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phantoms-lair · 1 month

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Izuku 1/2 - better name pending -Snip

"You haven't used your quirk." Izuku looked up from the snack he got at the vendors. "The first two events of the Sports Festival are over." Todoroki stated. "You could have handled the obstacle course with ease with your wings, no one would have been able to touch you. Instead you handicapped yourself."

"This is not a criticism I need to hear from someone who's only been using half their quirk the entire year." Izuku pointed out.

"It's not a criticism, I just wanted to know if...if we're doing it for the same reason." There was an edge of desperation in his voice. An almost need that somebody would understand.

"It's not just that I'm not using it." Izuku unscrewed the the cap of his water and pour some on his exposed arm, where it beaded up unnaturally. "I've made it so I can't. There was a time when these water-based transformation quirks were a lot more common, so they developed a type of waterproof soap to prevent accidents." "Why?' Todoroki breathed.

"Because," Izuku seemed to falter for a second before steeling himself. "I love my quirk. I love how useful it can be in being a hero. But I am NOT my quirk. My potential, my capacity to help, to grow, to achieve, those things are me and not a magical transformation. So many people see a hero and their potential as as nothing more than their quirk and they're wrong." Izuku ended his impromptu speech with a snarl.

Todoroki sat down hard. Blood pounded in his ears as Midoriya's words repeated themselves again and again in his ears I am not my quirk.

Because his quirk was all he'd even been. He'd been born for it, his siblings had been born in their attempts to make what would be his quirk. His childhood, his training, everything he'd ever been was because of his quirk, and the bastard that gave him half of it.

I am not my quirk

They're wrong

"Todoroki, are you okay?"

"Do you really believe there's more to me than my quirk?"

Izuku was quiet for a moment. "Todoroki, who do I need to have Sensei beat up?"

Sheer confusion brought him back to his sense for a bit. "What?" "If I beat them up I'm going to get expelled. Sensei, he -he really doesn't care." "He doesn't care about going toe to toe with the number 2 pro hero?" Todoroki asked skeptically. To his surprise, Midoriya grinned. "Well, the last pro hero was a hugely disappointing fight, so this would probably be a treat."

"Who was the last hero?"

"Not gonna name names, but someone who thought me being quirkless meant I should be abused and be thankful for the opportunity to serve my betters."

That was sick. "I hope your Sensei kicked his ass." Izuku grinned. It wasn't a nice grin. "He did." Then his grin faltered. "I was a late bloomer. Eight years old." "Did things get better?" Todoraki asked. "Almost immediately." Izuku said bitterly. "But that was almost worse because, things didn't really change, I just wasn't someone less evolved, so how they treated me was wrong. But...that's not why it was wrong and the next quirkless person or person with an unactivated quirk would be treated just how I was. So I want to change the idea that quirks are what's important. I'm going to do my best to win the sports festival quirkless. I'll show everyone just what the quirkless can do!"

Todoroki's hands gripped his knees. "My father, Endeavor - the number two hero. He bought my mother because he wanted her quirk. He wanted to create a strong enough quirk to unseat All Might. It took him four tries to succeed. He doesn't really care about my siblings, just me - his masterpiece." "And your mother?" Izuku was almost afraid to ask.

"She's been in a mental hospital since I was small."

"Consider his ass kicked." Izuku took a swing of his water. "Todoroki...I completely support you not using your fire today, but you're going to have to use it in hero work eventually. So," Izuku grinned. "How would you feel about using it in a way impossible for Endeavor?"

"Impossible for Endeavor?" Todoroki tilted his head like a confused cat. "For all his faults as a human being, he's a master of the flame."

Izuku snorted. "Master? His abilities are no fire, yes fire, and unreasonable amount of fire. What I'm talking about is being a rescue hero."

Todoroki let out a small laugh at Izuku's description of Endeavor's capabilities. The first Izuku had ever heard him make. "What do you mean a rescue hero? I'm clearly most suited for combat."

"And according to the people growing up the only thing I was suitable for was a training tool for actual quirked people to practice their quirks on, so fuck was people say we're 'suited' for'." Izuku paled. "Please don't tell my Mom I said that. But your quirk would be perfect for rescue work."

"How so?"

"You can make fire at will. You could keep people warm in an avalanche - and your ice could do the opposite in an overheating situation. You could be light in a cave in or night rescue. You could combine your fire and ice to make fresh water, or use your fire to cook. Your ice could act as supports to prevent further collapse, kind of like Rock Lock's quirk. You would be an AMAZING rescue hero. And all of it would be using both sides of your quirk to help and comfort rather than just attack. And that's kinda of what I meant by something Endeavor wasn't capable of. He's sort of a combat monster, for a given value, but that's all he is."

That was...that was a lot of things no one had ever told him before. He was told since his quirk appeared that he was going to be the best hero, and to do that he needed to take down villains. But to Midoriya, he had potential outside of combat. To help those that needed it the most without causing harm. That the fire he hated so much could be used as a gentle warmth.

Midoriya was right. That was impossible for his father.

"A rescue hero. I...I think I like that. Thank you for you guidance."

"We both have something to prove." Midoriya he'd out his water bottle like a toast. "Let's mess with their conceptions."

Todoroki grinned and tapped his own water bottle to Midoriya's. "Let's"

"Your sensei is BATTLE GRANNY!!!!!!!"

#BnHA #Ranma 1/2 #Ghost Writing #For anyone just tuning in Izuku's 'quirk' is a jusenkyo curse #He cursed himself on purpose but the how quickly people started treating him better once he was quirked left a lot of resentment in him #Also Ranma's been his martial arts sensei since he was eight #That had some influence on him #Also I see a lot of fics where Todoroki not using his fire is viewed as insulting to the other competitors #when it's very much a 'this isn't about them'#Like his coping methods are not healthy and hes literally hurting himself giving himself frostbite #But what he needs is help #not condemnation #Izuku's redirecting his views from fire=Endeavor to fire=rescue

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dyketennant · 2 months

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as someone who has obviously done extensive research on the topic i would like to present to you all...dyketennant's "which david tennant character are you" uquiz

#it's almost 3am now and i started this at around 10-11pm i think so if this sucks. im sorry #also before you say 'what about x character' listen there's only so many i can add you guys #12 was the easiest number for me to work with i had to make some choices #yes i was influenced by my own bias that's inevitable #toyed with the idea of adding kilgrave but could not stomach the guilt of anyone actually getting him as their result #david tennant #good omens #doctor who #blackpool #takin over the asylum #bbc staged #around the world in 80 days #hamlet 2009 #fright night 2011 #broadchurch #la without a map #queues to watch out for

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bloodsbane · 4 days

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what i love about laios is that he's actually very good at putting puzzle pieces together BUT HERE'S THE THING 1) he needs to HAVE the information, and 2) (this is important) he needs to KNOW it is information he should care about

and i think this could be said of anyone but the thing with laios is that people tend to view his lack of awareness wrt social etiquette and memory problems as pure indifference and/or obliviousness; sometimes they misinterpret his motives based on their inaccurate expectations of him and therefore don't give his thoughts on a subject the credit he deserves

one of the most obvious examples of this happens at least twice in the manga as i remember it, but the most recent incident was when they were trying to resurrect falin. there's a moment where laios mentions reconstructing both of the warg skeletons, as their bones are mixed in with hers. both chilchuck and senshi balk at this, with chilchuck complaining aloud, questioning laios' priorities,

and laios quickly, angrily retorts. his reason for making the suggestion is perfectly logical and practical, but because his friends are used to his interest in monsters influencing his judgement, often in ways they see as frivolous or dangerous, they don't come to the same conclusion. one which i'd argue is kind of obvious considering the situation

we see it again during his fight with toshiro, where toshiro demands to know what laios plans to do to save falin. laios takes a minute to answer, but he DOES answer, following the logic that if falin is a chimera because of (and controlled by) the mad mage, then the logical next step is to confront/defeat/usurp them

then in the following episode, when chilchuck brings it up again, laios explains what he (now) knows about thistle, mentioning that he's the same elf that laios saw in the living paintings, which is why he knows thistle's connection to delgal. the party reacts like this:

i'd say this is an example of them feeling frustration over laios' habit of having 'bad timing', not knowing when or how to speak at appropriate moments. theyre judging him for not saying something earlier, as if he already knew all this but didn't think to mention it when it was relevant, when the reality is that laios only just now had all the pieces he needed to understand the full picture

and i mention this bit specifically because i think it's a great way to explain what i mean by point 2: laios needs to know when information is important and worth considering

which, again, feels fucking obvious. but as someone who ALSO has debilitating issues with remembering important shit, i find this particular element of it pretty relatable and critical to my overall point. it's not laios' fault that he didn't know who thistle was or his significance - why the hell would he assume that a person he met in a living painting, presumably long since dead in reality, should be someone who's face, name, or motives he keeps in mind?

ultimately, i guess what i'm trying to say with all this is that the way others treat laios' intelligence is not congruent to how actually smart he is. one of the things i love most about laios, what is possibly his biggest strength and the reason he is such a great protagonist, is that laios is willing to think things through and find the most logical conclusion to a problem, no matter how outlandish or dangerous or seemingly impossible that conclusion may be. sister got eaten? race back down to go get her. can't afford food? fight, defeat, and eat dangerous monsters. sister's fully digested? use black magic to bring her back. now she's a chimera? defeat the mage controlling her and use that power to fix it.

anyways. what was even my point with this post? i guess it is that laios is smart, at least as smart as anyone else in the cast, arguably smarter than some. he is intelligent and utilizes that intelligence in many ways, not JUST when it comes to monster info (though that is his best and sexiest brand of knowledge)

and also please be nice to your friends with memory problems. it's rough out here for forgetful bitches

#banebabbles #dungeon meshi #dunmeshi meta #cant remember if that's my tag for it. oh well #this post is kinda messy but it's fine it doesn't matter #i just had to express some thoughts after rewatching some eps w partner #i was fumbling w my closer but i guess it really is just that like #i have a lot of feelings about anyone calling laios dumb or dense or totally oblivious #bc he's not. he just doesn't think The Same Way as the other chars and also #is at a DISADVANTAGE. bc of the AUTISM. can you believe it #he gets taken for granted and others' perceptions of him influence how they treat him in lots of way #including his intelligence. unfortunately. and you hate to see it

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cinnamonsikwate · 3 months

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"why couldn't shuro have just been honest about what he felt with laios and falin it's not that hard" are you. are you White

#dungeon meshi #shuro #toshiro nakamoto #look you can hate him for other things but this is very clearly a case of cultures (& personalities influenced by these cultures) clashing #shuro is japanese/east asian-coded and laios is european white boy #i am not japanese but i also come from a collectivistic society #pakikisama is a filipino value both prized and abhorred #it relies heavily on being able to read social cues and prior knowledge of societal norms #shuro being from a different country/culture is important to his character #his repressed nature is meant to contrast with laios' open one like that's the point #they both had similar upbringings but different coping mechanisms #shuro explicitly admits that he's jealous of laios being able to live life sincerely #anyway the point is they were operating on different expectations entirely and neither had healthy enough communication skills #to hash things out before they got too bad #re his attraction to falin i personally believe he unfortunately mpdg-ed her #she represented something new & different. a fresh drink of water for his parched repressed self #alas not meant to be #i'll be honest the way ryoko kui handles both fantasy & regular racism in dm is more miss than hit for me #i don't doubt that a lot of the shuro hate is based off of marcille's pov of him #marcille famously racist 😭#characters' racist views don't often get (too) challenged #practically everyone is casually racist at some point #anyway. again if you're gonna hate shuro at least hate him for being complicit in human trafficking & slavery #he couldn't help falling for the wrong woman goddamn 😭#calemonsito notes #edit: upon further reflection i take back what i said about toshiro mpdg-ing falin!#i'm sorry toshiro 😭

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bruhstation · 3 months

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can't it even be more obvious thomas. why are you surprised that a sudrian historical site filled to the brim with armor and weaponry that dates back to the middle ages has old people afflicted with the gold dust working around the castle

#thomas the tank engine #thomas and friends #ttte glynn #ttte millie #ttte stephen #casa tidmouth #senjart #MORE OF LADY'S EXPERIMENTS GONE WRONG #WHO UP ULFSTEADING THEIR CASTLE #stuff for the kotr arc of casa tidmouth. now this is where gold dust has historical significance #going crazy right now. my friends are influencing me #I had 12 tabs opened just to draw young glynn's armor. they dont have plated armory in the 10th century!!!! only mails!!!!!!#(looking at you KOTR intro)#I remember reading some inputs on my 1k milestone poll and saw someone put ''the misery of growing old'' and honestly. Checks out #glynn's eyes are goldish brown because well. that's the perks of being the first bearer of the gold dust horrors #lady during 989 AD do not know anything about human thoughts and ethics and emotions. she was literally freestyling that!!!!!#Oh a wounded soldier on the verge of death. what if I *dumps 200 kg of gold dust on him* yeah that'll do the trick.#then she saw how glynn aged so so slowly and went Oh well I messed up. Good thing there are lots of other sudrians here #funny coincidence that young cstm glynn's helmet resembles canon glynn's funnel #I wanted to make millie's design resemble a tour guide more with her scarf and more stylish than usual tie #shes so pretty. I'm so proud of her design #(AND I REALIZED TOO LATE THAT HER TIE HAS THE COLORS OF THE FRENCH FLAG)#<--- said the guy who has beef with the french #stephen's crown is translated to a hat decor! was about to draw a top hat but whatever just imagine he has a collection of various hats #that he can put his crown on #also I want to give him that cool hip-with-the-kids I-am-still-young-at-heart energy #sir robert norramby is balling in the background.#hope you enjoy..... won't be able to draw as much from now on but I'm excited #also whos ready for old man yaoi........... 2!!!!!!

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worstloki · 1 month

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there is a difference between being born to a throne, maliciously vying for a throne, stealing a throne, and having a throne thrust upon you when you are already in the midst of an identity crisis. And I fear Loki's place in the line of succession has people unable to differentiate between any of these

#you can't really argue he planned the extent of Thor's downfall #that was all Odin #Loki didn't force Thor to invade Jotunheim he isn't even the one who gave Thor the idea -- Thor did that all on his own!#that he was doing waswasa @ thor didn't help but wasn't really crime worthy on its own #Thor himself took time convincing the other warriors to be okay with the trip despite the treason and danger involved #like. what. Thor can't differentiate good advice from bad and is emotionally volatile and reckless and that's Loki's fault?#THOR was the one who got them past Heimdall too #the entire ordeal inadvertently showed off the favouritism Thor was receiving in comparison to Loki #even though Loki was the one supposedly so easily influencing Thor to such an extent #call Thor a puppet the way he--wait. no. that sounds weird. uhhhhh #you get the point #people will claim Loki was all up in there rearranging Thor's mental processes to cause his downfall #when really it was Loki doing the bare minimum instigation and watching things only devolve from there #because Thor WAS reckless and immature ?? and he WAS quick to anger and enjoyed exerting his power with violence ??#Loki didn't STEAL THE THRONE FROM THOR he literally just is implied to undermine the coronation #that's not even confirmed but we assume it's true that he let the frost giants in near the casket etc.#Loki has his own actual crimes that he did against Thor and hugging his bro's arm and saying 'you're soooooo strong and correct' was not on #even if you manage to argue Loki was cheering Thor on for the invasion (he wasn't) it was clearly to dob Thor in with Odin #which he did when he had some guard inform Odin #that Odin's chosen punishment was for Thor's disobedience aside stop blaming Loki for the damage ODIN inflicted on him #focus on Loki making up lies to Thor about how Odin died instead like at least Loki DID SOMETHING for that #you can even ascribe as evil a motive as you want there bc Loki was slipping fr #twirling his hair and telling Thor he's smarter about the realm's safety than the king was on the normal scale #you want to talk morals go look at how eager Thor was to invade mass destroy and massacre in the other realm #and expected Odin to 'finish them off! together!' bc he was power high on whatever bloodlust pheromones battle apparently imitates for him #sigh. this is why you can't have nice things Thor. no Loki you're barely any better. sit down. have a cookie.

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hephaestuscrew · 10 months

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"With a goddamn harpoon": The significance of Minkowski's weapon of choice within the narrative and characterisation of Wolf 359

TL;DR: Despite its initial comic role, the harpoon becomes a important symbol of Minkowski as a character; it is particularly associated with her desperate need for control, her desire to keep her crew safe, her stubborn determination, and her occasional unpredictability. These associations add to the narrative significance when Minkowski kills Cutter with the harpoon.

[Tagging people who said they wanted to be tagged: @browncoatparadox @captain-lovelace @goblincaveofvibes ]

~~~

Ep21 Minkowski Commanding

First appearance

We first encounter the harpoon in Minkowski Commanding, which is a significant episode for Minkowski's characterisation because it's the first big departure from Eiffel's point-of-view into Minkowski's. It's arguably the most Minkowski-centred episode in the whole show, so it stands out when we think about her as a character.

EIFFEL (over comm) Um, Minkowski? Why is the armory wide open, and also, apparently, robbed? Where's the tactical knives kit? MINKOWSKI Don't worry. I've got that. EIFFEL Oh. And the M4 carbine? The, like, really-dangerous-in-space, select-fire M4 carbine? MINKOWSKI Yeah, I've got that too. EIFFEL And this empty rack I'm looking at right now with a label that says "harpoon" suggests that... MINKOWSKI Yes. I have it, Eiffel.

The harpoon is introduced as part of a list of over-the-top weapons that Minkowski takes on her plant-monster-hunting mission. It's initially just a funny moment to emphasise how seriously she's taking this mission. The weapons arguably increase in unlikeliness as Eiffel lists them, and it's a comic image to think of Eiffel deducing the situation from the empty rack labeled 'harpoon'. It could have been an entirely throw-away joke that was never brought up again. The M4 carbine never comes up again. The tactical knives kit is mentioned in Knock, Knock, but not in a plot-significant or symbolic way.

'Goddamn harpoon' speech

So why does the harpoon become such an iconic part of Minkowski's brand (and I'm pretty certain it was seen as significant by fans long before the finale)? It's got to be because of the next time it's mentioned, when Minkowski talks to the plant monster in the same episode:

MINKOWSKI (getting psyched up) You wanna play with me, huh? You wanna run rings around me? The joyless, boring, predictable old Minkowski? She can't stop you, right? Not someone as smart and powerful as you. You've got her pegged. Good. Get complacent. Get smug. That's right when you'll find me waiting for you. With a goddamn harpoon.

There's so much to say about this speech and what it reveals her character. For one thing, it's all projection - we have no real indication of what (if anything) the plant monster thinks of Minkowski. We don't even really know how much understanding it has when listening to her talk. She imagines that this silent adversary would call her "joyless, boring, predictable". I suspect that these are all things that she's been called a fair bit in the past. (To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if they are all things that Eiffel called her at one point.)

But the harpoon is proof against - if not the accusation of joylessness - the idea that Minkowski is boring and predictable. Boring and predictable people don't opt for a harpoon for fighting on a spaceship when plenty of more conventional weapons available. A harpoon is unexpected, and there's a kind of power in that.

Another interesting thing about that speech is that the whole thing would make at least as much sense - if not more - if it was directed at Cutter. In Sarah Shachat's episode commentary on Minkowski Commanding (part of the bonus material available to buy here), she says that Minkowski "is really speaking to Cutter in this moment". It's made clear that Minkowski's behaviour in Minkowski Commanding is not just about the plant monster itself. She tells Eiffel, "I have to take it seriously! If I can eliminate one threat, just one, then we are that much closer to going home!"

The specifics of the plant monster's location, abilities, and origin are mysterious, but - unlike many of the other forces threatening the safety of Minkowski's crew - it is at least tangible and harpoon-able and not light years away. Hunting the plant monster is a way for Minkowski to assert control when so much is outside of her control. It's an attempt to demonstrate that she is - as she puts it - "in charge of this disaster". Minkowski treats the plant monster as a physical symbol of all the threats her crew are facing, and so the harpoon becomes a physical symbol of her fierce (if sometimes misguided) determination to take control of the situation and fight back against those threats to protect her crew.

The line "you'll find me waiting for you. With a goddamn harpoon" is one that sticks in the mind, especially since - with one notable exception - 'goddamn' is about as potent as swearwords get on this show. And it's the harpoon that she uses to give specificity to the threat.

Absurdity

A harpoon is powerful and threatening, which is exactly what Minkowski is trying to convey to the plant monster, but in this context - not only on dry land but on a spaceship - it's also kind of absurd. From the way we hear it fire in the finale, we can tell that it's more like a speargun than a hand-thrown harpoon spear, but it's still an out-of-place weapon for space-based combat. Minkowski's already been shown to have a penchant for archaic weaponry, after her drunken enthusiasm over the cannon during the talent show incident, which is largely played for laughs. Similarly, in the episode commentary for Minkowski Commanding, Sarah Shachat says that the harpoon was introduced mostly just because it was funny; "[including a harpoon] was me sort of embracing the Moby Dick of it all. And I had no idea at the time how much importance that silly harpoon would take on."

Eiffel makes a Moby Dick reference himself ("10 days of Captain Ahab's Space Walkabout"). I haven't read Moby Dick so I can't properly analyse the significance of this reference, but the initial prominence of the harpoon (traditionally a whaling tool) enables that connection. It feels like a good example of the classic Wolf 359 thing where something comedic has the potential to take on a deeper significance. It conjures an image of Minkowski as a Captain with the potential to be consumed by a single-minded mission to destroy... A potential that she resists in the conclusion to Minkowski Commanding when she chooses to leave the plant monster alone. The harpoon also fits with the sprinkling of nautical imagery and language in Wolf 359 (e.g. the repeated use of the word 'boat'), as well as the retro-futuristic feel of the Hephaestus.

We never learn why there's a harpoon on the Hephaestus. It seems like yet another of those bizarre unexplained quirks of the station, like the items in the storage room where Eiffel finds Box 953. Even when the weird mysterious features of the Hephaestus are depicted in a comedic way, these features are still a demonstration of the fact that the characters are in an environment that they don't understand and that their surroundings have been shaped according to the whims of Command.

I think we can assume none of the members of the Hephaestus crew brought a harpoon up with them. For whatever reason, someone at Goddard Futuristics must have decided to put a harpoon in that armory. Like most things in the crew's lives, the harpoon is owned by Goddard Futuristics. So the way Minkowski uses the harpoon could be seen as an instance of reclaiming something from Goddard and their control over her surroundings (in a similar way to how her crew are able to utilise the maze-like structure of the Hephaestus to their advantage when hiding first from the SI-5 and later from Cutter and the crew of the Sol).

Other mentions of the harpoon

The harpoon doesn't actually make another physical appearance until the finale, when it truly comes into its own. But there are a couple of little hints before then that it has become a part of Minkowski's brand amongst the other characters as well as to the listeners. These mentions remind the listener about the harpoon, so we don't forget about it before its big comeback in the finale.

Ep27 Knock, Knock

EIFFEL [to Minkowski] Like getting rid of all the weapons, for a start. We should gather up all the guns, the tactical knives, your harpoon. Put it all in the arms locker, seal that sucker up, and put the key in one of Hera's service canisters.

In this quote, Eiffel refers to it as "your harpoon" - the only weapon he ascribes ownership to here. He sees it as something she's laid claim to. He also thinks the harpoon is worth mentioning specifically, which suggests that he thinks that Minkowski would reach for it first if she was feeling particularly violent. This reinforces the idea that the harpoon has become a symbol of Minkowski's character. This connection is also strengthened by the fact that the harpoon is also never mentioned in relation to anyone other than Minkowski using it.

Ep45 Desperate Measures

LOVELACE [to Kepler] Yeah, right. Nobody knows this station like Alexander Hilbert. He knows every nook, cranny, hidden room - everything. And as back up he's got the only woman's who's ever turned outer space monster hunting into a recreational sport. You'll never see them coming... until all of a sudden there's a harpoon in your face, and you end up on the operating table of the finest medical sadist that Goddard Futuristics ever produced.

Lovelace mentions the harpoon and specifically refers to Minkowski's plant-hunting exploits, even though she didn't witness them. So we know that someone has told her that story. And what she's taken away from hearing the story is an emphasis on Minkowski's harpoon and an admiration for her determination. I don't think Minkowski was the one to tell Lovelace about her plant-monster-hunting mission, because I don't think she's necessarily proud of it. I suspect it was Eiffel who told her - he's the most natural storyteller of the group. In Mutually Assured Destruction, soon after meeting Lovelace for the first time, he says "Nobody's told you about the Plant Monster yet? So, funny story..." And I believe Eiffel would have told the story of Minkowski's plant monster hunt in a way that conveyed both the ridiculousness of her behaviour but also a kind of awe at her boldness and persistence.

The tone of "all of a sudden there's a harpoon in your face" is pretty similar to "That's right when you'll find me waiting for you. With a goddamn harpoon". Once again, the harpoon is portrayed as something that the Hephaestus crew's adversary won't expect, something that will play a key role in that adversary's defeat. You might almost think something was being foreshadowed here…

Characterisation through Weaponry

When we think of the harpoon as a symbol of Minkowski as a character, it seems worth drawing a comparison with the only other Wolf 359 character who I think has a form of weaponry as a big part of their brand: Jacobi and his explosives. While a harpoon certainly has a lot of potential for violence (a potential which Minkowski utilises), it is targeted and intentional in a way that bombs don't tend to be. It's harder to have collateral damage with a harpoon, and I think that reflects a difference between Minkowski and Jacobi's approach to conflict.

A harpoon isn't really designed for combat - it's for hunting whales and other marine animals. It feels significant that Minkowski's key weapon of choice - the one she threatens the plant monster with and kills Cutter with - isn't the weapon of a soldier. She took an assault rifle with her to hunt the plant monster, but that wasn't the weapon she held onto. She's not a natural soldier, even if she'd sometimes like to think she is.

Maxwell's Death

When Minkowski kills Maxwell, it's with a gun, not a harpoon. She's trying to be a soldier there. She's trying to do what she has to. I don't know much about how a harpoon is fired, but I've a feeling that there's less uncertainty about whether a harpoon was fired deliberately than a gun; the ambiguity around Minkowski's agency in Maxwell's death is a key part of the story that wouldn't work with a harpoon. But perhaps more importantly, I don't think there's meant to be a sense of victory or relief in Maxwell's death, unlike Cutter's. The harpoon - as a weapon that has become strongly identified with Minkowski as a character - is saved for moments when Minkowski is asserting her power in an active way that she isn't conflicted about.

Ep61 Brave New World

About a third of the way into the finale, there's another indirect mention of the harpoon:

RACHEL Y-yes, sir… Umm, we also picked up some chatter on their weaponry supplies… Firearms, explosives, something about a harpoon…

This is a nice little reference which reminds the listener of the harpoon in anticipation of its big moment later on in this episode, while once again playing with its incongruity in a list of more typical combat weapons. Given that Minkowski and co. have guessed that they are being listened in on here, their choice to talk about the harpoon might be seen as their way of having a bit of fun, or it might be seen as their way to imply the same threat that Minkowski made to the plant monster. Cutter had warning, but he didn't heed it.

Which brings us, of course, to the harpoon's most significant moment:

Cutter frowns. Then he hears it: CLA-CLUNK! His eyes widen. MINKOWSKI Let's see you catch this. FWUUUMP! An ENORMOUS THING IS SHOT. A moment later, Cutter COLLIDES AGAINST THE WALL, IMPALED. MR. CUTTER ... a... harpoon? That's not... how this is... supposed... to... He struggles for a few more moments...and then he stops.

This scene is a classic instance of Wolf 359 utilizing the audio medium to leave a significant element of the situation unknown to the listener until the right moment. We don't know that Minkowski is carrying the harpoon. We don't know that she's readying it as Lovelace talks. When we hear something fire, there's a moment where a listener might or might not have realised exactly what just fired. It's Cutter who delivers the glorious revelation. It gives the moment an additional burst of triumph that Cutter's final words are an expression of shock, not just that he has been defeated but at the weapon with which the killing blow was struck.

Human unpredictability

It's not just that Minkowski kills Cutter with a harpoon; it's also that she wouldn't have been able to kill him without it. He can catch bullets after all, so Minkowski and Lovelace's guns are basically useless. Cutter thinks he's therefore invincible, but he hasn't accounted for the possibility that Minkowski might have a less conventional weapon on hand, one which fires larger projectiles that he can't catch so easily. The fact that she's carrying an unexpected weapon - a weapon that might have seemed ridiculous - is what allows her to defeat Cutter and therefore to survive.

It's a repeated theme in Wolf 359 that the protagonists' strength is not that they are the most powerful or they behave in the most logical ways, but that they are complicated and human and unpredictable and very much themselves - all of the things that Cutter and Pryce don't want in their 'ideal humanity'. When Minkowski kills Cutter with the harpoon, it's a victory for human unpredictability and individual idiosyncrasies.

Making good on her promise

Thinking back to Minkowski Commanding, we can see that the threat Minkowski made to the plant monster absolutely came true with Cutter. He got complacent. He got smug. (I'd argue that smugness has always been one of his key attributes.) And he found her waiting for him, with a goddamn harpoon. The return of the harpoon for this moment suggests the defeat of Cutter is a culmination of some of the motivations and traits that Minkowski showed when hunting the plant monster, now channeled in a more suitable direction. She continued trying to get them "that much closer to going home". Her - sometimes absurd - determination provides a throughline from an episode that was mostly comedic (Minkowski Commanding) to a dramatic emotionally powerful finale. As Sarah Shachat put it in her audio commentary, Minkowski "makes good on her promise [that she makes in her harpoon speech in Minkowski Commanding]. That's why she's a hero."

It's significant that Cutter dies from an unlikely weapon that is so strongly identified with Minkowski. It makes that moment feel like truly hers (although she is of course right that she couldn't have done it without Lovelace - that's called being part of a crew).

As the Commander, it feels apt that Minkowski is the one to kill the long-standing 'big bad'. Pryce is arguably the same level of antagonist as Cutter, but he's the one that we've been aware of since we became aware of larger sinister forces at work in this narrative.

And if Minkowski has a personal nemesis, it's Cutter. He's the one who recruited her into the hellscape that is the Hephaestus. He played on her ambitions to get her where he wanted her. She trusted him the way she trusted the official chain of authority at the start of the mission. And that trust was extremely misplaced.

The significance of Minkowski being the one to kill Cutter is highlighted by the fact that she kills him with a weapon that only she uses, a weapon that links us back to her behaviour 40 episodes earlier. The sense of control that she was desperately seeking in Minkowski Commanding might not be completely within her grasp by the end of the finale, but she's reclaimed a piece of it by defeating the man who has been exerting control over her life for so long. And she did it with that goddamn harpoon.

#It's harpoon time!!#Honestly I think there's probably still lots more to say #but this is plenty to be getting on with #Feel free to share your own thoughts #Wolf 359 #w359 #Renée Minkowski #The stuff about human unpredictability was inspired a lot by conversations with my friend @commsroom #so she'd be in my bibliography if I had one #Something that didn't really fit in here but feels relevant is the way that fans #(particularly podcast fans who don't have canon appearances to go off)#will use certain characteristics/ objects/ clothing choices to make a character identifiable in art #Like if I see art of a Wolf 359 character with some combination of cigarette/ headphones/ Star Wars t-shirt #I know it's Eiffel even if it doesn't look like my mental idea of him #And the harpoon is definitely part of that shorthand for Minkowski #because no one else would have it #so lots of Minkowski art features the harpoon #which strengthens the associations that I'm talking about in this post #And that's interesting to me #because it's an unintended way in which fandom has the potential to influence how people perceive a character #but I think in this case it just adds further value to things that are already implied in canon #Renee Minkowski #Commander Minkowski #w359 spoilers #wolf 359 spoilers #the empty man posteth

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phantriicks · 10 months

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Who is it that you see reflected in those shades of yours?

#ghost trick #ghost trick spoilers #ghost trick sissel #ghost trick yomiel #( my art )#(wanted to draw a comparishment between how I personally draw / distinguish Sissle using Yomiel's appearance)#(The idea being that subconsciously Sissle's memories deep down influence him a little - hence the more pronounced fangs.#(His eyes being green are a result of his muddled memories between remembering his yellow to Yomiel's blue so he's stuck “in between”.#And I had the new idea that Sissle has “crows feet” to represent his whiskers that become visible during some emotions :>)#(Meanwhile I will forever love my habit to distinguish em with the red and blue in their shades based off of their ghost worlds uvu)#eye strain /#bright colors /#(just in case)#eye contact /

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moongothic · 4 months

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A stupid Crocodad related mental image that keeps on haunting me is Crocodile somehow getting to witness a Usual Strawhat Banquet, seeing Luffy eat The Normal Amount of Food Luffy Usually Eats and think to himself "...yeah that adds up"

#Moon posting #OP Meta #Crocodad #Knowing how much Luffy can eat the poor man probably thought he was pregnant with quadruplets or some shit #Like there's no shock and horror to what a bottomless pit that dumbass is. It just makes perfect sense #If anything he'd be stuck wondering if Luffy's taste in food was influenced by whatever weird food cravings he might've had #Or if it was Luffy who influenced his food cravings while pregnant #Like which came first the chicken or the egg #''Did my meat cravings cause him to like meat that much or did he cause me to crave meat to begin with..?''#I don't know man. This just such a stupid mental image but it makes me laugh #Would not classify as a headcanon. Just a Ridiculous Thought

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canisalbus · 11 months

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in light of that last ask, would you ever consider drawing Machete enjoying a little treat? Maybe licking cream off his snoot after devouring a sweet, or laughing at something unexpectedly silly, or being caught up in the beauty of something and showing some wonder...? Glimpse of happy Machete

(which, as an angst writer, is also a large part of how to make the bad stuff hit. Rip that happiness away, make a smile too ephemeral, etc. Joy as the most fragile of things, that can't be pursued and comes on its own terms...)

I love how you put it, "joy is the most fragile of things and comes on it's own terms".

I do, in fact, have a bunch of happy/content/uncharacteristically genuine Machete pieces underway. If I can keep up this surge of motivation I've been having during the past five weeks or so, you should see them soon.

#answered #bluedaddysgirl #mostly because I might finally be done pussyfooting around and I've been thinking of giving him the proper romance arc with Vasco #it's been hovering on the background for years and years as an unexplored but potentially fruitful part of his storyline #and it feels like it would be beneficial to his character growth if he had at least one person he had a genuinely loving #sincere and mutually fullfilling relationship with #you know #get a few more facets going on #he's evidently incapable of finding happiness on his own maybe an outside influence might do him good #he still gets the bad ending but there needs to be something really worthwhile before that or the whole thing is an exercise in futility #gonna give this lad some serotonin finally

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existentiol · 7 months

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something that pisses me off in RA is that Flanagan will occasionally hype up Pauline as this super important and prominent figure in Will’s life, even treat her as a proxy for the mother he never knew, and yet will just refuse to show it beyond the like. two or three (personal) conversations that they have in canon. I get that he was attempting to make her an important person in Will’s life but why not do that by actually making her an important person in Will’s life

#hey Flanagan I hate to tell u but just because she’s married to Will’s father figure does not automatically make her his mom figure #what REALLY annoys me is how easy it would have been for him to connect her & will #like hey. if only there were a pretty clear gap in Will’s education that halt couldn’t fulfill - say for example mmmm diplomacy?#(cause we all know how gifted halt is at conflict resolution)#then he’d have a valid reason to seek out a master of diplomacy for lessons in negotiating compromises & treaties #but no I guess not. Will’s just naturally good at diplomacy despite never really being exposed to it #yk what extra sucks?#if Pauline HAD taught will about treaties & stuff then him receiving the last name treaty wouldve been 1000x more meaningful #it would’ve spoken to her influence on him and solidified her as a sort of parental figure in her own right #AND as an extra extra bonus: if she came to the cabin to teach will about negotiation tactics and such #then we could’ve gotten more halt/Pauline interactions. as in: we could’ve actually seen them being in love ON SCREEN instead of just being #told that they loved each other #will could’ve had a chance to see how much the two of them mean to each other. and then he would’ve had some actual basis for a speech #at their wedding or whatever #but yeah no why do that when we can just imply that will & Pauline got super close off screen? same effect right?????#ranger’s apprentice #pauline dulacy #halt o’carrick #will treaty #I love these books so so much don’t get me wrong. but there are just some things……#anyway.#jackie rambles

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deadqueernoldor · 1 month

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Honestly I think Maglor should drown. Not as poetic anything – the eldest kills himself in fire, the second eldest in water. Not to give one last 'look how wrong Feanor was, he even predicted the fate of the maybe last Noldo wrong'. Not as Maglor killing himself.

I want it to be accidental. Entirely unremarkable just like he was when he was King. Not as an echo of his brother or his father or the Valar. Just. Gone.

#i love Maglor being redeemed. I love Maglor suffering himself until the end of time. I froth at Maglor being offered pardon and either #accepting or denying it for whatever reason. but most of all I love him just disappearing forever not as even a passive influence as a #haunting singer whos topic of mortal folklore. i want his corpse to be found by some random mortal who lives and dies in the #belief that elves cannot swim because that was the only elf they ever saw. i wantit to be boring because i want the late realization #of others that even if they had a change of mind and wanted Maglor around (cough Elrond) they are too late not even because Maglor had been #too tired. but just because.

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rin-hanarin · 1 month

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There's something I really appreciate about Cloud Strife, and it's the fact that he's mentally falling apart half the time he's on screen. Like, people sometimes lose the plot because of 20 years of cameos and spin-offs, or love making him out to be this broody tough super soldier, or just straight up make a self insert out of him because they can't relate to him at all, but the fact that he's having all kinds of episodes every other game hour and it's not some cryptic subtext just speaks to me for some reason.

Cloud is this "legendary video game protagonist" and whatnot, but his actual story is so much more complex and choke-full of vulnerability and really down to Earth human weakness, amplified by a cocktail of all sorts of trauma and crazy alien influences. My guy is so not okay and is so messed up in the head he accidentally dooms the planet to a literal fiery death from a meteor strike, and it's just so different from what you might expect from him, considering how famous of a character he is.

I really respect the fact that he was written this way back in 1997, and the way his unstable, fractured sense of self is even more apparent in Remake series makes me really happy and really unsettled in equal measure. The OG game couldn't convey how bad it was within its graphics, but I think I managed to grasp what they were going for the first time I played it, and it is heartbreaking, with or without clear presentation attached to it.

#ff7 #ff7 remake #cloud strife #Cloud Is Not Okay and we love him no matter what #Remake series laser focused on making him as unstable as possible from the get go and I love that #but I also love the amount of attention put in party members #like they're unsettled but also worried and that is such a real familiar feeling that i can't help but feel on some level as well #like what do you even do when someone is having intense hallucinations and you've never dealt with that before #from which side do you approach someone's memory gaps #I'm not going to say anything about how realistic any of this is #but i had to deal with people under influences my whole life and it's always stressful and unpredictable

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solradguy · 7 months

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I'm so grateful that the only GG fans that care about the light novels are the ones that can be normal about things because Lightning the Argent goes from the rawest scenes of carnage imaginable to Ky Kiske doing something mildly religious like offering a short, silent, prayer for someone that got mangled to death by WMD dragons, and I just know that, in the wrong hands, those brief religious moments would generate the most annoying goddamn memes you could ever imagine

#textpost #I have a mountain of beef with catholicism specifically and am negative percent religious #But the punchline to so many Ky jokes is just “ha ha catholic” like come onnnnn get creative #Religion on its own isn't bad. Look instead at how an individual interacts with it and judge from there #Untapped potential in how Ky's consistently depicted praying to Mary/an unspecified female saint for example #Actually... How come I've never seen anyone analyze that aspect of his belief?#His parents died when he was pretty young (iirc) so their influence couldn't've been too much of a contributing factor in that #Maybe he was closer to his mom in the brief time he had with his parent(s)?#Almost all of the Holy Order knights/members they've ever shown have been male too #So I wonder if maybe it's more like the calm/uncombative protective presence of a sacred woman is comforting to him?#It's definitely a stark contrast to the types of things he's generally exposed to in his daily life in any case #Another interesting contrast is how much Sol DOESN'T like religion #He's got some sarcastic lines about God and stuff even pre-Gearification. Wonder what the story with that is...#Anyway Ky only expressing his religion in private moments is interesting to me too #I can't think of an instance where he ever forced it on someone else or tried to explain something as happening just because God willed it #He's smart and logical and yet he still has this spiritual component...#Man is his character is complex. Studying this blond kid under a microscope...

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unexpectedbrickattack · 1 year

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Now hold on a gosh-diddly-darn minute, I noticed the entire time talking about a tipsy Peppino no one thought to ask this but what about tipsy GUS? I mean we saw him a li'l tipsy in the fastfood saloon escape, can I hear your thoughts about that/him please? Have they ever gotten tipsy together?

(I just like the mental image of the two alone, just being real giggly with each other (Gus just says "hey" and Peppi starts giggling which sets Gus off giggling) and being sappy goofs with each other <3)

HEEHEE u are so right and i am so sorry for withholding this information from the masses 😭

My homebrew for gnomes is that they are simultaneously hardy folk (able to eat virtually anything and immune to most poisonous creatures) AND extremely intolerant of alcohol. Theres no reason for that, i just like it alot :)

So Gus would be an extreme lightweight 😭 its SO bad; he cant speak clearly at all, he cant walk straight, he has the Worst hangovers and he wont remember anything from the previous night. The line between ‘pleasantly buzzed’ and ‘blackout drunk’ is so thin that Gus doesnt even try social drinking. If he MUST drink, it will be in the comfort of his own barebones apartment 😭 at least, until Peppino started hanging out with vigilante and his crew.

Gustavo LIKES drinking! Its just hard to find a good balance, and THATS bc he simply doesnt know how alcohol works. Peppino is like:

“Look ‘ere. All of these have a number somewhere on the bottle. Or a percentage. Lower the number, the better it is for you.”

Gustavo is like !!! Oh!!! That is very helpful! What would you recommend for me then?

“Probably…2-5%. 5-10 proof. Small 'a numbers.”

Gustavo nods, interested. He points at a bottle he recognizes from the last time he came here and got shitfaced. “That one up there; do you know how ‘a strong that one is? Or should i ask the bartender?”

Peppino squints at the company label. “45%.”

“Oh!” That makes sense. “Well what do you usually drink?”

“70%.”

“Oh!”

Peppino recommends some of the LIGHT light wines, the ones that barely have a hint of anything. Theyre sweet (which Gustavo loves so very very much) and for the first time in a very long time, he Stays buzzed instead of immediately faceplanting into being blackout drunk.

Hes very. Playful. Is what Peppino would describe a tipsy Gustavo. He hesitates to use the term ‘flirty’ because that is not whats happening. But hes like. Clearly entertaining some gruff looking men like five times his size as they ramble drunkenly about random shit like ‘waow….thasso cool…and then what happened???’

Its funny at first bc Gustavo is so fucking TINY that all you can see of him, in the group of men as they yapyapyap about some inane shit that Gustavo wont even remember, is his tiny little tail 😭 It is less funny, however, when Peppino catches himself rambling about work and Gustavo is like (ears perked; tail swaying) ‘mmhmm. wrow…thats ‘a kinda nice…what else did you do??’ Peppino is like *buffering* (‘something is happening right now that will need to be addressed at a later time. Do not forget DO NOT FORGET. URGENT!!!!’)

Otherwise Gustavo is just a silly guy. Vigilante will make a joke and he laughs so low and deep that he sounds downright villainous 😭 Peppino will point out something stupid on the TV and like hours later Gus is like ‘…heeeuehuuueee…..do u remember [insert stupid reference] and Peppino will giggle. Peppinos affinity for throwing around ilus are met with Gustavo going ‘😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊’ with absolutely no way to even pretend to mask it.

Gustavo has fun being out in the saloon but he really enjoys drinking in Peppinos house. Its not nearly as loud as the saloon and theres usually homecooked foods like breads and soups (Because Peppino stress-cooks ALL the time). Brick gets to stay indoors instead of waiting outside the saloon, so Gustavo gets to mess with his soft fur contentedly. He just gets to be cozy; its quite nice 😊

#answered #chattin #///#////#/////#gustavo #peppino #pepstavo #alcohol #drinking #i still have to answer that anon asking about pepstavo hcs so i hope this helps a little fhjdbdjdndkd #additional context is that; gnomes stay mostly in the forest. so theres not alot of outsider influence #gustavos a bit of a traveller; he likes exploring and seeing whats outside the forest. and he usually comes back with goodies #alcohol is just one of those things he tried during a trip or two and it always fucked him up #never looked into it; some shit is best left alone lmao #unrelated to that #but the alt though that peppino had; i was going to say (something el gee bee tee is happening…)#which made me laugh but i cant make him say stuff like that fhdjbdjdjdjd #also note that Gustavo does not drink often at all; he will accompany peppino to the saloon and let him get tipsy w his friends #he will entertain their silly shenanigans and bring Peppino home when theyre done #and if hes hanging out at peppinos house he will lounge around listening to peppino blabber about nothing #and drink some ciders :)#he only drinks like. 10% of the time. hes a social drinker but ONLY when he feels like it #and ONLY if peppino is with him #ALSO ALSO #IMPORTANT #you must know that Gustavo is NEVER sitting while in the saloon #he is standing on his barstool w his hands on the countertop

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