#the wikia said this was an official image

[foundfamilyhq]

[morally-grey-girlbosses]

Alright, I've got all the pictures and propaganda! There are twenty characters I've had to use cover artwork or logo artwork for. I would be willing to replace these images with actual character artwork, but only if I'm provided with proof that it can be traced back to an official source, or if it can't that the fanartist approves the use of their work in this context. A piece of artwork appearing on a Fandom/Wikia page does not make it approved for this context. To put it bluntly, I do not trust Fandom or the mods of any wiki hosted on it to have any respect for other's intellectual property.

I'll give it about a week and then set the polls up to start going out.

All that said, the characters that I don't have character artwork for are under the cut.

Margot "gottiewrites" Garcia (An Unauthorized Fan Treatise)

Anna Limon (Mabel)

Dame Obsidian (Murdle)

Akua Sahelian (A Practical Guide to Evil)

Bryony Halbech (Red Valley)

Lariska (Bionicle)

Adelina Amouteru (The Young Elites)

Lady Barbrey Dustin (A Song of Ice & Fire)

Avrana Kern (Children of Time)

Liraz (Daughter of Smoke & Bone)

Odin (The Bifrost Incident)

Essun/Syenite/Damaya (Broken Earth)

Perihelion/ART (The Murderbot Diaries)

Juliette Cai (These Violent Delights)

Manon Blackbeak (Throne of Glass)

Miranda Pryce (Wolf 359)

Fang Runin (The Poppy War)

MegaGirl (Starship)

Sloane Parker (Eidolon Playtest)

Paige Duplass (The Silt Verses)

[kogameh]

Some extended translations notes for episode 1

(Or moreso why certain things are translated as it is, because, uh, I put a lot of thought into these subs...)

"Crash through every obstacle."

Now this is the most important one. It IS the series' tagline and Hitto's catchphrase and you WILL be hearing it a lot. HKsubs and most summaries used "overcome the difficulties". D-rights used "Crash your adversity" (this is still the ONLY official English translation we got for Crash lmao) which, imo, both are fine as it is but if we look at the original sentence in Japanese further-

逆境を撃ち破れ uses the 撃 kanji instead of the more common 打ち破れ.

There's DEFINITELY a "crash" pun that needed to be made here, and D-rights' translation definitely went with that intention in mind. But I also don't want it to sound overly quirky like you see with hissatsu lines and all and prefer it as a proper motivational quote, so, yeah.

Uh, now that you know the breakdown/context/etc, with that in mind, I went with "Crash through any obstacles". It sounds both cool AND motivating, and the obstacles could apply to both the actual objects or struggles Hitto would face. There are def other ways I could go like "Crash through any hardship", "Break through every difficulties" etc, but I mainly wanted to avoid something too cheesy or too dry but still applicable in most situations? Yeah.

But eh, this could be just me though. You're always to suggest me something better that fits my description for it. Plus the quote can still be flexible if I eventually decide to do that. (Mainly keeping the "Crash Through Every"!)

Whatever the fuck Koutarou was reading

This...was frankly the hardest part to translate in the entire ep orz. Unfortunately, I lack knowledge of Japanese proses and stuff so googling his entire reading yielded nothing--however, some lines did appear to reference so actual literature and idioms.

"The mountains may have burned, but the birds...scorch themselves for their beloved children..." - This line supposedly references the lyrics to a folk song? It is a slightly different lyric though as it originally says 山は焼けても山鳥ゃ立たぬ 子ほど可愛いいものはない ("The mountains may have burned, but the birds didn't stand up, there's nothing cuter than a child"?). I can't be sure if this is an obscure song or not as googling a similar title is not giving me songs with the same lyrics. But eh. At least you know what Koutarou is referencing.

"Thou one shall not be lost like the fading mountain…like a parent who continues to feed into their child's greed." - OKAY THIS ONE IS FUNNY. Apparently the latter half was a reference to a proverb that originally says 子故に迷う親心 (A parent's mind is lost because of their child) which -- refers to parents that worry or spoil their child too much? OBVIOUSLY Koutarou is throwing shade at Hitto here as he didn't want to be "that" kind of parent towards his son so I did take some liberties with "feed into their child's greed" to emphasize that, rather than literally translating the phrase word by word haha.

"...destroy everything here marble-lously."

OKAY BEFORE ANYONE STARTS RAISING PITCHFORKS AT ME, YOU NEED TO DO THAT TO KODOH FIRST BECAUSE HE WAS ACTUALLY SAYING A PUN IN THIS SCENE.

I think these excerpts from B-Daman wikia explains the original double meaning well:

There's just sadly no elegant way to translate his lines into English without making it sound meme-y. I COULD translate the line literally like the image above but will that give you the same damage of hearing a stupid pun spit out from his mouth? Idk. My reasons for not literally translating this are not that convincing but I do hope you feel anguish knowing that Kodoh's debut line was a stupid damn pun. God. WHY IS HE MY OSHI.

"Rattlebrain"

One of Konta's catchphrase, "ガチャガチャ" / "gacha gacha". I think the MEANING Konta explained (as shown in the third screenshot) is important here, as originally he said 何が出てくるがわからない ("You don't know what's gonna come out") as it's obviously referencing to the randomness of actual gachas. I think going with translations like "fickle-minded" or "reckless" should work fine, but I will emphasize the fact that a) most people are often confused when he started saying it, implying that its not a common word or made up by Konta b) I do want to reference the "gacha gacha" as in the "shakey and clattering" onomatopoeia and the RNGs of real gachas. So yeah. Rattlebrain it is. I think it still delivers the same energy and intention that I mentioned. Plus my friend (Double) said "it's like Hitto's brain is a tin with marbles rolling around in it." WHICH, IS AN APT COMPARISON, ACTUALLY. And hence why I went with rattlebrain. Yeah. ~~~

An afterword: Crash's first ep is not the most complex to translate, but it does introduce some mainstay lines that you will hear a lot throughout the series (and may possibly be constantly mentioned in the fandom) and I think giving memorable, in-character translations is especially important when it comes to catchphrases and such.

It's those phrases where its double meaning and wordplay could be easily glossed over in most contexts (and I don't blame anyone if they do haha) but I personally do want to deliver the accurate intention and personality with these lines, hence the breakdowns. This is where having any familiarity with the source material is important, especially when you're translating an older show instead of an ongoing one. I mean, do you REALLY think me, the Crashhead here would gloss over such details? No.

And...yeah! I hope that was a helpful read? I'll emphasize that my translations are not perfect, but at the very least I want to put all my heart into them since, Crash is a series I hold close to my heart...over anything else, haha.

[quincyhorst]

A Little Recopilatory post of all Euro B References (So far)

Yesterday, I reflected on the rather unfortunate treatment when it comes to certain FFI teams. The whole topic of how Inazuma treats its (minor) characters is still debated to this day, but I'll give credit to the franchise of doing some unexpected yet appreciated gestures; such as including artwork of almost every single minor team player in specific merch (Inazuma Eleven All Player Directories, or Memories) or in in-game sections. However, not everybody gets the same luck.

In the case of the plot irrelevant Block B teams (Germany, Spain, France), unfortunately they weren't given proper anime artwork (Despite 2/3 teams appearing in-series) nor the team roster was given full references. It's sad, really. But the same way there were fans that still used what they had, I guess we'll have to do the same.

So, I'd like to make a little "masterpost" for Tumblr, recopilating everything that could be taken in consideration when drawing these characters (Mostly focused on heights), with things both from the videogames and anime.

Either way, let's start. Long post ahead.

-----------------------------------------

Brockenborg

To clarify, both BB and RM references are from the IE3 gallery, whose images were ripped and uploaded to The Spriters Resource by PokeAdry. I will post two versions of said images, one being the original and the other being an upscaled version with Waifu2x; as to make it look more clearer. Looks decent on the following ref, but not in the spanish one... :(

In this image of particular there isn't an Endou/average height placeholder, so we couldn't really say how taller or shorter the characters are compared to him.

Missing Characters: BB Bench (Gerald - Erwin - Jens - Ern - Manuel)

-----------------------------------------

Red Matador

...Yeah, not even W2x is able to properly show the little side/behind doodles of each character's face. Sad :( (But I guess the wikia 3D models are enough?)

Something that I find interesting about the character placement of this chart is that it follows the order in which the team lineup appears during Episode 85's FFI Opening Ceremony (Not posting the original picture as it takes too much space, but you can see it for yourself). Like in Brockenborg's chart 5 players are excluded, but 3/5 are benchers (Federico - Juan - Carlos) and 2/5 (Mikel, which is covered by the emblem - Igor). Kinda curious that the excluded main ones appeared the less on episode 102.

-----------------------------------------

Rose Griffon

Unfortunately, out of the three, RG is the most unlucky, not appearing neither on the IE3 Gallery not any official good. However, the japanese fans who loved this team never gave up, and thus made their own height chart using as reference the 3D in-game models. Here's the link to the original one, posted originally by the user mofmoffu over on Twitter (ありがとうございます!!🙏).

The intent was to repost it, but I don't want to make the original user uncomfortable by making this image appear on any search console.

And here's the Waifu2x upscaled version, given the original is too tiny:

Also in the form of a link as to respect the original format.

(Keep in mind this is most likely NOT 100% accurate, given the 3D models are quite limited when it comes to the actual heights. But for now, that's all we have.)

Of course, there's also their appearance on the opening ceremony, being the closest to official art there is, but it doesn't tell us anything about their heights.

----

So, I guess that's all there is for now. Let's hope VROH manages to bring anything new to these teams 🙏 But for now, hope what's here manages to help out someone!

[kandyrezi]

oh jesus, I hope this post didn't just start drama in a discord server or some third website...

I meant this post mostly in jest, however, I was originally thinking about the official "love chart" here. All the red/light pink arrows indicate romantic feelings. Even the Fumus/Satanick relationship, despite it being fucked up, is still a sexual one. And the Siralos/Satanick falls under the "friends with benefits" category. So, that being said, why would Meikai/Aounabara be the only exception in here?

Yes, the chart is labeled "various" because they didn't fit into neither the first, second, or third "mutually dating" or the "unrequited love" charts, probably because they're somewhat more complicated, but the relationships depicted here in the fourth image are still romantic in their nature.

If there was a mistranslation of the Wadanohara Reboot transcript, or if DSP has ever said or will say that Aounabara has only ever seen Meikai as a son or a friend, and never had any romantic feelings towards him, then I will take my words back on the subject matter.

I didn't open a discussion about it over there, because I'm not active on the fandom wikia nor do I talk on there (I'm shy af, shawty), so it wasn't really a can of worms I cared to open, and I had a feeling folks might disagree over it anyway.

it’s hilarious that the DSP fandom is in denial over the fact aounabara had actual romantic feelings towards meikai, and NOT in fact, “fatherly” feelings.

[desultory-novice]

"It started with a Nightmare"  Pt1

~The Comprehensive "Marx is a Noddy" Essay~

...with bonus illustrations/comic!

Due to the amount of images in this essay, I had to split it up into 3 parts Luckily, it fits -perfectly- into 3 parts!

-Part One <You are Here> -Part Two -Part Three

Note: All images taken from the Kirby fandom wikia and official Japanese Kirby Twitter, unless otherwise noted. Various "Marx as a Noddy" fanart by me.

Extra Note: There is secondary source art (guide books and manga) that sometimes depict Marx with glasses. While this essay uses Marx's character design as evidence in places, I've ignored those where he has glasses, because the primary source high-quality 3D renders show him without them. But I feel it's possible to still work them into the theory, if one prefers glasses Marx!

Here's Marx!

This helpful, ball-bouncing jester appears briefly to introduce you to the plot of Milky Way Wishes, the final and most important sub-game in Kirby Super Star (and its remake, Kirby Super Star Ultra.) 

Marx is also the last boss of said sub-game, betraying you and stealing the power cosmic out from under your non-existent nose before transforming into this delightfully horrifying hell bat-looking creature. (And doing things like splitting his face in two to create a black hole to suck you inside. How nice!)

All that said, we never learn much about Marx himself. Where he comes from (he appears out of nowhere in the opening cutscene, though no one is -too- surprised to see him) or why he does what he does. He speaks maybe 2-3 times in total. Who is he really?

This adorable Dreamlander is called a Noddy. Noddies are one of the most harmless (insidious) enemies in the Kirby series, because while they can't hurt you outside of contact damage, if you inhale them (on purpose or accident) you're stuck with the "Sleep" ability, which puts Kirby to sleep for several seconds, preventing you from controlling him till he wakes up. (Or until you mash enough buttons.) The Noddies themselves are active and awake for far less time than Kirby himself sleeps for, often times falling asleep off-screen, as soon as they appear on screen, or after taking a step or two.

It’s been theorized that Marx may be (or had been) a Noddy himself before becoming the backstabbing jester we all know and love. (?)

In this essay, I'd like to examine why that theory is very likely true and morever... why it's almost frighteningly likely that Marx's true origins as a villain (and his unspoken backstory) lay not in Super Star's Milky Way Wishes, but way back in Kirby's second outing, the NES game Kirby's Adventure (aka, Nightmare in Dream Land.)

-Is Marx a Noddy?-

Let's look at them side by side....

They certainly appear to be the same shape, generally. Their eyes are made of the same basic iris block + 4 pixels of highlight. And if I may be so bold, Marx, when he's wounded/near death after the fight with Kirby in Super Star Ultra, bears a vague resemblance to the Noddies’ damage sprite as well.

(Screenshot from DyllonStej Gaming's "All Kirby Super Star Ultra Cutscenes in 60FPS”; image flipped for comparison's sake; Marx sprite sheet also by Jermungandr)

One of Marx's more notable traits is his lack of arms (until he gets wings after making a wish on a Galactic Nova - a wish granting comet.) Noddies also have no arms, which is fine considering they don't have to do anything except waddle a bit, fall asleep, and look harmless. Marx and the Noddies both have round bodies, similar to Kirby, but less circular and a bit more squat.

Then there's the hat. Noddies (and Kirby when he's got the Sleep ability) all wear sleeping caps. Marx's "jester cap" is notable for not...actually being that much like the traditional 3-4 pointed entertainer's cap. Of course, it resembles one just enough to trigger that "Ahh, so he's a jester!" sensation in your mind, but really, it looks just as much like two sleeping caps sewn together. Especially since the left side of the hat has a similar dot pattern to the Kirby series sleeping caps...

Stańczyk by Jan Matejko - the titular figure sporting a more classic "jester" look (it's also that guy in the "I'm Boo Boo the Fool" image macro) from Wikipedia. (But check out the article on this painting also because it's kinda neat, though completely irrelevant to Kirby!)

I might as well point out that the "modern" design of the "Mirror" copy ability DOES resemble a jester's cap with its tight peaks.

This is interesting as the -classic- design for the "Mirror" copy ability in Super Star and Super Star ultra bears a remarkable resemblance to what Marx is wearing! Especially since the use of this ability happens to turn Kirby purple and let him split himself in two! Now, that version was just a palette swap of the Beam hat (probably why it was changed in later games) with Marx's colors only reversed.

(...It's really a shame the enemy you get this copy ability from, Simirror, isn't itself wearing a jester hat/sleeping cap combo, else we could say Marx nicked his hat from one of those enemies, thereby having an easy origin story for it...!)

Moving on, as for their body, in recent games, Noddies have consistently appeared a shade of pink similar to Kirby. In earlier games, like Adventure and Super Star, they came in more shades, including blue and violet. Marx himself is a pale shade of violet, but he's sometimes portrayed as being closer to Kirby's color himself, as seen in the above artwork from the official twitter.

Marx's eyes differ from a Noddy's somewhat, having a similar tall, oval shape but with MUCH larger whites and smaller irises - we'll touch on that later! Although it's definitely worth mentioning that official artwork of the Noddies from Super Star (Marx's game) portray them with irises the same shade of purple Marx has! He also has a similar cheek blush to the Noddies (and Kirby.)

Another point of note is that while Kirby's red appendages have been confirmed by Sakurai to be his feet (not shoes) Marx is one of the few Kirby characters who clearly wears shoes. We can assume, with their general physical similarity to Kirby, that the Noddies are also shoeless and those orange lumps are their feet. But the shape of said feet is a good match for Marx's shoe size. Because he wears shoes, we cannot say for sure one way or another whether Marx has the pale orange feet distinctive of a Noddy under those laces or not.

Now Noddies are, again, notorious for only being able to take a few steps before falling asleep. While Marx, made playable in Star Allies, starts out by rolling on his classic jester ball, should you kick it at someone, he can then walk and run just like the rest of the allies and Dream Friends with no noticeable movement problems; meanwhile, using the Ghost ability to possess (control) Noddies in Squeak Squad results in something more like sleep walking/sleep jumping. So, walking doesn't seem to tire him out. Not at present, at least.

Okay, ready to move on? It's time for <Part Two!>

[casually-inlove]

Psycho Pass S03E02 - Teumessian Sacrifices

Let's talk about the latest episode. If you haven’t read my previous post, I highly recommend you give it a quick read, cause I’m gonna reference its points here. Beware the spoilers.

As I expected, they did go for the Laelaps & Teumessian Fox legend. The name of the episode proves as much. It's truly peculiar they are using mythology references for this season. Putting aside the details, the myth in question is not just a fancy story but a very basic description of a logical paradox. Philosophy and logic correspond much better to the meta-theme of PP. So, why don't we dig in?

Shindou Arata and his Mentalist Ability

Whatever the mechanism of his ability is, it has nothing to do with what's popularly known as "mentalism". That's a shame. It would have been impressive if they had put some examples of cold reading, but it doesn't seem likely. 

It appears that Arata's Mentalist talent requires him to enter an altered state of consciousness. Firstly, he's shown to use the radio -- not just the music, however, but what appears to be white noise.

 White noise radio frequencies produce a steady monotonous sound. It's widely known that shamans around the world often rely on sound and overtone chanting to enter an altered state of consciousness. The sound produced by overtone singing is characterised by a uniform low-tone rhythm. Perhaps, the noise serves the same purpose for Arata? 

Secondly, the phrase "the rain is over". It figures that "the rain is over" is a trigger that snaps Arata out of his trance. Peculiarly, Kei also uses a tap on his shoulder to bring him back. Both of these instances strongly remind me of hypnosis and suggestion techniques, which rely on a specific keyword, tone of the voice, and the touch pattern to put the recipient in and out of a trance. 

What's more, it's raining within Arata's mind. But the image of the rain intermingles with that of radio noise. It's worth noting that the sound of radio noise is strongly reminiscent of that of a distant downpour. Perhaps it recreates a particular scene or a mood. Arata's official trivia tidbit in the PP Wikia says the following: "He can only sleep in his own car because of a past case." We see as much in the episode -- he's shown to be sleeping in the backseat of a car; furthermore, the "Wolf" isn't capable of reaching him there. Perhaps "the rain" and the "raining" in his mind have something to do with this case.

When he's deep-diving, his mental colour is shown to be going off the charts. That explains why Kei Ignatov was observing him with the Hue data on display -- apparently, there's a danger in going too deep. If that's true, then his Hue and Crime Coefficient could get permanently damaged if he's careless.

It's truly unclear how his ability to read the past works. The latest episode implied that it's something innate rather than learned, as Arata strongly insists that Karina Komiya also possess this ability, despite having received no special Mentalist training. What's even more fascinating, is that upon interacting with her he unintentionally slips into his altered state of consciousness, however, he cannot focus on her face and see its features clearly. Could that mean that this ability can be used to negate those of others?

Finally, the creepiest and perhaps the most telling thing in this episode is Arata's final line during his short exchange with Irie. 

Irie: If she were a criminal...

Arata: ...She'd be a menace.

If this isn't a glaring sign that Arata's going to end up switching, or at least considering switching to the dark side, then I don't know what. Oh, maybe the last frame in the opening where he's got red eyes, and Kei got blue ones..?

The Inugami Murders

Enforcer Todoroki Tenma references the 1976 detective movie "The Inugami Family" directed by Kon Ichikawa.

Foxes and Hounds

Again, yet another allusion to the Laelaps and the Teumessian Fox myth. Within the world of PP, Enforcers (and Kougami in particular) are thought of as dogs on a leash, whereas the "foxes" are the members of the mysterious crime syndicate, who are seen playing with "Bifrost". 

Heracles (Hercules), a character introduced in this episode, is also a mythological figure from Greek legends. Funnily enough, he can be also be linked (albeit indirectly) to the Teumessian Fox myth. 

As you all know, Heracles was a son of god Zeus and a mortal Alcmene. Zeus beguiled her while taking upon the form of her mortal husband, Amphitryon. Eventually the baby Heracles was born, later being raised as Amphitryon's foster child. At some point, the ruler of Thebes, Creon, tasked Amphitryon with an impossible mission of vanquishing the Teumessian fox. The fox itself was a giant beast said to be a divine punishment upon people of Thebes for a national crime. 

A nation-wide crime and Sibyl System, sound familiar? 

[fiymywings]

a brand new one eyed ripper masterpost!

“ira you already made one just update-” bold of you to assume i have energy to do that (also because it’s been a while, making a new one to show up in the search might bring in more fans of shitoo)

general content/trigger warnings: murder (if not obvious), kidnapping, stalker behavior, and other things you might expect from a yandere themed series

synopsis: The protagonist, Mebuki Meme, had a peaceful everyday life. A dear friend, and a dear brother, she held them closely. However, that mundane peacefulness came to an abrupt end. Because of the "murder case" which revolving around her. "The One Eyed Ripper." Remembering that name, Rumors created by someone had created a murderer. Those peaceful everyday's have ended. Now begins the story of a person killing another. For love, for desire, for the sake of finding the right answer.Well then, who's the culprit?

the series “one eyed ripper” is currently a song based series, however, two pixiv mangas have been uploaded revolving around the characters, and there is a game in production.

character intros

Mebuki Meme

Height: 156cm (5′1″) Birthday: 6/17 (June 17th) A second year in high school.

She lives together with her young stepbrother, Akihiro. She has a bright personality, but she’s not quite capable of thinking too deeply on things. She possesses a “let’s forget about bad things!” mindset.  However, she is burdened by concerns towards her brothers distrust in humans, as well as his sister complex (an extreme attachment to his sister, aka her), as she has a strong caring side to her. As a result, she worsens his sister complex without realizing it. She constantly pokes fun at Haruhiko’s idiocy, but she herself isn’t much better.

With the One Eyed Ripper murder case, she learns the truth about human nature, and falls into despair.

Tabako Haruhiko

Height: 182cm (5′10″) [if the img size difference doesnt show how big this boy is......] Birthday: 3/18 (March 18th) A second year in high school, however, he’s assumed to be older than Meme as he’s had to repeat year(s) (?)

A young man with a green muffler and a very distinct height. He’s in the same class as Meme, and has been friends with her since the start of high school. He looks like a disruptive delinquent, but that’s not really the case. He doesn’t skip class, but his test scores and grades aren’t the best. While he’s not in any clubs, he possess great reflexes. He has a strange sense of justice, and is the type of person to consider his friends. He’s worried about the hardships of his friend since middle school, Chifuyu. He also sympathizes with the sense of responsibility towards Meme’s younger brother. His hobby is teasing other people. It’s inevitable that he has fun teasing Meme.

In Meme’s words, “He’s a big mischevious kid.” In Chifuyu’s words, “He’s a rare chattering moron.” Well, it’s scary to make light of a moron.

Mebuki Akihiro

Height: 152cm (4′10″) Birthday: 9/9 (September 9th) A first year in high school.

A boy with distinctive freckles and heterochromia. He’s Meme’s younger brother, and possesses an extreme sister complex. As you’d expect from his short and slim appearance, he lacks physical strength. It looks like he wasn’t the type to play outside when he was younger, and he’s bad at working out.   He has extreme distrust towards anyone who isn’t Meme. Especially towards Haruhiko, who he doesn’t hide his disgust for. It doesn’t look like he has anyone he’d call a friend, nor does he want one. After becoming Meme’s stepbrother, they had first met during middle school. Essentially, even though they’ve been family for a short time, from the very beginning, he’s never felt any distrust towards Meme. Rather, it seems he already trusted her. Even though Meme herself thinks it’s strange, he won’t explain his reasons.

To no surprise, he thinks “in this world, I don’t need anything besides big sis.”

Minowa Chifuyu

Height: 162cm (5′3) Birthday: 11/18 (November 18th) A second year in high school.

Even though he wears an eye patch over his left eye, he’s a pretty average looking boy. He’s in the same class as Meme, and he, Meme, and Haruhiko are often with each other. He has excellent grades, is the vice president of the student counsel, and is an outgoing person. Furthermore, he’s the head of his household. He’s the legitimate heir of the Minowa family, which has lived in his town for a very long time. At school, however, the formalities that come with it are almost unnoticeable. In front of Meme and Haruhiko, he’s bright, smart, and sarcastic, and he enjoys teasing the both of them and riling them up. It’s said there’s not a single day where either of them could win against his teasing. His philosophical views he’s acquired from wherever often causes Meme to think, “Chifuyu’s pretty mature, huh?” 

He has a soft expression that’s rarely seen towards others, but it can be seen when he’s with Haruhiko and Meme. From the bottom of my heart, I treasure those two. What’s tormenting me so much, is my own intelligence. Surely you can understand.

songs

pretty much all of the one eyed ripper songs have translations from various sources! the most accurate ones will be on the vocaloidlyrics wikia, but for basic listening, CC on youtube will also be good! (most of the time, lyrics from there are reprinted onto CC anyway, so don’t worry too much.) here’s the songs in release order:

one eyed ripper murder case

considered the very first song in the plot chronologically (as of right now), as well as start off for the series, this song details the span of the murder case from start to “finish”. go ahead and listen to it before reading up on the other songs if you want a total “no spoiler” experience.

one eye’s confession

the second song for the series to release, this one focuses much on haruhiko’s character and his developing feelings towards meme. not much to be said! but personally, this is my favorite song in the series

monop’s confession

the third, and currently most recent song to be uploaded for this series! this one focuses on akihiro’s character, as well as provides an “alternate timeline” within the series at the end of the pv. 

that being said, please do not rush shitoo to make more songs. i have no idea if they plan on it in the first place! they’re busy with the game and stuff already. if you want more content, however, there’s also mangas as well as the official twitter, which uploads development on the game as well as rt’ing fanart! 

mangas

one eyed ripper murdercase  (?) [trnslation] one eyes love [translation] [also purchasable on their pixiv booth!] * one’s gaze [translation] * * these are mine, however, i plan on putting the images within a drive so it’s MUCH more easier to read, meaning these documents might change. you will still be able to access the pics from this links, hopefully!

there’s also some varied translations (non-plot related) for the series if you wanna check those out! 

that’s p much it!

the game demo that was out on my channel is severely outdated, so i wont link it in this masterpost, but you’re welcome to look for it if you’d like! remember to follow the official twitter, as well as shitoos twitter (@xxxshitoo on twitter) for updates. 

[thetwobosses]

Hi, I was wondering if a fellow sr fan can help me out? I was looking through Aisha's Wikia page, specifically the images and saw an image that shows her obituary that said that was from the official game site but the image showed her birth and death year which said 1982-2009 idk if this canon or correct and I was unsure if I should use that information since it could be wrong idk what do you think?

Oh man, the old SR2 site obituary pages... Those things are one of the main reasons that people headcanon their own SR timelines, because the years make no damn sense. 

According to the obituaries, Carlos would have been killed in 2007, yet Lin in 2008, a year after Carlos?? And Aisha two years after Carlos???

There’s just... so much messed up stuff regarding the SR timeline that it’s just bonkers. We’re basically given no concrete dates in-game except SRIV intro narration’s assertion that SR1 started? ended? "made [the Saints’] presence known to the world” in 2006 (which, not coincidentally, was also the year SR1 was released). 

Everything else is based on out-of-game material that shifts around, and a few in-game textures of calendars and stuff that are super unreliable because a) often the years are just placeholders and are the same years the game was being worked on, and b) many textures get recycled between the games. 

There’s a couple of in-game mentions of spans of time (Johnny says that he’d been in prison for 2 years and 31 days, and it’s 5 years between the Zero Saints Thirty mission and the Zin invasion), but without specific dates to anchor those to, it’s all guesswork at best.

So basically, to paraphrase Dane Vogel in Gat Out of Hell, “Timeline’s what you make of it, sweetie.”

[dcptcnx]

my bnha quirk-science head canon/theory

every time i think of the word “quirkless” i always think of biology. and this post is going to show you WHY i think this! 

so we all know that Izuku is quirkless at the start of the show. he gets really upset about it, which sends his mother into a “depressive” state for a while. i wanna put it like this: His father’s quirk is fire breathing and his mother’s is attraction of small objects (unofficial name). i feel like when the two quirks ‘clashed’ during the gene pool, they awakened a recessive trait, the quirkless trait. for this to happen, both parents would have to be Heterozygous in order for the recessive trait to be around. so theres that.

Now for the FUN part. THE TODOROKI FAM !!!

i included a photo to help describe this-

We know that Touya is strictly a fire quirk, and Shouto is both fire and ice. knowing the “dabi is a todoroki” theories will DEF help you here. I did some research and found that Natsuo, the 2nd eldest brother, doesn't have a quirk listed in his bio on the official wikia. could he be quirkless? WHO KNOWS! (Same goes for Fuyumi) but i know there are some flaws with this image, but here me out. for Touya/Dabi to be strictly fire, he would need to be a homozygous dominat trait. for shoutouts to be BOTH, he would need to be a homozygous recessive trait. If my stuff is correct, both Natsuo and Fuyumi are the heterozygous traits. I know I put that the ‘quirkless’ trait would most likely have to be a dominat trait within this family. the fire quirk is the homozygous dominate, ice is heterozygous.

i put Natsuo as the “Re” genotype because it fit my ‘theory’ if i said the ice quirk was heterozygous, he would need a dominant ‘R’ and recessive ‘r’. but in his case, he has the dominant ‘R’, but a recessive ‘e’, making him in the ‘quirkless’ genotype. its the complete opposite for Fuyumi, however. she has the Dominant ‘E’, but a recessive ‘r’, which could either mean she has a fire quirk, or ice quirk; we don't know. or she could, too, be quirkless! (i hope my science talk is understandable-)

NOW MORE FUN!! so we know that Ochaco has the zero gravity quirk, which without so much detail, it was passed down (much like the todoroki pungent square action above^^). we see in the entrance exam, that when she gets trapped, and izuku saves the day. we see that she helps ease him on the ground using her quirk. but after recovery girl ‘fixes’ him, we see Ochaco throwing up. 

this got me thinking, maybe that because she's throwing up, could mean that she might be lacking a certain enzyme within the quirk trait/gene and when she uses too much of her quirk, she feels sick. its her body’s way of telling her, that she's using too much than what she can produce of- hmmmm.

the same concept, i put with Aoyama as well. he too gets sick when using her naval laser for long periods of times; he, too, might be lacking the same, or similar type of enzyme to ochaco.

Tenya Iida. a very fun topic to bring up. we know he's got an engine quirk; runs in his family (pun intended). he brings out a ‘new’ move during the sports festival called “recipro burst” which makes him go super fast for a short period f time; but also has a cooling time. i find this interesting because much like to aiyana and chaco, he has an enzyme issue or something. it seems to me that he may be using his enzyme faster than what he can produce, which is why he has a cool down time on when he can reuse his recipro burst.

here comes the villain talks. yes you heard me.

overhaul. aka chisaki kai. we know that his villain name, is also the name of his quirk. after reading up on his quirk, he is able to disassemble and reassemble things as he touches. we also know that he believes quirks are a disgrace, and a disease amongst everyone. I have a feeling that his parents had 2 quirks that went against each other, but when produced, created a genetic mutation and created the ‘overhaul’ quirk. (say one parent’s quirk was able to create things, while the other parent had a quirk that destroyed things...) i also believe that the reason why he wants to world to be ‘cured’ of all quirks, is because he knows mutations occur, and that being quirkless was much more safer than risking consequences of dying from your quirk. idk. he's great fr.

shigaraki tomura. crust boi. his quirk manifested only because of a similar genetic mutation just like chisaki. but both parents had to have 2 similar quirks, that just made his disintegrate quirk. (one may have had a destroying quirk, while the other had a crushing one..idk) but his past just scared him or something and he thought his quirk was something really bad and didn't know mutations could occur. 

y'all. i absolutely adore this and I'm so sorry is so long but it had to be done. please enjoy this! and if you want to correct me, by all means, add it!! I'm open to hear what you guys think!!!

[shinysaturn]

If many of your theories were right, all this time... CONGRATZ!!! You WON those special Badges!

First... Sorry if you find any error in this text, english isn't my mother language. So... read carefully, please, to understand me better. I also may edit this text later due to that.

For those out there that spend so much time, discovering the secrets of this very mysterious case... Now, everything was finally revealed!...

And... This... Everything i'm doing now, starter in a dream... In that dream, i heard an message, from someone unknown, that talked to me.... She doesn't looked like a human... But it was an interesting and fantastic being. She said she was an creature from other dimension... An other world that many people in our own world already know about, an world from other dimension their constantly love and appreciate.

His voice... Was so sweet... She also said to me... Something like this:

The work hard of those dedicated people, who have seen their thoughts and theories, turn out to be reality... After all this time... An reality about so many things of my own and my special and beautiful world, that they love constantly... Need to be rewarded... In any way... Because i love the way they wanted to understand and meet, everything about my world... Just so interested in it, without fear, without prejudice... The way they had fun, and spent their precious time, understanding everything, with so much patience and attention... That's such a beautiful thing to see! And one day, i expect to reward, in any way, that precious attention of that people... Because an simple thank you, for me, don't look enough, to describe how grateful i am about seeing such simple, but honored thing...

In that moment... I knew i also had to do that... I felt i had to!  So... I'm here, with this... With this gift... Is just a so little, and virtual, thing, but with an big value.... I had to create some badges, and give them for those who, for a long time, have always been right with their theories!  I'm doing this in honor of that successful effort, and in honor of that beautiful creature that talked to me in my dream, and in honor of the message she wanted to say to me. And in honor of this fantastic cartoon, and this so much important moment during those episodes, big moment of true revelations!

And... Well... If you're, unfortunately, after this day, not successful with many of your theories and thoughts, i think you can have some badges, too! Because, if you like them, i feel you also deserve them! You deserve them, for your unsuccessful effort, that, in certain way, have the same value of those ones that were successful. Maybe... Your wrong theories were successful, too! And maybe, in the future, more mysteries will come, more theories will be created, and one of your theories, will be the answer!

About me and this idea!

This was made for fun, an little joke, i made during the hiatus, because i had nothing to do... A little and simple gift from me, to the other fans of Steven Universe. I hope you like it or enjoy it! Is just some edited images, something very simple. But i think i got an simple, but beautiful result in the end!

Use those badges any way you wish, they are free use!... I'll just ask one thing: If you use them Don't claim they were created by you! Just give credits to me.

Create a wallpaper with them. Print each of them individualy, in paper, and create a poster for your room, or an sticker for a notebook or a diary, or to decorate your mobile phone or computer... There is so many possibilities you can use with those badges! Just be creative, and... Have fun!

SU is my favorite cartoon! I had so many problems about understanding my feelings and about my own identity in the past... And i'm still learning... And i felt this beautiful cartoon helped me alot in my life. I do not know how grateful I am... I will just say a simple thanks to the crew.... And I do not know if that's enough ...

And... Today.... Those episodes were an big and so much special moment and revelation for everyone! I needed to celebrate them more! So, i made those badges as a gift to everyone!

I will be very grateful if you help me share, any way, those badges with your friends or with other fans!

HAVE FUN!

Important Notes!:

Many of the characters were removed from frames of the episodes.

Redrawn by me, Peridot was an removed frame from the episode Log date 7152.

Redrawn by me, Steven was an removed frame from the episode Nightmare Hospital.

Some other images used, were found on SU Wikia (English, Portuguese and the Spanish versions), i certified myself they were free use. Credits to the original creators of those images.

Pearl was removed from the cover of the official book Guide to the Crystal Gems.

For those who had difficulties to  read, the tiny text says:

- Special Badge for those who, for a long time, have always been right with their theories about what happened to Pink Diamond!

- Badge created by Shiii, an honored gift from a fan to other fans - 07 May 2018

It was pretty fun to make! I was planning to do more, with more characters but i run out of time and ideas for phrases for each badge. However, i think those are enough for now.  I probably will make more in the future.

All 12 badges in one unique image:

.

[thegospelofnagisa]

Some of GAN's lewdest Suzune drawings from Twitter have begun to been removed from the Puella Magi wiki. They have said that they're too risque for the wiki since its supposed to be safe for all ages. Some have called this out saying that if they're going to remove sexualized official art then they should do the same for the rest of the wiki. For example, why allow swimsuit Hinano in the wiki? Is a girl who looks like she's 11 wearing a very skimpy swimsuit okay for all ages but GAN's art isn't?

Why the hell did they put those on the wikia to begin with? They DID NOT have to do it! They just had to put the normal ilustrative ones, they brough this on themselves.

I don’t know, I saw those images, I don’t think most of them were a problem, some were I agree, but the rest were fine, same for Hinano’s one, she is an adult, so I think it’s ok, you might think it’s weird that she looks so young, but under the legal basis within universe and outside of it, she is an adult, thus she can do and dress however she wants and that is the final fact, wheter you like it or not.

And second of all, why is it all ages? Madoka in general IS NOT FOR CHILDREN, so why the fuck do they expect children to be checking out the wikia to begin with? Dumbasses, makes no sense to me.

What a stupid situation, that’s what I think.

[yujachachacha]

Hey, do you know the very first picture the seiyuus took as a group?

(FYI: I put a “read more” cut in this post not just for the length of the actual answer, but because I…uh…got a little too eager in my appreciation of 2015 Shukashuu. Whoops.)

That’s a great question, Anon! I’m honored that you asked a noob like me, haha.

First off, I’m assuming that this question is for Aqours rather than µ’s. I’ll also assume that you’re referring to official photos rather than any selfies/personal photos that the cast took when they first met up. Let me know if I’ve screwed up by interpreting your question this way. _(:3 」∠)_

The short answer:

The earliest official group image I possess is from circa January 2016, but there was likely an earlier image that was taken sometime between Spring 2015 and January 2016. I can’t quite recall due to µ’s still being big during this time, which meant a lack of Aqours content.

The long answer: I’m so sorry to tell you this, but I’m actually not sure! It’s kind of hard for me to figure out for reasons I’ll explain below, but at the very least, I can give you my best guesses.

IIRC the first time Aqours did an official event with all 9 members was their 0th Live in January 2016. Here’s a snapshot of the Dengeki G’s event report:

There are plenty of group shots taken for that event, so feel free to look up any Dengeki G’s (or other relevant magazines) images from January 2016.

However, since LLS officially began in 2015, I assume that there must have been an earlier picture.

If you’re looking for partial group shots, Aqours did fan meetings during Fall 2015 within year trios (i.e. first years, second years, third years). You can find plenty of trio images scattered around Twitter, on seiyuu accounts and the official accounts of the places they visited (e.g. Gamers, Animate). For example, here’s a second-year trio selfie from their visit to Tokyo in October 2015, the first of the tours:

And yeah, I know I said I was gonna answer in terms of official pics rather than seiyuu selfies, but this pic is just so precious! Feel free to check out the tweet I linked above for a more serious shot. Oh, and if you’re interested in finding more pics like these, just search relevant Twitter accounts for pictures from around the dates they had their tours (which you can find listed at Love Live! Wikia here).

Back to group shots. I believe that the earliest Aqours seiyuu picture is the cast announcement that was released in the June 2015 issue of Dengeki G’s magazine, which was around April/May of that year:

This is so early that it’s more accurate to call this a picture of the LLS seiyuu, since the name “Aqours” wasn’t adopted until June 2015. Unfortunately, as you can see these are individuals pics rather than a group shot. At the very least, this tells us that any group pics must have been taken sometime after the above profile images were taken.

In terms of the earliest group shot possible, devoted fans will recall that the girls had a “training camp” in Summer 2015 that was four days and three nights long. That was pretty much the first time that the girls met up as a group. They cooked, stretched, jogged, sang, danced, and set off fireworks together. Shukashuu still had long black hair! King hadn’t dyed her hair brown yet! Furirin was just starting to make “ganbaruby” a popular catchphrase! NanaAinya didn’t exist (yet)! Anchan took her first steps as a leader! …I repeat:

SHUKASHUU

STILL

HAD

LONG

BLACK

HAIR!!!

_:(´ཀ`」 ∠):_ hnnngh brb dying

I’m pretty sure they took a group picture during the training camp, but I don’t recall them ever posting one for the public eye. Thus, any group pictures they took during this time would’ve likely been their first, but they wouldn’t be official since the girls would’ve been in casual clothes rather than LLS outfits.

In fact, the earliest “official” group pic I’ve seen is from the Lantis Spring 2016 Catalogue, which I believe was released sometime around April/May of 2016:

I’m pretty sure that they took this picture sometime in January 2016 though, since these hairstyles are exactly the same as their hairstyles during 0th Live. Plus, Shukashuu actually had brown hair by April 2016, haha. I feel like there’s a better version of this pic out there, but I can’t remember where it’d be from…

The reason why I have such trouble remembering whether there was a group picture from before 2016 is because:

Aqours didn’t get a chance to be the main star of the Love Live spotlight until µ’s officially bowed out, which wasn’t until April 1, 2016 (Final Live Day 2). Even then, µ’s was still pretty big for several months afterwards so it took Aqours a while to pick up steam.

While there were plenty of magazine spreads for the characters, the seiyuu didn’t really get featured until the latter half of 2016. They started to get popular with their niconamas throughout the first half of 2016, and then they finally got to shine when the anime debuted in July 2016.

As stated before, Aqours didn’t have a full 9-member event until January 2016 due to all their fan meetings and activities prior to that done by year trios (i.e. first years, second years, third years). You can find plenty of trio images from Fall 2015 if you trawl through Twitter, but AFAIK there weren’t any full group shots published prior to 0th Live.

Not related to the franchise, but…my external hard drive containing my seiyuu-related files died on me earlier this year, so I lost pretty much all of my seiyuu pics. ｡ﾟ( ���இωஇﾟ)ﾟ｡ Otherwise, I probably would’ve been able to just pick something out from my (now non-existent) stash.

Apologies for the inexact answer, but that’s the best I’ve got. If anyone out there happens to actually know what the earliest group picture of the Aqours seiyuu is, feel free to chime in!

[svtfoefan1976-blog]

TomStar scalated quickly? I thought it was slow... Run, Star, run!

Again, images without origin mentioned were extracted from Star vs the Forces of Evil Wikia.

Time to drive my empathy to Star. Poor thing.

Gone with Marco or done with Marco?

From here

When Marco leaved, what she had from him: a hoodie and memories.

What she thought: she would rarely see Marco from that moment on. Life would not be as it was in the last months. Never ever. And even the scent that would make her remember their good memories was lost.

From here

With no chances of fulfilling her love, she decides to give up from Marco. And keep only his memories. Like Scarlet O’Hara in Gone with the Wind:

Star: (...)  As me as my witness, I'll never go bored again! And anything else I'm supposed to say to make this official! Whoo-hoo!

NOT THIS ONE! The other from the end of the movie when Rhett Butler leaves her:

From here

And this way, Star starts her saga rushing and engaging herself in ways to get over Marco and into a new phase of her life: time to accept her future as queen, be a more responsible princess and give herself a purpose. But, first...

TomStar and my own experience

When I saw that TomStar was coming in this post, I wrote something about my own experience, which I will quote here:

(...) never get back with an ex. I did this and learned my lesson. It didn’t work before, it will not work later.

Let’s get in detail on this. Before, if by chance you have found your soulmate with an ex, congratulations. Either you are extremely lucky and managed to work what wasn’t before or you are Elizabeth Taylor. As she is now dead, I’m envious of how lucky you are! But that surely did not work for me.

I was in my late teens when we first broke up. In fact, she take the initiative, just like Star did with Tom. She told me that I wasn’t in the same phase as hers, that she could not stand the relationship that way.

I cried. But I let that go.

A bunch of months later she asked me if we could meet again. No bad feelings at that moment. So, OK.

At that night she asked me if we could date again, as she missed me. Do you know how much did it take for me to make a decision?

One second and one kiss.

And I made one of the worst decision of my life, as when I needed her most, while I tried to defend her, she just dropped helping me.

Some people may say “never say never”, but in this case, “as God is my witness”, I’ll never get back with an ex again! Period.

Now that the quote is placed right, and you have a time comparison let’s get into Star’s motivations and understand if their come back was really too fast. Giving my time comparison I would risk saying no for that. But not for the rest of her actions.

First of all, we don’t have a perfect time span after when their interactions in Club Snubbed, when she clearly says.

Star: Okay, first of all, me and Marco, not a thing.

(Nice. Keep yourself in denial, Star.) Anyway, by saying that, she is trying to make a conscious effort to forget Marco as a romantic interest. A thought decision. And from this stage, when she still didn’t want to date Tom:

Up to this stage, when they were laughing together:

From here

It took a couple of minutes. On screen.

I took a second for me, remember. Of course, at that time I didn’t have anything like Star had with Tom. And up to this:

From here

It took a night at least. But as the show does not precise the time when this happened after the Silver Ball, let’s say the truth: we don’t know.

So, even I don’t like TomStar, because it delays Starco nearer to the end of the series - if it will happen, I must now admit, breaking or changing (like Elsa and Anna, in Frozen) the Disney standard of “in the end they lived happily ever after” - and I think it would be good to see Star and Marco’s interaction as a teen couple before the end of the series, I must admit that TomStar wasn’t out of nowhere, maybe just rushed, but I disagree, based on personal experience. What I believe it’s not what’s happening with Kellyco. This was really rushed.

Anyway, she was slower than I was. So, if you want you may call me or her stupid or idiot for that decision, but please don’t call her a bitch. She’s trying to counsciously forget a crush that only made her sad when she thought about it.

But can’t say that every decision, but that, was taken in a way that could be called as rushed and ...

Quixotic

adjective; Extremely idealistic; unrealistic and impractical. ‘a vast and perhaps quixotic project’ 

I didn’t find a word to define better what I will call now “Starrush” as this - quixotic -, taking the actual stage of the story.

Yes, quixotic comes from Don Quixote de La Mancha, the noble who went out to revive Middle Age chivalry, becoming an errant knight to undo the wrongs and bring justice to the world. Together with him, he had his horse Rocinante and a squire named Sancho Panza. 

In Part 1 of the book, Don Quixote is delusional about what happens around him and it is Sancho Panza task to bring him back into reality. To which Don Quixote only gets after everything happens, By experiencing failure and pain. Much more of the latter.

In Part 2, people use Don Quixote and Sancho Panza for their own fun in several adventures, while nearing the end, Don Quixote gets sane but sick and is defeated by the Knight of the White Moon. After this, he and Sancho retire back to their hometown, where Don Quixote dies.

Let’s keep in mind from now on some points, together with the word quixotic, from Don Quixote itself:

A knight who fights to undo the wrongs and bring justice to the world

A squire

A horse

Failure

End by the Knight of the White Moon

So, I was trying to tell how rushed and quixotic was her acts were. We could start from TomStar, which I disagree, but if you want to include this on your list, I don’t bother, I’ll just list mine.

Let’s start for Star’s will on Eclipsa having a fair trial instead of being just cristalized again on Stranger Danger.

Not without a bit of problems for her...

From here

In an effort to help herself and keep Marco orbiting around, Star names him her squire on Lint Catcher.

From here

Uncounciously, Star might be doing with Marco what she thought he would have done because of Jackie’s break up, putting him as backup, again rushing to a conclusion. Anyway, like Sancho Panza by Don Quixote, Marco is trusted by Star even more than her actual boyfriend or her parents, as we can see in Sweet Dreams.

From here

Marco: But then what? Shouldn't we tell somebody about this? I mean... I mean, what if— Star: Marco? Shall I remind you you are my squire? So I order you to sit there and watch me sleep. Marco: Okay. Star: Good. [turns off lamp and goes to bed] Oh, and don't tell Tom about this, either. Marco: Oh, heck no.

Showing her trust not only once, but twice in the same episode.

Marco: So... this'll keep you from morphing into... Butterfly Star? Star: Yep! Don't worry, Marco, I got this. Marco: But even your mom seemed concerned. Star: My parents cannot know about this! You heard what Dad said! Locked away forever! Marco: I think he was exaggerating a little. Star: Marco. My squire. You are the only person I can trust with this. Promise me you won't doze off again. Marco: Don't worry, not gonna happen. And even if it does, this chain will alert me any time you move, and I'll wake up, too. Star: Thanks, Marco. [sighs] Good night. [goes to sleep]

But always keeping the hierarchy knight / squire, in this case. Likewise Don Quixote / Sancho Panza.

Star had a meeting with her baby unicorn on Deep Dive by reaching the realm of magic, which she (re)built on Toffee.

From here

She went on a path to a path on seeking justice for Monsters too, to give them equal rights to Mewmans, starting from the root: what makes someone a Monster in Starfari. And showing that Monsters and Mewmen - technically, Mewwomen, as no Mewman was there - can collaborate for a common goal. This may be important in the series next episodes.

From here

... making every effort she could to make this Petition official in Death Peck, trying to get support from the Pidgeons, taking all risks for it.

From here

... and tried to seal that peace with a party on Monster Bash.

... to end all in failure, after the first problem faced.

All this time she always had her faithful squire Marco for her when and wherever she needed. Either supporting her political efforts on Death Peck and Monster Bash or protecting her from others, watching her sleep on Sweet Dreams...

From here

... and hiding her actions from Heckapoo on Night Life.

From here

... or on Deep Dive.

Marco was there for her. And now we are sure that he is there for even more reasons. Reasons which are only some of the things Star doesn’t know.

Before getting to Star’s being clueless about the consequences of her acts, let’s go back to the points listed above that link her main goal until Monster Bash - peace between Mewmen and Monsters - with Don Quixote’s story, reinforcing how unrealistic it was, at that speed.

A knight who fights to undo the wrongs and bring justice to the world - Star herself

A squire - Marco

A horse - Grown up baby unicorn

Failure - Lots of. And pain. All throughout the process

End by the Knight of the White Moon - Wrong color... Better say blood, “hypnotic, ruby brodum” moonlight

From here

It’s the Knight of the White Moon the task of taking Don Quixote from his chivalry delusion and bringing him home at last by defeating him in a duel. In Deep Dive, we’ve seen that in a similar way. On this episode, Marco brings Star back from call of a paradisiac delusion of living as a Goddess without facing any problems, which could be compared to Don Quixote’s delusion and Marco - with Janna’s help - as the knight who brought Star home. 

But wishing to live in paradise was not her single delusion.

Monster Bash brings her back from the political delusion that would be easy to accomplish her task, with no opposition. She will find it in several fronts.

Rests only the personal delusion that Tom made her forget about Marco. Or that Tom would be a better companion than Marco is for her. Or our delusion that there will be Starco. Anyway, one will fall.

And, this time, this was Star’s reality check when brought back to Mewni. The only difference is that Marco had greatest part of his reality check thrown in a single episode, Lint Catcher. Looks like Star is having a more paced one.

But for all that steps to recover and develop after this reality check, she needs to be concious about the consequences of her acts and feelings. For that she will need knowledge on her family, on Monster’s stories and about herself, not rushing to achieve that goal. As maybe what is fair now was done by unfair ways in the past.

“All knowledge is good knowledge”

Ignorance is a blessing. Sometimes.

In Don Quixote, it is the (mis)knowledge on medieval romances, thinking as their feats were real, not stories or legends is what brings him into all these adventures.

It is funny that this is the exact opposite of what Eclipsa says during Sweet Dreams, when she says “All knowledge is good knowledge”.

From here

Including a way to escape from Dragon Chains at will and go to a magically built room...

Star’s path into knowledge is being mentored by Eclipsa, now that Glossaryck is in this “globgorn” state - by his own will or not. And, by now, we have as consequence her full Butterfly form is now achieved whenever she wants on Deep Dive. 

Eclipsa, besides having power and conditions to escape any moment she wants, chooses not to do so. Why she’s doing that?

In fact, by now, we have little to no knowledge on the whole situation. Only pieces of a puzzle that is slowly revealed to us. Like it is being done with Star. The knowledge path worked just in the opposite way Star did her political one: in a slow way.

So either for Star as for us viewers, every piece of knowledge will be important to solve this puzzle. And what we have are a few loose pieces fit together. For her, worse even.

About the new knowledge she’s grabing or will grab, how Star will deal with this kind of information? If Heinous / Meteora should be the legitimate ruler of the kingdom, how would she react? And the consequences of bringing this up to light? Or the consequences of having Heinous / Meteora as a ruler? 

And Eclipsa? Eclipsa’s reaction on seeing her daughter alive, what would be? And if Eclipsa knew what Heinous / Meteora did all this time, would she be disappointed or proud?

It’s a huge grey area. Thousands of shades of grey. We will be kept inside this area for some time. Too many questions. Better tackle them in other moment. Because there is clearly another side of the conflict: Mina Loveberry.

The scenario goes for a X-Men one, of which I should write together with other thoughts another time.

Without rush.

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #150-151: Avengers Assemble!/At Last: The Decision!

August, 1976

That second title is kind of how I felt reading the flashback padded #150.

But lets talk about this cover. It’s okay. It’s everyone running at the screen over a big question mark. Because: who is going to be on the new roster??

Keep wondering, scrubs. Buy next month’s issue.

Yes, I agree smol Vision. That is bullshit.

Its an okay cover though. It’d make a decent poster, plus or minus the ?.

Last time: So bear with me here. I’m dropping a big synopsis all up ins. So Hawkeye ragequit the team which caused a membership opportunity filled by Swordsman and his live-in girlfriend Mantis. Mantis started trying to mack on Vision which caused a tense love rectangle between Swordsman, Mantis, Vision and Scarlet Witch.

Eventually, Mantis was revealed as the Celestial Madonna when Kang kidnapped her to try to forcibly marry her, Swordsman died, Mantis and Vision went on journeys of discovery, and then there was a double marriage between Vision/Scarlet Witch and Mantis/a tree wearing Swordsman’s corpse. Shame it wasn’t multiple trees because then you could have had a copse in a corpse.

Also, Hawkeye rejoined the team.

With Vision and Scarlet Witch on their honeymoon, Mantis on a space honeymoon, and Swordsman dead and also a tree puppet, the Avengers needed to boost their roster.

Moondragon joined from her involvement in the Celestial Madonna Stuff. Wasp and Yellowjacket came back to the team. Beast answered their membership call. Vision and Scarlet Witch came back briefly from their honeymoon and immediately got roped into drama. And Patsy Walker blackmailed her way into accidentally becoming Hellcat on purpose.

Thor and Moondragon went looking for Hawkeye in the Old West because Hawkeye had ragequit the Avengers to go recruit Black Knight in the Crusade Times. There, they watched some cowboys stop a train robbery and then Thor tanked Kang to death.

In the present times, Captain America recruited the rest of the Avengers into investigating Brand with him and discovered some weird cross-universal conspiracy by an eldritch and sapient hat to have corporations control the government. The Squadron Supreme was involved and got their keisters kicked. Also, Thor came back from the Old West and fought a whale man.

Now here we are. Finally ready to settle on that new roster. Who is going to be on it? That’s what the giant question mark wants to know.

We start with Wasp and Yellowjacket returning from their extended hospital stay to find a big ol’ crowd in front of Avengers’ mansion.

They must have heard that this is issue 150. And/or that a new Avengers roster is being decided. But not New Avengers.

As I remarked once upon a time, you wouldn’t get this kind of crowd in modern days Avengers. There’s so many teams that are constantly changing their roster to no applause. Perhaps the Marvel public is jaded at the Avengerses.

The two heroes are immediately accosted by a wild Sam Reuther who wants to know if they’re new Avengers.

Wasp: “New Avenger? We are Avengers.”

But Jarvis lets the two in so that Sam Reuther can continue baseless speculation and time filling. Insert joke about 24-hour news cycle, pause for laughter.

As Jarvis leads them to the meeting room, Wasp frets that she doesn’t know whether Yellowjacket still wants to be an Avenger. But reassures herself that he’ll stay with her.

When everyone is seated at their big table, Thor addresses the Avengers as chairman.

First things first: Iron Man got a new mask. Everyone look at Iron Man’s new mask. Notice how it doesn’t have an iron nose anymore. Stan Lee giveth and taketh away.

But there is equally important news:

Thor: “I do hereby call this meeting to order! Avengers, ‘tis a momentous decision we be called upon to make this day! We have sought out new Avengers -- and now, we must needs choose who we shall be in the days ahead! Our choice will affect our honor, our fortunes -- mayhap our very lives! And yet, to commence our deliberations... I am forced to announce my leave of absence.”

DUN DUN DUNNN

We take a break from that drama bomb to let Sam Reuther recap how the Avengers formed in issue #1. That reminds me of the time I recapped issue #1... ~flashback wiggle~

And now back to the Avengers reacting to Thor quitting the team, rage-situation ambiguous.

Wasp even protests that while she and Yellowjacket have come and gone, Thor is one of the mainstays of the team!

So Thor spells out the epiphany he recently had. About being nearly as powerful as the whole rest of the team put together. About being a ““big fish in a small pond.”” And how he suspects that he has remained on the team out of vanity, being aggrieved that the team has done fine in his absence.

He’ll be there if the Avengers need him but for now he has to do his own thing. And he asks Iron Man to stay on the team as a seasoned hand and also the interim chairman until proper elections can be held.

Hellcat, aka Patsy Walker or vice versa, is getting pretty hype despite Thor quitting. She is absolutely sure that the Avengers are going to ask her to stay on and she is DEFINITELY going to become an Avenger. Like holy shit yes. Live the dream.

Beast is less than thrilled. I think he’s slowly realized that the pity ride-along he tossed her way is going to result in someone even more fun-loving than him joining the team. THREATENING HIS ROLE AS THE FUN PERSON.

He is glum.

Now its Iron Man’s time to give a little speech.

Iron Man: “Uh... well, I guess we’ll just keep going like we were. I’ve sat in on plenty of Tony Stark’s board meetings, but this is all very unexpected! I’m sure we all respect Thor’s decision -- and, as has been said many times, ‘once an Avenger, always an Avenger.’ Still, as a friend I can’t help but wish that nobody’d put this idea in his head.”

He says, while Moondragon takes up the majority of the foreground.

Also, that sat in on board meetings thing verges on protesting too hard. And also seems like a loose thread that someone could pull if they actually cared about who Iron Man was. Like, if one of the Avengers asked anyone else in on the board meetings whether Iron Man and Tony Stark are ever in the same place at the same time.

Although that’s being a bit too pedantic, probably.

Anyway, Iron Man asks Captain America if he’ll rejoin the Avengers for official. I mean, they had such a good time teaming up recently. Right?

We don’t learn his answer this time. Because the next page Sam Reuther continues recapping, this time various points of early Avengers history such as finding Cap, Hulk quitting the team, Wonder Man betraying and then saving the team and then dying, and the change of roster that led to the Kooky Quartet.

And then, no joke, the last twelve pages of the comic are just reprinted pages from Avengers #16.

And I’m not recapping that again. Here’s the link for that post. Now you know what happens in the rest of this issue.

Not counting the cover, there are only six pages of new content in this issue. Of which, two are just recaps of previous issues. The rest of this issue is a reprint.

It’d be one thing if pages were reprinted to serve some kind of point that the recap was making. But it’s just an entire swath of a previous issue.

Which contributes to the narrative that Englehart was replaced as writer because of problems meeting his deadlines.

This is his last issue as the writer on Avengers. Afterward he gets replaced by Gerry Conway. Although I’m showing on marvel wikia that Englehart still gets writing credits until #153 so I guess ideas of his were used until Conway decided on his own direction.

So I’m not sure how much of what is to follow falls on Englehart versus Conway and Jim Shooter who also gets a writing credit on #151, implying a haphazard writer changeover.

Anyway, lets press on and find out what team we end up with!

September, 1976

America wants you! To read this dang issue.

Fine, America. FINE.

Again, a perfectly decent cover. Catches the attention, which a change-up should do.

Also Thor looks like he’s about to cry. It’s hard leaving your friends to go find yourself.

We pick back up and Sam Reuther is still recapping Avengers. And somehow getting images to appear behind him despite filming live. That’s the magic of television.

And we get Ben Grimm, in his Thing exoskeleton phase (Fantastic Four gets weird) watching the news. He dismisses the change in roster just a public relations bit.

Why, the Fantastic Four would never change its membership all the time! The very idea that for example, Medusa, Thundra, and Power Man would join the Fantastic Four is... dang.

Ben begrudgingly becomes interested in the news.

Meanwhile, at Avengers Mansion, Cap finally answers Iron Man’s question from last time.

He’ll rejoin the team. Because dernit he’s a man drawn to his roots and his roots in this era are with the Avengers!

Iron Man then asks Vision and Scarlet Witch if they’re sticking on the team. They did cut their honeymoon short for this.

But Scarlet Witch interjects, asking whether Hawkeye will be rejoining.

And then the narrative interjects, taking us to Robert Frank, once the Whizzer, and his crappy apartment.

He’s had a tough time recently. Remember in Giant-Size Avengers #1, he learned that his son had become a rampaging nuclear monster.

And then he overhears speculation on the news that Scarlet Witch might leave the Avengers and he overreacts, yelling that she can’t leave him after he’s done so much and come so far and in the end it didn’t even matter.

Although, in fairness, Quicksilver quit the Avengers to live in a secret city. He has reason to worry, I guess.

Anyway, Sam Reuther has been narrating this whole time about how when the Kooky Quartet started, everyone was worried. Because now the Avengers were 3/4 crooks. And also less powerful than previous teams. But dern if they didn’t prove themselves just as capable and such!

Back inside the mansion, Thor explains that Hawkeye is going to be hanging around the Current West, living out his cowboy fantasies with Two-Gun Kid.

But the both of them will help out if needed. Consider it “detached service.”

With that reassurance, both Vision and Scarlet Witch happily rejoin the team.

As does Wasp, skipping ahead because eh protocol is for people who aren’t Janet Van Dyne. She’s been laid up in the hospital. She craves action as the Winsome Wasp.

And then Sam Reuther dumps on Hank Pym and Hawkeye in one smooth page o’ recap. He calls Hank Pym “the most confusing Avenger of all” due to his frequent power, costume, and codename switch-ups. Also I choose to believe he makes fun of Hawkeye’s no pants, no underwear costume.

Meanwhile, a mysterious figure rages as he watches Sam Reuther recap the Avengers on the news. Because Sam Reuther mentioned that Wasp loves Yellowjacket and SHE’LL REGRET CHOOSING HIM OVER MYSTERIOUS FIGURE OH YES MYSTERIOUS FIGURE SURE SWEARS IT!

A gritty general tells Mysterious Figure that he needs to work on his self-control and curb his ferocity. But telling an emotional person yelling at the tv to calm down has never been anything but counterproductive.

Back at the mansion, Yellowjacket decides...

NOT to rejoin the team.

He just wants to be a scientist and do scientist stuff. And maybe some superheroing on the side. Maybe he’ll join the Defenders where nobody expects anything much of you...

and he sadly walks out of the room while Sam Reuther begins to talk about all the people who didn’t become Avengers like Spider-Man, Namor, Daredevil and then about the cooler ones that did become Avengers like Hercules, Black Knight, Black Panther, Black Widow, and Vision.

And I guess Sam Reuther knows Vision’s backstory because he mentions he has the brain patterns of the dead deceased Simon Williams, aka Wonder Man.

You know too much, Sam Reuther.

And then we check in on the Champions, because Sam Reuther just mentioned two of them. And because its good to check in on the Champions sometimes, if only to remind yourself that the Champions existed and only due to the capricious whims of editorial.

Iceman and Angel get nostalgic about their time as the original X-Men and how Hank is an Avenger now.

And Hercules and Black Widow both reflect on their time with the team, coming when both were strangers in a strange land.

Black Widow’s Avengers membership at this point is extremely tentative so its weird that she has such fond memories about it. But the grass looks greener as you glance over your shoulder. Or something?

Meanwhile, Moondragon is up.

And she too turns down a position on the team. It’d be hypocritical to drive Thor off the team for slumming and then hang around herself. Plus, she wanted to learn more of Earth ways and she has come to realize that the Avengers are too constraining.

Even so, the Avengers have showed her great kindness when they weren’t fighting over her like a piece of meat and she respects them, for some reason. If they meet again, it will be as allies.

A decision that has Iron Man thinking “who the heck does she think she is?” and “thank goodness for small favors, eh?” at the same time. Thank goodness she’s not sticking around but ugh how dare she think she better than the Avengers.

But like I’ve been constantly alluding to, Iron Man would regret bringing her onto the team. I wonder how much of what she’s done is payback for Thor and Iron Man being such jerks about her.

But that brings us to Beast. And Beast immediately accepts. And flips out of his chair. Which seems to aggravate Thor. Or surprise him. Its hard to say. Thor is sometimes drawn so that the only emotion he seems to have is anger.

Wasp immediately objects. Not to Beast! He seems fine! But doesn’t the team seem like its getting crowded? I mean, you have Iron Man, Captain America, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Wasp, Yellowjacket and now Beast? Why, that’s six people! That’s so many people!

Okay, yeah, she just wants to make sure that there’s still room on the team for when she convinces Hank (Pym) to change his mind. Kind of rude to Beast though, Wasp.

Anyway, Hellcat is now under consideration. And she looks THRILLED.

And now for another Sam Reuther interruption. As he recaps women in the Avengers. But he calls them ‘females.’ The legacy of Stan, maybe.

Anyway again. Patsy Walker, aka Hellcat, has only been on the one mission. And she did try to blackmail an Avenger. And her origin story is ‘oh cool a free supersuit.’ But on the other hand, she’s pretty rad. Pulled her weight during that Crisis on Other Earth.

So Iron Man definitely extends an Avengers invitation to her.

And Patsy obviously accepts. I mean, come on. What could possibly stop her?

Moondragon. Moondragon is what could possibly stop her.

Moondragon tells her that she has no training or experience (which in fairness, true) so she musn’t join the Avengers yet. Instead, she will come with Moondragon on Moondragon’s Fun Trip Exploring The World and Moondragon will train her.

No! They’ll train each other. Moondragon will teach her superhumanity and Hellcat will teach her... humanity.

Dammit Moondragon, this is why you’re the worst Avenger.

It’s only funny to me that she joined the Avengers, convinced Thor to quit, and then quit herself. And I don’t even think she was wrong not to stick around. With the benefit of a reread, there was a hells uncomfortable workplace environment going on. But she is the one element that stopped an amazing run of Patsy Walker being an Avenger.

And it would have not been super great. This was the Avengers in the 70s. Their gender politics are not great. See also: Patsy Walker dismissing the idea of being a womens libber. But Patsy Walker on the Avengers!

maybe then she wouldn’t have met Daimon Hellstrom, married him, and then later committed suicide under his demonic influence ;___;

Anyway, I say Moondragon is to blame. But really its either Englehart, Conway, Shooter or any combination thereof who just used Moondragon to keep Hellcat out of the Avengers for some unknown, dumb reason.

I do have a headcanon about it though.

Moondragon is, at this point, a closeted lesbian. Maybe she just likes Patsy, despite them interacting a grand total of almost never up until this point. Just likes her and wants to spend time teaching her to kick ass and learning how to be... human.

Although since its Moondragon and she is almost as callous as an X-Men regarding psychic powers, she almost certainly influenced Patsy to agree to give up on her dream that has been her single most powerful motivating factor in these comics.

Moondragon, that is Not Cool.

Oh. And consolation prize. Yellowjacket changed his mind. He went off-screen to sulk. Wasp didn’t go running after him so he came running back to her. Yay.

Also: Avenging is in his blood, yo. That and a strange microbe that made him almost die.

Thor suggests applying the “detached service” thinger to Yellowjacket too. Give him more labtime. Make his Avenging more flexible. And hell, lets just give “detached service” to Moondragon and Hellcat too!

Consolation prizes all around!

Moondragon prays that the Avengers never get in such dire straights that they need her power to save them. As does Iron Man. Except in a more insulting way. He’s had unkind thoughts throughout.

And Beast wishes Patsy luck and makes me miss what their dynamic could have been had she stayed. Although I imagine it would have been as a comedy duo with Beast and someone is already slated for that.

So Thor hammerwhirls himself, Moondragon, and Hellcat away. And the new team (mostly comprised of old members. Like seriously. This new roster is Iron Guy Who Is Always On The Team, Captain Frequently On The Team, Wasp, Man Of Many Names Who Is Always On The Team, Scarlet Witch Has Been On Team More Than Iron Man, robot husbando, and new challenger Beast. Was the idea to get back to basics? Plus Beast?) goes out to the waiting crowd to announce themselves.

And of course give the big: AVENGERS ASSEMBLE for the cameras.

They're so busy working the crowd that they don’t notice the giant crate that was delivered for them.

At least until it CREEAAAKKs.

And then with a CRRRASHH! Wonder Man punches his way out of the crate. And noticably shaky and slumped (like some manner of... living dead), he points at Vision.

And accuses him. Of being the one that stole his mind.

So. That’s going to be a thing.

And okay. New roster. Which isn’t very new but whatever. It has Wasp. It has Scarlet Witch and Vision. It has Beast. It could stand to have a Hellcat but the world isn’t perfect.

What did I think? Well, I’ve been pretty open about it.

I have to reiterate because of the shaky transition from Englehart to Conway, its hard to know who is responsible for what. Englehart brought Patsy Walker into the book and made her a superheroine. Did he do that only to shuffle her immediately off the book? What about Moondragon? Was her scant role on the team after the Celestial Madonna Saga solely to badger Thor until he quit the team?

Was it Conway and Shooter who decided to enforce a back to basics approach with the new roster? Was Englehart taken off the book because of a problem meeting deadlines as implied in this letters column apologia?

Englehart insists that he wasn’t late getting #150 in on time. So was it creative differences?

The way that #150 just cuts off halfway for a reprint, right before anything was decided about the new roster except Thor gone, Iron Man to remain, makes things hazy.

But whatever. Lets just say there were more interesting ways this roster could have gone. And then see where things go from here.

So Wonder Man. Back from the dead. Huh. Wonder where Conway is going with that?

Face front, true believers! You can follow this liveblog @essential-avengers.

[logh-icebergs]

Episode 3: Birth of the 13th Fleet

Early 796/487. Alliance backstory! New characters! Creepy violent nationalists in masks! We’re back on Heinessen, and Yang pretends to be injured to avoid attending a political propaganda rally about the soldiers lost in the battle of Astate, a ploy which literally everyone sees through. Jessica interrupts Trunicht’s speech, Yang and Dusty swoop in and save her from the Patriotic Knights Corps, and Yang eventually swallows his humility and uses his “hero” status to pressure Trunicht into calling off his attack dogs. Presumably Reuental and Mittermeyer go on a date, but we don’t see it this time. 

Julian

Who the fuck is this person? Yang has a “ward”? Why? IS YANG BATMAN?? These are all good questions to be asking yourself.

You may recognize Julian Mintz (sorry subs, it’s Mintz) from his starring role in the ED, so it’s not any sort of spoiler to say that he’s someone you should be paying attention to. Julian takes a background role for most of the actual action of the episode, but at the beginning we get a short glimpse into the domestic life of the Yang household.

Why is Yang sleeping on the couch anyway?? I’m gonna guess he fell asleep there reading and Julian fetched the blanket and pillow for him.

Character development in small visual details: Julian styling his collar and sleeves to exactly match Yang here shows his hero worship and desire to emulate him.

Waking Yang up, making him tea, scolding him about drinking brandy in the morning (but pouring some into the tea nonetheless), Julian functions here as something in between a servant and a caretaker of sorts. His body language (standing at attention while Yang lounges on the couch) and speech patterns (using extremely formal, honorific diction) emphasize that he’s a subordinate in some official way, not family or an equal; at the same time the way Yang appeals to him to let him sleep longer, rhapsodizes about his tea, and reacts with dismay to his ambitions to be a soldier all indicate a lot of affection between them.

A bit is lost in translation here: after Yang comments that he can pay back Julian’s debt to the military for putting him through school, Julian reacts with surprise and an extremely formal phrase expressing his desire not to be a burden (“Soko made go-meiwaku o kakeraremasen!”), to which Yang replies teasingly “don’t be impertinent, you’re just a kid.” (“Namaiki iu na yo, kodomo no kuse ni.”) His use of namaiki here seems ironic, accusing Julian of saying something too forward or presumptuous for his position, when in fact what Julian said was excessively respectful. In Yang’s philosophy, as a kid Julian shouldn’t be self-importantly taking on responsibilities and worrying about lofty principles of paying his own way. Yang’s pragmatism runs deep.

But so does Julian’s desire to follow in his father’s footsteps (and Yang’s) and become a soldier, and not shockingly this thread will return.

Yang’s relationship to the war introduces tension into his personal life from multiple angles: While his distaste for the military creates a dilemma for Julian, his status as a war hero drives a wedge between him and Jessica.

Gender Roles

White men: eating this nationalist crap up. White women: feeling slightly uncomfortable but not saying anything. POC: so over Trunicht’s bullshit that they literally all faked sick to avoid him.

By now I’m sure you’ve noticed that the power structures in LoGH are incredibly male-dominated. Reinhard and Kircheis fly off into space to earn accolades in battle while Annerose sits passively by a pool; Alliance men argue with each other about tactics while their female love interests sit at home playing the piano and waiting for news. And it is absolutely true that the societies whose history we are learning are mostly run by men, particularly in military contexts. Hell, LoGH doesn’t indisputably pass the Bechdel test until episode 103 out of 110.

And yet. The handful of female characters that we do get to know exist within this society as fully defined individuals, with their own ways of navigating the roles and expectations pushed on them because of their gender. In episode one we saw Jessica first as a holographic image carried around by her fiancé, adding pathos to his death by reminding us that he had someone waiting for him. But in this episode we see that Jessica wasn’t a prop for Lapp’s death scene—rather, his death was a plot device to push her into more active and public opposition to the war. He was fridged.  

Better than the almost identical scene in Wonder Woman, don't @ me.

We see Jessica pushing against typical gender roles on two levels: in-universe, by speaking publicly to the men in power challenging their motives and integrity; and also at a narrative level, by flipping the typical trope in which a male protagonist is motivated to action by a woman’s death.

Meanwhile Julian, a 14-year-old boy, happily and enthusiastically keeps house for Yang, cooking and cleaning and making tea. While many of the female characters overtly break with the traditional roles assigned to women (by entering politics, the military, etc.), Julian is one of the only characters to push in the other direction; and it’s important that (spoiler) the show never plays this for laughs or really remarks on it at all.

I found this image on the talk page for the entry for Julian’s cat on the LoGH wikia. Listen you cannot say this blog has not been meticulously researched.

Jessica and Yang

Similar to the graveyard scene in the previous episode, this moment between Yang and Jessica at the airport is fraught with the distance that his part in the war has put between them. And again we see his passivity as he lets the silence stretch until she finally walks away.

I cautioned in the last post about projecting heteronormativity onto the narrative and assuming that Jessica must play the part of love interest for Yang just because she’s the only woman he’s interacted with so far. However, here we get to see more of their dynamic in detail. As always LoGH does a lot of work with facial expressions, cinematography, and atmosphere, and it’s clear that this airport scene has a romantic vibe—the drawn-out, wistful looks, camera lingering just a bit too long on each of them, music swelling in the background, the framing of the shot with them facing each other. As usual a lot is left unsaid, and this early in the story we don’t have the context to fill it all in, so just tuck it away as a piece of the puzzle that will gradually come together. What’s clear is a deep sadness in Yang, unable or unwilling to fulfill what her eyes seem to ask of him.

Remember when we said that LoGH is incredibly layered? Let’s go one level deeper than just stripping away our own society’s assumptions about what Jessica’s role must be. Yang and Jessica, too, live in quite a heteronormative world, one (like our own) in which close male/female friendships can be difficult to navigate without societal expectations intervening. Along with the rift created by the war and his guilt over Lapp’s death, could part of Yang’s sadness here come from struggling with the weight of those expectations? Yes, it could—in this show it definitely could, and at least wondering that as you observe Yang’s sadness combined with his passivity here is the sort of habit you should get into as you try to unravel these characters’ inner lives.

Stray Tidbits

This moment gives me chills.

Yang casually giving running political commentary throughout the episode is absolutely amazing. 100% would buy a book of Yang Wenli political quips.

Yang grabs Jessica, Dusty grabs the cat, and poor Julian has to fend for himself??

And speaking of the cat, fun fact, it is one of the many ways the anime team improved upon the source material, in which it does not appear. According to the wikia “Japanese fan sources” refer to the cat as Gensui, meaning fleet admiral, so as sketchy as that attribution is we hereby dub Julian’s cat Gensui and shall refer to it as such from now on.