#thinking about how this is where we’re starting this arc and however this arc ends it caused the energy of the bday livestream

[whoopseydaisy]

[tenwhiteandalusians]

so no one was going to tell me if i got literally one episode further tenax drops that he’s the one who saved scorpus from his mom’s pimp AND that he’s intimately familiar with scorpus’ dick when he was younger. guys. guys.

[dynamightmite]

you seem optimistic so you think we’re still getting shigaraki back? :( i’m really sad the way hori has handled the izuku tenko plotline as of right now like i just can’t wrap my head around this

I mean, I definitely think it's a possibility. We still don't know exactly what happened to overhaul/decay, and how it may be used in the future. We saw Tenko and Deku touch fists; theoretically there could have been some kind of exchange there, or he could be existing as a vestige in some way.

Then again, (and this is going to piss a lot of people off :')) I kind of... get where Horikoshi is going with it?

BEFORE YOU START BOOING!

I think a lot of the discomfort and hurt from fans comes from the perception that Izuku failed to save Tenko. That, by allowing him to die, the narrative is in fact saying he didn't deserve to be save--that Horikoshi himself doesn't believe Tenko truly deserved it. I have also seen a lot of talk about how it doesn't fit in with the ongoing, overarching themes of the narrative, and (while I'm not saying these people are wrong) I would like to push back on that a little, because I think there is precedence in the story as to why Tenko's death holds up, despite it being terrible.

The culmination of Tenko's arc broaches a crossroad of two major concepts in the story: heroes, and saving, and what both of those ideas mean. And, I think, in Tenko's death, we get and answer to both, and more importantly, an answer to his overall purpose.

What does it mean to save? In BNHA, the concept is a little vague. I've often people ascribe the "total victory" mindset as one of protection, as preventing any tragedy or harm. Through that lens, Tenko's death therefore is an automatic failure--a nonstarter. HE's dead, so he wasn't saved. The end. However, while "saving" might seem like a simple, straight forward concept, I would like to dig a little deeper, because I think what Horikoshi's doing is much more interesting.

Saving (Deku's definition of it, anyway) is a lot closer to freeing than it is to protecting. Which sounds weird, but I'll do my best to explain. I think the two best examples of this particular nuance to his definition are actually in two characters people tend to forget he saved: Shoto and Gentle Criminal.

Because he did save both of them. Not in the really obvious, black-and-white way he saved Eri, no, but he did save them. And both times were... painful, to say the least.

When Deku went after Shoto during the sport's festival, it wasn't, like, nice. He dug his little nerd fingers in where it hurt the worst and dragged out Shoto's biggest fears and insecurities, and then he said GET OVER THEM. Stop letting them control you. Stop letting your father control you. You're your own person, and you get to make your own choices.

He didn't punch Endeavor. He didn't even take pity on Shoto, or say he was sorry. But you know what he did do? Deku cut the leash. AND he damn near killed Shoto (and himself) making sure that Shoto understood that he was free. He gave Shoto back something that he'd been missing, something he was afraid to look in the face; something that Deku picked up, brushed off, and said, "please stop throwing this away, it's important. You're important".

And it works, goddamit.

Gentle is both different and similar. In a similar vein, the way Deku saves Gentle is sort of... not obvious. But I think if you look here:

Gentle isn't a bad person. He's ambitious and a little lax about the law, but he never set out to hurt anybody. But we see over the course of his arc how he gets so tangled up in his own pain and his desperation to be seen that he forgets his own ideals, his own morals. In the face of becoming someone, he loses sight of what matters most to him: just like Deku, Gentle wants to be a hero.

Which, in the end, he is. And Deku's the one who pushes him there.

But what about Tenko? What about the crying child inside him? Why wasn't he saved?

When people talk about child Tenko, they often seem to see him as a symbol of the person that Deku's trying to save. But I think that, just maybe, that's wrong. I think maybe, actually, Deku is trying to save Tenko from that child.

Child Tenko is, in many ways, a symbol of nothing but AFO's power. That is a child stripped of his name, of his original quirk, of his family, of his sense of self. That is a puppet controlled by AFO, without any autonomy of its own. That child is a wound that Tenko cannot escape for as long as AFO still holds any power over him.

That's why this chapter All Might said that maybe Deku did save Tenko, if he no longer saw the child version of him in the vestige realm. Deku did save him. Because Tenko isn't a child anymore, and he isn't AFO's puppet; he's a free man, for the first time in his life.

A free man who chooses to be a hero.

Heroes get talked about a lot in BNHA (duh), but what is the defining quality of a true hero? Someone who wins? Sure. Someone who saves? Yeah, of course. But the actual test of what differentiates a hero from everybody else is their willingness to sacrifice. To give up everything for the greater good. Even if it hurts. Sometimes especially if it hurts. I mean, this has come up a lot through the manga. Deku running in to attack the sludge villain, Mirio giving up his quirk, Eraserhead throwing himself in front of his students, Edgeshot shortening his lifespan to save Bakugo, All Might standing quirkless in front of the greatest evil of his time-- literally the constant refrain from the narrative has been that being willing to sacrifice it all is what makes a hero a hero.

Tenko's final wish from last chapter is gut wrenching, but: he wanted to be a hero for the Villains. The rest of the world can rot for all he cares, but his friends, those disenfranchised, hurt people that everyone else gave up on? Those people who have never been saved, those people who have never been protected... he wants to be their hero. In the face of danger, of certain doom, he is a free man, and he has a choice.

So he makes a sacrifice. His final act is to become a hero. For them.

Cue the sobbing tears.

Additionally, I think it's relevant to point out here how strongly the narrative has advocated for victimhood to be divorced from being a perpetual self-identity. It really emphasizes the power of choosing to rise above your situation and pain to help other people, while also suggesting that your pain does not excuse you from hurting people. You can be a victim and you can be a perpetrator; they are not mutually exclusive. And because of this, after Deku saves Tenko, he does not owe him. He saved Tenko, but he could not keep him alive, and... I don't think that it's about Tenko deserving or not deserving to die. It's just that Tenko had reached a point of no return where his only choices were to die a slave or die free and he broke his shackles. But he was always going to die. Doomed by the narrative, both literally and figuratively. We can argue all day as to what degree of responsibility he holds for his actions as a highly abused, traumatized, often shell of a person. But the point is that at every junction of the story, Tenko (and the story around him) escalated until he was trapped. There wasn't a way out, and it's heartbreaking, and maybe that's the point.

I'm not saying it's fair. I'm certainly not saying you have to like it. But... I don't know. I don't feel like this is some completely out of pocket, off-the-rails end that destroyed all its characters. And who knows! Maybe Tenko will be brought back later. Maybe the epilogue will get progressively worse and I'll hate it. Maybe I'll finally get some sleep and regret writing this at all. I have no idea. Really. But we're all in this together, so these are my thoughts right now :)

[itsnothingofinterest]

So if it isn’t clear, I’m not a fan of chapter 423 and how it ended this final fight with AFO or Deku's supposed save of Tomura. I know I haven't talked that much about it but it's true.

And being the arrogant little internet-er that I am, I thought I might go over how I think this fight should’ve gone down. A little self-indulgent thing about how I would've done it, to make myself feel better, which you guys can read too if for some reason you want to. Granted, the objectively correct way to end this arc would’ve of course been to not do the fight or bring back AFO, end it at 418 as I described before; but this outline is for if one were to really insist on a final battle with a returned AFO.

Starting disclaimer; length: as mentioned in the above linked post, this is going to be quite longer than what we saw in canon. Some may say this is unfair to claim Hori should have done when he’s so clearly burnt out, but that’s just what the fight needs to be properly epic or properly conclude it’s dangling plot threads. Again, this is why ending it at 418 was the correct move. If we really are including this extra climax though, then it needs enough pages for it; which is why we’re going further than the entire manga might, up to chapter 430 plus an epilogue. (Wanted that to be including Epilogue but one chapter outline went long so I split it in two. Just the way things go.)

Pre-423 changes:

Surprisingly little. A part of me wants to change the ‘it was AFO all along’ reveal to be less dog-doodoo but I can’t imagine how. The reveal is bad; ruining many of MHA’s themes, several of its characters, and helping cement Deku as an All Might clone by ending his arc as a hero who beats the big bad AFO…but it’s also necessary for the extra climax to happen. AFO’s ability to take over Tomura is almost literally directly proportional to how bad the reveal is, so we’re kind of stuck with it.

However I would like to change Deku’s dialogue with Aizawa in 420 to not mention his plans of killing Tomura along with AFO up to now. His character just becomes unsalvageablely unlikable with the reveal that he was just looking for a way to murder the crying child in a way he found most tasteful this whole time. So we’re cutting that and Deku’s still aiming for the save like a good hero should. Just have him go into more detail on what happened in Tomura's mind; it'll be useful for Kurogiri to overhear for later.

Besides that, the early chapters of the final AFO fight were mostly fixable with later additions or otherwise inoffensive, so we’re moving on to:

423: On the Offensive

Once again, we start with Deku just landing a huge hit on AFO. Immediate change; the fight is not over with this: AFO manifests a huge mouth with sharp teeth on his chest right where Deku hit to chomp down and pin him before charging up an energy explosion point blank that’ll rip his arm off at minimum.

Deku escapes using a St. Louise Smash to scrape off the bottom row of teeth, letting his arm out and chasing that energy attack to mostly just propel him back into the ground.

Some hero comments how it’s like they’re back to square one while another denies that and points out AFO’s two new major injuries. Shoto takes the opportunity to try going for a major attack too; but AFO, furious that the heroes think he’s on the back foot, uses a quirk to launch the remaining sharp teeth at Shoto as missiles. Endeavor then swoops in and takes the hit for Shoto, surprising him with the sacrifice play but demoralizing the other heroes for their No. 1 to take a hit like that.

Now needing to get back on the offensive, AFO pulls out the giant double rivot mouth move to try and chomp down on Deku while he’s reeling; but they get intercepted by Mt. Lady and Ryukyu. At this time, Aizawa notices Kurogiri has disappeared from beside him.

As Deku is helped up by Aoyama, we see Kurogiri reappear on a bit of elevated dirt behind them; and stepping out to comment on how much he’s missed is a dishevelled looking Spinner.

424: The League of Villains

We instead start with a flashback to Touya, Fuyumi, and Rei being taken away from the battle by those stretcher robots. While they’re a distance away from others, sparks appear from the droids carrying Touya as they halt in place; causing Fuyumi to panic and ask her and her mom’s droids to also stop so she can see what happened. As Rei and Fuyumi struggle to sit up, they see that Toga has thrown knives into both of Touya’s robots and is now cutting him out.

As Fuyumi panics and tells her to get away, a warp gate opens and lets out Spinner, who tells Dabi to get up because the inevitable has happened and AFO has started fighting Tomura; Kurogiri filled him in on the whole thing. Dabi responds, revealing he’s still awake, and attempts to get up with Toga’s help.

Fuyumi begins really panicking, telling them not to take her brother when he’s so injured and she just got him back. But Dabi responds, in an apologetic tone as one could expect of Dabi, that he’s got something important to do.

Rei finally takes the chance to pipe up, asking if these are the friends Touya’s been staying with. Touya introduces Spinner, Toga, and Kurogiri, and says that they are; and then introduces his mom and sister to the League.

Back at Mt. Fuji, Spinne, Toga, and Dabi arrive out of Kurogiri and take in the situation. Kurogiri, now awake for real but with some Shirakumo in his tone, comments that it seems AFO is back in control of Tomura, but that like he saw last time, AFO’s control is probably still precarious. They just need to wake up Tomura again before they think of a more permanent solution.

Aoyama panics seeing the League here, but Deku interrupts asking if they’re here to fight AFO and save Tomura. Toga answers by saying he can just sit back and watch them do his job before telling Kurogiri that he’ll need to play defence; neither the heroes or AFO have noticed them in the crowd yet, but they will not appreciate them being here once they do. As he does, she and Spinner start yelling at Tomura; asking why he left them behind to wallow in his self-pity while they’re still waiting on him to destroy this unfair world? Where’s their horizon?

(maybe call back to this^ somehow?)

This grabs the heroes attention, some wondering if they need to fight them too. But then Dabi joins in, saying that Shigaraki was the one person to truly surpass All Might in power, so to see him a pawn of AM’s favourite punching bag is just sad; what’s with this embarrassing state, leader? Reminded at this sight of his own words to All Might in Kamino, Endeavor tells the other heroes to let the villains speak, while thinking to himself that he can finally see what relationship Tomura has with these villains like his son, and that he's glad he learned this about Touya.

AFO gets annoyed at the League’s insults and moves to attack, but finds his body shaking. In the back of his mind, Tomura stops screaming and appears behind AFO from the shadows, responding to the League’s call.

425: Secret Boss Battle

A fight begins at the centre of the mind between Tomura and AFO, the arena resembling the destroyed cityscape from when he first got the AFO quirk, but shrouded in darkness. Unable to really use their quirks in this space, they basically both resort to hand-to-hand combat and psychically throwing debris at eachother.

As they fight, AFO asks how Shigaraki awakened; his will should have been crushed with his identity as Tenko Shimura torn to shreds. Tomura affirms that he finds no will in the friends or dreams of Tenko Shimura, AFO has managed to treed on those things thoroughly; so instead he'll hold onto what is his own as Shigaraki Tomura. AFO balks at that; he moulded that identity even more thoroughly, implanted every idea in his head and guided his every decision; but Tomura reminds him that's not true, he left Tomura in the care of others many times. We then get both a flashback to Kurogiri comforting Tomura when AFO first died fightign AM, and a montage of flashback panels to his time with the League. Tomura exclaims that this is more than enough will to take on a shitty secret boss like AFO.

At this point, Shinomori appears and punches AFO hard in the face. He is proceeded shortly after by Ragdoll & various other costumed folk who follow up Shinomori with their own attacks. AFO asks if Tomura has caused a quirk rebellion like what happened to the 'other him' and Tomura answers: yes & no. The quirks are active in fighting, but they're not so much rebelling as just helping him subdue a rogue quirk, like what happened against Star & Stripe (he made sure to ask them though; need to know your party for the raid boss after all, and he'd been meaning to take stoke anyway). Or did AFO forget the dynamic of person & quirk between them?

AFO responds by growing into a giant, elongated monster to fight back; furious that these pawns, husks, and nobodies think they have any right not only attacking the demon lord, but looking down on him. AFO knocks a dozen hero & villain vestiges back, but Tomura throws a whole mental building at him for his trouble. AFO emerges out the top trying to attack him, but gets intercepted by the vestiges of Kudo and Bruce; both of them look shattered and like they're missing half their pieces, but the rest are keeping shape to punch AFO as much as they can.

AFO's fury briefly flares seeing them, but he quickly realizes what their being here means, as he hated them too much to ever take their pathetic quirks. Tomura confirms by saying AFO has his own secret boss, pointing out a small light in the distance like a star that AFO immediately identifies as the last spark of Yoichi.

426: Two Fronts

The inner fight continues: AFO begins racing past everyone to try and claim that distant light, but this just allows vestiges both stolen and OFA to slam him into huge debris as he tries. AFO grows even larger to Machia-level size and swats them away, landing a good hit on Tomura, Kudo, & Bruce as he tells them to stop infringing on his story. Just he he goes for another blow though, he takes a hit from seemingly nothing.

Cut back to outside and it's clear that he just got hit by Momo & Denki's canon, now with Jirou helping too. Dazed and in disbelief, AFO is then also hit by Kamui Woods throwing many huge boulders at him. Rikido and Kirishima go for a big attack too, but AFO knocks them away as he regains himself.

Realizing that he's on a war of two fronts and losing, he implants himself with those large roots he seems to have, embedding them in the earth and spreading them out to disrupt and separate the heroes. He then uses more quirks to form a large shell around himself, and uses a more defensive All-Factor Release to launch a myriad of attacks from the shell's surface. Deku goes in to attack AFO from an opening on the shell, but he launches more attacks out of it at Deku & the League. With the roots and shell protecting AFO from most of the heroes, he left an opening on purpose so he can see the League and focus on destroying them, which will then let him subdue Tomura. Deku realizes this plan too, and changes course to deflect the attacks on the League.

More roots emerge, but other members of the class catch on; Shoto freezing some while Shoji grabs others, allowing the League to keep yelling for Tomura to fight. At this time, with assistance from Sero, Iida, Mineta, & Mina; Ruyukyu and Mt. Lady lady finally rip out those mouth stalks, leaving two great black indents in the shell. Enraged, AFO causes the shell to grow large with great teeth around it's opening and enlarge in size greatly, now resembling the imagery of ultimate evil from All Might's old description of AFO as it launches more attacks at Deku and the League.

Deku tells the League to keep it up while he protects them, and we see side-by-side panels of both him and Tomura, bolstered by the League's words calling for his help, continuing their respective assaults on AFO.

427: Trust and Worth

We briefly see the other heroes attempts to get through the now-giant shell in between AFO's still-ongoing onslaught of attacks; Nejire and Amajiki's best attacks doing nothing, and Momo's laser barely putting in a scratch. Mirio says he got in, but his punches still can't phase the guy inside. Weird thing is, he didn't even notice a hero got in; so focused on Deku & the League. The attacks from the shell's surface seem completely random and haphazard too; he's ignoring them. Shoto points out that he basically can thanks to his defences, so does this mean they have to wait for someone who can do something? But Mirio rephrases it to that they need to wait for when they can do something.

Cut back to Deku and he's in a similar mental state. He's almost literally running on OFA's fumes and he's stuck on the defence protecting the League because he can't get into the shell through all the attacks, especially now that it's grown much larger and AFO is hiding deeper inside. It's anxiety inducing, he knows Bakugou would hate it. A part of him wants to try and think of a way to blast past the attacks, but he's not sure he could beat AFO in one hit so it might be too risky (if not for him, then for those behind him). Better to do some entrusting himself and leave this to Tomura until he leaves an opening or needs one himself, which Deku will know because he can see the fight in his mind through their connection.

But back at the mental battle; Shigaraki's confidence only enrages AFO, who grabs him in his giant hand and start squeezing. He taunts Tomura, asks if he really thinks someone who AFO built from the ground up can deny him? 'No, his pathetic friends will have their cries left unanswered forevermore, as punishment for entrusting their hopes to a pawn.'

Just then, another new player swoops in, busting right through the palm of AFO's hand to pull Tomura out. It's Hana Shimura! Who promptly tells AFO to shut up about her brother. The rest of the Shimuras also appear, with Kotaro denying the scope AFO's influence, apologizing to Tenko, and saying his abusive behaviour was his fault alone. Tomura pauses at seeing them, and says while he's in no mood to forgive his father, he promises to get them all out alive so he can grovel for forgiveness properly later.

Nana also appears and asks how the Shimuras are here, which Nao answers saying AFO pilfered their quirks from their remains after their tragedy. Nana is horrified, but AFO can only say that he's beginning to regret letting his whims draw him to any worthless trash he found along his path. Shigaraki remarks back that he's finding plenty of worth in this so called 'trash'.

428: A New Strategy

As more vestiges go back on the offensive; the Shimura family take a moment for strategy, wondering how they can beat this giant monster. Nana wonders why AFO can even grow like this, but Tomura figures he must've done it by letting long-suppressed emotions run wild. He's fraying himself for a chance to reach Yoichi, but stronger emotions like from Tomura or his sister can tear right through him. It also means if they beat him, he'll either be gone for good, or unveil his own core like what happened with Tenko. Concluding this is enough strategy, Tomura leaps into the fray and deals a massive wound to AFO.

AFO is beginning to realize his situation in this two-front battle is not improving, but being so close to Yoichi, he reconsiders his priorities and his strategy to shut up the League. Luckily the reappearance of Nana reminds him of just the way to do it. Outside, Deku, Aoyama, and a few other students continue to protect the League as they call for Tomura and mock AFO, when something changes. The onslaught of random attacks stops, and instead the shell begins to glow, and then a massive force begins emanating from the shell causing gale force winds to blast everyone away. AFO has combined the energy explosion he used to kill Nana with Air Cannon & Shokewave and is using them continuously to create these winds. Using his explosion quirk like this might burn up all his stamina, maybe even kill him and Tomura, but he decides it's worth it to see Yoichi.

The winds drown out the League, internally causing Shigaraki to think they might've just died, which in turn lets AFO pin him under his hand and start crushing him once more.

Deku, being blasted into a wall of dirt, realizes they can't keep up a passive strategy anymore, these winds will tear & burn everyone up. This is when a Warp Gate opens in front of his face, blocking the winds and letting him talk though it with the League, who are protected by a much larger Warp Gate. Spinner says they need a new strategy, but Deku gets distracted observing how Kurogiri's Warp Gates seem to be very effective against these winds by just warping the wind somewhere else. Before Dabi can properly express annoyance, Deku says he's got a plan; but he'll need the League's full cooperation, so are the willing to work with him? Dabi & Toga look to Spinner, who tells Deku...fat chance. He wants their help, he's the one who has to work with them. Deku agrees, so Spinner welcomes him to the League of Villains and asks for his plan.

429: All For One; One For All; All Or Nothing; One Last Smash

Deku and the League begin their operation. Kurogiri opens various Warp Gates around the area that a) give heroes places to take cover from the gusts of wind, and b) let him create his own jets of wind. He points all of them at Deku's back, launching the boy at the shell's opening. The force of each jet matches the force of AFO's wind, meaning multiple will overcome it. Granted, applying that much force to someone from both ends this way would crush most people, but Deku's got a body that can withstand OFA so this is nothing.

As he's launched at the opening, AFO notices his approach and creates giant sharp teeth to impale him; but Deku, being carried by the wind, is free to use another St. Louise Smash to destroy them and make his way in. AFO then tries a variety of other attacks inside the chamber of the shell, but a Warp Gate opens and a blast of ice freezes all of them, and we see Dabi commenting how there's nothing like a life or death situation to see how strong you really are (his mom's quirk packs quite the punch).

AFO then closes the shell to stop the League's interference, air jets or otherwise, and prepares another All-Factor laser pointed right at Deku. But just then, we see Shoto outside preparing a ramp, which Bakugou takes off from (that's right we see their team-up this time), using explosions to overpower the wind, break through the shell where team Momo scratched it, and blast away the charged up laser before it could fire. Now with line of sight inside back, another Gate opens with one of Toga's syringes shot through. Deku grabs it's cord, and uses it to launch himself back at AFO, finally landing the hit to knock off his gag.

Back inside the mental battlefield; AFO is so close to Yoichi and is dragging himself through the vestiges' attacks. Deku suddenly arrives across their mental link, and slams into the giant AFO. Truly desperate, AFO seems to almost puke up something from the hit that gets launched at Yoichi; it's trashbag baby AFO! Who's suddenly feeling a lot more honest, yelling for Yoichi about how much he needs him, how he only cares about him, just let him see his brother's face one last time.

Shigaraki hears this and realizes what kind of person his sensei was all along, and decides what to do with a pity-ing look on his face and a nod from his parents. AFO's path is interrupted one last time by Tenko Shimura, who grabs him in a hug and tells him he understands his pain, but it's over, he needs to let go of this. The star-like light he'd been chasing turns into Yoichi's face, causing AFO to being to cry and relax into the hug, and the two boys fade into another tiny light that rests in Tomura's hand as he shows Deku & the vestiges. It's over.

430: What Makes Heroes and Villains

Deku asks what what Tomura will do with that last shred of AFO, and Tomura says he doesn't know. Part of him still wants to crush it, both out of anger & just to be safe, but that seems distasteful after what just happened. Just then, one vestige steps forth and asks for it, who Tomura identifies as Spearlike Bones; the Shigaraki twins' mother. She doesn't introduce herself as such, but says she knew AFO before he went evil, so give it to her and she'll keep it safe and out of trouble this time. Both Deku and Tomura agree, and then sit down to talk.

The scene shifts to a beach at night, they're alone, and they shift to their four and five-year-old selves. Tenko and Izuku talk for a bit like that, about...a lot of stuff. Mostly about heroes, about Deku, and what Tenko thinks of Deku. If Tenko feels saved (a bit yeah, but also a bit not), how Deku's a good hero, how he's a mediocre hero. How Tenko thinks all heroes suck and are failures, especially All Might, which riles 4-year old Izuku up good...but also how, as the first hero that Tenko doesn't think is a failure who sucks, Deku is the greatest hero ever.

Izuku asks what Tenko will do now, and he says he'll do what he said before; be a hero for the villains, as only a villain can. That said, Tomura doesn't really want to fight Deku anymore if he can avoid it; so he's prepared a peace offering, and a message. The peace offering appear to Izuku as a meteor shower in the night sky, accompanied with a shot outside the mental world to show Shigaraki standing over an unconscious Deku with Tomura's hand pressed agianst him. The message gets blacked out a la Dabi. Izuku, suddenly a teenager is shocked and turns to ask what he means, but finds instead Shinomori asking what what means? Deku has been given the quirks from OFA back, although they are all in pieces aside from Danger Sense, hence them appearing to him as a meteor shower.

We cut to various scenes with villains; Skeptic in a police carrier, Spinner's advisors and a couple other rioters being held in custody, Compress in prison, Redestro in another prison, and even Gigantomachia, once more being tied down even as he holds his hand to the wound AFO gave him. They all see above them a tiny blotch of blackness like Kurogiri's mist.

Back at Mt. Fuji, Tomura finally emerges from the shell of ultimate evil carrying Deku. Lemillion is first on the scene and tells Tomura to hand him over; and is quite shocked when Tomura does just that without issue. Says the two of them made friends and sorted it out in there so don't worry. Toga also tells Mirio to relay a message to Deku that she'll be keeping an eye on both him and Uraraka from here, so keep up their progress together. Other heroes arrive and surround them slowly, not sure what move to make. Iida is the one who finally tells them to come quietly and let this end.

Tomura agrees to let this all end, and Spinner & Toga both ask what they're doing now? Going out in a peaceful way, or a villainous way? Tomura says both; that they'll be performing what may be their final act of villainy, before asking if Kurogiri has a big enough place picked out. Kurogiri confirms he does, and opens a Warp Gate for the League.

At this time, those other villains we saw earlier start getting Gloop Warped away from custody. As the League step through Kurogiri, a number of heroes suddenly move to stop them. Deku barely regains a bit of consciousness and tells them not to attack, causing a few of his classmates to pause. No one is fast enough to stop the League anyway, and Kurogiri disappears behind them. The League are gone.

The chapter ends with police, prison managers, and heroes all reporting in. Besides Dr. Garaki and Overhaul who got left behind, every villain bigger than a small time crook they had in any form of custody throughout the entire country has disappeared.

431: Class 1A Rising

The obligatory Epilogue chapter. As I expect of canon, this would probably be extra long and cover a lot of different plot threads. It'll also be very different based on how Hori wants to take things; but I'll go the simple route.

First things first is catching up with all the hero kids in the hospital. Friendship moments, decompression, comments on character arcs, that sort of stuff. We also learn Tomura's final message to Deku, which he relays to everyone else, student and pro: The heroes have attacked the League three times now. If they attack a fourth time, the villains will return to destroy Japan. But if they don't, the villains will never return.

We then get narration of the immediate aftermath of this announcement; heroes throughout the country search high and low for any signs of Shigaraki & the disappeared villains for months. In a similar case to when they hunted for Stain, this results in heroes finding a lot of injustices they'd normally overlook to catch bigger villains; lost children, domestic abuse, prejudice, that sort of thing. Still, for those entire months, no villains more dangerous than some corner store robbers are found.

Speaking of the heroes, an emergency ranking is conducted; naming Kamui Woods as the new number one, with the rest of the Lurkers as No. 2 & 3. The previous top 3 have all retied (maybe Endeavor dies from that tooth attack he took for Shoto, idk.) Additionally, Mirio, Nejire, & Tamaki have taken the no. 8, 9, and 10 slots, and vow to catch up and rise even higher. Still, there's not a lot of interest by anyone involved; seems everyone has their eyes on the next generation.

There's a few more scenes of loose ends getting tied up like Overhaul waking up Pops or Gentle & Nagant getting status as heroes before we finally return to UA The kids' 2nd year finally begins for real. it's jarring to be sure, but time must go on and so too must education. Besides, a lot of them have started thinking after that war that they need to consider what kinds of heroes they want to be. Deku's falling behind with his shattered OFA not yet showing signs of healing, if that's even possible, but he's confident he'll catch up once again. Perhaps this is where we'd see out final moments with the core cast, checking in with everyone here as they all get ready for their next lesson/mission as heroes. If Hori wanted a more overtly 'to be continued' ending (though I imagine he would not), perhaps we might see where the villains ended up in some sense, building up a future conflict. Or perhaps we might skip forward years into the future, see the kid as pros and end on that kind of uncompromising 'Happily ever after'. Depends on how much open-endedness is preferred.

Either way, there's my conclusion. I won't say it's perfect or anything; I'll even admit I may have gotten the League more involved than would ever be realistic (or maybe it's more like I may not have involved the Deku's class enough). But I like to think I got some cool plot beats in, some cool reveals, I'm more proud of the call back to All Might's ultimate evil imagery than it may deserve; but most importantly, the villains end this war alive and saved. Tomura got to be the hero for villains; and I'd say Deku, between getting his save off and not being the focal point of the win, came out looking a lot less like an All Might clone or the next pillar, and just looking a lot like a better hero than in canon in general. That's what I feel anyway.

Regardless, writing this whole 'what-if' out did in fact make me feel better about 423. So my self-indulgent ramblings were worth that much at least.

[mci-writing]

Can I request a senku x fem reader where she goes with the group to the cave instead of magma and her and senku end up cuddling for warmth and senku is all flustered by it.

Gonna slight change this up a little, anon. I kinda sat on this knowing I wanted to write something like it, but never knowing where to take it,,, BUT it's cold outside and season 3 is up to the infiltration arc so Imma have a little bit of fall fun 🥹

Lowkey has the same reader from Bandages in mind tbh but I also like the idea of Senkuu calling his s/o Dragonfruit so-

If you’ve got a couple dollars to spare, here’s my kofi (I am a struggling college student 😳)

By Night in Caves (Ishigami Senkuu x Fem!Reader)

A figure shivers as a sharp wind blows past them. The leaves starting to change shades and the cold breeze in the air are enough indication of the fall season. While most people would probably be snuggled up in their homes under a nice quilt or a huge blanket, (Y/n) was out with Senkuu and searching for God knows what. She could probably ask him what day it was and he'd know to a T, but she'd have to wait until after their current expedition.

She did bring the Stone World equivalent of a light jacket, but the night air was starting to make it a little useless the longer they were out and about. Senkuu isn’t showing it, but she can just tell the air’s starting to get to him too.

It’s just the two of them at the moment, the rest of their ragtag group splitting off to other areas to find what they’re looking for. While Senkuu would typically go off with one of the other generals, Gen was really persistent that he go with (Y/n). It was beyond her understanding why, but she wouldn’t complain about spending alone time with her close friend again.

“Hey, Leek,” She lightly tugs on his sleeve as his crimson eyes stare far ahead, her own (e/c) eyes staring off towards a cave in the near distance. She points towards it once she feels his eyes on her, “Think we should check in for the night? I’m more than positive the others have too with how dark it’s gotten.”

“Think you’re just getting cold, Dragonfruit,” He hums in response, staring at the cave as he thinks it over. He grins at the sight of the many sticks and twigs around the area, tugging (Y/n) along with him as he starts walking in that direction, “I’m sure it won’t hurt to start a fire for a bit though.”

He’s super eager to get there, picking up various rocks, twigs, leaves, and sticks as they get closer. She attempts to help, but he’s moving faster than she can think. It’s almost a little unnerving… Kind of like he thinks this cave will benefit him in some way or something…

“Wait, is the thing we’re looking for in a cave?” (Y/n) asks, turning to Senkuu just as he gets the fire up and running at the edge of the cavern’s opening. He stands and backs away from it, holding his hands out towards it for a little bit before slowly backing away from it.

The fire is a reasonable size, big enough to ward off any animals and let anyone know they’re location if they’re passing by. Senkuu, however, is moving further into the cave. His flashlight is on, catching the twinkles of a few minerals and gems a little further inside. There’s a glint in his ruby eyes, made devious by the smirk on his face, “You can stay by the fire if you want, but I’m gonna scope this area out for a bit.”

She stares at him with a straight face, narrowing her eyes at him as he starts getting more and more visibly excited. She normally wouldn’t mind him doing his science thing to his hearts content, but it’s starting to get late and she really doesn’t want to sit by the fire by herself…

And almost like a gift from God (or a curse from Satan), it starts to rain. And it rains hard.

The fire is out almost immediately and Senkuu freezes in his tracks at the sound. The crack of his neck can be heard as he quickly turns his head towards where (Y/n) is sitting, who has visibly tensed up like a cat at the sudden change of weather. The first clap of thunder has her jumping ten feet in the air, landing a ways away from the cave’s opening and further along inside. She bumps into Senkuu as she lands, the two stumbling to the ground together.

“Well, that’s great,” Senkuu grumbles as he lays on the hard ground, sitting up a little to glare at the cave’s entrance. (Y/n) is more than glad, but she won’t admit to praying on his downfall out loud.

“Maybe it’s for the best… It was getting pretty late,” She settles for, sitting up and glancing around the cave. She then looks down at him, giving him a teasing smirk, “We’ll just have to snuggle for warmth, Leek. Stark naked~”

He’s quiet after that, his face turned far enough away from hers that she can’t read it. After a moment, he looks up at her with the most deadpanned expression he can muster. He doesn’t even humor her with a grin or an inch of a smile, moving his focus to thinking as he stares hard at the rain outside, “We could be here a few hours. While the cave hasn’t hit relatively low temperatures yet, we may actually need to huddle for warmth throughout the night to keep body temperature between us. We shouldn’t need to take our clothes off since we didn’t get wet or anything and we definitely can’t start another fire with all the wet materials outside-”

He continues to ramble off plausible game plans and (Y/n) is unable to keep up after awhile. She rests her chin in her palm, sighing as she lets him finish his little analysis. While he does that, she gets close to him and rests her head on his shoulder before pushing into his space. She gets comfortable, burying her face in his neck and leaning her weight into his body so the two of them fall back to the ground.

(Y/n) wraps her arms around his waist, snuggling into his hold until her body is flush against his. Senkuu’s thinking stops as one of his arms wraps around her out of instinct and pull her closer to his body. A soft flush warms and fills his cheeks as he holds her close, hand pressed flat against her back while his other arm lays out to his side. He looks down at her, hoping the small change in his breathing isn’t obvious as he takes in how close she is.

“Turn your brain off, Senkuu. You said we could be here for hours, right?” (E/c) orbs glance up at him through her eye lashes, a soft pout dancing along her lips, “I’m heading to sleep, so you should too…”

He watches as her breathing begins to soften, reminding him of fond memories in the old world from sleepovers past. He shouldn’t get so worked up, they’ve been closer than this before, but he can’t help but focus on every part of her he’s been struggling to ignore as of late. Things like this keep him from getting jealous of the others, because deep down he knows no one could ever be as comfortable with her as he is.

Even so, he’s still left only admiring her from afar. He’s lucky most of their comrades have picked up on his feelings for her, but he’s got a long way to go before he’s even close to ready to admit his feelings…

Yet… He can revel in moments like this for now, with her in his arms in rare private moments like this. He’s glad the mentalist set this up for him, regardless of the protests from Chrome and the proud look on Ukyo’s face. She doesn’t have to know he wasn’t actually looking for anything, he’ll just wake up before her and grab a few resources from the cave to use as a small diversion. For now, he’ll take advantage of his situation…

He plants a soft kiss on the top of her head, letting himself fall asleep after.

[linkspooky]

ON MADELYNE PRYOR

Shout out to all the comic book stans who follow my blog.

So X-Men 97 inspired me to do a re-read of X-Men from the beginning. My previous read of X-Men jumped all over the place, it was basically X-Men up to Dark Phoenix and then I jumped all the way to the 2000s to 2010s. In my current read I just got to Inferno and holy fuck mom, I never thought I'd like an X-Men arc more than Dark Phoenix but here we are.

This is an entirely personal opinion which I'm not as good at expressing because I prefer over-intellectualizing my feelings, but Inferno is the only other comic book arc to make me feel the way that Judas Cotract did in how tightly and perfectly written as a tragedy it is especially for the female at its center.

Are there any women in all of fiction more doomed by the narrative than Terra Markov and Madelyne Pryor?

I mean I've written about Judas Contract before but what makes that arc so special to me is how it's about a character, a victim, a girl named Terra who by all rights should have been saved by the heroes, but not only fails every step of the way but at every point in her life really. Terra is someone how manifests her victimhood in completely unsympathetic ways but the fact that she basically had no chance in life makes her sympathetic nonetheless.

This comes from the decision that Perez and Wolfram made right from the start to kill her off and never offer her any redemption, which while incredibly callous on the author's part just makes the tragedy even stronger. That's what tragedy is, it's meat to reflect the cruelty and unfairness of life, it's kind of like reality bleeding into fiction.

George’s strength was he also understood the characters 100 percent as I did so there was never any question. He knew. We had talked enough about the characters to know we were exactly on the same page with them. So I said, “Everyone keeps complaining that we’re like the X-Men” and the X-Men had just gotten Kitty Pryde. I said, “Why don’t we really screw around with them completely?” — this is the fans — “…and make them think we’re stealing Kitty Pryde only she’s gonna be bad from Day One.” You always had characters pop up, certainly at Marvel, who were bad that get redeemed. But this character would never get redeemed. She was insane. In fact, she was the catalyst for everything. She wasn’t working for Deathstroke. He was working for her in many ways and she was leading him because she’s crazy. She’s a total psychopath… and she’d be 15. 

Terra's a total psychopath and she's fifteen and that's the tragedy. Was there really any other way that Terra could have turned out? A girl who has been abandoned, who was given incredible powers but no love, support, or nurturing and clearly doesn't have a home or any stability in her life if she's working as a mercenary at that young. A girl who thinks herself a villain and a player in the game but is clearly being manipulated by a fifty plus year old man who is smarter, more mature, and a serial user and abuser of people.

Terra's not just the villain, she's the protagonist of the tragedy walking through the play unknowing that her every single decision will lead to her inevitable end.

Judas Cotract and Inferno are two arcs that most evoke the feel of the Tower in Tarot to me. The Tower is just, ruin and destruction, a complete loss of control, the realization that everything you thought was wrong and in fact the world doesn't care much about what you think. It's a reminder that life isn't even cruel, it's nothing, it's random.

However, first you have to build up the tower before you start pulling the jenga blocks out one by one. Terra spends several arcs with the Teen Titans showing disturbing unchildlike behavior, but one of the so-called Heroes even notice that there's something wrong. When she does get close to blowing her cover, a violent incident where she nearly badly hurts Beast Boy after he comes onto her way too hard which is an understandable reaction as a victim of SA that gets brushed under the rug too.

It makes the heroes look worse as well. If they were heroes dedicated to saving people at all costs shouldn't they have noticed the trouble of someone right next to them? Yet, they all kind of collectively remain oblivious the same way that most victims in real life especially of Terra's kind of trauma are left to suffer in silence. Not to say the Teen Titans are bad, they are kids, and therefore it makes sense they don't have the emotional maturity to notice - it just makes them look more human.

So to summarize my point above what makes Judas Contract is a good tragedy and why Inferno makes me feel the same way narrows down to two reasons.

Madelyne and Terra are both doomed by the narrative, there was no saving them right from the beginning.

However, the fact that the heroes failed to save them reflects poorly on them.

Finally, Madelyne Pryor.

Oh Madelyne the world did you so dirty. I'm partially to blame because I skipped right to the 2000s in my first read, but before this point I'd known nothing about Madelyne other than that she was a clone of Jean Grey who died.

My first impressions of her when she was introduced shortly after Dark Phoenix weren't all that great either. Chris Claremont writes good female characters, that's not really a hot take. I'm sure you've heard of Storm, Rogue, Mystique, Kitty Pryde, Emma Frost etc.

However, I've noticed there are like two tiers of female characters he tends to write. There are the first stringers which are your storms, your rogues, these are characters who are meant to be independent and have arcs. Then there are the second stringers who are just meat to serve a role in the story. This isn't a criticism on the way Claremont writes women, I mean all stories have major and minor characters.

Madelyne Pryor was never meant to be a main character. There wasn't anything about her character that I disliked per se, she is independent, she seemed to have a life outside of Cyclops, she tries really hard to separate herself from the image of Jean Grey. However, she was clearly written to give Cyclops a wife and child in the aftermath of Jean's death and a reason to retire.

While the editorial mandate that made Claremont pull Cyclops out of his happy ending so he could rejoin a team with the original five x-men for the sake of nostalgia sucks, it is also the best thing to happen to Madelyne's character.

Madelyne before that point was a perfectly functional character for her role but she wasn't all that dynamic, she liked planes, she didn't like Jean's ghost hanging over her, she's pretty spunky and headstrong but she was at most a good supporting character but that's all she was. Claremont just decided to double down on that, Scott actually treats his wife like she exists to do nothing but support him and his emotional issues. Madelyne gives all the support that she can give and then Scott just up and leaves anyway. The woman who only existed to be a love interest to give Scott a happy ending, now has no other reason to exist without the man she's supposed to love and her happy ending turns to ash in her mouth.

This is the same feeling I was talking about with Terra, this is a person who was basically failed at every step of the way. A person who has no family. no support, it's almost worse in this case because Madelyne thought she did only for that person to toss her aside.

There's no saving Madelyne, and the fact that Scott didn't save her, that he didn't both trying until he was too late makes him the villain.

If anything Inferno is better than Judas Contract at dragging the heroes down to their lowest points, because The Teen Titans failing to save Terra is understandable because of how young they are but there's no excusing Scott's actions. Madelyne may run around in a skimpy outfit calling herself the goblin queen but the villain of this story is named Scott Summers. He had a responsibility and obligation towards Madelyne to save her and he failed, and it makes him a bad hero and an even worse person.

One of the key components of a tragedy is also agency. Agency is basically the freedom a character has to choose and how much their choices matter in the grand scheme of things and impact their narratives.

Tragedies are often defined by how little agency the characters are shown to have, and how limited their range of choices are. One of the biggest themes of tragedy is fate and inevitability at all. For example one of my favorite tragedies antigone is about a girl with very little power in the ancient greek city of Thebes who still makes a choice to give her brother a proper burial even though she knows she'll be executed for it.

Dark Phoenix is all about agency. Jean Grey is dealing with three different forces trying to take her mind, her agency. There's the corrupting influence of Phoenix, there's the Hellfire Club who wants to make her into a puppet, and then there's Charles Xavier who wants to put a lid on her tremendous powers. Everyone trying to take agency away from Jean eventually leads her to snap and try to take all of that agency back by embracing godhood because who has more agency, more control than a god? Even Jean's act of killing herself at the end was reclaiming her agency, it's her choice to die as a human rather than be executed, or to lose herself to the phoenix.

What breaks Madelyne is not Scott leaving her. Which made me like her character a lot, like the moment Scott left Madelyne was shown just how stubborn and determined she was. Madelyne stood out as the only normal human amongst the x-men who still held her own like Moira did (i guess Moira is a mutant now but I'm still in the 80s so w/e).

What breaks her is the revelation that she never had any agency in her life to begin with. Scott was always meant to fall in love with her, he was always meant to leave her, because she was nothing more than a womb for Sinister's breeding project. Once again it's masterful how Scott looks equally as villainous as Sinister in this scenario in how neither of them regards Madelyne as a person, just an object to project their desires upon.

(Honestly Jean Grey doesn't come out looking all that great either considering how little sympathy she has for Madelyne because she just sees her as an obstacle to getting back together with Scott. If anyone Jean should sympathize with Madelyne the most because they've both been toyed with cosmic forces out of their control, but I guess it goes to show how selfish and destructive Jean and Scott's love for each can be).

Is there any sequence more tragic in all of comics than this series of panels?

The symbolism in these panels too and how it relates to the themes of agency with Madelyne's character. Madelyne was a free and self-driven woman (or at least she thought she was) living out her dream of being a pilot which to her the ability to fly her wings represents her freedom and indepedence. The only thing she thought that could make her happier was Scott, but in the end not only did Scott take her wings away, he took away her everything and gave it to someone else.

"Time to lose those wings, Maddie. You can't really fly, anyway. You're not special like us."

If there's any words to express the inherent tragedy of Maddie's character is this, she's a person who thought she was free to fly, that she was real, that her life mattered only to have all that taken away from her. Maddie like Terra thinks she has agency that she's making decisions but she had no real choices from the beginning.

That's also a good way to express what makes tragedies hit as hard as they do. Tragedies slap you with the realization that you're not special. The hero is not a hero, they don't have plot armor, they're not immune to consequences, they're human and just like all humans they fail.

Even the act that Madelyne thinks is reclaiming her agency by gaining power as the Goblin Queen is in fact, not her choice. She doesn't choose to sell her soul, she's tricked into doing it by a rebellious demon that wants to kick Illyana out and reclaim limbo for himself. In Madelyne's one act of trying to steal back her power and freedom she is still just a pawn in another person's scheme.

There's also Madelyne going through literal hell itself to reclaim her son, only to make the decision to sacrifice him along with several other infants which seems to make her usympathetic but ironically makes her more sympathetic to me.

There's the obvious reference to Medea there. If all the parallels aren't obvious enough already, Jason and the Argonauts gets namedropped during the arc.

One of my favorite things about Medea the tragedy by Euripedes is that Medea is not just a girlboss who gets revenge on Jason and then walks away. Straightforward revenge narratives are bad because revenge is... bad actually. The decision to inflict more pain and suffering in the world doesn't break the chain of suffering.

Medea kills her children to show that Jason is not entirely in the wrong, and Medea is not entirely in the right. They are two human beings who's relationship is blowing up in the worst way possible. I mean Jason himself does have some points in the play, he's making a political marriage to save both of them, the only reason he's exiling Medea is because Medea made loud death threats at Jason's new bride. It's not just the heartbreak of being abandoned that drives Medea, it's her pride, the whole play started because Medea didn't want to settle for being a side chick.

Medea wants revenge against Jason but she doesn't take her revenge on Jason, she takes revenge on everyone around him for the purpose of making him feel as alone and lost as he did her. She'll kill her own children, even if it kills her to do so, just to spite him a little more.

Which leads to one of my favorite scenes in all of fiction, Medea holding the knife over her own child's throat, bargaining with herself trying to convince herself to do something she objectively knows is wrong.

MEDEA I’ve made up my mind, my friends. I’ll do it—kill my children now, without delay, and flee this land. I must not hesitate. That would hand them over to someone else to be slaughtered by a hand less loving.                                      No matter what, the children have to die. Since that’s the case, then I, who gave them life,                                will kill them. Arm yourself for this, my heart. Why do I put off doing this dreadful act, since it must be done? Come, pick up the sword, wretched hand of mine. Pick up the sword, move to where your life of misery begins. Don’t play the coward. Don’t remember now how much you love them, how you gave them life. For this short day forget they are your children                          and mourn them later. Although you kill them, still you loved them. As a woman, I’m so sad.     

Why would Madelyne after going through all that trouble to find her son, instead choose to give him to the fire? It's because for a person who was given so little choice over her own life, the choice to self-destruct is still a choice. The choice to destroy something with your own hands rather than let it be destroyed for someone else is still a choice.

That would hand them over to someone else to be slaughtered by a hand less loving.                                      No matter what, the children have to die. Since that’s the case, then I, who gave them life,                                will kill them.

I think I may like Madelyne more than Jean at this point?

The same way I like Terra more than Raven. They're very similiar characters, but it takes possession by Trigon to get Raven to attack the titans. Terra just tries to kill them by her own free will. She's willing to bury herself if it gives her one last chance at burying the titans to too. Madelyne on the other hand is willing to walk barefoot into hell, if it means she can drag Scott and the X-Men with her. Jean does things under the influence of the Phoenix, but she chose to die as a human being at the end of Dark Phoenix. Madelyne however made the opposite choice, throwing all her humanity away she gave herself wholly and unreservedly to the fire.

Also damn, x-men 97 did this arc so dirty by speedrunning through it in one episode. This is also one of the most well set-up arcs in the X-Men comics with so many threads like X-Factor, X-Men and New Mutants all coming together. It really deserved its own season not like 2 episodes, and then Madelyne dying halfway through this season.

[aucatgirl]

I'd like to hear your complaints about mha please. I think rei should've rolled her ex husband off a cliff.

SIGH. Here is my official diatribe against MHA’s ending. This is definitely not my first rodeo with a series I love and had hope for having a bad ending but wow this one stings harder than usual

What’s craziest about all this is how much I defended this manga up until the last ten chapters. I loved this manga so much and had such high hopes for it. My own MHA social circle was nothing but huge fans that also had high hopes, some criticisms about things but willing to give the benefit of the doubt… But then 420 happened and I snapped out of it (and then my mutuals also snapped out of it, one by one, lol). It was so rushed and baffling that it actually ruined my day when it released, lmao. Deku regaining his arms via Eri ripping off her horn via child mutilation was only the beginning and I was not prepared for the everything else that would happen

The biggest issue starts and ends with Deku, who apparently got a secret lobotomy during the dark Deku arc and has not been written the same since. He completely loses his ability to be introspective in any capacity. “I’ve been having these thoughts about Tenko too” where?? Where is it??? Where is literally any of your real thoughts on Tenko or losing OFA or anything??? This manga used to have such an interesting insight into Deku’s mind. And it’s just, gone. A big issue with Shigaraki’s death goes back to that. Where’s the reflection?? “Show don’t tell” doesn’t work that well with a protagonist that barely shows any emotion at all!!

When it comes to the saving Shigaraki plot, I saw some mutuals suggest that Horikoshi changed his mind on the ending at some point between the togachako fight and 423. I reread those chapters and disagreed. Deku being unable to save Shigaraki is a plot twist and it’s a BAD one. All of the build up leading to 423 is that Deku would save Shigaraki, not just his soul, full stop. Unless it really was a last minute change or pushed by editors/SJ, I cannot imagine that this ending was not planned the way it was, so I will criticize Horikoshi as such. The twist was ass. And now we’re left with an ending of “well we can try to prevent villains, but if they’re already villains, beat ‘em up!” which is just.. AUGH!!! Completely throws Twice’s death down the drain!!! I can’t believe we were left with “we’ll do better next time” when the whole point was that the next generation would do better than the previous… Deku’s generation was supposed to be that one!! Not to mention that All Might seemingly forgot about his personal connection to Shigaraki…

It’s also wild that the togachako plot was the best written tragedy while also being the most offensive of all of them. I don’t care how many people Toga killed 😭 she was explicitly queer. At least izuocha didn’t happen, that would’ve made things so bad I don’t think I would’ve been able to interact with the series anymore. It was a one-off line but Toga’s death had the most direct impact on improving society, however, it was a ONE-OFF LINE, there is zero indication that Uravity is as prominent of a hero as this line makes you believe, which sucks. Also, the fact that the cameras got retconned is ridiculous, just another knife twist of completely gutting the theme of rehabilitation and societal changes on how people view villains

And… that’s not even mentioning what the fuck happened with 3baka. I understand the rush. Horikoshi has health issues, there are time limits for endings. I would’ve been okay with just the rush. But the writing decisions that were made… why the fuck did Kurogiri die like that?? In the most baffling, inconsequential way possible? Aizawa wasn’t shown, Mic didn’t react, it’s never brought up again except for a tiny, tiny panel of Shirakumo’s grave. I guess the whole plot with nomu and how they’ve slowly been humanized was just completely scrapped, because Kurogiri’s death was more inconsequential than Hood’s. If you’re going to kill Kurogiri, make him die by AFO’s hands. It would’ve worked a lot better as a tragedy rather than random and unnecessary Bakugo moment

This is honest to god one of the worst pages in the entire series:

Finally okay I honestly don’t care for the Todorokis so I don’t really have any strong thoughts on their ending. The ending Dabi got is actually better than I expected after Shigaraki died lol. Though I do agree that Rei pushing around Endeavor in his wheelchair is a hilariously bad look and I don’t know why Horikoshi thought it was a good idea

Here is one thing I will say, though. One final word:

Foster brothers Shigaraki and Kurogiri never got debunked!! Can’t have your theories be wrong if you get no information about a character!

[memesmadefullmetal]

7 and 20 for the ask meme!

7. how does the story compare to your initial impressions of it? has it surprised you yet? how?

So, I started with watching Brotherhood. And, at first, I was like “is this really one of the best animes of all time?” because the first couple episodes do feel a bit rushed (i.e., relying on fans to have read the manga or have seen the original anime). HOWEVER, once episode 4 hits with Tucker and Nina, my jaw was ON THE FLOOR. I was so horrified and enthralled at the same time.

For me, there also has to be a “duo” of some sort that has to give me absolute BRAINROT so as Roy and Riza grew into the story more, that was when the hyperfixation really began. Particularly after the whole Maria Ross fake-out and reveal.

Now, I think Fullmetal Alchemist is the story of all time™️ and Brotherhood is the anime of all time™️. The narrative coherency and tightness, the depth and breadth of characters and the ability to stick a damn good ending are all attributes I haven’t seen done as well in ANY OTHER media I’ve consumed (and I’ve consumed a LOT). FMA has occupied a permanent space in my brain for 6 years now and is obviously the reason why this blog exists. FMA, my beloved 🫶🏻

- Mod Mustang 🔥

20. what's the WORST thing about this story, in your opinion? (feel free to be positive, e.g. "it's not longer", if you want!)

If we’re going Mangahood, it’s gotta be Al’s existential crisis arc 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏻‍♂️ It’s probably the only point where the narrative drags and it doesn’t actually serve all that much of an overall purpose!

If we’re talking about 03, it’s got to be probably the extreme non-manga canon bits basically where the whole plot goes off the rails right near the end (i.e., Robot Archer 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏻‍♂️)

- Mod Mustang & Mod Hawkeye 🔥🦅

[gx-gameon]

I keep thinking about how you said the gang will pretty much take Chazz in after he finds out and keep imagining a scene like this

https://youtu.be/zFr_uosNXpo?si=J8OdwjN-lGF478pH

Chazz: I just...wanna keep everyone safe.

Jaden: Same...and that includes you too.

Chazz: What?

Jaden: Yeah gotta make sure you're safe too Chazz, you're family now.

Chazz voice cracking: Oh...huh...*trying desperately not to cry.*

Ya pretty much. I think this little tournament they are all at will turn into its own arc.

Jaden tells Chazz. He and Jesse stay with Jaden’s family. But during the final duel of the tournament something happens.

It’s the final duel and of course it’s come down to Jaden and Yugi. (The tournament had different levels I’m not sure yet is the DM crew was participating or spectating. But a Duel against the King of Games is the prize for the winner of the tournament. A shot at the title)

But some magic happens that splits reality.

Jaden sees Yugi shatter and screams “Dad!” Which is how the rest of the Gx cast find out who Jaden is.

At the same time

Yugi sees Jaden shatter and thinks he lost his son.

Cue the Gx cast working on their side and the DM cast working on theirs trying to find and fight the Big bad to put the two sides back together.

This forces the Gx crew to pull their weight as Jaden is distraught at seeing his dad shatter, and then seeing his whole family is gone.

Jesse and Chazz are both trying to help him through the panic. Jesse goes to take charge, (hes a good leader and naturally steps into the role in the Dark World) but Chazz stops him “the slacker is on the verge of a break down. You focus on him, I’ll take care of the others.” Chazz rallies the others.

There is some shock and hurt feelings about “waaan Jaden didn’t tell us :(“ Chazz is the one that yells at them to get their act together. We’re in a crisis now, hurt feelings later.

Mind you Jim and Axel were surprised but are taking care of business. They didn’t know Jaden as long and honestly it’s more surprising they didn’t figure it out given everything that happened in the Dark World.

Some of the others are upset but get over it. Some need to talk to Jaden to clear the air. And some are just mad. But none of that can happen right now because Jaden is super out of it and they are in a crisis.

On the DM side

They are furious.

At first they thought Jaden was gone. And that nearly broke Yugi. But when they realized the other kids were gone as well and that the air reeked of Magic. Well it’s a villain that they can beat the breaks off of. And hopefully that will bring Jaden and the others back.

They are quite brutal in their efficacy. If anything has happened to Jaden or the other kids the villain isn’t walking away.

It’s to soon after the Dark World for them not to be in a hard panic right now.

I have a few ideas but this is in its infancy as an arc.

But at the end of the

Chazz and Jaden are together outside of the Manor. Everything is back to normal and Chazz is thinking about where he can go next. The league isn’t starting up for another month and he’s still out of cash. He can’t stay here now that the tournaments over.

Jaden walks over and sits down with him and tanks him for taking charge when Jaden was out of it. That he didn’t know what he would do if he lost anyone.

And Chazz finally gets it. The pressure they had put on Jaden for years the stress he’s been under. He gets it. He just spent however long it took for Jaden to get his feet back under him playing that role. It wasn’t fun being the leader everyone turns to.

“I just…wanted to keep everyone safe.” He feels worried having Jaden thank him. How many times had they just expected Jaden to do this and never thanked him?

Jaden nods because he understand that statement. But he also remembers Chazz doing something stupid and risking where they almost lost him. “Same…that includes you.”

Chazz is suprised. What is Jaden talking about right now.

But Jaden just rest a hand on his shoulder and smiles “ya got to make sure your safe to Chazz. Your family now.”

And Chazz’s brain must have misfired because what?

And Jadne just laughs. “I told my Dads about you back in our first year. About your brothers and all the crap they put on you. Oto-san wanted to ruin their business but I made him wait since I didn’t want anything to affect you. But we decided that if you wanted it, you would always have a place here. And after everything we’ve been through. Everything you just did for us. How can I not call you family.” He looks back over to just see Chazz in tears. He gives him a warm smile and wraps his arm around his shoulder. “Come on. Let’s go home. Dad’s waiting for us.”

And this is how Chazz became a permeant resident at Kaiba Manor.

Mind you the family had already decided that was Chazz’s room and that he was staying from the moment he walked into the house. They had known about the kid for years and Jaden basically acted like Chazz was his brother. They were just waiting to make the offer. Then everything went upside down, but hey we got here anyways.

[musicalmoritz]

What do you think of Natsuhiko as a character? I personally don't like him all that way, granted it's pretty surface level. While I wouldn't say I hate or despise him, I do find him a tad irritating in the beginning of the series. However later chapters have piqued my interest regarding his character as a whole, and I would also like to ask about his relationship with Sakura. At first glance it seemingly falls into a dynamic like AoiAoi, where the girl shows disinterest while the guy does not stop with his pursuits. Of course now we have more insight on AoiAoi, but this isn't yet the case for Sakuhiko. So by extension, what do you take from their dynamic?

Thank you for this question, Sakura and Natsuhiko are two of my favorites but I haven’t gotten the chance to talk abt them much yet!! (I say “favorites” but they’re 9 and 10th on my character ranking respectively so do with that info what you will lol)

Starting off with Natsuhiko, I didn’t like him much at first either. In fact, when I first watched the anime, I fucking hated this dude on sight. Like I couldn’t even stand to look at him, he gave me frat boy vibes and I didn’t trust him. When I realized he was going to be a prominent character I dreaded it. I’m not sure when my opinion started to change, maybe around the door arc?? As a Natsunene enjoyer that one’s a favorite of mine lol. Tbh he still annoys me sometimes, he’s just so shady mixed with a personality that’s made to be irritating and it makes me roll my eyes so hard. I feel bad saying that bcuz a lot of my moots LOVE him but fear not, he’s in my top 10 for a reason

As much as I love Sakura and Natsuhiko, it’s hard to say much about either of them with what little info we’ve been giving. I have to laugh at ppl who think the current arc of the manga is going to be the last one because that would likely mean the series would end without either of them ever getting their time to shine (despite all the recent lore that’s been dropped, we still don’t know much about Natsuhiko). However, what we’ve seen of them so far has been super compelling

For Natsuhiko, I like him most when he’s with the Broadcasting Crew. I know he’s almost always with them but I mean specifically when we see the side of his character that acts like a true upperclassman. I like when he’s visibly annoyed with Tsukasa, it shows a different side to his laidback personality. Despite how chill he appears, he seems to have a short temper, it’s just something he keeps inside. I also think him being an ASMRist in the Monster Nursery au is so hilariously on brand. And tbh I could yap forever about what the anime did with the Monster Nursery au!! I can’t remember if Natsuhiko was the undercover researcher in the original au or not but regardless I love the route they took. If I have time I will absolutely write a Sakuhiko fic set in that universe someday bcuz they give me major Spy X Family vibes

I need more details on why he can’t die and how his blood kills people. Is he from an exorcist clan??? Is he part supernatural??? What is his deal??? I’m very interested to learn more about him. He’s always been a suspicious character so I like that we’re starting to get more insight on him

Now onto Sakuhiko…*dreamy sigh*. I love Sakuhiko so much. They’re one of my top ships for TBHK, at one point they were even my favorite. I do headcanon them as sapphics, with Sakura being a nonbinary lesbian and Natsuhiko being a genderfluid bisexual. I have written a few fics for them on ao3 so if you’re looking for some good sapphic Sakuhiko stuff…🤭

I see where the AoiAoi parallels come from on a surface level but beyond that I feel as though the two ships are quite different! First off, Aoi never shuts Akane down the way Sakura does with Natsuhiko. Sakura hits him every time he tries to make a move on them, a clear sign of rejection coupled with berating him verbally. They make their disinterest abundantly clear, although it’s highly implied that the ship isn’t as one-sided as it appears. There are moments where Sakura looks at Natsuhiko with fondness, and times where they even seem to flirt with him! Natsuhiko himself says that Sakura just has a different way of showing their love for him, very similar to the Minamoto Typical Sadism I write so often lol. It’s not a TBHK couple without a little sadomasochism (not the weird kinky kind just the bullying kind, the majority of them are babies. Normally I wouldn’t feel the need to specify that but this is Tumblr)

Anyways this is very different from how Aoi “rejects” Akane. Every time she turns him away, she does so in a way that will encourage him to keep trying. With a cute smile and a hand to her face, rating his pursuits so he’ll be motivated to try and do better next time. She never gives him less than 2 points (as far as I remember), and she’s not even mean to him until she’s under the potion in chapter 69. I’m pretty sure Aoi would cry at the thought of treating Akane the way Sakura treats Natsuhiko, she’s pretty down bad and dependent on him in certain ways. She shuts down at the thought of Akane ever moving on, so she would never reject him so bluntly and risk losing his approval. Sakura doesn’t seem to care what Natsuhiko thinks of them, they’re a very independent as opposed to Aoi who is more on the dependent side of things. If Sakura were revealed to have been super clingy and emotionally attached to Natsuhiko this whole time, that would be weird writing. But Aoi’s attachment to Akane has been implied since the Confession Tree arc

The differences between Natsuhiko and Akane are so interesting to me because they get compared so often. The biggest thing I notice is the level of respect they have for their partners. Akane is overly obsessive and a yandere at times but he never actually attempts to touch Aoi the way Natsuhiko frequently does with Sakura (not in a perverted way like Hanako but he still makes attempts to take their hand or hold them in a way we never see Akane do with Aoi). The first time we really see Akane being physically aggressive with Aoi was in ch.69, when he was initially trying to forcefully stop her from a suicide attempt. Not saying he handled it right but I try to cut him some slack bcuz it was an insanely tense situation, I myself wouldn’t have handled it perfectly.

After that, he kisses her hand to apologize for saying he hates her (many fans mistake this scene for him ignoring her consent but if we focus on the setup, that wasn’t the situation at all- the kiss was an apology and Aoi’s “don’t touch me” didn’t even get a full speech bubble). At that point she’s blushing and leaning into him, no longer trying to run away. She looks conflicted bcuz it’s a very emotional scene, but she’s clearly calmed down from how she was feeling before. By the time they kiss, she’s fully clinging onto him. After that he’s more causally touchy with her, like holding her hand or helping her get around No.6’s boundary. Aside from official arts we never really see Sakura leaning into or reciprocating Natsuhiko’s touch. They appear to enjoy his company, letting him tag along everywhere they go; but they’re not easily moved by affection the way Aoi is. That doesn’t stop Natsuhiko from being pushy, but I will give him that he knocks it off after Sakura rejects him. I swear I’m not trying to cancel this dude, I’m just saying he has less regard for boundaries the way Akane does

Another thing is reciprocation. During the Clock Keepers arc, Akane tells Nene that he plans to love and support Aoi even if she never loves him back. This means he expects nothing in return for all the love he gives her, all he wants is to make her feel loved. And if she enjoys receiving daily confessions, he’ll gladly make a fool out of himself each time. In the same scene he talks about Aoi’s past with having to put up with creepy guys, which explains why he’s so overprotective and hostile to men who want to pursue her. We see later in the manga he’s not as bothered when he realizes Teru’s feelings for her are genuine. Once he realizes Teru respects Aoi the same way he does, and that he won’t hurt her like he does with Akane, he begins to view Teru as healthy competition. This is much different from the way he treats Yokoo and Satou in ASHK when he catches them spying on Aoi

Also in ASHK, we see Natsuhiko attempt to give Sakura a love potion. I know this was literally in a comedy spin off but it stands out to me because Akane would never do this to Aoi. He respects her too much for that, he would never force her to reciprocate his feelings. Natsuhiko is a far more manipulative character, so it’s not all that surprising to me that he’d be okay with Sakura’s love being fake. He just wants a date with them, he doesn’t seem to care how he gets it. Again, I’m not trying to accuse him of being something he’s not, I want to make that very clear (think of Hanako, he’s known for being a perv but he would never intentionally make Nene upset or uncomfortable. Imo Natsuhiko is similar but in a different way, I wouldn’t call him a perv like Hanako but he’s a bit more possessive than the other characters). I see Sakuhiko as being on the more toxic end of TBHK ships as opposed to AoiAoi which has become more healthy recently. That’s not necessarily a problem with the pairing, just something I don’t see pointed out as often. And keep in mind that the toxicity is mutual, since Sakura knows Natsuhiko can’t die they regularly make attempts on his life and send him out to do dangerous missions. They’ve both got their quirks

One of my favorite things abt the ship is how Natsuhiko seems to know Sakura better than most people. More than Sakura is aware of, probably. I’m thinking specifically of that scene where Mitsuba asked if he could stay with the Broadcasting Crew and Sakura didn’t know how to respond so Natsuhiko answered for them. Sakura cares more deeply for people than they let on, and the only person who seems to recognize that is Natsuhiko. That’s so!! Fucking sweet to me!! They’re a toxic mess but they were made for each other and at the end of the day they’ll stay by each other’s sides. Natsuhiko would watch the world burn if it meant Sakura would look in his direction. Despite the themes of betrayal in his character, he is loyal to a fault when it comes to Sakura. I love that so much

Sometimes I wonder how serious the relationship is tho bcuz like…every time I see it written platonically absolutely nothing changes. Maybe Natsuhiko is there for ulterior motives and he’s just joking abt the flirting. I highly doubt that since TBHK is partially a romance but it’s a cool concept. I also love their ship trope, they remind me of Beast Boy and Raven. Grumpy X Sunshine except they’re both kinda shitty people. Peak

I hope you enjoyed this deep dive, and that I didn’t turn you away from the ship yapping abt their problems lol. To me toxic elements of ships are more things I love about them (within reason) because I love exploring character flaws and how people can overcome those in relationships. Or sometimes I just want to see them be terrible together. The duality of woman.

[rosy-crow]

Yeah, after watching the teaser, I’m really starting to think Square is doing the Arcane thing.

I’ve been talking about it with @altocat for a while now, and I feel like it’s starting to get real. So, this is just gonna be my final theory for the story until proven otherwise.

Spoilers for Arcane: League of Legends, but for anyone that doesn’t know, basically Arcane adapted LOL and developed one of their most iconic villains, Jinx, into a very well-written character with a story that showed you exactly who she was and why she eventually lost her mind. Before this show, she was probably about as developed as Seph was in the OG.

Even though Jinx is more flamboyant and emotionally chaotic, she and Seph are weirdly similar villains from what I’ve seen. Seph reminds me a LOT of Jinx and vice-versa. I’ve even drawn them together and compared their designs—it’s funny how mad villains in video games tend to have key similar design points, even down to hair-styles and clothing, but I’ll save that for another post lol.

Anyway, from the FS teaser it looks like we have a big climax in that ultimately leads to this scene with Seph and Rosen, who have been set up to be mirrors of each other.

All I know is that the trailer showed Rosen telling Seph to make a choice about which life he wanted to save (Japanese version made this a bit clearer), and the other lives in danger are Team Glenn. Seph is gonna have to choose between them, and….well, since we know Team Glenn lives….uhh…and also….

Rosen’s dog is trying to alert the others of something. Seph made a choice or did SOMETHING, and I thiiiink it’s gonna result in Rosen’s death. Whether it was intentional or an accident, we don’t know, but it’s clear this is when sane Seph when was still good and caring, even if a little psychologically stunted and conditioned because of Shinra. He’s been consistently this way throughout the First Soldier and doesn’t change until Nibelheim.

But I get the feeling everything went wrong with Rosen. That’s why Glenn is at odds with Seph years later.

This is also why we’re getting Arcane vibes. If it’s a misunderstanding or rift caused by Seph’s intentions to save his friends…well, that’s very familiar to this notorious Arcane scene:

Basically, Jinx…or Powder, as she’s known here, makes a drastic decision to save her friends and sister from genuine danger. However, her own talents are her worst enemy, and she causes twice as much destruction as the enemies her friends were struggling with. Almost everyone ends up dead, except for Powder’s sister. It was a horrific mistake and creates a massive rift between Powder and Vi (that’s the sister).

Vi also cements the idea in Powder’s mind that she’s a “jinx” or a curse of sorts. A complex that Powder had already been struggling with, and one she later embraces as her persona.

Glenn and young Sephiroth have been established to have a bit of a brotherly relationship so far, with Glenn being the down-to-earth and honest older source of influence. There was also the whole arc between these two revolving around Glenn initially calling Sephiroth a “cyborg” as an insult to say the kid was modified and different, not a “normal human.” This lowkey came off like a deliberate reference to Sephiroth’s later meltdown over not being human, yeah?

So you guys see what I mean, the themes here are similar to Arcane and Jinx’s psychology. If Seph makes some fatal mistake or a bad choice to save his team, and they walk in on this? Or get the wrong idea? Yeah, it’s gonna turn what was supposed to be an act of heroism into something much worse. It’s also gonna be the perfect reference to Seph’s later big moment in canon…errr, Nibelheim itself, where he just embraces inhumanity and finally goes berserk against everyone’s expectations, traumatizing the main protagonist and his eventual rival in the process.

Again, the theme of “tragic mistake paralleling or foreshadowing a villain’s first deliberate act of cruelty and evil” would be VERY similar to what happens with Jinx in Arcane.

I’m not saying SE is doing this on purpose, really, but the shared themes of identity collapse and “monsters you created” between Arcane and FF7’s main “mad villains” are interesting. Their stories obviously will play out differently, but it wouldn’t surprise me if The First Soldier ultimately culminates in a life-altering decision that Sephiroth makes, one that does NOT end well and births that conflict between him and Glenn.

That’s my theory for now. These teasers are convincing me more and more. We’ll see.

[redbullgivesyouwingedkuriboh]

Since y’all liked me getting beaten down by GX characters so much, here’s:

Yu-Gi-Oh ARC-V Characters ranked by how easily I could take them in a fight

same rules apply: fisticuffs only and my personal feelings about the characters do not matter

also since ARC-V is WEIRD AF when it comes to characters this will be characters that are exclusive to ARC-V. so no repeat of Asuka. We already know I bite harder than she does.

without further ado, here we go:

Reira Akaba. No shit. is literally a baby. if I was a baby kicking kind of person I could punt her into the sun. However as I do not kick babies I am more inclined to wrap her in a lil blanket and put her in the corner.

Yuya Sakaki. Bitch. One good step on his toes and he’s going “reaction shot?!” I pull on his stupid fuckin goggles and snap them back onto his face. he’s down. count to ten.

Yuzu Hiragi. Canonically the bracelet girls really suck at holding their own at any given moment. Yuzu is the weakest physically because she has never seen war or hardship to the level of the other three. I could take her in four seconds. pigtail tug time.

Yuri. The second weakest physically of the Yu boys. has been coddled by Leo for years. probably sparred with Sho at the academy to make himself feel better about having 0% body weight from muscles. eat shit you purple motherfucker.

Dennis McField. not only would I beat him, I would enjoy doing it. I’d love to curbstomp that motherfucker off a boat, except he already did that to himself. physically he is a fuckin twig and I am five feet seven inches of pure unadulterated god complex. he’ll wish I turned his ass into a card.

Reiji Akaba. the scarf works to his detriment. I do two laps around him holding the end of that thing and suddenly his face is turning blue and he’s calling for papa. unfortunately for him I have zero mercy.

Rin. again, the bracelet girls are notoriously bad at being strong independent women. we literally don’t see Rin for most of the series because she got herself kidnapped off the cuff. that being said she could probably hold her own against me, but I think she’s too sweet for that.

Z-ARC. We’ve established I bite. even outside of human form, if you look at him, he’s got a fuck ton of exposed veins, both as regular Z-ARC and Yuya Z-ARC. chompy chompy motherfucker you’ll pass out from the blood loss before I can kick your ass properly.

Yugo. Canonically relies on his motorcycle for fuckin everything. lost to Yuri because he rolled a nat one on his constitution saving throw. even though he’s probably physically in shape from motorcycle stuff I could flick him in the forehead and he’d be whining like a baby. If I got the first shot in, I’d have a 99% chance of winning. If he got to me first it would go to about 60%. again, I bite.

Leo Akaba. Here’s where we get into characters that have a greater than 50% chance of beating me. Leo is canonically ripped and also has zero emotions. I would only win if I got close enough for a nut kick, but there’s only one person who wants to be that close to Leo Akaba and it sure as hell ain’t me.

Sora Shuin’in. Holy fuck who let their feral cat off its leash. Sora is literally insane and I am requesting backup. He’d shove that lollipop so far up my ass that I’d be able to tell whether it was lime or green apple. I live in fear of Sora suddenly materializing in my room

Ruri Kurosaki. Remember how I bite? She bites harder. She puts up with No Shit and also has No Fucks To Give.

Serena. No further explanation needed. I fear that explaining it further would cause Feral Child #2 to burst into my brain and start kicking.

Yusho Sakaki. Sweet mother of blue eyes white dragon. remember how I said my personal feelings don’t matter? now they do. smash. next question. wait what were we talking about?

Shun Kurosaki. kinda lost the plot on Yusho but we’re back on track now. Shun canonically took out armed guards by Batmanning his ass up a wall. There’s posters up for him that say “lost dog” and the caption is just “if you find him please keep him”.

Yuto. Everything that Shun is + Ruri taught him how to effectively bite.

Noburu Gongenzaka. he is actually ripped and wears cement shoes for funzies. he could probably just stomp once and my shaky joints would give out on their own. bye.

Yoko Sakaki. canonically beat the stuffing out of people in her past life and I would let her. angry mom energy means I barely make it out alive. smash. wait— shit—

[arc-misadventures]

Smol Arc: Blake convinces Jaune to meet her mother since her teammates already has and she wants him to also meet her since he is important to her. He goes to be nice but unfortunately in their first meeting he doesn't see where he is going and bumps face first into the OG Bellabooty. It will be am embarrassing moment for him but an enlightened one for Kali who likes it.

Euphoria

Smol AU

Blake: So, what do you think of, Menagerie, Jaune?

Jaune: A bit humid for my liking, but it is quite pleasant.

Blake: Good, I was worried you wouldn’t like it; I didn’t want your vacation to be ruined because you couldn’t handle the weather.

Jaune: Well if it become too unbearable I’ll just throw myself in the sea.

Blake: I know much better places you can go to have a good swim, Jaune; I’ll show them to you after we’ve settled down.

Jaune: You swim?

Blake: I love swimming! Wait, do you think I didn’t like swimming?

Jaune: I do not judge a faunas to take upon their animal counterparts personally just because they have matching ears, and what not. With you however I must beg the question.

Blake: What?! What makes you think that?!

Jaune: Your love for fish, and milk. Your habit of sitting in boxes. How easily you can be distracted by red laser dotes, and you fear of dogs. How am I supposed not to judge you by cat stereotypes when you have proven to me several times over that they are true.

Blake: …

Blake: Shut up.

Jaune: Point fo… Ophh?!

Jaune: Bhaa?! What was… Oh no… I did it again…

Blake: Mom! Are you okay?!

Jaune: And, it was your mother too… Well shit, I’m dead…

Kali: Blake? Oh, Blake my sweetie you’re home! Mmm~! How are you? How’s Beacon?

Blake: I’m fine, but are you okay, mom? Jaune did just… Rear end you…

Kali: Jaune, oh, I didn’t see you there! Are you okay, little boy?

Jaune: I am eighteen years old ma’am, I am just short for my age, and gender. But, are you alright, I did just… bump into you.

Kali: Oh! You must be, Jaune Arc! My daughter has rold me a lot about you. And, don’t worry; she’s said nothing but the best about you~!

Jaune: That does worry me… But, are you okay, Ms. Belladonna?

Kali: Oh, I’m fine, it was nothing more than a little bump. And, please call me, Kali~!

Jaune: very well then, Kali.

Kali: Good, now then, you must be tired, lets get home, and I’ll start dinner: Alright?

Jaune: That sounds lovely. Let’s be off then, I want to change into something more accommodating to this climate.

Blake: Mom?

Kali: Yes dear?

Blake: How did feel?

Kali: How did what feel like?

Blake: Jaune face in your ass? How did it feel?!

Kali: Oh that! Well, it felt like…

~~~

Kali at the moment of impact:

~~~

Kali: Something like that.

Blake: That’s what I felt too! It feels so amazing!

Kali: I can see why you like him so much, that little gentleman does something to a woman~!

Blake: I know! And, since it’s just the two of us, nothing will getting in our way for having some fun with him~!

Kali: Fun hmmm~? Blake?

Blake: Yes mom?

Kali: We’re going swimming tomorrow; And, when we do, make sure to wear something that can… slip off~!

Blake: Yes mom!

Kali: Oh we’re going to have some fun~!

[ecargmura]

Bucchigiri?! Episode 9 Review - Matakara's Bad Day Continues

That ending��. While I am worried about what will happen to Matakara in these last few episodes, another part of me is excited because I want him to beat the crap out of Arajin. I am fully on Team Matakara on this one.

This episode is basically Ichiya fully possessing Matakara and how Matakara copes with the possession while still stressed and emotionally broken over Mitsukuni’s “death”. Unlike Arajin and Senya’s rather harmonious cohabitation, Matakara and Ichiya are anything but. Ichiya, as a character, is manipulative and vengeful. He manipulates Akutaro so that he will bring him towards Matakara in order to have full possession of him via bullet. He then casts him aside as he’s now inside Matakara. I do wonder what had happened for Ichiya to become the way he is. Senya’s flashback with him and Ichiya showed that they were once long-time friends but had a falling out.

Then there’s the issue with the black shadow figure. I thought the black shadowy figure was Ichiya, but I guess it’s something else entirely. Ichiya describes it as a figure of weakness that looms over Matakara as he is a weak-hearted person underneath. Matakara may seem sweet, but there is a bit of darkness that looms within his heart that has been there since he was a kid. Despite having friends and a place where he belongs, it still lingers. I do have a feeling that Ichiya could be lying about it. Watch the black shadow be a twist villain.

I can’t believe the Mitsukuni story arc ended with him getting killed off-screen. Wait, is he even dead? His funeral is not even shown. I’m on the boat of ‘pics or it didn’t happen’. If he is dead, then it’s serious wasted potential. I know that Mitsukuni is mainly used as a sort of lifeline of Matakara’s mentality, but for him to have a face, name, background and even a voice just screamed ‘important character for the story’ and he got yeeted off-screen. Why do I get the feeling that someone’s going to yell to Matakara that Mitsukuni is at the hospital and not be actually dead? I can feel that happening and I’m not going to like it at all.

Oh boy, Arajin… While it is nice that Arajin is thinking about Matakara, the fact that he still sort of finds him an annoyance and still doesn’t fully check up on him annoys me. He still simps for Mahoro and even she calls him out over his incompetence. She learned that Mitsukuni is in critical condition, or even dead and she tells Arajin if he has ever considered Matakara’s feelings for once. At least Mahoro knows how to sympathize while Arajin cannot. On top of that, Arajin starts wondering if Mahoro has a thing for Matakara. WHY IS THAT THE FIRST THING ON YOUR MIND? We’re 9 episodes into the show and there’s still no redeeming quality of this guy.

I do wonder what Akutaro’s role will be in this portion of the story. As he got abandoned by Ichiya, he wants revenge. However, the anime still doesn’t answer how he managed to stumble across Ichiya in the first place and why it’s possible for these djinnis to possess someone without a bullet.

I enjoyed the comedic parts of this episode the most. It was a nice way to get my mind off of the angst and pent-up annoyance towards Arajin. What are your thoughts on this episode?

[cinnamon-guardian]

HUGE SPOILERS FOR THE RECENT SPY X FAMILY MANGA ARC:

This is pure speculation, but in all honesty, the Red Circus Arc has made me rethink how the ending of the series might go down.

We don’t have any sort of major clues for how the series might end besides the omission implication that Twilight and Thorn Princess might come to blows, but how the Big Reveal™ might happen is completely up in the air.

However, certain characters are starting to piece a few of the clues together, and I’m interested to see how that goes.

First up is Becky!

Anya constantly surprises Becky, and Becky is more than willing to take her best friend at her word (they are six after all. My friends tricked me into thinking all movies were real when I was six. Kids are gullible).

But imagine if Becky relays this tid-bit back to Martha! Imagine Martha, the wise butler/chauffeur/bodyguard who is all but straight up confirmed to have some sort of martial past, hears from Becky that Anya can “read lips” because she saw it on TV. That raise some suspicion for sure.

Next is Damian!

Being candid here, this isn’t the first time Damian has been startlingly close to the truth, but it’s mostly played as a one-off idea or him being internally hyperbolic.

But the fact that he’s already coming this close to the truth of the situation means that, maybe later down the line, he might genuinely consider it as a possibility.

After that is Housemaster Henderson!

This is the only authority figure that seems to really consider Anya’s outlandish claims to be true. Hell, even her parents think she’s just pretending because there’s no way their child could be in on their big secrets, right?

But Henderson is so moved by Anya’s bravery that he genuinely kinda considers it. Out of all the side characters to figure out something’s seriously up with the Forgers, Henderson is l the safest option by far. Compared to folks like Yuri or Fiona figuring out what’s going on, I think the Forgers’ secrets are safe with Anya’s elegant educator.

But lastly, we get this huge call back:

Anya quoting straight from her father’s monologue from waaaaaaay back in the first chapter/episode of the series. And from how it’s framed in the story, it rattles everyone there to their core. People are going to talk about what she said, and they’re almost definitely going to tell Loid about it.

Granted, it was a one-off thought that Loid had 73 chapters ago, so it might not even register to him. But at the same time, it’s what gave him meaning.

This might just be a one-off line, but it’s what motivates Twilight to be who he is. I don’t think he’s liable to forget that anytime soon since it was Anya herself that reminded him of that. So to hear that lifelong mission parroted back to him would definitely lead to quite a few questions.

All of this is to say that we’re starting to see glimpses of the truth break through, and instead of it being one giant instance of the curtain being pulled to reveal the real wizard or what have you, it’s going to be a gradual process where, little by little, everyone begins to realize that something isn’t adding up.

And I’m not using this to blame Anya for blowing her cover—again, she’s six (or four if we go by fan theories, but I digress)—but it’s really interesting that she’s started a domino effect that might lead to people figuring out her true abilities and the true nature of her adopted parents’ sooner than she’d like. Only time will tell, but a lot of this feels like it’s building towards something huge.

[arcadianmoonshadowjedi]

Hi Dreamy! Soo I watched TDP Season 6 last night! That was a GOOD season. Many of the open processes were led to satisfying conclusions, so that was nice. However, can I just ask... how do you bear with the pacing. I grapple with the sudden aging of the characters, Rayla's unannounced return from her unannounced disappearance, with the bad jokes, with the weird side quests. Zym isn't even one of the main characters anymore. "Rise of the Archmage" or whatever would describe the plot so much better?

What I'm trying to say is, I think I generally like the story and the arcs that people are taken through, but the differences between seasons just botch it up for me so much that cannot get more invested. It's a shame for such a well thought-out universe. It somehow seems like the writers were making it up as they went along without a real vision, and now after that last, rather poorly-received "setup" season, they finally got their act together. But what is up with that. How can I enjoy episodes of such a wide range in quality.

It bothers me very much. This could have been done better, more consistently. There is a cut to me before the aging and after the aging. They patched it up with the reenactment of that scene. It kinda works. But why was it made to have been needed. Lol.

Hey there! I personally enjoyed season 4 and 5 but I understand it wasn’t the same for everyone. Actually when I watched the Dragon Prince for the the first time, after I binged all of arc 1 shortly after the release of S3, I got really invested and followed a lot of news and even watched the zoom panel with the cast and crew, all of which lead me to finding the graphic novel Through the Moon and being able to get that and read it then. Definitely reading that helped me prepare for arc 2, at least knowing what to expect of Rayla and Rayllum. I know not everyone knew about the graphic novel so I do wonder if perhaps maybe it could’ve been animated as a short movie and released in between S3 and 4, since the events of it wouldn’t have fit at the end of S3 and neither at the beginning of S4. But at the same time, I’m not sure if they would’ve been given the greenlight for that by Netflix 🤷🏽‍♀️

As for the time skip, I’m actually fine with it since I feel like it gives more opportunity for a lot of different changes to have occurred, like Callum having learned more magic, Ezran to have grown more into his role as king, showing that Claudia getting the ingredients and everything needed to bring back Viren was a lot harder and needed a lot of time to complete, showing the gravity and difficulty of that spell, and lastly showing that despite Rayla’s intense long search of Viren, she couldn’t find him at all. And with the tone and theme of the show having matured in the Mystery of Aaravos by a whole lot, I do think it makes much more sense for the characters to be older and more mature to deal with it all.

Ngl I do miss seeing Zym more a great deal too but his role also depends on where we’re at in the story, like in arc 1, it was focused on him hatching and being a newborn dragon being brought home, along with him being a major target for Viren. S4 definitely was his biggest role in arc 2 since we now see him being a toddler and having become more stubborn and going against his mother a lot lol. But I guess his role has more to do with where we’re at in the plot? I do hope we get to see more of him in S7 though 😭

I guess the title “Mystery of Aaravos” has to do a lot with how as the audience, there’s so much we don’t know about him when we start the arc and then we learn more as we go, esp in S6.

As for all of the side plots, I do feel like S6 does tie them well together, kinda like how in arc 1, we did start getting the sunfire elves plot with Amaya, which at first may have felt unrelated to the main plot but it ultimately tied into it. In arc 2, we do see it tie in sooner in S5 when Callum and Rayla wanted to go to the Great Bookery of Lux Aurea, along with Janai having the nightmares about Aaravos and all of that.

To answer your question on how to better enjoy arc 2 esp between the gaps, I’ll suggest some of the graphic novels and also add a link to the short stories released before S4 and 5 which could hopefully bridge more gaps and help you enjoy more:

Through the Moon: Graphic novel set right after S3, deals with Rayla’s fears of Viren still being alive as well as her not having closure on what happened to her parents and Runaan, leading up to events of her leaving, definitely recommend reading, esp if you decide to do a whole series rewatch right after you finish season 3.

The Dragon Prince: Reflections: All short stories available on the Dragon Prince official website to read for free. Volume 1 stories were released Pre-S4 and are mostly set within the 2 year time gap. Volume 2 stories were released before season 5 most set between S4 & 5, with the exception of ‘Strangers’, which is set during S4 when Soren was tied up by Terry and Claudia and deals with him reacting to Viren being alive, and the three-part story ‘Chasing Shadows’ which is focused on Rayla’s time in Scumport pre-S4, and ‘Queen’s Mercy’ which is a Kim’dael backstory.

Bloodmoon Huntress: Graphic novel with a Rayla backstory, starts with her parents leaving for the dragon guard & her being adopted by Runaan and Ethari. It shows a lot of how it impacted Rayla, gives ALOT of insight into Rayla’s upbringing and how she forms her understanding of how to love someone, esp in terms of her eventually leaving Callum when she’s older. This book also introduced Kim’dael who we also see in S5.

There’s also the graphic novel ‘Puzzle House’ which is a Soren and Claudia backstory set after their mother left, which I also loved and found giving more insight into Claudia’s character, but I would definitely say that ‘Through the Moon’ and ‘Bloodmoon Huntress’ would help bridge gaps more. I guess a good way to keep up with all of these releases would be to follow TDP official social media like their Instagram and Twitter since that’s where they post the updates and new releases. You can also follow Aaron and Justin on Twitter too since they post a lot of news first hand.

Let me know if you want to discuss more and if you want me to provide anymore resources 😊 I really hope these can improve your experience with the saga and help you enjoy it more ❤️❤️