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hippo-pot · 6 months ago

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American Sign Language media content for receptive skills practice

Made this list because I really could have used it earlier on! My rubric is that it needs to include Deaf people signing, and that SimCom doesn't count (it may be present, but it can't be all there is).

This only includes stuff I've actually seen (or partially seen). Also, I'm including some warnings about what you may *not* want to watch, because again, I really could have used those warnings myself.

Easy (i.e. has subtitles and/or voiceover available, IIRC)

Mostly speaking:

CODA (movie; comedy/drama; on AppleTV+)

Kinderfänger (scary movie. Note that it has a 3.7/10 on IMDb. I personally liked it fwiw. not sure if it's streaming anywhere)

CODA (short film; on Kanopy)

Master of None S2.E6: New York, I Love You (TV show episode, currently on Netflix)

Wild Prairie Rose (drama/romance, currently on Peacock)

Queer Eye S8E4: Protect the Nest (reality TV, on Netflix)

CSI S11E13: The Two Mrs. Grissoms (crime show, Hulu)

ANTM Season 22 (the one with Nyle, obviously. I had to get this from the library on a DVD that, get this, had NO captions available. Not impressed. (The ASL was voiceovered))

Running Wild with Bear Grylls the Challenge S2E4: Troy Kotsur in the Scottish Highlands (reality TV, on Hulu I think)

CSI NY S3E12: Silent Night (crime show, Hulu). I found this one pretty ableist/audist (but it's hard to explain why without spoiling the whole thing - here's the summary if you're fine with spoilers: https://csi.fandom.com/wiki/Silent_Night) also the camera work sometimes seemed more interested in making the signing look artsy rather than making it legible lol

Sue Thomas, F. B. Eye (Peacock) - some episodes have lots of signing, some have none or close to it. Honestly it's pretty racist (the show came out 2002-2005. A lot of episodes are about terrorism, and they're constantly justifying racial profiling). If you can stomach that in exchange for surprisingly decent Deaf rep, here's a (probably incomplete) list of the ones with at least one non-Sue Deaf character, with a * if there are multiple: The Signing, The Heist*, He Said She Said, Girl Who Signed Wolf, Homeland Security, Bad Hair Day, Into Thin Air*, The Holocaust Survivor*, Elvis is in the Building*, Did She or Didn't She, The Fraternity*, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Troy Story*, Endings and Beginnings*. But yeah, I can't exactly recommend it, just trying to be honest about the pros and cons.

Switched at Birth - I really don't recommend this one either. I understand some people like it, but I have to give my disclaimer that if you watch a couple episodes and think "Well, I didn't like that, but maybe it will get better," lose that hope right now. To me, it only got worse. There is soooo much SimCom (yes, even later in the show when everyone should have learned to sign. Do NOT think there will be more or better signing later on). Daphne's actress has Meniere's disease; in a Reddit AMA, she said, quote, "Technically I am not deaf," so I really question why she was cast as the main Deaf character. Regardless of how she identifies, she is playing an experience she has not had; she isn't a native signer (she started learning in high school, not at age 3 like her character), and when she speaks in the show, she FAKES a "deaf accent". Also, this show is not as lighthearted as it looks, there are some truly disturbing plotlines that just get brushed over. Maybe you love this kind of drama - power to you. I'm just asking that if you watch a couple episodes and don't care for it, quit. Read some episode summaries on the wiki if you need to satisfy your curiosity, but don't hold out hope and watch almost 2 seasons' worth while feeling worse and worse about it l like I did. Moving on:

All or mostly signing:

Deaf U (reality show, on Netflix)

WHAT? (movie; comedy, silent movie; on Prime)

Blue Apple (creepy short film) https://media.gallaudet.edu/media/Blue+Apple+%281994%29/1_wke1swj2 also like. click around on the website. Gallaudet has soooooo much media available (plays, films, etc)

Scarecrow (creepy short film), also a Gallaudet production https://ssl.gallaudet.edu/videolibrary/?embed=16500 tbh there's not a ton of dialogue in this one, so maybe don't watch it if you don't like slow pacing

Don't Shoot the Messenger (raunchy YouTube series about an interpreter)

Barbie in ASL (On Max. It's the movie Barbie, but with a Deaf interpreter in the corner)

PBS also has some stuff with ASL interpretation. I didn't check everything so I don't know if they're all done by Deaf interpreters, but I recognized Jeremy Lee Stone as the interpreter for (at least some of) the Arthur episodes, and Lisa McBee for (at least some of) the Daniel Tiger ones https://pbskids.org/videos/american-sign-language-full-episodes

speaking of Jeremy Lee Stone, his Youtube channel is a great resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9HZ1JdV1Us

as are Nathie Marbury's storytelling videos https://www.youtube.com/@dawnsignpress/search?query=nathie

other kids' stories and resources for kids: https://www.youtube.com/@RMDSCO from Rocky Mountain Deaf School and https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhbEjnwOPpyIHotZrGLu68OGeEZlTuvbg from Texas School for the Deaf (some of these are captioned or follow along with a book that they show on screen, but some aren't)

a few nonfiction Youtube series: Daily Moth (general news), Atomic Hands (STEM education), Quantum ASL (STEM education - just a couple longer videos, the rest are basically dictionary entries), BEHEARDDC (prison abolition), Joel West Barish (travel), Rogan Shannon (queer topics), Melmira (interviews)

Sign with Robert (available for free on both Kanopy and Tubi): this is mostly just general ASL teaching, but there are some episodes specifically labeled receptive practice where he tells jokes and stories (25, 26, and 29 - for 26 and 29 they play the stories twice, with captions the second time so you can see what you missed, it's actually super nice haha)

her specific channel doesn't have much, but you can just look up Melanie McKay-Cody, who does research about Indigenous sign languages (she is herself Cherokee). Lots of videos from her all over Youtube

SoCal Stories (interviews with folks including Marlee Matlin, CJ Jones, Bernard Bragg...): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8T937th3Qg&list=PLwR2tgM-4_AYjBRvj3GWqWRjjMiZz_w8u this is part of the Youtube channel Convo Communications, which has tons of other stuff I haven't explored

ASL music videos: this list was curated by a Deaf person so I trust it https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx1wHz1f-8J_xKVdU7DGa5RWIwWzRWNVt

Deafies in Drag (Youtube comedy series)

Reverie (short film, drama. Heavy themes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiFWE6Mtpu0

Perfect Match (short film, drama / sci fi) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxE65yzMgyE

The Witnesses (short film, satire) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u9iQ_hjXDg

4 translations of MLK's I Have a Dream speech: Richard Bailey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H2-3O-NJFg (no captions or voiceover), JC Smith https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUmdM965Si8 , Takiyah Harris (rough video quality on this one) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiyG_h1tnZE , Missouri School for the Deaf students https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mmxJByigac

jooux (sexual wellness resource): https://www.youtube.com/@jooux/videos

Intermediate

Mostly Speaking:

Sound of Metal (movie; drama; on Prime) (the late-deafened characters are not played by Deaf actors, but there's still a lot of Deaf actors. Most of the signing is mid-movie, and if I remember correctly, some is not subtitled, while some is)

Children of a Lesser God (movie; available on Kanopy). The signing isn't subtitled (it's mostly voice-interpreted by another character) and also it was very hard to understand - I gather it leaned more toward SEE? So that's why it's in intermediate.

Star Trek TNG S2E5: Loud as a Whisper (on Paramount+): no subtitles; most of the signing is voice interpreted, but not all. All the ASL is in the 2nd half but there's still a good amount, I thought

All or mostly signing:

look up Gallaudet Theatre Arts on Youtube. There's actually a variety of levels here (of the two I've watched, Bunnicula has voiceover, but Midsummer Night's Dream doesn't. The audio/video quality isn't great on any of it). I'm listing it as Intermediate because for e.g. Shakespeare you can just look up the script of the play and have it in another tab to check what's going on.

Sign (short film; some sexual content) https://vimeo.com/157890479 I was able to understand most of this, which means it's a loooot easier than the Shakespeare, but yeah, no subtitles, no voiceover, no help

The Deaf Family (YouTube sitcom) (don't be fooled, only the first episode has subtitles) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1uuntQOPnw&list=PLx1wHz1f-8J9KzkK5lLO3z0wk64eUzo3Y

Deaf Traditions: Storytelling and Poetry https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIpW9QfUw6zwGKJ0N_HGH_8PnF8g7FSmg these range from easy to hard, I would say. No subtitles

Bonus warning categories:

Doesn't have as much signing as you'd think

(ranked roughly from most signing to least signing)

The Circle, Season 5 (reality show on Netflix. I did really enjoy the Deaf contestant but I definitely wanted more)

Fargo, season 1-ish (show; horror? On Hulu) I only watched a few episodes but Russell was only getting like 5 min screen time per episode and i wasn't enjoying the show otherwise, so it wasn't worth it for me personally

Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist S1E9: Zoey's Extraordinary Silence (jukebox musical TV show. On Peacock)

Only Murders in the Building (mystery show on Hulu) - through the 4 seasons of the show, the Deaf character (Theo Dimas) is in 4 episodes, then 2, then 1, then 0. 🤷‍♀️

The Family Stone (I did enjoy the movie though tbh. on Hulu)

Curb Your Enthusiasm S12E3: Vertical Drop, Horizontal Tug (TV comedy, on Max) Troy only gets like 5 min of screentime 😭 he's an Academy Award winner...

Queer as Folk S1E4: F*ck Disabled People (on Peacock) (Nyle is in it but I don't think he even ever talks to anyone else who can sign? He's mostly communicating via writing)

Not Worth It

What the Bleep Do We Know: we attempted to watch this "doc" without realizing beforehand that it was all pseudoscience. Honestly, I'm not even sure there was signing in it? I think there was a little

Wonderstruck (2017). There are multiple Deaf actors on the roster. But not one of them gets to sign *anything* as far as I could tell. (One plays a character who hasn't learned to sign, I think at least two were playing hearing people (I do support Deaf actors taking hearing roles, but not if you're gonna take that as an excuse to do the reverse.... which this movie did.....), and some must have had barely any screentime). Two hearing actors get to sign (also the signing doesn't start til like the last 20 min of the movie), and two other hearing actors briefly fingerspell. 👎

Intentionally Didn't Watch (the summary was that bad)

These included Deaf people despite not really wanting them to exist!!!! (think along the lines of forcing ppl to get cochlear implants)

Scrubs S6E16, "My Words of Wisdom" https://scrubs.fandom.com/wiki/My_Words_of_Wisdom someone described this episode to me in a bit more detail than the summary here, and yeah. not good

House S5E22, "House Divided" https://house.fandom.com/wiki/House_Divided legit infuriating

#long post #american sign language #asl #updated 11/24

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gezellig-writes · 2 years ago

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hello! i am here to ask you to go on for days and days about jacob's great-great aunt susannah black, because this sounds SUPER interesting

First, thank you for giving me reason to talk about Susannah, I've grown quite fond of her :) Second, sorry this took a minute! I realized that most of my thoughts and ideas were not organized and I had to fix that lol.

So, canonically, we only know that she exists and is one of Ephraim's sisters. She's in the Black family tree that exists on the wiki (one of the three that makes me want to gouge out my eyes with a rusty spoon they're awful and 1000% the reason I made my own), and we know that she and Deborah are twins. As the Cullens originally came to Hoquiam sometime in the mid-30s (the treaty was signed sometime in 1936), we can assume Susannah was alive at that point. For my purposes, she was born in 1915 and was 21 when the treaty was signed.

Therefore, when the Cullens returned in 2003, which is only 67 years later, it's not unreasonable to assume that people who were around during their first stay are still alive, though we're told canonically that all of the last pack has died by this point (also a BOLD choice for Carlisle to make- Mr. Cullen, MD should know a normal human lifespan by this point if he's been alive and practicing medicine for centuries). Therefore, Susannah, now in her late 80s and now a tribal elder, remembers exactly who the Cullens are and is not happy about the fact they returned.

She is also one of the remaining native speakers of the Quileute language and worked with the tribal school to develop the curriculum they teach, in addition to being a talented artisan and fantastic cook.

Having been there for Ephraim during his initial phase and adjusting to the role of alpha (while also likely dealing with the OIA agents and the creation of the tribal constitution), she is not a fan of the 'let's leave this group of teenagers to deal with this life-altering transformation alone' policy that seemingly exists canonically and becomes one of the pack's fiercest defenders and advocates.

She can be a bit reserved but will fight tooth and nail for those she loves, which she does quite often for the pack. But good luck getting back into her good graces if you break her trust.

Also! This gives me a reason to change Jacob's suspicions about the pack in New Moon pre-phase. The idea that most of La Push thought Sam was a cult leader is just silly (forming a gang, maybe, but cult activity? come on). Instead, Jacob is extremely confused and suspicious about why Sam, Jared, Paul, and later Embry are suddenly spending so much time with his Auntie Susannah

#answered #Susannah Black #my headcanons #twilight headcanon #shes 10000% my OC at this point and one of my favorites #twilight #twilight saga #twilight renaissance #the-most-pathetic-edge-marquis #thank you again!!

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mlobsters · 1 year ago

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supernatural s6e17 my heart will go on (w. eric charmelo, nicole snyder)

the sheer number of plotlines they're bringing up in the recap! jo and ellen, angel drama, bobby and rufus, jim beaver's questionable acting as evil ear worm. are we gonna wallow in everyone we've gotten killed's deaths

this is very final destination. like, the wood holding up the very heavy garage door for no reason. obviously it's gonna kill him somehow.

good sibling dumbassery there with the rock paper scissors but uh. sam with paper and being surprised at dean's scissors??? what is going on

well, obviously something very hinky, mustang and all. but not only is ellen here but she's got like. obvious makeup and a blowout. but she's been huntin with jo. again, looks lovely, but too much for the character.

(every episode that doesn't mention sam's wall since hell spilled over makes my eye twitch)

psst the mustang is totally a sexier car than the impala which looks great from the front but is just... so... long. sexy quotient decreases, i don't make the rules

i like bobby and ellen together even if it doesn't make a ton of sense (he's got nearly 20 years on her), she's not gonna put up with him being an ass

DEAN Are you okay?

ELLEN Aw, honey, you're sweet. You know me. I just worry about you boys.

DEAN Yeah, well.

🥲

they've got a nicer-than-usual hotel/motel/holiday inn too

BALTHAZAR Oh, uh, sorry, uh. You have me confused with the other angel – you know, the one in the dirty trenchcoat who's in love with you. I... don't care. Goodbye, boys.

first the profound bond, now balthazar* is outing him. i don't think cas is ever around enough to really have them show this, but i feel like the show is enthusiastic about telling us how cas feels about dean lol

funny since i had just taken a screenshot of bobby's regular sign a few episodes back, not self service with ellen apparently

kinda miserable to see bobby and the boys have more of a support system to have to wipe it all away to fix the timeline.

DEAN What'd she look like?

SAM Kind of like a librarian.

DEAN Your kind of librarian or my kind of librarian?

SAM Well, she was wearing clothes, if that's what you mean.

so dumb but i laughed nonetheless. lot of sibling banter this episode. they seem a little happier in this universe 🥴

SAM What did we do?

CASTIEL Nothing of import – just the tiny matter of averting the Apocalypse and rendering her obsolete. I think maybe she's a little irritated about that. And then you go and dangle yourselves in front of her...

i have read only a little destiel and when he pops up in my regular reading, but again, he's funny! unexpected! especially with how he is written in some stuff (reminds me of how [a lot of] people write adam in HEU)

CASTIEL Balthazar has a weapon that will work against her.

DEAN Of course he does. Yeah. Boy, that guy's just got it covered, doesn't he? You need new friends, Cas.

CASTIEL I'm trying to save the ones I have, Dean.

dean doesn't know what to do with that, apparently

ATROPOS Bull crap. This isn't about some stupid movie. He's under your orders. You sent him back to save that ship.

CASTIEL No, I didn't. Why would I?

ATROPOS Oh, maybe because you're in the middle of a war and you're desperate? Come on. This is about the souls.

CASTIEL You don't know what you're talking about.

ATROPOS That angel went and created 50,000 new souls for your war machine.

CASTIEL You're confused.

ATROPOS No. You can't just mint money, Castiel. It's wrong...It's dangerous... And I won't let you.

i am also confused. that sounds lowkey evil and i don't understand how more souls would help. i thought the fighting was just angel v angel?

(wiki)

Dean drives a Mustang which has the original plates the Impala had -- "KAZ 2Y5" -- until 2.20 What Is and What Should Never Be. A '65 Mustang was Kripke's original choice for Dean's car: "When I was originally writing the show I wanted to give the guys an American muscle car. My first choice was a '65 Mustang. My neighbor said it has to be a '67 Impala, because you can put a body in the trunk. He says, 'You want a car that, when people stop next to it at the lights, they lock their doors.'"

funny. but definitely roomier, it is sensible. not sure about intimidating though but hey

In the previous episodes involving time travel – 4.03 In the Beginning and 5.13 The Song Remains the Same – the travel was a part of a contiguous series of events. That is, the going back in time was something that had always happened, and did not change events. In this episode, Balthazar says that there are "No rules" anymore, hence his ability to alter events by taking action in the past.

there's some hand waving if i've ever seen it

Jensen once did an ad for Titanic-related merchandise.

oh jackles. aren't you lucky to have such a fanbase that they dig that up and put it somewhere everyone can see

okay and following up on the rock paper scissors, what doES IT MEAN if in this timeline dean doesn't always lose

ps still mad about ellen getting killed off to begin with

(moving this to the end because truly) waxing philosophical to myself about how they often include scenes from really heavy, serious moments in the recap and then the episode is cracky but they briefly have a conversation about the Serious Thing. it's so weird. it's like the exact opposite of mad men next episode promos (which told you absolutely nothing of content). anyway, whenever there's a lot of serious stuff in the recap i would brace myself for a serious episode and then half the time it really wasn't. unclench, nic.

*okay but this just made me think about how in twilight the werewolves all hear each other's thoughts and they start making fun of jacob for pining over bella constantly so i'm imagining the angels get to hear each other and they're making fun of cas for pining over dean LOL

#supernatural #spnwatch #spn 6x17 #now i've got hotel motel holiday inn pitbull song stuck in my head #eric charmelo #nicole snyder #rock paper scissors

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seeingteacupsindragons · 2 years ago

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*waves* hello! I was the anon who asked about DreamWidth (I was on anon because I was logged off lol)

I guess I'd say it's sort of like a really simplified LiveJournal, with all the comments sections and such (and iirc, it was made with the same website coding...?)

But anyhow, I read your subsequent post as well, and like..... it made me realise that I was still able to scroll through forums and non-monopolised fan wikis and literal single-fan-run websites as recently as 2015~2016-ish, and just,,,, you're so right? Where has it all gone so quickly? Everything is so sleek and mobile-oriented and dopamine-inducing-based and no-thoughts-only-short-interaction based now, and when I think back through it, I genuinely can't figure out how it happened so quickly

But I very much do miss the old web

Please excuse the ranty-ness of this, but I just felt the need to add to the conversation again (appropriately enough, considering the subject, i suppose XD)

— signed, a young-ish millennial who wasn't allowed a lot of internet access as a kid either, but still somehow remembers a lot of that old web stuff anyhow.

Yeah, I think I really got to start exploring the web socially around 2009 or so? And it's fascinating, because I was online for years before that but my parents banned me from social media and I...still found things to do online to some extent. I can't imagine how that would work today.

But around 2015-2016 it really started dying fast. It was after LJ's heyday already, but I think that's around when FB started actively murdering other sites by lying and convincing them FB was the only place they got any interaction and views so they all switched over to FB, so FB became the main place to see anything, and then as FB started dying, it just switched to other social media places because FB had already killed a lot of the other sites.

So, I mean, the social media conglomerations actively murdered other sites. We know this. There was a lawsuit that FB lost about this, but it doesn't bring back older internet culture.

TV Tropes is one of the only places on the web that even kind of feels like Old Internet (Not First Internet, but Older Internet) anymore. Which is bafflingly weird.

Anyway, I wonder how much of the way people hate "teenagers" on the internet is how much they've been raised to expect the internet to be an addictive dopamine slot machine and the fact that people even just three or five years older have wildly different expectations of what the internet is supposed to be--because we lived it.

I miss forums. I wish I knew what to do to bring that culture and that format back.

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morgenlich · 2 years ago

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Tag Game To Better Know You! Send this to people you'd like to know better!

tagged by @doomspiral and @lithugraph tyyy

what book are you currently reading?

still working my way through rereading fire and blood 😅

what’s your favorite movie you saw in theaters this year?

lol the batman is the only movie i saw in theaters this year (and is uh the first I’ve seen in theaters since I caught birds of prey like a week before covid lockdowns started lmao) but it’d probably be my favorite even if there were competition lmao

what do you usually wear?

whatever clothes won’t cause my sensory issues to drive me insane, which translates to a lot of uh. skirts and sweatpants actually lol

how tall are you?

5’5” lol

what’s your star sign? do you share a birthday with a celebrity or historical event?

sun sign is taurus (🌙 is also taurus and ⬆️ is leo if you were wondering lol), and i share a birthday w tchaikovsky if you use the gregorian calendar lol

do you go by your name or a nickname?

online? nickname. irl? Real Name EXCLUSIVELY unless I’m in a German speaking country bc for some reason they can’t pronounce it right lmao (then I usually just go by Kathi)

did you grow up to become what you wanted to be as a child?

you’re gonna have to narrow down what you mean by what I wanted to be as a child lmao, i wanted to be anything from paleontologist to astronomer to author to dancer…tho no. but I don’t think many kids go “i want to design art galleries when I grow up!” lol

what’s something you’re good at vs something you’re bad at?

hmmm good at cooking bad at math

dogs or cats?

cats 100%

If you draw/write, or create in any way, what's your favorite picture/favorite line/favorite etc. from something you created this year?

uhhh idk this drawing probably

What's something you would like to create content for?

hetalia is p much the only thing I’ve felt inclined to write or draw anything for lol. someday I will draw fan designs for hera and hestia for hades game tho i swear

what’s something you’re currently obsessed with?

[gestures] been fixated on hetalia over a decade now I’m not going anywhere lol. but also acnh and i have um an embarrassing amount of hours (and encyclopedic knowledge of the wiki for) stardew valley at this point lmao

What's something you were excited about that turned out to be disappointing this year?

um idk. was initially excited about going to cinque terre but my knee was really fucked up by the time i got around to it and also i had my wallet stolen in monterosso lmao so uh that ig

what’s a hidden talent of yours?

I’m pretty good at adapting to sudden changes in circumstances lmao tho i may need to have a little breakdown first

are you religious?

yeah sure

What's something you wish to have at this moment?

one million us dollars

tagging: @hinotorihime @pokytoad @currymuttonpizza and anyone else who wants to <3

#Tag Game

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castle-dominion · 1 year ago

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bonus features

martha's master class

lmao I love the way this is made martha my beloved he IS astute! & the son of an actress! "presence & enthusiasm as they undress each other. Oh! There goes the hat!" of course you did, with the hat as a character bomb went off, shoving her lover under the bed to save his life believe you me MARTHA ah yes the timing. I think he was a personal trainer! I'd be proud of him too! Listening & thinking than line count I like Martha is great. *whispers* very hitchcock she is just talking them thru lol. But they totally look like they are filming it from the loft. Maybe during his physio appointments. why wipe it off? I was right! They DID need to be watching him to make sure he was awake & watching! They did this for him... they were up in the middle of the night doing this to give castle the best birthday gift ever for a mystery writer. Tho an escape room would have been fun too. just walking on the phone as people do "should he decide to break in" why didn't he shred it tho? the soda from the cabinet <3 coordinating it with the beckett fridge hint was sooo good they had rehearsals on the day-of!? She has lied before, she IS a good actress sometimes! I want to look in your fridge! I feel like I am being attacked! Oh no! I have a particular talent for telling people what to do & how to do it! I love her sm & am so glad they made that

your home is your castle

desirable real estate? really? it is a thousand dollars biweekly for a closet in someone's bathroom & you only get to sleep there nights because your roommate sleeps there during the day. at least it is not as bad as toronto They are getting an interiot designer to tour the loft. love it.

Alfred. I like this fellow. & vern ofc. get the script first, determine what we will build & what we will not. tracing paper 3d model digitally thankfully materials Building a set is honestly great robbing peter to pay paul, renting vs building vs buying oOH WE GET TO SEE THE MILL

HEY I RECOGNIZE THAT, THEY ARE BUILDING THE SPACESHIP I THINK Damon my man Ah, time constraints. My dad is a carpenter, he has done work for museums & churches, I wonder what it would be like if he made commissions for film. Like that one person in the murdoch mysteries fandom (I think @ha-bloody-ha is the one?) who does some kind of fiber art commissions for the costume department. "build me a sign" in the middle of shooting like bro you just... didn't have that already? ok lol wet paint still on camera lol

Experts in tribeca lol two sisters & a mom in the heart of tribeca near beckett's loft & their cute umbrellas & their very new york accents privacy, eateries, family, celebrity, sounds perfect for kate.

Lol I love their fake skyline Oooh a full tour of her apartment dustjackets fan wiki does not have a map for beckett's apartment so I'll grab a clip I like her art & stuff Alfred understands characters so well MY FATHER & I WOULD TAG TEAM THIS GUY & GIVE HIM A LICKING BECAUSE AS A CHEF & A KITCHEN DESIGNER WE ARE SO MAD. fancy plastic from home depot lol I like her stairs & the books on them Ooh a rooftop garden! She canonically likes to read I like how stana & alfred sat down & chatted. oh, johanna pic... open it up physically ooh so good! the lighting is indeed nice. Ah yes, set ceilings are able to be removed. Nice. She has a dining room? Wow lol. Ah her bedroom is a swing set. They take it down & store it & then if they need it they set it back up. Audio sounds a bit like the portal radio that is her bedroom? No I don't think so I think this is the workshop where they are setting up her bedroom...

Soho new york these pretty ladies! artists, writers, Bachelor & playboy & walking distance to restaurants really pretty tbh. Old fashioned. walking distance 5-10m from where kate lives according to the new york fellows faster on foot than in a taxi, obviously

Love the skylight NF: What I learned about richard castle when I walked in here was that he is incredibly wealthy. Old spectacles, swords, typewriters, weird alphabet golfballs they just hide their lines around the sets lmao open shelves are great for me as an adhder with a lack of object permanence, out of sight out of mind. But that is One Heavy Door considering the shelves are acting as the wall between the office & rest of the house. The kitchen certainly is interesting. Too clean imo just have a cambro under there lol NF: "we've all lived like that" smells like dust lol sfx, perry! My man! Ah, fire issues. Wourder. Jersey lol. it IS a nice staircase! Vern: Is there anything actually up there? Me: well they joked about seamus dever sleeping in castle's bed & jon huertas putting a cot up there to nap between takes... The stairs: *nothing* I too would love to see martha's room! His office is bigger than I thought... is that a door to a balcony? Yeah that picture really messed me up at first, I thought maybe it was a mirror... of course all the walls need to be able to be removed Ooh hoo hoo his bedroom! Oh his fave is the photograph of the subway on the landing Want a hug? Aw so cute!

NF: Idk AM: Well there are several bedrooms... MQ: 15 million SK: Millions for sure. SS: Location location location AM: 3.5, 4 mil? NF: My apartment in new york was smaller than these two rooms combined & I was paying a little over 2k a month in rent... at least 6 million to buy SK: A detective from a family of academics would be able to afford a place like this so whatever those people make MQ: Gosh & I've never lived in new york I'm totally just acting like I know what I'm talking about NF: Becktt's apartment would be... AM: Maybe a million? a little more than that SS: a million three nine five ($1 395 000?) NF: 4.2 million SK: 200k Vern: Interesting guesses

3bed 3bath 5k sq feet in soho for 6mil with all that outdoorspace I'd buy one for myself & for each of my daughters 12mil 200k would get you a storage bin, maybe two, for your coats 2bed home office 1.8k sq feet fabulous details open kitchen exposed brick in the heart of tribeca, closer to 4mil. If there is outdoor space closer to 5mil.

Make your home your castle uwu *steals a book*

Lot Cops Oh no this one. Jon Huertas & Seamus Dever going for "tactical training" but I've seen this one & idk how much of it was scripted but it is insane they are insane I am insane I went insane over this not to mention how insanely funny it is. A recert for tactical effectiveness they say. I am trying SO HARD not to tell the entirety of tumblr how silly & stupid this is like How Much of this was scripted, how much did they say "just play around" how much did they tell the training team? how much were they acting? this feels like an unus annus episode r for restraint that's the only one I'm saying in this liveblog.

Deleted scene singular Are we dating? A couple weeks? Isn't that like,, all the vacation north americans get? Dating, being with, semi-cohabitating, I'll tell you what we're not doing: sleeping she TRIED to have that talk, twice even!

Someone posted these bloopers right? I love all the gibberish but "nine-- ten blocks away" could have stayed too much sex shut thup NO for a sec I thought he was speaking cree lmao "we never swear on this show" *shows a bunch of swearing* Who'd make a movie after a failed scifi series? That guy's gotta but fckn nuts! *serenity* Ok I'll clip the uh, the thing. Not the entire thing even tho it is very funny, just the, you know, the things I always grab from the bloopers.

#castle s5 bonus features #castle s5 outtakes

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musclesandhammering · 2 months ago

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Wanda was canonically born in 1989. Agent Woo states this in Wandavision, it’s on the mcu Wiki, and the official mcu timeline book states that AoU occurred in 2015. So in AoU, she was 26, and assuming that she and Pietro had been with Hydra for maybe 5 years before that (and it definitely wasn’t even that long, but I’m being generous), she would’ve been about 21 when she first volunteered. Following the official timeline, she would’ve been 27 in Civil War, 29 in Infinity War, and still 29 in Endgame due to snap logic.

So, based on the fact that brains aren’t fully done developing until the mid 20s, Wanda’s brain would’ve been developed by the time she first appeared in the mcu, because she was 26 then. And even though I’ll concede that 21 year olds are still very immature and should definitely still be considered kids, there’s only so much wiggle room that “their brain isn’t fully developed” argument can give you. That’s a valid response to a 21 year old laying out of work to party or driving drunk. It would not be a valid response to a 21 year old, say, murdering someone. Wanda signed up to work for terrorists, caused massive amounts of destruction and collateral death, and went on a mission to kill a group of people for revenge. At that point, using the argument that she’s just immature isn’t gonna cut it.

Screen Rant is not a reliable source in general. They aren’t affiliated with Marvel in any way and they constantly get things wrong. The above paragraphs are literally just them assuming she was about 16 based on one vague line from Clint and then basing the entire rest of their age timeline off of that. And the article you linked is outdated (from 2020), from before we had any canon evidence about her age- it’s just the Screen Rant writers speculating about it. Their speculations ended up being incorrect. Wanda was factually never a teen during her onscreen time in the mcu.

All of that being said, I do agree with you that her being imperfect is what makes her an interesting character. She’s had very unheroic tendencies since she entered the mcu, and that actually separates her from the rest of the avengers. It makes her complex. It gives her depth of character. And I like that in a superhero (hell, I should know. I’m a loki fan! lol). But when fans make excuses for her and argue that she just wasn’t in her right mind etc, that diminishes that depth.

And finally, as to the line in the show: it’s hypocritical as hell. Not even getting into how problematic it is to have the token black woman say that to the white woman who’s been beating the shit out of her for like 7 straight episodes. Wanda saying “it wouldn’t change how they see me” forlornly, as if it should change how these people she’s held captive and tortured see her. It doesn’t matter what she sacrificed to save the world- these people didn’t ask her to do that and they don’t owe her for doing it. Wanda chose to, selflessly. That’s what made it heroic. And doing something good for someone in the past doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be angry when you do something bad to them in the present. The whole implication that these victims of Wanda’s should be grateful to her for her past actions instead of being angry that she traumatised them in return…. yeah that’s hilarious. And the fact that wasn’t doing it on purpose at first (because she realised halfway through and still chose to keep going so she could hold onto her fantasy) means nothing in this context. If I had an emotional breakdown where I disconnected from reality and held some folks hostage in my basement and tortured them for a few weeks, it wouldn’t matter that I was having a mental health crisis. They would hate me for what I did, and they’d have every right to.

Anyway, this isn’t meant to be an attack or anything. I know I’ve defended some of my favs more than I should have in the past. And really, it’s fiction. It’s based on the viewer’s perception. So it’s impossible to have a wrong opinion on it- if you think her being somewhat young justifies her actions a bit, that’s perfectly valid! And you know what, she has been through severe trauma her entire life so it’s understandable if fans see that as a reason to forgive her too. And I’m not even being sarcastic, Wanda’s a super fascinating and empathetic character. Just because the fandom/narrative ruins her a bit for me doesn’t mean it should for other people. I’m glad you responded to my post, though. I love ranting lol.

Friendly reminder that Wanda was a whole ass adult in Civil War (27), also an adult in Age of Ultron (26) & most likely even an adult when she signed up to work with Hydra (23-24 maybe).

Like not even college age, but full-on adult. Pushing 30.

The whole “she’s just a kid” argument is bullshit.

#anti wanda maximoff #mcu wanda maximoff #anti scarlet witch #mcu #mcu meta

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dokoni-mo · 4 years ago

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She Truly Was || Muzan Kibustsuji x F!Reader

Summary: Enmu helps Muzan remember you.

SFW // Fluff with small amounts of Angst

Word Count: 4626

WARNINGS: *slight Mugen Train spoilers*, slight mentions of implied sexual activity, obsessive(?) behavior, Muzan is soft for one person only, some angst, mentions of injury, mentions of blood, I also barely proofread this lol

A/N: I've had this in my head for a while and decided to write it down. This is largely just a compilation of scenarios I made in my head to fall asleep at night when I was stressing over exams and stuff, all loosely thrown together with a plot. This is my first time writing for demon slayer, so please be patient! I also am basing a lot of my info about the characters on s1 of the anime, some of the manga, and the wiki. I apologize if something isn't accurate. tldr; I just think he's neat.

Despite having lived through thousands of years with hundreds of stormy nights in the midst, Muzan Kibutsuji never learned to appreciate them.

Something about nights like those in Japan just never sat right with the demon. It wasn't that they were too dreary, not at all. Life as a demon was plenty dreary. On the other hand, it wasn't that they were to lively either. No one ever went out on stormy nights; demon or not. Perhaps it was just because the rain was another reminder of the singularity that was being a demon. The poignant pitter patter just seemed to have a way of whispering to whoever heard it, telling them the most unpleasant yet quiet truths of their lives.

After Muzan's bloody meeting with the lower moons, he had told Enmu his task Muzan had planned for the pitiful, weaker demon. Although he had doubts that Enmu could hear him over the sound of the weaker demon's screams of pain from the blood he gave, Muzan was pleasantly surprised when Enmu understood the orders the first time around. Seeing as though it would cause trouble if the lower moon started to go around bragging about his newfound power and job, Muzan decided it would be best to keep a crimson eye on the demon.

This is what led to the scene before Muzan now.

Muzan had taken Enmu back to one of his many properties scattered across Japan, this one being tucked away in a lush, quiet forest in the middle of seemingly nowhere. The lower moon had not said a word throughout the entire journey there, and still refused to say anything now. Most likely out of fear.

Although it had been a long day of wrangling the lesser worms he called pawns (or "moons" if he was generous), Muzan did not want to show any weakness towards Enmu by resting. To busy himself, Muzan decided to do the tedious work the humans have him do in the job he took to please his human wife.

That insufferable woman.

With his bowler hat placed on his desk, Muzan had taken a seat in his large, leather chair, ordering Enmu to stand at the edge of the desk and face the opposite way. And, for extra edge, he was not to say or do anything.

It had been about two hours since then. The room was filled with only the sounds of Muzan's writing and the ticking of the grandfather clock in the corner.

Although he ordered it to be that way, Muzan was already sick of it.

Peering his red eyes up from the papers scrawled below him, Muzan fixated his bone-chilling gaze upon the back of Enmu's head. Muzan could see the corners of the lower moon's mouth turned upwards as he faced the wall, presenting himself with an expression of dumb content.

Freak.

Enmu was definately a curious specimen. So eager to die, yet so eager to please Muzan. The demon lord would have been confused if he were not who he was.

Perhaps it was his own boredom setting in, perhaps it was because he wanted to feed his already gargantuan ego, or perhaps it was just because he was tired, Muzan decided to speak up.

"Tell me," Muzan said, his deep, smooth voice making Enmu perk up slightly, "Why is it that are you so loyal to me?"

Enmu took this as an opportunity to finally move, but not without some caution. The lower demon only turned his neck towards Muzan, along with a tilt of his shoulder. Muzan noted the disobedience of orders, but decided to let it slide this time.

The rain must have told him to be generous that night.

"Why, Master Kibustsuji," Enmu said, a faint blush adorning his cheeks, "It is because I am so delighted to be in your presence, and have my power be of service to you."

The demon lord felt his jaw clench at this, his red eyes peering up at the lower moon from under his abyssal lashes. Although Enmu had an... odd, way of putting things, Muzan always did like it when someone stroked his ego, even if all they ever said was the same banter over and over again. He was nearly perfection, afterall.

Muzan sat quietly and pondered Enmu's response for a second, before formulating his own.

"Your power, as you put it," Muzan said, his voice firm, "What is it?"

Enmu's grin widened, "Dream Manipulation, Master. I can enter, manipulate, or control anyone's dreams however I want to. I can use it to kill from the inside, eating a person spirit first and body second. I can also put people to sleep."

Muzan wasn't necessarily impressed by this, but he wasn't disappointed either. An ordinary power, really. Nothing that could ever rival his own.

However...

Muzan's gaze flickered down to the surface of his desk. A flicker of a long lost yet not forgotten feeling bubbled deep inside of his being. A mere spark of light, really, a piece of warmth he felt from long ago, lost to the wayside by the vestiges of time.

It was something Muzan thought he would never experience again.

Dream manipulation, huh?

It might be worth a try.

Muzan looked back up to Enmu, sharpening his gaze, "Tell me, are you able to give... pleasant dreams?"

Enmu was surprised to hear this come from Muzan to say the absolute least. He took this as another opportunity to disobey orders and turn to Muzan again, this time fully and whole-heartedly. The lower moon looked right into those blood red eyes, looking for any sign of a rare flicker of humor or joking.

Muzan's gaze was serious, poised as ever.

Muzan was being for real.

Taking a pause to swallow, Enmu allowed his soft smirk to return to his gray, pale face.

"Why," the lower moon retorted, "I can, Master, yes."

Muzan eyed the lesser demon for a good second at his response.

This move was risky. It could damage his image. Yet, if he was to do this with any of his pawns, he would do it with Enmu. Enmu seemed to have no intent on harming Muzan or his image in any way; he was far too loyal for that.

Besides, if someone were to question the might of Muzan, he could just prove them wrong.

Muzan leaned back in his chair, crossing one leg over the other and lacing his fingers together, wrapping them around his knee. His icy gaze still on Enmu, he spoke again.

"I wish to see a pleasant dream."

Muzan nearly rolled his eyes when he saw just how wide Enmu's grin had gotten and just how flushed his face got.

It was repulsive.

But, if it meant what Muzan thought it would mean...

It was worth stomaching.

After a breif moment used to compose himself, Enmu's smile faded to normal again. He pulled up the sleeves to his coat.

"I will give you a dream where you will experience the happiest days of your life over again, Master Kibutsuji," the lower moon stated, "Is this to your liking or would you prefer something else?"

"No," Muzan stated flatly, "That is fine."

Perfect, even.

Enmu smiled widely one last time, holding out his arm and pointing it at the demon lord.

"Sweet dreams, my lord." Was the last thing Muzan heard before falling into a deep, deep sleep.

"Muzan..."

Despite his blood demon art being so much weaker than his, Muzan wasn't quite ready for just how Enmu put him into a dream like that. Muzan's headache had grown ten-fold now, and he could feel that his face was scrunched.

"Muzan..."

Slowly but surely regaining his full consciousness, Muzan could first feel that he was in different clothes than what he had been wearing before. These ones were lighter, softer, and much more airy than his normal suit. Squinting open his crimson eyes, he saw that he was in what appeared to be a long, dark, flowing kimono.

The second thing Muzan could feel was that it was rather cool where he was, and that he appeared to be lying on the ground. Sifting his weight slowly, he could then feel that his head was lain upon what felt like two soft, plush pillows firmly squished together.

The third thing, however, took him a little longer to discern quite that it was. At first, he thought it was a pair of chopsticks running across his scalp over and over again. Upon, further thought, however, Muzan was further snapped back into awareness.

Those were not chopsticks.

Those were fingers.

All too familiar fingers.

"Muzan..!"

Muzan felt a stir deep down inside of him. He recognized this feeling, this touch, this warmth. It had been so, so long since he had felt like this. How long was it again? It had to be an eternity ago. An eternity wrapped within all time time in the world.

Muzan was speechless. Muzan couldn't move. Muzan was struck from deep within, and nothing in the world could ever compare to its blow.

"Muzan!"

Although the calling of the demon's lord name had been going on for some time now, he was just now able to respond.

Tilting his chin upwards towards the voice's source, Muzan nearly fell to bits right then and there. If he was someone else, he would have wept deep, earnest tears at the very sight of the being above him. For everything and nothing surrounded him as he studied the bright, radiant face above him, and nothing else seemed to exist other than that smile.

Other than her.

Her.

Oh, her, her, her.

His beloved. His sun, moon and stars. The ground beneath his feet and the air around him. His joy and love, his woes and sorrow. His fears and excitement. His warmth and his cold.

You.

You were really here.

"I was wondering if you were ever gonna wake up," you said, a faint laugh behind your voice, "You were out for so long!"

This scene was all too familiar to Muzan. He had replayed it in his head countless times, as if it were the only record left in the world.

He knew what this day was, and he knew all of your lines.

How could he ever forget?

Every moment he had ever spent with you had been a blessing.

Right now, his head was cradled in your lap, your soft, delicate fingers combing through his hair oh so gently as he had slept. It was deep into the night, and ordinarily Muzan would not be sleeping at this time. However, your touch was just so relaxing to him.

Everything about you was.

Today, you and him had spent the night wandering through the garden of your home together, chatting about anything and everything. It was only about two months into your relationship with Muzan. Muzan had first come to your home with the intention of eating everyone within the residence, but once he saw your face, watched you, saw your heart, your spirit, your you, he just couldn't.

He just...

couldn't.

You were human, yes.

But Muzan didn't care.

He was in love with you.

Muzan had yet to tell you the truth about him, however.

But that could come later.

"Muzan, are you alright?" He heard your voice echo again, snapping him out of his trance. He saw your face painted with worry, making his own features soften.

His darling angel. If only you knew just how much it pained him to see you with anything other than a smile.

Muzan reached his hand upwards, steadily maneuvering his fingers to brush your hair behind your ear and cup your warm cheek. He was shocked at how real you felt, shocked at just how similar it felt to all those years ago.

Perhaps Muzan had to give Enmu a reward.

The demon lord caressed your cheek gingerly with his cold, calloused thumb, savoring in just how warm your flesh was compared to his. For the first time in what felt like eons, Muzan felt a smile adorn his handsome features. Not one put on just to appease the humans around him, but genuine. The type of smile only you got to see.

Only you.

"I'm more than alright, my darling." He responded, his voice soft and warm, without the normal venom he gives to his subordinates. A voice reserved restrictively for you.

Finally, you let a soft grin come over your heavenly face again, making all seven of Muzan's hearts swell.

"I'm sorry if I woke you up," you said, "But it's about to be dawn soon. I don't want you to get a burn, so let's go in the house again, okay?"

Ah yes, the lie Muzan told you. He, of course, couldn't be with you in the sunlight (as much as he wanted to). So he had told you that he had a rare disorder that made him extra prone to sunburns and heatstroke.

Just something to keep you safe from the truth.

His soft smile still adorning his features, Muzan gave you a nod as he slid his head off of your lap. Since you were on your knees, you were quicker to stand than him. Brushing off your kimono quickly, you offered one of your hands to Muzan to help him stand, of which he gladly took. He had long since forgotted just how perfectly your hand fit into his, along with how radiant your kimono made you look.

Once he was back on his feet, Muzan couldn't help but to hold your arms, holding you a few feet away from him to simply admire you for a moment, his crimson eyes doing laps around your face and body.

You were perfect to him.

Every single thing about you was without flaw in his eyes. Not one curve of your body was too shallow or too wide. Not one strand of your hair was misplaced or without poise. Not one feature on your face took away from your radiant beauty. And you had not one bad bone inside of your body.

Muzan was never one to believe in angels.

However, if anyone in any part of the world were to tell him that you were one of them, straight from the heavens themselves,

He would believe them.

As soon as Muzan stepped through the door, his hand in your own, the scene before him changed in one giant, peaceful flash of white light.

Before him now was no longer the house that he had shared with you all those years ago. Now, in its place, was a beautiful, lush springtime garden, all dredged under the cover of the night. It was not devoid of light, however. There were a few lanterns afloat in the water of the stream, as well as some within the structure of the small bridge that went over top of it. Flowers adorned every nook and cranny of the space, and the occasional insect or bird would make a brief appearance.

A small slice of paradise, just for you and Muzan Kibutsuji.

Fearing that you were no longer by his side, Muzan turned his head. His fears were quickly subsided when he saw you there next to him. Your delicate hands were placed on the railing of the bridge, and your eyes were fixated on the calm water below, almost as if it were a window into the heavens above. There was a small smile plastered on your face, and the delicate lights illuminated each of your features so perfectly.

Muzan knew this night.

This was the night he told you the truth.

The truth about him, about his "condition", about where he went for days on end, about why he couldn't walk with you in the sun, about everything.

This was the one night Muzan had ever felt fear.

"Is it really true, Muzan?" You asked, your gaze still fixated on the water below, "Are you really a demon?"

Muzan felt his lips part in small surprise. Even though he had replayed this night time and time again in his mind, it felt as if this were all happening for the first time over again.

Enmu really was good at this.

Muzan wet his lips before responding, setting his gaze on your precious, beautiful face and refusing to move it, "Yes, my love. It is true. I would not lie to you about this, I..."

A pause to collect this thoughts, before he could continue, "I kept it from you to protect you, (Y/N). I did not want any harm to come to you. My darling, I... I love you. My love for you knows no bounds. You are the stars that shine at night, and you are the shining moon above. Each time I look upon you, all I can stand to think of is how deep my love for you runs. I... I need you, (Y/N). I do not wish for you to be frightened of me, my angel. I would never, not ever harm you, nor let any harm come to you."

You still weren't looking at Muzan, yet your smile had yet to falter. Muzan felt a bubble of nervousness in his gut. Although he knew your response to his words already, even thinking of this moment never failed to make his stomach churn. He hoped his words to you were enough. He doubted that he had ever said anything more truthful in his entire life.

After a long pause of silence between the two of you, you closed your eyes and widened your smile. Then, you opened your eyes again, finally turning to face your lover. You looked Muzan right in the eyes, seemingly unfazed that you were standing so dangerously close to the most powerful being alive.

You were so brave.

Your heart was so big.

Muzan felt so overwhelmed.

"Muzan," you said, your cheeks dusting a light pink.

What you said next to him, Muzan could never get out of his head, never forget. No matter how much he tried, he would never not ever forget your words in that moment.

Within that one short, simple phrase, the king of demons fell in love all over again.

"I've always known."

Another flash within his crimson eyes, and the scene had changed again. Nighttime again, of course, but this time within the confines of the bedroom you and Muzan shared. Both you and Muzan were nude, sans the blanket that covered the lower half of your forms. Muzan was on his back, one strong arm wrapped around you, the other cradling the back of his head. Your legs were intertwined with his, and your hair and hands were sprawled out on top of his lean, muscular chest.

Muzan knew this night as well.

It was his most loved night with you, but also his most dreaded.

How cruel fate was.

Stroking your back with the tips of his fingers, Muzan stared up at the ceiling above the two of you. Your body was flush against his, and as warm as ever. He wondered to himself if he was making you cold. If he was, you didn't seem to mind.

After a long period of savoring the silence between you and him, you softly snorted out a cute, soft giggle. This made Muzan angle his chin downward to look at the top of your head.

"What is it?" He questioned.

You giggled again, tilting your head up to look at him. Smiling, you turned your body to lay on top of the demon king, your breasts smushing against his own. Instinctively, Muzan laid his hands on your hips, rubbing small circles into them as he held you in place.

"I just find it funny that even though you profess to have so much stamina, you get tired after only two rounds." You explained to him, a playful mischievousness in your tone and eyes.

Muzan breathed out a smile, reaching up a clawed hand to brush your hair out of your face.

"As I recall it, you were the one complaining it was too much." He quipped back.

You snorted, "As if that ever stopped you before."

The demon let out a soft chuckle, leaning forward to give you a kiss on the forehead. Muzan couldn't remember ever laughing so genuinely before you came along. You truly were the light of his life. You filled his days with the sunlight he had long since forgotten, as well with the warmth no other demon could ever have.

He loved you.

He loved you he loved you he loved you.

And he still did.

He watched as you dropped your gaze to his chest, running your fingers along the flesh.

"Muzan..." you said, your voice more serious than before, "I've been thinking a lot lately..."

The demon king hummed, brushing more hair from your face.

"What has been on your mind, my love?" He asked.

You paused for a second before continuing on. Muzan could practically see the gears turning in your head.

"Well, I... I'm not getting any younger, you know, and I've been thinking. I... I really love you, Muzan. You're the only person I can imagine myself being with for the rest of my life. The other day, I was in town, and I saw the cutest family ever with a husband and a wife and two adorable little children, and it made me think..."

You looked up at him again, giving him a soft smile.

"What if we were to have a family of our own?"

Muzan could feel the same sense of joy, love, and pride in his chest as he did this same moment all those years ago. In this moment, he had never felt closer to you before, nor could you recall ever looking more beautiful.

He wanted nothing more than to be a family with you for the rest of eternity.

"Darling, you know what that would mean, correct?" He questioned you. He had told you long before that demons could only have offspring with other demons, for a demon baby would eat its human mother from the inside and kill her. It was gruesome, and had originally made you cringe at the thought. Muzan had thought your reaction was quite cute.

"Yes, yes, I know," you answered, "and I'd be ready for it. Even if I'm a demon, and even if I can never go out in the sun again or live normally ever again, I'd be happy knowing I got to be with you and our baby for the rest of time."

Muzan gave you a smile in return, his long, white fangs flashing in the light of the night. Leaning forward, he kissed you upon your soft, warms lips, gently pulling you closer to him.

This was one of the thousands of reasons why he loved you.

You were always so sweet, so kind and optimistic. He would admit, he did have a soft spot for you and you alone. But he didn't care. You were worth it. You were worth every single piece of money on planet earth. You were worth the sun the moon and the stars, and all the planets here and beyond. You were worth any injury, any heartache, and any trial or tribulation in the world.

The king of the demons unquestionably, unfathomably, undeniably, adored you.

Pulling gently away from the kiss, Muzan looked deep into your eyes, right past your pupils and looked right into your soul, your very being.

"I would want nothing more, my sunlight."

If Muzan could turn back the hands of time, he would have kept you here with him for the rest of everything and beyond.

For he did not know then that was the last kiss you and him would share.

Another flash, and Muzan was no longer greeted with a visage of the past. Much to his dismay, the demon was now greeted with the sight of his office, with a smiling Enmu creepily watching him from across his desk.

What a fucking freakshow.

Taking in a breath of air through his nose, Muzan sat up tall in his chair again, rubbing the bridge of his nose with this thumb and pointer finger.

You were gone again. You were again nothing up a memory, a whisper of a time from the past.

Muzan could hardly bare it.

He had felt you, held you near him.

And just as fast as you came back, you were gone again.

This was a pain almost too hard to bear.

How long was he asleep for? Muzan really didn't care how long it was.

No amount of time with you was enough.

"Did you have the pleasant dream you wished for, Master?" Enmu asked the demon king. The lesser moon was lucky Muzan was in a somewhat good mood that day.

"Yes." Muzan replied simply, closing his eyes to rub them with his thumb, "Excellent work."

Enmu's smile widened at this, his cheeks turning pink again.

"Why, thank you, Master." He responded, his excitement prevalent in his voice.

Enmu really was a special one.

After composing himself again, Muzan scooted his chair forward up to his desk, fixing his gaze back onto his work sprawled out below.

Muzan just wanted to be alone again after that. He had been alone for years now, but he wanted Enmu out of the room. Although he could have easily ordered it to be so, he again did not want to show any weakness to the lower moon.

Christ on a bike. Muzan was so fucking stubborn.

He remembered all the times you nagged him for it.

Oh, what he would give to have you nag him one last time.

After a long bout of silence, the lesser demon decided to speak up again. He turned his head over his shoulder again to Muzan, trying to sound as naieve and innocent as possible.

"Master," Enmu said, "Where is she now?"

Muzan stopped his movements and glared up at Enmu with a venomous glare. How dare he even refer to you. You were so far above him, how dare Enmu even think to invoke your name.

Though Muzan wanted to kill the other demon right on the spot, he decided against it. He still wanted to see how Enmu would do on his mission. Also, Muzan had to admit that he did feel lighter and more generous after his dream with you. And he supposed it was fair that Enmu had his questions.

Feeling nice, Muzan decided to entertain Enmu's question.

Shifting his gaze back to the papers below, Muzan replied.

"Gone." he said, "The night she asked about a family was the last night I saw her alive. The next day, a group of slayers found her and our house. They knew who she was and that she was human, but killed her anyway. All in attempt to get to me. I found her in a pool of her own blood, limp and cold. The slayers died that same night."

Enmu's smile faded at this, his face taking on a look of shock. Closing his lips into a tight line, Enmu looked away, out of a quiet unconscious respect. Everything made so much more sense to Enmu now. Why the demon king was the way he was, his hatred for slayers, his cold-hearted, murderous nature.

It all clicked into place.

"I... I am sorry for your loss, Master." He said, his voice quieter than normal, "She seemed like a lovely woman."

Muzan peered up at the back of Enmu's head. Through his thick, black lashes.

"Yes..." Muzan said.

"She truly was."

#demon slayer #kny fanfic #kny x reader #kimetsu no yaiba muzan #kimestsu no yaiba #demon slayer x y/n #demon slayer x you #demon slayer x reader #muzan kibutsuji #muzan kibutsuji x reader

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kazuwhora · 3 years ago

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hello hello, i see your requests are open now and can i request izana, wakasa, chifuyu and kazutora with an akutagawa!s/o? hope you have a great day/noon/night! ✨🤗

hi anon! sure! I will try my best with izana and wakasa since there's not tons to work with personality wise so forgive me if theirs are a little shorter heh. im gonna include a little blurb from the bsd fandom wiki for anyone not familiar with his character! I like these kinds of headcanon requests so if anyone wants to see more please feel free to request!

"Akutagawa has a black and white "survival of the fittest" view of the world, claiming that weak people should die and give way to the stronger ones. He is not afraid of pain and defeat His ruthless, vicious nature makes him one of the Port Mafia's most dangerous members, feared by both ally and foe. As violent as he is, Akutagawa maintains a generally composed and detached approach. Towards subordinates and superiors alike, he acts aloof, distancing himself from social interactions however possible. Nonetheless, his composure is fragile. Akutagawa is quick to lash out, ridiculing him for risking the bounty by acting recklessly. This quick temper often gets in his way, fuelling his actions to the core of his very being."

SUMMARY: izana, wakasa, chifuyu, && kazutora with an akutagawa!so

CW: hints of toxicity and violence, mentions of sex but not really all that nsfw-ish so otherwise not much else!

IZANA

- this is an interesting one because from what we know about izana, he is very similar in personality to akutagawa in terms of ruthlessness that stems from childhood trauma and isolation.

- in the case of a s/o with this personality, I think it would be a troubling relationship. lots of bitter fights fuelled by nothing but an inability to express vulnerability, while leaving both of you torn up inside and begging for someone to nurture the trauma and allow space for emotions.

- that being said, with toxicity and trauma also comes intense passion and desire. this relationship brings a lot of fire both in the bedroom and outside of the bedroom, with simple arguments often spawning into intense desperate (and lengthy might I add) sex. like, intense. it's almost like sex is the only safe outlet of these pent up emotions, providing a sort of comfort and also distraction for both parties.

- however as I said in general, this is definitely a toxic relationship. one where neither can help the other when it comes to growth and improvement on a personal level. it's unhealthy and enabling, but for a short lived fling it is hot as fuck im not even gonna lie. lots of hate sex too.

WAKASA

- so wakasa is another interesting one alongside izana given the lack of information and content we have about his character so please excuse the slight kc fanon version I have in my head of wakasa lol

- wakasa has a "don't fuck with me because I do not fucking care" type of vibe to him. I definitely think he's the type to completely disengage from the type of behaviours an akutagawa-type s/o might display. this leads to sort of a sense of competitiveness in trying to get some kind of reaction from him, and it has the potential (much like izana) to become toxic in nature

- any attempts to get under his skin are failed attempts, and the way he looks at you with that half bored expression is something that only triggers more of a somewhat emotional response from you.

- with that being said, my fanon version of wakasa is someone who while cold and aloof, is also quite a rational person. he's been typed by the fandom as INTJ which is quite a quick thinker, and I think he probably (despite not showing it very well) has a soft spot for you. but your passion and intensity (as well as your easily triggered dynamic) keeps him from completely being able to express this care in any way other than not engaging with your antics

- as much as there are some similarities with the type of toxicity in this relationship with both wakasa and izana, the intense passion isn't quite the same as it is with izana. instead, feelings of passion are more to the point and driven by pure instinct and desire rather than toxic passion. wakasa seeming like a very literal person, is actually quite mysterious deep down and has a lot (I mean a lot) of hidden desires and kinks that begin to emerge with time. it's rarely a conversation, and more often just something that happens that surprises you. you just have to go with the flow here, and let him take the reigns for once. it might actually be a good opportunity to allow for vulnerability to take the spotlight for once, which is something wakasa is surprisingly in tune with and quite to the point about.

CHIFUYU

- this is something much healthier than the last two. chifuyu, being an enfp is someone that's able to handle this level of intensity in a person while still being able to understand what's really going on.

- call him the trauma counsellor king. he values each and every response to a trigger that you might have. he notices patterns, he makes mental notes of things, and he does this all without making it seem like he's analyzing.

- to be honest he actually loves the spunk you bring on a day to day level. even though most of the time it's driven by bitterness or hate (not always towards him just in general) he is still able to see beyond that and appreciate you for what you are.

- with that being said, chifuyu will not stand for any toxic behaviour towards him. no sir he will not. threats and pushes for fights wont be tolerated, and he will either disengage or try to expose your vulnerabilities in an attempt at forced submission. this can be hard to get used to, especially with having a personality characterized by the inability to accept being vulnerable. but with time chifuyu is one to create a safe space for you to allow yourself to feel emotions beyond anger and resentment, and he encourages this.

- because of this very feelings based approach, intimacy with chifuyu is just that: intimate. he's extremely loving and doting, hoping that his sweetness can rub off on you a little bit. however he's also very accepting of your need for power over him (especially during sex) and will absolutely submit to your needs in order to please you.

- he really likes to put you in a place of pleasure though, so however that may come to you chifuyu is the one to deliver it.

KAZUTORA

- oh boy. this one is a doozy. listen. if we're talking about timeskip kazutora (as is the case with all characters i write about but I feel it especially important to remind ppl of here given his history), we're talking about someone who is quite literally walking on eggshells in terms of his trauma and emotional vulnerability.

- he's pretty good at being emotionally aware of his needs and struggles as well as the needs and struggles of those around him, but that doesn't mean that he's entirely healed or capable of managing toxicity or his triggers. he still slips up from time to time especially when things get hard, and sometimes finds himself falling into his old patterns. after all, he's only human. but this is where things could get messy in a relationship.

- for the most part, like I said, he's pretty good. so let's focus on that part first since I want to give him credit where it's due. he is very desperate for love and dedicated to providing something to his partner. in this case, he will seek to tap into his emotional vulnerability to provide some sort of comfort for you. he wants to see you happy, and calm, because he sees so much of his old self in you that it gets to him sometimes. but at the same time, he struggles with your relentlessness and can become emotionally drained when things get tough. he'll beat himself up for not being good enough to help you, and this is when he'll isolate and fall into old patterns.

- however, akutagawa's personality type isn't all bad. with a s/o like akutagawa, comes an immense amount of protection and loyalty for their loved ones no matter how tough things might be. in this case it might be hard to communicate this, but there will be times when it's needed in order for kazutora to restrain from old habits and ways of dealing with hardships. but he wants to share his healing with you, he wants you to be happy, and more than anything he understands the struggle of wanting to be happy and healthy but being afraid of losing the one thing that makes you you: your attitude and relentlessness. nobody understands this better than kazutora, which is why things between you can get frustrating and very personal for him.

- much like chifuyu, sex is driven towards pleasing you and only you. chifuyu leans more into switch territory however, while kazutora is 100% submissive. in this case it works out well, however he has a lot of boundaries and limitations when it comes to the way in which you function. he doesn't like degradation. instead, he thrives from praise and any sign of love and care. this might be tough for you to execute 100% of the time, but when it comes down to it the way his eyes twinkle for you is enough to make the ice around your heart melt just a little more each time.

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spike-and-faye · 4 years ago

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Hello, I require your infinite wisdom please!! :O So I just finished cowboy bebop and I am so confused like who the fuck was Julia. WHAT was Faye's past. I literally never process tv shows and the bebop was not immune to my stupidity LMAO like... I guess the ending just really confused me, from what I gathered Spike and Vicious were friends? But then they weren't? And Julia dated Vicious but also Spike? And he? Went after Vicious even after Julia had died? I am Confusion. Please help. Thank u...

Oh BABEY I am so glad you asked! :) Be prepared for a long answer and I apologize in advance for how incoherent it will probably be.

ALSO Please note: this show is fucking complicated. I have watched it all the way through several times a year, every single year, for over a decade now, and I am *STILL* finding new shit every time I watch it. It's packed with symbols, motifs, allusions and underlying themes that are just so rich. It is so extraordinarily well-written that it could give a lot of classic literature a run for its money. I'm literally working on an in depth literary/film analysis my husband lovingly calls my Manifesto on the series right now. SO PLEASE don't beat yourself up about not catching everything on the first go round.

HEY BTW for anyone who hasn't finished the show, please know there will be MANY spoilers ahead!

Anyways ~

1. Spike / Julia / Vicious:

The information we get on Spike's past, including Vicious and Julia, is pretty limited considering how big of an impact they have on the story. We get our first glimpse in Session 1: Asteroid Blues, then again in Session 5: Ballad of Fallen Angels, Sessions 12 + 13: Jupiter Jazz, and Sessions 25 + 26: Real Folk Blues. I recommend reviewing these episodes for you Julia and Vicious fix.

What we know:

Spike and Vicious were both members of an organized crime syndicate called the Red Dragons, which is roughly analogous to the Yakuza or the Mafia. Their positions in the organization are not clear, but there are some images alluding to them being hitmen, and they likely rose up in the ranks as they were close acquaintances of Mao Yenrai, a Capo of the Red Dragon.

Spike and Vicious were close comrades. Spike taught Vicious everything he knew about fighting, and the two had a deep trust in each other. Which Spike fucked up ….

^^Vicious looks hot asf here

Julia was Vicious' lover/girlfriend. One night in 2068 (three years prior to the time we watch in the Bebop) Spike is injured, presumably from a syndicate-related fight and he passes out in front of her door. She takes him in and nurses him back to health and he SIMPS HARD for her. We’re all but told he's in LOVE love with her. They start an affair, and Spike tells her he's ready to abandon the whole life - the syndicate, Vicious, Mao, all of it - and they could run away together.

WELL Vicious finds out about this whole affair, and is DOUBLY betrayed because his literal best friend and girlfriend have been having an affair, and tbh I think he was just as jealous of Spike's attentions as he was of Julia's. (Whether or not it’s a sexual thing for Spike … well … I have my own headcanons about that). SO when he finds out they're going to run away together, he gives Julia an ultimatum: you can either kill him, or I'll just kill you both. Spike had written her a letter about meeting him in the graveyard to start their new life together, which she tears up to hide his location from Vicious. (This is the falling ripped up pieces of paper we see in Spike's flash back in Session 5).

^^ r/gifsyoucanhear

**NOTE: There are those who disagree with this view, (looking at you Cowboy Bebop wiki) instead suggesting Vicious and Spike were buds in the past, but then hated each other once they were both considered as potential successors to Mao. That's why Vicious wanted him dead, and he was enlisting Julia (who he didn't necessarily have a romantic connection to) to help kill Spike since he knew Spike loved her. Personally, I think there is plenty of evidence that Vicious also wanted Julia, and in fact was already with her, when Spike started seeing her. If you want me to cite my sources please send an me an ask about it :)

Spike gets the idea, whether by her just not showing up or word around the syndicate being like YO Vicious wants you dead. Despite Vicious' ultimatum to Julia, he was gunna kill Spike either way. SO he sets up an ambush, and SadBoy™ Spike walks intentionally into their trap. Somehow, he doesn't die, though the entire syndicate thinks he did. (Note Annie's reaction to seeing him alive in Session 5). It’s also implied that this is where he lost his eye.

HIS EYE - possibly the most important symbol in the show so I do have to mention it. In episode 26, he explicitly explains to Faye that one of his eyes only sees the past. (PS this isn't dissimilar to Jet's arm… we can get into that another time). Basically, he's constantly living halfway in the past and halfway in the present, and describes the past like a dream he can never wake up from. Because dysfunctional or not - the syndicate WAS his family. (Again - see his relationship with Annie, Mao, and Vicious (prior to Spike's betrayal)). It's his reminder that Julia didn't run away with him, and that he'd left behind that life for her. (He didn’t know she was being threatened until the final episode). Basically Spike is hyper-fixated on what he had and what could've been.

Not long after this, Spike starts bounty hunting because like? What else is he going to do. He doesn't care if he lives or dies but if he has to be alive, he may as well be able to eat. He joins up with Jet Black on the Bebop.

TL; DR: Spike stole Vicious' lover, Julia, so Vicious made Julia choose between her killing Spike or Vicious killing them both. She instead went into hiding and Spike thought he'd been stood up. He fake died and got the hell outta dodge.

2. What was Faye's past?

Ok let me start by saying Faye is my wife and my life. HOWEVER I hated her the first time I watched this show circa age 13 because I thought she was annoying/vain/shallow (also because #internalizedmisogyny lol am I right fam). Good news! She is all those things! But she's also very lonely and scared and an amnesiac and secretly a sweetie and she realizes she loves the crew of the Bebop like family.

SO my wife's backstory:

she was born in the 1990s (#only90skidsremember). There's some debate over her race/nationality, but due to the images of her hanging out in Merlion Park in Singapore, my bet is that she's Singaporean. She comes from a wealthy family with a big house, and we see some utterly *adorable* film of her as a child/young adolescent in Session 18: Speak Like a Child. I cry everytime </3

^^ Holla for the representation

In 2014, circa age 20, she and her parents were going into space when the shuttle they were on had some kind of malfunction/accident and it killed an unknown number of people, including her parents. At the time, the technology didn’t exist to be able to save her, so she was put into a cryogenic sleep state. Meanwhile, the Lunar Gate accident occurs, breaking up the moon and causing rock showers on Earth's surface. Most people died, moved to Mars, or settled underground.

She wakes up from her cryogenic sleep in 2068. (Also the year Spike leaves the syndicate.) She's 'woken' by the corrupt Dr. Bacchus who plans on charging her for the years and years of medical debt she's accrued. (See Session 15: My Funny Valentine.) Luckily a lawyer takes interest in her case (Whitney Haggus Matsumoto) and tries to help get rid of her debt. The two fall in love, but turns out Whitney is a Scumbag. He's actually Dr. Bacchus's nephew, and faked his death, writing Faye as the sole inheritor to his will. This means she'll take on all his debts. So baby girl has LOTS of debt at this point.

In the intervening years prior to her joining the Bebop, she gambles, cheats, gains a lot of street smarts, and adopts a very seductive character to get her way. She joins the crew on the Bebop in Session 3: Honky Tonk Women.

TL;DR: Faye is Austin powers

YIKES this is so long I am so sorry. Bitches are obsessed with this show. (I am bitches)

3. The Ending

Okay I'm going to present this in the way, in my scholarly opinion, would be correct, though there are SO many interpretations other than simply 'Spike died :/".

To understand the plot of the last couple episodes we actually have to go back to Session 5: Mao is instructed* to sign a treaty with a rival syndicate called the White Tigers. (*He's instructed by The Van (Council of identical creepy old men) who are the actual head of the dragon. I think we only see them in Session 26.) Well - Vicious is a Bastard Man and he and his fellow mutineers blow up the White Tiger guys' ship and slit Mao's throat. Before he dies, Mao is like "Gotdamnit if Spike was still here this shit wouldn't have happened." Later in the Cathedral battle, Vicious explains to Spike he killed Mao because Mao 'lost his fangs'. He planned on killing Spike for good her, IMO, so there'd be no rival to take over as Capo for the Dragons.

^^These guys are The Van btw

THEN in Session 25, the Van basically catches Vicious and is like “you killed Mao and now you have to go to Time Out.” The Van also decides to just kill everyone associated with Vicious, just 2 B safe. That's why there's a big ass shootout at the Loser Bar where Jet and Spike are chilling, drinking, (missing Faye and Ed and Ein lol) and Shin (younger brother to Lin, who's helping Vicious overthrow the Dragon) explains all this to Spike. OH and PS JULIA IS ALIVE AND HERE IS HER LOCATION :). (**Notice Spike's reaction at this point is different than his reaction in Jupiter Jazz when he hears there's a Julia on Calisto. Much less excited… hmm…).

SO THEN you know we get some flashbacks of the past as previously explained *and* Julia just happens to run into Faye. She recognizes that Faye is one of Spike's friends from the Bebop (she was keeping tabs on him it seems) and picks her up. Faye doesn't know who Julia is but is like damn bitch I'm a little gay for you. (I mean … that may just be my bi ass projecting, but Faye is REALLY struck with her. Look at how she describes her to Jet, I mean come on.)

Faye's like, 'we should team up' and Julia says 'no thanks but also tell Spike to meet me at *the place*'. Meanwhile back on the Bebop Spike and Jet are talking and Spike goes on about some dream woman who was his other half. (We assume he means Julia … I have my reasons to doubt this … I have a lot of angry DMs about my opinion here lol but I just do not give a fuck (: I can expand on this in another post or you can refer to the title of my fucking blog haha) Personally, I think Watanabe personally left this specific scene open ended, the same way he does with the ending and various other things.

more like SIMP Spiegel

ANYWAY Faye comes back to the Bebop to tell Spike about Julia, and Jet gets intel from a former cop buddy that there's some shit going down with the Dragons. (Again, the Van is hunting down everyone ever associated with Vicious, including your pal Spike). Bebop is attacked, Faye tells Spike what's up with Julia, and he heads out.

PAN TO VICIOUS chained up - about to be executed - but what's that!? It's a bird!? It's a pla- no it's just a bird. (With one glowing red eye … hm … reminds me of Spike, also the drug Red Eye. Pls let me know if you have any thoughts on this). Just a bird with a BOMB! Explosion (RIP bird c. 2065 - too soon), Vicious kills the elders, his buddies show up and are ready to go fuck shit up.

this show could not be more of an aesthetic

MMMPhhh okay RAINY CEMETERY. Spike and Julia. She draws a gun, explains why she didn't meet him that day, and then hugs him. Now Spike is not *great* at showing his emotions but he literally just stands there. Maybe it's a stoic expression of how sad he is that he never knew she still cared, when it seemed like she dumped him. Maybe he's finally getting some closure on his past. Maybe the past doesn't mean the same thing it used to. (I'll elaborate later on this).

They go to Annie's to get stocked up on stuff, she lets them know she denied knowing Spike was still alive and hey also the Van was assassinated by Vicious and his guys so. Watch out for that. Then her shop is surrounded by Vicious' guys and she dies :(. Spike and Julia escape to the roof, but she's shot and dies in Spike's arms, and says 'it's all just a dream' :(. (Refer to: Spike living in a dream of the past).

Anyway Jet SAID he wasn't gunna go after Spike but. Jet's parental instincts kick in (oh yeah he was shot in the leg earlier btw) and he goes to Sitting Bull to see if he knows where Spike is. He basically says yeah Spike's about to die somewhere. (I want to do a further analysis on all the Sitting Bull scenes.) Well conveniently Spike returns to the Bebop, eats, tells his story about a tiger-striped cat. (At one point Jet asks if he's going there for her, and Spike is like well she's dead now so whatever). THEN we get to the scene where Faye is like HEY YOU CAN'T GO OFF AND DIE ASSHOLE and he's like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I 've been living in the past so I might as well see if I'm living now. (**This will play heavily into my interpretation of the ending). Faye is pissed, shoots the ceiling and he goes off to the syndicate headquarters to fuck shit up.

He basically John Wicks his way through the building, Shin dies, he and Vicious have the big boss battle and whatnot. He kills Vicious and stumbles back out down the stairs and says "Bang!" and collapses. We pan to the sky and see a star fade away.

Well that explains the plot … now here's what I think happened!!! ALSO may I mention, anon - you picked up on something I feel like a lot of people miss out on. Why *did* Spike go back to kill Vicious if Julia was already dead??

Basically, once it became clear that anyone associated with Vicious was being killed, Spike knew they'd hunt him down, and they weren't beneath Kill-Billing their way to him, (i.e. systematically destroying this companions to get to him). And for all his apparent indifference - he really loves his new found family. Jet is literally like an older brother to him. Ed is a little sister. Ein is well … a very good boy. And Faye? Well the relationship is complicated, and I'm not going to get into the 69,420 reasons I ship them here, but I think it is beyond argument that he really does care for her, even if that just in a filial way. He didn't want the syndicates to kill them for their association to him, or in order to get to him. So he did what he had to do to protect them. *AND NO* I am not saying that he didn't love Julia. But it was clear that his desire was no longer to run away with her. I think he genuinely loved and cared about her, but at some point between Jupiter Jazz Pt 2 and now, he accepted that their time together was over. Now he had a new raison d'etre, which is the Bebop.

I think at this point Spike has 'woken up' to reality (as he implied to Faye in their final conversation in episode 26: "Look at these eyes. One of them is a fake, because I lost it in an accident. Since then, I have been seeing the past in one eye, and the present in the other. I had believed that what I saw was not all of reality...I thought I was watching a dream that I would never awaken from. Before I knew it, the dream was all over." (This is from the sub btw I'm too lazy to look up the dub transcript.) He wasn't going there to die, he's going to find out if he's really alive. This line is fucking cool and everything - but it's implications are multitude. I won't go into them all here but basically : what makes him alive now is that he's free from his past. He's alive because he has this new family and protecting them is all he really wants now. Spike was protecting Jet, Faye, Ed, (and Ein) by going and facing the entire syndicate, knowing that their lives would all be in danger.

SO - did Spike die? Well again - Watanabe has purposely and artfully left this open ended. Well, if we're following the symbolism from Sitting Bull, then yeah, the man is as dead as disco, and wouldn't that be a fitting ending? BUT at the same time, Spike always refers to having 'died' before (meaning when he was ambushed by the syndicate, and they all thought he died, and he pretty much did). Don't forget that in movie (takes places roughly between episodes 22 + 23, and yes, was made AFTER the series but whatever) he like .. DIES dies. He goes to the afterlife and everything. He wakes up to find he's chilling with Sitting Bull, who's like nah it wasn't your time to die yet. So the fact Sitting Bull confirms Spike will die in the final episode, means yeah, Spike is pretty much dead.

BUT -- okay now hear me out -- could this death in the final episode be a death to his previous life? The person he was in the syndicate? Now that he's extinguished the Red Dragons for good, is it not possible that its merely *that* life which has ended? That's the optimist in me saying that, but if it keeps me from staying up all night crying, I guess it'll have to do. Watanabe definitely wants to leave it up to the viewer, so whatever you think, I feel like there's validity to it.

WELL any anon, sorry for the fucking lecture - and believe me, I could've said MUCH, MUCH more - but I enjoyed this question. I always love talking about this show so please all you fuckers feel free to message me or send an ask about anything any time. I am really slow at replying because #life'sAbitch.

Love you all.

SY,SCB <3

#sorry for the long ass rant #i could seriously talk about this all day.#i even trimmed this down so much #cowboy bebop #fuck man this show is everything #spike spiegel #julia #faye valentine #jet black #vicious #radical ed #ein #<3 #spoilers #rant

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crowtrinkets · 4 years ago

Text

Analysis of Vesuvia :) pt 3A Underground Tunnels

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3B

Alright my friends here's the big one I had to break it into two parts its so big lol

Ok so we all wanna know, how the heck are there under ground tunnels if Vesuvia is surrounded by canals? And I am here to hopefully answer that question

So first of all referencing this post once again, @mangoeclipse said that there are catacombs along the Via Casillina road. So this brought me to the Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter, named after Christian Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter who were supposedly buried in here

Not really relevant to my points but I thought some history and context on catacombs would be interesting :)

There is not a lot of info I could find on them other than info about the art, which depicts Christian and Pagan imagery (because Christians had to meet in catacombs to avoid persecution)And according to our lord and savior Google maps its pretty far from the coast so unfortunately it wont help in this case

Now let us return to our beloved map of Vesuvia, cropped for convenience

So, based off this image it seems that the mouth of a river runs through the castle and through the aqueducts and down into the canals of the city. But I am speculating that the river actually goes around the castle and it just looks odd because the drawing has very little detail. Why do I think this you ask? The Palace grounds are quite large, take Portia’s cottage for example.

Why Portia’s cottage you ask? Oh yknow

You can see the Palace in the background, and judging by this image alone the palace is HUGE meaning the grounds are quite large as well. Its far enough away that Guards rarely come around and it is far enough away that people could seek refuge at the cottage while the palace was quite literally falling apart in Portia’s route.

Now if we take context from in game it further proves just how large the Palace grounds are. It’s big enough the hold a huge maze of gardens, and Portia’s cottage which on it’s own has a large garden as well. They are big enough to house a menagerie (which I think its outside I’m not sure), stables, and enough room to host possibly a few thousand people for the masquerade

Now onto the tunnels

Usually the Apprentice makes their way into the tunnels at ground level (via the library or other portals in the walls) and ascends down to the creepy elevator correct? Hmmm well maybe not so because I came across something that’ll probably make y’all as just as confused as it did me.

In Portia’s route, Book 9: The Hermit, when the Apprentice and Portia are in the dungeons, shall we shall we call them, and they lock themselves in Julian’s office. The Apprentice finds a portal in the wall and pulls both them and Portia through it and where do they end up? Outside, on the Palace grounds

*pause for confused stares*

If the portals work as doorways why would they end out outside if they are under ground so to speak? Unless the portals are more complicated than they seem, then either

A. The underground tunnels are not as fully underground as we thought, and maybe act as an above ground basement? (if those exist)

B. The portals act as literal magical portals and transport a person from point A to point B no matter the distance, and do not act as a doorway as we saw demonstrated inside the palace

or C. This was just a mistake and overlooked detail, which is entirely possible.

Now depending on which theory you find more suitable it can really change the course of where this post is going.

If you agree with A, then the reason the canals work with the underground tunnels, the answer is simply that the tunnels are actually above ground. Which is kind of confusing.

However if you agree with point B then the answer I have fallen onto is that, the Palace is on top of a hill, and the only water surrounding it are the aqueducts and the moat below it. so it would make sense why the underground tunnels do not interfere with the canals, simply because the palace sits above the canals not allowing for direct interference

Here is a hopefully not confusing diagram I drew onto the map to try and help explain my point.

So if were looking at this from left to right, I am imagining the Palace is actually sitting on raised ground, sloping down until it reaches the Palace and the aqueducts and then it drops. Which would make sense why there are aqueducts surrounding it. Even on the Arcana wiki it says “Vesuvia is the main setting for the Arcana Game. A city-state built into a cliff by a Mediterranean-like sea”

We know that Vesuvia is full of stairs and pathways that lead up to the gates of the Palace which sits atop a hill. and the aqueducts work around the palace and lead down to the canals. And these pictures kind of proves that Vesuvia has a lot of ups and downs all leading to the palace. The places closer to the coast are at sea level and it slowly ascends upwards.

Hey, yknow what other place is sitting ontop of water? But is also surrounded by hills and mountains? Thats right Mexico City

The mythology around Mexico city goes that the Aztecs, or the Mexica (Meh-shee-ka) as they called themselves, were told by their god or patron diety Huitzilopochtili (weet·see·luh·powch·tuh·lee) to go on a migration until they saw a sign from him, and to them that sign was an eagle sitting on a cactus that was growing on a rock in the middle of a lake. And thus Mexico City was established on that lake and built upon. So, more evidence of a city on top of water AND with hills surrounding it to boot

here's a video talking about the Mexica in a little more detail :)

I have now run out of the max images I can place in this post and I have more I want to talk about so I will now direct you to part B in part 3B linked at the top of this post

#i started this at 1 am after finishing my art history hw on Aztecs so Mexico city is on my mine lmao #the arcana #the arcana game #the arcana vesuvia #vesuvia #art history #architecture #crow talks art history

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unforth · 3 years ago

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A Non-Definitive and Certainly Incomplete List of the Differences Between the Qianqiu/Thousand Autumns Danmei Novel and the Donghua

@blacktigersprings commented on one of my Thousand Autumn Liveblog posts, asking about the differences between the donghua thus far, compared to the book - they'd seen the 16 episodes, but hadn't read it yet. After I wrote down what I could remember I was like...ya know what, I should just make all this into a post.

This is non-exhaustive. I am a tired person with a bad memory and a lot going on, so I am sure I forgot things. I'm gonna ping @baoshan-sanren since they're the main person I know who is in Thousand Autumns fandom also, and I'm willing to guarantee they will think of things I didn't, and also probably be able to correct me if I mixed anything up. I'll try to edit this based on new info, if I have the time, and I might post it as meta on AO3? I did that with my list of differences between CQL and MDZS and people found it helpful so...yeah. I'll add a link if a do.

Note that all posts like this rely to some extent on interpretation; what I write reflects my interpretation and understanding of events (...to the extent I remember them...) and others may have read/watched the same sequences and reached different conclusions. I've made specific notes where I think I'm raising a point that's more subjective than others.

This contains spoilers for all 16 episodes of the donghua, and for the equivalent parts of the novel. I did my best not to put in novel spoilers for past when the donghua ends, but there are allusions to subsequent events.

Anyway - vaguely in chronological order of when they happen?

(read more)

Overall, the basic premises of the donghua and the novel are pretty different. In the donghua, there are several primary conflicts - the intrusion of the Beimi/Tujue, the competition over access to the Solarity, the competition between different sects' top masters, and the search for that ring that Yan Wushi has. In the novel, these are all things that exist, but they're not the primary plot, and they're all at least somewhat difference. While the novel has multiple plotlines that focus on different things, looking at it as a whole, the main plot is a political one about control of the Empire, and how different sects are pulled into that conflict as a result of how the Emperor relates to Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist sects. Which tradition each sect follows is much more important and relevant in the novel. The Beimi/Tujue plot is still relevant and involved, but it's just one thread in the political milieu. The Solarity, which has different and long name in the novel that I never remember - it's like, "the complete works of (some master who's name isn't in my brain" - is in six volumes, and it's definitely still important, but it's importance kinda fades as the novel progresses (though it's still a main piece at the point where the donghua leaves off). The ring is basically non-existent in the novel - instead of it being in Yan Wushi's possession, it's in the possession of the woman who's birthday party Shen Qiao goes to (...Madam Su? Might be her name? I'm sorry, I'm not great with names, and I usually rely on fandom wikis but this one is sparse) - in the novel, she was a disciple of Hulugu, and then she stole the ring and returned to the Empire. That other Beimi/Tujue disciple (...Dong something??) takes it back and returns with it to his clan, if I recall correctly, so it can be used to unify those clans to make war against the Empire.

In the donghua, Yan Wushi is just...generally portrayed as pretty nice, and the YanShen vibes start pretty early - there's an early sign of playful flirting from Yan Wushi that actually seems sincere? At least it did to me. As a result, the YanShen vibes feel a lot stronger than they do in the novel at a similar point in the narrative. In the novel...I'd personally say Yan Wushi has zero interest, romantically or sexually, until well after where the donghua left off, and their relationship isn't canon until nearly the very end, and is always left more implied than...outright. I would personally say that in the novel, Shen Qiao has some feels for Yan Wushi pre-Sang Jingxing, but Yan Wushi doesn't reciprocate (except maybe at a deep level he refuses to acknowledge). It's not until he's healing post-almost-dying (as in, during the time immediately after when the donghua leaves off - I'm trying to be vague to avoid giving spoilers to people who haven't read it) that there start to be some real clear signs that Yan Wushi may have caught some feels, and even then it's complicated. They're complicated. They're also complicated. It's part of what I love about them, lol.

In the donghua, the fight between Shen Qiao and Kunye is shown "on screen" instead of only being described afterwards, and it's revealed almost right away that Shen Qiao was poisoned. Also, a lot of people help Kunye and they all fight Shen Qiao together. In the novel, this fight is off-screen. It's strictly a one-on-one battle between Shen Qiao and Kunye, and the reader doesn't learn that Shen Qiao lost due to poisoning until Shen Qiao goes to Mount Xuandu to confront Yu Ai.

In both the donghua and the novel, when Yan Wushi is trying to turn Shen Qiao evil, he sets up a mission for Shen Qiao and Yu Shengyan, The object of this mission is to kill a family that serves the Hehuan Sect. Shen Qiao refuses to participate, and helps them escape. In the donghua, they don't actually escape, and the "they serve Hehuan" thing turns out to be a ruse; they actually serve Yan Wushi. In the novel, they're actually Hehuan spies, and Shen Qiao still helps them, and they actually escape.

(RAPE MENTION TRIGGER WARNING) In the donghua, Chen Gong betrays Shen Qiao when that jerk noble whose name I can't remember right now (and it's not in the wiki, god the wiki is so slim, I wish I had time to help with that) hunts him for sport, and he doesn't want to die. In the novel, Chen Gong betrays Shen Qiao when that same jerk noble, who as a reputation for using pretty boys as sex slaves, tries to kidnap Chen Gong as a sex slave, and Chen Gong is like, "no no you don't want to fuck me, I know someone WAY prettier for you to rape." (The fall out remains the same in both - Shen Qiao beats up the guy, nothing bad happens to him, and he and Chen Gong part ways).

In the donghua, Shen Qiao goes to confront Yu Ai at Mount Xuandu by like. Literally walking up to the front gate. And then all the disciples for some reason get mad that Yan Wushi comes, even though he...also walked up to their front gate. Why do they even have a gate??? In the novel, Shen Qiao uses a super sneaky back way, only known to disciples, and so it actually makes some kind of sense when Yu Ai et al are like SHEN QIAO WHY ARE YOU SHOWING THE EVIL GUY OUR BACK DOOR?

(NOTE this one relies more on subtext and thus is very open to interpretation. What's written here reflects my personal interpretation, and others may disagree). In the donghua, when Yan Wushi hands Shen Qiao over to Sang Jingxing, they have a chat that heavily implies that Yan Wushi is kinda-sorta-not-so-secretly thinking that Shen Qiao could win a fight (and is probably expecting Shen Qiao to do so by using the demonic core that has been implanted in him). Sang Jingxing also says things that indicate that he thinks that Yan Wushi is setting a trap for him. In the novel, while it's never all that clear what Yan Wushi's motivations are, it becomes pretty clear by the point of the Sang Jingxing fight that Yan Wushi was serious when he said he didn't care about Shen Qiao, didn't consider him worthy, and doesn't care what happens to him. He definitely handed over Shen Qiao with every intention of Shen Qiao getting tortured and raped, and had no interest in saving him. Shen Qiao only becomes interesting to Yan Wushi afterwards. Yan Wushi is never only playing one game, so he may have thought that being pushed into a corner would force Shen Qiao to use the demonic core, but it also seemed to me like he genuinely didn't care - he'd gotten bored, and was done playing with the "new toy" that was Shen Qiao.

In the donghua, there is a shot of someone - the clothing is pretty unmistakably Yan Wushi's purple robe of ultimate purpleness - pulling Shen Qiao out of a river after he plunges to his almost-demise in the fight with Sang Jingxing. In the novel, Yan Wushi doesn't pull Shen Qiao out of the water, after Shen Qiao destroys his meridians in the fight against Sang Jingxing. Instead, Shen Qiao collapses in the mountains, where he is found by Shiwu and brought back to the monastery for treatment.

In the donghua, Yan Wushi is fighting the four masters who have it in for him, and before the end of the fight, Shen Qiao arrives and tries to help him; he fights the four masters solo to try to keep Yan Wushi from using his powers and harming himself, and when he's about to lose, Yan Wushi...uses his powers and harms himself. In the novel, Shen Qiao doesn't arrive until after Yan Wushi has been defeated; he finds Yan Wushi almost dead and brings him to a small village nearby, where he stays with a nice girl and her...grandfather, iirc...and tries to keep them safe while nursing Yan Wushi back to health.

In the donghua, it's kinda implied that Shen Qiao goes to rescue Yan Wushi because, like...he likes him? There's not really a reason given, just that he wants to, or maybe to keep the ring from going to the Beimi/Tujue? In the novel it's pretty explicit that Shen Qiao goes to save Yan Wushi because he believes Yan Wushi's position in the Empire is critical to the stability of the world - and he wants the world stable, so that there won't be more refugees, starvation, etc. That he also may like Yan Wushi is the case but is almost incidental; Shen Qiao is focused on doing the most good for the most people, and that means saving Yan Wushi, because Yan Wushi is critical to the Empire, and the Empire is critical to the common people. (this is a major part of the political themes that are more prominent in the book than in the donghua).

I can't actually remember when Bian Yanmei was introduced in the novel? But I was pretty sure it was around when Yan Wushi sends Shen Qiao to that birthday banquet? Anyway, Bian Yanmei isn't in the donghua at all thus far; in the donghua, Yan Wushi's only apparent disciple is Yu Shengyan.

#thousand autumns #meta #or something #unforth rambles #thousand autumns spoilers

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