#they seemed fit for a character arc where the protagonists accept them

[bs-el]

Burying the hatchet with my pretransition self by giving the OC i made to represent them a redemption arc

[misstrashchan]

I know people have picked up on the board game scene in RWBY V2 Episode 2 (Welcome to Beacon) as foreshadowing the events of the show, but for funsies I want to take a stab at how it foreshadows the general arcs of each four kingdoms myself.

So we have Blake playing as the Kingdom of Vale, and she's completely unaware of the events of the game unfolding and not really paying attention, clearly distracted.

"Alright Blake, it's your turn!"

"Huh? Sorry, what am I doing?"

"You're playing as Vale, trying to conquer the four kingdoms of Remnant!"

"...Right."

The Vale arc is the first three volumes of RWBY, where all our protagonists are at Beacon, but during that time, much like Blake during the game, they're unaware of the larger conflict with Salem, and aren't actively participating in the war at that point. They are ignorant and reactive instead of active. However it's ironic that Blake plays as Vale, since the reason she's not paying attention to the game and seems distracted is because, out of all the main characters in the Vale arc, she is the one most concerned about being kept in the dark and that they're ignorant as to what's really going on.

Blake: I just, I don't understand how everyone can be so calm.

Ruby: (approaching Blake) You're still thinking about Torchwick?

Blake: Torchwick, the White Fang, all of it! Something big is happening and no one is doing anything about it!

She also leaves the game during her turn, much like how she runs away after the FoB and the end of the Vale arc.

"Right. Well, I think I'm done playing, actually"

Yang is playing as Mistral, and she's the most savvy and knowledgeable (hah) player, winning many rounds of the game, teaching Weiss how to play, and has the other players falling into her trap cards.

"Heh, pretty sneaky sis, but you just activated my trap card!"

There's two ways this can be interpreted, with how the Mistral arc (volumes 4-6) is when our protagonists start to gather more knowledge and awarenesses of themselves and the world. It's also in Mistral that our heroes have their most decisive victory so far. It's fitting to have Yang playing as Mistral then, since during the Mistral arc she's the one who who learns from Tai to fight smarter, and to question the authority figures around her from Raven, and after confronting her in the vault is the one who retrives the relic of knowledge.

But, most of the losses our heroes experience are because of Cinder, who is from Mistral, and them falling into her own "trap cards" with the Fall of Beacon being orchestrated by her, killing Pyrrha and Ozpin. And in Atlas the same, with her manipulating Ironwood, undermining the heroes plans to evacuate everyone from Atlas, and killing Penny. She often finds ways to trick and exploit others, and is most dangerous when overlooked and underestimated, like falling into a trap.

Which brings me to Ruby playing as Atlas, where Ruby and Yang have this exchange after Yang's trap card is activated by Ruby:

"Giant Nevermore! If I roll a seven or higher, fatal feathers will slice your fleet in two!

"But! If you roll lower a six or lower, the Nevermore will turn on your own forces!"

"That's just a chance I'm willing to take"

In the Atlas arc (volumes 7-9) the theme of trust and taking risks is very prevalent. Like the move Yang makes in the game it is a risky one, that could end badly for her, but it is one worth taking nonetheless. They take the risk of trusting Ironwood but he ends up turning on our heroes. Oscar takes a risk trusting Hazel and Ozpin, as well as Emerald later on being accepted into their group, and it ends up working out for them. Ruby takes a risky chance in sending a message out to all of Remnant and evacuating Atlas, which saves a lot of people, but they still lose some, including Penny, a dear friend of Ruby's.

"Noooooo! My fearless soldiers!"

"Eh, most of them were probably androids anyways"

"Goodbye my friends... you will be avenged!"

Ruby acts distraught when losing her turn in the game as Atlas, expressing anguish over losing her friends who are described as androids by Yang, just like how Ruby is incredibly depressed and broken after the Fall of Atlas in V9, mourning the loss of Penny, who was both a sentient android and Ruby's friend. (I do wonder if Ruby's comment on avenging her friends might be foreshadowing for her wanting to avenge Penny's death in the future, like how Jaune tried to 1v1 Cinder in V5 to avenge Pyrrha, but I think it's too soon to say)

As a sidenote the fact it is a Nevemore in this turn that has a chance of turning on Yang or helping her is interesting, as it puts me in mind of two characters who can turn into ravens/crows, like the bird and poem Nevermore is associated with. It could pertain to Raven, someone who turns on Yang in v5 during the battle of Haven, but appears to help her and her friends in the V9 epilogue. It could also be about Qrow and his semblance, since during the Atlas arc it begins to evolve so that it is not simply a bad luck semblance, but one that can generate good luck too. In other words he can affect whether the chances are in people's favour or not.

After defeating Ruby (Atlas) Yang says this:

Yang: Not until I draw my rewards! Which are double this round thanks to the Mistral Trade Route!

Ruby: Bah!

Yang: Oh, and what's this? The Smugglers of Wind Path?

Ruby: Bah! Bah, I say!

Yang: I say, it looks like I'm taking two cards in my hand!

After the Fall of Atlas Cinder retrives not one but two relics for Salem, and with Atlas falling into Mantle, two kingdoms are destroyed in one fell swoop.

Then it's Weiss's turn. Weiss is playing as Vacuo, but has no idea how to play the game. Yang takes it upon herself to teach Weiss how to play and what she can do to win the game:

Yang: Well, Weiss, it's your turn.

Weiss: I have... absolutely no idea what's going on.

Yang: (Yang slides up beside her and puts her hand on her shoulder.) Look, it's easy! You're playing as Vacuo which means that all Vacuo-based cards come with a bonus.

Weiss: That sounds dumb.

Yang: See, you've got Sandstorm, Desert Scavenge... Oh, oh! (She pulls up a card to show Weiss.) Resourceful Raider! See, now you can take Ruby's discarded Air Fleet—

Ruby: (crying) Nooo!

Yang: —and put it in your hand!

We know from the end of V9 that what remains of the airfleet of Atlas, as well as the airfleet of Mistral and Vale, have all flocked to Vacuo's defence. What remains of the kingdom of Atlas, the airfleet, but most importantly the people, have now fled to Vacuo and are trying to make a home there.

Yang continues to give Weiss advice on how to win the game to Weiss, building her up, until Weiss starts to get arrogant, believing she's going to win the whole game and is the one in control:

Yang: And since Vacuo warriors have an endurance against Natural-based hazards, you can use Sandstorm to disable my ground forces and simultaneously infiltrate my kingdom! (Yang points a finger at Weiss.) Just know that I will not forget this declaration of war.

Weiss: And that means...

Ruby: You're just three moves away from conquering Remnant!

But then Yang turns on Weiss, activating her trap card, and Vacuo loses.

Since this is may be foreshadowing for the Vacuo arc that we haven't seen yet, I can only speculate what this might mean.

...But judging from the V9 extended epilogue and the books, my best guess would be that if Yang/Mistral is meant to be in part Cinder/Salem and their forces, then Weiss as Vacuo is in part the Crown. In the extended epilogue Jax and Gillian appear to be recieving help from Tyrian and Mercury, meaning Salem has decided to recruit them to her cause.

The Crown wants to restore the Vacuoan monarchy and detest outsiders, especially Atlesians. They do however wish to protect Vacuo from the same forces that destroyed Beacon, aka Salem, and so they are likely going to be manipulated like Weiss is by Yang in the game, being offered aid and giving them advice on how they can win and achieve their objectives, making them believe they can "conquer Remnant", only for them to realise later they were being tricked and used.

"Once again, Vacuo had been isolated from the conflict raging throughout Remnant—only this time it was an opportunity. With the global CCT network disabled, Vale in ruin, Haven leaderless, and Atlas closed off, Vacuo was theirs for the taking. This was likely their last, best chance for a generation. And it was their only hope to defend Vacuo against whomever had been targeting the other kingdoms. In likelihood they had written off Vacuo, like everyone else did, but if they tried to move against the Crown, they would have an unpleasant surprise.

Vacuo wouldn't break this time around."

Weiss: (Weiss stands and a thunder clap accompanies Weiss' overjoyed psychotic laughter.) Y-yes! Fear the almighty power of my forces! Cower as they pillage your homes and weep as they take your children from your very arms!

Yang: Trap card... (Yang's arm appears holding the card.)

Weiss: Huh?

Yang: (Yang shuffles the pieces on the board, Weiss' pieces disappearing in a puff of smoke.) Your armies have been destroyed.

Weiss: (Weiss slumps in her chair, cries and whines.) I hate this game of emotions we play!

Weiss as Vacuo may lose to Yang after realising they've been tricked, but is offered comfort afterwards by Ruby who relates to her losses and empathises with her, which is interesting since Ruby plays as Atlas. So I'm predicting at the end of the Vacuo arc they'll experience somewhat of a loss, whether that's the Crown, our heroes, or likely both, but Atlas will give support to Vacuo and the two kingdoms will come together to heal and ultimately work together, making steps to overcome their tense history with one another.

"Stay strong Weiss we'll make it through this together!"

"Shut up, don't touch me! "

...Which does make Weiss specifically playing as Vacuo especially intriguing, as she is the SDC heiress from Atlas, and Vacuo is a kingdom that has suffered the most in being exploited and colonized for it's natural resources by Atlas. From the epilogue it seems like the Schnees are being confronted directly with all the harm that has been caused by their family and kingdom, so I wouldn't be surprised if Weiss recieves a certain amount of focus during the Vacuo arc in deciding what her legacy as an Atlesian and heiress to the Schnee name will be. Moving forward to make amends, maybe inspiring the citizens of Atlas/Mantle to come together with Vacuo so they can all help and support one another, instead of isolating themselves and suffering alone.

Jaune offers to plays Weiss's hand for a turn also, with Weiss refusing:

Jaune: (Begging with both hands folded together.) Come on, let me play your hand for a turn!

Weiss: I'm not trusting you with the good citizens of Vacuo!

Which is reminiscent of how Vacuo is mistrustful of outsiders, as we've seen in After the Fall and Before the Dawn books.

Yang follows up to say that Weiss attacked her own forces, which could reference the infighting in Vacuo, especially with the Crown.

Weiss: Besides, this game requires a certain level of tactical cunning that I seriously doubt that you possess.

Yang: Uhh, you attacked your own naval fleet two turns ago. (Weiss makes an annoyed sound.)

Overall Weiss as Vacuo recieves the most help as any player during their turn, being taught how to play by Yang, offered comfort by Ruby after losing, and Jaune wanting to help her by playing her hand for a turn. This seems to fit with both how all kingdoms have flocked to Vacuo's aid in response to Ruby's message, but also Weiss as a character, who starts out "the loneliest of them all" but gradually opens up and warms up to other people. The crux of her arc being looking outside herself and at the people around her, relating to their struggles and coming to support them and being supported by them leads to her better understanding herself and becoming stronger for it... Which is kind of what the Kingdom of Vacuo needs to learn too!

Following this is Blake's turn as Vale, which I covered at the start of this post, but that's not the end of Vale's turn. We don't actually see it, but we know the aftermath of the game is this:

Yang: Ugh, we should have never let him play!

Ruby: You're just mad cuz' the new guy beat you!

Blake leaves the game during her turn as Vale, and presumably the "new guy" which is likely Neptune, who they'd just been introduced too, takes over her hand as Vale and wins the game of Remnant overall, even beating Yang and her trap cards. This is likely the endgame of RWBY itself, our heroes return to Vale after the Vacuo arc during the last volume for the final stand, where they win.

How and what that victory will look like I don't know, as we don't see the last turn of the game, so yet again this is even more vaguer speculation. Neptune doesn't really have much plot significance so I can't think there's any meaning to that except that he's a minor foil to Jaune, and the line of it being "a new guy" that wins, so maybe someone who recently joins our heroes side in the final act of the story, possibly Mercury or Cinder.

[scleroticstatue]

Feminine Plots

Okay, I've been thinking A Lot about basic plot types and how classically feminine stories fit into neither the traditional (masculine) archetypes nor the traditional plots. After a lot of studying the major plot beats, I think all female-led stories* fall into one of seven plots. I'm using Disney movies to demonstrate this because just about everyone has seen them, but I think you could apply these to just about any feminine-based story.*

So, without further ado:

The Hard Work Plot: The heroine of this story is a hard worker and is tested by the plot to prove her kindness and generosity. If she passes the test, she wins and is rewarded for it. This is the basic plot of Snow White, Cinderella, and Tiana/Princess and the Frog.**

The Beast Taming Plot: The heroine of this story is put in a situation where she meets a monster, learns to understand it (usually through a heightened state of empathy), and then tames it to become socially acceptable for the norms of society, often ending the story by using the tamed monster to defeat a more villainous character who has been accepted by society. This is the plot of Belle/Beauty and the Beast, Moana, Jane/Tarzan, and Lilo/Lilo & Stitch.

The Transformstion Plot: The heroine meets an outsider who is threatening her home/family/people, who are stagnating or stifling. She spends time getting to know the person and their culture, and then uses her friendship to transform her own culture into one of flourishing modernity. This is the plot of Ariel/The Little Mermaid, Pocahontas, and Jasmine/Aladdin.

The Restoration Plot: The heroine is in a kingdom/household of dwindling power. Her quest is to restore the damaged relationships and undo the evil that caused the kingdom to dwindle. There's a very high chance that the heroine doesn't actually do the restoration herself, rather she makes other characters realize they have responsibilities and duties they haven't fulfilled, who then fix the problem instead of the actual female lead. This is Aurora/Sleeping Beauty, Elsa/Frozen, Mirabel/Encanto, and Nala/The Lion King.

The Balancing Plot: The heroine is proven to be unfit for feminine life and goes on a journey to prove she is capable of fitting in with the guys, only to realize that what she needs to restore peace and joy to her home/kingdom is the very feminity that she rejected. This is Mulan and Merida/Brave.

The Maturing Plot: The heroine is a naive individual who is exposed to the big bad world. Her idealism transforms the big bad world to be softer, but she also realizes there are bad things out there and that are/will take advantage of her if she lets it. In the end, she usually has to fight the bad guy/embrace her duties and responsibilities to save her home. This is Alice/in Wonderland, Wendy/Peter Pan, Giselle/Enchanted, and Rapunzel/Tangled.

The Sacrifice Plot: The heroine has a group that she is some sort of caretaker for (a princess, a lover, a support class). She does something, usually accidentally, that causes her friends to end up in danger, and she has to sacrifice herself to make up for those wrongs and save her people, usually ending up coming back to life because the other leads are so inspired and love her so much they make sure to save her. This is Tinkerbell/Peter Pan, Meg/Hercules, Esmeralda/Hunchback of Notre Dame, Kida/Atlantis, Anna/Frozen.***

EDIT: After workshopping this, I've decided I was missing one which seems almost exclusive to mothers and wives:

The Witnessing: The heroine must prepare another to become a Sacrifice/go to war/fight without her interference, and she has to let go and let them take on the trials of the world. Her plot arc succeeds when the people she's equipped successfully encounter the world without her guidance. This is Mrs. Potts/Beauty, Grandma Tala and Sina (the mom)/Moana, and Grandma Fa/Mulan. It's rare, so there's not a lot of these are protagonists, but it is a legitimate feminine archetype.

Star explanations under the cut.

*I'm being very specific here and talking about stories that are associated with the feminine, not stories that are traditionally associated with males who have then taken on female leads. And, while you can look at these as entire plots, these are also applicable as character arcs. The Lion King, told from Simba's perspective is the classic Call to Adventure. However, from Nala's perspective, she is the Restorer who, after watching her kingdom fall to ruin, has to go find the proper authority, mend his relationship with his father, and then return him to the kingdom to fulfill his responsibilities. While some more modern stories have female leads that don't fit these categories, I would argue they're not trying to appeal to women, but to a general audience and just happen to have a female protagonist, who could easily be swapped out for a male protagonist without changing anything of the story (and that, imo, makes for a very bad story indeed).

**There is a secondary dimension in these stories, which is the staticness or dynamicness of the characters. The classical Hero's Journey features a dynamic protagonist, who is expected to change throughout the run of a story. However, in most female-led media, the lead character is already virtuous and good. She is a static character that is then tested to see if she will fold under pressure. Snow White and Princess and the Frog both feature Hard Work narratives; however, Snow White is a static character who has to prove through a series of trials that she's good hearted and the world won't turn her cynical, while Tiana is a dynamic character who has to grow from cynicism to accept love as a virtue. While it is more traditional of older stories like Grimms' Fairy Tales, the Arthurian mythos, or Classic-era novels, static protagonists have almost entirely died out in favor of the Hero's Journey dynamicness. However, it remains a staple in Feminine Stories, even in modern stories: Moana, Anna/Tangled, Lilo/Lilo & Stitch.

***The Sacrifice Plot is a little odd, because there's usually another plot on top of it; Anna has a (slight) Maturing Plot, Meg has a Balancing Plot, Kida has a Restoration Plot. However, in the end, it's not a philosophical shift that defines their character, but their willingness to sacrifice for those they love. Yes, Anna was duped by Hans and has to accept he's not the good guy. However, she still falls in love with a man she just met (just a different one) and her narrative is instead trying to fix the problem she made when she upset her sister and her climax is when she essentially dies for Elsa, who then saves her with their sisterly love.

[thegracefulknight]

O!Ciel, Lizzy, and Sterling Silver Roses

One of my favorite extra chapters in Kuro is the Book of Murder side story, where each of the characters turn into characters from fairy tales. My most favorite part there is obviously Ciel and Lizzy's, which represented The Snow Queen (also my favorite fairy tale). It just fits them so much!

So I was rereading this chapter and noticed the panels below:

In the first one, we see Ciel seemingly giving someone a rose. At the present, we haven't seen any scene similar to this between O!Ciel and Lizzy, but since this is Lizzy's POV and she is talking about the protagonist, I'm assuming this is indeed a memory shared between them (or at least parallel of actual events that happened in their past).

O!Ciel's favorite flower, is coincidentally, sterling silver roses, as mentioned by Sebastian in Ch. 1.

Sterling silver roses are these lovely lavender or lilac-silver roses that represent nobility, elegance, and regality. Since I wanted to see if there would be any relation I could make between this flower and my favorite ship (the way I overthink about these two, really 😭 lol), I tried to look more into what these types of roses represent in a romantic sense.

And well— lavender-colored roses like the sterling silver rose represent love at first sight. They also "signify enchantment, adoration, wonder, and fascination. If you have a secret love, lavender roses can maintain a sense of mystery. The tone is also ideal for the first time you give your love interest flowers."

Giving lilac roses to your special someone, on the other hand, symbolizes your "subtle intentions for them in the future."

Going along with these concepts, and since we were never told of the reason yet why this type of rose was our earl's favorite, my assumption is that the silver sterling rose probably holds a special memory for him in the past. And as the only time we see him with a rose in the manga so far would be that panel from the special chapter (correct me if I'm wrong though), it could be assumed that this memory is something he shares with Lizzy from when they were little—O!Ciel giving her a sterling silver rose. It could be a hint that O!Ciel has liked our sweet Lizzy from the start, and possibly, has wished before that it was he would be betrothed to her instead of R!Ciel (who doesn't really seem that interested in her anyway, he's just happy and relieved she at least is cute and 'not scary'). He doesn't act on it however, as he knows she is never meant to be his.

One thing to note is that, while we have seen from his actions many times that he cares a lot about Lizzy, we are still yet to see O!Ciel actually talk about his true feelings for her. And I believe it's about time l we see just how he thinks of her, from his own POV. I expect that this is something we will finally get to see soon in this arc as one of the layers it touches are the conflicts between O!Ciel and Lizzy, and their relationship.

It's been shown at an earlier part of this arc that O!Ciel distances himself from people he cares about to protect them, and that he is afraid to accept the idea that he deserves love and happiness. I think bringing up this memory with her, and his sterling silver roses would be an emotional way for him to finally face these feelings, and give it a name. To acknowledge that Lizzy is someone that he loves, ever since, and someone he doesn't want to lose.

All of this for now are just my assumptions on what we may see once we finally get the focus back to O!Ciel and Lizzy, but it would be truly interesting to see it unfold, and also a beautiful way to see them acknowledge their feelings for each other when the time comes.

[mcsm-confessions]

What Enneagram types are the main cast? I've been thinking about this for some time and here's my two cents. If anyone has ideas/corrections about any mistypes I'd love to hear them. This is mostly coming at it from the 'core fear' aspect rather than outward displays of personality, but I think it could inform potential character arcs.

*Jesse: 2, Helper. Fears being unwanted/unworthy of love. 2 empathetic, self-sacrificing type fits the optimistic protagonist role Jesse plays, and the fears can really be pushed in dire situations where her friends end up throwing in the towel and leaving. Potential backstories for this root fear include (as one anon mentioned a while ago) being an unmoored orphan.

Olivia: 5, Investigator. The fear of being useless/incapable adds depth to her self-worth issues over not being good enough in her abilities (building competition, redstone, etc.) and can be maximized for profit with Ellegaard's death, whereby Olivia can step into her shoes as a kind of successor.

Axel: 9, Peacemaker. Fears separation and conflict, which manifests as a passivity and resignation of the state of things. Axel is dissatisfied with their—the Treehouse Trio's—situation, but has convinced himself that it's just the way it is. Growth would be following his passion when the opportunity arises (finding Magnus and becoming the King of Boomtown)

Petra: 8, Challenger. Fears being harmed or controlled. This one may be a stretch but the rest of Petra's personality (self-reliance, resisting weakness and the need to stay in control (e.g. her conflict with Jesse in S1E7) seems to fit this. Could be explained by a really shitty childhood. Growth is learning to take a back-seat and show vulnerability (which is excellent fodder for a romantic subplot)

Lukas: 6, Loyalist. Fears not having stability. Very loyal and cooperative: Lukas is repeatedly loyal to his friends, shown when he goes back for the Ocelots or even Jesse in S2 if you ended things on bad terms earlier. Growth is abandoning his old post (The Ocelots), finding his own way and taking the risk to join Jesse's gang instead.

Bonus Aiden just for sillies: 3, Achiever. Shares a similar basic fear of worthlessness with Jesse, but manifests it outwardly with ladder-climbing and hunger for fame instead. Hangs around the negative levels of Type 3, with growth being accepting his inherent self-worth and actually doing some good instead of endlessly chasing Jesse's shadow.

*This is written with F!Jesse in mind, at least. I haven't seen an M!Jesse playthrough so I can't determine whether it's accurate or not.

~~~

[duhragonball]

So now that you've finished the Eva TV series, is there any character in the cast who you'd call a favorite?

Misato Katsuragi, easily.

It took me a while to realize it, but in a cast full of traumatized children, amoral scientists, and big-rigged mahoneys, she's the only one who really feels like a hero in an sci-fi adventure story. She supports her team, taking charge and boosting morale wherever she can. She never despairs in the face of danger. She takes responsibility for the kids when no one else will, and she doesn't just shrug and accept NERV's bullshit as a "necessary evil".

Oh, and she's constantly struggling to find out what the hell is going on in this show. She asks questions, gets answers, and follows up on Kaji's investigation after he dies. It's not clear that she was looking to betray NERV; she just wanted to know all the facts so that she could do the right thing as effectively as possible.

I think the only negative for the character is this fan theory I found on one of the wikis that suggests she was going to have sex with Shinji to console him after the apparent death of Rei in Episode 23, which I find ridiculous. The reasoning seems to be based on the way Misato is regarded as some sort of nymphomaniac, and so that's her default way of dealing with loneliness and grief, and... no, that's stupid.

Both endings of NGE seem determined to assert that Misato is some sort of sex addict, and that this is a terrible character flaw. Meanwhile, the only person we know she's had sex with is Kaji. They dated in 2007, and then they got back together over the course of the show. I despise Kaji and his punchable face, but I don't think having sex with him is some sort of crime. It's not like she was cheating on someone else while she was doing it.

Evangelion seems determined to demonize Misato for being too sexy, which is pretty rich considering she seems pretty monogamous and professional throughout. Meanwhile, the rest of Evangelion seems obsessed with the idea of putting teenagers in suggestive poses and minimal clothing.

For a time, I considered using this ask to make a whole list of characters I liked, but no, Misato is too far ahead of the others to bother with runners-up. I can appreciate Shinji, Asuka, and Rei as protagonists, but they're so friggin' childish that it gets on my nerves. You can't even get that mad at them, because they're children.

I liked Ritsuko, but her character arc is almost nonexistent. She mostly typed a lot and ran tests, and then she finally got pushed too far and turned on Gendo and... it didn't really affect anything.

Gendo Ikari is pretty fascinating, and I suspect he may be the model of this trend I've seen in American comic books, where fans and writers act like Batman, Professor X, and Mister Fantastic are actually ruthless, manipulative monsters instead of well-meaning hero types. Blame it on pop culture's intolerance for nuance, but I suspect that Evangelion came along and people started to try to fit their favorite characters into Gendo-shaped holes. It's refreshing to see the real thing, though. But he's still kind of a dick.

The unseen gunman who murdered Kaji is pretty cool, I suppose.

[etirabys]

book review: she who became the sun

Woohoo, this stacked well with reading the "end of Ming, early Qing" stretch of The Search for Modern China. It's set in a similar time period, and Zhu, the "random peasant who turned out to have an amazing knack for leading a rebellion" protagonist, fits neatly into the historical period where many peasants or failed bureaucrats were discovering that this was their calling.

GOOD novel. Chewy. It's good. Had enough crazy brilliant protagonist energy to remind me of the Vorkosigan saga:

"That monk knows exactly what he wants. The night before the battle at Yao River, he asked me to make that gong for him. I made it, he used it, and he won,” Jiao said. “I’ve met his type before. They either go far or die early. And either way, they have a tendency to make collateral damage of normal people.” He raised his eyebrows at Yuchun. “Are you special, little brother? Because if you’re not, I’d watch out."

Will definitely be buying the sequel.

(At this point the review becomes spoilery.)

One of the most gorgeous blood feud I've ever seen! The players in the blood feud are:

- Ouyang, the sole survivor of the massacre of his Han family – begged for his life as a child, was spared but castrated, and has grown up into a fearsome Mongol general

- Chaghan, the high ranking Mongol military commander who did the massacreing

- Esen, Chaghan's son who conforms perfectly to Mongol masculine warrior ideals. Loves Ouyang as a best friend but fails to see, at all, how bitter Ouyang is with his life and how set he is on revenge.

- Wang, Chaghan's half-Han nephew whom he adopted as a son.

Each pair of the above either outright hates each other, OR is plotting the other's destruction despite great love, except Chaghan and Esen. It's fabulous! Ouyang is... oh, just read this short post about CS Lewis's definition of damnation. Ouyang is very damned.

Oh, Ouyang. Women are terrible! The politics.” He groaned. “Consider yourself lucky you’ll never have to suffer this kind of torment.” Esen never meant to hurt, and Ouyang had always taken care to pretend matter-of-fact acceptance about his exclusion from family life. Why should he blame Esen for not reading his mind to see the anger and pain there? But the truth was: he did blame Esen. Blamed him even more than he would a stranger, because it hurt more that someone so beloved should not see the truth of him. And he blamed and hated himself, for hiding that truth.

Ouyang's arc is a superbly executed tragedy. The climax, I think, physically winded me slightly.

And Wang –

This book is primarily about people-who-are-not-fully-men by the Mongol standards of manhood, and of the GNC characters, Wang was the one who struck me as queerest by nature/volition rather than circumstance. His gender is Accountant Who Loves The Arts, and his Manchu relatives HATE him for it. His gender noncompliance seems like "I'm doing this because I really want to and anything else is painful" rather than "I'm doing this because I was castrated" (Ouyang) or "I'm doing this because I was going to literally starve to death unless I latched on to the niche that was meant to be my dead brother's" (the protagonist).

Said GNC people sniff each other out quickly and feel Weird Magnetism. "Like calls to like" is an italicized refrain. In fact, Zhu's nonbinarydar is so advanced that she intuits Ouyang's emotional damage within minutes of meeting him, and feels a magnetic pull to him for the rest of the book. As a shipper, I'm a huge fan. (What I want: Ouyang/Zhu/Ma triad fic.) As a person who yearns for anyone to understand Ouyang, I'm a huge fan. But I'm an anti-fan of "these two people who are very different are of the Same Kind because they don't fit into mainstream culture". Such groupings are politically expedient but I feel allergic to seeing them painted as intrinsic similarities – to say, these two things are the same because they are not X, seems to ontologically center "X vs not X" when the political project should be to dissolve the salience of that division.

Through that strange quiver of connection to the Yuan’s eunuch general, she had seen beneath that carved-jade mask to his shame and self-hate and anger. He had a wound for a heart, and that made him a more dangerous opponent than anyone here realized.

I feel weird writing a paragraph about this, but the book is really explicit that these radically different GNC people are on the same wavelength and I'm like, NO, they're really not!... they could have grown into the weird intense soulmate enemy bond they immediately have in book 1, and that would have felt narratively rewarding to me – recognition through inquiry and (reluctant) empathy and reflection, not, Nonbinary Frog Pheromones

Finally: I loved Zhu's romance arc and childhood trauma and fucking everything. She's ten years old when her father is kicked to death by bandits for not offering them enough food (the whole region is some years into a famine), and by the time she's an adult this feels so faraway that... well, as an adult she sees a food seller at a market being extorted, and the scene goes like this:

“Hey, granny!” Well, less hope for some. Zhu, observing the unfolding human drama, felt a stirring of unease: the memory of something witnessed so long ago that it might as well have been in a past life.

Seriously, the kicked to death thing never comes up again, and the elision is vast and leaves a lot of room for echoes. Similarly – several minutes before being kicked to death, the desperate father, who devalues girl children in a culturally unexceptional way, offers ten year old Zhu as food for the bandits so they'll leave him and his son alone. (This whole scene is amazingly written, and does not get in the way of the inherent intensity and awfulness of this event.) Zhu does not process this onscreen At All. Once her entire family is dead she starts rolling on her journey to becoming a warlord like a polished marble. Said journey involves her taking her brother's place at a monastery and playing at being a not-girl so well that even the heavens won't notice that she's of the Grindable To Nothingness gender, all while having ZERO thoughts about the "eat my daughter and leave us alone" incident. Fucking fantastic.

Anyway, at the beginning of becoming a warlord, she meets Ma, a Girl Who Is Somehow Nice Despite The World Making This Very Hard:

in her face there was such a depth of raw and innocent emotion that Zhu’s eye was drawn as if to the scene of an accident

and

Zhu, watching Ma with an alien ache in her heart, saw the girl turn away at the critical moment [of someone she cares about being executed]. There was nobody to comfort her. She simply folded over onto herself in the middle of that empty bubble in the crowd, crying. Zhu felt a strong protective urge rise up in her at the sight. With alarm she realized it was a new desire, already rooted alongside that other desire that defined everything she was and did. It felt as dangerous as an arrowhead lodged in her body, as though at any moment it might work its way in deeper and cause some fatal injury.

and marries her. I love this, because I'm a huge sucker for "I am a very bad person and I love you and hope you will keep me in line" ships, and this is explicitly part of their deal!

However, after fights about less taboo atrocities, Ma comes back to Zhu after Zhu kills an eight year old Ma is attached to (for being a ?dalai lama? who is inconvenient to Zhu's goals), so it's a little unclear to me how much Ma is going to keep this function.

[argumentativeessaysfornoone]

Personal thoughts on this man

Uhh spoilers? I don't know.

Okay, okay, so first off let me be clear: I hate this man. And I have come to accept that I will never like him. Yes, I know he is fictional, and yes, I know that there are plenty of people who will cuss me out and curse my name in their sleep for stating that I hate this man, but there it is. I hate Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd. BUT! Just because I hate a character doesn't mean that my opinions are invalid or that your own feelings on him aren't. It's just... everytime I play the game I feel like my feelings need to be heard. Like I'm betraying myself for not at least saying it. So please, allow me to air my dirty laundry for a bit.

I feel like there are 2 sides to every person who has experienced Dimitri's story. You either fell in love with him, or you're like me and hated how his arc panned out. To put it plain and short, I feel that the game spends too much time on Dimitri for any of the game's other themes to make sense. And it especially hinders how the other 3 main protagonists- Edelgard, Claude and Byleth are perceived and written. I also feel that the game often contradicts Dimitri, but decides to sidestep over it in order to progress the story or have Dimitri move forward in his leading role.

I think what it all comes down to, is me wanting to bend the variables to have a story that I like. And to have a story that I feel is justly written. Because there are things about Dimitri's arc that I think are compelling, but ultimately they are brushed aside to adhere to Fire Emblem norms or archetypes. A common phrase I hear about Dimitri is how he is sort of a deconstruction of the typical Fire Emblem lord. (A quick run down of what a typical Fire Emblem lord is: A young, idyllic young man who values justice, life and honor. They also have a fondness for the color blue.) Dimitri fits this description to a T. His native house is called the Blue Lions, he's passionate about his training, eager to help others and he desires to lead his country to peace above all else.

But what makes him a deconstruction of the Fire Emblem lord is his dramatic change during the time skip. We go from a bright eyed teenager, to edge incarnate. Suddenly Dimitri can't stop talking to the ghosts that he keeps hallucinating, and he no longer seems to value the lives of his comrades or enemies. Because of how the cards are set in this story, we cannot change how the characters ineract in this story. My best example of this flaw is the character that you play as: Byleth.

Byleth is in many ways, a bad player insert for the world of Three Houses. They must fill a silent protagonist role, so they don't voice a lot of concerns that players might have during part 1. But, also in many ways, Byleth is an interesting person to play as in Three Houses' story. But it comes with a lot of pros and cons. Sometimes I feel that they are better utilized in different stories, because in Dimitri's Azure Moon path, they are what I consider, to be the worst version of themselves in the game. This is what I mean when I say that I find parts of Dimitri's arc to be compelling, but is ultimately hindered by variables that cannot change. Byleth is the biggest variable that I wish I could change.

Over the course of White Clouds (part 1) Byleth is great, because this part of the game has to stay the same for all 4 story paths. With Dimitri, Byleth is a great mentor for him, and they feel like they have a strong student and teacher bond. But that's just it, when the time comes for Dimitri to need actual real guidance, they do absolutely nothing. They don't try to step in and relate to what he's going through, they just kinda stand there and watch as their star pupill slowly descends into madness. It's agonizing.

They stay silent during cutscenes where Dimitri is verbally assaulting them and his comrades, and they don't try to go against any of his poorly conceived battle strategies. This is where it really sucks to have this be a videogame. Because there are tons of people, people like myself, who will just skip the cutscenes where Dimitri is being an asshole and miss his arc completely. I'm not saying that the writers shouldn't have made Dimitri so unbearable, because I get that the point of it all is to drive home how bad his depression and trauma has gotten. But I do think that there is a certain tolerance level with each player. I mean, I really have to credit Chris Hackney, the english voice actor for Dimitri for this. Because part of the reason why I find this part of the game to be so unbearable is due to how phenomenal his performance was. Great job!👍

My ultimate stance is that the game sacrifices too much of its time to Dimitri's arc for Edelgard, Claude, or even Rhea make sense. The route is so focused on one singular conflict, that it has to shut everything else out. And that, in my opinion is too much of a sacrifice. I haven't even detailed on how contradictory and stupid Dimitri's revenge plot is. His obsession with Edelgard is completely unfounded and his philosophy on mourning is too self damaging. He's just... an extreme hyperbole of a type of person that I cannot stand.

I think what the developers were trying to say about Dimitri and this ideal of revenge, avenging, mouring and loss, is beautiful, but misguided. I can point to several works in fiction that don't drive me up the wall nearly as much as Dimitri does. Here's one: Katara's mother complex in the Nickelodeon cartoon, Avatar the Last Airbender. Katara was consumed by hatred over the death of her mother, even going as far as to claim that she loved her mother more than her brother. In an episode in season 3, Katara hunts down her mother's killer to exact her revenge, but loses her nerves at the last moment, realizing that he wasn't worth it. In the end she lets out her anger and grief, feeling lighter and ready to move on. In a vacuum, Dimitri's entire arc is better expressed and explained in Katara's one episode, than the entirety of Azure Moon.

By now I think I have properly explained why I will never, EVER like Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd. But in the interest of positivity, I'll name the parts of Dimitri that I like. (There are very few.)

First of all, I like White Clouds Dimitri. He is charming, naive, and innocently fighting for his "justice." While there are still many moments of his facade slipping, he is still able to maintain this pristine princely image of himself. He's set up really well is what I mean. You can tell through small glimpses in his supports or moments in the main storyline where he's hiding something more, but he makes sure to put a lid on it. When I first played Three Houses, I picked the Blue Lions because I was curious about Dimitri. Knowing what I know now about him, I can't say that I wasn't disappointed, but the build up to the war phase is brilliantly done through the Blue Lions and Dimitri.

Dimitri's route is the only route in the game that has a specialized cutscene of Edelgard's reveal to being the Flame Emperor.

It's extremely well done, and it really highlights just how much of himself he's kept at bay. This is the moment where Dimitri snaps, and everything turns red. As someone who has spent over hundreds of hours into this game, I can firmly say that Dimitri did Edelgard's reveal best.

The second thing that I like about Dimitri, is how he is shown after his arc. Once Dimitri realizes that killing people out of anger is wrong, he seems to go back to his teenage self, but this is not technically true. After his transformation he does seem more friendly, but I would say that he is more grounded. Instead of trying to fiegn happiness, he is more plain spoken and somber. It's there that you can see and understand the long standing affects of his trauma and depression. In his A supports with Flayn (supports that are only available when Dimitri goes back to being sane again,) he confesses that he hasn't been able to taste anything since he lost his family. This is a symptom of PTSD. Just the way that his depression and trauma is written through little easy to miss facts like this, is wonderful.

This version of Dimitri is honestly refreshing. He's not over acting his happiness like he did during part 1, and he's not on the other end of that spectrum being 100% rage consumed with ghost speech. This is a version of Dimitri that has been through the wringer. He's learned his mistake and is now finally moving forward. In a way, he draws many parallels to the version of himself that's shown in Three Hopes. In that game, he's shown to be quite pensive, but still a kind person at heart. Similar to how he acts in Three Houses after his transformation, he's not angry anymore. A bit delusional at times, but sane enough to know that what he's really feeling is pain over losing loved ones. The variables in Three Hopes are also different, which is probably why I found Dimitri to actually be somewhat enjoyable there.

Honestly, I wished that the version we see of Dimitri in Three Hopes was the one that greeted us after the time skip in Three Houses. He's still sullen and talking to the dead like they're really there, but it's watered down. And in the main story of Three Hopes he makes no mention of it (thank god.) Three Hopes has many problems that plague its story for all 3 routes, but as a whole, Dimitri is much more pleasant to be around in that game.

Lastly, I believe that Dimitri works best as a villain. When he's an enemy commander, he's not someone who you should feel sympathy for. In all of the opposing routes from his, Dimitri is either shown to be a brutal killing machine that enjoys desecrating corpses and killing people, or in Crimson Flower (Edelgard's route) he's shown to be the kind of leader that relies on using others to win. Before you fight him, you're shown in the cutscene that he's betting on the Church of Serios to strike first, and that he plans to use them as a meat shield essentially. Dimitri's Crimson Flower depiction is the only time, other than playing his own personal route, where he's not completely bloodthirsty. People like to say that because he's not totally crazy here, that Edelgard is the reason for his extreme hatred and anger.

I would argue that while it's not shown through extreme hyperbole, Dimitri is still that same savage boar that he was in all of the other routes. He's held back, but it's a more realistic telling of his anger. Morose, passive agressive, and deceitful. Maybe even hopeless. He still loathes the Empire and by extension, Edelgard, we just don't see all of it because the story is not focused on him. Consider how compliant he was to some of Rhea's more dubious tactics and how in his final battle, planned to used the Church as bait. When you see all of the versions of Dimitri that are possible in the Three Houses Franchise, then it's up to you to decide whether or not his actions should be met with death.

I'm of course on the negative. I don't think going around all angry and murder-ey is a good enough excuse for your depression. And I'm alarmed that everyone in Dimitri's company just silently obeyed without question. Nobody stopped and pointed out that Dimitri is clearly not in a good state of mind to lead? Really? Any kind of appreciation I have for Dimitri is only available when I think of him as a man who died a foolish death. Dimitri witnessed his family killed in front of him when he was a young boy. He spent the rest of his adolescence in mourning and planning a way to get his revenge, all while feigning a pristine princely image. By the time he enrolls in the academy he's already let his demons control him, and when the time skip occurs we see those demons on full display. Now he's brutally killing and enjoying killing imperial soldiers. He doesn't care about anyone, and will use his friends as tools with no remorse. He claims that his work is just and that his deeds are for the greater good, but all it is is pointless aggression. (Really stupid aggression at that too...)

No part of that feels like he should be redeemed to me. I just feel like Dimitri's entire arc is better learned as a tragic tale. When he dies as a consequence to his actions there's almost a sense of relief, like a weight has been lifted. When the ending to his story is death, then you can better understand what went wrong, and what his mistakes bought him. Poetic justice in a sense. If he truly was just too kind a person to be king, and he let the pressure torture and nurse his grudge, then he should've let somebody else be king. There's like, a whole line of people who seek to reform not just the kingdom, but also Fodlan as a whole. Let them have the job. That's the moral I guess.

Well, there you have it. My feelings about the game, the character, and the story of Dimitri. I tried to avoid going into parts of his character (AKA analyzing his mental illness and philosophy,) because I've done that so many times in other writings that I have, that I just don't have the energy to tell you why I think it's incredibly flawed. It's strange to think about how long my relationship with this game has been, and how long my relationship has been with Dimitri has been as well.

I've never quite had a character make me feel this agitated, agitated enough to write feature length films on why I fucking hate him so much. Crazy huh? It's times like this where I have to remind myself that it's just a game. A game about anime teenagers killing themselves in a turn based rpg. Oh man, what am I doing? Okay, to wrap up, here's a quote from the Gronder fight during the time skip and you have Claude and Dimitri fight each other:

“Claude: Calm down, Dimitri! What does it achieve, us killing each other here? Dimitri: Move, Claude. I have no time to exchange words with you. Claude: It doesn't matter what I'm saying, does it? You aren't even listening. But I'm not gonna budge.”

"Kill every last one of them!"

[trojanteapot]

i saw ur infinity train classpects & ive always thought of simon as a hope player (specifically prince of hope) & i was wondering why u classpected him as a mind player. idk if i had jst never considered tht possibility but he jst seems SO much like a hope player to me that it threw me off a bit

similarly, i read amelia as a prince of doom instead of a maid of doom (she destroys the rules of the train in an obsessive & need to try and destroy her aspect within the train and - as a result - create life [alrick] etc etc) & i was also interested on why u went w maid of doom when she seems to actively turn away from her doom & suffering to destroy it

ALL of that to say that i just wanna hear more of ur thoughts on infinity train classpects

Thank you for your question!

***First of all I want to say that classpects are designed to be like zodiacs or the Myers Briggs things are are meant to be very flexible and vague and open to interpretation.***

So I think that whatever you think fits the character, go for it!

I can of course expand on my own thoughts about what I decided. And obviously we can disagree. This is all just for fun.

So as I said in my post a lot of how I ultimately decided on the classpect was based on the characters' personal journey or character arc. And for me, the Maid of Doom felt the most in line for Amelia, and likewise Seer of Mind for Simon.

Both these characters are antagonists, one of them a reformed one, and the other one that died a villain, and that also makes them extremely complex and even harder to pin down with character arcs than say, Lake and their very clear arc that they have as a protagonist.

Amelia:

First off, I think you have a point! Perhaps we can read her actions as attempting to destroy doom, or create life! One of my friends were thinking Amelia could be a Sylph of Life, and that also makes sense for her. But what made me think that she is actually a Maid of Doom (or perhaps a Sylph, it's still up for debate) is because I think she needs to accept her own doom instead of reject it, and it was because of that that she started healing and moving away from her obsession with recreating her old life, which kept failing anyway.

It's possible that you could be more on point than me, we didn't see Amelia get her own season where she is the star of the show so we will never know.

Simon:

So I know 100% that I read Simon very differently from the rest of the fandom.

Everyone sees him as an egomaniac and a stubborn idiot who can't change his mind. And I agree that he was those things by the end. But he wasn't always those things! (Well okay he was always a stubborn idiot lol)

People tend to think that his Episode 10 personality was his "true self" but that wasn't how I saw it. I think that was more of him lashing out or having an explosive temper tantrum or meltdown, and not his real self. He was acting in a way that was almost a parody of Grace before her redemption, not as an exaggeration of himself.

Like I said before, because Amelia and Simon spent most of the time not understanding the Train properly and not learning from their mistakes, I believe that means their aspects need to reflect something about them that they wouldn't see in themselves or others might not see in them. And for Simon I feel that way more strongly than for Amelia.

Another reason why I sorta don't like classifying Simon as a prince is because it feels way too obvious. I blame Dirk Strider for this mostly, but the Prince class (and to a lesser extent the Thief class due to Vriska and Meenah) always gets assigned to villains. But I think any class can act in a villainous way. Seers can be just as much a villain as Princes can be. And Aranea showed that a Sylph can behave villainously too.

Besides I don't think Simon has a big ego, I think he has a fragile ego and is overprotective of it (like most cis men but that's a whole nother topic). And his actions in the last 4 episodes of season 3 really reflect that.

And I can also see why you saw Simon as having the Hope aspect because he was adamant in his belief in the ideology of the Apex and didn't want to change. But I would argue that wasn't due to his Aspect but due to his role as a Seer. His character arc isn't just about his stubborn beliefs but WHY he couldn't change his mind from his beliefs. And I think it's because he doesn't understand other people, and not only because he is super attached to his ideology. Grace was just as attached to the ideology of the Apex as Simon was at the beginning of season 3, but she was able to change her mind because she could understand others, specifically other denizens, whereas Simon failed because he couldn't. It was an empathy gap.

Another thing is that there are actually many parallels between Simon and the two canonical seers in Homestuck (let's not count Kankri he was a bit player). And I'm gonna get into more detail on that.

Simon and Terezi:

I actually made an entire PowerPoint presentation for my friends that had a whole section on inexplicable parallels between the two of them! And that was before I thought "hey wait a minute maybe Simon is also a seer of mind!" But basically these are the following parallels

Both of them have a rigid system for interacting with other people. For Terezi it's to LARP the role that her ancestor had as a legislacerator, and treating everything as some sort of crime scene investigation or court cross examination. For Simon, he wrote an entire manual on the best practices for the Apex when dealing with survival situations in the Train. As well as treating everything as a military engagement.

Both of them play with dolls. I think this is manifesting in how they try to gauge the movitations of other people. Terezi uses plushies to act out roles in an investigation to help her find out more about the motives of who she deems a "suspect". Simon also uses his figurines as units in a battle. He would have different figurines represent the Apex kids or denizens. Also in an attempt to understand the best way to deal with situations.

And this also means both of them can get carried away with their rules and games and miss the forest for the trees. As in, come to the wrong initial conclusion, and then stick to it until it's too late. People tend to forget that one of the pivotal moments of Homestuck was that Terezi didn't realize there were several murderers when the trolls were stuck on the asteroid and blamed it all on Vriska. That led to Terezi having to kill her, but it was the incorrect decision (which Terezi told John to fix with his retcon magic).

Both Simon and Terezi seem to really fixate on one image they have of someone they care about, and be unwilling to change how they see them. Even after a betrayal of trust both of them find it difficult to let go of their past idea of the person. (Simon and the Cat, Terezi and Vriska). Of course, it went a bit differently with Simon and his attachment to Grace, but that wasn't due to Grace having hidden motives (it was part of it though) but her changing her entire worldview.

Here's the thing, so Terezi was really really good at being a Seer so clearly that's why it's so hard to see Simon as having the same classpect as her. But lets examine a different seer, Rose.

Rose was terrible at being a seer at first, until she went god tier and was kinda forced to actually fulfill her seer role. She displayed a shocking amount of black and white thinking and stubbornness for somebody whose role was supposedly to gather knowledge and strategize. And here we understand why Simon can be read as a Seer of Mind, because he fucks up being that role just as much as Rose fucks up being a Seer of Light (initially).

Simon and Rose:

Like Simon, Rose had an entire idea about what the game Sburb was supposed to do, and what she and her friends roles must be by playing the game. But she was actually wrong about the game, since her session was never meant to be successful. But instead of accepting that and moving forward, even after prodding from Kanaya, Vriska, and the White Queen, she still refused to listen to them and kept doing whatever she felt was correct.

In fact, Rose's first death at the hands of Jack Noir kind of parallels Simon's own death. Rose was being very stubborn about the way she was doing things in Sburb, not making much progress as a seer, and refusing to listen to dissenting voices. She decided to look inside the white cue ball for answers even though she was told that it wouldn't be a good idea. She kind of got manipulated into doing so by Doc Scratch, and also to a lesser extent when Jade told her to try it not knowing what it would lead to. And that made Rose literally go grimdark when she saw her mom and John's dad were killed by Jack and then decided to go kill him as vengeance, despite being utterly outmatched.

This is similar to the situation when Simon couldn't understand why Grace was pulling away from him, and why she was so afraid of him after he killed Tuba (from his perspective, he and Grace have done this countless times before and she didn't react the way she did in those instances). And so he sought out a way to peer into her mind from the Cat. The Cat plays an equivalent role in Infinity Train as Doc Scratch does in Homestuck. They're both devious and conniving puppet masters with their own agendas. But the Cat is also familiar with Simon, and tried to help him but without full information, just like what Jade did for Rose. And that lead to Simon going "grimdark!"

Anyway those are just my dumb rambles. Honestly I'm sure that it has convinced nobody.

But hey, what we classpect characters as is less about the character themselves and more about ourselves really.

I don't think you would find this helpful but maybe you can just cringe at me instead!

Hopefully it was at least.... Entertaining?

[curried-mermaid]

A Review: Call of the Night Vol. 1

Author: Kotoyama Illustrator: Kotoyama Publishers: Viz Media Age Group: Older Teen Genre: shonen, romance, comedy, fantasy Type: Manga

Content Warnings: Acohol

Spoilers ahead

Plot

Ko Yamori is an insomniac with a penchant for nightly walks where he meets Nazuna Nanakusa, a vampire, which is fine by him as he decides he wants to be one too. Only it won’t be that easy. 

This plot is pretty relaxing to read. One thing I did notice is when Ko is trying to decide if he wants to spend more time enjoying the freedom of the night, we get different settings. Behind Nazuna is the night, quiet and freeing, shown by the empty street and parks. Ko, on the other hand, is shown in his classroom. It really shows the duality of being normal, following rules and expectations, versus wanting to be free from the monotony of life. 

This drudgery of day life versus the freedom the night provides is not lost on Ko. It gives him time to figure out what he wants out of life.There’s a lot of introspection that Ko goes through in this first volume. He decides the goal he wants is to fulfill the conditions to become a vampire, which means falling in love with Nazuna…only he doesn’t know what love really means. 

Character Development

Ko Yamori, to me, is a very relatable character. He struggles with his emotions to the point he doesn’t know what having friendships and being in love really means. He doesn’t get romance and how other people feel. He is good at picking up context clues so he can at least figure out the right direction someone is feeling. He’s very much a loner and pensive. 

Nazuna may be a vampire but she’s the opposite of Ko. She’s loud and talks a lot. She doesn’t let things get her down and takes everything in stride. At the same time, based on her reactions, she’s never been in love either as she gets flustered when love is mentioned. She is kind of pervy which she uses to tease Ko all the time by misstating things. 

Akira is Ko’s old playmate from when they were little. Not much is known about her except she may have a crush on Ko. She’s always thought of Ko and her as friends. 

World-building

The world is contemporary focusing more on the stillness of the night. It calls to souls that don’t feel like they fit in and that’s exactly the vibe you get. It pleasantly drowns you as the story progresses. You want to be in the night just as much as Ko. 

The bit of world-building we get is mostly about vampires. We find out that vampires can only turn someone if that person has fallen in love with them, and not just any kind of love, it has to be true love. Though all our protagonists don’t know what that actually means. 

Themes

If I had to choose a theme outside the obvious what is love? I’d say it comes from something Nazuna says:

“Live in the night until the day gets better”. 

I take this to mean that it’s okay to withdraw from people. It’s okay to recharge and find something that calms your soul. It can be anything as long as you feel the freedom to relax and be yourself. Accepting the bad and good within a space that you feel safe where everything can just melt away. 

Observations & Predictions

Ko is in a perfect spot to have a lot of emotional growth as he develops friendships with Akira and Nazuna. His introspective personality makes him perfect for the audience to follow his journey with him. Sometimes relating to people is tough especially if you don’t have strong feelings one way or the other. I think that Ko could really fall for Nazuna. 

Yet, we also have Akira in the mix. It doesn’t seem like they’re the kind of girls that will create a love triangle where they backstab each other and fight for Ko, but it could happen. We know that Nazuna got a little jealous when Ko started hanging out with her less to hang out with Akira. So, it’s a possibility that a love triangle will come about. Though I’m hoping that doesn’t happen for a while in the series as Ko’s emotional arc needs to catch up so he could handle something like that. Otherwise, he could just withdraw from both of them. 

Something I really liked during some of Ko’s introspections is that he starts feeling better about the world, not because Nazuna drinks his blood, but because they feel the same way. There’s no deeper meaning to them being together than they want to spend time together. I think this is an excellent epiphany for him because it’s creating a safe space for him to continue to grow as a person. It also helps Nazuna to begin changing and starting her own character arc. 

I’m interested in seeing how Akira handles the fact that Ko just lets Nazuna feed from him. She wants him to go back to school, but Ko doesn’t really want that. How he handles Akira and telling her what he wants will be key in their relationship. I think Akira won’t really understand at first and try to stop him. This could become a problem as it’ll just create a divide. She could also accept it (as she seems more on the mature side) though she’ll be disappointed. 

Would I recommend to give this a read? I think so, it’s not in your face about anything but it’s a nice read where you can relax and just let the story unfold. You can introspect and recharge just as much as Ko does in this. I’m intrigued to see where this series goes. 

Recommendations

Similar Romance:

Insomniacs after School By: Makoto Ojiro

Horimiya  By: Hiroki Adachi

More Vampires: 

My Dear, Curse-Casting Vampire By: Chisaki Kanai

The Case Study of Vanitas By: Jun Mochizuki

Supernatural: 

Bakemonogatari By: Nisio Isin

[mozillavulpix]

An idea I had in my little OC “if I had the chance to make a cartoon” imaginary stories was having a male ‘lead’ who was a nerd but also in the slightly-annoying way. Not like “he just makes everything a nerd reference”, but that he would sometimes butt in and ask lots of questions and kind of try to make everything about himself.

The idea ended up sort of developing into a character arc where he finds out something supernatural is going on and immediately follows it because he thinks if he’s close enough, it’s only inevitable that he’ll be able to get magical powers. But eventually he starts to realise not only may that not ever happen, but his insistence in wanting to be in the thick of things when he doesn’t fully understand is actually causing problems for everyone else.

It’s not like it’s a particularly mindblowing story, but I also wonder if that’s a thing that’s lacking in children’s media specifically but also media in general. Narratives about people learning that as they grow up, they’re not necessarily the center of the universe and aren’t going to become special like it’s their birthright. Especially for, you know, young males.

you hear all these things online about boys getting radicalised because they think they’re being demonised for being themselves, or getting excluded, or just jealousy for not always having all the attention, and I just wonder if maybe the other reason why people like that human trafficker got so popular is because they don’t have good role models and examples of people who had to learn to deal with these kinds of feelings.

Honestly, a man’s experience sounds pretty awful. It seems like there’s all this societal pressure to be a certain way on top of all the move towards inclusivity giving less overall spots to ‘generic male characters’. And, like, you have girls shows with morals of “every girl is special and unique and that doesn’t make them any less special”, but boys shows? I feel like you don’t really see that as often. They don’t really have stories about self-acceptance, or being different, or feeling like they don’t fit in and not knowing what to do about it.

So I was wondering, you know. What if you had a character whose whole thing is they assume they’re the protagonist because they’re a straight white male, learning that they’re not the hero of this story, genuinely feeling upset and lost from it, but eventually understanding your self-worth isn’t measured by how many superpowers you have and you can still be proud of yourself even if the entire world doesn’t revolve around you.

I just feel like that might be a story lots of boys want to see right now.

[itsmaferart]

@fiera-writes

I understand that the new movie is more of a pilot for a children's series, which is what they take into account for this. But this is a franchise simentated in an easier context, and even a little more understandable for an adult who understands depression, existential emptiness and feelings.

I think the new movie and series errs on the side of forcing the plot when it wasn't really necessary. The first movie establishes that MetroMan and Megamind are special in that they are of alien origin. Hal being a human being who by a scientific experiment that Megamente himself obtained the powers of MetroMan, although we don't know if he can have the same potential of the alien hero (since he doesn't have the same speed as MetroMan).

It would have been interesting in this second installment to explore Megamind in another way.

What about another alien also fell on Earth, but more recent? Or simply, a being who spent his life in hiding. It could be argued that the friendly battles between Metro Man and Megamind indirectly hurt the Metro city but at the same time protected it. Now MetroMan out of the equation, this or other villains see free space to win and conquer. In fact, an enemy that is on par with Megamind's intelligence where he challenges the protagonist not by divine force, but intellectually can make Megamind question his role as hero.

Actually Megamind having a mentor contradicts the character arc. For starters, both Megamind and MetroMan followed standardized roles given to them by society and they accepted them as they felt they 'fit in'. It wasn't what they wanted, it was what others accepted of them.

How about, if a new alien from another race arrives on earth or is on earth from before. He decides to play the same game as MEgamente, and give superpowers to other human beings, with the difference that they work for him and fulfill his objectives either by mind control or just obedience. Being an opposite of what Megamind tried with Hal but did not achieve because a) his desire with Hal was to fill an emotional void and return to the comfort zone b) because his desire was for Hal to be a true hero and he never believed he could become evil.

An enemy that is a counterpart or a sample of what MegaMind would be like if he were really the evil one, a genius with dastardly intentions who doesn't care about the damage he causes to others seems much more interesting to me.

MegaMind himself never needed a mentor, and his whole arc was about dealing with his loneliness and search for acceptance, finding meaning in his life.

Now, MegaRox:

If you wanted to evolve Roxanne there are many better ways. Roxanne is clearly intelligent, cunning and intuitive. The first film never posits that she is dissatisfied or stagnant with her job, in fact, she seems to love it. In fact, her biggest conflict seems to be the lack of recognition of her by men who mostly relegate her to a woman who needs a man to be saved. This is seen both in Hal, who clearly only likes her for being attractive and feels he has a claim on her because he loves her (and because he gets powers). MetroMan only sees her as the girl he must rescue, to continue the endless game with Megamind. Clearly, they are close and possibly friends, but not a couple as Roxanne makes clear. I think it makes more sense than Roxanne, along the lines of "parodying" the superheroes in this universe. Roxanne, would not be frustrated with being a journalist but with her role in helping the hero (Megamind), maybe she doesn't just want to be saved by him, but to be a genuine help, since we know that Megamind always prioritizes her above all else. Roxanne has the potential to be an Oracle, a woman who, although she does not have the intellect to build machines, weapons or robots. She is much more insightful and deductive. Not helping in the line of fire, but helping Megamind to fight with intelligence, accessing information, and managing to deduce the necessary clues to help him in battle.

Unlike the MetroMan and MegaMind dynamic, Roxanne may now be in much more danger which may be a pressure for the blue man. He doesn't have the privileged powers of his former hero, and unlike him, other villains would be able to kill Roxanne without thinking about it (like Hal back in the day).

Megamind loves and respects her too much, so he would never relegate her. But he would be very willing to protect her and take risks to keep her safe. It makes more sense that she would want to be more useful to him, but at the same time, not be in the constant anguish of being a victim.

Roxanne can have a research center for herself, now that Megamind has the support of the city. Being able to build a better base where she can access research and technology (her boyfriend is a genius at building sophisticated gadgets), and only occasionally accompany him on research and reconnaissance adventures.

Both are clearly at a disadvantage against brute force enemies, but they are a team based on support and intelligence.

Besides, it seems contradictory to me the reboot of their relationship. I understand that in the canon of the first movie it is not verbally explained that they came back, but you sense that they will eventually come back because they are already on good terms.

Why not address their reconciliation? but following the same chemistry, which is instantaneous. They both clearly know how they feel about each other, it's understandable that Roxanne feels some confusion as she now knows she has to pose a relationship with MegaMind directly and not with Bernard's facade.

But it seems that out of nowhere, they are more distant than even at the beginning of the first movie (which clearly has a hot flirtation going on for a long time).

Bringing back Roxanne as the couple but especially as Megamind's possible partner as a kind of heroine or source of information seems to me a better plot than just giving her a change of profession.

I could say that it is my catharsis to drain how frustrated I was with the return of the franchise, which was reduced to a series with the elements of the first movie in a childish context.

Alright, so. I finally rewatched Megamind after meaning to for like two weeks or so, basically ever since the sequel movie came out. And for several reasons, nooot a fan of how the sequel was handled honestly. So, I thought with the original movie fresh in my mind, I could try to brainstorm a couple things I might have done with a sequel.

To start with, the Doom Syndicate. The original movie makes no reference to Megamind knowing any other villains, let alone ever working with them in the past. So, if they were to be included I feel it should be more in a "Oh I've heard of them, they're from that one town a couple states over" way. Acquaintances at best.

But then again, the original movie also seems to imply that if there are any other superheroes or villains, they're pretty dang rare. This isn't The Incredibles where some people are just born with super powers. I mean, no one from out of town came to try and stop Megamind after he "killed" Metro Man. With Titan/Tighten it all happened within a day so less time for outsiders to react, but Megamind had control of the city for a good while there.

So, if we want to keep the Doom Syndicate... it would need to be handled differently. Also get rid of that brain "Mentor" character. I don't really have any ideas for how, except...

Perhaps they're originally fictional in-universe, from a Saturday morning cartoon or a video game or something. One way or another, they're made real and now Megamind has to stop them and probably make them fictional again. Could also be achieved with a different set of villains.

Another way to do a new villain could be Dimensional travel. Say there's some sort of a Bizarro universe, where Metro Man was evil and Megamind was good to start with. Or both were evil and teamed up to do evil. In any case, Alternate Universe Evil Metro Man gets transported to the main universe, causes mayhem. Might even force the Metro Man we know out of retirement temporarily, or not. If he does show up in public, would probably make an excuse of how he's also from some other universe specifically summoned to help out, thus explaining why he's gone again afterwards. Dude just wants to make music.

To add, the dimensional traveling villain doesn't even need to be a version of Metro Man, they could also be anyone else. Some other alien, a dude who fell into acid and got powers from it, idk man.

Hear me out, an Evil Spider-Man of sorts. That is, someone who starts out as a normal human being, perhaps an outcast, and by some twist of fate receives powers, which they proceed to use for evil. Might be re-treading Hal's deal a little but idk what I'm doing anymore.

Evil Bruce Wayne? A rich guy with weird gadgets and the skill to use them, for evil. Would probably be harder to pull off since Megamind's whole deal is how smart he is.

A Mad Scientist type. Megamind is an Evil Scientist, but not a "mad" one, he just builds a death ray powered by the sun because he's that smart. Put him against someone whose ideas make no sense to him but somehow still work.

Misguided hero? Not really a villain but would be an antagonist for the story, someone who's convinced that Megamind's redemption is all an act maybe? Would probably need powers of some sort to be an actual threat.

Alright then, let's move onto something else for a change: MegaRox. My shipper heart needs them either clearly together or clearly working on that. But the original movie does seem to imply they're already together by the time the new museum has opened. I mean, the way she jumped into his arms and then kissed him? Sure it was on the cheek but that wasn't a platonic thing. It's about the context!

No further notes on that, so I present to you... Prequel!

Takes place before Metro Man fakes his death so he can retire, and therefore Megamind is still Evil.

MegaRox wouldn't be an established relationship but did y'all see them at the start of the original? That was practically flirting anyway and that dynamic should be present.

Maybe it could even be early into his villain career? Show how he really got started as a Super Villain, the first kidnappings of Rocanne Ritchi, gaining notoriety, and how Roxanne learned that she's honestly in more danger of getting hit by stray debris from Metro Man's dramatic entrances than from anything Megamind aims at her.

I doubt I'll ever develop any of these ideas into a coherent story but if anyone wants to yoink a thought, go wild. I'm also down for discussing any of these.

[kariachi]

Hot Take!

Argit definitely should've been a 3rd Protagonist in Omniverse alongside Ben and Rook

Just hear me out, Argit's character bounces off so well against Ben and Rook's characters

He is a PERFECT foil to Rook.

-Both are Aliens who live on Earth but while Rook is clearly a Fish out of Water, Argit already seems to know well about Earth Culture and blends right into it

-Rook is a "By-the-Book" Cop who has a very Black and White sense of Morality, while Argit is a Sleezy Conman and is in the Grey Area of Morality (granted it's a rather dark shade of Grey but it's still Grey nonetheless)

-Rook is an Alien based on Cats and other Felines while Argit is an Alien based on Rats and other Rodents

Ben could be a perfect balance between the two. While Ben is a Hero, he is also kinda a dick tbh.

Rook and Argit could play roles like being the Angel and Devil on Ben's shoulders.

And I just think Argit and Ben's interactions are funny lol

Anon I am gonna agree with you for the following reasons-

I've been saying for a while that the story overall would've been improved if he'd been the one to join Team Tennyson rather then Kevin. You'd have to make him a lighter shade of morally grey (personally I'd do it by leaning more into the sort've characterization we got in the Rooters Arc, where he's shown as more loyal and courageous even if the bar is low) but it would avoid the rushing of Kevin's change to a 'good' character while still allowing him to be in the show, remove what I still hold is a poorly done romantic subplot or at least force it to be done differently, add an alien to the cast earlier without having to go 'everything is aliens so technically', and as you said, at least halfway, his interactions with the Tennysons are still plenty amusing and leave room for some interesting dynamics.

The fact Argit and Rook aren't played against each other more pains me. Because as you said they could be made into good foils but also the 'new immigrant to a strange land and established immigrant to that land' dynamic could be so good. Plus you get the option of the more inexperienced Rook as compared to the more worldly Argit (Rook went from a backwoods planet where his connection with the rest of the galaxy was via radio to the Academy and then to Earth, meanwhile what we see of Argit starts out in the Null Void, travels the galaxy with Kevin, and then comes to Earth (which also is 100% why he's better with Earth stuff than Rook- he had years travelling with an Earth native and then a few years living on Earth before OV starts, while Rook has nothing but Ben's file and whatever info the ethernet has on the planet to go off at OV start)). This stuff could be very well played with.

Plus, a point of the foil scale you didn't mention- Argit's belief that you shouldn't try to make your partner someone they're not (including just accepting sudden changes in behavior just because they fit what you want them to be) as compared to Rook's desire in early OV for Ben to meet his expectations, to the extent that when Ben is swapped with he ignores the red flags because 'Ben' is acting more like what Rook wanted him to be. Could be interesting to have that as a running thing in the background, Rook's disappointment vs Argit's acceptance, before it comes to a head in that episode.

Also, because you know how people are with narrative foils, the chaos that would erupt between Rook/Argit fans (you know they'd happen) vs Rook/Ben fans (which already fucking happened). Actually thinking about it it'd probably be more Ben/Argit fans circling the tags opposite Rook/Ben fans, because this fandom puts shipping Tennysons above any other ship in existence, but the three options would dominate and be a complete mess. I dread and yearn for the shipping maps people would come up with.

-Seriously, it opens so many options there that the fandom would've gone absolutely ass over tits wild. It'd have been total anarchy. We got a bit of a mess when it was Gwevin and Benlie vs Bevin, can you imagine this?

Then you get the opening for more Argit background, which more background for characters is always a good thing, and since OV was bigger into worldbuilding we'd have probably gotten more info on his species. You can even get episodes contrasting him and Rook and how they got to the places they are in life (the farmboy from a strict conservative culture who heard stories of heroics and decided to leave home to pursue them, becoming a cop due to his hero's association and probably also because his upbringing made the cop thing seem like a Good vs the homeless and family-less child who presumably first turns to crime due to lack of options and then grows to fit that mold due to his young age at start). (even if Argit had anything pre-Rooters, he sure as fuck only had Kevin after, and Kevin we know is in that position) (and hey opening for more about their relationship)

And of course you get the interactions as a trio, as you said Rook being the Lawful Good influence and Argit the Neutral Evil (probably working towards true neutral) influence to Ben's Neutral Good. Plus, you also get the Sliding Scale of Alien Knowledge- from Argit's 'I am an alien and I've been living among a wide variety species if not my whole life than for over half a decade' to Ben's 'I have canonically about three/four years experience becoming and fighting a wide variety of species' to Rook's 'I am an alien and have been living among a wide variety of alien species for maybe a year, probably a matter of months'. Group arguments, group agreements (sometimes of the most unlikely sort), two guys ganging up to tease the third, a running gag of Argit lamenting that Ben and Rook are wasting themselves on fucking law enforcement. An episode where Argit and Rook both have fleas and spend it arguing about who gave them to who. And episode where they both confront Ben on his tendency towards speciest comments and that get handled. The fucking Rooters arc and what changes there. And the appearance of Argit 10 in the multiverse episodes would take on an entirely new common view (closer to my own because come on Paradox was only bringing them to Good Bens), he may have even joined the group there.

Just, it could've been very fun and very interesting. But no, we can't have joy in our lives.

[jdrizzle15]

Her Second Return

Just like all of you, and especially my fellow Penny fans, I am absolutely devastated by the Volume 8 finale. I had been in quite a state these last few days, utterly heartbroken, and actually nauseous at times. It feels strange to me to be legitimately grieving a fictional character, but it’s not a bad thing to feel this way. To me, this just shows that CRWBY loves her just as much as us to have written her so well that we connect so completely with her, that it feels like we lost an actual piece of ourselves when she’s gone.

But as you can probably tell by the title, this mega post isn’t gonna be about accepting this end, not in the slightest! Today I want to share canon evidence that can point towards another return of our beloved quirky red headed cinnamon bun! I’m here to spread this hope that I and others in the Nuts & Dolts dolts Discord server have!

I have this separated into many different sections to keep these thoughts organized. With that said, here goes…

A Father’s Words:

In Episode 7 of Volume 7, ‘Worst Case Scenario’ we learn the origins of Penny’s aura, and thus her soul. We also learn that it takes more aura each time she’s brought back. This leaves open an option that could be used at a later point.

Many people theorized that Pietro could indeed revive Penny one more time, which he would absolutely do. But there also lies the possibility that someone else could donate some of theirs, I’m not sure about this as I feel like it’s akin to blood donation where compatibility matters or there's a high risk of altering her, but the possibility is definitely there.

Now, the conversation in Chapter 5 of Volume 8, ‘Amity’ that Pietro and Penny have is an important moment for both Father and Daughter. It was there to show how her death in PvP all that time ago really did have a heavy impact on him and is still affecting him to this day.

Instead of continuing to pretend that everything is A-okay, like he had done for most of Volume 7, he finally lets his true feelings about how it come out to Penny for what is quite likely the first time. Even going so far as to say "Are you asking me to go through that again?" when she offers to take the risk of trying to lift Amity with her power. He wants Penny to be able to live her life.

This entire scene with Pietro established “this is what will likely happen” even if circumstances are much different now, it doesn’t negate the fact that this is a key part of Penny’s story. Scenes like these have a purpose beyond simply making an eventual death all the more heart wrenching. Her never actually getting to live her life makes those scenes basically moot. It makes them effectively pointless from narrative point of view. Unless there's more to it.

Building Relationship:

The build up between Ruby and Penny the last two volumes has been absolutely phenomenal with a definite destination in mind, and this doesn’t feel like that destination. So much of the arc of this season was to help Penny. This girl that our main protagonist absolutely adores and treasures, it would just be awful to throw all of that out for what amounts to an avoidable end. Why use so much of their precious and very limited runtime on deliberately building up this relationship only to end it abruptly, and permanently, when they’re separated?

In my opinion, RT is definitely smarter now than to intentionally set up what was really looking like a budding gay relationship only to kill one of them for good. If N&D wasn't actually going in a romantic direction, why would they leave in all of the romance-adjacent stuff that they got, that's not how ‘just friends’ act. And that is not something you use such valuable time building up for absolutely no pay off whatsoever...

Representation of Hope:

At its core, RWBY has always been about hope. It’s not at the forefront the whole time, but there's been an underlying theme of hopefulness that has persisted since it began. Some describe the show as a Hopepunk, I personally find this to describe RWBY really well. This genre of storytelling is about caring for things deeply and the courage and strength it takes to do so. It’s about never submitting or accepting the way things are. Fighting for what you believe in and standing up for others. RWBY fits all of this extremely well. How does this relate to Penny? She has been shown to be a sign of hope for everyone, but especially for Ruby, the main main protagonist. A prerequisite for a Hopepunk story is the hope.

Her first death in V3 was something that fundamentally changed Ruby. For the first time in the series, we see our main character all but broken by this event. With the loss of Penny, immediately afterwards, Ruby’s hope followed. She made up for it through determination and force of will. We see it affect her multiple times throughout the journey to Volume 7. But upon her return in V7, Hope reached a high point for everyone, the sheer relief on Ruby’s face is plain to see!

In V8 chapter 5 ‘Amity’, Penny literally raises hope by lifting the arena into the sky so Ruby could spread her message. And when she falls, and Amity with her, the connection is lost and hope plummets again. From there things take a very negative turn with the hack begins to take Penny’s agency.

In chapter 11 ’Risk’ is the point in the arc where everyone is reunited for the moment, so two separate hero stories are no longer a thing at that point in time. For the time being focus seemed to be shifted to care about the characters and how they’re going to solve the current problems. This is also where Ruby reaches her lowest emotional point in the season.

It’s not huge, but it’s interesting how connected this is. Before Ruby and Yang share a good cry over learning the possible fate of Summer, Yang brings up restoring optimism and hope to Ruby after the younger sister storms out of the room in frustration. This is where Penny’s scenes take up the rest of the episode. Getting Penny back in control of her own body and safe again is what makes the ending of the episode much brighter, when just 5 minutes before Ruby had been distraught and scared. This then spills over into the group coming up with the plan to use the staff, putting the main group in a much better mood. Of all the things to go right, it’s interesting that it’s Penny.

Things go wrong with the plan in the end and Penny dies. I find it interesting that once again, Penny got them hopeful in their chances of doing something right. Given said plan succeeded but at the cost of Penny of all people, Penny is shown to be the beginning and end of hope for them

The highest and lowest points for hope seem to directly correlate to when Penny’s around. When she comes back again, hope will return too, just like it had before. And because she’ll likely be back for good this time, the second return will probably be close to when Ruby is nearing the complete abandonment of hope. This would be pretty par for the course of the show honestly.

A little aside, but in a sense, Penny also represents Unity. The CCT in Vale fell after her first death, knocking out global communications and the unifying connection it gave. When it was restored for the briefest moment, she was there. Her body connected so she could allow for its launch, her soul lighting the night to hold up Amity with every ounce of her strength. So of course when the Hack succeeds and she falls, she takes global comms down again with her. At a smaller scale - even at the Hack's second last attempt to control her, she draws everyone in the Schnee Manor together. At the start of the volume, Yang states the one thing that they all agree on is not surrendering Penny.

Unity seems appropriate for one whose first song and wish was for but one friend, who would go on to find so many more in the process, and permit for a moment the possibility of all Remnant becoming friends once more. Where she first died, the name of the episode devoted to her story - Amity, "friendship", from the Latin root amicus, "friend" - she almost lives and dies with the very possibility of a united Remnant. It's no wonder she's a priority target for Salem, the great divider, and it seems natural that her next restoration may very well allow the next bid to bring the world together.

The Void Screams:

Moments after Penny's death, we hear a weird scream in the void space. It was a guttural, pained, angry scream, almost like the void space itself was crying out. All the portals shuddered and flickered when it happened.

Some think that this scream was Salem returning, but that happens earlier than Penny’s death, her return is signaled with cinder's arm acting up. We know this because after the arm finished flailing uncontrollably, Cinder said triumphantly "she's back." If it were Salem screaming, it would have happened after she fixed herself, but it didn't.

And I doubt Cinder would have been surprised or unsettled by it considering she was happy Salem returned not long before it. And why would a Salem scream affect the portals anyway, she has no connection to the staff or it's magic.

Another thing to consider is the fact sound is not transmitted through the portals. Otherwise, they would've heard Oscar and the rest calling for them, or the screams of the citizens of Mantle and Atlas. This lowers the possibility of that scream being from Salem even further.

The sound really seems to be coming from something else entirely within the void, and that something is not at all happy. There’s also the fact that Penny was the only person who died in the void space, everyone else was just thrown out of it like Ruby and Co. The only logical cause to me is Penny. Her body was a product (or byproduct) of the same creation magic that made the void space, her blood seems to have been a trigger.

Now I can't be sure about it, but this makes me feel like Penny is almost a part of creation itself? For whatever this thing is to be so angry, that is the only explanation I can think of currently. But all of this could possibly relate to the Narnia allusion of 'the willing victim killed in a traitor's stead' that others have brought up, which will be covered next.

Narnia Parallels:

Atlas has several parallels and references to fictional places (putting aside real world ones like the United States). One of those is that of Narnia, both on the surface and on a deeper level. It is a land of winter year round, where people struggle to survive and there is a present divide between those loyal to the current Monarch and those who are not. James is a parallel to Jadis, the White Witch, a ruler whose thoughts and cares aren’t exactly centered around the actual well being of the people. The hologram table in Ironwood’s office is designed to look like stone, like the Stone Table which features prominently in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. He has a handpicked cadre of special agents/secret police, like how Maugrim and his wolves served Jadis. Another key parallel is how Jadis’s winter sets in to oppress and kill everyone in Narnia, but the Witch provides aid and protection to her loyal followers. She has all the power to spare harm to others, and uses it only for the loyal. As soon as Mantle splits from James and Atlas, no care is taken to protect them from the cold of Solitas even though he has every ability to turn the heating grid back on. His protection is only for the loyal.

Now that the parallel is established, let's look into the details. Starting with how James plays the role of Jadis.

"I had forgotten that you are only a common boy. How should you understand reasons of State? You must learn, child, that what would be wrong for you or for any of the common people is not wrong in a great Queen such as I. The weight of the world is on our shoulders. We must be freed from all rules. Ours is a high and lonely destiny." These are the words Jadis says in the Magician’s Nephew to justify the blood civil war she and her sister had waged for rulership of Charn, before she came to Narnia. She won that war, technically, but only after the last battle had been lost and her sister had marched right up to her so that they were face to face. Jadis’s troops were dead, her followers had surrendered, and the capital was under full control of her sister. But, she still had one card, one ultimate play to win and prove the throne of Charn was rightfully her. The Deplorable Word, a piece of old magic that killed everyone and everything except for her on Charn. It was monstrous, senseless, cruel beyond measure. But it got her that hollow victory. This mindset, the disregard for the people except as tools for her own will, the ultimate ‘aoe’ destructive move that no one had even considered her using, the unwillingness to stop even when by all practical measures the war is over, is a shocking parallel to James. In many ways, he is Jadis in mindset and deed.

Then there is the shared desire for A Thing that both James and Jadis have. For James it’s the Winter Maiden and control over her. For Jadis it’s the Silver Apples from the Tree of Youth. And funnily enough, the Maiden Powers parallel the Apples quiet well. These apples grant power and a life of eternal beauty, but should not be taken or eaten on one’s own initiative. They must be given, a gift granted by another, or only suffering will come from obtaining them. "For the fruit always works — it must work — but it does not work happily for any who pluck it at their own will. If any Narnian, unbidden, had stolen an apple and planted it here to protect Narnia, it would have protected Narnia. But it would have done so by making Narnia into another strong and cruel empire like Charn, not the kindly land I mean it to be.” Jadis’s immortality, and some of her power, come from the fact that she ate an Apple of her own will after stealing her way into the garden where the Tree of Youth had been planted. She gained the eternal life she had wanted and the power along with it, but she did so by taking it and was cursed because of it. Her skin turned pale and her lips blackened as if she were a frozen corpse given life. She will be trapped in a life of misery and hate according to Aslan- oh hey Cinder, how’s having stolen the Power you always wanted working out for you? Cinder had the power she wanted, but she only got hungrier, eager to claim more and increase her might. But in her pursuit she was defeated and humiliated by Raven, had to steal her way out of Mistral, and then suffered defeat after defeat while in Atlas. Only in the end, when she didn’t keep pursuing the Maiden Power, did she get any kind of victory.

The reason these parallels to Narnia are so important is one of the most famous events of the series. The cracking of the Stone Table and the rebirth of Aslan after his death. ‘When a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.’ Well, the ‘Stone Table’ in James’s office has cracked, and Penny strikes me as a pretty willing victim. She has never actually committed any actual treachery or harm, as she was the Protector of Mantle, and fought for its and Atlas’s people until the very end. And because of her death, the actual traitor, Winter, who loyally served James until he had gone too far, was saved. Through Penny’s self sacrifice, Winter was saved. So now Death itself will start working backward.

(Major props to my friend @catontheweb for writing this section, I was getting nowhere with it, if they weren't there this part wouldn't exist!)

Norse Mythology:

The tree we see in the post credit scene gives off some serious Yggdrasil vibes. Also called the World Tree, it is essentially all of creation in Norse Mythology. It connects all nine realms, including the God realms of Asgard, the human realm of Midgard, and the underworld of Hel.

Humans are born from the branches of Yggdrasil. The web of Wyrd is woven for every person once they're born, and their path is set from there regardless of how many times the souls cycle over. But at the end, they're destined to end up in one of the worlds, for a myriad of reasons.

I believe Penny landed closest to this giant tree. She was on the center platform in the void space, so if that space is directly above the island(?) the tree is on, it makes sense for her to fall by the center nearest to the tree. This would not only open up all kinds of possibilities for the volume in general, but it would also create options for Penny.

The whole of Yggdrasil’s representations fit well into Penny’s story. Birth, growth, death and rebirth. We can count Penny’s appearance in V7 as birth for now, her growth is all her development in leaving =the military and becoming a Maiden, her death just happened, and her rebirth would be her revival. And this is a cycle she’s gone through before.

The Norse god Odin and Yggdrasil have quite a connection. In one story, Odin cut out one of his own eyes to gain knowledge from a pool underneath Yggdrasil. The only one that fell whose eyes alone are incredibly significant to the story was Ruby. So, they could choose to have her allude to Odin by having Ruby make some kind of deal with whatever entity likely rules over this magical place. An eye for Penny’s life.

There’s another story about Odin, Yggdrasil and the pursuit of knowledge. Odin so loved knowledge, that he sacrificed himself in a quest to learn the deeper magic of runes. It was believed one could only learn the magic spells from runes in death. So, Odin hung himself on Yggdrasil for nine days as an offering, and teetered between life and death. After he mastered the last spell on the ninth night, he ritually died and all light was extinguished from the world. Odin’s death lasted until midnight, when he was reborn and light returned to the world.

This story doesn’t fit Penny perfectly, but allusions often don’t. So If she really did land near the tree, she could be another loose representation of Odin’s story here. What she did wasn’t for knowledge, but to save her friends and keep Cinder from getting the Winter Maiden power. She believed it necessary that she sacrifice herself to achieve this end. As we established, Penny represents Hope, so her death means the loss of hope. This parallels Odin’s story of his death meaning the loss of light itself. So if this theory holds up, it would make this death temporary, until her rebirth and the return of Hope with her once again.

Alternatively, Ruby has the potential of loosely representing Odin in this story as well. Odin later uses the knowledge of the runes to do many things, but the most relevant one right now is awakening the dead. Both of these stories are about making a personal sacrifice to gain something that is desired. Ruby would absolutely make such sacrifices if it meant saving Penny.

It is said that Odin lived “according to his highest will unconditionally, accepting whatever hardships arise from that pursuit, and allowing nothing, not even death, to stand between him and the attainment of his goals." This sounds like Penny's arc of accepting the WM powers. This is more just a general connection between Penny and Odin, but I found it interesting.

Side Note: I encourage anyone who’s interested to look into RWBY connections to Norse Myth, there’s a surprising amount of things that feel eerily similar to the show. Likely just coincidental, but it’s fun to think about!

(If I got any of this wrong, I sincerely apologize by the way. I researched as best I could, but I admit it could have been lacking.)

Ambrosius and the Staff:

Ruby told Ambrosius "we kinda wanna keep her around longer than that" as part of her very specific instructions. Then Penny died about ten to fifteen minutes, at the absolute most thirty minutes later in-universe. I don’t know about you, but to me that seems very short to be considered ‘longer than that’. Technically it is, but when writing a story and a character says something like that, you typically don’t just kill the character they were referring to basically right away. It makes sense for a week-by-week watch, but in a volume binge, which many viewers do, it becomes ironic how fast Penny dies after being removed from her robotic body.

The first time we see the staff of creation being used, it's to save Penny. Using the staff of creation to help Penny is a sign of how incredibly important she is.

They’ve even got this entire transformation sequence for her, so it wouldn’t make sense for them to throw all that away two episodes later. In a meta context, it’s a massive waste of time and budget considering the asset creation for Penny.

Penny is a character who has already hopped bodies two times. And now we're supposed to just believe that this time it really is a final death? Just two episodes after we were explicitly told her body isn't what matters, that "Her soul is who she is" and that "the mechanical parts are just extra"? From a writing perspective, it feels strange, like your breaking a promise right after making it. And frankly, CRWBY is better than that, which makes me think this is not the actual end for her.

A possible connection between Penny, Ruby, and the Staff (thus Creation) can be seen in the intro. As Ruby is falling and being dragged down into the darkness, she is shown reaching for the staff. In the void space, Penny is the one with the relic. So with Penny having this strong connection to Creation, and the lyrics “fight for every life” playing as Ruby reaches for the staff, it’s a safe assumption to make, with the knowledge we now have, that the Staff of Creation represents Penny in this particular moment. Which could mean that V9 will be about, at least partially, fighting for Penny’s life.

Musical Hints:

In terms of music, Friend, as a song for Penny, is very dissonant from the episode itself. The song is oddly cheerful for Penny’s recent untimely death, and it overall highlights the wrong parts of death. It’s simply too happy to be a song about losing one of the most, if not the most joyous characters in the entire show. The song also abruptly ends. There’s no outro, and while this could symbolize the fact that Penny died young, it could be that the song itself is unfinished in a story sense.

What do we hear just before the song finishes, though? A progression of notes that sounds eerily similar to the last line of the opening of Volume 8. The notes for “Fight for ev’ry life” and “Who fin’lly felt alive'' share a similar melodic structure, they aren’t perfect clones of each other, but they are incredibly similar, to the point where it seems intentional. Penny may very well be the life that the opening song is fighting for. It is also worth noting that the line “Fight for every life” comes just after “Sometimes it’s worth it all to risk the fall,” which is the exact wording used for the description in the Volume 8 finale. Team RWBY risked the fall, yet, strangely the opposite of fighting for every life happened with Penny’s sacrifice. Perhaps the time to fight for every life has yet to happen, and we will see it come Volume 9.

For another thing, the lyrics for Friend are entirely centered on Penny’s feelings for Ruby, to the point where they read very much like a bittersweet love song. The music itself is incredibly cheerful, as mentioned previously, creating a mood whiplash with the end of the volume. Why would we hear a song about Penny’s feelings for Ruby, sounding like a love song, if her death is supposed to be a tragic sacrifice akin to Pyrrha’s? The song may very well be giving a clue into its future use in the show proper.

If this was meant to be a good bye song, why make it so cheerful and romantic sounding? There's only one part about her dying and even then, it's just too accepting and goes right back into cheerfulness. The song is also pretty hopeful, telling Penny's story in a fairly chronological order. And the part where she talks about sacrifice is quite pointedly followed up by one about feeling alive. It also ends with the super cheerful chorus, the word "alive" being the last... (Remember the episode title: The Final Word)

(I want to thank my friend @shadow-0f-x for writing the majority of this section! I was struggling to choose how to tackle it as I am not well versed in music theory.)

What We Didn’t See:

It is likely that Penny understood Jaune's semblance better than him and figured something out about it’s abilities in the same way that she understood Ruby's semblance better than her. She had plenty of time to observe his semblance up close as he boosted her aura to stave off the virus. Because of that intentionally timed cutaway in the finale, we don’t get to hear her explain herself after her strained “Trust me.” All of that seems really suspicious to me.

Pyrrha Parallel:

Pyrrha and Penny both sacrificed themselves to stop or stall Cinder. Jaune tried to convince the both of them to stop. With Pyrrha, he failed, while with Penny he actively helped her sacrifice herself. Doesn’t make sense for the guy who was determined not to let anyone else do what Pyrrha did, unless of course Penny assured him she’d be alright.

The Moment:

RT including the suicide hotline in the description shows that they're aware that Penny basically committed assisted suicide, seeing it as a noble sacrifice worth doing to save her friends. They're aware, and I believe they're smart enough to condemn that decision to hell and back.

The best way to do that in my opinion is to pull her back into the land of the living and let her witness first hand the consequences of throwing her life away so freely. This would show Penny how her actions affected others so maybe she could learn to truly value herself. To not think herself expendable. It would be bold and unwise to portray this choice as something good, unless it was going to be called upon later and be pointed out for how horrible it really is.

On top of this, Penny was way too content with her death, happy even. There's no way team RWBY is letting her stay content with it. It’s almost as though we're supposed to join Ruby and Co. in calling bullshit on what Penny is saying and doing because no, Penny, this is not how things are meant to work. It's as if Penny was basically saying "I want to die for my friends" because most of the volume had been about everyone else making sure she didn't die. She knows it will hurt them. She knows.

At the peak of it all, a choice like this will totally destroy Ruby. It may very well be her breaking point for Volume 9. Curiously, the moment itself is written like it’s the first choice Penny’s ever made, yet the entire Volume shows this isn’t the case. However, this is the first choice that Penny’s made solely independently and it’s rather pertinent that the choice she makes is a mistake. Outside of giving Winter the Maiden gift and saving the day temporarily, this sacrifice will not have any lasting positive effects. Jaune will be saddled with the grief of killing Penny. Ruby will have to live with losing her best friend and not being able to protect her a second time, and Winter now has the burden of the Winter Maiden abilities, making her a target of Cinder. This is a bad thing, and Penny needs to see the long term consequences.

Transfer of Power:

As we all know, colors in RWBY are really important and get a lot of focus in the show. That means the yellow we see as Penny gives Winter the Maiden Powers was intentional and likely important, no matter how insignificant it may seem. It’s possible that the transfer effect being yellow could have something to do with Jaune’s semblance. When Fria gave the power to Penny, the effect was very much blue, so this transfer should have been green since she was the one giving it this time. The weirdness of this transfer and the focus on color in RWBY really makes it look like something’s up with how that went down.

A little off topic, but Penny saying "I won't be gone, I'll be part of you." makes me think... Winter is smart, so when she gets time to think about what Penny said, maybe she'll arrive at the same question many in the audience came to; if she's literally part of Winter, can they be separated again? If Winter starts questioning that, the possibility of Penny coming back just skyrockets.

Fria actually tells Penny "I'll be gone" before giving her powers up, which is an interesting contrast to Penny telling Winter "I won't be gone". She may have gotten that line from Winter be all philosophical in V7, saying Fria was now a part of Penny, but it hits differently coming from an actual Maiden. S5o it’s possible that Maidens usually actually will be gone, but Jaune's semblance did something to change that.

This could go well with the theory that they won't need to find an aura transfer machine, or build another one, because Jaune will have a semblance evolution allowing him to do the transfer instead. It might actually be that this evolution already happened and the golden light we saw was Jaune transferring penny's aura to Winter in some way?

An observation that I find interesting is when Penny gives winter the powers, not only is the aura yellow but penny completely glows yellow too, and she obviously starts to disappear, but she doesn’t seem to fully disappear, she just glows.

It's possibly a fading out effect and she does fully fade but animation makes bright light easier, and so we don't actually see her disappear because she's dead and not gone. But it does once again emphasize the color yellow here!

And the color is coming from Penny, it does go up Winter's arm a bit, but Penny is clearly the source. This transfer is so weird and I’m not really sure how to interpret it. There's just actually no reason that we are aware of to make the effect yellow here is the thing. Unless it has something to do with either Jaune or Ambrosius, or potentially a combination of both...

Jaune’s Aura:

The way we see Jaune's aura break in the finale is strange. His aura shouldn't be breaking here. It had been long enough since he was boosting Penny, he's had time to recharge, and it didn't look like it was a strain on him at all. Plus, we know he has a lot of aura, so there probably wasn't too much to recharge in the first place.

He has a massive amount of aura, it has never broken before as far as I remember. Even if it has though, that doesn’t make this occurrence any less odd. It should absolutely never be a one-hit KO. We didn't see anything that would've drained it, that should not have been enough to break his aura. Unless he did something - something that would require a huge amount of aura - that we just didn't see. That amount of aura drain is far more than just an attempt at healing would do, Jaune absolutely did something with his semblance that took up almost all of his aura.

Pinocchio Allusion:

As any Penny fan knows, her character allusion is Pinocchio, the puppet who became a real boy. Penny deviates from the allusion by having always been a real girl, as Ruby is quick to point out, but she shares many story beats with her original story including multiple deaths. In the original story, Pinocchio dies from being hung by his own strings due to his poor decision making and he dies. Sounds a little familiar, does it not? This is where his tale originally ended. Readers were unsatisfied with this ending however, so the author decided to change the story by reviving Pinocchio and teaching him to be more careful.

Unlike Pinocchio making all the wrong decisions, Penny often makes the right ones, or ones she thinks is right, when concerning others. While usually a good thing, this has meant Penny almost giving herself up multiple times during V8, her last attempt being successful. This is where Penny and Pinocchio begin to share similarities again. They are both very reckless when it concerns themselves. This carelessness comes from different places, but it ends with the same result of them endangering their lives and even sometimes losing them.

In the Disney movie, Pinocchio dies by drowning after going to rescue Geppetto and washes up on the shore (like the beach in V8’s post credit scene). His father is devastated and takes him home to grieve, but as a reward for his selflessness in rescuing his father, the Blue Fairy returns and brings him back to life, as well as granting him humanity. Penny sacrificed her life as well, and it stands to reason that she should be rewarded for it, much like her allusion was.

Penny got her maiden powers from someone with blue aura and then gave her powers to someone with blue aura. So it could be that not only Ambrosius, but Fria and Winter as well represent the Blue Fairy. It could be set up for Winter helping to bring Penny back to life once more. It’s an out there theory I admit, but it’s not outright impossible either. The Blue Fairy in Pinocchio saved him three times that I know of, so RWBY having three representations does make sense.

Geppetto wished for him to live as a real boy, but it depended on what path Pinocchio took. This is very reminiscent of Penny and Pietro. Pietro wants to see her live her life, and surely with him absent in V8C14 that didn't work, despite Penny choosing. Her father did not see her happy enough to live her life, and will only be able to learn her death through others. But Pinocchio's themes were life and being alive. So the likelihood that this is not her end yet is quite high!

A Girl That Fell Through the World:

Penny could be the girl who fell through the world. The girl in the story fled the consequences of a choice. The only person who chose her ultimate fate was Penny. The others were pushed into the void, but she chose to die. The consequence of her choice is Ruby’s grief first and foremost, which Penny won’t see. The girl who fell through the world does come back though, and the world will be changed severely with Penny’s absence. Alternatively, it could also be Penny coming back to Wonderland or wherever they currently are, as long as it’s unrecognizable to her.

What Returning Brings:

Others might say another return would have no story relevant purpose, but I wholeheartedly disagree. Penny gives a profoundly youthful, joyous, and wondrous outlook on the world and story that we hadn't seen since Ruby in Volumes 1-3(not the end), Penny returning would bring a much needed levity back in after the despair they will undoubtedly be going through. While not necessarily a huge thing in most other shows, for RWBY, a show largely about keeping up hope, an ounce of such relief is a necessity.

As much as I hate saying it, Penny’s death does actually make some narrative sense because she had to pass on the Maiden powers. (They could have done this in a number of ways, and I personally think they chose rather poorly, but I digress.) Throughout this whole volume, we can see Penny seemingly being set up to join the main cast, but would have been too strong with the powers. This also accomplishes ridding her of the burden of responsibility that comes with being a Maiden and lets her obtain the freedom that’s so important to her character.

Once she returns, seeing this grief that her actions caused, particularly to Ruby, will get her to realize more that her actions can have serious repercussions. She made a choice, but that choice hurt the people she loves. She must have known that it would but I’m not sure she ever realized just how much.

I didn’t want this post to be heavy in the shipping department, so I largely left it out, but I am going to say this one thing that could have an impact. If Nuts & Dolts is on its way to being canon, which this volume makes it feel highly likely, this could be a catalyst.

It could prompt an arc for the both of them in which Penny learns to live her life fighting for her loved ones, rather than sacrificing it for them. A relationship could potentially start from there. And Ruby seeing Penny learn these things may also help her to stop doing the occasional but very dangerous and reckless things she does. Ruby witnessing Penny coming to terms with what she did to the people that care about her would actually make her stop to think “wait, is this how everyone else would feel if I got myself killed?” That would be a very important moment of character growth for her.

I’m certain there are other significant things that Penny returning can bring to the show. And there are definitely more sections I could add to this. At this point though, assuming anyone even made it this far, I think I’ve been going long enough already. So let’s just roll into the outro!

As painful and hopeless as it seems, I'm choosing to trust them with this because there is absolutely no way they didn't see backlash coming. The way this finale went makes me think that they calculated for backlash and aren’t jumping into something they don’t have a plan to recover from. Whether this trust is unfounded or not remains to be seen, but I don’t think it is currently. I do think, however, that the cause of this backlash was a major misstep. Now that it has happened though, they have a chance to do something good with it.

I know for a lot of you, trust in CRWBY has been damaged, some even irreparably so. And for those that feel this way, I don’t blame you. My trust in them took a hit too, but isn’t broken completely yet. There are many ways that they can bring her back that would make sense with the narrative, they have the ability to make it right, and after going over all of the hints and general weirdness of things many times, I think they will.

I'm feeling pretty confident now and I really didn't expect that to happen at all to be honest. But discussing and theorizing with the discord server seriously helped get my hopes back up surprisingly fast! It’s actually thanks to all of them that this gigantic post even happened! So thanks a ton my fellow Dolts! And a special thanks to!!

@arcana-amicus

@catontheweb

@cosmokyrin

@gaydontmesswithme224

@jammatown919

@shadow-0f-x

They really helped get this thing across the finish line!

And thank YOU for reading all~ of this! I sincerely wish it gave you some of the hope and confidence that I now have!

[fancyfrogg]

I am interested to see the interplay between the different tailed-beast reincarnations. Their worldviews and personalities would clash if there’s a plot conflict they need to work together to solve. Because you have both the influence of their past lives’ attitudes and experiences with humans, and then you have their different lived experience as an actual human. It would vary greatly from person to person. Maybe some are wholly indifferent or wary towards humans while others are hateful or protective of them.

One thing I think you need to figure out is the mechanics of this bc if Kurama was killed and reincarnated as Naruto then how is Kushina still alive? Is this reincarnation thing for the Biju something that’s happened all of earth’s history or a recent developement?

assuming that Naruto is still the protagonist, It would indeed be very fun to see the slow trickle of memories from the previous incarnation of Kurama and how that affects his relationships and beliefs. Like, would Naruto know that he’s Kurama from a young age or would people keep it from him? Who am I kidding they would definitely do that. Might also be fun to explore the duality of humanity’s ability to forget vs the Biju’s immortality and memory. Bc on the one hand you’re more likely to repeat the horrors of the past, but on the other you can forgive and move on and change from those horrors.

A dynamic with an alive Rin and Naruto has been floating around in my head for sometime. It would be great to have them as a foil for each other where Rin tries to avoid conflict(which is also inline with little we know of Isobu’s personality) and suppress her powers and memories while Naruto attempts to integrate and embrace them. Also good point about Kakashi. In canon, he does not question the entire system and instead tries to work within it. But in this AU, Rin can try to fit in all she wants, but people still fear her and look at her with disgust. Which could even overpower his trauma about his dad. If it doesn’t matter how hard you try to contort yourself into societies expectations then maybe they shouldn’t matter at all.

I see you are back at it again with the monster themes. I’m not super familiar with them. But does seem like something very interesting to explore. Bc in Naruto socially acceptable “monsters” do exist. Root and Anbu. And I think originally even Orochimaru’s experiments were green-lit by either Danzo or the third-hokage. What makes someone monstrous is that which is uncontrollable and out in the open. Whether that be emotions, power, or deformity. Which really sheds light on the values of Konoha or shinobi villages in general and how those societal values may be harmful for the people living in them.

I think Konoha villager’s attitudes towards Naruto-as-Kurama would be even worse than in canon if they knew the truth bc he is actually the Bijou. With the constant fear that if he unlocked his full powers he could destroy them anytime he wanted. Also when you say ‘early parts of the story’ what are you referring to?

I have a soft spot for Hinata even though her characterization is terrible. I identify with her struggle with shyness and self-doubt (the self-actualization part of character arc is important kishimoto!) I have no idea how you would integrate her with Naruto’s friend group. Good luck with that though!

… now I’m thinking about it. Good Lord was there ANYBODY this girl was comfortable enough with enough with to be herself?

naruto but all the tailed beasts hosts ARE tailed beasts in humanish forms

Naruto AU where everything is the same except the sealed beast hosts are, drawing on the pilot manga where Naruto WAS a nine-tailed fox and was specifically the son of the character who would eventually be reworked into Kurama, new incarnations of the specific tailed beasts they are hosts to in canon; one idea that comes to mind is that usually when the Beasts die they just materialize after a while, but if they die a hard way and their energy exhausts themselves, sometimes they’re reborn with new minds and personalities, with the memories of their older lifetimes influencing them especially as their power expands

so a few vague ideas on how this might go

sealed beast hosts are possibly still a thing, potentially expanded on from canon; potentially all the really plot relevant hosts WERE containers for them, but a whole bunch of events around the time they were reborn ‘reformatted’ the Beasts and their previous hosts had some influences on them, either by raising them as children or they imprinting onto their former hosts.

Naruto is not biologically related to Minato or Kushina, nor is he the son of Kurama, he IS Kurama (in a new form and identity, with some commentary on rebirth and if that makes you accountable for the actions of a past life); his current form was based off of Minato and Kushina possibly because Kushina still had enough influence on him to affect his human form, and neither were expecting him to effectively be their kid, or as a young boy Naruto voluntarily set his base form to match them out of a desire to belong. (Notably this does not rule out their extremely antagonistic relationship to Kurama in canon; he was so desperate for affection he sought it from people who openly viewed him as a monster better left impaled in Kushina’s mind, which gradually made them realize that this was kind of fucked up once they were forced to view him as his own person and not a rampaging monster to be exploited)

Gaara’s character is largely unchanged, apart from being a new iteration of Shukaku. Here, Shukaku’s relatively low position on the Tailed Beast ladder may translate to him being particularly prone to constantly reinventing his personality and nature every time he ‘resets’.

The other tailed beast hosts, particularly those who didn’t get much attention in canon like Yugito Nii, are still around and have a greater presence, with much less awareness of their previous incarnations, Rin is definitively the Third Tails here, though actively suppressing her powers (whether she is alive or not in the present is flexible but i figure it would be cool for her to be alive and do more with her, with Kakashi growing more frustrated with the ninja world as he has observed how the desire to be loyal while being hated for her inhuman origin has motivated him to be more of a cultural rebel). Most of the others are as per canon, with the twist that they were mostly adopted into their families or voluntarily took on forms to suit their feeling of belonging, which Killer B likely did with his brother.

The canonical way the Tailed Beasts interact with their hosts as unpredictable spirits that must be placated or bargained with may still be present; the most recent and powerful tailed beasts (that is, the ones who have the most presence in canon) act as literal incarnations of the past, potentially the bulk of their power sealed away into what is considered the wildest parts that must be chained, which correspond to the aspects of themselves that are pretty much their canonical depictions. These are also false distinctions, and are still rightfully angry at their abuse by greedy humans; whether or not the canon dynamics are present or if, say, Naruto struggles to awaken his inhuman powers while restraining the overwhelming hatred and rage from countless lifetimes of human evil done to him.

(All transformations are exactly as body horror-tinged and gruesome as they used to be in earlier parts of the story. Their powers are monstrous, inhuman and resist the urge to make them pretty. If Naruto, say, channnels his full power by going super saiyan and glowy, that is a deliberate affection that costs more energy that is needed, so part of the character development is going ‘fuck it, Me At Full Power is a mass of bloody spirit energy surrounded by a kaiju skeleton’.) Some other ideas I’ve been thinking about (such as Hinata being a much bigger presence in Naruto’s personal friend group from the get go, if not actively part of his team) will definitely be contemplated, as well as working in later retcons to be present throughout, making the story more internally consistent.

[summocrap]

Housamo Character Themes

I decided to select songs that make me think of chracters and pair them together simply because I had nothing better to do (and can’t think of any SummoSnap, but just ignore that part)

Shino : Mirror of the Wolrd - Naoki from Guilty Gear Strive

The song has a super japanesy aesthetic that blends so well with Shino’s overall character and design.

The song’s message of pushing others away despite wanting camaraderie is basically Shino’s entire character arc.

The refrain being an excerpt from the Bhuddist Sutra of Light fits perfectly for the man who can’t escape or forgive his own sins

Nomad and Algernon : All Along the Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix

A song about two different men who are intrinsically connected to an inescapable fate is perfect for them both

The idea of clashing fates and realities fits Algernon who seems to have accepted and even sort of look forward to time looping as opposed to Nomad who wants to escape his appearance and fate

 I don’t know why I picked Hendrix’s version, I just like it :D

Babalon : Cell Block Tango - Chicago The Musical

The song itself features a litany of women who for whatever reason, justified or not, have murdered their husbands.

I don’t really need to explain how it fits Babalon any further do I?

Even the refrain from Hunyak’s perspective is perfect for being an injustice of an innocent woman being framed for a murder she didn’t commit.

Mr. Mononobe : Easy Tiger - Portugal. The Man.

The song is from the perspective of a adult warning someone younger to just relax and take their life easily and in stride, which is basically what he does in game

The line about being sixteen going on forever is perfect for being directed at the MC who eternally 16 due to time looping before they can even have a birthday

And even the line about a tough coconut is perfect because it shows how hard Mononobe is trying to try and break this loop, but nothing seems to be working.

Kengo : What do you Fight For - Naoki from Guilty Gear Strive

It’s not really talked about much in the main quest, but Kengo doesn’t have many friends.

His habit of getting into fights for seemingly no reason which only ends up pushing people away is perfect for the song which ask why you’re fighting and to go all in on the violence until you meet an end.

I also just really like Guilty Gear music

Tezcatlipoca : My Enemies - Saint Motel

A song reveling in a petty fued where atrocious acts are laughed off is perfect for the man who delights in war.

From his perspective, it could be directed at Quetzalcoatl with his delusions that all his pranks and antics were just fine because he’s blind to the harm he causes.

The nostalgic wistfulness also really fits Tezcatlipoca who is one of the few adult characters in the game, who understands the nature of being a living creature better than his compatriots.

Player : Smile Bomb - YuYuHakusho

Smile bomb is a song about a lost, listless person finding hope and being motivated by those around them, which is exactly who the protagonist is.

The fact that the song isn’t even specifically about friends, but everyone around them, lends itself to the bonds he has with the large cast.

It’s also just a really nice and smooth song that’s bouncy and full of hope in the face of a tough world. I love it.

I’m using Sapphire’s English cover cause it sounds nice and probably the best cover of the song. 

For the game itself : Smell of the Game - Daisuke Ishiwatari From Guilty Gear Strive

Yes, we are using a 3rd Guilty Gear song sue me, the game’s OST is good.

The song is about fighting against the system, proving that you knew what was going on from the start, and that your fiery spirit can’t be held down. It fits perfectly into the themes of the game, where the protagonist is set up against the laws of various worlds.

Even the chorus “Your words will never make me disappear” is perfect for an exiled wanderer.

And come on! It has the word Game in the title, and Housamo focuses on the App. It’s perfect!

That’s all for now folks! Will I do more? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯