#there are so many ships i like. another thing i was thinking abt was

[hirokiyuu]

🍄?

🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

hmmmmm whats a nice one. oh i do think j/k where post fourth year jamil will send kalim postcards from the places he's been is nice. not letters and never with a return address but a reminder he's still alive and existing. i dont think he does it for everywhere he goes but i do think them having asmall connection like that is nice.

[becauseplot]

Penciled Lines

(Cross-posted on ao3, if you prefer to read it there. Reblogs still appreciated!)

Missa wakes up, and he thinks he might be doomed. This doesn’t scare him nearly as much as it should.

Missa is awake early—by his own metric, anyway. His nocturnal nature causes “early” for him to mean “early night” and not “early morning.” Regardless, “early” means that Philza is not asleep yet, still going through his nightly rituals. “Early” means that Philza is sitting up in (his? their?) the bed, pillows propped up behind him, notebook in his lap, sketching away.

And when Missa wakes up to the soft scritch-scratch of a charcoal pencil on textured paper, his forehead just so happens to be brushing Philza’s hip.

Missa can hardly breathe.

Oh no.

He knows that if he gives any indication that he is awake, Philza will stop sketching, close his notebook, shift himself over until he is politely seated on his side of the bed, and greet Missa with a friendly smile. Philza has done it before, when Missa wakes up early. That’s how Missa knows he’ll do it again.

Thus, Missa can hardly breathe—his breaths have to be the slow in-out of sleep. He can’t so much as twitch, either. He has to keep quiet and play dead or else he’ll be found out. Seen. Caught living the lie.

“Husband,” Philza calls him. They’re not married. They share a bed. They’re hardly ever in it at the same time. They have a son and a daughter. Neither of them know Missa very well. Philza has had an extra set of armor and a skull on his backpack for months, waiting for Missa. Missa doesn’t even know Philza’s last name.

Philza is a good man and a good friend—and Missa doesn't deserve him. Still, he takes what he can get. Curls around it. Hoarding every innocent kindness Philza extends like a starving creature: the generosity of a backpack fully stocked with equipment; the trust Philza places in Missa to watch the kids when he’s asleep; and now, the courtesy of not moving his hip from Missa’s forehead to ensure his “sleeping” isn’t disturbed. Missa clutches all of these little offerings in his greedy claws and hugs them into his chest, even as the guilt eats away at him.

Because, regardless of the lack of mutual feeling, he loves Philza. He loves him so, so much, and that is why he is doomed. He can’t afford to lose what little he has. He can’t cross that line. 

So Missa lies beside Philza, forehead pressed against Philza’s hip, pretending to sleep so he can imagine that they’re not just lying in bed together, but lying in bed, together; and later, when Missa truly wakes, he will sit on his side of the bed and look at Philza’s face soft with sleep and think about how lucky he is that he still has a side-of-the-bed to begin with.

Missa doesn’t mean to drift off. When it starts to happen, he’s hopelessly torn between shaking himself awake and thus giving himself away, or remaining how he is, silently fending off the inevitable. In the end, Missa clings to that scritch-scratch sound of Philza’s pencil on the paper for as long as he can before the fog at last pulls him under. 

Eventually, he dreams. In fact, he dreams of the calloused fingers he dreams of every night, hands like his own, an artist of Death, cradling and shading the contours of his face—a softness dashing charcoal across his jaw, and over his cheekbones, and perhaps on his lips, too, if he’s lucky. Defining every edge of him.

~*~

A deep sigh. Phil stops sketching as Missa shifts in his sleep. He tilts his head up so that the tip of his nose is now just nearly brushing against Phil’s hip. The motion disturbs the wild splay of his dark hair, revealing more of his face: eyelashes, cheeks, warmth. Tender blush of something Stygian and otherworldly. New.

Phil’s lips tilt upwards. He turns to a fresh page, and he starts again.

[t8oo]

there is some symbolism iv never considered in that one episod of pt5 where zenigata rescues fujiko before she kills lupin

[cheswirls]

looking @ old fic i started when i was 14/15 is so funny bc im realizing once again why i never mark fics as abandoned even if its been literal years since i've touched them. specifically i was checking docs for stuff i started and either did or didn't post to ffn.

and its like. nothing is bad??? like i can see where my outside-the-box ideal of fic writing comes from. not just fics but writing in general, i'm p sure. even if it's a total cliche plot setup, there are details on each that rly make it stand out like oh yeahhhhhh i did have this great idea once upon a time.

funny too bc was it executed well in prose??? no absolutely not i wrote like shit when i was 15. would i revive an idea one day and revise it to be less cliche or cringy while still keeping the stand-out elements??? yea maybe. i might. everything i'm currently working on that i started from 2021 up to now still holds my supreme interest, but like i'm not gonna say never.

esp since i write fic first and foremost for my own need and specifically what i like to read, it makes it impossible to consider an idea i've thought extensively about "not worth writing anymore". anyway not making this too long i jus found everything interesting to consider

[yume-fanfare]

well personally i think everyone should read performance. it should become a classic and i think everyone, regardless of how much they know about enstars, can enjoy it. go read performance now

[heshemejoshi]

what’s wrong? you look like you’ve seen a ghost

[cherrysnax]

keep havin dreams abt hs, I think my brains looking for closure or sumn

[ninyard]

Do you have any HCs for Kayleigh?? I always wonder about the pre-AFTG series story (and the big players).

There’s brief stuff in the EC abt Tetsuji & Kayleigh. but other than that it’s pretty blank?

Also the detail abt exy becoming popular partially via a manga ? I want the missing chapter when Tetsuji reacts to that 😭😭

Oh Kayleigh and Tetsuji!!!!!!!! I picture her so clearly in University in Dublin in her final year of Sports Management or whatever course she did, writing her thesis on mixed gender sports or the invention of new sports and sitting down with her thesis lecturer with this idea. Kayleigh finding a mentor in this man, or woman, and saying to them I want to do something bold, something amazing. She's on the Lacrosse team in UCD. She plays on as many of the teams that she can without jeopardising her studies.

Kayleigh moving to Japan for her masters, and meeting Tetsuji, and she sees herself in him, this glint in his eyes that says he needs to be destined for more. Them sitting across from each other in the library with books about sports and the invention of different things and Tetsuji looks at a sport like Lacrosse and says it's missing something. I think it could be better. And they spitball these ideas back and forth. Should it be on ice, bigger teams, smaller teams? Should it be outdoors or indoors? Is it violence? Is it violence that it's missing?

Kayleigh talking to her mom, sending letters to Ireland, making expensive phone calls in the middle of the night all the way across the world, begging her to send her VHS tapes of as many hurling games as she could find - her mother complaining about how expensive they'd be to ship to Japan, but she agrees anyway. Kayleigh finding as many books as she can about Irish sport and the history of it all. It's a couple of weeks before she get the package at her door, and she calls Tetsuji when he's in the middle of a lecture and tells him to come over. There in front of her is four, five, six tapes of All Ireland final matches, and they sit down in front of the TV with their notebooks in front of them.

They don't write anything after the first match, Tetsuji staring at the screen like he's taking it all in, Kayleigh staring at him with a smile on her face like this is what he was waiting to see. 70 minutes go by and she switches the tape out for another one, and then another, and another, and they stay up until the sun rises just taking notes and watching. Brainstorming. Kayleigh explains the rules to him. They draw pictures, and there's a million failed ideas that don't work, like a flat racquet more similar to a hurley than a lacrosse stick, or helmets more similar to a cricket helmet than an american football one. No armor, more armor, too much armor.

Them finding each other after class, and proposing this idea for their dissertation, their master's thesis, their final project, and getting a ridiculous look. Getting shut down, getting told it's ridiculous. So they do what they were supposed to do; make it fucking happen anyway.

They spend all the savings that they have, and Tetsuji contacts his family, and they get things shipped over to Japan - hurling helmets, hockey gear, lacrosse sticks. All these mish-mash element that creates the idea thats been living inside their heads. They have 10 different types of balls, a tennis ball, a cricket ball, a baseball, all these different options, and the two of them find out the schedule of all the pitches and fields and courts on campus and try it everywhere. It's messy, but it's exciting, and invigorating. They have their bulging notebooks on the ground, and every rule and idea they have, every thing that feels right or wrong, they write it down. They're taping weights around the lacrosse sticks to see if it feels better, padding out their gear with cardboard and duct tape. There's something missing, still. They try it on ice, and its too unbalanced and sloppy, but the first time Tetsuji shoots a ball at the plexiglass wall, and it rebounds right into Kayleigh's net, they both look at each other like that's it. That's what we've been missing. They jump on top of each other and get scolded for falling on the ice and screaming in the rink.

They figure out how much it would cost for them to rent out the unused college soccer pitch for the summer, and find ten of their friends and classmates and explain the rules as best they can. It's expensive, buying the gear for them all, figuring out how to surround the soccer pitch in plexiglass that's strong enough to not topple over from the weight of a person. They spend that summer finessing the rules, and finessing the positions, and teaching their friends how to play. By September, Tetsuji invites his family to watch, and Kayleigh invites their lecturers to watch, and there they stand. The first ever game of Exy.

It's not perfect - a goal falls over, the floor of the pitch isn't quite working, because they keep stumbling over their own feet when they run, but it's a brilliant thing to watch; something new, and unique, and never been done before. Kayleigh's team beats Tetsuji's team, and for a while they don't hear much. But their friends keep playing, they keep contacting people, making phonecalls to manufacturers and sports clubs.

I'm just thinking about those first few years where Kayleigh and Tetsuji probably spent every waking moment together just figuring it out. Their dorm rooms or apartments full of crap, different balls and equipment. Her bedroom wall covered in drawing and scraps of paper and ideas. Them spending most of their time on the phone with each other when they're not together in person. Thinking about them creating presentations and pitches and just trying to get their silly little idea of the ground, waiting for someone to take a chance on them, waiting for all the different sports committees and companies to call them back. A million "Sorry, no thank you!" emails and a million "It's just not something we can help you with" letters and phone calls. Until they get that one, then those two, those three words that say fucking go for it. The four words that say I believe in this.

I think about Kayleigh and Tetsuji running off of redbull and adrenaline, and how happy they would've felt when that first game finished and they saw something in each others eyes. Before their passion got killed by the reality, by the Moriyama's, by the world pushing them back again and again and again. But more of their classmates get involved. Somebody asked "What is it that you kids have built on the soccer field?" and then it's in a local paper. It's letters sent back to Ireland signed off in Japanese saying I can't wait to tell you what I've been working on.

Yeah. Yeah I have a lot of thoughts about Kayleigh. I have some images of her and Tetsuji in my head. Just a few!

[fujimiiiya]

I cackled everytime I see JJK content creators with 'Proship DNI' in their bio and those yapping how yucky and degrading it is for many of allxyuji ships (when they are literally fictional characters that you could tweak however you want) but then seeing them making contents from weakly jjk leaks, supporting leaks, tagging their contents based on leaks publicly when those acts are legitimately illegal and literally threaten and are harmful to the livelihood of many real people behind jjk's production...can't help but think how fucking silly they are like gurl your morals are backwards at best, thinking they are better and thus okay being racist and insulting to Japanese creators who contributed to make allxyuji swept most of the 20 popular jjk ships? They can't even stop and think why Japanese artists are so enraged w/ the act of leaking chapter and the act of supporting leaks in whichever form (including making fanarts, memes, posts, tweets based on leaks), before it is officially released that made those available everywhere due to these dumb content creators who can't even hold back few more days to not publicly support leaks...Bcs it is literally illegal and highly disrespectful to Gege and all those working in JJK and most of all, stealing actual profits that are supposed to go to them.

Still wanna act all high and mighty when you're supporting in real crime? Oh. You think if those ppl working on Weekly Jump magz got fired then it's none of your business bcs you're just a fucking leaks reader? You just happen to make contents abt it before official release bcs everyone else also does it. Could care less abt the fact that it's illegal bcs you dunno those real people working for JJK. But you 'care' more abt your fictional blorbos being shipped with another fictional character in what would be unhealthy according to real life standards?

At least im not a hypocrite and have actual functioning brain and morals that can separate reality and fiction and understand which thing is actually harmful and wrong IRL and which isn't. Get your brain to actually work first before running your mouth and preach about what's wrong and right in fiction.

The idea of proship doesn't even exist in Japan because they are the people who actually know how to mind their own business and not judging people based on preferences for fictional works...and not downright being rude to strangers online...unlike some people from the other side of the world, obviously.

[grandlinedreams]

hey babes!!! i just want to say that i love your law fics! and i stumbled across the soulmate law fic and you talked how law is so kaz brekker coded 🥹 glad im not the only one!! i would love to see more law in kaz moments just like the scene when kaz treated inej in the bathroom (im not sure if you've done this trope before but i love the tension between kanej) 🤣

GOD BLESS YOU you know what i'm talking abt they're so similar yet different but OUGH YES i had to find my copy and reread the chapter so i could get a good read again hhhfnd

[Heads up!: some good ol' pining, mention of injuries, pre-dressrosa/post punk hazard]

The door to the bathroom is open, shiny tile and bright lighting ㅡ and you, making neat strips of clean cloth for bandaging. Law doesn't knock to announce his presence, knows he doesn't have to. Though you don't look up, you're aware of him.

"There are two doctors on this ship," he intones, "you could have had one of us patch you up."

Snip. Another strip of bandage. "Both of you are injured. I hardly think it fair to ask you to do more while you heal."

"I think you're still bleeding." Law nods to the bright red that blossoms through the bandage that you have wound around your upper arm, approaching. "I can help."

You secure yourself further against the basin, watching him. In the reflection, he catches a peek of the tattoo stamped over the topmost knot of your spine ㅡ he looks away.

"I'm sorry."

You don't ask him what he's apologizing for ㅡ there are a thousand things he could be apologizing for, a thousand that he should.

Apologies don't come easy for a man like him.

"Were you the one who shot me?" He doesn't like the way you stare at him, Law realizes. Too analytical, too much like you're pulling him apart meticulously, piece by piece. He wonders ㅡ if you reach in far enough to pull the dark, wild thing of his heart out, would you be afraid of him?

"No. Butㅡ"

"Then you have nothing to apologize for." His teeth grit, jaw aching with the force of it. You make it sound as though the world deals in absolutes, measured evenly and doled out in the same way.

It doesn't, he knows that. If the world were fair, he may still not have his family, but he'd still have Cora.

"You shouldn't have come with me." He still hasn't moved towards you, evaluating you like a cornered animal despite the relaxed set of your shoulders, the loose curl of your hands for balance on the basin.

"I pledged my loyalty to you, not to a ship crew without their captain."

Law wonders if you've ever lied in your life. You meet his gaze, and his eyes narrow. He should demand you leave ㅡ find some way to get ahold of Bepo and the others, make you leave.

(He needs you to stay.)

He finally slots himself in the space between your knees, takes hold of your arm with one hand, the scissors you'd been using with the other.

Despite the blood seeping through, the wind of bandage is neat, efficient ㅡ you've watched him do it so many times.

Snip.

Bare skin, marred only for the clean, punched hole that oozes fresh blood. If it hurts, you don't show it.

He holds his hand out without looking at you, soft cloth against his fingers that he dabs your wound with.

"What's your intention in Dressrosa?"

Blood seeps into the cloth. "This should be stitched."

He doesn't need to look up to know you're staring at him. He can feel your gaze, fights the urge to look at you. "It's fine."

He winds white bandage around it, lost in the soft loop around your arm as he finally answers your question. "To bring down Doflamingo."

Scissors gleam in the lighting overhead. Your eyes, dark moon pupils haloed by color ㅡ dismantling him, piece by piece. "What are you really after?"

Snip.

The scissors clatter into the basin as his hands meet the mirror on either side of your head. This close, he could kiss you. Let his hands wander, touch, selfishly covet the way he so badly wants to. But he doesn't.

(His hands are bloodstained, and yours are not.)

His eyes lock with yours, his fingers curling. "The means to an end."

[jazzyjj]

I actually forgot about V’s addition in this episode, but I was pleasantly surprised when I remembered and thoroughly enjoyed the three together.

But after my daily cruising Tumblr tags and tiktok vids and comments of episode 3 it appears that people’s IQs have lowered to room temperature at an alarming rate.

To be blunt y’all are being dramatic.

Yes, is it nice to see a ship you like have a show dedicated to some time to themselves, however, that does NAWT mean we decide to attack the addition of another member when they join in. Y'all are not body language experts, and y’all do not know these men’s true moods and personalities especially not through a damn tv screen. So please do not come on here with your magnifying glasses and your theories abt how they secretly hate Tae’s addition. They are grown men. They don’t like something, I am sure they will speak up if their alone time is really that important to them especially when it's with someone as close to them as Tae.

Another thing for considering, they are literally never fully alone on this trip anyways, they’ve got 25 cameramen and drones, a hidden bodyguard or two probably-cause every ARMY will not be like that sweet girl in the store-and managers with them the whole time.

I’m trying to see some highlights and instead I gotta see goofy comments calling this a filler episode, calling Taehyung a third wheel, and that vminkook don’t have that good of chemistry together so it throws the episode off.

THE MAKNAE LINE?

CHEMISTRY?

DON’T HAVE?

The three individuals with multiple videos dedicated to said chemistry?

The three goobers whose last 2 braincells are so synced that the hyung line can’t keep up with their shenanigans and just watch from the sidelines?

Yeah, go ahead and log off for me.

You wanna talk abt jikook tags being dry? That’s cause y’all let it be dry. Yall decided to huff and puff in the corner and complain instead of doing any posting. That ain’t got shit to do with Tae. I still saw many cute moments of Jimin and JK.

You wanna be bitter and ignore all the fun moments the three had, how hilariously chaotic they are together, or how nice it was watching them decompress, be my guest. But all this whining? Baby keep that shit on your side of the laptop.

In summation, it is episode 3 of what number?

EIGHT

Which means if we pull out our fingies to count and you secure your thinking cap, that leaves 5 left to enjoy, he’s the only guest YOU WILL LIVE.

[sosorryjack]

For the Rhack ask: what are the most obscure/underappriciated things you love about them (individually and as a couple)?

Whew okay this is jumbled rambles for one answer but i feel like this is underrated since many people think that Rhack is just them being a bickering couple.

What makes Rhys and Handsome Jack one of the best duos in the franchise is that this is *THE* only instance Jack was vulnerable around someone.

Hell, we get to actually see this guy in person in some way. We only hear him via echo logs and barely any cutscenes in Borderlands 2. Since Rhys idolizes him, and Jack trusted this guy, they both feel like they can be genuine with one another because they believed that they won't betray eachother. I mean, please, he literally told Rhys about Angel and expressed his desire to see his babygirl. That takes so much trust for him to say that! Its why i usually despise the "Jack never cared abt Rhys" take. Because he clearly did.

It also must have been so amazing for Jack to have someone who understood him, not to mention Rhys finally having a purpose in his life and felt seen, validated, and appreciated by his own hero.

Even at the very end, Rhys defended Jack because he still believes they had some sort of connection. After everything that has happened, he always stood by his side. Theyre literally the best thing in this series.

I will NEVER agree with people who sees nothing between them or think theyre just this toxic problematic ship. Because they most defenitley do if you picked the right choices.

[del-stars]

dawg PLEASE talk to me abt bitchkiller I need more

i am literally always waiting to talk about bitchkiller

they just make so much sense to me-- and not in a long-term romance way. sirius' soulmate is remus, and barty's is.... not sirius black, that's for sure. sirius and barty are, quite literally, the same person: brash, impulsive, self-obsessed, and desperate for validation. being around one another makes both of them certifiably worse, and they spiral into these extreme caricatures of themselves. sirius' mood hangs on a thread, literally entirely dependent on if barty is being nice to him that day. barty loves the control he has over sirius and can think about nothing else: he needs sirius next to him at all times. their egos prevent them both from being vulnerable with each other because they can't be seen as weak, and so their whole relationship is founded on mind-blowing hate(?) sex and mutual obsession. they never get emotional with one another, never actually define their relationship, and thrive on miscommunication-- but they also both desperately need one another. barty knows what it's like to be inside sirius' head, and sirius knows what it's like to be inside barty's house. they are not interested in being better people, they are not interested in healing from their trauma, and they are definitely not interested in creating healthy boundaries. their friends hate them together because they've never been more chaotic and off-the-rails, never been more burrowed into everything bad that's ever happened to them.

this could be me projecting but it's that insane situationship you have when you're young, which seems so exhilarating and intense and fun that you almost manage to convince yourself it's worth all of the judgment and crying and exhaustion. sirius isn't aware enough to see that he's being manipulated, and barty doesn't even realise the extent to which he's doing the manipulating. you can't blame them because they quite literally did not know any better-- they've never had an example of how to be loved properly, without violence and obsession. i think in most universes it's sirius who ends things with barty (after many, many attempts) because he's put on the path to get away from all of that. he spends a long time thinking about what would've happened if they'd both been raised by different people-- in another universe, with different names, and all of that. barty feels betrayed because-- well, sirius was supposed to get it. he was supposed to understand barty, to know what he was really like and want him anyway. they were supposed to be stuck at rock bottom together.

anyway, tl;dr: more ships where they aren't soulmates !! more ships where they make each other worse !!

[musicalmoritz]

One thing I rly hate in fandoms is ooc angst just be for the sake of having angst. It gets to the point where a lot of angst is corny to me bcuz ppl just make it to be emo without considering whether or not it actually aligns with canon

Kou Minamoto is one of the biggest examples of this that I’ve seen. There are so many angst posts abt him being sad that Nene is with Hanako, when he acts the exact opposite way in canon. The only time he’s really acted jealous over her was when Teru flirted with her, and that was more because he felt betrayed by his brother. He didn’t seem upset at all when Hanako crashed their “date” in Yako’s boundary, in fact he was perfectly happy to let Hanako tag along

There is plenty of angst to be made with Kounene, especially considering Nene’s short lifespan. Since the ship is treated as the designated “healthy” pairing in the fandom I also don’t see a lot of talk about how Kou’s savior complex would negatively impact their relationship. There’s just so much to talk about with them outside of the whole “Kou is sad because Nene has a boyfriend” thing. Kou has a boyfriend too so like, now what?? I’ll admit I’m very biased here, I don’t like the unrequited love trope very much. The angst that goes along with it isn’t really my cup of tea, so whenever I make Kounene fics/posts they’re almost always from Nene’s pov with her liking him back. It’s not that it’s too sad for me it’s just kinda lukewarm?? And some of it gives Nice Guy vibes idk. The way I see it, if one character isn’t interested then that’s where the relationship ends, so I don’t see the point in shipping anything that’s completely one-sided. Not trying to yuck anyone’s yums, this is just a preference

Anyways Kounene is a really good ship with a lot of potential besides just being “sad boy Kou hours.” There is another character that Kou gets very possessive over but for once this ain’t about them so I’m directing my attention towards Kounene. And preferences aside, I’d rather the angst just be in character. Teru is a character that gets very mopey about his crush being one-sided, so a lot of these Kounene angst posts would work great with him and Aoi or Akane. Again, it’s not my favorite trope in the world but I can see how it would make sense with him. But for Kounene I think there’s so much angst (and fluff) potential we’ve been missing out on by reusing the same trope. Let’s get creative with it!

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

just out of curiosity – why do you like sukugo??

i've just never seen any of the accounts i follow/my mutuals celebrate this pairing so i'm really curious!

:))))))))) i smiled so wide getting this ask anon. PLS DON’T BE ALARMED just take my hand and let me tell you abt two deeply violent homoerotic men….

okay so when it comes to sukugo i just. ADORE their dynamic and relationship. it’s one of my favorites in the entire manga and i truly think akutami COOKED with it . not only the shinjuku fight itself (which is, ofc, what sold me on the ship) but also the foreshadowing beforehand!!! like sukuna telling gojo that he’ll be the first one he kills…. the two of them making the same kind of pose in their respective volume covers (vol. 4 & 14….. another parallel which is even more devastating when you remember that the number four is associated with death in japan)….. both of them being referred to as ”the strongest.”

i actually didn’t pick up on a lot of it until we got to shinjuku!! but i just think akutami teased at their importance to each other so well and so early on.

WITH THAT BEING SAID . their dynamic. their parallels. yes. they’re both the strongest and the most isolated and those two things are synonymous. it ties into one of the most central themes of jjk that equates absolute strenght to absolute solitude — it’s a kind of curse. a curse and a blessing. and they both have it.

the main difference is that gojo knows what it’s like to be understood and loved — but sukuna doesn’t. so he can’t feel lonely. he’s never known what it’s like to not be alone. but gojo has!!! gojo has felt love and felt what it’s like to be understood, and when geto died a part of him died too. he’ll always be lonely. he’s the loneliest character in the series. and when he looks at sukuna he sees the exact same isolation that’s plagued him since the moment he was born. so what does he do about it?

he tries to teach sukuna about love.

^ and THAT’S . the most delicious dynamic ever. i take no criticism. i’ll die on the hill that this concept and their dynamic is one of the absolute highlights of jjk. it’s so GOOD. it’s so insanely good. gojo wants to teach sukuna about love/cure him from his solitude by killing him. and vice versa. it’s inherently violent and inherently tender and it makes me INSANE. to me that’s the greatest appeal of sukugo!!!! violence as tenderness is a trope very near and dear to my heart (and also VERY frequently associated w queer subtext in media…. just putting that out there……) and they do it so good. they have a blast killing each other.

also i just NEED to say how much i love the ”teach you about love” line. it’s one of my favorites in the manga and akutami utilizes it so well!! he repeats it over and over as foreshadowing and to build up the sukugo dynamic. the final reveal that gojo is ”the one who will teach [sukuna] about love” made me weep (even though it was so obvious)…. it’s just so deeply. idk. it just says so much about gojo as a character :(( the fact that he wanted to teach sukuna about love. i’ve seen some people who think that part is ooc but i disagree completely!! gojo has never concerned himself w the morals of others. not really. toji kills riko but gojo still has a respect for him and allows him to say his final words. he never hated geto despite his crimes. he supports yuji fully no matter how many people die because of him. etcetc. same with all his students.

gojo looks at sukuna and sees someone who is just as alone as he is. so deeply, deeply alone. him wanting to change that is not ooc in the slighest because that’s quite literally what drives gojo as a character:

he’s just such a genuinely good person at his core. and it coexists with the way he sometimes disregards morality. this is a hot take but i genuinely think gojo’s character blossomed fully in his battle with sukuna….. i don’t see him as ooc in it at all. he genuinely wanted to reach sukuna!! he knew he was the only one who could even hope to do so. and he tried his best.

and, i would argue that he succeeded.

SEGWAY TIMEEEEEEEEE LET’S GO. okay so let’s talk abt one of my favorite panels in the jjk manga, the panel that solidified sukugo as one of my favorite pairings Of All Time:

(two diff translations bc i love them both :3)

THIS. wow. wow. wow. i could talk abt this panel alone for hours and hours but i’ll try to be coherent……

there’s just? so much meaning to be found here??? for both of them????? not only is it a fundamental moment for gojo — being praised and acknowledged and accepted as himself rather than the strongest — but it’s also proof that gojo did reach sukuna!!! he’ll remember him forever. sukuna will never fully be entirely isolated because even millenia into the future he’ll still remember gojo. gojo nestled his way into sukuna’s heart.

and that’s just . so romantic isn’t it???? so beautiful???????? this is the culmination of gojo’s efforts; the most genuine expression we’ve ever seen on sukuna’s face. he actually looks happy.

i cried seeing that panel btw 😭😭 not a joke!! i was already crying when i started chapter 236 bc i knew how it’d end but this panel (+ the one w geto cheering gojo on in his cult leader fit) made me SOB. not exaggerating. i’ve never cried so much reading a manga… T_T

so!!!! yeah. i just love sukugo. their dynamic is so interesting and beautiful and i can never get enough of it. sometimes i love it more than stsg… don’t tell geto that though……..

[abominable-space-they]

Something I wanna point out is that Oda said that we have already meet Luffy's mom.

My apologies for the very autistic special interest long response this has kicked off 💀

Yes! My favorite thing about Crocodad as a theory is that when ppl shipped Kuina & Zoro, Oda went, ack that's his first cousin, don't be weird

But apparently when he heard abt Crocodad he was like, you know what, Crocodile could totally be trans. He knows Iva, he was an androgynous gremlin as a child, this is a workable theory.

Tbh, I think it's possible that the narrative reason there's so much subtext supporting Crocodad + why

Dragon was introduced way before he entered the story

Dragon & Crocodile are extremely extremely similar characters even by the standards Oda's love of repeating different pattern permutations in his story telling

is bc, before he decided to make Vivi the princess of Alabasta, Luffy was going to be the connection & the villain would be his dad. Then the morally grey revolutionary was changed, but all the narrative hints were still already baked in

One way or another Crocodile has been a more present & available father figure to Luffy then Dragon has been, though the canonical dad bar's in hell 💀☠️

I think I originally started team dad verse just bc I had so many strong opinions about the canon terrible caregivers situation in one piece. I didn't originally care one way or about Crocodile as his dad other then, yes more gestational trans dads please. But apparently over 50k words later, I've accidentally won myself over to being really intensely team Crocodad.

He's a lot conflicted and a little regretful, and still doing better then Dragon, I fear.