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kafkaoftherubble · 2 months

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把死人给带回来？难道...?！

// If They Are Bringing Back the Dead...

This post contains spoilers for Chapter 184.1 of To Your Eternity.

It also contains speculations galore. This is NOT a meta essay.

Shoutout to my homie branetheory in Discord!

Thanks to them, I was reminded of what Parts of My Brain had wanted to talk about:

Bruh. I can't believe ToFu made me so high last night that I forgot to talk about this.

Honestly I regret nothing Okay, memory water.

A little Kafka Aside: I'm gonna have to consciously ignore how... not-there the scientific backing for this is. Honestly, this Memory Water thing reminded me of the New Age/Pseudoscientific idea of "water memory" or Masaru Emoto's "water consciousness" thing or DNA teleportation. However, this is a story where weirder shits have happened, so suspension of disbelief willingly and gleefully granted. I just need to get this out of my head first.

To reiterate, Kaibara's experimental procedure involves

Extracting cells from a person's body

"Turn" it into water (how?)

Make a "clone" drink it (who?)

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Who could these clones be?

The only clones we know so far are the Mizuha clones. Their existence seems to imply a similar purpose to Hayase's descendants—they are supposed to inherit Hayase's Will, which is 95% "get injected with a tumor we call the Left Hand Nokker."

But Nokkers have long become invisible and fully integrated into this ecosystem. In the Future Era, they are embedded in tag chips, and they grant the bodies they possess all sorts of abilities and augmentations.

What would an inheritance of Hayase's Will even look like here? At first, I thought it would be similar: a tag chip with the Left Hand in it. Mizuha's, uh, possession (for the lack of a better word) manifested through the same mechanism other Nokkers used, after all.

However, the story gradually told us that the clones had all been massacred via an unknown operation for yet-untold reasons. Why would they do that?

Were these clones failures?

If they were failures, then it would make sense why Kaibara treated them as disposable; after all, in the past, the Guardians always exalted Hayase's Descendant(s) no matter how incompetent they were at their mission. Failure to secure Fushi's seeds I mean love never made them disposable enough to be killed, right?

So, as branetheory (crediting my homie even though they might not see this ahahhahah) also thought—

Could it be that Hayase herself has been successfully reincarnated in the body of one of these clones? (8)

I assigned this hypothesis an 8, or "80% confidence level."

Is she who you're gonna see, Bon?

Why would Kaibara need so many Mizuha clones in the first place? They only need one Descendant. They only have one Left-Hand Nokker...

Unless these clones were made specifically for bringing back Hayase. They were all experiments. Few experiments ever go right at the first trial. But this? Experiments this challenging and important as "recreating our legendary progenitor, Hayase?"

It will definitely require a lot of trial and error. So these clones were made to be expendables.

Honestly, who would name their offspring with numbers if they weren't meant to be seen as expendables?

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There is an interesting point to note: Memory Water only works if one has a Nokker implanted in them. Remember how Abel can't drink it and instantly know the answers to their stupid-ass questions?

So do all clones have Nokkers implanted in them? They all own a tag chip, after all. But there is only one Left Hand Nokker, and that bitch seems deadset on possessing only Hayase's appointed heir (or in this case, Hayase herself).

Does that mean

all the clones have their own Nokkers, but none of it is the Left Hand, until the Experiment? (3) OR

all the clones have empty tag chips until the Experiment, in which the Left Hand Nokker is then implanted inside before the subject drinks the Memory Water? (6) OR

other hypotheses I could not think of at the moment? (1)

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Doro and Her Sisters: Were They Trying To Stage a Rebellion Against Kaibara's Highest Echelon? (7)

Assigned (7); "70% confidence level"

Could this scene actually depict a failed experimental result, where #32/Doro was the subject? After all, she didn't look like she died in a massacre. She looked like she died alone, leaving her sisters behind..

Doro liaisoned with Fushi in secret. So secretly, Tonari didn't know it happened.

Why would she do that? Way back then, me and the Discord gang had speculated some sort of clash between Doro and the rest of Kaibara. At that time, I think our speculation was that it had to do with the Wish-granting Orb specifically.

But now, with this new information in mind...

Could it be that the liaison was part of the clones' planned rebellion? (6)

Assigned 6; "60% confidence level."

It could be that, in addition to passing vital information about Kaibara to Fushi (who is still not exactly forthcoming about what they know so far), Doro was also trying to ensure that the Wish-granting Orb will never fall into the Highest Echelon's hands.

Was her conviction formed out of concerns about what Kaibara might do with the orb?

Or was her reasoning more pragmatic—she didn't want Kaibara to have the power to crush her rebellion?

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Back to the number-as-naming convention. What if these weren't names, but the assigned turn of each clone for the ultimate experiment (6)? If that's the case, then Doro is the 32nd experiment that failed.

That's a lot. And the fact that she failed would mean the experiment will keep going. The clones will keep being bred to be used for these experiments. It's a conflict ripe for seeds of rebellion, right?

And so, there are extra hypotheses as to why the clones were massacred in the first place:

Hayase has been successfully reincarnated (8)

The clones' rebellion plan has been found out (7)

Hayase has been successfully reincarnated AND the clones' rebellion plan has been found out (5.6; 8/10×7/10)

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Dolly's Purpose(s)

While Doll's original purpose might have been for amusement and fun—Doro rescued it from some trash heap and just engineered it to be a playmate—I had always found its ability to dish out powerful punches suspicious. Why would a playmate be good at granting people concussions in the first place?!

And it was good enough to take out mercenaries, right?

I'm quite confident that Doll's punch is a defensive ability to guard whatever's stored in its memory (9).

I should review what Previous Me had speculated:

Doll holds Doro's brainwaves or consciousness

Doll holds the Left Hand Nokker within it

Doll is a combination of Doro's consciousness/brainwaves and its original AI

There is also the speculation that Doll is the Wish-granting Orb itself, but I think the confidence level for that hypothesis has gone pretty low... at least to me, personally. It sits at less than 10%.

Now, I want to add new hypotheses and rearrange them from most confident to least:

Doll's memories include Kaibara's top secret: key infrastructures, their real master(s), their experiments, whatever information they have gained about the Wish-granting Orb, their master plan to counter Fushi, and the like. Things that could give rebelling clones an edge. (8)

Doll holds Doro's brainwaves/consciousness integrated within its original AI (7)

Doll holds Doro's brainwaves/consciousness AND it is Doro's consciousness/memories that possess knowledge of Kaibara's top secret (5.6; 8/10×7/10)

Doll holds the Left Hand Nokker (less than 2)

The first (and by extension, the third) hypothesis can be supplemented by the fact that Kaibara really wants the Doll. Why, if not because the Doll holds vital information regarding the entire company?

They could go after it for Doro's consciousness, sure, but the priority would drop a lot more, wouldn't it? ...Unless the third hypothesis is true!

The second hypothesis can be partially supplemented by Abel's dedication to possessing the Doll; he really cherished Doro, and to him, the Doll could lead him to her again. He also claimed that Doro "is still alive," though when pressed, he gave no evidence.

Was it wistful thinking, or could he have been privy to Doro's experiment to transfer her consciousness into Doll? Did he really know nothing about Doro's death?

There is also the "Now I am human" line Doro uttered while blindfolded. Given we now know what the clones are used for, Doro might see her existence to be inhuman/subhuman because of her real purpose. Maybe, to her, she could feel more human by being a doll than in her human body.

Hell, who knows? Doro might secretly envy Abel's humanness—a guy who was likely born from normal copulation and couldn't fit in with the rest of the Tagged society, yet all the more a genuine human being than the rest of them.

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What is the nature of Doll's Brainwaves?

Could it have been a digital transfer, or could it have used a similar mechanism to the Memory Water?

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Miscellaneous Implications of Memory Water Bringing Back the Dead

Bruh I swear if they reincarnated the Nameless Boy to torment Fushi I will fucking sever my friendship with Left Hand Nokker and nuke their Paradise. Oh hi Left Hand, nothing over here.

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And that concludes my hypotheses round-up, updated to only Chapter 184.1. Remember! Y'all are always welcome to reblog and add your own thoughts to it!

Fuck, I will be so honored if y'all Fushi-fied my writing by adding absolutely anything.

Thank you for reading my ramble. Rest assured, I have prepared just the right image for the moment I clown myself by having most of my hypotheses come out spectacularly falsified:

(Hi everyone this is Kei from Ajin)

#Man. I know I have adopted the “confidence level assignment” habit since I learned about super-forecasting and got a bit better at stats #But I never really knew how to incorporate it to help me organize my hypotheses and speculations...#...until lately. I feel like all I've been doing is TRYING TO FIGURE THINGS OUT AND SPECULATE HERE AND THERE #My livewired brain has evolved in a very specific way. I just know it.#What I don't know is whether I should thank the chief instigator for this evolution. Or strangle them.#Maybe both. Pretty sure (99% confidence level) they deserve both. Aye guys?#fumetsu no anata e #to your eternity #fnae #fnae spoilers #fnae manga spoilers #tye #tye spoilers #Wish Era #speculations and hypotheses

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februaryfangfest · 5 months

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This coming February, get hyped ‘cause we’re getting the family back together!

From February 1st-14th, we’re gonna be running an event to celebrate the Fanged Four and all their gleefully gory glory. We’re looking for all kinds of fan creations. Fanfic, artwork, vids, meta/essays, icons, poetry, gifs, wallpapers, crossword puzzles, anything that shows your love for the vamily.

Wanna take part?

We’ll be taking signups until January 15th, Check out our signup sheet! Multiple submissions are welcome. Submission deadline will be the 1st of February and we’ll be revealing your creations each day of the event, one per day - or more, if there’s enough!

Don’t wanna create a thing? Commenters are adored and will get all the cakes.

Rules:

The theme will be 'Valentine'

All submissions must be your own creation and shouldn’t have been posted anywhere else beforehand. We wanna encourage fresh creative blood to be spilt!

We’ll be providing details soon as to how to submit your work to our Ao3 Collection.

Stories and artwork can be set at any point in the past or future, in hidden glimpses we never saw in the show, reunion stories, worlds where Darla’s still around, they could be souled or unsouled, or in any what-if or AU your heart can dream up.

Your work needs to incorporate the theme in some way, and should involve at least two members of the Fanged Four. The main ship should be the Fanged Four or one of the sub-pairings (Spangel, Dangel, Sprusilla, Darsilla, etc).

Minimum word count for fic is 100 words, and there’s no maximum - one shots and chaptered works are equally welcomed, but they should be complete and not part of a pre-existing fic series. There’s no rating limit, but you should tag responsibly. No bashing of the group or its members please, we’re here to show them love.

The same goes for artwork, adult content is very much allowed but please tag accordingly.

And, of course, please be excellent to each other.

We have a discord server, Runs In The Blood , so come have fun there too, share the hype, discuss the gang, maybe find some new friends, ask us questions if you have them, and we’ll be running watch parties during the event!

#btvs #buffy the vampire slayer #fanged four #spike #angel btvs #buffyverse #drusilla #angel the series #darla #fanfiction #febfangfest2024

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hillerskalibrary · 1 year

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YR week 2023 - FAQ

General

What is Young Royals week? A fandom event where all YR content creators are invited to create new content for the YR fandom. Each day of the week, there is a new prompt to inspire creators to come up with a short fic, a quick doodle, or something else entirely. The end result will be a sort of potluck of new content to read, admire, enjoy, share and discuss!

When does it take place? YR week 2023 takes place from April 24th to April 30th.

What pairings/characters are allowed? All of them. Whether it's about our beloved wilmon or that one extra with 5 seconds of screen time you fell in love with - as long as the main focus is on one or more YR characters, you're good to go.

What type of content is allowed? Fic, playlists, meta, headcanons, gifsets, collages, picrews, cosplay, drawings, ... if you can make a post about it, we can reblog it.

Participation

How do I sign up? Because we want to encourage as many people as possible to participate, there are no formal sign ups. If you wanna join, you can, simple as that!

What are the prompts? You can find the prompts here.

I'm not sure how to interpret X prompt. However you want, really! E.g. for the "fairytale" prompt you could rewrite a fairytale with your favorite pairing, or have a character reading a fairytale to his/her (future) children, or a superfluffy scene in which a character mentions "feeling like they're living a fairytale", or ... The prompts are there to inspire you, not limit you - so use them as you see fit!

I don’t have time to create something for each day / I don't feel inspired by the day X prompt. You are under no obligation at all to create something for each prompt. So whether you create something for one day or all days, or even three things for one day and none for the others - we're looking forward to see it!

I’m not much of a content creator / don't have time to create anything. Can I still participate? Yes, you abolutely can! After all, sharing is caring, and that goes double for fandom content. So like, kudo, reblog or comment, send your favorite author a sweet ask or reblog your favorite artist's entire portfolio - there are plenty of ways to show the YR week content creators how much we appreciate them!

Posting

Where/How do I post what I created? Make a new tumblr post* that either contains what you created, or contains a link to the content on a different platform (e.g. a post with your artwork, a link to a fic on ao3, ...) and tag it with #yr week 2023. We will then reblog it to the hillerskalibrary for more visibility!

*remember that only new posts show up in the tags, so if you reblog a post and tag it, we probably will not see it! if you do prefer to reblog rather than make a new post, make sure to mention (@) hillerskalibrary on the post itself.

When should I post? We will post each prompt at 10am GMT+1, which will signal the start of that day's posting. However, if you are to the East of us and it's easier for you to post early in your morning (so before the prompt post has gone out), OR if you're to the West and you post late (so when the GMT+1 day is already over) - that is just fine.

It's Wednesday and I only now finished the Monday prompt :(. What, you think people are gonna be mad they're getting more content? Just post it, you're fine!

I'm not on Tumblr - how can I share my content? Just submit it directly to hillerskalibrary, and we will post it for you, no problem!

Is there an AO3 collection for fic? Thanks to a thoughtful anon who reminded me - yes there is!

#yr week 2023

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fixaidea · 7 months

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Right, I wrote the following little meta halfway through Sha Hai, mostly going on spoilers and summaries, but now that I've finished it I'm gonna re-share and main-tag it:

If I had to give Wu Xie an instrument, I'd give him a Visi-Sonor.

(Or an accordion because that's the real-world instrument that looks anything like how I picture a Visi-Sonor.)

Why, you may ask? (Or maybe not, but alas I will bore you with it anyway.)

The Visi-Sonor is a sort of boxy key-instrument mentioned in the Foundation books by Isaac Asimov. It's main feature is that besides producing sound it can also conjure up visions in the audience's minds, and in all honesty wouldn't be terribly relevant here, if not for its most noteworthy player, who I shall get to in a minute.

...But first I must explain what the Foundation and the Second Foundation are.

The Foundation came to be when the human civilisation, already spread all over the galaxy, started to collapse in on itself.

Enter Hari Seldon, the pioneer of a new branch of science called psychohistory, which is the prediction of the future based on mathematical calculations. This way, Seldon works out how long the post-collapse chaos would last if allowed to run its course, and also works out a plan how to shorten this period and minimise the damage Humanity would take. The Foundation is meant to be the core around which civilisation will rebuild itself.

Now, the Second Foundation. This is a shadowy organisation that tracks Seldon's plan and, should reality deviate from it too much (because Seldon was only human and shit happens) they send out their agents to subtly steer it back on track.

Here's also an important note about psychohistory: it can only be used to predict big, broad events and only when given a large amount of people to base one's calculations on. Characters in the books speculate about the possibility of scaling it down to predict the movements of individual people, but I can't quite recall if anyone manages to implement it.

Well then.

Enter the Mule.

He is a person with never-before-seen mind-control abilities, who bursts onto the scene and completely throws the Plan off. Since his abilities drastically alter people's natural reactions his movements and the effect he will have on history (which is relevant because he's kind of a bloody-minded conqueror) becomes completely unpredictable. The Visi-Sonor is his preferred method for channelling his mind-control power.

And now back to DMBJ!

Let's flip the scrip! Let's make the Second Foundation our villains! Here we have his history-meddling evil little cult that even managed to scale down psychohistory to street-level and predict the movements of individuals! How do you even begin to tackle a group like this?

Well, naturally, you create and raise someone to be a complete wild card, someone whose moves they just won't be able to keep up with.

You fling the Mule at them.

#dmbj #foundation #wu xie #the mule #tlt #the lost tomb

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aroaceaaah · 1 year

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Mehn, síd, áŕá͡úyê͡î!

Writer ask thingy: 3, 8, 15, 20 !

Dia daoibh, fucker.

3.) What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need?

Everything I want to write for the WIP is Coming So Help Me God. If it doesn't fit but is still Mass Effect it's going in a supplimentary little oneshots catch all thing. That's been most of the brain atm, I've got some DW WIPs but I'm totally gonna get back to them I promise.

That Does Not Mean I have Never had half assed ideas I didn't write.

I wanted to make my DBH fic longer, I wanted it to be a whole thing about Connor getting super overwhelmed with being a Deviant and everything that entails and it was all a super thinly veiled metaphor for autistic burnout. I also briefly thought I would recreate the whole of DBH as a text-adventure that was naive hah.

I wanted to write a She-Ra fic focusing on what if Adora just let Catra come with her when she sneaked out of the horde to go find the sword in the first episode. It was gonna be a big long AU and basically everything would be different if that one thing changed. They were gonna be gay way earlier

I have a whole original thing I have never written much of at all but I do have ideas!! I also have Assignmence and Autism Special Interests which take precident a lot of the time.

8.) Is what you like to write the same as what you like to read?

This is a fun one because mostly no? Depends on how specific you get. I write fanfic, I read a lot of fanfic. In terms of genre, I love writing angst, if I do not feel 1000% confident that the angst will be held properly (no big dramatic plot twists or OOC stuff for drama or fuckin cliffhangers, dickhead) then I will just simply not read it. No. I do like when it's funny and nonsense and I write a lot of that, but I also like when random americans write about fucking Calculus man idk what I like that's between me, god, and a team of psychologists.

15. Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?

I am simply built different these are all easy hahhaa. I am shit at suggesting titles for others writing but for me I just title everything either a joke or a song lyric and wham done. Idk if they're catchy or enticing I have no idea I just want it to all line up so you can scroll and sing a really weird disjointed version of a song weeee

20.) Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

WELL!! You are gonna read this and be like "none of this was new information to me" but idc I'm saying it anyway (SPOILERS FOR MY MASS EFFECT FIC LOL)

ROBOT SHEPARD. I adored that as a concept, it literally wasn't my goal with Tis Grace I have notes from the beginning trying to focus on the, like, social implictations of being dead for a while but it wasn't holding water and then I was like what about the physical implications and then I was like WHAT IF SHE'S AN AI

it was great and there is SO much coming for that, there's stuff in my ME3 one that revolves around that and I'm so excited for. It's all foreshadowed and set up and it's fun because a lot of it happened almost accidentally. In terms of relationships, I obviously love the title lesbians, I swear I do even though they have been together for maybe 15 minutes in the fic but look. I wanted an explanation for why Liara isn't with you in ME2 and I could not think of a cheery one for that. I also didn't expect to be as obsessed with Jack as I am but honestly herself and Shepard genuinely having a close friendship? Miranda gets roped in for dramatic tension? They should have let me write the games idc that I was 10 years old

Anyway if you want a clue as to what happens next listen to the playlist it's. Fairly explicitly stated tbh.

#look I got an ask!!#If I ever do write the things you will certainly hear about it #Antagonising America

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marv3l-drag0ns · 1 year

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I SEE THOSE TAGS . EXPLDOES

please omg ramble this is so interesting

ok im awake and also formulating. the bag of cats is wide open and by god those cats are running around knocking over glasses

Ok so theres 8 gyms, 4 elite 4, and 1 champion, as well as the professor. Thats 16 spots.

I dont know who the professor would be... i could see rose because shes so silly and "oh yes i am very worldly believe me i am very cool". She would probably make fore-shadowy comments whenever the player sees her.

Her Ace would be Gothitelle both because heehoo goth pokemon but also because gothitelle is said to be able to see the future through the stars. She would also have an Absol, because she's working around and planning for disasters a lot. I also want to give her a misdreavus or mismagius, though that's more for the aesthetic than for a bigger reason. As a professor, she would be studying the intersection between death/disaster and life, and how pokemon help those interactions.

I think that John would be the ex-champion, who's now in charge of a gym (probably 6 or 7). He'd (of course) be a flying gym. He'd make jokes the entire time, and you'd have to walk through a bunch of pranks and net traps to get to him. He'd probably make references to slightly different pasts (like- oh you used that move? I thought you used x). Pretty even balance between physical and special attack.

His ace would be Braviary, because they're very friend-focussed. He'd also have a Swellow- swallows are common in washington, so it makes sense in a meta standpoint. I think Dad would have gifted him a pidgey so they could grow together, so he would also have a Pidgeot. Im gonna give him a Dragonite because they're also very good fliers, and I think he'd have found a dratini in lowas. I'll also say... Noivern, for the organ on lowas, and I want to give him a Corviknight but I feel like thats much more of a Dave pokemon. Looking further, I think he would have a Xatu, to kind of represent the revamp powers he gets- Xatu is a newer pokemon that he got right before he was beat as Champion, so John's still working on befriending it and understanding all of Xatu's social cues.

Speaking of Dave! He'd be the gym right before John- he wanted to become an Elite 4, and is still kind of gunning for that position, but is chill working smaller. He'd be a steel type gym. The gym'd have a lot of clock motifs around, and the field would look a lot like a clockface. There would be a secret room where you could talk to the Mayor, and see Can Town, with a chance to catch a special pokemon (haven't decided who though) He'd be more physical attack, but a few special attack moves.

His Ace would be Corviknight (cough cough knight bird whose a crow. yay!). He got a little rookidee as a kid, and that rookidee's seen a lot of shit while being with Dave. Corviknight is VERY defensive, and Dave trusts it with his life. Dave would also have a Klinklang (clock motif) and Bisharp (swordfighter). His final pokemon would be an Aegislash, but he's not very well acquanted with Aegislash, and tends to get a little frustrated.

Jade would be an Elite Four member. She's one of the stronger ones, and super badass, but likes to goof off and be silly when not battling. She'd pop in and out of player meetings. She's VERY focused on special attack. She's a bit leery of psychic type pokemon, especially pokemon who have a reputation for mind control.

Her Ace would be a shiny Arcanine who's very quiet/aloof. She would also have a Lycanroc (midday), a Gourgheist (who's got more than a few psychic attacks), a Reuniclus (who knows Rock Slide or Gyro Ball), a Dragapult (im going off my memory of her having a gun, also she would like the Dreepy she finds and then hang out with it a lot) and finally a Greninja (galaxy frog!). I wanted to give her a Drednaw instead of a Dragapult, so that might be an alternative.

Those are the first four kids, I have plans for the trolls and some other guys that I'll put in a separate post.

#dragon's discussions #dragon's deliveries #is this homestuck?#pokemon #pokestuck

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influencermagazineuk · 11 months

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Mark Zuckerberg Shares Thoughts on Apple's Vision Pro Headset

In a recent meeting with Meta employees, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta (formerly Facebook), expressed his perspective on Apple's Vision Pro headset unveiling. Despite Apple's introduction of the Vision Pro, Zuckerberg seemed unfazed and discussed his thoughts with Meta's employees. During the companywide meeting, Zuckerberg stated that Apple's device did not present any significant technological breakthroughs that Meta hadn't already explored. He also expressed that the vision Apple has for how people will use the device is not aligned with his own. Additionally, Zuckerberg highlighted the affordability factor, pointing out that Meta's upcoming Quest 3 headset, priced at $499, will be considerably cheaper compared to the Vision Pro's $3,499 price tag. This affordability could enable Meta to reach a wider user base. Zuckerberg emphasized the differences in values and vision between Meta and Apple, stating, "I think that their announcement really showcases the difference in the values and the vision that our companies bring to this in a way that I think is really important." He further explained that Meta's Quest is focused on people interacting in new ways, fostering closeness and promoting active engagement. Zuckerberg's confidence in Meta's position is evident, despite the competitive threat posed by Apple's headset. Meta has been striving to establish itself as a leader in the virtual and augmented reality space, although its previous Quest Pro release was perceived by some as a disappointment. Apple's Vision Pro marks a significant development in the VR market, challenging Meta's endeavors. Nevertheless, Meta remains committed to accessibility and affordability, while emphasizing the social aspects of the metaverse experience. Zuckerberg's full remarks about Apple's headset can be found below: "Apple finally announced their headset, so I want to talk about that for a second. I was really curious to see what they were gonna ship. And obviously I haven't seen it yet, so I'll learn more as we get to play with it and see what happens and how people use it. From what I've seen initially, I'd say the good news is that there's no kind of magical solutions that they have to any of the constraints on laws of physics that our teams haven't already explored and thought of. They went with a higher resolution display, and between that and all the technology they put in there to power it, it costs seven times more and now requires so much energy that now you need a battery and a wire attached to it to use it. They made that design trade-off and it might make sense for the cases that they're going for. But look, I think that their announcement really showcases the difference in the values and the vision that our companies bring to this in a way that I think is really important. We innovate to make sure that our products are as accessible and affordable to everyone as possible, and that is a core part of what we do. And we have sold tens of millions of Quests. More importantly, our vision for the metaverse and presence is fundamentally social. It's about people interacting in new ways and feeling closer in new ways. Our device is also about being active and doing things. By contrast, every demo that they showed was a person sitting on a couch by themselves. I mean, that could be the vision of the future of computing, but like, it's not the one that I want. There's a real philosophical difference in terms of how we're approaching this. And seeing what they put out there and how they're going to compete just made me even more excited and in a lot of ways optimistic that what we're doing matters and is going to succeed. But it's going to be a fun journey." Read the full article

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playablekairi · 1 year

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I posted 3,501 times in 2022

That's 45 more posts than 2021!

3 posts created (0%)

3,498 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@dying-offeels

@dingdongyouarewrong

@ourflagmeanslgbtqia

@sabertoothwalrus

@merryaqua

I tagged 2,951 of my posts in 2022

Only 16% of my posts had no tags

#kh - 678 posts

#ofmd - 575 posts

#m - 148 posts

#gay stuff - 139 posts

#destiny babs - 137 posts

#fic - 123 posts

#soriku - 120 posts

#figure skating - 102 posts

#blorbocore - 96 posts

#son boy allowed - 94 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#i’m trying to be normal about this but all my brain is screaming is shit like ‘i’m shedding my skin and eating it’ like i’m unhinged by this

My Top Posts in 2022:

2, 8, 4, and 20!

aaaah thank you!!! i had to take some time to answer these because i’ve been busy and i wanted to take it seriously lol. these are gonna focus on skating au because it’s taken over my life 😂

2. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

i’m hoping to make skating au kind of a mixed media/epistolary sort of fic, which is a style i have always really loved and wished to one day do. i’ve been writing out transcripts of event commentary, making fake tweets/kingstagram posts, coming up with news articles and i want them to be kind of naturally woven through the story…. we’ll see if i can pull it off, but i’m gonna try my best!

8. Is what you like to write the same as what you like to read?

basically, yeah. there was a niche in what i wanted to read and i filled it. i always hope that other people like my work and that it makes them feel something, but honestly i’m just doing this for me 😅

4. Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like)

i suppose it’s two paragraphs, sorry, but i’m really satisfied with this exchange from sometime near the peak of the intense mutual pining era of skating au. the context is that they’re in practice and their program’s ending pose is borrowed from tessa virtue and scott moir’s umbrellas of cherbourg free dance (skip to 6:30). i'm just a big fan of writing ridiculous flirting, lol.

“Get any closer and you risk picking up some of my lipstick,” she says, willing her voice not to waver. The unspoken “Get any closer and it’s a real kiss,” hangs thick in the air around them.

“What, you don’t think it’s my colour?” Riku teases, and the part of Kairi that believes too hard in love stories half-expects his eyes to dart down to her mouth, but instead they stay fixed on hers, as if daring her to do something about it.

20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

i could go on until my voice is hoarse about how much fun i’ve had doing research for the costumes, music, and choreography i’ve selected for different skating programs, but i think i’m most proud of the oathkeeper and oblivion programs. they are such important parts of kh canon, fan favourite keyblades, and they both are irrefutably connected to riku and kairi, so i knew i had to include them somehow. it was literally one of the very first things i decided when i started developing this au the month after kh3 came out. i’m still deciding between a few options for riku’s costumes, but i have kairi’s dresses picked out and the music they skate to (oblivion and oathkeeper).

See the full post

3 notes - Posted February 17, 2022

Lmao since I’m already fairly sure of your answers for Kingdom Hearts, answer the questions for Miraculous Ladybug.

LOL and here i was getting my kh answers all ready to go 😂

blorbo (favorite character, character I think about the most): i don't know if i really have a blorbo? i really enjoy ml but i'm not like that invested it's like the fandom equivalent of junk food? i love marinette and adrien? they're the blorbos?

scrunkly (my “baby”, character that gives me cuteness aggression, character that is So Shaped): adrien is baby and i have the adoption papers already filled out. minou.

scrimblo bimblo (underrated/underappreciated fave): marinette's parents. yes the fandom appreciates them, but it's not enough

glup shitto (obscure fave, character that can appear in the background for 0.2 seconds and I won’t shut up about it for a week): yeah this one is the hardest lol. maybe emilie i get really excited about finally learning more about her

poor little meow meow (“problematic”/unpopular/controversial/otherwise pathetic fave): i think legally the answer to this has to be plagg because he IS the poor little meow meow

horse plinko (character I would torment for fun, for whatever reason): you know i really think there's opportunity in canon to just torment the hell out of luka, as the only person who knows their secret identities and one with access to time loop powers. he's sweet. break him.

eeby deeby (character I would send to superhell): i know gabriel is the easy answer but as somebody who finds the "rude blonde girl bully" trope absolutely wretched and overdone i don't really care about chloe getting a redemption arc i just don't want to see her

6 notes - Posted February 20, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

i make a pair of dolls every year for rikai day shh ignore last year i was busy and since twitter is imploding i guess i ought to start posting shit here too

47 notes - Posted November 18, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#LOL i simply do not make original posts sorry not sorry

0 notes

pikahlua · 2 years

Text

Uh oh Katsuki is in danger

I can’t believe it’s come to this. Every word in this post is going to bring me extreme agony.

I haven’t wanted to say anything about this for a while because I was a) scared of being right and b) extremely terrified of being right. I want a certain subsection of my meta posts to just fade into obscurity and have no one remember them. I want them to be wrong. I didn’t want to have to come back to this.

Fuck it. We’re here. It’s the endgame now.

Hi, let’s talk about how Katsuki is gonna have a bad time.

Horikoshi delivered unto us a terrifying message at Jump Festa 2022. @hanashimas has a good translation up.

I have desperately wanted to see the Japanese version of it, because holy shit is it cheeky. This asshole. This absolute bastard.

Towards the beginning, he states this:

MHA is at a state where it will reach its goal in a about year….if things go smoothly.

If things don’t go smoothly, then Yamashita [Daiki]-kun will probably be reading the same letter again next year at JumpFes.

I’ve been sluggishly drawing for more than 7 years now, but now that we’re in the Final Act, I plan to vent everything that I’ve been sluggishly saving up until now in it.

The way I read this is, everything he hints about in this letter is related to the endgame. It is the final arc. Any hints here are hints about how it all ends. This is it, buckaroos.

I’ve held off on my opinions about it because I wanted to see the setup of the endgame first. But I did have...feelings when I read the whole message. Those came through in my reblog tags.

I didn’t elaborate further also because I hoped to do so in a post someday (now). At the time I just was too busy and tired anyways. But you’ve asked, and so shall I deliver.

Here’s the line that sent the internet into a tailspin:

I’ve said this to Okamoto [Nobuhiko]-kun in LINE, but Katsuki will be having his greatest scene in the manga in future developments. I hope people who like Katsuki and hate Katsuki will look forward to it.

It’s cute. You’re all very cute. I’m sure Horikoshi giggled maniacally at your freak-out. I know I did.

But as a Katsuki fan, this is the part that had me screeching:

And then, we have Deku and Shigaraki.

Even though his consciousness is becoming more and more ambiguous, he’s [Shigaraki’s] a mass of destructive instincts and frustrations. He’s the greatest obstacle in Deku’s goal of “saving”.

Saving and Destroying are both born out of ego. Whose ego will win in the end? Is it even a matter of winning or losing? How will things go? What shall I do? What am I supposed to do??

Well, everything’s somehow gonna come off alright I guess!

Do your best, Deku! Destroy it all, Shigaraki! Die, All for One!!

“What? This part? Katsuki isn’t even mentioned! This is explicitly a section about Izuku and Tomura. Why on earth would you lose your mind over this vague bullshit?” - Unenlightened You, 2022

Because it’s in code, you sweet summer children.

The whole damn thing is very, very intentionally using conspicuously specific words to avoid setting off the alarms. Except they actually set off all the alarms. And that’s probably on purpose, because Horikoshi loves telling us exactly what to expect and lets our imaginations do the work to fill in the blanks and fool ourselves. He does this all the damn time.

How do I know? BECAUSE I CAN READ THE DAMN CODE!

It’s true, I’m not always right (gasp) about the ultimate meaning, but I can damn well tell when the code is there pointing in the generally correct direction.

And now I’ve gathered the signs and assembled the ruins and drawn the circles and pulled out the translation notes and done the calculations and I’m ready to motherfuckin’ do this.

So here’s the tea.

THEORY: Katsuki Bakugou is gonna be possessed

Table of Contents I. The meta warning signs II. “Wait, didn’t you say Izuku was gonna be possessed?” and other sordid tales III. Maybe Izuku is actually a reliable narrator IV. Katsuki’s greatest fear V. The history of One For All VI. Izuku’s unspoken feelings VII. Izuku vs. Tomura but not like that VIII. Decoding Horikoshi’s prophecy IX. tl;dr À̴̡͍͑͘A̵̢̼̟͘͝A̴̢̪͎͒͑̚A̴̟͓̺͛̓͘À̵̪͔͍͊͝A̴̠͖̟̒̓̚Ä̸̡̙͔́͐͠A̴͔̫̼̿͠À̵̠̠͙͒͆Ä̸̢͔̪́̔͐A̴̙͎̪͋̐̒A̵̡̞̓̓̀A̸̘͖͊͆͊A̸̢̟̝̓̐͠A̴͍̺̟͑͝͠A̸̦͍̠͑̈́Ä̵͓͚͓́́͛A̵̺͓̿̔͘͜A̴͕͔͖̽̽͘A̴͕͖͉͆͊̓A̸̝̻͉̐͒A̵̺̞̾̐͜͠A̸͓͖̺͛̐͘A̸͎̝̻̒̈́͝A̵͇̪͎̾̿A̴̪͙͖̓͒A̸̫͖͖͐͌̕A̵̙͕̙̓͘͝A̵̻̙̼͊̈́͠A̴̞̘̟͊̾̕A̸̢̪͔̓̀͒A̵͎̞̪͊͛̀Á̸̢͇̺̚͝A̴̼͕͍̓̓͝Á̸̝̠̫̿͒A̸͎̫͙͑͒Ä̴̡̘̪́͐̿

Here’s what I’m gonna do for you. First, I’m gonna tell you what’s definitely not gonna happen (section I). Second, I’m gonna point out all the allowances I’ve made in my other predictive metas (section II). Third, I’m gonna walk you through all the foreshadowing and unresolved plot points leading to this theory (sections III-VI). Fourth, I’m gonna put all the pieces together for you (section VII). Fifth, I’m gonna decode Horikoshi’s Jump Festa message (section VIII).

And last: I must scream.

I. The meta warning signs

Do you know why the MHA movies exist? Sure, yes, capitalism, money, cool movies, shiny animation, yada yada. But that’s not what I mean. Do you know why the concepts of these movies exist?

These movies exist to show us what if scenarios.

Argue until you’re blue in the face about their canonicity. I could not possibly care less if they count as canon. The point is that they are showing us really awesome things that could have been in the manga proper but for whatever reason won’t be. The movies have been crossing possibilities off the list of things that could happen in the ending.

Two Heroes exists to give us an All Might and Izuku OFA team-up

Heroes Rising exists to give us an Izuku and Katsuki OFA team-up

World Heroes’ Mission exists to give us solo spectacle battles each for Shouto (Flashfire Fist), Katsuki (the thumbs-down victory pose), and Izuku (United States of Don’t Make Me Say It Smash)

These things happened in the movies PRECISELY BECAUSE they would not happen in the manga. We are not getting these things in the manga. All Might lost OFA’s dregs at Kamino Ward. Shouto is not going to use Flashfire Fist. Izuku is not going to do that unmentionable punching atrocity again if he knows what’s good for him. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

Do you understand what I’m saying here? Did y’all see my little endgame bingo card? That little square on the last row labeled “BakuDeku out-of-sync or disagree”?

Katsuki is not getting a cool solo battle where he wins. He’s not getting an All Might or Endeavor victory pose. He’s not getting a fight where he uses One For All even temporarily. He’s not getting a beautifully-synced team battle with Izuku against a common foe.

So...what the fuck is he getting?

NOW you have my permission to lose your shit.

II. “Wait, didn’t you say Izuku was gonna be possessed?” and other sordid tales

Look, we’ve all said some things. Some we don’t regret.

I’ve gone deep into my theory several times on how I think Izuku could end up possessed by AFO or even someone else. Technically, I’m not saying that won’t happen still.

I’m just saying I’ve covered my bases.

I wrote this little prediction post a while back about how the MHA ending could end up a bookend of the beginning arc with the sludge villain. I broke the first arc down into a formula I believed could make its comeback in the final arc. That formula went a little something like this:

Villain possesses Person A

Hero saves Person A

Villain possesses Person B

Person A tries to save Person B and fails

Person A’s actions inspire a hero to save both Person A and Person B

And then I spent many words explaining ad nauseum how I knew which characters would be slotted into the formula, just not which spots they’d end up filling:

[...We] know the final battle is going to involve at least these players:

Izuku Midoriya

Katsuki Bakugou

Tomura Shigaraki or All For One

[...]

Will Shigaraki and AFO both be involved in the final battle? It’s possible. Shigaraki is currently possessed by AFO, and we don’t know if that’s going to be resolved before the final battle.

[...]

Will other characters be present? No idea. The possibilities here are endless.

So I’ve broken the events of chapter 1 down into a formula, and I ran it with many different characters. Although I can’t be sure who will play which roles, this is how I currently expect it to play out[...]

The point is, I knew there was a possibility I chose wrong. I knew it was possible Katsuki could end up possessed instead of Izuku, but I went with Izuku for the sake of exploring the formula. I wanted to follow that possibility to its logical conclusion because it interested me.

But I did consider multiple combinations. I did consider that the formula could be played almost exactly the same as it had been in the first chapter. I did consider the possibility that Katsuki would be the one possessed instead of Izuku.

I just kept it to myself because I...sometimes write fanfiction and wanted to use that scenario for something else.

So if you’re interested, read that post again and swap Izuku’s and Katsuki’s roles. See how well that works out. Now panic a little.

Then come back and read through this list of points I’ve lightly explored in other metas that are totally relevant now (click the link if you’d like to read the meta posts, but you’ll find the links repeat at various points in this post later on).

Katsuki is a major piece of the story-line about victims learning to accept help

Katsuki’s name means “self-victory,” so he probably needs to “defeat himself” in some way

Katsuki’s character arc ends with him saving the ultimate victim

The only fight that can end Katsuki’s character arc is Deku vs Kacchan, Part 3

Katsuki and Izuku gotta hold hands in DvK3

Katsuki saves Izuku’s heart by relating to him and opening up

The narrative rewards Izuku for imitating Katsuki

Katsuki has spoken his truth, but Izuku has not (and that’s kind of a death flag)

We’ve seen Katsuki’s “Save to Win,” but we haven’t seen Izuku’s “Win to Save“

Quirks and personalities are tied together, potentially by the concept of “heart”

The Second and Katsuki are connected, possibly by reincarnation

AFO may have the ability to control a person’s actions against their will

AFO may have killed the First, Second, and Third users by controlling them and forcing them to kill each other

Katsuki doesn’t want to be the reason for Izuku’s downfall

Katsuki is a point of weakness for Izuku

Izuku is Katsuki’s inspiration to save people, and Katsuki doesn’t want what happened to All Might to happen to Izuku

AFO is keenly interested in Izuku’s rage state and knows Katsuki works as his weak-point

Tomura is a beautiful butterfly, and Katsuki has the bug-catching net

Katsuki parallels Tomura

Katsuki also parallels Star and that’s terrifying

No seriously, he parallels Star, whom strategically sacrificed herself to cripple the enemy and save her team

If Katsuki somehow gets AFO, it would totally complete this parallel

AFO’s plan is to overwhelm OFA with hatred, but what if the person he possesses uses their emotions to possess him back?

Izuku is walking into the final arc with a smidge of hubris

I’ve connected way too many dots.

III. Maybe Izuku is actually a reliable narrator

All right, let’s see that foreshadowing!

How does everything that came before the final arc lead to this conclusion? Let me count the ways.

We’ve already seen the above page paralleled when class 1-A went to save Izuku at Kamino, but it could absolutely come back again. This is essentially Deku vs Kacchan, Part 0. We all know the Rule of Threes. I wonder if there will be a kid for Izuku to protect from Katsuki’s wrath in the final arc version. Tenko Shimura, perhaps?

Ah, the moment I would say the narrator Izuku has gotten his closest to lying to us. When you consider how Katsuki turns down Tomura’s offer to go villainous in Kamino, it really does make Izuku’s narration above seem rather harsh.

But, uh, the story isn’t actually over yet. We can’t say for sure Katsuki doesn’t end on the “path towards bad,” now can we?

Katsuki has been set up as an example of the “heroes and villains are two sides of the same coin” plot point. There are a lot of parallels between Izuku and AFO, which you could take to mean what you want. To me, it feels like AFO and Izuku are two sides of the same coin: pure good and pure evil. They espouse the same values but from their own camps. They are endpoints on the scale.

Katsuki isn’t on that same scale. His scale is shared with Tomura.

Because they are both compact essence of pure, destructive instinct. Katsuki just represents the heroic side of that instinct as the legacy he inherits from All Might.

We even have Tenko screaming Katsuki’s catchphrase at his origin.

The Kamino Ward arc sets these two up as parallels pretty explicitly.

And now, the fact that Katsuki is going to face Tomura without Izuku but with Best Jeanist around is a giant tell that we’re coming back to this point again. Tomura tossed his coin and landed on villain, but there’s more to it than that. His scale is not on pure good versus pure evil but freedom/instinct versus restraint/rationality. His beef is with society. And he thinks Katsuki should have the same problems with society he does.

Katsuki’s coin is gonna get flipped again. And if it lands hero-side-face-up, AFO is there sitting inside Tomura’s body ready to intervene just like last time.

We’re gonna finally find out what this threat was all about.

IV. Katsuki’s greatest fear

Take a look at all the imagery of Katsuki fighting off the sludge villain’s puppetry in chapter 1/episodes 1 and 2. It’s all over this prediction meta. There’s an entire section dedicated to possession imagery in the whole series in this one.

And look at his face when he vents his guilt about how his own kidnapping resulted in All Might’s retirement.

Just so you know, he’s not over it.

I’ll say it again:

I don’t think it’s a stretch for me to say one of [Katsuki’s] worst fears is being a victim, particularly as a means of getting to someone he cares about such as All Might (just look at his trauma over what happened with the sludge villain in middle school). After all, Katsuki believes All Might’s downfall could have been avoided if only he had been strong enough to not be victimized by AFO and the League of Villains.

So it’s not that Katsuki wants to protect Izuku; Katsuki doesn’t want to be the reason for Izuku’s downfall.

Katsuki did not get his revenge against Shigaraki at Jakuu. He was blatantly denied revenge, in fact.

So he’s going into this final arc with a history of being possessed, a massive and exploitable complex about being victimized, the propensity to blame himself for his part in the downfall of his loved ones, and a problematic vengeance fantasy he’s using to mask his vulnerability.

That’s what we call “tempting fate,” my friends.

V. The history of One For All

That cheeky bastard Horikoshi actually went and left the One For All origin story a mystery until the final arc.

That spells disaster. That means it will be relevant to the ending. And we all know somehow it’s all gonna come back to Katsuki. Because of this asshole.

And that asshole is the only one whose quirk we don’t yet know.

I’ve given my general thoughts on the possible OFA history and the Second’s possible connection to Katsuki, and I would be remiss if I didn’t reiterate that there’s a possibility AFO can control people against their will and force them to fight their friends. If true, that could come back in a big way for the final arc quite easily.

And then @siflshonen dared to point out to me the resemblance between the Second’s facial scar and this page of nightmare fuel in chapter 286:

That was the moment I threw up my hands and started writing this damn meta anthology post.

Oh, and let’s not forget that time I compared Yoichi and the Second to Tomura and Katsuki:

History repeats itself or some shit.

VI. Izuku’s unspoken feelings

There’s one more important piece to this puzzle, and that’s how Izuku plays into everything that will happen.

Given this theory, the above panels are actually painful to read. “The gifted will break this world.” Izuku, please smack this upstart prick.

But the utility of this arc may have been to also serve some purpose in the final battle. There is an interesting focus on Katsuki that we could easily dismiss, even though he’s not involved in the fight.

And there’s also the question of Izuku’s emotional instability...

...which AFO learned he could use Katsuki to exploit during the Jakuu battle.

But...

There’s something else important we learned during that arc as well.

We learned that just as Izuku sees Katsuki as his Image of Victory, Katsuki very well likely sees Izuku as his Image of Self-Sacrifice.

Katsuki can probably be used as a point of weakness against Izuku, but what about the other direction? Perhaps Izuku can use himself as a point of strength for Katsuki’s sake.

Izuku still hasn’t told Katsuki he’s Izuku’s Image of Victory.

It must be said, and we’re going into the final arc now. Where do you think would be a good place in the story for this to come out?

VII. Izuku vs. Tomura but not like that

So here’s the concept:

Much like in my Izuku possession theory, let’s say Katsuki is the one who gets pulled into the Tomura-AFO singularity. He might even do it on purpose as an attempt to sabotage AFO and rescue Tenko, all in a manner similar to how Star(s) & Stripe(s) went out. In the process, he could be swallowed by the vortex of hatred inside Shigaraki and lose his sense of self to it. Izuku definitely goes after him, but how’s he gonna pull Katsuki out? What will the battle really be about here?

It’s going to be about two forces pulling Katsuki in opposite directions (either figuratively or literally).

On the one hand, he’ll have Tomura Shigaraki pulling him in the direction of destructive instincts. Katsuki will be encouraged to let go of his rational brain and just give into the instinct to destroy (or really, explode) that comes with his Explosion quirk. His weakness will be his desire for revenge that merges with the hatred Tomura embodies. He won’t be able to escape so long as he holds onto that dark wish.

On the other hand, he’ll have Izuku pulling him back to the side of heroism and saving, back to rationality, back to his true sense of self. Izuku is the best person to do it because he knows Katsuki best; he emulates Katsuki with everything he does. He’ll tell Katsuki about his Image of Victory and “talk like Katsuki because he wants to win” in order to restore Katsuki’s identity. And Katsuki’s going to finally have to take Izuku’s hand and accept help to get out of there. But, if Tomura wins the tug-o-war, Katsuki will likely pull Izuku into the void with him because Izuku ain’t letting go no matter what. If this doesn’t work, Katsuki will be Izuku’s downfall.

It’s the classic shoulder-angel versus shoulder-devil scenario. Izuku is our narrator, but Tomura jumps in as the narrator for “My Villain Academia,” and isn’t that convenient? Could it be the narrators are both in the process of trying to reach Katsuki to turn him to their side? Until he chooses, Katsuki is a coin flipped in the air. Which version of his “self” will claim “victory” in the end?

Stare harder at that manga cover!!!

VIII. Decoding Horikoshi’s prophecy

So, I promised I would translate the hidden message in Horikoshi’s Jump Festa words. Here we go now.

Katsuki’s gonna do a big thing. In light of where you suspect this is going based on this giant brainrot, you might be able to glean how this scenario could be enjoyed by those readers who both like and dislike Katsuki. There’s going to be a full reckoning of his character down to the core of his identity. And he’s gonna probably do some noble shit in the process.

And then, we have Deku and Shigaraki.

These two will definitely face each other in some way, straightforward fight or not.

Even though his consciousness is becoming more and more ambiguous, he’s [Shigaraki’s] a mass of destructive instincts and frustrations.

Shigaraki is becoming more and more defined by his urge to destroy, his instincts, the personality essence that comes with his Decay quirk. Weird that Horikoshi uses some extremely Katsuki-coded language (“destructive,” “instincts,” “frustrations”) to describe this scenario. Very meta of him to talk about Shigaraki’s consciousness becoming so ambiguous. Wonder if someone else’s consciousness is influencing that ambiguity, and I don’t just mean AFO’s.

[Shigaraki]’s the greatest obstacle in Deku’s goal of “saving”.

That’s a weird way of putting it, Horikoshi. If we were looking at a straightforward fight between Shigaraki and Deku, I’d expect you to word this as “Deku’s greatest obstacle is Shigaraki.” But no, you specifically say Shigaraki is an obstacle to Deku’s goal of saving. So Deku needs to save someone? Who could that be?

Saving and Destroying are both born out of ego. Whose ego will win in the end?

Way to imply that these egos are Izuku (Saving) and Shigaraki (Destroying) without actually naming the characters. Makes it easy for us to just assume you mean Izuku and Shigaraki. But what if you don’t, Horikoshi? What if that’s just what you want us to believe? Because I see that “win” word choice, and that’s more Katsuki-coded language, you precious madman. Could it be that these are Katsuki’s dueling egos? “Whose ego will win in the end?” Perhaps I should read this as: will Izuku’s influence or Shigaraki’s influence over Katsuki have the stronger pull? Who will Katsuki be when he comes out of this?

Is it even a matter of winning or losing? How will things go? What shall I do? What am I supposed to do??

More Katsuki-coded language! Winning or losing? “Is it even a matter of winning or losing?” Ohhhh way to hint that this isn’t a straightforward fistfight at all. I see you, Horikoshi. I see you.

Well, everything’s somehow gonna come off alright I guess!

It fuckin’ better.

Do your best, Deku! Destroy it all, Shigaraki! Die, All for One!!

HORIKOSHI, I STILL SEE YOU.

“Do your best, Deku!” Do his best at what? Fighting? Saving? Something else? That’s definitely a reference to the newer meaning behind the Deku nickname.

“Destroy it all, Shigaraki!” Give into those instincts, Handsy! P.S. What all is it he’s supposed to destroy exactly? His enemies? Society? The world? AFO? The AFO quirk? The OFA quirk? Oh hey, “all” is in the names of both AFO and OFA, huh...

“Die, All For One!!” THAT’S KATSUKI’S CATCHPHRASE, YOU MONSTER. I FUCKING SEE YOU AND YOU’RE NOT SMOOTH.

VIII. tl;dr À̴̡͍͑͘A̵̢̼̟͘͝A̴̢̪͎͒͑̚A̴̟͓̺͛̓͘À̵̪͔͍͊͝A̴̠͖̟̒̓̚Ä̸̡̙͔́͐͠A̴͔̫̼̿͠À̵̠̠͙͒͆Ä̸̢͔̪́̔͐A̴̙͎̪͋̐̒A̵̡̞̓̓̀A̸̘͖͊͆͊A̸̢̟̝̓̐͠A̴͍̺̟͑͝͠A̸̦͍̠͑̈́Ä̵͓͚͓́́͛A̵̺͓̿̔͘͜A̴͕͔͖̽̽͘A̴͕͖͉͆͊̓A̸̝̻͉̐͒A̵̺̞̾̐͜͠A̸͓͖̺͛̐͘A̸͎̝̻̒̈́͝A̵͇̪͎̾̿A̴̪͙͖̓͒A̸̫͖͖͐͌̕A̵̙͕̙̓͘͝A̵̻̙̼͊̈́͠A̴̞̘̟͊̾̕A̸̢̪͔̓̀͒A̵͎̞̪͊͛̀

Katsuki’s character arc of learning to save people necessitates that he saves an unsavable victim at the end. Since he’s going to face Tomura without Izuku’s help, Katsuki is probably going to be the one who saves Tenko Shimura.

However, MHA defines heroism as both victory and self-sacrifice. For Katsuki to truly demonstrate his mastery of saving, this rescue will have to involve a drastic sacrifice on his part. He may find some way of swapping himself in for Tomura or just dive in after him in order to save Tenko from AFO’s possession.

Izuku is the main character. He’s gotta come in and save someone. But he’s also gotta come in and win a big fight to demonstrate his mastery of victory. If Tenko can’t fill either role of victim or enemy, then Katsuki’s gonna have to play both parts.

AFO has the potential to force others to move against their wills. He has the potential to force friends to fight each other.

In all likelihood, we’re gonna have Katsuki stuck in the middle of Izuku and Tomura’s fight, but it will be one where the Tomura-AFO singularity tries to force Katsuki to lose himself to destructive instincts while Izuku vies to revive Katsuki’s sense of self and break him out. Or, there’s the possibility that Katsuki intends to self-destruct in order to take the Tomura-AFO singularity down with him while Izuku tries to convince him not to.

Hey, they’re fighting at UA! That’s where Ground Beta is! Deku vs. Kacchan, Part 3 where it ends with holding hands, anyone?

And now, I commence the screaming.

SAVE HIM SAVE HIM SAVE HIM SAVE HIM SAVE HIM SAVE HIM

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dokidokitsuna · 2 years

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So I was reading through your Super Star Sentai tag and I thought of something ✨amazing✨ (and cruel)

So since this is a parody of Sentai like Power Rangers then we can have the trope of where they defeat the Villain (Star Paragon/Kirby) at the end of the 1st season

(With an awesome duel between Kirby and Meta that may end a little…gory…for Meta)

But when I sat defeat I mean more of…driven off like he had his fun now he's gonna go tell his friends about this sick planet

(of course, the heroes don't know that they just think he's gone)

Now everything is hunky-dory for however long the time skip is

And then it goes straight to hell the moment Season 2 starts

Because who else to recommend this banger planet to then Kirby's best friend and brother

Shadow Kirby

Now in true Sentai fashion, this new villain is much much more dangerous

But how do you make a villain who can easily mist a guy with nary but a wave

By making him decently smarter, much more of a planner, and with a dollop of sadism

If Paragon is the kid who squishes bugs on the sidewalk when walking, Shadow is the kid who floods ant holes and burns them with a magnifying glass when they try to escape

(From what I understand Kirby is essentially just playing with earth casually while Shadow is playing competitively)

Which could be a perfect way to get the B-Team animal friends (Nago, Pitch, ChuChu)

Actually, I have the hilarious idea of Paragon going out for errands, seeing this crisis on Earth, fixing it, getting a little too invested playing with this toy, and quickly pawning it off to Shadow when he needed to finish his chores

I meant dismemberment and then mandatory cybernetics with the gory part of the duel

SHADOW KIRBY. OH NO ...Never in a million years would I have thought to use him (I drew Shadow Kirb exactly one time a few years ago and then basically forgot he existed). ^^ And in this context it's kinda brilliant, because Star Paragon's one weakness is his apathy: at the end of the day, he doesn't really care about Earth one way or the other. The natural step-up from him would be a villain with the same amount of fearsome power, who actually does want to see Earth burn. ⚆.⚆ Even if I don't use this idea, I kinda want to draw what a Shadow Paragon might look like. ^^ If nothing else, it'd be a fun design exercise.

BTW, I like the idea of Star Paragon going around telling other potential invaders about all the fun he had on Earth after his defeat. XD It's very in-character: innocent intentions, apocalyptic consequences~

'Mandatory cybernetics'...could you be hinting at a sort of Mecha Knight event in this AU??? ⊙ヮ⊙ BECAAAAAAAAAUSE--!!!! ...Okay, in all seriousness, I actually already considered this. ^^; And I decided I didn't want to do it because there's a...future thing, that's going to happen that's kind of the focus of the story, and I think MK going from his position on that to 'the dark side' would be: (a) a little out of character (b) basically rehashing the character arc of someone else who has much stronger motives for turning to the dark side than he ever will Although I do like the concept of a Mecha Knight, and this AU's setup is so perfect for it...hmm... ...wait, what if I used DMK instead

#*evil laughter*#>:D #super star sentai

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matan4il · 2 years

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I wish S2 E5 got more attention, I know it was seasons ago but that was the episode I knew Buddie was endgame. It brought together 4 characters Buck, Eddie, Chim and Maddie and basically outlined their future dealings with each other as couples.

With Maddie, Chim had his dorky pop culture side that clearly made Maddie swoon. And Chim, like how do you not heart eye the adorable JLH. They clicked and you felt it.

With Buddie, its that jaws of life comment that made Eddie think he was the smartest dude in the room. Even when he walks in he just brushes past Maddie looking for plates for food. He has no idea Chim may have developed an interest, but he clearly has none. Then Buck basically assuming if you are talking about a hot guy in a room you clearly mean Eddie right?

Even though women have flown in and out they never loose their vibes in both couples. And it honestly says alot because of course everything Buddie related in the first 4 episodes was awesome, especially episode 4 with Carla. But it was 5 that made me realize OK, they really are gonna make Eddie distinctively different with Buck then anyone else.

Hi Nonnie! Oooh, I love this ask!

So, if we're gonna talk ep 206, which starts with Buck, Chim and Eddie helping Maddie move into her new apartment, then I can tell you I have screamed about it over here, as well as in other meta posts referencing back this dialogue, but I think you're right and I haven't talked about it enough. Because YES. It sets up this ongoing parallel between Madney and Buddie, and you're absolutely right. Not only is it SO telling that when Maddie says, "He's cute!" Buck's mind jumps directly to Eddie (confirming what Maddie said earlier in 204, that Buck has a "boy crush" on him), it's also so meaningful that Eddie is around this gorgeous, smart, funny, kind woman and yet the person he's completely wrapped up in is Buck...

And this ep is, ironically, the one where Taylor is first introduced! So it's explicitly established Buck thinks Eddie is cute before she even shows up. And when she does? That's the ep that gives us peak jealous!Eddie for the first time. Taylor talks to Bobby? Everything's fine. Taylor talks to Buck? Eddie right away struts over all territorial. It can't be just that he thinks Taylor isn't trust-worthy, or he would have come over when she was talking to Bobby, too!

I'll be honest, I didn't know yet during 206 if Buddie will be endgame. But by then, I knew I wanted them to be. I think some of the stuff I wrote about in my 204 meta (the way Buck and Eddie are so connected, and Eddie trusts Buck, letting him into his and Chris' life, the way Buck gives Eddie the perfect help that he wasn't even knowingly asking for) that's what already convinced me that whether they will be or not, they SHOULD be endgame. I still stand by that.

Thank you, Nonnie! I hope this answer was satisfying? Please feel free to let me know! Hope you have a great day! xoxox

And if you or anyone else is looking for my other ask replies, you can find them using my ask tag. xoxox

#buddie #911meta #buddie meta #911 meta #9-1-1 #evan buck buckley #evan buckley #eddie diaz #edmundo diaz #ask #anon ask #911onabc #911 on abc #911abc #911 abc

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gracestone · 2 years

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You guys can say what you want about EJ making Gina happier, Ricky not deserving her, blah, blah, blah. Maybe EJ does love her more. Right now at least. But Gina always loved Ricky more. And that will never change.

I'm glad you're at least able to see the difference between EJ's clear romantic feelings for Gina and Ricky "We aren't dating." "Obviously." / *hears Seb mention friendship and looks at Gina* Bowen's feelings of friendship towards her.

If the aim of your ask is to make me feel insecure about my ship, I'd advise you to get better at debating in the future, because labelling characters' feelings before they voice how they feel themselves is always highly subjective and we're just never gonna be able to agree on this. Also, don't generalise an entire fandom. Personally I don't see it as Ricky not deserving Gina, he simply doesn't like her romantically. That's just the way it is, and it's no one's fault. He gave moving on from Nini a try and it didn't work out. That happens. Could he have handled it better? Definitely. But that doesn't make him a bad person, or unworthy of affection. Gina just isn't the person he loves, and additionally I just don't think Gina and Ricky would work well in the long term, so this is all for the best.

My friend @forbiddenship already gave you a great answer, so I won't repeat what she said. Instead, let me answer you by taking a different approach. Putting it under the cut so I don't clutter people's dashboards or the tags.

I like to wait for characters to voice how they feel before saying for certain that they like/really like/love each other. Which isn't to say that I'll never use those words when talking about them, but I'll mostly use it in more casual conversation or when actively fangirling over my ship instead of writing ship or character meta. But if you want my take/guess on how Gina felt about Ricky, I'd describe it as a crush. Her first crush and first time she let herself get attached to someone (in a long time), which is why the rejection hit her so hard, but still a crush.

But Gina hasn't actually voiced exactly how she felt about Ricky, so we can't say anything for sure. All we have to go on is that she was willing to give being an "us" a try ("I wouldn't quit on us") and that she cared about him ("So do you care about Ricky?" "And what if I do?"). With EJ, I'd say she likes him a lot, just like he "digs" her a lot (that's the closest he's come to voicing how he feels about her). But again, Gina hasn't voiced exactly how she feels, so it's up for interpretation. We just know that thinking about him when he's not around makes her happy (her looking at the photo he posted in 2x09), she's excited to go on a date with him, and that she wants him to be her first kiss.

Judging by how you worded your ask (you used "loved" instead of "loves"), I'm assuming that you can see that she doesn't have those feelings for Ricky anymore. But that's when you lose me, because I don't see the logic behind her supposedly having had these deep feelings for Ricky that she can't replicate with EJ or anyone else, according to you, and her also being able to move on from those feelings and lose them, to the point where she only has eyes for EJ even when Ricky is around. Something doesn't add up here.

Her thing with Ricky only lasted less than three episodes before reality set back in and Gina slowly had to confront that Ricky didn't like her back and was still in love with Nini. And you think that Gina was able to fall fully in love in that time, to the point where she'd never feel that way about anyone else again? She'd barely gotten to a point where she was willing to try dating and was only just allowing herself to get attached to the people around her before all of that came crashing down. Gina is very cautious when it comes to opening herself up to people, so I highly doubt she'd be able to fall in love so quickly.

If you wanna compare Gina's feelings for Ricky with her feelings for EJ, I'd say that Gina definitely likes EJ at least just as much as she liked Ricky in 1x06-1x07 (I'd say even more so, but again, that's up to interpretation). She's been touchy with both of them, laughs at their jokes, wants to spend time with them, and stays close to them in group scenes. We just see way more of that with EJ than we did with Ricky because EJ actually recriprocates her feelings and wants to be with her, unlike Ricky, who stopped pretending to move on after 3 episodes (1x05-7). With EJ, Gina has had more time to let herself fall for him and get her hopes up that he reciprocates her feelings. And once she knew that he did reciprocate in 2x10, she didn't have to hold herself back from falling for him anymore, which is a point she never reached with Ricky.

#free comedy #hsmtmts #ej caswell #gina porter #ricky bowen #portwell #anti rina #ask

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mittensmorgul · 3 years

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So for the most part, I outright reject the finale. But I do think, in light of the whole "Jimmy was supposed to be in the bar, and Dean was disappointed by that because his perfect heaven would have Cas in it" just makes me all the more convinced that the final episode was some kind of djinn dream. Like.... There's no other explanation in my opinion. If Dean's perfect heaven was supposed to have Cas, and he tragically gets faked out by Jimmy (????? Why tf would jimmy be there anyway), it just proves that it's not ACTUALLY heaven. That, along with he El Sol beer he's drinking is all the evidence I need. I think after 15x19, Dean and Sam got whammied by some monster, and are stuck in a hallucination, and that's what we're seeing. (My headcanon is that it's actually The Empty doing it, because it knows if it doesn't keep Dean and Sam occupied and spinning in circles, they'll invade the Empty to save Cas. So its trying to prevent that) :)

Hello, anon friendo! I am gonna start by offering the socially distanced version of a high five, because yeah... There is just so much to unpack here, and you provided such a succinct and all-encompassing series of statements to start from. Thank you!

*flings open array of questionable suitcases*

First off, Congrats on having rejected the finale. I know a lot of folks are still struggling with that one, for many reasons. But you have hit upon so many of the points I’ve been trying to make about the finale since it aired. I’d just like to start with some of the assumptions I’ve heard from folks about the finale that make it impossible for me to consider it fully honestly canon. Because so much about it just makes no goshdang sense... like... not at all...

One of the biggest issues I have surrounding the reception of the finale in parts of fandom is that it portrayed a “happy ending.” The show itself spent the entire final season telling us that a gravestone marked Winchester was not and never would be a happy ending (thank you Becky Rosen-- words I never thought I’d say, but honestly and most sincerely meant). Let’s break this down a bit.

Starting from the assumption that “heaven was fixed” so that characters could have true free will there, making it satisfying in any way that Dean died so young and never got to truly experience happiness during life, I would like anyone who has adopted this attitude to then explain Kansas the band. I mean... explain that in any satisfactory canon-compliant way. (hint: you can’t. it makes zero sense in canon, if heaven is truly reformed and “happy” with everyone in possession of free will.)

Which brings me to Misha’s comments about Jimmy being in the Roadhouse. Why, if heaven were truly fixed, would Jimmy ever in a bazillion years attend a party for Dean Winchester? If Heaven were truly a “happy” ending for Dean, why introduce this element of eternal tragedy and heartbreak to his heaven experience? Why taunt him with the eternal loss of Cas-- even if you don’t think he reciprocated Cas’s romantic feelings, he was canonically the best friend Dean ever had, and being forced to exist forever in a place where he had everyone else he ever cared for except for Cas? Is frankly horrific.

How the actual fuck is that a happy ending, in any sense of the word?

How is this the sort of heaven that Dean would’ve made for himself before it was “fixed?” At least in the memorex heaven, he could’ve lived in oblivious peace with Cas, even if it was always just his own memories and not ~actually Cas~. I honestly think that would’ve been happier than the abject tragedy of what we did get, and what we would’ve gotten had the original script played out.

All of this kind of makes me wonder if they ever even actually defeated Chuck. Like... it feels more like Dean got pulled into the Empty at that moment with Cas and Billie, and everything else after that point was the Empty’s endless experience of sorrow and despair we knew it subject its charges to. So that’s one potential for what could’ve actually happened. I mean, everything about the finale was sorrow and despair, you know? Dean didn’t even get to enjoy his pie at a pie festival because Sam smashed in in his face. How is any of it happy, in any way?

Because if that was actually heaven, there wasn’t actually any free will (because why tf would Kansas the band have chosen to put on that concert? why tf would Jimmy have been there, just to torment Dean with the taunt of Cas returning to him only to have that hope snatched away again? It’s cruel. It’s, in fact, a source of intense despair).

The djinn theory could also work, and I’ve read some excellent fix-it fic using that as a premise. But that doesn’t really explain what happened to Jack (and Amara, since she was in there with them) after hoovering up Chuck’s power, you know? I think the simplest explanations in canon are that Chuck actually won via the unified power of Light and Dark being transferred into Jack and effectively using him as a vessel. With Sam and Dean convinced they’d won, they effectively stopped resisting Chuck’s story for them, and using Jack’s understanding of humanity and the Winchesters specifically, Chuck finally was able to implement a version of his story that the Winchesters would just waltz into without thinking it was supernaturally influenced at all. Going bigger and bigger with monsters and cosmic troubles hadn’t worked, but going so small Sam and Dean would barely even notice the influence-- even with the incongruous reappearance of a vampire that appeared in their lives once, for like two whole minutes 15 years ago, and an unsolved case from the journal from more than 30 years ago that John had never even linked to vampires at all.

At this point, I need to mention that I’m watching 10.23 as I type this up. An episode in which we confront the Mark, along with Death, and Dean’s despair, where he learns a version of the truth (but by no means the full truth, or even accurate truth in some respects) about Chuck’s Story, Amara/The Darkness, etc. That would unfold more fully over the next five seasons. And what was the case Dean took in this episode? Vampires. LOLOL omg this show is nothing if not horrifically consistent, yes?

So because of this, I went haring off through my own blog looking for a post I made a long time ago about the symbolism of how various monsters are used on this show (because again, consistency). I got sidetracked by other posts in my monsters tag, including this from after 15.09 aired, which feels particularly awfully relevant. This was my reaction to Chuck’s Story he showed Sam in that episode, about what the future would look like should he successfully trap Chuck with a Mark, and which... yeah is basically exactly thematically consistent with what we saw in the finale, right down to a cheesy twist on vampires. Read the whole post right here, but this is the part that reached up and punched me in the face:

this is how Dean personally reacts when he loses Cas. We know how he reacts when he loses anyone else– think about what he did when Charlie died. He went on a murder rampage against the Stynes for killing her. When Mary died he broke some furniture and went full bore toward both resurrecting her and stopping Jack. But without Cas, Dean loses the will to fight. Sam has… always been different. He referenced Jess in 15.04 to remind us of how he was after she died in the pilot episode. Just like John, he picked up the revenge mission and ran with it. But for Dean, Cas is different. Without Cas… Dean gives up.

Because... Dean gave up. Sure, he and Sam weren’t overrun by vampires in the end. Chuck knew they’d never stop fighting the monsters, one way or another. The only way to get Dean to give up is something Chuck hadn’t quite figured out yet... maybe not until after 15.17, after confronting Cas in the hallway of the bunker, after absorbing Amara’s power, knowledge, and perspective on Dean.

Chuck needed Dean to give up, and honestly? Pushing Billie to clear him off the table and send him (and Cas, that pesky angel who never did what he was told) to the Empty would’ve been a direct way to deal with that... pretty much akin to having one sibling locked in a cage forever, yes?

Also, still looking through my monsters tag, I’m reminded of 14.15, and still cannot differentiate the version of Heaven in 15.20 from what was done to the people of that town. This... is not... paradise. This is actively what Dean has been insisting is the OPPOSITE of paradise since like… 4.22… No ending where Dean was a “Stepford bitch in paradise” ever had the possibility of being “happy,” at the core of things, and this “fixed” version of Heaven just doesn’t hold up to any degree of inspection. Something is seriously wrong here. https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/183465650390/so-can-we-talk-about-this-monster-of-the-week-for

And since I was unable to find the post I wrote who knows how long ago about Monsters and how they’re symbolically used on Supernatural to represent larger themes in the episode, I’ll just attempt to sum up what Vampires have been used for. Revenge. Vampires are always, in some way connected to themes of revenge.

(and hooray, I found at least a post adjacent to the one I’ve spent the last four hours trying to find... https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/187207052080/i-obviously-did-not-think-this-through, where I mention that shapeshifters are about revealing hidden truths (mostly about Dean since most shapeshifters are connected to Dean), zombies are about grief and the inability to move past it.)

So why... why at the end of their road is the monster that comes after them-- literally FOR REVENGE for something that had never been blamed on Sam or Dean to begin with, from season 1, directly connected to John’s revenge mission and the first time they learned about the Colt AND the first time they learned in canon that Vampires were even real... like... this feels very specifically like some kind of layers-of-meta levels of shade on them, you know? Vampires are for revenge, so what vengeance exactly is being visited upon Sam and Dean in this episode? If not Chuck’s entire story for them itself?

So yeah, 100% agree, something is incredibly rotten in the finale. And I am sick to effing death of people trying to convince us that anything about this was “good” or “happy” or “satisfying” in any way. Or even “how it was always supposed to end” with Dean dead bloody, as if the entire back half of the series hadn’t been suggesting that a true win was the subversion of all of Chuck’s story for them, and Dean finally being able to have his chosen family all alive, happy, and chilling on a beach somewhere watching the sunset. Nothing will ever convince me that the ending portrayed in 15.20 wasn’t exactly how Chuck thought he “won,” rendering it entirely irrelevant to the rest of canon, unless all of canon was ultimately the tragedy we’d been encouraged to believe would be firmly defeated in the end.

Folks, you can’t have it both ways.

#spn 15.20 #chuck's process #if this was the 'happy' ending for dean they sure did fail big time to make it actually happy!#it makes me feel sick thinking that dean's happy heaven ending was more like an eternal pit of torment #like actively tormenting him and taunting him with the fact that cas was truly gone forever #like wow they went all the fuck out to make it clear that even in heaven #dean would never be allowed to respond to cas's declaration of love #like... it's the most hurtful and hateful thing the show could possibly have done to us #and it still fucks me up knowing there's people who think this heaven was a 'good' ending for dean #like... fuck that entirely and with extreme prejudice #i feel like i have not been emphatic enough about my absolute hatred for this episode in these tags #but sadly there are limitations to expressing the actual feelings i'm feeling in the english language #sometimes the only effective word for these feelings involves velociraptor screeching #Anonymous

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fishoutofcamelot · 3 years

Text

Since I suck at articulating my thoughts, a lot of people ended up misinterpreting this post about destiny. So I'm gonna try and rephrase in the hopes that I actually make sense this time.

So. Chosen one narratives place extra narrative weight on the character who has been chosen. They're a bit of an identifying flag to tell both audience and characters that this individual is special and important and unique in ways that no one else is. That this special-ness comes from an intrinsic, cosmically unchangeable level which explains why they were chosen instead of anyone else.

A chosen one narrative is irreparably, inherently placing added value onto one character over others. It's that way by design, in a lot of cases. Take the divine right of kings, for example, an ideology that claims that kings were given their authority by divine forces and are more deserving of their nobility than others simply because fate ordained it. This is kinda like that but in story form.

I'm not saying whether chosen one stories are a bad or good thing, as every story has its own messages, but when you have a chosen one story you have to accept all the thematic baggage that comes with it.

Then there's equality narratives. The point of these is to say everyone is on the same level. No one is above or below another. Everyone carries the same level of importance and value, you get the picture.

Now. If you have one character as a chosen one, then that character is automatically tagged as being of greater importance than the others, whether intentionally or unintentionally on the part of the writers. This concept of one being greater than others is completely opposed to everything an equality narrative stands for in its very nature.

BBC Merlin has a thematic discrepancy like this. Arthur is the chosen one, and to a more complicated extent Merlin is too. This places a great deal of narrative importance on Arthur and Merlin. They've been chosen by cosmic forces, picked out from amongst their peers as being Special and Valuable.

I am not commenting on whether or not Arthur is a good king, or a valuable and important person, nor am I commenting on how he and other characters view him. To discuss in-universe details during a discussion of meta would be a non-sequitur. I'm simply saying that his status as a chosen one places a great deal of narrative weight on him that is not placed on other characters. It's saying "look at him! He's more important than the rest of them!"

Am I saying that Arthur himself thinks this? No. Arthur himself champions equality, and you could even make the argument about him being insecure. But the text itself insists left and right that he's the Special Superior Once And Future Chosen KingTM, which is directly and blatantly contradicting Arthur's own beliefs. Which...kinda puts a damper on his character development, if you ask me.

But then the story itself uses the characters - Arthur in particular - as proxy mouthpieces to peddle a shallow equality narrative as a sort of "have your cake and eat it too" situation. Unfortunately you can't say one character is more important than anyone else AND say that they're all equal, but BBC sure tried.

Anyway, I hope I explained things a bit better this time! <3

#YES i know that arthur has got a destiny thing going on in the canonical mythos #but did you see what else bbc changed about the mythos? they can afford to change this too #bbc merlin #merlin bbc #merlin #bbcm #fish post

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villainsandvictimsalliance · 3 years

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MY HERO ACADEMIA CHAPTER 317 META :

On surpassing childhood heroes and finding ourselves with the help of our friends and family.

Okay my friends, do you remember when I talked about how Dabi and Hawks needed to surpass ir get over Endeavor?

If you don't, then let me make it short for you. Basically I said that Dabi and Hawks are still trapped in the memory of what Endeavor was and that makes them at least a little blind to the present, and specially to the future.

In order to be redeemed, Dabi first needs to heal. That means he needs some help to go pass the harm Endeavor caused him. He needs to be acknowledged, he needs someone that understands his story to help him see there are other options, options where he has a real future, not just dying or rotting in jail. He has a life, he has people that is willing to walk that road with him, he's worthy. And Endeavor was an abuser, yes, but he's meeting (hopefully) his justice and he's not able to hurt him anymore, not as he used to. He needs to get passed Endeavor being his childhood hero (and nightmare), but never forget.

Hawks goes on a slightly different road. Even when he understands many things about reality and Endeavor, he's still basing his value system on what Endeavor made him feel as a child. It's not the person he can't let go of, but the idea. Now, this is problematic in the sense that society is changing, the whole hero system is changing. He's so young and full of life, he still has time. He thinks he doesn't, he thinks his time is over. That's not true. However, Hawks needs to focus on the present and the future, needs to find his rebirth in the hands of the new generations and situations, not in the past.

On that post, the one I was talking about a few paragraphs above, I take Izuku for my example. And then Horikoshi just proved me a bit right with chapter 317 of the manga.

(spoilers under the cut )

If you've read the chapter, you know it was intense. We saw a different Deku, one that doesn't go to UA and doesn't even look like a hero. He doesn't smile, the light in his eyes is gone, and do you know who hs reminds me of?

Yes, Shigaraki Tomura.

Nice touch, because it keeps the emphasis o the parallel between Tomura and Izuku. If you want to read more about this, search in the tags of my blog. I've talk a lot about it.

Deku, who hasn't been taking care of himself correctly, even rejected All Might through a very symbolic scene. All Might, the hero he based his entire life in, was worried about him, offering food. Deku told him he doesn't need to worry anymore, implied that he's already surpassing Toshinori. Deku takes off, leaving Toshinori on his knees, with the bento on the ground, forgotten.

That takes us to the first part of this meta: Surpassing childhood heroes.

This is not exclusive of Izuku, let's clarify that. This whole path began with the very first chapter, when All Might saw in Deku something he has forgotten. He saw something new, the possibility of Deku doing what he never could.

It was the same with All Might and Nana Shimura, or with Lemillion and Nighteye, for example. Legacy, yes, but also going beyond the figure that made you who you are— or were.

An essencial part of growing up is understanding that the people you admired as a kid are not perfect. You can stay within their lines, because at least as a hero you have a duty with the public: you need to do your best, which means you need to try and do better than the ones before you. All Might is a great dude with great problems. He did many things wrong, because he's human and human do things wrong all the time, they can't avoid it. Still, he's responsible for all his mistakes, no one else can take the blame for that.

Deku wanted to be a hero when he didn't know what it implied. He didn't know the system was so corrupted, he was just a kid. So, when can't just be the type of hero he wanted to be. It wouldn't feel right. I believe the story won't allow him either.

There's nothing wrong with Deku surpassing All Might. Yes, he looks exhausted, but that was expected. He's like 16 years old and he's already the pro-heroes against a terrible being. Not just that, he also has to deal with all the knowledge he's getting. That surely is wearing his heart out. He's growing up really fast, becoming a man and getting through all the trauma. It's the war effect.

Shigraki Tomura went through this phase too. He has grown pass AFO. He's not under his control anymore, but he's still being held back. Violently.

In this shonen, Deku is our role model, right? Keep that in mind.

Now, since I've already told you that Deku is not going to be the hero he was going to be when this whole manga started, what about the name? How is this "My Hero Academia"?

Second part, everyone: finding ourselves with the help of our friends and family.

What does this even mean? Well, dear reader, not matter how hard we try, there are things we can't do alone. Overcoming a mental illness, redeeming ourselves, becoming who we want to be... We need support. We need someone to help us stay strong.

I believe that the title "My Hero Academia" refers to Deku's Hero Academia, at least in this meta. This means, this is the story of how Deku learned to be a hero. And that how it's about the old generations, pro-heroes and other figures in his life, yes, but it is only the first step.

The first time Deku acted as a hero was to save Bakugo Katsuki. Then he did it again to save Uraraka Ochaco. To save Todoroki Shoto, etc.

The point is, the teachers and pro-heroes and adult figures in Izuku's life inspired him, but they didn't teach him how to be a hero. The ones always pushing Deku farther, the ones making Deku behave like a real hero, are the younger generations, specially his classmates.

Deku needs his friends. He needs to understand he doesn't have to do everything alone (All Might's mistake) and he needs to understand that this is not just his fight. His friends are family have the right to fight to, they have the right to know what's going on. He can't just do like Endeavor, who pushed his family to the front line and then told them they could not follow him anymore.

The difference between the old generations and the new ones is that these kids have been fighting together since day one. They overcome whatever comes their way by pushing through together. Take Tsuyu and Deku with the first accident at UA. Take the kids during the summer camp, during the license exam, during the war. In a parallel, take Shigaraki Tomura and the League of Villains. They were few, but they reached the top by doing things together.

Deku needs to go beyond, but he can't forget who he is and where he came from. He can surpass All Might, but he doesn't have to completely reject him or leave him behind forever. He needs to act based on the present, but he needs to keep the past close, because the road that take him where he is, that's the road that makes him strong.

There are two lessons in here. Remember this is a meta and it's only my opinion. I can be wrong, you can add whatever you want to this or refute it. I'd love to hear what you think about this!

But well, the first lesson is that you can't live in the past. You can't live in a memory. Yes, maybe that dude rescued you or let you to die somewhere. Yes, maybe the hurt will never go away, maybe you'll never heal completely, but you can't stay there. Living in the past is the same as dying. You can remember it, but then stay in there forever.

The second lesson is that you can become the best you, the hero you or whatever, but you need people to help you. Maybe it's just one person, maybe it's a whole group, but you need someone. Bakugo could have ended up like Endeavor (in the sense of being obsessed with the first place and forgetting to be a decent human being) if it wasn't for his friends at UA. Shoto would have been trapped in his memories if it wasn't for Izuku, etc.

Don't worry, Deku is on his way to be a great hero. At some point, someone is gonna slap him or shake him out of that edgyness. And once the class 1-A and the other kids are set in motion, once they decide it's them (together as one) against all (the quirks of AFO), this is going to become My Hero Academia again.

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