#rant/analysis

[deadwriter16]

bnha vol 42 epilogue theory

ok hear me out. a subsect of us have been wondering why deku seems so OOC here...very callously rejecting bkgs hero agency offer, i understand saying no but in such a dismissive way feels off...why he's just overall very casual towards bkg, why since the end of the battle we've had no acknowledgment from deku towards bkg about his death, his sacrifices, and even his reaction towards the suit in 431 seems somewhat lukewarm. not to mention becoming and continuing a teacher when nothing in the narrative shows him being interested in that ever. if deku has changed, why weren't we shown how/why/when he changed? why does it seem like a switch turned off and suddenly he wasn't our izuku anymore?

because something DID turn off.

one for all.

HEAR ME OUT.

what if deku losing one for all made him LOSE HIS LOVE FOR BKG

and the love i talk about here could be either romantic OR platonic.

im serious here. one for all has always in some weird way been connected to katsuki. quirks activate because of him. OFA goes batshit whenever katsuki is hurt. not to mention OFA canonically has a very close grip on izuku's heart, hence "control your heart." it's possible OFA could have bonded so closely to izuku's heart, which as we all know was full of kacchan for a long time, and basically intertwined with it, absorbing izuku's connection to katsuki. OFA becomes izuku's heart, and OFA becomes an extension of izuku's feelings for katsuki. OFA is connected to katsuki. this could even be tired back to the first user's connection with the second user and how the second user is so similar to bkg. if OFA sees something to love in bakugou and so does izuku, the two combine and OFA essentially becomes this manifestation of izuku's love for kacchan.

so what happens when izuku loses OFA?

he loses his connection to and his love for bakugou.

this would even explain why he's so awkward and nonemotional about bkg crying in 424. he's already losing one for all, he's already losing these threads of feeling he has for bkg. the more one for all leaves the less izuku feels for kacchan, until eight years later there's absolutely nothing left. hence why izuku is basically nonreactive to anything bakugou says and essentially rejects him in the epilogue.

control your heart, you say? what happens when the heart is gone and it took your love away with it? you become numb. why does it seem like izuku doesn't feel anything for bkg anymore?

because he doesn't. it's all gone.

now ofc the series is over so this is just a ridiculous theory im throwing out there thats obviously not real but the more i think about the more i think im lowkey right. ofa has always been connected to katsuki and whenever deku goes batshit about kacchan it resulted in OFA outburts, but never verbal outburts directed from deku himself. it was always the quirk. now i think deku loved katsuki with all his heart as a child, but ofa took that love and used it was power, and when ofa left the love left with it. so the embers of izuku's love for katsuki were fading too. i personally think it explains a lot and i genuinely think i may be a genius (unless somebody thought of this before which they prob have but let me have this for a bit ok)

anyway thanks for hearing me out i appreciate it

[wenclair-more-like-whenclair]

All it takes for a character to be interpreted as heterosexual is simply for the character to exist. A character can never kiss a member of the opposite gender, hook up with one, or show any signs of attraction and still be viewed as straight. Meanwhile, two members of the same gender can have the most intimate onscreen relationship, flirt, check each other out, show visible signs of being in love with the other, and somehow none of that is enough to even SUGGEST that they might be queer.

What a gross double standard. Sexuality is not “straight until proven otherwise” like so many believe it to be. Newsflash to all the straight normies out there, your favorite non labeled, sexuality unconfirmed character in your favorite show is NOT STRAIGHT just bc they haven’t been confirmed as queer. Use your fucking brains for once. It’s all about diving into media and picking up on subtext until that subtext suggests queerness. Then, suddenly, everyone loses their fucking ability to interpret a piece of media. Have you considered that: if all signs point to them being gay then maybe they actually really are just gay???

[morimementa]

The fun thing about COD is that everyone who calls the 141 and every other operator their precious little mew mew skrunkly is fully aware that Soap once used an enemy soldier as a meat shield, Price responded to a barricade by attempting vehicular manslaughter, Gaz saw one terrorist attack and decided going feral was an option that should be on the table, and Ghost is, well, Ghost.

They know their little mew mews are war criminals and they do not care.

[princeyralsei]

Someone MUST have said this already but what's crazy (and comforting) is that the deltarune prophecy has ALREADY been defied, and we know this for certain.

When Ralsei said that he hoped that if they were kind and spared everyone, there would be a different outcome, I don't even think he realized that he was right, even though the prophecy itself didn't change!

By sparing and recruiting the Pippins and Shadowguys in Chapter 3, they were LIKELY able to save Tenna from his fate in the prophecy, since he wasn't. yknow. completely cleaved I suppose. Regardless, he was never completely cleaved by blade.

Also, Queen's chariot IS STOPPED in chapter two's normal route

While The Fun Gang's (and the player's) pacifist choices have led to a similar outcome no matter what, they were able to change things that happen during the destination. There is absolutely hope after all that, in order to save both worlds, the final prophecy that Ralsei fears probably doesn't have to happen, or can be altered for the better.

[art-crumbs-main]

There's something I need this fandom to understand about Martin Kartin Blackwood.

IS he an expert manipulator? Yes. Does he have some serious skills in using people pleasing and framing and psychology to his advantage? ABSOLUTELY. He is gaslight, gatekeep, girlbossing his way through the first 3 seasons and we LOVE him for it.

On the other hand, though, I feel like we don't acknowledge enough as a fandom how isolating people pleasing can be in itself. I ranted about this in the tags of another Martin post, but basically, the person you create to be palatable to as many people as possible becomes a wall. A barrier between you and the outside world. Yes, everyone likes you, but that comes at the cost of no one knowing you in your entirety because you don't let them see the parts of you that are harder to swallow.

Martin effectively trapped himself in his own web of lies, suspended 30 feet away from his own life. He's dissociated from it all from the beginning, which is what made him the candidate Peter chose in the first place. He was always slated for The Lonely as much as he was The Web.

That leads me into my next point, which is that MARTIN PRE-LONELY WAS NOT ENTIRELY DISINGENUOUS. I see so many people implying that Martin straight-up wasn't anything like he said he was in the beginning. Common fandom reading comprehension L. He really does like people, and he really does want to be nice. It just also happens that you don't end up people pleasing to those lengths without it having developed as a defense mechanism!

Take the wall I introduced earlier. You surround yourself in this persona and swallow your teeth to protect yourself from other people. Realistically, it probably started with his mother, who is implied in Canon to not have been kind to him. There's a 3rd partner to Fight or Flight that doesn't get discussed very often, and it is "Fawn." This is the people-pleasing response that we see him exhibit. Ultimately, what he fears is rejection, and therefore, he fears being alone. He's nice and kind and polite and swallows his teeth in order to keep people around.

Post-Lonely Martin is the other extreme. He has no energy to please anyone anymore, and it doesn't serve him. He is tired and angry and constantly stressed. He doesn't bother hiding his teeth anymore, and he's prone to lashing out. Post-Lonely Martin is when he's surpassed his limit. Post-Lonely Martin is burnout.

As someone who relates to Martin Blackwood very much, I can tell you that the quiet moments where he's not deeply distressed either way is where we see the real Martin. He still loves and cares in private, and we see that over and over. The love is real. He just doesn't believe he deserves it in return, so he tries very hard to be someone who does. To "make up" for it.

Thank you and goodnight.

[moraymiso]

the strangest thing to me about the BSD fandom is the fact that the vast majority of people in it are dazai fans, while also consistently assuming the absolute worst of him, disregarding the circumstances around his actions and giving him no grace or consideration of his situation whatsoever.

there's no doubt dazai is a bad person in many ways. he did plenty of unjustifiable, inexcusable things. he's pathologically manipulative with a totally skewed moral compass, most of which was undoubtedly brought on by his upbringing in the mafia. but at the same time, i see such a huge number of people taking that and somehow ending up with - and vehemently defending - this idea that he's a remorseless, indifferent, innately cruel person by nature?

are we forgetting this is the same dazai who was forced to false-witness a murder at fourteen years old? the same dazai who already wracked up numerous suicide attempts barely out of his pre-teens?the same dazai who was referred to by everyone around him as a 'demon' at fifteen years old? the same dazai consistently described as having grief-filled, empty expressions and detached, vacant reactions to practically everything when he was so young? the same dazai that oda described as "a child crying in the dark, alone, left to fend for himself with a hole in his heart as large as the world itself"?

that dazai is an indifferent, heartless, innately psychopathic person? really? i'm not convinced.

[saffronish]

I've been thinking about this for a while now but every time Cas is in Baby with Dean he almost always chooses to sit behind Sam.

(excuse the lack of images... I'm having a really hard time finding pictures of Cas in the backseat of the impala through google since I wasn't about to watch 267 episodes just for that ahaha *cries*)

Even in 9x10, when Dean tells Cas to sit in the back with Crowley, Cas specifically tells Crowley (who had sat diagonally from Dean) to move over because he's, quote, "on my side."

So I'm guessing that this means that Cas has a side whenever he isn't sitting shotgun and that that side is right behind Sam.

My explanation for this is that that particular seat gives Cas the best view of Dean's face while talking to him (or not... it's good for just staring too) and vice versa. Dean can also turn his head back a little and see him/talk to him much easier than if Cas sat behind Dean.

HOWEVER!! One scene does stick out to me. It's during that famous car ride in 12x10 when Dean and Cas are pissed at each other. Cas, for some reason, chooses to sit in the middle, even leaning more towards Dean's side

I really think Cas definitely sat there on purpose so that he wouldn't have to look at Dean's face and Dean wouldn't be able to see him... therefore giving Cas the chance to roll his eyes or raise his dom!eyebrow at whatever Dean is saying. It makes it even funnier when Dean's like "WHaT's tHaT sUpPoSeD To MeAn???" and he has to crane his neck so far back that Sam has to tell him to watch the road.

I feel like further proof of this is how most people sit in the middle when in the backseat of the Impala since it's easier to see both Dean and Sam at the same time

(^ this last one isn't the Impala but whatever... it still counts)

Cas is apparently either really into staring at Dean at every possible moment or he just doesn't like Sam's face (no offence to Sam), but I really don't think the latter is the case.

Cas' just pining silently in the backseat and having a good view of Dean makes it easier🤷

Annndd this concludes my rant/analysis... good day

[dalia9334]

jeff sedecki is not an angel.

@alvinjrsgun's reblogs triggered this rant.

i'm here to criticize jeff sadecki and how this fandom has collectively decided he's some misunderstood angel when he's actually a walking red flag factory.

let's start with the obvious: jeff pressured his girlfriend into having sex. jackie literally tells him she's not ready and he keeps pushing. but somehow the discourse around this is crickets while we dissect every micro-expression shauna makes. weird how that works.

then there's the cheating. multiple times with his girlfriend's best friend. but here's where it gets really wild - apparently jeff just "fell dick first" into shauna because that's how agency works, right? he had absolutely no choice in pursuing jackie's best friend. it just happened to him, poor baby.

except that's not how cheating works. nobody makes someone cheat - it's a choice. their choice. so why does jeff get painted as this hapless victim of shauna's seduction when he was the one who willingly shat on his relationship with jackie?

and let's talk about that marriage timeline because it's absolutely unhinged. finds out his ex-girlfriend died after missing for over a year, immediately marries her traumatized best friend who he'd been hooking up with before the crash. romantic? or predatory? you decide.

but wait, there's more! after marrying shauna and having a whole life with her, jeff decides the best way to handle their financial problems is to... blackmail the yellowjackets about their biggest trauma. the thing that broke them all. the secrets that weren't his to know or weaponize.

then when shauna starts showing signs of paranoia and instability (gee, wonder why), jeff has the audacity to complain about it. bro, you literally triggered her spiral and then acted surprised when she spiraled. you poked the bear and then complained it was growling.

and here's the thing that really gets me - after setting off the dominoes that led to multiple deaths, jeff just... leaves. abandons shauna when the consequences of his actions come home to roost.

the yellowjackets did horrific things in the wilderness, but they had a reason - survival, starvation, psychological breakdown from extreme trauma. it doesn't excuse their actions, but it explains them. jeff doesn't have that excuse. he's just selfish.

yet somehow shauna gets all the hate while jeff gets treated like a victim of her manipulation. she's called crazy, unhinged, a monster - while he's the poor husband dealing with his unstable wife. the double standard is staggering.

yes, shauna has done terrible things. yes, she's not innocent. but you hear that take everywhere. what you don't hear is how jeff is equally complicit in their toxic dynamic, equally responsible for the cheating that started it all, and arguably more at fault for the blackmail plot that pushed everyone over the edge.

jeff sadecki isn't a soft boy caught up in circumstances beyond his control. he's a man who consistently chose the selfish option at every turn and then acted shocked when those choices had consequences. stop giving him a pass.

oh, but he's a decent dad so it's okay! (it's the least he can duckin' be...)

[folksyswift]

can we PLEASE talk about how taylor swift really built an entire album around a car metaphor for a toxic relationship. like. she feels like this luxury car he crashed years ago!expensive, rare, irreplaceable… but she still wants him. so what does she do?? she tells him to go ahead, buy the car he wants. but here’s the thingggg the car won’t even start unless he touches her again.

and the wild part?? it works. he gets the car. so she lets go of her past and jumps in with him, ready to ride or die. they’re barely at the starting line before they’re breaking every rule, flooring it, crashing through fences like manic teenagers in love.

but then?? he starts throwing spikes on the road. like metaphorical sabotage. and she sees it, she knows it’s dangerous, but she doesn’t care because the ride is just so intoxicating. she’s addicted to the chaos and danger.

But of course. OF COURSE. he crashes it. again. AT HER OWN PARTY and he just drives away. To leave her stranded and safe, but right back at the start.

and the worst part??? she realizes he never even bought the car. it was a RENTAL. just like she was to him.

[bennetsbonnet]

I know I turned this scene into a joke about how gorgeous Colin Firth is... but the pineapple that lurks in the background of the Netherfield ball when Mr Collins is yapping to Mr Darcy is such a subtle detail that I really appreciate!

The wealthy at this time in Britain were a little bit obsessed with pineapples. Depictions of them featured as decoration in country homes, in political cartoons, paintings and crockery (warning: Margaret Thatcher jumpscare🥴 but you can read more about that here and here).

But to have an actual pineapple on display during a large social gathering such as a ball? That was really showing off.

Especially when you consider it cost £150 (or approx. £28,000 today) to buy the initial plant, build a hothouse to grow them in and run it... with no guarantees they'd grow given the climate was not exactly suited for growing pineapples! It was a huge risk.

All this meant that pineapples were so scarce that they became incredibly sought after. Naturally, rich people did silly rich people things to acquire them and show them off... perhaps they were the NFTs of their day?

A single pineapple was valued at £60 (approx. £11,000 today). Given the cost and effort of acquiring one, you'd think people would be keen to tuck in and sample this exotic fruit? Nope. Pineapples were not eaten! Of course not! They were displayed on plates surrounded by other less prestigious fruit during dinner parties and other social occasions, usually until they rotted. They could be rented for special occasions too. Such was their value that naturally they became the target of thieves and some pineapples even had their own security guards!

In the end, colonialism (because all British history eventually returns to that) meant that pineapples could be imported cheaply and their status was devalued when the working classes could afford to buy them.

But next time you watch Pride and Prejudice (1995), pay attention the scenes in the dining room at the Netherfield ball and look out for the pineapple... which is the second prickliest thing in shot (behind Mr Darcy). 🍍

Also... just to throw in a little etymological rant... as a treat: I know most of the rest of the world calls them ananas... but in English (and other languages) all fruit used to be called an apple of some sort. We just never got around to changing pineapple.

The humble potato has some peculiar names in other languages... looking at you, French and Dutch with your pommes de terre (apples of the earth) and aardappels (earth apples)... and then there is also the Italian for tomato... pomodoro... (golden apple) when most the rest of the world call them some version of the Nahuatl 'tomatl'.

Languages are just funny like that and that's why I find them fascinating!

[yujateaandpi]

Oughh it’s 2:00 AM and I’m having Thoughts and Emotions about Marceline the Vampire Queen. Like— she’s a punk bisexual and cool as heck but she’s also a terribly sad immortal with mom issues and double dad issues BUT BUT ALL of her parental figures gave her unconditional love so strong that it fundamentally saved the human race. Marceline saved the humans who hated her because her demon dad passed on the legacy that helped her grow powerful and her mom sang her lullabies and her adopted father clung to every shred of his breaking mind to protect her childhood. She was so loved! She was so loved! And that love never went away it stayed inside her even when all three of her parents hurt her so badly that the pain stuck for a thousand years. And all of the ways they hurt her were BECAUSE they loved her, so Marceline never learned to differentiate what it meant to love someone and hurt someone. So she hurts the people she wants to protect, she’s rough with the people she wants gentleness from, she abandons the people she wants by her side. And so much of the show is her collapsing and falling apart because she can’t figure out why why her relationships are all so broken. And then little by little she gets closure with each chapter of trauma— with her demon father, with her mother’s memory, with dear Simon— which then allows her to finally be at peace with herself and accept love— pure as it is— and give it back.

[drenched-in-sunlight]

one thing that i find interesting is that even though we never get to interact with Marika directly, only knowing her via obscure cutscenes and other characters' dialogue... she actually displays a wide range of emotions as much as any other NPCs.

her statues depict her as having a warm, gentle smile:

the Mimic veil description points to her playful, mischievous side:

(it's a popular theory in the JP/Asian side of the fandom that it's sth from her childhood - hence the "Marika's Mischief", not "Queen Marika's", and she used it to escape the grisly fate befalling her family.

additionally, its equivalence in Dark Souls is also something described as "the mischief of a young girl who sought relief from the solitude of the woods at dusk", aka Princess Dusk who hails from "Oolacile, land of ancient golden sorceries", but i digress)

her portrait, the story trailer's "Queen Marika was driven to the brink" and Gideon's dialogue after the player defeated Malenia pointed out her sorrow:

(back when i first played the base game, this is the portrait that drove my eyes most in Roundtable Hold. i kept gazing at her - the Queen with permanently lowered eyes, and thought "there is a girl in there")

The bat lady's song, Messmer's entire Crusade, all those conflicts to establish the Erdtree, shows her anger, and the cruelty she's capable of:

Then there's Shaman's village, the clinic underneath Shadow Keep, the golden braid, the Minor Erdtree, the sealing of Death - that points to grief, trauma, survivor guilt, kindness, and the ruinous drive for revenge that results in the above path down hell:

(there's also a theory for the Crusade's headless statue being a reminder for the Hornsent of what they put Marika's mother through, but it's not concrete canon so here is the link if you want to check it out)

The fact that all of Erdtree's incantations are heal and protection spells (with only one exception of Wrath of Gold spell which was found after the Elden Ring was shattered), the Capitol's Perfumers originally being blessed healers, and that all Erdtree blessings come in the shape of tears give the picture of Marika's gentle wish at the beginning: to heal everything and everyone.

(and to me personally, there's a kind of vulnerability and honesty in showing your tears to the world and let it be your power to heal at the same time.)

the eye she blessed Messmer with (i do think the Eng translation at some part lost the sentiment of the JP text - that the eye is always referred to as a blessing)

the blessing flask that - unlike its Dark Souls equivalent (which ranges from 6-13 flasks), only have 4 available to us player, heal all ailments and status effect, and specified as sth made for Messmer.

the Marika's soreseal in the Haligtree + the waterfall near Godwyn's final resting place

the Regal Omen Bairn (that was fashioned after the Jizo statue - sth made by grieving parents wishing for protection for their deceased child in the afterlife)

the blessing, gifts, equipment that Messmer and Godwyn's personal knights all get

the fact that Marika's bedchamber and the Impaler's Catacomb (which is the only catacomb in the base game to have the spike trap mechanic used in catacombs in the DLC) remain the proof of Messmer's existence in the base game

how Godwyn's ending is the only ending where the mending rune is placed on the position of Marika's womb (the lower arc or the Elden Ring - also referred to as the basin in which its blessings pool)

that's a whole barrage of motherhood. the love, the fear, the postpartum depression, the guilt and anxiety, (the occasional scheming for revenge with her son). and despite how flawed and tragic that love ends up being for all of them, it is there.

(there's a whole subplot about how Messmer is the only demigod to be called ugly in-game (Hornsent npc dialogue) while Boc's questline is about how his mother being the only one to always assure him he's beautiful, despite everyone else calling him ugly. and how each NPCs questline does reflect a wider theme seen in Marika and her children. but again, i digress)

every time i think of her, Marika is a constantly shifting kaleidoscope, holding everything from within (the beauty and the malign, light and dark, birth and death, she's warm and gentle, she's cruel and unjust, she's strong and kind, she's weak and resentful, she's sweet and she's bitterness made flesh)... and i could only stand there and admire it all.

[divineturtle]

Bothers me when I'm reading a fanfic and they make Doctor Leonard "Bones" McCoy just like. A mean asshole? MY Doctor McCoy introduced Spock to baby talk. MY Doctor McCoy bounces on his toes and has a smile bright as the sun. MY Doctor McCoy knocked Kirk *and* Spock out with a hypo to sacrifice himself for them even though the aliens said he was almost for sure going to die, and the other two would probably live. MY Doctor McCoy was like, hey, sure Spock committed mutiny, but do we really gotta arrest him? Yeah he's grumpy sometimes, but have you considered the fact that he's stuck on a ship in Space with two assholes that literally never listen?

I just watched the Abraham Lincoln episode and I stg it's a miracle McCoy isn't actually a huge asshole, because wym "this planet WAS deadly but Abraham Lincoln says it's cool so we're going" "hey, don't do that, you could beam down into lava and literally DIE" "Ugh shut UP McCoy we're following Abraham Lincoln onto the Lava Planet That WAS ENTIRELY LAVA until two minutes ago" dude I'd be swinging at a mfer. Especially if I was their doctor knowing it was going to be my job to sew them back together. They're absolute menaces to him and he still loves them and is willing to die for them every other episode.

And I don't ever want to see another "ahh he hates Spock" when he so obviously does not. In the last episode, he wasn't even sure that Kirk and Janice had swapped bodies and yet again, he was ready to commit mutiny with Spock and Scotty (why does Spock love mutiny? 🤨) He does like to rib Spock and get reactions out of him, but Spock likes to do it to McCoy just as much. He's been around humans his ENTIRE life, his mom is a human, he's half human, "I have no idea what you mean, Doctor, I'm just a simple little logic machine," you cannot convince me it's not a game.

And every time I feel like McCoy is being hurtful for actually no reason, the next scene is Spock taking action because of whatever McCoy had said and allowing himself to tap into that human part of him. He has a way of speaking Spock. It's not always nice but it's a way that gets through. Do you think asking Spock to use his Vulcan powers to permanently alter his friend and captain's memory so he forgets his grief over this chick he fell desperately for and then also she died in the span of like four hours is a great idea? No, he'd probably have some moral or logical issues with that. but just speech at him about love and feelings and stuff, throw something in there about how great it'd be if he could just forget, and he'll do it himself.

ANOTHER THING. When he's an asshole, he apologizes. He's not an asshole often, but when he is, he apologizes. Leonard McCoy is a lot of things, but he's not really a dick.

I think he deserves to be represented for the guy he is. He has SO many nice and good moments, he's just subtle about them. Remember when Kirk was like, "Bones, why didn't you tell me she was blind?" And he was like, "Idk Jim maybe because that'd be rude? Have you considered it's not your business?" REAL. Honestly, real.

This is a much longer rant than I meant for it to be and somehow I still have more I could say so imma cut myself off right here ❤️ If you read all that, thanks, you're just as weird as I am, even if you don't agree with my lil character analysis. If you didn't read all that, then you're not reading this ✨️

[thatrandomblogsays]

Me: *reading a post that makes the joke “Peeta dropped the baby bomb, Gale drops bombs on babies”* haha good one

Also me: you’re missing the point! You’re missing the point! YOURE MISSING THE POINT! He grew up starving. His best friend almost died of hunger. Most of his people live in poverty. He watched children die in a bloodbath every year for the capital’s entertainment. The girl he loved went into the games. Was tortured by the capitol. His district was bombed out of existence. Nearly everyone he knew was killed. Their only crime was being fed up of being hungry and oppressed and sharing the same district as Katniss. All those innocent people. Murdered. He had to take refuge in a district that was bombed out of existence and forced to live underground. Of course he joined the war effort. Of course he designed unethical bombs and battle tactics. He wanted revenge. He wanted the capitol to have a taste of their own medicine. He wanted the rebellion to succeed. And tell me you could live through what he did, and that no part of you would be screaming for Justice and vengeance. Gale is you. You are Gale. He represents a part of feelings and actions that reside within us, even if you don’t act on it.

“But he killed prim!” Exactly! Gale loved prim. She was a second family to her. He looked after Katniss’ family. He saved them from the district 12 bombings. He loved her. He never would’ve put her in danger. He never would’ve put in order for a bombing if it would kill Prim. But coin would. And did. She took what was meant to be a tool of Gale’s righteous revenge for all the suffering he and his people suffered through, only for someone in power to take it and use it to kill someone he loved.

There’s some many lessons to take. We can’t control the things we create. War spares no one. Even justifiable rage and actions can end up rebounding and hurting those you love instead of your targets.

“He drops bombs on babies” is too simplistic of a takeaway and does a disservice to the story and Gale.

[mellosdrawings]

(I love drawing Jamil's grabby hands when he's upset lol)

(Book5 spoilers incoming!)

No but on a more serious note. I focused on Jamil here coz my boi just can't catch a break, but the truth is that Book5, for as much as I love it, really doesn't have a satisfying ending.

It's not a matter of "we lost" and me being salty about it, obviously it was very important for Vil's character arc.

Buuuuut... Well, it wasn't the only character arc started in this Book. All previous Books were (mostly) completely focused on the overblotter and the previous overblotter that joined the frayed to help out. Here we don't just have a continuation of Jamil's character arc, there was also Epel and Deuce who got a big thing, and Kalim had a throwaway line that never got anywhere (and I'm salty about it. I wished we heard more about how he felt competitiveness towards Jamil for the first time).

In the context of Jamil and Epel's character arc mostly, losing the SDC is extremely unsatisfying. Jamil finally got handed the spotlight and accepted it, and he still failed. Even when he get the one thing he wants he still ends second. Nothing changes. Rip my forever Number Two loser.

Epel also got a whole arc about accepting to weaponize his cuteness. It falls flat. His finally using his cuteness doesn't make the team win, he doesn't one up Neige, he doesn't fulfill his role as Vil's poisonous apple. Just bad.

If they really just focused on Vil for this Book like they did in previous Books, that ending would have been much stronger. But with the numerous character arcs there, I feel like there should have been another way so that they could all have their respective good ending.

There, I'm done with my rant. Here's a bonus:

[fidenciocryptidcreechur]

Oh i should put this here too

Great addition that adds extra meaning to the outfit choice honestly

Also quite fitting considering everything. Twisted Wonderland truly does put in a fair amount of effort into details

Just for folks to see

Link to the comment

https://x.com/novawoodz/status/1887829488039301248