#i’m planning on making a post analysing his character and all

[inbarfink]

So when I wrote down that Big Undertale Meta Post about how Sans probably doesn’t remember RESETs at all and why that’s cool - I got a lot of responses to the tune of ‘that’s probably canon but I’m still gonna enjoy Sans Remember fics because of the angst’. And, well... first I want to emphasize that those are very good and correct responses! Like ‘I acknowledge might or might not be in the text but I am also gonna explore alternative ideas Because I Enjoy Them’ is a Good Damn Position to have! Transformative Fandom is Transformative on purpose! Engage with the text and it’s various analyses but don’t let it chain your creativity or fun!

It’s just that… all of the people saying that they prefer Sans Remembering ‘for the Angst’ make me think that maybe folks are kinda ignoring the incredible angst potential of Sans NOT remembering.

My original post focused on how cool it is that Sans manages to be so on-top-of-things even though he doesn’t remember anything - but let’s not ignore the fact that this situation is also grim as shit.

Through some mysterious super-science or whatever, Sans has managed to discover that his timeline is being RESET and altered constantly (before the Player came along, Flowey had already managed to basically 100% the entire Underground) and he has no memory of what's going on and what exactly is being altered. 

He knows he might’ve gone through the same day over and over and over again thousand times but he’s simply not aware of it. It’s all the helplessness and lack of forward momentum of a classic timeloop and none of the benefits of memorizing occurrences or acquiring extra information. That’s exactly the thing that drove him into his depressive spiral.

That line always strikes me. It’s like… Sans suspects that without the meddling of capricious immortal time gods, he’d be a much happier and motivated person. But he doesn’t know for sure, because he can’t remember how he was in some distant ‘original timeline’. He is essentially fighting to avenge a version of himself that might not even be real.

Like, yes, it is very impressive and badass how well Sans trained himself to notice every tiny little hint that might indicate that a RESET happened - but it’s impressive because the deck is stacked so heavily against him. And it is very impressive and badass how Sans managed to turn his weaknesses into strengths during his Boss Battle - but it’s impressive because these are usually huge weaknesses. Trying to work to solve a timeloop that you can only infer is going on through context clues is quite a hopeless and desperate mission!

Another bit in the Sans fight that I often think about is his unique reaction if you kill him and then RESET to Fight him again.

With how skilled he is at reading expressions, Sans probably knows what that ‘weird expression’ means, he knows the Player killed him once before and is here to try again. And yet he still goes along with the same attack plan he has, the one he knows killed him in that previous timeline. Why? Because he doesn’t know where the flaw in his plan was exactly, he can’t even begin to guess. So he has no choice but to go along with the plan he knows did kill him, because that’s the only thing he has. 

You know, the thing about Sans, is that he always plays his cards very close to his chest. It’s very hard to tell what exactly he’s thinking. That’s probably why so many people do believe he remembers RESET. If any non-Flowey character remembered RESETs, only Sans would be remotely able to hide it so well. But for me? It makes me wonder how much of his Troll who Knows Too Much persona is a bit of an act as well. 

You know, Sans’ deduction requires some keen observational skills - does he ever second-guess his conclusions? Living on constant high-alert that something has been reversed or that someone knows something they shouldn’t requires fostering a lot of paranoia, and that can’t be healthy for him. Is he ever overcome with doubt on whatever something was really an indication of a timeline RESET or not? How does he feel when he realizes something horrible happened on a previous timeline (for example, his brother dying) but he doesn’t know about the context to feel sure that he can stop it from happening again? 

I also think about it in terms of his relationship to Papyrus in general. Sans tends to hide so many things from Papyrus, especially in timelines where the Player is particularly kill-happy...

In part it’s about his perception that Papyrus’ kindness and pacifism is born from naïveté and thus the only way to preserve it is to hide the cruelty and harshness of the world from him (Undyne also does that). But also, with the paranoia and helplessness Sans lives in every day - is it any wonder that he might believe that ignorance is bliss?

I do truly think it’s beautiful how fandom can experiment with cool non-canon ideas! There are probably so many great emotional angsty ideas tied up to Sans remembering RESETs! I just feel it’ll be a shame if people ignore just how dire and depressing Sans’ canon situation also is!

#undertale #ut #utdr #sans #sans undertale #sans ut #undertale analysis

[limepigeon]

Fallen Hero Fanzine 2024 - Info and Theme Poll

All info is under the cut since I don't want to clutter your dash too much! EDIT: Tumblr hates multiple choices for Polls apparently, you can vote but also write in replies (or send anonymous through dm, but please don't send multiple of the same option to get what you want, let's keep it fair!) if you want to vote for more than one option! (Sorry for the inconvenience!)

Hi everyone!

Since I got the feedback on the interest check for a possible Fallen Hero Fanzine it seems like we have some interest and I’ve been looking into various ways we could do this. As I’m big on collaboration and everyone getting a say, I was thinking that deciding on a theme for the zine could be our first collaborative step.

I’ve made a poll (found further down in this post) with 7 options for you to vote on. Descriptions/explanations are found right below the poll so make sure to read those before casting your vote. We’re keeping this first zine sfw, please keep that in mind if suggesting themes of your own. Voting doesn’t tie you to contributing to the zine.

Jumping into something headfirst without knowing what you’ll find on the other side is scary, that’s why I’ve written a short list of what I have in mind for this zine.

The zine will be 100% free and non-profit, this also means no compensation for the contributors. Theme: TBD through majority vote Number of contributors: Max 30 (I would love to have more but, unless someone can help me with admin stuff, I think that’s my limit for how much organising and planning I can do on my own). Rating: SFW. Innuendos, cursing, violence and the like is okay but not straight up sex. Format: Digital/e-zine, with permission to print at home for personal use only. I will put together a bonus version made for easy to print at home, with instructions for how to assemble it. Media types allowed: Any visual media suited for print as long as it’s your own (e.g. illustrations, sketches, photography, collages, short comics, cosplay etc). Keep in mind that if you make a collage or mood board, all pictures must be your own (or have the rights to). Any writing as long as it’s your own (e.g. short stories, poetry, analyses, personal anecdotes etc). Pages in zine per contributor: 2. Time frame and deadlines: TBD but I plan on us having it finished around September/October of 2024, with some reservations.

I hope this has been informative so far, if you have questions you can either reply to this post (so everyone else can see the question and reply), or dm me if you want to be anonymous.

Now, let’s get to voting on a theme! Descriptions for themes under the poll.

Nemesis - More action focused, showdowns, heroes and villains battling it out in their suits! Some softer moments could fit in here as well but if too many opt towards it I might steer some of the submissions to make sure the zine in whole stays on theme. Coming Home - New beginnings, finding your place. It could be sweet and cozy, finding friends, or stepping into your own skin for the first time. Interpret as you like, but the main focus should be on the concept of “home”, whatever that means to you or the characters you choose to portray. Los Diablos - Snippets and snapshots from the city and lives you are sworn to protect or destroy. HG’s lair, Herald’s apartment, or a sewer (sorry, secret base), as well as the people found in these places. Nightmares - The bad vibes (tm) one. The Heartbreak Incident, decanting, paranoia, all the nasty bits you don’t want people to find. This one is open to more possible body horror than the other themes. Ship specific - Pick this one if you want a more romance focused theme, and specify in replies which characters you’d want in centre. Please write Ship Theme before the characters in your reply. I have another idea! - Got an idea for a theme that isn’t in the poll? Pick this one and specify in replies what it is! Please specify even if someone has the same idea, or close to, as you. Please write Theme Suggestion before the theme in your reply. No theme - Don’t feel like sticking to a theme? Want to create an amalgamation of everyone’s mind stuff without any limits or guidelines? This choice is for you.

#fhr #sidestep #fallen hero #fallen hero rebirth #fallen hero retribution #fanzine #fallen hero fanzine 2024

[hxhhasmysoul]

Thanks for sharing your fics recs (especially the KilluGon) most in your list, I have not read them yet... 🤩🌻 Also, love your analysis and reviews, thanks for sharing them....

Okay, so as ItaFushi and SatoSugu shipper, I was curious about SukuIta ship. You are the first person (that I know of and follow) that ship them...Hope you don't mind if I ask you a few things. What do you think are Sukuna and Itadori’s greatest personality strengths and weaknesses? Why? What do you love about their dynamic? What make you ship them?

Also, you're the first person that I follow that don't like Gojo (even not entered him in your top 5 fav charas). I don't mean anything negative...I just find it interesting. As a Gojo lover (he's my 2nd fav after Yuji) I found your reasons for disliking him pretty reasonable and I love your metas.....

Happy holiday....

Thank you for your kind words. And I’m glad that my Gojou negativity doesn’t put you off. I haven’t been very kind in my posts about him, they are very ranty. My top charas are honestly related to how much I think about them and how excited I am for scenes with them for various reasons. And like for example Kirara is absolutely on the list of characters I’m always excited for, or: Miwa, Hana, Toudou, Junpei, Nanami, Higuruma, Maki, Uraume, Tengen or Yuki. Gojou used to be on this list because I actually enjoyed how flawed he is, it was: wow this man! A bit like watching an accident happen. But I also find his position in the jujutsu world interesting. Fandom soured me on him and that’s on me. 

______

As to the fic recs, if you enjoy killugon I have reblogged some hxh and killugon fics rec lists over the years: x, x, x, x, x, x, x.

______

“What do you think are Sukuna and Itadori’s greatest personality strengths and weaknesses? Why?”

Yuuji has it all. He has this sweet side, he’s silly, cute, compassionate and has people skills. But he also has a darker side. He’s lonely, has unprocessed issues concerning forming relationships with others, he doesn’t value himself too much, he has the tendency to blame himself, it makes him suicidal eventually. 

He can be very introspective and self aware but he sometimes chooses not to do that, like his refusal to think about his parents, or he can use it against himself to bash himself with guilt because he can over analyse his shortcomings. Yuuji both seeks connection and doesn’t easily let people know him too closely. 

He’s also very smart and adaptable. He learns very fast, he can analyse a situation well and employ tactics that will often make him succeed in what he’s doing. 

He also has good intuition, like in how he befriends Junpei, how he doesn’t want to be around Megumi during the culling games, or with plans on how to save Megumi. 

Because he wants to connect with people he doesn’t always know when to put his foot down. He’s very good at asserting himself against people who are bullies and who are hostile towards him, like Sukuna and Mahito. With people he cares about though he’s not really good at that. He will argue but with for example Megumi and Gojou he will fall in line. They intimidate him to an extent, they seem knowledgeable and powerful in ways he isn’t. He defers to their judgement despite them failing him.  

Sukuna is funny in his contrasts. I’ve once written that he’s full of shit. He’s the opposite of Yuuji because he refuses to introspect, to analyse himself. He of course has a huge ego so he has a very specific attitude towards people who exert any form of power over him. He gives Kenjaku the cold shoulder and tries to ignore them as much as possible. (Tell us why, Gege. Heian flashback when ;-;) Towards Yuuji he’s just irritable, disrespectful and petty. 

He’s very nerdy about jujutsu, it’s very clear he enjoys it and he enjoys fighting. He believes that others matter only as much as he can get some enjoyment or entertainment out of them. Which is actually not entirely true, because he very clearly has a friendship with Uraume and he’s very mindful of Uraume’s feelings in it. As I said, not self aware. 

______

“What make you ship them?”

The process of elimination. It will be a story XD

When I first read and watched JJK, I came out of it caring very deeply about Yuuji. I liked other characters but Yuuji was and still is special to me. 

In fandom I primarily seek three things: 

1. Art of the characters I like because I just like art and also it gives me extra emotions.

2. Meta and discussions, because I enjoy over analysing stuff and making theories.

3. Extra emotions in the form of fics. I’m only in two fandoms, they both traumatised my favs very deeply. I want to experience other things with the favs. I want them in situations. (mostly long form AUs but not all AUs, I’m picky XD)

With Gon and Killua, point 3 was easy. I find their romantic ship close to canon, I love them both, I wanted more of that.

With Yuuji I wanted something good for him. I wanted him to be prioritised and on the receiving end of love. I wanted someone to care as deeply about him as he does for others. 

So I went on ao3 and started to look into the tags. 

The first one I checked out was ItaJun. I like Junpei, I think he’s an interesting character. Yuuji and Junpei’s canon interactions can be read as pre crush stuff. They hit it off very quickly, share the passion for films. Are capable of talking honestly about deeper and darker things. Most fics in that rather short tag were from Junpei’s pov. Made him very mopy, soft and fragile, introverted in this stereotypical way. And Yuuji was there as the manic pixie dream boy. Next.

So I looked into the ItaFushi tag. It was long so I had hope. Even though I was and am ambivalent about Megumi. And I don’t particularly like his dynamic with Yuuji in canon. I mentioned it above, it’s about the misplaced deference that Yuuji shows Megumi. And Megumi thinking he’s much smarter than he is. Most fics in that tag were from Megumi’s pov. Made him very mopy, soft and fragile, introverted, melancholic and overly intellectual. And Yuuji was there as the manic pixie dream boy. But also dumber than Megumi. Like in the KilluGon tag you can find fics like that too, fics from Killua’s pov by people who don’t care about Gon. In both tags there will also be these kinds of fics but written by people who seem to dislike the “sunshine” character. It’s not just that they find that character to be a tool to make their fav feel better, but that they are kinda upset about it. There are few fics in that tag that I liked, though. Because despite being from Megumi’s pov, they both wrote Megumi and Yuuji close to as they are. 

But generally, I was growing disappointed and frustrated. And I remembered one smut in the ItaJun tag which was actually a poly threeway with Sukuna. I remembered it because Junpei’s pov was nice and the dynamic was interesting. And I was like: well, can SukuIta be really worse than this? I mean if that poly fic was anything to go by, at least the smut will be fun.

So in the SukuIta tag finally, finally, my chance of finding Yuuji’s pov was high. And the authors there are actually interested in Yuuji’s personality. Not all of them do it justice, obviously, but they are interested. They are interested in putting Yuuji in situations. They are interested in tension and high emotions. They are interested in strange, codependent, very intense relationships, even in some of the more fluffy fics. There’s a lot of E rated stuff there, a lot of dead dove. And as I said before, I’m very picky and I won’t click on most stuff, but that was true for the other 2 tags as well. Just that, when I chose to click on stuff in this tag, the percentage of fics I read till the end was incomparably higher than in the other two tags. And reading through it, I started to get ideas to write for it. 

______

“What do you love about their dynamic?”

As I said above, in the beginning I was mostly amazed that I’m getting Yuuji exploration. Sukuna was there as the vehicle for the situations and the emotions. Even when I started writing my first fic, I was of that mindset too. Writing it made me ponder Sukuna more and grow to like him beyond his fun energy as a villain. 

The thing I like about their dynamic is when Yuuji gets to finally allow himself a close and raw relationship with someone, it’s usually very dramatic and dark in the best scenarios. That he carves something for himself, something often imperfect and kinda toxic, something where both sides are forced to make concessions and navigate around each other, but something where he’s prioritised. 

And when Sukuna gets punished for his personality, like the consequences of his irreflexive nature give him anxiety or something like that. When he’s forced to actually self-analyse. Sukuna is about his own pleasure and you can write him in a way that if someone becomes his pleasure, he gets very intense about it. 

At its best, this dynamic is very intense, dramatic and either goes in a very dark direction or requires a lot of negotiation. 

Also true form Sukuna is the hottest JJK has to offer and my dear Yuuji deserves the absolute best.

#answering asks #thank you for the ask #jjk #itadori yuuji #sukuna #sukuita #also my friend asked me about this ages ago #and i was planning to write this but got busy and forgot #which is argh #i'm slowly going through all the asks #work's been rough and i'm slow

[cursedvibes]

omg I finally found someone who cares about Kenjaku and interested in them as much as I do. I always felt like most of the annoying fans (cough Geto/stsg fans cough) see them as an extension of Geto and not their own character with a unique personality, also they’re not really popular with Japanese fandom so there’s that…

Sooo idk if someone has already asked you that question but I just wanted to know what do you think of the existing paradox within Kenjaku’s behaviour? I’m talking about the fact that they seem to behave differently depending if they’re being observed or not, in such cases as: Kenny generally treating Yuji like a tool for their plan but saying “thank you for getting along with my son”, while they were walking with Yuji’s friend inside the “cursed space”, in complete darkness, not observed by a single soul — I’m still not sure whether it was just a way for Gege to emphasize that Kenjaku is, in fact, Yuji’s parent (if some readers didn’t catch it in ch.143) OR it should be interpreted as Kenny saying “oh yeah thanks for helping me to fulfill my plan by befriending Yuji —> resulting in him finding a finger”… but I also wonder could it be their real, genuine feelings? The fact that they actually care about Yuji in a sense would probably feel weird a lil bit but on the other hand there are also cases where they act contradictory, for example looking down on Tengen in general when fighting Yuki & Choso, mocking Tengen in that scene where they sit in front of TV, but the moment they’re not observed directly - the moment Tengen dies - they say their goodbyes to her and call her their “friend”. You see what I’m trying to imply? I might be completely wrong on this but it kinda feels like Kenjaku has an issue with the whole true feelings/emotions shtick. It probably makes sense since they should stick to their plan and any kind of attachment might ruin everything, it’s high risk on their part — Kenjaku shutting down their excitement immediately after they start feeling something real for the first time in hundreds of years, pressing Takaba to the ground — once again, understandable, but I do wonder if it results in something more in the end. There is also a theme of loneliness/intellectual loneliness specifically that is associated with Kenny so I’m honestly sooo fascinated by their character and I’m looking forward to see how it all unfolds.

Also do you have any analyses/meta posts about Kenny maybe? I’d love a link or something and I would definitely read it!!

Hi! Always lovely to meet a fellow Kenjaku fan! It's a real shame that Kenjaku so often gets overshadowed by other characters, particularly Geto, even when the story is focusing on them (as we can currently see) and when they are talked about, then often purely in the context of stsg, when they have so many more meaningful connections and ones that are also more important to their character.

The stuff you bring up about Kenjaku's contradicting behaviour is exactly what's been ghosting around my brain the past months or year even. I talked a little bit about it recently here and here. As far as other analysis posts go, what I could remember (and find again on my blog...) there's something about Kenjaku's motivations and how I think "for the lulz" is a bad way to describe it, a post about their perspective on death and a post reflecting on the power Kenjaku & Tengen have over Sukuna and Gojo, despite those being technically "The Strongest". I hope that's helpful and what you were looking for?

Regarding what you said about Kenjaku's contradicting behaviour, I think it all ties back to Tengen and their dispute because here you can see very well that Kenjaku both cares about Tengen, but also puts her as the centrepiece of their plan and is thereby ready to sacrifice her when push comes to shove. Despite going through with capturing her, Kenjaku doesn't seem very happy with how things ended with Tengen. They like her, respect her, see her as an equal, but are also very frustrated by her stubbornness and inability to change or even engage with the world. They had to force her in the end to do it and they didn't even get a good conversation with her after waiting centuries to see her again. She just kinda went along with what they did, again showing no resistance or strong will for survival. So Kenjaku doesn't really hate her, they are just frustrated with her non-actions.

You can also see that in the words they scream at her in ch 205 about having actually lived and gained new experiences, contrary to Tengen, who stuck to her old ways. It seems like they wanted to bait her into a response, a discussion, something, but they didn't get anything. At this point it was probably not surprising to them. I assume Tengen used to argue with them a lot more back in the Heian era and that is what Kenjaku is currently missing. Even if people disagree with them, Kenjaku wants to be presented with interesting perspectives by people who understand the world like they do. Tengen clearly used to have that, she build jujutsu society on it, but then she decided to distance herself from Kenjaku out of self-preservation and...maybe weariness? Hard to say at this point, but she was clearly not about allowing her body to evolve to discover new things about cursed energy and humanity.

Kenjaku tried to find something similar in Yuki, but she doesn't engage enough with them to bring any meaningful discourse (unfortunately, I wish the two had discussed their world views more during their fight). So now that Tengen is gone or controlled and can thereby not give any meaningful intellectual input, Kenjaku is looking for new people to fill that hole, new friends who are equal to them, challenge them and also give them some sort of stimulus they have been missing for centuries apparently. That's part of why they do the merger in the first place. They want something that can truly surprise them and present them with something completely new.

Besides intellectual curiosity, Kenjaku just seems lonely. Unlike Sukuna, who is fine just playing around with others, eating and having one person to rely on, Kenjaku seems to want more people around them. Not many I assume, but they need friends and currently they seem a bit desperate to find new ones, seeing how they even ask Hazenoki to hang out with them. That's also where we see that contradiction. Kenjaku wants friends, but over the last millennia their plan has taken up so much of their headspace that they are ready to kill said friends for that end and that tendency to use others for their gain is also what keeps them from finding new connections because obviously nobody wants anything to do with them when they get treated like that. They ask Hazenoki to be their friend, despite both of them knowing he has to die for the Culling Game to end and their plan to progress. So at best he could've given them company for a few days and then they would've killed him. But at this point Kenjaku is even fine with that. Hell, they are talking to dead people and the thin air (a non-listening Tengen). Not a good sign for the state of your mental health.

Takaba is interesting because he came to Kenjaku out of his own will and offered to give them something interesting/funny, basically fulfil their conditions for friendship. He doesn't even mind that much that Kenjaku is trying to kill him. Perfect candidate for friendship, but by being so open, forthcoming and generally being a weird guy, he unnerves Kenjaku. For one, they aren't used (anymore) to people being so friendly with them without any self-serving motives, listening to them and sharing their interest. Like with Sukuna & Uraume, Kenjaku is always the one who engages conversations and meetings, the two don't care about Kenjaku unless they need to further their personal goals. Similar with the reincarnated sorcerers. Kenjaku approaches them for a binding vow and the entire relationship depends on serving their own benefits. The other thing is that Kenjaku doesn't seem used to having someone they share so many common interests with and who they can indulge with, without ulterior motives playing into it. In this case it's comedy and pop culture instead of cursed energy, but that doesn't seem to matter and solving the riddle that is Takaba's cursed technique gives Kenjaku another reason to get invested in/with him.

It's like you said, Kenjaku wants connection, but when presented to them, they get uncertain and awkward on how to deal with them and don't seem to want to get too attached because they will kill them in the end anyway. With Tengen that was less of a problem because she's immortal and will always exist in some way, but not talking to her still seems to be very aggravating for them. Even with Takaba, despite having the time of their life and feeling better than they have for centuries, Kenjaku will have to kill him in the end. At least with how the Culling Game rules are now (they could change them...). Takaba is also very hard to kill... The ocean scene where Kenjaku goes from happiness to trying to drown Takaba honestly perfectly encapsulates their mental state towards close relationships, including how they treat Yuuji. Someone gets too close, they try to push them away like they're allergic to feelings. It's like a defence mechanism. If they want to follow through on the plan they have been working on for thousand years, they can't afford to dally around with some random clown, even if they like his company.

Same with Yuuji. I think Kenjaku does care about him in some way and sees him as their son, but that just doesn't keep them from hurting him. They sound proud of him in Shibuya and excited to see what he will evolve into. I think they banked on Sukuna switching vessel and Yuuji using his special body to become hopefully something interesting in the future, using Sukuna's cursed energy as a kickstarter for his development so to say. I mean, if Sukuna hadn't switched vessels, he would've been useless and unable to ever come out again after Shibuya and Kenjaku was clearly preparing for him to participate in the Culling Game. So Yuuji being a vessel/cage was only a temporary solution.

So I think Kenjaku's words to Sasaki are genuine, but they are also thanking her for starting the whole finger situation (Yuuji was the one who found it, but Sasaki was the one who wanted to play around with it). I'm also wondering if they intended for her to look into Yuuji's past and confront him with his parentage because they know Sasaki is very curious and Yuuji's parent he never mentioned turning up in her bedroom and telling her about a death game they started seems like something that she wouldn't be able to brush past. I mean, they didn't say this to Iguchi, who was also Yuuji's friend, only Sasaki. Only question is, how do they expect Sasaki to get in contact with Yuuji in the state Japan is in? And then there's of course the question of if Gege will even pick up this plot threat again.

Being interested in seeing what Yuuji will evolve into is Kenjaku's own way of showing they care, you could say. They don't give a shit about Choso's power level or potential after all, he's just a failure. Yuuji's potential is what makes them care and I think having birthed him themselves plays into their feelings as well, since Kenjaku clearly has a very close attachment to the womb, pregnancy and birth. Their interest in him is self-serving, but that doesn't mean they don't care or deny any parental feelings (at least not when in the right company, where they can open up more). Hell, despite looking down on Choso, Kenjaku does call themselves his parent. There's only a bit of blood connecting them, they didn't even birth him, but they don't deny their familial connection. So yeah, despite all that, Kenjaku always treats people bad because their own interests come first.

The current fight is interesting because Takaba could give something different to Kenjaku. He can entertain them, satisfy their curiosity and show them something new. He proofs that they don't need to go through with the merger, that there are other options they could take and might even end up happier for it, but I also think that Kenjaku will not use that opportunity to turn around. They have come too far, suffered set-back after set-back for thousand years just to get to this point, so no matter how good the alternative is, they will not give up on the merger. Tengen is already captured, she can't stay inside them forever and when she's set free, she will likely wreck chaos even if she doesn't merge with other humans. This fight shows us what Kenjaku could be or less destructive ways they could take, but at this point they are too far gone. I'm really curious to see how this will all play out and how this fight will end, what it will mean for Kenjaku, their plan, the protagonist team and how exactly they will deal with Takaba. Highly doubt it will mean anything good though. Either way, I smell some character development incoming.

#asks #kenjaku #jjk spoilers

[in-deep]

If you could only pick one piece of Byler evidence to convince someone that Byler is endgame, what would you pick?

First off - I wrote this stream of consciousness style so please be kind aha.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this question and I think it’s simply the fact that if Mike is in fact straight, then what is his character arc?

Let me explain.

A lot of the GA view Mike as a glorified side character - sidelined after S2 to fulfil the role of El’s incompetent boyfriend whilst simultaneously leaving Will (his best friend) behind and treating him like a dick. The GA also view Mike as straight. For many GA viewers, the idea that Mike is gay/bi, let alone in love with Will, seems implausible and were it to happen, it would come out of nowhere.

Which leaves the question of: what is Mike’s character arc?

From this GA perspective, he doesn’t have one. He’s destined to make up with El in S5 and support her independence, and kindly turn Will down and go on with being besties like the supportive guy they remember him being in S1/S2. If anything, his character has regressed from the early seasons into a douchebag - a mouth breather. 

Not to mention that from this perspective, he has no real internal or external trauma to be unpacked. While this is obviously untrue as it has been made clear by the Duffer brothers and even within the show (Mike’s suicide attempt, Wheeler family discussion around his behaviour at school) that he is struggling with depression, that doesn’t seem to play into their predictions on his ending. If anything, many GA viewers don’t really view his character’s conclusion in S5 as something important because to them, (just to repeat my earlier point) he’s just a glorified side character.

Of course, if you watch the show carefully and focus on Mike, you’ll quickly realise that his character is dealing with a lot of the direct pressures of heteronormativity and internalised homophobia:

His family is your classic nuclear family, Nancy talks about the Wheeler family dynamic extensively in a heart-to-heart with Jonathan 

S1 has a lot of homophobia - all of it is about Will, but a lot of it is targeted and directed toward Mike

There are multiple times he is visually shown to come to realisations about his feelings toward El and Will, respectively. Now I won’t analyse those in this post because technically, none of the contents of those realisations have been made clear to the audience, it’s just my own interpretations. I’m sure this will come back in S5, though.

To show Mike’s queerness in S5 is not changing his sexuality, simply just revealing what has been shown to the audience the entire time. Stranger Things is brilliant at show vs. tell. They tell us something, and then show us something entirely different or even something that directly contradicts what we were told. Much of the GA don’t pick up on this (and tbf I don’t really expect them to, it’s intended to be subtle!).

To reveal concretely that Mike is queer and in love with Will would change everything. It would be shocking! The GA would lose their minds - and many people would, at first, struggle to believe it. But upon rewatching the show, it would all make sense. It would turn what many view as an unimportant character into one of the most well thought-out and planned queer stories in media history (definitely an exaggeration but bear with me aha, I’m not normal about these boys).

What people thought to be an incompetent boyfriend and an absolute dick to his best friend for two seasons in a row would turn out to actually be a deeply traumatised boy struggling to remain on the “normal” path (quote from Finn Wolfhard on Mike), within the bounds of heteronormativity. A boy who desperately wants to play DnD and Nintendo with his best friend, but realises that what he feels for him isn’t “normal”. It would reveal so much about Mike and all the things we never got to see from his perspective.

And in terms of my predictions, I’m absolutely a believer in Mike being Vecna’d, and we’ll finally see Mike’s point of view on all of this. Just imagine Vecna taunting him about how he failed to be normal. He failed to do the “right” thing. He’s been in love with Will since before he even realised it.

So yeah. Byler is real. Byler is endgame. And I’m 10000% certain that Mike is going to become an extremely popular character once we get his insight. He’ll also absolutely need a hug once all is said and done. I will be hysterical. 

But at least he’ll have his cleric <3.

A really good video on Mike's internalised homophobia that essentially sparked me to write this post in the first place, and I highly recommend if you haven't seen it yet, was this one (@lesbianmindflayer) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6IOlmBEEgE&t=80s&ab_channel=LesbianMindflayer

But yeah! What would you pick as your one piece of evidence?

#byler #byler analysis #mike wheeler is gay #mike wheeler is bi #mike wheeler is queer #mike wheeler #byler is endgame #byler is real #stranger things 5 #st5 predictions #mike wheeler needs a hug #i will defend mike wheeler as long as i breathe #i love him so much #let him play dnd and nintendo with will pls #just one scene in s5 of them getting to hang out pls #duffer brothers ill do anything

[merrivia]

your essays of literary analyses for captive Prince  fascinate me, amuse me, entertain me (in the "wow, this is so cool" sort of way and "maybe I'll read this whole thing again"), educate me, and get me thinking harder about my own reactions to the books.  I believe that I do my own level of analysis as I read, seeing many but far from all of the same things, and stopping as I go to say, "hey, waaaait a minute" or go back and reread relevant passages earlier in the book or in earlier books. but I am very far away from being able to put things together the way you do. 

 I do a few simple things, like collecting multiple examples of something (I did that for showing that Damon is the kind of guy who gets "annoyed" about things that might or might not send the rest of us into a rage), and another too-long one why I thought "I speak your language better than you speak mine sweetheart" comment happened.

… I do have a question. Here it is. How much of the content of your essays are you consciously aware of while you're initially reading,? How much prep do you do for your essays – – outline? A few of your own cliff notes😁? Or or do what I mostly do, to the detriment of my material but not yours, and just start writing?

Oh wow, thank you so much that’s such a huge compliment! I’m always so happy to hear people enjoy the metas/essays I write, genuinely. I would love to read the posts you mentioned you wrote! I’ll hop over to your page and find them after I post this.

So I don’t really do any prep at all! No notes, no outlines, no plans. I’ve re-read the books 4 times solidly in a row, and want to do a 5th soon (I’ve given myself a little bit of a break, so I don’t lessen my love of it through overfamiliarity!). I think at this point my mind just picks up on patterns and starts to weave things together, subconsciously? Something will just occur to me and I’ll get the urge to write about it. I’m a big believer in that coming from the texts; I still find lines or paragraphs in the books so interesting and intriguing and the way Pacat writes…it’s so rich that there are many aspects to explore.

I also really believe in the power of reading around and seeing where that takes you too. Originally my essays were completely just what came from my mind, but I’ve started leaning towards letting other ideas shine their light on the books too. With my latest post, I knew that Damen’s trauma was different to Laurent’s but I also knew that I was no expert in trauma responses and wanted to read more about it, happened to stumble on Tick’s work almost immediately which just felt like such a powerful connection as it draws partly on classical traditions and I started to put the essay together.

I always come from a point of ‘things are more complicated than they seem’ about pretty much anything and I’m always very wary about people that try to oversimplify discourse. A simplistic reading of Damen’s character would say ‘he’s not got emotional complexity, he’s just a horny jock dressed up in Akielon clothing’ and honestly that’s just so reductive and not true but also…boring, and is essentially a discredit to Pacat’s intelligence and skills. Once you start thinking there’s more under the surface here, you can start to plumb the depths.

I do follow a rough introduction/main/conclusion structure as per any essay, which helps? I’m pretty much trained mentally in the English way of writing literary essays so I do it automatically. I hadn’t realised this till you asked but because I really enjoyed the books and don’t really see myself negatively critiquing them, my conclusions reflect the happy ending of the books where I tend to see things positively? So the end point is kind of already in place. I think the points I make follow similar essay style patterns; start more broadly, then narrow down like a funnel or start a little more chronologically and then move forward (like establishing who Damen is first, and his warrior status is going back to how he was raised, then we can use that to inform his initial reactions in CP before following that thread all the way to The Summer Palace). I’m fond of what appears to be a tangent but is actually a loop back, that illuminates (like I talked about violence as an intimate act, having read that in Tick’s work, and how Laurent particularly provokes that from Damen but that led me to realise if you do choose violence over love as a form of intimacy, you are going to have to pay a price for that).

Ideas do reveal themselves through the writing. Once I’d read that warriors could heal and reintegrate through society recognising them (Edward Tick actually performs these ���Warrior Welcome Home” ceremonies for combat veterans, as part of a healing process) I thought well Damen had that in Akielos, and then it was like a little lightbulb moment of ‘Ah but by being in Vere, and around Laurent, he’s gone from hero to villain’. And Laurent has suffered the anguish of being vilified and having his character destroyed, and actually doesn’t realise he’s doing the same to Damen (I didn’t put that in, as there’s only so much you can write! Sometimes holding back on your ideas is good too, to keep the essay tighter. Incidentally one day I am going to do more metas on Laurent and his feelings towards Damen but I’m so respectful of his labyrinthine mind that I want to be very certain of my ideas before I do!).

I hope that kind of answered your question! If you ever want to chat about CP stuff you can absolutely dm me, I love talking about the books ✨

#captive prince #thanks for the ask!

[lryghe]

MDZS thoughts; dedication to a cause

MDZS has (in my opinion) the most interesting interpretation of loyalty in all of MXTX’s works, and in fact, I just think generally that it’s the most interesting to analyse because it's more put together than SVSSS but less whole than TGCF, leaving a lot of room for subjectivity and creative liberties. This post in particular will be exploring the idea of loyalty in relation to dedication to a cause, because I think it's the most robust of all forms of loyalty, one which allows for a lot of contrasting motives. Yes, this post will contain spoilers.

To begin with, Nie Huaisang, in my humble opinion, is the best example of being dedicated to a cause. In Huaisang’s case, revenge against Jin Guangyao for killing his brother is his cause, and he seriously does it well. The reader is never given the right information to know whether or not Huaisang is actually as useless as he makes himself out to be, but one has to admire his dedication to the bit if he wasn’t faking it. I’m basing this on the assumption that he deserves an oscar for his performance so bear with me, but never once does the mask slip in front of others, even when Wei Wuxian questions him on it at the end of the drama, and subtly implies his involvement in the novel. I think the way he presents himself was a pivotal part in this dedication, because he would have been far more suspicious if he hadn't been presenting himself as useless for his entire life, even before he decided to get revenge against Jin Guangyao for killing his brother. And he definitely would have been doing it for a while, planning and plotting and doing whatever it is masterminds do in their spare time, because the revenge was a long time coming. In fact, it was such a long time coming that even the people who should have been vigilant till the end forgot about Huaisang, and the threat he poses to them. I’ve spoken before in a post a while back about Huaisang and silence through this attitude, how his fan is the very symbol of his scheming and dedication because the fan visually covers his mouth half the time, and that itself is a cue to Huaisang’s dedication to ‘justice’ for his brother.

Another interesting example of dedication to a cause is Wei Wuxian, but specifically Yiling Laozu era Wei Wuxian. One can argue all you want about Wei Wuxian’s personality and his idea of loyalty and righteousness (which omg this reminds me of a post I'm going to be making soon about a comparison of Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian!), but Wei Wuxian’s dedication to the Wens and to never actually speaking out again after the whole cultivation world turned against them is something to be admired. Wei Wuxian lived through some ridiculous things, leaving behind everyone he knew and loved before for the Wens and to ensure their protection, not out of some useless pride (because Wei Wuxian is a prideful man, but not in the sense that he would be protecting them because of his pride), but because he genuinely cared, and he wanted to help right the injustices the world had placed upon these people. 

I actually found it difficult to decide who would be my third example of dedication for a while, until I had a wonderful epiphany about Lan Wangji. Lan Wangji isn’t devoted to something as concrete as Nie Huaisang and Wei Wuxian, who are devoted to people as their causes. And before I have people in my comments like ‘he’s so devoted to his Wei Ying’, I would like to raise you the very basis of Lan Wangji’s character, ‘devotion’. Lan Wangji is someone who is wholeheartedly devoted to people, and to the remnants of those who he cares for deeply. When his mother dies, he spends months sitting in front of her Jingshi, because he knew she was dead, but he didn’t process it right and was devoted to spending time waiting for her. The older Lan Wangji gets, the more he realises that waiting will not solve anything, so he mourns and moves on. This is the baseline of his character, his devotion to the memories of those he cares about, which reveals the dedication he has towards his cause. Lan Wangji is wholeheartedly dedicated to Wei Wuxian, but he spends more time mourning him than he ever knew him, and his dedication to being wherever the chaos is, is an excellent point to consider. It’s a common saying in the timeskip that wherever there is chaos, Hanguang-jun will appear. And it’s revealed later on that this is because he’s trying to find remnants of Wei Wuxian. He knows there is no hope for WWX’s soul, and those years he spends in chaos is not to find him, but to simply to feel a fraction of what it was like to be in his presence. I think this is an absolutely beautiful trait, and something that is so important, because Lan Wangji is a very simple person, he loves simply, forgives simply, and continues living simply. Lan Wangji’s cause is devoting himself to honouring and upholding the memories of those he cherishes, which is distinctly different from the previous two points considered.

Of course, there's a million other types of loyalty you could explore in MDZS, but I wanted to focus on this one in particular.

Words: 913

Reading time: 3 mins

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #mxtx #cql #the untamed #nie huaisang #nie mingjue #jin guangyao #meng yao #wei wuxian #wei ying #lan wangji #lan zhan #ive been putting off posting this becuase school sucks #shout out to mxtx for making lan wangji #gotta be my favourite type of rock #a loyal and lovely rock that is

[ten-cent-sleuth]

for the fic writees ask, 49? (im reading a galling yoke so i hope youll talk about the next chapter 😂😂) and also 15 33 and 41 bc im curios

What’s your favourite AU that you’ve written?

My best AUs are for Philinda lol. My favourite is Committed to the Cause, a POTUS/USSS one with Coulson as the president and May as his head of security.

If you write chaptered fics, what’s your ideal chapter length to write? Is it different from your ideal chapter length to read?

My ideal chapter length to write is 4–7k, which is also about my ideal chapter length to read. Maybe my reading ideal is on the shorter end, so more like 3–5k, but gfhjsgdhs that’s not too big a difference.

Link a fic that made you think, “Wow, I want to write like that.”

There are a few that come to mind. The main ones are literally anything by @indilwenofmirkwood (but especially What Makes Her Tick, which can be read here on AO3 and here on FFN) and Kismet by @midnightlovestories (can be read here on AO3) for how they developed plot/romance, analysed my comfort character, and got some whumpy goodness snuck in there. The former is for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. while the latter is for The Addams Family.

Feel for You by @parksanddownton603 (can be read here on AO3) made me fall in love with a specific tone of AU and gave me the motivation to try my hand at writing an AU like they did (also for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.). On the flipside, Defensive Wounds by @rebecca-in-blue (can be read here on FFN) is an in-universe fic but I greatly admire the characterisation in it and would love to know and honour my blorbos as well as they do. It’s for NCIS.

Another one for the Addamses, Human by @unhappychildhavingfun (can be read here on AO3) packs the kind of emotional, meaningful punch that I want my writing to throw. Though I also aspire to churn out numerous one-shots that just put my guys in situations the way @suallenparker does (if I must name particulars, the ones that affect me the most in this way have been Bulletproof, Lifeline, Safe and Sound, Liar, Mayism, Second Chances, and Being Someone Else, all for Philinda hfjsgdhhd).

And can’t play dead by @widespindriftgaze (can be read here on AO3) is…simply some of the best creative writing I’ve ever read. I love how they dabble in various, sometimes small/short-lived fandoms; I long to do that.

Welp, that was more than a few.

I hope the authors don’t mind being tagged—I wanted anyone who reads this post to be able to click onto your blog directly, but if you’d rather I not tag you, let me know and I’ll neutralise the ping right away. Sorry!!

(And of course, the one you’ve been waiting for, anon—)

What are you currently working on? Share a few lines if you’re up for it!

I am currently working (well, focusing) on A Galling Yoke, my Sherlock Holmes x Reader exes-/friends-to-lovers casefic. (It was actually supposed to be enemies-to-lovers lolol.) I’m like a third or so into Part 12, and I’ve got like seventeen chapters planned total plus an epilogue. Exciting stuff!!

And hey, you want a few lines? >:P

“No.”

“Mr Holmes, I cannot impose—”

“It shall not happen!”

You straightened in your seat, shoulders tensing. Sherlock groaned and dragged a hand down his face.

“I meant not to be…domineering,” he said. “But […] am I not to assume that you came here…for a reason?”

He and you looked at each other for a long, open moment.

I grabbed that out of the middle of a conversation for Maximum Suspense. I cut out […] because what I have written there currently is a bit of a placeholder. There was another part I wanted to share because it’s got a long quote from Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton”, but I figured that excerpt was a tad too spoilery. I’m sure you guys will prefer this romantic tension anyway. ;P

Thank you, and please feel free to send in more!

#the rare quarter #the dimensions of fandom #a dime for your thoughts #committed to the cause

[canonicallyobserving911]

Buck & Eddie: Maddie and Pepa knew instantly that Buck & Eddie had feelings for each other

This post includes the results of detailed character studies and scene analyses from Season 2 Episode 4 “Stuck” regarding Buck and Eddie’s conversations with Buck’s sister Maddie and Eddie’s aunt/tia’ Pepa.

The people that raised Buck and Eddie knew instantly when they met or heard about the other one that something was happening between them.  Maddie is Buck’s sister and she raised him since their parents were too grief stricken to do it.  Pepa is Eddie’s aunt and based on his interactions with her throughout the seasons, she has and continues to play a significant role in his life.  Therefore Maddie and Pepa recognized from each of their behaviors that they meant a lot to each other just by simply listening to and watching them.  They probably realized how significant Buck and Eddie were to each other before either of them realized it or were ready to admit it.

 Tia’ Pepa

Initially Eddie’s abuela, Isabel Diaz, cared for Christopher whenever he was at work.  But after she fell and broke her hip while caring for him one day, Eddie’s Tia’, Josephina “Pepa” Diaz, called him during his shift to let him know about her injury so that he could come and pick up Christopher from the hospital.  

Buck went with Eddie to the hospital and when they arrived, she explained the situation to Eddie and she also told him he needed to find someone else to care for Christopher.  

After she finished reprimanding him, she looked at Buck and said, “And uh, who is this?” and Eddie responded with “This is Buck we work together.”  She looked Buck up and down then replied, “Hmm, and I thought you just dressed alike.”

Let’s be clear, Pepa knows Eddie because (1) she’s his aunt (his father’s sister) and (2) she was there while he was growing up.  They are obviously very close by the way she was speaking to him about his estranged wife and about him needing to find care for Christopher since her mother, his grandmother, was getting too old to do it.  She chastised him but she did it with love and caring, unlike his trifling mother did later in 2x17 “Careful What You Wish For” (Read blog post “The Women in Eddie’s Life” for more information about his mother and aunt).  Therefore she could instantly tell Buck meant more to Eddie than him simply being his co-worker.  They were dressed exactly alike in their work uniforms so of course she knew they were both firefighters which means her response to Eddie after he said they “work together” was sarcastic and directed solely at Eddie.  Buck had no idea that Eddie’s aunt could tell Eddie‘s feelings for him were more than that of just a friend.  Her response was to alert Eddie that she already knew how much Buck meant to him because obviously he wouldn’t just allow anyone to accompany him to the hospital.  The underlying meaning to her response was ‘Eddie, I know you.  You’re a loner and you don’t just allow anyone to follow you around.  You only brought Shannon to meet family in the past and that was because she was pregnant so who is this man to you?  What does he mean to you?  He must mean a whole lot so is he your boyfriend or are you planning to ask him to be your boyfriend?’  Eddie made a face after she said, “I thought you just dressed alike” as if to say, ‘Tia’ you caught me, I want to date him but it’s complicated since I’m a single dad’. 

Her facial expression looked like it was saying, ‘Eddie, you’re full of $h!+ because you know you’re in love with him’.  Make no mistake, Pepa knew Eddie was falling in love with Buck.

Maddie

After Maddie arrived in L.A., she briefly lived in Buck’s (Abby’s) apartment with him until she was ready to move out and find her own apartment.  She noticed several changes in Buck after she arrived like how he had learned to cook and that he was waiting around for the woman he believed was his first love to come back.  Maddie wasn’t impressed with Abby at all and she told Athena about it in 2x5 “Awful People” so needless to say that Maddie wanted to protect her baby brother. She felt like Abby abandoned her brother just like their mother did so she wasn’t pleased with how Abby just left and didn’t tell Buck that she wouldn’t be coming back.  She raised him and she knows him better than he knows himself sometimes; therefore when he came home gushing and blushing about how great a father Eddie was to Christopher, she knew her brother was falling in love with him. Buck was talking about Eddie just as much if not more than he talked about Abby to Maddie.  

After Buck explained Eddie’s situation regarding him having a difficult time finding care for Christopher, Maddie explained how it would be better if someone who worked inside of “a bureaucracy” could help because they would know how to get through all of the red tape. Buck said, “It shouldn’t be that way though. Eddie always wondering how to take care of Christopher and Christopher worrying about being a burden on his dad”.  Maddie asked, “Eddie doesn’t feel that way does he?” and Buck said, “Not even a little.  He loves that kid like crazy. He’s a really great dad.”  That’s when Maddie realized her brother was falling in love so she started teasing him by saying, “So does this boy crush on Eddie mean that you’re finally ready to move on from Abby?”  Buck simply responded, “That’s cute.”  He was obviously blushing when he said that.

The truth is Buck never denied what Maddie said about him having a “boy crush” on Eddie and it wouldn’t be the last time the show included hints about Buck’s feelings for him and he never responded to those insinuations. Basically Maddie was insinuating that the only time Buck had been like that in the past was when he really liked someone.  When she said, “So does this boy crush on Eddie mean that you’re finally ready to move on from Abby?”, she knew Buck was ready to move on and let Abby go but he was scared.  He found someone else that he really liked but he wouldn’t go for it with Eddie until he was rid of Abby.  Her facial expression when Buck passed her when he was walking into the living room showed the audience when she realized he was in love with Eddie.  It looked like she was saying ‘You can’t fool me baby brother because I know you and you’re in love with Eddie’.

Since Maddie knows Buck better than he knows himself sometimes, she was able to tell that he was all in with Eddie just by listening to him talk about his situation.  Buck started researching how to help him but he admitted that he couldn’t “wrap his head around it”.  Maddie hadn’t even met Eddie yet but she knew that Buck was head over heels for him and she knew that Buck was falling in love with Eddie based solely on Buck’s behaviors and comments about him. No one knows a person better than the people who raised them; therefore it’s important to note that Maddie and Pepa saw it before Buck and Eddie were in a place to admit it.  At that point they were already acting like boyfriends on their way to becoming fiancés then proceeding to becoming husbands.  

The show has always been very INTENTIONAL regarding the direction they were planning to take Buck and Eddie’s relationship throughout seasons 2-5 and if they wanted the general audience to view them as brothers or best friends, they would have stopped all of their romantically linked interactions.  But the truth is they didn’t and still haven’t even after it was said that there’s little to no improvisation on the show.  This episode and the scenes included in it allowed Buck and Eddie’s blood relatives to address the fact that they meant more to each other than a platonic friendship or bros not long after Eddie joined the 118. The comments Maddie and Pepa made about Buck and Eddie are CANON and were aired to alert the general audience about the fact that those two would eventually end up in a romantic relationship.  Will 9-1-1 allow them to become a CANON couple in season 6?  Only TPTB know the answer to that question.  

#buddie #evan buckley #evan buck buckely #buck buckley #eddie diaz #911onfox #911 s6 #911 on fox #911 fox #911 season 5 #911 speculation #118 firefam #christopher diaz #the buckley diaz family #buckley diaz family #911 s5 #911 #911 meta #maddie buckley #eddie diaz is BAE #THEAUDIENCEWILLALWAYSREMEMBER

[threewaysdivided]

I just wanted to say: I love your art and especially your banner rn by talos! also your fic as well thank you for creating everything that you do for people, it’s awesome!

Second: what’s something that you’ve been chewing on lately, story wise? What character conflict, or plot point can you tell me about (that doesn’t spoil too much of course)? I wanna hear your thoughts about the characters you write and your head-cannons on them too! Just spit some word vomit at me!

Thank you! 

My current banner art is actually a crop of the first paired piece I ever did to go with my Deathly Weapons fic.  (Specifically Chapter 11, which I still have a soft spot for since it’s one of earliest chapters that really let me lean into scratching the thing-I-haven’t-seen-too-often-in-fanfic itch.) 

I recently got my hands on a discounted Wacom (my digital art process got tanked a few years ago when my poor art-compatible hybrid tablet-laptop was tragically taken from us by a cracked motherboard) so I’m looking forward to getting into a faster art workflow again and maybe putting some new pieces out more easily.  I’d like to do more comic art pieces for the Chapter 18 mission, and there’s a silly little concept drawing for the planned Mission 5 that might be new-blog-banner material if it turns out nicely.  We’ll have to see how that goes.

As for what I’ve been chewing on story-wise lately… I’ve sort of been all over the place.  I’m still on burnout recovery so I’ve been letting myself move non-sequentially, working on the bits my brain feels like focussing on rather than trying to force creativity where the juice isn’t flowing.   (One of the things about being my type of writing-nerd is that “self-indulgent” for me means a story with plenty of material to analyse, which is very fun as a reader but has created a lot of work for myself as the writer.  As mentioned in another post, I have a full-blown TV-show-style story-bible for this one.)

Recently, my authorial ping-pong-ing has been going into a fair bit of spoiler territory.  There are some chunks of the Act III endgame plan which are underdeveloped in the specifics of what the big-boss bad-guys’ plan is, whether I want to involve the Anti-Ecto Acts more, and the logistics of both the counter-strategy our heroes are planning to use and how to make its more action-heavy parts look cool in writing.  When I’m not doing that I’ve been focussing a lot on the upcoming Wally-centric chapters, which are a set I’ve been wanting to keep schtum about since there’s a small potential spoiler mixed in and I don’t want to risk giving the game up or pre-setting people’s expectations before they have a chance to blind read (even if a few people have already made some close guesses in the comments).  It puts me in a bit of an odd-spot right now because the chapters I’m drafting are an immediate spoiler, the later sections I’m working on are a major spoiler and there’s a good chance that a lot of the character stuff going on in the middle won’t make a whole lot of coherent sense without prior context because of how I like to layer foreshadowing/development.

That said, Wally-centric chapters mean Wally thoughts, and of those I have plenty to share:

First of all, I want to establish that I really do like Wally as a character.  The DW chapter set comprising Flashpoints through to Equilibrium is going to explore and develop some of his flaws and insecurities, which means he isn’t going to be looking his best, but it’s not meant to be a Ron The Death Eater situation.  He’s just a complex person, and taking him warts and all means sometimes you have to get up close and personal on the warts.

Something that I’m maybe a bit over-conscious of when reviewing my DW story notes is worrying about letting Wally slide into just being punching-bag joke-fodder.  Wally is quippy, irreverent, a little tactless and prone to being a bit of an impulsive goober who sometimes gets possessed by teenage boner-brain, which makes him easy to fall back on as a default source of incidental levity (whether cracking the joke or being the punchline).  Because I’m now writing an 8-character ensemble where most non-focal characters only get a few lines per conversation, it’s easy for characters to slide into being defined by their strongest surface level trait(s)… and something I worry about with Wally is that his availability as a source of jokes runs the risk of Flanderisation into a disposable Scrappy/ Flirty Comic Relief, which isn’t his character.  Wally is actually really important – not just for his scientific book-smarts but for his perceptiveness, earnestness and ability to function as one of the emotional barometers for the squad – so I always have it in the back of my mind to make sure I include enough moments that actually demonstrate those qualities and the other characters’ appreciation of them/ their friendship, so that it counterbalances the more light-hearted goofery.

I think he’s walking the same tightrope as Sokka from Avatar: the Last Airbender – yes, he tends to take the L more often than the others for comedy purposes and sometimes he gets stuck with supremely dumb side-plots for the sake of tonal balance, but to claim that it’s the entirety of his characterisation really misses the point by a wide mile.

On that note, I actually really like the decision YJ!Animated decided to go with in its first and only season (ahem) in giving Wally a normal and functional family background.  I know that’s not the typical background for his comics counterparts (and no shade on other fan-writers who want to write AUs exploring the abuse dynamic, those are really interesting stories) but I think it was a smart deviation for the purposes of a large ensemble, and offered a fair bit of potential for cast-balance.  It lets him serve an important role as the normal one – not only as an easy window into what the current lives of ordinary middle-class civilians look like (which is good because ordinary people are who our heroes are donning the masks to protect) but also as a touch-stone for the others, most of whom either come from different cultures or from very atypical backgrounds.  Even if we discount the Impure Atlantean with military training, the ostracised White Martian and the Half-Alien clone-weapon, the other members of this line-up are an orphaned circus acrobat adopted by a billionaire, a girl from a dangerously dysfunctional criminal household where she was forced to fight her sibling, and a fledgling sorceress raised by an overprotective single Dad.  The others might intellectually understand what a “normal” childhood and family look like but they don’t necessarily know it as intuitively and intimately as Wally does.  That normality gives Wally the potential to be a more stable foundation for the others, a source of emotional contrast and of a necessary wholesome mundanity.  That is a good thing for the Team to have.  I think it also speaks volumes to the heart of his character.  For this Wally, the Flash and heroism weren’t an escape from a bad personal situation.  His life was actually pretty comfy and privileged - he didn’t experience a brutal wakeup to the injustices of the world or some other personal call to action.  This is a Wally who opted into the game because he loves the players and sincerely believes in their values and mission.  And while that might mean he has a more romanticised idea of what heroism entails – and will probably face some rough shocks down the line as that rosy vision runs into those more brutal realities – it also means he brings a sincere hopefulness to the job that is less hardened than a lot of his roughed-up, pre-jaded peers.  Underneath the teen sarcasm and surface-level lancer/smart-guy traits, this Wally has as much power to be a stealth-Heart as any of his Flash!counterparts.

Something else I find interesting when using Wally is how a lot of his strengths and flaws feed into each other – and I think this alternate backstory is part of it.  For all of his good heart Wally can come off as insensitive, and I think some of that could be read as a product of living a more charmed life.  I think he’s susceptible to a thing that a lot of real people do – universalising their own personal experience as the default – and that while he is canonically a geek and somewhat genre-savvy about hero cliches, he’s a geek about in-universe media so he probably doesn’t think to apply those tropes to “real people” like himself or his colleagues.  While this Wally is a skeptic, he’s not a cynic, and I think he might forget how much of an outlier he is in a world where things like living parents and loving parents are often mutually exclusive.  He’s smart enough to connect dots but there’s a little blind-spot where he simply might not think to until one of the others jabs an elbow into his ribs, because his default view on humanity is in some ways a little kinder than typical due to that small but still significant amount of privilege.

At the same time, Wally is also someone who has probably run into (or watched his mentor run into) a lamp-post at high-speed at least once in his career.  He contains multitudes and among those multitudes is an endless capacity for some absolute Looney-Tunes nonsense, which the world is 100% better off for having.

I love him, your honour.

#striking the balance between silly and genuine with Wally is a challenge but you gotta have both #young justice: deathly weapons #YJ:DW Meta #young justice #young justice (animated) #Young Justice Season 1 #Wally West #Kid Flash #DC Comics #potatoeofwisdom #3WD Answers

[low-budget-korra]

Analysing Villains: Fire Lord Ozai

This new series i will analyse Avatar villains. Trying to figure out what they did what they did and if they are darker than they appeared or even if they were just paws in some the big scheme. Today first subject is Ozai

Ps: I'm in no way a psychiatrist or something. This analysis are based on what we saw in the shows and my interpretation of it

When we talk about Ozai, we are talking about a narcissist, egocentric, cartoonish and hateful villain. But one thing that is usually forgotten is that he is also a product of its time.

Ozai is the second son of the ruler of a imperialist nation. All the bullshit we and The Gang experienced while hiding in the Fire Nation, all the lies and manipulation...that also got to him, Iroh, Ursa, Zuko and Azula...all the family.

Lets also remind that Ozai is a second son, and in media  we often see the second son, the one that is not meant to rule, go out and conquer something. Some become generals to their older brother, some go out and conquer their own place... Anyway, There's this necessity of becoming something, someone, getting out of the shadow of it's older brother.

Another thing to keep in mind is that, a part from Ursa and Iroh, there's no love in the royal family.

But why is Iroh good and Ozai evil since they came from the same place?

I believe that when we take away all the similarities between the background, and brings up each character personality. For example: Iroh was the Dragon of the West for a reason, and he gain a lot of respect when serving as a general and even tho he was responsible for a lot of deaths and all the bad that came from war, I highly doubt that Iroh did anything considered be to war crime. So even after being taught that the war as Fire Nation right and all the bullshit, he still had the personality and honor. He may have learned this with his mom or someone else, or he just born that way.

And there's one think that I believe is vital for Iroh's change: His son death. When Lu Ten died, possible following his orders, Iroh feel apart and learn the hard way the cost of this war.

If Iroh was honorable even when he was the heir and Fire Nation general, Ozai was the opposite of that. His desire to make a name for himself, the endless search for power and the lack of morals made him plan to murder is father and over throne his brother.

Another thing to be talk about Ozai is that he was probably envy at Iroh, since Iroh was the Dragon of the West and who Ozai was? Nobody, only the second son, doomed to always be on the shadows of his older, skilled, honorable brother. And I believe he didn't kill Iroh because of the prestige Iroh had with the people and the soldiers, also because Iroh was smart and apparently after Lu Ten death, he quietly let go of the protagonism he had in the army (and I believe he also was "okay" with Ozai taking his place just to keep himself alive)

So, being apart of a certain environment can explain a few things but if you put two people in the same environment, they can and probably will come out different. So I do believe the environment play it's card in order to make Ozai the evil he is, there's also who he is dispite the environment. And we see and mock of how desperate he is for power when we put the "Phoenix King" tantrum. That's ridiculous. That's who he is. The only thing he has ever loved in his life was the idea of  power.

Ps: I will talk more about his relationship with his kids in other post where I make parallels between Ozai/Iroh and Zuko/Azula.

#atla #tla #avatar #avatar the last airbender #the last airbender #fire nation #avatar studios #uncle iroh #fire lord ozai #zuko #azula

[chenfordspiral]

Love your thesis on 5x12 as well as the earlier ones! I always enjoy analyses of episodes and characters. Do you think you'll do more during summer hiatus? I would be very interested in reading more if possible, but understand it's a lot of work :)

Hi anon! 

First of all, thank you so much for reading my theses. I’m glad you’re enjoying them! And thank you so much for your interest in more! That means so much more than I can put into words. 

Now for the hard part.

Simply put: I don’t know yet. I haven’t made any plans so far but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. I said something similar after posting my 5x08 thesis, and look how that went 😂 Real life likes to get in the way too, and it’ll be a packed summer hiatus because I have other fandom things planned as well, but I’m sure I’ll be able to write something (bc I have ideas). Yes, it’s a lot of work, but it’s also a great momentary escape from reality. I’ll just have to coordinate it all and see what works best. 

At the end of the day, I really don’t have this under control at all. My mind usually just does what it wants and I have to run with it. Which makes it fun, because I never know what happens next, haha. 

Anyway. Hope this makes sense and it’s a somewhat satisfying answer, that somehow turned into a little rant, whoopsie. Apologies.

Again, thank you for reading and thank you for the ask! Hope you have a great day and Happy Easter (if you’re celebrating)!

#anon ask #answered #a chenford thesis #i'm sorry this turned into a little rant #chenford

[stillbelievinginfireflies]

So I have somehow managed to delete this post instead of posting it three times now, because I am very talented. That said - hi there @novafire-is-thinking and thank you so much for the tag, sorry it’s taken me so long to reply! Always good to hear from you - I tried to theme my list along transformers too. :)

Rules: List ten songs you’ve been enjoying and tag ten people.

Two Minutes by The Amazing Devil (yt | spotify)

So funny story, I made a DND character initially based off Brainstorm and somewhere down the line he turned into Ratchet. This is on his playlist and effectively serves as one of his theme songs, and reminds me a lot of everyone’s favourite grumpy medic too. It’s one of very few songs that I’ve found that actually fits him, I think, and I definitely am gonna cut myself off here before I go into a rant analysing this song from the perspective of IDW Ratchet.

Angelica’s Room by War is Over (yt | spotify)

This one’s on here for two reasons. First of all, I’m teaching myself guitar, and this is one of the only songs I’ve managed to learn well enough that I can more or less sing and play it at the same time, which of course means I’ve listened to it about a thousand times. Secondly, it reminds me of Chromedome - it’s about growing up and changing from who you used to be, and my favourite lines in it are ‘When you look down on me/will you promise to/forget who I once was/ and know me for who I’ll be?’ and every time I hear them I think of OG Rewind and Domey in the aftermath of choosing not to forget him.

Adhd by Truslow (yt | spotify)

This one’s on my Scavengers playlist, and the title probably gives away who it reminds me of. What can I say? It’s a cheerful song and it makes me smile, very much so like Misfire himself.

Moscow by Autoheart (yt | spotify)

First off, Autoheart is one of my top bands (both because they have wonderful songs and because their singer is one of relatively few artists who stays reliably within my vocal range.) Moscow is on here specifically because the vibes and energy reminds me of the Lost Light crew and the reasons that I love them. Fair warning - it’s really catchy, and I take no responsibility if it gets stuck in someone’s head.

What Have You Become? by MNQN (yt | spotify)

This song is on two playlists: Soundwave’s, and a TF OC of mine who I am not yet quite self-indulgent enough to make his friend but who I nevertheless think would have been a good friend for him. The album art also matches TFP Soundwave’s colour scheme, but that’s not the point - this one is very atmospheric, Tron Legacy type vibes with a fun little added emphasis on internal mutation into something unrecognisable! :)

Conspiracy of Silence by The Swoons (yt | spotify)

Like the song above, this song is on Soundwave’s playlist and another TF OC’s playlist. (Different OC this time - the previous one was a Decepticon general, but this one is for a Neutral-ish Empurata’d ex-medic who has some... let’s call them issues.) Something about the way the song gets super dramatic and then goes quiet is just a really good vibe, I think.

Teach Me To Fight by YONAKA (yt | spotify)

Obligatory song off my Whirl playlist, hehe. Not only is this song great for blasting through headphones when I wanna feel like a badass or quiet rage, it also fits him well. The whole ‘let’s make this public, let’s take it outside’ always makes me think of him meeting Cyclonus and immediately starting a fight with him in IDW.

All Is Well (Goodbye, Goodbye) by Radical Face (yt | spotify)

This one might be cheating a little, since it’s only on a TF OC playlist and not one for a canon character, but I’m throwing it on anyway because Radical Face has some beautiful storytelling with their music and this is my favourite song of theirs. Also, some lines do remind me a little bit of Rodimus (which is fitting, given that this OC is also from Nyon). in particular: ‘So I collected all our plans and crimes/and set them all alight/ The only thing that held me to this place/ You took with you when you died/ So goodbye, goodbye’.

First Defeat by Noah Gunderson (yt | spotify)

This is partially added because Noah Gunderson is sorely underrated and I love this song, and partially because it makes me think of MiniMegs/MagsMegs in IDW. It’s a very sweet, very sad song that I think very much encapsulates the bittersweet nature of the ship for me - the fact that it’s kinda doomed from the start, but that they both care and pay attention to little things and this isn’t a fight they can win but they sure did fight it anyway - I’m gonna stop myself, before I ramble. I really like this song.

Kiss Me by Rob Vischer (yt | spotify)

Aight this one isn’t transformers, BUT I’m adding it anyway, because I’ve been listening to it daily for weeks now. It’s tied into an RP I’m doing for TLOU, and I feel the second verse in my bones every time I listen.

I am henceforth tagging @lovewithagirl @nevershootamockingbird @babblythings @eldritchcorvidae @eldritchjackalope @thetragicallynerdy @rubixpsyche @shakenbaeky @belasupremacy and @orionhong to also inflict your music taste on the world and share some recs if you wanna!!

#atlas speaks #tag i'm it #no obligation to anyone i tagged obvs #just giving the option if it sounds fun!!!

[tgammsideblog]

Tgamm ¨The Curse¨ episode analysis (S1 E1 A)

Alright, for starters i would like to say that i’m thinking about starting a little project that involves me writing reviews/ analysis of episodes in Season 1 while the series is on haitus. I may post twice of these per week ( 4 segments per week) if people like the idea.

I’m not planning in making these very in *depth* analyses. See it more as me writing some general observations and giving my opinions about an episode. I have always prefered to keep things simple and to not go that hard into details. Expect these to be quick reviews rather than very long essays. Having that said, let’s start with the analysis of ¨The Curse¨

One the first things that always catches my eye watching this episode is just how good the intro to the Ghost World is. In the first scene we already get this feeling of sadness and desperation coming off of the Flow of Failed Phantoms. The rock where the Ghost Council is looks intimidating. It gives the impression we are in cold fantastical world different from ours.

Another thing that the intro scene helps setting up is how cruel and authoritarian the Ghost Council is: In the first minute we see them throwing a ghost who wasn’t capable of keeping her town miserable because of things that were too out of her control. The Ghost Council doesn’t care about this and sends her quickly to the Flow without any doubts. With so little the series is already telling us a lot of the Ghost World social system, how it operates and that the ghosts have a job to keep humans miserable. That’s a great way to get you audience attention quickly.

What it follows is the introduction to Scratch’s character: The first he is doing when he appears on screen is eating garbage. Then he gets into the Ghost Council’s faces, not caring about social manners at all. That scene alone is communicating a lot about Scratch’s character, from his habits to the way he usually interacts with other people. When the Ghost Council is about to go the Ghost Council club, Scratch asks them if he can go with them. He is quickly rejected, being made fun of and abruptally send off back to the Earth realm. For a moment Scratch is seen with a sad expression, only for him to cover that up by saying ¨he doesn’t need anyone¨ and ¨he is better off by himself¨. Here we see Scratch’s character main conflict clear. His constant loneliness and treatment he receives in the Ghost World by his superiors. His denial about his current situation, repeating to himself again and again that he is better alone to cover his own pain of not having anyone else.

As for the McGees, i like how each one is introduced and i can easily get a quick grasp of their dynamic like Darryl being the trouble maker and Molly looking to make Brighton a better place (¨I see limitess potential). With some lines it’s enough to undestand more or less how they work as a family. There is a brief mention of the family economic status when they see the state of their new home, which is nice.

After arriving our main protagonists finally meet for first time. For the very first moment they interact with each other, the writers take full advantage of their personalities to make hilarious interactions between them. It does a good job at  settling their whole relationship that gets more depth in later episodes. If there is one issue i have that affects this episode’s quality is how much it tries to explore in only 11 minutes of screen time. Instead of letting the events flow naturally, it feels like the story is jumping from scene to scene with no breather in between. For example: Molly interacts with Scratch two or three times before he decides to put the curse on her, which makes feel like the narrative is pushing the characters to move instead of the other way around. It’s not that this aspect alone completely ruins the episode. There are other things like the jokes and the characters interactions that still make it fun to watch. However, i would argue that it may not fully get the attention of someone who is starting to watch the show.

Moving on, i found the song ¨Together Forever¨ sweet. It’s a cute and funny sequence with some dark humor lyrics (Like a parasitic worm I live your heart!) which is something you wouldn’t normally expect from a Disney animated show. Scratch attemps at trying to scare off Molly are funny with Molly barely reacting to them.

When Scratch goes to the Ghost World to ask to two members from the Ghost Council about the curse (while half lying about it). There is a short explanation that shows that Scratch has to make Molly or her family leave the house so he is able to break the curse that bounds him to Molly. The main issue is that the house is the McGees’ ¨forever home¨. Molly explains to Scratch that they have been moving multiple times around the country, something that lead to Molly having to leave many friends behind. This gives a reason to why she acts to happy about Scratch being her ¨forever friend¨ because she never had proper long lasting friendships. She never stayed in one place growing up. It’s worth of bringing up that Scratch seems to sympathize with Molly for a moment when she mentions having lost friends in the past. It shows that he wasn’t completely bad even when he didn’t like Molly at the start.

In last scene of episode Molly is talking to Grandma Nin by using videocall. Nin suggests her to make a Sal Phra Phum, a little house for ghosts that comes from Thai culture (Molly is part thai from her mother’s side). I think it’s cool that they used Molly’s culture to find a solution to Scratch’s problem. It’s a nice touch. What’s more, it is interesting how Scratch calms down once Nin makes this suggestion, showing that his issue was probably not having his own space. Molly doesn’t hug him as much as she does in this episode, meaning that she got the idea that Scratch doesn’t like to be given too much attention.

In all, i think ¨The Curse¨ is an okay episode to start the series. There are some weird things about the characterization and pacing that may come from being one of the first episodes. Usually animated shows first episodes aren’t the best quality and they can be a hit or miss. In spite of this, If someone is trying to introduce the show to a friend. i would suggest them to make them watch the segment that follows ¨First Day Frights¨ since the writing and the pacing is better in that one in comparison.

#The Ghost And Molly McGee #tgamm #tgamm the curse #Tgamm episode analysis

[allthegoodusernamesaretakenagain]

OKAY SO THIS IS LATE but I loved loved loved loved the new chapter!!!! Finally my boys are TALKING AGAIN and I can’t be more happy.

But more importantLy ITS HAPPENING. QUENTIN IS CATCHING FEELINGS THE SLOW BURN IS BURNING!!! Also I wanted to ask, is their a significance behind the chapter title and the usage of bluenight shades? I’m a eng lit degree graduate so I analyse everything and I have a few notes on it!!

ALSO. DARIA AND IMPA? DARIA AND IMPA!!!!! SO UNEXPECTED AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!! Have you always planned that or had it come to you much later in the story? Also I was wondering do you find that your characters ‘write themselves’. Have any of your characters changed since the start or how you first envisioned them? Sorry for all the questions I’m just bursting with them!!!

Hi Katie! Don't worry about being late, any comment at all is appreciated!!!

But wow, yes, the Blue Nightshades have significance in terms of their representation. I didn't think anyone would notice too much if they noticed at all! However, I saw posts many years ago about how Silent Princess represents Zelda, and Blue Nightshades represent Link. I think this is because Blue Nightshades grow in quiet areas of Hyrule, and they also tend to grow near Silent Princesses. It's a really lovely and beautiful idea and something that I tend to notice when playing the game. I will see silent princesses and blue nightshades together and just find it so perfect. So, when I was describing Quentin's feelings, comparing it to that flower felt very fitting, for even if he was unaware of it, it gave a little more to the reader to make everyone else aware of it. It was a subtle way of saying, "he is falling for link, no one else, even if he doesn't know it yet'.

I have in fact planned Impa and Daria since the beginning. It was one of the many aspects of the story that I knew many years ago that hasn't changed. But in terms of if characters write themselves, absolutely. Link started off very different in my head, but the more I wrote him, the more he changed. The same with Denzel. He was intended to be a harsher character, but after writing his first scene I decided mid-writing I hated that idea, and then he became the Denzel I write now. I think almost all of the Brinston siblings have changed from what I originally had of them. I learnt to go with the flow as I was writing them. Even if they all changed from what I planned, they changed for the better.

Never worry about asking questions, I love to answer them!

#legend of zelda #zelda fanfiction #botw link #botw #tloz #zelda #fanfiction #the legend of zelda #legend of zelda fanfiction #botw fanfic

[lore-of-the-silvereyes-rwby]

Hi! Hope you're doing okay. What is your opinion on Ozpin and his relationships, especially with Qrow? Do you think there's a chance of reconciliation between the two of them in the next Volume? Of so, how would that happen? Can you do an analysis on Ozpin like you did on Ironwood, or is that focus only reserved for your fave? Do you think Qrow was right that meeting Ozpin was the worst luck he ever had, and if so or not, why? How do you think those two would progress onward? How come you haven't done the other analyses list on Ironwood you noted to yourself? Sleep on time!

I’m doing well,all things considered. 

As for Ozpin’s relationship with Qrow and others well this may require meta and fourth dimensional thinking that I believe people should consider and factor into understanding Ozpin and by extension the Ozma soul and all of Ozpin’s predecessors. Even though the body and soul is a new host, the Ozma soul(s) that merged with them are not and carry over past memories and feelings of their past life. Because of that its a safe bet to say that everyone that the man with two souls has ever befriended and encountered they will eventually outlive and never see again. Causing great grief and heartache.

Even though reincarnation is different it is in a way a form of immortality and because of that the Ozma soul has outlived and is still going to outlive everyone he has ever met and befriended. Which will one day include (assuming the Salem conflict is resolved) the main characters of RWBY and their children and so on and so forth. So if I were to honestly say anything about the dynamic of any of Ozpin’s relationships, at best their just professional work relationships that are unified by a common cause to which he gives proper credit and respect to but nothing more and nothing less.

As for reconciliation between Qrow and Ozpin in the next volume it depends on whether or not Team RWBY specifically Yang and Ruby make it back to remnant before Qrow gets to Vacuo because last time we saw Qrow he was panicking about whether or not they made it out of Atlas before it crashed. So if Qrow gets to Vacuo before RWBY return, Qrow’s going to be under the impression that they are dead and most likely is going to hold Oz accountable but this time it may be a bit worse than the fall out of V6

I’ve been planning an Ozpin analysis for a long time but at the moment the next big analysis series that I’ve worked on was on Ruby but i’ll get there. Side note I wouldn’t say Ironwood was my favorite and the only reason why he was my first analysis was because of the discord and hatred this character brought to the fandom and I felt that I should try my best to attempt to provide a fair and honest argument and analysis of his character to at least minimize all the ignorant and misplaced blame that most of the toxic people in the fandom favor if it means that Ironwood was justified and should have been the main character based on meaningless facts ad opinions.

No if anything Oz was the best thing that could have ever happened to a person like him and even though I like Qrow it should be said that this guy seeks validation and acknowledgement more than anything and just by saying that he himself just admitted that wouldn��t have done anything good if it meant that it was all for nothing. To put it in perspective, imagine if Qrow found this out around the time of Summer’s disappearance and before he saves Yang and Ruby from Beowolves? If that were the case theres a very good chance that Qrow wouldn’t have save Yang and Ruby and would have likely let them die seeing it as pointless.

Again depending on whether or not RWBY return from Tatoonie their relationship going forward would just be professional Ozpin’s not his friend he’s a guide and right now his priority is Salem, not helping Qrow with his self esteem issues

As for why I haven’t done any other analysis or theory posts like I did for Ironwood or the ones that I said I would do, It’s just simply that life got in the way as when I wrote the Ironwood analysis series the pandemic more or less gave me time to focus and write it out and since then I got into med school had a death in the family enduring through family grief and lost that followed finding out that several of my neighbors are bad people helping my parents and siblings with the house and school failing the original course I went to med school for and then switching to another program. The house that my grandmother, my aunt, and cousins were living in caught fire and I had to help with that, and got covid soon after, enduring fires and flooding on the highway that I take to school, helping an old friend and her baby get away from her abusive family and currently right now as I write this I have about two weeks of school left before finals for the last term for this program so my priorities are more or less focused on this as I’m this close to graduating. Also I’m studying to be a Polysomnographic Technician so my sleep schedule is more or less warped and I’m mostly supposed to be awake all night for the clinical internships for this career.

Sorry for the delay but here is my response to your questions.

#rwby #rwby analysis #rwby theory #rwby theories #rwby thoughts #rwby ozpin #rwby qrow #rwby ironwood #rwby ruby #rwby yang #rwby salem #rwby oscar #rwby volume 8 #rwby volume 9 theory