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bloodsbane · 9 days

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what i love about laios is that he's actually very good at putting puzzle pieces together BUT HERE'S THE THING 1) he needs to HAVE the information, and 2) (this is important) he needs to KNOW it is information he should care about

and i think this could be said of anyone but the thing with laios is that people tend to view his lack of awareness wrt social etiquette and memory problems as pure indifference and/or obliviousness; sometimes they misinterpret his motives based on their inaccurate expectations of him and therefore don't give his thoughts on a subject the credit he deserves

one of the most obvious examples of this happens at least twice in the manga as i remember it, but the most recent incident was when they were trying to resurrect falin. there's a moment where laios mentions reconstructing both of the warg skeletons, as their bones are mixed in with hers. both chilchuck and senshi balk at this, with chilchuck complaining aloud, questioning laios' priorities,

and laios quickly, angrily retorts. his reason for making the suggestion is perfectly logical and practical, but because his friends are used to his interest in monsters influencing his judgement, often in ways they see as frivolous or dangerous, they don't come to the same conclusion. one which i'd argue is kind of obvious considering the situation

we see it again during his fight with toshiro, where toshiro demands to know what laios plans to do to save falin. laios takes a minute to answer, but he DOES answer, following the logic that if falin is a chimera because of (and controlled by) the mad mage, then the logical next step is to confront/defeat/usurp them

then in the following episode, when chilchuck brings it up again, laios explains what he (now) knows about thistle, mentioning that he's the same elf that laios saw in the living paintings, which is why he knows thistle's connection to delgal. the party reacts like this:

i'd say this is an example of them feeling frustration over laios' habit of having 'bad timing', not knowing when or how to speak at appropriate moments. theyre judging him for not saying something earlier, as if he already knew all this but didn't think to mention it when it was relevant, when the reality is that laios only just now had all the pieces he needed to understand the full picture

and i mention this bit specifically because i think it's a great way to explain what i mean by point 2: laios needs to know when information is important and worth considering

which, again, feels fucking obvious. but as someone who ALSO has debilitating issues with remembering important shit, i find this particular element of it pretty relatable and critical to my overall point. it's not laios' fault that he didn't know who thistle was or his significance - why the hell would he assume that a person he met in a living painting, presumably long since dead in reality, should be someone who's face, name, or motives he keeps in mind?

ultimately, i guess what i'm trying to say with all this is that the way others treat laios' intelligence is not congruent to how actually smart he is. one of the things i love most about laios, what is possibly his biggest strength and the reason he is such a great protagonist, is that laios is willing to think things through and find the most logical conclusion to a problem, no matter how outlandish or dangerous or seemingly impossible that conclusion may be. sister got eaten? race back down to go get her. can't afford food? fight, defeat, and eat dangerous monsters. sister's fully digested? use black magic to bring her back. now she's a chimera? defeat the mage controlling her and use that power to fix it.

anyways. what was even my point with this post? i guess it is that laios is smart, at least as smart as anyone else in the cast, arguably smarter than some. he is intelligent and utilizes that intelligence in many ways, not JUST when it comes to monster info (though that is his best and sexiest brand of knowledge)

and also please be nice to your friends with memory problems. it's rough out here for forgetful bitches

#banebabbles #dungeon meshi #dunmeshi meta #cant remember if that's my tag for it. oh well #this post is kinda messy but it's fine it doesn't matter #i just had to express some thoughts after rewatching some eps w partner #i was fumbling w my closer but i guess it really is just that like #i have a lot of feelings about anyone calling laios dumb or dense or totally oblivious #bc he's not. he just doesn't think The Same Way as the other chars and also #is at a DISADVANTAGE. bc of the AUTISM. can you believe it #he gets taken for granted and others' perceptions of him influence how they treat him in lots of way #including his intelligence. unfortunately. and you hate to see it

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xlillyle · 8 months

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Why in my humble opinion the episode brings the Mersault arc to a satisfying end regarding Fyodor, Dazai, Chuuya and the message it has

So, there's a lot of energy buzzing around in the fandom with the latest episode and I felt like some things have not been pointed out enough, therefore I'm gonna share my thoughts on the parts of Mersault. This is a thread that focuses on the conclusion of the Mersault arc as presented in the most recent episode of the anime in season 5 and I will elaborate on what I think the message of the Mersault arc is, what Fyodor's role in this arc is, I will comment on why I think he was defeated and why it fits the message and I will also go into more detail of how Chuuya and Dazai play into all of this and what I think happened in Mersault.

I'd like to start with these panels from the manga, chapter 77:

Together with this one from chapter 105:

I think these panels convey the core message of the Mersault arc very well and its goal: Everyone is just human, no matter how smart. And humans are capable of amazing things and even moreso if they come together. This is the greatest difference between Fyodor and Dazai who have been countless of times painted and stated as each other's equals - yes, they are intellectually of a level most can only dream of, only rivaled by Ranpo, but unlike Fyodor, Dazai has learnt to trust humans and understands their bonds to each other.

Fyodor doesn't.

It's a message that is heavily implied and then outright stated by Dazai in the last episode:

The reason why Fyodor fails is that he doesn't trust in people and because he doesn't understand humans in that regard - he thinks that he is above this concept, thinks he can manipulate them and that they're just pawns. It's shown in the way he talks about Sigma, it's shown in the fact that he chose to use Chuuya who is Dazai's partner against Dazai to dangle him in front of Dazai and it's shown when he mocks Dazai for not being "able" to use a "gravity manipulator" and drops the famous line of them having a "shallow bond".

Fyodor is arrogant and very confident in his own abilities, including the one to control those around him. That's what makes him slacking though, he can't comprehend that a plan that relies on a bond and trust would be able to deceive and defeat him and the closer he gets to his goal, the less he cares. That's why he allows Dazai this last speech in 109 too, he doesn't think anything can defeat him. Dazai is at his wit's end, Fyodor is the winner. There's no way that Dazai has a backup plan, Fyodor is a genius and he already thought of everything that could possibly be, so there's no way, right?

Mersault always was about showing what humans are capable of and what they can achieve and that trusting in your allies, in your bonds with the people you love, makes you more capable and achieve higher goals. And it's exactly what happened.

Dazai states that he doesn't have control over all things, that he had a lot of uncertain cards. But he trusted in his allies and it pays off. He wins not because he has it all figured out from the start and a backup plan for the backup plan of the backup plan, he did his part of the plan and adjusted to the scene and left the rest in full trust with his allies.

This pilot stabbing Fyodor worked because Dazai trusted in the agency and Ranpo and them taking over control the vampires in time. And the rest of the Mersault story before all this?

That brings me to my next point, actually. We learn in the episode that it was all a SKK scheme:

Now, some people were unsatisfied that a plan that simple couldn't fool Fyodor, but I think that is exactly the point of it. Chuuya is a great actor (in Stormbringer he fools with grief and shock Albatross in thinking he saved the in two halves separated Doc for example) and the simplicity of this plan is what makes it so good against Fyodor - why would he assume that the great Dazai, his intellectual equal, another genius, would go through with such a plan?

And it's even better because it isn't actually Dazai's! Now, I have seen a lot of people talking about this and I admit that I assumed the opposite originally as well, that this was all Dazai's scheme, but thanks to a moot I took a closer look on the storytelling and I realized something:

Dazai describes here the moment he realized that Chuuya is on his side in my opinion. This wasn't a "Dazai orchestrated the whole thing and sent Chuuya a text to haul his ass over to Mersault" because it doesn't fit with the storyline. Especially the speech in chapter 101 stands out here - a lot of people are making jokes about how weird and gay of a plan the speech is, but I actually think, based on the situation and the voice acting from Mamoru Miyano, that this goodbye speech is a genuine one.

The speech in 101 seems very genuine down to the point of his fake goodbye in the end, meanwhile the tone of a similar speech in 109 has completely shifted.

And what happened between 101 and 109? Exactly. The elevator.

So, what I'm thinking is this: Dazai saw that Fyodor had Chuuya under control and he knows his partner, he can't quite believe that Chuuya would get himself captured, it's gotta be a plan, right? Soukoku isn't actually the brains-and-brawn duo even though everyone thinks that, but Dazai knows how capable and smart Chuuya is. He hid Arahabaki from him and figured out Rimbaud after all.

But still, there is this bit of doubt nurtured by fear - he trusts Chuuya, but what if this isn't his Chuuya? So his goodbye speech is both:

An attempt to snap Chuuya out of it, an attempt to communicate with him, the hope that carries him because this is his partner, right? Stupid Chuuya that always fights and always clings to life and knows to appreciate it a lot more than Dazai.

But also a genuine goodbye, just... in case. Because he could never forgive himself if he doesn't say goodbye to Chuuya, JUST IN CASE. He trusts and believes in Chuuya, but he can't not say goodbye to him, just in case that Fyodor really got Chuuya.

And then the elevator scene happens and Dazai realizes: He only has one way of surviving, but he will not drag Sigma into this, not if he can help it. And he made a promise to him, after all. So, Dazai pushes Sigma out, makes sure that Sigma is alive like he promised. Then he keeps falling.

The only one that can save him now is Chuuya and Dazai decides to trust him. If this is his Chuuya, Chuuya will save him. Because that is what they do: Soukoku come to each other's call, they trust each other with their life and in return get that life saved by the other.

And if this isn't his Chuuya? Well, then Dazai died for the sake of the agency and he probably thinks that this is a good way to die, too.

But he doesn't die. He gets saved by Chuuya of course, how could he have ever considered something else? Chuuya came to his help and he has a plan. So, now all Dazai has to do is play along, just like in old times.

I wanna talk about this specific part of 109 too - I saw people arguing that the fact that Chuuya has been acting all the time made the scenes less impactful for the plot or their bond, but I actually would argue the opposite. Like I just laid out, in my opinion he only learnt just before this that Chuuya is on his side. That means, they don't have an actual plan that they discussed before, but they're good, they're Soukoku - we have seen in Dead Apple during the Dragonhead's Conflict and in the Dragon fight 6 years later what they are capable of without much communication.

But this is not only a way to show off their flawless communication and synchronization again, it also shows us something that we always knew but that is now plainly laid out: Dazai trusts Chuuya with his life. He trusts Chuuya to shoot, but not kill him.

Truly, you could say:

"The core characterization of Dazai and Chuuya's partnership is based on pure trust where both of them are capable of leaving each other's life on the other's hand without a second thought or doubt." - from the Dead Apple guide book

Chuuya acting from the very beginning as vampire and Dazai finding out along with a leap of faith and them proving once again the close bond they share is exactly the way this arc was supposed to go and the fact that it was predictable in that sense doesn't make it bad writing. In contrary. Asagiri set up and delivered the message of the arc extremely well, the arc had a clear red string following through all of it.

And this is why, in my opinion, this arc was actually written very well and why Fyodor's defeat is actually a good break for his character arc (because I don't believe he is dead, but this here is already way too long and many others have pointed plenty why he probably isn't dead) and why I really like the message of the Mersault arc.

#bungou stray dogs #skk #soukoku #bsd #chuuya nakahara #bsd skk #dazai osamu #dazai x chuuya #bsd spoilers #bsd analysis #fyodor dostoevsky #bsd fyodor #bsd season 5 spoilers #bsd season 5 #this was... a lot of me rambling but i really wanted to illustrate this point #because i loved this entire episode #yes all of it #this was entirely focused on skk and fyodor because i am mentally ill but the rest of the episode slaps too #xlillyle bsd threads

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venusspat · 1 month

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The gender of the person that Teru likes and the wrong translation in this scene, a really small analysis:

(Reuploaded here bc a month ago I uploaded it to Twitter and no one saw it... )

Okay, all of this investigation started bc I asked myself “what if teru actually likes aoi (girl)” And this scene came to my mind, i didn’t remember what he exactly said (about if was a girl) so i rewatched it after. If you want the short answer is no, teru doesn’t mention gender.

If you want the explication, read this post (pls this took me like two hours to investigate )

Let’s begin with the dubbed scene, where he says “her” referencing that hes crush is a girl. I almost added the subtitled scene but I didn’t bc it says the same lol

So, I went to the manga, if i was correct, i remembered that he never said the gender/ pronouns, and I was right

I could have confirmed that, but I wasn't convinced. What if the MANGA was poorly translated?

So, i went to the raws panels.

“But Venus! I don’t speak Japanese, what says there?” If you translate ぃ僕好きな子がぃるんだ on google, the first option is “there’s a girl I like” but ALSO shows up the option “there’s someone I like”

"but it is implied that is a girl, otherwise It would give the option of "there is a boy that I like"" be patient my little friend, let me explain you:

I started to investigate deeply the kanjis, conjugations and things like that, after a while I learned what I am going to tell you and now I understand why it is simplified to the feminine gender

The translation of ぃ僕好きな子がぃるんだ depends on the context and the tone of the phrase. In general, it can be translated as “there’s a girl I like” or “there’s someone I like”, but it can also have other meanings

According to the DeepL dictionary, “ 僕”is an informal and affectionate way of saying “I” or “me”, which is mainly used by young men. 好きな子 means “child/person I like”, and does not specify the gender of the person.

ぃるんだ is a colloquial way of saying “there is” or “there are”, which expresses emphasis or confession.

Therefore, the phrase could express the feeling of a boy who likes a girl, or a girl who likes a boy, or a person who likes another person regardless of gender

So, in the translation (anime dub and sub) it refers to a girl bc the "僕" (mostly used by young men,who teru is ) and the 好きな子 which refers to liking someone, it can be assumed that it refers to a girl because of the assumed heterosexuality, you know lol

it is never confirmed that “them” is a GIRL, the gender is never mentioned, so there are chances that the person he likes is not a girl. Obviously them could be one, I don't deny it, but it also doesn't rule out the possibility that Teru being queer.

Conclusion: the manga in English is well translated but not the anime, the person Teru likes can be either a boy or a girl. End of explication.

And if you're wondering, could I find the answer to the initial question? Well no, but it reduces the options for Aoi to be who he likes, since it doesn't boil down to her just being a girl, which leaves other options.

But then who could be the person Teru likes? Well, I don't know, but I could make a thread theorizing about it.

*cought* *cought* 𝒶𝓀𝒶𝓃𝑒 *cought* *cought*

#teru minamoto #tbhk #tbhk teru #terukane #minamoto teru #toilet bound hanako kun #jibaku shounen hanako kun #tbhk analysis

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thechekhov · 4 months

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Since you've covered a pretty big bit of the manga so far, can I ask what are your opinions on it? Deeper than just the quick reactions you've shared with us so far.

What are your opinions about the manga's characters? Its pacing? The mystery element? The magic system? What areas do you think it succeeds, and what areas do you think could be better?

I understand if you're reversing judgment until you finish, but you've also read quite a bit of the story so far. Idk, I'm just curious!

Especially seeing as you're a writer yourself, so I imagine you have a different perspective on how the story functions as, well, a story!

Oh, hmmm... that's an interesting question.

As of right now I'm on chapter 35-36 so I'm about a third through the story. The first major arc (find dragon, yoink falin out of its body, etc) has kinda happened, and we're hitting some larger world arcs.

As you mentioned, I DO want to withold judgement but for now... But I will say what I think thus far, with full awareness that my mind might be changed later depending on circumstances.

Comment 1: The manga is finished! Actually, just knowing that makes me feel like it's a more cohesive storyline.

Maybe I'm boring, but I'm not a huge fan of neverending storylines in general. Naruto, Bleach, etc. They have their place in the forever-young-monster-of-the-week genre, and I know why so many manga just keep... on... publishing....... but I feel like there's a lot of merit to being able to just wrap up a story and say 'there, that's how it ends'.

Comment 2: Laios is very well developed, even at this point of the story. Senshi remains a mystery. Marcille... speedran her arc?

I think this is the closest thing I have to a criticism. While I think Laios' character is well-paced in its revelations throughout the series (the slow ramp-up from 'oh this guy is weird' to 'oh, this guy is a freak club card carrying member' to 'oh, this guy is the freak club president' was great!) Marcille is.... a little more of a mystery to me.

Now, perhaps my memory is bad. But I did find her turnaround at the end of the Red Dragon arc a bit... out of the blue?

Don't get me wrong. I think it's entirely believable. But I wish there had been more hints - or rather, more visible progress of her studies of ancient magic. I know it's been mentioned, and there WAS that chapter of her and Falin during their school years... but watching episode 2 of the show on netflix when she goes 'I feel useless, my magic doesn't help anyone :(' and then reading the manga and seeing her straight up go from 0 to 100 as she decides "we're gonna rearrange falin's bones and then I'mma raise her using this ancient technique I've been studying all along that I didn't tell you about because it was sus" is... a little bit of a turn?

Maybe it's on purpose! Maybe, when I read further about her personal journey, the pieces will fall into place more neatly. But compared to the rest of the characters, which seem relatively steady in their reveals (Laios, Chillchuck, Senshi) Marcille took a bit of a turn.

Which, again, isn't bad! It just seems contrasted to the rest of the team.

Comment 3: The magic system is more like a magic ecology.

Actually, in the beginning, I found the magic system Marcille used very vague. It was just a 'do what needs to be done' type of power with very few apparent limits or power balances aside from 'sometimes you run out of mana'. But I think at this point, I'm beginning to assume that the details of the magic are closer to the functions of an ecosystem or an organism, and therefore WHAT the magic does is kind of moot point. Marcille is just a little bacteria inside of the great intestine labyrinth of the dungeon, and she is using its energy to survive, like a sort of microfauna.

Comment 4: Man, the worldbuilding is cool. It's so cool.

I don't think I've seen another story that goes so deeply into dungeon ecosystems before this one. Not only are the people who live there fleshed out in terms of individual cultures and traditions and norms, there are also monsters that serve as a natural fauna that inhabits the halls of what OUGHT to be a mindless 'turn left and fall into a trap' setting!

There's sticking monsters into your world, and then there's 'digging out a trench 1 meter deep, pre-soaking the soil, inserting monster's roots lovingly into the spot, and then covering it with fertilizer and spritzing the leaves'. I don't doubt that there ARE other works that go into this level of detail, but the dedication and the ideas Kui-san has for this very much makes the dungeon a living part of this entire tale. :)

I'll probably have more to say later but for now.. that's about it!

#chekhov answers #dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #chekhov reads dungeon meshi

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thankskenpenders · 8 months

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And now for something new

So, here's something I was never planning on doing, but I just couldn't shake the idea... Thanks Ken Penders is gaining a sister blog featuring an entirely different comic franchise!

Introducing... Thanks Steve Ditko, a blog where I read the Earth-616 Spider-Man comics, starting all the way back in the '60s! It's gonna be much more casual and less thorough than how I run things here on TKP, though, which I'll explain in a sec.

If seeing me post weird bits from old Spider-Man comics sounds fun and you need no further info, then just head right on over to Thanks Steve Ditko. But for longtime TKP readers, I know you probably have questions...

Number one: Why?

Spider-Man's always been my favorite superhero, and with the Spider-Verse movies kicking ass and my excitement building for the new Insomniac game, I've been in a Spidey mood. Inevitably, a thought occurred to me: Maybe I should actually read the comics that everything else is built off of and see the wildly varying contributions of all the original creators, rather than filtering them through big budget adaptations. If I can power through One Piece and all these other manga with hundreds of chapters, it can't be that hard... right?

And, well, after a few issues I quickly realized that my options were to either clog up my other accounts with random Spider-Man panels for years, or to just make a side blog. And so the side blog was born.

Two: Will this blog replace Thanks Ken Penders?

NO!!!!!!!!!

Okay but prove it

To allow the two to exist side-by-side, Thanks Steve Ditko will have a different format than what Thanks Ken Penders developed. Rather than an in-depth guided tour that critically analyzes every story beat of every issue, TSD will just be a place for amusing panels and brief thoughts as I casually read the comics at my own pace.

If you've seen me make a few tweets about reading Spider-Man recently, I'm basically just moving that to a dedicated Tumblr. It's a place for me to dump these things so that it doesn't fill up my media tab on Twitter for the next decade. (You know, assuming Twitter is still around in a decade.) There will be many issues where I only post two panels that I thought were funny. There will be issues where I don't have anything to say at all. Maybe I'll reach a run that I just cannot get into, and I start skipping around more. Who knows!

This may sound similar to what I thought this blog would be before it blew up. Aside from the simple fact that there's already mountains of Spider-Man commentary out there and therefore less of a void for me to fill, one of the main steps I'll be taking to avoid repeating the past is not enabling an ask box on TSD. I do not need people to ask me to go into ten times more detail on everything. I do not need to write seven essay-length responses to questions about Spider-Man minutiae every day. I do not need a place for people to chide me for not covering certain scenes, issues, or ancillary series.

It also won't have any kind of update schedule. I'm trying to keep it very casual. I'm reading these comics at my own pace, and if I feel like sharing a moment or commenting on something while doing so? It goes there. That's it.

(On the subject of format changes, I'm also listing the issue, writer, and penciller in the body of every post. This is a thing I wish I'd done on TKP so that people didn't misattribute every weird Archie Sonic panel I post to Penders.)

Three: So when will TKP come back from hiatus? You said it'd come back after you finished SLARPG!

I don't know! Sorry. I have a couple things on the backburner right now for TKP, but I'm not sure when I'll get back to proper updates where I read more comics.

I wanted to bring TKP back this year, and that's still possible. The main hurdle is that I want to reread my own archive (again) as a refresher, which is, uh. A lot of posts. I've developed a high standard for myself on here, and I feel like I wouldn't be doing my job right if I forgot half the ongoing subplots and character arcs and didn't bring them up in my analysis. Especially when I'm discussing the work of an author as obsessed with continuity as Ian Flynn. Unfortunately, the nature of this blog means that every time I go on another long hiatus for Life Reasons I have even more comic continuity to catch up on than last time.

(This is a big part of why I'm making Thanks Steve Ditko an extremely casual blog instead of promising to become a Lore Expert on 60+ years of Marvel.)

Mostly I've just been very burnt out this year after having finally finished a video game that took almost eight years to make. I haven't really had the energy for any creative projects, including TKP. But I feel a little bit of a spark here with Spider-Man, so I'm chasing that feeling to try to get back into the swing of blogging about comics - no pun intended.

So, basically, bear with me on this as I start this low-energy side project. But hopefully folks will enjoy Thanks Steve Ditko as its own thing, too.

Look forward to goofy shit like this

#tkp post

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demonslayedher · 6 months

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Just thinking about how Chachamaru is a male calico, at least according the Taisho Secret right before chapter 195 that calls him manly. It really doesn't surprise me that he's male, because so many references to calicos I've seen in manga, mascots, and temple architecture specify that the featured calico is male.

This is because they are rare, and therefore considered lucky.

The figure that gets thrown around the internet is that supposedly only 1 in every 3000 calicos is male. (I'll bet the people who did the often quoted study at U. of Minn. College of Vet Med would love to tell you how it's more complicated than that.) This has long made male calicos popular not only in Japan, but in other countries as well. The thing is, though, the male calico might not always be so lucky.

To be very brief about why calicos (and some other multicolored cats) are almost always female, this is because, put very simply, one X chromosome gives us the black splotches, and one X chromosome gives us the orange splotches. That might leave you wondering where the white patches come from, and this is the part where I say that genetics is never simple and you should have fun reading about it. The important takeaway here is that in order to show this color pattern, a cat needs two X chromosomes, one from its mother and one from its father.

Typically, a male cat has an X chromosome (from its female mother, who only has two X chromosomes) and a Y chromosome (from its father, who had both an X and a Y), but because the calico coating can only occur with two X chromosomes, this male cat somehow got an X, a Y, and... hmm, another X somewhere.

So not a typical XY male, not a typical XX calico... this sterile XXY male calico has an extra chromosome, and mutations often are not ideal for the health of the animal with the extra chromosome. This particular condition is Klinefelter’s Syndrome, which can lead to a male calico having cognitive and behavior issues, weaker bones, increased risk of diabetes due to higher body fat, and perhaps a shorter lifespan.

Now, none of the fictitious lucky cats I've seen have ever been portrayed as anything less than smart and pleasant, though a lot of the maneki-neko are pretty round. For everything Chachamaru is tasked with, I have to assume he's above-average when it comes to intelligence, reasonably healthy enough to handle long-distance travel, and for a cat, he's extremely, extremely cooperative. For the record, the same Taisho Secret (as well as Yushiro's statement in Chapter 194) makes it clear that for most of canon Chachamaru was a regular cat, for he was not made into a demon until right before the final showdown with Muzan. Even with her hands full making the medicine for Muzan, she still put a lot of effort into changing Chachamaru so that Yushiro wouldn't be lonely. It's ironic that Chachamaru winds up immortal, rather than doomed to a potentially shorter lifespan due to his mark...ings. In the first place, was Tamayo perhaps moved with pity for a sickly kitten and nursed him to the health he's in now?

Or did she always keep her eye out for a male calico, wanting to put some faith in them being good luck?

Also, what sticks out to me in this Taisho Secret is that Chachamaru, not having a language in which he could communicate with Tamayo, had no choice in becoming a demon. Tamayo felt sorry about that. The word bubble over manly little Chachamaru says, with bravado, "Fine by me, if that's what the woman I'm smitten with wishes." If Chachamaru truly is that smitten with her, that perhaps accounts for what an unusually cooperative cat he is. But it also reminds me of a fan theory that I saw once (and found worthy of weight) which said that perhaps Tamayo's blood technique has an effect like makes others smitten with her, and Yushiro might had been under its influence, however strongly or subtly. If such a thing were the case, it might or might not had been something Tamayo was conscious of. If she was conscious of having some effect like that, she probably felt awful about it but found it a necessary precaution to keep any demon she made under control. If she wasn't conscious of such a thing, that means she might had subconsciously developed it out of loneliness, and had been trying to keep company at her side.

#kny fandom theories and meta #kny nerdery #chachamaru #tamayo

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 5 months

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When the twisted wonderland anime comes out what are the things you hope they do better then what they could do in the game?

To quickly clarify a few things (so new readers and anyone stumbling across this post doesn't get the wrong idea): firstly, we do not yet have any confirmation on what the Twisted Wonderland anime will be about. Secondly, I have previously expressed that I would prefer the TWST anime to be random slice of life rather than another main story adaptation. If we assume that the anime will be another adaptation of the main story, I don't think the anime staff has a ton of liberty in the alterations they can make to the source material. Book 2 is widely known to be the greatest example of Bad Writing in TWST, and it cannot exactly be swept under the rug since it's in the main story. I doubt anyone would be allowed to make massive rewrites to the script or to the series of events; the biggest changes we get are slightly compacted scenes in the manga and the light novel. For example:

Skipping lines that appear in the game. (Ex: in the Book of Heartslabyul, Ace does not joke about sharing a room with Yuuken.)

Combining scenes to save on time. (Ex: In the light novel, Yuuya and Deuce meet Leona for the first time not in the Botanical Garden, which is the case in the game. Instead, the mob student that broke the eggs meant for Ace's apology chestnut tart is a Savanaclaw kid that Leona shows up to reprimand.)

Adding slight details to fill in logical gaps. (Ex: Yuuya in the light novel is granted a NRC uniform by Crowley; the uniform is described to us, the readers. Yuu getting a uniform is never mentioned in the game.)

Continuing from the last point, new details can also serve to flesh out character motivations, backstories, and lore. (Ex: the Heartslabyul light novel informs us that Riddle faces social repercussions for his OB and almost got expelled from school; the Savanaclaw light novel sheds new light on Leona's motivations, and the same can be said of Riddle.)

So basically, the story (again, if the anime does end up following the plot of the main story) would be the same. What would make the anime different from the manga, game, and light novel is largely the medium in which it is presented. I have talked about this at length in a number of older posts, but here is one example of how the manga, uses visual storytelling (as it is primarily a visual medium). A manga chapter is usually limited in length due to it being physically printed and shared in a magazine alongside other manga; there is therefore a constraint on how long-winded it can be, and its limited pages must be used effectively. We need to think about the strengths and the weaknesses of each individual medium and how those strengths and weaknesses affect how it might slightly change how TWST I presented.

An anime is able to incorporate animation with sound in a 20ish minute time slot to tell a tale. It gets the same benefits of the game, but far more freedom of movement. There is, however, also a time constraint to be considered. One complaint TWST often gets is that despite half of its core gameplay (I'm not going to count reading as gameplay) being rhythm games, the music the game has is NOT memorable. While the anime most likely won't have a ton of original songs, I hope that it can at least creatively incorporate some of TWST's scores as background tracks to fun scenes and make them more enjoyable that way. The anime will also be able to... well, be animated!! We won't get just a static screen where a maximum of three characters are crammed onto the screen at once staring back at you. It's okay to have in the game to save on time and budget, but you have to admit it does get boring to look at after a while. But with an anime production, we can get exciting lighting and camera angles that result in cool animation! I hope that this will really help the TWST characters' stories come to life on the screen ^^ One scene in particular that I hope the anime will adapt well is the VDC/SDC performances of RSA and NRC. The game tells us that RSA's performance is clumsy and amateurish, but it still managed to capture people's hearts. The game also tells us that NRC was not able to perform at their maximum capacity because they were already physically worn down from dealing with OB Vil. I want to see these descriptions actually be realized on screen (the Rhythmic/Twistune alone isn't enough), as it could help us better judge and have an enhanced understanding of the situation. I know a lot of fans who, to this very day, still feel that NRC was cheated of the win and shouldn't have lost to such a lackluster performance from RSA, so I'm hoping that a fully animated version might give us more perspective.

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anqelically · 10 months

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ranpo + dialogue prompt 5 pretty please? i want to suffer and have my heart crushed by you pls <3

losing game | ranpo edogawa x gn!reader

word count: 1.2k

content: no manga spoilers, angst

navi | bsd masterlist | event (closed)

you knew people always yearn for something that isn’t good for them. you’ve witnessed it before your very eyes. over and over, you watched as they chased after the momentarily satisfying moments, even if the effects would hurt. you weren’t immune to taking such actions, though you wished you were.

your feelings burdened your shoulders, so heavily that you only wished for them to wash away. to love someone is a double-edged sword, and it pierced your heart painfully so.

the armed detective agency was an organization of ability users that dealt with, for the most part, other ability users. an unsolved mystery that was keeping the nation on its toes is what led you to be partnered up with ranpo. despite his hesitance to work with you, you managed to prove yourself useful.

when ranpo wasn’t busy with other work with agency, you spent almost all your time together. you’d give him reports and evidence that was newly found, and he’d start to put the pieces of the whole puzzle together.

there were also days when the two of you would go to cafes or bakeries, the large case forgotten in your minds. you think it was those times that caused you to fall for ranpo.

he would act childish and take heavy pride in his “ability”, yet that never stopped your heart from skipping a beat in his presence. his small acts of kindness, such as protecting you from criminals during interrogations or giving you a snack when you were overworking, had always made you sure of the truth.

you love him, and it’s a shame.

the case was eventually solved, therefore ending the working relationship that you and ranpo had formed. the final day would be during a party that celebrated the fact that the infamous case had been solved.

you stood on one of the many balconies of the building while the breeze embraced you in its cool touch. you managed to slip outside without anyone at the celebration stopping you. it was difficult, considering the number of people inside.

you were by yourself outside for a while before another presence joined you. donned in a charming suit, ranpo approached your lone figure. he held a cup of dark brown liquid that you assumed to be soda. ranpo didn’t like to drink liquor.

“what are you doing out here?” you asked.

ranpo took a sip of his soda, “i saw you walk out earlier.”

“just when i thought i could go unnoticed,” you chuckled. “nothing slips past your eyes, huh?”

silence engulfed the two of you like an itchy blanket. you tapped your foot mindlessly as the alcohol you drank flooded your body. ranpo said nothing as you drank, staring at the star-littered sky. on the other hand, your body was getting hot despite the cool weather.

you decided to speak up, “hey, ranpo?”

“yeah?” he hummed.

“after this… do you think we’ll ever get to work together again?”

you didn’t dare look at ranpo after you asked that. you could feel his gaze wander to your figure, but your eyes remained on the scenery beneath the balcony. the large garden kept your eyes fancied as you waited for a response.

“the chances are low.” your heart sunk at the harsh truth that escaped ranpo’s lips. “a case like this to work on comes very rarely. not only that, but your base of operations isn’t even in yokohama. your normally stationed hours away, so working together was unforeseen in the first place. the odds that we’d land a large-scale case like this again obviously seems almost impossible.”

every word ranpo spoke— you already knew it. you were aware that you’d probably never see him again unless the two of you take the time out of your schedules to.

once you leave yokohama and get back to your normal work, you’re sure you’ll be busy like you always were. ranpo would probably be in the same state, considering that his incredible deduction skills were needed all over the country.

your head began to pound, so you took in a deep breath and exhaled through your mouth. your fingers curled around the balcony’s railing as you gathered all the courage you had so you could face him properly.

“i have something to confess,” you faced ranpo bravely, “and i know you probably will, but i want you to be completely honest with me. please, no tricky words or phrases, or telling me code i have to decipher. i… i want to hear exactly what you have to say.”

ranpo merely hummed at your words, urging you to continue. you swallowed the saliva building in your throat before you stared him in the eyes. tension suspended in the air as ranpo waited for you to speak. but as your eyes remained on his, you couldn’t speak your truth.

your lips opened and shut as you tried to spill the truth, but all the courage you had built up dissipated. you were going to lower your head in shame until ranpo made the first move. he stepped towards you and lifted his arm. in a second, your eyes were covered by his hand.

“if you can’t look at me, then don’t.”

your heart swelled at his gesture. ranpo’s free hand held your shoulder, his body close to yours. it was odd, really. the one that caused you to be nervous was also the reason you were able to calm down.

“ranpo, i… i love you.”

a weight had been lifted off of your shoulders when you confessed to him. though he didn’t respond yet, you knew the relief was short-lived. you were afraid of what was going to come next.

“y/n… i can’t return those feelings.” and there it was. “you’re a good colleague, a good friend, but that’s all you are to me.”

“yeah,” you took the hand that covered your eyes and slowly dropped it to your sides, “i guessed so. i don’t think you would fall for someone like me in such time.”

defeat was etched into your features. you expected it, of course you did, but hearing the words hurt deeper than you thought. you turned your head away from him. you swallowed back any incoming tears you felt coming your way.

“ah, well i hope you at least know that spending time with you made me happy.”

you sent him another glance before you attempted to rush away. you were going to go back inside to the party of people if it weren’t for ranpo’s hand catching your arm.

“you have something else to say.”

“no i don’t,” you denied.

his grip loosened, “you do.”

“i…” your lips parted as you couldn’t help but admit, “ it’s just… it’s twisted in a way. i never stood a chance the moment i realized i fell for you. i know that now, i do. your confident smile, your boisterous laugh— i love it. i love you, ranpo, and that’s why this is a losing game. you can’t return the love i have for you, and i can’t ask you to.”

ranpo watched as your eyes began to glisten beneath the moonlight. and when those tears finally began to spill, you were quick to wipe them away. it was stupid, you thought. you didn’t want to cry in front of him, yet your tears kept coming.

as you cried, ranpo gently pushed your head to his chest. you gripped the ends of his suit jacket as you quietly sobbed, pushing your head further into his clothing.

people always yearn for something that isn’t good for them. and for you, it was a love that could never be returned in full.

note: COLEE!! thank you sm for the request <33 i hope this had crushed your heart in some sorta way :o (i actually think this angst isn’t really that heavy but yeah..) and hopefully ppl were tagged in this, on my end my tags are being weird

reblogs are appreciated + join my taglist !

@seisitive @enomane @er0ses @spenzitz @wineaddict2904 @aeshiiteiru @chuuyrr @ashthemadwriter @sanjis-fav-w1fe @bejeweledgirl @ma3mae @piichuu @dreamlessimp @4nthonyyliving

#୨୧ [ writing ]#bsd x reader #bungou stray dogs x reader #bungo stray dogs x reader #ranpo x reader #ranpo edogawa x reader #bsd #bungou stray dogs #bsd angst #bsd imagines #bungou stray dogs angst

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historia-jaeger · 6 months

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Avoid the obvious. - The Jeankasa discussion

I'm basing my contribution on this article here because it picks up on the theories I've already heard and has a few new ones up its sleeve. ~*~ The first big discussion sparked this picture:

Mikasa is seen visiting Eren's grave, with a man and child with her. Judging by his clothes and hairstyle, one could assume that this man is Jean. The Child is adoptet-Theory: The first thing that comes to mind when I see Mikasa with a man and children is: She is married and has children. But there are also people who actually believe that Mikasa got the baby from Historia's orphanage... I can't really refute it. So I'll leave it like that.

This scene has now been animated in a fairly small format. But you can see the color of the hair and the color of the suit. Here, too, it is easy to conclude that it is Jean.

The Man is to tall to be Jean-Theory: Based on the second scene, in which the man runs across the hills with Mikasa, he is estimated to be a little taller than Jean. You can see from the grave scene in the manga, that the man is exactly Jean's size. Especially because the man appears taller in one scene, because the landscape is sloping and he is therefore walking on a higher level like Mikasa and therefore appears a bit taller.

Source There are two different versions of the scene where Mikasa lies in the grave. In the manga, she lies in a bed as lilies. she has her hands folded in front of her chest. In the anime, Mikasa wears a ring on her ring finger and her grave is made of roses. These same roses are also on her chest. The flower-theory: The flower theory includes two versions. The one with the white lily and the one with the four roses. According to the "White Lily Theory", these symbolize Mikasas purity. Says that she hasn't slept with any other man and will remain loyal to Eren until death. Qoute: They are chosen for both weddings and funerals and symbolize the renewal of the soul. They can represent purity, commitment and rebirth, so they are often used to express compassion. - Source To make it short. Lilies are grave flowers. That´s why they´re put in Mikasa's grave and not to highlight her chastity.

Four roses means "Nothing will come between us", so Mikasa will love no one exept Eren. Okay. Is this is the right meaning, as I found out myself. Source But I see one or two Roses und two other Blooms on this Grave...

Source

Besides, you never know what colors the roses were. This is also important to know. Therefore I would rule out this theory. The ring of purity-theory: Mikasa wears a ring on her ring finger that looks like a wedding ring. But opponents of Jeankasa claim it would is a chastity ring. Unfortunately, that can't work, because Attack on Titan obviously takes place in Germany. The last date I could record was the year 850. Source

The “True Love Waits” movement, which also included the chastity ring, only became active in Germany in the 21st century. So in our current era. Source

The pioneer of the chastity ring was the chastity belt: There is no clear evidence that the chastity belt was already known in the Middle Ages. It is believed to be a myth that was invented and spread in the Baroque period to paint the picture of the “Dark Ages”. Other stories say that the chastity belt was invented by the Doges of Venice in order to effectively collect tax debts from prostitutes. Source

So it's pretty unlikely that Mikasa wears a chastity ring. In that case it would probably be a wedding ring. The Hairstyle-Theory: It is often said that you can't even know that it is Jean, because many people have that hairstyle. For example, Armin, who is often portrayed as Mikasa's grief companion. To underline this, antis often use such images:

Source In one picture Armin's hair is flying back and in the other picture Armin has actually pinned his hair back. But let's be honest, folks. When you have two people to choose from. Jean and Armin. Who will you choose then? Someone who has this hairstyle naturally or someone who doesn't usually have this hairstyle except in a picture?

Especially because Armin must have had a really big growth spurt to be Jean's size. But fine. Let's play a round of "Choose the Color":

All in all, it also depends a little on the exposure. But which hair color is closer to that of the man at the grave? Armin's or Jean's? The man's hair color is ash blonde. A color that not everyone in Attack on Titan has either. So... It can't be Armin but obiously Jean. ~*~ Other arguments: Jean whould never betray Eren with marrieng Mikasa: Did Jean make such a vow? - No. And I don't need to cite any evidence that Jean was definitely in love with Mikasa. Mikasa only rejected him, because she was in love with Eren and he accepted that too. But Eren is dead. Why shouldn't he be allowed to marry Mikasa? In the AOT-Guidebook it´s stated that Mikasa's martial status is single: When is the book from and how old was Mikasa? Prove please. Mikasa loves Eren because of what is written on Eren's grave, her scarf, because she let herself be buried next to Eren, and so further: I don't understand this concept of "just one or the other". Just because Mikasa loves Jean and has a family with him doesn't mean she has to give up her feelings for Eren. She is still allowed to mourn him, think about him and talk about him with others? I don't understand how things like this are always taken as evidence of "Mikasa only loves Ereh." And Mikasa can be happy without Jean, but she can also be happy with Jean. So why does the obvious always have to be downplayed? WHY Mikasa has to be with no one exept EREN? Her hidden Bandages: Why should the bandages be evidence that Mikasa didn't pass the symbol on them to her children? Maybe she doesn't want to present the symbol to everyone. Maybe she doesn't want to pass it on to her children? Maybe she had already passed it on to her "adopted" children and still covered her arms? How do you know that those in the picture are even bandages?

~*~ It makes sense that Mikasa is married to Jean and has children. Family has always been very important to Mikasa. Especially because she lost her family twice. It was only thanks to Eren that she threw herself into the fight against the Titans. As you could tell from her dream with Eren, she preferred a simple life to fighting. She cut her hair, because Eren wanted it that way. It was supposed to protect her from the Titans. Jean, on the other hand, found this so beautiful about her. Anyone who wasn't struck with blindness could clearly see that Jean was in love with Mikasa and knew that his feelings were not reciprocated. But this certainly changed after Eren's death. Jean also dreamed of having a family with Mikasa and the child in Mikasa's arms looks a lot like a baby.

It is quite logical to conclude from this dream that there is a real wedding. Why would Isayama bother to draw a family when it really isn't a family? Then he could have easily drawn Mikasa alone at Eren's grave. But he didn't. Mikasa is married and the first candidate for a husband would be Jean. Not Armin, not Farmer-Kun or some random guy. JEAN. ~*~ Thanks for reading.

#JeanKasa #aot last episode #aot last chapter #jean kirschstein #mikasa ackerman #jean x mikasa #attack on titan 139

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kujakumai · 2 months

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Which three characters would cause the most Drama™ imaginable if locked in a room together for an indefinite period of time, No Exit style?

okay okay okay let's do this systematically

Marik, because he's a drama king and more specifically because if we are literally locked in a room then that's going to hit too close to bad-childhood home that it immediately ratchets the tension up several degrees and he'll be even more likely to cause an incident out of sheer stress. So.

Next up for combination purposes we need someone also likely to start drama but most importantly whoever will have the least patience and sympathy for Marik. Someone who will react to his heightened stress level by rolling their eyes and being a dick about it such that it will definitely start shit. This is of course Seto Kaiba.

This one is sort of freebie because it can be anyone else who tends towards drama who will not play peacemaker between the other two. I think Pegasus is a good candidate here because he would egg them on for his entertainment and also kind of be irritable himself assuming the locked room does not contain wine spritzers. An early-manga Joey could also work if we want to escalate things to actual violence. Dartz is on crazy makes-you-evil magic and will therefore also egg on the other two while his nonsensical philosophy drives Kaiba insane.

I hope this answers your query effectively.

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makshu · 2 months

Text

Ok. There's something going on and I need to talk about it.

We've all seen that AidaIro is posting new art every day, and on the 18th there will be a new chapter.

But I noticed something, all these arts are about the last arc and are telling the story of it again.

Let me show you

The first one we had was on chapter 111, which shows Yashiro. Everything is normal, but behind her we can see typical theater spotlights, it could just be something mundane or reference her school play rehearsals. Well we started with this.

So we have this art of 12y Tsukasa. Referencing when Yashiro and Mitsuba ended up in the past and found 12y Tsukasa talking to them. He said a rumor about the big clock that further opened the theme of this arc, really an omen for everything.

This art by Sakura is worth mentioning, as she is part of the broadcast gang. She is behind everything, and theories about her being the god or something powerful are increasing more and more. It's worth mentioning that she wished something for Tsukasa, everything he's doing is because of her (because of Amane too, but he has a bond with Sakura). Sakura is an extremely important piece in this puzzle.

Let the fun begin! Next in the series we have Mitsuba and Kou enjoying their time at the festival. Eating and playing together. We were informed, the festival has started.

More moments at the festival. This scene happened in the manga, it is the beginning of the festival that we see. Hanako and Yashiro in the haunted house made by Kou's class. Until that moment everything was normal (or so we thought).

This one is curious. We only see seal Tsukasa in this arc after the plan is initiated. But I believe he was also out there enjoying his last moments. And you can tell that it's really Tsukasa and not the creature. Well, now we're getting close.

Ohhh look what we have here! President and vice-president enjoying the festival as well, despite their work they still managed to find some time to have fun. Natsuhiko had already confronted Akane earlier and Teru had already discovered the black crane, they were probably already alert for anything suspicious. But, everything's still normal.

We return to Sakura, now in her maid outfit. We also have Natsuhiko's first appearance in these arts. This was possibly before or during the festival, but following the chronological line it must have been during. Note that until then this was the only art that did not have a black border (I will talk about this later). Moving on to the next...

From here things started to get serious. The plan had begun. This moment happens in chapter 105. Blood had started to spread throughout the auditorium and Hanako noticed that something was wrong. We are just a few steps away from entering No.1 boundary.

And finally we have today's art. The revelation of the immortal human, Natsuhiko. Breaking the timeline, in this art we go back to chapter 104, where Natsuhiko spreads his blood across the clock, thus executing the plan to go after the last yorishiros.

And these were all the arts released so far, the arts that reference the arc in this case. They all seem to be retelling the story of the Festival arc. Now why? Why would AidaIro be recapping the last arc?

We know that the past has changed and everything has a chance of being different from what we know. We go back to the beginning of the festival, where nothing had happened yet. Therefore, none of these events had happened, if everything really changed, the arts are telling an alternative version of history, the version we know.

Moving from analysis to theory... did you notice that almost all arts have a black border? Black borders are used to indicate flashbacks, the past in JSHK. Now, why would they be using this artifice? Assuming the present has changed, this would be the past. But not a past like something that happened years ago, but a past that no longer exists, in the sense of what it was before this current one. That's why the black borders, indicating that this would be the past.

What breaks this theory is Sakura's art in her maid outfit, as it doesn't have a black border. Maybe the borders are part of the new AidaIro style and are something made to style the arts, or actually have a connection to something. Well, that part is just a crazy theory.

But what do you think of this analysis? The images seem to be telling the arc of the festival all over again, and for what reason? Maybe we'll find out on the 18th, when chapter 112 comes out.

#jshk #tbhk #jibaku shounen hanako kun #toilet bound hanako kun #jshk analysis #jshk theories #hanako kun #yashiro nene #tsukasa yugi #kou minamoto #teru minamoto #mitsuba sousuke #akane aoi #sakura nanamine #hyuuga natsuhiko #long post

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bleachbleachbleach · 2 months

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I wanna know what Ikkaku knows about Urahara:

[Bleach 087]

Like, do they... know each other? The visual suggests that someone in the scene knows Urahara was a captain, and it sure ain't Ichigo. So I feel like we're meant to understand that Ikkaku knows this.

Urahara's name also holds weight in terms of Ichigo's viability as an opponent, which suggests Ikkaku knows Urahara as someone other than some rando criminal, or just as a Mad Scientist type. It's Ichigo's movement that impresses Ikkaku, not his strategic craftiness.

I don't try that hard to keep the Gotei's 20th Century straight in my mind, but we do know that during TBTP Zaraki wasn't 11th Captain yet, and therefore Ikkaku may not have been in the Gotei at that point then, ether. (There's a whole dispersal of 11th backstory filler eps, which I've been assuming aren't in the manga in any form, but who knows, maybe some of this backstory info also holds true here, too. In the anime, Ikkaku and Yumichika follow Zaraki into the Gotei.)

In any case, apparently Ikkaku has a whole Seireitei family (see: TYBW), so maybe they were well-positioned for all the hot TBTP goss regardless of whether Ikkkau was enlisted at the time.

Or does everyone just know who Urahara is? Obviously, he's a poorly kept secret at least as far as his outpost goes; he's made a whole business out of it. But if Rukia knew he'd been a captain she doesn't harp on it.

And if there's something you can count on me for, it is knowledge of random-ass Hitsugaya panels:

[Bleach 237]

Hitsugaya says he doesn't know who Urahara is. Well, he's heard the rumors about Urahara, but says Urahara is someone whose true nature can't be ascertained. He probably does know what Urahara used to be a captain. He's heard that he's formidable, and probably isn't someone to let your guard down around. Which, really, is all the things we know Ikkaku knows about Urahara. Hitsugaya's just not willing to extrapolate further based on rumor alone. Maybe Ikkaku is.

But based on how Urahara's name influences the way Ikkaku chooses to fight Ichigo, I feel like Ikkaku is not operating solely on rumor, either. Someone's battle prowess/skill as a mentor doesn't seem like something he'd accept without firsthand knowledge, even if he's willing to roll with it for other stuff. So I feel like it's perfectly defensible to argue that even if Ikkaku wasn't actually in the Gotei while Urahara was in the picture, he still had an ~encounter (and probably not while Urahara was in his Innocent Shopkeeper era).

Maybe Ikkaku ran into Urahara in the woods when Urahara was off making an impression on Kuukaku [1][2]. Or Ikkaku's Seireitei family sic'd the Onmitsukidou on him while he was off playing hooky in Rukongai! Tons of fun possibilities!

Of course, this raises the time-honored question of what, if anything, anyone in the current Gotei knows about TBTP. Because it really seems like they know nothing, and didn't even know there was something to not know. But for a lot of them that might be an effect of their willingness to pretend they know nothing? So I feel like you could go in a lot of directions with that. Not to have blorbo disease again, but Hitsugaya seemed like he was learning Vizard Lore in real-time during the Winter War, so apparently it's not like, part of some kind of Area 51 folder you gain access to when you become a captain lol. YOU HAD TO BE THERE. (BUT ALSO SOMETIMES NOT EVEN THEN)

#i just think it's wild we get this urahara info from ikkaku #who is self-professed about not caring about rukia or being involved with any of this shit in any way #it's fun to think about how characters who really have no connection or interaction in canon relate to each other #i mean ikkaku is off-panel for that hitsugaya rumination; he is technically there #but we don't *see* anything between him and urahara #now i'm curious about it!#madarame ikkaku #urahara kisuke #bleach headcanons #bleach reread 2021 #bleach manga #bleach カラー #no brain just bleach #and that's the end of vol. 10!

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fyodcrs · 6 months

Text

BSD 111.5: A Complaint (again)

All right. So.

I have criticized the S5 finale extensively, and now that the manga is following the same storyline almost exactly, I feel I want to air my grievances one last time, because it's just so bad. At least in my humble yet correct opinion (to quote Fyodor from the BSD dub). And it only gets worse the more I think about it.

The writing here is...not good. I’m talking about the big “Chuuya was never a vampire to begin with” reveal, the retconned hand injury and what absolute contrived nonsense that is - and most of all, I’m talking about Dazai’s speech about why he “won” the "game," and how it makes no actual sense because what he says happened is not what actually happened.

All of this is stuff I've talked about in other posts (I'll be repeating myself a lot here), but I really want to focus on Dazai's speech and why I just. Don't like it.

"You don't trust anything you can't control," Dazai tells Fyodor.

This is supposed to be the reason Dazai "wins": because he trusts people, and Fyodor does not. He relies on others he considers friends; Fyodor just uses others that he considers pawns.

And this is fine in theory. Indeed, it's been heavily foreshadowed. Personally, I think "Dazai wins because he has friends, Fyodor loses because he doesn't" is a super boring way to go with both Fyodor's character and with the conflict between him and Dazai, but whatever, we all knew something like this would be the reason for the ADA's victory over the DOA. Theoretically, it makes sense.

Except, it doesn't actually work the way they did it. It doesn't work because Fyodor's plan apparently hinges on the vampires, and Fyodor does not actually have control over the vampires.

In fact, Fyodor does not have direct control over any aspect of the Decay of Angels plot.

Fukuchi does.

First of all, the Decay of Angels plot doesn't begin until after Fyodor is already in prison. Fyodor is not the one who writes on the Page, and Fyodor is not the one in possession of the Page. Fyodor is also not the one who is in possession of Bram. All of this falls to Fukuchi.

Now, there is one interesting scene where Fyodor tells Dazai that he "added a line to the page":

But - unless I have my timeline mixed up - since the Page was not stolen and used until after Fyodor was sent to prison, this only suggests he told Fukuchi what to write. There is still no point where he actually had possession of the Page himself.

Fyodor is the one who set up the entire plot and arranged for all the pieces to be in place, but once it actually starts to unfold, he is no longer in a position to directly manipulate his pawns, because he's locked up underground thousands of miles away.

Of course, this does not mean he has been removed from play entirely; he is still communicating with the outside, and he is still able to manipulate the course of events to some extent, as we see when he (somehow; it's never explained) killed the pilots so Fukuchi could get his hands on the One Order:

But how is this any different from what Dazai is doing? Dazai lets himself be captured and locked away, too, to keep an eye on Fyodor and read his moves as things unfold on the outside. He is also in communication with his allies, and he is also able to do some string-pulling, as we see when he stops Fyodor's assassination attempt on Fitzgerald and the neutralization of the Eyes of God:

Basically, both Fyodor and Dazai have the same level of control over what is happening.

Dazai being superior to Fyodor because he "simply had faith" in Ranpo (and the rest of the ADA) implies that Fyodor did not have faith in Fukuchi. But that implies that Fyodor had some means of direct control over Fukuchi throughout the unfolding of the DOA plan and therefore did not have to leave anything solely in Fukuchi's hands. Or it implies that Fyodor had a plan independent of Fukuchi. Except he didn't. On both accounts. At least not that we know of.

In fact, in the anime (which I assume will be repeated in the manga in later chapters), Fukuchi says that Fyodor didn't have any direct control. Fukuchi tells Fukuzawa that he had Fyodor sent to prison for the purpose of preventing him from interfering in Fukuchi's actual plan. And Fyodor agreed to this. He got himself arrested on purpose. The reason he does this is suggested to be that the prison is essentially the safest hideout in the world. Except Fukuchi tells us that this action also severely hindered - though not outright neutralized - Fyodor's ability to influence events.

And I'm not trying to downplay Fyodor as the spider at the center of a complex web of manipulation, not at all. I'm simply pointing out that: a) Dazai is exactly the same, and is countering Fyodor move-for-move, and b) the plan still heavily relies on Fukuchi's independent actions.

As I mentioned, the DOA plot doesn't begin until after Fyodor is arrested and sent to Meursault. Fyodor was using vampires planted as guards as his means of communication (which doesn't even make sense itself, because when exactly would this have happened? When does Fyodor communicate with these vamps? Why did Dazai not notice this?), but Fyodor himself is not controlling those guards, Fukuchi is. Because Fukuchi is the one in control of Bram, and the vampires can only be controlled through Bram. It is certainly conceivable that Fyodor might have had these guards planted before his arrest, but the vampires are only usable as pawns as long as Fukuchi has control of Bram, or at least as long as Bram isn't in control of himself.

Using Chuuya as a pawn also requires Fukuchi to be in control of Bram. Therefore, Fyodor's entire escape plan relies on Fukuchi.

Fyodor literally cannot do anything with the vampires without Fukuchi. And if his entire plan rested on the vampires, that means his entire plan rested on Fukuchi.

In other words, Fyodor's entire plan rests on him having faith in Fukuchi.

It doesn't matter that Fyodor and Fukuchi are not "friends"; it doesn't matter that Fyodor thinks of Fukuchi as a "pawn" instead of an "ally" (although I should note we've been given no evidence of this, because we have never actually seen them interact and we don't know their relationship; we're just meant to assume this). The point is that Fyodor structured this plan of his to be centered around the actions of someone else. This is no different from Dazai. In fact, this is how the both of them usually operate. They just tend to have different ways of going about manipulating their "pawns"/"allies."

Then there's the "hand full of uncertainties" line:

How, exactly, was Dazai's hand "full of uncertainties" in a way that Fyodor's wasn't? How exactly did Fyodor have "the world in the palm of his hand" in a way that Dazai didn't? How exactly was Fyodor in more control of what was happening than Dazai was? As I've already pointed out, what we've been shown suggests they both had equal measures of influence on the outside, and therefore equal levels of manipulative power and equal amounts of uncertainties.

In fact, if we are to believe that Fyodor was surprised by Nikolai and Sigma, that was a whole hell of a lot of uncertainties being thrown at him. And just like Dazai, he just ran with it.

And the reality is that Dazai actually had a whole hell of a lot less uncertainties than Fyodor did, and a whole hell of a lot more control, because Chuuya was never a vampire to begin with. The moment Chuuya arrived, Dazai had the upper hand. It's not like he was ever in any actual danger from the point Chuuya showed up. He was in full control of the situation from that point on.

And you can say that's the whole point, Dazai was in control because he had an ally, but the point I'm making is that the only control Fyodor thought he had over the situation was also because of an ally that he believed he had. If he believed he was controlling Chuuya, he also had to believe that Fukuchi still had Bram and was still on his side. He was operating on faith in pretty much the exact same way Dazai was.

You can also argue that Chuuya showing up was proof for Fyodor that Fukuchi was still in control of Bram (even though he wasn't by that point) and that things were going according to plan. But I'd counter-argue that if at any point before Fyodor managed to escape Bram had had his will restored, Fyodor would have been fucked (had Chuuya actually been a vampire). The very act of using Chuuya as a pawn was a huge act of faith on Fyodor's part.

It's important to stress here that Fukuchi was not under Fyodor's "control" at any point, at least not so far as we've been shown. He is not brainwashed like Nathaniel. He is also not a throwaway piece. He is vital to the plan. And he has his own motivations. We aren't quite there yet in the manga, but we know from the anime what Fukuchi actually wanted, and we also know from the anime that Fyodor approached Fukuchi and propositioned him. They made a deal. Of course, Fyodor always had his own plan, but he knew what Fukuchi's real motivations were. Even so, he trusted that Fukuchi would carry out the plan as he instructed, at least so far as we've been shown.

The argument can be made that Fyodor doesn’t actually have any trust in Fukuchi, he simply trusts that he knows exactly how Fukuchi will act and that everything will go as he predicted. But how is that any different from Dazai? Ranpo negotiating with Bram and Bram ordering the vampires to attack Fyodor might not have been something Dazai and Ranpo set up beforehand, but it is certainly something Dazai planned for, because he purposefully set Fyodor up to be in a vulnerable position, anticipating that exact scenario. Again, they are both operating in the same exact way: not directly controlling their allies, but assuming that their allies will act as they expect. The only difference is that Fyodor’s “allies” did not meet his expectations and Dazai’s did.

I get that the point of this is supposed to be that Fyodor is undone by his cruel manipulation of others and his ruthless attempts to impose his own order upon the world. And that's fine. It's good, even!

The problem is...that's not what happened. Fyodor lost because he relied on something that was outside of his direct control: the vampires. Fyodor lost because he put too much control in the hands of Fukuchi.

And this in itself is a problem, because Fyodor should not have so heavily relied on Fukuchi. All of this would work for me just fine if everything didn't revolve around the goddamn vampires. You cannot have Fyodor's entire fucking plan hinge on the vampires, over which only Bram and the person who has possession of Bram have any control, and then try and tell me that Fyodor lost because he didn't have faith in people. Why would he use the vampires at all if he had no faith in Fukuchi?? Why would he get into a helicopter with the vampires piloting if he had no faith Fukuchi was still his ally and Bram was still under Fukuchi's control?? Why would he have agreed to go to prison in the first place if he had no trust in Fukuchi????? It doesn't make any sense.

And don’t try to tell me, “Well, Fyodor’s just arrogant.” That is the laziest fucking excuse you could possibly give to justify why Fyodor’s IQ points have been cut in half this arc. And, for the thousandth time I ask—how is this any different from Dazai, who also just assumed everything would go his way? Why is it "faith" when it's Dazai but it's arrogance when it's Fyodor?

Personally, I think BSD made a massive narrative mistake in putting Fyodor and Dazai in Meursault in the first place. It's over-complicated things.

Also, one thing that really bothers me about all this is that it's supposed to be a big character moment for Dazai, but...I don't see how this is any different from how he usually operates. Hell, this ruse Dazai and Chuuya set up is even something that SKK did before when they were a team in the Mafia. We've seen Dazai do this shit a thousand times. What's supposed to be the big deal here? The fact that he made a friendship speech this time?

It's just fallen really flat to me, and that's a bummer because I think Dazai is one of the most well-written and interesting characters I've ever come across, and I want to see great character development for him.

I've complained endlessly about Chuuya being in a Halloween costume the entire time so I'll just say here that it's really fucking dumb that Fyodor just. Didn't notice. That he was fooled by fake fangs and contact lenses. Dazai would have noticed, if their roles were reversed. Ranpo would have noticed. It really is just a case of Fyodor being made stupid out of nowhere so Dazai could win.

The retconned hand injury is also incredibly dumb, because first of all, in the manga it didn't exist until the last two chapters when it needed to exist. And second of all, the hand is clearly shown to be usable after the incident that is supposed to have injured it so severely that Fyodor needs the vampires - who, again, are not under his direct control - to pilot the helicopter so he can escape, and this is true for both the manga and the anime. It conveniently only becomes a problem when Dazai needs it to. Because plot, I guess. Because the universe is chaos unless Dazai is pulling another deus ex machina.

I really hate being so critical and so negative, especially about BSD, because it's been my favorite series for years now. But ever since the S5 finale I've been finding more and more things about this arc and it's conclusion (?) that make no sense to me. And considering that Fyodor and Dazai are my favorite characters and a large part of the reason I'm invested in this story, to see them both so poorly handled has left a very bad taste in my mouth.

In conclusion:

#bsd spoilers #Bungou Stray Dogs #y'all can disagree with me that's okay SDFGHGH #maybe I'm just missing the point idk #I swear though this'll be the last time I complain #I just wanted to talk about Dazai's speech and why I viscerally HATE IT

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purplink8 · 6 months

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Ace Light is so important to me. Like it's not just a headcanon but something more. Here are some instances of ace!Light imo:

When Sayu finds Light with a dirty magazine & he explains that 'no i was just looking at articles of Kira & L' and that makes Sayu go 'oh yeah! you're gonna be a detective in future so being the nerdy brother of mine that you are you're studying for that, too. wow.' LIKE SHE DOESN'T EVEN QUESTION IT FOR A SECOND. She just knows that Light's statement is true at its face value & since she knows him well: therefore I raise you ACE Light.

Then this exchange between Ryuk & Light:

Ryuk makes a reference to finger-banging and Light's response? 'Looks are all that count!' Light is so ace it's cute haha.

Instance #3:

Light looks at p0rno mags and Soichiro is SHOCKED. Now of course it's because he thinks that Light was too upstanding/well-behaved for this sorta thing but I cannot help but wonder... if Light being interested at looking at girls that way, might've seemed a lil too far-fetched to Soichiro. And just how is Light looking at the scantily-clad women? Take a look:

Of course, Light's goal is to pretend that this is why he was checking if anyone entered his room and yet he cannot look more disinterested. It's not convincing that he'd go all through the trouble of ensuring nobody entered his room and look like -_- towards the p0rno mags he had tried so hard to hide. He's in the privacy of his room (yes there are hidden cameras & no Light isn't meant to know about them) and the least he can do in what I remind you that it's a Shonen manga which means that it's targeted towards young male teens so they couldn't show him jerking off or anything is to look like he's interested/attracted to these women but nope.

Light with all his acting skills cannot manage to look interested (let alone sexually interested) in women shown in these mags. So Light is not straight confirmed. Ace Light strikes AGAIN.

This is just an aside:

Ace!Light is done with Ryuk & the ridiculous sexual positions he comes up with for Light & L lol.

Another aside:

"Misa: Hey, Light. Wanna come sleep with me tonight?

Light: Wh-what are you talking about…?

Misa: Ha ha ha! Just kidding! You're saving me for after we catch Kira, right? You don't have to be shy about it!

L: Yes, Light. There's no need to be shy.

Light: I'm not being shy!

L: No need to be so serious either."

Hahaha look at L & Misa bullying our dear ace!Light XD

Instance #4 (sorta):

If we needed more proof of Light not being straight- it's that look on Sachiko's face. She is positively stunned haha.

Instance #5:

Here is Misa hinting at something (presumably romantic/sexual) they'd do under covers and Light just completely dismissing it with a 'whatever'. #ace light

Canon shows us again & again how disinterested Light is in dating women (he does so only for achieving his Kira goals). Canon also hasn't hinted at Light preferring to date men (no offense to those who headcanon Light as gay as I'm one of those people (i hc him as homoromantic asexual)). So it's logical to assume that Light is ace. Yeah yeah I know you don't really need canon basis for your headcanons but as I said before Ace Light is more than just a headcanon to me :D

Oh and Light being an 'ace student' is literally canon ;)

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zaenaris · 6 months

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Thinking about how Tenjiku was extremely painful but important for Koko and Inupi’s development and sub plot.

It was the moment where the worst fears of both of them emerged in very dangerous moment.

Inupi feared that Koko saw him only as Akane’s substitute and Koko feared that Inupi was using him for his own interest - the gang and money, since he’s good at making it - like everyone else, having internalized and accepted it was the only way to make amend for Akane’s death and that it was the only thing he was good at and that people needed him for.

Take into consideration both of them was thinking of saving the other:

when Mucho and Sanzu ambushed them, Koko had no choice in joining Tenjiku to save Inupi -and Takemichi-, (and it's not that just because Kakucho says to Takemichi that Koko "chose to be in Tenjiku himself" , that's how it went: it's obvious Koko was coerced and tried to do the best he could to help Inupi and himself given the situation: he was alone, he couldn't fight the whole Tenjiku alone), while Inupi wanted to be in Toman, under Takemichi’s division, because he saw that Toman is similiar to the original Shin's BLACK DRAGON and because he knew they wouldn’t have been used anymore, Koko in particular since he’s the “money maker”.

But Koko was so used to that life and to not consider his own wishes that he never reconsidered joining Toman, it wasn't the safest option. Koko had no attachment to any gang in particular, he cared about Inupi and his money making activities, therefore as long as Inupi wanted him in a gang, he sticked with him (we saw in the last birthday pic that Wakui draws for Koko, that middle school koko made business with the haitanis before being in the 10th gen BD, he clearly had his own illegal side activities unrelated to gangs-of course being in a gang helped with his business and of course when he was one of the executives of BD, that gave him also power and protection, but Koko always did what he did alone, before being in any gang) ;

but that time Toman was weak, meanwhile Tenjiku, even if it was the opposite of the gang Inupi wanted to belong to, was the safest option and a situation more similar the the 10th generation Black Dragon, where violence and profits were the norm; so Koko negotiated a place for Inupi if he’d joined Tenjiku, thinking it was the safest option.

Meanwhile Inupi was willing to fight to finally be free from that world. I am always so sad that Inupi's trauma is always so overlook and never directly addressed in the manga (undirectly it was, I mean joining a gang it's not a thing that you generally do when everything is fine in your life). Because Inupi

was saved by Koko when he was looking for Akane - and Inupi knows it, that's were the fear of being just a substitute for Akane comes from

sees Koko being desperate about trying to save her and blaming himself when she died anyway

is aware that his parents have financial problems after loosing the house and ofc they're a mess for Akane

some of these facts are in headcanon territory, but how could have Inupi have felt after her death? of course we see him crying and sad, but he's aware he's alive "by chance". How did this conditioned him? did he felt he wasn't supposed to be there? that his parents and koko didn't love him enough and would have preferred her instead of him - canonically we kow Inupi doesn't go home often -ch.157- and so we can assume he has not the best relation ship with his parents, which is understandable after such a tragedy; we know Inupi is grateful that Koko always followed him -ch.142-, which is the same Koko felt about Inupi -ch.252., but was Inupi grateful to be alive at all or he himself would have preferred to die? and his relationship with his late sister? he cries, he grieves, but then what? is there a part of him that sees koko so desperate for akane that, in an irrational moment, would like to be on the receiving end of all koko's attentions? does he get a closure? probably he does, but it's off screen.

At this point of the story, -Tenjiku arc- Inupi understood Koko's behavior, when he tried to talk about the whole situation (in the previous arc,when he asked Koko if he was still thinking about "the promise") and Koko denied, he never insisted because he knew Koko wasn't ready yet. Maybe Inupi, probably for narrative reasons, or maybe because that's how he is as a person, or maybe for some other reason that Wakui didn't explain, somehow manage to arrive to a point of self awareness, but in that moment, it was a complete chaos, and the insecurities and the communication problems that Inupi and Koko always had emerged and couldn't be contained and escalated the way we witnessed.

Even if they had the other’s well being in mind, but all their deepest fears came out in the worst moment and that lead to their break-up.

**spoilers for the end of the arc and their sub plot resolution in the final arc under the cut**

But even after their fight they still wished the best to each other, showing their genuine care even after what happened, because in the end, Koko wanted to be with Inupi, it's his conscience in Akane's form that "frees" him and allows himself to follow his heart and to stay with Inupi forgiving himself for something that wasn't his fault❤️‍🩹

#tokyo revengers #inui seishu #kokonoi hajime #kokonui #inukoko #akane inui #tokyorev meta #zae talks about tr #tokyorev anime spoilers

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