#reno is also dead

[marswasntthere]

I think we should put every character ive ever had a hyperfixation on in a room and see who survives.

[lem-argentum]

i keep forgetting i have my blog themed around them and whenevwr i remember i take 1000 damage

[servetolive]

my fingers slipped

[pikslasrce]

you guys have nooooo idea how crazy this moving period has been november was CRAZYYYYY literally all three of us are going insane from all the shit going on ever since we found the new place

[rottenpumpkin13]

Now I wonder what Kunsel has on everyone in Shinra. How is he able to blackmail even the Turks? (and not get a bullet to the head for attempting to?)

Kunsel's Blackmail List

• A video of Sephiroth pursuing a laser from a laser pointer, calmly but clearly intrigued.

• A photo of Zack playing online games on the computer in Lazard's office *note: he's wearing one of Lazard's suits.

• A video of Sephiroth putting sugar on his french fries in the mess hall and saying "Perhaps this will make me feel alive."

• A photo of Sephiroth and presumed-dead former Turk Vincent Valentine side by side, with a sticky note that just reads "hmm"

• A copy of Reno's special brownie recipe that he occasionally leaves in the Turks' break room. *note: it's weed.

• An audio of Genesis saying "Sometimes I feel like Loveless isn't that good."

• Evidence that Cloud Strife is a time traveler: Video of him "trying out" Angeal's Buster Sword. Cloud expertly slammed the sword onto a metal door and Angeal shrieked as if Cloud had harmed his first born child.

• A video of Zack arguing with a dog. The dog is seemingly winning the argument. One minute later Genesis also joins the argument.

• Evidence that Reeve and Cait Sith are the same person - an audio of Reeve going "Hojo can suggest turnin' injured soldiers intae guinea pigs an' the President's all for it, but if Ah were tae break Hojo's knees, Ah'd be in the wrong an' sent tae jail."

• Audio of a conversation between Sephiroth and Genesis where they discuss how to "hypothetically" fake their deaths and flee to a remote island away from civilization.

• Photos of Zack and Cloud that Angeal took. It's the classic prom pose. Zack has his arms around Cloud.

• A video of Angeal discreetly pouring alcohol into his morning coffee and going "don't worry, it's decaf"

• Security camera footage of Sephiroth taking an entire cake from the break room exactly one minute after it was placed there.

• Emails between Zack and Cloud where they're freaking out because Sephiroth still hasn't noticed that his sword is a replica, and they lost the real one.

• Evidence that Cloud Strife is a time traveler: The smoke detector went off in the lounge and Cloud immediately attacked Sephiroth.

• A receipt from Angeal where he purchased horse items: a saddle, reins, and feed. Curiously, Kunsel never found the horse.

• Security cam footage of Sephiroth walking, stopping in the middle of the hallway, shouting "FUCK!" and then proceeding as if nothing happened.

• Dashboard footage of Angeal teaching Zack how to drive, a chaotic twenty minutes of A: "YOU JUST RAN A RED LIGHT!" followed by Z: "I mean what's the difference between red and green, realistically?" and A: "PULL OVER YOU'RE COLOR BLIND"

• A video of Zack going into the men's bathroom empty-handed and then coming out with a popsicle.

• Evidence that Cloud Strife is a time traveler: video footage of Cloud showing up to Sephiroth's apartment unannounced with therapy pamphlets.

• Chat logs from the SOLDIER group chat the day they tried to hide evidence that they broke the training room from Lazard, with Sephiroth suggesting they all gaslight Lazard into believing the training room is fine and the fire has been there all along.

• Security camera footage of Zack dropping down from the vents, placing a photo of Cloud Strife on Sephiroth's office door, and then retreating back into the vents.

• A video of Zack walking into the break room, going over to the fridge, opening the door, and climbing inside. Motives unknown.

• Security camera footage of Sephiroth practicing his nunchucks maneuvers in an empty training room, accidentally hitting himself in the face, and then standing there as if he just got slapped by an invisible force.

• Evidence of a file on Angeal's computer labeled "things that make me happy." Kunsel expected pictures of his friends. Instead, there's just an image of the buster sword and a stock image of an air fryer.

• A photo of Genesis' drawer of theft™ in his office, which includes Zack's kazoo, Zack's harmonica, Zack's hand bell, Zack's rubber chicken, and Zack's autographed photo of Sephiroth.

• A selfie of Tseng with Rufus asleep at his desk in the background. Tseng is holding up a bottle of Nyquil.

• An email from Sephiroth to Hojo that he never sent. It describes in detail how he would love to use his face to sand concrete.

• A photo of Tseng and Rufus pushing Dark Star around in a baby stroller like they're parents.

• A family tree connecting the president, Lazard, Rufus, and Evan Townshend, with a sticky note that reads "introduce president Shinra to condoms"

• A poster on the back of Sephiroth's office door that's a giant picture of Angeal shirtless. When asked why he had it Sephiroth replied "I look at it whenever I need to find inner strength to continue with my day"

• A box of auburn hair dye found in Genesis' bathroom.

[okonogikonomi]

sand.

what's worse, being wanted but not loved, or loved but not wanted?

Kn8 + unrequited feelings. :)

Kafka Hibino has never had unrequited feelings before you. He's happy that you're happy with your boyfriend, Haruichi, but would be lying if he said he wasn't jealous of the guy. I mean, Kafka always feels inadequate, but compared to Haruichi it's a different story. He's smart, he's strong, he's attractive, he's rich as hell. It doesn't get more intimidating than that, but to top it all off, he's dating you. It's like a kick in the face. But Kafka's a pretty good sport. He'd honestly just try to become more impressive so you might notice him.

Mina Ashiro is a subdued person in all respects, including and especially when it comes to romantic feelings. So when she finds out that the girl of her dreams is not only Not Gay but is dating Gen Narumi, she hides her anguish well. After finding out, she'd largely avoid you so as not to slip up and say anything or act out of character. She becomes more aloof and tries to kill her feelings. She drowns her sorrows in work, becomes more aggressive on the battlefield and towards her cadets. She's also more hostile towards Gen, which strikes everyone as odd since she usually can't be caught dead behaving in such an unprofessional manner.

Reno Ichikawa is the worst at pretending not to be hurt. So when he finds out you chose Iharu over him, he has to actually leave the room and punch a wall. Pretty much everyone sees what he's going through, but for some reason, you don't seem to notice. Too enamored with your new boyfriend, he thinks resentfully. I'm picturing the scene in Legally Blonde where Elle throws a box of chocolates at the TV, screaming "LIAR" at a romantic soap opera. He's not exactly that dramatic, but that's how he feels on the inside. Love is dead to him and so is Iharu. He never considered the guy a rival before, but now he considers him a full on enemy. Wouldn't try to break you up for fear of you hating him, but would kinda put his hope in Iharu fucking up.

Soshiro Hoshina is seething when he finds out his brother got to you first. Of all people, you chose that jackass?! He's livid. At Soichiro, of course. He could never stay mad at you; he's got to assume his idiot brother lied to you about his nature or something, although deep down he knows you wouldn't fall for it if he did. He gets really intense in sparring and on the battlefield, and punishes cadets extra hard. Every time he sees you with that fucker, he has to physically remove himself from the situation. Would blow up if Soichiro teased you in front of him. Might try to seduce you anyway, despite your being "taken." Fully believes his brother will ditch you eventually which makes him even more angry. Vents to Okonogi.

Iharu Furuhashi actually does cry a little when he finds out you're dating Kafka. How could he ever compete?! Kafka is kind, wise, and strong. Even with all that Kafka himself perceives as shortcomings, everyone else idolize him. And Iharu? He's just some guy to you. Maybe a friend. It breaks him. He becomes really sluggish and distractable. Consistently loses sparring matches to Reno, who is like "dude wtf." Won't tell anyone he's upset, or why, but it's visible.

Gen Narumi probably screams when he hears you've started dating Soshiro. Not only does the guy have that stupid smug attitude, and more fans than Narumi himself, but now he has you too. He wants to rip Hoshina to shreds, but Hasegawa says no lol. Instead, he coops himself up in his room and games for a few weeks. Any kaiju that shows up during this time is toast, because he just pictures his now romantic rival's face on it and goes wild. Insults Hoshina in front of you hoping to sway your opinion, but you just get mad at him which makes him angrier. Might possibly ask you "what's he got that I don't?" Isn't a huge jerk to you but is to everyone else.

Rin Shinonome kinda figured you were dating Narumi. As usual, he's a step ahead of her. She's bitter, but takes it in stride. She uses your unavailability as motivation to better herself. After all, she enjoys adversity. She's the most likely to have fun chasing you, so she's the least upset of the group.

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

So far we know that:

The kaiju inside Kafka was specifically looking for him. We don't know since when, but given that it found Kafka right after he saved Reno, we can assume it somehow located Kafka after that one incident.

The kaiju inside Kafka was on a mission to kill kaijus, because of the way it reacted to Isao when Kafka lost control. (It clearly says I'll kill monster which means it was a desire of its own, not just a Kafka projection).

Kafka saw a ghost from the past during his visit to the shrine for kaiju slayers.

Which is odd in itself, but later we are told that numbered weapons users can see the ghosts of other users. It's caused because they are using the memory of the identified kaijus as the core of the weapon.

There are living numbered kaiju weapons, like number 10 with Hoshino. Yet, technically, the Kafka situation is a sort of living numbered kaiju weapon too, except we're talking about a deeper symbiosis.

Kafka is slowly turning into a kaiju and he spends too much time on his kaiju form, he risks not being able to turn back to human.

Whatever is no.9, it has hundreds of kaijus on the inside and apparently it has devoured other kaiju slayers along the eras, not only Isao Shinomiya. Which leads off to think 'bout what is going on and how old is that kaiju .

(Obvious) theory time:

If the kaiju within Kafka is acting similarly to the way the cores of dead kaijus turned numbered weapons acted, then Kafka saw the ghost of the shrine through the memory of the kaiju within him. It means that the kaiju is pretty old, having been around for a battle on the Meireki Era.

Whatever No.9 is made of is also old, if not older. It's been fighting kaiju slayers for a while, eating them even.

Unlike other kaijus and excluding no.10 (it'd fight anything that moves), no.8 is fighting against its race on its own accord. It looked for Kafka, not the other way around. When did no.8 evolve to understand humanity? When it decided to turn against kaijus and so it'd help exterminate them?

There's a possibility no.8 had done it before— fight alongside a human to destroy kaijus. There is a possibility Kafka is not the first one, but it was chosen by no.8 because it reminded it of another previous human.

There are many ways it could go, but what we are sure of is that Kafka becoming no.8 user is not a coincidence AND the Defense Corps don't know half the story yet.

( I personally think no.8 is a part of the actual monster within no.9 that escaped and now its trying to kill it, maybe motivated by the memory of the kaiju slayers no.9 real monster has ate )

[raindrops-on-concrete]

tbh I just love Star Trek Discovery so much for their casual representation of queer people. it's really difficult to watch anything with my family that includes same sex couples, let alone trans characters without them questioning the characters integrity or complaining how there "always has to be some kind of lgbtq character in every show these days". but Star Trek Disvovery has a gay couple and a nonbinary person in the main cast, a lesbian and a trans man in the recurring cast and various queer people in guest appearances, and my family loves Discovery and they've accepted each of these characters just like that, never once commented on the usage of they/them pronouns or Stamets and Culber being a same-sex couple.

Each one of these characters are fully fleshed out and their queerness is both an important aspect of their character while also being completely irrelevant to their role in the crew. The representation is beautifully casual: Stamets and Culber are in a relationship and that's just that, Reno has a dead wife and that's just that, Adira asks Stamets to use they/them pronouns for them and everyone just uses they/them pronouns for Adira from then on, Gray is just a boy. And apart from Gray, the queer people in the main and recurring cast are all human as well.

In the future of Star Trek queer people can just exist and it's so normalized that it's also easy to accept for an audience

[ryngzmn]

living dead girl

PAIRING: Sam Winchester x reader

SUMMARY: Sam’s been noticing the scars on your arms and decides to ask you about them.

A/N: the scars on the arms r not intended to be sh, but if you want to, you can pretend that there are sh scars! also, this is still written gender neutral despite the work title! I based it off a song which I’ll put down below:

WARNINGS: partial nudity (reader takes off their shirt, not for intimate purposes), sam is kind of awkward in this, not proofread, kind of got lazy at the end😭😭

WORD COUNT: 836

Sam had recently found himself growing curious.

Curious of the scars on your arms that he had taken more notice of.

Now it’s not like he blatantly ignored the faint scars that were there, you just never really allowed them to be seen to the naked eye.

You always wore shirts with long enough sleeves so nobody would see them.

But with warmer weather approaching, you knew it would just be annoying to wear long sleeve shirts in eighty degree weather.

That’s when Sam started noticing the scars. They fascinated him. He wanted to know every story behind them.

—————————————————————————

Weeks had passed since Sam started noticing the scars. He watched as the shirts you always wore got shorter and shorter in the sleeve area, revealing more of the taut marks there.

He felt himself growing antsy, he wanted — no, he needed to know all the stories behind them.

But, of course, he never had a good chance to ask.

He for sure couldn’t ask either Dean in the room, Sam would never hear the end of his elder brother’s teasing!

So, instead he opted for not-so-patiently waiting for a better opportunity to ask you.

—————————————————————————

After a couple days, that perfect opportunity arose.

You, Sam, and Dean were in Reno, Nevada for a case. A simple ghost case.

The only reason that Sam was able to ask is because Dean insisted on checking out the crime scene by himself.

Sam was eternally grateful that Dean actually went to the crime scene by himself that time, because now it left him with you.

It took him at least thirty minutes to find the courage to get up and approach you.

Frankly, he was kind of afraid you’d push him away, reject him and maybe even tell him off for even asking.

You were cleaning some weapons for the future hunt while sitting on the bed, Sam was sitting at a table with a laptop and lore book in front of him.

Sam inhaled through his teeth, finally standing up and walking over, sitting down beside you.

You briefly glanced at him before focusing back on the gun you were holding.

“Hi,” Sam greeted, rather awkwardly, in fact.

“Hey.” You finally put the gun aside and focused on Sam, turning to face him. “What’s up?”

“Uh, so- I have a question.” Sam mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.

You hummed, nodding a bit. “Alright, shoot.” Waving a hand on his direction, you motioned for him to continue.

Sam flashed you a small smile, taking this as a good sign. “Okay, so, y’know those scars on your arms right?” He gestured to them, just for good measure.

You followed his line of sight, nodding slowly. “Uh-huh?”

“Well, I was wondering if you could tell me the stories behind them..” Sam uttered, clearing his throat and looking off to the side.

You laughed quietly, gently tapping Sam’s leg to get his attention before pointing to three consecutive marks on your forearm that looked like claw marks.

“These are from a Wendigo hunt, it was the first hunt I went on solo.” You murmured, looking up at Sam to make sure he was listening.

“This is from a Ghoul.” You pointed to another scar by your elbow, where it definitely looked like a blade made some sort of incision.

—————————————————————————

After a few minutes of you pointing out scars and blemishes that were on your arms, Sam noticed you pause. Like you were debating something.

“What’s wrong..?” Sam inquired quietly, his eyebrows knitting together in a look of concern.

“Oh, no, nothing’s wrong.” You assured with a smile, “I was just wondering if I should take my shirt off or not, I have more of ‘em.” You explained, obviously referring to the scars.

Sam cleared his throat, trying not to look too eager at the prospect of seeing even more of the marks on your skin.

“Oh, yeah, you can do that if you want!” Sam nodded reassuringly.

You chuckled, quickly discarding the piece of fabric and letting Sam look.

Sam almost felt his jaw go slack at the new expanse of skin. He wanted to run his fingers over every blemish, every mark. Sam even let out a quiet “woah..”

You couldn’t help but feel a little flustered under Sam’s intense stare, and you quickly pointed to a scar near your collarbone to distract yourself.

“This is from a Rabid..” You explained, before turning so your back was in view.

“This is from another Wendigo hunt, got too close to the fire.” You let out a dry chuckle as you felt Sam gently run his fingers over the faint burn scar on your back.

“They’re all so.. beautiful.” Sam mumbled, his eyebrows raising.

“Thanks..”

Realizing that Dean might be back soon, you quickly put your shirt back on and went back to cleaning as Sam decided to help you. His mind still lingering on the idea that you trusted him enough to be so vulnerable with him.

—————————————————————————

reblogs r appreciated! :))

[explosionshark]

Au where Faith comes back to sunnydale in season 5

okay okay i've thought about this

it's a prophetic slayer dream that kicks it off - faith dreams buffy is going to die and she decides then and there she has to go to sunnydale to stop it. she informs angel who reluctantly gives his blessing and then she busts herself out of prison and heads back to sunnydale

obviously faith's motivation is this is a confusing mix of wanting to make things good with buffy, a sort of lingering subconscious suicidal death drive, and a genuine desire to be a Good Slayer for once. buffy can't quite understand what her angle is, but season 5 is a volatile time and buffy's struggling to handle everything on her plate so she can't actually refuse any help from another slayer

in a way, buffy's resentment towards and anger at faith allows her to accept help from faith more readily than she can from riley, her actual boyfriend. she doesn't feel guilty throwing faith out in the middle of the glory stuff. faith, also, kind of relishes being a meat shield a little - it's penance, right? she still resents buffy a little for using her like this so easily (unlike how she treats her ugly fucking boyfriend), however, she's also grateful to be used by buffy at all (unlike her ugly fucking boyfriend) TOXIC YURI

faith is very interesting to have around for joyce stuff because of the intersection of her guilt over the hostage-taking and threatening + her own dead mom issues + her desire to help buffy, genuinely. i think faith privately, secretly approaching joyce to offer to help while she's sick (clean the gutters, do the laundry, wash the car, basic things) to try and make amends because she doesn't know what else to really do is a compelling idea. also i think faith's potential interactions with dawn and tara over mom stuff here are SO interesting

MESSY relationship-wise. spike hates riley. faith also hates riley but wants to avoid him over the uhh body swap magical sexual assault. riley is a terrible fucking boyfriend this season. spike and faith are being absolute freaks about buffy and want nothing more than to kill each other with hammers. buffy wants everyone to shut the fuck up. faith and buffy's entire relationship would be built up gradually over the fact that faith is there and she's consistent and she's not actually asking for anything from buffy or even trying overmuch to prove something to her, she's literally just trying to help her and with everything else around her crumbling, i think buffy would end up really responding to that. idk what really happens with spike besides getting sidelined super hard. faith kicks the shit out of him over buffybot. he fucks off to reno. who gives a shit.

i actually have an outline for an s5 fic but currently that au is at war with my s4 au and i can't do them both, so they're both in stasis rn.

[liminalmemories21]

Fuck It Friday

tagged by @rcmclachlan - thank you!

A day late, but showing up nonetheless.

Remember when we used to write? Before work got insane for both @cecilyv and me? The halcyon days of December.

Anyway, a piece from before I stopped getting home at the end of the day absolutely brain dead and fried. From what has a google doc title of Academic AU. Side note, we've tried to write an academic AU in at least two previous fandoms, and I'm believing in third time lucky.

Tommy stares at the tweet, skeet, whatever.  The post.  Irritated with his hesitation.  The syllabus has not gotten empirically worse since the last time he taught this class last year.  He’s the one a year older, a year more calcified.  Feeling like he’s tilting at windmills. Or like he’s Charlie Brown chasing after the football of tenure.  The university always holding it just out of reach. Sighs and hits post.  Goes back to his inbox.  Deletes the perennial email about the photocopier.  Deletes the email about the meeting room reservation policy reminder.  Eyes the email about the university’s new policy on ChatGPT, and makes a bet with himself about whether they’ll have made some kind of sane decision. Sees a reply to his post come through with something like shock.  In the seven years he’s been teaching this class nobody has ever responded to his tweet - skeet, post, whatever - about the syllabus.  He’s not convinced anyone’s ever actually read his syllabus before they show up in class the first week of the semester. ____________________ @ebuckley.bsky.social Are you running nap time up there in Reno?  #inquiringmindswanttoknow He stares at it and has no idea how to respond.  Hadn’t honestly expected to hear from Evan Buckley ever again, except maybe in passing from Hen or Chim.  Except he doesn’t talk to them that much any more, and Evan had never come up before, no reason he’d come up now. Types and deletes and retypes a response - trying to match Evan’s tone, even though he’s always been terrible at reading tone when he can’t see the person saying the thing. Thomas Kinnard, Prof. American Military History, UNV @tkinnard.bsky.social Are you implying I’m boring? Stares at the screen and waits for a response.  Gets one immediately, like Evan had also been waiting for a response.  Isn’t sure what to make of that.  If he should make anything of it.  Maybe Evan’s just bored. ____________________ @ebuckley.bsky.social  I would never call you boring. Your syllabus, on the other hand…

I'm late, so open tag to anyone who wants to play.

[demialwrites]

FF7 x Reader Mpreg HCs

Because I need to write this.🤰 But you don't need to read this🤡

Cloud

Annoyed. Grumpy. Doesn't appreciate all the extra attention, even though it's positive

Would prefer to chill alone and think deeply about what kind of parent he'd want to be and all the places he'd want his child to see

His friends have to drag him out of the house because he ended up brooding inside for too long

You bicker a bit at first because you can't keep your hands off him and his growing stomach but he likes space. You end up compromising on using a stethoscope to listen to the baby

Rude

Surprisingly chill. Content, even. Talks even less than usual.

He always wanted at least one child and he blushes occasionally thinking about taking care of his little one

There's a few instances of clumsiness if he tries to train while showing but he gets used to it pretty quickly

Reno is extra protective

Constantly cooking his own cravings. He even gets up in the middle of the night to cook something you could easily make or buy if he asked, making him pretend to be huffy when you scold him but he secretly enjoys the fussing

Reno

A bit annoyed because anything that gets in the way of him doing his job well is, well, annoying

To everyone's surprise, he becomes less reckless but doesn't give up the tendency entirely

If any opponent goes for his stomach, they're dead. No questions asked

Demands you touch his stomach at least once a day. He's proud of himself

Chatters endlessly about it to those subordinate to him, to the point where everyone dreads getting assigned to him in the field

Tseng

Takes being pregnant like a champ, at first

It's a real hassle getting him to slow down, to the point where everyone has to outright refuse to spar with him (and secretly start completing his paperwork) later on in the pregnancy

Has a mini-crisis when he can't do his job fulltime anymore because he struggles when he's not feeling useful

Repeatedly informs you that you will do the bulk of the childrearing because he intends to return to work immediately (changes his mind completely after laying eyes on the baby)

Vincent

Not annoyed like Cloud but mopey. Behaves as if his life experiences will translate into a possible curse he will pass on to his child

He can try to mope inside the coffin but the lid doesn't fit flush near the end of the pregnancy. It's adorable but you must not giggle; it will make him pouty

When not moping, he's the exact opposite. Serious™️. Must make up for what happened with Sephiroth

You pray the hormones will chill him out somehow. Many discussions, lots of reassurance that things won't be as bad as he assumes they'll be

Rufus

Alternates between pissy (how dare this happen to me? Why can't you do this?!) and proud (well, of course, my child will be better than all of you peasants) before adapting quite well. In fact, he uses the pregnancy as an excuse to shut down bickering during board meetings whenever possible

Becomes a bit of a paranoid shut in. It's because he feels more vulnerable but he readily admit to it

You wake up to Darkstar on the bed in between you because he wants to protect

Becomes a terror about his cravings and it may lead to actual arguments if he doesn't get what he wants immediately

Also informs you that he will go right back to work but does not change his mind

Reeve

Poor man suffers from excessive nausea and struggles to gain the proper amount of weight

You have to work together with his department employees to make sure he eats enough. He hardly notices because he's still absorbed in his work

The best baby shower gift is a Cait Sith plushie, maybe one you knit/crocheted yourself. The hormones make him feel so touched that he weeps

[lem-argentum]

logically….. when my xiv playtime runs out……. i could use that break to start rebirth……. but you see…….. there’s a guy in that game……….. who i really don’t want to be thinking about…………,,,,,,.,

[bayleavesfromthevine]

some kn8 ramblings (with a side order of manga spoilers)

i love that (as far as we know) kafka and mina's tragic backstory is "dead cat." we know nothing of their parents, homes, or friends from after the kaiju attack, only that mina's cat died. (obviously, the series isn't over yet, so this could be totally disproven at any point, but bear with me lol.)

i actually find that really refreshing. yes, it's so heartbreaking to lose a pet, but it's not the typical trope of a character's power level correlating to how traumatized they are (ex: family massacres, everyone they've ever loved ending up dead, backstabbing, torture, etc etc). their traumas are grounded in very realistic and relatable circumstances, and i think that goes to show that a character doesn't need these extreme reasons to want to do good and fight the scary monster. mina's cat died in a kaiju attack and she wants to make sure that no one else has to lose their best friend/ball of floof to a kaiju ever again. that is enough of a reason and a noble one at that.

soshiro, as another example, has a complicated relationship with his family, but they aren't dead or rogue. he's not seeking revenge on them, but rather they did not support him when it mattered and made him feel inferior - that is a traumatizing environment to grow up in, and unsupportive parents & sibling favoritism are also SO grounded in reality.

it really makes these characters feel real, and i think it's a powerful thing for a reader who maybe doesn't have the best relationship with their parents/siblings like soshiro, or who has lost a beloved pet like mina, or who doesn't have natural-born talent in a specific field like kafka, to see these characters take those experiences, work through them, find a support system, and overcome them.

(side note: i LOVE to see that soshiro actually went no contact with his brother for past behaviors! that sets such a powerful example to readers that it's okay to cut out people who have made you feel like shit!!)

of course, there are other characters like narumi and reno who have heavier backstories, but i love that their experiences don't automatically turn them into the brooding emo characters who think only of killing kaiju and seeking revenge with zero intentions to form friendships with the people around them.

it's just really nice to see. i feel like in stories that have a large cast, it's easy for a character's backstory to completely shape their personality, rather than being shaped by a multitude of experiences - good and bad - gained throughout life. (in cases like reno and kikoru, we see them grow as people & change their outlooks due to their positive experiences with kafka and the rest of the defense force. that doesn't override their past experiences, but adds layers to who they are overall.)

i see kn8 getting criticized a lot for lacking in depth or themes - and i do think there is a conversation to be had about locating the series' central theme and whether or not it's been clearly communicated (and whether or not that even matters) - but i also think part of that criticism stems from having a fantastical premise (that maybe SHOULD have a little more death, but that's another conversation entirely lol) with deeply grounded characters, a contrast we don't see too much of - especially from series in the battle shonen & shonen-adjacent genres (thinking about shows like naruto, aot, jjk, demon slayer, hell's paradise, etc).

basically, i find it refreshing that kn8 isn't over-traumatizing its characters despite the fact that the premise would allow it lol

[draconicshinx]

like. kafka is such a good character concept (32yo man trying to keep up with the kids also he turns into a monster) but then he gets kind of outshone a bit by the side characters because there's some REALLY GOOD ONES (hoshino is one. kikoru is fucking great) I want him to get some more development outside of like. main character syndrome

okay kaiju no. 8 had to nail me in the fucking face with the potential of hoshino/no. 10 huh

[rottenpumpkin13]

How much of a scrooge is Rufus?

Not a scrooge at all! Not even close. Although holidays for him has never been without loneliness. Being a kid meant that Christmas was an overabundance of expensive, impersonal gifts: toys he didn't ask for, gadgets he didn't want, weapons he was expected to make use of. There were awkward, too-brief dinners with his father, the kind where the silence stretched far longer than the conversation and the only sound was the clinking of cutlery against the plates.

Later, Christmas became synonymous with Shinra's corporate parties. Bright lights, towering trees, endless champagne—all of it felt hollow. Rufus had to play the part of the perfect son, smiling for the cameras, giving speeches he didn't mean, enduring his father when all he wanted was the bastard dead. It wasn't until much later—when he began spending time with Tseng, Reno, Rude, and Elena—that Christmas started to change.

Tseng lights candles in memory of family and sets out a tray of sweets as an offering. Reno decorates a "tree" that's just a broomstick duct-taped to the wall—"just like the one we had when I was a kid." Rude cooks an abundance of food, while Elena is all about holiday games like the ones she used to play with her family.

It inspires him to start his own tradition: dressing Darkstar in fun little Christmas outfits.

*Tseng walks into Rufus' office, Darkstar is dressed in an elf costume, complete with a tiny green hat and bell-tipped shoes*

Tseng: ….Sir, is there a reason your dog is dressed as one of Santa's employees?

Rufus: It's festive.

Tseng: Eighteen people have complained of the jingling noise.

Rufus: Dee is spreading cheer.

Tseng: It has also stolen several of our operatives' lunches.

Rufus: To feed the poor, no doubt.

Tseng: