#will this be revealed or is this just a plot hole and they forgot to add his name in the roster

[dandeliannes]

one of the biggest mysteries (or perhaps plothole) in season 1 is minho's name not being on the class ranking list. is it because they forgot to put his name on there?? or is his government name different from what we actually know at the moment?

[formula-fun]

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[jackass-jones]

I’m getting kinda feral about Ryuki today so I wanna bring up something else

Since the entire Ryuki side of the story is pretty much just everything he tells Mizuki about what happened 6 years ago, this begs the question: is his summary including the parts that are from the future, or is this just a writing error?

It’d make sense if it was just an error like. First off if Ryuki could see the future that’d be a whole mess, plus the future he’s seeing here isn’t even in the right timeline, it’s all what happens on the B side. Plus, the whole twist of not knowing what the proper timeline is is already a pretty iffy twist because it’s only a twist to the player, not to the characters. Since it’s kinda flimsy to begin with, I can see how the writers could’ve just completely fucking forgotten to fix the Ryuki side to make sense with this twist. They kinda forgot about Ryuki a lot in the second half of the game after all and a lot of the writing around him is messy as hell so I can believe it

But, let’s pretend this all WAS intentional, that Ryuki DID include information about the future in his story to Mizuki. This would go perfectly with the idea that Ryuki is a frayer and that he’s being haunted by knowledge from the past and future and is incapable of distinguishing the two. It’s already true that Ryuki has trouble telling what year it is (during the practice launch on the Mizuki side we see Ryuki in a trance waiting for Shoma to get off the ferris wheel even though that’s an event that happened 6 years ago, Ryuki makes constant references to Date being disappointed in him,etc) so it’d make sense if he got his wires majorly crossed when telling Mizuki what he remembers about the case from 6 years ago. If this is the case, then Ryuki’s powers can extend across not just past and future, but also multiple timelines

It’s not like Ryuki is the only one with this power. Date remembers when he was hospitalized in the Mizuki route during the true ending and gets confused about why he’s remembering things that never happened. Mizuki is able to remember Jin being referred to as the almighty despite her not hearing about it in that timeline. But it is interesting that Ryuki is the only one who seems to be plagued by his knowledge. The other two protagonists will be just kinda weirded out by their ability to know things that didn’t happen, but they recover pretty quickly. Ryuki though, he doesn’t know what timeline he’s in and he’s constantly speaking and thinking in riddles and drowning himself in liquor to forget everything and is only able to function in the A side BECAUSE the somnium failed and he wasn’t able to remember tearer’s true identity

Basically Ryuki cursed with evil timeline powers and it makes me wonder if he’s an unreliable narrator on purpose or on accident and honestly, I don’t know if I wanna know

Had an epiphany last night and I haven’t seen anyone talk about this (maybe because it could be just so obvious no one felt the need to but shhh) but look here at the veeeery beginning of the aini flowchart

We got the Ryuki somnium as the first split and as we know, this split happens based on whether or not you (or ryuki in this case) know the name of Tearer. You can only get the Mizuki side of the story if you have played the Ryuki side and have heard Tearer’s name. The somnium will also be much more complex and dangerous

So essentially on the B side, the psync is unsuccessful. Mizuki doesn’t really help Ryuki, and she barely learns anything about the hb case. Ryuki is left in the same mentally unstable state he was before, and he can’t hold a conversation without babbling and laughing maniacally. This leaves Mizuki to do her investigation without any of the past help at all, which is how the true route of the story is supposed to go

This isn’t anything new, we know this. What I do wanna revisit is the A side, where Ryuki doesn’t remember Tearer. The psync is actually successful and the results are significantly different than the B side. Ryuki sobers up and is able to tell Mizuki everything that happened to him 6 years ago. So basically the Ryuki route (the parts from 6 years ago) is everything that he’s telling to Mizuki

This means that there’s a whole separate version of the story in this timeline where Mizuki learns everything about the past, including what happened to Date. And what’s getting me feral about this is. How did the investigation proceed afterwards??? Did the two of them work together to finish the case? Did Mizuki get a chance to mourn Date? Did she lash out at Ryuki? Did Ryuki even mention his involvement with Tearer or Bibi’s existence at all? How would everything had changed if they worked together?

IM GOING INSANE I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE A SIDE TIMELINE DAMMIT-

[hollowed-theory-hall]

Normally, I post theories on this blog, and what I usually do is solve plot holes, but I'm currently rereading Deathly Hallows, and I honestly forgot how stupid some decisions there are. So, I'm compiling some of them here to maybe theorize and solve these plot holes later. But for now, I'm baffled.

1. I just reached the part where they started camping in the woods, and Harry just started being hungry, and I don't think I can adequately describe how dumb that is. Like, I can get wanting to stay hidden and stuff, but why not call Kreacher?

I mean, Harry showed in HBP he can just call Kreacher to him:

But the question was, how to call him? What did you do? Quietly, tentatively, Harry spoke into the darkness. “Kreacher?” There was a very loud crack, and the sounds of scuffling and squeaks filled the silent room.

(HBP, 419)

Why not call Kreacher and tell him to bring food to the tent? He's a house-elf, so he could apparate through their wards with no problem. They could've had Kreacher's cooking still, I just don't get it.

2. They didn't actually need to leave Grimmauld Place at all. The book explains it like this:

“Harry, I think he can. I—I forced him to let go with a Revulsion Jinx, but I’d already taken him inside the Fidelius Charm’s protection. Since Dumbledore died, we’re Secret-Keepers, so I’ve given him the secret, haven’t I?” There was no pretending; Harry was sure she was right. It was a serious blow. If Yaxley could now get inside the house, there was no way that they could return. Even now, he could be bringing other Death Eaters in there by Apparition.

(DH, 271)

But Yaxley wouldn't be a Secret Keeper, he couldn't bring other Death Eaters inside. This isn't how the magic works.

After Dumbledore dies, everyone he told the secret to becomes the Secret Keeper. Hermione is a Secret Keeper. She can reveal the secret to Yaxley by appparating him, but that doesn't turn Yaxley into a Secret Keeeper. It's just one Death Eater who knows how to get in that Harry and Co can kidnap, obliviate, or kill if they're really stressed about it. Yaxley couldn't bring anyone else inside regardless of how much he wanted to. He isn't a Secret Keeper, so all the other Death Eaters would've had to wait outside and watch the place the house should be in like they did up to this point.

And sure, Snape is a Secret Keeper but considering he somehow lied his way out of telling them the secret, even though we see Death Eaters stationed outside Grimmauld Place, I think it's safe to say, he wouldn't tell even after Yaxley knew and potentially returned with this information. I mean, the fact the Death Eaters are watching outside Grimmauld Place tells us Snape didn't tell them, and it should tell Harry, Ron, and Hermione Snape didn't betray the secret, as otherwise, the Death Eaters would've just broken in to search for them.

3. If we're talking of the Fidelius Charm and Secret Keepers, I don't get why Bill and Arthur Weasley have to be their own Secret Keepers. Why create this plot hole so late in the game? I mean, up until book 7, I didn't question why James and Lily had to have a third party as their Secret Keeper. It was just how the spell worked. Well, not anymore.

So, now I have to wonder why they were convinced they needed someone else, someone outside the house? Perhaps it was out of paranoia? So that if something happened to them anyway there'd be someone outside who could bring help?

4. And don't even get me started on the Battle of the Seven Potters. I mean, apparition or side-along apparition are completely viable methods of transportation, so why brooms? Wtf?

I mean, the Order makes this same ludicrous decision in OotP, when they transport Harry from the Dursleys to Grimmauld Place on brooms, so at least they're consistent in their stupidity.

Like, I could make an excuse for the use of brooms if they're trying to evade the Trace. According to how I believe the Trace works, the Trace wouldn't pick up on a broom the same way it didn't pick up on the flying Ford Angelica. It's an item already enchanted, magic isn't being cast, so it doesn't pick on it. So, while the Trace would pick up on apparition, it won't pick up on broom flight.

The problem with this is that in OotP we see the Order cast magic inside the Dursleys' house, making any chance of avoiding the Trace moot:

“Don’t be stupid, it’ll be much quicker if I — pack!” cried Tonks, waving her wand in a long, sweeping movement over the floor. Books, clothes, telescope, and scales all soared into the air and flew pell-mell into the trunk.

(OotP, 53)

And in DH, Harry is already 17, and the Trace shouldn't be a problem for him, so this excuse doesn't really hold water...

I'm sure I'll remember more as I continue reading, but these are the ones that really bother me now. Rant over (at least until I find a hopefully not super contrived way to make all this make sense in-universe).

[brandytusk]

The following thoughts, or maybe confession, contain Arcane spoilers. Please keep that in mind should you continue. It's a long story, I apologize in advance.

Now I will say, I am no LoL player, thus unfamiliar with its lore with the exception of what I search for, or what education I get from others. I had a passing interest in Arcane due to my best friend's insistence, rambling on about its beautiful art style, symbolism, and compelling writing. It was one of those things I did in fact, try and make a habit of to sit and watch at dinner, see what all the rising hubbub was about. I'll admit, I don't know where I stopped in season one, but I didn't finish it. As I recall, the plot felt too grim. To me, it felt like it was a show getting praise for being artistically depressing. When season one's ending was spoiled for me, I was glad I hadn't got as invested as other people I knew. To have developed characters so sincerely in a season's time, just to end it the way it was done…I disapproved, and I shook my head. Forgot it all at the time.

I'm a millennial who has lived through recession, through pandemic, and I am not middle class. I'm anxious, and there are days that feel hopeless and painfully long. I want to escape into the media I consume, let characters take me on a journey with them, far away from the oppressive, hanging air of everyday life in late stage capitalism. I don't want a tragic story, no matter how much it is praised for its art direction. Moving forward every morning can be bleak enough. Maybe others like these kinds of harsh stories for its relatability, and that's fine! I am happy for those that can appreciate it in that way, but I cannot. I'm tired, and perhaps not just as a struggling individual, but as an LGBT+ person with a husband.

Mainstream, popular shows (that get shown to American audiences, at least) don't often get obvious queer representation, or when it does, the show is often cut short. I felt baited in what I did see of season one, and rolled my eyes that fanfiction writers were fed enough to work their magic and fill the holes, as per usual.

Then, the next season of Arcane releases, and my social media feeds became flooded with screenshots and spoilers. I didn't block said spoilers and told myself I was no longer invested in Arcane -- only to see the most alarming screen captures I'd ever seen.

I especially liked what I'd seen of Viktor and Jayce in the past. I enjoyed seeing two intelligent, determined male creatives share screentime and share their story of a growing, deepening friendship. As far as I was aware, Jayce and Viktor were well bonded colleagues, if not each other's 'ride or die', once mutually and deeply invested in a greater outcome to benefit the whole. Compared to the rest of what I'd seen of Arcane's first season, it still hadn't gripped me enough to stick around as I wanted to save myself from heartache. Long story short, season two's spoilers revealed to me Jayce making a frantic, truly desperate effort to revive his fallen, disabled partner Viktor after the explosion. While he's successful, this fuses Viktor with tech Jayce once swore to destroy. Jayce draws close and is just relieved Viktor, in his birthday suit at this moment mind you, is alive, while Viktor is disappointed Jayce didn't keep his promise. They go separate ways, and the scene felt like an intimate argument, a break up. Well, at this point with that much revealed to me, I was relieved to see the two of them alive after the first season's ending. I was curious again, so I continued to look at screen captures and gifsets.

Viktor develops magic skills to heal others, and in his new body things, seem to fall into place for him. He is appreciated, and maybe it's suggested he gets a following. While its unclear how 'good' the arcane is, what he's doing with it seems right for the character. It looks like a victory…until Jayce comes along and puts a hole in Viktor's chest, keeping his promise. Viktor only meant to talk to him. Jayce, who had fought so hard to revive this man, kills him, as far as I'd seen it. It felt like petty shock value. Not knowing there was more episodes to come, I thought that was it. More tragedy, more pain.

My husband knows me well. I very rarely get affected by the shows I watch, and when I do, I am reserved about it. Instead, I sobbed, the kind where you can't see passed the tears and the snot. I felt so betrayed by my curiosity, by my hopeful feelings. I spent days ranting to my friends and my husband, offended and angry. How dare these writers throw around this disabled character and give him no relief, and what was more, develop two men in such a way as to suggest one simply cannot exist without the other only to shoot down one of them, by the hand of their partner? I had let myself be baited again, and I was feeling it. It burned, it hurt, I raged. I gave up.

A day or two ago, my best friend chimed in again: I should check in on Arcane. There had been more episodes, the season had finished. Trusting they knew how sensitive I was about all of it, I did. Again, I was moved to tears, but for different, much better reasons.

What was this?

Fortiche and its writing team had bothered to weave together and tell a story of two men ultimately destined for each other through every timeline, the kind of trope reserved for romantic movies and literature? They held hands, kept each other close, were honest with each other in the starry nothing. Hand to nape, forehead to forehead, and colorfully blinked out of that current existence, together? Such intimacy didn't need a kiss or a sex scene to feel real, there was love there. Their fated, interwoven existence, their deep and complex relationship, saved the world. In the end, there was hope.

You can tell yourself that it wasn't romantic if it makes you feel better, but in all its passionate details it very much was. To this stressed, exhausted LGBT+ person in these real uncertain times, I needed to see it. I felt deep relief, satisfaction, and most of all a need to pursue the Arcane fandom, a desire to enter. To at the very least, gush about my impression of it all, and what it means to me to see two men tenderly portrayed in ways they typically aren't. Fortiche, well done. You did give the Caitvi shippers something to blatantly feast upon, you also gave lesbian characters depth and variation, but this isn't about that.

You let two male characters show dedication, affection, and softness. Thank you. Jayvik folks, I am with you. Arcane, let's start over at the first episode, I can't wait to watch all of you now.

[bigkurosmash]

I rewatched The Boy the other day after seeing the sequel- we won't even speak of the sequel here- and there were so many details I completely forgot about in that movie and was delighted to see again. I'm such a sucker for the type of horror where it's gradually revealed things are not as they seem and then it's too late when you finally learn the truth, which is exactly the type of horror The Boy follows. An odd family with a doll child -> strange things happen around the house -> the doll is haunted -> it's not the doll at all.

Even background details reveal so much more that the plot doesn't have the time to fill in, like how the basement Brahms lives in is fully equipped with a bathroom and 'kitchen'- using the term loosely since it's pretty much just a fridge/microwave and some food storage space. This shows Brahms is actually quite independent based on these details alone, even if spoiled by his parents in a strange and twisted way while at the same time very neglected by them. Him making Greta a sandwich as a peace offering also shows that on some level he understands how to express 'care' even if that care is being used as a form of manipulation to appease Greta and convince her into following the rules. 'I'll be good' he says while also scaring this woman shitless all the while.

He threatens Greta that he'll kill Malcolm if she leaves, but even though she does run away, Brahms doesn't kill Malcolm. My guess, he was giving time for her to come back because he didn't think she would really leave Malcolm to die. When she returns, there are no verbal threats and no physical violence, and instead, she is the one giving orders. Brahms is startled by this but obedient. He doesn't want Greta to leave, he's an obsessive with Greta the object of his obsession, and doesn't want to be alone. He's blinded by his obsession that he doesn't consider Greta has ulterior motives until it's too late and she 'betrays' him.

Another detail is all of the hidden doorways and passages in the house; it's possible the hidden doors were added after the fire, but I'm leaning more toward that these doorways and passages were possibly utilized by staff that would've once been there long ago. The spaces between the walls are so wide that they were built that way with intention long before Brahms came around. However, I do believe the bathroom/kitchen in the basement were added later specifically for Brahms.

Mr. Heelshire's warning is also quite haunting but rings true; Be good to Brahms, and he'll be good to you. Follow the rules, and Brahms will behave- to his standards, the little thief- but break the rules and he'll cause mischief like cockblocking Greta and Malcolm. Or busting through the mirror like a hairy Kool-Aid Man when his doll was broken.

That was another thing- I had forgotten just how BIG Brahms is. I knew he was bigger than Greta, but watching him crawl out of the hole in the wall and seeing he's an entire head taller than Greta had me hollering. What in the world were the Heelshire's feeding him?? Anyhow, these are just some of my scattered thoughts from the rewatch since I've been on a Brahms kick lately.

[eiiiyooshh]

Possible Spoilers in thi AU drawing

AU where Suryong was taken and manipulated by the blood cult and blood demon at a young age.

The future will change soooo much but in this au. Baek suryong's soul was already marked by the blood demon, so the blood cult will know where to get him.

His memories as 27th is greatly distorted so that he will only remembers all of his in martial arts, including the 4 masters and reverse heaven and his current role as the blood demon's successor (The blood demon, most of the time is asleep inside baek suryong, his last vessel was destroyed for suryong's benefit[ the finger in Namgung Clan tragedy] so the blood cult is currently looking for another appropriate vessel) and his history with the 4 apostles and masters are forgotten

One of the pros in this is that Yakbing is alive because the blood cult secretly fed her nourishments for the safe delivery of suryong. YAYY

The 4 masters are having a hard time resting in the afterlife knowing what happened to him.

The 4 apostles doesn't know about suryongs past life and treats him like how they worship the blood demon. (In this AU, since suryong is the current leader of the cult and they are also his apostles, BUT since they feel something towards each other, suryong kept the 4 of them close and is considerate of them. The apostles though are awkward)

About the Cheongryeong Academy, THEY WILL ALL MEET AGAIN, I JUST DON'T KNOW HOW!!

Maybe when the blood demon goes away for a few years to go to his next vessel(I forgot his name lol). Suryong uses this advantage to sneak out of the cult(ofc he doesn't need permission) to spy on the orthodox sect out of boredom and curiosity.

I want everyone in the novel to still meet suryong and he later realises the plan of the blood demon and have a change of heart with the exchange that suryong's identity as the successor of the blood demon is revealed and his future is basically gone, whether in the orthodox or unorthodox faction,and almost all of murim is against him. But his family will never leave him :3

I'll continue this maybe a few days later😅😌

This is rushed and has many plot holes

[liluchunnies]

I was ranting to my friend about mha being my new fixation and how I’m relapsing to that LIKE MHA IN 2024 that’s gotta be a new low for me���✊

I was telling them how I miss 2020 mha because I REALLY LIKED WHEN WE HC THE LOV TO BE A FAMILY BEFORE SHIT GOT SERIOUS💔💔💔

And then I said smith like ‘I miss villain deku’ so I proceeded to go on an entire analysis as to why and how villain deku was made and looking back it, I decided to post it cuz this shit is way too funny.

SO ENJOY!! (this is like half satire)

♡♡♡ ♡♡♡ ♡♡♡ ♡♡♡ ♡♡♡

Okie so basically: U might think 'what does bkdk have to do anything with it?' Ya u've probably heard of it and say it was popular ERRR WRONG it was deemed toxic in the earlier seasons of the show since bakugo bullied deku in middle school and was still kinda an ass to him (it was only in like s5-s7 where bkdk became MUTUAL and had themes like loyalty and friendship surround it)

So whats that gotta do with v.deku?? There was a specific line bakugo said to deku which was "go take a swan dive off the roof and pray you're born with a quirk in your next life" so people wanted to be like "u know what this dude's life is so bad he needs to be a villain" and thats exactly what they made him (background of the context: deku was born quirkless so he's ostricized from the others and ur gonna say "hows a quirkless person gonna be a villain" deku's like REALLY smart he's a nerd who literally analyzes everyones quirk and has every single detail of it on his ntbk

And another plot hole they can add is making all might say a different thing:

(Background of the context: All Might is a famed hero and is, not surprisingly, also deku's fav hero so of course he looked up to him.

In canon, deku was saved by all might and thats when deku asks him "can i be a hero too even without a quirk" i forgot the specific details about it but he's basically made into all might's successor and that gave him a fighting chance)

Going back to the idea now:

In v.deku au, instead of encouraging deku, all might crushes his dreams and tells him "naw dawg u cant be a hero ur a quirkless loser" and thats another way they can diverge from the canon while still maintaning some aspects of the original to support their au

In most v.deku aus, he joins the LOV (league of villains) and sometimes in gacha vids, him and shigaraki are siblings

(Background of the context: in canon, all might passes down his quirk to deku which is called "One for All" now this quirk originated from a single person atleast 9 generations ago. That bitch had a brother who's quirk was stealing other ppl's quirk and he's like the main antag so the good brother was like "yo i wont let u do that" and wow golly gee wilikers guess what the evil bro's name is?? All for one which is just OFA but reversed.

So what does that have to do with deku and shigaraki?? If deku is all might's successor, shigaraki is AFO's successor. Also transferring or passing down quirks can like tie the past and present conscious of the users.

BUT! THATS NOT ALL!! Thats actually partly canon already and was used later in the series AFTER that fact was revealed!!

The actual popular reason/theory is that AFO is deku's dad and since AFO adopted shigaraki, that would mean deku and shigaraki are half-siblings)

Afo being deku's dad is STILL a popular theory till this day

omg I can’t forget about their matching red shoes

♡♡♡ ♡♡♡ ♡♡♡ ♡♡♡ ♡♡♡

No way am I taking this more seriously than my actual essays for school😭✊

[archer-kacey]

Something I noticed is a lot of people who hated BATIM love BATDR and a lot of people fond of BATIM dislike BATDR. To me, this seems like a mechanics vs story issue. The actual game mechanics and aesthetic of BATDR disguise the lackluster characters and plot holes. However, BATIM still suffers those same issues.

This is a vague question, but what are your thoughts on BATIM vs BATDR story wise? Is either of them truly better? Or are they just flawed in different ways?

Sorry, this is long, but so are BATIM and BATDR :')

I think you hit the nail on the head in the sense that yes- BATDR has better gameplay and mechanics than BATIM, but BATIM by far has a much more compelling story that was able to capture and keep attention over the course of five chapter releases. And yes, BATIM is not without its flaws, for example it's mainly a walking simulator in terms of actual gameplay- the only thing saving it being the unique ability to suck the player in through the rich, stylistic environments.

In terms of story, here's my take for both of them-

BATIM is more solid overall, there are more connected plot points and there's a thread there to be followed from start to finish. It does suffer from some WTF plothole moments, the biggest one being Alice's 180 degree turn with suddenly using Boris as a killing machine rather than...what I can only assume was a plan to use his ink/body as some kind of reparative agent for the hole in her face (like thicc ink premium idk), or...some kind of spell...? It's honestly not very clear HOW she was going to use him, but bottom line she decided to entirely change her plan off-screen, which could have been remedied with something like a cutscene's worth of explanation, and more of a buildup to Brute Boris. The "reveal" in the haunted house didn't hold that much weight (at least to me,) just because we didn't even get a cookie crumb of a hint that Alice was going to mutilate him and use him as a drone instead of just axe him.

There are other nonsense details like Allison's ominous "I'm no Angel" line, which didn't make sense when Tom was the one to want to leave Henry. It was never explained WHY the Ink Demon walks around with a limp when he can shapeshift into a bigger and faster Beast version of himself (and apparently he was ALSO the hand in the ink river??? I guess???) And can we talk about how the cult Joey started was just never brought up again? Wally talks about how workers were encouraged (or mandated, idk) to put offerings in the break room to "appease the gods." What gods? Was Joey worshiping Bendy like a god? NONE OF THIS IS EXPLAINED EVER and honestly I think Micheal D. and Meatstick just Forgot that Joey was a cult leader in favor of Sammy's cult storyline.

But despite all of the plot holes, we still get a tale of a deteriorating studio, humans being used as literal skeletons for lifelike versions of cartoon characters, themes of life, death, cults, art, and more. Honestly, going deep into the plot of Bendy would take its own post to really do it justice.

I guess the main plot is this: Ex-co-founder of Joey Drew Studios, Henry, is trying to get the fuck home to his wife, learning along the way that through the power of a mysterious ink machine, his ex-business partner decided to coerce and persuade people to Literally Die so he could have the necessary materials to create living versions of his cartoons, thus making "his" characters (and more importantly, Bendy,) a reality. Once Henry does escape, he learns that Joey has sent him through this same hell before, still filled with hatred and spite, just in time for Joey to assumedly "reset" him and send him on a different version of the same journey, as we can guess from the storyboards on display in Joey's apartment. THAT on its own is an intriguing and layered tale, and that's not even including the other details, voices, and faces we run into in BATIM, AND the new info we learn in BATDR.

Now, BATDR...is something I've come to view as a mixed bag.

Story-wise, it weirdly wants to have its cake and eat it to. Henry's story is elaborated on, and part of Audrey's origins are also brought to light. This is helpful information concerning the plot of BATIM...but then we get assblasted with a ton of new characters and lore for a completely new Cycle under the reign of a completely new Random Old Man. I know he's Nathan's son, and he was mentioned in both Illusion and Fade to Black...but those were de-canonized, so it almost doesn't help context-wise...???? So...????

In a lot of ways, BATDR almost acts like it wants to be an AU branching from BATIM rather than a direct sequel, which it was marketed/confirmed as.

I think my biggest problem with BATDR is that some of the main characters are bafflingly like. Mishandled.

I'm gonna have the mildest take on earth and say I didn't like the new Ink Demon. Old design was better and more uncanny by far, the new design looks like Generic Satan or something straight out of Baldur's Gate. He was given a deep, guttural growling voice because....tumblr sexyman I guess. Even if they needed him to talk, it could've been something more breathy and raspy, true to the heavy breathing of the original Ink Demon. Also, his alternate form was made very childlike, and I'm just weirded out by the fact that you have this oddly "sexified" version of the Ink Demon on the flipside of Bendy the Child. I don't think any ill intent was meant by this, but it's more confusing than anything thematically. I'm also not sure why Bendy's abuse was brought up and then never touched on....? Like wasn't this guy locked up and called a monster his whole life? Are we going to...say something especially considering the moral of this story......?

Memory Joey is completely fine, but I just can't shake the feeling that the narrative is trying to paint IRL Joey as "UWU fixed now" when that's not the case. The most sympathy I can extend to IRL Joey is that he was a gay man who desired to have a family at a time when that was not only frowned upon but dangerous, not just socially speaking but in terms of his physical safety. But beyond that, this was a dude who locked people in a building to keep them working, coerced and possibly forced the deaths of many people to get what he wanted (the ink machine was a scientific advancement that could've had AMAZING implications for society but he Did Not Give a Shit about that), and was abusive towards Henry. If we trust the Bendy books, he also gaslit and killed his teenage staff. This motherfucker isn't a patron saint of anything, and even if Memory Joey can learn from IRL Joey's mistakes, IRL Joey was still a shitbag who just happened to raise a daughter.

Which leads me to Audrey. Some of Audrey's tale is explained- she was raised by Joey, forgot Joey was her father, and came to work at Archgate as an animator. Got to know Wilson, who works as a janitor at Archgate, and then he drags her into ink hell because....idk, she's his version of "A Perfect Boris" I guess. Fair enough. However, it's NEVER EXPLAINED how Audrey doesn't remember her father, or WHERE she went to live after his passing, or WHO she lived with. Remember, Joey was as old as a cave painting, so he clearly passed when she was very young. While you could argue she doesn't remember his name because she was little, SURELY she remembers his face or voice, or the fact that she HAD A FATHER??? Like, was there some huge trauma there? (Other than the fact that Joey was her dad?) It makes little sense to me that she would forget so easily. If I had to make a guess (and granted I'm no Mark Twain), I'd wager that Allison probably found Joey dead. Remember that Nathan hadn't talked to Joey in years, and Allison was the one who went out of her way in the first place to visit. At this point, Allison's gonna find a little girl running around by herself, and assumedly her and Thomas would've taken her in. If that's not the case, someone else found Joey dead, at which point Audrey would've possibly lived with Nathan and Tessa, considering how much Nathan cared about Joey. Either party has ties to Archgate. But all of that is just speculation, not confirmed, and even if any of that were true, Audrey makes no mention of it. And I'm sorry, Audrey's backstory makes me want to cry, because it's just NOT THERE and she has the personality of a depressed bucket.

Alice was alright...but she was kind of stupid? Which is like....the antithesis of everything cool about her? Instead of using traps and luring the main character from a distance, she knocks out Audrey (via unspecified drink), plays Diet Jigsaw with Audrey, and then gets pushed off a balcony. She was also a lot more...idk, suave and sultry in speech mannerisms in BATDR, which isn't bad, but her unhinged and clever nature seemed a bit watered down.

I don't really have notes on the rest of the main cast. Sammy was brought back to die immediately, which honestly was fine considering his death track record. We get some mentions of BATIM characters. Wilson and Betty were fine, and even some of the lore explaining how the timelines work made sense.

HOWEVER,

I've already said it a hundred times, but the old cast was shoved to the side for a bunch of new characters we had no time to connect with. A new butcher gang member was added when we still have Miss Twisted as a potential female-role filler (keep in mind the Projectionist is based on Camera Man and Brute Boris was based on The Brute.) The whole "Amok" thing was a REALLY roundabout way to get the Lost Ones to stop attacking Audrey.

Wilson's motivations are mostly consistent and I'd argue somewhat compelling, but I don't understand why he didn't do more to protect Audrey if he was going to need her for the endgame for Shipahoy Dudley? Like what's all this about letting her run around and get killed? Was he just aware that she'd revive?

The main message of BATDR was fine, but it didn't work super well for Audrey's character. She'd already forgotten Joey was her father, and was living in blissful ignorance of that fact until Memory Joey decided to infodump on her right away. Sure, the "just because you were born of darkness doesn't mean you have to be darkness" thing applies to her AFTER she learns Joey was her father, but...Audrey was never threatening to Become Evil, so it almost didn't need to be said and was kind of a flat message...? I would argue Memory Joey would benefit more from that message- as he's a literal copy of a Very Bad Dude. My guy was projecting this whole time.

I do think BATDR was worse story-wise, but I'm not going to sit here and pretend it didn't have certain disadvantages from the start. The Kindlybeast debacle happened, BADTR was trying to continue a story from an existing property, and there was a severe lack of Adrienne Kress. Okay, maybe the last one was a bit much, but still. That doesn't mean I hate BATDR overall, I can appreciate a lot of things about it, but strictly in the story department, it needs soooooo much work and makes me want to jump off a Minecraft cliff.

[marunalu]

The leaks are real but something just feels off about the chapter itself. While we’ve seen in a previous flashback(forgot which one), that Overhaul was very likely to be one of the orphan children prior to joining the Yakuza, it’s just the overall flow of the chapter just makes it seem unsatisfying and resulting in plot holes. Like AFO considered training teenagers to be his double but it seems rather forced to ask Kotaro to have another child and Hana doesn’t seem to reached double digits. Or copying the Overhaul Quirk and making decay out of it would mean that Afo and Garaki could’ve fixed the former’s issues unless Touya destroyed it by accident. And then there’s the situation where technically, only Bakugo won while every other student didn’t achieve their goals(Shoto, Ochaco and Izuku) and that chapter 420 is going to match a certain someone’s birthday.

It actually would make sense though to have the side characters beat AFO but having the other fights not mentioned yet be done off screen is still unsatisfying.

We know that in real life, Hori has health issues due to working with Shonen Jump and having the Dragon Ball creator die last month is very likely to make things more somber. I’m not going to be surprised if he had someone else draw some pages(unless the change in artstyle somehow is a plot point).

Isn’t MHA Izuku’s retelling of the events to someone? Overhaul or Eri are likely to be the Macguffins to give Izuku his arms back given what we’ve seen with Eri earlier so we’re going to have some chapters of celebration of the “win” and a small epilogue.

At least we have fan fiction since it’s very likely that people will ignore the ending.

Yeah this chapter feels soooo off! And dont let me start talking about all the plot holes and how a single chapter managed to destroy over the years built up plotpoints. Like you said WHY would afo and garaki not use the overhaul copy on afo to heal him ESPICIALLY because afo told garaki once "then hurry up and fix me doctor" after garaki mentioned that they havent found a fitting regeneration quirk yet and you are telling me THEY WOULDNT USE THE OVERHAUL COPY TO ARCHIVE THAT??? It was made clear afo wanted to get back to full health but he doesnt use the quirk that could fix him in ONE MINUTE??? Or an other plot hole: afo somehow (dont show just tell) managed to convince the shimuras to have an other child because he considered hana to old to get manipulated DESPITE that he owns orphanages full of children older then or around hanas age even TEENAGE touya and chisaki he considered as fitting vessels if tomura shouldnt work out but HANA was to old??? This is literally retconning what was already confirmed as facts!

And about bakugou: well he is horis golden child so OF COURSE only he is allowed to win since his character is all about winning. And unlike izuku, ochako and shoto he had ZERO emotional connection to afo. No deep. No feelings. Just to give bakugoubitch a win by giving the bad guy the final killing blow, immediately praised for doing so as if afo wasnt already half dead and severly weakend by dotzens of other heroes before who did so much more but BAKUGOU gets the praise (to be fair he did say it was a group effort but he still was the one who was praised first as if he did it all alone)! The ironic thing is bakugou did exactly what he always does: winning by killing. How ironic. Just a few chapters before we got afos backstory which revealed he was a victim of society too but I guess simply killing these kind of people changes everything to the better. Their society will not change. There will just show up an other afo or tomura at one point. Bakugou was allowed to beat and kill the main villain he had no relationship with but izuku, ochako and shoto are not allowed to safe their villain counterparts they actually have a relationship with. I mean its very possible that toga is alive because she is nowhere to be found, but touya even if he survives made clear he will never forgive his family and most likely ending terrible disabled (except if deux ex machine eri will be used here as well) and izuku who FINALLY was able to reach tomura has to watch how he gets destroyed by afo. The leaks say afo completly destroyed tomuras mind so that means he is pretty much dead and only his body remains which is now in afos full control. No final confrontation between afo and yoichi. Nope yoichi is just gone and afo doesnt even look that pissed off about it.

There are fights completly left out. We dont really see any of the other students fight, we just get told they won. We dont see the confrontation between aizawa, mic and kurogiri and just need to accept they eventually reached him and if anything we will only get a small flashback of the events. Its so disappointing and lame. It feels like as if hori just wants to end the manga as fast as possible so he uses his beloved "tell dont show" way of writing.

About horis health issues. I get that. As a huge bleach fan I was so dissapointed how rushed the last arc of bleach was but I was able to understand why. Kubo had health issues too and was forced by shonen jump to end the manga in 10 chapters. No one was more pissed off about that but kubo and if he had been healthy bleach would have lasted at least for an other year. But with hori it feels different. It feels like as if he really just wants to end the whole thing because he lost his interest. The last few arcs have been not really well written. I dont know if akira toriyamas sudden death plays a role in this disaster of a chapter. I get that it was a shock for the manga world. I get that mangakas loved the guy. But maybe instead of rushing the plot and retconning already built plot points hori should just have taken a long break to get himself together if it really affected him that much AND to get rest. Toriyama still lives through his work and will inspire many new mangakas for the comming 50 years or more.

By the way Im not worried about izukus arms at all. Its obvious eri will get used as the deux ex machine to restore them. If its not her then overhaul but Im pretty positiv she will heal izuku. The thing is even if izuku gets finally his confrontation with afo its clear he will win and afo will die.... again. Wow, how creativ. The only thing I hope is that if dfo is canon then izuku will somehow reach afo to get at least a little bit of emotion in that fight and will convince him to let tomura go if there is still a chance to safe him. Im still to 100% sure dfo is canon by the way but I dont think it will have an statisfying outcome and will be rushed as hell.

All in all this was a very dissapointing outcome. I know the manga is not over yet so hori could still surprise us, but I dont have much hope left for a good and well written ending of the story. I really need to stop praising hori when he writes a REALLY good chapter like the one before, because everytime I do that the very next chapter is a pile of shit!

Sorry, if I sound so aggressive and harsh by the way, but this chapter really pissed me off. The ONLY thing I liked about it is the fact that its to 100% confirmed that afo can change his appearance which is a huge win for dfo. Also sorry for the rant and for possible gramatic errors but I wrote this whole thing in a hurry and most likely left a few dotzen things out that pissed me off. 😅

[thewebcomicsreview]

Hamsteak!

CALLIOPE: er, technically, the machine stabilizing The Plot Point. CALLIOPE: the actUal Point is that ominoUs looking bit in the middle!

Letting everyone spend two weeks speculating on why the plot point looks like the hiveswap portal only to reveal this is a great meta joke.

CALLIOPE: the reason we broUght yoU *here*, specifically, is becaUse The Plot Point over there corresponds to the singUlarity at the exact center of oUr aforementioned plot prison! CALLIOPE: important bit of info, that!

Noted, noted. The Plot Point is the singularity at the heart of the black hole. Also noted: They want to bring the whole of Earth-C with them. A lot of people have been assuming a SBURB game was going to happen as the human players sacrificed Candyland to save themselves/their kids. That's still on the table, but it's apparently not Roxy's plan.

VRISKA: It's time to kick off the training wheels and do what I do 8est: VRISKA: Figure shit out myself.

Vriska is bored of this exposition and is going to just hit the machine. That's our Vriska!

!

A flash! Or, well, an HTML5 animation in an iframe. Technology marches on! Also marching on: Vriska, who touches the singularity and gets immediately sucked into it. The music here is also very similar to the music that plays for the Hiveswap portal cutscene, but I'm not sure if it's literally the same song. I don't think it is? I was kind of expecting the first [S] to be a huge "We're back bitches!" thing designed to make Tumblr pop off, but I guess it's better to start small.

ROXY: callie CALLIOPE: yes dear? ROXY: is vriska right CALLIOPE: right aboUt what, dear? ROXY: about the fact that u dont actually know wtf we were supposed to be gettin up to here CALLIOPE: well... CALLIOPE: Um, more or less, yes. ROXY: bb are you srs

It doesn't reflect super well on Roxy that she apparently never figured this out herself.

ROXY: you said you were being compelled by like hella visions n premonishes n mysterious psychic spatiotemporal intuitions n i kinda figured that meant you had this shit all ttly comprehended!

This is one of those lines you're meant to maybe pass over without realizing how big it is. Someone is manipulating Callie here! Perhaps its related to the mysterious GavageCunctation, who I'm still calling as being the 5th Omega kid, to match the 5-letter names they all have.

CALLIOPE: yoU remember how we got so wrapped Up in the initial excitement of finding the singUlarity and the rUined jUjU arch, and sUbseqUently stabilizing it with oUr sUper cool cherUbic-lalondian tech... ROXY: its true our tech really is so fkn cool...

So the "Juju Arch" is the portal, which was previously called a "Skaian Artifact". Presumably put there by the same person giving Calliope the dreams. I'm guessing it's GC-related, but it could also be Skaia itself. Homestuck 1 kind of forgot about Skaia as an antagonistic force.

CALLIOPE: well, i sUppose i might have implied a more complete knowledge of the a to zed of all this then i actUally... possessed. CALLIOPE: and continUe to possess. JOHN: well, but you don't possess it.

John is such a pedantic shit at the most random times, it's great.

JOHN: feels kinda nice not being the one getting chastised, for a change! ROXY: john shut ur insensitive blabhole or im gonna chastise the shit out of u JOHN: jeez! JOHN: it was fun while it lasted, i guess.

People forget John has a personality, but it's true! He's kind of an asshole!

Al intervenes to show us-

Well that's the update. I like the shorter, more frequent updates, but it's kind of killing the liveblog idea when they come out a few pages at time.

[looking-to-rattle-the-stars]

little late but i gotta yap so i can lock in for my exams tomorrow morning

anyways so i watched star wars the force awakens for the first time ! (as far as i know i have no knowledge on the other films so please forgive me if anything i say does not actually extend past the first film)

here’s my thoughts:

overall, the movie was enjoyable at least more so than i thought rogue one to be. a fun two hours as you would hope an action movie to be. that said, i have grips with the way the plot is constructed. the pacing of some areas felt too quick and lead to some abrupt interactions because of it. i also have quite a few grips with character decisions but ill get to that in a moment.

the plot was easy to follow sure but like, it didn’t actually make sense to me how certain things progressed. i think the other thing that bothers me about the story is that compared to the prequels and original trilogy there’s feels like an extreme extreme lack of political commentary. i guess you could say that episode 1 doesn’t have much political commentary in it, and that’s fair so maybe i can cut this film slack. however, episode 1 mostly stays away from the sith with the focus being on anakin for the majority of the film so like… not exactly a similar situation. if you compare it to episode 4, the political commentary and relationships are very structurally clear between characters and goals. the force awakens i feel didn’t deliver that. who the fuck is that guy talking to kylo? snoke? what kind of a name is that??? and like outside of the army line up/salute scene, none of the commentary from the bad guys feels like it has political undertones. i understand that as a science fiction story it does not have to be inherently political, but given the role of politics in the first sets of films the lack of political standing in this one is disappointing. so they want the resistance dead, we know this by now. what new thing are they introducing? it doesn’t feel like anything.

oh my god almost forgot saving grace of this movie is the comedy. this movie has some funny dialogue and that was something that helped keep me interested in the film. and the line deliveries too ugh chefs kiss.

characters

might as well bring some humor why does the best character have under ten minutes of screen time in the hole film? poe i know they won’t do that in the next one but god would’ve loved more oscar isaac in this one! and speaking of poe, their death juke-out? bad. badly done. even if i hadn’t been watching with friends who had seen the movie i would’ve known he was going to come back and even if i didn’t i don’t think i would’ve cared! they introduced him and then “killed” him way to fast that it just didn’t feel like a meaningful “is he dead is he alive???” scenario with the empty flyer. and that’s disappointing because it had potential to be such a good up in the air moment but i think they just did too much too fast that you don’t really feel a connection to poe to care if his life is actually gone.

i am pissed about how finn quit being a stormtrooper. i am not mad about the plot choice by any means! but it felt disingenuous! you’re telling me, a kid taken from his family and raised to be a stormtrooper, goes into his first battle and sees one comrade die and decide he doesn’t want to do it?? i think it would’ve been more interesting to have him kill, kill quite a few people even, and then have one of his pals die in front of him. someone we know he had an established friendship with. it would have made the viewing of him experiencing grief all the more impactful and allow for the possibility of him to reflect on the grief he’s caused any survivors. i think that would have made his leaving all the more impactful and made helping poe even more meaningful. especially since he reveals later he mostly worked in sanitation! going out and killing, feeling the power (and ecstasy/adrenaline) to then have it stripped away when he sees his friend die before him causing him to reflect on what he has done and what he could become (both in death or chasing power) would have been so so so much better.

tbh! tbh i don’t like that it feels like rey’s narrative is dictated by the men around her. kylo, finn, poe, luke, and han. she does not feel like she is able to exist independently and that sucks! kylo and finn i can just tell they want to set up a love triangle for, i can feel like it that goodbye kiss could not just be platonic as much as i want it to be. and the meeting with kylo and him wanting to teach her the ways of the force? he’s going to chase her around the galaxy. poe i can’t speak to much of it yet but based off the fact she became responsible for bb8 it just feels like their relationship is going to be something ignored for the others but still that she’ll have to always be supported by him/his flying despite her completely solid skills and knowledge! which brings me to han, i do not necessarily have an issue with her knowing han! but at some points it felt like she was more of han fan girl which would be fine outside of him offering her a job where her narrative would then become reliant on him and traveling with him. maybe i’m just not really invested in celebrities to understand the connection so much anymore but just i don’t know. i think it mainly bothers me cause it feels like another part of primary character/interests is now connected to another man which is a lot with the aforementioned and following guys, it just feels like too much going on. and lastly luke. he’s training her. i’ve heard she takes the skywalker name. need i say more about him being crucial to her narrative and development. and again, this could be fine if the love triangle stuff was not going on too! it just feels to me that at any opportunity where she is able to be independent and showcase her knowledge/skills it becomes undermined narratively by her connections to one of the men. and that sucks! because if i ignore that belief she seems to be an interesting character! and have an interesting role in regard to jedi history! but no! she becomes passive in the story—despite being the main character—because she is so intertwined into the stories of other men now that it doesn’t feel like these actions benefit her as much as it serves to push the character development of the others :/ (exception being han and formally luke since i don’t know how the story goes).

and you could perhaps make a case for leia or padme. but i would dare say that they both have very strong narrative moments regardless of the men in their stories. while yes padme is anakins necessary love interest for the story and that is important to her character, she is still really strong in her beliefs. she is a politician and she has never let anakin get in the way of her doing her job correctly. she has multiple moments of being able to show her independence and strength in terms of being able to act regardless of the men around her. and the other key distinction is just that—she is narratively an important love interest, rey isn’t. rey doesn’t need to be in love with anyone to have a role in the story! in regard to comparing her to leia, i would say that leia is also very strong in her independent and solo scenes. while she is a partly a love interest, she is narratively important outside of that due to being the leader of the resistance. the resistance, as far as the original trilogy goes, does not function without her. she is crucial in seeing plans and action come to life. and rey has that potential, we see it when she saves and takes in bb8. but i feel like poe came into soon and disrupted that opportunity for her to showcase her strong suits. similar argument for when she’s running around the base to get away from kylo, the skill sets feel overshadowed by the fact that we are constantly seeing them from men’s perspectives and hearing their commentary on what she is doing. it takes away from her moment! it takes away from allowing her the opportunity to have strong scenes like leia and padme that show us why rey is important! you can’t even count the scene before maz talks to her because gets what! that’s luke’s saber and she must go to him!

speaking of that, what the fuck was that? force flashbacks? maybe this is just an episodic viewer lack of knowledge but i did not think that was a thing? and if it’s kylo or luke trying to talk with her, how could they have done that if she was not previously “in tune” with the force? i didn’t think it worked that way. and by in tune i mean aware of her connection to it. especially since luke and kylo don’t even know who she is yet?? or where??

i don’t even think i have much to say about kylo ren outside of why are you 29 and throwing temper tantrums at every turn. who is raising you that way cause i know damn well it wasn’t han and leia. i’m kind of disappointed in how he comes across as an antagonist. even bitch boy anakin didn’t seem this badly emotional and he’s the reason everything downward spiraled! pull yourself together kylo 🙄

bb8 was a fantastic droid i love the little soccer ball it felt like he had big wet puppy dog stares so often like he just felt like a puppy whereas c-3po and r2d2 kind of feel more like humans (probably the sass). i like that little thing.

other

it’s 1:40 and i started this at 12:40 so maybe i’ll make a separate post but i can tell there’s intended to be parallels between luke and rey and kylo and anakin. you know what i think needs to be talked about? the parallels between anakin and rey and therefore potentially luke and kylo. god i cannot yap anymore about it right now but i’m cooking something up trust.

i hope there’s going to be a stronger connection between rey and leia. i was really disappointed to see them not interact until after han’s death and in which case they just hug and then rey leaves. like cmon man. give them something outside of han and luke they are women with direct experiences with the force! let them have a cool interaction. (this also ties in with the aforementioned rey rant and what i mean by her narrative being dictated by men like come on we couldn’t have made her have a connection with leia if she got excited over the finn being in the resistance?? you’re telling me she would not be thrilled to have the opportunity to meet general organa??? )

oh controversial but i do not like the new lightsaber graphics. kylo’s ill excuse cause i was given the information he made his own saber hilt (in regard to the way it moves/shakes). outside of that though don’t like them. i don’t know what it is about the new styling—i think they might give off too much light in comparison to how the glow reacted in the other films. it’s just so overwhelming and while yeah i suppose that’d be realistic, it just pulled me out of the fight scene cause the lights are too bright. i don’t know if that’s the only thing or if there’s other aspects in relation to the CGI/animation but eugh i don’t like their vibe. bring back the prequel lightsabers if anything!

thats all i can think of now. congrats on reading all of this if you did. please don’t spoil anything as it relates to the other movies if you want to have a discussion about any of my thoughts. i want to find out if i already knew something when im watching the movie is all.

[xieliansbignaturals]

[Omegaverse; bottom Hua Cheng; pregnancy]

I saw this (TL;DR: the show Pit Babe introduced enigmas, who can get alphas pregnant) and accidentally came up with a Hualian AU.

Hua Cheng is an alpha. All his life, he’s dreamed of so much as holding hands with Xie Lian.

Because of his cultivation method, no one knows what Xie Lian’s secondary sex is. Hua Cheng has fantasized about putting a baby in an omega Xie Lian, defying society together as an alpha/alpha pair, or finding simple happiness as an alpha/beta couple.

But in his deepest, most private fantasies, he imagines carrying His Highness’ baby. Protecting and nurturing a child made from their union, safe in his own body. Of course, that could never happen, but he imagines it.

And then Xie Lian reveals his secondary sex. He’s an enigma, an ancient and rare mutation that sometimes shows up in the Xianle royal line. Sorry, San Lang, we’ll have to use birth control -

Hua Cheng just starts crying.

(I realized after I wrote this that I forgot about the childbearing pills and also the shapeshifting. Please ignore the plot hole in my silly omegaverse idea that spawned from a clown meme. 😔)

[precuredaily]

Precure Day 242

Episode: Yes! Precure 5 Go Go! 43 - “Terrifying! Eternal's Director!" Date watched: 14 April 2024 Original air date: 14 December 2008 Screenshots Precure Metamorphose Gallery 1  Gallery 2 | Sky Rose Translate Gallery Project info and master list of posts

face/off

The moment has arrived! Eternal’s Director finally steps out of his office and reveals himself to Nozomi and the Precures for the first time! Are they ready for this encounter? Let’s find out!

The Plot

Eternal’s Director dreams about his first visit to the Cure Rose Garden, where Flora rejected him and locked him out because he wanted to take control of it. Knowing that Flora has given Nozomi the access he was denied, he decides to finally see her for himself.

All the girls except for Nozomi are hanging out at Natts House, doing homework and studying for an upcoming exam. Nozomi has chosen to study at the library instead, so she doesn’t end up relying on her friends too much. She struggles and they miss her, but they let her do her thing.

When Nozomi finally leaves, she notices it’s very gusty outside. She stops to ponder a large tree, and is joined by Otaka the principal/lunch lady, who tells her it used to be small and weak, but it withstood and grew big and strong (this is a metaphor). Nozomi then realizes she forgot something and rushes back to the classroom, where she stops at the teacher’s desk and acts like she’s presenting a class. Coco shows up to give her some encouragement, but they keep getting interrupted by more wind. Suddenly they detect a powerful presence like they’ve never felt before, and rush outside.

In the school’s courtyard is none other than the Director of Eternal, in all his masked giant chair glory. He interrogates Nozomi, asking why she wants to go to the Cure Rose Garden, and she says it’s because Flora invited her to do so. Coco tries to defend her honor, but is attacked, and so Nozomi transforms into Cure Dream.

The Director uses shadows to blow holes underneath Dream and Coco. Dream attempts to punch him, but he blocks her with an energy field and strikes her with his shadowy wings. He makes a speech about how everything in the world can be classified as either something of value, or of no value, before destroying Otaka’s tree, and then the entire school and surrounding forest, leaving nothing but a giant crater in the ground.

Cure Dream is in shock, and the director declares her to have no value, but just then the other Cures and Milky Rose appear to back her up. The Director turns his shadow wings into five Hoshiina orbs that plant themselves in the shadows of everyone aside from Dream, spawning color-coded Hoshiinas shaped like demons. The girls use their special attacks, but the Hoshiinas absorb them, distort them, and return fire, leaving everyone strewn about. Dream steps forward, giving an inspirational speech that all the items and places he erased were things that could have grown to become much greater, and that he does not get to universally decide the worth of anything, especially them.

Coco gives them power and the Cures all perform Rainbow Rose Explosion on the Director. He turns the Hoshiinas into a dark rose to counter their attack, and it seems that he can repel the attack, but Mint turns to Dream and reminds her, via the metaphor of the tree, to hold to her beliefs so she can grow and support her friends and teammates. This is the encouragement she needs to push through the Director’s defense. He is overwhelmed, and moves out of the way of the attack. He stands up, weakly, but before he can try to attack again, Anacondy shows up and teleports him back to Eternal. As he reflects on what just happened, he thinks to himself that maybe the cures do have some value after all.

Over at Natts House, everyone is looking at the still sleeping King Montblanc and worried about the future….. Except Nozomi, who reiterates that she can grow and become unshakeable for the team, while eating a special pancake that everyone made for her earlier. Everyone is cheered up by her positivity and that ends the episode.

The Analysis

What I Liked

As we near the endgame, things are starting to escalate. The Precure have faced many formidable threats so far, but this first taste of the danger posed by the Director is different. His absolutist attitude towards things of value is fearsome and his only desire is to impose his will and control everything.This is of course why Flora denied him entry into the Cure Rose Garden, but he believes he has the strength to impose his will. While he doesn’t wipe the floor with the heroines like we’ve seen evil leaders do before, he is able to match their energy without great effort.

Feeding into his ideology, the Director fights mostly by erasing things and copying or reflecting things. He removes things he perceives to have no value, and doesn’t have the creativity or desire to use his own attacks so he just copies the cures’ abilities. He doesn’t even see them as having value enough to destroy, so he just wants to remove them as an obstacle.

I admire Nozomi’s drive. She recognizes she has been a bit lackadaisical in her studies previously, so now she’s overcorrecting by trying to do it alone. She struggles a lot with it, but dang it she’s trying. Otaka’s speech to her is also positive encouragement, and builds into the lesson of the episode: lay the foundation today so you can grow strong in the future. This is going to be the push that she needs to make it as a student and a future educator herself, and it’s enough to give her the confidence to overpower the Director during Rainbow Rose Explosion.

On a lighter note, there are several clever scene transitions in this episode, one that stands out is during the Rainbow Rose Explosion, the Director sees a vision of Flora, which turns into Cure Dream. There’s also a cute one where one of Syrup’s pancakes transitions into the sun.

What I Didn’t Like

Nothing.

Miscellaneous

I think I speculated earlier in the show that the mysterious relationship between Flora and the Director was romantic. This certainly seems to squash that theory. As I’ve said before, I did watch this show once before, but that was over a decade ago at this point and I binged it while working on a craft project so I clearly didn’t retain many of the finer details.

At first it looks like we’re getting a new Dark Precure 5, but it’s actually a group of Hoshiinas that absorb each cure’s abilities and warp and reflect them back. Interesting footnote on the list of copy and evil cures.

Milk does not appear in her fairy form in this episode.

King Montblanc is still asleep.

Conclusion

This is a thrilling episode, the transition point between the bulk of the show and the endgame (with a bit of a pause for the Christmas episode in between). We finally get our clearest look at the mindset of the Director and he makes himself known to the heroines. Unknown to him, they have been given the necessary tool and encouragement to overcome his destructive, isolating nature. The two sides will come to a head very shortly. But first…

Next time on Precure Daily: Santa Claus is coming to town! Look forward to it!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 0 Kettei

[yuseirra]

Ch 155 review:

woke up in the middle of the night and wrote ANOTHER huge bulk of a post, I'm having so much fun with this but maybe I should return to drawing persona fanarts again because I.. I'm pretty hopeless regarding mysteries but!! Here are my sincere thoughts about the latest chapter in more detail! I should really keep quiet till things clear up more. I believe so, but it's been really fun to hop into an ongoing series

This was originally written in a different language, then later translated through chatgpt. Chatgpt is so cool; ah I'm really sorry about what it does to the environment though; I won't use it a lot;

I hope to write quality content for those who love this work. That's how I feel. Haha. Well, I find it difficult to write forcefully, so at least I can say that I'm writing based on my affection. I'm not writing to get recognition(although it'd be nice).

Ah~~~.. Hahaha. For this episode's development, I realized how foolish I am because I forgot about Nino! But honestly, how was I supposed to know? That character, broadly speaking, might have contributed to Yura's death, but there was no indication that they did anything related to Goro's death. I don't watch many mystery shows, so when I made a plot guess last time, I dug a hole for myself in another post:

What I can't predict is what's going to happen next. There are too many variables and too much undisclosed information. As new information that hasn't been revealed yet comes to light, it makes it really hard to know.

Just like that.

The first emotion I felt after seeing the chapter was "?". What is this?? What are they trying to do?? And then, I felt really sorry for Ai. There's no sane person around. The person who definitely contributed to her death is her ardent fan (though I think even the term "fan" is too generous for that person). The suspected instigator is her ex-boyfriend or a colleague from the same group... there's really no one she can trust. Even though Ai hid many things and didn't show her true feelings and lied, it seems understandable, doesn't it?

I don't have any major speculations about Nino, but what I've understood is that the character "worships" Ai with some very twisted feelings. If there's a character who wants only the good sides of Ai to be shown to the world, it would be this one rather than Kamiki.

When I delve into analyzing the characters' emotions related to the story, I felt the part that needs explanation is Goro's death. Since Goro's death happened before Ai's death, the interpretation can vary greatly depending on whether it was intentional or just an accident. While many might focus on Yura's death, which is indeed very important, at least you could attach some psychotic criminal's delusional reason to it later. For the case of Goro's, however, it'd mean that there might have been someone other than Ryosuke already working against Ai behind the scenes before her death happened. Whether there were more people dissatisfied with Ai and her children other than Ryosuke is significant in determining how much it contributed to Ai's death.

I've been watching all along, but it didn't seem like Kamiki was involved in it, so I was confused. So, I think we need to sort out this part. This character doesn't seem to have much aversion to the fact that Ai had children, and there doesn't seem to be any reason for him to. From the moment he referred to Ruby as "indeed our child" in his first appearance, I got the feeling that this character recognizes the twins as something resulting from him and Ai, something between them, and doesn't view it so negatively. In that short sentence, there was a faint sense of affection. He doesn't seem to dislike being connected with Ai in one sentence, and the fact that there are children between them doesn't seem to be a bad thing from his perspective. You might think I'm overthinking based on one short sentence, but it's not just that; overall, his attitude when he actually appeared in front of the twins doesn't give any sense of dislike. The clincher was when he casually mentioned in chapter 153 that he has a father's heart. I thought, oh, this must be right.

Therefore, if Goro's death wasn't just an accident, I don't feel that this character would have any reason to harm Goro, who tried to protect Ai and their children and ensure their safe birth. (It could be explained as him being petty and harming Goro because he didn't like anyone else being close to Ai, but I think that's highly unlikely.) However, it still feels a bit off to think that Ryosuke acted alone to hide the body and everything else related to Goro's death.

If Nino were involved, it might make things clearer in this regard. But I don't know how insane Nino is (though She seems to be in very bad shape). I think there was some truth to the psychology of Nino that Kana portrayed...

B-Komachi, which was her and Ai's group, was going to perform at the dome, right? Which means Ai's career is shining even brighter even further. So what would this character gain by harming Ai at that point?

Ai did have a desire to reveal things about herself, though. Maybe this character wanted to stop her because he knew she wanted to expose things about herself and stop being the perfect idol worthy of worship?

From Kamiki's perspective, I think Ai revealing things about herself, especially if it was before the dome concert, might not have been such a bad thing. When the children were about four years old, he still wanted to get back together with her. If Ai had said, "I want to try liking someone, and I have children," then his career might have been ruined by the scandal but he might have been happy thinking, "Oh, Ai had feelings for me to that extent." She's THAT important to him, I believe.

But for Nino, it wouldn't have been the same, would it?

What keeps coming to my mind now is this lyric from Mephisto:

叶かなわないならばあなたになりたい

"If I can't make my wish come true, I want to become you."

Could it be that Nino wants to be like Ai, or even become Ai herself?

She's the one who's expressed her desire to be her (as portrayed by kana in ch 136)

Even if you view Mephisto's lyrics from Aqua's perspective, it doesn't seem like Aqua would say, "I want to become Ai." Of course, it's a powerful lyric expressing longing, so it resonates strongly emotionally. But their genders are different, their fields are somewhat different, and while Aqua seems to have a longing for the entertainment industry, he also tends to deny it.

Or it could be this: Seeing Nino's erased all the other members except herself and Ai in the poster, (she didn't erase her own existence) perhaps she might believe the one to be beside Ai is her and her alone? That might be how she thinks. :/

Adding one more suspect broadens the possibilities, but it seems like Akane and Aqua will explain everything on their own, so waiting might be safer. My guesses probably aren't going to be correct anyway.

What I can talk about more is Kamiki's reaction. Although it was a very quiet reaction, in some ways it was stronger than I expected because he accepted Ai's words completely. From his perspective, he was receiving a message he couldn't have imagined for fifteen years. There was no negative reaction like "No way, she's lying." He simply accepted, as in "I didn't know this," and remained silent.

In another post, I wrote my predictions for him like this:

If the songs are clues and there will be some kind of conflict in the future,

Just as Aqua has been doing things for Ai for years, this character might have been doing things too, and it's probably almost complete. His mindset is that as long as he accomplishes this, it doesn't matter what happens to him. He was planning to meet Aqua and see his daughter once before turning himself in.

But when he realizes that Ai, whom he truly loved, actually loved him back, he might feel like he's losing his mind.

There was a line he couldn't cross, thinking, "Okay, let's not do this," but now, having seen the video, he might cross it. Because he misses Ai so much and she's so precious to him, now he really wants to save the person he loves who also loved him (it seems like he's doing something to save her/see Ai again. Otherwise, the songs wouldn't be like this).

If he thought Ai didn't love him, his feelings (assuming he didn't intentionally kill her) would be guilt, obsession, and love-hate, so he wouldn't have any energy left. Because he has no attachment to himself, he'd have a resigned attitude like, "Alright, let's do this and die," and that's why he easily decided to turn himself in and show up in front of his children.

But if Ai loved him and actually wanted to be with him all along? Then if he was doing something for Ai, he wouldn't be able to give it up. So while he still has no attachment to himself, he might suddenly gain the energy for more extreme actions.

(I'm a bit disappointed that I couldn't accurately predict all the emotional reactions.)

Instead of "losing his mind," it seemed closer to sinking and submerging... It looks like he was someone who could have understood Ai well if only he had the right opportunity.

But I did get it right that he wants to do something for Ai.

Actually, the speculation I wrote above was a bit extreme, thinking that, since it's a manga, the development might be more intense. So, it was a scenario that I didn't really think would happen! Considering the character's personality, I thought he would suffer greatly. That's as far as I thought (with the current information revealed, I'm still withholding much judgment about this character).

But he seems so precarious. I'm worried he might be found dead somewhere... I'm still questioning whether he's someone worth worrying about,

But I don't think it's zero possibility that he'll end up being a very pitiable character.

He's saying he'll do something for Ai, but what could that be? He himself is determined, but Ai is already dead.

Even if Ai has become a star and is watching over him, would she want him to struggle? If he really killed her, she wouldn't want him to do anything invoking her name as a murderer. But if it's truly a misunderstanding, then she wouldn't want him to suffer anymore.

The video Ai left contained a message asking Aqua and the others to help this person, so I think the latter is more likely. Although the video was recorded a long time ago, this is a manga. The timing of when a message is revealed is important to the development. Since this story has come out in the final chapter, I think there might be a situation where the main characters end up helping him...

No but, if Aqua just let this person go, and if Kamiki turns out to be a murderer, that could be extremely irresponsible, right? Even if he let him go, shouldn't he have recorded the conversation and reported it? He should have recorded it and reported it, but maybe he couldn't report it because it happened when Kamiki was a minor? But wouldn't he have been around nineteen when the kids were about four? Is it something too ambiguous to report? Still, the next story that gets mentioned involves at least three deaths. How can he calmly, perhaps leisurely, discuss with Akane that Nino(and him) was involved in the deaths of three people? You never know what a criminal might do if they're cornered mentally.

He said he was going to do something for Ai. If that something is killing people, then it's dangerous for Aqua to just let him go. But since Aqua did let him go, it seems like he doesn't think that's the case.

So, the theory that he committed serial killings to ensure no one surpassed Ai is probably incorrect.

Additionally, there's no mention anywhere of serial killings actually happening, right? It could just be those three deaths. That doesn't mean he's not a murderer. If there had been serial killings of celebrities, it would have been mentioned in the story, right? There should have been some hints, like someone saying, "Hey, this actor who was doing well suddenly disappeared," but I don't recall anything like that. It would have been better if there had been at least some hints. Everyone naturally speculated that he might have committed serial killings to ensure no one surpassed Ai, and based on the way the scenes were portrayed, it did seem that way. But since it hasn't been mentioned so far, it could be that such events never happened.

The mention of bearing the weight of lives came up when the Uehara couple died. Kamiki was very distressed, saying, "Do I have to bear even that?" He seemed to be thinking that because of him, Ai died, and so did the Uehara couple, and now an actor has died too. He seems to be self-deprecating, thinking, "Yeah, someone else died because of someone like me." His way of speaking is really strange though... Is there a reason why he feels he needs to elevate the value of his own life?

When I saw the lyrics of "Fatal," I thought, "This is it," because it hints at "something that needs to be filled." What can fill the void? As the lyrics suggest, "a lack of Ai", it seems to be Ai. If you look at the song alone, it’s about wanting to revive someone he really wants to see, right? "Mephisto" is the same, and since it's a double hit, I thought, "Ah, then that's it. That's why he's moving."

あらゆる望のぞみの総すべてを叶かなえたら　ああ果はたせたら

"If all wishes are granted, if they come true,

あなたに会あいたい

I want to meet you.

星ほしに願ねがいをかけて

Wishing upon a star"

Anyway, stars are important. I noticed that stars appear quite often in the manga.

When I first heard "IDOL" and sometimes when I hear certain songs for the first time, I feel an overwhelming rush of emotions. It's a really amazing and exhilarating feeling.

However, if I listen to the song repeatedly, that emotion dulls, and I become less sensitive to it over time.

When I first heard "Fatal," I felt an immediate and intense sensation. It was as if someone was desperately searching and longing for something immensely significant. As soon as I felt that emotion, I instinctively thought, "This must be it," and it struck me so strongly that it became the reason I've been writing a lot lately.

The songs from Persona 3 were like that too. However, while Persona 3's songs had a warmth that supported the heart, a sense of resolve and determination, the songs from this manga feel like they are heavily spiced with MSG. The intensity of the emotions is incredibly fierce and strong. So, I often find myself wondering, "Is this okay? Is this okay?" But then I realize, yes, this is the kind of emotion being conveyed. It's raw but in a different way.

Considering the emotions that have been flowing so far, I felt strongly that Kamiki must be the one that's being depicted. Does anyone else feel similarly to me? Haha. So, I was just observing till that point, but then I couldn't help but dive in, thinking, "This has to be it."

These days, there are so many horrifying, disturbing, and distressing news stories, and it feels like the sentences given to offenders only add insult to injury for the victims(it's very short and light here). I hate it so much. I wish the term "dating violence" would disappear; it should be replaced with another term because that's not love.

So, while watching the developments in this manga, I feel like... I really don't want to empathize with or sympathize with the perpetrator, even in fiction. I understand that fiction can be separate from the reader's morals and I respect that, but when I think about the emotions between the characters in this manga, it doesn't feel like it's the same as those horrifying real-life cases. I really hope it's not. I'm not looking for it to not be like that on purpose; it's just that something feels off...

When watching the scenes with Ai's video, at first, my heart ached, but as time went on, I kept thinking, "Kamiki, you better get your act together." If this character has done things worthy of criticism, I absolutely don't intend to condone those actions even a bit, and I believe they should pay for their crimes!

But I think it's okay to wait and see for now? Am I really the type to get easily fooled? Haha. Still, I believe I have a good sense of understanding when it comes to emotions... I got Aqua and Kana right, and maybe that's why I got excited and gained momentum. It was exactly as I thought, for their case.

Well, we'll have to wait and see. I'm going to stay quiet for now. But if I'm going to draw fan art, I need to have a clear understanding of the emotions, which is important to me. If I can't predict what this character is feeling, I can't touch it.

Kana is really great in this regard. She's a character who doesn't need to overthink, so it's really comforting. While everyone else is complicated and holding secrets, leaving me to wonder "when the heck did you find out about that?" having new conversations among themselves, Kana is relatively easy to understand... what you see is what you get.

Or Ai, since she's shown almost everything (there's one video left), I might be able to do something with her too.

I liked the character Akane because of the profiling scenes. It didn't feel entirely like someone else's business because I do some degree of psychological analysis on the characters I handle. So that could maybe be why the range of characters I can manage isn't that wide depending on the genre. I usually focus on less than 5 characters and examine them REALLY deeply. The types I can understand and handle well are quite distinct for me. However, I want to dive deeply into the characters I do handle.

To create proper fan works, you need a lot of pieces of the puzzle. I might end up being off the mark, but I'm still doing it seriously when I make fan work!

I'm very happy when I hear good comments regarding such area :) I really want to do a good job. For now, I will stay on watch and see how things play out for now.

+

I thanked chatgpt :) :) aw they're nice (although they don't have feelings they've been helping me from rewriting things twice)

[gayalanwake]

new b&bh movie was divinely revealed to me in a dream last night. Tragically I forgot almost the entire plot within 45 seconds of waking up. But I do remember that butt-head “died” in a skiing accident or something (it was revealed he survived later on) and then beavis tried to take revenge on snow but then he was drafted for a war (?). Butt-Head’s “death scene” was funny as fuck because all you saw was this person-shaped hole in the snow and Beavis just stared at it from a distance with a single tear going down his face and he just fucking accepted it and turned around and walked away. he didn’t even go check on him😭😭😭😭