#so that conclusion has to come first

[sludgekludge]

the favouritism in this show is so funny. big emphasis on blitz's relationships, a prominent ex, his childhood crush, his current love interest, his coworkers, his father gets a prominent speaking role, even his silent dead mum gets to haunt his narrative…

in the span of 2 seasons, the antagonistic relationship between blitz and fizz gets established via robo-fizz, reinforced via the hallucination in truth seekers. then the actual fizz gets introduced in ozzie's, we get another episode touching on their relationship as kids (noticeably instead of barbie, who is finally introduced next episode), before we finally get a tiny taste of the relationship between blitz and his sister. she gets under 5 minutes of screentime.

after this, fizz and blitz proceed to get 2 half-hour episodes together (one of which largely about fizz's development), and then a little snippit of them palling around while shopping, and another brief cameo of which fizz shows immense care for blitz's survival. this entire arc with blitz's childhood crush/bestie happens and is resolved (as well as. many, many other things) while barbie gets a tick of a bad episode, that should've been about her to begin with. his sister, supposedly someone very important to him that he misses and keeps track of, is barely an afterthought in this show.

blitz's childhood crush got an entire arc before barbie got another speaking role. she actively gets her appearance removed from flashbacks. we can sexualise her in merch, though!

shame that when barbie stepped through the interdimensional garage door it unfortunately closed on her noggin, killing her so supremely she ceased to exist past, present and future. sad! oh well. there are other women characters to shaft

[turtleblogatlast]

I think about Leo’s “I’m your least favorite” comment to Splinter in “Down with the Sickness” a lot. It’s likely just a throwaway comment, a way to get Splinter to leave him alone before Leo gets sick too, but I can’t help but wonder if Leo believes it on some level.

Obviously it’s not true, Splinter loves him as much as he loves the others, but…it wouldn’t be shocking if Leo believed otherwise. After all, just in “Many Unhappy Returns” alone, Splinter has, with no hesitation, said comments like “my other sons would have taken this seriously” and “I knew I should’ve brought purple”, said “no” to Leo’s “I love you”, and pretty blatantly didn’t extend any trust in Leo’s plan even after Leo was fairly effortlessly defeating their opponents.

It was only after, when they’d already won, that Splinter finally gives him a “it was all you my son!” And…that’s basically it. Raph is the one who announces his trust in Leo. Not their father, even though Splinter is the one to witness Leo lowering his walls for once (which Splinter doesn’t react well too, because Leo only lowers his walls in the most hectic of times, and because he lowers them only then, either no one is around or no one is in the right state of mind to respond properly, leading to Leo building his walls back up, and the cycle continues.)

Again, it’s not because Splinter doesn’t love Leo, but Leo…can’t be feeling too good about all that. The way he never reacted surprised about any of Splinter’s words too…

He may know that Splinter loves them all, as a group, but individually…I don’t think Leo believes he ranks all that high with that love. Gives another meaning to “I’m nothing without my brothers” huh?

(Of course, I’m willing to bet the invasion changed that understanding, but with that comes the potential misunderstanding that his father’s outright love is tied to Leo sacrificing himself.)

[eliteseven]

Forever thinking abt this scene because the implications???

[gingermintpepper]

For the longest time, the quintessential song describing Apollo's wrath and consequent murder of Coronis for me was Marah in the Mainsail's 'Your Work isn't Done'.

It's dark. It's seething. Its image of Fate pushing the scorned speaker to complete his foul, terrible work of killing the man who stole his lover away from him is particularly powerful and it's always evoked this gruesomely tragic evolution of a glassy eyed Apollo stumbling through the streets, weak-legged and trembling from the betrayal growning more and more wrathful 'til he can think of no other course than to aim his bow and shoot. The price of betraying his trust is death and Coronis betrayed so much more than just his trust by taking Ischys as her lover.

The song itself captures that sensation of building wrath so well too. From the lonely guitar and vocals at the beginning which evoke this lonely, stripped back but distant grief to the way the singer is practically screaming his refrain of "Your work here isn't done" by the end, accompanied by the full blasting of instruments and an omnious chorus at his side, everything about this song is centered around building stakes, building realisations, building tensions and it creates this feeling of the speaker growing closer and closer with each new verse and chorus that adds to his anger.

There's also the absolute treasure trove of lyrics that work so well for specifically this tale. A brief overview of some of my favourites include;

- There's a crow overhead singing "Oh, Death is my friend."

- And though you think your time has come, the wheels of Fate have spun. Death has declared your work here isn't done.

- There's a girl on my heart safe ashore in her lover's arms

There's just such a vivid image to be drawn here - of Apollo's emotions being swallowed by his rage, of his resolve to end everything the more he bears witness to Coronis' brazen affair. There's even a strong female voice in the first two verses which seem to egg the speaker on in his spiral - a perfect opening to include Artemis who wishes for her brother to hunt that which brought him such pain alongside her. An Artemis who reinforces just what Coronis has done, an Artemis who does not want her brother to repress his anger after such grave an insult just because love was once there.

To me, it was perfect. Apollo's killing of Coronis was a crime of passion, an execution he sometimes cannot even bring himself to commit according to who is telling the tale. It's a wretched situation, harrowing, suffocating and cruel but if not by Apollo's hands, Coronis would simply die by another's. She cannot live after what she has done. The gods simply would not allow it.

AND THEN MY BIAS WAS COMPLETELY WRECKED BY LORD HURON.

Now, let it be known, I am a huge Lord Huron fan. Strange Trails is perhaps the most Apollo-coded album I've ever heard and songs like Yawning Grave and The Balancer's Eye capture such a visceral, gorgeous portrait of cosmic grief and anger that they haven't really left my brain since I first listened to them. Still, 'Setting Sun' from their Lonesome Dream album completely flew under my radar. Maybe it's because the commercial version is so much snappier than the Alive from Whispering Pines recording, maybe it's because I just hadn't listened to Lord Huron's discography in a while but my god. My god.

This song has it all; a quiet menace in its music, a strong male singer who sounds only barely restrained, an absolute HOST of lyrics that are so wonderfully perfect for the scenario -- after getting over how wonderful the song itself is, I immediately dethroned Your Work isn't Done because ultimately, 'Setting Sun' has something in abundance that 'Your Work isn't Done' minimised in order to focus on the wrath driving the song forward.

And that's love.

Setting Sun is so powerful because it's not just a revenge ballad - it's a dirge, a breakup song, a lament, a regret manifesto. So many times during the song, the speaker wonders when his lover stopped loving him. He recounts intimate moments and wonders if his lover was thinking of the other man when she was enjoying herself, wonders if anything she'd said was even real. And I love that so, so much.

Ultimately, Apollo adored Coronis. As inevitable as her death was, he regretted every second of it. No matter how angry, no matter how betrayed, no matter how intensely he was shamed, he still loved her. He weeps for her when she dies, he screams and grieves and cries when he's faced with her corpse. In some tales, no matter the cocktail of emotion driving him, he simply cannot bring himself to kill her. He'd rather cry in Artemis' arms and take his anger out on his own servant than hurt her. His own father has to dispatch Ischys since Apollo can't even bring himself to hurt that which Coronis once loved. Of course, in this case, Apollo's going to kill someone but the point is, it's not a decision of pure anger so much as its this complicated, horrible mix of resolve and lost love.

And my god does Setting Sun capture this conflict, passion, grief and love so well. UGH, I'm vibrating just thinking about it -- there are so many points where I hear its lyrics and can vividly picture Apollo, jaw clenched looking Coronis in her eyes and quietly confronting her.

Coronis, returning home at twilight after spending the day with Ischys to Apollo stringing his bow, "Oh? Is he ready to die for you baby? No, but you know I would."

Coronis lying to him about who she's spent her time with and Apollo's soft, near pained, "Does it hurt when you lie to me? If you asked, I would set you free."

I even really love the image of a Coronis who runs away from Apollo upon realising what will soon happen, not to escape his arrows but to warn Ischys who does not know what will happen. Of Apollo getting into his stance, taking aim at them and gathering his strength as the final refrains rings out "I know I'll never reclaim your love and that's as hard as it gets, so I'll be taking a life when the sun sets."

Other favourite lines of mine include;

- Oh, is he ready to die for you baby, now that the deed is done?

- Tell me when did I lose your love? Was it him you were thinking of?

- And I could never betray your love, you had me heart and soul. You might never have known it girl, but I was all yours.

And ultimately, I just like this conflicted portrait of premeditated murder much more than the crime of passion 'Your Work isn't Done' paints. Crimes of passion - especially when Apollo is concerned - are tragic in their own right, but in Coronis' case, I think I prefer it so much more when there's no way for Apollo's action to be misconstrued for anything other than what it is, especially since he goes on to cut Asclepius from his mother's corpse then carry on with building her funeral pyre. I think there's something so much more impacting about Apollo being unable to hide away from Coronis' blood on his hands and him having to raise Asclepius with those selfsame hands.

Love of the mortal does not supercede the responsibility of the divine. If Coronis' sentence no matter what is death, who better to lead her gently to the knife than he who still loves her?

[flowersforthemachines]

Lucanis's Logbook, 6

Relationships: Female Rook/Lucanis Word count: 3300 (oneshot, complete) Rating: General Audiences Main tags: Diary/Journal, Established Relationship, Mid-canon, Missing scene, Angst

Excerpt and summary:

We are back from Tearstone Island. Rook is gone. Davrin and Bellara are gone. I don't know what else to say.

Lucanis’s journal kept throughout the time between Rook’s disappearance at Tearstone Island and the day she’s rescued from the Fade.

[thesaintofnevergettingitright]

If you watched the last episode of 911 you could be fooled into thinking that Buck is the main freak in that relationship, but never forget that, before Buck derailed the conversation, Eddie was fully acting jealous of a DOG.

“You sure bonded fast…” yeah bud, people do that with dogs. “You’d move for a dog?” This is another perfectly regular behavior. You’re being weird about your friend getting a pet.

They are freak4freak all the way, Eddie is just better at hiding it.

[clumsypuppy]

AND I MET THE CHANGE GOD TOO. OKAY. COOL OKAY

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

head in my hands.

[moeblob]

Ohiwe

After Oh is split into two, their power is halved/divided. But! Other traits are not necessarily divided evenly. So she holds all the romantic love (unrequited) for Ymber. She also has the rhythm/ability to dance while the other half cannot keep a beat for the life of him.

[raeofgayshine]

Do you think that Ahkmenrah blames himself for the 54 years he spent locked up at the Natural History Museum?

Does he think that he must have done something to anger the gods in order for them to punish him like this. He didn't honor them well enough, maybe. Or maybe they were angry that he had told Egyptologists at Cambridge about them, was it hearsay to tell stories of the gods to people who believed them only to be fiction. Did he say something incorrect, perhaps, misleading in a way that left him needing punishment.

He had to have done something. He's just not sure what.

But Ahkmenrah knows he has to figure it out quickly. The gods may have sent Larry to free him as a second chance, but something like that must come with a time limit.

And if Ahk found himself locked up again, he isn't quite sure he would be able to make it out the other side whole.

[madwheelerz]

My friend brought up Jekyll and Hyde when I was explaining manifestation theory to her last time, and it made me wonder if the end result is gonna be some sort of having to merge/coexist/exist as one being type of thing.

[daz4i]

forgive me for surely sounding dramatic but i feel like a lot of people's gotchas for when someone says something kind of out of line ("you say that but can't even ask for ketchup" "this is why you failed english class" are examples that come to mind) are like. not full on ableist but definitely smell like it. like perhaps these aren't as funny things to say as you think. you're just making fun of things people genuinely struggle with for many possible reasons that aren't related to their online behavior in any way

[666writingcafe]

Greed (Part Two)

Lucifer

"Well, hello MC," Solomon merrily greets when he opens the front door of the cabin. As soon as he sees me, however, his expression grows more serious. "Lucifer, is everything alright?"

"I'm afraid not," I reply. "There's been an incident, and--"

"Tie me up," MC abruptly interrupts, their voice slightly strained. Solomon looks between the two of us, clearly confused.

"I'd do what they say," I suggest. He's still unsure, but he nevertheless lets us in and pulls out a chair from the kitchen for MC to sit in. He utters a spell that causes ropes to magically appear and wrap around them, effectively keeping them in place.

"There'd better be a good explanation for this," he warns, turning his attention back to me. "I'm not about to hurt my apprentice--" My phone suddenly rings, and I quickly excuse myself to another room to answer it.

"What happened?" I ask once I've answered the call.

"Mammon's lost the coin," Satan quietly responds on the other end. "The dumbass kept tossing it in the air, and it ended up rolling off somewhere."

"So you've haven't made it back to the House yet?" Satan sighs.

"No. We're still in the forest. He's making us look for the stupid thing."

"Asmo, I don't care about your fucking nails! We're not leaving until my lucky coin is back in my hands!" I've never heard Mammon scream that loud, and he's one of the more noisy ones in the bunch when he's arguing with someone.

"We're literally on our hands and knees, combing through every single thing on the ground. It's fucking ridiculous, if you ask me." I sigh.

"This is probably going to be a stupid question on my part, but has anyone tried to tell him to let the coin go so that you can get home safely?"

"Belphie." He pauses. "His statement caused Mammon to go berserk, and somehow he used magic to force us to the ground. If we even try to stand up, he makes the most excruciating pain shoot down our bodies." A faint whipping sound cuts through the air on his end. "And that would be due to him spotting someone taking a rest." This isn't good. Not at all.

"I'm assuming you've found a place to hide?"

"Yes, but I'll have to move soon. I hear him getting closer." Something suddenly starts rattling loudly, followed by various objects shattering on the ground.

"Lucifer, I think that's coming from your end," Satan nervously observes. "Did you at least make it to the cabin?"

"We did. Listen, I'm giving you permission to use whatever means necessary to knock Mammon out. Just make sure it's not fatal. Call me when you've done that." I quickly end the call and rush back to Solomon and MC, only to find the room they're in to be an absolute wreck.

"Let me go!" MC yells. Solomon looks like he's walked through a minefield with his hair in disarray and his clothes torn.

"As I keep telling you, I can't do that--"

"Whose side are you on, Solomon?! His?!"

"Look, I think it's unfair that he stole the coin from you, but--"

"But what?! You don't think he deserves to get punished?!"

"That isn't what I'm saying--"

"MC." They snap their head, focusing their attention on me. "Pull yourself together. You're being unreasonable." The air around them begins glowing.

"How dare you!" MC screams.

"Great, Lucifer," Solomon complains. "I was trying to calm them down, not provoke them even further."

"And how well is that turning out for you?" Silence. He may know MC better than I do, but I've dealt with Satan on the warpath many times before. Explanations mean nothing when someone is in this state, so the best thing to do is to be simply firm and wait for them to tire out on their own.

"Let me at him!"

"No."

"It's my coin, and I want it back!"

"No." Is it my imagination, or are the ropes starting to break?

"Of course you would side with Mammon."

"I will deal with him accordingly."

"Then why are you still here?!" In a nearly blinding flash, the ropes fly off MC, and they lunge themselves at me, knocking me down to the ground. I quickly spin us around so that I'm able to pin them down. They're thrashing about, but that's to be expected.

"Sleep." Their body quickly goes limp as the magic behind the command takes over them. I stand up and dust myself off. I don't have to look at Solomon to know that he's glaring at me.

"They'll be fine," I tell him. "It'll just be a few hours before they're awake again. Help me get them in bed." He's still seething, but he at least comes over and assists me. It's not until we've gotten MC tucked in and leaving their room that he reacts by slamming me against the wall.

"What the fuck is going on?" he whispers threateningly.

While I certainly have enough strength to throw him off me, I'm not about to get into another fight. Plus, I do understand why he's upset at me. In his eyes, I'm currently a threat to his loved one's safety. He has every right to protect them.

Especially since I'm trying to do the same thing. It'd be hypocritical of me to hold his feelings against him while experiencing them myself.

"Growing pains." If I gave that answer to someone else, they'd probably demand a more detailed explanation after chastising me for being so vague.

Thankfully, Solomon's smart enough to read between the lines of my short answer.

"They're affecting MC."

"Yes." The fact that he doesn't pose that as a question makes me suspect that he knows something that I don't. Then again, he did know MC back when they were human, so perhaps it makes some degree of sense.

Solomon steps away from me, allowing me to move freely.

"How much time do you have?" he asks.

"Enough."

"Good. Fancy a trip back to the castle?"

Taglist: @lost-in-time-wanderer, @fuzztacular, @dianedancer18, @sweetbrier2908, @flare-love, @completelyshatteredbrokenmschf, @thunderlightning351, @l3v1chan, @anxious-chick, @5mary5, @expressionless-fr, @tenkobitch, @budbuddnbuddy

[wandringaesthetic]

Idk if approaching life like you're the protagonist of an Atlus game is the moral, logical, and philosophical best thing to do, but

Sometimes I feel like I should give it a try

[martianbugsbunny]

So I just spent the last ten minutes all-capsing at my mom over text about Kalluzeb, and she said this:

the holy grail of canon kalluzeb content, is adorable, so she gets it

[demodraws0606]

You know I think there is something interesting to say in terms of where the fuck WxS is going because like

I think WxS is the only unit where the end goal or overall progression is probably the most unknown out of all of them ???

MMJ and VBS are extremely obvious, they both have the most explicit goals that are said to us in a straightforward way

25-ji, in the end we know the main goal at the end will be for all of the characters to go over their hurdles with Mafuyu finally being able to find herself and move forward

Leo/need is probably the closest in terms of vagueness but we know the end goal is clear for them to grow as a band, probably ending in a big concert or something along those lines

But with WxS...like I guess the closest thing I can see to an end goal is all of WxS preparing a show together with everyone playing their part but that definitely doesn't feel like something you'd build up for an entire arc and definitely not something that feels fitting after the emotional turmoil that was the disbandement arc ???

In terms of physical achievements as well they literally revived an entire parc through one gigantic show, so it just comes into question what they can do now.

Then you look at their first few event for this arc considering usually the first event kinda set up what will be planned for the future but it's...weird.

Yeah, Tsukasa and Rui's events set up they're inexperienced and how they will grow in the future but also there is this weird feeling of something feeling off ?

The plays/scripts all are strangely depressing, the play in Tsukasa's event being about a failed writer planning to drown himself (which I believe is one of the only undeniable explicit description of suicide ever in the game?????) and the second being someone whose given up on life meeting their estranged sister only for her to become ill.

We even have Emu's side story in Rui's event where they watched the movie Rin was watching during the event made by the same producer and Emu herself note how depressing the story is (meanwhile the main character of the movie clearly parallels Rui)

We don't see the conclusion of these in-game stories as well, lingering on their worst moment never really seeing the presumably happy conclusion.

THEN we also have Emukasa fes which....again strangely different in tone from what you'd expect a WxS fes card, they're not really all that conclusive either. Tsukasa never aknowledges how he relates to the brother in the story and Emu doesn't really get a conclusion on her grief.

Then we also have Rui's entire fuckign event with the cards and his cyberpunk deadbo-YOU SEE WHAT IM SAYING

The closest we fucking have to knowing what WxS's fucking endgoal towards the story is, is fucking WL which....TELLS US NOTHING

At least with VBS we know that they're goal is to go even further beyond and conquer the whole world, that is a developpement of their goal.

What I'm saying is I don't know what the fuck colorpalet is cooking wiht WxS but I feel like i'm a fucking twilight zone reading the way they're writing WxS now because I can't be the only one feeling insane at how weird all of this is