#the end and it's whole thing of basically being the embodiment of death was good but i need More

[usuallydyinginside]

"No One Mourns the Wicked" is about Glinda, not Elphaba

Okay, but hear me out. Wicked songs are so good at saying one thing and meaning something entirely different once you have more context. For instance, "I'm Not That Girl" is Elphaba singing about Glinda initially, then in Act 2 flips to Glinda singing about Elphaba. Because it turns out, Elphaba IS that girl and Glinda is not. When we meet the Wizard, he sings about how he always wanted to be a father. When you get to Act 2, you get the sad little reprise in the background music as he realizes that WHOOPS, he was one and he destroyed his only kid. "Defying Gravity" starts with "I hope you're happy" in the sarcastic sense and ends with them both using the same phrase to genuinely wish one another well.

"Thank Goodness" is set up as a cheerful engagement song where Glinda genuinely means "thank goodness for how great my life is" and ends in a place where she's insisting that she IS happy even as she realizes her engagement is a sham, her best friend is gone, and she's left with the Wizard and Madame M, who she doesn't even like.

You get the picture.

Basically, the whole musical is about subverting what you expect, starting with the base premise of "what if the Wicked Witch was the hero of the story" and digging in from there.

Honestly, I'd never paid much attention to the first song. It's a good opener, sets things up well, but it has some big competition with later songs. However, in the movie the staging and camera choices made me really notice it for the first time. Because you know what? Someone DID pay attention to that song, and you can really really tell.

For those who need a refresher, the lyrics to the chorus Glinda sings are: And Goodness knows The Wicked's lives are lonely Goodness knows The Wicked die alone It just shows when you're Wicked You're left only On your own I was always so busy noticing Glinda's grief over thinking Elphaba was genuinely dead that I failed to notice Glinda's grief over her OWN fate. The movie did such a good job with this because every time we get to the pink lines about being alone, Glinda IS alone. She is standing apart from the crowd who adores her. Standing above them. Standing at the center of a bunch of people yet still, isolated.

Because in the end, we know that Elphaba DIDN'T die alone. We know she wasn't on her own. We know her life WASN'T lonely ultimately. She had her flying monkey and animal friends. She had Fiyero.

And who does Glinda have?

Everyone, but realistically, no one. She is an ideal, not a person to most of Oz, just as much as Elphaba has become the token scapegoat. Where Elphaba is the "Wicked Witch," Glinda is "Glinda the Good Witch" - she is literally supposed to be the embodiment of goodness.

And what does Glinda have at the end of this whole thing (as of this song at least)? A disastrous end to her engagement, the death of her best friend, a sorceress who has hated her, demeaned her, and dismissed her from the start, and a con man who is also just a symbol more than a person.

I think it really hit me when Glinda throws the fire on the giant effigy of Elphaba. Ariana's acting was SO good there, because I'd expected us to see that private moment of horror or regret. What I didn't expect was the sort of determined and almost angry glare at the effigy.

But it makes sense. At this point, Glinda has realized that she lost everything and everyone she actually cared about.

As she so aptly puts it in "Thank Goodness"...

Though it is, I admit The tiniest bit Unlike I anticipated. But I couldn't be happier, Simply couldn't be happier, Well, not "simply" 'Cause getting your dreams It's strange, but it seems A little, well, complicated.

There's a kind of a sort of cost. There's a couple of things get lost. There are bridges you cross You didn't know you crossed Until you've crossed!

And if that joy, that thrill Doesn't thrill like you think it will Still-- With this perfect finale, The cheers and the ballyhoo! Who wouldn't be happier? So I couldn't be happier, Because happy is what happens When all your dreams come true.

Well, isn't it?

Happy is what happens when you're dreams come true.

It's not Elphaba's fault that Glinda has ended up this way. Glinda chose it every step of the way. Yet, if Glinda had never met Elphaba, (if she'd never known her, you could say), she might have stayed shallow and vain. She might never have been challenged to look deeper and realize how empty it all felt.

So as Glinda sings "No One Mourns the Wicked," she realizes that even if the Munchkins are singing about the "Wicked Witch," she's not.

She's singing about herself.

The one who traded her morals, friendship, and love for a taste of the admiration and power over those who don't really know her. The one who was so worried about being likable that she herself doesn't like who she's become.

Even after she makes things better for Oz and herself by sending the wizard away and getting rid of Madame M, it just leaves Glinda by herself as the leader and source of goodness in Oz. It leaves her on a pedestal she can never step off of.

It leaves her lonely.

Entirely alone.

[wereh0gz]

Honestly think sonic games should have more creepy and unsettling shit in them

[soupthatistohot]

BSD 109 Spoilers!!!

I will always always ALWAYS come back to this panel when talking about Asagiri’s storytelling.

At its very core, BSD is an absurdist text, Kafka Asagiri having been inspired by many absurdist authors. Franz Kafka, who he took his pseudonym from is one of them. Albert Camus, basically the most well-known absurdist is referenced with the Mersault prison, the name of which comes from a character in his most famous absurdist work, The Stranger. 

Absurdism is the belief that the world around us is irrational and inherently absurd and that explicitly seeking meaning is pointless. In his essay The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus explains, that there is value in the act of rebellion, though. Sisyphus, who has been doomed to roll a boulder up a mountain only for the boulder to tumble back down each time he reaches the peak, finds meaning in the act of continuing to push the boulder. Even though he will continue this cycle for all of eternity, he doesn’t just lay down and give up, he rebels against the absurdity of his situation by continuing to push the boulder, despite the seemingly futile nature of the act. 

As I said earlier, BSD is an absurdist text. All of the animanga’s main characters are on a journey of discovering their meaning in life, and their place in the world, and they do this by rebelling against its absurdity — especially Dazai. 

Dazai sees the absurd world for what it is, and when he was in the PM, he hated it. Thus, he sought suicide as a solution. I will note here that absurdists generally view suicide as a failure to rebel against the absurd, just giving up and giving into hopelessness. But ever since Dazai left the PM and took Oda’s advice, he’s been rebelling against this, doing good despite his inherent beliefs about morality and the world, and he’s absolutely gotten better for it. 

Other characters embody this idea of rebelling against the absurd, hell, that’s kinda what this whole arc is about. The world is literally ending, and things seem to be at their absolute worst, but someone like Atsushi still has hope that he can change the minds of the hunting dogs and save reality as we know it. He even has hope that he can get through to a vampiric Akutagawa when the guy is literally brainwashed and attacking him. Aya as the “last hope” right now embodies this, too, deciding that she can’t just sit around and do nothing and then trying to remove the sword from Bram even though the effort appears futile. 

But everything is going wrong right now. Fukuzawa is bleeding out, Dazai has just been shot through the forehead and appears to have died, Atsushi’s had his limbs ripped off and is at Akutagawa’s mercy, and Fukuchi is literally going to end the world! How can we have hope?!

Think about BSD. Think about the story that’s been told so far. Surely Asagiri isn’t killing everyone right now, surely the world isn’t gonna actually end. I’m not entirely convinced Aya’s plan is gonna work— but please consider that the point of absurdist storytelling is that even when everything seems to be at its worst, even when life seems completely meaningless, there is inherent meaning in still continuing to fight against this. 

BSD has never been a story where the villains win, and I don’t think it’s gonna start being one. I think, as usual, Asagiri wants to scare us, to make us feel hopeless about the situation, only for someone to pull through and completely turn the tides.

Dazai laying down and accepting his death at Chuuya’s hands is not going to be the end of his story, because it goes against everything Asagiri seems to stand for. Dazai wouldn’t just give up in his fight against Fyodor, because he needs to prove he’s right about what he says in this panel:

"The ones who actually make the world turn are those who scream within the storm of uncertainty and run with flowing blood."

I think this reflects Asagiri's own beliefs and is also the reason why he is not going to let Dazai die like this, because in a way, that would be proving that Fyodor is right. From a storytelling perspective, it’d be saying “everything I’ve communicated up to this point actually means nothing and life is truly hopeless!” 

Dazai has cheated death before, as has basically everyone else in danger right now. I promise you, something is going to happen and they’re all going to survive, because BSD is not trauma porn, for lack of a better term. It’s a story about how a group of people fight against the absurdity of their reality, even when everything seems completely and utterly hopeless. 

There’s a lot of theories circulating about how things could work out, especially Dazai’s “death,” and I’m not here to repeat all of them, but I will say that a lot of them have credence, especially because Asagiri isn’t the type of author to make mistakes, every single detail has a distinct reason. 

So even though I don't know how things are going to work out, I have full faith that they will, including Dazai's current situation. None of these characters are done just yet, they've got too much fight left in them to just give up.

[original twt thread]

[terapsina]

Ask Game: Agatha All Along:

Fandom: 1, 17

Ship: Agatha/Rio (Vidarkness): 7, 10

Character: Agatha OR Rio: 6, 7, or 8

(from this ask game)

Fandom:

1. ...the moment in the story that I started shipping my OTP from this world.

That whole scene where Rio blows in the door at just the most dramatic moment and the following throwdown fight made me pay attention. But this sentence? This sentence was a direct hit to alllllll my weaknesses.

It immediately gave me so much delicious information. Like, despite all that 'I want to see you burn... or hang... or drown' aggression? that this woman clearly was utterly gone for Agatha.

*be still, my beating heart 😍*

17. ...the world-building aspect of the story I have the greatest admiration for.

That SONG. I adore the way they used The Ballad of the Witches' Road in this show in so many ways. The way we kept getting different versions and the way they were so slightly and significantly different based on the purpose behind that particular version.

Like how the Sacred Chant version was all about the community of witches (and the way that hid the trap Agatha had used for centuries).

The way Lorna's version was full of a mother's unconditional love for her daughter and the lengths she'd go to for that love.

The way Nicky and Agatha's version was about their coven of two (and how even while Nicky was alive, the way Agatha had already kinda corrupted it even as her love for her son remained the one true thing about her).

Just. The way the song informed every aspect of the story... it's frankly incredibly impressive.

Ship:

7. ...the scene that I like to point to as proof that they're perfect for each other.

I could probably choose literally ANY of their scenes to make that particular point but I really like this one.

Like. Agatha has been angry and avoiding Rio for centuries. Rio has recently made it clear she wants Agatha dead (though admittedly knowing her nature this is basically at least 70% her wanting Agatha back).

But despite that, as soon as they know they have to do this particular ritual both of them know THEY are going to be the ones exchanging the brooms. They don't need to talk about it, or discuss it, or consider it, it's just... instinctual.

They are just always on the same wavelengths and it's both beautiful and really tragic.

10. ...rate the level of stupid they reach in their pining.

I mean... *murder threats* followed by...

*Agatha trying to claw Rio's face off* followed by...

*Rio painfully reminded Agatha she's never going to get her son back, a day ago* followed by...

*Rio saying she HATES ghosts* followed by...

(obviously not... no, she took a calculated risk on being able to continue irritating Rio for the next eternity).

Also just... we have one case of a dum-dum who fell in love with the literal embodiment of death. And another case of a literal embodiment of death who turned full dum-dum because she met a very pretty witch.

They're SUCH dumb. I love these pining idiots SO MUCH.

Character:

6. ...the scene that I think shows just how awesome they really are.

(I'll answer this one for Rio)

This is really boring of me maybe, but like.... how do you top a badass show-stopping moment like THAT?

Rio Vidal. Full Lady Death, everyone! *cheers and applause* *CHEERS AND APPLAUSE*

7. ...the scene that I think adds depth to their character or the relationship this character has with someone.

(...and this one for Agatha)

This scene just... shows that Billy doesn't just remind Agatha of her son... he reminds her of herself.

At the end of the day Agatha is a survivor, and so is Billy. And that both connects and differentiate them. And I just find that very interesting.

8. ...a headcanon I have about this character.

(...and Rio again)

Rio absolutely lied about being pulled onto the Road by their summoning spell. She's Death, she could have shaken that thing off with the flick of a pinky but was she really going to waste an opportunity that good?

[iridiss]

binging diaries again… finally got around to my diaries Aphmau redesign…

She’s a bundle of joy when she first arrives in town, a selfless and optimistic problem-solver who took one look at a rotting, decaying village and decided she would fix it up single-handedly. She repairs their houses, builds a guard tower, builds them a bigger and better farm, builds more homes, brings a lot more villagers and merchants to the town, rebuilds old alliances that decayed after Malik’s death and makes new ones with near and faraway towns. Shes stubborn and headstrong at times, and in the beginning her desire to always see the best in people leads her into some nasty situations, but through her actions, agency, and persistent efforts, she becomes the embodiment of hope and healing for the town (Very similarly to how Irene the Matron aided her hometown in its recovery!). This is why the town elects her the Lord of the village.

Loss after loss, battle after battle, traumatic event after traumatic event, the state of the world slowly falling apart around her gradually chips away at her bright and cheery demeanor, matures her, hardens her into a woman that is- still very much capable of being sweet and happy and warm and loving!!! She never loses her core personality!! But it…changes her nonetheless. It hurts, and she grieves, and it comes dangerously close to breaking her over the years. She ends up hardening into a woman who’s capable of playing both the darling lover and the military General. A woman who’s learned how to be cautious and wary and approach things tactically, who learned how to determine the difference between a good person who just needs to be warmed out of their shell—and a charismatic liar whose nowhere near as good as they seem on the surface. She’s mature, she’s wise, she’s a natural leader, she’s cautious and on occasion can be rather guarded, but…she’ll always be warm and gentle and kind on the inside.

After Aaron dies, her mental health takes a massive dip, and on occasion she ends up in a rather dark mental place. A vengeful, angry, violent place. Come season three, she’s learned that sometimes you have to kill in order to protect the ones you love the most, and after he dies, that part of her becomes…a bit worse. If you’re her ally, the only change you would have noticed is the deepened bags under her eyes and her lack of sleep, but if you’re an established enemy, like, say, Zane, you might notice that she’s stopped talking things out and started jumping straight to Kill Mode (…which is, tbh, valid). She leans heavily on her partners to help her through this darker time in her life, and after the series finale when they get Aaron back and Shad is defeated, she’s doing much better.

She’s a sweetheart and a goody-two-shoes, yes, but like. she’s also basically a military general in the midst of a very long war. she’s got fuckin ptsd and is MUCH more emotionally mature and wisened than her Mystreet and Void Paradox counterparts. girlies been through hell. literally.

Also religious trauma I think she’d have plenty fair share of religious trauma from the whole Irene business

[blasphemousclaw]

Like I do genuinely think they maybe should have replaced Radahn’s appearance with Godwyn’s instead? I know his soul has been slain, but I just like the idea that even the kindly Miquella is still on this naïve journey to become a god and bring back his dead brother to become his lord who honestly wouldn’t really be the same and would probably just be a husk of Death incarnate itself, but he wouldn’t care because he’s still grieving for him.

With that being said, the whole Metyr lore was super good, the whole reveal that the two fingers actually don’t really know what’s going on and they’re kinda just pulling shit out of their ass just adds a whole layer to the tragedy of the game, like all of these events were really for nothing and it just makes the Frenzy Flame ending and Ranni’s ending more understandable

ehhhh I absolutely see where the “it should’ve been Godwyn” mindset comes from and I agree with a lot of the arguments to an extent, but I’m not sure bringing back Godwyn’s soul entirely works for me?

I think Miquella’s attempts to return Godwyn’s soul were always going to fail, because his soul was completely and permanently destroyed by Destined Death. The ending to Gurranq/Maliketh’s quest is basically that things can never be the same again, so I don’t think there’s really a way to bring back Godwyn’s soul without it feeling like a contrivance? I really like the fact that he’s a character who can’t ever be brought back; his death was the catalyst for everything, a point of no return. Godwyn not being able to come back gives Ranni’s actions a special weight, that she was willing to permanently destroy his soul if it meant being free from the Two Fingers.

But with that being said, I absolutely see the sense in saying that Godwyn should’ve been Miquella’s lord. What’s strange to me is that Godwyn was set up in the base game to be a beloved older brother figure to Miquella — there’s the statue of him with Miquella and Malenia at the Haligtree, there’s the Golden Epitaph with Miquella’s prayer that he might die a true death, and there’s the spirit at Castle Sol, implying it was Miquella’s intention to return Godwyn’s soul through the eclipse. And now the DLC says that Miquella always looked up to Radahn as an older brother, when this relationship was never even hinted at in the base game, so it ends up feeling out of nowhere. If Radahn was always the one Miquella envisioned as his consort, then why is Godwyn the only brother he’s ever shown to have had a significant relationship with?

And, it’s also true that Godwyn ending the war against the dragons with diplomacy and bringing about peace really embodies what Miquella would consider admirable, since his quest in the DLC is in part to heal the hurts caused by Marika’s war of vengeance long ago. Radahn, on the other hand, is known for idealizing Godfrey, who helped Marika enact her wars of conquest, and for loving conflict so much that he literally fought the stars themselves. Miquella was said to have admired Radahn for his strength and kindness, but there aren’t really any instances showing Radahn being renowned for his kindness, except for his love for his horse? (the loyalty of his soldiers doesn’t count. Rykard had die-hard soldiers too and we know what he’s like)

On the other hand, I feel like Radahn as Miquella’s consort works thematically as a concept because Miquella’s journey in the Shadow Lands mirror’s Marika’s own ascent to godhood, and Radahn is like Godfrey’s spiritual heir. I’m also compelled by the idea of Miquella idealizing a young Radahn for his strength and kindness, only for Radahn to become corrupt during the Shattering, warring for the sake of war… which is why Miquella brings back specifically the young version of Radahn whom he idealized. It’s like a vision of Radahn colored by a child’s naïveté, and it belies the irony of beginning an “Age of Compassion” with the demigod who idealized war the most at his side. I think all of this makes for a more interesting story than Miquella somehow bringing back Godwyn’s soul.

BUT I still believe that this story was not developed enough. Again, we don’t SEE enough of Radahn’s relationship to Miquella hinted at beforehand, so this FEELS like a cheap plot twist. Godwyn was the one with the established relationship to Miquella in the base game, so it being revealed that Radahn was actually the one he always wanted to be his lord is like… huh? since when???

anyway I also really loved Count Ymir’s quest and the revelations about the Fingers… the Two Fingers say that the Greater Will hasn’t abandoned this realm, but I think it’s clear now that they’ve been without the Greater Will’s guidance for a long, long time. Since we know Count Ymir was Rellana’s teacher, I wonder if his distrust in the guidance of the Fingers somehow came to influence Ranni?

[thagomizersshow]

Content warning: blood, gore, sexual content, sexual assault, parasites and body horror

This is a heavily modified version of an essay I originally wrote for a literary theory class and then turned into a script for a video essay that I never finished. 

Enjoy :)

One of the things that really bothers me about the critical conversation around Alien (1979) is the long-running idea that the alien and its various forms are so enduringly horrifying because they break the sexual/gender binary.

The worst example I can find is this excerpt, from Alien Woman: The Making of Lt. Ripley, by Ximena Gallardo and C. & C. Jason Smith:

The Alien species disregards the sexual difference that is so essential to our definition of what it is to be human. The male body is repositioned to correspond to the female body: the male mouth becomes the vagina, the chest the womb. The dichotomy male/female is broken down, as all humanity is female (a womb) in the face of the alien.

I get that this was published in 2004, but Gender Trouble had already been around for over a decade, so that’s not much of an excuse for weird ass gender essentialism in academia.

Art by AlexanDraxleean ↑

The idea that the xenomorph and its various stages are scary because the gender binary is being broken down is comically disregarded by the simple fact that trans people (like myself) ALSO find the damn thing scary. We are living embodiments of a shattered binary, but we aren’t shitting ourselves over our own existence (usually). I contend that the alien is scary not because of a violation of gender or sexual norms, but because it utilizes a much more widespread and visceral kind of horror: that of the parasite.

Most other animalistic horror monsters rely on the fear of the predator: monster wanna eat you → you run away → get caught → get eated. This is an oversimplification, obviously, and if you want a really good exploration of how the fear of predators effects us, read Val Plumwood’s Eye of the Crocodile. For real, my fav ecophilosophy book.

No, instead of the more straightforward horror presented by the predator, the alien uses the inescapable, cloying, and violating horror of parasites and parasitoids. Where the predator hunts, kills and eats, the parasite clings, defiles and tortures. When the predator catches you, you’re dead. When the parasite catches you, you don’t know what is going to happen. Is it going to bury inside you? Is it going to feed on your body? Is it going to lay eggs in you? You literally don’t know, and that’s what makes them so scary. Hell, they could get inside you without you even knowing. It isn’t just the fear of death, it’s the paranoia of violation AND the fear of the unknown. This makes Alien akin to a Lovecraftian horror in many ways, but instead of the fear of race-mixing or disabled people, it is the fear that whatever you do, wherever you go, there are beings that can enter your body and use it against your will.

Hell, the whole premise of the movie, at least according to the screenwriter, came from the thought “what if ichneumon wasps laid eggs in us instead of in worms?” That basic idea is glossed over constantly in analysis of Alien in favour of more Freudian explanations that rely heavily on antiquated notions of gender essentialism. When early screening audiences were throwing up in their seats in 1979, were they thinking about how “this monster really transgresses gender norms :/” or were they thinking “fuck what if that thing was growing inside me?!?!”

The only time I agree with these old school interpretations is when they view Alien through the lens of sexual assault. The fear of sexual assault and the fear of parasites are fucked up sisters in a way. They are both fears of bodily violation that induce a strong paranoia, and their symbologies easily feed off one another. Sexual imagery (e.g. a penis shaped head with a mouth on the end) combined with parasitic imagery (e.g. a creature grabbing a hold of you and doing unknown things to your body) are both niggling at the part of your brain that is repulsed by internal invasion.

However, I’ve seen arguments that Alien specifically targets fears for cis men being sexually assaulted, and I think that’s a very limited approach to the movie. The idea of a creature latching onto you, ignoring your autonomy, and using you as an incubator is pretty universally scary if you ask me, and I think for most people, that idea connects to a primal and often unaddressed fear of parasites far more than sexual violation. Just look at videos of botfly maggot removals and tell me you don’t get the same yucky feeling as when you watch Alien.

Even for people like me who find these creatures fascinating, I still get that skin crawly feeling when I look at images of them for too long. And it isn’t just a short-lived disgust reaction happening, it’s also that feeling of paranoia that it could be happening to you right this minute. This is all a part of what is called the behavioural immune system, which is the brain’s first line of defense against infection and why most people are grossed out by signs of disease on the body (pus, rashes, body odours, etc.).

We really don’t like thinking about parasites, and it shows across our culture. Deadly predators of all kinds have been worshiped all over the world, but is there anyone in history who paid fealty to the tick? Who invoked the name of the roundworm for strength? Are there cartoons about anthropomorphic scabies and their kingdom of flesh? (If any of these exist and I just don’t know it, please tell me.)

I’m not saying that this is an innate feeling in all of us (the human experience is about as diverse as it gets, and I’m sure some people just don’t have this reaction and never have) but I do think it’s widespread enough and so infrequently felt that when this parasite repulsion is triggered it makes for a horror that is far harder to shake than any socialized fear of gender violation. Far more than any Freudian psychosexual imagery, the horror of the parasite is what I believe has made the xenomorph such an enduring cinematic monster.

I wanna leave this post off with one of my favourite quotes about parasites from Annie Dilliard’s book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek:

It is the thorn in the flesh of the world, another sign, if any be needed, that the world is actual and fringed, pierced here and there, and through and through, with the toothed conditions of time and the mysterious, coiled spring of death.

[summertimemusician]

Linktober Shadow Day 8

Majora('s Mask)

*throws bouquet of roses* For the Time lovers.

Also my bias is probably coming through really strongly right now, but I'm not well rested enough to care plus I've been playing Majora's Mask a lot again this month, it's as important to me as Twilight Princess so this is kind of my love letter to it and Time and my excuse to explore the concept of Majora and the Fierce Deity and divinity in LoZ, though that's an essay for another day lol (/j)

As always can be read as romantic or platonic depending on your preferences, Reader is gender neutral and this is definitely self indulgent so it can be read in or outside of an LU context, most of the references to the LU names are for simplicity and to give a rough idea of why Reader has some stuff they do. Makes it easier to clarify lol, though as I've been hit by yet another storm the Linktober prompt will be for tomorrow, I'm basically picking a god and praying this actually posts X_X

TW(?):

Don't think there's any warnings besides MJM's typical body horror really, and very graphic descriptions and Majora in general.

Even after so, so long, so much so it feels like a lifetime ago, Termina still stuck with you and Time.

The thing about being in a timeloop that went on for who knows how long and whose failure to reset it would be total destruction to so many good different people, is that you quickly learn some habits to try and maximize as many successes as possible, how Time (Mask, then, after the living nightmare of Termina, during the War of Ages, still Link though) quickly learned the location of each enemy he could, how you learned to call out the best way to quickly assess and take down an enemy as quickly as possible, how you both learned to watch each other’s backs and to care for the people and Termina to the point Link went from just a warrior to a healer, granted the trust of holding the crystalization of the hopes and dreams of the people of Termina that, even if they couldn’t remember it, wanted the cycle to end, wanted to hunt the threat to reality itself and purge it from the world. To bite down onto it’s neck and feel the thrill and glee and cutting down such an opponent.

Most importantly, after bleeding, crying, sweating and toiling against the unrelenting flow of time and insanity all brought upon by a lonely child being left alone and manipulated to commit heinous acts as ‘pranks’. It taught you and Time the importance of contingency plans, and about always, always being prepared for any and all situations, unlikely as they could be. Of taking through note of even the smallest detail that caught your eyes at a glance.

‘To defeat an abomination, you need one of two things: A deity, or a monster.’, you think cynically to yourself, stepping over Time’s fallen form as Warriors bolted over with blizzard forged fury in his cold, calculated movements to defend him in your stead as you called Hyrule over, the young man quickly starting to heal your Hero as you glare down at the disgusting stain on reality engaging Twilight and Wild all at once, gleeful at having watched the person you adored the most fall, bringing out the ultimate contingency from your cloak, you hadn’t even told him about it, because you prayed you’d never need to resort to this, ‘… Forgive me, Link. The first option isn’t doable here.’

Time was your everything, you knew how his story ended, with so much grief until he finally met Twilight again. You tried, you really did, to not allow yourself to love him but it was impossible because he was Link, the man who longed for adventure ever since he was young, embodying the freedom of the forest of life and death that made up the whole of Faron Woods and the Lost Woods and as steady as it’s moors, voice quiet and calm like a stream in the woods and with and with a smile to rival the warm sun and so, so heartbreakingly kind. Who protected and saved and healed people while slowly healing his own soul and who attempted to soothe his descendant’s pain the second he could even from beyond the grave.

And you’d be darned if you allowed anything to take him from you or the boys before his time without a fight. You couldn’t care less if he would eventually die as he was destined to in every timeline, it didn’t matter if it was futile, because he mattered, you loved him, and you’d keep him safe and happy for as long as you could.

It didn’t matter if one day tragedy will catch up to him, it mattered that he was loved while alive.

Even if you had to step on fire to make sure of it.

“Twilight, Wild. Step away.”, the edges of the spikes of the purple and crimson mask that haunted your nightmares as much as it did Time’s, it leered at you with it’s arsenic and pus eyes, picking apart at your weaknesses as it’s spikes dug into your hand as you tightened your grip to keep if from shaking. Tone falsely confident as you called to the Hero of Twilight and Wild to retreat.

(‘To defeat an abomination, you need a deity or a monster.’

The definition is awfully interchangeable, if you look at it.

You had found it, abandoned and in a dungeon Wind’s Era, not quite awake, but not asleep either. The eldritch hunger almost chocking you with it’s voracity, the darkness assessing, stalking, prowling and starving, it prodded at you but didn’t dig yet. It knew how to play the long game in it’s quest to stop feeling empty.

Funny thing is, so did you. You were a lot harder to break than the Skull Kid, would not break.

Majora wanted to cease, like how it had ceased before the Terminan Tribe ripped it from it’s slumber, taught it hunger, taught it cruelty, taught it how to manipulate and take amusement in consuming the wishes of mortals and their very souls only to never be satisfied. Had fueled it with wrath from being ripped from a lovely, endless dream of beautiful songs and a kind soul. To be torn from it’s fantasy and then left to rot.

You offered to grant it a proper rest. And so a deal was struck. Your one contingency if the situation was truly dire, in case you couldn’t get the Fierce Deity Mask instead -because you knew how Link was, he’d burn himself out until there was naught but ash. You refused to let it ever come to that, after his excruciating screams of pain had clawed an aching, hurtful place into your very soul-, and Majora was starving and desperate, a dangerous combination for any being but something you could use.

So be it, if to protect divinity you needed to become a monstrosity, a monster was what you’d be.

You’d keep him safe. And you knew that if the Fierce Deity put him down once, he could do it again in case you slipped. Between him and Sky you weren’t afraid at all of the risk.

Even if Time never forgave you for taking it.)

You smile bitterly, tearing up in spite of yourself as you see the second Time spots you and the cursed artifact in hand, eye wide, voice ripping from his throat in desperation, “I’m quite selfish, I’m sorry.”

His haunted expression cuts you deeper than any knife, as you knew it was an image that featured in many of your nightmares and his own. But you’re insatiable for his happiness, so you take the plunge.

“NO NO NO NO DON’T-“

You put on the mask, and you scream.

It’s like stepping on fire, a twisted, desperate tune, a note of discord, a belt of harmony and fury and most importantly, the mighty need to consume the one who had tried to take the one you loved away from you.

Defy death, defy entropy, defy chaos, defy flame and voracity.

You cling to your self control with a snarl, howling in defiance. Sinking your nails into the abyss’ throat and biting, tearing, holding, tasting rot and withered flowers and the writhing of shadows and the blood of distorted gluttonousdivinity on your tongue with savagery equal to the way the demon sinks it's spikes onto you. Chew on it’s tender, rotting flesh, quaff down the lukewarm pus of it’s heart and the rust of blood as it bites off your skin, stripping your mind into chunks as it nests into your ribs like the spikes of wild, dead roses when it finds your mind tougher to break and you BURN YOU ARE LIFE YOU ARE CHAOS AND YOU ARE DROWNING AND YOU ARE FLAME-

You move, and Majora’s laugh sounds like a scream and a song as reality howls.

Your bones, sinew, muscles, nerves, veins and teeth are reformed, the being pounces, dancing, swerving, whipping, cleaving, ripping and feeding into the monsters with putrid, revolting gusto. Whenever it’s attention even tries to waver towards the Heroes you sink your hold in harder, stubborn, you’re sure there’s blood dripping from your mouth beneath the mask, your eyes, your ears, as it reaches a crescendo of glee and pain. A human body isn’t meant to hold so much divinity at once, much less as wretched and horrific as Majora’s, but you don’t care, can’t care, when you’re holding onto yourself like a vice, refusing to give it even a single inch.

It doesn’t kill Dark Link, the bastard (the one who’d hurt Time, the one who would have finished him off if not for you and Warriors). But the screech the Shadow releases as it gets ripped to shreds and the ripple of it’s retreating form is enough to make you partially agree with Majora’s vicious, amused glee that it was satisfying. Even if the feeling of you allowing it to utilize your skin temporarily felt revolting and disgusting in a way it made you wish you were actually on fire, not just in so much pain in a metaphysical level that it sure rivaled being set on fire, frost burned and lightning struck all in one go.

All is still now, all is silent.

Now comes the difficult part.

'Are you quite sure?', whispers Majora, crooning like nails on chalkboards, and it’s spikes sink into you tighter when you grip the sides of it, teeth gritted as you start prying it out of your face, amused by your defiance, but no longer as hungry. You did allow it quite the meal, you bet nothing like fellow divinity tastes better to the being, like the taste of a forbidden fruit you were going to be unfortunately acquainted given you’re sure Dark Link’s blood is on your teeth.

'Yes.' comes your faint response, as your sanity frays in fragile threads, you think someone calls your name, but you are drowning, you are burning, and you know that if you don’t focus it will break you. And you’d be fully dead before you let that happen. If you’re going to die you’re going to die as a human.

'Tou are so, so cold… So cruel.' It drawls, the demon’s voice like the gnawing of rats, like maggots under you skin, you convulse, falling to your knees with a wounded keen and pull harder, you barely noticed someone falling by your side, frantically calling your name, but the mask’s eyes dim to an outsider’s perspective, resigned as it hums dreamily, 'I suppose that’s why The Divine Hunter cares for you so, why it’s vessel’s claim is so strong.'

Good, you were banking on it being sleepy, after gorging yourself on the enemy of your boys, Hylia’s gash and Din’s assets your mouth is going to taste putrid for months isn’t it?

Majora hisses, growls, howls and screeches, a brush against your essence as it retreats. Unwinding from every single cell of your body, distorting your atoms back to their proper shape. It still hurts, buy it’s more bearable, although you quickly notice you’re chocking on a different form of Divinity, more possessive, more wild but just as old and ferocious as it snaps at the retreating heels of the twisted, chaotic thorns. Making reality remember your own shape quicker at the cost of filling every crack consumed by the demon.

You swear that thing is smiling smugly at something else, teeth bared and very entertained, taking the suffering of the people of Termina and the cold revulsion in your veins with it as it retreats with it's cacaphony of voices to the shade, 'A shame. Feasting more would be delightful, but very well. We trust that though you hurt today, tomorrow you’ll make sure we head on our way.'

You don’t have the mind or heart to say anything else to it, for it grows silent as the spikes rip from the sides of your face, you bite of a tortured yell as the spikes rip off chunks of skin and flesh, clawing at the ground with, thankfully, soothing, perfectly regular fingers and nails, albeit cracked, you feel someone take their hand in yours, and you crack open an eye, carefully aware of the blood dripping down your face from the half removal of the heart shaped mask and the thrum of thunder replacing the cold in your veins with boiling, protective warmth.

Time.

“You shouldn’t be up already.”, you rasp, looking over his wounded form, healed by Hyrule, you shakily take your left hand to keep prying at the Majora’s Mask, only for him to take it gently in yours, you taste blood, the petrichor of the Lost Woods mist and pine on the back of your mouth, chasing the rot of Majora away.

“It’s nothing, we both know I’ve had worse.” He says, firmly shaking his head. His scarred eye is open, ivory like bone, the markings more vibrant and prominent with the ferocity of a god, he looks tired, and you attempt to speak, to apologize, to voice your worry because you knew channeling the deity without a conduit was a bad idea, before coughing, shaking from the aftermath of your reckless, reckless plan.

(You unfortunately can’t say you regret it much, though, when you silently bear the combined brunt of Time and Fierce Deity’s care once you reach camp and the protective way they act towards you. Even though Majora is long gone much to your resigned exasperation, and the rest of your boys amusement, but that is for much, much later.)

Time gently hums, it rings through you like thunder as he holds you close, tapping your neck in a rhythm you could recognize in your sleep for when he was about to pull arrows, blades or shrapnel from your skin, or was ready to have it done to himself, you immediately loosen yourself as much as possible, gripping his hand tightly as he rips the rest of the Majora’s Mask off, inert and lifeless as when you’ve both woke up from a new day, he holds you close as you try to breathe, reassuring himself you’re still here, “Don’t you ever scare me like that again. Please.” He pleads, begs, prays. He can't lose you too.

And you can’t help it, you smile as you cry crimson and russet tones from your eyes, holding him back as close as you dare to. He doesn’t hate you, you’re sure you’re going to soon participate in the argument of a lifetime. But Link doesn’t hate you, doesn’t see you as a monster any more than you could ever see him as anything but the kind companion you always knew.

So you let yourself nod, helpless to say no to him for anything really. And allow yourself to breathe, you’re both going to be alright.

[illuminatedferret]

What do you think of the blackwater arc?

That's a pretty open-ended question! I've read a lot of very compelling analysis of the Blackwater arc, so let me see if I can sum up my thoughts without repeating much of what's already out there.

I suppose the short answer is that I liked it, although when I was rereading it for my timeline it did feel a little long. MXTX likes to write complicated situations with no easy way out(as opposed to her preference for writing protags that are the moral guidepost of their stories), and the Blackwater arc does a very good job presenting that sort of complexity in micro. A lot of awful stuff happens, but it's very human and compelling. I once read something that basically said "revenge is what people turn to when justice is denied to them" and i think He Xuan embodies that. I really love how his character is established in the Blackwater arc- he's a deeply passionate man whose refusal to lay down and die goes so far that I honestly wonder if he even knows how to do it.

I know many people tend to lean towards favoring either He Xuan or Shi Qingxuan in the aftermath of the Blackwater arc. I don't think it's that simple. I think that He Xuan was entitled to obtain justice for his family, but it's also unfortunate the lengths he was willing to go(stealing another's fate, collecting the people with horrible fates). I don't think it was right to demand Shi Qingxuan either kill his brother or take on a horrible fate, but it's entirely understandable why he does! If his family suffered so terribly, why should he bother to spare the brother of the man who caused their suffering, especially when that brother is the reason for their suffering? When that brother refuses to cut ties or take action against him? He Xuan cares very deeply about his family, and it's clear that even after all this time, he's in a lot of pain about their deaths. I think his actions are a commentary on the cycle of revenge, that he is unwilling to let go of his desire for revenge even if it requires he perpetuate the harm inflicted upon him. It's one of many foils to Xie Lian and his choices throughout the novel.

One thing I really liked about the Blackwater arc was the parallels between Xie Lian and Shi Qingxuan! Shi Qingxuan is being haunted by a horrific ghost, who we later discover is a supreme who has been at Shi Qingxuan's side all along, pulling the strings behind the scene. Rereading the whole section where Xie Lian has soul-shifted to Shi Qingxuan's body after figuring everything out is heart-wrenching after reading Book 4. He wants to help so bad, and above all else you can tell his priority is being witness to Shi Qingxuan's suffering, because he knows what it's like for to be alone/have your suffering unrecognized by others. (and conversely, Hua Cheng's desire to remove Xie Lian from the situation as quickly as possible is also very understandable after reading Book 4)

[collectorcookie]

Random list of northern twin things that devastate me

they have portraits of each other in their room, these portraits are facing away from the other

their painfully comforting attitude and also tendency to care a lot about looks and clothes probably stem from the fact that they are mimicking their dolls, the closest thing to humans they had growing up

they spent probably a good couple hundred years alone up north playing with rocks

they shelter and protect humans. they love children. i wonder if they're like this in a "be the kind of person you would have wanted to have growing up" kinda way

the fact that their bodies stopped aging at...what...twelve? Means that they were forced to reach their maximum capacity for magic REALLY YOUNG because of the ungodly environment they grew up in that is The North™️. Absolute embodiment of "forced to grow up too young, is now a child forever"

they literally created the idea of a community in north country against all odds but then they fought to death against each other. They fell victim to the same instincts and social norms they have been fighting against for centuries, if not millenia

White wanted to die and then was brought back against his will. He's still dead though. Now he gets to be CONSCIOUS for the fact that he is dead.

snow wished for nothing but a simple change of pace and the universe rewarded him with a dead twin he had to kill with his own hands. He wanted to know what it felt like to be alone and he found out the hard way

white wished for nothing more than to not be separated from snow and ended up dead and tied directly to snow, stripped away from any bodily autonomy, hell even thought autonomy. Now they're truly inseparable, congrats you codependent bitch

snow was so excited to share whatever he found out on his journey with white. He was planning on returning to white from the beginning. He was not expecting to come back to a suicidal+homicidal twin

they took oz in knowing very well ozzy can accidentally instantly kill them. Also knowing very well that if oz grows up and they fail to civilize him, oz would 100% kill them. Despite that, they basically adopted oz (well, more like tried to tame the wild beast that is oz) and loved him. For 2000 years.

In central ballad, oz says that it were the twins who came to take the ashes away before he destroys his own heart any further. This is probably also when the whole arctic north wave was happening via oz unable to control his magic. The twins risked getting injured to comfort their baby, no one talk to me

They see death coming miles away. Not just because they are semi immortals and have seen countless generations die. But also because perfect divination is their magic specialty. They know when people will die, they know how people will die, and they are painfully aware that there is nothing they can do to stop it. Like being haunted by nightmares of your loved ones dying but these nightmares are actually prophecies.

The way that when white died, not only did white's crest disappear, snow's crest got halved. And when snow brought white back, the other half magically appeared on white's corporeal form. Neither of them know why that is. But snow's half is the stem and white's half are the petals and when winter comes, it's the petals that die and fall off first and snow is tying white's existence to the living world and...you get it.

[casliveblog]

Custom Toonami Block Week 175 Rundown

The Witch from Mercury: So IMMEDIATELY after Sul’s duel with Gaston everyone goes ‘wait aren’t the suits that suck the life out of you banned because our war chief is a bloodthirsty dictator?’ and she immediately gets arrested and kicked out of school. Meanwhile Mio’s been told that she’s no longer forced to marry the school’s top pilot and her father is cutting out the middleman and just arranging a marriage for her which she’s like what 16 even for a high business monarchy style thing it seems a little early to lock that down that hard. Also just kinda wondering what the point of even playing at the ‘oh it’s whoever the best is’ if you’re just gonna immediately cut the façade whenever it’s someone you don’t want like why not just force a marriage from the start. Anyway Mio’s like ‘bitch I wanted to marry the gay girl how dare you take back your orders and give me new ones’ like she doesn’t like being told what to do but explicitly seemed a lot more chill about it when it was Sul. Gaston gets beaten by his father for losing and we allude to him being slightly less shitty than we were initially led to believe since he did send some people to clean up Mio’s garden. The bigwigs are all having a NERV-style meeting of shadowy figures and our resident obligatory Masked Gundam Character Prospera is like ‘yeah it looks and functions exactly like a Gundam but it didn’t suck her soul out so it can’t be one, right?’ and no one’s fucking buying that and also it’s a bunch of old men high on their own power so they’re just like ‘well you’re under arrest for building something that functions exactly like the thing we banned then’. Meanwhile Mio shows up, redicrecting her escape attempt to Earth to save Sul and telling her father off and basically having a badass teenage tantrum in a shareholder’s meeting, like it’s kinda cool how blatantly petty and personal her grievances are that it takes some balls to bring it up the way she does surrounded by the most important people in the world that just sentenced a masked lady to jail for technically not breaking the law. She challenges her dad to fight the Aerial and reinstate her engagement to Sul which he has absolutely no obligation to accept given idk if Corporations should really work on Klingon rules anyway and if you’re gonna take shit from him say if you win you get the whole company, go big or go home. But the group discusses that the illegal suit is pretty dope and they wanna get some more data out of it so they agree to let Sul fight to save her Gundam and her lesbian fiancée so that’s good.  

Inuyasha The Final Act: Inuyasha and co. are still soaking in Kikyo’s death and Koga gets an admittedly nice sendoff where he gets to leave on good terms with Kagome as well as get enough out of a rise out of Inuyasha to snap him out of his post-Kikyo coma and get him to resolve to make Koga’s sacrifice worthwhile. I like how Koga intentionally says the most triggering shit just to piss him off at this point like he’s really become self-aware as a character and knows what his role is. Also as another character that embodies the ‘the power to achieve your dreams is inside you’ moral of the story he started out seeking the jewel to obtain the power to unite the wolf demon tribes and ends up so strong that losing his jewel shards is basically just a minor inconvenience and ends up in a relationship that does in fact unite the fractured parts of the tribes. Meanwhile Sesshomaru is talking to his mom about trying to master Meidou Zangetsuha and ends up getting Kohaku and Rin dragged into the underworld during the training. I feel like Sesshomaru’s mom is such wasted potential like she has so little screentime and is basically a plot device they could’ve done so much more with. Once she reveals that Rin can’t be revived again by the Tenseiga Sesshomaru’s grief and compassion evolves both the healing and the meidou side of Tenseiga so he can purify a hundred souls as it was originally stated and create a much larger Meidou Zangetsuha, though Rin still has to be brought back with Mommymaru’s necklace of convenience. It’s really funny that Jaken takes it upon himself to be Sesshomaru’s emotion translator at this point since he knows he’s stoic enough not to cry when Rin dies despite wanting to and also won’t  thank his mom for saving her despite being thankful. Last but not least she tells Kohaku he also can’t be saved by Tenseiga in case people were starting to think that now that he and Sesshomaru are together, apparently you only get one free get out of death free card regardless of the source so yeah. Inuyasha’s group make it their new mission to hunt down and protect Kohaku so they can figure out what to do now that Naraku has 99.9% of the jewel.  

Castlevania: So I’mma be honest, this is where the Internal Vampire politics get kinda frustrating, like I’ve had it in the back of my head that all this infighting may just be a way to ruin Dracula’s otherwise impregnable plan and have a heroic victory while both evil sides are fighting each other and I’m still worried about that considering we’ve spent more time with them than with Trevor this season but in this episode we even find out that all the shit Carmilla wants to do Dracula would’ve just let her do anyway like he doesn’t give a shit, she wants to usurp his armies and the one move that she’s been gunning for since she walked in the door they’re just like ‘sure go nuts’ and the planning of the past like three episodes has basically been for that. I’m getting ahead of myself, Trevor’s group stuff first since we actually make some progress on that this episode. Basically Alucard gives Sypha the reverse speech that Trevor gave her last time about how he’s a dick and they can’t really trust him and like 75% of this show at this point is untrustworthy vampires telling people they can’t trust people. Sypha wisely asserts they’re both morons and they’ve gotta suck it up and get to world-saving or else everyone’s fucked. But yeah back on Carmilla’s weird warpath they don’t know Godbrand’s dead and Isaac is called by Hector to get him to sign off on going to Braila and get in on the Carmilla cult. Isaac is not down for Carmilla but he is for the Braila plan since it means everyone can shut up about it and Carmilla can stop whining so the politics of it don’t functionally matter, like it’s been such a long fight for this and it doesn’t functionally matter because they just do it anyway. Granted Isaac does it because it means their traitors are all in one place with a name and a face and Hector does it because everyone that talks to Carmilla is like ‘Carmilla is always going on about how she doesn’t trust or respect anyone but I’M DIFFERENT, I’M THE SPECIAL ONE’ like Godbrand was a fucking moron so that was fine but geez she’s not even being seductive enough for them to be thinking with their dicks they’re just idiots, she’s not even good at the manipulation considering if she’d just asked Dracula to do it he’s so done at this point he prolly would’ve. She doesn’t even bother to pretend this was Hector’s independent idea and follows him into the room coaching him and shit. Like the only functional thing this does is make Carmilla the Commander in Chief for this fight for… some reason, and like it’s not even a good argument because the two sides are ‘do something’ and ‘do nothing’ and Carmilla has the balls to be all ‘haha now you’re in too deep Hector so I don’t have to pretend to like you anymore’ like BITCH AS LEAST WAIT TILL YOU ACTUALLY HAVE THE REINS like holy shit all you did was convince Dracula to do something he wasn’t all that adverse to doing in the first place you’re not exactly Sosuke Aizen and she has this weird girl power bent to some of her speeches and I’d really rather girls just do the badass girl power thing instead of talking about how girly and empowered they are all the time. Long story short I don’t really like Carmilla and this plot had a really weird end to this section of the season for basically taking up half the runtime. Meanwhile, actual girl power girl Sypha found a way to trap Castlevania in one place as long as she can jerry-rig an ending to the spell that’s like 80% done but she doesn’t have a lot of time because the castle just showed up like… five minutes ago.

Jujutsu Kaisen: It’s Mahito versus Nobara time and apparently Mahito’s clone can’t transfigure souls and can only do the Clayface body warping shit and Nobara actually figures this out and uses the clone’s body as a substitute Straw Doll like she did with the other guy’s arm cause semantically the clone is basically Mahito’s arm and she wrecks him up from long distance, saving Yuji from an ambush in the process and giving him the opportunity to beat the shit out of Mahito while he’s stunlocked. Rather than keep going through that shit, Mahito employs the Joestar Family’s Secret Technique and books it the fuck out of there. The two Mahitos actually meet up and switch, the real one attacking Nobara while Yuji beats the other one’s head in. Mahito gives Nobara’s face a quick tap and isn’t sure if he killed her, like this whole exchange is excruciatingly vague about whether she’s dead or not but we jump straight into her backstory which isn’t a good sign. It’s basically a fleshed-out version of the story she told in the beginning of the series. I feel like this happens a lot where characters in long-running series have simple backstories at the beginning and then have a secondary supplemental flashback to beef up the tragedy or reframe the original flashback, half the cast of One Piece has done this at this point but for Nobara it’s an interesting retelling of her story through the eyes of her friends and giving a ‘this is your life’ type deal about who she’s loved and why she’s done what she’s done that gives a lot better of an idea of who she is than her original introduction. But yeah her eye fucking explodes which is weirdly not how we’ve seen Mahito’s powers work anywhere else but it was just a light tap while he was in a hurry and maybe her energy resisted it or something. Given that and the vagueness where even Mahito’s not sure if it was enough to kill her I’m tempted to say she’s not dead because usually you don’t want to be ambiguous about that shit unless you’re gearing up for a big return but as far as I know the manga’s already fighting Sukuna at this point and she’s yet to make a comeback so who fucking knows.

Delicious in Dungeon: After Laios’s sword gets busted he tells the story of how he got it fighting a bunch of living armor in the dungeon and how he fucked up and died the first time, confirming that death does indeed have no consequences which explains Marcille’s dialogue in the first episode and why no one seems too worried about rushing to get Falin. Still I’d say if death has no consequences in your series that’s something you’d want to establish right away because that is kind of an investment breaker, something like how DBZ put limits on the dragon balls at first and made loopholes harder so death isn’t just meaningless like it is in the Buu Saga. Still I kinda like this episode since it’s mainly focused on one thing and the food stuff doesn’t get in the way of the storytelling too much. They manage to sneak past the living armor colony and Laios fights Ornstein and it turns out it’s a bunch of mollusks living in the layers of the armor and doing weird goopy Alphonse Elric shit. They cook them and Laios gets Ornstein’s sword but it has a mollusk living inside it still so he’s basically got a living weapon which is pretty neat.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End: Frieren confronts Aura and surprisingl the Autistic Elf Power Hour has its second encounter with Living Armor this week, what’re the odds? Aura basically has the Millenium Scales except instead of summoning a demon to eat a Musuem Curator she weighs their power level and just instantly controls anyone weaker than her with the caveat that if someone stronger than her shows up she just automatically gets controlled instead. I’m kinda sad this means Aura doesn’t actually have a demon army like this was just a plot by four guys and not a whole organized force but I guess it’s fine. She uses an anti-spell spell to dispel the control instead of blasting nameless husks into the ground and desecrating their corpses because Himmel yelled at her last time for disrespecting the dead. Aura asks her why she cares what a corpse thinks and oh it is ON now. Meanwhile Fern and Stark are preparing for Stark to book it out of dodge and try and get Frieren back to fight the other two demons when they get caught in an ambush by Blood Sephiroth and the little girl. Turns out the little girl’s powers are Unlimited Blade Works/Sharingan shenanigans where she can create a weapon and mimic a fighting style by watching it enough and she’s just so happened to have copied Eisen’s style during the first war and decks Stark with his own moves but better. Meanwhile it seems Fern’s ability is Quick Draw and she can just fire off spells crazy rapid and puts the push on Blood Sephiroth in a really cool fight that creates literal fireworks. Stark takes Eisen’s words of “Just don’t die, stupid” to heart and does that thing from Samurai Champloo where if you leave yourself wide open enough it leaves the enemy wide open for their counterattack and destroys the little girl so yay, two down two to go.

Vinland Saga: War has reached Ketil’s farm and he’s got about 300 farners with pitchforks versus Canute’s 100 Jommvikings and Royal Theigns so yeah it’s basically the coughing baby versus the hydrogen bomb. Luckily Thorfinn’s met up with Leif and Leif’s a fucking chad and agrees to take on all of Thorfinn’s extra baggage he’s gathered over the past season and transport Arnheid out of there while the fighting’s going on. Snake tells his men that Ketil is a fraud and was never a war hero because he knew the guy his name was actually based on and came to him for help but at the same time he feels indebted to the family that’s taken care of him all this time and it’s really funny to watch his speech about how Ketil’s a fraud and not worth dying over right as he goes out to die for him fires his men up more than anything, like actions really do speak louder than words. Ketil’s kinda bought into his own hype at this point and isn’t listening to the dozens of people telling him he’s going into a meatgrinder and yeah it’s a fucking massacre, I imagined Thorfinn would be more upset watching this or trying to actively broker peace talks but I guess he’s got other shit on his plate right now since Arnheid’s on death’s door and got her ghost husband’s permission to go say her last goodbyes. Meanwhile Thorgil’s just gonna pop out of the ocean buck naked with a sword and try and cut Canute’s head off behind enemy lines so that’s… a plan I guess. I have no clue how he intends to get out of there even if he succeeds but okay, you do your naked regicide.

[captain-kraken]

Happy STS! 💕

Tell me about the afterlife in your WIP (if such a thing exists)! Is there an underworld, or do spirits remain tethered to the mortal plane or simply cease to be? Do they have an embodiment of the Grim Reaper, or perhaps an Anubis-like figure who determines where you go when you die (heaven, hell, purgatory, limbo, etc)? How does reincarnation work, and how much do beliefs and opinions differ on the subject as a whole?

thank you for the ask :)

this is gonna be a long one cos I think far too much about both death and religion

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Death in Sonhara is governed by the Duante gods, but none of them truly has the power to determine where you go. That's all down to what kind of person you were while you were alive.

When you die, you are escorted by one of the two remaining Duante messengers to where Detlos (the god of Judgement) rests. They view your life using their many eyes, pulling the heiros from your soul and weighing the good vs corruption upon their scales.

When fully weighed, your soul is then handed over to one of the twins.

-

Those who weighed more good are taken to Vasizo, the god of Reincarnation. They like to talk to the souls to get to know all about your life and make sure that you're ready to move on, before you are added to their big soup pot lol.

Once you've been added to the pot, you essentially cease to exist as an individual. You become part of the soup of souls, where Vasizo will create a new soul by scooping a spoonful from the pot.

So you could end up being reinarnated into many different new lives at the same time, but alongside a combination of other pieces of souls from other lives.

This is also why gender is viewed a little differently in Sonhara. They believe that it's in your soul, so to them it's obvious that mixing them all together means that you're gonna end up with a wide range of how people feel about their gender.

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Those who weighed more corruption are taken to Marakoth, the god of Cleansing. This is the closest thing to an "afterlife" but it's more like a personalised Hell. Every soul has their memory of the death wiped and is basically put into a simulated continuation of their life, where they end up on the opposite end of the corruption they caused.

So basic example, say that someone has spent their life being a cruel boss, they would end up in a "life" where they lose their business and end up working for someone who was exactly like they were when they were alive.

Once Marakoth has deemed them cleaned of their corruption (or at least as much as they can) they are then handed over to Vasizo to be put into the soul soup.

There are someone who are too corrupted and if cleansing attempts fail too badly, Marakoth will swallow them whole. These spend centuries being slowly digested by the void inside Marakoth, who absorbs all the corruption so it's not released back into the world.

-

Most people believe in the above because Heirosa is the main religion with almost all of the population in Sonhara believing in it.

The Sanpavir are different. Some of them still believe in the Heirosa gods, they just choose not to worship them. And there are others who don't believe that they exist at all.

Either way, they still believe that they will be reincarnated but only if they are "buried" at sea. Bodies are stripped of everything and are basically dumped into the far ocean somewhere. They are then eaten by the sea creatures, who absorb the soul of the deceased, which is reincarnated through their future offspring and the sea itself.

[lesser-mook]

Future State: Immortal Wonder Woman #2 (Wonder woman vs The Anti-Life Equation? Wtf) *spoilers

Not feeling the hamfisted Nubia shit at the end of the comic but-

Wish WW put up more of a fight against Darkseid, nerfed like a mf. In terms of feats punches from her on Darkseid would level that island. 

ESPECIALLY seeing how she basically started a big bang later, SOMEHOW.

And that by itself has to be my biggest issue with the whole thing. That deus ex machina big bang.

And i genuinely don't know where the hell that came from.

I don't have an issue with Wonder woman pulling it off, but the context or foreshadowing of her being capable of that doesn't exist:

Not even in this story, maybe i need to read it again.

Superman cauterizing reality with heat vision is stupid, but it's not too off the cuff. Starting a UNIVERSE with no set up, when you clearly could've used that ability earlier? Yeah, that's a bit much, some My Hero Academia levels of Asspull.

And going by the look on Diana's face (below) she was confused too, so what even was that? You know how much power/energy it takes to resuscitate/populate a Universe with celestial bodies?

So where was all that when Darkseid was fucking shit up?

Also why is Darkseid & Superman's death linked to an exploding Sun, they've tanked far worse, they'd be fighting long after that sun poofed.

Trapping them in the source wall (if it's still there) would've been a better end or Superman fighting & forcing him and himself into the Anti-Life Equation.

Their deaths make no sense, especially Darkseid, he'd arguably outlast Supes after the sun died.

#1's monologue boxes were very eloquent  but much too talkative,

not boring so much as indulgent. 

ie. I GET IT, times are tough, move on.

Fun read, the casual panels are beautiful, action panels aren't as good, basic. Diana herself is gorgeous, i think this iteration might be better drawn than Benes, who loves to showcase ass cheeks lol. This WW is just very fair in the face, very elegant femininity, and i do like that hint of gray in her hair.

Definitely one of my favorite Diana’s visually, reminds me of JLU’s Wonder Woman.

And that first kick Diana got on Darkseid was pretty well drawn, the rest could've used more emphasis of movement, and choreography.

And while i have an issue with that piece of dialogue regarding Diana basically being all Highschool crush on Superman, wondering if his last thoughts were about her? 

I don't have an issue with her loving him, it's canon that she has the hott's for Clark since Action Comics #761,818, etc. possibly predating that, those are just the examples i remember vividly

It’s just those choice of words, just sounds off for Diana.

Maybe that’s just her being blunt in a moment of vulnerability, idk.

But her verbally alluding to her loving him "I loved him all the more for it", not out of character. Because again, it's canon that she does gravitate to his good nature being the anti-thesis to what most Amazons stereotype men to be.

He's the exception and the apex. Why wouldn't their Amazon princess be attracted to a genuinely good man, especially in the End times

.

The execution could've been better by giving this maybe 2 more issues to flesh out some things like Supes & WW current dynamic, the deaths of the other core League members, setting up her being able to start a Universe. Just clean up the rough points.

Honestly all those pages spent shoving Nubia down my throat COULD’VE been a whole comic spent exploring those fine details i mentioned lol.

Just wish that sudden power up could've had some clearer subtext, it's DC & she's a "Goddess", though of WAR, not creation, but it doesn't break immersion too much .

Best interpretation i got is in the void or absence of hope, she embodied Hope and physically manifested it in desperation or some shit. She was the only source of magic left in the Universe so it wouldn't be too big a stretch to just make shit happen and being a goddess could unleash some power she didn't know existed.

I GUESS this is what happens to a god when there's nothing left of creation, she creates. No one left to believe in her, she believes in herself and starts anew, a universe, albeit unintentionally.

And she had Lanterns ring on her, the last Lantern ring in existence so maybe that played a part too. Who knows.

In isolation, if that was the point, then that's actually a really sad, yet beautiful concept. Though it’s kind of lame that the Anti-Life Equation was defeated that easily, of all the heroes to pull it off, glad it was Wonder Woman to get this W. 

Otherwise, not a bad read. Swamp Things death is the biggest tragedy in the book so far, rip.

It’s only 2 issues, i recommend it.

[caelus-the-lothrat]

What about ahsoka tho? We know she basically built the rebellion, especially the title of fulcrum. Which we know that the empire saw as a rebel code word more then a God. But what if ahsokas name, or nickname ashla was also a diety to them.

Ashla was originally a jedi God, she embodied light hope and everything good before giving up herself for ahsoka to be saved. So they probably won't see ashla a whole lot, but what if people just saw ahsoka as a sign of good fortune, or luck.

Kind of like leia's name being evoked when a battle is going to be won (on the side of the rebels), but more general and for everyday things.

Some people would be heard saying "thank ahsoka the sky is clear" or "ahsoka has blessed us", basically anything else along those lines.

This wouldn't even be a thing the empire would figure out until much closer to the end. As invoking the name of ahsoka, their embodiment of luck and good fortune, always seemed to be for the average person. Not a God for soldiers, but a good for the average person.

And the best part is that only the higher commanders would know ahsoka was real, people like hera or leia (and even then she was more of a shadow to them too). Since the average rebels who weren't fighting never came into contact with commanders, they wouldn't have known she was real. She would only be a story told to them by the rebels fighters they saw in cantinas or gave safe haven to when the empire was hot on their trail.

They also never had a photo reference like 'He Who Brings Death' Vader or Leia Organa.

All they had was her name and the stories associated with her. A hero since childhood and survivor of the jedi purge. She was even a rebel who faced Vader, survived and saved one of the last padawans in her forgotten religion. Who wouldn't invoke that name when they needed some luck?

Perhaps they would even those stories to their children as a tale to do good.

All while never knowing that ahsoka was a real person, who was actually part God.

Popular with the troops.

[xenia12]

Greetings, frog Tumblr! Welcome to my impulsive, salt-induced Amphibia rant!!

This where I’m gonna ramble about Anne’s nonchalance and near indifference towards Marcy’s whole situation despite, not only supposedly wielding the “heart” gem (which embodies empathy, selflessness, and responsibility), but also the fact that she has been friends with Marcy since before kindergarten and has previously been very protective of her.

So STRAP IN, frogs, newts, toads, and hummuses alike cuz HERE WE GO

-

[in TV announcer voice] Brought to you by unhinged screaming in a discord server with @froggythesculptor.

-

Alrighty, we’ll start with Anne’s relationship with Marcy in “Marcy at the Gates”!!

When Marcy is about to jump in and save Sprig from the barbariant queen, Anne stops her and says she can do it herself. Marcy argues and asks about why she won’t let her go before Anne shouts, “Because I just got you back, okay?!” She then adds:

So worried and sensitive, right? Well, let’s move onto “True Colors” :)

-

When Sprig is dropped by Andrias, Anne is so overcome by grief and rage that she actually activates her powers for the first time. She didn’t even see him hit the ground, yet still seems broken by the perceived loss.

However, when Marcy, her life-long friend, gets a giant flaming sword through the chest, uses what she thought would be her last breath to apologize, and collapses lifelessly to the floor, Anne simply shouts her name then basically goes, “Oh, I’m home now. Anyways-”

She has the shiny eyes here but doesn’t shed even a single tear until “All In” after Marcy is freed. Like, girl, you watched the friend that you’ve probably know longer than anyone except your own parents get brutally murdered 5 feet in front of you. How are you fine???

Of course it’s understandable for Anne to feel betrayed by Marcy after her truth is revealed. After all, she’s been trapped away from her home and family for 5 months and near-death experiences have become a worryingly routine thing for her in Amphibia.

The thing is that, with Sasha, despite her trying to knowingly and intentionally kill Hop Pop (and at one point Sprig), Anne still later said that “Sasha and I might be going through a rough patch, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about her” (S2 E6). Plus, after Sasha showed a little remorse then let go of her hand at Toad Tower, letting herself plummet so her friend could get away, Anne was sobbing just a minute later. She even saw Grime catch her so she knew Sasha was going to be okay.

The most logical conclusion Anne should’ve come to after going through that portal was that Marcy was dead. Yet, we’ve seen her get far more worked up about someone that, not only also betrayed her, but was clearly saved and alive. And, in earlier episodes, Anne seemed so much closer to and more protective of Marcy than Sasha… So I’m honestly confused.

-

As far as season 3 episodes 1-15, I wanna believe that Anne was simply in denial and didn’t want to bring it up, but it’s stuff like her being “stabbed” by the toy flame sword (in “Escape to Amphibia”) and simply laughing that make it hard for me to genuinely think that. When I just saw that happen through a screen I froze and stopped breathing for a second and it took me a bit to compose myself after. But Anne lived through both the actual event and the reminder yet didn’t react?

Also when Sasha passingly mentioned that Marcy was still alive, just captured, Anne simply sighed and said “thank goodness” before changing the topic. Like????

-

Now for “The Beginning of the End” :D

When first faced with Darcy, Anne (and Sasha kinda, but her reaction is more expected/normal for her tbh and imma not focus on her here anyway) was initially confused but, once she knew the jist of what was happening, she was just angry. She didn’t take a second to mourn or feel bad for her friend and skipped straight to getting mad. I was expecting some sort of guilt for not getting there earlier and maybe even an attempt at an “I know you’re in there!” speech (I wouldn’t want it to work but I feel like Anne would’ve been one to try that), but guess not.

Insert text “Yeah, we gay. Keep scrolling.”

-

BUT THERE IS HOPE!! Marcy’s Journal is gonna have a section written by S3 Anne, so we might get some Annegst >:3. I doubt they can entirely salvage this with just a book (the show is the great majority of the story, after all), but something is better than nothing lol.

[adurna0]

Logain and Taim (and Rand): Responses to Being a Saidin Channeler in the Third Age

Aka that one essay I’ve been meaning to write for about 3 months [Whole book series & minor show spoilers]

So I think we can all agree that being a saidin channeler during the time of the books is frankly a very traumatic experience during most of the timeframe and the backstory of the books (though it’s definitely changing / has in many ways changed by the end of them).

For one thing, there’s the fact that saidin is tainted and you’re bound to succumb to a madness wrought on by the literal embodiment of all evil.

For another, there’s the fact that your only chances to avoid this seems to be

to get gentled by the Aes Sedai (and lose most/all of your will to live in the process) or

to swear allegiance to the aforementioned embodiment of all evil (and become an expendable pawn in its pursuit of world annihilation).

Needless to say, neither of these options are good.

And lastly, as if that wasn’t enough, the whole world is aware that you’re basically an unreliable ticking time bomb, a person who’s doomed to become a monster and must be hunted, harassed and ratted out to the Aes Sedai as soon as possible.

This post is less about the first two aspects of the Saidin Channeler™️ experience and more about that last one.

And it’s in dealing with that that I think Logain and Taim are such great foils for one another. The world tells them they’re monsters. Unwanted. Doomed. Dangerous. Practically only good for death and destruction, unless they’re the Dragon Reborn and even then it’s still a lot of death and destruction. So what do you do when the world rejects you?

Well Logain is... frankly kind of arrogant (don’t @ me, he’s one of my favorite characters). And I do think in this case it really works in his favor. You see, it takes a lot of arrogance to look at a world that tells you “you’re a worthless monster that needs to be put down” and go “no, actually, I think I can do great things”. And sure, his definition of “great” may not always fall within the definition of “good”, but it certainly always falls within the definition of “important”. Grand. Glorious even.

Before we even meet him in the books he’s been stripped of all his titles and yet he’s built himself an army, won battles and started marching to Tear. He gets stopped by the Aes Sedai, but that’s... certainly not for a lack of ambition. His (perhaps misplaced) self-confidence takes a hit when he’s gentled, but let’s be honest, a man who wants to call himself by the name of a famous False Dragon of the past while on the run from the White Tower still doesn’t come across as particularly humble. In fact, that Logain continues to believe he can achieve something even after gentled is more or less what keeps him alive (even if that something is revenge).

[And this is something I think the TV show takes and purposefully amplifies. Show!Logain manages to earn the allegiance of people through explicitly telling and showing them that someone who channels saidin is not only meant to destroy. That he himself can also help people, can lead them.]

On the flip side, we have Taim. Now, Taim’s response to being declared a monster by the world is simply “then I’ll be that monster”.

[And, you know, I keep forgetting just how young Taim is, because he’s apparently in his late 20s? This is a bit of a tangent to the whole post but, Rand judges him to be older but I’m fairly sure RJ stated Rand misjudged bc Taim was generally Not In A Good State. Now I do have some questions regarding just what he’s been doing in all the years since he started channeling, because apparently he also had the spark and had been channeling long enough to start slowing in aging but he only declared himself Dragon around the time the books begin, so he must have started in his early 20s at the latest. If anyone has any clue what on earth this man was doing for the better part of a decade please tell me.]

Anyway to get back to the original point... Taim is defeated as a False Dragon. Embarassingly falls from his horse the moment the true Dragon declares himself. So when Demandred comes up and offers him a place amongst the Darkfriends? Taim just takes it. And why wouldn’t he? Since he only declared himself Dragon when he did, he must have spent years hiding his ability to channel. Most of his adult life, perhaps. What would he owe to a world that would just hunt him down if they knew what he was? He’s not the Dragon, he knows that now, so there goes that slim chance too.

So he proceeds to do the most horrific things, just as the Shadow asks him too. He gives up his own men to have them become, well, whatever being Turned does to you honestly. He builds himself an army of these brainwashed channelers who’ve had every bit of them replaced by the Shadow’s corruption. Hell, he goes so far in his devotion to embodying the world’s worst fears that he even becomes the only person in the Third Age to achieve the title of Chosen. A twisted form of glory for him as well, I suppose.

In the end I think that’s what Logain’s great character conflict boils down to in that one moment in AMOL. He skirts very close to taking the same path as Taim himself, to trying to achieve the world’s respect through power and fear. It’s an understandable lure, with all that people like him go through. But he takes a different path and finds that people, some people at least do respect him for his deeds. For what he’s achieved. Taim, on the other hand, well, he gets what any follower of the Shadow does, because the Shadow’s glory is only ever ephemeral and the inevitable fate of a monster is to be hunted down. Even if that monster makes himself strong enough that most people wouldn’t dare to hunt him, there’s always going to be someone who tries.

The addendum here is Rand. Rand who also accepts he’s a monster and chooses to be a monster to himself. He takes all of that suffering upon himself so that others don’t have to. Rand who goes “I may be dangerous and doomed but I’ll make this world safe for those I love by my inevitable suffering”. He circumvents the Logain/Taim dichotomy entirely and perhaps that’s because the world fears him, yes, but also places a great deal of responsibility on him. So he accepts the pain, accepts that it’s just his lot in life and keeps a list of all his monstrous deeds to torture himself until he breaks.

I’m frankly fascinated by the interplay of these 3 and the way they’re all shaped by this gift/curse they’ve been given. I think the contrast between Logain and Taim gets lost a bit in the fact that the Black Tower plot gets a bit sidelined for some time and we don’t really get much in the way of a Taim POV. Would have loved to get a better look inside that man’s head, that’s for sure. Really looking forward to seeing the two of them interpreted in the show, I think Logain’s portrayal has been very much in line with my read of him so far and I can only hope they give Taim an equally good treatment.