#so many of the kids have such interesting adult character foils

[incorrectsibunaquotes]

Setting up Patricia and Denby as character foils was an insane move on the writers’ part, and I wish so much that we got more emphasis on it

[milk-ly]

Fuuta and Mikoto as Character Foils

This amazing post talks about Fuuta's people pleasing tendencies and they mentioned how Mikoto is simillar, but does it in a different way. And I have NOT been able to stop thinking about it so I want to get my thoughts out about how Fuuta and Mikoto are character foils to each other.

Fuuta and Mikoto are pretty much complete opposites. They parallel in that they both desperately crave societal acceptance, but they differ in how they go about it. Mikoto tries to read the room and changes every aspect of himself in order to seem more friendly and amicable to fit in. He does things based on what he SHOULD do because it’s the societally accepted way to do things and he’ll be liked for it.

Fuuta doesn’t because it’s just how he is, his naturally fiery and argumentative temperament makes it hard for people to like him. It’s not that he doesn’t want to fit in but he isn’t willing to change himself the same way Mikoto is. Mikoto is friendly and approachable while Fuuta is the complete opposite.

But here’s the thing, he IS also like Mikoto in that regard because he is seen in MILGRAM actively changing himself in order to believe that he is that idealized self in Bring It On. He tries to be a representative for everyone and confronts Es for hurting Yuno during his t1 VD, despite having to hype himself up before charging up at them.

But still, no matter how hard he tries he can’t be that idealized self. He can’t fit in, because it’s not who he is. He wants to be accepted as himself! He wants friends he can share the same interests and opinions with to feel validated.

Portal Timeline conversation (2023/07/05):

Fuuta: "Oh, well. I guess I can understand a bit now. When you're feeling down, it's nice to have someone to rely on, someone who accepts you."

It's why Mikoto thinks Fuuta’s immature because Fuuta's unable to fit into society and "be an adult" like Mikoto can. Mikoto thinks that once you grow up, you need to buckle down and start conforming or else you'll never get anywhere in life. To him, it's disgraceful to be angry because it's frowned upon, and Fuuta's pretty much in a constant state of rage, which is why Fuuta has such a hard time finding acceptance. Every time they talk, they’re criticizing each other. Their first ever conversation starts with Mikoto lecturing Fuuta about how he can’t and won’t fit in and it (rightfully) ticks him off, especially since Mikoto can. It’s why they’re at each other's throats like every time they interact (which is pretty little). Mikoto even straight up has a line in the earbud collab about how Fuuta will never get any girls.

Fuuta is constantly considered by others as “immature” and “childish” such as Kazui saying that it's okay for Fuuta to be cocky because he's young or how Fuuta is constantly linked to games (typically associated with children). Or the fact that the lyrics from Bring It On: ""Kono yubi tomare" [is] a traditional saying from a traditional kid’s game."

On the flip side, Mikoto is constantly reminding people that he’s a working adult. Not to mention, Mikoto tends to hang around the older prisoners more (the smoker trio) while Fuuta interacts with the younger prisoners the most. (Amane, Haruka, and sometimes Muu)

Mikoto wants to be a cog in the machine and believes that if he works hard enough, he'll be able to make it in the workforce. Fuuta actively criticizes the workforce and how it's useless to work too hard, so he "goes with the flow."

There are so many smaller details too that emphasize their foil. Mikoto smokes, Fuuta hates smoking. Mikoto's voice is high and whiney while Fuuta's is deep and aggressive. Fuuta has an older sister while Mikoto has a younger sister. Both their parents are divorced but Fuuta is missing his mother while Mikoto is missing his father. However, one similarity is that they both SEEM to have good opinions about their moms while having questionable ones with their dads.

Something else I think about a lot is how Fuuta parallels with John. Especially concerning these lines from John when you realize John is pretty much the opposite of Mikoto too:

John might be the person Mikoto wishes he was. Someone who stubbornly stands their ground, someone who tries stand up for themselves and “gives people their just desserts.” Sounds rather familiar to a certain red-head, I must say.

In addition, they share a lot more similarities too, like their connection to the bright colour red, contrasted by Mikoto's light blue. They both have short tempers and jump at Es as a defence mechanism, in contrast to Mikoto having a fawn response and laughing everything off. They both use the first-person pronoun "ore" while Mikoto uses "boku." Both Fuuta and John have a deeper and more aggressive tone in comparison to Mikoto. Fuuta's symbolism as a brave knight protecting the weak and punishing evil parallels John protecting the "weak" (Mikoto) and acting as his saviour from threats. Mikoto couldn't stand up for himself so John did it for him, Fuuta "stood up" for the people hurt by the actions of the people he cancelled.

To add on to that, Mikoto’s name in kanji means “noble” or “revered.” Words that remind you of royalty, or a prince. (Boy princess fr fr) John being his saviour makes him his knight in shining armour. Matching with Fuuta’s knight symbolism!

Mikoto envies these traits in Fuuta yet hates them and purposefully suppresses them within himself because it's not socially acceptable to act like him. Fuuta likely similarity envies people who can fit in, like Mikoto. Perhaps the reason why the two are so irked by the other is that they each embody traits the other admires yet can't have.

But in the end, they both can’t really fit into “normal” society. Mikoto, who claims he can, is suffering to the point of breaking. Fuuta, who tried and finally found an ounce of acceptance and ally ship in his online buddies, ended up getting carried away and causing the death of someone.

I'm really surprised I haven’t really seen this mentioned or discussed very much. Sorry if it’s really obvious, I just wanted to point some stuff out. Anyway man, I love these two a lot and I would love to see more stuff diving into these two in a canon context too.

[sinvilles]

Gathering my thoughts: Danielle Stopframe analysis

also like. I'm not concerned with whether any character in the series was "redeemed" or not. the show was cut in half, and so was every character arc. hence we end up with a show that got cancelled when all the main characters were at their lowest point of development in the narrative, and all the surrounding characters getting half developed to a point of mild satisfaction.

Danielle seems to get the least amount of interest when it comes to what makes him tick. He's a favorite of mine because of all the characters in Moralton, he's one of the few who is very unashamed of who he is and wears it on his sleeve. And I like that his weird presence is built up from the very start of the series. He's over the assumptions of others, and chooses to be himself, which in a show where the major theme is repression juxtaposes him as a foil to the rest of the town.

I wanted to make a mental inventory of this character, starting with some of his personality traits:

The Coach

Danielle is a body builder, and athletic coach to both adults and children. He's coached tennis, track, plays golf, figure skates- he understands discipline, long-term goal setting and is patient enough to work with others to achieve what they're trying to get. Being good with kids has nothing to do with it- its all about being consistent and doing it every day. He seems to approach everything like this- more of that obsession quality. Though he's not beyond trying to perform witchcraft to speed thing up a bit when he gets impatient.

He doubles as your typical gym bunny gay man. Self eroticized, willing to do anything to achieve that romanticized ideal. This brings us to the next bit.

Narcissistic qualities (classic + clinical)

Stopframe is obsessed with appearances. Good appearances means discipline to him, which might be what attracted him to Clay in the first place. But its all very surface level of course. When he sees people without discipline- like the hedonistic satanists, many of whom were overweight- their indulgence, both sexual and gluttonous, turned him off so hard he called it a night and went home. Which is funny coming from the guy with a piss kink.

"Sorry Clay, its just not worth it."

It echoes back later, when he throws out Clay's picture the moment he calls him up for a nightcap at midday. It seems he was either unaware of the extent of Clay's alcoholism or that it had never been that bad up until that point. I think the latter is more likely, since Clay's drinking isn't as pathological throughout the series until we get to Nature. Also suggests to me that Clay, while already having drinking problems prior, started drinking more after he met Danielle. We do see Stopframe say he's "better when he drinks" at least once, and Clay can only really go out and see him at Forghetty's. But this is a tangent for a Clay alcoholism analysis.

He cares very little for his family- Shapey is little more than a long distance trophy to him. I guess. I think. Shapey hugged him that time so I wonder if he ever gives him presents or comes to his birthdays (he was at Orel's). He only spends time with Joe when he's foisted upon him, otherwise ignoring him. He assumes he isn't any good with children, I think because he dislikes Joe's attitude.

A big reason I think his development is unfinished- and this is under the lens of character arcs as want vs need, where getting something they needed makes the character whole- is that we don't see him own up to the fact that he's as flawed as anybody else. He admits he has a problem, but he didn't find the root of it- namely that real love involves accepting the flaws of others and choosing to be there for them anyway. He didn't even own up to disrupting the Puppington home, which he had done intentionally and calculatingly for years. All interesting paths for his character.

Person Addiction

Danielle, much like Clay, has an addiction. It's a lesser known thing called Limerence, or "Person Addiction". Not everyone is aware it's even a thing- some people go through it once in their life, some people cycle through it over and over. There are people who mistake it for love. Scott Adsit once mentioned in a promo that Stopframe is "obsessed with Clay because he hasn't slept with him"- it's one way to describe it, specifically the way a lot of men tend to experience it. Having been through it once I can say with full clarity that it makes you feel temporarily insane and can mirror both anxious attachment and OCD. Realistically, it only feels much creepier than it actually is, because very few who go through it in real life ever want to indulge it the way Stopframe does- pictures everywhere, seducing the guy's wife, fathering a child with her just to insert his DNA into their family, so that Clay raises HIS son alongside his own... absolutely cuckoo bird. Even the part where he says Bloberta is only sexy by her association to Clay- that is the logic that person addiction runs on. Because Clay is literally a hit to him, he gets an oxytocin high from being near him or thinking about him. When he's away from Clay he goes through a withdrawal, sitting alone in the shower and holding himself. Clay is his worst habit.

So, walk with me… his plan to sleep with Clay involves sleeping with his wife first. Because if she commits infidelity, what's to stop Clay from doing it? and then he just has to wait years for the ball to drop and for Clay to eventually walk out. He has no problem fixating on this for almost a decade, but actively puts off ever interacting with Clay until the first episode of the series- even then its just to watch him piss on the wall, and then walk away. He avoids knowing Clay, because I think for a long time he's afraid of ruining the idea he has of him in his head- the idealized Clay that doesn't exist, the built up image. This is not to say that Limerence doesn't happen if you know the person well (its worse somehow), but he's able to easily quit him the moment that Orel tells him what Clay is really like.

Loneliness

It's not easy being queer in a place like Moralton. For one, the gay dating pool must be tiny since so many would be in the closet, or move out altogether. The culture is so 50s adjacent he might have to limit himself to cruising public bathrooms or exchanging letters long distance- its no wonder he fixated on Clay. Something about it might feel "safe" to him, compared to actively getting to know somebody. I don't think he has a problem getting laid so much as a problem connecting to others, which was why it was so sweet to see him make an effort to have a fun day with Orel in the finale.

Family

I might be in the minority on this but I don't think Stopframe is related to Bendy. If the Secondopinionsons wanted to keep Joe's mother a secret they needed to fully cut ties with anyone in her family- and she was a child at the time, so some hush money was definitely involved, maybe enough to send her to nursing school. For Stopframe to be babysitting Joe, he'd have to be in the immediate family of his father- the fact that he has a different name is of interest to me, and the fact that he's so much younger than Dr. Secondopinionson. He could very well have been a bastard child who either changed his name later or was raised primarily by and named after an unwed mother- perpetuating the cycle with Shapey so to speak.

The Romantic Agnostic

He's a big fan of Gothic Erotica, and vampires. Big on fantasizing. Open to trying anything. He is wishy washy on the topic of religion, switching from worshipping God to Satan on a whim. Makes sense, if God loves all his children, but hates homosexuality, and Satan hates all humanity, and loves homosexuality- you've got a 50% chance of pleasing either. I think he probably loves Halloween.

andddd thats all I got

[swans-chirping-in-the-distance]

YOU have a very interesting take on sokeefe. you don't just love every part of it- please elaborate, your tags on anti sokeefe posts are FASCINATING

THIS TOOK FOREVED IM SORRY ILYSM FOR THIS AHDJDLFKWNKDJF

I think one majorly important thing about sokeefe is that precious bond they have with each other. In fact, that's what makes me love the ship so much. It's truly stunning to see such a natural love built on years of trust and support. They clearly display so many different ways of loving, whether it be emotional, physical, mental, or verbal. The way that Shannon captured them is something I'm not sure I've seen anyone else do the same way.

Sophie ignores her feelings for Keefe for the majority of the series and writes it off due to insecurity. And Keefe knew that. Yet, instead of just telling her how she felt, he decided to let her decide how to act. To not rush her or pressure her. To let her make her own decision. He held himself back and let her be with his best friend without telling her, which many adults couldn't bring themselves to do. But he did it for HER. Because he loved her, whether he said it or not. How terrifying must it have been for Keefe to be so vulnerable as to fall for someone when that had made him hurt so much in the past? How terrifying must it have been for SOPHIE, who'd not let herself realize she fell until she was far too gone to come back from this unscathed?

The two are often very physical with each other, from the constant support of holding one another's hand to the gripping hugs late at night when their sobs are louder than their family's disappointment. Not only do they show how they feel about each other with touch, but also with general body language. The comfort of Keefe turning her head gently to look at him. The way they relax around each other, their facial expressions and their hands involuntarily grabbing the other's without a moment's notice. The display of casualty hidden within the deep depths of their relationship. They even manage to think about each other with the same sort of intensity, the determination to keep the other alive and the sheer desperation not to lose the other. They're reliant on each other's safety, not because their lives would be in danger without them, but because a huge part of their happiness would.

The two often joke around with each other, but they know when to stop. They know when it's time to get serious, to remind the other of how high they think of them and how much they care for them. How they'll always be at each other's side. Their words say "I love you" for them. And while they're in terribly traumatic situations and had such different backgrounds, they're the only ones who understand each other. They're absolute foils who were born to be enemies and fell for each other anyway. Their relationship is a beautiful one, but it's also one that's extremely fragile.

Sokeefe's relationship could go wrong in many ways. There are multiple paths towards a toxic relationship that would be really easy for their canon characters to fall into. For example, while for now they help each other stay brave and empathetic, their vulnerability towards each other makes them more prone to toxicity. They're both known for being reckless. How easy would it be to accidentally get the other to do something terrible? Would killing a random Neverseen member be self-defense? Would that really help anyone in the long run? They're traumatized kids forced to lead, like a malfunctioning toy released before it was fixed. They have no idea what they're doing if you really think about it. Who are they to advise the other?

Another issue I've noticed is one that's super minimal now but could become a huge issue. Sophie, being a relatable teen girl, likes apologies for things that hurt her, even if she knows it's technically not the other person's fault. She's not going around asking for apologies that aren't warranted, but she's accepting them. And that usually doesn't matter much, but it does with someone like KEEFE. Keefe, who blames himself for things that aren't his fault because it's all he knows. He feels so guilty for his and his family's existence that he takes it out on himself. And that could turn into a problem. Because a boy who apologizes for everything he didn't do doesn't fit well with a girl who accepts them. Sophie would never want Keefe to blame himself for things more, but she could inadvertently cause it with ease.

On top of all of that, they often struggle with looking at each other realistically and being truly reliable about the other. Keefe doesn't think Sophie's perfect; don't get me wrong. Part of the appeal of Keefe is that he sees her flaws and still loves her through them. But he also doesn't do much to help her fix said flaws. Perhaps it's out of his own insecurity in thinking he has no place to judge others because he believes he's worse, but my point stands nonetheless. And Sophie often forgives too easily, which lowers her own standards while also making sure Keefe can't grow from his mistakes because no one's acknowledging them. They seem to move too fast at times, and slowing down could really help. Get therapy and learn to bite the bad habits in the ass, in a way.

Another interesting aspect of their relationship are the parallels of their own to others. A loyal girl desperate to believe the man she loves is good, even when he keeps doing wrong? A girl who doesn't realize there's a difference between good and right until it's far too late? I think we all saw the ruedacted/ Lodestar sokeefe parallels. And if you took any koralie interaction and changed the names out? Sokeefe moment. It's just so easy for them to end tragically, but they're so desperate for it to work out. They're walking on the most delicate of ice for a chance that they can meet in the middle. They're running across a tightrope, hoping they don't fall to the ground. They're pulling at the web in hopes that they don't get stuck in its fabric, but they ALWAYS do. Sokeefe is a beautiful relationship built on trust and love, but trust and love don't always mean something is good for you. Their entire existence is truly a bittersweet delicacy only to be enjoyed by the most careful of takers.

[malaierba]

God (may have been the devil) just blessed me with Benadryl that hits so I need to get out this thought about Maizuru and Toshiro quick:

Toshiro's conflicting and even hypocritical way of relating to Maizuru, the way he's pulled away emotionally and seems to be annoyed by her helicoptering, yet runs to her the moment he needed help with something (first time he ever asked for help with anything, too. Explicitly said by her, and isn't that something to hear from a mother figure? That her cared for someone who, unless given things directly, would just go without them), is difficult to grasp in fiction for many fsr but it's really not that odd a dynamic irl, right? Lots of people are disillusioned in their parents and still instinctively rely on them. Ryoko Kui makes sure this is one of the first things, and one of the main themes, that the readers internalise of Toshiro, as it's one of the main aspects that establish him as a foil to Laios (and a distorted mirror to Kabru, although less explicitly, but I digress)

But it's Toshiro's perspective, and since Toshiro is one of Laios' character foils his POV (as detached from it as Toshiro seems to be. Like, we'll see memories from his perspective, and his true feelings may be mentioned, but with the exception of the times when he's a child, he rarely acts in accordance with them He usually behaves as we assume is expected from him) his POV will always be a bit more visible. Obvious, even default.

It's always caught my attention how, despite Maizuru's POV being one of the main if not the dominant voice helping us catch a glimpse of Toshiro's childhood and upbringing, her own feelings for the situation are always subordinated to her role as a teacher and caretaker of Toshiro, with all the obvious affection she's poured into those.

(Like mother like son? Interesting how the roles they're meant to play structure the way they retell parts of their backstory)

And the question that's been on my mind is: WHY. Why did she come to love Toshiro so much? Was it motivation alone? I doubt it was vocation or anything, I think we can all agree after taking a look at how she raised/handled Toshiro, Izutsumi, even Tade, that she's not like. A natural at it, let alone trained in it.

So why, why, why. Was it empathy alone? Even though Maizuru's empathetic skills are OBJECTIVELY so bizarre they're funny? Did she see something of herself in him, from the very start? Did she pitty him? Was it THAT obvious, from the moment she met him, that (and bear with my dramatic wording) he was doomed to loneliness, neglect from the adults in his life, and that she was one of the few grown-ups who could change that for him a little bit? Did she just see a gentle kid, thrust upon a teen because it was convenient to the master of the household, and feared that he'd turn out like that exact master?

It feels very reductionist to ask 'why does this person love this other person' but these are characters, so it's not insane to try to seek a motivation. At the same time, I wonder if Maizuru's is obscured on purpose. It could be that Ryoko Kui didn't think it necessary in order to tell the story that she wanted to -- The household dynamic being dramatic enough without the extra details, probably.

Or maybe it's a way to hint at how much Maizuru sacrificed by staying with the Nakamoto (unclear how much agency she had in this decision, ofc, this is a theme with pretty much everyone that isn't Toshiro's dad. The Nakamoto web is difficult to escape, and Toshiro is disruptive in that he allows Izutsumi to leave, and is implied that he wishes Tade would realise that his dad aint shit so maybe she leaves too), where any feelings that aren't useful for the role she plays are... where are they? She has moments where she expresses frustration at how some things are handled by Toshitsugu, but she never says how SHE PERSONALLY feels about it. If she's not talking about the Nakamoto household in general, she's talking about the kids in her care in particular, and all the things she's done for them, but not, you know, how she feels about being saddled with those responsabilities.

It's not obvious but if this ^^^ is what's going on, then that's yet another thing that Toshiro picked up from her. Unexpectedly so, too. They have such different personalities after all. Whether the situation is that Maizuru is obscuring her less-compliant thoughts on purpose, or that she's repressing them in order to cope with the lack of control in her life, she's without a doubt waaaaay more succesful than Toshiro at making people think that she's fine with the hand she was dealt in life.

I wonder if Toshiro's wondered this, too, what the logic behind Maizuru's love is. How can she enable his dumbass dad, maybe even make him believe that she loves him, despite being so critical of him? When she seems to think that she did a great job with Toshiro because he's nothing like his dad, with so much conviction she can't see all the other ways in which Toshiro is messed up? Why would she love him? What inspired her to decide to get emotionally involved when they first met? Why wasn't he just another job to her?

[cyren-myadd]

Do you think Varang and Quaritch will have a romantic relationship in Avatar 3? And if so, what do you think Varang's attitude and feelings towards Spider might be?

That's a great question. I see two possible outcomes with Varang's character:

She's so evil even Quaritch is scared of her. Varang's villainous actions are so serious that it acts as motivation for Jake and Quaritch to team up to work against her. This one idea is definitely possible since there's a BTS image (below) where it looks like Varang has captured the Sully children and Spider and Quaritch is possibly negotiating with her. There's also the leaked script. On one page, Jake and Quaritch are having a civil conversation and Spider is sleeping nearby, implying that something big must've happened to force them to put aside their differences for the kids. That something could've been Varang. And one of the blurrier pages vaguely looks like it has dialogue of Varang threatening Quaritch, so she could definitely be an antagonist to him.

OR she ends up being a foil for Neytiri and she teaches Quaritch the ways of the Ash People and they end up falling in love. This one is also possible since there's also BTS footage of Quaritch wearing Ash People clothing, which would imply he's been accepted by them, and since Varang is their leader and has been hyped up as an important character, she would be directly involved in that. It's also possible the BTS image below is actually Varang and Quaritch working together, and Quaritch is thanking Varang for helping him get Spider back and recapture the Sully kids as hostages. There were many moments in The Way of Water that painted Quaritch as a foil to Jake (waking up in a new body, taming an ikran, etc) and having Quaritch undergo a similar experience of falling in love with a Na'vi who teaches him about her people would extend that foil even further.

Or heck it could be some combination of both. Maybe she starts out as a villain to Quaritch but they have an enemies-to-lovers arc, or they could have a dark version of JakexNeytiri, where Quaritch was sent to infiltrate her tribe, they fall in love, but unlike Jake, Quaritch chooses to betray them in the end, breaking her heart.

It's really too early to tell!

At worst, Varang would see Spider as nothing more than a useful hostage, a way to get Quaritch to do what she wants. At best, if she and Quaritch actually do develop romantic feelings for each other, she would see how important Spider is to her mate and want to be a "step mom" figure to him. It would be pretty easy for her to fill in that role since Spider doesn't have a healthy relationship with any living adult woman in his life, but there's no doubt Spider would reject her the way he rejected Quaritch out of loyalty to the Sullies. If Jake actually meant his "a son for a son" line and he takes Spider in in Avatar 3, I could even see Varang convincing Quaritch to accept Spider's choice to stay with the Sullies and let him go. (and maybe give him a new son lol)

I'm honestly hoping for Varang and Quaritch to be romantic, mostly because I think it would be funny. I've already jokingly compared Quaritch to Omni-man, so I'd love an excuse to draw this Invincible panel, but with Varang, Quaritch, and Spider:

TLDR: We have next to no information on Varang, so she could be any one of these ideas or none of them. James Cameron has hyped her up as an important new character, so whatever she ends up being, I'm sure it will be really interesting!

[itzrafee]

One Piece Chapter Discussion (Chapter 1126)

Ooh looks like the mystery continues with Yamato investigating the disappearances. I am so curious to see what kind of long lasting effects this will have as with this chapter we’re getting some resolution on a six to seven year old cover story. It’s nice to see Oda expanding on the story around Wano as it’s clear he had a lot of thoughts around it when he was writing it that he didn’t get to explore. I’m also quite curious as to what will happen with the cover stories the closer we get to the end. Whereas he has space to explore other facets of Wano through the cover story, is that something he’ll be able to do with Elbaph with it being so close to the end? Anyways, the rest of the discussion, which is spoiler filled, can be found below the cut!

I don’t know about y’all but I think it would be absolutely terrifying to be where the Straw Hats are in this first page if they weren’t allies with the giants. They straight up just kinda look like their dinner. But we’re not talking about Big Mom so I think the Straw Hats are probably safe. Also while somewhat terrifying, the designs of the Giants are great, they all ooze personality and joviality. I would not want to see them angry either. It’s interesting that the name of the absinthe they’re drinking is the “Green Fairy” and that it can cause hallucinations. Is that just set up to explain how and why the two parties got separated or is it set up for some absinthe-driven hallucinations? 

It’s interesting to me on a story structure level that this chapter kind of illustrates how Oda might have to delve into more slice of life stuff with the crew going forward. That before making this chapter important by flitting around the world and getting updates, Oda first spends some time with the crew just having fun and goofing off. It satisfies the pre-timeskip crowd clamoring for these types of scenes, me among that crowd.

This small sequence with Bonney also gets me right in the heart. Not only does she feel comfortable enough to finally be a child and not put on the airs of a grown adult that the One Piece world requires of people but also she gets to finally be free with her father. One Piece has this startling quality to it that makes the reality of war and oppression so real by contrasting the comedic with the emotional. And nothing hits quite as hard as the fate of the children of this series. We see through the suffering of the Straw Hats as children, Nami, Sanji, and Robin, among a few other characters throughout the series, on how oppression forces you to grow up and be stronger than any child should have to be. In recent arcs that oppression is a reality our young adult Straw Hats face head on. From Otama and Toko in Wano to the metaphors of growing up too fast that Bonney and Momo face us with, Oda is able to use these fantastical elements to deliver truths in more digestible ways. The tragedy of Momo and Bonney having to grow up so fast is such a potent and heart wrenching way to show this side of opression. But Oda is able to provide us with a catharsis that the real world so often denies by having Bonney feel safe again. By having Momo be safe and surrounded by loved ones.

Moving on from that dour and entirely too real note, we finally get a resolution on a cover story from wayyyy long ago where Bartolomeo burned down Shanks flag in Luffy’s name. And there’s a lot to talk about here. For such a fan-favourite and an audience surrogate for many, including myself, It’s odd that it’s been so long since we’ve seen Barto(don’t even get me started on Bon Clay!!). But it’s interesting that Oda seems to understand his impact as it seems like he’s being placed on the same level as Kid and Law in a way. Now this might be a little tin foil hatty of me but don’t you find it odd that Kid, Law, and Barto, all devil fruit users by the way, were all sunk at sea in the New World, the most dangerous sea maybe aside from the Calm Belt? 

And if we remember certain man with a burn scar who was first mentioned in chapter 1056(56=GoMu) and then again brought up in 1081 where it was mentioned that anyone who comes close to him gets swallowed up by whirlpools, I think we might have an option for what might’ve happened to those three. Adding on to that, if we go allll the way back to chapter 2 and full tin foil hat, we can see Luffy getting sucked into a whirlpool soon after he sets out on his journey but then bursting out of a barrel sometime after with Koby. In my head, I can totally see the aforementioned three joining Luffy on Elbaph, especially now that’s been separated from his crew. Maybe Luffy was also kidnapped by this whirlpool wielding man with a burn scar…again.

Okay, fanciful thinking aside we still gotta talk about how we’ve seen Shank’s main crew be ruthless badasses. Lucky Roux in Chapter 1 straight killed a dude while the whole crew laughed. Benn Beckman not only threatened Kizaru but also cut off Kid’s arm. And here, Yassop basically has a cannon attached to his gun and blows up a fleeing Barto Club. While these guys may seem easygoing, they’re still stone cold pirates. Also that ultimatum with the poison was pretty cold too. Barto’s ship blowing up also shows how lethal Yassop’s Haki must be, because I can imagine that Barto might’ve tried to shield his ship with his devil fruit.

I find it curious that Koby was so important to Blackbeard’s plans. I wonder if Blackbeard wanted to use Koby like how the Marines used Ace? We know how much Blackbeard’s plans mean to him. His scheming, though a lot of the time quite impromptu, is half the reason he’s an emperor already. And Blackbeard is in prime position to execute some big time operations. Not only does he have leverage in Garp(though thinking about it, wouldn’t the marines be glad to be rid of him?), he also has Pudding and all the knowledge Caribou brings. Oda makes it a point to show that Caribou has finally gotten to Blackbeard. It’s interesting that he’s surveilling the Revolutionary's too. Especially with Lafitte. Maybe he’s trying to get the heat off of himself by having Lafitte do some undercover hits and then blame it on the Revo’s?

Though, weirdly, the most important tidbit here to me is that Moria got away. It seems most likely that Moria will join Cross Guild as it seems to be the place for Warlord Alumni and Perona already has connections there in the form of Mihawk. I’d originally thought that Blackbeard was going to get Moria to reanimate Kaido, Big Mom, and Garp’s corpses with the obstacle standing in their way being that Blackbeard was responsible for Absolams death but now it seems like Moria’s going to be a player for Cross Guild, with at least the Yonkou resurrections still on the table. Also if Cross Guild is the place to be for former Warlords then we could see Boa join too. And maybe even Kuma and Doflamingo if the latter breaks out of Impel Down. Which I kinda hope he does just purely due to the fact that it might provide a path for Bon Clay to get out too.

This scene with Bonney and Jinbei is adorable but uhh, what’s Lilith staring at? Could she be communicating with Vegapunk?

Finally, in the last page we get some weird shenanigans happening. First, someone wakes Nami up but it appears that she’s alone. She’s had a change of clothes and seems to be in a lego house. The floor is kind of undeniable proof of that even if you want to try and explain away everything else. And finally, she seems to be alone. The going theory seems to be that this is Prince Loki’s lego house and that he’s playing with the StrawHats like toys. He could’ve been the one to call out for Nami. He could be a fan of the StrawHats. And honestly, that theory kinda makes sense, I totally subscribe to it. Loki could be a somewhat petulant giant like Big Mom. I also don’t think the impatient figure at the end of 1124 is him either as that seemed to be a human who was drinking, my going theory about that person being that it was Scopper Gaban, the third crew member of the Roger Pirates after Roger and Rayliegh. See ya next week!

[cavennmalore]

tagging @myfairkatiecat because it is only fair after you requested this word vomit lol

The thing about Keefe not being a good person is a little complicated. Full disclaimer, I don’t really believe in the whole good/bad person dichotomy, and definitely not for KIDS. Nevertheless, I don’t disagree with the people who say that Keefe isn’t the awesome person Sophie’s (biased) opinion makes him out to be. Not for the manipulative reasons -- which, Keefe is a teenage boy and I don't know about anyone else but that is like THE demographic for being a little messy in relationships lmao -- but for a lot of his planning. Joining the Neverseen without telling anyone what his plan was? Proposing himself as Mercadir without giving anyone a chance to refute him? Lying at the end of Legacy and showing up to the confrontation even though it was explicitly agreed he'd stay back? Basically, everything he did in Lodestar? Not great.

It's not Certified Good Guy Behavior. But that's his role. Keefe was literally designed to occupy this grey, questionable space, both in the narrative and outside of it. He's Sophie's character foil. Lady Gisela's plan revolves around pushing Keefe to become a worse and worse person; that involves raising him in a way that cultivates bad behavior and forcing him into increasingly extreme situations that are designed to make Keefe "ready" when the time comes. That is a huge part of the plots of Nightfall and Legacy.

Admittedly, I don't think Shannon has made him evil/grey enough, which I know isn't a popular take. There was real potential to make Keefe a wild card in Lodestar and make it so that the question isn't what stupid scheme is he planning? but to what extent have Lady Gisela's machinations worked? It's an interesting plotline to me. It's why I'm so excited for Unraveled; it's a chance to see this push-pull in action without Keefe's "north star" (AKA Sophie) guiding his decisions.

But a lot of people don't feel this way. A ton of the complaints I see around the book have to do with Keefe getting too much page time, the plotline taking up too much space in the story, etc. Which is fair! If you don't like Keefe, I'm sure a lot of this is grueling. However, a point I see connected to this line of thought is a wish for the books to return to a more ensemble vibe. That there should be more Dex, more Biana, more Stina, more Tam, etc. the way that it used to be.

That version of the books, though? It only really exists in the first book. Keefe is a prominent character in Exile and a huge driver of its plot. It's only in Book One where he only exists on the margins and isn't super involved. The ensemble cast has grown exponentially since then, to the point where there are frankly too many characters to keep track of in a scene without straight-up listing them all (which did happen but I'm forgetting which book). The decreased page time of supporting characters isn't solely because Keefe is eating the narrative, but because there are way too many characters for everyone to get a subplot; rather than have pre-existing characters solve issues, Shannon tends to just pull new ones in, and then leave them to hang out for the following books. If the series was for a more adult audience, I would say that it was time to start killing people off (like the popular critique of The Boys) but because this is a kids series, they're going to just hang around and not do much.

A lot of the nostalgia for this old version of KOTLC presents itself in fandom discussions of Dex. Full transparency: I didn't really like Dex that much in the early books when I did my reread. I found him unbearably rude to Fitz and Biana. His crush on Sophie felt invasive at times as if she was catering to a boy that was projecting his feelings and making her accommodate him. It's very similar stuff to the current criticism of Keefe! But I have yet to see any discussions around Dex that don't characterize him as kind, goofy, or sweet. Maybe there is some discussion of him being snarky or sarcastic. The most criticism I've seen of him is about how he treated Stina in his introduction, which was taken largely in isolation.

But that sweet, goofy version of Dex that people talk about missing? He doesn't exist. Sure, Dex mellowed out a ton in the later books, but he didn't become a whole new character. And I don't believe that he disappeared from the books in the way that some people claim. He just... doesn't have a subplot anymore. His crush on Sophie was resolved. It was a sticking point in his and Sophie's friendship which made him part of her character arc, and that arc is done. If that went on for any longer, it would be a drag on the pace of the series. Like I said before, the presence of so many side characters, each with their own needs and motivations, makes it difficult to introduce him into new stuff. It's why he gets so much more page time in Unlocked. With the presence of so many other characters, Shannon tends to handwave a lot of the background group dynamics. Dex ended up becoming close to Keefe and was able to shine there, away from Sophie's perspective and their finished arc.

All of this is to say, it's not wrong to dislike Keefe or like Dex. But I think a lot of the conversations surrounding these guys can get muddled in nostalgia and what people think the books should be rather than what they are. I'm (severely) guilty of it too. It's part of a broader trend in fandoms as "fandom" as a concept becomes more popular. That is a whole other post, though, and frankly, this one is long enough lol

[dust-jacket-analysis]

One of the more frustrating things about miraculous is that it could be so well written.

(Spoilers, duh)

Like... we see instances of good and nuanced writing. We see it in the episodes of Chloe's (wasted) redemption arc (still not over it). We see it in the realistic ways Marinette Copes with the trauma and pressure of being a superhero at 13/14. Just everything to do with the Agrestes' is so good (it really deserved to be in a show with a TV 14 rating or higher IMO).

It's in the way Marinette and Chat Noir foil/juxtapose each other. Marinette's Kwami is the Kwami of creation, Adrien's is the Kwami of destruction. Marinette is trapped and overwhelmed with the responsibilities of her hero life, Adrien finds freedom in it.

These things PROVE that the writers are capable of writing a good show. Proves that they could if they really wanted to. And I don't know why they don't want too. Or why the fumble it every chance they get.

Even the nuggets of good writing in the love square show it (and is then wasted, a separate post entirely).

But then the writers do things like Chloe's character assassination and the sloppy way they write in Zoe (I love her but that was a hot mess).

The numerous identity reveals only to be taken back through time. Just the way they generally drag that out is absurd. An Identity reveal wouldn't make the show less interesting. In fact, it'd introduce a whole bunch of new conflicts that would make the show MORE interesting. We could watch as Ladybug and Chat Noire navigate being in a relationship and fighting Akuma's (or whatever new threat there is). Trying not to let their protectiveness of each other get in the way of their duties as Paris's superheroes. Maybe see them try and hide their relationship when they're in their superhero persona's so no one can exploit that in each other. Or they don't and have a whole plot line geared towards the media harassment they face as a result of being Paris's new number one couple (tie it into Adrien and how he's had to deal with media harassment all his life? Show the unhealthy effects of that, and also show how Marinette has to learn to cope with it).

The Hawkmoth reveal could've been devastating. Watching them fight, watching both of them realize who he is. Adrien having to try and pick himself up and keep fighting, Marinette realizing how he must be feeling and trying to take on more of the burden. The impacts of both of those things after.

I will say I like the way it was handled in the show given what we had so far. I like how many secrets Marinette has to keep from Adrien. I really want to see how she copes with that much of a burden. And eventually, I'm excited to see what happens when he learns how much is being kept from him. How he copes with that, and how that effects and warps their relationship.

I really do just wish Miraculous would take advantage of its premise more. Of the love square it set up and the lore it has to explore. But it's held back by being a kid's show. it floats in between, trying to cater to its majority audience (teens and young adults) and its original but minority audience (kids). It has dark premises but is too formulaic to take advantage of those premises. It has the potential for an extremely nuanced dynamic in the love square but doesn't take advantage of it because of how it (once again) needs to be formulaic.

I also wish it would lean more into maturing with its audience. We see it start to do that in seasons 3+ but it still teeters the edge between kid's show and young adult show (that children could watch because it doesn't have sex or swearing or anything). It's been on for almost a decade, everything who was originally watching is all grown up. So acknowledge that and let your show grow up with them.

I do have hopes for the new season and the London special. I think the writers are finally becoming more plot-heavy and realizing who the audience they have is. Rather than the audience they were aiming for. But it aches to think of all the content we could've had if the writers had been on their game the whole time. Instead, we have a loveable, lacking, sloppy mess of a show that has gripped my soul. The hyperfixation is real.

[chaifootsteps]

There are a plethora of issues regarding Vivziepop's writing, but the one that really stands out to me is her lack of themes. She has ideas, occasionally she has something to say, but she has no themes.

If you don't mind my ramblings; I have been considering an AU that is effectively divorced from the series, focusing entirely on the characters Blitzo, Barbie, and Fizzarolli. In brainstorming the story, I have been able to streamline the narrative to 3 core themes.

Masculinity, Control/Power, and Belonging.

Everything in the story is connected to one or more of these themes in regards to the characters and their motivations. Even side characters are wholly infused with these three concepts.

In my AU, FizzaRolli is not a performer, but a stray child with a group of other feral children Lord of the Flies. Blitz is the son of a circus owner who craves his father's approval even as he resents him. Barbie is an up and coming starlet brutally managed by her father who effectively curates her sense of identity as she creeps closer to the spotlight.

Much of Blitzo's story focuses on a young man coming into his own in a world that runs on toxic masculinity, balanced out by the guidance and love of his sickly mother whom he cares for. He's a young adult figuring out himself in a world and community who keeps telling him what he should be. Sub Themes of responsibility, respect, strength and the abuse of power are key cornerstones of his story.

Meanwhile FizzaRolli is the foil of Blitz's story. An orphan without parental guidance living out his coming of age in a Teenage Wasteland. Additionally, Fizz is gay, meaning his queerness colors over the themes in a fundamental way. Being in a Teenage Wasteland, Fizz is effectively in the closet because of how queerness can change others perception of him. And weakness often is associated with queerness, which has no place in a micro-society that elevates this toxic, Fight Club-esque concept of masculinity and belonging. Fizz seems to belong, carve out a space for himself in his community, but struggles come into himself. Especially because underneath it all is a severely traumatized child who never got to be a kid long enough to learn how to be a man.

And from the far other side, Barbie's relationship to these themes comes from the viewpoint of living under the patriarchy as a young woman. How girls are raised to cater to the needs of men, treated as glorified children unless they "prove" themselves over things that many men are merely handed. Her father prioritized her career above and beyond her as a person. While that isn't a trait inherently based in sexism, how he curates her life and downplays her desires and intelligence is rooted mainly in her being his daughter and thus not expected to "step out" into her own like her twin. Leaving her feeling impotent, infantalized and resentful even as she is held on a pedestal.

Control over one's self, perception, and direction.

How masculinity fosters respect and responsibility for young boys while simultaneously threatening punishment for not meeting or stepping outside of certain expectations. Especially the competitive aggression and emotional warfare in toxic masculinity

And a sense of belonging, be it in a community or an identity.

Themes help maintain a cohesion to a story, helps the characters feel interconnected and the world lived in regardless of how much emphasis is placed outside the main cast. It also helps ground the ideas of characters in an abstract way that doesn't place pressure to "prove" to the audience a character does fit the traits you as an author see in them. Most of all, it better enabled the author to pivot viewpoints and easily switch between characters so that they feel individual and not that there is a singular "voice" speaking behind them. It creates a unique soul rather than an empty skin suit for the author to don.

Sorry for the long rant.

No worries, Anon. Thanks for the ramble, it was an interesting read!

[ottiliere]

oh my goodness your dios.. what a delight to see someone so fully invested in phantom blood dio wow. i am very happy. i love your 3D dios. really makes me want to sculpt him as well

Do it... clay is cheap bake it in the oven paint with 10 dollar set of acrylics your life will never be better. I adore phantom blood Dio so very much... years ago saw someone coin the term “phantom blood purist” and it's so funny I think about it literally every time I enter a Dio cycle. There are many aspects that go into this preference of course, and upon a great amount of time pondering i can say confidently that this is because mainly that:

1) I love history (especially the fin de siècle) and I love thinking about him in relation to Victorian values/etiquette/sociology in general... there's something so special about a society that enabled such a gross disparity of wealth&poverty while being so inherently pretentious that its asinine etiquette rules would completely elude you unless you were raised in an aristocratic family or had access to etiquette books. Dio absolutely read a great amount of these before going to the Joestar mansion btw, even before his father snuffed it I think. God help him he would not be doomed to look like a slovenly ill-bred gamin if and when he needed to manipulate the upper classes. I really can't think of a way for him to have developed these skills enough to outclass Jonathan otherwise. god and like thinking about him as a barrister too with his profligate fashion sense you just KNOW he gets drawn that way into all of the court sketches that go in all the newspapers since everyone loved to read about crime and there were a million papers for this in England alone... he'd get caricatured so bad sometimes and he is NOT happy about this.

2) You can probably tell from my indifference to the rest of the parts (except sbr; I call this the "diego rule") that I'm not the biggest fan of fantastical elements and I'm much more interested in interpersonal conflict/relationships in general... PB is extremely unique to the rest of the series because for five WHOLE chapters absolutely nothing abnormal happens and we just get to see Dio harassing Jonathan and his girlfriend until Jonathan snaps and humiliates him so bad in beating him up that he makes Dio cry. and then Dio kills his dog. Like it's literally just some impoverished child abuse victim bullying a spoiled rich kid who wanted to be his friend because lalala sunshine daisies only knows what "poverty" is from reading Oliver Twist and has no conceptual understanding of what the real-world implications of that are. That was the character development that needed multiple chapters to develop it's so fucking awesome. like yeah I'd read an entire novel of just this alone happening and how it impacts their relationship as adults no vampirism needed. I reread "dio the invader" so frequently I'm surprised the spine of my jojonium copy isn't cracked at the exact endpoint of it. I just adore him interacting with Jonathan so much it's hard to remove him from that… that's his FOIL... all the stories (some "AUs") I make with Dio involve the way he and Jonathan gravitate each other to some degree. we get the clearest view of who he is in the face of someone who is the polar opposite of himself. 🤯

2) This iteration of him is the closest degree of separation he has from his "humanity" (childhood), thus

3) I find him to be the most interesting, endearing, etc., version of him walking around, given that... well. behaviors stem from somewhere... the thematic & active severance of himself from a species he is fundamentally incapable of connecting with due to the way he adapted to help him tolerate his childhood... from his point of view I can't imagine that there is one convincing reason for him to continue being human after given the opportunity to deviate from it (despite likely still being inebriated when he vamped himself — very much an impulsive decision since he had, what, an hour or two to think that through? drunk?). If everyone's underneath him, yes, after the fact the choice seems extremely fitting. Maybe he'll cultivate a vast swathe of worshippers and disciples that obey his every command. Maybe he'll rule the world. And then, maybe, he will start to feel genuinely content for the first time in his life. But probably not. That's the drawback of having something fundamentally missing from within you.

4) He lacks a certain type of introspective awareness that 100 years alone in a box might enable him to develop... he's very animalistic to me and possesses a precarious/immature/nonexistent grasp on his emotions just given the fact that he exhibits enraged outbursts from perceived ego wounds (in both childhood and adulthood) + struggles with alcoholism due to an incapacity to self-soothe any sort of negative emotion that makes it past the self-aggrandizing filter he can't help but see life through; he really isn't in conscious control of anything happening inside of him despite needing control over everything and everyone so he can get exactly what he wants, and deserves, always. PB paints a very dim and pathetic view of his character by allowing us to see when he's most "vulnerable", which is the thing he likely hates being the most, so getting to see scenes where he's walking around publicly intoxicated and disparaging himself for acting like his father (implied: again), who he hates, and attacking men with a wine bottle for evoking the concept of his mother, who he also kind of hates but lacks the cognizant cogency to dissolve whatever cognitive dissonance is causing this mental incongruence, rules. he rules

tl;dr SDC dio is "iconic" but I feel like he misses a lot of the charm he had in part one, removed from the context of the society that had such rigid social boundaries and rules of decorum, in addition to his maladaptive approach to interpersonal relationships, his substance abuse issues, his humbling foil... he's too "cool" for me. In the end SDC dio is simply not my Dio... he is someone else's Dio. And that's okay.

[hed-romancer]

epithet erased: prison of plastic thoughts (spoilers)

finished the book! and before i go look at what everyone else thought, here's what i thought. negatives first, then positives.

NEGATIVES

brendan blaber really is a visual storyteller and you can tell reading this. if i read this again i'm making a drinking game out of every time he says someone was acting "like" someone else. 2 shots if it's doing something like a little kid

"also, there's just spontaneous dramatic exposition in places there really shouldn't be. someone should explain "show don't tell" to this guy because he'd randomly cut to paragraphs of a character's serious backstory with how exactly they reacted and felt and why, and it could get pretty awkward and borderline insulting.

I definitely liked Rick Shades more towards the end, but why was his whole character gimmick that he seems like a really creepy guy preying on tween girls, but actually he isn't? Like. I'm glad he does have good intentions, but having to sit through chapters of not knowing that was kinda rough and anxiety-inducing.

Also, the whole "isolated community with its own race of people barely represented in the mainstream society is really barbaric and people need to escape it and join mainstream society" rings some warning bells for me.

Also, while I liked Rick Shades more towards the end, I really do think it was a wasted opportunity having him along on the adventure instead of Sylvie (or Percy). It would've been interesting to examine Molly and Sylvie's parallel but different adult mentalities and actions, while not having to dive into the extremely fantastically-horrible situation Rick had going on.

POSITIVES

not that the rest of this book sucked, cause it was pretty good, but the rest of this book could've completely sucked and i still would've loved it for giovanni "kidnapping" molly at the end

i really liked lorelai's characterization. while her being boy crazy was mentioned a bit too often for me, her latching onto giovanni as someone who actually appreciates her creations was cute, and i like how her whole concept is of someone just completely unwilling to face reality and resenting anyone who tried to make her. this might've been annoying had it been an adult character, but since she was 14-15 when her mom died, this makes total sense and i dig it. the realization that she didn't know if she killed her mom and was going to such lengths to avoid considering it was genius

Molly was also done really well. I liked how she was very understandable but not perfect either. She doesn't appreciate her sister's creations or understand what her sister is trying to do at all, but she's got bigger stuff on her plate and you can't help but feel for her the whole time. (again tho, way too much exposition on how she thinks everything is her job. did not have to spell that out so many times for the readers)

giovanni being completely clueless almost the entire time was hilarious

trixie and feenie were pretty cute

martin blyndeff is written wonderfully. he's a horrible guy but he's genial enough that he can trick himself into thinking he's the good guy. good foil to lorelai

the worldbuilding was great

i loved how it was a magical story that focused on how these two girls cope with a horrible situation. i love that blend of magical and non-magical problems

[its-all-papaya]

🛒 grocery list - please tell us more about how it feels to write max f and his friendship with lando !

LMAO UM. i think the last time i went grocery shopping for real (not just buying coffee creamer, milk, protein bars, gatorade, and red bull/celsius/alani) was like... may? i wish i was kidding. anyway, gonna do that this weekend now that i have a list !

assign me a chore!!

how does it feel to write max f?!!!! scary. i'm in @peargcsly's pm's every evening freaking tf out about him because i'm afraid i'm not doing him and their relationship justice.

that being said ! i looooove him. i'm obsessed with him. if you're in my inbox here you've probably (maybe?) read my other fics and know that i'm notoriously rlly rlly bad at writing in any characters outside of the literal two ppl involved in the ship. i knew off the bat i was going to include a lot of max f in dad lando for practical and like... emotional foil reasons, and i was scared of it (still am) bc i just don't write a lot of side characters. but surprise! i am having the BEST time with their relationship! it's just sooooo soft. as i said in a previous ask or maybe a pm to a mutual(?), max f was always going to be part of this fic bc i cannot imagine a single universe in which lando norris goes through a hard thing and max fewtrell is not there to cheerlead him and remind him what's what. there's a joke in chapter one about ppl thinking lando and max are dating, but unironically, it feels sometimes like writing a ship bc of how much they love each other in this. max just knows lando so thoroughly and loves him and emma so unconditionally. he was there when she was born, and he's been there since, and he's watched lando change and grow in good ways and bad, so he's really instrumental in moving my silly little plot along. there are so many interesting dynamics in this to me (lando/oscar, lando/emma, lando/max, emma/max, eventually oscar/emma), and i think that's what's making it such an enjoyable experience to me. it really feels like i'm building a little world to swim around in, and max is a big part of that bc he's the main through-line in all the stages of lando's life that have brought him to where we encounter him in this fic.

i feel like i'm not even expressing thoroughly enough how DEEPLY soft and gooey i feel about the nortrell in this so uh. have a snippet of My Boys and cry w me maybe:

“Oi,” Lando turns the burner off and sets the pan to cool as he fetches plates from the cabinet, “Not all of us have personal chefs to meal plan for us, mate.”

“I don’t know, both of us on this call do, right, Em?”

“Right!” Emma echoes. Lando doubts she really understands the joke, but there’s hardly anything Max can say that she won’t immediately agree with. It’s not really her fault, she’s got Lando’s own genes, after all.

“Uncle Max, when are you gonna come see me?” she adds when neither of the adults immediately fill the next silence.

The food’s ready, so Lando props his hip against the island and watches Emma as she stares at his phone, even though the screen’s black.

“Oh, soon,” Max doesn’t really make empty promises to her, so she grins at the answer. “I’m back near you this week, we can probably hang out really soon actually. Can I talk to Daddy so we can figure it out?”

“Yes,” she agrees. When she looks up to see him at the counter and not the stove, she pushes back up to her feet to hand the phone back off.

“Thank you, love,” Max says, “I love you, talk to you soon, okay?”

“Okay. Love you too,” she answers.

Lando is mostly used to it, but it still hits sometimes – Max calling him Daddy and the soft way he cares for Emma, like there’s no other option. Lando kind of thinks there hadn’t ever been, for Max; he’d looked at Lando, curled silent on the floor of his bedroom and fighting tears instead of actually breaking the news to his best friend, and said “whatever it is, mate, it’s going to be okay and I’m going to be there to help you with it.”

“Hey,” Lando switches speaker back off and pins his phone between his ear and his shoulder, “how was your holiday?”

[psychodelic-insomnomaniac]

um, hi! I just finished reading your fic "Deus Ex Machina" and I really really liked it! I feel like the characterization was spot-on and you did a really good job introducing your oc villains to the story without them feeling out of place in the world of JJBA. Even though Enrico was only around for like two chapters you managed to make him interesting and threatening for the short time he appeared, which I think is the mark of a really great writer if they can make even one-off characters interesting. I'm really interested in finding out what the rest of the oc villains will do in the story but I do have one question about them if it's not to spoilery - is this particular group of villains like the "old guard" of Passione? like in their 50s or older? cause if they are then that's a really good dichotomy between Giorno's team and theirs in that they're also opposed philosophically to each other in terms of wanting things to change (younger) versus wanting things to stay the same (older). idk, i might be reading too much into this but if you intended that then that's really cool!

Hi! I'm so happy to hear you liked it,,, it genuinely means a lot to me.

As for the Gambling Squad, they've got a mixed make up. Three of the members *are* closer to the Bucci Squad's ages (Enrico mentally refers to them as "the kids"). They're all adults, but young adults, which makes them kids by comparison.

The other four members are older. Enrico is (was) the oldest at 66, and Cattivo is second in line at 57.

Without spoiling too much, I can list the ages as follows:

Enrico Bernardi (deceased)- 66

Cattivo Strega- 56

Alcina Bugiardo- 32

Belladonna Caro- 33

???- 22

???- 20 (this is a guess, they refuse to give an actual number)

Ovvio Fortuna- 19

The Gambling Squad was, in many ways, meant to be something of a foil to the Bucci Squad. The Bucci Gang are protectors, bodyguards, and the oldest among them is 21. They're very much just a bunch of kids pretending to know what they're doing, loyal mostly out of fear and in these positions because they don't feel they have another choice, one way or the other.

The Gambling Squad, however, is a bit different. Sure, some of them are there because they felt they had nowhere else to go, but most of them *chose* this, one way or another. Loyalty comes from respect, from convenience, from love, from many places, but none really from fear.

If you're interested, I would be *happy* to go more into any of the characters (without spoiling too much hopefully, lol) and detail a little more about their motivations, their personalities, etc. I've gotten kind of attached to my cannon fodder lmao, and would love to talk about them.

Thank you again, so much

[ellynneversweet]

So I have been reading takes on the Mercy Thompson books (this fandom is tiny! But, alas, trashy fave) and there’s a lot of discourse about whether the earlier books in the series are better than the later books. Now, I think there’s been a bit of a fall-off in the writing style in the last few books but, separately from that, there’s an argument about whether Mercy was a cooler/better/more interesting character before she got married.

To which I say: hmmmm, because IMO the huge, overarching theme of these books is power understood as parenthood.

(But Ellyn, Mercy hasn’t had a baby after fourteen books! Certain segments of fandom are so bitter about it. Anna got a baby after five minutes books. Yes, I know. That’s not the point.)

My point is that Mercy’s a grown up foster kid, and yes, while she had a fairly good run of things as that goes, and a good 4/6 of her parental figures are still around, the central tension of her character is that the lesson that she learned as an adolescent was that she had to be self-reliant, and her instinctive, driving response to this as an adult that that being vulnerable and alone fucking sucks and she’s going to make sure no one else she runs across ends up in that situation. Hence the many kids she’s a mostly Responsible Adult to. (Tad, Jesse, Mac, Gabriel, Aidan.)

So far, so good. Unforch for Mercy, there’s more to being king than getting your way all the time. She ends up being responsible for people and finds out that oh shit that means she’s responsible for them and can’t just do whatever she wants all the time.

So there’s an issue here where Mercy’s constantly gaining power by various means (mostly coalition building, some by being an agent of divine chaos) and finding out to her irritation that what makes the difference between a hero and a villain is, once she’s got that power, whether she’s willing to ignore other people/steamroll over the top of them or whether she’ll make the effort to accommodate their needs and perspectives.

It’s not, imo, a coincidence that the great powers in the Mercyverse are, mostly, parents (and of those, mostly fathers — which is part patriarchy and part this series has some serious internalised misogyny going on). Adam and Bran arguably go beyond being mere Dads and end up in full blown pater familias mode, with corresponding freak outs from their many, very competent dependants when they take five minutes for themselves.

So yeah, independent Mercy is fun, but Mercy in charge and annoyed about it is a natural progression of her characterisation.

TL;DR: Fire Touched is Mercy at her Mercyest coming face to face with a foil of her younger self (Aidan) and promptly adopting him, only to realise that being her parent was probably really hard.

[trainerbede]

HOPE PLEASE TALK ABOUT P5R I need to know how you feel about akechi at the end yudkdkfk and I'd also just love to hear your thoughts about the game and the characters in general! also, just to make sure, do you know what you need to do to unlock the extra content at the end of the game? otherwise you might miss it.

WAIT WAIT I was answering your other ask and I never saw this one. what. tumblr straight up did not send me an ask notification 😭

CELE AND I DID ACTUALLY FINISH P5R A FEW WEEKS AGO AND I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS, we unlocked all the extra content too, so no worries. somehow on a first try we managed to do most things: every Mementos request, all of the confidants with some free time to spare, and about 80% of the compendium. it'll be hard to put all my thoughts in one post but I'll try and just touch on the main parts!

first of all. Akechi. lmao. I definitely went in expecting to like him, since I've had a lot of mutuals who were very big into shuake from the time I've been into saiou and v3 (I guess they're ship-in-laws of a sort). I wasn't disappointed, because I did like Akechi quite a lot by the end, but I was a bit surprised that he didn't quite give me brainworms the way I expected him to.

if I had to give a character ranking, I think Sumire would be my top fave, followed by Maruki, and then Yusuke. Akechi probably comes right after him, and then I have a harder time ranking the rest (it's probably either Ann or Haru though).

I'm really, really glad we played Royal bc I cannot imagine only playing the original and being satisfied with that. especially when the Shido parts were so frustrating and had some of the weaker writing compared to the rest of the game. the 3rd semester was just such a better way to wrap things up and did a world of good for Akechi's character and fleshing him out a bit.

I really do find the relationship between Akechi and the MC so interesting. like, while I don't think Akechi will ever be quite as high up on my list of characters the way someone like Ouma is, I do think he shines best when it's as a foil for the protagonist. all of that resentment and feeling like things could have been so different if only he'd had the same opportunities or friendships, the whole "two sides of the same coin" thing, I LOVE that sort of thing in my ships. I also really wound up attached to the idea of the royal trio as an ot3 where Sumire and Akechi both just share the MC most of the time, lmao.

everything with the 3rd semester bad ending... I love it so much, those kind of "ideal worlds where something is actually very off and unsatisfying" is right up my alley. I kind of wish the game had gone even further with making the rest of the phantom thieves resist leaving Maruki's world and even getting mad at being told to doubt their own happiness, which was something they apparently touched on in some of the discarded voice files, but then they sadly cut them out and everyone came around pretty easily :(

the main reason I put Yusuke in my top 3 earlier I think is bc he actually gave me more of what I was initially looking for in Akechi's relationship with Shido, but with Madarame instead. I really was expecting the game to touch a lot more on Shido manipulating Akechi or essentially forcing him to become an assassin, you know, really focusing on the whole "kids trapped in their role in society by rotten adults" theme that is so crucial in the game, but there really wasn't... much of that? Shido didn't even know Akechi was his son (other than maybe some suspicions according to his cognitive self, but those didn't ever amount to anything so it's kind of the same) so he barely ever interacted with him outside of an employer-employee context. and Akechi was the one to actually approach him with the idea of murdering people in the Metaverse, so it's like... fkskjdjs agh, everything with Shido just really does frustrate me, I feel like he's got such weak writing but he's also impossible to ignore bc he's such an important part of the game.

meanwhile Yusuke and Madarame's relationship was such a more believably complex picture of abuse and manipulation (it reminded me a lot of Bede and Rose from swsh, lmao). I was actually really shocked at how well everything about the Madarame arc aged; usually Persona games have a few parts of them that don't age well at all, but it was totally the opposite here.

I had kind of gone through the early parts of the game back when it first came out without finishing the whole thing, but I remember thinking at the time that the whole Madarame plagiarism thing felt heavy-handed and too on-the-nose. now, living in an era where topics like art theft and plagiarism and art as nothing more than a soulless means of spitting out money is more relevant than it was 7 years ago... yeah, the Madarame arc just felt surprisingly relevant overall, and Yusuke's conflicting feelings of love and obligation vs. his growing awareness that he's being taken advantage of and seen as a tool was just the icing on top. also his autistic swag. I love him.

as for Sumire and Maruki—the game is so much better for them being in it. Sumire has one of the strongest arcs in any of the 3 "modern" Persona games, not just in 5. I'm usually a firm advocate for "girl they added in the remake game" supremacy (Marie p4g got done so dirty by the fandom and I'll never forgive people, she's a good character), so I was so, so happy that Sumire had such an interesting backstory and complicated relationship with her sister. her identity issues, her struggle with self-confidence, the way she can empathize the best with Maruki's view of the world bc she has also wished to just bury her head in the sand and run away. I love her.

meanwhile Maruki truly is the game's saving grace as an antagonist. Shido was god-awful and Yaldabaoth was, hmm... fine but not quite as interesting or compelling as either Nyx Avatar or (redacted p4 antagonist names bc I don't know if you've played p4 yet), but Maruki wipes the floor with all the other p5 antagonists. his tragic motivations, his fucked-up "I know best" attitude that dismisses human free will and autonomy, I love it. I think something about Maruki altered me and Cele's brains forever, lmao. also the choice to have him as yet another foil to the MC, from their designs (glasses, messy hair, sort of slouched/nondescript posture) to their inability to leave someone in trouble alone without helping them... it's just so interesting. I love you Takuto Maruki you messed-up man with a savior complex.

ANYWAY these were most of my thoughts 😭 I could go on and on even more but I've already rambled a lot! I'm still so mad Tumblr never sent me the message notif for this, I just looked back at my inbox after answering the other one and I was like. WHAT. at some point I really should talk about all my thoughts on the other main phantom thieves too but there are so many of them and I've already written so much fksjsksjsj