king. i dare say he would be better than both robert and stannis. yes, he wasn't shown as perfect and i don't claim this. he wouldn't be the best or the most brilliant or the most just or noble. yet still better than his brothers. his flaws weren't anything other high lords didn't have, his mistakes weren't anything other lords and kings didn't do. in many ways he would make a better job than robert or stannis, too bad he died so early, even though i get why it was important for the narrative.

26. Most shippable character?

well generally for me it's the ones i love the most lol. jonerys/snowstorm is my never dying otp but i admit my sins, sometimes i just see dany with other characters (often from other fandoms pls don't @ me). however, since dany is THE fave of mine it means i would rather twist the other guy or girl to fit into the good match for her than twist her for another character in my new born crack ship lol. and i never stay for too long with the ships with which i feel they don't really fit and don't do justice for each other lol. maybe that's the reason i'm not much of a rare shipper / crack shipper afshdjdb

27. Least shippable character?

everyone i don't like? 😭 as i've said sansa for the reasons above lol. you can insert many others in her place lmao

[mego42]

207 Discussion Q’s

shout out and thank you to @pynkhues for putting these together even though she wasn’t gonna be here this week

1. What was your favourite scene of the episode? Tell us why!

obvs the dubby but underrated fav is Ruby and Jane in the closet, idk exactly why but I am starved for the families interacting with each other content (screw the timeline, the most unrealistic aspect of this show is that they aren’t constantly in and out of each other’s houses with ben and sara continually being called on to babysit) so this little snippet makes me levitate

2. Was there any scene that missed the mark for you? And if so, how?

the annie and noah scenes for sure. I mostly feel betrayed bc I really liked them the first time I watched (i have a lot of built in affection for sam huntington let me live) and now I’m like BEGONE FOUL BETRAYER and feel pre-emptive fatigue over annie’s taste in men and how that’s not going to get better any time soon

3. I know time does not exist in the Good Girls universe (or in reality anymore), but let’s start with a timeline question! The implication of the opening montage is that a bit of time has past since Beth strongarmed the partnership with Rio at the end of 2.06. How long do you think it’s been? And more importantly, what do you think these early days of their partnership looked like?

I tend to lean towards at least 2 months, maybe more based on:

the number of shoeboxes and how many times Beth’s shown making a closet deposit

how lived in their annoyance over Beth’s dividing her time and Rio pushing back feels

the implication (at least how i read it) that Rio’s annoyance stems from having to track Beth down which presumably implies they’d grumbled their way into a semi-functional working relationship prior (supported by their ease with each other in 208) and if the montage has only been a month, that would be a maximum of 4 meetings and I don’t particularly think that’s enough time for them to get over being extremely prickly with each other

the fact that Beth goes to Rio for help when Jane’s missing (again, to me implies a longer period of time to get over some of their antagonism than a max of 4 meets)

I imagine their initial partnership went something like Beth being a smug brat about forcing her way in, Rio being deliberately unhelpful and trying to force her to admit she’s in over her head (while still keeping enough of an eye on things that his money isn’t jeopardized), Beth stubbornly refusing to and finding ways to rise to the occasion, Rio being grudgingly impressed, Beth being annoyed with herself for how pleased she is over that. Lather, rinse, repeat until they’ve worn a cantankerous but bizarrely comfortable groove into each other.

meanwhile, Mick, Annie and Ruby are absolutely disgusted by everything happening in front of their eyes.

4. The first scene between Ruby and Turner in this episode is a really dynamic one! It’s pretty clear that Ruby’s afraid of Turner, but what do you think Turner thinks of Ruby?

I think he sees a big cartoon canister labeled "Beth Boland Bait"

5. Taking the kids to the drop was a pretty big mistake! What do you think Beth should’ve done in this instance? Do you think saying no again to Rio was an option?

CALLED BEN OR SARA FOR A BABYSITTING ASSIST. For fucks’ sake.

And yeah, I think she could’ve said no to Rio but he would’ve kept her cut of that drop and, even worse, would’ve been able to hold the fact that she didn’t deliver that one time over her head forever more.

6. The krav maga teacher offers some sage advice telling Dean to not order the hit and instead just divorce his wife, haha. Do you think that he thought the baby hitmen would come through for Dean? Or do you think he was deliberately setting Dean up to get robbed?

I choose to believe the krav maga teacher knew exactly what kind of an idiot Dean was and set him up because the dude clearly had at least two brain cells to rub together and anyone with two brain cells to rub together would never get tangled up in a murder plot with Dean standing on the street corner telling random bystanders in detail how he wants to kill the guy that fucked his wife what do you mean established means and motive Boland.

7. During Ben and Annie’s tense conversation, Ben tells Annie that she’s hard to keep track of - she’s parent mom, cool mom, sketchy mom. In a lot of ways, this feels like a parallel to Ruby talking to Beth in the last episode and calling her ‘drug Beth, gun Beth, human trafficking Beth’. What do you make of this? And how do you think it relates to the show’s themes?

I defer to @foxmagpie’s answer because I like it a lot. 

8. The scene with the girls in the house! Tell me all your thoughts please!!!

I love this scene a lot

Beth’s channeling Rio in general but also specifically in 201 you will never ever change my mind

Sometimes I lie awake at night wishing Rio had seen it

Prayer circle that he sees a version of it in s4

Can you imagine the nightmare level of boner he would get? The sheer narcissism!!

Ruby’s obvious wish for new friends is The Most Valid

I really love the main drug den guy, I love Blake Shields’s energy, it makes the scene crackle, and I wish they’d bring him back purely bc he’s gr9

9. Annie meets Noah in this episode! What do you think of their introduction to one another? And how would you rate Noah on the scale of ‘Garbage Annie Love Interests’?

at least he’s not her therapist I guess

10. Beth has two pivotal and emotionally revealing fights this episode - one with Dean and the other with Rio. How do these fights compare? And what do you think they tell us about her respective relationship with them?

UUUNNNNNFFFFFFFF

I L O V E how hard the show goes on Dean’s obsession with Beth and Rio as the primary source of his angst

the fact that he’s trying to rope Stan into murder while looking for Jane who isn’t even MISSING but Dean had NO IDEA bc instead of giving a shit he went straight to HOW CAN THIS BE THAT GUY’S FAULT

I love how clearly they delineate that it isn’t about Beth but specifically about someone else ~*~taking~*~ Beth from him and how emasculated that makes him feel (something something something the storyline opens with the krav maga guy choking him out and then telling him to divorce her and Dean being like I reject your rational and logical solution bc it doesn’t punish the man who touched my property, idk i have a half baked thought there but i can’t pull it out of my brain)

and then it’s all underscored how little Dean’s worried about Beth and her safety by him bringing her work up specifically as a gotcha (which, unless I’m forgetting something, is p much the only context Dean ever brings it up in besides maybe the sit down fight but that’s again, about Beth acting out vs genuine concern)

Meanwhile, this is contrasted with:

Beth flipping tf out at the mere suggestion Rio would ever hurt her children, showing how deeply and instinctively she trusts him in regards to her children aka what’s been established as her Most Important Priority over and over (in the same breath that she rips into Dean for losing Jane in the first place)

which is doubled down on her immediately going to Rio for help

and he is FURIOUS at her, but the thing he leans hard on isn’t how she could have jeopardized the business deal (aka his money, what’s been established as his Most Important Priority over and over) but how she jeopardized herself and how badly she can fuck up if she doesn’t take this seriously

putting himself in a vulnerable position (presumably burning a connect, letting on that Beth means something to him beyond business) to look out for Beth’s emotional well-being

And then, just to drive it home a little further, @sothischickshe pointed out the Beth and Rio fight over Beth’s self preservation is directly paralleled with Stan freaking out at Ruby over the IA stuff because he’s worried about her and I had to go and stare at a blank wall for a few minutes to calm down.

anyway, draw your own conclusions.

11. Ruby takes Jane being missing as an opportunity to try and find evidence on Beth for Turner and, in the process, finds Jane too. How do you think this scene captures Ruby’s moral dilemma? And do you think it’s a satisfying turning point in the Ruby-Turner arc?

I struggle a lot with the Turner and Ruby plot specifically because I HATE that Turner’s ruthlessly leaning on Ruby as the weak link but I’m also ferociously attracted to him so I’m less bothered by it than I feel like I should be so mostly I just try not to think about any of it.

Idk, I see it in some ways as a continuation of Ruby’s fight with Beth and Annie in s1 where Annie said she isn’t blood. They put Ruby on the outside but when push comes to shove, Ruby still puts the two of them above her own family. As far as I’m concerned, Annie still owes Ruby a massive apology for that. Beth I let off the hook a little because by the end of the season she’s ready to turn herself in to make it all go away for all of them (I think, unless I’m misremembering, which is entirely possible bc I don’t think I’ve ever rewatched all of 213)

12. RIO GETS BETH THE DUBBY!! That’s it, that’s the question. Please discuss.

I think a lot about how the gesture is so baldly honest neither one of them can face it either at all (Rio) or without taking a shot first (Beth) which, now that I’ve typed it out, is also an interesting flip of their general MO bc under normal circumstances I’d put Rio down as the one that, of the two of them, is more willing to face stuff whereas Beth’s the one that hides from it.