#so normal about him and his current arc actually

[jvstbrokenglass]

"somebody's gotta do it, looks like that someone has to be me. you came here to do this, so do the job. stop acting like a little... pussy"

from Spies Are Forever :]

based on the quote from Ulysses: "the issue here is that there are so many gods, and none of them want to help. and i guess, if the gods aren't going to do it, then i need to"

[wttcsms]

if you feel like falling (catch me on the way down) | ONE

ᝰ.ᐟ after getting your heart broken by professional soccer player, rin itoshi, all because he loved the game more than you, you officially swear off all men — especially athletes. your publicist doesn't get that memo, though, and you find yourself roped into a fake relationship with yoichi isagi, who isn't just a pro soccer player, but also your ex's rival. things could get messy. ( fem!reader )

pairing yoichi isagi x reader (endgame), past! rin itoshi x reader word count 2.9k chapter synopsis there are certain perks to having a relationship that operates on a "private not secret" basis. for example, you're allowed at least two weeks before the batshit crazy people online figure out that little miss it girl just got her ass dumped. chapter contains partying to cope, social drinking, diet culture, this fic is so chronically online LOL author's notes so normally, i would organize the fic's different arcs or acts by explicitly saying "act 1" or whatever. like i said, we're gonna be chronically online, so the arcs are described as different "eras" and when it's a new arc, we'll get a new era 🤭 each era has special graphics for it: what the media sees vs what's actually going on. think of the era intro as a moodboard for the chapters that'll follow <3

⋆˚࿔ CURRENT ERA: PARTY GIRL 𝜗𝜚˚⋆ from the outside, it's giving irl serena van der woodsen but even better, no one can possibly have the same 24 hours as you, someone needs to convince you to drop the skincare routine STAT, matter of fact - we just need your whole game card

— guest starred on the hottest pop culture podcast where it was basically just a glaze session for you (besides the last 10 minutes where the host started asking about rin), articles that want to help readers live your (unattainable if you're not rich!) lifestyle, and a devoted fanpage that updates your every move... every move.

on the inside, it's actually giving listening and actually relating to sad music, asking an 8 ball if you're the problem, being desperate enough to believe those tiktoks that say if you claim this sound and interact 3x he'll text you back, wondering when you should mail him back his stuff, keeping busy in the public eye so no one suspects how miserable you are right now

— even spotify clocked you and it's auto-generated, customized playlist perfectly depicts what you're going through (talk about the saddest soundtrack to your life), got desperate and consulted quora (this is how you know you're at rockbottom). not shown: your credit card statement (retail therapy works, right? right?!)

“Promise you’ll be on your best behavior?” Yukimiya peers over his sunglasses so he can give you a very pointed look. You tilt your head innocently.

“When am I ever not?” 

Yukimiya lets out a very loud, very drawn out, very exasperated sigh. When have you not been on your best behavior? Well, just last month, you got drunk, stumbled out to your garage, hopped in your custom-wrapped pink Porsche, and somehow ended up falling asleep on top of the hood. (In your defense, at least even in a drunken stupor, you weren’t stupid enough to drive.) Last week, you collected the numbers of about eight different athletes and models, sufficiently led every single one of them on, and are now actively ghosting all of them because they committed the cardinal sin of not sounding like, feeling like, or being anything like Rin. And speaking of the devil, Rin’s the reason why just last night, you ended up blocking not just him from your social media, but his whole entire team, too. You felt vindicated when you did this at 2 AM. Yeah, because that’ll sure show him! He hasn’t looked at your story once since the breakup (not that you’ve been keeping track or anything), but in case he tries to play it cool and gets one of his teammates to view it on his behalf, you’ll have put a stop to that plan. 

(Even when you’re spiraling, you’re still painfully aware of the fact that Rin’s most likely doing okay, if not still performing at his best. He is most certainly not doing something as childish as getting his teammates to relay info on you to him. Meanwhile, you are apparently a social liability for your closest friends. Spectacular.) 

“Don’t answer that.” You tell him. “I don’t want to know what my life looks like through your eyes.” It’s bad enough that every little thing you do gets documented, photographed, and then sensationalized on the Internet, but it’s one thing for strangers to commentate on your behavior when they don’t even have the full story. It’s another thing entirely when it’s your best friend criticizing your current lifestyle. 

“I’m just saying, it’s going to be a very casual lunch with my favorite people. Not a party.” Yukimiya clarifies. 

“Kenyu, you do realize that inviting me to a birthday party, and then saying ‘it’s not a party’ is kind of giving mixed signals right now.” Now it’s your turn to give him a pointed look, but just like his, there’s no true venom behind it. It’s Kenyu’s birthday celebration, anyway. You’re not about to corrupt Mr. Catholic Private School and tell him to throw a fucking rager. 

“If my team gets their way, there probably will be an actual party. If there is, you’ll be the first one I give the details to.” There’s a distant shout in the back; the photographer is done with his lunch, and he’s ready to wrap this shoot up. Kenyu examines his hair in the vanity mirror before getting out of his chair and giving you a quick hug. Your photos have already been taken, and there’s really no point for you to be on set still. 

However, Kenyu’s on set. Your only other viable option is to just go home and hide under your covers, rewatching Someone Great on Netflix and Doordashing Ben & Jerry’s. Juliette is home in France and won’t be coming back until the end of the month, and you’re not really in the mood to see any of your other friends. It’s tiring being around people who can’t separate front-cover-of-Vogue you from the real you. If you’re going to have to fake a smile, it might as well be on set rather than grabbing brunch with people who would kill to be able to leak something as headline-inducing as your breakup. 

“Pinky promise?” You look up at Yukimiya. “You promise to tell me about the party even if I’ll make a fool of myself because apparently I don’t act on my best behavior?” 

He rolls his eyes at your comment. “I didn’t mean it in a bad way, and you know that. Besides, you could never make a fool of yourself. Anything you do is declared iconic, anyway.”

Having a famous movie director as a father and a certified Hollywood starlet as a mother, life wasn’t just set at easy mode for you. You practically were given an unlimited money hack and started off with like, five times the XP compared to any other beginner. At thirteen, you told your parents that for your birthday, you wanted to become a model. Two phone calls and a private jet flight later, and you had signed with the best modeling agency in the country and had your first ever photoshoot booked. 

Fate gave you parents with connections, and you’d be a fool to not use it to your advantage. Fate also gave you the same photoshoot as another young model, and you’d be a fool to not befriend Kenyu Yukimiya immediately. Out of all the friends you’ve ever made, fate only gives you good luck twice: first with Yuki, then with Juliette. You used to think you got lucky three times — meeting Rin for the first time was like experiencing something cosmic. Now you know better. Even rich people can have shit luck, too. 

Today’s unlucky situation is the way Yukimiya’s “favorite people” all happen to be athletes. There’s not a single person here who isn’t his teammate or somehow related to Bastard Munchen, except for you. If you didn’t love Yukimiya so much, you would have hauled ass. It’s normally easy enough for you to avoid soccer players at parties because they don’t normally get invited to the same social events you do, but now you’re the odd one out. 

At least the food is good. You don’t have a photoshoot scheduled until next week, and that’s exactly why you’re comfortable with choking down half a bagel sandwich rather than socialize with the guys seated by you. Yukimiya’s real big on intimacy and the power of friendship or whatever, which is probably easier to achieve when you play a team sport versus the modeling industry, where good jobs are few and far between, and the reason why some models are so skinny is because they can’t afford to eat — literally and figuratively. If they’re not booking jobs, there’s no way they can buy groceries in this economy. 

He has everyone assembled at one long table in the massive backyard of his mansion. It’s honestly kind of Last Supper-core, but it fits him. Little Yuki’s finally old enough to have a seat at the big kid’s table. He’s sitting across from you, and you’re sandwiched between Kunigami and Hiori. Next to Yukimiya is Isagi. Out of everyone at this party, soccer player or not, Isagi is the person you want to avoid the most. So far, you think you’ve managed to skirt under his radar. If everything goes as planned, you’ll be able to leave this lunch with your belly full and not having to interact with anybody. It’s looking like you won’t even have to drink in order to get through this. 

“Hey, out of all of us at this table, who d’ya think would have the best shot at being a model?” Hiori is clearly speaking to you. The blue-haired player is looking directly at you, for God’s sake. You wonder if it’ll be mean to blatantly ignore him, but considering how this little question seems to have captured the attention of the surrounding players, it looks like pretending you’re hard of hearing is out of the question. 

Inside, you’re dying. The last thing you wanted to do was socialize, but it’d be selfish and bratty to request that Yukimiya find more time in his busy schedule to have a one-on-one celebration with you. You’re here to support your friend. You can stomach being friendly with boys who have probably seen Rin more recently than you’ve last seen him. Fuck — why are you thinking about Rin? Do not think about Rin!

You grab one of the premade mimosas from the tray in the center of the table. You down the glass in one swift gulp. On the outside, you flash Hiori a bright smile and give an airy giggle. “Why? You trying to get a foot into the industry?” 

Hiori’s cheeks turn a light shade of pink. “W-well, no. Just wanted to make conversation.” 

“No worries! I’ve been trying to keep up with whatever you guys are talking about, but even after all this time being friends with Kenyu, I still don’t really get soccer.” Your smile is still intact. You reach for another mimosa. 

“Rin didn’t teach you anything?” 

Ever since you entered the industry, you knew that you had to get comfortable with standing out. No — you needed to thrive on standing out. You needed to crave, to rely on, people’s undying attention in order to survive. In the eyes of the media, you’re the center of attention. You got what every girl your age wants. At this table, everyone’s eyes are focused on you. What you want is to be back in your room, away from their prying gazes and curious stares.

But you’re a trained professional. Your smile never slides off, never turns into a grimace. You give a casual shrug, directing your answer to the person who mentioned Rin in the first place. 

“I make it a rule to not discuss work when we’re together.” You look at Isagi, asking him with your eyes if that’s a good enough explanation for him. He holds your gaze, looking at you like he sees right through you.

You drink another mimosa. 

After loosening up because of the drinks, you find casual conversation with the Munchen players to be easy. The boys honestly never shut up, and you don’t know what they’re talking about half the time, but you’re cracking genuine smiles every so often, and by the time Yukimiya is going around and saying his thanks for everyone showing up, you are…

Not drunk, per se. You’ve built up quite the tolerance these past few weeks, and it’s hard to get wasted off of drinks that are basically three-fourths orange juice. (Seriously, was Yukimiya getting stingy with the champagne? Sober You might be able to acknowledge the fact that Yukimiya might have just been preparing for the Worst Case Scenario, which would be you hogging all the drinks to yourself. Which sort of happened. Fuck. Sometimes it sucks to be known so well.) You’re definitely tipsy, though. Maybe half a tier above tipsy? Whatever the case, you are definitely in no shape to drive. 

“Kenny,” you whine out his nickname, trying your best to pull out your puppy-dog eyes. “Please take me home.” 

“Ah, damnnit, [Name].” He runs his fingers through his dark curls. “Did you seriously get drunk off of orange juice?” 

“Champagne drunk is the best drunk. I’m pretty sure People Magazine quoted me on that like, last year, so it’s basically fact.” Yukimiya doesn’t seem overly impressed. “And I’m not drunk, but my alcohol levels right now are definitely above the legal limit. Sorry, but I don’t plan on making headlines for a DUI. Hard to spin that into something iconic.” 

This gets Yukimiya to crack a smile. “I thought you were leaning into the party girl look?” 

“Yeah, but after Justin Timberlake got caught for intoxicated driving, he made it look totally lame. He ruined it for us!” 

“I wish I could drive you back, but I have to retake some photos for this sneaker ad I’m doing, and with traffic, I’m really cutting it close already. Do you want to just come with, or hang out at my place until I get back? You should’ve said something sooner; I could’ve asked one of the guys to drop you off.”

You crinkle your nose. “No, thanks. I’m not a fan of strangers knowing where I live.” Becoming a model at such a young age thrust you into the spotlight. With media attention comes total pervs who lurk in Reddit threads and 4Chan, and stumbling upon some of the things said about you, reading the things they would do to you if they found you, all laid out in disgusting, graphic detail, left you kind of paranoid. Getting doxxed might be one of your worst fears. No Ubers. No car ride homes with strangers. “I’ll wait here. It’s been a while since I went through your things, so I’m sure there’ll be enough of your dirty secrets to uncover to keep me occupied.” 

“Did you need a ride?” 

Shitty luck, indeed. 

The teammate who decided to stay behind to help clean up (because he’s just that outstanding of a guy) is the sole reason for why you went buckwild on the mimosas. You can see why Rin was always frustrated with him.

“Nope—” You say, at the same exact time as Yukimiya nods enthusiastically. 

“Would you mind? [Name] actually lives pretty close by, so it might not be out of the way.” 

You shoot Yukimiya a scathing glare. He ignores it completely, smiling at Isagi. 

“I don’t mind. That is, if you don’t mind.” Isagi is looking at you expectantly. Yukimiya trusts him. And you trust Yukimiya. By some sort of logic, you should reasonably be able to trust Isagi. It’s clear that Kenyu wants you to carpool with him, anyway, otherwise he wouldn’t have been so happy to dump you onto him. 

“Sure. I’m ready to go whenever you are.” 

What would happen if you jumped out of a moving vehicle? 

At best, you’d get your pretty skin all scraped up, meaning your photoshoots would either have to be delayed, or you would have to endure all the clear distaste for your “unprofessionalism” in the workplace from the people who actually had to work to get to where they’re at. At worst, you end up hospitalized. Somehow, it seems easier to photoshop out a few cuts and scrapes than working with someone in a full-body cast.

As you weigh the pros and cons of jumping out of Yoichi Isagi’s vehicle — a sleek, black sedan that’s top of the line, sure, but understated luxury; it’s not flashy like the sports cars you see most athletes sporting — he smoothly reverses out of Yukimiya’s driveway. Isagi does that boyish thing where he ignores his backup camera completely and opts to rest one hand on the back of the passenger headrest, the other hand on the steering wheel. Fuck. Maybe it’s not a boyish thing. Maybe it’s manly. Isagi leans a bit into your space; not enough to bother you, but enough to where you can smell the scent of his cologne. He smells clean and fresh. Maybe it’s not cologne, but laundry detergent and fabric softener. Somehow, you find this very fitting of him. 

He glances out the window to check for traffic and eases you two onto the open road. 

He’s not playing any music, and you’re sure as hell not about to ask for the aux. You look out the window instead, watching the world pass you by through tinted glass. It makes everything around you appear darker. Somehow, you find this to be very fitting for you.

“You live around this area, yeah?” Isagi asks you, and you’re reminded that if you want to go home, you actually have to let the driver know where home is. 

“Yeah, sorry. Keep heading straight, and I’ll let you know when there’s a turn coming up.” Talking to Isagi shouldn’t feel so awkward. After all, you managed to talk (and actually enjoy talking) to all of Yukimiya’s teammates. You even got along well with Kaiser. But it just feels weird — you’ve never met him directly, but you’ve heard so much about him, that it’s hard to not see Rin’s rants every time you look at Isagi. 

So you don’t — look at Isagi, that is. You look at everything else. His car is clean. There are air fresheners in the AC vents. The floor of the passenger seat is oddly clean, like no one ever sits here. If that’s the case, you hope your heels didn’t track in any grass blades or dirt. 

“Um,” Isagi awkwardly clears his throat at a red light. “When I mentioned Rin earlier at the party…” 

“What about it?” Fuck, this is so embarrassing. Since the car is stationary, you’re in the clear, right? If you just unlock the door, you can escape on foot. Your house is now close enough that it’ll just count as today’s exercise. 

“Sorry for bringing him up. I didn’t know—”

“—didn’t know what?” You turn to face him. His jaw is surprisingly sharp, and you watch the way he swallows before he answers you. 

“I didn’t know that you two broke up.” 

No one knows that you two broke up. You’re still in the process of making sense of it all, and because you’re so messed up over it, naturally you had to confide in Yukimiya and Juliette. Neither of them would ever share that secret, though. 

So why the hell does Yoichi Isagi know?

“The light’s green.” You tell him, shifting your body in the seat, avoiding him by positioning yourself even closer to the door. 

Neither of you say anything else during the drive.

[project-sekai-facts]

What grinds my gears is what when people say that the reason Kana5 is bad due to it trying to make Mafumon sympathetic.

A couple have even gone as far as saying that Kana5 is as bad as Toya5 for the same reason and I-

Look. I deeply understand the idea of abusers being more complicated than simply “evil trash” is hard to comprehend. And I may sound insensitive but,

They need to grow up. They should not let their biases cloud their judgement and assume something is bad just because a piece of media has something they personally don’t like

the difference between harumichi and mafuyumum is their awareness.

harumichi - fully aware of what he is doing, fully aware his son is his own person and does not stop him despite heavy disapproval

mafumum - completely oblivious to what she is doing to mafuyu, projecting an idealised version of mafuyu onto her (and possibly an idealised version of herself)

harumichi working toya to the bone is him applying how he learnt to toya. the intent was not to physically/emotionally harm toya but that is what ended up happening (physical exhaustion is to be expected, he should not have forced toya to keep working but he deals with the same so he probably doesn't think it's a big deal). that said, he is fully aware of the fact he is taking away from toya's childhood, and admits this in concerto that toya's life was not "normal".

mafumum is entirely unaware of her abuse to mafuyu. this is repeatedly made clear in events post sayonara persona. mafudad relays to her what mafuyu tells him and she's incredibly distressed to learn that she'd been hurting mafuyu and she doesn't know what she did wrong. she can be manipulative, but she's not aware that she's being malicious, she thinks she's genuinely doing what's best for her child who she loves. there's also some context clues such as her young age compared to other parents, the fact she doesn't have a job and the fact she's at a lower social standing to her husband that suggest she may also be projecting the life she didn't get onto mafuyu.

harumichi being given the attempted sympathetic backstory doesn't work. he is neglectful towards his son, but is slowly easing out of these ways a little bit. toya has already begun to make ammends without the need for making harumichi sympathetic. he's a bad parent who did a bad thing knowingly.

with mafumum it is justified. in her first appearance, we see her from the biased viewpoint of kanade, who sees her as a cold and neglectful parent towards mafuyu. however from mafuyu's pov, she is a loving mother who is misguided in how she shows this love. this is what unreliable notes is about. mafumum is a bad parent who did a bad thing unknowingly. she is sympathetic because she is a troubled mother coming to terms with the fact she ruined her child's life.

both characters are loved by their children by virtue of them being their parents. the story is going to convey that no matter how bad they are as people. yes, forgiving abusers in fiction is overdone and to some degree unrealistic, however we do not yet know if that is where the story will go. all we know is that there will be a reconciliation. but even if mafumum specifically gets forgiven, it would not be unjustified. i feel like the first impression we get of mafumum from Kanade POV left a strong impact on a lot of people that they can't let go of. the whole point of the current arc is to let that go. the game builds her up as this malicious antagonistic force so that it can deconstruct that when we get to see her from an unbiased POV. she's not a villain like many people make her out to be, she's a human who made a mistake. a very bad and very big mistake, but a mistake nonetheless. she is a loving mother who fucked up really badly because she was too obsessed over perfection to actually see her daughter for who she is.

if the writers try and make us forgive harumichi though fuck them he fucking sucks. like i feel like toya will because he's like that yknow but i don't think the audience should feel sympathetic towards him.

[kizzer55555]

DPxDC: Jarro Adopts an Alien

Ok, so Danny has a space obsession and a protection obsession (I headcanon that as a halfa, Danny has two obsessions like all Halfas do which makes them unique to other ghosts.) and so while he can get his fill protecting people in Amity, he struggles with his space obsession. Sure, he can look up everything he can about space and the stars on the internet. He can stay up until 2 am looking at the stars (who needs sleep? He’s a ghost, he can go days, or even weeks without sleep if he wants, same with a lack of air or food.) but it’s just not enough. He craves to learn more, see more. Just as Dani gets that itch to travel, Danny wonders. What would it be like to see the stars up close? Are they really as hot as a dragons fire breath? Hotter!? Or maybe they are so hot they are cold. What does it look like to see plasma dancing across the surface, or touch the gasses of Jupiter? Does Pluto have ice caves like the far frozen? How many planets are actually out there? What about Mars. There’s a whole species living there with a language and culture Danny can’t even fathom! Oh what he wouldn’t give to talk with martian manhunter or Superman. 

And what’s stopping him from exploring this? He can fly. He doesn’t need air. He can go intangible if it gets too hot and he’s practically immune to the cold. He wants to touch a space rock! See if they are smooth because there is no wind or earth to rub against them and erode the surface. He wants to see what planets they come from. What minerals they might have. He wants to know if there are currents in space. All of these things are right there just above the atmosphere. Surely it couldn’t hurt to take a quick peek. So he does. During a particularly bad day Danny flies as fast as he can until the earth’s gravity looses its effects. Until his hair is floating as of it’s in water even more than normal. Until he can feel when breathing no longer became a choice (still not necessary though). And it…was beautiful. To be surrounded by space. To see the earth like this. Pictures just didn’t do it Justice. He flew across the solar system and as he passed planets, he longed to fly through them. To search every crevice and learn their secrets. But he had a bigger prize in mind at the moment. The crown jewel of their universe. The closest star he could find. The sun. 

Danny was mesmerized. The plasma really did dance across the surface. Like a never ending performance of science and beauty. There were sparks that few in arcs. Danny flew down and played in them, making a game to see how many he could fly under. His ghost core purred in delight. His obsession had never been more satisfied. He spent hours out there. Just exploring what his solar system had to offer. So when he returned? He couldn’t just forget. Pictures and online science theories had nothing on the real thing. He wanted to explore some more. So he did. Every night he would go out and explore the cosmos. Flying from planet to planet. (Either the Martians were still around and Danny made friends with them, even learning their language, or he just looks at their ruins to learn as much as he can). And with both obsessions now being filled, Danny is more settled. More confident. And he can focus better. Everyone notices the change, even his teachers. They just think that he’s paying more attention to his education now. He’s even better during his ghost fights. 

But Danny can fly awfully fast. And he soaks up information even faster. Soon his trips take longer and longer as he flies further out. Sometimes he can barely make it back in time for school. And he can't go every night. Sometimes the ghosts won’t wait for daytime so he has to make sure the town will be safe in his absence. Although he’s been able to take more trips ever since Valerie joined the vigilante ranks. But still, he’s getting farther and farther from earth each night. Until one day he’s visited every planet, every star, every comet or debris in their solar system. Which would be fine. He could deal with that if that was all there was. But it wasn’t. Danny saw the stars just out of reach. He saw places the Milky Way was leaning towards. He saw just the barest hints of new solar systems with new planets and stars. And he knew of legends from lanterns that they had posted online. Heard tales from some scientists that have made better telescopes. And his core itches. It aches to know more. See more. Yet he can't go further. And this puts him in a sort of depression. Suddenly he’s back to his old self. Lagging behind. Distracted. Zoning out. Crashing into a few more buildings during ghost attacks. Yet he tries so hard to be satisfied with what he has. He can still fulfill his obsession…it’s just more like chewing on a granola bar rather than eating a decent meal. He’s almost becoming lethargic. 

So one day he goes to Frostbite to see if there’s anything he can do to lessen the effects. But the yeti just takes one look at him and gives him the infimap. And suddenly Danny is in a whole new universe in seconds. The planets are purple. The stars are blue. He’s pretty sure there are furry blob-like creatures living on one of those planets. And suddenly he gets that itch, but holding the infimap, he knows he had time, so he lets himself go. 

And for a while it’s good. great even. Since he can’t keep asking the yetis for the infimap, he goes over to Wulf to see if he’s up for an adventure. Most of the time he is and they go exploring the galaxies together. And then Wulf had the genius idea of teaching Danny how to make portals. It took a long time but soon, he could concentrate the surrounding ectoplasm enough to weaken it and pull. It took a while since Danny didn’t have ecto claws and would have to use his pure will. But this would allow him to follow his obsession anytime, anywhere. So it was only a matter of time. And once he figured it out? It was like something was unlocked. Danny had never before understood how Ellie could travel so much. But now he did. That feeling when you discover something new. When you add to your reservoir of knowledge. When the patterns in the universe just click. There is nothing Danny could compare it to. And to explore that whenever he wanted? It was so freeing. While Wulf sometimes still joined Danny’s adventures, Danny did most of his explorations by himself. 

He meets various planets and aliens. So many different cultures. He learns thousands of languages. Tries all kinds of foods (and it’s a good thing his ghost self has an iron stomach and he’s basically poison resistant.) even found a whole comet where blood blossoms grew. (Which he most definitely avoided). And wasn’t that fascinating? To find out they were from space. 

And then during his travels one day he met a space alien starfish. 

It was actually a funny story. A meteor shower was about to attack a planet of talking blue monkey creatures with 4 arms. Danny immediately started diverting them and was soon joined by some lantern corps (which his inner fanboy wanted to talk to so bad.). And a tiny starfish in a…Robin uniform? Oh and the starfish could apparently do martial arts which was interesting to watch him karate chop a meteor. He could also talk directly into Danny’s head which the halfa found more interesting. So they got to talking and apparently his name was Jarro. He seemed to be helping the lantern corps as a ‘proxy from earth’ to make better use of his skills. 

Danny would run into Jarro a few more times. Sometimes he was with Lanterns and sometimes he would just be exploring the galaxies. They started forming a pretty strong friendship and Danny would start seeking out the starfish alien to travel with him. He knew all kinds of space facts. Apparently he had an eidetic memory. When they explored, sometimes Jarro would just stick to part of Danny. Wrapped around his arm, his waist, sometimes just sticking to his back like a strange backpack. But they always had fun.

So Danny was happy. He could fulfill both obsessions and got a space pal. Everything was great!

Until the GIW caught him. 

It would probably be the worst day of his life.  There was an explosion in the lab. Something set up by them after they realized Danny frequented that place often. So they set a trap and blew it up. Thankfully, Jazz was at college during this but both his parents were home. When the explosion went off, Danny had tried putting a Barrier around them all. It took everything he had to maintain it. That’s how they found out he was phantom. Danny had a few moments where his parents said they accepted him but he couldn’t hold the barrier for long. His parents said that they loved him and then everything went green. He woke up in a lab, tired and injured. His only saving grace being that he remained in phantom form. And he was determined to remain so. 

Danny’s time at the GIW was a haze but eventually, he managed to escape. Bleeding, and tired, and still recovering from the burns in the explosion, Danny made a portal straight to Amity. Only when he got there, it was a ghost town. Streets were empty, buildings were boarded up. Even the Nasty Burger was deserted. As for his house, there was nothing but a crater left and some scattered debris. Danny looked everywhere but there was no one. No Jazz. No Sam. No Tucker. No one. and he was tired. And everything hurt, and he needed a friend. Someone he could trust. So in a daze he made a portal and tried to just project safe. Safe safe safe. Somewhere he knew he would be protected. And so Jarro got a surprise when his space buddy suddenly popped out of a green portal, bleeding green and clearly passed out. He didn't know what to do. He didn’t know how to help him. But Jarro knew someone who would. 

So with a speed never before seen from a tiny starfish, he flew to earth. Bringing his friend straight to his father. Because surely batman could help!

And with his appearance, the green blood, the knowledge of space facts. The lack of wanting to talk about where he came from (and the nightmares crying out for his parents). This is how the bats became convinced that Jarro brought them an injured alien. 

[violetsquare111]

perhaps overly rambly thoughts on the influencer arc

it is very hard to watch but i don't think it's contrary to what we know of green, and i'm enjoying it just fine.

we know green is a showoff and perfectionist. the color gang all like winning, but green likes making a big display of it too. he's quite a sore winner and loser, and hates having the spotlight taken from him when it is his.

he loves attention and praise. and like, that's okay, don't we all? he cares about his friends in the end.

but i get the feeling that, while they love him and appreciate his talents, his friends don't really give him that big attention that he might want. they're used to him winning and being good at art/performance of any kind. it's normal to them really. maybe even a little disheartening.

so i can easily see how getting that attention in the form of being an influencer is a huge thing for green. an addiction, even. he gets so drawn into it that he overlooks his friends' discomfort, so he can keep being the Perfect Celebrity, keep the hype going.

obviously this end outcome here isn't actually what he wanted, and i'm sure he feels guilt for all this on some level. but he's pushed that away in favor of the high of getting a number to go up, getting more of the spotlight. there's nothing else that matters right now but getting that new dopamine hit. again, it is an addiction.

surely his friends will come around. why don't they get it? this is a good thing for him. he's winning. he's harsh, yes, but he's just trying to be successful. his friends aren't actually hurt (they are), they're doing fine (they're not), what's the issue? (everything.)

i don't think current green is character assassination - right now he's doing horribly and hurting the people around him because he is at his lowest, the worst version of himself where his flaws overtake him. it can go up from here. i have no doubt that by the end of this green is going to get some sense shaken into him and make up with his friends. like, that's just the kind of series this is.

and despite all the character analysis i just did lol - i ALSO think it's important to remember that we are probably taking every little action of these characters infinitely more seriously than the creators are. while the series sometimes dips its toes (or entire face) into being a dramatic and beautiful story, it is ultimately a cartoon, and sometimes the character writing will be put on the back burner for a moment in favor of a gag or an overall episode arc. and that's fine! nothing they're doing is unprecedented for the characters they've set up, and i think they'll wrap this up alright.

[morialoe17]

Finally have my thoughts processed and here's what I think about chapter 208 (SPOILERS)

While DER is an apocalyptic world, it hasn't reached its conclusion yet, right? Contributors are still continuing to add onto the world's lore and all

Then what if... because of Soleum possessing whatever amalgamation Daydream/Cheerful Research Institute made, the apocalypse arc finally kickstarts? Like, he ends up becoming the key to the start of it.

And if he didn't possess the current body he has now, maybe it would've taken longer to or would never happen in the first place?

What if "Ireum/Name" is actually only just a place holder, and Daydream, who knew nothing and only based their experiments from surface knowledge of the Luminous Church's beliefs, ended up tapping on dangerous territory and accidentally created a supposed 'Ireum-nim' through irregular/incorrect means--resulting to an anomaly and start the apocalypse. If this is the case, maybe this arc will start with the formal introduction to the cult and significant figure from it.

Who knows, maybe this would result in a conflict between the Luminous Church and Daydream, and the Bureau would end up doing the damage control. If the Bureau does interfere, I'd assume Hyunmu Team 1 would be leading it.

As for the end scene of the chapter, someone pointed out on twt to reread chapter 50.

Here's an excerpt from the two chapters:

Chapter 208:

The body bulges out.

The tattoo is falling off.

I disappear. The human body disintegrates.

The self that has realized the truth rejects the form of the human body. The body tries to return to its original form.

A strange. bizarre, composite image of something unknown burst out from within me.

Scales and horns, hooves, thorns, piercing ribs.

Chapter 50:

The staff member looked at me briefly, then reached over to the desk and picked up something.

A post-it note.

Have a good evening.

'So they're surprisingly sociable, huh?'

Soleum mentions in this chapter the similarity of him using a post-it-note to converse when he first met Jaekwan.

"Thank you."

I bowed politely. The entirely black-clad desk worker gave me a slight nod in retum and stepped back to sit down at their desk.

The shattered fragments of what appeared to be the medium of the Darkness, likely some kind of glass, sparkled on the broken floor.

In the reflection of the shards, I briefly noticed the shadow of the staff member's leg twist unnaturally. making their foot appear like a cloven hoof...

...and then retum to a normal human form.

With the way the worker was described, and how Soleum found it to be similar to him, it's as if this was intended to be significant--a foreshadowing.

Then, did Soleum meet his version of self from ch208 in ch50? That's the confusing part.

The thing is, some readers interpretation of what happened with Soleum's wish is that it transported him through time and space, while others think he just got teleported. Personally, I think it's the former.

Chapter 206:

"Anyway, even if I went further underground... the same office hallway kept repeating Itself...." "Was it the exact same hallway?" "Yes. Same office. The structure, even the scratches were the same, so it's the same place, but... just a bit...the time zone seemed different.

This was Soleum's conversation with J3 about his investigation about the Cheerful Research Institute.

I'm led to think that the time within that space is warped, and since that place was considered a darkness from how Brown could talk to Soleum, it was possible that a force allowed him to see and interact with this version of himself, albeit without him knowing it's actually him.

But with how confusing it is, it's hard to determine if that really is the case or something else entirely. We can only rely on the release of the next part to know...

[misticloyal]

Pure Vanilla and his fated 'other half'

So I'm currently drafting a huge master post of my analysis/comparison of the entire Beast-Yeast Campaign thus far but I could not let this idea go so here's my thoughts.

Throughout Beast-Yeast it's pretty clear that patterns can be seen. Every Beast has a 'lackey' of some sort- and ever Ancient has a 'right hand' so to speak.

And as it happens, these tropes actually help guide the story along.

In the end (imo) in Apathy vs Resilience it was Dark Cacao's love for his kingdom, and his right hand- Caramel Arrow Cookie (and Crunchy Chip) that help him overcome the things that Mystic Flour torments him with. That was what motivated him to ascend and 'beat' his beast.

Similarly, Golden Cheese sets out with a specific other cookie (Burnt Cheese Cookie) and it was the greed and love for her kingdom that helped overcome her beast.

Now with Holly berry's story out I can FINALLY address Eternal Sugar's whole deal with her (holy shit there's so much to unpack lmfao) but something intriguing I noticed is that she ALSO has a right hand (Wild berry Cookie and Raspberry Cookie) that clearly serve as a catalyst and her main support system throughout the story.

As of writing this I haven't finished Eternal Sugar and Hollyberry's campaign, so I'm not sure how her love of her kingdom will help Hollyberry actually ascend but from what I've PLAYED- Eternal Sugar literally involved HOLLYBERRY'S ENTIRE KINGDOM.

So far every Ancient's kingdom had been involved as collateral damage in somehow someway.

--

So what about Pure Vanilla Cookie?

Well he's a weirdo. Pure Vanilla's right hand is White Lily Cookie. His best friend- the one that literally half of his entire kingdom is DEDICATED to. It's clear throughout even the first two episodes that White Lily is SUPPOSED to Pure Vanilla's right hand and main comforter when he is being tormented by Shadow Milk.

She was supposed to be there for him. But we all know that White Lily is a little bit quirky and whenever she's 'supposed' to do anything sheeeee goes 'off script' a little. Which in this case actually worked in Shadow Milk's favor but still lol.

Point is that as soon as gang arrives at the Spire of Shadows White Lily splits up with them- Pure Vanilla just LOST his main support. I can't remember if it's canon whether or not Shadow Milk actually addresses this but it's quite intriguing because we've already broken the pattern set up so far:

Pure Vanilla has no right hand. He is alone in a spire to face his beast with a band of three crack kids on cocaine /j

And the effects of this is immediate in the way where he hallucinates the trio becoming incredibly angry and bitter at PV for misguiding them to the spire. Normally; the supporting role would help the main character. But that doesn't happen at all does it?

Might I add as well that Shadow Milk also breaks the monotony for once by having not one but two well trusted henchmen. And not any more.

Shadow Milk and PV's entire arc revolves around them being incredibly isolated and not being able to rely on anyone around them. Literally JUST to emphasize this I made a diagram of how Shadow Milk harasses everyone in Crispia.

If you were lonley... you'd go out of way to harass ANYONE. Everyone. Just for attention. If you already had your playthings exactly where you wanted them why would you try to manipulate anything more?

Mystic Flour and Burning Spice only target things related with their ancients because their goal is the soul jam. Eternal Sugar only targets the Hollyberrian Kingdom because her goal is Hollyberry. Annddd what does Shadow Milk do?

He reaches his grubby little hands out into Crispia and targets EVERYTHING BUT THE VANILLA KINGDOM.??

Sorry but I still haven't processed that right.

The only time we get a glimpse into who Shadow Milk torments with his lies is specifically those shown on the map- GRANTED it's supposed to be implied that Shadow Milk's power and deceit stretched across the entirety of Crispia. That doesn't disprove my POINT though- Shadow Milk's lonely ahh bitch decided that if he's truly 'lonely' he's going to straight up harass the entire COUNTRY.

Right so how does this relate to PV?

Well the other ancients surley ascended because of their love of their kingdom (because it's being tormented) and their right hand right-?

Lets go through our list here....

Right hand? No where to be seen White Lily is GONE and PV has only three friends who he CLEARLY does not want to burden with his issues.

Kingdom in peril right-... oh. Well erm this is kind of awkward... Who's going to tell Truthless Recluse that he should be CARING about the Vanilla Kingdom (that he renounced king-dom-ship over...)

My live reaction /lh

So yeah as FAR as the story is concerned PV ascends because of the love of his friends- as in Gingerbrave, Strawberry, and Wizard right.

Okay so maybe he didn't have the love of his kingdom (on my MAMA he never mentions his kingdom one god damn time despite LITERALLY BEING A KING IN THE PAST </3) - but that leaves us with one... final... issue...

PV's ascended now, we all find out that Truthless Recluse was a trick he did to better understand Shadow Milk but where the HELL is this man's one person???

Where is the person that at the end of the beast arc he comes to reconcile and say 'Oh wow I'm so glad THATS all over'...

...

Case in point, White Lily was supposed to be Pure Vanilla's support system... she was supposed to be there for him. Instead, PV not only figured it out by himself b u t.

Yknow he wasn't exactly wrong.

The entire time their arc consisted of conquring lonlieness. Was Shadow Milk the villian really? Or was it the fact that he lashed out- not knowing how to deal with the truth. Pure Vanilla was not the only one that was missing his 'person' so to speak (take this romantically or platonically).

While both Shadow Milk and PV had their friends there with them (ie; Black Saph, Candy apple | The trio) they were missing their main pillar of support.

So in the end what better way to end their arc then having PV extend his hand towards Shadow Milk and ask him if he wants to be his friend? The reason why PV's proposal is the final chapter in their story instead of an ascension and an 'epic battle' because the main antagonist of their story was merely a facade. And all they needed was each other to conqure it.

SPOLIERS FOR THE MOST RECENT ETERNAL SUGAR AND HOLLYBERRY ARC THIS IS UR ONLY WARNING CHAT ALR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Too bad Shadow Milk ran away though right guys /lhj

[lemotmo]

What do you think Temu's role is in next week's episode? Apart from the funeral, (though I have fucking idea why he's carrying the coffin and not anyone else from A shift)

(Hopefully his final one!)

Yeah, the choice of him carrying that coffin is just weird. The 118 isn't just made up of Hen, Eddie (will be back soon), Chimney, Buck and Ravi. There are plenty of other firefighters at the station. We see them all the time in the background. It would make more sense that one of them would carry that coffin. He was their captain too.

But for plot reasons I suppose they decided to use Tommy. 🙄

I do think Tommy is there for a reason. We've seen in 15 that Buck and Tommy are back on good terms, but we also know that a relationship between them would never work. One, because Tommy knows that Buck isn't as interested in him as he would like him to be, mainly because he heavily suspects that Buck is in love with Eddie.

And two? Well, he is right. Buck is in love with Eddie. He just doesn't want to see it or even acknowledge it. 🤷‍♀️

But how could they fit that in the episode?

Well, I keep coming back to all the parallels between 7x03, 7x04, 8x15 and possibly 8x16:

I've been thinking about Tommy's arc. It started with him flying his helicopter to save Bathena (7x03). The next episode (7x4) he tried to woo Eddie, but ended up kissing Buck.

Now he, once again, flew his helicopter to help save Chimney and the others in 15. He showed up because Buck called him.

We also know that Eddie will be back in 16. I've speculated before that I think there'll be a convo between Tommy and Eddie. I really think this I'll happen as a parallel to 7x04, where Tommy and Eddie were shown to be friends. We do know that Eddie stopped talking to Tommy when BT broke up, so it might be a bit of an awkward conversation where both feel out of their depth.

Additionally I potentially see Tommy give Eddie some kind of hint as to not wait to long to go after what he wants or something generic like that. Which will undoubtedly puzzle Eddie and might be something that he can't get out of his head in the two last episodes.

So, my current theory for 8x16 is that they will parallel the scene where Tommy comes over to Buck's loft in 7x04. Only this time it won't end with Tommy kissing Buck.

So Tommy shows up at Buck's house after the funeral to check in on him and finds Eddie already there, taking care of Buck because Eddie knows exactly what Buck needs. At the same time Buck will also take care of Eddie, because he lost Bobby too. Tommy will probably also find out that Eddie is staying with Buck as long as he's in LA.

Cue the awkward conversation (+ possible hint) with Eddie I talked about in the paragraphs above. Tommy might then have a short talk with Buck (probably in the kitchen again) that links back to the kitchen conversation after they hooked up.

And that might just trigger Buck to realise that life is too short. He can't just keep denying these feelings he has for Eddie. Cue Buck realising and accepting that he is actually in love with his best friend.

It might even end with a nice Buddie scene after Tommy leaves. Now, in a perfect world it would end with a Buddie kiss to parallel the BT kiss, but I don't think we are quite there yet. It seems a bit too fanficy. And also... Bobby just died. Now might not be the best time. 😫😂

So most probably Eddie will ask Buck if he is okay and Buck will just stand there trying to be normal with the realisation that he has fallen in love with Eddie.

Oh and let's not forgot the Bathena parallel in both episodes either. In 7x03 Buck and Athena had a reunion on the ship with Buck, Eddie and Tommy looking at them.

In 8x16 they'll (hopefully if Bobby is still alive) have another reunion as Bobby will be back. Probably with everyone there to see it.

(Yes, I am a Bobby is alive truther. Trust.😌)

I also don't think that Eddie's realisation will be too far behind once we have confirmation of Buck's feelings. Oliver has expressed his concerns before of not wanting to do the storyline of the bisexual man falling for his straight best friend. So I think they'll try to avoid that by making sure that Eddie will start his own journey of realisation as he starts to get more and more aware that Buck is a part of his joy and happiness in life.

All right everyone, keep in mind that this is just speculation.😋 These are my thoughts about what MIGHT happen in 8x16, based on what we know so far (which is almost nothing) and based on parallels with previous episodes. So please take all of this with a grain of salt. I'm here for the fandom fun, but I'm not clairvoyant. 😉

This might shock you, but I have been wrong before in my spec. 😂😂😂

[amxrany]

!! CHAPTER 7 / DIASOMNIA ARC SPOILERS !!

I think I'm gonna have fun reading Jamil's segment so you all should read it too (Jamil's Dream):

Meet in a Dream is out here working overtime because we are now in Jamil's Dream. But something's wrong, Kalim, who is their newest addition seems to be fine (he even gushes to Silver how cool dream hopping is) but Vil is out here dying 💀. Like legit he was incredibly unstable that they had no choice but to split into 2 teams while he recovers. Silver and Ortho stay to help Vil while the rest go and find Jamil.

The other group is currently in Camel Bazaar (reference to the scalding sands event). They were planning to look for Jamil but it's really hot so they decided to rest for a bit and get some coconut juice. (Extra part: Sebek wanted to look for Jamil but Grim kept looking at the food so he just gave up and started eating as well) Kalim is the one who gets it for the gang, and when the shopkeeper tells Kalim to pay, he just says put it in the Asim bill. But the shopkeeper doesn't recognize the Asims and thought they were thieves and started calling for the police. But luckily Silver, Ortho and Vil come in just in time for Silver to pay the guy to avoid getting into trouble.

Kalim's confused as to why the shopkeeper doesn't recognize him because he's known since he was a kid, but we find out why by just seeing the images of Kalim's "estate"

This is where we get the Jamil reveal. It turns out in this dream, Jamil's the son of the sultan (this also makes Najma a sultana, which is absolutely slay) and the Vipers bought the Asim's properties due to financial problems

(ngl him in that outfit is making me feel fuzzy inside)

But anyways we see Jamil in a parade similar to that of Kalim in Book 4, thus we have another rhythmic portion

(so this actually says that Jamil does like Kalim's parades, if it was him in the place of Kalim. Kalim also acknowledges that Jamil's having a good time here)

We then see the statue of Jafar, in which everyone recognizes because it's in NRC, except Jafar looks like he's playing golf here lmao. Jamil sees Kalim and tells him to change because he isn't wearing the right uniform

Then Kalim talks to Jamil like always, but Jamil tells him to be more respectful in speaking. But he isn't really mad because Kalim's always like that. The rest instroduce themselves as the NRC Film Club, who are planning to film a video using the estate's facilities. Jamil's salty as always and it seems to be going normal as he tells Kalim to prepare things for the guests and while Kalim tries to, he still messes up.

Jamil thinks as to why his family kept Kalim despite being an idiot. Then Grim is thinking why is Jamil still bitter in his own dream. That's when see the magic carpet again (YAY), this causes Kalim to accidentally slip up and tell Jamil how they got it; it causes Jamil to leave for a moment.

But Kalim doesn't stop, he continues to tell Jamil of their memories together but Jamil keeps denying it. Kalim brings up about how 2 years before going to NRC, Jamil protected him from harm. Then, he spilled the events of Book 4 (as requested from the others). BUT THEN FAKE!KALIM APPEARS AND PROTECTS JAMIL. He's a lot more mature than real life Kalim, this causes the darkness to take Jamil and we're forced to fight Fake!Kalim.

Without thinking, Kalim just straight up jumps in with Jamil and the gang has no choice but to follow him. Similar to Vil's dream, we land back to the events of Book 4 but for some reason Azul is also controlled here like 😭😭😭????

(jamil being azul's no.1 hater fr)

Jamil makes Azul spill all the school's secrets (hey lemme in on it too /j) and is planning to use this information to defeat the other dorm head. He even drags Leona and says he doesn't deserve to be dorm head cuz he's lazy 😭

And after defeating the dorm heads, he's gonna go after the headmage and take over the school (we love a man who dreams big and jamil for headmage fr)

BUT KALIM SUDDENLY COMES IN AND DECKS JAMIL IN THE FACE 😭. HE CALLS HIM AN IDIOT BUT JAMIL IS NOT BUYING IT SO THEY START DUKING IT OUT

(THE GIRLS ARE FIGHTINGGGG)

But yeah Kalim yells at Jamil for being pathetic for just getting what he wants by manipulating everyone, then Jamil butts in by telling him that someone stupid doesn't have a say. They continue to duke it out and in the background Sebek wants to stop them but Silver said "nah let them fight it out" because the best way to say things is by punching ❤️

IT SURPRISINGLY WORKS AND IT WAKES JAMIL UP 😭and Kalim gets really happy and jumps around. But the darkness comes back and tries to swallow Jamil so he pushes Kalim away, but Kalim wouldn't let go so they start fighting again 💀. But in the end, Jamil gets swallowed and meets his overblot self and learns to accept it thus starting the fight between the two

Jamil says he's the genie of the lamp, tired of living in a cramped space and would now dedicate himself to fulfilling his wishes. He returns to the place with Jafar's statue with the Fake!Kalim, who asks what he can do for him. But Jamil tells the Fake to fuck himself 😭 because he finds it weird that Kalim's like that and wishes for the dream to just end

The gang find Jamil and Kalim tries to tackle him but Jamil dodges it, saying that he's easy to read. Kalim asks Jamil to join them, and he accepts. However, Vil has to stay behind because he doesn't feel well and Kalim stays behind as well because of the injuries he got from Jamil (he does summons ice from Kalim's wounds tho). The others will go on ahead and wake the others. Jamil asks where they're going but Ortho says it's a secret, probably because the moment Jamil finds out they're going to Octavinelle he is going to find his way out of there.

But that is all for this chapter, hoo boy that was a lot but I'm glad that I managed to cover it. I'm really excited to see the Octavinelle segment knowing that it's Jamil we have, the biggest Octa hater but I do know it's gonna be funny

So yeah ima knock myself out now bye bye

Previous: Kalim's Dream

[artbyblastweave]

So for those of you who don't read twenty-year-old marvel comics a lot, the 2005 Marvel Crisis Crossover was called House of M. The basic premise of this was that this was smack dab in the middle of the Scarlet-Witch-is-Having-a-Normal-one arc that was very, very loosely adapted into Wandavision; in her initial breakdown, she'd killed several of the Avengers, wound up in the protective custody of Magneto, and the recently reformed team was debating whether or not they were going to have to kill her before she deleted reality on accident or some such thing. But when they're on their way to Magneto's stronghold to have a "talk" with her, the world is enveloped in white, and Wolverine (the initial POV character) wakes up in a world where Mutants are 98% of the human population and have been for decades, and Magneto and his family (the titular House of M) are leaders of the global political order, and Wolverine is one of the only people in this realigned world who remembers that it was ever different.

Wolverine initially is operating under the assumption that Magneto cajoled Wanda into rewriting reality in his family's favor, but after rounding up and waking up several of his allies, he realizes that what actually happened is that Wanda rewrote reality so that everyone she knew would get everything they wanted- Magneto being in charge with a 98 percent global mutation rate is just the inevitable byproduct of that. The resulting world is an amalgamation that has to accommodate the conscious or subconscious "perfect life" of every superhero on earth, in a way that acts as a fascinating characterization tool, often with a monkey's-paw angle. Spider-Man is a beloved celebrity wrestler, and Uncle Ben and Gwen are both alive, but he attained that status by pretending to be a Mutant and he lives in constant fear of being exposed. Mystique, Rogue, Nightcrawler and several of their associates are the tight-knit family unit they were always kept from being.... as the elite jackboot of Magneto's regime. Luke Cage and Hawkeye lead the human resistance, standing in perpetual principled opposition to the powers that be, but with no real hope of accomplishing anything. Captain America didn't lose years of his life to the ice, but he had to live through a global authoritarian takeover he ultimately couldn't do anything about. Wolverine gets to remember his entire life, but that includes remembering that his current ideal circumstances were manufactured to keep him placated. And on and on and on. Lot of really interesting character takes packed up in there, paired with the equally interesting project of packing as many of them as possible into the same timeline without contradicting each other- after all, from the word go you have to contort everyone's happiness around the basic conceit that Magneto rules the world.

Anyway. House of M AU for Worm. Discuss.

[bubbipond]

Yotha has already grown quite a lot and it's just that he is the only one who doesn't see it. At some point, we would need to get to the root of Yotha's issues but Yotha's problems are not because of Wa and Wa proved that this week. Wa tells Klao that he feels the need to stay by Yotha because Yotha, "Made me his whole world" (an insane thing to tell your current bf-if I was Klao I would've told him to kiss my ass but that's just me lol). He then says that he broke his "whole world down". But the important part is, "Yotha's world has been created and broken down so many times". The original person who did that was not Wa, it was his mother. Sure Wa dumping him didn't help but as we saw, he is over that. But now he doesn't believe in love and how could he when the first person that should love you is your mother.

Wa assumes that this will be a normal circle for Yotha, making someone his world again and again. But he didn't totally do that with Gun. Actually, he has a relatively normal perspective on his relationship with Gun. When he took that love test outside of not answering the last question, he did answer some things "no". He doesn't think about Gun every second of the day, only when brought up. If you make your world revolve around another person, then you will constantly be all about them. But as we saw through Arc/Arm's story, Gun and Yotha have individual lives, and are fine being away from each other. Even now, other then at their dorm or in class, they aren't always together. Yotha's brothers see the change in him but he doesn't see it because like he told Gun, they have similar issues.

Yotha won't let himself love because he has deduced it will never last. Gun won't try to fix his sleeping because he is convinced he will always need the lights on. The problem now between the two is, that once you have an ideology in your head, it can become who you are even if you don't mean it to.

[sonicboomrevisited]

I'm back about talking about eyes, again.

I previously talked about Robo-Sonic's eyes for last weeks release, and how they were showing a feeling of done in life (honestly could've been me projecting myself a little) and how Sonic personality is still there inside Robo-Sonic, we know that now to be true, and how Sonic for a second was able to regain control over Robo-Sonic. How do I know this?

It's the eyes ...again

If you look at how the eyes change, you'll see that Sonic gained control over a second. I want to call out another ask actually pointing out how the second panel turned blue and how it could be Sonic actually being able to gain control for a second, and that made me look a little closer at the pages and noticed the eyes changing again. They look almost like Robo-Sonic got shocked, with the eyes looking like electricity.

So do I still stand about Robo-Sonic's acting, yep, because the eyes change back into the usual red dots they are in the final panel. "Acting" like Sonic was able to get back control. Lulling Amy to a false sense of security.

Sonic is still there, fighting whatever trapped him inside his conscious back in the previous issue. So there is still hope to free him from control. The more interesting question is will he be able to go back to normal? A question I'm sure we're going to get the answer in either this issue or the next one (I'm pretty sure there is 4 or 5 issues for this current arc).

Anyway, that's another spiel about Robo-Sonic's eyes in SBR.

I think I've said this before, but I really do think Issue 3 took me so long to pencil and ink because I got very particular about Robo-Sonic's eyes in development. They are the only part of his face that is still expressive. Literally every panel he's in, there is likely something you can deduce about his mood/thoughts from his eye shape!

There's four issues in the current arc so the next will be the last. It is, however, 30 pages!

[aingeal98]

hiiii any talia thoughts? i feel like the fandom's been a bit quiet recently and i love your takes

Ooh thank you! I always have Talia thoughts, although honestly I think a lot of my thoughts align with most Talia fans, ie get her away from the League and the green and back to doing espionage, keep her away from Bruce and Damian until she can establish her old character, emphasise how much she was brainwashed and wasn't always the ooc dragon lady she appeared as during Morrison's run, if Damian is going to be a doctor let him have a talk with her about her own time studying medicine etc.

I think maybe a slightly more niche opinion I have is that I want them to retcon Damian's childhood back to the original set up Morrison provided, aka Talia was never around and Damian only met her when he turned 8. My personal canon that I'm sticking to until DC cleans up the mess it's made with the al Ghuls, is that Talia gave Damian up for adoption but Ra's took him back without her knowing, and raised him in secret. And to be clear he raised Damian with love, but he was also keeping him from Talia for petty reasons, because she tried to take his grandson and heir away from him. (and also he knows she won't approve and doesn't want to fight.) So Talia goes 8 years thinking her son is being raised by a normal family and then finds out nope! Surprise! He's been in the League the whole time. And that adds to the tension already growing between her and Ra's in canon, and gives an additional push to her breaking away from him.

A key point of this would obviously be Ra's being written as a complicated man who loves his family but hurts them despite that love, or sometimes because of it. In his mind, Talia didn't want the baby, but he does. And it's his family too. So he'll raise the baby away from her, simple as that. And there's a lot of hurt and betrayal and pettiness behind the decision but there's also love. For Damian and for Talia. Even when Talia finds out and rages against him and yells at him for doing that to her son, he should never be a smug mustache twirling villain. The emotional manipulation has to come wrapped in genuine love and softness, that's what makes it so juicy.

Basically I think there's a way to incorporate Damian into Talia's arc before he existed, without destroying her character OR making his existence the focal point of her attempting to find freedom. It just involves a writer actually interested in who the al Ghuls were, instead of the mess they've currently turned into. And unfortunately that seems to be hard for DC to find.

Thanks for the ask!

[fairestbeard]

Why Fakrichie makes sense

I know when a lot of people in the bear fandom think about Neil Fak and Richie, they think comedically sexually charged banter but not actual flirting or possible romance.

One of the reasons is probably because Neil is accidentally a little bit annoying even though he is written to be a kind of comic relief character - a little bit cute, a little bit (or a lot) stupid and a little bit useful. Some people find his stereotypical-ness a little bit much and it doesn't help that he goes around complicating a certain matter.

The other reason, and I know a lot of people will hate to admit it, is the aesthetics of it. What it looks like. It's an unusual sight for a guy like Richie to be smitten with a guy like Neil Fak even in the queer world and especially in media and this is exactly why I eat it up.

1. Because woke

(Richie breaking the 4th wall for the first time while making his infamous announcement to the Ball Breaker nerds)

I love wokeness. I love woke shit. I love inclusion. I want to see all types of people and all forms of (adult and consenting) relationships on my screen. With Fakrichie, as with Sydcarmy, I know that the unspoken sentiments and unacknowledged theatrics of desirability politics is always obviously in play in different forms. And just so you know, everything is political. Everything you see in media plays a political role and there's no such thing as leave politics out of it (for those getting ready to yell at me lol).

I've always read Richie's announcement to the nerds as a way to subliminally convey to the public that some wokeness is going to go down on the show (which I'm still waiting for). Calling out the incel, 4chan, Snydercut crowd who expectedly would naturally be a part of the audience in that manner couldn't have been for nothing on a show where every interaction has several layers of meaning under the surface. It is also very interesting to me that this announcement was made by the most reddit bro-y character on the show as at the time (and still current messiah of the reddit bros). Talk about a perfect messenger.

The general assumption is that Jess is the one and obvious choice for Richie. This is because people tend to naturally favour more heteronormative relationships and Jess is the only woman Richie has really had a close friendly interaction with apart from ladies of the bear family. Also he's been known to be in and pursue relationships with women.

And Jess is fine. She's beautiful, intelligent, ambitious, driven, kind and all the good stuff. If it is the story they want to tell, it makes sense. It is perfectly normal and interesting. They fit aesthetically in the desirability hierarchy of things which makes them acceptable to the wider audience and there's nothing wrong with being acceptable.

However, personally, I don't think that is Richie's story. It's a good story but I don't buy it. Interestingly, the possibility of Richie and Fak being genuinely into each other is never brought up in mainstream discussions and even any suggestion is dismissed even though these two have had very sexually charged interactions throughout the seasons. Everyone just assumes they can't be doing anything else but trying to be funny. Because Fak is the exact stereotype of the fat, gluttonous, idiot comic relief character.

But what if they're not?

2. Richie is written as a queer character

You can't pay attention to Richie, in my opinion, and not see that this guy has a little sugar in his tank. I wouldn't imagine there's a lot of people who see Richie as a straight guy (except his subjects on reddit). I know I've seen a few posts and comments on other platforms pegging him as bisexual at least.

Richie is written as a common trope in my opinion. He is the queer guy whose struggle and character arc is based on his identity. He has built his entire identity around things that can be taken away from him but who is he, really? When you take away his being Mickey's best friend and Tiff's (ex) husband and Eva's dad, who is he? He keeps trying to hold onto being a fringe Berzatto and the ex who wouldn't let go or the dad who wonders if he is enough of a dad because deep down he has a hard time accepting himself for him. He is all of those things but his struggle to define himself based on these things points to a struggle to accept himself as something else that is a crisis for him.

He is portrayed initially as a homophobic and sexist character all the while displaying very homoerotic behavior. He seems very strangely fixated on Fak, showing very aggressive homophobic and simultaneously homoerotic displays to him. He's is a very old and unpopular queer trope; the guy who struggles with his sexual identity and manifests it as a violent aggression towards the person he's most attracted to. Even his baseline bodily mannerisms and the way he carries himself subtly hint that he's a little sweet on the inside even as he tries his hardest to display classic toxic masculinity on the outside.

3. The material is there

Even as we sydcarmys scream that the crumbs for that romance has been strewn around since S1, this has also been happening for Fakrichie. The same way a lot of people never see Fak as a viable love interest is the same way a lot of people deny seeing it with Syd. It's a classic desexualization of certain characters on TV as a way to diminish their personhood. Even us sydcarmys are guilty of this as well and vice versa, because there are layers and filters to desirability politics and what is being perceived and allowed in media.

Richie is strangely obsessed with Neil Fak in my opinion. He zeros in on him once he's mentioned in the episode, eavesdrops on his conversation with Marcus, sexually harasses and bullies him (think Adam and Eric in Sex Education), singles him out unprovoked when Carmy is telling the story about the scar he got on Mickey's 15th birthday, works with him on fixing the machine in the S1 finale with all that flirty compliment Fak was giving him about getting stabbed.

We see him carry Neil along as he improves on his own lifestyle, getting him to not say the banned words, making him wear suits like him and being sweeter and more encouraging to him as he learns to be a better person himself. He defends Neil when he makes the hilarious mirepoix mistake during service. All in all, this could be explained as him having a soft spot for Fak.

The curious case of Phil

This is the scene where I firmly clocked Richie as queer. There is a scene that is never explained further in Dogs (an episode which I find very exposing for both Carmy and Richie).

Remember this guy?

Phil.

There was never a real explanation for why this very short but insanely odd and charged interaction took place. The way this guy came by and made Richie clearly uncomfortable- calling him by his full name "Richard", the only time anyone ever called him that on the show with Richie mumbling a response not wanting to engage with him.

He looks clearly hurt by Richie's lack of acknowledgement and very abruptly walks away

Cicero of course notices the strangeness of the interaction and comments as much wondering whether Richie had ruined any of his property with his neglectfulness which Richie jumps on and explains in terms of what was happening between him and Cicero at that moment. What Richie never actually does is answer honestly what the real deal actually was between him and that guy. He just deflects.

Richie is been known to love to squabble. He's not afraid to get in a fight with anyone especially guys like him. But this guy? Crickets. He couldn't wait for him to get out of there. Why was that?

For me I read it as him encountering someone he had a secret with. He wouldn't acknowledge him because he wasn't ready to deal with that side of his identity. The DL queer man. If he had tried to have a conversation with him it probably would have been too obvious so he avoids it and so does the show.

Another thing I noticed was how the guy looked. Does he bear a resemblance to anyone else on the show? The chubby guy with a mustache? To me he looks like Fak in another font. Just a cleaner, more put together and a thinner version of Neil Fak. So not only that Richie might like men, he might actually have a type LOL.

I'm even suspicious of this interaction

I feel like it was awkward and charged for no reason. The way this guy kept beating around the bush with the subject as if he was going to say something more serious, only ending up just saying that he should have given Richie a heads up? The conversation felt like a waste of time to me (the only interaction I hated more than Claire's) which is why I started overthinking it. I feel like more was being said than what was said. I feel like they know each other way more than what is being shown here.

There may have been a hint that the Berzattos know him a little more than just the guy Tiff got with after Richie. Their relationship with Frank seems to go way beyond that based on this little sneak (now, of course, it could be a different person but what are the odds?)

However, whatever extent to this relationship is not known. In fact, the history of Richie and Tiff's relationship has been neglected through the storyline and that might throw some light on this. But the conversation feels weird to me. The way it seemed like Frank had more to say and Richie had his guard fully up. Frank commenting about his looks in the middle of this "important" conversation. He was talking to Richie like he knew him differently to what was assumed all along. Cornplating? Maybe. But it still seemed very strange and left a lot to be seen.

All of this is to say that there's enough material to explore Richie's arc as a queer man coming into himself and finding love in a relationship that has been there and has been fleshing out under the surface. Classic slow burn style.

4. Subverting tropes and stereotypes

A trope is a plot structure, theme, storyline, character trait, motif, or plot device that is commonly used in storytelling.

There are a million tropes you can find in the storytelling of The Bear. They deliberately lean in ever so slightly into those tropes with the aim of subverting, upholding, subverting the subversions and so on and so forth. There's so much going on in there.

The characters are also very archetypal, as expected, with some leaning ever so slightly into the stereotypical. Now the problem with stereotypes is not the image in itself, because characters like these actually exist, but in the perception and subsequent flattening of whole groups to that image, making the stereotype.

Not to wax too academical about it, I'm trying to say, for example, fat, gluttonous, goofy people do exist but fat people do not exist solely to be gluttonous and goofy. And there are many iterations of this but I want to focus on the fatphobia of it all and Fak for now.

Society and media has made fat people a subject of derision and the butt of jokes. It's like they exist in media only to make people laugh and to be laughed at, so much so that they almost seem to have no value as anything else. You see a fat person on your screen, you instinctively expect them to be comic relief. Then especially when they fit that bill, it is almost an absolute impossibility to also see them as people who could be an object of desire or adoration.

Sydcarmy has received pushback from the media simply because, in as much as they deny it, they can see the potential of them breaking out of a particular trope they love to see with a black female lead. They write unnecessary think pieces waxing lyrical about the beauty of complex platonic relationships because they do not want to see Syd as an object of Carmy's desire. They have to do this because one thing they can't deny is that Syd is objectively beautiful and believable as desirable.

But with Fakrichie, it's absolute crickets. I haven't even seen a just for fun article about the chemistry between them and if it means something, haha. And this is even after Ebon has kissed Matty on live television!! It's like Fak doesn't even exist. I saw a random post talking about the brotherly love between Richie and Fak and they didn't mean the Philadelphia kind. Sure, they've joked about "calling mom" and all that but I doubt (normal) brothers want to dry hump each other in the bathroom.

Now I'm not saying Fakrichie is absolutely a thing or have to be. Maybe all he's meant to be is a fat gluttonous goofy character. Maybe Storer meant for him solely to be a joke as per usual. Maybe all that flirting and tenderness is meant to be for the laughs after all, because fat people amarite?

But imagine if it wasn't a joke. Imagine if Storer set this up to shake things up by making them real lovers. Imagine if a character can be fat and even goofy and still be an object of desire and adoration to another objectively beautiful main character. Imagine if this wasn't some fucked up queer bait (maybe alongside an equally fucked up straight bait) but a real slow burn love story simultaneously happening.

Goofy? Nah, I think, iconic!

[itoendme]

i want to talk about war’s effect on individual morality in Golden Kamuy because ethics is a topic that inevitably pops up when war is involved, but Golden Kamuy focuses less on the actual war and more on the impact the war had on the moral values of the soldiers after the fact. Sugimoto expresses in chapter 100  that all the military men (current and former) involved in the search for the gold are unable to adapt to live outside of the military. Being a soldier has shaped their identities. I could do another analysis as to why Ogata continues to wear a military uniform after he’s deserted, but for now, I mainly want to talk about  Sugimoto and Tsukishima. 

Sugimoto admits to dehumanizing people in his head in order to justify their deaths. He did it with the Russian soldiers in the war, and he does it with the Abashiri convicts and the 7th division soldiers, and I think that the fact that he admits to doing it points to the idea that he’s questioning whether or not he is justified in talking all these lives. Did all of those people really deserve to die? Is he a bad person for killing them? I think these questions are very much prompted by his encounter with Ume after the war, he can’t assume a normal life because he doesn’t have the answers yet, and searching for them is a big part of his character arc.

Tsukishima is similar to Sugimoto in that he didn’t really have a life before the war. Both of them were living without much of a purpose, and joined the army simply to stay alive, Sugimoto to escape poverty and starvation and Tsukishima to escape death row execution. And while Sugimoto was given purpose by Toraji’s death and later by his friendship with Asirpa, Tsukishima was given purpose by Lt Tsurumi. He fully believes that he doesn’t deserve to live for himself or be anything other than Lt Tsurumi’s pawn. Being a soldier is Tsukishima’s entire identity, and he doesn’t concern himself with moral questions because there is no life for him outside the army. This relates to the philosophical idea of private use of reason, that reason must be restricted in the case of a contract or obligation like being a soldier. Because of his obligation, Tsukishima doesn’t have the luxury of independent thinking. Being a soldier allows him to remove himself from the moral dilemma.

While being in the military raised questions of morality for Sugimoto, it gave Tsukishima an excuse to suppress those very questions.

We don’t actually see much of the war in Golden Kamuy, only occasional flashbacks, but its effects resonate throughout the story. Different characters are affected differently by similar experiences. I think that Golden Kamuy is so good thematically because it poses questions about who decides what is justified and who gets to be a victim. Even characters that exist for narrative purposes feel believable and fleshed out, and the audience is encouraged to form their own opinions about them. 

[corvidexoskeleton]

Actually fuck it. The lich path isn't bad for Emmrich, and in this essay I will explain to you why that is, as well as some of the strange shortcomings about the way the lich path was handled that I don't think make any narrative sense. This is gonna be long, so please bear with me

1. Manfred and Johanna

So before I get into any of the "why the lich path isn’t bad" stuff, I'm gonna start out with what I believe is a genuine flaw in the narrative of Emmrich's personal character arc: the way it handles Manfred and Johanna.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't think there's any problems at all with Manfred or Johanna as characters existing in the story. I find them both absolutely delightful and loved all of their interactions in the game. However, Manfred's death - and in turn Johanna's undeath - don't quite fit the narrative they've set up for Emmrich, nor does Manfred's death fit into the established narrative of dragon age broadly. The problem is that the source of conflict for whether or not Emmrich can accept the inevitable loss that comes with immortality, is Manfred's death, when it should be Johanna's.

Now before I explain why it should be Johanna, I need to explain why Manfred's doesn't make any sense. I don't judge anyone who might not know because they either never played inquisition, missed the quest, or just simply forgot about this, but one of the things you learn from Solas in inquisition is how death works for spirits.

Normally when you fight and kill spirits and demons in the games, the spirit is just banished back to the fade, but it is also possible for a spirit to be properly killed instead of simply banished. Solas explains that if a spirit properly dies, then the energy and magic that made up its being is reabsorbed back into the fade. That energy can potentially go on to form something new - eventually - but it won't be the same spirit. It may even be similar to the being that that energy and magic was made of before, but it’s not the same being. It will be something new entirely.

And this is why Manfred supposedly dying and coming back makes no goddamn sense. Manfred is a spirit of curiosity, he's an incorporeal being made of magical energy and emotion. If Manfred were to truly die during the fight with Johanna, then his energy would have been absorbed back into the fade, and that would be it. There wouldn't be an option to bring Manfred's wisp back, because it wouldn't exist anymore. You could maybe wait an indeterminate length of time until the energy that used to make him up formed something new - provided you could actually do that - but it wouldn't be Manfred. It would be something else entirely, someone else.

But of course, Manfred can come back. Clearly he wasn't killed, just banished back to the fade. In which case it makes no goddamn sense for the lich lords, and also Emmrich, to act as if Manfred made some grand sacrifice and died because of it. He's still alive! His wisp is still out there, in the fade! Stop telling everyone I'm he's dead!

So, if Manfred isn't actually dead, and you couldn't bring him back anyways even if he was, who does that leave? Well, as I said above: Johanna.

Johanna is, by all accounts, Emmrich's oldest and closest friend. Even though Manfred is near and dear to Emmrich's heart, Johanna objectively has a much deeper connection to Emmrich than Manfred does, rooted in decades of personal history between the two of them that dates back to when they were both kids, or at least students. And while their relationship is currently going through an admittedly rocky patch, it's clear that they both still care deeply about each other.

But, at the same time, Johanna is a disgraced former member of the mourn watch who was exiled for her gross mistreatment of spirits and the dead. The way that Emmrich talks about it makes it seem like he agrees that her exile from the order was correct and just, that he does disapprove of whatever it was she did, but the way he discusses her seems to imply that they still maintained some degree of contact afterwards. In fact, the two of them stayed friends through all of it, and it was only after her exile occurred that the two of them had a falling out and lost contact with each other, rather than her exile being the cause of their falling out. The way that Emmrich talks about Johanna in the gardens betrays the great deal of care and loyalty that he held for her even after she was disgraced and banished, and that he still holds for her after everything.

When Emmrich is explaining how Johanna attempted to become a lich, he explicitly states that she figured it out because of him. Because he told her about a highly kept secret among the mourn watch - and from the sound of it, some of his own study into becoming a lich himself - Johanna put the information from Emmrich together with her own research, and figured out how to become a lich on her own. Regardless of whether or not Johanna was a still a member of the mourn watch at the time, Emmrich still revealed highly classified secrets about the order that she shouldn't have had access to, and this little oopsy resulted in her stealing an entire section of the necropolis, attempting to murder and steal the life force of a great number of mourn watchers and mortalitasi, and attempting to construct a massive golem for her soul to inhabit and use to wreak destruction.

Emmrich is undeniably loyal to Johanna, no matter what she does or how much they drift apart. Hell, he even admits that if she had sought him out, he would have helped her become a lich. He would have helped her conduct this extremely well-hidden and secretive rite that is probably hidden and secret for a very good reason. And one can only assume that attempting to become a lich is explicitly forbidden within the mourn watch, considering Emmrich has to undergo several years of tests and ritual in order to even have the opportunity to attempt it. The lichual isn't just some expert-level conjuration shit; this is significant, serious shit that the mourn watch doesn't seem interested in fucking around with if the application process is so rigorous and difficult to pass, so there should realistically be some degree of repercussions for Emmrich letting something like that slip to someone just because they happen to be his friend.

So, you might ask, what should happen, then? Well, what would make much more sense for Emmrich's character arc, while also keeping in line with both the previously established series lore and the lore introduced in veilguard, is if Johanna was so severely injured by what happened when the souls and spirits in the lantern were released, that it essentially completely killed her physical body, as well as damaging her soul in a way that people really shouldn't be able to survive. But, because she attempted to become a lich and failed, Johanna's soul is still bound to her (extremely dead) body and is unable to either heal or move on.

Emmrich's choice should be between healing Johanna's body and soul from the damage she caused by undergoing a failed lichual, thus allowing her to be alive once again and live the rest of her natural life, or for him to help her damaged soul move on from her already deceased body and into... wherever souls go when they die in Thedas.

By choosing to help Johanna's body and soul heal and be revived, Emmrich would be accepting the role he played in the situation, and also choosing to bear the (probably massive) mark on what would otherwise be a very impressive track record and history. He would also be forfeiting his chance to attempt the lichual, for one because he went against the mourn watch's rules by telling Johanna such a dangerous secret, and for two because choosing to bring Johanna back from undeath is exactly the type of thing that the lich lords would be forbidden from doing as a way to prevent them from abusing their power.

But, by choosing to help Johanna's soul move on, Emmrich would be accepting the role he played in what happened, and choosing to try and make amends with the order that raised him and that he's dedicated his life to. He does genuinely believe in the ideals and tenants of the mourn watch; from his view, he's not just a member of an insular group of mages the way that the circles are, but he's someone who is responsible for the care and processing of his nation's dead, for making sure they're respected and given dignity in death in accordance with Nevarra's cultural practices, so of course he would put a lot of value on making amends with the mourn watch and righting any wrongs that he might've accidentally caused. Not only that, but he would be proving in the eyes of the lich lords that, even if he may make mistakes or break some rules, he's still capable of recognizing his mistakes and attempting to fix them, and most importantly: of recognizing when it's time for someone to move on, even if they're someone he cares deeply about.

Neither of these things should be seen as inherently good or bad, because they're not. Johanna is objectively doing more harm than good to herself ingame, and is so stubborn that even Emmrich can't talk her down from what she wants to do. Eventually, she would end up hurting herself - or her soul - in irreparable ways. Emmrich already steps in before she can do too much damage to herself and others, but I think that this should have played a much greater role in his journey to find peace of mind than it did ingame.

Now then, with that all being addressed and out of the way, we can get to why we're all here: why the lich path isn't bad.

2. Fear and Death

There's an incredible misconception about Emmrich's fear of death and where it stems from, and a misconception about how he might deal with the deaths of people he loves and cares about. I don't blame anyone for believing that he simply is just afraid of dying, because I also thought the same thing until I sat down and thought about it for a bit. It's also just easier for a lot of people to look at him and go with the first thought everybody has, that it's ironic for a necromancer to be so terrified of dying himself, even if that might not necessarily be the case.

To start, I think the idea that he might be new to dealing with the death of someone close to him is, frankly, pretty stupid. Even if it's not something people outright say, it's clear that that's what's being implied when people react to how he expresses his fear of rook dying before tearstone island. However, I want to point out that he deals with death every day: the death of strangers, the death of colleagues and associates, and the death of friends. And his recruitment mission involves you helping him kill people - venatori, to be specific, but they're still people.

If you go with the datamined info, he's in his 50's. If you go with what Sylvia thinks he should be, he's in his 60's. With how many people he's had to have met and/or befriended over the years, he undoubtedly has already experienced the loss of those he cares about besides just his parents. And during none of this, does his fear arise, because it's not death that he's afraid of. I don't think he could possibly do what he does - to the extent that he does - if it was just death that scared him.

Ultimately, his fear of dying is not borne out of death itself: his fear is driven by control. What Emmrich is really afraid of is not having control of things in his life. He controls everything else about himself to a fastidious degree; his speech, his vocabulary, his mannerisms, how he looks, all to try and keep his life under his own control, to control the way that people perceive him, to control the way he reacts to things in order to prevent himself from acting out as a result of his anxieties. It's not enough that he appears confident and assured of himself, he needs to give the illusion - to himself and to others - that he is in control. It's a compulsive behavior that he's developed in order to soothe his own fears that he can't control things, borne out of the death of his parents. He couldn't control the circumstances that led to their deaths, and he couldn't control whether or not they survived. It's also implied that he didn't manifest his magic until after they died, so I imagine that for him, manifesting the ability to use magic - something he could have potentially used to save them, if he'd been able to use it - felt like another nail in his skull when it came to things he had no control over.

Now, typically - barring extenuating circumstances like suicide - people can't control when or how they die. You can put it off, you can take care of yourself to the best of your ability, but death is the one thing you can't ever have control of, and that terrifies him. He can attempt to soothe himself by compulsively trying to control everything else about himself and his life, but he knows that death - his own death, to be specific - is the one thing he can never have total control over, because death is the one inevitability of the world that cannot be skirted or avoided, no matter what you do. And that is what drives his fear.

3. Becoming a Lich

So, I think the logical next step in thinking for a lot of people would be that attempting to become a lich is merely the result of him desperately trying to soothe his fears and give himself the illusion that he is in control of his death, but again I have to disagree.

There's this idea that he wants to undergo the lichual entirely because he wants to skirt death, but that's simply not the case. Emmrich could have undergone the lichual before the events of veilguard even take place, before Bellara begins exchanging letters with him, before rook seeks him out for his extensive knowledge of the fade. He explicitly states during the scene where he reveals it to rook that the reason he hasn't already undergone it, is because of his fear. Emmrich's fear is what is holding him back from it, not what is driving him towards it. At that point in the game, he is incapable of going through with the lichual because he still hasn't made peace with the fact that, even if he would be choosing when and how he dies, he still doesn't have control. His life would be in the hands of the lich lords and Vorgoth, not his own. And in order to be able to go through with it, he needs to accept that he cannot have control, no matter how much he uses the delusion of control in order to comfort and soothe himself.

The choice for whether or not to bring Manfred back from the fade - or the theoretical choice to save Johanna that I discussed previously - isn't about him making peace with death and others dying around him, it's about whether or not he can accept that sometimes things really are just outside of his control. It's actually a very common method for dealing with obsessive compulsions and other things in that vein, because fighting with your own compulsions in order to try and overcome them by force of will doesn't really work. What you need is acceptance. You need to accept the things in life that you cannot change or do, and in Emmrich's case, the things you can't control.

So... why does he want to become a lich, then?

Emmrich wants to pursue the lichual, not because he's so unbearably afraid of not having control of his own death that he'll do anything to feel as if he has control, but because he is a person who finds genuine joy in life and in loving people. He's a teacher for god's sake. He's unfailingly kind and polite even when he has no reason to be, but most of all he finds purpose and beauty and joy in even the smallest things in life. He loves the people he meets, he loves his friends, his family, the partners he's had over the years, he loves life itself and everything and everyone in it, be they alive, dead, or something else entirely.

And he finds genuine satisfaction with his work and the ways in which his work allows him to help people in ways he might not be able to otherwise if he were just a common mortalitasi, or as a botanist. He helps people mourn, grieve, and find closure during extremely difficult times in their life, and even uses his corpse whispering to help those who have already passed on, instead of just using it to the benefit of those who are still alive. He does this because he has the ability to do so - to help people in ways he might not have received when he was a child - not because it's just another part of his job that he has to do.

For Emmrich, becoming a lich isn't just a means to avoid his obsessive, compulsive need to control things, or to avoid dying. He wants to do it because he is, as his writer Sylvia put it, a man of big emotions. He has such a deep and genuine love for life and everything in it that he wants to continue to experience all of the joys of life, and to continue helping both the living and the dead.

Another common misconception is that Emmrich's intense emotions and deep care for people would be a detriment to him as a lich, because having to watch everybody he knows age and die while he remains would be too much, but I think it's the opposite: Emmrich's love and care for life and people in it is precisely why he is a candidate for lichdom. Dialogue from Emmrich and the lords imply that the lords have strict rules in order to prevent themselves from becoming corrupt and abusing their power, and that it's exceptionally rare for a watcher to be accepted as a candidate. I suspect that the lich lords specifically try to select for people like Emmrich, who are unfailing kind and hold a genuine love for life, who are also able to accept the inevitabilities of life and death as off limits for them, even if they have the powers to circumvent them. Someone who hardens themself to death and keeps themself from becoming too attached, or from caring about others in order to become numb to death, would make a shit candidate for a lich, because inevitably their callousness and disregard for life and death would lead to precisely what the lords are attempting to avoid: corruption and the misuse of their power. Emmrich's love of life is a feature, not a bug.

And also? If it really was just fear of dying that motivated him, then Emmrich could have just as easily gone and done the lichual on his own, or gotten Johanna to help him. It's not like this is something that only the lords know how to do, he could just Do It if that's all he really wanted lmao. Becoming a lich isn’t the end goal, it’s just a step in what he actually wants, which is to help people. 

4. Necrophilia and Romance

Well, that's all well and good, but there are also quite a few people who seem to think that the lich route is bad for Emmrich's relationship with Rook, for some reason. The various reasons I've seen thrown around have varied from legitimate doubts of whether or not it's actually Emmrich's soul in his skeleton or not, to people being understandably put off by the thought of their Rook engaging in necrophilia, to just straight up parroting some rather ableist and acephobic talking points without realizing that that's what they're doing.

I'll start with the necrophilia stuff first. And it is necrophilia, I should note. Just because he doesn't have any skin or organs, doesn't mean that Emmrich's body is any less dead. He's a soul possessing his lifeless skeleton, of course rook having a sexual relationship with him is necrophilia, regardless of whether or not it's something you the player or the character is into or not. Letting someone tie a belt around your wrists even if you're not necessarily into it is still engaging with some degree of bondage, mild as it may be, and having sex with a skeleton is still engaging in some degree of necrophilia.

But, there's nothing wrong with being uncomfortable with a character engaging in a necrophiliac relationship. You don't have to be into it in order to like the lich route, or even to like Emmrich as a character. It's Fine if your main issue is that he's a skeleton and you think having sex with a dead body is weird and gross and creepy, It's literally OK. You don't need to justify the disgust.

That being said, the ways in which I've noticed some people try to justify those feelings of disgust have been... interesting.

For one, what exactly intimacy - emotional or sexual - looks like between people in a relationship is not something you can just summarize as a list of boxes to check. The exact ways in which Rook and Emmrich engage in sexual intimacy aren't shown ingame; the most explicit examples are them kissing and a fade-to-black of Emmrich - fully clothed - climbing on top of Rook in the sarcophagus, and those scenes really don't differ much depending on if he's alive or undead. That is to say, the game leaves a lot of room open for interpretation when it comes to what the physical aspects of their relationship looks like.

I think the idea that the relationship between Emmrich and Rook would inherently be worse off because of Emmrich becoming a lich - whether because he wouldn't be able to love them the same if he's undead, or because Emmrich would no longer have skin or genitals and thus be unable to have traditional sex anymore - are just incorrect. It's one thing if you want your Rook to have these difficulties in their relationship with Emmrich, because the sudden change in how they engage with intimacy and the difficulties in it are legitimately quite interesting and worth exploring! But those things are not inherent to their relationship as it is shown, and I think acting like it's indicative that Emmrich being a lich is bad is just silly.

And that's not to say that there wouldn't be challenges in figuring out how to be intimate once he's undead - there absolutely would be - but to say that Emmrich or his romance is somehow lesser because of those challenges is just wrong. This line of logic that tries to justify that disgust or disinterest by painting it as something else doesn't come across how you might think it does.

It's just wrong to say that someone is inherently incapable of pleasing someone, or receiving some form of pleasure, because they have lost some aspect of themself, be it an ability they previously possessed, or a body part that they lost. Many people in real life have to deal with the loss of function of their bodies while also figuring out how to navigate their own romantic and sexual relationships when something about them has been lost. As a disabled person myself who has lost some of my physical mobility over the years: there's nothing bad about it. There's nothing about any form of loss of function that makes loving someone inherently less capable of loving or of being loved, only your own prejudice.

It is absolutely something that comes with difficulties, but if you are in a romantic relationship with somebody that you genuinely love, that you care about as a person because of who they are, then you love them even when they change. And everybody changes over the course of their life. If things become difficult because of something that has happened to them, then you try to find ways to work through the challenges together as a couple, try to find different ways to be intimate - emotionally or sexually - or find different ways to satisfy your individual needs, because you love them.

And, I might add, as an asexual person, this conflation of romantic love and sexual intimacy is stupid as hell. While Emmrich as a character is very much not asexual himself, he is a tried and true romantic. Sex may play a large part in typical romance and in his own relationships, but it's not the only thing there is. I do believe that, while Emmrich may see sexual intimacy as an extension of his own feelings of love for somebody, he still understands that desiring someone is not always the same as loving them, and what Emmrich wants is to be loved. He doesn't want to just be desired, he wants Rook to love him for who he is as a person. I think that he would be genuinely hurt if he discovered that Rook's love for him diminished or disappeared altogether just because he [checks notes] can't have traditional penetrative sex with his own body parts, as I’ve seen a concerning amount of people tout.

As if that's all there is to sex, anyways. As if people haven't been finding creative ways around barriers like that for thousands of years. If you really want Rook to get dicked down nasty style by Emmrich as a lich, you can just? Slap a dildo on that bad boy? And he's literally a MAGE. Man can use MAGIC and you're worried that he can't have sex without his own set of genitals? Conveniently ignoring the fact that he explicitly has a glamour that looks exactly like his living body, and that the game never addresses just how much substance this glamour has, if it's just an illusion or has any proper form to it. The world is your oyster to fuck. Or to not fuck, if you'd like.

5. Life, Death, and Grief

Ok this is the last section to this I promise. The last thing I want to address is Emmrich's state of mind and how he interacts with the world as a lich vs. as a living person. I think the idea that he can't love Rook, or anyone else for that matter, as much as a lich is very silly, as well as the idea that his love for Rook would be diminished by him potentially outliving them. Also the weird idea that Emmrich eventually finding someone else to love as a partner after Rook dies is somehow bad? Not to mention the fact that some people seem to claim that all he's doing by becoming a lich is shifting his fear of death off of himself and onto others.

But anyways. The game doesn't really go into too much detail on how exactly being a lich works in Thedas, but myself and @rockshortage have been discussing it, and our best guess is, that by becoming a lich, what is happening is: Emmrich's soul is being disconnected from his physical body without letting it pass beyond to wherever the hell souls go in Thedas after death, and then he is possessing his own dead body the way a spirit might possess a person or object. I don't think there is any doubt that it's Emmrich in there, because the souls of a physical being and a spirit from the fade, while having similarities, would still be distinctly different.

Emmrich explains that, as a lich, some of his physical senses would dull - makes sense, since he would just be a disembodied spirit - he would still be in possession of his mind, and would have access to other senses that physical, mortal beings just Don't have. I've seen some claims that he's completely losing his physical senses since he's becoming undead, but I actually think that the description of his physical senses dulling is more accurate than a complete loss. If Emmrich is becoming more akin to a spirit than a physical being, then it would make sense for him to eventually be able to project his senses out to a degree. I mean, christ, he can see and hear things for god's sake. Sight and hearing are types of physical sense that are usually tied to the possession of eyes and ears, and their ability to function properly and communicate with a functioning brain. You know, things that Emmrich objectively doesn’t have as a literal skeleton. It may take some time to learn how to do and get used to, but Emmrich should logically be able to project his other senses, like smell and touch, outwards from his body, or whatever form he happens to be taking at that moment.

As for his mind, I think this is another way in which Emmrich is becoming more similar to a spirit. With people, our emotional states depend on our brain chemistry and our environment. Spirits, on the other hand, are beings made of magical energy giving shape to emotion. As a disembodied soul, Emmrich wouldn't quite be a being of pure emotion the way a spirit is, but he also wouldn't be restricted by brain chemistry either. As a lich, I think that he would be experiencing emotions in a different way to how he did before. It's still him, and he still feels the same big emotions as before, but it's just a different way of existing. His memory is also no longer dependent on the physical synapses formed inside of his brain, which means that he can apparently recall everything in his memory with perfect clarity. These two things, when combined, would likely give him a type of clarity of mind that is probably quite literally unfathomable to someone who hasn't experienced it.

And he can apparently see shrimp colors now, too. These shrimp colors specifically being the literal life energy inside of living beings, which he describes as a "thread of diamond flame", and also I think he can perceive literal magic in a very tangible way that people just straight up Can't, given the way he describes certain things after the lichual. Think about how much life there is in any given place in the world, from grass to bugs to microorganisms in the water. Now think about how much ambient magic there must be in a world like Thedas, flowing and being manipulated by the world around it as it moves. Can you imagine how overwhelming it might be to suddenly wake up and be able to perceive all of that? How the ability to perceive these things might make someone like Emmrich feel? He's a man of big emotions who feels things very deeply, and holds an intense love for the world and the things in it. To suddenly be granted the ability to see even more layers of complexity and beauty in the world would only make Emmrich love life and the world around him even more. That's not to mention the flowers he loves so much. He expressed concern that they wouldn't be the same for him as an undead, but with his new lich sight, the flowers would be more beautiful than before, not less.

To tie it back to the stuff about his relationship with Rook, Emmrich is clearly just as devoted to Rook as a lich as he was when he was alive. He's arguably a lot more upfront and willing to be an absolute sap on main, as he constantly calls Rook "my love", starting from the very moment he steps out of the lichual chamber.

I do actually think that there is some credence to the idea that Emmrich’s fear shifts from it being centered more on himself, to being centered on those around him. That is to say, it seems perfectly logical for him to become more worried about the well-being of the people he cares for once he is a lich, because he can quite literally see their life energy in their bodies. However, becoming a lich doesn't inherently change anything about his emotional or mental state. It changes some things because he needs to adapt to how different things are for him, but it doesn't automatically mean that he doesn't need to put in the work to manage his fears or compulsions, and this is not a bad thing. I think it would actually be worse if his mind was stuck in a static state, to be honest. Him still needing to put in the work to regulate his emotions and fears is not bad, nor is him still sometimes falling victim to his compulsions of wanting to control things about his life inherently bad. It’s something he needs to manage and keep on top of, but progress and overcoming problems does not necessarily mean that the problems disappear entirely; it means that you’ve found ways of dealing with those issues and know what to do when they resurface, and are able to adapt and figure out how to deal with other problems that may arise afterwards. 

Likewise, Emmrich’s OCD and fear of not having control does not go away just because he accepts that he can’t control everything as a self-soothing technique. Is he afraid of rook and other people around him dying once he becomes a lich? Yes, he absolutely is, but to say that this is indicative of an attempt to overcome fear only to shift it to something else, isn’t entirely accurate. I think it also ignores the fact that Emmrich is very much concerned about the well-being of rook and the other party members even if he remains mortal, as seen when he attempts to push rook away right before tearstone island. He’s afraid of losing them, so his fear drives him to try and remove the source of the fear, which is rook.

Him continuing to have fears and intense negative emotion responses to things as a lich is not inherently bad. It’s just something he has to be mindful of in order to not let those fears control him or dictate his unlife

The very last thing that I wanted to address, as I mentioned above, is the nature of Emmrich’s relationship with rook as an undead. There are several things that I’ve seen people discuss that seem incredibly short-sighted and ignorant of the ways in which real relationships work, the first being that Emmrich outliving rook is bad because it would mean he would have to spend the rest of his unlife missing them. I think this is ignorant of how real relationships work in real life, because death itself is a fact of life that every single person in the world has to live through and deal with at some point or another. 

I actually had someone say I was being disingenuous for allegedly saying that Emmrich dying before rook is the same as rook dying before Emmrich, but I think that response really betrays how much they didn’t understand what I was trying to say, which is: there is no way to know how much time you will have with somebody that you love. No matter how young or old you may be, no matter how old or young - or in good health - your partner may be, there is no guarantee that you will spend the rest of your life with them. One of you might die, or you may decide to go your separate ways at some point down the line for whatever reason. There is infinite space for you to play in and explore the different ways in which Emmrich’s relationship with rook might conclude - regardless of which choice you make - and I think painting the lich route as bad because Emmrich would outlive rook and leave him sad and alone forever, is, I might say, pretty damn stupid. It also sounds like the things someone would say if they haven’t actually experienced the death of somebody they love or care about.

Grief, especially grief over losing somebody, isn’t something that goes away eventually. It stays with you for the rest of your life and can change you as a person in significant, often extreme, ways. But how grief affects you and how you live with that grief is largely dependent on how you choose to handle and deal with it when it happens. Many people are unable to cope with their grief because they simply don’t have the tools or support network to work through things like death, and many people are capable of accepting and moving on and living happy, fulfilling lives with their grief. To state that rook dying would condemn Emmrich to grieving rook forever (or however long Emmrich exists as a lich) is only half right; yes, Emmrich will carry that grief with him for the rest of his unlife, but he is also someone who understands the nature of death and mourning. 

Emmrich experienced the traumatic death of his parents at a young age and it fundamentally changed him for the rest of his life. He also had the mourn watch to help him grieve, accept their deaths, and to live with his grief afterwards. As a mourn watcher, he helps other people to mourn and find closure both for the deaths of others. As a corpse whisperer and necromancer, he helps the dead move on. You’ll have to forgive me for thinking that Emmrich might be the type of person who is capable of mourning and grieving the loss of those he loves, and also of living with that grief without it metastasizing and rotting him from within. That doesn’t mean he won’t miss rook or anyone else, it doesn’t mean that the love he feels for them is in any way diminished or less real, because that’s not how that works. 

Being able to work through the death of somebody you love in a healthy way doesn’t automatically mean that you didn’t actually love the person, nor does it mean you can’t then go on to love somebody else afterwards. People do not have a finite amount of love - romantic or non-romantic - in them that they can only give to one person ever, nor are people only capable of having one true love in their lives and that everything else was either Not The One or Will Never Be Just As Good, because that’s not how people or feelings work.

So no, I don’t think that either rook or Emmrich outliving each other is the exact same in terms of how it will affect either of them, but I do think it’s shortsighted and ignorant of the ways in which people think and feel to act as if lich Emmrich outliving rook would be so much worse for him just because he would have to live with the grief for longer. 

I would like to end on the caveat that I wrote this mainly because I feel there’s been a lot of misinterpretation of aspects of Emmrich’s character and the different options for his storyline that have led to people expressing genuine concerns, fears, and anxieties of theirs in ways that veer too far into things like ableism, acephobia, and of how things like obsessive compulsions manifest. Especially the ableism, if I can be honest, because as a disabled person, seeing people gripe on about how lich Emmrich is bad because he “can’t have sex”, or at least can’t have “normal sex” really grates on more than a few of my nerves. 

I also want to say that I didn’t write this to try and say that somebody headcanoning the relationship between Emmrich and their rook having some of the issues mentioned above are wrong for doing so. By all means, please explore the space and the different ways in which their relationship could unfold, I think it's much more interesting to explore how problems could affect a relationship in fiction. I just don’t want people to automatically write off the lich route as inherently bad and not worth it just because the difference between Emmrich's storyline choices are a bit more nuanced and different than “do you want to forgive or get revenge”.