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caligvlasaqvarivm · 5 months ago

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Original Sin: The Failure of the Dancestors

Establishing an Eden-like paradise from which there is some departure through sin is sort of the boilerplate basis for religious lore. [...] The failed players from peaceful Alternia made a classic "deal with the devil" move by causing the scratch after being given a choice by the mother of all monsters. (Echidna. Hey, she's a big snake!) By doing so they brought Scratch into their universe, and therefore all the things you'd expect that comes with summoning the devil.

Andrew Hussie, Formspring, Aug. 12, 2011.

Warnings for: Mostly? I'm going to be really mean to the dancestors, so if you aren't here for a thorough (and I mean thorough) dancestor takedown, please do not read this. Ableism, questionable consent and outright non-consent, horrific interpersonal relationships, and Cronus ahead.

Overview

I hesitated to write this because I know there will be some really controversial interpretations in here. Many of the circumstances I bring up as failures on the Dancestors' part are interpreted by the fandom as positive things. A common one I've run into before is Latula x Mituna, where I maintain it's bad, but the fandom often sees them as cute. I'll also be condemning things like Horuss's plurality, or Cronus's kinning, not because I have any beef towards this stuff IRL, but because they're framed as failings on the characters' part within the context of the comic, and I'm analyzing the characters within the context of the comic. I'm not asking anyone to agree with me, but I am asking that you approach this essay with an open mind, and not send death threats over a silly webcomic from the early 2010's. I would not be asking for this if it hadn't already happened, which was embarrassing for all of us TBH.

The Dancestors, as made clear from the Hussie quote, are the story's original sin - the initial failure point from which all the comic's problems stem. Their role in the story is antagonistic - with very little exception, the Dancestors are not meant to be sympathetic, and/or their flaws outweigh their sympathetic qualities. Every single one of them succumbed to some major failure (some their own fault, some brought on by others on the team), and practically only Porrim showed any improvement after death.

There's another really important thematic shadow hanging over them: if Homestuck is a coming-of-age, then the Dancestors represent a prior generation that reached physical maturity, but failed to grow up.

[The dancestors' choices] resulted not only turning Alternia into a planet full of violent murderers, but it only technically granted them what they wanted with a huge caveat, as is the case with such ill-advised bargains. The players were strong enough to win, but made a terminal universe, were barred from entry, hunted by a demon, and then started killing each other.

They're an older generation defined by how entitled and immature they are, who invited terrible forces into society and allowed the perpetuation of cruelty to continue after them. In other words, theyre boomers. It's important to note that they literally had the choice, before their Scratch, to prevent the birth of LE by simply choosing to let their species die with them - but they made the selfish choice of what was, functionally, having kids:

The heroes could either accept their defeat along with the extinction of their race, and put no others at risk. Or, [Echidna] could show them a path to a second chance, to a reality in which the chosen heroes of their race would be strong enough to succeed with ease, and claim the reward.

For more on Homestuck's coming-of-age, anti-fascist, and feminist themes, please see my essay on the Alpha Timeline. Note that I have an updated opinion: the ending was, in fact, bad on purpose, because it was a continuation of the theme of narration needing to be refuted - "who's telling the story, and why are we listening to them?" You can read more about that here. Sorry to have to link two long essays at the beginning of a really long essay, but these are the backing arguments to many of the claims I'm about to make.

I also want to refute a common fandom belief. A take I commonly see is "the dancestors are one-dimensional assholes as a snub to the fandom" - this is not true, at least to any extent moreso than the Alternian trolls.

Yes, the dancestors are riffs of Common Fandom Types of Guy, especially Types of Guy on Tumblr while the comic was being written. However, the beta trolls/kids are ALSO Internet Types of Guy - the reason the trolls are named "trolls" is because part of their original conception was that they each represented a common type of forum troll. The dancestors aren't making fun of the audience any more than the Alternian trolls are, since Hussie got his start on fora.

Moreover, they aren't actually one-dimensional, or at least not in a way meant to be a snub to people. In fact, I find the entire attitude people have that they're somehow owed the dancestors being "good" or "likable" weird. The dancestors, as I said before, are antagonistic - if not at times outright villainous. They're the story's cautionary tale, a look at what happens when a session fails and the kids in it don't grow up.

On the whole, they simply don't need a bigger role in the story than just existing, as their past actions are what spurred the plot into action, and their narrative utility now is as a window into those. Moreover, if you read between the lines and analyze them a little beyond the surface, there's actually a lot going on, which I hope to uncover in this essay.

On the Topic of Kid-Kissing

It needs to be addressed now and needs to be addressed early. The dancestors are physically 19, and the beta/alpha kids are 16 at the oldest and 13 at the youngest. Lots of the dancestors are uncomfortably okay with pursuing romantic relationships or performing romantic acts with these actual children. Cronus gets the most flak for it, but the list includes:

Cronus, who asks Eridan on a date,

Meenah, who has a "manic obsession" with Karkat, and later dates Vriska,

Meulin, who eagerly offers to ship Meenah with Karkat in red, and gets really excited about shipping the children in general, calling them her "gay babies",

Aranea, who's willing to smooch Jake in a sexy way as part of healing his brain because she thinks he's attracted to her.

Now, as gross as this all is, I do think it serves a narrative purpose. One can debate whether that narrative purpose was worth its inclusion at all, but I'm personally going to bypass this discussion since this damn essay is long enough. At least I'll clarify what I believe the narrative purpose is:

It was an extant trope at the time of the comic's writing (which has thankfully fallen out of favor) that an adult character would date a highschooler in order to show how immature, and not suited for adulthood, the adult was. One of the most famous examples of this is Scott Pilgrim's relationship with a high schooler in Scott Pilgrim, something other characters call him out on constantly.

Given that basically none of these dancestor/child relationships are intended to be read as comfortable, pleasant, or even good (I'll get more into this later), I fully believe that this is the reason for their inclusion in the story: a demonstration of the dancestors' immaturity and failure to grow up, such to the point that they see actual children as viable dating partners.

Finally, while most of the dancestors have very limited screentime, one thing we DO have is all their classpects. I'll be using my definitions, which you can find here. Please note that, while that essay does not have any textual evidence (as it was already 10k words long without any), I'm willing to back up every claim in there with textual evidence upon request.

The TL;DR is that class is correlated with character arc and starting circumstances, while aspect is correlated with base personality traits, and what qualities would make the character a successful (and unsuccessful) hero of said aspect.

I firmly believe that, given what's in the comic, it's entirely possible to deduce what each class and aspect actually do, so being provided with every Dancestor's classpect means that we have a very powerful vector by which we can understand how their tragedy unfurled.

So please join me as we turn over this big rock and take a peek at all the skeletons living in the dancestors' closets. There are a lot of them, and they are rancid, but the complex ways they interlock are endlessly fascinating, and I hope you walk away from this with some new insight, or at least a new perspective.

Establishing a Baseline

First and foremost, let's factually review the events leading up to the dancestors' Scratch, organized in the way that makes the most sense to me. Many of these events don't have any set timelines, and aren't even described in relation to each other, but by going over them in general, we can get a big picture overview of the tragedies, and it helps to make sense of the interlocking nature of their failure.

Pre-Game

The dancestors grow up in a version of troll society as designed by Feferi Peixes, where the main difference between the two is that "culling" means "coddling excessively" rather than killing. Therefore, casteism still exists, but usually does not have as life-threatening effects. Characters who would've been culled on Alternia are likewise targets for culling on Beforus - this is most relevant to Mituna and Kankri.

Meenah finds the idea of becoming the next empress so distasteful that she flees to the pink moon, where she finds and transcribes the code for SGRUB and bothers her friends into playing it with her, in large part because it promises an escape from her responsibilities.

Cronus believes he's a chosen one destined to defeat an evil wizard, who tried to kill him when he was a wiggler. The story is one part Harry Potter and Voldemort, and one part Definitely About Lord English.

Kurloz and Meulin are probably dating in red, and Kurloz and Mituna are probably dating in pale.

Latula suffers an injury that leaves her unable to smell, something she remains insecure about for the rest of her existence. Communing with her lusus à la Terezi teaches her "new ways to smell".

Damara and Rufioh are dating in red.

Kankri was likely culled on sight, while Mituna was destined for one of the highest/"cushiest'" degrees of culling possible, echoing Karkat's and Sollux's relationships with culling.

Porrim is being trained for the breeding caverns as a jade-blood, and is not happy about it. It's likely that jades are the caste with the least privileges and freedoms, given the culling system (yes, I know culling is still a form of oppression, but it's still a cushy position to be in, compared to jades being forced to work breeding duties by birth).

During the Game

All of this happens over the course of six years.

Mituna spends the whole game attempting to warn his team to stop being such assholes or else something really bad is going to happen to them, using the prophetic insight he has as a Doom player.

Meenah starts cruelly bullying Damara, under the supposed motivation of "trying to galvanize the team into action".

Porrim outright ignores frog breeding, opting instead to go on a bra-burning rampage across her session.

Meulin is shipping her friends. Due to her Mage powers and predilections, not only do these ships come true, but they're really unhealthy and toxic as a rule.

Horuss begins an affair with Rufioh.

Kankri argues with himself nonstop, rendering most memos pointless.

Kurloz has a terrible nightmare and accidentally deafens Meulin, an act he finds so shameful that he stitches his own mouth shut. The two break up, but are still "very close friends"/in a situationship.

Someone talks Cronus out of his wizard beliefs, likely Kankri, and Cronus completely loses faith in magic, as well as a sense of identity. This is really bad, given what Hope does.

Meenah finds out about Rufioh and Horuss's affair and uses it as bullying fodder.

Damara snaps, kills Meenah, renders Rufioh a quadruplegic, and begins to perform acts of "timeline sabotage," which are even more impactful given her Witch class. It's heavily implied that Damara is the cause of the dancestors not performing their own ectobiology, the glitch that rendered their game unwinnable and serves as a "calling card" for LE.

Mituna tries to divert a terrible tragedy, something "only Kurloz was witness to". Said tragedy is implied to be Kurloz's Prince meltdown, and Mituna fails, rendering him brain damaged to the extent that he can no longer think or speak coherently. The team does NOT heal him or even reference TRYING to heal him, as it's implied they're more comfortable with him like this than they were with him telling them they were all doomed assholes.

Kurloz fully commits to his doomsday clown religion and begins using Meulin and Mituna as hynopuppets/conduits to bring about the end. It's likely that they rope Damara into their religion at this time.

Latula and Mituna start dating in red. For various reasons I'll get into later, this relationship seems to have started AFTER Mituna's injury.

Meenah bakes a cake. Isn't that nice.

It's never made very clear how long it took for all of this to go down, but the way it's framed is that everything major happened fairly early on, before the Reckoning, and they spent the rest of their session faffing around. While the beta kids have a nonstandard-ly short session, the beta trolls have what seems to be a more standard timeframe of about 612 hours, or several weeks. Again... SIX YEARS elapse. The dancestors reach the age of physical adulthood within the game.

Finally, seeing no way out, Aranea goes to Echidna for her quills in order to initiate the Scratch. The Choice that she's given is to immediately stymie the harm the dancestors' actions will bring (LE) by letting their species die with them, or to try again by passing the buck onto the next generation of heroes. The pick is obvious.

Damara, who's been uncooperative since she snapped, chooses to help out with the Scratch, muttering that everyone will "get what they deserve".

Meenah uses a tumor-like bomb to kill them all just before the Scratch goes off, in the window where god tier immortality pauses before bringing them back. This allows them to exist in the afterlife with memories fully intact. It's not fully clear how many of them achieved god tier before dying.

Afterlife

Meenah stays in her castle, echoing the way she fled responsibility to the pink moon, for the millenia that her friends have been mingling in the afterlife. Her descent from her castle after LE starts popping bubbles is the first time she's interacted with her team since she died.

Porrim is the ONLY dancestor that shows improvement or reflection, coming to view her frog breeding duties as something she probably should have paid more attention to, and toning down her feminism to thoughtful, reasonable critiques. This still doesn't excuse her total bystander nature while everything else was happening, which continues into the afterlife, but it's nice to see that she's doing better, since that's so rare in this team.

Kurloz starts readying for Lord English's birth, building labyrinths in the afterlife and using Meulin and Mituna as mind-controlled helpers (and possibly Damara as well).

Meulin and Horuss start dating in pale after Horuss is inspired by the meowrails. Despite Horuss's internal anguish and anger, he's been told by Meulin to cover it up with forced positivity no matter what.

Cronus is kinning a 1950's human greaser, an act which he himself admits is probably just a cry for attention, and a greater symptom of his struggles with personal identity in the wake of losing interest in magic and wizardry.

Rufioh wants to break up with Horuss, but doesn't have the backbone to to get pushy with these requests. Horuss has difficulty hearing what he doesn't want to hear, so Rufioh winds up wilting and agreeing to continue dating him every time he tries breaking up with him.

Aranea... does all that, spurred on by a desire to be important.

Meenah decides to encourage Vriska to shirk responsibility, running off with her and starting a romantic relationship with her.

Woof, that's a lot! So, now that we've established an overview of what went wrong, something I should probably note:

It's not JUST that Damara caused the timeline glitch that retroactively summoned LE, or JUST that Meenah bullied her. When I say that the dancestors' failure is multivalent and interlocking, I mean it - especially once you get into the implications of their classpects. Cronus being a Bard of Hope - Hope being the aspect of making fake things real - losing faith in his own destiny of defeating an evil wizard likely had some karmic contribution to the first half of that destiny - the existence of the evil wizard in the first place - coming true. So on and so on. So the rest of this essay will be a deeper look into each individual dancestor, and the contributions they made towards the ultimate blowout.

Porrim Maryam: The Ultimate Bystander

Porrim's drama is the least connected to the various conflicts suffered by everyone else, though it's one of the most consequential.

The Maid of Space was of course our all-important Space player and Stoker of the Forge, 8ut as you know, we never made much progress on the frog 8reeding front, or really any aspect of the game 8efore the reckoning. [...] She challenged these roles wherever they existed in 8eforan society, as well as where she found them woven into our session, in kingdoms, class assignments, consort culture and the like.

While she is pretty much the only dancestor that reflected on her failures - having come to a realization after her game's Reckoning that she probably should've paid attention to frog breeding - the fact remains that she totally ignored this duty in favor of going on a feminist rampage.

I do actually believe there is merit to her viewpoint, something Hussie appears to agree with:

HUSSIE: Porrim is better at social justice than Kankri because she isn't a boring asshole. [...] Porrim wants there to be equality for ladies. Not everybody cares about that though, which makes it hard for people like Porrim. That's the way it is in the real world. CHALLENGES.

Note that while Hussie is a deeply unreliable narrator (he describes his own self-insert as "oafish" and "buffoonish" in the book commentary, and his narration being biased and full of holes is a very deliberate choice), there is still meaning to be gleaned from his words, especially once you identify what biases he's performing. In this case, I think he's being genuine, as Homestuck has a deeply feminist and anti-patriarchy message overall, which I touch on in my essay about the Alpha Timeline.

However, Porrim's failure is that, as correctly as she identified sexism as being an issue, she became tunnel-visioned on it to the point that she failed to do anything useful at all. Frog breeding, AKA creating a new universe, is practically the entire point of SGRUB, and though her energies could've been focused on creating a new world free of sexism, she prioritized nitpicking it in session constructs.

Her other big failure is that of being a total bystander. In her conversations with Latula and Meenah, Porrim doesn't make any references at all to the bullying Meenah perpetrated, and otherwise seems surprised at the Redglare/Mindfang situation. She's also known as promiscuous, willing to sleep around with nearly anyone, tacitly approving of her teams' actions. Much of her feminist rhetoric is undercut by the fact that she has no comment to make on the way Meenah - the team's rich fuchsia - was primarily targetting a rustblood immigrant. It's implied her constant bickering with Kankri was in part due to her complete lack of intersectionality (with the other, more major part being Kankri's misogyny, but we'll get to that).

Interestingly enough, these three failures - poor prioritization, tunnel vision, and bystanderism - are failures of Space. There are two ways for an aspect (which is associated with base personality) to fail - the first is a toxic overabundance of the aspect's natural worst traits, and the second is a dearth of its positive qualities, to the point of resembling its counterpart. Space is associated with cycles and interconnectivity, patience and passivity. Its players are distractible and frivolous, but kind and permissive. However, it's easy for Space players to become so distracted that they lose sight of the bigger picture - we see this in Porrim's poor prioritization, and the tunnel vision she incurs in pursuit. It's also easy for them to become so passive that bad actors take advantage, and this, too, is present in Porrim's complete failure to grasp her team's cruelties.

Maids, meanwhile, are victims of oppression, and start the game under some form of control. Jane's been bombarded with hypnotic subliminals her entire life, and is ultimately directly controlled hy the Condesce; Aradia is killed so as to be Doc Scratch's servant via the Handmaid, and Hussie even outright calls her a slave in his book commentary. Porrim is not an exception to this:

On 8eforus, well 8efore her drinker a8ilities had awakened, she grew up in the caste almost solely devoted to tending to the mother gru8, hatching the young and proliferating the 8rood. The jade 8loods were also an almost exclusively female caste, and she 8egan to resent the roles she was hatched into, designated for 8oth her class and gender.

Ultimately, Maids can't shake off their oppressors alone, and outside intervention is needed to rid them of their shackles. Nobody on Porrim's team seemed to give a shit about what she had to say, however, nor did they attempt to relieve her of frog breeding or attempt to alleviate her workload - leaving her ultimately shackled to frog breeding, which, aside from the final frog (usually implied to be long in the Space player's past), did not HAVE to be conducted by her. In fact, Echidna being Aranea's denizen, when she's normally associated with the frog-breeding Space player, further implies that it didn't necessarily need to be up to Porrim - perhaps the team could've come together to take up frog breeding, splitting the duties equally, freeing Porrim from oppression.

But that didn't happen, and thus, our Maid of Space is disconnected from everything but the breeding duties that bound her so.

Kankri Vantas: The Hemocaste's Number One Fan

Kankri is a casteist, ableist, slut-shaming misogynistic bootlicker.

I'm going to go a bit lighter on the citations, because he uses a hundred words where ten will do, but if you actually bother to read his diatribes, he's all-in on perpetuating oppression. Here's a quick rundown of some of the awful shit he's said:

He tells Mituna that Mituna is bad representation for disabled people, and basically tells him to his face that he wishes everything about him was different, likely as displaced jealousy that Mituna is dating Latula. This shows that his rhetoric is actually just a mask, a tool he uses to disguise his actual intentions.

He complains about how burgundies have to "check their privilege" because they don't know how good they have it compared to off-spectrums, showing that he resents it when others attempt to address their oppression.

He tells Porrim that he thinks misogyny isn't real, and then slut shames her by insinuating that she's even willing to go for the Mayor. Once more, a display of how he resents when others challenge his points, or try to take away attention from his causes.

He calls Horuss and Cronus's beliefs fake even as he's defending their right to believe in them, revealing that it's not about justice for him, but about whatever puts him in a position of power over the situation, as the quote-unquote "spiritual leader".

Kankri was very likely culled on sight for his mutant blood color, mirroring how Karkat would've been. He clearly has complicated feelings about this, as he reacts very poorly to Porrim's mothering, but it's also the source of his deep-seated casteism, and the favor he shows towards the two sea dwellers on the team. While it IS a form of oppression, those culled on Beforus ARE provided extremely comfortable lifestyles, and Kankri would've been subjected to an intense amount of pampering, being a mutant.

In other words, he's been taught his whole life that he's a very special little boy, and he both feels entitled to the emotional energies of others, and gets upset when he isn't the center of attention. In contrast to Porrim, who had valid points but prioritized poorly, for Kankri, "social justice" is just a smokescreen he uses as he verbally browbeats his team into falling into line. Any valid points he makes are twisted to suit his personal agenda of being the loudest voice in the room, and he hides behind them so nobody can properly challenge his position. The actual oppression he did face, and a genuine desire buried deep down to make the world a better place (which I do believe exists), are ultimately undercut by his willingness to play victim in order to sate his own desire for attention and control.

Kankri himself didn't contribute as directly to the team's failure, but he was, overall, a binding force of stasis - perpetuating societal prejudices, fixing them in place. It should be no surprise that the two who find Kankri the most tolerable - Horuss and Cronus - are the two biggest casteists on the team.

Blood is about bonds - familial, platonic, romantic, and societal. It governs oaths, promises, compatability, and all interpersonal relationships. Its players, in contrast to Breath's free-spirited youthfulness, tend to be neurotic and controlling. At their best, they're mature, empathetic, and responsible, and indeed Karkat is one of the most level-headed and generally correct members of his team when he's not flying off the handle, but at toxic overabundance, they become iron-fisted dictators, "my way or the highway" types - to the point of shirking their innate sense of empathy and natural compulsion to be helpful to others.

Seers, meanwhile, struggle with blindness - either by hubris and ego, or else by shame-induced self-infliction. Rose's ego prevented her from bonding with her mother, and her need to be the smartest person in the room let Doc Scratch manipulate her; she later copes with her grief by drinking herself stupid, opposite Light's association with knowledge and insight. Terezi boldly painted herself into a corner where the only option left was killing Vriska, and coped with the guilt by throwing herself into a toxic relationship with Gamzee, a Gamzee victory that triumphed over Mind's sense of justice and karma.

Kankri is so moved by ego - his selfish desires for a society that works best for him personally, and his confidence that he knows better than the rest of his team - that he's blind to how harmful his rhetoric is. He damages their ability to move forward by chaining them in place, an ultimate failure of Blood.

Moreover, he's also inflicted a "blindness" upon himself - due to his staunch celibacy, he doesn't seem to notice that he has clear red feelings for Latula and pale feelings for Cronus - and this is to disastrous effect. The motivator behind his cruelty to Mituna appears to be jealousy, and he interrupts a conversation Cronus is having with Meenah, where she's about to make him reflect on choices that are harming him, just in time to prevent Cronus from reaching his epiphany. In fact, it's implied that Kankri is the one who talked Cronus out of his wizard faith in the first place, which we'll get into later (this is the most direct contribution Kankri made to the dancestor's failure).

As such, our Seer of Blood is sightless, and through blindness both based in ego and self-inflicted, he can't see the damage he's dealing.

Cronus Ampora: Hopeless - And That's Everyone's Problem Now

Cronus is a nasty casteist fuckboy who's greatly disliked by his team, and also everyone else, for good reason. He's mostly irrelevant to everyone and failed to do anything of worth. The problem is, he's a Bard of Hope, and thus, was one of the greatest contributors to the creation of LE.

Cronus as we see him is easy to explain. He's fundamentally a directionless, shitty rich kid, who's never had real problems before, and thus, never had the kinds of formative experiences that would've built him a personal identity. In an effort to find something to give his directionless (after)life some meaning, he's decided that he's humankin, specifically a 1950's greaser. He's also trying to get laid for similar reasons. What else is there to do when you don't feel like you have a real personality, and thus, don't really know how to open up to others or connect on a deeper level, but still crave an intimate relationship of some sort?

The thing is, Cronus wasn't always this way, and in fact, started out his game quite different:

[H]e once had a deeply a8iding faith in magic, and dedicated himself to 8ecoming a great wizard. He 8ecame convinced he was hatched to defeat an extraordinarily evil magician, one he swore the angels foretold of. Though when pressed for the name of the man, he would not say it, claiming it was too dangerous to even enunciate. Part of his self-aggrandizing mythos was that this magician once somehow from afar tried to strike him down at a young age, so he would never have to face him. 8ut the evil spell was deflected, sealing the magician's spirit away in a series of unassuming vessels until he could find some other cunning way to enter our universe. The attack supposedly left him with his distinctive scar, which he was not reluctant to point out when trying to hit on me.

Now, while this is definitely Harry Potter, it's also worded so as to resemble Lord English, and this is not a coincidence. You see, Hope is a power that makes fake things real.

Believing in things reduces their fakeness attribute. It's the force that shapes your reality, used to snatch personal meaning from the jaws of a cynical and nihilistic environment. Could this be why Hope is framed as the most fundamentally powerful aspect?

Ultimately, it didn't matter if Cronus's stupid wizard faith (and it is framed as a faith, a religious belief - put a pin in this) was real or not. In fact, the more credible journey for a Hope player would be if his personal mythos were fake - because Hope would've made it real.

However...

8ut at some point he 8ecame disillusioned with magic. [...] Perhaps someone talked him out of his 8eliefs. May8e a friend close to him. Or, if one is to 8elieve his fantasy held any water, perhaps someone who was in league with the evil magician.

As all Bards do, he suffered a crisis of faith, and he was never able to recover. Now, the identity of the person who talked him out of his religion is never made explicit, but I'm firmly convinced it was Kankri. First of all, who else on the team would qualify as a "friend close to him"? While "someone in league with the evil magician" might refer to Kurloz, Meulin, or Damara, Cronus seems wholly unrelated to the latter two, never mentioning them once, and while he's "scared" by Kurloz, it's not enough to not hit on him.

However, "in league with the evil magician" can also be interpreted metaphorically - someone who represents the same values as Lord English does, especially those of misogyny, fascism, and oppression. Which, again, points to Kankri. In fact, the main interaction Cronus has with Kankri illustrates the harm Kankri is doing to him: right as Cronus is about to have a personal epiphany that his humankin schtick is doing him more harm than good, Kankri jumps in to guilt-trip him until he continues with the act.

CRONUS: to be honest, she might be right. sometimes i think i might only be saying im a human to get attention. maybe i should givwe it up. KANKRI: I'd 6e extremely disapp9inted t9 hear that, if it were true. That w9uld 6e such a slap in the face t9 all th9se wh9 kn9w themselves t9 6e an alien while trapped in the pedestrian 69dy 9f their 9wn race. It w9uld 6e unspeaka6ly invalidating 9f their struggles and massively triggering t9 their em9ti9ns. #TW #invalidated struggles #triggered em9ti9ns KANKRI: 6ut f9rtunately, I kn9w y9u w9uld never st99p as l9w as that. Y9u understanda6ly have d9u6ts a69ut y9ur feelings and pr96a6ly d9wnplay them as a defense mechanism, since s9 few are prepared t9 rec9gnize the legitimacy 9f y9ur plight. 6ut I am, and I just wanted y9u t9 kn9w that I'm here f9r y9u, and am prepared t9 lecture t9 y9u extensively, I mean, listen t9 y9u extensively, a69ut y9ur ultra-imp9rtant pr96lem.

Fucking Kankri! He doesn't even believe in Cronus's act himself (calling it a "fantasy versi9n 9f [him]self"), but Cronus's conversation with Meenah is pale-coded, with Cronus being the only person on the team able to make Meenah have doubts about how awesome the Condesce (and by extension, her own worst qualities) are, with her able to pierce through Cronus's bullshit and make him rethink his choices. But Kankri has a palecrush on Cronus, so he cannot abide by Cronus having a pale interaction with anyone else.

KANKRI: Listen, I was d9ing y9u a fav9r. Y9u d9n't need t9 6e dating any9ne wh9 can't appreciate y9u f9r wh9 y9u really are[.]

But his interruption of Cronus's character development, and also his breaking of Cronus's faith, aren't just disastrous for Cronus's ability to self-actualize - remember, Cronus is a Bard of Hope.

UU: while the more passive bard coUld be seen as "one who allows x to be destroyed, or invites destrUction throUgh x," as if by the will of the aspect. TT: I'm obviously no expert, but that sounds like a pretty odd thing for a Bard to do. UU: maybe! it's a qUirky class. UU: somewhat like a wildcard role for a hero. very Unpredictable. UU: they are typically known for their spontaneoUs and dramatic story-altering inflUence on the fate of a party. UU: some of the more remarkable tales involve sUch parties, where the bard is single handedly responsible for their spectacUlar downfall or improbable victory. or both!

Bards act as a conduit by which their Aspect dramatically alters fate, for better or for worse, and Hope is a power that makes fake things real. Cronus had a Bard crisis of faith, never recovered, and, in his failure to do so, began to exhibit his aspect at its nadir - where Hope players should be idealists, dreaming up better futures with a naive and shameless sincerity, Cronus has become self-conscious, frustrated with himself and magic, and utterly materialistic, seeking only immediate physical gratification. Hope, at its worst, picks out such bleak possibilities to invest its incredible, reality-altering power into, that it actually serves to close possibilities and ruin everything - mirroring Rage's ability to tear down false truths.

It is, therefore, incredibly likely that the direct manifestation of his Bard of Hope abilities is the materialization of the first half of Cronus's faith - the existence of the evil wizard - and not the second - that he would become a wizard to defeat him. This is one of the single greatest karmic contributions to LE's improbable existence. Perhaps this is the source of Kurloz's pivotal nightmare, which would've sprung out of nowhere, given LE doesn't exist until after the Scratch? We can only speculate, but this seems to me the most likely source of Lord English worship within the dancestors - Hope made him real.

And so, our Bard of Hope is faithless, and by extension, hopeless - in such a way that he breathes active calamity into existence.

Mituna Captor: Tried to Warn Them, but Nobody Wanted to Listen

I'm going to preface this section with a small list of what we will NOT be discussing, not because the conversations aren't important to have, but because they are not relevant to his essay. First of all, I will not be litigating the issue of whether or not Mituna's portrayal of TBIs/neurodivergence/etc. is problematic. I will also not be discussing the greater conversation surrounding those with such conditions to consent romantically or sexually. These are important topics to talk about, but they're just not in the scope of this essay (it's long enough as it is!).

As a break from form, I'm going to discuss his classpect first. This is because the implications of his classpect provide vital context for how we are meant to interpret and understand Mituna's arc.

Doom is the aspect presiding death, sleep, the future, and endings. It sits opposite Life, as Life's equal-and-opposite, which helps shed some light on Doom-specific qualities, as we have little exploration into Doom itself. Most notably, our three Life players are stubborn optimists, and our two Doom players are mutable pessimists. Sollux is literally introduced by changing his mind about being introduced, before changing his mind a second time, while Cronus notes that Mituna has a long-running schtick of being wildly offensive, and then pathetically contrite. Mituna is stated to have visions of the future even without being one of the two future-sighted classes (Mage and Seer), making some degree of prophetic insight a part of Doom.

I'm also firmly convinced that it's Doom, and not being a Captor, that makes both Sollux and Mituna dual-dreamers. Most non-Seer/non-Mage players' main interaction with prophecy will be the clouds of Skaia or the whispers of the Horrorterrors while they're asleep, and being a dual-dreamer gives Doom access to both, as well as an extra "death" to spare - which Sollux makes great use of, as he arrives to his session dead. Moreover, being a dual dreamer allowed Sollux to be "half-dead" in the afterlife, granting him the special ability to leave - and navigate - the dream bubbles. This influence over the realm of the dead is notable, so please put a pin in it.

Heirs, meanwhile, bear a character arc of defecting from decadence. They're born into positions of wealth and comfort relative to their societies - John enjoys an upper-middle class lifestyle, with a supportive and loving father, and Equius enjoys being high enough nobility not to worry about culling, but low enough not to bear any pressing responsibilities, and has a supportive and loving lusus. Mituna, similarly, was born to a supportive and caring bicyclopsdad (as opposed to Sollux's, who was a big terrible idiot), with an eventual fate of being culled for his powerful psionic brain.

Before anyone protests that culling on Beforus is still a form of oppression - it's "a position of wealth and comfort relative to their society." Ultimately, being a stuffy capitalist isn't exactly a great destiny, and being a noble on Alternia still means being subject to a horrific system of murdering and being murdered. In a similar vein, Mituna's inheritance is a wolf in sheep's clothing. In fact, this exact wolf-in-sheep's-clothing nature of inheritance factors into the Heir's arc.

Heirs are on a ticking clock. Their aspects are powerful, but they struggle to control them. After all, they're a passive class:

He is the Heir of Breath after all. It's a passive class, and he's a passive guy. An heir, literally speaking, is one who inherits stuff.

And passive classes work best when they're allowing their aspect to be used for others:

UU: the +/- distinction can mean many things, bUt coUld be qUite roUghly sUmmed Up in this way: active classes exploit their aspect to benefit themselves, while passive classes allow their aspect to benefit others.

We see this with John, who gains the incredible power to retcon the story, unsticking it from the alpha timeline, but doesn't know how to effect useful change without guidance from others. Even Equius's first chronological expression of Void is his mere presence providing a shield for Vriska from Doc Scratch's omniscience.

But because of their privileged upbringings, it's difficult for them to know how to help others, or even that they should. John is goofy and friendly, but doesn't seem to notice that Dave is being constantly abused, and doesn't question the horrific violence of troll culture when Vriska tells him about it (something which Hussie chastises him for in the book commentary), while Equius's blind spots are even more glaring, given his casteism and complete obliviousness regarding his own fetishes.

Thus, like wealthy inheritors in real life, an Heir that fails to interrogate the systemic injustices of the system they were born into becomes swallowed up by their inheritance, another brick in the wall, rendering their aspect out of reach. John's retcon powers, before he gains control over them, nearly take him out of the story entirely (Breath and its associations with freedom and independence), while Equius succumbs to his fetish for submission and allows Gamzee to strangle him to death (Void and its associations with vice and sexual pleasure - Hussie notes on multiple fronts that Equius could've escaped at any point just by flexing his neck muscles, but chose not to because horny).

While we don't have very much information about Mituna before his injury, the dancestors' failure is a foregone conclusion; therefore, we can conclude that Mituna's current state is a reflection of his failure as an Heir, and subsequently being "swallowing up" by Doom. Mituna's injury is, within the context of the story, therefore a bad thing that happened to him, and thus, it reflects poorly on every other player who not only didn't heal him, but never mentions ever trying to.

It's here that I want to point out something odd about the dancestors as a group. Isn't it strange that they retained many of their injuries even into death?

Injuries don't need to carry into the afterlife - here Tavros is with his legs fully intact. Even if you assume that characters who consider their injury to be part of their identity, like Terezi and her blindness, therefore get to keep their body in that state after death, Latula clearly has insecurities about her sense of smell, Meulin was so disheartened by her deafness that she broke up with Kurloz over it, and there's no way that Mituna is happy about the fact that he can hardly string together a coherent thought anymore.

But remember, Heirs are experts at leveraging their aspects on others' behalf, and Doom has influence and sway over death and the dead. And so, on that note, let's actually begin analyzing Mituna himself.

The primary description we have of Mituna before his injury is this:

The Heir of Doom was once a powerful psionic. He was gifted with vision twofold, and had strong prophetic insights wherever a 8leak future was concerned. He had much to say when it came to warning us a8out the path of doom and destruction we were all headed for, 8ut no one took him very seriously. 8ut one day he lost all those a8ilities when he 8adly overexerted himself. It's hard to get any specifics from him, 8ut indications are that he applied every last 8it of energy he had toward some great act of heroism, saving us all from some looming threat. Not only did his exertion permanently 8urn out his psychic a8ilities, 8ut it left him somewhat... er. Incoherent.

Doom players tend to stagnate and stay in place. Their mutability, ironically, means they have a tendency to go nowhere. However, their pessimism can cause them to become fixated on these nowheres - to become so certain of an unhappy ending that they can become energized by the notion, steamrolling over others, which can resemble Life's stubborn optimism. It seems this may have been what happened with Mituna - though it appears to be far and away aggravated by his injury, there's an implication when he's talking with Meenah and Cronus that he was already prone to being wildly offensive and aggressive even before it:

CRONUS: your vwhole bifurcated demeanor is such an act. half the time you are noxious and incomprehensible, and the other half you are mild and contrite? sure, "PAL." CRONUS: as if im not SO on to you. you only pretend to say youre sorry to get girls to like you more. sure seems like pyropes a sucker for the ruse. like im not familiar vwith THOSE tactics. vwho do you think vwrote the book on that??

MITUNA: 817H1CH WH4Y D0N7 Y0U 5H00V3 M0Y R4D 1NJURJY P4N3L 1N7H0 URR N457H7Y 53XXXU4L3 PR1V457 P4R7H 0RF P3R3RF3R3R4NC3 MEENAH: thank fuck you were never a major playa at least from my personal vantage over the course a this ridicu huge narrative #way minor character yo MEENAH: probably woulda offed my shellf even schooner if i had to hear you talk much #really too bad since you got the bestest fishiest name of anyone #38( MITUNA: ..,.,..,,...,..,.,. MITUNA: 50RRY

What's worse, remember how I said earlier that it's implied that all the major problems occurred before their reckoning (which was likely on a timeframe of weeks or months), and then they spent six years faffing around in their session besides? This means that Mituna was left injured for six years, and not a single time does anyone mention even attempting to heal him. Even if you subscribe to the idea that their Life player's class precluded her from healing people (and it doesn't; the Helmsman's lifespan is explicitly extended by the Condesce's powers), Aranea's powerset is explicitly geared toward healing injuries of the mind:

ARANEA: I can see every fault and fissure in your mind. My vision 8-fold sheds light on every injury you have ever suffered, whether emotional or physical. ARANEA: I can repair it all for you, Jake. JAKE: (Oh no...) ARANEA: I can heal your mind. JAKE: (Oh n-n-n-) ARANEA: I can heal your soul. JAKE: N-n-n-n-n-n-n-nooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

... So why doesn't she? Why doesn't anyone? Well, the implication is... that he was annoying! He was the only member of the team who was trying to tell them to stop being such assholes, or else they would be hurtling themselves face-first into a catastrophe, and this was such a bummer and so unpleasant to hear (likely not helped by his aggressive and offensive way of wording things) that his team actually prefers him injured. At least this way, he isn't constantly calling them out for the horrible shit that they do to each other on a regular basis. Doom players are commiserators, not a healers, and their power lies in their ability to empathize and relate, opposite Life's tendency to charge forward, not caring who they trample on the way. Mituna was never able to tap into these powers of empathy enough to get people to listen to him, and he paid for this with his injury - the version of him his teammates prefer, because now they can take advantage of him.

Cronus does so most obviously, with his unwanted advances that Mituna sits there and takes because he can't reason well enough to escape of his own volition, but I posit - and will stand by this claim - that Latula and Kurloz, his two romantic partners, are taking advantage of him, too. Kurloz is implied to be directly puppeting him the way he puppets Meulin, the source of the "rumor" Cronus heard that Mituna is "lucid" when he's around Kurloz - in fact, it's implied that Mituna's injury was directly caused by Kurloz, as part of his Prince meltdown, something we'll get into more when we discuss Kurloz. I believe this is why several of the dancestors retain major injuries into the afterlife - in a dark reflection of how an Heir is supposed to operate, Kurloz is using Mituna as a conduit to exert influence over the afterlife, rendering Doom and death an oppressive force rather than peaceful resting place. I think there's a reason that Meenah questions the fact that some people have stayed injured when talking to Mituna. It should be his area of expertise, after all!

Now, while we are sidestepping the greater discussion overall of the consent of those with TBIs, I want to state that Mituna specifically, post-injury, cannot be considered fully consenting.

Cronus says the quiet part out loud:

CRONUS: i really feel like youre one of the only people i can open up to about my feelings. i guess it really does help to confide in someone vwho basically lacks the ability to repeat vwhat you say vwith any clarity or coherence, or evwen understand vwhat you said in the first place.

And unfortunately, this is pretty true: Mituna is impaired to the point where he:

Can't answer yes or no to whether he's god tier, because he doesn't know/can't remember/doesn't fully seem to understand the question.

Can't seem to understand that Meenah's asking him to strip because she's trying to check if he has god tier wings, instead enthusiastically assuming that she's asking to have sex with him.

Forgets how to take his own shirt off.

Doesn't understand that Cronus is touching him as a prelude to sexual intentions, just that he doesn't like it.

As is often the case with TBIs, he does have glimpses of clarity, but - whether this portrayal is offensive or not - the clear indication to me is that, within the context of the comic, we should come away with the understanding that Mituna can barely register what's going on, can barely understand what others are trying to communicate to him, and can barely voice what few thoughts he is able to string together. And I think it would also be one thing if he was simply born this way, but again, this is the result of an injury that is portrayed as a terrible thing that happened to him, and his injured state is not a reflection of who he was, and what decisions he would've made, before it happened.

[EDIT (March 02): This keeps being a contentious opinion that overshadows the entire rest of Mituna's section of the essay, so let me clarify.

The through-line of Mituna's entire character is that people are taking advantage of him. Whether or not he is, in fact, fully capable of consent (and this is dubious since it's dubious whether or not he's even fully capable of understanding what's going on around him - please note again that I am NOT saying people with TBIs/neurodivergence IN GENERAL can't consent, I am saying that IN MITUNA'S SPECIFIC CASE it's DUBIOUS), people are still using whatever impairment he has to take advantage of him.

I am also going to state again that whether or not it is depicted well, the comic has also chosen to portray Mituna's injury as one of genuine cognitive impairment. Sollux feeds his lusus mind honey in order to "[help] him not be such a complete idiot all the time. Merely most of the time, instead." The clear implication of Mituna begging for mind honey from his lusus is that it helps him think clearer and more lucidly, because his injury has left him cognitively impaired. Not only that, but this is a healable injury, given that Aranea stresses so strongly that she's capable of literally healing minds (not to mention alternate methods of healing available, such as Life powers or killing/god tiering him). There's a reason that Kurloz is capable of using Mituna as a hypnopuppet after the injury, but doesn't ever have seemed to before.

Because his condition is cognitive impairment that could be considered temporary, and because every single person pursuing him romantically is taking advantage of him, and because the team as a whole appears to have left him deliberately unhealed so that they can take advantage of him, and that's the POINT OF THE CHARACTER - to illustrate how shitty his team is by showing how many of them are willing to take advantage of him - I personally find it more thematically coherent if he cannot, in fact, be considered fully consenting, or at the very least for it to be intentionally uncomfortable that so many people in his team have romantic interest in him only now that he's cognitively impaired, because he's easier to take advantage of like this. It completely tracks with how many of them are also perfectly content to pursue literal children romantically.

Feel free to disagree on this specific issue, but please don't let that disagreement overshadow the greater point that I'm making, which is that Mituna is being taken advantage of. Whether or not he's capable of consent, his party is exploiting his injury-induced impairments - which could have been healed - for their own comfort and benefit. That's the point I'm trying to make here.]

And thus the Heir of Doom has inherited Doom in the worst way, becoming Doom as a force of oppression, bereft of empathy, understanding, or peace.

Latula Pyrope: Insecure Poser, Derelict Duty

Latula is a rad gamer girl... not! This is an act, and she even admits that it's an act.

PORRIM: I just think yo+u sho+uld be yo+urself mo+re o+ften. We already kno+w yo+u are stro+ng and go+o+d at games and all that. Yo+u have no+thing to+ pro+ve. LATULA: y34h. your3 prob4bly r1ght. LATULA: 1ts k1nd of str3ssful som3t1m3s, k33p1ng 1t up! som3t1m3s 1 forg3t to put z33s on th3 3nd of words, 4nd 1 r34lly str3ss out 4bout 1t. #sp3c14lly wh3n 1m off my m3ds

So what's Latula's actual deal? Well, we get a really good glimpse of it here:

LATULA: for most of th3 t1m3 w3 kn3w 34ch oth3r, 1 w4s 4ll l1k3, WHY SHOULD TH3R3 B3 TWO B4D4SS, 1N-YOUR-F4C3 GRLZ 1N TH3 GROUP??? LATULA: sort of ov3rk1ll, r1ght? MEENAH: mehhh #u searious? LATULA: 1 w4s k1nd of v13w1ng you 4s 4 comp3t1tor, 1n l1k3 4 two grl RAD-OFF. 1 w4s w1nn1ng 1n my m1nd, of cours3. but s33, 1 h4d 1t 4ll wrong!!!! MEENAH: did you LATULA: Y3AH! s33, 1m th3 t34mz R4D GRL, wh3r34s YOUR3 th3 t34mz B4D GRL!!!! 1t 4ll m4k3s p3rf3ct s3ns3! do3snt th4t m4k3 SO MUCH S3NS3??? MEENAH: that MEENAH: is the stupidest glubbin thing to require any sorta rationalization i ever heard #p lame tules LATULA: s33 p4ych3ck? 1 kn3w 1 could count on you to b3 just1f14bly cyn1c4l 4bout my n3urot1c bullsh1t. you RUL3!!!

Latula is another character we get little direct development of, so I'll head into classpect analysis early, as she's much easier to understand once we have the context of Knights and Mind players.

Mind governs logic, rationality, justice, karma, behaviors, and consequences. The justice and karma associations are explained as a Mindy Thing by Latula herself:

PORRIM: Did yo+u no+t kno+w that? #Mindfang gave yo+u five #Then left yo+u hanging LATULA: n3v3r r34lly thought 4bout 1t. but now th4t you m3nt1on 1t, th4t outcom3 m4k3s 4ll sorts of s3ns3 to m3. PORRIM: It do+es? Ho+w? LATULA: just do3s, b4b3z. PORRIM: I do+n't really understand karma. LATULA: th4ts c4us3 your3 not 4 m1nd pl4y3r.

Mind players tend to be cunning and manipulative. As the aspect presiding over the "effect" of cause-and-effect, they're finely attuned to the various webs of actions and consequences, but not so much to the inner workings of emotions and identity, which are Heart's domain, Mind's equal-and-opposite. As such, Mind players have a tendency to deemphasize their own emotions, substituting systems of karma, justice, societal attitudes, etc. to make decisions instead. We see this in Terezi's primary character struggle, the way she painted herself into a corner where the only viable outcome was killing Vriska, which happened because she consistently prioritized what Vriska karmically deserved over her own desire to maintain their friendship. In the worst case, their own identity and sense of self can become so confused that they seek out unhealthy relationships with others, in an attempt to supplement their poor sense of personal identity with some sort of external validation - you can see this in Terezi's toxic relationship with Gamzee, or, indeed, with Latula's relationship with Mituna (more on this later).

Knights, meanwhile, struggle with great insecurity. Often provided a significant role by the forces of fate and prophecy, they suffer deeply from imposter syndrome and/or self-loathing, and to help them cope with these feelings, they effect a facade that distances them from their aspect. Karkat, whose aspect presides over bonds and relationships, insists he's a big bad leader who doesn't give a shit about other people, and this breakdown of Blood's bonds culminated in Murderstuck. Dave, whose aspect presides over minutiae, goal-orientedness, and struggle, pretends to be a disaffected cool guy. In the worst case, their insecurity can become so intense that they invest completely into their facades, laying down their weapons and refusing the call entirely. Dave, at the belly of his whale, declares that he won't fight LE, as he "doesn't even think he did anything directly bad to them" - despite Dave literally being haunted by LE for his entire childhood under the guise of Lil' Cal, a detail he'd normally notice, given how often he secretly pays attention (which is a Timey Thing).

Latula struggles greatly with her own personal identity, her anxiety surrounding not having anything unique or standout about her in her friend group. To cope with this, she projects a facade that practically screams its "personality" from the rooftops - she's a dumb but radical "gamer girl". In doing so, she distances herself from her actual aspect - gone are Mind's cunning and intellect, which even Porrim calls her out on:

PORRIM: Yo+u can pretend to+ misunderstand all yo+u want, but we've talked abo+ut this befo+re and I kno+w yo+u're smarter abo+ut this than yo+u let o+n.

But, crucially, it also distances her from Mind's ties with karma and justice. Latula states that, not only does she dislike Aranea, but she can also absolutely understand the chains of karma and destiny that would've led to Mindfang and Redglare having such a contentious relationship that it led to them killing each other.

What else is Latula aware of, that she's completely chosen to ignore, out of desperate fear that it wouldn't suit her image, would make her seem less "r4d"?

Well... let's talk about Mituna. As we've already covered in his section, his ability to consent to this relationship is dubious, and the fact that it's dubious at all is already not a great sign. But I also want to bring up a couple other things. Did you know that, throughout all of Mituna's dialogue - including when he's enthusiastically trying to strip to have sex with Meenah - he doesn't mention dating Latula even one time?

Other characters will bring it up, but Mituna himself doesn't say anything about it. And, again, given that he's enthusiastically ready to get nasty with Meenah... one wonders if he's even lucid enough to know that he and Latula are dating.

MEENAH: look take off your rad shirt deal and lemme see if you got wings MITUNA: 3H3HH3H7H37H37H3 YY35 MITUNA: 7H0NGH7 Y0DU N3V3R 45K MITUNA: 817HCH 4C4M3 4R0UN57 70 MY W1L135 MU7H4FUCK5! #W1L135 #MUH #FUX MITUNA: W417 H3LUP #!!!!!!!!!! MITUNA: H3LP H0W D01 74K3 0FF MY CL07H37H 4G41N? #8( MEENAH: yeah keep your shirt on you made that exchange beyond awful

Hey, maybe he does. He does get sad when Cronus tells him that Latula's only dating him out of pity. But still, the fact that it's in question at all - and also the fact that he's totally up for cheating with Meenah - are bad signs!

But even putting that to the side for a second... what does Latula even see in him? He's constantly saying slurs, he's down to cheat at the first opportunity, he's questionably capable of stringing a coherent thought together... well, good news! It comes up in conversation.

MEENAH: mother glubber MEENAH: seriously didnt think T)(ATD last LATULA: 1dk, th3r3z w4y mor3 to h1m th4n. w3ll, 4ll th3 t3rr1bl3 4nd stup1d sh1t h3 s4ys 4ll th3 t1m3. LATULA: 4nd 1ts 4lw4yz f3lt l1k3 h3 n33ds m3 1f th4t m4k3s s3ns3, 3v3n 4ft3r dy1ng. so th3r3z th4t!!!!

So, let's actually break down what she's saying here.

She feels the need to insult him while she's trying to come up with something nice to say.

She can't actually name anything specific that she likes about him...

Except that he's dependent on her. She likes him because he can't reliably function away from her. Woof.

But I also want to turn your attention to the phrase "way more to him". What does she mean by this, exactly? Does she mean some of the traits he had before his injury? If so, how come it never comes up that Latula wanted to heal him, or tried to heal him? In fact, Aranea - who, again, has a powerset specifically suited for healing minds - comes up in conversation between Porrim and Latula, and Latula doesn't mention ANYTHING about Mituna. She's even on friendly terms with Aranea.

PORRIM: Like, as far as I kno+w, yo+u and Aranea always go+t alo+ng. Didn't yo+u? #Radglare #Kindfang LATULA: 3h 1 gu3ss. n3v3r sp3nt much t1m3 th1nk1ng 4bout s3rk3t, tbh. LATULA: 4lw4ys thought sh3 w4s 4 s3lf 4bsorb3d snooz3, 1f you r34lly w4nt to know. #zzzz #not 3v3n th3 r4d k1nd of z33s

The only other possible indication that they might secretly have a good relationship is that she threatens that if Damara touches Mituna, she'll kill Damara. Now, we'll have to save a lot of this for the Damara part of the essay, but I'll note here that Damara is perfectly pleasant and kind to people she doesn't have any personal beef with, with the example being the human kids. However, since the bulk of her team were complicit bystanders (and even Meenah's friends) in her horrific bullying, she obviously has great anger at all of them. However... if there's any exception to the bystander disease that plagued her team, it would've been Mituna, the only one trying to warn them they were headed for a terrible, bleak ending. Wouldn't he, out of everyone on the team, be someone Damara is fond of?

So, there are several options here... but they ALL make Latula look bad to varying degrees.

Damara really IS a threat to Mituna.

This still makes Latula a bystander in Damara's abuse, and a terrible hypocrite, as Kankri says one of the things he likes about her is her egalitarian, non-casteist demeanor, but she totally let a fuchsia bullying a burgundy slide, but I suppose it's the option that makes her look the least bad otherwise. Again, it seems unlikely, given the way Damara operates, but it's technically possible.

Damara is on friendly terms with Mituna, but Latula doesn't know this, and thinks she's protecting him.

This means she's still a bystander, as described above, but ALSO seems unlikely given we know Latula has Mind insight into webs of karma, and is a lot smarter than she lets on, which brings us to:

Damara is on friendly terms with Mituna, and Latula is keeping them apart deliberately.

Unfortunately, it's possible... she's dating Mituna at all, meaning she's already taking advantage of him. Ultimately, we can't say for sure what's going on there, but I don't think it's as fully innocent as it seems, especially when so much of the rest of her and Mituna's relationship is cast in such a worrying light.

Knights are tasked with leadership positions, and their failures to live up to them result in the breakdowns of their teams. Karkat's failure to manage his team's interpersonal relationships blew up into Murderstuck, Dave's refusal to keep working towards their goals means the bad guys win, and Latula's refusal to engage with the lattices of karma within her team, or deal directly with her own insecurities, means that none of these injustices ever get addressed. Even though Latula isn't a casteists, casteists are allowed to continue on being castests; even though Latula has insecurities about her own disability, those who take advantage of disabilities proliferate; even though Latula commands great respect and admiration from her team, she never comes down with the hammer - and passively allowing evil to exist is the same as picking evil's side.

And so our Knight of Mind is too busy pretending to be something she's not, cutting off her intellect, cunning and acumen, rendering justice a non-entity.

Aranea Serket: Enabled Too Close to the Sun

Aranea's another one of those characters that doesn't really directly seem to contribute to the team's problems as much, and ironically, because we have so much more of her available to peruse, there's a lot less that I need to say. It's pretty obvious what happened - she was always secretly pretty selfish and cruel, and ended up desiring the spotlight so hard that she went power-mad, challenged the Condy, and GAME OVER'd herself.

As a result, I'm instead going to do a classpect read on her, so we can better understand what she contributed to her team before her death. Which was mostly nothing good!

Light is, fittingly, one of the most well-explored aspects in the story. Governing the realm of knowledge, fortune, and vision, its players are erudite, learned, and guiding stars. Light players tend to love the spotlight, to be important, to be acknowledged - this is the crux of both Vriska's and Aranea's respective arcs, but Rose also has a flair for the dramatic, and writes her long-winded Gamespot guide as a form of one-upsmanship to the other extant guides. This desire for external validation, however, means that they're always playing to an imaginary crowd, and they don't deal very well with having that attention taken away from them. Light players are volatile and complicated, attention hogs and drama queens, and they deal poorly with embarrassment, shame, and failure.

But we already know about Light. Light players won't shut up about Light. Let's talk about something a bit more enigmatic: Sylphs.

Aranea presents Sylphs as healers and nurturers, but she's hardly an unbiased source. In fact, bias happens to be a common thread linking Sylphs, and their active counterpart, Witches, together. The struggle at the core of being a Sylph is that Sylphs are enablers.

"Enabler" is the single most consistent word Hussie uses to describe Kanaya, and I don't think it's just her Space aspect at play. Even Kanaya herself discusses how one of her major personal problems is a fascination, an attraction, with "dangerous" people. We see this exact tendency mirrored in Aranea, who has a fascination with her team's resident Thief, too.

In fact, one of the most notable things about Aranea's little expositional blurbs is the way she downplays the cruelty of her teammates, especially Meenah. Meenah's bullying was horrific, constant, and had major undertones of racism/casteism, and here's how Aranea describes it:

ARANEA: So you did your 8est to rile up the crew any way you could. Appealing to peoples insecurities, 8uried hostilities, 8rewing rivalries... needling anyone you could into confrontation with others. Your theory was that increasing everyone's state of aggression would make them 8etter equipped to play the game. And you were sort of right a8out that! 8ut the Alternians would prove it. Not our group, sadly. ARANEA: The poor girl who took the 8runt of your 8ullying tactics was Damara Megido. You talked up her matesprit's 8etrayal making her feel even more dreadful, while pushing him further into the arms of her rival, until she simply snapped. She attacked him, paralyzing him from the neck down. You finally got the aggressive confrontation you were looking for. Unfortunately, you unleashed something even you weren't prepared for, and you had to deal with her yourself. After a long 8loody duel, she killed you. And you would have stayed dead if not for me! ARANEA: You never listened to me. You just kept needling and fussing and meddling until eventually you paid the price, and I had to 8ail you out.

Let's notice where Aranea chooses to put the focus: not on the cruelty of the bully's actions, not on the horrific pain and suffering that Damara must've endured, but on how ARANEA had to save poor Meenah.

In fact, this shocking callousness is a constant fixture of Aranea's exposition. It mirrors Kanaya at her worst, as they both pick and choose their favorites in the team to lavish with kindness and attention, and treat others like objects of ridicule - Kanaya mocks Eridan to his face, and Aranea:

Mocks Latula's inability to smell.

ARANEA: She was truly an inspiration, and proved 8eyond a shadow of a dou8t that any handicap can 8e overcome, and doesn't have to stop you from 8eing as rad as you can truly 8e. MEENAH: wuuut MEENAH: serket are you whistlin through my blowhole with his idiotic shit ARANEA: Yes, that last part was a joke. Lighten up, Peixes!

Mocks Cronus's wizard faith (his one redeeming quality).

ARANEA: Whatever the case, it was pro8a8ly for the 8est, since pretty much everyone who had half a think pan thought it was all a 8unch of ridiculous nonsense. MEENAH: serket why do you got to hate on other peoples religions MEENAH: dont you kno they just as much a load of crackpotty bunk as all your spiritual bullfuck ARANEA: 8ut I........ ARANEA: Yes, I guess I was out of line. ARANEA: Sorry, I was just trying to riff with you little on a mutually disliked acquaintance. Is that really so 8ad? Why do you have to take every opportunity to knock my personal 8eliefs? ARANEA: You can really 8e so mean sometimes.

And says this incredibly out-of-pocket thing:

And says this incredibly out-of-pocket thing: ARANEA: It was almost a little eerie how happily she complied with our plan. What did Rufioh say she said? Something a8out how we would all finally get what we deserved... ARANEA: Which at the time, I thought sounded chilling. 8ut there's really two ways of looking at it. One is how the Scratch re8ooted our world into a state of pure chaos, culminating in the annihilation of our universe. 8ut on the other hand, we all got the chance to live out our wildest fantasies as adults on Alternia! ARANEA: At least you and I sure did. And I wouldn't dou8t she feels the same way.

Yeah, it sure was Damara's wildest fantasy to be abused by Doc Scratch to the point of making actual suicide attempts to escape him... and Kankri's wildest fantasy to be troll crucified, and all his friends' wildest fantasies to be hunted down for their association with him and turned into slaves, exiles, or worse... or Porrim's wildest fantasy to be raped by Mindfang.

But apparently that's part of Aranea's wildest fantasies, huh?

We also see from the Terezi situation - where Aranea first frames her abilities as "healing" and "nurturing," and makes an offer to heal Terezi's eyes as an attempt to help her "heal" from her emotional wounds - that Aranea has no idea what healing is at all. Rather, she helps people avoid (Void) what they're hurting from, what they should confront, grapple with, and accept, in order to truly move on. Knowing that Void is associated with sexual pleasure and vice, and that an Aspect often resembles its counterpart when its player is at their worst, what does this say about Actual Rapist Marquise Spinneret Mindfang, or the Jake-kissing Aranea?

Light players have an innate sense of the spotlight, and an understanding that, for it to shine on one person, it must necessarily be taken from another. Aranea enabled the two Thieves in her (after)life until they chummed up so much that they didn't give a shit about her anymore, at which point she decided to enable the one bastard she could count on - herself. And in attempting to hog that spotlight all by herself, she cosigned the entire timeline to obscurity.

And so our Sylph of Light leaves a legacy of cruelty, toxicity, suffering, pain, and oblivion, her light a poison, not a salve.

Kurloz Makara: Gave Up On "Better"

I do want to go through some Kurloz stuff before I launch into the classpect things, most notably that he's really utterly vile by the time we see him. Before his Prince meltdown, which we'll get to, perhaps there was something redeeming about him, but by the time we get to see him in the comic, he's lost any respectable qualities.

Kurloz is an adherent of the same religion as Gamzee, although, somehow, he carries even less hope than Gamzee does. Let's note the basic tenents of their faith:

You belong to a RATHER OBSCURE CULT, which foretells of a BAND OF ROWDY AND CAPRICIOUS MINSTRELS which will rise one day on a MYTHICAL PARADISE PLANET that does not exist yet.

Now, exploring this faith, and the way its interpretation changes throughout the comic, could be an essay of its own, but what's important to note here is that Kurloz will never see its fruition. He's dead, and neither has the ability to revive himself, nor the desire to do so. Thus, it follows that his personal interpretation of their faith must be darker than Gamzee's - Kurloz has so utterly given up on himself and his team that being cosigned to utter oblivion, destined to double-die by their godhead's rainbow breath, seems like a totally great outcome that Kurloz both wants and is working toward. The paradise planet doesn't actually matter to him - the act of betraying his friends, and getting everyone killed (and double-killed), seems reward enough.

KURLOZ: WE SHALL NOW BUST OPEN THESE BITCHIN ELIXIR FORTIES KURLOZ: AND POUR SOME SWEET SWILL OUT FOR THE SOULS WHO SOON WONT BE NO MORE #:o)

To that end, he's willing to lie to his teammates, and use the two people closest to him - Mituna and Meulin - as literal slaves, furthering LE's goals and pushing for LE's existence, making him one of the most direct forces acting against the dancestors.

But, as I said earlier, he didn't start out this way - so how did he get to this point of utter clowny despair? Well, let's take a look at what it means to be a Prince of Rage.

Princes have a fairly simple arc to discuss, though actually dealing with a Prince is arduous and difficult. Princes are, in a very masculine way, driven by an anxious forward momentum, by feelings of duty, by a masculine need to appear strong and take on burdens. Dirk is the most anxious of his team about their fate to sit around and wait, and Eridan's entire character has been shaped by the duty he had to keep Feferi's lusus placated.

However, these driving forces tend to make Princes controlling, aggressive, volatile, and nasty, and it's difficult to even be near one, let alone help them deal with their emotional problems. Thus are princes on a marching path to self-destruction, overtaxing their engines, burning themselves out. And given that one's "self" is tied inextricably to their aspect, this means that they take their aspect with them.

Thus are Princes on a ticking timer, and left untreated, they'll suffer a spectacular meltdown, which removes from play themselves, their aspect, and whoever is unlucky enough to be in the same room. We see it with Murderstuck, where Eridan goes on a Hope-crushing murder spree, and we see it when Dirk's trickster tirade utterly shatters Jake's self-confidence and self-worth.

But before that meltdown occurs, Princes suffer from an overburdening of their aspect - Eridan is a hipster (Hope and conviction), and burdened by several layers of political beliefs and societally-imposed duties. Dirk is solipsistic (Heart and the self), and is burdened by self-loathing, amplified by all his splinters and Hal staring back at him.

Kurloz's aspect is Rage, one of the most enigmatic, but I'll do my best here. Hope is, after all, fairly well-defined - a transformative force that imposes a new reality onto the old. Rage, its equal and opposite, is similarly a force that defines reality - but it does so by striking things from the record (something both Gamzee and Kurloz are noted to do, the former removing references to himself from recountings of his team's story, the latter creating intricate labyrinths within the bubbles to hide their clowny conspiracy with). Rage encompasses anger, but also the emotions of fear and shame - transformative energies that are the core of great acts of revolution, but also volatile, and prone to great destructiveness. Rage players "tear down false truths" - meaning, they define reality by closing possibilities, crafting meaning from the past by the power of interpretation. Hope is fanfiction, and Rage is literary criticism. Hope pens in something new, and Rage strikes out what it deems unacceptible.

Kurloz, before his turn, is characterized primarily through a single major incident - having a dream so terrifying that he screamed loud enough to deafen his matesprit, and feeling so ashamed of himself (shame being a Rage-associated emotion) that he sewed his own mouth shut in penitance. Given the way Princes are overtaxed by their aspect, it's likely that this isn't the only great shame he was bearing.

He and Damara appear to be on secretly decent terms - she is, after all, a Lord English believer, and who else would she have gotten that religious leaning from? Moreover, Kurloz and Mituna were close, if not actively dating, and Mituna was the one member of the team who seemed to give a shit that they were hurtling themselves towards oblivion.

This means that Kurloz, in all likelihood, was actually on Damara's side, and aware that his team was being shitheads - but he never said anything, later because of his vow of silence, but earlier, because it was himself he was most ashamed of. It's unclear what the inciting incident of his final meltdown was, but given the far-reaching consequences when a Prince does have their meltdown, this is likely the "disaster" that Mituna was attempting to stop - a situation that echoes how Feferi, Eridan's ex-moirail, turning on him to kill him was what finally pushed Eridan over the edge into full-blown murder. Kurloz is likely both the disaster Mituna was trying to avert and the source of Mituna's injury; subsequently, his team was dealing with a post-meltdown Prince and the destruction of Rage.

As I mentioned before, Rage is a revolutionary force, a force of upheaval and change. It's likely that the Mituna injury happened fairly late in the game, concurrent to or shortly following Damara's rampage, because the lack of Rage is starkly present in the six years following the Reckoning, where the dancestors did fuckall. But there's one other place where the dancestors' lack of Rage is present: ever notice how they don't have a single blackrom?

We'll get more into that when we talk about Meulin, but for now, I'll just say that this is directly Kurloz's fault. No blackroms, no conflicts, no change... Kurloz's meltdown was allowed to happen with no one the wiser. Rage, at its nadir, begins to resemble Hope - it gains a steadfast, religious conviction to the belief that nothing matters and everything must be torn down. We see this in Kurloz, whose spiritual belief is, functionally, that all that he and everyone else deserves is utter oblivion.

And so our Prince of Rage can no longer be swayed, a force of religious inertia, directing all beings headlong into oblivion.

Meulin Leijon: Healthy Relationship? IDK Her

Meulin Leijon's ships are all rancid. Unfortunately, they also all come true. This makes Meulin one of the most direct and overwhelming contributors to the dancestors' extant emotional problems, and why every single one of their established romances is a dumpster fire (and, conversely, why none of the healthy ships hinted at - pale Latula/Porrim, for example - are never established).

But to explain that, we have to back up and explain how Mages work. But I'm a bit tired of typing, so I'll just let Terezi and Sollux explain it instead:

TA: 2o yeah. TA: we wiill all diie but mo2t e2peciially me, end of 2tory. GC: BUT GC: DONT T4K3 TH1S TH3 WRONG W4Y BUT HOW C4N YOU B3 TOT4LLY SUR3 4BOUT 4LL TH4T? GC: HOW DO YOU KNOW SOM3 OF TH3 R34L V1S1ONS YOUR3 H4V1NG 4R3NT G3TT1NG K1ND OF T4NGL3D UP W1TH UHHH GC: SORT OF TH3 W4Y YOU 4R3 4BOUT YOURS3LF TA: what do you mean. GC: HOW YOU G3T MOP3Y 4ND YOUR3 4LW4YS TH3 V1CT1M OF SOM3TH1NG 4ND HOW SOM3T1M3S YOU TH1NK YOU SUCK WH3N YOU R34LLY DONT GC: M4YB3 TH4T 1S CLOUD1NG YOUR V1S1ON?

Mages are the active counterpart to Seers, as they're both classes concerned with glimpsing the future. Sollux is most obviously a prophet, gifted with vision twofold and Doom's natural prophetic insight, and at first this doesn't seem to suit Meulin... until you realize that matchmaking is commonly considered a form of divination, and "matchmaker" is Meulin's signature profession.

However, unlike a Seer, who's privy to all the myriad branching paths the future can take, Mages seem to know which of these futures will definitely happen for sure. This seems to be contradictory - how can multiple branching paths and set-in-stone futures coexist, when the comic - and Hussie - explicitly tend to frame even the Alpha Timeline as a result of player choices, and not predestination?

But it makes sense if you turn it around - it's not that Mages are privy to a set-in-stone future... it's that the Mage powerset allows the Mage to set a future in stone. They aren't PREDICTING the future, they're PREDETERMINING it.

This is an incredibly powerful ability, and to balance it out, Mages start out sad, and this sadness and pessimism colors their visions and causes the futures they pick out to be shitty. Terezi directly calls out Sollux's chosen future for being a reflection of his self-loathing and victimization, but wait, isn't Meulin super cheerful?

No. Actually, she's fucking miserable.

HORUSS: 8=D < She's taught me to get in touch with my anger. Through a moderately discernible series of enthusiastic mimes, she has made it clear that it is much healthier to crush all negative emotions beneath a stampede of positivity, and to always be cheerful and upbeat no matter what, even if projecting that facade is at times physically painful. #Such as #All times.

Vriska also later makes mention of how Meulin seems to have a "fascin8tingly dark history", further driving home the point that Meulin's hyperactive, friendly demeanor is a front for some really deep sadness on her part.

Heart is the aspect of the soul and the self. Its players are preoccupied with identity, and naturally talented at sussing out motivations, emotions, intentions, and desires. Nepeta's ships are usually wrong, but she clocks romantic interest correctly - she's able to pick up on Gamzee's palecrush toward Karkat, and Tavros's something-something towards Dave. Dirk, too, has an arc defined by romantic interest, feelings that ultimately don't pan out.

Moreover, Heart players are very vulnerable and sincere, and can't really help it. Divesting Dirk from Hal (whom I'm personally convinced is both his own separate entity and not even a Heart player), Dirk is incredibly straightforward. His idea of manipulating Jane is to directly tell her he's manipulating her. Nepeta's sincerity probably doesn't even need to be said.

But the flipside of this sensitivity towards the emotions of others is that Heart players are often doormats. They tend to prioritize the desires of others - Nepeta being bent to Equius's whims, and Dirk's neediness towards Jake manifesting as some embarrasing "forget how I feel, tell me what YOU want" texts. Their vulnerability also makes them easily hurt, and they tend to retreat into themselves out of fear of pain - Dirk outright states that his aloof demeanor hides the feelings his team has been trampling, while Nepeta expresses that she's afraid to engage too much with others because she's scared they'll mock her for being silly and stupid.

Thus, Meulin's situationship with Kurloz is cast into a much more uncomfortable light - and it was already pretty damn uncomfortable. Being deafened clearly hurt her emotionally, to the point she formally broke up with him, but he is still basically dating her, practically holding her hostage between her natural doormat tendencies and the actual mind control he's using on her. Her relationship with Horuss isn't much better, given the breathtakingly awful way he speaks about her:

HORUSS: 8=D < E%actly. Whoof would have thought? If you a%ed me before we all died whether I would consider romantically pairing with a r*d*culous midb100d, let alone Ms. Leijon of all people, I'd probably have died regardless, due to laughter-induced asphy%iation.

Yikes. Yikes all around. Welcome to yikes town.

Thus, Meulin is miserable, and has never been within ten miles of a healthy relationship - is it any surprise, then, that the ships she sets up for all her friends are similarly ill-fated? Let's not forget, the one ship she's actively seen making is Meenah and Karkat - an adult and an actual child.

MEULIN: (=^-ω-^=) < NOW, BEFORE I WORK MY MAGIC, WE SHOULD GET ONE THING CLEAR. IS YOUR YEARNING RED OR BLACK? MEULIN: (=ＴωＴ=) < I AM ONLY ASKING TO BE ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN, BUT METHINKS THERE IS BARELY ANY DOUBT ABOUT IT. SOMMMEONE IS WAXING SCARLET FOR A LOUD, YOUNGER KANKRI, HMMMMMMMMM?

And it's after this that Meenah develops an "increasingly manic obsession" with Karkat.

You got a CLAWSICKLE! You absolutely love this due to its nautical nature. Also, hoarding items such as this will nicely complement your increasingly manic obsession with Karkat.

This is the secret behind Meulin's abilities as a "miracle worker when it comes to match making". As a Mage of Heart, she's directly picking out futures in which certain characters develop feelings for others - and, as a result, every single existing romance within the dancestors is highly suspect.

But what's also suspect is the lack of certain romances, namely the blackroms. What's going on there? Well, as Meulin herself says:

MEULIN: ~(=^‥^)ノ < GENERALLY I STICK TO THE RED MATCHUPS WHILE HE ADVISES ON BLACK. HE'S 33RILY TALENTED AT PICKING BLACKROM PAIRS! PROBABLY EVEN BETTER THAN ME...

Like how he's exerting control over the state of their death by using Mituna as a puppet, Kurloz is exerting control over their relationships via Meulin, killing their rage - their ability to effect change and grow - at the source.

And so our Mage of Heart has had hers trampled over so many times that she's unable to conceive of a future where lovers are supportive and kind, not destructive and cruel.

Horuss Zahhak: Albatross with the Gravitational Pull of a Black Hole

Finally, we're getting to the biggest Mess of all: the Damara situation. Horuss is our starting point here, as he's the eye of the storm - while he's the least directly culpable for Damara's rampage, he's the inciting incident, as Pages often are.

Horuss's flaws are glaringly obvious - he's a virulent casteist, he's an affair partner, he feels no guilt for the harm he caused Damara, he's really only looking to satisfy his own sexual desires, and he's too bullheaded to listen when people tell him things he doesn't want to hear.

He actually spends quite a bit of time talking about his aspect, and the journey he took to "understand" it. That saves me some time.

HORUSS: 8=D < My path was similarly governed by my aspect. For the longest time, I felt as if I was a blank sheet of paper. Like I had to make myself out of nothing. HORUSS: 8=D < And so I began to listen closely to the void within myself and corral the various personal attributes I herd calling to me. [...] HORUSS: 8=D < And in following sweeps I would keep turning my mechanically augmented, acute equine ear back to the abyss within, and continue to discover more about myself. I would learn that I was more complicated than I ever imagined. [...] HORUSS: 8=D < The second is how if you are faced with any crisis of identity whatsoever, it's really important to do your best to manufacture esoteric features of your personality and believe in them very STRONGLY and tell people about those things as frequently as possible.

Again, we aren't going to get into the plurality of real life people, this isn't the essay for that. In the context of the comic, because the failure of the dancestors is a foregone conclusion, and because Horuss is especially vile and clearly not aspirational, what he is describing is, in fact, an abject failure of Void, and a failing of his character.

To get into it, let's break down what a Page of Void is, and what arc they're "supposed" to undertake.

Pages are defined by their limitless potential.

TT: Pages have a lot of untapped potential. TT: That's practically all there is to the class, actually. TT: But when they eventually find it, look out.

AA: y0u picked a t0ugh class tavr0s! AA: n0ne 0f the really useful c0mbat abilities c0me int0 play until y0u reach a very high level AA: but i supp0se it will be rewarding when y0u get there

They're magikarps - very strong at high levels, very weak at low ones. So weak, in fact, that they're defined by a lack of their aspect when they initially start the game. Tavros, the Page of Breath - Breath governing freedom and independence - is wheelchair-bound and under Vriska's thumb. Jake, the Page of Hope - Hope dealing in conviction and belief - is constantly called "wishy-washy," and has absolutely zero standards when it comes to his taste in media (contrast Eridan, who's functioning with too much Hope as per his Prince class, who's a hipster that castigates Kanaya for liking Troll Twilight).

And Void is simplicity - its two other heroes, much more representative of the aspect, embody this well. They are what they are, they like what they like. Roxy loves wizards and, as mom, loves her daughter; Equius loves horses and archery and being STRONG. Void is also associated with sexual pleasure, vice, and taboo, with Roxy's "sauciness" being something characters often comment on and her alcoholism being so foundational to her character, while you can't talk about Equius without talking about his BDSM fetish.

In fact, we can see this interplay between Void's simplicity against Light's penchant for complexity in the introduction of Rose's mother. Rose has concocted in her mind a grand, elaborate narrative where her and her mother are locked in a deady contest of one-upsmanship, that her mother's various gifts and wizards are part of some sort of ironic or passive-aggressive mind game. The truth is, Momlonde just loves wizards and dotes on her daughter. No mind games whatsoever.

So when Horuss talks about how "complicated" he's decided he is, this is a Page's penchant for regression, for aspect deficit. Horuss refuses to be honest with himself, to deal with his actual emotions of frustration, anger, and emptiness, and instead turns to complication to try to explain them. He complexifies everything he gets involved with - his affair with Rufioh is clearly a symptom of some fetish he has for dating down the hemospectrum, but he refuses to admit to it, instead claiming at first that it was simply a "fleeting dalliance" or "exploration," and then claiming it to be true love.

The one Void trait he does seem to have in excess, however, is its tendency to get so caught up in its own personal pleasures and desires that it becomes pushy to others, drowning them out, resembling Light's spotlight hogging. Equius did this to Nepeta, and Roxy would attempt it with Dirk sometimes, aggressively flirting with him despite his homosexuality. Horuss simply talks over Rufioh, not listening to a thing he says.

Also, another point to how interwoven everyone's issues are, Kankri shows up to enable Horuss and tell him to keep being complicated. Also, Kankri doesn't comment AT ALL on Horuss's constant use of slurs and casteist language. So thanks again Kankri. For nothing.

The problem with Pages is that their failures aren't contained to themselves - their weakness becomes like a black hole, an albatross about the party's neck, and they're often right at the center of major catastrophes - maybe not the direct cause, but often an inciting incident. Tavros was ultimately at the center of the Team Charge debacle, and the Jakestakes tore apart his entire team.

HORUSS: 8=D < It was only to be a very private, fleeting dalliance with a BUOY, but the whole thing became so quickly scandalized. #A spur of the moment affair, really. HORUSS: 8=D < And soon others were whisked into it such as you and the vengeful rust b100d, and... well, imagine my embarrassment. Trust me, the last thing I wanted was for royalty such as yourself to know I was pursuing forbidden b100d. To be caught with my hoof in the chocolate jar, so to nicker.

And so our Page of Void, by dint of the complicated web he's woven about himself, has ensnared others in his orbit of total irrelevance and inability to move forward.

Rufioh Nitram: Desperately Escaping Responsibility

Let me speak for everyone when I say, "Rufioh, you cheating piece of shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Rufioh, too, has his failures on brazen display. He's weak-willed and spineless, has been trying and failing to break up with Horuss for eons, and cheated on his girlfriend, but has the nerve to ask her for romantic advice.

However, what I want to really focus down on is that the specific flavor of his spinelessness is a refusal to take responsibility. He constantly claims that he "doesn't know" why Damara got more and more upset at him:

RUFIOH: and for some reason... st1ll don't know why... damara just started go1ng a l1ttle more nuts every day... gett1ng more and more jealous when she knew we were hang1ng out...

But clearly this isn't true, because he tells her to get over it.

RUFIOH: d*mn... so cold, g1rl. why can't you let the past go?

He also constantly calls her "crazy" and "jealous," framing the story as though she's the one who went totally nuts, and washing his hands of his involvement.

Remember how I mentioned that Blood tends to be overly responsible? All the way up there, when I was talking about Kankri. Well, meet Blood's counterpart. Breath is, at its best, a force of freedom and liberation - look no further than the Summoner, Rufioh's Alternian counterpart. But at its worst, it tends to be callous and immature, youthful but irresponsible. Rufioh does everything he can to avoid having to take responsibility, whether that's wilting from breaking up with Horuss, avoiding culpability for hurting his feelings, or downplaying what he did to Damara.

This youthfulness is the source of their charm, and all three Breath players share it - John loves his dumb cheesy movies well into his teens, Tavros loves Pupa Pan and Fiduspawn, and Rufioh loves kiddie anime. It's not harmful in and of itself that they like childish things, but it often goes hand-in-hand with a refusal to grow up.

Ironically, they can become so avoidant of responsibility that they wind up trapped, like Tavros was with Vriska, or Rufioh is with Horuss. If you never acknowledge that there is a problem, you can never begin to fix it. But where does being a Rogue come in?

Well, Rogues are natural-born rebels. Nepeta is the only Alternian troll to outright say that the hemocaste is stupid and casteism shouldn't exist:

AC: :33 < and i dont know anything about classes or bases or blood color, it doesn't matter! AC: :33 < what does gr33n blood even mean! it doesnt mean anything to me and it shouldnt mean anything to anyone else!

And Roxy is the most motivated in her friend group to stick it to the Batterwitch. The problem is, while they have unrest and rebellion deep in their souls, they're often at a loss as to how to address it, make it more than just a thought. This leads to them rebelling for the sake of rebelling, breaking taboos and defying commands. Nepeta refusing to listen to Equius telling her to hide and stay put directly leads to her death, and even Roxy nearly blew Jane up with a fake SBURB application in a misguided attempt to defy the Condesce.

And Rufioh? Well, Rufioh cheated. Hard as he could. For a long, long time. Started before he entered the session. Spent the whole time gaslighting Damara and calling her crazy and jealous. After all, if he actually came out and said that he wasn't happy with her and wanted out of the relationship, she'd be upset with him, and he'd have to be responsible for that. Can't have that!

And so our Rogue of Breath has been trapped in bondage, having gone willingly in chains, because the alternative - freedom and responsibility - were too difficult for him.

Damara Megido: Babe I'm So Sorry, You Didn't Deserve That

So I'm going to address a pretty common fandom take, by first divulging some personal information. I'm Chinese diaspora; my parents were both immigrants. Obviously, I can't speak for every Chinese person, and especially not every Asian, but at least from my perspective, Damara isn't racist. She's just actual representation.

Yes, Damara plays into several stereotypes, most notably the oversexed Asian schoolgirl - but that's part of the greater point that the comic is trying to make. Hussie has a long habit of putting the reader in the shoes of the characters who are wrong in a situation - for example, having the reader mock Eridan together with Rose, Kanaya, Jade, and Gamzee, or indeed, having the reader sympathize with Meenah Peixes, and hear the story from the point of view of Meenahs' biggest enabler.

Damara's google-translate quirk makes her text difficult to understand, to the point a lot of people won't even bother figuring out what she's saying, and her design makes her seem like a flat stereotype, because this is how her team sees her. And as I have extensively covered in this essay thus far, Damara's team were unbelievable assholes for doing so.

Let's look at her situation objectively for a second, and you'll see what I mean. Damara grew up with the Lost Weeaboos - she was already there when Rufioh ran into her, after he joined up after his wings came in. Yeah, Damara was the original Lost Weeaboo, not him. She was an immigrant from East Beforus, and couldn't speak English, and was seemingly only included in the friend group so long as Rufioh was translating for her - something he doesn't do when he deems it would cause problems (for him).

RUFIOH: 1f people knew some of the sh*t you sa1d... how you say crazy sh*t l1ke you want to serve h1m... f***! RUFIOH: 1t wouldn't be cool... people would fl1p... RUFIOH: h*ll, d1dn't you hear meenah was try1ng to ra1se an army to k1ll h1m? RUFIOH: 1f she could hear some of the th1ngs you told me... sh*t... 1 can't ever let her f1nd out... RUFIOH: 1f she knew, you'd both start f1ght1ng aga1n... #}:(

Not to mention, she's a burgundy, the bottom of the hemocaste, and implied to be pretty poor, too, given... she was living in the woods with the Lost Weeaboos.

Before the game even starts, Horuss starts visiting Rufioh in the woods, something that starts as an emotional affair, but quickly becomes more than that. Damara catches on pretty quickly, becoming more and more jealous and angry with him as the affair continues, but Rufioh gaslights her and lies to her about it until Meenah discovers the affair and blows it out into the open. Damara breaks up with Rufioh, but Meenah continues to use the affair to mock and degrade her.

ARANEA: The poor girl who took the 8runt of your 8ullying tactics was Damara Megido. You talked up her matesprit's 8etrayal making her feel even more dreadful, while pushing him further into the arms of her rival, until she simply snapped.

Can you even fucking imagine? Damara has nobody else to turn to. Not only are half the people on the team Meenah's friends, not only is Meenah the rich and powerful fuchsia-blooded heiress, while Damara's a poor, immigrant rustblood, but no one on the team besides her ex - who is running around slandering her for being "crazy" and "jealous" - can even be assed to learn her language. She can't defend herself, and even if she tried, nobody would listen. To them, Damara's just a flat stereotype - the meek and docile Asian waifu who speaks engrish and puts chopsticks in her hair.

This is like... actually just what a lot of poor immigrants, not even necessarily Asian ones, have to go through. Damara's struggles are incredibly relevant, and her reaction is very realistic, too. She snaps and decides that she hates everyone and outright wishes for their demise and double-demise. In this context, her hypersexual language is a form of reclaiming power - nobody cared about what she had to say, so now she doesn't care what they have to listen to. It's one of the only petty vengeances left to her, and notably, she doesn't do it towards people she doesn't have beef with - the human kids - and the fact that Rufioh can speak her language at all is why she's still willing to go so far as to call him a friend, even after all the horrible shit he did to her.

RUFIOH: um... you can keep a secret, r1ght? DAMARA: はい、もちろん。私はあなたの友達です。[Yes, of course. I am your friend.]

And death hasn't made anything let up for her. She tells Meenah to go double-fuck herself, and Meenah assumes that they're totally cool now, even though Meenah didn't even so much as say "sorry".

DAMARA: あなたのデュアルフォークを取る。二回自分自身をファック。 [Take your dual fork. Fuck yourself twice.] [...] DAMARA: 私は何も後悔はありません。[I do not regret anything.] MEENAH: apology accepted

Sorry for getting heated, but what happened to Damara - and the fact that the fandom often sides with her bullies in calling her a flat stereotype - is very near and dear to me. The Damara situation casts a pall across the entire rest of the dancestors. Despite how cruel the circumstances were, how objectively unjust they were, how obviously Meenah was the aggressor and Damara was a victim, how clearly delineated good and evil were in her situation, and how big of a problem this became, nobody intervened, nobody tried to stop it, nobody stood up for her. Every single member of the team is an irredeemable asshole by this simple fact alone, except maybe Mituna, and even then, that's a maybe and nothing more. All of them are complicit in abuse, complicit in oppression, and complicit in bullying - if not worse.

Witches are creatures of emotion. They grow up as "outsiders" to society, and as such, are very easy to sway - as they lack societal senses of right and wrong, good or evil, they tend to rely on their own emotions to navigate the world instead. This also means it's very easy to flatter the Witch into believing in something cruel. Feferi loves casteism because being a princess is awesome, and she loves feeling like she's better than other people. Jade constantly allows shitty boys to trample all over her, and the trolls consider her most culpable for Bec Noir's creation because she blindly follows the prophecies of her beloved future-telling clouds, taking direct action to doom them all.

Damara's still friends with Rufioh because he bothers to speak her language at all, even though he does nothing but gaslight her, badmouth her, and use her to his own convenience. She follows the teachings of Lord English because her feelings have been hurt to the point where oblivion sounds like a great idea.

Time is about persistence, goal-orientedness, details, and minutiae. However, its players can often become so tunnel-visioned, so frustrated, that they become destructive forces of anger and rage. In the worst case, this destructive frustration causes them to become overwhelmed with a sense of futility, something that superficially resembles Space's big-picture thinking, or its tendency for passivity. Time has ties to entropy and death, and unfortunately, Damara has come to embody that for her team.

But, most crucially, Witches cause change.

The dancestors' session is victim to a glitch that ultimately renders it unwinnable - they didn't perform their own ectobiology. Such glitches are described as the "calling cards" of Lord English, his way of reserving a universe to destroy. But, as discussed above, LE did not actually exist until the dancestors brought him into their session by scratching it.

It's stated that, after her initial rampage, Damara began performing acts of "timeline sa8otage" up and down their timeline. I believe that it's during this time that she wound up causing the ectobiology glitch - retroactively rendering their system unwinnable, forcing them into the Scratch. After all, Damara knew what would result from the Scratch - Kurloz had inducted her into his religion by that point, and she was heard muttering that the Scratch would deliver them all "what they deserve".

And so, our Witch of Time was tempted by the forces of evil, and ultimately led them down the path of destruction, closing down all options until they had no choice but to Scratch, and - of course - though the dancestors had one last chance to back out, choose the selfless option, and let no more harm come of their actions - they picked the selfish option, and passed their problems onto the next generation.

Meenah Peixes: Ultra-Bitch

Meenah is her team's leader, and she represents the worst aspects of her team - the casual cruelty, the lack of responsibility, the kid-kissing, the failure to grow up. In a way, there's no leader more fitting.

The greatest thing she contributed to her team was her ruthless bullying, which didn't do anything but make everyone feel worse about themselves. Of this bullying, Meenah's favorite target was Damara, but we already covered all that in Damara's section. I want to talk about some of Meenah's other failings here, because I think the comic did such a good job of unreliably narrating her escapades that even many in the fandom seem to think she's a much better person than she is.

In truth, Meenah is a toxic friend, a bad influence, and her "cool"ness serves as a smokescreen to cover the depravity and cruelty of her actions. She is consistently running away from responsibility, consistently taking advantage of weaker-willed individuals, consistently constructing a narrative around herself where her actions were justified and anyone who disagrees with her is just a lame loser. In reality, she's just a rich bitch mean girl. A bog-standard bully. Someone who thinks literal children are pursuable romantic targets. You can't lose sight of this.

MEENAH: i dont verbally torture my cray schemes like all the serket girls MEENAH: and that works ok for me MEENAH: guess i made some mistakes but who really gives a flip [...] MEENAH: i just MEENAH: did shit MEENAH: and the shit i did MEENAH: meant only the things the shit accomplished MEENAH: and if that shit accomplished a dumb thing that sucked MEENAH: then i guess thats what you call a mistake and oh fuckin well

Sure, Meenah. Your deliberate, constant, unrelenting bullying, the active choices you made over, and over, and over again, are completely excusable by just saying "they were some mistakes" and "oh well".

Meenah ran away from responsibility four times over the course of her story: the first time was running off to the moon because she didn't want to be heiress; the second was blowing up her home planet rather than dealing with succession; the third was cooping herself up in her moon palace until a bigger threat presented itself, and the fourth was encouraging Vriska to give up on struggling against Lord English and run away with her and the LE-killing treasure. Not only that, but she tries to convince Karkat to jump off the meteor with her to fight LE - something that's framed in that conversation as a literal act of suicide, as LE is still, as far as Karkat and Meenah know, invincible, immortal, and unbeatable.

Speaking of her conversation with Karkat, let's zoom out for a second and take it in objectively. I think many are tricked by Karkat's softness and vulnerability here into thinking that the conversation they have together is cute or wholesome, but that isn't the case. First of all, let's remember that Meulin has just implied that Meenah's got some romantic feelings for what is - again - an actual child (I think he's literally 14 here). So. Yeah. And then second, let's remember what Karkat's arc is.

Karkat is a mutant, and has lived his life alternately in fear that he'll be killed if anyone ever finds out, and filled with self-loathing, since he knows it means he'll never be accepted by society. Moreover, he's aware of the prophecy that he's supposed to be Troll Jesus's second coming, and he's deeply insecure about it.

MY BLOOD IS NOT FIT TO FLOW THROUGH A SEWER, AND MY SIGN IS A PICTOGRAPHIC SYMBOL THAT LOOSELY TRANSLATES AS "PLEASE HIKE THESE PANTS UP TO THIS GUY'S ARMPITS, CHAIN HIM TO A FLOGGING JUT, AND MAKE A FUCKING EXAMPLE OUT OF THIS SORRY SACK OF SHIT." WHEN I LOOK IN A MIRROR, MY REFLECTION SLOWLY SHAKES HIS HEAD WHILE I WET MYSELF IN SHAME.

The fact that he knows that his ancestor is the Signless puts his initial desire to join the Threshecutioners in a very sad light. As he tells Meenah, he harbored fantasies that he would fight so well that they'd let him join, in spite of his blood color, even knowing objectively that they'd probably just kill him on sight.

KARKAT: THEY WERE LIKE THE DEADLIEST SQUAD OF INTERSTELLAR FIGHTERS UNDER THE COMMAND OF THE EMPRESS. THEY HELPED CONQUER MORE PLANETS THAN ANY OTHER IMPERIAL FORCE. BUT IT WOULD HAVE BEEN IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO MAKE THE CUT, BECAUSE OF MY BLOOD. SO I USED TO THINK OF ALL THESE ELABORATE SCENARIOS TO HIDE MY BLOOD COLOR. OR IN THE MORE RIDICULOUS FANTASIES, MAYBE I COULD EVEN PROVE MY WORTH AS A SOLDIER? LIKE JUST BE SO AWESOME WITH A SICKLE, THEY WOULD JUST HAVE TO MAKE AN EXCEPTION. MAYBE EVEN BE LIKE A FOLK HERO AND RISE THROUGH THE RANKS TO BECOME THE LEADER. HAHA.

He desires, so so so deeply, to be accepted. He hates himself - this is the first thing revealed to us in his introduction.

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS. As was previously mentioned, it is your WRIGGLING DAY, which is barely even worth mentioning. It is an anniversary, if anything, to lament the faults of your existence, of which there are assuredly plenty.

As a result, he's equated societal acceptance with self-worth - tricked himself into believing that if he can gain the approval of society, the approval of the Condesce, then he'll finally be able to feel less like a worthless, kill-on-sight miscreant.

This is the lens we must look through his conversations with Meenah through. These are not soft, tender exchanges where Meenah helps Karkat deal with his emotional issues. This is the young adult version of the Condesce trying to tempt a literal child into suicide, leveraging his desire to be accepted by her in order to stroke her own ego. When he says Alternia was great, that's a bad thing. Alternia sucked, and it sucked to him specifically, but he wants to be accepted by it so badly that he's willing to act like it was awesome. When he says he respects the Condesce, that's terrible. She's an evil monster who directly caused all his and his friend's problems, a monstrous, genocidal dictator who revels in bloodshed and misery. And when he says:

KARKAT: OH, BUT ON ONE CONDITION. AS THE NEW EMPRESS, YOU HAVE TO APPOINT ME AS GRAND THRESHECUTIONER OF YOUR ARMY. DO WE HAVE A DEAL? MEENAH: oh yes yes you got it yessss

This is sad, actually. This is just really sad. Karkat wants to be accepted so, so badly that he's willing to jump off the meteor on a suicide mission. He wants it so bad that he's willing to lie down and let the forces of fascism, oppression, cruelty, and evil win, just for a crumb of validation.

And, yeah, it's romantic to Meenah. Just to be clear with everyone.

MEENAH: i was standin around in shoutkats place when it all dream switched on me outta nowhere [...] MEENAH: and i think MEENAH: we might be goin on a date later?

Hey, remember how she's 19 and he's fourteen fucking years old?

So, yeah, later on, when she starts having little giggly fits with Vriska, rolling around in the fields with her? When she starts grooming Vriska to dress like her, get tattoos with her nautical themes? Yes, I'm going to use the word "grooming". That's what it is.

Vriska is a vulnerable child. She was raised by an abusive, demanding, narcissistic spider, and all her friends just abandoned her because of her resultant nasty personality. And remember how I pointed out that Meenah likes to run away from responsibility?

VRISKA: What if we just........ VRISKA: Gave up on the mission? MEENAH: gave up VRISKA: Yeah. VRISKA: What do you think. MEENAH: um MEENAH: sure VRISKA: Sure? VRISKA: You don't think that would 8e a wussy move? MEENAH: well yeah MEENAH: it would be MEENAH: if a couple of cowards did it MEENAH: but that aint us MEENAH: so we cool to do whatev VRISKA: That's a very good point. MEENAH: nofin wrong with stickin a fork in a shit idea that just makes you miserable MEENAH: hell the best choice i ever made involved givin up MEENAH: one day i said MEENAH: fuck da throne MEENAH: ran off to the moon MEENAH: thats how this whole crazy mess kicked off MEENAH: and if i didnt do that MEENAH: i wouldnt of met you 38) VRISKA: VRISKA: ::::)

I hope this conversation hits a little different.

[EDIT (March 02): I also wanted to add that, in order to make the above conversation even more obviously a case of an adult taking advantage of a vulnerable minor? Directly preceeding the snippet I included in the essay, Vriska outright admits that she no longer trusts her own judgement. So Meenah heard that, and decided to make a move.

Yikes. Yikes all around. Welcome to yikes town.]

Thieves are, as the name suggests, selfish and greedy - they harbor some deep emotional hole that they attempt to fill with "wealth". For Vriska, it was narrative importance, and for Meenah, it was forward motion, as that's what Life's all about. However, they do so at the expense of others, not realizing that harming their own group relations harms their own ability to self-actualize and attain true happiness. The one time something nice happened on Meenah's team, it was when Meenah wasn't taking, taking, taking, but when she baked a cake for everyone.

But Meenah wasn't content with that.

And so, our Thief of Life defeated her own agenda in an effort to move forward, her mistakes culminating in the doom of herself and all her friends, as her misguided grasping toward forward motion ultimately led to the ugly side of a tumor-bomb.

Final Thoughts

I know I've been really negative towards the dancestors for this entire essay. And I do think they deserve it. However, please don't confuse that with me saying I think they were "bad characters," or that I dislike their inclusion in the comic.

On the contrary, I think they're all very, very good characters. Their utilization in the narrative is excellent, and they perform their narrative function incredibly well. I think Hussie's a fantastic writer, and I find the dancestors fascinating - if you couldn't tell from the massive essay.

But they are shitty people - and that's the point. The role they serve to the kids is as evil mentors, bad influences, dark reflections. Maybe they were redeemable before they ruined everything, but they passed the point of no return. At every juncture, they chose the selfish option, the cruel option, the easy option, and in some ways subtle, some ways overt, they encourage their kids to do the same.

But - crucially - the ones to come after them can choose differently. And I believe in the version of Homestuck where they do.

Thanks for reading.

#homestuck #homestuck analysis #damara megido #rufioh nitram #mituna captor #kankri vantas #meulin leijon #latula pyrope #porrim maryam #aranea serket #horuss zahhak #kurloz makara #karkat vantas #cronus ampora #meenah peixes #classpect #classpects #classpecting

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surielstea · 1 year ago

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Words on Paper

Based on this request.

Pairing: Azriel x Fem!Reader

Summary: Azriel’s jealous over a male in your book and it’s hilarious.

Warnings: Just fluff, short Drabble :)

1k words

You and Nesta hadn't shut up about the men in your books all morning. The new Sellyn Drake novel had come out less than a week ago and the both of you couldn't stop raving about it, you swore you had dreams about the characters, and when you weren't caught up in the plot you were analyzing the characters, the male love interest specifically who Nesta and you were all but frothing at the mouth over.

"I need him, unfortunately," Nesta sighed, looking over to me as we held our planks. Valkyrie training seemed to go a lot faster when the both of you got the chance to debrief over chapters and share what you were passionate about, Cassian didn't seem to care as long as we stayed on task and kept up with the movements.

The exercises had become second nature to the both of you, sure it wasn't as mindless as breathing but after it's been part of your routine for weeks it truly does come naturally, like a second language that only the two of you can speak.

Azriel was slow to insanity at this point. He couldn't seem to adjust to the idea of you taking interest in anyone but him. With Mates, the rule is that if the bond is accepted then there's no one else for that person, intertwined by fate.

So why was he so irritated when you rambled too long about a guy from a book?

"Are you two working out your mouths too?" Azriel stands above you, arms crossed over his chest. Slowly, you look up at him with a wide grin. "Sorry, sir," you tease. Nesta shakes her head in exasperation and you giggle.

It took one minute of silence until Nesta and you were whispering amongst each other again.

Azriel seems to have given up days ago, his eyes narrowed at you from across the sparring mats, Cassian next to him as they drink their waters.

“Doesn’t it bother you?” Azriel asks his brother, continuing to stare at both of their mates. “Does what?” Cassian turned to him with an arched brow. “That they’re so obsessed with those men from their little smut novels,” Azriel mutters and Cassian nearly laughs at the death glare the Shadow Singer was saving for the fictional male, who as of late was threatening to take his wife away.

“It’s just words on paper,” Cass shrugs, bending down to place his water on the ground. “I know but, the idea of her wanting anyone else gets under my skin,” Azriel argues and this time Cassian does laugh, it was so odd to see the revered Spymaster so torn up about some guy, who wasn’t even real. “What’re you jealous of him?” Cassian scoffs through his laughter. Azriel rolls his eyes and puts his water down. “Whatever, just don’t come crying when you can’t satisfy Nesta anymore,” He grumbled.

“I doubt that day will come,” Nesta hums from behind the Shadow Singer. He knew she was there, you with her, but he needed to get his point across. “Hey hun, you ready to go?” You dip under his arm, placing a hand on his bare chest. He only nodded in reply.

“Hey, remember what I said, it’s just words Az,” Cassian said before you got the chance to winnow him away, he nodded once more then you took him home.

You didn’t want to know what the General was going on about, you could tell from training Azriel was a little irritated but you couldn’t remember doing anything to irk him.

“You gonna tell me what’s wrong or just keep pouting like a baby?” You ask and he scowls down at you. You smile, hands coming to his jaw and pressing a soft kiss to his lips, he barely has time to reciprocate it before you’re pulling away.

“What’s got you so tense?” You smush his cheeks together and he just stares at you in reply, so you begin to guess. “Something Cass did?” You ask and he shakes his head no. “Something I did?” He doesn’t move and you deflate, flinging your arms over his shoulders and melting into him. “Can’t you just tell me what’s wrong, please?” You sigh into his neck, already admitting defeat. “Do you like him more than me?” He blurts and you stiffen, pulling away to look up at him confused. “Like who?” You utter. “The guy in your stupid book,” He grumbled and you openly cackled before slapping a hand over your lips. “It’s not funny,” He groans backing away from your touch and plopping down onto the sofa, where he could sulk in peace. “I know, I’m sorry Az,” You say, taking deep breaths to control your giggles. “I’m just saying, what does he have that I don’t?” He frowns and you walk over to him, sprawling over his lap and straddling his hips. “Perhaps a control on his emotions?” You tease and he grumbles beneath his breath like a child, looking away from you.

It was true that Azriel was quite explosive. One would think he’d be less reactive as the Spymaster and yet he might’ve been the quickest to action out of all the inner circle. It was a weakness, something he was working on. It was rude of you to point it out but you make up for it by peppering a line of loving kisses up the side of his face.

“I love you, okay? Only you,” You reassure. “Those men, they’re meant to be thirsted over, you understand that don’t you?” You ask and the male nods. “I just don’t want you wanting anyone else,” He looks at me and my grin widens. “Awh, Az,” You wrap your arms around him and squeeze him tight. “I’m all yours, don’t worry,” You muffle into his neck. “Yeah? All mine?” He asks and you nod rapidly before saying, “Promise,”

“Now stop acting like a big baby,” you pull away from the hug and hold his face in your hands. “I’m gonna go bathe, you gonna keep moping out here or do you wanna join me?” You tease. He doesn’t answer and instead picks you up from where you sit and walks you straight to the bathing chambers.

General Taglist: @fxckmiup @olive-main @iluvyewman-blog @gaymistakeboi @glitterypirateduck @amara-moonlight @impossibelle @fauxdette @going-through-shit @glam-targaryen @cauldronboilme27 @sarawritestories @tele86 @rogerbarnesxx @azriels-shadowsinger @stinkinstuffie @sandramalikstyles-blog @sassyangel16 @lilah-asteria @starsinyourseyes @inloveallthetime @melsunshine @nighttimemoonlover @ireallywannasleep127 @cumuluscranium

Azriel Taglist: @coolepowersthings @lovely-giggles @quiettuba @ilovewarner45 @judig92 @tothestarsandwhateverend @je-suis-prest-rachel @call-me-a-fool @brieflyclassymortal @cherryjain17 @stqrgirlies-blog @chelsiemp @nyxbranwenn @dnfhascorruptedme @summerandsalt @annamariereads16 @thisiskaylin @itsbonniebabe

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cirusthecitrus · 3 months ago

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Dissecting Horde Prime's titles

So do you remember the time when this polite lil gentleman dropped HP's long ass title at us? Which is-

The Emperor of the Galactic Horde, Ruler of the Known Universe, Regent of the Seven Skies, He Who brings the Day and the Night, Revered One of the Shinging Galaxies, Promised One of a Thousands Suns!!! AND I'm pretty sure there were a couple more left unsaid before Scorpia shut bro up All those pompous titles could simply be a bunch of clashing words thrown at the heroes to show how absurd and fullish and superficial the Galactic Horde empire truly is. But I'm willing to analyze each and every one of them and, as always, find more meaning that was probably originally intended And my first question is: is this really who Prime is known as in the Known Universe? Do people on other planets accept him as any of those things?? Or is it something only the clones actually know about and they are the only ones to whom Prime's titles hold any meaning at all? Did he made this all up? Is it yet another lie to make them believe their god is more important and powerful than he is? To make it seem like their servitude is even more noble and honourable, to make it seem more like a privilege? Or are those actually normal legitable titles for intergalactic rulers and emperors? Is Prime a simple menace to the universe and a self-declared ruler or a recognized big political and spiritual figure?

The second big question is - if those titles are real, where do they even come from and what do they mean? It is possible that HP's given himself this long list of titles as yet another way to elevate himself above everyone else, demonstrate his importance and simply stroke his own ego. But he might've also be given those titles by someone else. For something he did for or to the world So let's go through all of them one by one and try to guess the meaning behind them The Emperor of the Galactic Horde, Ruler of the Known Universe - yeah these ones are pretty self explanatory. Though it is still unsertain if he was officially declared a ruler of the whole universe or Prime just thinks everything he sees belongs to him even thought he hasn't actually conquered it all yet

Regent of the Seven Skies - now this is interesting. The Seven Skies might be the cosmic version of the Seven Seas, aka seven main parts/routes of the Known Universe. OR, if we bring up mythology and religion the Seven Skies might mean seven levels of heaven/gods' domains. Makes sense so far But why regent? "Prime is eternal" so why calling himself someone who only governs the Seven Skies for someone else? A temporary substitute for the real ruler? Now this might be the title given to Prime by someone else. Was he chosen a regent for the previous Prime or another ruler? Was he chosen to be someone overseeing the world/heavens before the real gods return? No matter what actually happened, in the end HP refused to give back his position of power. And thus he might've kept this title as this weird reminder of how it all started (wink-wink totally not smth i explore in my kur twins au wink-wink)

Thought in our case the word regent might have a different meaning. In very rear instances a "regent" can be called a person who conducts a church choir... And now it all falls back into place

He Who brings the Day and the Night - yeah a doubt Prime has the ability to control the luminaries so lets focus on a more metaphorical meaning. Day and Night - Peace and War - Life and Death - Rebirth and Destruction - you get it. But day and night may also mean Light and Darkness, which kinda implies that Prime is the source of everything the Horde is supposedly fighting against. It is Prime who brings the shadows and darkness to the world, something he himself deems sinful, horrible, unforgivable and undeserving of existence. And he doesnt even hide it! The truth was right before his brothers eyes, and they never realized...

But it's also interesting to speculate if once upon a time the darkness and the shadows weren't actually something inherently bad in the eyes of the Horde. What if the dark was once celebrated along with the light? What if the members of the Galactic Horde were once allowed to love the dark? Allowed to love the night?

Revered One of the Shinging Galaxies - now this one implies that he is (or rather was) someone highly respected among many galaxies (cant tell how big the numbers are), might as well be idolized and worshipped. I mean duh, he'd supposed to be a cult leader, they are meant to be adored by their followers. But this might actually be the only evidence of Prime not only being feared and hated, but also loved by the world. This might proof that his clones werent his only real followers. Again, if this is a legit title Prime didn't pull out of his ass

Promised One of a Thousands Suns - I can't tell what are the Thousands Suns exactly - kingdoms/empires/councils/rulers? Are the Suns if what the Know Universe calls their gods? Can Prime be also called a Sun then? Is he a chosen one, something close to what She-Ra was to the First Ones? Was there some type of prophecy predicting Horde Prime's rise to power? Was he promised as a bad omen, as a future plague to the universe? Or was he awaited, wanted, beloved, treated like the world's savior even before he even existed?.. (wink-wink)

Another interesting thing - the words Sun and Son sound almost the same. Which unintenionally adds another hidden layer to this title's meaning. Promised One of a Thousands Sons. Thousands sons - thousands brothers... It almost feels like a sound illusion, a trick to make the clones feel closer to Prime, feel like he belongs with them and they belong with him for they're the same, to make them believe that they're almost equals. They are all brothers, they are all important and special and they all play a role in the higher plan. But Horde Prime is a little bit more important, a little bit more special, and there's no other brother like him

So yeah, that was my free and totally biased interpetation, i'd love to know what your thoughts are cause I do not remember anyone else discuss Horde Prime's full title before. They may be meaningless afterall, but not to me, never to me u-u

#spop #horde prime #horde clones #shera #spop meta #spacebats #ramblings #how do i keep finding things to analyze about the horde in the year of our lord 2025

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myerssimp21 · 1 year ago

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Batcave Meeting (YAN!Pt.3)

Romantic!Yandere!Batfam Part 3. Part 1, Part 2 here (context: Tim Drake purposefully got aphrodisiac'd when fighting Ivy and then went over to Darling's apartment to smash. This is a batfamily meeting about that and how to move forward.).

As you obliviously drifted to sleep, the live feed of you doing so was being projected onto a big screen in the BatCave while members joined together at a table, casually watching you as you yawned and readjusted against your pillow. The imposing man situated at the end of the table clasped his hands together, regarding the young men in front of him. Once everyone was seated, the imposing man began speaking to them, noticing how many of them had their eyes glued to the screen.

"We're going to discuss what happened the other day and plan for next week," he announced, and the pouty brunette who had had a frown on his face now crossed his arms.

"Allow me to explain it from my perspective first, Father," he said, sporting a moody expression, "You and Drake were unexpectedly out of commission during your patrol, which, while not typical, is understandable given our line of work."

His eyes flicker over to Tim and Jason, narrowing in contempt and disgust.

"Todd and Drake both know how important our duty to Gotham is," Damian continued while making eye contact with Jason, "But instead of prioritizing that, they let their impulses get the better of them. Drake especially for instigating the situation. Using Ivy's aphrodisiac to... indulge with our darling? It's selfish, reckless, and disrespectful."

"Damian, hold on a second," Jason interjected, "I had no idea about the aphrodisiac. It was my night off so I was sleeping in and missed Bruce's calls when he and Tim got doused in it. I only woke up because the audio feed from her apartment was turned up and I heard them together. I blew up Tim's phone and went over when he left because I was pissed, and I didn't realize that was why she couldn't get enough. I feel really bad about it now that I know."

Damian's expression softened subtly as he absorbed Jason's explanation. Despite his composed demeanor, the tension still lingered in his features.

"I appreciate your honesty, Todd," Damian conceded, his tone slightly softer, "It's still not acceptable that she was acting strangely and this was not analyzed, but I understand that the situation was...unconventional."

As Jason and Damian had a moment of newfound comradery, Tim finally spoke up, "I understand your frustrations, but you need to know that I researched Ivy's aphrodisiac extensively before I ever considered using it. I made sure it wouldn't have any adverse health effects on anybody and appropriately calculated the risks."

Damian's expression darkened further, his negative feelings towards Drake beginning to truly show. "This isn't just about general safety or the safety of some substance!" he exclaimed, "It's about respect and her consent. You had no right to manipulate her like that, whether or not it posed a physical risk."

"Come on, Damian," Tim retorted, a hint of defensiveness creeping into his voice. "She didn't find out about the aphrodisiac, did she? So what's the big deal? It's not like we hurt her or anything. She's fine, and she doesn't even know what happened. In fact, she likes us even more because I made a move for us. Why are you making a big deal out of nothing?"

Jason scoffed, his distaste in Tim at this point evident. "Seriously, Tim? You're gonna act like a douchebag just because she didn't find out? That's messed up, even for you."

"It's not just about the immediate consequences," Damian shot back, his voice angrier. "It's about the long-term impact on her. I bet you didn't even stop to consider how your actions could affect her, or how they could undermine the trust she has in us. And what about the ripple effect it could have on her relationships with all of us? He's playing with fire, Father, and he needs to be held accountable."

"Let's not overlook the bigger issue here," Tim said, his voice defensive, "What I did was perverted, I admit that. But let's not pretend that bugging and wiring her apartment is any less invasive. That's hardly consensual either."

"Don't you dare deflect the issue!" Damian's voice rose, and he was now yelling, "We implemented those measures for her safety, not for our own entertainment! It's a gross violation of her privacy, but at least we did it to protect her!"

"Oh? And having two separate cameras staring at her bed is going to what, protect her from bad dreams?"

"Dami, Tim, let's try to keep our cool here," Dick interjected gently, easing in to defuse the tension, "We're all on the same team, remember? We need to work together to figure this out."

Damian turned to Dick with a measured gaze, "I want to hear your perspective on this matter, Grayson."

Dick sighed, solemnly addressing Drake. “Tim, what you did wasn't just a mistake. It was a deliberate breach of trust. She relies on us to keep her safe and instead of focusing on that, you exploited her vulnerability.”

"Also," and Dick seemed more pained at this part, "You betrayed our trust. We all care about her and you influenced her desires for your own gain."

Tim sat in silence, his expression filled with shame as he began to realize the gravity of his actions. He knew he had acted irresponsibly, and the weight of their words hung heavy in the air. Jason and Dick exchanged silent glances, their disappointment evident in their expressions.

Damian took a deep centering breath before focusing his attention back on Tim.

"This isn't about whether she found out or not, Drake. If you still don't understand that, then we need to take more drastic measures to address and punish this behavior. Father, I appeal to you to implement anything you deem necessary to prevent such behavior in the future. We cannot allow such indecent actions against her to to be repeated."

Bruce, understanding the severity of the situation and having now heard everyone's perspective, nodded solemnly at Damian.

"Tim, in light of your actions, there are going to be some consequences," Bruce stated firmly, his tone leaving no room for argument. "You need to schedule therapy with Dr. Thompkins to address the troubling attitude that led to this situation. While we have taken invasive measures to monitor her, as Damian pointed out, your actions went beyond that."

He paused, allowing the weight of his words to sink in before continuing. "Until you've attended and Dr. Thompkins deems it appropriate, you will be restricted from having any contact with _____."

Finally, Bruce's gaze softened slightly as he looked at both Damian and Tim. "And Tim, it's imperative that you and Damian eventually reconcile. We're a team, and we need to remain united in our goals and overall behavior. I expect both of you to work towards rebuilding your relationship for the sake of the team and our darling."

"Damian," Bruce addressed his son, "since Tim will no longer be able to have contact with her, I'm assigning you a new responsibility. You will substitute him as her school friend and be someone she can rely on for assistance with homework and company. I want you to pick a class of hers that sounds interesting to you and make sure you're there to support her. It's important that she has someone she can trust and rely on, especially now. It's an opportunity for you to show her that she can count on us."

As the meeting continued, Damian spoke up, "I'll join her art class. It will allow me to assist her with her assignments and ensure she receives the academic support she needs."

Bruce nodded in approval. "Good choice, Damian. Make sure to approach this responsibility with care and dedication."

Turning to Jason, Bruce's expression grew serious. "Jason, I need you to be especially understanding and supportive towards her. If she feels troubled or has any lingering negative thoughts about what happened, I expect you to be there for her."

"Of course, Bruce," Jason says, eyes fixated on the now-sleeping figure of their darling on the cameras, "I'll do whatever it takes."

Dick now spoke up, "Can we talk about introducing me as Jason's roommate?"

Bruce shook his head, "Not yet; I want to make sure Damian successfully integrates first. You can still frequent around her job but no more interactions than that."

"Except for as a vigilante?" Dick replies hopefully, and Bruce gives him a measured gaze similar to his son's.

"Yes, although I expect you to exercise patience and primarily work in Blüdhaven for now."

Damian cuts in, "And don't be like Drake and fabricate a reason for her to need you."

"Damian," Bruce says in a tired voice, "I've made myself clear."

Damian looks down with an expression like he's biting his tongue and contempt is bright in his eyes, "Sorry, Father."

With that, the meeting concluded, each member of the Batfamily knowing the roles they had to play in ensuring their darling's well-being and trust remained intact.

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fulcrum-021 · 5 months ago

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The psychology of Agent Kallus

Been thinking a lot about the fact that Kallus in a lot of ways, even post redemption, is not a good person. There often seems to be applied this black and white view on the Rebels characters, despite the show itself speaking against this, but I do think it's especially interesting in terms of Kallus. A lot of headcanons seem to diminish his involvement or responsibility in the genocide of Lasan. Additionally a lot of headcanons do the same in removing his agency in his own enlistment into the Empire. While I'm a firm believer that headcanons shouldn't be judged on realism or adherence to canon, I still want to use these headcanons as examples to analyze the further themes of Kallus' character and why they - in canon - matter.

So, a disclaimer; this is not an attack on the headcanons I mention, nor the people who created/enjoy them.

In The Honorable Ones, Kallus has a line that I think is really interesting, because Kallus affirms the role he played in the genocide of Lasan, but the way he phrases it sounds as if he's diminishing his culpability.

"On Lasan... It... It wasn't supposed to be a massacre. But I realized the Empire wanted to make an example. I know before, I took credit for it."

To me, at least, this reads as Kallus pushing the blame higher up. He might've given the orders, but he only did so because he knew the Empire expected it. This seems like cognitive dissonance, which can happen when there's a conflict between a person's actions and moral beliefs (very simplified).

Everything Kallus says during the episode seems to back this up. This quote itself is a great example of displacement of personal responsibility, which is a form of external self-justification. Basically shifting the blame to avoid the mental turmoil of facing the reality of one's involvement/responsibility. This is a common coping mechanism seen by soldiers. "I was just following orders" is a prime example of this.

Now, when Zeb questions Kallus on Geonosis, Kallus' response is once again SO telling. This guy is a psychology text book and doesn't even know it!

"The only thing I know about Geonosis is that the population is gone. I never asked questions."

This is a mix of selective perception and confirmation bias. Kallus is specifically choosing to avoid and ignore the things that point towards the Empire doing harm, as this would directly conflict with his internal view of the Empire and its role in the Galaxy. It's important to note, that him not asking questions implies that he knows what the answer would be. Otherwise, why would he be afraid to ask? Zeb is a smart cookie, 'cause he very much picks up on it and confronts Kallus, resulting in Kallus deflecting by changing the subject.

Z: "Well, maybe you should start. Or are you afraid of the answers you'll get? Afraid you'll learn the Geonosians were wiped out by your precious Empire?"

K: "And why would we do that? What could possibly be the point?"

Z: "Ah, good questions. Chase the answers, and maybe you'll learn the truth."

K: "You know, you'll never get out of here without my help."

This, imo, further proves that Kallus is actively, by choice, avoiding to think about the implications of the Empire's actions and his own involvement in this. If Kallus has to accept that the Empire's actions happened and were wrong, then he also has to accept that for his own actions. Zeb is directly challenging the justifications he has built up in his mind and Kallus has run out of excuses.

While I could go into the psychology of dehumanizing your enemy and thus justifying your actions by so, I'd like to discuss the implications of these themes in a character sense.

To me, it's incredibly important to understand that a character like Kallus is not a result of bad things happening to them. While these might be motivational factors and might shape their world view, Kallus certainly didn't end up carrying out a genocide on accident. A big part of his redemption is him coming to terms with this fact. He had a choice and he made the wrong one, time and time again. While Kallus started out with good intentions, he slowly became desensitized to fascist ideals and brutality. When things started going against his own beliefs, he instead chose to justify it as a means to an end - for the greater good. A greater good he could no longer recognize, but instead of challenging this he chose to ignore it.

I think it's incredibly interesting and imo it makes his redemption arc all the more realistic. It's not that he changed his mind about his actions, he just finally took accountability and action. He started asking questions

(I know this might be a bit too soap box-y, but it feels incredibly important to understand this now especially. It's so easy to fall for propaganda and to slip into fascism. It's important to be aware of the mindset that can lead to this and how to challenge it.)

#swr #sw rebels #star wars rebels #agent kallus #alexsandr kallus

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soo-won · 2 months ago

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Suwon's character analysis: From being shown to showing

Suwon is really a character all about being watched and scrutinized, isn't he?

Of course he's not self aware he's a fictional character but his position as a King and in relation to Yona ironically put him in a position that gives him a similar awareness that if he did. Suwon is judged and analyzed by everyone, in and outside the story. He knows that when he shows himself (and appears in the story) he has to perform a certain way. He has a role to follow and perform until the end. The way he speaks, the way he stands, the way he moves...being King means controlling and being aware of all of it. The moments we see through this costume are moments where he's taken by surprise and becomes "out of character" for this role. Moments where he's literally called out by characters around him for it, making him fall in his expected role more and more. He has to behave a specific way, he has to wear specific attires, he is very aware he is the object of many gazes around him. When he performs his role perfectly he is judged but in ways he expects because it's others' roles as well. When he breaks out of this role, he is judged anyways for losing himself. No matter what Suwon does or says, others will judge him or love him and expect things from him. It is true in the narrative and outside of it.

The South Kai arc with chapter 221 and 224 has him desperatly try to stick to his role that is slipping through his fingers, he has to position himself in contrast and opposition to Yona, he has to be the King his father wanted until the very end, etc. Yet, Yona and Hak kept breaking these roles as well. Hak, in full armor from Kai, the enemy, arrives and gives the senjusou to Suwon, in full King attire at this moment. Hak enters the stage like a blast when the curtains were about to fall and turns all formalities and rules of distance and what is allowed or not to dust. He breaks the role he carried until now as the character that should hate Suwon forever and try to kill him, and saves him instead. The fact that Suwon is King then doesn't really matter, Hak did this as his former friend.

In chapter 243, Suwon wants to speak to Hak privately but is well aware that if he comes out and does that, he will be seen and judged, confirmed by the shadows in chapter 251. He is not allowed to be himself without any costume freely, hence the cloak and hood on. He is not allowed this one private moment, eyes are on him and not only Hak's that he very much expects as well. That's why Suwon's tone the whole chapter is so...ambiguous. At the beginning, he speaks matter of factly, maybe not as "Hak's King" but at least in a unpersonal way, like an anonymous messager. He tells him information. That's why he calls Yona "Princess Yona" too I think. It is Suwon trusting Hak and relying on him personally, yet he is not totally open yet, Suwon still has a role to play. The more it goes, the more the tone shifts subtlely, now calling Yona by her name, his hood falling when Hak hits the wall, and talking more personally. What he shares then is what he is resigned to do and accept given his position and role that he can't just give up on now, what is the most reasonable within the range of his actions from then on. What he conveys to Hak is that he will not break character and stop performing his role as King, the one thing changing being only how he passes it down to Yona.

However, there is one final thing that the manga makes perceptible for absolutely no one but Hak, that even the shadows can't hear and understand. Suwon's last word(s) to Hak is not digitally typeset like every other text inside speech bubbles, but handwritten so small it looks like muttering that we can't for sure confirm the full forms of. Since chapter 243 came out, I did try for a long time to decipher it, and many concluded it could be a "sayonara" or "arigatou", and it was also translated and typesetted in the official English translation as "Farewell".

But honestly, now I think it is something we should not and are not supposed to decipher. In my eyes, it was Suwon's attempt to have just one thing, one word that would not be scrutinized and broken down to pieces by the people that watch him with no regard to his agency. The only thing we break down is the unintelligible form of it. I'm sure that we are not wrong to think it was something along the lines of a "Farewell", but I can't help but feel like it's not right to take even that from them now. This page is also the trigger that makes Hak understands that their entire convo was in itself a performance that Suwon directed from the start and aimed at people looking at them (the shadows and the audience), and the real message that he conveys only to Hak and not the shadows is that he is giving him and Yona a chance to escape and never return, despite the fact it goes directly against what he told him clearly in their conversation. I think this is what breaks Hak's heart too then, and why Hak realizes that he indeed can't dream of walking on the same path as Suwon anymore. Because Suwon will keep performing a role that will constrain him this way and make him hurt Yona and Hak. That this is maybe the path awaiting them too. The best way is to escape from it when it's not too late. It is too late at this point for Suwon though, or so he thinks. Suwon is self-aware that he can't discard them by this point, so to me this is him trying to negociate these feelings of his (by leaving them one chance to leave) with his role and constraints as a King in this complicated, indirect way.

It's very telling afterwards how the moment from chapter 243 Hak remembers is Suwon's final word that we can't read, whereas for the shadows it is the moment he tells Hak he will make Yona the next ruler. The unreadableness of the former and the enhanced size of the text in the latter...yeah. Suwon's words removed from their full context often are enhanced like that, aren't they?

Suwon is at the same time forced and not allowed to change. He is at the intersection of clashing expectations. It is bad whether Suwon follows his role perfectly or whether he breaks out of it a little and tries something different. Suwon is cruel to Yona and Hak and should die for his actions, or Suwon is too nice and submitting to Yona and Hak (and the larger narrative). No matter what Suwon says and does, it will cause discourses after discourses from both those supporting him and those against him. It is cruel, because people around him are changing and looking him differently than before, whether it's good or bad. In chapter 242, he acts out perfectly as the determined and pragmatic King he is as always, yet now even Geuntae doesn't seem satisfied. Suwon, because of Yona's influence on the people and world around them, has also no other choice but to adapt to these changes in some ways, yet characters like the shadows that refuse any change from 10 years ago stand against it. Again, then chapter 243 to me is Suwon's way to still perform his role as expected from others by negociating with all these sides in some ways. But it's really so complicated, isn't it? And in the end, a chapter like 243 was painful and upsetting for everyone.

I read many people say that Suwon was not here enough in the castle arc and it was annoying that Keishuk was so much present instead, and I remember very well how desperate I was to see him more by then, but it makes sense too, no? After all, Suwon didn't want to be seen. By showing himself as little as possible only in the moments he knows he can perform well, he was still somewhat in control of what people saw of him. The illness made it that Suwon could just not perform more than he did. He didn't want anyone and especially not Yona and Hak to try to see him beyond the performance, yet they kept getting closer and closer, pushing Suwon to hide himself away more and more too.

Suwon knew very well that the second he came out in the open he was closely looked at, by Shin-ah of course, but Shin-ah is only the best example of this general feeling of being watched and judged I think. This is Suwon's interpretation of Shinah's gaze, and I'm sure there is part of truth in it but I think it is also heavily influenced by Suwon's own feelings. Suwon was judged and followed for isolating Yona when she learned of the illness and for imprisoning Hak, but those were things he was only /indirectly/ the cause of. Of course, Suwon didn't do anything to go against them and it was his responsibility this way, he knew and had the authority to decide different, but what I mean is it portrays very well how Suwon is aware, /feels/ the way others scrutinize him ever since he killed Il for every single negative (direct and indirect) consequences of all he does and is. He will never be free from it. People will never let go, even when Yona and Hak do. I think the wound on his shoulder or the pain of his illness he doesn't act on enough are also symbols of that. His present shoulder wound is the literal trace and scar of Shinah's gaze on him in chapter 249, and Suwon is okay with carrying it.

It's not like the story has never let us enter Suwon's mind before recently, after all the narrative doesn't strictly follow only Yona's POV, but Suwon from the beginning was still generally a character seen from the outside by others rather than followed from inside. All these iconic scenes of characters looking at him, whether it's only his back or in the eyes are very much about that. These scenes serve to show how Yona (and Hak) is the subject of the story and will always watch him and what he does, the way Suwon watched Il for 10 years. It also serves to confirm to him that they hate him and wants him to die, etc...

It is very interesting too that the majority of flashbacks we have of him (outside of the one in chapter 11 and some bits of ch1/185) are never from Suwon's POV, but from others and how they perceived Suwon and felt about him then. Hak in particular. Even the diary arc is not from his POV. It is always about the conflict between the characters' first impressions of him and other sides of him revealed to them later on. Suwon to characters and to readers alike is like a puzzle we try to resolve, picking him up piece by piece. Each POV about Suwon is important because he is seen differently by each character, they all see different parts of him and reveal new things about him in reaction.

But this is precisely where we differ from the characters individually and what makes the larger narrative not solely about Yona's subjectivity. As readers we can assemble each piece in a way characters, even Yona, cannot. Moreover, we are also shown some bits from his own POV that no one else inside the story get to see. That's why honestly...I don't see Suwon as a puzzle to piece together since a long time. Of course we don't know and maybe don't understand everything about him, but the characters' struggle to understand him is quite different from readers' position when they judge him one way or the other, in my eyes. The only way I can make sense of why the story would go out of its way to narrate things about Suwon only to us when he is a character all about being shown and seen, is that at the end of the day the larger narrative is and was never against Suwon, its scope includes him too, we are made to feel for him as well. It is only so hard with Suwon because he himself doesn't let us and has circumstances that doesn't allow him that. Akatsuki no Yona is very much about Yona's subjectivity above all, but not fully and totally either and it cares about other characters as well (whether it does it well or not is another topic), and the existence of a character like Suwon we are shown glimpses of the interiority of from the very first volumes highlights this well, I think.

Despite this, the characters' struggle didn't end. And that's where the nuance between what the larger narrative of Akatsuki no Yona tells us about him and what Suwon as a character-narrator shows and tells us is meaningful. Suwon is a fictional character that depends on a bigger narrator and author of course, but there are several layers of narration in comics art, some which embrace the mind and subjectivity of one chosen character and making them "independant", agent of what they show and tell.

When we are shown what Suwon thinks in chapter 217 or in chapter 221 for example, I don't think it was that Suwon as a character wanted to be seen, but only that he was breaking and vulnerable in a way that made these bits showable to us. The fact we see Suwon's thoughts is a representation of Suwon's emotional state. It's not something Suwon has agency over at his own level. He is not a narrator in those moments, but a character being shown.

More precisely, Suwon did try to resist the narrative in chapter 217. Inner monologues in comics and especially in shoujo manga can be represented in different ways and have different functions. In chapter 217, there is a visual contrast between the thoughts that "float" on the pages, his personal lingering feelings for hurting Yona, and the thoughts in the black boxes, that have him rationalize the situation. Generally, monologues in text boxes are said to be a more objective level of narration (I get this from the "How to draw shoujo manga" book by Shigeki Suzuki, a former editor for Dessert's magazine).

Obviously, Suwon is not objective here, but it represents his attempt to affirm his authority on what is told and narrated, his control on feelings he doesn't want to acknowledge and to get out in the open. He tries to be a narrator. The metaphor of a box that opens against his will is then perfectly fitting. There are the words typed in text boxes, and the words out of these boxes. In the very next page, the boundary between panels and text boxes is blurred thanks the magic of shoujo manga composition. The first two vertical panels could very much be text boxes on their own, and what he says in them is still him being pragmatic and rationalizing what he has to do. Yet, as we see, Hak is now in these boxes as well. It breaks the illusion of Suwon as a character-narrator here (which was already hinted at by the choice to make the bg of the text boxes so dark). He can't control his thoughts from going towards Yona and Hak, he is not showing that willingly.

What we see inside Suwon is him still performing the best he can. It's him trying to convince himself and push himself to fulfill his duties with no hesitation. It's still not all of him, there are still things that he tries desperately to hide and keep deep deep inside of discarded boxes. Inside and outside, he has to be the perfect pragmatic King his role ask, so all that is shown has to be that. He can't allow himself to be anything else, he has to shut off and erase any trace of different voices in his heart. Yona, by being a person that expresses and voices out her feelings more, brings these feelings Suwon doesn't want to show on the page, she shows them to us. Seen like that, Yona can maybe thematically be a representation of Suwon's repressed feelings.

(A bit differently but similarly, it is a similar process in chapter 221 where this time Suwon can't barely try in any effective way to narrate what he's thinking, what we see as panels and text boxes make no difference anymore, until it blows up for good when he has this flashback of Hak and Yona from chapter 11 and realizes he can't discard them. )

So, Suwon is a character that is shown to us in several ways. One, there is how he is seen from the outside, the way characters perceive what he shows to them or what is shown about him to them. This is the layer Suwon has the most control on in a way (even if not totally), as his position in the story makes him very conscious of his obligation to perform because people are watching him. He shows his full control and flexibility of his image in the ways he willingly pretends to be more naive and weaker than he really is to Geuntae, Soojin and Li Hazara for example. He plays with others' expectations and perception of him. Outside, Suwon is already full aware of how he is supposed to present himself, he already knows what is going to be shown or not for the most part. He allows himself to break out of character when he knows no one else watches him, which are the rare moments the narrative can show him when he's not performing. As the story advances however, these moments become much rarer as he is watched closely by more and more characters in his privacy.

On the other hand, there is how the higher narrative tries to show us his emotional state, his point of view and feelings. It is inherently something he as a character is very against of ever since he became King. Even then, what is shown to us at several occasions is Suwon's failure in showing us what he wants to show, instead having taken from/out of him what he doesn't want to reveal. The Crimson Illness is an interesting metaphor for it I think. It can easily be interpreted as a visible manifestation of Suwon's already existing struggles, after all. The Crimson illness makes all that is hidden visible to others. It gives it physical symptoms. Again and again, his illness and bloodline are revealed to others against his will. The illness is the crack to the performance Suwon tries to maintain as a strong King. It makes him vulnerable, forcing him to depend more on others. It breaks his role and how he wants others to see him. He wants to be seen as strong and independant and in control, but he can't control his episodes and when he is shown in a frail condition. It brings out what is inside, it makes his repressed thoughts visible to us readers as well, it's the reason why the narrative shows us his inner struggles more closely.

Suwon can only somewhat control and influence what is shown outside, which why I think he showed himself so little in the castle arc as an attempt to show himself only when he's in an "acceptable" state for it. In the end, he still pushes himself more than necessary when he has no other choice (and because he doesn't want to rely more on the people around him). However, after the South Kai arc Suwon knows important development. From then, Suwon has no choice but to face things for real : His is sick, heavily weakened and disabled by it, and is going to die soon. In parallel, he also acknowledges he can't discard Yona-Hak, and that he can and has to rely on them for Kouka's sake.

Chapter 243 is the very first time (Minsu aside I imagine, but we are not shown that) that Suwon himself tells someone directly about his bloodline and his illness. As said before, chapter 243 is an entire performance, but it's one where he got to choose the person he wanted to say these things to. However there is still a gap between what Suwon wants to show to Hak and what he doesn't want to show to others. The chapter is still framed not from Suwon's POV at all. Suwon has no privacy, even in a scene initially presented to be only between the two of them. The idea that at this point Suwon is allowed any privacy is unreliable framing influenced by Hak's flawed POV. Hak by then is not yet really aware of the existence and purpose of Suwon's personal bodyguards in detail. Suwon can convey messages undirectly, but because he still has to show himself a certain way to characters like the shadows he's not allowed to show things explicitely. He can only be seen through others' eyes, forced to rely neither on the images nor the text typed and shared by the narrator(s), but instead on the subtext and unintelligible scribblings. Suwon is still bound by the vow the Shadows made to themselves 10 years ago, but freed at the end by the vow bounding Hak to him. To Hak alone he can share his truth : that he can't and won't respond to his expectations, nor that he is only what he shows as King to others. No one else might understand, but he trusts Hak can get the message.

Then Suwon is attacked by Shinah, and at first we were not shown at all what Suwon was thinking and feeling. The second he wakes up in chapter 256, he leaves that behind him and thinks as a King again. However something important changed, obviously he still has people around him he has to act a certain way for, but the shadows are no more. The people left around him are more flexible and actually rejoice that Suwon decides to retreat. They don't know it was partly motivated by lingering feelings for Yona and Hak, but they're still more flexible and allows Suwon more privacy and agency.

So it brings us again to chapter chapter 261/262, which are to me the very first occurence of Suwon being allowed to be a character-narrator where he gets to truly show and tells his own story. Showing instead of being shown. Showing the experience and feelings of being seen. Chapter 262 doesn't only highlight the importance of gaze in Suwon's character, but is meaningful by making Suwon himself show it to Hak, and to us readers by proxy. This is what makes Suwon and Hak's interactions in this chapter so so important. Suwon, as already established, is still resolved to perform his duties as King until the very end. That's why he still doesn't show himself bare in front of the people of Kuuto, Mundok or Lili. He still has to be a strong King that inspires confidence and reassurance to them. He can't show that he is actually chronically ill and severely wounded. What citizens expect from the King is to be strong enough to withstand, resist, and win against all the disasters they face.

But when it's only Hak and Suwon alone next, Hak is of course annoyed. There is no one on the rooftop of the collapsing palace to watch and judge them. Suwon doesn't have to keep his armor, his King costume, and keep performing in front of him, acting like his wound doesn't hurt him this much and that he's perfectly collected. The shadows are no more, they're isolated from the city. Hak as we can see with chapter 200 or 224 is annoyed by all these roles and formalities and always go against them. This is what makes Hak free. Hak goes wherever he wants to be, will play any role needed to get there and let go of them when they get on his way. Hak says he sucks at letting go, but in a way he is much better at letting go of these things than Suwon is, even when he doesn't have to keep them.

Something interesting in this scene, as already pointed out by others, is the intent behind making Hak order Suwon to undress. Despite his tone, he still doesn't undress Suwon forcibly to then show him to all of us against his will, but encourages Suwon to act upon it himself. He is frustrated by Suwon's own passivity in regard to himself. Suwon has to ask for Hak's help, but it is still triggered by Suwon's own will. Hak forces Suwon to ask for the support he needs in order to have agency. Showing himself is difficult for Suwon, both literally because of his wound and emotionally because he is not used to it, so Hak helps him for it. Of course, the act of removing his armor and letting go of his father's sword is also when Suwon at long last can stop just performing as the King character he is supposed to be. Finally, through his trust in Hak, he can truly and openly show something different to us readers too.

Then Suwon talks about himself. Not just facts and objective information like he did in chapter 243, but how he feels and what /he/ sees. Finally, Suwon tells and shows.

This spread is one of my favorite of all times I think, because it just encapsulates everything I'm trying to explain with this post. Suwon is undeniably a character-narrator in this scene because of how he shows willingly and literally to someone else what he saw and felt, making this moment surreal. After all, it should be impossible for Hak to see that. The text in this spread is typeset like is any inner monologue and is not in speech bubbles. Hak, by the rules of narratology in comics is not supposed to hear any of it. They are thoughts inside of Suwon. However the last panel showing the bottom part of Hak's face seems to imply that Hak very much sees and hears it all. Hak here is in our exact position as reader, able to see, read, feel what Suwon is sharing inside of him. It's not something brought to the outside taken from him for it to be broken down, scrutinized and judged by others. Instead, Suwon makes us come to him inside. It is something incredibly private and intimate Suwon shows in full spread to Hak and us alone. It is precious. Suwon's narration transcends narrative layers to reach Hak's senses and ours at the same time. It represents how Shinah in dragon form is watching him, but by doing so he is very much the one to show himself and Shin-ah. It is not a first person narration where we would see things through his eyes, but a third person one, above. As a character-narrator, Suwon is obviously not at the top of the narrative hierarchy and Kusanagi is the one making all these narrative and laying out choices, but here, she lets Suwon carry the role of teller and shower. In chapter 249, she decided against showing that to us directly like she showed how he felt in chapter 221. She willingly gave Suwon the time and space to do it himself when he was ready to, to the person of his choice alone.

As Hak says at the end of chapter 262, Suwon can choose another path instead of repeating the same complicated one. As we've seen, his role as King indeed puts him in an overcomplicated and messy position where he has to jungle between clashing expectations and duties and his own feelings, making everyone and him first hurt in the end. From then on, Suwon can try another path for real.

In that same chapter before he removes his armor, Suwon also tells Mundok that he can't possibly influence the Heavens. So here, I have a final interpretation about this:

Aren't the Heavens the representation for a higher narrative layer? They're the ones making the "final" judgment and punishing characters or not, they're the ones making (one layer of) the narrative of the story through the prophecy. They can't be touched and reached for, they're in another world above the characters. Suwon is well aware that he is only a character with a defined role in the narrative, so to him, there is only so much he can do and it's pointless to fight against it. In chapter 268, Suwon says again that there's nothing he can do since they're not people. The Gods are the ones seeing and showing everything.

It is perfectly illustrated in chapter 268 with Yona. Yona didn't want to make it about Hak at all, she doesn't want to involve him in any of this, and doesn't openly mention and express her feelings for him inside the chalice because it is not her focus and priority then. Yet the Gods show everything against Yona's will and to her despair. They bring out and show her and us a majority of moments Yona shared with Hak, many that were supposed to be only with the two of them. But like the Shadows with Suwon, the Gods were always watching. Yona was able to make her own decision and was resolved to leave the chalice with the dragons before they brought this up in chapter 267. It is something shown about her and against her, they take from her any agency she had, she is trapped. Similarly to Suwon in chapter 221, she is forced to face feelings she underestimated the paralyzing power of.

However, I'd argue that Yona still managed to bring the Gods closer to us, at least from the invisible higher layer they were on the narrator hierarchy of the story to a layer inside the narrative. Again, she brought them on the page, she made them real, she made them characters and more "human". They're still entities with the power to show, but also visible characters that can be changed and talked with: they literally can be moved and influenced. Yona and Zeno showed them to us, in the sense of making them visible and revealing them to us readers. Maybe the way they treat Yona is their reaction against it, unconsciously. After all, bringing them on the pages of the story forced them to face their contradictions, it is threatening them. Unfortunately, by chapter 268 it still didn't strip them of their powers and ability to control the other characters' narrative.

But I think Suwon perfectly understood all of this. Suwon now has the power to show his perspective. Even if the Gods aren't people, he is free to choose the way he frames how he is seen and watched with his own subjectivity. He is now a subjective character, not only an objective (in the sense of being object) one. That's why his plan depends on getting the Gods' full attention on him. This page is so similar from Shinah looking at him in chapter 262 for a reason. Suwon now gets more control and freedom in what he can show and tell. Suwon literally brought the Gods down to us and showed them. It's not like Yona climbing up to them. Suwon has the power to influence the Heavens and the narrative, because Suwon is not only his static character role, but a character that can change and who we can openly feel for. He won't submit to the Dragon Gods' narrative like he was resigned to before. He is the narrative too. Like Yona or Hak or any other character we ever followed is. Akatsuki no Yona is a story about characters and their feelings, and Suwon can now fully embrace his power in it.

So I find the resonance between Suwon's developing agency in the narrative and the way readers engage with him really interesting. I guess Kusanagi didn't expect Suwon to be controversial the way he is to this day when she started the story and created him, but I like how she discusses it in the story and tied it so beautifully with his character arc. I said about chapter 243 that we shouldn't try to decipher Suwon's message, but actually I don't think that's true. I don't think Kusanagi is that pessimist about her readers. Sure, we see as much as the Shadows or as the Dragon Gods do but we're not them either. The characters share so much with us too, like seen in chapter 262. I think the story simply wants to encourage us to question how we engage with the characters and what we expect from them by representing caricatures of extreme fandom opinions (that can be pretty prevalent and very vocal unfortunately). Suwon himself was always a character we were encouraged to decipher, I think. Otherwise it would mean not trying to understand him at all because he played the role of an antagonist (or whatever he can be called) anyways, which is incredibly sad. I think we were always encouraged to resist against that and try to understand him despite his own resistance. Suwon needed to learn that it's okay to be vulnerable and show us, and that it won't make him less loved and cared for.

Suwon will probably always be a character that is scrutinized and judged in and outside the story, it keeps being so despite all recent developments. But today I am convinced that nor Suwon on his level as a character, nor the narrative will keep making him a character that is forever only seen by others anymore. Now we will see what Suwon sees and feels what he feels, he will show us. He will influence the Heavens and shake the narrative itself I'm sure, he will bring them all down to us.

I love you Suwon <3

#akayona #yotd #yona of the dawn #akatsuki no yona #suwon #soowon #lumen rants #i love you suwon #writing everything but my thesis im crying #i wonder if it could be said that while suwon brings others down #Yona moves the entire narrative higher and higher #like while Suwon brings specific characters to his level and strips them of their higher authority #Yona given her position as protagonist we follow the closest #brings the entire frame of what we see together with her. she goes to others #whereas Suwon brings others to him...or something #Yona doesn't really remove anyone's authority but she climbs up to their level #And within that I feel like Hak is kinda a free spirit that moves from one to the other lol...#I will keep observing and test this theory with the future chapters...we shall see...#it can be that deep #if you're interested in the topic of the narratology of comic art i recommend the book of the same name by kai mikkonen #the free pdf is easily findable #akayona thoughts #yona #princess yona #hak #honestly? the 30 pictures tumblr limit annoys me sm.#there is so much more i wanted to include here to illustrate. I hope it's not too hard to read.#yes suhak is that major and meaningful in the narrative and their love is groundbreaking too

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randomthefox · 5 months ago

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Absolutely my favorite cutscene in the entire game. There's so much to MICRO ANALYZE about it! My favorite thing to do ^^

Why Shadow. You look like you've seen a ghost.

The way he looks at her when he recognizes it's her. It's just so perfect. He's in total disbelief. It has been twenty years since ShTH, twenty years since he moved on from all that pain and trauma. And now she's back, staring him in the face. He doesn't know HOW to feel about it.

The way he fucking BACKS AWAY FROM HER when she runs up to hug him! He isn't HAPPY about this reunion, he's SCARED of it. Scared that it's perhaps some kind of trick that he shouldn't trust as really happening. Scared of letting down his emotional barriers and accepting it as a real event, and being hurt by that vulnerability. Scared of losing her all over again. The way they conveyed his emotional state of mind via his expressions and body language is SUPERB.

This could have been SO EASY to fuck up. It would have been so easy for them to have some trite bullshit hokey reunion where Shadow goes "Maria ='D " and tearfully embraces her, oh pinch me this must be a dream! (You know, like what they did in fucking Archie)

Golly, you know, if you were to tell me that the person who wrote this piece of trash garbage stupid idiot comic book was also the same person who wrote Shadow Generations, I would be forced to conclude that you didn't know what the fuck you were talking about. Because it couldn't be more clear that the HACK FRAUD MORON who wrote this stupid comic clearly didn't have anything to do with the creative decisions that went into this video game literally whatsoever at all.

anyway....

"Huh, well, she hasn't tried to stab me yet, so I guess this isn't some kind of Sonic Omens boss fight hallucination..."

You can see Shadow starting to accept that this is really happening at the very least, although his emotions are clearly still very mixed up about it.

Once again, absolutely perfect reaction. The way his pupils fucking dilate at the sight of Gerald. And again he steps back. His feelings are probably very similar to how he reacted upon seeing Maria, but probably some extra emotional conflict thrown in because of the whole "Gerald brainwashed me and tried to turn me into an instrument of revenge to destroy the world" as well. Imagine the last thing your father ever did was try to stab you to death with a knife, and then all of a sudden you were thrown back in time to the first time he ever changed your diapers. It'd probably give you some fucked up internal emotional conflict.

Let's focus on the look on Shadow's face. You can see the gears turning in his head. This threw him for a loop for sure, he doesn't know how to feel. He's disoriented. But then

he locks in.

Shadow ain't no dummy. He's been paying attention to all the levels up until this point. Hell he just ran into Black Doom earlier. Obviously this is some time travel shenanigans. What's great about this is that it's all internalized, this is just his inner monologue. It provides insight into what his thought process is at every other time too. We so rarely are given telepathic insight into the characters internal thoughts like this. Shadow is having this kind of inner problem recognition to problem solving analysis all the time, we just aren't usually privy to it.

He goes from looking at Biblically Accurate Black Doom in the sky, to glancing towards Maria when she starts talking to him, then glancing away from her as he tries to think about how he should respond. He doesn't want to tell the truth just yet. He doesn't want to let on about how he's really feeling. Perhaps he's trying to think back about what he was like back when living on the ARK, and get back into that kind of personality? Or perhaps he doesn't particularly care, and has just shifted into Mission Mode moreso than anything else.

Hehe, I love his little gestures. "I'm fine. *waves his hands around like a power ranger* we'll ALL be FINE!" He's so animated. You can really tell how much he's off his game because of this encounter. I'm inclined to think he's trying too hard and laying it on too thick because he's putting on a bit of a performance right here for Maria's sake. Which is why Gerald is able to get a hunch that maybe this isn't HIS Shadow after all.

Best cutscene in the game, I fucking love it.

#sonic x shadow generations #shadow the hedgehog #maria robotnik #gerald robotnik #sonic #sonic the hedgehog

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astracoreiiisblog · 1 month ago

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sirius shipping "analyze" that u might find interesting or not

i really wanted to address smth that it was also addressed by one of my moots, but oh well, why not write my own thing. i'm open to any sort of question about this bc i think that talks about ships are fun and make it very clear on how u view characters as well lol

i have said multiple times in my blog that i do ship wolfstar, i just don't ship them in a way most of the fandom does, and i also don't find the "dramatic star across lovers appeal" (or whatever the saying goes) about them. in theory, for me at least, this obviously is my personal take, everything about this is personal take, even sirius/snape is more interesting than sirius/remus. some of u know that i'm not wrong. in the books sirius and remus dynamic have "few colors." sirius and remus in consistent with their characters in the books would be dysfunctional and not like the fandom usually portrays them. if we go by the theory that sirius did have romantic feeling for james bc of his parallels with snape and his feelings for lily, sirius would probably be using remus because he can't get james and remus would probably be very much aware of that.

nothing in the books suggests that remus and sirius had a particularly close relationship when they were young. in fact!!! considering what transpired, they may have been the least close of the four lol. there is a typical adolescent boy group hierarchy in the willow scene (teen boys) it is never depicted as a friendship between equals. given that remus and peter are both followers in the group, and reminding remus's failure/struggle to monitor/stop/speak up sirius and james's behavior

but as adults we do see that they're different. and that's why adult wolfstar makes so much more sense, either sirius reciprocating remus's feelings after years or both getting to know each other again in romantic lenses.

and now where am i'm going with this? there is a clear reason, despite my constant whining in my blog why prongsfoot is not popular, and the reason is that jily, the actual canon couple, harry's parents, the main character's parents, will always be more powerful than any ship trying to separate them. it's easy math, it's always going to be like that. jily is simply more important as a couple than prongsfoot or jegulus, or any other ship with them in it. that's the hard truth my prongsfoot heart had to accept ages ago.

but this is just sad, isn't it? sirius literally on every side you looking at it not having any functional relationship, lmao😭. not that everyone necessarily needs one, let me be clear here, i actually am a huge huge huge huge fan of ace sirius. but i also think that love plays a part in human's life and i want to explore that with his character.

so this why marlene mckinnon become one of sirius partner. an order member, very niche no? very simple math in a literature sense AGAIN. (all im doing here is finding the x guys) but there is also, a very very interesting lookout to them. marlene as an ooc of the fandom, has now for years, been the female version of sirius, and the question airs, knowing what a complex individual sirius is, would he date someone similar to himself? how would that would work out.

dating someone that is a mirror of yourself, is exactly what someone like sirius needs in my personal opinion because it means sirius has to face the issues he knows he has, and people tend to do things better/healthier etc when they do things for other people rather than themselves. i think this is also something taught in martial arts, how your body strengths when you want to protect someone closer to you by much more than you protecting yourself.

now why marlene? marlene could not be barty, emma, emmeline, benjy, evans and the many more characters that the fandom has created and added to our marauders era to make it more full, is because marlene is the one we gave sirius's persona to. she is the one who can mirror him. she is the one who we can say "two sides of the same coin" for many fanon reason we have created along the jouney, she is the one that helps us the best to take sirius part by part bc they are mirrors of each other and dating ur mirror? ooff that sure sounds something i, personally, want to explore and devour.

edited here: oh no marlene is not a savior, that is not how i wanted to come across as AT ALL, marlene holds him accountable, and sirius would hold her accountable, bc i view their persona, morals, way of thinking, ethics, the same, so by dealing with each other's bullshit, they would simultaneously be dealing with their own bullshit. relationship like theirs, either go dysfunctional bc again, dealing with the package you carry and healing from it etc, it's not a walk on the park, but if they DO eventually deal with it, in which they also wouldn't bc marlene dies, but, oh well, they would fit together very perfectly<<<< just so no one thinks im making marlene any saint here, im just talking more about sirius

so sirius/marlene would either end as any other sirius ship, dysfunctional. or achieve what none of the other ships really can do, have sirius in a stable relationship and away from the environment he tried so hard to stay away from.

AND of fucking course, we chose the dead character for this.

we really don't want that man happy lmaooo

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hp-confessions · 2 months ago

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The idea that James financially supported Remus after Hogwarts is actually FANON and I wish more people knew that. It shouldn’t be used to analyze James and Remus as characters or Marauder group dynamics as a whole, because it’s simply not true.

For one, it’s is not mentioned anywhere in the seven books. You’d think, given how Remus repeatedly emphasized the acceptance and support his three friends gave him at school, he’d be sure to mention to Harry that his father financially helped him afterwards, but he never does. So I would personally be skeptical of that idea even if any extracanon source does make such a claim.

However, the idea of James financially supporting Remus is not supported by any extracanon source, either. The interview people often use as “proof” is actually JKR talking about how James supported Sirius and Lily after school, not Remus. After talking about how Remus was unemployable because he was a werewolf, she said:

“James had enough gold, enough to support Sirius and Lily. So I suppose they lived off a private income. But they were full-time fighters, that’s what they did, until Lily fell pregnant with Harry. So then they went into hiding.”

The idea of James supporting Sirius is directly contradicted by the canon text. In OotP, Sirius explained that the Potters did take him in after he ran away at “about sixteen”, but after his uncle Alphard left him gold when he was seventeen, “I got a place of my own” and “looked after myself”. So I think this interview quote is simply yet another example of JKR forgetting what she wrote in the books and probably shouldn't be taken at face-value (James definitely seems to have supported Lily, though, given that her parents were dead and she had no job outside her role in the Order).

At any rate, THIS already-unreliable extracanon quote by JKR is the only source for the idea of James financially supporting Remus – and it literally never claims he did (all JKR said was that Remus was unemployable, she never says that James helped him). It’s the only source mentioned in HP wiki, in articles, or anywhere else. It seems to have originated as a misunderstanding which blew up enough to become a popular fandom belief, and has remained so ever since.

But ultimately, there is no evidence in book canon or by any extracanon statement by JKR that James (or Sirius) financially supported Remus after Hogwarts. Nor is anything of the sort mentioned in Remus’s Pottermore bio. This is even more ridiculous than the fanon idea of Remus being taller than Sirius - at least that is based off their movie counterparts, while this is based off nothing at all.

In short: we don’t know much about Remus’s financial situation after Hogwarts. In theory, James could have supported him, Sirius could have supported him, they both could have supported him jointly*, or Remus could have simply been relying on his parents.

I actually think the last possibility is the most likely option, and I’m surprised more people haven’t brought it up. Remus does seem to have loved his parents (and vice-versa), and if they were supporting him, I’m not sure why he would have felt the need to turn to his friends in the first place. More importantly, it's directly supported by extracanon material - here’s what Remus's Pottermore bio says about him after the end of the First Wizarding War:

“His mother was now dead, and while Lyall, his father, was always delighted to see his son, Remus refused to endanger his father’s peaceful existence by returning to live with him.”

The sentence “returning to live with him” indicates that Remus had been living with his him previously during the war, and that in turn suggests that Lyall and Hope were financially supporting Remus. Imo, this makes sense, as it seems to have been perfectly normal/expected for wizards to live with their parents after graduation unless they moved to another country (Percy Weasley did in Goblet of Fire despite getting a job in the Ministry, Bill & Charlie lived with their family whenever they visited, Bill & Fleur moved into a family cottage after their marriage rather than buying their own, etc). In Remus’s case, given that he was an Order member during the height of the First War, it makes sense that he would have been at least somewhat comfortable relying on his parents as he had been during his childhood. But after the war, after watching the rest of the wizarding world settle into jubilant peace while Remus was left mourning the loss of his three best friends and was struggling to work due to societal prejudice, his guilt/trauma/desire to self-isolate may have kicked in and prompted him to move away from home. Personally, I find this much more interesting than the unevidenced idea of James supporting Remus, as most discussions of Remus are often always centred around the Marauders rather than his parents, so this brings them into the mix as well.

*Personally, I headcanon that James/Sirius did offer to help Remus, but he turned them down, which may have been one of the factors that later triggered suspicions in Sirius (during the last year of the war, once it became clear that the Order had a spy) given how close-knit the four of them were at Hogwarts. Narratively, it also works really well given that Sirius and Remus were described as living together post GoF until Sirius’s death a year later, after their reunion and reconciliation. But that’s just my personal theory!

#confession #harry potter #marauders #remus lupin #james potter #hp headcanon

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kamiversee · 1 year ago

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The F*ck List (semi-official) Breakdown.

The following was submitted by my lovely ☃️anon, & I needed to make this it’s own post given how long it is, my replies & clarifications are written in between this breakdown & theory (Ex: A/N > Etc.).

Here, you’ll find majority of details you may have missed & maybe even more to think about. Enjoy :)

(wc; 5.7k) (content; spoilers ofc)

holy shit Kami. i literally had to take the entire day to process everything. before anything else, i need you to know that you've created an absolute masterpiece. TFL was the first fic i ever cared to keep up with and it has set the bar impossibly high for any other writer out there. please take your time with TFL 2, i'm so excited to read your other work!! also a break sounds like it would be so good for your mind considering how long you've dedicated yourself to this story 😭😭😭 you're seriously impressive. heads up, i didn't proofread this at all bc i finished typing this at 4 am LMFAO so forgive me if it's all scrambled and makes no sense.

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A/N > Thank you for taking the time to write this breakdown, I seriously appreciate it so I wanted to take my time in responding to it & engaging with you :)

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now, on to the yap. i deadass cracked my knuckles before typing all this out.

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A/N > You’re so real for tht ngl

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i reread the entirety of TFL from chapter 1 and my brain is so melted from analyzing that i'll prob find more details tomorrow after i sleep on some theories 😭 BUT HOLY FUCK YOU REALLY WEREN'T KIDDING WHEN YOU SAID YOU WERE HINTING AT GOJO'S OBSESSION SINCE LITERALLY THE FIRST CHAPTER??? the fucking hint being that "Gojo's desire for you is so strong it's almost frightening." GIRLLLLLL 🫵🫵🫵🫵🫵🫵

your foreshadowing and referencing is insane. idk if you intended a lot of it, but a lot of it caught my eye.

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A/N> I TOLD YOU GUYS IVE BEEN DOIN IT SINCE THE FIRST CHAPTER !! Okay not exactly but like there was a vibe I had from the first chapter & when I later came up with the twist & went back and saw that everything would connect perfectly ^.^

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chapter 7; the reader and Gojo have lighthearted banter about how the reader "started this" situation.

"I made a mistake." [reader]

"A good one."

"Bad one." You correct.

this was regarding a completely different situation but it baffled me how much it connects to the plot itself; the reader making the "mistake" of leaving her door open, and how it lead to months full of trauma and love. probably completely unintentional, but such a good detail.

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A/N > Very intentional btw, it’s supposed to be known that, in a sense, Gojo x reader is forbidden :)

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Choso's still staring at you intently, "What version of you would someone not like?"

The way he words his question only furthers that little feeling in your chest. It's almost as though he were implying that any and all versions of you would be acceptable in his eyes. - Chapter 16

THE WAY WE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT CHOSO WOULD STICK BY US REGARDLESSSSSSSS AAAAAA WE'RE SO BLIND!!! i just hope this stays true to the sequel :')

"No, I wish you didn't have to hate me." He says, shutting his eyes again and sucking in a deep breath, "B-But... it's uh, It's okay. I can live with you hating me." - Chapter 21

AAAA WE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN!!!! WE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THIS WAS FORESHADOWING OUR FUTURE WITHOUT GOJO 😭😭😭 how he can live with the idea of the reader hating him so long as she's happy with Choso, especially considering his later revelations of how twisted his actions were and how if you stuck with him, he'd view you differently. fuck.

You despise the fact that he loves you. To you, it's almost entitled for him to feel like he has that right. How dare he hold such a strong emotion for you? If he felt this way, why is he forcing you to sleep with people for him? It makes no sense.

Why would someone claim to love you and put you through so much?

If he's been in love with you all this time, why start the list in the first place? Why couldn't he have just tried to win your heart from the beginning? Why the list? Why the blackmail? You don't understand him. - Chapter 23

i'm crushed. we didn't understand because we didn't know that Sukuna was involved. that could mean a million other things. i have some far-fetched theories about this but hear me out later!!!

the entirety of chapter 23 had me fucking floored while i was rereading. THE FORESHADOWING WAS EVERYWHERE!!! EVERY FUCKING WHERE

"No sweetheart, Sukuna's an asshole but..." His expression flickers and his smile fades away. He swallows and then clears his throat, "I'm pretty sure he'll satisfy you just fine."

...

You narrow your eyes at him, "Are you sure?"

...

"Fuckin' positive," Gojo suddenly sounds pissed and you grow concerned. The arm around you gets a little tighter while he walks you through some crowds and you keep looking at the man confused.

There's a vein popping out along his jawline because of how hard he's gritting his teeth.

of course he's aggravated because he knows that Sukuna is the one behind the list in the first place 😭😭😭 I'M SORRY WE DOUBTED YOU SATORU, FUCKKKK

——FIFTEEN MINUTES. That was the exact amount of time it took you to seduce Sukuna. The act was way too easy. Actually, it was suspiciously easy.

BECAUSE HE FUCKING KNEW 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

"What all did you plan on doing tonight aside from getting harassed by strangers?" Sukuna suddenly questions against your skin.

You ignore how close he is and the way his lips make you tense, turning your head to face forward. Chuckling at his last comment, "Same thing as everyone else here." You reply, slightly confused by his question.

"Bullshit," He utters, "Nobody dresses like this without the intent of gaining my attention," Sukuna claims while his hands slide back down along your body.

this 100% could be just him being cocky and Sukuna, but the recent reveal just makes this feel like an extra demeaning interaction. but of course, it's Sukuna.

chapter 24 is so fucking shady too with everything we know. i know you addressed some of these points already bc i brought them up in previous anon messages, but these things still had me paranoid;

the way Sukuna leaves us and tells the reader to go to his room after a certain amount of time (i know he could have just been tidying up real quick but everything about this man has me on edge)

┏━━━

A/N> A lot of people are on edge about this but I’ll be honest, there’s nothing crazy that happens in between this time period. Not saying nothing happens but nothing crazy— it’ll be addressed later (in the next fic most likely)

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the way he's been consistently on the phone since the reader entered the room, which is shortly after she messaged Gojo saying that she'll be able to cross Sukuna off of this list by tonight which he wasn't happy with at all.

no seriously, he kept diverting his attention to something in the bathroom and then came out, still on his phone. maybe he's talking to literally anyone else but STILL I'M PARANOID

┏━━━

A/N> This is to show the fact that Sukuna is a very socially active individual, & hints to the theory (I think you later state) that he has connections.

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this happens in chapter 25 but the way he keeps smiling while the reader kisses him is just so smug of him especially considering the original reason as to why the reader's even interacting with him

then the spicy chapters with Sukuna…

the foreshadowing that the lack of knowledge of Sukuna's reputation will come back to bite her in the ass; first with the knowledge that he is abusive, and then her finding out that he is the curator of the list, knowing the full details of her blackmail and even threatening her again.

WHO DID HE FUCKING FIGHT HELPPPPP MY MIND IS BOGGLING there's no way it's Gojo, right? they're both too unscathed in these next few chapters for there to have been a fight between the two of them.

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A/N > It’s not Gojo. 🙏

┗━━━

THE FUCKING MOMENT WHERE HE CONTEMPLATED SOMETHING WITH THE PHONE IN HIS HAND??? I FUCKING KNEW IT. I FUCKING CALLED IT WAS SOMETHING SHADY AS HELL.

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A/N> The other Sukuna hint I was talking about is right before this moment btw, you’re welcome ;)

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then he has the audacity to hold his tongue right afterwards?? it's such a big hint towards the fact that he knew about the list from the beginning UGHHHHHHHH.

the way he tried to humor the reader about her "job" even though he was in on the whole thing. UGH. SUKUNA WHEN I GET YOU SUKUNA?? 👊👊👊👊 especially with that "whore" joke right afterwards. i can't stand him. i know that it's implied that he has a twisted view on women from having abusive women in his life (his mom and his ex who he punched) BUT STILL. he's so lucky he's fictional and hot.

the fact that we're able to pick up on the fact that it's a "crazy coincidence" that he continues the whore jokes UGHHHHH HE HAS BEEN PLAYING US FROM THE STAAAAAARTT

Gojo got upset at something from Sukuna's party, he didn't want you to call yourself a whore all of a sudden, Sukuna seems to have believed that was your actual job, and you remember how pissed Gojo seemed as he thought about you sleeping with Sukuna-

Holy fuck. Are the two connected somehow? Is something going on? What does Gojo owe Sukuna? Does Sukuna know you only slept with him as payment to clear Gojo's debt? Is-

GIRL YOU WERE ALMOST THERE!!!! YOU ALMOST HAD IT!!!

┏━━━

A/N > I love teasing in my narration by nearly spoiling things 😹

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---

seriously though, these chapters killed me. the official end obliterated my heart. it's so fucking bittersweet i want to scream at the top of a high building. the reader ends up happy and with someone she loves, which is fantastic for her. she deserves that after everything she went through. Choso treats her so, so well.

but Gojo. with the theories i have, i feel horrible. i was so harsh towards him as a die hard Choso girly but these endings changed me. i just hope i'm right.

the fact that his healing journey is harsher than ours makes this ending sting so much. he's healed, and you can see it with his demeanor from the call and the way he interacted with the reader.

we were always made aware of the way he looked at us such deep attachment. the initial gleam shows that he's happy to see us, but that he's not reliant on us for his happiness anymore. he's finding that on his own, and it's a grueling process for him. i wished the reader gave him a hug, but that would probably make me feel even worse.

┏━━━

A/N> He gave her a lil side hug (with his arm over her shoulder) & was resting his head on hers at the end if that makes you feel any better 😅

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"Through my blackmailing, I fell for you but I also did it because I loved you from the start." i'm gonna throw up bro i'm so sad. i'm proud of his growth. his obsession was so, so strong but he always prioritized the reader's happiness over himself. i know that being self-sacrificial is so core to his personality but it doesn't make it suck any less. i'm devastated. i started blasting mitski in the car on my way to work after reading this.

i thought i was ready for the journal burning. i was so ready for this tie to be severed, for them to finally move on. but i failed to realize that it could ultimately mean a life without each other. it makes sense as to why, but it still sucks.

kami i need that poly ending before i cry my eyes out at 4 am rn. you know i can't handle angst, but bittersweet endings lowkey hurt me even more. i need all my babies to be happy. i desperately need it.

but that alt ending... fuck. in a horrible, sick, and twisted way, i'm relieved. i'm a Choso girly from the bottom of my heart but i can't let this Gojo go omfg. even if he shows up for one more chapter, i think i'll be alright. BUT IT BETTER NOT BE FOR DEATH KAMI!!!! I HAVE A FEW EXCERPTS THAT SUGGEST DEATH FLAGS BUT I AM SIMPLY NOT LOOKING AT THEM. DON'T DO THIS TO ME KAMIIIIIII. i need this boy to be frolicking in a field of flowers or something. my heart can't take this.

┏━━━

A/N> I know I reference death a lot but that’s just to add a sense of how dramatic the characters are 🫶

┗━━━

---

okay, time for my mind-fucky theory. pls bare with me. if it wasn't obvious by my last post, i'm 100% on board with the theory that Sukuna's blackmailing Gojo, which started this whole thing. but the thing that is getting me is how this all connects. i have some assumptions that could make sense, but there are a handful of gaps. here's my thought process;

Sukuna's blackmailing Gojo by using his obsession/love against him.

we are already familiar with the fact that Gojo has liked the reader for years. there was a chapter where Gojo mentioned that it started off as a "crush" but he was so oblivious to his own obsession up until the reader mentioned it to him. it's to the point that he didn't understand what was wrong with the idea of hurting people for the reader. who's to say that Sukuna didn't catch him in some sort of heinous act regarding the reader like stalking?

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A/N > You’re cooking with this one and I almost, almost had to go get the fire extinguisher :D

┗━━━

Gojo didn't understand the difference between love and obsession until later on in the story. this would be consistent with the implication that Gojo just loved her so deeply that his morals were askew as we have yet to find out how far his love goes.

what if Sukuna caught him in the act of doing god knows what, and brought up the fact that if the reader found out about this, that she'd get super freaked out and would do everything she can to get away from him (considering probably barely knew each other, if at all, at this point). but why would Sukuna devise such a plan over a money bribe? well, Sukuna's already revealed to be wealthy, and maybe he was bored. the same line that Gojo kept repeating to the reader whenever she questioned him as to why he did it. what if Gojo asked Sukuna why he's blackmailing him, and he said the exact same thing; "I was bored." we see how much Sukuna mirrors Gojo's speech by calling the reader "sweetheart" often, what if Gojo did the same thing?

┏━━━

A/N > Gojo & Sukuna do have a few parallels in this story & they will be addressed more in the sequel.

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we wondered in chapter 23 how Gojo reaches out to these men to ensure their debt is "paid," but considering how oblivious everyone else on the list is to Gojo owing them anything, it would make sense that he only reports to Sukuna as he is ordered to do so. but two things stumped me on this theory overall.

the reader said that she used to party a lot and get involved with boys before Gojo. if he was stalking her for so long, why did he wait so long to approach her?

what specifically would be the blackmail that Sukuna has on Gojo?

regarding the first point, it's been mentioned that Gojo has been "scared of women" and was shy when it came to approaching the reader. he knew of her for so long, but was able to constantly slip under her radar. considering how much of a pervert he is, it wouldn't have been surprising for him to sneak around and watch in on the reader hooking up with other guys. after all, these guys were probably complete strangers to him and all he cared about was you. remember how Gojo was basically able to tune out his own best friend, Suguru, when the reader was hooking up with him in their living room? it wouldn't be wild to assume that he was able to do the same for your other hookups as he spied on you.

to connect this with second point, what if Sukuna caught Gojo being a peeping tom on the reader during a party hook-up? while being so distracted in the act of spying, Sukuna spots him. the reader wouldn't be alright with the fact that someone who's barely an acquaintance (if that, depending on the time this occurred) to her has been perving around and watching her have sex without her consent. she would do anything to get away from Gojo, and of course that would crush him. Gojo tried to buy Sukuna's silence by any means necessary. so, Sukuna generated a list of people that he and Gojo mutually knew for the reader to fuck. the reasoning for it would be the fact that Gojo has to sit through the process of having the girl he likes fuck a bunch of guys besides him, and the fact that Gojo knew all these men would make it sting more. plus, he has a reputation for hookups. (chapter 8)

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A/N > You’re like RIGHT there with it and yet not there at the same time omg 😟

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but why would Gojo agree to this deal with Sukuna, and why would he also go with the method of blackmailing the reader? it's basically a guarantee that the reader would be scared away regardless. but again, we could recall that Shoko mentioned that he was too "scared of women" to approach the reader at first. this was his chance to finally approach her. plus, "once that video is gone, there is no excuse he'll have to be around you." (chapter 8)

---

but the more i thought of this reasoning for the two points, the more bizarre it felt. so what if instead of Gojo being a peeping tom, it was Sukuna. we get so many hints that Sukuna has eyes and intel everywhere. we get an indirect implication of this when he called us out for rolling our eyes during our phone call with him. yes, it could be completely by chance, but it's still a great hint that he "sees everything" and "knows everything." we get an even bigger hint towards this in the alt ending when he directly references The F*ck List.

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A/N > Others have taken note of how Sukuna knew she rolled her eyes but trust me, that’s just to show that Sukuna knows the reader’s body language more than he’s let on & paid attention to her a lot during the time they were together.

┗━━━

it wouldn't be too far fetched to assume that he has some shady videos taken of people without his consent, some possibly acquired through other people (like how Gojo was revealed to have sent Sukuna the video of the reader from the first chapter). what if Gojo caught Sukuna with the video, threatened him to delete it, and Sukuna counterthreatened to have it be sent and posted everywhere. it would be highly ironic, but consistent with the way that Gojo and Sukuna practically mirror each other at times. the reasoning for the list choices would still be the same for this theory, too.

---

my citations for these theories ☝️🤓

“You once asked me if I love you because I blackmailed you or if I blackmailed you because I love you and my answer is both,” Gojo confesses as he turns to meet your gaze, “Through my blackmailing, I fell for you but I also did it because I loved you from the start.” - Chapter 56

loved you from the start; his obsession has been consistent from the start (supports Gojo being a peeping tom theory) or he has always had a deep concern for you (supports him wanting to stop Sukuna from spreading blackmail of you instead).

“I’ve sacrificed everything for you, y’know.”

“How? What’s everything that you’ve sacrificed, hm?”

“You. I sacrificed the woman I love to make her happy.” Gojo admits, and of all he’s said thus far, that feels like the truest statement.

“I could’ve been happy with you.” You remind him.

He laughs, “Yeah well, I’m an idiot.”

You scoff, “That’s all you have to say?”

“Yup.” - Chapter 56

is he an idiot for being a peeping pervert instead of just approaching you normally? maybe. how does this make her happy? she ends up finding love through Choso, through the list, through the blackmail.

But deleting the video means ... he has no more leverage over you and can't force you to help him with the hole he's dug for himself. - Chapter 8

the hole being the blackmail set against him by Sukuna.

Gojo's behind you cursing at himself for being unable to tell you the truth.

He's so scared that you'll never help him without the blackmail and, well, he has every right to be because you're pretty sure that if it weren't for those videos he has over your head, you wouldn't be doing any of this. - Chapter 9

the videos he's referencing is the original video from chapter 1 and the fake video he lied about with Suguru, but he can't tell the reader the truth because it's too twisted and risky (supports Gojo peeping tom theory).

He silences himself in thought. There are so many ways he could go about answering such a question but the possibilities of how you may react are endless. Plus, you're drunk and if he's going to admit or explain anything to you, it'll be while you're sober.

"Because..." Gojo's voice gets so quiet that you almost don't catch what he says, "...I don't have any other choice." - Chapter 21

if he didn't go through with his list, Sukuna would have went through with Gojo's blackmail, thus resulting in either you getting as far away from Gojo as soon as possible or Sukuna's video being sent around.

He let something slip abruptly, "W-Wish I c-could tell you everything, sweets..."

Your brows furrow at that.

Are you missing something here? - Chapter 22

YES GIRL!!!! SUKUNA'S BEHIND THE WHOLE LIST, HE'S BEHIND THE BLACKMAIL GIRLYPOP

"Anything," Gojo says, meeting your gaze. He's so serious that it's almost dark the way he looks at you, "I'd do anything for you." - Chapter 29

"I meant it when I said I'd do anything for you."

You follow his motions and then end up right back in his arms, "Right..."

"I'd sacrifice the very thing I love just to see you happy." Gojo claims proudly.

You scoff, "Thought' I was the thing you loved?"

"You are."

His words bewilder you, "Then that makes no sense."

"It won't." Gojo shrugs. - Chapter 29

🧍‍♀️

anything. even if it means putting your body, heart, mind, and career on the line. directly supports the theory that Sukuna initially had blackmail on the reader.

"We're the same, y'know..." He suddenly says, his voice breaking again, "We both want someone so terribly bad but our situations prohibit us from getting that person."

"You could've prevented all this though..."

Gojo sniffles and you feel a drop of wetness slide down his cheek and slip against your palm. The man was crying? Why? - Chapter 30

this whole time we've been told that Gojo and the reader share more similarities than the reader realizes. what Gojo is to the reader, the reader is to Choso. while Choso now knows of the men that the reader slept with, he doesn't know why. he doesn't know about you being blackmailed. you know that you had to sleep with these men. you don't know why. you didn't know it was because of Gojo being blackmailed.

"For loving me, Satoru. It's not a crime," You say, mocking a comment he made to you earlier, "You're allowed to love me. So, for that, and that only, I forgive you."

Those words healed so many more wounds in his heart than you realized. It was like that was all he ever needed to hear. If Gojo's mistake was loving you and that's what caused this, then you forgive him.

If in some twisted way, his feelings started the list, you forgive him.

COME ON NOW.

There’s so much going unspoken but the two of you knew what either was saying, you understood each other more than either of you realized. - Chapter 35

“Well,” Gojo sighs heavily and then draws your hands off his face, leaning down to you a bit, “Sometimes, sacrifices need to be made in exchange for one’s happiness.”

“Are you telling me that all this was for the greater good?” You quiz as you raise a curious brow.

“Something like that, yeah,” He shrugs. - Chapter 45

You tell him, “If I had one wish, it’d be that you did that from the beginning.”

Gojo opens his mouth to say something but then he swallows his words down. He nearly fucked up.

“All you had to do was talk to me,” Your shoulders raise into a shrug as you move a hand to the doorknob, “Things could’ve been different if you did.”

“Even if I’ve been obsessed with you since the beginning?” He questions and he’s stepping closer to you again. He can’t possibly wrap his head around that possibility-

You laugh a bit, “Especially if you were obsessed from the beginning,” You didn’t know it but that statement right there made the man feel as though his world was falling apart, loads of regret tumbling over him as he stares at you with wide eyes, “Satoru I think you forgot but, before all this started, aside from Shoko… I was lonely.”

Gojo’s throat goes dry and he fails to form a response to that, “I…”

“If you had just talked to me one time, and more than a hey or how are you,” The way your eyes soften, a slim sheer gloss of tears coating your gaze as you speak to him, “I would’ve fallen for you.”

He grits his teeth, “Don’t tell me that.”

“But it’s true.” You say.

And just like that, Gojo was crumbling all over again. If only you knew how much he regretted everything after hearing you say that. - Chapter 46

if he had just spoke to the reader before all of this, maybe she wouldn't have gone to those parties, hooked up with those people, and caused whatever kind of blackmail Sukuna had on Gojo (or on her).

He wishes he could take it all back, his feelings for you included. If only he could go back and stop himself from ever being curious about you. That’s what started it after all. Because, at the end of the day, Gojo knew who you were before you knew who he was— hell, even before Shoko knew who you were. - Chapter 53

then what is the timeline of his obsession starting? has it been before Gojo? could his blackmail have taken place even before Shoko introduced you two, adding to the weight of the threat that Sukuna held over Gojo's head (regarding the peeping tom theory).

┏━━━

A/N > The timeline on Gojo’s interest, not obsession just yet, on the reader will be addressed in the sequel so this’ll be answered there <3

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---

but there were certain parts that stumped me and my theories so i have some weird reasonings around them;

It's selfish of him and seriously fucked up but, he's said it before and he'll say it over and over again-- you're all he has. He made promises to everyone on that list, promises of delivering a woman to them at some point, and of course, he couldn't convince anyone he knew to do such a thing.

So again, the situation with you just happened to be a coincidence.

The problem is that Gojo hates that it's you. He hates that you're the one he ended up doing this to. - Chapter 8

Gojo's known to be a silly guy so it could make sense that he actually did promise these guys hookups for reasons unrelated to his blackmail. after all, he does have a reputation for getting people hookups. the coincidence is that Sukuna now has dirt on Gojo and wants to toy with him. by making the reader sleep with them the guys he coincidentally owes hookups to, he fulfills his role/reputation and relieves his debt at the same time. two birds, one stone.

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A/N > As we later learn that some of the “debt” Satoru claimed to have isn’t real, we can also infer that his reputation & the promises he’s made to these men were done out of coincidence. Take Toji for example; tell me you can’t see an interaction between him & Gojo where Gojo gets a bad grade and wants to get it up so he taunts his professor with the idea of getting him a hookup & Toji would laugh it off considering Gojo’s reputation ;)

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another thing that stumped me is why Gojo got so worked up with the reader referring herself as a whore, and the connection to Sukuna. my delulu reasoning is that once Sukuna threatened Gojo with blackmail by either of the two theories/methods i mentioned, Sukuna casually referred to the reader as a whore. that caused a major fight between the two, possibly even getting physical (which can refer back to the implication that Gojo has hurt people for the reader).

the fight could have increased the tension and severity of the situation, so Sukuna decides to add Choso to the list knowing how easily attached Choso gets. in chapter 5, the reader and Gojo were discussing the list and Choso specifically. Gojo was even noted to be relieved when the reader had mentioned that they'll just have to hope that Choso doesn't get attached, as he obviously holds deep feelings for the reader. Sukuna knows that by going through with the blackmail with Choso involved, Gojo most likely will not end up with the reader if Choso get attached and the reader reciprocates those feelings.

also, the counterargument that Sukuna and Gojo are actually friends/allies in this situation just doesn't sit well with me. it would make for a crazy twist but it just feels too out of character for Gojo. but then again, how would Sukuna specifically know about The F*ck List? but idk, it just feels so wrong to me. maybe i have too much faith in Gojo lmfao. after all, he has consistently shown a great dislike towards the guy since chapter 23. but maybe it's my denial speaking. i really don't want to think of Satoru going through this whole arc only for it to reveal that he truly is a piece of shit. pls don't do this to my pookie my heart cannot handle it </3

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A/N > Remember, Gojo is a good actor & you go a long period of time in the book not realizing he’s not as much of a villain as he pretends to be 😉

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there's that moment after the reader fucked Sukuna that still messes with my brain. with my theories, my brain's thinking that he contemplated on collecting even more blackmail on the reader. for what reason? idk, to be an ass? to torment Gojo further and add more to his blackmail? but maybe he decided not to because he already has plenty of blackmail on the reader (if the theory of Sukuna having a video of her from way back then is true) and fucking her knowingly made Gojo pissed considering all the dirt Sukuna has.

so why can't Gojo tell her the truth now? why does he want to wait years in advance? maybe he's hoping that by that time, not only will you forget and not care about the situation overall, but maybe Sukuna will forget all about it as well. the chances of Sukuna holding on to the reader's blackmail for that long is slim and the reader would most likely be in a situation where she is completely separated from Sukuna depending on her job and living situation with Choso. the stakes are lower than if he were to reveal everything to you now, at a moment where your life is still so uncertain. it would go against his wish for you to end up happy.

┏━━━

A/N > Maybe Gojo doesn’t tell her the truth because he can’t, just as he said 🌚 Perhaps he’s not allowed to yet. After all, why would Sukuna even tell the reader he made the list in the end? ^.^ Just some food for thought!

┗━━━

---

regarding the future of TFL... fuck, bro. i have no fucking idea. i'm too caught up in the (presumed) past. i'm mourning fr. i love this fic sooooo fucking much. whenever you decide to pick up on the sequel, i will be there. if you choose to publish anything else in the meantime, i will be there. thanks for such a fun and memorable read, Kami. i'm excited to bookbind this soon 🤍🤍🤍 now, i need to watch blue lock to shove these feelings down.

yap fin (for now)

-☃️

A/N > I love you sosoosooooo much for this. These theories are like reading an entirely new fanfic sometimes except, I know all the answers & what’s going to happen next, which only makes me more excited ^.^ Thank you for taking the time to make this, thank you for reading, thank you for supporting, just, THANK YOU.

This right here is exactly what I write for; people like you :)

To the others reading this breakdown & theory, thank ☃️anon because she’s a damn godsend & ilhsm ^.^ (definitely showing favoritism rn, sorry not sorry, ily all I swear)

Edit; Since you’re watching Blue Lock, I can’t wait to bring my Shidou fanfic here because a lot of the drama in TFL has inspo from that fic, which I wrote first ^.^ & I could totally see you enjoying it because not only is it a childhood friends to lovers than enemies & back to lovers troupe BUT it also includes Itoshi Sae x reader which ofc, adds hella drama :))

P.S. It’s two am as I finally post this and omg sorry it took me a while, I wanted to answer other anons first before unpacking this badboy, again, tysm!!

#the f*ck list #tfl!theories #tfl spoiler #tfl #k!ans: ☃️

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9w1ft · 3 months ago

Text

~the journey~

it was a kind of commitment that i had made to myself back in january 2019. i’d been a baby kaylor leading up til then, it had been about a year since i first found this internet rabbit hole, rep era hadn’t panned out as had been predicted, and, taylor had just presented us with a very ominous set of four numbers: 10 18 20 25.

i immediately wondered (as i assume more than several of us did) does this lottery ticket represent seven years of something? and i remember how even so much as floating the idea casually was to be immediately met with how dare yous for even bringing it up. different times. ..maybe. well.. well and i mean hell, i get it! what did a new blog like me know anyway, i would be upsetting people, i had no notable intel, i had yet to grasp the history of everything up until then, their patterns, a sense of what they absolutely would never do etc. and so, i dropped the deep thinking on the subject. quietly turned it into something to joke about. to insist that i was not being serious in suggesting things were going to take until 2025, that it was just wry humor. but i couldn’t shake the feeling.

that particular sort of parasocial feeling. that with the lotto ticket, taylor had just said, “give me seven years.” it felt like a statement from someone who is used to confidently laying their best plans out for us all to admire, from a place of vulnerability. it was as if she was saying, i don’t exactly know, but bet on me. and so i thought about it for awhile, and eventually i said to myself, yes. i will! why not? i’ll stick it out, no matter what. just by default! yes, this is what this ticket means to me. and i’ll give you that, gladly! it’s the least i can do for everything that you and your work has given me in my life, la di da, emotions emotions, but yeah. and so i quietly committed to suspending disbelief for a period of 7 years from the lotto ticket numbers merged together, until 10/18/2025, if only for the bit.

you see, i’d never stanned anything. i was like… an emo kid, in high school? and what that meant where i was growing up was that being a fan of things, anything, was simply not cool. unless its something they had merch for at hot topic. but no, you had to have a level of apathy. pop culture was for the popular kids. ick. all of this to say, i had never really had the experience of being a committed fan of any popular public figure.. pop culture always felt so far removed from my social circle and plus, it looked so volatile, too. investing yourself into anything as such felt like a wild life commitment to make. never meet your heroes, etcetera. but in that moment, for her, after everything i had felt from late 2017-early 2018 until january 2019, i decided, for her i would stan.

and so fast forward six exquisitely unexpected years later and here we are, six years older. and as we approach the advent and it is not as distant and ridiculous as it once had been (and by ridiculous i mean, ridiculous to assume things would not resolve for at least another seven years. because taylor will come out any day now, karlie will be available any day now.), it’s only natural that the lotto ticket is going to be given another look, rediscovered, theorized upon, become fandom shorthand, become troll shorthand, anticipated, used to antagonize and taunt, picked apart and analyzed into the ground. and when it doesn’t pan out to meet anyone’s self set expectations, everyone will get trashed… for 48-72 hours, before people move on to the next thing.

and that’s okay. on both fronts. i’ve accepted it eventually being used to taunt people, and i have accepted that people invested in the lotto ticket date are going to try to turn it into things that it never was.

but i suspect that maybe there are several out there that understand what i mean when i say that the lotto ticket has been about the journey. because, the ticket has already served its purpose before the date has even arrived.

its purpose? helping us keep our minds open, with ease: an unexpected twist? it doesn’t entirely make sense but it makes enough sense! nothings shifting for another 5 years anyway! a beard is gone but… now another is here? can’t forget about the ticket! something good happens? well it’s probably not the end, we are far ahead of schedule, so let’s just enjoy it for what it is! people are leaving why aren’t i? ma’am i’m under stan contract. etc etc. it’s been an exercise in humility and acceptance, where it’s okay if something doesn’t immediately make sense because sometimes things take time to do so. an exercise in rolling with the punches. and i think that, in repeating this sort of thought process, what i have gained (speaking for myself but i hope this rings true for others) is a life skill, to be able to find and focus on the parts of a situation that i like, and kindly set aside the parts that i don’t, and continue forward with time. despite it all i’ve found my way here and i think others have too. and i’d say that through this journey i’ve become a more resilient version of myself and i hope some people feel this of themselves as well..

i guess this is where i should say, if anybody is hoping for a theory breakdown, i don’t particularly expect anything to happen this october or shortly after either. truly, so much has happened in the world that could not have been anticipated or calculated into that 7 year period so, it’s hard to hold the girls to anything when it comes to the ticket. selfishly, i kind of hope she retcons it in some way for fun but that’s about it ☺️

so tl:dr; it is my hope that upon reflection more will be able to see how in some ways it was the idea of the lotto ticket that helped deliver a lot of us kaylors here in the first place. the unshared, quiet decision to throw caution to the wind and just stick with taylor and karlie through thick and thin, and to see if we could keep finding the thread.. if we could really follow through on that commitment. and it seems as though we have!! stanning anything in this day and age is treacherous and it had never made sense to me in the past but it’s been an exercise in conviction and grace, of a form that i hadn’t thought actually existed in this world until i tried doing it and sticking to it. and ultimately, that’s already the takeaway, for me. anything more going forward will just be a bonus 😌

#much love today fam 🫶

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bnhaobservation · 5 months ago

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THE JUSTICE SYSTEM IN BNHA - PART 1 (CANON TERMINOLOGY, REAL LIFE JAPANESE INSTITUTIONS, CHAP. 1 TO 97)

So this has started as a research to check which were the relations between Heroes, police and Hero commission. It expanded into a monster research for every scene in which the police or the HPSC appeared, as well as laws and regulations which were mentioned and how the justice system deals with Villains.

A lot of discussion ends up stemming in the fandom over such topics, especially when Japanese rules do not match with other countries rules and fancanon based on other countries rules spreads a lot so this research was meant to clear up some things.

Now, how all is this organized?

A first part is about canon terminology and info about things created specifically for BNHA which more or less affect the justice system in the story. You probably know them all already, or most of them, but let’s just play safe.

We’ve then real life terminology and info about real institutions in Japan that should exist in BNHA as well, as they likely were kept more or less the same.

Finally, for each arc we’ve what the chapters tells us about the police, about the law, about the prisons, about the Hero Public Safety Commission and, at the end, more cultural info, usually about how the real life Japanese justice system would apply to that arc or related to it. Note that they will include also things that aren’t tackled by the police through the story because in Japan they’re not a crime but can be a crime in other countries, so that you’ll know why the justice system ignored them in the story.

It’s also worth to mention I’ll try to focus on things as they were when BNHA started/was ongoing.

That’s because through the printing of BNHA things changed and are still changing but Horikoshi couldn’t know about future changed when he started writing his story and might not have updated it to adapt to the changes.

You might wonder ‘what about the Heroes?’

As the above parts also analyze the relationship of the Heroes with the police, with the law, with the prisons, with the HPSC, you’ll still find info about them… it’s just they’re split. I didn’t feel like giving the Heroes a chapter because it would often have meant to repeat the info given in the other sections.

Something else worth to note is that I do know that the characters’ opinions and actions are, in theory, peculiar of the characters, but as the police and the HPSC are seriously underrepresented, I’ll handle the opinions of characters members of those organizations as if they were the opinions of the ‘everyman member of the organization’ unless the story specify things differently.

Also, this will be split in parts because it’s huge.

CANON TERMINOLOGY AND INFO ABOUT THINGS CREATED SPECIFICALLY FOR BNHA

The following info are about terms generally used in the story to refer to fictional things that are the norm in the story but don’t exist in the real world.

Superpowers: around 140 years ago people started having them. At the very beginning they were called ‘chōjō’ (超常 “paranormal abilities” lit. “transcend normal”) but then, when discrimination started, they were soon named ‘Inō’ (異能 “meta” lit. “uncommon ability”). As the government struggled to accept them, the name was shifted to ‘“kosei”’ (〝個性〟 ““quirk”” lit. “individuality/personality/individual nature/individual characteristic”) which in Japanese is always between quotation marks. When the story take place the 80% of the population has a Quirk. Who has no Quirk is called ‘“mukosei”’ (〝無個性〟 “quirkless” Lit. “no individuality/personality/individual nature/individual characteristic”). Bakugō calls people with weak Quirk ‘“bokkosei”’ (〝没個性〟 “dead/sunk/drowned Individuality/personality/individual nature/individual characteristic”) and we don’t know if others do the same. Quirks are classified as emitter/operative-type (発動型 ‘hatsudō-gata’ Lit. “operative/invoking/activation type”), transformation -type (変形型 ‘henkei-gata’ Lit “transformation/deformation/deformity/monster type”) and mutant/heteromorph-type (異形型 ‘igyō-gata’ Lit. “fantastic/grotesque/strange-looking/suspicious-looking/irregular shape”). However have emerged two other types of Quirks, the composite type (複合型 ‘fukugō-gata’) which is a mix of the above types and the mutation type (突然変異型 ‘totsuzenheni-gata’) which is a Quirk completely different from the ones of the parents. In addition there are also minor subgroups. They’re really relevant in BNHA justice system because their use is forbidden to whoever isn’t a Hero, making who use them a Villain.

Heteromorph (異形 ‘Igyō’ Lit: “fantastic/grotesque/strange-looking/suspicious-looking/irregular”): it’s generally applied to who has a Quirk classified as mutant/heteromorph-type (異形型 ‘igyō-gata’ Lit. “fantastic/grotesque/strange-looking/suspicious-looking/irregular shape”), however sometimes we find people who have an emitter or transformation Quirk combined with a Heteromorph shape. Of course, since Quirk were mixed, it’s possible that a person with an emitter Quirk married a person with an Heteromorph Quirk and the baby ended up with a combined Quirk which gave him ONLY the look of the parent with the Heteromorph Quirk and the power of the parent with the emitter Quirk. Although said term should apply to whoever has an irregular shape, it’s often not used if said shape is human looking enough. Since Heteromorphs are often victims of discrimination a large percentage of them ends up on becoming criminals.

Trigger (トリガー): it is a type of liquid drug that gives a boost to an individual's Quirk, weakening their sense of reason. There are variants of Trigger, one is legal and it’s used to stop baldness and erectile dysfunction, but can only be sold if one has a license to sell pharmaceuticals, and another is illegal and even more dangerous, which can be liquid or gaseous and it’s called Ideo Trigger (個性因子誘発物質（イディオトリガー） ‘kosei inshi yūhatsu busshitsu (IDEO TRIGGER)’ lit. “individuality factor inducing substance (IDIOTRIGGER)”) which, in addition to give a boost to the Quirk, causes its user to go on an uncontrollable rampage, also suffering a remarkable physical transformation and turning the tongue' color to black. There’s also a variant of Ideo Trigger that can be ingested and doesn’t cause people to go berserk. From the gaseous variant of Ideo Trigger can be produced an Ideo Trigger Bomb (個性因子誘発爆弾 ‘kosei inshi yūhatsu bakudan (IDEO TRIGGER BOMB)’ lit “quirk factor induction bomb (IDIOTRIGGER BOMB)”) that empowers so much Quirks that the ones inhaling the gas end up dying. Except for the legal variant, Trigger and its other illegal variants are used to commit crimes.

Quirk-Destroying Drug (〝個性〟を壊す〝クスリ〟 ‘“kosei” o kowasu “KUSURI”’): adrug capable of damaging the genetic mechanisms that compose someone's Quirk created by the Shie Hassaikai using Eri’s biological material. They also developed an antidote serum, which can nullify the effects of the drug and restore the victim's Quirk. The Quirk- Destroying Drug is usually administered through Quirk-Destroying bullets (〝個性〟��失弾 ‘“kosei” shōshitsu-dan’). This drug too is basically used to aid Villains to commit crimes.

Quirk registry (個性届 ‘kosei todoke’): each city hall has its own Quirk registry in which each citizen, starting elementary school, registers if he is Quirkless or if he has a Quirk and, if that’s the case, which kind of Quirk. The registration can be altered once or twice as long is not a major update. The Quirk registry is a way to control Quirks and therefore to track down who decides to use his own Quirk for criminal purposes, with the addition people from the underworld, exactly for this reason, don’t record their Quirks so as to make harder to track them.

Quirk counseling (〝個性〟カウンセリング ‘“kosei” COUNSELING’): A school education/program to correct distortions in self-understanding and other things, and to help people adjust social skills so as to develop a healthy mind. It is administered to elementary school kids as the early years of elementary school are an important time for personality development. Far from perfect, aims at teaching kids to act ‘normal’ but ends up as emphasizing differences and forcing people to suppress their own true selves. 8 years after the end of the second war, Uraraka will promote an expansion of the program. The initial Quirk counseling was said to have problems that, instead than helping people, made matters worse for them, increasing the risk for them to turn into Villains while the new Quirk counseling is praised as having caused a decline in the emergence of Villains.

Quirk marriage (個性婚 ‘kosei kon’): outdated and unethical practice in which a spouse is chosen for the sole purpose of passing on a strengthened version of one’s own Quirk to one’s offspring. In real life Japan had a period in which Japanese people were encouraged to choose a western bride under the belief it would strengthen the Japanese race. This idea was turned over a Japanese people were encouraged to marry only Japanese people so as to maintain the purity of Japanese race. Quirk marriage is not illegal in the story, but it’s likely watched with suspicion because it’s a call back to Destro’s ideology of Quirk supremacy, which is why people don’t go around telling they had one.

Quirk Regulations (〝個性〟の規制 ‘“kosei” no kisei’): they’re the rules/laws that regulate Quirk use. They allow solely licensed Pro Heroes to use their Quirks and go as far as consider Vigilantism a strong crime. This is obviously very relevant to the justice system as in the story we see law enforcers being usually called to act because someone broke Quirk regulations.

Rhode Island new state statute (ロードアイランド新州法 ‘RHODE ISLAND shin shūhō’): According to the spin off “Vigilantes” this is the law that put to place the first Hero licensing system in the world. The true goal of this law though wasn’t to endorse Heroes but to define what constitutes a Villain, to divide those using their Quirks into Heroes and Villains and put limitations on the latter so as to regulate Quirk on a societal level. This is also relevant as it created a new kind of law enforcers, the Heroes.

Villain (敵（ヴィラン） ‘teki (read: VILLAIN)’ “opponent/enemy (read: villain)”): generic term for an individual who uses their Quirk to commit crimes against society. Although the reading is given as ‘Villain’, the Kanji used is ‘teki’ (敵) meaning “enemy/opponent”, hinting at how they’re viewed as enemies of society (Heroes were created in response to Villains existing, which hints that Villains were named first and so the ‘enemy’ in their name can’t be a reference to how they’re Heroes’ enemies). They are basically one of the new kinds of criminals created for the series.

Nōmu (脳無 “brainless”): deceased individuals whose bodies have been bio-engineered (改人 ‘kaijin’) and heavily modified by Doctor Garaki Kyūdai in order to hold multiple Quirks and then reanimated to act as mindless super-soldiers. They are basically one of the new kinds of criminals created for the series.

Vigilante (ヴィジランテ): a general term for those who voluntarily engage in public safety activities using their Quirk without a license. They were the root of heroes as they began when people started using their own quirks to fight back against those who used their Quirk to commit crimes. Then, with Quirk regulations, a bunch of them was allowed to obtain a license and become a Hero while the others were considered the same as Villains, something that carried on till present day. They are basically one of the new kinds of criminals created for the series.

Pro Hero (プロヒーロー): an individual who obtained a license to use his Quirk to fight Villains. They’re civil servants paid on a commission basis (though their pay can be very high) who, in addition to fighting Villains and handing them to the police, help in case of accidents and disasters, and can do side jobs like working for the entertainment industry, appearing in commercials, and having merchandise with their face sold. Heroes offer to Hero students without a license a week of work experience (職場体験 ‘shokuba taiken’) and to Hero students with a license a much longer Hero internship (ヒーローインターン ‘HERO INTERN’). A Hero also has the right to educate (教育権 ‘kyōiku-ken’) Hero students who join his agency for work experiences or internship, although this right can be revoked if he fails to monitor them well. They are basically the new kind of law enforcers created for the series.

Sidekick (相棒 (サイドキック) ‘Aibō (read: sidekick)’): a Pro Hero who is hired by another Pro Hero to work in his agency. Many Heroes start as sidekicks then, once they had acquired enough experience, become independent and open their own agency, though a lot of them never manages to go solo and stay a sidekick forever. In addition to Hero work they often provide support to their boss, do desk work, investigations, information gathering, document preparation and managerial duties. They are basically a sub branch of the new kind of law enforcers created for the series.

Pro Hero license (プロヒーロー免許 ‘PRO HERO menkyo’): A license to act as a professional hero. By obtaining it, one can carry out hero activities using their "quirk", set up a hero agency, and act as a sidekick to a professional hero. Hero students can obtain a Pro Hero provisional license (プロヒーロー仮免 ‘PRO HERO karimen’) that will gave them the permission to act as Heroes against Villain or in order to rescue people from disaster scenarios without a Pro Hero guidance but ONLY in emergencies. Obtaining a license is difficult, and the success rate even at the provisional license exam is extremely low. This is the document that establishes that one is a specific kind of law enforcer.

Pro Hero agency (プロヒーロー事務所 ‘PRO HERO Jimusho’): an office started by a licensed pro Hero that can serve as a base of operations and point of contact. Agencies can team up with each other but each is still an independent business. Many agencies employ sidekicks, in a number that depends from the size of the agency and its activities. They are the offices of the new kind of law enforcers created for the series.

Hero Network or HN (ヒーローネットワーク): A national network which allows Pro Heroes to view Hero news, check Quirk data and submit requests for assistance. Only licensed Pro Heroes can use these services. It’s a new instrument created for the new type of law enforcers. [Chap. 135]

Villain insurance (敵災保険 ‘teki sai hoken’): a form of insurance that covers injuries and property damage caused by a Villain or during the capture of one. It’s a must have for Pro Heroes.

Hero deduction (ヒーロー控除 ‘HERO kōjo’): an aspect of the tax code that allows heroes to deduct job-related expenses and damages incurred on the job.

Hero Public Safety Commission (ヒーロー公安委員会 ‘HERO kōan iinkai’): the government agency (行政機関 ‘gyōsei kikan’) responsible for managing Heroes in a society where peace, law and order are upheld by said Heroes. The commission handles a wide range of administrative functions, such as issuing hero licenses, compiling and presenting the billboard chart ranking, managing public relations and even conducting intelligence activities. A gyōsei kikan is an agency that divides up administrative affairs of the nation and executes the laws enacted by the legislative body. According to the National Administrative Organization Act, there are four types of administrative organs: offices, ministries, committees, and agencies, with a Minister of State as the head of each organ, and local branch offices and affiliated organizations (various councils, facilities, etc.) that make up part of the organization. It’s a new government agency created to manage the new kind of law enforcers created in the story.

Hero high school (ヒーロー高校 ‘HERO kōkō’): schools who have a course which prepares its students to become Heroes, giving them all the education they need. Apparently they last 3 years. They usually also have a general study course, a support course where students learn to create support items and a business course. The most important Hero school is U.A. High School (雄英高校 ‘U.A. kōkō’), followed by Shiketsu High School (士傑高校 ‘Shiketsu kōkō’). They’re basically schools to educate the new kind of enforcers created for the story and that have special rules on their school ground.

Support company (サポート会社 ‘SUPPORT kaisha’): a company which manufacture, modify or sell support items and costumes designed with specific Quirks in mind it. It must hold a special license from the government which is granted after an inspection. They can be affiliated to Hero schools. Using support items can be done only by Heroes or Heroes in training but running experiments and tests in a lab is okay even for non-Heroes. For those individuals whose Quirk impedes everyday life, permits for special life-improving items may be granted after a rigorous examination. The West had done remarkable strides in compact technology (and Detnerat plagiarized them), while Endeavor did go through proper channels when he went to an American support company to request a costume equipped with the latest compression tech which was realized also with the help of Melissa Shield. They mostly create new items to support the new kind of enforcers created in the story.

Hero Billboard Chart JP (ヒーロービルボードチャートJP): The biannual ranking of current Heroes (in Japan) based mission completion rate, contribution to society, and public support. It’s generally announced in May and November and from what we see in Chap. 96 it seems it also shares quick news regarding the Heroes’ status (retirements, illness, leave). With the retirement of All Might at the presentation of the new Hero Billboard chart, for the first time Heroes were invited there. The public is always heavily invested in the revised rankings. It basically rank the new type of enforcers created for the story.

Quirk Crime division (個性犯罪担当 ‘kosei hanzai tantō’): A police division dedicated to catch those who commit crimes using their Quirk, aka the Villains. Tsukauchi and Tamagawa are part of it. New police unit created for the story to fight the new type of criminals created for the story.

Iron Maiden (移動式牢（メイデン） ‘idō-shiki rō (read: maiden)’ lit. “mobile style prison (read: maiden)”): A tubular cage a little taller than 2 meters and maybe larger 1 in which the police stuck tied Villains when transporting them and whose name likely comes from the torture device ‘iron maiden’. New structure created for the story to constrain arrested Villains.

Help Us Company (H.U.C.) (Help Us Company（HUC）): Organization of professional rescues which employs people of all ages, is highly in demand and also offers training exercises. Through practical effects and acting, the rescues help rescuers perfect the craft.

Villain hospital (敵（ヴィラン）病院 ‘teki (read: VILLAIN) byōin’): a hospital dedicated to Villain patients. The first and only time one gets mentioned is in Chap. 159 when it’s said the police wanted to carry Chisaki Kai and the other members of its organization to the Takodana Villain Hospital (鮹棚の敵（ヴィラン）病院 ‘Takodana no teki (read: VILLAIN) byōin’), while the injured Heroes and Eri were taken to a nearby university hospital. We can assume though that the place in which Todoroki Tōya is in Chap. 426 is also a Villain hospital. New structure created for the story to deal with injured Villains.

Anti/counter “quirk” maximum security special detention facility known as “Tartarus” (対〝個性〟最高警備特殊拘置所通称「タルタロス」 ‘tai “kosei” saikō keibi tokushu kōchijo tsūshō ‘TARTARUS’’): It’s a special high security prison for imprisoning extremely dangerous Villains. AFO, Stain, Lady Nagant, Overhaul, Muscular, Moonfish are among the criminals closed there. It is surrounded by high walls and the sea, the entrance can only be reached by a single bridge, its prisoners are kept underground, beneath layers of security and visiting an inmate requires complicated procedures. We see that some (if not all) Villains are kept in isolation, some are kept completely immobilized, and as soon as the activation of a villain's quirk is detected based on brain waves and vital signs, the Villain is killed with a machine gun attached to the ceiling. The prison was named after the term in Greek mythology that describes both a region in the underworld as well as a primordial good. An AFO controlled Shigaraki attacks it with the Nōmu, murders all the guards and causes all the inmates to escape. New prison created for the story.

Shian prison (紫安刑務所 ‘Shian keimusho’): One of the prisons AFO attacks with the Nōmu, they murder all the guards and cause all the inmates to escape. New prison created for the story.

Baagu prison (婆柩刑務所 ‘Baagu keimusho’): One of the prisons AFO attacks with the Nōmu, they murder all the guards and cause all the inmates to escape. New prison created for the story.

Kuin prison (九隠刑務所 ‘Kuin keimusho’): One of the prisons AFO attacks with the Nōmu, they murder all the guards and cause all the inmates to escape. New prison created for the story.

Mikuzu prison (水葛刑務所 ‘Mikuzu keimusho’): One of the prisons AFO attacks with the Nōmu and Muscular, they murder all the guards and try to cause all the inmates to escape but Tobita Danjūrō, also jailed there, will stop the jailbreak. New prison created for the story.

Shie Hassai kai (死穢八斎會 “Eight Precepts of Death Association”): Yakuza group who's currently controlled by Chisaki Kai after he caused the previous boss to fall in a coma.

Abegawa Tenchū Kai (阿辺川天忠會 lit. “Corner Near the River Sky Loyalty Association”): Yakuza group whose high-ranking executives are all killed by Stendhal.

REAL LIFE INSTITUTIONS

Law enforcement in Japan: it is provided mainly by prefectural police (都道府県警察 ‘todōfuken-keisatsu’) under the oversight of the National Police Agency, which is administered by the National Public Safety Commission, ensuring that Japan's police are an apolitical body and free of direct central government executive control. They are checked by an independent judiciary and monitored by a free and active press. They have two types of law enforcement officials, depending on the underlying provision: Police officers of Prefectural Police Departments (司法警察職員 ‘shihō keisatsu shokuin’), and Special judicial police officials (特別司法警察職員 ‘tokubetsu shihō keisatsu shokuin’) who deals with specialized fields with high expertise. Police officers are divided into nine ranks. The Commissioner General of the National Police Agency and Senior Police Officer are not legally ranks, but are listed here for convenience (BTW I took the name of the ranks from the English version of the NPA web):

RANK -: The Commissioner General of the National Police Agency (警察庁長官 ‘keisatsu-chō chōkan’) is the head of the NPA and the highest ranking police officer of Japan, but outside the framework of rank. While it appears in BNHA a couple of times (Chap. 95/173), he’s left unnamed. When Chap. 95 was released on June 20, 2016 the person in charge was Kanetaka Masahito (金髙雅仁), who’ll remain in charge until August 10 of the same year to be replaced by Sakaguchi Masayoshi (坂口正芳). Prior to Kanetaka, the one in charge was Yoneda Tsuyoshi (米田壮). None of the three has apparently served as inspiration for the guy we have in BNHA.

RANK 1: The Superintendent General of the Metropolitan Police Department (警視総監 ‘keishisōkan’) is the rank given to the Chief of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department (TMPD) (警視庁 ‘keishichō’), or Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) for short, which is directly under the supervision of the National Police Agency and not under the control of a regional bureau.

RANK 2: The Senior Commissioner (警視監 ‘keishi jiān’) is a rank given to senior officers of the NPA, including Directors General and Deputy Directors General, and Chiefs of large prefectural police headquarters such as Osaka and Kyoto.

RANK 3: The Commissioner (警視長 ‘keishi-chō’) is a rank given to chiefs of the National Police Agency and Chiefs of small and large police headquarters.

RANK 4: The Assistant Commissioner (警視正 ‘keishisei’) is a rank given to the Directors of the National Police Agency, Section Chiefs of the Metropolitan Police Department, Chiefs of Prefectural Police Headquarters, Chiefs of a large police station. Tsuragamae Kenji (面構犬嗣) is called ‘Hosu keisatsu sho no shochō’ (保須警察署の署長 “Hosu police station chief”). I’ll assume the one in Hosu is a large police station so I’ll place him here. If the place is medium or smaller though, he would be a rank below.

RANK 5: The Superintendent (警視 ‘keishi’) is a rank given to counselor of police headquarters, chiefs of small and medium-sized police stations, section chiefs of prefectural police headquarters and such.

RANK 6: The Chief Inspector (警部 ‘keibu’) is a rank given to the chiefs of each section of a police station, assistant chiefs of a prefectural police headquarters, etc.

RANK 7: The Inspector (警部補 ‘keibuho’) is a rank given to the person in charge of the police box

RANK 8: The Sergeant (巡査部長 ‘junsa buchō’) is a rank given to who is engaged in practical duties as the core of the actual work, such as assisting Those with the rank of sergeant or above are considered judicial police officers.

RANK -: The Senior Police Officer (巡査長 ‘junsa-chō’) is not an official rank, but a hierarchical position given to those selected among those who have served for 10 years or more and are recognized as having excellent leadership skills. It has a different rank insignia and a higher salary level then Police Officers even if it belongs to the same group. Tsukauchi Naomasa in the story is referred as ‘keiji’ (刑事 “detective”), which is a name used for plainclothes police officer and senior police officers who belongs to a department engaged in investigating crimes. Tsukauchi, for age and abilities, is likely a “senior police officer”. The same likely goes for Gori, who is called ‘kachō’ (課長 “squad leader”) during the hospital battle and is defined a ‘keiji’ (刑事 “detective”) by the “Ultra Analysis” book, and Tanuma Eizō (from “Vigilantes”), who has the same rank as Tsukauchi and is called ‘keiji’ (刑事 “detective”) in his profile.

RANK 9: The Police Officer (巡査 ‘junsa’). Tamagawa Sansa is below Tsukauchi so he’s likely just a Police Officer. Kaniyashiki Monika (from “Vigilantes”) is referred as such in Chap. 32. However she is also called a ‘Sennyū sōsa-kan’ (潜入捜査官 “undercover investigator”) who apparently can do only undercover work so she might be part of the Special Investigation Teams (SIT) (特殊事件捜査係 ‘Tokushu Jiken Sousa Kakari’) which are tactical detective units of Japanese prefectural police forces. Special Investigation Teams are maintained by prefectural police headquarters (PPH) and are trained to handle critical incidents including criminal investigation and tactical operations.

National Police Agency (警察庁 ‘keisatsu-chō’) or NPA: it is the central coordinating law enforcement agency of the Japanese police system. The NPA does not have any operational units of its own aside from the Imperial Guard; rather, it is responsible for supervising Japan's 47 prefectural police departments and determining their general standards and policies, though it can command police agencies under it in national emergencies or large-scale disasters. It is under the National Public Safety Commission of the Cabinet Office which provides the civilian political leadership. In 2017, the real life NPA had a strength of approximately 7,800 personnel: 2,100 sworn officers, 900 guards, and 4,800 civilian staff. As said before, the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency (警察庁長官 ‘keisatsu-chō chōkan’) is the highest ranking police officer of Japan, regarded as an exception to the regular class structure. The Commissioner General is assisted in his duties by the Deputy Commissioner General (警察庁次長 ‘keisatsu-chō jichō’) which is chosen among the Senior Commissioners (警視監 ‘keishi jiān’) and is lower in importance to the Superintendent General of the Metropolitan Police Department (警視総監 ‘keishisōkan’). It will be however the Deputy Commissioner General the one who will become the new Commissioner General. The Commissioner General’s staff is the Commissioner General's Secretariat (警察庁長官官房 ‘keisatsuchō Chōkan Kanbō’) which includes many more people than the 5 ones we see sitting at the table with him in Chap. 95 of the manga. The civilian political leadership is provided by the National Public Safety Commission.

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department (TMPD) (警視庁 ‘Keishichō’): it’s the prefectural police of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. It’s headquarter is located in Tokyo Koujimachi – Hanzoumon - Nagatacho in front of the Imperial Palace’s Sakurada-mon Gate. That building is shown twice in the manga, once in Chap. 84 and in Chap. 95.

National Public Safety Commission (国家公安委員会 ‘Kokka Kōan Iinkai’): it is a Japanese Cabinet Office commission. It is headquartered in the 2nd Building of the Central Common Government Office at 2-1-2 Kasumigaseki in Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda, Tokyo. The commission consists of a chairperson, the Chair of the National Public Safety Commission (国家公安委員会委員長 ‘kokka kōan iinkai iinchō’), who holds the rank of Minister of State and five other members appointed by the prime minister, with consent of both houses of the Diet. The commission operates independently of the cabinet, but coordinates with it through the Minister of State. The commission's function is to guarantee the neutrality of the police system by insulating the force from political pressure and ensuring the maintenance of democratic methods in police administration. It administers the National Police Agency, and has the authority to appoint or dismiss senior police officers. The Hero Public Safety Commission (ヒーロー公安委員会 ‘HERO kōan Iinkai’) is likely based after it. Its president though is called The Hero Public Safety Committee Chairman (ヒーロー公安委員会会長 ‘HERO kōan iinkai kaichō’). The difference between ‘iinchō’ (委員長 “committee chairman” lit. “Commission member head”) and ‘kaichō’ (会長 “president” Lit. “association head”) is that ‘iinchō’ is often used to imply ties with politic, as it’s what you use for the head of a committee in the Diet or an administrative committee (like the NPSC) and was also used for the former leaders of the Japan Socialist Party and Democratic Socialist Party while ‘kaichō’ has a more neutral value, as it’s generally used to imply someone is at the head of a corporation or organization with no ties with the state. So while it’s unclear if the HPSC has replaced the NPSC, probably it didn’t and the two commissions exist at the same time, with the NPSC being a Cabinet Office while the HPSC might not be one.

The building in which the HPSC resides was shown 3 time and each time it was drawn different but the last 2 versions shown in Chap. 255/298 show a definite resemblance with the building in which the NPSC resides with two additions, what we consider being the symbol of the commission and a building next to it.

Detention center (留置場 ‘riyuuchijou’ or 留置施設 ‘riyuuchi shisetsu’): a facility located within a police station where suspects arrested for criminal acts are detained in order to prevent them from escaping or destroying evidence, and where police officers conduct interrogations and investigations. It is commonly called a “pig box” (豚箱 ‘butabako’). During the final war we see Geten, Atsuhiro and Garaki being held there.

Criminal facilities (刑事施設 ‘keiji shisetsu’): All of them are administered by the Correctional Bureau of the Ministry of Justice while the ministry's Rehabilitation Bureau operates the probation and parole systems. The penal system of Japan is, officially, intended to resocialize, reform, rehabilitate and punish offenders. Among criminal facilities we have: Prisons, Juvenile prisons, detention houses, super-maximum security prisons, medical prisons…

Prisons (刑務所 ‘keimusho’): they hold inmates who have violated laws and are serving sentences as a result of a trial. After sentencing, prisoners are required to wear grey prison uniforms, and the males have their heads shaved. Penal labor is considered a priority in Japan's correctional system and if a prisoner refuses work or neglects their labor responsibility, he will be punished. Work hours consist of eight hours each day over the Monday-Friday period and four hours on Saturdays although individual cases may extend or limit these procedures.

Juvenile prisons (少年刑務所 ‘shōnen keimusho’): they should hold male prisoners below 20 (It’s worth to mention that in 2022 Japan lowered the age of adulthood from 20 to 18) but can also have prisoners below 26 who are deemed to be eligible for focused correctional treatment and even above it, in fact, in reality, adult inmates make up the majority of the inmates. Mustard is likely imprisoned in one of them. It’s worth to mention female juvenile prisoners are held in the same facilities as adult female inmates, the women's prisons (女子刑務所 ‘joshi keimusho’), so no, Himiko wouldn’t end in a Juvenile prison. According to the Juvenile Law, in case a person under the age of eighteen commits a crime which is to be punished with the death penalty, he/she shall be sentenced instead to a life term in prison. This means in theory Himiko couldn’t receive death sentence as she wasn’t yet 18 when the final war took place (May), her 18th birthday being in August.

Super-maximum security prison or supermax (スーパーマックス): they are high-security prisons, which represents the most secure level of custody in the prison systems. Fuchū Prison, the biggest Japanese prison, is often assumed to be a supermax prison but Japan doesn’t define it as such. In BNHA instead, Tartarus fits the bill. Legally AFO shouldn’t have been put there right after his capture as the police didn’t even have the time to question him and he surely didn’t underwent a trial.

Medical prisons (医療刑務所 ‘iryō keimusho’): Japan has prisons established to house people who require medical treatment, which might be the real life version of the Villain hospitals in BNHA. Why Kurogiri wasn’t moved in one of them when things turned ugly is up to speculation.

Detention houses (拘置所 ‘kōchisho’): they hold pretrial detainees (criminal defendants [刑事被告人 ‘keijihikokunin’]) after the police has finished questioning (before they are held in police custody) and those on death row (death row inmates [死刑囚 ‘shikeishū’]).

Capital punishment (おける死刑 ‘okeru shikei’): it’s a legal penalty in Japan however, although the law list 14 capital crimes in practice, though, it is applied only for aggravated murder. Executions are carried out by long drop hanging, and take place at one of the seven execution chambers located in major cities across the country. Death sentences are usually passed in cases of multiple murders, although there have been some extremely grave cases where individuals who committed a single murder have been sentenced to death and executed, such as those involving torture, extreme brutality or kidnapping with a demand for ransom. The death penalty can be given also to the ringleader of a riot for the purpose of overthrowing the government, usurping the territorial sovereignty of the State, or otherwise subverting constitutional order. In the past parricide was also a capital crime but it was ruled as unconstitutional on 1973 due to the Tochigi patricide case (栃木実父殺し事件 ‘Tochigi jippugoroshi jiken’). The execution of capital punishment though, can be very, very slow, to the point there had been cases of inmates dying of old age first. Concerns have long been raised about death-row inmates being notified of their execution only on the day it takes place and having inadequate access to legal counsel, among others. Moonfish was a dead row inmate who managed to escape from prison and join the league so yes, death sentencing exists in the BNHA world too. It’s easy to guess that if Shigaraki Tomura had been arrested and Todoroki Tōya weren’t about to die, both would have been sentenced to death (Shigaraki was seen using his Quirk to murder multiple people and Tōya confessed on television of having done so). As AFO was captured and had no troubles confessing his crimes he either was already sentenced to death or would have been. Sako Atsuhiro didn’t kill anyone during the first war but we know he murdered some of the members of the CRC and was co-responsible of the death of Snatch so, if this comes up, he can be sentenced to death. Iguchi Shūichi didn’t kill anyone during the two wars but, like Atsuhiro, murdered some of the members of the CRC and was viewed as a figurehead in the attack at Central Hospital. Yotsubashi Rikiya wanted to overthrow the government but gave up his leadership to Shigaraki and the Heroes attacked and captured him before the riot could start so I don’t know if he would be considered a ringleader but he murdered Miyashita and, possibly, others so they can still sentence him to death. Stain and Muscular were likely also meant to be sentenced to death.

Prison officer (刑務官 ‘keimu-kan’): a national civil servant of the Ministry of Justice 's Corrections Bureau who composes the staff of penal institutions. They’ve various ranks but, though the story, we only see people from the lowest rank, the jailers (看守 ‘kanshu’). They usually don’t transfers except for senior staff members and there is a lot of hereditary succession. Shishikura Seiji, who decided to become a Hero instead of a prison guard like his father, likely broke society expectations and, possibly, family traditions.

Ministry of Justice (法務省 ‘hōmu-shō’): it is the cabinet level ministries of the Japanese government which is responsible for the judicial system, correctional services, and household, property and corporate registrations, and immigration control. It also serves as the government's legal representatives. At the top of the ministry is the Minister of Justice, a member of the Cabinet, who is chosen by the Prime Minister from among members of the National Diet. The Diet of Japan has never enacted a protection of human right bill but the ministry claims to respect them.

Corrections bureau (矯正局 ‘kyōsei-kyoku’): it is an internal bureau of the Ministry of Justice that is responsible for guidance and supervision for matters concerning including security, prison work, education, classification, medical treatment and hygiene to provide appropriate treatment for inmates in correctional institutions (prisons, juvenile prisons, detention houses, juvenile training schools, and juvenile classification homes).

Yakuza (ヤクザ “8-9-3”) or Gokudō (極道 “the extreme path”): it is the name of Japanese organized crime syndicates, known for their strict codes of conduct, their organized fiefdom nature, and several unconventional ritual practices such as yubitsume (指詰め Lit. “finger shortening” basically “amputation of the left little finger”). Members are often portrayed as males with heavily tattooed bodies and wearing fundoshi, sometimes with a kimono or, in more recent years, a Western-style "sharp" suit covering them. The yakuza still regularly engage in an array of criminal activities even though they are said to be aging because young people do not readily join anymore. The Shie Hassai kai and the Abegawa Tenchu Kai are both Yakuza organizations.

UNITED NATIONS

The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization that aims to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations and countries, achieve international cooperation, and serve as a centre for coordinating the actions of member states. It is widely recognized as the world's largest international organization. The UN is headquartered in New York City, in international territory with certain privileges extraterritorial to the United States. In Chap. 328 we see that their building has been changed to resemble a H.

THE POLICE’S ROLE, THE WAY THE VILLAINS ARE HANDLED, THE HPSC’S ROLE, THE PRISON FACILITIES, THE LAWS EXCLUSIVE TO BNHA AND THE NECESSARY CULTURAL INFO

What follow is an analysis with commentaries of what the manga shows us, in the order in which is shown to us. It’s split in arcs but, when it’s relevant, I’ll mention also in which specific chapter something happened. When something is mentioned in an extra page in the volume I’ll tie it to the chapter immediately preceding it.

XX ENTRANCE EXAM ARC (1-4)

THE POLICE: The first time we see the police in the story is in Chap. 1. They didn’t coordinate the efforts of the Heroes in taking him down, nor apparently called them, the Heroes jumping into action independently as they’ll do through all the chapter, never being summoned or directed by the police. The police first merely worried to keep civilians away from the battle, then the role of the three policemen we see is just to take away a nameless giant Heteromorph Villain completely bound and gagged after Mt. Lady knocked him down, while Mt. Lady enjoys the spotlight after they had been nowhere to be seen while the Villain rampaged. Long story short, compared to how flashy the Heroes were, the police look very much like MOB characters even in-story.

Always in Chap. 1 All Might will be the next to mention the police, saying Midoriya should consider joining them if he wants to help people, because, even if they’re mockingly nicknamed 'VILLAIN uketori-gakari’ (敵受け取り係 “Villain custody officers”) because the Heroes defeat the Villains and all the police does is to takes them into custody, they still do an admirable work. All Might’s words confirm the police does a work that gives them little prestige compared to the Heroes, despite All Might still defining it admirable.

The police is shown again at the end of Chap. 1 holding the people at bay while the Sludge Villain was rampaging and after the Sludge Villain is defeated, always keeping away people while the Heroes collect the bits of the Sludge Villain. Again, they do little work and get little spotlight, especially compared to the Heroes, even the ones who weren’t All Might who, despite having been unable to help until All Might arrived, got to save other people, got on the move when Midoriya tosses himself against the Sludge Villain and even scolded Midoriya and praised Bakugō. As readers we are also shown their thoughts while we might completely miss the police is there as they are more a decoration to the scenes than anything else.

THE LAW: Kamui Wood talks of ‘Nōryoku ihō kōshi’ (能力違法行使 “illegal use of power/ability”), where with ‘nōryoku’ (能力 “ability”), he means Quirk.

Nishiya Shinji ‘Tsūkin jikantai ni nōryoku ihō kōshi oyobi gōtō chishō. Masani jaaku no gonge yo!’ 西屋森児「通勤時間帯に能力違法行使及び強盗致傷。まさに邪悪の権化よ！」 Nishiya Shinji “During rush hour illegal use of abilities and robbery resulting in injury. A true embodiment of evil!” [Chap. 1]

I’m not sure if the fact the crime took place during rush hour makes it worse. Later we’ll hear Quirk can’t be used at school either, even though the teacher kind of allows it. The story will later make clear it’s illegal to use your Quirk unless you’re a Hero. It’s possible though that the law forbidding it has outdated terminology as we’ll learn society struggled on how to call Quirks at the beginning. Bakugō attempting to use his Quirk to resist to the Sludge Villain isn’t blamed at all. Midoriya attempting to help him is blamed A LOT. We’ll later learn that if this has prevented a Hero from getting into action Midoriya could have been charged with obstructing public duties.

Midoriya’s teacher explains with the appearance of ‘chōjō’ (超常 “paranormal abilities”) the “Building standard act” (建築基準法 ‘Kenchiku kijun-hō’) was revised.

THE PRISONS: //

THE HERO PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION: //

CULTURAL INFO: Children of third-year elementary school age and below can legally be left unsupervised. A 2023 attempt at changing it due to unsupervised children dying was met with severe criticism nationwide so that in the end nothing was done. In short, the fact that 4 -years-old Midoriya and is friends are left alone in a park unsupervised is perfectly fine.

In Japan the ‘Gōtō chishō tsumi’ (強盗致傷罪 “crime of robbery with injury”) should include injuries that requires medical treatment by a doctor and the punishment is life imprisonment or imprisonment for six years or more. In short it’s considered a very serious crime. However when in chap.1 the people describe what’s happened, they don’t mention at all there was someone seriously injured, they just say the Villain tried to steal a purse and, when cornered, he went on a rampage. While it’s entirely possible someone got seriously injured considering the Villain’s gigantification Quirk, we see no one carried away from an ambulance or something so it’s hard to say if he really hurt someone or Kamui Wood is deliberately exaggerating his crime.

In Japan in 2013 was enacted an anti-bullying act which prohibits bullying, due to a 13-year-boy committing suicide in Otsu due to bullying in October 2011, and its parents suing three former classmates, their parents and the city in February 2012. The Act still does not stipulate any punishment for those who bully others. In the aforementioned case, in 2015 Otsu City established an independent panel that eventually concluded bullying was the direct cause of the suicide and reached a settlement with the boy's parents in 2015 and paid them 13 million yen or 117,000 dollars, in damages. In regard to the bullies, in 2019, the judge ruled that bullying was the main reason behind the suicide and ordered two of three classmates to pay compensation, but said the third classmate had only a small degree of involvement and did not find him liable (he was 13 at the time and exempt from criminal prosecution). Note that the 2011 case wasn’t the first case of a boy committing suicide due to bullying in Japan, other cases made it to the news, sometimes involving also the involvement of teachers, but the predominant ideas that “a bullied student is responsible for being bullied/has reasons to be bullied” and that “It’s a shame to be bullied therefore bullied students should conceal that they have been bullied” pushed people and teachers to turn their eyes away for a long time, teachers refusing to admit that bullying was occurring and in the previous Japanese civil suits, the bereaved families of suicidal students have been held responsible for proving such a causal relationship, the obstacles to doing so are almost insurmountable. You might say the aforementioned trial signed a turning point. “My Hero Academia” starts in July 7, 2014, when Horikoshi knew people could sue bullies but also that there were no precedents for people winning, when an act was enacted making bullying illegal but not stipulating any punishment for those who bully others. This ends up being why through the story the reaction to Midoriya having been bullied is overall negligible.

Japanese Police officers, in order to effecting an arrest, favor the use of a particular form of martial art called ‘Taiho jutsu’ (逮捕術 “arrest technique”), designed to disarm criminals using batons and their hands, compared to firearms. In fact, while the use of firearms is more easily allowed than in other countries and don’t comply with international laws, it tends to happen very sporadically. We can speculate Horikoshi decided to use this method of dealing with criminal for Heroes, as they tend to knock down Villains with martial arts and their Quirk, and only sporadically decide to kill them.

Japan has a long tradition of trying criminals with ropes around their waists, holding them to a leash to stop them from fleeing and, to this day, still carry special rope with which to secure their prisoners (of course handcuffs are also carried). The rope is also used by the police in Japan to cordon off areas and keep the public back during times of disaster, so its use is not restricted simply to the tying of prisoners. In 2021 lawyers have started protesting on how criminal defendants are also being hauled into courtrooms placed in handcuffs and with ropes around their waists to stop them from fleeing but, as far as I know, this hadn’t changed. The fact that we tend to see strong Villains tied as such likely is likely tied to this. Another thing worth to note is that in case of people being violent or drunk the police wraps them up in plastic sheets called ‘hogo SHEETS’ (保護シート “protection sheets”) or with other materials (some sources said Futons, some others showed some sort of hard plastic thing in which they could bundle up people), so this could have inspired Horikoshi to depict such tying methods.

In present Japan, Japanese police enjoy a good pay and a high social status, particularly in rural areas, and is generally regarded with a high level of respect and trust and admired by the public, also because it’s judged well-disciplined, strictly abiding by their code of conduct, keeping a low crime rate (which makes people feel safe). Among their duties there’s to get along with the community, acting polite and helpful and offering counseling, creating their own mascots and producing cartoon civics lessons for kids. Citizens take an active part in assisting police, mainly by serving as informants. As in BNHA the police is mocked and Heroes clearly get a higher pay and have a higher social status we can see things have changed quite a bit for the police.

In Japan, according to the Act Prohibiting Smoking by Minors a person not fully the age of twenty years may not smoke tobacco. Any person violating the preceding Article is subject to an administrative penalty through the confiscation of the tobacco and tobacco-related implements used for smoking in the violator's possession. Technically there are no other punishment for the minor however, police can do something called ‘Hodō’ (補導 lit. “guidance”) which basically constitutes into getting the minor’s data into the system and communicating it to their parents, school, and/or workplace. As what they had done was illegal, it will give their school/employer grounds for disciplinary actions, if they feel like it and, if they do something punishable in the future, the fact they were already on the record will be taken into account. Who’s with them can also be taken liable, which is why Bakugō yells at his classmates not to smoke while they’re with him. Recently depicting minors smoking in anime has been forbidden, so in the anime you won’t see them smoking.

In Japan, littering is called "illegal dumping" and carries a penalty of up to five years or a fine of up to 10 million yen so yeah, people definitely shouldn’t drop their trash on Takoba beach. It seems though that public beaches are either cleaned by volunteers or not cleaned at all. That’s why All Might complains new Heroes are against volunteer work, because clearing up is nobody’s duty.

Currently the “Building Standards Act” is a Japanese law (Law No. 201 year 1950) that stipulates minimum standards for the site, facilities, structure, and use of buildings in order to protect the lives, health, and property of the people. Prior to it, there was the “Urban Buildings Act” (市街地建築物法 ‘Shigaichi kenchiku-mono-hō’) a law dated 1919. This tells us that the story is definitely talking place AFTER 1950, in case it wasn’t clear enough.

Corporal punishment is prohibited in schools under article 11 of the Education Law 1947, which states that disciplinary punishment may be inflicted but “in no case is corporal punishment permitted” (art. 11). A ruling by the Tokyo High Court on 1 April 1981 suggested this provision did not prohibit all physical punishment in all cases, and in 2007 a ministerial guideline issued to public schools relied on this in suggesting that some forms of physical punishment may be permitted in some circumstances. In 2012, the Government asserted that the said article of the Education Law “strictly prohibits corporal punishment” and that Ministerial guidelines and training support this, but did not comment on the High Court ruling. In 2014, the Government reported it was continuing its efforts to completely ban corporal punishment in schools. In 2020, a law was amended to explicitly and clearly state that all forms of corporal punishment against children are strictly prohibited. However, according to a survey in 2021, a certain percentage of Japanese adults still believe that using corporal punishment on children is a necessary form of discipline. Long story short in 2014, the year in which BNHA started being printed, despite continuous effort to ban corporal punishment, it was likely still administered in minor forms and went unpunished unless the students’ parents were to report it which is why we see Midoriya’s teacher hitting Midoriya’s head.

All high schools have an entrance exam, each prefecture has its own date in which entrance exams take place. U.A. high is in Shizuoka prefecture and, in 2014, this day wasn’t 26th February, which is the day in which begins the acceptance of the application requests, but 5th March. In case you’re wondering in Tokyo instead they’re held 24th February. Either Horikoshi changed it because, at the time, he didn’t want to reveal where U.A. high is or he mixed up the date of the entrance exam with the one of the application requests.

XX QUIRK APPREHENSION TEST ARC (5-7)

THE POLICE: //

THE LAW: Although law forbid the use of Quirks, students in Hero schools are allowed to use them on school grounds otherwise they couldn’t learn.

A teacher can have the power to arbitrarily expel students if the principal agree to it and can also use his ‘hobaku buki’ (捕縛武器 “capturing weapon”), a weapon designed to fight Villains, to stop and restrain students, apparently without repercussions.

THE PRISONS: //

THE HERO PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION: //

CULTURAL INFO: In Japan, an expulsion means “Permanent expulsion”. High schools aren’t mandatory so while you can try applying to another high school they can refuse you on ground you were previously expelled by another school if the motive was serious enough. The principal is the one with the legal power to expel his students, but in fact, the draft of them will deliberate at all staff meetings at schools. Students can also be suspended and be forced to spend at home a certain amount of time. Now you can get why Eraser Head expelling the students would have been such a terrible thing.

Japanese students have to make two insurances which protect them in case they get hurt or they hurt others or property. One is the “Personal Accident Insurance for Students Pursuing Education and Research” (学研災 ‘Gakkensai’), which is a supplemental insurance policy for students that covers physical injuries or accidents of sudden, unexpected, or external origin during educational and research activities. Illness is not covered by this policy except in the case where toxic substances are accidentally inhaled, absorbed, or consumed or you suffer a physical impediment as a result of sunstroke or heatstroke. The policy covers incidents occurring during educational and research activities, school commute, transit between school facilities, or during clinical training, while the other is the “Personal Liability Insurance for Students Pursuing Education and Research” (付帯賠責 ‘Futaibaiseki’), which is a supplementary insurance provides coverage against legal liability for injuries inflicted on others, property damage, etc. (excluding those resulting from traffic accidents), that occur during curricular activities, school events, extracurricular activities, or commuting to and from them (including internships, nurse training, teaching practice, volunteering, etc., and commuting to and from them which are set as curricular activities or school events by the university). I bet Hero school students have amazing insurances…

XX BATTLE TRIAL ARC (8-11)THE POLICE: It’s not really much but, in Chap. 11, we see a silhouette among those who know the truth about All Might. Some speculate it belong to Naomasa Tsukauchi, a policeman, thought it’s possible it belongs to Gran Torino.

THE LAW: //

THE PRISONS: //

THE HERO PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION: //

CULTURAL INFO: Admission by recommendation is a system in which Japanese universities and high schools select students who have been recommended by their previous school. The students who gets such recommendations are called ‘Suisen nyūgaku-sha’ (推薦入学者 “recommended student”). This means Todoroki Shōto, Yaoyorozu Momo, Honenuki Jūzō, Tokage Setsuna and Yoarashi Inasa weren’t recommended by their families but by their respective schools.

XX U.S.J. ARC (12-21)

THE POLICE: They make a tiny cameo in Chap. 12, when U.A. high security level has been broken, causing the alarm to start ringing.

The breach in security was triggered by U.A. gate having been decayed allowing the reporters to swarm inside the school. The police is the one that drives away the reporters however we don’t see them remaining there to investigate the decayed door along with the Principal and other teachers. It can be though that they did investigate and their role was merely cut for plot convenience. There’s to say Erased Head and Present Mic, despite being Heroes, couldn’t disperse the press and had to wait for the police intervention. This is likely because Heroes can use their Quirk solely against Villains and likely have no authority over civilians, even when said civilians are breaking the law under their nose, as long as they aren’t doing it using their Quirk, or the Heroes are busy in a rescue mission.

They’ve another cameo in Chap. 13 where they’re holding people at bay as 3 Heroes are fighting a Villain and then when they receive that same Villain after All Might knocked down. The policemen claims they had their hands full with that Villain, which I’ll take means he committed many crimes and the police was forced to investigate on them. Clearly they aren’t talking of personally fighting him as the police wasn’t really trying to stop him, that duty having fallen on the Heroes.

The police has a bigger role in Chap. 21 when they go to U.A. high after the Villain attack at U.S.J. to arrest the Villains the Heroes captured. The Heroes acted without waiting for them. We see that Villains are tied differently, some are muzzled, some aren’t, the ones we see have only their wrists tied ahead of themselves, all seem to be held at the leash by a police officer.

We’re introduced to two policemen, Tsukauchi Naomasa (塚内直正), a detective in civilian clothes, and Tsukauchi’s subordinate (塚内の部下 ‘Tsukauchi no buka’), Tamagawa Sansa (玉川三茶), who wear a police uniform. For some reason Tsukauchi refers to Tamagawa by name and not by surname (are they that close?). Tamagawa counts the Villain while Tsukauchi counts the students both making sure they’re all there (except for the one with broken legs aka Midoriya).

It’s a bit odd to see them doing this job, especially the ‘counting the students’ part as all the teachers and the principal came there to do the rescue and they’re also Heroes so they should have done the counting and just reported it to Tsukauchi. At most it would make sense Tamagawa would recount the Villains to make sure they got them all. However it’s possible it’s merely a bureaucratic thing and the police had to personally do the count of the rescued kids and assess their status for the report as no teacher is seen around the kids. It’s unclear who drove the bus supposed to bring the kids back, if a policeman or a teacher.

Tsukauchi then gives the kids permission to go back to the classroom as the police will take their statements another time. He’s probably making them concessions as they’re kids who might have been traumatized and because he also plans and has more interest in taking the statement of All Might, an adult and professional Hero.

At Asui’s request Tsukauchi makes a phone call to learn about Aizawa, 13, All Might and Midoriya’s conditions and let the students know about them as well.

Tsukauchi then entrusts everything to Tamagawa as he goes to meet All Might. Before he could leave though, he’s warned by an oni looking heteromorph policeman that the Nōmu was captured 400 meters from where they are. The Nōmu is unharmed, didn’t resist at the arrest and appears to be mute so he wasn’t gagged but still this time they have bound him and his wrists (although they’re bound ahead of him and not behind his back), at least three policemen are holding the leashes attached to his bindings and there are around him at least other 6 policemen, 2 of whom are pointing their guns at him. There’s no Hero in sight so apparently the police did the arrest on its own.

I would say that the police takes custody of the Villains but, in a way, they’re ill equipped to do so, as they can’t fight them should they try to resist, which might explain the heavy restraining the Villains often receive. If the Nōmu had been capable to resist the fact that the police went to retrieve him on its own could have lead to the death of many of them… though it’s possible if he were to act hostile they would have tried to keep distance and called for a Hero to assist them. Considering the Nōmu could stand his ground against All Might though, they would have needed a high ranked Hero to help them, not a random one.

Tsukauchi asks Nezu to inspect the school and Nezu admits some might dislike it but that’s the police’s jurisdiction as investigations are their field of expertise so they can do what’s necessary. With this we start to see that although Heroes save the day and, so far, they had acted independently, the police actually has authority over the investigations, which is their field of expertise.

Tsukauchi then goes to visit All Might and it will turn out Tsukauchi, whom All Might calls Tsukauchi-kun is All Might’s old friend and knows the truth about All Might’s true form.

Tsukauchi would like to interrogate him but All Might interrupts him and asks him info about how the teachers and students are so Tsukauchi will tell him about their conditions.

I think All Might interrupting him isn’t a sign that All Might sits higher than him, but just of them being friends.

Tsukauchi says if the Heroes hadn’t risked their lives the students would have died but All Might counters the students risked their lives too and they’re going to be mighty Heroes. This shows that Tsukauchi has respect and admiration for the Heroes.

THE LAW: Thirteen remembers the students that use of Quirks is heavily restricted and monitored as it only takes one wrong move with an uncontrollable Quirk for people to die.

I do wonder if what they’ll call “Quirk” education (〝個性〟教育 ‘“Kosei” Kyōiku’) imparted in schools is what Thirteen describes when she claims with Aizawa the students learned of their Quirk hidden potential, with All Might they learnt the danger that the Quirk can pose and with her they learnt to use their Quirk to save lives as their powers aren’t meant to inflict harm. Quirk education is supposedly mandatory in schools but this is clearly a teaching limited to Hero schools. As we don’t see other schools, it’s hard to know to what it’s supposed to refer.

THE PRISONS: //

THE HERO PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION: //

CULTURAL INFO: Japan do have an “Act of the Protection of Personal Information” (one that was recently amended to make it even stricter) that would protect the privacy of medical information. I couldn’t find out if the situation at hand, in which Tsukauchi reveal the medical condition of the injured to the students would be a break to it or not.

Article 35 of the Japanese constitution protect people from unreasonable search and seizures, without a warrant or probable cause unless given consent. If a person refuses consent though, then this will prompt them being questioned as refusing is seen as a sign they’re suspicious. Anyway that’s why in the story we see Tsukauchi approaching Nezu and asking politely if he can inspect the school. I guess he could push on his duty to search for Villains since the school had been under attack, but he preferred not to as the school is a victim. This allowed Nezu to have the right to refuse, not that Nezu would.

XX U.A. SPORTS FESTIVAL ARC (22-44)

THE POLICE: Chap. 22 shows us Tsukauchi reporting their finding to the principal and the whole teaching staff of U.A. high. As he doesn’t ask for the Heroes’ cooperation this might merely be a pro forma to update them on the police’s efforts as they were the victims of that attack. As they’re Heroes keeping them updated might also be beneficial in case of a new attack. We’ll see the Heroes sharing their opinions, which Tsukauchi will keep into consideration, so even though he’s not directly asking for help, it might be he’s counting on such opinions as they can provide him help.

Regarding Shigaraki Tomura and his Quirk, Tsukauchi admits they couldn’t find info about him on the Quirk registry, to either track him specifically or his Quirk. The same goes for the one called Kurogiri. Tsukauchi assumes they’re using Villain names instead than their own names. The fact that their Quirks aren’t registered make them “people of the underworld” (裏の人間 ‘Ura no ningen’ Lit. “Men of the back/wrong side”). Now… since Quirks are registered in elementary school, this would also mean that either they were granted such Quirk from AFO or that the adults who were in charge of them when they were kids stopped them from registering their Quirk. As the word Tsukauchi used to say they’re people of the underworld might be also used to refer to the Yakuza, it’s possible he assumed that the League of Villains is kind of like a Villain crime family.

At this point All Might will give us a profile of Shigaraki which will labels him as a “man-child” (子ども大人 ‘kodomo otona’), a profile which the police will consider official to the point it will be later referenced by the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency. The problem is that while All Might has plenty of expertise punching Villains, and went to an university in the USA, as far as the story go we were never told he had knowledge on behavioral science and such things are normally done by a police laboratory assigned to this duty or an expert in behavioral science (which in Japan implies the knowledge of psychology, sociology, cultural anthropology and psychiatry). We can only hope that either All Might’s assessment was then confirmed by a specialist or that, although it was never said in the story, behavioral science is what All Might studied at University.

Back to profiling, to be honest the police doesn’t really show a genuine interest in knowing why Villains do things, Tsukauchi wonders why 72 back-alley thugs would follow Shigaraki but instead than questioning them, decides that it must be because their evil intentions were drawn to Shigaraki’s evil and the whole thing is never brought up again.

Tsukauchi promises they’ll expand their search and devote their efforts to apprehending the perpetrators… but I do wonder if this means the police will ask for help to other Heroes that aren’t the ones in U.A. high as on their own they can’t face Villains.

Last but not least, Tsukauchi again has words of praise for the Heroes.

Chap. 25 shows Tsukauchi Naomasa’s official profile.

In Chap. 41, as the Hero Ingenium lies on the ground and Stain, the Hero Killer, licks his sword, we hear a message saying that Hosu police station is requesting immediate backup. There are also sirens in the background… even if those details are cut from the anime transposition in ep. 24.

In Chap. 42 we see the police investigating the street in which the crime took place, holding people away from it. There also seem to be a crime scene investigator on the scene.

THE LAW: Chap. 22 reminds us that Quirks can be used solely with a Hero license, but that Heroes can have side jobs by showing us how Uraraka wants to become a Hero so she can help her parents with their construction company.

THE PRISONS: //

THE HERO PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION: In Chap. 22, Kaminari mentions how Pro Heroes will be looking at the school festival to see if they could become sidekicks after they graduate. What’s not explained clearly is that Pro Heroes will also get the chance to pick them up for internship, or more specifically for work experience (職場体験 ‘shokuba taiken’). While it’s not said out loud, those things are regulated by the HPSC.

CULTURAL INFO: Japanese police is used to compiling data on suspect profiles based on profiling into a database, which is being managed and overseen by the National Police Agency, with the aim of making the data useful in apprehending criminal suspects from 1988. They have a specific laboratory, the Criminal Behavior Science Division's Investigation Support Laboratory, which provide investigative support by compiling profiles through science's environmental research and psychology research. It feels pretty weird they don’t use this resource in BNHA but just accept the profile All Might made.

In Japan the 90% of junior high schools offer work experiences to their students so that they can gain work experience at various workplaces in the local community within the framework of special activities or comprehensive studies in the curriculum of junior high schools. They usually last from three days or less, with some lasting five days or more.

In Japan, due to the April 1, 2022 revision of the Civil Code, under Article 4 the age of adulthood was moved from 20 to 18. They also revised article 731 of the Civil Code effectively ended child marriage, raising the minimum age that girls can get married from 16 to 18 with parental permission. There’s no change for the boys as they could already marry at 18, though previously they needed parental permission (as they were considered minors). Now both boys and girls can only marry after turning 18 and without needing parental permission. While we don’t know at which age Rei married as we don’t know how old she is, there’s a part of the fandom who wonder if she was married young. In that case the minimum age she could have was 16 and, since she clearly had her parents’ permission, the thing would have been legal.

Arranged marriages (as in parents picking up a candidate for their child to marry) are legal. The children have however the power to refuse a partner presented to them by the parents. Also, when organizing an arranged marriage it’s fair for both parts to investigate the other party and check if the family doesn’t have undesirable genetic traits (mental illness cases, lack of pure Japanese blood, relations with people belonging to groups considered impure) so that the children won’t inherit them. For this reason too Enji and Rei’s marriage is legal.

Japan, in June 2022, passed the Child Basic Act, the country’s first national law for the rights of the child, based on the Convention on the Rights of the Child and revised the Child Welfare Act. The revisions included a measure to address financial incentives for institutionalization of children without parental care, and introduction of mandatory judicial review for determining whether a child should be removed from their family, for which the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has urged Japan at the latest country reports review. Japanese parents were banned from physically punishing their children solely in 2019 following several fatal cases of abuse dealt out in the name of discipline however Japanese law does not provide for this in terms of prosecutorial considerations. The most that will be done is to take the children away if they fear for their life. Abusive training (which includes beating, name calling, humiliation, overworking…) is not forbidden (although guidelines recommend not doing it) and, of course, as a consequence, Japanese law does not provide for abusive training in terms of prosecutorial considerations. Basically, when BNHA started, it was legally okay for Enji to beat Shōto during training and that’s also why no one did anything to protect/help Shōto.

Japanese law does not provide for domestic violence in terms of prosecutorial considerations although domestic violence is forbidden by 2001 and the police wasn’t even obliged to investigate when ‘domestic disputes’ were reported, and the most they would do was offer counseling. The law has been changed in 2024 and things are a little better (even though Japanese law STILL does not provide for domestic violence in terms of prosecutorial considerations police is encouraged to investigate and the court may consider to impose penalties for crimes related to domestic violence aka assault and injury). Basically no, it’s legally not okay for Enji to hit Rei but he wouldn’t be punished and the police would turn on the other side not because he’s a Pro Hero but because this is judged a private thing. Hence no one will raise a finger to help Rei and she can’t do much about it.

In Japan the standards of proof, as inthe level of certainty and the degree of evidence necessary to establish proof in a criminal or civil proceeding, requires that facts be proven to a high probability similar to beyond a reasonable doubt opposite to a merely a more-likely-than-not standard used in other countries. This makes extremely difficult for victims of abuse to provide the necessary evidence to prove they were abused. In short Rei, same as all the other Japanese women, would have a really hard time proving she was being abused.

In Japan divorce comes with a great social stigma especially for the mother but also for the children and, as a general rule, you cannot get divorced if either spouse is not agreeing. Yes, there is the possibility to get a divorce if your husband abuse you, but first you should prove it and, as said above, it’s still very hard and things have improved from when BNHA started and, anyway a court may still dismiss a suit for divorce if it finds that continuing the marriage is reasonable taking into account even if one of the spouse were abusive. In case of a divorce, regardless of the spouses agreeing to it or not, only one of them will get the custody of the children. It’s worth to mention though, in 2024 the parliamenthas approved a change to this law, which will allow divorced couples to share custody of their children from 2026. Long story short it would have been very hard for Rei to get a divorce, which is part of why she doesn’t even consider it.

I’ve found no info about being legal to tie and muzzle people who don’t want to take part to an award ceremony so that they will be forced to take part to it and accept a medal in Japan. It’s true though, that abuse in spot isn’t illegal and the school festival is basically a sport competition so the school could take advantage of it. I’m not sure if Horikoshi is asking us to suspend our disbelief for comic purposes or, since Bakugō will later kidnapped due to this, he’s subtly denouncing the whole thing.

In Japan, according to the Medical Care Act, hospitalization for mental illness is done, in principle, in a psychiatric ward and the form of hospitalization in the psychiatric ward is regulated by the Act on Mental Health and Welfare for People with Mental Disability. That act includes stipulated requirements for Voluntary Hospitalization, Emergency Hospitalization, Hospitalization for Medical Care and Protection (compulsory hospitalization with consent of the individual’s family), Involuntary Admission (compulsory hospitalization by the prefectural governor's order), and Emergency Involuntary Admission (compulsory hospitalization by the prefectural governor's order). The latter category of hospitalization is indicated when the patient is at risk of self-harm or of harming others. Very likely though, as mental illness comes with a strong stigma that affect the whole family, Rei wasn’t compulsory hospitalized, as this would require her to be put in a psychiatric ward. She was likely diagnosed with ‘shinkei-suijaku’ (神経衰弱 “Nerve-weakness’) and accepted voluntary hospitalization. In English it should be the equivalent of neurasthenia, an old term to denote a condition with symptoms of fatigue, anxiety, headache, heart palpitations, high blood pressure, neuralgia, and depressed mood. Alternatively it can be called as nervous breakdown. In Japan neurasthenia isn’t considered a mental illness and so it isn’t associated to social stigma. We also see Rei can leave the hospital ward of her own free will so this too seems to imply she wasn’t compulsory hospitalized, never mentioning ‘Ultra Archive’ defines her as ‘worn out by Enji’s actions’ and that Enji apologizes to her ‘for wearing her down’ both statements seeming to confirm it was assumed she suffered of neurasthenia.

Only an adult can rent an apartment, however minors can live alone in it. This means Uraraka’s apartment was rented by her parents, and she was allowed to live there without adult supervision.

XX VS. HERO KILLER ARC (45-59)

THE POLICE: In Chap. 47 Tsukauchi goes back to All Might to leak info about the investigation, claiming he believes he has to know. He explains they’ve been trying all sort of tests on the Nōmu since he doesn’t talk nor react to anything, among which a DNA test.

The problem is… for all they know the Nōmu is a human, at least that’s what Shigaraki claimed. In fact he said the Nōmu was bioengineered and that he was a punching bag but both times referred to him as a human/person.

Shigaraki Tomura ‘Tai heiwa no shōchō kaijin “Nōmu”.’ 死柄木弔「対平和の象徴改人〝脳無〟。」 Shigaraki Tomura “The anti-symbol of peace, the modified person Nōmu.” [Chap. 16]

Shigaraki Tomura ‘Nōmu wa omae no 100% ni mo tae rareru yō kaizō sareta chōkōseinō, SANDBAG ningen-sa.’ 死柄木弔「脳無はおまえの100％にも耐えられるよう改造された超高性能、サンドバッグ人間さ。」 Shigaraki Tomura “The Nōmu is a ultra-high performance human punching bag, modified to withstand 100% of your strength.” [Chap. 19]

Now it’s perfectly fair to make a DNA test on the Nōmu but the all sort of tests seems to open up the possibility they’re experimenting on him, which will turn out to be true later on. Also no one is conveniently worrying of how All Might’s blow might have caused it mental damage and that’s why it’s unresponsive.

Anyway the Nōmu is kept seated and completely tied, wearing a straight jacket so as to stop any chance it has to move.

According to the DNA test, the Nōmu has the DNA of some petty criminal known for assault and extortion, mixed with the DNA of 4 completely different people and that his body has been altered by drugs and chemicals. Tsukauchi claims he was bioengineered to tolerate multiple Quirks and that his extraordinary low brain activity is the result of that burden. Normally though, taking in additional DNA alone (when you receive a transplant you receive also the donor’s DNA) wouldn’t result in extra Quirks unless there’s some other transference factor at play like a Quirk that bestows Quirks. In short Tsukauchi is thinking AFO could be involved, hence he reported his finding to All Might.

In Chap. 47 we see Īda accompany the Hero Manual in his patrol. There is no policeman supervising what Manual is doing, and he explains his role is usually to just wait around for a call to come in.

Chap. 48 presents us with some Heroes describing their work. From their description we can infer which are the relations between police and Heroes. Fourth Kind explain since he’s paid by the state he’s technically a government employee but given his status he’s not like the average government worker. I think the idea is he’s comparing Heroes to the police, pointing out how his Hero status makes him important. He also says his job is getting a handle on crime and that when something bad happens, the police calls him for help, with each district sending their requests in batches. Gunhead instead explains he writes reports in which he explains how much of a help he was at capturing Villains and saving people and once the ‘Senmon kikan’ (専門機関 “specialty organization”) does its little examination they put the money into his bank account, his work being mostly on commission.

What all this tell us? That the police doesn’t have the duty to supervise Heroes, they’re called to help the police but, as said from the start, they enjoy a higher status than the police.

Chap. 49 shows us on a newspaper the image of the police cordoning off the area where the Hero Killer hit in Shiono City.

Chap. 53 again shows Heroes acting on their own, without waiting for the police’s call when Enji figures Stain will hit again and goes in Hosu to investigate with his sidekicks and his son.

Chap. 56 shows the police tying the white Nōmu Gran Torino knocked off, putting him in restrains but without gagging him. It’s unclear if the black Nōmu Endeavor defeated is alive as he’s still on the ground, held by Heroes, a policeman looking at him but he seems unresponsive.

We’re introduced to Tsuragamae Kenji (面構犬嗣), “Hosu Police Station Chief” (保須警察署の署長 ‘Hosu Keisatsu Sho No Shochō’), who goes to visit Midoriya, Iida and Shōto while they’re recovered at the hospital. He’s a Heteromorph, as in his face is the one of a dog and he even keep on saying ‘woof’.

He informs Midoriya, Iida and Shōto that Stain is in treatment for burns, broken bones and a number of other serious injuries.

He then explains that at the dawn of the extraordinary era the police moved to prioritize leadership and to maintain the status quo so they decided not to use Quirk as a weapons, which allows the profession of “Hero” to rise to fill that void. Originally this decision was criticized because such powers could easily kill, but then it gained public support because past Heroes acted morally and complied with the laws. As the law mandate in order to act one has to have a license, this means that those who instead acts without it, inflicting harm without explicit instruction from a Hero supervising them, even against someone like the Hero killer, break the law. Hence both the students and the mentors must be punished.

Tsuragamae Kenji ‘Chōjō reimei-ki… keisatsu wa tōsotsu to kikaku o jō yō shi shi, “kosei” o “bu” ni mochiinai koto to shita. Soshite HERO wa sono “ana” o umeru katachi de taitō shite kita shokuda, WAN. Kojin no buryoku kōshi… yōi ni hito o ayame rareru chikara. Honrainara kyūdan sarete shikarubeki korera ga ōyake ni mitome rarete iru no ha senjin-tachi ga MORAL ya RULE o shikkari junshu shite kitakarana nda, WAN. Shikaku mishutoku-sha ga hogo kanrisha no shiji naku “kosei” de kigai o kuwaeta koto. Tatoe aite ga HERO goroshi de aro utomo kore ha rippana kisoku ihanda, WAN. Kimi-tachi san-mei oyobi PRO HERO ENDEAVOR, MANUAL, GRAN TORINO. Kono roku-mei ni wa genseina shobun ga kudasa renakereba naranai.’ ’面構犬嗣「超常黎明期…警察は統率と規格を乗要視し、〝個性〟を〝武〟に用いない事とした。そしてヒーローはその〝穴〟を埋める形で台頭してきた職だ、ワン。個人の武力行使…容易に人を殺められる力。本来なら糾弾されて然るべきこれらが公に認められているのは先人達がモラルやルールをしっかり遵守してきたからなんだ、ワン。資格未取得者が保護管理者の指示なく“個性”で危害を加えたこと。たとえ相手がヒーロー殺しであろうともこれは立派な規則違反だ、ワン。君たち三名及びプロヒーローエンデヴァー、マニュアル、グラントリノ。この六名には厳正な処分が下されなければならない。」 Tsuragamae Kenji “In the early days of the paranormal… the police placed emphasis on discipline and standards, and decided not to use their ‘quirks’ for ‘military’ purposes.And Heroes were a profession that emerged to fill that ‘gap’, woof. Individual use of force/military power... of the power to easily kill someone. The reason these things that should be condemned are publicly accepted is because our predecessors strictly adhered to morals and rules, woof. An unlicensed person using their quirk to harm someone without instructions from his guardian. Even if the other person is the Hero killer, this is a clear violation of the rules, woof. You three, as well as the Pro Heroes Endeavor, Manual, and Gran Torino. Severe punishment must be meted out to you six.” [Chap. 56]

So… Tsuragamae is painting a pretty picture of how things went in the past, but the police deciding not to use Quirk to fight what will be later called Villains, basically rendered the police helpless against them. We’ll see through the whole series that they just can’t fight them and need Heroes to do the job, and the fact they instead decided to stuck on not using Quirks, make me think it’s due to the confusion that there was at the start, in which who had a Quirk was discriminated against. By not using their Quirk, the police remained ‘reliable’, while people who instead decided to use it as it was the only way to fight Villains, had to prove themselves they were people who would stick to the rules and have a moral code where the police had to do nothing… but eventually we see how the balance is shifting and the police is mocked for being justVillain custody officers, where the Heroes are basically celebrities, this likely also thanks in part to the huge ‘Hero propaganda’ as we saw in this arc how it was explained they can take time from their working hours to do side jobs like taking part to commercials, but also thanks to the fact that almost everyone in the population now has a Quirk, so that having one is judged the new normality and who doesn’t have one is the odd one.

Shōto, despite being in a Hero school and being a Hero’s son, seems unaware of how the law doesn’t allow the use of Quirk not even to save a person, protests and gets scolded for not having been properly educated by Endeavor and U.A. high and I’m not sure if the scolding is for how rude he’s being with a person in power or for how ignorant he is in this regard.

At this point however Tsuragamae, after having told them he was obliged to tell them such things because he is the police, makes them a proposition: if he’ll deal with this issue publicly, letting society be aware of what they’ve done, they’ll be praised but unable to avoid punishment but if they keep the nasty business to themselves he can claim Endeavor was the key operative and will receive the accolades while they won’t be punished and the small number of eyewitnesses can be hushed without problems. Tsuragamae claims he is making them this proposition because they’re young and promising and so he doesn’t want to pursue charges over an admittedly massive indiscretion.

It’s not really that inspiring, as for start this means that if in their place there had been a person who wasn’t young and a promising Hero he would have pressed charges, and, to continue, he teaches them it’s all right for the police to lie and hush people over what happened. Lastly, he claims the world is unfair so they won’t receive the commendations but only his thanks.

Honestly I would have preferred the story to address the unfairness of the world and try to fix it as, as far as we know, this law was never changed but whatever.

Is Stain included in the people the police can hush and, in this case, how? (did they threaten him? bribe him? or he agreed to keep silent to protect Midoriya?)

We’ll never know.

Supposedly Stain should have a trial, and in his trial it should be explained he attacked Manual and how he was stopped. In theory Stain could also sue Midoriya and Co. for the injuries he received so hushing Stain was important… but the story doesn’t explain us how they did it.

Chap. 57 shows an image on a newspaper depicting the Hero Killer, heavily tied despite his injures state, being dragged away by the police.

On an odd note here it’s said the Hero Killer Stain murdered 17 Heroes and injured an unknown number of Heroes as well in 7 different cities before being chapter… but in Chap. 326, for mysterious reasons, the number of Heroes killed by Stain is 40. Poor investigation from the police? A retcon? Did Stain started murdering Heroes again after leaving Tartarus? We don’t know. We also learn that even though Midoriya, Iida and Shōto weren’t punished, Gran Torino got a pay cut and his right to educate Hero students was revoked for 6 months. “Ultra Archive” confirms the same happened to Manual and Endeavor due to their negligence in monitoring the students. I do wonder how they managed to accuse them of this if the whole happening was hushed. I mean, it’s clear Endeavor and Co. couldn’t complain about the punishment but didn’t have the police to write more than just ‘they failed to monitor them’?

The last bit that Chap. 57 tells us is that there’s a video about the Hero Killer, that the police understands the video is going to draw people toward joining the League of Villains and all they do is… to take the video down instead than address the problems it raises.

THE LAW: Chap. 45 has Class A students think Aizawa will have them study about Hero law. As Kirishima says he sucks at that, this means they should have studied it before, it’s unclear if at U.A. high or it was also part of their middle school lessons. As Kaminari fears they’ll have a quiz, probably they studied it at U.A. high.

In Chap. 48 Uwabami says Heroes can do side work (like commercials) in their sanctioned public service hours due to them being popular and in public demand. This means even though Heroes should be in service of society during such hours, they’re allowed to do extra things that basically also promote their image and allow them to gain more. There’s to say that promoting their image is also important for Quirk society, as in the past having a Quirk and using it was seen negatively, but still the fact they’re allowed to do so in their service hours means they’ll neglect helping the population to commercialize other products.

In Chap. 50 Manual tells Īda how Heroes don’t have the authority to make arrests or dole out punishment, they can use their Quirk thanks to the advance in Quirk regulations but Vigilantism is strictly against the rules and if one is caught going off on his own is considered a major crime. While the ‘make arrests’ part is reserved to the police so it’s just a law that split the job of dealing with Villains between Heroes and police, probably in an attempt to preserve police power and limit the one of Heroes, the ‘dole out punishment’ part is a bit questionable as we’ll learn Heroes can be out to kill Villains (they were supposed to kill Shigaraki before he could wake up). Also we’ve learnt early on that use of Quirk for committing crimes make you a Villain, but in this arc we see even use of Quirk to fight Villains if you aren’t a licensed Hero is considered bad. I’m not talking solely of hunting Villains for revenge purposes, Midoriya and Shōto end in troubles for having tried to save Īda and Manual.

We end with Chap. 56 in which Tsuragamae tells Midoriya, Shōto and Īda that Quirks can’t even be used to fight a Villain in order to save a person.

So, till now, what we’ve learnt about Quirk regulations? Quirks can’t be used to commit crimes, and we’re fine with it, they can’t be used at school, where it doesn’t even get used when making gym tests and okay, we can be fine with it. Quirks can’t be used to hunt Villains, be it for arresting them or punishing them and okay… but now we’re being told if we want to save a person we can’t use a Quirk to attack a well known serial murderer who wouldn’t desist not even when he’s one against three. It’s true the Hero Killer got hurt quite a bit and that, probably, they could have tried grabbing Native and moving him away contenting themselves with just blocking the Hero Killer path. Stain seems to favor attacking in small back alleys so he might not have followed them if they were to go on a bigger and more frequented street but I genuinely don’t know if they would have made it.

Chap. 57 has Giran teach us that producing and dealing in support items and costumes without a license is considered a major crime.

THE PRISONS: //

THE HERO PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION: As said before in Chap. 48 Gunhead explains he writes reports in which he explains how much of a help he was at capturing Villains and saving people and once the ‘senmon kikan’ (専門機関 “specialty organization”) does its little examination they put the money into his bank account, his work being mostly on commission… and of course we can wonder if the specialty organization is the Hero Public Safety Commission.

However in Japanese ‘senmon kikan’ points to international organizations specializing in fields such as economics, social science, culture, education, and health, which are also United Nations agencies that have concluded agreements with the United Nations Economic and Social Council based on the provisions of Article 63 of the Charter of the United Nations and have a collaborative relationship with the United Nations. As Gunhead is said to talk in a cute manner, I’m not sure if the trick he’s not using the right world, if originally the HPSC was meant to be an international organization that worked with all the Heroes, or if the trick is it’s an international organization and what we see is just the Japanese branch. After all, if he’s talking of the HPSC, this would be its first appearance and it’s possible Horikoshi hadn’t yet defined it well.

CULTURAL INFO:

I couldn’t find info about Japan having laws against unethical human experimentation, just many stories about what Unit 731 did in China and how after the war, Supreme Commander of the Occupation Douglas MacArthur gave immunity in the name of the United States to its director Surgeon General Shirō Ishii and all members of the units in exchange for all of the results of their experiments and how they were allowed to continue to experiment on Japanese people in the following 10 years. Among the other info I found there is that Japan's clinical research ethics regulations are unplanned and unsystematic, and there is no consistency between the guidelines, which is causing confusion in the field of ethics review today. Ethics committees that should cover all clinical research and were legally regulated in 1997, are not included in clinical research other than clinical trials, making them legally irrelevant. Current legal norms towards informed consent and information disclosure are obscure in Japan (Es: physicians in Japan do not have a legal duty to inform patients of a cancer diagnosis). Informed consent is often obtained without the patient’s understanding, physician’s recommendation, or adequate time to think and is limited to informed consent regarding medical treatment, and did not mean the right of self-determination of subjects in medical clinical research. BTW, BNHA fans should be familiar with it due to the controversy born on which was supposed to be the name of the doctor working for AFO. Originally Horikoshi planned to call him Shiga Maruta, but the name caused an outcry in China and the banning of the manga as ‘maruta’ (“log”) was how Unit 731 called their test subjects in order to dehumanize them.

Japanese police can end up in video promoting something but what they’re promoting is usually Traffic Safety Education Campaigns or anti-scam messages (one of those videos went viral in 2024). Heroes instead are clearly promoting commercial products.

XX FINAL EXAMS ARC (60-69)

THE POLICE: In Chap. 69 all we learn is that Uraraka calls the police due to Shigaraki having held Midoriya captive in Kiyashi ward shopping mall up until then. This tells us that all the calls about emergencies still normally pass through the police, if common people want the help of a Hero they must search one on patrol. I’m not sure if they can phone to a Hero agency that works in that area but, I guess, they can try to.

THE LAW:

THE PRISONS:

THE HERO PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION:

CULTURAL INFO:

XX FOREST TRAINING CAMP ARC (70-83)

THE POLICE: In Chap. 70 we see how the police, after being told Shigaraki was there, shut down the shopping mall and evacuated the people so that they and all the Heroes in the area could search the area. Still, despite their quick response they couldn’t locate him. Tsukauchi and Tamagawa arrive and take Midoriya to the police station to interview him.

It turns out that due to the attack at U.A. high and the incident in Hosu the police response to the league was to establish a “special investigation headquarters” (特別搜査本部 ‘tokubetsu sōsa honbu’), with Tsukauchi being part of it. I hope that the existence of the task force isn't meant to be kept top secret because I already find hard how Tsukauchi tends to tattle things to All Might, but him tattling secrets to Midoriya would be too much.

Midoriya, in an interrogation room because yes, they still have them, describes Shigaraki and tells him what they talked about and, as a response, Tsukauchi comments, due to what Midoriya told him this means the league isn’t completely unified but it’s still targeting All Might.

Now, this is probably a writing problem (Horikoshi wanted to give more importance to Shigaraki telling Midoriya about how he’s not connected to Stain that such discussion deserves to have) but, after this observation Tsukauchi causes the whole police force to look as incompetent as they can get. Let’s recap.

Stain and the League had never attacked a place at the same time before and, although this time they both had attacked Hosu, their attack wasn’t coordinated or did anything to hint they were working in tandem, actually many trustworthy Heroes has witnessed Stain killing a Nōmu to retrieve Midoriya, which is kind of a BIG hint that he’s not really on the same page as the League. The police has had Stain in custody by a while and I doubt Stain would refuse to say he isn’t working with the League, IF questioned, which makes me wonder ‘did they question him?’. Also, if the police had spent 5 minutes having an expert making a profile of both Shigaraki and Stain, it would be easy to see their goals are hardly compatible, with the League out to kill All Might and Stain worshipping him and thinking he’s the only one worth to kill him. I mean, you actually don’t even get an expert to figure this out, it’s kind of obvious Stain isn’t out for All Might’s blood while the League is, the whole idea the two could be working together is based on speculation from the press which has seen them in Hosu, both attacking at the same time… but I would expect the police to need a little more evidence than just this to claim that the League and Stain are connected, because honestly, what they had to support that idea is so little it might as well be nonexistent… yet they somehow believe it as true and valid.

However, if a teenager tells them that Shigaraki came and told him he’s not connected to Stain, oh, let’s trust Shigaraki on this one, Shigaraki going to tell a teenager he’s not joining hands with Stain is a clear proof he isn’t, it absolutely can’t be part of Shigaraki’s plan, Shigaraki has to be sincere. Whatever, let’s go on.

Midoriya claims he wished he could have stopped Shigaraki and Tsukauchi’s answer is to fundamentally praise him because he remained calm while he was being threatened so that nobody got hurt. This is very nice, but probably Tsukauchi should have been informed the last time Midoriya tried to stop a Villain (Stain) he used his own Quirk, which was a break of the law. I would say that the implication he wanted to do the same here it’s pretty clear (how else could Midoriya stop Shigaraki from leaving?), and since among the police’s duties there’s counseling people, Tsukauchi should have reminded him he didn’t even have to consider using his Quirk to fight him.

Tsukauchi and Tamagawa accompany Midoriya outside the police station where they meet with All Might. Midoriya asks Al Might if there’s someone he couldn’t save and when All Might admits plenty of times he couldn’t save people… because he was unaware they needed saving as they could have been somewhere in the world away from him. So he stands tall and smiles so that everyone will know he’s the symbol of peace and can have a light shining on them. Except those who were far and so he failed to save them. Like all the Heteromorphs who live in small cities who hardly have Heroes or police supervising them for example. Just saying.

Understanding Midoriya could still be bothered by what Shigaraki said, Tsukauchi waves Shigaraki’s words away. In the English version he says he believes Shigaraki is just a sore loser, but actually in the Japanese one though he claims maybe it’s a matter of ‘sakaurami’ (逆恨み), a word that means “unjustified resentment through misunderstanding” as each time All Might appeared he always saved everyone. While this is less bad than waving Shigaraki words away claiming he’s just a sore loser, they’re basically giving Shigaraki’s words zero relevance.

They could have instead used the info Shigaraki feels victimized by All Might to try and track down why, so as to discover Shigaraki’s origin, to discover which was his real identity but no, let’s focus on how All Might now saves everyone when he manages to reach the place… and not on how the system also needs to be revised to spread Heroes and police forces better.

I’m not saying all this in defense of Shigaraki, I’m saying it as a criticism to the police which here is represented by Tsukauchi.

To have a valid profile of a criminal/Villain could help them to understand him and predict his moves or find a way to deescalate troublesome situations. If they had had a decent profile for Shigaraki and Stain they would have figured it was highly unlikely for them to cooperate, even without Midoriya telling them Shigaraki said they weren’t. Also, if, through Shigaraki, they had figured out AFO was grooming children, they could have checked orphanages and saved his other potential victims. But no, this doesn’t matter.

Acknowledging the system has spots that go unsupervised, places that are not protected by Heroes in a society OVERSATURATED with Heroes could help spread Heroes better, small cities for example might not have flashy crimes but they still deserve protection, a light shining on them. The police can deploy Heroes there but… they don’t.

Overall Tsukauchi, dismissing Shigaraki’s resentment as unjustified, defends the image of All Might and of the perfect society the HPSC likes to cultivate, it makes me wonder if the HPSC isn’t selling what the police wants them to sell.

This is a case though, while I can’t really sure if Tsukauchi is representing the typical policeman or he’s speaking as such because he’s All Might’s friend… I think the former influences him but the latter is probably stronger. So far the police hadn’t shown sympathy or interest for the Villains’ reasons while they’re all for how great Heroes are.

When Inko arrives Tsukauchi orders Tamagawa to arrange to send them off.

Tsukauchi and All Might talk a little more, Tsukauchi claiming the meeting seemed coincidental but there’s a chance that they’ll keep on targeting Class A students so the police will be on high alert but the school should also need to be vigilant.

I guess the part about the police being in high alert means they’ll investigate and that’s it. They just don’t have the means to stop the League. It’s on the school and, especially, on the Hero teachers that will fall the duty to protect the students.

The rest of the dialogue with Tsukauchi saying he already told All Might he’s not suited for being a teacher and that this time they’ll catch AFO is more a friend talk than a police statement so I’ll let it slide.

In Chap. 77, when Aizawa figures out Midoriya has done it again (break his bones in a fight) Midoriya remembers what Tsuragamae told him about how it’s a crime to inflict harm to others without instructions from someone allowed to give them.

In Chap. 83 we see the police had reached the students at the summer camp along with the rescue workers. Muscular is wrapped in bindings and then put in a iron maiden, Moonfish, despite being knocked out, is also wrapped in bindings. Mustard seems just arrested.

While Tsukauchi and Tamagawa were getting statement from Eraser Head and Vlad King, they discovered they might have pinpointed the league of Villains’ hideout as two weeks before, Tamagawa was out, searching for information, and learnt a man who looked like Dabi, entered in a building with no tenants. At the time they searched (the records) about past (known) criminals (犯罪者 ‘hanzaisha’) around 20 but found no match.

I want to point out Dabi did nothing wrong back then. Entering in a building with no tenants isn’t a crime, he might have gone to see it because he was curious, a homeless in search of a place to hide, someone who wanted to buy the place. Dabi though is described like a ‘Kaojū TSUGIHAGI no otoko’ (顔中ツギハギの男 “Man with a face patched together”) so the police’s first reaction is to check if he’s a criminal, then they make sure if there’s something inside the building… and yes, there’s something, a hidden bar, the owner of the place doesn’t hesitate in sharing that info so, although the bar is called an hidden one, it’s not even that secret, AFO didn’t make pressure on the owner of the place so that he wouldn’t reveal this detail.

Honestly I would have thought it would have made more sense for Tamagawa to check the place to make sure there’s really nothing in the building before checking if Dabi was a criminal just because he has a messed up face. It’s also worth to mention they find nothing about him, so they drop the investigation.

Anyway since there are no info about Dabi being a criminal and there was a bar inside the building which he might have been visiting and it doesn’t seem connected to their investigation they let him be. However now Eraser Head and Vlad King had told him about how Dabi looked and so they had connected the dots and the first thing Tsukauchi does is warn All Might while Tamagawa gives Eraser Head some coffee.

He adds they want to raid the place as soon as they have enough evidence and this is TOP SECRET but Tsukauchi believes All Might has to know.

Honestly Tsukauchi is like All Might’s personal spy in the police business, it’s the second time (that we know) he shared with him reserved information.

At the same time it feels weird he would tell him reserved information since he wants to ask him to join them and should know All Might would say ‘yes’. Couldn’t he first ask him to join and then share info?

Besides the cheering is kind of premature. So far they know Dabi had been there and that the place hosts a bar, but this doesn’t mean that’s the base of the League. Dabi was seen there TWO WEEKS AGO. He wasn’t a criminal before the attack at the training camp. When Tsukauchi says they plan to raid the bar, they hadn’t investigated yet if someone else suspicious got inside the building, they just found Dabi had been there in the past, and since the owner had no troubles saying there’s a bar inside, one would expect the bar isn’t an illegal commercial activity. But let’s raid it because the script says it’s owned by the League… okay, sarcasm aside it’s too early to say if it would be a good idea to raid the place or not. If that place is just a bar Dabi went, raiding him might alert him and the others.

It’s probably a problem in writing, as Horikoshi knows that’s the bar of the League, but still the police comes out as excessively ready to raid places.

This chapter also tells us the police went to question Midoriya and Yaoyorozu. When they visited Yaorozu, the one there was Tsukauchi who, with All Might, learnt Yaoyorozu placed a tracking device on the Nōmu, a discussion also overheard by Kirishima and Shōto.

Again, Tsukauchi doesn’t shine for attention as he missed those two Hero students eavesdropping from the OPEN door.

THE LAW: In the notes for Chap. 77 Horikoshi discusses the Quirk regulations. He reminds us that harming another with a Quirk is against law, which is why Quirk use in public spaces is forbidden by law… with the exception of self defense, in fact, as long as one was attacked first, they’re allowed to defend themselves. However this is different than ordinary self defense (which would involve punching or pinning someone) as Quirks vary a lot in nature and the law can’t account for every existing Quirk. That’s also why there’s a heavy-handed law which states “no one may use their Quirk to harm another!” Horikoshi points out though that the law that forbids to use Quirk in public spaces nowadays is not taken that seriously if the use of it is not dangerous (ex: if Midoriya’s mom were to use her telekinetic Quirk to pick up something she dropped few people would consider giving her troubles for it) but become serious if the Quirk can actually harm people (like Bakugō’s). Horikoshi also tells us that Anti-personnel Quirk use is allowed on Hero school grounds, so as to allow Hero students to learn and train… but things would have changed if the students had killed or nearly killed a Villain during the battle at USJ.

THE PRISONS: //

THE HERO PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION: In Chap. 71 Aizawa says after the summer training camp ends the students should be strong enough to acquire their provisional licenses. While this isn’t a direct reference to the HPSC, they’re the ones behind the handing of such things.

CULTURAL INFO: In Japan the police can question minors even without their parents present.

In Japan the law, including the Constitution and specific laws like the “Act on the Treatment of Prisoners of War and Other Detainees”, aims to ensure humane treatment of detainees. This means they technically can’t beat them to force them to talk about something. If we assume the law works in the same way for the Heroes and the police this means Eraser Head didn’t have the authority to break Dabi’s arms to force him to talk. It’s true though that in Japan, despite legal protections, there have been reports and allegations of police misconduct, including physical abuse, during interrogations and detention but since this is still illegal it surely doesn’t paint a nice picture of Eraser Head’s actions.

XX HIDEOUT RAID ARC (84-97)

THE POLICE: In Chap. 84 we see that at the Metropolitan Police Department Headquarters, Tsukauchi is meeting up with All Might, Endeavor, Best Jeanist, Edgeshot and Tiger.

Chap. 86 has Nezu, during the apology press conference transmitted on TV, explanining that all the students received psychological evaluation, none of them seeming to have suffered emotional trauma. I don't know though if it was a forensic psychological assessment, or just an evaluation made by a hospital or something U.A. high offered to his students. He also claims that he’s cooperating with the police to retrieve Bakugō.

As for the police and the Heroes (among them now we can also see Gran Torino, Gang Orca, Kamui Wood, Mt. Lady, X-Less) they have moved closer to their target, the Leagues hideout in Yokohama city in Kanagawa, Kamino Ward. Actually maybe it’s the building in front of the one of the League. Endeavor complains he shouldn’t clean up U.A. high mess, to which Tsukauchi answers this isn’t for U.A. high only and that he should try to see the big picture as the preservation of their entire Hero society rides on this operation.

Tsukauchi knows AFO could be behind the League, all right, so he’s not exaggerating, but this info about AFO’s possible was not shared with the Heroes and we’ll see it’ll have negative consequences.

Tsukauchi explains they’ve discovered the League has multiple hideouts thanks to the tracking device placed by one of the students (why not acknowledging it was Yaoyorozu?) but their investigation has determined the location of the abducted student (aka Bakugō).

I’d like to know how they know Bakugō is there as they reached their hideout thanks to Kurogiri so they didn’t need to go around and, clearly, they hadn’t let Bakugō leave.

Anyway retrieving Bakugō is the team Top Priority so they’ll send the bulk of their personnel there, while the others will go attack the other hideout. They think this will cut their way of escape.

Tsukauchi, wearing a personal armor, then urges the Heroes not to give the Villains the time to do something. They’re using the press conference as a way to lead the League think the Heroes are in disarray so they wouldn’t expect them to counterattack on that same day. The group leaves the building, the Heroes preparing to fight as Tsukauchi tells THEM and not to the other MANY policemen with him, it’s time to turn the tables. Tsukauchi evidently knows the police is there solely for decoration and arresting Villains after the Heroes are done.

In Chap. 87 we see that while the Heroes attack the League’s hideout the police remains outside with Endeavor, who demands to know why he was stuck on guard duty while All Might gets to lead the charge. Tsukauchi claims it’s because, if a Villain were to escape, he would be the best equipped to deal with him. I guess this is for narrative purposes but again it doesn’t paint a good picture of the police that’s coordinating the attack, because such things should have been discussed BEFORE the attack were to start, while here it seems Endeavour found out he would have to stay n guard duty just then.

Meanwhile, in the League’s hideout All Might claims that thanks to the relentless police investigation they managed to find where the Nōmu Shigaraki was meant to use were. We see the police is with the Heroes who’re attacking that place. The problem here is… that it’s a lie. They found the hideout not thanks to the police investigation but thanks to Yaoyorozu’s tracker. I mean, even Midoriya and Co. easily tracked it down thanks to Yaoyorozu’s tracker. All the police had to do to check if it was the right place was to peck though a window like Midoriya’s group did.

So… the police found the Nōmu’s hideout thanks to Yaoyorozu and the League’s thanks to a lucky coincidence. Color me ‘not impressed’.

In Chap. 88 Gran Torino says that working with little intel and even less time the police managed to figure out the identities of Magne, Mr. Compress, Spinner, Toga Himiko and Twice.

Was it a great work?

So, we know everyone has to register his Quirk at the Quirk registry, meaning it’s easy to track down people with peculiar/rare Quirks…and tracking down Himiko’s identity, after she introduced herself to Midoriya and she’s already known to the police, couldn’t really be a big deal.

Considering Atsuhiro’s age and backstory he didn’t turn into Compress overnight and his Quirk, look and style are pretty recognizable so again, not a big deal.

Jin is also a well known but easy to identify criminal due to his peculiar Quirk.

Magne is also a well known criminal as she was recognized by Tiger when they faced off, Tiger listing her name, her Villain name and her crimes (Chap. 75).

Honestly the only one hard to track was Shuuichi, who was a Hikikomori previously so I don’t think he had criminal file and whose Quirk is hardly peculiar… though the police had Mustard, Muscular and Moonfish to question. Mustard is young and I doubt he’s a professional criminal. If he had info about Shuuichi he might have tattled them out… if the police ever considered to question him. In this story sometimes they just don’t do it.

Still, it doesn’t feel like an impressive job.

Anyway, now that the members of the League are all tied the police barges in, weapons in hands… only for the League to disappear and two Nōmu to appear. Outside more Nōmu appears as well in between the police that was still waiting there and Endeavor starts fighting them, ordering to Tsukauchi to expand the evacuation zone.

Tsukauchi replies that their investigation confirmed that this hideout was their location and asks Best Jeanist if he has everything under control but gets no reply. This too could be a narrative problem but anyway, in the moment of danger, it’s Endeavor who orders what to do and it’s Tsukauchi who doesn’t immediately follow his instructions but checks on Jeanist.

Back to the hideout with the Nōmu we can see the police too is there in form of a ‘Kidōtai’ (機動隊 “riot squad”) but they’re doing nothing as the Heroes capture the Nōmu and it’s Best Jeanist that orders them to bring in quickly the Iron Maidens.

So while the police seemed in control before, as they called the Heroes and they organized the mission, both here and before with Tsukauchi and Endeavor but also with All Might’s group, we see that it’s the Heroes who do handle things, the police instead waits for them to solve things, wait for them to tell them to bring in bindings for the Villains and wait for them to find a solution if things gets troublesome.

In Chap. 89 we see two policemen commenting on how All Might defeats 4 Nōmu at once.

Keikan 1 ‘Keiki no ii bukkowashi-buri da na…!!’ 警官 1「景気の良いぶっ壊しぶりだな…！！」 Policeman 1 “What a great way to destroy the economy…!!”

Keikan 2 ‘Koto ga kotodakarada! Teki ni shūchū shiro!’ 警官 2「事が事だからだ！敵に集中しろ！」 Policeman 2“Because the situation is a special situation! Focus on the enemy!” [Chap. 89]

They should also fire at the other Nōmu but in the manga we don’t see them doing so (there’s no noise nor signs of their weapons firing), though in the anime they try to do it (but manages to do nothing and it’s Endeavor who defeat them) so it could be a manga problem… otherwise they’re useless.

Someone (in the anime it’s Endeavor) wonders if the Nōmu come from the other hideout and Tsukauchi says/replies he can’t get in contact with Best Jeanist so it’s possible his group has been compromised to which Endeavor replies it’s a mess while continuing to fight at the same time.

? ‘Koitsu-ra… atchi kara nagarete kiteru no ka! ?’ ?「こいつら…あっちから流れて来てるのか…！？」 ? “These guys… are they flowing from over there…!?”

Tsukauchi Naomasa ‘JEANIST-ra to renraku ga tsukanai. Osoraku atchi ga shippaishita!’ 塚内直正「ジー二ストらと連絡がつかない。恐らくあっちが失敗した！」 Tsukauchi Naomasa “I can't get in touch with Jeanist and the others. Likely over there they failed!”

Todoroki Enji ‘GUDAGUDA janai ka mattaku!!!!’ 轟炎司「グダグダじゃないか全く！！！！」Todoroki Enji “This is absolutely a mess!!!!” [Chap. 89]*

*GUDAGUDA means something is disorganized, unfocused, or out of control; lethargic; “not good”. “Gdgd” is an internet slang used on bulletin boards and such to say so.

All Might asks to Endeavor and not to the police if he’s all right (meaning if he can handle the situation), to which Endeavor tells him he can and that if he has to go, he should go.

Note how in this discussion the police isn’t involved at all, they aren’t considered at all even though they were supposedly the ones organizing things. Endeavor and All Might are deciding things and they aren’t considered part of the discussion.

Back to the other hideout, seeing AFO, Best Jeanist remembers the police warned him there should be a mastermind behind the League, someone who has strength on par with All Might and that who is sly and leaves nothing to chance so he won’t reveal himself if he’s not sure of his own safety. That’s why they wanted to first deal with Shigaraki’s gang. The one who told so isn’t Tsukauchi but some guy behind a desk (in the manga he only has one companion with him, in the anime there are many guys behind a desk).

Best Jeanist though now thinks that the guy talking with them was wrong as, contrary to what they seemed to think, AFO manifested himself. Honestly I’m not sure why the police didn’t outright say they believed he could be the mastermind, to me it seems a big lack of information, the Heroes needed to be ready to face him should he decide to show up.

In Chap. 90 Midoriya remembers again what Tsuragamae told him when he sees All Might fight AFO and is aware they aren’t allowed anymore to fight. Definitely the guy was, in a way, a positive influence on him.

In Chap. 92 we see the police is helping everyone to evacuate. We also see Nezu worrying about Tsukauchi and All Might.

In Chap. 93, outside the League’s hideout we see Tsukauchi and the police bind the Nōmu Endeavor defeated while all the Heroes went to help All Might fight AFO.

In Chap. 94 while the Heroes are helping with the rescue efforts we see the police put a very much bound AFO inside an Iron Maiden, apparently under Endeavor’s direction as All Might watches the scene.

In Chap. 95 (Ep. 50) we see that at the Metropolitan Police Department Headquarters the police is evaluating the situation.

Now we’ve to make an obligatory premise.

In Chap. 95 of the manga we don’t get the names/roles for all the people involved. Later, much later, in Chap. 173, one of them will be defined ‘Keisatsuchō chōkan’ (警察庁長官 “Commissioner General of the National Police Agency”), though the credits of episode 50 of the anime will call him ‘Keishichō chōkan’ (警視庁長官 “Commissioner General of the Metropolitan Police Department”), which is likely a typing mistake as the “Superintendent General of the Metropolitan Police Department” is called (警視総監 ‘Keishisōkan’). The anime credits label the guy who’s reporting things as ‘Keishichō hōkoku-kan’ (警視庁報告官 “Metropolitan Police Department Reporter”) while everyone else is labeled with the generic term of ‘Keishichō kanbu’ (警視庁幹部 “Metropolitan Police Department Executive Officer”)… a term that applies to Superintendent General of the Metropolitan Police Department and to the other Senior Commissioners but also to the members of the Commissioner General's Secretariat (though it contains more than just 5 people).

This creates some confusion because one of the guys we see in Chap. 95 and that here is supposed to be a “Metropolitan Police Department Executive Officer” is also shown in Chap. 191/192/243, again without name or ranking but the anime credits for episode 90 this time will label him as ‘Kōan kanbu’ (公安幹部 “Public Safety Executive Officer”) basically making him a worker for the Hero Public Safety Commission, something confirmed from the credit in the movie too where he’s labeled as ‘Kōan iin kanbu’ (公安委員幹部 “Public Safety Commission Executive Officer”). It’s worth to mention in the anime the guy we see in Ep. 50 and the one we see in Ep. 90 could be different people, as they’ve the same face but different hair colors (so they could just be related)… but it’s harder to buy it in the manga where no visible difference is shown.

For the sake of a smooth presentation of this scene for now I’ll call him just ‘executive officer’ and I’ll discuss later of the implication of him being either in the police or in the Hero commission.

So, the scene starts with the reporter reporting that the captured Nōmu are the same as the others, don’t react to the stimuli like ordinary humans and they can’t gather any new info from them. The warehouse in which they were in was completely destroyed and they can only try to investigate the methods by which they were created. I think that, with this, they mean they’ll investigate it by experimenting on the Nōmu.

The Commissioner General of the National Police Agency points out how the warehouse was a decoy all along, as the location was far too accessible and hill-suited for biological experiments, and asks if anything at the bar hideout has given them more leads or info on the rest of the League, only to hear they’re still investigating.

This basically tells us not only the police traced such places thanks to Yaoyorozu transmitter and luck that Tamagawa had coincidentally heard about a guy whose description matched Dabi not much before entering in a certain building, so the investigation wasn’t that great to begin with, but also that fundamentally what they found was a decoy! So much for the investigation of the police All Might and Gran Torino praised so much.

The Executive Officer claims that even if they have the ringleader in custody, Shigaraki and the others are still free so, if they’re being generous, they can call it a draw.

The Commissioner General disagrees, calling him idiot (馬鹿野郎 ‘bakayarō’, which is pretty rude) because they had just lost the symbol of peace and the world knows of his weakened state, which means foreigners and Villains know about it too.

The man next to the Commissioner General points out how that’s the price they pay for always relying on one man (All Might). Considering where he sits, he should either be the‘Keishisōkan’ (警視総監 “Superintendent General of the Metropolitan Police Department”) or the ‘Keisatsuchō jichō’ (警察庁次長 “Deputy Commissioner General of the National Police Agency”). Do your pick.

The Commissioner General comments on how the League got this far by basically gathering together a bunch of stupid (馬鹿 ‘baka’) but he’s worried by how by now, everyone is aware of this. He went on saying the initial profiling painted Tomura as a man with a childish disposition but each plans Tomura comes up with becomes more and more intricate and he’s completely focused on the effect he can have on society as a whole as Tomura learns from his mistakes. The Commissioner General thinks without All Might they’re less equipped to stop him, his league growing stronger with each defeat and now he got all the clout he needs to expand his organization’s scope and influence.

At this point I’m face palming so hard it hurts.

Avoiding how he’s using a derogatory ‘stupid’ for Tomura’s allies, he’s still using the profile All Might did… which I really, really hope an expert confirmed, because otherwise this is plain dumb but whatever, let’s talk of Tomura’s dastardly plans.

The first, which gained him the profile of man-child, was to attack USJ with a huge bunch of low class Villains. It failed.

The second was… to send three Nōmu to attack Hosu while the Hero Killer was also there. There’s basically no plan here, he sent them to make a ruckus and they went.

If we want to be generous the third was talking with Midoriya. Not impressive at all.

The forth was attacking the summer camp. This time Tomura got better troops, they had a goal and they managed to complete it even if they lost 3 men… but the way they complete it was left up to them, they didn’t really act following Tomura’s plan, it was more a ‘let’s jump in, attack, make chaos and snatch Bakugō’. Getting Ragdoll in the process was a bonus and it’s unexplained how they did as none of them is seen catching her, though the Nōmu is seen with her headphones. Since it was AFO who wanted her and not Tomura, it can be after the Nōmu knocked her down, AFO just sent Kurogiri to warp her away.

That’s it. I honestly wouldn’t even consider the second and the third as plans, they’re spur of the moment decisions, and since the police didn’t question AFO, they don’t even know if plan one and four were made by Tomura or by AFO.

I genuinely think Horikoshi didn’t mean it, that this is an error in writing to make the League more scary than it is, but the Commissioner General comes out as dumb, especially if we consider the fact that, from now on the League, without AFO backing them, will go through lot of troubles and will manage to go back on being a threat only thanks to the lucky circumstances of the Meta Liberation Army targeting them, losing and being forced to join them and Garaki deciding to back them up as well.

I do passionately love the league but they’re very, very far from being an organized group with a leader capable of intricate plans like Lelouch and the Black Knights of “Code Geass” were.

It makes me think the police is just too used to Villains who are disorganized thugs with not really strong Quirks and zero ambitions or Villains who have strong Quirks but work solo and, again, with zero long term goals and organization.

Anyway, back to the Commissioner General.

He claims they’ve to capture Tomura because, as the police, they need to prove they can do more than just simply taking in the Villains that the Heroes defeat, so they need to make some changes.

Keisatsuchō chōkan ‘Wareware keisatsu mo “teki (read: VILLAIN) uketori-gakari” nado to iwareteru baai janai. Kaikaku ga hitsuyō da.’ 警察庁長官「我々警察も〝敵（ヴィラン）受け取り係〟などと言われてる場合じゃない。改革が必要だ。」Commissioner General of the National Police Agency “We, the police, can no longer be called 'enemy (read: villain) receivers'. Reform is necessary.”

I’ll spoiler you and say that this pretty speech will lead them to… ask the Hero Commission to revise their criteria for handing Hero provisional licenses focusing more on candidates capable of teamwork. Because the police, who wants to be more than being just the guys who take in the Villains that the Heroes defeat, now wants to be the guys who take in the Villains that COOPERATIVE Heroes defeat. It’s such a great improvement in the police structure I’m impressed. Ops, no, it’s actually an improvement in the Heroes that will be selected.

The police will investigate more yes, but they will be never up for fighting Villains and they know, and they won’t come up with a mean to fight Villains without using their Quirk either. It’ll be always Heroes who’ll do it, see for example All Might who’ll come up with the idea of getting himself a suit, or Nezu who’ll turn U.A. into a fortress.

So the Commissioner General being upset because the police is mocked as all they’re capable of is taking Villains into custody and claiming they’ve to reform only for the reform to affect the Heroes feels honestly very telling of how the Heroes, who started as someone below the police, someone who had to win the public trust that instead the police had in abundance, are instead the new effective way to stop criminals.

It reminds me of how samurai complained because katanas were being replaced by rifles, making the police’s honorable choice not to use their Quirk in fighting Villains just a leftover of an old and prejudiced mentality.

Now… let’s go back a bit to the whole matter of the identity of that Executive Officer.

Considering how he knows about who Hawks is and how he was trained, if he works for the police, this means the police also was aware of what Lady Nagant was doing for the HPSC. It might have been an idea of the previous president, but he likely needed to have the green light from the police. It makes sense as the police is also throwing its weight around to force the HPSC to change the how the do the licensing exam.

The HPSC might have a little more freedom if that guy is actually a member of the HPSC who went as a representative of the HPSC to the reunion the Commissioner General had. It’s clear the HPSC is still seen below them considering how the Commissioner General don’t hesitate to call him an idiot (馬鹿野郎 ‘bakayarō’, which is pretty rude).

Overall I would say that this reunion in a way marks the fall of the police, who thinks to improve by improving Heroes, and the slow rise of the HPSC as they’ll be the one to organize the first war and, without them, the police is not even capable to make the paperwork to ask foreign Heroes to come help Japan. This though, might be just my impression.

Meanwhile Tsukauchi is with Gran Torino to visit All Might at the hospital. Tsukauchi thinks All Might shouldn’t believe AFO’s words that Shigaraki is his master’s grandson and asks if they interacted with Shimura’s family. Gran Torino says her husband was killed so she put her son in foster care to protect him, asking them to stay out of the boy’s life. Tsukauchi observes how that promise was turned over. All Might would like to search for Shigaraki but Gran Torino says he and Tsukauchi will do it.

I’m going again to be mean here but… checking if Tomura’s real identity was Shimura’s grandson was really something too hard for Tsukauchi to do? Kotarō kept his family surname so he wasn’t adopted, he was likely given in foster care. They could start by tracking his fate, see if he has a son, try to see if they can find a sample of Tomura’s DNA in his hideout to compare with the one of the remains of his family, because they could show some interest in Shigaraki Tomura’s backstory so that they could make a better profile of him and understand him better and anticipate his moves and… oh, yeah, professional profiling is for losers in this story. We can just ask All Might for another random definition to slap on Tomura and bring it to the Commissioner General. He’ll take it.

The last info this chapter gives us about the police is that after having escaped Bakugō went with the police.

In Chap. 96 we’ve a last info about the police, which is they told Bakugō not to wander outside. Honestly I find this pointless because, considering there’s no one guarding outside or inside, if the League wanted to try to snatch Bakugō again, they could have had just asked Kurogiri to warp them inside his home, grab him and leave.

THE LAW: //

THE PRISONS: In Chap. 90 All Might says he wants to smash AFO in a prison along with the League of Villains.

In Chap. 94 we’re told that the day after being captured AFO is carried at Tartarus, a special detention center without a trial or sentencing.

Midoriya Izuku ‘Kare wa koto no ōki-sa kara tokurei-chū no tokurei to shite kei no kakutei o matazu tokushu kōchijo e haire rareta.’ 緑谷出久「彼は事の大きさから特例中の特例として刑の確定を待たず特殊拘置所へ入れられた。」 Midoriya Izuku “Due to the seriousness of the crime, he was taken to a special detention center as an exceptional case, without waiting for the sentence to be finalized.” [Chap. 94]

Note that the test says ‘the day after’ but the battle took place during night. When it finished Midoriya’s group reconvened with Shōto’s group, Bakugō went with the police and, a few hours after, when it was around 8:00 AM Midoriya and Co went home. This likely means AFO was carried straight at Tartarus, no stops in between.

Once there, AFO, who’s wearing a straightjacket, asks where he is and the guard pushing the wheelchair on which he’s tied.

When he asks where he is, he’s told this should be obvious and that he would be lucky if they were to give him the death penalty as that’s the place where scum like him is put.

Kanshu ‘Damatte iro! ! Mireba wakarudarou! ! Shikei sura namanurui hodo no zainin ga ikitsuku basho da!’ 看守「黙っていろ！！見ればわかるだろう！！死刑すら生温い程の罪人が行き着く場所だ！！」 Jailer “Stay quiet!! If you look, you can see it!! This is the place where criminals for whom even the death penalty is too lenient end up!!” [Chap. 94]

AFO notes that there are far too may sensors who mess up with his sensing abilities. On the ceiling there are also plenty of rifles following movements.

The jailer seems to realize only then that AFO couldn’t see, which doesn’t really speak of a brilliant jailer since AFO’s eyes are basically nonexistent, and, without them, it’s kind of obvious he can’t see.

Tied to what I assume is a chair, face still bandaged, we can see Stain too. Stain was arrested in May and we’re in August. I hope they didn’t keep him tied for 3 months as it’s not healthy.

This is a good moment to point out how in the manga there is no contraption that’s capable to stop Quirks from working, no Quirk cuffs, or Quirk suppressers or Quirk whatever. That’s why prisons like Tartarus get away with keeping their prisoners completely tied or even drugged and have turrets that would shoot them should they try to use their Quirks.

Quirks themselves can have their own limitations, AFO complains the sensors in the prisons affect his own infrared Quirk but unless you’ve an erasure Quirk like Eraser Head, or a rewinding Quirk like Eri or you just remove the infrastructure for the Quirk to work (Eraser Head’s eyes, Overhaul’s hands), before the invention of the rewinding bullets there was no way to stop a Quirk from working.

THE HERO PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION: In Chap. 96 there’s a little speech made likely on the TV. It seems it’s done by the Hero Billboard chart JP, the biannual ranking based on mission completion rate, contribution to society and public support… or more likely by someone behind its making. The speech shares with people some quick News. From them we learn people from Japan, but also from USA were surprised by All Might’s true form. After what had happened All Might had been forced to announce his retirement. We’re also told Best Jeanist will be out of commission for a long while and Ragdoll of the super popular Pussycats is still unable to use her Quirk so she’ll go on an indefinite leave. Also we’re told that a great number of Heroes has had their lives suddenly affected in the event known as the Kamino nightmare. There’s no mention here of the NPSC but since they’re the ones handling the Hero Billboard chart JP, it can be that it’s one of their men that shares those quick news on TV in name of the Hero Billboard chart JP.

CULTURAL INFO:

Sorry, I couldn’t find out if Japan has forensic psychological assessment. Probably it does but I genuinely don’t know.

In Japan, one can be arrested on the spot in which case no warrant will be shown but the police must provide the person arrested an explanation or, if it is an arrest by warrant (normal arrest), the police will show the one arrested the warrant before placing you in custody. Then he will then be taken to a police station for questioning and stuck in their detention centre, which is located in the police station and remain there until it’s either decided there are not enough proofs to indict you and so you’ll be released or until after you’ll have your trial. There is no bail before indictment and after it, bail is rarely granted. If you’ll be judged guilty you’ll be moved to a prison with hard labor. This is why moving AFO directly to a prison was an extraordinary measure.

Very likely, contrary to normal Japanese prisons, Tartarus doesn’t have a hard labor system and prisoners are just held in cells, possibly restrained or drugged or, if it has, it’s only for people with not dangerous or controllable Quirks.

#boku no hero academia #mha meta #bnha meta #bnha spoilers #Tsuragamae Kenji #Tsukauchi Naomasa #Tamagawa Sansa #Kaniyashiki Monika #Tanuma Eizou

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