#this isn't even magic man to me any more this is like another character entirely

[lyril]

this has boggled my mind for days

using this as an excuse to make you look at my human magic man also

[narcissistcookbook]

about thirteen or fourteen years ago @inkylizard told me about this show Sleep No More (description beneath the cut) they'd seen in an early run in Boston, and i had such bittersweet feelings listening to them talk about it because 1) it was absolutely my kind of thing, and 2) it was basically impossible to see it because it was so far away (i'm Scotland-based)

and since then i probably thought about the show more than most people who have seen it. i ended up working some of what kit described to me into my own music and shows, in a very vague sense

anyway, fast forward over a decade and i'm in NYC for ten days prior to tour and kit tells me that Sleep No More is still on, and it's about to close forever so this is my first and last chance to see it

so anyway

i finally saw it and it was amazing. for once hype wasn't the joy killer. it was inspiring and empowering and it's made me want to explore some of the more outlandish ideas that have been tickling my brain in terms of music writing/performance

i almost went again today, but low energy mixed with a fear of not wanting to dilute the magic by returning to the source convinced me otherwise. i think it means more to me to wait over a decade to see it, and then never be able to see it again.

Brief description of Sleep No More if you haven't seen it and aren't aware of it, told from the perspective of someone who had it described to them once and then saw it once 13 years later and has done no reading or research beyond that. Apologies if I describe it in a way that makes you squirm and go "nooo you aren't explaining it right" 💜

Sleep No More is an adaptation of Macbeth told mostly through the medium of Dance and Vibes. It takes place across the breadth and depth of an entire five floor building called the McKittrick Hotel, which is a dreamlike network of TV/movie-quality sets (a ballroom, a hotel, a city apartment, hell, a street of open shops, a mental hospital, a forest, witches' dens, a huge room full clocks connected to a tiny prayer vestibule, there's too many to mention) and masked audience members are encouraged to wander freely and explore the entirety of the building in any way they like

all the sets are fully explorable and designed to be examined in close detail. if you dig around you'll find letters, medical records, diaries, a fully stocked and unguarded sweet shop, hidden dressing rooms, discarded props, again much more than I could list off here. rooms have backrooms which have other backrooms. secret passageways connect parts of the building/story to other parts.

and through all this the cast are whirling and screeching and sprinting from place to another with little regard for who is or isn't following their storyline. at one point I was one of only two people watching an actor sew up a disembowled teddybear in a child's bedroom - and in the mirror, the same bedroom was reflected covered in blood. at another I was the only person watching a nurse tuck a man made of rocks into a hospital bed. at another, I turned a corner and one of the witches (with about twenty people in tow struggling to keep up) barrelled into me on their way to a scene elsewhere (he stopped and gave me a boop on the nose). another time, i walked into what I thought was an empty interrogation room only to realise after *far too long* that one of the characters was hiding in there with me

and on top of all this, each character has a scene they will only perform to one other audience member chosen by them

the magic for me is that not only can you not see the whole show in a single visit, but that it's basically impossible for anyone to see the whole show period no matter how hard they try. someone i know has seen it seven times and i've seen parts of it that they didn't even know about. it creates a sense of longing for what you'll never see, a sense of loss for the parts you missed, and a deep sense of personal connection with what you were lucky enough to see

what a banger

[moeitsu]

Since it's pride month I wanna talk about something I've noticed in the Red Dead Redemption fandom:

The Bisexual erasure of Sadie Adler and Arthur Morgan.

I apologize if this comes across as harsh, but it's something that's been on my mind since I started interacting w/ this media. And as a bisexual, I wanted to discuss it further.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with shipping these characters with the same sex. Personally, I am a Charthur shipper till the day I die. I don't ship Sadie with anyone but her husband, but I still enjoy seeing the fanart and headcanons of the women she's shipped with.

That being said, these characters are not lesbian or gay. That's literally a fact, and if you think otherwise it is bisexual erasure.

Let's start with Sadie Adler. Her entire character arc is getting revenge on the O'Driscolls for killing her husband. Whom she mourns for years, and talks about frequently with Arthur/other camp members. Now, if you want to ship her w/ Abigail or Molly or whomever, go for it!! But she has loved and still loves her husband. She is not a lesbian, and she didn't just magically turn into a lesbian after Jake's death. If she had any love interests other than Jake, this would make her bisexual. (even Sapphic is still a more appropriate term than lesbian)

The same goes for women in real life who have dated men first, then dated a woman. Just because their current partner is the same sex doesn't mean we can assume they are suddenly lesbian. Calling characters lesbians even if they have been in a relationship with men before is bisexual erasure.

This same concept is applied to Arthur Morgan. He had previous relationships with women. (one of whom he still has strong feelings for) and he is attracted to women. We see this with his greeting dialogue and when he compliments people. I believe Arthur's character is more likely to be bisexual than Sadie's, given his interactions w/ some of the men in the game. But that doesn't erase the fact that he's still attracted to the opposite sex. Arthur is not a gay man. Disregarding his past relationships w/ women is a form of bisexual erasure.

There is a huge double standard here because if these character's were actually lesbian/gay and the fandom decided to ship them with people of the opposite sex (i.e headcanon they are bi), there would be a major discourse.

Whenever bisexual women and men are presented in the media I always notice a few things:

Bi women are "secretly straight"

Bi women "don't know their lesbian yet"

Bi men are "secretly gay"

As well as this funny little graphic below ↓

Like I said before, I am bisexual. And if I'm being honest this years pride month has been exhausting and mildly infuriating with how the community seems to disregard bisexuals in a hetero relationship.

I stopped talking about my bisexuality with people because once they know I have been in a committed relationship with a man for seven years, I am suddenly excluded from the conversation.

I've had ex-friends tell me that I only identify as bisexual to "fit in" with the queer community. I've had people in college assume I was lesbian bc of the way I dressed, and then try to tell me that I must be secretly lesbian when I tell them I'm Bi. (Ppl also assumed I was non-binary bc of the way I presented but that's another story)

This stuff doesn't just happen to fictional characters, it happens to real people every single day. I'm honestly tired of ppl saying "well my headcanon doesn't hurt anybody, they're not real." Yes it does!! You are supporting Bi erasure!!

That's all I'm gonna say on this topic for now. I'd love to leave it open for discussion, but please be nice. This isn't a call-out or me trying to antagonize the queer rdr community. I just wanted to get it off my mind.

[tokiro07]

Ichi the Witch ch.20 thoughts

[And the World Will Turn to Ichi]

(Topics: character analysis - Jikishirone/Ichi/Desscaras, narrative analysis - prophecy/speculation)

AwooGA!!!

God damn, that's a hell of a design Jikishirone's got! And her expressions are so fun, I'm such a sucker for that style of toothy grin, especially on girl characters

It's just such a shame that she's clearly only meant to be an occasional cameo at best if not a simple one-off at worst. Her design is just too busy to be a consistently recurring character, and being an oracle doesn't offer a lot of utility outside of being a plot device, as prophecies don't serve a story very well if they're being thrown around left and right

Not that she would do that, though. Jiki's clearly pretty fickle, only sharing an extremely important prophecy mere minutes before it came to pass so no one could do anything meaningful about it, so while she's not a Human Hater, she isn't necessarily a Human Lover either

Desscaras mentioned in ch.2 that there are Magiks that work alongside humanity, and clearly Jiki is one such Magik, but the fact that she's not going out of her way to make her prophecies as useful as possible suggests that she isn't actually interested in helping humanity. It may be that she's just looking to be entertained, or that since she knows the entire world is at stake, this is all just for self-preservation

Or she just has a nasty personality and she really is doing everything she can. She said she "received" her prophecies, suggesting that she doesn't have the power to look though the future on a whim. While she may be capable of withholding information, we don't have any proof yet that the 15-minute prophecy was available any earlier than that

Ooor it did exist earlier, buuut Jiki knew that if she shared the prophecy, Ichi wouldn't meet World Hater, and the dominos wouldn't fall the way they needed to afterward. Jiki may be playing 4D chess, and she knows exactly when a pawn needs to be where in order to set up a checkmate a thousand moves down the line

We simply don't know enough about Jikishirone's motivations or abilities to say how her personality informs her actions, but at the very least she's made it clear that she can't be relied on as a perfect preventative measure

Like I said, her prophecies are more of a plot device, giving us and the cast a sense of direction for where the story is meant to go next rather than serving as a comprehensive strategy guide

Time is Like a River

Now, I'm personally not a fan of prophecies that are so...blatant. "No Witch will ever acquire the World Hater Magik" is fine, because like Lord of the Rings' "no man can slay me," the original Japanese specifies that no "Magic Woman" will acquire the World Hater, leaving it open-ended that anyone who isn't a Magic Woman (like a Magic Man or a somehow non-Magic Woman) feasibly could

However, when the clause that "hope lies within the one who acquires the Uroro Magik" is introduced, that takes any and all ambiguity out of the equation: only one person can acquire a Magik at a time, so unless Ichi dies and another Madan comes along, the prophecy can only be referring to him

Vague prophecies give a lot of wiggle room and allow for narrative deception, giving the audience the opportunity to figure out for themselves what the author's true intentions are without it being spelled out for them. A specific prophecy like this becomes a question of "will it really happen or won't it" rather than "how will it happen." which I simply find less interesting

Of course, we've already established that Jiki can't really be trusted

As she's presented herself, she seems to be willing to hide information until the last minute, and even if her prophecies are perfectly accurate, they clearly don't inherently tell the whole story. As Jiki says, the part where "the Light goes out" was a recent addition to a previously existing prophecy, and one that already had an escape clause built-in with the Light existing at all to avert the destruction of the world. In other words, who's to say that Jiki doesn't already know the way to save Ichi that she just isn't sharing? Or that she won't find one down the line?

This uncertainty doesn't go unnoticed in-universe, either, as Ichi immediately agrees to throwing his life away for the sake of defeating the World Hater

Here For a Good Time, not a Long Time

Ever the optimist, Ichi looks at the prophecy as a win-win situation - either it's true and he dies doing what he loves (hunting and killing a strong opponent) or it's false and he gets to keep living to do what he loves. Either way, Ichi has always accepted the possibility of his own death during a hunt, so he takes the prophecy as more of a comfort that, even if he's fighting something strong enough to kill him, at least he'll take it down in the process

What's especially interesting though is that there's a little bit of a contradiction between this scene and when Ichi first killed the wolf in ch.1. Back then, Ichi thought there was no value in his life, and yet in order to survive, he found the strength of will to kill something else. This gives the impression that Ichi is the type who will do anything to survive, and yet here he's perfectly willing to die for the sake of the hunt, implying that he still doesn't value his life

This is probably something that will be touched on more next week, but I think it's less that he's willing to die and more that he's not bothered by death so long as he lives without regret. If he were to die of old age on a deathbed, I think he'd be pretty disappointed that he's not doing something fun with his last moments, but dying while taking down something stronger than him would be a hell of a story to tell in the afterlife (not that he believes in one)

The question isn't so much what Ichi thinks about death, though; the real question is if he's right to think that way about death, and it looks like Desscaras is going to be the one to answer that for us

It Should've Been Me

As Ichi emphatically agrees to Jikishirone's command that he heroically martyr himself, Desscaras can only stare in silence, her fist clenched in apprehension

There are a few ways to read into this. Since Desscaras was the one who was supposed to acquire Uroro, she may be upset that her failure means that someone else has to die fighting World Hater in her place. She may feel regret that she failed to acquire Uroro, she may feel responsible for getting Ichi killed, she might even feel jealous that she won't be the one to avenge her fallen home. It could even be a combination of all of them and any number of other emotions

It may also be that she's grown attached to Ichi and doesn't want to lose him. Seeing him be so glib with his life, especially since he's giving the same response that he gave when she invited him to join Mantinel in the first place, may well be heartbreaking for her, and again may make her feel like she's the one who got him killed. She may be reading into it the same way I am, surprised that he doesn't value himself as much as she expected

Whatever she's feeling though, her reaction next week will likely lead into a major thesis statement for the series - either she will say what Ichi needs to hear for him to understand just how valuable his life is, or Ichi will reveal a personal truth to Desscaras that makes it clear that while he does value his life, living it in a way that isn't true to himself isn't living at all

Basically, what it comes down to is whether or not Ichi is meant to have a positive character arc or a flat character arc. Is Ichi meant to learn a lesson, or is he meant to teach a lesson? The way this interaction goes will dictate the course of the narrative going forward, though certainly not immutably. It may turn out to be a misdirect, and whatever we're shown may end up reversed further down the line

Either way, I'm excited to see how Ichi and Desscaras' relationship develops from here. Desscaras having an actual emotional response to Ichi's attitude and fate already puts her on a different level than most shonen mentor figures, and I think that will only serve to make her vastly more interesting than the majority of her archetypical cohort

Until next time, let's enjoy life!

[retrosofa]

It's been 10 years and I still don't understand why Kill la Kill gets a pass for having fan service while Cutie Honey constantly gets condemned for it. Likewise, I don't understand how Re: Cutie Honey (arguably one of the raunchier adaptations) also gets a pass while the other series (namely the original) are quickly dismissed.

Recently I heard someone praise Re: Cutie Honey and Kill la Kill but was apprehensive about watching the original Cutie Honey simply because Honey is depicted as 16 years old. This confuses me for a number of reasons:

I never finished Kill la Kill because I hated it so I might've missed something but isn't Ryuuko also a teenager?

Honey is an android so her age is absolutely dubious. Although Honey is depicted as an "adult" in Re: Cutie Honey, she's mentally a child - especially in the live action tie-in where she outright says she's only one year old. So, isn't that kind of worse? Honey is very much an adult woman in New Cutey Honey (166 years old, apparently!) yet I don't see the Kill la Kill/Re: crowd praising that version. Also there are plenty of people who are fine with Cutey Honey Flash even though Honey is actually 16 years old in that version, which arguably has more fanservice than the original.

I'm sure a lot of folks don't realize this because they probably haven't actually bothered to watch it but the original Cutie Honey is extremely tame, especially by today's standards? The more problematic aspects are all over the manga (which I'll give you guys that, I have a hard time defending it) and the nudity is pretty much exclusive to her transformation scenes. It also worth mentioning the Hayami family is never celebrated for any of their problematic behavior. Take for instance a scene where Seiji tries to kiss Honey while she's asleep. He is immediately slapped before anything can happen, the entire scene shows that he is in the wrong. Quite the opposite happens in another magical girl show - Sailor Moon (which as you guys know, I love and adore) - where this sort of thing is heavily romanticized. Also Danbei also makes a lot of sexist comments at the beginning of the series, namely downplaying Honey capabilities simply because she's a woman. This stops shortly after he finds out about her battles with Panther Claw and realizes she's not this feeble little girl he's framed her as. Character development, what a concept!

For the record, I do like Re: Cutie Honey (I wouldn't have worked on the official English release if I didn't!) but it bothers me that it's the only version that most fans praise and make excuses for. Meanwhile the original anime gets dismissed quickly simply because it's 50 years old or something. I don't know. It's annoying. Like literally nearly every Cutie Honey property (and trust I've seen and read basically all of them) is problematic to some extent. Most older media is in one way or another.

I know it's not for everyone but it's sad to see the original Cutie Honey as well as New Cutey Honey and even at times Cutey Honey Flash get pushed aside like this. Re: Cutie Honey is an incredible series for sure but that's not all there is. Honey is such an incredible character and I'm not always fond with the way she was written in Re: Cutie Honey. I say all of this has someone who does not love Honey for the fanservice. I'm just a gay man who likes awesome heroines and that's what Honey is to me.

*drops mic*

[cringekind]

AGOT reread prologue -> catelyn I

i said before that i wanted to "liveblog" my reread of agot that im doing while following a podcast, i guess this is that! I say "liveblog" because I'm annotating as I read and this is more a reflection on that and general thoughts, it would be too disruptive to actually write every time I had a thought to share! long post incoming

brief heads up that if i quote something and the text is colored, that's the color tab I used when I read the book initially. I have 7 colored tabs when reading agot and they are:

yellow - world building details / foreshadowing

orange - simply pretty or funny

red - sansa / jon / jonsa related

blue - any of the other starks centric

green - literally any other character

purple - marks deaths

pink - daenerys related

For the sake of this reading post, both "yellow" and "orange" tabs will be in yellow should I quote them. Having read the book already once I'm not sure if this is exactly how I should've set it up, but hey it there. I'll probably change is for ACOK, who knows.

Sometimes I'm going to quote whatever I tabbed without comment, but not always. Only if I simply think the line is good / pretty.

Prologue

Having the POV character be Will instead of Gared or Waymar is sooooo smart. Despite being high fantasy I like that we aren't dropped into the brain of a Knight right away, but also Will being a hunter is best equipped to actually notice all these little details being told to us.

i have a lot of things highlighted that are simply wonderful to read. I know we talk about it a lot, but George really is an amazing writer, like an actual delight to read. Like this quote:

"Will could sense something else in the older man. You could taste it, a nervous tension that came perilous close to fear."

On a craft level its so good! It tells us something about both Gared (his fear of whatever is in the woods, currently being covered by surliness) and of Will (how observant he is, using all his senses, but also how intuitive he is), and on top of all that it reads so smoothly.

because of my color coded tabs it literally made me giggle to highlight the description of Waymar as "...grey-eyed and graceful and slender as a knife." knowing I'm only thinking of Jon and jonsa. Sorry Waymar, you're beauty is only important to me for ship reasons.

Another thing that struck me as very Jon like happens only a couple lines later:

"It is hard to take orders from a man you laughed at in your cups, Will reflected... Gared must have felt the same."

Despite currently doing a reread of AGOT, I've never read past this book, but this feels so Jon to me. His status as a beloved bastard creates all that tension with his brothers, I imagine the more status he receives the more his brothers feel this. Jon is capable, but then so is Waymar. Doesn't stop Gared and Will from not taking him seriously.

If this chapter had been in Waymar's POV it would have read like a detective novel. He's clearly very analytically minded, but poor Waymar that brain and bravery isn't going to do you any good here.

"It burns, it does. Nothing burns like the cold. But only for a while."

Both Will and Gared have this instinctual fear of the Other's despite not knowing they're real. Like they can feel something is about to happen. I don't believe either of them is from the North, but I wonder if the longer you spend in Beyond the Wall, the more the magic of the place gets to you.

The entire fight between Waymar the the Others is perfect. Waymar's bravery yes, but more importantly it's the perfect introduction to what will be The Big Threat Beyond The Wall for the entire series. They're so nonhuman but not in an animal way, in a Fae way. Cruel and so beyond even a strong man's power, inescapable. Will hiding in the tree was smart and all but him being smart and observant like a hunter and still dying really pushes the idea again that no man is a match for these creatures.

Bran I

Being reminded instantly that Bran is only seven in this book broke my heart so bad. Still such a baby, and on his first big boy duty, watching an execution. If I think about it too long I'll start to get mad at Ned even though he's trying to do what he can to prepare his son's for adulthood.

"He had taken off Father's face, Bran thought, and donned the face of Lord Stark of Winterfell."

Ned's first and last actions in the book being a beheading fuck me up so bad. Every action he takes in these early chapters damns him in some way down the line, no matter how noble the intentions.

"Jon was fourteen, an old hand at justice." is such a silly and yet sad thing for Bran to think. It's so younger brother of him to assume Jon at 14 holds all this knowledge inside him, considers him wise, but Jon is just a child too. It's sad knowing that Jon is expected to act like a man, will be considered a man soon.

"Jon's eyes were a grey so dark they seemed almost black, but there was little they did not see. He was of an age with Robb, but they did not look alike. Jon was slender where Robb was muscular, dark where Robb was fair, graceful and quick where his half brother was strong and fast."

Whatever could all these details mean! This is one of those details from all those Jonsa metas that really fucking got to me. Like three pages before Waymar is described the exact same way, and I'm not meant to connect them in my mind? And then eventually we find out Sansa had a crush on Waymar? idc if I'm grasping at straws it feels real to me.

I love that immediately after than Robb and Jon show just how young they are and race to the bridge. It's one of the last times they'll allowed to be kids.

"Bran thought about it. 'Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?' 'That is the only time a man can be brave,' his father told him."

I think that quote is like a thesis statement for the Starks as a family. I know their words are Winter is Coming, but all of them are eternally brave in the face of their fear. Even Catelyn, so proud of being a Tully, is a Stark in this way.

People always bring up the 'the man who swings the sword' bit from this conversation between Bran and Ned, but the more important bit is just after. "A ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is." This is about the Starks yes, but more importantly it's about Westeros and everyone in it. Like. I can't articulate how important it is, but this is what Ned is trying to teach Bran, not just that Bran should take responsibility for his decisions by fulfilling them himself.

Theon is such a shit, but also Jon snarking him back "I see [a direwolf] now" is the start of Jon's dry ass humor. Why did people make me think Jon is all duty and somber monologues, this kid is funny!! And he continues to be after this iirc!! Jon funny canon please remember this people!!!

The direwolf being impaled on antlers is maybe the least subtle foreshadowing of any in this series and yet it feels so smart to me! To plant this here before we know the Baratheon sigil. And that from the eyes of innocent seven year old Bran this means almost nothing, other than him remarking on how gruesome it is, but later is superstitious Catelyn's eyes it takes on new meanings!!

"He loved Jon with all his heart at that moment. Even at seven, Bran understood what his brother had done. The count had some right only because Jon had omitted himself."

For all that Catelyn has no reason to like Jon, in other circumstance she might love the guy. "Family, Duty, Honor" right? That's all Jon is! Here he is, putting his little brother's wants above all else, even as he struggles with not being Ned's trueborn son. To voluntarily bring it up so that Bran can have a puppy... the family>duty>honor is in the room with us, coming from one Jon Snow!!

Ghost's eyes being open = "but there was little [Jon] did not see" yeah, yeah exactly! soul wolves are here besties!!!!

Catelyn I

Catelyn is that girl, I'm sorry she is the superior POV in this series. First of all she's very smart, always thinking and making connections. It's why we get this infodump from her right away, because Catelyn really can't think of being in the Godswood without comparing it to her childhood home. Second of all I love the way she is religious. Most religious characters in books and film are sort of boiled down to religious zealots or someone deeply conservative. For Catelyn it's simply part of her, a part that will never go away. She doesn't feel at home in the godswood of Winterfell because those aren't her gods, but she doesn't call them fake. They simply aren't hers. She's spiritual, it's why she see's the antler in the direwolf as a sign and takes it seriously ("dread coiled in her like a snake...") when Ned won't. I just think it gives her a unique perspective in this story, one that leads her to be almost genre aware.

"...but the red eyes of the weirwood seemed to follow her as she came."

oh no i hope we don't find out that someone is using the trees to watch people that would be so creepy /s

"'Beyond the Wall?' The thought made Catelyn shudder. Ned saw the dread on her face. 'Mance Rayder is nothing for us to fear.' 'There are darker things beyond the Wall.' She glanced behind her at the heart tree, the pale bark and red eyes, watching, listening, thinking it's long slow thoughts."

like this! there is no reason for Catelyn, a woman raised in Riverun, to fear beyond the wall more than Ned, who was born in the North. I know he spent a lot of his childhood in the Vale, but you can't tell me baby Ned wasn't told stories of what's out there. But it's Catelyn the eternally superstitious who believes them. And she's right! Always right, my poor Cassandra.

She's also so politically minded. Ned is nothing but excited to see and old friend. It doesn't even worry him that the King is making an unannounced visit. Catelyn though, she knows. Jon Arryn dead, Robert coming, the direwolf. It might aswell be in neon flashing lights to her!!

Alright, that's it for now. Daenerys I, Eddard I, and Jon I should be next, with a three a week pace is all goes according to plan. This took me way longer than I thought it was going to but it was so much fun, and as long as it continues to be fun I will continue to make them!

[muffinrecord]

I've been pretty positive about Yuu so far, but watching her magical girl story... hmm.

Basically I like everything about Yuu, but man that serial killer bit is the only thing that really sticks out as an overt bad choice. Having Nagisa stand around and watch Yuu kill people is such a weird choice, it feels more like fanfic than actual canon. Like this doesn't feel like something that could happen in Magia Record-- or hell, even in Madoka Magica either.

For example, Sayaka has a scene on a train where some dudes are being sexist assholes and it's left up to the viewer to decide if she kills them or not. It doesn't go: Sayaka killed them and also they were calling out for help the entire time while Madoka watched you know?

That said, this is something I can see in a bunch of the spinoffs (Kazumi, Oriko, Suzune), but I think everyone agrees that the spinoffs are of dubious quality. I love me the spinoffs but they're a hot mess.

I dunno. It's one thing to know that Yuu is a serial killer, it's another thing to have a character watch her go around and kill people and not intervene in any way. Especially in a story that goes out of its way to not do that. Walpy hitting Kamihama is noted to have no causalities at all (which goes a little too far in the other direction imo but it is what it is), Suzune isn't able to kill anyone in Kamihama and is dealt with by kicking her out (and not killing her), the deaths in arc 2 are mostly accidental and have massive consequences, everyone is forgiven in the end-- this isn't a story that really has "watch someone kill people and do nothing" in it's cards, you know?

I actually liked Nagisa's Wish for a lot of things. For example, I like that Nagisa didn't think she could be a magical girl until she saw Yuu, because she assumed that magical girls had to be good people-- aka, Nagisa did not think she was good. But that's not because Nagisa is a bad person. Nagisa is just unloved, and since she's a young kid, she's internalized that to mean that something is wrong with her, not that something is wrong with her mom. It's heartbreaking to see her go from "I can't be a magical girl," to seeing Yuu the murderer, to then going "oh okay if she can be a magical girl then so can I." Like sweet pea, your mother not loving you is not the same as being a killer. You've done nothing wrong. You are not a bad person for having Feelings and Emotions about the neglect you are experiencing.

However the serial killer/organ seller bit just goes too far for me and it kind of overshadows a lot of the better ideas present in Nagisa's Wish. Like how can you focus on the interesting ideas about justice or self worth when there is a serial killer/organ stealer walking around.

I think that the best qualities of Yuu are her design and how creepy she is-- having her actually go all the way and be a serial killer/organ seller actually makes her less creepy in my opinion. Yada yada, less is more, leave it up to the viewer's imagination. If she was just off, if we just knew that something was wrong with her and that people are disappearing but it's not outright stated what she's doing... I dunno. That would make her a lot more scary to me. A lot of fear can be found in apprehension and outright telling all the details will fill in too many gaps.

Like, the things that we all like about Yuu would be her voice direction, her memory issues, the way her Live2D is designed to be slightly off kilter from everyone else, the gap between her attitude and the darkness she engages in, the weird weaponry she uses and how it changes the way she walks/moves-- all of this is effective because it is offputting and different, not because the narrative is telling us "hey she kills people and sells their organs."

Basically I really love Yuu, but I do have some criticisms for her character and I understand why some folks don't like her.

That said, it did lead to this fantastic line from Kyubey so like,

You take some, you lose some.

[voidpacifist]

potter-verse headcanons that I choose to view as canon bc fuck jkr <3

*I redid these bc james' lineage was pointed out to me in a previous comment and I don't wanna disregard it so I tweaked a few things to keep it true to the lore while also spiting the terf

this will be very long btw

starting with the marauders era (sorry this is basically an essay now)

adding onto that, I just would love to see his inner conflicts and hopes and ambitions and dialogue more flushed out, because I really don't think him being rejected by an old flame is at all cause enough for him to suddenly just hate children. even his rivalry and bullying with/from james doesn't feel like the push that comes to shove idk

severus snape is not an abusive man. in my opinion, the way that he's written makes him seem like a very cause to effect character without much complexity to him other than that he was in love with lily evans. in my mind, he's lily's closest friend and defender for most of their growing up together at hogwarts, especially after he begins unlearning blood purist ideologies. he tries to protect her from james potter, who's antagonistic of blood purists by nature, and also a massive troublemaker. thinking it will get lily hurt is what ultimately fuels his hatred of james (that and the fact that james is just kind of a dick to him the whole time they're at school together)

an earlier commenter pointed out to me that james' grandfather invented fleamont's hair potion, so the inheritance of that success would make james' family quite well off. and while he grows up with a very good home life and very loving parents, I imagine james also feels quite stifled sometimes, being that he's an only child with a lot of room in his house and a lot of legacy to carry. it's not like he has a complex about it, but he's sort of a steve harrington-esque kind of character. he's not a complete asshat, but he does experience a lot of growing pains and contentions to his worldview on multiple levels when he first becomes acquainted with lily and severus, and even when he first meets the other marauders. it adds a lot more interest than just making him the charming class clown, and james being desi adds another layer of complexity to him too. (I'm quite curious about how desi metaphysics are practiced, and how that would be a shift for him going from eleven years of his own household magic to hogwarts magic)

adding onto that, it's why he and sirius become such fast friends - sirius feels estranged from his own family, and james' only family are his parents and grandparents. they're closer than sirius and his own brother are. this does certainly make things strange and angsty when regulus takes an admiration to james that sirius notices, when sirius himself is constantly being compared to his more "ideal wizard archetype" younger brother his entire life

in fact, regulus' admiration of james starts as more of a scientific sort of reverence - he wants to understand how a pure blood can be so defiant of the ideas that suggest he's more worthy of practicing wizardry, let alone a pure blood who has come from so much. he learns quite a lot about james through sirius, and when he actually meets him for the first time, he's nothing like the troublemaker prince charming that everyone expects him to be. it's the first time reg experiences real endearment to someone who isn't in his own family, and even that kind of love is conditional at best (shout-out to walburga and orion black for their a-plus parenting)

it makes it that much more painful when he sees that james, while kinder and more considerate than he seemed at first, only thinks of him as sirius'-younger-brother-who-isn't-actually-that-terrible-perhaps; when he sees that james only has room in his heart for lily evans, who by black family standards isn't worthy to have any knowledge of the magical world, let alone belong in it. and he's trying to be better and to understand, but even the kindest blood purists are still blood purists, and it will take him years after this heartbreak to rectify that mindset - even as he's defying voldemort himself

lily grows up in scotland, and while her parents love her and petunia very much, they're constantly fighting. she and tuney often spend time together, and when lily's magical talents start to emerge, she at first asks her big sister, her protector, her closest friend, to keep this secret from their parents. so imagine the heartbreak when lily's owl comes in the mail, and instead of the magical announcement being a complication for their parents, the evans' are overjoyed. imagine the betrayal that petunia feels when, after years of borderline neglect to the both of them, lily leans into the praise and attention she's now receiving. and she tries to make it up to tuney - she even grows a flower in her own hand hoping to make peace with her only real role model in life, only to have it shut down by being called a freak. things only get worse as tuney is left at home with quarreling parents while lily gets the privilege of being away from all of it. the number of letters she sends to dumbledore begging to learn magic, then simply begging to see her little sister more than just during christmas, should be enough to convince the old man to have some leniency, but dumbledore doesn't

now let's talk about peter pettigrew. we all blame him for the downfall of james and lily that kicks off the tragedy of harry's childhood, which we should. but the why of it feels important to me, so personally, this is how I see his psyche playing a role: what if he grows up in a religious household? now I know how that sounds, but hear me out. peter grows up in a religious family because his parents carry some sort of shame surrounding their magical lineage. maybe it's because their squibs, maybe it's because of other trauma from being discovered by muggles, etc. regardless, he grows up discouraged from using his magic, but instead of suppressing it and developing an obscurus, he learns how to hide it. he practices his abilities in secret, until he's a very good liar with the worst case of people pleasing. so when his owl comes with his hogwarts letter, his parents are less than happy about it. he's sent to live with his aunt when he's not at school. in the meantime, he hides as much as he can about his family from the marauders. remus has his lycanthropy to worry about, and sirius already has an even rockier home life to begin with. so it's no wonder that peter latches onto james - ironically, james becomes a secret keeper of sorts for him. but peter is never close to him the way sirius is, or even remus. he's forgotten by his friends, disregarded by his parents, and written off as soft and submissive by his other peers and even the teachers. it makes him all the more suggestible when he's sought out by voldemort, who promises him a place of belonging, which is all that he's ever wanted since he was a child. he's hidden things from the people closest to him once before, so he can do it again, right?

until of course, voldemort actually physically manipulates him with an imperius curse. and all it takes is one curse for the dark lord to convince peter that his friends can never take him back, not when he's killed and maimed and cursed and destroyed lives as much as he has. "not when you're my most trusted servant, wormtail." in short, peter pettigrew is and always will be remembered as a coward. but before he was a coward, he was in pain. and voldemort used that pain to turn him against his only friends before his only friends could turn on him

speaking of other death eaters, let's talk about regulus again for a moment. in an audience-sparing plot, regulus lives. in an angst driven plot, regulus drowns. so for the sake of compromising realism for emotional lenience, let's say nobody actually knows what happens to him. there's all kinds of rumors about the missing black brother, but the truth is that regulus doesn't drown. he's badly hurt in his attempt to destroy the locket, because not only is that thing messing with him psychologically, it's also a pain in the ass to try and get rid of. brutally injured and looking for a place to hide, he enchants a supply cabinet in a muggle cafe to expand into his own flat, which looks to non-magic users like any old closet, even if they try to open it. kreacher is left the locket along with regulus' note, because he doesn't want to be found (great opportunity for him to make a sneaky little appearance in the first half of the deathly hallows though, when the golden trio are debriefing in a muggle cafe...)

remus grows up in a really good home, but like james, he feels a sort of isolation. not because of his class status but because of his condition. as his body begins to mature in his teenage years, his lycanthropy also "matures," taking a bigger and bigger toll on his body until by the time his third year starts at hogwarts (between growth spurts and growing pains and the intensity of his transitions), he can't walk without using a cane. he's pretty sickly as a child anyway to begin with, so more often than not, he spends a lot of time in his bed in the gryffindor common room. this means when a lot of the pranking and troublemaking is happening, he's either in the background unable to do much more than try and dissuade his friends, or he isn't there at all. it isn't until a little way into his fourth year that he begins actively participating in marauders shenanigans, including helping with the construction of the map. I imagine he and sirius both have feelings for one another during this time, but these feelings cannot or do not go acknowledged until the later years (like, year six or seven)

when it comes time to meet sirius' family, sirius has already been disowned by his birth parents and is extremely distant from his brother and cousins. all of course, except for his cousin andromeda, who reaches out to him after the news of his erasure from the family tree makes it to her. this is actually how remus meets tonks in my mind - because during the whole "meet the parents" thing, he meets ted, his wife, and their daughter nymphadora

that's all I've got for now from the marauders era but the golden trio era is a whole different ballgame (and probably way longer sorry in advance)

let's start with harry. petunia is not near as strict with him as vernon is, but they're both abusive to him in ways that are physical and psychological. dudley, of course, is given everything by his parents to the point of spoiling, while harry is forced to feed off of the leftovers. and while he definitely inherits his father's "fuck around and find out" personality, he's a lot less likely to fuck around with the dursleys. in fact, he's much more quiet until he gets to hogwarts and blossoms. I also think his scar is much more noticeable and does much more alteration to his face. because it's the aftermath of the killing curse, it makes him much more likely to die just from a physical standpoint than from simply a plot device standpoint. voldemort is obsessed with killing him, and incidentally, he's a very easy person to kill

however, this doesn't make harry a weak wizard by any means. his magic is incredibly powerful and he's incredibly cunning with it. it's why the hat finds it equally appropriate to sort him into slytherin, other than the obvious connection that he and voldemort share. but this does mean that other people's perceptions of him are that he is weaker. draco thinks he can easily manipulate him. ron underestimates his understanding of the wizarding world and how to defend himself. hermione even has her moments, though hers are more a concern for his well-being as a target of all sorts of evil wizardry. even still, it's a shock and a half to go from being consistently neglected and abused to being coddled and handled with kid gloves all the time. it's no wonder his "fuck around and find out" attitude we see in the books and films also comes to life due to the way he's being mistreated - whether that's with good or ill intent

ron is not only his first friend, but also the first person harry is formally introduced to. he's harry's gateway to what the wizarding world looks like outside of school. of course, molly weasley immediately decides this makes harry her son as well as ron, and it's nice for ron to have a brother his own age. but as the youngest son in a family of seven kids, with one of the honorary offspring being famous in the wizarding world, it's easy for him to get swept up in the idea that he's the afterthought of his friends and family. as a result, he tries emulating harry's attitude towards the world, but whereas harry's is built up by his upbringing and those around him, ron's is built up out of spite. it creates resentment when they're horcrux hunting together, because ron not only hates that harry is refusing to be taken care of - he also hates that nobody's taking care of him

it's why I think he and luna lovegood make an excellent pair. luna is an uncommonly kind person by nature, and we already know in the books that she takes a shine to ron. I wish we'd seen more of them in canon, so it's my personal philosophy that they should have been together instead of ron and hermione. luna really softens the resentment in ron, because she takes so much in stride that it sort of rubs off on him. and ron brings out something very protective and fiery in her. if she weren't a ravenclaw, she'd make an excellent gryffindor, though honestly she's such a multitudinous character already that she'd do swimmingly in almost any house, in my opinion

more on luna: she and hermione were actually quite close as first years, but grew apart because while luna was accepted for her neurodivergence, hermione was singled out. there's not much difference between the two of them other than the two factors that luna doesn't mask her traits, and is a pureblood. at the time that they're both eleven, I imagine eleven-year-old blood purist logic would muddy a friendship rather quickly, especially when you're trying to seek acceptance from your peers. this isn't to say that luna is a cruel person by any means - it's just that hermione has to work harder for her fitting-in-ness. naturally, being in different houses and different circles of peers along with all the other factors, they grow apart. four years after they've met, luna is simply "looney lovegood" to hermione

hermione's parents are very eager muggles to integrate hermione into the wizarding world. the two of them meet in college, when both take an interest in metaphysical studies and the history of witches and witchcraft. though it starts as a scientific fascination, hermione's father turns out to be a rather superstitious man in the first place. when their daughter receives her owl, both of them are overjoyed at the possibility of there being a world where their fascination with magic and the occult is real. the only reason they both go into dentistry (and together at the same office, no less) is because they're ridiculously in love with one another and want hermione to have a stable childhood

snape ends up being a very protective teacher over harry. the reason he hides it is because he knows dumbledore is on the hunt for power and control, however much the man tries to disguise it as working for the greater good. the headmaster simply believes harry is the perfect conduit to attain those things, and rather than view him as a threat, dumbledore views him as a tool. snape is desperate not to see harry become a pawn, the way he did, but he also sees so much of james in him that it's hard for him to reconcile any outward respect for him. this makes snape a very cold man for harry to cross (and he's already cold enough for several other reasons), but in my personal opinion, it does his character a disservice to make him outright abusive. he's dismissive and intense and extremely aloof, but never does he use it to punish harry himself. snape's only seen as a shifty, mean person by harry because of how similar he is to petunia and her dismissal of harry at home so by god do those trust issues jump out between these two. it's by no means a father + son dynamic, but it's certainly a begrudging guardian + clueless guardee dynamic, if that makes sense

in fact, when snape realizes draco is also dealing with abuse in the home, he makes it a goal of his to do what he can to make sure their time in his class is as easy as possible. of course, true to severus snape fashion, he does this in such a way that it seems like he's going to single them out when in reality, he's only breeding an environment where draco and harry start having a tentative, mutual respect for one another. this is at first very confusing for hermione and ron, as well as draco's circle of friends. but these two are nothing if not stubborn, which means cycle breaking is what they're destined for

this paves the way for draco and hermione to be in each other's circles. mutually indifferent to one another at best. detestable to one another at worst. very much enemies to lovers, until hermione bests draco in a dueling practice and draco gains some respect for her. he learns that she is a very well schooled person when it comes to traditional witch traditions and rituals; that she recognizes the holidays that christmas and halloween are bastardizations of; that she does in fact "respect her betters," because she respects her magic as the sacred gift that it is. at that point, does it become allies to lovers. and when the second wizarding war rolls around, he does everything he can within his power to play the roll of double agent. snape becomes his mentor in that regard in more ways than one (he has to kill dumbledore and he has to outsmart voldemort, homeboy is stressing)

hey speaking of pairings, the only original pairing that I tend to keep the same within the golden trio is ginny and harry. it is the sole good pairing that jkr brought to the table. I still have a few notes on it — I just wish there was more development with them. I wish there was more canonical tension than "brother's famous best friend," because while ginny is a wonderful character on her own, she doesn't seem the type to be besotted by someone because of their fame. in fact, an enemies to lovers hinny would almost make more sense to me. they're both incredibly stubborn, it's a wonder they don't butt heads more during canon events, with the fact in mind that ginny is quite soft spoken around him. she's very do-no-harm-take-no-shit, and I wish we saw more of that in their interactions. in my head, their pipeline is as follows: younger sister figure -> academic rival/enemy -> allies during the order era -> confidants -> lovers. if this makes sense. I know it's similar to the canon pipeline for them but please I need tension I need depth I need conflict

I also have got to talk about cho because first of all, what the fuck kind of name is "cho chang" for the only visibly asian character in a franchise? said it once and I'll say it again: fuck jkr. she didn't put thought or depth into this character even one bit other than making her ditsy and boy-obsessed and I hate that shit! with all my heart! in fact, all of the POC women in this series she writes specifically to be obsessed with harry, and that makes my blood absolutely evaporate because they could be so much more than one dimensional figures. I digress

as I see it, "cho chang" isn't her real name at all. it's chao-xing zhang, and the first name means morning star. she hails from a family where her father is chinese and her mother is irish. if I had to give her a middle name, it would be siobhan. she grows up with strong roots in both her irish and chinese heritage, and she's the pride of her family, since she's the only child her parents are able to have. when she arrives at hogwarts, she is quite shy and reserved. but she's brilliant, so of course she's in ravenclaw. but it's in an atypical sense that she is brilliant, not in the I-come-fom-an-asian-family-so-I'm-clever kind of way (I think giving her the gift of clairvoyance would add a really good layer to her arc). she tries to fight off visions of harry potter dying, but she cannot shake them, so instead she vows to fight with him, especially after voldemort kills the first person to show her love and affection for who she is, not for the "cho chang" that her peers think she is. it's only natural for her to take a shine to harry when he's the one who saw cedric diggory murdered

while we're on the topic of horseshit naming, parvati and padma aren't called parvati and padma in my personal mindscape of the potter-verse. they're instead named drisana and salena, meaning "daughter of the sun" and "moon" respectively. not only are they fraternal twins, they also have entirely separate personalities and magical gifts. they're as different as the sun and moon are different, but they also both reflect each other's gifts quite well, just like how the full moon is an expression of both itself and the light of the sun. of course they're both enamored by the boy who lived and his best mate, and of course they say yes to them when they need dates for the yule ball. but to say either of them are actually in love with or interested in either of the boys isn't true by a long shot - salena much prefers her own company and drisana has been eyeing the pretty ravenclaw, chao-xing, for as long as she can remember (I also think they would take harry under their wing and help him reconnect with his desi culture because I can't imagine being raised by the dursleys gave him too much opportunity for that tbh)

now onto more world-buildy types of things

in fact, I'd say the only stereotypical twins at hogwarts are fred and george, and even then they only play into it for the bit. they think it's wildly funny to confuse anyone who doesn't know them well enough to tell them apart, which is a very small number of people (I mean come on, even their own mother doesn't always manage to tell them apart). one of them is probably just a little bit fruity, and the other one is either none the wiser or not the least bit surprised. they pretend like they're carefree people, but they both feel the pull of the war on their morale, even before the war truly sets in motion with the death of dumbledore. they don't have any older sibling figures present as far as we read until bill becomes part of the plot, but I like to think he and charlie are the ones they go to when they're needing someone to talk to about the state of the world. even then, they have to be careful about it in their correspondences.

and while I like to think that molly and arthur are all very present in the lives of their children, I also believe that arthur's work in the ministry keeps him quite busy, and molly can't always be there for each individual child without totally burning herself out. long story short, the weasleys are there for one another as much as they can be, but mainly as a whole. and of course, every weasley brother would level london for ginny if the need arose for it, since she gets little sister treatment (as she should, we love her for it)

it is in my humble opinion that each house has some elemental magic attached to it. some of these are more obvious, for instance, gryffindor would likely have many ties to fire magic, whereas with hufflepuff's patron being the badger, they'd have many ties to earth magic. ravenclaw and slytherin were a little bit harder for me to parse out, but a raven for me would signify air/weather magic while a reptilian, cold blooded patron would be symbolic to water. and while of course, any magical student can have a proclivity for any element of the four, many gryffindors will have a higher aptitude for fire magic. it's why (in my opinion) seamus finnegan is so talented with pyrotechnics in the first place - it's no accident that gryffindor is where he was sorted with that level of fire magic

so then, liv, how does that explain dumbledore's weird water orb and voldemort's fire serpent featured in the order of the phoenix film? actually that's a quite easy answer - remember how I said not every gryffindor has fire magic tendencies? this is actually referenced with neville longbottom's talent for herbology. if anything, he's more inclined to work with earth magic. we don't see a lot of deviating from house elements at all in canon, but aside from the main main characters, jkr also doesn't divulge much on it to begin with. even then, neville still has the inner fire of a gryffindor. and even though voldemort's raw magic takes the form of a serpent on fire, we see his former self most comfortable with the basilisk, who lives in the dank underbelly of the hogwarts plumbing. water snakes, anybody? dumbledore's is a little trickier to explain, but I do think in his conquest to be more powerful than voldemort, he also ended up mastering all four elements. he does certainly favor fire though, considering his animal companion is a phoenix, and his raw magic is displayed with fire in the half blood prince film during the sea cave scene

beyond the elements and patrons of each house, there's also astrology, runes, divination, etc. basically magic that isn't necessarily assigned to an element, but the elements can be present in each practice. for instance, astrology is a very planetary practice, and it relies on the position of the earth itself in relation to the stars and other celestial bodies (or vice versa). the moon oversees the tides (water), the sun provides warmth (fire) as well as nurtures greenery and living things (earth). all three interacting in different manners affects the weather (air). runes can be written or carved anywhere, but are best written either with something fluid like water and inked, or etched into a solid surface such as wood or stone. divination, particularly scrying, is best done with a reflective surface, however tea reading involves some herbology when it comes to making the tea itself. I digress, the point is, different aptitudes mean some students will have a higher proclivity for one practice than another outside of their "inner element" or which element works best with them (also jkr why didn't you include something for the crystal girlies?? for the fellas who love the pretty rocks???)

onto the topic we all love (said sarcastically) the most: wizard racism. rowling really thought she could paint a complex narrative about blood purity and the differences thereof when her own writing is inherently racist? miss me with that horseshit, anyway here's my personal take on the whole blood purity smorgasbord:

the only difference between muggleborns and regular old muggles is that some have the aptitude and skill for harnessing magic, and some don't. I don't actually know the science behind it. maybe the stars aligned just right. maybe it's a distant genetic thing. regardless, muggles have a very whimsical view of magic itself. we have our holidays like christmas and halloween and easter, and our cutesy packagings of the aesthetic for each holiday. but the holidays that they originate from, such as yule and samhain, have been celebrated by pagans and witches long before this christ-ifying of them, and even longer before making them palatable to a consumer culture. meaning it is real culture that has been taken and warped and accepted by society as normal, when it doesn't credit the original practicers in the first place

and considering the salem witch trials and other witch hunts (some of which are still happening in places around the globe, mind you), it's no wonder that, taking the canon of harry potter into consideration, purebloods (in this case, those from pagan families who have kept the practices for hundreds of generations and have only married within magical bloodlines) are at least mistrusting of muggleborns. does it excuse the blatant mistreatment and alienation of muggleborn witches and wizards? absolutely not. does it at least explain the disparity? yes it does

it gives salazar slytherins perspective of only allowing purebloods into his house an entirely new layer as to why. if only he didn't go about hatching an ancient bloodthirsty beast to hunt down the muggleborn students!

it does also add a very archaic level to slytherin house culture, though - they're not only the most cunning house (and most misunderstood), they're also the most observant of traditional paganism. dumbledore is so dead set on the belief that slytherin breeds evil wizards and witches, however, that his favoritism to his patron house (which happens to have the opposite mascot and element, mind you) creates an environment where slytherins are either feared or outright disrespected by the other houses. here's a hot take: dark and light magic can exist within the same space and still not have any moral attachment to them. crazy, innit

which means that not only is dumbledore a more "accepting" headmaster of muggleborns - they too, are a means to an end in this vendetta he has against tom riddle; a vendetta he's had against a child since he realized this child (who mind you, was already isolated as an orphan and a wizard growing up surrounded by muggles) was the heir of slytherin. and while yes, this made him a threat to the safety of muggleborn students, dumbledore also ensured the creation of the thing that which he vowed to overthrow. his mission in life as a wizard with great power and responsibility was a self fulfilling prophecy

(enough said about albus dumbledore. I hate that man. no wonder jkr paints him as such a hero figure in the series though like damn)

more world building! I think it should be canon that a modified obliviate spell exists so that trans witches and wizards can erase the memory of a dead name from the minds of anyone who isn't them. use this headcanon how you must, it may be the biggest fuck you to the author I could come up with <3

phew! that was a mouthful, but on that note, those are all my thoughts/headcanons/other things that I've conjured so far. some of them may be based off of headcanons I've already seen (like, we've all basically confirmed james is desi at this point), but I did wanna drive a little deeper into those existing ones as well as add thoughts of my own. I am planning on using most if not all of these to write my own rendition of the potter-verse canon, but feel free to use any of them you see in here! I'd love to invite more dialogue, particularly about more thoughtful name changes (like seriously if y'all have anymore suggestions on that front please send them to me, I don't want to be totally ignorant or off base so any feedback is super appreciated)

[applebuttercringe]

Arcane Episode 6 Immediate Thoughts

Spoilers

-Give me the doomed Jayvik content, I'm ready. Jayce is an off the wall murderer hell bent on destroying Arcane and Viktor is the new Herald of the Arcane.

-Viktor is a full on magical girl transformation dimension. The floating and glowing, start patterns, glowing hair.

-Huh

-So Viktor is straight up God?

-This Caitlyn training scene is dope

-OOOH they're gonna go to Viktor to cure Vander. Thats a cool way to tie all these stories together. I wonder if any of them will recognize Viktor. Did Caitlyn or Jayce tell Vi about him?

-Look at Jinx's face, she does not give a fuck about Vi and Hucks stand off.

-Man the council didn't know shit, Viktor should have been in charge this whole time.

-Man Jayce is gonna show up and destroy it. 🥺

-HAHAHAHAHA VIKTOR IS SO JESUS, the long hair, the robe, the staff.

-Viktor has his original eye color in the Hexcore universe.

-cookie

-Even Jinx knows Viktor is a straight up snack.

-Fortune cookies are canon? What Americanized Chinese food restaraunt is Jinx going to? Is there a Panda Express in Zaun?

-Viktors Steel Oasis is realized

-Oh hey it's the kind of plant that he experimented on the hexcore with

-So is this real Sky and we were all wrong in thinking the Hexcore was just using her image?

-Does this take several days? How long is it taking Jayce to come to the undercity? He seemed in a hurry when we last saw him.

-I don't care if these animatic style visuals are the result of a mismanaged budget. Arcane's 2d music video style visuals are so good when you aren't being told they are just for cost saving.

-"We"

-This is nice, this is what I wanted for Thor and Loki

-Singed has a Vander tracking compass. Like the Vampire compass in Vampire Diaries.

-Does Caitlyn know the Herald is Viktor? How will she react?

-Ooh the Singed-Viktor reunion!

-Why is Viktors voice more metallic than before?

-"Evolution has a destination" I mean technically no, you're a scientist Viktor c'mon. Thats a common misconception.

-GLORIOUS EVOLUTION MENTIONED

-And he had the voice distortion when he said it, this is the desire of the Hexcore not of him?

-Is Viktor dating a ghost?

-OH DAMN, the Caitvi reunion is a violent one. Not looking good for the Caitvi stans, or the future of this ship. They're doing a Catradora.

-Caitlyn is a dictator who is offended by being called a mongoose, and by her ex-gfs new style. Be glad she didn't get bangs Caitlyn.

-"Cupcake"

-Ambessa eating an entire raw meat hunk with her hands.

-Oh damn, the betrayal.

-HOLY SHIT JAYCE, ITS HAPPENING, IM NOT READY!

-The music, is this the start of the inevitable end of a three episode arc music montage fight scene that cuts between the plot points while a pop-rock song plays?

-SPIT ON HER

-Oh no, this is the sweet conversation that happens to make everything happy so they can rip it away by killing one of the characters isn't it? Is Isha gonna die soon?

-OH, the Caitvi reveal! Caitlyn did a good! Nice. All it took was to be in her ex-gfs presence one more time and she completely flipped. Poor Maddie.

-The blind fold is kinda kinky tbh

-is Caitlyn gonna see Jayce? Will they talk? Has Caitlyn seen Viktor?

-Now Jayce has a leg brace, my how the turn tables. I little ableist maybe that a leg brace is used to show who is powerless in the dynamic but still.

-I wish we knew more about what Jayce went through, or how long the time skip is, to have context. C'mon writers what was it?

-Once again Jayce is about to nuke a child with the Hex Hammer

-Is Jayce gonna come be healed?!

-The come to Jesus music when he goes to meet Viktor.

-Viktor is the Avatar, or a Jedi

-Caitlyn will be saved by Jinx! Will this cause another snap change in her alignment. Who knows!

-Its honestly shocking this is the first time someone has tried just grabbing her uber long hair in a fight.

-JAYCE NUKED VIKTOR!

-IS HE DEAD! MY BLORBO! JAYCE YOU BITCH!

-UNREAL

-Vander is crying lava?

-No Viktor Jayce is the reason your commune failed.

-Jinx crying on the floor after being struck by a loved one like when she was a child.

-Aw this is cute

-Isha better not die, don't you dare show. Don't you DARE.

-They did!

-They killed Viktor and Isha in one episode, Now Caitlyn is just chill with both Vi and Jinx, why. Awful. How dare they. First genuinely bad episode.

Final thoughts: AAAAAAAAAH! I'm actually mad. They killed Isha, they killed Viktor. Both in dumb and unnessecary ways. Jayce's motivations have not been explored in any depth or meaningful way this season which would justify the story move. I was fully ready to call this a flawed but good show till the second half of this episode. I think this arc release will genuinely divide the fandom. Beginning of the end. Oof. Sorry boys. Arcane is Fumbled.

Let me in the writers room, I just wanna talk.

[kerubimcrepin]

Liveblog - Dofus, livre 1 : Julith [PART 21]

I've already said how weird this whole situation is from Joris's pov, but imagine dying, being given a new body with a way smaller brain and no speech yet, as well as no object permanence, and having to comprehend while in this condition, that your brother, who spent the last 50–80 years trying to hunt you down and make you into a coat, just saved your son from being blown up, and is now dying.

But you lack the brain capacity to understand any of that. Or remember any of that history.

You just know that he's hurt, badly, and that you don't like seeing him in pain.

Joris knows now, that for an ecaflip demigod, it's not that big of a deal to die. At least not the first time.

So it's really more of a "You sacrificed yourself for me?" question.

He's paying back his debt. He can't be mean to Joris, when all he's done is be nice to him, he's not that kind of person.

And when he wakes up again, things will be different, between him and Kerubim. Something new is going to happen.

To quote Dofus Aux Tresors de Kerubim: It will have a different taste. A different feel.

Kerubim's current lack of object permanence or the idea of death, is both a blessing and a curse, because he has no fucking idea what happened, or where Atcham went. Poor kbitty.

On one hand, this is inherently traumatic for Joris. He must be tired of watching ecaflip demigods evaporate.

On the other hand, I can't help but feel that this is the moment Joris and Atcham truly begin to love one another. So I can't even feel sad about this moment, like a normal person.

Chat, this is what I cal coping and perhaps even seething. Joris is inclined to think Bakara is wrong because Bakara fucked up Majorly at this part of the movie. Also because Joris has not slept the entire night. Also because he watched 2 people die. Also Simone is far away. Also what IS Simone to do with a dofus-related issue?

Julith would absolutely have hurt Lilotte. There is absolutely not a single doubt in my mind, that if it got her what she wanted, she would dismember Lilotte as Joris watched.

I don't blame him for making mistakes and fumbling, though. He's like 10.

If she really isn't that bad... If ALL she wants to do, is to bring Jahash back... If that's what it takes for her to leave Lilotte and Kerubim alone...

And among all else, if this brings the man she loves back? He doesn't mind, then.

(Puts on a giant, Dofus Aux Tresors de Kerubim themed tinfoil hat)

Joris is a difficult character to read due to his insane multitudes and affinity for lying to everyone and himself.

Due to his passion for wanting to learn about his birth parents, I think spending time with Julith and Jahash is like a dream to him.

But I can't miss the dimension in this interaction that Julith is a scary dark mage called "the butcher", who already killed his father once and then kidnapped his friend, and they are both standing near her, behind him, and she is holding what is essentially the magical equivalent of a nuclear bomb in her hands.

And the things he says to her may or may not be affected by like, idk, two or three of these factors? Like there might be a slight possibility that he said "I'm sure she wouldn't have hurt you" and "a real family" specifically to decrease the chances of her killing Kerubim and Lilotte. Not sure where I get this idea from, though.

This is literally the worst day in Kerubim's life as a father. There is literally no going back. Thank god his little kittybrain is going to forget all about this in roughly 3 minutes.

[meatball-headache]

I have finally completed the quest I've been waiting since the beginning to play.

It was fine :p

Compared to the Second Dream or the War Within, there's no comparison. This was a main quest, but it had all the structure of a sidequest, just the Lotus and others talking while you did a normal mission. Although, the tone was shifted dramatically. Is this the Tam-Tara Deepcroft (Hard) of Warframe?

It's a main quest, but the structure—and rewards—are more in line with the "Warframe quests" they're calling them now—sidequests that just give you a new Warframe. I'm thinking about Limbo, Octavia, Gara, Atlas... stuff everyone else has probably long forgotten and done years ago, but me with my snail's pace :p

And yet it is a main quest, required to advance the story, and, the story touches on some points about Margulis and the Void. Which means that unlike some Warframes like Nidus or Mesa or Yareli, my boy Harrow is tied closely to the core lore! That's a point in favor of maining him :D

Warframe's story is few and far between—especially the way I play. This isn't Final Fantasy, that's for sure. This isn't even Destiny. But it's like I've said before, it's like getting to level 100 in Pac-Man and suddenly there's a cutscene and Pac-Man is going, "The ghosts... I can hear them in my sleep... they give me no peace... when will it end?" It's something that comes late, and suddenly recontextualizes the entire experience. When 200 hours in, you find out that Lotus saying "Wake up, Tenno" at the very very beginning wasn't talking to the Warframe statues. It's a different kind of weight and impact that FF, certainly, but it's weighty and impactful all the same.

So. In the Second Dream, you have flashback dialogue where Margulis is arguing with—I think Ballas?—about what to do with the Tenno. Margulis wants to protect them, and for that she's conviceted of treason and executed. At least, that's how it's framed. I didn't pick up on it, but when I watched some Second Dream reaction videos, those players and their chats pointed out that Margulis and the Lotus have the same voice. And, I believe there's a line about Margulis being blinded... So, if Margulis and Lotus are the same, then Lotus wears that mask because she's blind?

In the Chains of Harrow, Palladina mentions the "Blind Queen," and then addresses the Lotus as such. She's practically worshipping the Lotus at points. And, it hit me: that's entirely appropriate. I mean, who is the Lotus? She seems to be operating independently. There's hints of factions throughout the system, Cetus, Fortuna, Red Veil, Steel Meridian—we don't have a Russian novel's worth of a cast of characters, but, Lotus is unaffiliated with anything. But, think about it. She's in our ear constantly—in all our ears. Lotus is communicating with every Tenno, all at once. And, in the Second Dream, we saw some of her powers in action: she can move the entire Moon into the Void just like that—and bring it back. Warframes already have this incredible magical power—they're magic, no way around it, they are using magic—but the Lotus is just on another level.

Here's a spoiler, though. I've seen some streamers and such playing, just grinding Nightwave or something, but something was different for them... When the Lotus pops up with her generic dialogue, "You've found a fissure. Use reactant to crack open your relic," and what not... it doesn't say "Lotus." For them, it identifies her as "Margulis." So... Lotus must be Margulis. But... how? Wasn't Margulis executed? Why would Margulis have these godly powers? And... isn't Lotus actually Natah? How does any of this fit together?

Rhetorical questions, obviously, do not answer.

In the Chains of Harrow quest, we deal with a Tenno named Rell, who was, I guess, outside of the Lotus network. Rejected and cast away for being autistic or something, and left on their own, they, what, made direct, intimate contact with the Void? Rell constantly mentioned the man in the wall, which was dismissed as a hallucination—but, I'm guessing from that Lotus Eaters login screen that there's something to it. I mean, of course there's something to it, it's a video game story, weird dreams and hallucinations and stuff like that are always more real than Occam's Razor stuff. But, there was also a suggestion that the Void wasn't a place or something like a natural phenomenon; it was a being. The Void is someone.

Man in the wall... Lotus Eater... Margulis... Natah... Warframe's story is dripfeeding some deep lore, some secret narrative. It's, honestly, more in line with a Dark Souls than a Final Fantasy; it's not a story about what happens, it's a history about what happened. Piece by piece we're figuring out what happened in the Old War, what happened to the Tenno, who we are and where we came from. Needless to say, I really like stories like that. Soulsbornes where you're traveling through a broken land, piecing together what happened long ago, or something like No Man's Sky or Nightingale, where you just putter around building your base while these strange hints of some obscure history float around you.

Also? I miscalculated. For some reason, I thought The New War was right after Chains of Harrow. Actually, I have no idea when it happens, because for some reason, this quest doesn't pre-appear in the Codex. I have a dozen quests that say "Prerequisite: The New War" or "Prerequisite: Angels of Zariman" or something, teasing me with what's to come... but, The New War isn't among them. I'm given to think it's a very big deal, bigger than the Second Dream... I don't want to know anything about it at all, so don't say a word :D ...but my point is, I won't be getting to it today, after all. I need to let the Chains of Harrow soak for a bit. Then I have, what... Sacrifice? Apostle something? And then Prelude to War. I'm not doing more than one per... weekend, really. Gotta give it time to hit, y'know? So, it'll be a while. Maybe we'll do the New War for Christmas :p

Potential mains:

Hydroid. My classic, absolute boi. The tentacles are very convenient to get all the monsters to chill out—and the floaty damage helps me find them. He's got a really strong melee weapon and a Kuva Hek, so he's decent.

Hildryn. Her 3 and spamming 2 is super cool and just keeps her alive forever. Energy independent, which is nice. She's got the Amprex, too, so she can just chain-lightning a crown.

Harrow. Lore-appropriate, aesthetically awesome. He has Scourge Prime, Knell Prime, and War—my loremaster, I guess :p But his abilities aren't quite as potent at wiping out a room... But I like the Void Priest motif.

Baruuk. Again, I like the neutral-feeling, Patient Monk motif. The Doan skin is absolutely incredible. Once his 4 gets charged up he does more damage than anything, but outside of that he's got a strong but slow gun, Kuva Chakkhur, I think it's called, and the Broken Scepter for his melee, which is a little janky, but, again, stylistically appropriate. His name doesn't begin with H, though :\

I also love Lavos and Yareli, and I'm intersted in Oberon and Sevagoth. None of them are nearly as powerful, though.

...I just felt like typing. Thanks for reading :p

Remember, no spoilers!

[zephyr-ro-emenki]

With the popularity of Marvel Rivals, you know Hasbro has immediately started cooking up a wave in their now dead Gamerverse line of Marvel Legends figures. But, the question now becomes...

Which Heroes will Hasbro Choose to make figures of in the Wave?

For those who seemingly don't know, or for casual collectors who never noticed, There are always 6-7 figures in an action figure wave from Hasbro, with 1 of the figures being double packed so they can fill their 8 figures in a case box budget. So, going on the more likely high end of 7 figures (with a possible BAF) I'm now gonna narrow down who would be selected for this wave?

Now, my Criteria for this first wave is that it can't include any of the original 6 Avengers, even though I think those 6 are probably gonna be the entire wave on their own because Hasbro are cowards. And my reason for that is that the base 6 Avengers are so commonly redone with various Deco's that it's honestly become Fatiguing to just see another Cap with another slightly different Shield Mold. And besides, if Iron Man doesn't come with the Maximum Pulse Parts, people are gonna riot, and including that much plastic would make Hasbro release it as a Deluxe figure.

My other Criteria is that my selections have to be Figures that are either stand alone, meaning they don't really have a dedicated established Team to them, or their designs are so unique that you wouldn't be able to pass on them.

And Here's my Guesses!

For Peni, she is both the 1st and 8th Figures in the Wave, and that's because I think (and hope) that they Package Peni herself as a single Figure, but make SP//DR the BAF of the Wave, his parts split among 6 of the in the Wave. For Peni herself, I imagine she has a piece of her BAF, most likely the right arm of SP//DR with a few of her Spider Mines. She'd most likely come with open palm hands and a pair of fists as accessories.

For Spidey he was an obvious sure fire Hit. Hasbro isn't gonna entrust a tentative full wave like this without some big names in the Wave to guarantee at least some fervent sales. And Spider-Man Sells. I personally love this design and hope it gets a figure. Now, he would come packed in with a BAF part, most likely the left Arm of SP//DR, and he would come packaged with a pair of Fists and Web Thwip hands guaranteed, with me hoping Hasbro will be generous and throw in a pair of Wall Crawling hands, and if we're truly lucky (we're not that lucky) a pair of C-Grip Hands and a single Web line so we can recreate his most common poses in game.

For Luna, this would be the first Time Hasbro has made a Luna Snow Figure at all, and since this game is Luna's first major appearance outside of her own comics, and nobody she ever heard of her before, this figure will sell like hotcakes to both Rivals Fans and general Comics Fans as most likely the only interpretation we'll ever get of the character in the line. I think she's gonna be packaged with a BAF part, most likely the Left Leg of SP//DR, and her accessories will include a pair of Open Palm/Magic Hands, with us maybe being lucky and getting a few ice effect hands.

For Iron Fist, I chose him because this is an entirely unique design with no substitutes that can get this specific look existing in the line. For accessories, a BAF piece, and I'm giving him the Right Leg of SP//DR, and for Accessories Im giving him a pair of his relaxed open Palms he has in his neutral stance, a pair of Fists, and a pair of punch energy effects that go over his Fists.

For Psylocke, I absolutely adore her new Japanese Aesthetic, and hope with all my being that if nothing else, then this, Spidey, and Luna all get made in the Rivals Wave. For the BAF piece, I'm giving her the Head of SP//DR, as it's generally a small accessory and I want to make room in the plastic budget for the accessories I wanna give her. And speaking of those Accessories, I wanna give her a Pair of Sword gripping C-Grip Hands (we'll most likely only get a right hand), a pair of Dynamic Open Palm Hands, a pair of Fists (we'll most likely only get a left fist to pair with the right Holding Hand, or not get fists at all in exchange for a left holding hand), Her Katana, and finally 3 Clear Purple Effect Pieces, one to go over her katana blade, one a purple dagger effect that C-Clips onto the wrist to recreate her 2nd MVP animation, and a Butterfly Mask effect that can be mounted over her face, if that's not it's own head sculpt entirely. If those excess effects push her over budget, then we can move the BAF piece from her to another figure in the Wave.

Now, Star Lord is the one that I think I should probably swap out of this wave, and replace him with a different character. Rivals already has a majority of the Guardians of The Galaxy on its roster, so I expect they'll be their own entire Wave of figures once we get Drax and Gamora in the Game. If I had to swap him out, I'd probably sub in Magik to replace him as the base plastic amount used would be the same. But since we're covering him today (and I'll probably add in Magik after the final figure in the official wave roster), let's cover him. His BAF piece would be the Torso Of SP//DR, as that's the biggest piece and Star Lord would require the least accessories. As for those aforementioned Accessories, a pair of C-Grip Trigger holding hands, his signature pair of Dual Alien Pistols, and if we're feeling generous, a pair of Thrust Effects stolen from an Iron Man figure to make it look like he's flying, and if they give him unique Molds for his guns, then Blast effects that can peg onto the front of his guns.

My baby boy Jeff the Land Shark has had terrible representation in Marvel Legends, that being that he came as an Accessory to Shiklah all the way back in the strong man wave, and he was one solid piece that looks nothing like our adorable land shark. So, for this. We're going Full Headpool. That being, this is the smallest figure with the most accessories. For BAF piece, he gets the Head of SP//DR, which is the smallest part of the BAF, so that we can just keep packing More Accessories into this Figure. For Jeff himself, he's not gonna be 1 piece, he's gonna be 7 pieces, and I mention this because it's important. His torso is all one piece, his tail is on a ball joint, his 4 legs are all in ball joints so they have a little articulation, and he'll have his head on a ball joint to let him look around like he does in game. If we're lucky, his torso will be 2 pieces so we have even more articulation. So for accessories, we'll get a fully swappable open Mouth Head, with a port to plug in his Water Shooting effects, another swappable head but this time with his tongue looked out to the side, and finally a submerged Jeff effect part, being a solid accessory of Jeff's Back Fin with Bubbles and water along its side, so that you can set it down on any surface to replicate Jeff using his Ult. And that final accessory is molded in clear blue plastic with Jeff's fin fully painted.

_______________________________________________

Now, that's the full roster wave, but I mentioned replacing Star Lord with Magik, so here she is as an honorable mention.

Magik is in the Marvel Legends line already, but she only got 1 figure back in 2018, and her look in game is so close to that figure, a figure might I add that just got reissued like less than 4 months ago at most, that it would feel redundant on Hasbro's end to release this entirely new mold of the same character they just reissued.

Then again this is Hasbro, who reissued old black series Clone Commanders before immediately announcing and leaking that they're all being replaced by those same characters on newer Advanced body bucks. So anything goes at this point.

She'll come with the same BAF piece as Star Lord did, but she'll have vastly more accessories to match her reissued figures pack in accessories. Specifically she'll come with a pair of Sword Holding C-Grip Hands, a pair of Magic hands/open palm hands, her Sword, an imp, and if we're truly lucky, a thin plastic Portal Piece. If she does get the portal effect, then I think the Torso BAF piece that she would come with would be swapped with the Head BAF piece that comes with Jeff.

[derekscorner]

Kurosaki Twin Conundrum

For the past few weeks I've been talking about Zanpakuto types, Ichigo's non-canon forms, or gushing about my Quincy Ichigo ideas but after finishing my part three to the zanpakuto types I was reminded of something; The Kurosaki Twins.

I used to have a post on them way back but now that the 'Thousand Year Blood War' is being animated with Kubo's noteworthy influence involved I'll tackle this topic again.

This isn't a post about their characters per say but about the nature of their abilities. There is no doubt they have some power but we don't know what kind of powers. Allow me to explain.

Masaki & White

Thanks to the TYBW anime any Bleach fan knows by now that Ichigo was so unique due to the incident involving these two. I'll skip the convoluted nature of Ichigo himself since the show explains already.

What's important to Ichigo's sisters is that White was not present when they were conceived and later born. By the time the twins were a thing in their mothers womb White had already merged with Ichigo and transformed into Zangetsu.

Like Ichigo, Karin and Yuzu are the children of a pureblood Quincy and a Soul Reaper from a very old clan. Unlike Ichigo, they did not inherit a hollow.

Another thing that should be noted is that the sisters are fraternal twins rather than identical ones. I do not know if this had an impact on their powers or not but it is something to keep in mind should the anime or Kubo make a statement in the future.

Either way, going by these sequence of events, you'd immediately assume that the girls are perfect hybrids of a quincy and soul reaper.

But I do not think it's that simple. For one, we know that mixed blood quincies (which the girls happen to be) need more work to awaken their full potential. There are even some abilities they'd have to work for that a purebred quincy would have at birth.

Ichigo himself never uses his quincy abilities consciously. It is Zangetsu who uses them and even then the full "flood gates" as it were did not open until Ichigo battled Quilge Opie. Yhwach clearly states that this battle and the cage Quilge trapped Ichigo in awakened his latent quincy power.

Yuzu nor Karin have had a teacher nor any circumstance strenuous enough to awaken those powers. Even when in the grip of a hollow and their lives threatened they did not awaken any abilities.

Of course, I must remind you, Ichigo is special. White became Zangetsu, Ichigo's quincy powers had taken on a mind of their own and could do these things.

Which brings us to our next point.

"Old Man" Zangetsu's Absence

Masaki's inner hollow, White, became Ichigo's inner hollow and then transformed into his zanpakuto. As flawed as it was compared to a true zanpakuto used by actual Soul Reapers it still existed.

The absence of White means that Yuzu & Karin do not have the special circumstances to have their own innate zanpakuto. The Soul Reaper powers they would've inherited have no way to manifest.

Although Soul Reapers have families, unique powers, magic, and knowledge they do not come into the world with a zanpakuto in hand. They only get that once they begin training and receive their "Asauchi".

The "asauchi" will bond to that Soul Reaper and eventually become the zanpakuto. It is a crucial element they'd need.

Their human forms may also hinder this process. Even Ichigo can't use his Soul Reaper powers without leaving his human body....although his son doesn't seem to have that issue but he's a headache we won't cover.

So where does that leave us?

Well, they have no hollow powers. White was already gone when they were conceived.

They should have latent Soul Reaper powers but being living humans and without Zanpakuto they can’t manifest.

They should have some degree of Quincy powers but they seem entirely dormant. Even Yhwach's Auswählen didn't target them nine years ago.

In essence, they're effectively human....but they're obviously not. Despite the lack of unique abilities both sisters show the ability to see spirits.

For Karin this is even more pronounced because she's fully capable of seeing Ichigo in his Soul Reaper form. She has the spiritual power to see and touch a Soul Reaper.

That is way more impressive than the series lets on. The Soul Reapers even refer to humans with this level of spiritual power as "High Spec" humans.

They're rare but they are not unheard of.

Although the anime makes her unable to see spirits it's a fact that Yuzu actually can see ghosts. She can only perceive a blurry image but she is spiritually aware.

She too has something innate even if it's just raw spiritual energy. Sadly, we see little of it save for anime filler which obviously do not count.

Between the two the series actually makes a bigger deal of Karin's powers especially for the year Ichigo was powerless:

She even goes to Urahara often to get items to ward off things like Hollows since she's essentially an easy target they can sense miles away.

You may wonder what my point is with all this when I systematically closed the routes of them having powers earlier. It's simple, they do have powers but we just do not know what form they take.

Even if you argue that Yuzu is effectively human it's obvious that Karin isn't. Without Ichigo's overwhelming spiritual pressure her own skyrocketed.

She has a power that's developing which is why this curiosity over the twins persists.

Hypothesis & Conclusions

In conclusion to all of this they should not have specific powers. Yuzu, in fact, seems to not have anything other than weak spirit perception. While Karin is obviously more than she seems even if she has no desire to explore what that power is.

And all though I shut down so many possibilities earlier there is things to consider;

For example, White may have been gone but it's possible remnants of it's spiritual power resided within Masaki. That would make it possible to one or both twins to have latent Fullbring potential.

There is always a possibility that their Quincy natures could awaken as well under a specific circumstance.

Then there's the Shiba clan their father comes from. It is one of the five founding clans of the Soul Society. It is a literal primordial bloodline and there's no telling what unique powers are latent there.

The reaper powers they did inherit would awaken should they get an asauchi and become a reaper. Or should someone grant them powers as substitute soul reapers.

I have no real answers to any of it but it is a topic still fun to talk about. I'd like to know what they could be even if they never go that route. Kubo is answering a lot of questions on his website these days so maybe we'll get one some day.

Either way, I'm done now. Bye~

[anonymous-dentist]

Do you have any fics for qsmp you enjoy reading? Like your personal favs? Or ones you think have potential?

YES OKAY!

1. Along Came a Spider

If you aren't reading this one, you're wrong because it's super good? Basically, Roier gets bit by a radioactive spider, Quackity is I think Norman Osborn, and Cellbit is a Very Normal Person who definitely isn't a literal cat burglar. It's super well written, all the characters are fun, there's a lot of intrigue going on, and the fandom needs more superhero aus, and what better character to use than the literal Spider-Man?

2. Divided Soul

I think everyone's been keeping up with this one, but I still recommend it!! It's some cool high fantasy shit starring Vegetta as a prince being haunted by his ex boyfriend (/pos) and Foolish as the Literal Most Traumatized Man On Earth. If you like angst and hurt/comfort, this is the one for you.

3. eternally, forever.

Another Fooligetta fic, this one's another popular one, but for good reason! It's heartbreaking in the amount of love you can feel coming off of Foolish the entire time, and then? Yeah. Read it, it's definitely worth it.

4. The Reason (English version linked here, but definitely check out the Portuguese or Spanish ones if that language works better for you!!

Where do I even begin. F!Cell never escaped from prison, and he is making it everybody's problem, including the new guy on the (cell) block, Roier, who is definitely supposed to be there. Definitely. This one's darker so only check it out if you're into like. Dark shit. But also it's super good, so yeah!!

5. partners (in crime)

This one is an Ordem Paranormal au and it's only one chapter rn but I think there will be more? Unsure! But, as it is, it's cute! I don't know a ton about OP, but Cellbit gets teased, and everyone is cute, and I hope there's more because I'm already invested. It is in Portuguese, but translating it is so worth it.

6. Red Gunpowder

This one's a newer one, only one chapter so far, but I'm super into it already I think? Basically, Cellbit is a Traumatized Cop and Roier is... not in the fic yet, but he sounds fun just from the description. The first chapter was pretty cool, and I can't wait to see where it goes!

7. Icarus is Flying Too Close to the Sun & This is How It Feels to Take a Fall (series linked)

Two fics in one bullet point because they're both just that good! All three of Bobby's parents try and get Bobby back, and it's super heartfelt and I felt Emotions and it's sweet :( Definitely read it!

8. your palms; a home for my soul

This one is so SWEET!! Basically, Roier's heart is broken, and he goes to a heart fixer to... fix it. (It's magic, don't question it.) It's a twoshot, but it's sooooo cute, the metaphor is INSANE and I went AAAA

9. Breaking Dawn

So this one's pretty popular as well, but it's for good reason! Basically, Cellbit is a wannabe paranormal investigator and Roier is a werewolf. I think it was supposed to just be a romcom from the author's description, but there's so much more? There's this whole sideplot with Felps being kidnapped and Roier being real shady about everything and Cellbit being the densest man on the planet, and it's super worth a read if you've got a couple hours to spare!

10. The Red Means I Love You!!

Okay so you know me by now, you know I love fucked up little guys finding love, and this one sure does have a fucked up little guy! Basically, q!Cellbit accidentally summons c!Roier to possess his husband when he was trying to summon Romero Richas to interrogate it, and things sure do happen. The characterization is killer, and so is c!Roier, who is so desperate for love that he'd kill for it. (Unfortunately for him, he's kinda met his match in the form of someone who'd kill to get his love back.)

11. Bad Romance

This is the direct sequel to the last fic, and normally I'm not too into that? But this one's worth it imo. Picking up after the end of the last fic, c!Roier breaks f!Cell out of prison and f!Cell definitely doesn't manipulate Roier into agreeing to help him murder Pac e Mike over them leaving him behind in prison. I'm not too into toxic relationships, but I have hope for these two tbh, who else could love them but each other?

And that's my fic rec list! It's just off the top of my head tbh, so sorry about that!

[goodluckclove]

Hi Clove! I'm a new follower and I rather enjoy seeing you on my dash. I also live in Portland (transplant not native) and I think it's cool whenever you mention someplace that I'm semi-familiar with.

Anywhosies, I've been stuck on a scene in my book The Book of Daemon for probably 3 weeks now, and it's not really because I don't like the contents of it or because it's not working or any other craft reason. I'm just not having fun writing it. It's a scene that acts as a bridge between two different plot arcs essentially, and I can't exactly cut it. I just really, really wanna get to writing the next scene, because more fun things happen. It's a struggle.

Has that happened to you before? If so, how did you go about making it fun for yourself?

(If not, that's cool! Either way, I just wanted to go out on a limb and say hi, hello, I think you're cool and good luck with writing today!)

Hi! Sit down with me. It's just started kind of raining for some reason here. I'm also a transplant! Here for about four years from the Bay Area! I love it here because it's so bikeable and full of trees, even though people love to walk their dogs without leashes which I find insane. But I'm sure you've seen that.

So yeah, I've written 13-15 books (I've lost count) over the course of fifteen years, and I've absolutely come to points that weren't the most exciting in the world. It happens. In my experience there's a manageable kind of boring that's just kind of like yeah man one step at a time. That's fine. I'm fine with that.

But when it sucks? When I point that I just don't want to do, to the point where I actually stop writing entirely?

Yeah, man. I don't write that.

See I'm a big proponent for the intuition of a writer and the autonomy of a character. This is where my Magical Thinking comes into play as I say in a semi-professional setting that I think sometimes your characters have opinions and thoughts and it's part of our job to decide when to accommodate them.

This isn't something that people who rely heavily on outlines like to hear. They already decided everything the character does before they wrote a single word - but now the character exists, and they think their thoughts, and they actually don't want to do something? Fuck that! Lobotomize them and shove them back in the outline drawn by a writer who hadn't actually met the character yet.

Is that dramatic to say? Yes. I'm a dramatic person. I don't think all outlining is bad, I just kind of wish more people were open to adjusting an outline as a character develops, because they should develop as you write them.

So yeah, if I want one of my characters to keep a secret and they say it immediately, I'm like well shit I guess you felt like telling him now. When I want another character to be angry and he's mainly indifferent I'm like dang man you don't get angry like I thought you would. It's probably not for anyone, but I'm super happy not being the all-knowing god of my universe. I'm mainly just some little weirdo scuttling on the edges of each scene, taking notes in a battered composition book. Keeps it interesting.

And it's got to be interesting. It's got to be fun. That's how you keep the prose genuine, I think.

So yeah, the scene's not working? Maybe the scene's fucked. Maybe you need a new scene. Maybe you don't need a scene. Oh shit. Maybe the two plot arcs don't bridge yet. Maybe you jump straight to the cool thing and then go back and explain how they bridged later. Maybe it's non-linear. Can you imagine? What the fuck would happen then?

I'm psyched just thinking about it.

[fkitwebhaal]

Dark Urge Fic Recs Part 1

Hello! Do you find the Dark Urge to be super interesting? Would you like to read some fic about said funky little Bhaalist? Maybe even leave a comment or two? Well you can, given the power of my Dark Urge fic rec list!

My criteria for this list is as follows:

explored a part of the Dark Urge narrative in interesting and fun ways

uses said Dark Urge narrative to flesh out other characters and their responses to it

Thse fics are plot based. There can be sex scenes, but the focus is the plot.

There will be a part two to this list (I want to rec stuff for every combo of Durge/Origin, as well as dig up some Gen) but for now, here is what I got. I also write my own Durge stuff, but this isn't about me, so BEHOLD RECS.

Being the Urge is a fucking nightmare: Focus is on the struggle of being a dark urge character in the first place, any romance is really in the background

Anastasis: by Low_ Spaces

Rating: T

Ship: Gale/Durge

Summary:

They had been warned. Orin kidnaps the Dark Urge.

Rec: I love this AU. It has a fantastic depiction of the relationship between Durge and Orin and I highly recommend it. It's also does great work hinting at what is going on outside of our protagonist's POV.

Strong Ensemble: these fics vary in romantic relationships but they all contain a strong focus on the entire party as a unit. If you’re not sold on the main pairing, I still suggest checking them out for the dynamic relationships between the entire cast and a strong understanding of the importance of platonic friendships.

Cardinal. Sunrise, Morning Star: by @edelgarfield

Rating: M

Ship: Durge/Astarion with background ships

Summary:

It's a whole series and you should read it.

Rec: Absolutely fantastic series that shows how much the cast plays off one another. Each character gets a moment to play off Durge and those moments are beautifully written. While it's second person, this fic doesn't have a blank slate for Durge, instead the second person serving as more of a depiction of the Durge's mental state than anything else. I cannot recommend it enough.

Blood and Music Series by agrazza

Rating: T-M depending on installment

Ship: Astarion/Durge

Summary:

Tavran Gregory the half-elf woke up on the nautiloid with an urge to kill boiling in his veins and his fingers twitching to destroy. He drowns out both with his magic and music, but things aren't always that easy.

Rec: This is a wonderful series with a great look at the ramifications of Durge's entire situation and how that might play out. Durge's resurrection after the Bhaal fight isn't a quick fix here and Agrazza plays out the implications of getting stabbed in the head with thoughtful writing. The entire cast plays off Tavran in delightful ways. Where Agrazza shines in particular are their NPCs who show up in their post game long fic "On Darkness." A great read for those who want scenes that slice nicely into canon.

More relationship focused: these fics tend to look more at a relationship as their focus and how it works. Romance ahoy!

From the Jaws of Death: by Verelia

Rating: M

Ship: Astarion/Durge

Summary:

For all the ways he'd seen her carve bloody paths through their enemies, for all the times he'd watched her stand defiant against creatures that would bring most men to their knees - it most disturbed him to see her now, like this, twisted by guilt and self-loathing. It was the closest Astarion had come to looking in a mirror in two centuries.

Rec: As a general rule, I'm not a huge fan of fics that take Astarion's Cazador fight and add his LI as a target for Cazador. It just rubs me the wrong way. This fic is the exception because it understands this is Astarion's fight and doesn't try to redirect his trauma onto his LI: instead the Durge trauma here comes entirely from the Durge and man is it good. 10/10.

In Rapture, Ruin: by RM777

Rating: M

Ship: Shadowheart/Durge

Summary:

Bhaal’s voice rings throughout the temple, the vile and contemptuous thing. He speaks through that awful servant, and demands Vaszyne's loyalty. Shadowheart isn't worried, (and it feels good, for once, to trust someone enough to not be ready for constant betrayal) she knows the lengths her lover has gone to resist the temptations of her father. She will not give in, no matter what—this, Shadowheart knows for certain. Vaszyne challenges him, denies him the satisfaction of creating another monster to run amok Faerûn, another victim to a god’s ascension. "I would rather die." And so she does. or: Vaszyne seems remarkably calm for having died less than a day ago. Shadowheart is decidedly not.

Rec: You love to see a fic that understands the RAMIFICATIONS. This fic digs so well into the fallout from the Bhaal fight, how it would impact not only their LI who had to watch the whole thing happen, but Durge who just got super disinherited in the bloodiest way. I love the dynamic here between Shadowheart and Durge and it's that good mix of angst and hurt/comfort that feels like an excellent missing scene.

Recovery Series by @anxious-scrambles

Rating: M

Ship: Gale/Durge

Summary:

A fic digging into the aftermath of being Durge.

Rec: Have you ever looked at Gale and said "hm, this man needs a middle aged partner, not a 20 something (though the 20 something is fine too)." Anxious-Scrambles understands that assignment and has pulled it off remarkably well with Dreuer, and delves into not only the aftermath of adjusting from being a violent killer to a domestic lifestyle, but also adds the element of lost Bhaal warlock powers. Dreuer and Gale's relationship plays well to help explore parts of their character and this series really understands that "happily ever after" is work, not the ending.