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blacknovelist · 7 months

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(one piece wano arc spoilers)

So like @guardianlioness and I were talking about one piece and thematic stuff and generally losing our minds and we were talking especially about like

How Zoro and Sanji and Luffy are a Trio but also how Zoro and Sanji are explicitly also painted to be a duo to Luffy, right, like. They're the "Wings of the Pirate King". Together, they protect and look after the crew, but also their captain. They are, effectively, equals in what they do, "official" roles IN the crew itself aside. Zoro, with his high physical power as their physical defense and Sanji, with his high empathy and compassion as an emotional bulwark

And

Okay. Here's the thing. Here's the proverbial problem. Cause right now, as it stands, Oda's introduced an unbalance to the duo. We were specifically talking about how frustrating it kind of is that the imbalance exists.

Because Oda gave Zoro conqueror's haki. He and Luffy share this— but it leaves Sanji as an odd one out. Thematically, it makes no sense to end with this like... off kilter seesaw. Why would you build these two up to BE on even standing only to take that away from them? Don't get me wrong, Zoro having conqueror's haki is a delicious character choice that I think adds fascinating complexity to Zoro and his position in the crew. He's a powerhouse, he's exerting his will over reality, and he follows his Captain the future Pirate King without question. Haki. Love it. Brilliant. But it makes no sense in the overarching thematic line between him and Sanji in regards to Luffy.

Giving Sanji conqueror's naturally wouldn't fix the issue, because frankly that defeats the entire purpose OF the char building that's been established in whole cake island. Sanji rejected the line of noble, of royalty, of power. It makes no SENSE for sanji to have it, he's not someone looking TO conquer or overcome the way Zoro is, it doesn't FIT him. And saying the stuff with his raid suit and the Germa augmentation rearing its head is the balance point is nonsensical for the same reason. Sanji already rejected all of that power and what it means and reclaimed it in a new way. Explicitly, directly, he denounced these things, directly ASSOCIATES them with a loss of humanity and his very self, wants nothing more to DO with it. Not only does it not make sense, but going back on it would be a slap in the face to all the development Sanji's gone through up until now, even laying aside the fact that it doesn't parallel Luffy at all so the unbalance isn't really addressed in that case.

But you know. Conqueror's Haki isn't the only thing Luffy has to proverbially offer. Conqueror's Haki is the overt, the direct, the loud and forceful. There's a lot we don't understand, between the stuff we do. It bears down and exerts over reality, makes demands of it. It tells you to listen.

What do we know about The Voice Of All Things? Not a lot. We know it seems to enable one to hear not the words, but the intention, the truth of other living things and even in objects, especially those with will like the Poneglyphs. We know Roger had it, Zunesha has it, the Kozuki line seemed generally to have it. The Three Eyed tribe may be capable of awakening it in themselves. We don't know if it's purely something you're born with or not. We don't know what it means, if anything, except for this: to hear the voice is to listen to the world around you and understand its heart.

When Luffy enters Gear 5, the only one who can tell at first is Zunesha. Zunesha can hear his heartbeat, and conveys this through the Voice to Momonosuke.

The anime conveys it more clearly, but it's in the manga text, too. Immediately after Zunesha realizes this... Onigashima is shaking. No one quite knows yet what's going on, other than Kaido is here and the world around them is trembling. Those on the battlefield, they've got front row seats to witnessing the transformation, what comes next.

Zoro and Sanji have finished their fights. They're conked the fuck out post battle, like usual... or they should be. But here's the thing. Right after Zunesha calls for Joyboy, from a room distant to the fighting, offset from the war waging outside...

Sanji's part in the major battles is over by this point. If they wanted to emphasize a "the crew knows their captain" moment, why not showcase the other strawhats too? The ones not on ground zero? But it doesn't show anyone else. It focuses. on. him.

Sanji, who's a deeply compassionate and kind man. Sanji, who stopped and paid attention even to the biological relatives he couldn't stand when he could've walked free without a care. Sanji, with his skills in Observation, in already listening to and feeling out others' intentions...

Zoro having conqueror's haki doesn't make sense on its own. It unbalances the duality of the Wings of the Pirate King. But give Sanji the power to hear the Voice Of All Things or something damn well close... that's a pretty good parallel to each other and their roles to Luffy, don't you think?

#One Piece #Blackleg Sanji #Sanji One Piece #One Piece Theory #Sanji #OP Spoilers #Wano Spoilers #yall I'm about to lose my FUCKING MARBLES okay #i actually realized the voice works thematically BEFORE i found out the manga and anime back it up w those three panels #but for the purposes of a post it naturally makes more sense to lay it out like this #ANYWAY I'M PROBABLY WRONG BUT ALSO. THEMATICALLY THE TEXT IS THERE. IT MAKES SENSE. IT F I T S #and tbh if the imbalance doesn't get addressed I'm gonna be a little miffed WHEEZE #god. weve had this theory for 2 minutes and i feel like I'm gonna have a heart attack I'm vibrating about it okay #confession I'm not manga current so if there's more proof or else stuff against the theory. hell if i know lmao #Blacknovelist talks #.... forgor that. opps

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amemenojaku · 8 months

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Akyuu for the ask game!!

General opinion/How much I care about them: She's a girl she's a boy she's neither she's 1400 years old she won't live past 30 she can remember anything she sees she can't remember her past lovers she's the most influencial person in the human village she writes silly Agatha Christie fanfics!!! I LOVE her!! Easily a top 5 for me. Everything that surrounds her is fascinating, from the lore to her duty to the window on the world of touhou that she opened for the fans. I like that she's a tragic character yet she has such a strong personality, both that of a noble and of a woman who just wants to live her life and have a little fun As A Treat.

A ship I love: Akyuu/Kosuzu is so so so important to me as a tragic best friends enjoyer. I can do literally anything I want with this ship, tragedy, fluff, comedy, historical study pieces, bad ends - it always works. Their interactions are one of the reasons why I loved Forbidden Scrollery so much, the little moments when they just chat together around a cup of tea, when they do research on youkai, the ceremony under the sakura to extend Akyuu's lifespan, the Agatha ChrisQ chapters, the excellent "youkai are the enemies of humans" moments…

why does the panel on the right look like it's from a shoujo manga OUGHHH!! anyway um. I'm also really fond of Reimu/Akyuu (the longing and the parallels toi même tu sais) and Marisa/Akyuu (they'd be so funny together). As a whole I think every variation of Reimu/Marisa/Akyuu/Kosuzu works really well either as platonic or romantic.

A non-romantic relationship that I love: Probably with Yukari. There's definitely something fun to do with the guardian of Gensokyo and the reincarnations of its beloved chronicler. I like to imagine Yukari's existence has become almost reassuring to the children of Miare despite the fact that she's still a dangerous youkai. She'll always be there after all! In my mind it's also like the relatonship between a writer and an artist.

The NOTP: Don't have any!

My biggest headcanon about them: I've got a lot of headcanons for Akyuu which I'd like to do something with in the future, one of them is that she's really into flower language and personally chooses the flowers in the Hieda house. Each of Are's reincarnations also have a flower linked to them :) I love flowers myself so I'm projecting a little haha

An idea for a fanwork I would like to make/see about them: I have this idea for a mystery story on the Hieda family with lots of scheming and backstabbing but I am not very good at writing so it's only a silly dream for now. If someone on ao3 goes insane over Akyuu and a million different Hieda ocs one day that'll probably be me just saying

Something that makes me think of them: April Come She Will <3

#thank you for the ask!! akyuu fans unite!!!

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strwbmei · 26 days

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Ignore my last ask, too long. However! I do wonder, if you can time travel does that mean you could have multiple you’s in one place if they can time travel?

Just imagining some members of the Genius society, being like…wait what? Thats the 6th time they came home today? Wait why are there three of them? What the fu-

Extreme nerding utc

I wouldn't really be able to say for sure. Time travel means to go back in time but still stay in the same parallel universe, so theoretically, there can only be one of "you" in a timeline at any given time. If this were correct, I'd assume you'd simply take over the consciousness of the "you" of that point in time which you chose to travel to. Honestly the whole thing is really messy because of one very important question that arises: what happens to the "you" of that time when you travel back to your version of the present, if there even is a way to travel back at that point? Do you just lose consciousness until the point in time which is your version of the present? Does the "you" of that time retain parts of your consciousness? If so, I'm sure time travelling would be able to drive someone insane.

HOWEVER. If we applied quantum physics, technically it'd be possible to have multiple of you at the same point in time. In simple terms, the theory of quantum physics states that it's possible for something to be in multiple states, all at once. Think of a room containing a (human) pedophile and a machine that has a chance to explode and kill the pedophile inside of the room. (This example, the Schrodinger's Cat experiment, is mostly explained with a box, a cat, and a machine that could kill it, but I am using a pedophile in this case because I love animals too much and I couldn't think of any other living thing that is universally hated.) Until you open the door to that room, the pedophile is both dead and alive. This concept is called superposition. Using this concept, "you" could be both everywhere at nowhere all at once depending on where "you" are being observed/measures by somebody else.

Furthermore, if we apply quantum entanglement, it would also technically be possible for there to be three of you. Though if we followed quantum entanglement, all three of "you" would be doing the same thing. Quantum entanglement is like a special connection between particles, where the properties of one particle are linked to the properties of another, no matter how far apart they are. Imagine you have two entangled particles, and you separate them. If you change the property of one particle, like its spin or polarization, the other particle instantly changes to complement it, even if they're far apart. It's as if they're communicating faster than the speed of light, which is super fascinating and has puzzled scientists for years.

Sorry for the long reply, I just find these kinds of topics really interesting ahaha

#strwb rambles

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aetherceuse · 3 months

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Let's talk about Lusamine's affinity for parasitic life forms.

My biggest gripe with Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon was the butchering of Lusamine's character; they removed so many story beats that were crucial to her, that it really dulled her down as an antagonist. I always felt that the Necrozma plot was awkwardly shoved into the game, and Lusamine's character assassination was the result.

HOWEVER.

I have been looking at it through a difference lens since Pokémon Masters EX released Lusamine's sync pair with Dusk Mane Necrozma.

The fact that Lusamine has bonded with not one, but TWO parasitic entities, is really interesting to me, because it is full of so much symbolism.

The plot with Nihilego, of course, has had many different interpretations; the "motherly love" interpretation is one that I stray away from in my blog canon. Lusamine's fixation on Nihilego, and her bond with it, is a result of fascination turning into delusion and madness. Her obsession with it's lack of emotion and efficient existence through a hive mind system led her to want to emulate that behavior. Of course, we all know what eventually happens, regardless of whether it is a canon or headcanon based interpretation: Lusamine is accepted by Nihilego, consumed, and becomes a host to it. And because she was a host, she lost autonomy and was driven insane by the neurotoxin.

That's a great story and all, and one that I am constantly trying to work out and restructure in the background for my own canon-- but now I am also looking at the Dusk Mane Necrozma implications.

Lusamine and Necrozma have a lot of shared themes and symbolism: being a source of light while simultaneously burning those around them, hungering for more power, living in a world that they were not born in, and being fractured. I do believe that Lusamine seeking to quell Necrozma in USUM had something to do with her being aware of these similarities, and deluding herself into believing that she was the only one capable of quelling this quasi-deity.

Only, she was NOT deluding herself, she was CORRECT.

Lusamine was capable of syncing with Necrozma and commanding it, but ONLY while it was ALREADY in possession of a host; Dusk Mane Necrozma is simply piloting the body of a Solgaleo, meaning, it is easier to be contained while it is feeding. And I think Lusamine knew what she was doing. She knew that she was compatible with this monster, but knew that it was parasitic in nature. THAT is the major difference between her dynamic with Nihilego, and the one with Necrozma: she is destroyed by UB-01 because it was a host-parasite relationship, instead of a balanced partnership like syncing. She did not allow Necrozma to control her.

That being said, there's still a lot of sad implications here: Lusamine syncing with a Pokémon that is using Solgaleo, a monster that her daughter was bonded to, is full of so much upsetting symbolism. She herself is a parasite, smothering Lillie's joy and other connections. There's no better representation of Lusamine and Lillie's toxic mother and daughter relationship than Dusk Mane Necrozma-- a form that gained its name because it represents the death of the sun before being overtaken by the night sky.

ALSO, the fact that Lusamine's dialogue lines in PokeMas suggesting that she views herself as a "guiding light," despite being paired up with the consumer of light, is another indication that she TRULY believes that she is some sort of superior entity and "savior," while channeling Necrozma's desire to "be full of light" and whole again. They really are parallels of each other. She is more in line with Necrozma's themes, than Nihilego's. That is why she stands at the side of Necrozma, and is doomed to be a servant of Nihilego.

All of them are parasites and all of them are connected, and it's not great.

What I'm currently thinking, is that the Nihilego plot AND the Necrozma plot can both exist at once-- Lusamine would not have the knowledge to sync with Dusk Mane Necrozma WITHOUT realizing that physically fusing with Nihilego did not work out.

We'll see how this develops in future plotting.

#✧˖°.« 𝙼𝚊𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚗 𝙱𝚊𝚌𝚑 » Headcanon

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suchawrathfullamb · 5 months

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prettily requesting the jewelry maker will prompt! thank you lamb!

Hmm, I feel like that would be a whole fic, and I’m too overwhelmed with writing to write something else now, but I’ll give you a something since you asked prettily.

When I thought about this, I thought about them trying to start a new life somewhere, maybe in a very small village in Europe. They’re living in a place that used to be a bridal boutique, they had dresses and jewelry, but that was a long time ago and everything was kind of rusted and old. They moved to the house upstairs and the boutique space was just sitting there without use. One day Will finds an antique rolling mill somewhere in the house and because he loves to repair things and has a general understanding of it, he decides he’ll do it, at first just to fill in time.

Eager fingers traced the contours, assessing the damage, and he retrieved some tools—a set of wrenches, grease for lubrication, and a drawn blueprint of the machine, salvaged from an old manual.

With focused determination, he set to work. Carefully, he dismantled the outer casing, revealing the intricate network of gears, he cleaned away the rust and meticulously alignined their teeth, ensuring a seamless interaction between each component.

Next were the rollers—misaligned and immobile. Guided by his expertise, Will delicately adjusted their positions, aligning them with precision, ensuring they ran parallel.

Hour after hour, he toiled, a symphony of clicks and rotations accompanying his efforts. As dusk tiptoed into the room, the final moments arrived. The repaired machine sat before Will, a testament to his dedication. With a mix of apprehension and anticipation, he turned the crank.

Silence.

Then, a hesitant creak—a gear caught its neighbor, setting off a chain reaction. Slowly, the rollers began their rhythmic dance, rotating in perfect synchrony. With a grateful smile, he wiped the sweat from his brow.

I think Hannibal would be so fascinated, too. He’d bring Will snacks and drinks, but would ultimately leave him alone to work. When it was finally over, he’d be amazed and of course would encourage Will to try and use it. At first, Will was hesitant, thinking he could never make something so delicate and beautiful like jewelry, that his craftmanship was for more rustic things. But eventually he decided to try it out.

He ends up really enjoying it and finds out he has a natural talent for it. He feels as if he found a way to design his inner life and experiences and pour them into something tangible and beautiful, in a way nothing else truly permitted before. Of course Hannibal is enchanted by his designs and of course Will usually makes them for Hannibal. He wears them proudly and his heart swells every time he adds a new one to the collection. Each with such deep meaning etched into the designs and patterns, the colors and stones. It’s like Will is adorning him with pieces of his most intimate parts.

People (he'd meet on random walks, at the grocery store, shops) started asking Hannibal about it, and he’d proudly say “mon mari l'a fait pour moi” my husband made it for me. They’d ask him if he could make it for them. At first, he was reluctant but he knew how Will wanted to feel useful somehow and was craving the “work life”, so he thought he might as well keep him at home this way, they could build an atelier. And that’s what they did. Hannibal would be the vendeur, at the front desk, handling all the “people” part, of course, and Will would be in his little nest making the pieces. They’d soon become a very exclusive atelier for the upper class of their little town.

Something that also begins to occur are clients commenting on the scent on the atelier, “délicieux!”, they’d say. That was, of course, Hannibal’s own creation, as he’d always made his own perfumes and ambient fragrances. Will suggested he’d offer them in the atelier, and that’s exactly what he did. So they just made this little place of beauty and pleasure, combining their skills and infusing their work with their essence.

#no need to steal #if u want to use this just tag me i'd love to read your work #hannigram #nbc hannibal #hannibal #will graham #hugh dancy #murder husbands #hannibal lecter #mads mikkelsen #fanfic #headcanons

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evenmoreofadisaster · 1 year

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Idk why but one and two (more so one but also two) very much give me indoraptor vibes…just the cunning and wickedly smart than people gave them credit for, scary and dangerous, a “failed” experiment that is only labeled that by it’s more…human-esque narcotic like tendencies. Idk there’s something there.

Would books/novels like Jurassic park fascinate two? Would those be thing that make him connect better with the human world? Realizing humans also have his urge to create things despite its destruction?

How would one feel watching/reading (by eating I mean probs listening to two read aloud) Jurassic park? Would he feel more connected and sympathetic to the dinosaurs?

Like how your writing them I can see both loving the movies/books but from the opposite end like for two he loves the very human side of it the science leading to creation, playing god but also trying to bring something positive from creation, connecting with the humans more at the realization that despite best intentions creations can turn on you or horrifically back fire (like two reading/watching Jurassic park might weirdly make him empathize or connect with humans better) but for one he connects with the dinosaurs, he’s the terrifying and violent creation to others but he’s also to himself just what he is. The dinosaurs are scary and powerful and disturbingly violent but they’re also just living beings that are just being alive. Like I think he’d connect more with the dinosaurs being justified, they’re just being what they are and these humans they created them and then villainized them when they could be controlled are the problem. Like Jurassic park would push one further away from understanding humanity.

I think how you’re writing them two would understand and related to the creator and one would understand and relate to the creation,

But I’d love to hear your thoughts

I have never considered this parallel. It's interesting!

I'd like to start off mentioning that One and Two aren't very versed in human pop-culture. Even though they occasionally go to the surface, it's usually just for missions and finding materials, so they don't have much time to explore and/or enjoy human culture (they probably wouldn't really WANT to anyways, since their whole reason for existing is to destroy the humans-- the twins probably have a biased opinion that human culture sucks because humans suck because Draxum says they suck and One and Two don't even try to enjoy it).

However, when the twins spend more time in New York, with Raph and Mikey (and April), they would probably introduce the twins to different media and stuff, which could very well include Jurassic Park.

I like how you compared Two with the scientists at the park and One with the dinosaurs. I can definitely see the similarities.

I do think Two could respect what the scientists were trying to do, as a scientist himself-- I literally just had a thought about Jurassic Park inspiring Two to do something similar and it ending in a complete and total disaster-- like Two watching the movie from beginning to end and thinking he can do better, but ultimately failing-- going off of that, Two would probably criticize the scientists and say stuff like 'well OBVIOUSLY that didnt work, they did THIS wrong' and go on a rant about genetics and how he could do it better-- how he could improve the dinosaurs and how to keep them under control (and totally not projecting his desires to improve himself and One to appease Draxum).

As Two goes into depth, it'd start to take a personal and emotional toll on One and I can totally see him sympathizing more with the dinosaurs since he knows firsthand what it's like to be controlled and villainized. He probably wouldn't like Two entertaining the concept because he'd start to notice the parallels between the film and their own life. It'd make him uncomfortable. As Two explains what he would do differently, One sees that Two has the same level of confidence he did when he performed the experiment on One that cost him his heart-- he'd be upset that Two still hasn't learned this lesson. You can't fix what's broken. The scientists in movie thought they could bring back the dinosaurs WITHOUT some kind of consequence. How did that turn out? I agree with you that the franchise would make One reluctant to give humans a chance, since it highlights their flaws and mistakes. He'd definitely see more into Draxum's pov and why he wants to get rid of the humans.

Conclusion, Two likes Jurassic Park. One hates it. They probably have a heated argument about it. Raph and Mikey learned to never watch that movie with them again.

Thank you so much for this. Very interesting.

#emd au #emd asks

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pandoratheprocrasticreator · 2 years

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when ppl do parallels of the wittebane brothers with hunter and luz, hunter always parallels caleb and luz always parallels phillip and i know its bc luz looks and dresses more like phillip and hunter is literally calebs clone but!!!

every sibling pair weve explored in the show has a sibling who ran off to live their best life because they didn’t fit into polite society, and another sibling who had to live in the shadow of the first sibling, leading them to become a huge attention whore who makes a point of how well they fit into polite society to cope.

like almost EVERY pair of siblings have this dynamic. the most obvious is eda and lilith, but there’s also luz and vee. i’ve speculated about mattholomule and steve here. if you squint, you can even say edric and emira are both the ones who disregarded expectations to do whatever they want, while amity became the “overachieving good kid” to get attention. and phillip and caleb, especially with what we know about them now, DEFINITELY fits that bill. caleb was obviously the one who abandoned his life in the human world because he fell in love with a witch. meanwhile phillip spent 350 years to Get The Best Grade Ever In Witchhunting, because after caleb left, what else did he have?

(the only sibling pair that doesn’t really fit this dynamic is luz and king. although that’s probably just because i haven’t thought too much about their dynamic lol if anyone has luz & king brainrot like i have luz & hunter brainrot feel free to correct me)

but anyway, like in her relationship with vee, luz is obviously the one in the luz and hunter sibling pair to abandon her life because she couldn’t fit in. she’s the one who was led to the demon realm by the palisman of a clawthorne like caleb was. she takes the lead every time she goes on an adventure with hunter, even if hunter does more of the action stuff. she has a loving family in both worlds, and falls in love with a witch. she has a fascination with the culture of the boiling isles and its magic, and commits to living there because of that fascination

hunter, however, was the one raised to believe in the merits of hunting witches. young phillip latched onto the identity of witch hunter, because outside of caleb, he had no family. he had no social support without this identity. likewise, hunter latched onto the attention and purpose afforded by the golden guard position because it was an identity granted by belos, HIS only family, in a world where hunter’s lack of magic meant an otherwise meaningless and painful existence. hunter studies wild magic and palismen, but before he left the emperor’s coven, he insisted that the studies was for practical purposes, to fix his uncle’s curse. like phillip, hunter was split between the human and demon realms in thanks to them. he was a lot happier in the human world, but in the end, he still returned to the boiling isles, because his “mission” was more important.

luz never ran away from the stress taking care of a younger sibling, but she had the same sense of adventure and anxiety about her identity and future that caleb probably had. hunter didn’t become desperate to please the adults around him with a persona because he was abandoned by an older brother. but he was overshadowed by belos his whole life, seen as nothing but “the emperor’s nephew” just as phillip was probably seen as nothing but “caleb’s brother.”

their lives echo caleb and phillip’s, but hunter is kinder than phillip and more open minded. luz is more stubborn than caleb and convinced her brother to see reason where caleb’s brother never did. hunter is able to break away from his golden guard persona and decide on his own identity. luz is able to make peace with her life in the human realm and balance it with her life in the demon realm.

belos tried to raise hunter to be a “better version of caleb,” but he ended up raising hunter to be like belos himself. but hunter was able to find his own “better version of caleb” in luz, and became a “better version of phillip” in turn. unlike the wittebane brothers or the clawthorne sisters, luz and hunter’s relationship won’t end in betrayal.

#toh #the owl house #shut up pandora #toh meta #i should use that tag more often a lot of stuff i write falls into that #luz noceda #hunter toh #hunter noceda #phillip wittebane #caleb wittebane #should i tag the other sibling pairs theyre only vaguely mentioned #nah i wont theyre not as relevant #luz and hunter are siblings #with all the effort i put into writing dissertations on baby shows maybe i should study for my wastewater treament exam lol #anyway something something belos wanted to remake caleb but his generational trauma just caused him to remake himself #over and over #he wanted caleb back but he also wanted caleb to suffer the way he suffered as a child so now the golden guards all have phillip trauma #and he didnt know or want to acknowledge calebs trauma so he didnt get what made his brother tick either #he didnt want caleb he wanted the idealized version of caleb he saw as a child #the persona caleb displayed to him #an impossible superhuman that no one could have lived up to including caleb himself

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ethanhuntfemmefatale · 7 months

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One of my favorite bits about mi1 is that the initial team is half women, something that never occurs ever again. but I also think it’s sweet and I like that ethan has a girl squad especially because the later movies love to make up a woman with the exact same problem that Ethan has in that movie. It’s great!

somehow i never actually answered this but it's an excellent point and im thinking about it. yes I also love the MI1 team dearly and I'm grateful to mcq for steering us back in that direction (it seems) finally for dr2. and MI1 generally has some really fun women, max is so much of what makes MI1 great, so is Claire IMO. I have a complicated relationship with the way MI1 condemns Claire morally, which is a topic for another post, and weakens the MI1 themes to me as well as my overall feeling about how MI1 treats its women.

one thing MI does really well as a rule is giving ethan thematic parallels with the women he's paired with, making them a narrative foil instead of (or as well as) a love interest. Claire/Ethan parallels are essential to MI1 working as well as it does. Nyah/Ethan parallels are what save MI2 in my estimation. Julia/Ethan parallels are the weakest, and tbh i blame JJ Abrams for that, it's more of a situation where Julia is a conduit for Ethan's arc which...it makes sense given how much shit he's projecting on her but I would like it if she had a "reality" that resisted the "fantasy" and made her more of a thematic partner to Ethan. Maybe she's using Ethan as an escape too, maybe she needs Ethan to fill some thematically relevant emotional wound, anything that would center her mental state more in the movie, JJ. anyway moving on--jane/Ethan! Jane is not a love interest at all but she's a massively interesting narrative foil! Ilsa/Ethan is fascinating, Ilsa's arc has so many echoes of MI2, MI3 era Ethan. Ilsa incorporates Ethan's showmanship, his physicality, his earnestness, while still having her own "code." She's a killer, she's a fighter, and she is way less passive than Ethan in reaction to getting hurt. fucking Alanna/Ethan is a whole can of worms that i think about no joke every single fucking day recently but in a phrase alanna embodies Ethan's corruption in MI1 that ethan has been running from and hiding from everyone for a very long time now. And she's a strong parallel with MI1 Ethan and i would argue Max and Claire, the corrupt power-hungry women. Grace/Ethan, Grace embodies the criminal past Ethan is finally ready to accept as part of him, and her arc of being able to make the radical choice to protect others is the culmination of the entire franchise. Anyway to get into the weeds a bit i have an issue with MI and it's that the women are young. Angela Bassett is a nice exception in Fallout but her role is minor and administrative. I just wish Ethan had a powerful narrative foil that was his age. He's survived so much, he's one of the only people who's lived as long as he has in this business, and I think it would be really cool for him to be interacting with another player in the field, where you feel their age and the weight and power of it, and have that character be a woman. Idk this is why in my unrealistic fantasies claire survived mi1 to replace kittridge's role in DR1, obviously that's not in the control of mcq or anyone but it would just be so cool. Anyway that's my only beef with MI's treatment of its female characters, which is generally so much better than I normally see. I get so irritated when movies try to make me invested in a relationship based on attraction rather than a thematic connection between the characters, and part of that is that I've been spoiled by MI, where female characters play such meaty roles and have their own arcs alongside and in parallel/conflict with ethan.

#some long rambling thoughts for you 1 month late<3 #excellent ask thank you!!!!!!!#mission impossible

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jakowskis · 25 days

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Day 8 - Are there any scenes (or even full episodes) that you can’t stand? If yes, and you could go back in time and rewrite them, how would you fix them?

LITERALLY HAD TO PUT THIS UNDER THE CUT TOO BC ITS SO LONG FJSDHFKJSDFHKDSJFHKDSJDSHFSDKJFHK I HATE THIS FUCKING SHOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

im not gonna rlly propose fix-its, i just like to bitch. haha. anyway, in no particular order…

the owen & jack jail scene in dmw. it’s sooo frustratingly underwhelming. they had the perfect chance to explore some really interesting stuff with jack + his relationship with his immortality, and to explore the parallels drawn between the two of them, and jack suddenly having someone who might also "live" forever to keep him company… and then they Didn’t. it’s suuuch a let down. and the first half of that scene being ‘light-hearted’ and gross is so irritating and disrespectful to owen. absolutely the wrong tone. that ep pisses me tf off.

i have a lot of issues with owen & jack’s relationship in general. in aditd, when owen tries to drown himself + finds he can’t, and jack’s reaction is to 1) throw a soulless flirty line at him, and 2) ask him “how long he’s gonna do this for”... that scene bugs the fuck out of me. like what the fuck. what a monstrous way to react to someone who’s suicidal. and i’d like it if the show ever bothered to explore why jack seems to view owen’s suicidality with such disdain (because it’s a consistent thing; he’s also callous in combat), like that could also provide insight into his character - but they don’t! ugh! so it just makes him look like a fucking dick and makes me resent him. especially when he’s a lot more sympathetic to john in out of time. like why is he so nasty to owen in particular. fuck knows, they don’t bother touching on it. missed opportunities!!!

and, returning to the way dmw treats owen, i hateeee how he’s treated once he’s dead, by the characters AND the writers. everyone on the team is cruel towards him during his undead arc. they warm up again to him later, but the show itself decides he’s no longer relevant after that + seems to act like all his angst went away and he’s fine again. torchwood SUCKS at emotional continuity. the only time it comes up is that they REPEATEDLY have the antagonist of the episode make a point to remind owen + the viewers how pathetic and useless he is now that he’s dead (the nostravite + the ghostmaker both do it). and it’s just.. corny, and disrespectful, like come on.

actually dead man walking as a whole... i just hate that episode. i talked about it more here, it’s just….. ridiculous, and bad, and embarrassing 😭 i had to skip the fucking fight scene at the end i didn’t have the strength i get secondhand embarrassment too easily HFDJKSHFKDJS. the concept isn’t terrible it’s the fucking execution its sooo… idek how i’d fix that mess. i don’t like it. blegh. and like i said, tw does emotional continuity so poorly, like i don’t really have a question i can fully bitch about this on (well? maybe. we’ll see) but the way they go through significant traumas every ep and the emotional weight of those events is never touched on in the following eps... like the shit in dmw would’ve been a lot for owen to deal with but by aditd he’s got other problems. it’s just… ugh.

and if dmw is the second worst use of bad cgi, we must talk about the first… abaddon. i love end of days so fucking much, the interpersonal shit going on between the team is FASCINATING and so good, the mutiny scene is so good, them all being haunted by their past (aka the events of the past 12 episodes) is so good, for torchwood it’s a GOOD episode - and then there’s this fucking ridiculously embarassing terrible monster from the depths of hell stomping everywhere and roaring and i literally cannot describe how hard i was laughing when i first watched that ep. genuinely hysterical. especially after getting gut-punched like thirty times throughout the rest. and whatever jack did to defeat it... so fucking bad. SO fucking bad. idk what the fuck that was but it was a MESS. and the worst possible way to wrap up the “something’s coming out of the darkness O.O” bullshit (which, they didn’t, that continued into owen’s arc, like cmon…) it was just a shit show. see it’s hard for me to hypothesize about how they coulda fixed that bc it’s so bad but it’s kind of iconic. im kind of glad it’s there bc it’s just… torchwood wouldn’t be torchwood if it wasn’t fucking awful. but also. shudders.

ok ok i swear ill stop complaining abt owen-specific shit but ofc thts what i take most issue with, and a lot of my complaints abt the others are less about specific scenes and more generalized things, so ill talk about them when i talk about their characters… ill talk about this more in owen’s section, but i have… problems with the end of days ending, with the hugs. i like that scene a lot, the connotations are fascinating, but the way owen and jack are framed in it is…. eugh…. and most people miss the fact that it’s ‘eugh’? a lot of people see it as a sweet scene and that’s… oof… again i’ll get into it more later but i wish it was framed differently. torchwood could never make up it’s mind on how it saw the characters, lmao.

adjacent subject… the way jack’s return is framed. i HATE the way they just bounce back to normal once jack comes back. like, him leaving would’ve been fucking traumatizing. and the show doesn’t properly give closure to any of them. (it does a tiny bit to gwen + ianto, but like… owen’s abandonment issues are a consistent theme in the show, esp s1. his ‘did he fix you?’ line is unnecessarily sooo heartbreaking. what do you mean ur not gonna give a single moment to those two. Okay.) tbh a lot of these complaints are about the fact that i desperately wish torchwood was a show that cared about the emotions + mental health of their characters when it simply Is Not. tw is, regrettably, not the character-focused show it should be. and i hate it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

a few last owen specific things…. i hate the owen growling at the weevil scene in combat. like what was the deal with that. they don’t rlly explain it in the commentary either it’s just. ?? but again it’s one of those things thts like. i can’t imagine a world where this show was actually good + didn’t have random weird cringe shit sprinkled in HFKSDJF it’s part of the charm. sigh

also owen & mark shouldve fucked. combat should’ve been gayer.

captain jack harkness should’ve been LESS gay. the excessive tongue kissing was fucking gross FSHDFJKDS like. i know that scene’s important to a lot of people + i respect it as an important moment in queer television + the way it’s framed as this big romantic moment, but the actual kissing is just. gross. why did they have to kiss like that. there are better ways to kiss. sincerely, someone who’s very picky about kisses + still covers my eyes like a kid at like 60% of onscreen kisses.

tkks stopwatch scene. ianto why are you flirting w the man who killed ur girlfriend four episodes ago. fucking evil. like ok lmao 👍thats not bad writing whatsoever to never explore that in-show and only do it in an audio 10 yrs later. sure.

all of them randomly having empathy for the alien whale in meat has always driven me crazy. i thought we were gonna find out that the whale had like, empathy-enhancing powers or telepathy or smth bc i couldn’t understand why any of those assholes cared sm. like, in tkks we find out the glove is fueled by empathy + that’s why none of them can use it. like, these are people who aren’t naturally empathetic. nothing wrong with that, i’m like that lol. so i was really thrown off when they randomly all deeply cared about an alien creature. especially owen. like, i get randomly being moved by something, happens to the best of us, but the way it affected all of them + so profoundly felt ooc to me and has always bugged me a little. s2 tried so badly to humanize a group that s1 painted as absolute assholes, and i personally LOVE that they’re assholes. i am not the biggest fan of s2, lol.

a lot of tosh scenes bug me, bc the show generally has very little respect for her + her capabilities, but ill get into that more when i talk about her as a character. specifically some of the tosh & owen scenes fucking INFURIATE me. he’s so nasty to her. the end of adam (‘i dont do apologies’ and the smug little smile), and laughing at her when he agrees to the date in reset, and ‘in your dreams, tosh’ in countrycide all stand out. ive complained about it before + ill do it again; idk wtf they were trying to tell the viewers with tosh/owen. i like the concept of the ship, because it has potential - i absolutely HATE it within the context of the show. every ‘towen moment’ just works to humiliate tosh. it’s awful.

killing beth. im sure other people have done essays on the way torchwood treats its poc, esp its woc (although, knowing this fandom, maybe not lmao), and the lisa sitch was enough of a mess… the beth sitch could’ve been done differently. her essentially committing suicide by cop was fucking awful. ugh.

also the twist that suzie was evil + ten steps ahead could’ve been done much better. that should’ve been better written.

as i said, i dont even like tosh/owen, but the fact that you never see them dance in something borrowed was just plain mean tbh. u can see like a millisecond of a frame if you pause in the right place, but still, why not include a fraction of a nice moment between them. cmon. something like that might’ve actually made me like them more

i hate the blowfish confrontation in kkbb it’s corny. cmon

i bitched about adam a lot the other day (again, here)… idek how i’d get that episode up to my standards. im petty about s2 as a whole and ive been meaning to try to put thought into what would fix it for me for months and i haven’t gotten around to it cuz its such a daunting thought. grr. i think i’d just completely redo the way adam influences them all. i literally don’t like what any of their altered selves offer. there’s no insight into them i find worthwhile. ig the shit abt jack’s past is worth keeping but i’d redo it completely bc i hate the gray arc. i’d have to find some way to keep the conference scene though, or get that new character info + vibe elsewhere. bah

#tdot #txt #hey im posting this one in the afternoon instead of late at night! woah!

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tricoloured-cat · 2 years

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Happy Birthday Kunikida! As a tribute I decided to read (well, more finish) "Meat and Potatoes" by... Kunikida-sensei HAHA but as I was reading I noticed similarities between that short story and BSD Kunikida's life

parallels between BSD Kunikida and Meat and Potatoes

warning: major spoilers for Meat and Potatoes, the first LN, as well as the manga! also for this essay thing I shall ignore the existence of the anime adaptation of the Azure Messenger (also not proofread too lazy)

Note: Some of these points have been made by others, but here I just want to emphasize these things in the context of Meat and Potatoes.

"But the point is, you can't ideals," said Kamimura, screwing up his face. "Ha ha. Of course you can't. They're not beefsteaks!" laughed Takeuchi, opening his huge mouth. "But that's exactly it. Reality is a beefsteak. Or stew if you like."

As the title of the story suggests, meat and potatoes are compared to reality and ideals. In fact meat can go farther than just reality; it's an implicit description to the hedonistic life.

In the franchise, it can be said that Dazai is very much Team Meat rather than Team Potato. He does as he pleases and wrecks the world of the then highly rigid member of Team Potato, Kunikida.

This was the third day of being paired with Dazai. I knew no peace for even an hour, nor could I focus wholeheartedly on work, and the number of complaints pouring in on the phone continued to climb higher. Whenever I took my eyes off of him, he would say he was going to drown himself and then fling himself into a river, or say to be careful and then go off to drink at a bar, or say he received a divine revelation and run off to flirt with a pretty girl. Quite fittingly for a twenty- year-old man-child, he only did what suited himself and smashed my schedule to bits.

Kunikida's sanity has been compromised since then, yes, but Dazai's erratic personality doesn't deter him from his determination to follow his ideal.

In Meat and Potatoes, there are two major disillusioned idealists: Kamimura and Okamoto.

Kamimura's transfer from Team Potato to Team Meat is, I suppose you could say hardly significant. He switches with a "oh to hell with it" attitude and abandons the ascetic potato-only life for meat-filled enjoyment. Why is it so? Simply put, his desire to be in Team Potato was never serious. His fascination with his Christian faith and scorn for the "fools in Tokyo" were what drove him to his rural potato-farm life in Hokkaido.

"Kamimura and the rest of you were members of the Potato Party at first, but later changed your allegiance to the Meat Party. In other words, you're all weak-willed."

Kondo's words, I believe, mirror Kunikida's initial thoughts of Dazai. I'm not so weak as to give in to someone like him!

On the other hand, Okamoto's disillusionment - but not transfer to Team Meat - was far more serious. This is where Kunikida's own disillusionment can be linked to.

It was the death of the woman Okamoto loved that made him curse the very world he lives in. The intensity of his love had made its loss so great. In Kondo's words,

"[Men] often weary of life and if they encounter love in such a state, they find in it a means of escape. For that reason they throw their whole hearty into the fiery furnace of love."

Okamoto does not rebuke nor confirm this, but we can assume that Kondo hit the nail on the head.

Kunikida, too, loved a woman deeply: Sasaki Nobuko. Now the parallels isn't too surprising since both stories are based on Kunikida-sensei's real life heartbreak with his wife of the same name. Fortunately she didn't actually die (she just left him 5 months into their marriage) but the pain is so immense that her memory is essentially a ghost haunting the three of them.

"I want to have her back again and so intensely do I feel about that that I don't care what happens to me. I freely admit that I've cried over her many times. Over and over again I've called her name and looked up at the sky. Of course I wish that she would come back to life."

This resounds their feelings for their woman so well. Their hopes and dreams were built for and shattered by her - for Okamoto, this was his fall into indecision. He is not Team Meat nor Team Potato. He is not a realist nor an idealist. He is not a optimist nor pessimist. He's just a broken man.

In fact, Dazai alludes to this fall after Sasaki's death.

“Tell me, Dazai! Was it right for her to die? Is this the ideal world I’ve sought for...?” Dazai stared at me and whispered, “Kunikida. There are those who believe in your just, ideal world, and thus they grow to resent this one. The Azure King was one such person. While championing his causes of justice and idealism, he hurt the weak around him.” He looked far off into the distance. “The phrase ‘seeking justice’ is a weapon. Once it hurts the weak, it can no longer be a force of good. This justice the Azure King sought was what killed Sasaki. His accusation wounded me. Seeking a world of justice and ideals, indeed. All this suffering had come to pass by seeking to manifest ideals. “Kunikida, as long as you continue to eliminate those who would thwart your ideals in your quest for the ideal world, the flame of the Azure King still burns inside of you. And it will consume those around you. I have seen this happen many times before.”

There is no "but I'll still pursue my ideal!" in the original text. Kunikida said nothing in reply for he "understood what he said."

Now by the time Atsushi popped up, not much is shown about how exactly far Kunikida's disillusionment had gone. When he was picked up Kunikida proudly states that his schedule was "not just a schedule but his ideal" and from then we are given an impression of his drive.

We are only shown the truth starting with Kyouka's case and Atsushi's kidnapping.

There are already discussions on these scenes, but in the context of this essay thing with Meat and Potatoes what I want to point out is Kunikida's disenchantment. Also note that in both scenes, his facial expression is not shown. He only says these things out of defeat while his idealist self screams something else.

At this point, he has not reached Okamoto's level just yet, but it's possible that it won't take long for Kunikida to find himself in the same place.

It is Atsushi that woke him up from his nightmare.

What made that difference?

Atsushi wasn't abandoned by the Agency because of one thing: love. It's the very same thing that killed both Okamoto's and Kunikida's ideals.

But unlike Okamoto, Kunikida's ideals were not only born out of love but are one and the same; then following Kondo's reasoning, Kunikida's love, ideals, and life are all one and the same.

Here is another quote from Kondo:

"There are many types of boredom. Two of these are particularly tragic and hateful. With one, you weary of life and with the other you weary of love... The first is the most tragic and the second the most hateful."

The current manga arc (ch 104 is the latest release at the time of writing this) challenges Kunikida once more. Being a member of the Armed Detective Agency is difficult, and with all the death and near-death recently happening around him his will had taken several critical hits.

Had Kunikida grown weary of his lofty ideals, with means he's weary of both love and life, that his fate is tragic and hateful?

Fortunately, not at all.

He doesn't give up any of the three. "But what about life???" Well, I would say that here he does not lose life but rather his death. Idk how to explain to be honest, but in short it's rather that he sacrifices his physical life for the sake of living; that is not having a spiritual death. He is able to live his whole life following even only the shadow of the ideal - to him that is his goal anyway.

Kunikida overcomes Okamoto's plight of looking for "surprise" in the world as nothing interests him anymore.

"Life and death and all the phenomena of the universe become commonplace in the end."

He does not fall for this interpretation of Wordsworth's "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting."

We can only hope for the best for him in the upcoming installments.

TL;DR: Kunikida is awesome and needs more love

#idk what i've been typing out ngl AHHAA #hana tries to sound smart #bsd #kunikida doppo #japanese literature #dazai osamu #bsd analysis

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darlingpoppet · 1 month

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What inspired you to start Where The Dead Forget? Also can you tell us some more about your PZA Dreamers AU? (e.g. what your favourite thing to write has been so far, things you look forward to or struggle with, or anything else you like). Thanks!

As for WTDF, honestly it pretty much all started with this tweet where I expressed interest in the concept of Patroclus Hadesgame losing his memories. I had seen such fanarts already so I was curious if there were fics out there too (there are of course! I have since found some, lol!) But a friend in the comments was encouraging to the notion of me writing one myself and I pretty much immediately began spiraling from there (I tweeted this the same day I posted Once More and also about a week before I posted Upon A Lazy Bed, so at the time my brain was on fire and I was constantly brimming with ideas!) The entire story from beginning to end pretty much came to me immediately and I’ve been expanding on it ever since! A lot of my inspiration has been fueled by the experience of consuming every depiction of Achilles & Patroclus I could get my hands on, as well as countless academic writings with various analyses on the characters. Also just the entire meta tradition of storytelling with folklore characters in general, where there’s no one “definitive version”, and thinking about how that might work in-universe where things like memories, bias, human fallibility, etc make objective truth difficult or impossible to obtain. Films such as Rashomon and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind that explore similar concepts to WTDF also inspired me!

As for the PZA Dreamers AU!! I can’t remember if I’ve ever properly explained the concept in a public post but for anyone curious: the whole thing was born out of me seeing a parallel/synergy between the themes of the film The Dreamers and certain interpretations of the Iliad (the Homeric version itself ofc but also particularly Shakespeare’s Troilus & Cressida.) The characters in these stories exist in this symbolic & narrative liminal space where they’re shutting themselves off from the outside world so they can Live Laugh Love—and in all the stories, reality catches up with them eventually, usually in tragic ways. I’m making it a modern AU (a vaguely 2010s period piece?) because as a millennial I also see parallels to my generation (& Gen Z) where as a whole our own lives also seem to be stuck in a figurative liminal space academically, economically, socially (especially in the era of covid where we were all shut-up in our houses finding there was more to life than The Grind, simultaneously reveling in simple pleasures & also going insane until we were all forced back out again) And at the same time our generations have this fascination with liminal spaces as an Internet meme (including vaporwave which also coincidentally appropriates classical Greco-Roman imagery in its aesthetics.) I’m reading serious non-fiction books like Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher and Retromania by Simon Reynolds in service of what at the end of the day is just a horny fanfic LMFAO.

Because getting back on track to what you actually asked me: I’m not gonna lie, my favorite parts of writing this story so far have been the sex scenes, haha. Like the whole vibe of the story is supposed to be just this completely unfettered dreamy indulgence, and even things like sex have a liminal quality to me (where time seems to stand still and people are joined together transitioning through several physical states) hopefully I’ll be able to pull the whole thing off the way I’m envisioning it! The fact that it’s a modern AU is probably what makes this both easier and harder to write—things like dialogue can have a more modern sensibility but it’s probably the more flowery prose that’s giving WTDF its own dreamy, liminal quality so it’s tricky figuring out how to balance it. I’m also having a hard time deciding whether I want to dump this entire high-concept, novella-length story as a one-shot (or at least split up into 2-3 parts that are published all at once) or if I should stick to a more traditional (for fanfic) serialized publication schedule ahahaha. I guess if anyone reading this has any preferences or insight feel free to let me know your thoughts!

Oh and as for the PZA of it all: writing Closest To My Heart was probably what reminded me of the existence of The Dreamers in the first place (I had seen it years and years ago) because I realized that film has a similar dynamic of an “outsider” falling into an erotic triangle with a pair who are essentially soulmates, and ends up biting off a little more than he can chew in keeping up with the two of them… I decided I wasn’t quite done exploring that dynamic and I wanted to write about it more! Though don’t worry, I don’t think this story is gonna be quite as dark as Closest (uh oh wait this might be a lie actually), and also Patrochilles are MUCH nicer to Zag in this story ;)

(Also I didn’t even mention Hadesgame itself where the entire underworld is a liminal space Zagreus passes through to reach the surface/self-actualization and how he is constantly dying/resurrecting… Zagreus is a very liminal character! But this is already an ETA so I shall leave my thoughts there for now, lol.)

Hopefully all that answers your questions, anon! Thanks so much for the ask <3

#emica chat #where the dead forget #liminal spaces #my fics

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atherix · 1 year

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YOU KNOW WHAT IN ORDER TO COPE WITH THE, FRANKLY, INSANE AMOUNT OF MEDIA CONSUMPTION I HAVE DONE TODAY, HERE I AM IN ALL MY GLORY – MAJOR MIDNIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD.

Having now read both chapters I am going to draw some strings because the PARALLELS BETWEEN GRIAN AT THE START OF CH 8, WHEN HE’S WAKING UP FROM HAVING FALLEN BELOW THE ALLEY, TO GRIAN DYING AND SEEING THE WATCHER-GOD ATTACHED TO HIS SOUL IM GOING TO GO INSANE??????????/ AM I GOING INSANE???????? I MIGHT ALREADY BE THERE. JOURNEY’S END BABY, IM REALLY PASSIONATE ABOUT LITERARY ANALYSIS NOW. But the fact that the Watcher is telling him it isn’t time for him to Awaken yet, and then to see him Awaken in the next chapter, and the fact that Grian has been back and back and back to that place but he’s never Awakened yet AUGH. I wonder if Scar Knows how close Grian came to potentially awakening when they first fell bc. I am going insane thinking about it. The fact that he Awakened through dying – was he actually almost dead and the Watcher-God put him back because it wasn’t his time and he doesn’t even realize because being put back returned some semblance of ‘not being dead’ to his personhood im.

And then the whole thing with Scott and Jimmy??? Okay listen. Listen. I have not a fucking CLUE how to tie them in yet unless Jimmy is a sign that the pantheon has had time to move on and then he became a watcher or something im. W H A T is going on with Scot though I have no fucking clue. No ideas. Surely they aren’t the god Grian just absorbed bc I take it they couldn’t live independently but w h a t.

AND THEN THE FUCKING PARALLELS BETWEEN HOW SCAR IS AND HOW MUMBO IS OH MY GOD. They’re both kneeling over him, they both think he’s fucking gone [Which. I think he was both times, tbh.] Clearly he wasn’t as Dead as he was later on because Scar isn’t nearly as torn up as Mumbo was and Scar strikes me as a man who would fucking Tear The Fuck Up. So. He was a Little Less Dead. 70% dead, is my guess. How Scar and Mumbo have both lost people, they both know the grief of losing someone, they both know the grief of seeing someone die in horrible ways, they they both thought they lost Grian in the same way I am chewing on my hair. THE PARALLELS. THE WAY REDSCAPE IS A REFLECTION OF EACH OTHER HOW AM I MEANT TO BE NORMAL ABOUT THEM IM.

Scar’s staff nooooooooooooooo I love his staff how could you do this to me. Augh.

Also the entire lore with the Watchers bringing the Avians underground to escape enslavement is FASCINATING especially given how Scar keeping pointing out that they went up from the tunnels not down, especially with how that mixes in with the fact that the Ancient City Icaria is Down im. Feeling normal. Feeling incredibly normal. The fact that its so bed even Grian knows not to go Down as shown with his conversation with Mumbo and Tubbo [which uh. You know. Frankly. Its probably a good thing they did hear down, tbh] and if our theory about Grian being Old are true then something happened likely right after the Watchers brought the Avians underground. UNLESS! UNLESS THAT ENTIRE STORY IS A LIE!

Stay with me chat bc I know Atherix isn’t gonna fucking answer this but – hear me out, what if the Avians are the Ancients from the Ancient City of Icaria and the Watchers drew them out in an attempt to stop the apocalypse by trapping the warden because Grian ALSO knows they shouldn’t bring the Sculk up which is seen in the next chapter. I am. Hmmm. Rotating.

Scar’s core continues to drive me nuts oh god this man really thought he was going to die the entire time and was okay with it as long as he got his family to safety even before they reached the ancient city I am feeling things I am going insane. HES COLD???? HES COLD AND HE DOESN’T HAVE HIS STAFF AND IM GOING INSANE

God and the fact that Grian is so sorry for getting them into this mess even though he deserves answers that he still didn’t really get and the fact that Scar and Mumbo reassure him throughout the entire fucking ordeal that there’s no way he could have known only for him to Know about the sculk, to Know they shouldn’t go down, and I wonder how much of what Grian didn’t know was simply repressed by his flight out of the Midnight alley.

I love the description of Mimic magic btw.

And then the whole Magic construct talk??? The wood giving way like glass??? Excuse me what is going on in the Alley my fucking brain is COMPLETELY blank on ideas holy shit.

AND THEN!!! THEN!!! THE SCULKY WATER??? THE WAY IT HURTS SCAR AND MAKES HIM REACT???????/ AND THE FACT THAT IT JUST CAUSES THEM TO BLINDLY FLY INTO THE ANCIENT CITY AND TRIGGER THE WARDEN I AM!!!!!!!!!!!!! AH!!!! EVERYTHING ABOUT THAT WAS ONE GIANT SCARIAN DISASTER!!!!

And then the WARDEN! The way this parallel’s Double Life makes me want to chew on my bones. The fact that Grian is the one that triggers the Warden. The fact that Scar cant do anything because its magic is counteracting with his own. The fact that the warden kills Grian to awaken his godhood. I am. ROTATING AT LIGHT SPEED, ATHERIX.

AND THEN THE NEXT CHAPTER. THE OPENING FIGHT WITH THE WARDEN. ‘They try to fight the warden’ YEAH. YEAH. TRY. MY GOD. MY GOD. You know its bad when you’re giving them multiple curse words a chapter tbh.

ALSO GRIAN MCCRAFT ‘They’re not supposed to be real’ THE WAY HIS KNOWLEDGE MIXES WITH MYTHOS I AM GIVING MORE AND MORE CREDENCE TO THE GRIAN IS OLD THEORY I AM. ROTATING. SPEED OF SOUND.

And the way he does the enchanted book is SO cool. Scar running off on his own to lure the warden ISNT but my god the way you made the enchantment work logically for him while all this is going on. The worldbuilding here is incredible.

WHAT IS GOING ON W THE TIME STUFF HERE. GRIAN THINKS ITS BEEN 5 YEARS. GRIAN KNOWS THE ENCHANTING BOOK IS THIRTY THOUSAND YEARS OLD. SCAR CLEARLY KNOWS SOMETHING FUNKY IS GOING ON TIME WISE. WHAT IS GOING ON

God I love Scar. He’s got his own brand of Chaos gremlin and by god he’s gonna use it [ignore the fact that he absolutely figured he was going to die anyway so he fucking decided to use it as his one shot to keep Grian safe only for Grian to die HORRIFICALLY in front of all of them my god.]

The way Grian can’t hear Scar as he uses his god powers for the first time but clearly has no fucking clue what hes doing and running on instinct and not properly awakened anyway my GOD could you imagine being Scar, standing there, Grian suddenly between you and a harbinger of the apocalypse, shooting it to protect you when you were sacrificing yourself to save him and then he fucking dies in front of you trying to protect you and you watch as he skull cracks open and dgdnklxhdgsf HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO BE NORMAL????????

‘What a sad way to die’ not to get existential but I hope I still have thought after I die because. Idk. The scariest thing about death to me is the ceasing of my entire being. AND GOD THE WAY GRIAN HAS TIME TO JUST. RUMINATE. ON HIS OWN DEATH. ABOUT HIS FAMILY. ABOUT HOW THEY’RE GOING TO DIE AND HE CAN DO NOTHING TO STOP IT. AUGH. And and and the WAY this parallels the scene from the last chapter where he was sort of dead but not really im. IM!!! In that ‘death’, grian was silent. Grian couldn’t feel. There was nothing. And here he can cry out, he can feel his soul and the way he can burn.

And then the Watcher and the fact that Grian cant really take it in and you have to wonder right if it feels anything about Grian killing it – WHICH FOR THE RECORD I don’t think that’s how grian got a watcher soul, I think he’s been a watcher secretly the entire time – or how it feels ABOUT grian being attached to it. If it sees him as a vessel or something more. As the other side of it’s own coin of existence. ‘every shadow and light needs its sun’ and the parallels here with the fae realm’s two suns and moons and scar and mumbo’s magic and his own existence in the midnight alley and then outside and THE LULLABY!!!! AHHHH. AND THE AGONY OF THE TRANSFORMATION BECAUSE ALL TRANSFORMATION IS A PAINFUL THING BUT SOMETIMES WE’RE READY FOR IT AND SOMETIMES WE ARENT AND GRIAN IS FINALLY READY FOR HIS AND asdkfslhfgf as you can see I am feeling normal on this evening.

AND THEN HE FINDS HIS BODY AND HIS FAMILY AND HE SEES MUMBO JUMBO, A VAMPIRE CRADLING HIS SECOND DEAD LOVER’S BLOODIED BODY IM SUPPOSED TO BE NORMAL ABOUT THIS??????? Mumbo sitting there begging and begging and begging for grian to wake up, knowing he never will, the fight in him only not gone because Scar and Tubbo are still in danger. Scar, who’s only will to keep living is that mumbo and tubbo are in danger, no longer carrying about how reckless he’s being, facing down this harbinger of death and destruction who just took his soulmate and ripped him from his arms.

THE FACT THAT THERES A SECOND FUCKING WARDEN BECAUSE THEY’VE MADE SO MUCH NOISE

Mumbo who has lost all self preservation instinct because he cant bury another lover and yet he has to and he cant even get Grian’s body out of the ancient city because theres a warden and they’re all going to die and suddenly Grian is LOOKING at him and gasping and breathing and alive and covered in blood and he kisses Mumbo just to confirm that yes, YES, what you’re seeing is real he’s really alive and then he makes Mumbo LET GO OF HIM because his transformation is still ongoing, still painful, and he cant bear to hurt Mumbo with Holy Power he knows is going to rip out of his body at any second and hes holding it back because itll hurt mumbo and then Mumbo leaves and Grian is just in AGONY ALONE AFTER COMING BACK TO LIFE I AM LIVID HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME!!!!!

Dear readers, for the record, ATHERIX DROPPED THIS AND DIDN’T EVEN TELL ME IT WAS LIVE. SHE WAITED FOR MY FUCKING AO3 EMAIL TO CATCH UP LIKE 15/30 MINUTES LATER????????????? EXCUSE ME

Also the fact that they kissed while there was blood on grians lips and mumbo is a vampire is not lost on me and if this wasn’t such a serious scene I would be making wink wonk jokes

GOD THE WAY YOU DESCRIBE THE TRANSFORMATION IS BEAUTIFUL. HOW GRIANS BODY REFORMS ITSELF TO ENCAPSULATE THIS NEW SOUL THAT HAS CORRECTED ITSELF AND MADE HIM WHO HE IS NOW, BROUGHT HIM BACK TO PROTECT HIS MATES I AM FEELING SO FUCKING NORMAL RIGHT NOW. DOES ANYONE ELSE FEEL NORMAL ITS SO DARK INSIDE THIS ROOM

He told them to go and of course they don’t, but they send tubbo away and just. DKFASDF THE FACT THAT THEY STAYS EVEN THOUGH THE WARDENS ARE THERE AND WAITING, BECAUSE THEY KNEW IF THEY DIDN’T GRIAN WOULD TRY TO KILL THE WARDENS FOR HURTING THEM AND LIKELY DIE AGAIN OR SOME SHIT IM SO.

Im so happy they stuck around to pull grian back but also imagine being mumbo and scar and your boyfriend just Ascended to Godhood and you’re having to talk him down from fighting TWO harbingers of the Apocalypse after he just woke up from BEING DEAD when all of them are a fucking W R E C K im. God they such a MESSY polycule god bless em, the braincell is triangulating.

Also imagine being mumbo and shadowwalking a god to safety the fucking EGO BOOST????????/ I WOULD NEVER SHUT UP ABOUT IT TO BE HONEST

“oh thank the gods” tubbo you have no idea.

And then all the stuff where Grian clearly both Knows and Does Not Know things simultaneously I am staring. I am vibrating in my seat.

They way you describe his wings as liquefying back to normal is SO cool I really love that description this is incredible.

W H A T IS GOING ON W MR GOODTIMES ‘I don’t think they found that place grian’’that’s just what time does’ SIR I AM SHAKING YOU. AND HIS DEAD TIRED BANTER W MUMBO.

THE CUDDLE PILE IS WELL DESERVED AND FRANKLY I AM BURYING MYSELF IN MY STUFFED ANIMALS TONIGHT HOW DO YOU DO THIS SO CONSISTENTLY OH MY GOD I AM GNAWS ON MY CAGE BARS. Lol this is 2.2k

WELCOME WELCOME GLORY BE I LOVE TO SEE IT <3

Long post and SPOILERS everyone <3 (There will also be some Depictions of Injury in here so)

I love parallels. I also love bookends and rhyming history <3 Even in the cruelest of ways hehe I LOVE WHEN YOU ANALYSE MY LITERATURE HEHEHE sometimes you get something very right and all I can do is :) It's wonderful hehe- Mmmm all about the context innit. The context? I mean well. You know. All the reasons Why™ <3 Hehe all things I cannot answer on a public platform <3 Hmhmhmmm seems a bit like a Cycle™ perhaps...... you know. :) Time and time again....

These are things that I cannot reveal at all! Because they'll be revealed next chapter :D But look, Jimmy and Scott are my beloveds and I am holding them very gently, especially Jimmy. But you know- Scar told Grian early on that Boatem attracts a lot of magic types... :)

YEAH I'LL GO FERAL OVER IT I love parallels. Twice now Grian has woken up to one of his lovers crying over him because they thought he was dead. [Which at least one of those times I can say with finality he absolutely was :) ] Scar was crying when he thought Grian was dead but lemme tell ya, there is a difference between finding your boyfriend bruised up from a fall and finding your boyfriend with his head cracked open against the stone. Both absolutely terrible mind you but Scar can at least convince himself that Grian was just unconscious, Mumbo (who I will take this time to remind people studied medicine in one of his lives and was a doctor during the Mycelia War) 1000% KNEW Grian was dead even while begging him to wake up hehehehehjfhjhjgfdhjgfdk YOU CANNOT BE NORMAL ABOUT THEM I LOVE THEM SO MUCH I AM. SO. NOT NORMAL I WILL NOT EVEN CLAIM TO BE NORMAL HHJFSDJH

I'm sure Scar losing his staff won't have absolutely terrible ramifications in the future. You know, with his staff being charged with a hell of a lot of his excess magic and all. :)

Hehehehe. I have been WAITING for someone to point how the direction of the tunnels. A bit suspicious, isn't it... that the tunnels Grian's ancestors used to come to the Alley... lead directly to Icaria. Also strange, isn't it... that these "secret tunnels" his ancestors escaped to the Alley through... are connected to giant-ass bridges supported by Ancient Pillars... doesn't feel very "secret" to me, hm, I mean if you were trying to escape your oppressors I don't think you'd mark your tunnels with giant bridges and make them super accessible huh.... huh... Mmmm well who knows :) It could all be a lie. Everything could all be a lie. Hmmmmm-

Yep, you're right, I'm not answering any of that :)

Oh yeah, the moment Scar realizes his Core is short-circuiting he thinks he's absolutely dead lmaoo all that mattered to him was his family is safe I am so. SOFT for him I am-

... Grian will get answers in the next chapter. Just not the answers he was looking for :) Hehehe God, Scar and Mumbo reassuring him that he deserves these answers and no one could have known about this- I am so SOFT for them I just. I love them so much. But Grian definitely knows more than he realizes. I just. He is going to need so many hugs, lemme tell ya.

I created them and Mimics fascinate me. I wish to study them in a jar, and then I remember- I created them. They are already in a jar for me.

:) Hehe. You know, there's a lot of things 'like glass' in this story. Interesting. Wonder what they all have in common huh.

The fact that there is Sculk in the water and it forces Scar's magic to react and waste a lot of his magic, BUT ALSO KNOWING that if he hadn't landed in the water he just would'a fuckin died- mmm double edged swords are so fun haha <3 Also I absolutely think Sculk should be able to taint water just saying. So I have made it happen here. AND YEAH BLINDLY RUNNING INTO THE CITY. So a scary thought for you- the Warden could have easily emerged into the tunnel they were walking through, Grian could even hear it moving around them (bc I like to think the Warden waits beneath the surface and moves through the earth drawn to the shriekers hehe). If there had been a shrieker in the tunnel with enough Sculk around it, they could have ended up in a narrow tunnel with a Warden. BUT INSTEAD THEY CLIMB UP A TUNNEL-SHAFT INTO A WIDE OPEN CAVERN WITHOUT EVEN CHECKING WHAT MIGHT BE IN THE CAVERN. Mind you they would have still gone in because the cavern was notably Warden-free when they first climbed on in BUT THAT'S BESIDE THE POINT. Let me tell you this polycule has one braincell between them and their son has taken possession of it. Like a kid sneaking a quarter outta their parent's wallet hjfdsjkfd

ONCE MORE I LOVE A GOOD PARALLEL AND/OR REFERENCE. How could I resist the tragedy, the drama. Also the guilt later on. Also yes Scar felt SO HELPLESS this chapter- he's spent his entire life relying on magic, and here he is without it- and everything that can go wrong? Does. Like, "this mythological harbinger of death that was in my childhood lullaby that I sang to my own son is real AND IS ABOUT TO KILL US" wrong. AND YEAH. YEAH. I mean, how else does one safely become a god? When you die you remove the soul from the body... so during the merge, there's no body to risk tearing apart too soon :) And now, Scar- now you know why people die when they become gods. It's basically a requirement HJFSJKFSK

TRY being the major keyword there haha <3 AND YEAH. I don't care who you are- I don't give a damn who you are or how much you avoid cursing- faced down with the literal harbinger of the apocalypse that is believed to have felled TWO OF YOUR ANCESTRAL SOCIETIES, who have ENDED THE WORLD and forced generations of survivors to rebuild ONLY TO END IT AGAIN- yeah you're saying "fuck."

:) :) :)

YESSS I have always wondered how, realistically, an enchanted book would work. Lowkey weird you use an anvil for it, you'd think it'd be something a little more fantasy like the table itself is, but that's fine. I'm glad to see people enjoy how I have the enchanted books work hehehe <3 AND THANKS FOR THE WORLDBUILDING COMPLIMENT AAAAA I LOVE WORLD BUILDING <3 Scar running off to face a Warden. Not his brightest move but, honestly, if it gives Grian time to find a way to protect Mumbo and Tubbo.... yeah <3

Thirty thousand years huh :) Scar was a little taken aback by that number :) Hehehe WE WILL FIND OUT NEXT CHAPTER. FINALLY. <3

Scar is a chaos gremlin. We love him for it. He causes problems on purpose. In this case though- uh, yeah. LMAO. Grian and Scar desperately trying to protect and save each other. On the bright side- Scar (and Mumbo and Tubbo) didn't actually see Grian die? :) Though I'm sure they heard it when his body slammed to the ground and his skull cracked but ya know-

Oh gods yeah Grian was running on instinct adrenaline and anger, he would not have come out of this very well if Mumbo and Scar hadn't stayed to wait for him. (I say this as if Grian didn't LITERALLY FUCKING DIE but. Ya know. he got better so) YOU CANNOT BE NORMAL ABOUT THIS. Add to the fact that not only was Scar basically sacrificing himself to give Grian a chance to get away, SCAR ALREADY THINKS HE'S DEAD ANYWAY. Like Scar feels his magic sputtering and wasting itself because he can't regulate what it responds to right now and it's not regenerating, this man thinks he's gonna die any second now. He thinks Grian died trying to save a man who's basically already dead HJFJKSJKS-

My biggest fear about death is everyone around me and the space I'll leave behind which I have projected onto Scar ofc. So <3 I understand hjfdjkkfjd YEAH. YEAHHH GOD just wallow in his guilt. HIS FEAR- his family in danger, dying because of him... just jfhjdkjf. AND YESSS the parallel, I love parallel. I wonder what it means huh, that the first time he couldn't feel while the second time all he could do was cry-

I can comment nothing on the Watcher-soul or what it's thinking or feeling or if it even really feels anything at all :) Look. I was very delighted when I wrote that "Every shadow and every light needs its sun" I am a poetic bitch and also day and night, sun and moon, light and shadow are heavy themes that I have peppered throughout the story so. So yes. Also the irony of "grian" meaning sun, so uh yeah- YEAAHHHHH I didn't want to get too gruesome with the transformation but lemme tell ya it was the worst pain Grian has EVER felt <3 He literally felt his entire being rearrange to make space for everything his awakened soul brings <3 His skin turned to molten glass, even if just for a moment- look I am. FASCINATED by glasswork and how malleable molten glass is when I wanted the Watcher to have a shifting form I thought "oh like molten glass" and I was sold immediately, but god how fucking painful must that be??? hjfdsjkfdsjk IF YOU'RE NOT READY FOR IT YOU CAN'T ENDURE IT but Grian had a reason to endure, he had a purpose, he was gonna ENDURE-

NOPE YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE NORMAL ABOUT IT BECAUSE I ABSOLUTELY DID THAT ON PURPOSE. Mumbo has lost too many people this way hjkgfdjkk I am so. Him just begging because he can't see himself without Grian anymore, I am. He is. So. HJFSJKFJS <3<3<3 AND YEAH my gods the ONLY reason Scar didn't just give up right then is because Tubbo and Mumbo are there, they're ALIVE and Mumbo is with Grian and Scar has to try and fight to protect Mumbo, even if it costs his own life (he may have. Forgotten for a moment that, you know- Mumbo losing BOTH his mates would have. Absolutely destroyed any will he has to live, but. Ya know.) AND he needs to make sure Tubbo gets to safety, make sure Tubbo gets HOME and gets to LIVE and just HJFSKJFS god I can't even imagine being them. The absolute devastation and grief and rage they feel jkfdkkjfd-

THE FACT THAT MORE THAN ONE WARDEN CAN BE SUMMONED IS HORRIFYING IN GAME BUT DELIGHTFUL IN FIC. Honestly if the second one had come any sooner they'd have been even MORE fucked than they were.

GOD YEAH the absolute. The absolute ROLLERCOASTER this man has been through. He's in SHOCK afterwards, he doesn't even know how to comprehend what the fuck has happened today. This man needs therapy now. I mean he already did but especially now. (Also an aside but this moment just highlights how well he WON'T take Scar dying so) AND YES. The reassuring affectionate touches, just to let him know that he's alive and here- and the kiss absolutely had an ulterior purpose but when you awake from the dead in your lover's arms how do you NOT kiss them huh??? AND GOD YEAH, MUMBO who was just holding his lover's BODY in his arms, having to let him go and not even sure if he'll be okay once you leave- AND HEARING HIM START SCREAMING BUT KNOWING YOU CAN'T GO BACK BECAUSE YOU'VE REALIZED WHAT'S HAPPENING I-

I have a delightful habit of updating Midnight and then not telling Stitch, and then ~20 minutes later I get a message like "ATHERIX WHAT THE FUCK" it is absolutely hilarious sorry Stitch <3

Oh yes that was definitely purposeful. Funny that after the kiss Mumbo was able to use his shadows even with the Warden's shadows all around them huh :)

I LOVE ETHEREAL IMAGERY I'M JUST SAYING <3 I also love writing in opposites, I feel like it really captures the confusion of what is going on <3 HHEHEHEE

Of course they wouldn't just go <3 They send their child to safety but they gotta stay, they gotta make sure Grian gets out too!! They know he won't back down on his own, they remember what happened with Blondie. YEAH NEWLY AWAKENED WITH NO IDEA HOW TO USE HIS MAGIC, UP AGAINST CREATURES THAT HAVE ENDED THE WORLD MULTIPLE TIMES? THAT HAVE MILLENNIA UPON MILLENNIA OF EARTH AND SCULK BUILT UP UNDER THE GROUND WITH WHO-KNOWS-HOW-MANY WARDENS JUST WAITING TO BE SUMMONED TO THE SURFACE?? YEAH NO HE WOULDN'T STAND A CHANCE.

They are absolute disasters but they love each other and if they weren't all so Exhausted and Mentally and Emotionally Drained and In Serious Need of Cuddles and Sleep, they would not have hesitated to scold and lecture this newly-awakened god jkfdksjgjkf But also Scar's little "I'm tired. Can't we stop fighting?" Just. LIKE. MIDNIGHT!SCAR DOESN'T ASK FOR THINGS, NOT THINGS HE REALLY WANTS OR NEEDS. He doesn't offer up weakness or vulnerability, yet "I'm tired." He's tired. He doesn't want to fight anymore. He just wants to go home. I'm so hfdjkjkfgd

JKFHSKFSHJK LMAOOO HE PROBABLY DOESN'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT. Not until later anyway when the whole "Grian's a god now" thing sinks in JKFKSLS

If it hadn't been such a serious moment Grian 100% would have said "You're welcome" LMAO

:) Hehehe

I am a SUCKER for liquid imagery. ESPECIALLY if it's viscous or thick liquid, like magma or molten glass. Water is cool too but like. Mmm glass.

HE WILL GIVE US THE ANSWERS IN THE NEXT CHAPTER HEHE. But let's just say Scar, with an outside perspective and knowledge about magic and history, has Put Things Together that Grian has been too close to think about. Oh... it also doesn't help that Grian learned Standard within the last five years :)

ABSOLUTELY THEY DESERVE THE CUDDLE PILE AND FRANKLY SO DO WE. I am so happy I can consistently get you threatening me <3 It's glorious I love it <3 Thank you Stitch~~ Hehehe <3

Your analysis is longer than some of my chapters LMAO

#ask #Midnight Series #Midnight Series Spoilers #like majorly #LONG POST #VERY LONG POST #It is nearly 2 AM for me now #I will answer other asks tomorrow khfjkdskjfd

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cosmosees · 1 year

Note

Zetto and/or Kizuna for the character ask?

once again for this...i shall take more if anyone wants to send

under the a cut once again!

ZETTO:

favorite thing about them: when i was a kid the kirb/zetto twist did genuinely make me insane. in a good way. i think hes a really fascinating character in his like...Mentality Switches between personas yk. guy whos a jerk in a funny way vs guy who just actually sucks

least favorite thing about them: honestly i wish it was just made more clear during like episode zero or smth what his stance in sofdti as like....a living thang was? not that it would matter much in the grand scheme of his development but idk kizuna said some SHIT yk

favorite line: id probably say like...a lot of stuff from the nylocke battle in the gemini tournament. absolute lowest point of that guy its really interesting. (obligatory MY ARM AAAAAGHHHHH mention purely because holy shit he was screaming)

brotp: HIM AND GAMESOFT oh my godd them together. aughh. the only two guys who Know the guys who can talk abt shit and he can be sad. solace in understanding and so on

otp: i know its basic but like....alphazet mannn. everything abt the two of them was PAINFULLY gay and its honestly kind of funny kirb (the guy not the character) didnt notice. runner up is him and nylocke becahse i just think they are silly and funny

notp: i dont really have anyone with him that i actively LOATHE but i think its probbably him and kizuna. putting my personal gay zetto hc aside i think theyd both be wayy too codependent unless they got like. therapy. i know a lot of what ive been saying so far makes it sound like i hate kizuna but i dont i PROMISE

random headcanon: i feel like postseries hed find a way to set gs up with a virtual machine desktop of her own so her knowledge of the world can extend beyond what she knows in tome. they spend time bonding over computer science n junk :)

unpopular opinion: im honestly never good at this part but as an adult with better drawing skills now...i actually like drawing his hair

song i associate with them: zetto was never someone i had much of a playlist for back in the day so i had to scrounge a bit but i think i found something satisfactory

favorite picture of them:

KIZUNA:

favorite thing about them: REALLY underrated secondary antagonist, interesting moral code, she has insane girlie guilt over her actions that doesnt get explored enough.....and shes a kitty cat :)

least favorite thing about them: her arc in the original series was like...a little inconclusive? i wish she couldve come to terms with sofdtis sentience and whatnot. the trajectory of a2z is changing her in a way im really liking so far though! im excited to see where she goes

favorite line: that whole rant at the tail end of the series where shes just like. a bunch of people she cared about almost died and she was freaking the fuck out. it hurts....i love her she needs THERAPYY

brotp: she doesnt get to interact with too many characters during the series but in my perfect world i think shed be chill with demonking. dont question my madness i know im right

otp: re the previous answer she doesnt interact with a lot of characters, on this note Especially im hesitant to give a definitive answer but i think if her parallels with flamey were more explored...in my perfect world.........theyd work so spicily

notp: same as zetto but also tacking gs onto this. less out of kizunas ability to see her as a person currently and more that in the future if/when she does end up coming around i do feel like gs would still be hurt by it. theyd be buddies tho:)

random headcanon: with the rpg version of tigerlily i sometimes wish that series kizuna had like...a secret lil roleplay presence. not necessarily on tome itself but she has to cool of SOMEHOW right. she made an anime catgirl avatar i KNOW she has thoughts about that shit

unpopular opinion about them: kizuna is probably the most divisive character ive done for this so far...all i can really say is like...i joke about supporting womens wrongs and stuff but i think introspectively she does have a lot of potential as a character that we dont see a lot of because most of the scenes with her are from zettos perspective. AGAIN tho im reallly liking where a2z is taking her so far i hope i get more scraps

song i associate with them: much like zetto she wasnt someone i had playlists for back in the day however unlike zetto i have the PERFECT one for her. nonexistent meet-cute (idlyam) by vylet pony.... feeling it

favorite picture of them:

#terrain of magical expertise #zetto tome #kizuna tome #cosmo.txt

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dapper-nahrwhale · 8 months

Note

if youre planning to watch riverdale because you like the comics i suggest not because they are very very different.

Thanks for the suggestion but. Well, it is a little too late. You see I have actually seen some of it before. I watched a few seasons of it a few years after it initially came out, then immediately forgot everything about it, like this was way back in 2019 or 2020, long before I even got into the archie comics and other various shows and started this whole thing of watching and reading every single archie comics and adaptation I can possibly find.

(Oh boy this is going to be a long one huh.)

And one consistent thing I've found in my journey is that archie comics, adaptations, and spinoffs, is that it's a mixed bag of quality. And theres always so much going on in them all the time. You've got some good ones, some bad ones, some in between, and the really strange ones.

And boy howdy has there been some strange ones. The 19 issue 70s spire christian archie comics. There was a 2 part collaboration with Barack Obama and Sara Palin in 2010 for some reason. A sharknado crossover in 2015. A live action Archie's tv pilot in 1964 that never really went anywhere for good reason. Many more low budget early 90s live action films. The controversial end to the life with archie 2010 series, wherein we follow parallel universes where archie marries veronica and archie marries betty, and both have the exact same ending: archie gets shot and dies.

Its wild. WILD.

And riverdale as a show fits into that sort of nonsense... surprisingly well tbh. Yes, there things I dislike about the show diverging from the comics and it taking itself way to seriously, but I cannot deny the fact that riverdale does fit with just how bonkers the rest of the archie comics and shows get, no matter how much it differs from those comics and shows.

TDLR (I go into more depth as of why under the cut) riverdale is a fascinating archie adaptation and I need to watch it soon. adaptations that are different than the source material can still hold value. There has never been an entirely accurate archie adaptation because even the comics themselves are inconsistent with each other. But the one thing every single archie comics, show, movie, adaptation has in common is that they're always always just kind of dumb and ridiculous. Can't be an archie adaptation without that. And I'm on a quest to watch and read every adaptation so I kind of am going to watch riverdale regardless.

And I'm not entirely sure of my opinion on the comics is anything more than neutral at best really.

I havent read enough of the old ones to form an opinion on them yet. I cant say I really like all the comics, some sure but. Like the real early stuff, from the 40s and 50s, can be sort of hard to read. As always, the early Archie's do not stand up to the test of time it seems. And some really weird choices made in the 70s. The sabrina the teenage witch and the josie and the pussycats spinoff comics are pretty interesting tho.

I'd say the very cream of the crop (for me so far) is the post 2015 complete rehaul of the series as a whole, in a fresh light. Definitely worth reading the road to riverdale volumes, the archie volumes, and the jughead volumes (I'm biased what can I say), even though they have absolutely nothing to do with the show riverdale itself, or even the storylines in the earlier archie comics. Their it's own thing entirely.

And truthfully, I don't actually mind how different of an adaptation something is. I think a darker, more drama focused tone is a fine thing for an adaptation. In theory. Like afterlife with archie comics started in 2013 where zombies take over the town. Because in practice with the riverdale show, oh boy. The issues I have are real. Like, ok its objectively a kind of ridiculous show that I just can't take seriously. It sure is entertaining to watch it crash and burn though. But. Thing is, I just straight up don't even remember anything that happened in it, went in one ear out the other. So it's going to be a surprise for me either way once I get around to it.

Anyways, an adaptation being inaccurate from the source material but still good (howls moving castle, who framed roger rabbit) and being badly written but still enjoyment can be found in it (the black cauldron), and being a somewhat accurate adaptation but still unbearable (the live action avatar the last airbender and percy jackson movies) are all separate things. And riverdale falls into it's own separate category all together, where it is not an accurate adaptation by any means, where the enjoyment of it is entirely dependent on the individual, where it does genuinely bring up some interesting things and compelling plot points, but at the cost of character assasination, plot inconsistencies, and alot of really really awkward dialogue. And thing is, that's just how most shows are anyways. I don't think any archie show is fully good or fully bad, they're all a mixed bag.

Where as in the past there have been adaptations of archie that dont follow the plots or characterizations of the comics as much, but still keep more of the tone of the comics, Archie's weird mysteries 1999, and there have been some that follow the comics somewhat, but change up the tone to be something else entirely, the new Archie's show 1987, and it really just depends on the writers.

I genuinely dont know if theres ever been an entirely accurate archie adaptation, even with how all the comics and shows do have some sort of consistency, whether it be character traits, the places and people in town, plotlines. But theres also the fact that they had so many people making and writing archie comics and various spinoffs all at once, that there is going to be discrepancy between even the comics themselves. Theres no real one accurate archie. Theres how it started out, and how it has changed, evolved, and morphed over time and decades, into an amalgamation of 80 some years worth of recognizable characters and places and plotlines. And riverdale is just one of many bizarre choices in the long and strange history that is archie.

And it's like the last part of my journey, you know. I don't think I can stop even if I wanted to, I'm in too deep now. I gotta know it all. Everything. The good, the bad, the questionable.

(Quick sidebar but also. Theres this live action movie called the archies coming out on Netflix soon, and it looks really interesting, set in 1960s india. I don't know till I see it if it's good, but that alone sounds like an adaptation worth watching, even if it isnt so accurate to the source material, it certainly has the tone of the 1960s shows and comics down it seems.)

Oops! Didnt mean to make this response this long, riverdale is a fascinating mixed bag of just everything to me. I have a lot of thoughts about archie adaptations as always.

Anyways thank you for the ask anon! I'll take any excuse to talk about archie adaptations.

#b.text #archiethon #is anyone going to even read this entire thing? probably now. oh well i enjoyed writing it.#yeah... at first it was not very long but. i have so many thoughts abt this oki #b.asks #fiiiiiiiiiiiine ill main tag it whatever #riverdale #archie comics #this is 1k of nonsense. but <3

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