Big Mama must have lost some serious standing in the yokai underworld because it’s gotten apparent that she keeps being beaten by a small group of teenagers and the occasional rat man, and when it’s not them then she’s taking L’s from her own schemes working against her.
And in the ensuing power vacuum, the Hamatos accidentally become the most feared crime family known to all the big bads of the Hidden City.
After all, they’ve publicly outplayed Big Mama multiple times, a couple of them have taken out the heads of two of the most well known criminal organizations, one took out Heinous Green, two are responsible for the destruction of Witch Town, they have ties to both the infamous Baron Draxum and Captain Piel, they won the Doom Dome death race, they’re Battle Nexus Champions, they’ve displayed insane feats of power and defeated impossibly strong enemies, most of them have been to jail, and they regularly mingle with humans.
You can just imagine the notoriety they’d accumulate from word of mouth alone.
theres something so incredibly painful and meaningful about nona deciding to live just because a dog is in the truck. just noodle, this weird little six-legged dog that nona only knew for a handful of months in her already short life that she loved so deeply. tazmuir goes to painstaking extents to illustrate all the horrible things that come as a result of love (paul, jod’s backstory, pyrrha/g1deon/wake, ianthe and corona, gideon and harrow, etc) but this little, pivotal moment illustrates the beauties of it. nona is all about love, she loves without reason, she loves her little life and her little family and her school and her friends and noodle. noodle, who is just a dog, who can’t speak or express his love like humans do, but shows it nonetheless. because noodle is a dog, and dogs love without reason, just like nona (just like the earth). when everything and everyone that nona loves is falling apart, when she’s lost in all those horrors of love and chaos and destruction and her brain is breaking down and she’s losing what it means to Be Nona, noodle is still there, loving her regardless. and because she’s still nona, she loves him back. and she lives for love, even for just a few minutes longer. for a dirty little six-legged dog that wasn’t even hers, because she can’t let what she loves die if she has the choice (the power, for once). it’s beautiful and heartbreaking and the last decision she ever made was to live with her horrible, painful existence so that a dog (who couldn’t choose) wouldn’t die.
demon girl tina who shaves her horns down, who tries to be everything a demon isn’t. never angry, never pressed, sweet and easygoing. perfect in every sense of the term. who’s traumatized from purgatory, who’s afraid of losing what she loves as much as she’s afraid of being shunned by who she loves for what she is. for all the imperfections that fracture her perfect image. who craves trust, a place to belong, the secret of who she is just bubbling under the surface, shaved down and hidden just underneath the cat ears she wears.
human girl bagi who embraces imperfection, who loves with loyalty and longevity. who would go to the ends of the earth for her loved ones, knowing their worst sins, their terrible crimes, and going I will love you anyway. I will be there for you anyway. who’s best friend is a demon, who she knows is a demon, who she met at his worst, and wouldn’t let him go through it alone. who understands the importance of secrets, which means she knows the value of honesty, and is ready to lay out all her truths once she cares about someone enough, trusts them enough.
tina getting flighty and nervous when she’s told that it’s love what bagi feels - not because she doesn’t feel the same, but because she does, and it’s all she’s ever wanted, and isn’t that just terrifying? because she doesn’t think she fully deserves it. not yet at least! and she doesn’t want to lose it. imperfect, clumsy, secretly a demon tina, still processing purgatory and everything that came before, so afraid because she believes she can’t measure up. once she’s worked on herself, once she’s perfect, she says. once she stops panicking at purgatory flashbacks, once she stops losing her temper, once she can provide stability, once she’s shaved her horns and they stop growing back - then she’ll be ready. as soon as she’s made herself into something easily lovable.
bagi listens to tina as she spills some of this to her, under the moonlight along the beach. not quite all her worries, but some, just like she had given not quite her whole heart, but a part of it, in that room that represents bagi’s mind. and bagi doesn’t press for more than what she’ll give, because she cherishes what has been given already, because she’s in no rush and has no where else to go, because above all else, she’s in love and willing to wait. and in the meantime, she’ll reassure tina that she doesn’t want perfection - she just wants tina the way she is.
there was a post about daiba nana as a body snatcher horror from junna’s pov and it has me in a fucking chokehold.
imagine being roommates with somebody you haven't gotten to know yet, and it's a little awkward but you're both polite and she seems like a nice girl. she's kind and open and warm, ready with a helping hand or a listening ear, beloved quickly by your classmates in a way you never quite managed to convince people to love you. you could be friends with her, given time. you think she might want to be friends with you, too.
you go to sleep as hoshimi-san and wake as hoshimi-san and walk to school as hoshimi-san, but, without warning, you cross the threshold of the classroom and suddenly you're junna-chan.
suddenly, the friendly interest in daiba-san's eyes has deepened with an intensity that unnerves you, even when it manifests in entirely benign ways—an uncanny familiarity with your schedule, a fond glimmer for your quotations, an offering of your favourite snack food with a side of dishonesty in the way she claims it was a lucky guess.
you feel seen. the way prey does when a predator reveals itself upwind. exposed and unprotected.
but daiba-san is easy to like, easy to love, easy to forgive. you forget your unease in the face of her sincerity. she takes care of everybody as though it were her sole purpose on this earth, so you take care of her.
when daiba-san becomes nana and you become junna-chan, willingly this time, you wonder if you imagined the anticipatory gleam in her eyes when you served her your first name, as though it were a favourite dish she'd long been craving.
I am once again thinking about the reluctant ruler whose arc justly and correctly includes assuming the throne and taking responsibility for the people set before them
why does the pjo series have to unnecessarily villainize goddesses (hera & athena) or show them as silly ladies (aphrodite & demeter) BUT posiedon and apollo are somehow shown as the coolest/most likeable gods, even though arguably, they're right after zeus on terms of corruption?
ares shown as the worst god after zeus and hera amuses me. last time i checked, he was the patron god of amazons and literally killed a man for attempting to rape his daughter but guess who cursed women for rejection? apollo. guess who raped women when they said no (aside from zeus)? posiedon.
Listen. I know she's dead by the start of season two (I'm assuming, I haven't seen past episode one), I know she's only a minor secondary character, I know she's just a love interest (to another minor character I might add) who doesn't have a huge amount of depth.
But Agnes from season 1 of Umbrella Academy means so fucking much to me.
Here's the thing. Agnes isn't young. She's maybe somewhere between sixty and seventy (I'm guessing, I'm ngl I'm not great at telling people's ages from looking at them lol).
You might call her old. Except the show really challenges that. Is Agnes old? She's so bright and full of life, she's one of the most upbeat and positive characters in the season. She's not unhappy, but she's not satisfied in life. Her story plays out like a romance novel where the 20 yr old Mary Sue protagonist runs away with her boyfriend to live a life on the run and finally finds herself.
She has such a youthful story and character. And it makes you think. Is Agnes old? Again, yes, she's dead by season 2, but hypothetically she has a good bit of time left. She got another 20 years. And she was (presumably) very happy.
Agnes' life didn't end after she turned thirty. Or fourty. Or even fifty. Agnes has the best and most chaotic time of her life at ~60 yrs old.
And the show never brings up the fact that she's an older woman. It's never an issue of contention, she doesn't struggle with it, she's not depressed that she's still making doughnuts and being a waitress at her age.
She's quietly positive that life still has a lot to show her. She's still happy, and fighting to have the life she wants. Agnes is still living.
And fuck I appreciate it so much. She's my favourite Umbrella Academy character. She's an absolute breath of fresh air, and the fact that she's a minor character somehow makes it all the better.
Because Agnes would have been so easy to write as a sad old woman who never had the life she wanted and who is depressed about her age, who was crazy in her youth and then lost her spark, and regains it only for a second before fading from the narrative and dying.
But Agnes isn't any of that. She's her own person, she follows Hazel because she wants to and because she's secure enough in herself to know exactly what she wants, not because she's insecure and desperate. She's so well written and she's not even relevant.