#then an idol then fueling part of her revenge and then finally to just be herself (even though the reasons why are painful)
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penguinkyun · 10 months ago
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ive got a better review of 137 coming but before i pass out, im incredibly happy to see a theory of mine confirmed! in the end where ruby tells kana she doesnt want to be an idol like ai (i have my own thoughts about how aka wrapped that thread up but i digress) i had said previously that while aqua did tell her she didnt need to follow in ai's footsteps (c. 123) she actually believed it in c. 134 in that brilliant moment of empathy with ai, when she saw the suffering her mother went through and decided she wouldn't go through that as well
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best-underrated-anime · 1 year ago
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Best Underrated Anime Group D Round 1: #D8 vs #D1
#D8: Singer idol android goes back in time to save humanity
When highly evolved AIs set out to eradicate mankind, the carnage that ensues fills the air with the stench of fresh blood and burning bodies. In a desperate bid to prevent the calamity from ever occurring, a scientist bets everything on a remnant from the past.
Turning the clock back a hundred years, AIs are already an integral part of human society, programmed with specific missions meant to be carried out for their entire course of operation. Vivy, the first ever autonomous AI, is a songstress tasked with spreading happiness through her voice. In a theme park where she hardly ever gets a proper audience, she strives to pour her heart out into her performances, bound to repeat it day after day—that is, until an advanced AI from the future appears before her and enlists her help in stopping a devastating war a hundred years in the making. With no time to process the revelation that flips her world upside down, Vivy is catapulted into a century-long journey to avert the violent history yet to come.
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#D1: Prohibition era Mafia revenge story
As a child living in the town of Lawless, Angelo Lagusa has witnessed a tragedy: his parents and younger brother have been mercilessly slaughtered by the Vanetti mafia family. Losing everything he holds dear, he leaves both his name and hometown behind, adopting the new identity of Avilio Bruno. Seven years later, Avilio finally has his chance for revenge when he receives a mysterious letter prompting him to return to Lawless. Obliging, he soon encounters the Vanetti don’s son, Nero, and seeks to befriend him using the skills he has quietly honed for years. Set during the Prohibition era, this show tells the story of Avilio’s dark, bloodstained path to vengeance, as he slowly ends each of the men involved in the killing of his family.
Titles, propagandas, trailers, and poll under the cut!
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#D8: Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song
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Propaganda:
Most first think that this anime is an idol show. I promise you, it is NOT. Quite far from it. Vivy is regrettably underrated despite having great animation—just watch the fight scenes. It has the best of songs that will get stuck in your head for a long time. Character growth for characters - you will adore them. It even won some recognition from anime awards, yet no one talks about it. You have to watch it at least once and appreciate how this anime is made with love as it talks about experiences that make us human. You will be surprised how well the storytelling is.
Trigger Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Cruelty/Violence/Gore, Suicide
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#D1: 91 Days
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Propaganda:
This series has character designs by the art director of Baccano. In fact, the setting of it being in the early 1920s in America is sort of reminiscent of Baccano. However, the story is much crueler and more grounded than that other famous series, even if it involves a similar amount of guns and blood.
The anime follows a broken and traumatized young man fueled by revenge. It’s a tragedy and a thriller and a Mafia series. We see the lengths Angelo Lagusa goes to avenge his family, whom he’s the last living survivor of. He changes his name and leads a double life, getting close to the Vanetti family, who killed his birth family. But in the process of trying to do this, he gets adopted into this Mafia family.
He must wrestle with his morality as he keeps on the bloody road of revenge. People that don’t deserve to be hurt get hurt or killed because of his actions—even dying by his hands.
It's an anime that shows just how far someone is willing to go for revenge, willing to break everything in his path for it. And considering the Prohibition era came to an end in history, was all the trickery and killing even worth it?
Trigger Warnings: Animal Cruelty/Death, Cannibalism, Emotional Abuse, Graphic Depictions of Cruelty/Violence/Gore, Suicide, Alcohol and Smoking.
This entire series is a mob story so there's lots of guns, blood, and killing. There is an assisted suicide of an important character. Also the family dog dies when the main character's family is massacred in the first episode.
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If you’re reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.
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viterbofangirl · 4 years ago
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first line meme!
@fallynleaf​ said in her post to consider myself tagged, so I’m happily indulging in this lil’ ego boost! Thanks for the opportunity, m’dear! ^_~
Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all!). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line. Then tag 10 authors!
NB- These are all unfinished and unposted WIPs. It behooves me to note that some of these are not at all recent. However, they ARE fics that have “first lines” at all, which is not necessarily a given as my Creative Muse is obnoxiously nonlinear in her inspirations.
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1- The Gray Ghost had suffered some engine trouble somewhere on Interstate 65, so Mom and Dad hadn’t managed to make it to Chuck’s wedding. (Early Edition: ”Belly Up to the Bar”, a canon-compliant continuation of the episode “Occasionally Amber”, Gary/Toni except kinda not really because she’s totally pissed)
2- Oracle, Texas. 1878. A gnarled husk of a town still trying to deny that its glory days are past. (”Gunslinger”, my serious treatment/retelling of the Roger Corman western)
3- The gate clanged shut behind him, and Meng Yao took a deep, steadying breath. (MDZS: ”Leverage”, an Untamed AU based on inspired by pretty much continuing @littlesmartart​‘s brilliant setup and concept)
4- Many, many nights would Jiang Cheng lie awake at night, staring at the ceiling and pondering the razor’s edge of chance he’d toed. (MDZS: an Untamed chengqing fic set post-canon, current working title is “Second Chances” but I don’t like it)
5- Napoleon Solo flipped though an outdated magazine with little real interest as he lounged in one of the chairs lining the lobby of the car rental establishment. (TMFU (2015): ”Girls Just Want to Have Fun”, a fic set in my “Eight Strapping Daughters” universe where it is currently 1987 and Gaby and Illya have had eight daughters, any of whom are capable of taking over the world... and all of whom are about to spend the day at a shopping mall)
6- He felt the phone vibrating in his pocket. (Sailor Moon: ”Moon Revenge”, a Minako/Kunzite bodyguard AU)
7- The Moon was visiting Earth. (Sailor Moon: ”No Miracle for the Likes of Us”- another working title- which is Venus/Kunzite-centric exploration of the end of the Silver Millenium)
8- Chibi-Usa hasn’t stayed very long after Helios departed. (Sailor Moon: ”Rebirth AU”- you guessed it... working title- a Minako/Kunzite-heavy-but-not-exclusive AU that deviates from the manga/SM Crystal canon after the end of the Dead Moon Circus arc where the Shitennou are revived and the events of Star never occur)
9- Monday, 7:00 AM: Alarm goes off.
Monday, 7:00:08 AM: Alarm thrown across room. (Sailor Moon: “Codename: Teen Idol ‘Dite”, a side arc set in the above AU where, lacking any catastrophic galactic conflicts to fight against, Minako is going out of her mind with boredom and takes an undercover job as an idol as part of a police/Interpol sting operation)
10- Normally, Salazar Slytherin took great pride in his self-control. (Harry Potter: ”Release”, a short Hogwarts founders one-shot involving a maddening magical construction project and a sudden bout of swearing)
11- It was the first truly warm day since winter had broken, and Salazar Slytherin wandered the grounds with no purpose or destination in mind, simply basking in the sunlight until he began to feel the chill of the dungeons recede from his bones. (Harry Potter: ”And Treat Them All the Same”, a Hogwarts founders story about Helga Hufflepuff’s background and why she feels very strongly about equal treatment)
12- Salazar Slytherin stared at the wardrobe for another minute before finally deciding to throw another fur over his fur-lined cloak, leather jerkin, and wool tunic.  (Harry Potter: another one-shot Hogwarts founders fic with a teeny bit of Helgazar where the very cold-blooded Slytherin has to deal with a snowball fight, currently but not definitively titled “Snow Day”)
13- As the sun disappeared beneath the horizon, Brooklyn burst through the thin stone crust encasing him, his awakening roar shifting into a yawn as he stared blearily at the skyline and tried to remember what century he was in. (Gargoyles: ”Return of the Time Dancer”, Brooklyn’s return to New York- family in tow- after his Phoenix Gate adventures)
14- The couple breaking their fast that morning were strikingly handsome, if perhaps past the most fashionable age. (The Scarlet Pimpernel, Pride and Prejudice: “Scarlet Impressions”, a crossover fic that pretty much unfolded itself when I a) crunched numbers regarding the dates and years of respective storylines and b) realized that while Lizzy and Marguerite would get on like a house on fire, Darcy’s only possible reaction to Sir Percy would be unmitigated horror poorly repressed due to the latter’s much higher social standing)
15- Paris really was lovely this time of year. (MCU: “Threads and Patches: Part One”, first part of a three-part Clintasha AU set after the events of Civil War and most emphatically *not* farm-family friendly)
16- The briny air filled her lungs to bursting, but she continued to draw in breath until it hurt. (Highlander the Series: “The Mad Viking Saga”... because, frankly, EVERYONE should have an Immortal™ self-insert character and I refuse to apologize or feel ashamed of mine)
17- “Your Highness?  The oracle is here.” (Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas: “Sinbad and the Garden of the Hesperides” a sequel to the animated movie that actually should be titled “Proteus and the etc., etc.” bc it’s mostly about him and giving him the ending I think he deserves, a.k.a. an OC love interest and a chance for adventure while on a quest to save his city from a plague)
18- Bare feet pounded on the hot, rough pavement as Sinbad dashed around another tight corner. (Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas: “Fast Friends”, an eight-chapter prequel telling the story of how Sinbad and Proteus met and grew up together, wherein each chapter progresses with each year they know each other from when they meet to when Sinbad leaves)
19- Reed was well-known as your stereotypical absent-minded professor. (Fantastic Four: “Shut Up and Dance With Me”, a Reed/Sue fluffy one shot where Reed is adorable because fight me)
20- The spaceport on Aruus Minor reeked of fuel, welding torches, and sweaty coveralls, but it was a welcome change from the recycled air of the Lambda shuttle. (Star Wars Legends Expanded Universe (BITE ME DISNEY): “Everything Unsaid”, a Luke/Mara chance encounter set during the we-share-an-unbearable-degree-of-compatibility-to-say-nothing-of-the-overwhelming-sexual-tension-but-both-of-our-lives-are-kind-of-a-mess-and-neither-of-us-feels-ready-to-deal-with-our-feelings-for-each-other-so-we’ve-individually-decided-to-just-ignore-said-feelings-while-simultaneously-being-drawn-to-each-other-whenever-we’re-so-much-as-in-the-same-fucking-hemisphere years)
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WHEW! Well, it sure was fun to tease all my followers with a taste of fics that will neverrr be finished! As far as patterns go, seems I tend to prefer either set-up paragraphs or punchy one-to-three-liners intended to trick intrigue people into reading further. My favorite is definitely #9. It’s a diary/log of Minako’s day, and her POV is hilarious and sooooo much fun to write like that!
Anyone who wishes to participate should consider themselves tagged, and PLEASE TAG ME IF YOU DECIDE TO PARTICIPATE!
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margridarnauds · 5 years ago
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3, 4, 12, and 27 for any Celtic or Arthurian ship (go wild with 'em!)
It is a fact universally acknowledged that I am A Soft Bitch. Also it has been SO LONG since I’ve dipped my toes into Arthuriana.  
(Sorry it took me so long; I had a Fourth of July dinner to go to and then afterwards I was so exhausted by people asking me about the drinking opportunities available in Ireland because obviously that’s why I’ve spent five years of my life dedicated to the field, amiright? + getting stung by fire ants because fuck Florida that I had to take a long freaking nap.) 
3. Who is the most romantic?
Bres/Sreng
I think that they actually both are, it’s just...how they express it. 
Sreng tends to be slightly blunter as far as he feels, he tends to show his affection for Bres via being a rock for him when he needs it most. He helps Bres with the children, he distracts him when the pressures of being with the Fomorians and the diplomatic hot potato get to be too much for him, he’s the one who Bres vents to when his father is being difficult on something, he tries to find ways to visit Bres whenever he can. He was the one in the tent with Bres when the news about Ruadan’s death came, he was the one who held Bres throughout the night as he SOBBED into Sreng’s last good cloak. 
Bres on the other hand is slightly less big on ACTIONS; it would be really, really easy for an outside observer to think that he’s less invested in the relationship. The truth is that he’s just as invested as Sreng is, if not more. He just tends to show it via, for example, curling up with Sreng’s cloak when he’s not there or being the one to take his hand when they’re in bed together, running his fingers along Sreng’s knuckles. 
Bres’ private space is very important to him, it’s part of why the Tuatha dé and he never really CLICKED, because the king of the Tuatha dé needed to be...well...an extrovert, someone who can host lavish feasts, someone who can humor everyone in the hall while maintaining the social order, and the longer that Bres stood in the kingship, the more he grew to despise everyone there. But Sreng is allowed IN there, he can go to Bres’ quarters with no problem, he can dine with Bres privately and Bres is perfectly at ease with him, he can share Bres’ living space to the extent that Bres tends to use him as a pillow. Also: Bres totally dotes on him and occasionally slips him a new gold neck-ring when he’s not looking. Because Sreng would be too proud for it normally but Bres can’t stand to see his decline. Which is big for Bres, given how we KNOW how stingy he was with the Tuatha dé. 
You know that if he’d won he would have totally spoiled Sreng. If that Fir Bolg wanted ANYTHING, he would have had it. It’s hard to use the term “consort” because the Medieval Irish were so BIG on marriage = children as a concept, but...Sreng would have been Bres’ nearest, dearest companion that he lavished attention on. Which would have rubbed salt on the Tuatha dé’s wounds even more. 
Mordred/Galahad 
Galahad. He has VERY high ideals of love and how it should be expressed, and so he’s constantly trying to court Mordred in the most courtly way he possibly can. Which is massively confusing to Mordred because he has no idea what to DO but...well...it’s nice. At least, once he realizes that Galahad id 100% serious. At first, he laughs about it with his brothers, but then as time goes on, he realizes that he LIKES it. (Namely when Galahad’s away on a quest at one point and suddenly Mordred doesn’t have that attention anymore.) Mordred is more the “I happened to find this by the side of the road, but don’t think that I LIKE you” type. 
4. Who can’t keep their hands to themselves?
Bres/Sreng
...Bres. Bres is just...Bres. He can’t keep his hands to himself and he will make bad jokes the entire time in his attempt to be smooth. He deeply enjoys trying to find excuses to touch Sreng whenever they are at a feast together. This drives Sreng absolutely batty since there’s really nothing that he can do to reciprocate when they’re in front of some of THE MOST POWERFUL FOMORIAN NOBILITY TO EXIST and Bres is behaving very casually, making pleasant conversation and Oh, Queen Cethlenn, is that a new silk dress? I hadn’t noticed it before while he raises his goblet at Sreng. Sreng always takes his revenge in the end, waiting until they have at least a sliver of privacy before pinning Bres against the nearest hard surface and kissing him absolutely senseless. Which was totally Bres’s intended purpose.
Mordred/Galahad
In general, Mordred, despite often seeming aloof. Mordred is very, very handsy with his boyfriend because, even though he won’t ADMIT it, the boy’s touch starved, and Galahad is endlessly compassionate when it comes to that. Though Galahad DID get tipsy once and was, as it turns out, a very affectionate drunk, which gave Mordred fuel to tease him for WEEKS. (And the rest of Camelot tbh. Given that we know that they are not above roasting someone given Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.) Galahad can’t enter the Great Hall without blushing for ages. Mordred tells him that his father’s done far, far worse in his time. 
12. What first changes when it starts getting serious?
It’s odd with them because their bond’s been intense since the first time they met. They just had one of those instant connections, so in some ways them finally going from friends to lovers...wasn’t THAT big of a step, because they always were serious. Their meeting is actually really, really unusual in terms of how two champions from opposite sides GENERALLY interact in-text, given that they both are on such good terms with one another and they STAY on good terms with one another even after everything happens. No, this did not feature in my undergrad Capstone in any way, what would give you that idea? 
I think that Bres is really, really surprised that Sreng stays by his side after their reunion. He puts on this very confident front, but privately, he puts a lot of his self identity on his looks. And when they went with Cairpre’s satire, that was a HUGE blow mentally and physically, even before it touches how it affects his kingship. He knew on some level that Sreng was interested in him, but they’d left things at a confusing place. So, he didn’t think that Sreng would keep an interest in him when his looks were marred, Sreng didn’t think that he had ANY interest in him...it’s a mess. And both of them still kind of think that the other’s going to change their mind at any given time even after they begin the process of clearing things up, not the least because neither one of them have really ever been in a place of stability in their lives. 
But then, it’s a month onwards, then it’s a year, then it’s two years, and both of them are still there, and it’s just like “Oh. This is a Thing” and there’s just this general feeling of security that starts to creep in. And, gradually, their lives just kind of naturally intersect. Both of them interact with one another regularly, both of them know each other’s families (regrettably, in Sreng’s case, given that he is the founding member of the Elatha Hate Club, even though he does love Bres’ children dearly), both of them have stuff over at the other one’s place. In the modern day, it would be painfully obvious that they were a couple, but since it IS this time, everyone else thinks They’re Just Good Friends, because that’s how good friends ARE at this point in time. Except for Lugh, who post-Cath Maige Tuired firmly believes that Bres is The Actual Devil and that Sreng and he have some sort of devious plan to take Ireland back. 
Mordred/Galahad
For once, they stop thinking about their respective destinies as much. 
Like, don’t get me wrong, in Galahad’s case in PARTICULAR, his eventual destiny is something that’s ALWAYS at the back of his mind, because he’s spent literally his ENTIRE CHILDHOOD being told that. We do not discuss the truly endless depth of my hatred for his mother and grandfather for THAT ONE + their treatment of Lancelot. 
And for Mordred, I think that on some level, there’s just this resignation that he’s going to be the villain, he’s going to kill Arthur one day, he’s going to be Evil™. He’s known that since he got the prophecy, and I tend to see him as having this “Then let me BE evil” moment after he murders the old priest and then Lancelot, the knight who he’d IDOLIZED and probably had a little bit of a crush on, tries to kill him. And that’s why he tends to see all the bad in Camelot, because it makes it that much easier to bring it all down. 
But, for a little while, there’s this period of time where they have the luxury of thinking about something outside of their fates, they can have a LIFE that’s theirs, without worrying about the future. It’s one of those things that they don’t even really NOTICE until it’s like “Wait, I haven’t thought about my tragic but inevitable death for a month now, where’s the time gone?” 
27. Why do their friends get annoyed with them?
Bres has FRIENDS? 
Alright, alright, that’s probably a little cruel, but...Well, he doesn’t really HAVE anyone. I tend to HC that Sreng’s brothers don’t really understand the relationship AT ALL and tend to view Bres as The Tuath Dé Who Shamelessly Seduced Their Brother (If you ask Bres, HE’LL say that it was the other way around, if you ask Sreng, he’ll just shrug because honestly to this day he has no idea how he scored Bres.)  
Tailtiu thinks that Sreng is essentially tying himself to a sinking ship. (Which...is she WRONG?) And Bres’ presence is basically a gigantic wedge between Sreng and Lugh being Bros™, which would obviously be Tailtiu’s endgame of choice. That, and Bres did. Kind of. Try to kill her former husband. Even though he had a Very, Very Good Reason for it at the time. Still. That has to sting a little. 
Elatha REALLY doesn’t like Sreng or the relationship, because he views it as a Distraction™ (that, and he doesn’t understand the appeal. If his son’s going to throw everything out on the line for someone, couldn’t it have been someone better, more attractive, more witty, less blunt? Someone that he could bend to his own ends), but he also knows that he has to tacitly allow it to continue, because he does NOT want to deal with the fallout. (Not even from Bres. Oh no, there’s a bigger threat to be considered. Eriu. Who is Very Happy That Her Boy’s Found Someone To Make Him Happy and won’t hear a bad word against Sreng, who she considers to be A Very Nice Boy. If she were a modern mom, she totally would be knitting Sreng a Christmas sweater while they speak and asking them when the wedding was even before either one of them had really THOUGHT of proposing.) 
Bríg does NOT like Sreng at all, not necessarily because of personal jealousy (she never really loved Bres, he never really loved her, even though there was a definite possibility that they could have loved one another in the early days), but because of the Nuada Incident. She doesn’t really understand why Bres would spend so much time with him when he’s The Enemy, and he’s a Fir Bolg so he’s inherently lesser than the Tuatha dé anyway. 
Bres’ brothers don’t really understand it either. Over 3000 years in and the Dagda STILL thinks that Bres’ problem is that he doesn’t get laid enough and that if Bres would just get away from That Fir Bolg... (If only he knew, if only he knew.)
Meanwhile, the Fomorian lords, sans Elatha, are more or less completely oblivious. Tethra might have a better idea than the others, but does he care? Nope. He’s not overly invested in this whole thing anyway. He’s got his own issues at home to take care of, thank you VERY much. He participates in the raids because he has to dole out the loot to his men the same as anyone else, but he’s not INVESTED in it. It’s a necessary part of maintaining his kingship, nothing more. Sreng isn’t overly fond of them because he considers them to be essentially a snakepit of intrigue and corruption that will stab the two of them in the back at their earliest opportunity and he’s not wrong for the most part, though the one thing I WILL emphasize is that it’s not because they’re Fomorians, it’s that they’re...well, medieval kings, but they have a decent enough working relationship because they both hate the Tuatha dé’s guts. 
Mordred/Galahad 
Agrap-Agravaine tends to be annoyed that his brother’s spending all his time with someone who’s such a goody two shoes. Mordred and he have always been the closest in terms of age and personality, and suddenly he’s no longer Mordred’s Favorite. 
I actually think that Morgause would like Galahad? She’s definitely very, very pro-her sons being happy in Le Morte d’Arthur and Good Mom Morgause is a hill that I’m willing to die on. Because fuck T.H White. I do think it would be a little strange, to say the least, given that obviously Galahad is staunchly religious whereas I don’t REALLY see Morgause having that same bent. Morgause just...lives her own life, regardless of what society says, and I think she would have some trouble understanding why her son would go for someone like that when he’s HIM. But I do think that for the most part, she would just be thrilled that Mordred has someone who he’s devoted to given that he’s REALLY not been OK since That One Quest With Lancelot. 
ANY of Galahad’s friends tend to be annoyed at Mordred simply for the fact that Mordred is...Mordred. He doesn’t have the best reputation for a REASON, and it’s very, very dissonance inducing to see the two of them constantly in one another’s presence, even though they try to frame it in terms of Mordred being a charity case of Galahad's.
And Lancelot obviously hates Mordred because he knows of The Prophecy™. He is NOT pleased by this turn of events, and it goes way beyond “annoyance.” 
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swiftwidget · 6 years ago
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Narrative as an Active Force and Izuku as an Embodiment of True Heroic Ideals
The Narrative in My Hero Academia is an Active Force for Heroic Ideals and punishes those that stray from the Path of a True Hero. Izuku is an Embodiment of True Heroic Desire and Ideals. Izuku has and can save those that stray from those Ideals. Izuku will someday be tested on those ideals.
(Oh geez this got so much longer than I thought it would be. Hhhhh I’ve been working on this for days...)
What do I mean by “the Narrative is an Active Force?”
The Narrative is just what I am calling the overarching path of the story’s morals. The core ideology that is present in each of the characters aiming to become heroes. And the question that must be asked while walking that road, “What is a True Hero?”
Based on my understanding of the series as I’ve read it, a True Hero: Saves Others Both Body and Heart, Gives Hope in Uncertainty, Pushes Beyond Limits
It is an Active Force because it affects characters in physical and symbolic ways. It lives and works through the characters in the story (Sort of like karma but I prefer comparing it to the Force from Star Wars. Appropriate given Horikoshi’s love of using Star Wars references). That Force is a living idea, the Heroic Ideal. The students and pro-heroes of My Hero Academia strive to follow those ideals - at least in part or facets of them - by their own choice, in their own ways, in their drive to be great heroes. 
So, what happens when someone starts down the path of the True Hero, only to stray or turn their backs on core aspects of it? They are punished by that living force.
Examples of the Narrative punishing those that stray from the True Hero Path:
All Might 
The Symbol of Peace, Pillar of Society, an Embodiment of a True Hero. 
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We are shown that even as a kid, he had a vision of a better world - one that had a Pillar. Someone that could save with a smile and put the public at ease. He became that hero, changed society, and for decades was the Number 1 Hero because at that time he embodied what it meant to be a True Hero. 
That is until his first fight with All for One. My understanding is it was during that first fight that All Might lost his temper - much like he started to do at Kamino. In his rage at AfO, he started fighting with the intent to get revenge. This is the moment he “fell from grace.” He fell off the path of the True Hero. 
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He intended to kill and believed he did. In that moment, he turned from the ideals of a true hero. (A True Hero doesn’t aim to kill his enemy. Exception might be made if there is someone innocent in direct danger because of the enemy, but even then that is iffy. A True Hero certainly does not seek revenge.)
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As punishment for turning from the path of a True Hero, Toshinori is slowly stripped of his ability to be a hero. His injury slowly weakens him and steals time away from him. And before meeting Izuku, he is also stripped of his hope and optimism that fueled his dream to begin with. 
And that hopelessness leads him to at first say Izuku could not be a hero without a quirk. Something he must have been battling internally because he was losing the use of his quirk. And Izuku’s question is probably reminded him of what he had to face every day in the mirror as he grows weaker. What is he without the use of his quirk? Certainly no hero, he thinks.
(So much more under the cut. I’m so sorry mobile folks.)
Tenya Iida  
Much like All Might, he briefly strays from the heroic path by seeking out revenge for his brother against Stain. This is the kid that defined himself by following in the footsteps of his family and especially his older brother who he idolized much like Izuku idolized All Might. 
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In this moment, he swerves off the path of a hero. He is so caught up in his own revenge, he forgets that a hero would be trying to save the Pro-Hero in more danger. Iida was blinded by the desire to take revenge himself that he nearly paid with his life. 
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Stain ends up taking the payment in the name of the Heroic Ideal and Iida pays with the stab injury to his arm and health complications.
*** See below for Stain as an example of an extreme, an embodiment of ideology. 
Mirio Togata
One of the Big Three. An upperclassmen U.A. student being trained and raised by Sir Nighteye to be a successor to All Might. An incredibly disciplined young man with a difficult-to-master quirk. Someone who has learned from Nighteye to put the success of the mission first.   
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He prioritized a no-conflict/no-suspicion plan, ready to ignore Eri’s fear in their first meeting for the sake of keeping Overhaul lulled into a sense of security. Like Nighteye trained him, he was too busy looking toward the end goal and was blind to the help he could give in the present. He didn’t move to comfort an obviously terrified child. He was ready to abandon her in that moment while working under the idea that Well, they’ll save her when the time is right. 
After realizing what a terrible situation Eri was in, it was then Mirio moved to act like a True Hero.  
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Too little to late until he proved it.
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And he proved it with sacrifice.  
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He made amends, comforting the girl that he didn’t comfort before, and he sacrificed the price to be paid to the Ideals. He lost his quirk, and his ultimate goal of saving 1 million people is cut down to saving only one.
Sir Nighteye
Nighteye was All Might’s sidekick. Loyal and hardworking (and super fan). He was there to aid and support All Might in his work as the Symbol of Peace.
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When All Might falls, Nighteye tries to pull All Might from his duty as the Symbol of Peace by telling him his fate. That was an act of desperation, of genuine concern, and incredibly selfish and cruel. It was said to make Toshinori afraid of that predicted fate. That perhaps if he wasn’t going to stop to heal, then he’d stop because of Nighteye’s grim warning. 
In one moment, Nighteye strips Toshinori of hope and only gives him grim, fated certainty. He will die if he continues. 
And when All Might pushed himself to continue down the path of a True Hero, Nighteye left his side.  
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Nighteye tried making up for it. Looking for ways to avoid it. But he did it his way and didn’t take into account the desires and decisions of other people. 
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Going so far as to select and train a student (Mirio Togata) that he believed would be a good successor for All Might. A hero with One for All and could not be touched, could not be gutted. A better version of All Might in Nighteye’s view. It was, quite frankly, another selfish act that took autonomy from both Mirio who was not aware that Nighteye was training him for that and Toshinori Yagi whose quirk was his own to pass down, his choice. 
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Nighteye went as far as reject All Might’s choice and discourage Izuku before an important part of his hero training under his own wing. 
Nighteye only sees things his way. It may be a personality trait built on his belief that his Quirk Foresight is absolute truth. That he knows best because of the way he sees things turn out according to his visions. He is stuck doing things his own way and only his way. He, in his selfishness and arrogance, took away hope and tried to do everything himself to obtain a certain end goal without properly handling the present. In those ways, he went off the path of a True Hero. 
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While he did end up seeing that he made those mistakes, and he hoped for a better future where he is proven wrong, he still pays for his years of arrogance and selfishness with his life. (And his death symbolically allows for his certainty to die with him. It is no longer a certain thing that All Might will face a grim end, Izuku proved that Nighteye could be wrong. This allows for the existence of uncertainty and hope. Because there cannot be hope without first uncertainty.) 
Endeavor
(Oh boy, here we go. The impetus that finally got me to actually write this damn thing and get it out of my head and on paper.)
Previous Number 2 Hero, defacto Number 1 Pro-Hero that abused his position and family. This is a man that, through his career as a pro-hero has:
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Not Saved the Hearts of People, in fact keeping distant and cold toward people, scaring them.
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Stole hope from his wife and family. Abusing them and driving them into hopeless despair. Causing trauma to his wife and children.  
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He misunderstood the kind of hero All Might was. Gave up on his own abilities. He didn’t push himself beyond his own limits until recently. Instead “entrusting” his own dreams and ambitions to Shouto by pushing him way too far as a child.  
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Endeavor was only recently faced with the reality of the depth of his mistakes. (See my recent post on that here.) 
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And to my surprise, Endeavor has been showing self awareness. He realizes that he doesn’t fit into All Might’s shoes, he never gave hope to society and it shows with the rocketing crime rate. He is aware that he isn’t good enough, isn’t on the right path. And he begins his attempt to fix things or at least better things from this point on by asking All Might for advice. 
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Endeavor is an incredibly flawed man who has recently been making an attempt to make amends. But that by itself does not erase what he did in his past. 
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He is currently being punished by the narrative with symbolic scars to mirror the scar on his son’s face and the scar on the side of the man he tried to force his son to surpass. As if to say, you may change, you may better yourself, you may even be forgiven, but you are marked by what you have done because those you’ve affected have been marked for years. It is only fair he too bears the marks of his sins. 
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If the Dabi is a Todoroki as theorized, it may be that Dabi is the embodiment of all the worst feelings toward Endeavor and the results of Endeavor’s actions. Endeavor is literally facing the consequences of his sins in the form of his possible son. 
His punishment isn’t finished yet. I think we will soon see the depth of it soon. Also, we will see whether or not this will affect Endeavor’s standing as a hero and society’s views of him. Because right now, he’s the strongest hero they have and his defeat of the noumu only just gave them some sense of security after the retirement of All Might. A very complex situation.  
How is Izuku the Embodiment of True Heroic Ideals?
Izuku grew up watching and studying all heroes. Especially All Might. He emulated All Might from an incredibly young age. During those formative years, All Might was the Embodiment of Heroic Ideals. Izuku learned from him and those ideals became what he lived for. “Save with a Smile” neatly packages it.
His main desire is to become a hero, but not just any hero. A hero that saves everyone. His body moved on it’s own to save Bakugou in the beginning and that impressed All Might, changed him, and Izuku was given the opportunity to earn One for All which allowed him to chance those heroic desires.
Izuku doesn’t embody quite the same thing as All Might did. Where All Might was the Symbol of Peace, bringing peace through his cleanup of the villain underworld, Izuku is growing in a now tumultuous time, a shifting away from peace into uncertainty. So while All Might grew into the Symbol of Peace, Izuku must grow into the Symbol of Hope (See my short thoughts for that here and @aoimikans expansion on it here).
Izuku embodies this living ideal of a True Hero: Saves Others Body and Heart, Gives Hope in Uncertainty, Pushes himself Beyond his Limits
These ideals drive him ever forward. 
Many of the other characters embody these in part or at varying levels or prioritize things not necessarily a core tenet of a True Hero (for example, being the strongest. Being the strongest is certainly helpful when being a hero, it makes saving others easier when strength is needed. A fine trait, but not a true end goal of a hero by itself.)
*** Let me note here, Izuku and All Might aren’t the only ones that are shown to be the Embodiment or the Extreme of an Ideal or Desire. My Hero Academia has a few others. Bakugou is a bit of an embodiment of Ambition and deals with the complications of unregulated ambition - He has been learning, growing, and maturing as the series progresses. Endeavor is or was an embodiment of Envy and deals with the wounded pride and fear that usually sticks to envy - though he is now trying to change. Sir Nighteye was the embodiment of Obsession and Consuming Desire for Control that follows obsession - super fan, need to fix everything himself, not taking into account others’ desires. All for One being an Embodiment of Evil, Greed, Timeless Undercurrent of Unease in All Societies. And Stain. 
Stain is an example of an Extreme, Fanatic Ideology. It’s one thing to live as an example for others and influence them by merit of the good in what you do yourself (i.e. Izuku, All Might). It is another thing to force your ideology on others with violence. Stain recognizes what it takes to be a True Hero, but in his Fanaticism he deems anything less than perfect to be unworthy of the title and must forfeit their life. That and once he judges someone unworthy, he does not allow for the individual to leave and change. 
During the Stain Arc, Stain scolds Iida as if trying to teach him in his own way, but then proceeds with trying to kill him as if he has no faith in a person’s ability to change which is hypocritical since he recognizes that his crimes do change other heroes in the areas he’s been too. And he himself does not live by the rules he holds above everything else. 
So while he holds these ideals of a True Hero above all else and acts upon what he views as the narrative’s will, he is not embodiment of them. He is only the embodiment of his own fanaticism. 
Izuku has and can save those that stray from those Ideals. 
(Hhhhhh nearly done. It’s almost finally out of my head.) 
SO. Izuku is an embodiment of a True Hero, and because of that his actions speak to and affect those around him whether or not that is his intent. He can save their hearts and help nudge them back onto the True Heroic Path. Giving them that nudge saves them or gives them the opportunity to change and save themselves or go on to save others.  
Those he has affected for the better and perhaps saved them from worse punishment by the force of the narrative: 
All Might 
Izuku has saved All Might’s heart twice. 
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When they first meet, All Might is in a deep hopelessness. He is running out of time, unable to be a hero when he can’t use his quirk, and thinks himself a pathetic doomed man. Granted, we didn’t know the extent of that at the beginning, but now I think we can draw those conclusions. 
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Because Izuku ran out, acted heroic without a quirk, All Might was knocked out of his malaise and remembered what it meant for him to be a true hero. He pushed himself beyond his limit - perhaps after not doing so for years - and beat the slime villain.
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Not only that but he went to Izuku after, recognizing the same spirit of a True Hero in him, made amends and gave him back the hope he’d momentarily taken from him. 
The second time was at Kamino. All Might went in thinking This is it. This is likely what Nighteye saw. This is the end. But Izuku’s presence there and the reminder that he had to survive to teach him was what pushed him to not only defeat All for One but also 
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He got his hope back for survival. He got back his will to live, his will to fight for it. Even started jogging and caring for his body so he could properly train Izuku with the only body he has left. 
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And (after a bit of a rough patch post-Nighteye) even more recently growing as a teacher - giving his advice to students and even Endeavor when he was asked for it. Also, he is growing as Toshinori Yagi, the man he is as a retired hero (and Dadmight).
Todoroki Shouto
This is one of the more obvious ones. 
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Todoroki was only using half his quirk due to his view of his fire half as a result of childhood trauma. Using only half of his power was never sustainable and would have kept Todoroki from becoming a hero. In this case, Izuku lost the physical battle, but his actions won him the moral battle and pulled Todoroki onto the path toward coming to terms with his own power and growing as a hero student. 
Tenya Iida
When Iida briefly strayed to seek revenge and almost got himself killed, Izuku was the first there to save him, quickly followed by Todoroki who is shown using his left side because of Izuku’s previous actions. 
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Because of Izuku’s and Todoroki’s actions here, they are able to snap Iida out of it and help encourage him to get back up on the right track and Iida is able to grow from this. 
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And Iida uses this experience as motivation to get involved when he believes Izuku and Todoroki are going to make a similar mistake at Kamino.  
Which brings me to my final thought (thank fucking goodness).
Izuku will someday be tested on those ideals.
I believe there will come a day that Izuku will be tested much like All Might was. Something or someone will be put in a great amount of danger, Izuku will be at risk of losing something and will be faced with a difficult decision. Do the harder right thing or fall off the Path of the True Hero. 
Izuku will either make the proper choice himself or with emotional support from those he has saved/affected in a positive way (like Iida at Kamino). He will finally decide on the right course of action and be rewarded by the narrative with the return of the thing or person at risk of being lost. 
I personally think that person at risk will either be All Might or his mother. It will look incredibly grim, but should Izuku stick to the right courses of action as it is his wont to do for the most part then it will turn out alright.  
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He’s already twisted fate once. I have faith he can do it again and give hope to us as readers even in the darkest points of the story should they come.
Nighteye said something on his deathbed that I think strengthens this idea of this Living Force of the True Hero Ideal working through Izuku and Izuku embodying it. 
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Energy. Force. Ideals. Wishes. Anything you’d like to call it. It’s there. It’s been there since before Izuku and will be there long after I think. It’s been living and moving and affecting characters that choose to follow it. Working through them too. 
The only truly certain thing now is that I’m excited to see how it continues to do so. When it comes down to it, it’s just damn good writing and a damn good story with damn good characters. 
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thecomicsnexus · 6 years ago
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WORLD’S FINEST #285-288 NOVEMBER 1982 - FEBRUARY 1983 BY MARV WOLFMAN, MIKE W. BARR, CARY BURKETT, RICH BUCKLER, SAM DE LA ROSA, TREVOR VON EEDEN, ADRIAN GONZALES, LYNN VARLEY, GENE D’ANGELO, CARL GAFFORD
SYNOPSIS (FROM DC DATABASE)
On their way back home after defeating Amalgamax, Superman takes Batman flying back to Gotham City and the experience gives Batman a new perspective on things. However, as they descend on the city, they spot a man being attacked by a tiger and the heroes immediately help. While Superman takes out the tiger, Batman makes sure the victim is alive. When Superman approaches the animal to know more about it, a dense black cloud transports him into another dimension, leaving Batman alone in the street, where several wild animals appear out of nowhere. Batman is taken to the limit of his physical abilities to defeat the animals, but in the end he collapses from exhaustion.
When Bruce recovers, he finds himself back at Wayne Manor, with Superman watching over him. The Man of Steel explains that he was eventually released from the cloud dimension and when he returned, he found Batman unconscious and the animals gone. Bruce then asks Superman to stay for a moment and talk about his past in Smallville and his stories soothe Batman's mind, always tortured about a lost childhood. When Bruce falls asleep, Superman returns to Metropolis, where he tries to get a few hours of sleep, but he has a horrible nightmare involving Batman's death and the Zodiac Idol, which was stolen from Superman not so long ago.
Superman goes to Gotham to warn Bruce about his dream and he finds that Bruce is currently with Dr. Dundee, discussing the theft of his medical records. Bruce realizes that only someone who knows Batman's secret identity must be interested in such information, but since there is nobody who knows about it on the loose, Bruce ignores the event. Superman finally tells Bruce about his dream and he also informs Batman that the zodiac coins that were given to the Museum are fake. When Bruce examines the coin in his own collection, he also finds that it is fake and the heroes realize that whoever has gotten the real coins, must be planning to use them with the Zodiac Idol.
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In the meantime, Dr. Zodiac and his lover, Marissa are waiting for their master's instructions after they have successfully stolen Bruce Wayne's medical records and proven that he is the perfect test subject when he defeated their animals. The crooks know that Batman is Bruce Wayne.
Without nobody else to turn to, Batman and Superman ask Zatanna for assistance and she tries to decipher the mystery of the fake coins, but as soon as she touches them, she becomes possessed and attacks her friends. Batman and Superman fight Zatanna's magic and using a well aimed Batarang, Batman forces Zatanna to drop the enchanted coins. Zatanna is free from the possession, but she faints, muttering something about a terrible being and the heroes realize that their troubles have just begun.
Batman and Superman have taken Zatanna to the Justice League Satellite after the incident with the fake zodiac coins. Wonder Woman tries to heal Zatanna, but the sorceress doesn't seem to recover. Wonder Woman decides to take Zatanna to Paradise Island, where she will use the Purple Healing Ray to cure Zatanna. Batman and Superman return to their cities and Zatanna starts a slow recovery with the healing ray, although the damage caused by the evil dark cloud is still too great.
In the meantime, Dr. Zodiac ponders about his current situation and remembers how he was sprung out of prison by Madame Zodiac. Once outside, she revealed that she needed the Zodiac Idol he had previously used in order to get revenge against Batman and Superman, which is exactly what Dr. Zodiac wanted. Dr. Zodiac retrieved the Zodiac Idol and Madame Zodiac used magic to recover all the zodiac power coins, changing them for fake ones. In the process, Dr. Zodiac had fallen in love with Marissa, but she seemed only determined to use the power of the zodiac idol to fulfill the wishes of the evil dark cloud. Finally, Dr. Zodiac is forced to stop remembering as Madame Zodiac needs him to release the powers of the Zodiac Idol and energize the dark cloud.
At that moment, Bruce Wayne had returned home and after a training session with Dick Grayson, he decides to slow down his efforts against crime, much to everyone's surprise. In the meantime, the dark cloud starts moving again and creates havoc wherever it goes. The cloud's powers seem to unleash people's darkest impulses and turns people against each other using hate as the fuel.
When Clark Kent returns to his apartment, he notices that his neighbor's dog is missing and using his x-ray vision, he finds the puppy at the mercy of a satanic cult and about to be sacrificed. Superman stops the senseless murder and attacks the maniacs. However, he is once again attacked by the dark cloud and is temporarily incapacitated. Moments later in Gotham City, Lucius Fox returns home only to find a large faction of the Ku Klux Klan waiting for him outside his house.
Batman and Robin are out on patrol when they hear the police radio report about the attack on Lucius' home and they go to the place to stop the monsters of hate from killing Lucius. They succeed with small help from Superman, who arrives in time to assist them. With the criminals restrained, Superman explains his experience in Metropolis, which leaves the heroes baffled.
Later, the dark cloud has gained all the powers required from Dr. Zodiac and Madame Zodiac and a new wave of monsters start plaguing the cities of America. Many members of the Justice League have to fight Werewolves and Vampires. In Gotham City, Batman, Robin and Superman have to deal with a horde of Zombies, but after successfully dealing with the monsters, Batman is possessed by the dark cloud.
Superman, Batman and Robin have taken care of the undead situation in Gotham City, but Batman's body has being possessed by the Dark Cloud. His friends are unaware of this and when they are informed about a fire nearby, Superman takes them to the place and he starts working to save the people and put out the fire. However, Batman doesn't move or speak as he is struggling against the dark entity that wants to take full control of his body. When Superman is finished, he joins Batman and the Dark Knight attacks Robin before he starts hitting Superman, damaging his own hands. In his frantic madness, Batman is restrained by Superman and the Dark Cloud is forced to leave Batman's body.
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The whole event is witnessed by Madame Zodiac and Dr. Zodiac, but the latter starts having second thoughts about his involvement with the dark entity. Madame Zodiac punishes him for doubting the power of their lord and Dr. Zodiac leaves the room, without a clear path of what to do next.
With Batman unconscious, Robin takes him back home and Superman goes to the Justice League Satellite I, where he is informed about the waves of crimes around the world. He contacts Wonder Woman and asks her about Zatanna, but he learns that she still hasn't recovered. With nobody else who can explain what is happening, Superman returns to Earth.
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The next night, Bruce has recovered and is willing to go to his friend, Dan Hunter's party. During the event, Bruce is introduced to Dan's future wife, Andrea Dune. After spending some time with the guests, Bruce goes out looking for some air and he spots a dark presence moving close near the building. Bruce leaves the party and after a quick change, he investigates as Batman in the Gotham Park. From the shadows come a number of Demons, summoned by Madame Zodiad, that attack Batman. At that moment, Superman gets a mental warning about danger and he goes to Gotham City, where he tries to help Batman against the Demons, but the magic used against him makes his efforts futile as he watches the spawns from hell take his friend away.
Moments later, Batman is taken to Madame Zodiac's hideout, where they prepare his body for the possession.
Superman continues searching for Batman after he was snatched away by some Demons. When Superman goes to the Justice League Satellite I, he loses his temper, but when he learns that Zatanna has recovered, he goes to ask her about her experience with the dark magic, but she is barely aware of whatever happened.
In the meantime, Madame Zodiac and her dark master have prepared Batman's body for the possession and the dark cloud takes hold of Batman. The dark entity then claims that he will take over the world using several clones of the Batman's body, which will serve all his purposes.
Meanwhile, Superman is trying to find Batman, when his attention is drawn to a monster prowling Metropolis. Superman follows the beast and when he captures it, he is soon transported to a dark place, where there is a small mausoleum in the middle of nowhere. Superman breaks into the place and confronts the dark being in Batman's body. Using hypnosis, Superman forces Batman to fight the evil inside him by making him recall the past tragedy that shaped him.
With Batman fighting for control of his body, Superman can focus on defeating Madame Zodiac and after she is taken care of, Superman gets help from Dr. Zodiac, who informs Superman about a secret door that will unlock someone who can help them against the dark entity. Superman breaks the door and they find Madame Zodiac inside, trapped and powerless. When they free her, she explains that the dark entity manifested to her while she was practicing occult arts and it used the Zodiac Idol to separate her in two parts. Her evil part allied with the dark entity and they locked her in the room.
Once free, the good Madame Zodiac confronts her evil counterpart and after the struggle, a single person comes out. Madame Zodiac's evil personality takes control and Dr. Zodiac fights her, but Both of them are knocked unconscious by the dark entity, who has been defeated by Batman and has returned to the globe, where it commands all the Batman clones to fight Batman and Superman. The heroes work together to destroy the clones and after dealing with all of them, they use the Zodiac Idol to destroy the dark entity's globe and send it back to its own dimension.
With the threat under control, Batman and Superman return to their normal lives, even though, they have just experienced something hard to understand.
REVIEW
Wolfman is doing some changes in this title, but there is little consistency. The plots are dragging from before, the writers are changing too often (in the middle of the story), and the issue drawn by Trevor Von Eeden looks too different and way more dark than the others (it should have been the tone of the whole story).
It does feel, however, that these stories at least matter and that World’s Finest isn’t just an anthology team-up title. Not enough, though.
I give this story a score of 6
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raging-violets · 6 years ago
Text
WIP Meme
We were tagged by @isaaclahysand and @siriussblackx to do this. Now, combined we have 40+  WIPs but we’re not going to post all of them because that’d be crazy and because we don’t want to subject you to reading all of it. So we’re just posting the ones that we’re currently working on or the ones we’re most excited to post soon.
The Rules: Post the names of all your files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous
We’re doing Title, fandom, pairing, and the summary of the fic to cut down on what you all have to read.
Who are we kidding? This is still going to be a read, haha. So continue on if you wish.
Friction//The Flash//Barry Allen x OC - SEQUEL TO FUEL TO THE FIRE. Barry thought saving his mom would fix his life; but Flashpoint made things worse. His best friend is doomed to die. Cadence thought she could handle the Assassination Bureau's plan. But what's harder; your rival being your best friend or knowing the impending destruction of the world is your fault? -S3-
Burn//The Flash//Barry Allen x  OC, KillerVibe - SEQUEL TO FRICTION. Barry’s time in the SpeedForce has ended and he needs to come to grips to what’s changed complete with a villain who is always one step ahead. As the new leader of Team Flash, Cadence struggles with her own demons from Barry's absence, truly understanding what it means to be powerless. Then they find themselves at the top of a metahuman hit list. –S4-
Filthy Stinking Rich//The Flash/Barry Allen x OC, KillerVibe - Side story to The Flash and The Flame series. Barry, Cadence, Brady, Caitlin, and Cisco travel to Metropolis to help plan for Barry’s and Cadence’s wedding. However, Barry learns more about the life Cadence left behind and has trouble figuring out whether or not he wants to be a part of it when he sees how ruthless they are. *Based on Crazy Rich Asians.
Smitten//The Flash//Barry Allen x OC, KillerVibe - The Flash’s biggest fan will stop at nothing to get as close to their idol as possible.
Mindhunters//The Flash// No pairings. Based on the Cold Case episodes Mindhunters and The Woods.
We Were Merely Freshmen//Riverdale//Archie Andrews x OC (and some Cheryl x OC x Jason, and maybe Sweet Pea x OC) - Before Jason's death, Riverdale was the town with pep. As Cheryl's best friend, Gabby Rush has to keep up appearances. She didn't want people to know she was being tutored by Archie and liked him. She didn't want anyone to know she had problems at home that would eventually entangle her with the darkness within the town. Who knew freshman year could be so complicated? [Pre Series]
Crossroads//3 Ninjas// Emily Seargeant x Rocky Douglas x OC, Colt Douglas x OC - With Rocky soon starting senior year, everything comes down on him all at once, making the normal pressures of life almost unbearable. When Jack Harding is released from prison Rocky, Colt, and TumTum are initially wary, and have every right to be; He's got a revenge plan that's been in the process for years. Los Angeles is his target and the boys may not come out on top this time.
Throwing Curveballs//3 Ninjas// Rocky Douglas x OC - I don’t have an actual summary for this story yet, but it’s literally just a ship fic that deals a lot with baseball and Rocky’s inability to stand up for himself against his parents. It does, however, have a big action portion of the story as well.
According To You//Suite Life//Zack Martin x OC - Zack never had a reason to be jealous of any guys. Okay, there were the few that Maddie had been interested in, but that was a long time ago. He's older. More mature. So what is it about Riley's friend from home that he can't stand? Maybe it's the sheer discomfort on her face whenever said friend is around.
Shadows and Regrets//Zack Martin x OC, Cody Martin x OC - Zack and Cody learn more about Riley’s and Rhuben’s past than ever before, and once they do get a look into that life, they may regret it.
Bruises On My Heart//McFly/Busted/McBusted//Matt Willis x OC, Charlie Simpson x OC - They always say you're nothing without your fans. There's truth in that. But some fans...some fans take it to heart and their idols become their property. Literally.
Little Sister//Big Time Rush//Katie  Knight x OC - Katie has always been the guys’ little sister. But at eighteen she’s not so little anymore. Her big brothers have all gone on to do their own thing. So she’s has to learn how to deal with her problems on her own. It might not have been a good idea to turn to the internet to do it.
Darkness Before Dawn//Until Dawn//Matt x OC - The Wendigos were supposed to stay on the mountain. Blackwood Pines was never supposed to be spoken of again. The survivors were supposed to move on. Supposed to. Two years after ‘the prank’, one year after their escape, the survivors were just starting to get their lives back on track. But when disappearances and grisly discoveries are found in their hometown, they realize the Wendigos may have finally come off that mountain. And they’re not going to let them take over without a fight. That doesn’t mean it’ll be easy. There was so much they had seen on that mountain, so much they had lost, and it’s time for them to take a stand.
--
Out of Focus | The Flash | WestAllen, WesThawne, Spallen, Cisco x OC - Sequel to "In a Flash", second in Blindsided series. "You can't depend on your judgement when your imagination is out of focus." After the singularity, Barry's speed fluctuates as he looks for stability in his life. In her final months of probation, Averey navigates Team Flash and a meta-human world that moved on without her. Meanwhile Zoom arrives, bringing with him a second speedster: angry, and with a face of their past. -S2-
Off the Record | The Flash - Tentative title. Side story to the Blindsided series, more specifically "Out of Focus" following Henry, Barry, and Averey learning to grow as a family at Henry's cabin outside of Central City.
Disarm | The Flash | Eddie Thawne x OC - Eddie Thawne had once saved Averey Moore's future. Now it was her turn to return the favor.
Army of One | Criminal Minds | No Pairings - With a B.A.U. member back from the dead, shifting team responsibilities, and fractured trusts, a case consultant with ulterior motives is the last thing the B.A.U. team needs to deal with. Especially while working an ongoing case with a slowly uncovered pattern of bank robberybrelated deaths. With a collective knowledge of the streets, and the battles brought closer to home than before, the B.A.U. must learn to rebuild their family, and trust someone who believes that fighting alone is what has kept them safe. So far.
Untitled | The Flash/Criminal Minds Crossover - Maybe set during the Flash season 5, if not season 4. When Team Flash encounters the horrific realization that someone is going around killing metahumans, the BAU is called into their most indescribable case yet. The kind books are written about.
Meet You There | Just My Luck aka McFly/Busted/McBusted bandfiction | Many pairings (with OCs) - Social media wasn't around when McFly started. Now the music industry relied on it. Getting into the industry was a dream come true not only for McFly, but for their friends. But their dreams had a few nightmares thrown in. Amidst the always changing industry, new band directions, unashamedly vocal fans, and their own stresses, their love of music always brings them back together.
Hindsight | 3 Ninjas | Rocky Douglas x OC, Colt Douglas x OC, Colt Douglas x Jo Lightning - In hindsight, Colt should have asked more questions. When it's uncovered that Hugo Snyder's connection to the Douglas's past is more extensive than previously thought, everything they thought they knew gets questioned. At a formidable time of their lives, the boys find themselves walking the thin line of acting or staying out of the way when they find that danger is closer to home than ever before. Figuring out girls, and which colleges to apply to should have been the only obstacles in their lives but keeping up with homework, social lives, and responsibilities at home fall by the wayside as worry and tension builds. Snyder has wanted nothing more than to see Sam Douglas go down, and he will do anything to make it happen – they all should have seen it coming. Colt never should have ignored his gut feeling.
Battle of Wits | 3 Ninjas | Colt Douglas x OC - Pure self-indulgent shipping fodder.
Mind, Body, Spirit, Heart | 3 Ninjas | Rocky Douglas x OC, Colt Douglas x OC - 4 part fanfic series, not sure how long each fic will be yet, following Rocky, Colt, Riley, and Rhuben as they learn what it means to embody the way of the ninja.
Speak of the Devil / Bite My Tongue | Big Time Rush | Maybe Logan Mitchell x OC - Two fics, first is a short fic, centered around Logan's dad returning and wanting to be part of his life again.
Ripple Effect | Riverdale | Pairing undecided - Bo knew what it was like to try and keep things quiet: You don’t think anyone would understand. You think everyone will believe it was your fault. You start thinking of every worst case scenario in the book. Even with the greatest support system in the world, you find yourself choking on your words. She knew Ethel’s secret would result in dire consequences for Chuck Clayton. But, no one knew that Bo’s secret would result in consequences her prior run-ins with Sheriff Keller would not help. Loose lips sink ships as they say. Only this ship, this boat that the Evans family has used for their outdoor company, belonged to her family. And in turn, belonged to the Blossoms. 
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dfroza · 3 years ago
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the sacred truth of Love isn’t trying to be “cool” with the world.
it will just keep being True no matter what people think of it.
and for our part it takes humility to Love our Creator, and not all surrender to this.
Today’s reading of the Scriptures from the New Testament is the 4th chapter of the Letter of Ephesians:
[Our Divine Calling]
As a prisoner of the Lord, I plead with you to walk holy, in a way that is suitable to your high rank, given to you in your divine calling. With tender humility and quiet patience, always demonstrate gentleness and generous love toward one another, especially toward those who may try your patience. Be faithful to guard the sweet harmony of the Holy Spirit among you in the bonds of peace, being one body and one spirit, as you were all called into the same glorious hope of divine destiny.
For the Lord God is one, and so are we, for we share in one faith, one baptism, and one Father. And he is the perfect Father who leads us all, works through us all, and lives in us all!
And he has generously given each one of us supernatural grace, according to the size of the gift of Christ. This is why he says:
“He ascends into the heavenly heights
taking his many captured ones with him,
and gifts were given to men.”
He “ascended” means that he returned to heaven, after he had first descended from the heights of heaven, even to the lower regions, namely, the earth. The same one who descended is also the one who ascended above the heights of heaven, in order to begin the restoration and fulfillment of all things.
And he has appointed some with grace to be apostles, and some with grace to be prophets, and some with grace to be evangelists, and some with grace to be pastors, and some with grace to be teachers. And their calling is to nurture and prepare all the holy believers to do their own works of ministry, and as they do this they will enlarge and build up the body of Christ. These grace ministries will function until we all attain oneness into the faith, until we all experience the fullness of what it means to know the Son of God, and finally we become one into a perfect man with the full dimensions of spiritual maturity and fully developed into the abundance of Christ.
And then our immaturity will end! And we will not be easily shaken by trouble, nor led astray by novel teachings or by the false doctrines of deceivers who teach clever lies. But instead we will remain strong and always sincere in our love as we express the truth. All our direction and ministries will flow from Christ and lead us deeper into him, the anointed Head of his body, the church.
For his “body” has been formed in his image and is closely joined together and constantly connected as one. And every member has been given divine gifts to contribute to the growth of all; and as these gifts operate effectively throughout the whole body, we are built up and made perfect in love.
So with the wisdom given to me from the Lord I say: You should not live like the unbelievers around you who walk in their empty delusions. Their corrupted logic has been clouded because their hearts are so far from God—their blinded understanding and deep-seated moral darkness keeps them from the true knowledge of God. Because of spiritual apathy, they surrender their lives to lewdness, impurity, and sexual obsession.
But this is not the way of life that Christ has unfolded within you. If you have really experienced the Anointed One, and heard his truth, it will be seen in your life; for we know that the ultimate reality is embodied in Jesus!
And he has taught you to let go of the lifestyle of the ancient man, the old self-life, which was corrupted by sinful and deceitful desires that spring from delusions. Now it’s time to be made new by every revelation that’s been given to you. And to be transformed as you embrace the glorious Christ-within as your new life and live in union with him! For God has re-created you all over again in his perfect righteousness, and you now belong to him in the realm of true holiness. So discard every form of dishonesty and lying so that you will be known as one who always speaks the truth, for we all belong to one another.
But don’t let the passion of your emotions lead you to sin! Don’t let anger control you or be fuel for revenge, not for even a day. Don’t give the slanderous accuser, the Devil, an opportunity to manipulate you! If any one of you has stolen from someone else, never do it again. Instead, be industrious, earning an honest living, and then you’ll have enough to bless those in need.
And never let ugly or hateful words come from your mouth, but instead let your words become beautiful gifts that encourage others; do this by speaking words of grace to help them.
The Holy Spirit of God has sealed you in Jesus Christ until you experience your full salvation. So never grieve the Spirit of God or take for granted his holy influence in your life. Lay aside bitter words, temper tantrums, revenge, profanity, and insults. But instead be kind and affectionate toward one another. Has God graciously forgiven you? Then graciously forgive one another in the depths of Christ’s love.
The Letter of Ephesians, Chapter 4 (The Passion Translation)
Today’s paired chapter of the Testaments is the 8th chapter of the book of Jeremiah that warns the people because of their lies:
Eternal One: When that sad day comes, the graves of My people will be desecrated. The remains of Judah’s kings and her leaders, of priests and prophets, of the citizens of My city Jerusalem will be pulled from their graves. Their bones will be spread out over the ground, exposing them to the sun, moon, and the stars of heaven, the heavenly hosts, which our enemies loved, served, chased after, sought out, and worshiped. These bones will not be gathered or buried again, but they will be scattered like dung on the ground. As for the survivors of this wicked nation, they will prefer death to life in all the places where I have driven them.
The Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, has spoken!
Eternal One (to Jeremiah): Tell My people that these are My words:
“When people stumble and fall, don’t they get up again?
When people are lost, don’t they try to find their way back?
So why have these people turned away from Me
and refused to come back?
They hang onto lies that lead them further away
instead of embracing the truth and coming home to Me.
I listen intently for someone, anyone, to speak the truth.
But it never happens. No one corrects his lies.
No one regrets his evil, saying, ‘What have I done?’
Instead, everyone keeps running farther down that path, away from Me,
Like a horse charging into a battle.
Even the stork in the sky knows her time to migrate.
The dove, the swallow, and the crane
All take flight when the time is right.
But not so with My people.
They do not know or care about the Eternal’s commands.”
How can any of you say, “We are wise, because we have the Eternal’s law”?
How little you care about the truth!
A pen in the hand of your teachers drips nothing but lies.
The day is coming when these so-called wise teachers will be put to shame;
their lives will be shattered when they are captured and taken away.
Why will this happen? Because they have rejected and perverted My word.
Are these the works of wise men?
This is why I will give their wives away to intruders
and their property to invaders.
Greed has corrupted this culture, from the least to the greatest:
everyone is tainted with this lust for what they don’t deserve.
The prophets and priests are no better.
Their lives reek with deceit.
To heal the brokenness of My people, they offer superficial words.
They say, “Peace, peace” as if all is well, but there is no peace.
Do they feel any shame for their disgraceful deeds?
Absolutely not. My very own have forgotten how to blush.
And so it is that they will fall among the fallen and be defeated:
when the time comes, they will stumble beneath the weight of My punishment;
The harvest will soon be gone, a thing of the past.
There will be no grapes on the vine, no figs in the tree;
Even the leaves will wither and fall.
For what I have given so generously, I will now take away.
People: Why are we still sitting here, exposed and waiting for death to come?
Let’s get together and run to the walled cities and die there.
We are without hope because the Eternal our God has pronounced our judgment.
He has given us a cup of bitter poison to drink because we have sinned against Him.
We were counting on peace, but none came.
We waited for a time of healing, but now all we have is terror.
We can hear the snorts of their warhorses as they charge into Dan;
at the thunder of their hoofs and noise of their neighs the whole land trembles.
They have come to devour us—our land and everything in it,
the city and all her citizens.
Eternal One: Look, I have released an army of serpents against you;
they slither like vipers across the land.
There is no hope of charming them.
There is no escape from their deadly bite.
Jeremiah: There is no cure for my grief.
My heart breaks for what I see and hear.
Listen, my Lord, don’t You hear the daughter of our people weeping, crying out to You from exile?
“Is the Eternal no longer in Zion? Does her King no longer reside there?”
Eternal One: But Jeremiah, why have they provoked Me with their dark and evil practices?
Why do they worship these handcrafted idols, these worthless gods?
Jeremiah: The harvest is over, summer has ended,
and we are not saved.
And because the daughter of my people is being ripped apart, I am ripped apart.
From within, a dark and cold hurt arises.
From without, I am strangled by the horror of it all.
Is there no healing medicine in Gilead, no balm that could help my people?
Is there no physician who can help?
Why is there no healing for the wounds inflicted on my people?
The Book of Jeremiah, Chapter 8 (The Voice)
A link to my personal reading of the Scriptures for Saturday, August 21 of 2021 with a paired chapter from each Testament of the Bible along with Today’s Proverbs and Psalms
A post by John Parsons that looks at the suffering we experience in life and our response to it:
How we choose to deal with trouble and suffering (i.e., tzuris) makes all the difference. We may be tempted to bitterness over our lives, but then what? To paraphrase Soren Kierkegaard, the way of life is how more than it is what. You may be powerless to control reality, but you are nevertheless responsible for how you respond to it. Check your attitude. Do you chose to live in lament over a healing that has not yet happened, or perhaps regard yourself as a hapless victim? Or will you attempt to justify your suffering as a means of personal atonement, accepting it passively as a "good child" or martyr? Does your suffering stretch your heart, or does it cause you to shrink back in fear or self-pity?
In this connection, recall that when the Jews came to Marah, they “could not drink the water because it was bitter” (Exod. 15:23). The Hebrew, however, could be read, “they could not drink the water because they (i.e., the people) were bitter (כִּי מָרִים הֵם). The problem is often not “out there” but within the heart (Matt. 15:19-20). How we choose to see, in other words, says more about us than it does the external world. If you make the mistake of reading the daily news and taking it seriously, you will see only ugliness, and you run the risk of becoming hardhearted. Worldly despair eclipses apprehension of the Presence of God....
We have to use ayin tovah, "a good eye," whenever we encounter the inevitable (and ubiquitous) adversities of life. Instead of seeing ourselves as victims of undeserved trouble, and instead of harboring resentment over the past and entertaining fear of the future, we must learn to see adversity in the light of faith that teaches lessons about finding resilience and hope. Faith affirms that adversity has an end that is ultimately good. Faith will not bow the knee to dark visions and live in dread of worldly fate.
It's been said, "hurt people hurt people," which means that if healing is not found for our woundedness, our pain will likely “leak out” as depression and hostility toward others... Finding inner peace is therefore crucial lest we become poisoned through a "root of bitterness" that defiles many (Heb. 12:15). The worst sort of prison is the one we make for ourselves, by choosing to be taken captive by fear and anger. May the Lord show us mercy and help us grow in grace and in the knowledge of his heart in all things. Amen. [Hebrew for Christians]
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8.20.21 • Facebook
Today’s message (Days of Praise) from the Institute for Creation Research
August 21, 2021
Sealed by the Holy Spirit
“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:13-14)
From very ancient times it has been the custom to confirm and guarantee an agreed-on purchase by sealing the contract with a seal that could only be broken by the buyer when he was ready to take possession of his purchase.
The marvelous transaction seen by John at God’s throne in heaven was in reference to this practice. There, only the Lamb is found worthy to open the seven-sealed scroll on which is recorded the title to the whole creation. “And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the [scroll], and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood” (Revelation 5:9). The purchase price had been paid on Calvary, and the resurrected Lamb had come to claim His possession.
And we are part of that possession! The price has been paid for our redemption from sin’s bondage, but we have not yet entered on the inheritance which our great Redeemer has promised us. In the meantime, our individual title deed, as it were, has been sealed by none other than the Holy Spirit. He is not only the seal, but also the “earnest”—that is, the down payment, the earnest money—who guarantees the total “redemption of the purchased possession.”
His personal presence in our lives is our assurance that the full promise will be fulfilled, and we are urged to “grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30). He “hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts” (2 Corinthians 1:22). HMM
A tweet by illumiNations:
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@IlluminationsBT: With your prayers and gifts, the Urdu speakers will gain access to Scripture in their own language!
Learn more at: https://bit.ly/3gdTnY5
8.21.21 • 12:01pm • Twitter
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headmonstress-blog · 7 years ago
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tell me all about Abigail's and Mike's relationship :)
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WELP. IF YOU INSIST, ANON!
where to start, where to start....lets start at the beginning. the VERY beginning, when abigail & mike make eye contact for the first time!
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which is THIS SCENE, where abigail is giving her “inspirational speech” about how monsters who arent scary are a blight to society (good inspiration, abigail, really A+) & SIDE EYES mike. this is where abigail cements mike’s fate--- not when he breaks her scream canister. by a mere look, abigail deems mike unworthy of completing her program. of course, mike doesnt know this; he just gets a creepy feeling.
lets look at mike’s pov now. when we’re introduced to hardscrabble, mike gives this line: “she’s a legend! she broke the all-time scare record with a scream in that very can!” which not only gives the audience an impression of her, but also what mike himself thinks about her: he idolizes her& the novelization says he is “thrilled” to see her walking in front of him. he’s shown to idolize great scarers, particularly frank mccay, so it’s no wonder he admires a legendary scarer like abigail. she, despite her, uh, speech--- inspires him to work his hardest.
fast forward to the Scream Can Scene. 
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abigail’s mad. like, she hides it really well, but shes fucking pissed. you can tell in her lines- “what, this? my ONE souvenir from a LIFETIME of scaring? accidents :) happen :) dont :) they :)” like its obvious shes trying to be professional about it. but she gets her revenge, dont you worry. she gives them their exams personally. 
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and mike? she doesnt even let him perform. now, there could be a number of reasons why: she doesnt want him to embarrass himself, or she likes the thrill of abusing her position of power. but the truth is shes already made up her mind about him. way before the scream can thing even happened! ill skip her thing with sulley cuz this post is just gonna be about her and mike.
unlike every other teacher in mike’s life, who encouraged him to scare--- she straight up tells mike he wont succeed because hes not scary. he just, honestly, doesnt look scary. at all. TBH? she thinks shes doing him a justice here. this ties into her article on the website, in which she talks about the “epidemic” in the monster world of encouraging students who wont succeed. “It starts in the home, finds its way through early schooling and our nation’s high schools. It’s the idea that anyone can be scary. And that is simply false.” she goes on to say "Scaring is the one thing that keeps our way of life alive. It's what powers our cities. It's what fuels our transportation. It's what makes our world turn.” like she takes scaring REALLY SERIOUSLY, probably more seriously than anyone. and she should! theres a reason that every monster wants to be a scarer, & that is because their society literally depends on them risking their lives to provide energy for their world. dean hardscrabble is literally singlehandedly entrusted with the task to properly prepare those who risk their life, and the life of the monster world, every time they go through a door. of course shes not going to waste her time with those she deems incompetent. like! “Dean Hardscrabble is internationally known and widely regarded as the foremost authority on the subject of Scaring. [..] When it comes to deciding who can scare and who cannot, Dean Hardscrabble stands alone.” this woman bears the responsibility of every scarer who passes through her program on her shoulders. does she have to be such an asshole about it? well, no, but you can see where she’s coming from. more on her asshole nature and why its unnecessary but understandable ahead.
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i just have one thing to say about this scene: she does NOT have to take this bet. the professional option is NOT to. & yes, i know she is forced to for the sake of the plot, but also because mike says THIS: “[it would prove] that you were WRONG” and abigails ego just goes FULL ON “YOU WANNA GO”? as it says in the MU essential guide, “ALWAYS RIGHT: This seasoned Scarer [Dean Hardscrabble] has shrewd instincts, which she trusts completely. Once she has decided that someone isn’t scary, she never changes her mind. Being challenged by Mike and Sulley is a whole new experience for her, and one she treats with utter scorn.” i mean that....is basically IT! no one has ever questioned her before, no one has DARED to! so of course, abigail “never wrong” hardscrabble RISES to the challenge, her ego is SO baited by this. bringing us to their next interaction...
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SREEEEEEEEEEEE----
actually, one thing before this:
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mike looks up to hardscrabble before the first event. now this doesnt seem like much NOW, but later ill call back to this. 
anyway, back THIS scene:
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abigail, HAS to rub it in mike’s face. SHE HAS TO. HER EGO IS TOO STRONG TO RESIST TAUNTING AND DEBASING MIKE. this is a post i wrote a while ago but basically:
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THE POWER STRUGGLE IS SO REAL, AND ABIGAIL GIVES INTO THIS URGE TO DOMINATE HIM EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. this is where her scream can feelings REALLY shine-- because the professional option is to let him embarrass himself. but she is still hurt about the canister, shes still hurt about him calling her out in front of the entire university, so she taunts him. she taunts and humiliates him. i cant and wont excuse this, this is straight up asshole behavior. abigail is a bitter, egotistical, and selfish dick who degrades mike to make herself feel justified. her pride is even hilariously lampshaded in the fearbook, of all places. students know whats up.
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^ above: hardscrabble’s hilarious lack of character development despite ok making it to the final event. she STILL believes in her heart that mike is truly not scary and the simulator will prove that. 
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remember what i said before, in the first event where mike looks at hardscrabble and scowls? he looks at her in the last event too. but this time, his look is different. he SEARCHES for her in the audience--shes barely visible, on the highest rafter, but he finds her. after all of this, hes STILL looking up to her. remember that mike before he got kicked out-- the one that was thrilled to even see her? hes still there, in this moment, looking for her approval. terrified to perform.
and what does abigail do? scoff at him. this bitch...she SHUNS him, in the moment when he really REALLY needs encouragement. sulley even scowls at her and says to him “dont worry about hardscrabble”. 
this is what really fucking gets me about their relationship. mike so, so desperately looks for a role model in dean hardscrabble. despite that fact that she, on multiple occasions, hurts and insults him, he works even harder to PROVE HER WRONG. not because he wants to stick it to hardscrabble-- because he wants her to see what he can do. that he IS capable. that she can trust in him to be a great scarer, to allow her to teach him. he actually DOES care about what she thinks. hes not doing this to spite her. hes doing this so she can finally accept him.
and abigail? is determined to get him out of her life as soon as possible. that is what hurts me. the “go next” attitude she has. she just sees him as a thorn in her side that wont give up and accept the destiny she has chosen for him. THEY ARE SO SIMILAR THIS WAY. THEY BOTH NEVER GIVE UP. THATS WHY THEY CLASH!!!! THEY ARE THE SAME!!!!
same determination, same attention hog, same enormous ego, same legendary scarer/comedian, same dramatic flair !!! like it physically pains me in the chest to see them on opposite sides but its so GOOD, IT WORKS SO WELL AS A PARALLEL!!!
anyway, lets get on to this part:
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SHOCK !!!! not much to say here, because i have things to say about THIS:
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abigail is FUCKING PISSED, and she doesnt even hide it! why is she so pissed? at first i thought its because mike and sulley cheated in her games- HER games- but jox cheated and she only had that mildly annoyed face (mostly that ok was back in it). my theory? abigail was just starting to believe in mike & the rest of ok.
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i mean, look at this utter CONTEMPT. this is the face of a woman who just found out she was STRUNG ALONG. she feels betrayed. like, wouldnt you think that abigail would be smug about being right all along? but no! she acts like a woman scorned! she digs deep into sulley for this too--- calling him a disgrace to the uni AND his family! you cant tell me theres no way abigail was, just for a moment, starting to believe in mike. and thats why shes so fucking pissed to be right for once. because she was WRONG. and that my friends is why i think mike & abigail’s weird, respect seeking sort of relationship is not entirely one-sided. 
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AAAND this part. this hurts me, pixar. i understand that abigail is hard-pressed to change but did you really have to traumatize her for character development? really? well, whatever! at any rate, a severely overwhelmed abigail shakily asks sulley how he did that. sulley says “dont ask me” and looks at mike. mike looks at abigail. WITH THE SAME SORT OF EXPRESSION.
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confused & unsure of himself. looking for her emotions. abigail, meanwhile, looks like THIS:
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VISIBLY SHAKING. if you watch really closely (which i always do when abigail is on screen) her eyes widen the moment before the cda charges in. MIKE JUST ROCKED HER WORLD, LITERALLY.
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(no ones gonna get a shock blanket for her???? ok????)
it says in the novel that they were escorted directly to the university president’s office and kicked out. then they return to the ok house. abigail, apparently, shook off the shock and took THAT time to tell the rest of ok that she was letting them back in her program, that she was “impressed by [their] performance in the games” & that she invited them to join the next semester. MY GIRL ABIGAIL!!! she knows she cant do anything for mike and sulley---she knows it would be useless to fight for them to stay when they broke SO many rules. but she does the one thing she CAN do for them, which is let the rest of the group back in. she keeps her promise. my girl abigail’s changed, you guys. and it shows in this final scene between them.
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you surprised me. i think the dare to scare novel sums this up nicely:
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deep down, abigail is a good person at heart. she can be self-absorbed, snobbish, and can say and do some downright dickish things. but truly, in her heart, she loves her students and wants to see them do well. she didn’t want mike to waste his time, and she gave up on him, but he showed her that she really hasn’t seen it all before and that people are still full of surprises--- and that scaring isnt the end all be all for monsters. sometimes they are gifted in other areas and thats important, too. and she realizes that now thanks to him. he’s changed her for the better, and she wants him to know that. that’s why she bothers flying down to give them her last goodbye, to wish them luck-- genuinely this time. 
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mike finally gets that respect from her, that encouragement hes always wanted. she recognizes him as a capable monster and tells him to keep going. to show other monsters what he showed her-- that mike wazowski is a talented, intelligent, and tenacious monster who never gives up.
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and she flies off into the sun, the light reflective of her character development.
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icyhobi · 7 years ago
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YOU ARE AN AMAZING PERSON AND YOU HAVE AMAZING PEOPLE AROUND YOU!! HAVE A GOOD DAY AHEAD AND I HOPE YOU EAT A LOT THAT IS ALL 💓
Thank you so much! And btw everyone, i’ll be answering all the asks i have in my inbox rn, since i don’t wanna let it pile up even more. So beware, this is a long ass post! (and idk if it will show up on mobile properly :(
fullydecaffeinateddinosaur said:AHHHHHH I love Forgotten, I hope you’ll make a part two (but if you don’t that’s okay). DONT LET THE HATERS BRING YOU DOWN!!! You’re an amazing writer.
thank you so much for liking it!
Anonymous said:Don’t stop writing! I think that a non was just jealous and if that persone doesn’t like smut well she don’t have to read them! Don’t let anyone to drag you down because I love your stories! 😘
lool dw, i definately won’t stop writing!
Anonymous said:PLEASE MAKE A PART TWO TO FORGOTTEN 😭😭😭😭
umm, i’m still deciding if i should or not… i just, idk...
Anonymous said:DAMN. FORGOTTEN GOT ME FUCKED UP. YOU ARE DEFINITELY MY FAVORITE WRITER WOW I LOVE YOU♥️
OMG AM I REALLY!??! WOOOW!!! THANK YOU!
Anonymous said:Is forgotten supossed to have a second part? :) Sorry if my english is bad
no, don’t be sorry your english is perfectly fine! and im still thinking about it!
Anonymous said:Omg forgotten was soooooooo good!!! Please do another part!!
thanks! and maybe ;)
Anonymous said:Forgotten made me shed actual tears 😭 are you going to be continuing it?
did it really? was it too harsh? and im still not too sure if i will
Anonymous said:will their be a forgotten pt 2?
who knows…
Anonymous said:Guuuuurrrrl i read your fic (forgotten) and i looooved it soooo much that i wanted to re-read it (its that a word? Sorry spanish speaker here hahah) but i couldn’t remember your nameee and i spend the entire day looking for you (cause i only rememberd the “mochi” part) and i finally fouuuuuuund youuu!!!!!! So pleeeeease keep it up with the good work! Please make chapter 2! Loveeeee yaa! Saludos desde el fin del mundo!
yaaay you found me!!!
Anonymous said:I LOVE FORGOTTEN AHHHHHHHHHHH ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
THANK YOU!!!!!!
Anonymous said:I need part 2 of forgotten now because like I’m crying and omg the feels
Anonymous said:I was wondering if you’re ever going to continue forgotten! The ending was such a twist and I cried while reading it LMAO i think it would make a good full fanfic!! Pls at least make a part 2 I’m dying RN
Anonymous said:will there be a pt2 of forgotten? 
Anonymous said:Wow forgotten got me fucked up!! I loved it I loved it I loved it!!!!! Do you think there’ll be a part two for this or is it the only one?
Anonymous said:MOCHIIII I love you and your an amazing writer but Forgotten gave me da feels man!!!!!! I finally found someone I hate (Tae’s cheater of a wifu) XD. Is there anyway you might continue the story though with a happy (revenge on the witch as well 😈) ending????? 
Anonymous said:Holy moly forgotten is so good!!! I hope you do a part two❤️❤️❤️
Anonymous said:BUT UR GOING TO MAKE A PART 2 TO FORGOTTEN RIGHT?!!!!!
Anonymous said:Part 2 of forgotten plz omg I loved it it was so good💙💙
Anonymous said:omggggg your Taehyung uni story defos needs a part 2!! i loved it!!
figureinglifeout said:Omg pls tell me forgotten has a sequel. Tae can’t do OC dirty like that
fairyrink said:I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT HAPPENED AND WHY TAE IS ENGAGED TO THAT GIRL BUT UM I NEED EXPLANATIONS SO I NEED TO KNOW IF YOURE DOING A PART 2 OF FORGOTTEN PLEASE!!! 😭😭❤️❤️
Anonymous said:Will there be part 2 of Forgotten? I really hope there will be more it can’t end like that! That bish can’t win!
Anonymous said:OMG!! I really liked Forgotten a lot even if it did break my heart at the end :’( Are you thinking of making a part two or something like that cause that was really good and I just want Taehyung x reader to be together even though that’s unlikely 💔😅
Anonymous said:Is Forgotten going to be a series?
Anonymous said:Ah also forgot to ask: is Forgotten a one shot? - moose anon
Anonymous said:I’m sorry but Forgotten has me yelling WTF. Like, I knew something like that would happen, BUT I STILL WASNT READY. UGH MY HEART. FUDGE MUFFINS. - moose anon
xsnapplex said:Mochi!! I really hope you make Forgotten a series, because classic you out a cliff hanger in it… T-T I almost lost my mind at the end. But it was sooooo goood
ahh okay, so i decided to answer these asks all together since they are basically asking the same thing. first of all, THANK  YOU SO MUCH FOR LIKING IT!!! xoxo im like so happy you guys enjoyed it! and to answer your questions, im still not to sure if there will be a second part unfortunately… we’ll just have to see!
Anonymous said:Lol I think you made me a sucker for hybrid ffs 😂 but i love “take it like a puppy” so much. ❤️😊😘😍
aww thank you! lmao i really like hybrid aus too!
Anonymous said:😭😭😭😭 I wasn’t ready for it. I’m a crying mess now after forgotten it was soooo good. If it’s a oneshot it’s beautiful and really sad but if there’s gonna be another part… *fingers crossed*
thank you sooo much!! and nooo dont cry!!
sanha-ii said:Okay right, the story Forgotten got me tense as! The cliffhanger at the end is actually making me shriek due to the amount of theories I’m getting, will there be a part 2 by any chance or is this a story where you let the readers suffer forever😂😂
ikr? it was such a twist lol. and idk, maybe i’ll just be mean and let you guys suffer…. *insert even laugh*
Anonymous said:WTF TAEHYUNG AND SEULGI ENDED UP TOGETHER?????? AND TAEHYUNG DOESNT REMEMBER THE READER??????
IKR RIGHT!?!??! LIKE WHAAAATTTT????
zara-zaza said:Forgotten was so good!!! But if it was me I would have slaped the shit out of Seulgi the second time I saw her 😂😂 but just a question does Tae really don’t remember her or was he just mad at her?
loool it was so shocking thoo. and well…. i cant say… ;)
Anonymous said:Ahhhh I’m so freaking hooked on “Forgotten”!!! Ugh I kinda wish that the reader moved on from Taehyung but it soooo good either way! I love the way you write and I can’t wait to see what happens next ♡♡♡♡♡
ikr poor reader! :( And thank you for liking it!
Anonymous said:Oh my god! A second part in forgotten, please! Y/N deserves to be happy and Seulgi SHOULD DIE! I’m sorry, I’m just being really over dramatic 
But is Seulgi really the bad guy here? I mean maybe was hurt because Y/n left… but Seulgi clearly leave him tho… ;)
Anonymous said:PLEASE DO A TEASE PT 3 I WILL SELL MY SOUL FOR IT HAVSHBAHAHSH U WRITE SO GOOD IM STUCK IN THE REALM OF UR GOOD FICS
lool thank you! and im sorry bby, but tease was only meant to be a two-shot :(
Anonymous said:uM, eXCusE U?! How dare you write something as good as forgotten and LEAVE US ON A CLIFFHANGER LIKE THAT?! iT’S LIKE pURusaSION BTS style!!!!!
loool my style is usually ending things off on cliffhangers!!! 
Anonymous said:Please do another part of tease I can’t take the ending please my love
srry bby, but i won’t :/
Anonymous said:i just finished reading the taehyung x reader, forgotten and im crying at how you ended it. you’re a great writer, bless you.
loool it was so mean right??? BUT THANK YOU!!! xoxo :”)
Anonymous said:omg Forgotten was sooo good and sad it legit brought me to tears 😭❤️ and the plot twist at the end got me so fucked up I was expecting a happy ending :’D
aww sorry bby!! i didn’t mean to make you cry
Anonymous said:WTF WRITER NIM YOU MADE ME CRY IM CRYING WHY DID YOU HURT ME WITH THAT ENDING HOW COULD YOU?! IM JUST GONNA GO CRY NOW AND I HOPE SEULGI DIES AND ROTS!¡ I’m in pain, you better fix this 😭 - Psychotic Jungkook stan anon
ohhhh are you threatening me???? LOOOOL im so cruel, right???
Anonymous said:OMG how… how could you end Forgotten just like that pls have mercy on yn …. i can’t believe you …. oh god
hmmm we’ll see… ;)
Anonymous said:Fanfic request: Could you write a fanfic about Min Yoongi (x Reader) where he was a mass murderer or gang leader/criminal that fell in love with you on a job of his. (Something like that at least. I don’t really know. But I thought that we should start recommending stuff that wasn’t just the mankae line lol)
thank you for requesting! but unfortunately i not taking in requests since i have too much stories to work on atm! srry again!
Anonymous said:Forgotten.. I’m literally about to die now.😫😭 WHYYYYYYYYYY!?! UGHHHHHH. Getting my heart attacked and stomped on was not how I wanted to end my night.😭😫😂 Anyways, it’s beautifully written! I love your fanfics (even if they do bring my heart an enormous amount of pain)!💕😘
aww im so sorry! i didnt mean to hurt your guys! i just wanted to write something very angsty!! but thank you so much for reading it!
Anonymous said:There is a part of me that wants to kiss you but another part of me that wants to ask you ‘why?’ Also why does everyone use Selugi as 'that girl’ in fanfics? I like I am getting into R.V and I am starting to like her. ~Edgy ❤❤ (Kiss part spoke louder that was amazing also I am a sucker for angst it fuels my soul. Love u)
loool aww edgy, your soo funny!
Anyways, this took a long time to answer, but thank you eveyone who sent me an ask! i seriously love you guys!!!
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perfectackeracy · 8 years ago
Note
considering what you've already written on the topic of eren's behavior during chapter 84 up until recently; what do you think of him as a character in general?
Eh, I’ll give my judgement when the story will be over. He is the main character after all and I feel like giving a judgement now would be too premature, despite us nearing the end of the manga. I’ve got the beginning but the end is absolutely necessary for me to answer your question properly.
Still, if you want something partial, but still long, follow me under the cut (too bad for mobile users because screw the interface right).
It truly depends of how Isayama writes him at the end, if he really intended him to be some normie who tried to be a hero and change things, but failed, or… something else. Indeed, the end heavily relies of what’s presented to us at the beginning:
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“No… But I feel like I just had the longest dream.. What was it? Now I can’t remember…” - Ch.1
Flashback? Future vision? We all thought till chapter 89 came that future vision was bull. It took a whole chapter to suddenly invert the perspective. While there isn’t many chapters left, there’s still facts that are going to pop up that might suddenly change our perception of the characters forever.
…Just like mine with Eren in chapter 84.
I’d actually like the normie one because it would fit what Eren did at the beginning: joining the Survey Corps on a whim because he hates being confined and ended up inheriting a power considered absolute, realizing he made a huge mistake from the start.
It seems Isayama, who previously had a vague idea of what he wanted to do with him, found something more defined. If I recall correctly he felt inspired by Yuki Kaiji, the voice actor from Eren. He even told Araki to make him more pathetic than in the original manga, implying Eren was never meant to be the literal version of a hero, a character with admirable traits.
Usually, the typical shônen protagonist is a character who has a dream, since they were little and do almost anything in order to accomplish it, whether it is becoming the strongest, becoming somebody important, solving a mystery, finding somebody from your life who has gone missing, etc… Their personality vary from manga to manga, but it’s often the cheerful teenager, naive or hot-blooded, capable of being a simpleton due to his lack of experience but also the one who motivates people, is surrounded by his nakama and clashes with rivals and enemies.
The vengeful protagonist also exists, but they’re mostly present in dark shônen or shônen trying to deal with more mature themes without being labeled as a seinen. Eren registers in this category, while building the development of a typical shônen protagonist without exhibiting its qualities: he’s not full of dream and ambition, something a shônen MC should inspire in the heart of young boys. Instead, he’s described as being selfish, having a complex or no ambition at all.
As extra evidence, his highschool AU describes him as the frustrated normie who’s annoyed “in one way or another”. The fake preview from volume 22 describes him as neither belonging to the nerds or the jocks nor having any dreams or interests (it’s interesting how the formulation here ends in “もない” on the three sentences of the description, almost as if Eren meant nothing), despite the wannabe’s reputation being neutral. That’s kinda sad when you think about it actually, because at his core, he really needs to fuel his blank state.
Still, Isayama doesn’t make him wander around aimlessly in the canon storyline and managed to give him a purpose. He strangely carries themes like the Chosen One because people, specifically Grisha imposed that on him. Carla called her son special for the sole reason he was born into this world, that every human who sees the light of the day is considered special. 
Because he was frustrated about “Humanity’s submission against the titans”, that’s what prompted him to step out and defy the “imposed slavery” on him. He wasn’t always like that, though. Meeting and knowing Armin triggered that complex about him lacking ambition.
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Eren and Armin meeting for the first time - Ch. 83
When he first met Armin, he befriended him fairly quickly because of their status as outcasts. Eren already showed signs of not belonging to the other kids, probably because he had trouble sharing the same interests as them and also because he gets irritated quickly and gets into fights to shut them up. Funnily enough, those panels show the first signs of Eren’s prevalent traits: fighting back and beating them or else you’re a loser.
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“I had never thought about what was beyond the walls until then… I’d only spent my days looking at the clouds in the sky. Not that it’s anything strange for a kid eight or nine years old to not be thinking about anything… but then you came running to me with a book. Both of us were outcasts, not able to get along with the other kids in town. That’s all we were back then. But when I heard you telling me those things… and I saw the look in your eyes. That’s when I knew for the first time. I wasn’t free. I noticed that I had been living in a birdcage for all this time. And that these freakish things had taken my freedom. The world was so big, but they’d forced me into a tiny cage. And when I realized that… I knew I could never forgive them.” - Ch.73
It wasn’t so much about the ocean or the contents of the outside world Eren was motivated for. Because he was aimlessly starting at the sky, he couldn’t believe someone like Armin could conceive something like… ambition. That’s why Eren was intrigued by the look in his eyes. And because the titans were actually obstacles to his personal space, he held a grudge against them. They were in the way, they were giant-sized bullies, they have to be removed.
Eren’s character song actually fist up nicely with his character: “男はロマンだぜ!たけだ君っ“ by Shinsei Kamattechan (lyrics and translation here) illustrates somebody talking to a certain Takeda, who prompts him to disobey his parents and do whatever they want because they’re free, despite them being children (the song talks about spending money carelessly and buying cigarettes). Eren being either one of the kids, wants his taste of freedom without having any authority telling him not to do it.
“From the day we’re born, there was something special about all of us: we’re free” - Ch. 73
Needless to say, I think that attitude and that grudge against the titans pushed him to idolize the Survey Corps and eventually join them. Because they went as far as destroying his district, making him swear extermination on every person responsible.
Then there was his meeting with Mikasa.
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“You see Eren, that attitude is why you only have one friend.” - Ch. 5
Here we have yet Eren’s “normie” attitude demonstrated when it comes to Grisha asking him to get familiar with Mikasa. But then, he certainly wans’t expecting corpses.
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Eren ready to begin the chase - Ch. 5
I tend to see this chapter as Eren being triggered by seeing dead bodies on the floor. Him seeing Mikasa’s parents being brutally murdered tingled his sense of justice and frustration: “How dare they kill people? This if worthy of the death penalty and I’m going to inflict that to them!”. The way he got close to these bandits is almost as scary as what they were planning to do with Mikasa: he’s approaching the first one by acting like an innocent child with clear murder intent (He’s supposed to be 9!!!). He then proceeds to pin down the second one before repeatedly stabbing himself over and over.
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“I stopped dangerous beasts!! They only happened to resemble humans!! If you hadn’t come here, they would have been gone by the time the military police brigade had arrived!! The MPs wouldn’t have made it in time!!” - Ch. 5
Notice how the justification he brings to kill them is because they reduced themselves to low beasts who kill people, and as beasts, it’s “only natural” they deserve a death penalty. Besides, Eren is motivating Mikasa using the same logic he used for Armin: fight or you’re a complete loser.
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Eren “teaching” Mikasa - Ch. 5
Needless to say that Eren wasn’t opposed to let Mikasa live in his house. He came to realize years later his attitude towards the bandits was pure impulse, as he gets lectured by Reiner about the meaning of being a soldier in chapter 17.
In the very first chapter of the series, every trait I’ve mentioned till there transpires into his motivation into joining the Survey Corps, so he wouldn’t live as a “caged animal” any longer. He gets upset when people are talking trash about them because he truly believed they were doing it for great justice. And that day, when the wall has been breached, it just so happens that Eren had a weird dream when he was crying and it was finally the day where Grisha showed him the basement. That day truly changed his life, for the best or the worst.
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“I hate the idea of spending my whole life… inside the wall, ignorant of what’s happening in the world outside!!” - Ch. 1
But of course, this “outside” serves mostly as an excuse to give him more space. As he declared later: “They’re our lives! we can do whatever we want with them, right?”
When Shiganshina fell, Eren made his vow to kill every single titan left. During that time, he punched Hannes for preventing him from saving his mom. What was interesting is that piece of flashback before scrolling back to present.
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“I’ll never be able… to go home again. Up to the end, all I could do was argue and be stubborn! Mom’s gone!! I’m never gonna see her again… Why is this happening to us? Is it because humans are weak? Is crying the only thing the weak can do?! I’m gonna destroy them!! Every last one… of those animals… that’s on this Earth!” - Ch. 2
The night when Shiganshina has fallen was the night where Grisha passed his titan power to Eren. The part where Grisha stated two contradictory statements in relation with chapter 89.
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“Eren, get revenge for your mother. You can do it.” - Ch. 71
“Eren… never let this key… out of your sight. And everytime you look at it… remember… that you have to go to the basement room. The injection will cause damage to your memory… That’s why I can’t explain this to you now… but when you go to the basement room someday, you’ll learn the truth… it will be a hard and merciless road… but you have to recapture Wall Maria and get to that room. The power I’m giving you will be useful then. Their memories will teach you how to use it… if you want to save Mikasa… Armin… and everyone else… you’ll have to… control this power!” - Ch. 10
“Dad… Stop it! Dad! What are you doing?! You’ve been acting crazy since mom died!!”, “Eren!! Hold out your arm!” - Ch. 3
“You will be the one… to avenge your mother!!”, “Okay“ - Ch. 63
This moment was really hard to piece out together because what was thought as a contradiction became a succession of events where Grisha scared his son with the shifter power talk, but riled back him for a short while by settling him as one one who will avenge his mom. Earlier, Grisha made his mind and picked him as the legitimate successor of the Attack Titan. Thanks to chapter 89, it may have been inevitable. In this scene, he went from a sorrowful expression to an angry one, almost swapping memories for a brief instant like what happened with Kruger. In any case he burdened Eren with his shifter power and the Coordinate, thus making him bare probably the biggest sin going by Ymir’s curse. 
Because of that, his whole life changed. So did Eldians’.
The next segment is about Eren joining the military, two years after working in a settlement. This is the time where his attitude sort of... changed.
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Eren trying to let his will of dominance pushing him forward - Ch. 15
Chronologically, starting from that point, Eren uses “we” when talking about Humanity. Mostly because, as stated by his dialogue in chapter, he believes in unity against a common enemy. He settled the titans as the enemy “humanity” was supposed to defeat, despite him quickly meeting, and clashing with people who didn’t agree with that notion: it started with Hannes not taking his job seriously, then Jean who outright admitted he’d rather live a comfy life inside the walls. Even much later in chapter 72, when Eren mentions that spirit of unity, Armin internally disagrees by thinking about his bullies. 
Eren’s world was mostly an ideal one, where you loop the first opening of the anime and have humanity fighting against the titans, forgetting not every single human is motivated by rage: Mikasa is fine with living with Eren in a quaint place, Levi “the hero” is mostly motivated by Erwin, Jean wanted and comfy life among the MP, people have a very negative opinion of the SC in general, Ymir doesn’t mind living her life for herself despite knowing much more about what’s happening than Eren does...
His biggest obstacle was the first step for 3DMG training, where Keith sabotaged the equipment on purpose. For the first time, Eren felt like his goal just evaporated in the air, with everybody mocking him for it, followed by an argument with Mikasa, who’s trying to dissuade him:
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“You shouldn’t set your sights on that anyway. If you’re not cut for it, what can you do? Because at this rate, you’re just going to die in vain. And all your dreams and efforts will be for nothing. I’m saying you shouldn’t aim to be a soldier. You can always support the human race by being a producer. Laying down your life isn’t the only way to fight. [...] ...Your resolve has nothing to do with it. It’s not your decision whether you get to be a soldier, Eren...” - Ch. 16
Eventually, nothing worked. Eren still wants to pass the 3DMG exam. While talking to Reiner and Bertolt, he declares his will to kill the titans is a need he personally feels: becoming a soldier is a way to achieve this. I’m sure he’d find another way out if he can’t pass the exams, mostly because he has nothing left to make him move.
Parts of his personality have been shaped later by Reiner and Annie: Reiner about the solider mumbo-jumbo, Annie because of her techniques aiming to defeat people quickly. He demonstrated these two aspects during his fight with Jean (with Annie and Reiner even looking!). 
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“...I see... he was... just venting his feelings. Like I did before... but I’m different now... I’m... a soldier! [...] I’ll use my skills to finish this.” - Ch. 17
The most important part of his training is reserved for hand-to-hand techniques, skills proving themselves to be really useful once Eren shifts to a titan. Seems Annie was really insistent on teaching Eren these techniques as soon as he reminded her of her father, because Eren’s reality was just as misplaced as his. You can see that insistence if you connect chapter 17 and chapter 44 together.
I think I’d rather break this analysis into several parts because it’s getting way too long. Eren faced different trials in Trost, during the FT arc and so on, where he had to deal with huge losses, traitors, the hard truth and eventually, the coordinate settling in.
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ecotone99 · 5 years ago
Text
[RF] A Lot to Unpack
"They were the sexiest couple in Hollywood, maybe the world", the narrator explained. "Jennifer James was young, beautiful, and sensual - a living goddess who could have any man she wanted. Joe Harrison was equally young, chiseled, charming - irresistible to anyone in his path. Together, they were a force of nature. Joe Harrison seemed to be the only human being worthy of winning the heart of Jessica James - a woman who was openly courted by royalty in the past. Everyone wanted to be them, or be with them. Everyone admired them, loved them, and idolized them. The movies they starred in destroyed box office records. The events they attended drew the attention of the world. Magazines with their pictures on the cover flew off the store shelves. They were the ultimate power couple..."
"Is that ANOTHER documentary? I'll never understand why you're so hooked on those things...they're so embarrassing, please change the channel," Jennifer pleaded while continuing to unpack.
"Oh come on, I've never seen this one before...you know it's going to be good when the narrator's voice is THAT deep."
"Change it."
"Ok, ok." He reached for the remote control, but his eyes were still locked on the screen. "Look at those old pictures...I always loved you in that red dress with the long slit. That was at the Oscars, right? How long ago was that?"
"Seven years ago."
"And look at you...you haven't aged a bit. You actually look younger. What's your secret, Mrs. Harrison?" He says with his trademark smirk - it was a look of genuine infatuation, mixed with a sense of accomplishment and a tinge of cockiness. It was a look that said he knew that line was a home run, and any moment now, her face would shine red from embarrassment, and she'd be putty in his hands. It the same look that stole her heart away when they first met. It was his secret weapon. It never failed. She could never resist.
"Stupid...turn it off." she said, turning her face away.
"Yes ma'am."
Like a charm.
He grabbed the remote and hit the power button, but there was no response. "Batteries must be dead on this thing."
"I'm serious, turn it off."
"I'm trying!"
"Give it to me."
"Here - wait wait, let me just see this part..."
"Everything seemed perfect for the two superstars on the surface", the narrator continued, "but things are rarely as good as it seems. Beneath the public front, trouble brewed. Rumors of infidelity from both Jennifer and Joe ran rampant through the tabloids, which was only fueled by the increasing number of times both superstars were seen separately in public. Both actors were noted party-goers, and were known to not shy away from a drink or three..."
"Ugh. They make me out to be a drunk." Jennifer said, her mood now shifting to a different form of embarrassment.
"I mean, there WAS that time at the big Gala..."
"I WAS STRESSED! YOU KNOW WHAT I WAS GOING THROUGH THAT DAY! HOW MANY TIMES ARE YOU GOING TO BRING THAT UP?!?"
He clearly hit a nerve. "Hey, hey, it's ok, I'm not knocking you for it. Of course I remember what happened that day, how could I forget?" He came around the bed and stood next to her, comforting her in his arms. "Sure, it was a rough scene. But it was a long time ago. And we're still here. Together, like it was always meant to be. Now, let's finish unpacking so we can get some expensive wine and make some new, vivid memories..."
Her frustration slowly drifted away. "I hate you", she said with the faintest of smiles.
"I love you too."
"Things came to a head at the Metropolitan Gala in 2015." The narrator's voice became audible once again. Rumors of Joe Harrison having a fling with then-costar Teri Lopez surged to the point where Jennifer James could not stay silent any longer. She erupted at the gala, unleashing a tirade of swears and throwing a glass of wine at her allegedly unfaithful husband in the middle of the Guest of Honor's speech. She was clearly sick of the rumor mill, sick of being a victim, and wanted the world to know it."
They were both glued to the TV at this point. Jennifer broke the silence first.
"Worst moment of my life."
"It's not that bad, babe."
"Yes it was." Jennifer stood silent for a minute. Her eyes started to water. "It wasn't true."
"You didn't know it at the time. It's understandable. How could you NOT believe all the news, it was everywhere...anyone would have been suspicious."
"No. I should've known. I should've...I can never take that moment back. It changed everything." Her mood shifted. Her eyes wouldn't leave the floor.
"Well...it is a shame that the public won't ever hear the truth. I guess finding out a guy's NOT a cheater doesn't drive the ratings. But, you know the truth. And you're still Mrs. Harrison. Time heals all wounds, right?" He looked into her eyes while that smirk appeared once again. "Well, three years and a few fun getaways later, you should be feeling pretty good..."
She smiled while gently pushing him away. "Alright, that's enough. Let's finish unpacking."
The show came back from commercial break. "The eruption at the gala all but destroyed the public image of Joe Harrison. The fans turned on him, social media ripped him apart, and Hollywood started to turn him away from any big roles. Even with Teri Lopez publicly denying everything, the damage was done. And, allegedly, Jennifer would have her revenge, in the form of her long-time agent, Daniel Rhys."
"Turn. It. Off."
"By walking to the TV and pressing the button? What am I, some kind of caveman? How did you even turn it on in the first place?"
"NOW."
"Alright..."
He slowly made his way towards the TV. But seeing his image on the show, shuffled in with all of the photos from days long gone by, slowed him to a halt.
"Jennifer James - who, by this time, dropped the 'Harrison' name - was spotted publicly with Daniel, having dinner at 5-star restaurants, at other celebrity parties, and even on the luxurious beaches of the Virgin Islands. Jennifer insisted in interviews that they were simply 'business trips', but these photos tell another story..." The narrator's voice seemed to echo through the otherwise silent room. Jennifer placed the clothes in her hands down on the bed, and sat next to them. The joy of being away on a trip melted away, leaving behind a heaviness in her heart. Her eyes again began to tear.
He tried to come up with some sort of witty line to bring the mood back, but the words couldn't arrange themselves in his head. He knew he had let this go on too long...he should've just turned the damn TV off. Far too late to undo the narrator's attack on old wounds, he knew he couldn't console her...but he also knew he couldn't turn it off now.
The narrator again became audible. "...and yet, through the ugliness and bitterness, the broken hearts and tarnished reputations, they did not give up. They began to attend couple's counseling, and focused more on their home lives. Harrison hasn't starred in a role for years, but he's now cutting his teeth as a director, with a project in the works. Jessica has returned to the big screen, with her latest movie to premiere at the end of the year, and has also signed to appear in several episodes of "That's My Boy!", the prime time hit network comedy on the CCS Network. They've both stepped away from partying and drinking, something they've both admitted was a desperately needed change in both of their lives. But perhaps, most importantly, they finally had their first child. Derek Harrison is now 1 year old and keeping both of his parents on their toes. It seems they've come full circle - the most powerful couple in Hollywood are on their way back to the to-."
His finger finally reached the power button.
"Hey, babe...if you had the chance to do it over..."
She looked at him coldly. "Don't ask a question you know the answer to."
"I'm just saying...it's been a wild ride. Knowing what you know now, seeing the damage it did to your career...but seeing how it made us stronger in the end, how we came out the other end of it all as a family...would you change any of it?"
She remained silent. She quickly turned her attention towards the clothes scattered on the bed, and the open suitcase by her feet. She opened the suitcase, and came across a picture of her husband and son. It momentarily shocked her...she must've slipped it in the suitcase last night and forgotten. She took the picture out and slid it into her pocket.
"I don't know what you want me to say...I'm way past regrets. I really don't know how to feel about it all. It's too much to process..." Jessica placed her hand over the pocket holding the picture. "I just hope that Derek doesn't have to spend his life dealing with his parents' mess."
"Derek will be just fine, I'm sure of it", he said, doing his best to brighten her up again. "He'll grow to be a strong and successful kid, just like his old man."
There goes that smirk again.
"By the way, is Derek staying with your mom again this weekend? Or is he with Joe?"
"He's with Joe", she responded.
Daniel's smirk grew into a full-blown grin. "He's a good man, that Joe Harrison."
"Yeah. He is." It's as if the words stomped their way off her tongue. "Let's go. We'll unpack later."
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fulburnedance75-blog · 7 years ago
Text
The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me: The Brand New Album That Changed Emo Forever
Dusting 'Em Off is a rotating, free-form feature that revisits a classic album, film, or moment in pop-culture history. This week, Nina Corcoran tacklesBrand New's game-changing third studio album with the help of Manchester Orchestra, Kevin Devine, and mewithoutYou.
When Brand New released their third studio album, no one expected it to change as many things as it did. And, to be fair, it was hard to recognize its impact in real time. On November 21, 2006, the Long Island four-piece - singer and guitarist Jesse Lacey, lead guitarist Vincent Accardi, bassist Garrett Tierney, and drummer Brian Lane - released The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me, an album so full of ferocity and life that every indication of what it offered - the melodramatic title, the unsettling artwork, the suggestive song names - barely scratched the surface of what laid within. It's their longest album, clocking in just shy of an hour, and yet it feels like the fastest, the most complete, the most swift in moving the listener from one horrid place to another and back again. The album guts the band and the listener simultaneously, and in the process, Brand New trashed predispositions about what it meant to gut yourself in that fashion, to rip your heart off your sleeve, cut an incision down the middle, and encourage passersby to starefor as long as they pleased.
Looking back, Brand New ended the need to feel ashamed for connecting to emo. The early 2000s saw pop punk shift into a whinier era, but the band optednot to follow, marking a change in what it meant to support a genre that was so very easy to taunt. Blink-182 profited from juvenile humor. Fueled by Ramen idolized the rise of adolescent lyricism. My Chemical Romance found an audience for over-the-top theatrics. The first half of that decade became a place where emo music lost the edge of Sunny Day Real Estate and American Football's ability to grapple with rectitude. It became a genre of revenge lyrics, of comically dramatic ultimatums, of predictable hooks worth replaying because of the comforts familiarity offers. Frankly, Brand New only fit into the definitions of pop punk and emo because of their debut LP, Your Favorite Weapon, and shortly after abandoned the genre's usual definition. But they held tight to the emotional honesty of their lyrics come 2003's Deja Entendu and brought an even sharper knife to their tongues when crafting the words for their third LP, carrying their fanbase on an evolution of sound that encouraged countless other bands to reach beyond their genres, too.
The album prioritizes hearing music first and words second (a comical choice given the number of people who ink its lyrics into their skin) to emphasize its larger themes. It's not really tied to Satan (2013's vinyl reissue with 666 copies in redexcluded) or spiritual respite, but rather self-doubt, the grievances of loss, and how to reckon with personal struggles when they claw from within - things that must be felt before they can be described. Pop punk is built on being able to yell lyrics back in a band's face. Emo is made for jotting lyrics down and sighing. With The Devil and God, Brand New surpassed these genres and, with that, the ways to listen to them by viciously cranking the volume and getting experimental, bringing theremin and strings into the mix. It raised the bar not just for listeners, but for the band themselves. It is an important record and piece of work to us, Lacey wrote on Facebookthis summer, and one that 10years later we still use as a measuring post with which we compare the music we make now.
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Singer-songwriter Kevin Devine became close friends with Lacey in 2000. In the years between Deja Entendu and Devil and God, they traded stories, supporting one another during troubledtimes and listening through tricky career steps. There was a time we went to Sapone's house, and two of the Goddamn Band members - Mike Skinner who played keyboards that nightand Margaret White who played violin - and I played bass and we tracked a super early sketch of 'You Won't Know', which must be floating around on a hard drive, Devine says over the phone. For me, it wasn't like, 'Are they making Dark Side of the Moon but for emo?' These were just my friends making cool songs, but it definitely felt like an awareness of a movement forward. The prior record wasn't frivolous in any way, but these songs were more serious, more formidable, they demanded to be reckoned. Brand New advanced as arrangers.
Whereas Deja Entendu took four months between the recording sessions and the release of the album, The Devil and God took over a year and a half from when they first entered the recording studios in March of 2005. Brand New took their time figuring out how to capture these communal feelings. It started in Oxford, Mississippi, where the four met up with Dennis Herring (Modest Mouse, Ben Folds), but they quickly backed out of recording with him because of prices and timing, despite Herring understanding what they wanted to capture on record. Instead, they turned to Mike Sapone, the producer behind Your Favorite Weapon, who brought them to a farm in Massachusetts; Cove City in Nassau County, New York; and his own home studio to record what would become the final version of The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me.
Sapone encouraged the four to push these feelings and, in turn, the instrumentation that feeds them. The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me follows through on the sonic extremesit suggests. Desolate, dense guitars intro one song before flipping entirely, a type of musical bipolarness. It begins with Sowing Season, an accessible track with foreboding desperation about losing friends that smashes its quiet verses with blaringchoruses. Brand New suddenly embrace dynamics attheir zenith. A gorgeous drum fill will cut just in time for each instrument to come slamming down. What was forcibly quiescent has awoken, especially on You Won't Know, a song that allows the band to unleash something too evil to sketch and calls for the listener's own rage to take reign. Brand New is on a path of edification by ripping themselves to pieces, balancing soft and loud with impossible dramatics, foregoing summation entirely.
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Photo by Heather Kaplan
Devine's first experience with the album was during a drive from Phoenix to Austin, alone. I bought the record on iTunes that morning and The Essential Leonard Cohen. That was all I listened to, he laughs. I had never heard 'Jesus' - I don't know if that was on purpose, like Jesse being like, 'Wait until he hears this one' - and I listened to that song probably 14 times in a row. I remember that vividly, thinking that was the best song they had ever written. Songwriting-wise, it is slow, nuanced, the hook is great, there's that faint nod to Modest Mouse with the harmonic bend in the chorus. I was really, really, really impressed. It's a songwriting song - emotionally, educationally, intellectually, structurally, in every way. Then there was 'You Won't Know', which was gnarly. But 'Degausser' was the one that was wild. I knew this guy well, we shared all the buttons in our lives, but I felt like I was eavesdropping on something when I listened to that song. I still do.
For others, their first listen wasn't an intimate moment, but one of shared overwhelmingness. The first time I heard it, we were in Jesse's rental car, driving to go buy a guitar, Manchester Orchestra frontman Andy Hull tells me over the phone. It was August of 2006. Manchester Orchestra and Brand New mastered their albums within two weeks of one another. The moment Lacey received Devil and God in the mail, he encouraged Hull to listen with him. He listened to it with the volume completely turned up, it couldn't go up any louder, and I just remember thinking, 'This is super loud. I wish he would turn it down so I can figure out what was going on.' But once I adjusted, and was like alright, this is how we're going to listen to this record, I just remember going, 'Man, what a step. What a huge step.'
That shuddering volume wasn't a trick of the studio. It's man-made, and it's still just as present in today's live shows as it was back then. I remember we came in when they were doing a soundcheck at a show in Berlin, mewithoutYou guitarist Mike Weiss says over the phone. It was a pretty small club, but you could just tell that this music was going to be way too huge to be contained. And lo and behold, that turned out to be quite true.
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That severity was in part the exasperation of numerous failed songwriting sessions. It began when Brand New wrote new songs in early 2004, but delayed recording them in order to return to daily life after years of touring. When they regrouped in late 2005, they found themselves distanced from the songs, many of which carried a different tone or structure than the material they hoped to now create. Brand New got to work on a new set of songs yet again, but come January of 2006, nine of those untitled demos leaked online. Upset at the thought of unfinished songs landing in the hands of fans, the band reworked four demos - two for the album proper (Untitled 8 became Sowing Season and Untitled 6 became Luca) and two for later B-sides (Untitled 7 became Fork and Knife and Untitled 3 became Brothers) - and scrapped the rest, writing a new set of material for the third time, this final set thatwould play out in Sapone's studios.
That ferocity paid off. Devil and God wretches like it's going to hurl, slushing a mix of unprecedented rage and self-disgust that is, unfortunately, relatable. During one of their 2007 tours, Brand New closed with instrumental track Welcome to Bangkok and asked the other bands to join them onstage to double its volume. It was a rally cry for the distraught, and Hull, specifically, was asked to kick off the song on acoustic guitar. For a 19-year-old kid, to be starting the encore? It was trippy, says Hull. It was very idiot savant: soundcheck, day of, 'Hey, can you learn this part?' So all of a sudden I'm playing one song and then it was, 'Oh, there's actually this guitar part that we need somebody else, too.' At that point, I realized these guys are aiming for something that's really grand. And they're achieving it; it's inspiring.
That's when it became clear: This wasn't a band whining about suburban woes. Their Deja Entendu days of youthful, emotional intellectualism had passed. This was the sound of emo taking on a new form while simultaneously shedding the genre altogether. It's interpersonal bravery that comes with confronting oneself, the therapeutic confessionals of depression, and the quiet rage that accompanies fear, loss, and the unknown. The rhythm section alone howls with rigidity and recklessness. He'll come in on a song and, to this day, I still can't pinpoint exactly when his part's coming, Weiss says of drummer Brian Lane. Usually, as a musician, you can listen to music and get in touch with when parts will come in based on where you are in the song and what measure, but ultimately this guy is putting down parts that no other drummer I can think of would do.
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Photo by David Brendan Hall
Degausser and Sowing Season, two of Devil and God's scariest - truly, scary - tracks, were written spontaneously by the whole band. As iconic as Lacey's blood-curling screams are, it's Tierney and Lane's parts that drive the songs' seasickness. Just look at Millstone, a song with guitar groans that don't quite mimic sirens until the hollow march of the drums and bass thunder during the outro. They broke down traditional song structure and replaced it with something manic. Brand New settled the discussion: They weren't an emo band. They were a rock band purging every emotion that ever harmed them.
It just exemplifies what Nirvana did for mainstream music in the early '90s with Nevermind, says Weiss. I feel like that record kind of acted as sort of pioneering watermark for musical genres that existed in our country in the world really. It broke the barrier of 'our music just meant for this subculture.' It's much bigger than the 'emo' music scene. They've obviously come along and they've destroyed that entire limitation, that boundary, and that is the importance of that record. In this time of the early 2000s, with so much watered down musical content, they were trying to push things.
Brand New managed to shift musically while making their major label debut. Interscope Records released the album and with it no doubt prodded the band, but they held firm. They make their own space and they step into it seemingly without fear, says Devine. That isn't the same as fearlessly; everyone has trepidation and worry, and no band is faultless in that way, no matter how punk rock you think they are, but they had a willingness to pursue their vision.
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With previous records, Brand New released singles after an album had dropped. With Devil and God, they allowed the label to release advance streams of Sowing Season (October 20, 2006) and Degausser (November 14, 2006). They performed on late night TV twice (Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Late Show with David Letterman). Changes in publicity were made, but the label knew what they were doing. Devil and God charted on the Billboard 200.
Charting may seem casual now given the critical support it's garnered, but at the time, its creepiness seemed to have no place anywhere in mainstream circles. They are just dudes in flannel playing songs, but there's a drama in it. That's not a pejorative, it's a positive, says Devine. Jesse isn't afraid to tease with that, which is why the stakes, the recording component, and the reality behind it are dark. It's also dark from that feeling you get during 'Degausser' where you're pummeled and this unhinged yelling comes in. That's the soundtrack to a horror movie. You get the sense that the narrator is horrified by his experience, too.
The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me was and still is a title of lengthy expectations, setting the tone for extreme thrashing, but it's the cover art that did the talking. The image is iconic, even among people uninterested in this genre of music, for its eerie contrast between a small girl and two masked figures lurking at the doorway of a house - which makes it even better that the photograph wasn't commissioned for the record. The piece, titled Untitled #44, comes from photographer Nicholas Prior's Age of Man collection. After seeing it on display in New York City, the band expressed interest in using it, but Prior declined access.
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A few days later, [my dealer] Yossi [Milo] called me back, Prior explains over the phone. He told me that he'd tried to entice them with images by other artists, but that the band felt very strongly about using my photo. I found out who the band was, and they sent me an advance copy of the album, which is what sealed the deal. At some point, I was also told that no text would run over the image, which I thought really indicated their commitment to the image.
Commitment was an understatement. Brand New was entranced by Prior's work and had no intent of fracturing what he captured. Initially drawn to the surface-level creepiness, each member found himself fixated on different aspects of the photograph. I feel the place of power resides with the two people in the mask, but the girl seemed oddly calm in that situation, Lacey told BBC when asked why they chose it. The way she holds her arm and sleeve seems strange, like she does not know what's round the corner.
At the time he shot the image, Prior was interested in Freud and his writings on the uncanny, the cognitive dissonance someone feels when something is both comforting and discomforting. Certain elements of the photo - the chipping paint or the red berries, for example - contribute to the idea of the uncanny, but they weren't preconceived, says Prior. The slippers are, in a way, a lot more menacing than the dark overcoats or the rubber masks, because they are incongruous, they're misleading, which speaks more to the idea of the album title, too.
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The truth is, The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me wasn't just an album that altered Brand New's trajectory. It altered the path of emo and alt-rock bands at large. It blurred genre lines and bolded something beyond the band. By abandoning the clichs of their previous full-lengths, Brand New found their own voice the way their idols did (see: Modest Mouse, Neutral Milk Hotel,Built to Spill), but in aspectacular fashion.
The bridge to 'Not the Sun' is maybe my favorite minute of music in their catalog, says Devine. Great bridges are not easy. Elliott Smith and Nada Surfhave always been talented at that. That's what I was impressed with, and I remember showing that record to my snobbier indie rock friends and telling them, 'You guys weren't right about this band.' I felt this need to explain the record to my friends not because I had to, but because I wanted to. It was impressive music that needed to be heard.
Despite this, Brand New refused to get big-headed. There was an east coast kind of camaraderie that we shared, says Weiss, laughing, looking back on their supporting tour with Thrice. We just had a lot of fun going back and forth with those dudes about the Mets and the Phillies - just to let you know, at that time, it really was the peak of the rivalry between those two teams - about how the Mets had choked, that last year they were toppled over by the Phillies. It was very inspiring to see a group of guys that were out there just doing such a great job with what they were doing musically but still balanced the stupid joys of life. It really was encouraging in a lot of ways.
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Photo by Ben Kaye
Remembering the band's place in the world speaks to the album even more. Itsthemes didn't consume them; they overwhelmed them, and then they left, the way listeners themselves get wrapped tightly in past memories, struggle to free themselves from its rope, and then manage to cut free and return to the trivialities of life. A song like Luca begins delicately with long stretches of echo beneath it. Lacey takes his time getting to the peak, each of his words a demented bedtime story, before letting out a terrifying scream that, to this day, still catches listeners off guard. Brand New gave a voice to living nightmares and their power over the person, but they know to follow it with Untitled, an atmospheric number with jostled microphone sounds and distanced, unintelligible banter. The juxtaposition provides a break, but more so, it provides a trance, a loop of lonely guitar strums that raises a question: Is it better to lash out unexpectedly in a fit of anger, harming those around you, or to be swallowed whole by the indolence of dejection, harming yourself twice as much?
Jesse is a very clever songwriter, says Hull, speaking about his pairing of musical implications and lyrical markers. Like anybody who takes their time and really cares about their craft, I think he takes his time to make sure what he's saying is what he wants to say and is interesting enough to be heard.
At times, that means nodding to other texts, like a lyric lifted from Roky Erickson's Bloody Hammer for Degausser or a play on Rudyard Kipling's poem If for the second verse of Sowing Season. Other times, it means funneling nightmares into a seven-minute elegy. After reading about the death of local Katie Flynn, a seven-year-old girl killed by a drunk driver hours after serving as a flower girl in her aunt's wedding, Lacey couldn't shake the news story from his head. He wrote Limosine to tackle the accident from every perspective he could think of, and in the process, wrote some of his most haunting lyrics to date. (I'll never have to buy adjacent plots of earth/ We'll never have to rot together underneath dirt/ I'll never have to lose my baby in the crowd.)
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Lyrically speaking, Jesse captures your heart a little bit more than most bands, because he's a relatable personality on stage, and he's definitely somewhat trustworthy, says Weiss. There's just a tenderness to Jesse's songs that makes you feel like he is sort of right there with you and questioning the same things that you're questioning and in awe of the things that you're in awe of - and he does it with such grace. The quality of his voice, too. It's so tender and then it can get so so intense and raw and real that it makes for a very charismatic but relatable frontman.
Lacey's words open themselves on Devil and God in a way previous records hadn't. Each band member faced illness and death in their family life, funerals becoming a numbing event by repetition alone, but Devil and God surfaces surface-level grief. As he continues to tackle the pain of relationships (Love's just God on a good day), the afterlife (Well Jesus Christ, I'm not scared to die, I'm a little bit scared of what comes after), religion (You're beating with a book everyone that book tells you to love), and abuse (Don't feed me scraps from your bed and I won't be the stray coming back just to be fed), his phrasing becomes cryptic, technically easy to break down but somehow possessing a deeper unrest.
When asked during interviews why the band turned towards darkness on this record, Lacey pointed towards the pitfalls of life: deaths in the family, adulthood responsibilities, the latent sadness of life itself. I hear people talk about writing songs being therapeutic, and I never really felt that until this record, hetold German publication Allschoolsin 2005. I understand finally what they meant. There were a lot of questions asked that I could deal with by writing these songs. No matter what the song is, that sense of heavy questioning, and peril from questioning, breathes underneath it.
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Photo by Ben Kaye
At first, his lyrics could be cocky, a bit like Morrissey in that way, but then the songs on Devil and God got pretty, pretty personal and pretty spiritual, says Weiss. Every single person can admit that sometimes when you're laying in bed, you realize that you're completely, utterly alone in this world, you know that you came in that way and you're gonna leave that way. What else is there that actually is worth thinking about and searching for?
Lacey's not the only one penning rain clouds, either. Accardi wrote Handcuffs in addition to the music of Not the Sun and Welcome to Bangkok, but it's that album closer that brings a faux sense of a relief to the album. A viola and cello hum over porch-side guitars, creating the groundwork for pensive rumination, while Acardi's words tell a tale of inner unrest: I'd drown all these crying babies/ If I knew that their mothers wouldn't cry/ I'd hold them down and I'd squeeze real soft/ And let a piece of myself die/ It's hard to be the better man when you forget you're trying. It's the cost of being a hero paralleled to the urge of lashing out - a summation of every song before it and the greater sense that none of these questions have actually been answered, likely because the horrors that instigate them never sleep.
Devil and God's lyrics areinfamous for more than how they're sung. The CD comes with a collection of photos and phrases. Stamped at the end of the insert is Please send $1 to [address] for a complete copy of the lyrics. As the years passed and fans reached out, no one got their money's worth. It wasn't until April of last year, a whopping nine years later, that those who mailed a dollar to Brand New finally received lyric booklets in the mail (Excluding people, like myself, whose address of residency had since changed). In classic Brand New fashion, they were intricate and crafty, a reward well worth the wait, and they set aside additional copies on their merch table that year.
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Brand New do procrastination better than any other band, says Hull, laughing. They're the best at it. They're the kings, undisputed. They shy away from press. They decline photo shoots. They see no rush in issuing physical copies - it wasn't until 2010 that they released Devil and God as a double vinyl LP, lyric sheet included - or a new line of t-shirts, made all the cheekier by naming their self-made record label Procrastinate! Music Traitors. But truth be told, what should be Brand New's downfall winds up waxing their allure. The authenticity laced in their work compensates for whatever wait fans endure.
Perhaps that's the greatest mark left by The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me: a fandom that refuses to quit. Even Prior still gets a steady stream of questions about the meaning of the photograph, though he never discloses identities of the people or the location out of respect for privacy. Once someone sent me a picture of a tattoo right after he'd gotten it, the skin still a little red and swollen, he says. What made me laugh was his note, which was rather succinct: 'I hope you appreciate this.'
Brand New opened the floodgates for emo and alt-rock acts that followed in their footsteps, but it's the expansion of songwriting structures, the emotional intensity paired with truly impressive guitar work, that fans can and do revert to a decade later. Growing up, one of the saddest truths to accept is an album's ability to fade. Life experiences and, more often the case, an increased breadth of music force listeners to listen differently. Songs lose their initial charm. Edgy cuts appear cheap. But in the rare case, there's a band from your adolescence that wrote songs not for a time frame, but for a growth frame.
In the case of Devil and God, these songs are about coming to terms with the power you can wield, even when you chose not to, and how viciously it tears you up inside. It's a dizzying rush, like chasing your own tail in an effort to both bite it and heal it, and for better or worse, the albumvoices that madness. It's a growth frame that cannot be outgrown, and no matter how well we disguiseit in the workplace, that's something that never quite ends.
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Every couple of months, a new celebrity’s sex tape is being shopped around to porn purveyors without his or her consent. Mischa Barton is the latest to fall victim to an opportunist sociopath reportedly peddling a sex tape.
PEOPLE.com
Milo Ventimiglia: ‘I Still Don’t Think We’ve Seen the Worst’ of Jack’s Alcohol Struggles on This Is Us
PEOPLE.com  – ‎16 hours ago‎
A version of this article originally appeared on EW.com. [Spoiler alert: This story contains plot details from Tuesday’s season finale of This Is Us, titled “Moonshadow.
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Sports »
FOXSports.com
Dana White believes Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather will happen
FOXSports.com  – ‎5 hours ago‎
For months, UFC president Dana White shot down the idea that lightweight champion Conor McGregor would ever face Floyd Mayweather in a boxing match.
Washington Post
Teams on Upset Alert in Day 3 of the 2017 NCAA Tournament
Bleacher Report  – ‎1 hour ago‎
Upsets are a major part of the NCAA tournament experience every year, and they can make or break your bracket. Not only is the thrill of picking an upset great fun, but there are also plenty of people who have a lot at stake with teams in the No.
SB Nation
Vikings move on from Adrian Peterson by signing Latavius Murray
SB Nation  – ‎1 hour ago‎
The Vikings had the worst rushing attack in the league last season, averaging just 75.3 yards per game. Adrian Peterson, the franchise’s all-time leading rusher, missed most of the season with a knee injury, and the team opted not to pick up his option …
New York Times
New Normal: Federer Tops Nadal and Djokovic Falls to Kyrgios
New York Times  – ‎6 hours ago‎
Roger Federer needed just 68 minutes to capture a 6-2, 6-3 win over Rafael Nadal in the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open. Credit Larry W. Smith/European Pressphoto Agency.
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NCAA Basketball Tournament »
USA TODAY
Watchability Rankings: Thursday’s 16 NCAA tournament first-round games
USA TODAY  – ‎5 hours ago‎
Let the madness begin! With all due respect to the participants in the First Four round, the opening Thursday of the NCAA tournament is widely viewed as the real beginning of the Big Dance. It’s the day that marks the start of the weekend when March …
CBSSports.com
NCAA Tournament 2017: Why Vegas insiders like Florida as best title value
CBSSports.com  – ‎5 hours ago‎
Much has been made about the loaded East Region for the NCAA Tournament. No. 1 overall seed Villanova headlines the loaded pod, but No.
CBSSports.com
March Madness: 2017 NCAA Tournament haiku previews
CBSSports.com  – ‎5 hours ago‎
With the main draw of the NCAA Tournament set to begin, let us look at the field as it stands with 64 teams and get metrical.
NCAA Tournament 2017: B/R Expert Predictions, Updated Results for First Round
Bleacher Report  – ‎5 hours ago‎
Those First Four games in Dayton served as a delicious appetizer to what should be one heck of a main course, as they have every year since the NCAA tournament field expanded to 68 teams in 2011. We brought our three experts (Kerry Miller, C.J. Moore …
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Science »
CNN
Great Barrier Reef suffering ‘unprecedented’ damage
CNN  – ‎35 minutes ago‎
(CNN) Global warming has severely damaged huge sections of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, according to a new paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
Spaceflight Now
TV broadcast satellite launched aboard Falcon 9 rocket
Spaceflight Now  – ‎57 minutes ago‎
The Falcon 9 rocket streaks downrange in this long exposure photo from atop the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Washington Post
NASA budget would cut Earth science and education
Washington Post  – ‎6 hours ago‎
President Trump’s first federal budget seems to make good on his campaign promises to shift NASA’s focus away from Earth and toward space.
Los Angeles Times
As the planet gets hotter, some mammals may get smaller
Los Angeles Times  – ‎9 hours ago‎
Fifty-six million years ago, about 10 million years after the dinosaurs went extinct, something strange happened to our planet. It got hot.
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Health »
The Hill
Nervous GOP senators rooting for Ryan to fail
The Hill  – ‎19 minutes ago‎
A growing number of GOP senators are hoping the House fails to pass its bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare so they won’t be blamed for killing it in the upper chamber.
Medscape
Medical Societies Come Together on Harms of Climate Change
Medscape  – ‎28 minutes ago‎
The American College of Physicians (ACP), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and nine other medical societies have joined forces to raise public awareness and action against the harmful effects of climate change on the health of Americans.
New York Times
Patients Lose Sight After Stem Cells Are Injected Into Their Eyes
New York Times  – ‎13 hours ago‎
The left eye of a patient showing hemorrhages 13 days after stem-cell injection. Credit Dr. Thomas Albini. Three women suffered severe, permanent eye damage after stem cells were injected into their eyes, in an unproven treatment at a loosely regulated …
Fox News
Widow names raw milk creamery linked to listeria outbreak in wrongful death lawsuit
Fox News  – ‎19 hours ago‎
The widow of a Vermont man who died from a listeria-related stroke has named a New York-based raw milk creamery in a wrongful death lawsuit.
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