#which points toward her arc being about her becoming a human being an not a hero

[pinkeoni]

If Will not the chosen hero then why give him an arc in s1 that follows the Hero’s Journey very literally. Why make him cross the threshold into the Unknown World. Why give him a literal death and resurrection and a return journey. Why code him as a hero through his narrative if inconsequential?

[mortal-song]

the problem with tua's ending is that it was IMPOSSIBLE to do without retconning and defacing the themes and characterizations that have been central to the story since the very first episode. if you had to end it that way, if it really was "the plan all along," then fine. there ARE good ways to do that -- so the execution should have been much different here if that was the case. take a look at "the good place," for example. everyone ceased to exist at the end of that story as well, but it was beautifully done because it ADDED to the show's core themes rather than take away from them. tua's ending was hollow and unavailing. at some point i have to commend the precision with which someone can desecrate an entire series and certain characters (looking at five, diego and lila especially) like this.

it made no sense. diego and lila formed a beautiful (albeit chaotic) relationship built upon mutual trust and authentic love that neither of them had ever experienced before. it was something they were teaching each other and learning together. that was a new beginning to them, and it was painted as such by the narrative. at no point were there hints that things would go sideways, no build up. every time they stumbled in the past it was still right back into each other's arms. at no point did their chaos look like an ending until it was shoved in our faces for... shock value? to shake things up? i fail to understand where it came from. they were relentlessly devoted to each other and the only two people who could stand each other for long. and so what became of them was very jarring. very messy.

five's ENTIRE character has been focused on and motivated by one thing: saving the people he loves. to the point that he was willing to let his own humanity become a forgone ideal, a renounced concept, as many times as it took. to the point that he essentially INVENTED TIME TRAVEL and INVENTED THE COMMISSION TO REGULATE IT. five's stoic exterior only barely concealed the claw-grip he had on every single family member, so why forget it now? why choose to go back on that? and in what world would five hargreeves willingly wait MONTHS to return to his family? because he was SUDDENLY in love with lila, no less? forgetting the very apparent fact that his age and body are not in alignment, five had never shown any interest in romance. especially not towards lila. but they do have very similar backgrounds, and so this was a chance to enrich the mutual understanding five and lila have with each other, expand the familial connections they have, especially seeing as how both of them -- in their own ways -- spent most of their life without that sort of connection.

ben's entire arc felt so, so out of place. completely and very ironically isolated from the entire rest of the series. nothing about it was fulfilling, nothing about it offered any sense of closure or even development. jennifer made no sense even as a plot device, much less as her own character. these two brought out nothing in each other.

klaus had the foundations of a good arc, but too much was introduced in too small an amount of time and none of it really went anywhere. i can say roughly the same for allison and viktor. THAT being said, of most of the scenes i did find myself genuinely enjoying this season, THOSE three were usually at the center! in fact, i really did love the scenes with klaus, allison, and claire. so that's cool. i guess. luther? he was just kind of... there?

and ray just fucked off with no explanation? okay. and reginald? until this point he had all the qualities of a potentially VERY GOOD and nuanced villain. his arc fell flat. and let's not forget all the other loose ends, but, you know, we've been here long enough. so. onto the next point.

none of these characters got to heal. none of them ever got to revel in anything meaningful, or, rather, the things that WERE meaningful across the whole series were rendered worthless because... none of it exists anymore! none of it ever existed! this is like an "it was all a dream" ending but much worse. and these characters are so, so incredible. i can only name a few other stories that have had characters i've connected to this deeply. and despite everything i could never really stop loving them. that makes it hurt more though tbh

anyways. i know i'm about to sound incredibly dramatic but the ending made me sob my lungs out. this show was really important to me. it led me to incredible people, other incredible stories, helped me live, etc. but i honestly found myself wishing i'd just never watched this series at all. the ending was eviscerating and Just Fucking Pointless. i don't think i'm ever going to be able to rewatch it. it's still hard for me to conceptualize that it was even real, that this is all we get. there's a lot more i could say about everything, but again, i've said a lot already and i'm not trying to write a fucking novel. i'll say more of what i want to in sporadic bursts i guess.

[normal-enderman]

I tend to care about taking a more realistic approach to Riptide in terms of resource management ect, so here's some random thoughts about clothes.

(minor spoilers up to episode #87)

Space management is important on a ship, so pirates tend to stick the essential clothing pieces, and change and wash them less than the average land-dweller.

Pirates don't smell great. This is just something you have to accept.

(except Gillion. Gillion smells of fish and salt and seaweed and the ocean, and never smells sweaty because he doesn't sweat in the human sense, he's just always moist)

Pre episode #87:

Chip has one shirt and one pair of trousers. When he needs to wash them, he will just walk around shirtless or in his underpants depending on what item is being washed. even for a pirate, this is a bit excessive.

he has like three pairs of underpants and he washes them concerningly infrequently

Jay has a change of clothes - she has a spare shirt and trousers, 2 bras that she alternates between, and several pairs of underpants. This is closer to the regular amount of clothes you would expect a pirate to have

After Chip lost his shirt in Allport, he borrowed Jay's spare one since I refuse to imagine him shirtless for the entire Feywild arc. My boy would be cold! :(

Jay is overall the most well-groomed due to her Navy upbringing. However, this isn't something she enjoys - more like something that she feels obligated to do. She finds washing her clothes a pain, and doesn't mind not smelling great or being dirty. As a kid she always hated washing and wearing uncomfortable clothes. As she spends more time on the pirate ship, she becomes less well-put-together and starts to drift more towards a Chip-level of cleanliness - though she promises herself she will never stoop quite as low as him. It's a matter of pride.

She does pick up his habit of walking around shirtless or in her underpants when she can't be bothered to get dressed / it's too hot / whatever. It's a pirate ship, social norms don't matter. Everyone on the ship is family and no-one cares.

She stops wearing bras when they are not on land for the same reason. However, when they come to land, she does make a concerted effort to make herself look socially acceptable and conform to standard norms regarding dress, since she knows this will get them a better reception with the land-dwellers they interact with.

Gillion's was raised to be well-groomed, but didn't have a chance to pack a change of clothes when he was kicked out of the Undersea. His clothes are stiff and encrusted with salt from all the time he spends in the water. There isn't as much of a need to wash items of clothing in the Undersea, as they are in water the whole time, and stains don't show up in the underwater gloom unless they're extremely obvious. Chip and Jay teach him how laundry works easily enough, and Gillion employs a similar strategy to Chip. However, he washes his clothes less frequently than they do as they are always being resubmerged in water anyway.

Post episode #87:

They finally get Gillion a change of clothes. He has an alternate shirt and trousers.

Since they have a bigger ship by this point, the crew has space for a few more fun/luxury items of clothing that aren't for everyday wear. Only a few - ie one special shirt - but it's still nice to have.

(Gillion has an emo band T-shirt) (yes they have emo bands in the fantasy world of Mana) (come on we all know at this point that the world doesn't conform to a consistent time period)

Jay realises she hates her current clothes because the starched sleeveless shirts she has been wearing, though they have become far less starched after a year of heavy use and improper wear, are very scratchy on her skin. She buys two softer woolen sleeveless shirts instead (ie the ribbed design a lot of the fanart of her features). She gives the old shirts to Chip

Chip buys the coat, which keeps his shoulders warm, and so he often prefers to go shirtless to show off his tattoos. However, he will wear Jay's old shirts when his tits get too cold.

[glassautomaton]

What Is the First Magic, Anyways? (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love FGO Spoilers)

Out of the five instances of True Magic, the Second and Third are known about in some detail, the Fouth is a total unknown from what I can gather and simply hasn't been expanded upon in the lore quite yet, and the Fifth being shown, but not explained in detail, which is its own post. The First Magic falls somewhere in the middle here, where a few vague things are known about it and the person who attained it, but not much in the way of details.

What we do know for sure is that the Magician of the First Magic was Yumina, the First Witch, who founded the Meinster lineage and used the First to create Ploys, which were passed down to Alice Kuonji, considered to be the last pureblooded Meinster by 1989 following the 'death' of her mother. Based on some information about Witches and the Meinsters in particular from the FGO collab from back in April, I think I can hazard a strong guess as to what the First Magic actually is: authority over Mystics/Mysticism itself.

Some spoilers for FGO's Lostbelt 6, though nothing critical to the plot, as well as this translation of Alice Kuonji's FGO profile.

First off, some basic information about Witches and Yumina that was dropped a solid decade after Witch on the Moly Night first came out, because Nasu's a fucking comedian:

This establishes a few things, first and foremost that Alice is actually Yumina's descendant, that Witches aren't human and are instead closer to faeries (although I'm not sure if they can be considered true faeries as this is phrased like they were created by an individual rather than born from the land or the Inner Sea), and that the daughters of Witches are essentially the next vessel for a singular consciousness, such that lineages are more like a single individual with several reincarnations. Not all of this information is actually completely relevant to this point but how insane is it that Alice got a lore drop for the first time in a decade and it was buried in the ass-end of a six-year-old mobile game? I just needed to get that off my chest.

Alice's profile reinforces this by seeming to allude that Alice's mother and her ancestors were all the same person, as well as the third paragraph using similar wording to how True Magic is often explained.

Crucially, the final line also states that Meinsters stand in defense of Mystics from humanity's constant march towards order, which inevitably destroys Mystics by coming to understand them, as is one of the overarching themes in Type Moon in general. Yumina's lineage seems to be actively pushing back on this.

Knowing Nasu, I could stop right here. See, it's thematically cohesive with the Meinsters and Alice's character arc of growing past the reminders of her family's past and learning to appreciate the present, and thematic cohesion is really all you need in Type Moon, established lore and rules be damned.

However, I think that my point is supported by the Ploys, which are all products of the First Magic. We'll start off with the Three Great Ploys, which we know were created by Yumina proper and not any of her later descendants/incarnations.

Flat Snark, Oil of the Moon, is the Great Ploy that's featured most prominently in Mahoyo. This is pretty straightforward - the prose in the scenes that feature it describe it as Magic, and it functions by transforming the world inside of its domain into a landscape of fantastical insanity. It is, quite literally, draping the landscape in Mystics once again. Even the air becomes dense with mana, similar to the atmosphere in the Age of Gods (as shown in Absolute Demonic Front), when Mystics were at their most common and well-integrated, before humanity had begun to push it back as much as they had.

The Thames Troll is the second of the Great Three Ploys, and one that, at first glance, seems to be by far the most simple - it's a massive golem that can get stronger based on what it's built out of. Alice states she has poor compatibility with it, and therefore can only use its first two forms, that being wood and clay/brick/stone, with its final two forms being iron and steel, then silver and gold. Thames uses the environment to create its body, be it the woods the first time we see it or the brickwork in the park during Alice's fight with Touko, which would mean that further forms would likely do the same. As Alice says that the final form would overshadow even London, this would mean that Thames is capable of annihilating entire cities. However, considering it would need iron and steel nearby to do so, it could likely only become so powerful when being used within a more advanced human settlement, likely for the express purpose of destroying it. Therefore, Thames is the Ploy that most directly serves the Meinster's goals of opposing humanity and safeguarding Mystics.

The final of the Great Three Ploys, which isn't directly stated in Witch on the Holy Night but instead FGO, is Wandersnatch, which frankly could and probably should be its own post. There's a whole hell of a lot going on with that thing.

The long and short of it is that the Ploy consists of a dense fog, and numerous entities within it. Only by glimpsing Wandersnatch's true form in the fog can one escape, which makes the Ploy itself act as a microcosm for Mystics in general - it's an impossible, insurmountable obstacle that can only be weakened and overcome by observing it and learning more about it. It's little surprise, then, that Yumina herself choose Wandersnatch to inhabit while her current descendant doesn't yet harbor her consciousness - much of Wandersnatch’s presence has to do with Yumina attempting to exert more control on Alice in order to possess her and incarnate.

Ultimately, though, the smoking gun for me isn't one of the Three Great Ploys, but the most common one we see used: Diddle Diddle, Alice's favorite Ploy. This one has a simple function, that being that it strengthens Mystics in a certain area when dropped on the ground. Which is simple, yes, but also just absurd. You mean she can just crank out little Christmas tree ornaments that can singlehandedly counteract the one consistent force present in every single Type Moon property? She can just do that? Alice, and only Alice, can just say "nuh uh?" That's not attainable through normal magecraft, and has got to be an application of the First Magic through the Ploy. Considering how straightforward the effect is, it seems to pretty clearly point towards the First Magic being tied to Mystics.

As a final note, I also think this makes sense of Nasu's note that the First Magic was discovered after the Third but named as such for a special reason relating to its nature (although this is from an unofficial translation from the Fandom wiki so take this with a grain of salt). It would be very in keeping with what we know about mage society for them to say Mystics are more foundational and important than souls.

[crumblinggothicarchitecture]

Taylor Swift Can't Write- She is not a serious or important writer. She is blatantly normalizing cheating in her music.

Let’s talk about Taylor Swift’s honest attempt at coherent narrative -  

Just to be clear, the songs in question: Betty (2020), August (2020), and Cardigan (2020). 

In these songs, Swift, of her own insistence, makes a clear attempt at drafting together a coherent storyline. I, however, found her work lacking while considering it against the many thousands of other short stories I have read. It lacks any sincerity in giving the moment in which the characters experience self-reflection, or "Epiphany" moment, and growth.

An Epiphany is defined as a sudden spiritual manifestation- and it is this I would posit as something that Swift clearly lacks in her writing. She lacks the spiritual, or emotional, depth to accurately tell a so-called "coming-of-age" type story in which the main requirement is that the character has an "Epiphany" about the nature of life to signify them growing up.

I will explain:  

A short story- which I am analogizing to the multi-song arch from Swift- is typically meant to have an epiphany moment in which the main character finally calcifies the main point or the moral of the story. Without the impact of this moment within a short narrative- there is no arc, no moral, and therefore no real story.

Afterall, what is a story, but a coherent subsistence of writing aimed at identifying some universality of human existence (eg.) a moral, a point, or the main message? If I want to get philosophical about it (and I always do), narrative is the act of creation through which the particulars become implicit to a universal experience. Thus, it is a necessity of storytelling- to include the thematic message- or moral backbone of the work.  

Swift’s three song arc is intrinsically incoherent, so it becomes difficult to pinpoint exactly what each character is thinking or feeling. I would, however, suggest that through lines like “slept next to her, but / I dreamt of you all summer long” (“Betty” 2020), and lines like “I never needed anything more/ whispers of ‘Are you sure?’ / ‘Never have I ever before’” (“August” 2020). Therein builds an internal tension between the three characters, James seems to be lamenting his choices to sleep with August and ditch Betty for the summer; whereas August is honestly expressing the fact that this is her first time, so it becomes obvious this means a lot to her. First, we see James's apologizing to Betty saying that the other girl, essentially means nothing by saying he was dreaming of Betty all summer even while with August. We also get the other perspective of the other girl losing her virginity to James during the same summer in which he is thinking about Betty every night.

Already, all the characters are set up to be dislikable- which is not always to the detriment of storytelling. However, it is to the detriment of her storytelling that at no point Swift makes use of external POV, or internal POV, to show any form of personal growth or condemnation of the intuitively morally corrupt actions of James here. Thus, there is no real story- according to the theory of “short-story” telling I laid out above.  

It is her lack of condemnation towards cheating- and the immature irreverence James treats August with- that solidifies this arc as being a rather poor attempt at coherent narrative. Simply, Swift is either an inept storyteller- or she is blatantly normalizing cheating while also treating “the other woman” like a placeholder. (Clearly, Anti-Feminist rhetoric, btw). It’s especially bad that this storyline reaches no “moral of the story” since it is so obviously August’s first time. 

The closest we get to any kind of meta-narrative commentary on thematic point, from Swift as the external 3rd person POV, is with this line “A friend to all is a friend to none/ Chase two girls, lose the one/ When you are young, they assume you know nothing” (“Cardigan” 2020). Again, her use of POV is rather amateurish- because she returns to internal 1st person POV with use of the word “you” in the latter half of the line- which leads me to believe she really doesn’t know how to inculcate the different POV’s into her writing. She’s an amateur- and there's is nothing inherently wrong with that, however, if we could all stop lauding her as literary genius when she is so clearly not that would be “awesome.” Thanks.  

She continues the rest of the song back into Betty’s 1st person POV. The poignant nature of this line about "losing one girl" doesn’t land because the rest of the song is about how James is returning to Betty. Swift writes, “I knew you’d miss me once the thrill expired/ and you’d be standing in my front porch light/ And I knew you’d come back to me” (“Cardigan” 2020). Beside the fact that this line is internally incoherent held up against the setting of “Betty” which is broad daylight, so James would not actually be in the porch light if the sunlight suffices, it is also quite obviously the culmination in which Betty is taking James's back. If there is any thematic message here- and I can only loosely believe this is an actual message here- Swift is saying that cheating is Okay as long as the girl, you actually respect and want, is willing to forgive you.  

And I’m supposed to enjoy this arc? People are supposed to be impressed with Swift because she came up with this garbage?  

She clearly has no grasp on Narrative coherence, no grasp of utilizing POV switching to make narrative more emotionally impactful, and no grasp on how to embed a good moral of the story into her work. So, she has none of the markings of actual great writer.  

The effect of all this is a subterfuge of lackluster emotional appeals- and a toxic love triangle that never resolves into personal self-reflection or growth. The story devolves into blameless banality with no personality or literary value whatsoever- just a reiteration of self-centered egoism that enables James to act without thought to the feelings of others. This is what Swift propagates as good storytelling? Is this morally sound story telling?  

Let me further drive my point home by dichotomizing this pitiful attempt at narrative coherence with the work of a literary genius, James Joyce.  

Has anyone here ever read “Araby” (1914) by James Joyce? (Sidenote: If you love when Hozier talks about issues of British colonialism in Ireland- you will most likely enjoy James Joyce as well- if you love critique of both organize religion and its sociohistorical ties to colonialism- you'll love Joyce).  

My critique too- ties into Joyce, where he showcases the blissful ignorance, or naivety, of youth in pursuit of love, Swift showcases no such thing. She is often praised for her juvenile writing schema- yet in her most overt attempt at writing a youthful romance she fails to interject the most important aspect of youth- Naivety versus painful realizations. In adulthood, when we all reprise the past, and trace back into our memories, we often speak fondly of the naivety of youth- with a little knowing twinkle in our eyes as young people around us make the same mistakes we did. It’s so beautifully human to reflect like this- and Swift manages to add nothing of this universal human experience into her work, even though it is often said that her only saving grace is the ability to capture “teenage petulance” and the proclivities of youth. In other words, I’m saying she’s not even doing the thing she’s known for well enough. She writes this love story like they’re all a bunch of bitter adults, not kids stepping into thoughts of love for the first time. There’s no simple wonder at love- instead, she writes about cheating and feeling jaded. Ditching people for the summer only to come back to the first girl with an "I'm sorry" and "she meant nothing."  Where is the personal growth in a story like that? In which James gets away with saying "she meant nothing," and August is not shown having any agency or reclamation of self after James essentially uses her. Then, to top it all off, Betty most likely gets back together with James. There is no growth to speak of in any of this- it does not qualify as a "coming of age" story- nor does it particularly qualify as a story at all.

This is like English Creative Writing 101 class- btw. It's strange that Swift does not grasp concepts I've taught to college freshmen before. If the freshmen can handle learning it- surely Swift could also be able to learn and improve the thing she does as a job? Right? No?

 “Araby” is a story of a similar predicate to Swift attempt at narrative. So, I thought it most apt to include here as an example which also employs use of Epiphany in short story telling.  

In quick summation, “Araby” is the story of a young boy who has a rather intense crush on a neighbor girl. He promises this girl that he will go buy her something at the market, and in doing so sets off a sequence of events which leads to his ultimate disillusionment with the ideals of youth and love.

Early on in his character development, we see a boy who has an overly romantic view on life, with lines like “All my senses seemed to desire to veil themselves and, feeling that I was about to slip from them, I pressed the palms of my hands together until they trembled, murmuring: ‘O love! O love!’ many times” (“Araby” Joyce). He is so clearly caught up in the longing for this girl- that he truly forgets reality for a moment. His senses slip from him, and he is fully immersed into the lost revery of his little crush on the neighbor girl. Then, like magic, she speaks to him for the first time the next day. She asks him if he will go to the market, and he responds eagerly- Yes. He promises to buy her something.  

The conflict of the story happens at this point- the young boy meets every obstacle in life preventing him from getting to the market on time. He struggles to find money and then he struggles to find the time in the midst of his other obligations to his family. Joyce is clearly showcasing how our romantic visions of life, of everything going perfectly and romance being easy, can so easily be disrupted by the realities of poverty and the responsibility we all bear for family or others.  

The end of the short story outlines the “moral of the story” in which the young man, now nearly too late for the market and without enough money to actually buy anything, with the last refrain that “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger” (“Araby” Joyce). Thus, Joyce drives home the "epiphany" moment, or the self-reflective moment of character growth, as it pertains to the fruitless endeavors of youthful vanity in romance. Stating, essentially, that people only dream of overly romantic scenes to bolster their own perception of reality as something that should go perfect for them. Life is not perfect, nor is it ever fair, and nothing happens as fantasy suggests it should- this is the hardest, and often the first, life lesson young people ever face. Anguish and Anger. What a beautiful phrase to remark upon- as this poor young man realizes life is comprised mostly of being “a day late and a buck short.”

This intensity- this moral backbone is what brings the story to life. The way this story enumerates the youthful hope- to the burgeoning adult reality- as something full of anguish -allows readers to bridge empathy towards others as WE all grow up in a difficult world. This is the "Epiphany." This appeal universal human experience, through particular circumstances like that of a young man in early 1900’s Dublin, is what is missing in Swift’s work. She gives us nothing but her own selfish refraction of immoral behavior without any appeal to greater human impulse or discovery.  Her work rings hollow in the face of actually talented writers like Joyce. She lacks the same depth, sophistication, and ability to actually make the story into a narrative arc.

She claims to write about teenage, coming of age-esque, discovery yet lacks any ability to actually showcase, with empathy, the ways in which anguish at their own naïveté presupposes teenage petulance.  

She writes out the most shallow- surface level depiction of some b-plot from a bad fanfiction and wants to pretend that she is a literary genius. Yawn. 

Addendum- I am aware that “Araby” is also a story predicated on ideas of Freedom vs Colonialism. To those of you who know the story well, I hope you don’t mind I choose to focus in on the “coming-of-age" part of the story in order to more clearly connect it to Swift’s work. I am not, however, ignoring the real sociohistorical implications of poverty, colonialist attitudes, and human rights thematic points in the story. I know.  

“Araby” by James Joyce is free at The Project Gutenberg eBook of Dubliners, by James Joyce  

[zonedelicious]

In the X-Men fandom this scene is constantly brought up to call the character Noriko racist, call the entire book racist, and even call the fans and writers racist. And as a Muslim fan of Academy X I am very confused at this harsh reaction because to me it is obvious the story is siding with Sooraya.

For starters X-Men can be very VERY racist and islamophobic. I've recently been reading Claremont's New Mutants and it's painful how racist that book is to Arabs. I wanted to stop reading because of the racism.

But I do not get this reaction from Academy X, which is my favourite X-Men book.

I think a lot of people don't know what kind of book Academy X is. Academy X is a book about delinquents. The main characters are a bunch of asshole kids. The appeal to me is seeing these shitty kids grow and become better people. Yes they make mistakes that's the point. They're stupid kids.

Noriko is one of these kids. She was homeless at a young age because of the poor relationship with her family and because of this she's afraid of ever showing any vulnerability. Choosing to rather lash out at others. It's a realistic coping mechanism.

The scene with Sooraya shows this as Noriko is projecting her own trauma onto a poor girl who only wanted to be nice to her. Yes it's shitty but that's the point. We're seeing how their personalities and viewpoints clash, and how Sooraya is challenging Noriko's beliefs.

I do not see how anyone can read this as the book being racist when the scene even shows Sooraya sad. Something like this never happens when an X-Men book is actually islamophobic. Yet people never react as harshly to actually racist X-Men books as they do to this.

It's actually very similar to a scene at the start of Ms Marvel, where Zoe is racist to Nakia. We can clearly see both scenes are suppose to make you feel uncomfortable and make you side with the Muslim girl. And both Zoe and Noriko are humanized despite being bullies.

We even get a conclusion. Some say this isn't enough, but remember that Noriko refuses to show emotions, so the fact she's willing to go against her instincts here is interesting. It's more interesting to me than simply having a generic anti racism speech.

Again Sooraya is entirely humanized here. The comic is understanding of her struggle. I do disagree with the way she's drawn at times, but the writing makes her a character I could relate to. And reading this conclusion only makes me more interested in both characters.

Sadly neither character ever got a proper character arc after the comic ended. But to me that just makes me wish there were more comics of this group where we do see Sooraya and Noriko become close friends like Nakia and Zoe. It makes me think of writing my own story with them.

I love this book and what it means for Sooraya. I love seeing Sooraya's relationship with the Hellions, Jay and Laura. This is still her definitive comic, so why are we dismissing it entirely because of one scene that exists to make us relate to her?

It's very strange that this one scene, that to me is well made and relatable, is being used as a way to hate the characters, the comic, and everyone who likes it. Most hate isn't even coming from Muslims so is it just performative outrage and misunderstanding?

Or maybe this scene hits at home for some people? With the conversation being very realistic and grounded, people may see themselves in Noriko. Maybe they had a similar reaction towards a Muslim girl and are remembering it.

Noriko's stance isn't even that different from ex Muslim feminists who say similar things. The issue is how she is projecting onto Sooraya. And maybe that's what makes people uncomfortable. The complexity this conversation has in the real world.

Whatever it may be, Noriko still clearly grows after this arc. We do see her become a great leader who stands up for her friends. And even if she has issues to deal with, she was slowly becoming a better person.

In conclusion I love this book because it's relatable in how it portrays its characters. I like Sooraya being a Muslim character who's also a protagonist and a big part of the story. I hope more people give this book a chance and see the charm of it that I see.

Anyway time to go listen to anime music and imagine my OCs hanging out with the Academy X kids (need to draw that one day).

[heartgold]

Something ingenious about ep3 is how Battler is at his worst here but in a markedly different way from his ep1 characterization... Also it's meta!Battler who acts that way rather than his piece, which marks not only the author shift but also this depiction being deeply allegorical

Like. Ep3 meta!Battler is super dismissive of Beatrice even as she tells him about the most horrific parts of her trauma through a fantasy lens that doesn't even obfuscate the worst of it (and Battler actually... manages to decipher it with some prodding from Ronove), and yet he still brushes it off. His relationship to Beatrice in the meta layer is super antagonistic at this point. He correctly figures out that she's confessing to something very painful but doesn't care to think about it or why she's bringing it up because she has already been characterized as a heartless cruel monster in his eyes, therefore she hasn't earned his sympathy and good faith. It might as well be a trick just to confuse him

The way their relationship improves the moment she starts "reforming" and acting all cute and pitiable is important because it shows her both playing into his fantasy of "fixing" her and making her change her ways just to sweep the rug from under his feet and prank him about it at the end AND playing into this good victim fantasy for herself and genuinely relishing in the understanding and good faith he was willing to extend to her once she played the role he wanted her to (this is blatantly Sayo's complex with becoming the person others want her to be in order to deserve their love... It hurts........)

This marking the author shift and being a meta-only dynamic is super interesting to me  because it can mean so many things. I like to think of the metaworld as a representation of the journey in understanding the story from within. We know that from the IRL angle Tohya wrote ep3 while not knowing the full truth and believing Eva to be the most likely culprit based off snippets of memory and her survival. You could read Evatrice claiming the role of the antagonist while Beato goes through a "redemption arc" as Tohya struggling with his memories, deep down knowing the painful truth but being unable to access that memory or accept it, therefore pointedly scapegoating Eva to process his feelings of guilt and grief towards the witch

But by wishing her to be blameless and pinning everything on someone else he is neglecting her heart and looking away from her true feelings, from all the things she wanted to communicate and from all the circumstances that brought upon the tragedy (and ultimately, from Battler's sin). I can see this internal struggle being meta-translated as ep3 Battler being selfish like that and refusing to engage with Beatrice until she becomes "good"... You can feel a lot of self loathing in it. It's a rocky start to their parallel journeys until they both Get It and it's so interesting to me how, in hindsight, it's very clear that it truly starts when the stories change hands

Overall it's a VERY good discussion of projection, with the added lens of how we engage with stories. How only seeing what you want to see flattens the complexity of humans into characters. Beato's "redemption arc" is tropey for a reason! She even shouts out dating sims and anime as the inspiration for it to make it clear this was just her reducing herself to a character archetype! Umineko is very critical of the idea of redemption in the first place and it really shows here

[louwhose]

I love Frieren and Himmel's relationship so much and I mean of course I do there's so much to love. An elf that thinks a human's life passes away in the blink of an eye and human that loves her? I'm already hooked. But add into that he doesn't say anything because he knows nothing will come of it with how she views things when he knows her and is content to just admire her for all she is as she is? The fact that she cares for him in spite of thinking his life is so short and getting to know him in the time they were together but regretting not coming to know him better after he died? I mean she's literally following their journey and remembering him along the way and the end destination is the chance to see him again, but I feel like she'll realize she truly know and loved him even if they never reach heaven.

And there's just. So many tiny details. I will try to recount a lot, but I'm sure I won't get all of them.

Frieren remembers so much about him. Regardless of where they go, it's usually a memory about him more than anyone else. She remembers his favorite flower, and takes the time to find it (though she doesn't consider time a least bit rare commodity). And she remembers it, which means that even though at one point she didn't try to learn about her companions, she afterwards made the point to remember their favorite things. And when she talked with Old Man Voll, who was regretting losing his memories of his late wife and asked if she could still remember her companions clearly, she refused to consider that she ever won't. She considers their memories that precious.

And then there's Himmel. Oh my goodness. Beyond just his initial attraction, the way he's always fascinated by her magic and her making enough of an impression on him at a young age that he sought her out years later for such an important quest is delightful. And did I mention that he just loves her magic? BECAUSE HE DOES!! And it helps her to love collecting her weird spells that much more, so good and supportive, Himmel.

And fear not I shan't neglect to mention the mirrored lotus ring because I am incapable of being normal about that scene. He had Frieren choose a ring (my respectful man there where can I get me a Himmel) and when he saw which one she chose he knew what it meant and chose to present it to her in a way that was sure to be memorable to her. Even though she didn't yet know the meaning of it, once she does, she can look back on the memory of him pledging his love eternally to her, an immortal, in spite of his mortality. He may be content to never say it, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't like her to know.

And now I am going to talk about a manga arc that ends on like. Chapter 118/119? So spoilers if you choose to proceed any further.

Frieren has spent so long now working towards seeing Himmel again and then she. GETS TO SEE HIM AGAIN!!! I am certain that if I scoured this arc I could find soooo many details for them (and I am tempted but instead I will focus on a few details that come to mind and analyzing one very specific thing about it.

Just. Himmel saying he likes who she's become, not having any clue that he was a major influence for her becoming that way. I just love that he appreciates her at every stage she's at it's just so uwu. and then when FRIEREN said he's a ray of light??? omg omg omg omg oomg I die they both just see the best in each other and I live for it.

And Then There's The Wedding. If you read this far on this and didn't expect me to gush over this part here is where I disillusion you. Himmel's feelings for Frieren have been pretty obvious up to this point, but seeing that he would in his ideal world want to marry her and spend his life with her is GRAHHHHHHHHHH there's no words to describe it. and like. Frieren is there too? how am I supposed to interpret that but as her own paradise? even if it's as a looser interpretation of she wanted to spend all of Himmel's life with him??? INSANEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeee

and then the fact that Himmel had his dreams presented before him, but he felt something was off, and didn't take advantage of it. Not even for a kiss. THIS RESPECTFUL MAN what is there not to like if anyone is good enough for Frieren it is without a doubt him. and the way they work together to get out of it???? oh man I love it

idk I just love their dynamic I think it's great and full of unfulfilled potential and I hope they get something some kind of closure if Frieren really does make it to see him again I just really love thinking about them thank you for coming to my presentation

[my-drama-heart2406]

Okay everyone, so here's my piece on the "Han Daon is Satan" issue. And I stand... on affirmative.

So I'd like to take credit and say that I called it(I'll tell you why), but then I wasn't sure of myself and somebody else did call it on Tumblr so...

But here's my pov. Han Daon being Satan would actually make a lot of sense. Does it raise a lot of questions? Ofcourse, but none that can't be answered.

So while everyone started talking about this since the recent episodes, I got the idea of Daon being Satan wayyy back in ep 5, when Daon barged into that demons comittee meeting. See Daon is VERY SMART. But when he was told the Satan and Kylum fairytale story he acted completely clueless as if he didn't understand a word the other demon said. Which seemed kinda odd. The point that hit was that all of this supposedly happened 26 yrs ago. Daon's family was killed in 1999, 25 yrs ago. Suspicious 🧐.

And I thought hey wouldn't it be fun if Daon was actually Satan? It would be so ironic that Satan is standing, openly chilling in a meeting about where and how to find him. But then I blamed my twisted brain for making up all this bullshit. Turns out it wasn't bullshit, because apparently everyone was thinking the same thing.

Which brings us to our first question how did Satan get into Daon's body? Which can be answered very easily. We see from Daon's perspective many times, the serial killer walking towards him, his shadow looming over Daon's little form, we never see after that. Now we've seen and known lot's of stories where the serial killer leaves a victim alive to pass down the trauma. But considering that he killed Daon's parents and brother, he didn't have any reason NOT to kill Daon too. So what if he did? What if Daon was killed too? What if Satan was roaming around looking for a body and saw this boy and his family getting murdered and chose to inhabit him? Like @musings-of-a-kjdrama-addict said in her post, what if the narrative from our ML's perspective is already flawed?

But going by Daon's priorities, he had followed Bitna there because he suspected her of murder and wanted to get evidence, or at the very least get some info about her. Which then became obvious that it wasn't going to happen because 1: all the demons over there were meeting Bitna/Justitia for the first time. And 2: Justitia introduced him as "Poppy", her driver, also a demon. So when Bitna tells him to go back, he doesn't have any reason not to, instead of maybe just to rile Bitna.

Watching n no. of dramas has made it clear to me that writers don't do anything reasonlessly. So the whole purpose of the ML to be there just to see a side character demon, who has around 5 min screen time, cry to later making it an arc about another character(arong killing demons who feel) seems... strange.

Ofcourse there's the question of Daon's strength. If he's a demon, Satan at that, shouldn't he be strong like all other demons or infact stronger? Who knows, maybe he is, but after living in a human body he's learnt to control it? Now, using simple human strength is like normal nature to him? Or maybe, and this is more probable, he doesn't have demonic strength. See the other demons were all sent to earth, on missions. Officially, as demons. But Satan fled from hell. Maybe the rules change when a demon leaves hell of their own volition. Maybe that's why he stole the kylum. We are told that with the help of the kylum someone can become immortal even in a human body. But there's no shortage of dead people, and seeing that Satan is on the run, he can just escape from one dead body to another and keep living. (Ofcourse it would be very difficult to find one as gorgeous as Han Daon)

Ofcourse a lot of guesses for Satan was Arong, but she already had a reveal with a twist. The writers won't put 2 big reveals on the same side character. I read in a post that maybe the Assemblyman is Satan. Which is okay but... Given the demonstration of demons in this show, wouldn't Satan be someone cool and hot? Also logically Satan fled from hell 26 yrs ago, the Assemblyman would have already been in late 30s or early 40s by that time. Seeing that Satan had lost the Kylum why would he choose to inhabit a middle aged man? Wouldn't it make more sense for him to choose a child so he can live for a longer time, and so would have more time to find Kylum?

Now on how he remembers his childhood? Maybe the conditions are different for Satan than other demons. Maybe he can remember the memories of the human body before death.

As far as detectives are concerned the main highlight is on 2 of them: Han Daon and Kim So Young. Kim So Young is the perfect role model detective. She's smart, intuitive, patient, doesn't lose her calm, and she wants to help people. Daon has all these characteristics too, except he's much more extreme. A thing that stood out to me since the beginning of the show is Daon's intense need for doing the right thing. To make sure that perpetrators are caught and criminals are punished for their crimes. He goes out of his way to make sure that the victims are protected. He hid under the bed of the murderer to catch Bitna, he made a scene in court and made everyone listen to the recording when it wasn't admitted as evidence. He loses his calm so many times infront of the criminals. He's so hell bent on punishing bad guys that he told So Young that sometimes he actually wants to kill these people.

While these can be simple human charactersistics, you know who else is also hell bent on punishing criminals? Justitia. A demon from hell.

Imagine the no 1 authority in hell, who'd want to punish criminals more than him? But then he's on earth in the body of a small child. And he couldn't even help to catch the psycho murderer because he was a child, because no one would listen to him. So he grew up learning and perfecting ways to punish criminals. Lawfully. And then comes another demon from hell, here to punish criminals and then she openly mocks those laws that he abided by and wanted to uphold, just to punish the criminals in the perfectly deserving way that he had wanted to do for so long. Which is why he's so he'll bent on catching her.

And there shouldn't be any argument about his very human emotions. It took Justitia only a few months to fall in love. We see even other demon who've stayed on earth for a few years develop human emotions. So it isn't surprising at all if he's very human after 25 yrs on earth.

And lastly remains the matter of the cross. Honestly if this is your only argument against Daon being Satan, it is a very weak one. It can be entirely intentional of the writers to keep it there to deviate us from thinking that Daon is Satan. And when we see Daon initially, he's not wearing the cross, it's hanging from the rearview mirror in his truck. And when Justitia asks him if he's religious he deflects the question and changes the topic. He starts wearing the cross only because he could use it against her.

Also Daon being Satan would save the story, in a way. Because how do you see this ending. The logical one would be Justitia finishes her mission and goes back to hell, and Daon continues being a detective. Wouldn't the story make more sense if Daon is Satan. Satan's introduction was Arong telling Bitna about him and saying that if a demon catches him he would surely be rewarded by Bael. We see Justitia willing to merge hell and heaven for Daon. It would be the paradox of the century if it turns out that he's Satan and now she has to turn against all of hell to protect him.

Like I said Daon being Satan would explain a lot of things. Like how he has this insane unhumanly amount of rizz.

Or Daon is human, and I could be completely wrong and this could be just my twisted brain not being able to wait for the next episode and ranting on Tumblr when I should be studying.

[proffesionalalpaca]

I need more theories about Avatar 3 because I'm going to go crazy until the premiere 😭 I'm so curious how Spider will react if Quaritch really joins Ash's na'vi or worse kidnaps him again and forces him to join too

Let me just get my hat on *rustles of foil*

-

To put it simply I think if Spider was to find out Quaritch had joined the Ash clans, he’d be a mess of conflicting emotions: both pride at the fact his ‘not-dad’ is capable of connecting with Pandora and the Na’vi like that but also, from the nature of the ash people, be disappointed in who he has decided to connect with.

But for comedic effect here’s the initial reaction:

‘Quaritch joined the Na’vi’

Spider: YES!

‘It’s the Ash people’

Spider: FUCK!

-

Quaritch would, in my mind, definitely try to make his ‘totallynotmyson-son’ live with him, because being accepted by a group of Na’vi is what Spider wants right? But of course spider is a gentle person whose closest friend maybe the embodiment of Eywa herself, he wouldn’t want to be apart of a culture that values cruelty like severing and wearing kurus as trophies, or potentially having any affiliation with the RDA/human side of the war - who the ash people may be allying with.

I feel like the Metkayina will be where spider finds himself as a man and their pacifistic way of life being antithetical to his biological father would only attract him further.

The ash people will likely be the Opposite to everything the reef people & tulkun represent, much like their opposing elements - and while spider is a warrior at heart with an ever burning fire that may endear him to the ash people, I just can’t think he would be on board, though he would again feel conflicted if they were completely ready to accept him despite of all his differences. Everything he wants if he leaves behind who he is.

If Quaritch forced Spider to join the ash clans (which I don’t think it’d get quite that far but not for lack of trying on Mile’s part), Spider would resent his father for making him join the clan that’s trying to kill his ‘people’ (kiri, Lo’ak & etc…). It would, from in spider’s point of view, be little different from being forced to join the RDA directly.

-

Extra theory:

Themes of this film will likely be about war, forgiveness & rebirth.

War - obvious reasons but specifically about the cycle of violence of being wronged so you must take revenge which then creates the feedback loop of conflict that never ends. The ash people were likely on the losing side of a conflict/ many conflicts a long time ago and they still hold one hell of a grudge - which is why they’ll join the humans to defeat their ‘shared’ enemies.

Forgiveness - this is Neytiri’s theme, she needs to learn to let the past go in order to achieve inner peace and move on in her life without holding onto all that pain and anger. Especially towards Spider, where she’ll see that the ash people are the result of this blind hatred for the actions of one’s ancestors being put upon an innocent party. How petty & pointless it really is, especially how it can poison a person’s soul overtime. She doesn’t need to forget but to recognise that Spider and many humans are not all guilty of the crimes of a few terrible people. Maybe this will even aid in her journey to understanding humanities plight on Earth?

Rebirth - I’ve said before with project phoenix and the cultural symbolism of fire, there are huge indicators for rebirth to be a major theme and I think that will be Quaritch’s theme going forward as he sheds the identity of the human Quaritch and becomes the Na’vi man he lives as now, whether that is with the ash people or not is another matter but I think they will be crucial in finding his connection with Pandora, with Varang as a key point in this journey.

I also think from the leaks of spider that rebirth will be apart of his character arc, overcoming the limitations of his human body to truly be apart of Pandora. And kiri who could be reborn as the Avatar of Eywa herself.

[atla-confessions]

Please read, as follows, my propogandist persuasive bullet-pointed essay on why we all should consume far more Yuezula than is the current normal intake, and why Azula and Yue make the best pairing for both characters and indeed everyone involved.

The cage symbolism as connected to the reality of being a princess. At the beginning of their respective stories, both girls are in cages: Yue in the cage of responsibility and duty over love, and Azula in the cage of her own perfectionism and the propaganda of her rearing. By the end of their arcs, Yue unlocks her cage by making a choice and seizing back her autonomy, but at the same time transferring her straight into another cage of responsibility and immortality, as she loses the human life that she never really got to live. Azula ends up in the cage of her madness and a physical cage of the asylum, which she was in a steady course towards throughout the whole series. Both cages of their own making, and yet constructed by fate, which they are helpless against. Like parallels say what???

Both princesses without mothers. This isn't really touched on much in Yue's case, but Yue isn't really touched on much either, aside from what we can infer about her from what's shown. But the reality of both of them is that they grew up as princesses without a mother to guide/teach them. Ursa is a really cool and complex character, and this is by no means bashing on her, but she was at a loss for how to deal with Azula and guide her: Ursa's actions towards Azula were incredibly influential towards who she ended up becoming, and ultimately Azula did not have that positive maternal guidance. Neither did Yue (assumedly), and I think that Yue not having a mother to stand up for her and ultimately how she ended up with all that responsibility is reflective of Katara's situation at the beginning of the series. Now, this brings in Katara: why not yuetara? why not azutara? You raise an excellent point, but let me raise you another: Yukazula. That aside, as this is a Yuezula essay, I believe that yuezula makes a superior pairing because both Azula and Yue actually lived as princesses, and also, the vibes.

They would be hilarious together. Can you even imagine? Yue would not put up with Azula's bullshit, as a fellow princess and enthusiast of keeping the universe in balance and sacrifice and everything: Yue basically contradicts everything Azula is and stands for, and vice versa. If they were tossed into a situation where they had to work together, neither one of them would be able to come out of that pairing unchanged. Yue would have to learn some selfishness in order to just survive with Azula, and Azula might actually learn some humility. I mean, Yue's the moon spirit, which far outranks her, so Yue would have to demand her respect in some ways.

Spirit wives. Spirit wives. Guys. Please. The ultimate power couple. Need I say more?

It has unlimited crack, angst, and fluff potential. Literally this ship is an untapped goldmine. Any au. The spirit world is super fun to play with, Yue's whole mysterious aura is super interesting to tweak and play around with, she's way underutilized in fandom anyway, and Azula deserves the redemption that a Yuezula relationship could give her.

In conclusion, please consider the unlimited health benefits of consuming and offering more Yuezula to the fandom. Please. We are starving.

X

[nuri148]

Hi, can I ask something? What do you think are Levi and Mikasa's greatest personality strengths and weaknesses? Why? What do you love about their dynamic? Since when that you start shipping them? What is your fav (canon) rivamika moments? Sorry if you've answered these questions before.....

P.s

Thanks for sharing your fics and for this blog of yours. Also, thanks to you, I start shipping Rivamika. See, I love Mikasa so much but I really dislike Eremika and can not understand that ship at all (don't mean anything negative to Eremika shippers). I'm okay with Armin/Mikasa & Jean/Mikasa, but I don't love those ships that much. Until I found your blog, read your fics and fall in love with Rivamika! Sorry for my rambling....

First things first, I’m so so sorry for taking so so long to reply!!! 🥺I’ve been quite busy lately irl and your ask calls for a proper answer. I think Levi is the least judgeamental character in AoT. This is in a virtuous circle with his kindness and selflessness, where those three qualities feed each other back . He’s kind and He’s a good judge of character, he’s practical, obviously he’s strong, both physically and spiritually. His resilience is extraordinary, after all he’s been through, he has not succumbed to rage, revenge, envy… Eren went through a smidgen of a fraction of what Levidis, and he decimated mankind for it. If Levi’s virtues are a bit hidden behind his gruff exterior, his weaknesses are there for all to see (is this a fault in itself?). He can be rude, he expreses anger and frustration in a violent manner—which is a result of his upbringing, granted, but still makes him look unapproachable. This can be good when facing your enemies as a soldier, but can isolate him from meaningful human connections too. I’m veering on hc terrain here, but for all his empathy he also strikes me as someone who’d be much less compassive/forgiving when it’s about “first world problems”. Annie killed his squad? No hard feelings, child soldier, all that jazz; you berate the waiter because he messed up your order? You’re dead to him. I’ve mentioned this before somewhere, but we have an idiom in my country for people who, like Levi, are not cut for polite social events, and its to be “coarse as a plough”, which is funny bc Ackerman means ploughman.

Mikasa is also strong af, and she pairs that with a calm demeanor… unless her loved ones are threatened ofc. In fact, I think Mikasa’s weaknesses are mostly her virtues going overboard: she has a fierce protective instinct, which is good up to a point but it becomes a problem  when she lets that override her judgement, like in the female titan arc. She’s determined, but that turns into stubborness. She’s loyal, but that loyalty turned into paralysis in the case of Eren; not only when it came to having to stop him, but also regarding her crush on him, which she probably wasn’t fully conscious of, hence her surprise and awkwardness when he asked her “what am I to you”.

I’m not sure at what point I started shipping rm; I do remember fretting when he was revealed to be an Ackerman, for fear that they could turn to be family, because I was already rooting for them. I guess I was initially attracted to the idea of the power couple, being the two most badass characters in the series. But I also like how she blooms under his guidance. He could have easily dismissed or bashed her for her protectiveness of Eren, but he teaches her to curb that zeal and keep it as a goal, not a trigger; he lends her his trust and allows her to become his right hand in battle. She in turn, despite her initial enmity towards him because of his display in Eren’s trial, is able to recognize Levi’s kindness and appreciate his leadership. He treats her not like a weapon, not like a silly girl, but like a full human being. Perhaps Mikasa is the one who most shows her fear of losing her loved ones, and that’s certainly something Levi knows about. Neither of them have time or energy for BS. It’s canon Mikasa wishes for a peaceful life like the one she had with her parents, and Levi to me exudes huge “I’m too old for this shit” energy (like jjk Nanami, another husbando) so I can picture them spending their afternoons in domestic bliss, fixing things around the house, tending to the garden, rather than going to town. He can give her reassurance and She could provide him with the family life he never had.

They’re both hot af, too. 😆 Imagine that Ackerpower in the bedroom...

In the end though, like in real life, it doesn’t matter much why you like it… You just do, and it makes you happy, and it hurts no one, so it’s fine!

Awww idk if being thankful or sorry that you started shipping rm because of me! 😅 Our ship is one of the most misunderstood of the fandom, and from time to time we get hate from antis, eruris and/or eremikas. But because of who they are, what they’ve been through and what they want, I think they make for beautiful fics where their relationship helps them fix themselves, rather than fixing each other. This is something that often comes up in the rm discord, how our fave fics are usually post-canon and about building a healthy relationship based on respect, rather than all the drama and toxicity of classic romance lit. (ofc we also enjoy a good old pwp… though you’ll still find a lot of established-relationship porn and porn-with-feelings fics.)

Thank you so much for your ask, and sorry again for the delay!

[snowswan-royalehigh]

My personal thoughts on Remarried Empress

Hi there! I'm not going into an too much of an in-depth analysis, so please take my words with a grain of salt. I'm going to focus on Rashta's past.

Rashta is a very well written character, she's shown to be naive and innocent, with underlying layers of cruelty and a character development towards greed which is wonderfully executed. However, the fandom refuses to allow her to have nuance to her character.

When the webtoon and novel start off, we already know Rashta is somewhat portrayed as a villainess, and during my first readthrough, I also wanted to sucker punch her in the face. (I would be publicly executed by Sovieshit) But when I reread I realized how much nuance I missed, and some nuance the fandom ignores entirely.

We start off knowing Rashta is a runaway slave. Which already starts us off on a generally sympathetic note, because we can tell she's had some form of a bad life prior to becoming Sovieshit's concubine. We know she has an annoying habit of speaking in third person, she's a crybaby, she's incredibly controlled by her emotions, she lacks critical thinking skills, and she doesn't even know how to read or write.

Rashta is incredibly easily manipulated, she shows that with her interactions with Sovieshit and especially Duke Ergi. Duke Ergi influences almost all of Rashta's moves, such as the Christmas tree wedding dress, which was a huge embarrassment. In defense of Rashta's lack of knowledge, she was a slave. How was she supposed to know about how these things, when she had spent her life, being forced to clean, with no hope of escaping. She hadn't even done anything to become a slave in the first place, she was made one so her father wouldn't have to pay for his crime. She was uneducated as can be. Reading and writing at that time was only for the highborn.

Rashta is confirmed to have had a lot of love for the idea of her children, and she carried that baby to full term. Imagine how mortifying it was when Lotteshu showed her that corpse. (How the hell did he even get his hands on the corpse. We should be focusing on that a lot more) So could we really blame her for running away, Alan abandoned her as well, and Lebetti always treated her like trash.

Rashta undergoes a corruption arc because of the people around her. Navier remarks in her head that Rashta has no one good around her to inform her, in the webtoon.

Now, imagine this situation from the point of view of Rashta. You just saw your supposed dead child with an obvious great amount of trauma via your whole childhood, and now, the emperor, an incredibly powerful man, has proposed to become your lover. He's going to give you protection, and most likely save you from your horrible life. Everyone forgets the power dynamic of these two. Rashta is the lowest in society while Sovieshit is the highest. What terrible consequences would Sovieshit's pretty ass conjure from rejection? Even the webtoon remarks that it's like a fairy tale.

Navier and the rest of the nobles are her enemies, because of how she was raised. She actually started off the webtoon looking up to Navier, and seeing Navier as someone she could basically worship, and believed that Navier would act as a motherly figure although she was greeted with Navier's justifiable pettiness although Rashta didn't know what she was doing wrong.

If Rashta was the protagonist everyone would be gushing about her, because she is manipulative, but so is Navier. The people around Rashta fail her, when she could've been so much more, and she has so much underutilized potential. Rashta would've been incredibly hyped up for kicking Navier out, and Navier would be seen as cold hearted and self centered.

TL;DR, Rashta is still an antagonist, but she is not a straight up villain. She's complex, and she's more human than any other antagonist. She's only hated on for being the 'other woman' and the fandom acts like she seduced Sovieshit for the funsies.

(Fuck Sovieshit, all my homies hate him!!!))

[moltensmusings]

Time to rant about the Alvarez arc and issues I had with it once more now that I've posted some spriggan redesigns. This might be long.

The largest reason Alvarez and anything following Tartaros fall so flat is because you can almost tell Mashima was checked out by that point. That his excitement for the series had dwindled.

I have this theory that Tartaros was meant to be the last arc of the series but there were still things unanswered meaning that he was forced into adding more on. Now I don't say this as someone who thinks tartaros should've been the end, but because none of the villains after this point have any weight to them when honestly they should. All the reveals feel like they're done to surprise the audience more than flesh out the story.

I'm someone who always hated the Irene as Erza's mom plot because we really didn't need it. It was a trend of "villain is a blood relative" twists mashima kept throwing in and by that point it was honestly more annoying than anything. Erza never had questions about her family. She was never focused on her past so introducing her mother felt so out of left field. Irene literally could've just been the person who was in charge of creating the tower of Heaven, maybe she was even the on who corrupted Jellal, and that would've done far more towards making me invested in a showdown between her and Erza than anything in canon.

In general the Spriggan 12 being set up as characters involved in the various arcs would've been so beneficial because it would've given readers actual reasons to be angry or upset. What if Invel was the one who created Deliora and consistently tried to create new ice demons to impress Zeref. What if Layla's death was originally believed to be an accident but as time goes on Lucy uncovers more deaths and incidents connected to her mother that eventually lead back to Brandish. The tartaros group answering to August, who is still devote to Zeref, giving us a more solid reason to believe him as a Wizard king and actual tangible terror at the thought of facing him if tartaros itself would bend to him.

And this isn't even getting into how all their designs seem so slapped together causing them to look more like mid level/filler villains than actual final arc antagonists. Compare them to any of the tartaros characters and it just instantly becomes so obvious which ones Mashima actually cared about. By that point he knew he just had to make the women scantily clad and his die hard fans would ignore everything else. Jacob Lessio is one of the first Spriggan I think of whenever I get angry over how rushed their designs are.

Even Zeref himself felt so disappointing as a villain because any hype built for him really peaked during the tartaros arc. I was sure he'd be the one to appear instead of Mard Geer. It felt like that's what tartaros was building to. But instead we someone new and Zeref was pushed back. We could talk about him torturing Mavis and how Mashima still wanted to paint things between them as romantic because heaven forbid Mavis actually be a human with emotions who gets mad and vengeful when she's hurt, but we'll move on.

Beyond just this, Alvarez kingdom could've been so very interesting to have in the background, mentioned every now and then off handedly by side characters or guild members when discussing the world around them. This idea of it always existing but just never seeming important to our leads who aren't thinking about the political side of things. Us getting Alvarez hints early on and Alvarez only increasing in importance would've been something for fans to hold onto and engage with.

Mashima really dropped the ball on the series following Tartaros from the gray villain arc that amounted to nothing, a 1 year time skip setting up Natsu and Lucy collecting guild members that ended with everyone miraculously back at the guild with no persuasion necessary, to his final antagonists carrying non of the weight he wanted because titles don't create fear. And it makes me so incredibly furious because all it would've taken was actual care and interest in his own creation.

[thedailydescent]

I really don't buy the opinion that Louis hated becoming the "dom" + businessman in Paris. You can tell in that scene from 2x06 when he brings in the art piece to Armand's office he's entranced just talking about it and its potential. You all took Lestat's "All these roles you conform to and none of them your true nature" to mean he hates working/making money/providing for others in any capacity and just wants to be a submissive housewife (although we can see in Season 1 that the only thing keeping him happy in that role was Claudia- once she was gone or when Lestat became abusive towards her he hated it). Don't many housewives hate being housewives? Do businessmen always like the work? Louis likes being cared for and seen but he also likes having autonomy and projects to work on- money made by selling artwork fulfills that need. And Armand's supposed acceptance and submission in that 2x06 scene contrasts with Lestat's attitude towards Louis's work in New Orleans ("I have all the money we need" "This is Louis's hobby, not mine"), so that also plays into it. If Louis's making the money and taking charge in the bedroom, he can at least have the illusion of control.

Louis still doesn't know who he is at this point so saying he only likes being in certain roles (he's either a "violent pimp" or a passive wallflower who only likes to bottom, neither of which are true and the former being a really racist statement) contradicts his overall arc in Season 2. And the sad part is he still hasn't found it by the end of the season because he's found himself stuck with another abusive partner with his last tethers to humanity cut off. But saying he was forced into trying these new things out in Paris or has always despised playing the "Maitre" role throughout the duration of their relationship (for reasons other than when Armand tries to take back control while he's performing it, which is why it doesn't work in the first place), is a stretch in my opinion. The only conclusive thing we can make about Louis's preferences is that he hates when things grow stagnant. He can't play one role for too long, otherwise it gets boring.

[doonalli]

Hayasaka and how humans change (Hayasaka character analysis)

In this post I want to talk about Hayasaka, and what I think his character proves to us in terms of humanity. At first he doesn't really seem to do much at all, in fact he seems like one of the most boring characters in the cast, but I think Hayasaka is so much more than just that. To me Hayasaka shows what it means to be human, and its shown through his contradictory feelings and his entire story of how by being willing to give your allies a chance they can prove that they really aren't as bad as they may first seem. Before talking about Hayasaka himself I want to bring to attention a scene that I think is probably the most important scene to understanding the point of Hayasaka's character. When the cast find out about upgrade parts, Ranmaru finds out he can take of his hand and realises that he isn't really "human", seeing this Reko (or Alice) try to cheer him up by claiming that being human doesn't have anything to do with the physical aspect but instead saying

while in the moment these words are meant for Ranmaru, I would argue its Hayasaka who encompasses these themes the most and its how Hayasaka proves his humanity throughout the whole chapter despite physically being a doll. Hayasaka dealing with "contradictory feelings" is a major part of his arc but in that same way Hayasaka's character is all about the contradictions between who he is as a doll and who he is as a human. When we first see Hayasaka in his victim video that we find on the monitor in Miley's room we see him in his final moments.

Our first impression of Hayasaka in the video is that he is somewhat selfish and very self-preserving, we see Hayasaka beg for his life, claiming that he doesn't know anything and pleading for someone to help him. He shows that he doesn't want conflict, and he tries to weasel his way out without any qualms, whether that be by claiming he doesn't know anything about what's going on, promising to keep a secret or attempting to come to some sort of understanding. But when he finally realises that isn't going to happen...

Realising he was put in this situation supposedly for Sara's sake he quickly switches to becoming much more spiteful and resentful to her, no longer working towards a comprise and instead saying he will kill all the organisation members and cursing Sara's name from hell. Clearly Hayasaka DID know something about what was happening and his earlier remark was just a lie he made in an attempt to get sympathy.

This victim video shows clearly the type of person Hayasaka is, right? He seems to be some someone who is very self-preserving and at times deceitful as he attempts to talk his way out of conflict, fitting for his profession as an office worker. But as we find out when we meet his doll that isn't necessarily the case. Keep in mind that Sara, Keiji, and Gin are the only people who see this video

When we actually get to meet Hayasaka as a doll in Chapter 3 he seems very different, he comes off as a very nervous and anxious person and when Sara confronts him about his victim video Hayasaka first tries to act dumb just like he did in his video which Sara doesn't believe for a second,

This is the first thing Sara does upon meeting Hayasaka, literally the only words exchanged before this was each other's names. Hayasaka acting ignorant is accurate to how he is in the victim video, trying to avoid conflict however he can. Then he claims that since he isn't the "real Hayasaka" he wouldn't be left any memories that could be a problem to the Organisation.

This again shows how Hayasaka tries to come to a comprise, but more importantly it makes it clear that he doesn't see himself as the "real" Hayasaka separating being a doll and being a human, implying that being a doll means he isn't "real" and lesser than a human would be. It's clear that this Hayasaka doesn't bear any ill will to Sara unlike his human counterpart, which is what I want to focus on now.

The Hayasaka before us isn't the same Hayasaka as the one in the victim video, and it goes past just him being a doll now, he doesn't antagonise Sara at all, he doesn't bear the same ill will his human self did. Regardless of being a doll or a human its clear this Hayasaka is different from the one who cursed Sara from hell, but either way it seems that the damage was already done,

Even if he doesn't think the same way he does in his video, even if the actions in his video weren't technically his own, Sara and Keiji both already don't trust him and they aren't willing to give him a chance.

Keiji shows his distrust a scene early into chapter 3 pretty clearly, not trusting Hayasaka with a weapon or any of the dolls for that matter.

With Keiji and Sara seeing his final moments as their first impressions Hayasaka is put in an interesting situation where his demonic actions seem to be the default to them, as the Mishima AI says back in 2-1

and that's exactly what happened with Hayasaka in his victim video, it would be like if we judged Nao or Joe based on what they did at the end of the main games when they attempted to get everyone killed to save themselves and Sara. The difference here is that this was Sara and Keiji's FIRST time seeing Hayasaka, they don't know who he is past this video and their impression on him is built on that one demonic action that he made in a desperate situation and because of this they are both unwilling to give him a chance, however, we can see that there is still one person who does.

Even when both Sara and Keiji distrust Hayasaka, Gin instead decides to trust Hayasaka despite also having seen the video and knowing what he did. Hayasaka and Gin fall into an "inverted relationship" very quickly where Gin acts as the leader who protects Hayasaka, which is shown clearly when Gin ends up getting himself in danger when he tries to protect Hayasaka from the locker room trap.

As a result of this Gin is knocked out and Keiji tells Hayasaka to carry him, and Hayasaka after a bit of hesitation, obliges,

Hayasaka and the rest of the group then go to the 5th floor and enter an office similar to the one Hayasaka used to work in, there the cast finds a physical exam on Sara. Hayasaka is immediately antagonised, after explaining his hand was forced by Asunaro and it wasn't by his own choice, despite this Kurumada realising the information that was gathered included everybody else too also antagonises him without giving him the chance to explain himself before Gin waking up puts a stop to this and "saves" Hayasaka yet again.

Following this Keiji remarks that Gin seems to be fond of him, they have a conversation about how Gin may be associating him with Mishima, and that being the reason he tries to him.

This comes as a shock to Hayasaka, why would Gin care about a doll? Someone he barely even knows? Earlier Hayasaka makes it clear that he doesn't see his doll self as "real" but here Gin shows that doesn't matter. Yes Hayasaka isn't the Hayasaka from the victim video, but he IS still himself and he isn't any less than he would be otherwise, and this realisation is what starts Hayasaka's growth.

And it's here where we can see the start of Hayasaka dealing with his contradictory feelings that I mentioned at the beginning and through that the start of his growth, we can see this in scenes like the one after Keiji's fight with Midori when he says

or after Ranmaru's speech when he says

We can see that Hayasaka DOES want to work with the survivors but at the same time he isn't so optimistic about it. Even so he ends up helping when he decides to help out with the coffin security system, (so long as Sou isn't present to do it himself,) which earns him slight judgement from Kurumada in the moment, however he continues on despite that, and he helps again when he mentions there possibly being a first aid kit to help Q-taro in his office. it all plays into those "contradictory feelings" that make him human

Other examples that are present if Anzu died earlier to the first obstructor (showing that he is at least more hesitant then her but still willing to speak up in the end) are when he tells Hinako

after Hinako claims there is no way for the dummies to survive without killing the survivors. And when Kurumada attempts to deny using the charger as it could be used to lengthen the lives of the other dummies, Hayasaka will instead step up and tell Kurumada

Both these scenes show that Hayasaka is VERY different from the one we see in the victim video, both in the way he can't hate the survivors when he had no problems cursing Sara from hell and in the selflessness he shows Kurumada being essentially the opposite to the self-preserving nature be shows in his victim video. It all plays into that whole contradiction between the human and doll Hayasaka and yet again just how drives home the point of how different they really are. Whether he realises it or not Hayasaka is growing as a person and is starting to value his allies, especially Gin.

When Gin tries to go back to Q-taro after he stays behind to stop Maple's rampage Hayasaka takes it upon himself to pick him up and stop him from doing so. Earlier Hayasaka was hesitant to carry Gin, even when Keiji actively asked him to do so, but here he is protecting him on his own volition, and in the very same room Gin tried to protect him earlier no less. Again he shows how he isn't the selfish person from the victim video but someone who genuinely starts to care for his allies including Gin.

During the Pre-Banquet in the Kanna route Hayasaka expresses gratitude to Sara

saying that if he does make it back, he wishes to live reflecting on what he's done and hopes the day can come where she can forgive him too.

different from his "I want to live in peace" remark from his video, now actually attempting to atone for what he has done. He also claims that

but we can clearly see he isn't a coward multiple times throughout the chapter, for example during the Pre-Banquet in the Logic route. Here Hayasaka is shocked by what Ranmaru has done and he states clearly that if Ranmaru were to something before the Banquet he would be willing to throw himself in the way to stop him if he must.

Here we can clearly see him be willing to directly put himself in danger for others, even though Hayasaka claims that it was his cowardice that stopped him from harming Gin we can see that's not the whole story, perhaps Hayasaka didn't harm Gin because he was scared, but Hayasaka isn't a coward, at least not anymore, and this moment proves it. He doesn't give himself the credit for the times he does actively attempt to save Gin, but we can see that it isn't his cowardice that saved Gin but rather his courage, and he shows this yet again during the banquet and the lead up to it. As Hayasaka enters a coffin in order to start the banquet he says,

the wording can be slightly different depending on who is alive but the general point stays the same. Hayasaka makes it clear that he no longer wants to be protected or "burden" anyone anymore.

All of this just goes to show that the Hayasaka we have gotten to know, the one who was actually given the chance to connect and grow is a far cry from the resentful and hateful Hayasaka who also didn't give Sara the chance before cursing her from hell out of spite. Being given a second chance at life Hayasaka decides to live it by making up for the mistakes he made at first and he does that by getting to actually know Sara and the others, and also with how he learns to protects others even at the risk of his own life, people like Gin, the one who gave him that chance in the first place.

When Sara is forced to pick a red glowing coffin in an attempt to beat Midori and he says Sara is likely to hit anyone other than Anzu or Ranmaru, saying she will surely pick an ally, Sara thinks that since Midori isn't scared, that maybe her logic isn't correct, and starts to doubt herself. In this moment Mai tells Sara with conviction to do it, and if his coffin wasn't picked Hayasaka will join in, claiming that

showing his conviction as well, but if Mai died earlier Hayasaka will instead take them helm of telling Sara to do it, giving his own speech instead.

It's the culmination of everything Hayasaka's character has been building up to and his growth throughout the chapter, here he shows that even as a doll, he isn't going to hide behind that anymore, where beforehand Hayasaka would have claimed that he wasn't really alive, here he confronts that fact claiming his body is still precious and seeing value in himself even as a doll, and while he is still afraid of dying, he works through his self-preserving nature and his cowardice to show his courage. Through it all Hayasaka is dealing with his contradictory feelings he WANTS to live but he also wants to protect Gin, unlike the other doll's speeches Hayasaka doesn't specify "the human" when he talks about Gin

he wants to protect Gin, himself, not just because he is human but because of the bond him and Gin share, he genuinely has found something he wants to protect more than himself and he shows that. And that's how Hayasaka proves his humanity, by facing those contradictory feelings and struggling on, and despite what the physical truth of who he is says, or what Hayasaka himself thinks, he IS truly human, and no red light or drill can take that away. All of the personal growth that led to this moment was due to Gin giving him the chance, without judging him based on his first impression. Interestingly to me the way Sara treats Hayasaka parallels the major problem that stopped Sara and Sou from being true allies, Sou's distrust on Sara, not even seeing her for who she truly is, and Sara's distrust of Sou, judging him based on incomplete information, and Gin trusting him anyways parallels how Kanna can see through both Sara and Sou and is willing to trust them both anyways. It's why Kanna and Gin ARE valuable people to the group, their ability to trust others and see them for who they truly are is something that is so important in a situation like this, and maybe if and when Sara and Sou finally do give each other the chance to change, whether that be in 2nd main game or in the final chapter on the logic route, they could finally be true allies, just like Hayasaka and Gin were able to do here. Hayasaka to me represents humanity through the fundamental contradictions in humans, not only in our feelings but in the ways we interact with each other and the ways we can even contradict ourselves. whether it be from expecting trust from someone even when you yourself can't trust them like Sou and Sara, or if it's in the ways we contradict ourselves as we grow in better people like Nao going from someone who couldn't accept Mishima's death to someone who could help her allies face death themselves, or even in the fundamental contradiction of the truth of humanity having nothing to do with physically being a human that is present with all the dummies and 3-1.

Hayasaka is so much more than he seems both to the characters in game but also to the players playing the game itself, Hayasaka isn't this boring character with nothing much going on, he is a full person like anyone else and I personally think that's amazing that someone who seems so boring on the surface can mean so much to the game and its themes, and it just speaks to the brilliant character writing present in this game.

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new post yippee, yes I will be doing one on all the dummies if it wasn't obvious already I edited this because I didn't like some of it before but I do not know how to write so uhhhh, I hope its at least better now. Also if you saw the old post, nuh uh, no you didn't, shhhhhhh. There was so much I wanted to talk about that I just didn't get to fit in anywhere so maybe in the future I'll make a post with that stuff alongside other stuff from the dummies but who knows. I'll keep this short because the post itself is already so long (sorry). so for now, Thanks for reading!!!