#very surface level kind of. themes going on here but wanted to talk about it anyway

[brainrotdotorg]

Brainrotdotorg, Alex. Untitled. May 3rd, 2023. Notebook paper, iridescent medium, clippings from “Why Christianity?” By Ray Comfort, and a review of National Geographic’s In The Womb.

(alt text by @/strawberrygiorno)

#medium on this one isn’t even dry yet lol #this was fun I should make more #god knows I’ve got plenty more resources for it #my art #not to be mega obvious but there’s meaning in the differences in the clippings #hesitate to say this is some kind of conversation between two figures but the voice is intention #very surface level kind of. themes going on here but wanted to talk about it anyway #i don’t make a lot of art like this so uhhhhh it’s a bit wobbly but i still like it

[moongothic]

When people talk about there being "evidence" for the theory that Crocodile could be Luffy's other bio-dad, they tend to point out these kind surface-level details, easter eggs and Crocodile's odd behaviour during the Marineford-arc. And while all of that is very important as it lays down the groundwork for explaining the theory to people, unironically I think there's even more to the theory. When you really think about the implications the theory has on Crocodile's character and how that would tie into the long running narrative elements and themes in One Piece as a whole, I think it kind of changes everything

So, in this post I want to analyze and speculate about the theory, going a bit "beyond" the basics we already know. Heavy emphasis on the speculation-part, because I'm not here to provide conclusive evidence to prove that Crocodad is Real, rather, I'm here to speculate about how it could be real in practise, and try to explain how so many things would suddenly add up if the theory was true. I'm here to prove that Crocodad would make sense on a narrative level.

Quickly starting with a brief-ish summary of the Basic Thesis of the Crocodad Theory, just so we're all on the same page:

Naturally, if you already know the basics, feel free to skip this bit

Crocodile has secret beef with Ivankov. Although there is no proof that the beef has anything to do with Crocodile being trans, when you go out of your way to introduce a new character whose power is Magic HRT, it's a natural conclusion for people to assume that if these two know each other, then Crocodile could be a trans man. And naturally, if we're assuming he's Luffy's other dad, then he has to be trans

Dragon, as the leader of the Revolutionary Army, is in canon considdered to be the world's Most Wanted Criminal. He is extremely famous as pretty much everyone (except Luffy) knows who he is

Crocodile knowing the second-in-command of the Revolutionary Army doesn't inherently mean he was involved with the Revolutionaries, nor that he has ever met Dragon, but being familiar with Ivankov means it is entirely plausible the two could've met in the past

(Sidenote but I do have a loose theory how Crocodile could've been involved with the Revolutionaries; not relevant here but if you wanted to read it, here you go)

Despite this, when Dragon is revealed to be Luffy's father during the Summit War, although Oda includes the reactions of all the other Shichibukai, he very specifically leaves out Crocodile's reaction to the revelation. This is suspicious as hell, because surely, between his ties with Ivankov and Dragon being world famous, he would've had some thoughts about Luffy being Dragon's son (wrote about this in more depth)

For Crocodad to be real, we are assuming that Crocodile did not know Luffy was Dragon's/his son until Sengoku's announcement during Marineford, this being the reason Oda didn't show that reaction; it would've been too revealing

(We are assuming that Dragon never told Crocodile his name; this is entirely plausible considdering his full name had been a secret to the whole world (as explained post-Enies Lobby), and Dragon had kept the existence of his son a secret even from Ivankov and Kuma. We also need to assume that Crocodile did not name his son, otherwise surely he would have realized Luffy was his son when they met in Alabasta)

This is why Crocodile ends up saving Luffy's life twice in Marineford (as well as Ace's) when until the revelation he had no reason to even care about the idiot

Crocodile choosing to save Luffy's life probably means one of two things; either he really hates the World Government more than the child who foiled his plans to take over Alabasta, or he cares about his son despite knowing Luffy hates his guts

Again, this is just the basic concept, if you want to read more and see all the more easter egg-type hints, I'd reccomend this post, this post and this post (the third one repeats most of the stuff the first two do in but less detail, but also adds a few more notes extra notes). But now that we're generally speaking on the same level, we can delve deeper.

Please, go get yourself a drink and maybe a snack, this is gonna get long and deranged

Going to start with a fairly small thing.

Through out the series Oda has been repeatedly hinting at Crocodile having A Past, some History, A Backstory that lead to him becoming the way he is. But Oda hasn't actually told us what that backstory is. On the surface, this wouldn't be that strange, after all, there's lots of characters whose backstories we haven't seen, for example Mihawk. We know essentially nothing about that man and how he became the way he is. But what's different about Crocodile as opposed to Mihawk and many others, is that Oda hasn't hinted at there being an interesting backstory there that's worth telling. Like I'm sure Mihawk could have an interesting story, but Oda hasn't alluded to that at all. So the fact that he has repeatedly told us that Crocodile does have a backstory, but at most gave us two whole breadcrumbs in an SBS, is a little suspicious. (For clarity, the hints we've gotten so far to Crocodile's backstory were his repeated comments about not trusting people and how he had given up his dreams in Alabasta, while Summit War gave us the Secret Beef with Ivankov and his grudge against Whitebeard. In an SBS in Vol 78, Oda did confirm that Crocodile had his ass kicked by Whitebeard after he became a Warlord in his early 20s, and that he went "quiet for a while" until he started his heroics around his 30s, setting his eyes on Alabasta. Indeed, we have some breadcrumbs of lore, but this hardly paints a full picture. We know nothing abot what he was doing in his late 20s, which would've been the time Luffy was born btw)

What I'm getting at, is that Crocodile clearly has a backstory, but the fact that Oda hasn't spilled the beans yet would indicate to me that it's likely Oda has been saving up that backstory. Which would make sense, Crocodile hasn't been in a role in the story yet where spending time to tell his story would've been appropriate. So really, we're just waiting for the right time for those beans to be finally spilled. But what makes things even more interesting is that One Piece has a very specific track record of not giving its villians extended and dedicated backstories/flashbacks. Villians can cameo in other characters' flashbacks (Moria, Arlong), they can have their own little segments inside the the heroic characters' flashbacks (Orochi, Doflamingo), they might even get their own SHORT dedicated flashbacks (Lucci whose flashback was 6 whole panels long). But villians do not get their OWN, dedicated and EXTENDED flashbacks. Flashbacks are for the heroic characters. There has been a single exception to this rule and that was Big Mom. That's it. And while I'm positive this rule is going to be broken at least one more time before the series ends, really. What do you think is more likely to happen? That Crocodile becomes such an important villian again, this late in the game, that he deserves his own flashback so we can finally find out what his deal is? (When Blackbeard and Imu are also there mind you) Or that Crocodile's role in the story might not be that of a villian anymore, and that Oda had been saving up his backstory all this time because it could reframe his entire character and how we view him?

Oda loves taking inspiration from various mythologies and pop culture alike to bring life into his work.

This is nothing new or surprising, we all know this. For example, Oda did base the original seven Shichibukai on the Seven Heroes from Romancing SaGa 2, each Warlord more or less matching a description of one of the game's villians. Crocodile just happens to match Wagnas, the queer coded leader of the group, who had the noble swordsman Noel (Mihawk) by his side when the group was created to save the world from a great evil. Meanwhile Alabasta as a whole took a lot of inspiration of Egyptian mythology, Crocodile in that arc matching the role of the crocodile-god Sobek. Sobek is a protector god ("Guardian of Alabasta"), associated with military power (literally what Crocodile wanted to obtain) and fertility, carrying the epithet of "he who loves robbery" (man stole a lot of things, from money and lives to rain and nearly a whole dang country). Sobek's name is speculated to come from the words "to impregnate" or "to unite", both being potentially very interesting coincidences (depending on if Crocodad Real and what Cross Guild's purpose in the story is going to be) (if you want more details you can go read the Wikipedia article on Sobek). (Also I'm sure there's something interesting to be said about Sobek's fusion with the sun deity Ra, Sobek-Ra, and how Luffy is our lil Sun God)

The reason I'm pointing this out is that based on Oda's hinting and/or references to mythologies, people have in the past been able to predict certain plot twists and reveals way ahead of time. For example, most recently people were able to predict that Saint Saturn had been the one to give Ginny (and by extension, Bonney) the Sapphire Scale-disease based on a certain legent about ushi-oni, which is what Saturn just happens to be. (Here's one of the many Reddit posts that predicted that reveal) And there is one particular story from Japanese mythology I want to bring up, as it may be relevant to our Crocodad Discussion here. The story of Toyotama Hime. Here's a quick TL:DR;

Princess Toyotama had travelled from the depths of the ocean onto land so she could give birth to her child. When the time to deliver the baby came, Toyotama asked for her husband, Hoori, to not look at her while she gave birth, as she would change into her true form. And while Hoori promised he wouldn't look, he couldn't keep the promise. He peeked in on her wife as she was giving birth, only to discover that she had transformed into a gigantic wani. Horrified by what he had seen, Hoori fled, leaving his wife and child behind. Hurt by what had happened, Toyotama abandoned her son and returned to the ocean. (You can read different summaries of the legend on the Wani-article as well as Toyotama's article on Wikipedia)

Now historically speaking, "wani" in mythology can have referred to serpent dragons, sharks or sea monsters. But in modern Japanese, the word translates to "crocodile". It's what Luffy and a few other characters call Crocodile on numerous occassions. Hell, Crocodile's favorite pets are his gigantic bananawani. Historically speaking it might be more accurate to say that Toyotama had transformed into a sea serpent, but for our intents and purposes, Hoori abandoned Toyotama after she became a crocodile.

I can not tell you what exactly the relationship between Dragon and Crocodile was like, how it began and how it ended. There's no way for us to know when Crocodile transitioned (beyond "after giving birth to Luffy"), nor do we know how Dragon found out about it and how he reacted to it. There's a million options for how things could've gone down, and nothing to truly go off of to even make a guess. All we do really know, is that 1) Dragon does not seem to wear rings at all. 2) Crocodile wears rings, but leaves one out specifically on his ring finger, where one would normally wear their engagement/wedding ring (mind you; for the first half of Alabasta Oda drew Crocodile without a ring on his middle finger, but from the latter half onwards, through Impel Down and Marineford, it's always the ring finger). 3) This suspicious ass comment

"I don't know they have kids or not" YEAH RIGHT

If we wanted to use the story of Toyotama Princess as a jumping off-point though. It's entirely plausible that soon after giving birth Crocodile transitioned thanks to Ivankov's ability, and because Dragon wasn't into it, the two broke up/got divorced. The unfortunate reality is that many couples end up breaking up if/when a partner comes out as trans and chooses to transition. Just like Hoori abandoned his wife because she turned into a crocodile, Dragon could've divorced Crocodile because he transitioned into a man. And Dragon would not be a bad person for it (as long as he was respectful about it). If Dragon is straight and just couldn't see himself being with a man, that's just how it is. At the same time, this would be a gut wrenching, painful thing to go through, and this kind of heartbreak could have devastating concequences for Crocodile's character. Concequences that could play deeply into One Piece's long running narrative elements, which is why a lot of my speculation from here on does end up relying on the Toyotama Myth possibly being inspiration for Crocodile's secret backstory. I acknowledge there's no quarantee that's the case, but I am here to make an argument for why it could be.

QUICK SIDENOTES

As mentioned before, although Ivankov holds the key to a weakness Crocodile has (in their own words), we don't know what that weakness is.

Crocodile joined the Shichibukai in the first half of his 20s (SBS vol 78), and he would've been 27 years old when Luffy was born. This means it's nearly impossible for Crocodile to be stealth trans, as he would've been a public figure for years; which means, Crocodile could be openly trans

A single earring on the right ear can be read as a "gay earring". The man does like his jewelry, so there's no proof he's signaling that he's gay, but if Crocodile's happy to let the world know he's into men, then surely there'd be no issue with him being openly trans either

His transition would've happened 17 years ago pre-timeskip, so in-universe it'd be old ass news and not worth bringing up to the readers if it doesn't add anything to the current plot or his character (which it wouldn't have during Alabasta nor Summit War)

If Crocodile's secret weakness wasn't him being stealth trans, and Ivankov can't detransition him against his will (can't hit Crocodile without Armanent Haki), then what is that secret weakness Ivankov knows about?

As Dragon told Kuma: "A child is a parent's weakness". If Ivakov was anywhere near Crocodile when his child was born (so that Crocodile was able to transition as soon as the kid was out) Ivankov could/should know about the child existing, and would thus be able to blackmail Crocodile by holding the information of his secret child hostage

However, Ivankov did not know about Dragon having a child

Meaning if Crocodile and Dragon were in a relationship, it must have happened in secret, otherwise Ivankov should've realized Crocodile gave birth to Dragon's child

So One Piece has a lot of narrative elements that come up time and time again through out the story,

And some of these have become more and more relevant in the story especially post-timeskip. This is not a comprehensive list of all of them, just the ones that could heavily tie into Crocodile if he were Luffy's other dad, as they could reframe his character. So, let's look at these narrative elements, how they've appeared in the story so far, and speculate how they could reflect in Crocodile.

🐊 People existing in the wrong bodies / bodies that have been altered (and what it means for you to be "you"/how does your body reflect who is on the inside) 🐊 Queerness

Wrote about this more in-depth in this post, but to keep things short; Thriller Bark, Punk Hazard, Dressrosa and Wano all heavily featured characters who have had their bodies either temporarily or permanently altered, sometimes with the person's consent and sometimes without it. Not to mention all the various characters through out the series who have gone through similar things, like Franky, Kuma as well as Brook, among countless others. As well as every Devil Fruit user who can transform their body (including every single Zoan user). People, the way they inhibit their bodies and the freedom to be who you are is very important to One Piece. That is already a very queer-coded narrative, but then we also have explicitly queer characters. Queer characters, who have been deeply important to the story, and whose presence has become more and more prevalent with time. Not to mention how queerness in general has been "escalating" over the course of the story. There's this video from Berry for A Thought on YouTube which explains this more in-depth, but to summarize the most important observation from the video; we have slowly gone from Kuina wishing she had been born a man, to non-binary drag queens (first one being able to temporarily change their own bio-sex by turning into someone else, to the second one being able to change anyone's bio-sex permanently), to two pre-transition transgender characters. All we really need for this escalation to reach its "peak" is if we had a (named, non-background) transgender character who has already transitioned. Unsurprisingly, Crocodile could fill that role really nicely.

🐊 Loneliness

Loneliness is generally speaking a very important theme in One Piece, as it's on the opposite side of coin with friendship on it. So many of our main characters have suffered for years from loneliness, by being ostracized and rejected by their communities, abandoned by their families, sometimes suffering for decades for the sake of their loved ones because they had promises to keep. Luffy himself considders loneliness to be most painful, scary thing imaginable.

Loneliness is something queer people struggle with. A lot. Being rejected by your loved ones for who you are is a painful, common experience for many. It alone can keep many queer people in the closet for years and decades, because the fear of being left alone and abandoned is too much to bear. Some people are accepting of queers but only as long as they stay "over there", pulling a full 180 when a family member comes out. Some people only ""accept"" trans people as long as they don't transition. And while some people may appear to be accepting of you when you come out or are early into your transition, many (trans men especially) lose friends and support the more they start to pass. Crocodile does not trust people. He set up base in Alabasta sometime around the age of 30, meaning he spent around 14 years by himself (until he recruited Robin), unable to trust anyone. That's a long time to be alone. Of course, there may have been a practical side to why Crocodile chose to spend over a decade in utter emotional solitude. If he was scheming to take over a country, then having anybody close who could leak his plans out and foil them would be dangerous. Hell, it's exactly what happened thanks to Robin. But having your significant other destroy your ability to trust people and then isolating yourself to avoid further heartbreak and "betrayal" could be another, potential reasoning as to why Crocodile chose solitude.

🐊 Two failed weddings and one relationship that never was

In Thriller Bark we witnessed Nami almost get married off to Absalom. On Whole Cake Island, we almost saw Sanji get married into Big Mom's family. During Egghead arc, we saw how Kuma never got to have the relationship with Ginny he had yearned for deep inside. I already mentioned Crocodile's missing ring. How his relationship with Dragon might not have worked out because of his transition. How Crocodile's queerness could've lead into solitude, out of distrust. We already have three relationships that never worked out. So how about a fourth one.

🐊 What makes a family (/chosen families) 🐊 Family reunions (with blood-relatives) 🐊 What it's like when your blood-relatives are really horrible people

For the first half of the series, One Piece did very much focus on the concept of chosen families, as most of the Strawhats grew up with non-blood relatives that they all considdered just as much family as their actual blood relatives (if not more-so); Luffy with Ace and Sabo, Sanji and Zeff, Nami, Nojiko and Béllemere, Chopper and Hiruluk, Franky and Tom's Workers. Chosen families are deeply important to this story. At the same time, a lot of post-timeskip OP has actually revolved around (blood) family reunions. Punk Hazard was about sending the kidnapped children back to their families (as well as Momonosuke to ""his father"" Kin'emon), Dressrosa was about reuniting all the broken families Doflamingo (and his family) had torn apart. Whole Cake Island was about Sanji reuniting with his blood family while being forced into a whole new one, and Wano allowed Momonosuke to reunite with his sister (and Kin'emon with his wife). On Egghead we've gotten to see the gutwrenching reunion between Bonney and Kuma, and we are all dying to see Luffy meet Dragon eventually. Not to mention all the other reunions many of us are waiting to see, like Shanks and Buggy, Moria and Perona. Luffy and Garp (currently held hostage by Blackbeard), Mihawk and Zoro. And many others. But indeed, not all the family reunions have been good. Sometimes, the blood relatives have been horrible people. Like Big Mom (to some of her children and husbands), Judge and Kaidou. Sometimes, your blood relatives suck ass.

Needless to say, Sir "I tried to bomb one million people to take over a country" Crocodile is not exactly the greatest guy around. But what might be arguably more important is that... Why is Crocodile a plot-relevant character again, on an emotional level? As I mentioned, characters like Buggy and Mihawk relate to certain characters, so potentially getting to see them reunite with other characters would have emotional weight behind it. Mihawk and Buggy are both relevant characters both to the plot but also on an emotional level, their return to the spotlight makes sense. But then we have Crocodile, a fellow member of Cross Guild. Sure, he's definitely there to help move the plot along, no doubt about that. But emotionally speaking, why the hell is he here again? Is there a character he could "reunite with" that would have that same kind of emotional weight behind it? You could argue Vivi perhaps, but between Vivi hating the man's guts and and Crocodile probably not giving a damn about her, I'm not sure that reunion would have that much emotional weight? Robin on the other hand could be very interesting, considdering she did live under Crocodile's protection for four years until she betrayed him, an action that seemed to have stung Crocodile. That reunion could be deeply interesting.

But you know what this post is about. If Crocodile is Luffy's other dad, then those two coming across each other would suddenly have enormous weight on it even if Luffy himself didn't know about it. Because if Luffy were to find out, Luffy would then have to decide if he'd acknowledge Crocodile as his other dad or disown him. Mind you, Crocodile already knows that Luffy hates his guts for what he did in Alabasta, not to even mention the fact that he tried to kill him three whole times. Luffy has every reason in the world to hate Crocodile. The man surely understands that. But then there's the fact that Crocodile isn't Luffy's mom, but his transgender father. If Dragon rejected Crocodile for being trans, why would his son be any different? Which raises the question, would Crocodile be afraid of that? Of meeting Luffy again? Of Luffy somehow finding out and then getting rejected by him too? How does Crocodile feel about any of this? Now of course, we the readers already know that Luffy canonically loves and respects queer people. Luffy would never look down on Crocodile for him being his dad (the warcrimes are different). But Crocodile doesn't know that. And this is what I mean by there being emotional weight on these two reuniting, as anything that could go down between these two could have massive concequences for Crocodile's character. And please, keep in mind, although Oda hasn't dwelled too deep into the subject in One Piece, there are people who aren't accepting of queers in this world.

This prince, and his entire kingdom, could not accept his mother for who she was. An entire country crumbled because their queen came out as trans. So just like there are accepting families (including Kaidou strangely enough), there are unaccepting, queerphobic ones too. So the fear of rejection would not be unfounded. (Also, if Crocodile and Dragon are divorced then those two coming across each other, especially after The Shit Crocodile pulled in Alabasta, would have a lot emotional weight on it too.)

🐊 The things you are willing to do and sacrifice to protect your loved ones

Shanks gave up his arm for Luffy. Zeff ate his leg so Sanji could have actual food. Béllemere died for her daughters while Nami sacrificed her freedom in an attempt to save her village. Tom gave up his life to protect Franky and Iceburg. Robin attempted to sacrifice her life so the Strawhats could continue their journey in peace. Sanji gave up his freedom for Baratie and the Strawhats. And so many countless more lives, given up for the sake of others.

So people often give Dragon shit for being a "deadbeat dad". I've discussed this in the past, so to keep it short; the World Government went out of its way to hunt an unborn child, hurting countless pregnant women, mothers and newborns while chasing for Gold Roger's son. A child who had "evil blood" and had to be exterminated from the world. Similarly, the World Government went out of its way to put a massive bounty on an eight year old child for the crime of being able to read ancient texts. Dragon would have known and understood that if he ever had a child, as the leader of the Revolutionary Army, his child would become yet another target for the World Government to hunt, just like Ace and Robin did. This should also apply to Crocodile; if the WG found out about him having been involved with the Revolutionaries they would no doubt strip him of his Shichibukai status and make him a wanted man again. Crocodile's child would thus be in just as much danger, even if the Government didn't realize it was ALSO Dragon's son. If Dragon wanted his son to be free and choose his own path in life, Dragon had to keep his distance from Luffy. The same would apply to Crocodile. Luffy probably ended up in Garp's care, not because his parents didn't want to raise him, but because they wanted Luffy to be free.

But as long as the World Government exists, if they ever found out about Dragon having a son, that child would end up in danger, he could become a target. And the only way to ensure that child's safety would be by eliminating the ultimate threat. The Government.

Now that is the ultimate goal of the Revolutionary Army anyways, something Dragon and co have been working towards for over two decades now. But most of their efforts have gone into freeing small countries by overthrowing corrupt governments and gaining support, little by little. Which is understandable, the WG is impossibly powerful, you can't just walk into Marijoa all willy-nilly, take out the Tenryuubito and free the world, the Government's forces would take you down within seconds. Dragon understands this, which is no doubt why the Revolutionary Army hasn't made a move against Marijoa directly until the latest Reverie. It'd be too risky, and if the Revs were taken down, who would be left to oppose the WG? Their slow approach makes sense. But at the same time, while the Revs did attack Marijoa, destroying the Tenryuubito's food banks and freeing a single slave... as long as the Tenryuubito are allowed to literally stay on top of the world, this attack has done nothing. They're just going to demand more tributes, they're going to enslave more people. It's going to make things worse for those who aren't in power. It's harsh and unreasonable, and I don't agree with them, but I do understand where some fans are coming from when they considder Dragon a "fraud". If you wanted to help free the world from this corrupt rule, then you have to actually strip those in power from their status, otherwise nothing will ever change. You have to actually fight the enemy.

I can not tell you for certain why Crocodile wanted to create "a military nation powerful enough to oppose the World Government", I do not know for sure why he wanted to obtain an Ancient Weapon. But nuking Marijoa out of orbit sure would be a fast way to end the rule of the Tenryuubito, ensure nobody would get hurt by the World Government's corruption and slavery ever again, and make sure your son would never become targetted by them. A line of thought I'm sure Dragon would not have agreed with. But a line of thought Crocodile could believe in.

Remember how we still don't quite know what Cross Guild is up to? How the Shichibukai are based on Romancing SaGa 2's Seven Heroes, a group formed by Wagnas (Crocodile) with the swordsman Noel (Mihawk) by his side to save the world from a great evil? And how Cross Guild has been focusing on hunting down Marines by putting bounties on their heads? Make of that what you will.

🐊 Learning not just to love and trust others but to be loved as well

Robin tried to sacrifice herself not just because she loved the Strawhats, but because she thought she herself was unlovable and did not trust the crew, believing they too would betray her eventually. Sanji tried to sacrifice himself because he thought he was unworthy of being loved. Ace went through most of his life, thinking it would've been better if he had never been born at all. We know Crocodile does not trust people. The logical assumption here is that it's because he was betrayed in the past and had his trust broken. Did he ever have a crew, in his younger pirating days? If so, what happened to them? Did they betray him, leave him? After Whitebeard kicked his ass? Who knows. If Crocodile was in a relationship with Dragon though, it does mean that one point he loved and trusted someone, deeply. So much so they had a child. But if their relationship ended because Crocodile is trans, that would have broken his heart, wouldn't it? Made it hard for him to trust anyone ever again. And what would make you believe you were unlovable more than being rejected by your significant other for being queer. But as I mentioned before; Luffy loves and respects trans people. His affection towards queer characters through out the series is absolutely unmatched (the way he exclusively uses the "-chan" honorific for Bon Kurei, Ivankov and Inazuma, calls Yamato a man, and is far more interested in Okiku's spooky mask than her being trans). What would be a better way for Crocodile to be reminded that he can be loved and that he can trust others than being accepted by his estranged son?

🐊 Inherited Will

In Alabasta we learn Crocodile once had a dream that he gave up upon after learning how strong the most powerful pirates of the Grand Line, the ones standing between him and his dreams, truly were. In Marineford we learn Crocodile lost to Whitebeard in his youth. During Miss Goldenweek's Cover story, we learn Crocodile dreamt of becoming Pirate King.

A dream that he shares with Luffy. An inherited will Luffy carries on.

You know the RPG trope where the final boss is either god or your dad? Yeah. This line really hits different when you shout it at your father.

Now, all of this is fine and dandy, but what does this actually do? How would Crocodile being Luffy's other bio-father add to his character, impact Luffy and the story as a whole?

Now there's no way for me to fully predict how the plot is going to develop through out the Final Saga and what might go down. There's a million moving pieces and a billion potential directions things could go. We could be here forever debating those things. But as I did explain in detail already, if Crocodad Real, it could heavily impact Crocodile's character depending on what does/doesn't happen.

For one, we could have an idea of why Crocodile is a plot relevant character again; if his ultimate goal had always been to destroy the World Government to protect his son at whatever cost, then we might know why he wanted to create Cross Guild to begin with; either create a military force strong enough to fight the WG on their own, or, if nothing else, dwindle down the Government's forces and be a general nuisance that leaves the WG vulnerable (perhaps enough so that the Revolutionaries can do the hard work) and/or unable to spend their resources on hunting down Luffy and the Strawhats. Crocodile could be acting as bait, a distraction to protect his son. There's a few options there. This would also give us an idea of where that Cross Guild plotline could be heading; some people believe CG is there to join the race for One Piece and get defeated by the Strawhats, and that'll be the end of it. But now we would have another option, of Cross Guild joining the expected final war against the World Government together with the Strawhats and the Revolutionary Army. So that's one way Crocodad could impact the story and the general direction its heading.

But then there's the character-side of things, how would Crocodad impact our characters? Now obviously, the three characters that would be most impacted by the theory would be Crocodile, Luffy and Dragon. There's some other characters too, Ivankov (since they didn't know), Robin, potentially some Cross Guild members (could they learn to respect Crocodile more sincerely if they learned that the man did in fact have a heart and something/someone he cared about and wanted to protect?) and maybe even Garp, but realistically, it's the core of the family itself.

Now Dragon already would know about everything so there'd be no Shocking Revelation for him. And based on what we saw him say about Sabo maybe being responsible for Cobra's death at the Reverie, we can make an educated guess that Dragon is Not Happy With What Crocodile Did In Alabasta.

So the two aren't on good terms, probably. Dragon might just be absolutely furious at Crocodile for what he did. Understandable tbh. I guess we're just going to be left wondering if the two could somehow ever reconcile, and whether or not they still love each other deep down, despite all the pain and hurt (and warcrimes) they've gone through.

Then there's Luffy. And I guess everything boils down to two major questions; will Luffy ever find out the truth, and if he does, will that impact how he feels about Crocodile? 'Cause it's entirely plausible the series could end with Crocodad being real and Luffy never finding out. And in that scenario, well, Crocodad could impact those other aspects of the story, just not Luffy. And in some ways that could be fine too. It could still be meaningful for Crocodile (and Dragon) that way. But what if Luffy did find out? Now, mind you, it's already a bit of a mystery how Luffy feels Crocodile as of now in the story; back in Impel Down he still understandably hated the man's guts with a fiery passion, but after Marineford Luffy does kind of owe Crocodile his life after he saved him. And Luffy is generally speaking pretty respectful when it comes to stuff like that. But also Luffy was unconcious when Crocodile yeeted him and Jinbei out of Akainu's reach, so does Luffy even know Crocodile saved him? (Though surely he would remember Croc sparing Ace and getting guarded from Mihawk) Not to mention, when the Cross Guild reveal happened, the only comments we got about it where Luffy calling Buggy an idiot and Zoro being confused about Mihawk being there. They didn't even acknowledge Crocodile. It was almost like Oda seemed to avoid the subject?

We also need to considder how much would Luffy find out? Just the basics, that his other parent is a trans man and just happens to be Crocodile? Or like, everything? From whatever his plans were with taking over Alabasta to however Crocodile might feel about his sweet baby boy? Because if all Crocodile had wanted to do was protect his son, despite knowing he might never see him again, and if Crocodile did still unconditionally love Luffy despite everything that happened, despite knowing (/assuming) that Luffy already hates him... Well first off, Robin nearly assassinated Iceburg and was willing to let the World Government potentially get their hands on an Ancient Weapon just to protect Luffy and co (on top of all the deaths she helped cause while working for Crocodile, all because she wanted to read the Poneglyph herself). If Luffy was willing to forgive Robin for all that, would he not forgive his dad for doing the same? And Luffy isn't one to dismiss kindness, when people express that they genuinely care about him and his well being Luffy does respect that (even if doesn't fully reciprocate the feelings, like with Hancock). And Luffy has deep emotional intelligence too. If Crocodile was convinced he'd be rejected by Luffy for who he was, especially if that had happened to him in the past to begin with, over something Luffy wouldn't bat an eyelash at (like being trans), like. Luffy wouldn't be shitty about that.

We know Crocodile is a broken, traumatized man. We don't know how much shit he has gone through though, beyond getting his ass beat by Whitebeard and The Divorce. Knowing how Oda likes to layer trauma in character backstories*, there definitely could be more to Crocodile than just those two things, but for the sake of this post, let's just focus on The Divorce. *(Like how Robin was alienated by her community long before the Ohara Genocide, and then spent decades of her life fleeing from the Government, hurt and abandoned by people time and time again. Or how Kuma was born into slavery, lost the love of his life and finally gave up everything he had just to save the life of his daughter. Early OP flashbacks may have been a bit simpler, but as time as gone they have definitely gotten more complex and layered, so I would not be surprised if Crocodile's Full Backstory had like 3+ layers to his trauma)

One important part of One Piece has been teaching/reminding certain characters important lessons, to change their view of the world and make them better people as a result.

Here's some of the messages of One Piece, its beating heart and soul

And of course, sometimes some characters can't have their minds changed, at least not that easily. But their ideals and worldview can always be challenged and proven wrong. This is what happens to many of the villians in the story. Like Moria's ideas of how he shouldn't have to do any of the hard lifting himself and how instead of having friends he can just have replacable zombies instead. Moria's worldview was wrong, and is exactly what led to his downfall in Thriller Bark. Or Spandam and the CP9's ideas of justice, how anything they do can be justified as it is for the "good of the world", including killing innocent civilians. They can do that, because they are "heroes of the world", they are "justice". Needless to say, none of the CP9's actions during Enies Lobby could be considdered "heroic", and, well. If "justice always prevails", then their defeat did prove theirs was a false one. Or how Enel isn't a god, how Doflamingo doesn't have a god given right to rule (neither does Wapol for that matter), how Akainu's ideas of "absolute justice" are monstrous at best, how the way Judge and Big Mom treat their families is not how a family should be like at all.

During Alabasta, Crocodile's plans were foiled because of he didn't trust his underlings with his secret identity and refused to communicate properly with them himself. That one conversation between Crocodile and "Mr. 3" (Sanji) is more or less what allowed the Strawhats to reach Alabasta just in time to stop him. But although distrust is what lead to Crocodile's downfall, he still carries that core belief even now; he still doesn't trust others. Which raises the question, what other beliefs might Crocodile still carry deep inside?

That he can't trust anyone because people will betray and leave him sooner or later? That nobody would ever stay by his side, that nobody will ever love him?

Are those not the exact same core messages of One Piece, the false beliefs that we've seen proven wrong, time and time again?

It really wouldn't be right to end the series without Luffy proving Crocodile wrong once and for all, and make him change his worldview, now would it? But hey, the good news is that there might be no better way to prove Crocodile wrong than to have his son unconditionally forgive him and accept him as his father.

All of this to say; yes, I think if Crocodad was real, it would heavily impact Crocodile's character and whatever character arc he might have. Like I'm not arguing for Crocodad in the name of meme'ing. His whole story could suddenly tie into so many of series' core themes and messages, and tie into our main character in a meaningful way. It could impact heavily where the story as a whole is heading.

The other, more likely option is that Crocodad isn't real and that I have lost my marbles thinking I was onto something with this post. In the end, time will be the judge of that. Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed my utter derangement.

#Moon posting #OP Meta #Sir Crocodile #Crocodad #If you've been following me for long enough and read most of my daily CrocoPosting then this is mostly repeating shit I've already posted #But there is also some shit that's like. I can't remember if I posted it or if it's still rotting in my drafts unfinished #This is. So obscenely long. Good dear god. #But this is it. This is my fucking thesis. #My Brain is Soup

[earthstellar]

Currently combing through the Transformers Exodus novel, as I often do.

Some notes, by which I mean, this is going to be long:

Using an Abandoned Hydraulic Mining Facility as a Battle Arena: This Sort Of Happened in Real Life -- Know Your Labour History

The building in Kaon that is used by Megatron for gladiatorial battle is an abandoned hydraulics works, and on the page prior to this it refers to extremely deep slag pits, which indicates this hydraulics facility was almost certainly used for mining. The location is given specifically as "to the south of Kaon's centre".

This makes me wonder if the now-abandoned Orgreave Coking Plant may have been some inspiration to someone somewhere in building the backstory; A coking plant uses massive amounts of hydraulic machinery and components, and the location of this specific facility is to the south of the centre of Rotherham.

Plenty of Brits work on Transformers, and I wonder if any English people who may have been on the team for developing the Aligned Continuity bible/character backstories might have thought of Orgreave as some kind of inspiration.

It's worth noting Orgreave Coking Plant was famously the site of a huge labour dispute which turned into a borderline Battle of Harlan situation, called the Battle of Orgreave in 1984.

Which makes it excellent potential inspiration, both visually and in terms of historical significance in union/labour and working class struggle against the oppressive upper class- A significant theme in Transformers.

Nearby, there is also the abandoned Orgreave Colliery, and while all abandoned collieries would fit the mechanical and dark, heavy design of Kaon, Tarn (the location, not the bot) and so on, it's still worth pointing out that Orgreave has plenty of industrial ghosts (abandoned industrial facilities).

That having been said, hydraulic mining works could also refer to actual hydraulic mining methods rather than just any hydraulic machinery present, which would also explain the large pits that Orion Pax sees at the site in Kaon, and would add another level of horror: Using fluids to carry out this type of mining would be a huge hazard to bots. I'd imagine rusting was a common problem, not to mention gradual armour/frame wear, increased fall/slip hazards for most frame types, etc.

CONTENT WARNING: Here's where some medical conjecture begins, you might want to skip this section if you're sensitive to medical discussions! There is no detailed comparison to any particular real world cases in this segment, however there is brief mention of ableism in a fictional context.

This would also account for the description of optics and audials needing more frequent repair even prior to suffering any gladiatorial damage--

--In some frame types, these components/sensory systems may be more exposed to the environmental pollution as mentioned in the text, but also, would be sensitive to abrasive damage from spray back/high pressure soil/stone/crystal like particulate materials present in Cybertron's surface and sub-surface layers acting essentially as sand paper against their bodies as they worked in any such hydraulic mining sites.

This is the type of shit Kaonite workers in these mining facilities were likely exposed to on a regular basis, because they are Cybertronians and could physically tolerate this kind of thing without dying-- At least, not right away.

A combination of repeated extreme wear, chronic overwork, likely poor medical resources, and complicating factors like questionable access to healthy fuels etc. would have inevitably resulted in a generally very unwell population with high workplace casualty rates.

This was the type of life most low class/caste heavy labour designated frame types were assigned to, under the Functionist system.

I've talked about my headcanons re: hearing disabled Megatron before, and it's kind of interesting to see that canonically here, that's very much possible. Audial damage from mining, audial damage from the fighter's ring.

But in general, the Kaonite population is seriously at risk, especially medically. Same deal with other low class/caste designated regions across Cybertron. Much like many Appalachian mining populations, where COPD is as common as flies in summer, the chronically poor health of this population would be staggering in comparison to better-off polities like Iacon.

Rust in their optics, rotting their optical components from within, likely leaving many workers sightless--

--At which point they were probably deemed "useless" under the ableist Functionist system, as they would then likely be unable to work their prior jobs or would only be able to work in limited or different capacities; Any system that determines worth by perceived functionality is inherently ableist, and Primus knows there were almost certainly no disability accommodations provided or available potential repairs/treatments in places like Kaon on Cybertron.

As a result, these newly disabled bots were likely left unemployed and therefore without any income source for Shanix, therefore left to their deaths via fuel deprivation etc.--

--Unless they fell in with mob-controlled sources of materials or aid, as a last resort...

Apparently Megatron Displaced The Local Kaonite Mafia: Pit Bosses Could Be Mob Bosses Too

This is also a real thing, as a lot of productive industrial facilities (not just mining, but textiles etc.) were often tied into in local black market raw material goods and organised crime shit, owing to less than moral site owners and company bosses. (At least in the USA, it may have varied in other countries or from region to region.)

This is because if you have a productive facility, you can make a fuckload of money bypassing any common sense safety rules or proper waste/product handling or disposal protocols etc. and skip the whole regulated market and just go right to making a fuckzillion moneys from whoever will buy this shit illegally.

(This is part of why a lot of Appalachia is polluted to hell and back-- Even at the time, a lot of these industrial works and companies knew perfectly well that dumping coal ash and other horrible shit into every single river and creek available was a bad idea. They did it anyway. Why? It saved money overall and they didn't have to pay for more long distance drivers to reach actual approved waste sites etc.

For those of you who may not be familiar with this USA specific shit, let me introduce you to the concept of a Superfund Site. It's depressing. Most are former industrial illegal waste dumping sites. These places are so fucked up that even the American Government was forced to acknowledge how bad it is. Some of them are straight up literal nuclear waste sites.)

This has been a huge problem in American industrial history, because America can turn out some very, very productive sites using very, very unsafe and cruel means to force workers to work. Paying in scrip etc. were all methods to ensure a workforce could not leave. And so on.

Not to mention the horrendous impact on Native populations, the poor in general, immigrants in general, etc. who were all subject to the worst possible treatment throughout.

And there are many modern examples too-- Not just in the USA, but in many places around the world, such as Peru. Note that capitalism is often the facilitator of mistreatment, pollution, etc. and serves as the motivating factor for much of this fuckery worldwide. This also includes factors like western companies wanting to appear more "green", so they simply go abroad to abuse people in other nations and exploit their labour and raw labour products instead.

Capitalism is the root problem, on Earth and evidently, likely on Cybertron as well.

Can you imagine the amount of Shanix these fucking Kaonite mob bosses were making, possibly from selling raw materials and energon crystals mined in Kaon to other polities with fewer natural resources, arranging illicit under the table deals with large energy distributors etc. in other regions? Depriving Kaon of its own natural goods and stealing the near-entirety of their labour, constantly, endlessly?

(If this all reminds you a bit of Marx's Theory of Alienation, you are correct.)

Much of Kaon is, essentially, a Superfund Site. Dangerous industrial waste, materials, and abandoned facilities, all affecting the population in all sorts of ways into perpetuity even long after one industry dies and another rises-- Or a new industry never comes along, and you end up with even worse off sections of an already brutally deprived area, living in the remnants of an equally hellish past that was just marginally better enough to make some bots yearn for the good old days of having a job to be worked to death at.

If this is relatable or frustrating to you, you are correct. These are all real world problems. It's easy to relate to the plight of the Kaonites-- Megatron, at this time, is still largely a sympathetic figure to many.

Because of course, even from the outside, it is clear that this degree of suffering cannot be sustained. Even Orion Pax recognises this, despite his own total lack of exposure and lack of class awareness at the time in which he initially starts speaking with Megatron.

Anyway. Briefly back to our real world example, because it's important here:

All of this capitalist corruption is another example of systemic level rot; A lot of the time regulators knew that facilities were engaging in illegal dumping and worker rights abuses etc. but couldn't do anything about it due to a lack of federal involvement and lack of means or resources to raise a larger case or investigation on the scale that would be needed.

And of course, some regulators and investigators were paid off. Sigh.

It's genuinely impressive that Megatron was able to run off an industrial crime syndicate, because that shit goes very deep and has lots of tendrils that tie into pretty much everything else going on in a given area, especially in towns or regions where only one or two industries make up the entirety of everything.

It doesn't surprise me at all that Megatron gained such a large following so quickly.

Nobody else in Cybertron was willing or able to acknowledge (let alone try to address) the horrible abuses going on in Kaon.

Endless, brutal labour, often resulting in horrible deaths. No reward for any of their work, with much of their meagre pay going to the mob and likely to companies based in other polities around Cybertron, so none of the materials or money ever stayed local. No care was put into their living conditions or standard of living, with most bots being used up and worn down with nothing to show for it but the industrial hell that consumed their own region.

And by getting the organised crime rings out of the local industries and community, by turning this abandoned facility into a gladiatorial ring, that provided both a more personally rewarding use of their physical skills developed through hard manual labour and gives an opportunity to gain legitimate funds and potentially fame-- Granting a social status previously completely unattainable to Kaonites, while clearly being built up on the legacy of all of their prior labour.

No wonder the appeal to follow Megatron was so strong, even in the early days.

Not even Primus helped these people, none of the Primes helped these people--- But Megatron did.

And that is powerful, to be liberated by one of your own, someone you know truly understands the difficulty and suffering and misery of a cruel, unending grind.

All that most of these bots could ever look forward to previously was dying in a hopefully not-as-painful way.

Now, there is potential for a genuinely tangibly better future, quite possibly for the first time in Kaon's history. Certainly for the first time within living memory.

Megatron turned an immiserated local population with no hope and no prospects beyond being worked to death into up-and-coming athletic stars with a burgeoning sports industry, using their local culture and previously disparaged frame types to prove the inherent wrongness of the class/caste system to a literal mass audience.

Megatron essentially took waste from the Cybertronian equivalent of colliery spoil tips and used it to forcibly create some kind of real hope and better future for every Kaonite, both individually and gradually on a larger regional scale, while living under an oppressive system that was just as likely to kill him in the same way as it had been killing everyone else around him his entire existence.

Megatron turned an industrial hell into a revolutionary city-state.

And he started local, he started with the injustices closest to him, what was visible rot to him in the environment he grew up in. Start small, strategize, your morals are your fuel-- In part because they keep stealing the fuel we mine. Does that seem fair? Does that seem just? What sense does it make, to have a system in which your most important workers are kept deprived and struggling into perpetuity?

He is the perfect Cybertronian revolutionary, he is the figurehead the people of Kaon needed, and his words were heard planet-wide from an arena he facilitated the building of himself, that he reclaimed from decay and loss.

From the bare frame structure of an abandoned mining pit, Megatron spoke words that inspired the downtrodden and lifted up countless impoverished populations through solidarity, the collective power of the working class, the low caste bots, the low class frame types.

The people that were previously discarded, were now using their means and their frames for their own purposes, gradually weakening the grip of the Council, gradually proving to more and more bots that this system is broken and this world can be better and we deserve better, and by any means, we will obtain better. We will make it better, with or without your permission.

No wonder Megatron became so powerful, so quickly.

He appealed perfectly to his people and others in similar living conditions, he articulated perfectly the flaws in oppressive Cybertronian society, he showed that different frame types can and do have multiple uses beyond the classist interpretation of their build schematics--

--All Megatron did, fundamentally, was care.

He cared about what was happening around him, he did not buy into the idea that life has to be miserable and this is the way things are and it can never change or get better, he saw and lived the awful conditions and suffered discrimination and understood that working together for each other would improve things for all.

And he acted on this understanding. There is always someone who is first to act, because there must be.

And Megatron does not act in half-measures.

I like that they mention him getting rid of the crime syndicates, here; It gives you a good idea of his morality pre-war.

It would have been easy to collaborate with these crime syndicates for some time, to secure funds for a new gladiatorial ring.

But instead, he took out the crime syndicates entirely and opted to build his arena inside an abandoned facility.

No capitulation to capital.

No money was exchanged, not a single Shanix, no deals made. No fucking around. This is Kaon, and you are no longer powerful here.

Megatron is increasingly powerful, however, because he embodied to the people the collective power of the people; He reflected themselves and their experiences back at them. But actions like this also played a large part in gaining that trust, in proving his skills and worth as a revolutionary and potential leader. It's not enough to be like everyone else. You have to prove you're not just another asshole looking to exploit everyone for influence or other personal benefit.

If you want a collective movement, it has to be about the collective. And for Megatron, it very much was. And things like this helped him prove that from very early on.

The Council and the mobs effectively have no authority anymore; They are losing control. Megatron, very quickly, becomes the accepted authority. Kaon becomes a freed city-state, it escapes the grasp of Functionism.

Standing up to one crime syndicate may not seem significant in the grander scheme of things, knowing how things occur in the story from this point onward.

But it is hugely significant-- It is a very important thing to highlight.

Because it is "smaller" things like this which are actually massively important and impactful.

And each "smaller" thing built up, and improved things for people to the point where Kaon could function entirely independently with a better off population of previously severely oppressed peoples.

Every "smaller" thing counts. Every "smaller" thing is the entire world to someone, or to a lot of someones.

How many lives were saved and debts erased, when Megatron took out this one crime syndicate?

How immediately did that improve a lot of lives, how quickly did that endear those people to him, to his ideology, to his plans for their collective future? How fast did they start listening, when he started speaking?

This is how revolution happens.

--

Anyway, thank you as always if you read any of this-- I know this got very long and it is nearly 2 AM now where I'm at, so it may have lost a bit of coherency here and there.

tl;dr labour history is important, fuck capitalism (this includes fictional capitalism), and intersectional solidarity is key to collective survival in general but especially among the working class and all groups subject to systemic oppression/discrimination in various forms

#megatron #megatronus #orion pax #tfp #transformers prime #aligned continuity #transformers exodus #transformers novel #maccadam #maccadams #transformers #tfp megatron #kaon #cybertron #long post #tw medical discussion #I try to tag medical talk even fictional stuff in posts that aren't explicitly medical discussion focused #just because I know some people are not into the medical talk stuff #tw ableism

[gacha-incels]

Been boycotting limbus but it's a bit disheartening seeing everyone continue around me with this passing intl women's day. I don't know how to convince my friends to stop without getting into an argument because they're all knee deep into these games. But my real question was.. why? These people are boycotting other products for other things, why are they so adamant with sticking on this when it's proven to have harmed so many people in the small team that made it?

Had a discussion with one who is boycotting and I feel like that "political correctness" seeps into the themes of the game, actually, despite how people tout it as the ultimate anti capitalist game; The City is suffering, workers gruel and die at the whims of corporate overlords, people struggle to find housing, and whatever the fuck Carmen's doing in the light, while it could help people survive longer, is just giving everyone guns ignoring the power structures underneath. It's very strange to me now there's.. no suggestion of uprooting the system at all in the games. No true strikes or protests or even any mentions of unions as far as I know. There's no effort to change what is given

[outside of the seed of light project, which 1. famously Didn't Work and 2. having everyone manifest ego is still just giving everyone guns and going "now don't shoot each other!"],

which is very strange and kind of sad? Like sure maybe an arbiter or something would come and tear it down but surely people would come up with countermeasures? People are really good at adapting around things out of desperation, and surely at least an effort would be mentioned

And then my friend, she suggested something; without project moon's suffering, there would be no project moon. Without the city, project moon can't make games. To end the hell that the characters are in and truly resolve the city's hypercapitalist dystopia, they must stop making money off of them. But they don't want to. They definitely DO want to make more games, noted by the interviews which mention future game concepts such as the distortion detective visual novel. But in order to do so, they must keep the current games "clean" and consistent in their suffering to perpetuate conflict. There is some commentary about capitalism to be had; but it feels more like a "oh, look, people are dying, this is so sad" layer of paint on it at this point rather than something more in depth and meaningful. And I think in enforcing this sort of "we can't fix the system in any meaningful way, let's just live our lives instead and hope something better happens" mindset, it reflects into the players. Kind of ironic how the anti capitalism game must sustain its own horrible systems internally so the owners of the series can: make more money through a very predatory money making system, no less!

Limbus fans don't give a fuck about feminism in kr, they think its a system they cant help fixing so they just play the game as they please and any attempt to disuade them is met with a "stop ruining my fun!!" And "who cares?" The worst ones are the ones who KNOW their money is being funneled into stupid misogynistic shit but don't care! It's insane! I've never seen this level of apathy towards a serious issue before!

Sigh. I hope this ramble is coherent. If I missed talking about something or if you want me to talk more I'm game. Project moon's characters are some of my favorites but you have to admit the themes are surface level shit at some point, especially in later installments of their games. So tired but I'd figure I'd share my thoughts somehow. Take care account admin, youre doing gods work

yeah regarding your first point about fans that keep playing, back in August there was a discussion on this blog here regarding contemporary fandom “culture”- how it makes dropping a piece of media hard for some people and why they feel so quick to defend it. the nature of gacha is also that it gets you into the habit of doing “dailies” which makes them harder to drop, this is not even mentioning sunk cost fallacy. I’ve seen a recent post on the FGO subreddit asking why people still play the game and the top posts by a longshot were ones saying only because they spent so much time and money on it. For a lot of people (even people who think themselves progressives) misogyny is a non-issue as well so they will not take the situation in South Korea that seriously to begin with. This is in addition to it happening to “other” or “foreign” women in the eyes of the western fan. There is also an aggressive “fuck you, I’ve got mine” attitude some of the fans who want to keep playing have in regards to these women. It’s disturbing to watch happen but unfortunately not uncommon. I find some of the worst of it, in this situation specifically, is when westerners try to tell Korean women (who are boycotting and spreading information) that they are the ones spreading misinfo, or there’s no reason for them to boycott, how it’s not that bad for them, how PM actually didn’t do anything wrong, “both sides” are crazy and wrong, “let people enjoy things”, shit like that. like doesn’t it raise any flags for you that the people most affected by PM’s actions, Korean women, deleted entire accounts of fanart, took back fanmade items from PM’s cafe, started a boycott of LC and made posts in english to try and get the word out to international fans? you must think they’re idiots if you believe this is all some misunderstanding and vellmori quit of her own free will. Come on. imo it’s impossible to make any meaningful statement critiquing capitalism when you’re writing it in a game that uses one of the most exploitive types of gambling mechanics. I hope I don’t have to explain to anyone why this is absurd. You don’t need to expose young people to gambling addictions in order to fund new games. At the same time, things an author writes (or things that the reader infers from the writing) do not always reflect their ideologies or actions in real life and they can sometimes seemingly be at odds with one another. This is something fans have to reckon with, and not just by saying “actually hatsune miku made limbus company” or whatever. Personally, I can’t take PM’s “anti capitalist” or “feminist” or “revolutionary” work seriously when in reality they have mistreated employees, sued labor unions, acquiesced to incel demands and then later added a meme into the game from that incel community. On the other hand people struggle to believe Project Moon could do anything wrong like this because of the stories in their games so they vehemently defend PM, which at some point just feels naïve. well hopefully this is the type of answer/discussion you were looking for lol thanks for writing 👍

[the-blorbo-project]

Blorbos at Conference!

Long time, no update, but this project is moving forward! This weekend, we're at a conference hosted by the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, or SCMS, presenting as part of a panel devoted to fan studies.

Why do panels matter?

First and foremost, it's a way to get research before a bunch of other researchers while it's still in progress. This helps catch poorly formed ideas, surface new good ideas, and share what's coming up with the fan studies research communities. It's also good for our humble PhD student CVs!

The Findings

Of course, the most interesting part is what, actually, we're presenting, AKA the findings! They're a work in progress, and the hardest part is the coding (talked about here). Therefore, I'm focusing on what I could do deep analysis on relatively quickly. (note: these images don't have image IDs because I summarize them below, but they're graphic representations of what I talk about in the text).

The majority of survey respondents were young: about 39% were 18-22 and 32% were 23-27. A further 17% were 28-32, about 8% were 33-37, and then it got progressively smaller from there. Shoutout to all 3 respondents who were 63 and over! So glad you're here.

In terms of social media usage, most people used tumblr - unsurprising, since that's where we got our most traction for the survey. Discord was the second most likely. Part of a later analysis will be seeing if these terms are more likely to be used by different age groups or on different platforms, which is cool.

Almost everyone surveyed had heard of these terms. Blorbo was the most-used and meow meow was least used, but very, very few respondents had not heard of these terms at all. This may be in part due to how we used them in our survey recruitment, since we did want to find people who knew what these terms were so that they could define them for us.

These numbers slope slightly down because something broke when we imported them into NVivo (a coding software) and frankly I don't understand it well even when it actually works, let alone when it breaks.

Here's a little visual of the terms you suggested for characters. Unfortunately, NVivo crashes every time I try to exclude words from this word bubble (like "term"), so it's not as clear as I'd like it to be, but there are some interesting ones. Particularly interesting are the cluster of gendered terms; husbando and waifu, malewife, sexyman, boy, girl, etc. I want to do some analysis of this because it parallels some preliminary coding results. Y'all also really find your blorbos scrunkly/skrunkly/scrungly, huh?

I also want to figure out how to tell the visualizer that "glup" and "shitto" go together, because "shitto" all by its lonesome over there is cracking me up.

Qualitative Findings

Like I said, the coding is...so far from done. That's mostly due to some Ao3-author levels of life disruption from both of us. BUT! I can tentatively say a couple of things:

There are notably clear definitions about these terms. We weren't sure if there even really was a definition of "blorbo", but it clearly refers to a very specific kind of one-true-character. By contrast, comfort characters are associated with experiencing positive emotions, and meow meows are more likely to be evil or morally grey (but you love them though).

Unsurprisingly, your characters make you happy. We're distinguishing between general positive emotions, attachment, relatability, and one-true-character belovedness. Also sexiness, but that (surprisingly) hasn't come up that much.

There are a couple of ways in which darker themes come up. Villains remain beloved, but a recurring theme is also using tragedy or trauma in fiction as catharsis.

Finally, there's a lot of playful and tactile language. "Rotating him in my mind" really is that common.

Additionally, I'm really interested in the role of gender. Many of you referred to your blorbos/meow meows as your guys, with some of you clarifying that it was "my little guy (gender neutral)". Others noted that most characters you'd seen people describe as blorbos or meow meows were men/masc. This did not come up for comfort characters. Analysis of the characters you consider exemplars of each definition will help flesh out this analysis.

Still to Come

SO much. Who are these characters? Is a specific character exclusively a meow meow, or are they also a common comfort character? What types of positive emotion are associated with each type? Are these character types or do they speak to a fan's individual (or a fandom's communal) relationship with a character?

Additionally - we didn't ask about neurodivergence, but many of y'all referenced it. I'm looking forward to exploring that as well.

That's all for now! I present this live in about two hours. If you're somehow following this account AND at SCMS, please come by!

#mod sarah #blorbos #blorbo from my shows #research on tumblr

[chiarrara]

Nanami anon here. I really hope they develop Mahoro with these sorts of themes in mind. I can't believe I forgot the princess aspect of Nanami, it's such a big thing in Utena in regards to self delusion and how people end up stuck in gendered social roles. This general perspective is what's keeping me interested in Bucchigiri cuz I can see so much potential for that sort of depth. I'm so glad I could help spark this sort of discussion (it's been sorta hard to find people willing to engage with these kind of interpretations).

Hiiii Nanami anon! I'm so glad you came back!!

Yes I think this story is so interesting even just in the potential it sets up. If it doesn't deliver on that potential it could be disappointing, I guess. but it brings up a lot of interesting discussions either way, so I'm just enjoying where we are right now and the conversations going on in the criminally tiny fandom.

To be completely honest i spent a lot of time arguing with people about the literary worth of this show on another platform and it was just depressing. Nobody wanted to engage deeper than surface level appeal, and only would approach it through an extremely narrow lens of expected tropes of the type of show *they* wanted to watch, and a demand for pandering to one type of fan in a genre it doesn't even really belong to, instead of honestly approaching it for what it is and the story it's trying to tell. I've been trying to curate my experience more so I can actually enjoy myself, and interacting with the small community of people here who actually like to enjoy and analyze the show within the literary conversation it's clearly trying to have has been so much more fulfilling.

ANYWAY, I love what you're bringing up because self-delusion is such a big theme here! and specifically how it interacts with compulsory gender roles!!! Like, Arajin is trying so hard to fulfill compulsory heterosexuality, but is running away from the very masculine coded honor-through-fighting that senya and the general culture value. A lot of people suspect that his pursuit of losing his virginity is a way to make up for his self-perceived weakness and failure to uphold the masculine ideal of honor-through-fighting when he was young.

THEN when MAHORO stands up and displays that ideal, he is able to achieve it (at least for a moment). There's also discussion that if this follows Aladdin, he's going to lose the genie and some point and will have to essentially prove himself as honorable without the genie's help. This could be interesting. We'll see what happens.

So is fighting masculine coded in this show? Or is it just the height of honor? Or is fighting for the right reasons or in the right ways honorable. Because not all the fighting is portrayed as a good thing.... I'm thinking out loud here.

Anyway, Mahoro is also stuck in this gendered role obviously, but I wonder how much self-delusion will play into it. She believed she needed to use her role as a cute girl to stop the fight, but all those attempts failed. Ultimately what worked was dropping the facade, dropping the role & those tactics, and standing up to fuckface (i do not care about this man I'm so sorry lol) as HERSELF. Saying what she really thought, how she really felt about these people and the whole situation. And basically willing to sacrifice her well-being to do so. Ooooh this is so interesting!!!!

I really can't wait to see where this goes, I know I keep saying that but. It's true. I mean, Matakara could be said to have some delusions about honor. Maybe the way he sees his brother is diluted. He believes in Arajin to a fault, but he was proven correct. Although it wasn't him that sparked the change. I dunno, a lot to think about.

I'm so glad I could be an intermediary for this discussion! I don't know anything about Utena, but if y'all do feel free to talk through me lol. I'm loving this.

#bucchigiri?! #bucchigiri #jin mahoro #arajin tomoshibi #matakara asamine #revolutionary girl utena #mahoro jin #bucchigiri analysis #bucchigiri meta #bucchigiri predictions

[lucasthecoffeshopguy]

harrymort but harry has a gun. please. someone tell me I'm not the only one who has thought of this. I just feel like harry would be a very good mid-range handheld pistol (I think that's what I'm thinking of idk) user. like 1. it's hilarious to imagine Dumbledore being all vague and mysterious about a Very Important and Serious Weapon that he wants harry to learn how to use, and harry getting all nervous like "omg what niche magical artefact is he talking about" only for old dumbles to pull out a western-style very ornamental gun like "don't point it at anyone and only turn off the safety when you're in mortal danger. good luck" and running off, but ALSO because 2. it's hot and 3. I'm fairly certain it's very illegal in the UK which I find hilarious

bonus point I think harry using muggle weapons is really compelling because it challenges the idea that these wizards are inherently more powerful than muggles which is important to remind their society of if they have any intention of continuing on with the statue of secrecy

It would also be interesting to explore the nature of guns as a uniquely muggle creation that is still illegal in muggle britain as a sort of parallel to Harry's own struggles. Growing up in the muggle world and not feeling like he belongs anywhere because of his abusive family that isolated him from any potential support system he could have had, but still understanding that muggles are not evil as a whole is similar to the concept of guns being illegal in his muggle country even though the weapon itself isn't actively evil or wrong (idk if I phrased that well might edit this bit later today)

Continuing on with the parallels between my weapon of choice for harry and his own history, Harry was abruptly introduced to the wizarding world and had his entire understanding of the world flipped on its head, and went to hogwarts without any real explanation with what was happening and had to pick things up as he went. This theme could be very gracefully continued by having Dumbledore once again putting harry into a dangerous position by giving him a very deadly weapon without much instruction on how to use it nor any reasoning for why he is bestowing it upon harry. NOT in a dumbles bashing way tho, but rather in a "I have no idea how to use this thing, neither does anyone else in this school, but it is probably going to be your only chance of surviving in this war when no wizard expects it. here is the most surface level safety information, it is all I know, I hope this is the right choice" kind of way.

it also ties in well with harry's guerilla fighting style; he can conceal it with minimal effort, reach it easily, and use it quickly, all without relying on physical strength but rather on quick strategic thinking and swift movements.

plus like can you imagine Harry managing to get the upper hand on Voldemort by shooting one of his legs out from under him, immobilizing him, and taunting him by getting up close and threatening to finally dish out the finishing blow, only for voldemort to bite the barrel like "shoot me, I dare you" I think that would be really cool/hot in equal measures

#harrymort #harry potter #voldemort #gun cw #gun tw #guns #hopefully that'll work for tag filtering #anywho am i right or am i right

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 24/04/2024

Guardian of the Ride Chasers

Season 4 Episode 1 No Album Release (Read More)

Ripper Unknown

I really don't know what it is, but I woke up earlier this week with Black Parade (MMX Remix) specifically stuck in my head. I guess that's a disadvantage to running this blog - in writing, I tend to listen to the rip in question on repeat to get a good feel of the tone I want to go for, and in the process get tunes stuck in my head (Raft Ride, for instance, has still not left my innermost thoughts ever since The Incident.) But althesame, getting a Mega Man X arrangement rip stuck in my head got me fervently looking for more like it - because really, I think it was just my brain's way of telling me that it misses listening to Mega Man X music. It was through this that I wound up stumbling onto something big, a rip I'd entirely forgotten about and one that's STILL lacking a ripper credit even five years later - Guardian of the Ride Chasers, with no attachment to its origin or its ripper, fucking OWNS.

Mega Man X2 has a pretty different sound to the original Mega Man X in a way that's controversial in a lot of ways, yet the ripper has leveraged those differences to absolutely incredible lengths here. You can TELL that the guitar samples used are different, in some's eyes "whinier" - yet they lend themselves to the dramatic flair of the arranged track ever so well. So then...what is that arranged track? Funny enough, it's a source of music I was only made aware of through a SiIvaGunner project later in the same season - Guardian of the Former Sea, or the theme of the Desert Scourge boss, from the Terraria Calamity Mod. The game is as far away from my area of knowledge as you could come - I've hardly ever even touched the BASEGAME Terraria - but its legendary composer, DM DOKURO, was a name I got very familiar with entirely thanks to SiIvaGunner. Remember the King for Another Day Tournament? Yeah - amidst many other guest arrangers, DM DOKURO lent his incredible skills to a bevvy of arrangements for the event, including one I've covered on here before - September!

And like, that was how I was initially introduced to the Terraria Calamity mod as a whole! I've talked numerous times about how following SiIvaGunner has given me exposure to so many things I wouldn't have checked out otherwise, be it with Aphex Twin Snakes, Plantasia 2, Owner of a Mahjong Board or countless more, but its an entirely new level of cool to discover a composer through their guest contributions on the channel. As I mentioned before, Guardian of the Ride Chasers was already bound to work for me as someone hopelessly attached to the specific sound of the SNES Mega Man X games, but the rip only works as WELL as it does due to DM DOKURO's incredible work with the original track. I love how Mega Man X2's more varied sound in particular compared to the former and latter game resulted in the track being adapted pretty differently, in particular using the particular plink-plonk sounds from Bubble Crab's theme for a lot of the track to give the rip some really nice texture. It can be easy for a banger melody to be lost amidst samey instrumentation, a lot of lower-quality "but in the (blank) soundfont" have shown me just how bad it can really get - but the ripper went above and beyond in making the entire track sound absolutely brilliant in the conversion here.

All in all, Guardian of the Ride Chasers was a two-for-one kind of rip - both being an incredibly cool rip to listen to in its own right, and helping spread DM DOKURO's exceptional work outside of his target audience. Hopefully in making this post, you as the readers will now ALSO be reminded to go check out the other music from the Terraria Calamity Mod, or the other stuff by DM DOKURO in general - this rip is truly only scratching the surface.

#todays siivagunner #season 4 episode 1 #siivagunner #siiva #tentative rip name #ripper unknown #DM DOKURO #terraria #terraria calamity #terraria mod #terraria music #mega man #mega man x #mega man x music #mega man x2 #mmx #mmx zero #mega man x zero #mega man zero #mmz

[inlocusmads]

this week in "mads's utter madness":

I absolutely loathe the Mary Sue-ificiation of the Crimes of Passion MC. Now, I did have high hopes for Crimes because it was one of those books where you had a strong hook, a compelling but flawed main character who is obviously trying to process well, everything.

Trystan from Book 1 is so different compared to Trystan in Book 2, besides the obvious surface-level personas. And besides that, the prologue/the inciting action that courses us to the main storyline was so different between the books.

Now I do think this is going to be a closed-door mystery as per usual, because the killer is one of Trystan’s siblings but I can’t shake the underlying royalty plotline influence.

The Royal Romance left a sour taste in my mouth, as I’ve always said because I’m just not a fan of the Cinderella-esque stories. It is good when it is done right and between PB’s either overly specific storylines or vague plots, no definitive “ending” and chippy dialogue and constant sidelining, I just feel like they should give this trope a much-needed break. Give it a couple of years off. Shut the fuck up with the monarch plotlines. 

The whole “Trystan is reinstated as heir” is an interesting dilemma to delve into. PB, don’t fuck it up, you have an AMAZING character development arc in your hand. You’ve set it up perfectly.. On one hand, Trystan is proud of Drakovia. Yes. They talk about it all the time. They tell MC all sorts of things about their home country.

It is not typical for an exiled  person who talks about their country and family all the time; especially when that someone has been villanised to the point of no return. 

On the other hand, Trystan probably knows this. They’ve got this Stockholm Syndrome with their family where they cannot turn away, but at the same time, turning away is the only option. They have a toxic family, but the very few people - between the likes of Mags and Trystan’s dad (I’m assuming Maksim is as kind and oblivious to Viktoria’s “shammy” schemes and goes with anything Trystan wants) makes them stay.

 On the other hand, having gotten a taste of what it is like to actively seek out the truth by MC, Trystan wants this life too. They want to be able to control things, have a say in what they put inside their brains, to really experience adventure while actively seeking out answers, to nurture their curiosity that Drakovia has repressed for so long. 

I talked about how the constant snake imagery throughout the Book and in the book cover stands for themes of transformation. You can read it here (and I really hope you do, because that shit is so conspiratorial, it is almost a character essay at this point) and I talk about how you have themes of “rebirth” associated with the snake and how Trystan would have to carve such a life for themselves.

 Personally I would like for them to reject the throne, since it has been the root of all sorrow and pain; especially when Trystan is themselves, averse to the idea of monarchy and usually just offers a voice of support, never a proper stance.

They’re like Juliana’s Yes-Man at this point. I’d like for Trystan to have an opportunity to stand up for themselves and have their own words to say, because half the time it is just “You go MC!” or “I totally agree with <person>”. Maybe it is the inner writer in me wanting to give everyone a really cool character arc or maybe it is Nora talking lmfao.

Coming back to MC for a hot second - I hate what they’ve done to them. Period. I’m sorry lol. It’s literally the Mary Sue-ification because MC is not qualified in law or international relations or international law.

Albeit being a quick learner, there is zero exposition as to whether Mags filled them in on how the Drakovian court works, because they just walk in, steal a bunch of evidence and go give it?? 

Like I’m pretty sure Ruby and Luke are going to be sidelined as hell too - with Ruby being confined to the “Wardrobe Best Friend” trope with giving MC new clothes to wear and Luke being the “expert hacker” - they’re the deux ex machina, the “saved by the plot convenience” character archetypes. I’m sorry, Crimes, you can do so much better, honey.

Back to the whole court procedures thing and the MC’s slow Iron Man-ification:

(even Iron Man dies at the end but they won’t, nope. PB out here overpowering every single main character, like dude, why. Make me interested! 

GIVE THEM KNOWLEDGE GAPS. MAKE THEM GROUNDED TO REALITY. I know fiction isn’t real, but like I do need to be able to empathise and support a character and they’re possible with the introduction of flaws or gaps in their knowledge. It makes the fight even more bitter and “to the end” as opposed to a one-and-done situation)

Let’s just play through the whole court procedures over again, to kind of like see either the lapses in PB's writing or maybe they're deliberate ???? in which case, PB i'm so sorry I've been bashing you, you guys are wonderful :

Trystan gets summoned back to Drakovia because they believe they’ve got new evidence that supports the theory that Trystan actually did it. They killed Juliana.

But they go through the whole witness testimony over again? Like all the Thorne kids come up and give their character witnesses; talk about how they were close to Juliana and how Trystan would’ve done it - it just seems redundant. Like I’m pretty sure there would’ve been a trial eight years ago which led to the whole exile.

 Like did PB forget the reason why Trystan was exiled?? and didn't T CONFESS to it like a million years ago? and only now have they ruled it off as "an accident"??

Viktoria was the one who approved it. She sent her child away - perhaps as a punishment or maybe to evade the Press. Trystan spends their years in New York and then suddenly Viktoria calls them back?

Trystan admits to it. They say something like - “Orchestrating a sham lawsuit just to get me back in the country wouldn’t be out of character for her” about their mother. It is clear Viktoria wanted her child; her eldest child and the immediate heir to the throne far away for a while to maybe cover something up? I don’t know. She brings them back, gives Trystan a lawyer (i’m pretty sure it is a court-appointed lawyer). They do a lot of sabotaging and that’s where MC comes in.

So what was the primary goal of the trial anyway?? Viktoria wants their child back, but gave them a faulty lawyer who cannot make a defensive case and -- is it all just a catalyst for MC to get involved? It seems so out-of-character for a mother to do that. If I hypothetically was a parent who sent my child away and is begging them to come back, I wouldn’t give them a shitty lawyer and somehow also help them win the case? Like what was Viktoria trying to do even?? Her moves are so random, so sloppy for the queen of a country that's super uninviting to foreigners and cold and calculative. Even Olivia says so in Book 1. She says how Drakovia plays their cards close to their chest. 

I’m pretty sure this was just an excuse for MC to play lawyer and I did cover that topic in this disappointing post here. Yes I am disappointed. My day is ruined. Of course I’ll be writing a Fix-it fic. PB, fucking hire me man. JK jk jk but like, they totally should hire fanfic writers who do the Chekhov’s Gun principle so well; meanwhile PB’s just using that gun to shoot themselves in the leg.

I HAD HIGH HOPES FOR CRIMES.

Okay back to MC’s -- weird courtly procedures?

MC starts playing attorney even though Trystan appoints Mags as their representative - like what the fuck. I know you have your police training MC, yes, I get it, but you can’t just Jake Peralta’s “cool cool cool cool cool” your way out of this. No. Get a proper fucking attorney for God’s sake. 

Drakovia is chaos, fine. Great. We’ll just call it Gotham City instead, but they can’t do courts right? Technically you can fire your lawyer in the middle of court proceedings, but it isn’t going to do you any good and might leave an “unfavourable impression” according to Bentlymore.com. It is also going to further delay the process. Now can a non-attorney play attorney? Under some special circumstances and under the discretion of the court. Viktoria is the court, so fine. Queen Mom allows it. MC can play lawyer.

But at the same time, I know Viktoria’s words are final, but MC is literally everything that Drakovia isn’t a fan of. They’re a foreigner and fine, you can call it xenophobia but let’s just walk in Drakovia’s shoes for a minute and see this: MC walks in, MC says they know shit about everything, when they are superiorly underqualified, MC sides with Trystan and they’ve got a love thing going on as well - how is this not against the interests of the court? (Here’s an article that articulates it well)

Coming to the evidence we have: The letter submitted by Juliana’s mothers has no proof that the letter was addressed to Trystan and Trystan specifically. It’s all a massive ?? because everyone starts to think about the contents, when we have no concrete proof it was written to Trystan and also nobody stops to think why letters? And especially, how did they get this evidence anyway? Was it an unsent letter? They have emails and phones and shit, like why this? And Chapter 2 ends with the confession they got on tape.

Okay, like. This is absolute bullshit. We’re back to square one. In Book 1, it is known that Trystan confessed. They “coached” a confession out of them because Drakovia didn’t want answers, they wanted a culprit and it was easy to pin it on Trystan because of course it is. Viktoria approves. The punishment is exile and ostracisation. Which stemmed out because of the press thing and Viktoria wanted their child far away and now this letter pops up which literally does NOTHING. The tape doesn’t matter either, like - the case was done eight years ago when they chucked him out. 

The question we need to be asking is, what took them eight years to realise this? Where did Juliana’s mothers find the evidence? Because if it was in some closet or something, or between the pages of a book, all of this stuff could’ve been done way more sooner. Why eight years? Why so long? And did Viktoria intend it to be permanent?

I believe Trystan’s words when they said it was all a sham. I doubt in their grief, Juliana’s mothers will still want and continue this stuff and it is very clear they’re being controlled because in a way, this trial affects Trystan the most. It is clear Trystan is the intended target because Viktoria’s whole purpose of their child coming back is to reinstate them as heir. 

This is literally the most Swiss-cheesy convoluted plot ever. PB what the fuck. Respectfully, give this royalty shit a break. Trystan Thorne deserves a better plot.

MC and their ragtag team save the day yayyyy! Of-fucking-course. They hack into some servers and get the real footage required, which is like-- w h a t. And Luke goes, “yo Drakovia has a weak security system” (once again, armoured by the plot convenience) which is so unlike a country that literally guards a fucking martial arts technique and when Trystan teaches MC Labrintha, it is this huge deal like “omg look drakovian kiddo teaches american kiddo this super secret thing” and their SERVERS AREN’T SECURE??? 

I’m not saying Luke should be dumbed down. No. He’s an awesome dude. The problem is, PB hates giving anyone a real challenge and wants to rush up the plot.

Anyway, and also I’m no legal expert, but in order to have a trial, wouldn’t the plaintiff and the defendants submit all evidence to the court? Like even the forged secret tape? Like if the footage was hidden so “carefully” that a smalltime computer guy from New York can get into it from a fuckin work LAPTOP mind you, isn’t it supposed to be submitted to the court like wayyyy back in time too? 

It’s one of the first things they’ll ask you to do. The Royal Guard ended up deleting it and fiddling around with the tape and submitting that instead, which is also like-- so weird and nobody questioned it too? It would be obvious to know if a tape is edited or not. The jump-cuts, the changes in the background - I’m pretty sure no Royal Guard can get away with this, realistically but we threw that out of the window a long time ago. 

I hate the MC saves the day plotlines. It’s a personal pet peeve of mine. I just-- fuckin. No. PB. shut up. Please. 

And also fabricating evidence is illegal, so good that the Royal Guard gets fired, arrested and persecuted for this. It is clear whoever the guard was talking to is the real dude to watch out for and I highly doubt it is Viktoria, rather I think it could be Eveline? I’m still very much involved in this schism plot. Viktoria probably saw this, brought her kid back and initiated the “heir” protocol before Eveline’s team can initiate the “persona non grata” on Trystan, use Juliana’s death as fuel and initiate her policies on making all of her children heir to the throne; thus beating Viktoria’s side by a landslide.

That would be like a really god-tier plot, imo. PB do that challenge. That’s the only kind of royalty, political “thriller” plot I’ll accept, with murder solving in between for MC to get occupied. And also MC, leave the law to the people who are trained. You’re part of the law enforcement. Please. Just. ughhh

Ok that's all.

As for who killed the lawyer/murderer, my bet is on Astrid. She reminds me of Ivy from AME; someone who plays the air-head character but is easily manipulated into doing the dirty work. She’s also like super self-obsessed to the point where it is literally impossible for a person to be this horrible. At least Bas had an iota of sympathy for Juliana. Vasili is the voice of reason. Mags is the glue in the family. Lydea’s amazing, please marry me and they don’t deserve this. Kasper and Emika are like “wtf’s happening” and “fuck you MC” and Patryk isn’t even here.

some incriminating screenshots here from the latest chappie

I love Astrid honestly, she's rocking that hat, but also I have the faintest feeling she's got a whole dark past and is being influenced by both sides of the schism.

#choices book club #crimes of passion meta #mads pls get back to this later

[ink-flavored]

💖⛈️🙌🎁 for the sex and kink writers questions :3

thank u! <33 after a long day of airplane i am excited to relax and talk about sex. as you do.

💖 What’s your favorite part about writing sex scenes?

I love how much subtle meaning you can pack into sex scenes and teach your audience about the characters without them even realizing it. I guess you could say this about any kind of writing, but writing sex is fun for me because it's often pulling double- or even triple-duty as eroticism, characterization, and/or a theme of the story. It's sexy on the surface, and you can enjoy it like that and nothing else, but (at least the way I write sex) there's always another layer you can peel back to enjoy it on a deeper (haha) level. It rules. And metaphors make sex even more sexy tbh

⛈️ What’s the most difficult part about writing sex for you?

I always get way too in my head about it. I am always over-thinking the positions, or trying to come up with new ways to say "thrust", or counting how many times I say "cock" or something. It's not a big deal, but I make it a big deal.

Really, it's the "how to describe this repetitive action in a sexy way for the 5th time" that slows me down. I'm working on it by not describing everything so closely, but I am unfortunately in love with describing everything very closely.

🙌 What is, in your opinion, the best sex scene you’ve ever written? Best is subjective here—sexiest, most emotional, well-written, etc. It means anything you want it to mean!

Man, this is a tough one. I feel like every time I write a sex scene I get better at it, but there are definitely ones I like better than others. But also I like them for different reasons. augh why did I add this question

At time of writing, I am going to choose the Body Writing prompt from Kinktober 2023. Not only because I was excited to write it, and I think I did a good job, but because I think the things they write on each other, and how they react, are pretty demonstrative of their relationship. But tbh I could have chosen any of the Kinktober prompts, I really enjoyed doing that challenge. I think it's going to help me when I write the plot-relevant sex in the book.

🎁 If you could give one piece of advice about writing sex and/or kink to your fellow writers, what would it be?

A lot of people, I feel, worry that writing sex is something Different from writing other things, or it requires an Inherent Skill. It isn't and it doesn't. You can just write sex. It's just another kind of scene you can write, like fight scenes or compelling character drama. Sure, your first try won't be as good as people who've been writing sex for 10+ years. Maybe it's hard to get across the hotness in your head into words on the page at first. The only way you can improve that is practice.

And! Bonus advice! You can just write things you think are hot! I know I had a whole rant about how sex scenes can be meaningful and metaphorical, but they don't have to be! Do whatever you want forever!

[try out my sex & kink writing ask game]

#annika talks #answered #ask game #re: that last bit. i didn't do kinktober because of its relevance to the plot. its a whole month of sex i did because writing sex is fun

[ollieoliver910]

I want to first start off with that I’m not here to argue your opinion, but to just give some clarification/insight on the show.

You are entitled to your own opinion and I’m not trying to change it. I just want you to give the show another chance.

I’ve broken talking points down to sections so it’s easier to read :)

The main issue I saw that you had is that the cruise arc added nothing to the story and it was just a waste of time. However it gave a lot of insight on Yor’s character, which is something the audience had very little of up until this point. The cruise arc allowed us to see her emotional growth, since the start of the series she truly cares about the Forger Family and her role within it. The lady she was protecting (I forgot her name) allowed Yor to reflect and see what she has. It at blank told the audience that the family is no longer “just a cover” and I really appreciated seeing this side of Yor and getting to know more of her character. Is the arc long? Yes for sure, but it allows for the show not to be rushed. Then also with Twilight, you see that he cannot physically relax even for a moment and how much he is trying to make it a good vacation for Anya it tells you where he is at as a character. Then you know, love the Anya hijinks as usual but it also allows the audience to see how exactly she uses her powers to help people (in this case keeping her family together), but also where her priorities lie (she doesn’t want her family to get split apart, she cares about her family’s safety, she kinda feels bad/thinks it funny that Twilight can’t have fun). TLDR: The cruise arc allows us to see the emotional journey of the characters. Character growth if just as important as story progression.

Along the note with you not liking the ending episode of the season, someone else worded it better than I am now but it ties up the theme of role of the family. I would elaborate but I can’t word things for shit.

With all the hinting, it will come up in later episodes. I am caught up on the manga and it does address the things you wanted to know, more about. You should definitely read the manga if you want the story to go at a quicker pace, it’s not done yet however the most recent arcs have my heart and I think you’ll really like them.

I know it seems like the show is not moving fast enough, but that’s kind of the point. Operation Strix, is a long term mission so the story will be a slow burn. The show allows for messages and themes to be woven within the episodes. And as stated before emotional growth of the characters is so important to a show like SpyXFamily. But I implore you to look deeper into the show than just surface level, reading the analysis on this app made me love the show even more. I would recommend you some good accounts for analysis, but I don’t know them off the top of my head. But if you ask later, I can definitely send some.

I will not be defending the Becky episode, I was also extremely uncomfortable watching and reading it.

And again you are entitled to your own opinion, I’m not shaming you for your opinion. SpyXFamily isn’t for everyone, but I wanted to at least give you another angle.

From your criticisms, it sounds like you would like shows with a quicker pace and for that I recommend “Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood”

Also you can watch SpyXFamily on regular Hulu if you don’t want to pay for Crunchyroll premium

Hope you found this insightful and not insulting :)

Hello!

Your right in pretty much everything but let me clarify one thing. I thought I said in my post that Yors arc was the best thing about season two where there is character development. If I explained it wrong, I apologize, but the cruise arc was amazing!

Im slowly learning why Spy x Family is paced the way it is and that's because I was unaware about the Manga that is (I think?) Three seasons ahead. I just finger that since there are probably no easy way to get them in English that it would not be worth investing in at the moment (I don't know if it has been translated I'm not sure.)

So yeah, a lot of this information is new to me. I'm still invested in the story and I DO want to watch it long term...but I think waiting another year for only 12 episodes is not worth the wait if I'm being honest. And I know how that feels. I waited 9 months for Jojo part 6 (part 2) and yeah, that sucked honestly. I just think waiting a year is not worth the episode output, which is why I'm worried there going to drag this show out for much longer then they need it to be.

Full metal alchemist is on my radar, trust me. I just haven't gotten to it yet and I heard great things about it! It's just I wanted more Spy x Family because I love the concept a whole lot...but I feel like I got barely anything from the show this year and that's why it kind of stings in a sense.

I hope this made more sense.

#spy x family

[pinkhuman99]

UT POKÉMON TEAMS

Papyrus!

1. Palafin: a strange one, I know, but I think Papyrus would love this Pokémon for its hero-like appearance and strength. It appears normal and boring at first but transforms into a superhero to protect people! It is a play on the phrase "zero to hero", which seems to be Papyrus's goal in Undertale. He wants to be popular and loved, like Undyne! He wants to be a part of the heroic Royal Guard! It looks like a normal Finizen at first, but transforms into its scret Hero Form to become incredibly powerful (so strong it can lift an entire cruise ship with just one fin!) This might not be a very deep reason for including Palafin here, but it definitely fits Papyrus's goals and vibe.

2. Marowak: A bony Pokémon with an air of toughness and loneliness, Marowak wields a bone as a weapon and looks super cool, although it's not as spooky as Sans's Dusknoir. It has a tough spirit that is not easily broken. No-one is sure where it gets its bone weapons, much like the mysterious nature of Papyrus's own bone attacks (seriously, does he make them? Do they come from pre-existing bones underground? Are they pure magic? IDK).

3. Revavroom: This Pokémon is a reference to Papyrus's love of cars and complex puzzles. Lots of people don't understand what this Pokémon is supposed to be upon first (or fourth...) look, but it's an engine. According to its wiki article, it's face is supposed to resemble a skull (although I don't see it...kinda like Papyrus's face puzzle being confusing to some people, now that I thunk about it...). Overall, it's a very odd and weird Pokémon, perfect for our mysterious skeleton friend.

4. Gyarados☆: The ☆ next to this Pokémon's name means it's a shiny! Shiny Gyarados not only matches Papyrus's colour palette (being red), but it's a tough, cool-looking Pokémon that evolves from the underestimated underdog of the Pokémon world, Magikarp. This represents the hardships one needs to overcome in life to grow and become stronger. We know Ppayrus loves to train and is incredibly patient. He must go through lots of hardship with Undyne (a fish-like monster) to become stronger! Gyarados's beta form has the name Skulkraken, combining the words "skull" and "kraken." This could be a nod to Papyrus's pirate flag in his bedroom. This Pokémon can also fly, a surprising trait for something without any visible means of doing so, like wings. Papyrus himself flies and levitates in the game, even though he doesn't look like he should be able to. Gyarados is a Pokémon with a violent and savage temperment, like Marowak, that doesn't seem to fit Papyrus until you start to see through his surface-level "happy-go-lucky" attitude.

5. Machamp: Papyrus loves talking about how big his muscles are, and he loves working out and training with Undyne. This tough Pokémon even has a similar belt and...uh...armour design to Papyrus. Its name could be a reference to the word "macho." Despite being incredibly strong, it is bad at doing any delicate, careful work. I can imagine all sorts of shenanigans it would get into with a trainer who is as particular as Papyrus!

6. Mimikyu: This seems like an odd choice, but hear me put. Mimikyu is a Pokémon that disguises itself as another, more popular Pokémon in the hopes it will get love, attention, and affection. It even makes its own costume. Sound familiar? Not to mention, it looks cute and innocent, but there is definitely something mysterious, weird, and undoubtedly powerful under that appearance. It might not perfectly represent Papyrus, but I think Papyrus has a kind soul that would give Mimikyu the love and affection it deserves. After all, Papyrus knows what it's like to be lonely. I can imagine them hand-making all sorts of costumes together.

Overall, I wanted Papyrus to have a team that looked cute, quirky, and/or cool on the outside, but that has a theme of a hidden side or a secret, usually powerful or even frightening in nature. That is also why I chose his specific Legendary and Mythical Pokémon:

Koraidon: I desperately wanted this to be Palkia, I really did, but Koraidon fits so much better. While Palkia would be the "sibling" to Sans's Dialga, this Koraidon better fits the way Sans and Papyrus are so dissimilar. However, Koraidon does come from a game having to do with time travel, still lending to that timey-wimey theme. Papyrus loves cars, and Koraidon matches his cool vibe and his colour scheme. It is a Pokémon from the past, fitting Papyrus's "kid-like" personalty in contrast with the futuristic, stoic Dialga that Sans has. While Palkia fits Papyrus's abilities to mess with reality and do whatever he wants, this Pokémon seems more like something he'd actually have on his team. I also made it go with Mettaton's Miraidon (I'll explain why when we get to him).

Keldeo: The mythical Keldeo is here to match Undyne's Cobalion; is a protégé of Cobalion, and is the newest unofficial member of the "Swords of Justice". It shares colour similarities to Papyrus's outfit. It is also a smaller, weaker-looking Pokémon that can change forms to be much more powerful. It fights only for good causes, using the horn on its head like a sword. Once again, we have the "younger" look, something that appears goofy or weak on the surface but can pack a punch.

#undertale #pokemon #papyrus

[multi-level-shipper]

The Worst Kind of Rhetoric

(TW; Homophobia, transphobia, sexism, misogyny. Religion, religious themes.)

As the amount of anti-trans laws continue to rise, I thought it would be best to bring something to light.

I grew up Christian, and pretty involved in church life. While I remain my own Christian and have great memories of my time spent there, my particular place of worship is no longer a place I will set foot in. There are many reasons, but I'll just be highlighting some surface level things here.

My church is old. The following pictures are appropriately medieval. I've blacked out all identifying information, so there is no way to prove definitively to you all that these are real, though I've tried my best to keep in everything I can. But it illustrates a VERY real, and VERY dangerous root of the problems that we are facing today with homophobia, transphobia, and sexism. While not every religious person is homophobic etc., this is meant to illustrate where homophobia etc. can start for a religious person, and how these ideas are presented to them, especially at a young age.

The following pamphlet was for a Sunday school class meant for high school-aged kids, some of them about to graduate at the time. These were taken about a year ago by my sister's friend, who has a parent heavily involved in the church. My sister's friend seemed aware of what was going on and didn't buy into it, (hence why they took the photos in the first place) and I can only hope that the rest of the kids in that same class had questions. Before we dive in, I'll be singling out some excerpts from the pamphlet, because while there are some generally "good" messages, they are layered on top of some of the most damaging material I have ever read.

These excerpts are;

"Help the gentleman in his showing respect. Don’t fight or make it difficult.”

“Before you leave your home, check your dress. Will the clothes you are wearing allow your gentleman to remain pure in thought? If not, change.”

“Thank the gentleman if he shows respect. It reaffirms him and will greatly increase the chance he will do it again.”

“Even though you are being displayed, never burst onto a scene. Let the attention come to you.”

“A chivalrous woman is never immodest in her dress or coarse in her talk.”

“Gentlemen always take the lead in being chivalrous.”

“Thou shalt believe all that the Church teaches, and shalt observe all its directions.”

(I realize The "Stuff To Do On A Blind Date" section is impossible to read but it's literally just a parody page meant to tell you what not to do on a blind date.)

If anyone wants the full transcripts just comment/send me an ask and I'll add them, I'll admit it is a damn lot but I'll do it asap if someone wants/needs it.

Also questions/comments/roasts are welcome, as long as you're not telling me to knock my teeth out with cement for no reason I really don't care.

Also, if you stuck around, here's a brief silver lining- the trans kids in my church left a while ago. They are grown, and are doing much better now. One of them had top surgery roughly a year ago.

#general tomfoolery #transgender

[wither-rose-circus]

I wanna get into the mcyt fandom but it seems extremely complex and I've got no clue where to start

While I wouldn’t necessarily call it complex, the Minecraft YouTube community is very massive and very old and can hardly be boiled down to one singular “fandom.” The only thing you really need to do before joining is ask yourself what kind of content you’re looking for. Do you enjoy just watching people make things? Do you like drama and roleplay? Would you prefer casual fun of people just playing the game together? Do you like one-shot challenge videos? Or maybe long term survival series? Perhaps you’d just like a variety of content so long as it involves Minecraft?

Your answer will lead you down several different branches of content, many of which I myself am not familiar with. But I can point you in a few directions based on creators I’ve seen, myself.

Do you want to watch:

A group of friends just having fun and playing on a server together? I suggest Hermitcraft

There are 26 hermits as of the current season (9), but don’t worry, you can watch the seasons in any order from any POV. The only real “plot” on Hermitcraft is a bunch of people doing their own thing until they run into each other. My personal recommendations to start with are Grian, Mumbo Jumbo, Goodtimeswithscar, ImpulseSV, or Geminitay, but you can find a list of them here and see if anyone strikes your fancy!

A dramatic, story-focused roleplay akin to DnD? Try Empires SMP

Empires SMP is a partially narrative-driven server that spans across 12 different “empires,” each with its own theme and ruler. The main drive of the story is how each ruler interacts with each other, but an overarching storyline involving a demon hellbent on ending the world forms about 1/3 of the way through. If you’re interest in that aspect of the server specifically, I’d recommend Smajor1995, ShubbleYT, Geminitay, Joey Graceffa, or Mythicalsausage. However, that’s just season 1, which is a self-contained story. If you’d like to get into something similar on the ground floor, though, Empires season 2 is starting this Saturday (same cast, new story), so it’d be a great place to start with no catching up on the previous season required!

Basic survival multiplayer? How about 3rd Life SMP

3rd Life is a hardcore series in which 14 players are given 3 lives, color coded to green, yellow, and red. Players on their green or yellow lives are simply expected to survive, but players on red lives are encouraged to cause as much death and destruction as possible before they die and are eliminated. It has two sequels as well, Last Life and the currently ongoing Double Life, both of which feature the same cast. I’d recommend starting with Grian, Inthelittlewood, Zombiecleo, or Smajor1995.

Challenge or variety videos? Some of my personal favorites are Wadzee, Tommyinnit, Fundy, Wisp, and Dreamwastaken

They have full playlists of various random challenges, from speedrunning the game before another player kills them, to beating some of the most ridiculous mods, to getting shocked when they take damage, to beating custom difficulties, to coding viewer suggestions into the game.

Of course, these are all very surface level and based only on creators I have personally watched. There are so many more people I could have included, and even more I’ve never heard of. I know that sounds intimidating, but really, this list is just some suggestions to get you going, get you talking to people, and eventually get you more recommendations. In a “fandom” that doesn’t follow one particular show, you’ve got to make your own path.

The only advice for getting into the Minecraft YouTube community I can really give you is to watch Minecraft content on YouTube. That’s all you have to do.

#if you want advice on the fandom /etiquette/ (at least on tumblr) or blog recommendations there are plenty of posts I’d be happy to link #mcyt #mcytblr #asks #anon

[fungi-maestro]

You like detectives, you like robots, you should like detective robots. You should take a look at DBH.

I appreciate the media recommendation, but. Pass.

I did actually watch a playthrough of DBH when it came out (someone I was really into liked it, so I wanted to know about it so we could talk about it) and I really wasn't impressed. I'm not going to go into the issues with the content and implications of the story, plenty of people have done that more eloquently and more comprehensive than I have and I really encourage you to take a look at those. Google "Detroit Become Human Racism" and plenty of stuff will come up that says it better than I could. Go ahead. It won't take you very long. I'll wait here. If you aren't feeling sleuthy, here's a quick read that should give you a basic idea of the lazy way Cage explores the themes of race in the game.

I'll stick to what I can say easily as a robot and mystery enjoyer, it sucked bad. Concise and to the point.

At first I thought the androids were appealing, but it doesn't hold up when you think about it at all. It's surface level and bland, and combined with the way they treat race, it isn't done well at all. It's all been done before in better ways and there's nothing unique about the DBH approach to "Robots become sentient" that you wouldn't get Better somewhere else. Read "I, Robot" (it's what I've been blogging about today! It's very good!) or "R.U.R." (that one's available for free at the Gutenberg website and is the origin of the word robot!) or, hell, watch Star Trek (Data is an android detective!) or even, if you're into it, the first season of Westworld (I didn't much like it after that, but the first season blew me away!). You'll get a better story about finding humanity in a human shaped machine in any of those. Go play Portal or watch 2001 if you like the AI plot. I don't care. There's better options.

The detective stuff sucked too. It's basically Heavy Rain, which I've played many times with my family to make fun of how bad the crime solving is. It's not good. Nothing about it is titillating or interesting at all. You'll find better detective stories on literally anything else. Go watch one of the millions of shows or read the millions of books in the genre you want a detective story that is interesting and also doesn't suck. Go read a comic book if you really want to. Who cares. If you watch enough Columbo, maybe he'll stick his fingers in his mouth like Connor does and you can be horny about some other detective (because let's all be honest. That's what the fan space surrounding that thing is built around, right? Being horny for the androids? There are better robots to be horny for. Better detectives, too. Get better taste.) If it's the Choose Your Own Adventure style gameplay, then that genre is booming right now! There's so many great titles in it that aren't made by a lazy writer like Cage. Go play any of them and I won't judge you when your head pops off and rolls away after the story isn't a slog of quicktime events and cheesy dialogue.

I'm going to finish this off by saying that I don't want any weird anons about this. It's my final opinion and you will not change my mind by sending me anything. Also, let's be real again, if you're a DBH fan in 2022, I'm not changing your mind either. Unless you genuinely didn't know there were better options. There are. Go look at them and then report back to me.

Anyway, the TLDR is: I already took a look at DBH and I didn't really like what I saw. I'll stick to stories about robots and detectives that don't suck and don't have these kinds of serious issues that have been talked about since the concept became public knowledge.

#ask #anon #seal.txt #long post #im not fandom tagging this. #unless you send me a message asking me nicely to. then i will. #otherwise I'd rather not bring the wrath of robot racism: the game to my humble blog

[zofja-qualifiedantholic]

HANA Doll track project archive L 2-14 Pensée translation

The translation is very rough!!! More info here

hope this tl helps!!

Toki: I shouldn't(?).

Rui: What happened?

Toki: Leave the bear over here. Thank you.

Rui: Good night.

Toki: Rui-san, are you ready(?)?

Rui: Should I stay here for a while? Until Toki will fall asleep.

Toki: Yes. What happened to Ageha-san and Rui-san today?

Rui: I went to the head office with Ageha.

Toki: Head office... How nice. I also wanted to go.

Rui: There will be another opportunity.

Toki: What kind of business was it?

Rui: Ageha talked to the president about going to a training center next time(?).

Toki: Training center?

Rui: He said he wants him to talk to current students.

Toki: Looks fun. I'm sure it's cool that Ageha-san will speak in front of everyone.

Rui: No doubt. I can see it(?).

Toki: How nice, Rui-san.

Rui: hm

Toki: Rui-san has been close to Ageha-san all the time. You understand him the best(?). I envy the relationship between you two.

Rui: Understanding person.

Toki: I also wanted to be selected as the first for Loulou*di(?). I am... alone... all the time... (?).

Rui: You are not alone. You're an important member of Loulou*di.

---------

Ageha: There are many entertainment productions in the world. Even now, many idols are being produced. But many are far from genuine, only the surface is gorgeously decorated. The state of this world full of vanity, I have come to make people feel the retirement age that idols are about this level after all(?). It can be said that this is a bad time. But that is why we are true idols. However, we must regain what we should be. Unleash our potential to the limit. Showing human potential, becoming a person who fascinates and gives hope to people. This can be rephrased as the responsibility of the idols who belong to Amagiri Productions. Training center(?) students are no exception. Taking pride as a member of Amagiri Productions, please work hard on lessons. Either(?). I am looking forward to seeing you on stage. That's all from me.

X: Thank you. I would like to take some time for questions and answers. The student with the question is a master(??). You on the aisle side over there(?).

Student: Loulou*di's world view is always built in and I think it's really amazing. Please tell me how it is made.

Ageha: First of all, I expanded the idea according to the theme I decided and make a decision after many discussions with producers and designers.

Student: Did Rui-san and Toki-san not participate?

Rui: I am devoted to my role as an artist.

Toki: Me too. It is our duty of Ageha-san to create the world view(?).

Ageha: We will share the theme and motif with them when they have settled. It takes time to get the content(?). Did that answer this question(?)?

Student: Yes. Thank you.

X: (?). Then, you in the center seat.

Student 2: Thank you. I think everyone is busy with the activities. What do you do to take a break?

Ageha: Take a break... It's not like this, ah, I wonder if reading and watching movies is not only studying but also refreshing.

Rui: If I have time, I go to galleries and museums(?).

Toki: I, um, that... I, that.

Rui: Toki likes to go to a cafe lately.

Toki: That's right. I like cafes.

Ageha: Every time you'll interview Toki, he'll give a slightly different answer. Unlike me and Rui, he has a lot of hobbies and is active. He may be wondering what to say.

Toki: I'm sorry.

Ageha: It's good to have a lot of knowledge and experience. I hope that you will continue to actively touch many things and improve your expressiveness.

Toki: Yes.

Ageha: This is also true for the training center(?). Of course it is important to learn skills that are directly related to idol activities, but you should also be interested in other things and have a lot of experience(?).

Student 2: Yes. Thank you.

X: Next, you'll make the last question. There, you(?).

Student 3: Please tell us what made you want to become an idol.

Ageha: Ah, It's a difficult question to answer in one word. Right. It may be the best way to cut it, saying that I wanted to test my strength.

Rui: I entered the training center because of the recommendation to trust.

Toki: I-

Rui: Toki.

Toki: I-

Ageha: What happened, Toki? You're nervous, it's not like you(?).

Toki: Ageha-san, I'm sorry.

Ageha: Excuse me, everyone. As you all know, he has just made his debut. He hasn't had much experience speaking in public yet, it's no wonder he's nervous. I'm also a little nervous today. I wonder if I can show a good back as a senior. Rui is a man with that courage, so it's no problem though(?).

Rui: I think this feeling of stretching your spine is probably close to tension. In my case, rather than suffocation(?). It's just like going a little bit(?).

Ageha: By the way, tension is not bad at all. I can't concentrate if I'm too relaxed. I can't show my true ability. Moderate tension is ideal.

Toki: I am-!

Rui: Toki. Don't overdo it.

Toki: Why I wanted to become an idol. I was longing for it, so I was able to join Loulou*di. It's really- It's really a voice(?)!

-----------------

Toki: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I- I-

Rui: It's okay, don't worry.

Toki: I'm really sorry.

X: You guys have been working hard. Thank you very much for today.

Ageha: Don't be thankful. This is a special place for us. Above all, this time it was the president's direct plan, so. Rather, can you provide a room where you can lie down? Actually, Toki has pushed me a little sick(?). I'd like to take a rest.

X: Oh, really. Then, straight away.

Ageha: After that, If there is next time please check the contents of the question on the day in advance. It's a waste of time to be asked all the time what you've already answered many times in other interviews.

X: I'm sorry.

Ageha: Then, please guide me. Rui, you are too modest(??). I'm going to be with Toki.

Rui: You?

Ageha: Dissatisfied?

Rui: No.

Toki: Ageha-san. That...

Ageha: Don't worry. My setup was bad today.

Toki: That, I couldn't go(?). But absolutely-

Ageha: I know it. I can expect it.

Toki: Yes.

X: Then, please go this way.

#hanadoll #loulou*di