#the conclusion to the first story. which shows what i liked about the collection & what might be its limitations.

[pumpkinpaix]

Chapter Spotlight 8:

"'Censorship Made It Better': Anti-Fans and Purity Culture in English-Language Chen Qing Ling Fandom" by Abby Springman

Describe your topic/chapter in one sentence/one meme/140 characters.

Rejoice! MDZS has been cancelled!

What drew you to this topic?

When I got into CQL fandom and started lurking on its outskirts on Twitter, I started getting this weird sense of déjà vu. There was this bizarre similarity between the arguments I was seeing about the aspects of CQL/MDZS and their fandoms being "problematic" from a progressive, social justice point of view and the demands for censorship in American libraries that conservative groups were (and still are) making at an alarmingly increasing rate. In an attempt to make sense of this, I fell down what ended up being a really long rabbit hole, and, well, here we are.

Was there anything you were surprised to discover while researching?

I was surprised by the wide variety of fannish backgrounds found amongst members of English-language CQL fandom! I'm not used to seeing so many different "areas" of fandom intersect over a single piece of media like this. Some folks are primarily into the live action movies and TV shows side of things, some are mostly in bandom, some (like me) are traditionally a part of the anime, manga, and gaming contingent, etc. I think that's fascinating, honestly.

Did researching/writing your chapter change how you saw the text, the fandom, or the media? How so?

I didn't use the block button on Tumblr or Twitter for anyone in the fandom while I was working on my chapter. It definitely changed how I saw fandom on those platforms—literally. It really highlighted how much power social media algorithms have over what kind of content is presented to us front and center.

If there’s one thing you hope the fandom takes away from your article, what would it be?

I'll be thrilled if it makes people think about "problematic" content in less black-and-white terms. They don't have to necessarily agree with my conclusions! But if my words make even one person stop and think more about context before posting a reactionary comment, then that would be great.

If you were isekai-ed into MDZS/CQL, what sect affiliation would you choose and why?

The Lan. My existing skills are most likely to be applicable there (see: the library), it seems easy to find some peace and quiet when you need it, there are bunnies, and Hanguang-jun is there.

Chaotic one-sentence pitch to get your friends into MDZS/CQL?

My elevator pitch for CQL has historically been, "It's the adaptation of a book about a gay necromancer, except they can't actually show the gay romance or the zombies on screen."

What is one (1) book/media you would recommend to a MDZS/CQL fan? Tell us about it.

Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio by Pu Songling. It's probably the most accessible collection of Chinese stories of the supernatural available in English. If MDZS/CQL was your first exposure to traditional Chinese cultural beliefs about ghosts, exorcisms, and the like, this is a great introduction to the less xianxia-specific aspects. If that isn't the case for you, I still highly recommend it on its own merits!

Character you keep getting in those "which MDZS/CQL character are you" quizzes?

Wen Ning

Anything to say to potential readers of the collection?

Thank you, and I'm sorry—no, that's a joke. More seriously, I really am thankful for anyone interested in the collection. It's the product of years of hard work by many people, and I'm sure there's an interesting chapter in there for everyone.

(FAQ) (all posts on Catching Chen Qing Ling)

[livsoulsecrets]

Ben has been one of my favorite characters in the show since the first season and it pisses me off to no end how he’s treated in s4.

I really respected the show’s decision to have Umbrella!Ben sacrifice himself for Viktor because it made sense for his character to be ready to move on in that moment and to do that for his brother and his family. It was an end that did justice to his character.

But if Viktor dies at the end, and so does the whole family, then his sacrifice is for nothing. Ben saved his family at the expense of his own existence for what reason? So that they could live a couple more years and die anyway in the series finale?

I enjoyed the new take they did with Sparrow!Ben as a version of Ben who grew up without the mess and love of the Umbrellas and how much that changed things because it was a compelling concept—which had no pay off in s4.

Why did the show bother establishing Sparrow!Ben as an asshole that was also desperate to belong and be liked, as the guy who whined about not being invited to Luther’s bachelor party and asked Klaus why the other Ben was so much better?

Why did we go through all this story arc if he ends up exactly the same in s4? Ben is still pushing everyone away, still considering himself to have no family and no friends, still thinking of himself as a bad person.

I thought we’d get to see Sparrow!Ben clash with the others in order to show them he’s not their Ben. And it would have been so freaking satisfying to watch the siblings accept and understand he’s his own person and decide they want Sparrow!Ben in the family anyway. That would be an emotional conflict I’d care about, not the bullshit insta-love the writers pulled with Jennifer.

What was the point of Sparrow!Ben this season? He was used to being a soldier, but seemed desperate for a family last season—a family he immediately rejected when it was offered to him in s4.

He died a horrible death and had no control over his own body at the end. He didn’t even become a stupid flower in the new timeline*. He just ceased to exist—all alone.

With no family or ties. No hero death. Why did the audience spend 2 seasons getting to know this new version of a well liked character if the show did absolutely nothing to take the story to any decent conclusion?

Both Umbrella and Sparrow Ben are just erased from the narrative because the show didn’t even bother including them in their stupid collective death ending. 4 seasons of Ben’s death haunting the narrative and the Hargreeves for this?

I’m ranting like a deranged madman but that’s my main takeaway. What a waste :/

*I wrote this in a hurry and was pretty pissed but some comments pointed out there were 8 flowers in the post credit scene so Ben is probably one of them

[theoutcastrogue]

A handful of people in Pompeii that were killed by the devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 are not who experts thought they were, according to a team of researchers that recently collected DNA from the individuals’ remains. The team’s findings—published today in Current Biology—spotlight previous incorrect conclusions about relationships between the residents of Pompeii and reveals new insights about the demographics of the Ancient Roman port city. “We show that the large genetic diversity with significant influences from the Eastern Mediterranean was not only a phenomenon in the metropolis of Rome during Imperial times but extends to the much smaller city of Pompeii, which underscores the cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic nature of Roman society,” said Alissa Mittnik, an archaeogeneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and Harvard University, and co-author of the study [...] Demographically, the team found that five individuals in Pompeii weren’t so genetically associated with modern-day Italians and Imperial-period Etruscans as they were to groups from the eastern Mediterranean, the Levant, and North Africa—specifically North African Jewish populations. Pompeii was an important port in first-century Rome, so it’s not a huge surprise that it had representation from across the Mediterranean—but the genetic stories of the studied individuals verifies it. [...] “This study illustrates how unreliable narratives based on limited evidence can be, often reflecting the worldview of the researchers at the time.” One particularly famous set of remains revisited by the team is that of an adult with a golden bracelet and a child—the child being on the adult’s lap. Long interpreted as a mother and child, the remains actually belong to an unrelated male and a child.

"Unrelated." This gutted me, for some reason. Reminded me of Watchmen and what I think are some of the most memorable panels in the history of comics.

There's a catastrophe, a colossal explosion, a disaster that we know claims the lives of millions. We know it's happening, we know there's a "psychic shockwave" involved. And there's two people we've been casually following from the start of the story, ordinary people in the street, unlike all those costumed heroes running around. They're not very good and they're not very bad. They're just people. One is an old man running a news-stand, the other is a young kid who reads pirate comics. They don't like each other. They're rude to each other, generation gap and all. Two minutes ago they learned they share a name, and managed to share an almost kind word, and they're about to start fighting again. They're just people, right? And then the disaster happens. We don't see it yet. The blood and gore will be witnessed in the next issue. For now, the background fades to white, and we only see them.

They drop what they're holding, they hug, the old man puts his arms protectively around the young kid, and they fade. They fade into the shape of the Watchmen logo, ubiquitous throughout the comic, and then they fade out. White panel. There's nothing left. And off-panel, the Ozymandias quote.

Watchmen primarily aimed to evoke nuclear war, and the "psychic shockwave" clearly stands for the blast of a thermonuclear explosion. What makes the sequence gut-wrenching is the hug (so tender and so futile), the fade-to-white (a negative space so understated and so enormous), and the penultimate panel: an after-image frozen in time, declaring forever "once there were people here". Just like the plaster casts of Pompeii, just like the stones of Hiroshima.

Hiroshima, August 6th, 1945: the shadow of a person who was disintegrated at the moment of the blast. The steps and the wall were burned white, except the portion that was shielded by the person's body. (These steps were cut out and are now inside the Hiroshima Peace Park museum.) Photo by Yoshito Matsushige, whose films were confiscated and didn't get printed until the U.S. occupation ended in Japan in April 1952.

[phantomrose96]

I feel like it takes A Lot to collectively traumatize a fandom as fond of vivisection as the Danny Phantom fandom, but damn that'd do it. Fantastic fic!!!

Also I *love* the detail of the news report in the background of the breakfast scene. At first I was like "oh cool they're talking about PTSD, which he definitely seems to be developing" then I read it again and I was like "oh *fuck* they're talking *about Danny*" which is *chef's kiss* superb

(Prometheus)

Achievement unlocked! Danny gets to be an easter egg in his own story!!

I'm a fan of the trope (I guess it's a trope) of the secret-identity character who just has to listen powerlessly while the talking heads on the tv muse about what's happened to them. Doesn't matter if the broadcast is sympathetic or damning. Either way it hits for me.

When I was first piecing that scene together, I was intending to have Danny, Jack, and Jazz pay attention to the broadcast when it became obvious the reporters were talking about Phantom. It would be the vehicle to communicate to the audience that Phantom is slipping and Danny's definitely grappling with PTSD at this point.

But when I thought about it more, I wasn't actually in love with it as the delivery vehicle. Yeah I like the trope but it felt a little too much of just "I'm saying story details at the reader and using the newscaster as a mouth for that." It felt contrived in a way I don't like.

And what would everyone's reaction be? There wasn't a meaningful place to bring it. Like sure maybe Jack could scoff and say something like "Ghosts don't have complex feelings" or something else dismissive, but that wasn't constructive to the narrative I was building. What Jack thinks about Phantom isn't important to this kind of story. I could have Jazz maybe try to talk to Danny, but there's no way to do that with Jack in the room, and Jazz wouldn't need the newscasters for this anyway. It's her own baby brother, she'd have seen this before any tv host. And there's nothing important for Danny to gain from this. Other than maybe knowing his slipping is visible, but he knows.

So I came to a much better conclusion: ignore the news cast.

It does not need to be a contrived narrative device. It does not need to steer the scene. It does not need to misdirect me into unimportant conversations.

They ignore it. And THAT is so much more thematically potent to what is happening. Danny fighting through his denial. Danny shutting his friends out. The elephant in the room is ON THE TV and no one is even allowed to address it.

Tv host saying "Phantom has PTSD" isn't the vehicle I need for this "communicate to the reader Danny has PTSD" scene. THAT is much better done with Jack, and with his invention, and with the chekov's gun he's been dismantling and remantling the whole fic. It's done with Jack pointing a weapon at Danny - a thing which has occurred a THOUSAND times before - but it's different NOW, because of the trauma Danny is not coping with.

To be cliche, it's the show-don't-tell answer here. (And to be fair, there are PLENTY of places where "tell" is an entirely acceptable route and is often a necessary part of maintaining narrative velocity.) But in this case, the chill Fenton family breakfast atmosphere (tv ignored) snapping cold in the instant Jack draws the weapon on Danny is what the scene needed. The snap-change to Jack and Jazz's attitudes as they notice Danny's reaction. The "this isn't normal anymore" to a morning that was perfectly normal until this moment. And, only after that moment, revealing to the reader that Danny is crying.

The news cast gets to serve its best purpose as environmental storytelling. Confirming to the reader that this is bad enough to be impacting Phantom's ability to fight, to supplement the narrative which (coming from Danny's POV) is trying to not admit how bad it is. ("Super healing is cool!")

It gets to serve its purpose by being completely ignored. Until it's too late.

[fantastic-nonsense]

obviously I'd be thrilled to just get the whole PJO series adapted and then end it there. However: Heroes of Olympus as a story can be cleaned up sooooooo much in a way that PJO just doesn't need to be, and a tv adaptation offers the perfect opportunity to do so

like honestly my hottake is that I think Disney could solve both the problem of adapting a long, convoluted sequel series and a lot of the problems HOO as a story has if they a) do The Lost Hero and Son of Neptune in the same season and b) deliberately wait until the PJO actors are in their 20s to do it

Just thinking about this a bit more:

three 12-14 episode seasons, with TLH/SoN in S1, a modified MoA in S2 that deals with some of the Argo crews' HoH subplots, and then HoH/BoO in S3

Percy and Annabeth are in their 20s and newly engaged when he disappears. This sets up the arc of Percy dreaming about settling down with Annabeth in New Rome in a more organic, functional way and also gives us as viewers a chance to see that the aftermath of the Titan War has resulted in tangible, lasting change for the demigods of Camp Half-Blood

Grover replaces Coach Hedge as the Seven's collective Protector+chaperone, which solves the series' problem of Grover's absence and the absence of the PJO Trio's friendship

the whole show/story takes place over ~6 months instead of the year it did in the books, and Percy+Jason's individual quests happen concurrently (simply not letting Percy sleep for 8 months and making an episode where he establishes himself at the Roman camp for awhile before he's forced on the quest with Frank and Hazel would solve about half of the problems on the Roman side of the series)

Season-wise, things mostly sort themselves out:

The first season starts off introducing the Lost Hero trio and we find out that Percy's missing at the end of the first episode. The second episode opens with Percy waking up at the Wolf House and starting his journey to New Rome. We get one episode entirely devoted to amnesiac Jason and Percy integrating into the new camps, making friends, and learning about their missing counterpart before the quest plots start up.

The season then alternates between Jason, Piper, and Leo's "Find Hera" quest and Percy, Hazel, and Frank's Alaska quest, with intermittent jumps to the Greek and Roman efforts to find Percy and Jason. It ends with Percy and Jason regaining their memories and each camp realizing their leader is on the other side of the country in "enemy" territory.

The second season opens around a month later as the Argo II docks in New Rome. Percy and Jason have both been given time to make friends, integrate themselves into the opposing camp, and become adjusted to a different way of life with all of their memories intact. They haven't physically returned to their home camps as they've both independently come to the conclusion that Hera switched them to initiate inter-camp unity and are wary of doing anything that would disrupt that goal. However, Percy and Jason have both managed to get messages to Annabeth and Reyna respectively at some point in that month, so everyone knows everyone is safe when the Greeks finally arrive in New Rome.

Cue MoA's various plotlines, which would be cleaned up and streamlined significantly while also integrating in some of the HoH arcs like Hazel learning how to manipulate the Mist, Frank learning how to use his shapeshifting powers, Piper coming into her own as a daughter of Aphrodite, Leo's seventh wheel arc and the Calypso subplot, Jason struggling to figure out what his place is, the Jason-Nico friendship, etc. Also set up the Greek v. Roman dispute and Reyna following them to Greece. Season ends with the Annabeth-Arachne confrontation and Tartarus fall.

The third season combines HoH and BOO; the season alternates between Percy and Annabeth's journey through Tartarus while the rest of the Seven finish their various character arcs via gathering the elements for the Physicians' Cure and journeying to the Doors of Death. After they rescue Percy and Annabeth and close the Doors, they plan to head straight to Athens to take on Gaea. Reyna reaches them just after, and Annabeth sends her and Nico off with the Athena Parthenos with Grover as their Protector.

The final battle switches between The Seven+Gods vs. Gaea+The Giants at the Acropolis and the Greeks vs. Romans at Camp Half-Blood. The Gaea plotline is resolved at the Acropolis, the Greek-Roman plotline is resolved as Nico and Reyna triumphantly arrive at Camp Half-Blood with the statue, a functional Greek-Roman working relationship, and the gods' blessing. This helps streamline the mess that was Blood of Olympus and actually provides a workable story resolution.

We get a final aftermath/epilogue episode that sorts out and ties up all remaining plot threads, teases Solangelo, and ends with Percy returning home to see his mom and planning out how to move to New Rome after he and Annabeth get married.

Obviously this is the roughest possible sketch of how it could be done, but I genuinely believe doing something like that could fix some of the biggest issues HOO has conceptually while streamlining all of the quest bloat. It'd be interesting to see them try, anyway.

[that-ari-blogger]

They Who Carry The Torch (The Missing Months)

When writing this post, it struck me how close together the second and third seasons of The Owl House were. As in, I have described them as the missing years and it is not uncommon for them to be implied as being at least a year or two apart. But King’s Tide aired on May 28, 2022, and Thanks To Them aired on October 15 of that same year. That’s less than five months.

For context, the gap between seasons one and two was just under ten months. It really wasn’t that much time at all.

But a lot can happen in five months, especially in the realms of fanfiction. The Owl House’s ending was purposely unsatisfying. We didn’t know we would get a conclusion.

This is a post about one comic artist who stepped up to the plate to try and bridge that gap. The one, the only, @moringmark.

Let me explain.

I think the first question I need to ask is why I am doing this?

Moringmark’s comics are not expressly cannon to The Owl House. They are, by definition, fanart, and I haven’t covered fanart as a full post in any of my other series. So why make the exception?

My answer here is kind of twofold and kind of not.

Firstly, canon is not really a thing. Like all definitions, the word exists to allow for common ground between people, but this one is especially dubious. What is cannon?

You may say that the text itself is the canon, and that is a perfectly fine distinction. But it doesn’t take into account retcons and plotholes and alternate futures. Luckily, The Owl House doesn’t have many of these, but areas where canon is more important, such as comic books, tend to feature them more heavily.

This isn’t a coincidence. There is a direct line between having multiple possibilities and the need to clarify that one is canon.

My hot take is this: Canon is just what the general audience accepts as having happened. The main material is the thing that everyone agrees on, and everything else is fuzzy with increasing or decreasing clarity depending on the media and the audience.

For one example, Harold Pots and the Child that was Maybe a bit Bad is a stage play that was written by the author of its parent series. It is technically canon. But due to a number of factors including the author making a fool of herself online and alienating a significant chunk of her audience and the story not satisfying a general audience, it is not treated as fitting the canon.

Flipping the script, The Owl House fandom exists in a really large capacity online, most notably in this case, on Tumblr. A significant chunk of the fanbase has at least come into contact with Moringmark’s art, and it is not uncommon for the comics to be believed canon unless proven otherwise, which is not an honour ascribed to many fanartists.

In addition, we didn’t know we were getting a season three, so for several months, these comics were the The Owl House.

My other reason is this: I do not run a review blog. I do not have to weigh the worth of a fan artist alongside its inspiration because that is a) not fair considering the size of the teams working on the two and b) not my job.

Instead, I run an analysis blog. I discuss what a text is about and comment on how I got to that conclusion. This is a series about The Owl House, and Moringmark’s comics were The Owl House for a few months, it is important to me that their contributions to the themes of the series be understood.

So, I have collected a few of Moringmark’s posts that were published between the end of season two and the start of season three, and I have some thoughts.

Starting with this one, published Sep 16, 2022.

Moringmark had two main takes on the show that were remarkably accurate, even if their aesthetics were different (I will get to that in a moment).

The first and the one most obvious in this post is the slice of life story of the Hex Squad moving in with the Nocedas for a while.

Moringmark is an incredibly funny writer, so a lot of the time this was leveraged for humour, and that shines through here, but this is more than that.

The designs are different to the original show. Everyone’s hair has grown out a bit with two exceptions to show that time has passed, although not much. And Vee’s human design is tweaked slightly to allow for a visible difference between her and Luz. They still look like sisters, but she is a lot simpler and looks slightly younger, reflecting their dynamic.

I also appreciate her shirt design. “Me.” She is more self actualized here than in her series incarnation. She is no longer playing a part and is fully her own person.

Notably, the Hex Squad all have similar clothing designs. It’s the same shirt in different colours with an emblem on the front. Notably, Willow’s is slightly smaller on her and Gus’ is slightly bigger on him, while Hunter doesn’t wear one at all. They are all Luz’ clothes because none of the squad had their own. The group hasn’t been able of felt the need to get clothes that fit everyone yet.

Subtle storytelling.

Speaking of which, the only two who’s hair hasn’t grown since the series finale are Gus, who’s style has stayed the same, and Hunter’s, who’s decidedly has not.

Hunter is missing his iconic curl thingo that hangs over his face, and judging by his expression in the first panel, it was removed extremely recently. He too is a different person, symbolically ready to move past his trauma.

But then news of Belos is brought up, and his expression changes, and stays that way. Hunter becomes set and focused and determined. Even when in Camila’s car at the end, his eyes are glued to the mirror. He is constantly on the lookout, constantly ready. I’ve seen this trauma response in real life.

I recently watched Xena Warrior Princess, a show that is goofy as all hell, and probably the most nineties television series that ever graced our screens. I mean that both as a compliment and as an… oh boy.

The series is notable in this context for the following exchange:

Hunter thinks that he can just cut out that part of his life and move on. That’s why he cuts his hair, but its also why he is so focused on getting to Belos. But the events that shaped him are still there, under the surface.

“See how calm the surface of the water is? That was me once. And then…” (Throws rock in water) “The water ripples and churns. That’s what I became.”

“But if we sit here long enough, it will go back to being still again. It will go back to being calm.”

“But the stone’s still under there. It’s now part of the lake. It might look as it did before, but it’s forever changed.”

The reason I selected this comic for analysis was its relation to the series’ theme of family. I.e. bad family will leave a mark that you can’t get away from, you can just try to hide it. But good family will try to help you and comfort you and offer you guidance and protection. To make that point, in comes Camila and her car.

Going back a bit to the subtle storytelling. The kids’ reactions to the news of Belos are the centerpieces of the fourth panel. It’s slightly smaller than its predecessor, which has a tiny zooming effect, but everyone has a distinct emotion. Luz and Amity look to each other, Vee gives a worried expression, and Gus and Willow immediately clock Hunter’s tone shift.

But Camila also responds. Not much, just a glance and an eyebrow raise, but enough to show she noticed.

Thematically, the fact that Camila’s offer to help the crew take on Belos happens off screen infers that it wasn’t up for debate. She was fully ready to throw hands with this man from the minute she saw his impact on the children she had taken under her wing.

Which leaves an opportunity for humour. The Owl House is a satirical comedy, and Moringmark gets that. He undercuts the cool moment of the crew walking down the road, but then makes it clear that the catharsis of this isn’t going away.

That’s really it. Catharsis. Moringmark writes comedy and drama in remarkably similar ways, and while the above post is a clear example of it, I need to bring up this comic, which delves into that parental theme for a different kind of emotion.

Notice what I said earlier about Vee and her self-actualization. It doesn’t get as much of a spotlight as Hunter, but this is also someone deeply scarred by Belos, and yet she seems a lot more healthy than him. Maybe because she has had time and exposure to a better parent figure than Belos. Maybe because she has had time to sit by the lake and watch the ripples die down.

Look how Moringmark achieves pacing here. You know the tense situation; you don't need words to hear the bounce and ring of that amulet. Even the cut to the two's faces amplifies this mood. Its shape heightens the perspective while the blank background cuts away from everything else, so you don't get distracted.

Next up, we have the story back on the Boiling Isles. Moringmark went for a Mad-Max style road trip story type of thing, and there is so much here to choose from.

I was tempted to go with this comic because it has the bus in it, and I love the bus. But I think the most emblematic of this part of the story was this:

Published on July 19, 2022, this comic is notable for a few things.

The little details in this comic stand out to me on a storytelling level. How the trappers are the Collector’s henchmen, and how the renegades are using necklaces similar to King’s to avoid notice from the Collector. That’s a really cool idea.

But I had to include this comic for its portrayal of the Collector and of Boscha.

You would think that this isn’t too different from how the Collector is usually characterized. They are doing the exact same thing as they did in King’s Tide.

Obviously, this is different by dint of how Skara’s reaction to hitting a solid surface at the speed of sound will probably be different to Belos’. But it’s also important to note that this version of the Collector works by the rules of the game.

This is a cosmic entity that has rules, and therefore is something that can be worked around. They have a soft spot for those who try to follow the rules, balanced out by an utter disregard for mortal life. This version of the Collector is terrifying specifically because we have seen him try this before and succeed. We know how this ends, the Collector’s character is a twist.

Speaking of which, we also know how Boscha will act. She is mean, as has been established by the comic in its first few panels. We learn that she doesn’t seem to care that Skara is injured. This is not someone we expect a character arc out of.

But then we get a moment of clarity. We get Boscha risking her life Skara. We get a moment of redemption for Boscha.

And I’m going to level with you. I like this far more than For the Future. Consider this foreshadowing, as I have a fanfic in the works that is based in this version of the story. That is, what might have happened had this or something similar to this been the canon.

I will remind you that this was the canon when it was written, as much as anything else. We didn’t have another option. This was The Owl House.

A lesser concept in the original series was that of redemption and relationships. Amity is redeemed through the compassion that Luz shows for her. Not even love at this point, but friendship that blossoms into romantic attraction.

Similarly, Alador is redeemed through his love for his daughter. Lilith is redeemed through her love for her sister. Mattholomule and Hunter are redeemed through their friendships with Gus and Luz respectively. Etc.

This comic just continues those themes into showing Boscha redeem herself through her friendship with Skara.

It is worth pointing out that this isn’t a full heel turn. Boscha isn’t ready to admit anything or stop being mean, but it is a start. He heart is in the right place, even if her brain is not.

This is why Moringmark is canon, at least to me. These versions are fun as AUs, but when they were released, they were as good of a continuation as we were going to get. They understood the themes and the message of the story, as well as its tone, and in a way, they carried the torch.

And they are still going. As of writing this, Moringmark has delved into future and past timelines. They have written three full series about Luz and co.’s children, Boscha and Skara’s romance during the events of the series, and an AU evil Luz.

This is what The Owl House is right now, and it’s what series like this are. I brought up Xena Warrior Princess earlier, and that story still has fanfiction and fanart made of it, a quarter of a century after it finished. Stories exist in the collective consciousness, and while we can trace the lineage of The Owlhouse through the shows that inspired it and that it will go on to inspire, Moringmark is emblematic of the fan community as a whole who keep the flame burning.

The Owl House series has finished, but its story lives on. Not just through Moringmark, but through every other fan who so much as makes a shitpost. We keep the lights on, we decide when to call it quits, we carry the torch.

Light, do not faulter.

Final Thoughts

There are so many other Moringmark comics that I could have spoken about. From the dramatic and emotional with Skara comforting Matt Tholomule to my darling, the bus. But I left it where I did for a few reasons.

It is not my intention to be sycophantic about Moringmark. I don’t want to be invasive, and if this comes across as such, I apologise and will remedy that. But also, this isn’t about Moringmark.

This is about the fan community. Moringmark has made themself the head of that community through sheer time and hard work, and has made themself as big enough part of it that I can feel comfortable writing this and it not feeling out of place alongside the original series.

But there is a lot more of this fandom than Moringmark, I can’t discuss every fanfic at length. Just know that they are out there, and you can find them. My ask box is open for recommendation requests, but you should also just go and look for them yourself. Follow artists, support them if you are able. This is a community, we should act like it.

Next week, I am diving into the final season with Thanks To Them, so stick around if that interests you.

Previous - Next

[violetvenom]

Okay, here comes a post I wanted to do for a long long while and I summon all the fellow Walter enjoyers for this.

In the last 2 years I've rewatched and reread Hellsing several times and I have to admit I love to analyse stuff. So naturally a lot of questions popped into my mind regarding my fav character.

But one question stood out in particular: What the fuck is Walter? Yes, you've read this right..what..not who!

Yes, there is a theory in the fandom I think not many people know of or even care for, which actually makes a lot of sense. It's clear he his human (except at the end of the main story) but I think I speak for us all that his abilities are way over the top for a mere human. Some peple will probably know where this is going..but before I start explaining, I just want to clarify I will cite and take references and informations from several fan translations, fansubs and the official German translation of the manga. I just started to collect the new edition of the English one, so I can't properly refer to them but please feel free to fill me in with the old English version if there are drastic differences in context.

With this said..let's go trough what we know about Walter step by step:

We will start chronological with his youngest persona we saw: Young Walter or how the Japanese like to call him; Sholter.

So in The Dawn we get a throwback to a 14-year old Walter, who get's send on the mission to fight the Nazis in Warsaw in 1944. At the round table he gets praised by Arthur as the "strongest human of their existing militants".

So this clears Walter is in fact human and not something else, and also Hellsing's top figther. Alucard doesn't count here since he is a vampire and the secret special weapon.

We learn from Alucard that he officially must have met Walter when he was just mere 9 years old. Citing Girlycard here:

Hellsing's main story plays in 1999 and Walter is 69 at this point...that's simple math.

And this actually makes sense. When Girlycard and Walter get sent to Warsaw you can tell they already know each other. I won't dive deep into their dynamic here because I plan to do a seperate post for this, but I think the most notable moment to make that point clear is when Walter insults and questions "Bastard. Where's your shape?".

Or how it got translated in one fansub:

While Walter asks this, Alucard is already manifesting as Girlycard, stating "the form I take means nothing to me". So it's pretty safe to say Walter knows about the usual red coat man form and the vampire's ability to transform. Overall The Dawn gives vibes that they both already have fought alongside for a while.

I think this is enough to estabilish they met when Walter was 9 years old. Meaning they probably worked together for 5 years to this point...or at least Walter dealing with Alucard's shenanigans.🤭

This rises the question...how the hell does a 9-year-old end up in such an organization?

We don't know where Walter comes from..where he is born..who his parents are..Nothing!

It's a big mysterium, which I find rather odd since he is one of the most important characters in the main story and even the main character next to Girlycard in The Dawn.

But this actually fuels the fire of curiosity in me.

So let's take a turn here and talk about his abilities: We don't know how his wires work or what they actually are, but I will mention my idea with the final conclusion later on. So for now we ignore this part and just look at some examples of his bodily capabilities.

He is stronger than the average human:

Walter drags Alucard's coffin with one hand like it's an empty cardboard box.

Since Alucard canonically can weight basically nothing and rests in no particular shape in there (that's why he later emerged as black wobbling mass which first has to manifest into Girlycard), I just can point to the weight of a coffin for an adult.

This is the first data which shows up if you google it:

Also Alucard is canonically 6'6" (198cm) tall. Abraham staked him while he was more or less laying in the coffin...

...so it's not impossible the coffin even is oversized and weights more. I mean:

It's quite big, but not the most relatable source since Hirano fucks up with details a lot of times. lol

Walter then even kicks the coffin out of the plane with a simple kick.

Speaking of kicking; we also saw Walter kicking a knife.

You not only need a good control over your body to kick a knife from the table up and forwards, but look at the force he does this with. Animated it looked even more easy peasy for him to do so and the full force gets more clear if you see how fast the knife maneuvered to the Major. There is also quite the distance between them and the Captain catches the knife when it got pretty close to it's intended target.

Then he breaks the table in two parts with just one mere kick.

And even with 69 he still got a force in his legs which is astounding.

We saw how he kicked Jan against the wall for a brief second. And again animated it's even more impressive, when you can see and hear how Jan smashes against the wall.

And not to forget he could lift out the Harkonnen I for Seras like no biggie.

Just to paint the picture more clearly: The Jackal for Alucard alone weigthed 16kg and he handled it with it's case like it was nothing.

He is very swift, flexible and quick in reacting:

When Jan jumped over him and tried to run, he didn't take long to react to that despite being baffled by the enemies actions.

Or before that scene when he and Seras crawled trough the vents to get to the round table, where it seems that there is difference between OVA and manga.

In the manga it seems Walter crawls out with the legs first and landing gracefully on his feet (and luckily not on Seras):

Seras on the other hand....we still love you, silly police girl. In the OVA Walter emerges face first from the vent and catches his weight with his hands...

...just to push himself in the air again to regain his stance.

I can't stress enough that he is 69 here! So when he is capable to quickly move and react in such an age, it's no wonder young Walter did stunts like jumping out of a plane without a parachute and crashing through a window.

He is incredibly sturdy:

The most unflattering panel of Walter ever shows us with what force the Captain was punching the teen.

Like holy shit...that must have hurt. I can imagine this blow is the reason for his monocle later on.

Then he took a blow to the guts....

...and one in the back.

Ignoring that every anime/manga character has at least 100 litres of blood...those hits from a werewolf are sure something. No way a normal person would have survived this.

And yet Walter manages to quickly react and headbutt the doggo.

Also with an incredible force.

It's surprising as the Captain starts to strangle him, his neck isn't snapping like a twig.

We just saw how the werewolf just crushed a knife with a bare hand.

Looking at all those facts, you can't tell me he isn't the true one hell of a butler he is a mere human.

I'm convinced Walter is like Anderson an enhanced human. Which is also the theory circling around in the fandom and answers the question what he is.

But I never saw an explanation why this theory exists in the first place. So the gears in my head started spinning and tried to solve the puzzle.

We know the Vatican experimented on Anderson and thus creating his regeneration powers.

I can't remember if it ever got explained how, but it doesn't even truly matter in the end. Which matters is the fact that Walter was able to create a weapon for figthing Anderson. So my best guess is they experimented with biotechnology, which also plays a huge part in creating freak vampires.

BUT

Hellsing got their own ways and the prime example is Alucard.

It often seems to get forgotten who Abraham Van Helsing was, and what he was knowledgeable about.

And since Bram Stoker's Dracula is kinda canon to Hellsing, it's a fair use to cite Wikipedia here. ✌️

Integra even said that Alucard is the culmination of "generations of Hellsing's occult knowledge". This means nothing other than Alucard got experimented on, which makes sense since all the usual vampire weaknesses don't apply to him anymore.

But how do you experiment on a vampire? Well, if the word occult has not made it clear enough; let's have a look at a part in the manga where Richard chases smol Integra and provides some insights what Hellsing manor contains on rooms:

I think one is clearly sticking out a bit: Wizardry Analysis Room.

Combined with the fact Alucard's seals on the back of his gloves are pentragams with runes speaks a lot about what kind of experiments Abraham did.

This makes alchemy and sorcery to something which is canon and existing in Hellsing!

Since we know literally nothing about Walter, I think it's no wild guess to assume he is like Alucard an experiment of the Hellsing organisation.

I wouldn't go so far and say he is an homunculus since Arthur clearly said he is human as he fills in the round table about freak vampires, ghouls and Walter's existence. I see no reason why he should hide the fact they themselves created a homunculus at this point.

But what stood out to me was this sentence tho:

The majority of translations seem to go with born, but there are also some who are more like this:

Since I'm not able to find raw scans of The Dawn to maybe translate that part myself and to confirm, and I don't understand Japanese well enough to maybe listen and understand what Arthur exactly uses for words in the animation; take the following with a grain of salt.

If we go ahead with the born sentence...what actually would that mean?

Walter would have been indeed be born into the role of a vampire hunter. Which could also overlap with his role as being Hellsing's butler.

I'm no historian and very far off so but as far as I could research, this was something which was a thing:

Which makes the whole thing even more interesting. We don't know if Walter even has parents in the traditional sense. Is he some sort of lab-grown baby? If he got parents, were they also employed at Hellsing? What happened to them?

Questions which can't get answered here but can inspire to create nice headcanons.

To bring this long post finally to an end; My conclusion is that Walter is indeed an enhanced human, created by Hellsing themselves probably through alchemy. Which could wonderfully connect to his wires, because they could also be a product of alchemy or wizardry of some sort, since there is no logically explanation for this. 👀

Let me know if I've had missed something.

[voidaspects]

A rambling defense of Makuta Spiriah('s design)!

Here’s a very long winded post about a bionicle side character that I suddenly have a lot to say about

I had no strong opinions of this like an hour ago and I suddenly have a massive rant to go on!

Okay, so, Makuta Spiriah, the 2008 bionicle combo model, is regarded as one of the ugliest combo models made for the series, from what I can see. It’s hard to deny that his model is pretty ugly and unremarkable, when you first see it. The colours clash, the construction is weird, and there’s a weird extra not-matoran guy included randomly? I won’t lie, I didn’t have a very good opinion of him either.

However

As of now, this past hour, I have built this figure, and felt compelled to make a defense of his design, because we’ve been far too harsh.

So, makuta spiriah is a pretty obscure character in the wider bionicle storyline, and would probably have just been a footnote in the story, were it not for the “Federation of Fear” story serial, in which he was a prominent member of the team. I probably wouldn’t have had an interest in building him, were it not for me wanting to collect every member. With all of the component sets for spiriah collected, my team is now completed (pic at the end). And I was immediately struck by how much better he looked in person? Like, don’t get me wrong, he’s still weird and janky, and his colour scheme is somewhat hard to adjust to, and all of the things you’d expect on initial glance (botar this is not) but I fully expected him to be ugly as hell, and instead he’s a pretty competent and cohesive model?

I think there’s a few reasons for this, but the biggest one in my opinion is actually the reason I felt the need to make this post, because it’s one of the main things I see people talking about with this model:

I am completely, intensely certain that the other model on his back is intended to be part of his construction, and it seems to just be accepted as a given that it isn’t for some reason?

So, the reason I feel so intensely about this is that pretty much every time this model is mentioned, without fail, there’s sort of a fun fact about how “Spiriah is canon, but the matoran-esque thing on him is non-canon”

This doesn’t seem to have a direct source, so much as it’s a conclusion drawn due to how this second model is perceived. Specifically, the conclusion is drawn from: “there appears to be a weird, slapped together matoran character on his back, to showcase the matoran fusion function from 2008” + “No such character exists in the story” = “this part of the model isn’t canon”

And see, this logic treats the interpretation that this is a separate character as a given. Like… it doesn’t seem to be questioned. And with this mindset, yeah, when you put the models beside each other as individual things, they both look awful:

You’re left with what seemingly appears to be a weirdly shaped antroz and some extra dude made from scraps. But in all honesty, I think this is just accepted as a fact due to spiriah already being accepted as an ugly model. I instead want to propose this as my first piece of evidence that this is not how this is intended to be seen. But my evidence doesn’t stop there.

For instance, another thing worth mentioning is the fact that there is not a single official depiction of the spiriah model that shows the two seperated, from what I can see. They are never once shown on their own in any capacity.

The one single exception to this is this part of the instructions, which tell you to construct the entirety of this second model as it’s own thing, before inserting it onto spiriah. However, this leads us to an additional point, being that this step is in the middle of spiriah’s construction, before you’ve even attached his arms. If this was intended to be a seperate model, why would it be attached during his body construction?

My final piece of evidence I want to propose, relates to the notion of this second model being “an extra little thing you make from the scraps.” I think this idea is popular because of just how barebones it looks on it’s own. Like a weird afterthought. People rationalize this idea with the explanation that this was just to show the matoran fusion function that was being heavily advertised in 2008. They just wanted to insert the-matoran-on-his-back function and threw this extra thing together, right?

Except, having built this figure now… I don’t think you guys realize just how many extra pieces are left. Like, no, this wasn’t a bottom of the barrel little extra thing. They had three mask option and kept the head bare. There was so much to work with.

(Also, fun fact, the matoran-thing has asymmetrical weapon pieces, but both of the chosen weapons have a second version available that wasn’t used, meaning it was a conscious choice for some reason. I don’t have a point to make with that, I just think it’s kinda weird and worth mentioning lmao)

Anyway, my point is, I strongly believe there is NOT some weird non canon extra guy with spiriah. Spiriah is, instead, a model that integrated a full matoran build into it’s construction as an actual design element. It uses the motif of the matoran fusion function, but the matoran instead fills out his figure, bulking him up to look more cohesive and complex.

Now, whether this is intended to be just an abstract way to construct his design, or he’s actually intended to look like he has a person melded into him or something, overtly, I’ll leave up to you. The makuta are weird and mutated enough that it honestly could very well be the latter, though it’d be an awfully weird thing to go unmentioned. But who knows, maybe some poor matoran got shadow-absorbed nidihki and krehka style. Or something. Your call!

Anyway, I’ll finish off this weirdly specific rant by just saying that I think this really changed the way I look at some of these models. I think the vast amount of criticism I’ve seen of Spiriah is reflective of the fact that on a glance, he looks super unappealing, to the point that no one really wants to build him, and therefore people maintain these opinions without ever seeing him in person? Not to sound like I know better or anything, I would never have built him if it weren’t for my love of the Federation of Fear story, and up until this moment I firmly believed Spiriah was one of the worst models of the line. Jarringly coloured, weirdly proportioned. I’d have no reason to believe otherwise, had I not done this.

I just think that’s neat, and I also think it’s neat that I suddenly had so much to say immediately after building him. I still don’t think he’s anything special, granted. He could absolutely be improved. But as he is? He’s still pretty dang cool! Cooler than I think any of us have given him credit for! And I think that makes me appreciate him more!

So shout out to the biggest failure in bionicle history. At least someone thinks something about you is a success!

(Lariska model created by Gerou100 (unofficial fanon contest winning model) (it’s canon in my heart))

[k-s-morgan]

I read that you're a huge fan of Wei Wuxian from Grandmaster of demonic cultivation, sharing the number one spot with Ciel Phantomhive, and I was just curious what you think about Lan Wangji from the same universe, and why Wei is your particular favourite? Do you prefer Untamed or the anime version or the novels and would you ever consider writing a fic about them? Can you see any simlarities between Wei Wuxian and Ciel by the way?

I absolutely love Lan Wangji! He and Wei Wuxian are my passion right now, I'm fully immersed into the fandom, reading endless fics, re-watching, re-reading, etc. Which is funny since I usually go for more fucked up couples.

The answer got long, so I'll break it into parts.

Loving the characters

I love the absolute devotion Lan Wangji has for Wei Wuxian, the reverence mixed with obsession, the resolution to follow him anywhere, anytime. His protectiveness, his wild jealousy, his silence.

As for Wei Wuxian, I find him genuinely hilarious, even when he is being unbearable. He constantly makes me smile - he's a source of relentless, blinding light that I can't look away from. I deeply admire him for his ability to stand up for justice in such a relatable way. I found it illuminating for myself since I'm in a similar situation with Russians. Should all be condemned just because so many of them are either terrorists or indifferent to terrorism? If Ukraine were to win, would I approve of them all being judged equally, or would I stand up against the mistreatment of the innocent?

By watching Wei Wuxian, I came to the conclusion that I would never support the injustice, but I also wouldn't fight for justice. Sadly, this is the approach I constantly revert to in my life. I don't want to be singled out and targeted by association, so I would probably just stay silent. And this realization really affected me and made me admire him even more.

I tend to think that I'm a pretty good person moral-wise. Wei Wuxian showed me that I still have a very long way to growth.

His resilience is infectious, and I love how he never loses his optimism and cheerfullness for long even in the worst situations.

Different canon versions

I think I prefer the novels followed closely by Untamed; then the anime. Untamed is like an imperfect draft of a good story for me. I grumble over them not being able to show Wei Wuxian as a necromancer, taking away from his brilliance with the Yin Iron stuff, trying to shift the responsibility away from him by introducing the second flute, and of course for all but castrating Lan Wangji. They locked up his passionate, lively side, so he feels more static and blank than in the novels, even though I still think he's amazing.

Ciel

I don't think I see any similarities between Ciel and Wei Wuxian. Well, they are both smart, but that's probably it. Ciel is cold, grim, and collected, and a pretty bad person; Wei Wuxian, despite his tragic loss of control, maintained his goodness and happiness. He's a chatterbox who can't live without communication; Ciel is the opposite of that.

Fic ideas for Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji

As for writing a fic about Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji: I do have an urge to do it, but I already have two large stories that need my focus, so I have no plans to indulge myself right now. If I were to write something, I have two plots that wouldn't leave my mind.

The first one would be a modern AU where I would fuel the weak whispers of canon darkness in Lan Wangji. This story would explore the borders of consent, placing Wei Wuxian in a situation where he loves Lan Wangji, but can't escape him. He's forced to be with him, he can't leave because Lan Wangji has something over him to make him stay and play along - I'd be curious to see how it affects their relationship, what it does to Wei Wuxian's love, and what lessons Lan Wangji learns.

The second idea of a story would take place in canon times, but it'd be a soulmates AU where Gusu Lan forbid catering to the soul-bonds. Wei Wuxian would spend his early and teenage years trying to reach out to his soulmate through the bond, sharing his loneliness and doubts, and Lan Wangji, despite being compelled to respond, would keep ignoring him. Things would change when they finally meet. Lan Wangji would become infatuated enough to break the rules, but Wei Wuxian, having spent over a decade ignored despite all his attempts, would be too hurt and angry to reciprocate. Turning the tables and exploring how they get out of this emotional mess would be really fun.

I actually read a story similar to the second plot, but they resolved their conflict almost instantly, and I'd want to dedicate hundreds and hundreds of pages to it.

[ghost-bxrd]

Hello. In the final end notes of ‘What You’re Longing For (you claim to abhor)’ you mention the goons picking up the wrong clues from the Entire Mess of the final chapter. Is there any chance you’d be willing to expand more on that?

Additionally, I find myself curious: in the time after the fic, would Talia ever kidnap Jason for a bit of family bonding time(probably murdering dudes in the middle of nowhere or something, but still.)

Thank you for your time,

Desire

Hi! I’m not sure if this is a follow up request you’d like to feature in Ghost Stories so I’ll just list some of my thoughts here 💚

So Dave, Jones and McKenzie are a very very tight knit little group that established itself after being hired by the Red Hood. Despite working as goons, they each have their own moral compass that perfectly aligns with Hood’s rules. Consequently, they ended up being Jason’s most loyal and trusted underlings.

Jason didn’t intend to get attached to the three but he did and as a result let slip some personal info form time to time. Jones, Dave and McKenzie all made a game out of collecting clues to Hood’s real identity and background to the point where they’d sit down after work and pool their information. They’ve got a pinboard and everything lol.

Sadly Jason’s life was depressing af for the most part so the things he accidentally mentioned didn’t paint a very pretty picture. And when he used typical teenage slang one too many times Dave correctly inferred that their boss is much younger than any of them originally thought.

So in the end they had hundreds of little clues that all added up to the following (in their mind):

1. Red Hood is actually anywhere from 20-28 years old (+/- a couple years) and not a fourty-something rogue with plans of grandeur

2. Hood was abused as a kid

3. Hood hates Batman

4. Hood hates Robin and Nightwing but not as much as Batman

5. Hood hates Robin but still mother hens him like crazy and seems reluctant to let him go back to the Bat every time

6. Hood is a young guy with better training and tactical thinking than a trained navy seals soldier

7. Hood is intimately aware of how the Bats operate,l fight, and think

Conclusion: Batman used to train Hood and was also the one who abused him—> he’s concerned the same thing is now happening to Robin.

So yeah, that’s pretty much the train of thought they’re having right now. So while Dave, Jones and McKenzie definitely won’t shoot Robin (or Nightwing), they’ll definitely try to gun down Batman.

At least until Jason remembers to retract the order lol. (After which they reluctantly stop shooting at Batman but still not-so-subtly drop hints that they’d absolutely have Hood’s back if he ever needs help with the asshole. Jason doesn’t know what all the fuss is about all of a sudden.)

As for the “would Talia ever kidnap Jason for family time” question:

Yes. Absolutely. And if Talia was busy Ra’s would show up and do it instead.

The al Ghuls adopted Jason into the family. No takebacksies. And while they think Bruce’s overprotectiveness of Jason is amusing (and totally warranted given Jason’s penchant for getting himself into trouble) they draw the line at being barred from seeing their precious sons/grandsons.

So yeah, Bruce and Dick have to deal with Damian and Jason disappearing for a couple days every two months at least.

The first time it happened Bruce, Dick and Tim all lost their minds with panic and when Jason and Dami returned it was to a frantic batfam and the entire JLA in Gotham, on the hunt for Hood and his assassin baby brother ksksks

[nejis-desk]

Jack Jeanne Complete Collection - Interview with Terasaki Yuka (Kisa’s Voice Actor) Translation

This short cast interview is from the Jack Jeanne Complete Collection art book!

Ishida: What were your impressions when you first saw the setting of Jack Jeanne?

Terasaki: It’s a story about teenagers putting on plays together that’s drawn by the creator of Tokyo Ghoul, Ishida Sui-sensei. That information alone was all it took for me to be interested. I’m sure a lot of other people thought the same.

Since it’s a story that takes place in a theatre school, I found the way it's like a game meets theatre to be unique. I also found the aspect that the shows are put on by an all male cast to be really intriguing.

—

Ishida: When you were voicing Tachibana Kisa, were there any aspects of your performance that you had to be careful about?

Terasaki: Kisa is a character herself, but she is also the stand in for everyone that’s playing the game. That’s why I stuck to the initial impression of the script as much as possible without adding too much of my own flair. I wanted her to be ‘transparent’ like Quartz.

In the romantic scenes especially, I want the player to have their heart racing over what Kisa’s love interest is saying and focus on them. So during those scenes I made sure to act out Kisa’s emotions more subtly. I’d like for those playing to be able to decide their own colours for Kisa, so I left some of her canvas blank. I remember I would go into the recording sessions keeping that in mind.

—

Ishida: Were there any particular challenges you faced while working on Jack Jeanne?

Terasaki: The singing. When I first listened to the songs with the temporary vocals I was like ‘I’m going to be singing this!?’ and my anxiety quickly turned into terror! I had to reconstruct the way I’d been singing up until then from scratch. It was very difficult and I was unsure about a lot of things, but now thanks to Jack Jeanne I love singing even more than I did before.

—

Ishida: Other than Kisa, are there any other characters that are your favourite or that you took a liking to?

Terasaki: Tachibana Tsuki… He’s Kisa’s older brother, but there’s still a lot of unsolved mysteries surrounding him. I can’t help but be curious about him. I’d love to read a novel or something about Tsuki-nii when he was a student at Univeil. I’d like to see Fumi-san and the other third years when they weren’t upperclassmen too.

—

Ishida: Quartz, Onyx, Rhodonite, Amber. If you were to enrol at Univeil, which class would you like to be assigned to?

Terasaki: The relationships between the seniors and juniors are wonderful in every class, however I think I’d have to pick Quartz. Since I don’t think you can join the other three unless you’re already particularly skilled at singing, dancing or acting. So I’d like to find my own way to express my individuality in Quartz!

—

Ishida: You have some experience with stage acting, so were there any scenes or moments in the game that you could relate to?

Terasaki: Jack Jeanne has a lot of different choices and branches in the story. You can choose different lines to say during the plays too, but no matter which one you choose the show will still reach its conclusion. If another actor changes something then you have to change with them, and if you change something, then they have to change with you. Even though every performance of a show is supposed to have the same programme and script and movements, you go into it with a fresh mind each day and there are slight differences between the shows.

There are things you sometimes only realise on opening day when you see the audience walking in, so I could relate to the sense of tension actually putting on a show brings. I’d love for the players to see how each character's dialogue changes with each option, so please play through the shows multiple times!

—

Ishida: Every show in the game is quite different thematically, which one (setting, musical composition, etc) did you like best? Also, were there any shows that you’d like to try starring in in real life?

Terasaki: All of the shows are very different and I love all of them, but the one that I felt the most accomplished and happily tired after was the autumn performance. During auditions, the selection of lines from it were full of passion and tension, so I remember being excited to record for the autumn performance.

As for which one I’d like to try in real life, it would be Sissia of the Central Nation. When I recorded my lines for the whole show in one session, I started arranging how the stage set would look like in my mind. I’d think ‘this line would definitely be delivered from the top of the set, and this line would be said from the audience to the stage’. I’d read the lines whilst imagining what the show would look like and the performance that I could picture the clearest was Sissia of the Central Nation. So I ended up really wishing I could see it in person.

[ohblackdiamond]

the story of mandate (conclusion)

Part I is here. Here is the completely signed magazine.

I went to a Paul event thanks to my dear friend @elrohare and I was a woman on a mission. This was my holy grail, my twelve labors of Hercules, my ultimate sacrifice of good sense, my Mandate, if you will. Paul is a man of constant sorrow who's seen trouble all his days. Paul had not known trouble until he saw my face again a mere two months after his last time.

Unlike Gene, who will randomly set a date to hand out his crap for hilarious prices, Ace, who will appear at any 500-1000 seater across the country and balefully advertise his meet and greets onstage, and Peter, who will roll out of bed every six months for a horror convention, Paul does his events at Wentworth galleries across the country. Paul is basically like Pokemon Red's Porygon. You can get him, but he'll take everything you have.

I was prepared. I had done the legwork and the paperwork. Part of my purchase included an autographed item. (Please note that this is not nearly the entirety of the, uh, Paul Stanley Experience, if you will-- this is only the Mandate aspect of it. There was more!)

Paul remembered both of us. "It's been awhile."

"Yeah, couple months, since February, yeah." I'm actually sort of not shocked he remembered us since neither of us look like typical KISS fans. There is also a very large height difference between us, so we are distinctive. We talk. I manage some conversation, some of which is sort of funny. But I'm not here to provide Paul with wit and candor. I'm here for Mandate, which he has already by that point seen the back of even with me trying to cover the naked men in the tub with my phone. He has already also seen the front of it, with its doodled-on-by-Gene cover. He has seen it open, because I had to set it down in order for us to take our picture together. He has probably spent the whole rest of our conversation leading up to this determining what to say to the lone weirdo that has not given him RARO, his solo album, his other solo album, the KISS comic book (mint condition), or various and sundry other KISS collectibles.

He has hit on it. He gestures to the president of Wentworth who is, incidentally, the one that's borrowing my phone to take our pictures. He comes closer as Paul shows him the magazine, along with me.

"Gene drew on it [the front cover of my copy]," I say.

"Mandate... this is the very first magazine we were ever in." (Peter said the same thing in his first book. They are both technically incorrect, but far be it from me to correct Paul Stanley on things that happened before I was born-- and to be honest, knowing what I know about how slow it could end up being to go from writing a feature for a monthly magazine to it actually being published, it wouldn't surprise me at all if they'd done the magazine some months prior to it being on the shelves).

"Our manager at the time said he could get us into a magazine. We didn't know it was a gay magazine. I mean, whatever you're into, but... ["I wasn't," basically, though I don't know if he said those two words specifically]....." as he flips, completely needlessly, through the pictures, sort of slowly, until he gets to page eight and page nine, where all three of his bandmates have signed in black Sharpie. "Of course, they blew me [the photo] up. ... And Gene drew on it."

I finally manage to pipe up.

"Yeah, Gene texted you about it, purportedly, anyway...."

"Yeah, he did."

"He did? Really?"

He looked like he was weirdly thoughtful. Well, sounded like he was. Maybe even a little bit amused. I had a hard time looking too hard at him while this was going on, and I found myself looking more at the naked men he was flipping through. But I had my plan and I would not be too distracted. I had brought my own black Sharpie, since I knew he had a penchant for signing in silver (this is because his Wentworth artwork always comes with an inscription on black paper that he writes on in silver). The Sharpie was right there and, possibly because he was keenly aware of my level of distress at the thought of Mandate being signed in a different color, he obediently took it and signed it and shut it, and handed it back to me. My smile could've broken through my dimples.

Triumph complete. Thank you, @elrohare for again allowing me the pleasure of coming with, and I was glad to plus-one and for once, return the favor.

Thank you, Mr. Paul Stanley of KISS. And thank you to Peter, Gene (especially Gene!), and Ace. I hope Mandate gave you all an unexpected blast from the past, and I really wish I'd told Paul that Peter quite appreciated the ass on the guy on the front cover. Maybe next time.

[ruski-san-eng]

How to start recovery?

This is a question that I have already received twice in my dms, from people who wanted to start recovery, but did not know how, or weren't ready for such sudden changes in their life. So today I will tell you how to start this very difficult process, which is of course worth it, considering that thanks to it you can achieve a healthy life in which a person doesn't worry 24/7 about how many calories thry ate or burned.

Let's start with the fact that when you start recovery, you shouldn't change your diet out of sudden. You have to start from the basics, and the basic reason for ED is the wrong perception of yourself. You should try affirmation, emotional journal, breathing exercises, etc.

I will recommend two apps for such things "gratitude" and "how we feel" (I will not give you photos because something does not work for me, you will definitely find them in both play store and app store)

the first one has affirmation, unfortunately only one is free but you can create your own, only then we do not have to read aloud. You can create something like a mind map and create notes in which we can draw or choose a question or task, e.g. "What do you like most about yourself?", "Write about something you want to achieve". it is best to think a little longer about the questions or tasks. This will make you come to the conclusion that your life has some good things in it and there are people that you should live for. This is important during recovery, so that you do not think that you are alone in a fucked up life without help, and everything is messed up and doesn't have any positive things. And if you listen to the Affirmation for a long time, you also start to believe it, of course if you want to and do not tell yourself every now and then "God, I am hopeless", etc., because then you are in the self place.

The second app is an emotion journal, ABSOLUTELY FREE, because the app exists through a collection that you can voluntarily pay into so that it can develop. This means that we have positive emotions on the right, and those that are harder to experience on the left. At the top high energy and at the bottom low and we choose what we feel, we can also go to the full list where we have even more emotions and we can look for what we want. We also have a definition of this emotion. After selecting, we can enter what we think makes us feel this way, and add a photo. Later we can enter how much we slept, how much we exercised, how many steps we took and allow a connection with the weather or health connect. Later we can choose whether we want to share all, only emotions or none at all with friends. YES YOU CAN ADD FRIENDS, so they can help us if we want to, of course.

We also have "tools" there, various ones including breathing exercises, etc. My favorite is "burn the negative" where we enter negative statements about ourselves to: "I am", "people see me as", "I'm always" "I'll never be the same" e.g. "I am weak" After filling in, we have a button with a flame at the bottom and after clicking on it, the note we wrote gets burned and at the end a message pops up "Your story has been burned Embrace the freedom to write a new story about yourself". Because of it you feel that all the bad experiences behind you are gone BECAUSE THEY JUST BURNED

Back to the topic. Changing your way of thinking by yourself is difficult and takes quite a long time… very long… But it is the most important part, it is worth finding some reasons why you want it and writing them down as many as possible, e.g. in notes or in the first application that I showed you, and reading it from time to time to remind yourself why you chose this path and why it is worth it. I also recommend that you write a letter to your future self and describe there, for example, what you think your future version will gain thanks to recovery, physically and mentally, and often use sentences like "I believe that […]". You can also read it when you have worse moments to remember what you are striving for and that you believe that you will succeed. As for these worse moments… You may want a sudden restriction then, and that is fine. At the beginning, I often had this and did restrict during that. But always at the end of the day you have to tell yourself that this is JUST a worse MOMENT and it does not mean that everything has gone to, the progress is still there. And it worked for me because I was aware that if I do not get back on my feet, I will not move forward. It's worth having someone to support you. Of course, telling others about it is hard, because we don't know what they'll think, what they'll do, whether they'll reject us, whether they'll tell others, etc. So you can talk about it to... Online Friends, telling them about it is easier, because we don't see their reaction, and they often live far away so we know they won't do that much and they LIKELY won't report us anywhere because we're not around them, besides, if they're a good friend and not a fake bitch, they won't do that. Also good are… strangers on the internet… and you'll say it's stupid because we don't know them, but most of you who will read this describe your experiences on a blog on tumblr because it's easier, you don't know anyone, no one will do anything to us, we're not afraid of rejection because we don't know anyone here. Of course, I will recommend myself as the person to write to, because I have no problems devoting 5 minutes of my life to someone who could benefit from it, because I waste 70% of my life on nonsense, so it doesn't change anything for me, and I won't reject anyone because I know how their life actually looks. (Remember that when you don't have anyone, there's always character ai…) Going back, if we manage to change this attitude in some way by more than half, we can slowly start changing our diet. Something that seems almost "neccesery" is stopping counting calories, because honestly, it triggers the most. You can start by not counting the calories of one meal, it can be a tiny thing that wouldn't matter anyway. WHAT MATTERS IS THAT YOU START SOMEWHERE.

then we move on to changing our diet, we should start with easily digestible things because otherwise our damaged body may not be able to handle things that are heavy on the stomach. easy to digest food is for example:

cooked vegetables and fruits, white bread or graham, small groats, and pasta, rice, small cereals, soft-boiled eggs (I do not recommend boiled ones because they are terribly heavy) yogurts and other natural dairy products (skimmed milk, low-fat cottage cheese) lean meat (turkey, chicken, rabbit, lean beef) lean fish (cod, pollock, trout) it is important to eat larger and larger amounts of this food over time, of course so that it is not much larger from day to day because the stomach will not handle such a sudden change. later, if our body and our physical health recover a bit, we can start eating more protein, of course the "natural" kind, like eggs, meat, etc. Because protein yogurts are not very natural and can be harmful in large quantities. You also need to take care of the appropriate intake of fats (the healthy ones) because otherwise there will be poor absorption of some vitamins because we will not get them with water. It is best to get it by frying, for example, use sunflower oil while frying eggs. When it comes to carbohydrates, at some point we will have to start eating this sugar, which, next to fat, is the thing that is most limited, and what really counts is moderation and a complete lack of it is also bad. Of course, this does not mean that you have to eat a shitload of candies and other things because it is still crap and an excess of sugar. But I will recommend to start adding sugar to your tea, and eat chocolate, preferably with a fairly good composition or in moderate quantities. I also recommend you… POTATOES... just don't overdo it with the spices because they can cause a fucking storm in your stomach and you won't get off the toilet, or you'll sit on it for half an hour or kneel in front of it. Regular salt will be the best.

Vitamins and mineral salts are also important.

Niacin (Vitamin B3) Magnesium Iron Calcium and various vitamins you can look for them on the internet yourself, although if you eat the right amounts of food, half of the deficiencies are gone.

If you can, take calcium or magnesium in tablets. I take magnesium with vitamin B6 for 18 PLN (4,40 dollars, 4,23 Euro) from the pharmacy.

recovery can be compared to learning you won't succeed quickly, if you try to do it fast you will NOT succeed. it's actually a good comparison because recovery is learning about yourself… I advise you NOT to change your diet until you change your way of thinking because it will only end with a strong relapse and you'll only have worse problems with your disorders. if you fail, it's fine. Just get over it and start again... and again... and again.. until you will finally reach your success, and I promise you, it's worth it. Remember the times you were a little baby and you were learning how to walk? You probably fall down a lot of times, but look at you now. Now, you walk properly.

I hope I can help someone who, for example, wants to start a recovery but didn't know how.

If anyone has any questions and courage, they can write in a comment, in a private message, or ask a question anonymously. (I would appreciate every reblog because it took me A LOT of time and translating it into english was another hard task...) ( original post wrote in Polish: @ruski-san ) (my english is bad as fuck)

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

Friday Ramblings

I don't normally do this but I have a couple of thoughts going on in my head regarding the last couple of days week in BL that I just wanted to collect them all instead of just doing it in tags.

Shadow

I'm pissed. I am a big fan of anything horror or supernatural themed stuff so I was really looking forward to this. (Don't even get me started of how disappointed I am at the disappearance of the other horror themed show I could be watching) And the first part did not disappoint. It was a strong first half, good set up of the different story lines and all the players and I was really excited about it. There was such good meta written about the show, and it turned out to be superior to what the show eventually gave us. (@wen-kexing-apologist specially gave us such excellent meta on this show that I wish they were in charge of the second half of this show) I agree with @lurkingshan about everything they said here. Something which I thought was interesting was that I think in this second half the show purposefully made the fake arm really obvious. I don't know if it wanted us to know before Dan but I also don't think it was an accident. But I'm also not gonna theorize about the reasons because I really don't care that much. The "BL" bait was just another thing that pissed me off. I'm not upset it's not BL, I'm upset because it was sold as such and no one will convince me otherwise. For a couple of episodes, at least, the show wanted us to think that Dan was falling for Nai. The prom moment was just fucking ridiculous. The parallels with October 6 could've been really interesting if there wasn't so much going on that it kinda took the weight of it away. One of the questions I like to ask myself when watching any media is - what is it trying to tell? Sometimes nothing and that's fine. It's pure escapism and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It can still be excellent. And sometimes it tries to say too much that it ends up not having a cohesive message and it all falls flat. Religion, communism, family trauma, homophobia, mental health, infidelity, teacher-student relationship, pregnancy, murder, police brutality, friendship, bullying, the oh so many supernatural elements, I could go on. You get the picture. So in conclusion, I am not happy.

VIP Only

It's cute. I like both of them enough and it's a good mellow way to start the friday madness.

Last Twilight

This show is surprising me so much. In the best ways. As I said before this pair didn't do much for me in the past but I've surrendered completely, specially to Jimmy. He was so good in this episode that I felt obligated to gif it just so I could keep watching his expressions.

That whole final scene just floored me. His eyes just carried that moment and that whole scene so well that by the end a lonely sunflower brought tears to my eyes. ( and I do not cry easy). After all the cute dates, this scene was a gut punch.

I'm just really stuck on this show, and it holds my attention all through the episode.

My Dear Gangster Oppa

This episode was silly, I couldn't care less about the gangster side of the story at the moment, I'd rather spend more time with the gamer friend group. Wahl got a bit of a redemption but I still don't like him. I liked that Guy stood his ground with Wahl and Tew, but hated the stalker behaviour. If you wanna go dude, just leave!

Sahara Sensei to Toki-kun

Japan my beloved. They just keep giving me all I need. Toki is giving me some Aoki vibes and I could not be happier. And Toki now has got two friends in his corner and I'm so happy. This one and Kinou Nani Tabeta are currently my main sources of joy and my heart is full.

Pit Babe I'd like to thank @pharawee for giving us the novel commentary because it makes it a bit less confusing while I watch this. I have no clue about omegaverse so a part of me is confused, sometimes bored, another part of me is just waiting for Jeff and Alan to be a thing and all of me is happy that Pavel is on my screen weekly.

Twins

This show is dragging and I'm officially bored. I don't mind a slow burn if the rest of the show can hold it together. But the team animosity is just tiring and annoying at this point, the side couples are not engaging ( a bj in the shower does not a side couple make) and for a show named Twins, I would like to see more of them.

Middleman's Love

I'm 99% here for the sides. They are cute, they give me some Ram/King vibes and I wanna see more of them. I was super happy to see Ngern again and the family dinner was a good moment. I don't have the patience for this sort of misunderstanding anymore so that ending annoyed the hell out of me.

(I'm watching For Him too but I have nothing nice to say, so I'll say nothing at all. And yes I know I just did that with Shadow but I was never that invested in this one)

Really looking forward to Kinou Nani Tabeta tomorrow morning and The Sign in the afternoon.

I wish all a great weekend and thanks for reading💜

(because I needed a good cry)

[incesthemes]

i'd love to talk about the themes of fate vs family in cw's supernatural with you :')

YOU'RE SO AMAZING THANK YOU

it's just. THE THEMES. like okay when i started rewatching supernatural i was just kind of vibing. my original goal was to see if i could uncover all of the godawful incest subtext in the show of which there is an abundance. but once i reached scarecrow my eyes were OPENED. it's all an allegory. there are only two choices in their lives and they are to follow their destinies or to to become toxic enmeshed brothers who will incite ruin upon the world.

because like the thesis of SCARECROW is the collective vs the individual. burkittsville is a community which cares for itself by sacrificing outsiders. emily is ultimately deemed an outsider and is therefore available to become the sacrifice, and when she protests she's considered selfish for wanting to save her own life. and the message scarecrow posits is that the collective is a dangerous thing; ergo, if sam and dean go down the path of the collective, if they choose each other, then they will create something destructive.

you see this theme, that community and collective is dangerous and destructive, in a couple other episodes too: the benders and croatoan (kind of, not entirely the point but it still exists), and maybe another but i'm just glancing over my notes atm. at the same time, there are episodes companion to these that propose that the individual route is the correct path (heart, asylum) and episodes that show the consequences of choosing the collective (faith, shadow).

and AT THE SAME TIME, many episodes give us the exact opposite conclusion: bugs, nightmare, playthings, born under a bad sign—all of these episodes suggest that the collective is the correct path instead, that turning to each other is what will ultimately create the best outcome.

most of the episodes, especially in the first two seasons, are primarily concerned with pitting the pursuit of destiny against the pursuit of brotherhood—aka, fate vs family. the show makes it clear that sam and dean can't have both. dean, from the start, is unsure at best about pursuing john's (and later sam's) revenge quest to find and kill azazel; therefore, when sam is hellbent on hunting down yellow-eyes (synonymous with his destiny), he's shutting dean out of his life and focusing only on his own goals. john outright gives dean his quest in 2x01 by warning that he may have to kill sam; therefore, sam is the object of dean's fate, and killing him is the direct realization of that destiny. they're cosmically destined to kill each other—it's a cain and abel story, but there's a twist.

which is, of course, that they have another alternative: they can abandon their fates and choose each other, relentlessly and obsessively. every decision they make that pulls them apart brings them closer to fate, and every decision they make that brings them together pulls them farther from destiny. it makes complete sense, then, that sam and dean are soulmates: because of that, they are instead given two destinies, which makes it possible for them to defy the angels and demons that created them to be enemies.

BUT THE THING IS!!!!!!!! the thing is that neither of these destinies are good. it's impossible to strike a balance between these fates because the stakes are astronomical. they either must give in completely to their destinies as michael and lucifer's vessels, or they must give in completely to each other, eliminating their individuality and becoming a cohesive unit. the show is a constant push and pull between these two outcomes, and the show elaborates extensively on why neither of these options are good. the collective brings ruin; the individual brings the apocalypse. they can escape one destruction of the self but not the other.

and then if you pull back and look at kripke era as a whole, you see some trends that support this, too: seasons 1 and 2 are largely about sam and dean choosing each other, walking away from fate and toward family (see: devil's trap, where sam literally abandons his revenge quest, synonymous with his destiny, to save john and appease dean; see: croatoan, where dean finally decides to abandon the quest john gave him and to "save" sam at whatever cost, which leads him to his questionable and unwavering faith in sam for the rest of the season). season 1 is about sam abandoning fate and choosing dean; season 2 is about dean abandoning fate and choosing sam.

then, seasons 3 and 4 are largely about the exact opposite. with all hell breaks loose, dean (at azazel's meddling) has restarted his fateful quest by making the selfish (the individual!) choice to become the righteous man and sacrifice himself for sam's life. thus until lucifer rising, the show is a downward spiral of sam and dean's relationship unraveling at the seams. they pursue their destinies alone and at the expense of each other. sam confides in ruby despite dean's reserves (aka, he lets someone else be more important than dean; he chooses himself over his brother). dean reacts more and more violently. where their relationship had progressed in season 2 such that they were no longer keeping secrets from each other, now seasons 3 and 4 are rife with them, both of them having concerns and fears about each other that they're reluctant to open up about. they objectify each other and ignore each other as people because they are too consumed with their own paths. and it culminates in the start of the apocalypse, the very fate they wanted so badly to avoid!

therefore season 5 is the resolution of these conflicts. it's the ultimate decision between fate and family, where they confront their broken relationship and seek to make repairs of any kind that will fix the mess. because their only options are The Apocalypse or a toxic, codependent relationship with their brother, it is only through the ultimate decision to value Brother over everything else that allows them to stop the apocalypse. sam is able to regain control because of his connection to the impala, his home (see: the pilot, where sam's quest is to return home), which is synonymous with dean as of season 2. dean stays there and lets lucifer beat the shit out of him because he chooses sam above himself, and if sam is gone then so is he. and in the end dean returns to lisa because sam told him to; he lives for sam, on behalf of sam, because he is just half of a whole.

god there's lots of other things i can say about this (apparently i have 65,000 words of notes on just 2.5 seasons of this show). almost every single episode is ultimately about this conflict, so there's a lot to elaborate on. but this is the gist of it... the overview of my notes. the thesis statement, if you will.

[thecollectivefixation]

A deep dive into the MK1 cinematics (PT1?)

Hi, I'm a nerd and I like breaking apart scenes for small details and hidden meanings that adds to the overall story. For my first official post on The Collective Fixation blog, Mortal Kombat 1 is going to be topic subject today. I’ll be talking about random scenes in the game and trailer that I found really cool and some of the relationships between characters. (I actually blame my family for introducing me to MK1 the other month and I’ve literally not stopped thinking about it so lets get into it hehehe.)

!WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Ok MK1 is definitely in my top three list of best looking cinematics in video games.

This scene from the trailer was my favourite because it uses the lighting in the building as a medium for foreshadowing. Scorpion (Kuai Liang) being in the warm, bright lighting while Sub-Zero (Bi-Han) being in the cool, dark lighting. The light side referring to Liu Kang as he is first seen with light around him as he ascends down and Shang Tsung representing the dark side as he steps out of dark shadows revealing himself in the trailer. Foreshadowing the betrayal and the two sides of the story that occurs further on in the story.

When Smoke first gets introduced he is seen under red light which can indicate danger or a sense of evil, paired with the dramatic shift in music from calming to almost a startling shift into a intense music. This convinces the audience to think that he is the antagonist in that current moment. The extreme close up on his face shows off his emotions, which is difficult to do since he has the mask on, so actors have to get creative with their facial expressions. We see this with the intense look Smoke has when surveying the area, indicated with his eyebrows and eyes. Also the camera pans left to show off more red light on his face. The camera is below his face making a low camera angle, low camera angles most commonly indicate a sense of power, strength and intimidation to the subject in frame.

(Side note: Live Laugh Love low camera angles, you see them so much in this game and I love itttttt)

The film codes (technical and symbolic) in the scenes between Johnny Cage and Kenshi Takahashi play an important part in the growth of their relationship. When Kenshi is revealed to the audience, the camera pans up from his feet to his sword to his face leaving in at a low camera angle. This increases dramatic tension by slowly revealing to the audience what Johnny sees. When taking in account of the music changing to a upbeat fighting kind of soundtrack the audience makes the conclusion of you guessed it danger, antagonist.

(Ofc cause he isn't the actual villain in the game but as the time he is lol)

(Side note: i love the way the game developers made it so the cameras seems hand held or on a dolly and not fixed in place, seems like we are in the game/story experiencing everything with the characters.)

Not that important but I love how the light from the pool reflects off both Johnny and Kenshi, its all about the details.

Now lets talk about THE SLOW MO BETWEEN JOHNNY AND KENSHI. Gotta admit, it caught me off guard a little, because normally a slow mo is used to focus on a character’s emotional reaction to a person, place or event in that current moment. And after thinking long and hard, I have come up with a conclusion on why the directors made this decision.

To show the tension between Johnny and Kenshi. Kenshi at the beginning of the story does not like Johnny or his ideals, its shown between dialogue when talking about their reasons to becoming Earthrealm defenders and Kenshi disapproval. And is the base of why they interact in the first place, because Kenshi wants Sento and Johnny wont give it over. The slow mo focuses on kenshi’s facial expression of aggravation and intensity about his fight with Raiden and about Johnny’s bad sport man ship in the previous scene with Johnny vs Raiden when Johnny’s ego was talking was basically he talked down Raiden’s abilities. This contrasts Kenshi’s ideals of honour.

(side note again, I haven't done a full deep dive on their characters nor have I done a deep dive on a character so I may have gotten some stuff wrong but I haven't fully played the entire game yet I'm like halfway rn so yea)

Ok that’s all for now, I’ll maybe talk about more scenes once I fully play through the game. Feel free to share your options because I love talking about these kind of things.

-Bookworm