#the foreshadowing was also pretty genius

[roaringheat]

Ohhh my god the parley quest was so good. this game is way too good at storytelling and making you feel shit

[creature-once-removed]

.

[spiral-man]

Hey! You! The gay people in my computer! Yah you! I just need you to listen to me for like five minutes (I’m either a genius or all the hair dye is finally seeping into my brain). With every new episode that comes out more and more theory’s are made and a lot of them I’ve noticed point towards all the different ominous things the characters say or do and what that could possibly mean. Most often though they lead to the implication of the character being not totally human. And I mean that’s what it’s all about right?

The Magnus Archives is about what makes a monster and the Magnus protocol is about what makes a human.

There’s also been a-lot of talk comparing the two podcasts:

•the intro music being more intense right off the bat in this one

•placing a lot of emphasis on the fact that the employees can leave whenever they want

At first i thought maybe the plot was just moving faster this time around but it’s not that, it’s moving backwards I think.

•Starting with the employee quitting vs ending with Jon and Martin ‘quitting’.

•Starting showing us how the computer just spits out cases whenever and you can’t stop it vs near the end when Jon couldn’t help himself from making a statement either.

Everyone in the Magnus Archives was human at one point or another, I think everyone in the Magnus protocol was a monster at one point or another.

Jonny sims is really good at plot twists and I think this would be honestly genius. I mean, think about it, don’t think about the Magnus archives, don’t think about the characters past or future, detach yourself from the eye and just look at these characters as they are, right in the moment.

“Oh that’s an ominous thing to say”

“oh that sounds like foreshadowing”

“oh that’s a weird way to say that”

how many times about how many characters do we have those thoughts? We’re only 6 episodes in and I can’t even count the amount of times I’ve thought something one of the characters said was a bit odd. A couple times is normal but especially this early on into a series it shouldn’t be so obvious, it’s to easy. We the fans latch onto these little bits of dialogue and theorize them to death and then move on to the next one and do the same thing all over again, connecting them like the web in the Magnus archives.

But this isn’t the Magnus archives.

Jonny sims once said writing the Magnus archives had to be a balancing act because he had to make sure that the timing of it made sense for people listening as it came out as well as people binging it way after it came out, there was only one safe house episode partly because he didn’t want fans listening as it came out to get bored since it would feel alot longer then It would for people binging it later. I think because this is following the Magnus archives there is a new element of it starting off with a pretty large fan base and because of that Jonny can bank on the fact that more people will be listening as the episodes come out and so we will be less likely to realize how often these strange lines are occurring and how easy it feels.

I think everyone in the Magnus protocol is only pretending to be human, doing a poor imitation which just gets worse with time like how the quality of a printed image will go down which each new copy you make. They remind me of the Not!Them, or the distortion, pretending to be someone/something your not and doing it so well it’s almost an exact copy….but not completely, some things are just slightly off, some things make you look twice and wonder.

None of them are human, not completely.

……..

(Not yet?)

[prodbyton]

thoughts on your Sohee thoughts anon back again 😊

i've returned to further discuss Mr. Lee Sohee's perv tendencies, but i wanna talk about the first time he ever did it. it all started be he saw some random tweet about how panty sniffing is actually very okay and normal and totally not pervy. he didn't pay much mind to it and went on with his life. that was until it was his turn to do y'all's laundry.

he ends up dropping a pair of your panties and as he picks them his mind wanders back to that tweet. immediately there's an angel (no! sniffing panties is weird! don't do it!) and a devil (just do it! no one will know! foreshadowing :D) on either of his shoulders. since our sweet Sohee is so easily influenced (even by his own pervy little mind), he "hesitantly" brings them up to his nose and breathes in. the scent goes straight to his dick and he gets red in the face so quickly. it's just so good that he smells them again and again and again until he's sitting on the floor with your panties in his face, his hand palming his dick, and his eyes screwed shut. he stays like that for a while, moaning softly to himself (it'd be a shame if you heard him also foreshadowing). Sohee was so close when he heard you want in the room. he jumped so hard he hit his head and blamed his blood-red face on that. he just hoped you didn't see how hard he was or wonder what he was doing on the floor. little did he know, you saw most of it and found it pretty hot. you would have said something, but he looked so embarrassed you felt bad. you rushed over to him, held his head to your chest, and apologized for scaring him. he squeezed his eyes shut and hoped you didn't notice him cumming in his pants (but of course you did).

((side note: can i be 🎀 anon pretty please?? 🙇🏾‍♀️ i promise to bring you my borderline criminal thoughts on a semi-consistent basis))

anon your brain... you're so crazy genius ily

poor boy would be so embarrassed and nervous that you would think he was a freak, the thought of him getting off to your scent soaked through your panties should have disgusted you, but you couldn't help watch him with your thighs pressed together.

him having the little devil and angel on his shoulders is so real, like its giving "i don't want candy i don't like candy, but the parasite in me wants the candy" he's like no sniffing my girlfriends day old underwear is weird if i wanted to smell her i could give her a hug, but then he knows that he loves eating you out after a long day so the scent in your panties would remind him of that, and then he's going in for just one quick whiff and then he's hooked. he instantly feels guilty, like a kid sneaking a cookie when his parents are in the other room so he tries to be quiet as he takes another deep whiff of your panties, if people on twitter think its normal then surely he isn't weird for doing it, after all you're his girlfriend and every part of you gets him going.

after the day he gets caught you dont bring it up for a while, but you do notice a sudden change in your boyfriend. suddenly he's begging you to let him do the laundry, and you raise a brow at him but shrug it off because it's less chores for you.

little did you know (but not very little) that he was using this as an opportunity to go on a panty sniffing spree, making sure to take deep whiffs of the ones you wore on particularly long days, and the cute lacy ones that usually had the scent of your arousal on them from nights you two were doing the dirty. call him a sick freak for this one but his guilty pleasure was sniffing the panties you wore after going to the gym, or just having a day where you were a bit sweatier than usual, not his proudest moments but he couldnt resist it.

one day you decide to confront him about it, not because you didnt like it but because you wanted to see him in action. so when he's doing laundry you 'innocently' walk into the room to catch him sitting on the floor with his cock in hand, your panties wrapped around him while he has another pair pressed to his face. there was no way for him to get out of this, you caught him right in the act.

so dirty, so pathetic, words you say to him as you jerk him off, pushing your panties into his mouth to drown out his moans and he has tears threatening to spill while you coo at him for being so gross and perverted, getting off with your underwear that you had worn days ago. he cums all over your hand and you lick it up, leaving him dazed as you walk out of the laundry room.

dirty pervert sohee makes my brain melt... he's so icky in the hottest way possible 🫦 and yes you can be 🎀 anon! welcome to the club... i will be expecting more deranged yummy thoughts from you 🫣😇

[annoyinglandmagazine]

First Time Reading Girl Genius Novels 2

I am not surprised Agatha thought Lilith’s reaction to being told her lack of uniformity made her like Judy so it was fine was a bit odd. That is a weird interaction for her on so many levels.

Agatha’s gradual realisation as a child of the way the world around her discriminates against people like her parents gives me emotions.

She has a much more vivid memory of Barry than I expected, ‘seemed worried about things he couldn’t talk about’ is spot on and also heartbreaking

Agatha’s joy at having a home and stability for the first time is a lovely thing to add, she misses Barry of course but it’s interesting that they clarified he wasn’t in a good place or position to be raising a child

The late night argument and Barry’s collapsing mental health and possible death told through three increasingly rambling letters also giving me many emotions

The Heterodynes as an almost religious presence, an ideal people aspire to, like, ‘we should live our lives as if they will return’ is such a spiritual way to put it which I kind of love worldbuilding wise.

Jägers and Boris having an intense rivalry is one of my favourite running jokes and the backstory of Klaus enforcing a time limit on their fights before he has to mediate really reminds me of the ‘it’s like running a kindergarten’ line.

An opportunistic doughnut seller seeing the Baron engaged in a total and hostile take over of his town with his heir, second in command and soldiers and deciding they might not have had time to grab breakfast is exactly the kind of batshit insanity I expect from this setting.

Gil and Klaus just running madly through the streets, dodging crates and jumping on to walls in sync while keeping up a conversation like this is just about Tuesday (which it is for them) must be a pretty weird sight even for bystanders in girl genius

The older jäger grinning at Adam is a nice bit of foreshadowing

Just generally loving the fact that the jägers saying weird shit and arguing over things that make no sense is so normalised that it allows them to get away with hiding basically anything even if most of them have no idea what subtlety is

Gil and Klaus taking a moment to discuss how best to cover the undressed girl in front of them before proceeding further is kind of hilarious to me

Also every iteration of this exchange ‘You don’t find the fact that the girl is running about in a machine shop in her underwear to be unusual? Red fire, boy, what sort of lab did you maintain in school?’ Plus Gil’s blushing and ‘Father! please!’ is comedic gold.

The jägers finding loopholes to secretly give Klaus a guard when he’s in one of his moods (which are apparently a known and regular thing) where he wants to do everything by himself just because, is both wholesome and funny

The tavern song. Oh my god.

I need more information about how Agatha wandering around in her underwear makes Sleipnir assume she’s English.

Interesting that she’s calling her the Von Pinn. I never noticed that happening in the comic.

Descriptions of the school are nice to have, especially the bulletin boards covered in drawings, letters and so on, really makes it feel like an actual primary school.

Extremely rare Klaus feminist moment on the trousers front, though it’s definitely more about practicality than anything else

Agatha was shocked at Sleipnir referring to Wooster as a codfish, Girl Genius characters’ weird idea of what counts as swearing is so much fun

Children cycling around the airship delivering messages is a nice touch as are all the other details about Castle Wulfenbach, it really drives home the whole nerve centre and capital city of the empire thing

Saying you refer to your boyfriend as Herr Nice to justify not recognising his name is certainly one approach

Mowgli. Agatha you are fooling nobody here

Them ripping a machine apart while they’re plummeting to the ground and grinning maniacally should not be as adorable as it is

Khrizan gently cradling Agatha, calling her sweetheart and checking that she’s alright should have been a clue to someone that there as something special about her

Morbid children’s songs my beloved

Theo’s little interactive bit where he chases the children around during the story is so absurdly endearing.

“He nodded to the girls as he passed ‘RHaah,’ he said conversationally.” Did I mention I love Theo?

PRT is a genius bit of worldbuilding and I love it. That whole section is amazing especially the fact that personality shifts going more insane is only a tricky hypothetical on a test paper because Sparks are already like that to start with

I love that the tables are designed to be constantly replaced because they let the kids try out their new gadgets at mealtimes for serving the food.

They all bring different dishes from wherever they’re from which is also nice

The school is a lot bigger than I thought if they’re implying what we see is only a tenth of its normal capacity.

Klaus insisting that they go and oversee or assist in the harvests themselves to try and curb the culture of elitism is great and the way the kids actually look forward to it as opposed to their parents who hate it shows its actually working

The fact that Lucifer Mongfish’s conflicts with the Heterodynes are considered the cause of Bill’s marriage to Lucrezia rather than an obstacle tells you a lot

The logistics of family gatherings where every family member wants to and has tried to kill each other

Agatha comparing an argument between two twelve year olds to one between two teachers at her university is very in character with sparks

The Large Dangerous Mechanical Lab being the real name is kind of funny

[quitealotofsodapop]

YELLOW1!!1 it's been a hot minute since I sent in an ask!

Since pokemon has really come to bite my butt, I wonder what kinda pokemon Mei and Macaque would have! (I'd guess Mei would have a gyrados for some reason, but it makes sense to me and that's good enough!)

the LMK storyboard director (Ashe Jacobson) actually made pokemon cards for the LMK gang based on her hcs of them! Although they were made during S1/2 and likely don't reflect current ideas or fanon (also too many legendaries for my taste). Also no Sandy card :(

Things I do love about each though:

He/They pronoun MK. MK having bunch of little monkey pokemon. Plus a Krabby for some reason. Also Age: Unknown foreshadowing... instead of the legendaries I could see him having a Ground type like a Gligar (cheeky bat pokemon based on a tyoe of Japanese yokai) or a Swinub (snow boar piglet).

Red Son out here with all the pronouns and a bunch of poor Bug/Steel types about to get melted XD. Honestly surprised that he doesn't have a Tauros. The Houndoom seems like an Erlang pokemon though, Red Son seems more of a Torchic kinda guy. I could also give him a legednary like Chi-Yu; a little piece of primordial fire based on the Chinese Great Peril of Hundun/Confusion.

Mei def deserves a Gyardos - no fault to Rayquaza but no legendaries allowed. Rapidash is perfect for her, but perhaps a shiny to fit her theme a little more + she def would be a Shiny hunter. Sceptile is a more subtle choice since it's a lizard pokemon with one of the highest base speed stats (450) and has sword-like leafy protrusions. I've seen ideas for her having a Blitzle (electric zebra pokemon) as well since it just seems like a Her pokemon to have.

I just love Tang having Shedinja (the cicada husk pokemon) partially because it falls into a little theory I have of him >:3 + Golden Cicada connection. Chimecho is also based on a type of shinto warding bell used to scare off spirits - a useful pokemon for a priest/superstitious nerd to have. The Hoothoot is adorable, he's just here cus of nerdiest. Spoink is based on a bible verse about casting wisdom to those who won't appriciate it (pearls before swine) so thats pretty Tang-coded. The Shuckle makes me think of Noodles and the infamous "don't fuckle with the Shuckle"-meme because of it's ability to become the most lethal attack pokemon under the right circumstances. Tang deserves another non-legendary tho so lets give him an artifact pokemon like a Golett or Baltoy for him to nerd about (and struggle to carry).

Pigsy has pigs. You know if Gen IX was out he'd have a LeChonk no question about it. The Munchlax is super adorable since is a hungry baby pokemon (reminds him of MK?), and the Clefable could be a hint at his amazing singing voice. Blipbug is a ladybird larva aka a "bookworm" pokemon - you know he got that one cus of Tang. The Ambipom is interesting tho - extra hands in the kitchen obvs, but maybe hinting at his incarnation's connection to SWK. I could def see him having "food"-type pokemon around too like Smoliv, Milcery, and/or Tatsugiri.

+Tang and Pigsy both have a pokemon that reminds them of eachother omg; Spoink and Blipbug. Perhaps the Spoink is (Pigsy's) Grumpig's baby?

Wukong using his flattering game art for his ID is very in-character of him XD. Most of his pokemon are really on the nose too - Infernape is legit based on him after all. I excuse the use of legendary pokemon (esp Landorus since it's a earth/cloud god pokemon) for him too since thats what he is. The most recent legendary pokemon is uber-Wukong coded tho - Pecharunt, based on the Peaches of Immortality combined with the japanese folktale of Momotaro + japanese death mythology. I could see Wukong also walking around with a bunch of horse (Mudsdale) and fruit pokemon (Boundsweet, Cherubi) as well. Maybe even having a team thats made of up pokemon that remind him of his old friends.

Macaque having a Zoroark and Zarude is super genius. Zoroark is a mimicry pokemon (based on kitsunes/huli-jings) and that checks out with what Macaque tried doing in the novel - also reminds me of my hc that Jiuweihuli took him under her wing. Zarude is a spooky legendary monkey pokemon obvs, but it's introduced in it's debut movie as "Dada" by the human it raised - sorta foreshadowing how the FFM baby monkeys really love Macaque. Gengar and Marshadow are great choices for his shadow powers ofc - with Marshow having a "lantern" kind vibe to it. Grimmsnarl I think was choosen based on it's Gigantamax form - it looks a lot like Macaque's Smoke Monster form. I could also see Macaque having a few Sneasels - little dark types based on a wind Yokai. I think that while he'd like sound/music-focused Pokemon, his ears are too sensitive to be around the moves - he'd start running the second he sees a Whimsur.

+Macaque and Wukong have Eevee-lutions that evolve based on high affection depending on time of day. Like the Sun and the Moon everybody. Oddly enough in the pokemon "I Choose You!" movie, Marshadow is considered a "guide" for those chosen by Ho-Oh (which Wukong has), early foreshadowing how Macaque becomes a legit mentor to MK.

Jin and Yin just have duo pokemon that work best together. These two def would buy both versions of a pokemon game so that they could play and trade together. The two NInetails is a cute reference to their mom - the OG Nine-Tailed Vixen. They need a Gourgeist for their Calabash tho.

This is the best i can do rn for poor Sandy; I used a mix of microsoft office word shapes, Imgflip, and the Pokecharms Trainer Id generator (I couldn't figure out how to change the trainer to a custom image).

I gave him Mantine and Lapras cus they're gentle "Ride" pokemon who like carrying people across water. Polteageist cus Tea and secrets. Smergle cus of art. Vivillion cus of the blue butterfly in "To Catch a Leaf" and the Dewpider cus Huntsman. Some more ideas include Dhelmise (the seaweed anchor pokemon), Misdreavus (cus of his necklace), and/or Machamp (wrestling theme in the Scroll of Memory). Lots of cat pokemon too - him and Nanu would get along. He's not a fighter at all - and neither are his pokemon. Don't underestimate them tho - they hit hard.

Additionally; Nezha has all snake pokemon + I can see him having a Charcadet. He's got a Phantump and a Dratini too but don't ask about them.

PIF has a swarm of Castform following her since they can't be blown away by her winds (she treats them like baby wind spirits). DBK has like fifty Tauros of different breeds' and a few Miltanks + a Scovillain who provides him with peppers.

Erlang has a Houndoom and nothing else... except maybe a Lotad who reminds him of his greatest regrets.

Chang'e owes a few bunny pokemon (Scorbunny, Buneary, Azumarill, Bunnelby etc) and an Alcremie, plus a bunch of stray Clefairy-line pokemon (moon origins) and Minior (meterorite/star candy pokemon). She also has a little Rowlet plush that she hugs tightly whenever she goes to sleep (Hou Yi's starter).

I feel like animal demons dont really "own" pokemon cus they see them as fellow demons/monster species. Wukong is an except since his are probably old friends/decended from pokemon he knew back on FFM.

this got a little away from me sorry - I love pokemon too <3

[gold-rhine]

Inazuma Rewrite Act Two

Please read part one before reading this. It will make no sense otherwise.

In part one I did setup for the vision hunt conflict, changed Raiden’s motivations, added Rebellion \ Resistance interaction and Teppei setup, added setups to the arcs to Ayaka and Yoimiya. And more!

In this installment:

Let’s Make Player Give A Fuck About Rebellion and Teppei

Kokomi Is Not An Idiot

Delusions Are Not The Aging Beach

Ayaka’s Arc Pay-off

and more!

All disclaimers from part one also apply, I’m not gonna copy paste them.

Raiden Shogun First Duel 

I think we can keep the duel itself mostly unchanged. The cutscenes are pretty good and very cinematic, I don’t see reason to fix things which are not broke when there are already so many broken things

so, Traveler comes to Thoma’s rescue, gets taken to raiden’s plane of euthemia

also mb let’s cut i hate all minorities dialogue and instead like. open disobedience of the traveler to raiden shogun is i think enough to be used as a cause for the duel

The dialogue with raiden changes, we add banter with Traveler where traveler is like but you were pro-change before! and like cites some Transience things we talked about in the part 1.

Raiden gets mad in response, yells “Don’t you dare to mention her against me!” and that’s when she throws Traveler out of  euthemia and prepares the boob nuke

yeah, it’s foreshadowing of Makoto reveal

then the cutscene is the same, Thoma chucks a spear in her face and escapes with the traveler

thoma goes into hiding, traveler goes to join rebellion. bc they’re already in contact with gorou, we skip meandering around and go straight to the goal

First battle

and we arrive directly to the battlefield

there are several problems with rebellion pacing and kokomi characterization, which i elaborated on before. Like, Kokomi in canon only has one battle, which she wins because she hired mercenaries with fatui money. which like! invalidates this whole thing and makes her naive enough to be duped by the bad guys. So we need a battle win which is decidedly due to Kokomi’s genius.

so like in canon, Kujou Sara demands rebellion give her the traveler. Teppei, whos also there, is like no, fuck off! he’s embarrassed to speak out of the order but determined.

Gorou of course gives a speech about not giving up comrades, the fight starts, we have cool battle animation blah blah, and then suddenly!! Kujou Sara has reinforcements coming from behind some cliffs, oh no!! Teppei yells there’s too much of them! We will be overrun! Close up of Gorou’s snarling face, eyes darting, ready to call retreat, close up of victoriously looking Sara, Tenryou reinforcements are running to the battle... 

The water bubbles start rising up and Kokomi appears. She smiles at Gorou reassuringly and does some cool water animation. The hidden spring\waterfall bursts up with water and crushes into the reinforcements, washing them away. Rebellion rejoices, Kujou Sara curses and calls retreat.

i’ve seen people demand kokomi to have like a cool battle transforming into a dragon or smth bc of her origins and draconae constellation, but like this is missing the narrative pacing. the vishap origins only make sense after enkanomya where we learn about watatsumi history AND on the subversion of “oh its pink pastel kokomi who is smart and sweet :3”. Like we need to know her like that first, and THEN the dragon reveal will be cool and interesting.

Rebellion and Teppei overall setup

so, the Rebellion act wanted to accomplish too many things and didn’t structure them efficiently:

make you feel comradery with rebellion

make you like teppei

make you feel like a leader of your own squad, but like you EARNEd it, bc at first soldiers are distrustful and make you prove yourself

establish delusions and that delusions are bad bc teppei died, which is sad bc p.2

 in canon it’s like - have one scene with teppei, do some useless fetch errands for rebels, have another scene with teppei, be assigned swordfish captain and have two quick scenes with two dudes you will not remember

so obviously no one gives a fuck with this kind of pacing

instead, we will combine all of this and more importantly, give it narrative throughline so it doesn’t feel so disconnected and erratic

traveler is already known to Gorou through resistance meet up, he vouches for them, and Kokomi immediately names Traveler as captain of swordfish 2

Teppei is here and he excitedly volunteers to join that squad too

Gorou is like hey its a high risk squad that’s deployed on front lines, and you don’t have combat experience like, at all

Paimon and Traveler step up to be like yeah its fine, we’ll look after him, teppei is like omg thanks you guys :3

turns out he has problems fitting in with the rebels. they are all great ppl, sure, but they are warriors bonded in fights for years and most of them are from watatsumi. 

and he’s like a merchant or a clerk from narukami island. he feels like an outsider and a burden

but now the Traveler is here! they are already buddies from that resistance meet up and Traveler is an outsider too. They can stick together!

Swordfish II

So you go to meet up with your swordfish squad. You are greeted by a buff butch woman who is v no-nonsense and skeptical about your ability to be leader and another woman who is more friendly, but still kinda keeps distance and is snarky

their code names are Xena and Gabrielle for no reason other that we need buff female models like blacksmihs, hoyo. The point is that we need some memorable NPCs to represent swordfish, bc these two dudes that give you shit in canon for 3 second? I couldn’t remember them if my life depended on it

anyway, you learn that the previous captain just died and everyone loved and was very loyal to them, and now they are hostile to anyone who tries to take command.

So we do couple of battle to prove we’re strong blah blah, teppei is useless during a fight and Xena makes fun of him for this, and he’s super embarrassed

after that we walk around with teppei. Swordfishes camp is kinda shabby, they just took a bad hit. So we help the wounded, repair some tents, etc, but most important, Teppei uses expertise he’s got from his civilian job to solve problems

like he knows how to make a great painkiller potion bc he used to sell them. Or he gets an idea to use empty bags from used supplies to cover holes in tents, etc. 

Point is, he contributes.

After all this, Xena and Gabrielle are walking around, and Gabrielle is like wow captain, did you do all these improvements, and Traveler is like yeah, but it was all Teppei’s solutions, and Xena doesn’t say anything, but you can see she’s surprised and appreciative that you’re not only strong in combat, but care for the squad

she nods over the campfire at teppei like “i guess you’re not so useless after all, narukami nerd”

he protests, everyone laughs, its Bonding Time

Kokomi is not an idiot\ Fatui

We’re summoned to go see Kokomi. She’s in deep thought. Rebellion is in dire situation, supplies are running out, she’s sure they will not be able to win another open confrontation, even with her strategic tricks

But there is a new development - she’s being offered a huge anonymous donation. With that money, she could hire mercs to help. But to accept money without knowing the source is too risky, it could be a trap or setup

so she asks us to investigate these mysterious benefactors. bc also there are some vague rumors about some way to get boost to power going around and thats very sus too

bc like no, I cannot get over supposed genius Kokomi just taking fatui’s help blindly and letting them spread delusions around

so we go to the quest to investigate clues, with the swordfishes, its our first srs mission as the captain.

its couple of fights, blah blah. we find some clues and then its the Leader Decision time.

like there are two camps and we need to strike both at the same time, or the other one will destroy evidence and run, but we don’t have enough manpower. traveler is like  can take one camp by myself, and Xena at first is skeptical, but we’ve proven ourselves yesterday so she’s like okay I trust you, boss

everything goes well, both camps are taken and we find evidence that these donations are in fact, from fatui! and they are trying to spread delusions, which are bad and can kill you!

Delusions

I’m not a fan of Delusions working like the aging beach from that movie Old. Like first of all, if that’s how it worked, Childe should at this point look like this

and Diluc. And Signora. Like I get that these are like low quality delusions, so effect is worse, but you can’t be like wow Teppei turned 90 in 2 days and Diluc stayed babyfaced after 4 years.

second, how is that no one noticed Teppei aging 20 years after each fight. Like it had to happen in front of other soldiers.

And like, why change the mechanics at all?? You use delusion, you get burst of power and take huge hit to the health, that’s it. Low quality delusions take more out of your health, so people using them die faster. They don’t need to age faster at the same time.So that’s mechanics I’m using here.

Anyway, while swordfishes discuss delusions finding (and Xena loudly condemns them), camera shows Teppei being quiet, kinda sus and looking away

Kokomi Mini-Arc\ Swordfish Bonding

we go back and report to kokomi. She’s distraught. The battle is so soon and she doesn’t know what to do!

from pure strategic, emotionless perspective to win the battle she needs to take fatui’s money and close her eyes at some soldiers using delusions. She can trade their lives for the voctory

But as a Watatsumi leader who cares about her people she cannot do that!

Traveler comforts her, but leaves without any obvious decision made and with a heavy heart. 

the night before battle, we gather at campfire with the swordfishes

everyone is kinda doom and gloom bc it’s obvious Rebellion doesn’t stand a chance

Traveler stands up and makes a motivational speech about fighting together, about how they’ve faced seemingly impossible odds before and prevailed, bc everyone worked together, like with Ossail fight

Xena suddenly stands up to support us, she’s like yeah, I didn’t believe in you before, but now I see you’re worth it, Captain!

everyone cheers, Xena punches Teppei into shoulder and he almost falls over like “Even this narukami nerd is not as bad as I thought haha!”

Final Rebellion Battle

So, cinematic cutscene. Sara on one side with obviously more soldiers. Kokomi and Gorou with rebellion on the other side. Traveler is with the Swordfishes and Teppei. Kokomi and Sara shjare some snappy banter. 

mb there’s a duel, but only if combat designers can figure out way to make it cool. Traveler whacking NPC in a row who can do nothing back with a sword 5 times in a row like in canon is fucking boring. Mb incorporate like challenge with Inazuma mechanics like the thunder zoomies or smth.

the battle begins. Rebellions fights fiercely, close ups of our swordfishes.

Teppei is fighting Surprisingly Good For Him. Xena comments on this and he beams up

but the difference in numbers is too much. Rebellions starts being overwhelmed, and then!

Suddenly Beidou and the mercs join the battle! Kazuha is here too. Traveler looks worriedly at Kokomi, does this mean that she’s accepted Fatui’s bloody money??

But Kokomi smiles back. No, she’s had another trump up her sleeve

trail of snowflakes runs through the ground and suddenly, Ayaka appears on the battlefield. 

animation cutscene plays, Ayaka is shown in the past, after Traveler leaves, feeling restless and trapped in the estate. She’s still reeling from Yoimiya’s words and the fact that she couldn’t even help Thoma herself. She feels powerless, a pretty helpless figurehead princess that she didn’t want to be

letter from Kokomi arrives, telling about Rebellion’s dire situation and asking if Ayaka can help

Ayaka is in turmoil, she wants to help so bad, but she can’t steal money from Yashiro commission, that’d be stealing from people of Inazuma! 

She glances at her dancing fan and suddenly, a solution comes to her.

Looking determined, she goes to the Kamisato estate treasury and opens the chest of her parents’ inheritance

She sells some of her family heritage jewels and silks to get the money, deciding to use the same privilege that kept her trapped to finally help people 

she also officially announces that she’ll be in religious solitude meditation ritual or smth and instead sneaks off and travels to Watatsumi

she’s wearing that carnival mask that hoyo puts on models when they want to do “disguise”. Listen, if Diluc doesn’t get recognized in this gay little mask, then it can work for Ayaka too

anyway, animation ends with Ayaka springing from the ground on the battlefield and starting her burst, which transitions to her in-game burst animation

Her burst shreds through Tenryou forces.

Ayaka freeze with Kokomi and Kazuha is one of the best meta teams. Sara realizes it’s fucking JOVER for this battle and calls retreat.

Teppei death \ Delusion factory

Rebellion overjoices, Traveler and the swordfishes hug or whatever our animation department can handle in celebration, when suddenly!

Teppei falls down! Everyone gathers around and see delusion roll over from his hand!

oh no! He says he secretly picked up delusion from the fatui camp we cleared during investigation. This is why he’s fought so well today.

We tell him that he shouldn’t have done it, the fool!

He says he wanted to be useful. He just wanted to finally be one of the rebels!

Xena sits down next to him and says “You were already one of us.”

He dies holding her hand, with all comrades all around, instead of alone behind a shed like a sick housecat

Gorou and Kokomi walk up.Kokomi says that this is exactly why she refused Fatui’s help, but this happening even to one of the soldiers is a tragedy

Traveler and Swordfishes of course demand revenge. But we don’t know where the delusions are coming from! we already cleared fatui camps we knew of, we just don’t have any new leads!

Kujou Sara who watched this scene from afar suddenly speaks up

She has intel about possible location of Fatui factory, that she didn’t have time to explore. It’s on Tenryuo territory, but she’s willing to let Traveler pass. Fatui betraying and harming Inazuma people like this is unacceptable to her, even if they are enemies for now.

We’re like but can we trust her?? What if she just captures us?

Kokomi has long eye contact with Sara. It’s very Yuri. 

She finally says “No, we can trust Kujou Sara’s honor”

Sara only lets Traveler pass, so we have a scene of swordfishes wishing us luck and then we leave

Delusion factory quest goes the same. It’s okay, again, not fixing what’s not broke.

We confront Scara, he rants about mortals being bubbles, blah blah

The only dialogue change is when he bullshits about like oh, these mortals are weak and useless, of course they have to pay for power, Traveler argues that Teppei was already useful, he helped with the camp in a way others couldn’t, and he didn’t have to die to prove anything or “pay” for power

Otherwise it goes the same, Traveler passes out, Yae shows up to trade the gnosis

we’re moving to the Act 3!

PART 3

[plantyberry]

Cloudcuckoolander Tally Part 2: Chapter 1-2 and 1-2-2: The Polo Club, or, 'Carrots save lives, but have you tried the apples yet?'

Coming in hot with the second part of my.. Thing (I'm not sure it can be called a guide), here are the many CuckooPoint-granting options there, although with some caveats. Some fears will lock you out of some picks, and so will your relationship with Adrian (As I mentionned in the previous part)

Therefore, for the sake of maximum point granting, please take care to keep those in mind:

-Friends or more with Adrian -Gadgetry as a hobby -NOT have the following fears: Blood, Fear -Greed will help

And now, let us move on for The Points!

Adrian and your past relationship: (Already mentionned last segment, but a reminder doesn't hurt)

If friends (or more) with Adrian + Gadgetry as a hobby: -I just did what the Magic 8-Ball told me to do. +1 Cuckoo

After that, check your MAGICAL GRIMOIRE (You phone) and you will see a message from Adrian (need friends or more) about the horses being spooked. -Do you think its the werewolves? Its always the werewolves. I'll bring the wolfsbane. +1 Cuckoo

Adrian reacting to your clothes: (Already mentionned last segment, but a reminder doesn't hurt)

Red Cape + Frame = 3 or height = tall: -"Little?" I wonder if Adrian has suddenly gone blind. --"Aye, Aye, fairy godmother." +1 Cuckoo

Vampire Cape: +1 Cuckoo -Strike a stereorypical vampire pose. +1 Cuckoo --"No promises" +1 Cuckoo

Tuxedo: -"Actually, I was planning to wear these clothes during practice." --"It will totally be worth it to see everyone's reaction to me riding around in a tux." +1 Cuckoo

Spandex Tracksuit: -"It's a tracksuit, Adrian. Why would I change my clothes again?" I ask 'innocently'. -- I say nothing, I merely start dancing the Tango de la Muerte. +1 Cuckoo (and the Keikaku achievement)

And now, for the conversation topics…

I make some light chitchat to break the ice.

-"So, how has your day been?" I ask Foreshadow. +1 Cuckoo

I ask about something that's been bothering me.

None! It is woefully bereft of cloudcuckoolander points and therefore may as well not exist.

I launch right into the meat of the matter.

-"There was a murder during my last work shift…" --(if police)I begin to describe my brilliant werewolf culprit theory. +1 Cuckoo ---I'm not joking. +1 Cuckoo --(if reporter, paramedic)"All I have to say is… zombies." +1 Cuckoo ---I'm not joking. +1 Cuckoo --(if lab technician) In the end, this is the work of werewolves… +1 Cuckoo --(if wildlife biologist) I elucidate in great detail upon the nitty-gritty details regarding my genius mutant bear theory. +1 Cuckoo ---I'm not joking. +1 Cuckoo (Whenever applicable) I'm not joking but I pretend that I am in a brilliant double-blind maneuver. +2 Cuckoo

-"So I was recently mauled by an invisible poltergeist…" -- Show your bruised arm to Adrian ---"What? I find this situation perfectly normal." ----I'm not being sarcastic. +1 Cuckoo (Note: If your cuckoo score is under 5, you gain +1 Denial instead)

-"It seems that my apartment may be a little bit haunted…" --"I don't know, man, that bedroom ghost sounded pretty sexy." ---Obviously, I'm not joking. +1 Cuckoo

I launch into a long involved story regarding my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. -(follow the 'recently mauled by an invisible poltergeist' answer line) --"I blame the poltergeist. Also the werewolves, potential zombies, and I've got a sneaking suspicion that mutant fairies may be involved," you ramble. +1 Cuckoo

I believe actions speak louder than words

-I silently whip out my thirteen-page description of my past day including all details regarding my past work shift, my nightmare and strange injury, as well as the current haunted atmosphere of my apartment. --I wave my arms around in my best impression of a haunting ghost. +1 Cuckoo ---I reenact a scene from an earlier Knights of Our Lives episode that just so happened to appear in my dreams before. +1 Cuckoo (MC needs to know who Caleb is) ----I spin in a circle while twirling my arms. Surely Adrian will understand my meaning. +1 Cuckoo

Outside / Event prompts:

For a moment you think you see something dark and hulking lumbering behind the nearby red trailer, but the image vanishes within a single blink of your eyes. -Perhaps it was the werewolf that ate Caleb Degaré? +1 Cuckoo (You need to know who Caleb is)

If you deny foreshadow some treats twice (No treats for Foreshadow, those are meant for my own horse.), he will start chewing on your duffel bag. -I chew on the duffel bag myself. +1 Cuckoo

Not to mention part owner of the entire stable of polo ponies

-But the more rodeo clowns, the better. +1 Cuckoo

Post-Adrian Greetings

Talking about Arthur: "I just want to know if he's secretly a zombie/werewolf/mutant. He is, isn't he?" +1 Cuckoo I wonder if I accidentally left my apartment on fire this morning. +1 Cuckoo I wonder if an African swallow could really carry a coconut? +1 Cuckoo I hold up my phone with a Monty Python and the Holy Grail meme about coconuts on its screen. +1 Cuckoo I wonder if one of those sword swallower people could gulp down Excalibur? It'd be handy to be your own sheath. +1 Cuckoo (Requires Arthuriana fanatic)

Asking about the Apocalypse: "Pure unfiltered meta knowledge." +1 Cuckoo (Note: This one also gives +1 Corruption, be careful if you play some specific combos)

Ask how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood. +1 Cuckoo

Approaching the trailer

-"You ever wonder what the color red would taste like if you could eat things with your eyes?" +1 Cuckoo

After the trailer

-I tell everyone who'll listen about the strange sounds in the trailer. --(If vice = Greed) I wonder if I could learn to juggle the polo balls? +1 Cuckoo

The Polo Match begins

-I wonder if a polo mallet could be used to eat crabs? +1 Cuckoo

The runaway horse

Most of the options here are tied to having a good end to the incident (which relies on having a non-possessed MC), make of that what you will~

If you didn't try to rescue Pippa, but you fed a treat to Foreshadowing (Adrian does the rescue)

-"WHOOO!" I loudly cheer the arrival of the other riders. --(If cuckoo and silent > 7) At least I don't have a gaping maw. +1 Cuckoo

If you didn't try to rescue Pippa, but didn't feed a treat to Foreshadowing (Adrien gets injured)

-I hurriedly trot over to where Adrian lies prone in the middle of the polo field. --If we'd been riding Velociraptors, I bet this never would've happened. +1 Cuckoo

If you go Rescue Pippa (Need Greed or Fear level < 10, and fear must not be 'fear') -I start humming the theme song from the original Batman TV series. +1 Cuckoo

If you are unwillingly rescuing Pippa -I'm not screaming, I'm yodeling! +1 Cuckoo

To avoid faling off the saddle during the attempt if you ride Knight Rider or Midsummer Knight Dream, after the creature attacked the trailer, wait a few times until the narration says the poney exhales.

If you slip from the saddle (Knight Rider or Midsummer Knight Dream): -I wonder what I should have for dinner tonight? +1 Cuckoo

If you fail the second stat check to rescue Pippa: -GERONIMO! +1 Cuckoo

If you ride Knight Rider/Midsummer Knight Dream or (Queen of Knight/Fly by Knight fed at least once), and (Body>=30 / Charm + body >=50) and unlock the following option:

Once more… -"I AM THE TERROR THAT FLAPS IN THE NIGHT!" +1 Cuckoo

If you ride Queen of Knight/Fly by Knight or (Knight Rider/Midsummer Knight Dream fed at least once), and (Body>=20 / Charm + body >=40) and unlock the following option:

Whatever happens, don't let go. -Da da da da da… Batmaaaaaaan! +1 Cuckoo

If you successfully rescued Pippa: -Rodeo rider, hmm… I see the possibilities. +1 Cuckoo

Post Rescue:

(If not mindcontrolled) "Did anyone else see that strange thing on the hill?" --"…a zombie wolf?" +1 Cuckoo --"…a werewolf in wolf form." +1 Cuckoo --"…a mutant wolf-bear-shark hybrid?" +1 Cuckoo

If you slipped off the saddle with either Knight Rider or Midsummer Knight Dream: -"Come on! I believe in you, Willy! You can do it! You could be free! Come on! You can jump it!" +1 Cuckoo Negligence in equipment maintenance? Manufacturing error? Or… -Or the perfidious work of trailer gremlins? +1 Cuckoo

If helping Ash with the cleanup: -I wonder if we could train dung beetles to do this work instead? +1 Cuckoo

Going back to the trailer:

-I wonder if this horse ramp's good for skateboarding? +1 Cuckoo -If the trailer turned into gingerbread, would we still need to give hay to the horses? +1 Cuckoo (also gives you +1 Magic, the cloudcuckoolander MC does synergize well with magical shenanigans in general)

Go check with Amnay -"All I can say is…" (+Crazy theory) (You need to have thought about the same crazy theory at least 2 times) +1 Cuckoo --The proof is in the pudding! Which is wobbly and very delicious. +1 Cuckoo ---I know the truth. I know that I know the truth. And one day, I'll show them all! MuahahahahaHAHAHAâ-ahem. +1 Cuckoo

[adhdtsukasa]

good morning everyone, rise and shine, have you thought about the world hasn't even started yet today? nope? then now you do! because with full emukasa and ruinene sekahaji alts finally releasing, it's time for me to (over)analyze my favorite and definitely one of the most underrated wonderlands x showtime's songs that is still haunting the narrative to this day. (haunting the narrative is actually a bit of a dramatic way to call it, but i like to be dramatic and so do wxs.)

in full seriousness, i just really, really like sekahaji's lyrics and it's such a shame it's not getting talked about that much anymore only because that's an old song, especially since pinocchiop is a lyrics genius. so if you're interested in my personal interpretation of sekahaji, including analyzing the foreshadowing of the future events included in the lyrics and analyzing the line distribution not only in the original ver, but in the alt vocals as well, then tune in! because i have a lot to say.

will be using the screenshots from vocaloid lyrics wiki, but i'm going to say who's singing the line anyways, so it's not that much of a problem. i think. (also the alts line distribution is not really that important, it's mostly ruikasa and emunene singing each other's lines with two exceptions. but some lines hurt more when it's the other who sings it, so who am i not to mention it?)

"sekahaji is such a fun song" and then the first lines of the song after the bunch of hey heys and it's showtimes are already giving me a bunch of an emotional damage. oh, man. being a wxs fan sureee is so fun.

while we're at the topic of the first lyrics, it's kinda interesting that rui's the one who says "let's go!" instead of tsukasa, as this is expected from the latter with his position as the troupe leader — but i'm not going to read too much into it, because i doubt it matters lol. if i have to somehow explain it, then i'd say it's because rui's a stage director, so he's in charge of being the one to start the show. sort of. it's not really important.

"with a cast who can use magic and monsters who are burdened with trauma" is such a tsukasa line, honestly. it may seem more rui-like at first, but it fits tsukasa a lot, too. personally, i always interpret it as a spark contrast between who wxs were and who wxs are now — their pasts weren't the most pleasant thing ever (with exception of maybe emu, but even she is still haunted by the grief from her grandpa's death), they indeed were pretty traumatized (especially rui, but you cannot just ignore the rest). they were monsters, because they weren't perfect. and tsukasa is the type of person who strives for perfection.

they're not monsters anymore, however. (they never were, but try to explain it to four traumatized teenagers) now, it's their turn to be the magic-using cast! and the mentioned magic is them putting on shows and spreading shows, obviously. if you read into it a bit more, you can even say that the former cast, the one from when wxs were still these so-called monsters, was their idols, the people who sparked the dream of performing in them — seiichi amami, rakunosuke otori, yuka kazamatsuri and tom gray. (such an insane april fools unit)

in the ruinene alt, rui's the one who sings this line. and this stings a bit, because obviously... he'd think of himself as a monster burdened with trauma. rui...

nene is the one who sings this line in original, and this makes sense. that's a rather logical line, and so is nene. "disappear" isn't meaning death here, as it often means in the proseka terms — "disappear" is just the another word of something passing, something ending. vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas, you can say. i'm sorry that was stronger than me.

the disband arc (i'm so sorry, i know we're way past it. but it is an important part of the wxs lore. i'm not going to shut up about it) had it very beginning in nene, after all. its first mentions appeared in mermaid admiration, which was just a mere start of both the second arc and the second rotation (wxs has only just started getting better, after all!), and then island panic started the domino that was curtain call, amidst a dream and so on, and so on. nene knew that everyone's destined to disappear — to part ways — someday. this was creeping up to her from behind almost from the very start.

in the emukasa anabo, it's emu who got this line. it makes it even worse, because it's what emu's perspective of the disband arc was about. she wanted to stay at wonder stage, nene, rui and tsukasa wanted to go further than it. everyone's destined to disappear someday, because her dream is just too simple for them to share it.

okay, i'm gonna be honest here — i have no clue what to do with this line. i didn't want to skip it, as it's rui's solo line and is surrounded by such impactful words, it surely makes sense, i just don't really see it at this moment. sorry rui. the best i can do is to say that "heartbeat fading over time" may symbolize rui's deteriorating mental state in middle school, but, like... that's an awful reaching.

it makes a bit more sense when you look at it from tsukasa's pov, both because he has this line in the emukasa alt and because it's a song formed from his feelings — the heartbeat here is his real ambition, his want to make everyone smile and the way he forgot it in the main story. still don't know what to do with the ticket that's long past expired. my thoughts are kinda going in the direction of it being wonderland sekai, but i don't have any argument to actually explain it.

finally coming to an end of this part, (not because it's bad, but because it hurts), at this point you can guess that it's a line sung by emu and oh god, it made me suffer so much when i was waiting for our happy ending to release. yep, it's the foreshadowing of the disband arc again, who would've think, right? looking back at it now where the disband arc is finally resolved (for now. it's going to come back one day, surely), it's one of my favorite lines in the song, as it touches emu's internal struggle during these days perfectly.

i'm assuming the "let's come" means "let's come here" as in: come to a certain place (in my interpretation, wonder stage) because i have no idea why the "here" isn't here, as i was pretty much convinced that it was. but whatever. the way i see this line is how emu was always happily inviting the rest of wxs to visit wonder stage, wanting to spend time with them and make everyone smile, yet deep down in herself still knowing that she shouldn't take it as granted. she would want to spend yet another year with wxs by her side, but, back then, it was not a promise. there was always this possibility that next year, she'll be alone once again — because wonder stage is their place to go, but it's not going to be this way for forever.

in the ruinene anabo, nene got this line. i'm not going to say a lot about it, as i've already covered this topic before — it's a mermaid admiration reference, once again. even more so in this very line, because when i think about associating this line with nene, the first thing i see is her mermaid admiration untrained.

i think it's also pretty interesting that while tsukasa and rui got the lines that are more similiar to main story/first arc, emu and nene got the lines about the second arc!

i don't have much to say about it, it's just that rui sings this line and it makes me think about main story — to the wxs fall-out, specifically. the troupe didn't even properly start yet, just like the world!, and yet there are already bad things happening — tsukasa screamed at nene for messing up the show, rui got mad at tsukasa and decided not to come here again, emu is blaming herself for everything, for being unable to make them smile. it's definitely already no-good... just like most of rui's experiences.

as you can probably guess by the way the line distribution is arranged in the alts, tsukasa got this line in emukasa anabo. and this makes a lot of sense after all too, because, well... it was him who messed up. maybe it's about the moment when he finally realizes his true feelings?

the only explanation for this line is that tsukasa's feelings are currently all over the place because he's experiencing overstimulation. the conclusion is that tenma tsukasa has ADHD, thank you, time to pack it up, analysis over, everyone go home

i'm just kidding, but this line has been permanently noted in my brain as "the ADHD tsukasa line" ("why not autism tsukasa line" take a good look at my url. the sole reason is that i'm a bit insane) so it's hard for me to see it as anything else. we're not discussing tsukasa's obvious neurodivergence today, though, so let's move on to me trying to actually make something out of it—

"there's too much noise" part belongs to nene, while the rest of the line is sung by emu. nene (more in the early game than nowadays, but still) is often seen complaining and flinching at loud noises, and this was my first thought, however! emu got this line as well, and she doesn't really have any issue with loud noises as she's a very energetic and cheerful person, right? (and so is tsukasa and yet for some reason he has this line in his very own song. but i'm not going to repeat myself) here comes my second thought — it's referencing the main story fight. it would make sense both for nene (she's the one who is screamed at) and emu (she thinks it's her fault for being "selfish") to have it. this is also one of the two exceptions where it's not just rks emnn singing each other lines — rui and tsukasa in their respective anabos got the "there's too much noise" part. if it was about the fight, it'd make sense for rui as well — after all, he's the one who has to look at his childhood friend getting blamed for something that is partially his fault.

on a slightly unrelated note, i'm a big fan of the way how in emukasa alt tsukasa sings "there's too much noise" in a voice that's close to breaking, while emu is happily going "so much noise! and it keeps getting worse!!" with sparkles and flowers all around her. i love her so much. never change emu.

besides "just as i always have" that's sung by nene, this whole line belongs completely to emu — and i think this says a lot. the "deteriorating, abandoned room" is yet another metaphor for wonder stage, because that's how wonder stage was like when tsukasa sees it for the first time; deteriorated and abandoned, with emu as its only visitor. but emu doesn't give up. emu keeps on dreaming, keeps on wishing for it to return to its former glory.

i didn't say anything about the first line, because, uh. despite being sung by emu, i think it correlates to tsukasa and his ambitions more, etc, etc... but i also don't have a clear enough thought to elaborate on it. sorry!

the deeper we are in the song, the more cheerful the melody and the vibe of it gets, while the lyrics are starting to go in a slightly... different direction. the lyrics are inviting you to a never-ending party, a way to cope with all the bad things that happen to you. it fits wxs a lot, doesn't it? they're the group that is sharing childlike wonder with everyone and wishes to make people smile, while themselves are being often paralleled with niigo and aren't really the happiest and healthiest people in the universe (and they have a habit of not talking about their feelings as well). it would make sense for them to want to cut the negativity in their lives off, not only for their own sake, but also for the sake of the others around them (after all, this was the whole point of smile of a dreamer). wonderland sekai is their place to go, a place where they can drown themselves in the never-ending fun and fight off the negativity. because... they still can do it, right? because the world hasn't even started yet.

at this point, they're much better, obviously. because we're almost four years in the game and now wxs isn't only their escapism anymore, it's the place filled with the people they all love so much. but when we were still at main story, it'd make sense for them to be just like that, as their bond still wasn't as strong as it is now back then.

this part came out a bit too angsty than i wanted and i'm not proud of it, but i don't really know how to express what i mean with it in words. if you actually understood my intention, then you deserve a gold star. i'll have to rewrite it a few months later probably eh

while a lot of people think of this line as of a really dark one, i don't think that's the case! actually, it's a rather positive and optimistic one. the mention of hell can make someone flinch, that's for sure, but it's the same case as the mentioned earlier "monsters burdened with trauma" — it's just wxs self-deprecating themselves because of their past. for most of them, their past experiences surely could be called "hell", because everyone experiences trauma differently. but they're not in this hell anymore. their past is over, they're not alone anymore, they have each other now — this is their happy ending that plays out... from their phones, in form of the untitled.

after all, rui was right! the ending for sure will be a happy one, as long as they are together!

i've noticed that a lot of the sekahaji lyrics are matching with the latter ones, and this is no expection: once again, the first line talks about the first arc events, while the second is leaning more onto the second arc, just like in the first verse.

i'm not a native english speaker, so i have to admit, i had to look up what does thick-skinned mean lol i'm a bit surprised that's actually a rather positive thing? with how tsukasa was acting in the main story, i was expecting it to be more on the negative side. i can't say that it doesn't fit, though. tsukasa's most famous (?) depiction as a king is his wonder magical showtime card, while wonder magical showtime itself is an event focusing on how tsukasa is not going to let go of emu's dream that easily, that even the criticism of the phenniland members that didn't want to help them at first is not going to stop him (although it's been a long time since i watched wms, so correct me if i'm wrong!) — and that's what i understood that thick-skinned means.

meanwhile, rui is the alchemist. he's often described as such and is even depicted as one in his revival my dream card (...but we don't talk about revival my dream). and while "full of desires" doesn't neccesarily mean greedy — it's normal to have wishes and desires, after all — rui is not only called that by himself, but by the game as well, since he, too, has his own desires. and... having too much desires is a dangerous thing. (it kind of sounds like i'm demonizing rui i'm going to cry. that is NOT my intention i swear.)

and as i said earlier, the second line is corresponding to disband arc again. presented as the happy, unbothered group on the surface, wxs is some kind of an utopia, a perfect world, and so is their sekai — but they're always being followed by this feeling of uncertainty, of impending goodbye. or rather, were followed. whether you think disband arc is going to come back one day or not, i think it's safe to assume that sekahaji's references are not going further than our happy ending. at the point of the wxs story where we are now, the disband arc is resolved. of course, one day their utopia will cease to exist and they'll truly be forced to leave their attachments behind, returning to the real world. but this day is not today. today, they can still be happy. because the world hasn't even started yet. (or has it, it's just more pleasant that they were expecting?)

i didn't mention who's singing these lines earlier, but... i've already covered this topic many times. tsukasa (rui in ruinene anabo) is singing the first, nene (emu in emukasa anabo) is singing the second. and my explanation for it is pretty much similiar to the verses from the very beginning, so... yeah, let's just move on to something more interesting, shall we?

this fragment is matching the fragment starting with "there is too much noise", so that's my yet another argument for it referencing the main story fight — and this part is way more transparent in doing so. "there's too much conflict" is sung only by nene, but the latter part is sung by both her and emu. and as we already know, nene was the one who suffered the most in it, while emu was the one blaming herself the most (interestingly though, nene sings the "i couldn't help but worry" in the full group version!). the boys got "there's too much conflict" in their respective alts as well, so rui singing this line applies to his reaction to the fight, too.

"it's like when our arms are all tangled together" could be the failed show, because that's what happens when you mess up. it's also emu who sings this, and it's a very emu-like way of describing things.

and even though tsukasa is not singing the last line (it's still either emu or nene, depending on the version) it's still his untitled, so i can boldly say that it's about him. he brushed off the dust of his memories and rebooted himself, remembering his true feelings and entering his path to become a better person. the fight has ended and we're nearing the end of the song, just like we're nearing the end of the main story.

you can also say that it's about rebooting robonene. that... would work as well, i guess.

haha, hey, do you know what's happening on nene's mermaid admiration untrained? wxs are playing with fireworks, together. and do you know what they also want to do together? stay like that for forever. it truly was out firework show that lasts a lifespan!

the motif of a firework show appears also in wonder magical showtime, where it's an ending for the show the phenniland cast put on to save phoenix wonderland from being turned into a place that doesn't resemble the old phoenix wonderland at all. it's no wonder wxs would want it to last a lifespan. after all, it's emu's dream for phenniland to never change and always be the place that she remembers from her childhood.

and this is just a description of wonderland sekai, honestly. it has roller coaster in it + they are often seen in the background of various wxs cards. the starry skies are often present as well. it's not like we got two (2) songs with "starry sky" in their name for nothing.

i feel like "the best of the worst of crappy plays" is the show that sparked the main story argument in the first place — it was messed up, so it was crappy and horrible, no doubt for that. but it's also the best — why? because if not its failure, tsukasa wouldn't find his true feelings and wxs wouldn't even form. when such a crappy play made you get closer to your best friends and turned your life for the better, how can you not feel at least slightly grateful for its existence?

the second line is included here as well, because i don't really have an idea what to do with it. it's such a great line, however, so it would be a shame to just leave it out. the only thing i'm going to mention is that it's interesting that the prospect of an ending was there with them from the very, very beginning.

this one i see as a nod to smile of a dreamer and wonder magical showtime — because emu's family already had their own plans about what to do with phoenix wonderland. these were the plans that'd make them a lot of money, so it was their "harmonius future", even though emu didn't agree with it.

emu alone wasn't able to do much, but then she met wxs... and then the entirety of phenniland stood by her side. together, they were able to break the plans for a harmonious future. together, they were able to made her dream come true.

and, finally, the last line i'm going to talk about today! the bell is a symbol for new beginnings, just like this lyric itself says, so the act of ringing it is a new era in tsukasa's, emu's, nene's and rui's lives beginning — the formation of wonderlands x showtime! especially since it's the last line in the song aside of the last the world hasn't even started yet (not counting the hey heys and it's showtimes once again).

this is not the only time the bell is referenced in a wxs song, though — because it made an appearance also in the 2DMV for sekai wo terasu tetrad, once again symbolizing a new beginning, a new era, although this time it's a sekai expansion. and because i mentioned sekai wo terasu tetrad, i can now swiftly go to the conclusion of this post:

sekahaji is such a great song, because despite being the first wxs comm, it's foreshadowing the events way up to the third anni and this is not talked about enough. is this still applying to the events after the third anni? nope! not because they cannot be easily altered so they could still fit the lyrics, but because sekahaji has simply fulfilled its purpose already. i haven't studied sekai wo terasu tetrad's lyrics that much in-depth yet and i don't think it has the same 100% lore value that sekahaji has, as i don't think there's anything that hints tetrad being a canon second untitled, but it's the song released by the occasion of a sekai expansion — and if there are going to be future events foreshadowed, then it's going to happen in tetrad. not going to think about it too much for now, as three events (world link not included) isn't enough to say it for sure imo (unless it's going to be as short as the first arc was), but that's definitely a possibility.

that would be all! there's too much of my rambling in here anyways. i haven't really checked it, so i'm sorry if i ended up saying nonsense — after all, as i always say, i'm a overthinker, not an analyst! everything i said here is just my personal interpretation either way. i hope that you at least enjoyed listening to me babbling about sekahaji for way too much words straight!

and i hope that my main goal has been accomplished and you've just went to listen to the world hasn't even started yet because now you, too, have thought about it. right? <3

[greenerteacups]

Good morning GT, and thank you for the new chapter! I have loved the Bill-Fleur interactions in the last two chapters. I haven’t seen a lot of Fleur in Dramione, which makes sense because there’s not a lot of Fleur in canon? I feel like in book 4 she’s basically just Girl Contestant, coming in last place, with some foreshadowing of her checking out Bill and then no mention of her until book 6, where she’s a plot device for an interaction between Harry and Ginny. And the Weasley women dislike her because she’s… there? It feels misogynistic towards Fleur, and shows Molly and Ginny as catty.

Anyways, I guess I don’t have a question besides “Fleur?? Thoughts?” Her readiness to duel in the latest chapter brought to mind the image of her with a broken nose, blood pouring down her face, and performing magic that impresses even Hermione. And Ron’s sarcastic line of “almost like she’s good at this or something”, highlighting the fact that even Hermione had overlooked Fleur as a person with any above-average magical skill.

My Fleur lives her life according to two very important principles: "talk shit => get hit," and "life is too short to pretend I'm not beautiful." This is a characterization admittedly spun from limited canonical evidence, drawing mostly on her iconic "I am beautiful enough for both of us, I think!" clapback to Molly in Half-Blood Prince, which instantly converted me to Team Fleur forever. These are my semi-organized ramblings/two trains of thought on Fleur in canon.

Part 1: Factual basis: Any coherent reading of the text requires Fleur to be intelligent and capable as a witch. I mean. Sorry. There is no other reading that makes sense. She's the Beauxbatons champion — when we're given no reason to suspect Beauxbatons is any less rigorous than Hogwarts or Durmstrang — and she gets a job at Gringotts straight out of school. Where she is working alongside Bill, someone nine years her senior, also very smart/accomplished dude in his own right. And yeah, maybe she's not a Hermione-level genius, but she's still gotta have serious chops to hack it working (1) in her second language (2) in a foreign country (3) in the field of banking, and especially (4) in the field of MAGICAL banking. She's smart! She's qualified. Is she a little snobby? Yeah. Does she boss Ginny around during the wedding prep and maybe go bridezilla? Okay, yeah. Sure. But she's not shallow, bro, she's just hot and French.

Part 2: My conspiracy theory about the Fleurdemption arc in HBP. So Fleur is pretty much the butt of the joke in Goblet of Fire, and when it comes to the Tournament, she has bad luck. She goes 1 for 3, and she has to get bailed out by a 14-year-old in the Second Task. Not Great. (Though my hot take is that isn't her fault actually! Because everybody and their mom is cheating at the Triwizard Tournament. Harry gets told about the dragons by Hagrid, then told by Moody!Crouch to use his broomstick, then told about the egg by Cedric, then given gillyweed by Neville. Karkaroff is implied to be scheming for Krum, like, 24/7. Cedric is told about the dragons by Harry and then... actually, Cedric is pretty much on his own besides that, never mind. A king with integrity.) My point is: Fleur gets written off as a witch because (1) she's hot and therefore assumed to be unserious, (2) she eats shit in the Tournament (which doesn't help the "unserious" thing), and (3) her involvement after that being limited to Molly's New Public Enemy No. 1. Which makes sense in the context of Molly being written as a sort of old-fashioned possessive/bossy mother, but was not my favorite part of the books, because I thought the Fleur/Bill thing was cute. So my conspiracy theory is that Rowling gave Fleur that (iconic) moment of grace in HBP to try and make up for the fact that she was done kind of dirty in Goblet of Fire.

[vampiric-succulent]

OUAW EP 53:

Spoiler warning!!! I’m being so serious right now as this is a pretty lore heavy episode. This contains spoilers.

Also, I am losing my MIND.

When they are in the Beneath and giving their stories to the Oracle: will Torbek ever get that back???????? That’s so important, it’s the entire reason he’s here, I actually don’t think this story will go on if Torbek is unable to remember the inspiration for why he’s on this journey.

Plot-wise I am WORRIED.

Does this mean that the other is just gone??????

This is so consequential like there are so many consequences for these actions YOU GUYS

also Frost’s story was SO SAD to have lost like that was so cool

Other notes: Nikkie is ofc the biggest Coalecroux shipper I love it, also there’s so much good chaos

This episode is a great mix of chaos and LORE

THE WOOD ELF—-

I. Forgot about the Speech Bubble effect that Torbek has. Holy shiiiiiiit. Andy you genius.

Frost being a proud nudist and Gricko’s legs being fused together is hilarious

“I TRIP AND LAND IN FROSTY’S LAP”

THE DUKE????????? DUKE?????????

Good god this is crazy. They all forgot the the goddamn Torbek lore and now they have to catch up but they’re NOT catching up and it’s so ANNOYING

Wait how much do they still know/remember????? UGH THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING

Knowing Rich, Kremy is going to tell a really emotionally important story relating to Gideon and then Kremy’s gonna forget it. Goddamn.

Ouch. Gideon doesn’t remember his dad anymore. Yikes. Can the Feywild stop stealing memories??

A hesitation about taking this memory? What, the other ones weren’t enough to warrant hesitation?

“Get on it, fanfiction” WILD

Something coming to the Inn at the End of the Road? Or just a scene of comfort OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT HOLY FUCK OH MY GOD

TWIG IS BABA YAGA????? AND THE INN AT THE END OF THE ROAD IS BABA YAGA’S HUT???????? AND THE CAULDRON IS RIGHT THERE????????????????

WOAH. WOAH. WOAH. BABA YAGA STILLS THE HAND

Also does the fact that it’s a PUMPKIN tart mean anything????? Is the connection im making to the guy they took this quest from (Madrick Roslov, I think his name was) a valid one to make??????????

Twig is an agent of, or maybe is herself, Baba Yaga. This was foreshadowed? or shown? when they visited Morgana (the version of Zybilna that is stuck in time) and she “fixed” the Twig doll and told the party that it was made by her Grandmother, who was revealed to be Baba Yaga. I didn’t pick up on that.

Nikkie is SO GOOD at storytelling oh my LORD

Damn, Gricko. Damn.

OPERA TIME!!!!!! That’s where Burly is!!

Ohhhh. Opening Night. Mother of Puppets.

ONE MORE TO GO NO GUYS COME ON!!!!! ONE MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Level 6 is death, you guys would only be at level 4!!!!

YEAH THERE WE GO MEET CUTE STORY TIME— oh. Oh no he’s. He’s gonna forget it isn’t he. Fuck. RICHIE STOP

“But yknow friends to lovers is also really good” 😏😏

Oh I thought this was gonna be Coalecroux, but wow this works too

REMI GAROU / BARON SAMEDI IS DESCRIBED MIGHTY SIMILAR TO MR GIDEON COAL

TWIN BRAIN COMING IN CLUTCH RN

That was perfect. Thank god that it’s not a Coalecroux thing he’s gonna forget.

They’re all so GOOD at STORYTELLING ffs I’m going to lose my MIND

THE RED AND WHITE WAR AND THE JABBERWOCK 😮🫵‼️‼️ OPE nvm I was wrong

PEGASUS???? THE BARN OWL??????? 13???????

HUH NO COME BACK WHAT DO YOU MEAN

Wait. Okay. So the Barn Owl is of the King of Hearts (if I remember right, that’s what he turned into after the party first met him). The unicorn became Pegasus became the barn owl. The lightning storm, which we now know was an illusion, was involved. Red and White are here again, and we know the Red and White War happened. This is probably larger Dungeons and Dragons lore that I don’t know. I am REELING.

Goddamnit I promised myself I would do things at the end of this episode!!!!! I can’t just go straight to the next one but oh god do I want to

[obsidianpen]

hi pen!! i was re-reading NG (again) and i noticed something. in the first few chapters when H was still imprisoned in the dungeons he sometimes had dreams (more like nightmares) and i wonder if they somehow relate to something that happens in the future. kinda like foreshadowing. for example: in Precious he dreamt he was being chased by snakes while V was calling out his name and later on in (i think) Ruination what happened was pretty similar. there are some differences like the sky being crimson and all but still there are similarities. another example is in An Altogether Different Game where H dreamt he was in the cave and inside the basin (😏) was a bird in color while everything else was black and white. now maybe this is a stretch but i kinda interpreted it as the moment in the cave (yk which one) representing a change in their relationship bc of the deal they made and by admitting they had power over one another and the bird therefore being the symbol of that change. now i could be totally wrong and just reading too much into things or you are a genius that despite saying you don’t plan everything out for the future of the story you still somehow make these incredible parallels. also i apologise if you have answered this before. im a relatively new fan of your stories and only been following NG for a little more than a year. when i read it the first time i think i went on your tumblr 2 years back and since then i’ve been reading everything that pops up so if it has been asked it’s been a long time. also totally understand if you can’t answer this and ill be grateful even if i get a 🤐 back. i just really love your work and wanted to share this theory (?) with you and with all the other that also adore this story. hope you and your fam are doing well and wishing you all the best 🩷

so I think ‘you are a genius that despite saying you don’t plan everything out for the future of the story you still somehow make these incredible parallels.’ is the most accurate thing here (though I don’t agree with the genius part 😆). Haven’t thought about those dream sequences in a while. But uh. Yeah look at all that foreshadowing and symbolism there lmao! I imagine I would have had similar thoughts when I finally do a reread/edit of my own soon ish!! That’s always how my artwork happened too, so I guess this is just my ‘process’ with any medium. Make first, understand wtf it all was and how it all fits together later 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

[lunariamv]

this is a writing test lol

desc: yandere x fem reader (but hes quirky); obsessive + possessive behavior, manipulation, implied violence

˚➶ ｡˚ Him falling for you was pretty fast. It only took a few interactions between you two to get him hooked, and once he was, he was down bad.

˚➶ ｡˚ Maybe it was in class, or at work, but once he took an interest, he’d start finding himself looking forward to seeing you again with delightful anticipation. Though, that would quickly spiral into a dire need to satiate himself.

˚➶ ｡˚ He’d befriend you as quickly as he can. As he’s a charming personality with a good-looking face, yet down to earth enough that it's easy to trap you in an unsuspecting pitfall. Sooner or later, he’ll woo you into dating him. Incredibly cocky, he’s overconfident in his ability to make you fall for him. So much so in fact he doesn’t feel at all threatened by your potential suitors. Why do they even bother? It’s not like they have a chance when you two are clearly made for each other.

˚➶ ｡˚ That being said, he has a lot of odd mannerisms that confuse you. For one, he has no problem saying grim or odd things with a straight face. To name another, he’s overly interested in everything about you, though you could just write that off as him being a doting boyfriend. It’s nice to have your partner pay this much attention to you. But still, does every girl have a boyfriend who knows their exact measurements by heart…?

˚➶ ｡˚ “Can we hold hands? I have a tendency to get lost.” He smiles nonchalantly.

˚➶ ｡˚ His sudden request bewilders you, and has your brows instinctively furrowing in response. Huh...?? First of all, you’re in an open park. Second of all, does he really have that poor coordination?

˚➶ ｡˚ He’s amused by your confused look. “Come on, if you’re not quick, I might just wind up in another dimension.” Even though he’s clearly joking, he says it with such a sincere straight face.

˚➶ ｡˚ Maybe it’s his stupidly attractive looks, or the ridiculous way he talks, but it inclines you to reach out and take his hand. Whatever odd spell he cast on you with that dumb rizz, it worked. On the inside, he’s smirking with victory. He’s a genius.

˚➶ ｡˚ “My girlfriend, sorry. My girlfriend, sorry. My girlfriend, she… sorry.” Like a broken record, he keeps comedically repeating himself on purpose in front of the stranger that keeps looking at you. The two of you went out, and this random guy tried to get your attention. However, in informing the poor guy about something else, he felt he needed to clarify to the man that you were taken. A lot.

˚➶ ｡˚ He does this often, reminding everyone that the two of you are in fact dating. It’s one of his favorite hobbies, to your embarrassment. With how much he says it, you’re pretty sure the entire world knows by now.

˚➶ ｡˚ He’s also very overly affectionate. He’s a degenerate, so he likes holding your hand quite a lot. Often, he’ll surprise you by hugging you from behind or placing a hand over your eyes. He enjoys everything from head pats to kissing. Honestly, he just likes any sort of physical contact. Any excuse to touch you, he’ll take it without hesitation. More often he’ll say the dumbest things to win your affections, like the getting lost thing.

˚➶ ｡˚ Extra: if he’s like the gamer/internet guy type, he’ll ironically call you weird pet names or his “waifu” just to confuse you/freak you out like “Oh my god, it’s (Y/N), my precious waifu~~~~!!!”

its foreshadowing cuz he wants to wife u haha

˚➶ ｡˚ He’s very stupid, but that’s part of his charm. Though, he does have his 10000 iq play moments.

˚➶ ｡˚ He’s not really the violent type of yan. Contrary to his dark jokes, he’d rather not get his hands dirty if he doesn't have to. He’s a funny man, not a fighter;;

˚➶ ｡˚ Which means he’s more of the manipulative type, which requires a ‘sharp intellect’ and smooth moves. It’s a multi-step program to get to you, as he’s constructed. First he’ll befriend you to gain your trust, second is getting to know every single one of your friends, and then finally winning over your parents (or guardian). Bonus points if they tell you they think he’s husband material. 

˚➶ ｡˚ By carefully intertwining himself to so many aspects of your life, it’ll be much harder for you to leave him.

˚➶ ｡˚ Not sure why you’d ever want to leave him for anyone else anyways. After all, he’s a self-made man… talented, kind, a good cook, and he’s always looking out for you. He’s so sweet! Just marry him already!!!

˚➶ ｡˚ Though, perhaps he might’ve paid someone to push you in harms way once or twice, but really… that’s nothing but baseless conjecture.

˚➶ ｡˚ If he somehow ever does get driven to maybe, I don’t know, ‘off somebody’... He’ll be extremely careful, but he’ll also have some fun with it. 

˚➶ ｡˚ That friend of yours with a mild crush on you? The poor guy had an axe-ident. The creep hitting on you at the store? He took a trip and had a good fall…..

…..Onto an active sawblade HAHA WOOPS

˚➶ ｡˚ He really likes to make you laugh and hates to see you upset. He’s always trying to lift your spirits with his dumb jokes and playful, childish personality. Though, he also enjoys saying and doing the wildest things to get you flustered. There's just something so fun to him about being a rat and catching you off guard.

˚➶ ｡˚ As long as he pretends to be a ‘normal’ boyfriend though, and keeps his darker infatuation under wraps, the two of you will be together for eternity. He’s done a good job so far, as you don’t (or hardly) suspect a thing.

˚➶ ｡˚ Though, should you ever get an inkling of suspicion, or he’s unfortunate enough to make you fully dubious of him, he’ll brush off these notions very easily. Gaslighting must be in his genes, because he’s crazy good at it.

˚➶ ｡˚ He cares about you so much, so it truly hurts to see you so wary around him. What reason do you have to suspect him? Lovers need to trust one another. People make mistakes, can’t you forgive him for being just a little bit selfish?

˚➶ ｡˚ And even if you find yourself distrusting him, exactly who’s going to believe you? He has your family and friends wrapped around his finger. If you so much as imply that your loving boyfriend, the friendly neighborhood golden boy, the witty man who doesn't look like he'd harm a fly, is actually evil… you'll be laughed off. And if you persist, they’ll start to think you’re crazy. Are you crazy? If that's the case... he’ll gladly play the part as your devoted lover, and make sure to take good care of you.

🔥🔥🔥🔥 i love this type sm

i wanted to try to write one of these, maybe ill write more? idk

follow for more content of a similar nature;;

♡ more writings (in an x-reader series style) on my quotev ♡

[gigiloveheart05]

So how r we feeling now knowing that redson was planning to do it? Also warning this may be very poorly worded lol

I know that I do not talk on here if at all, but I'm gonna give kudos to @/kyri45's foreshadowing regarding redson's confession.

Sure I came into the series from tiktok so I was a teesny bit behind when I clicked that It could be found on tumblr. REGARDLESS!! I find it pretty much flawless how the foreshadowing worked out;

Firstly when we're introduced to courtnapping; its when redson reveals he has horns— even then we knew these two were going to be pining losers! But we also see how the thought process works. I would've talked about how it could've been literal months in the making.. however this one line kinda blew that wayward (no harm just caught me off guard)

Does this mean he hasn't been thinking about it? ABSOLUTELY NOT! personally my theory is that he's had the urges long enough to where I wouldn't be suprised if he became a teensy bit restless by the nag of them; but only for the sake of thinking of a good time and date to work on it. (the world has been in danger how many times now?)

Next we have Macaque explain courtnapping plain and simple as; its an any demon thing, it only took a second read to process it and ask myself; "any demon?" Thats when it clicked for me that redson could be preparing a courtnapping. Even though some people have definitely caught onto it earlier then me.

Also it makes sense that with redson working on the courtnapping; it makes sense to why the hell he was so on edge and more emotionally volatile (with the added power of lack of sleep).

Now since redson has blown his plan sky high after blatantly saying that he was planning on courtnapping mk, how can he recover?

This is entirely speculation, however;

- He would need to rethink his strategy on how to even kidnap MK, now more then definitely expecting it

- Personally I do think MK (after the whole ordeal with heaven) would probably be waiting in anticipation for the courtnapping, so redson would need to be wary of that too

- Do I think mk would purposely become a little more vulnerable at times to have redson get an opening for courtnapping? Kinda. Do I think redson would go for it? Maybe, i have my doubts but its not a 0% chance

[Do I think redson if by some instinct would accidentally take advantage of it? ABSOLUTELY, that would be hilarious but also idealistic.]

Tldr; I think the foreshadowing by introducing us to new info and using that information for another character is genius, but also redson you have screwed urself over how are you planning on bouncing back to said plan?

Now, I am absolutely worried for the shit redson has planned for the courtnapping. We gotta remember; REDSON IS A TECHWIZ, he can come up with almost A N Y T H I N G that comes to mind. The fact he has spent five restless days to plan everything must show he has a whole lot to show for it.

But also he is very much going to need to sleep to be able to actually carry it out; otherwise he might fall asleep in the middle of doing shit. Redson this is ur sign that before you do anything else; for the love of God sleep, mk will still be there come morning.

Overall genuinely curious to see if redson will actually pull off doing the courtnapping even after that blunder.

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

i adore reading your analytical posts abt soc so much jts not even funny; stumbling upon your account was like a coming across a goldmine 🙏 ALSO I RLLY WANT TO ONOW ABT THE SHE TREATS US LJKE MARKS ESSAY IVE NEVER THOIGHT ABT THAT RLLY also i loved the mr crimson post anw im sorry i’ll shut up now

Thank you so much, I’m so glad you like them!!

This is the first time someone’s submitted a question so bare with me because if there’s any way to do this wrong I’ll probably manage it, but here are my thoughts on the red herrings :)

She’s treating us like marks - an analysis of Leigh Bardugo’s use of red herrings in Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom

*warning: CONSTANT SPOILERS AHEAD!*

I happen to be an absolute sucker for a good bit of foreshadowing, I think if it’s done well it’s one of the best literary techniques out there, so it’s something I always like to try and be on the look out for when I read. With books that I go back and reread, in this case many many times (seriously I’ve never specifically counted but I’m pretty sure I’m at over ten times each for the duology, it’s ridiculous), I like to find the things I didn’t realise were foreshadowing the first time round. When rereading six of crows and crooked kingdom, I realised that a lot of the things I expected to be foreshadowing didn’t actually come to fruition whilst other, seemingly less important, details were the actual foreshadowing. I LOVE IT! It’s genius, because it leaves the reader worrying about one thing so they’re too distracted to realise the groundwork is being laid for something else. But you know what that makes me think of? Kaz’s ideology of “What’s the easiest way to steal a man’s wallet? […] Tell him you’re going to steal his watch,” and “you have to let the mark feel like he’s won”. Leigh Bardugo literally cons us, and she tells us that she’s doing it in Crooked Kingdom when the group are certain that they know where Inej is being kept, but Kaz says “Too obvious. He’s treating us like marks”. GENIUS

So I compiled a few of my favourite examples (in no particular order), if you know of any I’ve missed please add more I would love to see them!!

The cannon at the Ice Court. When the Crows first arrive in Djerholm they see a cannon built into the the cliff face, a defence mechanism for the Court, and Kaz says what might be one of my favourite underrated lines of his: “I’ve broken into banks, warehouses, mansions, museums, vaults, a rare book library, and once the bedchamber of a visiting Kaelish diplomat whose wife had a passion for emeralds. But I’ve never had a cannon shot at me”. Jesper jokes that “there’s something to be said for novelty” but then continues to say that a cannon would be useless against a ship as small as theirs and that it’s designed for “invading armadas”. They don’t mention the cannon again, but it stuck in my mind when I first read it as a looming threat, a reminder that the danger wouldn’t end when they left the court. So when they arrived in the harbour was I expecting soldiers, or a heartrender, or for Nina to take parem? Nope, I was too busy worrying about the schooner being blown to pieces - especially when the Crows all have such specific painful and/or traumatic experiences linking to water, with 4 out of 6 of them being drowning related. But that isn’t to say that the waiting soldiers at the dock weren’t foreshadowed. All the way through Leigh Bardugo constantly reminds us that Matthias had never seen black protocol in action, and that his time in the prison sector had been brief, but she lulls us into a false sense of security by letting us believe that the secret bridge onto the White Island was all Matthias was hiding. We trust him by this point, so we don’t expect anything to be different to what he’s told us, even though this is an aspect he couldn’t possibly have predicted. Bonus points for the fact that Nina’s poor well-being in the aftermath of the drug is foreshadowed by a joke at the awful Inn they go to before the job; the food is disgusting and she says “when I don’t want to eat, you know there’s a problem”, and in Crooked Kingdom it’s many times emphasised that she’s unhealthily losing weight and her appetite has vastly decreased, with Matthias buying her chocolate biscuits “in the hopes she’d eat something”.

The poison pill. Leigh Bardugo worked very hard in Crooked Kingdom to make us think that Nina might die. We went into that book knowing there was a strong possibility that she wouldn’t come out the other side; we knew very little about how she was coping with parem withdrawal at the end of soc, but we had seen around a minimum of five grisha being destroyed by the drug so far. (That’s a guess I haven’t actually counted). So we went in with the idea that she was already in a precarious situation, and even though we begin to see her regain herself she struggles throughout the novel both physically and mentally in the aftermath of the drug. Matthias begins to dream of being lost on the ice in the worst storms known to Fjerda, knowing that she was out there somewhere and that he could not reach her. This sounds like it’s foreshadowing her death. Then when the pair go to the Ravkan embassy, Tamar gives Nina a small yellow pill that Genya made; she explains that it kills instantly and painlessly, saying “we all have them” to make sure they cannot be drugged and enslaved by the Shu government, who are hunting for grisha with the Khergud at the time. Matthias is terrified by this, but Nina just slips it into her pocket without a second thought. At that moment I thought that Nina would almost take the pill only to be stopped by someone else, because it felt too obvious that it would kill her, but I did wonder if the Khergud would be the ones to stop her and so she would still be lost. But the pill never gets mentioned again, except when the Dime Lions come for Nina at Sweet Reef and she briefly remembers that it’s still in her pocket. Then never again. And Matthias’ dreams were, of course, actually foreshadowing the FESTIVAL OF PAIN AND TORTURE that is chapter 40.

Mr Crimson. I’m so glad you like my Mr Crimson idea! Basically I posted saying I think that he represents death in the novels and I’ve also talked before about how I think the Komedie Brute costumes that the characters usually adopt are representative of their character; Kaz the Madman, Nina the Lost Bride, Inej and Wylan the Grey Imp, and Jesper and Matthias Mr Crimson. I won’t go into detail about all of them but if you’re interested the post is on my page, but with the idea that Mr Crimson represents death it’s very important to me that, although all of them wear his cloak at least once, he is the only Komedie Brute character taken on by Jesper and Matthias (at least to my recollection, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong). So of course I would argue that Matthias taking on the image in Crooked Kingdom foreshadows his death, but in that case what does Jesper’s represent? I came up with two options but I actually think you could combine them into one: it’s a red herring to make us align him with the literal death of Matthias, whilst actually foreshadowing the metaphorical death that his addiction and mental well-being are driving him towards as he tries desperately to stop them - in his own words to Colm “I’m dying anyway, Da, I’m just doing it slow”

Oh god sorry that this is yet another long post I hope y’all enjoyed this enough for it to be worth the time it takes for you to read all my ramblings 😭

Tagging people who asked for this one in the replies to my essay titles post - @the-magnificunt @flerkenkiddingme @luridorangeandviolentviolet @snowblack-charcoalwhite

[hestzhyen]

Chapter 39 Doomish Hope Posting

Hi internet void. I've got bachi on the brain again.

Chapter 39 is the "if they aren't soulmates I'll eat every hat I own" moment of the series. Also seems like the "Hakuri will be shelved once the mission is done" chapter, which is a fucking shame. But I will remain calm(ish) and wait for Hokazono-sensei to finish cooking. So we start off with some really nice foreshadowing coupled with a little continuity update. Mr. Inazuma found his way to Char and Hinao and sees some of the folks from the storehouse get dropped off at the entrance, but his sister isn't among them. Hmm. Then, we switch back to the fight and see our precious Hakuri struggling. He's got a free-flowing nosebleed and a splitting headache trying to keep up with his dad's manipulation of the subspace. And hey look, some more foreshadowing. (Hint: Kyoura isn't talking to Chihiro full time here.)

Yet once again Kyoura underestimates his son...

… while Chihiro's faith never wavers. Once more, despite nothing being said between them, they fight in perfect harmony.

Aaaaah. THESE GUYS. They've known each other for weeks at most and they're already doing this mad OP shit? Hakuri awakened to his storehouse powers less than an hour ago and he's already copying his dad's techniques to match Chihiro's fighting style? Chihiro fucking yeeted Enten at Kyoura without a word and Hakuri instantly understood that he needed to teleport him to the other side to catch it, then create a hologram for a fake-out so Chihiro could land the blow? Are you KIDDING ME? Our color-coded protagonist/foil pair are acting as one already? Hokazono-sensei's gotta slow down or we won't have anything left to explore with them.

Maybe that's the intention, though.

The little flashback where young Hakuri tells his father that "I'm gonna become a leader who surpasses you!" is a huge moment in the chapter for two reasons. First, the emotional catharsis that I'll rant about later. Second, the next potential bit of foreshadowing. When Hakuri initially met Chihiro, his stated goal was to end the Rakuzaichi, which we took him at his word for. He didn't know he was actually the second coming of Sazanami Jesus and neither did we. But that single panel recontextualized everything. If Hakuri hadn't been deemed worthless and disowned, the Toukuri AU could have been pretty close to canon. He's actually a very ambitious guy- no wonder he was so dogged about getting Chihiro to help him! Obviously, his goal shifted from "become a better leader than my father" to "burn it all down" at some point during the time where he was abused. But what if he never fully let go of that dream?

We see that the Sazanami family is huge and powerful enough that even the government treads lightly around them. So it's not a stretch to think that Sazanamis will be able to continue on even without Kyoura as long as they have a capable leader. Someone perhaps a bit more reform-minded to keep the government off their back while they adjust to a new way of doing things. A guy who's too stubborn to quit and powerful enough to quell the critics; a legitimate heir who invokes the legend of their progenitor's genius, perhaps. Someone who has a deeply personal stake in erasing the legacy they were all groomed to protect. So yeah, Hakuri could very easily get wrapped up in his family's business while Chihiro moves on. Not to say he would never be relevant again- the storehouse ability alone practically guarantees he's sticking around in some capacity (gotta have a safe place to keep those WMDs and all). But I'm steeling myself for seeing a lot less of this lethal cinnamon roll in a few chapters.

Ideally for me at least, Hakuri and Chihiro end the Rakuzaichi and let the government step in to take care of the aftermath. Hakuri, being disowned and having completed his revenge, decides to stay with Chihiro to help him on his own journey. And wouldn't it just be so sweet if much later on Chihiro adopts him into his family register so Hakuri has a last name he can be proud of? But the very real chance of Hakuri being sidelined is preventing me from full investment right now. It all depends on the themes Hokazono-sensei is intending to impart with this arc.

The theme of reforming your family's violent legacy is obviously deeply resonant with Chihiro's current mission. The two of them have basically speedran the development from strangers to soulmates so that this could happen. I just don't understand why we'd do all of this relationship upgrading in a single arc if Hakuri was meant to stick around and grow with Chihiro y'know? What could possibly be left open for them after this? Wouldn't it be too OP to keep them together when they're already silently dancing through battles in perfect sync? They've already reached peak combat effectiveness or close to it. And though Hakuri's family issues are very likely to still be an albatross around his neck, those are for him to tackle now that he's found his strength; Chihiro's got other things to focus on. Leaving the arc with Hakuri posed to reform the Sazanamis would be a worthy culmination of his story. At this point he's practically used goods (narratively speaking)! Chihiro learned a lesson and made a friend. Time for something new… maybe checking in on the Kamunabi? A little downtime before finding the next sword? Either way, Hakuri doesn't need to be there when he could be rehabilitating his family's image and purpose. Unless…

He's used to explore the theme of healing from tragedy as the heroine.

Yes I'm spouting my bullshit again and yes I'm very fucking serious about this. My clown suit is freshly dry-cleaned and neatly laid out because I could easily be wrong but I think (hope) I'm not. Mostly because it seems like Hokazono-sensei wants to keep showing us glimpses of Chihiro's true feelings under his hardened persona. Very smart thing to do in order to get readers invested beyond his badass action stunts and tragic backstory. But we need someone to bounce off of him and be a direct contrast or else we're stuck with lonely ol' :| Chihiro all the time. (I love the deadpan gags but they won't stay fresh forever if that's the only joke to make with him.) We need a real companion for him that's on his level. Chihiro's so far skewed into expressionless determinator outside of battle that he desperately needs a polar opposite to help mellow him out. I raved like a lunatic about it already so I won't retread all that… but if Hakuri isn't a color-coded foil to balance out Chihiro's extreme personality then fuck me for thinking I'm somewhat media literate, I guess. We need Hakuri for levity and being able to relate to Chihiro. Poor guy desperately needs a friend to help pull him out of his own head. If Char is there for protection, and Shiba to guide him, Hakuri should be there for him to grow with in an emotional sense. Someone he can start opening up to in quiet moments.

The memers got it badly wrong assuming that Chihiro was a one-dimensional revenge bot- he's actually a sensitive guy carrying a lot of pain he can't express. Not to Char (small child), not to Shiba, Azami, or Hinao (adults he's emotionally closed off from). It's gotta be a peer like Hakuri who will eventually be able to sit by his side and help him. We've seen the magic of Hakuri's presence already- Chihiro admitting he was fearful of Shinuchi being misused in the elevator scene, helping him overcome his doubts about using Enten, and later helping him let Enten go. Yuge stuff for guys that just met each other, don't you think? Then it was followed by all that soulmate-coded stuff in the raid… It would be awful for Chihiro to lose the friend he can confide in. So if the story pulls them apart my heart will break a little bit, yeah. There's so much more Hakuri can do just by being there for Chihiro in a way no one else can right now. Chihiro needs his heroine to be vulnerable with, so let it be the guy who's already done the heavy lifting! Hakuri's a sturdy guy, after all- I'm sure he can handle being comic relief and emotional support.

Alright. HakuHiro delusions aside, I'm also going absolutely apeshit over the parallels being drawn here during the chapter. Feral. Certifiably insane. Cannot stop myself from jizzing all over the goddamn place. If Hokazono-sensei can keep this quality storytelling through Kagurabachi's entire run it'll be a fucking masterpiece.

I mentioned at the start that Mr. Inazuma's sister was used to foreshadow that the fight between Kyoura and team HakuHiro wouldn't end decisively this chapter. Her situation won't be resolved until the Rakuzaichi is completely over with, so that catharsis will have to wait. What we did get is absolutely stellar though. Kyoura definitely got the ultimate comeuppance for constantly underestimating Hakuri, too. The dialogue and inner thoughts leading up to this were a work of art- the reveal of Hakuri promising to overtake his dad as a kid and finally doing just that after being deemed worthless is mega satisfying (and another sign his arc is complete, but I choose to live in delulu land). However, it was the Daddy Issues theme that really stole the show for me this chapter.

Chihiro's conversation with Kyoura really drives home the irreconcilable differences they have on what it means to be a father, or even a family in the first place:

The Sazanamis are just a "clan" to Kyoura. A group of people dedicated to hosting the Rakuzaichi before anything else. Blood ties are only worthwhile for passing down Isou and the storehouse ability; there's no love lost between any member. And Chihiro most definitely does not agree with that mentality. We're constantly reminded of his rebuke about Kyoura's "best" being belief in Hakuri for a reason...

... because he is the antithesis of everything Chihiro believes a father should be. Chihiro's got some personal beef with this guy beyond reclaiming Shinuchi after seeing how he treats his kids. (This guy gets attached to people and starts killing for them right away if they've got dead or abusive parents… we love to see that empathy being manifested as murderous intent.)

This sequence killed me though:

Kyoura is paying the ultimate price for not loving his kids like a real father should. He's fucking toast because he stopped believing in Hakuri. Chihiro's outlook is validated in this victory, as is Hakuri's entire existence. Obviously there's a lot more still going on with the auction itself but it's almost mission accomplished and emotional catharsis achieved for Hakuri. Then we see the biggest message of this arc so far when Kyoura hides himself in the floor to keep the auction going at all costs… fanatical devotion at the expense of love leads to a Bad End. It's sad to see this guy put his whole being into selling a sword, man. He's dying and his only thought is to finish the auction. Not to seek help from his kids or even check on them, not to spare some dying words for Hakuri or the Tou or anyone else. He doesn't even question the life he lived that led to this point like you'd seen in other manga- Kyoura isn't shaken one bit by his untimely demise. He only cares about giving the highest bidder their merchandise.

That's the lesson here for Chihiro. He's hellbent on revenge right now- gather the swords, fuck up the Hishaku clan that killed his father. But losing himself in it will leave him no better off than Kyoura; even if he succeeds, he'll die alone in the end. His devotion to revenge is as strong as Kyoura's is to hold the auction. Both are rooted in their family's ideals and upbringing as well. Chihiro's saving grace is that he was raised with love and knows how to care. Forgetting all that, or giving that up to see his plans through will be a bad sign for his development. The people close to him will have to keep him centered or else he'll see the same terrible end (as much as it's possible; he's a very sad and broken boy). And we the reader will expect someone to be there to remind him of his humanity if he starts to show shades of this in future arcs. This very chapter, Hakuri had to encourage Chihiro to kill his dad even after he'd already asked him to do it- Chihiro's a kind guy even when he's in a fight to the death. This is precious. He can't lose this quality- we should be very alert for anything that hints at him starting to do so, because that will be the start of a very, very rough arc for him.

What about Hakuri? Well, he's been thoroughly vindicated ever since he awakened to his abilities; this whole raid has been his self-redemption arc. His character will probably be pretty complete once this is done, though there are lots of avenues to explore with him if Hokazono-sensei hears our pleas and keeps him around. He could have lingering trauma that needs to be healed- killing his dad won't help him escape his own demons after all. He's got a learning curve ahead to master his newfound abilities too. And perhaps even after finding his strength, he's still too hard on himself and needs someone to keep pushing him forward. Maybe once his life's mission is done he'll struggle with some dark emotions and need someone to help pull him out. There are plenty of little things to delve into with him to help us gain more insight into Chihiro! Please I'm so desperate to keep him around Hokazono-sensei for the love of god don't separate these boys. They're perfect supports for each other and as we all know, boys who suffer together should find solace together. If Azami/Shiba and Hiyuki/Tafuku can be foil pairs so can Hakuri/Chihiro! (Fuck me, I'm too invested already…)

Anyway. Kagurabachi continues to be peak fiction and I can't wait for what we'll see next week. If Hakuri becomes a permanent crew member I will glady put the clown suit away and start huffing copium that we'll see enough success to get an anime adaptation. I might even start writing fan fiction again (horror). If not, well... he'll still be dear to my heart. Peace out Bachibros who read this nonsense and stay tenoí.