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youryurigoddess · 15 days

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The biggest Easter egg yet

I’ve been meaning to address this for a while now, but @camdenleisurepirates gave me the final push after reading my piece on Gabriel’s cross. Huge thanks for that morsel of motivation, my ADHD brain loves you.

This is going to be yet another long read, although not as extensive as my bookshop statues meta. Still, better get yourself some hot chocolate or another drink of your choice and make sure you’re comfortable!

Now, remember the X-Ray interview with Peter Anderson on Easter Eggs in the opening animation he created for the second season? Forget red herrings, apparently our fandom has a literal red phone box! I’m convinced that this whole scene is a one big — the biggest, actually — Easter Egg, and I’ll explain why step-by-step.

The red phone box Crowley used to warn Aziraphale about the Antichrist and the following Armageddon in S1, the exact one where he left change for an emergency call, seems important enough in terms of the future S3 plot, but there’s so much more going on in this frame. Not only the lift.

The angels

At the very start of this sequence we can see a fragment of an elaborate bridge guarded by cherubs sitting on two columns, maybe globes, leading to a distant structure built over a literal mountain of trash — all elements of the S1 and S2 openings which were consciously picked out by the animators and put together in a very ominous pile.

Ready for some scavenging?

In the Gabriel’s cross meta, I already mentioned the importance of Ponte Sant’Angelo in relation to the ex-Archangel’s statue. Now it’s time to widen our perspective and focus on the full picture — quite literally. Apparently the bridge from the opening sequence has ten statues of angels, exactly as the Italian historical monument.

First things first though: the two big cherubs guarding the entry to the bridge might seem familiar to some of you. While they’re obviously not copies of the same statue, a very similar pair of brass cherubs is placed in Aziraphale’s bookshop to symbolize Aziraphale and Crowley. And looking at the screenshot above and the way they sleep or sulk with their backs turned on each other, they are most certainly not talking. The addition of more than one set of eyes is a lovely reference to biblically accurate angel memes though.

If we assume the traditional left-right positioning of the characters, Aziraphale is on the left and Crowley is on the right. Directly behind Aziraphale we can see a ship named “Good Traits”, but in reverse — kinda sorta confirmed by the animator Peter Anderson to be connected to the concept of the seven deadly sins on Twitter. Same that was mentioned recently by Neil in one of his asks.

The presence of Gabriel — a renegade Archangel wielding a broken cross — on the right, Crowley’s side, seems to match this theory. It could also support one of the possible interpretations of the very last bookshop shot in the S2 finale.

Out of all ten statues, Angel Carrying the Cross by Ercole Ferrata is considered inferior to the others on the bridge in that it appears to be a two-dimensional relief sculpture rather than an unbounded three-dimensional artwork, which seems to match Gabriel’s first impression as a character.

The inscription on the statue reads, “Dominion rests on his shoulders" — that is the weight of the cross that Christ was forced to carry through Jerusalem before being crucified. Even though Gabriel’s burden partially disappeared, the whole bridge and its environment is covered with crosses. It’s clear that we’re looking at a direct parallel of Via Crucis, the Way of Sorrows.

Towering over the Italian bridge, at the very top of Castel Sant’Angelo, is a statue of Archangel Michael, seen as the golden angel on the top left part of the trash pile. Aziraphale’s side, perhaps as his assistant, perhaps a rival? Legends of the Jews mention Michael as the chief of a band of angels who questioned God's decision to create man on Earth. The entire band of angels, except for Michael, was condemned to Fall — which could explain why they have such a good access to the Grapevine That Obviously Doesn’t Exist. And whatever’s going on between Michael and Dagon, perhaps.

In Roman Catholic teachings, Michael has four main roles or offices. Their first role is the leader of the Army of God and the leader of Heaven's forces in the final triumph over the powers of Hell. Viewed as the angelic model for the virtues of the spiritual warrior, their conflict with evil taken as the battle within. The second and third roles of Michael deal with death. Their second role is that of an angel of death, carrying the souls of Christians to Heaven. Michael descends at the hour of death and gives each soul the chance to redeem itself before passing; thus throwing the devil and his minions into consternation. In their third role, Michael weights souls on perfectly balanced scales they are often depicted with as their attribute. In their fourth role, Michael appears as the guardian of the Church. Might be the reason why they’re the closest to the building on top of the mountain.

It looks like Michael lost their sword though, just like Gabriel lost a part of the cross he was supposed to carry. The sword in question was supposed to be used to slay the dragon — Satan, the Adversary — according to John of Patmos and his Book of Revelations.

Speak of the devil: interestingly, there are two copies of an anonymous variation of the Angel of Light statue appearing twice on both sides of the bridge. Both the title as well as the statue itself seem like obvious references to one (former) angel literally called the Lightbringer, Lucifer. Perhaps one of them is representing his son, the Antichrist, instead, with the both of them helping out the Ineffables on two opposing — or perhaps only parallel — sides of the bridge?

The light carried by Lucifer appears to be green, a color used in the series as a visual representation of Hell, but on the intertextual level might also serve as a reference to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby and the green light at the end of the Daisy’s dock symbolizing the undying love, desperation, and longing for an unattainable dream. In the story, the color represents the limitations of power and money. Not surprisingly, the novel appears on Jim’s bookshelf and is part of the Good Omens book club — a list of personal recommendations from Neil Gaiman and Douglas Mackinnon for the fans to catch up on before the next series.

Last but not least, the possible connection to Libertas as the inspiration for the Statue of Liberty, shown multiple times in S2 as a foreshadowing of our character’s trip to America in S3. The related quote of Patrick Henry “Give me liberty or give me death” becomes even more relevant if we consider how the motto of the French Revolution was sometimes written as Liberté, égalité, fraternité ou la mort (“Liberty, equality, fraternity or death”). A lesson surely learnt by a certain angel back in 1793, when he was held prisoner for the last time before being forcefully taken Upstairs in the Final Fifteen.

The bridge and the castle

Okay, these are the basic observations. Now a brief historical overview and we will reach the fun bit in a jiffy.

Have you ever wondered about the meaning of this whole complex? It wasn’t always angelic, but named after a Roman noble dynasty. The Aelian bridge was built by the Emperor Hadrian in 134 AD to span River Tiber from the city center to his mausoleum. With time, the remains of more emperors were put to rest in there, until it was plundered and destroyed in a war. Then the remaining structure was transformed into a military fortress and a castle serving as the papal residence in times of war.

The Papal State also used Sant'Angelo as a prison; the Renaissance philosopher Giordano Bruno was imprisoned there for six years. Executions of the inmates were performed in the small inner courtyard, but they weren’t the only deaths in the area. On the other side of the bridge, in the adjoining Piazza del Ponte, under the watchful eyes of the stone likenesses of two saints, the public executions were held, and the heads of the criminals were brought onto the bridge and exposed to public view there.

As a prison, the former mausoleum is also the setting for the third act of Giacomo Puccini's 1900 opera Tosca. Long story short, the eponymous heroine convinces her lover to feign death so that they can flee together. Unfortunately, they are betrayed and the firing squad shoots at him with real bullets instead of blanks. Tosca believes in the quality of his acting performance rather than the truth, and when the realization hits her, she leaps to her death from the Castel’s ramparts.

After Nero’s bridge was destroyed, the travelers were forced to cross this bridge as the only direct route to the Vatican and St Peter’s Basilica, earning it the nickname “the bridge of Saint Peter”. That’s why in the 16th century Pope Clement VII erected statues of Saints Peter and Paul at the ends of the bridge, guarding it as they are supposed to protect the entry to Heaven.

In 1688 the bridge was embellished with ten angel statues, five on each side of the bridge, carrying Arma Christi, the Instruments of the Passion. The Good Omens characters represented by those statues in the opening sequence might be other instruments of Christ’s suffering as parts of the system that needs to be overthrown or replaced.

One angel appears particularly important in the context of both the bridge and the Second Coming — Saint Michael the Archangel.

Legend holds that the Archangel Michael appeared atop Hadrian’s mausoleum, sheathing their sword as a sign of the end of the plague of 590, thus lending the castle its present name. A less charitable yet more apt elaboration of the legend, given the militant disposition of this particular Archangel, was heard by the 15th-century traveler who saw an angel statue on the castle roof. He recounts that during a prolonged season of the plague, Pope Gregory I heard that the populace, even Christians, had begun revering a pagan idol at the church of Santa Agata in Suburra. A vision urged the Pope to lead a procession to the church. Upon arriving, the idol miraculously fell apart with a clap of thunder. Returning to St Peter's by the Aelian Bridge, the Pope had another vision of an angel atop the castle, wiping the blood from his sword on his mantle, and then sheathing it. While the Pope interpreted this as a sign that God was appeased, this did not prevent Gregory from destroying more sites of pagan worship in Rome. In honor of the vision and Michael, the bridge was renamed in their name.

What if the procession from the opening sequence was meant to imitate the procession led by the Pope from the legend? What if Aziraphale, now officially a Supreme Archangel, Commander of the Heavenly Host, is the one actually leading it, with Crowley finally at his side as his partner and second in command, just like it was proposed by him in the Final Fifteen?*

What if by some reason, maybe personal ambition, maybe just a tragic coincidence or situational necessity, there really was an impostor in Heaven, and Metatron — the so called Voice of God who seemingly doesn’t speak up for Herself since Job’s test — has been playing a winged version of the Wizard of Oz all along?

It would make just the perfect sense if not for one tiny detail. The procession we see on the bridge is actually led by Crowley, which doesn’t fit the parallel at all — unless it’s actually a proof of an ongoing body swap, as the mismatched names of the actors could also suggest?

The mountain of trash and the bookshop

The symbolic mountain of trash we can see Aziraphale and Crowley climb is a reference in itself. To an actual mount called Zion, believed to be the place where Yahweh, the God of Israel, dwells (Isaiah 8:18; Psalm 74:2), the place where God is king (Isaiah 24:23) and where God has installed king David on his throne (Psalm 2:6).

In a literal sense, it’s a hill in Jerusalem, although the sources refer to three different locations in different contexts — although for the purpose of this meta the Upper Eastern Hill (Temple Mount) makes the most sense. Its highest part became the site of Solomon's Temple. The same King Solomon the rituals in Freemasonry refer to. Masonic buildings, where lodges and their members meet, are sometimes called "temples" specifically as an allegoric reference to King Solomon's Temple, not actual places of worship. And Aziraphale’s bookshop is built around Solomon’s Magic Circle.

In a metaphysical sense, and especially in the context of the Christian New Testament, it is also believed to be a part of Heaven — the heavenly Jerusalem, God's Holy, eternal city. Christians are said to have “(…) come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven” (Hebrews 12:22-23 cf. Revelation 14:1). Just like the procession were following in the opening sequence.

There’s been some speculation whether the lift on top of the mountain could symbolize Aziraphale’s bookshop, or, more specifically, the oculus in its centre. If you look closely at the enhanced screenshot, you can see that the dome isn’t made of glass and that it looks like a tower (a church’s bell tower, perhaps) more than a whole building.

And there is an actual doorway in there — not like the modern lift doors — opening up towards the source of that white, heavenly light. And what kind of enlightenment can you usually find up in the skies or heavens?

We’re welcomed to crack open the doors to the Heavenly Sanctuary — the Most Holy place, Sanctum Sanctorum, the Holy of Holies — to undraw the final curtain and finally stand eye to eye with God. Who knows, maybe even ask some questions or listen to some answers.

Or, at the very least, to meet one of Her forms known as Jesus Christ. Because that’s precisely where he serves as our (humanity’s) Mediator and the Holy Priest after his Ascension to Heaven. The structure at the top reminds of some temple architecture seen in Antiquity and Christianity.

The Catholic Church considers the Church tabernacle or its location (traditionally at the rear of the sanctuary) as the symbolic equivalent of the Holy of Holies, due to the storage of consecrated hosts in that vessel and their meaning as the Body of Christ. Tabernacle is commonly marked with a red light turned on and off depending on His presence or lack if it.

Looks like He’s already in the area, one way or another, keeping eye on some things.

Are we following a procession of believers happy to embrace their one and true Savior? Or are they actually protesters on their way to dethrone the authority and the system?

Guess we will have to wait and see.

#the good omens crew is unhinged #everything has a meaning #title sequence #angels everywhere #archangel fucking gabriel #gabriel’s statue #bookshop statues #statues update #ponte sant’angelo #let there be light #good omens analysis #good omens meta #bible fanfiction #yuri is doing her thing

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dearmura · 9 months

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HERE'S ME ASKING!! ok have u though abt bf!riki x reader where they are buying stuff at the supermarket and it ends up in ✨️ chaos ✨️

"no riki omg this soap is literally the best!!"

"ew it smells like trash, we're buying this one!!"

"pls i hate u"

just something rlly fluffy/crack <3

behave

☆ cw. some cursing, they bicker/threaten each other A LOT, period jokes, reader is referred to using she/her pronouns, not proofread

☆ pairings. bf! riki × fem! reader

☆ genre. fluff, crack, established relationship

☆ author's note: sort of a drabble ig???

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

with a ring of the bell just above the door, you sigh to yourself, hearing feet shuffle just behind you. swiftly turning around before you fully enter the store, you give the boy a stern look

"ki, I swear to God, if you don't behave yourself I'll literally force you into that child compartment at the front of the shopping cart. don't, I repeat DON'T, try anything" you warn, pointing an accusing finger at the boy who only gives you a feigned innocent expression you see right through. someone on the outside looking in would think your attitude towards the boy would only resemble a mom scolding her son when you were in fact his girlfriend who desperately wanted to shop without being publicly embarrassed by the boy's shenanigans

slumping his shoulders in defeat, the boy nods solelmy, paralleling a child after being scolded. sticking to your side like a wad of gum, you two continue on your merry way. though, knowing the boy, you knew this promise would be broken within 5 minutes tops. you even consider timing it but decide against it, knowing it would only encourage the boy further

"oooo angel angel, look at how big this watermelon is" he points with wide eyes like a child on Christmas morning, giving you an expectant look which you only laugh at

"ya, ki, if you put salt on that watermelon I'm actually disowning you" you tease as he places it in the cart, only resulting in him blowing a raspberry in your direction. you playfully hit his shoulder, and he dramatically gasps, falling onto the floor like he was in a telenovela

"riki, I swear to God, get up from there! you're already embarrassing us" you whisper shout, hiding your amusement at his pure stupidity

he fakes a cry, holding the back of his hand to his forehead dramatically as he takes little peeks to see if you're still looking, making you roll your eyes

"how could you. your boyfriend is dying here and you call me an embarrassment" he scolds, gasping dramatically once more, sticking out his tongue to fake his death. pointing to the shelves right above him, you almost burst into a fit of laughter at what you see, a whole section filled to the absolutely brim with kuromi bandaids along with other sanrio characters. sighing in feigned annoyance, you grab a box, successfully 'healing' the boy enough to bring him back up to his feet

"you're a pain in the ass, you know that?"

"and you haven't broken up with me yet. who's the real dummy now?" he states innocently, blowing a kiss in your direction before scanning the aisles once more, leaving you absolutely dumbfounded

✧

"ooo ki smell this soap, it's so good" you take a whiff with a sigh, in heaven by the soothing smell. the boy approaches you and takes a sniff of his own only to fake a gag

"that smells like ass" he says plugging his nose, swatting the air with a grimace dramatically, making you roll your eyes

"how would you know what that smells like" you retort, making him click his tongue at your attitude. you only wink and blow him a kiss just as he did you. you knew he secretly found your attitude insanely attractive so you only smile to yourself when you see him go silent

the boy was wrapped around your finger and he knew it

✧

"oh my gosh!! look look! it's a little coffee filter for dolls!! how cute~" he coos at a package of bright pink "coffee filters." when you finally approach him and see what he's referring to, you laugh, caressing the boy's cheek as you place a gentle kiss on his lips at his pure innocence

"oh my sweet, pretty boy those are menstrual cups" you coo at him like a child, throwing your head back in amusement when his smile drops and eyes widen at your words, a blush creeping up on his cheeks from embarrassment

"y-you mean that you put that up your..." he pauses in pure shock, looking like he's seen a ghost, only making you laugh more. dramatically holding you in fear, he takes your hand to cover his eyes, terrified of the feminine products before him. about to take one to restock for yourself, he holds your arm back, shaking his head quickly

"would you like me to bleed all over our bed next month" you say with a smile way too sweet for your words. suddenly switching up at your words, he searches the aisle

"do you prefer pads, tampons, cups..." he asks with a scared smile

✧

grocery list in hand, you scan the shelves searching for items as you check off ones already in the cart. switching places with the boy so you could actually get stuff done, he was now in charge of rolling the cart (essentially just sitting there and looking pretty cuz he wasn't gonna help anyways)

you knew immediately he would take advantage of the power, which he did. walking peacefully, trying to go about your day, you feel a sudden pain in your calf, making you hiss in pain. looking back at the culprit, you see a smiley riki holding the cart innocently as if he didn't just ram the cart into your leg

scoffing, you slip your sandal off of your foot and hold it up in the air before you start walking toward the boy

"you're really gonna get it now, nishimura"

he was lucky you loved him

#enhypen #enhypen fluff #ni ki enhypen #niki fluff #niki x reader #niki x you #nishimura niki #enha x reader #enha imagines #ni ki

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note-boom · 8 months

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Life and Death Parallels within the ADA

Someone in a tag said a while back to throw some of my tags of this post onto a post, and I meant to do it way back in February but kind of got lost to the timestream.

But I'm back and I really do have thoughts about the way the ADA is structured to really be, as Atsushi was told just before the Kamui revelation, a place where the members give the organisation unique strengths that cover each other's weaknesses. And I thought about how there's a sort of equal divide between the older generation (Ranpo, Yosano, Dazai, and Kunikida) and the younger generation (Kyouka, Kenji, Tanizaki, Atsushi) and how each of these characters have both a similar aged parallel to them in the agency as well as a minor-adult parallel.

I'll try to be as concise as possible (I failed), but hear me out...

We have Ranpo/Yosano, Dazai/Kunikida, Atsushi/Tanizaki, and Kyouka/Kenji as similar-aged parallel sets that pair a death-coded individual with a life-coded individual. On the the adult-minor side, you have Ranpo/Kenji, Yosano/Atsushi, Dazai/Kyouka, and Tanizaki/Kunikida as parallel sets in their story arcs rather than thematic ones.

So, to start with the first set.

Ranpo (life-coded) and Yosano (death-coded): I feel as if these two have sort of reached the most balanced level of thematic parallels than any of the other pairings. Ranpo's past was full of this enjoyment with life where his parents' occupations dealing with darker forces of the world were hidden from him. Meanwhile, Yosano's past was full of death and darkness that was not hidden from her. And in Yosano's backstory, she was called the angel of death; in Ranpo's Origins tale with Fukuzawa, he confronted an angel of death of a sort. Yosano was deteriorating into death while Ranpo was slowly thriving under Fukuzawa. And then they met...and Ranpo found someone to bring back to life, and a place in the ADA where he could use murders and death and the darkness of the world to spread light/life by literally shining light on the mysteries, while Yosano found a place where she could use death to bring life in the ADA.

Dazai (death-coded) and Kunikida (life-coded): I think this parallel of life/death manifests the most in their ideals...Dazai's ideal is sort of entrenched in death and trying to die a painless suicide while Kunikida is all about spreading life for himself and others no matter how much pain it brings him. What's so wrong with these two is that they also have inclinations towards their "opposite coding," so to speak. We constantly see people pointing out Kunikida's secret desire to die while we clearly see Dazai doing his uttermost to live a good life and carry on Oda's legacy. Life haunts Kunikida as much as death haunts Dazai, and yet death chases after Kunikida (all the people he's witnessed dying, RIP) as much as life comes after Dazai (all his failed suicide attempts, double RIP)

Atsushi (life-coded) and Tanizaki (death-coded): This is honestly pretty tricky because we barely know anything about Tanizaki. Even though Kunikida and Dazai's past-pasts are still pretty mysterious, we have a good grasp on their characters. But Tanizaki's personality dissonance and as-of-yet unknown past with his sister definitely contrasts with the way we're know Atsushi's past and values. Both, however, are incredibly protective, but the way Tanizaki and Atsushi approach it is pretty different; Tanizaki seems to have this mentality that he must kill the threat while Atsushi seems determined more to save the victim. (I also find that one throwaway about "wimp of the east (Tanizaki)/wimp of the west (Atsushi)" interesting because maybe it's just in western lit, but west denotes sunsets and death while east denotes sunrises and rising, except in Buddhism where the west is shown as a direction of enlightenment(info check?)...which provides another host of interesting parallels to Atsushi and his relation to the book but let's not go there). All in all, these two are a bit of a stretch, but it's interesting to see that Atsushi's mysteries lie more towards the future (usually associated with life) while Tanizaki's life more in the past.

Kenji (life-coded) and Kyouka (death-coded): This one's pretty straightforward, not just because they're the youngest members of the ADA. But you see their life philosophies and personalities lean towards what they're coded as, as well as their pasts (Kenji as a farmer, cultivating life, and Kyouka as an assassin, dealing death). And yet what drew each to the ADA....Kenji was drawn to the ADA after witnessing death after a lifetime of growing new life while Kyouka was drawn to the ADA after being given life after a long childhood of killing.

However, in the end, the Armed Detective Agency is a detective organisation devoted to saving people, and all of them end up choosing life for it. But the different ways they go about it just go to show that you can have any crazy skill and still spread some sort of life through it. All of them are haunted by death, anyway, and yet all of them choose to spread life regardless.

Now onto the second set, which I'll keep shorter by simply saying that the pairs - Ranpo/Kenji, Yosano/Atsushi, Dazai/Kyouka, and Tanizaki/Kunikida - just have similar story beats, in a sense.

Ranpo and Kenji raised fairly happy, rudely awakened by the world, and yet choosing to believe in continuing to keep up a positive attitude; I'd say, though, that Ranpo does it primarily through shutting his eyes to the world while unmasking it while Kenji does it through acknowledging its pain and refusing to let it bring him down.

Yosano and Atsushi both with honestly terrible childhoods spent witnessing some of the most cruel sides of human natures growing up to be champions of life, only Yosano has definitely developed more steel and walls while Atsushi's definitely softer and more open still (they're both crazy stubborn, though).

Then Dazai and Kyouka's past with the Port Mafia and a disillusionment in reality that was abruptly interrupted when they realised they had to do something about it as useless as it sounded; Dazai thanks to Oda dying and Kyouka thanks to Dazai telling her to save people anyway.

And again, Kunikida and Tanizaki's probably a stretch given we know nothing about their pasts, but I really really find it interesting that Kunikida was a former teacher and Atsushi first assumed Tanizaki and Naomi to be students; also, I've mentioned this in other posts but Kunikida and Tanizaki are paired together a lot and have...their moments. It's pretty interesting to perceive these two people with strong ideals that are almost the reversal of the other ("the world for one person" vs "myself (one person) for the world").

But yeah...that has been parallels within the ADA concerning themes of life and death and their character's narrative arcs.

Bonus? Fukuzawa and Naomi....a middle aged president and a teenaged clerk, both protective about the people they claim to be their own, smart in their own ways, with seemingly "support" roles.

#the bonus was mostly crack but i didnt want to leave fukuzawa and naomi out of it #anyway that has been a short look into character parallels with someone obsessed with character parallels...#...whether they exist or not #who knows maybe im just very much...#spitting nonsense #but also im onto something right??#anyway it means a lot to me that the ada is all about surviving despite what the world has thrown at you #and despite what i said about being coded more one way than the other...#...i also take it back #because what theyve all done is face the horrors of death AND life and choose to make things better...whatever that means #and i love them all for it #character analysis #armed detective agency #bsd musings #bsd #oh yeah but what about that thing about buddhism and atsushi's west?

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afterthelambs · 1 year

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Mushitaro+Yokomizo's parallels with other character pairings

I noticed a surprising amount of parallels between Mushitaro and his dead friend Yokomizo with the other characters in BSD (fyolai, dazai, ranpoe, sskk). There's even potential foreshadowing for the future of certain characters. Idk if anyone's done this before but I wanted to write something about it since we're meeting them in the anime soon. Just hear me out for a bit, and spoilers for the manga up to current events!

So Yokomizo is a mystery writer and his goal is to create the "Ultimate Mystery" greater than anything else in the genre. He achieved this by having his friend Mushitaro secretly kill him, turning his own death into a real life mystery. Basically, his death at his friend's hands brought him fulfillment.

This is a common theme in BSD characters: Death as an expression of love or death with the person you love bringing fulfillment. Yokomizo turned to Mushitaro to be the "key" to his death because Mushitaro is the only one he trusts. Mushitaro agreed to this plan because he cares about Yokomizo. He wants to "fulfill his friend's final wish" even if it hurts him in the process. This murder represented how much they loved each other. Chapter 56 shows Yokomizo telling Mushitaro "you truly are the only--" while Mushitaro cries:

To me this parallels Fyodor and Nikolai's storyline later on. Chapter 78 is where we find out that Nikolai wants to kill Fyodor because Fyodor is "the only one who gets him" (which sounds a lot like what Yokomizo's last words to Mushitaro were). Since Nikolai's goal is to go against his emotions, that means his actual desire is to keep Fyodor with him. Nikolai's basically saying "You're the one I have to kill because you're the one I love the most." Just like Mushitaro, it's death as an expression of love.

I believe the parallel is intentional since it's through Mushitaro that we first meet Nikolai in chapter 57. Isn't it fitting that the characters with very similar arcs serve as introductions to each other?

This could be more than just a cool parallel. It potentially foreshadows Nikolai's future if he does manage to kill Fyodor (or if he's fooled into thinking Fyodor is dead). We see what happens to Mushitaro after Yokomizo is dead. In chapter 69, he writes to Yokomizo as if he were still alive and cries while doing it. Then he hallucinates Yokomizo giving him advice in his time of need:

In the same chapter he says "I can't drum up much interest in the outside world any longer." While Yokomizo found fulfillment in dying, Mushitaro was left alive and suffering. Maybe this is what awaits Nikolai if he achieves his goal? I've seen people meme on this before, the whole Nikolai-kills-Fyodor-and-instantly-regrets-it but given this parallel, it's actually a possible direction for his character. But this is just a guess/meta/prediction so take it with a grain of salt.

On a lighter note, there's Ranpo and Poe. They also have a dynamic where they're the only ones who get each other, and that's the reason Poe wanted to kill Ranpo initially. The difference is they realized immediately that the other's presence fulfills them more than their death would. (good for Ranpoe for being the most stable pairing in BSD). From chapters 32 and 49:

The next parallel is Dazai and his constant desire for a double suicide. It's not as clear a parallel since there isn't any love here (he begs literal strangers for it). But he does have the same concept of death bringing fulfillment, even if the rest of the BSD cast is (rightfully) horrified/confused by it. Interestingly, he actually does commit suicide in the Beast universe... in the presence of Atsushi and Akutagawa. So like Yokomizo, he still wanted his death to be witnessed by meaningful company.

So is that all? I mean, the main duo of the series is Shin Soukoku but they don't seem to have any parallels with Mushitaro and Yokomizo. They try to kill each other yeah but they hate each other. This is supposed to be about death as an expression of love, or death by someone you love bringing fulfillment. What parallels could they possibly have with them?

Oh wait whats this--

oh. oh.

So Yokomizo had a terminal illness... with one year to live... and he used his friend as a last resort to finding fulfillment...

That sounds familiar...

Yeah... 🥲

Akutagawa desperately wants acknowledgement from Dazai before he dies. He thinks the only way he can achieve that is through his rivalry with Atsushi. Just like Yokomizo needed Mushitaro, Akutagawa needs Atsushi for his fulfillment. The fact that it can only be Atsushi PLUS the fact that Atsushi hallucinates Akutagawa telling him what to do in the recent chapter 105, similar to how Mushitaro hallucinated Yokomizo giving him advice in chapter 69? It shows they do find meaning in the other (even if it's not 'love').

Last bit of angst before this ends: if Yokomizo's illness truly is foreshadowing for Akutagawa's illness, then idk if I like that because it kinda foreshadows that Aku's ultimate fate really is to die even if he somehow manages to come back from being a vampire.

And that's fun. Everyone loves the thought of their favorite character dying :DD

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agoddamn · 1 year

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IMO...

The MadaTobi vibe is "destiny took a hard left." Madara and Tobirama are not the fated pair set up by the story and an eon of reincarnation. Hashirama is the one who's Madara's equal in battle, he's Madara's meaningful friend, Madara is his man of destiny. Hashirama and Madara are mutually obsessed. Their relationship is set up as a Huge Thing.

So MadaTobi is at its best leaning into that narrative asymmetry, I think. The curious contradictions. The feeling of "this wasn't meant to happen." They were clearly never meant to really interact in a narrative sense, so you wonder--what if they did get to talk?

They've got those interesting little bits where they espouse ideas that are similar, they have a massive unresolved beef, they have a strange binary star kind of orbit where they're linked in each other's gravity well without an immediate connection. Plenty to build on there. You can even get cute with some (likely unintended) thematic parallels like fire/water, red/blue, black/white.

TobiIzu is more out-of-the-box prepped for you by the narrative (last younger brothers, both left behind by big bro, close in strength, doomed to end in violence), but I think it's actually harder to nail down. Maybe because we have so little canon info on Izuna? And while Madara and Tobirama got to hiss and spit at each other on-page like bitter divorcees Izuna and Tobirama only interact in battle. They can easily fall into a pair-the-spares sitch; you're pairing up Hashirama and Madara so you may as well pair off the other brothers while you're at it.

But Tobirama and Izuna...they're parallels, but they're tainted parallels. Everything that makes the Hashirama-Madara relationship fairytale makes the Tobirama-Izuna relationship tragic. The destiny narrative dooms them to be tools of the story--dooms Tobirama to be Hashirama's bloodied right hand and Izuna to be Madara's tragic backstory.

Because of that I feel like the relationship only truly works when Hashirama and Madara aren't together. Narratively, Tobirama and Izuna need to be in a story where they're finally the important ones. Their relationship working is inextricably tied with the idea of them making selfish choices over their brothers, I think--both are improbable and need to be carefully set up.

They are otherwise bound to live--narratively and literally--in service of their brothers. The traditional supporting character relationship is more like codependency when looked at with a more realistic lens, and Tobirama and Izuna are prime examples of that. They need to be hewn away from their fraternal supports in order to develop something new. They cannot be retreading the ground of Hashirama and Madara.

(Personally I think some tbiz goes too far in the fanon 'poor little meow meow Tobirama' direction...although, I have to admit that in a world where Izuna somehow fell in love with Tobirama, I think that his perspective on Tobirama would definitely be "my poor little meow meow" lmao that sort of disproportionate "everyone is bullying MY poor woobie" kinda possessive protectiveness)

Without a Softness Showing is my gold standard for Tobirama and Izuna interaction. Blew my tits clean off and it's not even romantic.

(This post brought to you by a lengthy mental ramble of mine where I bemoaned the lack of porn where twink Izuna mating presses 6-ft Tobirama and lamented that I don't have the chops to pull it off myself.)

(Anyway, someone ought to write that.)

#nart opinions #senju tobirama #madatobi #tobiizu #god please nobody mistake this for ship hate they are just different flavors #bootsmeta #flashing gif maybe

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raayllum · 10 months

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I have a question that has been very divisive in my friend group of people who enjoy tdp.

What direction do you think they'll take Callum's magic in:

Do you think he'll master his Sky Arcanum, following the footsteps of Ibis, especially with his staff.

Or, connect to and become a master of all 6 primal sources, like Aaravos, but for good and love.

And more importantly, what idea do you enjoy more as a concept?

First off would just like to say your header is incredible.

As for your actual question: Callum is a character who chases magic out of a desire to learn and have agency. It becomes a fundamental part of who he is ("I will learn magic. It's who I am") which eventually manifests in him literally creating magic inside him (an arcanum). This transcending of limitations and what other people thought was possible means that Sky (representation of Freedom) was the perfect arcanum for him... to start. After all, seeing through illusions and crafting your own reality is very Moon arcanum-y, and there's been a decent amount of foreshadowing that he might connect to the Moon arcanum next for a while now ("After all, you really only know the appearance itself" "Now you're starting to sound like Lujanne" from 3x01). By forging a manual connection to one arcanum, it naturally begs the question of why wouldn't he at least try to connect to others in a similar manner?

All of this to say: I'd be surprised if Callum isn't connected to all 6 by the end of the show, for a few reasons.

While Callum being connected to primal magic is extraordinary on its own, and it's certainly an accomplishment... it ultimately means next to nothing if Other Humans don't also follow in his footsteps. A lack of access to magic is what created a lot of issues in the world of Xadia, and evening out that score / removing the need of dark magic is the ultimate way to Break the Cycle, as the wheel has always spun on magic and dark magic. If other humans don't connect, we're right back where we started. And humans being connected to Sky would be great, but there's so much more out there, and Callum will only really be able to be a teacher for all the arcanums if he knows and understands all the arcanums... hence, Archmage. (It'd also be very nicely full circle, given that Callum starts off as part of a lacklustre student-teacher pair in 1x01, and growing to become a wise and understanding teacher.)

Callum's parallels to and eventual rivalry Aaravos are mostly dependent upon Callum gaining more magical prowess. Right now they don't have a ton of parallels, but they are undeniably wrestling for narrative control. Aaravos is also underestimating as being just another dark mage like all the rest, "and destined to play right into my hands" but Callum will be, eventually, so much more than that. And thanks to Aaravos, we know a six primal archmage is possible. Seems only right that Callum would become his literal mirror.

One of the core weaknesses of Xadia is their insistence on isolation. Exile is their most common punishment and they literally split the continent in two. Elven society is generally very segregated according to their primal with only a handful of exceptions in ways we know don't exist in the Human Kingdoms (Duren coming to Katolis for aid; Lissa being from Del Bar and marrying a man from Katolis, etc). We see that the arch dragons are more likely to fight than convene with each other successfully and that since imprisoning Aaravos, they basically all went no contact. Xadian characters are also more likely to want to do things alone (Runaan, Rayla, Zubeia) than to pull on all possible resource areas, and the human villains who hate them (Viren) are also more likely to be isolationist. VS the princes ("We're in this together" in 1x05, "This is a chance to solve our problems together" in 4x03, Opeli and Corvus going to Duren for aid) and the Human Kingdoms. Kasef, however antagonist, believed in and depended on the collective. Karim starts to lose his shit in S4 precisely because New Aurea isn't going to be entirely Sunfire elf in nature; I don't think he would've responded to other elves any better than he did humans, honestly. Okay, great, so what? Well the one Xadian character we have who hardcore rejects that isolationist attitude in regards to a primal source with his very existence... is Aaravos. And that elves, humans, and dragons all presumably worked together to imprison him once before. It would make sense that the kid who is going to be the key (or one of the keys) to his defeat would likewise carry that same Rejection of Isolation, and instead embody literal Magical Solidarity by having access to all magics.

As for which I prefer, it depends. I think canon could do just about anything and make it work, and so long as we see other humans connect to arcanums (with or without Callum's help) I have no other Narrative Requirements, I think, in regards to places I think the story has to go in order to function narratively, in the end. He could master just sky magic, and as long as other humans are able to connect to arcanums, I think that'd be just fine.

If I'm writing fic, and I want Callum to be more limited for plot / angst reasons, I'll probs just write him as a sky mage. Magic is useful but can't (and should not, for story reasons) be able to fix everything, and is still only as useful as your brain can figure out how to use it, anyway. By and large, a magic system is only as good as its limitations, as that is what allows a story to have conflict, and places to show off creative thinking (with or without magic).

But generally (in post-war / late season speculative stuff; in looking at where canon is going, etc) I lean towards Archmage Callum and always have, and dumped all my headcanons about it accordingly into this fic (order of connection, how each of the arcanums feel different, dual wielding, what it brings between him and Aaravos, etc).

I would also love for Callum to get his own staff at one point, simply because it'd be nice to have a weapon 1) of his own and 2) wasn't yet another thing he inherited from a dead man (the cube from Harrow, the mirror from Viren) but if he uses the staff all throughout the show, that's perfectly fine too. Just means I get to write a fic where it gets destroyed for some reason, and then him (and maybe Ethari) get to help design and build his own for Reasons

#mage boy #tdp callum #tdp #the dragon prince #requests #thanks for asking #worldbuilding #theme: isolation vs solidarity #a narrative of love #mini meta #analysis series #callum #s7 speculation

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aliensupersyn · 27 days

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The Next Great Clash Since Gojo and Sukuna

This is an updated subsection from my longer analysis, but with added context and information. This post is meant to be a quick read.

Maki heavily resembles Sukuna in terms of characterization. Both are described as something beyond human, with Maki being called a monster and Sukuna called the same, as well as a calamity. Seeing as how their characters relate to each other so closely, it makes sense that Maki was the one Sukuna wanted to fight the most after Gojo. I have already gone into great detail about the ways Gege has tied their characters together since Hidden Inventory. In this post, I'll quickly go over this connection.

Maki's destruction of the Zenin clan reflects Sukuna's idea of destructive power. She destroyed everything, hungering like a calamity. Her special Heavenly Restriction makes her incomparable to others.

Maki comparing herself to the sorcerers around her literally stunted her growth.

Maki realizing that she couldn't compare herself to others allowed her to reach a new power spike. In a foreboding sense, the closer she became to Sukuna's idea of strength, the more powerful she became. Though, characters like Yuta and Yuji contradict Sukuna's ideology.

While the backstab in 251 cemented the connection between the Toji -> Gojo and Maki -> Sukuna, the fight in 253 developed the more immediate motivations within the narrative between the two. The art and Sukuna's monologue demonstrated how tied these two have become. Toji and Gojo act as a narrative vehicle to foreshadow the events of this final duel. Yet, the events of 253 finally give both Maki and Sukuna a reason between the two of them to fight with everything on the line. 253 provides the appropriate stakes for their clash.

Sukuna seeks to prove the might of jujutsu sorcery over a power that rejects it, and ultimately him as the greatest sorcerer in history.

Maki must end this now. Yuta has been cut down and Maki feels it's now her responsibility to kill Sukuna or things will only continue to get worse.

Visual Parallels

The main (obvious) connections between Toji and Maki

While Naoya was an idiot, his comparison between Gojo and Toji was not random and should be acknowledged. He recognized the two of them as being the pinnacles of strength. Though, Naoya did not have the sense to understand what Toji and Gojo represented: jujutsu and the rejection of it. Naoya could never occupy the space that Toji and Gojo did. Not only due to his lack of power, but also because he doesn't have the same Heavenly Restriction that Toji and Maki share. Moreso, Toji and Maki represent the antithesis of the strongest sorcerer by being the strongest beings beyond jujutsu sorcery.

Toji, and Maki by extension, have been narratively connected to Gojo, who satisfies the fateful role of strongest sorcerer. Toji's connection to Gojo mirrors Maki's connection to Sukuna. The backstab in 251 seals this connection between the two pairs.

The backstab, and the subsequent visual parallels, connects Sukuna to Gojo in a losing scenario.

Gege has been matching Gojo and Sukuna's actions and visuals since Gojo's death. The black flash in 253 is yet another parallel to Gojo! These connections will end in Sukuna's defeat by Maki; she will finish what Toji could not.

Throughout 253, Gege depicts both Maki and Sukuna with shadows obscuring their faces and bodies, demonstrating a shared darkness within them.

This shared darkness represents both their battle hungry natures as monsters. After slaughtering the Zenin and severing all of her ties to sorcery, Maki became a demonic fighter. Gege uses the shadows covering their forms to demonstrate the monsters within.

Gege's recent and more direct visuals connect a losing Gojo to Sukuna. Gojo seemed to be winning in a similar fashion to Sukuna, dominating his enemy and even landing black flashes against them. Still, Gojo lost in the end to his opponent, and I argue Maki will finally end Sukuna.

Gojo thinks of the last time he's ever feared loss, and remembers Toji. I believe Sukuna will have a similar moment where he fears loss by Maki's hands which will mirror these pages.

Gege has left little crumbs throughout the story connecting Toji and Gojo, depicting Toji to be the antithesis to jujutsu, and finally connecting Toji and Maki. While that's commonly understood, I don't think enough people respect the fact that Toji, Gojo, and Maki's connection meets Sukuna in the end. Gege has tied all four of them together in the narrative, and that's sure to have some major payoff.

Their clash will answer Gege's questions about strength, love, and isolation. Neither Sukuna nor Maki allow love to hold them back, but they approach other people very differently. I'm curious to see how Sukuna approaches Maki as an opponent, especially now that she's survived his black flash. He's bound to have a whole new level of respect for her, more than he already did. Seeing as she has placed a burden upon him, what secrets will he unleash to prove jujutsu sorcery's might?

Notes:

They doubted her, but I stayed ten toes down for Maki! I promised she would come back and look at her! We're on the road to Maki ending Sukuna, and I'll be here every step of the way.

Original post here.

Reddit post if you wanna see some misogyny.

Read here for my analysis and explanation to what a serious Sukuna fight looks like.

Sukuna immediately reentered a state of ecstasy when Maki cut off his arm.

Yes, I believe Yuji will be part of the final battle....but this is a post specifically about Maki and Sukuna.

Additions from a friend:

About Sukuna being an arbiter who bestows judgement upon humans really falls in line with him speaking to Jogo and Kashimo in their afterlife scene

Also Mahito's words to Yuji about the clash of truths strengthen your point about proving their ideals since Sukuna stated that he wants to crush Yuji's ideals in ch 248

#jjk #jjk manga #maki zenin #ryomen sukuna #yuji itadori #gojo satoru #toji fushiguro #you all should see those reddit comments #it got BADDDDDD #the dudebros could not handle this post at all

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akechi-stole-my-heart · 2 years

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Royal Trio for that character asks?

ahh ty! this is literally perfect timing because I just finished the third semester on my third playthrough of p5r and really wanted to talk about these three <this is a lie. I stopped writing out the answer to this ask over a month ago but this ask IS still relevant bc I am now writing a royal trio-centric fic. so I'd still like to talk about them.

describe their canon relationship/dynamic

Sumi and Akira have a very strong dynamic, as Sumi is basically Akira's canonical love interest and one of his closest friends. And I needn't explain how Akira and Akechi have an extremely strong dynamic as well.

But the three of them don't really have that strong of a trio dynamic because the triangle breaks when we get to Akechi and Sumi's relationship with each other, which is a shame. Either Akechi or Sumi feel a bit left out because Sumi's in the dark about so much of Akechi's Deal and Akechi is so outwardly cold to Sumi. So they don't have much of a dynamic with each other.

your ideal/headcanon version of it? how does it differ from how it is in canon & why is this your favorite version? any other alternate versions of it you enjoy?

My ideal version of the royal trio has two main differences between it and the canon version. First, Akechi and Sumi never get the chance to bond in canon. I don't think that it's a flaw, necessarily, because there was no way to have them bond without breaking Akechi's character arc in the third sem. But it is a huge missed opportunity.

I really do think Akechi does secretly care for Sumi, but he doesn't want to show it because he's being Stupid in third sem about wanting to push everyone away. I think in any other timeline they could have been friends, and I think that he realizes their similarities and relates to her because of them. In the same way, if Sumi knew more about Akechi I think she would relate to him and want to be his friend too.

The second thing I'd change is make Sumi and Akira's relationship platonic. This isn't really a "change" since you can reject her, and Sumi having a crush on its own is perfectly fine. But they push them as a romantic pairing really really hard, much harder than anyone else, to the point where its pretty obvious she's supposed to be your canonical girlfriend. And I just don't like that, since them getting together kinda breaks Sumi's character arc of self discovery.

what do you like about their relationship, why is it interesting or enjoyable to you?

I love how Sumi and Akechi both complement Akira in opposite directions. But more than that, I'm obsessed with how Sumi and Akechi are thematic foils in pretty much every way. Others have written metas on this so I won't repeat it all here, but the sheer Potential of Akechi and Sumi's dynamic and the way their arcs parallel is so Interesting. Sumi and Akechi are such different people, but they are also so extremely similar, and its just. mmmm. good. makes brain go brrr.

I could go on and on about the ways Sumi and Akechi parallel one another, but one thing in particular that sticks out to me are their masks and the way each of them deal with their self hatred in opposite directions. Sumi buries her true personality and becomes her ideal self as Kasumi. Meanwhile Akechi does something similar with the Detective Prince persona, but by the third semester he's completely rejected that part of himself. Sumi learns to reconcile all parts of herself, while Akechi. doesn't. And Akira serves as Akechi's other half, the way that Kasumi served as Sumire's other half. But while Sumi saw Kasumi's natural talent, and how she outshone her in every way, she internalized that hatred to the point where she wished to die. But when Akechi saw how Akira was superior to him in every way, he externalized that hate and tried to kill Akira to prove that he was better. Sumi accidentally kills Kasumi because of her self hatred, and Akechi tries to kill Akira but fails because of his self hatred.

what about the individual characters involved? what does this relationship mean to them, what makes it unique among their relationships?

Akira - Sumi and Akechi are his closest friends, imo. Akira sees a lot of himself in both of them. They're the Fake As Hell Gang, each of them hiding behind various masks to conceal their true, inner self.

Sumi - Akira is the person who helps Sumi rediscover her true self and accept herself for who she truly is instead of continuing to hide behind her sister's identity. She looks up to his as a version of her ideal self, confident and self assured and fully realized. As for Akechi, I don't think Sumi has any idea what to make of him at all.

Akechi - I could go on for days about the complexities of Akechi's feelings about Akira, but in short, Akira is Akechi's only real friend in the world, and yet they were once bitter enemies. Akechi wishes it could stay that simple--rivals, and nothing more. But of course that's not true. As for Sumi, he sees a lot of himself in her--someone terrified that they aren't good enough, idolizing someone else as their better half. But he can't let himself get attached, so he keeps his distance and remains harsh on the surface no matter his sympathies.

favorite interaction they have in canon

"Just everyday Akechi." Obviously.

favorite interaction they have in your head/a situation you want to put them in

well. i mean, if you'll pardon the self promo, you can find out by reading the aforementioned fic where sumi saves goro in the engine room. hehe

#p5 #royal trio #goro akechi #sumire yoshizawa #akira kurusu #ren amamiya #persona 5 protagonist #akechi goro #ask #miraculous-ninjabird #akeshu #shuake #sera answers

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soloorganaas · 9 months

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look they’re hot and intriguing and have so much chemistry literally every interaction is filled with insane sexual tension they’re thematic parallels they drive the entire plot together but what brings me so much joy is the way bo-katan and the armorer’s story ends. they could so so easily have gone the way of lesbian-coded characters throughout history. they could have killed the armorer off, they could have relegated her character to the background, they could have erased their entire relationship in favour of something that centres a guy

but no. just when you think the worst has happened when you’re waiting for the inevitable the armorer’s voice appears and it’s directed specifically to bo-katan. she’s purring at her over the comms because she’s come to rescue her. the mandalorians all join up in the sky and bo and the armorer are paired overtly together, searching each other out and sharing a long meaningful look of agreement before they launch into battle. they fight side by side as equals with the screen switching between them

then the show ends with them both getting their moment to shine. bo stands on watching proudly and respectfully as the armorer leads their sacred ritual in the living waters, still holding command of their traditions and guiding their people in the way. then the armorer marches proudly into the great forge the one she’d dreamt of for so long to hand bo the torch to light it and for a second all we can see is them holding the torch together. and then the very last shot we see of mandalore the end of all this story is the two of them standing side by side in front of the forge as leaders of their people

I’m not trying to write an essay about Why They’re Canon Actually because it doesn’t matter. it’s never mattered to writers whether the characters they’ve created as queer inadvertently or not are actually allowed to be queer. the subtext has always been enough to kill them anyway. so what I’m saying is seeing two women have a story full of that subtext which doesn’t get destroyed but gets elevated front and centre hits me like a fucking freight train bc it still feels so so rare after a lifetime of watching queer-coded characters be torn down. they wrote them like that and they kept them like that. if the implicit message has always been important enough to destroy then letting it shine and thrive matters

#nitearmor #bo katan x the armorer #bo katan kryze #the armorer #the mandalorian #this is not giving a pass to sw for their horrendous lack of canon queer rep #so don’t reblog this with some snarky commentary bc you’re missing the point #otp: remove your helmet #meta

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chumpovodir · 11 months

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sorry i'm actually still on that castlevania brainrot, with a big big focus on CoD since i've been re-playing it in my free time, but felt like i was being too annoying about it between simping for Hector in a way i have not publicly done for any other blorbo and bitching about netflixvania lmao

now that i've had some time to let my thoughts Stew and Simmer, and after consuming whatever Hector-centric fan content i can get my greedy little hands on, i got some Thoughts on all the pairings i've come across, and put together my as-of-now takes on them:

• CV: CoD Hector/Isaac - yes! THE ship of all time! versatile, but however you ship them, They Are Each Other's Whole World!!! they're best friends at minimum (at least before Hec's betrayal) and hell yes they're fooling around with each other - they're 2 dudes in their early 20s who grew up together, literally have no one else and probably spend damn near 24/7 together as a result of their living situation/jobs. is it a casual friends with benefits thing? are they romantically involved and devoted to each other? work besties? mentor mentee kinda thing? is it mutually toxic and/or abusive? friendly rivalry? bitter enemies til the end? it all works! the beauty of the canon not being set means theres so much room for interpretation, but i don't think hector or isaac would be as broken up as they are if they didn't feel something for each other. for me, it all tracks and part of the fun is seeing new ways to interpret their dynamic (except no one makes content for their game counterparts anymore after netflixvania 😢)

• Netflixvania!Hector/Isaac - sorry but i just can't get on board the Forgehusbands thing here. in this version, the most chemistry they have is barely tolerating each other as colleagues. its not even animosity, just straight up indifference. then hector spends some months in his own personal hell being Lenores plaything probably just trying to not lose his sanity while isaac is thousands of miles away consumed by the thought of revenge but otherwise living it up. Issac doesnt even really save Hector in the end…? and idk why but the writers were really pushing a Lenector agenda so there really isn't much of anything to ship here. N!Isaac's too dry and serious about his own misanthropy without any of the mindless, fanatical devotion to Drac's cause CoD!Isaac has, while N!Hector is just. barely a character tbh with how passive and contradicting he feels (and i will CURSE the writers for forever squandering his character when he probably has the most official, coherent material dedicated to explaining his whole deal!!!). there's not much in this canon that drives them towards each other in a way i find compelling, but if someone out there could take on the challenge and actually show how they end up getting together (as friends or romantically) i'd be interested in that! because the current status quo where they're Inexplicably An Item From The Start is a little stale tbh

• Hector/Rosaly - YESSSSSS i love how their relationship is depicted in both PtR and the manga series! (favorite panel of all time: "Oh, you bit right away") i've seen some criticisms of this ship and specifically Rosaly essentially being Lisa 2.0 and a namedropped source of Man Pain™ for all of CoD's intro cutscene before never being mentioned again and. yeah, that's all true. BUT its so soft, and quiet and loving. they really are perfect for each other <3 and it's an interesting parallel for Drac/Lisa, and how Hector doesn't go on a genocidal rampage after losing his beloved in the exact same way, despite his own misanthropy still holding strong. does that say something about Hector's character, or was it all just Death's scheming going exactly as planned?

• Hector/Julia - nnnnooo…. come on man. you cant fuck your ex's (that you killed btw) sister that just so happens to look like your recently deceased wife. who was murdered by aforementioned ex. god the baggage going in all directions here... thankfully, even in canon its only implied at best, if you turn your head and squint. i like 'em as Just Friends, thanks - 2 magic wielders that share a bond through being persecuted by humanity, and for losing a mutual someone they cared for deeply. (side note: wish we saw more of Julia! i love that for what little we got of her, she does seem to mirror Isaac, in ways only siblings who are close can)

• N!Hector/Lenore - no and FUCK no. i actively hate this pairing. the only acceptable interaction between these 2 is Hector staking Lenore through the heart with a smile on his face. and before anyone comes for me, it has NOTHING to do with the fact that it's a m/f ship, because as mentioned above, i adore Hector/Rosaly. it's not even because it's abusive, you CAN write and enjoy darker relationship dynamics but. this just wasn't it. if they were going for an enemies-to-lovers kind of thing, they failed spectacularly at establishing the 'to lovers' part. the only reason i enjoyed their S4 interactions is because it's seemingly the only time in the entire series anyone talks to Hector with any level of respect, even if it was just dumb sex jokes.

• Hector/Alucard - this one surprised me, for simultaneously seeming to hold both statuses as 'squarely defined as a rarepair by most fan's standards' but also 'there were at least a good few pages worth of the Hector Castelavnia tag on Ao3 that was just these 2 as the main pairing'?

not really sure how i feel about this one - i like them as individual characters who have a lot of parallels going on (probably because Hector is supposed to be like an 'improved' version of Alucard from what i've read?)

i like the idea of their netflixvania versions trauma bonding after the shit in S3 because good lord they both need someone who can understand what they've been through. but they don't interact at all in the netflix show, so no dice there imo. under a more cynical lens, my feelings are something like "you only ship these 2 because they're both soft prettyboys you wanna see fucking huh"

if you go by the games canon and lore then they're just about the same age and logically would have interacted at least occasionally in their time at Castlevania but ofc we dont see any of it. theres some ancient fanfics out there that expand on this with alucard, hector, and isaac all being childhood friends before they grew up and had to kinda move into their respective roles and protocol and formality and work kinda made them drift apart and i find those very cute <3

i think this pairing could work honestly, they're both generally kind-hearted albeit tragic souls with a cold disposition who experienced the madness of Castlevania and Dracula's vengeance firsthand. there's gotta be something you can pull outta there. mmmaybe not quite friendship either but.... kindred souls. they have that "prince and his knight" kinda vibe, at least aesthetically, which i can get behind! and i like what i've seen from the exceedingly rare pre-netflixvania fics that exist, and even the netflixvania fanfics are kinda cute (please can we move away from the theme of N!Trevor brutalizing N!Hector out of mistrust just as a chance for N!Alucard to swoop in and save him? shit is damn near ubiquitous even in my very brief time exploring)

• Hector/Trevor - (i should specify i'm referring to their games versions exclusively here. N!Trevor isn't even aware of N!Hector's existence afaik) i dig it, there's just the very inconvenient fact that Trevor's supposed to be married to Sypha lol. and i dont really see a trephacard type of situation happening here (not that im crazy for trephacard now that i mention it. it's cute, it's wholesome but eh, not much substance to it? im realizing i like my ships with a pinch of tension)

so much comedic potential! a fun ship to entertain, but i feel like no one seems to make any content that captures their dynamic well. so ultimately this is a "the best ship is friendship" type of relationship for me. i have a headcanon that Trevor tries, really, really tries, to reach out and befriend Hector post-CoD in a way he might not for other people, out of guilt and concern he'd end up like Adrian (except at least Adrian has the option to wake up and rejoin the world, if he felt like he was finally ready someday. Hector, for all his demonic powers, is still very much human and is shown not once, but twice, ready to let himself go peacefully from this world because he just can't envision a future for himself after Castlevania and losing everything that's important to him. and i generally just like Trevor being a Genuinely Good Person, despite being a bit of a pompous hot-head. miss me with whatever netflixvania was going for)

• Hector/Dracula - ….okay so a certain tumblr user's AU got to me and i do enjoy how dark and fucked up this is <33 and thats pretty much exclusively how i view this ship - always a power imbalance, never wholesome. that's all i have to say about it, don't really wanna go into specifics and squick anyone out but uhh yeah. it's not pretty lmao

#castlevania #i am so sorry for how long this got #i feel like i'm not really saying anything new here but i need the words out so they stop pestering me #also yeah canon DOES inform alot of my opinions what of it!#i know with a series with as many gaps and unexplained elements you gotta headcanon to get anything meaningful. and its just fun #but dang with pairings i would at minimum like my blorbos to have interacted and like each other to some degree #castlevaniaposting

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welcometogrouchland · 1 year

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ive thinking about luz getting its-a-wonderful-life'd for ages and somehow!! never connected it to a christmas special! galaxy brained takes yet again!! (but seriously... luz getting to see her positive influence via showing how literally everyone would be Six Feet Under if it werent for her is so ridicously in brand for toh i need it)

Aw thank you lol. If I ever find the og post I was thinking of when I made the "it's a wonderful life" comparison I'll rb this with a link but til then this one breaks down all the individual things that would be absolutely wack on the boiling isles w/o Luz in good detail though it's a bit old, for anyone who's curious.

But yeah it's like. especially appealing to me as a Christmas special because like you said, it's so on brand for toh. It's in keeping with the spirit of the boiling isles and the shows whole ethos, bc they never play these things straight!

The crew loves to show us the most unglamorous fairytale possible and while I've yet to properly watch it's a wonderful life in it's entirety (I honestly watched very few movies for Christmas this year lol) that feels true to the spirit of that movie. A happy ending but not without immense suffering first (which is also the direction I think this show is going in, based on what Dana's said about her feelings on happily ever afters).

It's also fun to me because I love the way Luz and Belos act as character foils (with Belos being a warped, absolute worst version of Luz in a sense) and @/jess-the-vampire did art of Philip as scrooge in a Christmas Carol (w/ the collector as the ghost of Christmas past, Caleb as Christmas present, etc) and it made me realize (by way of Luz and Belos parallels syllogism) that those stories are sort of. Idk not inversions of each other but pair nicely together as contrasts.

One guy goes through a series of events that mold him into the cruel person he is today, as a reflection of his flawed society, and he is forced to see the consequences of his actions or else he'll die alone and unmourned. A different guy goes through immense suffering, a reflection of his flawed society, but is saved by being shown all the ways he's changed things for the better and is given a renewed sense of purpose and life.

Idk it's neat to me! If toh ever did a Christmas special (if the mouse would let them) it'd have to go in one of those directions, and since I think canon is obviously not gonna pull a scrooge-esque redemption for Philip, it's a wonderful life-ing Luz just feels right <3

#ramblings of a lunatic #asks #this is a whole lotta ramble that's not particularly focused or pertinent. just a lot of brain dumping #but it's okay i don't think anon expected an essay from me they were just sending a nice ask #imagine living in a parallel world where disney actually cared abt toh as a show and like. marketed it and gave it bonus content #and we actually could get holiday eps (besides TTT ofc)#what a world that would be...#anyway. maybe if they let Dana do spin-off comics (PLEASE DISNEY)

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pastelcheckereddreams · 2 years

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This isn’t a very popular opinion in the fandom but I think that XY & JGY, XXC & NMJ, & to some extent Song Lan & LXC parallel each other. XY & JGY are class narratives, XXC & NMJ are disability narratives (bc qi deviation is an actual condition in Chinese medicine) & Song Lan & LXC are displacement narratives. Song Lan is affected by the destruction of Baixue Temple while LXC is affected by the destruction of Cloud Recesses. Cql plays up the parallel by having XY get involved with the Wens.

It's a very interesting angle, Anon. The literature grad in me immediately wants to dig my nails into the source material (which, as a disclaimer, I haven't read much of at all. Most of my narrative knowledge comes from CQL. So, as always - take this with a grain of salt).

I would argue that any interpretation, popular or unpopular, should not be as straightforward as a direct parallel between each character in a certain group, simply because it's more fun and narratively rich to mix things up rather than simply using character B as a mirror or vehicle for meaning in character A's development. So that said, for the themes you've pointed out, it's very interesting to consider the alternately parallel characters - for instance, placing XXC and NMJ in parallel to each other when the easier interpretation would pair XXC with LXC, or SL with NMJ for their similar personalities and light/dark motifs.

I feel like the class narrative of XY and JGY speaks for itself, considering the main plot's occupation with status, power and orthodoxy, but where you could interpret XXC's blindness as allegory and compare his "blind trust" of XY with LXC's trust of JGY (which is a metaphor I'm not entirely happy making, to be honest, because I must stress: this interpretation reduces XXC's blindness to just an allegory, and I don't have enough knowledge of the novel to claim that as a true criticism of the source material or not), you can equally claim XY takes advantage of XXC's disability to manipulate him, in the same way that JGY orchestrates and uses NMJ's qi deviation for his own advantage.

In both examples, their 'weakness' is exploited and causes them a moral downfall, wherein NMJ and XXC were both once held up as paragons of virtue in that same system that discriminates against XY and JGY. It might also be interesting to compare the nature of their disabilities as well, within the context of the novel: XXC gives up his eyes for SL, yet another virtuous act, but NMJ's qi deviation is hereditary, and holds some stigma due to its - quite literally deviant - nature. Then we have SL and LXC, who both endure the traumatic destruction of their homes, and the displacement that comes after. Interestingly, LXC finds refuge with JGY and happily 'lowers' himself to JGY's status, while SL never gets that opportunity to find another refuge. He gets the inverse: Yi City, where (to circle back to the more popular parallel) he instead mirrors NMJ in that he is also reduced to something deviant in nature.

#i feel like this got away from me but oh well #have some character analysis #it's been a while #nikkiwrites #character analysis #xiao xingchen #nie mingjue #song lan #song zichen #lan xichen #xue yang #jin guangyao #character meta #character parallels #3zun #songxuexiao #nikkianswers #ask anon

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metagalacticx · 2 years

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Teen Wolf

Scira

Mason

Favorite character: scott!

Least Favorite character: peter

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): scira, thiam, scallison, berica, morey

Character I find most attractive: allison, violet

Character I would marry: none tbh

Character I would be best friends with: mason

a random thought: mason and lydia should have teamed up more, i refuse to believe they never had a conversation about her calling his name, and also by the end lydia was so concerned about everyone i think she would have talked to mason more

An unpopular opinion: scott got over what liam did too easily

My Canon OTP: scira

My Non-canon OTP: thiam but also sciles and allydia

Most Badass Character: scott

Most Epic Villain: monroe like i don’t think people appreciate her enough, and also the fact that she escaped and she’s a human? final girl!! who’s seeing her???

Pairing I am not a fan of: st*ter

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): BOYD, because he shouldn’t have died. he should not have died. and the ‘it was worth it’ line was fucked up. also lydia.

Favourite Friendship: liam and mason

Character I most identify with: theo mason

Character I wish I could be: mason, but like, without the trauma??

scira

When I started shipping them: kira’s second ep

My thoughts: one of the best ships in the show, most definitely the healthiest, should have been endgame

What makes me happy about them: they’re both dorks in the most delicious ways. they love each other.

What makes me sad about them: kira leaving and NOT COMING BACK

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: scott moving on um kira not coming back fhdjjd

Things I look for in fanfic: i actually don’t read a lot of scira bc i rarely find good ones that’s just about them, but literally anything with them being happy together melts my dead heart

My wishlist: scira endgame

Who I'd be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: no one, and i’m not joking.

My happily ever after for them: scira endgame, scott joining kira on her journey to self-discovery

mason

How I feel about this character: i love mason hewitt from the crown of my head to the sole of my feet. i think he’s one of the best characters on the show and a great example of how friends should support friends even when they’re cursed to become a monster.

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: corey, theo, liam

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: liam, violet, melissa, deaton, dr. geyer, hayden

My unpopular opinion about this character: he didn’t have as much character development as a huge part of the fandom pretends he did

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: literally i wish he was taken seriously enough as a member of the pack to have been in that final shot in 6b. he wasn’t there and after everything they went through i’m never going to shut up about how disrespectful it was. stiles did the whole ‘passing the torch’ thing with the bat as a metaphor and he was presented as a direct parallel to stiles in his friendship with liam and YET. where was he???

Favourite friendship for this character: liam/violet, and also lydia and kira and scott

My crossover ship: can’t think of any atm sry 😭

#asks #thank uuuu

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halfdoomed-helianthus · 1 year

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no because i wanna talk about nancy and how she’s literally such an interesting character but the duffer brothers are fucking it up so much by repeatedly giving her romantic arcs with jonathan and steve.

like if you watch the first three seasons, almost all of nancy’s storylines are at least partially dependent or centered around steve and/or jonathan and her relationship with them. none of them are just about nancy, you know? the duffer brothers never really let her be her own character outside of her relationships with them.

and what gets me about that is like. nancy was raised in a family that was the pinnacle of the american dream white picket fence type of family. she even says that to jonathan in season one. and it wasn’t until all of the upside down stuff happened that she ever started to be someone outside of that reality. she was following the same path as her parents up until that point.

but she never actually got the proper chance to learn about herself and what she actually wants for her future because she kept being in relationships where she (albeit unintentionally) conformed to what the other person was looking for. which isn’t the fault of either person, that’s always been something that teenagers—especially teenagers with identity issues of some kind—have experienced in their relationships. there’s actually a lot of parallels to steve there—which absolutely contributed to how dysfunctional their relationship was—however the duffer brothers actually gave steve storylines where he was able to develop as an individual, unlike they did with nancy.

season four was really the only season that gave us storylines centered around nancy. ignoring the handful of times her relationships with steve and jonathan were brought up, nancy’s storylines in season four were actually about nancy—what she’s capable of, how she acts, literally who she is as an individual character. in previous seasons we didn’t really get to see a whole lot of nancy’s interactions with people without steve or jonathan as a buffer of some kind. that’s one of the things i loved so much about her scenes with robin—they weren’t really familiar with each other beforehand and we were able to see both of them outside of previously established relationship dynamics (a similar concept to eddie and steve’s relationship but that’s a whole other can of worms for so many reasons). nancy and robin didn’t have any history and we got to see them build that friendship throughout the season without any real influence by other characters. it was just robin and nancy at the core of their characters—which gave us nancy more unmasked and unfiltered than she is with jonathan or steve.

the relationships between nancy and steve and nancy and jonathan were rooted in who nancy was when she had the least direction in her life, the least self-awareness and was the least cognizant about her wants and desires—especially in her relationship with steve. neither pairing was able to truly move past that foundation and they almost clung to those initial versions of nancy from seasons one and two, keeping nancy from fully being able to separate herself from that version of her that doesn’t really exist anymore.

those relationships are actively keeping nancy from becoming her own person. she isn’t able to delve into who she is as an individual because she’s still chained to those relationships—and that’s fully the fault of the duffer brothers. they haven’t let her truly exist as an individual, she’s always been shackled by other people and until the duffer brothers give her the chance to be free from that and look inwardly and introspect on herself as a person, her character will never reach her full potential in the series or have a fitting end to her character arc.

#i didn’t proofread this #just word vomited all of the place #this was the first thing on my mind when i woke up #i wrote this instead of eating breakfast #the duffers are cowards #duffers make it happen #duffers i am in your walls #duffers sleep with one eye open #nancy wheeler #stranger things #stranger things analysis #stranger things season 4 #skye rambles ab stranger things

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elazrielbook · 2 years

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Colour Symbolism of Elriel in the ACOTAR books!

i'll talk about colour first but scroll down for the light and dark parallels of the characters!

so azriels siphons are cobalt blue specifically. his power creates a cobalt blue aura around him too.

now elains colour is pink. elain wears it alot, its associated with her flowers, and it suits her steotypically feminine personality. but she wore a cobalt dress at her first meeting with azriel. not common for her as we usually see her in pinks and purples.

also!! gwyns colour is teal, from her eyes to the priestess stones. they're both described as teal. the priestesses stones nor gwyns eyes are ever said to be anywhere close to the colour of azriels siphons. because ik people like to claim that they're similar colours🥴

along with her colour being pink, lets talk about the acowar cover. its got truth teller on the cover, obviously eluding to one of the biggest moments in the book, elain getting the dagger from azriel and killing hybern with it. the cover has the dagger surrounded by shadows (that also look like roses to some) but even if you don't think its roses, its his dagger and his shadows on a pink cover.

and before you start saying the cover colours have no meaning, i highly doubt they have deep crazy meaning, but shes hardly choosing fully random colours. acotar was red(roses was in the name so thats easy). acomaf was that green/blue teal colour(the night court traditional clothes were described in this colour). acowar was pink(see above). acofas was regular blue('frost' winter, cold vibes). acosf was orange(flames are associated with nesta several times, including the title of her book lol).

i personally think elains book(which is quite obviously next lets not play dumb) will be a pale pink because thats clearly the colour she's associated with most. pinks been dine before but it would be a totally different shade than acowar. same as acomaf/acofas. the only colour of the rainbow left is yellow and i just don't see sjm doing it as i don't think that would be pleasing to look at lol. although elain is described so many times as golden and sunlight, so it does kinda make sense. but hey ya never know.

and look you might think those colours mean nothing and thats fine, but when you pair it with facts like ; each couple got a scene in the colouring book...the acowar cover scene (az giving elain truthteller) was in the colouring book, elucien wasn't. their scene is literally the cover of a book, and the fact that elain and azriel have had more build up moments that nessian got before acosf. how can you ignore that?

light and dark

now many many characters are described as light including mor,helion,elain,gwyn,feyre etc. azriel of course is described as darkness.

but but but, the only one whos light is directly contrasted to azriels darkness is elain.

azriel quite literally means "angel of death" and throughout the story he is consistently compared to death, darkness and shadow.

elain on the other hand literally translates to sunlight. throughout the series she is consistently compared to the sun, the dawn, day, and light/golden light.

gwyns name means holy,white,blessed. in the books, the times where she is described as light is when she sings she quite literally glows. and although this is a brilliant example of light, she is never described as such without the context if that glow while she sings. more importantly its never mentioned in direct contrast with azriels darkness, not even in the bonus chapter.

feyre literally says this when looking at azriel and elain:

"Death, shadows and terrors lurking over his shoulder. Light and dark,"

i just think it foreshadows them so well.

SO much of azriels character revolves around darkness. the shadows are literally part of him. his dark past makes him think less of himself. the dark things he's been through but also the dark things he's done. and yet his softest and most gentle moments are all towards elain. the times where he seems the most content is woth her.

and so much of elains character revolves around light. she's always out in the sun, her personality is light and calm and gentle. and yet she does not balk from azriels darkness. she's also hiding something in acosf showing that she has her own type of darkness. (but don't start w the evil elain theories i'll get bored of shutting yall down lol)

so do with this what you will. i just feel like its so pointless to have all those light and dark parallels for it to not mean anything. like if they both got with other people, those parallels will still be there so people are forever going to think they belong together.

psa: this is not a safe space to hate on azriel, gwyn or elain. talk about the ships and characters kindly

#acotar #elriel #azriel #elain archeron #pro elriel #sjm #acosf #acotar fandom #elain #azriel shadowsinger #anti gwynriel #gw*n #gw*nriel #acowar #acomaf #acotar spoilers #anti gw*nriel

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