#which is like. honestly kinda realistic for a human person tbh

[flashhwing]

sometimes making an OC is just. throwing a bunch of different events and traits at a character outline to see what happens. and sometimes what happens is devastating

[lostcauses-noregrets]

Do you think Levi's ending is a happy ending?Personally i'm not sure tbh, we saw him being really close with Gabi and Falco which is very sweet, It's good to know they're taking care of him . But honestly I still wonder how the rest of his life will look like? I wish we would see more of how he's dealing with grief in this new world where he doesn't have to fight anymore, like obviously he's still helping people as we saw so he still has something to keep him going, but still.

Anonymous asked:

I think what bothers me about the new ending (for Levi) is that isayama kinda portrayed things only in a happy and hopeful light, like he didn't show us any bad days in Levi's new life so it feels kind of unrealistic? Idk how to describe it, but I liked the manga ending more in regards to that I think. Like I want Levi to be happy but it's just hard to imagine after everything that happened, after losing Erwin and everything the manga and Isayama told us how he felt after losing him.

I hope you don't mind me answering these asks together, because they're both quite similar.

For a long time I was really ambivalent about the idea of Levi surviving and living on after he'd lost everyone he cared about and who cared for him, but I'm actually really happy with the way Isayama ended Levi's arc. I'm glad he found a new family with Gabi, Falco and Onyankopon, but I don't believe for one minute that he ever forgot Erwin, or Hanji, or any of the other people he lost. If there's one thing we know about Levi, it's that he is loyal to a fault and that he never forgets.

I'm not sure I agree that Isayama only portrayed Levi's ending in a happy and hopeful light, especially when you look at the way he changed the ending multiple times. The original manga ending, which showed Levi sightseeing with Gabi, Falco and Onyankopon was very cute but it always struck me as being rather incongruous considering the devastation the Rumbling caused. I thought the anime ending was much more realistic where we saw Levi and his found family in a refugee camp with the remnants of humanity that survived the slaughter. And although the setting of Bad Boy is hopeful, with Levi and the others working together to plant trees and restore the environment, there can be no doubt that it must have been back breaking work. Also the story that Levi shares with Gabi and Falco clearly shows that he hasn't entirely escaped the trauma of his past.

I agree that it would have been really moving if Isayama had explored the impact of trauma and grief on Levi's later life, however given that he made it clear he was done with the series, I'm not surprised he didn't want to go there. Thankfully there are plenty of fic writers who are more than willing to explore these themes. The Permanence of the Young Men and A Good Man are my attempts to acknowledge Levi's grief and sacrifice, and his remembrance of Erwin, while still doing justice to his life with Gabi and Falco (I hope). There are many others too; there are 129 Eruri fics on AO3 tagged post-canon that you can explore.

[cannibalisticdespair]

🔥the casts of dr 1 and dr 2🔥

I love both sets, but tbh I prefer DR1. Literally the only way I can phrase my issue with SDR2 is that it's too anime. And yeah, some of that is because of the VR, but like, not remotely all of it. Like, you get what I mean, right? DR1 has some wacky nonsense, but it's a lot more grounded in general. It's wackier and sillier than Distrust was, but the dark horror of Distrust still is felt. It's claustrophobic. You can easily understand why everyone would want to get out without needing Komaeda there to make it worse for everyone and there being a giant bomb. Like, DR1 feels like a Fallout Vault, because that is literally what it is honestly. Door and everything.

SDR2, everyone is dialed up to eleven. Genocider feels out of place in DR1, which is the intent. Would she in SDR2? No. And it's not SDR2's fault that their reactions to some of it don't hit the same way for the viewers. It's the genre conventions. Yeah, they're like "holy shit what the fuck" about the giant robots, but for your average weeb, giant robots are a day ending in Y. It's not a human-level threat, it's an anime threat. Big ticking bomb in the middle of everything doesn't quite create the same atmosphere as a naturally psychologically destructive environment. Like, if you removed the giant bomb and killer robots and Komaeda, nobody would want to escape enough to ever kill anyone.

DR1? Yeah, they'd have turned to murder with just the memory wipe, no Monokuma even needed. Lock 15 strangers in a well-equipped and nice to live in Vault with no idea how they got there and no idea what's going on and they're gonna turn to murder from the sheer stress of it eventually. What makes it bearable is the knowledge that it's worse outside. Remove that and grant the hope of escape and the sheer despair of not having any hope of achieving that hope is enough to break most people.

Also there's the factor of how Junko plays the game. In DR1, she's just pushing their natural impulses and they're falling into their own darkness. SDR2? Fuckin despair plague. Trick house. Real Junko doesn't cheat like that. AI Junko cheats. Remember, Despair Disease inverts the personality of those it infects. That's also relevant for Komaeda discussion. I mentioned the NIS America stuff earlier. Now, if he's saying the exact opposite of what he means, Bizarro style, what does it mean when he expresses deep, strong hatred of Hajime? The exact opposite.

But then, it's just cheating to force Mikan to kill. Because it's so outside her nature, truly the exact opposite of who she is. And then the trick house. "I'll kill you all if someone doesn't kill someone!" Real Junko never resorted to such pathetic, underhanded shit. It's blackmail to force someone to kill. The killer and victim are equally heroic for it. It's not them falling to their own moral issues, it's them being so moral that they're both willing to sacrifice themselves to save everyone, while also being such madlads that they go "hey, that means we can have an all-out fight to the death!" Which, again, so anime.

Like, Sakura in DR1, her entire talent is physical combat. The only use of her talent is being a human wrecking ball and fighting Monokuma. The only actual fight in DR1 is just Sakura fighting Monokuma. An entire trial of SDR2 is framed around who was the winner of the shonen battle.

Because of all that, I just find myself liking the DR1 cast more in general. They're more grounded and human. Like, even knowing Gundham is supposed to be a chuuni, he fails to come off as one. The vibe is such that such a person doesn't feel out of place, and he just constantly is selling it. It's kinda pro wrestling, in a good way. Like, realistically you know The Undertaker and Kane aren't undead, one a zombie who once was brainwashed by his step-dad who raised him from the dead but killed him and took his freedom and the other his brother who killed him and became basically Jason Voorhees, but like, they sell it.

You can believe it, because both of them give the vibes. And yes, I know they're both pieces of shit irl, that has already been ruined for me. Gundham's like that. And then in his execution you just have the waters muddied further. Was that just because of the NWP? Or is he fuckin legit about his magic powers and it just applies here? Because like, he certainly didn't seem remotely surprised. He knew it would work. Someone might go "oh come on of course it's the NWP", but y'all, Komaeda's right fuckin there with his magic powers. Komaru's over in Towa City with her magic powers along with her superpowered retired psychosexual serial killer gf. There's too many magic powers in this franchise now to discount magic powers.

And yes, Genocider displays her superpowers in DR1. She's immune to explosions, remember? But again, that feels out of place. She feels out of place. None of the magic powers in SDR2 feel out of place. Everyone's much larger than life in SDR2. In DR1, that's their initial impression, but then that facade is torn away and they're just people. The talents themselves are also less intense. Sakura and Genocider are the most over the top, and I've discussed them both. The rest? An extremely skilled detective? A nepobaby? A biker gang leader? A gambler/con artist? A doujin artist? Baseball? Heck, not all of them are even weird for their age. Leon, Aoi, and Kiyotaka are just "yeah, that makes sense". Mondo's a bit impressive for that at his age, but not that impressive. Street gangs are youth culture. But like, high school sports? Duh. Literally just the biggest kissass in the nation? Okay, makes sense. Olympic swimmer? Yeah, a massive amount of Olympians are teenagers.

And like, the Aoi/Akane contrast. Both of them are Zero Escape references, sharing the names of a brother and sister duo from that series. Both of them are Olympians. Both have a habit of nudity in public (Aoi mentions liking to stand on the balcony naked and feel the fresh air). Both are darker skinned than the rest of the cast. Neither have sports that should be useful to their present situations. But Akane? One of the best fighters in SDR2. And that's just like... weird? Gymnast-muscular and fighter-muscular are two different builds.

Her backstory makes perfect sense for how she's like this, yes. But like... not her sport. Why's she a gymnast? Frankly, Volleyball Player would have actually made a hell of a lot more sense. That's an Olympic sport, and her build being akin to what Mukuro would logically have (stats be damned) would fit perfectly. Her being a gymnast once again hits the dissonance button. I'm sure there's other examples, but gymnast is an odd one. The main connection gymnastics has to being a great fighter is that both require extremely high bodily kinesthetic intelligence. I have no problem with anything regarding Akane here except that they chose gymnast for the sport she does. It doesn't even ever make it's way to being relevant, it could have been different with no impact on anything except making sense.

But I've gone on for so fucking long here, so let's call it now. Point is, I appreciate the tense and more down to earth atmosphere of everything, including the cast, of DR1 more. It just sets a much stronger horror-suspense vibe that I feel SDR2 doesn't have as much because of the anime vibe.

[maristellarium]

(thinking about ishmael becoming playable in whats looking to be the next patch (or Some soon upcoming patch lmao) is making me thonk on yully again, mainly the premise for her actually being in the p.gr universe

because yully isn't strictly a p.gr oc - she's my oc from one of my personal original projects lol.)

(in her original setting, set somewhere in the near-distant future - earth's surface was ravaged by a biochemical weapon of war, resulting in everyone fleeing to floating cities or mountaintops. several thousand years have passed since that event, leading to a futuristic society that has been trying to remain connected and flourish among what remains of humanity.

which isn't really super duper important to the setting besides just indicating its in the distant future and shit is super futuristic by our standards lmao

the Real deal abt the setting is that cosmic, angel-coded higher beings (and those in-between) exist - and a couple of them have banded together to create a little pocket dimension, where a select few from earth are invited to access and are given the freedom and space to explore their life choices, ambitions and capabilities. this is done with the hopes that whatever people do and learn within this pocket dimension will be a positive development on their actual lives outside of this dimension.

this pocket dimension looks and feels a lot like a VR MMO honestly, as per the setting's standards of those things - aka very realistic immersions of a recreated fantasy environment, where you can choose how you look and even use magical powers and stuff + fancy-cringe gamer ui interfaces LMAO

.

so like, ive purposefully kept all That really vague and even mixing in p.gr lore like some sort of grafting patch when writing up yully's backstory profile, because 1) her original setting is all completely fandomless baseless bs in a way lol 2) THIS PROJECT DOESNT HAVE ANY OFFICIAL MEDIA, IT'S HALF IN MY HEAD HALF CONCEPT WORK ELSEWHERE SCYGCSYUGCYUCS it's less real than real lmaoooooo

yet here i am dragging my sweet oc from a media project that only exists in my head into a whole other media story. lmao

anyway with all that context rambling done, the Real-Real deal with my current yully thonks is that........................ since she technically comes from a universe/timeline/parallel dimension/etc that also has cosmic higher beings along the lines of ishmael............

and considering the state of the story in CN, and what ishmael's presence there even means........

like, lmao. actually i have more than one type of thonk about all this and it's kinda gettimg jumbled in my own head now lol

but i guess, to put it in an unsorted list:

as per my own notes, yully's original world gets terminated bc it doesn't meet higher cosmic standards - and in consideration of what her original setting has, this termination would occur contrary to what a selection of some other higher beings want (who support and are supporting the few human lives they're watching over)

ive had a sticky note somewhere that maybe yully getting transferred to the p.gr setting wasn't luck or coincidence or me handwaving it to just be so, that someone or something may have had a hand in it - it's a sticky note because i haven't committed to that idea, but i still am thinking on it................................

another sticky note that i have - and have been waiting to do more story first for ishamel crumbs tbh - is that ishmael might actually know yully isn't really "native" to this world, and may even know the original circumstances that brought her here. it intrigues me to consider this lmao

a newer thonk ive had now - though might be debunked based on what ishmael decides to do in the upcoming story - is that ishmael sorta has similar sentiments to the cosmic beings from yully's original setting i.e. a higher being who sincerely wants to see human potential and growth, and rather than sitting back and watching humanity like they're in a petri dish, she's personally engaging and directly interfering in matters, regardless of if that's per the rules or not.

also more fun thonkies ive had is that yully's supposed capability to withstand the punishing virus better than most (as per how the story itself writes it anyway) is bc she doesn't "naturally belong" - like how the virus would be considered an alien concept as per regular laws of science, yully might be mundanely human but she's a human alien to this universe/timeline/dimension/whatever; an outsider. but this particular thonk is like a "man idk Shrugs" thonk so it's also A Sticky Note for now

that's all the ishmael-relevant-adjacent thonks!!!!

basically tl;dr yully being v much an AU version here means at some point ishmael might want to sit down for a cup of tea with her. maybe. possibly. very concerningly.

.

i also have some unrelated side notes that i want to just drop here now bc im in a rambling mood, please feel free to ignore lmao

yully likes paper parasols bc that was literally her weapon of choice whenever was in the pocket dimension in her original setting lol. she had a modified one that was like a magic staff + bazooka combo lol

while the pocket dimension looked and acted a lot like some funny virtual reality multiplayer game - and honestly, a lot of people tended to treat it in that vein - the fact that it's literally a pocket dimension, which is itself being managed by higher powers that can manipulate the laws of physics and such, meant it was all still very real; the fact that "angels" with halos and wings and all exist, the fact that the residents can all use "magic" - magic which is really just the manipulation of physics as aided by the cosmic beings' automated systems

(and yes, yully very much used said "magic" and was very good at it too; her magic was light-based aka photon and energy manipulation lmao. and bc yully was yully, she got too fucking technical with it and basically invented a fusion reactor in her inventory. but thats a story for another day and another media project altogether lol)

[Celebration] is the name of her gamer raid group aka Her Bestest Fwiends <3 that she might literally kill for at this point

she's such a good strategist now bc she was literally her gamer group's raid coordinator and strategist lmao

[pink-strawberry-kissess]

So completely unrelated to the 1920s AU I felt like discussing a plot bunny I have for Aeon since I honestly don't have many mutual who even know RE let alone the video game canon lol.

One of my favorite movies of all time is The Long Kiss Goodnight and I think Ada fits perfectly as Samantha/Charlie. It's about a woman who woke up in a hospital pregnant with no memory of her life before. Her life before was as a spy for the CIA so her identity as far as she knows for 8 years is that of one of her covers as a suburban mom. Until one of her old enemies attacks her and she hires a private investigator to find out who she was. Honestly I think Luis would be perfect for that and it would be a fun Ada and Luis adventure, but here's where the Aeon comes in.

So sprinkle in a little Sarah from Orphan Black, Ada doesn't work for the CIA she works for herself as a mercenary and fell for one of her marks, Leon because he was so genuine and he's the father of her baby. In the movie Charlie struggles with her desire for wanting the suburban mom life but also not loosing herself as the badass spy and ultimately finds the balance and realizes she can be both versions of herself which i think is the reason why she had amnesia. Much like people with DID the mind creates another person to cope. Anyway I feel like that resonates with Ada so much in that she wants both but can't see how that's possible.

Anyway, sorry for the long message I just really needed to tell someone this idea brewing in my head and know of no one else who would care.

THAT'S OKAY I LOVE TALKING TO PEOPLE HEEHHEHE

i've never watched! i'll have to add it to my list!

i love mixing various character traits with others in re because i think we all kinda objectively agree that the characterization for re has been okay at best, and extremely poor at the worst lol. we got SOME that are nice and interesting, but so much of it is sidelined imo

we got a lot of leon's characterization but i would kILL for more ada

i just think ada's such an interesting character. she's flawed, but in the way that's realistic (for her circumstances) and redeemable imo. i just don't think characters (even like leon) seem real. most of the re characters feel like caricatures of people and archetypes that are written in to fill the roles required for a story.

i'd argue that jill should have really been explored more in death island and leon shouldn't have even been there. he was only there because his face on his face. like LEGIT why did he have to be there. because they wanted a big marvel meet up showdown lol

i wanna know more about ada! her motivations her desires. she really feels like she has the most potential to be more fleshed out and explored than most. and i just love the idea of her struggle with her own self image and self reflection because of the life she's lived.

i think it's clear that she probably has some sort of ptsd (similar to leon, and the others tbh although i argue leon shows it the most)(and this is one of my biggest complaints that the other characters (usually the morally good ones) aren't shown to have any sort of reaction of the horrors they see. (it makes them feel less human and just like cardboard cutouts of people)

anyways yeah i rambled sjbfsjsdfs

[cheesydelphox]

Ummm... Hi.

So on Fairy Tail: what are your thoughts on the dragon slayers? Not anything in specific. Can be the ogs and the completely bonkers time travel shenanigans, second gen and how in the world that technology popped up and for how long, whatever you want to share.

Umm...feel free to ask my on my head canons too.

I LOVE thinking about dragon slayers. They're fascinating to me. Specifically the concept of the motion sickness being a dragon slayer thing. Here's how I like to think of it;

The dragon slayers all have some sort of animalistic vibe to them, some less, some more. But the fact that they're essentially dragons in human bodies makes it funky when they come across something that a dragon wouldn't normally interact with, like a moving vehicle. My theory is that their human brains and their dragon bodies get mixed up, their human brains know that vehicles are normal and safe, while their dragon bodies are confused and scared as to why the ground is moving underneath them. The same happens to my dog in the car, but he doesn't know what a car is.

Individual dragon slayers? I have thoughts on them.

Natsu- He's actually my least favorite of the slayers, which is a controversial opinion. Not to say I don't like Natsu, I just like all of the others more than him. My favorite running gag that involves him is the one where he goes all "NINJA," it's really silly. I wish we got to see him playing straight man more, I'm kind of tired of Natsu being the butt of the joke all the time. (i also think lucy can do a bit better but that's a conversation for another day)

Gajeel- I like Gajeel a lot, and I really like his relationship with Levy, it feels the most realistic out of all the Big 4 ships. Gajeel feels the most like a normal person out of all the dragon slayers to me. He's an adult that has his shit together and I find that FASCINATING in the context of the FT series because there's not many characters that check the boxes of "adult" and "consistently has their shit together" when it comes down to it.

Wendy- I honestly have no feelings on Wendy. She's nice, but I don't spend a lot of time thinking about her. One thing I love though is how close she is with Erza. A lot of people make the mother-daughter relationship comparison with them, but to me they seem more like sisters. I would also like to say on the record that Carla is my second favorite Exceed. Don't get why so many people hate Carla.

Laxus- Second favorite slayer. I LOVE Laxus so much. His characterization in 100YQ feels like "Erza and Lucy's older brother" which is something I really appreciate. I wish we got to see him interact with the Thunder Legion in a way that wasn't him "protecting or avenging them" Because the Thunder Legion is STRONG and I wish Laxus talked about his cool strong hot friends more. Also like... we don't get a ton of them interacting as friends. Like, for example, Freed and Bix starting a stupid arguement over nothing and Laxus being confused as to why the hell they're arguing. Or Evergreen having some sort of relationship issues and Laxus being lost as to what to do. That kind of thing. We don't get that enough. Also I just think Laxus is kinda sexy and cool and I Like him a lot. One thing I see a lot in regards to Laxus is how the lacrima was inserted. People think the eye scar is from the lacrima insertion but I just don't agree. When he was fighting Kirin, the lacrima came from his chest. How did it end up there if it was inserted via the eye. I think the dragon slayer just eat the lacrima tbh. It makes more sense because they eat all other forms of magic power. Also a lot less disturbing to think about than "intrusive surgery on a child"

Sting- I've never been like an avid Sting fan, and the more I think about him, the more I'm confused. What defines "light" magic? How do his innate dragon slayer magic ability and the lacrima interact? Do they magnify his power or just make it easier to access? Many questions. I feel like if Sting was given more time in 100YQ he could become one of the stronger slayers. There's light everywhere and if he eats light to gain magic power, that's just like unlimited magic power. Right???? Another thing I find interesting is how he handled Lector's "death." His reaction wasn't as drastic as Future Rogues's reaction to Frosch's death. If anything, the Sabertooth master (i forget his name ooops) had it coming. Everything points to him being abusive and cruel to his guild in the past. I don't blame Sting for snapping. side note. nothing about Sting indicates that he's anything other than bisexual.

Rogue- I never found Rogue to be particularly interesting up until a few weeks ago, when I realized that out of the Twin Dragons, he's actually the weird one. Like I said, Sting didn't have an abhorrent world ending reaction to his exceed "dying." Rogue did. The boy's a ticking time bomb. The moment something goes wrong, BOOM. He's summoning a dragon army to destroy the world. Unstable as all hell. Rogue's a softie at heart though, and I've come to appreciate his bond with Frosch and hold it near and dear.

Cobra- My favorite of the slayers. There's just something about this strange gender ambiguous anti-hero snake person that fascinates me. I didn't think about her much on my first watch though the series in like 2020 but once I started getting back into it this fall I realized "holy shit I LOVE the Snake She/He/They." I already posted about how I identify with Cobra a lot but I'll say it again. Auditory sensory issues? Check. Kind of an outcast? Check. Affinity/overall association with animals? Check. There's more I could add to the list of course, but those are the main things. I really like how his relationship with Kinana was almost like an easter egg, a treat for people who watched the Key to the Starry Heavens arc. Doesn't impact anything at all story wise, but it's a nice little thing that I can hold on to. I have a feeling that Cobra is gonna show up in the next few arcs in 100YQ along with Sting and Rogue, since it's a very dragon-focused series. In an ideal world, they would have some sort of petty banter with Mest. I just think they would be good friends in a "this is my idiot" way. You get to decide who's the idiot.

So yeah. Long post but it's fun to write these. If you read all the way through, good job! You get a cookie. 🍪

[thelostsisters]

okay some thoughts about henry creel in st4 volume 2 that i want to talk about

ok so first of all i’m so glad vecna isn’t dead bc well obviously the henry stan in me wants more of him but also the thought of el defeating him all by herself with just telekinesis alone is kinda lame tbh. basically we’re not resting until we get our Will Has Powers plotline

anyways onto the deeper stuff bc there’s a lot of little things i noticed that i thought could be used in defeating him. this is going to be super jumbled and all over the place so just try and stay with me okay 😅

both in his 4x07 monologue and in 4x09 when el tries to stop vecna by kind of sympathizing with him, henry refuses to admit to himself that brenner has had an effect on him. he claims that he’s always had the mindset he does, that brenner didn’t turn him into a monster at all (though i gotta hand it to him, him calling brenner mediocre was funny as hell 💀). and yet this is the exact opposite of what jamie bower insists about his character; he’s said in multiple interviews that the main reason henry is so fucked up is because of brenner. and honestly? that’s believable, bc that man was an abusive monster and henry, despite the horrible things he did as a child, was just that—a child when he was taken in by brenner. to say that being raised/abused by that man had no effect on him whatsoever is just not realistic by any means

but perhaps this is a weakness of his; he hates to admit to what happened to him. he hates dr. brenner, hates the shit he put him through, but admitting to being a victim is something he struggles tremendously with doing. he wants to be powerful, he wants to be in control. and having been a victim implies that there was a time when he had neither of those things, and he doesn’t want to admit to that, so he rejects the idea at every chance he gets

speaking of brenner, can we talk about the line el said to him about him using her to search for henry all those years after the massecre (side note i kind of predicted that in my head and i was so excited when i ended up being right lol). she said to him something along the lines of “you could not stop; you couldn’t let him go.” we see how brenner fought until his death to keep el with him; he wanted her in his possession, and he couldn’t give her up even when it put his life at risk. i think it was the same for henry. he felt he was still out there, and he wanted him all for himself. think about lt. sullivan’s line about everything that’s happened in hawkins “can be traced back to brenner’s little pet.” we know he was taking about el, but from a narrative perspective it serves a double meaning, because henry, brenner’s first test subject (of the number kids series, not mk-ultra obviously) was the cause of everything. i think he wanted el to find henry not to stop him (because prior to her opening the main gate, he wasn’t posing any actual threat to their dimension) but because he wanted to take him back and use him as a weapon. he viewed henry as his property, and he couldn’t stand the thought of letting this person that he’d objectified so intensely go. it’s why he kept him at the lab, as el says, despite the threat he posed to the other children. brenner saw him as his, and he refused to give him up, even when he’d been banished to another dimension for fucks sake

also i noticed that el referee to henry as “one” or “vecna” when she was talking to her friends, but always called him “henry” to brenner. idk if that was on purpose but it felt meaningful, like she was refusing to give him the comfort of viewing this human being as a weapon or an object, forcing him to call him by a human name. though of course brenner viewed henry as a weapon regardless of what he called him, as one was mostly just the name used to refer to him in past tense once the other kids were brought in. but still i thought it was a nice touch

and despite how el didn’t talk like she sympathized with henry in her argument with brenner (which is valid btw), she still thought back on him being electrocuted when she thought about brenner being a monster. bc regardless of the things he’s done to her and her siblings, brenner was still using inhumane torture methods on him and she still saw that as wrong. she also quoted him, “papa doesn’t always tell the truth,” bc him manipulating her doesn’t make the statement any less true. idk i just thought that was interesting and showed el���s empathetic nature

ok so back to Shit That Could Be Used Against One… did anyone else notice when max first got vecna’d in 4x09 when lucas started talking how he said to her “normal people don’t fantasize about killing people”? max never claimed she wanted to kill billy herself, and of course he was preying on her guilt by exaggerating things, but it made me think about henry because not being “normal”? fantasizing about killing people? that perfect describes him. and to me it sounds like he’s projecting that onto max.

we know vecna uses people’s guilts against them; projecting insecurities onto others implies that those insecurities still exist. it’s a long shot, yeah, but i think it could be worth a try to attempt to use vecna’s own techniques against him. we already saw el using the same telekinetic moves against vecna that he used against her the day of the massacre. maybe now it’s time to go further, to use his psychological moves against him too. (this ties in perfectly with kali making a comeback bc hello? illusions??? no one can fight back against vecna’s illusion powers but her and that would give them a HUGE one up)

ok some less major stuff now… the whole thing with henry creating the mind flayer based on his childhood drawing was such an amazing will parallel i was SO hype when i saw that. also dude is literally trying to take over the world but is using his childhood fantasy creatures to do it. vecna what are you going to do if i call you a little baby? what are you going to do then bitch

this shot ate though

finally one complaint i had was the fact that they just made el recognize vecna immediately? like i get she probably just put two and two together but i wish it was a bigger deal, like her seeing his tattoo or something. bc she’d never actually seen him as vecna before so i wish they’d kind of acknowledged that better. still though that first encounter with her lifting him in the air like he had with her and just going “hi” before throwing him into the bleachers was amazing though lol

i hope this isn’t too all over the place even though it most definitely is. i just have a LOT of thoughts okay??

[ofdetonation]

@cheribomb​  inquired :      Are you happy with how your favorite canon muse was portrayed in canon?    /    What are the trends when it comes to writing that you adore?      ╱      questions  for  the  mun.

Are you happy with how your favorite canon muse was portrayed in canon?

Honestly?  Yeah, I’m pretty satisfied!  I think that a lot of people are generally unsure about Katsuki’s progress in the manga and whether or not it has been good progress, but Horikoshi wrote him as an amazing foil to Izuku’s character...  And in the end, he’s not really that, you know?  He’s really become more of his own, and there’s also the fact that he and Izuku actually share many similarities anyway.  Katsuki has always been the secondary protagonist to this story, or the deuteragonist is the correct term, and his own character development has been so well paced out that I feel like people...  Really underappreciate it.

Like, I get it.  He’s unlikeable at best in the beginning.  Even I was pretty unsure of this gremlin when I first began the series, but it didn’t take long for him to grow on me because I knew WELL before I ever got to the kidnapping that there was more to him than what we were seeing.  But he was written that way!  He was written so people would sit back and come up with predetermined views so Horikoshi could shatter them with genuine development.

His biggest moments have been in the more recent chapters, and I’m convinced that Horikoshi isn’t done with him just yet, either.  Katsuki has evolved in such a 3D, realistic way, he’s been shown to be one of the most human characters of the show, and HE’S BARELY 17 IN THE MANGA TOO LIKE...  He’s.  A literal kid.  And not only has he rapidly evolved into an ultimately better person in the span of a year, but he’s also apologised to the one person he hurt the most, not expecting for it to fix anything which implies he’s willing to put in more work for it  -  I just!  Katsuki truly amazes me!!  He matured so rapidly in such a short span of time!!!

I really haven’t found much to combat Horikoshi on in canon.  This is why I write so closely to canon tbh  -  I really think that canon Katsuki is just a literary masterpiece.

What are the trends when it comes to writing that you adore?

Oof, this is going to be a MUCH shorter answer, because honestly...  I don’t really have any?  At least, I don’t think so.  If I see something I can read well, and I like the flow of the writing, then the trends around writing are kinda irrelevant to me.

Basically:  Trends are irrelevant.  Good writing is forever.

[skunked-up-kicks]

About Allison yeah. I think people acknowledge she’s a bit ableist and classist but they erase the fact she was fine/complicit with Seth’s homophobia and treatment of Nicky (tbh it seems like all the upperclassmen were??) + what that post said. This isn’t hate I love Allison! But I think she’s much more interesting as a character with flaws that make sense with her upbringing and backstory rather than just #girlboss.

okay my response to this is ungodly long so, if you're interested...

1. her ableism

the thing is when people do acknowledge her ableism it's always with how she treats andrew (which makes sense cause it's the most obvious, and they're not wrong) but it kinda results in an issue. the way these fics that acknowledge this usually go is that allison calls andrew 'monster' and maybe talks about how he's 'psychotic' or something. then it goes one of few ways:

1) neil tells her (and usually all the upperclassmen as they get grouped together seeing as they all do this) not to speak about andrew like that, maybe he threatens her or something. the problem with this is that he's just scaring her into being silent, her mindset doesn't actually change.

2) neil gives a speech about how andrew is actually good, and generally how he's 'not as bad as she thinks' or something. now correct me if i'm wrong, but the issue i see with this is that, it's not actually telling her that her mindset about people with mental illnesses and/or trauma is wrong- just that andrew isn't the right person to direct her ableism too, but there are people out there who are 'as bad as she thinks'. it's kinda like the attitude that as long as andrew does enough to redeem himself he can be treated as human and not a 'monster' which is... yeah.

3) basically the same issue as the last one, andrew proves he's actually good because allison and the others see him do something outwardly affectionate. thereby proving he is actually all good now.

sometimes fics have a mix of these but basically the thing is that her ableism is never actually 'fixed' (for lack of a better word). most that happens is that it's no longer directed at andrew, but this is a worldview that she has, it's not just a dislike of andrew- realistically it's not just isolated to him.

to clarify though, i'm genuinely not intending to shame people who write these fics cause they are acknowledging her ableism, which is good. and similar with how people approach aarons homophobia, it's incredibly hard to write someone overcoming a prejudice. i certainly couldn't do it, and realistically maybe it's not somethìng that can be done in a fic. given that often it's a long-term process where you have to check yourself often.

it's especially complicated because she somehow needs to come to the realization that villifying andrew isn't right because despite the wrong that he has done- and he has done wrong, we can't deny that- he is still a person deserving of at least the deceny to not be compared to a monster and dehumanised in that way. she needs to realise that while andrew shouldn't do those things and can be called out for it, that the way he acts is a product of his trauma. BUT he is still responsible for his actions, and while she can rightfully choose to not associate with andrew, she shouldn't discourage others from doing so in the way that she does. it really is complicated and there's a lot of nuance there which makes it a hard topic to deal with cause... how do you write someone learning that?

but yeah, that's my thoughts on that.

2. her classism

i honestly don't see people acknowledge this a lot? i think one of the ways we see it manifest is how she talks about the way neil dresses... and in fics she often insists neil buys better clothes, usually more expensive ones. which is portrayed usually as her being a caring friend, which i get, but i think neil would actually find this really annoying lol.

i think an interesting way to look at her classism would be in her and dans relationship given the extreme differences they grew up. same thing with her relationship with seth, as he grew up poor too.

with seth, she might have sometimes been ashamed of the way he acted and dressed, maybe of the way he spoke too...? i can picture them fighting over that and her being a bitch about it. she would probably speak badly about the place seth grew up in too..

with dan, i feel like dan might get frustrated when allison, for example, doesn't know how much ordinary things cost (a thing a lot of celebs have shown to have no knowledge of). or dan might even get jealous or angry at the way allison can just throw away her moneyvand buy things carelessly (think of her reaction when her car got trashed, she could just get another 'toy'), while she was brought up saving money at any instance she could.

not much to say on this tbh... i think it would be cool to see this explored a bit more though.

3. complicit in homophobia

someone made a post on here about how allison would be the type of girl to preach equality while having a homophobic boyfriend... and yeah.. that's it really lol, hit the nail on the head.

again, a lot of people make her very progressive and woke, and i think this is tied to the very common hc of her being bi. (despite the fact that when betting on neils sexuality she doesn't consider bi an option which makes me think she is canonically straight..). i think it's hard for people to address the fact that she is complicit in homophobia while also headcanonning her as bi, cause it seems like she wouldn't be if she actually was bi. from my knowledge, bi women (and bi ppl in general) not being supportive of gay people and/or not standing up against homophobia isn't really a common issue? (pls correct me if i am wrong though) usually prejudice goes the other way due to the biphobia in the LGBTQ+ community. so it's hard to think about and write about.

when it comes to the other upperclassmen, i seem to remember dan and matt standing up against seth? though i could be remembering that wrong or getting it confused with a fic.

4. #girlboss

i highly agree with you that she really does just get reduced to just a #girlboss a LOT. and i think the same thing happens with the other female characters... i mean, just look at katelyn. there's no evidence that she is some kind of badass but many want to make her one.. but she can be an interesting character without having to fit this ideal #girlboss.

i understand wanting to make female characters cool and badass but in the process it feels like we're losing variety... i personally don't want the exact same personality and way of acting plastered onto every female character.

a strong female character is not defined by how much they can kick a guy in the balls but rather how well they are written, and to be written well they need flaws. and when making female characters #girlbosses we usually lose the flaws :(

like you said, this isn't to hate on allison. i just think sometimes we miss the parts of her character that make her truly interesting.. and i think that's a real shame..

anyway, i think that that's all that i had to say lol. if you read up till this point, thank you! and thank you for the ask anon :)

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S5 Ep 20: Yugi’s Senshi Outfit

So I’ve been doing a lot of work, and I haven’t looked at the blog for a hot minute and when I finally checked back in to do these posts I noticed something on my tumblr was just blowing up. I got all excited thinking “oh shoot, Did I draw something right??” and instead, it was a random post I made about the bootspants from season 1. Three years later, resurrected from the grave and covered in...thousands of notes? I don’t understand how this website works.

Anyways, the comments are mostly good, but a little bit wild. A lot of people seem to think I would know what Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is, when I’m an adult who is still watching the first 5 seasons of Yugioh. (I will never have time to watch Jojo,) and then some other people started talking about Actual Card Mechanics that went...completely beyond my comprehension. But then there was one person. One person who said one thing, and brought it all together.

Poots.

The boots that are pants.

Poots.

I can’t believe I looked at all the different combinations, but a Poots never crossed my brain.

It is so perfect, so cathartic, although it took 3 years to get there.

Poots.

Anyways, we’re in S5 and unfortunately not in poots anymore, Yugi is now dressed in a tupperware container from hell and they have wandered into a desert. On cue, Grandpa has an injury, but at least this time it’s not his ass.

You know how there’s artists who do hyper-realistic versions of pokemon monsters with detailed bone structure and muscle anatomy? I dare them to look at this orb and tell me how the hell it has wings. Like go ahead and try and pin a spine down on that thing. I’ll wait.

(read more under the cut)

So Joey decides to sprint down this endless desert with just boundless positivity.

Over the edge of this sand dune is a whole bunch of huts,just random civilization out in the middle of no where.

One girl walks over and it’s a look.

She’s really the only one here who can talk, and she just seems...so incredibly bored to be here. A whole lot of Wednesday Addams energy. She leads them into a hut where an old guy pulls a scroll out of blue fire. As you do.

Again, this arc should have been a video game, because while it’s something to get the player interested if there’s some riddle they have to solve to progress, when you’re watching a TV show, it’s not like I’m the one solving the riddle. The format is honestly one of the downers of this arc, tbh.

It has strong “I played a D+D sesh and made a webcomic out of it vibe” and I know I just called out like half of you, but listen, I will not take it back.

This episode, our gimmick is some asshole is going to be yelling at us from the other end of the map, just shouting in the background for the entirety of the episode like that tangible human skull meme.

Then Wednesday Addams hands over yet another MacGuffin because why not?

Tea can twin it up with Yugi now. Her necklace doesn’t seem haunted, but it’s only a matter of time. (also her necklace looks so freakin terrible, we’ll see it later and I’ll have a lot more to say because wtf it looks like some sort of polly pocket.)

I’m not 100% that the voice that shouts at us from the end of the hall this episode is Mokuba’s voice actress. But I’m 99% positive it is, or Mokuba’s voice is just really that type of vibe.

Stuff happens, and it felt like card duel stuff, so I’m gonna skip over the part where they pulled out their duel monsters one by one, since the fight was pointless anyway because the worms can turn you into stone. So Yugi and Pharaoh decide to have a chat about it because their plan is clearly not working.

This is when Pharaoh has a vivid lucid daydream, which seems like something that would have been more convenient before he ended up turning into stone on the floor of some desert. But, hallucinations never come when they’re convenient on this show. They usually come during card games, tbh.

Imagine with me that you’re dreaming of like...an old ass greek guy who is 99% Alexander the Great. Imagine he tells you to fuse with a sentient paper card that you already carry around in a weird capsule.

Please

For the love of all that is holy

Do not think about what it means to fuse with the Dark Magician.

Dark Magician is...he “exists” but he’s like not even a person. There seem to be whole fleets of dark Magicians, which are all the same guy, just cloned, right? Or maybe they’re a family? Or like...I don’t freakin know. Like they’re all hanging out together in some card dimension so it’d be more like fusing with the guy who dresses like Barney the dinosaur instead of actually Barney. Like he’s more of like a concept than a dude, but apparently you can just introduce him to your...whatever this armor is supposed to be, and Dark Magician turns into a Super Suit.

I want to express my thanks to the Yugioh team for not putting Yami in his underoos. Hell, they didn’t even take off his jacket. I do not know what art directer ok’d this for animation and said ���yeah, this won’t kills us if we animate it.” but that is a hell ton of lines and design right there. Yeah they have 3d, and probably had to 3d that staff...but that doesn’t mean you don’t end up drawing it, in the end--you still have to draw over your 3d. You still have to draw literally everything.

Anyway, when we get to the eye of the storm. The secret to getting there was that you have to fly, which again--3/5 of these guys already have a monster that can fly. We can finally tell the voice at the end of the hall to stop yelling because it’s really bothering all the townspeople, and then move on with the quest.

Everyone else was stone during this. So when they un-petrified they kinda looked over at Yugi and were like “how freakin long was I out???”

But youknow, Yugi’s 2 people, so it’s fine. So long as you don’t get down to the third bastard still sitting around in there.

After this, our NPCs vanish, and the show pushes us directly forward. No time for them to piss off a land turtle or set a bunch of wolves on fire. Just get out of the desert and freakin go.

I’m just so bothered by this random ass huge chunky necklace.

It’s like the size of your freakin fist. And it’s just...a pentagon. Congrats Tea, you have a fake ass plastic necklace. I guess it’s so that when we’re far away we can still see it on her chest but like...This show loves huge ass necklaces, and they’re all basic ass shapes. We got a pyramid, the Kaiba’s wear squares, Bakura wears a circle with kind of phallic bits hanging off of it and this is just...it’s literally just a pentagon.

I guess Ishizu wore a wadjet and Duke has an indecipherable clown as his necklace. But man...the Yugioh necklace game is just a lot of shapes.

And so we continue on with this filler arc, which is also a pokemon arc, and even secretly has a Sailor Moon arc just stuffed in there for funsies. This arc is weird.

Also, I brought up the human skull so I legally have to post this.

Anyway, here’s a link to read these in chrono order, in case you just got here: https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

And I’m off to drink a bin of ice water because it is 5 billion degrees right now in this house.

[betawooper]

rating every demon fight in kny bc i can

non-biased, completely objective rating (more or less) of every significant demon fight in kny based on a number of factors, including:

cleverness of fighting tactics

placement in the story’s timeline

integration of character backstories

cohesive themes between characters

etc

by non-biased and objective i mean i’m not skewing the rating if a death felt fair or whatever

everything past where the anime ended will be under a read more so anime onlys who havent watched mugen train, youre safe lol

oh and i reread the manga like 20+ times (reread the latter arcs at least 40 times, haha hyperfixations am i right?) so be rest assured im not pulling these ratings out of my ass

also ill randomly be bolding certain phrases just to improve readability

anyways let’s gooooo

VS NEZUKO

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kamado Tanjirou and Nezuko. Tanjirou is fending her off by putting the axe handle in her mouth, keeping her from eating him. End Image Description.]

10/10

i like how realistic it is, because yeah tanjirou would react the way to he did with zero fighting skills against a demon

very clear why tanjirou is fighting nezuko and shows a bit of worldbuilding on how normal people react to their family becoming demons

always nice to see worldbuilding

giyuu is the perfect example of a seasoned demon slayer who’s good at his job, and he juxtaposes tanjirou very well in that aspect

my only complaint is not directly in this fight itself but how nezuko is handled throughout the story as a whole

like bro, it is literally never explained why nezuko is different from demons

could have been easily explained if maybe her family’s ghosts like slapped her hand every time she wanted to eat a person but nope

she’s just built different lol

so yeah youll see future ratings get points docked off bc nezuko unlocks some secret power with no prior explanation other than she angy >:3

VS TEMPLE DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of a demon. The demon has a sharp-nailed hand over his neck and there are four text bubbles around him saying “But a wound like this... will heal in no time! See? The bleeding already stopped!” End Image Description.]

10/10

may be more forgettable compared to like rui but still good

tanjirou did exceptionally well in this fight and his ability to think on his feet is once again beautifully illustrated here (trapping this dude’s head against the tree trunk with the axe)

very clever

again, establishes more demon worldbuilding regarding regeneration and still being able to move without their head

and the demons burning in the sunlight thing since nezuko wasn’t able to show that

the ending where tanjirou hesitates to kill the demon also serves to show his sympathetic nature towards demons that will last throughout the entirety of the first 60-ish chapters

:)

we’ll talk about what the hell happens to tanjirou after that

or not, it could honestly be its own post

VS HAND DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of a many-handed demon. He has six hands around him, three of them covering his mouth while he chuckles, two of them grabbing his cheeks, and one holding on to the top of his head. There are two text bubbles saying “That’s how many of Urokodaki’s students I have eaten! I’ve decided to kill all of his students!” End Image Description.]

10/10

ooooh probably the first big fight against a demon in the series

oh yeah not doing the two random demons tanjirou one shot in a single blow bc eh

anyways hand demon’s pretty goddamn scary, considering the fact that this is the 5th demon or whatever tanjirou has had to face so far

very nice way to show us how much tanjirou’s innate intuition and all his other random abilities (sense of smell, hard forehead) can come together and help him decapitate this guy

i liked the mini history with urokodaki this dude had and why he had beef with our favorite mentor figure, it establishes that urokodaki was in fact a super good demon slayer and its cool to see that actually shown

i also liked that small moment of compassion tanjirou gave this demon, staying consistent with tanjirou’s established kindness

the demon’s sad tale with killing his own brother very much humanizes him when all the reader has seen up to this point is that this guy is a monster who eats people

sets up the theme of demons just being humans but being victims of circumstance that unfortunately doesn’t hold up as well in arcs past mugen train

VS SWAMP DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kamado Tanjirou fighting off three horned demons as they appear from below. There is a spiky text bubble saying “Three of them!!!” End Image Description.]

10/10

not my most favorite fight but it still portrays everything alright and im not allowed to let my personal opinions mess with the rating so

i like how tanjirou mentioned the fact that he trained in conditions similar to the bog and explains how he pulled off the whirlpool form

using past experiences to aid him in the present, nice nice

tanjirou and nezuko dont quite work together very well but its yknow the first mission so ill chalk it up to simple inexperience

also the way the muzan curse thingie was hinted at here? fantastic way of showing that little bit of demon worldbuilding

...

oh god, it mentions nezuko being stronger than normal demons

ok its not a problem here per say since i can still suspend my disbelief, but later on it just becomes a glaring problem that gets worse over time

VS SUSAMARU AND YAHABA

[Image Description: Manga panels of Susamaru and Yahaba. The first one is a joyful Susamaru about to throw a temari ball. There is floating text saying “Is she one of Kibutsuji’s minions?!” The second image is an annoyed Yahaba, holding one of his eye-hands to cover himself. There are two text bubbles around him saying “My kimono got all dusty. Tch!” End Image Description.]

9/10

why dont these bitches have a good looking panel together dammit

anyways amazing entrance, the way yahaba used his hand eyes to track down tanjirou is really neat

the synergy yahaba and susamaru have is incredible, its awesome dude, they work extremely well together and it shows

tanjirou actually mixing his water breathing forms together is a god tier move and i absolutely love how he can show off his ability to think on his feet once again

establishing how yushiro’s bda works early on is really well done

establishing tamayo as a fugitive this early on is also super well done

not to get into spoiler territory but both these things pay off

how tamayo ended up defeating susamaru is literally awesome in so many ways

shows off both how smart she is by exploiting the muzan curse

and speaking of the muzan curse, we actually get to see what happens to demons who even say his name, back when it was hinted with the swamp demon

tamayo is amazing dude, and we get some real evidence of the horrible suffering demons go through if they even accidentally attempt to betray muzan :D

...

now heres what keeps this fight from being perfect

nezuko somehow grew stronger against susamaru’s temari

with no explanation

which could have been easily explained if tamayo was like “oh yeah the drug also boosts a demon’s strength temporarily”

but nope

god, i just dont like how gotouge handles nezuko’s power boosts throughout the series bc like i said before

no explanation is given anywhere

this is a huge issue, this isnt a pokemon game, you cant just kill demons and get exp at the end of every battle, level up, get some sweet stat bonuses and move on

(actually if gotouge established that this is how nezuko grew in power, than all my complaints about this would be gone, im not even joking)

anyways i get that nezuko is supposed to be “special” but thats too vague of a descriptor

how the hell is she special? ya gotta be more specific and stick with that explanation or that suspension of disbelief is going to disappear

VS TONGUE DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of a four-eyed demon with horns and a long tongue. He is crawling in an awkward position, one foot in front of his tilted head. There are two text bubbles around him saying “Heh, heh! I’ll slurpy slurp your brains out through you ear!” End Image Description.]

10/10

not much to say, showcases zenitsu’s true abilities really well

nicely done

VS HORNED DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of a big, single-horned demon. There are three text bubbles saying “You dodged! You’re awfully lively for a human! It’ll be a treat to carve away your flesh!” End Image Description.]

10/10

would have ignored this fight if not for the fact we havent seen inosuke fight before

it definitely shows how very fast-paced and wild inosuke is

no complaints here lol

VS KYOGAI

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kyogai, a demon with tsuzumi drums attached to his shoulders. There are four text bubbles around him saying “Why?! Why does everyone keep sneaking through my house? It’s so aggravating. It’s my prey! It’s my prey! Found in my territory!” End Image Description.]

10/10

establishes marechi blood pretty early on, once again expanding the worldbuilding of kny which is always cool

interesting terrain where it’s always shifting, tanjirou once again proves his ability to adapt really quickly by altering one of his forms to work with the turning room

(man, i wish the form mixing/form modification thing carried on throughout the rest of the story, but it really didnt which is just a shame)

the injuries tanjirou had prior to this mission actually affecting him was a nice touch

oh yeah, kyogai gives us more worldbuilding (which is always nice) regarding the 12 kizuki, and the aspect of him being cast out due to being weak shows a lot about muzan’s indifference towards his own demons if they arent strong

his backstory being a failed writer once again humanizes kyogai as a former human being and not just a monster

tanjirou shows his sympathy and compassion again by not stepping on his written work and complimenting his bda

well, tbh tanjirou’s actions kinda came out of nowhere but its a very minor thing and not enough to dock a point off, like it didnt affect the outcome of the fight that much if at all

(so if you see future battles where points are docked off for things not logically making sense, its bc whatever nonsensical concepts were integrated into the fight actually turned the tide of the battle and thats a big no-no)

very good fight and if you remember how kinda bad tanjirou was at accurately slicing the swamp demon, you can see that he’s already improved leaps and bounds

im so proud of him

VS MOTHER SPIDER DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kamado Tanjirou and the Mother Spider Demon. There is a light shining down from the top right on to the demon as Tanjirou slices her head off, rain following in his wake. There is floating text saying “Water Breathing: Fifth Form - Blessed Rain After the Drought!” around them. End Image Description.]

10/10

i mean does anyone disagree?

all the demon slayers getting their necks snapped by her threads was pretty horrific, probably more horrifying than anything else we have seen in the entire series if im gonna be honest

the death scene is probably the most beautiful one in the series

it reveals a water breathing form that we havent seen before thats the 5th form

as far as i know, no other breathing style has this merciful sword stroke so it shows a lot about the original water breather and what they might have been like

but enough about them, really the focus is on tanjirou bc this is like the best example by far of how kind and sympathetic he is to demons

dunno what else to say, its perfect

VS SON SPIDER DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of Agatsuma Zenitsu performing Thunder Breathing 1st Form: Sixfold on a spider-like demon. Zenitsu is crashing through the roof of a shed, and a zig-zag path is left behind. There are sound effects all over the panel, saying “Bam!” in large font. End Image Description.]

10/10

chose a picture without a huge spider on it bc i would like to not scare myself half to death

anyways extremely amazing fight, showcases zenitsu’s immense talent and skill, adapting the 1st form of thunder breathing to be a more versatile move

theres a moment where his backstory with kuwajima and kaigaku were revealed and his hidden insecurities are out in the open which is super nice and further develops a character weve only considered as comedic relief until now

the anime made the backstory scenes and the killing scene so much cooler

while there is no thematic connection between zenitsu and the demon, it really isnt necessary to keep this fight interesting

anyways another pretty much perfect fight

VS FATHER SPIDER DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kamado Tanjirou and Inosuke slashing at the Father Spider Demon. The demon has blocked Tanjirou’s sword with his arm, and Inosuke is slamming both his blades down on the demon’s other hand. End Image Description.]

10/10

again, not my most favorite fight but it does everything right

i do have to say it was excellent how gotouge hyped up the father spider demon to be the big bad, only just so the plot twist later takes the readers by surprise

nicely done

VS DAUGHTER SPIDER DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kochou Shinobu and the Daughter Spider Demon. Shinobu’s back is seen and her haori looks like a butterfly’s wings keeping her afloat as she holds her stinger blade out to the side. The demon looks surprised as blood gushes from her side, arm, shoulder, chest, neck, and forehead. There is floating text on the panel, saying “Insect Breathing - Butterfly Dance - Caprice!” End Image Description.]

10/10

first time weve seen shinobu and her fighting style

what i love most about this is how much it shows her true character, appearing as a carefree and naive individual so she seems underwhelming

then bam, reveals exactly how dangerous and uncaring she is of demons, listing out the specific ways she would torture the daughter spider demon in grotesque detail

her using poison to take demons by surprise is also super clever and brings back the worldbuilding established way earlier about wisteria being poisonous to demons

amazing integration of that concept

anyways this fight really encapsulates who shinobu is as a character and thats why it gets a perfect score

VS RUI

[Image Description: Manga panel of Rui holding his hand out directly towards the viewer. There are two text bubbles around him, saying “Give me your sister. If you hand her over quietly, I’ll spare your life.” End Image Description.]

8/10

not only is it a super scary fight but there is a deeper conflict between rui and tanjirou, what it means to be family

they are opposites in the sense that while tanjirou believes love is what makes a family, rui’s subconscious desperation for an unbreakable bond drives him to use fear to keep his “family” together

excellent juxtaposition of their values, and this is only further emphasized when rui expresses out loud what he was going to do to nezuko

i also like the symbolism regarding rui’s bda, how he uses threads or the “familial” bonds to cut up his fake family with it if they act out of turn or annoy him

super neat detail

alright what i dont like about this fight is nezuko (again)

mostly her unlocking her bda to turn the tide of the battle bc her mom was like “yo, wake up, your brother is going to be killed”

feels... forced ig

her bda in general is confusing and not consistent

man, i wish i could make a stronger argument for this but i do believe the problem stems from the fact that we dont ever know what nezuko is thinking, and what she thinks of tanjirou specifically

if she even cares for him as a sibling or if shes only going along with what her family is saying to her, things like that which would have been fixed if gotouge actually gave her thoughts some screen time

so the action feels pretty shallow

im also conflicted over tanjirou somehow remembering how dance of the fire god works

on one hand, hes using past information and applying it in the current setting so he doesnt die, which is understandable

but on the other hand, this was a teeny bit random?

i think what could have fixed this is if there was a scene in the beginning of the series where tanjirou was performing it himself, like practicing before he actually had to do it for new years

so that when the rui fight rolls around, it would have felt less like throwing dry spaghetti at a wall

but yeah

overall super good fight, giyuu ending up having to kill rui instead of tanjirou was super good in that tanjirou didnt become a pillar this early in the series and to show how strong giyuu is

there are some odd bits regarding the ultimate “beheading” of rui using nezuko and tanjirous supposed bonds but it doesnt kill the fight entirely so it deserves its pretty high score

***under read more is manga-only fights so beware***

VS ENMU

[Image Description: Manga panel of Enmu holding his hand out directly at the viewer, with a mouth on the back of it. There is floating text to the top right of Enmu that says “Whispers of Forced Unconscious Hypnosis!” End Image Description.]

9/10

id say this fight is definitely overshadowed by the dream stuff prior to this but its pretty good in its own right

enmu fusing with the train was kinda confusing, like when was it established that demons could fuse with objects?

this worldbuilding element doesnt even appear again so yeah thats why it loses a point

how the kmbk gang end up defeating enmu is pretty sweet though, tanjirou using dance of the fire god to sever the neck bone was really nice and shows that him using the breathing style in the rui fight wasnt a one time thing

while kyojuro’s role was smaller in this part, the next part makes up for it so i cant complain

anyways ye, almost perfect score but its pretty good

VS AKAZA (MUGEN TRAIN)

[Image Description: Manga panel of Akaza holding his hand out to the viewer’s left. There is a text bubble saying “Why don’t you become a demon?” End Image Description.]

10/10

this encounter is literally amazing okay?

after the crew kills the big bad, it seems like everything is fine

but plot twist, upper moon 3 appears out of nowhere

this is the first time the reader has seen an upper moon, let alone the 3rd/4th strongest demon in existence and the way gotouge handled this twist is fucking amazing

kyojuro’s death scene really shows just how human even the strongest pillars are against demons with incredible power

its just

amazing

VS OBI DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panels of the obi-like demon. The first image shows the obi hung in the air and strung over each other like decorations, with women-shaped patterns in its folds. The second image is Hashibira Inosuke fighting the Obi demon which now has lips and eyes. There is floating text in that panel saying “Breath of the Beast: Sixth Fang - Jagged Gnaw!!” End Image Description.]

10/10

on to red light district

this fight is admittedly super forgettable and not very interesting at least compared to the main fight with daki and gyutaro

but it wraps up the sub plot of the women and uzui’s wives going missing so it gets a perfect score for not messing that up

oh and it establishes the stretchy neck thing daki has going on which is very good

VS DAKI AND GYUTARO

[Image Description: Manga panel of Daki and Gyutaro. Daki is sitting on Gyutaro’s shoulders. There is a text bubble on the top right that says “The two of us are one, after all.” as well as floating text that reads “The power of the irregular siblings...!? Next issue lead color and the fight reaches its climax!!” End Image Description.]

8/10

love how this battle challenges tanjirou’s sympathy and kindness towards demons, just simply bc daki and gyutaro are horrible people

(too bad nothing came of this, which ill explain in the hantengu portion)

daki and gyutaro are very good villains and kept this fight super interesting from start to finish

uzui acting as a foil to gyutaro is nicely integrated and properly shown with how jealous gyutaro gets over seeing uzui’s perfect form and stature

tanjirou not only mixes forms but mixes breathing styles as well, which is so fucking awesome

(too bad it was only used like once throughout the entire series, its quite unfortunate)

the super high tension right after inosuke gets stabbed and tanjirou wakes up was expertly portrayed and handled, it felt like the kmbk gang and uzui were actually going to lose

super awesome

the tanjirou and gyutaro parallels are expertly portrayed, with how gyutaro taunts tanjirou over failing to protect his little sister, and the more visual thing where tanjirou imagined his own neck underneath his blade, that was super duper nice

the ending is extremely tense and emotionally gripping, gotouge did a really good job with that artistically too

the demon mark acquisition scene was surprisingly not frustrating, considering that it wasnt really explained prior to the battle

i do think it has to do with how it was explained later just exactly how they worked so its not just some random thing gotouge pulled out of their ass

so pretty good

/

what i dont like is nezuko and her full power demon form

first of all where the fuck did that come from? she just got angry and suddenly shes as powerful as an upper moon

like

how?

that doesnt make sense???

her extremely quick regeneration makes no sense

her ability to manipulate her blood’s properties makes no sense

and it doesnt even appear again so what was the point of that existing

none of this is even explained later which annoys me

that one part where tanjirou sings a lullaby to her to calm her down was alright ig but nezuko in this fight makes me extremely irritated and frustrated

just ugh

VS HANTENGU

[Image Description: Manga panel of Hantengu opening a shoji door. He is crawling inside, his hand in a gnarled, unnatural position. There is a text bubble saying “Eeeeeeek.” End Image Description.]

1/10

swordsmith village

this fight can go fuck itself /j

no but seriously it has so many problems that it would be shorter to name its redeeming qualities (which ill do later)

first off, the nezuko full power form thing again

i hate it so much with a passion

again, where did her ability to regenerate instantly even come from???? this is never explained, ever

and why did she cut herself on tanjirou’s sword anyway

did she somehow know that it was going to turn red if she burned it?

gotouge what the fuck, there is literally no reason why nezuko would do that and we cant even read her mind to see her thought process

gotouge hates nezuko, i swear

/

remember when i said uzui is meant to be a foil to gyutaro in the rld fight? its pretty obvious that those two are opposites, it was nicely done

... what the hell does mitsuri’s insecurities about strength have to do with whatever the fuck hantengu has going on (which is basically nothing)?

so no meaningful connection between mitsuri and hantengu

theres no meaningful connection between tanjirou and hantengu other than tanjirou getting pissed off for like the second time

also tanjirou’s thing with being kind and sympathetic to demons was entirely dropped at this point

but instead of it leading up to a corruption arc of some sorts, it just doesnt

like honestly if something actually came of that anger he exhibited in this arc and from red light district from this point forward story-wise, i would have counted this as an amazing writing decision

but it literally doesnt so who cares

(god, i really start to hate what happened to his character after this )

and genya’s revealed motivation also doesnt fit at all with hantengu’s thing, he’s not a foil, not a parallel, nothing, there is nothing

/

tanjirou being the catharsis for development for mitsuri and muichirou, who he has only talked to like twice

theres definitely a better way to handle those two’s developments without his help

like gotouge, you have a big cast of characters, use them lol

/

i want to kick hantengu in the face for being boring as fuck (at least his clones have cool looking weapons)

doesnt even have a proper backstory, just a single spread of him being blamed for shit as a human

like... thats it? this is upper moon 4 what the hell

/

theres no clever form mixing here at all (regarding tanjirou) which probably would have helped with foreshadowing the 13th form for dance of the fire god/sun breathing better

also gotouge established that as tanjirou’s thing and now he doesnt do that stuff anymore which sucks

/

oh hey remember when tanjirou actually learned how to do zenitsu’s speed boost thing?

if you didnt, i dont blame you bc it literally doesnt appear again, ever

you could argue that he adapted it into his “waltz flash” technique or whatever the fuck that is but the way it was integrated into this fight was like throwing dry spaghetti at a wall

which is just a shame bc its meant to be representative of how tanjirou and zenitsu are good pals but the way it was utilized is forgettable as hell

/

i absolutely loathe the crimson blade concept as a whole and im mentioning this now bc its going to come into play why future instances where this goddamn thing comes up again causes points to be lost

its inconsistent as fuck ill tell you that

/

at least some yoriichi stuff appeared here and not shoved into the final battle with everything else

so the yoriichi stuff later didnt come out of absolute nowhere

genya and mitsuri’s unique fighting styles expand the kny worldbuilding just a little more which is always nice

tanjirou got a cool sword out of this which would have been cooler if him and yoriichi had a deeper connection that was actually explored

but we didnt get shit so whatever

other people getting demon marks being revealed here is also okay so that again, the final battle isnt filled with absolutely everyone getting their marks at once

demon marks have their own slew of problems but its not as bad as the fucking crimson sword shit

god i hate the crimson sword shit

...

dude this section needs a tldr, even i cant sit and read through my shit

TL;DR - this fight sucks and crimson swords are bullshit (more on this later)

VS GYOKKO

[Image Description: Manga panel of Tokitou Muichirou and Gyokko. Muichirou is looking to the left while Gyokko is looking to the right, both with their backs to each other. There are mist clouds billowing in the foreground and background, as well as a slash mark going across Gyokko’s neck. End Image Description.]

7/10

this fight suffers from the same lack of cohesive themes through characters like the hantengu battle bc the antagonist is given nothing

but its better

we havent actually seen mui fight before so theres no consistencies that the reader has to keep track of for now

and there arent like 10 characters in the fight so this fight gets a lot of points just for being a lot more coherent

i do like that this fight shows just how good mui is that he can defeat an upper moon by himself

mui’s backstory is neat

gyokko’s bda is very interesting too

... thats pretty much it lol

ye, anyways not the best fight but not the worst fight either

VS KAIGAKU

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kaigaku holding the hilt of his blade with one hand. There is two text bubbles around him, saying “...As usual, you’re still shabby. It’s been a while, Zenitsu.” End Image Description.]

9/10

alright on to final battle arc

theres some good fights and then some really sucky ones, but this one was pretty incredible and very emotionally charged

theres a clear reason why zenitsu and kaigaku are battling each other (kai betrayed the corps and inadvertantly caused the only parental figure in zenitsu’s life to die, and zenitsu is rightfully pissed off about that)

the visual yin-yang symbolism is awesome too

zenitsu winning due to using the 7th form he created himself (which i have reason to believe was inspired by tanjirou) was the perfect ending to the fight, really couldnt ask for anything better and is a perfect example of how much of an effect tanjirou has had on zenitsu

the 7th form is what tanjirou’s waltz flash should have been lol

/

what keeps this fight from being absolutely perfect is lack of development prior to this conflict

(since the final battle arc is basically a culmination of all the hinted developments through the series, im going to actually factor in how much and how well these conflicts were foreshadowed)

anyways if we had actually seen zenitsu, kaigaku, and kuwajima actually interacting with each other and showing how they were essentially a family (not just through flashbacks), it would have made zenitsu placing the responsibility of killing kai onto himself a lot more tragic

but like, apart from brief flashbacks where zenitsu actually met kaigaku off screen and that one thing all the way back in natagumo where both kuwajima and kai were introduced, thats pretty much it in terms of thunder family development

so yeah its underdeveloped for sure

also one random thought, i personally think zenitsu should have gotten his demon mark in this fight, it would have been cool to see

VS AKAZA (INFINITY FORTRESS)

[Image Description: Manga panel of Akaza’s face. There are two text bubbles around him, saying “Okay, let’s get started. It’s time for the feast.” There is also floating text saying “The inspection of the strong has begun...” as well as a simple box on the lower left, denoting its the end of chapter 147. End Image Description.]

6/10

oh god please dont hate me for this

ill list the good things first how about that

this conflict was foreshadowed perfectly in mugen train, you bet the readers were expecting a tanjirou vs akaza battle after the death of kyojuro and gotouge delivered

akaza’s power is shown extremely well with how many close calls tanjirou and giyuu had while fighting him

akaza eventually giving up on his own volition was really nice and fit into the context of the battle very very well, like sure tanjirou and giyuu wouldnt understand why he gave up but us readers do know

akaza is a really good character and a good villain

/

now notice how im only mentioning akaza and not giyuu or tanjirou in the good aspects

bc those two are eh

no form mixing at all from either tanjirou and giyuu

i know i said form mixing was kind of tanjirou’s thing but you’d think giyuu would have gotten more creative with his moves once akaza said that he was getting predictable

(well he said he “ran out of water breathing forms” but same thing)

so its kinda bland lol

speaking of giyuu, his whole thing with his insecurities of being weak wasnt handled well (it was sort of immediately brushed off in pillar training, and its unclear what part of his character arc he was in)

like sure him announcing that he’s going to protect tanjirou is cool but it feels like he was haphazardly dropped into the tanjirou and akaza conflict

isnt he supposed to be both their foils? that wasnt really explored that well in this fight and theres no deep meaning behind him even being here just analyzing what he did in it

he could have been handled better or even given more focus is what im saying

the anatta state came out of nowhere, im sorry okay? just bc inosuke like barely hinted at not being able to sense grandma hisa bc she had no fighting spirit and tanjurou magically taught his son how to achieve this state doesnt mean it was properly integrated into the fight

if the anatta state was actually explored prior to this battle, i would have given it a pass but it just feels like a cheap and poorly developed trick to get around akaza’s technique development (which is overpowered as fuck might i add)

gotouge should have just given akaza a plausible weakness to his technique development instead, especially since they dont use or even mention the anatta state after this

the transparent world shit makes no sense but ill elaborate on that in the koku battle analysis

oh and this thing doesnt affect the score but why wasnt there a “yoriichi visage overlapping” moment when tanjirou was fighting akaza? hes an upper moon, he should have gotten those visions but he didnt

for some reason

anyways this battle was alright and has good set up but the middle and end parts didnt hold up as well bc random concepts were thrown at us without prior explanation or development

VS DOUMA

[Image Description: Manga panel of Douma licking Shinobu’s butterfly pin. There are two text bubbles around him saying “Anyway, tonight is a good night. Such fine feasts keep showing up one after another.” End Image Description.]

9/10

damn, such an amazing fight

the build up to this was properly foreshadowed

shinobu finally showing her true anger after hiding it for so long is amazing

douma is a super interesting character and fantastic villain

shinobu showing off her true power and determination against douma was sooooo nice

shinobu’s poisonous body plan is so clever and so interesting

if i was to rate the shinobu part of the fight alone, it would have gotten a 10/10 no question

the reason why its knocked down a point is because of the kanao and inosuke part

dont get me wrong, the way kanao is able to hold her own against douma by herself is pretty cool, how shes meant to parallel douma with their similar struggles surrounding human emotions and demonstrate how she has grown as a person, how she regains the ability to cry

that shit is cool, inosuke also getting in touch with his emotions after learning what happened to his mom was super neat as well

however

bc this battle takes place in the final arc with everything else, there wasnt proper build up regarding many things, the kotoha reveal especially

so inosuke feels kinda forced into the kanao shinobu and douma conflict, similar to how giyuu felt forced into the tanjirou and akaza conflict

its quite unfortunate bc if the kotoha stuff was actually explored prior to the confrontation, this “forced” feeling would have disappeared

i know some people have suggested that the douma fight should have just been its own arc, and i very much agree, it would have certainly helped fix this problem regarding inosuke and kotoha

last random thought, i wish shinobu, kanao, and inosuke got their demon marks

VS KOKUSHIBOU

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kokushibou looking directly at the viewer, holding the hilt of his blade as if he’s going to pull it out. There are text boxes around him saying “This... is Upper Moon One... He’s so different compared to the other Upper Moons. He looks so dignified and majestic.” The text boxes are narrated by Tokitou Muichirou. End Image Description.]

5/10

this fight is... mediocre

at least theres a more tangible connection between muichirou and kokushibou

even though that was handled kinda poorly

tbh there really was no point to revealing that mui is koku’s descendant like at all, it just had no significant bearing to the plot of the fight

sanemi’s backstory being here is... okay ig?

idk the whole shinazugawa conflict has fundamental problems that i just cant think of any other place to put it without changing the entirety of canon

the marechi blood concept coming back was nice though

genya is there

him getting his bda was cool and helped turn the tide of the battle in a satisfying way (before kicking the bucket but thats not the focus here)

gyomei is a hollow husk of a character who barely got anything at all

but his fighting style is extremely cool and conveys his immense power very well

oh and him and sanemi are amazing at working together, like better than giyuu and tanjirou, and better than kanao and inosuke

theyre that good yet pretty much nobody acknowledges it which is sad

koku himself is pretty interesting and pretty tragic, very nice villain

but everyone together?

gonna be honest but this is such a random collection of characters, there was basically no foreshadowing that these four were going to go up again kokushibou, they are not that connected very well

i know there was this one post that focused on the theme of family that was common in all 5 characters in the fight but its just not enough

it would have been more cohesive if gotouge emphasized gyomei, mui, sanemi, and genya being like different aspects of yoriichi coming together to kill kokushibou hundreds of years after yoriichi failed to kill him

lmao its not like the 4 of them defeated koku with the power of family or friendship, they just smacked him over and over with a flail, shot him with magical bullets, and stabbed a crimson sword into his abdomen

wouldnt have been too hard to switch over to koku’s pov and go “damn these bitches are like my stupid brother”

...

speaking of crimson swords

i fucking hate the crimson sword concept oh my god can i complain about it now? im gonna complain about it now

unlike demon marks, the crimson blades werent even given any proper conditions, you just hold the stupid thing hard enough and it somehow imbues it with magical properties with no logic behind those properties

what part of crimson swords completely destroys a demon’s body in an instant? even muzan didnt go through that process when he was almost killed by yoriichi so where in the goddamn fuck did it come from

it could be explained bc the sword was left in the same spot for a long time but this tactic doesnt even appear again in a meaningful way (didnt kill muzan when tanjirou and giyuu held the sword together) so what the fuck was the point of having this even exist

its so underdeveloped and confusing and i hate it

the transparent world stuff is also confusing as shit and its pretty much never explained how they work aside from the vague “close your mind” advice, like why did it exist, it did nothing to help the present day demon slayers

its just so... poorly integrated

yeah anyways this is around the same rating as the akaza fight but a little worse bc there wasnt that strong set up beforehand

VS KOKUSHIBOU (SENGOKU ERA)

[Image Description: Manga panel of a bag getting ripped open, pieces of a wooden flute tumbling out. End Image Description.]

10/10

easily 10/10

this fight shows the tragedy of kokushibou giving in to his envy and hatred, when yoriichi cries over seeing his own family commit terrible attrocities against the people he wanted to protect

and yoriichi dies, now carrying the fact that he couldnt even save his own brother from the influence of muzan on his conscious forever

what a sad ending for yoriichi

and after koku angrily slashes apart yoriichi’s corpse, having him find and keep the flute he gave to him when they were kids to the present day gives him a small shred of humanity in the midst of his monstrous anger

VS NAKIME

[Image Description: Manga panels of Nakime. The first one shows a low quality version of her playing her biwa. The second one is a close up of her eye. There are spiky text bubbles saying “It’s Upper Rank... 4!” End Image Description.]

0/10

no nakime backstory

not even a goddamn fight

forgettable

useless

VS MUZAN

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kibutsuji Muzan in his white-haired, mouth-covered form. There are text bubbles around him saying “Not a single one was of use to me. I will crush the demon hunters tonight. I’ll massacre them all right now.” End Image Description.]

1/10

._.

i have many complaints but ill try my best to not make this another hantengu rant section lol

first off, obanai deserved better

im serious, this poor dude was forgotten until pretty much the end when we finally get a backstory out of him

and then he died

what a waste of a potentially amazing character

mitsuri getting taken out early was ehhh

pretty sure someone else made a post about her supposedly being extremely strong but she was nerfed in this battle which i agree with

literally none of the pillars work together very well, like remember how i praised sanemi and gyomei for being super coordinated? lmao that doesnt exist anymore

you could say this is caused by desperation though and you wouldnt be wrong, its just boring to sit through

that causes issues bc this now basically requires the crimson sword and transparent world concepts to be there to spice things up

but in this fight, they do nothing in the long run (except for tanjirou using the crimson sword at the very very end)

youve already heard me talk about why those two things are super shittily integrated and i cant be bothered repeating myself so moving on

kanao, inosuke, and zenitsu

they... exist? they didnt do much tbh, which i guess is the point but like, now its boring again

nezuko could have been used as a potential way to raise the stakes and make things interesting again (like “ah shit, muzan might actually be unkillable if he gets nezuko but its okay bc shes not here- oh fuck shes here this is not good”)

but nothing came of her running off except confirmation that she became human again so whatever

uzui and shinjuro are useless, why werent they at the fight?

like they could have followed nezuko and contributed to the battle even a little but they just didnt and now theres literally no point to them appearing in this arc at all

wasted potential

tanjirou

i wish him going absolutely apeshit had actual substance behind it, like it being a part of his character arc or something

i remember having this one theory that he had a corruption arc (due to dropping his kindness thing towards demons) and i wanted this to be true so badly

but it doesnt exist

not with how the series ended

god

the only thing that saves this fight from being complete trash is tamayo’s poison thing being amazingly executed

and the part where everyone got blasted away, losing limbs and shit, that made things a little more interesting again

but thats it

VS MUZAN (SENGOKU ERA)

[Image Description: Manga panels of Kibutsuji Muzan, Tamayo, and Tsugikuni Yoriichi. The first one has Muzan and Tamayo, while the second one has Yoriichi pulling out his sword. There are text boxes saying “And the moment I met him, I understood that I was born into this world to defeat this man.” End Image Description.]

9/10

finally something good again

while short, that’s just the nature of all of yoriichi’s battles with demons

anyways pretty nice, theres a clear reason why this battle exists (shows the scenario that made the original breather get super close to defeating muzan in detail)

adding tamayo here was a nice touch

my only complaint is that it seemed extremely coincidental that yoriichi somehow developed a breathing style specifically countering muzan’s multiple organs without even knowing prior that he had all those brains and hearts floating around freely in his body

like thats kind of ridiculous, even for yoriichi whos supposed to be “blessed by the gods”

could just be me though

VS TANJIROU

[Image Description: Manga panels of Kamado Tanjirou in his demon form. The first image has his eyes closed. The second image has his eyes opened and the tumor on his face almost completely faded. There are text boxes around him saying “You will destroy the demon hunters in my stead.” End Image Description.]

1/10

hoo boy

ok first off, demon tanjirou lasted for 2 chapters

thats it

2 chapters

so thats already a problem

i am aware its meant to parallel the beginning of the series but also its ridiculous how completely vague and rushed this entire thing was

nezuko doesnt do shit through not just this battle but this entire arc which i already explained so not gonna go into it further

kanao magically having a demon cure on her made very little sense

the scene where tanjirou leaves muzan in purgatory is pretty but if you look at it in the context of everything else, its ambiguous and confusing

(if someone could explain it and see how it connects to the original theme of “demons just being victims of circumstance,” i would love to hear it)

/

actually you know what makes me so mad about this “fight” as a whole? there was so much potential to do more with this concept

and im not talking about him escaping and nezuko becoming a demon slayer roleswap au (even though its a pretty cool concept)

him becoming a demon could have been a metaphor for his lost kindness and sympathy towards demons halfway through the series

it could have been a punishment for letting his anger towards muzan cloud his judgement

it could have symbolized literally anything about him losing his humanity as he got stronger

but those three things are just scenarios from my head, they dont exist in this series just based off of what weve seen from these two chapters

its disappointing

the only thing keeping this from getting a 0 is the one part where inosuke couldnt chop off tanjirou’s head bc he cared about him too much

that at least shows inosuke had grown as a character

everything else is just meaningless and convoluted garbage and “convoluted” is not what you should be aiming for if this is supposed to be the ending of your series

IN SUMMARY

early kny is very good, later kny is questionable and the ending is just a mess of wasted potential and disappointment

i get why gotouge had to have the transparent world ability, crimson blade ability, and the demon marks appear before they all appeared on yoriichi but theyre all just so underdeveloped and terribly handled in the battles they are used, it makes me want to kick a wall

like lmao, i could literally think of so many ways they could have been properly integrated, hell, im even writing a whole goddamn rewrite using my ideas for these three things (link to that is in my pinned)

just, god

if you want to debate over these ratings, my ask box is open ig? idk

[mmikmmik2]

If you were to sort the Infinity Train cast(s) into the Major Arcana a la the Persona games, which Arcana would you give everyone?

anon I had SOOOOO much fun thinking about this, thank you so much for sending me this. I sorted all the major characters, plus a few other entries, based on a mix of Arcana symbolism, Persona series character archetypes, and general vibes. I came up with answers I feel pretty good about for all but four of the Arcana. (Was really tempted to say Strength is every human character who doesn't board the train because they can handle their problems on their own lol.) This is going to be a long-winded post, so I thought I’d post just the list as an image (which hopefully won’t be too blurry!) rather than wrestle with Tumblr formatting trying to make a short list, and put a big text wall under the readmore talking more about my picks.

If this list does end up illegible, the same info is under the readmore as text! Plus some characters for Magician, Strength, Justice, and Death that I didn’t want to add to the “official” list because they’re more based on headcanon. (Although my reasoning for some of the “official” picks is pretty weak lol.)

One-One as 0. The Fool

Oh my gosh, what am I?

IT is great at fleshing out character backstories and families, so One-One at the beginning of S1 is one of the few characters who really feels like a blank slate. He's got a lot of his baggage back by the end of the season, and I think One and One-One are more similar than they seem at first glance, but S1 does seem to have been very formative for One-One and how he thinks about what he's supposed to be doing and how he relates to other people. So it does kind of feel like his fool's journey.

Alrick Timmens as I. The Magician

The magician begins the journey... by beefing it on a dirt bike, dying, and sending his wife flying off the deep end. Rip.

Alrick was an engineer like Amelia, so I could see him suiting some of the themes of the Magician, like conscious thought and manifesting ideas. His apparent playfulness and insecurity are similar to the Magician characters in Persona.

Kez as II. The High Priestess

“We can’t make this decision for you, Kez.” “You know what to do.”

I thought really hard about making Kez the Magician because just like every Magician since Persona 3, she's dumb, horny, and insecure dlkjasfdkl

(and also her showing up at the start of the story arc and being helpful but also super needy is very Magician)

But the idea of "intuition" really does suit Kez. Sometimes her intuition is as bad as her conscious reasoning, but I think that's a lot because she's so confused about what happened with Jeremy, and Morgan making Kez feel like she did a bad thing by helping him.

Tuba as III. The Empress

She made me feel like I was warm all the time.

Tuba's a mom. Sorry, this one's not that deep, haha.

Simon Laurent as IV. The Emperor

Highest number! I'm the leader now.

Simon has a lot of issues, but the one that felt the most prominent to me was his unhealthy relationship with power, authority, dominance, and rules. Another quote I considered using here was what he said in Grace's memory of meeting Amelia: "I never thought I'd get to see the Conductor with my own eyes. He's perfect! Everything finally makes sense again." In his emotional crisis, he thought everything could be fixed just by the existence of a huge, scary, powerful, male authority figure, even if they weren't doing anything helpful or informative.

Atticus as V. The Hierophant

I like to think that our stones are sturdy and handsome, like the Corgis that crafted them.

Atticus is a figure of traditional authority who deeply loves the history, society, and culture of his people. He often provides spiritual wisdom and encourages Tulip to get out of her own head and engage with the world around her. Also in Persona, Hiero is the Dad Arcana so it's very funny to me (a) to make the little dog be Hiero and (b) that the little dog really does have the strongest Wholesome Dad Energy of the whole cast.

Jesse Cosay as VI. The Lovers

Don't tell me what to do. I'm not going to be a part of anything like this, on or off the train.

This was my first and easiest pick lol, Jesse is sooooo Lovers. Like, the focus on choice and personal values and relationships? Yep, that's Jesse. It works on an "actual meaning of the Arcana" level and a "vibes with the Persona characters" level lol... popular, upbeat, and having such an identity crisis.

Lake as VII. The Chariot

I'm my own person, who is getting off this train!

I don't know if Chariot captures all the ways Lake grew over the course of S2, but I feel like they had the most externally focused conflict of all the IT characters, which suits Chariot. They've been fighting to stake out their personhood from start to finish, and they took action and used their willpower to achieve that goal. Also they have at least a little jock energy which is a prereq for Chariot tbh.

Frank as VIII. Strength

I dunno, I kinda imagine him as a simple man and easily underestimated, but with a lot of heart. The Cat may say they're keeping things casual but I don't think she'd take him with her on her private vacation unless he had some kind of inner toughness that would let him stand toe-to-toe with her.

Morgan as IX. The Hermit

I need to be alone right now. Kez... maybe... we can talk later.

I like that Morgan embodies toxic self-isolation and stonewalling and rejection, but that she seems to be moving towards the positive aspects of Hermit and taking some time to calm down and process and think. I like it when characters can embody the best and worst of their Arcana.

Tulip Olsen as X. The Wheel of Fortune

We have to adapt to the changes in our lives. It's the only way things can get better.

Tulip has a lot of themes and conflicts, but this one is a clear standout as the most important. I also like it for Tulip because, while she has to handle a lot of difficult and even traumatic situations, some of the change that challenges her isn't as unambiguously bad as e.g. the death of a loved one. It really is just change itself she's struggling with, and that's Fortune babey. Also, from the perspective of the train itself and lots of other characters, by reversing Amelia and One-One's positions again and changing how One-One administrates the train, Tulip is the one giving the wheel a spin. That's fun.

Lucy as XI. Justice

One of my friends once described the Justice characters in Persona as "the ones the player character is ultimately accountable towards", and I like to think of Lucy as kind of being that for Grace (...since Hazel has excused herself). Lucy is the Apex kid we see Grace interact with the most, the first Apex kid Grace admitted to herself that she had harmed (see Grace very briefly showing distress and then regret when Jesse points the harpoons at his face and she stops him), and the first person to confront Grace when she came home in The New Apex.

Min-Gi Park as XII. The Hanged Man

I don't know if we'll sell a single album, but we'll figure that out as we go.

Min-Gi sacrifices his "realistic", "sensible" goals for a more personally (spiritually, even?) enriching life that's beyond his control and outside of the expected norm. Like the Hanged Man, who dangles foolishly upside-down, but as a deliberate choice and in a state of serenity and enlightenment. I also think this arcana suits a reading of Min-Gi's character development as starting off going slower as a way to stall and live in denial, but then going slower with deliberation. Compare his arrogant insistence on refusing to act in The Astro Queue Car to his patience and care in The Castle Car and The Train to Nowhere.

Jeremy as XIII. Death

This isn't about the death of his family - I'm thinking of his reluctance to admit his number was going down. He cared about Morgan and Kez, and it's possible both that he may have really wanted to stay with them despite his exit and that that might even have been a healthy choice - they're real ass people with feelings and everything, not holodeck characters. But I also think Jeremy was using his life with them to avoid moving on out of that fog (because it was hard and it hurt and he didn't want to think about what that would mean for him and Morgan) and Morgan was enabling him.

Ryan Akagi as XIV. Temperance

Maybe the experience is the point. I wasn't just rushing you. I was rushing myself.

I think this one speaks for itself. Also, the other quote I considered putting here, from The Art Gallery Car: "You told me I can't appreciate the song without taking in the rest of the album. I need the whole package."

The Cat as XV. The Devil

I always do the right thing.

Honestly, this is one I really wasn't sure about. The Cat isn't a great pick for a lot of the meanings of Devil. She is definitely consumed by material comforts, and the short-term rewards of ignoring her issues at a long-term cost, though. This is more of a "vibes with Persona characters with this arcana" pick... Devil characters tend to start off being somewhat exploitative or even antagonistic towards the player character, and gradually showing a more conflicted and genuine side.

Amelia Hughes as XVI. The Tower

There's a hole in the universe where Alrick used to be.

Amelia's life is defined by catastrophe and upheaval - both those she's suffered and those she's inflicted on others.

Hazel as XVII. The Star

I'm going to keep loving you like you're still here.

When I think of "The Star" as a small but inextinguishable light in the darkness, Hazel seems like the obvious choice. Although we left her deeply wounded, I think she still has a flicker of her hope, faith, and purpose.

Grace Monroe as XVIII. The Moon

But it's unfair for me to tell you how to understand yourself. I mean, I don't even fully understand me.

Grace is probably the most complex and dynamic character on the show and hence one of the most difficult to place. I considered Empress, Strength, Devil, and Judgement for her... I think ultimately, lies and illusions are the most unifying theme of her character arc. Also, from a Persona angle, her pursuit of status out of a lack of true self-worth reminds me of Ai and Mishima.

Alan Dracula as XIX. The Sun

Brought together by the majesty of a superpowered deer!

I'm sorry dkjasfklads this is largely because I thought it was funny to have this completely inexpressive dead-eyed deer as Sun akfk but also... like... it kind of works okay!!! Think about the genuine joy and comfort and positivity he brings to Lake and Jesse (and me)!

The New Apex as XX. Judgement

"Then what are we gonna be?" "Guess we'll have to figure it out?"

This is kind of a Persona mythology gag again because of Judgement being a group social link near the end of the narratives of P3 and P4, when the protagonists have pierced through the lies and actually figured out who the villain of their game is and are ready to really start making progress.

0 as XI. The World

Ah, train does it again!

It's an ending and the completion of a journey, but also the beginning of a new one. And the world is literally what the passengers receive at the end of their train journey. Welcome home.

[greycappedjester]

Since I log the fanfictions I read, I’m realizing that June 19th marks the first day I read one of your fics! I read All in the Cards and was blown away by the storyline. Then, I continued to read your HQ series, the other cards fics, and your Dr.STONE fic too. I want to read your DC fics as well. I don’t know much background on it though, so I’m working on it. I just wanted to say how much I appreciate your writing and how it has honestly made this past year a lot better. With all that being said though, what’s your favorite thing/theme to write in each of your individual series? Like world building, relationships, etc.? Also, what inspired you to write in the first place?

Ahhh, thank you so much! This is honestly such a sweet ask and I am so, so glad that I could make your year better.

For what's my favorite thing/theme to write in each series, that's a tough one as a lot of times in changes; but, after thinking about it, I think these are my favorite things overall for each....

(I also thought I'd do something fun and put what my favorite line to write was in the last few chapters for the ongoing works. I always wonder what lines are people's favorite so figured it would be fun to add mine)

Hq at Hogwarts: I really love writing Oikawa and Hinata's relationship. Which is kinda an odd thing to say since they purposefully only have a few conversations spread out through each story. But, they're my two favorite Hq characters to write hands down and so I absolutely love showing them as foils to each other in the series. That said, I also love writing them (and especially Oikawa and Suga) as foils/parallels to the Giant and Hisashi (Suga's grandfather). I love both foil relationships and writing parallels between generations--especially if the next generation is completely unaware/uninformed of the previous generation's mistakes

Favorite Recent Line to Write: Kenma met his eyes and his voice broke: “Why am I the only one you have to hide?”

*Note: Okay, technically not the most recent chapter but fun fact: I wrote the Kuroo/Kenma conversation waaaay in advance and used it a lot as a reference to where I wanted this relationship to be headed and I viewed this line as one of the biggest break points (along with "I am waiting" from the dance)

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Cards: This one is the most tricky for me to think of one since it changes a lot. I love doing the world building for this one (like the huge long time line I have for the history of the country). I love writing fantasy politics. As I consider a Hearts Civil War story more, I'm getting back into the groove of just really love writing Oikawa's complicated relationship with being King. And, of course, I love writing Tsuksihima and Hinata's relationship

Favorite Recent Line to Write: Oikawa swept across the office, never seeming to pause for even a second as he pointed a quill at Iwaizumi. “So, tell me, are invasions just like a semi-annual thing?”

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The Hq/Scooby-Doo AU (Investigations Inc.): the humor and banter

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Walking With My Eyes Open: I think this might be my favorite romance thing I've ever written. I really, really wanted to show a view of romance that emphasized the choice to be in love (and the work that goes into a functioning relationship). I especially wanted to do this with Hanahaki since this trope is so tied to the forfeit of choice on the patient's end and the inherent unfairness/weight on the person they're in love with. Couldn't imagine it with any other characters but Senkuu and Gen tbh.

Favorite Recent Line to Write: But, human shoulders weren’t meant to bear the expectations of divinity.

*Note: Lol, this scene got cut and reworded so many dang times in editing, the one thing that stayed consistently I feel like is me really wanting to keep this specific line

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After the Fall of Olympus: Three things and I find it really hard to pick which one is my favorite.

(1) I love that this story format lets me show the slow growth/aging of Dick as a character and (I hope) that each chapter shows how he's grown to the point that Dick at age 14 in Ch. 1 is noticeably younger in internal monologue than Dick in his 20s in the latest chapter.

(2) I love writing tricky political/social issues where all characters have their points and there truly is no write answer...with that, I love writing Dick and Jay Garrick's relationship.

(3) If I had to pick, I don't know if it's my favorite but I think it's the most important element of the story. I very much wanted to show a more realistic view of grief where it feels like the world ended; but, it's not actually an apocalypse. They recover. At the start of the story, it is without a doubt the lowest/most devastating point, but they rebuild. It's slow and there's set backs but they are rebuilding a world that isn't (and shouldn't be) the same but is there and is new and is important. I know a lot of stories that focus on grief view it as a tragedy and an end which it is in a huge way. There's the phrase "it gets better" but a lot of times I think it's viewed as "things will go back to what they used to be" which is understandably hard for people to believe because a lot of times, it fundamentally is impossible for what's lost to be regained. That doesn't mean it's the end of everything. I think sometimes we forget that the previous world (be it actual in this story or what feels like the entire world) may not exist anymore but something different can still be built. The new world and old should never be compared because they can't be. It won't be the same. But, it can be good and they can be happy.

Which is honestly the recovery of what Dick Grayson, to me, should represent rather than the constant grief/vengeance of Batman.

Favorite Recent Line to Write (technically the last line here, just doesn't make sense out of context)

“You need someone with you. I’m not just leaving you alone!” Selina shouts.

“No? Why not?” Dick spits back. “You’re so good at it !”

Selina flinches back and Dick is viciously, painfully glad.

“You don’t get to care just when it’s convenient, Selina,” he says and it hurts, a wound that’s never going to heal. “I needed someone eight years ago. I needed someone when Bruce died, when Batman was gone, and the city was falling apart, and you weren’t there. You didn’t call. You didn’t check on me. You didn’t even say bye. And that’s fine. I lived, I rebuilt it.”

He steps away. “But, you don’t get to come back now and pretend it never happened. I don’t have to let you just because it hurts either way.”

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Flash Facts of Bart Allen: Lol, what might be my least popular but in my opinion best written story. Favorite thing is Bart and Len's relationship hands down, followed by showing Bart's relationship with how he navigates the weight of the Flash legacy while feeling like he's fundamentally different than the Flashes that came before.

Partly since this is getting so long and partly because personal story, I'm putting why I started writing under the break.

I started writing for a lot of reasons.

My first fic--and the first book I ever finished--was the first Hq at Hogwarts story (Mirror of Erised). For background, I started the story when I was in my first year of getting my master's degree (which was surprisingly a lot less busy than my undergrad for a number of reasons but me getting sidetracked into that is a whole other ask about grad school).

My first reason I started writing was that I had more time. I'd had the idea for the story for years; but, I finally had enough details that I was like "okay, now, I gotta write it" so I did. I'll say exactly what the final straw was when I actually get the series finished since it's a major spoiler.

My second reason probably didn't consciously occur to me at the time but is what I consider the most important reason I write and continue to write. I fundamentally want to write stories that make people's days better. It doesn't have to be anything big; I just really wanted to write the kind of story that people could get lost in for a few hours when they're scrolling through AO3 and looking for a distraction. I wanted to write something with happy endings.

Here's the more personal part. I really don't mean this in a sad way so please don't take it as such. However, when I started writing and posting, my dad had just died completely unexpectedly a few months earlier and right before I had to move cross country for masters. It was definitely a hard time (though I had friends and a good support network, again please don't worry--it was years ago now). But, writing then definitely helped me be in a positive happy attitude while thinking of plots and friendships in my favorite anime that always puts be in a better mood.

My point here is that while that was never the reason that I wrote, it's something I reflect on a lot for why fanfic can be such a positive force. Someone can have either the worst day ever, a mildly inconvenient day, or a perfectly fine day and still want distraction. To have a community with both writers and readers interested in the things you're interested in. To have a site where fic can be easily shared and for free. There's something just wonderful about that.

So, most of all, why I write: I want to show people that care about each other. I want to make someone's day better and often that day is mine.

That's really all there is to it.

[jacksallys]

Percy Jackson for the character asks! 💕

general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them | actual love of my life — i? adore percy honestly, he’s such an incredible character. i wouldn’t say he’s like… comfort character level, which is why he’s not got the top “mark” ig or whatever idk, but he’s incredible and i have a lot of love for him

hotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous! | 10/10 would bang — if you don’t agree w me ur either not attracted to men or ur a liar /j

hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff — i don’t really get when people ?? say percy would be anything other than a hufflepuff. like yes he’s brave. yes he is a reckless mess. yes he’s ambitious and yes he’s so smart but. bby his fatal flaw is loyalty for a reason? he’s SO hardworking and although i don’t rlly see him as a patient person imo, he’s just ?? absolutely a hufflepuff i don’t care u can’t change my mind

best quality: loyalty — ok i feel like this might not make sense however. i project onto annabeth ok hfjdks and i feel like one of the reasons why her and percy work so well is bc? abandonment issues combined w unconditional loyalty is,,, a perfect combo. and i,, too have abandonment issues and would appreciate? a percy jackson who is so loyal to the point where,, it’s his downfall. pls

worst quality: temper — i know it’s mentioned pre-tartarus that he has a temper, it’s evident throughout the entire series, but i think esp w the events of heroes of olympus that must’ve gotten much worse, like i can imagine him losing his temper so so much and feeling,, awful and guilty over any situations where he did lose his temper?? idk if i’m explaining this right at all however. yes. that boy has a lil bit of a temper and i think that,,, in His opinion he’d probably think it’s his worst quality? like. he’d hate it. and also i’m kinda in love w him and cannot at this moment think of another single thing wrong w him ngl so. yes (also mildly scared of people w bad tempers despite being someone w a bad temper so. yes)

ship them with: annabeth — him and annabeth are. the only straight ship i think that i aggressively ship. i have so many thoughts abt them, they balance each other perfectly, anchor each other and they’re so mf perfect for each other it’s incredible. yes their relationship is probably,, not great in the fact that they depend on each other so badly but,, i’m choosing not to think abt that rn. it works for them and they’re cute. also they’re a perfect example imo of how,,, a slow burn ship can b evident from day one that? they’ll end up together however. they can still keep u on ur toes w a will they won’t they element. like. it’s not boring and a lot of people excuse “boring” relationships as,,, being like that bc they’ve never dated anyone else? but. percabeth idk just hits different you can’t change my mind i love them

brotp them with: grover — i cry once a day abt how much i adore percy and grover and honestly i think their relationship deserves sm more attention. grover is his BEST FRIEND, not anyone else. they’re the type of friends who,,, can not see each other for six months and pick up right where they left off. they literally have an empathy link. (wait did percy still have that in tartarus?? was grover ok?? bby???) like. grover is his ride or die

needs to stay away from: trouble — listen i am so glad that he and annabeth were a main part of heroes of olympus bc them and leo are honestly the only reason why i can get through that series, don’t get me wrong i love all of the other characters i just physically can’t read a book if i’m not Excited abt reading my comfort characters pov u know. anyway. i’m glad he was in hoo however,, i’m also v glad there wasn’t? a big role for him in trials of apollo or anything. he deserves a break and to like,, settle down in a flat w annabeth and get a cat or smth. chill out a bit. go to therapy and work through the trauma of,, two wars and falling into literal hell maybe. so yes. that

misc. thoughts: well written — i can list a lot of books where the protagonist isn’t my favourite character, or isn’t a character that i connect to a lot or particularly care abt, and percy definitely isn’t one of them. i feel like,,, he’s realistic and human in a way that makes him so special. his inner monologue is so funny and,, tbh i struggle a lot reading books in first person? but?? the first five pjo books r so so so easy to read bc he’s hilarious and. yes. my point is that rick did such a good job w him right up until he called him tragically straight bc percy jackson is bisexual and no one can argue w me abt that??? don’t bother?? he is ok

send me a character & I’ll answer the following about them!

[tundrainafrica]

Hallo, nice to know you in this platform. I really like your meta. It always gives me new insight every tiime I read them.

Speaking of your meta, I find it really interesting how you can take many references and elaborate them nicely e.g. aot ch139 meta, you took references about moral philosophy. Is it related to your work field now? (🤔)

May I know what subject did you study in college? Precisely, what kind of book you often read?

I'm sorry I send you manu questions at once 👉👈

Hi Anon,

Don’t apologize for the questions. It actually feels nice to know that people are actually interested in what I do. 

You took references about moral philosophy. Is it related to your work field now?

No it’s not haha. My life is a mess tbh and I have no idea what the hell I’m doing with it. Like I just randomly apply to jobs and try stuff and see what sticks. 

I currently work as a software tester and I’m studying coding now since a lot of my job involves troubleshooting, investigating errors and inspecting codes etc. Before that, I used to tutor people for entrance exams and I tutored athletes in the study hall. Before that, I taught Japanese and piano and I worked in human resources for a while lmao. 

May I know what subject did you study in college? 

I studied philosophy and theology in university because everyone in our school is required to take 4 semesters of philosophy and 4 semesters of theology and it kinda extended beyond that because I think I mentioned in a previous ask that I am really close to one of my English/Philosophy professors and we regularly went drinking together and we would discuss a lot of philosophy concepts and everytime I watch movies with my boyfriend (since we took the same classes) we always post process movies and TV shows together which makes me more perceptive to stuff I guess? 

But course wise was more of a math and science and technology person actually. I graduated with an economics degree and an environmental science degree and for a while I did research on behavioral economics and plastic pollution for a while after college since two profs asked for my help and i suck at saying no.

When the pandemic happened,  both projects were suspended since we didn’t have much funding for either of them anymore. I had plans of taking law and I took some extra lit classes and I did take some law units before I pulled out of law due to administrative issues with my classes and I didn’t want to quit my job at that time.

The only use my economics degree has now is it helps a lot when stock trading since it’s second nature to read the market when stock trading. The only use of my environmental science degree is just the science background which makes it much easier to read technical wirting and do labwork.

Precisely, what kind of book you often read?

I don’t have a particular book which I enjoy reading because I think I can read anything. But I really like depressing stuff haha like good earth, one liter of tears, a summer to die, the giver because I like the process of post processing books with people. 

I don’t really enjoy anthologies and flash fiction or those types of books or stories where years don’t pass, seasons don’t change like you know, Detective Conan or Pokemon because I prefer that the stuff I read makes sense on a grand scale like something so simple as seaosns not changing in stories or characters celebrating two Halloweens while being in the same year level just really throws me off as a reader. 

And I really like well researched books. I am the type to also yeet off something if I see a really glaring sign that someone hasn’t done their research like I can handle small errors like in Queen’s Gambit or Pawn Sacrifice, I personally think the players move too fast for it to be realistic but seeing things which can be easily resolved with a quick google search show up as a glaring error in a book really bother me like I have read fics were someone mentioned that san francisco was a one hour drive from LA and a fic where they gave a cancer diagnosis after a visit to the nurse’s office in school and I’m sorry I yeeted out of those fics so fast. 

One author who does incredible research with his books (which honestly gets me to a point where I read all his books) is Anthony Horowitz. Like even if there are continuity errors due to the timelines in the book, I kinda look over that because the amount of detail he goes into when describing sceneries and weapons and plans is just top notch. 

[authordgaster]

So I’ve always been more of an UnderTale centric blog, but I’m also in the Danganronpa fandom.

(Yes yes, Danganronpa, UnderTale, Kayne West, Fingers, MOVING ON!)

So I was looking at V3’s cast, and I thought to myself “hey! Shuichi is kinda like a Makoto/Kirigiri fusion.” And more than once I’ve seen AUs where Shuichi is there kid.

Then I thought of something. “Oh my god... are ALL the V3 members fusions?!”

And if you do the math, it adds up. 32 students from the first two games, 16 in V3.

So I went to work trying to determine if this theory bore any real fruit and started pairing characters (in a non romantic sense, this isn’t some big shipping post). When it came to determining these fusions, I focused on a few different traits for each character. For some it was their talent, others it was their personality traits, and sometimes it was both.

Some fusions admittedly make more sense than others, but I’m going to send each fusion and my reasoning for them.

Starting with Shuichi, who is a fusion of Makoto and Kyoko. (Side note, I’ll be sticking to everyone’s first names.) So the parts he got from Kyoko are pretty obvious, they’re both detectives and emo. From Makoto though, he gets the role of protagonist as well as a good amount of Makoto’s “good boy energy” or G.B.E. for short.

Next we’ve got Kaede, a Sayaka and Aoi fusion. Kaede and Sayaka have a few things in common. Their personalities are both cheerful, they’ve both got musical talents, they both wanted everyone to be friends, and they both jumped the gun and got themselves killed. Yeah... as for Aoi... uh... yeah this was one of those “I don’t really know where to put you so I’ll put you here” scenarios. I mean, Aoi ALSO kind of jumped the gun and almost got everyone killed, which is why I chose to put her in the Kaede fusion pair.

After our protagonists, who better than the rival? Kokichi’s fusion is easily one of if not the least surprising. He’s a fusion of Nagito and Byakuya. Like Nagito, he’s completely insane, obsesses over something (in his case lies) and he sacrifices himself in chapter 5, though for a relatively more selfless cause then Nagito. Keyword being relatively.

On the other end of the spectrum is Kaito, a fusion between Nekomaru and Yasuhiro. Hiro’s inspiration is pretty obvious once you think about it. There’s the jacket and it’s abnormal way of being worn, the airheadedness, and they both have space relations. (Didn’t aliens steal Hiro’s burger or something?) As for Nekomaru, well, it’s obvious right? He was a constant pillar of support for his friends and did exercises with Shuichi and Makinto help them both physically and mentally.

Speaking of Maki, she’s a Mukuro and Hiyoko fusion. Yeah, that’s a weird one right? Well here me out. The Mukuro part is obvious enough, she’s a solider and Maki is an assassin, each having a murder related talent, plus they both fell for lovable dorks. Hiyoko is another situation like Aoi unfortunately. The only common ground I could find was that Maki is kinda short and pretty mean at times. (Her talent could’ve been the Ultimate Tsundere tbh)

On the topic of short girls, Himiko is a Chihiro and Ibuki fusion. Yeah... definitely a weird one there. Chihiro has two main things that lead me to one conclusion. One is they’re both pretty meek except for when it comes to their talent. The other thing was that Chihiro was a tech wiz. Eh... get it, wiz? Right, moving on...

K1-B0 is a Hajime/Chiaki fusion. Like Chiaki, Kiibo is an artificial being, and then there’s the connections to Hajime. Both were evil versions of the Ultimate Hope, albeit unintentionally, and while Kiibo also has loads of G.B.E. he can also tap into his inner Hajime and be sassy as heck. Plus there was their problems revolving around their talents. Hajime wanting to prove he had a talent and K1-B0 wanting to prove his talent was useful, despite his numerous physical setbacks like being weaker and having worse eyesight than the average human.

Next is Tsumugi. Ah Tsumugi, at first I wanted to fuse Junko with Hifumi to make her, combining the Mastermind aspect of Junko with the weebiness of Hifumi. Then I realized that there was a more obvious fit. Twogami and his imposter talent practically mirror’s Tsumugi’s Cosplay talent. End result: Tsumugi is a Junko/Twogami fusion!

Rantaro is...uh... a Kiyotaka/Leon fusion...? Yeah I honestly didn’t know who to put with this guy and these two were just kinda there. I mean, Leon is a “ladies man” and I think Rantaro gave that vibe off? As for Taka, I would just look at him, and then Rantaro, and day to myself “yeah, that fits” for no real reason. Like, there were no grounds for my argument and even so! *sigh* moving on...

Ryoma is Fuyuhiko and Akane. This one kinda makes sense. Ryoma and Fuyuhiko are both smol men with baby faces that can be scary when they want to, and Ryoma and Akane both had it rough prior to school. Yeah I’m not too good with this one either.

Back to more realistic fusions, Kirumi is a Celestia/Peko fusion. Celeste’s goth aesthetic plus Peko’s unwavering sense of duty merge and that’s basically Kirumi in a nutshell.

Angie is Sonia and Hifumi. Angie and Hifumi are both artists, simple as that, and just as Sonia was the ruler of her country, Angie was basically the one running hers, not to mention they were both really weird.

I don’t like Tenko so I’ll make this fast. Mondo and Mahiru. I heard Mondo is supposed to represent toxic masculinity (but he’s portrayed in a way that makes his character GOOD!) and then there’s Mahiru with her constantly getting on guys’ case telling them that they should be doing all these things for no reason other than their gender. Put the two together and you get Tenko and her screaming about “Degenerate males” every five minutes. For someone who hates guys so much, she sure seems to talk about them a lot...

Korekiyo was one that was so obvious I kicked myself for not figuring it out sooner. Mikan and Touko. Touko’s split personality is the same as Kiyo being “possessed” by his sister, and his relationship with his sister mirrors Mikan’s relationship with Junko. Yeah, some dark basis for fusion reasoning, but it works.

Miu. Teruteru’s perverted personality meets Kazuichi’s technological prowess. Nuff said.

And last, but far from least is Gonta. He stronk and noble like Sakura, both sacrificing themselves doing what they believed was right, and he’s good with animals like Gundam.

WOW this took forever to write. Please comment or reblog with your opinions on this theory. How reliable is it? Should I switch some fusions around? Why? I take constructive criticism in stride.