#what kind of 5d chess is this my god

[dear-ao3]

no no cause hold on Who goes through a scathing media day having the most insane fight seen in potentially years that results in all kinds of weird shit being dragged up with another driver because you essentially called him a two faced bitch for saying you deserved a penalty, a penalty which didn’t even affect the outcome of the race and was also objectively stupid, the driver in question being not only the union director trying to actively get your ass out of community service for saying fuck but also not even someone you’re in a title fight with remotely, mostly because you’ve already won the title and the other guys car is a shit box, which then sparks both of your team principals to go at eachother which they’ve been frothing at the mouth wanting to do for potentially years, all before attending the driver end of year dinner and sitting on the exact opposite side of the table as the guy you’re having beef with then commenting the 🥩 emoji under yet another drivers post saying oh don’t worry the two you’re thinking of were at opposite ends of the table lol and then thinks, in the middle of all this, which by the way is the last race of a season that is not only the longest in history but also one where you were not dominant and won the world title literally with a rear wing that was angle grindered in the garage cause it sucked that bad, and in the midst of continued heated debates over whether or not you yourself are going to retire before your contract is up and also about who your teammate is going to be for the foreseeable future “yeah. this is the perfect time to announce that i am going to be a father.”

[unionizedwizard]

oc love onterest. double dipping. v'rhym and raubahn, irma and lyna

ok this is funny because v'rhym and raubahn have actually had something, though i don't know exactly how or when (it was just a (couple?) of one-night stands). i'm inclined to think it started after the rescue mission in HW (the vulnerability of it all. emotional support that ended up being something different) and kept going sporadically during SB (stress of a military campaign you know how it is). a lot of it is not my business though (as is often the case with v'rhym) so i haven't actually figured it all out #privacy rights. but raubahn is DEFINITELY his type, a Lot, and also not inclined to start any kind of stable romantic relationship, so the sex is good and raubahn gets to gush about nanamo (whom v'rhym does like a lot) which is as fair an exchange as it gets in both their books! i think raubahn is the type to need a lot of strong liquor to get vulnerable, and more importantly, someone he can trust/rely on (and whose combat skills match his own) so for that v'rhym is the perfect candidate. the grand melee was foreplay actually. an almost strangely balanced and nontoxic relationship

lyna/irma........... GOD this one is so terrible. and hilarious. imagine having your crush of 100 years date your GRANDDAUGHTER. how do you recover from that. this is the worst most advanced version of the friendzone holy shit. possibly the funniest and worst thing about it is that i could actually sort of see it? they have very very similar personalities, which also. hey g'raha what's up with that actually? (we're not going to think about it.) lots of mutual respect and admiration here. irma deeply respects her and loves that lyna still bosses her around and treats her just like another soldier despite the whole warrior of darkness spiel ("you may be able to eat lightwardens for breakfast but that doesn't mean you'll be spared amaro dung shoveling duty") <- i could envision either psychosexual yuri or straight-up kink shit here honestly. or maybe both. (and they were both tops (oh my god they were both tops)). obviously the compelling part of it is that they're both incredibly repressed and duty-oriented soldiers first and foremost so it would need a LOT of narrative heavy-lifting to get there in the first place. irma is not that fucked up that she'd go for this as part of her Wage 5D Chess Psychological Warfare On The Lying Wizard agenda (hit 'em where it hurts), or rather it's not her flavor of fucked up, so this is (luckily) not on the table. honestly i'll have to think more about it because it's hilarious if extremely cursed

[oodlyenough]

I've been pretty critical of AAI so far but I'm mid 1-4 and enjoying the bit I'm playing right now so I feel I should give credit where it's due

Calisto Yew is hilarious

finally... someone willing to laugh in edgeworth's face. lmfao. deserved. sometimes I worry this game has forgotten miles edgeworth is a ridiculous person. calisto yew never has. god bless her

i'm with her, that was hilarious. bully those (post)minors ms yew

This post got really long so here's a cut. More on Yew & Franziska below:

it also meant we got to hear edgeworth and franziska talk about how awful and disgusting defense attorneys are, how could they defend someone who might be GUILTY, the HORROR, because in this universe the actual role of a criminal defense lawyer is arcane knowledge lost to time.

i've found myself wishing AAI got into the defense/prosecution philosophical debate more, the mainline games spend a lot of time positioning the prosecution as the enemy and i thought the alternate perspective here would be compelling. but so far it's mostly been edgeworth "inspecting every nook and cranny" while court has no role to play at all. so this is nice.

2. baby franziska

a lot of why I wanted to play this game at all is because I am obsessed w Franziska and hoped it would continue her story after it kind of unceremoniously ends in AA3. then I ... wasn't thrilled with how she was written in the airline case, so my hopes for baby franziska were not high.

But I'm liking her actually. Her put-on maturity and insane competitive streak really suit a 13 year old, lmao. And I don't have to wonder why she has fire extinguisher amnesia re: everything with her father and DL6. She and Miles are pretty funny, but there's some nice moments too. I really loved this one:

I cut the MVK/Franziska exchange in between for readability, and I'd seen that first screenshot float around plenty before, but I'd never seen the follow up. The progression of MVK is a huge dick to Miles for no reason -> Franziska intervenes in a way that makes MVK change his mind, but, crucially, without revealing any particular sentimentality -> Edgeworth recognizes it for what it is and thanks her anyway -> Franziska brushes it off in a way that lets them go back to competing in lieu of talking about their feelings, phew. Really good and felt very true to the relationship I think these two would have and the ways I think Franziska would demonstrate her care. The rituals are intricate but she loves her idiot little brother.

Also: matching sprites. Hehe.

3. This MVK line specifically, in response to why he wants Edgeworth to be a "top tier prosecutor"

Cracked me the fuck up. What an insane thing to say, and no one in-universe even knows what he's talking about. An inside joke to himself about his 15 year elaborate 5d chess child abuse revenge plan. Nobody's doing it like MVK. His ridiculously circuitous plan is 1/4 complete

Anyway, I'm not done this case yet, but it's the most I've enjoyed AAI so far so I felt I should give it a shout-out, lol. I wish Franziska could be my weird girl all the time 😔

[bananacorn-limeade]

1961's The WORLD of ICE and FIRE

I'm going to do it. I'm going to self-indulge!

The Roger Corman ASOIAF production post is mostly just a novelty, but since I'm me, I have a lot of FEELINGS and OPINIONS about this cast. Naturally.

Anyway. Here's how well I think the actors in my post would play their roles, from worst to best.

#19, Worst: John Ashley as Robb Stark

You know how Ben Affleck has a face that knows about emails? John Ashley has a face that knows about sock hops. Woefully miscast.

#18: Tor Johnson as Gregor Clegane

God love the big guy, but I've only ever seen him make this face. Also, despite his repertoire of roles suggesting otherwise on paper, he just doesn't seem like a mean guy.

#17: John Agar as Jaime Lannister

Another terrible choice. The only reason he's not ranked as worst is because his soulless performance would make viewers interpret Jaime as an absolutely irredeemable sociopath, which at least would be... uh, interesting, I guess.

#16 Robert Reed as Renly Baratheon

Renly, but only if he was the most boring Baratheon. Go ahead, try to picture Reed eating a peach. You can't.

#15 Dawn Bender as Arya Stark

Aw, she'd try. But I feel like her attempts at Arya's fire would mostly come off as petulance.

#14 Richard Carlson as Ned Stark

Sorry, what? I fell asleep for a minute there.

#13 June Kenney as Daenerys Targaryen

Kenney would try her level best, but you know Corman would do a terrible job incorporating her storyline with the main plot, so she wouldn't have much to do except lounge around on mildly offensive orientalist sets and talk to her force-perspective dragon puppets. (Stop-motion you say? What, you think American International is made of money?)

#12 Dolores Faith as Sansa Stark

Again, no knock to Faith, but as with Daenerys, I think a 1961 production would flatten Sansa's character away to nothing. She'd get to pine and wear some nice dresses.

#11 Anthony Dexter as Petyr Baelish

This guy can play oily like nobody's business (check him out in 1962's Married Too Young), but 5D-chess-level deviousness might be beyond him.

#10 Michael Dunn as Tyrion Lannister

Full disclosure: I'm plopping him in the middle because I've never seen him in anything! The only little person I've personally seen in Corman's movies is Billy Barty (playing an actual, literal imp), and Dunn was someone I found who was said to play much meatier roles. In general, I think the depth of Tyrion's character would seriously challenge 1960s casting directors who were used to casting little people in jokey roles or as something less than human. One of many problems they'd have with the source material, no doubt.

#9 Lon Cheney Jr. as Sandor Clegane

Here's another actor who would do the best with what he was given - which would be an essentially empty role. This Sandor would be a beast used only for jump scares, with too much rubber over his face to ever show an emotion.

#8 Glen Langan as Stannis Baratheon

Langan would be serious, but dull, with lots of droning sermonizing. In other words, perfect. Still boring though.

#7 Basil Rathbone as Tywin Lannister

Who better to play a role totally owned by Charles Dance than an actor who's even Charles Dancier? The only reason I'm not ranking this legend higher is because I do think he'd kind of sleepwalk through this role, especially at this stage in his career.

#6 Raymond Burr as Robert Baratheon

The future Mr. Perry Mason was damn good at playing hard-drinking, prowly, "beastly" men. See him in this fabulous trailer for 1951's Bride of the Gorilla (spoiler: Burr is the gorilla). Of course, for this production, he'd be about 10 years on from that virile role, but that's perfectly on brand for Bobby B.

#5 Michael Landon as Jon Snow

Landon's tortured James Dean era would be a great fit for angsty goth teen Jon, though he might have trouble keeping his feelings as hidden as Jon does.

#4 Allison Hayes as Melisandre

Should she be ranked this high? Eh, maybe not, but this woman is a goddamn B-movie bombshell goddess. Her Red Woman would be a little less mysterious, sure, but her perfectly arched eyebrows and bullet bra would do R'hllor proud all the same.

#3 Marie Windsor as Catelyn Stark

They didn't call her Queen of the B's for nothing. Windsor always did great with roles that call for strength and verve. She'd be a fantastic Cat, and - dare I dream it - an even better Lady Stoneheart.

#2 Jack Nicholson as Theon Greyjoy

Now this would be fun. If baby Jack Nicholson had half the presence and charisma he would show in later movies, his Theon would be legendary.

#1 Coleen Gray as Cersei Lannister

If I can get Tumblr to understand one thing, it's how much Coleen Gray would absolutely eat in the role of Cersei. She's beautiful. She's a schemer. She's a helpless victim. She's back for revenge. I challenge anyone to watch her insane, murderous, fierce, gorgeous, duplicitous performance in 1960's otherwise pretty terrible The Leech Woman and not come to the same conclusion. I'm serious. There would be no survivors. 👑

[wannaeatramyeon]

Hello Ara Ara Anon here.

Kinda digging your profile Gun having a seriously face lol. Which made me think of what would Gun and Goo hate to see in thier Date or in fight.

And what would be thier auto "marry me" reaction during thier date/ situations.

Hello again Ara Ara anon! This is probably one of my fave expression this guy pulls. It's just so relatable. Thanks for the ask - and I could see Goo falling for the ara ara OC heh.

Fight Reaction: Marry Me!

Gun values competent people, he would have needed to have heard of your reputation first to pique his interest. It would make sense if you were making a name for yourself as a high ranking executive in Workers, climbing to the top with a ruthless tenacity. You're efficient and ambitious and you wanted the crew business all to yourself. Because why do these little boys get all the fun?

Couple that with you being strong? What a way to get his attention. Gun's instant marry me though? This bastard... Daniel breaks 1 arm and this pervert can't stop thinking about him. Imagine if you broke all his limbs.

Goo is one sadistic fucker. Similar to Gun, you would need to overpower him during a fight but he doesn't need the context. He couldn't give a shit who you are, but where have you been hiding with your pretty claws and vicious grin? Having someone like you beat him up is hot. It eases the sting of the loss somewhat.

Goo is sitting there, bruised and bloodied by you, which is already a turn on. Then you lean in and grab his chin:

"Ara ara... What a disappointment you turned out to be, Goo Kim."

He genuinely would blurt out "marry me" in this moment.

Fight Reaction: Fuck You

Gun loves fighting. He really believes in the beauty of the it, the movement, the skill, the raw feel of throwing punches and kicks. Connecting and ripping through skin, breaking bones. He doesn't care if you fight dirty. Go ahead and grab some weapons. Adds more spice.

However anything that would ruin the fundamental of people beating the shit out of each other would upset him, more so if it's illegal.

"You dumb motherfucker. Are you ruining my fun with a gun"

and if you tried to jab him with a syringe full of questionable drugs like what happened to Samuel? He'll really show you what Shiro Oni means.

What can I say, this guy has his principles.

For Goo, you would have thought anything goes with this blonde maniac but he hates being underestimated or thinking someone is going easy on him. And combine that with you getting the upper hand? He loathes your trash talk.

"You call that a punch"

"What is that stance"

"Have you ever even used a sword before"

He would be going feral with rage, frothing at the mouth, aiming to kill. If you manage to get him to this stage and still nothing?

"Was that supposed to hurt"

Please also see the above scenario - he would likely have the most confused boner.

Date Reaction: Marry Me!

Apart from the obvious fighting prowess, Gun would love someone that could easily be playing 5D chess and challenging him.

He's smart and perceptive but if he tells you about his day and you manage to catch something he's missed? Or offer him a better solution? God. He's always done this on his own, but maybe it wouldn't be so bad with you.

You would need a pretty wicked and wild streak yourself to seriously be with someone like Goo. You 2 together are loose cannons and a general danger to society. And your ideas of a date aren't the most... traditional.

Someone pissed Goo off and you suggest some casual arson? Grand theft auto against a guy who parked too close to his precious car? Identity theft of someone that tried to rip him off? Yep babe, you're the one.

Date Reaction: Fuck off

It likely will never get to this stage if they get even a whiff of something amiss.

Casually sleeping around is one thing but Gun and Goo are pretty thorough with researching and scoping people out, and that's no different for a potential date. They know the kind of traits they like and respect. If you don't fit the bill, then this ain't happening.

The only real thing both Gun and Goo would hate is if either of them misjudged you. They thought they saw a partner and an equal but you're not measuring up. Either you're too nice or normal or moralistic or just naive. This would never work, they need someone that understands the way of their world. They would have no qualms breaking up or just straight out ghosting you.

[decarabiandivorce]

(evil adoption au) not sure what would psychologically hurt nb more-

The idea that deca is doing all this as some kind of 5d chess military strategy move, by dismantling the rebellion from its heart by making its leader no longer hate him as much

or

The idea that deca is genuinely trying to help nb, despite being fully aware of how nb made in-depth plans on assassinating him. That he sees him as a son, someone he truly and honestly cares about, and is willing to give nb the basic needs he’s always had a lack of, nb having his suspicions be all for nothing

You know those tumblr posts that are like "i will avoid my ruin by simply making sure evil never has a chance to brew in my kingdom?" Where the rular puts so much time and effort into taking care of their citizens that there wouldn't be a Dark Lord?

Deca is like "oh this child being so lost and confused is a tragedy! This shouldn't have happened!" <- indirectly caused this

He feels bad for NB. Like a cat left on the side of the road. Its fucked up hes seeing a human teenager like this but he is an ageless god. You know how in skyrim you can randomly adopt sad looking kids? Yeah its like that. He has some care for Carmen, but its not familiar love. Not yet.

He knows NB is a rebel (caught him sneaking in the castle), but thinks hes too young and scrawny for him to be the leader. NB lied about his age to his older rebels to seem more trustworthy, so they would feel safer being led by a 'short 23 year old' rather than a 'barely 18 years old'. RHW is 22 and genuinely thinks he is younger than NB. 😔 he was a good liar.

Deca has noticed that ever since he adopted NB, the rebel's plans have been... frantic? They haven't done things as well? Its almost as if the person who used to make the plans is MIA. Odd. Welp! More time to spoil his kiddo :)

Sure his kiddo talks about murdering him, but it just breaks his heart. This kid hasn't seen an actual war and yet he dreams of blood and death? His beloved king's death? Thats... sad. He may not know human emotions that well, but something isn't right here.

He should get the kiddo another blanket. People love blankets :)

[derseprinceoftbd]

No seriously is it just me or did leftists finally "fall in line", as it were, the moment it became clear Biden wasn't actually fit to lead? Like what is the psychology here? Are the people making the popular posts about how bad Republicans are attempting some kind of 5D-chess sabotage because they're still on fuckin accelerationism or some shit?

No seriously we cannot win with Joe Biden, simply because Bob Steelworker in Swingstateville, PA, thinks he's about to die, and he's *right*, oh my God, the *average American voter is correct*, that's how bad the Dems have fucked up.

Hillary or bust motherfuckers. All the polls with her are landslides for her, she's the only person wonky enough to fix this shitshow we're in because of Biden's tarrifs, and frankly, every single person on this website fucking *owes her*.

[jojo-hut-jrs]

Everyone who writes Alessi smut thinks he’s some kind of dom sadist sex god but in my heart I know he’s an awkward virgin. He would 100% lie and tell you he gets lots of action and then when you get down to it it’s painfully obvious he’s bluffing. Like sure he’s into sadism in theory but in practice he’s sweating buckets doing 5d chess trying to figure it out as he goes and hoping the porn he’s watched is accurate enough because he has to be in control of the situation all the time. This makes the dick 3000x times better btw.

I mean, I think it’s both. I think he’s a virgin sadist that has a lot of /ideas/ on what he wants but has no idea how to actually execute them. Like, he wants to tie someone up and throw them around liek a rag doll but the moment you brush his leg or something he’s gonna cream his pants and cry.

[themimsyborogove]

I get wht you said about Belial dying n stuff — it kinda seems like god just took another doll off the shelf and plopped it in to replace the old one. makes me wonder if he does that with his angels too, or even how angels and all that work with other worlds. is there a thing of angels for each world?? is each world a universe, or is a cluster of worlds one universe??

“She had never thought what it might mean to be in a place where long ago all angels had been slain.” (referring to edom)

so is there a set of angels for each universe or something???? a raziel for each world or whatever?? I have so many questions 😔

This is the kind of stuff that makes my brain itch if I think too hard about it.

I need to reread TLBotW. Didn’t Sammael die, but the Sammael that came back seems to be the same entity, he was just MIA for a thousand years? Why didn’t he get replaced by a new Sammael like Belial did? And Lilith too. She’s still floating around in pieces in the void or something, she didn’t get replaced by a new one.

I think maybe the 5D chess of Heaven and Hell is just beyond our mortal comprehension and there is no sense to be found in it.

[captain-castaway]

I did reread the post and see the link you posted to in the comment. My bad for not reading the post like the educated college student I'm supposed to be

As for the ask game, I'd like to know✂️🥊🎯🎹💼✨ in regards to Sage :3

THE HOUR OF SAGE IS UPON US

(character tag: Sage)

[OC ask game here!!]

✂️What is one of your character's worst memories? So this is a fun one because Sage's priorities are. All fucked up. And what would probably be "traumatic" and "bad" memories for most folks (i.e. repeated kidnappings and playing 5D chess with the various political parties who think you're someone else and a forced marriage proposal or two) they largely label more under "annoyances." Really, their worst memory is probably the one time they had to share lab space in college. They hate working with other people and they especially hate other people giving their opinions on how they should do their work. He's very much a "get out of my kitchen while I'm cooking" kinda bitch (not that they ever cook)

🥊What do they love to do? What do they hate to do? Science!!!!! Specifically magi-bioengineering. And making weapons of mass destruction. Generally just tinkering around in his lab is their happy place, playing with plants and making general affronts to god. They just want to make things and sometimes those things happen to be increasingly convoluted plant-guns. Conversely they hate interacting with people, and more specifically he hates when they are put in any kind of position where he has to pretend to care. Sage is so. So bad at being comforting or generally anything besides slightly aggravating.

🎯 What do they do best? Science c:

🎹Do they have any hobbies? Everyone else will say that he doesn't, but Sage will insist that gardening is not the same as bio-engineering Danger Plants. They are very fond of their little garden and growing little horrors for Fun instead of Profit.

💼What do they do for a living? Make little-to-large plant horrors c: They're a weapons designer, and he makes his creations out of plants, and thus come off as a hot commodity in their warlord-filled world when really he just wants to be left alone to tinker with his weaponry.

✨How did you come up with their name? It was supposed to be a filler name but then he got stuck with it lmao. When I first created the character I just knew I wanted them to be a smart, genius-type, thus Sage. And, well, now everyone in that story has herb names (Basil, Thyme, the twins Rose and Mary, etc.) because why not.

The asshole mad scientist in question:

Ask more questions!

[anonanimal]

more witch from mercury thoughts post ep 18

what if all the stuff people have projected onto suletta comes true: if she's really an enhanced person, if she's really an orphan, if she's the thing sophie felt in the data storm. all this could become true depending on how the plot goes, e.g. if prospera dies, well, she'll be an orphan then

i concur with what others have said that it makes sense for them to explore having multiple pilots in one mobile suit as a way to dilute the physical load of piloting, pacrim style

this redditor is right...words i hate to say... if the show is leading us toward the conclusion that delling rembran is a good guy somehow i'm going to kill. jk there's no way we're getting "delling actually good guy" reveal because even the best possible version of delling is still a man who was president of a huge quasi-governmental coalition of weapons manufacturers that have been actively, directly engaged with destroying the earth and oppressing its inhabitants. also on the personal level there's the whole dueling game arranged marriage thing. delling redemption arc maybe. he and guel can start a redeemed character support group

ep 18 was more suletta suffering + setup and oooooh my god this trip to earth is going to go so bad. the way prospera said "take aerial?" not even trying to pretend she doesn't want miorine to take aerial. it's gonna be so bad. no miorine you can't show up to this conflict that's older than you and just ask everyone to get along without bringing something material to the table. miorine has been shown to be smarter than expected so maybe she's actually winning at 5d chess against prospera but let's be honest. i doubt it. she's still just a kid. the very position she's in right now, she was manipulated into. prospera scheming with shaddiq who wants to be president of the group + this trip is going to be sabotaged to tank miorine's chances. but that's not the only motivation, polling or early voting or whatever those numbers were showed shaddiq was going to win anyway. he doesn't need to ruin this just to win, he needs to inflame the earth-space conflict as part of his overall plan which is apparently to destroy the benerit group. not sure how this peace talk turning into a bloodbath will help prospera with quiet zero but i'm sure we'll find out

i really thought whatever was left of eri's consciousness loved suletta, this ep raises so many questions. was she also doing a shoo the dog to suletta or...what? WHAT IS GOING ON. the way prospera asked eri for her opinion on what to do with suletta was s c a r y don't tell me eri is calling some or all of the shots. or is prospera manipulating her by letting her think she has a say

secelia being behind the haro confessional pffffffft utena black rose arc anyone?

oh and el5n just telling nika and norea everything lmfaooo i'm so looking forward to whatever the house arrest three do next

i'm gonna revise my idea that eri died soon after the vanadis incident and say based on her appearing a bit older than four in some instances like the opening or ending (can't remember which), and most tellingly the flashback where prospera is slumped over comatose eri while apparently-suletta is in a bassinet, she'd lived for a few years after. and there was a brief time suletta was alive while eri was. which means prospera started the cloning shit before eri had even died. so it wasn't just prospera going crazy with grief trying to bring her back, but maybe anticipating her death and getting started on some kind of replacement body / key to raise the mobile suit's permet score. since it's confirmed all the gund-bits are clones, and there was not enough time for prospera to give birth to 13 children, prospera had access to sufficiently advanced cloning tech to grow them in fishtanks or whatever. it's possible suletta wasn't a clone and prospera artificially inseminated herself with nadim's frozen sperm...somehow...but come on. eri did say "you're all repli-humans" with no buts

prospera got help with the cloning from notrette right...suletta a clone just like those tomatoes...miorine's dead mother continues to haunt the narrative

oh god suletta please don't take "you were a key and we don't need you anymore now that the door is open" to heart and decide to find a way to...close the door

miorine's so good at keeping her business face on i almost forgot delling is still in a coma. mio do not make this ill-advised trip to earth, go sit by delling's side and cry or something. please. anything but what's about to happen

[nomadicism]

Any more thoughts about the whole Twitter situation? What do you think will happen to that site over the next while?

Hi Anon, thank you for the Ask!

By the gods, what to even say now?

I wish that I had the wit to voice my thoughts with brevity and good humor. The Twitter Musk situation is hilarious-but-also-serious, and alas, I am verbose in my thoughts and not very funny.

I'm not sure that Twitter will survive, if I have time I'll post more deeply on what I think will happen with that.

I don't follow much outside of USA Twitter, so I can see all of this going in a lot of directions, such as the platform being irrelevant in the US, while remaining utilized outside of the USA.

We can still use Twitter and curate our experience by muting every slur that ever existed while using mega block on shitty tweets to expand our block lists, but that's not gonna change the fact if Twitter survives—without Furry Musk-gland backtracking on moderation—then the winners will be authoritarian regimes and con artists. Both rely upon sowing disinformation, distrust, propaganda, and conspiracies.

There are many choice threads on Twitter that reveal the convergence of serious issues, and I don’t even know where to begin summarizing them all. I’ve included a list of URLs to a variety of threads that might be of interest. What's happening here is not a simple thing, it's bigger than one spoiled mediocre man's ego.

Content is king, and Black people did a lot of labor in creating the kind of content that draws users to Twitter. Michael Harriot of The Grio has some words.

Hark! A graph showing Mastodon new user sign up spikes plotted against new user sign-ups on Twitter

A kind and thoughtful thread by Gerard K Cohen about his team members. Their entire team (Accessibility Experience Team) was among the mass firings at Twitter last week.

Of which, the unsurprising firing of thousands of employees (not all of them whom are software engineers) potentially poses as serious legal issue for Twitter due to California’s WARN law.

Also in Ireland (though small potatoes I suppose).

Apartheid Clyde (thank you Black Twitter for this most excellent name for Elon Musk) tries to blame advertisers bailing on the platform on activists. Gets called out by the president and Chief Operating Officer of MMA Global (a multi-national marketing trade association) whom he had just had a call with.

On the value of experts discussing in an open public forum

Concerns from a Chinese dissident

Discount Stark is fact-checked on his lie about advertising

Profoundly bad business decisions. There is no 5D chess here folks. There may well be a case for Tesla stock-holders to sue for breach of fiduciary responsibility.

Being an asshole to everyone and then firing the security team (who were already pissed at you very likely) as you’re rolling out a feature that requires both financial and personal data to be transmitted and stored is beyond foolish.

Ohhhh, hmmm about those critical employees…

Some of the fired employees are here on work visas

Potentially disruptive for upcoming elections in the USA.

Listen, I work in tech. I co-founded a startup back in 2013. No job is worth a 9:30pm stand-up while your colleagues are being fired by a useless billionaire.

Does Twitter really matter though?

Learn to host your own content.

Make a list of your fave Twitter artists, authors, etc.

When parody is only comedy if it comes with a disclaimer

Comedy as a venn diagram

Use lists to get around shadow banning of un-verified accounts

Paying for verification reduces identity to a trademark. The average person does not have the resources to continuously litigate their identity, such people who are recognized experts in their field, journalists, government officials, etc will be the ones impersonated.

A must-read thread about Twitter and counter-convergence (spoiler, Harry Potter was a counter-convergence)

Faith and trust rely on knowing that people are who they claim to be when they speak on subjects with authority and expertise. Undercutting the ability of such people to verify themselves is a form of discrediting, and when that happens systematically to scientists, educators, and public servants, then we have fascist propaganda tactics on our hands.

I hope you find these useful Anon!

(Y'all give me some reblogs because I'm not sure if this post will show up organically since it has links in it.)

[randomnameless]

If you are under the impression. That three house has clear cut  good guy route or evil route you are wrong 

Gasp I’m wrong!

Help me! What am I supposed to do?

edelgard starting the war which is necessary for the goals of overturnibn fodlan s established order 

But what order are you talking about?

Supreme Leader started her war after seizing power in her own country, and in Nopes, after reforming Adrestia as she saw fit.

Her allies demolished Faerghus so bad that there is no order in that place during the events of the Academy part of the game, Lambert was trying to “overturn” whatever existed in Faerghus, and AM!Dimitri apparently puts more commoners in his government than what previously existed.

Do you have any source about the order that used to exist in the Alliance before the War? And why it needed to be overturned?

It can’t be because of their reliance on the Church, because even in FE16 proper they only pay “lip-service” to its teachings. It can’t be crest based discrimination either, because Holst exists, and Judith has no seat anymore, when Edmund, crestless Edmund, got hers.

and rhea isn’t evil or villainous the game is consistent rhea needs to be removed from power she is wrong and her actions like the crest system and stagnation of tech hurt people 

Rhea needs to be “removed” from “power”, even if she has no “power” as said War demonstrated?

Also, pretty sure Rhea gives her position to Billy from her own volition on non Tru Piss routes, so she can remove herself just fine, no need to kill thousands of randoms for that :)

For my part, I prefer thin crust in my pizzas, but there is no international norm or system that commands all pizzas from the world to adopt thin crust, so it’s ultimately up to each restaurant to decide whether they want their thick crust or if they want to make a thin crust pizza.

Stagnation of tech hurt so many people that we can’t name any, take the ban on autopsies. Fodlan isn’t a world where some schmuk can learn how to heal by singing in a choral once per month for at least 3 months, nope.

White magic doesn’t exist, so people cannot be healed without “autopsies”. Or they suffer a lot. Somehow.

war was only way rhea isn’t naga Naga wouldn’t do what rhea does putting humans under heel controlling them 

And yet, to several Adrestians and people from the Fodlan verse, a lot of people would be pretty pleased to be under Rhea’s heels.

Naga and Rhea are two different people, and Rhea cannot fuck away to Sothis knows where to run away from humans, she wants to stay in the land that saw her birth and in her home without being turned into a pair of rolling dices.

Did she thwart Fodlan’s History out of self preservation (for her and kind) purposes, to protect the descendants of the Elites and in a bid to stop the war and usher an era of relative peace? Yep.

Does this count as “controlling”?

Is Rhea playing 5D chess when she controlled the Adrestian Emperor (not Willy!!) to ban her southern Church and piss on her teachings? Did she control the Western Church when its Bishop sent several people to kill her?

Word of God itself said :

That said, Seiros and co. meddled with history not in order to rule over humans, but to quell the flames of war and chaos as much as possible, and to also keep a steady balance about humanity. 

Sorry if it doesn’t match a certain fanfic, but I don’t think the Author is Dead, and their words, even if I sometimes rage at them, hold precedence over any BNF (NoA included).

[autumn-foxfire]

OH SHOOT!!! Now that I'm seeing my own ask and you answer it, do you think that was a bad response for Hawks?!?!? Oh my god. What if that's what gave him away. The fact that Hawks really could have been hanging out with Endeavor that day. Dabi knows he was expecting the attack to be tomorrow. Dabi KNOWS he was accusing Hawks to cover his own ass, but when Hawks confirmed it? That he was intending to bring Endeavor? (Not directly, but it's the same meaning. It was when Dabi says "we're both a little guilty" that they're now on the same level here, so talking is a little more safe, presumably. Though what Dabi's guilty of isn't what he sells it as. I can't tell if Hawks' "I thought you'd be thrilled to inflict that kind of damage on him" is meant to be read as him admitting Dabi was right in his assumptions or as a way to say "why are you angry at me over this? shouldn't you be happy you got to damage the No.1?" Both maybe.) It's also not the best line imo, because it implies Hawks was lowkey expecting the Nomu Dabi brought to be strong enough to damage Endeavor. But really honestly, I could give myself a headache going over the Pros and Cons of everything. This is why I'm not a spy, because everything that's a good save will always come with something someone can pry into if they overthink.

Anyways, back to what I was saying earlier. At that point, that was no longer a simple hangout Dabi intruded upon. It was a very real scheme, and tells him Hawks was planning this early. Of course it's understandable that even to bring someone "kinda strong" he'd need to lead them into it instead of just dragging someone there on the day of, but Dabi doesn't underestimate people once he knows they're clever. And Hawks couldn't exactly cover himself by saying he didn't let anyone die because he didn't know if this attack was because he got exposed or if it was Dabi's Nomu attacking, because he'd never seen it before. That would end up telling Dabi that Hawks is essentially saying he'll only let people die if it's a League attack aka to butter up to them, not in any other scenario where he'd be willing to risk lives just cause he's a corrupt hero tired of his job and wants to sincerely leave and join them + sure as hell can't mention his concern over being exposed! Obvs. These two's double crossing secret conversations are so riveting, you really have to psycho-analyze their words, which things they respond to, which claims from the other person they try to work around and ignore. It's so good but so frustrating for my poor brain lol

Dabi and Hawks were playing 5D chess while we are all just trying to understand XD Maybe we're giving them too much credit but I've always loved smart interactions between characters, battles of wits are just as entertaining as battles of strength.

It's interesting how much this single interaction told each other so much about the other and how that impacted their interactions going forward. I definitely think Hawks response gave away more of his intentions than he wanted to reveal but so did Dabi's.

Ah, this is reminding me why I loved Hawks and Dabi's dynamic.

[averlym]

hello omg this reply is so late i'm so sorry but

beiguang??????? beloveds?????? omg omg omg your fic is like. god-tier i love it omg omg the feels. the imagery. the metaphors fhdfhdfdhfdf

“i dislike losing what is mine,” she repeats, voice softer, “but i do not mind, once in a while, losing to you.”

aaaaaa????????? it's literally. i. screaming crying they are SO sweet i just. aAA ‘i am yours but also my own person’ BEST SHIP DYNAMICS HONESTLY

crying screaming the feels it's so tooth-rottingly fluffy omg

bro i would love to play liyue millenial. i want to play liyue millenial so badly you have no idea it's like. i need to play it. mihoyo drop the board game omg i would give them all my money for liyue millenial

it's like. it's my dream chess game. because i absolutely suck at chess and monopoly (omg ningguang basically invented monopoly didn't she) but games that mirror society?? are so beloved??

like. oh you checkmated my king but while you weren't looking the pawns overthrew the monarchy and live under a republic now. nice try. 5d chess vibes.

modern ning dominates 5 dimensional chess you can't change my mind

adgshjdsfhj but also. chess where halfway through the rules swap and suddenly the pawns are the most important part because viva la revolution. you have a set timer and when before half the time runs out, you have to grab the king. otherwise, when the halfway mark is reached the rules flip, the monarchy falls, and if someone has no more pawns, they lose. if both players have pawns the most important objective now is to remove all pawns before their revolution breaches country borders.

(my sister refuses to play chess with me because a) she's better than me and b) i keep instigating a prison break and she gets mad)

-🍵

beiguang is dignified fluff idk how else to put it they exude knowledgeable 大姐energy even though beidou is the more approachable one. big sister/ cool aunt vibes.

also yes!!! liyue millennial!!! i imagine like the pieces ninguang owns are like handcrafted wooded works of art in their own right and it's terrifying but also so cool and pretty :OOO

modern ningguang would be so good at any kind of strategy game i think. the real question here would probably be zhongli because is he going to do scary good because of mr god of war and contracts rex lapis??? or is he going to fail spectacularly because of mr funeral consultant with as much common sense as he has mora (none. the answer is none.)

i am so so terrible at chess but also that sounds hilariously fun. bestie! the chaos of that is so genius. also also, how do country borders work in chess?? i'm just imagining all the black squares are black territory and all the white squares are white territory. after the pawns take control, do all the other pieces except the king attempt to work against them? do the pawns turn against the nobles on their side attempting to get rid of them? do the nobles regardless of black or white work together as a whole to reinstate a king? (a pawn makes its way across the board, confused, and turns into a queen. it's queen, equally confused, just accepts the new queen as a spouse. alternatively, enemies to friends to lovers arc as they vie for queenship, with the new queen as leader of the revolution. no one else knows which queen is which because they look exactly the same, leading to some identity theft shenanigans. i'm overly invested in this subplot.)

speaking of games that mirror society i have never played it but dnd sounds quite fun

... jean related ficling under the cut? hurt/comfort vibes?? lowkey a character study?? here u go anyways? (i have written three fics in the past year and here is the last one)

a/n: au where signora is a bit more violent and venti protects mondstadt from her and saves his gnosis-but gets badly injured during the fight and dissipates into wind (he's recovering! elsewhere! it's just... thousand year naps where you come back mean that your mortal human friends have lost you for the remaining less than a century of their lives and you're essentially, well, dead.)

basically, the gnosis falls into jean's hands. temporary anemo archon/ acting grandmaster jean gunhildr adapts.

dandelions

jean, in the aftermath of becoming an archon.

vision holders, allogenes- they possess the power to ascend to celestia and become gods, like venessa's legend. but archons have no need for visions. as anemo archon, venti's vision was a fake glass ball, gifted to him by the anemo archon. himself.

when jean became an archon, as the gnosis became part of her, her eyes and hair glowed. her vision did not.

there is a funeral for venti the bard, held under the windrise tree, after all has been said and done. customary as it is to pass visions to family for safekeeping, the wind has no blood relatives, and a gray vision lies dull in the ground as they cover it with dirt, the body having dissipated into wind. the traveller lays some cecilias nearby, while jean places dandelions beside the grave. at her waist, a glass ball glows the same colour as the flowers.

buried that day is the anemo archon, and the gift he once gave her. what do you lose when you attain godhood? a vision. a gift from a god, now gone. a friend.

craving some semblance of normalcy, jean resumes her position as acting grandmaster, and just sort of lets the worship of the anemo archon continue as if it wasn't her.

perhaps this denial is unhealthy. jean buries herself in too much work to care. venti lost himself in songs and wine. she loses herself in helping the people of mondstadt. her people now.

in the disaster that strikes mondstadt, the statue is broken. jean remains the one that the citizens look to for advice, and following said advice, they rebuild the statue as it was before. resting under the hood with the traveller, perched on the reconstructed shoulders of barbatos, jean learns of the nameless bard. of how the shape venti took was to honour his friend.

maybe, in the quiet of her room, jean stands in front of a mirror with twin braids. the traveller showed her how to do them, murmuring something about getting to braid blond hair again. jean looks in the mirror, makes herself shorter, considers dying her hair dark until teal ends are the only bright parts left. then, she leaves for her office in her usual form, orders for rebuilding the statue of barbatos on the tip of her tongue.

she cannot, will not take the shape of venti and his long-dead friend, so she will just have to make sure their legacy carries on in a different way. in the water that surrounds the statue, jean glimpses her reflection, and she feels both guilty and relieved.

she chooses to leave the statues of the seven in the shape of venti. when she visits windrise, she sits by the statue and his grave and thinks about simpler times.

by the time the statue is built, mondstadt has settled down, and people are once again attempting to climb up the statue to blow dandelion seeds. jean doesn't mind, actually kind of likes the hopes and dreams of her people floating through her winds. it's a direct feedback loop to better take care of the citizens of mondstadt, probably better than the sheafs of paperwork reviews she sometimes has to go through.

the thing about being an archon is human needs are a bit less necessary now, so jean often finds herself fulfilling these dandelion wishes instead of sleeping.

this doesn't go unnoticed by the knights- one morning the wind floats fluffy seeds by her desk, and the dandelion knight stops writing to listen. amber's voice earnestly wishes that "jean remembers to take care of herself", and this becomes a daily occurrence, with kaeya's teasing, lisa's flirtatious threats, and klee's childish lisp flying on dandelion seeds. a smile in barbara's voice, and even an occasional reminder from a certain darknight hero. every morning, the winds whisper this into her ears, and jean loves her friends so so much, loves this city so much, that she sometimes forgets the anxiety that came when venti pushed his gnosis into her hands.

at night, when the city is asleep, jean sits in the palms of the statue, feeling held and feeling small and pondering immortality. how mortal venti was, how immortal he was. the absentee god who led their city to freedom, a wind spirit who took the shape of his lost friend, and- the bard who sung in front of his statue, who mimicked paimon, who tried to scam diluc of wine and would accept payment in apples. so very human.

jean feels a quiet sort of sadness, reconciling the image of the anemo archon who gave her her vision and the happy-go-lucky bard who was her friend. sitting in the palms of this statue is the closest thing she'll ever have to being near venti again. she looks up at the giant face, and then looks down below to where a young bard would have been strumming his lyre.

if the traveller notices the anemo archon using the winds to carry her high enough to hug the statue of the seven at windrise, it's never mentioned to jean.

[joestarsecrettecnique]

I am so very sick and tired of the toxicity that’s been poisoning the snk fandom as of the last couple years. I gave myself time to digest the ending and my feelings on it, before embarking in a journey to debunk many misconceptions and critiques I’ve seen floating in the fandom.

By the way, by no means I think this ending is perfect. I think this is textbook execution by Isayama to tie together every loose end left behind in an orderly manner, and I think that it was a bit rushed and oversimplified. I would’ve wanted more of Eren and Armin’s conversation, more of the squad realizing what his true goal had been, and some narrative choices I don’t 100% agree with. But still, what I saw in other fans’ critiques post 139 frankly appalled me, so I feel the need to make this. Also, this obviously are my own interpretations, I am not Isayama himself lol

“Ew, so Eren did pull a Lelouch after all”

No, Eren did not pull a Lelouch. While his action and the final result may seem similar, I find very different nuances between the two. Lelouch wanted for the whole world to be united in fighting against him, and thus he made himself the world’s greatest enemy. His will to turn himself into a monster was selfless. Eren didn’t give a damn about the world, he had no noble intentions whatsoever. He said it in chapter 122, his goal was to protect Paradis and, more specifically, his closest friends. He turned himself into a monster, killed 80% of human population, and endangered the lives of those very friends he wanted to protect, so that by stopping him, those friends could be safe. Eren had no intentions to break out of the cycle of hatred or unite the world against himself, he just wanted to give his friends a chance to survive, and that is not selfless, it’s selfish. Eren’s goal was incredibly selfish, and biased, and driven by his feelings instead of rationality. Nothing like Lelouch!

Now this, this I myself am not the greatest fan of. I feel like it makes that great scene in chapter 122 loose a bit of its strength, Ymir obeying the king for 2000 years just because she loved him. Honestly, I always thought there was a bit of Stockholm Syndrome going on, but I didn’t think it would be the only reason. However, like it or not, it’s undeniable that it makes perfect sense in the narrative that aot has always strived to tell. Love has been a theme strongly woven in the story, and it also draws a great parallel between Karl Fritz/Ymir and Eren/Mikasa. Ymir was a slave to her love for King Fritz, just like Mikasa was a slave to her love for Eren, in that she struggled to accept reality until the very end despite the atrocities that Eren committed. Ymir stayed bound by her love for King Fritz, until she saw Mikasa break from her own poisoned love, aknwoledge it, and kill Eren despite of it, or maybe because of it. Only Ymir knows that one, heh. But the point is, Mikasa showed Ymir that she could break free of a toxic love, she was that someone that Ymir had been waiting for to finally free her of her burden.

“What? But that makes no sense!”

Now, on my first read, I simply thought that Eren had ordered Dina to avoid eating Berthold, and that he had made her walk down that road unaware that his mother was trapped (because we know that the Attack Titan’s future memories aren’t infallible, there are still gaps), killing her indirectly. I’ve since then read some theories stating that Eren willingly killed his own mum in orther to give kid himself a reason to feel enough hatred to kickstart the whole story. Honestly, I like this version maybe more! But let me explain to you why this is not a plothole, like many people think. In this same chapter, we have Eren explaining how the Founder’s power works in synergy with the Attack’s: “There’s no past or future, they all exist at once”. This means that time travel in aot doesn’t work in a manner where Eren extracts himself from time and space, and from a separate realm he operates on the past. The way I understood it, the mechanics works kind of like Tokyo Revengers’ time travel. MInd you, I only watched episode one, so my understanding might be jackshit.

Spoilers for Tokyo Revengers’ episode one. In the show, the main character loses consciousness and finds himself reliving his past. He interacts with someone in this “new” past, and when he wakes up again in the present, past events had been over-written by the changes he made. I think this is how aot timetravel works, with the exception that, since past and future (and present, of course) all happen at once, side by side, there is no old past to be rewritten, neither a future to return to, and present Eren wouldn’t be aware of the changes that his future self would make. It creates sort of a time paradox, yes, in the sense that there’s a loop where present Eren’s mom has been eaten because future Eren, in the future, operated on the past by causing past Eren’s mom to be eaten, but all these Erens are one and the same, as all timelines exist at once.

“Boo-hoo they ruined Eren’s character, he’s such a wimp!”

I have to confess (isn’t this appalling, that this is a thing that I have to confess, what the actual fuck), I am an Eren stan. I absolutely do not consider myself a Jaegerist, I think Eren’s option was better than Zeke’s, yes, but it was morally wrong and awful and he absolutely was not only in the wrong, but also if he wasn’t dead I’d want him to be punished for his crimes. I didn’t particularly enjoy him pre-timeskip, and I started to like him because I found his evolution fascinating. I wanted to understand his motives, what was going on in his head, he was a puzzle that I wanted to solve. Maybe because I’m a psychologist, who knows. Anyways, if you’re an Eren stan only because he acted like a chad and now you cry his character was ruined, I’m sorry to say, you never understood him. Eren was not a god, he was not a strategist playing 5d chess with perfect rationality, Eren was the same he has always been. He was a young man spun along by his passions. Eren feels things with burning intensity, he lets himself be driven by his emotions. He almost flattened the world because he was disappointed that he and his friends weren’t the only human beings inhabiting it, for fuck’s sake, he’s always been irrational, selfish, and immature. Of course he doesn’t wanna die, of course he want’s to live with all of them. You really expected a 15 year old hot-headed brat to become Thanos after he suddenly found out he killed his own mum and all his dreams had been crushed? Of course he felt conflicted, of course he suffered, of course he wanted to live, “because he was born in this world”. Honestly, when I read his meltdown, I felt relieved that his character hadn’t been turned on its head, it was heartbreaking to see that he really was the same brat he’d always been, that he’d tried to steel himself to do horrible shit for his friends’ sake and that he felt bad about it! It made me appreciate his character a lot more, I felt nostalgic towards the times when I was irritated by his screaming and pouting. Suffice to say, this is also my answer to all those people that believe his internal monologue to convince himself the Rumbling was what he really wanted were bullshit since he “pulled a Lelouch”. How can it be bullshit? Maybe he planned to be stopped, but he also said that he thought he would’ve still done it if they hadn’t. He also said that killing a majority of the population was something that he wanted to do, not a byproduct of the alliance not stopping him early enough, because with the world’s militaries in shambles Paradis would’ve had time to prepare accordingly. Anyways, of course he needed to convince himself to do this awful thing even if he knew he wasn’t gonna succeed completely, can you imagine how horrible it would be to know your only chance is to kill thousands?

I also maybe think it was because of the spine centipede thingy? When Eren says “I don’t know why I did it, I wanted to, I had to”, he gets this faraway look on his face and we get a zoom in on one of his eyes, which is drawn very interestingly and kinda looks like the Reiss’ eyes when they were bound by the War Renounce Pact? So maybe it was also the centipede’s drive to survive and multiplicate that forced Eren to do the Rumbling so that its life wouldn’t be endangered. I don’t know how much I like this, I feel like it takes some agency away from Eren and also makes it feel like he’s not as responsible for the genocide he committed that we initially though, which mhhh maybe not, let’s have him take full responsibility for this. As I said, I’m not defending Isayama blindly, I do have some issues myself with what went down.

“What the fuck, did he say thank you for the genocide?”

Guys c’mon, this is like,, reading comprehension. Yes, it was poorly worded and a bit rushed, but by now you should have full context to make an educated guess on the fact that no, he didn’t thank him for committing a genocide what the fuck you guys. Armin started bringing up the idea that maybe they should have Eren eaten because he was doing morally questionable things ever since the Marley Arc, which for manga readers was like what, 2018? Isayama has been showing for three years how not okay Armin was with Eren’s actions, how could it make sense for him to thank him for a genocide? You see some poorly worded stuff, and your first instinct is to ignore eleven years’ worth of consistent characterization to jump to the worst interpretation possible? Let’s go over this sentences and reconstruct what they mean.

“Eren, thank you. You became a mass murdere for our sake. I won’t let this error go to waste”. Armin recognizes that Eren had no other choice, but does not condone it. He clearly calls it an error, which feels like an euphemism but for all we know the japanese original term used could’ve been harsher. Point is, he clearly states he think what Eren did was wrong. But he recognizes that Eren’s awful doing opened up a path for Paradis to break out of the cycle of hatred. Not a certainty, but an opportunity. He thanks Eren for giving them this chance, and promises not to waste it, even if it was born out of an atrocity. He thanks Eren for sacrificing himself for their sake, even if he doesn’t agree with the fruit of his labor, so to speak. He’s thanking Eren for the opportunity that his actions gave them, not for the actions themselves! Where the hell do you read “thank you for the genocide” guys, sheesh. I’m mad at y’all.

“How could Eren send MIkasa memories if she’s an Ackerman and an Asian, and their memories can’t be manipulated by the Founder? I call plothole!”

Now, here we’re going into speculation territory, so you’ve been warned. I don’t think that that information they gave us was true, about Ackermans being immune to memory manipulation. We know at least that the clan is in some way subject to the Founder’s power, or Mikasa and Levi wouldn’t have been called in the Paths by Eren multiple times. Stories never being entirely true or false, or relativity, better said, has been a strong theme in the story, we know this by Marley’s and Eldia’s different accounts of history compared to the actual Ymir backstory we got. So who’s to say that the belief that Ackermans aren’t manipulable is the truth? Maybe they’re just hard to control, not impossible. We know that by the Founder’s ability Eren experienced past and future happening simultaneously, so he could’ve very well been trying to send those memories into Mikasa’s head ever since the beginning of the story, only just succeeding in chapter 138. It would at least explain Ackerman’s headaches as Eren trying to manipulate their memories and failing. Of course, we’d need Levi side of thing to know for certain, as he had headaches too and we weren’t shown in the chapter if Eren spoke to him in paths like he did with the rest of the squad. We know he didn’t talk to Pieck, but he even went and spoke to Annie who he basically hadn’t seen since Stohess, so I hope he spoke to Levi too. Who knows, maybe he even spoke with Hanji, but she died before she could remember. I wish we were shown that, honestly, I’m sad that it was skipped, especially after Levi said in an earlier chapter that “there was so much he wanted to tell Eren”. Fingers crossed for the anime to expand on it.

“So Historia’s pregnancy was useless”

What? No, it wasn’t useless! Eren told her to get pregnant to save her life, so that she wouldn’t be turned into the Beast Titan. If she became the Beast Titan, then Eren would’ve had to enact the plan with her instead of Zeke, and yeah, Ymir brought the power of the titans with her, so theoretically Titan Shifter Historia would’ve had her time limit removed, but we saw that the only way for the Alliance to stop the Rumbling was killing Zeke, so Historia would’ve had to die. Useless to say, when Eren talked to her about his plan, she was very vocally against it, so I don’t think she would’ve helped Eren with his plan. It was Zeke or nothing, and the only way for Zeke to keep his titan was for Historia to be unable to be turned, hence the pregnancy. Did y’all read the same thing I read? Anyways, she could’ve definitely been handled better, but she wasn’t necessary to the plot anymore, and her being removed from it in such a way was sad, yes, but it made sense.

“They massacred Reiner!”

Yeah, can’t really say anything about this. I definitely understand the sentiment behind this scene, which I appreciate. It’s to show that thanks to his Titan being removed and the times of peace approaching, Reiner was finally able to shed the weight he bore on his shoulders and “regress” to his more carefree persona he had when he thought he was a soldier, instead of a warrior. I am very happy for him, and I think it’s a nice conclusion to his arc, that he’s finally happy, but it could’ve been portrayed in a less comic relief-y way. It just sledgehammers all his characterization. Feels surreal that we saw him attempt suicide a couple month ago in the anime and now he’s sniffing Historia’s handwriting.

Guys, this absolutely sends me. There are people who unironically believe Eren actually reincarnated in a bird? Guys. It makes no sense, it violates every rule that Isayama established for his universe’s power system. How could he even reincarnate in a bird? Guys, c’mon, this is symbolical! Birds have been heavily used in aot to portray freedom, and this is a nice, poetic, symbolic way to show that Eren who lived his whole life chasing freedom and never actually got it, is finally free, like a bird, now that he’s dead. It’s also a pretty explicit nod to Odin, I think. Aot is heavily inspired by Norse Mithology, and I think there were some pretty clear parallels between Eren and Odin/Loki in the later arcs of the story. Eren has been shown to “communicate” through birds like with Falco in chapter 81, or with Armin in chapter 131. Emphasis on “communicate” because again, this is symbolic, I don’t think he actually spoke through the birds, he simply talked to them via paths, but birds are associated with Eren’s character (see also the wings of freedom, y’know?) and the shots were framed so to give the impression that he was talking through the birds, but he wasn’t. Symbolism. Anyway, I really think they were supposed to be a nod to Odin’s crows.

Aaaaand that should be it! Even though I most definitely forgot some other criticism on the chapter, it’s crazy the amount of negativity floating around. Hope I didn’t bore you!