#my way of analyzing what is said when I don't know a word of Japanese:

[piracytheorist]

Have we talked about how Twilight went from "Anya will go back to the orphanage I picked her up from once the mission is done"

to "I'll write a cover letter so she can go to a better orphanage and be happier"

to "I'll make sure both my fake daughter and fake wife have a good life once the mission is done and I have to part with them"

because I think that's v important

#he wants them to have a good life post-mission #but remember! it's only for the mission! #Loid Forger #Spy x Family #my way of analyzing what is said when I don't know a word of Japanese: #I find the manga in JP #screenshot the dialogues and have a translate program analyze the japanese characters #and write them in romaji #then I check the episode #and if the dialogues are similar #(for the most part the anime script is identical to the manga dialogues) #I look at the sentence part by part #(here in the ''follow up with them'' it was slightly different) #I think he actually says ''follow'' as a loan word #while the manga had a japanese word there #(at least according to what the program analyzed lol) #500

[sage-nebula]

"Suffer No Fools" - Shiver vs. Marina Analysis

It's been a few days since "Suffer No Fools" released, but I wanted to go ahead and release my analysis of Shiver's and Marina's verse since that's the one that has caused the most discussion within the fandom. I've seen a lot of debate over Marina's section in particular, with people unsure whether she was being sincere or sarcastic, and I think the actual answer is a little more complicated than one or the other, at least with regards to the first couplet of lines both she and Shiver sing. Of course, people are free to interpret this song however they wish, but after seeing numerous interpretations I personally didn't vibe with, I just wanted to put my own out there, breaking it down line by line.

So! Here we go.

Exchange 1:

Shiver: "Your haunting voice -- there's no escape. How nice it must be for your fans." Marina: "You're far too kind! I love your vibe. I can learn so much from your style."

Analyzing from dialogue only:

Shiver is insulting Marina's voice by calling it haunting and saying there is no escape, insinuating she wishes there was one. She says how nice it must be for Marina's fans, again implying that she isn't one.

Marina says that she loves Shiver's vibe, which on the surface could be a compliment, but given the context (a music battle) it could also be a Mean Girl "ooh I love your [thing] :)" passive-aggressive drawing-attention-to-something-ugly insult. More direct though, is the "I can learn so much from your style"; you can learn what not to do from someone just as much as you can learn what to do from someone. Marina's engaging in plausible deniability here.

HOWEVER. Lyrics are NOT the only thing that need to be analyzed from this first verse, which is arguably the MOST important exchange between these two. Instead, we need to look at how these lines are delivered.

Shiver is singing in a traditional Japanese folk singing style, specifically a style based on Shima-uta, which her voice actress has a background singing in. Unfortunately, I don't know the actual term for this style of singing, only that it's not kakegoe, something Shiver also does that is different from this. Anyway, in these lines specifically Shiver is singing in her Shima-uta style, a style that she has presumably been practicing since she was a small child, a style that is probably culturally significant to the Hohojiro clan. Singing in this style is not something that just anyone can do. It's completely different from singing in a (for lack of a better word) "western" style. The way you breathe is completely different. The way you incorporate your voice into your breathing is completely different. So by singing in this style, which Shiver has been doing practically her whole life and which, presumably, only she of the four there can do, Shiver is FLEXING on Marina regardless of what lyrics she chooses to sing.

But then Marina, who grew up under the domes in Inkadia, who presumably has never heard Shima-uta before she started listening to Deep Cut and heard Shiver sing, who presumably has had absolutely no training whatsoever on this style of song . . . mimics it perfectly and flexes on Shiver right back.

Could Marina's words to Shiver be interpreted as passive-aggressive in turn? Yes. But does it matter? No, not really. Because in this first verse, Marina's ACTUAL comeback is to take the style of singing that Shiver has been perfecting her entire life and throw it right back in her face despite having never (as far as we or Shiver know) practiced it herself. Shiver was flexing by presumably doing something Marina couldn't do, only for Marina to do it flawlessly, being every bit as divine with a voice so fine as Pearl said she was previously. Marina says "I love your vibe" so she takes it. Marina says "I have so much to learn from you" but does she really, when she can already do exactly what Shiver can, and has, just now, right in front of her?

And Shiver noticed, hence:

Exchange 2:

Shiver: "You remind me of my neighbor's little daughter . . . What's that saying? 'Octo see, octo do.'" Marina: "Glad you approve -- your praise has left me moved. Thanks to your notes, I'll find my groove!"

Shiver drops the Shima-uta singing, because now there's no point. Marina can also sing in that style, so it's no longer a flex. Shiver lost ground on that one, so instead we're back to the same (again, for lack of a better word) "regular" style of singing that everyone else is using. For that reason, we can go back to analyzing purely based on the words alone.

Shiver is calling Marina a copycat, essentially, because Marina copied her Shima-uta singing style in the previous verse (hence why Shiver had to drop it, as previously noted). Marina then gives her "glad you approve -- your praise has left me moved" . . . basically noting that by Shiver accusing her of copying, Shiver is saying that Marina -- someone who just tried the singing style off the cuff right there on the stage for the first time -- was just as good as Shiver, someone who has trained in that style her whole life. The audience saw for themselves that Marina was able to emulate the style, but Shiver saying, "you copied me!" is basically admitting that Marina was just as good as her in Shiver's own eyes, and Shiver is a pro. That's Shiver's aggravation handing Marina the win and Marina smiling wide as she accepts it.

Exchange 3:

Shiver: "Oh, look at the time. Isn't it getting late?" Marina: "Not at all! I could go on like this all night long."

This one doesn't even really need an analysis. For all that she prides herself on being "so cool even sharks call her cold-blooded," Shiver is known for being easily irritated and riled when she's losing due to her competitive nature. Marina successfully got under her skin, and this is her trying to end the battle fast because she didn't have any further comebacks. Marina, meanwhile, gives the classic "I could go on all night" because she's not riled at all, and is instead perfectly comfortable in this environment, knows what she's doing, and has had the upper hand from the start.

It goes back to another post I made about Experience vs. Inexperience. Shiver and Frye are still new idols, whereas Pearl and Marina have been at this for a long while. And while off the stage Marina is a sweet, kind, gentle person who will go out of her way to help others, and can sometimes be a little spacey or naive, she's also a 23-year-old literal genius who has been in the music industry for years now and knows full well what a rap / music battle is and knows her way around a stage. Personally, I found it to be a little infantilizing to insinuate that she "didn't realize Shiver was insulting her," when not only do I think she knew full well, but also she was the one with the upper hand not because of sick burns (that's Pearl's department), but because of sheer innate musical talent.

But those are just my thoughts! Everyone else is free to have their own.

#splatoon #splatoon 3 #suffer no fools #off the hook #deep cut #shiver hohojiro #marina ida #keep in mind that Shiver is my favorite Deep Cut member please #i mean no disrespect to her in any of this #i really do just think it's her inexperience in the music industry etc #and Frye's as well #i think that in Splatoon 4 we'll see that Shiver and Frye have matured some & made some headway in their own careers #(and Big Man too ofc but tbh he's already there with the maturity imo) #(hence his collabing w/ Squid Sisters & non-hostility toward OtH) #then again maybe Deep Cut wants to stay indie. idk! we'll see

[honeygrahambitch]

My favorite hypothesis in this fandom are probably those related to Hannibal's trauma about speaking Lithuanian. And if you are not familiar with the povs, they are basically that Hannibal would use Lithuanian words as love language for Will OR that he would just never want to use that language ever again cause it's way too stained by what happened in his past.

I, in general, love the idea of him using some words only with Will but this time I have a headcanon which considers the second option.

If Will and Hannibal had a baby (doesn't matter how, your choice) I think that Hannibal would manage to overcome his trauma and build something on that only by teaching his child to speak Lithuanian.

I am 100% a hannigram baby would be a multilingual baby. Cause Hannibal speaks french and italian and lithuanian and I'm pretty sure a few other languages as well and he would love his kid to learn some of those.

Will is happy with whatever he decides but he makes a comment at some point, as subtle as he can (not subtle at all). "What other languages can you speak?"

"I can do a bit of japanese." (Makes sense, his aunt was japanese, he had grown up with her at some point)

"That would be a bit too difficult for a toddler." Will goes on, still being subtle.

"I agree." Hannibal says. "But she is doing great with italian."

"I know, I think she taught me a few words yesterday." Will adds. Multilingual kids are not always aware when that they change a few languages in just one sentence. He is thinking of how to approach it. "Maybe you could also try something different?"

"Like german? I thought about that as well."

"No, not german..." He replies thinking of a reason. "It sounds bad."

"Then something slavic? I haven't practiced in years but at some point in my life I could do croatian well enough."

"Why would she need to know Croatian, Hannibal? The alphabet is too hard for a kid who is doing other two languages as well."

"Then what were you thinking? I have exhausted my list, dearest." He is amused with Will who is very neutral towards his impressive skills.

"You haven't exhausted it." Will says. "Yet."

Hannibal gestures for him to go on and explain.

"I was thinking our kid should be somehow more connected to our backgrounds."

The flicker in Hannibal's eyes dies instantly.

"We won't move back to the US and I want her to know a lot of things about it."

"Mhm. The US are sure not the elephant in the room." Hannibal says passively. "Just move on to what you've been trying to say for 30 minutes."

"I am not saying that you have to, I'm just saying that you should teach her Lithuanian. And me as well." He says softly and blinks a few times, trying to analyze the emotional battle that is going on inside Hannibal's head.

"I haven't spoken or written in Lithuanian in 40 years, my skills would lack."

"But that's not the problem, is it? We both know they wouldn't lack."

Hannibal sighs as Will sits on the sofa next to him.

"I know that's a whole tower in your memory palace, which I am trying to access. And I know you don't like it. And I also don't want to push you too far."

They had a lot of time to work better on their communication issues in the last years. You can't solve every conflict with a knife when you are trying to raise a child in a healthy atmosphere.

"I agree with the fact that she should be connected to our backgrounds. It's just... difficult."

"You have said before that Lithuanian reminds you of... everything. But I really believe that if you taught our kid Lithuanian, you wouldn't view it in the same light again. I think you can make something beautiful out of it."

"It makes me remember people that I will never talk to again. And that is something which will always be burnt deep down in my memory palace. If I take up Lithuanian again, then everything else comes to surface too."

"Make something else out of it. Make it the language you speak to your child, not a language that is stained by your past. Use it to call me in stupid cheesy ways that would probably sound like swearwords."

Hannibal cracks a smile when he sees the dumb look on Will's face. He knows he is trying his best not to hurt him.

"You are right, it's not phonetically pleasing. Not like Italian or french or-"

"It's yours, it will be phonetically pleasing to me."

**

Oh and it takes time. And it takes some processing. But they are getting there.

When their daughter is 14 she switches between languages very comfortably.

Will loves to watch her and Hannibal argue in Lithuanian. He has learnt enough words to tell what they are talking about but it's always more entertaining to watch.

Nothing softens Will more than being called mylimasis.

#ahhhh this took so many turns that i haven't expected #it was supposed to be just a little headcanon #and now it makes me cry #hannibal #hannigram #hannibal lecter #will graham #hannibal nbc #hannibal series

[minugasakuranohana]

Blue mackerel Dazai

Have you ever wonder why Chuuya calls Dazai mackerel? It's mostly because real Nakahara did it but what if not only? And why writer Dazai was called like that? I started thinking about it since i first glanced at kanji 鯖 / saba — mackerel 🐟

Let's analyze kanji! It has two parts: 魚 / sakana / fish and 青 / ao / blue 。Pronunciation seriously attracts my attention because… hmm、look: saba — 'Samu — Osamu。And blue mackerel is 青い鯖。There is also another word: 青鯖 / aosaba、dictionary says it's archaism which also means mackerel。And aosaba is more similar to Osamu。

Headcanon: Dazai calls his partner by his name (not a surname) and Chuuya just a little changes name Osamu)

Unfortunately, godness know when did 青 run away from 鯖、anyway I guess two-kanji-word used to use in the first part of the last century。But what came first: the nickname or the alias?

Tsushima Shūji (the real name of writer、津島 修治) had used name Dazai Osamu (太宰 治) since 1933 when he published novel "The Train"。

We know about Dazai and Chuuya first meeting and "mackerel" from Dan Kazuo's book about Dazai「小説 太宰治」 (or not because I can't find it 😔 Does anybody have this book in English or Japanese? I would be grateful if I could read it in Russian, but it's just a good dream、it's not easier than found the Book from anime。I found only one little translated story from the book)

Also you can find Nakahara's quote about Dazai in Japanese Wikipedia:

「青鯖が空に浮かんだような顔をしやがって」 「Aosaba ga kuu ni ukanda youna kao wo shiyagatte」

青鯖 / aosaba means mackerel。空 / kuu is the sky、and 空に it's "in the sky"。 浮かんだ / うかんだ — past plain form of the verb 浮かぶ / ukabu、to float、to show up。 ような is the thing that we can use to express similarity、in this sentence similarity with 顔 / kao / face, facial expression。 やがる / yagaru is slang curse word indicated contempt, hatred、and やがって is て-form of this verb。し / shi is from verb する、to do。

Well, Chuuya said 「Damn it, bastard with face looking like mackerel floating in the sky」or something like this。

Chuuya! Don't ruine my headcanon! 😡

Huh… Mackerel face? Fish with the blue stripes 🐟🐟🐟

By the way、those stripes and one of popular anime backgrounds are lookalike、isn't they? And that face everyone sometimes makes because of Dazai — 😰

Yeah, got it! I really hoped there could be an idiom about mackerel but it still can be called a metaphor。In that situation it could mean 「Fucking idiot with your scared face」— Dan wrote Dazai seems like he could start cry that moment。And 'cause Kafka Asagiri-sensei often creates reverse version of lifecanon-people maybe port-mafia-Chuuya called Dazai mackerel not because Osamu was scared but because he liked to scary others。

Imagine BSD wan for example where when instead of usual blue background the blue mackerel shows up in the sky。It's funny) Nakahara was genius, don't you think?

#bungou stray dogs #bsd dazai #bsd chuuya #bsd atsushi #bsd fanart #headcanon #language #why dazai was called blue mackerel #mackerel #blue mackerel #japanese #I'm still learning how to use tags

[dedalvs]

This is super random and I’m not sure how to word this but I just discovered your tumblr page and you seem really kind & thoughtful when interacting with asks so I thought why not ask:

I’ve taken two linguistics courses - one was an intro course and the other was a psychology of language course. I currently am finishing my masters in Forensic Psychology and to this day those were the hardest classes and I can’t for the life of me figure out why. I will say I’m monolingual (not intentionally) but I struggle to learn another language. I will also mention while I don’t need a hearing device of any kind sometimes I feel like I can’t understand people without subtitles. And I certainly can’t watch media without subtitles. (I don’t know if this is relevant)

Essentially, is there hope for someone like me? Either in managing a cursory understanding of linguistics and/or another language?

P.S. I definitely don’t understand everything you did with the languages you created (eg High Valyrian) but holy shit it’s extremely badass! Ok bye!

Well first, you don't have to study linguistics or another language. We only have so much time. Focus on what you love and what makes you happy.

Second, studying linguistics is different from studying a language. A large percentage of linguists are monolingual. Analyzing a language is far different from being able to use and understand it. Great example. I understand the game of chess very well. I know all the pieces, all the moves, all the secret moves, I understand strategies very well when I read them on paper—but I SUUUUUUUUUUUUCK at chess. On the set of Bright, a couple of the PAs started playing chess on this chess app. I played against this one dude in particular and lost 117 consecutive times before I beat him. After that I still only won one out of every 15-20 games. It is just not my bag. Doesn't mean I can't appreciate it or understand it, though. Linguistics can actually be quite freeing, since you can study language without having the added pressure of having to learn the language. Linguistics may still not be your thing, but it has absolutely no relation to studying languages.

Third, regarding language study, not everyone learns the same. Maybe a classroom isn't your thing. There's always studying by a book, there's Duolingo, or there's just plunking on some anime in Japanese with the subtitles on and trying your best to understand what's said, bit by bit, little by little, then maybe going without the subtitles eventually—starting with stuff you know well, and moving on. There are many different ways to learn a language. The one constant is you need to engage with the language every single day. That's more important than anything else: Constant exposure.

Finally, remember that we are four dimensional beings—that is, we are located both in 3D space and in time. Just because something doesn't make sense to you at 20 doesn't mean it won't at 30. At a different age you have a lot more experience, and may come with a different perspective. If language is something that interests you, you can always come back to it later—and that goes for everything.

Hope that helps! Most important thing is not to stress. Stress inhibits learning and growth. If you don't get something right now, it's no big deal. You may get it later; you may not. The important thing is you're still you, and that's a pretty great thing to be.

#castellomargot #language #linguistics

[dupliciti]

my thoughts on sa.mpo in keeping up with st.ar ra.il - sp.arkle

i reorganized this post to have the content discussion front loaded then have the voice acting/language VO differences talk following it up

if you don't watch the keeping up with st.ar rai.l videos, sa.mpo was supposed to be the one to help introduce for bla.ck swa.n's. sp.arkle crashed it. hence the taped name card, she tore it in the last one lmao. my additional note here is that i was robbed on commentary from sa.mpo on the "beautiful lady" smh.

sa.mpo himself says that he and sparkle aren't that close !!! in my mind he's always kept her at arm's length. willing to help her or work things out in a deal but they really aren't friends

sa.mpo apparently was knocked unconscious backstage, this is in dialogue with the real ow.lbert. so this was intended perhaps so he wouldn't pull a fast one? ow.lbert works for the IPC so i have to then assume that the IPC is aware that sa.mpo is dangerous to some degree to have to do this??? sa.mpo sending ow.lbert a scam text is so funny to me

sa.mpo wanting to move on by not bringing up the past and wanting to be a good boy to then be invited to more "good" things in the future. yeah, he definitely shrinks himself, act innocent, or tries to switch to acting good to get benefit out of it. time and time again this is proven.

fucking sa.mpo calling out ow.lbert and ow.lbert being like "DoYouWantYouAppearanceFeeOrNot" LMAO. sa.mpo then playing up spa.rkle is SO KJSDHGJKSDHG. ow.lbert like okay sa.mpo you're acting TOO MUCH asjkdgh

"what are the limits of the art of acting?" sa.mpo says that he "believes that mistress sparkle represents the limit of the art of 'acting' itself!" based on how he feels about her pursuit of elation, to me he means to say that she really is a limit. it's clear that he doesn't appreciate her viewing the galaxy as a stage or worlds as stages. thinks that this pursuit of elation itself is limiting for a person since it's just acting

when spa.rkle then replaces ow.lbert she says "i believe your acting is still confined to.." she doesn't specify here, instead goes on to say "mr. sa.mpo you have too many limitations. having limitations always kills the vibe". we know that because of how spar.kle exists, to her, sa.mpo is boring because of his self-imposed limitations

i don't dislike spa.rkle but obviously i write sa.mpo so in regards to that last bit, i think his take on elation is more focused on himself. and kinda how i said before it seems that fools have a drive to embody elation, so if he's feeling joy from what he does for himself, then that's what matters to him. in most cases that means it's related to a crime lmfao. i also have other thoughts based on like 2.0 and the sparkle trailers and information but that'll be a separate post

i watched it in english initially. okay. yeah. roger has settled into sa.mpo's voice. he's actually speaking a little higher here than in 2.0 which is… confusing. but i'm pretty sure it's all good under the hood. that's all. it's not a bad thing! in his own right it's great it's fine. english for sa.mpo is just not my preferred in the slightest asjkgh

although i've also said i don't draw my voice for him from spoken/voice acted lines, the way he speaks here outside of the context of the express, aka not pretending to be from belobog.. i think it's actually neat. and by neat i'm referring to the way he draws out some words.

okay as for the other languages. this type of content is so great for comparing and analyzing his VAs oh man. my bias lies between japanese and korean.

though i think more recently japanese has been winning out with his expression. newer lines and in this video we see sa.mpo's full range of emotions and his "acting". i think it's great and what i kinda aim for when writing him. even if i'm writing in english THE WAY in which he speaks is what i hear and where my goal lies. he's not just smarmy, he's not just overdramatic. he's capable of being all over the place when attempting to win someone over, and even when he sounds more genuine you still feel like you can't trust him

however, i have also said that the active balancer in my mind his his korean vo. also has had some rather amusing moments. now isn't the time to discuss past stuff, but for this video he also does the over the top bits when talking about acting and spa.rkle. the dramatics are still fitting! between all the vas i feel like this sa.mpo perhaps sounds the "coolest" if that makes sense. when speaking normally you can kinda hear it in this video

i do adore the chinese vo for sa.mpo. i've seen people say that he isn't as expressive, which i don't entirely agree with as a reason to judge his voice acting? this is technically the closest to source material in terms of the script right. i had said before regarding the reveal scene in 2.0 i think when it's called for then he IS more expressive, this comes through in this video. his dramatics feel purposeful and thus slightly more impactful since he's just a chill playful dude otherwise

#this got weirdly long so i put it under read more lmao #i need an analysis tag bc this isn't entirely headcanon and i've said some of this stuff before #i think i might combine the 2 tags because normally if i comment on something it's because i think it's pertinent to his characterization #idk or just have them separate but link on the pinned? #( analysis; ) #( ◇ ᵐʸ ᵈᵉᵃʳ ᵃᵘᵈⁱᵉⁿᶜᵉ┊ ooc; ) #( ◇ ᵖᵘʳˢᵘⁱⁿᵍ ᵉˡᵃᵗⁱᵒⁿ┊ hc; )

[getoed5725]

Kenjaku's poem in jjk206

Spoilers for jjk206 i think

This is not an analysis lol, I made the rant on TT regarding Kenjaku's poem in jjk206, this panel in particular:

I'm not sure if someone will analyze it later but im putting it here in case my tweets got washed away.

A lot got lost in translation, but this quote of him is written like a short poem in the original text.

(Please don't take this as it is, because I can only do so much research on my own, it might not be entirely accurate.)

>>>

courtsey of Trùng Roi (FB), I can understand the full meaning of it before it gets translated in English.

If you understand Vietnamese (or Japanese, Chinese) you'll see how this quote sounds so glorious and powerful in those languages in comparison to English. I think the one above is fan translation? The jist is there, but there are a lot to break down from this "poem".

In Vietnamese it's like this:

"Nghìn năm không ngừng (1)

Long tranh hổ đấu (2)

Hợp tung liên hoành (3)

Với cái thế giới nguyền rủa này" (4)

Because Vietnamese can directly translate Chinese to the exact character, the syllables from both language might be more similar than Japanese. The first 3 sentences have 4 syllables, which can be a base for 4-character poems in our languages (this is also affected by the translator's skills of word selection, so thanks Trùng Roi again for this!!)

Direct translation:

(1) A thousand years, non-stop

(2) Clashing between dragons ("long") and tigers ("hổ")

(3) [I can't directly translate this, I will note this later but it does have to do with wars and alliances]

(4) In this world full of curses

For (2), the "clashing between dragons and tigers" can simply means "the fight (or tug-of-war, in the translation) between the giants", because dragons and tigers have long been the image of the strongest animals in the legends. Also, when I look up the VNese term "Long tranh hổ đấu (2)", this movie "Enter the Dragon (龍爭虎鬥/Lóng Zhēng Hǔ Dòu)" comes up in the results (because that is exactly its title in VNese):

Which might be a coincident or not when Yuki (and by extension, Todo) has had her poses taking references from Bruce Lee, so this is really fascinating. (and see the 3rd character is also within Itadori's name too) I won't be surprised if Gege took the poem's references here, he seems to like Bruce Lee.

The (3) sentence is particularly difficult to explain. In the translation, it is "the capricious alliances and betrayals" but the original stems from 2 opposing war tactics by the ancient Chinese during the Warring States (475 - 221 BC).

"Hợp tung liên hoành" is a combination of 2 tactics "hợp tung" (合縱/hezong) for the vertical north-south alliance and "liên hoành"(連橫/lianheng) for the horizontal east-west alliance (please note that Japanese and Chinese characters might be slightly different in writing). The hezong alliance is opposed to Qin state, and the lianheng alliance is an ally of Qin state. I'm not going to go further into history but basically, the sentence amplifies what Kenjaku has gone through in the past thousands years ago, where they experienced the brutal wars, saw alliances being made, saw sides opposing and betrayals happening, saw the states got broken down and the heavy process of it, and knowing how The Warring States happened, it's much much more jarring than the current fight they're having. They've "lived through" such periods, showing the extensions of their intellect and experience in comparison to Tengen. Basically, this is some kind of advanced mockery and show off that Tengen can never be on his level, but Kenjaku lives up to it tbh lol.

Anyways! those are just my thoughts because I really like that "poem" and it sounds way heavier than the English translation. JJK has long been said to be a difficult work to understand even by the Japanese readers because of his complicated choice of words, so I'm a bit sad a lot of it gets lost in translation. Gege obviously does a lot of research on plenty of references in order to write this up, so I hope more people are aware of his efforts.

#spoiler #i think? #jjk206 #kenjaku #jjk #jujutsu kaisen #gege akutami #lost in translation #people need to know how much im impressed with gege's research! #personal

[cosmicjoke]

Thank you for answering!! I am the one who spoke about life is strange. The couple was definitely a lesbian couple. I don't know how to send media on Tumblr unfortunately for the evidence on isayama's blog. I am an Eruri shipper and though I know Levi is canonically not in love with anybody my mind can't help but think Eruri is semi-canon. I know most shippers have on shipping goggles but there's something about Levi and Erwin's relationship I just can't wrap my mind around. You are the only person I have come across who is really good at analyzing Levi and will be able to answer any questions I have with genuineness and competence.

If you get the time, pleaseeeeeeee help me answer these questions. I want to be unbiased about my ship and maybe have the semi-canon persistent thought attended to. Thanks in advance!!

1. What do you think is the reason for Isayama drawing Levi clutching the serum to his heart when he saw Erwin's injured body?

2. For us Eruri shippers, the night before the retake of Shiganshina is a huge reason why we ship eruri. When Levi was convincing Erwin to stay and not risk his life, I felt as tho Levi was being a bit OOC. I know Erwin is his commander and he believes in his leadership that's why he didn't want him to join because he knew they needed Erwin alive for the betterment of humanity but the way Levi went about it felt a bit too personal imo. Isayama himself said in an interview that what Levi really wanted to say to Erwin is that: “Don't go. I want you to be safe.”

If it was Miche asking Erwin not to go, do you think he would display his sadness the way Levi did by sulking in a corner and drinking alone? Or banging the door when Erwin disagreed with his request or beat up Eren and Jean out of frustration like Isayama said Levi did? I'm sure Hanji also cared about Erwin's well-being but they didn't show concern at the level Levi did.

3. What do you think about Isayama's editor saying that Erwin and Levi's relationship cannot simply be classified as friends or merely comrades but that there's something more there?(the same thing was said by Erwin and Levi's japanese VAs) Also, Yuki Kaji (Eren's Va ) said that Erwin and Levi's relationship is like two people in Les Miserables. There are two men in Les Miserables named Grantaire and Enjolras. Enjolras is a charismatic and inspiring leader of the group. While Grantaire is a skeptic but a devoted follower. Their dynamic of soldier and leader is the same as Levi and Erwin. In the story, Grantaire is said to sometimes question Enjolras ideals. Their friendship goes through a lot of changes and challenges but later Grantaire is still said to have deeply loved, admired and venerated Enjolras at the end. I know Yuki, Erwin and Levi's VAs, and Isayama's editor are not the author but they are close to him so their words could have some relevance. Idk.

4. Levi is the only one whose type is defined with gender-neutral terms. Yams said he likes tall people. Not woman or man. Isayama also said he is a levifujoshi. Meaning he likes to think of Levi being in a relationship with men. That was a joke but still....lol

5. This is far-fetched but when Levi says only one man while thinking about Erwin and hoping he is alive so that he can give him the serum, there is a drawing of what looks like a broken heart on Levi's cheek. Some people say it could just be a printing error which I agree is likely, although I think it is quite oddly coincidental for a printing error of a broken heart to happen while Levi was saying those words specifically. Another thing on my mind is that Isayama has done a similar heart shape around Hange when Hange was communicating affectionately with a Titan.

6. Isayama said Mikasa's liege is Eren and so is Levi with Erwin. Ackerbond doesn't exist. I know that because Isayama even said himself that Ackerman's liege thing isn't blood bound but something that they themselves choose to do. This is later affirmed by Zeke who said Mikasa protects Eren out of adoration and not from a blood bound instinct or whatnot. So if Eren is to Mikasa what Erwin is to Levi(as said by Isayama himself) does protecting out of adoration also apply to Levi since he's an Ackerman and his liege is Erwin...?

I know Isayama confirms all his ships but all the outright confirmed ships are straight ships. Historia and Ymir didn't happen, and though Ymir loved Historia it was never confirmed if Historia saw her the same way romantically.

Homophobia is rampant in Japan. I honestly think it is a bit naive and wishful thinking for us to conclude that a homosexual ship can be easily confirmed. I think it makes sense for a gay relationship(especially among men since women are more fetishized and less frown upon in media) to be hinted hence why only homoerotic relationships has had subtext for decades while straight ships have always had the privilege to be outright confirmed. It makes sense for Isayama to do the same with Levi since Levi isn't the main character and he wouldn't want to take from Eren's story by outshining it with something as controversial as a gay relatiopnship from a side character.

Anyway, I'd love to hear your honest thoughts on each question. Thanks!!❤️

Hey, you can think whatever you like, and ship whatever you like. But it's just a fact that Levi and Erwin aren't canonically romantically involved. I don't even know why this is so difficult for some people to accept, or why it bothers them so much to accept it, to the point they're willing to twist canon events and read meaning into actions and events which simply isn't there. It's called a confirmation bias. If you're looking for something to have some special, hidden meaning, you're going to start seeing things that way, whether it's actually supported by the evidence or not. Accepting canon doesn't prevent one from imagining or creating content with their preferred ship, so again, I don't know why this is so persistently an issue.

I'll answer your questions, but as I've repeatedly stated, this isn't a topic I like discussing anymore, because it's so constant, and I've answered it so many times, in so many different ways, that all you have to do is look through my blog to address whatever issues you have.

Levi holding the serum against his chest doesn't mean anything. He's literally just hesitating because he was about to hand the serum to Eren to give to Armin, and then he saw Erwin was still alive, and he realized he could give the serum to him instead. He pulls the serum back and holds it against himself as an act of hesitation. Not romantic.

Again, you're reading into Levi's words and actions what you want. You want to believe Levi was "sad" about Erwin insisting on going because he was in love with him, when there's zero evidence to support that. Levi wasn't acting OOC at all. He was pissed because Erwin had just shaken the foundation of Levi's belief in him as a leader. Levi always believed in Erwin and his leadership and his judgement because he believed in Erwin's commitment to humanity. And now he's having to question that commitment, and thus his own loyalty to Erwin. He's upset because he's wondering if he's been following the wrong man this whole time. You also keep quoting Isayama without providing any proof that he actually said these things, quotes I've never heard actually attributed to Isayama, so I can't regard any of that with any seriousness.

Nothing outside of what Isayama himself writes matters. So, I don't really care what anyone else says or implies. But of course, Levi's relationship with Erwin is very much rooted in admiration. That doesn't in any way indicate him being in love with him. He admires Erwin because he sees him as a great leader and an admirable man for his commitment to humanity. If one says there's more than just "friendship" there, all that means to me is that Levi looks to Erwin as a guiding light. I've talked about this countless times. Levi looked to Erwin as a man who could best show him how to help the most people.

Again, quoting Isayama without any proof isn't going to get you anywhere with me. Offhanded comments by Isayama in Q&A sessions don't mean anything and have no real relevance. The only thing that matters is what's in the actual text.

Again, this is reading what you want into the scene. It's projection. There's nothing in Levi's words or actions which indicate that his heart is breaking because he's in love with Erwin.

Erwin isn't Levi's "liege", and I don't think Isayama ever said that word in relation to them, or to Eren and Mikasa, for that matter. He said Levi and Mikasa were like Knights, and he said Levi and Mikasa are both "loyal", meaning their personalities are geared toward loyalty. They stick by their people. That's all that means. Mikasa is loyal to Eren because he saved her life. Levi is loyal to Erwin because he believes in Erwin' as a leader. We see this loyalty manifest Levi's sustained belief in Erwin as a leader, even after he confesses that seeing what's in Eren's basement is more important to him than humanity. Levi's trust, and loyalty born from that trust, isn't so easily shaken. It, again, doesn't indicate any kind of personal, romantic feelings, it simply indicates a high regard and level of trust in Erwin's goodness as a man. Mikasa is obviously in love with Eren. Why, then, wouldn't it be equally obvious if Levi was in love with Erwin? And don't say something like, well, homophobia. Isayama clearly doesn't care about that. Look at Historia and Ymir. Look at Hange, who's essentially transgender. EVERY romantic relationship in AoT is explicit. If Isayama wanted to make it obvious, he would have. To see the relationship between Levi and Erwin as romantic requires way too much speculation, generalization, indistinct conclusions and broad, indeterminate assumptions to ever be taken seriously.

Again, you're simply projecting and engaging in pure speculation to support your desire for Levi's relationship with Erwin to be romantic. But nothing in canon suggests it at all. There's no hint of it, no foundation for believing it, no proof of it. You rely on promotional material, live interview answers, vague, undefined and far-fetched elements which can be easily twisted to fit a certain narrative or bias, and call it evidence. It's not. It's simply you taking inconclusive answers to random questions and imbuing them with symbolic or subliminal messaging, or taking a panel and doing the same, or twisting Levi's emotional response to things which have an in story explanation which isn't romantic, and coloring it to be romantic. There's literally zero evidence to suggest Levi's relationship with Erwin is anything other than that of friendship, subordinate and commander, and confidant. That's it.

I don't mean to be so harsh, but this is beyond exhausting. I don't know how many times I can go over this same topic, again and again, and still, people refuse to just accept it. You're being friendly, and say you want me to simply help you have a better understanding of their canon relationship, but you didn't accept my first answer, and keep pushing and prodding, as if wanting to trip me up and prove that I'm wrong, even when you must know my stance on this issue and you must know how I'm going to respond. I've dealt with this same type of approach from Eruri shippers countless times. I don't know if that's what you're doing, but it feels like it. So I'll kindly ask that you just accept this very long winded reply from me. You aren't going to change my mind, and you aren't going to convince me otherwise, because, again, the only thing that matters when discussing what is and isn't canon, is the manga and anime itself. Everything else is meaningless.

#Levi Ackerman #Erwin Smith #attack on titan #shingkei no kyojin

[eyedelater]

let's study japanese by reading golden kamuy.

specifically, let's look at how noda-sensei added a bunch of lines to the scene where ogata hyakunosuke kills his father. i have included the pages in question here for your reference. he added quite a lot of dialogue. the anime goes by the volume version of the manga, so i believe most of these lines were spoken verbatim in the anime, but japanese is so full of homophones that it can be hard to learn new words just by listening. so let's read.

this is not the beginning of the scene, but this is where the dialogue additions begin. i wanted to make a post about this because EH scans never covered these lines-- at this point in the story, they were using magazine scans, not volume scans. as far as i know, only viz and various anime subs have translated this part. and i don't think viz did a very good job. so i wanted to put my translation out there for people who want to waste even more time thinking about ogata hyakunosuke and what he Really Said. but i'm not going to bother with a typeset version of just 5 pages. and i'm not going to go find this scene in the anime to compare the translation of the subs. and keep in mind that i'm a novice.

here are the lines in order, starting at the top of the first page. yes i really typed out and analyzed them one by one like this. (i typed them out so you can copy-paste the kanji to look them up if you want... i hate having to look up kanji radical by radical...) a slash indicates a split in a compound speech bubble. these slashes may or may not indicate the end of a sentence. (japanese uses punctuation sparsely and you have to kind of feel out where the sentence ends sometimes, so speech bubble breaks are worth noting.)

raw: 父上と本妻との間に生まれた息子さん…… / 花沢勇作少尉が高潔な人物だったことも証明している気がします phonetic: chichiue to honsai to no aida ni umareta musukosan...... / hanazawa yuusaku shoui ga kouketsu na jinbutsu datta to mo shoumei shiteiru ki ga shimasu my translation: The son that was born to you, father, and your real wife... I think the fact that Second Lieutenant Hanazawa Yuusaku was such a noble character is proof of that. viz's translation: That's why your legitimate son… / …second lieutenant Yusaku Hanazawa was such a principled individual. notes: when he says "proof of that," ogata is using yuusaku's virtue as evidence to back up the claim he just made that a child born to parents who love each other is blessed. also, this line wasn't an addition compared to the magazine version, but rather, it was changed. however, i lost track of the magazine version raw of this chapter for comparison.

raw: 入隊して初めて会いましたが / 面をくらいましたよ phonetic: nyuutai shite hajimete aimashita ga / men wo kuraimashita yo my translation: I met him for the first time when I enlisted, / and I was taken aback. viz's translation: I met him when I joined the military… / …and I was stunned. notes: it seems the usual way of phrasing "men wo kuraimashita" would be more like "menkurau" so the "wo" stuck in there confused me... anyway it means "taken aback" or "bewildered."

raw: 「規律がゆるみますから」と何度注意しても部下の俺を… / 「兄様」と呼ぶのです phonetic: [kiritsu ga yurumimasu kara] to nando chuui shitemo buka no ore wo... / [anisama] to yobu no desu my translation: Even though I warned him many times that it would "weaken his discipline," / he called me, his subordinate, "big brother." viz's translation: I warned him that it was bad for discipline… / …but he called me his big brother. notes: i think it's notable that ogata refers to himself as yuusaku's subordinate ("buka"). that was omitted by the viz translation, probably in the name of dumbing it down clarity. the fact that yuusaku outranked hyakunosuke is really important to the relationship between them. obviously it made hyakunosuke feel even worse about himself, but he hides that.

raw: 「ひとりっ子育ちでずっと兄弟が欲しかった」と / 俺にまとわり付くのです phonetic: [hitorikko sodachi de zutto kyoudai ga hoshikatta] to / ore ni matowaritsuku no desu my translation: He said, "I was raised an only child, so I always wanted a brother," / and he clung to me. viz's translation: He'd always wanted a brother… / …so he clung to me. notes: matowaritsuku, "to coil about; to follow about; to surround; to cling to." maybe this line was added just to be heartbreaking.

raw: あの屈託の無い笑顔…… phonetic: ano kuttaku no nai egao...... my translation: That carefree smile...... viz's translation: He had an honest smile. notes: kuttaku no nai means carefree, and it doesn't mean honest. don't make a mistranslation and then bold it. they bolded it! isn't that embarrassing? also they vaporized the powerful double ellipsis. lame.

raw: 「ああこれが両親から祝福されて生まれた子供なのだ……」と / 心底納得しました phonetic: [aa kore ga ryoushin kara shukufuku sarete umareta kodomo nanoda......] to / shinsoko nattoku shimashita my translation: "Ah, so this is a child who was blessed from birth by both parents……" / I accepted that deep in my heart. viz's translation: I realized deep inside that here was a child blessed with the love… / …of both parents. notes: nattoku "understanding; satisfaction (e.g. with an explanation); being convinced​." so seeing yuusaku's carefree smile and affectionate behavior, ogata took that as evidence affirming his theory about being born blessed; he accepted that yuusaku was blessed and took it to prove that he, by comparison, must not have been blessed.

raw: ところで / 花沢勇作少尉が二〇三高地でどうやって亡くなったか… // 父上は本当のことをご存じ無いはずだ phonetic: tokoro de / hanazawa yuusaku shoui ga nihyakusan kouchi de dou yatte nakunatta ka... // chichiue ha hontou no koto wo gozonji nai hazu da my translation: By the way... / About how Second Lieutenant Hanazawa Yuusaku really died at 203 Hill... // You probably don't know the truth of the matter. viz's translation: Do you want… / …to know the truth about how he died… // …on 203 Meter Hill? notes: here the // indicates that it was two separate speech bubbles, because even though i was giving each speech bubble its own entry, the viz translation combined two separate speech bubbles into one sentence! so i had to put them in one entry. anyway, it's plain to see how much viz dumbed it down... try to keep some of the sentence structure, maybe?

raw: 俺が後頭部を撃ち抜きました phonetic: ore ga koutoubu wo uchinukimashita my translation: I shot him through the back of the head. viz's translation: I plugged him in the back of the head. notes: listening to this line in the anime, i was chilled by how ogata conjugated the nasty verb "uchinuku" (to shoot through) with the polite verb ending "mashita." he's using mostly polite speech to speak to his father in this scene, despite everything. so that's one reason i don't like how viz used the nasty slang term "plugged" here. yes, both lines are nasty, but the politeness is what is striking.

raw: 少尉殿に対する妬みからじゃありません / 父上を苦しませたい…というのともちょっと違う / ただひとつ確かめてみたかった phonetic: shouidono ni taisuru sonemi kara ja arimasen / chichiue wo kurushimasetai... to iu no to mo chotto chigau / tada hitotsu tashikamete mitakatta my translation: It wasn't because I held any jealousy toward the second lieutenant. And it wasn't quite… that I wanted to make you suffer, father. There was just one thing I wanted to check. viz's translation: Not because I was jealous… / …or because I wanted to make you suffer. / I wanted to check something. notes: based on the way he said it, i think he did want to make his father suffer just a little. he said it was only chotto chigau.

raw: 勇作さんの戦死を聞いたとき… phonetic: yuusaku san no senshi wo kiita toki... my translation: When you heard about Yuusaku-san's death in battle... viz's translation: After you heard about his death in battle...

raw: 父上は俺を想ったのか.../ 無視し続けた妾の息子が急に愛おしくなったのではないかと... phonetic: chichiue ha ore wo omotta no ka... / mushi shitsuzuketa mekake no musuko ga kyuu ni itooshikunatta no de ha nai ka to... my translation: Did you think of me, father? / I thought you might suddenly come to love your long-ignored son of a mistress... viz's translation: …did you think of me? / Did you suddenly feel for the son you had ignored? notes: the phrase "itooshikunatta" is key here. it's from itooshii 愛おしい, "lovely; dear; beloved; darling; dearest," and the "natta" is "became." so it's along the lines of "suddenly became beloved" or "suddenly became dear to you." also he uses the past tense verb "omotta" (thought) but instead of the usual 思 kanji, he uses 想, which jisho.org says "has connotations of heart-felt."

raw: 祝福された道が俺にもあったのか… phonetic: shukufuku sareta michi ga ore ni mo atta no ka... my translation: Was there ever a blessed path for me, too? viz's translation: Was a blessed life ever even possible for me? notes: it's "path" in the metaphorical sense, as in the path you take in life. so translating it as a "blessed life" is acceptable here. and the "too" is probably referring to yuusaku, the blessed child.

now here is something worth noting. hanazawa's last words in this world were changed! well, you'd know if you watched the anime, but anyway, instead of the magazine version, "貴様の言うとおり,冷血で出来損ないの倅じゃ" (It is as you say; you are a cold-blooded and worthless son) it becomes as follows:

raw: 貴様の言うとおり何かが欠けた人間… / 出来損ないの倅じゃ // 呪われろ phonetic: kisama no iu toori nanika ga kaketa ningen... / dekisokonai no segare ja // norowarero my translation: It is as you say; you are missing something as a person… / You are a worthless son. // A curse upon you. viz's translation: You're right. You are missing something. / You're a rotten son… // …and I curse the day you were born! notes: the phrase "dekisokonai" is really cutting. it means, according to jisho.org, "failure; defective article; dead loss; botch​; good-for-nothing; worthless person; flop​." so "worthless" might be an understatement. what it doesn't mean is "rotten," but i digress. the phrase "reiketsu" (冷血, literally and figuratively "cold-blooded") was removed and replaced with the clause about missing something as a person. hanazawa's very last word, and this was added in the volume version as a new speech bubble, is literally "be cursed" (a command). i thought it could've used an exclamation point, but maybe hanazawa didn't have it in him.

the face that hyakunosuke makes immediately after his father's last words was also added in the volume version. what a treat!

i've been reading through the raws and analyzing them like this for a few weeks now. i mean i don't type them all up like this, but i do try to give the more interesting lines a deep read and try to learn a bunch of kanji while i'm at it. there's nothing like trying to read raw manga to make you feel like your 650-day duolingo streak is actually fuuucking worthless. so i'll make more translation notes posts in the future with some interesting lines that may have been translated strangely or incorrectly. specifically i might make a post similar to this one when i get to some more scenes about hyakunosuke and yuusaku (because i think lines were added in later scenes too) and his long talk with usami (where lines were also added). and maybe some scenes with tsukishima and koito. we'll see how long my hyperfixation lasts.

i guess i'll note that the phonetic transliteration of each line is based on my own arbitrary standards and not on any actual standard of writing out romaji (e.g. i tried to put spaces between words... mostly? i typed "wa" as "ha" when it's written with a "ha" hiragana, for no reason in particular... etc.). sorry if it's confusing.

#golden kamuy #golden kamuy translation notes #ogata hyakunosuke #hanazawa yuusaku

[itsmaferart]

Hi! I wanted to tell you how much I love your analysis on SxF, very on point and detailed! What a pleasure to read 😊 There's one thing I wanted to ask you about: translation and how it impacts the perception of a scene. I'm French-speaking native and I discovered the 'Honey trap' in French and then your analysis in English. Loid's reaction to Yor's punch is a bit more 'intense' in French. Not speaking Japanese, I don't know which one is closer to the original text. 'Off-balance' is replaced by 'faire perdre tous mes repères'. Which could mean Loid is 'becoming completely lost' in the French version. So at first I thought that Loid's feelings for Yor were more obvious to himself. Less 'covered' if it makes sense. My point is : do you think we could make wrong interpretation of a character due to a translation? How much differs our version of the dialogues to the original one? Looking forward for new analysis and care take 🌸

Ohh! Hello thank you very much! I appreciate the love that my analyzes have received!! They motivate me to continue!

The answer would be: Yes, the translation influences a lot in understanding the scene. This is a very frequent problem when trying to adapt a series/comic/book to another language. I understand that Japanese as a language is an ideographic language, so its writing represents ideas and thoughts, and is not a composition of precise words.

(I have to clarify that I do not understand Japanese at all. So like everyone I depend on translations, what little I know is from mere research. Any native or connoisseur of the language is free to correct me)

Said that. Sometimes it is very difficult to figure out exactly what is being said in a scene. Especially when they are abstract feelings, puns, expressions of the native language, etc. Since, while in one country something is a joke, in another place it is something that is taken literally xD ...In fact, recently I think there was a translation error in the manga. Where it was believed that Anya was going to get sweets from the Damiand but it turned out to be a specific cake (I didn't understand very well, I guess it's a play on words or something like that xD)... Even so, there is always a lot of support from the fandom to offer clarifications and interpretations. Especially for those who understand the native language

........

Regarding Twilight. I guess it's a complicated sentiment to translate, since Twilight himself has no idea what he was with himself. He felt lost and confused, perhaps the best way to understand it is "I'm not the same person as before".

He just didn't know what to do with Yor, with his feelings. But why would a genius at emotional readings fail so terribly? "The answer" is the simplest and the most difficult to recognize "He can't be cold and calculating in front of Yor and Anya, they cloud his judgment. They make him a common person, clumsy and even somewhat naive. They let out their most human side"

....

Regarding your original language. It may not be so far from what was intended to say: Perhaps they were more explicit. The sense that "Twilight is lost" seems pretty accurate to me. Although, as you say, it sounds like a deeper statement.

I guess someone who speaks Japanese would be the most accurate person to clarify how explicit Twilight was.

Still, I don't think these variations are that serious. Sometimes these changes favor the understanding of native people of another language, so these changes are made to better understand the expression.

Since if the translation were exact. The impact would not be the same. The important thing is to convey the meaning of the works. An example would be proverbs. Although the meaning is exactly the same, the words vary from language to language. This does not harm, on the contrary, it favors each reader because he feels the work "more endearing"

Perhaps in the case of your native language they used the most appropriate expression to imply that "Twilight is missing" for the love of his family, and this is confusing him

#Translating is very complicated #yor forger #spy x family #loid forger #twiyor #loid x yor #yor briar #twilight #sxf #anya forger #spyxfamily twilight #All I know is that man is falling

[i-did]

Do you know when the racism and ableism accusations against Nora started? Because back when I was active in 2016/2017 and don't think they were a thing, or were very low-key. Was it something she said or are people just basing it off the things she wrote in the books?

From what I remember, the first time I heard the blanket statement of “Nora is racist/fetishizes gay men” blanket statement was early fall 2019 (which is so ironic for the fandom to say on so many levels lmao). There wasn’t a catalyst or anything, just she went offline 2016 and no new content was coming out and the aftg fandom is such an echo chamber that… an accidental smear campaign happened.

 Before then, I would see occasional “Nora used ableist slur” which… is funny (not that ableism isn’t serious) to me people care more about that than Seth saying the f-slur. IMO this is because with Seth, it clearly shows the character thinking it and not the author who is writing about what will be an end game mlm relationship. 

But anyways! Long story short, it's the fact that she’s an ace/aro woman who wrote a mlm book, and based off of the events in canon. There is no “Nora called me/someone else a slur” it’s “Nora wrote a book where slur(s) are used” and “the Moriyama’s are Japanese.”

Below I put my own opinion on these claims and go into more detail:

CW for discussions of: racism, ableism, mlm fetishization

Fetishization: (and mentions of sexism at the end)

To one question in the EC about her inspo for aftg she jokingly responded how she wanted to write about gay athletes. On other parts of your blog you could see she was a hockey fan and an overall sports fan (anime or otherwise) but I've seen this statement taken out of context and framed as “she's one of those BOYXBOY” shippers. Considering how… well-developed both Andrew and Neil’s relationship is, and it takes them until like the 3rd book and there is a whole complex ass plot going on around, you can see how that's just. Not really true. And considering the fandom is like… 85% women (queer women but still women) and I've gotten into a discussion with someone who is a woman and called Nora a fetishizer and was ignoring my opinions as a mlm, and I really just wanted to say “well what does that make you?” it's a very ironic high horse. She didn’t write 3 all 3 books to put Neil in lingerie pwp or crop-top fem-fatal fashion show, fandom did. 

Also, I talked to an ace/aro friend about this, and she talked to me about how AFTG spoke to her very much so as an ace/aro story. Neil is demisexual, Nora didn’t know of the word at the time of reading it, but she did get an anon asking if Neil was demi after, and she said “had to look it up, and yep, but he doesn't really think about it” (paraphrased). Obviously it would have been cool if andreil were canonly written as wlw by Nora instead, (which would have increased the amount of wlw rep and demi rep) but tbh I don’t think tumblr would have cared about it nearly as much and everyone would just call Neil a cold bitch–like people do with Nora’s other published book with a main character who's a woman. Plus they're her OC’s, not mine. 

The fact is that 50% of all LGBT+ rep in literature is mlm, mostly white mlm, and not written by mlm. I’m not going to hold her to a higher standard than everyone else, she already broke a shit ton of barriers in topics she discusses that otherwise get ignored. I’m grateful to these books for existing even if it's a mlm story written by a woman. I still will prioritize reading mlm written by mlm–and vice versa with wlw– in the way I prioritize reading stories about POC written by POC. But credit where credit is due, this is a very good story, and a very good demi story. 

Ableism:

To me, AFTG is a story about ableism and how we perceive some trauma survivors more worthy than others. Neil and the foxes using ableist language shows how people actually talk. Neil thinks shitty things about Andrew, like the others do too, and thinks he's “psycho”. The story ultimately deconstructs this idea and these perceptions of people. Wymack, someone who says the r-slur (which is still not known by the general population as a slur even in 2021 much less the early 2000s when the book was beginning to be written and what the timeline is based off of) is a character who understands Andrew better than most of the others do, and gives him the most sympathy and understanding despite using words like the m-slur and r-slur. Using these words isn't good, but it is how people talk, and this character talks. Wymack is a playful “name caller” especially when he’s mad, the foxes think Andrew is “crazy” and incapable of humanity and love because of it. They call his meds “antipsychotics” as an assumption and insult in a derogatory way, when really antipsychotics are a very helpful drug for some people who need them. Even Neil thinks these things about Andrew until he learns to care about him. All the foxes are hypocritical to am extent, as people in real life tend to be. Nora herself doesn’t use these or tweet them or something, her characters do to show aspects of their personality and opinions and how they change over time.

Racism:

As for the racism, I've seen people talk about how racial minorities being antagonists is inherently bad, which I think lacks nuance but overall isn't a harmful statement or belief. However, Nora herself said she wrote in the yakuza instead of another gang or mob because she was inspired for AFTG by sports anime, (which often queer-bait for a variety of reasons). I haven’t seen a textual analysis acknowledging the racist undertones surrounding the Moriyama’s as the few characters of color who are also major antagonists, but instead just “Nora is racist”. Wymack having shitty flame tribal tattoo’s is just… a huge 90’s thing and a part of his character design. Her having a character with bad taste in tattoo trends doesn’t mean she's racist. There is the whole how Nicky is handled thing, but that's a whole thing on it’s own. The fandom… really will write Nicky being all “ai ai muy spicy, jaja imma hit on my white–not annoying like me–boyfriend in Spanish. With my booty hole out and open for him ofc.” and as a Mexican mlm I’m like … damn alright. 

I think there is merit to the fact that she writes white as the default* and unless otherwise stated a POC a character was written with the intent to be white is another valid criticism, as well as the fact that the cast is largely white, but everything Nora is accused of I've seen the fandom do worse. That goes to the debate of, is actively writing stereotypes for POC more harmful than no representation at all? And personally I prefer the lack of established race line that lets me ignore Nora’s canon intent of characters to be white and come up with my own HC’s over the fandoms depictions of “zen monk Renee with dark past” “black best friend Matt who got over drugs but is a puppy dog” “ex stripper black Dan who dates Matt” vague tokenism. I HC many of the upperclassmen as POC and do my best to actively give thought behind it and have their own arcs that also avoids the fandom colorism spectrum of “darkest characters we HC go to the back and fandom favorites are in the front and are the lightest.” 

*I however won't criticize her harsher or more than… everyone else who still largely does this in fanfiction regarding AFTG as well as literature in general. This isn't a Nora thing, it's a societal thing, and considering the books came out in like 2014 I'm not gonna hold her to a higher standard than the rest of the world. She's just someone who wrote her personal OC’s and self-published expecting no following. I don’t know her race and I’m not gonna hold her to a higher standard than everyone else just because. 

The criticisms I've seen have always been… ironic IMO, and clearly I have a lot of thoughts on it. I think most people say those things about Nora because they heard them, and it's the woke thing to say and do and don’t critically analyze their actions or anything, but just accept them. 

#ask #aftg discorse #fandom culture #fandom politics #fandom psychology #mailob #damn cant wait for my words to be twisted lmao #sorry the ableism one is the shortest I wrote that one first actually

[lordymaru]

I'm about to refute this entire essay with the simple explanation being:

The only interaction we've seen of these two is when she's a freaking 8 year old. Your self insert shows no boundaries.

And this is probably the last time I'll make a post about the stupidity behind the way the pair is viewed:

Note: I know there's people out there with a brain who ship these two in a more conventional way. In the end you do you, ship whatever you want, no one can prevent you from doing that, just don't be gross about it.

One of the parts being the Significance of their first encounter:

She’s a poor peasant girl who’s suffered immense trauma, suffering, and loneliness. Her initiative to help Sesshomaru came from her generosity

Exactly, she's alone for her family had been killed before her eyes, the villagers treat her like garbage. When she meets Sess he's wounded and simply in a bad state, both mentally and physically. Both of them are, the difference being he's a demon, a powerful one and for him to have ended in such a bad shape only stabbed at his pride- Rin on the other hand is a child, a human tiny child who is vulnerable and to him she poses no threat. Both of them are weak then.

At this point, it’s observable that despite knowing her story, her scars, and her difficulties, humans do not even empathize, let alone sympathize with Rin. It is the feudal era, after all. She’s a young, disabled orphan and the villagers only see her for what she lacks: a voice, a family, and a place of belonging.

Again with your feudal era shit. I can assure you the world is just as ugly today as it was before you and I existed. Next.

When he asks about her bruises, this is the first time anyone had ever afforded her a second glance.

This was a huge step forward for Sess, a huuuuuuge one for he showed interest in another living creature, not just any creature but a human. And for her it was probably like Christmas, for no one had showed her any mercy or interest. Ok you get a point. But oh, boy, how I'm about to spit on the next one:

The audience can see Sesshomaru calculate her body language, recognizing that she is mute. Instead of pressing her further or ignoring her outright, he attempts to comfort her (in his own way), making her feel that it is okay if she chooses not to answer him; that her desire to reply to him should only be a desire, not an obligation. I think, on one hand, that was the first moment of something that would resemble compassion that Sesshomaru had ever administered, trying to put himself in her shoes — if someone had asked him to do something that required, for example, his left arm, he probably would have appreciated them saying “you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to” so to provide him agency for something that he actually cannot do. And the same goes for Rin. He recognizes her disability, maybe even resonates with it and decides to empower her with a choice. Choice is important when it comes to the Sesshomaru/Rin dynamic and it’s a word that will come up often. 

Ok why are you comparing the loss of his arm to her not being able to talk? Not all disabilities are the same, you moron. Or am I dumb for thinking this way? If so, feel free to call me out on my lack of common sense kr whatever you wanna call it. Sess physically couldn't do shit with his left arm because well- it was gone! That's a physical disability. Rin had "lost" her voice after what she witnessed and so she wouldn't speak anymore. Have you heard of Psychogenic Dysphonia? If not, you can click here and give it a reading or do your own research. The more you know: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0892199703000158

So you say he "empowers her with a choice" that is "important when it comes to the Sesshomaru/Rin dynamic" let me get this straight, a choice because why? She's a child? A female? Because you said so yourself, it's the Feudal Era after all and therefore women had no choice in life, no voice, no agency, no nothing. So he was being magnanimous then? You know... This is where you start edging into the gr00ming territory. Can't you see? No? Alright, moving on.

BRUH WHAT THE FUCK?! Are you fucking good? See how you self insert? Bye. Next

The next time Sesshomaru sees Rin, it is suggested that he actively sought her, whether it be by curiosity or concern for well-being

He did... It is not suggested, he actually did asdfhkl. For both curiosity and he probably was worried. He also states he wants to test out his sword, what a perfect chance to do so for Rin is pretty much dead and that's the only way to make his sword work. So she was both being a guinea pig and an itch he wasn't quite sure how to scratch. Next.

Silence Rin.

Rin screams endlessly, annoying Sesshomaru. Firstly, this is the first time we hear him call her by her name. Secondly, Sesshomaru is visibly annoyed by her noises, however, he does not tell her to “shut up” as he normally would with Jaken or even InuYasha. He simply says “enough of that Rin, stop it.” (In Japanese he says, “Silence, Rin. You make too much noise.”) Even analyzing the Japanese dialogue, it is evidently softer than Sesshomaru’s usual ‘kisama’ (貴樣) manner of speech that we see depicted usually. This is the first time he’s had a companion who is not a demon, someone with compassion, and who has had his general best interests at heart with no expectations in return. His softer tone is a logical deduction to make.

Ok... "someone with compassion, and who has had his general best interests at heart with no expectations in return." Bruh... As if he would even consider meeting someone's expectations. Are you sure you're talking about Sess? Another thing is, he always speaks in a calm tone, he rarely yells or loses his composure- he had no reason to be rude to her either, you're excusing his regular behavior simply because she ain't Jaken. Anything else?

Rin doesn't change Sesshomaru overnight, it's a gradual and long process

Well duh!!! Just like you don't lose the pounds you gained from eating in one sit 12 donuts a week ago. Stating the obvious and for what? What's exactly your mf point?

The silence part is important, idk how to tell you there is a power imbalance in their relationship from the moment he tells her to be quiet. He didn't say please, he didn't ask her to, he told her to be quiet. Like a parent would, if I could count the times my mom told me to shush.... That's your first indicator he is not her friend, he is not her equal.

Letting you Be Yourself: The Panther Demon Arc

the first frame the audience sees in the anime sets the scene, painting the Sessshomaru entourage in a serene manner, indicating a level of comfort between group members (episode 75). This is vastly different from our last depiction of Sesshomaru and Rin’s relationship. In episode 44, he was unable to withstand her (albeit annoying) childish antics. But here, it’s observable that Sesshomaru can accept her and her package of unconventional fun. Not only does he tolerate and even more so, accept Rin, but he accepts her influence on his vassal, Jaken and allows them to be free around him.

Is called developing patience. I can assure you that when you're a parent or an older bro/sis and your kid/younger sibling is noisy af you either learn to tolerate that or get used to it for kids are kids abd you have to let them be kids. Next.

She's a child, she's not stupid.

The Abducted Rin: Calling her Name

The respect that Sesshomaru shows Rin is insurmountable. However, the InuYasha franchise is clever to portray the subtlety of Sesshomaru’s respect for her. KV on Twitter points out how highly he regards his companion and never relegates her to anything less than the value that she as a person embodies (@KVndie via Twitter). He consistently humanizes her. 

He only sees how important she is to him after her ass dies a second time. What do you mean? He respects her enough to not coddle her, she is independent and taught her to be self sufficient from the very start. That's respect. He consistently humanizes her because... She ... Is ... Human! OMG WHAT A SHOCKER!

As Naraku remarks on his hostage to Sesshomaru, "Naturally, the girl you're looking for is not here…,” he continues, “the girl is in custody outside of the castle..." Naraku never makes an attempt to give her personhood, leaving her unnamed, disposable, and relegating her to a mere "girl." But Sesshomaru doesn’t take any of this. He is a cold-hearted Daiyokai, yet he still makes an effort and upholds his principle to refer to her as Rin — not a replaceable “girl.”

Naraku is a mf genius. It didn't quite click until now he wanted to see if she was important or not to him and to what extent. For he planned his moves that way, making people turn against one another. While he wouldn't have made Rin turn against Sess he set everything up so he would end up wanting to kill Kohaku and in doing so, Inugang would have engaged against Sess.

Sesshomaru’s insistence on using Rin’s name isn’t only highlighted in this isolated incident though. It pays off. It is an ongoing theme in their dynamic throughout the series.

That's her name ... How you want him to call her? Baby?

I could go on and on but... This is a fucking essay. And then I stumble against more bullcrap:

The second point I want to highlight here is Sesshomaru’s reaction to Rin’s fall and her risky expedition. At this point, it’s unquestionable that Rin has a special place in his heart.

Of course she has a special spot in his heart. I won't deny that. What worries me is how you're trying to justify the way she's important to him since she was a child. As if his way of seeing her had changed.

I'm gonna disagree by agreeing with you in a few pointers. Kagome and Kikyo were rivals, they both romantically love the same guy. Kagome being the only one who could save Kikyo chooses to help her, knowing damn well Inuyasha would have suffered if Kikyo had died- further more, if it was in Kagome's hands to do something about it.

Rin on the other hand, I will applaud to her how she grew past her fear of Kagura after being kidnapped by her, she saw her body in the river and said fuck it and did her best to try to pull her from the water. I loved how stubborn and brave she was, even tho Sess had to pull everyone out of the water- she deserves a gold star. You go baby girl!!!

Rin later makes a cheeky comment, noting Kagura’s romantic interest in Sesshomaru. Jaken brushes this off as childish naivety. But for the spectator, this establishes two things: (1) That Rin does not see Kagura as a rival for Lord Sesshomaru’s attention, let alone affection; and (2) that Rin is still a child. Rin is certainly a child, with a youthful and fresh outlook on life that brings out the best in people. But even as a child, her relationship with Sesshomaru is incredibly healthy, clear, and surprisingly communicative.

Why would she? She's not a spoiled brat

Nah? I thought her double D indicated otherwise. OF COURSE SHE'S A MF CHILD.

Why do you keep mentioning is healthy? Do you need reassurance of it? Communicative in what way? Cuz if you wanna talk about communication let's talk about how he didn't even acknowledge her ass when she gave birth. He didn't even say her name, didn't even look at her. Tell me now how they are communicative and healthy?

I could go on, I really but all I'm getting from this load of bullshit I'm forcing myself to read is how you do in fact need to reassure yourself thr ship is god tier and is... How you said it was? Ah, healthy.

Anyways, thanks for reading and if you see any typo ... My apologies, I tried. Also if you have any input or I was out of line in some way, my apologies once more.

#anti sessrin #antisessrin #anti-sessrin

[stingray-sins]

Somewhere only we know...

Summary: It’s an alternate universe explained after Enrico Pucci’s second universe reboot. The hard day after the events in Egypt have triggered a return to "daily" student life in Japan with new things to discover.

Part I

Approximately two weeks had passed since that bizarre trip through the Middle East in a reduced number of days but the feeling of being present and active within that adventure was still latent, the chest would tighten every time the cold embraced the city for the night and although it did not compare at all to the extreme temperatures they experienced, the simple fact of not being fully stable still filled them with a feeling of bitterness, which they did not know how to express or speak openly.

Despite the great changes acquired, returning to everyday life became more difficult every day; Francesca faithfully awaited the arrival of Mr. Joestar through that great gateway to the Japanese home, despite the fact that the situation had presented itself in the best way when he first arrived, the feeling of receiving good news with his request to find her family kept her hopeful . Jotaro on the other hand seemed more reserved than he ever was, it is not easy to deal with the fact of carrying a huge responsibility on his back and even more exhausting was having to accept that he would carry him like a cross all his life. Every morning the same routine, hiding his face under his ruined cap, and leaving home without touching the lunch that her mother had lovingly prepared for him and living off the wretched cigarette until nightfall.

The large entrance door was opened with a bang, from it the man with his gray beard and bright emerald eyes peeked out, trying to argue with his not so fluent Japanese with the taxi driver, who was clearly trying to rip him off with a higher fare abroad.

─"Papa! "─Holly exclaimed, getting up and moving away from that traditional central table that led to the entrance while she ran to hug him as was family tradition. Joe, her youngest son, did not differ much from her mother's attitude since he was just as excited as he ran to his grandfather. Francesca, although she was just as excited to see the old but radiant Mr. Joestar, she only followed with her eyes and a smile, the day had arrived and her facial expression brought good news.

─"What a pleasure it is to be able to see you again, what has happened in my absence? I hope Joe continues to practice that sweet symphony that he taught me last time and 'Cesca working the language well" ─Old Joestar laughed, taking off his hat as he hugged his daughter back and felt like his youngest grandson hung from his arm like a little monkey, Without a doubt it was a very great happiness for him to see his daughter and grandson back up and as happy as ever.

─"It has been quite a change in this house and I cannot be more grateful to her company" ─the woman mentioned while holding her father's coat ─"There is no day that we don't laugh while we share the odd story or song verses... a little help here and a little help here, it is a joy to know that I am no longer the only woman at home."

─"Grandpa!" ─The dark-haired boy exclaimed as he climbed on top of the adult to tell him one or another feat obtained in those weeks ─" And I'm teaching her! Sometimes we sit on the edge of the terrace face to face, if she manages to answer me the phrase in Japanese she earns a mandarin... although she usually wins me when I have to answer her in Italian..."

Joseph listened attentively as he shook the boy's hair and proceeded to enter the house completely forgetting the Japanese traditions, Francesca had closed the grammar notebook for a moment although she could speak it quite well, writing was a disaster and those two weeks were they had made him more than eternal.

─"Hasn't Jotaro arrived at the house yet?" ─Joseph asked, sitting down at the low table while he took a look at ‘Cesca's embarrassing notebook and she stubbornly took it from him.

─"He should be here soon, you already know him... neither he says goodbye when he leaves or greets when he arrives but I suppose they are things of adolescent boys, right?" ─The blond-haired woman winked at Francesca, she simply sighed and then laughed as she lifted her shoulders as a symbol of "Men, who understands them."

A couple of hours passed until the door was heard opening slowly, Jotaro found it quite strange that the lights were still on in the middle of the night, he hoped to arrive when everyone was in their respective rooms so as not to start a conversation with anyone but when he entered he only found himself with his old Grandfather laughing quite loudly as he once again narrated the story of his hand to the ladies and the little one.

─"I think it's great that you have arrived, my grandson, we were waiting for you" ─Joseph announced, extending an arm to greet him properly and with a sigh he agreed to return the greeting. He was tired enough to hear his loud voice echo through the room but he looked up at the old man saying in a would-be voice. As those at the table were seated, Holly got up to answer the phone as usual every night to speak with her husband. Joe made a kind of tower with the tangerines that adorned it while Joseph placing his hands on the table intertwined his fingers announcing with a sincere smile.

─"In the following days, Kakyoin will be transferred to the central hospital in this city. The foundation has done everything possible and his parents were already notified immediately, the news was quite harsh for them and stronger for Noriaki himself, although they managed to rebuild and transplant most of his damaged organs, it is quite difficult to assume that he would not return. to walk never again."

Joseph paused for a moment in his speech, analyzing their faces when listening to him speak, it was undoubtedly quite amazing news at the same time, it was quite heartbreaking again, asking himself "He's alive, but at what cost?" Within the gazes of the two, the bright eyes were noticeable in both, Francesca rested her hands on the table expressing a full happiness when hearing the news, She no longer needed to control her body fluids, she wanted to express that happiness with pure tears and nobody went to stop her. Instead Jotaro tried to hide his happiness under that dark cap, but his smile was bigger than the desire to hide, Joseph knew for all his life that he should rethink Noriaki but he also knew that he would not be alone anymore.

─"Mr. Joestar..." ─Those soft words made him pop out his thoughts when he heard the voice of the minor with an air of questions on her face, they could be celebrating the impressive strength of resistance of the redhead but there were other doubts on the table that had not been clarified still. Francesca preferred not to look him in the eye when asking but her hands unconsciously touched Joseph's hands and he froze for a moment. ─"Have you known about the whereabouts of my family?"

There was only a silence in between, and Joseph's big hand placed it on the girl's purple hair to caress it gently while Francesca tried not to break at the moment by nodding. She getting up, she gently asked permission to go get some air, she had a broken smile which she directed at Holly who was returning to the room. Joseph shook his head and looked down again.

─"It's been difficult" ─the old man sighed while he still couldn't recognize how much longer the lie should continue ─"Jotaro, do you have a moment?"

They both got up because of this issue, he did not want to speak it so openly since the walls listen and he needed someone to trust what was tightening his heart the most at the time. They walked long enough and in silence until they reached a kind of pergola, the same one where he once played wrestling with his little grandson, being defeated with a great performance from him. Before he could speak Jotaro beat him to it.

─"How much longer do you plan to hide the truth from her, old man?" ─He looked up with determination, he was not going to hide more secrets than he was already hiding, although it was difficult for him to admit that a part of him avoided creating more ties with the girl simply because of the uncertainty of creating a bond that would disappear with time . At least that's what he was trying to show, which his mother didn't take five minutes to forge.

─"It has been my question every day Jotaro, and that is why I wanted to talk about it with you" ─he took a breath of air leaning on a nearby wooden pillar ─"The news is not fresh, after three days I contacted a family member from her to find out that it would not be an easy task to deal with her family. Her father... belongs to one of the most recognized mafias in southern Italy, the girl's surname is not at all common and therefore a sought-after surname. That day I introduced myself to the family member as a simple writer who wanted to have an interview with his father, who gave me a tour of Francesca's house pointing out the greatness of the home until we were in a beautiful and colorful garden where two graves were perched..."

─

─"Enough travel, what brings you here sir...?" -Said the rough voice of Salvatore Castiglier. ─"Joestar, Joseph Joestar" ─offering his hand to greet him cordially without receiving an answer. ─"Mr. Joestar, I was not in my plans to receive you but I see that you are carrying a photo of Mia Figlia with you and I wanted to ask you where she took that photo from." ─"I am a renowned writer in my hometown and in one of my trips to Africa, more specifically Egypt, I managed to capture a photo of this young woman which caught my attention for my next novel." ─He lied with charm in his words.─ ─"I'm sorry but that may not be possible, times have changed and my little girl is no longer in the land of the living, her soul rests next to her mother in that garden that attracted her attention so much." ─"I am very sorry for the news in advance but could I ask you..." ─"I do not usually answer questions that do not concern but your journey must have been long to get here; My daughter Francesca was sweet and naive, and that itself determined the end of her life. The lessons to my boys have always been clear: "there is nothing stronger than family blood, no one but your family will ensure your safety" but Francesca did not see it from that side, stubborn like herself, obstinate to obey my orders , clearly with her actions she deserves to be buried where she is."

─

Jotaro checked his pocket once more to find the pack of cigarettes but only found the packaging with a pair of colored lighters. The news was not good at all and just thinking about that answer he clenched his fists inside his pocket.

─"Since that day I have been keeping the news to myself, I have clearly dealt with bigger problems but not when I have at stake the fate of a fifteen-year-old girl" ─Joseph said as he sighed in relief, it was a sensitive issue and with the years of experience had learned to make decisions better thought out rather than lightly, or at least tried to make them less hasty ─"I have made a decision about it, I have noticed that in a short time 'Cesca has created a crucial bond with Holly... and her possibilities for personal development are more tied to my daughter than to a bastard who has that thought with her own blood..."

─"Old man, just answer me one thing" ─the boy's marked voice stopped the thoughts aloud of Joseph who looked up, clearing his gaze towards him ─"The reason why you left that place was..."

Joseph stared at his grandson for a long time but he only got a subtle smile as he opted for a calmer position, a position of acceptance in his final decision ─"Expulsion, more specifically, expulsion for causing a clean hit to the face of someone out of deserved." ─Jotaro lowered his gaze denoting a smile on his face, as he walked to the older man to place a hand on his shoulder and give him a couple of gentle strokes on him. ─“I couldn't have expected less from you."

Joseph placed a hand on the hand of his grandson while he smiled, he knew that within the legal framework the decision he had made was not the most appropriate but the most appropriate. He left the establishment while Jotaro sat on a nearby wooden bench taking out the last remaining cigar and placing it between his lips to light it.

─"How much more do you plan to hide behind the bush, woman?" ─he blurted out softly as he leaned back on the wooden pillar watching the smoke dissipate into the air.

─ ""Woman" is a very distant word for someone who from now on will live with you under the same roof" ─she was heard from the bush while she stood again while cleaning the occasional branch from her purple head.

─"How much did you hear about the conversation?"

─"Enough to be here and not want to close my eyes tonight" ─sighs the shorter one, walking to the entrance of the pergola, still had a tight chest but it was not to show vulnerable, she was simply trying to appear once again her tranquility to promote tranquility to the other. An awkward smile that faded when the taller made a space next to him for her to sit next to.

She took three steps to the small wooden bench and sat with nothing but looking forward, her posture was loose and her shoulders slumped, Jotaro simply had his eyes closed as he exhaled once more the cigarette smoke inside him, he felt that the minor's hand was holding her uniform sleeve tightly, she had clung without stopping to look forward and hiding her face between the hair strands that fell from her head, she raised her voice a bit broken.

─"Do you think they will ever deign to look for me again?" ─Her voice trembled, this time soft and nervous. She did not want to show it but tears had started to roll down her cheeks, wetting the wooden floor, yet he did not take his eyes off the front of her.

─"Who?" ─Jotaro asked removing the cigar from his mouth for a moment to deposit the ashes in a corner of the place.

─"My Family" ─it was difficult for her to pronounce the last word to the girl, and instinctively she pressed her right hand on her chest, feeling an inexplicable but at the same time painful emptiness inside her.

─"Your family? The only family that I know of yours is this one here and the one that awaits us in the central hospital of the city" ─The young woman stared at him in amazement, the older one could see the glassy eyes of the young woman, her nose and cheeks flushed from crying and her mouth shaking without making a sound, the young woman with purple hair looked forward again and leaned her back against the wall on the nearby wooden pillar, she released the black-haired uniform to place her hand on the bench but was drawn back to the hand the old one. The difference in size was quite a lot but she did not hesitate to squeeze her small hand in the same way.

─"I'm scared Jojo" ─Francesca finally announced with a nickname that had come from inside her thoughts, she had never expressed insecurity in front of something and all her life since she has remembered she has defended herself from life had always been the buffer for the others but at that moment she needed someone to be there for her.

─"Don't have to be, at least not anymore" ─Jotaro said inserting the cigar between his lips, from the outside he looked like a completely stone man but inside he was experiencing a sense of calm and serenity like never before─ "try not to think about it since you don't need it anymore 'Cesca."

Francesca looked up still with glassy eyes and she smiled sincerely after weeks, in all she was right, there was no need to feel fear when she was no longer alone. She stopped squeezing his hand for a moment but neither moved her from the place, they both closed their eyes enjoying the silence of the moment.

─"You're right Jojo, I shouldn't be anymore."

#Writing.🐠 #Jojo's bizarre adventure oc #jjba oc #jojo oc #Francesca Castiglier #Jotaro Kujo #PlasticBeach.🐠

[zuffer-weird-girl]

Loss

The secretary flinched on her seat when she heard the glass door of the hospital shattering and yelped in fear when THE Overhaul slammed his fists on her desk, eyes burning with rage as he almost shouted.

"(L/n) (Y/n). Tell me where the fuck is her. NOW." she trembly nodded while picking her notebook on and the telephone.

He had received a call on the middle of a meeting, mentally rolling his eyes in irritation as he excused himself and accepted the call.

The way his eyes had widen in horror and how he stormed out of the room made everyone not only scared, but each one to have certain curiosity and worrover the situation.

What happened to let Overhaul on that state?

A doctor came by along with his nurse and Chisaki grabbed the hem of his jacket, the glare he was still wearing seemed like fire was going to spill from them by any moment while he demanded thhat he spilled out what the fuck had happened.

"S-She suffered a accident." The doctor gasped out, breathing in a long sigh of relief when the man let go "A villain fight on the center, the man accompanying her didn't survived but she is still alive." They patted their clothing, shakily looking up at the fuming man in front of them.

"The ambulance found her phone and saw it on her emergency contacts yout number. You're family or friend?"

"Mind your own business and let me in." He shoved past the doctor and abruptly entered the room, ignoring the nurses pleas for him to wait.

The sign of your bruised and beaten up image made him want to vomit... the bandaged wrapped around your head as your hair was sprawled out on the pillow you were laying on...

He felt his throat tightening as his eyes seemed to burn... slowly reaching the bed to caress your patched up face with his thumb carefully...

The only comforting sounds he heard on that cursed cold room were the beeping of the machine... indicating that you were unconscious, but alive no less.

"Get the fuck out." He muttered angrily as his hands turned into shaking fists, the doctors and nurses frowing but yet respecting his demand.

He carefully grabbed your hand on his both gloved ones as he took the seat next to you... He controlled the urge of shouting and letting his tears fall as he numbly stared at the bedsheets, his attention focused only on the beeping.

~

He ended up falling asleep on that place, head resting on his crossed arms on the bed.

He, for the first time, thanked the heavens for letting him have a light sleep, because he woke up with your stiring and weak groans.

Chisaki jerked up, eyes wide as his lips trembled a bit at seing his angel's eyes finally cracking open.

"(Y/n)..." he breathed, lowering his mask down when you looked at him confusedly "(Y/n)! My angel, thank god!" He, without thinking straight, wrapped his arms around you tightly as he breathed in on your scent and kissed with tears rolling down his face.

He only came to realize later that instead of feeling your arms wrapping around him or even a cute little giggle of yours, your body had tensed up under his hold...

Now it was his time to frow, grapping onto your shoulders as he parted only for a few inches.

"Angel I swear on my grave that I am not sending any garbage to accompany you anymore..." he talked, looking at your confused and quite... feared eyes.

"U-uh..." you awkwardly muttered as you slowly but firmly brought your hands to his gloved ones and took them off from your shoulder... Chisaki arching a eyebrow at your action in total dissaproval when you placed his hands to himself.

Then he widened his eyes in complete horror and disgust, hives appearing om his pale skin as his brain processed those despicable words he never once thought he would hear it from you ever again...

"Who... who are you?"

~

"It seems that after the impact, her brain got affected by the section where it lands the data of her memories..." the doctor spoked as him tapped his finger on his chin while analyzing your X-ray.

Chisaki didn't even dared to say a word... not even being a complete arrogant towards the man as he explained the situation of his partner.

"Her brain is still functioning and she has still her memories from her whole period of school aparently."

"... then why?" He asked in a numb tone as he stared at his closed gloved hands.

"It seems to be a rare type of amnesia ... she actually remembers all of yesterday's events for example; but due to the blow she must have received, the part where the memory about you is kept was the most affected."

"What's the cure?" He growled immediately, trying to surpress his angry shaking.

"There is no cure mister..." the doctor grunted when Chisaki grabbed the hem of his shirt.

"You as a doctor have the fucking obligation to find a cure or at least treat any diseases on this planet so you got the nerves to say that THIS doesn't have even a fucking treatment?!" He shouted, the doctor still keeping his calm attitude somehow.

"The human brain is a complicated thing... she might return her memories or not. We can't know. The maximum you can do now is try little by little to show what you were to her..." he mentally sighed in relief when Chisaki putted him down slowly "But not everthing, go slow... she might have a combustion or be too much overwhelmed."

His parted lips trembled underneath his mask as he wordless left the office...

You... didn't know him. Didn't know who he was or what he was to you...

He was a stranger. A fucking stranger to your eyes...

He dragged his feet to your room. You were already standing up and fixing up your hair on a mirror before you yelped at noticing his presence.

"Uh, hello..?" You awkwardly gretted him with a uncomfortable smile, not knowing how long he was standing there.

He nodded as in a gretting before his broken hearted eyes locked with your own. You felt pity over the man... the moment you told him you had no idea who he was he panicked, opened the door of that hospital room and shouted for the nurses to come explain this.

"...Come. I... will take you home." You tilted your head in confusion.

"I... no. Thank you for the offer but I-"

"I know where you live..." he muttered the words "I know this sounds stupid... but I am your.." he breath in to control the burning in his eyes as he looked down at the floor "Your boyfriend."

"Eh?" He wanted to chuckle so badly at hearing that precious confused sound... but the situation didn't let him "... I'm sorry. I... don't remember you..."

"They already told me. How does your house look like? Just to make sure." He tried, afraid of hearing that your answer would be that cursed apartment of yours.

"Uh... its a japanese like style house. Has a yard with beautiful trees on." You smiled, making hin want to scream in frustation.

It was his house. The Shie Hassaikai's house. You remembered the damn place but not him.

"... Come with me." He sayed nonchantly as he shived his fists onto his pockets and left the room, you following him right after.

You entered on his car and didn't speaked a word as he drove... afraid of making more weird the situation than it was already.

You recognize the place as he stopped and left the keys with a subordinate.

"Ah so you weren't trying to kidnapped me or something." You tried to joke, but that man's face didn't even twitched out of that broken shattered look as he only nodded and continued to walk.

He noticed that you didn't recognized the people on there either... being extremely awkwardly. Still, you were extremely polite with everyone of them, especially Pops.

He winced at remembering the first he brought you here... your actions being the same but instead lf just closing in yourself liek now, you found some comfort on him on the new area...

Pops patted his shoulder at seing Chisaki's huge amount of pain on his eyes while all he wanted to do was succumb onto his knees and scream until his vocal cords exploded.

You looked even more uncomfortable when he guided you to your shared bedroom. Noticing your embarrassment and... distrustful look.

"Not comfortable sleeping on the same room with a stranger." He more pointed out than asked.

"Yeaaah." You scratched the back of your neck before looking up at him "B-But i can sleep on the couch! You don't need to-"

"Is not necessary." He interrupted "You have all the rights to keep this room." He left without much of a word, only telling you that dinner was going to be soon and if you needed him, all you have to do is call.

You arched one eyebrowd of yours while watching him go away... what a weird guy.

~

Pops told him he wasn't obligated to do those things and even Chrono had offered to take his shift... but he refused it.

He needed to drown on his work to forget this pain and his misery.

A knock on the door had snapped him out of it as he rubbed his eyes and allowed whoever it was to enter.

"Excuse me? Am I bothering you?" You asked shyly.

"Never." He answered with a sigh "Something wrong?"

You took the opportunity to enter and sit on the chair in front of him, the awkward atmosphere still on the air.

"I... you said you're ny boyfriend. Right?" He nodded numbly "What type then? I-I mean. I want to know you... again." You found the strengh to look at those amber eyes.

Boyfriend or not, this man was hot.

"... You want the absolute true or the only love dovey shit?" You giggled at his boldness, making him for the first time smirk underneath his mask.

"Grab that black album from the shelter. I will try my best."

He couldn't help but smile at seing your curiosity as you paced through the pages, asking him the main events before you pointed out awkwardly that this was kostly you on that thing...

"I don't like taking or seing my own photos... But you always kept pressing me to at least have one or two... with those cursed puppy eyes."

"Cursed?" You asked, arching a eyebrow at seing the same elder you greeted earlier on one of those.

"Yes. Every time you use them I can't just say no."

"Ah! So you're the secret softie type!" You smiled at him whole he couldn't help but glare daggers at you.

He breathless chuckled at your gasp when he told you he was part and the leader if the yakusa and in that exact same moment you were underneath their roof.... although he almost choked up when you had noticed the pingent adoring around his neck.

The yingyang. A symbol that represented you both way too well. He cared one side while you carried the other.

You took your own in your hands and the way your eyes squinted while looking at the pingent made his early feelings return back.

Because he knew with that look of yours... you were trying hard to remember... but you couldn't. Your brain wouldn't let you have those memories back...

"Enough." He picked abruptly the album and placed it over the shelf with a sigh. You apologized and got out from his office shortly after... maybe his attitude had scared you... godammit!

He punched the wall until his gloved hand was all bloody and bruised before he let out a miserable shout.

He lost his angel... he lost your memories. His world was nothing but pure darkness now.

~

You giggled at seing both white haired man and the creature smaller than him arguing on the end of the hall as you passed through it.

One week had passed after your accident and now you were pretty used to with everyone on the house.

Well... almost everyone.

Chisaki was the man who revealed to be your boyfriend but now he just seemed even more broken and depressed then you saw him once on that hospital.

You tried really hard to remember him... but nothing about this man came up. You also noticed how angry he got when you called him 'Overhaul' or only 'Chisaki'...

You explained to him that calling him by his firts name was still a bit uncomfortable, he understood that and simply waved you off... but you still noticed the way he gripped or turned his hands into fits whenever you called him.

Everyone on there was trying to make you regain your memories back desperately. You even caught a taller man discussing with a muscular one on the hallway once about the situation.

"If miss (Y/N) don't recover her memories soon, master will get worse than he is already."

"You're fucking lucky Tengai. Overhaul at least didn't used his quirk on you three times in less the one hour only because you had asked how was his chick doing."

"You beg though for this Rappa."

"I WASN'T BEING FUCKING SARCASTIC THIS TIME! I WAS GENUILY ASKING!"

You choosed to not know of his quirk after you heard that in fear of what you might discover...

You made your way to the bedroom and sitted on the bed with sigh, picking your cellphone to mess with since you didn't even touched the device ever since you put your foot on here.

You frowned when the screen showed up, a picture of the man you trued so hard on remembering... he didn't seemed to have the knowledge that he was being photographed as he seemed to be reading something without his mask on for once.

His eyes were serious but calm while he readed the book, and something that made your heart twist on yiur ribcage was that you noticed that his gloved fingers were interconnected with bare ones right on the corner.

It was your hand in there.

You didn't needed to know his whole life to already know that this man had a despised for touch and was a mysophobic... but you catched plenty times him going to reach for your hand or your hair only to pull his hand back with a broken sigh and walk away frrom you as far as possible.

You had to admit that this pained you somehow.

You dropped your cellphone, not feeling like messing around on it anymore as you shivered at a cold breeze that passed through the window...

You didn't like it very much closed places so you opted to get up and grab a hoodie instead of closing the window.

Just when you opened you saw the iconic green jacket that Overhaul always used whenever he was out or when he just felt like it.

Curiosity consumed you as you caustiously picked and holded close... scenting the intoxicating smell that left you feeling like you were in heaven.

You wondered a bit before shameless wearing the coat on, way bigger than you but you felt... safe.

You took another sniff... gasping and dropping into your butt when a bright and rather painful flash came into your head as you fell.

You groaned and placed your hand on the bed as you tried to get up, wincing as another flash came by making you want to scream in pain... before you saw it.

Him. The man. Your... your boyfriend of three years!

Chisaki Kai.. Chisaki Kai! You remembered him!

~

"KAI!" he stopped writing on the papers when he heard your voice shouting his first name.

... it was his mind playing tricks on him. You didn't called him 'Kai' anymore.

He scoffed and went to return to writing before he dropped his pen and widened his eyes at hearing your screams again.

He got up and opened the door, stepping in on the hall way and looking at both sides.

"KAI!" You breath out, when you turned on a hallway and saw him looking at you with worried yet serious eyes.

You runned towars him withiut a care, jumped on him as he groaned at the impact with the floor, wincing at not knowing if that place was clean or not.

"Kai!" You breath out as you cupped his face on your hands as your tears fell, nuzzling on him "My life, my boyfriend, my devil! I remember! Everthing!" You cried, while Chisaki's eyes widened as his pupils trembled a bit.

He managed to at least sip up, arms now holding you with a iron grip as he still processed while you cried on his shoulder... his own relived tears falling at hearing that you called him your devil.

"(Y/N).." he breathed out in a smile underneath his mask, hugging you even closer as he buried his face on your shoulder with a shaking sigh "My angel... my precious angel you're back..!" He whisper shouted as he holded onto you tight.

He growled in disaproval when you separated before grunting when you grabbed him by the hem of his shirt after yanking his mask down to crash your lips with his... smirking when you felt him sigh on it as his hands went to your waist... straddling his lap.

"I'm so so sorry! How could I ever forget you?!" You whispered between kisses, crying a bit as he hushed you harshly while wiping your tears away with his gloved fingers, taking advantage of your mouth being open to after days taste that scent flavor of his angel he had craved for...

"You aren't the one to blame my love. Never." He said after taking a break for at least to have oxygen back to his chest, helping you up from the floor. "How I wonder? I was running out of hope already..."

"Your scent. Your cologne. When I took your jacket-"

"Ah yes. Little thief." He chuckled at your pout before you skirked devilish and snuggled even more on his coat and on him.

"It was.. like a flash. Kai..." you breathed in on his neck, tearing up at feeling him resting his chin on your head as his gloved fingers worked thorugh your hair.

"My life is so painful and so dark without you my angel... those days were like hell." He admited, subsconciously touching his bare lips on you as a kiss.

Chrono just had stepped in on the room before he quickly turned back when he saw his childhood friend cupping his lover face on his hands as he traced her face with his lips lovely... the skies even seemed to get brighter wben Overhaul's partner recuperated her memory...

#overhaul x reader #overhaul scenario #fanfic overhaul #overhaul #chisaki kai imagine scenario #kai chisaki x reader #chisaki kai x reader #kai chisaki #chisaki kai #bnha imagine #bnha x reader #bnha characters #bnha villains #bnha #my writing #zuffer writings

[oumakokichi]

Do you think that Kokichi had any remorse for Gonta during trial 4 or did he actually not care? I've seen a lot of people saying different opinions from both sides of the argument. But I'm really confused because there was a moment where after Gonta was executed, correct me if I'm wrong but Shuichi asked Kokichi if he could reveal the secret of the outside world (?) But Kokichi replied with something like “I don't want to....” and seemed generally upset? But then a few moments later he snapped out if it and began acting like he had no sympathy whatsoever. I just really wanna know how Kokichi actually, truly felt about Gonta and if he regretted manipulating him. Sorry if you've already been asked this and have already given an answer, thank you!

Hi anon—I actually wrote a pretty big master-post on chapter 4 not too long ago which I think more or less sums up my thoughts on Ouma’s behavior in the post-trial! You can find it here if you want (it’s pretty long and I tried to answer a whole bunch of questions about Ouma in chapter 4 specifically, since it’s the chapter I get asked about the most).

More specifically though, I’m afraid that there is no easy, definitive answer to that question. I can only share my personal opinions about how I believe Ouma felt in that scene. And personally? I do think he was genuinely upset and distraught about Gonta’s death, that he even momentarily considered giving up all his plans and being executed alongside him, and that he cared about Gonta and deeply regretted using him as a sacrificial pawn in his plans.

I’ll discuss what I mean in more detail, but it’ll probably get pretty long, so I’ll put the rest of this post under a cut as always!

The thing is, though, I’ve shared my personal thoughts about the chapter 4 post trial many times, including my reasoning and all of the textual evidence that shows how much Ouma cared about the rest of his classmates. But ultimately, there will probably always be some people who disagree, because their reading of the text will always be a little bit different. Unless we ever have an interview from Kodaka in the future where he directly says, “this is what Ouma was thinking and feeling at this exact moment,” there really won’t ever be a way to know what was going through his head with 100% certainty (and I do feel like leaving it open-ended is something of Kodaka’s intention, anyway, especially since Ouma is supposed to be a very polarizing character).

That being said, I do think it’s worth analyzing the text and drawing your own conclusions, because ndrv3 is a game that changes a lot depending on how you interpret it, and Ouma’s character is included in that. It’s really easy on a first playthrough to get wrapped up in what Ouma says or does without really looking at why he says it, or at his underlying motivations. Going back through the game on a replay though, I do personally think it’s possible to guess at what he might have been feeling during those super conflicting scenes in chapter 4.

In my opinion, I think Ouma did truly care about Gonta as a friend, and that his guilt and remorse over what he did was genuine. Not only did Ouma and DICE have a very strict taboo against killing (mentioned directly in his motive video in Japanese, though the part about it being an actual rule was stripped from the localization), but we don’t see Ouma’s façade crack like this very often. Most of the time when he does his trademark “crocodile tears,” it’s with his very loud, exaggerated crying sprite, and he bounces right back to acting normally within a moment or two.

There are a few exceptions to this, of course—he uses the “crocodile tears” sprite to cry at Kaede, Amami, and Toujou’s deaths, but it’s still very likely he was shaken up by seeing them dead). Nonetheless, we don’t see his much more subdued crying sprites more than a handful of times, particularly in the chapter 4 post-trial just before Gonta’s execution, as well as in Momota’s flashback in chapter 5 when he talks about how Ouma actually hated the killing game the whole time.

I’m aware that some people simply brush these moments aside and assume that Ouma is lying though all of them, but I personally just can’t agree with that interpretation. Assuming that Ouma is lying whenever he shows remorse or guilt or hatred for the killing game means assuming that he’s telling the truth in pretty much every other scene—which doesn’t make much sense, given that his entire character is centered around the concept of lying, as well as moral ambiguity and subverting expectations. Assuming that Ouma actually means what he’s saying 100% of the time unless it just happens to involve showing any kind of guilt or remorse turns him into a very boring, predictable, uninspired character (none of which are words I would use to describe him personally).

Ignoring those moments where Ouma shows genuine attachment to his classmates and distaste for the killing game also means ignoring several key pieces of evidence and clues about him that we are directly provided in the game, including his motive video and Momota’s flashback in chapter 5. Personally, I don’t feel like there’s any reason to include these scenes at all unless it’s to help shed light on Ouma’s motivations and provide players with a clear reason to try and go back through the game again to look at Ouma’s actions through a new perspective.

I also feel that Ouma genuinely cared about Gonta because to put it simply, there was no incentive for him to lie in that scene. He got absolutely nothing out of it—and considering he turns around and starts playing the villain on purpose all of 5 minutes after Gonta’s death, he definitely wasn’t trying to earn sympathy points or trick the rest of his classmates into trusting him. In fact, he could’ve easily tried to make himself look more sympathetic by putting all of the blame on Miu for trying to kill him, or even on Gonta. But instead he fully admits to coming up with the plan to kill Miu and spends the entire post-trial trying to convince everyone not to hate or blame Gonta.

If he was truly as sadistic and horrible as he pretended to be, I think he would’ve pulled a 180 and started throwing names and insults around while Gonta was still alive to hear it, not after he was already dead. If he didn’t care at all about Gonta’s feelings, he had no reason to try and take all the blame on himself while insisting that none of what happened was actually Gonta’s fault. If anything, revealing himself to be this horrible, evil villain who enjoys seeing other people suffer or die would’ve really been adding insult to injury, and probably would’ve crushed Gonta completely, even before his execution started.

But… Ouma doesn’t do any of this. Despite having every opportunity to either portray himself as more of a victim and fling all the blame on Miu and Gonta, or else to completely embrace being a villain who loved seeing people suffer, he doesn’t do either of these things. The way I personally see it, Ouma waits until Gonta is already dead, and when the rest of his classmates begin pushing him for answers about the outside world and demanding to know what Gonta saw, that’s when he finally snaps and resigns himself to acting like a villain in order to make everyone hated.

You could argue that trying to make everyone hate him had a twofold effect: it helped set the stage for him to pretend to be the ringleader in the next chapter, which he clearly wanted, but it also was a way of taking things out on himself and shows just a small glimpse of how much he hated having to dirty his hands in chapter 4. After all, Ouma even says it himself: that the “role of a villain is perfect for him,” because he’s already made everyone hate him. We see Ouma occasionally tease or antagonize the rest of his classmates plenty of times throughout the game, but it’s true that he doesn’t really step into that “villain” role until the end of chapter 4, once he’s crossed a line that he can never come back from by manipulating both Miu and Gonta to their deaths.

None of this is to say that what Ouma did to Gonta is okay, by any means. I think he definitely did care about Gonta and even thought of him as one of the few trustworthy people in the killing game, even someone close to a friend, but that doesn’t mean that manipulating him and using him like a chess piece was okay in the end. I just also think it’s important to realize that there were plenty of extenuating circumstances that led Ouma to act the way he did—including the fact tha he knew Miu was going to kill him, that he already suspected she had measures to prevent him from fighting back or killing her himself in the VR world, and the fact that he did not want to die or get everyone else killed in the trial.

It’s possible for people to care about others without necessarily treating them the best or doing the right thing. A huge part of Danganronpa, something that’s been evident from the very first game, is that sometimes characters can and do hurt each other, even when they care about each other or wouldn’t be a threat otherwise.

It’s the existence of the killing game itself that causes so many characters to go to extremes that they normally wouldn’t, whether it’s Maizono trying to frame Naegi in dr1 despite caring about him a lot, Kaede deciding to try and commit murder under everyone’s noses despite trying to unite the group and wanting everyone to trust her, or Ouma using Gonta as a pawn to kill Miu in his place because he didn’t want to die.

At the end of the day, people are still probably going to have very polarizing opinions about Ouma and the things he did in chapter 4, and that’s honestly okay. In my own opinion, Ouma definitely isn’t a completely flawless, innocent baby who “did nothing wrong”—he absolutely is manipulative, cold, and calculating when he wants to be, and it’s a fact that he got two people killed, even if he didn’t want things to reach that point. But I also personally don’t think it’s fair to write him off as the exact kind of “evil villain” he pretends to be; not only is it a shortsighted interpretation of his larger motivations, but it also completely ignores any replay value and completely shoots down the appeal of trying to interpret Ouma’s thoughts and actions because “he was lying about feeling bad anyway, what’s the point in analyzing him.”

Tl;dr: I do think Ouma cares about Gonta, that he probably even thought of him as the closest thing he had to a friend in the killing game, and that what he did to Gonta in the end wasn’t okay. I think he really did respect Gonta for being such a sweet and kind person, but that he also knew Gonta was extremely naïve and that he would be one of the easiest people in their group to manipulate, hence why he decided to rely on him instead of anyone else. Their friendship is an important part of both of their character arcs, but it’s definitely not what I would call “on equal footing.”

I understand why Ouma’s actions might make some people really resent him, but I also believe that kneejerk reaction of anger and dismissal is exactly the point: Ouma does feel terrible about the things he did, but he doesn’t want anyone’s sympathy or forgiveness, not even the player’s. This, in my opinion, is why he starts embracing the villain role so completely from this point on, and why he’s never quite able to make the same sort of cold, calculating sacrifices in chapter 5 that he did in chapter 4.

I hope this helps answer your question, anon, along with the other chapter 4 post I wrote! Thank you for all your support!

#danganronpa #ndrv3 #new danganronpa v3 #kokichi ouma #ouma kokichi #my meta #ask #anonymous #ndrv3 spoiles // #okay to reblog

[goldenlaquer]

Listen buddy, it's a dangerous game you are playing here, asking such a difficult question. You know how when you love a thing so much trying to pinpoint why exactly you love it in the first place feels kinda wrong? Idk, but your writings are so all around well-written, dissecting them feels like a blasphemy. But you asked for this and your wish is my command, so I'm here to indulge you. Therefore I'll try my best.

One of the first things I've noticed is that your writings are never dry simple stating of facts. Not sure how to describe it but I like the way you'd set a scene and pull a whole show to it. Giving me the feeling that the character has a real life happening to him and I just got a glimpse of a single moment.

Your sense of humor. I don't know what to say about it, it's just *chef's kiss*. The amount of times snorted out an uncivilized laugh, while reading this blog in public. Could I wait to get home to read it? No. No, I could not. The waiting could have killed me, because you make my entireday better, it's like a friend is next to me, telling me stories and jokes, ok.

That's going to be a weird one. You use a very... flowery language. Not only it makes your texts interesting to read but also, you see, I'm not a native speaker, so I learned quite a bit of fancy words, I have yet to encounter in my studybooks, from you. (That's not a joke, my English teacher said my vocabulary had grown a lot and is very rich now. Was so impressed that I use words like "mien". She asked me what I read in a free time to learn words. I didn't have a heart to tell her, though. She's a 68 years old nice old-school lady, it may give her a heart attack.)

Your writing style is very Gintama-ish. There's no other way to describe it, because Gintama itself is impossible to describe. But it just feels like what are you writing is a part of a canon, you know?... This also makes your OCs is ridiculously believable as a part of show. I re-watched 7th division arc recently and was like "Where the fuck is Yan?". Laugh all you want but Imma going to learn Japanese, go to Japan, find Gorilla-sensei, take him hostage, if needed, but convince him to make you his co-author and remake Gintama with your OCs. Then it's over for us, simps. Also one of the first things of yours I've read was "who has a daddy kink in Gintama" and immediately fell in love, right on my head as you can tell. The way you've written this little quarrel between you, the author, and Gin? Amazing. And, oh, how chivalrous of you to protect that individual's privacy. Who is that mysterious Hiji****? We may never know...

Ok, the last one, I swear. As I mentioned earlier the characters you write about feel like real Gintama characters. But not only that, they feel like real people, somehow? Told you, it's hard to analyze things you love. They are just so deep and well-written, it's so easy to empathize with them. It's kinda hard to read your writings in one sitting because I need regular breaks to squeal into my pillow, pace a room a bit, fan my face or straight up cry. Bansai plucking his shamisen ain't got nothing on you plucking the strings of my soul and playing with my emotions like nobody's business. Sougo and Gin may brag about being sadists and their playing-with-people-feelings-skill to all their little black hearts content, they are so below you they cannot jump high enough to kiss the soles of your feet.

Wow, it turned out to be quite the essay, lol. Was it a tiny bit helpful? Idk. Was writing it worth it? Absolutely. Anyway, it's your problem now. You asked, I delivered. So here's me wrapping this message in all my love for you and throwing it right into you lovely, adorable face. Bye 😘

Holy. Shit. W O W.

A-OK, this is so above and beyond that I don't even know where to begin. Woah. Yeah, you delivered. You fucking delivered. Oh my god. I... was not expecting this Alpha level of a reply. At all. Did I read this and sit in total silence for a good minute, gawping in shock? Yes. Can't even pick whether to feel surprised, intimidated, or aroused— I'm all three at once.

But shiiiiiiiit, hot damn. Okayokayokay, first of all, your English is nothing less than PHENOMENAL, could've fooled me, it's as if you are a native speaker because this reads so natural to me. You're amazing.

(and omfg, you used bulletpoints and I think that's super fuckin cute of you because you organized this out, sososo cute you are so cute everything about you is so cute)

I can't thank you enough for this. I love Gintama so much and the fact that you think my writing and ocs are good enough for canon, good enough to threaten Sorachi-god over LMFAOO, is a compliment that I can take to my grave happy.

I'm also over the moon about that part where you think it's easy to empathize with my characterizations of them because YES. YES, THAT'S PRETTY MUCH ALL I WANTED. Sorachi did all the work and created all of them so multi-layered and complex and so painfully human— that's what makes them so relatable and lovable, and the notion that you can empathize with my interpretations is *sob* really fucking cool and awesome, I'm on the right track of things it looks like.

Seriously, I am so touched that you took the time and effort to construct such an amazing feedback. I am so honored that you thought I was worth it. It's only right of me to make sure my writings will continue to bring your praises justice. I hope you have an excellent day, please stay warm!

#cryING #this is ultimate comfort #THANK YOU