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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 7 months

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"I've mended all my ways, repented, seen the light, and made a switch."

The fact that Rollo has a voice line where he genuinely expresses an interest in visiting the Mostro Lounge KILLS me 😂 This fan art in particular makes me laugh a lot!

It's also at this point that I realize I thought the Heartslabyul headcanons with Rollo would be super long (because of there being 5 members in that dorm), but the Savanaclaw and Octavinelle headcanons ended up being even longer...

A Big Octavinelle Welcome to Rollo!

Rollo's interest was piqued when he first heard about the on-campus eatery that Azul runs. However, he keeps flip-flopping on whether or not he should go. On one hand, he’s curious about what it’s like—but on the other hand, does he really want to give that smug octopus his business??

… Eventually, Rollo gives into the temptation. He settles on an excuse to go while still protecting his ego and guilty conscience: I must survey his cafe to ensure that there are no misdeeds being committed… Who knows what sort of shading things may be happening without a watchful eye and regulations?

He goes through the mirror and emerges in the world wet and full of wonder. Down a corridor with glass walls, Rollo peers at the passing marine life with caution (as if they, too, were in on some scheme). For as peaceful as the bottom of the sea may be, he’s wary of the monsters that also lurk in its depths.

He follows the faint sound of smooth jazz to the lounge. Upon entering, Rollo finds it packed with mob students at every table, stuffing their mouths with food and filling the air with noisy chatter. He reluctantly wades over to the front desk, handkerchief to his face to keep himself strong in this dense den of depravity.

The suited host greets Rollo with a bow and a smile that feels a little too familiar. That immediately sends alarm bells ringing in his head. “Welcome to the Mostro Lounge, Rollo-san. Azul has been anticipating your arrival for quite some time.” (“… Has he now?” How positively shady!)

“We have a table specially reserved for you. Please, right this way.” He follows the host, not letting his eyes wander off his back for one second. To Rollo’s shock, he’s seated and handed a menu without any issues, then is left on his own to peruse. Odd. Given his other experiences at NRC, he was expecting some sort of unnecessary ruckus—

CRASH!! Right on cue, a mob student goes flying across the room and smacks right into a wall. A waiter with a face nearly identical to the host’s is the assailant. “C’mere!!” Floyd says coyly. His grin isn’t quite as coy—it’s maniacal. “I’ll squeeze the rest of the tip right outta you! That’ll teach ya to cheap out on us!”

Floyd advances on the frightened mob student, who is scrambling away on his hands and feet. Rollo blinks and rubs at his eyes, wondering if what he just saw was real or a figment of his imagination.

Jade is suddenly blocking his field of vision, wearing that same suspicious smile again. “Would you care for recommendations?" he asks, gesturing to the menu. "If you'll direct your attention here, this is our limited-time autumn menu. It features an assortment of freshly picked mushrooms..."

Rollo tries to get up or to crane his neck—anything to get a better look at whatever the pandemonium that Jade is trying to conceal is. Alas, the eel follows him like a shadow and expertly blocks all of his attempts (all while reciting the recommendations as he had promised earlier).

“Please keep your eyes on the menu, Rollo-san,” Jade advises patiently. “It will be difficult for you to decide which items you would like if your eyes are wandering to places they shouldn’t be. You must believe me when I say there is nothing of importance in this lounge but your own leisure.” (There’s a light chuckle that accompanies those words, and he doesn’t like it one bit.)

Rollo is forced to browse the menu (and forced to listen to Jade drone on and on about mushrooms). He’s appalled by the absurd pricing on the items (did the devil set them?)—even the simplest ones have huge markups!! But ultimately, he has to concede and opt for the overpriced plain dishes to appease his sensible palate. No indulgent dishes for him, no sir!

Jade doesn’t move until the conflict is settled; when he finally clears away with Rollo’s order for the kitchen, Floyd has finished “cleaning up” after the public nuisance. He casts a nonchalant look around the room and goes, “Hah? What’cha gawking at? Everybody go back to eating unless you wanna be next.”

“… That man just now, what happened to him?” Rollo speaks up—not that he would ever defend the scum of NRC, but he has a thing or two to say about the way the problem was handled. At least air the dirty laundry in private.

“Ehhh, who’s askin’? I don’t have to answer to anyone!” Oh no, Floyd’s eyes have lit up like those of a cat that has spotted new prey. “Hehehe, I know exaaactly who you are! Azul’s special guest guppy…!” (“Everyone and their brother seems to know,” Rollo grumbles.)

He’s unnerved by the way Floyd’s grinning—as though he knows something that Rollo doesn’t—so he quickly drops the question and shoos the eel off. Unfortunately, Floyd keeps returning to his table to annoy him with little disturbances: offering a refill on water (which sloshes all over the table), asking if he wants straws or napkins (then chucking a handful of them at him), calling him by the wrong name (which Rollo makes sure to correct), etc.

… Rollo’s starting to believe Floyd is doing all of this to purposefully annoy him. (He has to resort to taking deep breathing exercises and mutter various peaceful mantras to keep himself from lashing out at the waiter.)

Rollo never thought he’d be thinking this, but the other twin is his savior from the hell that is dealing with Floyd. In comes Jade with his order, which contains many more items than Rollo recalls ordering. Many of them are extravagant and arranged on ornate china platters. “On the house from the manager,” Jade explains, setting the heavy tray down. “I will leave you to enjoy your meal. Come along, Floyd.”

The twins skitter off, leaving Rollo to his own devices. He takes a second to decompress from the stressful encounter with the Leeches—and when Rollo thinks about it, he doesn’t mind the atmosphere of this place. It’s quiet and calming, with a classy yet understated look to the lounge itself and its staff. Maybe it’s not so bad after all.

He places a napkin in his lap before beginning on the feast, taking care to carve everything into more digestible chunks before nibbling at them. Of course, Rollo doesn't plan on gorging himself (there's no way he could finish all of this!), but he doesn't want to be wasteful either. Perhaps a healthy compromise would be to take the rest to-go and eat the leftovers over the course of a week.

As he's in the middle of mentally plotting out his next meals, the entire lounge unexpectedly darkens. Gasps and cries of surprise ring out from the mob students. Then a blinding spotlight appears in the middle of the room, and Rollo almost chokes on his buttered bread roll.

Azul is illuminated by the spotlight. He throws his arms out in a friendly gesture, beaming out to his captive audience. “Gentlemen! It is with great pride and pleasure that we of the Mostro Lounge welcome you to this special evening. Please sit back, relax, and enjoy your meals and conversations set against a calming backdrop of the sea’s melody.”

Their performance begins: Azul on the grand piano, Jade on contrabass, and Floyd on drums. Rollo wants to detest it, but he can’t bring himself to. If he closes his eyes and wills his mind elsewhere, the opening notes envelop him and soothe his weariness, like waves washing away his fatigue and stress.

“I’d like to dedicate this song to a very special guest,” Azul announces, “to our visitor from the City of Flowers, Student Council President of Noble Bell College, and, of course, our dearest friend, Rollo Flamme-san! May the bond between us and our schools be ever stronger.”

His eyes fly wide open. The spotlight drastically swivels, the bright, hot lights suddenly on him. This time, Rollo really does choke on his bread.

He downs what he can of his meal as quickly as he can, wanting to slap some money on the table and to be out before Azul can embarrass him further. That crafty octopus has planned for this though—none of the mob students stop by to give his check, locking Rollo in a social circumstance where he has to stay put (or else be labelled as a dine-and-dasher, a criminal).

He sits there quietly coping and seething for the entirety of the performance. The calm waters the music once provided has suddenly turned scalding. Rollo’s gaze seemingly burns holes in the Octatrio as they finally (FINALLY!) wrap up and bow for their audience.

Azul and the twins then make their way to Rollo. Were it not for the booth itself, there was no doubt in Rollo’s mind that they would be circling him like sharks. Jade and Leech stand on either side of them while Azul clasps Rollo’s shoulders in an overly familiar way (it makes his skin crawl).

Before he get a word out edge-wise or demand for the check, Azul declares, “Our dear Rollo-san just so happens to be Mostro Lounge’s 10,000th customer!! As such, he has won himself a most generous prize: one free consultation with yours truly! A round of applause for him, everyone.”

The applause kicks up, and Rollo’s head is spinning from confusion at Azul’s ludicrous statement. He doesn’t have the luxury of fully processing what it could mean or what his true intentions are—Jade has looped one arm under his, and Floyd has seized the other.

What is the matter with these two?! When I said I was interested in a visit to the on-campus cafe, never did imagine I would be accosted by thuggish men during it!!

“Release me!! Unhand me!!” Rollo roars, flailing his limbs uselessly as the twins drag him off to one of the back rooms. The mob students avert their gazes, pretending as if they don’t see him—they’re unwilling to get involved themselves. “IS THIS HOW NIGHT RAVEN COLLEGE OPERATES?!”

Into Azul’s office he’s ushered, seated before the proverbial mob boss himself. Crossing his legs and lacing his fingers together, Azul calls for Jade to fetch tea. Floyd lazily flops onto an adjacent seat and drapes his limbs all over it.

“Rollo-san, it’s been so long! We must catch up before getting down to business,” Azul croons. His voice is disgustingly sweet and slimy, caked on thick. “Tell me, how have you been? How are you finding our fair school? I’m all ears.”

“Don’t act as though we are friendly. Nothing could be further from the truth.” Rollo makes a face, concealing his grimace of disapproval with his handkerchief—Azul spots it and his eyes glimmer with recognition. “I’ve seen through your ruse, you miscreants. I won’t be deceived by the likes of you and your minions.”

“Oh? And what, pray tell, are the misdeeds you suspect on our part?” Azul asks innocently.

Jade places a fresh cup of tea in front of their guest, then Azul. The steam rising from the cups shrouds their faces in a curtain of faint white, obscuring both truth and lies. Floyd is on the edge of his seat, waiting for a good brawl to break out. Jade joins him, matching his deranged grin. (All they’re missing is the popcorn.)

“… I thought it odd that you would be ‘anticipating’ my arrival and that you would go to the trouble of preparing to receive me. Trying to win my favor with free food and a show, it’s clear you were trying to butter me up for something.”

“Me? Butter you up? Never,” Azul insists, but his smile is a little too wide. “I only wish to help you, to deepen the relationship between ourselves and of our respective schools. Networking and making useful—oh, excuse me, I mean deep—connections is important for young adults.”

Azul bows elegantly. “… I offer you my services, Rollo-san. Speak your heart’s desire, and I shall see if I can make it a reality. In return, I expect a favor, should I happen to call upon you. We will also serve as each other’s contacts for our own schools. You see? It is a mutually beneficial arrangement.”

Rollo instantly sees what he is: the devil looking to make a deal. The twins with their razor sharp teeth, his hellish imps seeking free amusement.

He stands, fists clenched, expression enraged, and lets nasty words torrent out. “You’re sorely mistaken if you think I’m open to negotiating any sort of terms with you. You’d be better off propositioning someone with fewer brain cells. Maybe start with your dopey-eyed classmates before you attempt at seducing something out of me.”

The thing he wished for more than anything else… that was something no one could make a reality. The best he could hope for was some form of retribution—retribution that Rollo sought to bring about with his own hands. He would never be able to live it down if he entrusted his ambitions to someone else, let alone a nefarious mage. Soon, brother. Soon, I will bring about a fairer world in your name—a world without magic, without sin, without suffering…!!

“I understand.” Azul nods, accepting Rollo’s decision, but doesn’t totally back down. He offers a rectangular angluar cut of paper. “My card. If you ever wish to have your woes be heard, you know how to reach me.”

Rollo snatches it out of his hand and crushes it. He storms out without another word, crumpled business card still in his grasp.

“How unfortunate that Rollo-san did not take the bait,” Jade sighs. (“It was funny watching his face twist though,” Floyd cackles, flopping over in his chair.)

“No matter.” Azul says with a shrug. “I foresaw this from the very beginning—which is exactly why we took precautionary measures to ensure that we still earned something from his appearance at all. Isn’t that right, boys?”

They smirked at each other knowingly. Everything had been carefully calculated from the moment Rollo had stepped onto campus. The big show they had put on, the loud declaration to the lounge and its customers… “Our dear Rollo-san just so happens to be Mostro Lounge’s 10,000th customer!! As such, he has won himself a most generous prize: one free consultation with yours truly!” (That had been a convenient lie, made up for the whole publicity stunt.)

All of it was an elaborate pretense for one explicit purpose: to plant a seed of suggestion in the other customers’ heads. A free consultation for the 10,000th customer? Then perhaps they could be the next lucky man to be the 20,000th one. More incentive to return, more lines skewered with tasty bait, cast out into the sea of waiting customers.

“Fufufu, another excellent job well done, if I do say so myself.”

While Azul and the twins are gloating in private, Rollo has made his way to the first fireplace he can find. He furiously casts Azul’s accursed business cards into the flames, relishing the moment it turns entirely black and ashen. No, Rollo swears to himself. He won’t be swayed by the devil. He was made stronger than that.

#twst #twisted wonderland #Floyd Leech #Azul Ashengrotto #Rollo Flamme #Octavinelle #Jade Leech #Tweels #disney twisted wonderland #Rollo at the Writing Desk #twst headcanons #twisted wonderland headcanons

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devoted-assassin · 8 months

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Ok now that Madoka Magica is gaining traction again, I need to make a promotion post for The Different Story, because it is a wonderful addition to the world that nobody has read and that makes me very sad.

If you don’t wanna read all this, just read the spinoff manga. Please. I beg. It’s the only spinoff that (imo) lives up to the original.

Now what is the Different Story?

It’s a three volume spinoff manga (though this is the omnibus - all in one - version) that centres around Kyoko and Mami. There’s a piece of trivia that many people don’t know: Kyoko and Mami were once friends prior to the events of the TV show. This is canon, and there’s parts of the show that imply this too.

The first volume revolves around how they met, how their relationship grew, and what happened between them for the events of the anime to occur. This is pretty much canon, as it takes place before the time loops, and is adapted from a drama cd, which are directly written by the same person who wrote Madoka Magica. The next two volumes follow a potential timeline where Mami is still around when Kyoko comes back into town, and what happens from there is the rest of the story.

Why should you read it?

Because it is fucking awesome in the same heartbreaking and heartwarming way that the original show was. That’s the tldr, but if you want more in depth…

First of all, if you’re a fan of Kyoko or Mami, just stop right now and read it. You’re doing yourself a huge disservice if you don’t. They get so much development, which is nice for the two characters with the smallest amount of screen time (not that the anime doesn’t do a fantastic job). Especially Mami, who got…a bit cut off before all the big events really started happening.

Now, even if you prefer some of the other magical girls, they still get some time in the spotlight. Homura, Madoka, and Sayaka all get their moments that expand on their characters, and make you think “oh, it really could have gone this way.” If you’re a shipper, there’s also some nice content between the two big duos (so kyosaya shippers, I am one of you, please read this too).

Also the art style is a perfect match for the tv show + movie, which is a rarity for madoka magica spinoff manga.

How does this fit into canon?

As already stated, the first volume is pretty much canon. It’s the past between Mami and Kyoko. Now, the manga isn’t written by the same person who wrote Madoka Magica, but it did get the officially seal of approval from him. As such, whether the alternate timeline actually occurred in canon is personal opinion. Pretty much everyone who read it considers it canon, since it fits neatly and there’s nothing that contradicts anything already established.

I’m still hoping that we will get an anime adaption, but that’s 100% delusion.

And look. It’s on sale. That’s the whole thing, and it’s also in Canadian dollars so it’s probably cheaper for everyone else. Pleaaaseeee.

#just please read it #nobody reads it #madoka magica #the different story #madoka kaname #mami tomoe #kyoko sakura #sayaka miki #homura akemi #madoka magica the different story #pmmm #puella magi madoka magica

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andrewwtca · 11 months

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the Aubrey problem (or how Omori's writing failed her)

Also available to read on Archive of our Own.

I really like video games. If the fanfiction, theory posts, and occasional essays weren’t enough, here’s me saying it—I really like video games! They’re a conversation between writing, art, music, and human interaction, between the player, the game, and the characters in them. Of course, not all games have all of that, some being only text-based, some being lifeless wastelands, but whatever they end up choosing to work with, they often do something amazing.

Sunny is one of my favorite protagonists in any realm of media—video game, movie, book—and he genuinely changed the way I view the world. Not just him, but the entire world built around him, Headspace and its charming inhabitants and the wondrous sights and music, the creative bosses that leave so much insight, the beautiful overworld that is Faraway and a nostalgic look into what we leave behind, and what we return to.

So that’s why I’m so disappointed I don’t like Aubrey.

This game blew my mind away when I first saw it—my first experience with the game wasn’t even my own playthrough, but sitting through a 20-hour longplay!—and I lost so many hours of sleep twisting and turning and trying to make peace with the grief it left me feeling. And after finishing, I realized that its flaws were plenty, but not enough to drag me out of my enjoyment. But Aubrey? Aubrey didn’t make me feel the way I knew she was supposed to.

That frustrated me, especially as I became a bigger and bigger fan of the game. I had no qualms about liking her archetype, the feminine bully with a tragic backstory, and yet I do with her.

As someone who craves literary analysis and in-depth looks into every media I consume, I just needed to know: what made me dislike Aubrey?

And after over two years of being a fan of the game, I’ve finally figured it out: it’s a good mixture of 1) lack of explanation, 2) rushed self-awareness, and 3) lackluster narrative choices. And I’ve found the words I needed to explain these concepts, so please join me on my messy journey to understanding what went wrong with Aubrey.

preface

If you’re an Aubrey apologist, this essay is not for you. I’ve heard plenty of arguments about why Aubrey was actually in the right, not limited to “Basil deserved it,” and, “Aubrey was hurting too,” so I’d like to begin by stating that Aubrey was a bully very clearly.

Rejecting the notion that she actively harmed others is rejecting a core component of understanding her character. Before we dive into her character and how the writing failed her character arc, I would like us all to be on the same page: she physically, verbally, and socially bullied Basil. It was not Basil’s fault, and it will never be a victim’s fault to get bullied. She is not the victim of her own crime, just like how Sunny is not the victim of Mari’s death, and Basil is not the victim of Mari’s hanging. We, as the player, are to recognize their responsibilities in their actions. The same must be extended to Aubrey.

Some people feel the need to deny this aspect of her character to justify her actions and/or justify liking her. Firstly, the purpose of this essay isn’t to villainize anyone for liking Aubrey. I’m simply analyzing what was attempted with her character and why it didn’t strike a chord with me and so many others. Secondly, as Kel wisely said, “Just because you did something bad, doesn't make you a bad person.” I’m not here to say that Aubrey is a bad person—no, nobody in Omori is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and labeling characters as such is taking away the nuance they possess. And I’m certainly not saying liking a character who did something bad makes you bad, either!

Liking Aubrey is in no way a problem (which makes me a tad bit sad that I need to clarify), and I’ll even go as far as to say kudos to you, but if you bend and twist to stop her from holding any responsibility for her actions, that’s when problems arise. Basil is a fictional character and won’t care if you think it was his fault he was bullied, but for the people around you who may have been in similar positions to him?

And lastly, I want to say that if you cite sexism as the reason people don’t like Aubrey… actually, this is the perfect transition into the analysis.

gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss

Femme bullies are not a new phenomenon. Perhaps it’s the break from the stereotypical sweet feminine girl that makes them so fascinating, using their femininity to not sing to animals or wish for a man, but pull down others and advance their status.

I, for one, adore the femme bully trope. Especially if they’re one who used to be extremely kind and underwent some sort of ‘fall from grace’ that led to a bastardization. But, as for all bullies, if they are left without a proper backstory and motivation, I’m turned off from them. Most humans are not mean just because they can be but rather are products of how they were raised. When these causes are ignored, the trope falls flat, and instead of being a good reconstruction, it’s a flat stereotype.

The best way to analyze this is by comparing Aubrey’s character to good examples of femme bullies in the past. Specifically, I’m picking my favorites: Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion, Nanami from Revolutionary Girl Utena, and Sophie from The School for Good and Evil. I’m going to do a quick (and a bit sarcastic) overview of their characters in their respective media, but a quick warning for suicide in Asuka’s overview, and animal cruelty in Nanami’s.

Asuka is a pilot for one of the mechas, the Evangelion, and she always thought of herself as better than everyone. Well, of course, she would: she studied hard, worked harder than everyone around her, and she’s just naturally talented. And yet, she’s still always threatened by others and how they can ruin her status. Specifically, for the course of the show, she targets Shinji—he’s this nobody from nowhere who could suddenly pilot an Eva, while she had to fight her whole life to get here! How is that fair? And what has that asshole been through anyway? Did he have to see his mother’s corpse after she committed suicide as a small child? Did he fight for his mother’s love his entire life just for her to kill herself? Does he have to fight for male attention just so he isn’t thrown aside? No, of course not! So how is any of it fair?

Nanami is the sister to the wonderful student body president Touga, and she wants nothing more than his attention. And with her being the youngest of the cast, one cannot be mad at her for not understanding the severity of violence and finality of death, so her anger as a small child with a kitten whom Touga adored is also understandable. One simply cannot be mad at her for drowning it. So, of course, you cannot blame her for wanting to punish the ever-elusive Anthy and Utena, who Touga has become fixated on. What does Anthy or Utena have that Nanami doesn’t? They’re stupid girls, not Touga’s sister. No matter what, Nanami is going to win her brother’s affection (and in her pursuit, ignore how horribly he’s been manipulating her the entire time).

And Sophie is the Witch of Woods Beyond, capable of powerful spells beyond the imagination, from a place that few know of. And she wants nothing more than for her own fairy-tale ending—why do all the princesses around her get princes and castles and beautiful dresses, and she’s doomed to being hideous and alone for the rest of her life? Who decided that for her? She’s beautiful, after all, so she should be a princess! It doesn’t matter who stands in the way of her happily ever after; especially not if it’s Agatha, her lifelong best friend. No matter what, Sophie will not end up like her mother who died all alone, with her husband forgetting her and moving on. Sophie will be loved, no matter who she has to hurt.

What do they all have in common? Firstly, they’re all girls. As stated, femme bullies are different from masc bullies, especially as they reveal aspects of femininity and womanhood in general that many people—see, a male audience—will neglect to face, and overall uncover sexism that's still present in both media and society. Secondly, they’re all bullies, and they targeted someone in particular who they saw as detrimental to their happiness. And thirdly, they all had specific upbringings that conditioned them to have their ‘falls from grace’. What is this third, unidentified thing?

Mommy issues!

(Sorry, I know Nanami technically has a brother complex, but I just wanted to say mommy issues.)

A pattern has been developed with all of these girls. They all start fairly, what one can call, ‘feminine’ or at least, per standard stereotypes. They’re gentle and sweet and shine when needed. And they all have a ‘fall from grace’—a moment, or sequence of moments, that leads them to reject traditional femininity and embrace a more vengeful version of it. And a final moment, where they are faced with their opposite, who represents all that they do not have.

Asuka was sweet and kind and bubbly until her mother killed herself. After that, she dedicated herself to her studies and getting adult male attention through means of the over-sexualization of herself. And then, she began to bully Shinji.

Sophie was sweet and kind and bright until her mother died. After that, she idolized her mother’s false display of femininity and became obsessed with becoming a princess. And then, at the School for Evil, she began to bully Agatha.

Nanami was assumedly sweet—she deviates from this pattern slightly, being built off assumptions of a good past rather than showcases—until she was brought into this family and became obsessed with her brother and was manipulated by him. After that, she became desperate for his attention, fighting any other who could take it. And then, she began to bully Utena (and Anthy.)

While Nanami does deviate from this pattern, they all have clear origins. They were not bullies from the start. As aforementioned, in the face of an adversary, the majority of people do not turn to hurting one another. Something in their pasts, their ‘falls from grace’, was the foundation of their actions, what led them to believe what they were doing was okay. It’s not justification—it's a much-needed explanation. After all, if you do not understand, how can you empathize?

Still, you may fail to see my point. The game has lots of hints of Aubrey’s troubled upbringing. And that’s exactly what the problem is. These girls have clear origins while Aubrey’s is muddled.

Of course, I don’t expect Omori to have spoon-fed me details of her past. You can put the pieces together by walking through her home and seeing bottles laid on the ground. But, even in a game dependent on nuance and having the player put certain things together, it’s better to leave things out directly rather than to work a way around.

To build up a good femme bully, we need a good origin story. What happened to her that made her turn to violence? Why should we care? We know Aubrey probably had a troubled childhood. But the game doesn’t supply enough. It leaves too much to fill in the blanks. I know that Asuka saw her mother’s corpse, I know that Sophie was forced into a misogynistic viewpoint upon her mother’s death, and I know that Nanami was manipulated to hell and back. I know what these girls have been through so I know why they ended up walking their paths.

But the game simply doesn’t reveal enough about Aubrey. Fan speculation is not enough. Canon interpretation should not be confused with fan interpretation—according to the fans, Aubrey’s father is a deadbeat, and her mother is an abusive, neglectful alcoholic. According to the game? Aubrey’s dad is “strict”, and her house is an absolute disaster. The house is one of the biggest clues as to Aubrey’s childhood, and while some may praise this as ‘showing and not telling’, the game never tries to make workarounds for the other characters (which I will dig deeper into later). I can assume what happened in her house but it’s not my job to find ways to empathize with the character; that is the story’s job.

This is the first of Omori’s three sins and we haven’t even scratched the surface.

actions speak more than words, or something like that

I recently saw a post that I thought would make a good intro for this section. It’s an apologist post for Aubrey, discussing how the game did treat her with just enough harshness—that because she’s been beating herself up, because she’s suffered a public breakdown, because it took kindness to help her heal, it’s proof of her regret. There’s some good Basil blaming in there too, with a strange turn saying that she refused to leave Basil’s house because of her willingness to turn over a new leaf. And it ends with a weird claim that she was a “good person all along,” (implying an argument otherwise), but I’m not here to rat on that post.

Despite how frustrated the post made me, I am inclined to agree. It’s black-and-white to state that Aubrey didn’t change at all. If you compare her first Faraway appearance to her final scenes, she’s a completely different person. Which would've been nice if the change didn’t take two scenes.

Much like how I compared Aubrey’s backstory to that of other femme bullies, I’m going to compare Aubrey’s redemption to that of my favorite redemption story in all of media: Riku from Kingdom Hearts (the fact that I’m so in touch with his story may also explain some of my disappointment with Aubrey’s).

Riku starts off his journey on Destiny Islands. He’s always wondered what lies beyond his small home and dreamed of taking a sailboat with his best friends, Sora and Kairi. However, jealousy is an awful thing—Sora and Kairi are close. And it seems that Riku has been hearing about how they’re thinking of leaving him behind. So, he does what any teenager dealing with larger-than-life feelings does: he gives in to the magical Darkness and effectively kills everyone on the islands, separating him, Sora, and Kairi (don’t worry—everyone comes back.)

By the end of the game, he’s come to his senses, but it takes a lot of time. He fights with Sora a lot because he just knows, deep down, that he’s right and Sora is wrong, and if Sora would just listen…but no. Sora keeps abandoning him. So he has to work through that and all the feelings that accompany those abandonment issues, he has to work through the question of “What is even making me want to kill my best friend, anyway?”, and he has to work through “Wait…can I kill my best friend?” So, it takes a lot of time for him to get to his senses.

And then, he goes through hell. Literally and metaphorically. He dedicates himself wholly to making up for what he did. How? Well, he first identifies what he did wrong—he separated from his friends, he gave in to his jealousy, and he submerged his home in Darkness. He apologizes for it directly—although he doesn’t have a chance to speak with Sora right away, he's constantly apologizing for the fact that he gave in to the Darkness, so much that it became a running gag to some fans. He put up distance—he didn’t feel like he was owed forgiveness right away (or at all, but that’s a different matter) and didn’t stick at Sora’s side to wait for his best friend to forgive him. He worked hard to show that he’s changed—it would be a much longer essay if I attempted to explain the lengths he went through, but it’s not limited to allowing himself to be possessed, going to literal Hell, forcing himself into isolation, and enduring multiple handicapping injuries.

Long story short? He really, really tries to make it up to Sora. And when he and Sora finally talk (it took three years in real life, took perhaps a year in the game), Sora doesn’t even hesitate to forgive his friend…though it may be in part to Sora just being Sora. Nevertheless, Riku had earned that forgiveness.

And then, after that, Riku continues to give himself hell! He never stops to sweep what he did under the rug. It’s a part of him, after all, an ugly past but his past nonetheless. It does not define him but it cannot be forgotten, otherwise, he hasn't learned anything at all.

Deep breath. We talked a lot about Kingdom Hearts in an Omori essay. But it’s important to understand the sheer depth put into his redemption: identification, distance, and work.

What’s most frustrating about Aubrey’s arc is that fragments of this good writing exist, but that’s what they are: fragments. I would like it to be stated for the record that everything I explained for Riku’s arc wasn’t me creating speculation based on what the games said. It’s what the games literally came out and said. Aubrey however…

Identification—she apologizes to Sunny, Kel, and Hero by saying “I’m sorry, guys… I’ve been acting like such a jerk.” While I may give her grief for the usage of the word ‘jerk’ when perhaps a stronger, more evocative term would’ve done a better job, it’s certainly better than what she said in front of Basil’s door: "I just wanted to say that… I’m sorry for the way I’ve been treating you.” Completely separating herself from the issue at hand.

Distance—none. She's immediately reintroduced to her old friend group, at a rate that ended up giving me whiplash the first time around. The question, “What about the Hooligans?” is never brought up, and things are back to how they always were, with no problems at all.

Work—Aubrey stayed the night at Basil’s house, wanting to make sure he was safe. To which, if you end up getting the neutral ending, you get the most insightful message of Aubrey’s arc (which is technically non-canon): “I'm so sorry, Basil. Please forgive me…” If getting the good or bad ending, her staying the night meant literally nothing, as Sunny’s fight took the reins.

These are fragments of a character arc. These are fragments of good characterization. While I praise Omori for how often it appears realistic, this kind of exponential growth simply isn’t. In what world, does someone who’s been bullying someone for four years, take less than two days to realize she’s been a bully and decide to change the entire course of her life?

While I could rat on Aubrey, this isn’t her problem. This is the game misreading what makes a good redemption. Redemption means work. It means effort. It is not a character simply changing their ways. Those characters feel cheap and empty—there’s a reason, after all, why the majority of fans always characterize Aubrey as the mean girl she’s shown to be when she first appeared in fan works. It’s because the ‘new’ Aubrey, the Aubrey buried under layers of hurt, hasn’t earned the right to exist.

The Riku I love in Kingdom Hearts III has earned the right to be angsty and gay and happy and his new self because he’s put in 17 years' worth of effort to become that person. It’s beautiful, it’s inspiring, it’s hopeful—you can make a mistake and go past it. It doesn’t define you. You can be forgiven. You can have hurt and have been hurt and still be worthy of love and loving.

The Aubrey at the end of Omori has not earned the right to be there, simply put. She’s the product of lazy, or ignorant writing, and it feels harsh to type out, but there’s no other way to describe it. Her self-awareness happened too quickly. She passes by Sunny’s house every day, sees Kel playing basketball every day, and could freely visit Mari’s grave whenever she wants—there were four years for her to change who she was. If Kel wasn’t able to give up his toxic positivity until the bitter end of the neutral ending, it’s quite hard to believe that a few hours of just talking made her change her ways. Especially considering that the Hooligans were characterized as her new, accepting friends, who love her and hear her out.

And again, the best fragment of an arc that could’ve been appears in the neutral ending! While it was not directly Aubrey’s actions that led Basil to take his life, it’s very impactful to see her begin to blame herself. It’s not right for her to blame herself—but that’s perhaps the only scene in the entire game where I really sympathized with her. It’s the only scene in the entire game where I truly saw that she wanted to change.

A quick note I wanted to pull out before finishing: the inclusion of the Hooligans. They were, again, fragments of an amazing arc. While they could’ve been a good way to show how kind Aubrey still is, they are thrown aside and mainly included in scenes where Aubrey is still being a bully. It’s in content outside of the game (see: Aubrey birthday comic) that they contrast Aubrey’s harsh exterior and show her sweet insides. But no, they’re underdeveloped and unutilized to make Aubrey’s arc feel doable.

There seems to be a very clear culprit to both this and the femme bully problem, and a solution that should’ve been considered more deeply.

rome wasn’t built in a day

There’s a loud rumor in the Omori fandom that Omori was originally supposed to take place over ten days rather than three days. While I’m not sure how much merit this rumor has, the fact that it exists leads me to my ultimate point:

Omori should’ve been longer.

Specifically, Omori should’ve taken place over a longer period.

EDIT: Before we continue, I just had an excellent conversation with a friend ( /ᐠ ._. ᐟ\ﾉ ). This solution only applies to if one is unwilling to change Aubrey's core character; essentially, the extent of her bullying. By making her someone who goes out of her way to torment Basil, significant screen time is going to be needed to properly unpack all that's been given. Making the base game ten days is only my opinion of the best choice, but there are other ways to solve this. However, the best course of action would be to change the extent of Aubrey's bullying on Basil—in other words, changing how Aubrey's anger presents itself.

For example, she would simply hold a grudge over what she believed was Basil destroying the photos, being extremely passive aggressive towards him. It would make a reconciliation between her and Basil, much, much more doable as well, perhaps him seeking her out in the first place in a peaceful manner to look for the photos. The lake scene could be an emotional explosion for her, perhaps finding out Basil just gave the photo album to Sunny, who is literally about to leave, and then pushes him into the lake. Then, the reflection she has next would fit what has tonally been established, seeming doable. She had, after all, been on good terms with Basil, even if for a little while.

By ‘lackluster narrative choices’, I am referring literally to the belief that Omori should not have been a game that took place in three days. I’m not here to argue about the game's mechanics—should Headspace have been that long? What is the point of a world created to serve as escapism, which should be fleeting moments of happiness, when it ends up being longer than the real world?—as much as I’m here to argue that this is a flaw of the game’s writing as opposed to a game design standpoint.

I’m not going to pretend I know how to make a video game. I’m enthusiastic about them, I follow their development and creation, and I strive to learn as much as I can about the ones that are dear to me, but I’m not going to pretend I know the first thing about making a video game. Omori’s development is one of the most infamous parts of its legacy, and the notion of extending the game would’ve only been another strain on the extended period between its announcement and its final release.

But, I know how to tell a story. Or, at the very least, I know what makes a good story. Now, the three days format of the game serves its other protagonists amazingly.

Sunny, whose arc mainly develops through the interfering ideas established in the real world and the ones previously established in Headspace, doesn’t need an extended time in the real world. His story takes place in his dreams, and the foundations of Headspace are already extremely insecure, based on the idea of covering up the truth. But when faced with a separate truth in reality, despite only a brief exposure, the lies created to protect Headspace fall apart. So Sunny’s arc does not depend on how long he spent in the real world.

Kel and Hero, on the other hand, have a very small arc. They are not flat and are very much dynamic when you compare how they started and how they ended up. However, the majority of their arc had taken place off-screen. The majority of their characterization does not occur through direct interaction with Sunny—we don’t learn about Hero’s depression because of him having a breakdown, but rather Kel discussing it. And in that same scene, we learn about Kel’s toxic positivity and the strain it’s taking on him, rather than through the game. This recontextualization is perfect for Kel and Hero. The change that occurred after Mari’s death is not easily seen by Sunny, and through it being slowly revealed instead, we learn the nature of their changes. Nonetheless, their changes occurred after Mari’s death and another change will occur most likely after the revelation of the truth—either way, their character arcs do not depend on the length of the three days. No amount of time would’ve changed them without Sunny revealing the truth (and as aforementioned, Sunny’s time was well spent in Headspace).

And finally, Basil. He's in the same boat as Kel and Hero, having an arc that occurs entirely off-screen. The difference is, however, the amount of emphasis the game puts on what happened to him as opposed to a few cutscenes with the brothers (though it is understandable, given his role as the game’s deuteragonist). His arc is a downward spiral, from an already unstable boy to an insecure mess who becomes obsessed with the sole idea of keeping his best friend safe. While it’s a progression of who he used to be, it’s development nonetheless, and it also happens off-screen. Given Basil’s fragile mindset, furthermore, the appearance of Sunny suddenly was enough to throw him off, given he was already planning on taking his own life. His rapid spiral into an even worse mess which leads to the fight between him and Sunny, therefore, is understandable. And, similarly to Kel and Hero, his real change will only occur after Sunny reveals the truth. Basil’s character development does not at all depend on how long the game would be.

The simple fact is that the other characters do not go through a drastic change on the days that Sunny comes out, and Sunny’s change was fueled by the existence of Headspace, not by the real world. The game taking place in three days does not affect the others. That is good storytelling. Using the game’s time frame to properly convey their arcs having occurred off-screen.

Aubrey, however, is not subject to that same praise. Her arc occurs on screen—while she descended to becoming a bully after Mari’s death, the arc we the viewer are supposed to acknowledge is her redemption. And three days just isn’t enough time.

The last two problems I covered, a lack of detailed backstory and a general lack of redeeming actions, lie in the same problem: the game went past those scenes far too quickly, as though Aubrey’s redemption is not essential to understanding her. It’s as though the game is trying to place importance on relationships and the joys of rekindling, rather than having to actually rekindle a relationship, having to put in the work. If the game had been slightly longer, Aubrey’s story could’ve been dealt with in a far more effective manner.

I am not Omocat, nor am I a part of the development team. I do not have the ideal solution for what could’ve been. I do, however, have a few ideas that I’d like you, my audience, to consider. How much do you think the game would’ve changed if it was ten days instead of three?

As already explained, Sunny, Kel, Hero, and Basil would not have had any significant difference if the game took place longer. Perhaps, there would’ve been a more natural awkwardness present that accompanies talking to someone for the first time in four years, but aside from that, the events of the game would’ve just taken longer.

Aubrey, however, would’ve had some actual thinking time. Her fight in the church would be her turning point, and her then isolation would feel like she had time to think things over. For a few days, Aubrey would have to be absent, and given the impression she left on the players, this absence would be heavily felt. It would be her return so much more effective, especially if she returns as someone who is unsteady due to their actions.

For the next few days, leading up to Aubrey deciding to stay the night at Basil’s house, we have the chance to know and forgive her better—perhaps, similar to Kel talking to Sunny about Hero’s depression, Aubrey can explain what it was like growing up in her household. Not as a defense, but as an explanation. She would do things with the rest of the group, and she would at a more natural rate, be integrated once again. And not just anything! She would actively help them with whatever the ten days would have to offer, and it would show that she is hurting over her actions.

And, finally, when she would decide to stay at Basil’s house, it wouldn’t feel like the game was just trying to have the cast together for one last moment, but it would feel like she’s trying to bridge the gap of all the hurt she created. When she would go to Basil’s door, it wouldn’t feel like the game was just trying to convince us to forget about her actions, but it would feel like she’s reflected and attempted a new leaf. And hopefully, the game would offer a more heartfelt apology, given more context and material to work with.

Four years of bullying can’t go away in ten days. But that’s not what the game was trying to argue in the first place—it wasn’t fully erasing Aubrey’s action, but trying to create the stepping stone for a way back. But the three days poorly argued her case, with a rushed and lacking version of redemption, and it made her ‘final character’ feel poor.

At the very least, ten days would have allowed the audience to empathize and begin to understand her. And, more importantly, it would’ve made sense that she understood the weight of her actions. And the Aubrey she became, whoever that girl would be?

She would’ve been so, so loved.

a little love in our lives

This has been on my mind for an awful lot of time. Sunny, as aforementioned, is one of my favorite characters of all time (if not my favorite), but the entire cast has a spot in my heart and is very dear to me. That includes Aubrey, but she benefits from association, which hurts me—I hate when girls in media are defined by their relationships with other guys. I wanted to get to the heart of why I couldn’t get her to stand on her own.

To summarize: Aubrey’s character was criminally mismanaged. Instead of it being a hopeful story of redemption, someone finally breaking the cycle of abuse and breaking free of her toxic household, seeking forgiveness by taking an active part in Basil’s healing, she is let off too quickly and makes all her further scenes feel twice as empty. The ideal solution would have been to have the game take place over a larger period, rather than a rushed three days, to allow the audience to empathize and relate to her.

Aubrey apologists truly astound me. I find so many flaws in her writing, and yet other people manage to see those flaws as perfections. I see people making very absurd, ableist arguments, and it makes me question the humanity of many fans, but I’ve always been intrigued by how many different perspectives there are surrounding her. I’ve seen some who relate to her because they were bullies or because they’ve been abandoned by others; so some valid reasons, and others very concerning. But it’s telling how our own experiences make us relate to different characters and help us understand why someone stands in the places they do.

…do you see what I did there? I started talking about relating backgrounds and how that benefits our understanding and— yeah, I suppose you understand, if you got this far (almost 6k words, you should be proud of yourself). If you’re still unfazed and believe that Aubrey’s writing was splendid, all the power to your fannish behaviors. But if I’ve opened your eyes a bit as to the flaws in her writing or if I’ve been able to explain your dislike of her, then I’m glad. It’s important to discuss things that didn’t stick the way they were meant to so that we can do better and we can learn.

Omori’s writing failed Aubrey. Some fans took that as a challenge. I’ve said before that canon interpretation should be separate from fanon interpretation, but I’d have to be heartless (Kingdom Hearts pun intended) to say that many fan’s interpretations didn’t get me to feel with her. I think Aubrey could’ve been brilliant, and while Omori didn’t fully capture that, a lot of fans did. So to everyone who makes art, whether it’s a drawing, a written work, a video, a song, an edit, or whatever, thank you for sharing it. Thank you for telling your stories.

I feel like writing these analysis pieces without connecting them to our own life experiences is pointless. So, to everyone else, please tell your stories. Tell your stories of redemption and love and forgiveness, because that’s what Aubrey’s story was meant to be about, and that’s what we all need in this world. Tell your stories, no matter what they are, because that is what ties us all together. We are made of stories and we return to them. We learn from them and we become better people. We become kinder—and we could all use a little more kindness in the world.

Thanks for reading!

#omori #omori meta #omori analysis #aubrey omori #media analysis #meta essay #literary analysis is my special interest #andrew's essays

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room-surprise · 2 months

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Hi there, I’ve been reading your Kabumisu fic (SMHTGOTG) and I am obsessed!!! I love the way you interpret Kabru’s and Mithrun’s personalities and adapt their stories to a modern world. I can’t wait to see more of Mithrun’s past and them meeting the Laios gang!

I truly feel like you gave them the love and depth that Ryoko Kui wants for her characters. I really appreciate it after seeing more one-dimensional takes about Dunmeshi characters on twitter (of course it’s twitter) and even tumblr as the series got more popular.

Kui put so much effort in creating a beautiful and heartfelt story, trying her best to reflect complicated social issues through fantasy setting, showing how characters with varied backgrounds/ races overcome prejudices, grow to respect each other’s differences and how human they all are deep down, all while encouraging fans to care for their health, but all some people zoom in is which race is the most obviously problematic, which race is allowed a free pass to hold prejudice, which character is not that great actually did you not know they were racist at some point in the story??? (Growth? Never heard of her. Ignorance? That’s a CRiME!)

Ironically, all of that just reminds me of how performative the canaries are when they act all shocked and offended about Mithrun stating the slur the elves used to say all the time

(So sorry for the long rant 😭, I just really appreciate your fic and the analysis your made about Dunmeshi among the increasing bad faith takes)

OMG... Anon thank you so much for writing to me! This absolutely made my day. You're very sweet. Honestly I have the best readers in the world you're all paying such close attention to what I write and picking up what I put down, and that makes me so so so happy 😭

The #1 thing I ask myself while I'm planning and writing my fics is "does this feel like something that would happen in Dungeon Meshi?" And I guess I'm doing an OK job of that because people keep telling me what my writing feels like :D

And you are 100% right, there's always been bad takes and oversimplifications of the world and characters of Dungeon Meshi like what you're describing, but since it's getting more popular that means more people are talking about it, which unfortunately means, statistically, that there are going to be more bad takes…

On the positive side, there's also been lots of wonderful new fic and art that people are making, and lots of good takes too! Just a bit frustrating to wade through the swamp of bad stuff to get to the treasure.

Gotta just try hard to stay positive and focus on making good stuff you love, and not stressing about stuff that's bad and makes you upset.

And never apologize for writing me a long message!!! I agree with everything you said and I was so happy to read this when I got up this morning, so thank you for taking the time to write to me. You can write or DM me any time (though obviously you can't stay anon if you're DMing me lol)

#dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #kabru #mithrun #my stuff #fanfic #kabumisu #kabrun #kabrumithrun

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darkestprompts · 4 months

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hello! i have discovered ur blog and i am absorbing everything like a sponge i love the rambles and interpretations i am obsessed... i enjoy the character rambles the most and i was just wondering how you feel on Margaret and her character? I feel like her only fan on this entire planet... i need to hear someone speak about her in some kind of depth to a degree, her lore, how they see her potentially Cope™, etc. its tough being a margaret enjoyer when nobody seems to give too much of a care about her </3 i feel like she deserved better if i make sense!!! have a nice day/evening/night/morning🔥🔥🔥

Oh Light, this is so sweet... I'm actually feeling a little guilty because long-time followers will know I'm definitely not a Musketeer person lol But for you only, OP, I will try to cook up something.

To be totally transparent here, my beef is how her premise was utilized. First, as alt skin for the Arbalest (watch as I force myself not to rant about THAT particular choice) and second, her general character focus.

Someone who pierced through the veil of reality by complete accident has potential to be an interesting character! But her barks lean heavily on the "aristocratic huntress" thing, which is not the way I would go in a game about broken souls (also it kinda steps on Audrey's toes). Make her sound a little more obsessed, a little more haunted, hint at the fact that maybe, just maaaaybe, seeing what she was never meant to changed her forever. Make her "hunt" less of a choice to soothe her pride over one competition (srsly) and more of an irresistible pull from the very Heart of Darkness. NOW we can talk.

Let's add this too: when she gazed at the abyss, did the abyss gaze back? Eyes in Darkest Dungeon are a symbol of awareness of the horror of reality and it was an eye she found at the other side of her gun. If the thing saw her, did it only see an ant? Did it see food, something to draw into the trap that is the Hamlet? Or does it have another purpose?

In this reading, I would put her in the same category as Sarmenti and Amani as people who never had any intention to reach out to the occult but have a natural inclination to fiddle with it... Maybe even attract the eldritch? Imagine how disturbing, to be the one the most unnatural monsters like to swarm to. In a bad timeline, she could have been a cultist witch.

Besides, with a title like Musketeer, we could stand to give her more grit. Ok, she's a competitive shooter, but musketeers were military units. It's possible they wanted to avoid overlap with other military heroes, especially Arbalest, but that wouldn't be a problem if her uniqueness was emphasized in other ways. Notably, the French musketeers were an elite unit that served both as royal guard and in open battle. I know Butcher's Circus tried to differentiate her, but what if instead of backline healing (which doesn't resonate with her theme) she got a guard skill and a few lines about serving some noble house? It would be a way to give her a bit more of a storied past. She directly references The Three Musketeers, for goodness' sake, make her reference some adventures! Intrigue, romance! Maybe a Cardinal Mazarin expy, why not!

To end, can I someone please tell me what her hair color is meant to be? The portrait is blonde, her full body art is redhaired, the Butcher's Circus art leans brunette/auburn. I know consistent design does not exist in Darkest Dungeon but. At this point I'm headcanoning that she dyes it a different color every time to cover early gray hair from the Horrors. She's the only one who has a grey haired alt skin, IIRC.

#darkest dungeon #dd musketeer #dd margaret #headcanons #asks

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danggirlronpa · 1 month

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6, 7 and 23 of the Danganronpa asks.

6. Do you have a fan character? Tell us about them!

I...DO.............the concept is that she's class 78th's (Makoto's class) homeroom teacher. Like Chisa, she wants to encourage the class to engage in their lives as high schoolers, but unlike Chisa, she is less Nurturing Caretaker and more Serious Professor. She's the Ultimate Prosecutor, and she structures her class as a round circle debate club. The only time she softens up is when around bunnies.

The idea is that it's a ton of little stuff that can be picked apart as reasons for stuff that's unexplained later - why Junko picked the trial system (replacing fond memories of faux class trials with the despair of the true class trials), why Usami is designed as a bunny (though her personality was taken more from Chisa), etc. - so there's a lot of retroactive foreshadowing, but also a guise through which to see the THH embrace each other and grow as people. Ultimately she's more of a catalyst and perspective character than she is a person with her own arc, because I would love to explain the pregame students one day and the depth of the tragedy that is their lost memories. But Not Today. Maybe I'll draw her one day, too!

7. You get the chance to reassign five characters new talents. Who do you choose, and which new talents do they get?

YES. YESSSS.

Mukuro: Ultimate Mercenary. The wording on this just pisses me off. She was part of a mercenary company. Come on.

Akane: Ultimate Parkour Artist. Another one that just pisses me off. She calls it parkour.

Byakuya: Ultimate Butler. This is the first one where we're going off the rails a bit. Listen. I would hate Byakuya no matter what. That's just how he and I are. Destined mortal enemies. But I would hate him slightly less if his nonsense asshole snobbiness was because he served the rich instead of because he is rich. At least then I could justify it as internalized class politics. Instead of just being. Some rich guy.

Nekomaru: Ultimate Nurse. I couldn't tell you why, but "team manager" always struck me as a really weird, out-of-place talent. But between his knowledge of the body (he can do...It) and his experience as a child in the hospital, I think Nekomaru would be a great nurse!!

Tenko: Ultimate Aikido Master. You'll notice this is not a different name. But it IS a different talent. Because it's just regular aikido. Why did they decide Tenko would have her own fake aikido that wasn't as good. That was so weird. Just let her do aikido.

23. Which are your top three favorite beta designs?

I don't look at the beta designs too often, but these are the ones that stick out to me!

The Sakura art always stood out to me - though I understand why they didn't do it, considering the colorist implications becoming Even Worse. The Fuyuhiko concept art stood out to me in a different way. Look at how stupid that guy looks. Look at that chin. What a man.

I don't actually really like any of Tenko's designs, though I do like this one better than her final one. The most important part is the little snaggletooth on the right. I LOVE that. I LOVE snaggletooth Tenko. I'm obsessed with it.

#asks #multishipper-baby #talk to the mod #mod hangout #not dangan girls #headcanons #sakura ogami #tenko chabashira #mukuro ikusaba #akane owari

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panvani · 4 months

Text

Anyway general breakdown of my thoughts on Scott Pilgrim:

Perfectly solid romantic drama. I'm actually kind of impressed that the story does not feel dated (except in, like, having flip phones) despite it having by now been copied to death. I'd even dare to say it was ahead of its time. A lot of that is purely through the lack of apprehension with which it portrays gay people, particularly gay men, which like, no one was doing in the early 2000s. That isn't exactly praise, and it comes with a lot of caveats, but it's worth saying. The art was Fine. There was some truly repulsive comic art coming out in the early 2000s and while I'm not a fan of the art style, it's not terrible.

Neither Scott nor Ramona are particularly interesting characters on their own, and their relationship is (deliberately) plain and stereotyped. This is somewhat lampshaded in the story, but still a bit dissonant when compared to the cultural impact of * their * relationship on the general Heterosexual Culture. Ultimately, their romance was the least interesting part of the story, which I think Bryan Lee O'Malley knew.

Knives is kind of the obvious emotional core of Scott Pilgrim, and (by Bryan Lee O'Malley's admission) has the most true and complete character arc. She's, in my opinion, the articulation of a lot of the greater thoughts and anxieties held by the author as opposed to Scott, who is a general representation of a (white) everyman. There's a lot I could say about Knives specifically, but it really comes down to Knives being too big a character for her story. Despite all of her development and screentime, her arc feels starkly incomplete. This isn't really * inappropriate * -- the central idea of her character is that she is a child, ergo still developing -- but it does make the conclusion feel more empty than it should.

The way this is most obvious, I think, is the discomfort with which Scott Pilgrim (series) handles The Existence Of Gay Women. Bryan Lee O'Malley is obviously pretty damn comfortable with the existence of gay men, but seems to have difficulty in processing intimate, sexual relationships between women. Knives is (subtly) written as gay from the get-go, but this aspect of her character (despite, arguably, being a core motivational factor to every other aspect of her character) ultimately produces a lot of momentum to have nothing much done with it. By the beginning of volume 4 it's evident that the author has noticed this dissonance and attempted to address it, but ultimately did so ineffectively. What resulted was a strange, forced kiss between an adult woman and an underaged girl that had essentially no lasting narrative impact, and also Ramona Is Gay, Btw, Not That This Will Ever Be Acknowledged Again. (I kind of have nothing to say about the bizarre pedobait in that volume that was subsequently backtracked.)

The last point I'll allocate to this post is how taken aback I was by the pervasiveness of race as a source of conflict in Scott Pilgrim given that I'd literally never seen someone acknowledge race as a source of conflict in Scott Pilgrim. Knives, aside from her conflicts as a gay girl, is also an articulation of the author's anxieties when it comes to race, particularly the perceived inadequacy of Asian men and the vulnerability of Asian women. This, while fairly understated, is very deliberate and very heavily saturated within the text of the story. Just as Scott has a fetish for gay women, he's implied to have a fetish for (young) Asian girls, and while his repeated and specific assertion of physical dominance of Asian boys/men is never brought up in those terms, it's pretty obviously A Thing.

I think this is probably the most interesting aspect of Scott Pilgrim from a "what's this author's fucking Problem" perspective given that Bryan Lee O'Malley has a Korean mother, though I don't particularly want to go into too much depth. I will say the one way in which Scott Pilgrim felt especially dated was in its particular slew of Orientalist stereotypes, which were in themselves pretty telling: Japanese people have scary cyberpunk shit, Chinese people do martial arts, and Korean people are entirely beneath mention. As I was finishing the story I had to wonder how the story might be different if it were made today, specifically in that Korean people are now at the forefront of North American pop cultural consciousness in a way they were not in the early 2000s. I had to wonder the author's relationship to his own identity informed his decision to not include any prominent characters of his own ethnicity.

#logxx

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acheronist · 6 months

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ok here's my player fansign event gossip

🐙

i was running a teensy bit late so i didn't get to say hi to rasmussen but he did look VERY handsome and looked a bit afraid LMAO. my sweet moose was probably out of his depth.. socially awkward darling

debrincat came out second and he was so so so so kind to fans. he was taking a ton of time to stop and sign something for EVERYONE who wanted something signed. about 8 or 9 guys passed him and went inside before he was nearly done walking thru the crowd to sign stuff... :'-) welcome home kitty we love u + it was so nice to see him recognize how excited we are for him too rahhh

i honestly dont remember seeing andrew copp at all but he must have walked by lol

berggren was sooo 🤏🏻🤏🏻 and cute and polite. he signed things very neatly and small and carefully (literally just JB48 in like a 1" square. its ok baby u can take up more space) + we congratulated him on getting called up again because we all love to see him skate and he seemed really genuinely surprised/pleased to hear it

it seemed like ville was bouncing back and forth between both sides of the walk a ton... also just trying to sign everything for everyone who wanted it... he was so 🙂 shaped though.. and he really is pale as fuck i think my guy was refracting sunlight as he walked by. i liked his signature a lot though it was very tight + angular + neatly written. big emphasis on the double Ls in his name. I dont even remember if he spoke though i'll be real.

ben chiarot looked sharp as FUCK. he had a turtleneck on under his suit jacket and his hair all slicked back..... he was serving sexy team dilf without children realness. so my bestie asked him if he just got done at a GQ model shoot while he was signing her shirt and he smirked and laughed under his breath a bit. whore <3

fischer was really fun to look at irl. his face is crazy i want 2 draw him. thats all i got LMAO. i dont remember anything else sorry to the christian fischer stans of tumblr dot com

compher was very polite too but he was moving thru the crowd really quick.. again i think he was just awkward and a little out of his depth w the crowd in the same way ras was? but he was very polite + nice + softspoken tho and i took a selfie w him for @comphy-and-cozy because she's violently in love with him but couldn't be there LOL

ghost looked SAUR sexy.. dark green suit well tailored very kind and polite.. i like that boy ! he was really softspoken too which surprised me because he's been such a freaky bitch on the ice lately

i also dont remember sprong at all but i do remember thinking it was kind of a #serve to match the toque to be the same burgundy color as his suit (also extremely well tailored. everyone looked very handsome). creative ways to make early male pattern baldness be kind of cunty + well dressed for the weather.

DYLAN.... DYYLAAANNNNNNNNNN

he was so so lovely.. definitely doing the same move as debrincat where he was just taking his damn time to sign smth for everyone who wanted smth. he was kind of in Good Captain Autopilot Mode it really reminded me of clips of stevie from the 90s... hockeytown loves our captains so much its unreal. but he signed my jersey and said hi to our little group and i sooo shaky lmao. but i handed him the art & he started to sign the plastic sleeve it was in? and I went no it's for you! and he kind of checked back into real life and went oh OH!!!!! and smiled when he actually looked at it and carried it w him thru the rest of the line :'-) idk i feel like he must get a lot of gifts from fans? but he definitely looked at it inside the doors of the LCA and he definitely carried it w him and didn't throw it away immediately so. big win for people who are me.

lucas and mo were funny asf they made it about 75% of the way thru the line and then the sun came out and was in their eyes and they both said ok i'm done now thank u and left. #respect

joey was so cute.. my bestie made a sign calling him a himbo last year and (then) he asked what a himbo was so we said Lmao google it, and this year he was signing stuff and talking to us and we were like "did you ever google what a himbo was" and he went huh. ohhh yeah lol like he was somehow both Pleased and Very embarrassed about it . cutesie.

newsy came out too!! and his daughter was with him and it was so cute they had matching friendship bracelets and newsy was like (to us the crowd) omg guys can we take a selfie ? can we do that?? and we were like Dawg you're head coach you can do anything you want..... so we all got a selfie w him LMAOOOO and he was so sweet and gently spoken and kind to fans. which still is crazy. i get whiplash every time how different he is to blash (the old coach who was a bitch and looked like he wanted to call people slurs but knew better) its unreallll

i think all the interviews where walman's said how much he likes detroit + feels wanted here weren't lies or exaggerations at all.... he stuck around so long to sign things for everyone (like dylan and debrincat did) and I think he was the last guy on the walk? and he was so funny and smiley and happy to be there.. my fucking GUY!!!!

#drw #also everyone was walked out alongside younger kids who play for the little caesars team and that was so cool too #esp because there were so many ~10 y/o girls who looked like they could kick your ass just hanging out w nhlers as they walked

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howlingdemon13 · 3 months

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I'd like to ask some questions from the Character Ask Game! ✨

Specifically numbers 1, 2, and 12 for Beetlejuice!

I hope these answers aren't too in depth, but I have ✨ thoughts ✨! I'm gonna try to keep this Musicaljuice specific because he's my favorite. 1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

There are a bajillion factors at play as to why I adore this weird little goober man. I always really end up loving the monster/supernatural entity/villain in most media I consume, so Beetlejuice perfectly fits that niche in my brain (occult brain go brrr). Like, yes, I love the demon by default. Of all of his iterations, Musical!Beetlejuice is my favorite. He's kind of a shithead, but he's entertaining. I want to see him succeed as much as I want to see him fail if that makes sense (also depends on if I'm watching the movie vs the cartoon vs the musical). Full disclosure, I never watched Beetlejuice 1988 until October of last year. The only reason I did was because I thought I should watch it/get context before watching the Brightman bootleg of the mucial I found. And uhhhhhhh I didn't really like it, which is weird for me (but I do enjoy it more now). All that's to say that the musical version of the character was more sympathetic and more fleshed out in a way that makes me both feel so so bad for him (mommy issues solidarity) while also wanting to punt him across a room (that might also be the cute-aggression though). My pathetic little meow meow. He does also give me the tiniest bit of Genie vibes? Love me the magical comic relief trope. Stellar. 10/10. No notes. Did I mention that he makes me laugh? It's the immature humor for me. It's the kind of low-brow goofiness that I grew up with (thanks, dad, ow I'm immature). This applies to all iterations, but mostly Musicaljuice and Toonjuice (the puns! I live and breathe puns!)

2. Favorite canon thing about this character? Mood ring hair. Even though he's not human, Beetlejuice just feels feelings so intensly as a demon that his emotions can literally change a part of his physical appearance. Whoever thought of this is a genius. I love this trope across media because there's something that's really appealing to me about a character giving in to their emotions in that way. Like, as much as Beetlejuice is a manipulative jerk, he can't really hide how he's feeling and that's a fun juxtaposition that has a lot of potential (forever crying that the mood ring hair is not utilized in the tour version). That, and I do love what people have done with this concept in fanfics/fan art.

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

I have so many! But one that doesn't leave my brain is that Beej is a big fan of swing music (and by extension swing dancing). I was going to make a mega post about this (and maybe I will eventually), but there are a few instances in the musical that contribute to this. Honestly though, it's really the energy and melodies associated with the genre that I naturally associate with Beetlejuice. As much as Beej has a rock-inspired motif going on with a lot of his songs in the musical, I like to think that a demon that old would have a hard time moving on from a genre like jazz and thus swing.

#sorry this is long and rambly!#but i could gush about the ghost demon for days without stopping to breathe #ask answered

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linisiane · 8 months

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I’m kind of annoyed at the big posts about Zepotha rn. You guys are gatekeepers and don’t even understand what you’re gatekeeping! Cohesion this and lack of plot that. “Skill issue” “Copycat!—” NO. We must go deeper.

Goncharov was a love letter to tumblr fandom culture. An analysis of the way we collectively talk queer themes into existence.

Tumblr blogs dedicated to queer ships. Intricate metas on the queer themes of a work. Screenshot redraws of romantic moments. Comics that are incredibly horny but still somehow capture the original themes. Prompt fills of what we imagine the story could’ve been had there been another (gayer) way.

So many of these types of posts on tumblr are considered reaches or “making things up” by the greater world. But they are analyses made meaningful through this shared sense of community, this shared experience of queerness in a society that doesn’t think of us or our themes as real. Goncharov being “made up” is a celebration of the way we come together to make the queer themes we want to see in the world, especially the ones the world doesn’t think exists. A way to say, “Of course we’re ‘mAkiNg tHiNgS uP,’ Goncharov is made up,” like it’s some sort of metaphor made literal.

Yes, the Google docs and the Martin Scorsese movie framework are a huge part of what made Goncharov work, but what spread excitement are the Goncharov posts just like the ones I listed above. Goncharov isn’t just what we imagine this fake movie to be, but also the fandom/queer culture we imagined surrounded it, and I’d argue that this culture is just as much of a framework for Goncharov as the Martin Scorsese thing was. Why else have non-canonical gay ships in the movie we made up?

TikTok’s problem is that it doesn’t have the original passion and love for queer analysis to gel it the way Goncharov did. Or really anything to gel it beyond cheap clout chasing. No depth, only virality.

It’s like a cute in joke being turned into loveless corporate marketing. Taking something from its original context to prey upon it, ruining what was good about it in the first place. It feels like when corporations tried to recreate Barbenheimer, except it’s someone trying to create a trend on TikTok to market their song, only for the trend to burn out quickly because everybody’s treating it like a joke instead of committing. By its structure (the reblog system) Tumblr is a place of collaboration and building upon what’s come before. TikTok, on the other hand, favors a personalized algorithm pushing viral content over content creators. It’s about reaching the top of a trend or a sound before it dies off in two weeks.

It just rubs me the wrong way how some people act like Zepotha’s crime is being a shitty copy of Goncharov. This is the Fanfiction website. We love amateurism and “originality” means nothing to us. We should be happy to celebrate the people on there making genuine attempts at TikTok edits of the characters or those TikTok green screen filter reviews of the movie or ‘dressing like Zepotha characters’ vids instead of denigrating Zepotha for being too derivative. There are genuine tiktoks out there that do a great job of committing to the bit and crystallizing what fandom formats on TikTok look like, which is exactly what the Goncharov screenshot redraws, horny comics, and queer metas were on Tumblr.

Like, there’s so much to rag against Zepotha—the inauthenticity, the clout-chasing, the way TikTok’s virality algorithm makes art worse, the lack of in-universe TikToks calling out the Zepotha fans for being racist (I’d kill for that TikTok skit!)—that roasting the amateur execution of excited teens is missing the forest for the trees.

#my thoughts #zepotha #tiktok #goncharov #metas #this is just an excuse to lavish love on Goncharov I’m not that annoyed bout the zepotha roasts #tho I’m so fr about the racism thing like all the ‘you look like x’ comments use white names #plus the fact that it’s an 80s slasher #like I just think it’d be hilarious to see a parody of TikTok callouts using Zepotha as a framework #sorry I’ve been gone I’ve been busy :’(#I’ll come back soon

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izacore · 6 months

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How did you tune them out? I want to be done with them both but it’s hard cause they’ve been apart of my life since I was a kid it’s hard to just pretend I don’t love them anymore

Oh honey, but no one is saying about pretending to not love them anymore, are we? I still have a soft spot for them, especially when I look at how they were in the band - they were so easy to fall in love with with their sweetness and bravery and fearlessness, weren't they? But there comes a point where you realize you just can't go on like this, excusing everything and ignoring more and more things to simply stay in the fandom. So I started with treating their shows I had tickets for as a Love you, goodbye event. I wanted to have fun and part ways with them properly with a nice memory. I also blacklisted their names here on tumblr and unfollowed everyone who wasn't my mutual and got rid of fandom people on twitter. And although I still use it, I deleted the app off my phone so I have to log in through the browser which is so inconvenient I don't go there often. I was also lucky cause soon after implementing all this, Good Omens came out which got me hyperfixated for a bit, then OFMD, then I just kept watching/reading a lot of random stuff. Putting things into perspective and looking at them from afar you realize how... easy it is to be in fandoms where you can freely enjoy content, where you don't have to dread your idol lashing out on you and where the artistry is simply entertaining. There are artists out there with a spine, breaking conventions and caring about the depth of their work. They're not afraid to speak their mind and stand up for things and they're definitely not afraid to interact with a gay audience or flags. There are artists who don't need lousy headlines and who genuinely care about the fans they're making art for (not only talk about it). Idk, all that just helped me free myself from the emotional attachment I had to them, and even though I still keep up with more or less everything (the drama is just addicting) I just don't get affected anymore.

Hoping one day you'll get to be at peace too, feel free to drop me a message whenever you want 🤍🤍🤍

#ask #anonymous #also i had a busy year when it comes to my social life so i just didn't have time for all this

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pb-dot · 4 months

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I was trying to get through all of Fantasy High: Sophomore Year before Junior Year dropped and I'd probably have succeeded, hadn't it been for the final episode being no shorter than 5 hours long, so I'm finishing up the final episode of SY now before getting started on the new season. As usual, I have Thoughts. SY spoilers below the cut.

First off, the format. The live stuff is fun, and it gives some of the wilder episodes like Pirate Brawl a real electric energy. The tradeoff is, of course, that combat is a bit harder to follow, but I wasn't really noticing before the final, multi-part curse-breaking apocalyptic brawl. My Dyspraxic ass had some trouble following that one, but considering how much went on that's perhaps to be expected. It'd be pretty rad with models, but I suppose the fan art artists of the world need some epic scenes to recreate apart from all the exquisite emotion in play.

Because oh boy are there a lot of fun emotional stuff. Well, I say fun, but I suppose I do mean "occasionally devastating" by that. Kristen's quest for a theology that makes any sort of sense to her continues, but it hits a bit less hard this season for me, probably because it feels very Main Quest Component-y to me. It's a good component of the main quest, even though its existence as part of the plot does perhaps make it less of a mystery than I think it could be.

Now, where the hits land and don't stop are more in the wheelhouse of Fig, Fabian, and Adaine. Fabian, in particular, goes through the wringer in the middle part of this spring break adventure. Although it is both compelling and fun, I did find myself wanting to reach through the screen and say "Brennan Leeanathan Mulligan, you stop putting that boy in Situations right this INSTANT, that goes for you too Lou." There is, however, no denying that his arc is resolved pretty dang well, and gives Fabian a bit of depth that his "comically out of touch rich swashbuckler boy"-persona might have lacked earlier on.

I'm also equal amounts impressed and intimidated by the gumption to go as deep into the "Adaine's biological parents are pretty damn bad" hole as they do, especially because it did perhaps feel like they were holding back on that a touch in season 1. Gloves are off for Sophomore Year though, these elvish assholes are abusive, and the mask comes off in a major way, perfect for punching with custom-made magic spells.

Riz also feels like he has come into his own in a major way this season. I always felt like he should've had a more leading role in S01, as the one most directly involved in the central mystery from the word go, and that there were pits of character development and anguish yet to mine. I don't know if it was a conscious choice to leave some of that unprobed, or if Riz simply drowned in the maelstrom of strong personalities that is the Bad Kids. Fortunately, Murphy and Mulligan Mining Co. brought their good pickaxes out for this particular outing. Working the season's mystery and his slight sense of alienation from his fellow Bad Kids, Riz is a nexus of cool plot threads. One of these threads even genuinely bamboozled me with a misdirect, which is easier said than done in an Actual Play show.

As for supporting characters, Fantasy High continues to be a provider of interesting folks. Garthy O'Brien and his ward Ayda Aguefort are instant favorites, and Fabian's new bogeyman Chungledown Bim is perhaps not a sterling example of characterization, but there's no denying the gravity of his scrungly presence.

Overall, I feel like the show does get a tiny little bit Days Of Our Lives with the Bad Kid's parents/guardians. It's not a terrible flaw, but I do feel that it puts me in the shoes of Riz a little bit as I go "Welp these people are NOT normal about getting their kisses in, and that's worrying" and try to keep my relationship charts up to date and accurate. Seriously, I do not care much to know who's smooching on who in the adult segment of this story, even when it raises the baffling question of who would be romantically interested in the world's (second) most divorced man, Gilear.

Oh, and I suppose I should talk about Gilear a bit too. He's in this considerably more than S01, as he has the dubious honor of being the players' Favorite Guy of the season. At first, his inclusion seems mostly to be to enable him to Eeyore his way through further humiliations, but honestly he ends up actually being a positive presence in the plot. Granted, he keeps getting into increasingly unlikely predicaments whose sole purpose is to inconvenience or humiliate him, but Fig putting her nose to the grindstone to help the man rediscover whatever scattered fragments of confidence he has left is honestly really sweet.

There's oodles more, I could probably talk about how incredibly sweet the romance between Fig and Ayda is for hours, and the way Brennan weaves the themes of the show in between genre mainstays and conventions with a dexterity that never ceases to surprise me, but I'm sure I'll get to that at some point. Now I gotta do what I actually started this marathon watch for and get started on Junior Year.

#fantasy high junior year #dimension 20 #peebs reviews

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rebellionbeach · 1 year

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SIHJR Crack Ships

Inspired by @nutton-of-tata

- Kisa x Ritsu - 7/10 they’re work buddies and having an workplace relationship is not cool! No, but they both like dorayaki and that scene where Kisa was grabbing him at the onsen is cute and Takano honestly getting jealous means he’s insecure and afraid that Kisa will steal his man. Cute relationship, I know this one has a lot of fans.

- Akihiko x Hiroki - 5/10 this one is hard and even isn’t really a crackship at all but if Junjou Romantica was a shounen ai series released in the 70s and Akihiko and Hiroki were at an all-boys boarding school in the countryside of France and the story revolved around Hiroki helping a young Akihiko resolve his past trauma then it’s a 10/10. Right now though, I don’t think they’re necessarily good together, the beginnings of Egoist and Minimum really hit home how much Hiroki loved Akihiko and that’s really sweet but I am an ardent Romantica fan + Akihiko doesn’t see him that way so in the end I just can’t really see it. I know some people really love this one too though and I can definitely see the appeal.

- Ijuuin x Akihiko - 8/10 so this one would have been a 2 or a 3 had it not been for a certain fanfic and even though Akihiko ends up dumping Ijuuin in that story I still kinda get the appeal. There’s also REALLY nice fanart of these two together and I’m always inclined to ship two rivals together since that tension makes for a very interesting dynamic. Not only that but having two artists share the dilemma and toll of making art together would be cute and they both live together in their hoarder apartment, their editors screaming at them to finish their manuscripts, cute!

- Ijuuin x Misaki - 4/10 I really think that the only reason this pairing has any points from me is because the toxic-ness is kinda appealing. I cannot see ANY situation where these two would have a loving and caring relationship but the idea of Ijuuin and Misaki being a toxic presence in each other’s lives and slowly eating away at their ability to love other humans is kinda interesting. Yes, I know it’s toxic and I’m not romanticizing it, I’m sexualizing it :/

- Haruhiko x Misaki - 8/10 this is cute and I could definitely see a very interesting dynamic between these two. This pairing definitely divulges into two routes in my mind, either the loving and caring one where they heal each other’s broken family issues and become a stable pair or Haruhiko becomes Misaki’s sugar daddy and either way sign me up. On a more serious note, since both have a parent dead (or parents rip misaki) it would definitely be a cool way to develop each character’s trauma in being able to confide in that sorrow in one another. The idea of Misaki making Haruhiko pancakes because he knows it reminds him of his late mother is also a tear-jerker...

- Tsumori x Hiroki - 3/10 it’s kind of boring. The blame is on me on not being the biggest Egoist fan and Tsumori is supposed to be almost of Sumi-senpai like character (scoff) but he just isn’t as big as him. He shows up a lot for sure and he definitely does things to mess with Hiroki and I think the idea there was that he did like Hiroki a bit but he also wanted to make sure Nowaki was taken care of properly but it’s like, I really don’t care about Tsumori. Idk enemies to lovers or something more confusing but the character had gotta have depth.

- Nowaki x Misaki - 1/10 this is the definition of bland. I’m sorry but if these two got together I’d pack my bags and leave to nostalgia land cause holy shit I can’t. Really, no hate to people who do like these two but sometimes I feel the only reason why people pair these two is because they think the regular pairings are too problematic and they need a “unproblematic” pair. Vanilla just doesn’t appeal to me, at all, and these two are as vanilla as you can get.

- Akihiko x Takahiro - 3/10 I can’t see it, at all. Not to mention I honestly think when it comes to romance that Takahiro would be a very boring character. Don’t get me wrong, I love Takahiro and I think he’s one of the most important characters in JR, but he’s important because he’s Misaki’s family and he shines in that role, if JR were about Manami and Takahiro’s relationship then I don’t know if it would be that interesting. Also their dynamic was very much a one-sided thing where Akihiko treated Takahiro like a gem and just went along with whatever he wanted, I don’t necessarily think that’s a great thing for a relationship. I don’t know, I know this pairing has it’s fans and all the fanart and fanfics you guys make are awesome but I just don’t personally see it.

- Takano x Yokozawa - 1/10 again this is like Akihiko x Hiroki but much worse. It didn’t seem like Nakamura really fleshed out the relationship these two as much and what we did get really was just Yokozawa taking care of Takano during university. Hiroki did somewhat of a similar thing, but there was definitely to me a more established bond between the two. I really enjoy the scene between the two of them in Yokozawa’s movie and it really fleshes out Takano’s character quite a bit but as a romantic pair these two would probably end up in a domestic violence episode.

- Yuu x Chiaki - 5/10 I don’t really mind who Chiaki ends up with. I mean, obviously he only like Hatori that way, but the relationship between Yuu and Chiaki is cute and they share many similar hobbies. That scene where Yuu comes to help Chiaki despite their argument and Chiaki’s idea that he wouldn’t come is sweet. You can tell Yuu cares deeply for him and I’m not too sure about Chiaki, but I’m pretty sure he cares for him a bit as well.

- Hatori x Yuu - 6/10 one point higher only cause I really like the idea of rivals ditching the main person and just getting together. I don’t really like Hatori, but having these two together would definitely be a somewhat fun dynamic and I think they really respect each other professionally so maybe that could blossom into something more 0//0

- Tanaka x Fuyuhiko - 7/10 I’m honestly worried that this isn’t going to be a crackship soon. I’m sorry but the latest chapter just gave me the feeling. I feel bad for Tanaka in this situation BUT having Fuyuhiko confide in Tanaka and trusting him more than anyone is kinda cute ngl. This trope is somewhat common in stories where there’s a very rich family and having two old men be in love with each other would be great since we don’t see a lot of it in BL. Just the way that Tanaka laid it on Fuyuhiko straight gives me the feeling that they’re somewhat closer than expected. Would Tanaka also love Fuyuhiko back? Probably, in a loyal sense I suppose. It’s kinda twisted because he’s obviously the butler, but it also makes it more interesting. Maybe Tanaka knows how much of a fuck-up Fuyuhiko is but still feels a sense of loyalty to him, seeing him go through everything and being by his side the entire time. We’ll see, I put the decision in your hands Nakamura.

- Miyagi x Hiroki - 6/10 I don’t hate it and a relationship like this seems something straight out of a slice-of-life comedy manga. Two classical Japanese professors dating each other I mean, that’s hilarious. Plus Miyagi loves to tease at Hiroki cause with his type of personality he finds it easy to play around with them. But honestly, I want a character that challenges Miyagi’s view cause if he doesn’t have that then I don’t think that he can truly love since he’s all strung up over his past love still. That’s the whole point of Shinobu’s characterization I think, but if they could find a hurdle around it then these two would be cute.

- Shinobu x Hiroki - 8/10 It’s really cute ngl. I’ve thought about these two a little bit and I could definitely see an almost similar situation with how Shinobu became so fascinated with Miyagi. It would be like Shinobu trying to get with Hiroki and Hiroki getting more and more annoyed only to see that this kid can match his level and he’s like oh shit. They’re both kind of hot-headed so it might be a bit volatile but if Hiroki had someone who loved him unconditionally (which I mean he does) then it would definitely be a cute way for him to get over Akihiko. Plus I think he would admire the intelligence Shinobu has and would tell him to foster it properly so he can be successful too. A cute dynamic, I love when the rivals become lovers (even though they weren’t really rivals)

- Ritsu x Yokozawa - 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000/10 I feel very passionately about this relationship and I’ve thought about it A LOT. I’m sure you can tell by now I love rivals to lovers, but especially in this case because Takano had such an effect of both of their lives and maybe not the most positive as well (I’m sorry I think Takano is a neat character). It seems almost as if they were supposed to be together (but that’s just me deluding myself) since it would make such a nice way to fully develop Ritsu and Yokozawa’s characters in how they realize that Takano wasn’t actually what they needed. They both let his presence hold them back emotionally and only until they can see a mirror of themselves can they realize that and maybe heal through each other and fall in the love somewhere in that process. Yokozawa is probably my favorite SIH character just because of how caring he is and I think if Ritsu had someone like that in his life it would be beneficial. I mean, obviously his life is kinda of a mess but he also needs a stable emotional support because man is not really getting it. His family puts pressure on him and An is only around sometimes to encourage and honestly so far with Takano it’s sort of up and down. Yokozawa too would realize to move the past behind that dragged him on and that’s basically what Trifecta is and it sucks that Hiyori wouldn’t be a part of his life but idk they could adopt a kid. 100/100 one of my favorite crackships and would make such an incredible story.

- Yukina x Yokozawa - 8/10 I know they only have like 4 interactions but I mean that’s the whole idea of a crack ship right? Yes, okay, I like the exicted x grumpy dynamic and I’m not ashamed of it. What’s good about these two is that they’re more than just that (at least Yokozawa is). I’m pretty sure it was shown that they’re went out to drink together at least once so I’m pretty they’ve hooked up at least. Yukina x Yokozawa would just be like erotica except with a grumpy salaryman. Maybe Yukina would fall in love with how dedicated Yokozawa is or how caring he is to people he likes. Or maybe he would have noticed how much he’s still pining over Takano and becomes the person to pull him out of it. Kinda of manic pixie dream girl-esq but we make due with what we can. Yokozawa would take care of Yukina and maybe encourage him towards his art career and become his muse and honestly it would all be cute. I love the idea of Yukina rejecting girls and being like “sorry I already have a sweetheart <3″ and Yokozawa is just next to him.

- Kirishima x Takano - 10/10 it almost seems too good to be true. I mean, you got a man who has no family and a man who had a family missing one member, can I make it any more obvious? On the same vein with Ritsuzawa, after seeing those two get together Takano would probably be in a TERRIBLE place and Kirishima would want to help him cause he’s just that type of person. In the actual movie I remember Kirishima saying how Takano had a lot of problems and I think he sees him as not so easy to toy with as Yokozawa, but dealing with the loss of Ritsu would put him over the edge of Kirishima would see this and maybe feel a bit of resonance of when he lost his own wife (though it’s a little different) and want to help. I think the best part about this dynamic is that Takano would become a dad. Takano has no family and it’s really tragic how his parents really just left him behind so being with Kirishima and Hiyori, he would finally feel that void in his heart. I’m not saying that people can’t live by themselves, but to really not have anyone is super hard and I think Takano would feel strongly for Hiyori, not wanting her to go through anything he had to go through. Seeing this fondness he has for her, I think Kirishima would also fall a little bit in love cause he realizes that maybe he had also been holding on to his lost love and has let it hold him back as well. Something like “I don’t want Hiyori to go through the same thing as I did,” and Kirishima is like “Okay wanna get married then?” The more and more I write about them, my score slowly increased from an 8.5 to 10 so yeah, great relationship I would pay for Nakamura to write something like that.

- Misaki x Hiroki - 9/10 this is really hot, idk. I’m kidding, but I’m not. I mean, it’s not the only reason I like this pairing, but it a certain dynamic that I am once again romanticizing :/.......but I mean think about it. Lost student Misaki, not wanting to get hit by Kamijou again actually goes up to ask him and Hiroki realizes that he’s actually a hard-working student but just needs a certain push in the right direction. Once they start working together, Misaki realizes that Hiroki actually isn’t a demon professor and just feels very strongly (violently) about classic Japanese literature. Not only that, but his pining for Akihiko almost mirrors the pining that Akihiko had for Takahiro so it’s almost similar to Romantica’s plot in that Misaki feels for Hiroki and how his feelings will never return. Maybe Misaki even forms a love for classic Japanese literature and they can share that between each other. I just see a lot of opportunities and the actual interactions that they have in the manga while limited are pretty sweet. They both care deeply for Akihiko so why couldn’t they care deeply for each other?

- Misaki x Shinobu - 8.5/10 okay so any ship with Misaki besides Nowaki kinda works. This one though, I mean I’ve already seen a few fanfics and they’re great. I love Shinobu, he really is such a fun character. I also find him somewhat relatable (don’t worry I’m not in a relationship with a classic Japanese literature professor who is 15 years older than me). Instead, he says that he’s gone by life without a passion in the world until he met Miyagi. This is cliche and done so many times, but it still resonates to that certain dullness of everyday life that seems to creep up every now and again. His passion for Miyagi stems from his passion for life itself, he is that catalyst I believe. So basically, Misaki is the one he’s passionate about this time. Shinobu is a very sporatic person imo so I feel like this is the only way he’d fall in love. I think Misaki dealing with Shinobu’s antics would also be funny. It’s just an overall fun dynamic with two characters who are some of my favs.

- Misaki x Miyagi - 7/10 and that’s the final character from the main three couples shipped with Misaki. Miyagi and Misaki seem a little strange at first, but I’d imagine that Misaki, being too scared to ask Kamijou for help, goes to the other professor instead and they slowly get acquainted from there. The most appealing aspect of this relationship to me is the shared bond they have from losing very important people in their lives. It’s obvious that Miyagi still hasn’t moved on and while Misaki has fared better I’m sure the incident still haunts him so I think it would be very cute to see these deal with their issues together. Mostly Miyagi though, I think Misaki would really help him deal with the loss as he’s dealt with himself and Miyagi slowly realizes that he’s in love with this person. Bottom line is that I love the Romantica and Terrorist couples and I think they should just become one big couple.

- Akihiko x Shinobu - 6.5/10 it’s continuing on and this is a pairing I’ve discussed with some people before and I think that it would probably be the fastest couple to get together ever. Shinobu being Shinobu would fall in love with this gorgeous millionaire author and still shoot his shot because he’s that guy and Akihiko would be like “why not?”. Okay probably not but it would be easier to imagine Akihiko after Takahiro’s whole engagement is a severe mess and Shinobu finally comes into his life after stalking him a bit and confesses to him. It would take some time but I think Akihiko would very much appreciate a presence like that in his life, I mean someone to love him that much openly, it would definitely be a pda relationship.

- Nowaki x Akihiko - 6/10 this is another case of rivals getting together cause obviously Nowaki is somewhat hesitant about Akihiko’s presence in Hiroki’s life. What I think is interesting is that Akihiko doesn’t really feel the same way to Nowaki, if anything he uses him as material in his BL novels. He’s just always somewhat surprised when Nowaki is there and idk maybe he’s just attracted to the tall muscular doctor. I could definitely see these two being a very dysfunctional relationship, maybe Nowaki not liking Akihiko at first, but then slowly coming around to him and maybe they can even bond from their somewhat troubled upbringings.

- Todo x Misaki - 2/10 I really don’t see the appeal. I’m sorry, I also know this one has a lot of fans but they don’t give off any romantic vibes at all. They both like Za Kan and Todo is more proactive when it comes to his life decisions while Misaki is better at taking care of others, but together they just don’t really pose an interesting dynamic for me. Throw in Sumi though then we’ve got something.

- Sumi x Misaki - ∞/10 so this is my crack ship. I think it’s obvious but I’m a Romantica fan at heart and that hasn’t changed, it’s only widened to include Sumi in the mix. I honestly think that a relationship between Akihiko, Misaki and Sumi would be viable....no I don’t. However, it definitely would be an interesting thing to read about. Sumi is just my guy, he’s manipulative, he’s toxic, he has long hair, terrible sense of humor, he’s perfect. And with Misaki, the ever pure-hearted boy that can’t do no wrong, they’d be perfect together. Again, this a pair that can go two ways for me, either Misaki and Sumi form a natural relationship throughout college and Sumi is able to get over Akihiko and Misaki is able to get over his fear of being selfish or Sumi can take advantage of Misaki and be a parasite. Again, either way sign me up. I do really think though that even at the start, Sumi was a good character. It seems to me that Nakamura was almost unsure of what to do with him and saw that Akihiko needed a rival and just put him in that role. But the way she sets him up just seems to me that he’s supposed to be so much more. He’s a rival in the sense that he tried to steal Akihiko once and after that was never seen again. It’s just strange because he had such a large presence before that and to see his role be so small and then disappear seems like unfinished characterization to me. Well, you know what they say, if it isn’t finished then do it yourself. Bottom line, I think that Sumi and Misaki have a lot of chemistry and I know that it’s just me so just leave me be in my Sumi corner alone thank you.

- Sumi x Akihiko - 7/10 is this a crackship? Maybe not, they were about to get in on, with Misaki under the same roof no less, do they have no shame! No, they really don’t. Obviously, these two shouldn’t be together, it would be a parasocial fan’s dream. It’s just the idea of Sumi and Akihiko together is an interesting idea only in the drama that it creates. It would be potentially the most toxic couple ever, I know, even more than Romantica, so please stop reading if this is getting too much for you. However, it would just be an interesting story to read. You have Sumi, the parasocial fan who has read everything that Usami Akihiko has written and Akihiko, the lonely author who has no one to love him. If they got together without Misaki in the situation I could maybe see a yandere thing going on which might be some people’s thing. I could personally see a relationship where Sumi puts down all that Akihiko writes and Akihiko stays with him only because it reminds him of the harsh words his mother used to say to him therefore a familiar habitat. You know, all that mushy stuff, but would probably make for a pretty dark BL. If Misaki was in the picture it would definitely be a little different, I mean what if Misaki really wasn’t in love with Akihiko (and I guess that’s the truth since everyone thinks he’s got stockholm syndrome so) and he’s unable to stop those two. What a mess, sign me up.

- Onodera x Misaki - 8/10 the main characters of each series meet each other at last, the purest, number 1 first romance if you will. Half the reason why I think these two would be cute together is that train scene in SIH. Yeah, that one where Onodera decides to sit on the only seat where a certain somebody is sleeping. A little creepy but maybe he just has a crush. If you think about it though, I really think these two would be good for each other. Both have a lot of issues they struggle with, but I think they compliment each other well, fill in the missing gaps that they lack in each other. Misaki, with his homemaking expertise, would make sure Onodera lived a proper and healthy life and Onodera would help Misaki on his independence. I mean, it’s not perfect but it’s cute. Onodera obviously feels that his accomplishments aren’t worth anything, but I think having an outside party look at him and what he’s doing would help in him understanding just how hard-working he is. Ritsu would also see how selfless Misaki is and help him in understanding that he shouldn’t be afraid to be selfish sometimes and maybe get settled into the working world having experience of his own. Also the illustration between the two of their chibis is cute, the most recent Emerald one not so much.

- Akihiko x Takano - 7/10 now lets pair together the other main characters! Personally, I don’t find it as appealing as Onodera x Misaki however there are definitely certain characteristic to be of note here. First, Takano has read Akihiko’s novels and maybe in a certain way the loneliness that ponders those works maybe resonate to his own sense of isolation. So basically this is the most emo couple on this list. I could see a very melodramatic, but beautiful, story between these two and how they slowly fall in love through each other’s understanding of what they’ve each been through. While not completely the same, there are very much similar aspects that they share such as a bad relationship with family (or no relationship) and romantic troubles. Honestly, they might be pretty good at understanding each other and sorting out each other’s problems to become better people. Also lead shoujo manga editor x best-selling author of the publishing company, now that’s a power couple.

- Takano x Misaki - 3/10 no. Well, it’s more complicated then that and I’ll try not to let my biases get in the way, but the only depiction I’ve read of these two getting together was definitely...disturbing. What’s interesting is that they both don’t really have parents, but Misaki does have Takahiro which makes a world of a difference when compared to Takano who practically has no one. The fact that they’ve lost their parents in one way or another though would make for a compelling narrative of how they each heal through each other’s loss. I feel though that Misaki would be more encouraging to get Takano to reunite with his living parents. I’m not really sure, but I just don’t really see these two having any other relationship besides that. They have completely different personalities and hobbies and I don’t think they’d necessarily mesh well but who knows, maybe there are some fans out there who can say otherwise.

- Akihiko x Onodera - 5/10 this is the rich boy drama that I wanted. Is this even a crackship? Yes, it is because Onodera was only his editors despite what some people may think. Then again, maybe they did hook up, but I’m not sure whether Nakamura would write that in her stories. What is interesting about them is of course a sort of similar background of having been born in a really well-off family that owns a company of some sorts that they are being pressured to inherit. It didn’t seem so in Onodera’s case, but with the newest chapters it really seems that’s the narrative Nakamura is going towards, so there is definitely some tension there. These two have more potential than TakaMisa imo because they almost seem to be foils of each other’s characters. Akihiko doesn’t seem to have any confidence issues on how his family name has brought him success and knows what he wants to do with his life without his family’s interference. Onodera however, well, he definitely has more issues with that and I could see how Akihiko could help him overcome that with his own experience. They also both struggle with loving people so it would be a story of learning how to be your own person and love again, in a private boarding school in England.

- Onodera x Isaka - 6/10 more rich boy drama. This is the nanahikari-doushi couple that I think works better than Akihiko and Onodera only because this time the situation is basically the same, but just approached radically different. I mean think about it, Isaka and Onodera both of sons of the leads of big publishing companies and are set to inherit that top position. I’m not sure of the age gap between the two, but maybe if they met when they were younger and slowly grew up together (idk rip Asahina), then Isaka could help Onodera with his whole issue with feeling inadequate. It would seem like Isaka would be the best person to help him, seeing as he just worked his way to the top of Marukawa without worrying what other people thought. I think that Onodera is just more overall sensitive when compared to Isaka so it would be interesting seeing those two get along, either way dating the CEO of the company you’re working for, that’s gotta be an OSHA violation.

- Haruhiko x Sumi - 4/10 not as big of a fan as I thought I would be honestly. There are definitely some works out there involving these two, mostly because people just wanted to pair together the rejected rivals (better Sentiment) but it’s just not the same... Haruhiko and Sumi don’t really have anything in common, and I really can’t see a scenario where Haruhiko would be attracted to him. The only common thing they really share is that they were both rejected by the people they wanted. I mean, even Sentiment had more than that. But I do like Haruhiko and Sumi’s characters individually and a story where Sumi just gets with Haruhiko to mess with Romantica sounds funny so yeah, not terrible.

- Haruhiko x Todo - 3/10 I don’t know, I just don’t find Todo that interesting. I know that this one is pretty popular, shout out to the Junjou Acceptance fans, but I feel like if Nakamura actually does this it would just be too much. Todo really doesn’t have that much of a developed character as many other characters and pairing him up with Haruhiko really just seems like forcing someone to get with Haruhiko for the sake of him not being alone. However, the idea of Todo and Misaki becoming brother-in-laws is sort of amusing so it’s not all bad I suppose.

- Aikawa x An - 5/10 I don’t think Aikawa isn’t given as much characterization as many other characters. It’s strange since she’s such a staple of the JR cast, but I also don’t think Nakamura ever intended her to be a deeper character unfortunately. An on the otherhand definitely has more going on, but even then I’m not sure how far you can go with these two. I think if anything it would almost be like erotica with a stressed out Aikawa and more relaxed An telling her to take it easy. She might even go over and kick Akihiko in the balls for always turning in his manuscripts late and stressing out her girlfriend. Points for that, so overall a pretty cute relationship.

- An x Kaoruko - 7/10 now this is the shoujo power couple I need. An and Kaoruko definitely share a lot of similarities in being rejected by the person they like and being from more wealthy backgrounds. Kaoruko probably struggles more with the fact that her family is so pushy on her since it really isn’t stated with An whether or not that’s the case, however I think these two would be cute together. Two women trying to carve out a future from themselves away from the pressures of their overbearing households, I mean it’s kinda giving Tamaki and Benio vibes.

- Shizukuishi x Misaki - 7/10 Shizukuishi basically disappeared, but for the 3 moments that he appeared in the manga, he really made an impression. There’s some tension on how much Ijuuin dotes on him, but they both respect each other’s passion for Za Kan and I just think that he’s a more interesting character than Todo. I mean, he’s an overworked little guy that needs a break, what’s not to love. Plus, their personalities are a little more contrasting which is a bit appealing, love a good serious x sunshine trope. Not bad, I wish there were more than 4 panels of him though.

That’s about all I can think of right now. Anyway if there’s anything to take away from this, it’s that crackships are the backbone of JRSIH and draw Sumi x Misaki fanart!!!!!

#idk long post but it took some time since i was trying to think of any crackship that came to mind #i still definitely ignore a few cause i don't really care about them #nao x haitani aka toxic waste #fuyuhiko x misaki who actually likes this ship raise your hand #akihiko x misaki wtf why would you ship this #anyway if you read all of this i hope you don't notice the decline in quality #junjou romantica #sekaiichi hatsukoi

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