#AND THEN ASUKA IS FUCKING OFF TO THE MOON???

[arashi-no-saxlphone]

I'm thinking about Asuka again because I really can't get over him. I really hope they do more with him in the next game it makes me really fucking sad that he goes to the moon alone and basically plans to off himself (he kind of works it out but still). He can't play the role he wants to in fixing the world no matter how hard he tries and his two best friends in the whole world are no longer really in his life. I think part of why Raven likes him so much is that he gets it: "oh, no matter how hard you try to be helpful or human your strange abilities preclude you from getting what you want? Me too bestie I coped by becoming a massive masochist but fucking off to the moon is cool too." Please. Please. I'm nauseous it makes me so fucking sad I wanna rip my heart out and bite down on it.

#sairambles #guilty gear #asuka #asuka r kreutz #raven #fuck I need Raven in Strive I need him to have Asuka interactions #what do you MEAN you left him behind as a storyteller PLEASE #DO YOU GUYS REMEMBER HOW HURT RAVEN WAS WHEN INO TOLD HIM SHE WAS LEAVING #AND THEN ASUKA IS FUCKING OFF TO THE MOON??? #DO YOU SEE THE PARALLELS??? #ASUKA LOSES FREDERICK AND ARIA AND RAVEN LOSES ASUKA AND INO (+Jack-O) #I'M SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP WHAT THE FUCK MAN

[rex101111]

Watched A.B.A's Arcade mode, and it was surprisingly good! But it also gave me a frightening revelation. You know how I complained that Strive's Story Mode got Axl's and Sol's arcs mixed up? Well, now they've given A.B.A and Paracelsus an arc...that should have been given to Asuka. (in the story mode at least haven't seen the arcade mode) Seriously though, listen. In Story Mode, Asuka got the "person who you thought was the fucked up bad guy isn't actually as fucked up as you thought! feel sorry for him please" treatment. And that shit was weak, pulling Happy out of nowhere to be the "actual" That Man kinda sucked out all the nuance and intrigue he had up until then and took the wind out of what should have been an exciting personal climax for him and Sol. Now, we have Key Husband and His Unwell Wife who haven't appeared in a game in over a decade and they get an arc that goes: "Fucked person is actually a bit more fucked up then you thought. Watch them fully acknowledge this and grabble with it along side the one person who cares about them (who is just as fucked up as they are)" and it was compelling!

Watching A.B.A slowly just own up to how terribly she's treated Paracelsus, actively trying to break off their "relationship" despite how much it obviously hurts her because she wants him to be happy, and Paracelsus turning that around by saying he's no angel and hasn't exactly been treating her any better either. Saying that he never wanted to leave but wanted her to listen. They are two fucked up, bloody, messy people who have hurt each other and themselves, they can see that. But they still genuinely care about each other, so they decide to start fresh, start better. Asuka said "actually half the stuff i said was my fault wasn't my fault oh and uh sorry i guess about the whole mutating you against your will thing. anyway fred have fun with your not-wife i'm going to the moon to avoid my responsibilities byyyyye" and that was that.

anyway, pleasantly surprised with how her arcade mode turned out.

#guilty gear #A.B.A

[solradguy]

asking this off anon since it’s p obvious who’s asking, but what are your thoughts on asuka? obvs you think he got off light with sol but do you overall think he was mishandled in the story/dislike him as a character?

As a villain he's awesome.

When they established the core of his character/backstory in Overture, they had him almost like a sympathetic villain. If you read between the lines, there were events where the only choice Asuka could have made were ones that were going to paint him as a raw bastard to the rest of society, with the biggest one being the Black Sunrise when he overrode Justice to blow up Japan to keep the Universal Will from manifesting (and making humanity go extinct, probably).

His options were either to override Aria's control over her own body or to try to convince her to do it herself, which she may not have been able to do in time because trying to convince someone to wipe out 99% of a country of people is a hard thing to do lol It sucks for the characters, but as far as writing goes it's awesome. It's a complex choice, and complex choices tell a lot about a character.

He did something similar with Frederick when he put the Flame of Corruption in him. Asuka knew that he was going to lose control over the Gear cell research (implied at the end-ish of Begin) and needed something on the outside to deal with it once that research inside got out of hand (which it did—Crusades). He also needed to somehow keep the FoC away from the Scales of Juno because of the risk of an Absolute World (mass extinction event). Asuka very probably could have convinced Frederick to accept being infected with the FoC but he didn't even try, he just did it.

Asuka had hundreds of chances across the timeline of Guilty Gear to try to explain things to Sol and he never does until the very end of Strive. Of course, Sol probably wouldn't have listened to him anyway because, as far as he knew, Asuka killed/did something awful to his fiancée, betrayed him, and turned him into a supernova barely caged inside a human form. But he could have at least tried. Asuka is complex as hell, and it's fascinating how GG has managed to pull that off.

Until roughly Xrd. And it got worse in Strive.

I don't know what the decision there was. It's like the foundation for an Asuka redemption arc was being put down before they just went and dropped the whole house on it anyway. They needed him to still be a bit of a villain, but they wanted to start wrapping up the Sol/Asuka threads at the same time and it just isn't doing it, imo. Like I said in my reply on that other post, the FoC stuff between Sol and Asuka has been brewing since Missing Link, 25 years ago, and they "resolved" it in a less than 10 minute scene that was in the middle of another scene where the Earth was about to be blown up by God!I-No at the climax of the entire Strive story itself.

Sol's in-game lines about wanting to beat up Asuka and beating him up in honor of Aria confirm that Sol's still mad at him, but... man.... I want to believe they're going to loop back around and expand on all that a bit more later because right now it's a massively disappointing end to Sol's biggest story arc and to Asuka's character as a whole.

Asuka knows he fucked up, Sol knows it, the rest of the world still knows it too. They can't just be like "and then Asuka went to the moon and everyone forgave him because he helped a bit with some stuff." Fingers crossed Sol's planning something with that rocket in his backyard at Iseo. Even if it's just to go up to the moon and monologue at Asuka.

#asks #I don't think Strive's writing is absolute garbage or anything though. There's a lot I DO like about it #It just could have been better in some spots #Probably being developed through peak covid years is what messed it up....

[colossal-niamh]

@reneethejackdaw

Alright I promised it so here’s my top 20 matches

Now a quick heads up, this isn’t just going to be a retread of my 5-star list. That’s more of a list of what I think is the best matches in the world, while this is more matches that I in particular like and/or hold sentiment for me. Though there will inevitably be overlap

Honorable mentions:

Hangman Adam Page vs Bryan Danielson 12/15- This match is basically number 21. this is the best AEW world title match and I love it sooo much but it just barely gets eeked out by the other 20

Asuka vs Ember Moon Takeover Brooklyn 3- one of the best NXT women’s matches and just barely didn’t make the cut. If they were to do this with modern Athena this would soar in my personal rankings Bull Nakano vs Aja Kong 11/4- an excellent finale to Aja's long title chase and her crowning as the new top boss of AJW

Kaientai DX vs Gran Hamada, Gran Naniwa, Masato Yakushiji, Super Delfin, and Tiger Mask 4- great and extremely fun multiman tag and a perfect primer for Michinoku Pro's style

Daniel Bryan vs Randy Orton 6/24- One of Randy's best matches and probably the best PG era no DQ match. THE LIST: 20. Bryan Danielson vs Kenny Omega, 4/12/09- a cartoonish and lighthearted match before each man went on to dominate the world. This is probably the most farcical match on this list but for good reason. it's an excellent display of both men's comedy chops, crowd work and eventually a sprint of both men's in ring capabilities. I delightful foot note

19. Cody vs Dustin Rhodes, 5/25/19- The Match that made me go "oh yeah, AEW's gonna work." Bar none Dustin's best match as he and his brother honor their late father's legacy by drenching themselves in blood. I know Dustin getting busted open was an accident but it added so much to the sprit of the match.

18. WALTER vs Ilja Dragunov, 8/22/21- This is the best NXT match of all time. A passionate and brutal rematch of their 2020 encounter. Dragunov shows he truly does have that dog in him as with a chest made of hamburger meat and a gash on his forehead, physically clobbers WALTER into submission

17. Steve Corino vs Yoshihiro Tajiri, 5/14- This is probably my most self indulgent pick on this list as I feel a lot of people could be turned off by Corino's racist pre match promo. I justify my liking of this match by going "DID YOU SEE HOW HARD TAJIRI KICKED THAT RACIST FUCK'S HEAD?!" Tajiri gives Corino one of the most satisfying beat downs I've ever seen and it rocks so hard.

16. Tsuruta Gun vs SGA 4/20- best 6-man tag in wrestling history, every participant plays their part perfectly. Tsuruta Gun's monumental hater energy is prevalent in all 3 members, Jumbo's ongoing grouchy ace energy, Taue fighting to prove he belongs with the vets, and Fuchi's the evil old man viciously harassing his younger opponents. Meanwhile Misawa, Kawada and Kobashi are in a constant state of white hot babyface sprit that does not let up the entire match.

15. Rey Misterio vs Eddie Guerrero 10/27- The perfect encapsulation of WCW's cruiserweight division. Eddie clawing and slamming Rey with the viciousness only a rudo like himself can show off. Meanwhile Rey shows of just why he's one of the best underdog babyfaces as he uses everything in his book to counteract Eddie's harsh offence. Special shoutout to Rey's The Sprit gear here as it works with the theming of the PPV and as a visual metaphor for a Luchador's mask being a part of themselves.

14. E&C vs The Hardy Boys vs The Dudley Boys 4/1- WWE's best stipulation match with 3 of their best tag teams ever. TLC 2 is the wrestling equivalent to watching the police car pile up from the end of Blues Brothers. An insane series of mesmerizing car crashes in rapid precession.

13. Akira Taue vs Toshiaki Kawada 4/1- These 2 start their own independent blood feud while inside the bigger blood feud that is Tsuruta Gun vs Super Generation Army. Taue and Kawada go at each other like 2 beta fish in the same tank, fast and violently. Taue in particular does the rare but awesome All Japan blade job. a dark horse in the 4 Pillars cannon

12. Eddie Kingston vs Jun Akiyama 11/19- The proper match itself is a good time and one of Eddie's sleeper hits, but the post match is special to me. Eddie showing respect to one of his all time heroes and that hero showing an equal amount of respect back is the only time a wrestling match made me cry. The exact moment I realized who my favorite wrestler is, hail to the Mad King.

11. KENTA vs Ricky Marvin 10/15- This match is one of the best sprints I've ever seen. The moment Marvin launches himself at KENTA begins 2 minuets of the 2 men throwing the sickest strikes and nastiest bombs I've ever seen. Gets everyone I've shown it to jumping out of their seats

10. CM Punk vs John Cena 7/17- Punk snatches victory from the jaw of a corporation. Punk truly attains his 2nd City Saint nickname and the title of generational talent. Cena's no slouch here either as he does his patented one night stoic heel routine like it's 2006 all over again.

9. Jon Moxley vs Wheeler YUTA 4/6- This is my most biased pick as I was there live in the arena for this, but also it's the best match I've ever seen live, so it evens out. This is the match that convinced me Yuta is a guy to look out for. Jon Moxley initiates Wheeler Yuta into the BCC through blood and carnage. I was physically leaping out of my seat as Yoots bit and clawed his way to meet Mox on his level. While he failed to beat Mox, Wheeler's sheer tenacity proved he deserves to stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the best wrestlers in the world.

8. Kenta Kobashi vs Kensuke Sasaki 7/18- I lovingly described this match to a friend as "if 2 fridges worked out and hated your chest." Kobashi vs Sasaki is one of the most Dudes Rock matches ever in a medium designed for shit that makes you go Dudes Rock. watch that chop off in the middle of this match and not get hype I dare you.

7. Daniel Bryan vs John Cena 8/18- This is John Cena's best match in his best genre, all timer wrestler sets their legend in stone by surpassing Big Match John. Bryan that this point was, you know, an exceptional technician with a storied career outside of The Fed. But this particular bout cemented him as a star so bright Even the WWE couldn't look the other way as oceans of people rallied behind that little harry hippie.

6. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada, 6/3- This match is mythical. A short hand for greatest of all time for those in the know. In the early years of their decade spanning war, Toshiaki Kawada throws everything in his arsenal at Misawa. In the face of this offence, the Ace manages to have an all timer comeback. I first watched this while on a plane ride and by the time the match was over I didn't ever realize the plane had landed, I was so enthralled I lost track of time.

5. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada, 6/6- Buuuut this is my favorite match between the 2. Years later into the feud, Misawa and Kawada have fought so many time and have elevated into a barrage of heavy bombs, stiff strikes and tight grapples. Kawada is an absolute freak at this point, desperate for his first win and eating everything the Ace has in store. Despite all his efforts, the heartbreak sets in as Misawa once again vanquishes Dangerous K. The ending is the same as always but hits hard, Kawada was so close, but victory slips away yet again.

4. The Briscoes vs FTR 12/10- I find it fitting the late great Jay Briscoe's last great match, the last Great Briscoes match, sits atop the heap as the best tag team match. Blood and metal fly. Jay's bleed, Mark's bleeding, Dax and Cash are bleeding. hell even the ref gets in on the blood. A grand farewell to the best team, dead or alive.

3. Terry Funk vs Atsushi Onita, 5/5- This match is a beautiful as it is violent and boy, is it violent. Onita and Funk slug each other as their bodies are pelted with explosions as the hit real barbwire. The battle makes these great transitions as it goes from all out hatred to desperation as the clock winds down, then finally one of the grandest acts of kindness I've ever seen in a match. Onita, realizing Funk will get caught in the explosion, show his foe some humanity and shields his near lifeless body from the final bomb. The best ending to any match I've ever seen

2. Shinobu Kandori vs Akira Hokuto, 4/2- This. Is. War. Hokuto and Kandori go at each other from minute one with unparalleled animosity. They're snappy, they're agile, they are vicious. Kandori's murderous submission holds, Hokuto's brilliant dives and bombs, THAT TOMBSTONE ON THE TABLE. Undoubtedly the greatest women's match ever, no chance of it being topped.

Kenta Kobashi vs Samoa Joe 10/1- The perfect dream match. 2 of the best to ever do it, at the hottest time for the promotion, at the zenith of both men's careers. Kobashi is fresh off his legendary reign of fire with the GHC heavyweight title. Joe's in that mythical period of his career where he's the best wrestler who ever lived. It is 2 unparalleled greats colliding likes stars, and the explosion is spectacular

#wrestling #aew #wwe #ring of honor #roh #ajw wrestling #fmw #ajpw #pro wrestling NOAH #WCW #NXT #Pwg

[duhragonball]

End of Evangelion: 26'

No, it doesn't.

All right, this is the second half of End of Evangelion, a movie that serves as the "alternative ending" to the Neon Genesis Evangelion TV series. The series was 26 episodes long and episodes 25 and 26 attempted to depict a finale where all of humanity was combined into a single merged being. This was the culmination of "Human Instrumentality", a goal of Gendo Ikari throughout the series.

Episodes 25 and 26 were not well-received, probably because they tried to show Shinji Ikari coming to grips with Human Instrumentality without actually filling in the audience on what it was or how it happened or why it was so important. Also, there were other non-Shinji characters that fans might have been interested in seeing. So in 1997 the studio produced End of Evangelion to show an ending set in the "outside world". This ending also sucks, but at least it connects the dots from Episode 24 to Human Instrumentality.

EoE's two halves are called 25' and 26', as a reference to their purpose as an alternate version of Episodes 25 and 26 of the TV series. 25' is better, because it actually sort of shows what was going on. SEELE attacks the NERV base, forcing Gendo to attempt to launch Human Instrumentality before it's too late. Asuka regains control of her Eva Unit 02, Ritsuko springs a trap to get revenge on Gendo, and Misato escorts Shinji to Eva Unit 01 and convinces him to meet his destiny. Then they all get brutally murdered. 25' also opens with Shinji jerking off over Asuka's comatose body, so... you know, it's a mixed bag.

26', on the other hand, is the drizzling shits, and that's what we're going to talk about now.

Gendo's plan is to do the exact same thing SEELE wants to do, only he wants to do it in some slightly different way. I went over most of this when I covered 25', so I don't really want to get into it again. Suffice to say, a merging of Adam and Lillith, the two cosmic beings who begat the Angels and humans, respectively, will somehow trigger Third Impact, which will then bring about Human Instrumentality. Gendo has Adam inside his own body, while Rei is some sort of receptacle of Lillith's soul? I don't know how that works.

Anyway, Rei's body begins to fall apart even as he talks to her, so they need to get started. I don't understand why he waited this long if this is all they needed to do.

Step One: Cop a feel. Seriously, he could have done this in Episode 1. To be clear, there is a little more going on here than Gendo fondling a minor. You see...

At some point after Episode... 8 I think, he had Adam grafted onto his own right hand. They don't show this in EoE, and I'm pretty sure you never see it in the TV series either. I could be wrong, but I only noticed this image during the clip-show segment of the first Evangelion film, Death and Rebirth.

The point I'm making here is that when Gendo puts his hand on Rei, he's pushing Adam inside her body. His hand actually phases inside her somehow. Of course, he could have put it somewhere other than her boob, but this franchise loooooves sexualizing teenagers.

Meanwhile, Shinji has arrived in Eva Unit 01 to repel SEELE's squadrong of bad guy Evas. He doesn't actually fight them, he just screams like a maniac when he sees Unit 02's dismembered corpse. Then the Lance of Longinus, which Rei had tossed into space weeks ago, suddenly flies right back to Earth. Why? Who the fuck knows?

This isn't even the first time it happens in this movie! In 25', Asuka was fighting these same evil Evas, when another Lance of Longinus suddenly flew in from out of nowhere and turned the tide against her. She saw it coming and even confirmed that it was "The" Lance of Longinus. Well this other one came from the moon, so it's definitely not the same lance, so I guess there's two of them now. I'm so sick of trying to make sense of any of this.

At SEELE's command, their Evas drag Shinji's up into the sky. I think he's pinned to this cross, except I'm pretty sure the cross is made from energy wings from Unit 01, so I don't know how that's supposed to work. The bad Evas then do some other mukity-muk, and this changes the cross into...

Whatever this is! I ain't got time to read all that.

This produces a field of destruction that tears up the ground and exposes the "Egg of Lilith", or the "Black Moon". The Wiki says that this is the vessel which brought Lilith to Earth, and Adam had a similar vessel called "The White Moon" which landed in Antarctica. But this movie doesn't bother filling us in on any of that. They're just like "Here's a purple ball, that's dramatic for some reason, trust us."

As all of this is going on, Rei suddenly separates from Gendo and rejects his procedure. He doesn't understand, but she informs him that she is not his puppet, and Shinji needs her. So instead of doing it the way Gendo had in mind, Rei floats up to merge with Lilith by herself. Also, I think the took Gendo's right hand with her, because he keeps clutching at his arm for the rest of the movie, and we never see his right hand again.

Now, you might have noticed I haven't had much to say about what Shinji is doing during all of this. That's because he can't do anything. The poor dope is stuck in Unit 01, completely helpless as the bad Evas do their ritual. All he's been doing this whole part of the movie is screaming in helpless terror. I had hoped Rei coming to save him would offer him some comfort, but she looks like this now...

So yeah, he's not exactly reassured. Rei/Lilith also assumes control over SEELE's Evas, and their heads change so they all have her face, which is pretty disturbing.

BE NOT AFRAID.

Finally, Rey/Lilith reshapes into a new form, that of Kaworu, the 17th Angel that Shinji had to kill in Episode 24. This seems to calm Shinji down. I think it's just Rey/Lilith in disguise, but maybe Shinji sees this as evidence that Kaworu isn't really dead, which would mean Shinji didn't murder him.

So a bunch of visual things happen and Clownshoes declares that Eva Unit 01 has now become God, because it possesses an S2 engine, the Fruit of Life, and a human mind, the Fruit of Knowledge. Didn't Eva Unit 01 already have those things before, though?

I suppose this could explain why there's more than one way to do this ritual. Gendo wanted to combine Adam and Lilith with himself, I think, which would have made him God, maybe. SEELE, on the other hand, wanted to do it all with just their Evas, Unit 01, and the Lance(s?) of Longinus. In the end, Rei sort of combined both of their approaches, though I don't know what difference it makes.

Well, no, I guess I do know. Rei/Lilith asks Shinji what his desire is, and he impulsively thinks of boobs. I assume Gendo would have thought of his dead wife, or the SEELE guys would have thought of worldly power.

From here, the movie goes off the rails with a bunch of fantasy visions. In other words, we're right back in the same bullshit that made the original Episodes 25 and 26 so esoteric and dumb. We start with Shinji as a small boy, farting around in a sandbox for like five minutes.

Then we see him watching Misato having casual sex with Kaji, just like in Episode 25 of the TV series. This is presented like it's some horrible thing Misato did, which is disillusioning to Shinji. I still don't understand this. Adults have sex. Why is this supposed to be a problem?

Then he's suddenly trying to figure out how to connect romantically with Asuka, except he doesn't really know her, or Rei, or Misato, or anyone else. He gets bitter and frustrated, accusing them of being unclear about their feelings towards him, but they say he hasn't tried to get to know them.

Then he's with Asuka at their apartment, and he begs for her to help him (with what?). Asuka is upset because she knows he just wants someone to be nice to him. He's only begging Asuka because he's too frightened of Misato, Rei, or his own parents, so he's come crawling to her. Well, she's not playing along.

So he strangles her. I doubt he could do this to the real Asuka, but this is some bullshit dream so it works.

He asks Lilith what went wrong, and she replies that he just assumed everyone had the same feelings as himself, so this isn't the harmonious world he wished for after all. I guess? This seems like a repudiation of the scenario from the TV finale, where Shinji could interact with other humans through the Human Instrumentality, but it took him a while to get comfortable with doing so. Here, he tries to live that way, but it isn't working.

So at this point, Shinji decides that if people don't like him, then to hell with it. This leads to Third Impact, with Lilith essentially dissolving the entire human population into LCL fluid. Each human is visited by an image of Rei, which sometimes takes the form of someone they love. For example, this girl at the command center is visited by an image of Ritsuko, who embraces her tenderly before she turns into orange Kool-Aid. Of course, the real Ritsuko is already dead, but a Rei shows up anyway to turn her body into orange goop.

The leader of SEELE is also gooped. Interestingly, you can't really tell how they feel about the way this has turned out. That's because everyone is visited by some pleasant fantasy before they dissolve, so I think it's reasonable to assume this is not what SEELE had in mind, and yet they probably think it's exactly what they wanted to happen.

Gendo Ikari's fate seems a bit different, though. He does get a visit from the image of his dead wife, and he admits that he'll probably receive retribution from Shinji over the way he treated him in life. He admits that he pushed Shinji away because he was convinced it would be less painful that way, so it looks like father and son are more alike than they ever wanted to admit. Anyway, an Eva picks Gendo up and bits off his upper body, though I doubt any of this was real.

As Lilit-- I got a phone call from my mom while I was typing this part. She's fine, but she's fed up with the weekly dominoes game she was attending. We talked for probably 45 minutes and after that I felt genuinely refreshed. I don't normally mention when I take breaks while writing long posts like these, but I needed that one more than I realized. So I want the record to reflect my gratitude.

Right, so as Lilith gathers up all the goop-ified humans, she has the bad guy Evas self-destruct. I don't think they explode, since we see some of their remains at the end of the movie, but they do stab their little core-dealies with their weapons.

Then she opens up a third eye in her forehead and sends the cross containing Eva Unit 01 to penetrate it. Okey dokey.

Then we get this rapid succession of images with voices saying typical breakup/brushoff lines. "I don't like you in 'that way'," "I don't want to know you", "I'm just not into you", all the classics. I think this is the sort of thing Lilith is removing from the human condition. Now everyone's just disembodied minds suspended in goop, so there are no boundaries.

This is where I got completely fed up. This is a photograph of an empty theater. That's cute how they worked the cross into the image, but it serves no purpose at all. Nothing's made much sense ever since Rei merged with Lilith, but now it's extra stupid. We're not even watching a cartoon anymore.

To be fair, there were photographs in Episode 26 of the TV series as well, but not to this extent. After this we get: a cat, a TV broadcast transmitter, a bunch of people walking through a busy street. More people milling about, people sitting in a theater, and then the empty theater again. Okay, I'll show you the cat.

Best part of the movie. RIP to this cool and good friend.

So when all is said and done, Shinji finds himself in this reality, where everyone is just floating in a big sea of LCL fluid. I like how his and Lilith's bodies are merged together to represent this condition. Mostly I'm just glad we're using animation to represent things instead of just random film of bystanders.

But Shinji decides that this doesn't feel right either, and he asks to be restored to his former state. Lilith grants this request, though she does make it clear to him that things will be like they were before, with everyone knowing feat and pain, and misunderstandings and such, but Shinji seems to have (re?) learned the same lesson he figured out in Episode 26 of the TV series: that this pain and the boundaries between people are necessary in order to grow.

So Lilith collapses into the sea of LCL fluid, and her entire head falls off. I guess this is the same AT field failure that led to the disintegration of Rei's body at the start of this episode. Anyway, when all is said and done, Shinji is back in a corporeal body, and Eva Unit 01 pops out of Lilith's eyeball. It's no longer God this way, so all the heavy stuff is over with.

Yui then appears before Shinji and they talk it over. He's fine living this way on Earth, and Yui is happy continuing to exist as part of Eva Unit 01. She plans to fly out into space and contemplate her existence, and she figures that, billions of years into the future, when the Earth no longer exists, she will still be there as evidence that humans lived in the universe. Okay... You know, I thought she was the normal one in the Ikari family but... no. Just, no way.

And that leads us to the epilogue, where we find the Earth after the Third Impact. Lilith's remains still lie in pieces over the surface of the planet, and all the LCL has pooled into the oceans or something.

I read the wiki about this scene, and it pointed out that there's evidence that some time has passed since the battle that started all of this. The moon is full in this scene, but it was a new moon earlier. So at least two weeks have passed. More importantly, these wooden stakes are set up in the area, and these are apparently markers Shinji set up to commemorate his dead friends from Tokyo-3. Before she died, Misato gave Shinji the cross necklace she wore, and he held onto it throughout Third Impact, but now he's hung it on a rusty nail in a piece of wood, and some rust has gotten onto the necklace, indicating that some time has passed.

The reason this matters is to add some context to this scene, where Shinji wakes up to find Asuka lying beside him. The movie gives the impression that he just got back to the real world, but the details suggest he's been living out here on his own for a while. It's unclear what happened to everyone else, but Lilith's words seemed to suggest that anyone who wanted to return to a corporeal body like Shinji could do so if they wished. So it's possible that lots of people have already done so, and Shinji just isn't around any of them. Or maybe Asuka's the first one to join him out here.

Maybe she's the only one, and they're the only two humans here. The point is that when he sees her, the first thing he does is strangle her, which seems completely ridiculous, unless you consider that he's been here a while, and he probably doesn't believe she's real. When he strangled the fantasy-Asuka earlier, she didn't put up a struggle, so he's trying to use that as a test this time.

But instead, Asuka raises her hand and caresses his cheek, and this surprises him so much that he stops what he's doing and starts to cry all over her face. Well, it could be worse, Asuka. She mutters how disgusted she is with him, and that's the last line of the movie.

Objectively speaking, this probably is better than the original TV series ending. It's more ambitious in scope, the visuals are more impressive, and the conclusion seems more ambiguous and grim. Everything seems to have turned out... okayish for humanity. The world looks unrecognizable, but nobody's suffering, and if I understand correctly, those markers Shinji put up may be premature. Asuka's return suggests that others might follow, and if they don't it'll be their choice.

I guess Gendo definitely will not be reunited with Yui, since she's buggered off into outer space, but at least he acknowledged his failures as a father, and I take that to mean he at least cared about his son, even if he couldn't express that to him.

The thing about TV Episode 26 is that it ended with the whole cast applauding for Shinji, which is either a fantasy he made up for himself, which is cheap, or the ending really is saying that they all lived happily ever after in a heaven of their own making. And that seems kind of chipper for a show like this. It made it hard to accept that this was really how they were ending things, even if it was the best possible scenario for the characters.

But like I said before, the big problem with both endings is that they're so damn confusing, relying on me to recall little details about the lore that might not have even been available to viewers in 1997. Huge chunks of the movie are just lavish images depicting vague events. Shinji barely does anything in the whole movie. First Misato has to drag him to the Eva, then the Eva puts him inside of it, then Rei/Lilith has to rescue him by turning him into God.

I think the biggest problem I have with the NGE mythos as a whole is that the lore is really fascinating stuff, but the show is never really about the lore. Everything always comes back to Shinji and his mental health issues. I keep wanting, for example, Ritsuko and Misato to have some in-depth discussion about Adam and Lilith and how the Second Impact went down and so on. But the show never wants to just sit down and go into all of that. It's always one character sort of getting the partial gist of it and trying to explain it all to another character. Like, Misato was telling Shinji a bunch of stuff while she was driving him to his Eva, but I seriously doubt he was paying any attention, and he probably wouldn't have been in any condition to understand what she was telling him.

Like... I don't hate Shinji as a character, but this whole premise just feels kind of wasted on him. Does that make any sense?

I still feel unsettled about this, like I'm on the brink of apologizing that I didn't enjoy this more than I did. I went in just assuming this would be a blast, and it was for a little while, but most of it just... isn't for me.

I don't know. I think I'm just gonna sign off here. I'll probably have more to say about it in the coming days, but I'll save it for replies to any asks you all want to send me. But otherwise, I think it's time I moved on...

#neon genesis evangelion #2024ngeliveblog #shinji ikari #rei ayanami #asuka langley soryu #gendo ikari #second angel lilith #end of evangelion

[misterbaritone]

wait wait that’s it? That’s the big final confrontation between Sol and Asuka? That Man just plucks Sol’s powers out of his neck then he fucks off to the moon and becomes a radio host? Dude that super SUCKS!

#seriously when Asuka tells Sol to remove his arm and kill him I completely expected sol tear the limb off and go whole hog on the guy #but he just…. relents? #look I can get if you’re past murdering the guy but at least beat the dog shit out of him! #seriously dude made your life hell for the last century and you just let him off like an old pal? at least break his jaw or somethin! #nearly 200 years of resentment and fury saved up just to fizzle out like that. what a waste #haven’t seen a big bad get off this easy since Vergil in DMC5 #guilty gear strive #guilty gear #sol badguy #that man #asuka r kreutz

[princekirijo]

Since you've been talking about Riku quite a bit lately I was just wondering - are there any of your mutuals' ocs that you think he would get along well with?

Alright I've been putting this off for like. Two months now because I've been really nervous about it (a good nervous) but fuck it I'm just gonna get this done!!!

OK so the short answer is yes. I'll be 100% honest whenever a mutual posts about their OC I am IMMEDIATELY thinking about how they'd vibe with Riku. I can't help it I think about him 24/7 and to be honest I think it's actually a fun exercise that helps build up characters to imagine how he'd get on with other people.

The longer answer is tough because I don't want to ramble on too long and also I feel. silly. enough so I'm gonna just limit it to a few of my mutuals OCs. Readmore cause this got kinda long but also let me say that you should absolutely check out all the OCs I mentioned because they're so cool and well thought out and just amazing :]

So the first one is Nico (latenitewaffles) OC Katsuro Sanada who has been spinning around in my head ever since Nico introduced him. He's such a cool guy and I get excited whenever Nico posts about him!! Katsuro is an Akishinji kid so obviously with Riku being a Yukamitsu kid, these two would have grown up together. I think they'd balance each other pretty well!! From what I know of Katsuro he's a pretty chilled low energy dude, which honestly Riku needs because that boy is like a comet. Full of energy fr fr. I feel like Riku would have also had a much better time as a kid because he would have had someone very close to his age as a friend. There would be a period of time where the two would be in Kosei together and unfortunately I feel like they wouldn't spend much time together because Riku would have shut himself off from everyone while he was dealing with Hatanaka's bullshit and at the same time Katsuro had all the stuff with Nakada going on too. They'd def make it up to each other afterwards though :] Also Riku 🤝 Katsuro -> having weird ass dreams involving moons and coffins and green skies.

The second one I'm picking I'm cheating a little and picking two of Rui's (wildcard-rumi) OCs Tobei and Aki! If you wanna read more about them I'd highly recommend Rui's fic its so so good. I know there's more OCs in their Persona group but these would be the two I know most about. I think Riku would vibe with them pretty well too!! I know Tobei dislikes being pitied for his illness and I think Riku would kinda get that. He'd have to stop himself from checking in on him every two minutes because he just really cares about his friends but I think Riku would definitely encourage him to try new things, although maybe his high energy might overwhelm Tobei a bit... As for Aki well Riku would honestly vibe with him so much, he'd probably beg Aki to get him to teach him skateboard tricks... only for him to fail spectacularly because he was way too over enthusiastic about it. Also I found it kinda funny there's a place in the fic called Riku Park which is connected to the Labyrinth (which is the Shadow world of Rui's fic) and I think Riku would constantly refer to it as his park and would probably try and convince people he bought it. Just to see the look on their faces 💀

The third one then I'm picking is Asuka Misty (misty-wisp) OC! Another OC I've been rotating in my brain since Misty dropped this fic with her. Initially I think Asuka would be weary of Riku. Cause like Asuka is a very anxious person (for good reason too girl's going through it) and Riku is well. Riku "is anyone gonna rush head first into this dangerous situation" then doesn't wait for an answer Kirijo. However, I think because Asuka is really good at reading people, she'd probably be one of the few people to pick up on the fact that Riku's ego is just a front for how insecure in himself he actually is and eventually I think they'd be good friends :] Also I'm pretty sure Asuka gets on very well with Ann and well Riku gets on extremely well with Ann so the three of them would vibe well with Ann acting as kinda the middle ground between the two.

OK I think that's like. The main ones I can think of where I know enough about the OC to talk about the potential Riku dynamic. A few honorable mentions would be (yusuke-of-valla) Alto's OC Ryuko, both her and Riku are theatre kid nerds and would probably sing + gush about Musicals together, Gabe (elijah-terry) OC Yuuha again they both love dancing so they'd vibe with that and also they have a black mask AU and thats all I can think of for now. I know there's other OCs I'm missing so I'm really sorry about that >.< But this was a really fun ask to think out thank you anon :] and I hope I did all my mutuals' OCs justice....

#asks #anonymous #god. this was fun #im really sorry i didnt tag anyone i am just extremely awkward. #and like i love gushing about people's ocs!! trust me!! #but like a) I know there's people i forgot and im really really sorry about that #and b) because its how they interact with RIKU its like. idk i feel a bit silly #im so sorry here i am gushing about my mutuals awesome ocs and i dont even have the guts to tag them 😭 #but yeah go check everyone out their work is amazing <3 #and to anyone i did mention... if i a) got the dynamic wrong im so sorry i was kinda going off what i knew about the ocs #and b) if y'all idk... ever wanna talk about this kinda thing... my askbox is open 🥺👉👈 #this bitch riku needs more friends anyway #<- saying that with the energy of a grumpy dad trying to get his son to make friends

[swervestrickland]

Hey Emi! Popping on here to ask some questions in the name of ✨research✨

Who/what is your favorite?:

Male wrestler

Female wrestler

Tag team (male or female)

Faction

March of all time

Looking forward to hearing from you ☺️

-💜

okay, wink wink ;)

Favorite male wrestler(s): Hangman Page, Sami Zayn, Eddie Guerrero (all time). I would also say AJ Styles but really only in his 2016-2018 era. I also really love Tetsuya Naito but i haven't been watching new japan lately at all :(

Favorite female wrestlers(s): Bayley, Asuka

Tag team: ahhhh this one is so hard bc im trying to think in terms of recently or of all time. probably the Usos??? i love swerve in our glory and the acclaimed and the big aew tag teams too but like. probably the Usos. no female tag team that i can think of, they just dont cut it for me on aew or wwe. i dont watch enough joshi wrestling tbh and i should. i know it's badass.

Faction: does the Dark Order still count? :(

Match of all time:

mens singles - sami zayn vs adrian neville at nxt takeover R-evolution in december 2014. once the bell rings turn it off. turn it off!!!!! also any match in hangman's reign works for me. the takeshita match too, fuck it. okada vs hangman at g1 climax 2018 too even. sami zayn vs shinsuke nakamura that one time in the uk i think. eddie versus brock in 2004 to become world champ. kofi kingston versus daniel bryan at wrestlemania. aj styles vs brock lesnar. aj styles versus john cena both times. takeover matches with ricochet in them. idk man i have a lot.

tag match - hangman/kenny vs the bucks at revolution 2020

women's match - bayley vs sasha at takeover brooklyn august 2015. bianca versus sasha at wrestlemania. asuka vs bayley at takeover. bayley vs charlotte at takeover. any ember moon (athena) takeover match or toni storm takeover match. women's takeover matches were the fucking bomb.

i gave you too much. im sorry :]

#emi replies #nonnie

[blogtaculous]

I’ve seen all the mainline entries of Neon Genesis: Evangelion and I have some opinions.

In general I like cosmic horror and using Christian iconography for cosmic horror goes hard as fuck, so naturally I am inclined towards liking the whole of Evangelion, but I think it stumbles by doing the usual anime thing of having an extremely high number of Macguffins and Secret Objects and Concepts. The Rebirth movies had a chance to consolidate all of these things, considering the change in format from 90s serial, but it actually doubled down and got worse!

I’m totally fine with a piece of media not spending a lot of exposition time on some of the outlier fluff, but Evangelion spends tons of time of fluff that doesn’t even matter, not to mention all the things that needed more exposition time. Barriers, spears, moons, bla bla bla… there’s just so much.

There was a lot to like, including, but not limited to:

The found footage of the Second Impact was great. “It’s spreading its wings!” with that broken feed was just enough to be vaguely unsettling and really cool.

The pilots have great motion in the plugs and it translated really well to the action by the Evas themselves. Asuka especially moves great in her plug.

Tokyo-3 is neat. Love the receding buildings and the missile launchers disguised as hillsides. The whole geofront is good.

Love that all the Angel’s weapons find ways to form a crucifix.

In general, very good characters.

The Angel concepts were good, especially in the rebirth movies where the bad ideas could be safely discarded. Loved both depictions of the sniper battle with (checks wiki) Ramiel.

Solid ending (of the rebirth movies). I’m glad Shinji didn’t win through force of arms but through patience and understanding. I’m glad Gendo got actually introspective and recognized he was wrong.

Obviously, there’s also a lot to not like. Let’s start off with the obvious that Shinji sucks. He does. Goddamn does it suck watching over 20 episodes and 3.5 movies where the main character acts like a baby. I am fully aware that he’s suffering, and that he’s got some trauma, but geez how exhausting is it to watch the entire plot revolve around “will the main character literally just do the thing already” over and over and over again. He spends 40+ minutes of Thrice Upon a Time just being a baby. There’s no other way to put it. He’s finally allowed to mature at the end, but it’s frustrating how much of the plot requires Shinji to be immature as long as possible.

Other things I didn’t like:

I briefly thought the time skip would be a super solid choice, allowing the narrative to break away from the original show and forge a new path unburdened. Unfortunately, it instead became extremely silly. The narrative scale ramps up as the resources available dwindle to zero. Mountains of Evas, four spaceships, clones everywhere…

The names of the rebirth movies. 3.0+1.01? Get out of here.

Speaking of 3.0+1.01… I think it was planned to get some mileage out of the same imagery as End of Evangelion despite the narrative being so different, which I thought was bad. Obviously they wanted Big Rei back on the horizon and the ocean of crucifixes across the earth, but it just came off as “been there, done that.” Especially without the image of everyone turning to soup as their souls were taken it just seems too self-referential. It didn’t need to happen in the film, it just needed us to see it.

Even with the most charitable reading, some of the nudity and sexual stuff from the show is not great considering the characters are 14. I’m down with media recognizing the inherent trauma of growing up and grappling with the conflict between childhood and adulthood when it comes to sex and relationships, but many times it felt leering instead of respectful given the media and it’s intended audience.

In general there was a missed opportunity to tell a more tight and consistent story in the rebirth movies, and 1.11 really proves that. Unfortunately it looks like the project ballooned too much as time went on.

Anyway, I liked it all fine. Some really solid stuff and some stuff that wasn’t. Mari and Misato and Asuke steal the show, because of course they do. I liked the tone shift in the original show as it embraced the cosmic horror, and was glad the rebirth movies really leaned into it, but at the end of the day there’s just too much going on, and I often got the feeling that what was happening on screen wasn’t connected to anything concrete. There are questions posed and I don’t think the creators even have answers (the Far Cry 5 gambit, if you will).

Honestly, just a few more passes over the shows own cosmology and it would be much better. If nothing else, it’s just further proof that crucifix imagery goes hard as fuck.

#neon genesis evangelion #rebuild of evangelion #I know I used the wrong terms in here but oh well

[tinyobservings]

Evangelion Episode 7 - 9

I didn't get to post for when I watched episodes 1-6 but I'll try to log the rest of my reactions to my watches now. Idk if I should just watch them through or then post later idk?? anyway

Episode 7:

-Misato starting her morning off with a beer is So Gross LMAO girl

-Shinji's like I've had enough of this bitch lmfao

-Also I can't get over you much younger megumi ogata sounds!!!!! aaahhh!

-I have bad news for u

-girl what!

-there he is, the man of the hour

-I'm sorry I'm crying that the password to shut off Jet Alone was "Hope" LMFAO

kay so ritsuko and gendo like fucked up jet alone, thought something like that happened.

Could you imagine watching NGE without Fly Me To The Moon? Couldn't be me

Episode 8:

-my daughter

-touji really said fair's fair and showed asuka his dick LMFAO

-kaji is so gross LMFAO

-this man just ruined everyone's day but shinji's I guess

-oh asuka lol

-LOOK AT MY BEAUTIFUL SON!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-literally why did she bring him? lmao to show off? the validation? put her peer into a girl's outfit? you're a LESBIAN ASUKA

-he really tried to think in german....

-can't believe asuka's first big battle is against the big clitoris--

-Asuka's really like oh my god the proximity of our bodies shinji don't get any Weird Ideas and he's like WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT WE'RE GONNA DIE Lmfao

-omg asuka's fly me to the moon 😭

Episode 9:

-"to my Honey" lmfao kaji is so annoying (not neg)

-it's really interesting seeing how early on gender expectations and roles are brought up. I Suppose you could chalk it up to "anime shit" but obviously knowing how evangelion ends, that's silly.

-kaji you nasty bitfch

Im going to go ahead and post these as I might go back to live tweeting when I watch, but it’s nice to have these screenshots archived at least

#April rewatches evangelion

[arashi-no-saxlphone]

Hi, not gonna anon for this but self-reporting, I am the "outrageously normal about Asuka" anon that got the confession released a few days ago. I am, as I said, outrageously normal about him and seeing your posts about him have been such fun treats. Like another person who gets it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Who gets how silly the little warcrime committer is!!! And how sad he is too because he's this complex mess of emotions :( But that's okay!!! Because his character is such a fun one to study and to just enjoy!! So seeing your takes on him and his story, again, are such treats. It's very nice and it's always refreshing to see that I haven't gone insane looking at him self-exiling to Tir na nOg and going "Hrm, he made a clone that """"improved"""" on his current traits and swapped clothes with this guy like Asuka was going to disappear into sparkly catboy dust" and that someone else has caught on to just how Asuka didn't seem quite ready to keep going with the world now that everything's settling. I hope when Frederick and Jack-O' visit Asuka (and R# probably [if he's not romping around on Earth and visiting the Chicago Rat Hole for the experience]) that they get to have some good talks and start being on at least okay terms. Because they are probably pouring a lot of time and effort into seeing him up on the moon and they all deserve some NORMALCY!!!!!!!!!!!! Some good ol' fashioned road to recovery that Frederick doesn't have to forgive Asuka for but they could at least just... try to mend things and start to heal and move on from the past without forgetting it and and and- Anyhoo, word dump over!!! Have a good day!! :D

YEAAAH it is SUPER vindicating to encounter so many other Asuka fans who read his character and draw similar conclusions that I do about him - he's super complex and VERY sad and I think unfortunately that all gets missed or written off cause "everything is his fault" which isn't even explicitly true (I'm not saying he didn't fuck up at all, but the whole fucking point of Gear's narrative is that humanity keeps doing this to themselves - that whole "blamed the beasts" bit isn't just bullshit as fun as it is to meme it haha).

I hope for the same in regards to what you said about Frederick and Jack-O; I'm pretty confident that with the crazy commercial success of Strive as well as the amount of hanging threads we have with other characters that leave more to be explored that we will probably get another game, and also that means we'll have more Asuka development and healing (after all, we've seen that much in great detail with characters like Testament and Aba, who weren't even present in the story for Strive). I think it's also clearly hinted at in his arcade story that Asuka IS starting to "get it" and is clearly capable of learning and changing - he's always had Frederick to look up to in that regard, and R# even mentions it as he's engaging with the battle data of other characters.

Thank you for this ask! Asuka is a really fucking good character and I got pretty obsessed with trying to understand him - I'm always happy to see other people share that passion for him and have ideas of their own to contribute that further help my understanding of him as well! Definitely one of the best things about being in the Gear fandom on here has been having my own thoughts expanded by everyone else's takes and comments on my posts.

#sairambles #guilty gear #ggst #asuka r kreutz #yet another sweet ask thank you very much! #also thanks for that asuka confession I love seeing those and being like “Ah see! I'm not crazy! They get it!!” #ask

[rex101111]

Far be it from me to say that anyone 'doesn't deserve redemption' in some form or another but at least like most of the characters in strive actually had some self reflection and/or sought to make some kind of change to themselves. Asuka using his magic godmode wizardry to speedrun redemption arc any%

you know what actually pisses me off the more i think about it? Asuka taking away Sol's Gear Cells. Like, on paper, that sounds like the best thing he could possibly do for him, the Gear Project was the original sin from which this entire series stems, Asuka taking that out, taking out the curse that he placed on one of this only friends to finally put that to rest. But you know what pisses me off about the execution? Asuka doesn't ask Sol if he wants him to do that. He doesn't say "hey Fredrick I can remove your Gear Cells, just say the word after our fight" no, he does the exact same thing that started this mess. Asuka's whole deal is that he did all of this, all of it, because he didn't want his two friends to suffer and die. The problem was that their opinions about either were not a factor, he acted solely out of his own self interest and fear.

Now, back then, desperate and afraid and Aria potentially dying any day, you could understand him, you can see why he did it. But it was still a shitty thing to do, he toyed with two people's lives without their consent or permission, there's no two ways about that. And now, years later, he does the exact same thing, doesn't take Sol's thoughts into consideration, he doesn't take his lumps like a fucking man, he doesn't even talk to Sol before he pulls the Gear Cells out. Over a hundred years to think about what he did and why, and he decides that what he did back then is okay to do now. No growth, no change, no reflection. And then he fucks off to the moon where nobody can reach him, so he avoids any conversation with Sol beyond that. He didn't redeem himself as far as I'm concerned, he spends a few hours beating himself up, repeating the same mistakes that started this whole mess, and then went "woe is me my only suitable punishment is moon ta ta!" and that's where the character arc for our main fucking antagonist ends.

fuck strive's plot just continues to piss me off every time i think about it

#guilty gear #answers #broken clover #if you try to convince me a character is actually good now but without proper build up? #man fuck that even in Xrd he was more interesting then this #AND HE SPENT MOST OF THOSE GAMES IN A DAMN /BOX/

[gothfield-official]

My Top 56 Yugioh GX Unhinged moments

The fact that vampires are casually confirmed to exist including an entire vampire/human war backstory where all of them died and there was only one left and then she died. Also she had the ability to turn people into dolls and duplicate herself

Professor Banner was an actual rotting corpse and a homunculus and even though he had no genitals in the original the 4kids version censored his crotch implying that he has genitals in the english version. Once judai beats him he turns into dust and then for some reason his corpse that he’s kept in a coffin in his little science lair turns into dust too and there’s just banner dust everywhere. Then his pet cat eats his soul.

Professor banner puts chazz asuka and fubuki in planets after stealing their souls. The planets are inside his alchemy book? I think? Banner and Judai go in the book? By doing this he awakens chazz’s love for asuka somehow. 

No one ever actually finds out professor banner is dead besides judai sho and chumley, they just think he’s missing and even then Judai is the only one that knows he’s a fucking ghost

North Academy’s entrance exam is an extreme and life threatening gauntlet of finding cards on a fucking iceberg and then you go inside the iceberg and the school is a fucking wild west town with a pyramid with a giant spire inside of it and also the sky is visible from inside the iceberg also you have to duel 50 people

The little belowski has weed superpowers which are so powerful that he needs to be kept in an underground island inside the island also for some reason you can see the sky from in here too. He was somehow left on duel academy’s doorstep as a baby despite the fact that duel academy is a fucking island in the middle of nowhere

The fact that duel spirits are never actually explained to us

Judai commits genocide in order to make a card

The big bad guy of season one is literally a man we have never met or heard of up until the last 3 episodes where he shows up and he’s a fucking old man in a test tube metal gear thing and headmaster samejima is like “oh fuck it’s board director whats his name” like THAT MEANS ANYTHING TO US and then judai beats him and snaps his old man back like a twig

Duel academy island has an active volcano

Judai collects all the knock off millennium items over the course of season one and then proceeds to do nothing with them and the show never explains what they are or how they work and they’re never shown again after season one including the amulet which some duel spirit lady gave judai half of and told him to tell the person that had the other half (fubuki) that she was alive and waiting for him and then judai never did that

(That fucking amulet was built up to be important like it’s a part of judai’s character design in season 1 basically and all it does is protect everyone’s souls from camula’s soul sucking card in one episode and that’s it. It keeps shining randomly in duels throughout the first season but there’s no reason for it and then it’s gone after season 1)

That time Crocodile Jim somehow lost his eye as a child after falling off a cliff and into a river and an old man put a new magic rock eye in its place and then gave him a vague prophecy about having to save his friend with that eye and something about the tail of a comet and then he straight up fucking vanishes into thin air leaving this little boy alone in the middle of the australian outback

Saio killing multiple mr t’s to save judai by running them over in a truck, almost running over judai and also committing an act of terrorism by blowing up the kaiba tower in like 2 episodes. The fact that the kaiba tower was destroyed is never addressed maybe they were prepping for it to look different in 5ds idk

Judai gets hit by a comet in the middle of the ocean and is somehow transported to the moon io of jupiter where he is greeted by his OC who tells him about his destiny and gives him some official duel monsters cards of his OCs before he duels an alien robot and then is sent back to earth

After Judai disappears at the end of season 3 he comes back in the first episode of season 4 on a comet and nearly kills sho 

Hell Kaiser dies of actual literal heart failure in the other world due to shocking himself too much with his bdsm (the d stands for dueling) shock collars and then somehow washes back on shore of duel academy island because he’s too popular to kill off forever lmao. Also in season 4 sho says that it wasn’t the shock collars that were hurting his heart it was the pain of using such a powerful deck (which physically shocks you as well… somehow…) but like… honey no, the shock collars weren’t doing nothing to his heart.

Kaiba sent cards into space for literally no reason

EVERYTHING ABOUT BASTION MISAWA. Lolicon. Femdom kink. Furry. He joins a cult because all his friends forgot he existed. He fucking strips naked and disappears after self actualizing and then shows up in another dimension before fucking off again to his femdom furry wife. 

The duel monkey. I am legally obligated to mention the duel monkey

The fact that duel academy abandoned their entire animal research lab after judai beat the duel monkey but, like, didn’t take any of the animals out they literally just left them down there like eh they’ll figure it out

That guy that steals Johan’s sapphire pegasus with a lava lamp egg lookin thingy that can somehow trap spirits and slowly suffocates them to death and we literally see a duel spirit die which CAN HAPPEN? The fact that after Johan beats him we see all the duel spirits he killed and then they fUCKING KILL HIM LIKE THEY TURN INTO WHITE ENERGY LOOKIN STUFF AND COVER HIM AND HE STARTS SCREAMING AND THEN HE DISAPPEARS????

(The lore reveal in this ep that if you rip a card in half that kills the duel spirit means that Kaiba canonically killed a blue eyes white dragon)

When that guy who crowler hired and then turned into one of the seven stars gets eaten by dark ghost thingies screaming as he is dragged away to whatever horrible shadow realm TWICE and both times jaden and everyone else watches and is just like :) no thoughts head empty that guy never shows up again

That time that Chazz casually set up and lured amon onto his two helicopter lifted platforms so they could duel above a river that wasn’t even that deep and then chazz almost fucking drowns after he loses

The fact that Chazz almost drowns twice in the series and the first time it’s because he crashed his yacht offscreen

So many fucking people go missing on this island. Fubuki. All the students Banner and test tube grandpa kidnapped to experiment on (?) for the seven stars and banners own alchemy experiments, i guess including Yusuke Fujiwara but not really because he disappeared doing his own thing? Chazz in like ¼ of season 1. Professor Banner himself technically. Tarzan. Bastion on two separate occasions. Amon, the son of one of the most powerful conglomerates in the world. The entire school during season 3.

A student goes feral for like 6 months and becomes a Tarzan because he kept fucking up his random sandwich draws and also his card draws i guess but the sandwich thing is more important. He trains to get better at randomly drawing and somehow this actually works. He is only found and brought back because he stole the one good sandwich at duel academy too many times. Even though he comes back, at an indeterminate point in time between season one and two he goes feral again

DINO DNA

(Ok but like seriously Kenzan gets mad at Jim for disrupting dinosaurs sleep by digging them up like KING THAT’S EXACTLY HOW YOU NEARLY BROKE YOUR LEG IN TWO THEY HAD TO OPERATE QUICKLY SO THEY USED THE DINOSAUR BONE YOU FOUND TO SAVE YOUR LEG, EVER SINCE YOU’VE HAD DINO DNA??? THE DOCTOR SAYS IT MAKES YOU STRONGER THAN THE AVERAGE JOE????)

In season 4 Kenzan can’t be turned to darkness because he’s not 100% human (just like how he couldn’t be brainwashed by aliens in season 2) so Mr. T shows him his past life as a dinosaur? It’s unclear if this is real or just a fantasy made up to give Kenzan anxiety and therefore an in for darkness but anyway he shows Kenzan as his past life dinosaur eating another dinosaur (I think it’s a triceratops) which unsettles Kenzan greatly then Mr. T reveals that the dino bone in his leg just happens to be from the dino he ate in his past life and the grudge it and all the dinosaurs carried all this time EAT KENZAN ALIVE ok they don’t actually eat him it’s just the feeling of being eaten alive which is still fucking insane and then we never revisit that kenzan’s just gone til judai saves everyone lmao

(ppl give kenzan shit for this like you didn’t know dinosaurs ate each other dude but I think it’s more that he’s upset that he had to hurt something he loves so dearly and also knowing dinosaurs ate each other vs being the one to do it and see it up close and personal is way different and disturbing. Kenzan defense hour staring me apparently)

The season 4 villain reveals that the universe is a literal card like the big bang theory but it’s a duel monsters card and I thought this was supposed to be a metaphor but it’s yugioh and i feel like i’m giving it too much benefit of the doubt also apparently they do stuff with this lore in like zexal or something idk man

That time a gothic lolita haunted doll had another spirit enter her because one dude ripped a card in front of her spot in the obelisk blue dorm lounge which by the way she’s like a pvc anime figurine looking girl like i think they were trying for a victorian doll look but that’s not what I was getting yall got some freaks decorating the obelisk blue dorms but im here for it. Tyranno Kenzan falls madly in love with her and actually pretty much every guy she meets in the episode besides Judai has some feelings for her (Sho clearly also likes her, Bastion is jealous of Kenzan) Her plan doesn’t even make any sense like she has Kenzan fall in love with her and then drags him out to the woods to send him into despair but every time we cut to him he has a goofy smile on his face and is giggling about her? What is despair to this girl? Anyway Judai duels her and she turns back into a normal doll and Kenzan has no gf we hate to see it king

The fact that the season 4 villain and the haunted gothic lolita doll basically have the same origin/motivation

That time a guy sold his soul to the actual grim reaper in order to draw better in yugioh. For some reason north academy had the yugioh card of the grim reaper that functions exactly like the real grim reaper and this is just common knowledge like Chazz was at north academy for like 3 days and he’s like “oh yeah the grim reaper card I know about it” 

When head teacher Napoleon and Professor Cronos dueled to see whether or not the red dorm would be torn down and every time Cronos lost life points part of the dorm would be destroyed and every time Napoleon lost life points the dorm would be rebuilt and they fucking wonder why duel academy’s going bankrupt

During season 3 when everyone’s getting their energy sucked out after dueling and somehow electromagnetic waves are involved and apparently those make reptiles go apeshit so every time there’s high EM activity jim cook’s crocodile karen and tyranno kenzan go apeshit to the point where Kenzan can only make rawr noises and at one point both of them punch themselves in the face and knock themselves out to stop

Professor Banner/Daitokouji is a cat boy homunculus/ghost chaotic neutral alchemist 

That time Judai got kidnapped for like a week by a pirate and everyone immediately accepted that he was gone forever

That time that Judai had a bunch of near death hallucinations because he hadn’t eaten or drank anything in a week and imagined the duel monkey now turned regular monkey as each of his friends for a clip show episode and this is resolved by him drinking half a bucket of water and eating 2 bananas. 

Mizuchi’s powers are wild she gives 4 people the power to control the elements of earth, lightning, ice and fire, turns dudes into cards, makes a bunch of magic mirror projections of herself to taunt judai, and creates a weird barrier around domino city so that the duel spirits can’t leave? Did the light give her all this or did she have all these powers along with being able to tell the future like Saio?

Mizuchi turns herself into a digital ghost to protect Saio better which is basically just giving him judgy looks on his laptop and then showing up at the end to stop the satellite from firing on Kenzan and Neos

That time Kenzan astral projects into his spirit form of a Tyrannosaurus and joins Neos who is real and tangible now to destroy the satellite that’s very very very slowly destroying the earth. When Judai plays the field spell Neo Space in his duel with Saio it takes him to actual real space where Kenzan is and no one acknowledges the fact that Kenzan is a fucking dinosaur in space. Also even though Kenzan has literally met and talked to Neos before he still thinks Judai is kind of insane for talking to duel spirits after this

After Edo loses to Saio in a brilliant flash of light he turns entirely white then turns to a pile of sand then reappears normally colored in the palm of the hand of the statue of the goddess of light or something which slowly lowers him into a pit of lava that Saio either had retrofitted specifically for this purpose or that the blue dorm already had for some fucking reason. Either one is just as likely as the other.

When Chazz has to duel his brother with only low level cards and he doesn’t have any so he needs to make a new deck and instead of going to the card shop like a normal human being Professor Banner tells him there’s a haunted well that people throw their shitty cards into and he should just jump down there and get some. 

Apparently the darkness in Martin’s heart is greater than the darkness in Amon’s heart (either that or Yubel was fucking with Amon to strengthen the darkness in his heart) because we find out Amon was abandoned as a child to slowly starve to death alone until he was adopted by the Garam conglomerate and despite the fact that he is extremely smart and capable and the best person for the job he’s dedicated himself to his younger brother who is the true heir to the conglomerate by blood I guess even though it should be his and there’s this great resentment for his brother to the point where he almost killed him once (bc it’s not yugioh without an adopted older brother almost killing their baby brother) but because he owes the Garam family his life he’d do anything for it and Martin’s darkness is. He’s sad his parents are divorced. :( 

(Professor Napoleon canonically fucks and that’s something you’re just gonna have to cope with)

For some reason Edo and Hell Kaiser do a fun little role play in the other world where Edo acts as Kaiser’s butler in order to trick some goblin soldiers it’s so extra. Also when the other goblin goes up to meet Kaiser he’s like “welcome to my cyber art dojo” and he has the poster of the cyber end dragon there. Does Hell Kaiser just bring that poster with him everywhere and he hung it up? Did this run down mansion in the other world just happen to have a cyber art dojo and poster? (This isn’t a cinema sins moment i just think its v funny)

That time there was a zombie apocalypse

The fact that duel academy has this super expensive Kaiba corp dimension gate technology and they keep it on their fucking tennis court for some reason

DUEL PHYSICISTS

That time that the dark magician girl’s duel spirit physically manifested herself in the real world and then nearly started a riot at duel academy because she lost a duel to Jaden

The fact that a micronation sent a death laser satellite into space just for fun because the prince is way too into satellites and then he immediately loses the keys to his death satellite because he lost to Saio in 0 moves

That time an ancient egyptian prince crossed time and space in his flying boat in order to duel Jaden only it turned out he sucked at dueling and everyone was just humoring him because he was the pharaoh. Then Jaden teaches him how to duel and he’s so happy he asks Jaden to come with him to the afterlife to duel with him more… how he came back from the dead is never explained

That time a bunch of LARPers stole the plot device from our protagonists then they dueled chazz and summoned themselves and it turned out that they WEREN’T LARPers they were actually duel spirits and once Chazz beats them they lose their corporeal form and the episode ends with them living with chazz as his new duel spirit roommates. We never see them again.

The fact that in the dub Grandpa Muoto says Yugi left to buy groceries 3 years ago and never fucking came back

That time Fubuki and Asuka have a duel to see if they’ll be a sibling idol duo or not and Fubuki enters the arena by flying around on wires dressed like Austin powers and then Alexis comes in riding on a giant goose shaped carriage. 

That time the Ra dorm head teacher was so depressed none of his students were living in the yellow dorm anymore (because at this point bastion had gone missing for the first time and kenzan was basically living with Sho and Judai in the red dorm) that he dressed up as a food truck worker and tried to bribe his students back with food and also dueling with a deck themed around making curry. 

That time Chazz started a cult and then left it and destroyed it with a second cult basically

The foriegn princess who was also a student at Duel Academy who played a frog deck who claimed she could see duel spirits and that her cards all appeared as hot guys  to her and got all horny about it but chazz and judai think she’s fucking nuts because they only see the normal ass solid vision holograms of frogs until the very end of the episode where judai sees one and it’s like a frog but with a crown on so was she crazy or not. Or both.

#yugioh gx #ygo #yu-gi-oh #shitpost #i have some for 5ds and zexal but those lists aren't nearly as dense as gx's #unhinged #also im not sorry for using dub and sub names that's just how i roll #also also I know the number isn’t 56 but tumblr fucked up my formatting so it should be 56 #the ones in parentheses are meant to be sub points

[imakuni]

if i had to pick top 10 favorite fighters it's probably something like

10. Far East of Eden: Kabuki Klash

9. Sailor Moon S

8. Killer Instinct (2013)

7. ARMS

6. Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl

5. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

4. Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite

3. Yu Yu Hakusho: Makyo Toitsusen

2. Asuka 120% LimitOver

1. Super Smash Bros. Melee

mvci is the major outlier considering its placement in the sense that i really haven't gotten as many opportunities to play it as i'd like, finding games and resources is really fucking hard these days but i have so much fucking fun playing it that i don't care and i'll overrate it as much as i want

9 and 10 are by far my lowest hours, being closer to 5-7 hours but they're goof-off fun games anyways. the rest of these range from 20-50 hours with melee ultimate and limitover being by far the most, (~1.5k, 800, 200 respectively)

nickelodeon i considered not including because of possible recency bias but i really, really like it and almost put it higher. i settled on just putting on the lower half and waiting a few more months to see how i feel (esp. with netcode fixes)

i have an eclectic mix of favorite games but i'm okay with that because it feels like i've tried so many and plumbed the depths and found the weird (and sometimes normal) things i like. and that's a nice feeling

#bleach dark souls and mvc2 are HMs

[xamaxenta]

Brain still consumed by avatar au

Judai has to be the avatar his elemental heroes are every element so makes sense, starts off as a very overtly friendly kind and pretty gullible avatar in training, dark world/spirit world shit happens that in the end only makes him stronger but his entire demeanour to his mentors delights becomes much more leader worthy (dark avatar supreme king i am obsessed)

Manjoume - fire with preference in lightning only, lightning came easily to him so much that his actual fire power is kind of lacking (homie doesnt fuckin practice his breathing techniques)

Shou - earth but he’s not confident so most of the stuff he can bend is small rocks or sand, ultimately becomes a sand/dust/small particles bender

Asuka - water with preference in ice, unusual in the sense that her movements are like a dance to cover her feet in ice to deliver devastating bladed kicks

Misawa - water - his parents were earth benders imagine their surprise when a water bending kid popped out, as it turns out his grandparents have water heritage so hm hm punnett square shit do the math i cant, focuses on the entire spiritual aspect of waterbending, hes in tune with he tides and the moon phases and he can heal

Edo - air, he became a master at a young age and takes great pride in his status and abilities, usually seen jumping off tall places to test his flight skills (yes i am basing his entire airbending thing off that one fucking sky diving scene)

Ryou - earth but learns through a dire situation that he can bend metal, eventually his entire style evolves into using metal only

Fubuki - fire, has the ease, control and potential to create the legendary super hot blue flame but he prefers being a messenger of love and peace, not war and mostly uses his power for lighting fires to roast marshmallows over and generally having a good time

Kenzan - earth, typical good ol earth dude, he likes both feet firmly on the ground, pretty good at seismic techniques, likes to build cute houses out of dirt, an architect in the making

Johan - earth, with an exceedingly rare ability to create diamonds from the sheer strength and pressure of his technique, he can then use and manipulate these diamonds as his chosen weapon

Jim - earth, a rare lava bender, likes to use his skill to sense fossils in the ground, great at excavating with the gentlest precision, you probably won’t find a more delicate bending technique than Jims

Austin - fire, the classic firebender, perfect form and technique, perfect heat control and his fight skill is unmatched, he can do the fire plasma laser shit because he’s a super talented guy and always challenges Judai to actually practice his fire

#avatar au #gx avatar au #i know i probably made this list a while ago but i wanna update #chronos is a non bender but understands all bending culture and techniques #so hes a coach haha #i forgot rei F shes probably fire #lets MISAWA HEAL AND NOT ASUKA #misawa has the wonderful heal ability #xam scream #avatar gx au

[aerialflight]

Fic Rec (where i'm into too many fandoms rn and ships which is weird of me)

[Bleach] (been a while amiright?)

Oxytocin by Asuka Kureru (Askerian)

Ship: Grimmjow/Ichigo/Orihime

Complete trust and physical affection are great!

They're a bit less great when they were caused by weird hollow drugs.

They're even less great when the guy who was drugged up into loving the hell out of you is the same guy who tried to murder you a couple times a couple years ago.

(listen i just stumbled upon this and I have no regrets. i don't usually go for ships, let alone poly, but like, GOD, i love how everyone is characterized here, especially orihime and i just want to SCREAM OK? OK. the vibe i get from this fic reminds me of @murderlight (big fan) and if that doesn't say anything, i don't know what will.)

-

[Gintama] (i don't know how i spiralled into this fandom either, been literal years since i've even thought about this fandom, i have no regrets)

Grab Your Dreams With Your Fists While You Can Still Remember It by yatagarasu (leelhiette)

Ship: Hijikata Toshirou/Sakata Gintoki

Toshirou should learn to look both ways before crossing the road.

(Or he learns more about the people around him and about himself.)

(amnesia fic, and i know it's a common trope but they did it BEAUTIFULLY here. love this so much. and it's post-canon.)

I feel you by arashian155 for machinecuisine

Ship: Hijikata Toshirou/Sakata Gintoki

“I’m so done with this,” Gintoki muttered angrily. Zura sighed while Tatsuma laughed loudly. “Your soulmate’s getting roughed up again?” Gintoki groaned. “Worst timing ever! There was this one Amanto swinging his gigantic sword at me and I was just about to dodge it when, out of fucking nowhere, I feel something stabbing my shoulder! It threw me off and if it weren’t for that, I would have been perfectly healthy right now instead of getting nursed for this stupid wound!” he pointed at the ugly slash across his torso. “Fuck soulmates!”

A story about Sakata Gintoki's journey into embracing his soulbond, falling in love, and learning the cons of selflessness.

(THE SLOW BUILD-UP OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP AND THE PLOT FOLLOWS CANON AND I CAN'T STOP TALKING ABOUT THIS STUPID FIC I'M SO STUPID FOR THIS STUPID SHIP FEIWNFOPA)

-

[One Piece] (of course)

Undone by pkmntrainer_alex

After the entire family almost dies at WCI, Judge Vinsmoke orders the removal of his sons' emotional modifications in a bid to save his own skin in future endeavors. He doesn't stop to consider the ramifications of his 21-year-old sons finally, suddenly, being able to feel their human emotions in full - and their newfound ability to judge both themselves and him by their past actions.

(the vinsmoke family dynamics and the brothers trying to deal with 21 years of pent up emotions? they're trying?? so freaking hard to be functional people and they realize just how freaking amazing sanji is and that HE wasn't the failure in this family??? god, i've reread this fic so many times like an addict please read and suffer the feels with me. this is the one fic where i'm trying to patiently wait for an update. i'm just happy that this exists.)

Song of the Swords by authenticaussie

Wado is tiny when she first appears before him; her tears are as silver as her hair and the moonlight, and they gleam from within with golden fire as they pour down her cheeks.

Zoro’s heart fairly stops in his chest for a very, very long moment.

(personified swords au! introspective and fascinating and a character study of zoro and his relationship with his swords! really liked this!)

where the rims have ridges by Civillain

Everything everyone does is in their own self-interest.

"I like your hat," she calls out quietly.

And the change is instantaneous. He stops where he stands, a hand on his head and his knees still bent to take another step, and turns to look over his shoulder.

There's a moment of silence where he says nothing, just peering at her with squinted eyes, before: "Thanks!" he beams.

His smile is wide and unchecked, so wide that it might make his cheeks ache. He doesn't have laugh lines, but the way he smiles makes her imagine that he's spent his whole life grinning like that, warmly and brightly, so sincere and upfront that the breath gets punched right out her lungs.

Sometimes, there are people close to exceptions. But not quite.

20 years apart, and two people that don't make any sense.

(god, such a good outside pov look on luffy! luffy is such an unreadable character lots of times and it's so hard to pin down his characterization but this fic got it so right! made me fall for luffy all over again and realize just how incredible he is, as both a not-hero figure and main character! definitely recommend!)

those things beyond us by Civillain

There's something different about Luffy on nights like this, nights where there's soft rain and half-moons, and when the streets are quiet; no cars or trucks, only midnight joggers or early risers taking walks to the beach.

(Where Luffy and his friends have a relationship Sabo doesn't think he'll ever be able to understand.)

(honestly, i just love all of this author's one piece works. its a modern au where the straw hats are reincarnated and find each other all in sabo's pov. it's beautiful and this is how i would picture how the straw hats would fit in a modern au. nakamaship is the best ship, no questions needed. so so good!)

Magic Paint by 8ball

Luffy sticks his hands out.

“Paint mine!”

Usopp watches the expressions on Sanji’s face. He likes watching the obvious emotions go through him like a slideshow, and it's somehow comforting that he can see the exact moment Sanji decides that going along with Luffy will be the easiest choice. So Usopp waits for Sanji to test his own nails, deem them dry enough, unscrew the tiny brush top again, and then he asks if Sanji will do his, too. And because Sanji already has the brush ready, and they’re both right there anyways, Usopp knows he’s going to get what he wants.

or the au that came from nowhere where Sanji paints his nails and everyone elses and thats really it

(*screams* the pureness, the fluff, the nakamaship!! fneiwoapfe!! the best, sweetest headcanon ever! had the biggest grin on my face the whole time i was reading this! please please read!!!)

-

[Percy Jackson & the Olympians]

Stealing Shells by the Seashore by CaffeinatedFlumadiddle

Ship: Sally Jackson/Posiedon

Sally's eyes flicked between Poseidon and then the sea below. He could feel the understanding click.

"Oh, absolutely not-"

"It isn't that high!"

"Poseidon, I am not jumping off of this cliff! I'm not doing it. I won't, you can't make me, it's very high, I am not going to-"

"If my brother sees you here, he's going to assume that you're carrying my child."

"Ridiculous. I have much higher standards."

"I also have higher standards, but he isn't going to listen to us," Poseidon reasoned. The wind blew a bit harder, and Poseidon felt the sea rise with his anxiety. "I would use my powers to hide you, but he'll sense I've used them. You'll be fine," he tried, and Sally gave something of a skeptical laugh.

"Not happening."

The lightning grew closer. For the love of-

"In that case… I'm sorry," he said. Sally tilted her head suspiciously.

"Why are you-" she began but was cut off by Poseidon shoving her off the cliff's edge. He could hear a scream. It started loud and high before getting smaller and smaller. Finally, a splash followed.

Or

Sally and Poseidon spent one summer together… and most of it was them being on the run for a godly crime they didn't commit.

(THIS is the ONLY backstory i will ever accept regarding this ship for the REST OF MY LIFE. i binged this so freaking fast and i am in love with sally as much as posiedon is. percy jackson got his Everything from his mom you can't change my fucking mind. THIS FIC NEEDS MORE ATTENTION AND KUDOS! READ!!!)

Son of Sea Foam by CaffeinatedFlumadiddle

“She’ll never claim me,” he whispered. Silena shook her head, eyes wild as she looked around for anyone who could be watching.

“My mother doesn’t remember half of her children as it is,” she said with a note of bitterness. “If you do something to impress her, it won’t matter. Return the bolt in her name. She’ll claim you if you act the part. If you stay unclaimed then they'll figure out what you really are," she said, squeezing his hands tightly. Percy's heart sped up.

"I - I don't know the first thing about Aphrodite-"

"My mother was born of sea foam," Silena cut him off. "And if you're really who I think you are... you are the sea. You can pull this off," she said and touched his cheek. "Get the bolt. Survive," she said. Percy swallowed.

"What if I can't act the part?" He asked. Silena's expression went blank for a moment. Slowly, she slipped off her bracelet and placed it in his hands.

"If you're going to be one of us... you better learn."

Or

AU where Percy has to hide the fact he's a Big Three kid otherwise he'll be killed on the spot. Unfortunately for him, unclaimed kids tend to raise the most suspicion... but he might have found a loophole in the form Aphrodite.

(one of my current obsessions rn. my eyes are constantly glued on the screen because i want to devour more of this galaxy brained fic. this author just keeps on giving and i love them for it. also, SILENA IS AMAZING AND SHE'S GETTING THE ATTENTION SHE DESERVES HELL YEAH!)

-

[Haikyuu!!]

He Waits For a Miracle by ich_bin_ein_stern

Ship: Hinata/Kageyama

A minute ago, he was on the ground after he and the others were tackled by their happily weeping senpai.

They had just beat Shiratorizawa.

And now - "Kageyama-kun? Are you paying attention?" - he's trying not to freak out because he's surrounded by distantly familiar faces while wearing a school uniform he hasn't worn in almost a year.

(TIME TRAVEL TIME TRAVEL TIME TRAVEL *screams*)

-

[The Witcher] (seriously, all my rare fandoms somehow popped up this month)

the way fire holds by theundiagnosable

Ship: Geralt/Yennefer/Jaskier

“There’s a song there, somewhere, don’t you think?” Jaskier says. “‘A witcher, a sorcerer, and a human walk into a bar’…”

(ROLE REVERSAL FIC HECK YES!! Witcher!Yennefer, Mage!Jaskier, Human!Geralt is amazing omg. It all works out so damn well and the relationship between yennefer and jaskier makes me want to cry so much. Geralt is at peak himbo greatness and it's fantastic haha! Their dynamics are just *chefs kiss* so damn good.)

The Shape of You by lirulin

Ship: Geralt/Jaskier

Some people say it's old elven magic, a remnant from before the conjunction of the spheres. Other's will say it's the last fading vestiges of chaos as the modern era slowly drives all magic and wonder out of the world. Those people are, naturally, real killjoys whom Jaskier cannot envision loving anything, but that's fine. To each their own.

Soulmate Spiritual Animal AU

(you have no idea how much i laughed when reading this fic. no idea. jaskier makes me want to scream with how much of a himbo he is and geralt, for once, is not the complete idiot between these two though it's a close call, not gonna lie.)

to grow in adversity by Soulykins

Ship: Geralt/Jaskier, Renfri & Jaskier

“For you!” Julian cried, shoving a fistful of weeds in Renfri’s direction, his smile wide and carefree. Renfri carefully took them in her hands that were only shaking a little bit now, smearing red onto green stems and yellow petals.

Julian clambered into the bed beside her and crawled halfway onto her lap. “I got you flowers, ‘cause you’re so pretty like them!”

“These aren’t flowers, they’re weeds.” Renfri told him, rolling her eyes but allowing the contact with ease. Somedays it seemed like Julian was the only person in the entire castle who wasn’t afraid of her.

“They look like flowers.” He said, crinkling his nose.

“They’re dandelions,” Renfri informed her brother with a tiny smile, “They grow everywhere, even places they perhaps shouldn’t. That’s why they’re a weed.”

“Perhaps they’re a little like you,” She teased, “Growing in even the scariest of places with no fear.” Like a monster’s heart, she doesn’t say.

“Like a superpower!” Julian gasped.

Renfri separated one dandelion from the little clutch and reached out to tuck it behind a little ear. “For the stubborn hero, Jaskier.”

(this is THE fic that got me into the witcher fandom and i can't believe i never reced this before. renfri & jaskier's siblingship is so damn good and just, the amount of effort put into their backstory and relationship makes me want to cry sometimes. and yennefer, ohoho, yennefer is at her Best here, i love her in this fic and her relationship with these siblings! geralt both makes me want to punch him and hug him, which is the norm and totally understandable hahaha! seriously, one of the best witcher fics i've ever read, please please read!)

-

[Boku no Hero Academia]

Where your love has always been enough (for me) by classicequinox

Ship: Todorki Enji/Todorki Rei

It's a dark coil of anger deep in the pit of his stomach, reminding him that he was the root, the catalyst, the trigger for their family's downward spiral. It did happen - he reminds himself harshly. He can't forget that, even if time has actually reset itself.

Todoroki Enji gets a second chance. It's up to him to see what he can do with it.

(genuinely the most believable enji i've seen regarding how he deals with his past actions and trying to be better and rei being a complicated, good person who i can see matches well with enji. really well done characterization and slow building relationship that is believable to me. enji trying to change things in a meaningful, careful manner makes me want to root for him!)

Katsuki Bakugou Makes A Friend (And Also Almost Dies, But Whatever) by Sif (Rosae)

Katsuki Bakugou is eight years old, he has no idea how he got here, where he is, or who this other kid is with him, but that's not gonna stop him from being brave and tough, just like the hero he's gonna be when he's older!

The universe has other ideas, but Katsuki Bakugou is a child made of spite, hubris, determination, and way too much nitroglycerin, so the universe can take it's ideas and shove 'em. After all, nobody out-stubborns Katsuki. Nobody.

(KID BAKUGOU & KID SHIGARAKI FRIENDSHIP! BAKUGOU STOLE MY HEART! SO SMART, SUCH A HERO! I LAUGHED AND CRIED THROUGHOUT THIS FIC, MY HEART CAN'T TAKE THIS! LITTLE SHIGARAKI MAKES A FRIEND AND IT'S TOO CUTE!!! so freaking adorable, oh lord. fneiwofpweafe)

Play The Field by lalazee for Banna_Banana

Ship: Bakugou/Midoriya

Baseball and feelings, feelings and baseball. Turns out, Bakugou and Deku are both good and bad at the same things. They try to work on it.

(look, i don't even know man. i stumbled upon this baseball au fic and the characterization is so top notch!! the backstories and feelings you get from this matches bakugou and deku's canon relationship perfectly and i flew past this so fast, god. please give this a chance, it's fantastic!)

-

[Marvel]

Blips on the Record by ambivalentangst for Bean_reads_fanfic

Flash, let it be known, doesn’t like Peter. He’s too good at everything—infuriatingly so—and nobody ever calls him on his bullshit, like with AcaDec nationals. Flash has to put his all into everything he does for a fraction of the attention Peter gets for his bare minimum, and it pisses him off, to say the least, so sue him for looking for chances here and there to knock him down a peg.

However, when he notices, he shuts his entire operation down.

Maybe Peter has a decade on his age when he was in the thick of it, but Flash remembers what it was like. He gets having school be a safe place, and nobody, not even himself, is going to jeopardize that for Peter.

//

Flash Thompson’s story is not simple, Peter Parker can always use someone else in his corner, and secrets are had and protected by all.

(flash is fleshed out! flash is getting some Good Rep! flash doing his best and being grumpy but ultimately trying to help peter in what ways he could! flash being a complex character and making me love him all over again! flash! getting some actual freaking attention fewnifoapew! THANK YOU! seriously, if you're looking for an actual good flash fic that doesn't feel disingenuous, read this!)

people were mean to you, but I always thought you were cool by suzukiblu for beckyh2112

Fandoms: Avengers & X-men

“What are your feelings on the mutant threat?!” one of the reporters shouts, and Steve just looks at him.

“I think anyone threatening mutants should be stopped,” he says calmly, and the swarm of reporters explodes, a dozen camera flashes going off at once.

(not exaggerating when i say i've reread this fic so many times that it's honestly concerning. steve & cyclop's friendship here makes me so soft?? they're both leaders of their teams and steve not being what everyone expects of him is always a soft spot for me. will forever be addicted to this fic, please enjoy!)

#notmycap by missgoalie75

Fandom: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

In which Bucky fully embraces the 21st century and is a salty bitch on Twitter.

(nonono, you don't understand. you don't understand how much i howled and screamed in public while reading this, oh my GOD. honestly the funniest shit i've read in a VERY long time, bucky is Perfect here. fucking drag that guy you beautiful cranky soul. X'D)

#Fanfiction #AO3 #Fic Rec #Fic Rec List #Bleach #Gintama #One Piece #Percy Jackson & the Olympians #Haikyuu!! #The Witcher #Boku no Hero Academia #Marvel #The Falcon and the Winter Soldier #X-men