#this is what happens when people are needlessly mean to characters I like

[deathbringer]

does anyone besides me ever get preoccupied with how mind chess and the magatama kind of serve as yet more wrightworth character foil ammunition?

like, mind chess on its face appears to be exactly what it is: treating people like a strategy game, getting to the truth not via warmth but via logic. of course it's miles edgeworth, who the papers used to label inhuman, doing this, right? except when you look at it for more than two fucking seconds you realize that there is so much actual heart in the correct paths to the truth that it's almost insane. the games punish you for being needlessly cruel and playing to demon prosecutor stereotype. miles isn't callously treating people like pawns--he's using the chess framework to make the erratic nature of humanity a little less baffling.

meanwhile phoenix wright is fully out here supernaturally intimidating people. i love him and i love the magatama as a mechanic but every indication seems to point to "breaking a lock = causing some form and degree of psychic distress." yeah there's catharsis in the mix too but even so, it can only happen after a relentless onslaught of damning evidence. phoenix is complicated and full of bitchy depths but it's a core trait that he cares deeply about the people around him, and about humanity as a whole, and people see that commitment to defending the good from--sorry--a mile away. so you'd think he'd be the one with an investigative mechanic that leaves so much room for delicately picking people apart.

(sure, phoenix isn't a chess guy, but maybe that art school background could have come in clutch? except trying to imagine that just doesn't work, because the magatama is also a big, bright indicator of his bond with the feys. and there's something else to be made, i think, of miles' chess set as a commonly-known and relatively impersonal iconography versus the magatama's deeply personal and relatively obscure symbolic meaning.)

idk it just makes me want to gnaw the drywall a little bit.

[musical-chick-13]

Well folks, it finally happened. After over ten years of creating (and even occasionally posting!) fic......I am finally writing m/m.

[datastate]

nankidai contact me we could fix the rankings of asunaro agents, training regimes, and also make sei a much better character without ridding what i know your intentions were.

[utilitycaster]

this may seem needlessly finicky but I do actually believe it's important: calling Verin a himbo is just one of many examples where like, one of the cast says something off the cuff and it's not exactly the right word or it is highly contextual, and that is fine because no one is perfect especially in improv, but then it gets repeated ad infinitum within the fandom when it never really fit in the first place. We have Verin's stats and he's decently more intelligent than average with a 13 (smarter than most of Bells Hells for one; as smart as Pike); it's just he's the guy with a bachelor's degree with good grades followed by military service in a family where everyone has two PhDs - Matt said "himbo of the family" the way in a family where most people are exceptionally tall you'd call the 5'11" child the short one. In Call of the Netherdeep he appears as thoughtful and competent and promoted to a difficult position at a very young age, and in the campaign his appearance is simultaneously as a leader of troops in a dangerous mission, and someone who cares enough about poetry from a completely foreign and distant culture to have tried to learn more about it. I'm sorry, but if you're using the word "himbo" I don't think you're processing a thing about the character yourself; you're just the latest repetition in a game of telephone that's been going on since mid-2021.

And that's not deeply bad on the surface, and I'm using Verin not because he is the character most wronged by this sort of thing but because he's recent and it's really clear where the word came from and that it's not a good assessment, but something I happen to have a decent knack for is pattern recognition in language. I usually find it really easy to pick up on when someone's plagiarized because of the language and pattern shifts. I tend to remember urls and out of place words well. So I do tend to notice when everyone suddenly starts using a single turn of phrase and I tend to flag it. Sometimes that's not bad; sometimes it means everyone came to a similar conclusion and that's the best way to express that conclusion. But like, when Taliesin called the Yios episode a gas-leak episode and the entire fandom started parroting it? The line "bone-dry takes"? The fact that a lot of ship defenses I see were phrased precisely as "I have eyes"? without actually talking about the ship itself? the fact that I've seen a spike in the use of the term "ontologically evil" including in myself and not all uses are actually correct? And extending this beyond strictly language but consider any headcanon with minimal textual support that catches like wildfire (sidebar: remember how we make, or made fun of the SPREAD THIS LIKE WILDFIRE tendency on Tumblr a decade ago? same concept of repetition of a specific turn of phrase without internalizing) all sort of ping this.

And it's fine, truly, to come to fandom and turn off your brain. I know this will sound sarcastic from me, and that's because I don't personally agree, but I do strongly agree that you can do what you want in fandom and you don't have to listen to my opinions so in the end, yeah, it's fine because I am not the arbiter of "fine". But I think critical thought is a vital exercise and I think precision with language is part of it and so if you find yourself using the same exact words and thoughts as everyone else, that should, ideally, trigger a process of "but are these the right words? what do I see when I see this character and how would I describe them? do I agree with this assessment?" Fandom is an interesting and easier microcosm than reality in which to start doing that.

[aihoshiino]

chapter 166 thoughts

As of chapter 166, Oshi no Ko has finished a roughly four-and-a-half year run started back in 2020. While there's some speculation about an epilogue or some extra content in volume 16 when it drops, this is where the main story ends. And you know what that means!!!

OSHI NO KO HAS OFFICIALLY ENDED WITHOUT ADDRESSING OR ACKNOWLEDGING THE FACT THAT RUBY KISSED HER BROTHER IN CHAPTER 143

please understand that this is FUCKING BOGUS

I'll probably do a longer post on this subject specifically, but my main critique of 143 when the chapter dropped was that while I liked the individual beats in it and I was really glad to see Akasaka finally addressing this tension bubbling underneath Aqua and Ruby's relationship, the immediate swerve away from showing us the aftermath of that kiss felt to me like an admission that the story was going to needlessly draw this out even more. Now that the story has ended and we can see that moment had literally no impact on the plot or even the character dynamics, I'd like to revise that statement - it feels like an admission of compromise. It feels like crumbs thrown to AquRuby fans to tempt them to keep reading and to stir up the waters of the ship wars, so people would keep reading and stay invested in the manga right to the very end. But most of all, it feels deeply disrespectful to both Aqua and Ruby as characters. Rather than exploring their feelings and giving both of them interiority and complexity in relation to incest or even just fucking acknowledging that the kiss had happened and letting their dynamic evolve, the series just memory holes the entire event and asks that you do too. Rather than letting Ruby have any development whatsoever as pertains to that relationship or, god forbid, let a female character move on romantically from the male lead, the series ends with her feelings so up in the air that I literally could not tell you what she thinks of Aqua by the time he dies.

ANYWAY… FINAL CHAPTER. BREATHES OUT VERY HARD.

I really can't believe it's taken us until the final chapter to actually deal with Ruby's grief over Aqua lol. We got a snippet of it last chapter but it was so brief that it really just felt like a tease. I also just think it's kind of bizarre that we're spending this little time on Ruby having feelings about Aqua's death to the extent that I have no idea how or when she found out about it.

It's also kind of hard to feel particularly strongly about Ruby's grief when the chapter doesn't really bother to explore it all that much. It's just a montage of Ruby quite literally Screaming, Crying and Throwing Up while Akane dispassionately narrates it all. The art also doesn't really help in terms of connecting with the emotions at play - I usually really like Mengo's expression work and the way she depicts extreme emotions but this all just felt like of… I don't know how else to put it. Goofy??? Is that an insane thing to say about Ruby grieving her brother???

Idk, something about both the panelling and just the extreme on-the-noseness of Ruby, again, literally Screaming, Crying Throwing Up while she's wearing a Burning cosplay Just In Case You, The Audience, Didn't Get It only for her to abruptly be done crying with no exploration or insight as to what's going on in her head that allows her to move forward.

Honestly, this is kind of the issue with everyone in the cast. The resolution is just sort of "Aqua died and we were sad about it but then we stopped being sad". I know what the story is trying to go for here - it's trying to express that even when you're in pain, life goes on and so you have to find a way to go on with it. But the result is that we spend all this time oogling at their pain without spending equivalent or even meaningful time on their recovery process.

It feels both excessive and undercooked at the same time and I'm left with the same icky, voyeuristic feeling I got from Aqua's funeral last chapter. This should be the point in the story at which we empathize with Ruby the most, but she remains a frustratingly distant figure right to the final pages. Part of this is an unfortunate consequence of Akane's narration directing these final chapters meaning that we're hearing about Ruby from an outsider's perspective and thus don't really see what's going on in her head… but if I can be frank, this has been an issue of Aka's with Ruby in particular basically nonstop since chapter 123.

As others & myself have noted, despite the absolutely catastrophic downward spiral Ruby is in at that point, Aqua revealing himself as Gorou basically flips it all off like a switch. There's some mild lipservice paid to the idea that Ruby is just using her dependency on Gorou to prop herself up and it's pointed out that the issues that contributed to her breakdown haven't actually been resolved - but none of these issues are ever even acknowledged again, let alone resolved. So, functionally, that reveal does fix all Ruby's problems in the space of a single chapter and the result is, again, that we spend multiple chapters gourging on depictions of Ruby's absolute rock bottom only for her to ping back to normal like a lightswitch. As such, the depictions of her pain feel less like explorations of Ruby's interiority and more like voyeuristic oogling at Ruby's misery and trauma and the effect is that the resolution to it all is both unsatisfying and a little gross. The result is that it feels like Akasaka is just indulgently mining the imagery of cute girls suffering because it causes simple thoughts neuron activation but doesn't respect these girls enough as characters to build them back up.

It doesn't help that this is basically the in-universe excuse for Ruby's career further skyrocketing. Instead of Ruby becoming a star on her own merits as the story keeps insisting she was supposed to, she's artificially buoyed by the public's morbid fascination with her tragedy. If I was feeling charitable towards the story right now, I would say this is an avenue of intentional critique but… well, I don't feel super charitable about the story right now lol

I WILL say that the one part of this chapter I did just uncomplicatedly like was the beat of Mem trying to suspend activities (presumably in the wake of her grief for Aqua) only for Kana to basically immediately explode into her room and help her get back on her feet. It's a beat that would've been much more effective if we'd, you know, seen it, but I otherwise enjoyed it and I thought it was sweet.

But. pbbbbtttt. I guess I can't talk around it any longer… let's get into the Dome concert.

To start things off on the immediately worst note possible, Akane describes Ruby performing at the Dome as being 'everyone's dream', including Aqua's. I'm reminded once again of the strange turn the story took in insisting that um, actually, performing at the Dome was totes Ai's dream all along (even though she literally didn't give a shit even a week before she was due to perform there herself) so Ruby performing there is fulfilling that dream for her!!! and I can't help but wonder if this abrupt shift in focus is an attempt to make readers forget what Ai's actual dream was - to see her beloved children grow up happy and healthy. Hell, it wasn't even really Aqua's dream, until the story suddenly had to try and convince us that his entire purpose for existence was to kill himself so Ruby could be an idol for slightly longer than she would've otherwise. The only people whose dreams she's textually fulfilling are Ichigo and Miyako and Ruby herself, but…

Honestly, is this really Ruby's dream anymore?

Who is Hoshino Ruby? What does she want? Why does she want it? These should be the very least of what we can concretely say about not only a protagonist but a character who has become a central figure of the entire story as Ruby has, but with the way Oshi no Ko has warped and distorted her, I find myself increasingly unsure of what the story wants her to be or how I should answer those questions.What does Ruby feel about Aqua? Was she still in love with him? Had she moved on, romantically? Was she still waiting for a response to her confession? Did she finally realize it was probably kind of shitty to respond to her brother going "lowkey wanna kms" by sticking her tongue down his throat? I Guess We'll Never Know.

This extends to whatever the fuck Ruby's relationship with idols and being an idol is. Almost the entirety of Ruby's time in the story has been spent reiterating over and over that Ruby cannot just be an idol who imitates Ai and that to truly shine, she needs to step out of her mom's shadow and shine in her own way. Ruby even literally tells Kana in no uncertain terms in 137 - "I'll be a star in my own way. I won't be like Mama."

While this has always been the text of the story, as I've pointed out before, the actual art with which Ruby's idolhood depicts her basically just as Ai 2.0. It relies so heavily on mining the imagery of Ai's charisma and personality as an idol and using them as the measure of Ruby's success as an idol that Ruby essentially has no visual or conceptual identity of her own as an idol. She's just Ai, But Arbitrarily Better, For Reasons The Narrative Fails To Actually Establish But Hopes That You Just Accept Anyway. This was always kind of annoying, but now that friction seems to have been resolved by… just making her Ai 2.0, But Arbitrarily Better (etc, etc) in the text as well. The fact that we're given no further insight as to Ruby's feelings and continue to just have Akane Explain Ruby's Character Arc to the camera also doesn't help.

All this combines to make the Dome concert and the final few pages feel exceptionally cold in a way I really don't think was intended by Akasaka. Yes, that splash page was nice and flashy but… I just felt nothing. I have no idea if or why Ruby cares about this. And even though the Dome concert has been hyped up through the entire story as the peak of Ruby's achievements as an idol, I feel no sense of accomplishment in her finally being there - not just because her journey to it was basically sneezed at us across two panels, but because it just feels hollow as a victory lap for Ruby. Again, she feels so distant and abstracted as a character that I can't bring myself to feel very strongly about her good or bad.

I think the perfect encapsulation of this are the final four pages of the story. Ruby's words here are very clearly intended to be a callback to Ai's words to Gorou in chapter one but as @all-of-her-light pointed out in our initial discussions of the chapter, Ruby very much does not have an equivalent to Ai's conclusion that she nevertheless wants and values the opportunity to find personal happiness and fulfillment outside of being an idol. Are we supposed to believe that simply being an idol is all that Ruby needs to achieve a similar degree of happiness and fulfillment? Is there no more to her than that?

I've seen a lot of people interpret this ending as exceptionally bleak and, as usual, gleefully predicting Ruby's immanent suicide because her beloved oniichansensei isn't around but this is indulging in, if you'll allow me to be frank, some pretty transparently ship-motivated flanderization. Despite what certain sections of the fandom would like to believe, Aqua and Ruby's lives, past and current, have never revolved around each other to the exclusion of every other relationship in their life. Ruby has a massive support network of people who love and care for her and actively want her to get back on her feet. I can one hundred percent believe that she does not need Aqua in her life to be happy and content.

The issue is that we don't see enough of Ruby to understand that ourselves. Again, she has become such a distant figure with so little insight into what she's thinking and why that this ending is basically a Rorschach test in which you can interpret basically whatever the hell you want or assume because we have so little canon basis to support or debunk our assumptions.

and yes. don't think i didn't see them. it IS both grimly hilarious and weirdly tonally appropriate for this ending that ruby has a bunch of oshi goods of ai and aqua including their fucking autographs set up to say goodbye to every day.

AND…… WE'RE DONE!!! THAT'S OSHI NO KO, BABY!!!! well, technically, there's going to be a 20 page extra chapter in volume 16 but I don't see it being big or substantive enough to meaningfully change my feelings about the ending so… I guess we're leaving it here. Damn. Feels crazy to be done with it.

I'll probably do a bigger post down the line about my thoughts on the ending as a whole but in terms of just How This Chapter Made Me feel, I guess the word is just… meh! It's definitely not an ending I like and I think the execution is sloppy and rushed but I also just don't really have the energy to feel angry about it. Maybe that's sad in its own way but tbh… I still really love Oshi no Ko! I still find it engaging and I find the characters I enjoy rewarding to talk about. I like the artistry of the anime adaptation. I don't blame anybody else for being so turned off by this ending that they're done with the series but for me, I like what I like about OnK too much that this ending could retroactively ruin it for me. Whatever else happens with the OnK franchise, whatever directions the anime and live-action take, this will always be the series that gave me Ai and the Hoshino family and. look at me. look at what she's done to my brain. could I really ask for anything more than that?

That being said, I'm definitely not done with discussing the series! I have fics to write (including a VERY exciting large scale project lined up with some friends), my Ai analysis post to finish and I also want to do a re-read of the series and finish my anime rewatch. I'll be here to discuss Oshi no Ko as long as I have things to say about it and as long as you guys will have me! Despite how the series ended, I've had a genuinely wonderful experience in the fandom and I really don't want to let go of the little community we've built together just because the series is done. I'm Ai's fan for all eternity!!!

[yasssgiveusnothing]

Radiohusk Analysis: Husk Cares or Nothing Makes Sense (Part 2)

Husk cares about Alastor. It makes no narrative sense otherwise.

Let's talk about it!

Husk goes out of his way to help Alastor when it would be in his best interest to not care AT ALL about that man:

Husk goes to Al to warn him of Mimzy and ARGUE with him for Al's benefit.

Husk gets frustrated when Al doesn't heed his warning and thinks Al will get hurt.

These screenshots are from season 1 episode 5.

Here's the scene:

Let's delve deeper into it!

Narratively, that whole scene serves three purposes:

1. To tell the viewer Al is also on someone's leash.

2. To tell the viewer Husk worries and cares about Alastor.

We are shown Husk going out of his way to help Al, only for Al to tell Husk that he does not need to worry because Al has everything under control. We then see Al was correct as he jovialy kills and consumes his enemies without effort. In other words, what the viewer learns from this scene is that Husk needlessly worries about Alastor's well-being.

3) To draw parallels between Angel & Valentino and Husk & Al.

You might be thinking, Exactly! If Husk and Al are just lke Angel and Val, why would Husk care for Al or vice versa?!

Vivzie has been pushing this narrative that Al and Husk are parallels for Angel and Val this entire season. I don't think there are enough words to describe how this parallel doesn't work, but I'll try anyway.

A) Angel does not care for Val's well being.

Angel would not go out of his way to help Val like Husk helps Alastor.

B) Val does not care for Angel's well-being.

Val doesn't need to bribe his soul contracts to work with him.

Val straight up gives Angel no free will. (Unlike Al who does not force Husk to attend the bar, instead chosing to bribe him).

If Angel gives the slightest of attitude, Val does not hesitate to get physical immediately. (Unlike Alastor, who not only lets Husk shove a finger into his chest, but let's him speak his mind and does not immediately maim him for disrespecting him.)

C) Husk is not afraid of Al.

A man scared of Al would not argue with him or his benefit, nor go up to him and jab a finger in his chest. And yes, Husk was scared of Al when Al threatened him, but Husk fucking started it! He literally made a jab at the guy where it would hurt! If you made a jab at your pal and they start foaming at the mouth, you'd be scared too, but also know you lowkey deserved it and shouldn't be surprised it happened. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Al and Husk sit together without Husk shitting himself. Could you possibly imagine Angel sitting next to Val without wanting to disappear through the floor? Nope!

D) Al trusts Husk. Refer to my previous theory for more information.

E) Al does not regularly assault or overwork Husk.

Husk chills at the bar all day with access to infinite alcohol. This is the closest Husk will ever get to Heaven.

Alastor has not assaulted Husk ever. Unless we're calling the time Alastor pulls on Husk's chain and makes him fall to the floor an assault. Which, sure, fine. But that ONE push that left NO INJURIES was the only time Al has ever gotten aggressively handsy with Husk. And funnily enough, Husk was the first one to put hands on the other.

This 'assault' in comparison to the treatment Angel gets from Val pales CONSIDERABLY. In fact, the two duos are NOTHING ALIKE beyond there being a Overlord owns your soul dynamic, but with Radiohusk, that dynamic barely takes place as Alastor treats him more like a trusted pal than an object to be abused.

I also want to quickly go over how I feel Husk is out of character for the second half of this scene.

Husk is perceptive. He understands other people extremely well, which has been shown numerous times throughout the show as he reads the entire main cast and Mimzy. He is also a gambler, which means he knows when to bet and when to fold.

So you expect me to believe that Husk would say THAT to Alastor and expect him to take it well, especially when Husk knows it is a sensitive subject to him?

And Alastor's reaction is kinda valid. I mean, someone who you trusted with this information weaponizes it against you by spitting it back in your face! If Angel can have a meltdown over being someone's bitch, why can't Alastor? I mean, Angel throws a broken glass bottle at Husk's head, but Alastor pushes Husk and suddenly Al is as bad as Valentino?

With this, I conclude thtat:

Husk cares about Alastor

Alastor cares about Husk

Angel & Valentino's relationship does not parallel Alastor & Husk's.

Husk was out of character during the second half of that scene and was possibly a result of Vivzie desperately trying to parallel Valdust with Radiohusk.

[rookflower]

seeing nightheart arguments again as with every asc release so once again, a reminder that when people say "nightheart's arc (or that of any other warrior cats character for that matter) is sexist", 99% of the time they are not calling the character, themselves, within the universe, a misogynist. nightheart in the books does not hate women. liking nightheart is not misogyny. what IS sexist there is the choices the authors make when they are writing a character. because at the end of the day, the characters themselves are not real.

in nightheart's case, at the start of his story almost every female character in his life (sparkpelt, finchlight, squirrelflight, lilyheart, myrtlebloom, etc) was written as being needlessly cruel to him, in spite of their own characters, and the male characters in his life (bramblestar, alderheart, bayshine) were written as far kinder or more reasonable towards him. the issue was not the FACT people were being mean to him, but the blatant trend and malicious gendered stereotypes going on with how it was handled.

"but they've been redeemed by Thunder! they're all being nicer to him now!" yeah, but isn't it super fucking weird that it was written like that in the first place? that finchlight changed personality like the weather when she should have been a prominent enough character to have an established one, that sparkpelt needs to redeem herself for absences in squirrelflight's hope and tbc that were unfairly out of her control and were not even considered an issue until now it's convienent to make her son sad, that squirrelflight was treated as antagonistic and cruel over asking her adult grandson to do some chores or whatever?

"but that's the author's fault, not the character's!" the character is not real though. he doesn't have feelings that can be hurt, what is there are the words on the page, and a lot of people will look at a character's arc rather than imagining them as a real person or making up headcanons to fill in gaps. there is also nothing wrong with people disliking a character you like. that is always going to happen forever.

"so are you saying i'm sexist because i like or relate to nightheart?" no, nobody is saying this. nightheart is an insecure angsty young adult protagonist in a tonally silly book series who has a complicated relationship with his family and gets into relationship drama, of course a bunch of people are going to latch on to him, and there's nothing wrong with that. i know a ton of nightheart fans. people criticising him is not a personal attack on you or anyone.

"you're looking into this too deeply" man this is warrior cats tumblr, what are any of us doing here. sometimes engaging critically with a text is fun. sometimes, texts have genuine flaws and harmful biases within their writing and it's useful to learn to identify and analyse them. warrior cats is not and never will be peak literature and i don't think anybody expects it to be but that doesn't mean people aren't allowed to take critical approaches to it on anything more than a surface level.

[lurkingshan]

Every You, Every Me

Story 3

A mechanic! Not my Last Twilight trauma

Actually, now that he's stood up and I see this black tshirt and coveralls taken halfway down, his look is more Payu than Mhok

HE'S COMING TO ME

Okay listen, who put these mismatched hair extensions on this boy I just wanna talk 🔪

FIAT!!! I missed him

I continue to recognize but not be able to place most of the background music in this show, it's driving me nuts

What's with all these March 19s... no way

Are you telling me he's been stalking this kid at the graveyard for years on his mother's death anniversary? And he asked the mom’s dead spirit to bless their union before he even talked to him?? You a weirdo for this, X

He's never even talked to him all these years but he says he likes him. Love at first sight, I guess. "His mismatched hair extensions have bewitched me body and soul"

Btw why has this kid Namping had the exact same haircut for so many years, seems unlikely

I have no theory on the significance of their family members changing universe to universe but I am noting it

Does the little brother get a side romance in this one? They have two whole eps this time they're getting ambitious

This Bad Buddy style phone flirting across the balcony/window is very good

There's a real ominous vibe happening here, something is def going on that we don't know about

Well, that sure was a wholly unnecessary full body lift 😏

I think I would have preferred they use the time to go deeper on the main pair in this story rather than squeeze in a side couple, but this is a Thai BL, so

Something very charming about X getting excited and hitting his head on the undercarriage of the car

The extensions look better in this almost kiss scene god bless (btw that was mean, Namping)

The chemistry!! When they let them flirt these two are excellent

Hmmm Namping is P' here, but he def wasn't older in the last story, what does it meeeeeeean

"Stop asking" boy what are you hiding

Sexiest back hug of all time in BL?? Perhaps

Man, what the hell happened to Namping? Crying during sex and then disappearing on X and sobbing as he leaves. Why can't he tell X what's going on?? (and also me, please tell me). This all feels really needlessly cruel and I am struggling to imagine a scenario that would excuse it.

Welp! Ton showing up after a time skip alone, wearing all black, carrying a box sure doesn't bode well

The way they are dragging this secret out has officially become irritating. Just say what the fuck is going on.

Well, at least Namping knows he's a coward. Ffs. I cannot imagine how he justified leaving X in such an abrupt way, telling him nothing, leaving him waiting, knowing he will never come back. A terminal illness is not a good excuse for what he did to him, especially because his supposed reason was not wanting to be selfish. But his choices here were far more selfish and cruel than telling the truth and staying to be happy while he could.

This show is not really what I expected based on the way people talk about it. It's not all that light, for one. I've heard it described as being a fun speed run of fanfic tropes, but it's pretty dramatic (in the sense of dealing with heavier themes), and this last story at least was very melodramatic. It's the kind of maudlin terminal illness plot line you'd see in a decades-old drama. I guess that's the idea? We're just running through classic tropes, including some that have been all but retired. I still don't know if or how these different universes are meant to connect, or what to make of these characters. Should I view each iteration as separate from the ones before, or am I meant to think of these as the same souls repeating lives? It's interesting for sure.

[idyllic-affections]

Hello! I saw your works of what Kaveh and Cyno would be like as parents... That leaves me thinking of Al-haitham as a father. Would him take his child to his grandmother? Would he read them advanced physics books? (⁠´⁠°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥⁠ω⁠°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥⁠｀⁠)

scholarly lineage.

summary. what would alhaitham be like as a father?

trigger & content warnings. brief hypothetical mentions of assault in general, can be interpreted as s/a, but is not explicitly stated to be that way. sensory overload mentions. spoilers for alhaitham's character stories.

tropes, pairings, fic length, & other notes. fluff. dad!alhaitham & reader. 0.7k words. they/them pronouns for reader. in this fic, alhaitham and the reader are both written as neurodivergent in some way; interpret it however you please!

author's thoughts. OUGDHSJGSJSG wait this is so cute. dad alhaitham..... it is such a cool thought, because with alhaitham, i don't think there's any obvious or "correct" way to write him as a dad. he could be overprotective. he could be very casual, the "cool dad" if you will. also i know i haven't been posting as much recently! it's literally only because i've been hyperfixating on hsr... whoops. /lh

alhaitham as a father is a very interesting concept to me. now, believe it or not, i feel like he is a less strict father than cyno. he's actually relatively laid-back.

alhaitham is the kind of guy who raises his child to be smart. he raises them to play the game, not to be played by it, you know? therefore, he believes in his child's judgement and their ability to make wise decisions. he feels no need to be protective over them.

(however... that does not mean someone could do something harmful to them and get away with it. if anyone does anything to hurt them? abuses them? verbally, physically, or worse? good lord, he does not take well to that. he is a man with power, and by the gods, he'll use it if he has to in their defense.)

if his child has sensory issues, alhaitham is very attentive to those things and will get them any and all needed accommodations. if they struggle with auditory sensory issues where they get easily overwhelmed? they'll have ear pieces that match his. <3

when people point it out, depending on who they are, they will get one of two responses; either him very blatantly admitting that yes, their headset matches his, or him getting a little embarrassed and claiming it was all he had on hand at the moment. liar. /lh

it's kaveh that gets the latter response, of course.

if they ever happen to get annoyed with their father in their moments of overwhelm, he doesn't take it personally at all. sensory overload will do that to a person. he gets it, tbh.

i think alhaitham would definitely want his kid to attend the akademiya. ideally, haravatat, but he supposes he'd be okay if they enrolled in a different darshan. he'll recover...

UNLESS they enroll in kshahrewar. alhaitham would NEVER recover from a betrayal of that magnitude!! however, his grandmother herself was from kshahrewar, so... well. he'd get over it, he guesses. he'd still prefer if they enrolled in haravatat.

whatever darshan they enroll in honestly doesn't matter, though, because if anyone gives them trouble for any reason? all alhaitham has to do is give the problematic person a single look and suddenly the issue is resolved! apparently people think he's scary. not that he minds. he likes it that way; it keeps trouble away from both him and his child.

of course, he won't intervene unless they specifically seek out his help, because he knows his kid can handle themselves. still, he pulls a few strings behind the scenes every now and then. he doesn't really want to see his kid struggle. he knows they're intelligent, and he also knows he doesn't have to worry about them not wanting to work for themselves. therefore, he sees no reason to let them struggle needlessly.

he'd also understand if they weren't too big a fan of being surrounded by so many people. he isn't fond of it, either, so he'd let them stay in his office whenever needed. he'll even invite them to do their classwork in there rather than anywhere else in the akademiya, simply so that they don't have to be around a bunch of random people they couldn't possibly be less interested in.

alhaitham definitely read his kid very difficult books when they were little, which would totally lead to them being ahead of their peers. that really wouldn't be unexpected, i think. they probably enrolled in the akademiya a little early.

you know that "i know you don't know any astronomical pretentious voluminous colossal words" audio? yeah, that was alhaitham's kid when they were small.

also, yes, alhaitham would absolutely take them to his grandmother!! i think she would see their father in them, just like how she saw alhaitham's parents in him. of course, this is before her death.

i think alhaitham would ultimately be content that his child got to meet the woman who raised him.

to think that she saw himself in them...

it brings him an odd sense of pride and comfort.

and as a little treat:

kaveh is kind of like another dad (or like a wine uncle LMAO) for them. do what you will with this information.

please consider reblogging, it helps me out quite a lot!

[bugsbenefit]

Even leaving aside the rest of that ask about Karen, how are the show runners "glazing Cara" according to st twitter now lmao. I swear no one on there understands the concept of just liking the people you work with...

very good point. tbh 'glazing' really lost it's meaning. that's just the thing you say now about characters showing up in the show or marketing that you don't care about that much

but looking at how fandom treats certain characters it is kind of apparent how Karen isn't really seen as big of a deal as the show actually makes her in general. (at last in hyper invested fandom spaces. more regular viewers see her as much more of a main character) which i think causes a bit of dissonance when the show keeps promoting her. because if you think she's as unimportant of a side character as say, Dustin's mom, then you probably would think her constantly showing up on posters and bts footage is undeserved glazing

the thing is that Karen is actually kind of important. she's absolutely not a background character

you have the primary mains like Joyce, Hopper, the kids. more secondary mains that don't really have the hard hitting plot points of the show happen to them but are fleshed out and who the writers still take care writing like Steve, Robin etc. and then Karen falls in somewhere between a secondary and tertiary protagonist

she actually gets things to do each season. she has character arcs. from actually meeting and being suspicious of Brenner in s1, to her worry about Nancy in s3, the Billy situation, even s4 ends with her and Holly at the window looking out at the spores

actual side characters in the show, like Ted, the Sinclairs, Claudia Henderson, don't have any arcs to their characters. they're background decorum when their children (the actual protagonists) are home or need to talk to someone

but Karen falls much closer to actual protagonist status. which also explains why she's consistently featured in the marketing alongside the other mains

which is how the Byers and Wheelers turned into the two big families the show kind of revolves around to begin with. we know the most about them because almost all family members are protagonists in their own right. you have the kids Mike and Will, Nancy and Jonathan. and then the moms. the only difference being that Karen is kept in the dark about the UD plot and Joyce got thrown directly into it in s1 because it was her son that went missing

and the thing that people seem to get stuck on about Karen is that she's the only protag that doesn't explicitly know about the UD

which, honestly, makes her kind of interesting. especially with where they'll take that in s5, because she'll have to be confronted with what's been going on eventually. and what has been tormenting both her children for years. hell, she had such a close encounter with Billy in s3, she would have been in Heather's place that season hadn't Billy still had some semblance of control at that point. and she isn't even aware

Karen has been involved in the UD plot for seasons, there just wasn't any payoff to it yet because she doesn't know

Karen Wheeler, tight rope walker when it comes to getting as close as humanly possible to the supernatural plot without having to actually confront it

but it really boils down to, Karen is, and always has been an important character and the marketing has always reflected that

side note but what i've also seen cause a lot of the 'they're just needlessly glazing xyz' complaints is that sometimes it's just people being pissy their favourite characters aren't getting a singular spotlight on them. i've mainly seen it from solo El or Will stans (still exist in the year of the lord 2024) who don't care about the rest of the cast or plot outside of one character. so when Karen who, 'doesn't even know about the UD' gets so much s5 marketing that's hype that could have gone to someone more important in their minds. again, glazing entering the pantheon of words that lost all meaning on social media

[jamsofdeath0]

I think the biggest issue with shield hero is the author accidentally wrote motoyasu into being in the right. this wouldn't have been an issue if they decided to address it instead of tripling down on him "being an idiot" instead of a morally upright dude who believed a woman when she claimed to be raped.

Naofumi for all intensive purposes looks like the most reprehensible motherfucker on the planet from the outside. I wouldn't take his goddamn side. but the story NEEDS you to be with him. so they thoroughly make him sympathetic before he buys the child slave. now don't get me wrong I love this plot point. I think "protagonist buys a child slave" could have been a fucking awesome story. but the author didnt actually want to go into how fucked up that is. they just wanted to write isekai wish fulfillment about a guy at the bottom revenge plotting his way to the top. this is fine to. this can be a perfectly serviceable or even good plot. the problem is the second sheild hero stops being a dark fantasy (episode 5) it gets obscenely boring. like so fucking dull.

this is because they didn't know how to get you onto naofumis (the man who owns a child slave) side without making the antagonist needlessly over the toply cruel (myne) or the most annoying performtive idiot on the planet (motoyasu)

lets examine motoyasu. hes a womanizer. not very bright. believes myne when she claims to be raped. duels naofumi to free a slave.

none of these things are bad. his attempt at free raphtalia (the slave) is maybe a tad performative, naofumi calls this out himself when he brings up slavery being legal, but its not evil. it GOOD. even if its a little to do with his personal beef with naofumi that to could just be interesting writing.

hes FLAWED (being gullible) yes but thats just being a well written character. (he isnt)

so the shows written a well meaning but flawed antagonist. hes against the protagonist bc he rightfully believes him an irredeemable monster who raped women and own slaves.

what will be done with this charater? nothing interesting i assure you. the episode after the duel instead of having him question why the slave girl actually liked naofumi at all (the man they at this point belive to BE A RAPIST (he isnt but they dont know that)) he shows up at a village to become a figure head lord. mynes calling all the shots. and she says the first decree will be that anyone who enters the village will have to pay a toll of FIFTY SILVER. FIFTY! Naofumi then says a night a board AND food is only 2. Thats above cartoonishly evil. thats just stupid. youre not going to make any money that way no one's going to be able to afford the fee. your just killing a village to kill it.

What does motoyasu do when this VERY CLEAR EVIL is happening right in front of him by HIS SIDE? look stupid and double down bc he doesnt like naofumi. he shows hes willing to fuck over a TON of people just to get a go at one guy.

this is the second their whole dynamic becomes so boring. it becomes "naofumi right"; "motoyasu stupid". when motoyasu loses his assumed moral high ground. when hes no longer fighting for what he believes is right.

whereas before their clashes had been moral and even nuanced to a degree now its just a postering idiot and a guy who can inly be bothered bc hes LITERALLY GENUINELY being forced to.

[dolphin1812]

The porter’s murder is terrifying and graphic; he couldn’t see what was happening, and Hugo tells us how the bullet passed through him. The barricade now has an element of horror that can’t be forgotten.

I shouldn’t have used the word “terrifying” for Le Cabuc’s act, because Enjolras is terrifying, too. He just forces this man down! And he kills him so calmly! This what “capable of being terrible” really means – he’s caring to his friends and loves the people, but he’s willing to do dark things for his cause, and he’s resolute in doing so (and he even says “terrible” to describe his actions in some translations!).

When Enjolras told Grantaire to leave because he was “dishonoring” the barricade, he was operating the same way he is here. Le Cabuc sullied the barricade’s integrity with murder, so he was executed. But Enjolras condemns himself as executioner, too, because he believes violence is abhorrent (“Death, I make use of thee, but I abhor thee”). His act is just in his eyes, yes, but it’s just in an “old” order that yields to “necessity.” He wants none of that to exist! And so he thinks he must die, too, because now he is tainted by the violence of the old world. His speech is moving, but it’s tragic. The hopeful side is one he excludes himself from entirely. 

Combeferre is the first to say he’ll join him, which is moving for two reasons. One (and most generally), it’s a sign of how much they care about each other. Enjolras hadn’t said what his fate would be, but Combeferre offers to share it immediately, regardless of how bad it is! Secondly, Enjolras’ view of justice here has likely been influenced by Combeferre: “the good must be innocent,” and Enjolras can’t see himself as “innocent” after what he did. Therefore, he is no longer “good,” and cannot see himself in that perfect world. And Combeferre isn’t the only influence! He says “the human race,” not “France,” suggesting that Feuilly’s broader perspective may have gotten to him. But Combeferre’s influence is the one that condemns him.

This may sound like a critique of Combeferre (that sort of life-long punishment wasn’t his intention – it resembles the prison system), but it’s also important to keep in mind that while these are beloved characters to us, they’re also symbols. To those who despised protests for being messy and violent, what could be more appealing than someone who rejects that aspect so entirely that he disciplines the barricade and condemns himself for what he’s done? It’s difficult to say the barricade is full of “troublemakers” in the face of Enjolras’ principles, and it encourages those who simply want peace to sympathize with him (a revolutionary) most of all. 

And Le Cabuc was probably Claquesous! It would make sense with how he was a stranger to those who supposedly knew him, maintaining his air of mystery. And it means there really were a lot of police spies, with two known (possible) ones at just one barricade! Claquesous’ violence may have even been intentional if he was there as a spy, trying to turn the people against the barricade by making it needlessly violent.

[pancake-breakfast]

I think a lot about Geto's shift as revealed to us in the Hidden Inventories/Premature Death arc. Some attribute it to Riko's death and all, but... it's always seemed like so much more than that. I love the way his change is portrayed because, as in real life, it's not instantaneous, but rather a slow progression of events that gradually shifts something core in what he already is.

Massive JJK Hidden Inventories/Premature Death Spoilers Ahead

The Seeds

The seeds of Geto's fall were already there from the beginning; these events just served to allow them to flourish. To start, one of the earlier things we learn about Geto is that one of his core beliefs is that society should protect the weak and keep the strong in check.

Remember this, because this is the root of everything that follows about his character. This is where it begins. And we need to note that, at this point, Geto defines "the weak" as people who can't use jujutsu and "the strong" as jujutsu sorcerers. It stands to reason that he sees this ideal to apply particularly heavily to himself and Gojo, since out of all the jujutsu sorcerers, they are two of only three known special grades at that time, and thus "the strongest." Meaning they are the ones that need to be "in check" and serving society the most, since they can do the most to protect the weak.

He believes all of this so strongly that only a couple pages later, he's willing to throw hands with his BFF Gojo over it. For him, this ideal is not negotiable. This is something very core to his character, and it's why he keeps himself restrained and gives Gojo so much crap for the many (MANY) ways Gojo just... doesn't. (We're talking everything from forgetting to put up a barrier to insisting on using "ore" as his pronoun despite it being more prideful and, coming from someone as powerful as Gojo, intimidating of male pronouns.)

Geto might have a bit of a flare for the dramatic, but at this point, one of his biggest goals is basically to make sure everyone knows he's the "good guy." Like, sure, he's a special grade, but he's more disciplined than Gojo and is silently accepting the of the slow and constant line of shit he's fed (both figuratively and, if you want to take into account the taste of curses, literally) in order 1) set other jujutsu sorcerers at ease and 2) to fulfill his perceived duty as one of "the strongest" to protect the weak.

Then Riko Dies

But Riko doesn't just die. She's killed in front of him, needlessly, because he and Satoru had already decided they'd protect her from jujutsu society itself if she didn't want to merge with Tengen, and she'd already decided that, at best, she wasn't ready to merge with Tengen and stop being herself. Her assassination was intended to prevent the merger, but at this point, the merger wasn't going to happen anyway.

On top of that, at the moment when Riko is killed, Geto has to assume Toji has already slaughtered Gojo... a fear that, moments later, Toji himself confirms (even if he proves to be mistaken later).

They were the strongest, and yet they were both taken down. For all Geto knows at this point, the only reason he's gonna be the one (the ONLY one) to live through this is due to the fluke of him being a curse manipulator since Toji refuses to kill him and release all the curses within him.

They were the strongest, and yet they failed utterly to protect the weak, either by keeping Riko alive or by allowing the merger and protecting others via Tengen.

It's literally the worst possible scenario in light of his ideal that he, as one of society's strongest, is supposed to protect the weak.

This is the moment where Geto starts to realize something Gojo doesn't learn until after Geto leaves Jujutsu high; namely, that pure strength just isn't enough.

Gojo and Geto take different paths in light of their respective revelations here... but I'm getting ahead of myself a bit.

The events around Riko's death shook Geto's foundation to the core. Society is supposed to protect the weak. The strongest are supposed to serve society by protecting the weak. "The strongest" are jujutsu sorcerers, and of all the jujutsu sorcerers, he and Gojo are the strongest of the strong. "The weak" are those who can't wield jujutsu.

But he just watched helplessly while a human with no cursed energy (and thus who, logically, should have been the weakest of the weak) bested both Gojo and himself and turned their mission into an utter failure. And then he watched as a bunch more of these "weak" humans proceeded to celebrate the murder of Riko, a girl who's only crime was to be caught in the web of fate and, perhaps, to dream of defying it for only a few moments.

Perhaps here is where Geto first realized those he saw as weak were still capable of strength, or perhaps he never quite made that connection. But it's absolutely when he realized that there were monsters amongst those he was supposed to be protecting. And that caused him to start asking himself, "Who exactly am I supposed to be protecting?"

Ideally, he would have been able to go to a therapist to help him work through this, but from what we've seen thus far, we have no reason to believe jujutsu society has anything resembling mental health care for the many horrible things their sorcerers have to face. So instead, maybe he could have turned to a trusted friend. But... he doesn't.

This is somewhat out of his control; over the course of the next year, both he and Gojo are being sent on more and more solo missions, and as such they have less time together. But part of it is just... Geto being Geto.

Gojo notices something's wrong, but when he tries to reach out and help, Geto pushes his hand aside.

Maybe this is the only time Gojo reached out, or maybe he reached out several times and Geto continually didn't accept for any number of reasons (internalized standards of masculinity, wanting to still be "the strongest", not wanting to burden his friend, struggling to much with his own thoughts to find words, etc. etc.). It doesn't matter much because the end result is the same. Geto ends up isolated, his growing doubts eating at his very core, struggling to remember the why behind something he thought he'd never forget: that the strong exist to protect the weak.

Then the second major event hits...

Gojo Meets Yuki

And she proposes to him something he hadn't thought of before.

It all seems so simple and logical. Why stand in between a danger and a victim when you can instead get to the root cause and prevent the danger from existing in the first place?

As she explains more about her theories for stopping curses from coming into being, Geto's long-simmering frustration at the events surrounding Riko's death cause him to stumble upon an option that Yuki herself has considered, but tossed out. Namely, if curses are only formed from non-sorcerers, why not kill all non-sorcerers?

It's important to note that, while he presents this idea, he's not exactly sold on it yet. It's very much born of an overflow of emotion and frustration rather than a serious consideration at this point, as he hasn't yet let go of the idea of himself as the Strong Sorcerer Protector of the Weak Non-Sorcerer Humans. As such, he's taken aback when Yuki casually mentions that it might actually be the easiest way to accomplish the goal, even if it's an absolutely insane method that has no place being considered when other methods are possible.

But shortly after, another event occurs: Haibara's death.

I don't actually list this as among the three major events that made Geto go from the idealist who taught Gojo his best side to a mass murderer hellbent on genocide because, while this event absolutely had an impact on Geto, it only served to reinforce what he was already struggling with rather than introduce anything new. He and Gojo ended up surviving their encounter with Toji, but this time around, someone he was close to didn't. The most gentle of Geto's schoolmates lost his life standing in between a curse and its potential victims, doing his duty as a good sorcerer should, leaving Nanami a mess and rendering the class a grade below Geto, Gojo, and Shoko functionally useless in jujutsu society.

The grade below them. The students they were supposed to, to some degree, protect and look after. And again, there was nothing they could do.

Then again, maybe this was the first place where Geto started truly recognizing that sorcerers, for all their strength, could be victims who might need protecting, too.

The final event, the one that tips him over the edge, comes narratively immediately after Haibara's death, and that's when...

Geto Finds Nanako and Mimiko

Because it's hard, if not impossible, to look at two bruised and battered children huddling together in terror in a cage and see anything other than victims.

This is the point that fills in the cracks in Geto's foundation and rebuilds it anew. Society should protect the weak and keep the strong in check. But the society he was taught to trust in has failed the weak. It failed Haibara, and it has failed these girls. These girls may be sorcerers, but they are weak compared to the wrath and anger of the people in their village... people who continue to create curse after curse after curse... far more than two young children could mitigate even if they weren't being beaten and kept imprisoned.

If sorcerers are the ones who suffer the most due to the curses created by (and only by) normies, then maybe the normies are the ones who need to be brought in check. And the curses they create may be strong, but Geto's stronger still. So he does what he's always done: he protects the weak.

But now the roles have been switched. "The weak" are now defined as jujutsu sorcerers and "the strong" are now defined as the careless, thoughtless, simple monkeys who keep mindlessly creating the very things that are tearing apart not only the monkeys themselves, but the people who have been fighting so hard to protect them. Normal, non-jujutsu-wielding humans have NO IDEA the havoc they casually wreak, but they just keep doing it.

Geto may have strength, but he isn't a monkey. He has the intelligence to keep his curses in check, and event to use them to protect others. And so it's his duty to do something about those who are stupidly letting their strength run rampant over others. Because if he doesn't, there will just be more Nanakos and Mimikos and Haibaras and Rikos, and none, NONE of that is acceptable. Because these individuals, even if they are sorcerers, are weak and should be protected.

Geto is strong, so he will protect them. He will eradicate the source of the danger and make the world safe for those who are now suffering, and he will do so swiftly and thoroughly.

By any means necessary.

**(To go back really quickly to where Geto and Gojo differ when they realize that just being strong isn't enough.... Geto becomes obsessed with the idea of obtaining more strength through power. He takes over a cult so he can wield people and beliefs to his own ends. He gathers as many curses as he can. He tries to get Yuuta on his side so he can vicariously use Rika, queen of curses, to aid him in his goal, and when that fails, he tries to take her by force. Meanwhile, Gojo decides instead to invest in the other people around him, becoming a teacher and doing everything he can to instill his values for how to change society for the better in all of his students. It's a longer, harder, and less certain path than Geto's path of power, especially given, as Geto points out, that Gojo could succeed by taking Geto's path with relative ease. I wonder if, at the end of the story, he'll think it was worth it. I wonder if we, the readers, will think it was worth it.)

[miss0atae]

Meet You at the Blossom : Confessions and Lamentations (EP 9 – 10)

What a roller-coaster we got this week with the two latest episodes of Meet You at the Blossom. I was on edge during the whole time because I couldn't stand to see Xiao Bao and Huai En hurting because of what others did to them. It made me think of one of my favorite trope and how the genre can be subdue to something bigger. The trope is “Finding the cure”. As we learned, last week, Xiao Bin poisoned Xiao Bao to make him pay for something that happened some times ago. Since then, Xiao Bao has been suffering from the after-effects of the poison. He also has a deep mistrust to Huai En because he believes he was led by him to his misfortune. Of course, Huai En had no idea. He came to see him thinking his family just lost its money and he would now have to depend on him. Huai En has always been quite unhinged when it comes to his love for Xiao Bao, but he would be a different character if he wasn't acting this way. Xiao Bao and Huai En had a few misunderstandings these episodes because of what happened, but also because they weren't helped by other characters who tried to separate them (I think about Su Yin. I was rooting for him and how disappointed with him I am right now). I felt like only one character was really understanding them: Jiao Bao and maybe Si Ming who was neutral.

So the "Finding the Cure" trope is quite common: one of the character, here Xiao Bao, gets poisoned and there is only a very rare cure for them. The other characters/heroes will spend the remaining time trying to find this cure in a needlessly complicated quest. Why Xiao Bin didn't choose an easier mean of hurting Xiao Bao?! Probably because death is not the most important to him. What matters is to hurt Xiao Bao the most then lead him to a slow death. Of course the poison is here to add a layer of drama to the series. As Xiao Bao is experiencing the different painful effects of the poison he was given, we are, the viewers, experiencing his pain and his loss of his cheerful persona. Xiao Bao was not only affected physically by the poison, but also mentally. In some way or another it's almost as if he has been poisoned in the mind. It had an impact on his self-worth, but also on his relationship with Huai En. It's a powerful metaphor for another big problem in any relationship: the lack of trust. To build a strong relationship you need to have trust on your partner. Xiao Bin may have been the poisoner, but to Xiao Bao (without more information and because he was mislead by many people), it was also Huai En who poisoned him. The poison symbolizes deceit. Xiao Bao was deceit by Huai En and this poison is worse than the one he has to survive from.

If the poison is a metaphor for deceit, let's also admit that Huai En is also a victim of it. In episode 9, he discovered his whole life story was fake. The person he thought was his father, wasn't really his father. He is, in fact, the first born of the emperor. He was taken by his foster father to be a living weapon in his revenge against those who wronged Huai En's mother. Since Huai En was the son of his brother, he never gave him any love. It didn't matter if he was the son of the woman he loved. His prejudices prevented him from treating him with respect and love. In some way, Huai En was poised by the desire of revenge from his foster father. He was raised to be ruthless and to do only one task. Huai En never experienced love and acceptance from any one before meeting Xiao Bao. That's why its relationship is so precious to him. Despite being unable to have a healthy understanding of what is love (his foster father never had a healthy love with his mother) Huai En is yearning for the love Xiao Bao has to offer. The lies and the actions of other characters to separate them aren't really “poisoning” his desire to have Xiao Bao's love back. That's why Huai En, when learning about the truth, is ready to go through any hardships to save his lover. He is also never quite abandoning Xiao Bao, even if he gets rejected by him or if he has to hear him tell him hurtful things. To Huai En, love was a cure to his dull and sad life, and he will find the cure for Xiao Bao's poison.

I also believe the poison through a knock-on effect is also going to drift apart Su Yin. Xiao Bao is experiencing a real poison, Huai En was poisoned by deceit and Su Yin is going to poison his relationship with Xiao Bao because of Envy. Envy is a poison that strangles as it's spoiling relationship and friendship. Xiao Bao has always considered Su Yin to be his friend because he has always been here to help him. Of course, the viewers, spotted easily that Su Yin was doing all of this because he has feelings for Xiao Bao. Even if our little fool never really had any romantic feelings for Su Yin, he admires him. Su Yin helped him get away from the prison and to find a doctor to help him treat him. It's also Su Yin who, firstly, was trying to gather the seven Crimson Dahlia to save Xiao Bao. However, since Huai En has joined the search and he has been discovered as the Emperor's son, Su Yin isn't acting the same. He may be afraid of losing Xiao Bao again to him and guided by his jealousy he is following a path that will surely souring his relationship with Xiao Bao. He has joined hands with Shao Yu to kill Huai En. It will help the emperor's son to stay the only heir, but it will also allow him to not have any rival to gain Xiao Bao's affection. Is there a cure for jealousy and envy? Su Yin was the voice of reason especially to Shao Yu and also sometimes to Xiao Bao. However, now that he is following the poison of Envy, it will be difficult to save Su Yin.

I would also say that Shao Yu is also suffering from the same poison, but the story hasn't shown us a good side of him, yet (unlike Su Yin). He just seems to be an insufferable brat with too much power and time in his hands to do something better. I feel like it's going to backfire to him, but maybe it's the lesson he needs to be able to improve himself.

There are all kinds of poisons in these last episodes and the cure will differ from each character. I wonder if in the case of Xiao Bao we will discover that the antidote may not be the Crimson Dahlia, but something else. As for the others, their actions in the coming episodes will say if they will be cured from their own poison (my bet is on Huai En).

[dailyhelldorm]

[TL] Eichi 3☆ Story - Together

Writer: Happy Elements, Inc (Happy Elements株式会社) Characters: Tori, Yuzuru, Eichi Season: Autumn

Eichi: Fumu. I don't mind. But I want to know your reason. Just why do you want to leave it for next time? Tori: Uhm, you see. If we are wishing for dreams, then they should be made by everyone in 'fine'… can the four of us do it together?

[Let's start ♪]

Location: Common Room

Tori: Ah~ah~ Even though today is 'Eichi Day', Hibiki-senpai suddenly has work to attend to. We even promised to visit the aquarium together too.

Eichi: Oh my, Tori. Having me here is not making up for your loneliness because of Wataru’s absence?

Tori: Eh? No way, there isn't such a thing, Eichi-sama! Being able to hang out with Eichi-sama, I'm already happy as it is ♪

It is just that, I was slightly looking forward to our four-people date to the aquarium, that's all...

Yuzuru: Well, this time it couldn't be helped, Bocchama. I heard that the theater group Hibiki-sama belongs to suddenly called him in, they needed an emergency substitute for their local play.

Tori: Oh well. I understand that he still needs to prioritize his work first and foremost.

Eichi: That's right. It's a shame that Wataru can't join us, but let's save the enthusiasm for the later day. Today will only have three of us enjoying our day off together.

Tori: Uhm. Just like what you said.

Ehehe~ Eichi-sama. Today I will escort you with all my might!

Eichi: Fufu. I am looking forward to it ♪

Yuzuru: Then, two young masters, where shall we visit today?

Tori: Eichi-sama, what do you want to do today?

Eichi: U~hm. Let's see...

Ah, I do. Actually, I want to come to this certain place—

Location: Shopping Mall 1F

Yuzuru: Uhm... This place is the shopping mall.

Tori: Eichi-sama. Is this the place you truly want to come?

Eichi: Yes. I was feeling like doing some shopping today.

Yuzuru: Shopping... In my opinion, you needlessly have to do the shopping by yourself, the Tenshouin Household opts to do it for you. May I know your reason?

Eichi: Well. Although all the goods here and there are brought into the salon gathering by the responsible parties, just gazing at those things... How it is, isn't that quite monotonous?

When I just graduated from Yumenosaki, I once excused myself and came to watch Hajime-kun and everyone doing a shopping mall live here...

After the live, we walked around and went shopping together, and it was a fantastic experience. So by all means, I wish to share that joy with Tori and Yuzuru.

Tori: Heh, did something like that happen? I am so happy that Eichi-sama wants me to experience the same interesting stuff that happened to you... ☆

Eichi: Fufu, if you are happy with it then I am pleased.

Yuzuru: I have understood Eichi-sama's reason for choosing this place. If that is the case then I will support you to the best of my ability.

Eichi: Yes. I am counting on you. Besides that, do you know recently that they have installed a transacting register system for consumers to scan their own purchases? If I'm not mistaken... I think they call it the self-checkout.

That sounds very intriguing. I want to try and meddle with that machine at least once... ♪

Tori: Eh, there is a thing like that!? I want to try it too!

Eichi: Then shall the two of us do it together?

Yuzuru: Uhm... From what I can see, it's quite a shame that all the stores around this place have yet to install self-checkout machines.

Location: Cafe Shop

Tori: Fufufu~ We have gone and bought a lot in our shopping! Eichi-sama has coordinated me today, so on our next 'Eichi Day', I will organize the date for him.

Eichi: I am looking forward to it, Tori.

Yuzuru: After we're done with our shopping, Eichi-sama strongly suggests that we come to this cafe and have our rest here… Do you have some intention in your mind?

Eichi: Yeah. Truthfully, I have wanted to eat 'this thing'.

Tori: Do Eichi-sama have something you want to eat? Let me see the menu too ♪ Let's see, let's see...

Eh!? Eichi-sama wants to eat this?

Eichi: Yes. This Dream Jumbo Parfait is becoming a hot topic on SNS, so I want to eat it once.

That said. As one might expect, it will be difficult for one person to finish the parfait due to its enormous size. So I want everyone to join in and we can eat it together.

For some reason, they say that if they finish eating this parfait, their 'wish' will come true. And it seems that there is someone out there who actually got an actual result.

Fufu. Even when I found the talk absurd, I also think this is quite a fun thing to do. Maybe we should ask for ‘fine'’s smooth advance and for our dreams to come true?... ♪

Yuzuru: This parfait seems four times bigger than a normal one... Just from viewing its picture, I already feel my stomach full...

Overeating is no good. Much less to say about Eichi-sama's body, in exchange for finishing the parfait, it might make your body go down for a while.

Eichi: Oh dear, Yuzuru's words are as harsh as always.

How about you Tori? You enjoy sweet things, right?

Tori: Uhm... About this... I...

Yuzuru: Oh my? What is with your stutter I may ask? I had expected that Bocchama would start whining just to eat the parfait... Is there something wrong?

Tori: You know, Eichi-sama. About this parfait, can we eat it the next time?

Eichi: Fumu. I don't mind. But I want to know your reason. Just why do you want to leave it for next time?

Tori: Uhm, you see. If we are wishing for dreams, then they should be made by everyone in 'fine'... can the four of us do it together?

Therefore, next time when Hibiki-senpai joins us, why won't we come again and eat it then?

Eichi: ...Ah, that's right. Just like what you said, Tori.

On our next 'Eichi Day' with Wataru too, let’s challenge the parfait when the four of us are together. ♪

[The end ☆]

[talesfrommedinastation]

Redneck Doug on ALL the other Clones in Star Wars!

As promised, for reaching a new number of followers, here's Doug's list when I asked him to name off all the clones in 'The Clone Wars' and 'The Bad Batch'!

Some are obviously repeats of other posts, and some are brand spanking new.

I'm using my autoethnography skills to their fullest extent, here, people.

This is LONG but hey! 7 seasons of The Clone Wars and 3 seasons of The Bad Batch means animated Star Wars in the Days of our Lives of animation.

If I'm missing someone, let me know! I'll reach out to Doug!

Enjoy, everyone!

CW: Redneck Doug just rambles needlessly about people.

And Clermont Lounge is one of the scariest and yet, most fun places in the ATL and I could 100% see one of the 501st working there.

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

Bly: That’s a boy, his name’s Miguel. Got his friends, they drink Pabst, shoot the empty cans behind the garage when they done, and hit on every woman that walks by. But Miguel’s got his eyes on Babe-the-Blue-Jedi and steals flowers from people’s yard and gives them to her. Babe-the-Blue-Jedi knows the man’s not that bright but his heart’s in the right place and that’s all that matters, right? 

Rex: That's Rex. He's a king. Respect him. 

Cody: That’s Obi-Wan’s Boyfriend, he’s sad all the time. We know why. (Confirmed that Doug is a Codywan shipper and I don’t know what to do about that)

Howzer: That’s my niece’s boyfriend, Jorge. We all love Jorge, nice guy, owns an auto repair shop and always remembers plates and napkins for the cookouts after church.

Gregor: Jorge’s cousin, Manny. Met him once at Christmas in Miami, nice guy, only drinks brown liquor and insists everyone arm wrestle him. But he’s got a good job as a PE teacher, we respect education, come on now. 

Hardcase: Wiggles. He laughs at everything and never wears a helmet both on his big head and his lil head and that explains everything about the man.

Kix: Nurse Mark. He's tired and sick of your shit, sick of the creeps trying to get the Fentanyl, that's a crime now, ain't it.

Echo: "Eh, Toaster Strudel. Homeboy looks like his daddy had an affair with a convection oven on shore leave and forgot to pay child support."

Mayday: Aw, I liked this guy so much! That’s Sassy Park Ranger, he’s the type that gives you your camping permits, warns you about the bears, and then is all disappointed when you don’t properly stow your food and the bears destroy the campsite. I need to go back to Little River Canyon, that place was pretty. 

Scorch: The Son of Robocop. His daddy told him to get off his lazy Robo-son ass and go get a job, so he works for the Empire now, because no one can get a job in Detroit. That’s why he’s a bad person. (Because he works for the Empire? “No, because he’s a Lions fan and that ain’t a good look for anyone.”)  

Fives: Alex-from-Manitoba. He reminds me so much of this awesome guy I knew, Alex, was from Winnipeg, we worked in oil together. Smart, knew his shit, loved guns and getting his hair did. No one listens to him, management hates him, and he gets fired. Man I was so pissed off when that happened with that damn alien that ran the ocean on the mall! He deserved better, damn it!

(Fives or Alex-from-Manitoba?

“BOTH!!!”)

99: 99!  

(You actually remember his name?  

“Hell yeah! He’s one of the most important characters! Why would I not?” 

::cue me, quietly staring at all the weird-ass names over texts and saying NOTHING in response::) 

Wolffe: Bernando. I dunno, man, he got that Bernardo energy. I’ve met three and they all looked like they wanna run off into the woods and come out when they got a deer they need to process and take a shower and find a lady before running back into the woods. Also Bernardo never has a girlfriend that lasts more than 6 months with him. Don’t know why. Just trust me. 

Gree: Carnie Joe. Man, he looks like the type of guy who drives an ice cream truck but there ain’t no Bomb Pops inside if you know what I mean. 

Cut Lawquane: Not-Wolverine. He ran away from the Empire, grew out his muttonchops, wanted to join the X-Men, Charles Xavier said ‘Nah son you need super powers for that’, and then Not-Wolverine stomped off into Tremors-land and started a pot-and-chicken farm like every other hillbilly in Kentucky. But he got a hot wife out of the deal and some nice kids and lots of guns, and ya know, that ain’t a bad ending for the man. 

Commander Fox: Red-Chief-of-Police. He’s absolutely on them Ticky-Tack videos my nieces and nephews watch where the cops are doing bad things but they ain’t gonna get fired over it. Man. It ain’t right. 

Tup: Alex’s-Friend-Matt. Aw, Matt, good guy, but too much brain damage after that time he fell off the roof while laying down tar. He grew out his ponytail to hide the dent in his head and talked funny afterwards, but he real good at roughneck work and I can’t fault the man, nope. 

Hevy: That’s Ross. He’s always mad because he’s insecure. He’s got a lot of Nerf guns and only eats stuff you can find at 7-11. 

Jesse: That’s Jesse, he’s a trucker, was a bouncer at Clermont Lounge in Atlanta, and has three ex-wives who all hate him. He shaves his head because his hair hates him too. 

Crosshair: So that there's Daddy Warcrimes. All you need to know is he lives on beer and Slim Jims, has more guns then Jesus got faith, and that he does your mom on the weekends, and then you thank him for his service.

Hunter: Aw man, we got Rambo up in this place. Daddy Rambo. He looks like he's got some hot wife with a huge butt who makes amazing biscuits, but he only showers on the weekends for reasons he won't tell you.

Wrecker: I know, I KNOW, he's got some cool Star Wars name, but in my head, he's Julio. He looks like a Julio, ya know? Every Julio's been the nicest guy with a truck and a million friends. I swear. I bet he's a contractor and lays pipe like you wouldn't believe. ::winks::

Tech: Hm, yeah, I know him. That's Ryan-from-Accounting, somebody's hipster dad. You know, everyone knows a Ryan who works in accounting, he's quiet, only drinks IPAs, and has a bitch wife named Laura who drives a Kia and is always yelling at him. Poor man. I hope Julio saves him from his bitch wife Laura.*

Omega: Little Orphan Blondie. I hope she gets real parents or something besides those freaky alien things running the mall on the ocean.

Emerie Karr: Stepsister-Beth. She’s got a stick up her rear, was in a sorority known for bitchy Daddy’s Girls who wouldn’t touch below the belt but are all about using other places for their date’s hoses to put out the fire, and only drinks almond milk lattes. She’s a bitch to waiters and drives a Prius. 

(“Doug I drive a Prius.”

“Yeah, but you ain’t a southern sorority girl so y’all forgiven.”)

Nemec and Fireball: Trigger and Nutsy. They’ve been in a survival militia in the Florida Everglades and that’s all you need to know. 

CX-2: The Guy from Tron. He’s a guy, and he was in the movie Tron. That’s it.