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the-final-sif · 4 years

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Okay, so I think I’ve got a solid timeline of events for villain!Katsuki

Katsuki leaves UA just before the provisional license exam, he’s at the point where he no longer things the hero system can be fixed without outside intervention. He’s done with how the media acts, he’s done with the blame being shifted to victims based on their quirks, and he’s done with the lies he’s been fed all his life.

Prior to this he started researching and planning what actual change would look like and require.

He meets up with Dabi, who’d only let the rest of the league know about the bet a few days prior. He was curious if Katsuki would keep his word or not. Dabi prods Katsuki gently, saying he knew the kid took honestly seriously but he’s still kinda surprised to see him go this far over a bet. Katsuki replies explaining it’s more than the bet. He talks about what he’s seen, and the failure of hero society to change. It’s more than enough to convince Dabi.

Dabi brings him to a secure location, then relays information to Shigaraki. Shigaraki is hesitant, he’s surprised Katsuki came back to them, but when Katsuki explains his side of things, and with Dabi vouching for him, Shigaraki decides to let him in. He can understand what it’s like to fall for hero society. He did for awhile too. Katsuki just needed more time on his own to realize that.

There’s an introduction period, the league is still figuring themselves out and most of them are hesitant to trust Katsuki. It’s about a week before he’s properly reintroduced to everyone and gets the sense that they’re not headed in any particular direction.

After that week, Katsuki decides “fuck that, I’m going to do shit, y'all are coming along” and since Shigaraki doesn’t really have anything better in mind, he decides to go along with Katsuki’s plans.

UA started panicking as soon as they realized Katsuki was gone, but nobody really knows what happened to him yet. Since he took all his stuff with him, all signs point to him having run away.

Izuku refuses to believe that, and most of the class holds out hope for awhile, but as no evidence turns up, more of them start to think it might be true and start discovering the amount of harassment and guilt he was facing.

There’s about a month and a half period in which Katsuki focuses on getting the league in shape. During this period, they do a forcible take over of the Shie Hassaikai.

Overhaul is killed, Eri goes under Katsuki’s care, and the league is established as a much more powerful force.

The Hero Commission is starting to get nervous, but not overly so. Not yet.

After this month and a half, Katsuki makes his first public appearance as a villain.

He’s in an updated version of his costume, most of it has stayed the same, but he’s added what looks like muzzle to the costume that covers his mouth. The muzzle actually functions as face shield/oxygen system so he can move at much faster speeds safely.

Katsuki’s villain debut is a full scale attack by the league on the Hero Commission directly. An event meant that the Hero Commission had gathered in a relatively accessible location, and the villains take advantage.

Importantly, Katsuki is enforcing a policy of limiting needless harm or deaths, because it ruins their message. The league reluctantly agrees, so they’re being a bit more careful than they were before. However, they’ve still got a hit list for this party.

The list consists of officials who they have confirmation deliberately manipulated polices or actions of heroes at the cost of people’s lives, all for some private gain. They do a lot of damage, and manage to kill 7 people on their list.

Katsuki’s first kill happens here. Previously, he’d managed to defeat Overhaul, but wasn’t quite able to kill him. He just wasn’t ready.

Shigaraki took care of it for him, and told him it was fine if he needed time to learn to kill. He was kind and understanding about it in a way that was genuinely weird to Katsuki. Not only because this was all about murder, but it was the first time in his life that he failed and an adult supported him rather than punishing him for his mistake.

At this event, one of the people he takes down tries to appeal to him by offering him a position as a hero to save themselves, and that pushes him over the line. He ends it quickly.

The league escape afterwards, and footage plus eyewitnesses confirm Katsuki was there, and he didn’t say a word to anyone he attacked.

UA, the Hero Commission, and the media collectively assume / sell the story of him having been brainwashed. It’s the only thing that doesn’t make them look horrible.

Aizawa has been weighed down by a lot of guilt during all of this. He should’ve done more, should’ve reached out, but he’d been waiting for Katsuki to come to him. He’s tried to find Katsuki, but Katsuki has purposefully avoided facing him in battle as Aizawa is one of the few people he doesn’t feel like he could hurt or allow one of the other villains to hurt.

The attacks start getting frequent over the course of another month, primarily targeting the people behind the scenes of the heroic’s system, with a lot of other targets of corruption along the way.

On his third attack, Katsuki has his first run in with Izuku, the first of any of his classmates to face him in battle.

Katsuki refuses to speak a word to him, despite the fact Izuku heard him giving directions to Toga, and the two clash.

Katsuki manages to pull ahead in their fight, but he’s distracted from their fight by someone caught in the crossfire. He diverts course to protect them. Izuku was so hyperfocused on Katsuki he didn’t notice the person. It throws him off enough that Katsuki is able to win their fight complete his goal.

After their clash, Izuku’s finally realized Katsuki isn’t brainwashed. Given what happened, he can only assume it really is Kacchan making all these choices, which leads him to reflect on why.

Between slowly uncovering what Katsuki was suffering through, and watching Katsuki’s actions and their very real impact, Izuku finds himself struggling with the idea of heroes as well. Most of Class 1-A and society as a whole really are.

Shouto & Izuku talk, and Izuku confirms that it really is Katsuki. Not a brainwashed version of him.

At the end of their conversation, Shouto assumes that because it’s really Katsuki, they’re gonna go join him. He defects, and is a bit surprised when Izuku doesn’t follow him right away.

Dabi almost has a heart attack over this, but he can’t really judge.

Shouto is accepted into the league after he and Katsuki talk and he apologizes for not having done anything. Katsuki doesn’t blame him for it, as he understands Shouto had no real sense of what was okay.

Eri gains a new older brother, and she could not be more delighted.

During this period, after the first attack, Hawks was sent in to infiltrate the league. Katsuki can smell the commission on him from a mile away, but tells Dabi to kind of let Hawks in anyways.

The league begins slowly working Hawks out of the Commissions control, before finally after about three months, Hawks realizes how shitty they are and defects properly.

A big part of this happens after Hawks finally comes to terms with the fact that Katsuki isn’t brainwashed, and after Hawks meets Eri and realizes how happy and safe she is with her new family vs how he felt at that age with the Commission.

By the end of that three months, a number of other class 1-A kids and a few kids from 1-B have dropped out of the hero course, or in some cases, UA entirely. The public at large has started to become more disconnected from the hero system as they start to see some of it’s major flaws. The Commission comes under more and more questioning and is seriously losing power.

During this same time, you’d expect to see an increase in crime, but you actually see the opposite.

Katsuki has been very careful and forged an alliance with the MLA such that they’ve been able to crack down on certain types of crime (domestic violence, quirk kidnappings, sexual assaults, etc) while also steadily funneling money into getting social services in theses areas.

This means that you start to see less crime, people feeling safer and more secure, even as the hero commission and system is crumbling.

All of this comes together after a year or two of solid in the form of the government submitting to a major reform driven by figure heads planted by the MLA, but only after the league manages to eliminate the last key figures standing in their way.

Since so many heroes have either fallen from grace, stepped back from the system, or been killed in certain cases, Izuku ended up as an unwilling symbol of peace due to his connection to Katsuki.

Izuku is tasked by what’s left of the heroics system with stopping Katsuki from killing the final major figure whose all that’s standing in the way of the reform.

Izuku, in the end, makes the active choice to step aside, giving Katsuki the key he was given to the room so Katsuki can get to the person to kill them.

Izuku finally decided that he’s had enough of this too, and he’s done defending a broken system based on ingrained ideals that don’t add up.

Aizawa is watching inside the room up in the rafters, he’s stayed a hero of sorts but still functions like he did before.

Inside the room, Aizawa had the chance to cancel Katsuki’s quirk and stop him from killing the person. Instead, he chose to close his eyes and let Katsuki go through with it.

Katsuki looks up to where Aizawa is once it’s done, and Aizawa realizes he knew he was there the entire time. He hops down out into the open and speaks plainly as he always did.

“I’m sorry.” Is all he can really say. There’s so much he’s sorry for. For not speaking up. For letting Katsuki be put through so much. For letting him be driven to this.

Katsuki looks at him for a long, long moment, before he finally looks away and shrugs his shoulders. For the very first time in years, he speaks to a hero. To the only hero who ever tried for him, even if it wasn’t enough.

“S'okay. The problem was bigger than you every could’ve fixed.”

“I should’ve tried. I should’ve done more.”

Again, Katsuki needs a moment to consider that.

“Yeah. Probably.”

There’s silence for a few moments, and then Katsuki’s radio crackles to life. Dabi’s calling him back.

They share one more glance, and Katsuki turns on his heel and walks out.

Aizawa watches him go. There’s nothing else for him to do. His right to change this story ended when he failed to speak up all those years ago.

#villain katsuki bakugou #katsuki bakugou #shouta aizawa #izuku mydoria #todobaku #the league of villains #dabi #shouto todoroki #tomura shigaraki #sif speaks #bnha #mha #this is a repost #thank you to alex for saving the text for me!#hopefully tumblr won't eat this one too

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loquaciousquark · 6 years

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Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E26 (July 17, 2018)

Tonight’s guests: Matt Mercer, Ashly Burch, and Taliesin Jaffe. Heck, I’m nervous for all three of them.

Announcements: Critical Role will be at the San Diego Comic Con on 7/21 in 6BCF at 6:30pm. The panel will be aired next Tuesday during the TM time slot. They’ll also be at NYCC in October!

CR Stats! Episode 26 had 14 natural 20s, the most of the new campaign. This was in no small part due to Ashly borrowing Tal’s dice because she doesn’t own her own dice bag. There’s so much dice karma happening in that sentence I don’t even know how to handle it. It ties with episodes 55, 61, and 100. Keg has the most natural 20s of any single-episode guesting with 4. Molly got the M9′s 100th kill. He leads the party with 21 kills in all. “Hot murder streak.”

We’ve seen seven of Molly’s cards so far: the silver dragon, anvil, serpent, eye, moon, shadow, and the chariot. Tal says the serpent may be the same as the dragon, but he’ll check.

This was Ashly’s first time guesting on the show proper--previously she’d only been on oneshots. Biggest difference? “There were less people dying on the oneshots!”

Matt and Brian both take a moment to applaud Ashly’s characterization and sticking to the true roleplaying of her character over any min-maxing of the dice she might have done otherwise. Tal says the math would have come out either way as it was. It’s the first time she’s ever done something like that in a D&D game.

Matt always prefers roleplaying over what’s strategically optimal, especially since the moments where you falter and fail often lead to the true “hero” arc for your character. “It was very wild and unique to watch the cocksure exterior crumble.”

Everyone’s been kind to Ashly directly since The Incident. It’s only whispers she’d heard indirectly.

Tal already hadn’t slept the night before; he didn’t that night either, just curled up and thought until dawn. He realized in panic that he’d never come up with a backup character as Matt had asked months ago; he has rolled a new one since then, but he spent most of the weekend coping with making a new character in three days after spending six months on Molly. Bless.

Brian woke Ashley up during the live show when he heard Taliesin say “my Blood Maledict’s going to kill me” so that they could watch the rest together. He realized that Matt was hesitating a lot more than usual as things went on, that Matt seemed to be hinting more and more strongly that the impending encounter was about to go very badly for the M9.

Matt designed the Iron Shepherds to be a very dangerous, powerful group when they are all together (as they were that night). He’d planned for several options: the M9 following and never catching up, waiting to gather intel until Shady Creek, catching up but only observing from a distance, and for the actual battle itself. He tried to give them clues about how dangerous they would actually be: that there were more than five enemies, that Ashly’s character knew how dangerous they were, that they were prepared and tough-looking. However, he never wants to be too heavy-handed in guiding the players’ hands. His intent with the battle was to show some surprises and that the M9 didn’t know what they were dealing with, and had hoped that the M9 would take the hint and back out sooner than they did.

Brian could tell that Matt was very visibly affected as the fight went on, which Matt points out was in part due to how late it was. He allowed the battle to occur because he didn’t plan for it to be a long one (the Iron Shepherds were going to speed away...until the M9 dropped the tree across the road). Then he had no idea what was going to happen during the battle. He adds that DMs sometimes end up with encounters harder than they’d plan, and it was nervewracking because as much as he cares for these characters, he also has a responsibility to be true to the strength of the enemies and the realities of the dice. There were a lot of ways the fight could have still gone, but didn’t (parlay, discussion, more ambushing, better dice rolls).

If Keg hadn’t stepped up and used her relationship specifically with Lorenzo to halt the battle, it would have gotten way, way worse for the M9, including the kidnapping of more of the M9 to be sold.

Lorenzo has a specific vanity and enjoyment of power over other people, and Keg’s intervention played straight into that. It’s the only reason that encounter didn’t go more poorly.

Some of the Iron Shepherds’ background information was known by Keg; some was deliberate misleading on the part of the Shepherds to keep Keg in the dark.

Keg wasn’t happy about Caleb’s charming, but Keg knew there was no way she could take on the Shepherds on her own. She has a facade of being cocksure and proud but is truly a coward, and knew that taking them on alone would kill her. The charming was a “necessary evil.”

Taliesin knew the risks of the Maledict but planned to give Lorenzo disadvantage, hopefully dodge the next two attacks, and escape as soon as Lorenzo engaged with Beau. Then the dice came up with the rest of his HP and that was that.

Matt did in fact roll the Golden Snitch for the bad guys this game. Brian: “Let’s not give him the most powerful die in the game next time.” Tal: “Oh, it’s going to go mysteriously missing any day now.”

Lorenzo was not visibly afraid at any point during this fight. Matt declines to elaborate further.

GIF of the Week! u/rndmanswrs4rndmqstns from Reddit, for a gif of the battle map from last episode superimposed with a tragic news ticker footage of the slaughter.

Molly’s final words were an easy choice. “He’s not complicated in that direction, and his feelings on violence and death are easy.” Tal says it didn’t fully hit him until hours later. Still, Molly never really felt ownership of his own self; it all still felt borrowed. He knew death would come eventually and probably earlier rather than later. “As ways to go existed, I think that was a very Molly way to go.”

Matt thinks these reminders of mortality are important...depending on the type of story you’re trying to tell. Their game needs the stakes of having the risk of death, although that’s not what would be fun for every game and should not always be on the table. However, they know each other so well that he feels it’s an important reminder that there are consequences for their actions and that it suits the world they live in. Tal points out that the same thing is true for so many types of fiction: “they’re only fine because they’re not real.” Sometimes these stories happen in a vacuum and the hero is immortal...and sometimes, as in their game, they’re not. Matt thinks it’s important to be able to grieve and feel catharsis for even a fictional character (and cites a particular death from C1 as an example for himself). Matt: “In a weird, macabre way, I’m excited to see where the story goes from here.” Brian: “Me, too.” Tal: “Me, too. I mean, at first I was panicking, but now I have a pretty good idea.”

Ashly initially panicked when Matt revealed the Iron Shepherds’ abilities (since she thought she’d misremembered what Matt had said), but then felt even more justified in her RP. Everything felt worse because so many people were gone, including Laura and Travis. “I felt like the babysitter who dropped the baby.” She felt the whole time during the fight that they shouldn’t be engaging the way they were.

Molly’s final thoughts were “easy and simple and base...the immense, reasonable, and wonderfully sustaining emotion of ‘well, fuck you, too,’ which is the righteous and more reasonable cousin to ‘fuck you.’“ No fear, no panic.

The Iron Shepherds existed as part of the worldbuilding in the northern region and were intended to be a later issue, but Matt wove them into the story soon since Laura & Travis had to leave. He wasn’t intending for them to become such an immediate, intense antagonistic force, but DMs have to adapt to the situations and this one felt natural.

Cut to Dani Cam, who had a very hard Thursday night ( :( ). She asks Ashly how Keg, someone very self-preservational, decided to sacrifice herself for the M9. Ashly remembered that in their discussions, Matt characterized Lorenzo as someone who liked to make examples of people, and thought that if she prostrated herself in front of him, he might maim her but not kill her, which turned out to be accurate--so it was still fairly self-preservational on her part. They’ll find out more next week. Ashly will be with us the next two sessions and will be joining the crew at GenCon! Heck yes!!

As much as Tal likes Matt’s Lingering Soul class, he would never consider it as an option for Mollymauk. “There’s no version of Molly coming back as a ghost that doesn’t end with him desperately wanting it to be over.” Matt designed it more narratively to be a person whose sheer force of will keeps them from accepting the moment of death due to unfinished business or the pure determination to live...which they both feel is the exact opposite of Molly.

Matt liked how Taliesin showed that all personalities can play the Blood Hunter, not just the edgy grimdark type.

Fanart of the Week! @jesttothenines, with this pain. Ow.

If Molly hadn’t run to Lorenzo, Beau would have likely been his example instead. Molly was an easier target, though, because he was closer and more hurt. If Beau had been unconscious instead (and not dead) when Keg made her plea, Lorenzo might have asked what she was willing to trade to get Beau back.

This is the second of Tal’s characters Matt’s killed. The first one was a mad monk who liked to set things on fire who was eaten by ghouls.

Dani: “Why can’t this campaign be happy? And fairies?!” Matt: “We had the fairies last campaign in the Feywild! They murdered the pixies! They sided with the werewolves!”

After last campaign, Tal and Dani hugged while Dani cried pretty hard. Then Tal went home and cried himself. He left the table during the episode because he was on the verge of having a panic attack and couldn’t handle watching everyone else panic as well.

Ashly thought she was going to have a limb lopped off at minimum when Lorenzo had her kneel. She didn’t expect to be let go unscathed.

Molly would have considered his death “worth it” if he knew it meant Beau was spared. In a way, it helps that he now has an “eternal one-up” on her. Matt: “That’s very Molly of him.”

The persuasion success from Keg was a chief reason Lorenzo spared them, but it was also because the rest of the M9 were insignificant gnats to him. Keg’s reaction was the only one he cared about, so as soon as she gave in he’d gotten what he wanted. Then he just wanted to set the example and spread the word.

Ashly hadn’t meant to let them know she’d been part of the slavers until Shady Creek, but actually likes how it came out.

Matt really doesn’t think it was an overall bad plan. It was just a few strategic missteps, some very bad dice rolls, and an enemy that outmatched them.

Dani recalls to us all that Molly had told us it would be a cursed trip.

Molly’s parting advice to the M9: Tal declines to think about it much in depth. “Life’s short, eat a bagel. Join the circus. Lighten up. Life’s short; do something to a bagel.”

The illusion that cloaks the cages under the tarp means that even if the missing three of the M9 are in there, they wouldn’t have seen Molly’s death.

Molly is no different in Taliesin’s head than he was last week, which is why he's having a slightly easier time with this than everyone else. “He’s no different for me, I just don’t get to trot him out on Thursday.” He was based off of several friends, some who have passed away, and several experiences he had as a teenager and places and people he knew that profoundly affected him. He mentions a song off the soundtrack for Wristcutters: A Love Story, since that movie had a lot of “good carnie family vibes” about weird people taking care of each other. There was an archetype in film that was very much Molly which Tal hasn’t seen in a long time, and he explains: there’s a way of living a life where you don’t give a fuck about what people think but you do give a fuck about people. He never needed to be fixed and he never needed permission for anything. He’s not Iron Man where you’re waiting to see him become a good person, and he was never a creature of profound change like Captain America, where you watch to see the good they make on the world; his unfinished business was in each interaction he had with the people in the world and making them deal with him, but making sure that dealing with him was always a positive and kind experience. Matt gets very emotional at the description. Me too, friend.

His favorite part of playing him was being a teenager version of himself; the art and cosplay were spectacular. And the terrible accent, of course.

Brian takes a moment to thank Taliesin for making memorable characters and memorable choices that have a bigger impact than what only they can see. He looked at all the tributes for Molly this week because he wanted to get a feel for how the community was feeling so that they could hone the questions for the show. The character meant a lot to a lot of different types of people, and it’s a testament to Tal’s heart that people connected so much with this character.

Brian, Matt, and Tal are all crying at this point. Ashly starts reactive-crying. Dani’s crying on the Dani Cam. This is AWFUL.

After Dark: QQ Edition

We open laughing (relieving change) since everyone’s hurled obscenities at Brian just before the show went live. Matt enjoys being on the other side of that for once.

Beau is the member of the M9 who’s best earned the right to wear Molly’s coat. “She’s the one who needs to lighten up. Caleb’s never going to lighten up and that’s okay. Jester doesn’t need it. Fjord doesn’t need it. That’s not Nott’s problem.”

Keg is super interested in Nott’s never-ending flask. “I’m abandoning this super dramatic narrative. I’m going for the flask.”

A TPK was possible if the M9 kept throwing themselves at the Iron Shepherds, but Matt knew they were smarter than that and would either flee or give themselves up as Keg did. “It relied on the players’ actions at that point; that’s why I was so nervous. I was like, this is the scenario I built and now we have to see it through.”

Tal honestly doesn’t remember what Liam said to him when he left the table right after him. It was mostly a “well, that happened,” and Liam just refilled his drink before going back to the table.

Tal went home after the show, cried in bed, and then the sun came up and he realized he had no idea for a new character. He spent so much time working on Molly that he never got around to making anything else. He came up with his next idea in about thirteen-fourteen hours, and he’s very happy with it. Matt points out he was explicitly clear about how they needed to come up with backup characters when the campaign started. “These low levels are dangerous!”

Everyone addresses the new studio in terms most respectful and patient, asking it to be benevolent now that it’s had its blood sacrifice.

Keg’s going to grow a vengeance beard.

Brian talks about Ashley’s reaction on the couch; she leaned forward on her knees, looked over at Brian, and said, “I’m gonna kill that motherfucker.” Brian said, “Yeah, you probably will.” They now have a formidable villain for the early campaign.

Tal can’t even answer the question about how Yasha will react when she finds out. “Oh, no. Oh, no.”

Matt and Brian have a retrospective moment of panic about how good it is Yasha wasn’t there that night, since she’s a rage-based barbarian. Matt, wide-eyed: “There would have been no parlay. Oh, no. Next question.”

Keg’s favorite moments were the secret-sharing with Nott and the conversation with Beau. Matt loved their meeting: “When an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. It was beautiful.”

Brian’s first desire after the show was to rage-tweet Matt Colville. He, apparently, refrained.

Matt thinks the threat of death should be present and played out when it happens, but he never likes playing DM-vs.-player.

Tal smiled when Molly was being killed because that was both Molly’s reaction, and because Tal himself is a nervous smiler.

Matt doesn’t consider this revenge for Tal killing him off so soon in the Vampire oneshot; Tal reminds us that he knew Matt knew about the very specific subclass he’d given Matt and they both knew what would happen when he went outside.

Tal and Matt reminisce about early PC deaths. “What was that, 2012?” Ashly: “Aw, you guys have killed each other so much!”

They’re asked about the best lie they’ve ever told. Tal convinced someone a nonsense Pirate Queen existed; Matt doesn’t really lie, but when he senses gullibility he doubles down until reality’s rearranged.

Tal started wearing black when Jim Henson died...except that he forbade black at his funeral. The camera zooms in on Tal’s iridescent loafers & his peacock paisley shirt: “This is Molly’s funeral shirt.”

Ashly will definitely be back on Thursday; Tal will be back as soon as the narrative allows it. He’s prepared for Thursday if it works out.

And that’s where it wraps up tonight. Be good to each other; it’s almost Thursday.

#critical role #talks machina #critical role spoilers #talks machina spoilers #long post for ts

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easilydistractedbyfanfic · 5 years

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Raven Reyes - Remorse and Forgiveness

I love the dystopian realm of The 100 and have since S1. I never participated in fandom until S5, but Raven has been my favorite female character from very early on, and I read discussions of her character with interest. I don’t always agree with everything I read, but I don’t love her because I think she’s perfect and can do no wrong - I love her because she’s interesting and layered, and her background and struggles have made her the strong character she is.

One of the wider opinions I read a lot of is that Raven isn’t one to be remorseful of her actions, or that she blames others for things that she has played a part in as well - ie, holds Bellamy or Clarke more responsible than she holds herself. I have also seen her called selfish and that she doesn’t consider other people’s opinions because she thinks she’s right all the time.

There’s particular interest in Raven’s traits and motivations because of so many unresolved issues & dynamics in S5, and a lot of people (myself included) think that S6 may help to address some of these missing conversations. I’m not psychic, I can only make educated guesses on what we’ll see based on what has already been shown, but I would like to take a few moments to point out some things about Raven’s character that I think might be too frequently overlooked when discussions of who she is come into play. This is not to say that I don’t think she has flaws - she wouldn’t be at all fascinating to me if she was perfect, and The 100 is nothing if not good at creating complex, diverse characters whose motivations are often muddied.

So, first - while I definitely think that the triangle of Raven/Finn/Clarke is going to come back into play via the triangle of Echo/Bellamy/Clarke parallel because there IS unfinished emotional business there and of course this show likes its parallels, with regard to Raven, I see so many people say that she’s never forgiven Clarke for mercy-killing Finn. I think that perspective isn’t fully correct, though. Is there still some bad feelings there? Maybe - but, I’d like to see more people address the very real scene we got in 2x09 “Remember Me” that was short but actually told us a lot.

After Raven was wrongfully accused of trying to murder Lexa and was tied to the pole and repeatedly cut (oh, Indra, you hurt my fave!), she is cleared by Clarke & Bellamy and Gustus is accused and ends up confessing he had done it. Later, we see Gustus tied to the pole receiving the same sentence, but it is carried out fully - the same exact thing that would have happened to Raven, that would have happened to Finn, that could have happened to Murphy. Raven is watching this, she’s felt at least 3 or 4 of the cuts herself, and she whispers out loud “This would have been Finn” while Clarke is watching Raven’s reaction. Raven turns to look over her shoulder AT Clarke and their eyes meet. Raven is clearly distraught, a look of anguish on her face. I know we aren’t given an entire conversation, but even if there is not full *forgiveness* on Raven’s part towards Clarke here, there is absolutely UNDERSTANDING. Raven understands that what Clarke did to Finn WAS a mercy, after experiencing it herself and seeing it happen to Gustus. We are deliberately shown this scene.

We can consider that Raven may still be upset that Finn cheated on her, that Clarke caught his interest. She may or may not have unresolved feelings that result in anger or frustration with Clarke over this. BUT - keep in mind that we got a scene in 2x05 where Raven tells Clarke “I’ve been waiting out here all night” to check up on Clarke and the two have an obviously affectionate hug. This is plenty of time after Raven has broken up with Finn (that was in 1x10). If Raven was still holding a large grudge regarding Clarke and jealousy over Finn, this scene certainly puts that into question, or at least means it’s not something at the forefront of Raven’s mind.

We can also consider that Raven may feel that part of the reason Finn died was because of his interest in Clarke - he went to that village looking for Clarke, after all - BUT... I go back to the 2x09 scene to tell us that Raven understands what Clarke did, and in fact I think it shows that Raven appreciates that she did it after having seen the result on Gustus herself. We have evidence of how Raven feels - on multiple levels - when it comes to Finn & Clarke, and I do think we have to reflect on the canon when we ask ourselves what she might STILL be feeling, or what might get stirred up by a Becho/Bellarke triangle in S6. In addition to time passing between Finn’s cheating and his death and the whole triangle scenario, we also have Raven’s own actions (the hug with Clarke, my belief that she shows understanding towards Clarke’s mercy killing, the rest of season 3, 4 and parts of season 5 that show them working together as a team among other things) that show that Raven isn’t actively holding a grudge.

In S1x11, there is a series of scenes between Raven & Monty where Raven wants to dismantle a lot of their communication devices in order to make functional walkie-talkies for the delinquents. At one point she tells Monty she needs a component from their radio to use, but he says no because it is their only way to contact The Ark. Raven tells him The Ark’s not there, there’s nothing to hear from them anymore, and Monty replies that his family is up there - ie, he’s not ready to give up hope, he doesn’t want to take apart the radio and lose their chance of hearing from The Ark. Raven IS somewhat unemotional here - she says “I’m sorry” but takes the wiring off the radio anyway.

To me, this scene does illustrate what some people say about her - that she ignores other people because she feels that her decision is the right one or that it’s the most logical. But even so, she acknowledges that she’s over-riding Monty with the “I’m sorry” and even more importantly - we get another scene between the two later in this same episode where Raven deliberately brings it up again. She says “Hey, I’m sorry, about before, really, and about your family.” She looks sad and remorseful when she says it, and Monty gives her a genuine “Thanks” in response. This scene also comes after Raven used Bellamy (and he used her too, that’s a whole other discourse) to rid herself of some of her conflicted feelings about Finn/Clarke (and she herself says it didn’t work). So I think it’s important to point out that even amongst her own personal issues, she recognizes that she didn’t show sympathy to Monty the first time around and that it’s weighing on her. So when she sees him again, SHE brings it up, SHE apologizes and acknowledges that she dismissed his perspective. This is not a character who is unfeeling or does not experience regret.

Towards the end of 1x11, we get a rare scene with Raven & Octavia as they look for Finn and Clarke in the woods. Raven voluntarily confesses to Octavia that earlier that day, Raven had thought that things would be easier if Finn was just... gone. As in, the fallout from their breakup, Raven’s emotional pain over it, her unresolved feelings, perhaps jealousy of Clarke, etc. But now that Finn and Clarke are missing, Raven is expressing that she feels guilt for these feelings. Again, this is not a character who is unfeeling or shows that she does not have self-reflection.

In 2x05, we see Raven helping Bellamy, Clarke & Octavia escape Camp Jaha through the fence so they can try to help those at Mt. Weather. Abby finds out about this and slaps Raven across the face (oh, Abby you done pissed me off over this one). Raven IMMEDIATELY sees Abby’s remorse even though we have a lot of hints that Raven’s mother abused her emotionally - and maybe physically, we’re not sure. Raven actually pushes a cup of water closer to Abby and stays at the table. Her actions both in this scene and in regards to Abby later show that Raven does not hold a grudge, in fact still seems to look up to Abby in a lot of ways (consider Becca’s Island in S4, and how Raven shares the ‘cure’ for ALIE when Abby sends people to rescue her before Praimfaya). In fact, I suggest that Raven would not feel nearly as betrayed by Abby over the shock-collar incident in S5 if Raven had not fully forgiven Abby over this slap.

In 2x14, we are shown Raven asking Wick for help with the acid fog. She says thanks to him, she shows frustration with herself that she can’t solve the problem. It is no stretch by now that we as an audience should understand that Raven puts a lot of pressure on herself to solve problems.

In S3, Raven spent a good portion of it hijacked by ALIE. Everything she says after taking the key to the City of Light is influenced by that, by ALIE’s motivations. She calls out Clarke, Jasper, Bellamy - but this is ALIE’s influence making her say it. ALIE makes Raven try to hurt herself so that Raven will die before they EMP her, but once Raven is herself again in 3x11, the first scene we get of her speaking (other than crying out in pain), is her telling Jasper “I’m so sorry for all the crap I said” but then teases he deserved the punch in the face (they both laugh at this). The argument can be made that we do not see her apologize to Clarke or Bellamy, and we also don’t see a scene where she learns about what Monty did to his mother as part of saving Raven. As a fan of Raven, I know this next point could come across as defensive, but I do think it’s relevant that while they are focusing on stopping ALIE right away, Sinclair is killed protecting Raven (noooo!!!!), and that creates some trauma that certainly distracts from everything that happened. The 100 never lets us see every conversation or have resolution to everything we’d like, so we can only look at what comes after, and we don’t actively see a lack of connection between Raven with Monty, Clarke or Bellamy. We see Monty choosing to stay behind in 3x12 with Raven in order to work on ALIE issues, and in the same episode, Raven & Clarke hug goodbye and Raven & Bellamy exchange a fond arm squeeze when Clarke and Bellamy leave them behind. Raven hugs Jasper goodbye too and makes a move to do the same with Octavia but Octavia is hurt by the recent funeral of Lincoln and Sinclair and isn’t even looking at anyone. It is Monty who turns away from *Jasper* here, showing a broken connection.

I mentioned that the 100 never lets us see every interaction, and I want to go back to 2 events that I think people might look at when they say Raven is not remorseful/doesn’t feel guilty for her actions. We have both Raven torturing Lincoln in S1 (for a cure for Finn), and Raven’s willingness to turn Murphy over to the Grounders instead of Finn in S2. Both valid concerns, and I think they do show that Raven isn’t a pacifist (she is not), and that she can be motivated by emotional issues (ie, losing a loved one). Raven chooses to torture Lincoln for information after Octavia and Clarke beg for answers and after Bellamy and others have already tried torture, AND after Finn has had surgery (via Clarke) and has stopped breathing. The torture is not her first option and I think there is desperation in her actions, her tone & words (he’s all I have). She also puts HERSELF in danger for Finn - she starts a fight with other Skaikru in Camp Jaha and punches a guard who she was afraid would turn Finn over in 2x08. This gets her arrested and she only is safe because Abby is the Chancellor. With Murphy, I think that she does feel guilty about what she’s doing, but her loyalty (and guilt) to Finn outweighs it, and her desire to punish Murphy for her leg injury probably plays a part too. She’s willing to put herself in harm’s way, so she’ll put Murphy there because that’s even easier. I think this is an acceptable loss for her but she doesn’t take pleasure in it. Does this make her a bad person or a worse person than someone else on the show? We could have a big discussion about it, but I would venture that it doesn’t make her any different than a lot of others who are still alive. I would also venture that Raven’s motivations are complicated here - she loves Finn as her family but also feels guilty that he took the blame for something she did (the spacewalking). When I look at the scene in 2x08 where she suggests giving the Grounders Murphy, her face is pretty stony, but then she will not look Murphy in the eye over it - she knows what she’s doing is wrong. When Finn stops it, she looks resigned but not outraged, and she doesn’t really push for her plan. When Murphy walks by her looking at her VERY accusingly (because he definitely feels betrayed here), she won’t look at him then either. She’s not proud of her actions, but with subtext I feel like we can - and should - feel like she’s been backed into a corner on what to do. She TELLS Clarke, later in the episode, that she owes Finn her life. This is certainly a motivating factor, rather than Raven just being a bloodthirsty person.

In S4, I could go on and on and on and on (and on and on and on) about the scenes between Raven & Murphy. But here I will just sum up to make the point - there is absolutely no misunderstanding that Raven deliberately and obviously chooses to forgive Murphy, both with actual words and with a hug.

In 4x04, I also think it’s worth pointing out that Raven tries to stop Luna from escaping the beach and getting back into the boat - first with a gun & threat, but then she changes tactics and talks about the innocent lives that will be saved by Luna, like the child that Luna loved and lost. It’s subtext, yes, but I think this conversation is Raven’s recognition that her decision to deprive Adria of the medicine (by rationing it) was not the right choice and that Raven understands that people deserve a chance more than she did before. She even asks Luna “don’t you want to give them a chance?” and then she puts down the gun and gives Luna the choice to stay or leave, even though Raven knows it could result in humanity losing what they see as its last chance via the nightblood. She asks Luna for help to save the others, and in this conversation, Raven points out her own weakness - her leg, and that she “...can’t do it herself”. This is an echo of how she asked Wick for help before. She also tells Luna that it’s not her blood that defines her, it’s her heart. This is Raven actively breaking her own cycle of choosing logic over her emotion (not letting Adria have the medicine). This is such an important scene for her! Raven had very logical reasons for not wanting to use the medicine - she told them all to Abby and Raven believed them herself. But - in 4x03 Raven does show that she is affected by Abby’s emotional plea to have the medicine despite the logic. Raven gets teary over it and tries to distract herself with work. Later, she watches Adria die, and even knowing that Raven was RIGHT, that the medicine did NOT save Adria, she still feels awful, feels responsible and sad about it. Her logic may have been the right choice but she still lets herself be influenced enough by this that she’s willing to let Luna go even when it is NOT the logical choice. This is not a character who believes that her way is the only way, this is not a character who does not consider other people’s feelings.

In 4x08 “God Complex”, Raven watches the results of the nightblood test on ‘Baylis’ and is clearly horrified. In fact, Raven questions Clarke & Abby in front of everyone when the possibility of more testing is on the table, certainly suggesting an opposition for someone else suffering. She expresses opposition to putting Emori in the chamber next, she gives Murphy the kind of look that suggests understanding and empathy for his situation, and she castigates Roan for calling Emori a slur. She makes the comparison to what Mt. Weather did when they want to take Luna’s bone marrow against her will. This is not a character that doesn’t put herself in other people’s shoes, this is not a character without empathy. She is siding with those in weaker positions, with less power, and she is using her voice to share their perspective here. In addition, I would like to point out that she listens to both Murphy and Luna in S4 when they give her suggestions about landing the rocket in order to help make the nightblood - so what if they aren’t technically smart in the same way she is. She listens and learns from them and that is how the solution is found.

In S5, we see Raven interacting with all of Spacekru in ways that suggest there are no lingering big issues to divide them from the past. IE, she and Echo aren’t shown arguing about Mt. Weather, she and Monty aren’t shown arguing about what happened with ALIE, she doesn’t seem to be holding a grudge against Murphy for her leg. Their issues seem to be in the past. However, Raven absolutely is shown having GUILT for not getting them down to Earth already. In 5x01, Bellamy makes a comment/criticism about it and Raven clearly takes that to heart in reaction - we see that she blames herself and Emori sticks up for her saying that it’s not due to lack of trying. In 5x03, Raven tells Bellamy “It has to be me... please, let me get you all home.” She lies and is willing to sacrifice herself in order to save the rest of them, and death is on the table here - Bellamy says he left Clarke behind to die and that he won’t do that again, which brings it up, and Raven mentions it herself when Murphy stays behind with her, saying “dying alone would have sucked.” So Raven knows that death is absolutely a possibility of this choice. And once again, we see her taking Murphy’s suggestion about the Eligius criminals in favor of her choice, showing that she’s again open to changing her mind/listening to others.

Also in S5, as soon as Raven finds out that Clarke is alive via the walkie-talkies, the FIRST thing she wants to tell her is thank you - to thank Clarke for saving their lives. Clearly this has weighed on her. This also does not suggest to me that there is any kind of grudge over Finn that Raven has been nursing - at least not one that is in the forefront of Raven’s mind.

Obviously I could talk about this all day. But the whole point was for me to lay out some aspects of Raven’s character that I think show that she does possess character traits such as empathy, unselfishness, willingness to listen to others, and that I don’t think she holds other people to higher standards than she holds herself. Of course she gets angry at times, she might want her own way and yes, she may feel that she is smarter than other people (I would argue that she has reasons for this though! LOL!). BUT - this is because she’s a layered personality and she doesn’t exist on a one-dimensional plane. To me, Raven is actually one of the MOST forgiving people on the show (another example, in 2x08 she tells Finn they will always be family and he admonishes her not to let him off the hook so easily, acknowledging that he did her wrong), so it’s difficult to read commentary about her as an unforgiving figure. I tend to see the opposite of that, and while some if it may be because I love her, I also think I have made the point here that canon shows us that she IS very nuanced and quite forgiving.

Well... like my stories, obviously I can go on! Better go back up and add one of those cut line thingies. Anyway, if you stuck with me this far, by now you are aware I love Raven. But hopefully you are also aware, if you didn’t already know it, that she’s awesome and there’s no way in heck that she’s selfish or unforgiving. If S6 decides to lean her towards more of those traits, then I would ask if these are plot devices or character motivations, because just like the best dad on the show agrees, “And I choose Raven Reyes over those three hacks any day and twice on Sunday.”

#raven reyes #the 100 #lindsey morgan #character meta #characterization over plot #dang I'm wordy #but I could say lots more

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lilietsblog · 6 years

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my mirai nikki liveblog notes from last night

yandere is a gross and creepy fandom trope beloved by gross and creepy fandom dudes but I really like Mirai Nikki and personally Gasai Yuno, and I hope she finds some stability in her mind orrr she could kill either herself or Yukki to get the other to be the god of time and space and I'm honestly not sure which of those would be a healthier decision or more fascinating to watch. but i dont want this ending bc of the cop )= (my taste in anime is impeccable)

I like how Yukki is still majorly creeped out by Yuno, even if making out with her is no longer even a Big Thing for him

WHY DID THIS THING JUST HAPPEN THIS IS LIKE THE WORST POSSIBLE SCENARIO HONESTLY WHAT THE FUCK I like the girl just snapping photos of everything I aspire to be this chill

Yuno if you fuck up Yukki's friendships because you are jealous I'm going to be very cross with you that's exactly what you're going to do isn't it I mean you've been 100% right about Tsubasa and you've been actually very charismatic with Yukki's mom but I can just feel the trainwreck coming

huh, they all end up just hanging out together, that's surprisingly nice I'm glad things other than blood and carnage are allowed to happen in this anime it won't last long will it

shine shine shine wow Yuno maybe chill

Mao and Hinata, I swear I'm going to remember this

HINATA PLEASE OH PLEASE DON'T GET MURDERED BY A SERIAL KILLER WHAT THE FUCK ANIME WHY ARE YOU GIVING ME THESE THOUGHTS DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE HAVE ME BE RIGHT ABOUT THE FORESHADOWING

okay what followed was teeth snapping not blood from a bitten throat so maybe she won't die after all thank god

NO HINATA WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TRYING TO GET EATEN ON PURPOSE YOU ARE THE PUREST CREATURE IN THIS ENTIRE ANIME PLEASE DONT DIE

guys you are discussing it with them walking right behind you how well have you thought this through I guess they were further behind?

I SURE HOPE RUNNING CHANGED THE FUTURE AND SHE IS STILL ALIVE

Akise is another Diary owner isn't he

I feel Yukki on his Definite Overload With Everything

I sure hope those are not Akise's dogs that Akise deliberately set on them to engineer this situation

hm well at least this is not personally Akise, doesn't mean he's not affiliated with this guy at the very least they seem to share hair color

I love Mary tho

hmmm this might actually not be the guy with the flesh eating dogs, these look different okay I'm holding off on further speculation right now and giving it a tentative 50/50, as well as to Akise turning out to have been behind the attack

okay what the FUCK that looks like Hinata

fuuuck i am SO tempted to like Akise but that would also come with a sore wish to have him Join The Team and I hoped that for Tsubasa too >_> my heart can't take it

...that feeling when Yuno is being the Voice of Reason

aaand it's gone

shit I hope Yukki figures out what to do about this shit situation because I'm out of ideas HEY NICE PUTTING THAT DIARY TO WORK I SURE AS SHIT HOPE THERE WON'T BE AS MANY DEAD BODIES AS WITH THE SIXTH THO TO BE FAIR THEY WERENT NAMED CHARACTERS I HOPE THESE KIDS' PLOT PURPOSE IS NOT TO DIE POINTLESSLY HINATA WAS ENOUGH OF A SACRIFICE WHICH I WAS RIGHT ABOUT BTW DEPRESSINGLY ENOUGH STILL DIDN'T EXPECT THIS THO this anime just kind of keeps escalating in ways I fail to expect time after time

please Yukki don't tell them about your diary there's nothing about that that's not a bad idea don't drag them into this aaand of course that's what you're doing and once again, Yuno is me

aaand there's Mao isn't there fuck not the one I was expecting at least thank you Akase for it not being you

okay Hinata is alive that's fair enough except she won't be for long will she why must you take away Pure things from me anime why ugggghhhh

a Breeder's diary??? oh right dogs whew

oh my god Akise too????? okay this is kind of hilarious now I hope they go for a reverse of the temple thing and he actually gets to join the squad I guess the girls were doomed because of Yuno anyway but he has a chance

so I think Deus rigged this whole game specifically for Yukki his random observations diary made the future diary a very interesting idea and a very powerful tool but then Deus threw a bunch of various... interesting characters into it, and I imagine physical proximity (or ability and willingness to get around fast) and, ah, interestingness of character were the main criteria, and he went for ANY kind of diary at all, which made most of theirs much less potent

another thing I'm thinking is I've been noticing the small child holding hands with ?parents? in the end credits for a while, and it looks like Hinata, and she might be an important character

maybe this anime just burned through a few expendable characters at the beginning to set up the situation and create the athmosphere, and the main plot is going to be about a bunch of high schoolers after all, because that's just how anime rolls - high schoolers would be the major characters out of the whole bunch of diary owners

so maybe they're not all dying next episode is what i'm trying to say

Murmur is amazing btw

hum so Akise got his diary late? or does he not have one after all oh my god I love Akise so much already his expression here like 'i can't believe i'm going along with this' and yet he's going along with this like sure ok

aaand SUDDEN DORK MODE oh no I have a new favorite character please don't turn out to secretly be a mass murderer that's all I ask ;~; hum might he not actually have a diary after all dammit these are supposed to be post credit scenes not revealing plot twists I'm just confusing myself at this point aren't I

lol oh my god they thought Akise was a diary owner but he's just a guy who's good at investigation isn't he

or is he??? godfuckingdammit I need to stop doing this to myself theorizing is a bad habit that I get way too into I don't like bumpy rides of plot twists I like being able to follow what the fuck is going on )=

yeah he does not have a diary nor any idea what's going on does he lol I called it seconds before Yuno caught on it's kind of interesting how it seems her job is to be the genre savvy one, whose usefulness is however kind of fucked up by her brain cockroaches

Yuno??????? why are you doing this HE IS TRYING TO WIN BACK YUKKI'S DIARY WHY WHY WHY HE IS ON YOUR SIDE DOn'T FUCK UP HIS GAME

I guess she caught on that he was bluffing but??? ??? ???

and Akise's just going nuts and laughing because what else is left to do honestly

Akise why are you so fucking likable how dare you I'm actually angry at this development HAVE A FLAW DAMN YOU I CANNOT RELAX BECAUSE OF THIS SHIT I CANNOT TRUST WHAT I AM SEEING THIS FUCKING ANIME

oh man I thought they were lesbians when Mao first brought up that she's taken, but this is V Cute

oh my fucking god Akise have you MISSED Yuno's thing in your investigation or are you doing this ON PURPOSE

wait what just happened was that yandere on yandere combat or what

Mao what the fuck were you doing

Yuno you are an ASSHOLE I hope everyone other than Yukki keeps just ignoring everything you say and do

I love this one normal guy who's kind of a dick and just reacts normally to things and his contrast to Akise whom I love

honestly Yukki I agree I think I DON'T WANT TO is the only argument Yuno can be receptive to

oooor that only makes things worse huh Yuno honey please settle down believe in Yukki a little more than that

oh hey good solution even if it's just getting yourself deeper in I guess in a BLOOD DEATH situation it's kind of the best available option

"You don't want me to hate you, do you?" A+ game Yukki hit her where it hurts aka explain basic facts of human relationships >_>

aaand yep he's freaking out because he doesn't even like her that way and he's getting deeper and deeper in )=

oh my god Hinata's dad do you realize you've GIVEN HER YOUR DIARY YOU DUMB FUCK ALL ANYONE PRESENT NEEDS TO DO TO KILL YOU IS BREAK IT

uuunless that was a lie huh can't deny that possibility

lol Akise also has voice of reason tendencies <3

hum okay dammit I liked the cop a lot then again Akise is like him+ as far as having an Awesome detective character goes and Yukki has a Squad his age now I'm surprised by how well this went actually

another episode and I'm going to sleep (yes i'm aware these are Cursed Words but what if I'm lucky)

Yuno? Uh, are you okay?...

see the thing is I really can't find a way to apply to this anime the standards of 'healthy relationship with a mentally ill person' because PEOPLE ARE DYING AND EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE LET'S PUT THAT OFF UNTIL THE FUCKING GAME IS OVER like Yukki can't just ditch Yuno because she keeps fucking saving his life??? and Yuno can't just resolve to Not Murder because that keeps fucking saving both of their lives??? they can't do what would have been the Reasonable Thing To Do under normal circumstances because these SURE AS FUCK AREN'T NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES

oh please girl are you sure anyone's MAKING you do anything

wait what the fuck is going on here oh it's Murmur fucking around isn't it yep there it is

hum

okay I'm not sure what's happening like, what? seriously? what the fuck

okay so that's what happened huh that still leaves a lot of holes but okay

uh Akise why what makes you think this is a good idea I mean I've noticed you don't exactly have conventional emotional responses to fucked up stuff either but like seriously

oh Yukki you're starting to become more OK with murder that's just the world you live in huh

awww he cares about her when they are one on one as much as he cares about EVERYONE which he does because he is wonderful and I love him it's just in mixed company that Yuno's stalkerish shit gets lower priority to everyone else's normal shit and Yukki is 100% right in that

aha I'd been wondering whose last name I forgot

ahhh so that's what he was doing that makes more sense than him being a shipper on deck -_- just throwing Yukki under the bus for the sake of investigation that's p much normal... by this anime's standards...

also holy damn Yuno you can work when you try hum self-induced amnesia or something? that's almost a sensible coping mechanism I'm glad the anime is actually paying attention to that

augh what the fuck Kurusu why do you gotta hum and there's that other detective uuugh this anime has way too much going on I guess it IS 11 pm and I HAD decided to go to sleep after this

#mirai nikki #liliet watches mirai nikki

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