#well if I was sane to begin with I suppose lol XD

[bleue-flora]

https://www.tumblr.com/bleue-flora/754276889628213248/before-becoming-a-ctommy-apologist-im-one-of-the?source=share

ahh intrestingg I never realized that csap, cdream ect would have felt betrayed by ctubbo but that makes a lot of sense, also explains why they burned down his house. Also I really need to watch those sam lore streams because I've only ever seen brief clips of it, do you know how I can find them?

for ur q, I can definietly understand why people hate ctommy both in lore and out. I started enjoying him around the pogtopia to exile era when I saw how he was trying to help cwilbur snap out of it, and I saw these morals that I hadn't noticed in the character before. And, the part where he and cdream were working together in the battle of the lake and he kept insisting that they were friends for once I just found it interesting that the shift went from him despising dream to being open to being allies and friends which that part kind of made me realize that he is open minded.

Then exile came and dear lord I started hated him again at first like I was completely pissed with what happened to cgeorges house and I blamed ctommy entirely and then I noticed cdreams little :) in the whisper chat provoking him so then I kind of shifted to a grey view then my friend pointed out that ctommy tried to stop the fire. During exile itself, I started projecting a lot since abandonment issues is something I got and I did some projection because I cope in a similar way to how he did like using humor as a coping mechanism like also that stream when cwilbur and cquackity were arguing the whole time at las nevadas and ctommy was just acting naive and childlike making dumb jokes to cope with trauma and how cwilbur and cquackity yelling was distressing him. Idk it just hit close to him for me. I think the personality being so inconsistent is also relatable like sometimes very open minded (that one butterfly quote I forgot), sometimes destructive craving war, sometimes craving peace, hyper empathetic, cares about people that hurt him like cwilbur who he wanted revived at one point even though cwilbur manipulated and hurt him. Also, The prison arc like ctommy visiting cdream and rather than showing his fear, he instead just makes stupid jokes and tries to annoy cdream as much as possible. the dick clock joke like. Ik it was cc mucking around but I saw some deep traumatic response there about how ctommy was being annoying to make sure cdream couldn't pull an exile again if that makes sense like if you annoy someone trying to manipulate you then what are they gonna do, it kind of reminds me of spongebob with the strangler. to put it more into perspective, I also rlly like gumball, cuphead and others I forgot... impulsive loud childish characters that have abandonment/validation issues and cause lots of problems. I was a huge trouble maker in the past and the consequences of it were traumatizing [I guess I could have just said that to sum up why I like ctommy 😭]

actually that reminds me that I have ctommy and cdream both on my kin list lol Both of them have fear of abandonment and problems with agency, wanting simpler times and doing bad things for good reasons or even good things for bad reasons, both of them are hated, both of them have strong attachments. my god my writing is a mess can you tell this wasn't preplanned . I hope I explained it well enough

Indeed, and I don’t think they were the only ones who felt betrayed by people like Tubbo joining L’manberg, as I’ve said before I think Punz certainly felt betrayed and left out…. But anyways, here is a playlist with all the streams and there are transcripts online too if you feel so inclined just google dsmp transcripts and the website will pop up.

lol yes you could just say projection. XD That’s always valid. I can hardly argue with that point. That’s what I do after all. ;D And you have the absolute utmost right to feel and project as you want and those are valid reasons for liking a character. (Not that you need valid reasons or anything) No condemnation from me, just to be clear. I appreciate you answering, especially with such honesty. I’m sorry to hear that it’s been so hard for you, that sounds pretty awful and traumatic. I hope, unlike Tommy, you can find real healing. <3 <3

Having said that, because I can’t help myself, even though I asked the question, I hope you don’t mind me poking some holes in your reasoning.

Ahh open minded and friends when it benefits him, after Dream gave him a set of armor and even I think his own bow too. Yeah, fighting an entire army by himself in the Battle of the Lake would be very motivating to be friends and isn’t that how he (they) used Technoblade - as a blade, a resource to get what he (they) wants. - ‘Thanks for the nethrite, big T. Wait did you have an opinion or something this whole time?!’ - yea I’m not sure open minded would be a word I’d choose to describe Tommy is any sense. He certainly doesn’t listen to people, and I don’t see him trying new ideas and stuff. How many times does Tubbo try and keep the peace and tell Tommy something is not a good idea, but he never listens. He doesn’t change his ideology about L‘manberg when teamed up with Techno, he doesn’t even gain a deeper understanding of Techno being a person while sided with him. How can he be open minded?

Yeah the whisper in the chat always throws me off, too. My view is that he wanted Tommy to be exiled for burning down George’s house to protect George and set an example for anyone else who tries to mess with George, and so he wanted Tommy to lash out. But there’s also the thing of Tommy constantly bad mouthing him the whole time so yea it would feel good to have some comeuppance. And how many times has Tommy whispered to someone to rub it in there face or piss them off? But it’s different when it’s Dream huh…

Oh how noble to stop the fire you started. Did he also return the things he stole? Or apologize for the damage he did? Try and fix it? No?… yeah, sure he took the blame for Ranboo, but I think that was the end of his nobleness.

Doesn’t he always joke? Eh not important I guess, he does a lot of sulking too though to be fair… Hyper empathetic is quite a choice of words. Especially because I’m not sure Tommy even feels empathy (but that’s probably a topic for a later time). Like honestly, I can’t think of one instance where he emotionally connects to someone… like heh? He cares about people. - Does he? Does he care about people that hurt him? How bout, Eret? Techno? Does he care about them? Outside of Wilbur, who has he done something for. Or is it just Wilbur, who as you pointed out has manipulated him into a twisted familial relationship.

lol to be fair, Tommy is always annoying, is always telling jokes, is always antagonizing Dream. Like as far as I can tell, when it comes to that behavior I’m pretty sure there was hardly a difference between pre exile mocking Dream and post exile mocking Dream. Just saying…

Umm well depends on the context of that honestly, manipulation is a diverse tool in many situations. Part of the manipulation could even be pushing someone to be annoying like he does in the staged finale for instance. Being annoying isn’t necessarily a deterrent, though it could be to remind himself that he hates Dream in contrast to his feelings in exile so perhaps that’s what you meant.

Yeah, I haven’t seen those shows well I do know the video game cupheads, but I get the idea and you’re not alone in that. I guess perhaps my childhood experience was just different and that’s one of the reasons I don’t get it… in any case, I’m glad you found a good character to project on (it’s very therapeutic) even if I don’t quite get it. XD <3

[gwydionae]

I have officially finished all of Gundam Wing for the first time in about 15 years, if my guess is correct. Man, I love Crunchyroll - only ever got my hand on 4 of the DVDs (1, 5, 6, and EW), so it was nice to be able to watch the whole thing legally online! Closing thoughts:

NOTE: Any comments about the fandom’s mindset is based on what I remember of it from back in the day mixed with a bit of current CR comments, and therefore I have no idea if any of it would apply to the GW fandom today.

Why do people hate Wufei and Dorothy so much?? No, seriously, help me out. I really don’t get it. Dorothy maybe a little as she seems a bit, er, confused, I suppose, but why Wufei? Honestly, he was like a breath of fresh air amongst the pilots for me. While everyone else was like, “I don’t know who to fight anymore because every side seems bad,” Wufei was like, “Yeah, every side DOES seem bad, so guess what? I’m not gonna just sit on my butt; I’m gonna go out there and take on everyone!” I mean, good on him, I say! LOL

Also finishing up the main series REALLY amps up just how badly he was portrayed in EW. Like... of all the pilots, he was the most proactive when it came to trying to bring about peace. It wasn’t about wanting to fight everyone - it was fighting everyone because he wanted peace and literally everyone was in the way of that. How the HECK did they think he would be the one to join up with the people ruining the peace he worked so hard to bring about??

Seriously, man, Wufei doesn’t get enough love. Second favorite GW pilot only to Duo for me.

And, also seriously, Dorothy is just kinda... fun? lol I mean, literally everyone in this show is over the top and crazy, so I don’t know why her kind of over the top and crazy is bad while, say, Heero’s isn’t. Don’t get me wrong, not saying people have to like her, I just don’t know why she’s always seemed pretty universally disliked, that’s all.

Speaking of dislike... holy heck could I have done with, like, 75% less Zechs, gosh dang. I wasn’t his fan in the beginning, and during the middle where he was all “I just want to fight Heero” I started finding him pretty annoying. And then at the end... oof. OOF, man. I don’t care what his end goal was, I don’t care if he was actually serious about following through with any of it or not or if he was just pulling off a big hoax with Treize the whole time. I don’t care. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING justifies putting LITERALLY THE ENTIRE PLANET at risk like that. That was some serious crap he pulled, and I was so confused and exasperated by everything he did and every word that came out of his mouth. My gosh.

Which brings me to the plot... let’s be real, it was kind of a mess. XD But most of the time I didn’t care. It’s one of those shows where I don’t always understand why the heck things are happening the way they are, but all the characters are just so amusingly passionate about it that it’s fun anyway. It had it’s moments where it dragged, and I wish we could have seen more of the Gundam pilots actually getting to work with each other (and not just Heero with a tagalong), but overall it kept me interested the majority of the time thanks to the vibrant cast of characters.

In that cast of characters there’s a surprising amount of fun and interesting females, for the record. I’ll be the first to admit I generally don’t much care about or notice this sort of thing, but for whatever reason it stood out to me.

Sally was a fast favorite. She’s got guts and isn’t afraid to fight for what she believes in. And in a series full of strong, military dudes, she stands out not only for her position but also the fact that she has no ties to any of said dudes, unlike most of the other females. Again, I’m not really one to care, but it did stand out.

Noin I was never super fond of, admittedly, but over the course of the show, I grew to like her more. Her friendship with Sally was nice, and I liked how at the end, even though she couldn’t bring herself to stop Zechs, she wasn’t about to help him either. She made sure to get in no one’s way and just lay witness to what was happening, wanting to be there in the end no matter the outcome.

Hilde, on the other hand, I loved instantly! She may only be in a handful of episodes, but she makes the most of all of them. She’s strong willed and stubborn, but also willing to hear what others have to say before passing judgement. And the episode where she risks her life just because she wants to help in the only way she can think to is honestly one of my favorites. If this show could have used more of something, it’s Hilde.

Lady Une is just... wow. What to say about her? Man, does she go through a transformation! I remember hating her back in the day, but now I find her quite amusing, actually. I’m not sure I can really explain why, but she has a very strong personality, and in a show like this filled with strong personalities, pointing her out specifically says something! lol

Ah, Relena. I really, really hated you the first time I saw this show. Like, a lot. I don’t anymore. You will never be my favorite, but my latest viewing has proved to me that your particular kind of crazy is vital to this show. Your unyielding view on peace and how to obtain it will always be a bit absurd to me, and I’ll always like you most when you’re trying to shoot Lady Une, but in a universe full of absurd people, it just works. Had this show tried to take itself more seriously, I probably still would have hated you, but it was all ridiculous enough that you and your ideas fit right in. So yeah, it would be awful nice if all it took was one person to stand up and say “We need to all drop our weapons and stop fighting” for it to actually happen - even if they had to say it a few different times before the message got across successfully. But in the end it’s kind of nice that it at least works out in a universe so driven by passionate if crazy people, lol.

I just found out that this series changed writers AND directors halfway through the show, and, honestly, that makes so, so much sense.

Was also seriously confused when I got to the end. I was SURE there was at least one scene missing! Wasn’t there a scene where the pilots all made it back to MO-II? Turns out, there was, but it wasn’t part of the series itself, only an old VHS OVA. Must have come across it back in the day, and was happy to see it at least kinda survived the years thanks to someone uploading it about a decade ago. Wonder if I still have my own copies of that somewhere...

Lastly, I just wanna say that I love Duo. He’s great. Probably one of - if not the - most sane character on the show. Which is funny as he likes to go around yelling about how he’s a shinigami all the time. XD He was my first cosplay, and this trip down memory lane reminded me of why I liked him enough to choose him first. It has also reminded me that at the time I also had a much bigger, more complicated dream cosplay... one that I could actually probably tackle now from time, money, and skill standpoints... who knows, maybe that Deathscythe Hell Custom cosplay I dreamed about back in the day could actually be a thing! lol

Well. That was fun. Just wanted to get some thoughts out. I enjoyed myself on this watch through of one of my earlier anime!

[cielizzydefencesquad]

Oooo ho ho Former playboy turned single mum Seb is the best. What does he do for a job? :D does he have Finny too in your AU? For how long? And most importantly, does Agni have a role? :3 he’s a fellow single parent, with Soma, after all, lol.

Ahh thank you so much for giving me an excuse to dig into this AU ヽ(^◇^*)/

Because yessire bob, in this universe Sebastian Michaelis is a devil-may-care hedonistic playboy with a penchant for scotch whiskey, midnight rendezvous with women (and men) whose names he won’t remember, Parliament cigarettes, and absolutely no desire to integrate another human being into his life that he can’t kick out in the morning. 

The setting is luxe and blue-blooded NYC, with Sebastian working as Vogue’s chief fashion photographer and the city’s biggest source of scandal and heartbreak. 

Imagine his complete and utter bewilderment when he learns that his estranged younger half-brother Vincent Phantomhive has up and died, thus leaving Sebastian the guardian of his two twin boys, RC and OC. 

And Sebastian’s reaction be like, 

“The sheer audacity - ” He sneered, glaring down at the paper with burning mahogany eyes. “He bloody goes and dies without consulting me before throwing two brats my way?” Sebastian exhaled, harsh plumes of pale grey smoke leaving his downturned lips. “Well of course my dead sainted brother must find all this bloody hilarious.” He glared at proprietor. “And this,” he gestured towards the will, “is an act of hellish spite.” 

The plump older man blinked. “Well, I - I suppose you might see it that way but um, Mr. Michaelis you see - “

“He couldn’t have left his unfortunate offspring to his shrew of a sister?”

“Er - I mean, that is,” he fumbled for a moment before producing a letter from his righthand breast coat pocket. “Vincent Phantomhive specifically stated that should anything happen to him or his wife, you, sir, would be the guardian of his two sons.” He paused for a moment. “And the Phantomhive ward, Finnian.” 

“Who the hell - “ 

So basically in this AU, Finny is the random orphan kid OC befriended out of the blue one day, eventually taking him home, and going “This is big brother Finny and he’s gonna be staying with us from now on!” 

And Vincent’s all “yeah sure, why not, I could use a sane son around here” and that’s how Finny was indoctrinated into the Phantomhive family XD

Agni is the single dad Sebastian meets while dropping the three whelps off to school. Out of the corner of his eye he catches sight of this gorgeous caramel skinned, snow-haired Indian gentleman and Sebastian - being the unabashed man-whore that he is - all but throws the kids their bagged lunches before getting ready to flirt with this tall amber-eyed beauty.

But to his complete and total shock, Agni all but ignores Sebastian, yes Sebastian, to kneel down and hug the purple-haired snot-nosed brat clinging to his knee. He wishes the kid a wonderful day, hands him his lunch, and sees him off with a warm smile.

It’s only after Soma’s safely inside the school building that Agni turns and notices Sebastian. 

“It’s always difficult to see them go isn’t it?” He chuckles ruefully and for a minute, a brief surprising minute, Sebastian is spellbound. 

It made him feel strange - as if roses are blooming in his chest.

“My name is Agni,” he holds out his hand and nods towards the playground. “Which ones are yours?”

(And that was when Sebastian realized oh shit…I’ve caught monogamy.)  

But it’s through Agni that Sebastian slowly learns that hey, spending time Brat I, Brat 2, and Brat 3 isn’t half bad. Because sure, RC’s a mischievous little scoundrel but he’s also a natural leader of men and Sebastian’s so frickin proud when he sees RC holding court in the school playground, boys watching with wide-eyes and girls swooning at his feet. And yeah, OC’s an introverted and shy kid but he is also undeniably clever. So clever, with a fierce ambition just waiting to be brought to the surface and shit, doesn’t OC remind Sebastian a little bit of himself when he was first staring out? An unknown photographer with not a penny to his name, disowned by his family and treated as a perennial outsider? How he only had his wits and unflinching resolve to get by? And how the fuck did all that get distilled into one frail, asthma prone kid like OC? But even more curiously, when the hell did Sebastian begin making room in his schedule to kneel down on a patch of dirt with the golden-haired Finny, teaching him the basics of botany and gardening, secretly marveling at how warm and genuine the boy was, how earnest and  - 

Holy fucking shit, when he did he start using their actual names?! 

And then…disaster. 

A telephone call after at 2 AM in June, right after a weekend of total exasperation (Sebastian bringing along his Canon EOS 5D camera and secretly snapping candid shots of his three boys in the teacup rides, eating cotton candy, pointing at the starry sky while sitting atop the Ferris wheel. Sebastian carrying along baby wipes, hand sanitizer, antiseptic spray, band-aids, and gauze because Finny’s a little accident prone and Sebastian always makes sure to give the young blond’s hand a gentle squeeze after he finishes bandaging him up because while Finny will never say it out loud, that little gesture means more to him than he can ever possibly express. Sebastian carrying OC on top of his shoulders because his asthma and allergies makes it hard for him to run ahead with RC and Finny to see the baby tigers so Sebastian stands back, carries OC on his $1200 shirt shoulders, and finds that he doesn’t mind when he finds scuff marks from OC’s shoes on his pristine white Brooks Brothers), he gets a call from an unknown number.

Blavat Sky.

See you in court, Michaelis. 

Aaaaand I have so many more headcanons but I’ll stop here because this post is becoming obnoxiously long and people are probably going “wtf, does this bitch ever shut up?!” XD

Thank you so, so much for this AU prompt Anon - you da real MVP! 

- mod Nina 

[loading99percent]

Moving In

Pairing: WZY x OC [Cui Meilin] Genre: slice of life Word Count: 1,045 Summary: “You’re trying to move in all on your own because no one you know has the time/cares well guess what stranger/new neighbor I care how can I help” cliche APT AUs.

Warning: none (one or two curse words, lol)

My fourth request, but once again out of order! So I may do one for CXK, not for sure though, but I chose WZY for this one. I wrote with him instead just because my masterlist needs more names added and I honestly imagined him first when this scene came to mind. XD Anyways, hope you like it anon and sorry for taking so long to get around to it, but I finally got inspiration and motivation to write and so made sure to put it to good use so that it wouldn’t disappear. ^^ Thanks for requesting and happy reading and kthxbai, Admin Lia~

"I. Fuckin'. Hate. Stairs." Meilin complained for the third time while climbing the same set of stairs along with carrying a large basket of her clothes to her new shared apartment with her sister on the second floor. "And of course, Mengjie had to bail on me at the last second because of work. Ugh. Fuck my life."

Once she reached her floor, Meilin made her way to 907, clumsily opened the door, and entered the apartment to set the basket inside the two bedroom apartment. "I knew I should have done this earlier in the week than procrastinate until now when Mengjie actually had it off."

Meilin ran a hand through her hair before back-tracking out the door once more to bring up the rest of their things. Believing she could shave off how many times she could go to and fro from car to apartment, Meilin decided to take as many things as she could. She had secure a backpack upon her back, a tote bag hanging on each side of her arms while lifting two medium-sized boxes, and even managing to carrying some grocery bags in hand.

Meilin soon regretted thinking that she could carry all of that when she finally realized that there were stairs to climb once again to her apartment floor when she reached that point. Letting out a determined sigh since she was already here, Meilin forged on with slow, but steady steps. Of course that somehow backfired on her not to her own fault as when she took her second step while balancing herself, Meilin wasn't aware that one of the doors of the same floor had opened and a white dog had ran on out.

"Dahua!" Ziyi called out to the dog as it had ran down the stairs and brushed up against Meilin's leg.

Meilin had leaned to her right to rest against the railing while the dog swiftly brush past her.

"Tinbao! July!" Ziyi called out again, but to two different cats that swiftly maneuvered down the steps and in-between Meilin's legs to which caused Meilin to lose more of her balance as she tried to side-step out of the felines' way and she went stumbling backwards and crashing to the ground.

Ziyi rushed down the steps to help Meilin as she let out a groan while pushing everything off of her.

"I am so sorry." Ziyi apologized as he hovered above Meilin. "Are you okay? Did you hit your head? How many fingers am I holding up?"

Meilin eyed the stranger as she tried to make out how many fingers he was holding. "Three."

"Okay, correct. Let me help you up."

Meilin took his offered hands and felt herself being pulled to her feet instantly while feeling a little lightheaded because of it causing her to wobbled for a bit as Ziyi hands helped steadied her.

"My bad."

"It's fine."

Meilin looked at her belongings and let out a sigh as she squatted down to gathered her things once again with Ziyi copying her movements.

"Moving in?" Ziyi asked while stacking the two boxes.

"Yeah." Meilin answered as she set the grocery bags on top of the boxes while taking the two tote bags into her hands and faced the male. "Shouldn't you be worried about your pets?"

"They're not mine. I'm pet-sitting for a few friends, well my roommate, Zhengting was supposed to pet-sit. I just ended up sitting for today. They're fine. They'll be back." Ziyi smiled while easily lifting the boxes within his grasp. "I'll take care of these for you in the mean time."

"Ah, wait. You don't have to." Meilin tried to declined his offered while trying to take back the items, but Ziyi maneuvered them out of her way. "You’re trying to move in all on your own because no one you know has the time, well guess what new neighbor I care. How can I help?"

Meilin cast him a weird look. "How do you know I'm trying to move in on my own and that I'm a new neighbor?"

"No sane person would carry that much stuff without trying to lessen the load or something and you're an unfamiliar face. Plus, I heard from Zhengting that there were two new neighbors moving in across the hall. Hi." Ziyi reasoned as Meilin scoffed trying to keep a straight face. "Well, it wouldn't have been a problem if y'know, if the pets were being watched carefully and didn't run past and what not."

"I did apologize about them. So, once again, if you've forgotten, I'm sorry." Ziyi smiled sheepishly while apologizing once more as Meilin smirked. "I know, but okay. Apologies accepted. Thank you..." She looked at him expectantly as she didn't catch his name.

"I'm Ziyi. Wang Ziyi. Apartment nine-oh-nine." Ziyi answered with another charming smile that Meilin was beginning to warm up to her new neighbor and cast him a friendly smile in return. "Hi, Ziyi. I'm Cui Meilin. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too, Meilin. Now," He began as he shifted the boxes around to grip them better, "Apartment nine-oh-seven, right?"

"Oh, right. Yes. I'm sorry." She apologized as she rushed up the stairs with Ziyi in tow and the duo placed the items onto the floor.

"Do you wanna grab something to eat or drink right now?" Meilin suddenly asked already tired of moving in and just wanted to take a break from it all.

"Don't you wanna finish moving in all of your stuff?" Ziyi asked curiously while looking around the apartment. "And probably get settled in?"

"Nah," Meilin dismissed as she grabbed her bag and headed out of the apartment with Ziyi in tow, "I'll have my sister help me with that later when she gets off of work in several hours." Meilin then cast him a knowingly look. "Besides, shouldn't we look for your pets since I don't think I saw any of them come back by now."

"Nah," Ziyi dismissed with a laugh, "I'll let my roommate take care of that as he was the one that volunteered to pet-sit." He then cast Meilin a smile. "There's this cafe just down the block and they serve some delicious bubble tea along with light snacks."

"Sounds perfect!"

[workshop-at-mahoutokoro]

Devilman Crybaby Liveblog Thoughts...episode 1

for @essayofthoughts​! 

This got...long. Overall, I’ll keep watching! It was a wild, wild ride and got pretty damn epic by the end.

The opening theme was interesting, plus I always love a good lyric-less opening. There seems to be quite a bit to unpack with the imagery, so for now I’ll just say it’s catchy and the visuals definitely suit the music.

I appreciated the mysterious~ opening scene for managing to catch my attention. It’s so annoying when really good series have really, really boring opening scenes. I particularly like the sequence of those lights or whatever falling upon the earth and turning it into a molten fireball, not sure what that’s about.

Huh. This contrast is quite interesting. I mean, I guess Akira somehow demonstrates to Ryo that “love does not exist and therefore sadness does not either” somewhere along the way. The interesting part is that you’d immediately peg child!Ryo as the cold, utilitarian type, but his more grown up voiceover sounds nothing like his child self. He is vaguely emotional here, “At the time...I didn’t know what you meant.”

His older self uses the formal pronoun 私 watashi, too, even though he sounds so harsh as a kid...No clue what he’s going to be like later, but Ayumu Murase is an interesting choice for VA...I heard him in the Shoukoku no Altair anime, where I didn’t think he fit the main character very well. He has a soft voice and seems great at pulling off a slight feeling of vulnerability in his tone. Let’s see how he is in this role. 

Ok, that was a pretty standard high school sports practice scene, AND THEN THE SUPERVISING TEACHER’S TONGUE JUST DARTS OUT AND EATS THE BUTTERFLY WTF.

Creepy guy looking at love hotels, ok, star athlete, ok. Stabbing coach/father/whoever that guys is, ok... I can see where the social commentary comes in, with this murder case and the drugs. Very interesting. Various anime, manga, movies, and TV shows have been touching on similar themes in the past few years. I’ll hold my thoughts for now.

I am eager to see how the rappers become plot relevant lol. 

SO RANDOM. hey, just chilling by the pier, then some guys come along rapping, then one of MCs pops up on a boat, then car comes zooming down the road and childhood friend just suddenly says “hey let’s go”. and now he has a GUN. overreaction much, Ryo-chan?

LOL BEAR HUG. So is this normal behavior? Swinging guns around in the middle of town?

Ok but I love friendships like these, like they’re just genuinely so happy to see each other gah. I hope it all doesn’t go south due to some stupid thing like a misunderstanding/just not talking to each other to clear things up.

I’m thinking this gun thing is just normal in this world, or something. You’d think everyone would be a bit more shocked. 

Ryo and Akira are lowkey adorable though. Doesn’t even mind that his friend (who’s miraculously a professor in the USA) shows up out of nowhere with a machine gun and shoots up the dock and just takes off with him. All he has on his face is a huge grin.

This is Miki, right? She’s only sane one here. xD “what in the world are you doing going with that guy?? AKIRA!”

AKIRA. Your priorities. No, no you don’t care about the machine gun. You care about him driving without a license...? He’s a good friend though. Even though I don’t believe he agrees with Ryo’s stance on running (and life in general), he doesn’t break off on an unrelated tangent and listens and waits for him to talk.

Hey. ENGLISH. Real English. That is understandable!! Hey, this anime earns serious brownie points for that.  

interestingly, Ryo says “Fikira” with a proper “r” sound in Japanese, but when his VA has to switch to “English” with “Professor Fikira”, the “r” gains more of an “l” sound. well, it’s difficult for them to discern the difference between the two. I’m still surprised at how the English is actually English though haha.

Oh, so that’s how the demon/devil stuff connects to the murders.

Well, for all his crazy, at least Ryo explains the whole situation BEFORE they walk through the doors to their possible demise. And for the seemingly calm, cool, and logical one to admit “I’m scared”, and he brought Akira along because he didn’t want to do it alone.

BUT THIS IS ALL STILL REALLY CRAZY. Akira, w h y are you agreeing so quickly? He doesn’t even hesitate.

HUG. Aw, these two are adorable.

And it’s a club. xD Like, if I didn’t already know this was a show filled with chaos and nudity, I would have been kinda shocked. It’s certainly interesting, and different for anime. Also, I can see how being aired on Netflix really helped. I’m not sure of how that all works entirely, but that they can add in, like you said, queercoding and other themes along those lines. mainstream Japanese is, like, ok with adding genderqueer stuff (though not always a great representation to downright offensive, it’s still there), but anything other than heteronormative stuff is still much more iffy.

I can definitely see how the overt sexualization would make you uncomfortable, I’m definitely not enjoying it much over here. xD Especially because this anime seems to have good animation haha.

See, Ayumu Murase sounds good here, playing at a rougher tone as Ryo. This role is fine for him, it was just the character he played in Shoukoku no Altair that didn’t fit at all.

RYO. This is what you were talking about, huh. xD He’s so extreme, like you just get up and start stabbing people?? To draw out the devil??

finally, a reasonable response. Ryo, your crazy is showing just a little.

Well, that took a turn for the worst real fast.

You are a great friend, Ryo. Great friend. I feel like you glossed over something in your explanation before you two went into that place. “Hey, demon thing, go possess my friend now.”

Great pairing of music with the scene though. The animation is really something else, the fluidity is great and the monster designs really are out there.

I would also like to talk about how Akira is framed at the one who brings light to Ryo, who is wrapped in darkness. It happened in the beginning with Akira reaching his hand out to Ryo as kids, and again at the end with the light of the fire making Ryo’s whole face glow golden as he’s trapped underneath the black wings of the demon thing on top of him.

but, uh, supposing Akira doesn’t go and eat you next (which he won’t because plot but) and he keeps his human mind, how the heck is he going to feel about his friend turning him into a freaking devil?

Ryo, you definitely have issues. Even though he’s sort of...terrible xD I rather like his character so far. Poor Akira though.

Last note: That is Ryo talking in the opening, right...? Because as his teenage self, he also speaks roughly and uses the heavily masculine pronoun 俺 ore, so when in life does he get to the point that he uses 私? Interesting...

[bebethsas]

New Albion Thoughts, Part 4, Or, ‘and Here’s Where Beth goes really Out There’

And finally, the symbolism and underlying messages sprinkled throughout of the entire arc of Albums set within or nearby New Albion (or the part where I get the most Meta, I believe).

 And another thing I thought of:

it seems that this entire thing is built on continuous, infinite, repeating cycles:

"circles never stop themselves"

that comment from Raven and the Floozy about how it just goes around and around

in ‘The Fallen’ the Angel herself touches on it as she laments about the Carnival she’s trapped within: “round and round it all goes, all the mad circus shows; the carousel creaks, the sane are the freaks, and the show will not clooooooose!!” in other words, the show goes on and on, an unending loop of chaos and pleasure and stimulation in a night that never seems to end.

The Saviour Soul is reincarnated through time in any direction, going back to save people over and over again but always suffering a great loss in the process and suffered a tragic life because of this:

Priscilla died young sacrificing herself for her friend, Constance had her heart broken and lost what was left of her family all in one night, Rachel was orphaned, used by a politician and tossed to the side and locked up in a mental institution for daring to refuse to have an abortion, and suffered for at least 2 years being ‘treated’ for her ‘madness’; Alice suffered through 4 years of endless tunneling and constant work, building the underground room for the AIs, permanently cut off from her family, her friends, and her *home,* while day by day tirelessly toiling as her mind and body disintegrated, and by the time she finally finds love--as well as someone who will help her finish her task--she’s so exhausted and worn out that the ending is left ambiguous to us and one of the possibilities is that she died not long after listening to the ‘Angel’s‘ last message; the Gambler died just before he was finally about to win.

(and on that note HOLY SHIT it just occurred to me that the Mascot3000 could just be yet another reincarnation of the Monk, like Soldier 7285, Thomas, and Alex; New Albion began when the Monk and the Gambler began a “long trek through the open prairies of the north,” which led to their debate, which led to their never-ending card game (yet another thing that goes on and on, a never-ending cycle that not even death or *time* manages to break, since the souls manage to find each other in each reincarnation), which of course led to the construction of New Albion itself. Now Rachel leaves the crumbling world of New Albion and ventures forth into Elysium with the Mascot3000; she’s the only living human allowed there since technically she *shouldn’t* be alive (she’d died so many times), and the Atompunk Opera ends with Rachel and the Mascot3000 traveling through Elysium, alone.

Sound familiar?)

(But anyway)

the ‘neverending’ theme echoes in the history of New Albion too:

a relatively peaceful, innocent, exploratory Steampunk era, the war and chaos of the Diesel punk era, the Golden Age of the early Atompunk followed by the listless boredom once the Voodoopunks disappeared,

now in Cyberpunk it's a war again

I wonder between whom? The humans and the AIs? The humans and the 'post humans'? Are there cyborgs (cyperpunk would probably involve people becoming cyborgs to some degree--I can almost hear the narrator's pitch: "if you're dissatisfied with yourself, your nose is too long, your arms too thin or too short, your muscles too weak, well then never fear! Cyber Corp is here! With our patented technology we can replace your imperfect parts and give you the body you want! The body you deserve! You deserve to be your best You!!" (lol I can imagine that last line being their slogan/ motto)

There are only 30 AIs how could they possibly hold their own in a WAR? And yet they're powerful and strong enough to enslave a bunch of minds—a la Matrix style—into their system and brainwash them, so I suppose they could hold their own just fine (hey, when alive they did spend 20 years constantly fighting against monsters).

XD comparing this to the matrix makes that line "please exit the bunker, take the red pill, and report for active duty" from the Dieselpunk Opera have even more meaning now.

(And here Grimmalkerie suggested that the AIs are fighting their past, human selves, and my reaction was merely: “?! how the-- yes I know the AIs technically have access to time travel, but WHAT THE--?!?!?!?”)

 And now more meta:

What's interesting is the emphasis on 'fire' and 'burning' in all these stories.

For crying out loud, one whole album is called 'Shadows and FLAMES' (in which there's a song called '*anvils*', and the last song is called 'Ashes.'

also "burn in the fiiiiiire, in the fire...in the fiiiiiiiiiireee, in the FI-iire"

"the Coal that sings 'Hosanna' in the fire!...

"Hosana HosannaaaaAAAAaaaaain the basemnts far beneath them, the furnace where you'll burn away!"

and of course, "OOOOOOOOnne DAY, YOU WILL LEARN, AND YOU WILL *BURN* LIKE MY HEART *BURNS*!!"

The dolls aren't hacked to pieces (like Jasper was originally, by Annabel) they're *burned*; "...in 6 hours if we do not return, a war begins, belowground *burns*"

lol, also "in the wastelaaaannd, where the *ashes, ashes all fall down*"

so much emphasis on 'fire' and 'burning' and 'ashes' in all of these

(except in Lost Hollow, which is interesting...)

but it got me thinking...we have Raven, Paul mentioned toying with the idea of Madeleine Magpie...and then I wondered if the Saviour Soul is a phoenix/ firebird?

think about it; they age, catch themselves on fire (for a human, that would be more of a *sacrifice* than anything, don't you agree?), and are *reborn from the ashes*

all the constant reincarnation

what if the Gambler/ Savior Soul was a metaphorical Phoenix of sorts in the story??

(also what i said about it going around in circles--steampunk through atompunk are ordered linearly, yet 'The Room Beneath New Albion' links the first and third together, like it's the link that ties the beginning and the end together, transforming the whole story into a *circle*--lol it also helps that the cover art for each part joins together into a circle ;) )

Aaaaaaaand that’s all I’ve got for now (lol but give me time--I rarely stop thinking about these stories and characters and ‘Uncle Raven’ left me with far more questions than answers).

Let me know what you guys thought of this, and please reblog and comment your own thoughts/ responses below, I’d love to hear corresponding/ differing thoughts on this :)

And Paul Shapera, if you read any of this...honestly, I’m flattered :D

Anyway, until next time: the future, as always, is now on its way...