#yeah. not rambling in the tags cause spoilers but. yeah.

[glacierbash]

Dawntrail level 98+ spoilers below! (Yes I’m rambling about the same spoiler I have the last several times I’ve posted spoilers)

Hai. It’s me again. Rambling about a certain npc who I am very normal about. Prommy me you won’t judge me?? Prommy me you’ll not judge me for having Thots??? Prommy??? Pinky Prommy???

Anyways. Ahem. Deeply enthralled and charmed by the idea of iverelle, who has never had feelings for and had to court somebody a normal way, having to work up the nerve to talk to Shale like a shy little loser. She’s so used to her relationships being formed by somebody punching her REALLY hard, so she has 0 idea how to deal with having a normal crush on a person. Truly her first time being attracted to somebody who has no desire to beat her up, nor the capability. Her idea of flirting is standing around and helping every other member of Oblivion except for Shale. This 6’10, looming, intimidating dark knight is absolutely disarmed by one (1) random eldite. She FINALLY makes a move by inviting Shale to the arcadion because Iverelle’s going to fight, but then she’s too scared to see if Shale actually does end up going. Iverelle truly only understands romance if there’s violence involved and has no clue how to handle romance if there’s NOT any. She’s trying her best though. Please give her tips.

[ninja-knox-ur-sox-off]

oh yeah almost forgot. just a little something from yesterday while i was processing the news and trying to cope [spoilers?? ig for the lmk s5 trailer?? i don't know if the trailer counts as spoilers tho honestly its a trailer but we gonna tag as such to be safe] (all my posts about the trailer and the upcoming season will be tagged as lmk s5 spoilers)

[passerinesoncaffeine]

the irony of one the first main things established about omori as a character is that he's known for his great memory as if he hasn't lost the entire fucking plot repeatedly for years.

like he has a great memory!! if you don't take into account He's Actually The God Of Repression.

[penaconys-hound]

Fork you for being double fictional so now I have double standards too

I don’t know what you mean by “Double fictional” mate,

But you can never know what is real, or even if the person you’re talking to is even real.

[raayllum]

thinking many ezran&rayla S5 thoughts. 

[crystalpallette]

the fact that rafisol is weak to ally's puppy eyes is crucial information. sega please port puzzle pop so I can have this information forever thanks

[mbirnsings-71]

more OC posting on main

again if you guys don't wanna see it, I'm gonna put my OC art under the cut but I'm really happy with this okay listen I love overlays- I will say before I do however you guys should listen to this song, it kinda inspired the art piece (I blame you @lookatthissh-t)

Eyes my beloved <3

[herethereverywhere]

who’s your favorite npc you’ve designed :0 (- @/albatrio)

i have been WAITING for this one :D

if my players are seeing this before they block the tag (#when the dust settles do NOT click on the tag in the post) BLOCK IT NOW AND DO NOT PROCEED. please i want you to experience the surprise :(

are they gone?

ok, here’s a list :)

1. Cordia Hyre

Cordia is my ultimate babygirl. She has committed several war crimes as an individual who’s high in rank in the rebellion. She’s also one of the most powerful magic wielders of the entire campaign - one of her unofficial titles is Planemover, as she (with the help of her husband, a member of the Order of Glass) convinced the Feywild to give the cause a bit of the plane to hide away on as they gathered resources and recuperated.

She’s…a very complicated character. The majority of the decisions she makes are made genuinely from a place of love, but she does make some objectively fucked up decisions.

One of my players, Luna, gave me the opportunity to write a large part of his character, specifically her backstory. Perle doesn’t know this, and neither does Luna, but Perle is an incredibly significant individual in the context of the rebellion. He’s is Cordia and Aedium’s kid, and Cordia’s decision to modify his memory to make him not remember his community is one that effects the entire rebel body.

It’s also a decision that effects Perle - I was actually just speaking to Luna about how the cracks that are starting to show through with that spell are effecting his ability to trust himself. I’m…deeply intrigued by what will happen when that spell inevitably gets dispelled, or goes down, and how Luna will play that as Perle. Because I know what Cordia’s thought process was, but she never asked her son what his desires were before she executed that act.

2. Metis Kore Hey so you know how I was heavily sympathizing with a war criminal above? Yeah, here’s her foil that I despise but love from like, a character perspective. Metis is...genuinely one of the worst people I’ve ever written. She’s the mother of one of my other PCs, AK, who she experimented on to the point of his death, and then subsequently revived him. She’s a litch at the moment because I needed her to be somewhat present in the story, but wanted to honor my player, who when I inquired about the Kore family, said that they thought that AK might have killed Metis while he was escaping. Right now she’s the individual who funds the actual criminals (I specify because the Firelights are technically criminals in the eyes of the law, but are actually trying to help their community) of Zuan who have been slowly, but steadily, abducting Zuan children for Metis’s experiments with Hextech. She’s essentially trying to create immortal humanoids and, um...let’s just say that from the TW list I’ve had to put together for AK’s arc, has thus far had no success. 3.   Zeus & Romulus Aere More members of the Kore family, what a surprise! Candle, as much as AK is the character I find myself having to think of ways to balance more and more on a mechanic level, has created so many fantastic opportunities for me to introduce aspects of the world that I don’t think my players would have sought out on their own. One of these is the members of the Kore family that are missing - Zeus, and Romulus. Romulus is AK’s older brother. When he is reunited with Zeus on the Dominum, a pirate ship that his father captain, he’s not incredibly friendly towards him. All that Romulus knows is that his father left by his own violation, and cause a domino effect that lead to Romulus being forced to flee Piltover too. Zeus...does genuinely try, from the time he recognizes Romulus again, to have a relationship with him, but he wasn’t there to witness what Metis put Romulus and AK through - he doesn’t know that Romulus is being reactive to not be retraumatized. They do eventually get to a good place with one another. Romulus’s last name is taken from one of Zeus’s close friends, and quartermaster, who is the person on the ship who mentors him, and is generally someone he leans on in the healing process. I’m excited for this reunion too, because Romulus does think about AK a lot, to the point that the only picture that remains of him pre-transition is in the locket he carries.

4. Silco Yeah. She’s alive and she’s transfem. My game, my rules, and I say that Silco is a transfem Paladin who kicks ass. She’s presumed dead right now but I do have a player who suspects she’s alive because of a...very good perception roll. For Silco I’m excited from a storytellling perspective, and a mechanic one! Her oath is one I’m working on homebrewing myself because I like to make my life harder. That and her relationship with Vander & how their respective oaths effect that relationship should be fun. An honorable mention goes to the Firelights, who I’m sort of glad AK traumadumped on because now they have a reason to have a relationship with my players! The Firelights are really the only organization other than the Academy that I’ve worked on extensively, and they’re just fun :)

[woofs-silly-ships]

Oh boy, it’s that time again

(Haven’t done it much here but when a big piece of media comes out, you usually get a hyperfixated ramble post right after I finish it and a deep dive a day later. This is the deep dive lol)

Warnings: discussion of abuse and neglect, solitary confinement, and ptsd/childhood trauma. And ofc spoilers for WOTFI 2024 and just smg4 in general

Oh yeah and since I’m tagging this as selfship, the selfship stuff is at the bottom of yall want to just skip to that lol

I think I need to preface this by saying I still loved literally all of the WOTFI besides the ending. The song was freaking awesome (I’ll get into that later), the challenges were perfect, the clown designs for the main cast were amazing, etc. I’m just trying to get the negativity out first lol

But yeah ok, gotta get the elephant in the room out of the way first: what the trio chose to do with Puzzles was absolutely awful.

I was mostly shocked that Meggy seemed just totally ok with it considering SHE JUST SAW FIRSTHAND HOW ABUSED PUZZLES WAS??? She literally met his child self and saw how weary he was, how he flinched away from her touch like those are clear signs of abuse and it seems like Meggy should’ve known that

So why the frick didn’t she object? Mario is always doing stupid crap so that makes sense, but you would think Meggy or even SMG4 would do something???

But why is it abuse, you ask? Well, Puzzles has one major issue, and that’s that he has no friends. And then Meggy became friends with his child self, therefore logically setting him on the path to redemption. But obviously Puzzles has done some awful crap and should’ve been punished in some way, maybe something like having to stay exclusively in the showgrounds for a while until he shows improvement, with the gang there to support him (just came up with that off the top of my head lol). But you know what they decided was the best possible punishment for this man? Solitary freaking confinement. The punishment notorious for literally causing prisoners to go insane due to lack of interaction. And you just had to give that specific punishment to a man WHO LOST HIS FREAKING MIND AS A CHILD DUE TO LACK OF INTERACTION?? DO YALL SEE THE PROBLEM WITH THIS???

I’m not even mad that they did that, obviously it’s wrong but these are fictional characters making that decision, and characters can be misguided. You can have characters that literally violate everything on a basic dni list or something, characters can be evil. My issue is when it is glorified or romanticized. And that’s pretty much exactly what they’re doing here

Another line that came out of Meggy’s mouth that really hurt me was when she said that maybe he’d get better in there, stop being so obsessed with ratings…. is she stupid? The whole reason why this all started is because Puzzles was an abused child with no friends who basically hyperfixated on wanting to fulfill his dream of running a park (and later tv production as well) but was shut down by his father and isolated himself with a tv all day. Meggy had just managed to heal his inner child and see the good in him. And then they act like finally giving him what he needs to heal and then VIOLENTLY RIPPING IT AWAY FROM HIM AND LOCKING HIM IN A ROOM (MIGHT I ADD, LIKE HE DID AS A CHILD DUE TO TRUAMA, THERE IS NO WAY THIS ISNT BRINGING UP SOME GENUINE PTSD FROM HIM) IS GOING TO JUST MAGICALLY FIX HIM??? NO! AND THERE IS ZERO INDICATION IN THE MOVIE, NOT EVEN A HINT, THAT THE TRIO MIGHT BE IN THE WRONG.

I’m sorry, but this is abuse and also extreme neglect of what Puzzles needed to change.

And also, Puzzles being a villain doesn’t make any of this ok. Didn’t we already learn that with SMG3?? Villains that have clear issues like this can be reformed over time, it just takes work. But no, apparently they’re not gonna do that

Genuinely speaking: if they wanted betrayal via Mario, they should’ve had him just straight up kill Puzzles or something right then and there. Or keep the original story but have the others seem horrified of what Mario did.

Also that scene really should’ve been given more time to breathe, I know this is the haha funny Mario spaghetti show but that doesn’t excuse going from villain being likely reformed to villain being arrested and the park exploding in a matter of 5 god dang seconds. Sure that would’ve been funny if this was some random side character or minor reoccurring villain, but this was literally the man behind 3-4 arcs and the star of 2 more, and a clear fan favorite character. Even if he wasn’t gonna die, they should’ve treated it like Axol or One Shot Wren, where both the audience and characters are given time to mourn and see what was happening, see character reactions, all of that. Even a stupid line from a couple of the police officers would’ve worked perfectly. Just time to process what the frick just happened.

My only other issue besides, well, all that lmao, is that the actual movie was just nothing like the trailer, like there were scenes exclusively in the trailer and that felt really weird to me

Ok, negativity out of the way now :D

The song!!! I was kinda hoping for a rap but yeah this fit way better lol, haven’t seen anybody talk about it but the puzzles design with just the head and hands is freaking epic omgggg

Also I loved how the parts sung by the trio are kinda more akin to children’s movie songs (describing exactly what’s happening on screen, the sad “I know there’s good in you” part, etc) and then Puzzle’s parts are just hahaha I’m gonna freaking turn your corpses into gushing mounds of blood-

Also GGRRRR I WANT TO DRAW THE CLOWN DESIGNS SO BADDDD!!! THEYRE SO DANG COOL!!!

And also UGHHH THE MERCHHH I WANT IT SO BAD BUT IM B R O K E 😭

The challenges were also really fitting, didn’t see any users I recognized but those that got in were perfect

And no SMG34 fuel sadly :(, eh can’t always get the gay old men lol, maybe next time

And yeah this is my selfship blog so gotta let a few of the demons out:

THE FREAKING FACE HE MADE BEFORE ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE!! IGNORING WHAT HAPPEN AFTER HE WAS SO GOD DANG CUTE AND I JUST WANTED TO HUG HIM AND CUDDLE HIM GRGGRGRGR HES SO DANG SILLY-

Anddd that’s about it! This post will probably get like, 2 notes but who tf cares!! I just needed to ramble a lot lol

[penaconys-hound]

Obligatory RP Blog intro post

(Warning: Contains Spoilers for the end of 2.1 and 2.2 and was initially created before 2.2)

———

Making a drink is a sensory skill. In dreams, creating fizzy concoctions requires adding a bit of your mood. Heavier if you're troubled, a touch sweeter if you're in high spirits... It's not just about mixing beverages. It's about mixing the experiences of life.

Gallagher's the name, I'm one of the local "Hounds" around here. Step into Penacony, the Land of Dreams, Nameless one.

Tired? Just find a place to sit and rest for a while. Let’s have a talk and I’ll mix something up for you.

But a few words of advice…

Don’t get lost in dreams, and not everything’s as it seems.

Guidelines, Key, Tags and Notes from the mod:

Guidelines:

-Fellow RP Blogs are allowed, uh hiii Star Rail RP community

-This is my first RP Blog after like a year or so (previous ones just died) so I may be rusty so apologies for that -Using tonetags would be appreciated, not required but appreciated, especially if you say something that could come off as rude but you don’t mean it in that tone, the mod can’t read tone through text.

-SFW only please, Suggestive themes are allowed with a warning however

-Gore’s on the table though, but only if the meme gets involved, or you somehow get a good reason for it, I don’t think Gallagher would just maul you out of nowhere- However since this takes place in the dreamscape blood will be described as water and that’s all that’s gonna spill out-

-Shipping is allowed, I’ll allow any ship unless it’s pr*ship or with Sunday, with the former it’s obvious on why I wouldn’t, gross. You’ll get hit on the offense side of Gallagher’s Ultimate if you try that.

But on Galladay it’s simply cause I’m just not super comfortable with Gallagher x Sunday-

But yeah, as long as you’re follow the shipping rules the sky’s the limit, especially since I see Gallagher as bi

-Mod uses the CDT Timezone and is in education, but otherwise doesn’t have a life, and also has adhd with rapid changing hyperfixations so answer times can range from a minute to over a week

-Anything related to, but not limited to, racism, homophobia/transphobia, sexism, ableism, etc. Is not allowed here.

I’m serious if you come into the askbox with that you’ll get the “Dog” after you:

-Anons are welcome, you can even have a custom tag if you use a sign off and show up enough

-Magic Anons are allowed however only one can be active at a time and they have a 2-5 ask cooldown depending on what the effects where

-You can technically also ask the Meme on this blog, but don’t expect it to say anything other then *STABS YOU STABS YOU STABS YOU STABS YO

Key:

“ “ (Just plain text): Dialogue

“ “ (Same as above but in bold)/“ “ (Purple bold text): (what’s used is dependent on what’s exactly being said) Dialogue where Gallagher puts on his Reaper Robe

(The text for that was originally red however I changed it to purple for two reasons: Reason one being in the lore Acheron uses Red text sometimes and I think it’d be weird if I interacted with an Acheron and she also used red text,

and I changed it to purple specifically cause it matches Sleepie)

“* *” (Asterisks around text): Action/Movement

“// //“ (Two slashes around text): OOC/Mod talking

Tags:

#🥃bartenders rambles : In character posts/asks

#🐺barred fangs : In character posts/asks when Gallagher is playing the role of “The Reaper/Death”

#🌀don’t fear the reaper. : Fanart reblog tag

#👁️ The Dog. : Mentions/Discussion of the Memory Zone Meme “Something Unto Death”/“Sleepie”

#🐾mods yapping : Posts from the mod/OOC posts, not counting OOC moments in the tags of ask posts

#💫care for a drink under the stars? : Interaction reblogs/RPs, whatever with fellow Honkai: Star Rail RP blogs, can be in or out of character

#🪶hounds prey : Interactions with Sunday and/or Robin/Mentions of Sunday and/or Robin

#🧹the bellboy : (there was no mop emoji) Interactions with Misha/Mentions of Misha

(Tags may be added for specific characters and art RBs if I decide to do that, but for now that’s the tags)

Anon Tags:

#🍸 anon

#🥂 anon

#🍀 anon

Side Notes:

-If you’re wondering on the Mod’s pronouns if you didn’t read the bio, the Mod uses Any/All pronouns (like he/she/they/it etc. Idrc-)

-This will include headcanons, if it wasn’t obvious from the “I see Gally as Bi” comment

-It could possibly get OOC at times while I’m in character, I made the blog before 2.2, but I’m trying to stick to the character as well as I can, and if 2.2 changes his character again I’ll attempt to pull something to fit with that

-Mod will refer to himself ether as “The Mod” or “Mod Werewolf”

Other Blogs the Mod Runs if you’d like to check those out:

(disclaimer they’re not all gonna be for the same fandom in the future)

@the-coolest-character-in-hsr (Hanu from Honkai: Star Rail)

@trash-president-real (Trash President (OC) Honkai: Star Rail)

Anyways hope you enjoy the blog, and avoid getting stabbed by the meme

[xanyiaz]

new hush/vega audio spoilers‼️alex's chaotic thoughts part ???

comments 😭‼️

the last one 🤭 food for thought: maybe this is a good thing bc it'll make him understand and regret all of the bad things he did and make him easier to reform- and also he's free of the pain he caused and the pain inflicted on him by humans and therefore this version of him doesn't seem to hate them ? like is it more of a good thing that this is sort of a blank slate ?? idk- bc either way, my feelings are hurt bc he doesn't remember warden as of now :(( HOPEFULLY HE'LL REMEMBER THEM EVENTUALLY 🙏🤞‼️ i need their relationship revived so badly 😭 anyways, that's enough rambling for today, good night lol

oh yeah- also expect a vega x warden angst edit at some point :) you're welcome in advance xx

tag list <3 (lmk if you'd like to be added or removed !!): @zeerohpunk @themeridian @puffin-smoke @vind3miat0r @froggytimemachineinternet @redactedbloop @qhoaaaa @plaqying @ashton-sano @mokozroach @washa @idk-ig-7 @kuteheadrest @rejectedasset @copsecore @definitelynuwonhere @s0lairee

[allebooklover]

Can’t say much about parallels because I didn’t notice those (pretty sure it’s there tho. Maybe the panel of everything breaking? And how AFO’s big thing is his smile, which matches the whole ‘I want a house of smiles and laughter’ thing Kotaro had in mind for the house), but for me, when AFO revealed himself as part of Tenko’s past, and the main reason why Nana decided to abandon her son, Tenko’s dad, it sort of linked him to the house for me. He was not a part of the household, but he definitely contributed to why and how it came to be. Same for Shigaraki himself.

This is going to be a very long ramble as to why - and how Deku's failure to save Shigaraki relates to this. Spoilers under the cut:

Definitely agreeing that Deku failed to save Shigaraki - but not for reasons most people agree to. Deku failed to save Shigaraki not just because Shigaraki died (although that’s part of it), it’s also because of who he tried to save. He wanted to save ‘that little boy’ - the person who needed saving aka Tenko, before he took on the identity of Tomura Shigaraki. Deku didn’t say anything about wanting to save Villain!Shigaraki, the possessed by AFO villain leader who destroyed Japanese hero society and terrorized him and his classmates throughout the past year. He wanted to save Tenko, the boy whom hero society and civilians ignored in his time of need, who was then picked up and groomed by AFO into becoming Shigaraki.

That distinction between Tenko and Shigaraki is important.

In order to save Tenko, Deku must first fight Villain!Shigaraki, who Tenko became. And he succeeds - they exchange memories during the fight. Deku gets Shigaraki’s memories and perspective of why and how he came to become LoV leader villain possessed by AFO; Shigaraki gets the same but about Deku’s path onto heroism, which helps them understand each other enough for Deku to amateur therapy punch his way into the exact reason Tenko turned to villainy - aka ‘everything to do with that house’. This grants him access to the Tenko who has yet to become Villain!Shigaraki, succeeding in his goal of reaching the boy he wants to save.

Deku gains access to Tenko’s reason for villainy. Tenko’s trauma was caused by his mom, sister, and grandparents turning their eyes away from his father’s abuse, cementing his hatred of how hero society has made people complacent. By reaching out to Tenko even as he’s in the midst of destroying everything he touches uncontrollably, Deku proves that a complete stranger wants to be there for him in his time of need, destroying the reason for Tenko’s hatred. By being there for Tenko in his time of need, Deku eases Tenko’s pain and hatred, and is the first person to help Tenko take a step towards healing from his trauma and become a better person, as seen by his decision to help the disenfranchised and the friends he gathered around him. In that sense, Deku does save ‘that little boy’….

But only in the mindscape. Deku’s desire to save ‘that little boy’, while admirable, was always futile, because that boy has already became an adult. Deku’s support of Tenko in the mindscape doesn’t mean he’s managed to rewrite reality, which is that Tenko became Villain!Shigaraki because nobody saved Tenko back then. It doesn’t change the fact that Tenko became LoV leader and mass murderer Shigaraki. What it does change is Villain!Shigaraki’s mindset - Deku saving Tenko in the mindscape changed Villain!Shigaraki’s goal from ‘destroy the entire earth’ to ‘become a hero for the villains (aka his friends)’. This gives Villain!Shigaraki a chance to change back into Tenko, the person who wanted to be a hero, and meld that childhood desire with his villain experiences to become Hero!Shigaraki. Deku’s goal was to save both civilians and Tenko (not Shigaraki), and by being there for Tenko in the mindscape, Deku does manage to do both, by changing Tenko’s mind from Villain!Shigaraki’s goal of ’destroy everything’ and completing his metamorphosis into Hero!Shigaraki that has the goal of ‘save my friends’, which leaves Hero!Shigaraki open for communication without having to fight to the death.

How this relates to the house:

so Villain!Shigaraki’s main goal has always been to ‘destroy everything that came from that house’, which is his childhood home. Which he did destroy in reality, but is present in the dreamscape bc it was part of his trauma. One big thing that really stuck out to me was how Deku saved Tenko - he did this by holding Tenko’s hand when Tenko lost control of his Quirk, until he regained control again. This is a really cool bit on multiple levels, but how he does it is what matters here.

By reaching out to Tenko and grasping his hands, Deku forces Tenko to redirect the urge to destroy onto himself instead - which does end up destroying Deku’s arms. This prevents Tenko from killing his family (which was a big factor of his trauma), but it also prevents him from destroying his childhood home (source of trauma). It’s still standing pristine. Which to me symbolizes how even though Deku gave Tenko his biggest desire - being someone who was there for him, obliterating his ideology of everyone in hero society being complacent about suffering which gets rid of his hatred and helps him take a step towards recovering from his trauma - it doesn’t change the fact that the trauma existed in the first place, and that Tenko became supervillain Shigaraki.

How this relates to Deku saving ‘that little boy’ (aka Tenko):

by saving Tenko, this opens up a new path for Shigaraki to take. Deku was saved by All Might offering him the chance to become a hero via giving him OFA, and he’s offering Tenko the chance to turn away from villainy now by also giving him OFA - the narrative offers Tenko the chance to be a hero. That’s why child Tenko becoming adult Hero!Shigaraki who resolves to no longer destroy as a supervillain but instead be a hero to villains, aka his friends, is such a good scene imo. It’s a melding of both their goals - Tenko’s desire to change society in a way that validates his past trauma without harming others, Deku’s desire to save. Deku succeeds in his goal of saving Tenko (who has yet to become Shigaraki). In doing so Villain!Shigaraki (the person Tenko became) changes his mind about destroying everything as a supervillain to being Hero!Shigaraki, who wants to be a hero to his friends instead. The reason Deku was fighting Shigaraki was because Villain!Shigaraki wanted to kill Deku and destroy everything; now that Villain!Shigaraki has become Hero!Shigaraki, they can talk things out instead of fighting, which opens up the possibility of them working together to save the people society couldn’t save, aka villains.

That’s what Deku’s desire to save that little boy means to me - the recognition of and expending a helping hand to someone in need that is lashing out due to trauma, while ensuring that traumatized person doesn’t harm anyone else.

Shigaraki presents himself as someone who didn’t need saving when he very much did. By reaching out to Shigaraki in a way that validates his trauma in a supportive way that harms nobody else at great cost to himself, Deku inspires Tenko (the person he was trying to save) to stop being ‘LoV supervillain leader out to murder the whole world Shigaraki’ and instead try to be ‘hero to villains aka people that society failed to save aka the friends he made in the LoV Shigaraki’, which opens up Shigaraki’s path of atonement for his crimes and makes an ending for both of them to live be possible. We see via Gentle and La Brava that villains must be the ones to make the decision to stop villainous activity and stick to it; all heroes and civilians can do is encourage them to change for the better and help them along that path. By inspiring that change in Shigaraki, Deku does in that sense save him by deescalating Shigaraki enough to be open to talking about their ideologies instead of killing over it, which makes an ending where both of them live be possible.

That’s all about Deku saving Tenko who became Shigaraki, how does this relate to Deku failing to save Shigaraki: After Deku changes his mind, Shigaraki newfound desire is to be a hero to the friends he made in the LoV - the villains, and those that hero society failed to save. Specifically, a hero to the villains - aka his friends and the disenfranchised. His villainous self is literally cracking away - he no longer wants to fight, but talk ideology. It’s entirely possible that he and Deku could have resolved their issues peacefully in a way that satisfies both of their desires to save - which makes AFO’s appearance and subsequent takeover all the more tragic.

But there’s more to it, except this involves a very long ramble to explain how Deku’s failure to save, Hero!Shigaraki and Villain!Shigaraki’s desires, and AFO all link to ‘that house’ leads to that Shigaraki’s tragedy.

Hero!Shigaraki motivation and it’s link to AFO: A hero is someone who wins against villains to save others from harm. Shigaraki’s desire is to be a hero to his LoV friends - someone who wins against villains to save the LoV from harm. Who’s harmed both him, the people he cared about (his family sans dad) and his friends? AFO. AFO groomed him his entire life and is the entire reason his grandma and dad made the decisions they did. AFO’s bestie Garaki brought Toya back to life deliberately as someone with a short lifespan. AFO turned Shigaraki’s best friend Spinner into a semi-mindless noumu who’s lost sight of his original goals by manipulating their friendship to each other. And AFO is now currently trying to take over Shigaraki’s body to get OFA (aka his brother) to himself after revealing that he’s the mastermind of every single trauma in Shigaraki’s life.

Congratulations, Hero!Shigaraki - you have your villain to fight against. That it’s the sole villain in the villain gallery you inherited alongside OFA is icing on the cake.

How it relates to the Shimura household:

So there’s this whole thing about the Shimura household being a microcosm of hero society and its flaws. I wholeheartedly agree with this interpretation. Shigaraki’s destruction of the house and desire to destroy anything from that house symbolizes his desire to destroy hero society; that the house was left standing when Deku offered comfort symbolizes that although Shigaraki is now at peace, the trauma and issues caused by hero society still remains. But there’s also cause and symptom to consider.

So for the Shimura household, it’s generally accepted that Kotaro is the one most at fault for how Tenko came to be, because abuse. This is very much true - if Kotaro hadn’t became an abusive parent whose hatred of heroes overcame any love he had to his kids, Tenko wouldn’t have became Villain!Shigaraki. The reason for Kotaro’s hatred of heroes is because Kotaro’s mom Nana abandoned him to be a hero (for very good reasons, but it is still abandonment to the Japanese orphanage system which is like. Really horrible. No wonder he bears a grudge). Why did Nana abandon him? Because she was scared AFO would use him against her or kill him to get OFA - a fear that was very much well founded considering AFO’s whole ‘I manipulated Tenko’s entire life to groom him into becoming Shigaraki since birth’ thing. That would’ve been Tenko’s dad AFO was grooming if the whole ‘hide kid in foster family’ situation hadn’t hidden Kotaro from AFO until adulthood.

And the reason he targeted her family in the first place was because she inherited OFA from the hero he killed, who inherited it from the hero he killed, all the way up to and including the first user of OFA - who only got OFA in the first place because AFO gave it to him. When AFO said he was behind Shigaraki’s creation he wasn’t kidding - he’s the main reason for everything that went wrong within the Shimura household, just that it starts from two generations back in Nana’s time. Which isn’t to absolve Nana’s abandonment or Kotaro’s abuse - that’s on them, all this is doing is explaining the reasons behind their actions - but I honestly believe that if Nana hadn’t been so terrified of AFO, and that if AFO and OFA hadn’t existed in the first place, they wouldn’t have made the actions they did. They could have been happy together, and the house Kotaro built because of his trauma wouldn’t have been made.

Which brings us to ‘that house’ - the Shimura family household. The entire reason Kotaro made the house is because he wanted 1) a place of joy and laughter & 2) a place without heroes, primarily because of the abandonment issues and resentment Nana gave him. Which she wouldn’t have done if it weren’t for AFO. If AFO didn’t exist, Nana wouldn’t have abandoned him, and Kotaro wouldn’t have reason to build such a house. Much like how villains are initially seen as a cause of evil but are later revealed to be a symptom that was created by the flaws of hero society, Kotaro is a person who is initially seen as the cause of evil (an abuser and the main reason for Tenko’s trauma) that is later revealed to be a symptom that was created by AFO’s obsessive hunt for OFA (which AFO created in the first place).

Which is a super long way of saying that when AFO goes ‘I’ve been working on turning you into Shigaraki since birth’ to Tenko, it’s also him going ‘I’ve been working on this ever since I realised your grandma existed’. Which in turn causes Villain!Shigaraki to go from ‘my dad (and later on hero grandma) is the reason for my dysfunctional household’ to ‘AFO is the reason my grandma turned my dad into an asshole that created a dysfunctional household’, adding onto his reason to kick AFO’s butt.

(also visually, AFO's main thing is his wide smile and laughter, and Shimura household is a 'house built for joy and laughter' - aka smiles. so there's definitely a visual link there. and possibly other parallels in the panels in the manga.)

So now Shigaraki has two reasons for going after AFO - AFO being the cause of ‘that house’ fulfills his villainous reason of getting rid of anything related to it, and AFO hurting his pals makes for the heroic reason for it. This melds both the newfound Hero!Shigaraki’s motivations with old Villain!Shigaraki’s motivations together in a way that gets him to join the other heroes in defeating AFO. Which brings us to:

Deku’s reaction to Hero!Shigaraki (and failure to save): So we know from everything said earlier that Shigaraki declares his desire to be a hero to villains to Deku.

Deku doesn’t actually negate Shigaraki’s decision to be a hero. Part of it is because no time since AFO appeared directly after Shigaraki’s statement, but since he’s been shown to accept people so long as they show the desire to change no matter how horrible they were before, I think he would have accepted Shigaraki’s decision to become a hero and attempt to help him with that in a way that benefits society, while also holding Shigaraki accountable for his crimes at the same time.

Whether society accepts and accommodates that desire to become a hero is another matter. There’s a lot of reasons as to why this desire isn’t likely to be fulfilled - we know from how Aoyama and Gentle have been treated by the hero system that a person who has committed a crime will have an incredibly difficult, near impossible path of becoming a hero. Ditto for the dude who threatened to destroy the world, killed hundreds of people in his effort to destroy society, and showed no remorse about killing all those people - Hero!Shigaraki’s main goal is not becoming a hero to atone to society, but to be a hero to his friends aka villains. Doesn’t matter if he’s a changed person now, dude’s lucky if he gets lifelong imprisonment, let alone the opportunity to make up for all the lives he’s hurt and taken - if he even wants to try and atone, that is.

Which is why Deku’s actions after hold so much weight.

Shigaraki wants to be a hero. His goal as a hero is to defeat AFO. In the Final War arc, heroes work together as a team to defeat a villain stronger than they are - in this particular case, the villain is AFO possessing Shigaraki’s body. Thanks to Deku giving Shigaraki OFA, Shigaraki has the vestiges as part of his hero team to fight AFO in the mindscape, and with their help Shigaraki stays present enough to punch out AFO’s vestige, killing AFO and fulfilling his goal as both hero and villain.

Except Shigaraki doesn’t just have OFA on his side - he’s got Deku too. Deku got flung out of the mindscape and has all rights to call it a day especially after losing his arms, but he gets them back and rallies the rest of the heroes (and civilian rooting for him) into helping him defeat the AFO possessing Shigaraki’s body. Hero!Shigaraki and Deku share the same goal - defeating AFO. By gathering people to help him punch out AFO’s physical body, Deku punches AFO and Shigaraki’s body into oblivion the same moment Shigaraki kills AFO - helping Shigaraki in his goal of defeating AFO and saving the world at the same time, at the cost of failing to truly save Shigaraki.

I don’t blame Deku for his failure to save Shigaraki. He didn’t actually want to kill Shigaraki - he wanted to stop AFO, who was trying to possess Deku and kill everyone else. To do that Deku had to pick between saving Shigaraki vs saving the world, and he chose the world. However, I don’t think Shigaraki blames Deku for punching his body into oblivion either - Shigaraki wanted AFO dead just as much as the rest of the heroes did. Dude literally clung to life in the mindscape with the help of OFA just to kill AFO. Deku is a hero trained to save; Shigaraki is a villain who was trained to kill, and they both wanted to get rid of AFO. That AFO died is Shigaraki’s victory and Deku’s loss, even if it results in Shigaraki’s death, because AFO’s death was what Shigaraki wanted and Deku helped with that. Except I’m not sure if Shigaraki views his own death as a loss, either.

How Shigaraki’s death relates to ‘that house’:

Villain!Shigaraki’s goal was to ‘destroy everything related to that house’ - the Shimura household. And he did - in his history, he killed everyone living in that house up to and including the dog, as well as turned the house itself into dust. Deku and Shigaraki killed AFO (main reason for the existence of the house) with the help of OFA and the rest of the heroes. The only product of ‘that house’ left is Shigaraki himself.

Tenko is the only survivor of the Shimura household. Villain!Shigaraki was formed from the dysfunction of the Shimura household. Hero!Shigaraki is an amalgamation of his childhood desire to be a hero, and his experiences as a villain - all of which originates from ‘that house’. So long as Shigaraki lives, so too does ‘that house’, even if it still only exists in the mindscape (Deku prevented Tenko from destroying the house in the mindscape which led to the formation of Hero!Shigaraki). By dying after killing OFA, Shigaraki has fulfilled his goal of destroying everything and anything related to that household, finally fulfilling his original goal as a villain.

And Deku helped him in that goal.

Thing is, Deku didn’t save Shigaraki. But he does something I haven’t seen many people talk about - he listened to Shigaraki’s desires, and helped Shigaraki achieve them. Shigaraki wanted OFA - Deku gave Shigaraki OFA. Shigaraki wanted validation for his trauma - Deku validated it at the cost of his own arms. Shigaraki wanted to defeat AFO - OFA helped him with that, and Deku alongside the rest of the heroes helped Shigaraki deal the final blow. Shigaraki wanted to be a hero - by including Shigaraki in the ‘defeat AFO’ team, Deku gave Shigaraki hero status, unintentional as it might be. Shigaraki wanted everything ‘from that house’ destroyed - Deku punches Shigaraki, the final product of that house, and causes his body to disintegrate at the same time Shigaraki kills AFO.

OFA turned Deku from victim to hero, OFA helped Shigaraki go from victim to villain to hero. By giving Shigaraki OFA, Deku gave Shigaraki agency. And Shigaraki used that agency to aid in his own destruction to stop AFO. That he went out the way the rest of the household, AFO, and his method for killing everything - disintegrating into nothing via his Quirk - is poetic. Tragic, but fitting, and fulfils every single one of Shigaraki’s goals.

Their last conversation supports this line of thinking for me.

Deku fulfilling Shigaraki’s goals: Shigaraki confirms that Deku was right about him being traumatised and couldn’t even destroy Deku’s outreached hand (which is a lie, he actually did destroy Deku’s arms lmao). Deku doesn’t call him out on this, instead changes to subject and says he fought not because he wanted to kill Shigaraki - he fought because even though he wanted to save Shigaraki, he also wanted to hold him accountable for every single wrong he’s done (like terrorising his entire class for a whole year and committing countless murders). And Deku brings up Shigaraki’s desire again - he thought Shigaraki wanted to be stopped so that the cycle would stop with him, so Deku also fought to grant that desire. Not sure if that means he knew Shigaraki wanted to stop AFO possessing his body even if it meant Shigaraki’s death or if it meant stopping Shigaraki from destroying everything because of his trauma during the final battle, tbh - probs the latter. Shigaraki’s small laugh can be interpreted in many ways, but I’ve taken it to mean he’s surprised Deku saw through him and agrees with that assessment. But whether you view this as a correct assessment of Shigaraki’s desires, it’s Deku confirming that he thought about what Shigaraki wanted and tried to make that come true for him - helping Shigaraki achieve his goals once again.

Not just that, either. Shigaraki’s last words to Deku is a request to tell Spinner that ‘Tomura Shigaraki fought until the end to destroy’. And he did - Villain!Shigaraki destroyed society as planned, OFA (vestiges catapulted themselves into him with Deku’s help but it did end up destroying them, with the remnants of the vestiges only rising up at the end). Hero!Shigaraki worked with other heroes (Deku and the OFA Vestiges) to successfully destroy AFO and by extension himself, destroying the villain that hurt his friends and fulfilling Villain! Shigaraki’s desire to destroy everything related to the Shimura household which includes AFO and himself. And when Deku tells him that ‘yes, you did it’ - he’s confirming that Shigaraki has achieved in that goal of destroying AFO and himself. That Shigaraki has won, so that Shigaraki will be at peace.

(Which is why I’m fine with that final panel of Shigaraki’s death by Deku Punch looking so victorious. Deku failed to save Shigaraki, but he defeated AFO and saved the world. Shigaraki failed to be saved, but he achieved all his goals, which included AFO’s destruction. Bittersweet, but more sweet than bitter.)

NGL I also think this is Tomura’s way of telling Spinner ‘hey so you remember my mentor AFO who treated me like shit, groomed me into a nihilistic serial killer, took over my body and used our friendship to manipulate you into becoming a brainless Noumu for his own gain? You don’t need to worry about that guy anymore. I turned him to dust. I also turned myself into dust by killing him, but no worries - we got everything we wanted, like destroying the complacency of society, bringing attention to society’s flaws via its destruction and OFA. I’m dead but we win!’ Which is like. My dude your death is a loss that Spinner’s gonna mourn, telling him you went out with all your desires fulfilled won’t make it feel like a win, you socially awkward man. Deku agrees to pass on this message and does so - another of Shigaraki’s desire fulfilled.

And this leads to Shigaraki telling Deku ‘that depends on what you do tomorrow, do your damn best’, which is like. Shigaraki wanted to destroy society’s complacency and reliance on heroes by killing everyone. He succeeded in destroying society and revealing that complacency and reliance on heroes as flaws, causing massive loss of life, but there are still enough survivors to rebuild that society, and those survivors might once again become complacent and reliant on heroes to do everything, making all that destruction pointless. To me that line is him leaving his final desire up to Deku - being a hero to the villains and ensuring that the complacency and over reliance on heroes remains destroyed, and to do his best to rebuild a society where everyone helps each other instead of leaving it up to another person instead.

Shigaraki’s final desire - hero to villains and how that applies to Deku:

Shigaraki entrusts one desire for Deku to inherit - making sure over reliance on heroes to save everyone in society remains destroyed. Part of this is because Deku is the only one he can pass those desires onto (parallels OFA users getting OFA because they were the only ones available), part of this is because Deku is the one who both reached out to him in sympathy and held him accountable for his crimes. Because Deku was there for him, because Deku held him accountable, he wants Deku to do the same for him - hold society accountable, to prevent the mistakes that created him from being repeated. To do his best to prevent history from repeating itself, and continue what Shigaraki started - not the whole death of hundreds civilians things by killing them, but to keep society from relying on the heroes for everything and to do their part.

And one way Deku can do that is by taking on Shigaraki’s final desire - being a hero to villains.

Shigaraki’s idea of being a hero to villains is by assisting them in their villainy - he enables them in their desire to harm others, because that was all he’d been taught. This applies to those who turned to villainy because hero society couldn’t save them, and those who turned to villainy because they want to fulfil their own desires even if it harms others. Defeating AFO falls in this category - AFO harmed his friends, who were villains, so AFO had to go, amongst all the other reasons Shigaraki had for defeating him. Deku has the drive to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself and desire to do better than the ones that came before him, as we can see with his inheritance of OFA and working to become better than All Might. If he inherits Shigaraki’s goal of being a hero to villains - he can do better than Shigaraki by helping to save those that hero society failed to save, and holding those who are villains because their desires are more important than the lives of others accountable for their crimes, preventing more victims that could become villains in the process. Which I think Deku was already going to do, but like - it’d be more poignant if it was to grant the desire of the man he tried but failed to save.

Anyway. To summarise: Deku inspired Villain!Shigaraki to change back into Tenko mindset by being there for him during the trauma and giving him OFA. This causes Villain!Shigaraki to mindmeld with Tenko to become Hero!Shigaraki. Villain!Shigaraki wants to kill everything related to the Shimura household, Hero!Shigaraki wants to be hero to villains aka his friends, cue AFO, who has hurt Shigaraki’s friends and is a direct cause of the existence to the Shimura household even without the whole manipulation thing, appears and takes over Tenko’s body. This gives Shigaraki the opportunity to fulfil all his desires by killing AFO with the help of OFA, and Deku with the help of every other hero helps Shigaraki achieve that goal by punching AFO possessed!Shigaraki at the same time vestige!Shigaraki punches out AFO in the mindscape with OFA’s help - by giving OFA to Shigaraki, Deku helped Shigaraki regain agency to do as he pleases and an opportunity to accomplish his goals of being a hero. Shigaraki and Deku simultaneous defeat of AFO causes Shigaraki’s own body disintegrates, which means Deku failed to save Shigaraki but Shigaraki achieved his original goal of getting rid of the final product of the Shimura household aka himself. Deku proceeds to have one last convo with Shigaraki where Shigaraki asks Deku to fulfil his last few goals, which is farewell message to spinner, to do his best to make sure society doesn’t repeat its mistakes, and potentially hero to villains, which to Shigaraki are people like the LoV that society failed to save. Deku failed to save, but he did the next best thing which was listen to Shigaraki’s desires and help Shigaraki achieve as many of his goals as possible in a way that helped to save others, and he’s been shown doing that by informing Spinner of Shigaraki’s final words, so from one OFA recipient to another, it’s possible that Deku inherited Shigaraki’s goal of being hero to those society couldn’t save, and definitely inherited Shigaraki’s goal of making sure society’s mistakes don’t repeat itself.

or to put it another way -

All Might rose in a time of fear, when people needed to believe that things would turn out alright in order to move forward, and so he became a symbol of peace—his strength was a comfort to everyone. Because of him, society was able to come out of a state of chaos and stabilize.

But Midoriya was born in the era of complacency that followed. If he became the same symbol of peace that All Might was, then society would stagnate. Another strong OFA user would just reassure society that the heroes have everything handled, that they don’t need to intervene, and that they didn’t have enough power to help even if they wanted to.

That’s why his loss of OFA (a terrible thing in itself!!) is going to work out for the ultimate good of everyone. It actually frees Midoriya to wield the power he was born with—the ability to inspire other people to act. I don’t think it’s an accident that he was quirkless in his rising chapter. When people see Midoriya running to save, even without any power, they loose any excuse for complacency they had. They feel compelled to do the same.

That power—the connection of hearts that formed OFA in the first place—is greater than any quirk. It’s what makes Midoriya the greatest hero.

[kaylinalexanderbooks]

One to five

Thanks to @willtheweaver here, @drchenquill here, and here, @leahnardo-da-veggie here, and @mk-writes-stuff here!

Rules: follow the prompts about your WIP

Gonna use TSP here:

One word to describe your WIP:

Chaotic

Two lines that are your favorite:

[After Liam has ranted about how Muenster cheese is "objectively" the best cheese]

“Well, Mr. Canadian,” said Robbie, “how come you’re super passionate about an American cheese?” “You lost your rights to call anything American cheese after your processed product that has the same texture as the plastic-wrap single it comes in that you have the gall to call cheese!” ***

“Have you ever thought about how cereal is like the skeleton of milk?”

Three times you cried while writing:

I don't cry while writing, actually. But I'll just pick sad moments--

1) the penultimate chapter of Part One >:)

2) the last two chapters of Part Two >:)

3) this scene in Part Three where I'm giving myself the challenge to make Parker cry (which is difficult) >:)

Oh yeah and I want to avoid spoilers >:)

Four feelings from your characters:

#1- (Maddie POV)

“Oh, by the way—” she reached into her backpack and pulled out a crochet tiger. “Ahaha!” I laughed excitedly as I snatched the tiger from her. “—as requested, I made you that.” “Thanks! Amigurumi, right?” Kelsey beamed when I remembered the term for the stuffed animal. “So you like it?” “He’s adorable. His name is Wilfredo.”

#2- (Lexi POV)

“Ash?” I said, standing abruptly. I looked around in all directions. “Ash?!” I said louder. No response. I wrung my hands through my hair, my eyes burning, as they did when stressed. I had no idea what was happening, and frankly, if whatever was happening even was happening. I had to be dreaming. This didn’t make any sense otherwise.

#3- (Gwen POV)

Yet I’d do anything for them. All of them. They were my best friends. Even if they didn’t view me the same. Thinking about them filled a deep, righteous fury as Dr. Asghar reached for the door. She let go of my left arm, so I jabbed my elbow into her gut. She yelped and I broke free. The time I spent running paid off when I shot down the hall, the balls of my feet carrying me across the gray tiled floor.

#4- (Kelsey POV)

I worried that Aunt Kamryn would forget that Roni would want to read a book aloud before brushing her teeth. She usually practiced her reading with me. Hopefully Mom or Aunt Kamryn were a good replacement. I was worried about Maddie still. How could mere boredom cause me to not worry? God, I was terrified.

Five tropes featured:

1. Found family

2. Cool gateway/portal

3. Magic and powers

4. Coming of age

5. Everyone is super (with exceptions)

Tagging @awritingcaitlin @cherrybombfangirlwrites @chauceryfairytales @talesofsorrowandofruin @frostedlemonwriter

+ ANYONE ELSE

TSP intro

TSP tag list (ask to be +/-): @thepeculiarbird @illarian-rambling @televisionjester @finchwrites

@nebula--nix @literarynecromancy @honeybewrites

[s0lar-ch3ri]

hey new draft making

i keep putting this off, but it today arrives! a ramble about ryan selucreh to fill tghe tag for once

(spoilers for mythborne ahead BUT ITS BEEN OUT FOR A WHILE FOR FREE NO PATREON REQUIRED PLEASDE CHECK IT OUT I NEED MORE MYTHBORNE FRIENDS IN MY JRWI MUTUAL CIRCLE)

so who even is ryan selucreh? well, hes a football jock and a big oaf, the stereotypical strong dumb athlete kid. however, theres more to ryan that we're diving into, years after the oneshot ended!

one thing to note on ryan is how his powers were gotten in a mix of ways aster and connor did. aster was born with them (assumed cause goddess mother), connor got them from a book (recieved from searching, wasnt born with it), ryan got his powers from squats. silly, sure, but like i said, its like the inbetween of the two. he has the power himself and doesnt need a book for them or anything, but he wasnt born with them either. i also wanna note how asters powers are like life (plants and the sun, both can symbolize life) and connors powers are like death (decay and disintegrating, both are related back to death), but ryans powers cant be "like" anything. its not something super showy, hes just super strong (strong enough to rip a mountainin half im pretty sure was confirmed).

lwts get into those comments ryan made, and how its reflected across the 3 episodes. yeah, the comments on faking his personality around people and how he doesnt know who he is anymore.

first showing of this is with the j crew. charlie gave a good idea (he was nicknamed jyan), but condi says he told them that. granted, it was probably to be funny, but theres other options to that. ryan missaid his name out of nervousness, the j crew misheard him, he wrote his name really wrong, so many different options that also are pretty comedic. yet, ryan told them he was jyan to join their team.

on the floatball jersey he wears, they didnt even have a 10 for him, simply a jersey with a 1 and a "poorly painted 0". did someone else use the 10? why didnt they have one? another way ryan changed for people symbolically, wearing one number but being another.

ryan joins in with the omnious curse speech despite it not being planned. an attempt to keep fitting in with his group there.

hell, ryan even was an ass to connor before when he was with the j crew, yet wasnt when he was with connor and aster alone.

he even goes out of his way to try and save asters dad, an act of carrying for her and her father. hes such a friendly and caring dude that hes trying to fit in with them all to keep up their friendships.

thats what makes the whole "i dont have a real personality" line mean so much. because he really doesnt. all that can be seen as his personality is simply to appeal to another person.

HELL IM FUCKING CONNECTING IN THE FACT THAR RYAN WAS A HISTORY MAJOR TO THIS! WHO EXPECTS THE JOCK TO LIKE HISTORY? NOT ME, I THOUGHT THAT WAS CONNOR, AND THATS WHY ITS SO INTERESTING, CAUSS NOTHING LEADS YOU TO BELIEVE RYANS INTERESTED IN THAT SHIT!!! ryan barely talks about his past or anything, minus the memory (but that was only to save professor aeliana), BUT HE DIDNT FUCKING BRING IT UP. kinda ironic, the character whos past is pretty unknown is in classes learning about our past.

oh yeah did i ever mention his parents are dead? cause they are (confirmed by condi a while back)

maybe thats why he tries to be so appealing to everyone, to make up for that missing link. i mean, its not like that event wouldnt have some impact on you (also no jrwi pc has gone to therapy from what i know so safe to assume he has no coping skills PLUS ITS A CONDI PC YPU THINK HES MENTALLY STABLE??).

another thing i learned: ryans last name is a backwards hercules. fun call back to the name, yeah, but the actual story may have some weight here...

the screenshot doesnt give the full story, of course, so i will. the picture leaves out how the reason he went through hardships was because he was driven to madness. according to research, hera was mad at hercules being born (for he was the product of zeus and a mortal woman), so she made him go crazy and slaughter his family. to make up for it, he was given 12 impossible tasks to do.

am i saying the full story applys? hell fucking no! i dont think ryan killed his parents or anything, but i think the jist can apply. a man trying to be forgiven by people for wrongdoings that wouldnt have happened if said people didnt make those wrongdoings happen. ryan trying to get the validation of his friends and acquaintances by pretending to be someone hes not, which wouldnt be needed if he could see friends accept people as themselves. given impossible missions (be someone else) to appease those who he looks to (whether its to the side or up to).

another thing to note is theres no episode cover with only ryan on it. cover 1 has all 3, cover 2 has background faceless frat members and connor, and cover 3 has only aster.

it could be from how there was only 3 episodes of mythborne, yet this could be solved by having all 3 in a cover at once. while it would have been a lot, they had all 3 in the first and a total of 4 characyers in thr second cover. this of course was a purposeful choice, and it shows in a way who the focus is meant to be on in that ep (all of them, connor, aster).

so why coupdnt ryan have been focused on in episode 1? yeah he was directly related to the chaos (j crew being first vicitms and shit), yet that clearly had a more general showing. its because ryan isnt a character who can be focused on. he crutches to his friends like a team relys to eachother, thats how he has purpose, thats how hes even a person.

i woulsnt even doubt the stupid bit being an act! to play in a sport, you actually do need good grades (in my school experience, above a C+ in all classes), and ryans been on this team since he started college (infered from dialoge with j crew member), probably since kindergarten even (has known j cre since kindergarten). he learnt it from them, and found it to be a possibly appealing trait of himself to others, everyone likes the lovable idiot! sure, what he does to play an act can be extreme, but if this is really thr coping mechanism i think it is, its not too much for him (also wanna note how of all characters ryan is the biggest stereotype caharacyer).

the 3rd episode btw seemed a lot from the cover and namr and all like the whole world was a fake (for me atleast), and isnt it fitting that ryan was the first to fall off the stage? the man, who had an identity crisis outloud for once after it seemed like one friendgroupd was about to learn his secrets, the first to exit stage down (stage direction jokes). hes been playong a play himself for what feels like his whole life by now, he doesnt need a script.

i came in here to talk about ryan, put him under a microscope, see who he is. really, ryans a shell of a person, a muscle soulless being pretending to be a person someone can love and care about. maybe he too thinks about how connor had changed inside to save him. whatever it is, i think ive not learnt from this who ryan selucreh is, and maybe if he gets aomething like this, he can learn himself who ryan selucreh is.

[styrmwb]

I beat Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

There's gonna be spoilers in this just in case you care, hopefully I tagged it correctly, and also yeah this is a long one (I don't have it tagged game ramblings for nothing)

Anyways, loved this game. My gripes with it are very few, but unfortunately one of said gripes is very major and hasn't changed from Remake; but in the effort to Pretend like my thoughts are organized, I'm gonna section this cause sectioning is fun :)

Actually, one thing I wanted to note here (writing this after like, 3 paragraphs), is something that influences a lot of my love for this game is the fact that it... Doesn't suffer from translation problems like the OG. It brings factors that i never truly appreciated into the forefront, and clears up a lot of confusion. I wanted to put this here because I realized it would be weird to say all of my nonsense without clarifying this.

Gameplay

Rebirth (and Remake) is what I think is What modern FF should be. I absolutely love this style of combat so much. I do wish there was a very small passive ATB charge cause sometimes I get stuck in a situation where I can't do anything, but other than that the rotation of hack and slash then classic menu, and switch between party members is so fun, in the best of times I can make a really cool action scene, everyone showing off their own moves; it's a blast. I'll go a little deeper into the characters when I go to That section, but overall I found everyone really fun in some way, even though end game I ended up using the same party as I did in Remake (and also the OG VII lmfao).

I know to some/possibly most, the amount of open world (and Chadley) and the side quests might feel like a bunch of fluff and garbage, but I actually kinda really enjoyed it? I loved how the world intel all changed slightly as you progressed. Moogles as an example, annoying as they were, did add an extra level of challenge every time you saw them. When you had to catch a chocobo, it was a different style of stealth minigame. Summon crystals all had increasingly complicated patterns. Hell, even the towers were slightly different every time with how you had to climb or even reach them! I think this being the strength solidifies itself when I think of my least favorite intels being the Fiend Intel, because I think they were the most samey the entire game through. The side quests I compare to XVI. XVI's side quests were... like XIV. A LOT of dialogue, run here, more dialogue, fight one enemy or gather 6 items, then go back. Rebirth's quests felt... a little more alive? A little more varied? Sure, side quests are usually going to be the same in these styles of game, but I think of chasing a dog through the region while the dialogue happens along the way, I think of the options to gather more resources than the bare minimum for different rewards and dialogues, picking different flowers, having to pay attention to notes, having to interact with the minigames: it all felt more interesting and like I actually wanted to do them. The varied nature of everything is what made me enjoy it.

Oh and Queen's Blood? Greatest FF card game don't even @ me I had so much fun with it it better stay

Characters

One of my favorite parts of Rebirth is how much it helped or made me love the cast. Even characters that I did not care about or possibly actively disliked, this game made me enjoy. Main characters were all expanded on, side characters were silly, and brought back into relevance when I would never expect (Like holy shit I swear every named NPC from Remake came back which is so cool), and they all make the journey an absolute joy to take, and the world as colorful as FFVII SHOULD be. But let me talk about a cast that went from "yeah I like them" to possibly one of my favorite parties in the entire franchise.

Cloud

I honestly already considered him my favorite character in VII (which is a very hard thing to admit without the fear of people thinking you like him for the wrong reasons), and Rebirth being essentially half the game lets me get to see why again. A man who presents himself as serious and uncaring, but OOPS he actually does care and is really silly but unfortunately has some major mental problems! (please help him he is NOT ok). Sure, they kinda speed up his realization of certain aspects, and maybe they go a Little too hard on the fact that Something Isn't Right, but I really enjoyed seeing his declining mental state, its effect on the world, and his relationships with the party. The Sephiroth juice is intense at this point in the story, and I am very excited to see him in the next game. His gameplay is classic yet fun, with big swordy slashes and huge hits that don't have to be slow (they're sometimes slow).

Barret

My favorite part of Barret in Rebirth compared to Remake is how he didn't wear his sunglasses for most of the game. He's open, he's feeling, he's emotional; he's the big tough softy I love. This is where him and Cloud's relationship really gets to shine, where you can tell there is respect, trust, and concern between both of them. The Gold Saucer and side quests are where I think this is at its strongest, and I love seeing it. His gameplay makes him a really fun support, and just like Remake I had him as a sort of paladin healy tanky type, staying behind with GUN as he takes care of the party, which is really fun and consistent.

Tifa

This game does wonders for Tifa enjoyers (it's me I'm Tifa enjoyers), giving her a lot of focus and emphasis on that caring, observant nature that is her strongest suit. Her concern for Cloud and friendship with Aerith feel very strong here and it makes me happy to see. Her gameplay had her in my party the entire time no other reason, her fast attacks, dodges, ATB filling, and stagger damage multiplier being extremely huge in every single fight.

Aerith

The big one. Honestly, I'm gonna keep my real big story thoughts for later, but I will say I loved seeing her enjoy life, the open world, and helping others in the side quests. She's a great character to see happy :) Also, her scene in the Gold Saucer is probably now one of my favorite scenes in the entire series. It was so fucking stunning that I cannot get enough of it. Unfortunately, her gameplay is easily my least favorite out of the group, as her slow attacks and dodging (yes I know she has an ability to boost her attacks but that takes a while to get to) makes her kind of a slog in my hands, and better off in the computer's.

Red XIII

One of two characters that I did not expect to grow to love as much as I did. I'll prob mention this again later, but... I didn't REALLY know the extent of his change when I played the original. Yeah, I knew he was young for his race, but he always felt like just that wise grumpy dog man (some of this could be on me not reading well enough but between poor translation and Advent Children and the fact he didn't make it into DFFOO I'm gonna give myself a break). Rebirth showed me how much of a joy Red is. Despite the trauma and pain he went through, he's silly, he's excited for life, he has fun and loves his family. But also, despite this and his youth, he doesn't COMPLETELY lose his knowledge and wise nature after his reveal; he just relaxes more. I care about Red so much more than I originally did now because this change was made clearer. His gameplay is also really fun, fast attacks, strong defenses, and even stronger abilities (stardust ray my beloved).

Yuffie

We already got a good amount of Yuffie in Intergrade, so having her again here felt like anyone else from last game. However, I do absolutely love how she was integrated into the main plot instead of just being Girl in Forest. She served as great comic relief (and literally says this!) for her appearance in the story (although I do think there were a couple occasions where it was a bit much but that's ok her arc is next game), and I really enjoyed that she started to become a cared for member of the group (really shown by Cloud in the Skywheel date and her and Barret's relationship). Gameplay was just as fun as Intergrade, the throwing/ninjutsu swapping being a joy, and I loved using her doppelganger attack in combination with elemental weaknesses and Sonic Boom. Yuffie was key for some of the harder fights, the MVP fr fr.

Cait Sith

The other of two characters I did not expect to enjoy, and Cait Sith here is the absolute king of it, as I DID NOT like him in the OG. But here? He's a larger character, he's more sympathetic, he's a little more understandable, and his gameplay doesn't suck shit lmfao. His betrayal I think was done a lot cleaner this time around, where he really Felt like part of the group, and his return was done pretty smoothly but honestly doing anything other than being like "hi hello I'm back!" while Cloud beats the shit out of Aerith is an improvement I really enjoyed his melee/ranged nature being similar to Cloud, and his heavy hitting attacks. Despite the fact that he still had RNG, it was RNG that felt good no matter what and I appreciated that.

Cid and Vincent

Our poor poor "you're not allowed yet" boys. No gameplay section here cause they ain't got any! But that's ok, because for what little role they had, I really enjoyed their presence. Early Cid was very interesting to me, and while i do feel like he loses a little not being introduced as a complete dickwad, I still love having Cid around and giving him a little more connection to the party. He didn't seem as aggressive and %#*^-y, but I kinda hope we get more of that in part 3 when Rocket Town happens. Vincent, similar to Yuffie, gets tied into the story in such a great way. Getting to fight him was super super cool, and I loved that small amount of comic relief he gives by being Overly edgy yet out of touch with the world. I'm very excited to see where both of them go.

Zack

It took me some time to... Accept what Remake did to the timeline. Once I did, I was all in on the train for more Zack. I love Zack! He's my other favorite VII character other than Cloud! This game gave me more Zack, and I appreciate it for that. Not to mention his whole interactions with Aerith and Cloud made me very happy and filled a void in my heart I needed (that fucking synergy attack between the two of them???? DUUUUUDE) Unfortunately however; he didn't get to... get the story treatment I would have liked. Gameplay wise; I don't care much for his charge mechanic, sadly.

Sephiroth

I don't have much to say here. Sephiroth is Sephiroth. He appears, says "pee your pants cloud", then fucks off, and he's really good at that, and that's what he's supposed to be. My grudges against him aren't against him and more against who's writing him. Playing him was hype though, and I enjoyed his counter mechanic which I feel got later reincarnated into Red.

As for people other than in the playable cast, Dio was incredibly fun, Elena felt like a treat and a more threatening than the original but still showing that silly nature (pink gun???? no tactical advantage whatsoever I love it), Hojo is still the scum of the earth as he should be (he never gets better!), I got to actually understand what Bugenhagen is, and so on and so on. Nobody was worse than their original appearance and I loved that.

ALSO CISSNEI GANG RISE UP WE LOVE OUR GIRL AND I'M SO GLAD SHE GOT TO RETURN

Story

So. This is the big part. If I had to choose where my biggest gripe with the game would be, it would be in the aspect of story. This is the Exact Same Gripe I had with Remake, that being the aspect of whispers, alternate timelines, and whatever Sephiroth is cooking. This being.... I don't really like it? I don't think it adds anything?? It's confusing, intentionally vague, and it really ruins the flow that these games have otherwise. Cause aside from this singular (big) aspect? Dude! This game fucks! It takes every story beat that was in the original, and expands on it in a way that i feel makes me love the story and world way more! I feel like a lot of aspects got tied together a lot more smoothly (although again, I also attribute this to not terrible translation), and every experience that I expected from the original was a joy to watch in this game. The swamp, Junon, the boat, Costa del Sol, the Gold Saucer, Cosmo Canyon, Nibelheim, the Temple of the Ancients. These were all done so well. All of the side content and side stories were really fun, added a lot of character to the world. And with the slight changes they did make, like with Cait Sith's arc being changed to be more sympathetic instead of blackmailing and Cloud being controlled by Sephiroth NOT beating Aerith I think were actually done really tastefully and improved the experience (actually thinking about it Dyne's just felt like they wanted to hurt Barret more why would they do that). I just... I wish if they were going to do this whole alternate timeline dealy, they were a little more clear on it? i wish I could feel like it actually mattered to this series, but what i get is "oh wow the unknown journey" that turns into "yeah here are these extra bits that are confusing and don't change anything and actually instead ruin the impact of one of the most well known scenes in video game history)

With that I will talk about the ending. I was willing to ignore the fact that we didn't get to walk through the City of the Ancients more. I was still shaking and nervous until the very end, thinking "oh man what's going to happen???? oh fuck!!!" and what i was instead rewarded with was a constant whiplash of emotions and confusion that left me numb to what should have torn my heart out. I shouldn't have to be left wondering if a character truly died or not for the sake of "OHHH MAN TIMELINESSSSS WORLDS???" that didn't DO anything when I could have gotten either a successful changing of timeline, or a 4K edition of something to tear my heart out, and hearing the absolute pain in Cloud's voice in his speech afterwards. I am Really Hoping that part 3 will clear this up, and retroactively improve an ending and story beats that I think single-handedly knock this game down from a 10/10. I shouldn't have faith in them, cause they've beefed two endings in a row, but I do, because they've shown that everything else they can create are honestly perfect.

Graphics

shortest section in the world this game is beautiful the landscapes are beautiful the characters are beautiful (or ugly when they needed to be and it still worked) my eyes were given a treat this entire 80 hours

Music

shortest section in the world this soundtrack is amazing hamauzu and suzuki cooked and made so many good songs

it's like they knew tifa's theme was one of my favorites and proceeded to give me 20 versions of it also gold saucer getting individual remixes???? a top 5 battle on the big bridge? NO PROMISES TO KEEP???????? GOD FUCKING DAMN.

Unorganized Ramblings/Finale

I really did have a lot of fun with this game. I didn't feel soured until the end for the most part, even during some frustrating game segments (fuck you Rufus and Odin and then Odin again and also that last Fort Condor). I really appreciate getting to see the wider world of FFVII in a modern sense, and I think overall I appreciate what I didn't previously a lot more. I also loved how with the addition of a card game and Gilgamesh, it got to match up with VIII and IX, the other 2 PS1 FFs to really feel like a unified FF vision. This game kept the silliness that the original had on top of its incredibly dark setting for something that I love to describe as the same vibe as Yakuza. I laughed seeing Red get a whole scene instead of a single bit in his person outfit, and then cried at a newfound caring for Cloud, Tifa, and Barret seeing Jessie's poster in the Gold Saucer. The vibes were immaculate and I'm really really excited to see what they do for the final part (which is going to be called Reunion I'm betting my left materia on it)

9/10. The peak of modern FF gameplay that enhances a classic, but fails its mission of being different.

[fogwitchoftheevermore]

ok also to be a bit of an ass i do NOT understand the people saying it should’ve been martyn’s task. yes it would’ve been fun to see martyn get in on it (maybe have something in there about him being infected by default or something?) but if this had been martyn’s task he would be DEAD.

cause that’s really the thing here, they were speeding up the series so we didn’t run into the issue we saw in last life, where a few people died really early compared to the rest of the cast. and if martyn had gotten this task, he realistically would have died long before he would’ve completed it. yes, anyone he did manage to infect would’ve probably continued the task but martyn would be GONE and if you are saying martyn should’ve had that task, i suspect you don’t want that!

“but space, how do you know martyn would’ve died completing the task?” because it’s OBVIOUS. first of all, players are allowed to fight back when a red attacks them, that has been a rule since third life (a rule grian brought up when skizz was chasing him this session!). and when a red attacks you? it’s expected, it’s normal, so you fight back. and even when someone who ISN’T red attacks you, you fight back! people were fighting back against gem, to the point that she died in the crossfire while they were hunting scott. impulse had a task about pretending to be the boogeyman that almost killed him before the infection could! and he wasn’t even hitting anyone!

if martyn had gotten this task he would be straight up dead and that wouldn’t have been nearly as fun. and yes, i understand the fact that he’s been getting repeat red tasks is frustrating, especially in conjunction with this, but there is literally nothing to be done about RNG. the options here were “don’t give martyn the task and leave him on the edges for a session” or “give martyn the task and risk both him ending his series and the task not doing having intended effect” and one of those is CLEARLY the better option!

i get the people who are saying they didn’t like gem’s task this session because it was clearly thrown in there to speed up the series in theory, because, like, undeniably that’s why it was there, but also i don’t understand why that’s a problem. because at this point i truly think 8 sessions is the ideal length for a season of the life series.

like, yes, i’ll admit i’m biased because third life and limited life are my favorites and they were 8 sessions long, but i really think it’s the perfect amount to make a series not too long (an issue i personally run into with last life at certain points) and not too short (an issue i and i know many others had with double life).

also i like fun and gem’s task was fun. so i think this is fine actually.