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sankatsuka · 3 months

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Backlit Lens Flare and CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY Discussion - Reigniting The Passion Lost to Peer Pressure

Everyone wants to have a place to belong, where the hard work we pour into the things we love will be seen and appreciated by people. But what happens when you decide you will never find this place and resign yourself to a life of solitude, only to be proven wrong by a group of people who insist on your wholehearted hard work? And it only later dawns on you that you will someday have to part ways and you will lose the miraculous place you finally found.

This is what I like to think Rui Kamishiro encapsulates - the battle between being yourself and wanting a place to belong. How easy it is to get swayed from what you love when you think you've found this place and start to subconsciously dedicate your passion to this place instead, to the point that if you're not aware enough, you can forget the feelings in your original passion (resulting in the hesitation and doubt in Curtain Call). After all, nobody is the same, and if you focus too much of your passion on them, that passion becomes about them and not yourself. Ultimately, it is how not acknowledging a healthy boundary with people who are different from you can affect your passion (Shiho as a character is very integral to this).

Warnings:

I believe the entire WxS plot is meant to be misdirection.

Personal interpretation of Rui and several characters by inferring from text.

I believe Rui is a flawed person with no bad intentions, so there will be criticism of his character here. I really suggest turning away if it upsets you.

Spoilers for all WxS unit stories up till Backlit Lens Flare (as well as for Saki, Shiho, Akito, Mafuyu and Mizuki's characters up to their most recent stories)

Edit (11/2/2024): Made multiple edits as always, but biggest change is talking more about the foils in CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY and Kitty's message. Edit (12/2/2024): Compulsory mention of Rui's mom and how he was set up for failure from way back then. Edit (12/2/2024): Expansion on the parallels between Rui and Mafuyu - what it is that makes them the CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY and Jackpot Sad Girl. And a summary on how three commission parallels supports this interpretation of CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY about Rui's characters. Edit (13/2/2024): Lets add a bit more about how Resonate with You criticizes Rui's actions in Curtain Call. AND MANJI ALSO BEING A SLANG MEANING EXCITEMENT, STILL APPLIES TO TSUKASA IDC!!

Rui's character in the story starts off as someone who has thrown the part of himself who wants to have fun making things with people after being repeatedly let down by them. The early times with Wonderlands x Showtime helped him remember that desire from childhood to find a place that accepts that desire, that he criticizes Tsukasa for not appreciating WxS - for not realizing the best shows can't be accomplished without friends.

"--The best shows can't be done alone."

Following the fallout, Tsukasa and WxS' continued insistence and appreciation of him makes him start to see them as a place he can finally belong to. The place he's searched for for so long since childhood. That when he saw Tsukasa get hurt, he became swayed from doing the things he wanted to do for the first time and he hadn't even noticed it - because Tsukasa might leave him like his classmates had, so he has to hold back so as to not disappoint him further. This resulted in Tsukasa and Ruis second argument, with Tsukasa being angry at Rui for lying and holding back - which I later argue is the exact same feelings in his FUZAKERUNA in CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY.

"This is surprising. I didn't think I'd ever feel this way." "Being afraid of losing your place, and then being unable to face the actors who seriously respond to you - this is a failing as a director."

However, this entire ordeal ended in Rui acknowledging his weakness, putting the whole deal behind them and moving on with the show, as KAITO advised. (Spoiler: it isn't weird at all to say that this happens again, with how he deals with it so indifferently like this.)

And then in Curtain Call, he becomes painfully aware that everyone may leave someday for their dreams--

"Someday, the day we will have to depart will come... For both me, and everyone."

Doesn't this just seem like a repeat of Halloween in a different way? He's scared they'll all leave him alone. One can say that Curtain Call ignited the exact same fear of being left alone and losing your place that Rui felt in Halloween - and his reaction feels exactly the same too: acknowledge it, put it behind you and move on to doing what is best for the best shows. After all, Rui lives for the best shows, because it is what makes him most happy - albeit Backlit Lens Flare suggests how he doesn't actually fully remember the joy and passion for shows he had as a child (discussed later). The best way to put it is - Rui feels like a walking corpse of his childhood.

Normally, when you realize this possibility of parting in the future, you talk to your friends about this (see: Saki Focus 3, Get Over It). But Rui refrains from talking to the people he should be talking to (WxS) and proceeds to go for the most obvious decision for his dream by joining Arklands. Only after Asahi turns him away does he go for the next obvious option he sees - the reckless decision that he would do everything in his power to achieve everyone's dreams together. And he can so confidently chase it because he's smart, only to be put down in Backlit Lens Flare lol.

Rui has really just been powering his way through the things he finds unpleasant, as KAITO had told him to in Halloween, ignoring the bad parts and doing everything for the sake for the best shows. You can really, really argue that KAITO's advice in Halloween seems very, very morally ambiguous now lol. He doesn't think ahead of what is the best choice and what would make him happiest - it's as if he's avoiding the very line of thought of how he would do post-WxS. Compared to Shiho in Focus 1, 'Resonate With You', who shows how she has thought it through and is happy enough just spending time with Leo/need for leisure - Rui doesn't even reach this line of thought of what happens next.

I think that he avoids thinking properly about these stuff because he wouldn't have a proper answer to it. Can he really trust Asahi when many other people have disappointed him after showing some interest before this? On the other hand, he's argued with Tsukasa twice and everyone is still enthusiastic - WxS is the only place he's ever felt secure.

"There were a few people who saw my ideas and said, 'it would be interesting if we could do it'." "But even those people gradually became reluctant with the more new ideas I brought to them."

It may generally be underestimated in the story just how much Rui doesn't inherently trust people and actors.

Even CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY begins with 'Nobody's listening anyway. Music's all just fashion, players leaving the field after devouring dead sounds one night.' which can be interpreted as people who became reluctant after they spent too long around Rui as he says to KAITO above, innit.

And then, Backlit Lens Flare happens and Rui encounters ??? (Sakaki). Sakaki immediately identifies the problem with Bakuno's acting, pinpointing it to the directors instead of the actor. Rui was not able to.

Remember, the freelance option isn't permanent - there's the possibility someone may be recruited away (It's a story for another day that he is only really worried about Tsukasa instead of the whole WxS but doesn't realize this). Rui paying attention to their growths first of all before his own is testament to how he's trying to make sure they quickly grow so they can achieve their dreams together:

"...It seems it became good stimulation for both of them right away." "...I also need to more proactively study from this opportunity."

So even now, Rui is more worried about WxS over himself. He prioritizes making sure they are getting something out of the freelancing gig over himself. Only after watching them was he stimulated to do his best too - and here comes the question, where did his drive to be proactive for his own passion go to?

Sakaki's ingenuity finally pops this question to Rui's mind. Had Rui's brain not been filled with the worry of losing his place, he may have been able to think more clearly and just as quickly reach the same conclusion as Sakaki. If he had been filled with thoughts of what was satisfying for himself instead of how he could stay with everyone, he may have been able to create a much better film (see: Shiho Focus 3, Stick to Your Faith). In fact, why is he even so bothered about falling behind Sakaki, when Rui isn't even an adult or a professional director himself?

It's not normal to be bothered about that: Nene was never hard on herself for not being as good as Kazamatsuri, because it's a given she's far away. But she does get upset with herself when she realizes she had looked down on Sakurako and naively seen her as an equal. You only react that way with people you see as equals if you're secure.

Perhaps, the passionate person Rui used to be would have admired Sakaki and want to learn from him out of a pure love for shows instead. And not be so bothered about how he was falling behind professionals.

We see Rui fail twice in the story: not figuring out the problem with the scene, and not thinking ahead of personalizing the script like Ohara had. (There is a third time too: how Tsukasa and WxS seem so moved by Bakuno's performance that Rui played no part in - meaning there are others who could easily replace him - if the emotions in this discussion hold true). And it's no wonder it would have him start questioning and blaming his obsession with WxS for it - if he had not been preoccupied with them, he may have avoided his failures altogether, and even if he did, he wouldn't have been this upset.

It's like a hit to his ego. Is how he's acting and behaving really the same boy who loved shows and would do anything for a show that would satisfy him?

Right now, it's as if Rui is trying hard to protect his position as a talented genius that surpasses everyone so WxS will need him for their dreams and want him around. No one can replace him; only he can achieve their dreams for them.

But Sakaki and Ohara prove him wrong.

The closing lines of Backlit Lens Flare, where he focuses on his own feelings towards directing instead of anything WxS learned, implies this self-realization of how he had been behaving. Rui is finally focused on himself.

"I'm disappointed that I didnt come up with this method, but strangely enough, I feel refreshed." "Directing... really is interesting."

FIRST UP. WHY DID YOU NEED TO COME UP WITH THE METHOD. SECONDLY, WHY ARE YOU REFRESHED. It makes sense to me as someone who's been carried away a lot: when you realize you lost sight of your original intentions and began worrying more about so many unnecessary things, you feel bitter at your mistake but relieved and refreshed you've finally been woken up.

To me, all of these feel like they're pointing to Rui being afraid of losing his place in WxS. So he has to be capable of solving everything, achieving everyone's dreams, so they will need him for it and they can keep staying this way. Before this, it seemed like a normal human emotion he had just never experienced before, but now, it's starting to show it's actually detrimenting his passion.

This is what I believe the theme of trends are playing into in CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY - doing anything you can to make sure there will be people to hear and appreciate your music, and the spite in realizing you've lost yourself in that pursuit. Money is the artificial love you receive by catering to people so they would stay and listen to you. It's heartless, but following his character, it seems the crowd he's referring to is WxS. Because they have their strong individualistic dreams and just won't simply stay with him as he wants them to, he has to keep worrying about keeping up with them (Tsukasa mainly):

But still, here, there, everywhere, loners, manji, Gen Z, even monkeys want it.

Loners=Rui Manji (a sign of good things to come)=Tsukasa (being surrounded by good luck charms; kanji 天 being associated with heaven; inviting Rui to WxS) (edit: manji is also a slang for excitement, which Tsukasa literally is for Rui) Gen Z=Nene (digital age, playing video games) Monkey=Emu (in Rui's picnic card and Emu in Sky's Edge)

(In NY2, Emu ended up drawing tons of big luck omikuji, and Tsukasa is surrounded by monkeys in Island Panic - so you can suggest their roles are reversed. But the robot monkey Tsukasa in picnic suggests Tsukasa isn't a real monkey.)

Curtain Call and Backlit Lens Flare together show how not addressing and expressing fears properly and simply moving on changes nothing. Self-awareness and powering through is useless advice - anyone who's had troubles with lovers, friends and family know you need to talk and accomodate each other. Or not, is it even feeling loved and cared anymore, isn't it just about control then?

In Resonate with You, Shiho makes Leo/need think through their choice to join her into becoming a professional, rather than accepting them right off the bat. She knows from her prior experience working with people that half-hearted musicians would only fail, suffer and drop out. It is only by Leo/need wholeheartedly declaring their intentions of facing music sincerely and seriously that Shiho is convinced that they can all do it together for sure. This is such a contrast to Rui in Curtain Call where he decides on his own that he will find a way for WxS to achieve their dream together, while barely thinking at all. And he winds up focusing so much on making sure WxS stays together. You need to think it through, face the future seriously and talk properly. NOT JUST LEAVE IT THERE!!

Or else you'll lose sight of your original motivation from focusing too much on things that don't really matter as much to you: you'll just end up half-hearted.

Further proof that Backlit Lens Flare is Rui's realization of his half-heartedness since Curtain Call, is that Tsukasa gets angry at him in CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY like he does in Halloween. It isn't even a desperate shout to save someone - it's like a look of pure judgmental disappointment, as if they've been through this already. Stop lying.

He already shouted in anger in Halloween. If that didn't reach Rui, then there was no point in being all angry anymore.

Rui was repeating Halloween, trying so hard to protect the place he belongs to and forgot what he himself truly wants. From there, the lyrics in the entire CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY are self-explanatory: what happened to the things you wanted to sing? (I was so happy with the lyrics because it was exactly what I was thinking in Curtain Call but no one seemed to care).

One thing you can never take away from Rui is that he is a very, very passionate guy. He loves what he does that he would spend every waking hour of his day working on it. Even if he's become a shell of his former self, his body is still naturally drawn to shows (Samsa Kanade reference heh). And Rui himself believes himself to be purely passionate too. So when he realizes that passion has been thoroughly dirtied, it makes sense he's as angry as he is in CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY.

In Anni 2, Rui says he didn't know what he wanted to do like Mafuyu, but then he corrects himself to say he THOUGHT he knew.

"Actually, in the past, I didn't know what I wanted to do." "No... I should say that I thought I knew, but I actually didn't know at all."

For a brief moment, Rui thought he was just like Mafuyu with nothing to call his own. Until he quickly remembers that he did indeed have something he wanted to do, but claims to have been mistaken.

Why did you briefly relate to a girl who felt like she had nothing she wanted to do like everyone else, if that isn't a sign of his current state of mind - feeling like he has no dreams like WxS, and having to keep up with them so that he can feel like he belongs (discussed later in the parallels with Cinema). His lost passion became more evident at this point of the story.

If you 'thought you knew', then that means it was once a genuine feeling too. Even if you're alone, doing what you love is still fun - Shiho in her Focus 3, 'That Day, The Sky Was Far Away' demonstrates this. Although she had been let down by the bandmates, she was still fine alone because music made her feel better. And she even inspired Mihane because of her enthusiasm. After all, what you love to do should make you happy to some extent.

In comparison, Rui seems to have forgotten that shows were actually fun in middle school (probably because Stick to Your Faith never happened for him). When he approached Mizuki, he was standoffish and didn't think to introduce Mizuki to the fun of shows even when they expressed some interest in it. Probably because he couldn't even remember it himself. But being able to make that decision suggests he did still have some semblance of emotions that felt like shows were fun. Once again, a walking corpse of his chiildhood.

In the end, it's like he already lost this original joy for shows since middle school, and then grew even more confused about what made him happiest with the new joy he experienced after finding a place in WxS. He hasn't been able to wholeheartedly enjoy his passion because he's been continuously rejected, and he thought he was having fun when WxS accepted him - but in the end, that fun was from finally finding a place.

Update: Tetrad gives more implications of how Rui had gone astray post-Curtain Call. Tsukasa and Rui sing together, "We're facing the same direction", but Rui appears troubled. It's like Rui can't declare that he is chasing his dreams as confidently as the rest of WxS. Deep down, a part of him probably knew this even before Backlit Lens Flare happened but was afraid of facing it.

I would further go on to associate CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY to both Kitty and Cinema which its imagery resembles. The card set takes place in Shibuya where Kitty takes place in, and Cinema uses the same director's cut + Tsukasa's trained card directly mentions Cinema on the billboard.

There's also the naming that is clearly based on Jackpot Sad Girl - which I think just goes to highlight how both Rui and Mafuyu have the power through it mindset that it lands them dead and sad respectively: people need to reconcile their differences with others to truly love and feel alive (Rui) and people can't endure stress for too long without getting depressed (Mafuyu). Both ignored their human needs and thus this is where they wound up.

The parallel with Kitty feels like it's also within the overall messaging - how facing things can lead to losing yourself even more when you aren't mentally prepared and have no clear-cut answer (sounds similar to what Rui carelessly did in Curtain Call, doesn't it?). In Mafuyu's case, she seemed about ready to change herself again to please her mother, and in Mizuki's case, opening up to Niigo would make them more sensitive to what they say and probably even change themselves so as to not be left alone. Mizuki has even expressed this sentiment once by dressing as a boy in middle school, when they already knew they loved cute things since childhood and was even reaffirmed by their sister.

In Our Survival and Escape, the point is made that it's BECAUSE Mizuki never opened up to Niigo that they were able to protect their heart. Compare this to Rui, who bore everything about himself to WxS by not holding back with his performances and past and thus gained their unconditional acceptance. As a result, he becomes swayed by them when he realizes that things would come to an end and becomes preoccupied with stopping it even at the cost of himself - his passion. If Mizuki had similarly put their utmost trust in Niigo like this, it wouldn't be surprising either if they quickly get swayed to stop expressing themselves too if one of them ever expressed dismay (hinting that they would leave).

Thus, in order to find the answer to real love, you have to protect your heart first, even if it means running away and distancing yourself from others (Kitty). But unlike Mizuki, Rui was taught from childhood to simply not care about what people say, so he has never been aware of just how much words can affect you (compare the advice Mizuki's sister and Rui's mom gave them: completely different). This winds him up in CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY, where he's unknowingly adjusting himself for WxS to not leave him.

As for Cinema, both songs capture how Akito and Rui's struggles and fears at the time feel like the exact same - being left behind and losing your place because you weren't enough, to the point of losing who you really are (Akito pushing himself to be passionate to match everyone else, Rui falling into the trap of peer pressure to match everyone else. What they envy in 'everyone else' is how they want things that Akito and Rui don't feel like they really care about and view as meaningless. But in truth, they don't care about it only because they're more concerned about belonging - they've always had it deep down in them.).

But in Akito's case, VIVID BAD SQUAD directly reaches out for him when he pushes himself far too much and forces himself to suffer to make up for his lack of talent. That's why Akito is reassured that even at his weakest and most pathetic, there will be people there who refuse to leave him alone. So Cinema feels like Akito freely lamenting on how he's different from the people, that he can't keep up with them, but with VBS by his side, he feels like it's fine to find and pursue who he truly is.

On the other hand, CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY feels like Rui's suppressed spite from having to keep up with WxS in order to not be left alone. Because everyone else will betray him, it has to be and can only be WxS who've endured him until now. It's the first time he found people who would stay, so he's desperate not to lose them that he would subconsciously change himself so he can keep matching their needs. And the realization makes him spiteful, because he's lost what was fun for him from that need to change for others to stay. And he's left to stay lost to the very end, because the only way right now for him to be himself and stop worrying is by others matching him instead, but there is no way to 100% control people - compared to Akito who found his answer by coming to terms with the impossibility to control yourself to be someone else. Because VBS was there to accept him as he was when he was trying so hard to be someone else.

Rui will probably eventually realize he has to just accept he's lost his passion from the fear of being alone and stop lamenting controlling everything around him, once he gets tired of it and reaches his limit like Akito in Stray Bad Dogs.

Suddenly everyone started up onto a nonsense scenario (Whatever you do, wherever you look, there's a traffic of influencers.)

It's just like a movie, exactly like a movie. (But still, here, there, everywhere, loners, manji, Gen Z, even monkeys want it.)

No matter where you go, there's a story. (Just give me a punchline, its meaning can be whatever.)

Cinema and CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY are like the perspectives of two boys who feel like outsiders to the world, but one is actively trying change himself to belong somewhere and the other finds himself suddenly facing peer pressure when he used to not care about belonging somewhere. It's even contrasted in Akito's customer service front and Rui's indifference to school terrorism that they are foils of one another in a society. And probably why Akito hates Rui too - for taking any means necessary to achieve what he wants without a care for people, when Akito has spent his life working hard to be equals to people in order to belong.

[More similarities in lyrics, in no particular order (CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY in brackets):

Traffic’s already jammed up now. Oh well, nothing I can do about that anyway (Whatever you do, wherever you look, there's a traffic of influencers.)

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this.” "What was it supposed to be like then?" (What happened to things you wanted to sing about?)

Back then I'm sure it was there. The thing that I envisioned was there. When was it that I... (There must have been something you wanted to sing about.)

What are you playing at? Who are you trying to be? There's no way you could be that, right? (At this rate this will never end. What you want definitely isn't money.)]

Maybe it's coincidence, but the lyrics in Cinema also reference Curtain Call very early on:

Someday it'll be bye-bye when the end comes, so Smile for the curtain call and applause.

Cinema is accepting of it and faces it head-on. Rui still avoids it.

And Cinema also captured what happened in Backlit Lens Flare with Bakuno. Something Rui couldn't figure out on his own without Sakaki and Emu:

If you're not suited for the role, Then just rewrite the script!

This is as if implying Akito realizes early on that people are all different, and there may come a time you have to part because of your differences. So you don't have to keep worrying about fitting in - try your best to be yourself instead and smile when it all ends.

This is something that Rui hasn't faced at all, so it's pretty meta that he hadn't thought of matching the actor's individualities. It seems he's lived with the belief that directors have to adjust themselves according to the level they believe the actors are on and actors have to work their hardest to live up to the director's wishes at all times - because the director knows best. Instead of truly understanding their actors for who they are as individuals and what they individually need.

"I always try to cast actors in a way that brings out their strengths." "That's why I always get you to play the role of a type that is easiest for you to match."

And this becomes a regret for Rui in the same story - realizing that he hadn't thought enough about what Tsukasa really wanted and needed.

"...I feel a little regretful that I hadn't thought that far."

Nene's surprise at Rui's words further imply that this isn't how he normally is. That he wouldn't be thinking so much about people and their personal needs.

It isn't therefore surprising that he agrees with and commits to the mindset that he has to power through his emotions without speaking to anyone. He expects that from his actors, and applying it to real life, it means that your role and scenario have already been decided from birth and what was left was living up to it. It's frighteningly similar to the lyrics in Engeki, which I wasn't even thinking about. Except it wasn't forced on him but rather something Rui decided on his own, with no harmful intent from the people who fed that mindset. Even before KAITO - it was his mother who unknowingly instilled this in him:

"People are people, I am myself. If you take care of what you like, someday you'll be able to make friends too. Like how I met your dad." (i.e. don't bother with the painful things around you, just keep doing what you do and keep going until you get there.)

And hence why this commission is full of firey anger. The story tramples on the way Rui has lived until now, proving him wrong when he thought he finally found his answer by powering through his fear of losing WxS. How it made him realize that he had at some point been driven by something petty like being with friends forever and lost the passionate part of him, the one who would do anything to satisfy himself. He's realized he's no longer having fun like the child he used to be, evident from the lyrics that start off with how he no longer has anything he wants to convey.

"Now let's all laugh. Aren't views more important than art? A terrible price for the virus. So what will you do? Is that really fine?" The lyrics are as if Rui is finally realizing that everything he's been doing, making people smile up until now, has been just for views (for WxS to stay around), and it finally makes him question, is this what he really wants??? Where did all the passion, fun and self-satisfaction that he thought he was making shows for went to???

(This is a more literal translation, the popular TL translates it as Then what do we do? Was that how it was supposed to go?)

I don't know if it's clear now - but in conclusion, CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY feels very much like Rui realizing how he was more focused on protecting his place over enjoying what he does. The first lines of the song do seem to be screaming a spitefulness in not being able to just do what you enjoy: "No one wants to listen (...), I don't have anything I want to convey (...)"

That's why CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY is an ironic name, appearing on the director's cut to imply they're filming a movie of Rui's life. How Rui had been living dead against his own self - falling victim to peer pressure (trends) to protect his place in WxS. Until Sakaki reminds him of the heights his true self wanted to reach and reignites the passionate fire for theatre inside him.

In summary, to simplify it, CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY's parallels come together to tell a complete story about Rui Kamishiro (biased but idc): 1) Jackpot Sad Girl: The unhealthiness of Rui and Mafuyu's mindset of powering through what they think they want without properly talking to people. 2) Kitty: How putting your trust in people can sway your heart and steer you away from what you truly want, something Mizuki knows and thus avoids but not Rui. 3) Cinema: A combination of Jackpot Sad Girl and Kitty - how a person with Rui's mindset is left feeling angry and confused when realizing he has lost himself from having his heart unexpectedly swayed by people. This is foiled by a complete opposite like Akito who has lived a life with no reason to truly call his own and is bitterly aware of how it is all because his life has always been completely defined by other people.

(Man, I LOVE the Cinema foils so much. Akito and Rui are such perfect opposites I LOVE THEM.)

And finally, from the end of CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY:

Devoid of soul, music remains silent Unheard lyrics conceal their essence; without playback, music loses its meaning. Thus, modern music is pronounced deceased.

YES. YES. DEVOID OF SOUL AS I SAID, HOW RUI KAMISHIRO FEELS LIKE A WALKING CORPSE OF HIS CHILDHOOD. PLAYBACK!!! LOOK BACK AT YOUR PAST AND FIND YOURSELF!!! REMEMBER THE JOY AND PASSION YOU CAN'T GIVE UP RUI-KUN!!! Stop trying to keep people around, face solitude and be brave: what's most important is to be yourself!

Backlit Lens Flare felt like a reawakening for Rui, and it's why it's one of the best stories alongside Pandemonium for me. If Tsukasa is completely avoidant, then Rui is full of blatant lies. But of course because the writers will never clearly describe the emotions in WxS stories, I can't confirm this is the intended interpretation. It's just my own personal interpretation that I enjoy best and makes most emotional sense to my personal experiences.

But my opinions are bound to change because there are soooo many ways of seeing things. For now, this is what I think of Rui Kamishiro in Backlit Lens Flare and CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY.

#project sekai #rui kamishiro #kamishiro rui #wonderlands x showtime #wxs #it's so difficult to talk about rui #i do kinda get how this feels but i guess it's hard to put into words because of how dull the feeling is and you don't even know its there #until you do something thats out of character for yourself #someone whos always trying to convince themselves they dont care when people hurt them will get it #ok i take back my comments on the popular tl of cyberpunk dead boy being biased its just difficult to translate lol #rui is literally set for failure and doomed by the narrative #im sorry i keep editing i just find it so hard to put my thoughts about rui into words

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kaladinkholins · 2 months

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Hiii, I've got an ask for you 🫣

What is the most interesting end for Mizu in your opinion and if you could guess, what do you think the writers will do?

1. Doomed by the narrative all the way (her story starts sad and ends in a even bigger inevitable tragedy)

2.She gets what she wants but will never find true happiness (maybe lose someone she loves in the way)

3.Gets what she wants and finds contentment and even happiness.

Secret fourth opition?

Hope you are well😁

Hiiiii <3 <3

OOOH this is an interesting one, and right out the gate I would 100% immediately choose Option 3 here, which is that Mizu gets what she wants and finds happiness and contentment.

Now I am a SUCKER for tragedy and bittersweet endings, they are soooo juicy like don't get me wrong (the novel manuscript I'm working on is literally a doomed-by-the-narrative type story!) but in my opinion, though all stories can be tragedies, not all stories necessarily should be.

This is because a story's ending, and what makes an ending satisfactory, is heavily reliant on the promise that it sets at the very beginning.

A narrative promise is essentially what the story is telling us to expect when we start the first episode or read the first chapter or click the start button on a game. As such, the promise is usually given to us in two primary ways.

First is the story's tone. What sort of language does it use? What sort of art direction does it employ? Its music, its camera angles?

In BES, the story starts off with some dynamic long shots of Mizu walking with her back turned to the camera through the snow, the wind whooshing and dramatic music in the background, while words fade in and out on the screen:

In 1633, Japan closed its borders to the outside world. Citizens would never see a white face, nor any face that was not Japanese. A child born mixed race would be considered less than human. Pitiable. Monstrous. From these times rose a legend. Of a swordsman. Of a sword. Of revenge.

The music ends in an epic crescendo. Cue title screen.

From the above line, we can already see that the tone is that of a dramatic, epic, action-filled story about revenge. From that first scene, we see Mizu's confrontation with Hachi, and from this we already see the promise that this is a heavily-stylised action martial arts series that will be violent and gritty.

On that note, its fight sequences also follow video game logic a lot of times, and overallm a lot of things are not very realistic or necessarily 100% historically-accurate. This, together with a lot of casual dialogue and humour littered throughout, makes it a story that doesn't take itself too seriously. It's rather blockbuster-ish in that sense, and while very well written and rife with beautiful imagery, symbolism, and nuanced characters and themes, it is not intended to be high literary work by any means.

And while Mizu's backstory is indeed very tragic, the story we see in the present is very tonally different, chock-full of one liners and silly lines (thank you, Ringo and Taigen, my silly boys, for that) as well as flashy action scenes and montages set to rock music. The tonal shift between the past and present stories is also in part what makes The Tale of the Ronin and the Bride stand out so prominently among the 8 episodes.

Besides the tone, a story also delivers its the promise through its character arc, which is presented to the audience by showing us a variety of things related to the protagonist, such as:

what the character is missing in their life: for Mizu, it is love and acceptance;

their desires: revenge, because as we see from her backstory, she has been unable to obtain love/acceptance;

what's preventing them from achieving it: Mizu adamantly believes that she is a monster who is not capable of loving or being loved, and this is why she pushes Ringo and Taigen away in present day;

and their flaws: Mizu is stubborn, narrow-minded, and is driven purely by hate and anger. Taigen tells the viewers this very clearly in Ep7 when he says she's killing Fowler "Not for honour. For hate." And also in Ep8 when he says to Ringo, "Mizu doesn't care about anyone but himself and his revenge." Mizu's "ember" is her anger and desire for vengeance.

Thus, from all this, we can come to a conclusion that the show's promise is something along the lines of

Mizu gets her revenge +

Mizu unlearns her self-hatred and stops letting her anger be the only thing guiding her +

Mizu stops running from people who care about her so she can finally get the love and acceptance she's always craved.

IMO, only by fulfilling all three of these promises would the story have a satisfying payoff.

Whether the revenge will be directed to the white men, though, is up for debate, as there are a lot of theories going around that maybe the white men aren't as evil as she thought and none of them are even her fathers, that Mizu's true enemy is Lady Itoh and the shogunate, etc. The third point, regarding love and acceptance, is also a point of discourse, because we don't know who she'll end up with, or if she'll end up with anyone romantically at all, whereby the story opts to make it an open ending focusing on platonic/found-family bonds rather than any romantic one.

Whatever the case, it doesn't necessarily matter, and I'm open to pretty much all directions the writers may take us as long as SOME revenge is achieved, blood is spilled, colonisers get their dues, AND Mizu gets to be loved and happy.

BUT if you ask me for my ideal version of that payoff... I think it's no surprise to anyone when I say I want Mizu to live a nice peaceful and secluded life, in which all her past adventures fade into myth and legend (as implied in the opening text).

Because while I'm almost certain Mizu is related to some royal or important bloodline, I don't think Mizu would find happiness in a life in the palace. She has never wanted greatness, has never even hinted at wanting power or anything like it. She craves belonging and the freedom to be herself, and to be loved for all her flaws and dualities. These are things she needs to grow and be a better person as well. A life of politics and intrigue inherent in being a royal heir, or in being a samurai loyal to the shogunate (even if it is under Akemi's future administration) would offer no such freedom or sense of peace for Mizu.

So yeah! Peace and quiet and happiness, maybe living on a farm like she did with Mikio. But of course that life wouldn't mean anything if she were to live it alone, because remember she wants and needs love and belonging. As such, I think the one most suited to give her that would be Taigen (for a variety of reasons).

This life could be with or without their bestie Ringo, depending on if Ringo decides to travel and find his own greatness, and it is implied that Ringo does leave Mizu's side to go on his own adventures, as hinted by the creators wanting a spin-off centered around him.

And also Mizu and Taigen go to visit their mutual ex-girlfriend Akemi sometimes for like special occasions or something.

I hope that answered your question, and thank you so much for the ask!! <3 <3 And on that note, my inbox is open for more if anyone else would like to pick my brain about this show, or anything else for that matter really. I may take a while to answer them considering how in-depth I like to go on these, but I love getting any and all these asks regardless :)

#blue eye samurai #blue eye samurai meta #taimizu #mizu x taigen #taigen x mizu #letters.doc #farintonorth #meta dissertations.pdf #fandom.rtf

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stuffnonsenseandotherthings · 9 months

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Crackpot Predictions - Only Friends Episode 1

Welcome to a new thing I do where I try to predict (*cough* wildly guess *cough*) what's going to happen in a show based solely on my read of the first episode. I'll try to cover all of what I think are the main story beats, record them here for posterity (and so I can either say "ha I told you so" or you can all point and laugh at me later), and hopefully by the end of the series we'll all be able to see if I'm a clairvoyant with a magic orb or, alternatively, a numpty with a glass paperweight. Some of these predictions are completely serious, others are complete crack, and some are just random thoughts that had the misfortune of wandering into my head.

With that, let's get started shall we?

The Hostel

Setting up a hostel for your graduation project? How cute!And with your best friends too? How adorable!

Too bad that hostel is absolutely Not Going To Happen. And not only is the hostel Not Going To Happen, its also going to be the site of some of the worst moments of your entire lives!

Prediction: is this is where it's all going to go down, this is where they're going to have the final argument, this is where the climax is going to happen, this is where shit hits the fan and then explodes. I mean why else would you introduce a building site if not to have all your characters have mental breakdowns symbolically in the middle of it? Scaffolding and painter's tarp is for screaming matches and for saying things you never meant to say.

Mew

Oh Mew. Soft, virginal, innocent Mew. Mew who lives in a completely different world to his friends where he wears cute pastels, gets a teen movie montage when he wakes up in the morning, gets a public confession like something out of a romance movie... Surrounded by people with impure thoughts and even worse intentions. What on earth is going to become of our sweet pastel boy?

Who am I kidding, he's going to be fine.

In fact he's probably going to be one of the few people who is fine by the end of this series, and will probably be at least partially responsible for quite a lot of other people being very fucked up (especially Top, sorry my man but you are doomed by the narrative). He's definitely doing to be hurt and he's definitely going to lose his honour student title and he's definitely going to have less friends by the end of this but he'll be fine, he's literally the only one in the friend group other than Chueam with the emotional maturity to cope with and process what's about to happen.

Prediction: He's going to lose friends (but not Chueam, she'll stick with him), his academic record is going to be messed up (but not irreparably so, he'll just have to put in extra work to repair it), and he won't have a boyfriend by the end of the series but he'll be okay, he'll be able to walk it off when it's all said and done. He may even start to get his man back (if he wants him, that is).

Ray

Poor Ray, he's a rich brat who clearly has some self-esteem issues and is whipped for his best friend. He's in for a rough ride I fear, especially seeing as he currently deals with his emotions by getting very drunk and/or lashing out.

Sand will probably be good for him (perhaps a little too good for him) in both bringing him down a peg and hopefully giving him the kind of ego boost he actually needs (no Ray you are not a burden but please stop ruining your liver) and I'm really looking forward to the development of their enemies to fwb relationship and all entails.

Unfortunately for Ray he looks like he might be a bit of a bleeding heart romantic on the inside so he's probably going to get his heart broken twice in a very short space of time; once by Mew and his new relationship and then once again by Sand and his refusal to play second fiddle and Ray is only going to realise this when it's a bit too late. Needless to say Ray will probably not be having a fun time for most of this series and of all the character he is tied as most likely to end up in hospital at some point.

Prediction: He's going to lose friends, he's going to fail his degree, he's going to get his heart broken twice and he's probably not going to be okay about it (but hopefully he'll be on the mend by the end of it all). Ray is going to start shit he can't finish and he, more than anyone else, is going to be a victim of his own actions but hopefully he's also going to be the character with the most growth. Sand might be around to scrape him off the floor at the end, but Ray is going to have to work himself out first.

Boston

Boston, what to say about Boston other than currently he seems to be trying to break the record of most men slept with in a single episode (his competition is Brian Kinney from Queer As Folk btw).

There's definitely a lot more than meets the eye when it comes to him and I look forward to unpacking all of his messy laundry when the time comes. He seems to be both incredibly confident with his life choices (good for him) and incredibly insecure about them at the same time which is fascinating and I definitely get the feeling that he has issues with Mew (to the point where I wouldn't really say they're actually friends) because of that insecurity. I genuinely wouldn't be surprised is at some point we get a lot of pent resentment spilling out from Boston about Mew because no one casually mocks someone they're genuinely okay with that many times behind their back.

Prediction: Boston wants but he doesn't quite know what. He is definitely blowing up every single friendship he has in the process of working it out and he's probably going to find himself on his own for a while too, which might actually be what he needs. That being said, if anyone decides to put forward a laurel at the end of the show though, I also think it's going to be him. I also predict no romance, but I also don't think that's what he wants or needs.

Top

Top the Top Tier player who's never not got his object of interest before. He likes casual sex, comes off as a bit of a sleaze (but at least a sleaze who respects boundaries), and is apparently looking for a new challenge now sleeping around has got boring (but not boring enough to not sleep with Boston again).

The problem for Top is that he thinks he's approaching Mew in his world and on his terms where in reality he's already dancing to the tune of Mew's fiddle and it's only going get worse. Mew's world has rules and regulations and things you just don't do (like sleeping with your boyfriend's best friend) and Top is going to find himself caught up in them. What's worse is he's probably going to find out (much too late) that he wants to be caught up in them. Top might be the big man now but he is well and truly fucked.

Prediction: Top isn't going to take his relationship with Mew 100% seriously until he realises he's already completely invested in it and at that point it's going to be too late. He's definitely going to break Mew's heart but Mew is going to break his ten times over and he's not going to recover easily from that. He might have a chance at redemption, but only once he's completely wrecked himself first.

Sand

Sand was just trying to live his life and then he threatened to pee on someone's head and it all went down hill from there.

At the moment he seems like the audience stand in: watching all the chaos and wondering what on earth is wrong with all these privileged brats (semi-affectionate). Like Mew he definitely seems to have himself together in a way that makes me think he'll come away from this pretty okay emotionally (it'll hurt but he's not allergic to emotions, he'll heal). Unlike Mew he definitely doesn't seem to completely together life-wise (i.e monetarily) though, which does make me wonder if our 3 friends (I'm not including Chueam in this, she's not a guilty party) are going to mess that up for him instead.

Prediction: Emotionally he's going to be okay (although he probably has heartbreak in the cards), in every other aspect I think he'll sustain the most damage (and therefore will be entitled to compensation). He feels the most like an innocent bystander and, as such, is definitely going to regret the day he lay eyes on the back of Ray's head. Out of all the characters, he's probably going to be the one due the most apologies all while having done very little to anyone else.

Nick

Wow well Twison changed when he went to uni, wasn't expecting that trajectory at all 😋

In all honesty I feel like I have the least to go on for Nick in terms of predictions (not that I have much to go on for anything else I've been saying). He seems to be completely gone for Boston already (oh Babe he is not a good target to fall head over tits for) and I like the idea that's floating around that Nick is already familiar with Boston somehow based off his reaction to their first meeting.

That being said, I am getting a little bit of a creep vibe from him (maybe it was the invasion of his client's privacy and subsequent masturbation scene that pinged the alarm idk) but I can't help but feel like everything Mew said he'd do if he slept with Top? Yeah Nick would actually do all those things and more. So yeah, while Boston is going to mess him up with their ambiguous relationship, it's only because Nick was pretty messed up in the first place and he'll end up messing Boston up right back with his clingy/obsessive tendencies.

Prediction: Looks like a marshmallow, is actually on fire. Things are going to go wrong for him but only because things were not right in the first place. Possibly the most likely to actually need therapy. I also wouldn't be at all surprised if he's the one to swing the bat that brings it all crashing down, in fact in this crack-pot prediction, I'm expecting him to.

The Friendship Group

Is going to be in tatters by the end of this series, I'm so sorry Chueam. (I mean is this even a prediction or am I just stating the obvious?)

Prediction: Mew and Chueam are probably still going to be friends (they seems like the closest to each other) but no one else is going to be talking. Ray might have Sand (and Chueam if he doesn't fuck up too much) but Boston going to be on his lonesome and so is Top unless they want to throw a pity party together. At the end of the show there will be a tentative reconciliation, but with the knowledge they're never going to be the same, never going to be as close as before.

TLDR + Extra Predictions

Mew: About to have the worst time of his life but he'll make it through, his pain is going to end up being other people's problem.

Ray: Poor, unfortunate soul checking in at heart-break hotel twice in the space of a few months. Most likely to get his man though.

Boston: Needs to figure out what he wants. Probably going to end up completely cut off from everyone but also most likely to extend the peace offering at the end.

Top: Fucked. (Might get a chance at redemption at the end if he's lucky)

Sand: Emotionally fine, financially screwed. Out of everyone he has to most to complain about and he doesn't even go here.

Nick: Most likely to need actual therapy.

Climax: A big argument at the hotel surrounded by the ruins of their hard work

Likely scene: All of them at Yo's bar they used to go to as friends but this time ignoring each others existence.

Likely scene 2: Boston unleashing a load of suppressed resentment towards Mew, possibly to do with their different lifestyles/world views.

Best chance at romance: Chueam

Best chance at staying friends: Chueam and Mew

Key theme: The importance of friendship

Me: happy to be proven right or wrong with these predictions and here for the wild ride regardless.

And that's it! As I said, these predictions are completely pulled from the air around a single watch of episode 1 so they're not at all serious. If I'm right yay, if I'm wrong also yay, I'm just happy to be watching, I just thought it would be fun to test how well I can predict a narrative based on very little information indeed. If anyone wants to share their own crackpot predictions I am more than happy to hear them, let's clown together.

#only friends the series #only friends #ofts #crackpot predictions #if I'm going to make predictions it will be with absolutely no information #because how else are you going to make them?#with actual information?

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choco-1601 · 26 days

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Hey, sorry you got that nasty message. People can be so rude sometimes! Personally, as a closeted morston shipper, I like your posts and think you should keep them up!

I guess this IS an ask box, so I was wondering how do you see morston working out within the parameters of canon lore? Judging from some (I'm assuming) deleted voice files, Rockstar might've wanted to hint at the idea of John having a "crush" on Arthur, even though Arthur is VERY uninterested in dating (canonically speaking). Would it be a sort of unrequited love ordeal?

Sorry, this turned into a longer ask than expected, lol. Hope you are having a good day!

Yeah its just how it is. I closed off my replies and dms from outsiders. Its sad some people even get harassed until they stop altogether ☹️

Also i love ur question bc i love seeing them from a canon pov. The way i see it..yes i believe that john had a crush on him and him running away had smth also to do with arthur..

i wouldnt say its unrequited in a way bc sometimes arthur acts questionable around him. Like in the bridge mission.. Arthur was asking john to leave bc “it would make me feel..good ig” and he was looking away all shy. Then when breaking john out of jail, Arthur called for john so softly…and then him not letting go of john’s hands in the cutscene where he says “i dont want u to look back” (the one in the forest)

I just feel like john’s crush on him faded after he realised he doesn’t have any chance of calling arthur his. He got abigail pregnant..and also further messed up their relationship by running away. The thing is..it is canon that arthur was the most hurt by this.. holding grudge for that long (unnecessarily so imo) but he wasnt even that mad about john leaving abigail and his son bc in his words those r “marston’s business”. He was more upset about john leaving the gang..which is funny bc even dutch and hosea welcomed him back quickly. So technically speaking..it hurt him the most.

They just give me mutual pining vibes in the slightest..or we can say it went from unrequited love from John’s side to unrequited love from Arthur’s side if that makes sense lol.

I could never see them tgt in the canon..they were always meant to be doomed by narrative. But if Arthur survived his TB and somehow met marston then mayyyybeeeee 👀

Sorry for the super long reply i just got excited to answer after seeing ur question lol. Have a great day/night 💜

#morston #red dead redemption 2 #arthur morgan #john marston #anon ask #rdr2 #red dead redemption community

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zedleaked · 4 months

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Spamton for the character ask game! :3

favourite thing about them

God I love his chaotic energy,, his design is so easy to draw fucked up and silly its great... Again I think I like guys who look silly but are secretly fucked up and depressed its wonderful

least favourite thing about them

The fact that he probably wont ever appear again... guess this is what fanfiction is for

favourite line

"YOU WON'T BECOME A [Big Shot] WITHOUT TAKING A FEW [fights]. I HAVE BEEN [beat] ON, [stepped] ON, [$#*] ON, [$#*]D UP, [$#**]D DOWN, [shaken] UP, [stirred] AROUND, [cracked] LIKE AN [egg], HAD [sand] KICKED IN MY [eyes], HAD MY [nose] METAPHORICALLY [ripped off], [kissed] ON THE [mouth], [tucked] INTO BED, DRANK MY [orange juice], FELL DOWN THE [stairs], AND YOU KNOW WHAT? I STILL GOT UP [in the morning], AT [2 A.M.], TO GO DIRECTLY BACK TO [bed]!"

brOTP

Kris and Spamton are the best friends forever you can't convince me otherwise,, they need to cope with the fact that they are doomed by the narrative together... Plus I like Spamton being the one that talks a lot and Kris being the one that listens :3

OTP

I love Swatchton... even though I haven't drawn much because Swatch is a pain in the ass to draw... Swatch just having to deal with Spamton's chaotic ass is so funny to me,, I love all the aus just about Swatch finding Spamton and taking him in... please... feed me... ouhahgha... Like Swatch may feel that they have some kind of debt to pay because they've been the one kicking him out of the mansion all the time...

nOTP

That being said shipping Spamton with literally any of the minors is a big no I will find you and place explosive pipis in your pants

random headcanon

If bro drank his tea [the one pink addison sells] he would almost die,, bro hates himself that much...

unpopular opinion

My guy is selfish as hell and he would not do a good deed if it did not benefit him in the long run,, he may have a soft spot but sometimes people forget he's evil and helped two teenagers kill everyone so he could take over Cyber City

song I associate with them

$4.99 by Jack Stauber... LITERALLY THE SPAMTON SONG... it's just him,, the ad cut ins and everything

favourite picture of them

torture...

#ask #deltarune #spamton #spamton g spamton #not art

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etherealspacejelly · 6 months

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i feel like infodumping so here is my opinion of every new who companion!!

Rose Tyler

shes the og, shes That Girl, she is the moment! (lol, get it?) Rose was one of the best companions fr. her love story with the doctor is so beautiful and so tragic and honestly, he Needed her. ninerose >>> tenrose i said what i said. 9/10

Jack Harkness

very fun character! they kinda ruined him in torchwood a little bit. some of the earliest explicit queer rep in mainstream media i ever saw, if not the first! i loved his dynamic with rose and nine. 8/10

Mickey Smith

my sweet boy, my babygirl. he deserved so much better fr. dont get me wrong, i love Rose, but the way she treated Mickey was so mean. also the doctor hated his ass for no reason other than he was competition for Rose's affection. plastic Mickey was iconic. 8/10

Martha Jones

ICON!!! QUEEN!!!! i Love Martha soooo much. she was the only companion to Get Out and i love that for her, she deserved it. she slayed fr. however i do kinda hate that most of her character was simping for ten like. girl. stand up. 9/10

Donna Noble

Oh My God, incredible. cant wait to get her back!!!! the adipose scene through the windows???? hilarious, i can quote every word!!! she gave the doctor a run for his money and i love that for her. she was exactly what he needed after Rose and Martha, just A Mate. 10/10

Amy Pond

my favourite companion!!! eleven was My Doctor tho so thats probably why. every episode of season 5 is a banger. i love that she and Rory and River became a family to the doctor. love her. little Amelia is so cute and grown up Amy is a total badass. fish custard/10 10/10

Rory Williams

my beloved <3 hes so boyfriend fr. raised my standards as a kid. he waited 2000 years for her ;-; 10/10

River Song

hello sweetie :)

i love that her story was told backwards, very interesting narrative choice! knowing that she was always doomed to the library was so tragic. learning all of her secrets over each series was very fun and satisfying!! 10/10

Clara Oswald

hmm. not one of my favourite companions. she's ok i guess? the impossible girl thing was kinda cool but i dont really like her as a character. 5/10

Bill Potts

YESSSS! i love lesbiabs. lessbiens. women. her ending was super sad tho :(

she was cool and fun and gay 9/10

Yasmin Khan

hrm. boring. didnt have much of a personality, not really her fault the writing was just so shit. she had potential!! thasmin 4 lyfe! 4/10

Ryan Sinclair

yea. no. dont like how they made his dyspraxia a fun quirky thing that he just. magically got over somehow??? its a literal disability. my brother has it. it could have been so interesting to see how that manifested over the course of his travels with the doctor but its almost like they just. forgot about it?? also he was boring as hell. 2/10

Graham O'Brien

i literally didnt even remember his surname, i had to look it up. he was just kinda. there. a little more interesting than Ryan i guess?? but. still. 2/10

Concluding remarks

looking forward to Donna coming back and meeting the new companions!!! i hope the writing is better in this season :/ chibbers was Not It. anyway. thanks for reading my silly little ramble!! special interest go brrrr

#doctor who #rose tyler #donna noble #martha jones #amy pond #bill potts #clara oswald #dr who #special interest #robin rambles about his hyperfixations

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m0srael · 8 months

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FIC REC:

A wee spinoff of my lapsed but not dead series, Reading Recs From Friends

I Was GIFTED (!!!)

The Waiting by @oknowkiss w/ art by @babooshkart [Drarry | E | 43k] cw: substance abuse, depression, grief

It’s been almost ten years since Draco Malfoy disappeared during a routine Curse Breaker training exercise. Harry, his partner in more ways than one, is determined to figure out why. As the past resurfaces and the present fades into confusion, Harry discovers the only thing more unreliable than memory is love. inspired by the fantastic song "this tornado loves you" by neko case.

One Sentence Recap: Everyone in Harry's life is trying desperately to drag him out of the past, away from the moment he lost Draco to the unknown, but what if the past is the only thing that will save them both?

"I have waited with a glacier's patience Smashed every transformer with every trailer 'Til nothing was standing 65 miles wide Still you are nowhere Still you are nowhere Nowhere in sight" -Neko Case, This Tornado Loves You

This song is one of my absolute favorite songs of all time--it captures the raw emotion of frantic, seemingly-doomed, mutually destructive love in a way that doesn't deny its potential, all-consuming beauty. There's something painfully sweet about the music, the lyrics, and also this fic that @oknowkiss wrote based on a prompt I submitted for @hd-wireless 2023, and then GIFTED to me! Elaine and I share a deep love of complicated, plotty, twisty stories--I gaze up at them in awe every time I read something new by them because they are such a master of plot and narrative. This story is no exception--the characters are exceptionally imagined, the world is rich and unique, the mystery keeps you guessing in the best of ways, and the twist will absolutely take your damn breath away. I laughed, I cried actual tears, and I had to sit for a long time once I finished trying to figure out how to breathe again. Here are some specific things I loved about this story:

👨🏽‍🤝‍👨🏼 The Relationship Dynamics This particular song certainly opens the door for angst and tension and HOO BOY does E deliver on that front. Harry's depression and grief over Draco's disappearance feels so palpable and relatable. At times I pitied him, felt real heartbreak for him, and wanted to give him a firm slap to the back of the head. Draco is ESPECIALLY magnificently realized in this story--he has every characteristic I love: sharp and witty, scared and desperate, arrogant but deeply unsure of himself. He is the perfect foil to a Harry who is unmoored and craving some sort of connection with someone or something. The tension between them crackles with unspoken resentment, fiery sexual attraction, and the sort of nihilistic self-importance that seems to saturate early adulthood. It makes for some INCREDIBLE smut--no spoilers but there is a scene that begins in a dive bar in Alaska that you will be thinking about probably for the rest of your life🔥🔥. E also crafts some incredible relationships between Harry and the rest of the characters. The dynamics between him and Ron and Hermione are delicious as they worry for his very sanity and try their best to be good friends to him. E's OCs are spectacular--there is one in particular who has my whole heart, I don't even need to tell you which one you will absolutely know.

🌎 The World Building Elaine takes a very cool approach to ministry training and curse breaking that I've never read before--their descriptions of the training camp are so vivid I could picture everything so well as it happened. This story takes us and the characters around the world, and E really takes the time to ground us sensorially and paint us an incredible picture of exactly what Harry is experiencing. His depression and grief come through in the environment that he's built for himself--there are little symbols that reappear throughout the fic that feel like gentle taps on the shoulder--remember this?. It's a really masterful way of making an expansive, potentially disjointed universe feel smaller, traversable, and knowable. It can also be very challenging to describe brand new magical mechanics and theory in a way that a reader can understand, without bogging them down in detail--again, E does this beautifully. I felt totally sucked in to the world they crafted!=

📝 The Plot Look, it is very hard to write a mystery story that doesn't alienate the reader but still holds back some twists and surprises. It's even HARDER to do all of those things when you're writing in not one, but TWO timelines, and E absolutely smashes it with this fic. I had so many (incorrect) theories about what the hell was happening as I was reading--it was so fun to take the little crumbs E was leaving and try to make sense of them while Harry also tried to make sense of them. I am so delighted that at the end, some of the things I speculated about came to pass, but there were many things that I didn't see coming!

🎨 Bonus: The Art @babooshkart NEVER MISSES that is a truth universally acknowledged, one affirmed by the art they created for this story. Pictures, imagery, and the act of looking play such a vivid role in this story and Boo manages to capture so many of the little details Elaine uses to activate her narrative and her characters in a single, incredible image. Looking at Boo's art invites us to step into Harry's shoes, and lets us a little further into his world. The lighting in the photo feels close and intimate to the point of being lonely, the clutter Boo included in the scene echoes Harry's feeling of being crowded and overwhelmed by the case and by life, and as always Harry are (young) Draco are depicted beautifully.

Thank you for writing this story and gifting it to me!

More to read from @oknowkiss: 📚 a licence to kill [Drarry | M | 11k] 📚 Their microfic may 2022 series, jesus, etc. [Drarry | E | 3k] 📚 the complete idiot's guide to losing your entire mind [Drarry | E | 10k] 📚 Historians [Drarry | E | 30k]

More to look at from @babooshkart: 🎨 Boo's own Wireless 2023 contribution, Keep Driving [M] 🎨 The art they made for booktopus's Reverse Bang fic, A Convergence of Inks [G] 🎨 This steamy Dronarry they did for HP Triadfest 2022 [E] 🎨 Twenty five (25!!!!!!) drawings they did for 25 Days of Draco and Harry 2021

#mose recs #reading recs from friends #drarry #drarry fanfiction #drarry fic #hd wireless 2023 #hd wireless fic and art #oknowkiss #babooshkart #healing my little brain one story at a time

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jacquesthepigeon · 1 year

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Saw someone point out that arguably the worst aspect of the finale is how much of Gabriel's victory depended on Marinette deciding to allow it. Like she COULD have told everyone he was Monarch, or even just refuse to back him up. But she doesn't tell anyone aside from Alya and maybe Su-Han, I think? She lets everyone believe that Gabriel died helping Ladybug, and even pulls another Queen Wasp but maybe worse? While she insisted on Chloe and Audrey being together and giving it a shot, she's actively gaslighting Adrien into thinking his dad wasn't abusive. Nathalie and Tomoe don't interfere. Its implied that Felix literally CAN'T tell Adrien- but he DOES seem to tell Kagami. Who does nothing with it. Felix is also the one who spells out Gabriel's identity to Maribug and encourages her to end him at any cost in the first place.

Honestly it just goes to show how far the show takes sympathy for horrible men and the lengths they go to to fulfill their dumb Marinette Mistake Quota. In the first place, they’ve never actually acknowledged any of the parents as unrepentant abusers, they just frame them as parents that take discipline too far (ffs there’s a difference between being strict and being abusive but the show doesn’t want to touch on that), in Gabriel’s case, because he “cares too much”. Therefore, since Gabriel acts out of his own trauma or whatever, we should feel sympathy towards him and understand that his treatment towards Adrien stems from love 🥹 (not to be confused for when female characters act out of trauma, those deserve to rot). Combine this mentality with how everything Marinette does, no matter how objective or logical, is a world-ending mistake and you get the finale. She can’t win. She can have small victories, sure, but she can never win in the big picture. She always has to bend to what the universe’s demands, and what it demands is an shock value ending where the sympathetic villain is remembered as a hero and Marinette has once again made a mistake. She’s doomed by the narrative but not even on purpose. The narrative wants to make a joke out of her and pander to it’s now dead male villain, who is sympathetic just in case you forgot, and make the whole thing her fault. And you can be damned sure it’s going to be her fault. Because she has to make a mistake. The narrative doesn’t know how to move its story along otherwise. Another detail I almost forgot to mention is that Adrien is set up so he never gets a true happy ending from the start. The crew didn’t seem to consider this before settling on the plot the show would take so now they’re left scrambling for a way that their poor little uwu golden boy remains untainted by the realities of his family situation and the plot in general. So they temporarily remove him from the picture so he doesn’t have to face the truth, have his mom brought back as if she never went missing so he doesn’t have to face the truth, and have his horrible father remembered as a hero so, you guessed it, he doesn’t have to face the truth. In a way, Adrien’s very existence as a character that must never change is to blame for all of this. Because he can’t make any hard choices, because he can’t take any initiative, because he can’t face the truth.

I’m sure it’ll all explode at some point down the line and it’ll be portrayed simply as another one of Marinette’s mistakes rather than what it really is: cowardly writing.

TL;DR: the mess that is the finale is most probably due to the crew feeling overly sympathetic towards the villain, wanting to meet their Marinette Mistake Quota, and wanting golden boy to stay ignorant of the situation surrounding his family.

#anon #ask #ml leaks #ml

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disruptivevoib · 2 months

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I fell asleep immediately after I asked you about Vis, but if you’re ever still in the mood…

Pleasspleasepleaseplease talk about Ennui I’d love to hear about him- I’m very (not) normal about your guys /pos

-🛩️

Ennui is DOOMED BY THE NARRATIVE. He's the Mind as the Heart and though he doesn't know it, its why he has such a deep struggle and disconnection with his emotions. They cause him more pain than he considers it worth.

Ramble under the cut!

But. I guess before that notion, Ennui is someone who is stubborn, a bit petty and initially very argumentative. Something as their loop comes to an end, phases out of him in respect for Viscera's dislike of conflict over communication.

Ennui does try to stab Judge occasionally. Judge is physically far stronger though and thusly makes it a point to usually turn that back on Ennui.

Ennui is very creative though. He has an affinity for organized charts, the piano and acrylic painting. However the emotions that come with being Heart are overwhelming and uncomfortable to him. He thinks of himself as fairly useless for a set of emotions if he cannot control them.

Which comes to his...allegory for self sabotage and ultimately, harm. In a way. In which Ennui tears or cuts off the strings of emotion that come from his source, which is the little jaggedly shaped blue heart he has.

Like any Mind, his reasoning and his motives are... All he is going to listen to. So, if to fix this malfunction of his ability to control himself he has to render his emotions useless, he will do that.

And typically, even after he is finished fighting with Judge, he continues this behavior. Its a high point of tension between them because Judge and Viscera both explain to him in numerous ways that this is not an answer, and that they can help him learn to manage the overwhelming feed.

Ennui never listens. And thus his name meaning dissatisfaction is only ever apt. He is insatiably searching for a fix on his own. Independently. And it is worse for him because Mind, Judge, does not do this. Ofc Judge has his own issues. Mainly anger and social avoidance or communicative avoidance but. He isn't so flawed that he has to do this. Ennui is envious of that, deeply.

Eventually, he tears away at himself so much there is nothing left. Typically a loop can end before it gets to that point but occasionally, and especially should Astray choose to remember, he becomes desperately apathetic and numb. Only then, is he actually scared or capable of accepting his mistakes or faults. Only after he has fundamentally screwed himself over. And hurt his Soul and Mind in the process. Their overall well being.

Which pushes him to keep what little emotion he has left over. His source stutters in its stunted state, always longing to be what it was and more than it can be now. It makes him try more, and though he doesn't believe he'll ever be or do enough to make up for it, Ennui persists on.

Of course.. this. Need to make it up to them comes from his envy of Judge and respect for Viscera. He's failed himself and the parts of himself that tried to help every step of the way.

Neither of them is cruel or unkind. Judge is harsh, and has certainly fed into certain beliefs Ennui has, but he still considers Ennui his closest friends. And furthermore is proud of him for continuing to try and coming out the otherside..not unscathed, but as alright as he could've been.

Vis and Judge both hold their own guilt over the inability to ever prevent Ennui's behavior. Viscera more so in the fact that despite remembering every loop, nothing has ever worked to stop Ennui. But he cherishes his Heart for who he still is. Which is very driven and very charismatic too.

Ennui post everything is far more easy going. He tries to be a bit of an everyman and is.. very good at making friends with pretty lonely or stand-offish folks like himself. More so in the chatroom rp. But, suppose he does run the day to day life for them too. Vis and Judge are a bit too, guess, invested in being in their own head to do that? More invested in the Psyche ig. Mental maintenance.

#voidthoughts #asks #swap au #ennui swap au #judge swap au #viscera swap au #:)#theres an alternative version of them where Vis hops universes for a second and when he comes back they've all swapped back #and.. ennui there is.#entirely void of anything.#sort of..#renamed himself ego though so the loathing is clearly still in there.

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fic-pickyourpoison · 29 days

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hi! first of all I really love your fic. Second of all, this migh be a bit of a dumb question but, when in the tags you call it a Tragedy, in which sense of the word are you using it? Is it in a looser modern term, that is, indicating that bad/sad things are going to happen to the protagonist (kinda like whump I guess)? Or is it a more classical term, be it man against fate/man against itself/a fatal flaw which dooms them even as they keep going forwards? Because if so, if you had to choose a classical tragedy that’d suit Lami as protagonist, which would it be? Third of all, again, really love your fic! Also do you have any references on how kid/adult Rin may look like? Wishing you the best!

Good afternoon! Thank you for the ask, I’m super happy to hear that you’ve enjoyed the story so far ^^

Sorry for the delay, I’ve been travelling and haven’t had much spare time.

Not a dumb question at all! This is actually very interesting. Both are definitely relative to the story, but the “angst” tag is there specifically for the sad/whump. Dead Dove is there to really hammer in that it’s gonna be sad and fucked haha. The tragedy tag is definitely based more on the classical term of it, especially when taken in context of classic plays, but its also with a lot of inspiration from modern literature. The themes I associate this story & tragedy with are: doomed by the narrative; you can never go back; died and brought back wrong; the everyday tragedy of circumstance, etc, but the ones you mention here are also very applicable!

I am completely blanking on what classic tragedy would suit her—if I think of one I’ll let you know. I’ve been on a Greek mythology binge lately (does one ever give up on such a thing?) and while it’s less a tragedy and more a story of warning of man’s hubris, I’d associate her with the story of Sisyphus. It just fits haha

Rin! I love that girl, thank you for your love for her <3 There's been a few Rin drawings floating about, but they are all a couple years old. Here's an example of how I envision an adult Rin:

Rin's favourite colour is red 🚩🚩🚩 hahahah

#ask #art #Rin

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spacelizzbian · 7 months

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Ahsoka s1ep7

That guy be like: false Jedi? Witches?? Space whales??? In my star wars?¿?¿? Unheard of.

Respectfully, please stop wasting precious time from these last two eps on this new republic nonsense 😭

Omg please let it be an audio recording of Leia saying "fuck off" in pg way

Do you think Carrie Fisher would've been on this show as a cameo if she could? Would've loved to see her say fuck off (in a pg way)

You can tell Ahsoka hasn't put these recordings on in forever...the little bow?

She be healing 🥺

I also like the tone Ahsoka used in "he was a great master" cause you get the sense that she mourns for him.

Idk I think that's a neat way of her moving forward regarding her feelings on Anakin/Vader (though I still wish they acknowledged it more in ep 5 but I'm still chewing on my thoughts on that whole episode)

Ahsoka really out there pretending she doesn't give a shit if they're in the wrong galaxy lmaooo such a troll, I love her

NO ARE THEY SHOOTING THE WHALES?!?!

NO STOP NOOOOOO

IF I SEE A WHALE DIE I WILL CRY I LOVE WHALES SO MUCH

The relief I felt when they all jumped thank god

Poor Morgan, she's so aware of the nonsense the good guys get away with when defeating their foes but she comes off so paranoid in universe. Doomed by knowledge of star wars' silly narrative quirks 😔

"Put her on a path of her own choosing so that no matter what direction she takes, we'll always be one step ahead of her"

That makes no sense

Just cause Thrawn says it and it's briliantly acted does not mean that was sound logic 💀

Huyang is me, I too find it bs that they sensed Ahsoka coming for their asses via space whale

Love how Ahsoka and Thrawn are out here playing 3D chess while Sabine and Ezra are just vibing in these big pods lmao

"The emperor died" "that's what people say"

Ahaha don't remind me of that, I will start biting

Omg Sabine being so offended and Ezra being so confused has me in stictches haha

Same bro, wish they showed us how exactly that happened

Fellars, when she says "it's complicated" she means "I saw my master get murdered before my very eyes and disregarded the last thing she said to me all in a desperate move to find you"

WTF WAS THAT SHOT TO THE SCARY WITCH RIGHT AFTER AHSOKA IS LIKE "I SEE HER" 💀💀

Sabine upon seeing Shin and Baylan: "NYO" 😡

Baylan, tf do you mean Shin's path leads her in a different direction?!?! All I've gathered from the 5 lines of dialogue she was allowed is that she wants to be on top, secure.

She did not seem too keen on joining the witches and sees the Empire as a means to an end. What's stopping her from just outright joining the new republic if you leave her on her own?! Seemingly the only thing stopping her was her connection to you and your teachings, ya dingus.

I like this show, but this makes no sense for the characters they've set up, why wouldn't he take her with him so they can both wield the ancient superweapon?? 🙃

Wait. The raiders in this whole different galaxy shoot normal ass blasterfire?¿?¿?

Come on, that's so boring

(They do look cool if not like normal star wars bounty hunter types)

Huyang is such a little shit, honestly his banter with Ahsoka has been one of the highlights of this show for me. Especially now that Ahsoka seems to have regained some of her original snark spark

DEAD ASS

Ahsoka dropping out of that ship RIGHT where Baylan is, IS THE FUNNIEST SHIT 😭

He really be like "huh, was sure I killed you 🤔"

"The Force is my ally, it's all I need" very Jedi of him, Kanan would be so proud

That shot of the hermit alien headbutting a raider with a pot is my fav thing ever

Yooooooo, seeing the saber actually lose some of its form when being pushed back with the force was sick

That piano 👌

Did Huyang just know Ahsoka was in trouble and instinctively thought "guess I'll shoot flares at her" 💀

Ahsoka is riding a space wolf, Filoni can finally rest

Sabine getting flipped was such a funny shot

Fight choreo go weeeeeeeee

Ok this guy really embodies Ezra well, this is EXACTLY how he would bs his way outta this pickle lmao

Props to Shin, if I saw Ahsoka barreling in like that smirking like a real psycho I'd have noped the fucke outta there instantly

Did Ahsoka just kick a hand that was swinging a lightsaber at her?!?!?

Truely deranged behaviour, pop off queen 😌

Why did Thrawn have a whole ass ppt prepared 😂

Ah yes, time, the thing I feel like this whole show did not know how to spend correctly

I can feel this season ending on a cliffhanger, I don't even know if a second season was announced beforehand but ain't no way all of this is concluding satisfyingly in one more ep

Ahsoka seeing Shin looking like a wet stray cat and going pspspsps is so her

Not Ahsoka being 110% aware she must be immortal or smth and using that knowledge for trolling 😂💀

That was such a good hug omg

And the laugh?!? I dont think she's laughed since rebels 🥺😭

#ahsoka #ezra bridger #sabine wren #shin hati #baylan skoll #ashowka #ahsoka spoilers #ahsoka series spoilers #long post #sw #star wars

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q-gorgeous · 9 months

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Hey, Gorgi! Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💜

ooooo i like this

Lightning

who would i even be if this wasnt my first pic like yeah ok some things ive written might have been better idk but i pulled this one straight out of my ass and my only idea was the first line but i think everything in it is great. the story the pacing and dialogue THE JOKES the second one to this doorway also had some banging jokes my dudes i laugh whenever i go back and read these ones also for convenience heres frozen the third part

2. ghost farm

ok so i guess youre just gonna also get my favorite series. i really really like ghost farm because it elicited a very good (for me) reaction from all of my readers and it was one of my longer fics at the time i think. so going with this one i also really like fallen star because we got to see stars perspective of what she was going through during ghost farm

3. a single pale phantom

this is of course another swagger bishie reveal fic. i played around with dash finding out danny was phantom right in front of danny and danny being aware that dash figured it out so this was sort of a break in the norm for me. dash figured out danny was phantom but kept it to himself until danny needed his help and ye jhbvgcf

4. bleeding colors

this one was sort of a rewrite or like a refiguring out of a fic i did in like 2018, just named colors. its (of course) a swagger bishie fic where when your soulmate dies, you see in black and white and dash is having a hell of a time trying to figure out what the fuck is going on so yes there is also a reveal in it too kjhg

5. Dash Phantom

this one i really liked because again dash but i liked being able to play with their relationship in this because they had been friends when they were younger so theres that, plus dash being dannys bully, but then they share this big giant secret, and all at the same time their romantic feelings for each other are growing and it was fun writing the snippets of all that. and also the jokes there were some good jokes in here

honorable mentions because they include dash:

doomed by the narrative

magical girl ghost

going home

april showers

they couldnt all be gone, could they?

this was many more than five but thats ok

#gorgi asks #danny phantom #fanfic #dash baxter #i gotta reblog lightning again #its been awhile #i also wanna go back and reread all my old oneshots #cuz other than blob ghosts i dont remember what ive all written so

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thegirlwhowrites642 · 2 years

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Both Ginny and Voldemort has yew wand. What is the significance of this? Or it was just coincidence?

Please share your thoughts

I love this question so much.

This is my most recent ask but the moment I read it my brain went into overdrive and I next thing I knew I was researching yew trees.

I highly doubt it is a coincidence because while we know the wood of Voldemort's wand from PS, we only found out Ginny's in 2016, when Rowling was already well aware of people's assumption that every detail in the series had meaning. Plus, Rowling wrote herself on Pottermore, which is now Wizarding World but in my head will always be Pottermore, the meaning of the wood of the wands. And, actually, I think we should start from there, so here is what she wrote (as Ollivander) about yew wands:

Yew wands are among the rarer kinds, and their ideal matches are likewise unusual, and occasionally notorious. The wand of yew is reputed to endow its possessor with the power of life and death, which might, of course, be said of all wands; and yet yew retains a particularly dark and fearsome reputation in the spheres of duelling and all curses. However, it is untrue to say (as those unlearned in wandlore often do) that those who use yew wands are more likely to be attracted to the Dark Arts than another. The witch or wizard best suited to a yew wand might equally prove a fierce protector of others. Wands hewn from these most long-lived trees have been found in the possession of heroes quite as often as of villains. Where wizards have been buried with wands of yew, the wand generally sprouts into a tree guarding the dead owner’s grave. What is certain, in my experience, is that the yew wand never chooses either a mediocre or a timid owner. -> source

[Can we take a moment to think about the imagery of a beautiful tree emerging from Ginny's grave once her time comes? Especially considering that she was born and raised in the countryside.]

I think we can all agree that neither good old Tom nor Ginny can be considered average people and are both notorious. Tom is, well, Voldemort, and Ginny is a war hero, wizarding royalty according to Rita Skeeter, a celebrated Quidditch player and the most authoritative voice in wizarding sport in Britain considering that she became editor of the sports section of the Daily Prophet, the most read newspaper in the British wizarding world.

The yew wands seem to have owners who are particularly skilled in duelling and dark magic. In Tom's case [I love calling him Tom] is quite obvious what we are talking about, but Ginny too is a gifted duellist and her signature move is indeed a hex that she casts with such mastery that Slughorn invited her in his very exclusive club after seeing her casting it once. Obviously, being able to master a dark branch of magic doesn't necessarily mean being evil. As we have just read, yew wands have been just as much of villains as of heroes. What particularly interests me is that reference to the possessor of this type of wand who chooses the path of light being proven a fierce protector of others. I've talked on more than one occasion at this point of Ginny's arc as a protector of others (here and here), and apparently, her wand fits quite nicely in that narrative too.

So in short we know that this kind of wand goes to people who can't be considered average or timid, and are skilled in duelling and are generally naturally powerful. Clearly, it matches both Tom and Ginny but let's go into the specifics of why these are the only two characters that we know have a yaw wand.

If you have guessed it, clap yourself on the back, it's symbolism time!

As we have read in JKR's piece, the owner of the wand is said to have the power of life and death, this comes from the folklore around yew trees:

Yew trees were used as symbols of immortality, but also seen as omens of doom. For many centuries it was the custom for yew branches to be carried on Palm Sunday and at funerals. -> source

Drooping branches of old yew trees can root and form new trunks where they touch the ground. Thus the yew came to symbolise death and resurrection in Celtic culture. [...] The themes of death and resurrection continued into the Christian era. People buried yew shoots with the deceased, and used boughs of yew as ‘Palms’ in church at Easter. -> source

Tom and Ginny in the story, and therefore in Harry's life, are representations of diametrically opposite things. Tom is death, destruction of any future, and despair. Ginny is life, creation of a future, and hope.

Such opposite concepts and yet their power comes from the same source: yew, which in fact represents both. Because life and death do come from the same source. After all, can you die if you can't live? And can you really live if you can't die?

And so Ginny and Tom are often connected in the series and always put in plot points that bring up the themes of life and death.

In CoS, Tom is the bringer of death, the drainer of life, and Ginny constantly fights against him in the name of living, of light, and when all hope seems lost, she survives. And because she was on the verge of death, in a way it can be considered a rebirth Ginny's one, a resurrection, a second chance at life. And even more interestingly, what was leading Ginny to death was an object Tom had created due to his obsession with eternity. Yet it's when part of Voldemort's soul gets destroyed, dies, that Ginny "resurrects".

In OotP, the "lucky you" scene has the obvious interpretation of Ginny being connected just as much as Harry is to Voldemort's darkness. But it also puts us in front of the reality that on one side we have Tom's darkness and evil, and on the other, we have Ginny's strength and will to live to such a powerful degree that it becomes easy to forget she was connected to that darkness. It becomes easy to forget that life is so linked to death.

HBP is a whole book based on a binary structure that brings a juxtaposition between darkness and light. If on one side we have Harry diving into the dark story of Tom Riddle and his many terrible acts, and on the other, we have the beauty and the light and joy of Harry discovering his love for Ginny.

At the end of the book, Voldemort and Ginny are linked again in the break-up scene. Harry starts his journey to kill Voldemort, takes his first step towards death, leaving behind Ginny, life and love.

In DH, when Harry and Ginny kiss, Ginny is reminding Harry that there's life waiting for him after the darkness of a path that seems destined to end up in death. When Harry thinks, not long after that, about marrying Ginny, there's once again the contrast between Voldemort on one side, and on the other Ginny marrying, a representation of future and life. Obviously, the whole thing is quite depressing because Harry thinks he won't marry her, and that his destiny is in death.

And then there's Harry's death scene. Voldemort is once again the perpetrator of death, but Harry's last thought is of Ginny, of life, of the future, of what he would be leaving behind by dying.

Ginny and Tom in Harry's story are the opposite of one another, isn't it therefore quite fitting that their power comes from the same wood? Just like Voldemort and Harry, two enemies, having wands with the same core.

So, while the characteristics of the owners of yew wands fit perfectly Voldemort and our dear Ginevra, I think this authorial choice has more to do with their symbolic roles in the series.

Because of their symbolic link to life and death, yew trees are often found in graveyards.

#ginny weasley #tom riddle #voldemort #harry potter #thegirlwhowrites642HPmeta

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