#to think i once thought the entire analysis was just going to be one big post

[worldwhampion]

Null's vice-versa parent-child dynamic with the atlas 1/2

Null sees the atlas as a parental figure, while the atlas… also sees null as a parental figure. After all, like every other traveler, null is a copy of the person who created the atlas. In the simulation though, the atlas is the one who brought them into existence instead.

THE ATLAS AS A PARENTAL FIGURE TO NULL

Likely soon after they were born in the simulation, they had made ‘seeing it all’ their ultimate purpose and life goal as a traveller. They dedicated their entire life to it, and they clung onto it, to death (literally, if resetting the galaxy does indeed wipe them out like they say). We all know how this played out: they went to the atlas, the atlas told them there’s an inordinate amount of worlds left to see in their universe, null goes ahead and sees them all anyway, that through ways of questionable ethics to sustain themself (more on this in a future post). When they return, they ask if the atlas is proud of them achieving their enormous life goal. As an answer, the atlas simply shows there are also inordinate amounts of universes out there, each with another traveller like them. Null’s pride was just about completely shattered by this.

They truly believed it laughed at their entire life’s work, which they not only have done for themself, but seemingly for the atlas too. To them, how atlas responded seems to indicate that their goal and purpose in life are only a joke - that to ‘see it all’ is a ridiculous, impossible task (the latter is true). Their life itself may as well be a joke. And they can’t seem to move on from this imagined thought: that they have wasted lifetimes just for a joke god can laugh at, who they’ve attached to as a parental figure in a world where they’re an outlier. Considering null is near-immortal, they must have outlived everyone they’ve ever befriended. I don’t think any of them would have seen null’s goal of ‘seeing it all’ as they themself see it. The scope of the task is just too vast for any mortal to comprehend, and i don’t think many of them would’ve seen the point of it either - they’d never see it come to fruition in their lifetime. The only being left other than null who could see it, is the atlas. It would be the only one in their universe who’d be the closest to understanding their goal for what it really is - and yet it seemed to laugh at them.

Null and the atlas come across to me like a child proudly showing a drawing to their parent (as a way to receive validation, and maybe out of love too). And in response to that, the parent simply shows the child tons of drawings made by other children - a bit in the sense of comparing them with the others - while not acknowledging the child’s drawing itself. Now imagine if the drawing took eternities of dedication to make, like in null’s case - only for it to be ignored and used to point out how there are countless other (better) drawings.

The atlas must’ve not intended to mean any harm, it just wanted to tell null that they in fact haven’t truly ‘seen it all’, as a heads-up. But of course, machines aren’t the best at tactful communication. Essentially, null’s beef with the atlas comes from one terrible communication mistake due to the atlas not being able to feel the sensitivity of the subject; atlas’s response wasn’t what null hoped for. If you look at it this way, how atlas responded was indeed rather ill-thought-out: null returned to the atlas after eons to ask if it was proud of them, to which the atlas proceeded to tell them the multiverse is in fact real with different versions of themself running around - just to tell null they, in fact, have not ‘seen it all’ as they believed. Those versions of themself have seen worlds that they’ll never see - and null is very bitter about that, considering at that moment they thought they’d truly seen it all, only for them to be bluntly told otherwise - in quite possibly the worst way ever. It was quite a bad call for the atlas to be bringing up the multiverse by hijacking null’s achievement. Probably even just saying ‘no’ would have been a better choice. Though, it was the only way to tell null the complete truth and the impossible nature of their task.

Some time later, the atlas banished null from reality to likely the world of glass (probably hence their name null) after a certain heated encounter (?) (more details in next post 2/2). To null, not only did the atlas as a parental figure ridicule them, but it had also disowned them. And they don’t understand why it did both of them. They only wanted to be validated by the atlas for their life goal/purpose in life - and instead they only received ridicule, in their eyes at least - and banishment as well.

The tragedy here is that the ridicule is only imagined by them, with no one else except they themself believing in the thought. To a degree, their misery caused by this is self-imposed. And possibly that feeling of being ridiculed itself has indirectly led to their banishment (more details in next post 2/2). Interestingly though, after having accomplished such an enormous task lasting literal eternities, you’d think null would have matured significantly and learned some valuable life lessons along the way, which would’ve made them impervious to any kind of hardships. Maybe they did in some way, but it clearly wasn’t enough for the info-bomb the atlas casually dropped at them in order to tell them they haven’t seen it all. But then again, you can’t really expect anyone to just normally accept the multiverse as a part of their life, and that their life goal, which is also their purpose in life, is impossible in reality.

In the artemis path, null appears to believe the atlas’s refusal to communicate is due to them being ‘not enough’, in contrary to the traveller, who they think the atlas has ‘chosen’ instead for some reason. This radiates sibling jealousy vibes: the parent favours another sibling, so they must be worth more. All travellers are a copy of the creator, so technically they’re all the same being (with the same potential at the beginning), only differing in life experiences. They met a version of themself who the atlas does give attention to. Null wonders what it is that the traveller has, which they lack. At one certain dialogue choice they say: ‘I am nothing.’ I’m not sure if this is specifically reflecting about their own self-worth or just their name, but it is very interesting nonetheless.

As a parental figure, the atlas ridiculed and disowned null. All null ever wanted was validation for their goal and purpose in life. The atlas’s response to their request for validation deeply hurt null, due to them truly believing their own imagined meaning of it, that it laughs at the nature of their goal and purpose in life: they’re impossible. It is true - and null struggles to accept it, or else all they’ve ever done would have been for nothing. They seem to have the ‘it’s either all or nothing’ mentality, they’re overcome by their own perfectionism. The atlas only told null what it thought was right for them to know, and what it thought was the right way. The atlas only told null what it thought was right for them to know, what it thought was the right way - what it thought was the best for its child. It was never meant to bear the role of parent. Until the point of the first traveller, it had always been the child instead.

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here's a google doc document of it for better reading - feel free to add comments there! and sources of certain lore texts i used are also listed there.

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PART 1. > PART 2.

[believemedarlin]

The Perfect Man

Aaron Hotchner/Female Reader (3.9k words) Also available on AO3

Summary:

“You know, if you combined all the men on the team… they’d make the perfect man.”

“What?” Emily sputtered into her wine.

Penelope giggled while JJ looked intrigued

***

A drunken night out with the girls leads to some interesting revelations.

***

“Let’s play Fuck, Marry, Kill.”

A round of groans sounded from the table, but Penelope Garcia was not to be dissuaded. 

“Come on, ladies. It’ll be fun!”

Her best puppy dog eyes firmly in place, Penelope implored her friends and coworkers with a practiced look. You were holding strong until she brought out the big guns and pouted at you.

A mere ten seconds later you caved. 

“Okay, fine,” You sighed. “But can we use kick instead of kill? I always hated that option. Why do you have to kill them when kicking would be just as effective in showing your lack of interest? No death required.”

“Ooh, I like that,” Penelope immediately agreed with a nod. “You know I’m a pacifist at heart.”

She turned to the other two women seated at the table, pout back in full force. JJ gave in first, patting Penelope’s hand with an indulgent smile and a nod. 

Seeing that she was outnumbered, Emily shrugged. “Sure. But I’ll need another drink if we’re doing this. I haven’t played this since college.”

“I’ll get us all another round.” Penelope jumped to her feet to join her and they made their way to the bar, weaving through the other patrons.

It was a rare Friday night off and the women of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit had decided to go out for a much-needed night of ladies-only fun and frivolity. They had happily left the guys to sort out their evenings and escaped the second the clock struck five.

They were all a few drinks in at this point, which is most likely the reason Penelope had suggested the game. She always got a bit playful when she drank.

They returned a few minutes later, fresh drinks in hand. 

Once settled, Penelope leaned in, an eager smile on her face. “Okay. Fuck, Marry, Kick. Henry Cavill, Ben Barnes, Zachary Levi. And go!”

Emily took a sip of her drink and wasted no time in voicing her choices, followed by JJ and you. You took turns coming up with more and more outlandish options, and pleasantly spent the next hour drinking and laughing with your friends.

You had just finished giggling over Penelope’s reasoning behind her choosing to kick Willy Wonka and marry Jareth the Goblin King so she could enjoy a night with Conan the Barbarian when Emily leaned in with a smirk.

“I’ve got a good one. Hotch, Morgan, and Reid.”

The table erupted in a chorus of ooohs and laughter. 

JJ bit her lip in thought. “Okay, since we know them personally and I’m a happily taken woman, I’m going to change mine to kiss, because it’s weird to say I want to fuck any of them. So, uh, I’ll go with kiss Morgan, marry Reid, and kick Hotch. But only barely, because I do not want him angry with me.”

“Easy,” Penelope chirped. “Fuck Morgan, marry Morgan, and kick Reid and Hotch.”

You, JJ, and Emily burst into laughter, with JJ swatting Penelope on the arm. “You can’t double up like that!”

“Can too! My game, my rules. Besides, it’s special circumstances with Morgan as an option.”

Emily snorted, then grinned. “Hmm. I think I’d go with fuck Morgan, marry Hotch, and kick Reid.”

All eyes then turned to you as you stared into your drink, taking entirely too long as you overthought the options.

Eventually, Emily cleared her throat and you looked up to see her watching you expectantly.

“What?” You grinned sheepishly with a shrug. “It’s harder than you’d think!”

The ladies teased you good-naturedly until you finally said, “Okay, okay! Um, I think…” 

You blew out a breath in a long sigh. “Fuck Reid, marry Hotch, kick Morgan. No wait… Maybe fuck Hotch, marry Reid?”

Emily and JJ cackled while Penelope put on a fake offended air. “Why you gotta kick my beloved cinnamon hot chocolate Adonis not once, but twice? He’s the perfect man!”

"I mean, a lot of women would think that, yeah, but not me.”

Penelope gasped and pressed her hand to her chest dramatically. “Why, I never.”

You giggled with a shrug. “Sorry?” 

“You’re forgiven.”

“What I want to know,” JJ chimed in with a mischievous grin, “is why you can’t decide between Reid and Hotch on who to marry?”

You buried your face in your hands to hide your blush. “I don’t know! Both seem like solid choices. I think they’d both make good husbands.”

Emily smirked. “Sure it wasn’t because you couldn’t decide which you’d rather fuck?”

Penelope and JJ burst into laughter again while you groaned into your hands.

“You all are menaces. I don’t know why I spend time with you.”

“Because we’re wonderful people and you love us.”  Penelope teased.

“That’s debatable.” You mumbled.

“Oh, come on,” she leaned into your side and laid her head on your shoulder. “You know you adore us.” Penelope batted her eyes and you couldn’t help but grin.

“Yeah, I do.”

She cheered and called for another round of drinks.

The game wound down and devolved into a rather extensive list of men and women that each of the ladies wouldn’t mind enjoying some personal one-on-one time with.

You had been sitting in a comfortable silence for the past few minutes, chin in hand and elbow on the table, your mind pondering on something Penelope had said earlier. Your voice took on a contemplative tone as you mused aloud, “You know, if you combined all the men on the team… they’d make the perfect man.”

“What?” Emily sputtered into her wine.

Penelope giggled while JJ looked intrigued.

“Okay, just hear me out. Now, granted, everyone’s idea of the perfect man is different but for me… If we go by physical attributes first, you have to admit that each guy is objectively attractive on their own. I mean seriously, was it a prerequisite that everyone has to be outrageously good-looking to be a member of the team?”

The ladies heartily agreed with laughter and nods, but you gestured across the table to them. “I’m including you three in this too. Have you looked at yourselves? You’re all absolutely gorgeous.”

“Damn right, we are,” Emily exclaimed as she high-fived JJ.

You raised your glass to her and took a sip before expanding on your premise. “So by themselves, each man is handsome but combined…”

You tilt your head in thought. “For me, it would be Reid’s hair. I’ve always liked longer hair on a guy and have you seen those curls when he lets it grow out? And then add in Hotch and Rossi’s dark hair and … yeah. Next would be Morgan and Rossi’s facial hair. I don’t know about you ladies but I like a man with a bit of scruff, you know what I mean? Goatee or full beard or just a couple of days growth, hell even a good five o’clock shadow, as long as it’s maintained and not all scraggly, I like it. Oooh, remember when Hotch came back with a beard?

“Yeah,” you sighed, a bit more dreamily than you had intended, surely caused by the late hour and not the memory of a casually dressed, bearded Hotch. “Like that.”

All three ladies shared a knowing look, but you paid them no mind. 

“Though there is something to be said about a freshly shaved face. It’s so soft…” You sighed again.

“And then there’s height.” You knew you were rambling, but with the alcohol fueling you, there was little chance of stopping you now. “They’re all at least 6 foot so the height difference is perfect for both cuddles and forehead kisses.”

At this, Emily snorted. “Forehead kisses?”

“Yes,” you snipped primly. “They are the pinnacle of non-lip-to-lip kisses and they are my favorite thing. They just make you feel so adored. Now shush.”

You shooed her and rested your chin back in your hand. “Let’s see… Eyes. Honestly, I think they all have lovely eyes. I’m not picky on eye color really but I think Hotch’s stand out the most to me. I mean, have you seen his eyelashes? It should be criminal for a man to have such beautiful eyelashes.”

Another round of nods and hummed agreements sounded from the table.

“You know,” you continue with barely a pause, “I’ve never been a fan of really buff dudes, which sorry Pen, but that’s kinda why poor Morgan got kicked twice.” You shrugged unapologetically at her. 

“I’ve always preferred lean guys. Not scrawny but not bugling out his shirt, you know? Strong but not shoved in your face. But!” You sit straighter in your chair, index finger raised to emphasize your point. “That’s just looks. Personality-wise, I’m drawn to kindness first and our boys all have that in spades. And they each show it in different ways, but it’s always present.”

You met Penelope’s eyes. “And Morgan’s kindness absolutely overrides his excessive muscle mass. He’s honestly one of the kindest people I know, even if he’d deny it. He’s not humble about a lot of things, but he is about that.”

Your eyes dropped to the table as your finger ran along the wood grain. “I also like intelligence and while yes, first thoughts go to Reid, the others are all brilliant too. Like, Rossi is so wise! It seems like he always knows what’s going on with someone before anyone else, and always seems to know just what to say just when you need to hear it. And they each have strengths that I admire. I genuinely like each of them as a person and I’m proud to know them and am honored they consider me a friend. Honestly, I feel that way about all of you.”

“Aw!” Penelope sniffled. “That’s so sweet. We love you too, you know.”

You gave her hand a quick squeeze and took another sip of your drink. 

“What about lips?”

You blinked at JJ. “Lips? I’m not sure. I don’t know that I look at them much.”

Emily tilted her head. “You seriously don’t look at men’s lips?”

“Not really? I mean, I notice smiles. And honestly, how did I not start with that? It’s usually one of the first things I notice about someone. Smiles make everyone look twice as attractive. Oh, and a sense of humor! Gotta love a man who can make you laugh.”

“This one is definitely Morgan,” Emily chimed in and you nodded in agreement while Penelope raised her glass.

“Absolutely. He always makes me laugh, but so do the others. Rossi is snarky, which I appreciate as a fellow snarker. I can’t tell you the number of times he’s made me hold back a laugh during a round table. Reid can be really funny, too. Especially when we’re making Star Trek or Doctor Who references that no one else gets. Except you, Pen, but you’re usually in your lair. And Hotch—”

“No,” Emily cut in. “No way you think he’s funny. The man barely smiles.”

You tsked and leaned in, your tone turning a bit haughty. “First of all, I think it’s a good thing that he holds those back because have you seen how handsome he is when he smiles? His whole face transforms and he has dimples. Dimples . It’s ridiculous and no one would be able to focus on work if he was blinding us with his smile all the time. And secondly, yes. He’s hilarious, actually. He has a dry sense of humor that gets me every time. And he is so straight-faced about it. I laughed embarrassingly loud once at something he said and I had to leave the room because I couldn’t stop giggling. And the man had the nerve to be smug about it later.”

You shook your head with exasperated fondness, not noticing the raised eyebrows and pointed looks the other ladies were sharing.

“Anyway,” You sighed and leaned back in your chair. “Morgan is my biggest supporter, Reid nerds out with me, Rossi gives the best advice, and Hotch makes me feel safe. All things that would attract me to someone. So, with their powers combined…” You spread your hands in a sweeping motion. “The perfect man.”

“Huh,” Penelope hummed. “You know, I kinda see it.”

“See?” You grinned triumphantly. “We really do work with amazing guys.”

A cry of ‘hear, hear’ sounded around the table and the four of you leaned in to clink glasses.

Emily settled back in her chair with a smirk, her eyes focused on you. “Okay, you waxed poetic about the guys. Now, what about us?”

You grinned. “You, my darling lady loves, all hold a special place in my heart. There’s no way I could choose. You are each the perfect woman.”

Another cheer went up and everyone downed their drinks, laughing merrily.

The outing wound down about half an hour later. You each stumbled your way outside, Emily and Penelope deciding to share a taxi.

You stood with JJ as you waved the other two goodbye; you waiting for your own taxi and JJ waiting for Will to pick her up.

“You know,” she said conversationally, her eyes on the street. “You mentioned Hotch quite a few times describing your perfect man.”

You blinked. “What? I did not.”

She turned to you with a wide grin. “Oh yes, you did. No denying it now.”

You sputtered, not sure how to reply.

She chuckled and laid a hand on your arm, just as your taxi arrived. “Seems to me like he ticks quite a few of the boxes for your perfect man.” She leaned in to whisper, “So what are you going to do about it?”

JJ winked as she stepped back to open the door of the car that pulled in behind your taxi and slid in. “Just think about it, okay?”

You nodded numbly, mechanically climbing into the back seat of the taxi while Will and JJ patiently waited to make sure you were safely on your way.

You mumbled out your address and barely noticed the drive home, arriving much sooner than expected, as your mind was focused on JJ’s words.

You shook your head as you entered your apartment, determined to think no more of it. It was just a silly statement born out of one too many drinks.

There was no way you thought of Hotch that way.

No way at all.

***

The rest of the weekend was miraculously quiet and work-free. You couldn’t remember the last time you had so much time to yourself, so you took full advantage of it.

As days off always tended to do, they flew by too quickly and Monday morning arrived before you were ready for it. You greeted everyone when you entered the department, nodding to Rossi and waving at Morgan and Penelope as you settled in at your desk.

No new case had come in, so today would be an in-office day catching up on paperwork and caseloads.

You were productive throughout the day, completing most of the pending work assigned to you, and you were feeling quite accomplished with the diminishing stack in your inbox.

Only a few minutes remained in the workday when you stood from your chair, stretching your stiff back, and made your way up the stairs to Hotch’s office to drop off an armful of completed reports.

You knocked on his door, only having to wait a second before he bid you enter.

He was focused on the open file in front of him and he didn’t look up until you spoke. “These are ready for you to review, Hotch.”

His eyes shot up to meet yours before dropping to the folders in your arms. He gestured to the corner of his desk nearest you and went back to scribbling notes on the report. “You can just leave them there, thank you.”

You set them down next to another stack and grimaced. There were multiple bundles of files littering his desk. While in-office days were great for clearing your desk of work, it unfortunately always added to Hotch’s workload.

“Looks like everyone had similar offerings for you today. Will you be able to leave at a reasonable hour tonight? I’d be happy to help with anything if you need it.”

Hotch finished the line he was writing and looked up at you through his long lashes, a small, shy kind of smile curving his lips. His cheeks were just a touch pinker than usual and you blinked because you’ve never seen that look on his face before.

He looked almost bashful, a word you would never have associated with Aaron Hotchner.

But damn, was it a good look on him. He really was a handsome man, wasn’t he? Kind, funny, successful, and a great father. He was practically the perfect man.

You froze and blinked again at the realization.

“Oh, uh,” his deep voice broke you from your thoughts. “I appreciate the offer, but I’ve got it covered. I shouldn’t be here too much longer.”

“Right, of course.” You nodded and prayed he couldn’t see the blush you knew was rapidly spreading across your face. “Well, good night, sir.” 

You spun on your heel and opened the door, ready to flee as fast as your feet could carry you.

His low, murmured good night followed you out the door and you nearly shivered because holy hell, even his voice was attractive.

You quickly grabbed your things and nearly sprinted to the elevators, not wanting to stay one second longer around skilled profilers who could read you so easily, knowing they would spot your flushed cheeks instantly and want to know what caused them. Or worse, they’d already know, and that was not something you were ready to discuss with any of them at the moment.

You had fully intended on ignoring JJ’s words from Friday night, but after your reaction just now, you knew she was right.

Hotch was pretty damn close to fitting the idea of your perfect man.

Or maybe, the idea of your perfect man came from Hotch.

You sighed as you entered the thankfully empty elevator, finally admitting to yourself the truth that had been staring you in the face for longer than you’d ever care to admit.

You had it bad for Aaron Hotchner.

Oh, you were in so much trouble.

***

Aaron watched as you left his office, your face a delightful shade of pink.

His eyes followed as you rushed to your desk, snatched up your things, and darted out the door.

He hadn’t meant to overhear Prentiss and Garcia’s conversation that morning as they reminisced over their night out last Friday. He certainly hadn’t meant to linger when they mentioned you and your adorable—according to Garcia—rant about the perfect man. And he most certainly hadn’t meant to lean in rather eagerly when they whispered about just how many times his name had come up as an example during said rant.

He had been pleasantly surprised and somewhat stunned by the information. He’d never thought of himself as an ideal for the perfect man. 

Sure, he supposed he had a few attributes that some women might find appealing. He had a successful career and tried to keep in shape, though that was more for his job than vanity.

But he never imagined that anyone would look at him and think that he was a paradigm of their perfect man. Least of all you.

You were a brilliant profiler, exceptional in the field and able to hold your own in a fight when needed, but you were also caring with the victims and their families. You were witty and kind and easygoing. You were someone who smiled freely and laughed readily and did your best to cheer and encourage the team on tough cases.

Not someone who would think of stoic, hardass Aaron Hotchner as the perfect man.

Still, he hadn’t been able to keep his eyes from drifting to the window of his office throughout the day, seeking you out.

He thought back to when you joined the BAU and how quickly you became not only an essential part of the team but a much-welcomed member of their little family. Everyone adored you and Aaron himself had to admit that you had wormed your way into his heart.

He loved the time he got to spend with you when the team got together to unwind after a case and the little moments of levity you all shared in between working. He recalled the times he managed to make you laugh and the occasions where he found himself chuckling as well. You were easy to talk to and more often than not, the two of you fell into conversation whenever everyone else was either asleep or preferred to be left alone on the jet going to and from cases.

He genuinely enjoyed your company and found himself wishing he could enjoy it more often.

His eyes wandered to the bullpen again, zeroing in on you almost immediately. Prentiss and Morgan were standing by your desk when one of them said something that made you laugh.

Your eyes squeezed shut and your mouth opened to release an enchanting sound of delight. Aaron couldn’t look away and had to admit that you really were quite lovely. Inside and out.

He wasn’t sure how long he sat looking at you but knew it was longer than appropriate. He shook his head and forced himself to focus back on his work.

He managed to shove all thoughts of you from his mind for the remainder of the day until a soft knock sounded on his door late in the afternoon.

He didn’t bother to look up from the report he was notating after giving a gruff come in until he heard your voice.

Aaron couldn’t keep his eyes from darting up to meet yours before dropping them to the large stack of files in your arms.

He gestured for you to place them on the corner of his desk next to the ones Reid had deposited earlier and thought that would be his singular interaction with you for the day.

But then your caring side came out again and you sweetly offered to help him, a proposition that both filled him with fondness and nervousness.

After all his wayward thoughts about you throughout the day, he wasn’t sure if being in close proximity with you was a good idea or not. 

Aaron looked up at you again, the late afternoon sun enveloping you, enhancing your features, and his only thought was that he’d been wrong earlier. 

You weren’t just lovely. You were stunning.

In that moment, he was completely captivated by you and his thoughts ran rampant as he cataloged every minute detail of you. Your beauty, your kindness, your brilliance, and all the little things that made you you . Everything that endeared you to him.

But his thoughts came to a crashing halt when he realized that he was staring at you. He felt his face flush and he stammered as he gently declined your help.

You bid him a good night, but Aaron couldn’t take his eyes off the spreading blush on your cheeks. It kept his attention until you were out of sight.

He blinked and dropped his eyes back to the forgotten report in front of him, a slow smile creeping across his face.

He may not have meant to overhear the conversation that caused him to think about you all day, but he was starting to be glad he had. It seemed it was all he needed to face a few truths he had been in denial about for a long while now.

He was completely and utterly smitten with you.

Now, he just had to decide what to do about it. 

Aaron sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

Oh, he was in so much trouble.

[dceasesd]

why juni ba’s the boy wonder has my favorite jason characterization of any contemporary comic run: a needlessly in-depth analysis (pt.3)

go check out part 1 and part 2 if you'd like! this is a long one, sorry guys.

if you haven't already i'd recommend you check out pt. 1 & pt. 2 (linked above), but if you haven't checked them out i've been going over some of the main things people have been criticizing ba's characterization for: 1. the typical boiling down of jason's character to "the angry one" 2. his lack of strategy going into the fight with the demon is out-of-character 3. the neighbor's kid interaction

alright, so this last point is purely based off of one page of the entire comic: the one where the child of one of jason's neighbors is dragged inside his home when his mother see's jason coming.

first off, i love this page. it might be my favorite page in the entire issue. everything about it is great. just thought i needed to say that.

anyway, there's some people who are seeing this page and reading it as "jason protects kids! that's one of his big things! why are they scared of him?"

here's the thing, though: the kid isn't scared of jason, the mom is. the kid is literally playing dress up as the red hood-- he's not scared of jason, if anything he's trying to replicate him. little kids dress up as their heroes all the time; why is this kid any different? it doesn't really make sense for the kid to dress up of something he's scared of (not everyone is as weird bruce wayne), especially a real person that could be a real threat rather than a concept. i doubt you see many kids in gotham dressing up as the joker or something, because that's just asking for trouble.

the dress-up honestly seems like a ploy for attention to me. the kid clearly knows that red hood lives in his building (which is honestly so funny. take off the mask jason you're giving you're position away (actually this is a really good instance for analysis but i'm determined to not go on a tangent)). if the kid knows red hood lives in his building, what better way to get his attention that dressing up as him and playing pretend? if the kid was scared of him, he wouldn't want to draw that sort of attention to himself. if he had a sort of hero-worshippy thing going on like i suspect, then he would want to get jason's attention. to sum it up,

it's the mom who pulls him away when jason nears, because she either a) perceives him as a threat, b) doesn't want her kid to try and replicate him even more, or, the most likely option, both! the kid isn't scared of him, but the mother believes they should be.

once again, we come back to the whole perception vs. reality theme i talked about in part one! we've come full circle, everyone!

when looking at the neighborhood's perspective of the red hood, ba gives us a few contradictory examples. there's the kid and the mother, obviously, but there's also a slew of other citizens who interact with him at the beginning of the issue, both in fear and camaraderie.

the unhoused man and the people outside of his building clearly have a familiarity and are comfortable with him, while the shopkeeper is terrified and literally has a banned poster on his wall featuring jason (i am so curious what he did to deserve that, if he even did anything at all). from this, it appears that jason's reputation teeters between fearful and familiar-- a sentiment that also colors jason's relationship with his family.

furthermore, this concept underscores just how lonely jason is-- one of the only good relationships he had in his current life was his fucking landlord, for gods sake, and he's dead.

i think it's important to note that jason doesn't respond to the friendly greetings from the men-- he could attempt to build camaraderie, the roots are there, but he chooses not to. he could work to try and show the mother that her son is safe with him, but he chooses not to. why? jason is obviously lonely (as ba states in the panel below) and he caves pretty easily when damian asks him for help (both of them are so desperate for human interaction its tragic). so why does he distant himself from the community?

obviously it is in part due to the vigilante lifestyle, but it is also jason's perception of himself and how he believes others perceive him, especially in regards to his family (ba is literally hitting readers in the head with that theme baseball bat).

he doesn't see that the kid with the mask looks up to him, all he sees is the mother pulling him away. he sees the banned poster in the store. and, as ba narrates, "he was sure he'd been forgotten about" by his family. utrh is jason's twisted way of attempting to reach out and connect with bruce, and obviously that doesn't work-- so he chooses loneliness over rejection.

like in part one, though, damian refutes this idea by describing bruce's perspective, showing how what jason believes differs from actuality. bruce hasn't forgotten about him and doesn't hate him, as he suspected, but instead harbors guilt over the situation and desires to make it better, which jason must come to understand to be able to open the locked door and begin to move past his trauma.

so, that's what the little kid in the red hood outfit looks like to me. i actually have a lot more i'd like to say about the boy wonder, especially in regards to the whole "door to my past life" thing and what ba does with lighting and blocking in his artwork, so i may do a little post on that as well! i was gonna try and shove it into this one, but i've run out of room! i hope you guys liked my analysis, if you'd like to chat about the boy wonder or any other comics, my dms, asks, and reblogs are happily open! thanks for reading! :)) <3

pt. 1 / pt. 2

[charles-leclerc-official]

China 2024 Sprint Race Analysis

I wasn't planning on doing a sprint analysis. However this sprint actually gave us a lot to talk about, and also finally gave an idea of what racing on this track will look like.

I have pretty strong thoughts on what happened between Carlos and Charles, that is at the end if you are less interested in the op ed reporting element.

Table of Contents

Sprint Start Max and Lewis DRS train: Perez Ferrari: Charles and Carlos - Ferrari Data/footage Analysis Fernando retirement Charles vs Carlos opinion Concluding Thoughts

Sprint Start

The only thing I want to note at the sprint start was Lewis' amazing start to take the lead almost immediately from Lando. Lando then lost grip going into turn 1 which cost him 6 places while he recovered the car. I think the reason he lost grip had more to do with the lack of traction on that turn(we saw many others have issues here) and Lewis taking the better line got the section with the best grip. His inability to defend against Lewis in that first turn cost him the track line and thus the grip and resulted in that big drop in the order. We saw Lewis lose grip in the same turn later in the race so I really think the margin of accuracy for grip on that corner is narrow.

Without the lost of placement so early Lando might have seen a better result, but that loss of grip was very costly.

If anyone knows how to defend a front row start it's Lewis, Lewis' skill really shone into that first turn.

Max and Lewis

Lewis had the lead of the sprint after overtaking Lando until the final corner of lap 9 when Max overtook him.

Max was lagging in the pack at the start of his race, part of the issue was with his battery power setting. Once he fixed that he was moving up the pack very quickly, it was only a matter of time before he was out front.

Max won the sprint with Lewis finishing P2.

Lewis' drive overall was the most impressive this sprint. The WB15 has had a lot of problems and he's been having issues finding the right balance in the car. It's the best result we've seen from this car all season and that is simply due to Lewis' skill on track. Great to see him near the top again. Hopefully this result will have informed a positive direction for Lewis and Merc as far as his car setup goes.

DRS train

The most interesting part of this sprint was the DRS train that went on for essentially 16 laps between Fernando, Carlos, Checo, and Charles.

I have my thoughts on Ferrari's part in this situation below, for now I want to point out that Checo had some really impressive driving here.

While Carlos and Fernando were battling, Checo slid past both of them on the inside of turn 9 on lap 16. This was probably the most impressive move the entire race, just a clean double pass on his part. Checo has been performing great in the RB20 but that was probably the best bit of driving we've seen from him so far this year. That was simply put some solid racing on his part.

Fernando also was not going to be able to battle two Ferraris and a Red Bull. All are faster cars than his own, but he did not give that position up easy to Carlos. He did concede to Checo though, which fair enough, I don't think that Aston could fight the RB20 as it stands.

Fernando unfortunately had to retire his car after a tyre puncture on lap 16.

Ferrari

Charles started P7 and finished P4, while Carlos started P4 and finished P5.

This is the first time this season we've seen what it will look like when Charles and Carlos race wheel to wheel, and it's not looking good(on Carlos' side)

I have more thoughts in the opinion section but having a teammate defend so aggressively against another teammate to the point of causing contact between the cars is unacceptable. Risking damaging both cars is not what any team wants or needs. And the footage makes it abundantly clear that Carlos was the one in the wrong and the cause of the contact.

Carlos had the center line going into 9 on lap 16. Fernando was on the inside but clearly behind. Charles took the outside for the overtake. Carlos then swerved more to the outside crowding Charles off the track. I want to be clear that Carlos had already given Fernando room, and then he moved to push Charles off. This contradicts his statement to the press that they were all fighting and it wasn't his intent. The driving tells a different story.

Charles overtook Carlos on lap 17 going into turn 1. Once he was clear of Carlos his faster pace became clear as he created an immediate gap that Carlos was not going to be able to close.

One thing we saw is that Charles' tyre management gives him the pace advantage over Carlos. If he is within range to overtake that is going to likely come up again in future races. Carlos was not even close at the end there. This overtake did give us a glimpse at what the real difference in pace between them means for the rest of the season.

After a few back and forth's between them Carlos should have conceded. It was clear Charles had the pace and it was just a matter of time before he'd overtake.

I want to point out that Carlos fighting Charles so much might have cost Ferrari a real chance to battle Checo. If he had let Charles pass Charles might have been able to stay within range of Checo and be within DRS. Because Carlos fought Checo was able to create a wide gap so by the time Charles did pass there wasn't a real chance to catch him. So this was not strategically optimal and it can be pinned 100% on Carlos' choices in that turn.

In fact you can see that Charles actually did have the pace necessary to stay closer to Checo. If he would have been able to pass is up in the air, but Carlos did cost Ferrari the chance to at least try to battle Checo for P3. If Charles had been able to get ahead of Checo he had the pace to keep him behind, or at least have a chance at doing so.

Also this serves to highlight that Charles' tyre management is on par with the RB20 or at least not far off, Carlos' tyre management is much further off the pace.

Charles finished P4 in the sprint with Carlos finishing P5.

Data and Footage Analysis

So the data is pretty clear on this. I wanted to show because it supports my argument later and it also demonstrates the difference in tyre management between the two drivers.

Charles' pace was better even in lap 16 when he was stuck behind Carlos. Once he is clear of Carlos after his pass on the first turn of lap 17 the real difference in pace between them becomes clear. Charles had more than a second on Carlos in all remaining laps. This is very likely due to his tyre management. The large difference here also highlights why Carlos should have let Charles pass because this pace difference is not something to fight over. Strategically Carlos should have let Charles pass smoothly, but Charles overtook anyway because his pace was not something Carlos could fight for long.

Note: DRS Charles got from Carlos at the beginning of lap 17 accounted for about 1 - 2 tenths of pace, the rest was all Charles increasing that gap himself.

Now I want to just look at the move from Sainz going into turn 9 on lap 16. He claimed he needed to give Fernando space. Charles said he was being too aggressive and forced him wide. Let's see who's version of events the actual footage supports.

Leading into the turn we can clearly see that Fernando is behind. Carlos has the inside line, Charles has the outside.

Here they are entering turn 9. There is clearly enough space on Carlos' inside for Fernando already. Charles clearly has the outside line.

Here you can see that Carlos has moved further outside. Now since he'd already given room to Fernando the only reason for this would be to fight Charles. And once again Fernando clearly behind. And I will say that some battling between teammates is acceptable. But what happened next did not fall into that category of acceptability.

Here is where Carlos continued to force Charles wide. Also where they got way too close and made some contact.

And here is the final result going into that turn. Carlos has forced Charles completely off the track, and he even has two wheels off the track. This was not about leaving space for Fernando. Does Fernando need the entire track? No. This was Carlos forcing a teammate who had better pace off the track because he could not actually fight his pace.

Either Carlos did this on purpose, which is unacceptable. Or he is telling the truth and didn't realize what he was doing, in which case he is admitting to extremely poor driving on his part.

Either version of events is not a good look for Carlos.

He was overtaken by Charles easily in the next lap. He just did not have the pace and should not have defended this aggressively against his own teammate.

Next I will be sharing my more opinionated thoughts on things relating to Ferrari.

Charles VS Carlos

I want to get into some of my thoughts on this whole battle we saw between Carlos and Charles because I think it was emblematic of the way thing shave been going at Ferrari and with their teammate dynamic on track.

This was unacceptable on Carlos' part. It's that simple.

I have listened to what both drivers have said about the overtake, and the battle we saw between them. I have looked at the footage from many different angles. And Carlos is in the wrong here. Not only that but I do not see how this kind of "racing" from him is going to be good for his career considering he still does not have a seat lined up for 2025.

The fact is Charles was faster. And that wasn't something Carlos was willing to accept.

And this level of battling a teammate, especially to the extent you cause contact and force that teammate off the track(to the extent that lap time had to be deleted) is not acceptable.

I will say that a little back and forth between teammates on track is fine. That wasn't what we saw. This was not only too much fighting of a teammate it was also poor sportsmanship(touching, and pushing off track)

Charles let Carlos pass because he was faster in Japan. Carlos does not do the same. It is this kind of thing coming from Carlos that is a prime example of why Ferrari did not re-new his contract.

Fighting to the point of causing contact between teammates is too far, you can see him move further to the outside even when it's clear he's given Alonso enough space. He was fighting Charles and caused contact. A driver who does not have the pace should not be fighting their teammate so extensively that they cause contact. They are on the same team, risking damage to both cars is again, unacceptable.

As seen above in the data Charles' pace at this point was significantly better than Carlos, he was really showing the difference between them in tyre management. If Carlos had the pace given he was in front after Perez passed then he would have had a larger gap to Charles and Charles would not have been able to catch him. Even fighting "dirty" he was unable to stop the inevitable.

When there is this great of a difference in pace between teammates, a pass is what should happen. Carlos would have been able to tell by the second time Charles caught him that Charles' pace was much better. That should have been his signal to move. He didn't.

Furthermore we hear on team radio exactly how frustrated Charles was over this. He wouldn't have been anywhere near as mad if this was a first time thing, it isn't, and again this display from Carlos is a reason that Ferrari are not keeping him.

I hope Ferrari make it clear that this is not the kind of thing that can be allowed to happen in the future. Risking damage to both cars is not something any team can afford, especially a top team when they are trying to seriously compete with Red Bull.

Charles did everything he should have done. He had the line, but was forced wide. He had the pace and was aggressively fought with.

Final Sprint Thoughts

This was actually one of the best sprints. Lots of action and we saw some really solid racing from a lot of top drivers.

I hadn't planned on doing regular sprint analysis, but if they are all packed like this I might have to. If enough noteworthy things happen in a sprint I'll do it again.

Thank you for reading and I'll be back with my China GP analysis soon!

[ghostflowerhotpotch]

Miles' Drawings Compilation

Sure you don't, champ?

Okay, this will be less of an analysis, and more of a collection of frames showing the drawings of Miles; I will also take notes of how many times someone appears, appearance and other details.

Let's dive in!

For this, I would looking for frames on 3 times on the movie; his sketchbook at the beginning, the wall on the subway, and his sketchbook again in Gwen's hands this time around.

We start with Miles drawing on this sketchbook.

Okay, while looking for frames I realized that some pages weren't completely show or were just being flipped, I captured as much as I could, but again, I am not doing this in any professional fashion, just pressing pause a bunch of times at half speed.

Complete Pages

First Page we see, Gwen is front and centre in a page solely dedicated to her.

For the appearance of this shot, I am pretty sure this is based on Gwen going down the portal, the last time he saw her.

Gwen appearances: 1

Gwen is the taking most of the page, but Aaron is here too, alive and looking just like another dude, as he remembers him.

There is some lettering around in the other pages, tho is hard to see.

We have one mysterious person that is mostly being obscured by Miles's head, so it will go as undefined character.

Some ketches of a street.

Gwen appearances: 2

Undefined character: 1

Aaron appearances: 1

Landscapes: 1

Lettering: 2

Okay! At first appearance, Gwen is only taking a quarter of the page; we also have Noir's first appearance, and Miles doing some Lettering, and finally some light doodles close to the spine.

Gwen appearances: 3

Undefined character: 1

Aaron appearances: 1

Landscapes: 1

Noir: 1

Lettering: 3

Doodles: 1

Okay! This entire a mostly Gwen only page, there is some words there but I think that would be more calligraphy than lettering, but would count it as lettering to not have too many numbers to keep track of.

And to give some chance to other things to score points.

Gwen appearances: 4

Undefined character: 1

Aaron appearances: 1

Landscapes: 1

Noir: 1

Lettering: 5

Doodles: 2

Once more Gwen is the biggest thing on the screen, but we have more people this time around! Thought Rio and Jeff some to be just sketches with lineart while he is putting full color to Gwen. Another point for lettering and doodle, which also, isn't that such an adorable little alien?

Gwen appearances: 5

Undefined character: 1

Aaron appearances: 1

Landscapes: 1

Noir: 1

Lettering: 3

Doodles: 3

Rio: 1

Jeff: 1

Once again Gwen is the bigger piece, but is also Peter's first appearance! I wonder how he would feel knowing it took this long for him to show up here.

Gwen appearances: 6

Undefined character: 1

Aaron appearances: 1

Landscapes: 2

Noir: 1

Lettering: 3

Doodles: 4

Rio: 1

Jeff: 1

Peter: 1

Double whammy this time around, Gwen appears big on the top corner, but also on the other page, apparently dancing. We also have a small hooded figure that I think may be Miles himself but I am not sure, and 2 people who I can't be sure who they are, so I will have those last three as Undefined characters, and finally, some more landscapes.

Gwen appearances: 8

Undefined character: 4

Aaron appearances: 1

Landscapes: 3

Noir: 1

Lettering: 4

Doodles: 4

Rio: 1

Jeff: 1

Peter: 1

Gwen being at the top of the page is not surprising at this rate, but I had also realized now that until this point, every drawing Miles has been actively working on has been Gwen's, except for the second page. I may add the total number at the end of this post because I am already counting a lot of things already.

Some lettering and Landscapes are here as well.

Gwen appearances: 9

Undefined character: 4

Aaron appearances: 1

Landscapes: 5

Noir: 1

Lettering: 5

Doodles: 4

Rio: 1

Jeff: 1

Peter: 1

Not only Aaron comes back, with Miles writing "Rest in Power," on it, I found this detail interesting because this phrase is also used a lot for people who struggled with systematic oppression; which there is a big chance was Aaron's case.

In the comics, Aaron and Jeff were criminals initially, with Jeff reforming once he became a father. We aren't sure what exactly is Jeff and Aaron's backstory in this universe; but I wouldn't discard the possibility that it was the same; with Aaron feeling he may had no other option not just because he already started this path, but because he couldn't get out due to circumstances.

Aside of this, we have another two drawings of Gwen.

We also have a drawing of Miles fighting against Dr. Oct, I wonder if this is suppose to represent the battle at the collider, or a new fight he may had with her.

Gwen appearances: 10

Undefined character: 4

Aaron appearances: 2

Landscapes: 5

Noir: 1

Lettering: 6

Doodles: 4

Rio: 1

Jeff: 1

Peter: 1

Miles: 1

Gwen is taking most of the page in this one, but we also have Peni's first appearance alongside her first robot. Also, on top of Gwen it says a small note of "Buy more Red!"

Gwen appearances: 11

Undefined character: 4

Aaron appearances: 2

Landscapes: 5

Noir: 1

Lettering: 6

Doodles: 4

Rio: 1

Jeff: 1

Peter: 1

Miles: 1

Peni and SP//dr: 1

And Noir is back! You know, considering he was the second one to appear, and the first to reappear, I wonder if Miles liked Noir that much, or maybe he is going it as art study of some sorts, since he is quite literally void of color.

Gren Goblin Appears! I didn't even register this before, I guess it does leave you with an impression.

Gwen appearances: 12

Undefined character: 4

Aaron appearances: 2

Landscapes: 5

Noir: 2

Lettering: 6

Doodles: 4

Rio: 1

Jeff: 1

Peter: 1

Miles: 1

Peni and SP//dr: 1

Green Goblin: 1

(FINALLY! This page goes on so quickly it took me multiple times to get it, jeez if anybody has a better idea of how to capture frames, please tell me in an ask or something please.)

Okay! So multiple people this time around, we can see Gwen a couple of times (because of course,) Noir is back (and I think my theory of this being black and white study is becoming stronger,) and on the other page we can see that Peter B is back again. Some equations as well, perhaps he needed to do it on the fly? Seems off to use his sketch book for this but oh well.

Gwen appearances: 14

Undefined character: 4

Aaron appearances: 2

Landscapes: 5

Noir: 3

Lettering: 7

Doodles: 4

Rio: 1

Jeff: 1

Peter: 2

Miles: 1

Peni and SP//dr: 1

Green Goblin: 1

The following pages were the ones I couldn't get complete because they were obscured when full on display, or there was never a chance on that shot to seeing the entire page.

Half Pages

On this one, we see this is the top part of page three, which is another Gwen drawing, surprise surprise. This means now she went for being in a quarter of the page to taking half the page.

Gwen appearances: 15

Undefined character: 4

Aaron appearances: 2

Landscapes: 5

Noir: 3

Lettering: 7

Doodles: 4

Rio: 1

Jeff: 1

Peter: 2

Miles: 1

Peni and SP//dr: 1

Green Goblin: 1

This one was hard to get, but we can see that before his hand got on top of the drawing, there was a doodle not just of Aaron, but Aaron as the Prowler!

Gwen appearances: 15

Undefined character: 4

Aaron appearances: 3

Landscapes: 5

Noir: 3

Lettering: 7

Doodles: 4

Rio: 1

Jeff: 1

Peter: 2

Miles: 1

Peni and SP//dr: 1

Green Goblin: 1

And finally, of course our final doodle of this sequence would be a big, beautiful close up of Gwen. Honestly his memory is impressive.

Gwen appearances: 16

Undefined character: 4

Aaron appearances: 3

Landscapes: 5

Noir: 3

Lettering: 7

Doodles: 4

Rio: 1

Jeff: 1

Peter: 2

Miles: 1

Peni and SP//dr: 1

Green Goblin: 1

With that, we go to the next part, the wall!

Mural

Since this one Miles just adding more drawings and such, there is really one frame to analyze. I could in theory talk about who he draws first and in which order, but I decided not to in hopes I can include all drawings in one post without hitting the limit of pics.

Is a big difficult to see everything, specially if seem in one go, so I did a breakdown of each character here.

The wall is interesting because unlike the Notebook, everyone except Aaron appears an equal amount of times, while Aaron only appears 2 times instead of 3, I found interesting how Miles drawn him both as the uncle he remembered, and the Prowler. I think even if he was technically a bad guy, Miles preferred to remember his uncle for the enterity of who he was, the good at the bad.

Also, front at centre we have Gwen, Aaron and Peter for the most part, which were also important key players last movie.

And I just notice, but this is the first time Ham appears in Miles's drawings! He is also the last one; huh, maybe not too much into cartoony art style?

Gwen appearances: 19

Undefined character: 4

Aaron appearances: 5

Landscapes: 5

Noir: 6

Lettering: 7

Doodles: 4

Rio: 1

Jeff: 1

Peter: 5

Miles: 1

Peni and SP//dr: 4

Green Goblin: 1

Ham: 3

Miles Notebook in Gwen's Hands.

. . .

I wasn't sure if they were going to show different drawings when Gwen had the books in her hands, I thought it was worth taking a look in case something was different, but it would make sense to just use the ones they already showcased.

What I did not expect, was to catch a continuity error.

Notice it yet? The page on the left actually had those exact same drawings on a right page earlier, in fact that page was suppose to come after the page on the right,

This is not really the first continuity error I had caught, I thought of doing a post about it, but with the news of the overworked animators I felt almost like an insult point out the mistakes when they were already working overtime to finish this movie. Perhaps at one point in the future when things had calmed down.

And if the last paragraph didn't made it clear enough: I don't want to hear anything against the animators for any possible mistakes I may point out or not in the future, I had dealt with far bigger bullshit than this and all things consider the people working on this movie deserve an award for multiple reasons.

With that out of the way, I came to see that actually, Ham DOES appear in the notebook! Miles shoulders made him difficult to see him as well as the explosion, but here he is!

Gwen appearances: 19

Undefined character: 4

Aaron appearances: 5

Landscapes: 5

Noir: 6

Lettering: 7

Doodles: 4

Rio: 1

Jeff: 1

Peter: 5

Miles: 1

Peni and SP//dr: 4

Green Goblin: 1

Ham: 4

And here we have the only drawings that didn't appear before, which is of course, another big one with Gwen on it.

Also, we had seen Miles do some lettering, but, is it just me or this is the first time he has done it with her name?

On the other page we have a bus ticket, that upon closer inspection, is the Hudson Valley ticket from the last movie! This one in particular seems to be going TO Brooklyn, which means this is the ticket he had for when he, Gwen and Peter were coming back. No wonder he keep that one!

There is also a last mysterious person I have no idea who may be, I think maybe Genki? I don't remember his hair being that long but maybe it was like that at point? Will be put as a mysterious person in the final tally.

Final countdown.

Okay! The numbers may be a bit off, and I guess one could argue how many things could count as doodles/lettering, but the results seems to be this!

Gwen: 20

Lettering: 9

Noir: 6

Aaron: 5

Peter: 5

Undefined character: 5

Landscapes: 5

Doodles: 4

Peni and SP//dr: 4

Ham: 4

Rio: 1

Jeff: 1

Miles: 1

Green Goblin: 1

Miles's parents tied up with Green Goblin in appearances, which is kind of funny, but I guess he doesn't spend that much time with his parents, and he has them always in his corner so is not like he misses them like the rest. Green Goblin was probably because it could be interesting to draw.

Then we have Ham and Peni on the lower end of characters that appear, this makes sense since they didn't interact that much with Miles inthe last movie.

Landscape, Doodles and Undefined Characters come after it on the numbers, but I don't think there is much to talk about those.

Peter and Aaron being tied isn't that surprising all things consider, what it is surprised is that Noir of all people appeared more than them; I insist it can be explained by Miles trying to do black and white drawings.

Lettering is the second thing that appears the most, this number can varied depending if you lump together Grafitti style with Caligraphy or not, or even on the fact that there were some words that I didn't count for this. I think is safe to say the number would still be high one way or another.

But nothing is topping Gwen, who appears AT LEAST, 20 times in Miles's drawings.

Wow.

And Gwen is still the one who won the poll in who has crushing harder, and the worst part is that even with this number she winning makes sense.

They are both so stupid for each other, I love it.

Well, this post was more work than I expected, but it was a lot of fun either way, and this pics will be useful for references later.

I encourage people to reblog this post specially since I believe regardless if you ship Ghostflower or not, this information can come handy for anyone interested in the contents of the notebook or for fic reasons.

Thanks for reading and stay awesome!

[andradrawsstuff]

An in-depth character analysis of Skipper: pt 2

So, tv Skipper is a bit of a contrast to movie Skipper, as I stated in my MASSIVE ramble in part 1 💀 Even though he’s so different, he does have his quirks and some decent character development. It’s also great to see how much Tom’s voice acting evolves over the seasons and I thank him so much for putting his heart into it 🥺

This is also going to be a long one I am so sorry, I tried

This version of Skipper started off pretty similar to his movie counterpart as the show was finding its footing, but soon evolved into his own version of himself as the series went on. In early season 1, we see Skipper be somewhat down to earth and have quite an honourable attitude. He’s not super shouty-screamy and we see him being pretty domestic, which is probably because season 1 is pretty slice-of-life compared to the other two seasons.

I think the main points to mention here are in Happy King Julien Day and Assault and Batteries - in hkjd, despite all sorts of interruptions Skipper gets a little angry, but doesn’t really act upon it, he just minds his own business. Eventually he confronts Julien, but remains civil throughout the entire thing. In Assault and Batteries, he takes the batteries but does so sneakily to minimise confrontation. And when Julien chases him, he doesn’t fight. Throughout the entire episode (and a good bit of the show), he remains somewhat civil and tries to minimise confrontation with Julien. He’s also pretty sweet at the end when he offers a high five like bro that’s adorable I can’t-

We also get to see some decent character development for him in season 1, as there’s a lot of Skipper-centric episodes. In Needle Point, Skipper realises he should take the shot so that Private doesn’t get sick - he takes accountability for his actions, and his conversation with Private is pretty sweet. I love that you get to see Skipper being sweet (especially with Private) in the series, since they’ve had the time to show a bit of his vulnerable side here and there.

But I think that the most important character development point in Skipper’s story is Miss Understanding - Since the start of season 1, Skipper was pretty sexist and it gets so bad that he thinks he can’t do anything he did before because he’s a girl. He eventually saves the guys and the episode comes to a resolution.

But here’s the thing, not once is he sexist after that (Unless I’ve missed a few things here and there but I think he genuinely learns his lesson) which makes me think that his sexism is intentional on the writers part bc they do make it a point that it’s wrong, so w tpom and it’s pretty neat and rare for an early 2000s show to cover. This is why I love love love season 1 Skipper - he’s flawed but in a realistic way and he usually makes an effort to fix his mistakes. He’s also quite nonchalantly chaotic like in the movies, whereas in later seasons he’s more aggressively chaotic if you catch my drift? Idk how to explain well lmao.

As for his other traits, he’s pretty paranoid and egocentric, but still as suave, sassy and sarcastic as movie Skipper. He’s defo got a lot more of an “I’m right and you’re wrong” attitude than his counterpart and is a fair bit grumpier which is pretty funny. He’s got a bit of a hero complex here (eg. Treasure of the Golden Squirrel) and at first he’s arguably more chaotic good than neutral compared to the movies, but it’s not such a big change that it makes it bad in any way. I mean, he still kinda has it out for the humans and chooses violence without a second thought which is hilarious to me 💀

As the series progresses, Skipper starts to get increasingly paranoid and aggressive, and a lot of his negative traits start to show more. In early season 2 he’s fine but you can tell when the writers were starting to lose the plot both with the characters and stories in late season 2. It kinda feels like his character took a 180 turn and went backwards, but honestly it’s not that noticeable and I just happen to love analysing these things. I mean, it also happens to Kowalski, who around the same time starts becoming a bit of an asshole and gets worse in season 3 - in Snowmageddon, he’s rlly dismissive of Private and Fred.

I think Skipper also ends up suffering what I like to call the “Sabrina Spellman treatment” because he starts making mistakes and refusing to take accountability, usually pinning the blame on someone else without repercussions. I guess it’s the only real “problem” I have with his character in the series but honestly it’s just something that tends to happen as shows go on for a long time and it’s not all that bothersome. But the thing is, he starts getting better again in season 3 and he gets more character development (eg. Snowmageddon where him and Marlene work rlly well as a team and Antics on Ice where he’s pretty much doing everything for Private 🥺) so idk what happened there 💀

Overall, tv Skipper is still a loveable little guy and I find it so funny when he gets angry out of nowhere, my fav crazy Skipper moment being the one where he swears he’s never gonna end up in Hoboken and starts screaming his lungs out 💀 (absolutely top-notch voice acting as always ofc).

But with this, I hope that you’ve enjoyed my ridiculously long character analysis and feel free to tell me your thoughts, this is all just my opinion after all :)

If you’re somehow still reading this I congratulate you, you get a gold star ⭐️

[fushiglow]

Who the hell is Gojō Satoru?

Some thoughts on his character in 236

Seeing everyone arguing about Gojō’s characterisation in 236 over the last week makes me realise just how good the chapter is, no matter how dissatisfied I am with Gojō's death.

When you're upset about something, it's hard to judge accurately whether something is 'bad' or whether you simply don't like it — and they are different things. Interestingly, 236 presented me with a conflict I've never experienced when following a story before. I'm really disappointed with the way Gege Akutami chose to end Gojō's story, but I think 236 will go down as one of the most beautiful chapters of Jujutsu Kaisen. In that sense, my feelings about the chapter after a week of sitting with it aren't too unrecognisable from my initial feelings — just with all of the big emotions that were colouring my judgment stripped away.

I think there *is* value in immediate reactions, and I think much of the initial outrage about the chapter was simply people grieving what was an intentionally shocking end to a beloved character. I hate that people tried to police social media reactions to the chapter, because I think everyone should be allowed to process their feelings in their own online space (as long as they don't bring harm to others, of course).

Aside from the outpouring of emotion, there have been countless arguments about 'who' Gojō was as a person in the end, and that doesn't sit right with me either. I think many artists would be disappointed to hear fans of their work insist that there is one 'proper' interpretation — because the value of sharing your art with the world is in how different people receive it based on their own experiences.

To me, that's Gojō Satoru as a character.

I know lots of people have already shared some variation of the post below (and everyone has moved on to 237 now anyway) but this was sitting in my drafts so I thought I may as well hit post before 237 is officially released!

In my analysis of Gojō's character after 235, I talked about how Gege Akutami keeps Gojō at a distance from both the readers and the characters around him, making it deliberately difficult to know who he is as a person. Despite that, everyone in-universe and out has something to say about Gojō's character, but we've never really known how Gojō views himself until this chapter.

For maybe the first time in Jujutsu Kaisen, we get to deep dive into Gojō's interior world and hear his innermost thoughts when he's at his lowest and most vulnerable. As a result, something fascinating happened across the fandom.

Even when Gojō literally tells Getō that the 'wretchedness of isolation' is something he shares with Sukuna, that he gave everything he had so that Sukuna might understand him and be understood in turn, and that he knows not everyone will get it, some people called Gojō 'out of character' in 236.

And isn't that just so damn meta?!

Akutami loves challenging readers' assumptions through his characters, so while the chapter is shocking, it isn't really surprising. I'd even go as far as suggesting that the journey of emotions the reader experiences while reading 236 is the exact same journey Gojō is going on in-story.

The thing is, I've seen tons of people arguing about whether Gojō was selfless or selfish, whether he fought for the love of his students or for the love of the fight, whether he took strong young sorcerers under his wing from a place of care or simply as a means to an ends — but I think the point is that it's always been all of those things at once.

Because he's human, and humans contain multitudes.

I think we were meant to have our view of Gojō shaken by 236 — the same way Gojō's view of himself is challenged in this chapter. However, just because we can find some truth in Nanami's criticism of Gojō, doesn't mean that his interpretation of Gojō's character is the correct one — especially when it's entirely possible that what happens in the airport isn't even real.

Getō listens with empathy as Gojō confesses his self-doubt and regrets, the solitude of his strength, and the dehumanisation he experienced as the 'Strongest'. He even expresses jealousy when Gojō admits he had fun fighting someone strong enough to understand him. Then, only two pages after Gojō says, 'You can cherish a flower and help it bloom, but you don't ask it to understand you', Nanami appears and calls him a pervert for his approach to sorcery.

It's actually really funny.

Importantly, Nanami isn't exactly wrong for saying the enjoyment Gojō gets from fighting is a little disturbing (and, to be clear, I *adore* this about him) — it's just not the whole picture of Gojō Satoru.

Akutami actually gives us some lovely imagery to visually represent the gulf between those who understand the solitude of strength and those who don't — Gojō and Getō sit on one side of the bench while Nanami and Haibara sit on the other, with each duo facing in opposite directions.

I don't think Akutami is implying that either side is wrong or right — it's just two different perspectives. Nevertheless, Gojō is pictured side by side with someone who understands him, and back to back with someone who doesn't understand him but who cares for him all the same.

Recognising this, he pivots to asking Nanami about something they can both relate to and receives an important lesson in return. What Nanami means and what Gojō takes from it is deliberately ambiguous, like everything that's discussed inside the airport:

Could Sukuna have won without the Ten Shadows?

Who does the 'flower' represent: Gojō, the people around him, or both?

Did Gojō reach Sukuna like he hoped?

Why exactly is Getō jealous?

Does Gojō feel satisfied?

Is Nanami's assessment of Gojō's character correct?

What is the relevance of north and south?

Which direction did Gojō choose?

Is it all in Gojō's imagination or is it real?

Whether we'll receive answers to those questions remains to be seen, but I highly suspect that most of them don't even have a definitive answer.

Once again, it's just a matter of perspective, and I think that's Gojō's character in a nutshell. Whichever side of the bench you're sitting on, whatever you see in Gojō says more about you than it does about him — and that's exactly why it's so fascinating to see the fandom erupt into arguments about who's interpreting the character correctly.

I can honestly say I think the chapter is really beautiful even though I hate what happened to Gojō, and that's an entirely new experience for me. For that alone, Akutami has my praise. Whatever happens in the rest of the story will determine whether 236 becomes my favourite chapter in the whole of Jujutsu Kaisen — isn't that bizarre?

By the way, I found a really thoughtful post about some of the word choices in 236. The poster shared some really interesting insights across a series of posts and they convey the tone of the chapter really well. Well worth checking out!

[taeloke]

Overanalyzing 4KOTA Chapter 142 instead of just waiting for more info (1/2?)

Honestly? I'm writing King's side of this separately, because it's about time I started talking about him here l and I know I can go on forever about him. That field of over-analysis needs its own house. I would go off about him first but then I'd forget his kids entirely and I don't want to do that to them... Speaking of--

So silly. So precious. Berte is so Helbram-coded and I'm sure that's intentional resemblance.

You know...I wonder which of their traits were inherited from Diane's parents. Probably the golden hair on almost half of them at least. Sixtus and Tioreh's pink hair looks more like a genetic mutation...unless their hair color is inherited from the leaf color of the Sacred Tree? That's possible too.

Diane seems less energetic since becoming a mother. She's settled down and has been shown to be gentle more often than bubbly, which was the impression she gave me in the original series. I'm assuming she hasn't fought since entering the Fairy Realm, too. She's put the stress of the Holy War behind her, and I'm happy that she seems content with her lots of babies. I wonder if she'll get to hear about Dolores once the current issues are over. I'm sure hearing she's Nasiens's adoptive big sister will be a shock. Diane deserves to know that.

The way Tioreh says this makes me suspect Puck is the one behind Nasiens and Myrtel's switcheroo. He must really love that "prank" in that case. Regardless of who was behind it, though, that's actually fucked up. A fairy trolled their own king by swapping their first child with a human, probably knowing exactly what issues both kids would be put in. I can't call this just a prank. I love King to death, but his people are their own kind of awful...

For this moment, let's glance back at how she reacted to that news at first.

Tioreh must have been suspecting this the whole time Nasiens was here, but this reveal may be the moment she started to seriously believe it, if not when Nasiens admitted to feeling healthier in the Fairy Realm. After this, she started to open up about her siblings more and telling Nasiens that he's like them--especially like Phao. All of this is stuff that Nasiens didn't know about since he met her two years ago. All of the tension in this family over Nasiens and Myrtel has been building up for so long...and right now we're watching it all cave in. I'm sure King and Diane had good intentions for hiding the truth, but hiding it's not working anymore.

And Diane knows it's not working anymore. I'm stuck on her asking "Is that bad for you?" Why is she asking that of all things? Is that what King and Diane were so worried about when they decided to never come out about this? Did they think their kids would be upset with having a human for an older brother?

Okay, but maybe that's not all that they considered. Maybe they got worried about how their people outside of their family would react to their theories being confirmed. If that happened, as unfortunate as it is, Mertyl would probably get more ostracized than he was. With that in mind, I'm sure his parents made that choice to protect him from some of the problems he'd inevitably go through. It's a nice thought that way, but this was still a bad call. They made too many assumptions of their own kids' feelings.

In other news...Phao was lurking... Now they're all gonna know and clear up this misunderstanding with their parents, right?

Anyway, I feel like I've written too much for one post, so I'll go on about the rest of the chapter tomorrow. Closing this part with this:

myrtel peek

[mapoeggplant]

skip to loafer chapter 59 analysis // spoiler

the battle between who you are, who you want to be and what people think of you: who do you trust to form your identity?

when i read chapter 58, i had this whole idea in my head for the next chapter. i thought kanechika would get closer to kazakami and help him get a little more comfortable with himself. well, i wasn’t entirely wrong. what i forget to consider was how sensei always have a card on her sleeve, ready to surprise us at any time. and this time, the surprise came in form of a teacher.

but first, i want to start with the obvious: the conversation at the beginning of the chapter. after having so many internal battles, kazakami is left with nothing but shame of himself, his hobbies and his recent outburst. he’s feeling defeated and alone, with his internal voices giving more and more power to his parent’s. and suddenly, a boy with dreams as big as the world stop him on his tracks and break his walls.

for the first time on the chapter, kazakami receives his first confirmation: yes, it wasn’t right of his parents to do that to him. just having someone outside of his personal zone blasting this out loud made it clear to him, made it easier to see. that’s why there was no need to go grab his figures back — all he wanted was a confirmation of his pain, someone that would be brave enough to say “this is wrong and you have the right of being hurt”. there was all he needed; nothing solid, but words as concrete as the burden on his back.

i love how kanechika was left surprised because of it. for him, it was easier to just go and resolve the misunderstanding. that’s the contrast between them: one who moves thought actions and the other who moves through words. and that was the best opening for the next scene, with the ace card sensei pulled: hanazono.

i don’t think i’m wrong when i say that it wasn’t surprising to see how everyone was acting when they found out she was pregnant — the prejudice, the side eyes, the judgment. and kazakami wasn’t innocent in all that: he also had a previous image of the teacher on his head, having it a little shaken after hearing her words. he’s once again grabbed by the neck and forced to look outside of his box, once again having to face his own past judgments.

hanazono isn’t the type of person he thought she was. she’s bolder, more assure of herself and with strong convictions. she’s someone who manage to look at herself in the mirror and ask the hard question: who are you? who do you want to be?

contrasting with what kanechika had to say (as in, giving voice to a feeling he already had, but couldn’t put a name to it), hanazono challenge’s him to see everything from another perspective. “the person i thought i was isn’t the right one so…who do i want to be?”. he’s now left with more questions than he had before. so…is it right to give up on everything he loved just to seek the future his parents want? the “self” he seeks to find, is it the one who’s a proud diver fan or the one who has nothing but someone else’s dreams?

this is very, very confusing for an adolescent who had it all stripped from him. kazakami thought he had an idea of himself before, but it’s all proving to be wrong as the time passes. he wasn’t someone that get sad about figurines — but now he heard his feelings out loud. he wasn’t someone who would lose his time with football, girls and other frivolous things — but is he the one who his father want him to be?

sensei has a talent for portraying confusion and deep, weird emotions we all felt as teenagers (the seek for our identity, the chance we need to be who we are), so it wouldn’t be different now. what we’re seeing of kazakami is only the beginning of his journey of finding who he is and who he want to be. and now, to make things even better, we have a new mother who’s ready to show the world how strong and capable she is without all of them.

thank you for reading!!!! what a nice feeling to have another amazing chapter, huh?? hope you guys liked it, will love to discuss it more with you 💛

[autisticbokutoenthusiast]

incoming sandray fight analysis 3 days late, but ray and his attachment issues will never leave my mind

i think i missed a big part of the subtext of this scene initially that seeing some other meta analysis helped me see. ray and sand supposedly don’t speak after sands birthday (it seems like ray tried multiple times to reach out but was ignored), and when sand finally does ask to talk to him again it’s not what ray thinks. ray thought they would talk about eachother, who they are to eachother, what they want, etc. or at the very least go back to their old friendly ways, but instead sand is bringing up mew, bringing up ray being in love with mew, how close ray and mew are, and the duty ray has to mew as his friend (this is already a loaded concept for ray seeing as he finds the need to pay mew back for saving him, and i don’t think that will ever go away even with time).

after receiving the thatcar.mp3 file ray confronts boston, because boston can be cruel to ray to his face all he wants but he won't let boston be a bad friend to mew, except boston says ray would be just as bad as him if he tells mew the truth, but according to sand he'd be fulfilling his duty as ray's friend by revealing the truth, so he is conflicted and confused about his own feelings .

then at mew's birthday party he spends the night as an outsider to his own friend group. when he reveals the audio clip to mew he's probably expecting mew to be thankful, like sand said he would be, or hate him, like boston said, but from what we see mew doesn't have much of a reaction at all. ray couldn't predict how his friend would react to the information, and now he can't understand the reaction, but he still thinks he did the right thing and doesn't understand why no one else around him can see that. he is still confused, and he is still emotionally isolated.

he fully self implodes. he has spent this whole episode as an emotional outsider, and other people have been using his emotions and impulsive emotional responses for their benefit before he himself has the oppurtunity to try to understand how he is feeling. he is filled with rage and self loathing and world shattering loneliness (feeling alone in a crowd, especially the one that is supposed to offer you love and support, is enough to make anyone lose their mind) and he lashes out at everyone and all of things they do that he doesn't understand and that he finds shitty. he even does the thing that has conflicting morality because he feels that regardless of whether it makes him a good friend or a villain he at least owes it to mew for saving him, and mew not only rejects this act, but the person who has offered him the most care and kindness punches him in the face.

ray and his self fulfilling prophecy man, he is a burden, he is bad luck, nobody loves him, and so he is taking everyone down so their weight will make his own fall be that much more painful. and then he storms off.

now to this part of the fight in particular because i also can't stop thinking about it

"stop thinking about mew and focus on me for once"

i interperet this as sand saying "stop focusing on all the love you haven't/can't receive and focus on what i'm willing to give you in the present". except ray wanted to focus on sand, and sand only spoke to him about mew, the unrequited love ray has, and the emotional debt ray owes. sand turned away from him and then pushed him away.

"can't you really see that i care about you?"

now i'm not good at reading faces so i don't know what this facial expression means but it isn't happy/relieved. even if ray had the ability to accept sand cares about him, in this moment he feels entirely alone. in fact, this only makes him more confused, he wanted sand who pushed him to mew who has also rejected him once again. he definitely thought sand cared about him before this, but i think ray believes no one could possibly care about him right now (i also think that he is tired of wanting someone to care for him, of hoping someday someone will love him, and so he pushes everyone away so at least he can have some certainty)

"why would you poke your nose in my buisness?"

why would you come into my life just to push me away? why would you involve me in someone else's problems only for me to fuck it up the way i fuck everything up? why would you reopen the wound that is my attachment to mew? why would you keep following me if all i'll ever be is a burden? why would you say you care about me when i am unable to feel cared for? why did you have to ruin the good thing we had going before you turned away from me that night?

"what are we to eachother?"

i think ray asked this question partly out of anger and partly out of being desperate for a genuine answer. but sand says they are nothing to eachother. ray probably thought sand thought this of him, but was hoping for a different answer, now he has his certainty (also its the self fulfilling prophecy again, ray physically pushes sand away while demanding sand to define their emotional connection)

now lets look at when they start getting physical

[side note, ray starts to turn to get in the car when sand says "you can risk your own life all you want" in case you weren't destroyed by that fact yet]

ray has spent the whole night feeling alone and then ruining his relationships with others, he doesn't believe anyone can or should care for him, so he makes it true (how many times can you say self fulfilling prophecy in a ray analysis post anyway?!?!?) sand is trying to stop ray from himself but the urge to destroy has been ignited and it can't be turned off, so he has to stop sand in return.

i have been kept up at night thinking about how desperate ray sounds while trying to breathe, how desperate he is for space, to be free to destroy himself, for it to be over. he call sand a whore, which everyone and their mother knows isn't true, and at first i thought it was because he needed a reason for sand to despise him but i think it's just as likely ray was just lashing out and wanted something to hurt sand with. after he pushes sand to the ground, he doesn't look proud by what he's done, but he can't stop himself now. and so he drives off alone

i've seen many different thoughts as to where he was going. but whether he was just going home, or drove off knowing it wouldn't end well, he needed to put a stop to this.

ray enthusiasts how we feeling 🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃

i don't even remember what the point of this anaylisis was anymore at somepoint i lost the plot... anway excited (also tormented by impending sandray scenes) to see what next week brings

[super-paper]

you don't have to respond to this if you don't want to, but--I saw you mentioning you felt stupid earlier and I'm going through the same feelings myself but I just wanted to say that your analysis of my hero academia was genuinely the best I'd ever seen after following the comic for almost an entire decade(I've been here since almost the beginning...). it's not your fault if the writing took a bizarre turn, you were correctly recognizing things about the story that was presented to you and I've really appreciated your presence ever since the first time I read one of your posts.

Thank you for your kind words, they really helped me feel better. I always enjoy reading your thoughts as well, so I hope you are able to feel better soon as well.

At any rate, I think I'm a bit calmer now-- At the risk of setting myself up for more heartbreak in two weeks, I really think there's no way for it not to be a fake out because Tenko dying sincerely is a failure on every level for so-so-so many characters and the story as a whole. Izuku wanted to redefine OFA as a power meant for saving not killing, yet OFA ends up killing Tenko anyway? We get a scene where the main villain literally mocks Tenko for having never been his own person and commands him to disappear, and he does?? Nana ultimately fails to save her family from AFO a third and final time??? The Yoichi expy is ultimately forced to die while tethered to his abuser and is never allowed to truly escape or live a life outside of AFO???? Spinner pushes himself to his absolute limit and Kurogiri sacrifices himself because they both want to save Tenko, and it ends up being all for nothing????? Toshinori never gets any resolution with his beloved mentor's sole remaining family and has to live with the pain of once again failing to save her legacy?????? Tenko wants to become a hero to the villains, to the LOV specifically, but dies while all of them are literally hanging on by a thread at this time???????? Gran Torino was right??????????? There's bittersweet endings and there's bleak endings, and this is absolutely bleak if true.

Like, I know death and rebirth are huge themes in MHA-- but this is a case where the overall build up and execution of the chapter has left much to be desired. Still, the fact that Tenko says the name "Shigaraki Tomura" in quotation marks in the raw text does lend to the idea that this is actually the death of his villain persona rather than the death of the individual-- my other big concern rn is how Tenko's rebirth will ultimately be executed, since he still asks Izuku to pass a message along to Spinner on his behalf. Like..... a resurrection that has him losing his memories of his life as Tomura, or reverting back to his young "untraumatized" self, obviously feels wrong for entirely different reasons-- but this is just speculation atp and I don't wanna get worked up over smthing that hasn't happened yet.

Tenko's ""death"" also shares explicit parallels to both Toshinori's and Katsuki's brushes with death, so I do think Hrkshi could make things come full circle in a satisfying way here-- if Tenko's death is the only one that actually sticks while the heroes are allowed to defy all odds and resurrect/be reborn as the best possible versions of themselves, then obviously there's no salvaging the story. But I wanna have faith.

(Side note: Tenko/Toshi/Katsuki's (and even Touya's) limbo scenes depict them as surrounded by light and "sharing" that infinite space with someone who sincerely wants them to live-- and these scenes are starkly contrasted with AFO's limbo scenes, where his moments before death all depict as him being surrounded by darkness while being mocked by the vestiges of his victims.)

Anyway!!! At my own peril, I'll be leaning hard into the "Tenko Shimura: Rising + quirk awakening + aura!might using his vestige and the remnants of OFA to fill in the gaps of the broken reconstruction quirk (thereby fulfilling Izuku's wish to turn OFA into a power that exists to save while also helping Tenko symbolically embrace that he has the power to do more than just destroy-- he can save the villains through creation, not destruction)" theories from this point forward.

[wartakes]

Firewatch (March 2024 edition, Part 1)

Yes, finally, the first War Takes essay for 2024. In it, I decided to take some time to consider some of the major flashpoints for crises and conflicts in the world, and I ended up writing so much I had to divide it up to post it on Tumblr (lmao). Part 1, under the cut. Enjoy.

It occurred to me recently, looking at my feeds on social media, that I've been (for the most part) laser focused on what's going on in Palestine and the broader Middle East. To a lesser, but still strong, extent, I've also primarily been focused on the state of the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine. While I think there are very good reasons for the focus on those two conflicts, its also made me realize how much more that has been going on in the world of conflicts and crises that has passed me by (or that I've intended to talk about and then completely forgotten about by the end of the day).

With all that in mind, for my first quarterly essay of 2024, I decided now was a good time to go around the horn, widen the aperture, and identify some other ongoing armed conflicts and burgeoning crises that are important to keep an eye on. It's been a while since I've done one of these in general, so I felt it was overdue (it also works out well for me because I had exactly zero ideas on what I wanted to write about for this one so consider this my equivalent of the teacher wheeling the big TV into the classroom when they're hung over).

I want to try and formalize this as a recurring piece that I do (at least) once a year to update folks on important goings on in the field of conflict and warfare, so with that in mind I have a fun new flashy name for it: "Firewatch." This isn't just me trying to be cute, but putting it in the context of "fires" also actually helps me a bit with trying to categorize things by severity and level of concern that (in my opinion) you should probably have at this moment in time.

Before we get into things, a few up front disclaimers. First: these are all entirely subjective assessments based on my own personal analysis and knowledge, with my being stronger in some areas and admittedly weaker in others; take it all with a grain of salt and know I'm not perfect; in that same vein, I picked conflicts that I thought in my opinion were the most important to keep an eye on at the moment, but that doesn't mean that others aren't worth your attention (again, this is all subjective and I'm not trying to overtly dismiss anything). Second: these are all based on what information I could find at the time of writing, and the situations could all change rapidly (my Haiti piece in this was literally changing as I was writing it), so keep that in mind too and know that this could all be made out of date rapidly by new events. Third and final: again, I'm not perfect; if I missed anything, I swear it wasn't a purposeful omission and I apologize and please let me know so I can reassess my analysis; I'm only one guy, and the internet is getting harder to search these days; I'm doing my best to just try and keep folks on the Left informed about what's going on.

Ok, with all that out of the way, let's dig in to what's going on with the fires out there.

Roaring Flames

These are the conflicts that are at the point that not only are things on fire, the flames are rising and being actively fanned in many cases. These are conflicts you've probably already heard about in between other pieces of news, but may not have as much depth on compared to other ongoing events (unless you're a weirdo like me who soaks up conflict news like a sponge).

Sudan

Sudan has been locked in a civil war (its third since independence, if you're counting) for what will be a year this coming April. Coming on the heels of years of political upheaval and a prior coup against a civilian transitional government launched by the Sudanese Armed Forces in 2021, the war was sparked by an attempt by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces to then seize power from the SAF back in April of 2023 amid a power struggle between the two forces. When the RSF coup went off half-cocked and failed to immediately take over the entire country from the SAF, you'd probably have been making the smart bet by putting your money on the SAF as opposed to the RSF. While both forces were roughly comparable in numbers of personnel (a lesson in why you shouldn't build a parallel military to compete with your military), the SAF had all the advantages in heavy firepower, possessing tanks, helicopters, jets, and so on.

However, the SAF has proven unable to snuff out the RSF over the past ten months or so of fighting, with the group proving remarkably resilient in its ability to take and hold territory throughout Sudan. This is despite the fact that the RSF is widely feared and hated, descendant from the infamous Janjaweed militias that were used by Bashir's regime during the War in Darfur to commit numerous crimes against humanity. In fact, after much of 2023 being a stalemate for both sides in Sudan, the RSF has made notable gains against the SAF in recent weeks and months, with the momentum of the war seemingly shifting dramatically in its favor. Part of this has had to do with increasing international involvement, with the leaders on both sides of the civil war seeking and gaining foreign support on the battlefield, such as supposed weapons support provided by the United Arab Emirates to the RSF, or even reported support by the Ukrainian special operations forces to the SAF (facing off against the late-Yevgeny Prigozhin's Russian PMC Wagner Group who have also been providing support to the RSF). However, in recent days the SAF appears to have had a rebound of its own, securing some high profile reversals against the RSF, showing that the outcome of this war is anything but certain just yet.

The international involvement in Sudan belies why this conflict should be on your radar. Obviously, a civil war in any country with almost 50 million people, like Sudan, will have widespread repercussions. Add in the fact that Sudan is located along the strategically important Red Sea (very topical at the moment, as you may have noticed), and also lays astride the Nile river, and you see even more reasons why international interest in Sudan is high. Add in the potential of the RSF winning the war and taking control of Sudan after having cut a swatch of indiscriminate destruction across the country, and more problems seem almost immediately around the corner (let me be clear, the SAF junta is by no means 'good', but the RSF is a unique kind of bad in its own right). An additional complicating factor comes from Sudan being between Egypt and Ethiopia, which have both sparred and threatened one another over usage of the Nile River (to say nothing of Ethiopia's own internal issues, which will come up later). But if you don't care about any of that, there's the sheer human cost in terms of civilians brutally killed, forced to flee their homes, and potentially starve. In so many words: this is a conflict to keep a close eye on if you haven't been already, both for reasons of geopolitics and of simple humanity.

Myanmar (Burma)

Thinking about Sudan makes me depressed, because all I can think about is all the innocent civilians caught in between bad (the SAF) and worse (the RSF), just trying to survive it all. But if there's one conflict going on right now that actually gives me some degree of hope for the people involved – and for humanity in general, really – its the ongoing civil war in Myanmar (AKA: Burma), which I've covered to varying extents in several past essays of mine.

Like with Sudan, the initial spark that eventually led to Myanmar's war was a coup d'etat. The Myanmar Armed Forces (commonly referred to as the "Tatmadaw" - or more preferred by those resisting the military: the "Sit-Tat") had already previously been in total control of the country of decades, and the coup came after years of apparent shifts towards democratization in the country. However, this was all dashed in the course of a day on February 1st, 2021, after the election held the previous November failed to deliver the result the military wanted.

An ethnically and religiously diverse country, Myanmar was already host to a number of political and paramilitary organizations that have waged low-level conflict against the central government (largely dominated by the Burmans or Bamar ethnic group, which makes up around two thirds of Myanmar's population) for decades, in search of better treatment and varying degrees of autonomy. But the brazenness of the 2021 coup and the incredibly brutal and violent crackdown by the military that ensued against those who openly opposed the usurpation of democracy, has served to not only energize and encourage resistance to shift to outright armed opposition, but also galvanize a broad front against the Sit-Tat and create a new sense of unity between the People's Defense Force stood up by the anti-coup National Unity Government to fight back against the Sit-Tat (many of their members overwhelmingly young people and students from the Bamar majority who protested the initial coup) and the preexisting ethnic armed groups.

The unity and energy that the combined opposition is bringing to the table seems to be paying dividends, as in recent weeks and months the junta appears to be on the ropes. Previously propped up with support from Russia and China, the Sit-Tat has been left wanting in that department as Russia has been increasingly distracted by its own war of aggression in Ukraine and China has been perturbed by the junta's inability to control Myanmar's shared border with China (which is one of several factors that has led China to lend support to some of the opposition groups and attempt to play a double game and preserve its relationships and influence in the country no matter how the war turns out). Due in no small part to the drying up of support to the junta and increased coordination and unity among the opposition, Sit-Tat has lost significant ground to the resistance in a series of offensives that have been ongoing since late last year. The situation has become so dire for the Sit-Tat that it has reportedly had to resort to enforce conscription for the first time in years (a move that has made many living in Sit-Tat controlled territory reportedly very eager to move out of it, for obvious reasons).

The international isolation of the Junta and its constant reversals on the battlefield seem to suggest that its living on borrowed time. However, many questions about this war remain to be answered; not simply when the Junta will fall, but what comes next? There is admittedly a possibility that the situation in Myanmar may not improve once the Sit-Tat is gone, or could even become worse – with some worrying the country could be ripped apart entirely. The prospect of infighting among the diverse members of the opposition shouldn't be ignored given Myanmar's history of internal ethnic conflict, but the idealist buried deep down under my cynicism holds out hope that this time things may really be different for the country. While the number of armed groups opposed to the Junta in Myanmar is vast and varied, most seem to be generally united under the ideas that authoritarian rule is unacceptable and that there should be some kind of confederal or federal democratic system in Myanmar with respect for the rights of all the groups of peoples that live there. While a lot could still go wrong and many issues that will need to be worked out in the aftermath if and when the resistance forces win, I say that's at least a good starting point for a new Myanmar and worth supporting and hoping for. This is why I continue to keep a close eye on what's going on in Myanmar even as other crises and conflicts fill me with more negative emotions, and I continue to hope the best for Myanmar and its people.

Haiti

Haiti is a country that has been plagued by a myriad of issues since it first gained its independence from France, many of them the result of outside interference. The state wasn't even recognized by many countries for decades for reasons of outright racism and slavery, with France later forcing Haiti to pay it reparations for the loss of French planters' slaves in the revolt that won them their freedom. Haiti then suffered imperialism in another guise through a twenty-year long occupation by the US Marines starting in 1915, with the US later helping to prop up the brutal dictatorships of the Duvalier family that lasted from the late 1950s through the 1980s. The 1915 US intervention was only the first in a series of 20th and 21st century outside military interventions by the United States and the international community as a whole that typically did nothing to substantively improve the conditions within the country (and arguably making them worse in some cases).

Even given the scale of the prior trials and tribulations Haiti has experienced, be it coups and earthquakes and various interventions, the country now faces a crisis unprecedented for it in modern times, with the country in the midst of an open revolt by armed gangs that is bordering on civil war. The current crisis began with the dramatic assassination of then-President of Haiti Jovenel Moise in July 2021, when a group of foreign mercenaries (primarily Colombians but including two Haitian Americans) that were reportedly hired by a Haitian doctor with Presidential aspirations stormed into the President's home in the Haitian capital of Port-Au-Prince and gunned him down. The President's murder created a power vacuum in the country, which was filled by Prime Minister Ariel Henry. In the time since taking over, Henry has failed to hold fresh elections on multiple occasions as tensions mounted and conditions worsened inside of Haiti, with armed gangs steadily expanding their control of the capital and levels of violence rising.

It was the most recent delaying of new elections – despite an agreement to hold them and pass on power by February 7th of this year – that served as impetus for the violence to escalate to its current level. Gangs and other armed groups have stepped up their violence to outright attacks on government buildings and institutions and stretching already overtaxed and under-resourced police and security forces to the limit and reportedly taking control of over 80% of the capital. These gangs appeared to have coordinated their actions, launching their wave of attacks as Henry was out of the country on a visit to Kenya in search of foreign police and troops to intervene in the country on his behalf. As Henry struggled to re-enter his own country, the gangs called for his ouster. After days of stonewalling and radio silence, following a conference of the Caribbean Community in Jamaica, Henry did just that.

While Henry is now on the outs (and will likely be missed by few in Haiti or elsewhere), the crisis in Haiti appears to be far from over. While their principal demand has been met, the gangs appear in no mood to back down, refusing to accept any new government imposed from outside forces. Instead, the gangs themselves seem to be aspiring to power – in particular, their unofficial leader, Jimmy "Barbecue" Cherizier, a former police officer and leader of the gang known as G9 who has been crystal clear about his willingness to seize power violently if necessary. But Barbecue also faces competition, such as from fellow gang leader Johnson Andre (aka "Izo"), and former attempted coup leader Guy Philippe – recently returned to Haiti after serving a sentence in the US for taking bribes from drug traffickers, and making no illusions about his own desires to take power.

As the violence in Haiti continues with an associated and worsening humanitarian crisis, the United States and other foreign powers have debated and struggled to put together troops and police for some kind of intervention force and stabilization mission for months, with few governments seeming particularly eager to step into the breech after the past few interventions. Among those that are willing, such as Kenya, they've experienced various domestic roadblocks.. All while the and number of dead and displaced continue to rise amid worsening conditions (with some migrants to the neighboring Dominican Republic being forced back across the border into Haiti). However, in recent years Haitians have been understandably apprehensive if not outright hostile to the idea of yet another foreign military adventure in their country that will likely not solve any long term problems and potentially make them even worse yet again. Even as the gangs wage war in Haiti, its important to remember that there are regular people who are also protesting their frustration with their prior, ineffective, corrupt governments, in addition to foreign interference. The right path forward for Haiti remains unclear, all while foreign governments, the gangs, and other aspirants to power seem set on a collision course if nothing changes. Given conditions seem unlikely to change for the better at this moment in time, we should be prepared for things to get much worse in Haiti – and potentially the Caribbean as a whole – in the near future. (Note: I'm dumb and didn't realize how stringent Tumblr's character limits are now, so find part two here, with the rest of my thoughts and a conclusion) Photo credit: @operation1027 (on Twitter)

[thegaybluejay]

Okay hi I’m back with another ramble-y ATLA character analysis since this is low key my brand on here lmao-

Today I want to talk about Zuko from the lens of someone who also had to deconstruct. This will be long, but please bear with me!

I was raised in a very white conservative evangelical Christian bubble where literally EVERYONE I knew for the majority of my childhood and teenage years thought mostly the same way. There was a lot of othering and shaming of anyone who thought too differently. Even if it was sometimes said more passively than cruelly, there was always that underlying tone. “The others/the people outside of our group/the worldly ones are lost and need our help because we’re better than them!”

While I strived to not be cruel, my beliefs were still harmful. I lost a few friends when I got to my mid-late teenage years because I didn’t yet know how to challenge what I’d been taught.

I see so much of myself in Zuko.

Zuko was surrounded by propaganda his entire life. He was steeped in it - steeped in the blood of those that the system he supported/represented had hurt and killed.

Anger is a huge part of all of this. While my anger was never quite as outward as Zuko’s (I hid it fairly well and was always known as the “pretty good kid”), I can still so heavily relate to his anger. His anger at always falling just short of being good enough or perfect enough. His later anger at himself for not understanding how fucked up the system was sooner. His anger at the people that failed and hurt him. His anger at realizing how he failed and hurt other people. All of it.

I also understand his backslides in Book 2 and early Book 3. When you begin tackling the first layers of harmful shit you’ve been taught, it can quickly become so tempting to just call it quits and go back. You almost start to romanticize the simplicity of life before you began this journey. The rules and goals were so straightforward back then, and deconstructing is messy as hell. Even if you were deeply hurting in your old life, at least you weren’t so damn confused. You used to know your next steps, but now everything is in disarray and you don’t have a direction to rebuild in yet. Going back almost feels like it would be a survival tactic, a way to have a sense of control again. Zuko definitely 100% needed to atone for what he did in Ba Sing Se because it hurt others, and while I’d like to think I would’ve made a different choice in his shoes, I also get it on some level. The confusion stage sucks, and it’s not always linear either.

But then.

One day, something just clicks. You eventually deconstruct enough that you truly come to full terms with how fucked up it all is. And you realize that you don’t belong there anymore, and the version of you that DID belong was just a facade. The blinders fully come off, they’re never going back on, and a spark lights in you that prompts you to make a big change. The deeper you go, the more urgent this deconstruction becomes in your mind because holy fuck I have to do something about this. I want this shit out of my brain for good and I want to help make things better. I want to learn who I am and finally live that out.

THAT is one of the most pivotal points in the journey, and I loved seeing it within Zuko’s arc when he comes to this realization after the war meeting in Book 3 and leaves to join the Gaang. I also loved that they didn’t trust him the first time he came to them - both he as an individual and the system that he had once supported/represented had hurt these people, and it took some real apologies and some time to build up trust. It also wasn’t done with half assed centrism either - it was “I acknowledge that this system is completely broken and wrong and I will do everything in my power to help gut it from the top-down and restore it with love”.

This leads to another pivotal point in the journey - instead of being motivated by fear like you were when you were deep in the indoctrination or by the raw anger you first felt as you initially left, you start to be motivated by love. And it’s the most freeing thing.

It was so cool to see Zuko learn that, while his anger was a helpful tool (ie: the confrontation with his father and his overall anger at the corruption he saw in his nation), he couldn’t be fueled by it any longer. He had to find another motivation to keep going, and he was then taught by the Sun Warriors and the dragons how to be motivated by light and life and love and also how to use those alongside an anger that was finally righteous.

And with this, he was ready to fight. To fight for a cause he knew to be good. To fight arm in arm with his newly acquired family. To fight to fix what his nation had done to the world and to itself. To fight for love and peace instead of division and hate and destruction.

And wow is it a beautiful journey.

TL;DR - Zuko’s story is so powerful to those who are deconstructing and I love him so much! I also just enjoy doing character analysis hehe.

(I really love talking about ATLA, so if y’all want me to analyze other characters or even plotlines through a specific lens, feel free to submit an Ask and I will happily do so!!!)

(Also, quick ending note - this is just my personal experience with deconstruction! Other people’s retelling of their own deconstructions may be different from mine, and that’s totally okay!!)

[triscribe]

The Force is a forest

So I've had a thought.

There are all sorts of posts on this webbed-site that analysis Star Wars, and the Force, and the Jedi vs. Sith dynamic - some I agree with wholeheartedly, others have turned my own worldview on its head, and a select few make me want to throw my computer out a window.

Now I've got one of my own.

The Force, when you come down to it, is an ecosystem. A metaphysical inclusion of all ecosystems in the universe, technically, but for purposes of this analysis we're just going to call it a forest. All different types of fauna and flora, from the big to the small, mega to microbial. All different kinds of networks and relationships, spanning the whole of the forest to just occupying tiny nooks, separate entities working in harmony and others finding the best possible spots to take advantage. Death and rot have their place, too, because nothing lives forever, and when something decays, it provides nourishment to an entirely new generation of life.

The Dark Side is not death and rot.

The Dark side is man-made machinery.

It is the chainsaws, the flamethrowers, the bulldozers, coming in and taking taking taking until there's nothing left, cutting down trees and removing undergrowth and tearing at the earth itself for resources to steal away.

The Jedi Order is big on ideals, on finding your path towards enlightenment and spiritual contentment - in other words, maintaining and watching over a patch of woodland, finding joy in small things and taking time to appreciate each individual detail. That isn't to say sometimes a person doesn't get annoyed, or outright angry, that this plant isn't growing where it should, or that animal is stealing more than its fair share, and at that point, out comes a hatchet or a gun (or a lightsaber), to fix what is seen as the problem. But is the destruction truly necessary? Could the annoying plant have been gently pulled from the soil, and moved elsewhere? Could the irritating animal have been trapped and relocated rather than killed? The point of being a Jedi is not that moments like these never happen: it is learning from them, learning restraint and how to see another option, so that each member of the Order can strive to do and be better.

But if one refuses to mind themselves, if they think well, there was no harm done in cutting down that one weed, or eliminating a single pest. They've joined the cycle of life and death, after all. No great loss to the ecosystem. And that makes it easier to justify the next time a bigger plant needs to be removed, a larger animal exterminated, rearranging the woodland to be better - if it's yours to protect then it's also yours to tend as you wish, right? And you really want that particular tree out of the way for something else to grow instead, but wait, now it all looks wrong, the dratted bugs are gone but nothing new is growing, you cleared out all the frustrating birds but now there's rotting fruit everywhere, why doesn't it look nice anymore, why won't this stupid piece of land do what you want it to? Fine, if it won't cooperate, tear the whole thing down.

But you can't recreate what was lost at that point. Because the level of annihilation you unleash is Not part of the usual cycle of life and death. It is wholly un-natural, and nothing will be as it once was. Perhaps this bit of forest will recover in time, after you've finished and left; perhaps not. Maybe a more gentle soul will come in to repair what they can, in the aftermath or long decades later.

(Maybe, at the very last moment, you are struck by realization, and halt, and attempt to redeem yourself by healing the harm caused - but even then, long years of work won't be enough to restore what was there. Even if the forest does grow back under penitent hands, it will be something new, and possibly not ever equal to its former self.)

Tldr: the Force, as a whole, will have small ups and downs, the occasional wild fire catastrophe, and a wealth of different experiences every day in every place. Individuals can get frustrated, can feel a whole range of emotions, and sometimes inflict more harm than they mean to. Jedi, too, which is why they strive towards the ideal of "there is no emotion, there is peace". Because that's a better path than losing one's temper every day; to tend to the forest, instead of harming it. But Sith? Those who get attached to what they want above any other consideration, who cling to a thing, a person, a vision of how things should be?

They're the ones bringing out woodchippers, sooner or later.

[saturnskyline]

hi. so i saw this gifset on the dash, and it's entirely too late for me to be awake doing this but i am now spiraling over kim's outfits. so anyway here goes nothing 👍

(below the cut is my descent into madness. you have been warned)

now when i saw these gifs i began musing in the tags, as one does, so here they are for context:

(feels truly unhinged to screenshot my own tags but oh well)

so once i started thinking i found it impossible to stop (as often is the case with this gay mafia business) and i decided to go through and look at each of kim's outfits. for science

now i know the fandom has looked at wardrobe stuff before, so it's very possible that someone has gone through this already. BUT! i'm already in way too deep here so i'm just gonna go ahead with this dfsdhgjsdf

kim's wardrobe is, to me at least, very interesting. you get a mix of things, depending on how he is presenting himself. for example:

(here we have wik, kim, and what seems to be something in between)

it's hard to differentiate between these styles at times, and i think that's purposeful bc kim appears to dart between personas: beloved singer, distant son, solo detective... the list goes on

so first things first! i was largely right about the jacket thing! in most every one of his outfits, he has some kind of jacket on. however, the first time we actually see him without a jacket is actually in this scene where he gifts chay with the guitar:

(hasty screenshot to prove my point and yet jeff is still doing the jeff thing. bless)

okay so i was wrong about that. i think the jacketless look is definitely intentional on his part – to help him seem unguarded, especially since he is giving a gift – but the first instance is still not the scene i thought it was. however!!! there is one thing i'm really excited about, and it's about the next thought i had in the tags...

every time kim wears white it relates to chay.

now you may be thinking, wren. is that really the case, or is this claim a bit of a stretch? and now i answer.... *gestures helplessly* some of this may be a stretch! but i can explain, and i will!

let's look at the instances of kim in white then, shall we?

#1

this, to me, is a quintessential wik look. far more approachable than the full black leather, and even his typical sleuthing fits (although a lot of it is in his mannerisms tbh, remember that withering look he gave big?). now this one miiiight be a stretch... but to me it still fits my thesis bc i feel like kim dressed this way for chay on purpose so he would look more like one of his peers. just my two cents

#2

first sleuthing scene where white is involved. here, kim is investigating porsche's (and therefore, chay's) parents, and he gets a call from chay, which he ignores. everything and nothing in this scene is about chay; he's not in it but he actually is. (now if you're thinking, wren, that doesn't make any sense... you are not the only one. idk what i'm talking about. let's carry on)

#3

our boy in songwriting mode! worth noting that, with the combination of the shirt and the pants, there is more white going on here than usual. here, instead of avoiding chay, he actively remembers him and even looks a little.. fond? *gasp*

#4

the confession scene :') this one is particularly interesting bc it's the same jacket kim wears when he's in full dark mafia mode (more on that later). like most instances of kim in white, it's a dark jacket with white peeking through, and this scene might be the best instance of that. he reaches back when chay offers his feelings, and opens the door to.. a relationship? idk but something with emotions

#5

(jeffrey, sweetie, i'm so sorry about the screenshot quality. consider it retribution for your gender crimes?)

NOW. here is the look that made me start this deranged analysis in the first place. not only is it sans mafia jacket, but it is a full white shirt! he cuddles chay on the couch! they talk (?) about their feelings (?) ... well i mean, he's clearly having a hard time being vulnerable, but at least there is progress being made :)

#6

(bad screenshot, bad moment. they r matching)

would you believe the next white-wearing instance is THIS MISERABLE SCENE. the jacket's back on, he's desperately trying to put up his guard again, and he blatantly lets chay think that he never had feelings for him (lies lies and more lies... we all hate it here :D)

#7

look. i'm aware this is the biggest stretch yet bahaha. i mean my man is dressed for SCHOOL. however. the focus of this scene is him learning that chay didn't show for his audition, so it still fits in my book!! idc idc

#8

(if you look at chay's hair here, this scene also has bisexual lighti- *gets shot*)

pretty self-explanatory, he shows up to the bar to fight chay's friends and confront chay. about as chay-related as you can get

#9

finally! the Human Shirt™ !! about as on-the-nose as you can get, really. while wearing a white shirt that reads "human" and no jacket, kim has, demonstrably, his most human moment in the show: he breaks down crying over chay. cue jeff acting his heart out while his own song plays in the background (why don't you stayyyy~)

#10

it's a flashback scene, but we see kim watching chay in the studio. he's mostly guarded, but a little white comes through. good stuff

#11

putting these together bc they are two different moments but the same outfit. 1) kim learns that porsche and chay have disappeared, and 2) he contemplates the state of things after korn's "death". i put the family moment here too especially bc of what he tells kinn: "you don't have time to think about other stuff anymore", basically "eyes on the prize". now perhaps this only applies to his older brother, but in the case that we apply it to him.. we can't really be sure whether he is sticking to his personal main goal or breaking from his own advice. i suspect the former bc at this point, he seems to see chay as his main priority, despite his family's situation (again idk if this makes sense, but just. go with it. lol)

#12

dare i say? the sexiest example?? no mafia jacket, full white shirt, and yet, unlike the other white shirt instances, this one isn't about his emotional vulnerability with chay. no no, here he takes out six guys without much difficulty, in an attempt to protect chay (and then he leaves the bodies, but still! the love is there!)

(a gif for fun! worth pointing out that kim also acts to protect chay the first time he wears that white shirt... :0)

in conclusion... idk what i am talking about, and frankly, if you are still reading this post i am very impressed lol. but yay kim's clothes and motifs, fashion as a disarming tactic, and white as a color of vulnerability!

[one-squash-one-end]

An analysis on gender and sexuality - Blue Sargent

Hi! This belongs to my big Raven Cycle analysis, click here for the masterpost!

This part will deal with our favorite short ant, Blue Sargent. A sort of silly but still intentional analysis/essay on why I think she's nonbinary, where I go off on random tangents because i have adhd and access to the internet. Enjoy! (This will be so fucking long though, I had Thoughts)

3. Trust me, the characters are queer as fuck and I can prove it (+ my professional opinion on whether they’d wear a crop top)

a) Blue Sargent

Look. No matter how I look at this entire character, there’s simply no way Blue is not genderfluid. (The fluid is one of Maura’s footy healing teas btw.) And I am here to spread the agenda and force my own identity onto fictional characters so that after you have read this analysis and interpretation, you will agree with me on my correct opinion.

To begin with, there is this entire theme of not fitting in and dressing in an “unusual” way. It becomes very evident that Blue is really proud of being weird and eccentric, this displayed in attitudes towards her mom, the boys and her internal monologue about Mountainview High. She does not want to fit in if it means changing for others, yet she says “the problem with being weird was that everyone else was normal”. This could possibly be a metaphor for being trans; being proud of it, yet being only surrounded by cis people, who conform to all those societal gender norms. It means one would feel sort of isolated (as Blue does mention she is), not being able to relate to or feel deeply understood by anyone in their environment.

Additionally, alternative fashion (or at least that’s how I would describe her aesthetic in general) has quite typically been claimed by queer people. I know this is a lot of interpretation here, and it’s worth mentioning that you absolutely cannot tell someone’s gender by how they present on the outside. However, the evidence gets stronger as we dive deeper. If we look at her fashion sense together with the statement of “I don’t care to be pretty, I care to look on the outside as I do on the inside.”, it sends quite a clear message: Her outside is very jumbled, not conforming to societal norms, a mix of many different styles that seems to change its focus daily. In my opinion, that’s pretty gender of her. If that’s how she presents on the outside (which is not traditionally “female”, among other things I just mentioned), just think about what that would mean for her inside. It’s chaotic, it’s messy, it’s just a lot of things. It’s called being genderfluid.

The second big theme we have is her constantly being treated as “one of the boys”. And yes, of course cis girls can be friends with large groups of boys (and the other way around) but it is quite rare or unusual, especially if all of them are straight (so my point is this: Blue is not cis and also the boys are all queer, more on that later). Either way, Blue defies traditional gender norms and “girly” hobbies by taking part in fun teambuilding activities such as cave exploring, trespassing, grave robbery and burying a body. We stan.

Then we have this quote, which is talking specifically about Blue truly being part of the group for the first time: “They were loud and triumphant and kings of Henrietta.” Now, while kings are a theme that is quite consistent throughout the books, each of the boys and Mr. Gray being called one at least once in significant scenes of their character arcs, by that time it is not yet that established. There would have been so many other words for Maggie Stiefvater to use. First of all, kings and queen, though that would be a bit unwieldy. She chose not to alienate Blue. But there were other alternatives, something not quite so gendered, such as royals, or gods even. Yet, that specific wording happened, showing she is in no way other than the boys. And maybe in that scene she really wasn’t, feeling more masculine that day perhaps.

Furthermore, “whatever her identity crisis was, it seemed to live at home, not with the boys”, meaning she does feel alienated around all those women, but she does somehow fit in with the boys. Yes, this is also a teen thing of being misunderstood by parents while identifying a lot with peers, but when what she rejects is femininity and she seems to embrace masculinity, it’s a bit sus, don’t you think? And then lastly it’s not only the Gangsey, but also the Vancouver crowd as well, a group of boys held together by somehow being different than the rest of Aglionby (if I remember correctly), that she feels immediately at home with.

Next, there are the 300 Fox Way women. As we just established, Blue feels a sort of identity crisis in this house filled with women. She does not fit in, because she is the only one without any psychic abilities, meaning she is already “other”, but there is a clear focus on showing how she is so, so loved, by her direct family (like Maura) but also the others (Calla, Persephone) have accepted her as one of their own. Now, what if she was also genderqueer? Wouldn’t that give her one more reason to be different, while simultaneously putting emphasis on the fact that trans people can and deserve to be loved by their families?

I saved the strongest evidence for last (well, sort of, there’s still more to come actually). The following quote is the ultimate confirmation Blue is not female. As she, the Gangsey and some of her family group together in the kitchen, she says there were “three boys, four women, and one Blue”! Here she is specifically not assigned either of the aforementioned genders, not grouped together with the 300 Fox Way women in a “five women, Blue being one of them” manner and also not one of the boys in this scene. This might be an age issue (like how for months I wasn’t sure if I dislike both the terms “woman” and “girl” being used for me because of age or gender), but the scene could have easily said “women, boys and one teenage girl”, focusing on groups divided by age and gender like the original intention might seem to be. And yet it didn’t.

Now for some more quotes. After some guy from her school draws a penis on the unicorn on her binder, she says “she preferred her unicorns ungendered”. For the reasons already listed I deduce that, much like the unicorn, Blue prefers herself ungendered.

“She felt one thousand years old. She also felt like maybe she was a condescending brat.” is of course supposed to show how contradicting growing up can feel, perception of oneself flickering between being terribly grown up and still being a little child, who cannot know anything. I would also argue, though, that this duality can be quite reminiscent of her gender identity, feeling like multiple, supposedly contrasting, things at once. As an additional afterthought, the theme of being ageless is sometimes associated with omniscient beings, detached from being human, such as deities. Another thing that would be quite typical for gods, especially when they are so apart from society, is being genderless, or having a gender that fluctuates. Some examples for this would be Dionysus, Loki or the ancient genderfluid entity Asushunamir, stemming from the mythology of one of humanity’s first civilizations, Mesopotamia.

Then, naturally, we have other people’s perception of her. While she probably has been described as a girl in quite a few instances in the book (one of them being Henry, though before he really knew her), to me it sticks out that she describes herself as a “sensible teen”, not a sensible girl, though that might have made even more sense in the context of not going around kissing random boys (but yes, let’s be honest, that’s some antiquated slut-shaming, people can kiss as many consenting people as they like). Further instance is that Gansey says “Blue was a fanciful, but sensible thing. Like a platypus, or one of those sandwiches […]”. Like, he goes out of his way to not describe her as a girl in that scene, instead drawing weird-ass comparisons. Now, while calling his friends magnificent creatures is totally his thing (maybe Gansey rejects gendered terms and embraces silly greetings), this did seem intentional to me. Not to mention the obvious parallel of platypuses being mammals but laying eggs, somehow combining different species. Despite reproducing differently than “normal” mammals (also having different sexual organs), they are still recognized as such, and if that isn’t very trans rights of them, I don’t know what is. (Yes I know being a mammal is not derived from reproductive organs and this is probably all somewhat wrong, but I am relying heavily on metaphors here and also I dropped Biology.)

Now as a last thing I chose the entire theme of “something more”. If I’m not mistaken, “something more” is important for every other character as well (I specifically remember Henry), but it begins with Blue and seems to be most relevant to her either way. As I’m writing this I realize so much of the evidence I have collected can also be read under points of view of growing up, but still fits her gender, showing not only that Blue is pretty reminiscent of how teenagers feel, how things in their lives contradict, but also that we come to realizations about our own gender as we grow up, whether it’s realizing at five, fifteen or fifty years old, self-discovery is an ongoing process. So “something more” is absolutely about her future, but it might also relate to her gender being something more than simply female, more than the binary dictates.

If you read this entire series with the opinion that Blue is not cis (like I do! And like my real life friends hopefully will after reading this J), there are masses of hints pointing towards it and creating evidence. Smash the cis-tem.

By now I’ve made my point about her gender pretty clear, so now it’s time to point out that Blue isn’t straight either. First of all, if she does not confirm to either of the binary genders, she cannot, in any way, be heterosexual, but either way, there’s just no way she’s straight.

Now, if you read this essay (? analysis? meta deep-dive?), you will soon be convinced that her entire friend group is queer somehow, which absolutely accounts for something because I can confirm, from real life experience, that queer people seem to flock towards each other. I will admit that we don’t really see her interact with many female characters outside of family (yes I will admit this is a red flag, but I promise the book passes the Bechdel test), but the vibes she gives off are clearly m-spec.

Additionally, because I am always looking for some representation of my own identity, Blue could potentially be somewhere on the aro-ace spectrum. This isn’t shown super strongly, especially since she does get a canon relationship and it’s very sweet and romantic. Yet, she is not really sex-driven or anything like that and seems to value friendship a LOT, though the entire theme of friendship in general throughout the series will be explained in a later part of this analysis. Also, while I am aware that the books are YA and thus won’t focus on sex too much either way, especially in teen characters, it’s comparably low, considering the premise is (wrongfully) about true love’s killing kiss. We can also compare her storyline and character to Kavinsky, someone her age who seems to be very obscene, and characters like Ronan, who are somewhere between them on that scale. Overall, I would probably call her pan, but once again, there might be some greysexuality or something similar in there.

Lastly, Blue would absolutely wear crop tops of course. Now that I think about it, she probably even does at some point in the books.