#shes literally so compelling girl

[makersruin]

sorry i just cant stop thinking about the inu/kagome and inu/kikyo ship wars that are still going on in the present day. as someone who isnt invested in it at all (both presently and in childhood) im really fascinated how it managed to stand against the test of time and still be a topic of discussion for 28 years. i'm sure there's more to this that i'm missing because i'm looking primarily at youtube comments which can, at times, be the bottom barrel of the internet but im part not-surprised part alarmed by how the discourse never moved past the standards of writing for female characters in 2002. so much of 'kagome is useless and doesn't deserve him', 'kikyo is a whiny loser who cant give him up', etc etc. has anyone considered that inuyasha might not deserve either of them. ok well thats not true but it also doesn't feel very fair to go band for band on worthiness, which is a kind of meaningless method of measurement on the subject of love, and leave the guy out of it.

when it comes down to it, inuyasha as a story is about a group of people who have been deeply traumatized and cannot move past these traumas until they address the root of it, which is the shikon jewel. the end goal of the story is for them to overcome their pasts. his relationship with kikyo and kagome is exciting and romantic, but they also do the more important job of being representations of the past vs the future. if the story is committed to its thesis, then inuyasha can't be with kikyo. and its not because she's unworthy or a bitch or any of that nonsense, its because kikyo is dead and her soul already reincarnated. kagome is kikyo, not in a literal sense, but in that she is the part of kikyo who has chosen to move on and live. what's left is the bones and grave dirt and regrets of a woman whose life was ruined by the shikon jewel. inuyasha can't be with that. he can't bury himself alive for someone who isn't real anymore, no matter how much he loved her and regrets what happened. this isn't a win for kagome or proof of that kikyo is lesser, its a tragedy that the three of them are going to have to heal from. and when talking about the three of them, any consideration taken away from the weight of that seems like a shame to me.

[teagrammy]

Just saw a (recommended) post cross my dash hoping Colin is going to be more upset about Pen “writing bad things about herself” than the actual tangible things she’s done to people… be fucking for real please

[widowshill]

— Are you sure Burke wants to buy Collinwood? — Yes, he said so. I'm just afraid it's only the beginning of what he wants.

[aeolianblues]

was kinda thinking about this when I saw Renee Rapp live recently-- I didn't know her visual vibe, I'd heard a few songs here and there but I hadn't really *seen* her, and her attire at Osheaga was really casual, a jersey (baseball/basketball?) and slacks. And that was so amazing! I couldn't help thinking, the work Billie Eilish has done for how women in pop music are allowed to dress is incredible. Seeing her up there all comfortable you just know that Billie walked in her oversized tops so that Renee in her slacks could run; Billie walked through all the critcisms about how she dressed slobbily and having to assert that she didn't owe anyone a display of skin, so that Renee could be comfortable and unquestioned running up and down the catwalk in front of 10,000 people. How iconic.

And I don't think we even realised at the time how much something as simple as letting Billie dress the way she as a (then-) 17-year-old teenager dressed, could end up meaning for a future generation of women in music.

Obviously there is still way to go, there were weirdos complaining about how 'plain' Dua Lipa's Glastonbury outfit was this year (in 2024!!), l have to ask, are you at Paris Fashion Week?? She is the musical HEADLINER of an entire day of music at one of the biggest music festivals in the world, and you can't grant her the space to exist as an artist, you have to moan about her dress not being excitingly revealing enough. There's work to do, it's still dismal out there. But the space Billie Eilish has created for a most ordinarily-dressed woman popstar is still heartening.

[sskk-manifesto]

Ep 5!!!

[opaleyedprince]

dorian lorepost 3: friends, family, and fun (for me - not he)

under a cut bc this is L O N G and i mean. essay length probably

family

apart from his birth mother (roza), dorian has five members in his immediate family: his father (stephan), his stepmother (carmen), and three older half siblings: eduard, andrei, and isobel. the rest of dorian's family lack his dark hair and eyes, with all of his sibling having dirty-blond, red, or brown hair, leaving dorian to stick out like a sore thumb in family portraits.

his father was not expecting another child, much less one that inherited the family crest, and his relationship with dorian has always been awkward. as a child, dorian was very pushy about whether or not his father even cared about his birth mother at all, and for a period of several years refused to speak to him after a particularly bad fight. despite this, they are currently on speaking terms, with stephan teaching dorian how to properly activate/wield/manage his crest. he also ensured dorian was given proper combat training, along with scholarly teachings involving history, strategy, and politics.

dorian was very shy around his stepmother for months after being rescued from the bitter cold, and in turn carmen was conflicted about dorian and everything the child represented. but she was the first to notice the way dorian shivered at the slightest hint of a chill, his hesitance when it came to touch and his refusal of skin on skin contact despite how obviously he wanted connection. for his fifth birthday, she gifted him a pair of gloves that served to help alleviate his fears, and in turn he began to view her as a parental figure.

she took him under her wing - he was about a year behind her youngest - and raised him as her own. while his father provided dorian with lessons based around his future responsibilities as an inheritor of the family's crest, carmen ensured that he had not only a well-rounded education (expanding his lessons to include the arts and practical skills like cooking and sewing), but that he had hobbies as well (he took to things like dancing, poetry, embroidery, and fencing).

of dorian's three half siblings, the eldest is eduard, who took the addition of a new sibling in stride despite the fact that he was being raised to be the future head of house konstantinov before dorian's abrupt arrival. he doesn't have an adversarial relationship with dorian, but neither does he have a particularly close bond with him; he's always been distant and cold. since he's several years older than dorian, he has no real idea how to have a proper conversation with him. most of dorian's memories involve eduard talking about how dorian has to be perfect, exemplary, without flaw so that he does not bring shame upon their house. this sentiment comes from a place of genuine care, it's just that eduard hasn't made the effort to actually get to know dorian, absorbed as he is in his duties.

andrei is the middle child of dorian's half siblings, and the only one who has taken a wholly adversarial view of him. they find dorian's presence shameful and used to bully him relentlessly when they were children. it was only after their parents intervened that andrei backed off, though their relationship has never grown any warmer. andrei is a performer who travels throughout faerghus and is often on the road. they're generally a bit stuck-up and very proud, with a soft spot for their two siblings and no one else. secretly, both they and dorian wish to bridge the gap between them, but andrei has no clue how to go about apologizing for the way they've treated dorian in the past. despite no longer holding any real animosity towards him, they continue to be combative.

the youngest of dorian's half siblings - and the one closest to his own age - is isobel. she's just a year older than him, and took to dorian like a duck to water when they were introduced. the pair quickly became thick as thieves and would often get into trouble, with isobel becoming more outgoing around dorian (who managed to be even more shy than she was). out of his entire family, isobel is the one dorian is closest to; he writes letters to her regularly and hers is always the first opinion he seeks when he needs advice. a gifted and talented mage, isobel has chosen to spend her time teaching others using her skills. when she's not travelling throughout the kingdom offering herself as a tutor she spends her time honing her magic and putting her lessons on paper. as of dorian heading to the academy, she hopes to make copies of her work available within the next five years.

friends

as a member of house konstantinov, dorian grew up mostly hearing about the other houses in the holy kingdom via proxy - due to his status as the only child of the family that bore a crest, he was raised mostly secluded on the konstantinov grounds. on rare occasions when other nobility visited, he would spend most of the time in hiding due to his shy nature. he happened to meet several of the blue lions briefly throughout his earlier years (felix, ingrid, and dimitri). dorian had very few friendships apart from his close bond with his older sister.

due to his house's close relationship with the church of seiros, dorian is very used to being around knights and other members of the church, including even the archbishop herself. before the events of three houses, he had been to visit the monastery multiple times, and thinks of it as a safe place without needing time to settle in once the academy phase starts. he's friends with flayn and views seteth as a sort of older brother figure, and keeps up his swordplay skills by dueling the knights in their spare time.

dorian is capable of getting along with almost anyone, but as of the academy phase his circle of friends includes felix, mercedes, dedue, ignatz, linhardt, and tentatively dimitri.

lil misc details

dorian is deathly afraid of heights and the cold, often wearing more layers than is strictly necessary and refusing to look out of high windows or over railings

dorian's favorite animals are those often considered to be pests: vultures, ravens/crows, and foxes

dorian's room always has a large fire going in it, even during the warmer months

dorian is considered mysterious by others his age who don't know him (he's actually just shy)

dorian likes going on horseback rides and was given two hunting dogs when he came of age

when he's unable to sleep, dorian can be found going on walks outside or playing piano

so, about that crest

since it's stated that the nabatean's blood was a required component in giving the elites their crests, constantine likely already was in possession of a crest when they defected. however! since the game doesn't elaborate on the exact methods i chose to believe it was some sort of magic-laced blood transfusion, one which constantine was notably on the lesser receiving end of; because even in their elevated status they were still just an ex-stablehand.

so at some point i do think - as a form of hazing - constantine was forced to drink blood. which did suck but also well. you did betray your friend dude maaaaybe you should not have done that? and this is why the konstantinov crest behaves differently/the way it does.

anyway- effects of this! constantine's hair was probably run through with streaks of gray by the time they switched sides again to support seiros, and by the end of the war their hair was almost fully white. it was only with rhea's help that they were able to better manage the effects of their crest on their body and psyche.

among these effects was the ability to hear the other relics, or rather to hear bits of who they had once been. their own weapon, which beat in their hands to the tempo of the crest stone imbedded within it, whispered to them in the voice of the friend they'd allowed to be killed. even after the war, constantine was seen as a mysterious recluse, driven mad by their own guilt and oath-bound to the church in a form of eternal repentance.

constantine lived far longer than any of the other elites, becoming a pale shadow who lingered at rhea's side and served her faithfully as one of her very first knights. upon their passing, they were entombed by their family in what would become the konstantinov mausoleum, located in the cold frostbitten mountains where the family grounds was also constructed.

now, decades and decades later, their crest still allows the inheritor to hear the whispers of the hero's relics, though said whispers have grown quieter and rarer over time.

even individuals that do not inherit the konstantinov crest still find themselves preferring their meats rare, and some have been born with particularly sharp senses or found their incisors growing in more pointed than before when they lost their baby teeth. depleting ones' energy by overusing the crest will cause the user to crave rare meats, and outsiders who know the workings of their crest often refer to them as vampires as a joke (they don't actually drink blood - except in cases of desperation orrr well. what partners do is their business and not anyone else's mkay).

dragon and blood imagery is prevalent outside of the family's coat of arms, and dark maroon is the most common underlying color when it comes to decorations or things that are associated with the family, such as a flag or a handkerchief. rather than ordinary gargoyles, the mansion sports draconic ones, along with dragons incorporated into the architecture or furniture inside, with the primary accent color being gold or golden-bronze.

[brionysea]

i didn't expect ekko and jinx's relationship to be what stays so strongly in my mind after watching arcane but here we are. it just goes to show how incredibly impactful THAT SCENE is

[johndonneswife]

not a sad ‘woe is me’ post so don’t send me weird messages but: the thing abt cycling through every ED possible and being bulimic for like 10 yrs & making yourself vomit up to 10x times per day on ur worst days is that your teeth and gums will eventually give out on you (bc it doesn’t make a difference if you’ve been good & it doesn’t matter how well you’ve taken care of your teeth for the last x years) and u will be 30 years old crying to your very sweet and kind dentist when she tells you about the 1 million things that are wrong with ur teeth

[magical-xirl-4]

To go in depth about what bothers me about Kyosaya is that we never see what Sayaka’s feelings on Kyoko are romantically and we never see how she even develops them in the first place. It’s why I hate that scene in Rebellion because it just seems like pure fan service with no proper set up. We KNOW Kyoko cares for Sayaka and most likely has romantic feelings mixed in there (also an ass pull but she’s gay so it’s understandable), but when and WHY did Sayaka even come to reciprocate those feelings for her? What does she like about Kyoko?

We know where Kyoko’s feelings towards Sayaka comes from: Kyoko sees herself in Sayaka and is reminded of when she was a child who believed in hope, but it’s also not a stretch to say that she saw Mami in Sayaka as well, which is why she holds a fondness for her.

So what about Sayaka? Why does she want to be friends with Kyoko? They were about to be friends before she died in Madoka’s new world but we never have any follow up about that.

And don’t tell me it’s shown in the Wraith Arc bc the entire premise of it being made AFTER Rebellion annoys me too. Whatever they have written for them in that arc is just going to be nothing but excuses for me; like why that scene in Rebellion even went the way it did, why she even regretted leaving Kyoko behind. Because from what we know in the TV series, going by RELEASE ORDER, she didn’t give two fucks about Kyoko.

Sure, it’s probably better late than never to develop them when they have time to, but idk maybe show me that in the movie a lil before getting to a weirdly intimate scene where she essentially confesses to Kyoko.

[homosociallyyours]

.

[oflgtfol]

the human cosmos was such a good book in terms of like, talking about how people have studied astronomy across human history, the interdisciplinary nature of both ancient astronomy as well as the study of ancient astronomy, and how it has all culminated into the modern state of the field. but then the final chapter starts talking about how like, The Mind is a fucking fundamental piece of the fabric of the universe akin to matter, or fucking something along those lines, and it's like girl what in the god damn are you talking about

[larnax]

ok i have. i have more disgaea thoughts. my girl fuka what did they do to you

ok so the thing abt d4 is that overall its story is quite fun, it's peak disgaea because it is wacky in a way where its absurdly exaggerated literal events are used to represent emotional conflicts ie a character's dad shutting himself away in his lab for her entire childhood who reveals it was to fulfill her dream of taking over the world by developing machines that she can command to take over the world as an allegory for a dad doing his best to provide for his kids at the expense of being there for his kids so they grow up without feeling like he loves them, and it legitimately is the only story i think really intertwines serious and batshit to make "WE HAVE TO POWER THE MECH WITH LOVE SO IT CAN STOP THE MOON FROM CRASHING TO EARTH, QUICK, PRAY TO YOUR PARTNER BECAUSE WHILE YOU HAVE NO FAITH IN GOD YOU HAVE FAITH IN HIM!" instead of in d1 having the story be wacky with occasional stops to tell a standard story with normal emotional stakes and etna is there to tell jokes, or from d5 onwards basically just being standard fantasy stories with normal emotional stakes but theres wacky backgrounds.

the actual main story of d4 is all bangers, there are a lot of great heels to keep the story interesting and although they all come around to val in the end they don't all become his bff which avoids the d7 problem of "you made a new guy up just so we would have anyone to fight and nobody we do recruit puts up an interesting struggle and therefore none of us have an interesting reason we're still here beyond inertia". i do wish artina got to do more stuff i think she's way too fun a character who is way too important in the story to be relegated to third wheel as often as she is, but to fix that i would just give her most of axel's stuff. she becomes president and then is absent for the moon episode on intel that she'll meet "someone she doesn't wanna see" and then when she radios in for the roll call you have a little joke about flonne being that person.

usually i really like flonne being a straightforward heel in her adult appearances. shes the whitest woman in existence and shes very nasty when she thinks she's doing the right thing, which is always. i support women's wrongs and her stealing billions from the netherworld(which celestia already exploits in a lot of ways/sometimes just decides to destroy) to fuck around with by forcing an underling who actively does not want to do it to shake down random civilians and public infrastructure, all to fund her stupid ass mech shaped like her who's powered by prayer? thats horrible! shes so nasty! it's really funny and them being forced to deal with That being their only way to keep fenrich from having the most important thing in his life(after val) fucking exploded leads to one of the reasons they should have won that fucking noncanon gayest ships tournament FUCK those community bitches.

HOWEVER. the fuka dlc is so bad. or let me rephrase: the fuka dlc is transcendantly good until the ending at which point it becomes the worst thing that happens in disgaea 4.

bc ok ok ok. so fuka is dead. that's her story, after a childhood of being neglected by her always busy dad she breaks into his lab and finds his evil scientist lair full of mutant constructs, one of whom kills her. she doesn't accept that she's dead because she's only 14 and her life hasn't even started yet and on top of that she's been sent to hell despite being a normal ass 14 year old whos biggest crime is being a teenager. so she deals with it by denying it and deluding herself into believing that this is all a dream and someday she'll wake up in a happy life she's just starting and she won't have to confront the terrible fate she met with. so the solution is obvious, right?

after the main story resolves and fuka has a group of friends and caretakers who love her and she's patched things up with her dad, fuka needs to accept that she's dead. disgaea uses a reincarnation system as a core part of the series mythology and gameplay. reincarnation is good and necessary. fuka, eventually, needs to let go, and stop haunting the world she did get cheated out of a life in.

so in the dlc, her friends and family help her. val puts her through the toughest puzzle course he can because he's her teacher and he wants her to prove that she's strong and resourceful and capable, and she does! she passes all his tests and he gives her his formal blessing. then her secondary father figure, her bio dad, finally delivers on his promise to help her take over the world, they like. rent out a city and give her a bunch of crazy machines to go wild on with the power she's worked so hard for and the allies she's found so much support in, including her little sister who she only recently got to meet and connect with during the main story and her surrogate reluctant little brother, The Grim Reaper, who is the one guiding her through the mechanics of reincarnation in the first place as a sign of his own personal growth that he's now mature enough to handle this difficult case.

and it works! fuka accepts it! she accepts, sadly, that she's dead, and she should move on. she'll lose this life, which is sad! they're all sad about it! but it's okay. and then-- it's an ending, right?

it's going to be an ending, you think. disgaea has a bunch of specific endings. there's one for completing a single optional stage in d1. it would make perfect sense narratively and gameplay wise to have an ending with fuka reincarnating, then just. introduce a bill to resummon fuka from an alternate dimension or time travel shenanigans or literally whatever other funny joake you can think of this is a comedy series and doing it this way doesn't undercut the emotional part While Its Happening. because if that happened itd be Bad.

enter flonne. because it is not an ending. flonne barrels through the fourth wall at the last second and, dead vfucking serious, CONDEMNS FUKA TO ETERNAL HELL WITH NO CHANCE OF REINCARNATION because she "tried to take over the world" by fighting in a stage consisting of like three blocks her dad set up for her where no civilians were even present. also bc shes the ruler of heaven this is the character who condemned her to hell originally when she was FOURTEEN because when she was six she wanted to take over the world.

which is a baller heel move and i would be so so so so into it IF she was a boss fight. if they had to defeat her before she was forced to reluctantly give fuka her very well-deserved reincarnation. but, uh, nope, last minute twist, Moving On Is Bad Actually and fuka is still condemned to eternal hell. fuck you. sure its technically a sentence that lets her spend time with her besties forever but like. at what cost. flonne only works as a heel if the other characters clash with her instead of valvatorez and emizel of all fucking people being like Woof so glad we don't have to say goodbye, i guess our entire characters and the things we find important and the reasons we were doing this do not matter and all that shit about caring about fuka and wanting her to find peace was Bullshit. have fun being 14 for the rest of your life, Dumbass!

← literally what its like to be 14 years old

[ananas-pineapple-thing]

climbs back onto the stage to continue a two day old post. also people hating rachel bc she’s rich suck bro she’s 15 what do u want her to do 😭 rr likes writing rich people with helicopters it’s not her fault

[helpimstuckinafandom]

Can vampire diaries stop reminding me how much better Stefan is than Damon in every conceivable way like I already know please we're halfway through the fifth season can we please work on making Damon tolerable for even a smidge a crumb please

[vaugarde]

oh. this is another “the villain has completely correct and good motives but goes about it in a creepy extreme way that makes them ‘just as bad’ and the heroes gotta fight to keep the status quo!” plot. cool.

[teafiend]

Revisiting the second-half Episode 5, and KGY’s relationship with Go-Sunbae is so heartwarming. 🥰🥹 I always learn so much about her from their interactions, and each “lack” in her life made me want to head canon something better for her post-canon. She makes my heart ache, and made me want to give her everything.

(GIFs from @Nungchae, Twitter/X)