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iamnightduchess · 3 years

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SnK 139 (A personal thought on Reiner & Mikasa's ending)

We have finally reached the end. For those who began this fandom since 2010, it's been 11 years of happiness, tears and heartbreak, on top of character discourse with our respective favorites. This manga is rich with amazing life values that requires more than just a quick zip through of every chapter. It requires a thorough, repeat reading. Hajime Isayama weaved his universe in a way that never cease to blow all of his readers' minds away but still touched our hearts in an emotional way.

(Special thanks to @pethellhounds for the key pointers for this post!)

No doubt, I love all of the characters, each of their flaws, strengths and growth but my two favorites have always been Mikasa and Reiner, individually.

Upon the first two reads, I was saddened, I was devastated and I allowed my emotions to filter the absolute value of the final chapter; in particularly to my most favorites. All thanks to the discourse we had in our RK discord, my brethren offered me a different perspective on how we could truly perceive ch.139 for what it truly is: a bittersweet farewell which only leads to new beginnings.

Reiner Braun

Armin was destined to save humanity, Eren confided on that himself. Even if it was Mikasa's personal choice on ch.123 that is the ultimatum that had saved humanity by eradicating the power of the Titans from the world for good. As referenced on this post, it has been Mikasa that was destined to free Ymir all along through her selflessness.

Upon first read, the following panel seemed to portray the remaining alliance members in a different light. Everyone looked amazing, happy as they exchanged banter just like how old friends with shared traumatizing experiences do. After all they're all celebrated world heroes - living with possibly an upgraded lifestyle, fame and wealth even within those 3 years. But upon several more reads and deeper observation, one could not entirely disregard the rather dark and gloomy atmosphere beyond the bright surface. In particular Jean and Reiner, who seemed to be a bit more noticeable.

Jean somehow is putting on a front as a skirt-chaser (having preference for younger girls) while Reiner seemed to be simping over his old crush (who's already married & has a child in Paradis).

The above panel seemed comical because the actions & lines seemed a bit "out of nowhere", but beyond the surface - everyone's hurting secretly from within, some are masking their pain, though some remained unaffected because they all shared a heavy burden of guilt towards Eren's death & Mikasa's withdrawal from the group to lay their friend in his final resting place all the way in Paradis. Jean and Reiner both are putting on a front.

Do remember that during the Marley arc, not even once was Reiner shown to reminisce about Historia very specifically. Not even in a fleeting thought, thus why it could also be deduced that she did not actually have a huge impact on his memory or his genuine affections beyond just a fleeting crush to hide his tormented mental state from within. How could someone who has been shown to have tremendous emotional growth and a consistent, albeit shaky psychological regulation during his primary arc was reduced to a typical simp archetype in the final chapter? This is not, a "Reiner can finally be his real self who's free of his burdens & he is someone who's enjoying his new life" moment.

The last time he portrayed this "simping" behavior? When he was 17 years old during the 104th's first SC excursion and when his psyche was almost teetering on its edges as his Warrior!alter is wrestling control against his soldier personality in Utgard Castle.

Reiner's simping (which was an intended joke) was also an indicator of a bleak truth: his DID regressed, from his regulated state and his psyche was completely torn apart from that day. In Marley, he had been extremely depressed but he was a loyal, strong and steadfast soldier who had only his duties in mind. To see him do a complete 360 & reverted to a creepy old behaviour, is truly saddening. He's been masking his pain with this front. Even Pieck could be seen sending him a silent, understanding look of concern for his letter-sniffing action.

In 139, despite having a new chance at life, having his mother's genuine love and acceptance & achieved his original dream in becoming a respected hero who is recorded in history, one could not entirely rule out the possibility that Reiner's DID has regressed to the point that either he reverted back to his soldier persona as a facąde or he'd might have developed a new alter altogether after having to experience Survivor's Guilt for the second turn. Yet this time, with no known time limit since the Curse of Ymir had been eradicated. DID is a lifelong condition. It does not go away, it cannot be healed even with modern medicine but yes, could be managed. That letter, the mentioning of Eren's name and their impending arrival on Paradis - the place he felt the happiest of his life - could be his trigger to put on that front. He, (along with the rest of the alliance on that ship) had to live with the fact that his and his family's new life and future had been at the expense of two people's livelihood; Eren & Mikasa. Eren sacrificed his life. Mikasa chose to bury Eren at his final resting place in Shinganshina and remain there to honor his memories on her own, without anyone by her side despite having fought together & almost on the verge of dying together.

(Thank you @lancerofdarkness for pointing this out!) We can see the banter between Reiner and Jean is very reminiscent of Reiner and Bertolt, where the latter cautioned the former on "not getting too carried away". Where Bertolt had a filtered approach, Jean had a more direct, head-on snipe. This dynamic had been initially observed much earlier in this post.

The alliance members could possibly have made a silent pact between them on not mentioning either Eren or Mikasa's name out of respect for that 3 years. Or if they, as well as the others, were not divulged of the real truth by Armin. With or without this knowledge, Eren's death and Mikasa's silent departure from the alliance do affect everyone. Some are more obvious than the others.

Once again, I feel compelled to share an unpopular perception that Reiner's simping is not his true self's behavior. It is a mask. A fake persona. It is a front to hide the real pain from within.

He cared about both Eren and Mikasa respectively, as much as the others do.

Mikasa Ackerman

Upon first reading, I was initially devastated for Mikasa's conclusion. It was her decision and selfless act that had saved all of humanity and won Ymir over, which completely destroys the Paths as well as removing the titan powers together with its curse. The woman who had been at the frontlines, placing her life at stake, almost dying first to protect the men in the alliance; she who had sacrificed everything ended up with nothing but only memories of the one who could never be and loneliness.

To throw salt into the wound, we saw Eren uttering in Paths on how he refused to accept the notion of Mikasa being with another man, he wanted her to only love him and have him in her heart even 10 years after his death. It was indeed a last spur of the moment declaration that ironically contradicted his plea in 138.

Their relationship was never meant to take off by riding into the sunset together, they are not destined to be with each other, even if their feelings are mutual. Despite my personal observation of their relationship as a form of enslavement in itself: Mikasa still sees it as her devotion & commitment to Eren. I have to respect her perspective on this.

Ymir mistaken Stockholm Syndrome as love, she perceives enslavement as love. Being used as a tool of war and breeding, surrendering all her will to her captor, yearning for his validation - she saw those as love. Now the glaring parallel between Ymir and Mikasa are truly obvious. Because of love, Ymir tethered herself to Paths or purgatory for 2,000 years and in exchange of Mikasa's decision & action, Mikasa remained tethered to her love for Eren & his memories for at least another 10 years if not for the rest of her life on earth. That is truly heartbreaking.

I was devastated. I personally believe she deserves better. She too deserves to have her happy end, to be loved and have a family of her own.

When Armin had dreams of seeing the world beyond the walls, Mikasa has always been a simple girl with simple dreams: i) to go back home within that forest in Shinganshina and ii) to be by Eren's side forever. Once we realised this, Mikasa actually had everything she ever desired after all. She's back home in Shinganshina, living in solitude and in peace with no burden of world peace, diplomatic affairs on her shoulder and has no need to put on a facąde. She's been grieving and she still cried for her yearning to see Eren's face again even after 3 years that she might not stop shedding tears in the next 7 years just like Eren wanted. That is how psychologically and emotionally affected she is with Eren's words, actions and death. She chose to remember Eren and keep her in her heart that it is almost seen as an imprisonment but she's also free from other wordly responsibilities unlike the rest of the alliance members.

Did I wish she would have a better ending than this? Absolutely. This young woman has never been on her own ever since she was born, it's heartbreaking to see her having to process her grief alone without even a single companion by her side. She lost all of her incredible physical strength and had to learn how to fortify her emotional strength through her grieving process. She has only learn on how to love and be loved by Eren, which has major missing components left to be desired. Mikasa deserves to be loved, to receive that affection openly in return from someone who would be ideal, respectful, trustworthy, expressive, equally devoted, the raindrop to her seed, the sun to her cold days and loving towards her and maybe one day, eventually would be able to grow a real family from that genuine love.

The last two bottom panel above we can actually observe the innocent kid!Mikasa just like Isayama promised. She is ready and curious to once again, learn more about the beautiful but cruel world. She is ready to leave the forest upon realizing that no matter where she goes, Eren will always be inside her heart.

She is at peace. Even if she looks way thinner, fragile that she should be and could be seen collapsing as she was hit by another wave of strong grief. But since the members of the alliance are coming to Paradis for a potential negotiation, it is been stated by Mikasa that they are also coming to see Eren's final resting place to pay their respects. She will be meeting her friends after 3 years for the first time and I could really hope that they can be the support that each other needed for true healing. I am holding on to the possibility of her being ready to move on and start living again after putting the course of her life on hold by mourning for Eren the moment she is reunited again with Armin, Annie, Reiner, Jean and Connie.

The bird flew over the ship carrying the alliance as it is heading towards Paradis before heading towards Mikasa's location, giving his answer to her "You're happy right?" question by wrapping that scarf around her neck for one last time. He wanted her to be free after 3 years of grief. He wanted her to move on when she meets their friends again because she does not deserve to be consumed in her grief not even another day. Not even for another 7 years. Not even for the rest of her life.

Anything that we envision happening after 139 is valid in this universe. I believe Mikasa will begin living her life to the fullest as the end of the series is also the beginning of her next journey. But this time, she will be doing it in the company of her loved ones. Together.

#snk spoilers #snk 139 #snk meta #snk thoughts #snk opinion #shingeki no kyojin #attack on titan #snk #aot #reiner braun #mikasa ackerman #snk manga

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blackbatpurplecat · 4 years

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Catwoman 80th Anniversary

In 1940, one of the now most popular comic book heroes of all time got his very first solo run. It would become a milestone in comic book history. But he wasn’t the only one who had a chance to shine. In that premiere issue, even TWO of his most famous antagonists would be introduced: The man who laughs and the woman who steals.

That woman was intended to become the love of the hero’s life. The good guy and the naughty girl, the appeal was palpable. However, she wasn’t just a love interest or a generic thief or only another villain in the ever growing gallery of rogues the hero would face over decades to come, no - she was quite the character.

Her first alias was “The Cat” which would ultimately become Catwoman. Selina Kyle, the best thief in the world, a literal cat burglar, a classy seductress and queen of sass. And fans loved her so much that over time, she grew to become just as famous as the hero.

Her story has had its ups and downs. Mostly ups. ;) Going from the pages of the comics to the little and the big screen in the 60s, then she disappeared for a while, then made a comeback. She married the hero and had a child, though that marriage was later rebooted and was followed by a depressing origin story a sexist author made up for her in the 80s.

The 90s then turned out to be her decade! She found herself on the TV screen again, animated this time. She was portrayed by a Golden Globe winner on the big screen again. And she finally got her very own solo run in comics.

Her solo title was successful enough to run for over 20 years, a time in which her development from antagonist to anti-heroine would pan out. She would be a member of several teams, dance on both sides of the law, and even have another child. The screen called her back in form of a movie and a tv show. In one she was a thief with a love for killing, in the other a teenager. And we already know that her movie career will soon continue with two more projects.

In 2016, DC rebooted their entire universe. Catwoman’s origin story was changed, her relationships were lost, her solo run got canceled. No one knew what was real anymore - and fans didn’t like it. Only a year later, a retcon followed in a pathetic attempt to restore a status quo fans were familiar with and approved of. Even her solo run came back and today, in June 2020, we celebrate her 80th anniversary!

Catwoman is my favorite DC character ever. She’s clever, she’s funny, she’s stubborn, she’s classy, she’s confident, she plays by her own rules. When written right, she is such an entertaining character, unpredictable and fun.

In 80 years, there have been countless appearances, so many incarnations and interpretations of her - sure, I didn’t like all of them but you can say there’s something for each one of us. You don’t like her in the 2010s? Check out the 90s. You don’t like her in the 40s? Check out the 80s. There’s a version of Catwoman for many different tastes. She never goes out of fashion.

So to celebrate one of DC’s most famous women, they published a collection of 10 stories in total, written and drawn by people who have had touched her character over the past years.

Did Catwoman 80th Anniversary - Celebrating Eight Decades of Beauty and Burglary do her justice?

Warning: Spoilers!

Let’s check out each story and see what the writers came up with for this very special occasion. Except for one, none of these are meant to be canon, it’s just a collection of shorts meant to emphasise why Catwoman is so good. Something I noticed was that each writer had not picked any Catwoman to write but “their” Catwoman. A nice detail. Consistency, why not? Write what you feel comfortable and familiar with. This can only help with the quality of the stories, right? ... Right? ...

Strap in folks, this is going to be a LOOOOONG post!

Story #1: Skin the Cat by Paul Dini

Selina’s just living her normal life with her cats, occasionally stealing some money and jewels. Hey, a girl’s gotta eat. ;) What catches her attention are news reports about stolen big cats. I’m a cat lover myself and this series of crimes would worry me just as much as it worries Selina. She deduces where in Gotham someone could hide those wild cats, breaks in, and is welcomed by an eerie voice - as well as the taxidermied cats. Fucking bastard... The villain Taxidermist, quelle surprise, is behind the cat murders. He now intends to gas Selina and add her to his cat collection but Selina reveals that she’d already turned off the gas before breaking in. She escapes his long knives and watches as three big cats she had brought with her attack and kill him.

What an intro! A story about Selina’s love for cats and her strategic thinking. I really liked the first half! But once the Taxidermist shows up, it loses itself in drawn out exposition. Selina goes on a long monologue to explain to the reader who the Taxidermist is, how she knew it was him, how she turned off the gas, and how she replaced three of the dead cats with alive ones. I would have preferred to actually SEE her preparations for the face-off in flashback panels instead of having to read it. It didn’t feel natural at all. Also how the fuck did she bring 3 wild cats and switch them for the stuffed ones?! How?! And when?! I’m also quite sad that she didn’t get to save the cats. That was a bummer. So all she basically did was bring 3 big cats to kill a killer.

The art’s gorgeous, nothing else to say here!

6/10

Story #2: Now You See Me by Ann Nocenti

Ann Nocenti’s name immediately made me go uh-oh... Her bad and convoluted writing style made readers drop the Catwoman books which eventually lead to the solo run’s cancelation so you can understand why I was concerned.

So Catwoman is hiding a little pouch in a pigeon loft on a roof while pondering who to sell her stolen goods to - as well as where to vacation afterwards. She then notices a surveillance camera. The scene cuts to two cops on surveillance duty. They’re both bored as hell so when one spots Selina, he quickly distracts his colleague and leaves to find her. He takes the pouch out of the pigeon loft and a fight between him and Catwoman ensues. He reveals that he wants to become her partner. He wants to feed her any intel he can see on his screens so she could steal and sells some goods, and they’d split the money. When Selina refuses, he tries to blackmail her into complying. Selina presses a button on a little device and whatever’s in the pouch the cop sacked, explodes, sending him over the edge. Luckily, he lands on an umbrella Penguin had sent off apparently because we see him in one panel, angered that his plan was foiled. I’m not entirely sure what his “brilliant plan” was supposed to be. Something with gas tanks that were strapped to the umbrella I assume? I have no idea.

This one is missing too much context for my taste. What was in the pouch? Did the explosion kill the guy? What was Penguin doing there? What was his plan? Why did we need the second cop? For a super obvious but unnecessary parallel between Catwoman vs. corrupt cop and random woman vs. random man on one of the surveillance screens? Why give Catwoman so little “screen time” and so little dialogue? Is this short story referencing anything from Nocenti’s awful run and I just forgot? To quote Val Kilmer Batman: “It just raises too many questions.”

The art’s okay, nothing too special.

3/10

Story #3: Helena by Tom King

Oh boy. This is the big one. The one everyone’s been waiting for, I guess. The man who not so long ago had promised us a BatCat wedding just to shove a huge middle finger in our faces, promised us a pregnant Selina this time. I was skeptical of course. Also other readers were convinced he’d just let Selina have a miscarriage. Well, the good news is it wasn’t a miscarriage. The bad news is he almost makes Selina seem like she would have preferred a miscarriage.

The story goes like this: Selina hasn’t been feeling well so instead of going to a doctor like a normal person, Bruce scans her head and checks her vitals and blood (I can only assume because we’re not shown). Selina’s convinced that she’s seriously ill but a gentle, hopeful smile on Bruce’s face reveals the actual truth: She is pregnant. And her first reaction is shock and denial. We cut to BatCat fighting Tweedledum and Tweedledee (I think, you can’t really see them but the two men they knock out look identical). Selina then bends over and says that she’s about to throw up. Followed by a Batbucket joke. I’m getting so tired of all the forced self-awareness, guys. We cut to Catwoman, now sporting a baby bump underneath the skin-tight leather, sitting on a roof. She prepares a glass of wine while telling the baby that it is just like Bruce and it’s such a dick for taking away her freedom. After one sip, she chucks the glass away and curses. We’re then treated to a montage of BatCat fighting several rogues while Selina’s belly grows with each panel until it’s an 8, maybe 9 months along belly. I... I have no words. Except for yes, this was written by a man. BatCat are then standing on a roof and Selina laments that she’s a thief, not a mother, and the baby will derail her life and plans. The scene switches to Bruce and Selina in bed, arguing because she’s in labor. Bruce is ready to roll while Selina is STILL in denial, crying that she’s not a mother, that she’s not a hero or a good and brave person like him. Bruce tells her she didn’t run off so that means she’s a good person and they agree that it’s time to have the baby. Another cut to Selina having to take care of a crying baby Helena, asking why she’s crying when it’s Selina’s turn to stay at home and not Bruce’s. Selina talks to Helena, saying she’s luckier than Selina was because Selina’s mom ran off. She fucking FINALLY says something nice about her own child (”You’re a cute little kitten.”) and wonders what they’re going to do with her. The last page is old Selina and grownup Helena after Bruce’s death. Selina’s complaining about the pretty cemetery while Helena likes it. Her daughter’s ability to not shit on just everything and not be a total killjoy all the time causes Selina to say again that Helena is like Bruce. Upon Helena’s question if she’s anything like her mother, Selina answers that she’s just as stubborn as her. If she wants something, she steals it. Helena asks what she ever stole and Selina delivers the last predictable cliche of the story: “You stole my heart.”

Ugh. King’s Selina is just such a boring read. She’s not charming or interesting or sympathetic. Maybe I’m too used to a fun Selina but this one’s just a drag. A heavily pregnant Catwoman fighting Joker, yeah sure, totally not absolute bullshit. And the way Selina keeps distancing herself from the child inside her? For over 9 months?! Is she going out in that ridiculous catsuit because she wants to cause a miscarriage, is that it? So she doesn’t have to make a decision like abortion, adoption or leaving the baby with Bruce? Her constant cussing over the situation and crying and whining turns the pregnancy of my favorite DC couple into such a depressing ordeal.

The art is very pretty! Thank God.

4/10

Story #4: The Catwoman of Earth by Jeff Parker

After the depressing pregnancy of Catwoman, we switch to the wacky 60s version of her. Catwoman and her henchmen are robbing a science fair when suddenly, a UFO arrives. WTF?! Four aliens and a robot are beamed down to the surface and the group’s leader, an arrogant jock-like guy proclaims that they will take over the planet and enslave humanity. Catwoman angrily stands up to him. Turns out the evil aliens are sexist too when the male one tells Catwoman females have to ask for permission to speak and the female alien in the group unhappily agrees. The jock alien tells the muscly male alien to dispose of Catwoman but she’s not easy to dispose of! She fights off the brawler, she cuts the tentacles off the tentacle alien (someone WILL jerk off to that one panel), dodges the jock’s laser gun, steals the laser gun with her whip, shoots the robot to bits, and lets the police take the males away. The female alien seems much happier now and invites Catwoman to a flight around the world in the UFO. Catwoman suggests a trip to Paris so she can loot the Louvre.

Aliens and Catwoman don’t mix. I didn’t really care for this story. I mean it’s great to see Catwoman in action and taking down four guys on her own but... aliens and Catwoman just don’t mix. It was a bit jarring to me. Also the aliens’ designs weren’t super interesting. They were basically pink elves.

The art is beautiful. Catwoman looks like Julie Newmar and the entire color scheme is very 60s.

4/10

Story #5: A Cat of Nine Tales by Liam Sharp

Catwoman’s caught stealing a diamond necklace by an armed security guard. He seems a bit scared of her but knows it’s his job to stop her. She’s not engaging in a fight - of course not, he has a gun pointed at her! So instead, Catwoman relies on her talking skills. And intimidation skills. She tells the guard that there are 9 ways their situation could play out: 1. The guard lets her tie him up and escape with the necklace. 2. She beats his ass. 3. He kills her. 4. She scratches his eyes out. 5. He slips and gets knocked out. 6. He fires his gun, misses her, and the bullet ricochets until it kills him. 7. They team up. 8. She gives up. 9. She kills him. However, the story ends with the guard fainting because Catwoman’s just so damn scary.

Very short, very simple. Even the art is simple, on one page there are 3 very similar panels with only minor changes. Nothing memorable but not too bad. It shows how Catwoman can take someone out even without touching them. It’s okay.

The art reminds me of a comic from the 80s or maybe 90s. Hard to describe why. Guess you have to see it. Again, it’s okay.

5/10

Story #6: Little Bird by Mindy Newell

Selina learns from a news report that a priceless mezuzah has been found at a flea market. It’s currently at the Jewish Museum of Gotham City and Selina immediately steals it. Later, Batman shows up at her place and asks why she wants the mezuzah. She doesn’t give him much of an answer so he leaves. Pretty pointless scene I would say. A flashback reveals that a young Selina used to live with a Jewish lady. I dunno, I guess she’s a foster mother? And the woman liked Selina so much and considered her family so she gave her that mezuzah to pass it on to her own kids one day (even though Selina doesn’t want kids, is not related to the lady, and isn’t Jewish). Back to the present, Selina’s punishing a client. That prostitute background made an unwanted comeback for this story because Selina’s resisting and denying herself love so she’s “whoring”, to prove to herself how despicable she is. Okay...? There’s an inner turmoil going on, she’s torn between selling the artefact or not. Eventually, she decides to bring the mezuzah back to the lady she used to live with. The lady’s grown old and demented, lives in a home and is at the verge of dying. Selina places an envelop between the lady’s hands and leaves. The home’s director finds the envelop which contains the mezuzah, an official document which basically ensures that the lady will be taken care of before and after her death, and a poetic note from Selina.

My least favorite story out of them all - and that is quite an accomplishment when there are King and Nocenti in the same book! It had that Frank “I’m an insane sexist racist asshole” Miller prostitute bullshit in it and Selina hating herself again. This time, the “whoring” (and this word is not me, it’s from the actual story) is used as a way of self-punishment. Because it’s disgusting and wrong and Selina only does it to torture herself. Dunno if that’s the right message you wanna send here... The Jewish lady was kinda random to me because Selina’s not Jewish and never has been Jewish. This is not a negative point, it’s just so random. And the Batman scene was pointless, I have no idea what purpose it served. Except for showing us Batman pay Selina like a john and having Selina make jokes about “whoring.” Ugh.

The art was great, very clean.

1/10

Story #7: Born to Kiln by Chuck Dixon

Going from my least favorite to my favorite story in this book!

Catwoman knows there’s a diamond in a safe on a boat that is set to leave the harbour in the morning. So she climbs aboard at night to steal the gem. She finds several dead sailors and they’re all covered in mud. Who could have done this? Yes, you guessed right - it’s Clayface! He’s already at the safe, opens it, and retrieves the big stone. Catwoman reveals herself and aims a fire hose at him. Her confidence, however, dies the moment the hose doesn’t work. Clayface swallows the diamond and starts chasing after her. There’s apparently a machine to spray-paint cars on the boat so she lures him inside, activates the paint to blind him, and the hot lamps for the drying process immobilise the big pile of mud. Now that he’s nothing more than hard clay, Catwoman takes a wrench to him and takes the freed diamond.

FINALLY a story I really, really like from beginning to end! First off, IT’S PURPLE CATWOMAN!!! Selina is wearing my favorite costume, the iconic Jim Balent suit from her 90s solo run in this story - and I LOVE IT!!! Yeah, her boobs are quite loose in it and sometimes dangle in strange ways but fuck it! LOL I prefer hanging boobs over a tight corset that should reduce her agility or a back breaking pose anytime! We get sneaky Selina, we get playful Selina, we get over confident Selina who has to think fast and run even faster, and she gets what she wants in the end without killing anyone.

The art is gorgeous! It’s very fluid and alive. I also absolutely adore the cute facial expressions on Kitten’s face, especially when she locks Clayface in. I miss Catwoman being fun. In this, she’s just adorable and not sexualised at all.

8/10

Story #8: Conventional Wisdom by Will Pfeifer

Selina finds herself at a Bat Con and is supposed to give autographs. The whole scenario seems weird and confusing to her, she doesn’t remember how she got there or what is going on. Bruce, Joker, Riddler, and Two-Face being there with her to give autographs is even weirder. And why does no one except for her react to that unconscious, bloody man on the floor?! On her way to her panel, she runs into several cosplayers which is basically only fan service. But you will find the male, dark-skinned version of me at her panel, asking when the fuck she will finally put that 90s suit back on!!! The dialogues keep breaking the fourth wall, pointing out that this story is about to end. One of the panel’s attendees looks like Marvel’s Taskmaster and another is Selina herself in her Catwoman suit. Selina slowly remembers what happened: The Taskmaster dude is Doctor Destiny, she broke into his lair and stole his reality distorter, a little machine she’s been carrying around for the entire story. She smashes the machine to wake up back in the lair and cracks her knuckles, ready to take down Doctor Destiny and his goons.

And it was all a dream! That twist has never been a favorite of mine. Even though it’s not really a twist; you know immediately that it’s a dream. We don’t learn anything new about Selina or see anything Catwoman-y in this. It’s really basically fan service. They wanted Selina to see and interact with real life fans of hers so they made it happen. She also comments on various versions of her costume. It’s cute but kinda forgettable.

The art is good, it’s rare to see light and bright colors in a Catwoman book so it was a nice change. And the cosplayers looked nice. But they could have used different body types to make the fans more diverse and visually appealing.

3/10

Story #9: Addicted to Trouble by Ram V

And here we are, the premiere of the duo that will take over Catwoman’s current solo run from #23 onward. We get a first taste of the writing and art and I must say it’s a good taste.

This short story serves as a continuation of Joelle Jones’ #21 issue where at the end of the arc, Selina and her sister Maggie left Gotham in a purple car. So we see a short recap of how they got the car and where they were headed but unfortunately, the engine dies. They hitchhike to Memphis. Selina’s frustrated that Maggie doesn’t talk to her. They get drunk and start a fight at a bar. The cops show up and arrest them. While sitting in the back of the cop car, the girls start laughing together and steal the car. They leave behind their luggage which only contains stuff they won’t miss - including Selina’s cat funeral dress. They drive back to Gotham, Selina steals food and drinks on the way, and they cuddle on a rooftop overlooking the city. The story cuts to Selina and Leandro, a character I would know if I had continued the Jones run. She tells him she wants to lay low for a while and stay out of trouble. When he asks “Oh? Really?”, Selina throws a naughty smile towards the reader. Yeah yeah, lay low my ass. :D

First off, I have no idea what happened before the road trip, I don’t know why they took it or why Maggie doesn’t talk or what the purpose of all of this was because all they do is get drunk, fight an entire bar, and go back. No idea what that accomplished. And I feel sorry for the car because it was so gorgeous. Anyway, I am happy to say that Ram V has a great writing style! He gave a good voice to Selina, it sounded very natural and like a human would talk, no forced exposition or fake deepness.

The art was good, there were a few expressive faces and the bar fight was well executed.

5/10 (because I don’t know the context)

Story #10: The Art of Picking A Lock by Ed Brubaker

Instead of ending with a transition to the next Catwoman issue (which I would have preferred), the collection offers one more story and it’s written by the man who successfully handled the second half of Selina’s first solo run. He turned her stories more into the film noir direction and gave her sidekicks. The run also gave her a fugly suit and made her have sex with old men and Brubaker wanted to kill her off and have her not know who the father to her unborn child was so... yeah, I’m torn about that guy.

The last story shows us Catwoman breaking into a warehouse full of Joker goons while thinking about the thrill of breaking locks and how she learned how to do it when she was at a juvenile detention center. She beats them all up and demands to know where “he” is. Later, her friend Holly is on a motorcycle chasing after a cab while Catwoman is riding on top of a subway. Both reach Gotham’s harbor. We see that the cab is filled with Joker gas and the driver is laughing maniacally. Holly can’t reach the cab in time and it drives off into the water. Catwoman swings down and jumps after it. She breaks the trunk open and reveals a handcuffed Slam Bradley. Cut to the three back on dry land. Holly chides him for going after Joker alone and not waiting for backup. He admits that it was dumb, then shares intel on where Joker will strike and Selina should tell “her friend.” She says she will and Slam ends the book with the words that he could really use a cigarette. NO, this book was not that good that it would warrant a cigarette at the end!

This short obviously takes place during the second half of the first solo run. We see Catwoman in action, that’s cool. Taking down almost a dozen of armed Joker henchmen, that’s pretty badass! And a woman saves the man damsel in distress at the end, that’s a nice ending as well. However, I don’t care about the costume so the visual appeal wasn’t there and I really don’t care about Slam Bradley so the reveal at the end was pretty ugh to me.

The art is great! It’s like a modernised/smoother version of Darwyn Cooke’s style, the artist Brubaker worked on the Catwoman title in the 00s with. So that gives it a pretty nostalgic feel.

5/10

In addition to the 10 stories we’ve now covered, there are pages to show off the Catwoman costumes of each decade as well as pinups. The costume pages are designed in the decade’s style (the 40s are black and white, the 60s psychedelic etc). But what I don’t get about the 90s one: It’s purple Catwoman grayed out in the background and gray BTAS Catwoman in color in the foreground - why make the purple outfit gray when you have an already gray outfit?! Just switch them! Also who put together the 70s one, couldn’t they find better costume examples?!

The seven pinups are pretty, unfortunately the majority feature the black outfits. I was surprised that even Tim Sale drew the black costume and not the purple one from his Long Halloween series. We get one of the gray BTAS costume and Jim Balent thankfully gives us BatCat with his purple creation. Nice!

Well, looking back at my personal scores for this collection of stories, Catwoman’s anniversary issue reached a total of 44/100 points in my book. Wow. That’s... not that good.

Most of the stories ranged from average to bad. Nothing spectacular, nothing memorable. There’s a lack of witty dialogue, Catwoman’s rarely fun to watch. In six stories she’s seen fighting, in three she’s seen being chased so I’m missing the variety here. I would assume you can do more with Catwoman than that. She often rather fights instead of using her wits and smarts. And actual cats are only featured in two stories but in one they die and in the other, Selina says she should drown them. -_-

A collection of 10 new stories was a great idea but celebrating the character this is not. I’m happy that the next writer for Catwoman left a positive impression on me and the story feat. Balent’s Catwoman was a delight. However, the writers didn’t really bring their “A” game for this anniversary issue which is disappointing.

Would I recommend it? Hmmm. It pains me to say: not really, no. You don’t miss much by skipping it. You don’t miss sassy lines or breathtaking art, you don’t miss out on funny scenes or emotional depth. This anniversary issue is merely average and I highly doubt I’ll go back to reread it.

(a huge THANK YOU to everyone who read this entire, way too long post! i highly appreciate it 💜you’re a real trooper!)

#catwoman #review

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midnight-in-town · 5 years

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Kuro extra ch107.5: a testimony to the characters’ agency

Kinda (super late!) companion piece to my take on overused comic relief being foreshadowing, especially since Sensei or Editor K did say that we could take that extra chapter as foreshadowing.

Let’s start with Vincent then, since I made a post on the subject before: i.e Vincent’s offering us the intro and, more importantly, the conclusion to this extra chapter...

...which happens to be a summary of one of the main themes of the series.

It’s also relevant for him to be the narrator of this extra chapter, taking on the role to bring wise words to us readers, because Vincent always expected to be killed several years before it actually happened, even if it’s likely that he never tried to do anything to escape this fate.

It was also pointed out before that, back when he was still alive, he had weird moments of foreshadowing/breaking the 4th wall as well, which fits with his behavior in that extra chapter.

Vincent’s dead though and personally I doubt he’s coming back, so let’s move on to the rest of the cast in this chapter.

First, where our main characters (Seb & Ciel) are concerned, there is...

...literally nothing to add. xDD Just kidding, but for real, we know that Ciel is after revenge and that Seb enjoys playing the butler in his little game with Ciel, meaning he’s just chilling till we get to the revenge part lmao. And that’s it. Next.

Let’s talk about Druitt, who organized this event...

seemingly innocent and kinda stupid as always at first...

until his true colors are revealed, which was exactly the same in the JTR and Campania arcs.

That’s why we can expect more involvement in the current arc or even in future ones, because Druitt tends to get involved in many messes of his own will (and always in relation to selfish interests), even if...

...he’s not particularly dangerous on his own. xD

Since I don’t have a lot to say about Irene Diaz, because she’s pretty secondary, we’ll move on to Charles Grey, who has a history of getting in the way (the murders at manor arc) because not very fond of our!Ciel, but that’s nothing to really worry about because...

Lizzie is a skilled fighter too and the extra chapter does foreshadow that, at some point, they’re probably going to face each other, on a matter that will most likely be related to our!Ciel (current arc?? idk maybe?).

Speaking of Lizzie, her agency is described loud and clear in the extra chapter...

...which happens to be similar to Finny’s...

and since they’re both sweet children, I hope they’ll live long lives and that our!Ciel will one day thank them for their devotion.

Moving on to Snake, who was also present...

...this is particularly interesting, because it seems that a main part of Snake’s agency will always be related to his bonds to Noah’s Ark circus troop, which is probably foreshadowing that he may be conflicted when he finds out about what our!Ciel and the rest of his servants did to them.

Does this mean that he will leave the Phantomhive household or that he’ll forgive Ciel and his colleagues, I don’t know, but I think it’s rather clear that Snake will find out pretty soon about what happened to Joker and co (could even happen in this arc by the way, so brace yourselves folks).

About Grell now...

...I think we get it. Next.

Let’s talk about Lau, whose behavior in the extra chapter is particularly on point with how he generally acts in the arcs Ciel asks him to get involved, which is to say...

...that he always does whatever suits his best interests and he’s generally not bothered no matter what happens, be it Finny becoming a giant or Seb and real!Ciel coming back from the dead. xDD

That’s why the extra chapter foreshadows (in my opinion) that one day, once our!Ciel will stop being of interest to him, Lau will stab him in the back pretty naturally and with no hard feelings.

This leaves us with only Frances and UT and well...

...if the extra chapter doesn’t foreshadow that Frances is rarely bothered to ever get involved (the current arc anyone?) then I don’t know what is.

I mean, crazy business is literally happening right under her eyes and she’s neither shocked, nor fighting or running away, just calmly supporting Lizzie’s wish to be of support to Ciel and handing her own rosette to Seb when they all ally to get rid of the giant snake.

You can take it as her being fishy or as her being 100% confident that her kids will be alright as long as they’re together, just like it might just be that she wasn’t supposed to get a lot of panel in that chapter, either way it’s interesting.

As for the Undertaker, the extra chapter makes it pretty clear that...

...he’s trying very hard to bring the dead Phantomhives back from the dead (confirmed in ch140 to be his main motivation so far), but this chapter also may have hints about...

what his link to the P family is. There we go, that’s basically everyone.

One more thing I gotta point out though: most of the characters in this chapter fought over higher ranked-rosettes than their own, because it was supposed to grant them more power.

Therefore, I find it’s particularly interesting to look at those who didn’t get involved, aka those who didn’t care about getting more power, because it tends to hint about fishy (or more complex) characters in general. So who are they?

Well, there is Seb, because he had the highest ranked rosette in the first place, but also because in general he doesn’t care about much besides getting Ciel’s soul for his dinner. Pretty simple, but then again, Seb’s character is exactly that way.

Ciel too, which is pretty revealing of his motivations in the story, because he cares about getting revenge over his enemies, yes, but he already has the strongest weapon at his disposal (Seb), so he doesn’t have to wish for more.

Again, I won’t ramble about Irene Diaz, not that I don’t like her (I do!) but she’s pretty much foreign to the main plot and that’s probably why she didn’t care to get a higher ranked rosette (instead probably running away or something).

Lau’s case however is particularly interesting, because we know he only cares about meeting his own interests and yet he didn’t seek more power.

That’s probably why he’s currently the most mysterious character of the story, because Sensei said before that he’s very interested in Ciel (and not in Seb), but that might not just be about business only.

Maybe as long as Lau is entertained (as he said in ch13) that’s enough to keep him still and that’s why getting more powerful for no particular reason doesn’t tempt him?

Next before last is Frances, neither bothered by the situation nor seeking more power, even very willingly giving her rosette to Seb when he needed it (following Ciel’s plan), which is pretty weird.

I mean, not only could she have wanted more power for many reasons (like keeping her kids alive for example or getting revenge by herself for her family), but the fact that she handed her rosette to Seb and literally left (she didn’t go back to the manor to have dinner with the rest of them) may hint that she only intends to be helpful without seeking more powerful means.

It could be a hint that she knows that powerful means may cause (or have already caused) the downfall of the rest of the family (look at Ciel selling his soul), or it could simply be because she’s pretty realistic like her brother (Vincent never tried to avoid his fate despite knowing he would die young). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Once again though, I notice a parallel between Frances and Ciel (friendly reminder that Seb once said he’d like her to be his master’s mentor), neither seeking to be more powerful than they already are, despite their family’s tragic circumstances (Ciel because he already has Seb and Frances because ??).

And finally, the Undertaker, who didn’t seek to get more powerful either.

In fact he even gave up his own rosette at the end for the sake of trying to bring Vincent back, which is once again pretty in tune with how he’s ready to sacrifice literally everything to help salvaging the Phantomhive family.

And if that doesn’t betray how much he loves them all (he’s the only one who did that in the chapter, knowing that no rosette = no panel) then I don’t know what is.

That’s about it. :)) Long post that’s, like, 3 years late, but thanks for reading as always!

#kuroshitsuji #ciel phantomhive #sebastian michaelis #undertaker #frances midford #lau #vincent phantomhive #viscount of druitt #elizabeth midford #finnian #charles grey #grell sutcliff #snake #irene diaz #kuro107.5 #kuroshitsuji theory #my analysis

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drummergirl231-2 · 5 years

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Della Duck - Possible ADHD

Update: Added a thing I forgot and fixed a typo in a gif Should we call this Part II after my “Fethry Duck - Possible Autism” post?

I know that just like before, I’m not in a place to diagnose someone else’s fictional character. That’s up to the writers. This is speculative. And I’m not wildly throwing around neurodiversity diagnoses for fun. If I see a lot of evidence a character could be neurodivergent though, I want to talk about it in a respectful way to raise awareness and acceptance.

I feel it’s important to stop looking at neurodivergent people like they’re defective, like they have something wrong with them that needs to be cured, instead of seeing them as people with rare brain types that are equally valuable to humankind.

Here’s the thing: I don’t have Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. I have Autism. I have several friends who have Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Last year I interviewed four of them about it, asking them what their struggles and strengths are, what some mistaken beliefs are that others have about ADHD they’d like to clear up, and what else they would like people to know about it.

So while I don’t know what having it is like firsthand (for the most part, because there are some commonalities between ADHD and Autism), I’m going to use information I got from friends who do have it.

Now let’s talk about this wonderful ducky.

Wait actually let’s talk about Dewey for a second.

Early on in the series, fans speculated that Dewey could have ADHD. From the pilot episode alone, we learned that he is hyperactive, he has trouble with impulses, his attention shifts from one topic to another quickly (“Scrooge was trying to keep me out of trouble! But I was so caught up in why is there a lamp on the floor?”), and he’s genuinely miserable if he has to sit still for a long period of time.

Some experts speculate that ADHD could be genetic, or genetics could be one of several factors that contribute to ADHD. And since Season 1 hinted at a lot of parallels between Dewey and Della, I started to headcanon that she could have ADHD. But I needed more evidence.

“What Ever Happened to Della Duck?!” certainly delivered. Not only does Della exhibit many traits of ADHD, but she also has the unfair negative reputation amongst other characters and fans that my friends said they often struggle with. More on that in a bit.

I forgot to add this when I first made the post, but Della is ambidextrous.

Ambidextrous people have higher rates of ADHD than righties or lefties.

Also, “What Ever Happened to Della Duck?!” hinted at Della having an attention deficit.

Of course, scolding herself to pay attention isn’t enough on its own, but in conjunction with the other traits, it does point to possible ADHD.

As for hyperactivity... well, Della’s pretty hyper, too.

And she’s talkative. She won’t use a sentence when a paragraph would do (I know them feels).

We don’t see her sitting still much in the episode. She’s always spinning, hopping, leaping, running, and talking, humming, or singing to herself or anyone who might be listening. She’s like a little Energizer bunny, always going and going and going.

People with ADHD need to move. One of my former roommates said that sometimes in class she felt like she was almost shaking with the need to do something.

^How much do you wanna bet this gif sums up Della’s school experience?

But people with ADHD adapt. They learn what helps them get things done. As I listened to my friends’ stories, I could see how resilient and determined they are.

Della is extremely resilient and determined.

I can definitely see how Della possibly struggling with ADHD could have shaped her into the unstoppable person she is. She would have learned from a young age that if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

Still, not all struggles people with ADHD face come from ADHD itself, but from other people’s perceptions of them.

One of the things I heard from multiple friends when I asked “What’s something people get wrong about those with ADHD?” was, “People think we’re dumb, and we’re not.”

And a lot of people think Della is dumb, both in the show and in the fandom. Her childhood nickname was Dumbella for goodness sake (a fun little reference to the old comics).

If Della has ADHD, she may have struggled in school as a kid. As one of my friends said, sitting in class can be really hard because it feels like her brain is louder than the teacher. This, coupled with Della’s impulsiveness, could have led young Donald, and later others, to believe she’s not very smart.

Low impulse control is another symptom of ADHD that Della has.

I mean, I can see some logic in her attempt to jump off the Moon... if she could survive on chewing gum, who’s to say what is and isn’t possible anymore? And she was desperate to try anything she could think of to get home to her babies. Aaaaand... she thought of this. But as far as we can tell, she didn’t really think the thought through.

Now I’m not including her taking the Spear of Selene in the first place as an impulse, because we already know she chose the date of her departure before she even pitched the idea for space travel to Team Uncle, but there were several other moments in the episode when she was impulsive, usually when her emotions were running high.

She ripped up the owner’s manual, punched the control panel, threw a little tantrum off-screen...

...charged a giant moon mite, and hugged an alien that had threatened her life multiple times.

That little inaudible voice in our heads that tells us not to do the thing? People with ADHD don’t have that as much. One of my friends with ADHD is highly intelligent - got two Bachelor’s degrees in four years - and still needs to battle impulses like eating a whole pie in one sitting, biting into a whole orange, and attempting matrix wall flips in an apartment. He’s gotten better as he’s gotten older (it’s low impulse control after all, not no impulse control), but he’ll always struggle with it more than neurotypicals his age. That doesn’t make him dumb, and it doesn’t make Della dumb.

It does give Della the reputation of a dummy that people with ADHD are unfortunately so familiar with.

(Though heck, everyone has a reputation as a dummy with Gyro; even Fenton.)

I think a lot of this “Della is dumb,” talk is uncalled for.

Especially from Penumbra! My gosh Penny, you’re calling Della dumb for not knowing there was a city on the Moon when your people purposefully hid it so that no one could find it? Really???

But Della is smart. She was an ace Junior Woodchuck. She’s sharper than the sharpies. She was able to follow the directions in the owner’s manual and rebuild the rocket herself.

And that was after she was able to piece the owner’s manual back together again (honestly I’m more impressed with that than her rebuilding the rocket... that’s like some freaky 3D jigsaw puzzle of death).

She was good at sniffing out surprises. She loved solving mysteries. She could “see the angles,” of a situation and predict the shortcuts and possibilities. She was an accomplished pilot, and could be a decent mechanic in a pinch. Issue #2 of the comics showed her to be good at puzzle games. And she was great at pattern recognition.

Like my friends, getting distracted by the little details helps Della notice what neurotypicals don’t.

People with ADHD may have their challenges living in a world that favors neurotypicals, but they also have many strengths because of ADHD, and Della encompasses both strengths and weaknesses associated with it without being a forced caricature of someone with it.

Again, I don’t have the authority to say for sure if someone else’s character has ADHD or not, but if Della does, she’s totally rockin’ it.

#ducktales headcanon #ducktales della #ducktales 2017 #ducktales #adhd #ducktales season 2 #ducktales last christmas!#ducktales whatever happened to della duck?!#ducktales what ever happened to della duck?!

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monkeydluffy19920 · 5 years

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“You’ve been scared of love and what it did to you You don’t have to run, I know what you’ve been through Just a simple touch and it can set you free “

- The Weeknd feat. Daft Punk - I feel it coming

Sannami week 2019 day 2: passion

So, this year’s event organized by @sannamiweek has started yesterday and I’m so glad to see that people are still active on the fandom with all their amazing fanmade stuff and analyzes so guys, give yourself a big big hands up! \o/

So why decided to take this particular song under the lens today for the prompt? Well sometimes, just like all shippers do, the possible scenarios for otps pop into the head, for example if they became a couple (canon or non canon), how would they end up together, how would their relationship look like and what would be their love lifes be like (oi, oi! I know you guys do it too *smirk emoji*) and I think the first verse reminded my thoughts so decided to do some song analyze-ish thing today :)

“You've been scared of love and what it did to you”

Just like all of the Straw Hats, both Sanji and Nami have faced traumas in their past, Sanji was neglected and bullied by his own family because he was different and because Nami was poor she had to witness a murder of her mother Bell-Mere and got herself tangled in a dangerous and ambitious deal (to gather a big amount of money to save her whole village) and although Arlong offered her a roof above her head, there is no way she wasn’t picked up by fishmen, I mean they despised human.

I pondered in the Reasons to love Mugiwaras - Sanji -post that what if there is a real meaning behind this “ero kappa gag” Oda uses as a comical relief (that he swoons over all the ladies)? Like what if Sanji really just wants someone beside him who could really love him? (like his mother did, unconditionally?) It would be very interesting to see if someone pure hearted confessed him her feelings because this would be unexpected both for Sanji and the readers. I don’t know but somehow in my headcanons Sanji would be lost of words, trying to play it cool but then getting genuine love and acceptance from someone he has been looking for years, this would make him óut of words (in a good way though) and maybe like some fans ponder, his so called “ladies man”-side would fade away. Like he would be stll very gentleman and polite but he would be very loyal to the love of his life.

(well he lost his words for a second after he realized that Nami-san rushed to hug him *laughs*)

Then in Reasons to love Mugiwaras - Nami I pondered the influence of Arlong’s actions reflected on Nami’s personality/behavior. She had to suddenly bid a goodbye to her beloved mother after a big quarrell they had before and I think this has made Nami really cautious of her actions. Just like Sanji, she has a harden herself during the years but she is vunerable and soft from the core. Headcanon or not but maybe she is secretly afraid of losing someone important again. This would explain why she felt so extremely guilty about not being able to prevent Sanji’s sudden disappearence and why she felt so offended by actions of “the Prince of Germa”

I think both are deep inside vunerable and have been forced to build a strong wall to protect themselves. Scars of the past will always be part of them so probably it’ll take time for both of them to get confident enough about each others’ feelings and confessing them, because of the fears of rejection and loss.

Practically this could mean that if they end up together (either in canon or in headcanons), during the first months of building their deep and romantic relationship or at the latest after the so called honeymoon phase [x], there would probably be questions inside their minds such as “am I really lovable?”, “what if I’m not enough?”, “am I doing this right?”, “can they really love me because I’m incomplete?” and then the other one would notice the moment of weakness or hesitation would calmy approach close to them, give comfort by a hug, then empathy by telling they understand how it feels like and then encourage the other by showing that there is nothing to worry or to be scared about because they will always stick together and no obstacles can stop. (something like in this GIF from the Revolationary Road-movie, that the other would look deep in the eyes say some beautiful words that’ll convince the other that everything will be fine. ps. spoiler: the movie is sad)

You don't have to run, I know what you've been through

This was mentioned in many posts before but I think it’s interesting detail that Sanji didn’t assume right away that Nami killed Usopp after hearing her telling that. By that time they didn’t know each other very well but Sanji’s basic instincts made him trust her even after she stole their ship and tried to shoo them away by lies.

What comes to the happenings of Zou and Totto Land arcs, I think they actually went to a similar-ish process than they did in Arlong Park, although the big difference was that Sanji first refused to get his friends involved and Nami reacted with shock and got hurt by Sanji’s action because she simply didn’t understand why Sanji would want to push them away and trying to solve all the problems by himself

We waited so eagerly that Nami would find out what Sanji has gone through in his past (just like Sanji learned her past via Nojiko, that would’ve been quite a parallel, especially if Reiju told her that) but in the end, she only learned bits of it and not directly the whole totality. However, we must remember that at the moment of reunion, they had a wedding to stop so there basically wasn’t time for that.

Their first reconcilliation (when they talked via the piece of glass) was shortish but despite the comical relief, Oda showed the readers that Nami was happy to hear about him and worried about him all the time but perhaps didn’t have pride or courage to say it directly? Well it was her way to say “I’m glad you’re ok” and later that iconic bridal carry scene/panel with their happy glance towards each other and the tear-filled reunion hug were Oda’s way to tell that that everything is now forgiven between them.

Just a simple touch and it can set you free We don't have to rush when you're alone with me

Back to the lyrics and the actual prompt, sorry for getting so carried away and making this post longer than it should be *laughs* So, when it comes to the assumptions of their romantic relationships, I think more importantly, it’ll require time for both of them to settle down. Not that they’d be running and chasing other people but more like referenced to earlier part of this post, they both have their insecurities but once they overcome them (with each others’ help) and learn to trust each other’s unconditional love the fullest, their relationship could become balanced and full of love and passion <3

What comes to bedroom stories *another smirk emoji*, it’s really hard to say what kind of sex life they would have because we fans have different prefrences. For example, I think that this The Weekend’s song could be describing at least those first times they go literally intimate with each other.

Maybe they first blush around and be a bit trembly and shy then later let their hormones and feelings carry them forward once they encourage each other, I don’t know because obviously Oda-sensei doesn’t hint us whether they are experienced or not or how sexually passionate they are as lovers *laughs*

Well anyway, all in all and in general, I could personally imagine them having a great relationship and something like very passionate yet romantic under the sheets. Maybe they are up to trying different things and places or maybe not, better leave that out for each of our dirty imaginations and fanmade stuff xD

Well, one thing is sure though, Sanji’s dream is to beat Zoro in a fight and get a victory hug from Nami-san (while it could have been anyone else) *wink emoji*

ps. Random fact: I made a short slideshow for Imany - Don't Be So Shy (Filatov & Karas Remix) for the first Sannami event’s Underwear prompt years ago but later decided never to upload it because well, the art used in was @_iga_guri_ ‘s and it wasn’t self made anyway)

#one piece #sannami week #sanji #nami #sanji x nami #sannami #sanami #otp #mellorine #quote #the weeknd #daft punk #analyze #speculation #long post #//got carried away sorry xD #reposted this because there was technical issues first (plus couldn't decide which would be the final thumbnail #well didn't have skills to make a proper one so this was the closest I could get xD #was too lazy to edit Brook's arm away but let's imagine it's just Sanji and Nami together alone xD

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shoushatohaisha · 6 years

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review: hajimari no kyojin (osaka 6/1)

so. hello. i usually write up my butai thoughts as, um, 100+ tweet threads in the immediate wake of whatever i just saw, but this time around i thought i'd work them out into a proper report, of a sort. if you, too, have seen this show already and want to talk about it... please. any time. always.

about reviewing: this is my very favorite 2.5D franchise, ever. but this is also a review, not a cheerleading exercise, so not every single thing i have to say is unrelentingly positive. having said that, i respect kinoshita, wada, suga-zachou, and the staff at large more than just about any creative team in this corner of japanese theater fandom so like. i'm not here to drag, lol.

about spoilers: i talk about the plot elements covered but try to avoid spoiling any of the fun production surprises. :) happy to do a more spoilery play-by-play later if folks are curious.

about length: i just checked and it's 2400 words im so sorry.

without further ado...

first of all, i admit that based on the preview clips i doubted, and i was swiftly taken to task for doubting. IM SORRY WORRY-SAN i trust u implicitly and i should have known better. after the major changes in shinka no natsu, i was concerned that bringing back the revolving stage and the original opening theme would feel stale/regressive. it did not. while they did bring back the revolving element they also extended the stage backward and added a second level behind a full stage height projection screen – the second level was used to do some neat staging for flashbacks/parallels and the screen was used to, how shall we say this, up their projection game in a major way, which i frankly did not think was possible. i will not spoil the details but it was pretty great, on a purely technical level.

i also realized that a lot of the repetition – opening with the bike scene, bringing back the original opening credits music, the staging, etc – is the "look back" over the last couple years that i'd expected to come this fall. they are very obviously already preparing for the end – you could think of this as part one of their last show, with the fall as part two. the show opens with a restaging of sixth grader hinata seeing the little giant on tv for the first time – then the current karasuno team take the place of the tv and hinata joins them for a team jog. "karasuno, fight!" "oh!" "fight!" "oh!" only then each character calls out their signature line from the show so far. "uchi no renchuu wa chanto tsuyoi" / "mou tobenai karasu nante yobasenai" / "murabito b mo tatakaemasu!"

and haha. let me tell you. BOY, DID I FEEL THINGS. a lot of things. i think yachi got me the worst but they were all real bad. (i have so many feelings about yachi's story and what a beautiful job saitou ami did with her character on stage. god. ;_;)

the theme of this play was the role of captain – what makes a good captain, what a captain does for the team, and how to step into those shoes when the captain is gone. the johzenji match is fun, but here, in a sense, it exists more or less to set up the wakutani match – (re)establishing daichi's importance so that his absence feels like the gut punch it is. and fully settling the weight of that responsibility on ennoshita's shoulders, as both daichi's substitute on the court and the captain-in-waiting.

with that in mind, the rival schools: imo it wasn't strictly necessary to cast full teams for each school – each match got its own dedicated act, and unlike, for example, nekoma/datekou in karasuno fukkatsu (which had a similar story structure), there aren't really any individual characters on these rival schools who have a role as such other than terushima and takeru. (you know, the captains. see above. XD) so in theory one could get this done with, like, one actor for each captain and then an ensemble cast playing the rest of the team across both matches. HOWEVER, having all those bodies allows them to do super cool stuff visually, and why force yourself to create the illusion of a full team if you don't have to? i.e., /i/ sure am not complaining, isn't it nice to have $$$ to achieve the max vision of your choreographer. XD

i also have no doubt that the kids playing these other characters are doing whatever they can to create a character within the ensemble, and i suspect there's plenty for repeat viewers to pick up on, esp during say the johzenji match (see below). however for the first time viewer following the main flow of the story it's more or less a very large ensemble cast.

the johzenji chaos was well expressed, haha, there was so damn much going on all the time that i hardly knew where to look. (i've also seen opinions on j-twitter that that diluted the impact and i can see that too – it worked for me as a "funny" match that didn't cross the line into comic relief, but ymmv.) i thought the final scene with misaki would pack more of a punch, but i fully expect them to cry at daisenshuuraku so that might fill in the last 10% that's missing rn.

wakutani are another Good Dance Team. one did get a sense, stylistically, of fukurodani- and nekoma-lite with johzenji and wakunan, respectively – i assume that was intentional. mirroring the cats vs owls match, as it were. yanagihara rin's takeru was like… scary?? i had to rewatch those episodes this weekend to see if i'd just forgotten something, but no, stage takeru is not so much reliable middle brother as scowly quiet tough guy. he looked like a kyoutani tbh, and looking at the kid actually cast for kyoutani, one wonders if someone in casting mixed up some paperwork or something. having said that, yanagihara was great at being the character he was, i enjoyed what he did on stage. i'm just not sure that character was takeru. XD (edit: ok having just rewatched, i have to revise this somewhat, i think a big part of my impression was due to being too far back to properly see his expressions the first time around -- up close he was much smilier, and bc i was thinking about it i noticed some nice details like him going over for a family hug afterward.) otoh big post-match scene – all of wakutani, actually – was really good. v effective, i heard sniffles around me.

during this match, johzenji reappeared dressed as takeru's family: FUCKING HILARIOUS omg, everyone involved has clearly learned how to do this right wrt blocking, the very fine line between comic relief and intrusion, etc, after the, er, shaky shousha to haisha experiment of kuroken doubling as oikawa's fangirls. seichou shita na, errone.

also, some great wire work for hinata and takeru – you could tell kenta is really comfortable up there these days. the first time the wires came into play one of the women behind me went "UWO!" which, when a japanese theatergoer makes a noise out loud, that's a true sign something's impressive. XD

nekoma vs fukurodani: Yeah, That Happened. it is a testament to how well done karasuno vs wakunan was that i didn't just spend the entire time screeching BRING BACK CATS VS OWLS because fjkdajfkdlsfjd KYAA. another good staging moment – they used mirrors to create the effect of two full teams playing at a crowded gymnasium, it was brill. i won't spoil some of the fun details but vvjakdlfjdf. and tbh i think the best performance of the four was probably shouri's?? not that this is news but istg idk how someone so soft offstage does THAT on stage. is it this "acting" thing you speak of.

new bokuaka: i mean it was clear some of this material was meant for yoshimoto kouki and i did kinda miss him – i appreciate higashi-san's pinch hitting and he did a solid job. but. ah well. HAVING SAID THAT. fucking "michi wo tsukurimasu yo" i mean we should all be grateful it wasn't kouki and yuuki or it would have just been a fucking fanfic on stage. it was still bad and i don't even go here. XD

and last but not least, arita ushiwaka kenji: not exactly the world's most natural line delivery but that's fine because, i mean, he's ushiwaka. and his physical presence was perfect. which was about all he was called on to do in this particular show, ahaha.

now, for karasuno. and specifically, for my son, kawahara kazuma. remember what i said approximately a thousand words ago, about captains and captains in waiting and stepping up to the plate? (or onto the court, as it were.) ennoshita's story was the heart of the wakutani match and kazuma carried the second act. he was. so. good. he had good material to work with, of course, but he made it even better. i was saying to a friend that in retrospect i think this is one of the very very few parts of the series that actually played better and more emotionally affecting on stage than in the source material (as opposed to differently good/differently affecting). in the manga/anime, you can only see what the paneling or the frame shows you, and those initial paneling/framing choices are focused on the drama of CAPTAIN DOWN. but on the stage, daichi goes down… and off to the side you see ennoshita freeze. and from that moment on, for kazuma, it's go time. he doesn't let up until the end of post-match scene in (here) the locker room – which, jesus, that scene. it packs ten times the punch it does in the anime. because of kazuma.

sorry if i sound like a crazy person here ahaha. but like. like, imagine you have been acting since childhood, you've studied dance with famous choreographers and innovators, you had a main role in The Franchise That Changed 2.5D as a teenager, you've done a solo album, you have a serious history in performing arts... and you get cast in what was initially the smallest role of the entire karasuno team. and you take it! and pull your weight! kazuma was a team player for three years and he deserved this chance to let his actual skills shine so much. ;_; because i don't necessarily think he would have been better in any of the other roles than his actual teammates – but i do think he is a much better actor than several of his actual teammates. and he finally got the opportunity to show that.

anyway, when it came time for curtain calls, the applause swelled noticeably for kazuma – a louder ovation than anyone except kagechan and kenta. and one of those people clapping her hands off, say in row 20, just a random row choice, was definitely tearing up at the same time.

IN OTHER KARASANEWS. kt-san. LIVE IN PERSON KT-SAN BACK IN THE ROLE HE WAS MEANT FOR cries into my hands i love him daichi-saaaaaaaaaan. very occasionally his delivery reminded me he's a model not an actor, if you know what i mean, but like, for the vast part it didn't matter because he is naturally such a perfect fit. have i mentioned i love him.

new suga: mmmmm. he looked and moved fine but his line delivery did not convince me. tbf it's not like suga has a huge role to play in these matches so 1) it's not a huge deal 2) he didn't get much chance to get into the character. either he'll get better or he won't, and if he doesn't it's not going to sink the next play or anything. he seems like a nice enough kid, i wish him well!

kageyama tatsuya: still can't yell and enunciate at the same time. loved that they brought back the archer analogy from shinka no natsu though!! it was one of my favorite things about his kageyama, and it's nice that it's something he "owns" instead of imitating/inheriting from tatsunari.

tsukishima & yamaguchi: miura kairi continues to get even better, i'm so pleased. <3 also, i love love love that they still use the musical motif from shousha to haisha for yamaguchi's jump float serve. it was the same in shinka no natsu, it's the same here. THE TSUKKIYAMA WAS REAL CUTE, great detail work before and after the serve as well as after tsukki's block(s). as for tsukishima, much as they brought back kageyama's archer imagery, they brought back tsukki's fancy katana kill block. (they didn't waste kondou shouri, either, i'll leave it at that.)

last but not least, MY ACTUAL SON AND FEELINGS TWIN, SUGA KENTA: ok like. to set the scene here. i have mad respect for this kid and also love him to death as a human. i think he puts more thought into this production than anyone else in the cast – he is practically worry-san's AD. and he clearly has a lot of real deep thoughts and feelings about the source material. so deep in fact that it took a while for me to come around to his hinata because while, for example, tatsunari's kageyama could have walked straight off my television screen, kenta went down to the manga and built hinata up from there. he didn't have a choice – he's nothing like murase ayumu's voice. all too often we, and i include myself here, think of the two dimensions in 2.5D as anime, rather than manga... but just as there's a big gap between the two dimensions of animation and the three dimensions of live theater, there's as big a gap again between static black-and-white drawing, and movement and color and sound. and when i looked at kenta's hinata as something created solely from furudate's art style, it all slotted into place for me. (naturally, ymmv.)

it also took kenta longer than some of the others, i think, to portray all of what he wanted to. shoen hinata was pretty yelly, and pretty single-register yelly. hinata is a yelly character, of course, but the balance between that hinata and Serious Match Hinata was out of whack at first. this got better and better with every show. and then—

his encounter with ushiwaka here. was IT. it was what i was looking for all this time. his delivery of hinata's big line there was like – i think maybe i clapped my hands over my mouth, unclear, bc it was like the final missing piece and i was so happy. kentaaaaa. ;____;

part of me wonders if this is what kenta's always had in his head but maybe couldn't get his face/voice to express the way he wanted it? OR, IT'S KENTA, SO MAYBE IT WAS ON PURPOSE and his previous Serious Hinata was meant to be like, just a feral hunger child whereas this is the kid who experienced the heartbreak of losing to seijou. i would love to ask him tbh. XD

anyway, my son, after five plays continues to grow in his portrayal of this character. kenta is the heart of gekidan haikyuu in so many ways, and i will be at their graduation show if it kills me.

(breathes out) i think that's. everything. a best setter award to anyone who read this far, and feel free to ask if there's anything specific you want to know about? i will be seeing it again this weekend for daisenshuuraku and will be sure to report back on who cried, etc. all hail volleyball stage the end. 🏐

#review #engeki haikyuu #hajimari no kyojin #im sorry i have so many feelings #AND THIS IS THE EDITED VERSION #i spared you my intensive theories on how kazuma ended up in this role in the first place #i just #look #i love this production so much

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pomegranate-salad · 6 years

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Seeds of thoughts : Wicdiv #36

Hello everyone ! Sorry for the lack of SOT last month. What happened was… I didn’t know what to say about the issue that hadn’t already been said. Sorry. Happens to the best of us. Anyway, we’re back with an issue that’s practically begging to be analysed, so that’s good. And just a reminder, if you’d like to help me not be broke, you can make a small donation here.

Thoughts and spoilers under the cut, you know the drill.

THROUGH METICULOUS ANALYSIS OF HISTORY

As expected of our wonderful fandom, some of my fellow bloggers (hi, @twatd and @myfirstsearchengine) have already started doing god’s work and untangle the absolute deluge of information we get in this issue. Bless their souls. But for me as always, especially when it comes to formalist devices, I find myself more interested in how things feel than what they say. That doesn’t mean we should bypass the analysis of the construction to get directly to a resulting, all-encompassing feel of the issue (otherwise, what would be the point of these posts ?) but I think it’s always a good start, especially with information-rich issues like this, to wonder what may be the big picture that’s so painstakingly painted through this abundance of individual elements.

So, how do we emerge from this issue ? Of course, everyone’s feel will be different here, but I think one popular realization will be just how fucking long six millennia actually is. On first read, as I flipped through the first half of the issue with increasing speed, I kept reading dates so far away from anything I could conceptualize they meant nothing to me until we thankfully reached the Anno Domini part of the program and I regained footing in time. Add to that the fact that I would be unable to point on a map to a good dozen of the places mentioned and you get… a recipe for emotional detachment. Of course, one of the joys of this issue is to go back and pick out the multiple details hidden in each panel, to cheer every time Persephone retaliates, to unravel patterns, to marvel at the outfit design and background changes, all these elements that actually allow us to connect with what’s going on. But as always, the interface between a reader and an issue is its whole and not a sum of its parts. Our emotions express themselves faster than our thoughts, meaning when we go back to identifying those parts, our connexion to the issue is already formed. As it happens, this connexion is to a gallery of nameless, often headless figures that have nothing in common if not for the pattern they’re repeating, and not to the individuals that form this pattern. A state of mind that’s probably very similar to the one Ananke entertains during all those recurrences. A state of mind she HAS to keep in order to maintain her own pattern.

Is the message this repetition has to impart us just that, a form of numbness to these killings, the taste of an endless battle and the suspected pointlessness of it all ? I think there’s a bit more going on here. Let’s try to connect the first half of the book with the second one. A priori, they seem disconnected. But the fact that Mothering Invention’s device seems to be the juxtaposition of past and present storylines means the creators are trying to establish some sort of echo between the two. In issue #34, the creation of the head sacrifice is paired with its discovery by the main characters in present time. Issue #35 is a study of two Minervas, and the circle of plotting and murder they’re trapped in. Issue #36 is the study of two monsters.

Is the wheel page in the middle of the issue describing Ananke or Baal ? The ambiguity is definitely not accidental. And if the construction of the two halves seem to be complete opposite, that probably not a coincidence either. The most obvious mirroring are the red pages, an entire page for a death, compared to the first half which crams six or more deaths per page. But really, that’s just the beginning of the parallels. The first half is made of a regular grids of small panels in which you can barely distinguish faces, while panel disposition in the second half is as irregular as they come, but focus on large, detailed panels, with Baal’s figure in particular blown out and dominating each page. The first half is all variety of colours and tones, while the second one is painted in an overpowering red. In the vast majority of panels, Ananke is depicted from the side, entirely focused on her task, while Baal is always facing the reader, sometimes almost as if he was addressing us directly instead of Persephone. But the most textual opposition is of course how much justification and explanation there is on Baal’s part, while Ananke, past the first page, doesn’t say a word. In his first apparition, Baal is even doing the Hamlet routine of holding a skull before starting his monologue. These two characters seem like they couldn’t be more different, yet the comic links them through this middle wheel page. Baal is all justification and self-aggrandizing, Ananke seems content with her selfish motivation. Baal gives an entire page to the weight of taking each life, while Ananke rarely expresses anything. Which is better ? It doesn’t matter, I think is the takeaway here : they’re both killers. And if you peel off the surface, they’re both exactly as selfish, cruel and inexcusable.

This doesn’t say great things about Baal. But I don’t think it says great things about Ananke either. Baal is arguably being manipulated into killing – does anyone buy the reality of the Great Darkness at this point ? – and is not nearly as jaded as Ananke is after six millennia. Is the only thing separating them time and experience ? If we come back to this first half, many people have noticed that Ananke seems to be consolidating some techniques and get more efficient overtime. But is that really true ? I’ve pulled the numbers : in the first third of her career, Ananke screws up about 13% of the time ; in the second third, 18% ; and in the last third, 9%. Those are remarkably similar odds. Can we even say she’s getting better at this ? Even if that’s true, the present recurrence seems to demonstrate that she’s never safe from a major setback. Nothing separates her from junior murderer Baal. She would have Minerva – and so, herself – believe that it will always be okay. That she’ll always win, in the end, even when she fails. But that’s simply not true. When she’ll fail for good, she’ll be done, just like Baal. And then these millennia of deaths, hers and Persephone’s, will mean nothing.

It’s remarkable that both Ananke and the comic would have us looking for more than there is in this litany of murders ; dumping truckloads of apparent information on us and inviting us to raid them for parts. And there is a part of me that definitely wants to do that. Because information and particularity gives meaning, it hints at more explanations, as a way to make sense of it all. But deep down I know that there will never be enough meaning in those panels for me to be satisfied.

Through this issue, it’s as if the comic is pulling all the stops on itself : it doesn’t matter how much it goes back in time and gives us fragments of this “big mystery” it’s set over the course of the previous arcs. Because it can give us everything, every recurrence there ever was, and all those murders will never mean more than what they are : murders. It doesn’t matter if it’s your first, your tenth or your sixty-fifth. It doesn’t matter if it takes you a whole empty page or get crammed into one-sixth of one. It’s still murder and you are still a murderer. And when you fuck up, everyone will cheer. And if you know it, that doesn’t make you nobler or more experienced, it just makes you an even bigger asshole.

I said one thing about this issue was how much it gives us ; yet, at the same time, it’s the comic’s admission that it gives us nothing, or at the very least not what we’d really want, because it doesn’t exist. What we see is all there is. The only thing separating Baal from Ananke is that they are fooling themselves in a different way. And again, there’s a part of me that’d really want to fool myself with them. With almost ten issues of Wicdiv remaining, I feel bad for giving it an early conclusion, but here it is : whatever is “really” going on, whatever the bottom line is, it doesn’t matter and never has. All there ever was is a desperately, cruelly simple tale of scared people. It doesn’t make them excusable. But it certainly makes them human.

WHAT I THOUGHT OF THE ISSUE

As I said, this issue stands out by how rich and poor in content it simultaneously is. As is often true of high concept issues, in terms of analysis, it immediately gives you something to discuss, but it doesn’t necessarily give you much more than what you first saw. What’s good about this issue is also what limits it, and makes it a nice, but also kind of one-note experience. As such, it compares unfavourably to other highly formalist issues like issues #14, #23 and especially #27, all of which were more evenly structured and solid in concept. I almost wish this issue had taken its premise further, and given us a cover-to-cover wall of Persephones. The parallel with the Baal scene is thematically rich, but it does give the feeling that the main storyline is stumping a little bit, and that the main reason we’re getting all those flashbacks is to artificially lengthen the comic.

That said, I’m not particularly disappointed by this issue either. It always takes a Wicdiv arc a bit of time to find its footing, and with the high concept flashback out of the way, the rest of the arc should set about its cruising speed. Plus, you can absolutely feel the amount of work that went into those pages, and while the result should be able to stand on its own, I really don’t feel like badgering on what was clearly hell on earth to build. Yes, it’s a borderline masturbatory nerdfest that saw the point of diminishing returns and blew it at full speed while laughing maniacally, but I think we can allow at least one of those in the Wicdiv run. It’s the kind of issue that I don’t see myself forming a strong attachment to, but I’m still glad it exists. And for what I’ve seen, aside from isolated opinions, that seems to be the general wisdom.

So let’s turn to the one part of the issue that DID attract the wrath of the Tumblrdom : Laura’s pregnancy. Boy, did you kick the hornet’s nest with this one, guys. I find it funny that as the fandom’s resident grump, the first big outcry we get about the Wicdiv run is one in which I find myself standing firmly with the creators. And since it seems I’m kind of alone on this one, allow me to make the case that as a story development, Laura’s pregnancy is… OKAY.

Let me first be clear : I’m not saying I’m happy with this development. Until we get the full picture of how it’s been handled, I’ll really have no opinion on the matter. What I do believe is that at this point, there is no reason to condemn Laura’s pregnancy as an inherently wrong move for the comic. I absolutely get why there was such a knee-jerk reaction from the fandom : it’s so, so very rare for a pregnancy storyline to be well done, to say nothing of a teen pregnancy storyline. For every one of us, the very mention of peeing on a stick is enough to bring back to mind dozens of female characters ruined by such a creative decision. So I get why people are being cautious ; I am too. But on the other hand, I find it really premature to set ourselves for outrage and disappointment.

From what I can tell, a lot of “oh HELL NO” reactions are rooted in the belief that this twist diminishes Laura’s characterization and strips her of agency. But personally, I see this development as completely in line with her character as previously established, and I don’t think she’s less of a subject for it.

For a start, we have to consider how much has been going in Laura’s life aside from her pregnancy. We don’t know how long she’s known about it, but reasonably it should have been around the end of January. She did a LOT of shit in-between, and none of it played as a direct consequence of her being pregnant. The way she describes her state is almost tangential, a Colombo-esque “oh, and one more thing”. Rereading her actions in light of her pregnancy doesn’t mean we should interpret it all as revolving around it ; if we do that, we are the ones stripping her of agency.

@immoralitea made another interesting argument : that the pregnancy was cheap cope-out to Laura’s suicidal behaviour by giving her a reason to live, thus derailing her entire battle with depression that’s been established as key to her character ever since the first act. That’s a compelling point, but I read Laura’s pregnancy completely differently : as another profoundly self-destructive behaviour. And I don’t know if that’s controversial to say, but in my opinion many storylines would benefit from addressing head-on how much self-destructive tendencies are a component of teen pregnancy. Pregnancy will put your body through the grinder, alter the course of your life, and alienate you from many people. And that’s if you’re lucky. If you aren’t, it’s also going to saddle you with an abusive partner or make you dependent on exterior resources for many more years. The last thing to get you through a depression is pregnancy. Of course all of this would be moot if the author didn’t realize it, but I think he does : nothing in Laura’s behaviour indicates she’s willing to change it for the sake of her potential child. On the contrary, she’s endangering it and herself by engaging in more self-destructive behaviour. That’s also why I think the “some of you will hate me for it too” line that also got some readers upset shouldn’t be read as the author’s opinion that Laura is to be shamed for her pregnancy ; for me, it reads as Laura’s opinion about a behaviour she sees for what it is : another way to destroy and hate herself. And just like she said before, she wants people to hate her ; it validates her suicidal behaviour. She’s doing everything she can so we will hate her, including getting pregnant.

Another clue in that direction is the way she discloses her state to Baal : when she says she “wants to live” it isn’t because she’s pregnant, but because every person battling with depression is torn between compulsions of life and death. And I may be mistaken, but I don’t think she wished to reveal her pregnancy to Baal at all ; I think she’s simply appealing to his “man of the house” self-image in order to be spared. From beginning to end, this is about her. Hell, she still has over two months to decide if she wants the baby at all.

Now I’m not going to lie, I’m not a fan of the over-symbolism of the goddess of death and rebirth being both suicidal and pregnant. And yes, if you ask me, I’d much rather have Laura get an abortion, because I don’t see how carrying her pregnancy to terms would benefit her in any way. But if Laura’s previous characterization taught us something, it’s that characters in Wicdiv rarely do what we want them to do and what’s objectively better for them. The gods have made the wrong decisions on drugs, cheating, dating, killing, trusting, overworking, and everything else under the sun, and we went with it, even if we weren’t happy about it. As I see it, pregnancy shouldn’t be over the line just because so many hacks have poisoned the well.

Again, maybe this storyline will develop for the worst and all I’ve said here will read as ridiculous wishful thinking in hindsight. But as of now, this plot development is simply this : a plot development, one that’s believable, in character, potentially interesting, and I think we should give it a chance. And if I end up being wrong… I promise I’ll write the mother of all takedowns.

#wicdiv #seeds of thought #oh look i'm early

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medicalinsurgency-blog · 7 years

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Masks (or, Why Danger Days is Relevant and Really Fucking Deep)

[I wrote this a while ago, but I stumbled across something that talked about a similar thing and I remembered I never posted this. Please let me know what you think.]

Masks are all over the Danger Days universe. The Killjoys wear personal customized masks. The workers at Better Living wear those weird hoods with the smiley-face logo on them that makes them an ultimate symbol of a homogenized workforce. And the Draculoids are defined by their masks, and the implications of that are criminally ignored in the fandom. Mousekat is something Party Poison appropriated from a BLI kid’s TV show, but later gets stolen back by the Director.

There weren’t really any masks prominently featured in any previous albums, and masks by definition hide your face and therefore your identity and emotions. There’s got to be something there.

Bear with me and I’ll give you the rundown on my interpretation.

The Original Killjoys and Masks:

Masks hide your face. I’ve seen a lot of people interpret this as getting rid of an old identity. But my personal interpretation is more like repressing your emotions or hiding who you are or some aspect of yourself in order to cope or adapt to your current situation.

In the comics, the new generation of Killjoys really embraced the mask thing. Have you noticed Val wears his a lot? Also notice when he wears it. The more violent and radical he gets, the more he wears it. The Vs seem to embody the spirit of the old Killjoys but with none of the heart or soul. I started to see the masks as this bastardized symbolism that was misinterpreted. Consequently, bastardization of symbolism was a theme Gerard talked a lot about in interviews about Danger Days (mostly the whole vampire look being commercialized and also misinterpreted).

The Girl tries to get Party’s mask (which may or may not have been implied to be a fake or replica, as evidenced from the vending machine ads in the comics) but Val wants it too. He’s more interested in the power and symbolism the mask holds than the memory of the person who was once behind it.

Drac Masks and Forced Fear:

No one in the bandom really talks about that fucking loaded symbolism of the Drac masks. I’ve seen some people think that it’s reversible. It’s implied that it isn’t. (it is eventually reversed in the end, but that involved some magic-shit with a spiritual bomb releasing souls, so it doesn’t happen easily.) It seems to be a “fate-worse-than-death” type-thing, as we saw Madam Director threatening Korse with it.

I know that what exactly the masks do is just one panel of the comics, but they essentially turn you insane because you see everyone and everything as a threat. They destroy your soul with fear. They make you hurt those you love because they force you to be afraid of them. BLI uses fear as a form of power, just like many governments (past and present) have. They create an ideologically homogenous group of people, terrified and ready to hurt, kill, and obey orders.

Mob Mentality and the Younger Killjoys:

The only difference between the Dracs and the mob mentality of the (younger) Killjoys is that they run on over-zealous corrupted idealism, like that obnoxious kid in your class who read Nietzsche once and now thinks he’s better than everyone and tries to turn every conversation into how government/religion/society is the Ultimate Pointless Evil ™. (Bonus points if they keep asking “yes but is ANYTHING REAL????”) There’s an interview where Gerard compares the Vs to a bunch of teenagers who watched A Clockwork Orange and got the wrong message, and that feels pretty accurate. Oh, except Val grew up in a violent and unstable environment and is so paranoid he kills first and asks questions… never, really.

In a crowd, you have relative anonymity and heightened confidence in your actions from the people around you. But you also may do things you would never dream of outside of that crowd. (Side note: this is why that particular aspect of psychology/sociology terrifies me like nothing else. Also, see “Teenagers” for G’s view on youth mob mentality.) It doesn’t just dehumanize you to yourself, though. It dehumanizes you to others. If you can’t see someone’s face, you can’t interact with them, or know how they feel, or empathize with them.

The Girl and Restoration of Humanity:

So the world’s all going to hell in a handbasket made of tumbleweeds and a Drac mask, right?

“Thanks, Sarah, I love having no hope!”

Wait a second, bear with me:

Did you notice how The Girl doesn’t have a mask?

I mostly interpret this as her being too young. She’s not indoctrinated with the same ideology of the zones youth yet, nor under control of the corporation. There’s a certain innocence to childhood but also a kind of wisdom. Kids haven’t incorporated various societal ideas into their subconscious yet. They’re still processing and questioning things inherently. The Girl questions things and makes her own decisions. When she learns to shoot, she gets a makeover and joins the fight. But she doesn’t make a mask like you might expect. She chooses not to.

(Side note: I often view The Girl and Val as proxies for us. Val is who G worries we might become, and The Girl is who he hopes we might be. Yeah, that’s right: G thinks you can save the world. Don’t forget that.)

This actually parallels to the original Killjoys (and their pre-bastardized ideology). In Na Na Na, Party Poison has, like, four different ways of covering his face. The other three have at least two if I remember correctly. “Die with your mask on if you’ve got to” says Dr. D. Right? Well… not quite. In Sing they aren’t wearing masks. They face the enemy head-on. They’re not hiding from BLI or themselves. They decide to be nothing more but nothing less than who they are.

In the ending of the comics, The Girl restores all the souls to the people who’ve been Drac’d. The Drac masks come off. They are themselves again. But the masks also come off the young mob of Killjoys. Everyone who was about to slaughter each other looks around and starts seeing former enemies as individuals, realizing that they are all humans. They’re not just threats. With the masks off, they are people who fear and cry and fight and love. (Side note: this very similar to the ending of “V for Vendetta”. Worth checking out if you’re curious.)

Yes, the ending might have been rushed or weird or abstract. But here’s the thing: G had all the power of a writer—a god in his own world—and he didn’t bring dead people back to life, like we all would have wanted. We must move forward and make the best of what we have.

I think this is because he knows that we can’t go back in time to fix things. Cherri never got over his guilt at not going with the original killjoys on their rescue mission and letting them die alone. But he eventually decides to fight again to protect The Girl. By doing so, he symbolizes finally letting go of his past in order to try to protect the future.

By having the masks come off, Gerard wrote and ending where, instead of bringing life back to the dead, he brought living people back to humanity.

Please take a minute to let that sink in.

For all the nihilism of a post-apocalyptic world where “the good guys die and the bad guys win” the ultimate ending is hope for the seemingly impossible: that we will stop fearing and hating each other.

So take a deep breath. Think for yourself. Think about other people as individuals. Break the mob mentality.

Take off you mask.

#Danger Days #danger days the true lives of the fabulous killjoys #Gerard Way #party poison #fun ghoul #jets star #kobra kid #killjoy headcanon #danger days headcanons #the fabulous killjoys

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omniversalobservations · 3 years

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Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point No. 3 (May 2021)

Fortnite Is well known for its absurd amount of crossovers and wacky skins during their seasons. With characters from well-known series like Ellen Ripley from Alien to the Predator in the last season of the game. However, many fans were asking about the inclusion of Samus Aran from Nintendo’s Metroid series, as it was mentioned in passing during the Apple vs. Epic court case. Fan’s might have gotten their answer to the question of Samus’ appearance in the game through a crossover comic between Fortnite and Batman.

During the Epic vs. Apple Trial in the first week of May this year, Epic had brought up new modes and ideas for the game including character skins that were planned for the title, while not confirmed Epic Games was actively reaching out to the IP owners to include them in Fortnite. These characters include but are not limited to: Naruto, Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games series of books, Uma Therman’s “The Bride” from Kill Bill, Kurt Russel’s Snake Plissken from Escape from New York, Bruce Willis’ John McClane from Die Hard, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Samus Aran. The list also includes multiple names of other characters already added to the game such as Master Chief, Kratos, and Sarah Connor, which means that the possibility of these characters showing up sooner or later is more likely than one might think.

However, the possibility of Samus possibly just increased with the introduction of a new issue in the Batman x Fortnite Comic Zero Point.

Zero Point is a comic collaboration between DC Comics and Epic Games, Featuring characters from batman, including the caped crusader himself. This small series of issues in the comic run parallel with batman’s inclusion in Fortnite before the last season, when the crossover characters were bounty hunters. However, in this version of the comic readers will see batman get pulled through a rift in reality itself. This rift sends batman to the fortnite universe where he has to find his way out, despite having no memory of who he is or where he came from. However, he runs into familiar faces along the way such as Catwoman and Harley Quinn. In the third issue of the comic, Batman is pitted against G.I. Joe’s master ninja, Snake Eyes. Throughout the comic we see Batman and Snake Eyes fight one another before learning how to communicate through hand signals, much to the dismay of the comic’s invisible antagonist. However, in one panel of the comic, fan’s noticed a familiar silhouette in the background of the fight between Batman and Snake Eyes.

A Twitter User by the name of JOURDON a.k.a. @DynamoSuperX made a post pointing out that one the characters in the background happened to look exactly like Samus from Metroid.

“bro, that’s literally a Samus silhouette in this Fortnite comic. guessing we bout to see some huge crossover announcements at E3.”

He Continues to theorize what would come with the possibility that Samus would join the fortnite cast. “and if this means what I think means, smash bros fans bout to be pissed.”

Many other fans began to speculate about the implications of putting Samus in Fortnite, a game almost as big as Super Smash Brothers.

Another user, Bray a.k.a. @braythenerd put out his own prediction about the possible implications in June. “Wham bam prediction time Nintendo and fn [Fortnite] will have something together at e3, Fortnite x smash, Prime 4 info, Samus in fortnite after the direct.”

The possibility that Nintendo and Epic games had made an agreement discussing putting Samus into Fortnite as an exchange for adding some form of Fortnite Representation into smash brothers doesn’t seem unlikely, as Nintendo has launched Fortnite bundles for the Switch, with custom colored Joycon’s and a special skin for the game. However, with Fortnite’s humungous cast of characters on the title, which one would fit the bill to represent the battle royale in Smash Brothers?

Source: eSports Talk

(image via GameSpot)

#comics #Fortnite #Street Fighter #Metroid

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megashadowdragon · 7 years

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shigaraki will kill inko midoriya (izukus mother)

Guys, guys. Remember how Toshinori himself said that Inko reminds him of Nana? I mean, he probably meant also personality wise, but especially in her younger days did Inko look almost exactly like Nana.

and all might compared inko midoriya to nana his mentor who was killed by all for one the symbol of evil

nana was all mights dead mother figure ( I am not saying that inko is related to nana shimura in anyway I am saying it would be a sort of parallel ) and in all might rising he out right said he thought of her as his own mother

I think all mights comment on inko reminding him of nana shimura is foreshadowing that inko will die as a sort of history repeats itself so she will be izukus dead mother figure

plus all for one knows that izuku has one for all and shigaraki noticed that izukus quirk was like all might its quite possible that shigaraki will find out and shigaraki will end up killing inko even if he doesnt find out deku is all mights successor he might end up killing inko

as a blow against izuku heck shigaraki might want to send deku a message (or he might realize that if bakugou wasnt rescued all might wouldn't have been able to go all out and afo would have killed all might and afo could have escaped and target dekus family due to dekus connection to all might

if inko dies before all might deku inkos death will cause him to go bond with all might more and cause him to rely on all might as a parental figure more to make all mights death even more heck it would be a twist since while she made toshinori promise not to die she will end up dying

plus my hero academia takes alot of reference from western comis heck all mights attacks are named after states from us

or the us itself.

and in alot of western comics the superhero loses someone close to them

like a parent.

edit : plus

there are parallels between Tomura Shigaraki and Izuku Midoriya (who are of the same generation) Just as Midoriya is chosen to be All Might’s successor, Shigaraki is being groomed as the successor for All Might’s archnemesis all for one(AFO)

at the start of the story both of them are pretty terrible at what they try to do and have to learn from their mentors. Izuku is trying to become the worlds greatest hero, Shigaraki is trying to become the world’s greatest villain at the same time. (shigaraki is the evil counterpart to izuku midoriya

for more on izuku and shigaraki being foils check this post out :

hamliet . tumblr . com/post/182207900119/hero-vs-villain-foils-shigaraki-tomura-and-izuku

and there are many other posts on how shigaraki is villain deku and the recent chapters ( chapter 235) makes shigaraki being villain deku even more clear

the panel at the end with part of all might and all for ones faces and a gleam in the middle to split them in too ( as a overlap ) emphasizes the2 sides of a coin thing between them and how all for one is an evil counterpart to all might

Foil: All Might is a textbook example of The Cape with the Heroic Build, beaming smile, and incredibly kind and upstanding man who fights Justice. On the other hand, All for One is a Villain who is Lean and Mean who does all he does For the sake of it tvtropes . org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ForTheEvulz while all might just wanted to be the a hero all for one wanted to be the leader of the bad guys. Both are mentors to disciples who absolutely adore them and are destined to inherit the positions they once held with numerous So Proud of You moments in between. However, All Might met Izuku by chance while Shigaraki was implied to have been kidnapped and brainwashed as he was Nana Shimura's grandson. While All Might is something of a bumbling teacher who tries to let Izuku find out how to use One for All on his own, Sensei goes to incredible lengths to prepare Shigaraki and gives him all the resources he needs to lead the League of Villains. Their powersets are also diametrically opposed. All Might is a cookie-cutter Lightning Bruiser who beats foes with nothing but sheer speed, power, and his own hand-to-hand combat technique, but All for One is a Power Parasite who uses a multitude of powers in tandem with each other for devastating effects. Both All Might and All For One constantly smile , yet All Might does this to inspire hope among innocent people. All For One has an evil grin and enjoys harming innocent people.

not to mention the fact that its likely that all for one forced a quirk on shigaraki while all might gave his quirk to izuku with his consent.

and both all might and afo when referring to izuku and shigaraki respectively said youre next

so it would fit for shigaraki to kill izukus mother like all for one had killed all mights mother figure

edit :

plus shigaraki recently regained his memories and when he was a kid he saw a pic of his father with nana

and when kotaro slapped him for seeing the pic etc he went on a rant about nana so its possible that shigaraki will have a hate for nana and will notice the resemblance between nana and inko and shigaraki will kill her partly due to it

also just in the recent chapter inko talked about how she once thought she needed to always protect izuku what if inko dies trying to protect izuku from shigaraki

imagine how shigaraki would react if inko was nanas daughter

youtube

@thehtg-therealone

@knarl-bnha

@thefruitloop-chan

@thathilomgirl

@seelcudoom

@katsudekuu

@milkshakederbygal @sevi007 @thathilomgirl @another-bnha-blog

#bnha #mha #bnha theory #inko midoriya #midoriya inko #shigaraki tomura #boku no hero academia #boku no hero academia theory #mha theory #my hero academia #boku no hero academia meta #nana shimura

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gurenaii · 7 years

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My SS Analysis (Part One)

SasuSaku. A canon pairing between Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura.

I posted earlier that I wanted to do one of these, so here this is!

This is an analysis for only part one, not for Shippuden. It’s too long for one for Part One as it is.

I spent a long time on this and I’m really proud of how this came out. In this I’ll be addressing some, if not most arguments against the ship and I’ll be using the manga and databooks as well; not the anime. I’m getting the manga translations an screenshots from Kissmanga.

I’ll also be doing this with an open mind, while inputting my own thoughts as a shipper of SS.

Now, let’s begin.

WARNING: THIS IS VERY LONG, THOUGH ITS MAINLY THE AMOUNT OF MANGA PANELS THAT MAKE IT LONG...

CHAPTER 3

When Sasuke and Sakura are officially introduced to the series, Sakura is shown and described by Naruto:

Naruto has a lil crush on her, and she’s shown as a Sasuke fangirl shortly after.

Sasuke then gets introduced right after, described as the class heartthrob.

Then yes, Sakura is officially portrayed as a girl who has a crush on Sasuke, a fangirl of his. And he pays no attention to her advances. As well of two girls there hissing “who does she think she is” which I find kinda funny by the way. It also proves the whole “class heartthrob” comment by Naruto, it’s shown that not only Sakura, but other girls also have a crush on him. Though it’s based on his looks and his coolness as the rookie.

He ignores all the advances by his fangirls. Right after Naruto comments how Sakura looks totally ecstatic while she has heart eyes at Sasuke. And then the little funny comical scene happens where Sasuke and Naruto kiss accidentally.

Let’s skip ahead a bit. We get to where Iruka is pairing up the three person squads. Team Seven is paired together as: Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke.

Skipping ahead again...

After Sasuke gets free from the restraints Naruto put on him he finds Sakura who was basically just in an encounter with Naruto disguising as Sasuke. He obviously doesn’t know about that and he asks where Naruto is and Sakura does her little rant about how he keeps ‘getting in between them’ and how he has no parents and how kids with none grow up selfish and annoying, then right after he tells her that being scolded by your parents doesn’t compare with loneliness. Sakura is oblivious to this and then Sasuke calls her annoying then leaves.

Some SS Shippers I now have said that he didn’t really think of her as truly annoying here, but yes, he did. She rambled about something that hit his nerves. He was actually annoyed at her here.

So here, he isn’t very fond of her.

CHAPTER 4

We are introduced with this cover which is really nice foreshadowing by the way.

Where they are talking about themselves, while Sakura talks about herself like everyone else did, this happens:

Take it as embarrassment or moved, I personally think he’s embarrassed since she’s basically fawning over him in front of his teacher and yeah. I also think he’s just embarrassed because this takes after he called her annoying, where he wasn’t really liking her.

CHAPTER 6

After Kakashi puts Sakura under a genjutsu of Sasuke on the verge of death, she screams and passes out. Meanwhile Sasuke hears the scream:

CHAPTER 7

After Kakashi sends Sasuke underground, Sakura arrives and believes that she’s seeing his severed head and passes out again.

She wakes up to see Sasuke leaning over her, he waited for her to wake up to see if she’s okay or not, despite wasting his time.

She sees that he’s fine, not dead, and hugs him in relief, and he reassures her that he’s fine and tells her to let him go now.

And he explains to her how it’s almost noon and time is running out (cough, and yet he stayed with her until she woke) and that he almost got the bells last time.

*clears throat*

I don’t think this is embarrassment. What even is there to be embarrassed about? Nobody else is around except for Sakura. And there isn’t any reason to be.

Boy, I see you.

After, she says how “there’s always next time!” and that he should give up, and then he opens up to her by saying:

Pretty sure he’s never told anyone this yet other than briefly hinting it when he was describing his likes, dislikes, goals, etc.

Also going to mention she’s concerned here.

And she remembers this.

She may be his fangirl in this part, but she isn’t dumb.

CHAPTER 8

moving on

CHAPTER 9

Included that because I found this panel to be humerus, and that eye smex is a big part of his ship. *giggles*

CHAPTER 10

The team is on a mission and they get attacked. Sakura gets in front of Tazuna with a kunai and tries to protect him, Sasuke goes and gets in front of both of them, if Kakashi didn’t step in here he could’ve died or gotten seriously injured.

Proving the statement wrong: Sasuke didn’t care about anyone or anything in part one, he was only focused on revenge.

Yes, he’s focused on getting stronger and getting revenge. But stepping in front of two people where he could have died, where he would be unable to get his revenge, yeah.

There are also more examples that prove the statement wrong, but I'll go over it when I get to those parts.

Another example that Sasuke does indeed care, even if it’s slight.

Mhm~

CHAPTER 19

During chakra control training, Sakura could easily walk up the tree with ease. Meanwhile Naruto and Sasuke were struggling. Sakura gave Naruto tips, and then after a while...

Sasuke asks Naruto what Sakura told him earlier about the tips, with a blush on his face.

You can interpret it as a blush of embarrassment or a blush that he’s interested in her, I take it as embarrassment. I mean, he obviously isn’t one for asking people for help or advice and he’s embarrassed that he had to ask Naruto of all people.

CHAPTER 26

Another example that Sasuke does care for his comrades this early on in the story. He heard Sakura scream and was panicked that something bad might’ve happened to her and Kakashi back there.

CHAPTER 27

Another example that he cared or his comrades this early on...

CHAPTER 31

Then comes the scene where Sakura see’s Sasuke’s supposedly dead body.

-And she is shocked to see this.

You can see it in her expression. She’s shocked that the Sasuke, top rookie in the class whom she praise to be cool and good at everything he does, is laying down dead in front of her.

And she’s holding her emotions back now. She states that this isn’t an illusion this time and says he feels cold, rather than the warmth that he’s supposed to have and that confirms it in her mind that he’s actually dead.

She is holding her emotions back until Tazuna says that it’s alright for her to shed tears.

Sakura hears this, and talks about how she always got good grades on all her tests in school.

And she states the 25th rule of the Shinobi Conduct, and finally lets her emotions out and she cries.

This moment here, I think opened her eyes about how anything could happen, and how easily she could lose somebody. I also think this moment, her character develops. She obviously really cares about him more; more than his looks or his “coolness” or else she wouldn’t be crying this hard.

If she truly didn’t care about him then she wouldn’t be this affected by it.

CHAPTER 33

Sasuke hears someone crying and recognizes it to be Sakura.

And he wakes up.

She is grateful that he’s alive, and quickly hugs him. This is like a parallel to chapter seven, except this one has more emotion and it’s more meaningful.

While she hugs him he tells her he’s hurting him so she lets go and apologizes. And Sasuke’s eyes are concealed.

He tries to get up and she is against it, because he might worsen the wounds he already has. He reassues her (just like chapter 7) that he’s all right and asks about the situation about Naruto and Haku and she answers him.

CHAPTER 34

No, he didn’t insult her. He reminded her that instead of flirting, she should work on her skills more. Sasuke is Sasuke. He’s blunt about his thoughts and he’s not afraid of letting them out.

If you want to know what or who he insults, it’d be Naruto from the amount of times he’s called him an idiot and made fun of him.

Calling someone an idiot (which is making fun of how smart they are) and mentioning to someone that they should they should practice on their skills instead of using their time of flirting are two different things. You can take it as an insult, but just don’t forget he’s called Naruto a variety of things that are rude.

Also, again, Sasuke is extremely blunt.

She actually even admits that he’s right.

CHAPTER 36

The next day, Sakura is still reminded of what Sasuke told her the day before. She’s reluctant to join the chunin exams because she knows she isn’t good like Naruto or Sasuke are.

And Sakura puts on a front, and Sasuke of all people saw right through her.

When two people are standing in front of a door, not letting anyone through to enter the exams.

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura come up and see this and:

And:

He compliments Sakura on her genjutsu immunity skills in front of everyone, winks at her, and has a smile on his face when see sees that her mood has been lifted to happiness.

CHAPTER 38

This is quick, but:

After Sasuke’s fight with Lee, Sasuke is falling and Sakura saves him from falling and hurting himself.

And she asks if he’s alright because she’s genuinely worried.

CHAPTER 47

While in the Forest of Death, when Orochimaru approaches Sasuke and Sakura and forces them to see their death and are paralyzed, they cannot move.

Sasuke looks over and notices Sakura cannot move either, and that she’s shaking from fear.

And he needs to do something. He needs to get them both out of there alive, so he stabs his leg and goes to get Sakura out of there.

And she tries to talk to him and he puts his hand over her mouth to shut her up so he can think of a plan to get them out of the situation.

She also notices that he’s more jumpy and that she’s never seen him like that before, and she’s worried about that.

CHAPTER 48

We’re given this as a part of a cover. (I don’t know if you noticed but I’m putting the covers here as well)

CHAPTER 49

Something that we haven’t seen from Sakura yet, is if she’s as submissive to Sasuke as she usually acts.

She may seem like she doesn’t, but she doesn’t take shit from him, and she’ll call him out if she ever needs to or if it’s necessary.

And what she says here, pushes him to snap out of it and then he proceeds to fight Orochimaru.

And when he loses and gets bitten, getting the curse mark, Sakura is angry and wants and demands to know what Orochimaru did to Sasuke.

After not much of an answer she goes to try to comfort him, to try to help him in any way.

And their hands get intertwined, Sasuke squeezing hers, trying to ease the pain he’s getting.

She pulls him close to try to ease the pain, trying to figure out what to do and what’s happening to him.

She is NOT taking advantage of him. She is NOT trying to take advantage of him. She’s worried about him and she’s trying to figure out what to do to help.

CHAPTER 50

Sakura is taking care of both Naruto and Sasuke.

And she is determined to protect the both of them.

CHAPTER 51

She’s taking care of them to the point where she isn’t letting herself sleep. If she didn’t care about them dearly, she wouldn’t be doing this, and she wouldn’t be this determined.

When three sound ninjas come in and want to fight Sasuke, and Sakura obviously declines, he’s still injured. So she demands answers about the mark on Sasuke’s neck, and about Orochimaru.

CHAPTER 53

It shows that she has liked Sasuke ever since she was really young.

Later on, she tries to protect them as well as Lee, now, and she gets pulled by the hair by a sound ninja.

She goes on in her head about how she feels llike a burden, and how she always has to be protected. She wants to protect the people she cares about, and now she feels useless, like she just gets in the way. And so she then cuts her hair to get free from Kin’s grip on her.

CHAPTER 54

Sakura thinks about how her teammates protect her, and how she just watches them from the back.

She thinks of her teammates + Lee, and guess who’s right in the center.

She then proceeds to fight for her teammates.

A series of flashbacks show with Io and Sakura, and it’s revealed that, again, she’s like Sasuke ever since she was at a young age, and she didn’t even know he was popular and that a lot of girls liked him, too. She didn’t start liking him because he was popular.

CHAPTER 55

Sasuke wakes up.

...But it isn’t the sight she thought she’d see.

Sasuke wakes, the curse mark is active, and he’s angry at seeing how injured Sakura is and demands her to tell him who hurt her.

He is pissed.

The background behind Sakura is black, and I learned recently that when the background of a panel is black, the thing in it is the sole focus of a character is looking at.

It indicates her state of injury is the one thing he’s focused on at the moment. That is the reason he’s so angry after all.

CHAPTER 56

Sakura is worried about the marks on Sasuke’s body, and she points it out.

And he reassures her that there’s nothing to worry about and that he feels strong with power.

And once again. he opens up to her.

And yes he gets even more pissed. Especialy when he figures out who hurt Sakura.

Also, he pays no mind to anyone else around, not Naruto who’s right next to him, he woke up demanding who hurt Sakura, not Naruto, not Lee, not why or who these people are, but who hurt her.

He then goes to defeat Zaku by breaking his arms right out of his sockets, and then goes to the other standing sound ninja.

Sakura notices that this isn’t the Sasuke she knows, this isn’t him.

She then takes it upon herself to try to stop him, so she runs up to him screaming for him to stop, and pulls him back from behind.

Even if you don’t ship it, you gotta admit this was a very powerful and well done scene, props to Kishi.

The eye smex:

And then she pleads again but with a softer tone, to stop.

And because of her doing this, the curse mark goes away.

CHAPTER 57

Naruto wakes up, and is alarmed to see Sakura and Sasuke far away, and he notices something.

He notices that something happened to her hair. Not her injuries, her hair.

Sasuke and Ino are not amused xD

CHAPTER 60

Sasuke is determined to get Naruto to get those fish. He’s really into it lmao

And then:

okay then sasuke

This moment isn’t really relevant, but I am doing an analysis on all their interactions, so...

She’s worried about something, and he asks her to explain what she means...if Sasuke didn’t care about her at all and found her hella annoying, he wouldn't have asked her to talk and he wouldn’t be listening to her.

And he’s obvious listening to her proven in a few panels ahead. It is a very important topic. Normal conversation about important matters, nothing more, nothing less.

CHAPTER 61

Another example that she isn’t as submissive to him as some may seem to believe.

CHAPTER 62

Still trying to figure this out...

CHAPTER 63

screeeeech~

riiiiiiiing~

CHAPTER 66

She doesn’t take shit from him...She isn’t as submissive to him as people may think...

He’s pretty shook and alarmed to see her cry like this, especially for him.

She doesn’t want him to get hurt with that mark.

Again: She does not take shit from him.

She doesn’t want to see him suffer, she says it herself.

Some eye smex, though it’s angsty and intense eye smex:

He opens up to her again.

And then he says, not even for your sake.

CHAPTER 68

In the midst of his battle in the preliminaries, the curse mark activates, but he thinks of Naruto and Sakura, and it goes away. He does in fact care for his teammates while people say he doesn't and never did, but he does, and they do have an effect on him.

CHAPTER 69

Apparently, Sasuke made Sakura promise that she wouldn’t mention the curse mark to Naruto, he trusted her to keep the promise...

And she kept it.

CHAPTER 99

Sakura is worried that Sasuke wont show up to the exam.

CHAPTER 111

Sasuke arrives to the match, and Sakura is worried that the curse mark is still there and it might interfere, so she asks Kakashi about it.

And when he answers something positive, her mood gets lifted up.

She isn’t a fangirl anymore. She isn’t obsessed with him anymore. She deeply cares for him as seen here, if she really just liked him for his looks, then she would not have been this worried.

CHAPTER 129

After Naruto jumped into the fight with Gaara, he gets out and goes after Sasuke to attempt to kill him.

But Sakura jumps in front of him with a kunai, wanting to protect him.

If she only cared about Sasuke for his looks, would she have jumped in front of him, knowing full well that she would either die or get extremely injured?

And Sasuke would have probably died if she hadn’t stepped in front of him.

CHAPTER 133

Sasuke gets up, and tells Naruto rescue Sakura from Gaara’s hold, and then to get her and himself out of there. He trusts Naruto to do it.

So he can delay Gaara, so there would be a chance for Naruto and Sakura to get out alive.

If he didn’t care about Naruto or Sakura, he wouldn’t do this. He wouldn’t say this, he wouldn’t call him and Sakura precious comrades to him.

CHAPTER 138

Gaara is defeated, and Sakura is getting free. She’s about to fall when Sasuke goes and catches her before she hits the ground and gently sets her down by Pakkun.

He then looks at her softly and tells Pakkun to take care of her while he goes to check up on Naruto.

CHAPTER 144

Sakura thanks Sasuke for saving her, but he tells her it wasn't him, but it was Naruto.

And she's thankful.

But Sasuke isn't happy with it at all.

He felt that he couldn't do anything, he felt useless. He was unable to defeat Gaara when he was his original opponent, and he wasn't able to prevent Sakura from getting held by him when she stepped in front of him, and because she did so was because he wasn't "strong enough" is what I get from this.

And from then, he wants to get stronger, he wants to make sure he's ahead of Naruto because he's catching up to him at a rapid pace.

CHAPTER 153

After the encounter with Itachi, Sasuke is put in Konoha Hospital, and is in a coma. Sakura is shown sitting at his bedside.

CHAPTER 172

Sakura is shown at Sasuke's bedside when Tsunade arrives in the room.

Tsunade then heals Sasuke and tells Sakura that he'll wake up.

And Sakura starts to cry tears of joy that he'll be okay.

Sasuke wakes up and Sakura immediately embraces him. Sasuke doesn't tell her to let go and lets her hold on and just stays silent. He isn't annoyed or angry that he was embraced by her when he just woke up.

Naruto leaves the room, noticing something (:)) and gives privacy.

Maybe he noticed Sakura's feelings for Sasuke were in fact pure, and maybe there would be a chance he (Sasuke) would return the feeling. Still a mystery, but I like the look on Sasuke's face :)

CHAPTER 173

Sakura is in Sasuke's hospital room cutting apples for him, when he starts to get disturbed.

His encounter with Itachi changed a lot of things with his mindset. This is where things start to really go downhill.

He is disturbed, again, that he wasn't strong enough to defeat Gaara, he wasn't strong enough to prevent Sakura from getting captured, he wasn't strong enough to do anything. Naruto did everything while he sat there injured, he feels weak.

He is so disturbed, he gets angrier and angrier the more he thinks about it, and even smacks the apples Sakura cut for him out of her hand.

He's angry and yeah, things went really downhill. His mindset is completely different. The Sasuke before the Itachi encounter chapters prior to this wouldn't have done this.

He's different, and Sakura notices that something is wrong before anyone else does as proven in a few chapters.

Also, keep in mind he looks away from her after he smacked it out of her hand.

CHAPTER 174

Naruto enters the room, and right off the bat Sasuke looks at him like he was the one who ruined everything, even though he didn't.

They are both alarmed at the look on his face.

Sasuke demands Naruto to fight him, he's really out of it, he's really angry now, he isn't himself.

Naruto agrees, totally oblivious to the way he's acting and agrees to fight him with enthusiasm, while Sakura protests Naruto not to.

CHAPTER 175

Sakura protests no, to cut it out but they don't listen to her.

She notices the darkness now, she notices everything now, before Naruto or Kakashi have. She did experience that certain darkness herself when the curse mark activated and went out of control the first time.

And his darkness really makes an appearance when he goes at Naruto on the rooftop with an intent to kill him.

CHAPTER 176

She jumps inbetween them, and that's what snaps them both out of it, but they can't stop the attack. Thankfully Kakashi stops everything.

Then Kakashi states how they were too into it to be just a normal fight. And there, it's proven by what Kakashi says and Sasuke's expression that he really was intending to kill Naruto there with the Chidori.

And he gets angrier.

So to those who complain and use Sasuke smacking apples out of Sakura’s hand as the worst thing on the planet that makes the ship bad, keep in mind too that Sasuke was completely out of it and he tried to kill Naruto right after.

CHAPTER 177

Kakashi has a talk with Sasuke, and does nobody remember the crazy look in Sasuke's eyes? No? Nobody is paying attention to what he told Kakashi? And people throw a hissy fit over Sasuke smacking apples out of Sakura's hand and then they ignore the entire reason why he did so, forgetting that he tried killing Naruto and was acting mentally unstable in his conversation to Kakashi right after?

Why is Sasuke smacking apples from Sakura more brought up than this?

And if things couldn't get worse he gets an invitation to go to Orochimaru for power.

CHAPTER 178

Naruto noticed Sasuke's darkness and truly knew his intentions before Sakura who?

"Sasuke wont be tempted by him!"

That's exactly what happens. He decides to leave Konoha because he was tempted by Orochimaru and the four Sound Ninjas.

CHAPTER 181

Heavy chapter...

Sasuke decides to leave, and before he does that he looks at the Team 7 picture...with an expression of longing maybe, or something that indicates when he leaves he'll miss them? It's definitely a pained expression.

Right when he's about to leave Sakura comes and meets him near the gate. She knew he would be leaving, while Kakashi and Naruto assured her that he would be fine and everything would be okay. But she knew.

Another confusing facial expression from Sasuke on the bottom left panel.

She knows he's leaving Konoha.

And she asks why he never tells her anything, and why he's so silent, and why he never lets her in.

But she fails to notice that he let all of Team 7 in, and failed to notice her how he did in fact tell her things he didn't tell anyone else. He has opened up to her in the past but she didn't notice.

And then Sasuke tells her that he shouldn't have to tell her anything, that it's none of her business.

Sakura asks him if he remembers the time he called her annoying at the same exact place they're standing now before when they first became genin. He says he doesn't remember.

sasuke stop talking out of your ass

She talks about the old happy times. How it was so fun during missions with each other and Team 7.

And she tells him that getting revenge wont make anybody happy, including him. And then he tells her that he's different than everyone, and how yes, they worked together for a while. And that yes, maybe, they were a team once. And she starts pleading.

She tells him that how she knows the feeling of loneliness now, and if he left she would feel lonely. (which I didn't necessarily like and i'm a shipper)

But then there's an unknown expression in Sasuke's eyes, which I still fail to see the emotion to this day.

When he refuses, she drops the bomb.

Notice he stops walking, like he just stops.

Also keep in mind he listens to her the entire time. He doesn't interrupt her with a rude ass comment, he doesn't reject her, he just stands and listens to what she has to say.

And then he says:

Creating a complete parallel to when he first called her that in their first actual conversation. Sasuke "I-don't-remember-but-I'll-make-a-parallel-anyway" Uchiha, you really were talking out of your ass when you said you didn't remember...

moving on :)

No, that wasn't a rejection. Sasuke is blunt, and if he really attempted to reject her he would have outright told her: I don't like you, leave me alone, go away, I won't ever return your feelings.

But instead he does a parallel to their first conversation.

Sakura then threatens to scream and yell when he starts walking away, and then he quickly goes behind her and...

He thanks her.

He doesn't say, I don't like you, leave me alone, go away, I wont ever return your feelings. He thanks her.

And Uchiha Sasuke doesn't thank anybody unless he actually, truly means it.

And his eyes are not shown, they are cut off.

And he knocks her out, picks her up and carries her to the nearby bench and sets her down.

If he seriously didn't give a crap about her at all, he wouldn't have wasted his time listening to her confession, he wouldn't have thanked her, he wouldn't have carried her to a bench, he would've knocked her out and left her there with no words spoken from him.

And I've already put down panels showing he indeed cares for all of Team 7. Just because you hate Sakura or the ship doesn't mean you should spout bullshit. He considers all of Team 7 as family, Sakura isn't an exception just because you don't like her or the ship.

CHAPTER 182

The next morning, Sakura's still laying on the bench, and she wakes up. And she remembers Sasuke's "thank you" right off the bat.

I find these panels so very sad. The boy she loves just left to the enemy and walked into the darkness and she couldn't do anything to stop it, all she could do is get a thank you from him and that's it.

CHAPTER 183

Even after Naruto hears of Sasuke's departure, he still can't understand why Sasuke left.

And then Sakura shows up before the Get-Back-Sasuke Squad leaves.

Wait- Shikamaru?

The second time she's reffered to as an "even you" related to Sasuke. First time was when Sasuke told her he couldn't forgive even you.

It's like people around know her importance to Sasuke. She is his teammate after all, she has got to have an affect on him, right? Just like everyone else in Team 7, and Team 7 only at this point.

Moving on, she is heartbroken that she can't do anything else, and all she can do now that she isn't allowed to go with the squad, is to plead Naruto to bring him back, because now he's the only one at this point who can do it, except Naruto would have to do it physically, not having a conversation like Sakura tried.

Honestly if you see this as an obsessed fangirl, I don't know what to tell you anymore.

Even Naruto says it right in the same page.

She does, and it's genuine.

And so Naruto promises her that he'll bring him back.

CHAPTER 236

Sakura goes to visit Naruto in the hospital, and then she hears that the mission failed: They couldn't get Sasuke back.

And she's heartbroken again, but she refuses to show it.

She wants to keep a smile on, to be postitive here even though it's the opposite of what she really feels. She avoids Naruto's apology.

And then shortly later, she approaches Tsunade and asks to be her student.

And she thinks of both Naruto and Sasuke.

She wants to get stronger to protect the ones she loves, and to do that she needs to train hard, and she will (and she did)

That's the finished analysis for part one. Want me to do a Part Two? Doing this was fun despite how long it took me to finish.

I made this for one of my friends who recently just joined the Naruto Fandom and she ships SS, so I made this little analysis for her so it's more understandable.

I actually would like to do more of these but not just for SS...Not sure though, but I do like doing these.

I hope you liked this :D

#sasusaku #pro sasusaku #pross #prosasusaku

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117--087 · 7 years

Text

Two Hundred And Four Reasons

Spartan-117 & Spartan-087

[Preface] // [Part 1] // [Part 2] // [Part 3] // [Part 4] // [Part 5] // [Part 6] // [Part 7]

With this past month marking the 4-year anniversary of this blog, I was somewhat at a loss as to what to do to commemorate the occasion...until I remembered there was one more thing I could post as an addendum to my essay series chronicling the development of John-117 and Kelly-087′s relationship throughout Halo canon. There were a few additional pieces of media featuring SPARTAN-II Blue Team that were released in the wake of 2015′s ‘Halo 5: Guardians’ that I think are worth taking a quick look at in regards to how they carry on the tradition of highlighting the bond between a certain Blue-One and Blue-Two.

Through All These Years

The first of the two is an animated miniseries (though more akin to a motion-comic) that loosely adapts the content of both the novel ‘The Fall of Reach’ and its comic book counterpart (which I’ve previously discussed). Like the comic before it though, this miniseries includes a few minor details that differ from the original source text in interesting ways.

The second is a short story from the comic anthology ‘Tales From Slipspace’, called “On The Brink”, and features some panels and dialogue that I feel are very relevant to the content I’ve analyzed so far in regards to Kelly-087′s character and her dynamic with John-117.

We’ll start with the ‘Fall of Reach’ miniseries. Most notably, the animation is bookended by a rather touching scene involving Blue Team returning to the glassed surface of the planet Reach (some time in between late-2557 and mid-2558) in order to hold a private memorial for Samuel-034. But I’ll get back to this after looking at the body of the animation’s content.

To preface: it is worth noting that the animation includes Fred-104 and Linda-058 in events at which they are not canonically present - mainly the “ring the bell” exercise as part of John-117′s team, and as participants in the assault on the Unrelenting in 2525. This was done in order to better familiarize a general audience with them as characters and the roles on Blue Team they would eventually come to fill in the years after the Spartan-IIs’ training in actual Halo canon.

Unlike the comic book version of ‘The Fall of Reach’s events, this miniseries does make sure to include the crucial lesson that John-117 learns from Chief Mendez after putting himself first during the trainees’ initial obstacle course exercise.

“You don’t win unless your team wins.”

Much like in the novelization though, Kelly in particular takes a stand against John’s selfish behavior before he proves he is willing to make amends for his mistake and commit to being a team player.

After the young members of Blue Team reconcile, we are then shown the Spartan-IIs’ wilderness training exercise that takes place two years later. And, in a new addition to this part of the story, we see Sam make a pit-stop to carve the symbol of an eagle and a lightning bolt (which would later become Blue Team’s insignia) into a tree in commemoration of the group’s friendship as John and Kelly look on and consider their next move. As described in ‘The Fall of Reach’, Kelly is noticeably taller than John as a child, which is a small detail I appreciate being included in the animation.

From here things follow the comic adaption pretty closely through the augmentation procedures and the Spartans’ first official mission to Eridanus Secundus to capture insurrectionist Colonel Robert Watts. A few nice asides are made throughout the entire animation where the members of Blue Team casually converse like normal teenagers (making jokes, encouraging one another, offering advice, invitations to do activities, etc.) when not directly engaged in mission-relevant dialogue. So it is good to see this kind of additional humanization of the S-IIs based off of what has long been established about them in Eric Nylund’s books.

Finally the last section of the miniseries is narrated by Kelly-087 herself in flashback (with Michelle Lukes reprising her role from ‘Halo 5: Guardians’), which covers the Spartan-IIs receiving their first sets of MJOLNIR Armor and Sam’s death at the hands of the revealed alien Covenant.

Without quoting every line she says, I will simply say this portion of the animation is well worth watching just for Kelly’s commentary. After Blue Team is outfitted with their suits of Mk. IV armor on Chi Ceti, we come to the Spartans’ infiltration of the Covenant ship Unrelenting. In a small departure from the novel and the comic book, Kelly is actually pulled aboard the vessel by John just as she is about to fly off into space - and though I doubt it was intentional, I find it is an interesting reverse-parallel to what we see in the ‘Halo Legends’ animated short “The Package” all the same.

From here events proceed in general accordance with canon, with Sam’s armor eventually breached by a plasma bolt after being shot while pushing John out of the line of fire. Once Blue Team makes it to the ship’s reactor, they hold off a few waves of Covenant while reading the bomb they brought with them to destroy it. John and Kelly work in tandem as Blue-One and Blue-Two; and in an amusing exchange of roles at one point, we see Kelly take charge of the situation and sprint across the bridge to shut the doors leading to the reactor room while ordering John to complete the work on the nuke.

“I’ll seal the door. John, finish arming that warhead!”

“I remember thinking that no matter how dark the future, we could face it as a team.”

However, as we all know, things reach a breaking point when Sam admits that he has to stay behind on the ship due to the irreparable damage to his armor. This part of Nylund’s book always struck me right in the heart, and the scene here is no exception. This moment is then bolstered by Kelly’s reflection on how this first loss in battle deeply affected not only her and John, but all of Blue Team.

“I know Spartans don't cry...but for once, I was glad for the helmet.”

“We thought training, augmentation, armor made us untouchable, invulnerable, immortal. Blue Team. But we were wrong - we were children. This was the only thing John was ever afraid of: losing one of us. And we knew we weren’t finishing this fight, we were just getting started.”

The animation then ends with the Spartan-IIs visiting the same place Sam originally “carved their mark into the world”. They take a moment to remember their fallen friend and reflect on the meaning of his heroic sacrifice, as the Chief sincerely asks his remaining comrades if they will continue to have faith in him to lead them through whatever lies ahead.

“Last time we were here, I asked Sam to trust me to take us home, to follow me. Will you trust me now? Will you follow me?”

...which plays perfectly into the next section of this write-up.

"On the Brink” is a short comic featuring Blue Team that was relased as part of the ‘Tales From Slipspace’ anthology book in the fall of last year. It takes place in 2558 and is a fairly self-contained story about one of the Spartans’ many exploits after their reunion in 2557. Specifically, they are looking to stop a Mammoth that has been hijacked by some splinter-Covenant from running into a UNSC nuclear reactor. Once again the events are overlayed with a narration by Kelly-087.

The 12-page comic can be viewed in its entirety here. And while it is brief and rather straightforward in terms of the story’s content, there are a few panels that I would like to take a closer look at. Most prominently, this section where Kelly muses on the steadfastness of the Chief’s leadership.

I love How Kelly notes that even though she’s dog-tired and in the middle of a violent firefight, hearing the voice of her best friend is all it takes to renew her focus, confidence, and determination to complete the mission - in a way nothing else can. For his part, John continues to rely Kelly to back him up and talks to her throughout the operation even as her discovery of some civilian scientists aboard the Mammoth forces him to make a risky evasive maneuver in order to save them. And honestly I don’t know what could speak more for the strength of the bond that these two characters have and the kind of trust they have in each other.

After the massive vehicle finally comes to a complete stop, the reactor remains intact and some extensive property damage to the surrounding area is the only fallout of the Covenant attack on the UNSC base. This does not appease the site’s foreman however, and he confronts Blue Team. John keeps his cool while Fred reacts angrily in turn to the man’s disrespect and thankless attitude. Kelly looks on, and can’t help but wonder when John will finally grow weary of the tumultuous and unsure environment the Spartan-IIs have found themselves mired in in the wake of the Human-Covenant War.

The end of this story presents us with quite the conundrum from Kelly’s point of view. Because while she will always support John and believe wholeheartedly in his ability to triumph over adversity, her final thoughts reveal that she does indeed recognize that for all the ways he’s remained stalwart he still has limits too. Just like the rest of them. Which once again works to emphasize how human these characters still are.

These pieces of media continue to paint the same picture of these characters that we have gotten for the last 15+ years: two people who have grown together over a lifetime of experiencing all manner of hardships and yet they maintain a healthy mutual relationship based in respect and honest care. How this may come into play later in the series after the events of ‘Halo 5: Guardians’ remains to be seen, but for now it is good to at least have a few more moments to add to John-117 and Kelly-087′s catalog of positive representation.

#Halo #Master Chief #John 117 #Kelly 087 #S2BlueTeam #Two Hundred And Four Reasons #opinion post #...about a month and a half late - but I got it done!

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