#but i think i tell a good story

[itsladykit]

Realized the other day (while listening to a podcast about a book) that writing beautifully isn't really my aim. I don't aim to be quotable. I don't aim for beautiful prose.

I want to be functional. I want the words to disappear so thoroughly that my readers can see and hear my characters. As a writer, I want to be nearly invisible.

And you know what? That realization gave me some peace and cured some of my feelings of inadequacy.

#i found the book they were discussing to be beautifully written #but it felt like i was always kept an arm's length from the story #i wanted to be enfolded by the story #and the (lovely) prose got in the way #and i know my prose isn't beautiful like that #but i think i tell a good story #and draw folks in #writing #stfu kit

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Bonus 8: How met your mother (CSSR design by @qourmet!)

[First] Prev <–-> Next

#poorly drawn mdzs #mdzs #cangse sanren #wei changze #jiang fengmian #It was important to me that WCZ had the hereditary mole. I will die on this hill. #I have been *waiting* for the day to finally arrive when I could finally make this comic. It's been marinating for months. #My mission is to redraw all of qour's character designs one day. They are just *that* good. #CSSR has the vibes of a wandering menace who shows up in towns like a stray cat arriving at a new doorstep for treats. 10/10. #While YZY strongly leads us to believe that JFM was in love with CSSR and that's his whole motivation behind taking wwx in- #-I do think this is (once again) rumour being presented as reality. It's the juicer story to tell after all. #It is still possible that he did love her! But I think that story undercuts the relationship he also had with WCZ. #Yall ever think about how JC and WWX parallel their fathers? How Wei Changze also left the Jiang Leader's side? I do. #Unlike JC though It is far more hilarious and plausible to imagine JFM begging to be CSSR and WCZ's third. You know he would. #My wild headcanon is that JFM and YZY are in a mlm and wlw arranged marriage situation. Deeply unhappy as partners. Better as friends. #they care for each other and I'll admit that there is a beautiful tragedy in them having romantic feelings for each other the whole time. #But I am also here for the gaffs. Let them be unfulfilled homosexuals together. #Meanwhile cssr and wcz are having incredible hetrosexual sex in a bisexual way that WILL leave him pregnant by the end of it.

[nothatsmi]

3/4

Please

This shit impacted me dearly. Lets say Andrew and I share some demons. I absolutely love the slow way Andrew manages to let his guard fall around Neil, how the trust grows between them, how Neil listens and care for him so much. It makes all the difference.

Here's the Museless version, cause I honestly like both..

#all for the game #aftg #the foxhole court #the raven king #the kings men #andrew minyard #neil josten #andreil #muse #muse band #undisclosed desires #i think nora sakavic did a good job regarding the telling of andrews story #it's not an easy subject to abord #i'll say it again but neil's reaction to andrew's reactions each time #trust and care #love it #also did i mention that i like muse? #noah's aftg series

[fictionadventurer]

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes reviews I've seen fixate on the story's discussion of whether humans are inherently good or inherently evil as if one side or the other is the correct answer. Meanwhile the story itself is showing that individual choice in every action--choosing to act out of either love or self-interest--is what truly matters in shaping society. A free and stable society requires that people be taught to make selfless choices rather than act out of fear. Instead of oppressing people into fearful order, citizens need to have the freedom to choose the good, and be educated with the values that teach them what good is.

#the ballad of songbirds and snakes #the hunger games #i'm still mentally fighting with that christian review of the movie #'the movie discusses whether humans are inherently good or evil but the truth is we're depraved and need a savior' #and meanwhile i'm like #'well first off i don't think calvinist doctrine is going to help you here' #and i'm also like #you think the story*isn't* wrestling with the fallen nature of humanity? #you think it doesn't recognize that there's no merely human answer that can solve the problem of evil? #that we have to be fools by the world's standards to create a world worth living in? #can you actually understand what this very didactic story is telling you or do i have to do everything here?

[katabay]

original thief series basso & garrett :)

ngl, it's about quality over quantity for me. an npc can have a total of three minutes of screen time, but if they have a cool name, they can live rent free in my head and I'll spend several hours trying to decipher drawable features from a blurry screenshot of pixels

there is a vague hint of a story here, and that's because every time I try to play thi4f, I get incredibly frustrated with how Not Fun the game play is. like, is the story good? well. but it has a PLAGUE. that should've given it instant 'I'll replay this once a year' status in my heart, but the game play sucks so bad that I've never finished it. I can't believe Not Fun gameplay beat out my obsession with narrative plagues.

anyway, the idea is basically if the original era had a game with a plague centric narrative and some other stuff I liked out of thi4f thrown into a narrative blender, with a heavy dash of horror thrown in because some parts of the thief games were scarier to me than entire dedicated horror genre games.

⭐ places I’m at! bsky / pixiv / pillowfort /cohost / cara.app

#if i had a laptop and the skillset i would attempt a story mod because the thief modders who create whole mission stories #are GENIUS and also somewhat terrifying. love them! xoxox #anyway im actually kind of obsessed with parts of thi4f but its also like. not at that sweet spot of almost good enough to be fun #to talk about. which. for the record. has not stopped me from talking about it at length to people #the city itself actually fucking fascinates me. its almost alive and im SO mad that not a single part of that game is actually terrifying #it should be gnarlier and instead it feels a bit like it doesn't quite want to be trapped in the story it has to tell? #but between the level that has the bodies on the meathooks #and the scene with the bodies hanging from the rafters or whatever that was and garrett living in a clock tower #because the game is very much ALMOST about changing times and authoritarian violence and capitalism #(like. by virtue of how the story sort of spins out i think it misses it's mark on a lot of stuff here #in the sense that i dont feel like it actually wants to tell that story. it wants to. go in a different direction. or at least walk on top #of those themes instead of through it) #ANYWAY between all of those things. it does kind of live in my head rent free. they did create a compelling setting #SHAME THEY DIDNT WANT TO ACTUALLY EAT ANY OF IT #unrelated but i would've given thi4f a 10/10 if they kept garrett's fucking nail polish from the concept art. cowards. unforgivable #thief the dark project #i still have no idea how to tag the game series as a whole RIP #sorry for the dedicated dark project fans. if you know what the general series tag is. please let me know #garrett thief #basso thief

[googleeyes]

I love it love it love it when the characters in Dracula start reading the same stuff we've been reading it's like Yayy Book Club :) Tell me more about how much you love Mina

#dracula daily #re dracula #it's so strangely validating. like in todays entry (September 25) Van Helsing is like an audience surrogate #but he actually gets to tell Mina directly what she means to him (and by extension me <3) #its risky business having the story exist diegetically within itself #because when a character starts talking about how good a piece of writing its like hmm. let me be the judge of that. #but i think dracula really succeeds there where others have failed

[rebornrosess]

rewatching a “kid’s” film as an adult and realizing that it’s actually Very Good and enjoyable and smart and enthralling regardless of your age is one of my favourite forms of nostalgia. realizing a movie didn’t talk down to you when you were a kid is incredibly comforting, i think.

#will be listing some movies (mostly animated that i think fit this): #the incredibles #how to train your dragon #kung fu panda 2 #monsters inc #shrek 2 #the lego movie #tangled #wall-e #ratatouille #anyways i love when you can tell a family-oriented film didn’t assume kids were dumb and let them and their parents have a good story

[mayasaura]

Going into Alecto, I think it's important to expect that the series won't conclude with a clear lesson. Either about morality—what makes a good person, evil getting their just desserts, ect—or a thesis on decolonization. It's not that kind of story.

Deep down, this series is two drunk girls bearing their souls in a dark corner of the bar. An hours-long conversation that wheels wildly through pop culture, past trauma, theoretical physics, dreams and aspirations, global warming, hairstyling, friends, family, gender, personal insecurities, world history, favorite foods. It has a lot to say, and a lot of it profound, but it's not trying to teach anything. At the end of the night, the point was how fucking cool that girl was, and the potent electric potential for something lgbt to happen

#the locked tomb #alecto the ninth #ofc this is just my perspective #but I've been thinking of how the author said that the way she stays true to her story is by giving herself permission to not be a teacher #and that one of the driving forces behind her writing is the rpgs she played as a kid #and how everyone online made fun of the girl characters like they were weak and not good for anything #when she had played the game levelling them up and properly equipping them and beat the boss with them #and how she wants to be able to tell those stories where girls are just really fucking cool and get to have the adventures #so I'm kind of nervous about the idea that tlt is about the evils of colonisation or about taking on God as a symbol of the patriarchy #bc.... I think it might be exploring all that while really being about how girls are really fucking cool #and I'm worried about the potential fallout if a large portion of the fandom goes into the finale expecting those priorities to be reversed

[tricoufamily]

to be fair you have to have a very high iq to like strangerville (also young cahill and. some guy)

#strangerville haters dni forever #also yeah strangerville cas is just that good idk what to tell you #i hate my story rn i need to remind myself i'm capable of thinking of something good. my tragic george cahill lore 🚶‍♂️ #ts4 #ts4 cas #the sims 4 #townie makeovers #townie makeover #jess sigworth #dylan sigworth #christie sigworth #ted roswell #meredith roswell #mark eggleston #alice martin #(why is her head so fucking big hello. i didn't realize until i had them all lined up like this) #leslie holland #george cahill

[raiiny-bay]

'cause I am yours and you are mine, I'll never let you go

#ts4 #simblr #ts4 edit #ts4 render #sims 4 #blood tw #myedits #mb #red #teeth #i have not posted the actual monster boyz since november. november!!!! #did you guys miss them. i missed them #i have not worked on their story at all since the cricket post #i have GOT to get to work on the origin stories. oh well. i'll get to it when i get to it lol #n e way i finally remembered to put red's good eye to the camera lol #whenever i make edits i put red on the other side w/out thinking & all you can see is his blind eye #which is fine except it's near impossible to tell where he is looking which is usually important in my edits #he isn't totally totally blind in that eye. like. he can see shadows & light but it's definitely not clear #i actually just realized i don't think i've ever talked about his blindness before #there is a reason he is blind in that eye but it's a bit complicated. it has to do w his life before the apocalypse #the way mutations work in this universe is a bit weird & hard to explain. like there are several factors that determine one's mutations #for red it's mostly based on his trauma & his psychological state during the time of his mutation #his mutations manifest both physically & emotionally #teeth's are mostly physical bc he yk. got the shit beat out of him before he died. but! #becoming a monster also amplified all of his worst traits! like anger. impulsiveness. violent tendencies. he's basically always starving bc #those feelings act almost like a hunger for him. he craves intensity #cricket's is more complicated bc he is not a full monster. his are almost entirely psychological aside from his arm/bits of their face #& he's able to retain most of his human self up until the end #theirs are trauma based like red's but in a different way. it's more a combination of his anxiety & fears rather than lived trauma #if that makes sense. i'm not very articulate about this stuff sorry lol

[starry-bi-sky]

Danyal Al Ghul's missed potential - this kid is not gonna behave like his canon self if he's with the league of assassins until his late formative years, and my reasoning why

(feel free to take this all with a grain of salt this is just my thoughts on it, this is all mostly amusing to me and isn't trying to be negative towards anyone else)

similar to how i was talking about how danny growing up in crime alley would affect him, demon twin aus with danyal al ghul make me laugh a lot (affectionate) because... whose teaching danny to unlearn all the ecofascism he picked up from the league of assassins? whose teaching him to be kind? to be gentle? Not the LoA thats for certain.

(you could plausibly say Jazz but she's only 2 years older than Danny and do you really expect a fellow child to properly explain why X is wrong to another child and have it be 100% effective? i don't doubt it'd help to an extent, but not in the same way an adult explaining it would)

plus a ton of other things, like whose teaching him to value human life? not the LoA. Whose teaching him how to adjust to living with American society after he ends up with the Fentons when he's 8-9-10? Who teaches him that killing is wrong, whose enforcing that?

(not the Fentons if you're going the neglectful parent route, and Jazz can try but i really don't think Danny is going to listen to her, a stranger who isn't even part of his grandfather's league)

How do you teach a child to value human life when the greatest development window for that opportunity has closed and he's already formed his own opinions?

You're not gonna get a Danny whose exactly like his canon attitude if he's staying with the league during his formative years (0-8 years old). you're not. You could get someone LIKE it, potentially, or someone who has traces of it or is similar -- like danny's wit and jokes and sarcasm, and on some level his kindness. but you're not gonna have a carbon copy. Development doesn't work that way. "nature" can only do so much in the face of nurture.

If anything, it doesn't even have to be a major change -- in the league he cans till be kind, but it's probably going to manifest in a different way than what is considered normal. Tough love, for one. But there's gonna be something that affects him negatively. Why make him 'always good/kind' when you can make him a brat who develops into a kinder (if spikier than in canon) person?

TLDR: Danyal Al Ghul would not be like how he is in canon if he's with the league until his late formative years -- not without any lasting pr permanent impacts from the league at least. Missed potential to make him an absolute nightmare like damian was -- especially in his early years when he first arrived to the Fenton house.

(this doesn't apply to danyal al ghul aus where he's either given to the fentons as a baby/is reincarnated/etc. this is mostly aimed for danyal al ghul aus where he fakes his death at like, 7-10 and somehow ends up, personality-wise like his completely canon self by 14 without any differences.)

(and even then if he's five or four, or even three, he would still be traumatized and influenced by the league. he'll just have more time to adjust. the sooner he leaves the league the more likely he is to be like his canon self, but not like an exact copy)

(more under the cut)

Anyways what I'm saying is that there is prime missed Danyal al Ghul potential to make him an absolute NIGHTMARE to the Fentons however way he ends up with them, just like Damian was with the Waynes! Cuz why does Damian get all the fun? Danny got the same training and endoctrine as him! He is also an ex-assassin! Why is Danny the only one who is 'well adjusted and non-violent' hm? Hmm?

Why can't he also be mean, and stabby, and a total stuck-up in some way or another? Have fun with his characterization, its prime opportunity to play play-doh and clay with him! If he starts out as X how does he get the personality traits of Y, and thus become XY?

Like take this with a grain of salt if you will, but make him arrogant. Make him an asshole! Make him a bad person at first! Because he will be! He's the blood son of the batman and you mean to tell me that damian is the only one arrogant about it at first? Make him stabby and mean even at 14 when he's begun to chill out! Have fun with it! If he's with the Fentons at any point past the age of four or five then he's gonna be a nightmare to handle because he still remembers the league and his time there.

(and while it gives him more time to chill the hell out, his time at the league is still gonna leave an impact on him.)

also what im saying as well is have him and sam potentially get along like a house on FIRE. Again, Danny grew up under the views of an ecofascist cult and nobody to challenge those views to him until he got to amity park at whatever age in late formative years he was at. He could be about as intense or even MORE intense about environmental awareness/rights than Sam is!

(also him being supremely unimpressed with Sam's wealth. he gave up a palace in the mountains for this town. because that's funny to me - like let his past have more influence on him! it'll be fun!)

you could have a danny who doesn't kill but doesn't fully understand the value of human life because jazz is like two years older than him and isn't that good at explaining why people's lives are important. he won't kill but he's not morally opposed to it. there's very little chance he actually gets bullied at school because he nearly killed Dash the first time he tried anything.

Danny could have scars, physical ones, because its implied in multiple canon that training starts at toddling (my best bet is 3 at minimum and ~maybe~ 2 but only on the later side of 2. Good fucking luck getting any infant under 2 to do anything you ask, ESPECIALLY assassin training. They're gonna stick the weapon in their mouth sooner than they're gonna do katas. This is coming from a daycare teacher.)

there's more examples of how danny being at the league during his formative years would affect him, but those are just some of them. he could have a sword! An appreciation for weaponry and nature. Maybe he still speaks all shakespearan and formal, does he still make bodily threats to people? If Damian is still threatening people at 14 why can't danny?

#dpxdc #dp x dc #dp x dc crossover #dpxdc crossover #dpdc #tldr danyal al ghul has a ton of missed potential of what his behavior would be like if he left the league mid-to-late formative years #this post is specifically directed towards those danyal al ghul posts where he ends up with the fentons when he's like. 8 #like great. who taught him to unlearn all of the LoA's programming #how is he exactly like he was in canon despite being with the LoA during his early childhood #source: i've taken multiple child development classes #this isnt to bash those aus at all its just me thinking its hilarious that danny would even remotely be like his canon personality #especially if he's in the league long enough for damian to remember him #like i love danyal al ghul aus i just think there's not enough being taken into account about how the league would permanently impact him #especially if he leaves later on in life #people are not ponds they are puddles of mud. if you drop a rock into it it's gonna change its shape #its also good creative exercises on how to flesh characters out better and better understand how things in a story may impact a character #good thought exercises with the additional bonus of making danny a violent gremlin like damian is #i dont wanna say this is bashing but i guess it is kinda a criticism on the writing in those aus because you’re telling me this had NO #affect on danny on his personality beyond just ‘oh league bad. league scary’?? cmonnn have some fun #like you mean to tell me that being a child assassin had no lasting impact on him or his personality?? like at all??? #he doesnt have an ounce of self-importance/arrogance/anger like damian did?? like none of that *stuck?* he’s just the normal and sane #sibling right off the bat??? five years with the fentons turned him into a complete blankslate?? he has no lasting impact from the league??

[daily-hanamura]

#p4 #p4g #persona 4 #persona 4 golden #hanamura yosuke #yosuke hanamura #MAN I SWEAR WHEN THIS CONVERSATION HAPPENED I WAS SWEATING BRICKS IN WORRY #anyway i forgot to save before speaking to yosuke so i dont know what the other options are BUT YOU KNOW YU HAD TO ASK IF HE WAS OK #thinking about that comic where yosuke was being harrassed by some punks #theres something about the way hes telling this story that feels like he was treating it as being incidental. as whatever. #like “oh yeah im fine?? anyway thats not the point of the story i wanted to tell you about how they were so terrified of kanji” #LIKE DUDE. BUDDY. YOUR LIFE WAS IN DANGER. DONT DISMISS IT LIKE THAT #the fact that bro came so close to being beaten up and it was a conversation that could have been easily missed #like if yu hadnt run into him at night was yosuke just going to... not bring it ip? #(yes of course he wouldn't you know what hes like!! he wouldn't want to be a bother on yu. nothing happened after all!!) #BBYGIRL PLS!!? YOSUKE MY BOY PLS RELY ON YOUR FRIENDS TOO.... #anyway i think a yosuke protection squad should form they should start going home in pairs #he's good with his queue

[ryllen]

"I decided it's my break day today, Oh coincidentally, I'm gonna sit here, and watch you work." also it's too cute how Nemo just came run at me whenever i sat on a bench

#my time at sandrock #mtas #mtas unsuur #mtas builder #mtas nemo #fanart #FHSDHdhsds tbh HIS PINNING WAS EXCITING #but after that HE REALLY DOESN'T HAVE ANY OTHER STORIES at ALL to tell during DATE HELP fhasdhdhsd #he is JUST like Sebek I'M CRYINg @sebek stop talking about ur malleus sama guard duty @unsuur stop talking only about the civil corps fshds #i'm dying my heart is faltering from the monotony; but just like the rule of thumb on every fandom; it depends to us to enrich the characte #so now i'm trying to enhance my delusional level & it's working right now when i sat there & watched him work #Maybe I was HASTY because HE WAS the first fish that BIT; andeverygamehasthatcharacterthatissoveryeasytogetbutwithlessdepthinthem #BUT thinking back #HE is REALLY A NICE GUY #WITH A NICE HEART that's just IN THE RIGHT PLACE; and HE IS FUNNY TO BOOT fshdshdj #i actually cried when he talked about what his proudest stack of stones meant to him #because the value in it hits too close to home #and when he said pls tell me if i no longer have a good personality bcs i would like to be the first one to know #AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THE FACE ON THE LEMON SOUP FSHDHSSFHSDH #I FELL RIGHT THEN RIGHT THERE #I FELL FOR HIM FOR ALL THE RIGHT REASONS #HE IS TOO CUTE AND SINCERE AND QUIRKY #DID YOU GUYS SEE WHEN HE JUST STRAIGHT WENT TO BED AFTER PAINTING FHSDHSDHSD I CAN'T; I LOST IT RIGHT THERE #everytime he said SET THE MOOD I'M DONE FHSDHSDH i am not sure if i should be glad or not that the music he plays when painting never retur #even when he said he's gonna SET THE MOOD again FHADHS it's way TOO FUNNY I JUST CAN'T

[sleepyconfusedpotato]

My lecturer just canceled the class for Thursday and Friday it's like the universe is telling me to play Modern Warfare III. It's the will of the world that I cry myself till my eyes are dry IT'S MAGIC

#IF the campaign is good tho :) #if the campaign isn't good and I don't cry that means it's for naught #I'm gonna play the campaign with the lowest expectation possible that it'll disappoint me #so that when it's actually bad I won't be as devastated #you can't blame me for thinking this way because they didn't even drop any single story trailer #it's like they don't care at all about the campaign #some say it's because they want to keep as much of the story a secret but isn't that what trailers does? #hyping me up without telling me the story? #anyway yea I'll play it with the utmost lowest expectation possible #call of duty #call of duty modern warfare #cod mw #cod #call of duty modern warfare 3 #call of duty modern warfare III #call of duty modern warfare 2023

[medicalunprofessional]

#psychonauts #crispin whytehead #fred bonaparte #<-Hes there in the last picture so Sure #nightmaretheater #eyestrain #flashing #<- ​i want to be safe #blood cw #gore cw #<- ​close enough #Woe. My crispin nonsense be upon thee #Having so much fun doing This #This is so awesome to me idc what anyone thinks this was so good #Decipher my message boy #it tells a story. It does #Oh.. And on the last one… I think its important to talk about how fred is absolutely Not Innocent #also yes he is standing very weirdly thays becsuse crispin is short and he is very very tall #also Yes. I mispelled something. In my defense it was in very small font i couldnt seeee (justblike him omg) #Im not tell tou what i mispelled haha

[dazais-guardian-angel]

Chapter 110 is 13 pages long welcome to hell!!! so in a lot of ways this is just more fuel for a theory that I've had for a few weeks now, that's only gotten stronger with each recent season 5 episode, which is that the last episode of the season is gonna end on 110, and that Asagiri/Harukawa and Bones have been collaborating to make this happen, specifically because it's a major turning point that would be the only good place to end the season on.

When we started getting especially long chapters again (like from 25-35ish pages, with the exception of 107.5, the last two being some of the longest we've ever had), at first I just assumed that Asagiri/Harukawa got freed up from some other obligations they'd been having to cause the extremely short/half chapters, like promotional stuff for the anime/Beast movie, or working on light novels. But then 109 happened, with the "supposed" death of Dazai, and heavy emphasis at the end on how literally everyone is at their lowest point right now, and I got to thinking. 11 episodes is a strangely specific number for an anime season -- why not 12, or 13, or even 10, like you'd usually see? Why have we gotten suddenly gotten two 35 page chapters out of nowhere, that's almost unheard of at this point? They're both beautiful chapters, don't get me wrong (as always), and maybe A/H simply just didn't want to cut them in halves because they felt like the full emotional impact wouldn't hit/that there were no good cutoff points in them, but you can't deny that it's surprising, after all the shorter chapters we've been getting. Why has the anime been going at such insanely breakneck pacing for the most part ever since around the Sunday Tragedy chapters, even more so than it has in the past? So much so that it feels dangerously close to overtaking the manga?

Well, maybe, just maybe, it's because..... Asagiri decided a long time ago that whatever happens in 110 is the only point that feels "season finale"-worthy enough, in an arc that still isn't anywhere close to being completely wrapped up, and so both the manga and the anime have been specifically coordinated to reach that part within 2 and a half weeks of each other?

I've seen a lot of people now think season 5 will end with 109, and as much as my sadistic side would find that hilarious, I honestly don't think they'd do that and realistically don't want it to happen; it'd be so cruel to cliffhanger the anime for years like that, and just doesn't feel like a season cliffhanger BSD would do, a series that is ultimately hopeful and uplifting. Seasons 2 and 3 had a positive, conclusive ending; the only reasons seasons 1 and 4 didn't was because they're technically not really full seasons of their own, and are more like the first cour of another "season" that also came out that same year (seasons 1 and 2 both aired in 2016, so they're more like one big season, and seasons 4 and 5 have both aired this year, so they're also more like one big season, again taking into account how episodes 12 and 50 are not satisfying finales like episodes 24, 37, and hypothetically, 61, are). I really can't see season 5 ending with Dazai and Fukuzawa's supposed deaths, Sigma being unconscious and maybe close to death, Atsushi being vulnerable and limbless again, everyone we love still vampires, and the entire world being basically doomed; that's just too depressing and not like BSD at all. However, having said that, if it doesn't end there, there really isn't any good place to end the season before that, either, that feels in any way satisfying or like a finale at all. And so, to me, that only leaves after 109: chapter 110.

I think things are really gonna turn around next chapter. Like I said, everyone is at their lowest point right now, it cannot possibly get any worse, the framing of Dazai, Fukuzawa, and sskk at the end of 109 is telling us that; this is the time for the heroes to finally start winning again, with Aya being so close to pulling out the sword, and for all the thematic reasons other people have talked about to death that I don't need to go into here again. This upcoming chapter being so short again makes a part of me wary of 110 being "the one", so to speak, I won't lie, but at the same time, it's very possible that it needs to be that short because that's all the final episode of the season will be able to reasonably fit in, since it's already gonna be VERY close if they do make it all the way to 109. And at the end of the day, I don't doubt at all that Asagiri and Harukawa can make these the most monumental and game-changing mere 13 pages ever if they wanted to; a chapter does not at all need to be extremely long in order to be an important and impactful one, even if short ones we've gotten in the past haven't felt the most important.

An additional thought I've had, though this is much more crack territory than all this already is, is that since we know from Anime Expo that a Stormbringer movie at some point is highly likely (judging from Asagiri's reaction when someone brought it up), it's possible that chapter 110 and thus the final episode will involve the long-anticipated return of Verlaine and/or Adam, or at least some other major reference to Stormbringer, that would naturally and smoothly lead into a Stormbringer movie to explain things to people who haven't read the novel. It would make a lot of sense, especially since the s4 OP has the Old World sign behind Chuuya, which might be a hint that this has been in the works ever since seasons 4/5 were first in planning with Asagiri. We also know that Dazai and Chuuya's voice actors apparently struggled to record their lines together this season, which probably relates to 101 and possibly 109, but it could be 110 too.... I could be very wrong, as I'm no expert on this kind of thing, but I kinda doubt they would bring Chuuya's actor in for just the vampire growls, and Asagiri placing heavy emphasis on Chuuya's importance this season in that one interview gives me the impression that he's talking about much more than just 101/109. But that's the least solid evidence I have, that's just mostly based on vibes I get.

So basically, I think a lot of factors -- the unusual episode count, how close the anime is to catching up to the manga with three whole episodes left, the seemingly arbitrary recent chapter lengths, and the climactic events of 109 -- can tell us that 110 might be a very, VERY big deal. Again, there's of course no way this arc is anywhere near close to being finished, with so much left to address and resolve, but since it is currently incomplete in the manga, unlike the previously adapted arcs, if the anime was going to adapt it at all, they'd have to find a place that feels satisfying enough to end this season, knowing there won't be more anime for a long time after this, and so I think they specifically planned for that, from both Bones' and A/H's sides. 10 episodes might not have been enough to reach that point, but 12 or 13 might have been too many it wouldn't have been if Bones actually decided to slow down and let the story breathe the way it needs to, but this post isn't meant to criticize the anime, so maybe 11 was just right. And maybe Asagiri and Harukawa specifically pushed to make recent chapters longer than usual, in order to make sure that the manga reached the story content in 110 the monthly release right before season 5 was to end.

Is this just copium? Absolutely. Am I going to look like an absolute clown in two days when this post ages like milk? Probably. But the evidence is There, so let me just enjoy my delusions until Sunday, okay 🥂🫡

#bungou stray dogs #seriously call me a clown and point and laugh at me if I'm proven wrong all you want #but I really feel like there's solid evidence for this #either s5 isn't gonna reach 109 at all (but I seriously cannot fathom where you would want to stop before then) or they'll go beyond it #if they really do end it with 109....... well i'll give Bones kudos for having the balls to do that ig lol #maybe i'm underestimating (overestimating???) them idk #also just to clarify I don't wanna make it sound like I think Asagiri let the anime/Bones dictate the manga's pacing #like I'm sure these were his/their (him and Harukawa's) own decisions first and foremost #not that (if this theory is true) the anime had a major impact on how the chapters were split and that it- #-would have been extremely different otherwise #i'm pretty confident in that Asagiri does not do anything with BSD he isn't comfortable with #and he doesn't let anyone tell him how to write his story #I just feel like he worked with Bones to make this near-simultaneous release happen #BUT if this is the case I don't feel like it had any major effect on the writing/final product that is the manga #like the last handful of chapters have been so incredible #so I at least am still perfectly happy lol #(i mean i'm devastated and a nervous wreck but u know 🫡 in a good way lmao) #anyway 110 in two days please let this theory be true because I need some fucking hope already #please let Oda show up as Dazai's guardian angel to help (see what I did there-) #it would be the perfect way to end the collective season that is 4/5 with s4 beginning with Oda and now ending with Oda #Asagiri are you reading me are you picking up what I'm putting down please please a ghost Oda is long overdue please- #Oda Verlaine Adam just GIVE ME SOMEONE ALREADY 😭😭😭 #MAYBE EVEN A TASTE OF THE FYODOR BACKSTORY TO TIE INTO HIM BEING IN ANIME UNTOLD ORIGINS. THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS