#secondary relationships

[aflockofravens]

Also, Jinshi in "How to Buy Out a Contract" was hilarious.

Do you think he's prettier than me

I was contemplating your murder but my future wife cat thinks you'll make a good brother in law so I'll let you live

My future wife cat trusts you, so I trust you. Don't fuck it up.

Have some money to leave my future wife alone forever go marry her sister

Did you see that Gaoshun? I did a socializing. Do you think Maomao will be proud of me?

Also Lihaku is precious. What an adorable golden retriever of a man. He went from absolute disdain at Maomao when she approached him for an escort to being like "help me little sister, I'm in love".

[sushiisiu]

i always get a little sad when people tell me they like scollace from just my fan art and haven't checked out any of the source material because like nothing i make is going to ever fully represent their dynamic and the joy of shipping to me is really engaging with the canon material and going crazy over breaking down the crumbs of content. and it's a nice comic series! even just watching the anime you're missing out on a lot without context from the comics.

so i guess for the record for anyone who's interested but don't know where to start, /especially/ if you're just here for roommate yaoi. start with the comics. it's the most "scollace-heavy" and it's only 6 books. starting with the anime would probably leave you really confused on why anyone ships them (or what's going on if this is your first exposure to scott pilgrim media) the movie is a fine entrance piece also, imho. like it lets you in on the dynamics between each character and the general plot (even though the characterization is pretty boiled down, but hey a lot of shots are 1:1 to the comics so that's fun.) but yeah. don't let my silly gay drawings dictate your shipping takes. read the books yourself! they're fun and if you're a fresh adult that still feels perma-14 you'll probably find it fun too.

also they're stupidly domestic all the time

[scribefindegil]

I love love love when there are two characters who have nothing in common except their shared undying devotion to a different character. Working together not because they care about each other but because they both care about this other character SO MUCH. Relationship defined by intense devotion but not to each other. It's sooooo tasty give me one million versions of this please.

[drrav3nb]

So you think you're God? You've never killed someone before...It's not easy to kill. Until you get used to it.

[exlimix1a]

Quick piece of @luluyamofficial 's character Lucelia + a 30 second speedpaint!

[toribookworm22]

Does anyone else go feral over almost obsessively devoted platonic relationships?

No? Just me?

[positivelyadhd]

sending all of my love to people who have been left out of friendships and group outings, you are no less worthy than those people are. you are not a bad person. you didn't deserve to be excluded.

i promise that one day you'll find people who will value you and your friendship and make you feel as loved as you deserve to be <33

[something-wicked-within-me]

Silly little WL au of mine,,,,

Against all odds, PICS stay together. Or, at least, the GGGs do - Impulse is the one to team with Gem and Joel. He leaves around Session 2.

It's episode 9. The final confrontation. They're all on red - most of the other teams have already fallen, aside from a few stragglers, and it's the GGGS vs Gem, Joel and Impulse ("GIJ", they've affectionately dubbed themselves, so their catchphrase could be "the gij's up!").

"Pearl," Gem pleads. "Please. Come with me! We can be Soup Group again! Well — plus Joel, but... Soup Group! Come on. Don't you remember Murder Camel? We can destroy those guys! Please. You don't need them. Let me save you." "Oh, Gem..." Pearl's eyes soften, as she strides forward, lowering her sword to cup Gem's cheek in her hand. The deer-hybrid leans into the wolf's touch. A deer trying to save a wolf. How pathetic. Gem gasps as she feels Pearl slot a sword between her ribs. The fawn looks up, horrified, her face almost betraying betrayal... though, that would be the wrong term, because betrayal required them being allies in the first place! They'd never been allies. Let alone friends. "You want to save me? Please. I don't need saving. I'm right where I want to be." Pearl was sick of people telling her who she should be with - what she should want, do, think, be. She knew exactly what she wanted. She wanted Cleo. She wanted Scott. And she wanted this deer to rot. She allowed Gem's corpse to fall to the ground with a cold smirk. Nothing but roadkill. Then, she stepped back to her real team, her real friends, her darling partners. Gem was an absolute idiot if she thought she'd betray them. Pearl gave Cleo a peck on her forehead above her forebrow's stitch, and kisses Scott's star-littered nose. Affectionately, Scott wiped the blood off her cheeks with his thumb, like she'd gotten a bit messy eating an ice cream cone and hadn't just killed a rogue roe. She giggled. "Guess the gig's up for the gijs," Pearl couldn't help but mock the dead doe, and Cleo rolled her eyes teasingly at her pun as the two mollycoddled. "The gijs are almost up. Now, come on," Cleo pulled Pearl's sword out of Gem's forgotten corpse while Scott and Pearl were peppering each other with nose-kisses like it was a competition — was it rude of them to be bill and cooing in front of Gem's dead body? Probably!— and offered the weapon to Pearl in the same way a queen might offer a knight back their blade. Once, Cleo might have hesitated to hand her a weapon, but not anymore. Running a blade through each other's backs now would be like running a blade through their own. "We've got an Impulse to catch."

[haunted-xander]

You ever think about how Ryne probably got a more honest yet closed-off Thancred while Minfilia got a more disingenuine yet open Thancred?

Like, the Thancred Minfilia knew and grew up with was the one we saw in arr, the flirty, teasing and sassy but friendly man who was clearly not very honest seeing as no one- not even Minfilia- noticed how worn out he was from his constant work. Even just by hw he's noticably more prickly and. not quite rude but. more outwardly cynical? He's always been kinda cynical, but in arr his teasing and banter hides it well, which never disappears but is more. natural? genuine? now. Krile directly points out that he's much more brusque than she expected of him based on how Minfilia described him.

And sure, you could attribute that behaviour to his grief and stress (which is certainly a part of it) but considering he acts much the same in ew, when he's finally moved on and come to terms with everything (and is also post-shb character development), I think it's safe to say that this is the most honest we've seen Thancred be.

But this is all Ryne has known him to be. She's never seen Thancred be flirtatious or as social and friendly as he is in arr, she's only seen him be brusque and cynical but still teasing and kind. But he's also far more closed off from her (and others) bc of That Whole Deal going on. Urianger has told her more about Thancred's true feelings than Thancred himself has. and even that's not a lot, for Urianger is not only not a mind reader and doesn't know everything that goes on on Thancred's head, but also is reluctant to share more than is necessary since it's not his place to divulge these things (and also he himself is not free from the folly of emotional self-isolation).

With Minfilia though, he's open enough that she's never doubted that he cared for and loved her even when he couldn't spend much time with her, and she felt comfortable enough to admonish him when he did his usual self-destructive behaviour (you know, becoming an alchoholic at 17 and All That Entails)

Just. food for thought

[bahoreal]

i need ep 7 rn and i need to see huaien Suffer and Apologise and Beg for xiaobao now xiaobao isnt so blinded by the magical power of huaiens beauty i need huaien to be on his KNEES

[rangetsuryuu]

tales of the abyss is the best tales game except for one thing. bad foils.

okay every party member has at least one foil/rivalry when it comes to the god generals, right?

In game foils as follows. In the most straight forward, one to one examples. The final battles of each God General really cements this in mind.

Luke - Asch

Tear - Legretta

Natalia - Largo

Jade - Dist

Anise - Arietta

Guy - Sync

Some of these foils aren't really as strong as others, I'd argue. And on top of that some of these characters have much stronger relationships to the final antagonists of Van and Asch, than others do.

Meanwhile, Jade also has a vague relationship to Sync and Asch, as the father of fomicry. Jade is protrayed as someone's indirectly responsible for some incredibly unethical crimes that Sync and Asch are victim to. That's one of Jade's personal dilemma's, so even if it's not acknowledged directly in the game, we can interpret this to be an indirect relationship with these characters who were directly wronged by his science. A bit of a miss to not have any interactions, but still something that we could reasonably interpret from clues even if not seen outright.

But you know what's a bigger miss? Not swapping Anise and Guy's foils.

They should have made Arietta as Guy’s primary foil and Sync as Anise’s primary foil. 

Because listen. Arietta and Guy don't have a single interaction together but they have an actual historical connection to each other?

Both had their homelands totally wiped by the same tragedy.

Arietta and Guy both respect and adore Van and sided with him. They both want vengeance against a world that's wronged them and stolen their family.

But Guy doesn't go through with it. He ends up rejecting Van and vengeance. So doesn't that put automatically pit him against Arietta that's still stuck in that old mindset? Arietta, whose whole deal is vengeance against Anise for taking her only friend in Ion? Arietta, who's stuck in this idea that a single person can be responsible for her grief, in the the same way Guy was convinced that the death of Duke Fabre's family, could bring relief to his pain?

But Guy was able to recognize this wouldn't work. Luke's death wouldn't change the past.

So isn't it possible for him to see himself in Arietta when he found out she was from Feres Isle?

Hod and it's sister isle of Feres, were both wiped out for unfathomable reasons. Guy and Arietta both left as sole survivors of their respective isles. But isn't that insane? To find a survivor of a tragedy you thought was yours alone?

Imagine then, if Guy had been able to see his own past unfolding with Arietta's revenge against another person who had nothing to do with any of the horror. If he's able to recognize that Luke wasn't a justified target of revenge, then shouldn't he see that Arietta's grudge was just as petty as his own?

But Guy's change of heart isn't actually something that's seen in game. It's just something that's revealed to you. So woudn't it be exciting to see someone who can actually be a reflection his past ideals?

So then. The final battle against Arietta could have been a brutal clash with Guy. We could have had that revelation unfold in front of us, no?

Unlike Anise's final fight with Arietta, he wouldn't have necessarily considered Arietta a lost cause. He could have seen himself in Arietta, he could have asked her to choose a different path then vengeance. He could have told her they were both the victims of a war beyond their scope. Survivors of a nation doomed by something completely beyond their control.

Guy could have revealed to her, his own history with Van and vengeance, he could have appealed to her. Maybe she could have felt that connection. She could have heard it. Listened to it, and then admitted that his sympathy had fallen flat.

"You're right. That was short-sighted of me. Killing Anise, wouldn't change anything. But killing all of you will still bring bring the vengeance and justice that my monsters deserve. And if that brings us closer to Van's revenge too... then all of you have to die."

And Guy could realize that there wasn't any talking her out of it. That she'd somehow become even more embolded in her revenge despite his plea.

In a way, Guy could understand that her vengeance was different from hers but still identical. The only difference was that Arietta didn't care about the abstraction of responsibilty. She wanted real and immediate justice for her real and immediate pain.

Hod and Feres Isle could have been left in the dust to her for all she cared. Feres Isle was nothing compared to her love for Ion and Van and her monsters and her pain for them. If that was the case, could Guy who had claimed his vengeance was for all of Hod still be in the right?

When faced with Arietta's selfish, single minded desire for vengeance, could Guy really have claimed that his own vengeance was for anything more than his own twisted idea of justice?

He could have been terrified to see that she was the worst version of himself come alive. Excuse after excuse for a reason to take out his grief on the world. He could have been disgusted with her revenge or resigned to it. Or maybe he could have embraced it. Regretted it? Wished for things to end differently?

Either way he would have been forced to kill this version of himself that he saw in her, regardless of how he felt about her.

He could have seen Arietta as someone beyond help. He could see the way that Largo and Anise still grieved for her despite everything. And he could have grieved for their shared loss. He could have grieved for the two of them who could never get any justice that could satisfy their pain.

He could have lost the one last connection to his home that he had left, and he would have had to end it himself.

What would it have been like if he had to carry that on him? Wouldn't it have been more fun for us to see that grief unfold firsthand?

Or is that kinda sadistic...?

[commandercoriandersalamander]

I love reading Locked Tomb fandom meta because it really lets me appreciate how little I understand of what happened in these books.

[arohuacheng]

k sorry i’m legitimately so insane about pei ming and shi qingxuan though. pei ming as someone who’s not just a womanizer but someone responsible and dear enough to shi wudu for That Man to essentially appoint him as qingxuan’s guardian should anything happen to him… for pei ming to take that responsibility on whole-heartedly, trying to protect shi qingxuan and keep them out of trouble and lead them on the right path even from the very beginning of the story… he’s trying to keep her out of the whole mess with pei su he’s trying to make sure that she does what she needs to do to survive in heaven (she has never learned that one needs to be cruel and unjust to advance because her brother has done all the unjust cruelty for her) he’s trying to make sure that he fulfills that trust that was placed in him and that’s all before there’s even a hint of anything that would incapacitate shi wudu. and sqx sees this and she must know at least some of it but she hates him. just doesn’t like his personality. i am out of my fucking miiiind

[strawberryghostlight]

hey!! i just looked through like your whole into the woods tag because im going crazy rn but i was curious if you knew or had any thoughts about why rapunzel’s melody stayed the same or the symbolism behind it? specifically during the different parts where everyone else’s kind of phrase changes (the slotted spoon holds no soup -> the slotted spoon can catch the potato). like, why doesn’t she have a phrase at all? only singing?

First of all omg thank you so much for talking to me about Into the Woods!! The obsession is realll

I think Rapunzel embodies an interesting space where her story doesn't give her room to change. She doesn't have an "I wish" or "I've learned something" moment the way the main cast does, though she is undoubtedly the main character of her own fairytale to the same extent that Red, Cinderella and Jack are. The main difference seems to be her lack of agency- She doesn't venture into the woods, but instead was brought there as a baby and now lives there. She doesn't seek out a prince, but instead is found by one who takes advantage of her position. Things happen to her, but she doesn't do much on her own. Her story not having a lesson (or rather, having a lesson for Mysterious Man and Baker) sort of positions her as this pawn at the whims of surrounding characters, and I think her wordless tune in the Act 1 midnights staying the same reflects that. She is unchanging and unmoving in her tower while the woods play out around her.

In Act 2, though, I'd argue that she does change. Instead of hearing her lovely rendition of the Bean Theme streaming in from offstage during other scenes, we hear her cries and screams. Once removed from her tower and brought to the castle she experiences the same mobility and freedom as the other characters, and from that vantage point she sees a) how messed up her life has been and b) how dreaful the outside world can be as well. We see that the prince is a manipulative cheating scumbag, and Rapunzel is taking care of twins now as well. I think once leaving the tower she's more trapped than ever, hence why she runs from her prince in a direct parallel to Cinderella fleeing her prince in Act 1. I really like the original version of the script where Rapunzel's prince shows up in Act 2 scene 2 during the big conversation with the Giant, and so when she runs into the Giant's path it's because she was cornered- her prince on one side and the Witch on the other, leaving Rapunzel no choice but to flee both (unfortunately leading to her demise). Later versions omit him from the scene so she's only running from the Witch, which also works but is easier to misread imo. Her next appearance is repeating the Bean Theme once again in the finale, bringing her back to where she began- not that different from Jack still being mothered, Red still being overlooked, and Cinderella still cleaning someone's house. The Baker begins the story again, and Rapunzel becomes a stagnant character once more.

[toribookworm22]

Sibling relationships like: I tried to protect you until it made you angry so I tried to let you go but that just made you angrier and no matter how hard I try to hold back on there's too much anger now but I love you and I know you love me and you know I'm not angry right you deserve to be angry please only be angry at me and never at yourself love I love you I love you I love you I'll hold your bloody knuckles in my hands as long as you'll let me

[longagoitwastuesday]

I am liking Jujutsu Kaisen, way more than I imagined I would, but I foresee it will let me down and it's keeping me from enjoying this as much as I could haha

I think the characters and dynamics are well set, and I think many of them have an incredibly good and deep potential, but I would be willing to bet they'll not get a proper development, enough for them to really hit. A well assembled set of gears is not enough to make the movement go, you have to wind the clockwork.

I think Gojo and Megumi have a fascinating and very complex dynamic, but I doubt it will be given the time and care that imo it needs to actually work. And it is going well enough for now! One could see the intimacy between them was deeper than the one Gojo had with, say, Yuji and Nobara ever since the very first few episodes despite the fact Fushiguro too was a first year. But the pieces forming what they have are extremely complex, and it just wouldn't be realistic if it doesn't show, even if in a not showing way, or if it doesn't have consequences or implications.

It's one of those dynamics that shape one's life, the way one regards the world, the way one establishes or not relationships with other people. It's one of those dynamics that could be full of fondness, gratitude, resentment, admiration, trust, and that imply intimacy, the good kind or the bad, even if in just the knowledge of someone who's been a constant through your life. It could, and would, imply a myriad of feelings, and probably in such a mix it could imply contradictory feelings too. Even the nothingness would weight, even the nothingness would be significant and meaningful.

Gojo took Megumi and his sister under his wing, the son of a man who murdered him, because of both selfish and selfless reasons. Megumi looks like Toji. What does Gojo feel about this? How does Gojo deal with this? How does Gojo go about taking care of Megumi? Would he walk him to school? Make him breakfast? Celebrate his birthdays making him blow candles? Did he take him to the zoo? Does the relationship between them feel professional or is it something more? Gojo appreciates his students, but is Megumi to him just another student? When Gojo faces Sukuna in Megumi's body, did he see the kid he raised, or does he just see Sukuna in one of his students' body? Did he have one faint wavering instant? And how does Megumi feel about this? Is he resentful of him? Resentful of the situation? Of the selfishness behind his actions? Does he feel like a pawn? Is he grateful? Does he resent feeling grateful? Would he rather not? Does he love Gojo? Does he feel nothing about him other than what he could feel about a teacher that sort of annoys him but knows he's reliable in his strength? Does he think it unfair, cruel or unfeeling that Gojo is close, closer perhaps, with Yuuji or Yuta, considering their story? When Sukuna slices Gojo in two, does the remnants of Megumi's soul tremble?

And not just Megumi and Gojo. Yuuji and Nanami, Gojo and Nanami, Yuuji and Fushiguro, Nobara and the boys, or Nobara and Maki, Todo and Yuuji or Yuta, Gojo and Yuta, Megumi and his sister. Gojo and Geto, even! If the pieces are well set, the dynamics are intriguing, interesting, and have potential to be deep, but then the characters have like two plot relevant scenes that punch you hard, but little more, it's not nearly enough. Especially not nearly enough for the enormity that is shonen dynamics and situations. And the potential existing at all, and then not delivering, makes it all the more frustrating when you're left with something mediocre that could have been so good.

The development of dynamics through not only a few plot relevant gut wrenching moving scenes, but also the smallness of life, is important. The friend who recommended this to me said that those things were just unnecessary filler, but I disagree. I think there's a big difference between a large amount of anime-only filler episodes whose existence is based on the fact they had run out of manga chapters to animate, and moments of quietness. The low stakes character-driven moments of quietness can be so telling and so insightful, and they are so satisfactory when brought back later in higher stakes situations. My friend teased me there was no scene of Gojo making breakfast to Megumi, that it would be an idiotic idea, but it would be so telling. How he makes breakfast, what they eat, if he tries hard or if it's all mechanised, if they have personal bowls or if they use whatever, if he just buys them some pastry on the way to school, if the way they have breakfast changes through the years, or if he doesn't make them breakfast at all! All that would be very insightful on their dynamic and its evolution. All that would give a glimpse on how they regard each other and why, even in the present. All that could become meaningful in tense situations and high stakes scenes.

These moments also let the plot breath; if a lot is happening all the time, if every character is always experiencing trauma after trauma, the entire story is so emotionally draining that at some point you don't even care all that much. Besides, these nothing moments or low stakes plot arcs, besides deepening and developing dynamics, also let some in-world time pass, which would make the intimacy and bond between characters more believable imo; between Yuuji eating Sukuna's finger and their last confrontation in December how much time has passed? A few months? Am I truly to believe these characters are so everything to each other in only a few months?

Without some smallness, some repetition, some daily life, some low stakes not plot-centric development, the dynamics don't hit, they don't truly feel fleshed out, and dynamics as complex as the ones Megumi and Gojo have, or as supposedly meaningful as the one Megumi has with Yuuji or his sister, should be fleshed out if they're going to exist at all. Otherwise they'd risk making the writing feel awkward and fake. Besides, if the dynamics felt well fleshed out and realistic, they would shape the way the characters interact and act, and how they deal with situations, thus being plot relevant.

The shonen genre has so much happening all the time, the stakes are so high, the dynamics are so rooted in big events and the relationships carry enormous weight and implications. Yet they barely get developed, and it feels so stupid, so plain, the absence of something so important noticeable like a constant void, a shapeless nothingness present in every scene. It makes the characters feel like cardboard figures. Jujutsu Kaisen is already getting a better job than many, but I doubt it will do enough for what I've heard, and I fear I am bound to feel let down, and bound to feel unmoved.

After all, if not enough time and care has been given to develop a dynamic, I am not going to feel pressured by the high stakes; if not enough time and care has been given to develop the dynamic between Megumi and Yuuji, as good potential as it has I am bound to feel little for this last confrontation between Sukuna and Itadori, and his effort in getting Megumi back.