#realistic character/real person reactions or i die on the spot

[hellonearthtoday]

my worst human trait is being the pickiest fanfic reader known to man

[space929]

We must discuss as we do every time one of these crosses my dashboard because I will never cease my defense of this child, and there is so much more to add to this.

I think I've written three things focusing on this but we are making it four.

I think a lot of people either forget or take "well her dad wouldn't have shot her" as a reason to fault her logic for staying at the society. I used to have a study up on Miguel's manipulation tactics but I deleted it because I am a Coward.

So we're gonna restate them here - Miguel simps, don't come for me. I love y'all, y'all can love his character, I got no issue with it. I don't like him because I have severe trauma with manipulation but I will not @ you for it. He is a character who is supposed to make mistakes and be morally grey. I respect that. He is very well depicted and thought out. You can like him. I need to make this clear. Thank you.

So let's talk about canon. Gwen had very few options within her time at the society. Miguel hated her for literally no reason (what was she supposed to do? She didn't know shit about his anecdotal evidence that has multiple evidences against it. Was she supposed to make the decision to stay in a dimension and die without having any information? Was she supposed to foretell time and stop Kingpin from turning on his collider? He's upset and he's taking it out on her - whether he realizes it or not. He has no basis to be mad at her.) And didn't want her in the society in the first place despite the fact that staying could've meant death. Whether you agree with his right to leave her there or not, we can agree that he was okay with whatever happened to her. If Jess was not there, things would've gone much differently.

Miguel is shown to have a temper. He literally throws things when he gets angry. Sometimes at people. And he can be mad at anyone for anything he decides to pin on them. If Gwen stepped out of line, it was very possible that she would be stripped of her watch and sent home to a result that could've ended in her death.

We see that because when she does step out of line, that's what happens and Miguel didn't care.

The fact that she broke the rules at all to go see Miles shows just how desperate she was to see him. She didn't want to betray him. She just knew that not doing so could end poorly for both of them. If she could keep Miles away from the society, she wouldn't be sent home and Miguel wouldn't be angry. If she could get Miles back to the society, Miguel wouldn't do so, and things would be safer that way. She wouldn't be sent home and Miguel wouldn't be as angry. At the very least, that is a thought process she could've had.

It isn't simply a matter of her being young and not being able to fully comprehend her decisions, it's a matter of her being in a spot where the only option was damage control. She couldn't stop whatever happened, she could only try to make it better.

It isn't simply her losing her father to his job, it's her losing her father to an unfounded hatred and shifting of blame to the only person he could - only to have that same thing happen with Miguel and having to go into a state where she hung between rigid rules that made no sense and a possible death by a rope so fragile that talking back could get it sliced in two.

That is a slight exaggeration but the point stands that, in that situation, you never know where the line is and crossing it isn't an option. Hating her for something like this is hating her for having a realistic reaction to a terrifying situation.

This is real. This is a situation that I have been through, albeit to a lesser extent. This is how you respond. Everything is wrong. You can never do right. You will always be one wrong step from punishment.

I won't force anyone to like her. I won't bully people who don't. But people who hate her strictly for this reason need to understand what they are hating. This isn't fake. This isn't simply media. This is something that people actually go through. You aren't hating betrayal. You're hating a teenager doing what she had to in order to survive.

Like it or not, this isn't on her. This is on every person who put her in this situation.

Anyway, here's a shameless plug to my character study on her because it has some really neat info about her relationship with her father that applies really well here and contributes to her reactions towards manipulation.

Thanks for making it here. This is a long one, as always. I promise they're usually less targeted than this one. I spent today going through this bs and I don't feel like making my distain for this behavior less obvious. That would take a lot of effort.

I hate people who hate Gwen Stacy.

[zintranslations]

Kaleidoscope of Death, Extra 8

Kaleidoscope of Death by Xi Zixu Link to Chinese / Novel Updates

Extra: Tan Zaozao

Tan Zaozao had filmed many movies, had played countless characters. She'd been the bewitching dancer, the heroic swordswoman, the loving mother, the young woman who just could not extricate herself from the throes of love.

Every character was different, just as every person led a different life.

When Tan Zaozao first got into the entertainment circle, she had had an accident: while she was shooting a scene on horseback, she had been careless, and fallen off the horse. Her injuries had been terrible, and she'd almost lost her life. A close friend of hers came to visit her in the hospital and completely chewed her out, asking if she wanted to die, why didn't she use a stunt double for such a dangerous occasion.

Tan Zaozao had answered with a smile: "My life's not worth that much."

Tan Zaozao had been young back then, and completely without fear of death. She’d thought she would always be that way, until one day, she went on a talk show. When Tan Zaozao walked out of her dressing room, she discovered that the corridor that ought to have led to the soundstage had turned into twelve metal doors. Every single door looked exactly the same, emanating an icy chill.

Seeing such a thing, the smile on Tan Zaozao's face went stiff. Her first reaction was to wonder if this was a prank organized by production, and so she forced down the unsettled feeling in her chest. She kept it up until…she pulled open one of the doors.

When the door opened, she appeared in an unfamiliar location. All around her was a desolate graveyard, and before her loomed a dark and enormous castle.

Tan Zaozao followed the path slowly forward. In the clearing in front of the ancient castle, she spotted several people standing together, discussing something in whispers. All their faces were strange to her, and when they saw her, they just tossed over momentary gazes before looking away again.

"Excuse me, where are we?" Tan Zaozao asked.

Nobody answered her question.

"Is this for a show?" An onslaught of bad feeling was crashing over Tan Zaozao's chest, and she asked this question with great caution. Only, somebody in the crowd took on a mocking expression.

"For a show? You've seen such a realistic show before?"

Tan Zaozao went silent.

Though she held onto a thread of hope, wishing this were a hyperrealistic prank show, that hope was ruthlessly dashed when she saw the first person die. That person's death was miserable—they were covered from wounds from head to toe, and all of their blood had been sucked out. They could not have been more dead.

Tan Zaozao stared at that corpse, frozen where she stood. That was the first time she became truly conscious of the fact that this wasn't a prank, nor was it some sort of realistic game. Here, death was a very real possibility.

Tan Zaozao's first door wasn't too difficult, relatively speaking. She was pretty lucky, and came out alive. When she returned to the real world, she almost immediately had an emotional breakdown, terrifying the assistant beside her.

"Zaozao, are you alright?" the assistant asked in worry.

"Where were you?!" Tan Zaozao said angrily. "Why didn't you help me?"

The assistant looked back at her blankly.

"What do you mean…where? Haven't you been sitting here the whole time?"

Tan Zaozao startled, saying, "I've been sitting here the whole time?"

"Yeah," the assistant answered. "You've been just sitting here, spacing out…"

Tan Zaozao went silent, and faintly came to understand something. But before she could figure it all out, the assistant was rushing her onto the stage. The interview was starting.

Onstage, Tan Zaozao was inattentive, answering the host's questions on and off and absently. The host saw that something was off, and just as he was rearing to ask, there came a terrified yell from offstage. Before the host even had time to react, there was the sound of shattering glass above his head. He looked up, and saw a black shadow plummeting toward him.

Tan Zaozao had been sitting right next to the host. She got a close-up view of that giant hanging light plunging heavily from above and smashing to the ground before her very eyes.

The host, who had just been laughing and chatting with her, became a dismembered corpse in the matter of a moment. Tan Zaozao stood there blankly, looking as if in a trance.

For Tan Zaozao to have survived this accident was practically a miracle. Lord knows she'd been sitting right next to the talk show host. The heavy lighting equipment had practically grazed her as it fell, but didn't leave a single scratch on her.

This incident that gave Tan Zaozao severe shock, and she was forced to take a break for a while.

And during this break, she finally figured out what that door was.

It was torment, and also rebirth.

Without the doors, she would already be dead. But with the doors, she still might not survive.

Through a friend, Tan Zaozao met Ruan Nanzhu, and also learned there was a whole group of people selected by the doors.

"Do you want to simply cross the doors or train in the doors?" Ruan Nanzhu asked Tan Zaozao.

Tan Zaozao, "is there a difference…"

Ruan Nanzhu, "the difference is, the first one, you don't have to think about anything, you only have to follow me. The other, you have to rely on yourself."

Tan Zaozao's answer was decisive: "I choose the first one."

"But Obsidian doesn't take doors after the fifth," Ruan Nanzhu said. "If you choose the first option, maybe you'll have an easier time surviving in the beginning, but there's no guarantee for later."

Tan Zaozao's smile was forced.

"But I really am scared."

Ruan Nanzhu went quiet. It was his agreement to Tan Zaozao's request.

Tan Zaozao really was just a normal girl. She was scared of the dark and scared of ghosts. Out of the people in Obsidian, the one she was most like was Cheng Qianli. But this likeness also meant that neither of them were suited to the doors.

Tan Zaozao made her decision. She knew her own ending, and had her doubts in the middle. But in the end, she never changed her mind.

After the fifth door, Obsidian didn't take on gigs anymore. And Tan Zaozao's journey had come to an end.

"Zaozao, how about I take you in." Lin Qiushi was a good guy. There was worry for Tan Zaozao in his eyes, but Tan Zaozao turned him down with a smile.

Deep inside her heart, she'd once worked up a bit of jealousy toward Lin Qiushi—she'd been jealous of Ruan Nanzhu's preferential treatment toward him. But after the jealousy faded, Tan Zaozao discovered that she actually understood Ruan Nanzhu very well. Lin Qiushi was so utterly lovely—he was clever, and brave, and kind, just like a glittering gemstone. Anybody would be attracted to those qualities of his. Not only Ruan Nanzhu, herself included.

If she were Ruan Nanzhu, she would probably make the same decision.

Tan Zaozao thought, melancholic: who wouldn't want a strong and brave companion?

In the end she chose another organization. That org promised her that they would bring her out of her sixth door, but they failed.

This was also within Tan Zaozao's expectations. The only thing that wasn't part of the plan was dying on her most beloved stage.

It was honestly a kindness she'd asked for. She'd wanted to die quietly, but found that she couldn't do it. In the terrifying world of the doors, a pair of hands dragged her into an endless black. And when she came out from the door, the extravagant stage was before her eyes. Beneath the stage were blinding lights, and in her ears were the shutter clicks of cameras. The audience was seeing everything, and all of it was being recorded.

When she knew death was descending, Tan Zaozao couldn't help a scream of misery—she regretted it now. She didn't want to die yet. There was still so much she wanted to do.

This wasn't fair…

But it was all too late.

Her final path had already been determined by her decision way back at the beginning.

Above her head came once more that familiar sound of shattering glass. Tan Zaozao looked up and saw the bright lights, as well as the countless shards of glass plummeting toward her. That chandelier was like a crown, crashing heavily atop her body. It broke her to pieces.

Before the darkness fell, Tan Zaozao heard panicked shouts from the people offstage. She even saw some frantic faces. As Tan Zaozao lied on the floor, a faint smile came to her lips. She felt the darkness encroach on her vision, and the eternal silence tasted, to her surprise, a bit sweet.

She sank into a long sleep from which she would never be disturbed.

[Extra: Bai Ming and Zhang Yiqing]

[thepriceofbeingaroseisloneliness]

THE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION #46 30th December (TRANSLATION)

“Dir en grey MV shooting with 3D realistic avatars”

Appearance:

 Kaoru (DIR EN GREY direngrey.co.jp/)

 Joe Yokomizo (Writer / DJ)

 Tasai Reporter (Tokyo Sports)

 God ?

Notes before reading: This is a translation of The Freedom of Expression #46 uploaded last 30th December. Originally, I planned to upload this before the 31st livestream but in the end I couldn’t, so even if we know now how the 3D avatar MV looks like, I still want to share it here before finishing the livestream report.

Please don’t forget to subscribe to their channel and watch their actual video to support the program.

  Feel free to correct me if you spot any mistake or any confusing parts. ------ *In 2021, The Freedom of Expression will be uploaded on Wednesdays* Kaoru: Hello, this is Kaoru from Dir en grey…The Freedom of Expression is starting this time…. this week again…. Joe-san…. Tasai-san…. I feel like it’s being a while…. Joe: That’s true…. Tasai: That’s true… Kaoru: There was that program (we filmed) at that location…. *Kaoru means The Freedom of Expression #42 and #45* Joe&Tasai: Yes, yes…. Kaoru: And the time we recorded 4 programs on a row…. Joe: Ah, that’s right… Kaoru: We were free for a while… Joe: We were…. Nothing changed? Kaoru: Nothing changed, yes… Joe: It also seems like Tasai was busy as well…. Tasai: That’s right.  I saw the two of you before at the Niconico livestream…. *Kaoru appeared as a guest on Joe Yokomizo’s channel last 10th Dec* Joe&Kaoru: Ah! Joe: Thank you so much for watching!  Thank you for writing an article about it immediately!  *Tasai uploaded an article about the livestream at Tokyo Sports website* Tasai: I worked while feeling jealous of you two…. Joe: No, rather than that, wasn’t the Tokyo Sports sweatshirt, or  rather hoodie wore in a great shape? Tasai: Yes, thanks to you guys it’s going to be sold…. Joe: No,no….it’s thanks to Kaoru…. Kaoru: No,no…not at all…. Joe: Please make something for the second anniversary of the channel (Joe Yokomizo channel)…. Tasai: It seems that we will do a T-shirt collaboration again…. Joe: Oh! Kaoru: I’m looking forward to it. Joe: Someday, a collaboration set with The Freedom of Expression…. Tasai: Right? Joe: Yes. Tasai: Then, we could sell it… Joe: Sell it…. Tasai: And to go Okinawa…. Joe: Go to Okinawa? The three of them laugh. Joe: The plan is steadily progressing to that objective…. Tasai:  The three of us…. Joe:  Please….. (I hope that happens someday)….. Kaoru: So, back to the topic…..can you read the it?.... Joe: Yes, I can…..yes, this is another piece of good news….. *on screen* Title: “Dir en grey MV shooting with 3D realistic avatars” -Announced a MV created by shooting members with a 3D scanner. “The World You Live In” screening events were sold out on the same day that went on sale. In response to that, an online screening event called “The World You Live In ” -additional-“  will be streamed. With a special talk in which members will also appear, a music video created with characters using real avatars created with a 3D scanner will be screened. The song used for this will be their first digital single "Ochita koto no aru sora” that Dir en grey released in August this year. The scenes of the members performing are scanned, so it is possible to create scenes in various places. Joe: So, Kaoru…. Kaoru: Thank you for reading it…. Joe: This is really good news.…. Kaoru: Originally, the programs are uploaded on Friday…but we uploaded this earlier so we can talk about this….so this time it feels a little bit irregular…. Joe: An irregular update…. Tasai: But it’s ok…. Kaoru: Well, of course, I’ve already watched it…. Joe: You did? How was it? Kaoru: First, we took pictures, we got our makeup done, we took some body impressions and…. then, this thing…. how is it called?.... with a 360 degrees camera….then in another studio…another time…we wore clothes with dots….and then…..we played air….*kaoru plays air guitar* Joe: I see….You did as if you were performing…. Tasai: Ohh…. Kaoru: Then, with the pictures they took…. Joe: Sounds quite hard…. Kaoru: No, we were done in a moment…. Joe: Is that so? Kaoru: The pictures that were taken of me with my outfit….it was just a click, then the light and “yes, we are done”. Kaoru makes a comment about makeup. Joe: Maybe it would had been better to get more shoots… “Actually, how are the avatars going to be?” (top screen) Joe: When it was already done… Kaoru: The atmosphere of it….it feels like being inside a game…. Tasai: What about the outfits? Kaoru: It’s impossible to do with the outfits on…. Of course, you can do it if you take time to shoot like that…. Tasai: I see. Kaoru: But well…. Joe: It was done that way this time….as this comes out, naturally the first thing that comes to my mind is Kokoromi* *Kokoromi (ココロ見) TV program that has been broadcast irregularly since 2010 on NHK BS Premium. This program dedicated one episode to Hiroshi Ishiguro, director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, part of the Department of Systems Innovation in the Graduate School of Engineering Science at Osaka University * Kaoru: That’s it…. Joe: It’s like you had the opportunity to do that…. Kaoru: Somehow, it was like….” we can do something like this”…..”is it going to be hard?”….. Joe: It’s like, you had a suggestion, and then it seemed possible to be done…. Kaoru: “So let’s try to do it” Joe: That is…. Tasai: I’m really looking forward to the screening…. Kaoru explains that for the recreation of his movements, he had to play holding his guitar higher than usual due to the pointers (dots) he had on him to capture the movements. Joe laughs and imitates Kaoru when he shows the position, he did to be able to do the procedure, playing the guitar chest high. Joe: Higher than usual…*playing air guitar at chest-high, Kaoru burst into laughter* “One of the highlights is the position of the guitar?” (top screen) Kaoru: When I saw it, I was thinking that…..”that’s really high!”*laughs* Joe: But the position of your guitar was like if another person was shooting instead of you... Kaoru: No, holding it up that way felt like when I play bass at home…. Joe: I see… Joe makes a joke about the photographer having to take his picture holding the guitar like that. Joe: Did the other members have to change it as well? Or just you? Because of that pointer…. Kaoru says that he thinks he is the only one who had to change. Joe: But Die plays guitar holding it really low…. Kaoru: That’s true… “About other members shooting” (on screen) Kaoru explains that he was watching the process and saw some impressions moving, like the shape of a person (before being completed) Kaoru: I saw just that, and I was like “Ah, Die!”…when I saw the appearance…..it gave me chills… Joe is curious about how they did the procedure with the drums. Kaoru explains that they took pictures of the drum set to reproduce a similar shape. Joe: Weren’t the drums the hardest (instrument)? Kaoru: Maybe…. Joe insists that the drums must had been hard to capture for the process. Then, he goes back to Kaoru holding the guitar chest high. He says that playing the guitar in a lower position is cool, Kaoru agrees. Joe adds that there are many guitarists that play the guitar like that, but he thinks there isn’t any that plays it that high (chest, almost shoulder, high lol) Kaoru: Not many…. Joe: Then, the song is the single… Kaoru: Yes Tasai: You are using (for this) the latest single “Ochita koto no aru sora”…. Joe:  Doing this mv once again in this way, see the reactions again… Kaoru: As it took more time to do, it’s like a polished-up version…. Joe: It’s like a new creation…..I’m looking forward to it…. “From 23:00 on 31/12” (on screen)” Kaoru explains how the stream is going to be. First, the performance, then the videos and later, a talk with the members. That it’s going to be the flow. Joe says he is looking forward to it, jokes about Kaoru playing guitar high chest. Kaoru wonders why God hasn’t say anything yet. Joe: God, are you there? God: I am! God is here! They laugh and “scold” him for not saying anything God: I already saw it! (the video) Joe: Did you? Tasai: Did God already see it too? God: I did, I did… Joe: But it’s because you are God, right? He is different from humans. Kaoru: As he is God, he can see everything, everywhere…. God: As I’m God, I have that power… Joe: Do you have that power? God: Yes….it was interesting…it looked interesting and cool…. Joe: Did you realized that Kaoru was playing his guitar that high? God: I didn’t pay much attention to that…. Joe: Is that so? Do you have any favourite part or a part that attracted your attention? God: Well, that’s right. The footage is good after all but, the song is good because after all, Dir en grey is good at writing songs…. They burst into laughs. Kaoru: Thank you *laughs* God: I think they are talented…. Kaoru: “They are good”*imitating God* Joe: You said they are good at it….like they are talented…. God: That’s because I’m God…. Joe: That’s right….you are a pro yourself…. What about other aspects such as the visuals or the song?.... God: It was fun…. Joe: Ah, it was fun….thank you for telling us… Tasai: God should also get an avatar (of himself)…. Joe: That’s right… Kaoru: indeed…. Joe: But we haven’t seen his appearance ever…. God: I can't show it yet…. Kaoru: We should do an avatar of him…. Joe: Right? It’s a possibility…. Kaoru: I think that Tasai could draw it (God’s avatar)…. *God's avatar drawn by reporter Tasai* (top screen) Joe: He has the skills….it’s legendary…. Kaoru: It’s legendary…. Joe: Then, let’s do that! Kaoru: Draw how you imagine him…. Tasai: My image of God…. Joe: We could draw him together… Kaoru talks about his face and so when God cuts in. God: God is just an old man, right? Kaoru: An old man? We got that…. The three of them laugh and start discussing about an idea of a story to draw. Tasai: You tell me that story, and I imagine it and then I draw it… Kaoru: An avatar of God…. Joe: An avatar of God……we could do a meeting with a screening and a talk…. The three of them laugh. Kaoru: Then, next year we are doing it again, from February….a screening of a live ‘Meguro Rock-May-Kan GIG’…..well it’s a concert film screening tour around the country….. Joe: And there will be a talk with the members? Kaoru: I think so…. Kaoru: So that’s it…. Joe: That’s it, right? Kaoru: Well, tomorrow, I hope you  all can watch the livestream…. Joe: That’s it….don’t miss it/stay tuned…. Kaoru: Well, I think it’s time to end the program…..Please subscribe to the channel…. Joe: Please subscribe…. Kaoru: Thank you for watching….! Tasai: Thank you for watching! God: Thank you for watching!

[kokitschy]

Problematic Faves

I think that the way people handle Danganronpa in certain aspects is a little askew. But if you’re coming across this randomly, please keep in mind that this is just my opinion. I never tag my posts with fandom tags because this is just my little spot to put my thoughts and look back at them later. I’m not striking out at anyone.

Danganronpa is intensely character-driven, so much so that there are entire swaths of people who consider themselves to be related to or spiritually connected to the characters in some way. I don’t want to blindly attribute this to kids being kids because honestly that feels like brushing it under the rug, and I don’t want to do that. The comradery that comes from associating oneself with a character whose specific archetype is so well understood not only by the fandom but also by people outside of it is astonishing to me. You can just say a string of words nobody outside of fandom culture would understand and someone can instantly make semi-accurate guesses about you and your personality.

I don’t think it’s the most healthy thing in the world, some people attempt to say they know everything about a person from just hearing about their favorite characters, but realistically nobody knows anything about anyone from something as simple and minor as their favorite or most related to characters. A reason someone might relate to someone can be completely different from the general assumption of why a person may relate to someone.

I also am of the belief that the idea of being angry at someone or telling someone to stop liking a specific character on the basis of an objective moral wrong is kind of silly. In the world of Danganronpa, a large chunk of the cast are canonically murderers. This isn’t me being hyperbolic. While there are typically more victims than there are killers in any given game due to the sacred rule of Chapter 3 setups, it does not change that each cast has their own little selection of killers, each cast having their sympathetic murderers.

Danganronpa is a game filled with characters you will become enamored with and then watch them either die via a murder or have their ‘worthiness’ in the fandom’s eyes ripped apart by the situation. A victim is killed when the murderer kills them. A murderer is killed when the killing game kills them. The killing games are no joke. They feed off of the sickening catharsis some people receive at watching the punishments. The horror is mixed with the player’s sense of “I liked that character, I’m glad the character who killed them is dead.” And that has prevailed throughout the fandom for years now. It is not strange to say that any one character should’ve died, but the moment a character does something problematic during their life, it’s all over. It’s time to stop liking them.

V3 came in and waved the twisted nature of our fandom in our faces and I saw one of two reactions at first: a smug glee that Kodaka addressed the fandom and actually went for a meta approach, worn by people who feel they’re smart for not having an emotional reaction... And the people who felt betrayed, angry that Kodaka has ‘called them out’ on what still amounts to enjoying a video game.

The characters of Danganronpa feel like they’re real, because they’re written to feel like they’re real. The world they’re in is real to them. Danganronpa is real, but only in the world of Danganronpa. Danganronpa V3’s world introduces them proper as a fantasy, a famous franchise with sequels happening over and over and over again. The layer of it using real people not as actors but as the Ultimates who genuinely die on set is really only there for the shock value. We, the player, understand that Danganronpa’s cast considers themselves to be real people. The slap in the face is supposed to be that they are real people, but they’re real people who prioritized their favorite piece of media over their own safety. They used to be real, and they traded in their previous identities to live out their fantasy of being an Ultimate.

I think that’s a funny coincidence when it comes to the current state of things.

Obviously nobody is actually going to be trading in their identity to become an Ultimate. However, the fact so many people find enjoyment in connecting themselves to canonical murderers, enablers, abusers, and other some such while pointing and yelling at others who do the exact same thing, but in ways they better understand, is really really weird to me.

“I can relate to murderers who killed for sympathetic reasons. But a girl who was abused and craves having some form of power for herself? Now that’s crossing the line!”

Every single Danganronpa character has factors of themselves that are imperfect, problematic, an issue, otherwise ‘not good’, and I think that the idea of getting on someone for their favorite character, kins, or other such things is counter-intuitive to a healthy fandom experience. Everyone in fandom is different, period. Full stop. Because every person is different. Full stop. No one is ever going to be able to healthily make a perfect little echo chamber where only their thoughts are heard. If you want people who will solely do things that you are comfortable with for the rest of your life, you don’t want to interact with people, you want to have pet rocks. No emotions beyond what you project onto them, no opinions beyond what you say for them, and no fears beyond what you give them.

Let people in the Danganronpa fandom enjoy the things they enjoy. Let them like Haiji. No one who enjoys Haiji has condoned him and what he did and what he likes. I have never seen anyone do such things. I have seen people remake Haiji in their own image, attempt to give him a different arc and a different reasoning. I have seen people try desperately to justify why they like Haiji, all while the people around them forever forget that Haiji Towa is not real and the people in the fandom understand that what he did and what he thinks about doing is horrible and wrong.

Chill out. You can like Haiji Towa. Or Kokichi Ouma. Or Mikan Tsumiki. Or Junko Enoshima. You don’t have to justify liking morally wrong characters, or thinking they deserve happiness, or thinking positive things about them. No one should make you feel like you have to explain your happiness, because when you do feel like that, you start to feel bad because they’re obviously seeking to make you feel like you shouldn’t enjoy the things you do.

If what you like is legal and doesn’t hurt anyone or anything, you have nothing to justify. So you don’t have to justify your problematic faves. Just like them, and draw them, and write about them, and talk about them. You can do that, and you should be able to do that without fear.

[therealjordan23]

fav character louie duck

Why I like them

Louie is my favourite Duck Triplet (sorry Huey and Dewey AKA @stevenfallsvs and @sophfandoms53​)  and overall character in DuckTales. He is relatable, and not like, “haha, lazy quirky kid” relatable, but he’s realistic. A great example of this is when Della comes back: remember, even though she’s the kids’ mother, they have never met her. Huey and Dewey throw themselves at her, but Louie holds back, because he doesn’t know her, and she doesn’t know them. Louie points this out during their family meeting, and even though his point is validated, and it’s not his fault, he still blames himself. He represents and carries a lot of the show's angst, and darker themes, so whenever he feels down, we feel down.

Why I don’t

He’s just been rude the past few episodes. After Astro B.O.Y.D.! we learn that Huey’s bullied at his favourite place in the entire world: The Woodchuck Meetings. You’d hope that it would be the only place that any 11 year old boy would be bullied, but the past few episodes we’ve had shows us that he gets bullied at home by his brothers as well, which sucks. So, even though Louie softens up in the end of said episode, he shouldn’t be belittling Huey in the first place :)

Favorite episode (scene if movie)

Nothing can beat Louie’s reaction when he found out Dewey kept a secret about Della in The Secret(s) of Castle McDuck!

Favorite season/movie

Definitely Season 1 and 2, I can’t choose one. Season 1 focused more on Louie’s angst and inner turmoil when it came to Della, and Season 2 worked on Louie’s growth and development. Season 3? Even I’m not sure what Louie’s arc is here. Be kinder to others?

Favorite line

“Lying! It’s the responsible thing to do.”

Favorite outfit

His Quack Pack outfit and hair

OTP

Louie X Lena (Louna)

Brotp

Louie and Boyd

Louie and Webby

Head Canon

He doesn’t like being alone

Louie is a good singer

When he and Lena do get together, Lena always asks him to sing her to sleep

He sings Della’s lullaby every night to his future kids

He’s easily flustered

He’s the most physically capable triplet

He has a soft spot for Goldie, as Goldie does for him, and hates it when she goes behind Scrooge’s back

When she does, he usually follows her to make sure she’s safe

Violet, Huey, and Louie, probably the 3 most levelheaded of the gang, get crazy as shit when drunk 

They jam out to country music

They sing to old 2000′s love songs

Violet gives Louie a piggy-back ride, but ends up dropping him

The next morning: Huey is shirtless, with the words, “MINE” written across his chest, Louie has a drawn on moustache and eyepatch, and Violet is passed out with a black marker in hand

Lena is a very intense kisser, easily overpowering Louie

Louie isn’t a morning person

He’s insecure of hid body, hence the hoodies

But after Louie overhears Lena calling him hot, he wears T-shirts and tank tops more often

Unpopular opinion 

I don’t think he was totally wrong in Timephoon. He had his reasons to be angry with Della, and her way of handling the whole situation. 

A wish

Okay, I wish he’d join the villains again, don’t @ me. I feel like in GlomTales, the Evil Louie arc could have been more than one episode, because let’s be real:

We all loved evil Louie

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen

Don’t die…?😂

5 words to best describe them

Sharp

Sly

Sensitive

Sarcastic

Sneaky

My nickname for them

I'm not one for nicknames, but I do use the name, “Lou” for him in my fics.

[purplebass]

Prompt 53 please 🥰🧡

Here it is! I hope it’s good, I tried to give my best 😘💜

Title: If They Only Knew Couple: Jesse Blackthorn and Lucie Herondale, Blackdale Prompt: “That wasn’t very subtle.”

“And then, the princess decided that it was time she took the matter into her own hands,” Lucie typed on her typewriter. “She needed to save the prince from his fate, otherwise he would die by the hands of his evil mother. But what could she do, as he lied, motionless, on the cold marble floor of the castle? She could only-”

“Interesting.”

Lucie jumped and looked up, accidentally clicking some buttons and messing up the sheet of paper inside of her writing machine.

“You scared me,” she said, putting her hand on her chest to stop her racing heart. Lately, her heart always beat faster whenever a certain guy was around her, and this time, it was pounding both because of the anxiety and the excitement. She really liked to see that boy around her, and she wondered if it was the same for him. She sighed.

Jesse appeared at the side of her mahogany desk. “I didn’t think a girl who can see ghosts could be easily scared, to be honest.”

“If you appear out of nowhere, she could be,” Lucie protested, then she tried to fix the typewriter. The paper was stuck in the middle of the machine, which meant she had to use another one and rewrite everything she had written over there.

As she adjusted the typewriter, Jesse gazed at her with amusement. Lucie didn’t know, but he took pleasure in seeing her write and in being so lively.

“I sense you’re angry with me,” Jesse said, but his voice was playful, not bitter.

Lucie pouted, trying to keep her stance, but it wasn’t possible. “I am not the resentful type, Jesse. Even if you creep up on me while I write.”

Jesse raised his once dark eyebrows, and he shrugged. “Now I’m creeping up on you,” he told her as he paced around her room, noticing she had quite a lot of books hidden in there, “but you aren’t angry with me.”

He tilted his head and glanced at her. She was still trying to get the sheet of paper out of the damned machine, but it wouldn’t budge. “Ugh,” Lucie complained. “The paper is stuck.”

As if on cue, Jesse moved swiftly until he was by her side. The paper was torn but it was indeed blocked inside the typewriter, and Lucie wasn’t able to get it out so she could go back to her writing.

She glanced about her room, expecting to see him near her bed, but he wasn’t there. She realized he was near her, a hand placed on her desk and his head bent on the typewriter, inspecting the mess she had just created with the crumbled sheet. Jesse turned towards her, and Lucie couldn’t help but be attracted to his green eyes, which were one of the only features of him who still gave him a semblance of a living person and not a ghost.

Lucie’s mouth fell slightly open as if she was startled by the nearness, but at the same time, in awe at the guy’s appearance. He was handsome, and she thought it was just a pity that he was a ghost. She felt sorry for him. He could have been married by now, had kids, living the shadowhunter life he was meant to live or becoming whatever he wanted to be. But he was dead.

“I wish I could help you,” said Jesse, taking her back to reality, and ironically linking his words with the thoughts she was having on him. “But we never had this thing at Chiswick, and I have no idea how it works.”

She nodded and broke the connection, checking the typewriter again. “Don’t worry, I’ve got it covered,” Lucie assured him, and tried to get back at it, and in the end the sheet was freed from the typewriter. She looked at it grimly. “Finally. But now I have to type it all again.”

“What were you typing, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I was writing The Beautiful Cordelia,” Lucie beamed, rearranging some papers on the furthest side of the desk. “I was about to say how the princess saved the prince from his evil mother. She was about to…” she said, then left her sentence hanging in the air.

“Interesting. What was she about to do?”

“Are you really interested, Mr. Blackthorn?” Lucie wondered, smiling at him, but not actually answering his question. The only people who seemed interested in her writing were her family and Cordelia, and despite they told her she had talent, she had never showed her work to somebody else. “I mean, I could be writing the next best seller, if you ask me.”

Jesse shrugged and sat on the desk. Even if he was almost a shadow, he didn’t lose his spark. He was not tangible, at least for others, but he still carried a strong presence along his translucent body. “You just called me Mr. Blackthorn,” he laughed. “And I’m sure your story is nice. But, haven’t you just said that your character was about to do something? What was it?”

“I called you Mr. Blackthorn because… never mind,” Lucie shook her head and rose from her chair.

“No, now I want to know, Miss Herondale,” he urged with curiosity.

Lucie, who, in the meantime had walked to the center of the room, stopped her anxious pacing and gazed back at Jesse. He still leaned on the desk, but he turned towards her, his hands folded on his long legs.

“Well, aren’t you older than me? You were born one year before my parents got married. There is an 8-year gap between us. If you weren’t dead, you’d be 24 now, Jesse Blackthorn.”

Lucie said that in one go, without stopping for a second to get air in her lungs. She hoped she hadn’t offended him – after all, he was a ghost. Despite the sadness of his situation, she was stating facts. Jesse was born on the same year as Charles Fairchild, her mother once told her, but the children were as different as night and day, despite they both had forest green eyes. Tatiana Blackthorn, Jesse’s mother, didn’t want her brothers Gideon and Gabriel to see her baby. Her aunt Cecily and uncle Gabriel had been disheartened by her choice, especially her uncle, but they couldn’t do anything.

Jesse seemed to mull over what she said, and he waited to give her answer, to the point that Lucie thought she had been rude. Maybe it wasn’t nice to remind a ghost that he stopped aging? Yes, definitely. She was about to say more when she heard him speak.

“I honestly don’t feel that old. I mean, I feel that time passes, but I don’t perceive it the same way the living do,” he explained, staring at the window in front of him. “So, I don’t think you should call me mister. We are the same age. And I thought…” he started, then sauntered to her, his hands in the pockets of his trousers.

Lucie did not move as he approached. “What did you think, Jesse?”

“We are friends, aren’t we?” he inquired with a placid tone.

“Of course, we are,” she assured him, looking delighted to hear so. “Of course, we are friends.”

Jesse beamed, and his eyes seemed to lit up with something Lucie had seen ever so slightly in him, ever since they had started meeting in secret. Hope, comfort. Warmth. How could a person who had been dead for seven long years, exude such glow?

“Marvelous,” he commented, then went to sit on her bed. “Since we’re friends, I expect you to tell me about your problem. About your story, I mean.”

“The problem with my story,” Lucie commenced, “is that I don’t know how to write the scene I was about to write.”

“How so?”

Lucie bit her lip and started pacing her room. “The princess is meant to kiss the prince to save him, since he’s dead,” she said. “Because they are fated and by kissing him, she can revive him”.

She thought how ironic that situation was. She, Lucie Herondale, hadn’t intentionally decided to insert what was happening in her real life into her story. She hadn’t realized it until then, with Jesse sitting on her bed. Jesse was dead, and…

“What is the problem, then?”

“The kiss. The kiss is the problem,” Lucie admitted honestly. She wasn’t shy, but she had to confess that speaking of kisses with a guy her age – he said so, made her cheeks heat. And it didn’t help that they were alone. In her room. At night. She dared to look at him, to see his reaction.

“You’ve never kissed somebody before,” Jesse declared, nonchalant. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said it. Pardon me.”

Lucie wasn’t somebody who hid her emotions, and she wouldn’t hide them in front of him. After a minute of deliberation, she decided that honesty, as always, was the best policy. “No, no. I’m not offended. Truly. And… you’re right.”

If Jesse was surprised, he didn’t let it show over his face. His expression remained neutral, tranquil, peaceful. And he was quiet even when he replied her, in contrast with her current mood. She was anxious. Suddenly, her stomach felt empty, as if something was in there. Butterflies?

“With this I can help,” Jesse murmured, grinning. “Or… By the Angel, I’m being too improper tonight, am I? I should just go.”

“No!” Lucie blurted out without thinking, realizing her voice was too loud. “No. Don’t go. I think it would be a nice experiment for me to practice kissing. This way I’ll be able to write it more realistically, even if I doubt Jane Austen or Charlotte Brontë had kissed somebody when they wrote their novels,” she answered him, trying not to appear too enthusiastic about it, even if she was indeed super excited for that moment. Not only because of the kiss, her first kiss, but because of him.

Jesse nodded. “Come here, then,” he patted the spot next to him on her bed. “Or you want to do it standing?”

Lucie tried to keep her mind clear. Focus, she needed to focus. How was better? “It’s better on the bed,” she finally decided, “since my prince is supposed to be on the floor, deceased.”

“Then how about we do it like that? I don’t mind being on the floor,” he proposed.

“Excellent,” she agreed. Jesse, as swift as usual, lied down on the Persian rug she had in front of her bed. She then followed him and sat next to his shadowy body. “Close your eyes, Jesse.”

And he did as he was told. Lucie didn’t know what to do exactly, and she tried to wrack her brain and think about one of her favorite novels. How did the heroine kiss the hero at the end?

She put her hands on the sides of his neck, then dove down onto him, closed her eyes, and pressed her lips on Jesse’s translucent ones. At first, it didn’t happen anything. His lips were soft, not warm but delicate. Then she felt his hand on her back, trying not to impose on her body too much, and his lips started moving slowly on hers. He was doing what she usually did whenever she ate her favorite cake, eating small bites, slowly, savoring each piece with delight to make it last longer. He was gentle, not urgent. It seemed endless, relaxing even, until she heard the door open behind her and she felt as if she was free falling from a cliff. Which was not far from the truth.

She luckily fell on the Persian rug.

“Did you scream earlier, Lu?” her father asked, getting into her room. “And why are you on the floor? Perhaps you fell?” Will wondered, and she could read worry written on his face as he knelt down and touched her head.

“No, papa. I was just mad because a piece of paper stuck in the typewriter, that is all,” she explained, hoping she didn’t have I’ve just been kissed by a ghost written all over her face.

Will glanced at the desk, then at his daughter. “Do you want any help?”

“No, thanks, papa.”

He seemed satisfied of the answer and stood up, offering his hand to her, which she accepted. She hoped that her hand didn’t give her away. It was sweaty.

“But you didn’t tell me why you were on the rug,” he said.

Lucie loved her father, but sometimes he was too… too curious like a cat. Or a child. While this amused her, she didn’t intend to reveal to him that she was alone in her room with a handsome Blackthorn, so she opted for a white lie, which wasn’t completely a lie.

“I was trying a scene for my book. The character faints, so I wanted to describe it well.”

Will nodded, grinning. “Ah, alright, I see, sweet Lu. Be careful.”

“I will, pap,” she agreed as he walked out of her room. “Oh, dad? Can you knock next time?”

“I knocked, Lucie. Three or four times. The fifth time I decided to barge in.”

Lucie was stunned. “Ok, well, then… goodnight, papa. Say goodnight to mom too.”

“Yes, my dear. See you tomorrow,” he said, then closed the door behind him, leaving her alone once again.

She sat on the bed with her hand on her heart and sighed.

“That wasn’t very subtle,” Jesse said, appearing in her room out of the blue for the second time that night. But he wasn’t sitting on her bed with her.

“It was indeed very close,” Lucie agreed, gazing at Jesse. He had a smug face, and he was laughing. “Are you pleased with yourself, Jesse Blackthorn?”

“A person like me rarely lives situations like this anymore,” he confessed. “Let’s be thankful I was a ghost, or your father would have thrown me out of the window.”

“My father? No, I don’t think he would have,” she replied with determination. “But my brother, maybe… and the other Merry Thieves…”

“Who are the Merry Thieves?”

“My other brothers,” Lucie conceded. “I’m the only one who can see you besides your family.”

Jesse nodded, but didn’t answer. She thought he probably didn’t know why she was the only one who could see him besides for Grace and Tatiana, and she hoped to find that out soon.

“Lucie,” he murmured after they stayed in silence for a couple of minutes. “Was the experiment alright? Did you get what you were looking for?”

“It was perfect,” she said, scanning his face to read his expression. He wore his quiet expression like a glove. She wondered if he also felt the same things she did, but didn’t dare to ask him. After all, hadn’t he said he was helping her for her writing research?

“I’m glad.”

“Thanks for the help, Jesse.”

“Anytime, Lucie.”

Lucie smiled at him and then went back to her chair, behind the desk. Now she had to write. “It’s better if I write the scene while it’s still fresh in my mind.”

“I agree,” he answered, approaching het desk with his silent gait. She was loading another sheet of paper in the typewriter when he spoke again. “Lucie?”

She glanced at him, expectantly. “Yes?”

“Can I stay? I mean, I’d love to see you write, if you don’t mind.”

Lucie couldn’t help but smile. Not only she liked the idea, but she also felt a sweet tinge in his voice, as if he was shy to ask her that. “You don’t even have to ask. You can stay anytime.”

“Alright. I’ll be quiet,” Jesse said, and Lucie wondered if he did know how true that statement was about him, but at the same time very wrong. Because despite Jesse was a ghost, a reserved ghost, he also managed to scream something very clear whenever she looked at him.

Jesse wanted to live.

Lucie didn’t know what she could do to help him. For now, she would just reenact their kiss in her writing, pretending for a moment to be The Beautiful Cordelia of her story, the princess kissed by the prince tortured by his evil mother until she could, hopefully, do it for real and for the whole world to see.

[kieren-fucking-walker]

Hello! I’m excited to do this as I don’t rec much, reccing things terrifies me because I hate feeling like I’m picking/playing favourites and leaving people out, and I also am just generally bad at picking my favourites of anything because I like too many things too much. I also am very bad at bookmarking, keeping track of fics I read, and generally being able to recall the names of fics to be able to rec them. So, with all that in mind I thought I’d start with something easy, on the understanding that this isn’t by any means an exhaustive list and I’d be more comfortable with this being “ten fics I like” rather than a top ten because there are far far too many fics I love in this fandom to ever do a list of favourites. So, in no particular order: 

Ten fics under ten thousand words (that I love):

Hypocrite by Lynds [@gold-from-straw​] - Rating: G, WC: 1.6k, Pairing: N/A

Summary: How can Todd possibly expect to be forgiven if he still can't forgive everyone who hurt him? Why I love it: This is one of my favourite explorations of a very specific part of Todd’s character, and it’s worth noting that the characteristics are spot on. I come back to this fic over and over again, and while in many ways it’s painful it’s also real and honest and just a beautiful bit of writing concerning Todd and his guilt.

Dork Greatly's Holistic Laundry Service by obscureenthusiast -  Rating: G, WC: 2.8k, Pairing: Brotzly (kind of)

Summary: Dirk very generously offers to help Todd with his household chores... an offer which Todd eventually takes him up on. The laundry gets a little out of hand when Todd remembers a game he and Amanda used to play and Dirk enthusiastically joins.

Why I love it: Cute!! It’s cute silly fun of these two bonding over laundry and sock puppets, gentle ribbing and acting like children. It gets even better when Farah joins in, I’m a sucker for those three being dorks together. 

My Mind Is My Own Worst Enemy; It Keeps Trying To Convince Me That You Are by DontOffendTheBees [@dont-offend-the-bees​​​]  -  Rating: T, WC: 1.6k, Pairing: Brotzly

Summary: His voice is so familiar and yet also just so… wrong. There’s something missing in it. Some vital aspect of Todd that Dirk didn’t even notice until it was gone.

Why I love it: ANGST! This appeals to every single one of my angst tendencies, and as I’m using this rec list to rec things I love I have to give a shoutout to the most wonderfully angsty fic I’ve read. I love this fic. I love the premise, I love the tension, I love the way it’s written, I love how awful the situation is. I love the way this fic is resolved, I love that it’s plausible, realistic in that. It’s incredibly emotional in all the worst ways and that makes it one of my favourite short fics ever.

Cut To The Feeling by zaphodthebb -  Rating: G, WC: 2.1k, Pairing: Brotzly 

Summary: Post Blackwing rescue, Todd is awake and on guard duty. He's had too much coffee. Also, Dirk can't sleep.

Why I love it: I’m such a sucker for post-big-things fic and this one nails the feeling perfectly. You can feel the exhaustion, the way smaller things they didn’t have time to worry about before catching up to them now they can stop for a moment. Both Dirk and Todd feel tired and real and it’s just a lovely read. 

split the secret up by piggy09 [@sharkodactyl] -  Rating: T, WC: 5.1k, Pairing: N/A

Summary: He asks if Dirk can hear it and Dirk just laughs, the sound reassuringly human.Well, not reassuringly. Reassuringly would mean Todd had to be reassured.It’s just – it sounds human. Which is good. Because Dirk is human. Definitely

Why I love it: Why don’t I love it? The idea of the Blackwing subjects being Eldritch in some way is a concept I’ve explored numerous times because it appeals to me so much, and if it appeals to you then you want to read this fic. It’s eerie and unsettling, the ability to hit the tone of not-quite-right is perfect, the pacing is astounding and it’s so hard to write a fic like this and keep the idea together as well as it’s done here. I love experimental styles of writing and when they turn out like this it’s not hard to see why. I love this fic a lot. (I would also recommend reading on desktop not mobile because the formatting of this fic adds so much to it!)

Catharsis by ben8615  -  Rating: T, WC: 1.3k, Pairing: Brotzly

Summary: Dirk is broken as heck, so why not have him cry it out? That's it. That's the whole story. You can all go home now.

Why I love it: The title and summary say it all really! This is such a lovely little fic about Dirk getting some catharsis in a way we all know he desperately needs, and paired with Todd taking care of him so gently? It’s such a perfect, wonderful little fic that just feels quiet and safe and wonderful.

objects in mirror may be closer than they appear by sharlook [@aceabed]  -  Rating: T, WC: 8.8k, Pairing: Brotzly

Summary: You’re alone, with your arms wrapped tight around a pillow at god knows what time in the night, and there are tears running down your face because you can’t seem to stop thinking about it, not even in your dreams. And then clutching your covers you get an idea. (In which Dirk has nightmares about Blackwing, goes to Todd for help, and is really, really, really in love.)

Why I love it: This fic aches in such a beautiful way. It doesn’t shy away from the ramifications of what Dirk went through and how that plays out for him, his fears and paranoias feel real and present in a way I really appreciate. The choice to use second person is a really good one, it’s a tricky pov to pull off but this definitely gets it right and is better for it. The development of Dirk and Todd’s relationship, particularly looking at Todd’s reactions to Dirk’s worries through Dirk’s eyes is just wonderful and it’s well worth a read. 

Those Grey Days by TheRoyalPrussianArmy [@theroyalprussianarmy​]  -  Rating: G, WC: 2.4k, Pairing: Brotzly

Summary: The bad days weren't always days. They could creep up, like some small, silent predator and deliver a swift bite that poisoned its victim's outlook. A blue sky could turn into grey one heartbeat after a laugh. The gentle sound of the wind in the trees would suddenly become overwhelmingly irritating. Even so much as a door closing or footsteps across the floor could lead to a strong desire to cry and scream, to rage and throw things. They would always pass, of course, but in the moment they were devastating.

Why I love it: We all know I love a good Todd characterisation, and I love a good exploration of the shitty realities of bad mental health and letting other people help you with that. I really really love this fic for both of those reasons, it’s unflinching without being gratuitous, and I really love the way it doesn’t promise sudden miraculous recovery at the hands of someone else, but ends on a gentler kind of promise of having people be there for you if you let them be. Also I’m a huge fan of the way this is written, it reads so nicely and it’s more than worth it. 

Light Work by  juniper_and_lamplight  [@juniper-and-lamplight​​​​]  -  Rating: T, WC: 2.8k, Pairing: Farina

Summary: Tina had, with her typical blunt insight, poked at Farah’s motivations for baking the cake herself. “Is it some kind of control-freaky thing? Like you can’t trust anyone else to get it right?” And while Farah couldn’t honestly say no to that question, her real motivation ran deeper.

Why I love it: This fic is wonderful. I always think we need more Farah insights, and this fic does just that in such a beautiful way, catching on her idiosyncrasies and the character building is to die for. It’s such a simple idea and yet the story itself manages to be rich and full, the imagery is simply gorgeous and every little snippet of a look into Farah’s life as it was in the past and is right now just delights me. Honestly this fic will leave you with a sweet, warm feeling all the way down to your toes and dwelling in the comfort of knowing Farah is loved by herself and others in all the ways she deserves.

or make a home by reptilianraven [@actualbird​​]  -  Rating: T, WC: 6.6k, Pairing: Brotzly

Summary: “Perhaps,” Dirk says in his best ‘yes, I’m bullshitting you, but I’m your boyfriend and you love me still’ voice. “The universe wants it this way.”“The universe wants you to always forget to put the cap back on the toothpaste,” Todd says, unimpressed, screwing the cap on himself.-Or Todd’s adventures in dating Dirk Gently, the mundanities of which unsurprisingly turning out to not be very mundane at all (featuring, among other things: intergalactic wormholes, regular periods of lying down on the floor, and several annoying habits that concern toothpaste and toothbrushes.)

Why I love it: You know those fics you read that make you want to throw your face into a pillow and scream with emotions? Yeah. This fic is so ridiculously good. The beauty of mundane daily rituals that make up part of a relationship! The way those things grow together, evolving into each others spaces and lives, this fic explores that so well. The portrayal of their relationship is so soft and tender, so happy and bright and silly and sad and everything a relationship should be. Honestly I can’t overstate enough how much I love this fic, I can’t go on and on here, but I’m about 99% sure this fic invented love-in-small-spaces kinda way. Also, sidetracking from all my other comments, if you like Mika’s song Tiny Love and the reprise of it then you’ll love this fic because I listened to it and immediately thought of it. Beautiful, emotional, fic. If this fic was a blanket I’d burrito myself in it and never leave. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There we go! I obviously have far more than ten fics that fall into this category and hopefully more of them will be cropping up over the course of this week if I can find the time to make that happen, but as this is something I’m lowkey scared of doing I’m pleased enough to have this much! Thank you so much to @dghdafeedbackfest​ for organising this!

If you read any of these fics and like them please let the author know! Also check out some of their other stuff, because a lot of these authors are writers I love in general! 

[takerfoxx]

Looking back, was Madoka Magica really that dark? Only three characters actually die, two of whom are later resurrected through the power of love. Blood and gore wise, most blood is offscreen, and that which is shown is fairly tame compared to other dark magical girl shows. Yet somehow, this show the show managed to hit me in the gut more than far more horrific and bloodier dark magical girl shows ever have. Why?

That doesn’t sound surprising at all, and it all comes down toexecution. 

See,people often have this false idea when it comes to “mature” stories, inthat things like character deaths, blood and gore, and suffering are thebuilding blocks of maturity. But they’re not. They’re tools, and like all tools,they can be wielded correctly and incorrectly. Quite often, less is more, andtoo much grimdark results in an edgy, tryhard mess of a thing that isn’t maturein the slightest. This is one of the reasons why Blood-C got such a negativereaction, or why Elfen Lied is so divisive. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I loveme some Elfen Lied, but even I admit that it’s a schlocky white-hot mess. Itjust so happens to be my kindof schlocky, white-hot mess.

So yeah, I know this is weird coming from the apparent king ofTouhou Grimdark (cut me some slack though, I learn as I go), but gratuitousviolence does not, in of itself, equal maturity or anything of substance. Atbest you get the adolescent view of maturity, which is just so cynical andtiresome.

Madoka Magica, on the other hand, is a different sort of beastentirely. That show’s been out for years, but I am continuously impressed byjust how well-crafted it is, and how the creators used the tools at theirdisposal to get so much out of so little.

First of all, there’s the genre itself. Now, darkdeconstructions of Magical Girl shows are nothing new. Utena had already poppedthat cherry years ago, and you already mentioned how others had…less of animpact than PMMM did. But even so, the Magica Girl genre is one that’s almostuniversally associated with little girls. So, lots of bright colors, optimism,and cute, and the good guys and bad guys are easily distinguishable, and goodalways triumphs over evil. So even if new viewers know that something is up,their guard is still automatically going to be dropped, at least a little.

Second, we have the art style. Now, this is very interesting, inthat they went with a very Hidemari Sketch sort of style, where the girls allhave designs that are cute, appealing, and very distinctive, but never goingoverboard with the cuteness to the point where it becomes obnoxious. Even withthe fairly cartoony designs, their actual movement is pretty realistic, and isnever exaggerated for comedic effect or goes super-deformed and all that.Furthermore, rare for something of this nature, they are never objectifiedand/or used for fanservice in the slightest. A more realistic or a more adultstyle wouldn’t have been nearly as effective, nor would something sexier. It’sjust enough to make you like the girls and want the best for them, but notenough to get annoying or ruin the mood with unnecessary fanservice.

So basically, to get a little neckbeardy with it, the art styleis meant to make the viewers want to protect and comfort the girls, but notstrangle them for being way too moe, or fuck them for that matter.

…

Well, I mean, lots of people still do, but it’s the internet,so…

…

Moving on.

Anyway, continuing with theanimation, let’s talk about the witches. In sharp contrast to the somewhatcartoony designed but mostly realistically animated real world, the witchbarriers go for a surreal, dream-like feel, with the weird, jerky, low framerate movements of the witches and their familiars to the bizarre designs thatstick more-or-less to aesthetic themes but still have no explanation and anoverall look that, rather than being overly and obviously dark and evil, isinstead…wrong. Off. Alien. Discomforting rather than outright scary. Thewitches are meant to clash with the characters’ animation in a way that isdeliberately uncomfortable without spilling into cheesy. I mean, puffballs withbutterfly bodies and big handlebar mustaches? Spotted mice in nurse hats? Howis that scary? But just look at how they move, how they sound, and it becomesincredibly unnerving. Even before the big episode three twist, until which PMMMcould still pass for a more standard Magical Girl show, it still stood out withjust how bizarrely disturbing its monsters are. There is something genuinelyunsettling about them, a sense of dread that just permeates their every scene,even when our heroes are victorious.

And with that, I’ve exhaustedmost of the synonyms for “disturbing.” Let’s move on.

So, we’ve gone over how theart and animation is carefully crafted to evoke a specific reaction from theviewers, but what about the story itself? Well, like what was discussedearlier, part of what makes PMMM work so well is that despite its grandambitions and epic feels, the bulk of the show is…actually pretty small. Imean, save for the universe-changing repercussions of Madoka’s wish at the veryend, most of the focus is kept away from the world at large and remains on asmall group of characters and how being sucked into the contract system affectsthem. The story revolves around these five girls and is all about theirpersonal lives, and the whole Incubator thing is portrayed as alarger-than-they-can-imagine thing that’s been going on since the beginning oftime that they can’t do anything about, so why even bother trying? For Kyubey,it’s pretty much just business as usual, with the gang just being another setof marks in a long, long line of them, to be chewed up and spat out by the cogsof his machine.

And that takes us to what youmentioned earlier, about how PMMM has fewer character deaths, less violence,and nearly no gore in comparison to other shows, but somehow manages to leave abigger impact. And that comes down to one of the most important rules aboutstorytelling: it’s not what you’re about, it’s how you’re about it. Killing offcharacters doesn’t make a story mature, hurting your characters doesn’t makeyour story mature, or even using something as risky as rape doesn’t make yourstory mature; those are just the catalysts. Rather, maturity comes fromexploring how those things affect your characters, how it changes their livesand how they change and grow in response to them. Mami’s sudden and shockingdeath had profound effects on Madoka and Sayaka, and it’s by exploring thoseeffects that it feels like it has such a big impact, in that it shatteredMadoka’s perfect world and sent her into a bout of depression while motivatingSayaka into recklessness to compensate for her guilt in not being there to helpMami and overcompensate in trying to take her place. The reveal of the MagicalGirls as liches with their souls literally contained within their soul gems wasa big twist in of itself, but by taking the time to show how it set Sayaka intoher downward spiral into self-destruction coupled with having the oppositeeffect on Kyoko by jarring her out of her self-centered nihilism and motivatingher to start reaching out to Sayaka it really does feel like it has actualmeaning beyond shock value. And their deaths become even more tragic, asKyubey’s later monologue shows that they were doomed from the beginning, andnothing other than a damned miracle was going to save anyone. And being that hehad the monopoly on miracles in that universe, the audience is left bitingtheir nails and hanging on the edges of their seats through the climax, prayingthat an out would be found while fearing that there would be none to be found.Which just makes Madoka’s loophole of a wish all the more gratifying, whilestill being bittersweet. Because a happy ending just wasn’t possible, but shefound a way to prevent an all-out tragedy, a way to alleviate the bulk of thepain. And all it cost was her earthly existence.

Anyway, we’ve talked aboutthe visuals and story direction, so now let’s talk characterization. This is yetanother place where this show shines. Becauseeven though it only had a few episodes, the relatively small cast and focus ontheir personal problems allowed for a lot of character development. It helped that,save for Madoka’s, each of their wishes was something small and easilyunderstandable. Mami just wanted to live, Kyoko just wanted people to listen toher father, Sayaka just wanted her close friend and crush to get better whiletaking up Mami’s responsibilities, and Homura just wanted to save her dearfriend, who had been one of the few people to ever give her positive attention.Hell, even Madoka’s original wish was to save a cat. And like their designs,their personalities are all distinct, balanced between likeable strengths andtragic flaws: Mami is stalwart and nurturing, but also tripped up by hercrippling loneliness. Sayaka is determine and has a strong sense of justice,but also brash and prone to self-loathing. Madoka is kind-hearted andencouraging, but held back by her lack of self-esteem. As for Homura and Kyoko,they’re introduced us when they are at their worst, but do to cleverstorytelling and exposition, we then see the goodness in them and what theyused to be, and it becomes all the more easier to understand how they becamethe way they are. And again, despite its small number of episodes, the showreally takes the time to show how these personalities bounce off each other andconflict, while also showing how the consequences of their actions change them.I really like how they did it two: the show is essentially divided into fourmini-arcs of three episodes apiece, with the main focus on a different girl perarc, with Madoka being something of a passive POV protagonist throughout the wholeshow: first it’s Mami, then Sayaka, then Kyoko, and finally Homura. And as isexpected, each mini-arc ends in a tragedy, from Mami’s death to Sayaka’srealization about the truth of soul gems to Kyoko’s final stand to Homurafeeling as if she’s lost Madoka forever. But even with all that dark, it stillends on a note that is, while bittersweet, is still optimistic. Madoka is stillgone and Sayaka is still dead, but they seem to have come to terms with that. Also,Kyoko and Mami are alive and on good terms again, Homura has something new tofight for, and the universe is a little less cruel, showing that despiteeverything, it was all worth it in the end, and all of their struggles, pains,mistakes, and tears mattered.

I could go on and on and on,but let’s sum it up with a tl;dr: Puella Magi Madoka Magica may not have had nearly the amount of death and despair as other shows and very littlegore, but it had a far greater impact because it was carefully and brilliantlyconstructed from top to bottom to hit you right where it hurts, twist theknife, and still make you thankful for the ride. And I wouldn’t have it anyother way.

[minikitti123]

Hey guys, Long Anime Post Here

Hi everyone! This post is gonna be extremely long, so please buckle up! I recently finished watching The Promised Neverland, and I thought it was amazing! I decided to head over to MyAnimeList and take a look at some of the discussions that were going on, and I came across one that I disagree heavily with. The person tries to show inconsistencies within the show, and many of them made no sense to me. I felt compelled to put my arguments and reasons as well. I really enjoy discussions about anime as well as analysis, so I had fun writing up my criticism of this posters problems with the show. I thought the show was awesome, but i know some disagree. Please feel free to share your thoughts with me as well! 

The link to the original post on MyAnimeList is here: https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1774785

My original response is here: https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1823693

MyAnimeList is here if you wanna check it out as well: https://myanimelist.net/profile/Minikitti123

THIS POST WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE ANIME THE PROMISED NEVERLAND (NO SPOILERS FOR THE MANGA, THOUGH i HAVE READ IT. THIS IS A WARNING. IF YOU PROCEED, YOU WILL MOST DEFINITELY BE SPOILED.)

(The original Poster is in Bold, my answers are in regular.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “Everyone saw her leave with bunny, then next scene bunny is gone and magically in dinning hall. Nobody in the show questions that's strange we just saw her leave with bunny. How did it magically get there? Instead, they contemplate what to do and decide to go drop off bunny. As we’ve seen, Isabella keeps several toys from the children over the years, so it would make sense that she took the bunny from Conny before leaving (whether or not Conny knew she took it is another question altogether, but something tells me that Isabella took it without saying anything and Conny didn’t notice). Ray most likely knew this and set the bunny out of purpose. Whether that was a smart move on Ray’s part, I don’t know. I agree that there were probably better ways to do this but I think that it causes tension, there wouldn’t be as much stress watching a scene if everything went to plan, would it? Also, they may be top scorers, but they are still CHILDREN. Even some of the smartest people I know make mistakes in highly stressful situations, and some people overlook simpler, better answers to problems because they’re too busy making it difficult. “Even tho they are characterized perfect intelligence test scorers, they forgot an important scene that happen couple mins ago. You know what you need in intelligence test? A good memory. It's as if some fairy casted an amnesia spell on all these characters to forget what they just saw. Everyone on this forums said it would be explained and the plothole disproved; however, later episodes only further proves the plothole and ruins the characterization as well.” I don’t necessarily see how this RUINS their characterization. I know several very smart people with a problematic memory. And even if they aren’t, it doesn’t ruin them completely, it just honestly makes them feel more relatable to me, they are incredibly smart but still forget occasionally, ect. Either way though, it is logical to assume that Conny could have set the bunny down before leaving for Isabella to grab. Conny is seen as a little slower on the uptake, so it isn’t that hard to believe she might have absentmindedly set it down and forgot to retrieve it. She is 6, after all. The other characters know that about Conny too. Emma looked shocked that the bunny had been left behind, probably because she DID see Conny with it, and might have been wondering why she set it down. (Sidenote: In the manga, Conny isn’t carrying her bunny in that scene, the anime might have been better off going that route but whatever.) Later, in the story reveals Mother is trained to be high IQ and meticulously collects the toys. Why wouldn't she ask about the bunny from Connie that she just saw? Why would she let bunny be in house, so other kids could find out and thus revealing everything? It goes everything against the character. Isabella could have done that, but it honestly makes more sense for her to just take it without Conny’s knowledge to me. Conny is seen as absentminded, so she most likely wouldn’t have noticed, and if she did, Isabella could have lied and told her it was in the suitcase. Isabella most likely hid the bunny, but Ray would have known where to look and set the bunny out. To be honest, this could have been done better but I don’t necessarily think it ruins anything. Isabella might have thought she didn’t hide it well enough? Not sure, but that’s what I think. Lastly, how come Ray let Emma and Norman leave with bunny, which exposes him trying to ruin Mother because he did nothing to stop them. Ray's suppose to be smart and top scorer. Mother would have figured out Ray betrayed her. 200iqbtw I mean, there’s no reason for Emma and Norman to go without having to take it to Conny, and I’m not sure if Ray could have convinced Emma and Norman to go to the gate for no reason except curiosity. Maybe Norman, but I think that would be against Emma’s character to do that. It could have been done better, but with Emma’s stubborn attitude, would Ray have realistically been able to stop her from going to give the bunny to Conny if she really wanted to? Also, Ray wasn’t meaning for them to leave Little Bunny behind. If they had come back with the toy, Isabella would not have found out and Ray could have probably put the toy back where he found it. That was a mistake in the plan, and was used to create tension. I quite liked it actually. Realistically, Ray should just told them and show them hiding behind bush. Or they finally question Mother's authority and go stalk mother see what happens to Connie. Avoiding the whole bunny plothole situation. Is the writer so desperate for drama to create a betrayal/spy reveal that they have dumb down Ray and Mother? Right, the characters are only smart enough when the plot needs them to be and dumb enough to create shallow forms of tension. This is just one of many inconsistencies. Think about how much Emma loves Isabella, and how much she loves the house. Do you honestly think, with her stubborn, loving personality, that she would have believed Ray? She most likely would have had a similar reaction to Don, and with no proof to back it, what could Ray do? Also, Ray is shown messing around with Emma in the first episode, so Emma could see this as him trying to trick her. Norman I can see a little better, because of his curious nature. Plus, where would they hide? There weren’t really bushes, and hiding in bushes is pretty unrealistic anyway. The demons could smell them, and they barely got away. That would be extremely dangerous for the kids. The writer desperate for drama? He has to create suspense, that’s part of what makes a good story. It’s his job as a writer to make us as the audience feel these things, so yes, that’s the effect he was going for. I don’t see how this dumbs down the characters, and if they hadn’t left Little Bunny, Ray’s plan would have been fine. This is not make the characters “dumb”, it makes them more relatable. Also, Isabella has been working with Ray for 6 years. Ray has never before caused a stir, and has watched his siblings die all this time, all the while spying on them all. What reason does she have to suspect him now, after all this time? If Ray’s plan had gone perfect, there would be no reason except for maybe Emma and Norman’s reactions in episode 2. 1. Ray is given instant camera with Polaroids that works. Who is still working in factories making Polaroids in 2045 during demon apocalypse? Also, why would the mother give Ray a instant camera, a potential threat of proving demons are real. She suppose to have 200iq, where is it??? This is a spoiler for the manga, so I won’t go into this too much, but Krone did say that there were humans other than the ones at the farms, ones that are equal to those of demons. Also, Ray mentions in episode 5 that all the machines he got were “older models”, so realistically, they were probably just old relics and might not even be in make anymore. They don’t make quite a few old video game consoles anymore, but you can still buy them, can’t you? Isabella is shown to be close to Grandma, so she might have special privileges to get items like that. As for you thinking Ray would take a picture of the demons, the next shipment after he received the camera was to be his own. The demons don’t show up unless it is for shipment. He wouldn’t have gotten away with that, period. The most he could have done was take a picture of Isabella’s secret room, but that would have been dangerous and could easily be explained. Isabella is probably thinking, “what’s the harm?” She also has a soft spot for Ray, so in my mind it actually does well for her as a character. 2. The children have complete access to metal utensils, poisons, scalpels, medicine supplies, tools, etc.In what reality would you give your children any access to these. Does no one remember elementary school???? Utensils were plastic, scissors were blunt, desks and chairs corners are blunt, you play with soft balls, glass were plexiglass, and you most certainly had no access to chemicals/poisons lolollllololollllooool. While they do have access to utensils, they have to get a key for the medical supplies and scalpels, so they don’t technically have complete access to it in Isabella’s mind. They were able to access those items because of Krone’s help. Isabella never “gave them access”. Plus, this isn’t elementary school. These kids all do chores, cook, help around the house, ect. The poison was made from standard items kept around the house, like detergent or soap, so it wouldn’t have made much sense to hide these from the older children, who have to do their chores and such. Plus, if Isabella is killed, the kids would be in danger from the signal set off by Isabella’s chip, which Norman and Emma find out from Krone. 3. The kids have unlimited linen rope making all obstacles pointless. Norman first showed the magical rope when he was going to climb wall. The rope turned from only 25 meters rope only enough to tie around tree, then to over 100 meters+. It was so poorly animated and ridiculous. At that point, I thought might as well give the kids ladders. Also, what was the point in having cliff reveal climax, if they can just zipline across with infinite linens? I don’t know if they’re unlimited, but given how many kids there are I don’t think it is that far out there for them to have that much linen. It miht have been a bit more out there as a scene, but it makes at least a little bit of sense. He used the higher altitude of the tree branch in order to create tension on the rope and the gravitational force gave him the momentum to get up the wall. He is very intelligent, so he would have known this was his best way of getting up the wall with his lack of physical ability. A bit far out there? Yes. But this is an anime with demons, is it really all that deep? The cliff reveal was to create even more tension, thinking that there’s no way they can escape unless it’s through the very dangerous bridge, in which Norman figures out another way. 4. Ray steals several canisters of lamp oil. There's still people working oil rigs in 2045 in post apocalypse to get lamp oil???? Mother doesn't even notice nor cares something that is precious. They seem to have plenty of lamp oil, considering Isabella and the other children are seen using them throughout the series. Ray has had 6 years to prepare, taking one or two at a time would not be nearly as noticeable as you think. Like I said before, manga spoiler, but Krone does mention other humans besides those in the farms. 5. Endless supplies of food, when they plan their escape on the end of shipment date. How can you have more food at the last day of shipment date, when you spend all those resources training and exercising. You have to eat ton food to build muscle; otherwise, your body starts to eats itself. Also, how does mother not notice food supply being used rapidly? Literally, a huge indicator they are training. She suppose to be smart and monitoring supplies, so she can request more. They never claimed to have an infinite amount of food, but if every kid took a little from every meal every single day for more than two months leading to the escape, that could build up to quite a bit very quickly. They most likely at about the same, probably just a little under to be able to save food. Gaining muscle wasn’t necessarily their goal, it was more to become faster, more vigilant, faster at making decisions, ect. Isabella was busy keeping her eyes on Emma and Ray, and possibly even Don and Gilda, but she had absolutely no suspicion about any of the other children, making the build up of food a lot more reasonable and realistic. They most likely don’t take enough for her to notice, taking in small increments. -Unlimited access knowledge, despite them being sheltered and demons don't censor. How nice of them. I wouldn’t call their knowledge infinite or unlimited, and I’m sure the demons do slightly sensor, but this is supposed to be an “orphanage”. What sense would it make for the kids not to know a single thing about the outside world, wouldn’t that make them more curious? They are supposed to grow up happy and healthy, with hopes and dreams and aspirations. It makes sense for them to at least have a tiny bit of understanding about the outside. a. Norman knows how to lockpick, when it is convenient for the plot to make rope. It is convenient, I’ll give you that. But he might have learned it from a book, who knows? b. Ray knows rfid chips and how to make small taser. Why would demons give them information on rfid chips or how to make a taser???? I’m sure the demons didn’t just give children all the information to make a taser, but Ray is more in the know about everything because of his memory. He has Isabella to give him occasional information and machines, so he experiments. Ray is shown as being excellent with machines and is very intelligent. c. They know to look for cameras, listening devices, and even Morse code in 2045. The demons are smart enough to conquer the human species, but too dumb to notice pattern codes being written on books? It’s not that the demons aren’t smart enough to notice the codes, they probably just don’t bother checking. They most likely consider the children to be just meat, even if they are incredibly intelligent meat. They are underestimating them BECAUSE the demons have the upper hand. They probably think that there’s no way that a mere human could get the best of them. None of this makes sense why would the demons give them the world's information and not censorship. Majority of dominant groups in history censors information from the losing side. Because, like I stated, this would make them even more curious. Even just not being allowed past the gate gives the characters reason to be curious and to try looking outside. To an extent, I am sure they are censoring, just not as much as you might think they should. Also, The demon goal is develop high iq kids not knowledgeable ones. Instead, the books would be filled with math questions, probabilities, puzzles, and other problem solving to increase IQ. It shouldn't have the world information because that would make them curious about the world and want to explore outside of the farm. The writer seems doesn't understand the difference between high IQ and being knowledgeable. I’m sure they have plenty of books like that, but the demons are underestimating the abilities of the children so they think it couldn’t possibly hurt. I personally think NOT having the information would make them even more curious. I’m sure the writer understands just fine, thank you. -constant last minute flashbacks to gain pitty pts, instead of a natural character building from the start. How am I suppose sympathize wit 2d characters in a contrived scenario with demons and now you develop them when they are dead or their story arc is over. Why didn't you develop them from start, so I get to be immerse how real characters are? It is like building a house's foundation last and walls fall apart. I like how you say “last minute” flashbacks like this isn’t employed in basically any shounen anime ever. This technique is used all the time in anime, and are not really even constant. If you don’t like the flashbacks that’s cool, it’s your opinion, but I happen to like what it does for a character. The characters are developed well, in my opinion, even without the flashbacks. Sorry, just my opinion, I think it works (overuse is kinda monotonous though, to be fair). -Plot armor Plot armor Plot Armor. This show should be called Plot Armmor a1. Mother breaks Emma leg, but can't kill her cause Plot armor. There is no real threat in this show because of plot armor this show established. I’m sorry, what? Do you know how many problems that would cause for Isabella? Even if Grandma is on her side, I doubt all the demons would be so forgiving of her mess-up. She would have taken a serious hit in her reputation at the very least, especially since Emma is so valuable as merchandise. The threat is real, because now Norman can’t run away without leaving Emma behind. Plot armor is a no here, because there is a very good reason for Isabella not to kill Emma. a2. Norman no death scene when red shirts are given. Can't kill main character offscreen that's bad writing, so he has PLOT ARMOR. Making all flashbacks pointless. It isn’t necessarily bad writing, it just makes the audience wonder a little more and the ends are a bit looser, it leaves room for interpretation. I don’t know why you would see this as plot armor, that makes no sense. a3. Don going ziplining without a safety rope. Ofc he get it first try cause he has plot armor. To an extent, this is a fair point. However, the kids are shown practicing ziplining using rope, so doesn’t it maybe make sense he would have practiced with slinging the rope and sliding on the same rope? If he didn’t get it first try that night, he would be dead, but it most likely wasn’t his first practice. a4. The constant empty threats or glances, when they have plot armor. You know they aren't going to kill the main characters early. What makes it even worse is that they know they have plot armor established in episode 2, when Norman calculates their value. They had to kill 36 kids to get 3 perfect scoring kids. To an extent the threats are empty, but Emma got her leg broken and Norman was sent off, and Ray was next. Ray would have gone through with his plan to light himself up if not for Emma and Norman. Just because those other children aren’t perfect scorers, that doesn’t mean they weren’t highly valued. I’m sure there were several older, intelligent kids who made it to 12 as well. So, to an extent, I see your point, but I disagree. This why Asian horror films and older horror films don't put their characters under threat early. It's insulting and gimmicky because once you see one horror film with jumpscares/fake tension moments and nothing happens then you know gonna be same for rest films. I don’t really understand the point you’re trying to make here, so I’m just gonna leave this one alone for the most part. I think it does very well at building up tension and some of the jump scares genuinely shook me a little bit. Instead, they spend time developing their characters first. So, that viewers emotionally attach to them, when shit goes down in end you care for them. This is why the whole crux of decent horror/thriller/psychological show is character development, which this show has major problems in. I don’t agree that the characters are developed badly, so there isn’t much point on me commenting on this part. mom -conflict of character empathy b1. 1st ep shown hugging Connie picture alone implying she does have empathy for kids. However, 2nd ep kids figured out she has murdered at least 36+ kids possibly even 60kids, and she goes so far as collects kids toys that were shipped. How does it make sense for her to show no signs of trauma, have no coping mechanisms, nor she is emotionally disconnected? She continues to try emotionally connect with the kids. You would have to be a psychopath to have a remainder of all kids she watch die and go on as if nothing happened or committed suicide along time ago. The toys would constantly trigger her traumatic events. I don't understand how can people say she is realistic. 36+KIDS!!! PEOPLE!!! NOT EVERYONE REACTS THE SAME WAY TO TRAUMA. Sorry, I just had to get that part out. Isabella, having been in that place herself, obviously does have empathy for the kids, because she understands what it’s like to be in the dark and to later on have to face the horror of it herself. But, even in real life, sometimes people do what they have to do to survive. And that’s what Isabella does. In my opinion, her even showing empathy and emotion at all is proof that it fucks with her at least a little. For example, the longing way she touches the photograph Ray takes of her, or her face when Norman asks if she is happy in episode 10, both show her as affected by it all. She sings that lullaby constantly, almost like an anxiety crutch. Emotionally connecting with the kids is her wish, even if she does have to kill them later. Despite it being really screwed up, she really does want them to be the happiest they can be before death. After all, there’s not a single thing she can do to stop it. Is she a psychopath? I don’t think so, but I don’t know for sure. Maybe? The whole reason for her being a mom is to survive, everything she has gone through, why would she kill herself? Like I said, everyone deals with trauma differently. - 200iq btw perfect scores c1. Mother brings in krone, who trains and gives tons info to kids on how to escape. It completely backed fired for mother. How did she not see this coming, when becoming nanny is competitive field. The reason Isabella brought Krone was because she was already actively suspicious of Ray, and wanted to deter him with a force he couldn’t control. Ray is used to knowing everything and being able to control a situation, but this is not something he was prepared for. She might have seen it coming, but she most likely thought the kids wouldn’t get anywhere either way, so she was underestimating them. She killed Krone either way, so I guess it doesn’t matter. c2. She does literally nothing, which exposes Ray as spy. Why didn't she do anything to protect his cover? Why didn't she do anything to reinforce her side of story??? Up to this point in the story, she is most likely at least a bit suspicious of Ray. She probably figured it wouldn’t matter if his cover was blown, because Emma would never leave him behind regardless. c3. She lets them go to wall all the time and only caught them once, let's them train, gives them tons information to help their escape, she let's them tell other kids exposing her, let them plan, and in end she even let's them escape. Only time she catches them is to break Emma's leg, which is sign of desperation. After completely losing the information game for doing nothing, she begs for help from grandma to deal with krone, which was her mistake to begin with. How is she 200iq and playing 10d chess again? Like I said, she is underestimating them. With all the difficulties like the wall, the younger children, getting over the cliff, the security near the bridge, ect, she probably just thought it wasn’t possible. She might have been desperate and only caught them this time to break Emma’s leg because of Norman’s upcoming shipment. She needed to ensure none of them would go anywhere. She didn’t really beg grandma for help, she knew grandma would take her side and gave Krone the chance to not betray her, even though Isabella knew she would. Pretty decent strategy, but not perfect. c4. She wasted all her time on radio and signaling demons, which is bad idea because why would tell your 0 tolerance boss, who eats humans, that you majorly fucked up. Instead, she could have used that time to catch up to Emma break her leg again and forcing all kids back home again. She even caught up to them in end. Imagine not wasting that time on radio. Honestly, I completely agree with this one. Maybe she wasn’t thinking straight because she was panicking? I don’t think she could have forced all the kids home, but they wouldn’t have left Emma, so that would have definitely been the better option for her to take. Maybe she wanted them to escape after all? She seemed fine letting them go in the end scene, maybe she was giving them time or just genuinely didn’t think about it? But honestly, would it have really mattered? The kids might have been able to overpower her together, and even if they killed her, they would probably have enough time to get away before demons showed, and the tracking devices were now null, so.. idk. krone d1. krone copes through violence and beating doll. She is only character that is consistent with her story. However, she is a useless character for the story and actually ruins the other characters. I don’t think she is useless, she is another take on the trauma and stress of going through what Isabella did, and was good for creating tension and giving the children information. I quite liked her, actually. Her death scene was haunting to watch, and it could maybe show that this is what would happen if Isabella messed up as well? Who knows. -mom loses development because time spent on krone. -mom looks like a moron. krone trains kids and give them tons info. This also weakens the kids characters, instead of the kids the opportunity to prove their smart. Mom actually gains because of Krone. She is shown as business woman, no nonsense, though she is also seen bragging about her children to Krone, showing she does actually care a little. It gives Isabella more edge to be even scarier later on. It doesn’t weaken the kids’ characters, because half the information they asked, they already knew the answer. They were trying to test Krone to make sure she wasn’t going to lie. They needed the information, and they got it. Not stupid on their part to use an opportunity freely given to them. Always make use of what you have before it’s gone. d2. Her flashback of them learning martial arts made no sense. Seeing how moms never use it. In the ten years, not once she used it and only gets dull over time. Also, the kids would never fight 1 on 1 lolol this isn't a fighting anime. To an extent, it makes sense, but I agree with your point a bit. However, I think Isabella used her fighting knowledge to successfully make a clean break in Emma’s leg, so there is a tiny reason for why this is in there at least. d3. ep 3 or 4 krone shows tracking device shows kids location during hide and seek. ep 7 the first thing krone shows kids tracking device only shows 1 dot , when emma and norman are there. In ep 11, they show that there were kids behind door overhearing whole convo to prove moms selling them to demons. Krone should have saw all bright dots on tracking device of all kids behind door. However, none of them show up on tracking device. Even tracking device only allowed to show kids when plot needs it. This is actually a very good point, and one I hadn’t really thought of. norman e1. 2nd episode he has trouble climbing tree, so emma has to climb for him. forgot episode #, but he runs up perpendicular to wall lolololo. He defys the laws of gravity, yet jumping to otherside of cliff is impossible for him lol. Bad writing because it ruins the climax reveal of the cliff, since he can obviously just jump over. Also, they could just escape that night. They built up that cliff reveal by having viewers being curious as why is security lax, only to be ruined by previous scene norman running up wall defying gravity. Norman doesn’t defy laws of gravity, he uses the gravitational pull of the higher branch to gain momentum enough to swing himself up, in like an arc. Is it a little crazy? Yeah, but it’s an anime, and it fits his character well enough at least. Obviously he can’t just jump to the other side, he doesn’t have the strength of Don to throw far enough, and the area he was at first wasn’t the area they crossed anyway. This does not at all ruin the reveal in my opinion. e2. He's shown to care about kids, but connie death traumatic experience but shows nothing afterwards. That's not how first time experiencing trauma works. They would be having nightmares involuntary screaming for at least a week. You can't just magically alter your body's reactions. Norman is shown having nightmares later on, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t having any about Conny before that scene is shown. Not everyone screams in their nightmares, some people twitch, gasp, or just sweat and lie still. I’m just saying, everyone has different reactions. e3. He's curious to go to wall all time, but never curious to lockpick the gate and see whats outside the wall or open all doors in house find mother lying even more. He already knows Mother is liar, when she said going to wall is dangerous. Why wouldn't he want to explore more? Again he's curious, but never questions the following: -why can't they go past line mother said not to - which first episode they prove she is lying and at the gate during day looks like 5 years old. -why they never allowed to go to outside -why do they never meet the parents adopting -why have they never gotten any letters from kids that are adopted -why they are labeled numbers on side of their neck If he was realistically this smart, then he would have question everything mother has lied about and realized sooner they're in a prison with numbers labeled on them. There’s a simple reason for this, and it’s that he trusts her enough not to look into it too far. Plus, none of the rooms give anything away, only the gate, the fence, and the secret room, which he does not know about at that time. Young people, even if they are curious, place heavy amounts of trust in the words of adults, and he has no reason at this point not to trust in Isabella. He suspects she lies, but most likely thinks that it is for his own good. The letter thing is more suspicious, but I highly doubt he is gonna disobey just for that. Norman has been in this place since he was a baby, and all his siblings have numbers, so it makes sense to just think of them as normal. Even though he is curious, he is placing trust in Isabella as his caretaker, which several children, even ones who are victims of abuse, do as well. It’s just a kid thing. e4. He shows off to krone that he can run faster than her. He is characterize as mature and strategist, yet shows off all strategies and proves he's faster than krone. Basic strategy 101 don't give your enemy all your strategies and don't showoff proving your capable. When you are strong, pretend you are weak. To create doubt and uncertainty. Krone would have most likely known Norman was holding back on purpose. Norman is still more nervous about Isabella than he is of Krone. That strategy would work, but I think Norman has it to not hold back. Krone might have gotten a little more slowed due to having already been sprinting for 20 minutes. e5. doesn't even contemplate on capturing or murdering mother. Killing mother eliminates the threat, who knows them. 2nd reveals the demons response time to situation, how far is reinforcements, and that moms tracking device signals them. Ray and Norman contemplate this in episode 3, but it is revealed by Krone in episode 7 that killing Isabella would set of an alarm to the demons. Norman is playing everything safe and planning before launching an attack. He is planning ahead rather than being impulsive. e6. Capturing is best option before they escape. So, mother doesn't warn or goes after them like it did in finale. It was so bad. She could went after them and break their legs again. Capturing her might have worked, but think about how strong Isabella is. It would have been difficult. Emma tried to hold Isabella back and got her leg broken. Don is one of the strongest and I have my doubts he could have taken down Isabella. e7. Why did Norman plan on escaping on last day of shipment, when food supplies are depleted, as noted above. Also, the demons will know they are escaping because no one shows up for shipment. The best time escape is a month in so they have 1month of food reserves to start a new life and the demons wouldn't know. How are you going to survive with low food rations?? Are chickens just gonna magically appear and feed them? What kind master plan is this? Food supplies are not depleted, they are being stored. Waiting until the last minute was a good idea so they could gather until the very end. They stored food for months for this. The demons wouldn’t have known without Isabella letting them know that night, and being the night before shipment, that gave them an entire day to get gone before the demons came after them. ray f1. exposes himself to mom doing nothing to stop norman or emma from going to gate and delivering the bunny. He could have said he can deliver the bunny and the rest can stay in house. Mom should known ray betrayed her and stop giving stuff. Ray should known this exposes him. I gave my answer to this above, but to summarize, it could have been done better, but if all had gone to plan, it would have definitely worked. Isabella has a soft spot for Ray I think, so she allows him closer to her regardless. f2. Only wants them three to escape, when having groups people spread increases his chances for survival. if they escape in all directions, this is best chance of them surviving. Also, more cannon fodder/ red shirts to protect main characters. Ray should know this by reading all his books. Larger groups don’t necessarily mean increasing chances of survival. In fact, the more people, the worse it would be to get them all out safely. They would never want to split up the entire group, there’s no way. I hate to say it, I wanted them all to get out, but when Ray said it was impossible I found myself agreeing a little bit. The plan worked and I am very happy it did, but it could have easily gone wrong. The “cannon fodder” comment is gross and I’m just not gonna touch that one. f3. gives away info that don and gilda knows the truth, when they can be potential wild card. Why give enemy info?? Now, Mom knows to watch them, but of course she doesn't cause of plot. They get away training and building ropes. He does, but Isabella was smarter and caught him. Isabella doesn’t watch them as closely because of Emma and Ray being the more dangerous to look out for, and she probably didn’t think Don and Gilda could do it on their own. What Isabella didn’t know was that there were more children involved. f4. Fetus memories Not fragmented memories. Fully detailed fetus memories of bridge and being close to demon hq lololo. Again deprives ray demonstrating his genius and instead given knowledge by the writer. Why didn't he share any info on bridge being demon hq, beforehand? He doesn’t have fully detailed memories, just snippets. He doesn’t know everything, just where he came from and a bit about the demons and other children. If he had full details he would have known all about the best way to escape, but he didn’t. He didn’t know about the bridge, just that the babies came from headquarters and they came through the gate. f5. Escaping at night is dumb strategically wise. Because of poor vision and they are running. If one of them trips, someone sprains their ankles. It's over. Of course that won't happen because that's realistic. Also, if the demons have Helicopters or Predator drones with thermals, they are fucked. He's suppose to be the Technology expert btw. This is a fair enough point. It would be very dangerous. But, to be fair, during the day they would have had no chance of getting away without alerting Isabella. The fire would have only really worked as a plan at night. The demons may be capable of that, but they were watching the bridge, not the cliff. Ray was planning on being a distraction so he thought the kids would make it to the bridge before Isabella could alert the demons. emma g1. there's no backstory about her or any explanation for her behavior. There's literally nothing. You see glimpses of the dynamic between her, Ray, and Norman in Norman’s flashback, and the one fron the very beginning. She is characterized as being stubborn (she keeps trying to see and talk to Norman while he is sick), but kind and fun-loving, just through those flashbacks. There is something, but obviously you weren’t looking hard enough. g2. emma cutting her ear was pointless and only delayed mother like 10 seconds. She even caught up to them, despite her wasting all her time on radio and not going after them. She could just met up in forest with other kids like mother told her to, then taser the device in the forest before going to the wall. Her cutting her ear only told mother that she is escaping. If she didn't cut her ear, mother would assume she was with kids. Perfect test scorer btw. Emma did not have the time to very carefully cut the tracker out, and the other children had the taser, so this was honestly the best way to make time for herself and the children. What you said could have worked, but I also think that Emaa cutting her ear placed a lot of pressure on Isabella, distracting her and possibly making her lose focus, which is possibly why she made her dumb decisions. I think it was a good move, but maybe not a completely 100% necessary one. g3. let's ray going thru suicide plan, instead of telling him norman's plan. At no point she just tells ray the plan before he lights the match. She suppose to be caring. Why would she risk matching lighting up. Another pointless dramatic scene for sake of being melodramatic. They had all this time to train, hid food, tell other kids, but can't tell ray cause drama. Emma could have told him Norman’s plan, very true. But then it wouldn’t have been as exciting to watch, it wouldn’t have the same tension, the suspense. I think this moment actually places even more personality to Ray as well. Plus, Ray might not have agreed and found it too risky, he wanted to die anyway, had since the beginning. This was Emma’s best shot at saving Ray’s life. The writer’s job is to make drama. Just saying. g4. Experiences traumatic experience even goes so far to puking on Connie's death, then nothing. Ptsd patients take therapy and even necessary meds. Next day just gets over it and everything is fine. Realistically, she would be having nightmares for month and screaming involuntary at night waking up whole house. It's like they forgot traumatizing experience seeing Connie's dead body. Of course, because Connie is just another plot device shock value. Emma doesn’t just “get over it”. She has nightmares, she is probably constantly thinking about Conny, she wants to save the other kids because of what happened to Conny, which is why she keeps mentioning her in the first couple episodes. She still has trouble putting up a wall around mom, and she is so determined partly because of what she saw. I don’t know how you can honestly say that Emma doesn’t care, it’s ridiculous. Also, forgot to talk about demon scene saying it's ok to kill the kids. This is bad writing because brain dies off first in couple minutes. This why you are taught in middle school health class, taken cpr, or watch medical dramas past 6mins and they are brain dead. 3mins in and the brain is already suffering severe damage. How can demons live off dead brain mush, when they been culling off kids for an intelligent brain. why does pointing out terrible writing matters? Because you are lowering the writing standards for horror/psychological/thriller genre. The only thing going for this genre has is the quality of writing. It's not fighting or boobie anime, where you can have shitty writing, but amazing fighting choreography and as anime connoisseurs call it "artwork". The millions dollars that is spent on this anime could been spent to help bigger budget with other better animes or even help Japanese films for better productions. Or instead of giving them money for a fake 2d emotional abuse children scenes, actually donate the millions of dollars to real abused children charities. Your point here is ridiculous, plenty of people love this anime (me included). I could say the same thing to you, I’m sure you enjoy a show that I don’t. Why waste money on that, donate to charity instead! Let me tell you, I donate to charity every single month. What people do with their money and budget is THEIR business and not yours. If someone wants to use their money on making a shitty movie or something, let them. It’s their money. I had fun writing my opinion on your critiques, but this makes you sound tepid and shallow. This would makes sense for superhero shows that have awful heavily edited action scenes, but is high rated cause the viewership is bunch 5 year olds, who can't think yet. However, people here watch 100+ animes, read tons of mangas, and write long descriptive reviews and not realize the bad writing in this show? What's worse is that 62,587 believe this show writing is perfect and complete masterpiece. 97,932 think the writing is actually good. This is far more horrifying than demons. Does it make you feel better to discredit other people’s opinions? I really enjoyed this show, and you didn’t. That’s fine. But what you’re saying is that people shouldn’t enjoy the show, and even call them five year olds, and that is ridiculous. Grow up. I know you aren’t gonna read this, but I had fun, and I hope people liked it. Please feel free to put your opinions! I’d love to chat about them!

[mihanada]

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

(back to masterpost)

Oooh boy was this a wild chapter. but! this is also the end of this arc! So tiny!

Chapter 62: Evil (Part 2)

“Wei WuXian had clearly been a bright, high-spirited boy...Yet, this person was entirely enveloped in a cold, dark energy. He was handsome, yet pale-faced, his smile eerie.”

D:

Here it is, the transition from Wei Wuxian the first disciple of the Yunmeng Jiang Sect to the Yiling Patriarch.

“All of the flesh on his legs had been sliced off, piece by piece. And, likely… all of the flesh had been eaten by himself!”

Hey. Hey. Just in case you forgot that this novel was low-key gross and gory.

This is some great horror material. And remember when Wei Wuxian mentioned that he of all people would know about torture methods? (I forgot when he said this, but he did.) WELL. This is the source of that statement.

He was really going for both physically and mentally breaking Wen Chao here, and it succeeded big time.

Imagine how Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji watching from above must feel? It’s like Wei Wuxian is a totally different person.

“...half of Wei WuXian’s face was in the light, the other half in the dark.”

is the symbolism smacking you in the face yet

“Holding what he had fed it in its mouth, it turned around and sat down. Hugging his leg, it chewed fiercely as it glowered at Wen ZhuLiu with cold, glistening eyes.”

yikes it’s the scary baby again. why is it always scary undead babies.

uM eating Wen Chao’s fingers.

(so just how did this happen anyways...was Wen Zhuliu too far away to get to Wen Chao and Wei Wuxian tortured him during that time, or was Wen Zhuliu occupied with fighting some corpses or. It’s likely that Wei Wuxian let them run away like I mentioned last chapter. gotta employ that psychological warfare!)

“Wen ZhuLiu, “I can’t fail to repay the debt I owe their generosity.”

i mean, at this point I think it’s been paid in full what the heck did they even do for you.

“Why is it that the debt you owe has to be repaid at the expense of others!”

idk I just like this line. Also, it hits a sore spot, and he loses a bit of his composure and gets angry.

“Burned skin was naturally weak to begin with...The uneven, bald head immediately became a bloody, bald head.”

how is Wen Chao still ALIVE. being a cultivator has its downfalls, probably their bodies are a little sturdier than regular people. which is not a good thing.

Also, with Wen Chao being pitiful and wailing in fear this entire chapter, it creates some weird dissonance.

On one hand, you don’t feel pity for him, he’s a terrible person.

On the other hand, who deserves this level of torture inflicted upon them?

The more you read, the more excessive it becomes.

“The ghoul child, however, had bit out an entire chunk of the flesh on his hand and spat it out. He continued to devour the palm.”

this is a lovely image. your core melting hand can’t help you now.

“Wen ZhuLiu’s large, heavy body had been lifted up by the surging whip and was now dangling in the air.”

Ok, a lot happens in the span of these two paragraphs. I did a little cheer when Jiang Cheng managed to get ahold of this guy. He deserves more than a little catharsis after what he went through.

“At the same time, Wei WuXian’s pupils shrunk. He took out a flute from beside his waist and spun around, standing up.”

To his credit, his first reaction is to recall the ghouls/corpses so they don’t attack the wrong people.

“He looked down at Suibian and only responded after a pause, “… Thank you.”

there’s something seriously wrong here, if the torture and controlling corpses wasn’t enough of a hint. That lackluster, soulless response.

“Although the sentence itself seemed to scold him, his tone was full of joy.”

my heart kinda started breaking here. Jiang Cheng seems so happy to have him back, he is willing to ignore all the things that are wrong about this boy he grew up with. And that is not a healthy thing for anyone involved, but realistically, after what they’ve gone through would you expect any other reaction?

“A few moments later, he struck him as well, “Haha, it’s a long story, it’s a long story!”

And now Wei Wuxian tries to answer in kind, tries to act like his usual self.

“...threw me to some hell of a place to suffer.”

If you would have elaborated here...maybe it would have given them some context for what happened to you. But, Wei Wuxian is the type to conceal his suffering for one reason or another, whether it’s to protect others or just because he doesn’t need to justify himself to people. So, he won’t elaborate. It’s done and gone, what’s the point in playing the pity party when they’ve got other business to attend to?

the ghouls are really creepy though. 

“If I say that I found a mysterious cave somewhere and there was a mysterious book that a mysterious expert had left, and then when I came out I was this powerful, would you believe me?”

you troll. you tragic troll.

“Jiang Cheng murmured the words ‘as long as you’re back’ a couple of times before hitting him again, “You really are…! You live on even after being captured by Wen-dogs!”

D: this is also breaking my heart ok.

“To play around, play with them until they die. Straight up killing all of them at once would be too easy on them. Much better killing them in front of one another one by one, one slice after another.”

deefinitely getting unhinged here.

and it really is sad, when you consider who he was before all this terrible shit happened.

“He wanted to protect him, but I wanted to make him see how in his hands, Wen Chao would become more and more distorted, unlike a man but also unlike a monster.”

So the torture was Wen Chao’s punishment. The releasing them and chasing them down was Wen Zhuliu’s punishment.

it’s fitting isn’t it. after Wen Zhuliu’s hands caused so much grief, ripping people’s cores from them, in the end the person he wanted to protect also disintegrated under his touch. but, also perhaps a reflection of what happened with Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian. Jiang Cheng turned into a shadow of himself due to those hands, although he was alive he was already dead inside, and Wei Wuxian couldn’t do anything to help him (until he did, but before that)

“It is not that I want to denounce him.”

This starts Lan Wangji’s really bad communication skills.

Lan Wangji might be seen as the epitome of a righteous cultivator by everyone in-story, but he’s actually quite the flawed person. This is one of his faults. If he could actually explain himself clearly, would this chapter have ended in such on such an uneasy, awkward note?

“Wei Ying, for cultivating an evil path you would eventually have to pay. Throughout time, there has not been a single exception.” “The path would not only damage your body, but your heart as well.”

This is a good example of a passage where the context of the sentence really matters.

How could Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng take this as anything but Lan Wangji criticizing him for demonic cultivation? If you just read those words, you can’t tell if Lan Wangji has another motive.

That’s what I like about this story’s narrative. Technically, you know just as much as the main character does. Really, if you didn’t know Lan Wangji was the love interest and already had a small crush on him, how would you ever interpret this differently from Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng?

“Wei WuXian, “I can pay.” “Of course I can control it.”

I love his youthful confidence and resolve. it’s so foolish, but so fitting.

“After all, on the topic of how my heart is, what could other people know about it? Why should other people care about it?”

this is sad stop ripping my heart out Wei Wuxian

1) he doesn’t think himself worthy of other people’s affections or love, platonic or not, he doesn’t think anyone would care about him

2) the question of: can we really ever know the content of another’s heart?

“Lan WangJi paused. He had suddenly been angered, “… Wei WuXian!”

I’d be kind of angry too. Even objectively, do you really think no one cares about you? the answer is, well, yes in a way. Wei Wuxian can clearly see that Jiang Cheng at least was happy to see him. Yet, in Wei Wuxian’s eyes, his status is as a servant and Jiang Cheng is the “Sect Leaer”, who doesn’t have to worry about his subordinate’s heart.

“The two knew how to continue each other’s words ever since they were young. Now, one sentence after another, the argument flowed seamlessly...”

knowing this all goes to hell later makes me sad

They used to get along so well.

“Hearing this, Lan WangJi’s expression froze. He looked up at Wei WuXian, the lump at his throat trembling, “I…”

probably a response to: “No matter whom he goes back with, it wouldn’t be you.”

but, again, bad communication skills.

“They had both showed him expressions of either despair, anguish, or deep-set hatred. However, right now, their faces above him had the same cold smile, the same cold eyes.”

the symmetry is really nice

“Wei WuXian, “Of course it’d be with a certain thing gone.”

>.>

they went there

“The eyes he looked at Wen Chao and Wen ZhuLiu with glistened, and his grin was both excited and cruel. Jiang Cheng had on him the same expression. Both of them had been buried within the overwhelming pleasure of revenge. Neither had the concern to deal with an outsider.”

You again get that weird mix of satisfaction and dissatisfaction. It’s disturbing, or disconcerting at least.

“The night had passed. The sun in the sky was about to rise.

And the sun on the ground was falling.”

a very simple, but impactful few sentences of description.

The real sun in the heavens is rising.

But the false sun on earth is falling.

(quotes from ExR’s translations)

← back・onward →

[pxiao]

My thoughts on Y_saku

So I have been keeping up on Vr, I hate myself for it by the way, but kept it quiet here because I have nothing good to say about it. BUT episode 69 finally pushed my limit on the protagonist so let’s finally get on why I hate this ass and consider him the most pathetically written main character thus far. If you’re a fan of Y_saku, don’t read cause you know what you’re getting into. 

First let me state what I hate about him on a personal level aka this is just my personal opinion which are, PM is a huge asshole, his voice annoys me and his design tries too hard to be dark and edgy that it hurts to see every time. I like protagonists that are nice or at least have good intentions. Ego has always pissed me off and for better or for worse Y_saku has a lot of ego. It was fine at first but 60+ episodes plus it’s annoying how he acts like he’s the best around and the SHOW AGREES WITH HIM. I LOATHE his VR design, it’s too much. His hair looks stupid and yes I know this is YGO but there are limits like with Zxl, VR pushed it too far. His body suit is ugly to look at and they try TOO hard to make him look muscular. I get it, you’re trying to get the fangirls BUT I’M SICK OF LOOKING AT IT. His voice is the worst, it doesn’t sound natural at all. He always has the same forced, deadpan voice. You can tell how forced it sounds compared to the Va’s original voice, it hurts to hear as I can feel how badly the va is trying. Overall Y_saku as a character annoys my senses from my vision and hearing. 

Now for the objective analysis. Y_saku has no character. Wait that’s wrong, he has only one character trait, he has PTSD and that’s it. I’m serious all of season 1 kept stating, “HE WANT REVENGE AND HE WILL GET IT!” Everything we learn about him is related to his torture. His three things tick? He learned it when he was tortured. He wants revenge? He was tortured and wants to know why. He’s a good duelist? He was tortured to win. AND THAT’S ALL. His stoic nature is due to his ptsd and well what you see HE GOT THAT CAUSE HE WAS TORTURED!  Try to define Y_saku without saying their role in the story, what they look like or what they do. All you get is quiet, stoic guy. That’s not a functional personality at all, it’s just an attitude. That is the description to EVERY CLICHE ANTIHERO EVER. What are his dreams, his desires? What does he like? What does he dislike outside of the KOH? Does he even like the hot dogs he keeps eating cause he sure as hell doesn’t seem to enjoy it! His goals and dislikes are focused on his past and thus season 2 when he’s past his revenge, he’s just there. We have not learned a single thing about him for the 20+ episodes that Season 2 has been going on. He’s just focused on saving his acquaintance’s brother’s soul thing. Y_saku is a blank slate with some traits grafted on which you can tell, HE HAS NO BACKSTORY cause he “lost his memories” how  conveniently. But we have the backstory of every nearly other “major” character. Go said his backstory in his duel against SB, SB had an entire mini arc about his backstory, Kus_ngai had his backstory in another flashback arc right after SB had his, Re_olver got to tell his when Y_saku confronted him at the end of season 1 and Spe_tre, Ak_ra and A_i got their backstories revealed in their duels against Y_saku. Y_saku and GG alone don’t have a backstory. Y_saku is the MAIN CHARACTER and it’s not like his goal is to get his memories back, he doesn’t care. So if we do get his backstory is a mystery! Y_saku is bland and it annoys me that people love him anyway. 

His plot armor. I know YGO has HORRIBLE plot armor BUT Y_saku deserve mention BECAUSE OF HOW THICK IT IS. Y_saku winning all of his duels is annoying but that can passed if they’re fun. They aren’t due to two reasons. His SKILL and his monotonous dueling. SKILL is not the same as his skills, they are different, his SKILL being Storm Access. Storm Access is the most blatant asspull so far and is more annoying than Shining Draw because Y_SAKU USES IT NEARLY EVERY DUEL. And the only reason he doesn’t use it every duel is because HE CAN’T due to the master duels prevent skills from being used. But speed duels? HE ALWAYS ABUSES IT which makes us question how good is Y_saku if everytime he gets in a corner his first reaction is, well time to make a random card to get out of this situation. The other protagonists minus Y_ma would use whatever cards they have on hand to solve their situation. PM? NOOOOO, HIS REACTION IS TO CHEAT! There is nothing to root for. I’m not praising his skill nor his cunning, I’m praising his luck! And because of his dependence on this his dueling is roughly the same thing. I’ll get my lifepoints below 1000 to use it and then use thousands of link summons to get to the final one. Every single one of this duels are like this with season 2 adding BUT NOW THE LINKS SEARCH TO SUMMON THE OTHER METHODS! YAY. His dueling is the same damn thing and we know he’s going to win. There isn’t any reason to watch him. And it gets better when he learn that his deck WASN’T EVEN BUILT BY HIM! Dueling is 90% deck building and then 10% using it right. Since Y_saku was given the “best deck”, honestly it isn’t cause his cards are pure shit except Firewall but he barely uses HIS ACE but in-universe they’re considered the best, that essentially means he was HANDED THE BEST WEAPON IN THE SERIES and we’re expected to consider him good for being ok with it. 

Y_saku is loved BY EVERYONE, the show included, especially the show. EVERYONE WORSHIPS THE GUY, he’s considered the hero of Link Vr_ins by episode 3 BY BEATING A MOOK which also has a net show openly say he’s good looking. The makes a point to show he’s hyper popular with Go’s orphanage LOVING HIM, we cut from A_i’s duel with Sp_ctre to show a kid copying Y_saku’s vr avatar and saying he’ll defend Link Vr_ins and we get gratuitous shot of PM protecting the kid and saying I’ll protect whatever the setting is all in A_I’S FOCUS EPISODE! GG’s focus episodes ends with her saying PM is INVINCIBLE! And K_sangai says PM is invincible. EVEN THE KOH SAY WOW PM IS SUCH A BADASS THAT HE KICKED OUT ASSES LAST SEASON, AI who was HIS SLAVE now worships the guy. The only character that dislikes him is a one-off cocky bully aka we’re meant to hate him cause he dares to hate the PERFECT YU_AKU. The show bends over backwards to make us love him but they jumped the gun. It’s obvious we’re supposed to love him because of how “cool” he is and it REFUSES TO STOP. Nearly every episode has at least one character talk about how smart, how strong or how amazing PM is when he has done really nothing to deserve it and no personality to justify us liking him.

Y_saku is HORRIBLE representation for mental illness. I don’t mean his PTSD is unrealistic, a therapist friend of mine says it’s actually realistic. IT’S HOW THE SHOW TREATS IT.  Y_saku states he went through therapy for his PTSD and it didn’t work so he went to REVENGE. As someone that has a mental disorder that plague me for year and at the worst of it, I considered suicide and later got therapy. THAT’S NOT HOW THERAPY WORKS. Therapy isn’t a magic thing that will magically fix you, it depends on how much the patent wants to get better. You can take as many therapy sessions as you want and if you don’t TRY to get better, you’re wasting your time and money. I’m not saying all therapy or therapists are effective BUT you can’t just say well this one didn’t work, therapy doesn’t work at all. Therapy is about FIGHTING your mental disorder to try to fix it, it’s not as simple as going through your memories and finding the reason you’re messed up. Honestly this suggest that Y_saku is a wimp that couldn’t fight his disorder and is instead RUNNING FROM IT. The show even has the GALL to say his PSTD makes PM better. A_ira has said PM’s issues means he finds himself in victory and thus when he duels, he tries as hard as he can to win. That’s BULLSHIT. If he really did have PSTD, anytime he was in danger of losing then he would freak out that he would get shocked and make a lot of mistakes to make sure it doesn’t happen. Anxiety isn’t the same as being worried, it’s all consuming. It makes it hard to think, eat or sleep. You can’t think of anything but what you’re scared of happening and that takes over your mind. You can’t do anything, it doesn’t make you try real hard, it messes with you. But not PM, NOPE IT MAKES HIM BETTER KIDS. 

Finally the reason for this post. His hypocrisy. Episode 69 has him DARE TO say REVENGE WON’T LET YOU MOVE ON. HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA SHUT THE FUCK UP, YOU FUJO BAIT BLANK SLATE! You see when he dueled A_ira, A_ira made a point of saying maybe they shouldn’t let a teen send his youth fighting terrorists and try to be happy while he, an adult whose company had been the focus on said terrorist attacks, deals with them. PM BLOWS HIS FUCKING LID AND SAYS, “YOU HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT ME” and essentially has a temper tantrum about how HE HAS TO GET revenge and wins with A_ira giving on trying to convince PM so the show is essentially agreeing with PM that he needs his revenge. And now that PM has got it, HE DARES TO SAY THAT TO SOMEONE ELSE. Which is laughable as he got cured because he was in a tough spot and thought maybe it would be nice to have friends, not that he ever tried to make them when A_ described his friends. That’s not development as by this point PM had already GOT his revenge. PM wanted to know why he was tortured, which he learned BECAUSE HE KEPT OBSESSING ABOUT HIS REVENGE. His revenge let him meet Re_olver which result in Dr. Kog_mi, the man who TORTURED him, to die. And due to said revenge, he got to meet A_ who helped him “develop”. Overall he could only get better BECAUSE HE CARED FOR REVENGE. HE HAS NO RIGHT TO SAY THAT EVER. 

Overall Y_saku is an inconsistent sloppy written character. In fact watch this video and try to not think about Y_saku when watching, I couldn’t. 

[mmecolbert]

Tell us why you hate Luke's rant in Fall! I always hate him, so I'm biased.

ooh boy. this’ll get long, I just know it, but there are sooo many reasons, so I’m just gonna…

Lemme just start off by saying that I don’t like how SP acted it. I’m neverimpressed by Scott’s acting, but I particularly dislike his more emotionalscenes. I just find that every thing he emotes has an added layer of aggressionto it that always irks me. But I guess that’s a more personal preference/issue, so I’m not gonna dwell on that…

But beyond that, I feel that the content of the speech, whatit implies about Luke and their relationship, and what it ultimatelyaccomplishes leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

First, it bothers me that Luke just sort of unloads onLorelai as soon as she walks through the door. They haven’t spoken to eachother in weeks (or, let’s be honest, had any real communication between each other for years), and during this time Luke made a bunch of assumptions about Lorelai and their relationship withoutspeaking a word to her prior to this (spoke to Jess, tho, because he’s the right person to talk to in this situation, apparently), then Luke proceeds to not let her speak hermind when she tries to explain herself, and then lays out all he’s been feeling(based on false assumptions) before she can say a word. To me that implies continued lackof communication and Luke putting his feelings/need to express himself and his perspective ahead ofLorelai. I don’t like that.

Second, it bothers me that the theme of that speech isn’t“Lorelai, I love you, I think we’re great together, and I want to spend my lifewith you, and if you feel that we have problems then I’ll do my best to work onthem”; the actual theme is “Lorelai, I feel like you’re gonna leave me, butplease don’t because, hey, we’ve been together this long and I like a goodstatus quo, and we might as well keep it going until we die.” The first themeis romantic and suggests growth from Luke and could realistically lead to agreat marriage proposal. The second theme suggests that Luke’s biggest desireis for things to change as little as possible, he’s got no desire to grow, andhis idea of a relationship is physical presence, as opposed to love,communication, mutual growth, etc. I don’t hear Luke saying that he desperatelyloves Lorelai in that speech, I hear him saying that he doesn’t want her toleave because he doesn’t want things to change, and he wants to be with Lorelaibecause the other option seems logistically harder.

On a related note, I don’t like that Luke is pretty muchbegging Lorelai not to leave him in that speech, even though he’s doubting ifLorelai even loves him. Again, it speaks to Luke’s fear of change, but also tohow unfulfilling their relationship sounds. They have no communication skills,they share nothing in each other’s lives, they seem incapable of emotionalintimacy with each other, they don’t even share their finances (re: April’sEuro trip/schooling), Luke’s been inexplicably relegated to Sookie’s part-timereplacement at the inn, etc. Emily correctly points out that all that LL are isroommates. They’re not even partners. And in that speech Luke is desperatelytrying to hold on to even that. What does Luke even get out of this relationship? What in the world is romantic about the reality that he paints? Andsomehow them marrying each other will make all this better? 

Third, I haaaate Luke saying that they watched each other gofrom person to person until they finally settled on each other. Luke didn’thave to watch Lorelai go from Max to Chris to Jason to whoever else. Lorelaiowed him nothing. Lorelai had no idea what his feelings were. Lorelai wasn’tLuke’s property that Luke watched be passed around until she finally came backto where she belonged, with him. Luke could have told her how he felt and askedher out on a date instead of watching her. He also didn’t have to marry Nicoleif he had feelings for Lorelai. Their whole relationship could have feasiblystarted a lot earlier, without anyone pining for the other, if he had expressedhis feelings. But he didn’t. So this argument that he makes—that after somany years of them watching each other be with other people consequently makes them endingup together right or special or worth it or whatever—-is fucking stupid andwholly his fault.

Again, related to this, why does Luke even bring this up? Ifthis conversation had been had right after they got together in season 7, thenit would’ve made a modicum of sense. But Luke brings this up after he andLorelai had already been together for almost a decade, so him even bringing uppast exes seems completely out of place.

Finally, I hate that the whole speech resolves exactlynothing. Did the speech improve their communication problems? No. Did it ensurethat LL will share their feelings, finances, lives, etc. (like a normalcommitted couple would) from this moment forward? No. It didn’t even convinceLorelai to marry Luke—because obviously she’d already come to that decisionon her own during the Wild trip. So what exactly was the point of it? For Luketo remind us that he’ll always be there for Lorelai? We already know that. Shealready knows that. Luke is the guy who will never, ever, ever leave—not outof love or anything, but because he’s comfortable with staying in the same spotand not moving. He’s fully rooted and unmovable. That’s neither new information,nor a sign of his love for Lorelai, nor an illustration of his charactergrowth. If anything, it’s an illustration that he doesn’t and won’t change.That’s not a fantastic trait in a person who’s in a relationship that does needa lot of growth and personal change in order for it to start looking evenremotely healthy.

That speech didn’t show us that Luke has grown. That speechdidn’t show that Luke and Lorelai are going to grow and resolve their personaland relationship problems. That speech didn’t resolve any issue that Luke andLorelai have repeatedly shown to have from the very beginning of theirrelationship. All that speech did was give a cue for Lorelai to resignedly say,“I think we should get married.” Because, as Luke pretty much said, eehh they’vebeen together for so long, so they might as well.

So what am I supposed to get from that whole scene otherthan that Luke and Lorelai will continue to have the same problems, but nowthey’ll have a marriage certificate?

If I had any desire to revisit any part of AYITL or even more closely analyze that scene, I’d probably come up with more problems, because my reaction to it was so viscerally negative that I think there are more issues in it that I haven’t processed yet, nor do I want to. But overall, I felt that the issue highlighted the problems that LL have both individually and as a couple, that they are not at all on the road to resolving them but instead seem permanently stagnant, and that marriage is being used as the ultimate problem solver for everything. 

ok i think i’m done now, thanks for your time :)

[ddaddsprompts]

I saw a prompt where dads find out dadsona is an actor, and they go through all of his shows/movies. I love that idea soooo much. Could i possibly request something like that, and also that they find a movie/tv show where dadsona dies and they get all freaked out?

You have no ideawho spilled the beans. The topic of your work never came up, so you’d nevertold him you’re an actor, but he must have found out some way or the other,because there’s no other explanation for why you come home to find [Dad]sitting on the couch with one of the latest show you’ve starred in playing onscreen and a small pile with other movies and shows next to him on the table.You strongly suspect Amanda told him, but short of asking, you don’t have anyproof and thus, your case wouldn’t hold in court. You silently sit down next to[Dad] and lean back. Watching yourself on screen still is weird, but youmostly focus on [Dad]’s expressions. You recognised the episodeimmediately and you’re curious about his reaction to your death.

Your screen self isstanding between two other members of the gang, trying to defuse the situation.Suddenly, one of them pulls a gun. Your character jumps forward to pull it outof their hands. In the resulting grapple, a shot goes off. Your character sinksto his knees, then falls to his side, a large red spot on his stomach that’sgetting bigger by the second.

🥃 Robert’sface is blank, like always, but you’ve known him long enough to notice thatlook in his eyes. His gaze is distant, like he’s somewhere entirely differentwith his thoughts. Carefully, you reach out and nudge his shoulder. “Hey, Bobert?”He doesn’t react. You nudge him again, harder this time, and wave a hand infront of his face. “Earth to Bobert, are you—“ He knocks the air out of yourlungs lunging himself at you, wrapping his strong arms around you tightly, asif he’s scared of you vanishing if he doesn’t cling. Confused, you wrap yourarms around him in return. “Babe, what’s wrong? It’s just a TV show and sure,it looked real, but it’s definitely not…” He makes a noise. You don’t recogniseit, at first, but then it dawns on you – he’s crying. You tighten your grip onhim, rubbing his back and murmuring sweet nothings into his ear. “I-I can-can’tlose you,” Robert sobs. “I wouldn’t… I wouldn’t want to… not y-you too…” Youcontinue holding him even after he stops crying again, assuring him that youwouldn’t leave him anytime soon.

🍸 “Oh my. T-that was, well, that was… quite realistic.” Joseph lifts a handto press his palm to his chest, right above the heart. You notice he’s gottenpaler than usual. Is his hand shaking? No, his whole body is shaking, not justthat specific body part. You frown and scoot closer until your thighs arepressed together. The proximity and body contact seems to help him calm down,but only a little. “W-when Damien told me Lucien saw you in a movie I honestlyd-didn’t expect you to s-star in things l-like that but you’re truly a… askilled actor. T-that looked… um… very real. M-maybe a bit too real.”“Are you okay, Joe? You’re really pale…” He laughs nervously and rubs his chestthrough the fabric of his polo shirt. You reach up and put your hand on top ofhis, lacing your fingers together. Joseph lets out a long, shaky breath. “Y-yes,I’m okay… C-could you maybe pick the n-next movie? One where you d-don’t die,preferably. I’ll… make us h-hot chocolate.” He stands up, but you pull him downagain and kiss him. You only draw back once you feel him smile, albeit weakly.

☕ After staring at the screen for what feels like hours, Mat finallyturns to look at you. His eyes are wide, shining in what you belatedly realiseare tears, and his mouth hangs open in shock. Then, suddenly, he’s in your lap,trembling like a leaf and, judging by the wet spot that’s spreading from wherehe has his face buried in your shoulder, crying. “Baby, it’s okay,” you say,patting his back. “I’m fine. That was only fake blood, I’m still here, aliveand breathing and also babbling.” Mat huffs into your shirt. “I know it’s notreal,” he whispers. “But it lookedlike it is, like you really died and…” He doesn’t finish the sentence, but hedoesn’t have to. You coo and press a kiss on his cheek. “I’m okay, baby, I won’tleave you anytime soon, I promise…” Some minutes go by, accompanied by thenoises coming from the TV. Finally, Mat draws back again and wipes his eyes. Helooks at you and you look back. “I sure hope you never starred in a musical,”Mat eventually says, breaking the silence. You blink. Then Mat breaks intolaughter and you join in moments later.

🌹 Damien slowly lowers his hand, with which he’s been covering his mouth immediatelyafter screaming the moment the shot rang through the air. As your characterslowly bleeds out, Damien’s eyes are glued to the screen. You’re still proud ofyour performance that day, the way you, if you could say so yourself, conveyedthe last moments of a man’s life as he’s dying. Damien’s reaction proves to youthat your acting is convincing. White as a sheet, Damien turns to you once thescene changes and cups your face, trailing his thumb along your cheekbone. Youraise your eyebrow questioningly; Damien blushes and drops his hand again. “I’mterribly sorry, it’s just… that looked quite real. All that blood… yourexpression… even the light in your eyes, extinguished, like a flame…” With achuckle you reach out and take his hands in yours, lifting them to your lips.Damien’s blush deepens as you kiss his knuckles. “Don’t worry about it, dear. I’mhappy my acting shook you like that. Means I did my job.” Damien laughs. “That’sone way to see it, indeed. Shall we watch another one?”

🎣 “That was…” Brian rubs the back of his headlooking anywhere but the TV screen, where the last minutes of your character’slife pass. His face is caught between shock and his usual, self-confident andcocky smirk. “Good. You’re a good actor.” By now, you know better than to takehis underplaying your accomplishments personally. You’ve come a long way since yourfirst meeting in the park and you know he isn’t serious. Truth be told, youfind his continuous attempts not to get excited adorable, particularly becausehe is bad at acting. As casually as humanly possible, Brian throws his arm overthe back of the couch and, consequently, your shoulders and pulls you close.There’s the finest of tremors going through his body. “Thanks. Did I make for aconvincing dying person?” Brian laughs, but it’s pathetic, compared to hisusual bellows. “I almost believed it.” You elbow his side. Brian nudges rightback and lifts his arm so you can curl up under it. “What would you suggest wewatch next?” You’re glad he can’t see your evil grin. “Oh, I know just theright one.(Two hours later, he’s bawling his eyes out. Terminal illnessesalways do the trick.)

👟 Craig’s face undergoes a journey ofexpressions. He goes from surprised to shocked, then over to sad before finallysettling on excited. He grasps you by the shoulders; at that moment he remindsyou of a puppy, lacking only the wagging tail and floppy ears. “Dude, that wassick! It looked so real and not just because of the blood! You really sold thatmoment. When you told me you wanted to become an actor in college, I neverwould have thought you’d be in something like that.” His beaming grin andsparkling eyes make you laugh softly. “Thanks bro. But who told you what I dofor a living?” He shrugs. “No one did, bro. I just remembered your career plansand was curious whether you managed to follow your dreams. Searched your nameon the internet. You have your own wikipedia page, isn’t that sick, bro?” Hisexcitement is contagious; you find yourself mirroring his grin. “Want to seethe first movie I starred in?” He offers you his fist and you bump yoursagainst it. “Hell yeah, bro!”

📖 Hugo clears his throat and nervously adjusts his glasses. He, like mostteachers, is an expert at hiding his emotions when need be, but at this moment,his thoughts are written on his face, plain as day. When he notices you lookingat him in amusement, he blushes and averts his eyes. You take the remotecontrol and pause the episode, the screen frozen on your lifeless eyes. Hugo’sshudder once he sees the image is barely noticeable, but your close proximitymeans you can feel it. “That was, well, quite impressive. Seeing you try to liein everyday life, I’d never have expected you could act.” With an indignantgasp, you lightly shove against his chest. He falls on his back, but you knowthat if he hadn’t wanted you to, you would not have been able to move him oneinch. “I’ll have you know I’m an excellent liar.” He raises his eyebrow. Youscoff. “Fine, I reserve my skills for work. Did you know I starred in AMidsummer Night’s Dream?” Hugo’s eyes darken a little. “No, I didn’t. Do youhave a recording?” He replies to your nod with a grin and a wink.

- Mod Mare

[nerdylittleshit]

Welcome to Earth 2 – Alternative realities in Supernatural and their narrative purpose

(All screencaps by screencaped.net)

CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR SEASON 12 !!!

First of all I love alternative realities. It’s a trope almost every genre show uses at least once; some for just one episode, while it becomes a main plot line in others. It usually plays out a “What if”-scenario, by creating a different reality in changing a major plot element from the past (for example: What would have happen if character x never died?). It discusses the question how much certain events have influenced the character’s lives, but also how much they remain the same. The reason I love this trope is that if you do it right those episodes serve as excellent character studies.

The reasons for alternative realities are very different. Sometimes it is just a dream or a hallucination, especially if this trope is only used for one episode. Other times alternative realties can be created through time travel; by changing the past you can create a new timeline, different from the timeline you are coming from (a concept that has been used on The Flash). And then of course there is the theory that multiple universes already exist; fiction then plays with the idea of creating portals to visit other universes (see Fringe or DC’s multiverse).

While we have seen several alternative realties over the years on Supernatural, I would argue that none of those realties were real, but rather specifically created for the Winchesters. It wasn’t until 12x23 that it was confirmed that there are in fact parallel universes, something that I hope we will see more in season 13. Until then though let’s have a look back at the alternative realities we have seen so far.

2x20 What Is and What Should Never Be

You think these suckers can really grant wishes?

One of my all time favourite episodes of this show. A study in Dean. And of course super painful (what else did we expect?). A djinn attacks Dean and transports him into a reality where his greatest wish comes true: that his mother never died. What is interesting to me is that we don’t see the actual reality of what would have happened if Mary never died but instead what Dean thinks would have happened. Not even a djinn would have had the power to know how this reality would have actually looked like. By letting Dean create this reality though the djinn improves the chances of Dean staying in there. Because of course Dean would create a reality he thinks is realistic. Instead of waking up in a perfect world though we see a reality full with little flaws, that tell us a lot about Dean.

In a world where Mary never died Sam and Dean grew up normal; they never became hunters. Sam went to Stanford and proposed to Jess (just like the real Sam had intended to do), Dean became a mechanic the way his dad used to be and had a beautiful girlfriend with a respectable job (Carmen was a nurse). But his dad is still dead (even though he died less painful) and as it turns out he and Sam don’t get along. In fact Dean was kind of a jerk. People constantly ask him if he had been drinking again, implying that he has an alcohol problem in this world. Sam doesn’t even seem to be surprised when he thinks Dean is stealing from their mother. There is an excellent meta about how all of Dean’s failures (his drinking, stealing etc) are results of his hunting life, but the fact that he still has these flaws in this supposedly perfect universe tells us that he thinks this is who he is, not what his life as a hunter made him into. The more you look at this episode the more depressing it gets.

In hindsight to season 12 it is also interesting to take a closer look at Dean’s parents and the hunting life. Even though his mother never died in this reality John remains dead. Though there is no date on his gravestone we can assume he died around the same time as the real John did. The absence of John in Dean’s perfect world could be interpreted in several ways. It is possible that Dean wasn’t ready yet to face his father; unlike his mother’s death the loss of his father was still new. We could also argue that a perfect world for Dean is indeed a world without his father. Despite the fact that Dean loved his father he also acknowledged that his father wasn’t perfect. The show pretty much confirmed the child neglect, and there is enough subtext to at least discuss the possibility of child abuse. We also know that Dean knows that the marriage of his parents wasn’t perfect (see 5x16), so it’s possible he didn’t wanted to see them fighting.

The resurrection of Mary in season 12 is the biggest confirmation that the djinn-reality was in fact created by Dean, because his version of his mother has almost nothing in common with the real Mary we saw last season. Dean was only 4 years old when his mother died; he clung to the little memories he had of her and created a very idolized version of her in his mind (that the real Mary could never live up to). I think it was @elizabethrobertajones who pointed out that the Mary we see here has little to none personality. She is reduced to be a perfect mother, nothing more (does she have a job? Friends? Any kind of life outside her family?). She is worried about her son and in true Winchester fashion she comforts him with food; she makes him a sandwich. And for all the pie meta out there we should write a bit about sandwiches as well. Because guess what, in both 5x16 and 12x22 (where we encounter memories of Dean and Mary) Mary makes Dean a sandwich. Pie isn’t even mentioned in 2x20. (In all fairness though I think pie didn’t became a theme before 2x21).

The other aspect of 2x20 is the hunting life, or rather it’s absence. I have written plenty about Dean vs the apple pie life. Season 12 picked up this theme again, with Dean telling Mary in 12x01 that he made his peace with their lives as hunters and later we see Mary’s wish for her sons to have a normal life as the reason why she choose to work with the BMoL. In 2x20 Mary never died but monsters are still real. And in the end this is the reason Dean returns to his reality; he can’t live in a world he never saved. Even though the event that caused him to become a hunter was prevented Dean still remains a hunter. All of his flaws, caused by his life as a hunter, remain in this new reality. Opposed to this, the only good thing about his life as a hunter, his close bond with his brother, doesn’t exist anymore. None of this is enough though to make him return to the real world; Dean can live in a world where he sees himself as a failure (he still does in the real world), where he is no longer close to Sam, as long as his family is happy. What he can’t live with are the lives he never saved in this world.

This episode tells us a lot about Dean, how little he thinks of himself, how he cares more about the happiness of his family than himself. How he is willing to give up his perfect world for the life of strangers. How in the end he proves to be what he would never think of himself: a hero.

3x11 Mystery Spot

Okay, look. Yesterday was Tuesday, right? But today is Tuesday too.

It’s funny until… it isn’t anymore. This time an archangel fabricates an alternative reality in order to teach Sam a lesson. He lets Dean die over and over again, making Sam reliving the same day again and again, without giving Sam the chance to prevent Dean from dying. It is almost like an earlier version of 5x04, with both Lucifer and Gabriel trying to teach the same lesson: no matter how you change events the result will always be the same. You can’t outrun your destiny. Destiny vs free will becomes one of the major themes in season 4 and 5, but this episode serves almost like a foretelling of it. Even more so when Sam finally reveals Gabriel and he in turn lets Dean die again, but this time without resetting the day. Sam all of sudden his to live with his brother’s death and turns to the dark side. It’s a prediction of what we will see in season 4, though it leaves out Ruby of the equation.

The alternative realities (each Tuesday is a different reality) are created through time travel, something we see again in 6x17. Though I would argue that Gabriel didn’t create a parallel universe every time he travelled back in time (even archangels don’t seem to have this power), but just changed the present every time. Gabriel tries to teach Sam that he can’t prevent his brother’s death and that he has to learn to let go. Given Sam’s revenge quest I don’t think he learned his lesson. Gabriel still sends him back in time, with Dean alive, which was maybe something he had plan to do all along, because it wasn’t Dean’s time to die yet. We don’t even know if any of it was real or if all of it just happened in Sam’s head. And while Sam arguably didn’t learn his lesson Gabriel did; he knows now what the death of his brother will do with Sam. It is possible Gabriel knew about heaven’s plan for Sam (saying yes to Lucifer) and this was his way to find out how likely it would be that Sam would indeed say “yes”.

In the end it is not clear if Sam only remembers all of the Tuesdays but also the six months after Dean’s death in the alternative reality. Either way when Dean dies his reaction to it is very similar to what we see here.

4x17 It’s a Terrible Life

You don't wanna go fighting ghosts without any health insurance.

Or another time an angel creates a new reality. This time though it’s Zachariah (he does the same thing in 5x04). Again we see the Winchesters living a pretty normal life, though the lesson that Zachariah tries to teach is the exact opposite: that Sam & Dean are meant to be hunters and that any other life wouldn’t make them happy. Instead of giving them a life similar to what we saw in 2x20, which is probably still the closet to what a normal life would have looked like for Sam & Dean, Zachariah twists established facts. Dean becomes the opposite of who he is: instead of blue collar working guy he is the director of Sales & Marketing, he drives a Prius instead of the Impala, listens to NPR instead of classic rock, eats salad instead of burgers and is seemingly interested in feminine things just as watching project runaway or doing the master cleanse. He went to Stanford and his parents are Bobby and Ellen and his sister is Jo. Funnily enough a lot of those things are facts we associate with Sam. It is Sam who went to Stanford, who prefers salad over burgers and tries to live a healthy life. Sam on the other hand is “just” an IT-guy and the only other thing we learn about him is that he had a financee named Madison. Furthermore in this reality it is Sam who wants to leave his normal life behind, who feels like he doesn’t fit in, whereas Dean is the one who is reluctant about leaving his old life behind. And in the end it all comes down to Dean, because he is the one Zachariah talks to.

At this point of his life Dean struggles with being a hunter and with the task he has been given (to stop the apocalypse). Zachariah creates a reality/identity that is the exact opposite of what Dean is/what he has. And he does so to show him that the life Dean has, that as a hunter, is what he really wants and who he is destined to be. I think Zachariah gave Dean several of Sam’s characteristics because for once the show has always portrayed Sam and Dean as opposites (though the reality of course is a bit more complex than this). The other thing is that Dean perhaps is a bit jealous of Sam. Sam had a way out, had a normal life, even if it was only for a short time. So Dean, who see himself as a grunt, gets the higher education here, the better job, his adopted family becomes his real family (and his actual brother a stranger) and he is allowed to admit to like things our Dean would never (performing Dean anyone?). But it takes nothing more than a simply ghost hunt for the facade to break. Sam might be the first to suggest to leave their lives behind but in the end Dean comes along as well: he realizes that his current life doesn’t make him happy, that there are more important things to do. It is the lesson that Zachariah had tried to teach him all along: that he was born to be a hunter, no matter what. Even in a reality where he grew up normal, where he had access to education, had a great job and felt no longer the need to pretend to be anyone else he still ended up hunting. Zachariah tries to tell Dean that not the circumstances of his life made him a hunter but that it is in his blood. It is something we saw in 2x20 as well: no matter the circumstances Dean remained a hunter. But in 2x20 Dean’s memories of a life as hunter were still intact. And even though Zachariah tells Dean that he altered his memories (so technically this isn’t an alternative reality, but an alternative Sam & Dean) I think Dean still subconscious remembered his old life. Because he needed to in order to learn his lesson.

Zachariah’s lesson is that Dean needs to accept his destiny and that his destiny is to be a hunter, no matter the circumstances. It is the opposite of free will. Sam and Dean still had their old memories (Sam’s visions) and Zachariah carefully manipulated them in a way that they would get to the same conclusion as he did: that they are meant to be hunters. Ironically it is a lesson Dean has already learned: in 2x20 he remained a hunter even in his perfect life, and later in season 6 while he gets the apple pie life he can’t stop being a hunter and ends up back on the road. It is something Dean already believes about himself: that the only thing he will ever be good at is hunting and that he has no chance to live a normal life. By season 12 though he has accepted his life as a hunter, he values it and furthermore since 12x22 we know that Dean acknowledges that what happened to him wasn’t fair, that he never really had a choice, and that the circumstances made him who he is and no destiny.

5x04 The End

Whatever you do, you will always end up here. Whatever choices you make, whatever details you alter, we will always end up—here. I win. So, I win.

I always feel like this episode deserves a special place because it is the one alternative reality that inspired the most meta, fan art and fan fiction. My personal relationship with this episode is kinda complicated. From an objective point of view I appreciate that it is clearly one of the best episodes of the whole show, beginning with Ben Edlund’s writing and ending with the terrific acting from everyone involved. Personally though I hate to see these dark fucked up versions of the characters; it breaks my heart every single time to see them like that. But then again that was the point. And seeing how it is again Zachariah who was responsible for this, this is the reason why he is one of my favourite villains of the show.

The interesting thing about this episode is that when it aired nobody could tell if what we saw was time travel or an alternative reality. By the time the episode was written nobody could know the show would air long enough that we would actually get to see 2014. And up until then there was still some discussion if this reality might still come true. Even now there are some people who argue that Zachariah did indeed show Dean the future – one of many possible futures (the one where Sam said yes to Lucifer).

I personally always saw this episode as an alternative reality Zachariah created to get Dean to say “yes” to Michael. While angels have the power to travel back in time I don’t think they can travel in the future as well. The future is too fluid and could change every minute (and therefore Jack showing Cas the future in 12x19 should be another indicator for not trusting him). And in fiction showing someone their future never ends well (#self-fulfilling prophecy).

So let’s take a look at this episode as an alternative reality created by Zachariah for Dean. Zachariah wants to show Dean what happens when he doesn’t accept his destiny, doesn’t say “yes” to Michael, and Sam on the opposite does. Interesting enough it doesn’t end up with “all your friends are dead”-scenario. The only character that dies is Bobby (though I think he also represents hunters in general, because none of those we know seem to be alive anymore). No, Zachariah shows Dean that there are fates much worse than death. First of all the world as we know doesn’t exist anymore. The croatoan virus has killed many people and the few left try to survive somehow, gathered together in small camps. Cas has fallen, becoming almost human, whereas the angels don’t care anymore. He tries to numb himself with drugs and sex. He is broken and though it isn’t explicated stated the subtext makes Dean responsible for Cas’s state. If Cas is broken though, then future!Dean is something even darker. He kills infected people without mercy and is willing to sacrifice his friends and people who look up to him to have a shot at killing Lucifer. And then there is Sam, who has long ago given up and said “yes” to Lucifer. Sam exist no more, just his body who is worn by the devil. It is the final piece that breaks our Dean from the present. In the end Dean learned his lesson, but not the one Zachariah tried to teach him. He doesn’t say “yes” to Michael, but instead realized that the only way to stop the apocalypse is in working together. He tells Cas to never change, appreciates him for who he is after he saw how broken future!Cas was. He turns to Sam, forgives him, in order to prevent his little brother to say “yes” to Lucifer.

The brilliance of this episode comes from its darkness. If 2x20 showed us a more or less perfect world, this is the opposite of it. This is the worst case scenario for Dean. A world he couldn’t save, where everyone he ever loved is either dead or just a broken shell of what they used to be. In hindsight it showed us the darkest versions of each character: three men who stopped caring about the world and themselves. Who are no longer willing to fight. Who gave up.

I bet Dean still has nightmare about this world.

6x15 The French Mistake

Don't like this universe, Sammy. We need to get out of this universe.

Aka the most meta episode to ever meta. Seriously I don’t even know how casual fans watch this, because they miss out all the fun and references. I don’t think this episode had a big meaning for the overall narrative but was rather a gift for the fans, and the show making fun of themselves. Of course we can argue if the reality we see here is actual real, but then again I don’t think that an angel like Balthazar has the power to transport humans from one reality to another. I rather think that just like in 5x04 this reality was created, this time though not to teach the Winchesters a lesson but to hide them. It might be a stretch, but given that the Supernatural books exist in Sam and Dean’s universe it is possible Balthazar created an universe where those books were adapted and Sam and Dean are forced to act out their lives from their own reality. They still learn a lesson though: a) they are really bad at acting and b) they prefer their own lives, without money or fame, but where they get to be brothers and save lives.

6x17 My Heart Will Go On

You see, I save a boat, one thing leads to another, which leads to another thousand things, and yada, yada, yada.

Or an exercise in alternative history. Balthazar travelled back in time, prevented the Titanic from sinking and thousands of people who should have died didn’t and therefore changed history in a massive way. These people and their descendants then would cause thousands more souls that Castiel needed in the  Civil War that happened in heaven in season 6. Unlike the other examples where angels or a djinn created an alternative reality this reality was real. By changing the past Balthazar changed the present. A lot of the old reality is still true: Sam & Dean are still hunters and they still prevented the apocalypse. Some of the details of their new reality change though: they drive a Mustang instead of an Impala and Cuba is a popular holiday destination. The biggest difference though is that Ellen and Jo are still alive and Ellen is married to Bobby. Fate now tries to fix this mess: she kills the descendants of the people who should have died on the Titanic, as none of those people should exist in the first place.

This episode again focus on the theme destiny vs free will. Atropos, one of the three fates, followed the script until Sam and Dean and Cas no longer followed their destiny but wrote their own ending. Her job became obsolete. And it is because Sam & Dean & Cas threw out the script that Balthazar followed no longer the rules of not changing the past. While we had time travel episodes before (4x03 and 5x13) Sam and Dean never changed the past – they were also meant to go back in time, still following the script. And while it is possible to still change your destined future changing the past will have massive consequences.

The moral dilemma for Sam and Dean is that while they know what Balthazar did was wrong they also know that going back in time and let the Titanic sink once again will cause not only the death of the people on the ship but also Ellen and Jo’s death. In the end neither Sam or Dean have to make this choice (though they decided to kill Atropos) but it is Castiel who learns that even though destiny no longer exists you can’t change the past like this. Otherwise he could have prevented the apocalypse by simply going back in time.

Cas says you don’t need to be ruled by fate. You don’t have to follow the path that is destined for you. But in order to change your future, to become a master of your own fate, you need to let go the past.

12x23 All Along the Watchtower

This is a world where you were never born. It's a world you never saved.

For all my talking about alternative realities this is the first time I would argue that we see an actual parallel universe. All the other alternative realities were specifically created for the Winchesters, or in the case of 6x17 our reality was changed through changing the past. The world we see in 12x23 though is a world that exists parallel to the universe Sam and Dean live in. And it took the birth of a Nephilim (and not just any, that of an archangel) to open a portal to that world. So while I think angels have the ability to alter the reality in some ways (through time travel or for a limited time) they don’t have the power to travel to parallel universes. And there is a reason for it. Because if anything season 12 was about cosmic consequences (tagging @mittensmorgul because I know she wrote a lot about this).  In 12x09 Billie tells the Winchesters that breaking their deal (the life of a Winchesters for getting them out of prison) would cause cosmic consequences. Cas is the one who breaks the deal and seeing how he ended up dead in the end we can argue that these are the consequences. Billie’s deal though wasn’t about Cas originally but about the Winchesters. Technically both of them should be dead by now. They both died, multiple times, but were brought back again and again. They disrupted the cosmic order and cosmic balance. Bringing back Mary, who of course is supposed to be dead as well, is the cherry on the cake. If unsinking the Titanic caused a ripple effect than so does resurrecting Mary, even though the past stayed the same. We can argue how many of the things that happened in season 12 wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for her. By the end of 12x23 the universe in a way fixed that cosmic unbalance by taking Mary out of the equation again, though of course by now the damage is already done (the birth of Jack which causes another power unbalance). And while I personally loved that they brought back Mary and what they did with her character the show followed through with the thought that her resurrection would have consequences on a cosmic scale. And while I hope that they bring Cas back in season 13 I also hope they show that his resurrection will have consequences as well.

So what does this got to do with parallel universes? Now that we know they exist imagine they were ways to easily travel to them. Many people already speculated about the possibilities of seeing alternative versions of our characters (such as alternative Bobby). But what if they cross universe? Just like Mary they would be at a place where they are not supposed to be. Even the fact that Lucifer and Mary from our world ended up in another universe will have consequences. Because in that universe Mary is again supposed to be dead and there is a chance that this universe has now two Lucifers. Which is the reason I think we will see this universe again and fix some of the mess (though I hope they finally kill Lucifer in the process).

On a meta level this episode works back to back with 12x22. In 12x22 Dean confronts his mother about the deal she made – the deal that would bring back John, therefore cause the birth of her sons, marking them as vessel and would result in her own death. Dean lists all the consequences of that deal – how he had to grow up without a mother, what it did to his father, what it forced him to become (a parent), the horrible things Sam had to live through (losing Jess, going to hell etc). 12x23 now shows us a universe where Mary never made that deal. John died and Sam and Dean were never born. We can only assume some other poor souls became the vessels for Michael & Lucifer and the apocalypse that Sam and Dean prevented actually happened. It shows us that for all the horrible things that happened after Mary’s deal that in the long run it saved the world. In 12x22 her sons forgave Mary for the choice she made. 12x23 showed us the cosmic consequences of said deal.

No matter if the alternative realities we saw on Supernatural were specifically created or showed us in the case of 12x23 an actual parallel universe the narrative purpose is the same. Faced with different realties our characters are meant to learn something about themselves, about who they are but also how the choices they and others made influenced them. Some showed us their darkest versions (3x11 & 5x04) and in some ways served as foretelling. Some question if they are meant to always be hunters (2x20 & 4x17). In the end it is both the circumstances and our choices who made us who we are. We can’t outrun our past and the influence it has on us. But we don’t need to be ruled by our past as well: we can learn from our mistakes and find a better way. And if anything I think this was the biggest message from season 12.

[oumakokichi]

Because you were talking about Juzo, I'm curious, why was Kirigiri one of your favorites as well? I feel her character development was minimalistic at best and was dropped after the first game, especially in the dr3 anime

Although Ouma is definitely myfavorite ndrv3 character, I’ve been joking a lot lately that Saihara is the one Iactually relate to the most—because I too am an anxious depressed mess, feelsocially awkward at all times, and am a huge Kirigiri fan.

While Kirigiri is certainly nota character to demonstrate her emotions very noticeably outward, I wouldn’t saythat her development is minimalistic in the first game. If anything, Kirigiriis one of the characters whose growth and development is followed the most bythe first game, after Naegi.

The thing is, her developmentstarts from a different position than Naegi’s. Rather than starting from astandpoint of being naïve and overly optimistic or trusting, Kirigiri startsout rather like Ouma, actually. She’s rather cynical at heart, especially indr1, something many people tend to forget about her character. As a detective,she accepts what neither Saihara nor Jin Kirigiri want to accept about theirjob: that people have to be doubted, suspected, and questioned.

Dr3 certainly does drop theball on her character development, but, well—it did that for everyone’scharacter development, pretty much. Future Arc started strong, showed lots ofpromise, and then sadly ruined all the potential it had with weak writing. Bydelegating Kirigiri to the role of “damsel in distress” and “beautiful self-sacrificingcinnamon roll” all at once, dr3 did a really bad job at remembering whyKirigiri became so popular in the first place, because she never used to fitinto those character tropes typically reserved for female characters in the DRseries.

While I’m glad she lived (Seiko’santidote bottle was something I noticed right away when her “death” episodefirst aired, so the foreshadowing was definitely there), I don’t feel dr3 didher justice by any means. She was forced to take a backseat role; just as Chisawas used as nothing more than an object for Munakata’s character arc, Kirigiriwas forced to parallel her by being used as an object for Naegi’s arc. And thatwas a pretty huge insult to her character, in my opinion. Had the switch beenthe other way around, with Naegi sacrificing himself (in a wonderful throwbackto dr1 Chapter 5) and Kirigiri taking an unexpected protagonist role, I would’vebeen a lot more satisfied.

But unlike other DR characters,there are plenty of other materials besides just dr3 to give us insight intoKirigiri. The Kirigiri light novels, for one, as well as the new visual novel,Kirigiri Sou. Kirigiri’s continued popularity is a testament to what sherepresents to the DR series, from a mystery perspective. Just as Junko isiconic for her role as an antagonist, Kirigiri is iconic because of her role asnot only a detective, but thedetective. All the insight she provides Naegi and the player in dr1 about whatsolving a mystery entails, about how to reflect on the mindset of both victimsand culprits, as well as what exposing the truth really means, are themes thathave come up not only in dr1 but in every other DR installment to date,including ndrv3.

Kirigiri is perhaps thecharacter whose advice and teachings have lasted the longest. She instinctivelyunderstands, and helps the player understand, what a real mystery is all about.Where ndrv3 leads the player into a false sense of security before lampshadinghow ridiculous and utterly dangerous it is to trust people blindly, Kirigiriwarns Naegi of the dangers of blind trust and extreme paranoia as early asChapter 1 in dr1. While she’s certainly aloof and uninterested in socializing,especially at first, she’s someone who grasps what the “heart” of a mystery isall about, and helps guide Naegi and the player into understanding it too. Andunderstanding the “heart” is the first step to understanding any mystery presentedin the future, too.

Kirigiri starts dr1 as someonewho is level-headed, reasonable, and extremelysecretive (excessively so, sometimes). She’s smart, calm, and collected, butcertainly not infallible; having replayed dr1 quite recently myself, I’venoticed several instances in which her failure to take action as quickly as shecould’ve causes her to be surprised and blindsided when murders take placeelsewhere. Like Ouma, she often prioritizes her own objectives in: 1.)exploring the school and exposing the mastermind behind the whole game, and 2.)finding out the truth about her own memories, backstory, and talent, so smallerhurdles and culprits among the group can and often do throw her off guard.

Most importantly to note, she’snot a team player, especially not at first. Kirigiri’s cynicism and paranoiamakes it difficult for her to trust others besides herself, though notimpossible. The one major difference between her and Ouma is that Kirigiribelieved in the necessity of trust after doubting others first. Her bond oftrust with Naegi is something gradually developed throughout the course of dr1,slowly and steadily. It’s not something she would have developed with justanyone, but rather something she and Naegi both developed specifically becauseof their shared experiences with one another.

But she certainly didn’t careto explain her motivations or objectives to the rest of the group, nor did shebelieve in telling even Naegi about what she knew on anything more than a “need-to-know”basis. She’s extremely sensitive about people butting in on her personal life. Inher FTEs she says point-blank that she feels emotions just the same as otherpeople, but that she intentionally hides them behind a mask of composure—becauseshe has nothing to gain by tipping other people off as to what she’s feeling orthinking at the moment. In this sense, she’s also quite similar to Ouma. Butwhere Ouma’s mask is all about feigning every emotion, usually in a veryexaggerated fashion, Kirigiri’s is a mask of stoicism.

When others in the group wantto know where she’s been or what she’s been doing, she doesn’t feel any need totell them. Even when it clearly begins putting the group in a more disorganizedstate and things begin reaching a boiling point in Chapters 4 and 5, sheremains extremely closed-off and secretive, and it’s clear that there’s no onein the group she would trust with any of her personal information besidesNaegi. And even Naegi, she never tells the whole story to.

Naegi had to make a consciousdecision to cover for Kirigiri’s lie in Chapter 5—it wasn’t something sheprepared him for, and she knew there was a chance she might actually be sendinghim to his death, if Alter Ego failed to kick in. Still, it was a sacrifice shewas willing to make if need be, and that’s something incredibly cold andpragmatic and that I love to see in characters who are all about “the endsjustify the means.”

Just like Ouma, she wasabsolutely dead set on investigating things to the end. She couldn’t let thingsend with her death, which is why she refused to sacrifice herself in Chapter 5,just as Ouma initially refuses to let himself die in ndrv3 Chapter 4. Hertunnel vision towards stopping the mastermind and figuring out what happened toJin Kirigiri and how far he was involved with the killing game means that shedoesn’t want other people sticking their nose into her business.

Her feelings towards Jin arethe main proof of the fact that Kirigiri can also be driven by personalvendettas, pettiness, and unresolved anger and frustration. As someone who canperfectly understand the resentment towards an absent father figure, I alwaysappreciated that Kirigiri’s conflicted feelings about Jin were handled quitewell in dr1. The narrative ultimately focuses on the fact that yes, Jin lovedhis daughter and was a caring father, but he was also careless, overlytrusting, and thoughtless about how his actions would influence others.Kirigiri was allowed to be angry at Jinwhile also still caring about him, and that was a deeply realistic and humanreaction.

I appreciate the fact thatKirigiri, especially in dr1, was a character never played for fanservice, andnever used as an object of male character development or waifu-baiting. Therewas little to no forced romance between Naegi and Kirigiri in the first gamewhich is what led me to enjoying naegiri quite a lot on my own—when thenarrative isn’t trying to push it in a romantic connotation, I tend to warm upto these sorts of ships a lot faster. Dr1 was very emphatic about appreciatingtheir dynamic as friends first, withanything more than that being a matter of personal interpretation.

The fact that she’s extremelyintelligent, capable, and arguably a protagonist in her own right thanks tospinoffs like DR: Kirigiri and Kirigiri Sou now is a large part of the reasonwhy she’s still #2 on my overall DR ranking. Before Ouma came along, she wasactually #1 and I didn’t think anyone would ever shake her position. I stillreally enjoy her every time I do a reread; if anything, Ouma’s character hasmade me appreciate Kirigiri even more, given the noticeable similaritiesbetween them.

Anyway, these are just my personalthoughts on the subject! I’ve always appreciated that Kirigiri was a characterwho both embraces and embodies the role of a detective, but who alsounderstands the full meaning of “the truth,” and isn’t afraid to lie, cheat, orrely on other cold and calculating tactics in order to achieve her objectives. She’san extremely compelling female character in my opinion, and I’ll always have abig soft spot for her. Thanks for asking, anon!