Crystal is such a fantastic character bc shes missing her memories and one of the first things she does is try to be mean to Charles, who is just so delighted by her anyway, and when she realizes that she might have been disliked before, she kinda of just starts over.
and she starts off being by being so kind by demanding they help a girl half way around the world, and they oblige. and then! she wipes the girl's memory of the house so she'll never have to suffer the nightmares the way Crystal does.
she's working through some shit, but every time she comes out the other side having tried to be a better person and trying to help her friends and correct mistakes.
and when she finds out who she is? she is horrified by what she sees and wants nothing more than to get away from that. and she still thinks she's a horrible person bc of what she's done and how her parents react to her calling them. she doesn't realize that you're not your past actions, and just bc she was awful then does not mean she has to continue to be that way.
she wants away from charles and edwin and niko bc she doesn't want them to know her like that. even tho they've never known her like that, and they never will, bc Crystal has changed so much as her time as an amnesiac and she is constantly trying to be a better person.
anyway stan Crystal, she wants to be kind, and her journey from being a bitch to being That Bitch is so fantastic, I can't wait to see what she does next
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i see a lot of opinions around, about death, and why she didn't intervene in dream's imprisonment
and i think a lot of people have trouble reconciling the idea that she does care about him, with the fact that she didn't do anything?
so then you get the theories that she couldn't have saved him (as if burgess was ever a match for the endless, he only got dream because dream was still recovering from burning out 99% of his power in overture), or that she was stuck by the rules of the endless not interfering with each other (that's a whole other convoluted discussion topic)
but i feel like these theories all kinda. misread, who death is. or rather, they sort of assume she's a human being with the same mentality as a human, and not the literal personification of death
of course she cares about her brother. and of course she technically had the power to intervene. but think about her existence. think about the way in which she knows everyone, the life she's lived for billions of years, and the life she knows she'll live until she's the last consciousness left in the universe
she's an inherently passive entity, she has to be. because her entire purpose is to stand there for the end of every life in existence, often horrific and violent and unfair ones, and to tell them that's just the way of things. to ensure that that fate does indeed come to pass. she knows how everyone is going to die and she just has to keep talking to them like she doesn't
when she was younger, it was different. granted, she refused to help dream then too, because (at least according to dream) all the endless were incredibly prideful when they were young, and wouldn't even have tried to help each other. but also, we have her word that at one point her job got overwhelming. the fact that she had to stand by and watch so much tragedy, to ensure it happened, really got to her. and for a while, she stopped. one of the few times if not the only time she has ever made a strong decision in the face of fate - she stopped collecting souls. and that turned out much worse. in order to exist as herself, she had to find a way to not only be okay with who she is, but find meaning in it. the person who would get involved, who would stand up against unfairness, that person cannot be death of the endless
and think about death as a concept, for a sec, not just as a person. death is patient. death will come for everyone in time, but time is meaningless to it. i like this panel, from endless nights, for connecting that with death the person, because she is always there and always waiting (in this story she waits here for anywhere between 10 and 200 years, depending on how you look at it. and she explains in this story that time doesn't really work the same to her as it does to everyone else. time is her father, after all. she can wait. she will always wait.)
even when she takes human form, like we see in high cost of living, she is the epitome of go with the flow. she just follows where the universe takes her, doesn't try to change anything, just lets her curiosity and love for humanity put her in whatever situation fate decided she should be. and fate (whether that's her brother, the fates, or something else entirely) does play some role in it, because her human form was created with $10.02 in her pocket, which is the exact amount of money she ended up needing to spend that day. and she trusts that she won't need more than that, no matter how many questions are thrown at her about it
which is not an inherently bad thing! because living in the moment means she is so much more alive than her siblings, it gives her the ability to offer so much more empathy towards the mortals she has to spend most of her time with, it makes her in many ways a wonderful person. she's just, not a person of action
death doesn't show she cares by stopping the bad things from happening to you. she shows she cares by being there for you after. by having the patience, despite her busy job, to sit and chat with every single person who's ever lived, and to comfort them in the best way she knows how
which is exactly what she did
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OK let's talk about parallels between team 7 and team gai.
Lee and Sakura, who dreamed of being strong enough to stand on equal ground with the rest of their team. Book-smart Sakura and no-talent Lee, who were seen as liabilities to their teammates in their genin years. Lee and Sakura who wake up every morning to train to their limits and then further still, who train their taijutsu to the point that they can shatter rocks with their pinkies. Lee and Sakura who know hard work better than anyone in the world.
Tenten and Naruto, who dream of being somebody in the world. Tenten and Naruto striving to learn more and more and more just so that others see them as useful and worth something. Tenten and Naruto who desperately yearn to be appreciated by their peers. Naruto, who everyone hates, and Tenten, who nobody knows, admiring a Hokage and wanting to be legendary and loved like they are. Tenten and Naruto who work tirelessly for the hope that one day they will be acknowledged and respected.
Neji and Sasuke, who bear the weight of a clan name on their shoulders and a destiny forced on them because of their eyes. Neji and Sasuke who rage against a system that forces them down and keeps them trapped. Neji and Sasuke whose own family betrayed them at such a young age. Neji and Sasuke whose love for their sibling soured and turned to hatred for a time. Neji and Sasuke, who, despite it all, still take pride in the names Hyuuga and Uchiha.
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i want eiffel and minkowski to go camping together so bad, like i know minkowski loves camping. eiffel loves the idea of saying he's going camping. eiffel loves the romanticized pop culture version of camping he imagines in his brain, where he gets to listen to music by the fire and eat smores. eiffel wants to feel like a rugged outdoorsman but, like, with access to modern comforts.
minkowski is actually outdoorsy and likes some challenge, so to her "camping" means long hikes and roughing it as off-the-grid as she can justify. eiffel cannot be taken off grid. eiffel's favorite outdoor hobby is handing someone one of his handmade walkie talkies and being like, okay, stay here, i'm going to drive in that direction and see how far i can radio you from. eiffel is out there building stuff out of their camping equipment to see if he can pick up signals. but when he's actually supposed to set up his tent, he can not do it. maybe he lost some of the parts along the way, but he keeps making it worse, and even minkowski can't salvage it. then it starts pouring rain on them, because of course it does.
eiffel sleeps in the truck and cramps his neck up so badly, and when he wakes up minkowski gives him black coffee and trail mix for breakfast and he looks at it so despondently that she's like ugh, fine, nevermind. and they give up and get breakfast at denny's and go home. and eiffel is like oh thank god, hot water, indoor plumbing, my own bed, i'll never take this for granted again <- guy who spent literally one night in the woods, and also years stranded in space.
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