#and honestly for me one of the biggest gut punches is in fact going to be how it impacts helaena

[navree]

The show failed to make care about Helaena or her children and i doubt if the general audience know her name. B&C will hit hard just because how gruesome it will be (if the writers didn't changed it) but i am afraid there will be no emotional impact.

I agree that the show's somewhat failed to develop Helaena, especially when compared to her brothers, and there's a lot of reasons for that (a desire to get diversity points by making her neurodivergent without actually wanting to put in too much effort in how to sensitively write a character they've coded as autistic in a world where people barely understand autism is a thing, the tendency that exists where male characters are prioritized for development and characterization over female characters, the disordered writers' room that season one clearly had). But I don't think that precludes any kind of investment in Blood and Cheese. There's likely going to be an emotional impact just because:

a) it's a child being murdered, and two other children being terrorized, that's going to hit people's emotions no matter what because it's just sad

b) people do know Helaena and she's been in, at least, enough shots for people to at least understand who she is and how she fits into the family and one of those scenes at least was p cute (the toast scene) and watching her suffer will be hard especially if Phia plays it right

c) like you said, B&C is gruesome, and that'll likely leave people with some emotions given not just the murder but the psychological torture and

d) there's going to be an emotional impact not just for Helaena, but also for other characters.

For one, Blood and Cheese also involves Alicent, and specifically Alicent being brutalized (not only is she used to lure and has to subsequently watch what happens to her daughter and grandchildren, but she is also physically attacked, since they apprehended, bound, and gagged her and that's not happening without a fight), and Alicent is a very popular character in spite of what Twitter says and we've been following her since the pilot.

For two, a lot of the Blood and Cheese aftermath in the show is going to focus on Aemond. It is very specifically Aemond's actions at Storm's End that lead to Blood and Cheese, and the show has made it so that it was a complete accident, an unintended consequence Aemond not only failed to foresee but also actively tried to prevent. The second to last shot of the show thus far is a focus on Aemond's face and his dawning horror and regret at what he's done. And then, because of Aemond's mistake, his sister and his mother and his brother and his niece and his nephews are all going to suffer in one of the worst actions GRRM has ever written about. Aemond, who the writers now know is a fan favorite thanks to Ewan's portrayal, is going to be getting a lot of focus, and his own periphery grief and his immense guilt and his feelings of responsibility over what happened (and if the writers are smart and follow this blog to read my theories, the way this affects his relationship with Aegon and his subsequent actions in the war) are likely going to be an immense part of his character arc for that scene. I mean, there's a reason why when I wrote my own Blood and Cheese fic, half of it was from Aemond's perspective, a huge part of the emotional impact is going to come from Aemond's reaction and his subsequent coming to terms with the fact that he made a mistake and is directly responsible for irreparable harm coming to the people he loves most as a result.

They do need to develop Helaena a lot more than they have, and I fervently hope there's at least a single episode of the calm before the storm (I'd hope they make 2x01 all about the immediate aftermath and Blood and Cheese is a 2x02 focused thing). But she is recognizable and liked enough on her own for it to have some impact, and even then, it's also going to impact characters that a lot more people are heavily more emotionally invested in, enough that it'll still pack a punch (also given that he's a bit more of a nichely enjoyed character I didn't mention Aegon, but he's got his lil fanbase and watching him grieve over what's happened to his family is also going to be emotional for people who like him even if they don't much care for Helaena).

#personal #answered #anonymous #helaena is underdeveloped yes but she is in fact a character #and a lot of people do like her enough for b&c to have an impact on the audience #and honestly for me one of the biggest gut punches is in fact going to be how it impacts helaena #cuz phia's played her in a way where it's going to break my heart to watch her go through this #she needs to be developed more but she's there and she exists and people enjoy her #and even the ones who don't probably at least like olivia or ewan as actors enough to care about how this affects THEIR characters

[aeithalian]

Light Bringer thoughts

spoilers below:

So the fact that Virginia disappeared from the narrative after the first half of the book kinda threw me for a loop, but I suppose if she had gotten a subplot of her own, it would have felt like we were getting pulled from the action too much… because the Darrow/Lyria/Lys*nder side of the story was all one cohesive plot, and Virginia’s POV, had it been maintained, would have added a certain level of unrelated chaos, with the audience getting jerked away to Mars every so often. So while I missed her, I can appreciate why Pierce didn’t include her as much. 

I LOVELOVELOVE getting outsider POVs of Darrow. Our only other one was from Lys*nder in Dark Age. When Lyria hung around and got to really know Darrow was when she was solidified as one of my favorite characters, for the pure merit that she was able to change her perspective from the myth to the man. It made me realize that more people would like Darrow if he wasn’t famous for war. That and I love the stark difference between how Darrow is in his own head and how he is to other people. It’s so much fun. Likewise, an outsider POV of Lyria was equally fun as well. 

Figment. It’s… I don’t know. I think I expected it to have a bigger payout? Or I expected Lyria to have it for longer. Figment was a really cool mystery that didn’t get fleshed out. But then I realized that the story didn’t really need another physically powerful female character. We have Virginia, Victra, and Volga for that. Aurae, Athena, Theodora (RIP), and now Lyria are a new brand of strong female characters that I’m really glad Pierce has gotten into a groove with - strong, empathetic women who don’t need to hold their own in a fight to be respected and awesome in their own rights. So no, I don’t think Lyria will ever be that ‘red god’ character people thought she might become, because that’s not where her strength lies. And who says Figment won’t return? (No, I don’t think Matteo left it in, but who knows)

I honestly wish Volsung Fá had been introduced earlier, I think it would have made him seem like a bigger threat. The fact that he was introduced as Atlas’ puppet, which was supposed to be this huge mystery to the Volk and the Ascommani, is something we knew the whole time, and decreases on the ‘drama’ of it, I think. I’m excited for an adaptation of him, though! The fear that he supposedly evokes is something that I was kinda missing, so I’d be excited to see it on a screen for a bigger effect. 

BREATH OF STONE HOLY SHIT this entire sequence was so good. I actually teared up. I was so excited. The ‘clang clang clang’ “confess”? Daddy Darrow. ohmygod. Darrow rediscovering his roots in the mines of Mars? A spiritual experience. AND he recreated the Trojan Horse moment from Red Rising and it was like a little part of me was healed. It was so good. That moment where he talks about the game he played with Eo as kids really got me because I think this is the first time in a while where he’s looked back on his memories of Eo and not thought about her death and her dream, but her life. I think he remembered why he loved her so much, and it made me like her a bit more too. But the power up moment. So good. Ugh. 

I’m gonna be honest. I saw Cassius’ death coming from a mile away. But it hit me WAY harder than I thought it would. I was never his biggest fan, even in Iron Gold, but I knew I was in for it when he rejected the ‘au’ honorific to Matteo, and I really started seeing his development. And his last words? Gut punch. I’ll never get over that. Formally rejecting Gold? Claiming Darrow as a brother in life and in oath? Declaring solidarity with the Republic? Yes, Cassius. Your honor does remain. 

The fact that Atlas died in this book kinda freaks me out, because I really thought he was going to be the big boss at the end of the story, because Atalantia doesn’t scare me enough just yet. But now that Lys*nder has the Eidmi, I’m getting a bit nervy. Lys*nder was fine before because he was never a real threat. But there’s nothing more terrifying than a man who has all the power in the world and doesn’t know what to do with it. 

My last thought: Fuck Lys*nder. This absolute pisspot. This pubic hair of a being. This man - no, *BOY* - is going to forever taint my idea of the word ‘honor’, not because he has any, but because he is a bastardization of everything honorable people stand for. He can say he has honor over and over again, but when it clashes with his reputation, he always fails to do the honorable thing. Killing your brother? Not honorable. Doing it for a weapon that will let you commit mass genocide? Hm….. not very honorable, methinks.

Predictions for Red God:

Red God is Darrow. No question. The term ‘red god’ has come up before, in direct reference to Darrow in Dark Age (someone was talking to Alexander) and I heard someone saying it might be Lyria, but honestly, I doubt it.

There are still a couple mysteries that didn’t get revealed that I was curious about: in Dark Age, Virginia says that the Pandemonium Chair was only ever used twice, once being on Lysander… so what was the other time? Similarly, when Atlas is getting un-carved from his Helios-doppleganger body, it’s mentioned that this isn’t his first time, and Lysander noted it as unusual. So what’s up?

I still really think that Lyria’s brothers were the snipers Darrow ordered to kill Lysander during the Long Night. We’ll have to see where that goes. 

Eidmi. It honestly feels too simple, and I’m worried that Atlas wasn’t telling the full truth. Bitch didn’t even have a plan for it, but the thing is, he was afraid of Atalantia having it, because he was afraid she would use it wrong. But oh honorable Lysander (please sense the sarcasm) I don’t really think you should be any less afraid of genocide just because you’re the one holding the trigger. I actually think he’ll try to use it on Luna first, but I don’t know if he’ll be able to get it that close to the planet itself. He probably won’t use it on Mercury, because that’s where he’s going to try his major rejuvenation efforts. And he’s more afraid of Atalantia than he is of the Republic, so Mars probably isn’t that high up on his priority list - remember, he thinks Darrow is dead, doesn’t know the Volk, Daughters, and Rim are all flying to protect Mars, and has wildly underestimated the power of the Republic. He might blame it on the Republic, in a last-ditch effort to get any Golds that haven’t claimed a side to do so. It's almost impossible to predict, because Pierce is inherently a very unpredictable author.

The Abomination is an interesting stone left unturned. The thing is, I thought Virginia might have had a chance to turn him good (?) before she tried to kill him, and I thought she actually could have done it if not for Lilath. Maybe she’ll use the PsychoSpike on him, and somehow implant memories of the real Adrius in him so she’ll have a chance to show him the love he didn’t have before. Because I saw someone say the same thing about wiping Lysander’s memories, but I really don’t think Lysander would take any chance he has for redemption, he’s already turned his back on ‘honor’ too many times. The Abomination, on the other hand, probably wouldn’t have done anything wrong had be been guided by a hand other than Lilath’s. I think there’s hope for him. 

I don’t think Rhonna is dead! No body, no death, especially with Pierce. In the Dramatis Personae, she’s described as ‘lost’, not dead. Chekov’s gun, and all that. 

Darrow better not die. Here’s the thing, though. If the Darrow we saw in Dark Age had carried over through Light Bringer, I think Pierce would be setting him up to die. But now that he’s got the Breath of Stone, the Path to the Vale, and the power given to him by letting go of his guilt and worry, it’s setting him up for a happy ending, moreso than I remember ever reading the rest of the series. I think LB!Darrow is the first time we’ve really seen him believe that he could also live. Remember, he’s always thought he’d end his story as a martyr for the Rising/Republic. But now I think he knows he can not just fight for more, but live for more too. Sevro said it well. We’re tired of this shit. Let’s band together so we can start living rather than surviving. 

#red rising #light bringer #lightbringer #pierce brown #darrow of lykos

[chenfordspiral]

So many things could happen in the finale. I kept finding myself daydreaming up possibilities instead on focusing on the task as hand.

Soooo… I’m going to continue to distract others, too. Here are some questions you consider answering.

1- What do you think the cliffhanger will be?

(My only hope is that it doesn’t involve Tim or Lucy. They’ve both had a rough go of it this season)

2- What do you think the trilogy is that Max Geo has teased about for Chenford?

3- Do you think the BOSS Big Bad will be revealed? Any predictions for who it is??

Ooh, I’m like the worst possible person to ask this because I cannot make decisions for the life of me so my answer might just be ramblings of several different things instead of a definitive answer 😂 but I will try! (So as I suspected, this got a little out of hand so I needed to put a keep reading tab in haha)

1) Oh, I’m right there with you! If I had one wish for the finale, it’d be that the cliffhanger doesn’t involve either of them for the exact reason you pointed out. My fear, however, is that they know a Chenford cliffhanger might deliver the biggest gut punch and after this season, I don’t trust Alexi not to go there. So I hope it’ll be about Nolan and/or Bailey because I just don’t care about them much (sorry!), but I’m preparing myself for a Chenford one with one of them in danger or, who knows, maybe Lucy needs to go dark cause her cover’s been compromised? Again, I have no clue, but my best guess is that someone from the team is seriously in danger (🤞🏻not Chenford🤞🏻for my own sanity).

2) So here’s the thing. At this point, I can’t decide if he’s just messing with us and simply meant the fact that he’s doing another interview with Mel and Eric (he did one before the season aired and one with Mel about 6x06), or if it is in fact related to the characters. If it is about Lucy and Tim, my best guesses would be that it’s either a third first kiss or potentially a third first date, even though I don’t want the latter to happen just yet because the breakup would feel a bit unnecessary if they already went on a date, in whatever way that could happen. Imo, something big would have to happen for them to have more than a conversation. Although now that I think about it, I guess a date could also be just them going somewhere to talk and it just has all the vibes of a date. But other than that, I honestly don't know what else it could be. Maybe it's something no one has even thought of yet.. for now, I'm just gonna say he meant his third interview about them this season.

3) The big bad boss… mmmh, this is a very good albeit very tough question to answer. I feel like I still haven’t fully understood who actually is or isn’t involved or possibly involved so I’m just gonna say it could either be someone we know already (like Elijah, although I actually don’t want him to be back; I'm on the side of "I've had enough of him to last a lifetime...), or maybe it’s this Eric Ramsey guy they mentioned last week. I feel like it might deliver a bigger punch if it were someone we already know in a way instead of someone completely new, but I’m not sure who beside Elijah or Oscar (lol) could even fill that role. So to sum up, I really do not have a clue 😅

Thanks for the ask!! 😊

#chenford #the rookie #season finale #6x10 #predictions and thoughts #asked and answered #mamadoc #I really do have no idea at all lol

[desmondkane-of-ao3-fame]

favorite episode of the owl house?

I’m honestly rarely a fan of saying what my ‘Favorite episode’ or ‘Favorite movie’ or ‘Favorite show’ is, cause it’s one of those things I rarely know myself. The issue is that media is a lot like a bicycle. If it’s rusted over, missing a wheel, and has been run over a dozen or so times, then it’s easy to spot why it doesn’t work. But if you give me a functioning bicycle, one that does everything it’s supposed to do perfectly, it’s a lot harder to explain why it works. But I love answering questions, so I’ll give this a crack.

There’s a lot of different options, really. The most obvious is ‘Grom,’ since it not only introduced Lumity to the mainstream, but also has some of the best writing in the show, both in giving each character a hilarious moment (“You wanna know MY biggest fear,” “Being alone/being stuck with you forever,” ect.) and how it writes Luz and Amity’s stories. There’s ‘Watching and Dreaming,’ which stands as one of the single greatest series finales to have ever been made. There’s also ‘Teenage Abomination,’ which introduced us to two of the best characters in the show (Willow and, of course, Skara), or ‘Eda’s Requiem,’ with the actual Requiem scene being one of the most gorgeously animated pieces in television history, or even ‘Hooty’s Door,’ for how it impacted the rest of the show and, of course, canonized Lumity.

But there’s only one episode I can really give the title of ‘favorite’ to:

‘Reaching Out.’

‘Reaching Out’ made me fall in love with the show again. Everything about it is absolutely perfect. From the Lumity to Edric’s surprise subplot to the Lumity to Amity and Alador’s relationship to the Lumity to the Warden Wrath fight to the Lu-

But of course, the real standout is… this.

This scene. This fucking scene!

Critics can spend decades, centuries even, studying this scene, and not a single one will be able to find even a single genuine fault with this scene. At all. Everything about it just-

How the scene doesn’t play music until the reveal.

How Amity is clearly hurt about Luz lying but has the communication skills and sense to know there’s something wrong Luz probably needs to talk about.

How Luz’s everything, from mannerisms to facial expressions to voice acting, comes together to make the reveal hurt all the more.

How Luz tries to brush everything off and make herself seem mature and put together with ‘That’s no excuse for what I did.’

The genuine shock in Amity’s eyes as she realizes how much pain her girlfriend’s been hiding just so she doesn’t make her worry.

Luz letting the mask slip and admitting some of that pain.

Luz being in so much emotional pain she can’t even walk but she tries to hide it behind humor.

Amity declaring she’s going to help Luz get flowers once the threats been beaten, and the look on Luz’s face.

Just

This.

This whole scene is the sort of shit I wish I was capable of making. This whole thing feels like a gut punch, but a well earned gut punch. Everything about Luz, from the first episode really, has been subtly building to this moment, and the writing and animation fucking nailed it! It’s the most raw, genuine moment of the show, just this cheerful nerdy kid having to be open and honest with her girlfriend about the worst thing in her life. In a show filled with witches and demons and magic, the fact it was able to create one of the most realistic scenes of young grief I’ve watched on screen is just… fucking hell. It’s beautiful.

…

Did uh… did I mention I like Ed’s stuff too?

ANYWHO YEAH REACHING OUT IS THE BEST EPISODE OF TOH AND ALL CHILDREN’S MEDIA EVER BYE!

#the owl house #reaching out #lumity #review

[seijorhi]

👁️👄👁️

I'm alive, sorry I fell off the face of the earth for a few days there (I was unwell - new anxiety meds and all that jazz)

BUT!! I have much to say, both about your new fic and obviously one of the older ones, so here's an extremely belated / extended ART&RCSW <33

Firstly, Maelstrom was incredible, it changed the way I live my life

I don't even watch Trigun Stampede but good lord did you get me hooked on the characters - not to mention, a good poly fic is always the way to my heart

The twist of the secret bastard brothers?? Incredible. Delicious. Amazing. And the not so subtle hatred they have for their father?? The fact that the only good thing to come from him was their darling sister?? My gosh, you've got me wrapped around your finger Rhi

Though I must admit, the whole reveal and the part where reader is being lead to the throne room gave me anxiety - you always manage to surprise me with the way you set things up, and I mean that in the best way possible

I can't say anything about the characterisation of Vash and Knives because I don't watch the show, but I imagine that as with everyone else, you've done an amazing job

Also the sense of hopelessness at the end?? Because like, there's literally no escape - the best type of ending in my professional opinion

Next up on the agenda, we have a fic (series??) that I know you're not particularly fond of, but I absolutely love

Through the cold, I'll find my way back to you, your Hawks / Dabi soulmate fic - it has me in a fucking chokehold

It's literally everything I love in a fic - soulmates, poly relationship, yandere, it's just amazing

The slight sprinkle of angst kinda feels like a punch to the gut, but in a satisfying way - not to mention, the fact that Natsuo still keeps in touch with the reader even though they don't really have a connection aside from Touya kills me, he's so sweet

And poor Keigo (he's insane but I do not care <33)

The way my stomach drops when the reader realises that she has another soulmate will never not be a great feeling, but the way she knows instinctively that something is missing because Dabi isn't there really is painful

Like I said, I know you've said you don't really like the series, but I'm here to reassure you, I loved it, so rest assured, the hard work didn't go down the drain <33

I'm also really sorry for disappearing for like two or three weeks :// But I'm back now (??)

Anyway, I hope you've been well, drinking water and sleeping and whatnot <33

See you next week Rhi (I hope??) Lol :))

BBY I MISSED YOU <33

i hope ur doing okay, i am sending you all the forehead smooches and love!!

ahh but this ask is so nice!! honestly i was so worried about posting maelstrom cuz it's a new fandom for both me and sort of in general – i know the manga and old anime have been around for a while, but for most people it's new – and i wasn't sure if people were actually going to read it

turns out you did anyway, not knowing any of the characters vhgfjdksjdhfjdks it's always such a huge compliment when that happens. it's actually how i found my way first to bnha and then to haikyuu so, yeah, it makes me happy to see it's the same for you guys

as for through the cold... hoo boy. i did have big plans for that one, and every month or so there's a part of me that wants to either delete part 2 and start again, or delete the entire thing and start again, with better execution this time. i may not be as in love with bnha as i used to be, but hawks and touya, and that particular storyline (i am if nothing else a sucker from the soulmate trope gone wrong)

but also... the part i hate about series, and one of my biggest gripes as a writer is when there's a demand for part 2's and 3's but then it's crickets in the notes. part 2 kinda flopped and idk if it was because it wasn't great or if people just couldn't be bothered to leave a response, so while i do occasionally have the motivation to continue it i don't know if it's actually worth while or if anyone (aside from you haha) would be into it. but then i think about all that delicious angst and keigo and touya being jealous assholes and... hmmmm.... vghfjdkjhvfjdks

in any case, i'm glad you liked it and it was very sweet of you to send this ask and i adore you.

also, pls take care of yourself, and don't apologise for taking the time you need. i, of course, live for these asks and seeing you in my notes, but it's never a necessity. your mental/physical health always comes first <33

#ILY!!! #rhi answers #fic asks #through the cold #maelstrom #ART&RCSW #artemis32

[blupengu]

Oh… my god… I’ve been emotionally devastated by Le Salut 😂

Rambling and spoilers under the cut as usual! Still haven’t done any of the salvation ends though so no worries about those, not sure if I’ll make one post for all of them or reblog my individual posts from each route lmao

Wow this route was CHONKY Jesus! I guess my biggest initial thoughts after playing are:

1) I am boo boo the fool… cannot believe we were betrayed by Dahut like that… the signs were there but I dismissed because he was best (adult) boy and I loved him… to quote my other post: “Any time Dahut shows up now I’m like OH THANK GOD someone who doesn’t need therapy” 🤡 never before have I been so utterly devastated by a character’s betrayal 💀

And 2) Ankou being Adolphe punched me in the gut, stole my purse, and kicked my dog, I was thinking there had to be time travel or multiverse shenanigans but not like that… (I love Ankou but tbh Adolphe is just kinda, meh to me? So I’m conflicted…) Though the real kicker was the fact that HE WAS AMERICAN THIS WHOLE TIME HELL, YEAH USA!! USA!! USA!! 🔫 (LOL sorry jkjk… but no really when he pulled out a fucking gun I busted out laughing, bitch why did you not use this earlier 😂)

But anyways, back to the route itself! I very much loved the character interactions we got with Ceres, Adolphe, and Ankou! Very cute, very wholesome, and Ankou in lounge wear…? *chef’s kiss* 👀 Although this is when I noticed that they both had such shiny blue earrings… maybe in my heart I knew all along… I also still love the friendship between Nadia and Dahut… 😔 and Ankou meeting Yves was so sweet!(even though knowing the truth now makes it… oof in hindsight) but good to know we all support Yves being with Ceres 😂

This route kinda turned me off Salome though? Like yandere tendencies aside, in every other route she was just the loving, maybe a bit overprotective milf (yeah I said it fight me) with a complicated and tragic past… but damn really was not a fan of her actually being the queen and Dahut’s mom. Kinda mad she killed him in the end 😬 (also, my god the teenage pregnancies must be wild in this country)

Also I am SO. SICK. OF CAPUCINE!! PLEASE STOP SHOWING UP AND BEING CREEPY TOWARDS NADIA AND A DICK TO LUCAS!! Him, the Royal family, and honestly the vast majority of the people in Arpechele suck major donkey balls oh my god. Y’know what I kinda support Dahut’s plan to just burn the country to the ground, we stan a short king 👑

… is it bad though that Capucine’s kinda grown on me? LOL, like I still hate his guts (thank you Scien our god for blowing him up) but it’s kinda hilarious watching him when things don’t go his way 😂 idk if I find him a kind of well written villain or if I have Stockholm syndrome after we’ve been forced to see him in every route 💀

Jean on the other hand! I am so happy that my evil hot butler turned into a reluctant ally in this route!! The bit where he and Mathis had to help Scien was very super cute, and poor sweet Mathis you are so forgiving, you deserve so much better, I hope Jean treats you nicer 😔 I respect his one-track mind for Rosalie though, man has a mission to get his wife back and by god he’s not gonna let anything stop him lmao 🫡

Gotta say though, I don’t remember exactly what triggered this but I just remember thinking, “oh more science to ignore!” So, yeah it… did not get better lmao. Like, some hand-wavey science is fine for world building and stuff, but when your plot hinges on the science and details, it’s really gotta have a more solid foundation than this. It’s not even nitpicking, it really doesn’t make sense if you think about it for more than one second 😂

Ngl I kinda wish that they had kept the supernatural aspect (not just because I’m not super keen on Ankou being Adolphe…), it would’ve made the nonsensical science easier to digest so they wouldn’t have been forced to explain everything away. Like, if it’s all grounded in reality, answer me this game! How did Ankou regenerate HIS CLOTHES after being just a HEAD IN A JAR??? 💀 the censoring was also kinda weird… like okay sure it’s all scientific but what, “the world” won’t let Ankou talk about specific things Adolphe doesn’t know yet?? Sure……. 😐

Although, no magic does make Ankou’s “vanishing” kinda hilarious since it meant he really did have to just run and hide behind whatever he could find. Like that’s inching towards JJBA part 3 DIO stopping time and carrying polnareff two steps down the staircase just to fuck with him levels of petty and dramatic LOL, but also have you seen how long and flowy this man’s hair and clothes are, Ceres how did you not notice?? Girl is you dumb??? 😂

Also I find adolphe being 25 while Ceres is 18 a little bit sus, and I’m really not a fan of the “big brother” figure becoming a love interest trope (I know they’re not blood related but still 😬). If Ankou had actually been a supernatural entity that was hundreds of years old, I would’ve been totally fine with that lmao, but him being Adolphe?? Mmmmm… mmmm unfortunately that’s a no from me, damn I’m actually kinda disappointed, just gonna make up something in my head and pretend that fact doesn’t exist 😔

I LOVE that all our boys + Jean(LOL) banded together in this route though!! Seeing them all alive made me so relieved oh my god 😭 wish we got a little bit more Lucas (yes I’m biased) but I get it, he’s too OP lmao, they literally had to nerf him with incurable anime disease before the game even started or else he’d be too much of a threat 💀

OH I FORGOT ABOUT HUGO LMAO, thanks for helping too, bud! I’m so glad you realize how Yvesexual you are in this final route!! 😂

Okay. I think that’s all the word vomit I have… tldr; Dahut is a short king, Salome kinda sucks to me, Ankou still >>> Adolphe (sorry Adolphe fans) and I wish there actually was a supernatural aspect, loved the squad of my boys + Jean helping out!

My personal character rankings now are Lucas > Jean(I know he’s not an LI just let me be delusional💀) > Ankou (took a hit being Adolphe but he’s so pretty it makes up for it) > Yves > Scien = Mathis > Adolphe

I’m still emotionally devastated but I’ll probably do the rest of the despair ends today and then all the salvation ends tomorrow/the day after depending on how long they take… I think I’ll just squeeze them all into one ramble lmao

Hoooo boy this was a doozy, still love the game despite my complaints, looking forward to being destroyed again by the salvation ends (I just know Lucas’s is gonna suck) 😂

#blupengu yells about virche evermore #virche spoilers #my post

[jankwritten]

More TSATS opinions and whatnot//Not spoiler free I wasn't the biggest fan of Solangelo going into it either, honestly. It felt like a very forced relationship in ToA, and there were multiple instances in which I cringed on behalf of poor Nico when Will just- Said things. With no regard to what Nico might think of it, or what Nico might want other people to know, like practically outing him against his will again in the 'significant annoyance' scene that so many people heralds as this cute couple moment even though Nico had been forcibly outed by Cupid maybe six months before that. Which feels,, Really gross. The way Jason is mentioned, the 'part' that he plays in this book, lit an insurmountable rage in my chest that was only minorly quelled by learning that Harley is asthmatic because it took me so far out of the book I had to regroup. Jason's death being used to further yet another plotline is a punch to the gut as someone who loves Jason dearly. Nico yelling at trees about Leo not telling anyone his plan feels like more chemistry than Nico and Will have ever had, even with Will being the one to introduce him to the idea, and I am still upset that we weren't at least given Nico and Leo being friends. Nico giving Will the ring that Bianca gave him makes literally not a single drop of sense why would he give up the last thing he has of his sister? I know it's maybe supposed to be a moment of growth, showing that Nico has finally accepted her death and moved on. Maybe that he's trying to share more of himself with Will, but seriously? He couldn't have given him a pack of mythomagic cards or something? The whole Nyx and Nico children thing is- Profoundly strange and discomforting. Maybe they're sort of cute at the end, but the idea of them being referred to as his kids brings an uneasy feeling to my chest I haven't experienced since reading Nico being forcibly outed in HoH. Don't get me started on Reyna. Her being mentioned in the way she is, is such an aggressive disservice to her and Nico's friendship that I literally had to put the book down and yell into my pillow. What happened to their bonding on the trip back to CHB? Where's any of Nico's internal conflict with the fact that Reyna joined the hunters and Bianca died as a hunter? Where's any actual showcasing that they were ever friends? I'm also reading this as a fanfic written by an unknowning young camper now, that's a great idea. The only important parts in this story to me are Nico's leather jacket having a hood, and Hiss-Majesty hearding cows.

I wholeheartedly agree with all of this for fucking real. So many latantly out of left field, wrong choices were made, things that entirely undermined MASSIVE parts of HoO that were really important to Nico's character, things that just didn't make any sense whatsoever (WHY WERE MARIA AND BIANCA ABLE TO COME BACK??? BIANCA CHOSE REINCARNATION????), there's just so much that I'm genuinely not even ready to dive into.

I've put the book down for the night, as it was upsetting me too much LMAO, but rest assured: i will be attempting to finish it tomorrow.

(God. nothing pisses me off more than how Jason has continued and continued and conitnued to be nothing but a pawn. at least Nico at the beginning of TSATS made mention to his grief and how much Jason really meant to him, but if that later just gets used as a plot stepping stone I'm going to be so fucking angry about it it's unreal.)

#asks! #tsats spoilers #straight up not having a good time in the club tonight

[aimportantdragoncollector]

Okay, for the AFO dating questionnaire: (not for simp reasons, but because I think it would be fun to find out exactly how much AFO would hate my guts)

(All questions answered from an in-universe perspective)

Brown.

Yes, but I'll punch you if you stand within ten feet of me.

Absolutely not, are you insane???

No. Just no. If they knew, and it was a lot more toned down than what you're probably thinking, then maybe I'd be open to it.

No.

I've barely processed any of that. What the fuck. What are you. No. Just no. To everything you just said. What the fuck.

No, I'd probably start a house fire if I was allowed anywhere near a kitchen.

I prefer to finish stories since I can never let myself live with a cliffhanger.

I don't really have an opinion on that, honestly. I guess it just depends on the guy???

Personally, I don't like to involve myself in fandom discourse. I don't really have an opinion on either of them.

Absolutely.

Please don't come anywhere near me.

Pretty neutral, overall positive. He's a good hero, a nice man as far as I've heard.

It can be a cool style if executed correctly.

A, what kind of question is that??? Why would a normal house need a bank vault???

About a four. There are many things that need to be fixed and many systemic issues whose roots go deep, but it's still salvageable.

Uh, B? This is a joke, right? Just a fun hypothetical, right???

My answer is A, but... can you, uh, explain what the fuck is going on with C? I'm a bit concerned, given question 15.

None of those??? Yes, children should be disciplined, but never with physical violence??? I'm not even going to touch C, but. Yikes.

You have issues.

A. Also my answer to the above question^.

Being in bed with someone, period, is squicky.

Both A and B??? What kind of question is that.

Didn't select C, but I look amazing in black.

A.

Are you compensating for something. Is that what this is.

Hey! All for One is not compensating for anything, do you know how many quirks he has? Why would someone with so many quirks need to compensate for anything? Really, All for One is vulnerable and bares his dreams to you and trample all over him like this...

The fact that you haven't even read Captain Hero is even worse than having poor taste in characters. For shame.

It's very strange that you think it's possible to have too much love. And you think All Might is a good hero? YOU LIKE SPIKEY HAIR? YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THE PURPOSE OF BANK VAULTS? You may be the biggest fool All for One has ever seen, and he's met All Might.

The only thing you have going for you is that you look good in black. This might be the lowest possible score. You definitely must be a younger sibling. You're lucky you submitted this anonymously. All for One has tossed your questionnaire in the trash and will spend the next couple nights sulking about how no one appreciates the versatility of bank vaults.

#AFO Simps

[share-the-damn-bed]

On the one part of the love triangle dying ask.

Tbh, I've long thought Steve was going to die in the final season. Not for any ship reasons though, honestly that makes me hope he doesn't, I just thought it made sense with his character and as an emotional blow to fans.

I know that sounds harsh, but genuinely, we will lose at least one person from season 1, and from a writing perspective, I think Steve makes the most sense. Admittedly some of my reasoning takes meta into account too.

Starting with the kids:

Eleven: could die, but something about her storyline feels more like it should be about finally finding freedom rather than dying to save people

Mike: Honestly, I'm cool with it, but his role in the story, he feels like the least likely character out of everyone to die. Like you know? He's not quite the protagonist, but he was kinda set up as that somewhat in season 1, and even though he's drifted from the role by a lot, he still just feels safe

Lucas: I mean, Idk about the Duffers, but something about killing the only POC character from the original cast leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Will: Too much suffering and pain and story is centered around him. I could see him dying, but I could also see them using his story to end at least somewhat happily to give him a break. He's gonna go through Hell, but considering he never seemed to get the happy time, it feels like they would want to give him that for the ending (imo)

Dustin: Of the kids, he's kinda the most likely in my head. Just both his story and for meta reasons, he has the least keeping him from dying imo. Plus like, him dying would actually hurt so much, because he is truly the kind one who would leave a scar on every character if he died

Teens:

Jonathan: Him dying actually feels so counterproductive to what his story should be. Like him being so selfless and putting everyone he cares about ahead of himself, stepping into a parental role, working to help his mother with money, even feeling like he should break up with Nancy to ensure she gets a happy life, he is always one to give for others since the beginning, and it feels he should learn to value himself more, which doesn't fit with him being killed.

Nancy: Ok, she has more a chance of dying than Jonathan, but idk. She kinda fills the role of main character for the teens of the show, and honestly has heavy final girl energy, which I mean, does put her at risk if the Duffers want to subvert those tropes, but I guess we'll see.

Steve: Was meant to die in season 1. He has the biggest death flags because he started out a little more selfish and stuff than others. Him dying to save people almost feels like that's what his story has been leading up to. And I know he's been more than redeemed, and he has risked his life to save people already, so he doesn't actually need to die for them, but it just also feels right from a story telling perspective too if they want to kill someone off. He has long been my number one theory for dying because of this. Also the fact that fans love him means that it adds that gut punch even more, which you couldn't achieve as well with say Jonathan (who I love, don't get me wrong, but he isn't as loved as Steve). Doesn't help that his main mode of fighting is to fully engage in combat with creatures that are stronger than him.

Adults:

Joyce: She's been through a lot, her kids have been through a lot, she's had a shit life, and it feels like they want to give her the happy ending with Hopper.

Hopper: fake out death at the end of season 3 all but confirmed he survives the whole show to me.

Sorry this is so long, it's just a summary of my thoughts. I didn't want to go into too much detail because it's already long enough, but yeah. Idk, I'm probably way off base, and tbh most people will likely disagree.

These are some really great insights and a great counter point to my Eleven perspective. I'm going to think about this a bit, Anon. Thanks for sharing!!!

#stranger things 4 spoilers #things to consider #hmm

[kimira-k]

❁Chapter 139 discussion❁

I know this has taken a while but I have been busy with things lately, but anyways time to rant about chapter 139.

This chapter Lowkey had me giddy. I'm not going to lie.

I know that the situation is horrible but getting more of Junhyuk's point of view on everything that has happened to them in middle school has been just such a fun ride for me. (You're all suffering and I enjoy it) 

It brings so much more nuance to his character and I just find him even more interesting than before. 

What I want to touch on is his loyalty. This man is loyal to an absolute fault when it comes to Yeonwoo and I love him for that. It's not often that you see friendships portrayed this way where the loyalty is so strong that you have to do a double take and just pause and think about yourself. (The only other parallel I can think of is Zoro and Luffy) 

The way he was ready to risk his entire life to make sure that his childhood best friend was okay. The way he has visibly changed significantly from this one encounter but does not regret it because he now knows that Yeonwoo is safe it's just so heartwarming. 

Yeah, the situation is warped and messed up in every way. He's not going to be able to do what he loves anymore and he is sad about it but the thing is he would do it again even with the knowledge that his leg would be broken in the process. I call that loyalty because THAT is a dedicated friend right there. 

And what makes this even worse is that Yeonwoo knows Junhyuk is not going to change his mind. Junhyuk just trying to gloss over the fact that his leg is broken and lying to Yeonwoo's face about how he doesn't like soccer. It was just a pastime so it's fine that he can't play it anymore is so devastating. 

(THE ONLY SILVER LINING IS THAT I KNOW WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE!!!)

Anyway, I'm going to cease talking about trash like that because it's genuinely not good for my mental health. 

But what hits home is how the art style has gotten so much more muted in a way since the backstory. Like there's just this air of uneasiness now in every chapter and that ripped page at the beginning of every chapter is not helping. Adding insult to injury, the way the facial expressions and the clear eye bags under both Yeonwoo and Junhyuk's eyes show just how messed up they are now…. that is not good food for thought. 

You can tell that this experience has seriously changed their dynamic and it's for the worst. The way Junhyuk looks at Yeonwoo now is like a hawk eyeing its target. In the sense that he's keeping such a close watch on Yeonwoo that you can just feel the intensity in his gaze. 

His entire life got ripped to pieces because now he has the fact that he was part of a school violence committee on his record. But what hit me in the feels is the nightmare that he has about YEONWOO DYING??? The way his parents were crying and that picture of Yeonwoo at the funeral surrounded by white and yellow flowers.

The imagery of those flowers alone has me just ruined. 

The fact that white flowers mean innocence… y'all already know where this is going.  

The title has never hit the same ever since the flashback chapters and the flower imagery is not helping. White flowers symbolize innocence and yellow flowers symbolize happiness

When you read the flashback and you look at that imagery and you look at the title... THAT is like the biggest sucker punch in the gut you could ever feel. Because his innocence is gone and he is not in fact happy at all.

Yellow and White flowers? Esol you're a menace. 

When Junhyuk says “Yeonwoo is broken because of me” I felt that in his soul. I felt that in my soul!!!

The revelation that Yeonwoo was getting better but JUNHYUK was the one who didn't want to move on he was the one who didn't want to get away from their past, he was the one who wanted to keep Yeonwoo with him forever. It honestly just reaffirms the fact that this relationship goes both ways.

Their codependency is 100% codependent. (Heavy on the CO aspect of codependent)

They both have such good intentions that they go about it in such a wrong way and it's just so devastating to watch. 

Now to the meat and butter. Junhyuk's jealousy of Kanga Haesol.

I could honestly write about them alone.

I have a specific end goal for all of the relationships in mind and for Junhyuk and Haesol I desperately need for them to see eye to eye. Because what connects them both is their love for Yeonwoo. They both know what it is like to care about him. They both understand him and they care for him deeply. I want them to bond over that.

Junhyuk’s inferiority complex when it comes to Haesol goes deeper than ‘my best friend has a girlfriend and all he talks about is her’. Junhyuk's inferiority complex is rooted in the simple fact that Haesol could help Yeonwoo when he couldn't.

The fact that he feels this so much that at the end of the chapter that single tear that rolls down his cheek… 

When Nari asked him earlier how he felt about breaking ties with Yeonwoo. 

This right here is how he feels about breaking ties with his best friend. He doesn't want to separate from Yeonwoo, but he feels like he has to. 

At the end of the day, everything Junhyuk does is rooted in the belief that it will make Yeonwoo happier. Even if in the moment Yeonwoo is mad at him for his actions. In the long run, he wants Yeonwoo to be happy even at his own expense.

THE DEDICATION TO FRIENDSHIP IS EVERYTHING!!! 

I could honestly go on around about how intricate the platonic relationship between these two is and how obsessed with it I am but I will not because this essay has gotten long enough. I fear I will be yapping the day away about this topic.

Tell me what you guys think because this is just so fun to me.

#yeonwoo's innocence #manhwa #romance #shoujo #shoujo manga #shoujo manhwa #anime #manga #yeonsol #josei #josei manga #josei romance #manhwa cap #chapter review #shoujo but roles reversed and it's glorious

[bigassheart]

I’ve seen a couple posts about how everyone was wildly out of character and totally inconsistent this season and I’m just like... were you guys paying attention? 

1. Luther

Arguably the biggest shift in character between the two seasons, but it makes sense. Luther spent a year fending for himself and thinking his entire family was dead. 

This is the first time in his life that he had to hold down a job and actually live on his own. It was literally his first time living out in the world among anyone other than his family, and you can see in his reactions with the other characters from that life (the boss, his landlord, those kids that idolize him, and the waitress) that it has really mellowed him out. It has allowed him to be more normal, despite being very much not normal. You can see the way he’s so much more comfortable in his skin. Literally the only times he looks uncomfortable is when he’s fighting people, shirt off and body on full display. He’s still not comfortable with that, but he’s not trying to hide under huge overcoats anymore. He has people in his life who accept him for being a little weird, but really do treat him normal. 

So is he a little less uptight and mission focused? Yeah. Because he can finally see another life, and it’s the life that he honestly did want in season 1 but felt like he couldn’t have because he was number 1 and he had a responsibility to his dad, his family, and the academy to be the leader. Having a year on his own frees him of all that. 

But he also spent all that time thinking his family was dead and feeling so guilty about it. You can see in his very first interaction with Vanya, where he suddenly feels that responsibility again. He brings a gun, not knowing what’s going to happen and, despite what he told Five, he absolutely does still have that lingering feeling of responsibility. But then he sees Vanya and she’s not a threat and everything he has been holding in for the last year comes out. Because he does feel guilty as hell for what he did to Vanya, but also for the fact that his actions pushed her into causing the apocalypse. He spent a year with the knowledge that he did that and thinking that his family was dead because of his actions. 

He’s willing to listen now because he spent a year living in a world where his actions killed his whole family. And now he finds out that that didn’t happen and he has a second chance. Of course he’s going to take it! 

2. Diego

In the first season, Diego finally admitted that he wanted to be close to his family and that he cared about them and wouldn’t leave them again. He confronted the guilt about leaving, which he had previously denied. He realized the difference between revenge and honoring someone’s memory. But despite all that, he never confronted the reason why he, a grown-ass-man, wandered around the city as a leather clad, mask wearing vigilante. 

So when we see Diego show up in 1963, that’s still who he is. He wants to be that hero and he finds an answer for how to be that hero in the first several minutes that he’s there. So he takes it. I mean, what else is he going to do? His family is gone. Maybe they’ll show up again. Maybe this is it. Either way, he’s on his own like he was before, so he’s got a duty to be the hero he has chosen to be. 

And then he meets his dad again. Everyone keeps telling him he has daddy issues, and they’re right. He absolutely has daddy issues. He’s still trying to simultaneously prove that he’s good enough for his dad, but also doesn’t need Daddy’s approval. Except he does need it. He still desperately craves it and he feels gutted when his dad denies him that approval, even falling back into the stutter he had as a kid. 

Now, despite the way we joke, Diego is not dumb. He is so observant and he makes some of the most poignant statements about his siblings and the way they see the world. He sees the people around them and he understands them, but he has never been able to completely turn that gift inwards and see those same things in himself. In this season, Lila breaks through all that and he finally sees himself in her at the end. 

“Do you know how hard it is to trust people when your whole childhood was bullshit manipulation? Then why would you do that to me?”  

Diego sees himself in Lila, in her failure to break away from her mother despite the fact that he knows she wants to. In the final episode, he sees that she is just like the rest of the siblings, but she doesn’t have to be. None of them have to be stuck with their daddy issues, because they have each other. They can support and care for each other. It’s the last step of the growth he started in season 1, moving beyond his tendency to define his life and his family through their father. 

3. Allison

Throughout season 1, Allison struggled with whether or not to use her powers, but it was all centered around getting back to her daughter. When she appears in 1961, that motivation is effectively removed. She thinks everyone else is dead. She thinks that she is stranded in the past and that she will never get back. She finds a group of people to support her and before long... she finds her voice again. 

It’s no coincidence that Allison’s first spoken words in the series come right after she gives Ray that pamphlet with a bunch of added notes. She finds her voice in the civil rights movement. She finds her power there. She finds a way to help change the world, to change reality, and she does it without her powers. 

This is something she struggled with through the entirety of season 1, feeling inadequate for using her powers to get what she wanted, not knowing if anything was real or earned. Now she has the chance to earn everything without those powers and she is thriving. 

And then she is forced to use her powers again. It all turns out fine, but now she’s showing off and experiencing all over again how good it feels to have power. She spent two years in a world where she was denied equal treatment, where she could be arrested and assaulted for any reason those with more power came up with. And now she feels that power... She doesn’t have to wait for people to give her respect. She can demand it. But the pain is still there, and it’s not enough to just be respected, because these people have hurt her. They almost killed her husband. They have used their power to cause pain to her and all those who look like her time and time again and now it’s time to understand what it’s like to be powerless, to be hurt and to be unable to stop it and... 

And it’s scary. It’s scary to have that much power, to see how you could become the kind of person who uses your power to hurt others. And she knows that her power has hurt people she loves and suddenly she’s right back where she started. 

Only not entirely. 

She doesn’t shy away from her powers in the final fight. She is obviously still finding that balance and I would expect this struggle to continue for her in future seasons. Power can be addicting and Allison’s power is so strong. She knows the danger there, but she also knows that sometimes it’s needed despite the danger. 

4. Klaus

Klaus is an addict. He finds obsessions to bury himself in to avoid dealing with reality. In season 1, he buried himself in drugs and booze. When he shows up in the 60′s, he finds a new drug to bury himself in: adoration. 

Klaus is so impulsive and it’s not difficult to connect the dots of how one thing leads to another until suddenly everything is out of his control. Honestly, that’s the story of Klaus’s life, no matter where he goes. And then something changes. He gets tired of his cult and leaves. Except... that’s not really the reason. 

After all this time, Dave is still the love of his life, and he knows he has an opportunity. He knows where Dave will be at this one time and he knows exactly what he has to change to keep Dave alive. 

He also knows that Ben is going to have thoughts about this. 

I know some people were disappointed that there wasn’t more Klaus and Ben bonding this season, but it makes sense that there is tension there. I think a lot of that tension comes from Ben’s circumstances, which I’ll discuss later, but Klaus is also not responding to that tension well. 

They are fighting more than ever (not that they ever didn’t fight in season 1, where they spent much of their time being snarky to each other and Ben literally punching Klaus in the face for being an asshole), but the fighting is about something new this season. Ben wants his own life and Klaus is not in a position to give Ben what he really wants. We also learn that he has been carrying around this guilt for the last 17 years about forcing Ben to stick around as a ghost. He forced this half-life on his brother and now that it’s not enough for Ben, Klaus doesn’t want to deal with it. So he avoids and deflects and snarks and we see the toll on their relationship. We see it in the way he tries to deal with his plans around Dave entirely on his own. He focuses so much into that last ditch effort. He’s already in such a low place before this, so when that fails, we see him snap. We see him give up and crumble. And Ben falls back to his old role, trying to save Klaus from himself. 

But the tension isn’t gone and Klaus’s guilt isn’t gone. We see it again when Klaus finally agrees to let Ben possess him. Klaus has always been afraid of his powers and being possessed is just as terrifying a thought as being surrounded by the dead. And yet he gives Ben that chance. It’s the last good thing he can do at that point. 

I do wish we had gotten more closure for Klaus and Ben’s story. I think Vanya’s reveal could have been given a little more time, but that’s not really a problem with inconsistent characterization, so we’ll save that for another post. 

5. Five

OK, who would argue that Five was out of character or inconsistent? He’s obsessed with stopping the apocalypse, is willing to cross a lot of lines to save his family, and constantly frustrated by his family’s failure to go along with his plans. This is textbook Five. 

What I loved about this season was that we got to see Five finally meeting his father again. They interact as two adults, not as a child trying to find away to become his own person, frustrated by a lack of trust from his father. It allows Reggie to see Five in a different light and to actually provide advice in a constructive way, something he has almost never been able to do when viewing them as his children. But despite outward appearances and despite the fact that Five is a grown man, he still sees his father the same way he always has. He doesn’t register Reggie’s advice as advice. He hears that he’s striving beyond his abilities and that maybe he can only travel in seconds. He hears his father telling him he can’t handle time travel. That’s why he doesn’t try to actually take the very good advice until the very end.  

An old dog can still occasionally learn a new trick and Five proves that true. 

6. Ben

As I mentioned earlier, Ben is chaffing at his ghosthood. Maybe it’s because Klaus has been sober enough to keep Ben around solidly for 3 years. Maybe it’s because Ben is no longer spending all his time trying to keep Klaus alive and sober. Or maybe it’s the fact that he has finally found someone that he actually wants to spend time with. Whatever the reason, Ben wants to be alive this season. 

Again, as I mentioned, that’s causing some tension. Ben doesn’t want to be tied to Klaus, but Klaus is ignoring that because he feels so guilty about it. Ben doesn’t want to admit that he was too scared to go into the light on his own, so they’re at a bit of a standstill. 

And then Ben gets the opportunity to be alive again, if only for a while. And in a lot of ways, it’s wonderful! But it’s not the same as being truly alive. 

So when the time comes, when he’s faced with that light again... he’s not afraid. He knows that it’s time to move on. He knows this isn’t where he should be, but he also got the chance to be there for his family. He misses them, but he got to talk to Diego and Vanya. He got to save Vanya. He got to save Allison and Diego and Klaus and Luther and Five and the whole world! So while he would have stayed, he’s not sad about leaving anymore, and he’s not afraid. 

7. Vanya

OK, she was a little out of character because... you know. She had amnesia. 

But aside from erasing her past, the amnesia allowed us to see Vanya without the anger and resentment that plagued her for all of season one. Vanya was always someone who was kind and loving, someone who cares enough to leave peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches out for a missing brother for years. Someone who knows the pain of not being seen and who will always take the time to truly see other people. She’s someone who wants to love and to be loved and to protect those she loves. 

That was all here, with or without the memories. And as soon as the memories came back, so did the guilt and fear about what she had done, what she had become, terrified of what was inside her in a way that she was not when her powers first surfaced. But Ben is used to being afraid of what’s inside of him. He knows she’s not a monster and is the perfect person to explain that to her. And this time around, she has experienced the love and care and attention of her siblings (and Sissy) to back up those words. That’s how she finally accepts them as truth, how she finally accepts her power as a part of her. 

Overall, there are things that I wish this season spent more time with, but there was nothing that I felt was out of character or wildly inconsistent. The characters still struggled with all the baggage from their shitty childhood, their fear of their powers, and the guilt in their past. Some struggled in new ways this season and some continued old struggles that had never fully been resolved. The season felt very different than the first, but it still felt like the Umbrella Academy. It was a good mix of new and old and a good mix of feel-good moments we have all been waiting for and frustrating and sad moments that just come with having a complicated family. I loved this season. And now, I’m going to go re-watch every episode. 

#tua s2 spoilers #tua season 2 #tua analysis #The Umbrella Academy #tua #luther hargreeves #diego hargreeves #alison hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #five hargreeves #ben hargreeves #vanya hargreeves

[stxleslyds]

I have read your thought about the Batfamily, now I really want to know your thought about the one who started it, the Batman himself. We can't ignore the fact that Bruce is abusing his children, but there's also some moments where he's being a good father to them. But some of his act doesn't make sense.

He's beating his children, then calling them his son after. He act like a mad man after Damian's death (yeah, they did Jason dirty in here), feeling sorrow and desperately wanting to ressurect him, but then neglecting him continously in the future. I didn't know much about Cass, Bruce seems to always be a good father to her. But her fans once pointed that Bruce (or DC) is too hard on her to not killing/too soft on the others, because the other batkids has killed some villains while under Batman and still got to continue putting on their costumes.

What is exactly Bruce character? How is his relationship with every one of his children?

I feel like Batman can't be in a good relationship with one of his children without destroying his relationship with the other. I always love parents and children relationship in comics, but with batfamily sometimes it just so 'fanon-y' and some are hurtful.

I stopped reading Batman book for a long time. And come back reading that wedding and city of bane arc, because I want to know how they killed Alfred. And honestly those run are terrible. The issue basically just a batcat fanservice, with the worst Batman and Catwoman characterization ever. The batkids didn't even got many appearance and treated awfully as if they are just extras, even if they all are capable and have connection with Alfred.

Hey there Anon!

My thoughts on Batman and Bruce have changed over the last few years, he wasn’t the character that introduced me to DC comics but what I got to read from him at the time seemed good. As time went by, I started to feel like the whole concept of Batman was overrated and he kinda tired me in entertainment such as movies and all that. He never truly was a character that I actually liked so by the time that I read Under the Red Hood I knew that I liked Dick and Jason better than Bruce.

Batman was interesting but I was completely indifferent about Bruce. That whole thing changed around the time that the New 52 was sort of ending, there I started to heavily dislike Bruce and then that turned into pure hate. Now, I am just tired of the guy and every time that he appears in Dick or Jason content my day is ruined.

I hate that DC has been writing Bruce as an abusive and manipulative person and father to his “kids”, he has done a lot of wrong to them in comic history but all went to shit (in current comics) when Bruce tried to manipulate Jason into reliving the day that he died and his resurrection in Batman and Robin vol2. #20 and when he beat Dick and manipulated him into becoming a spy after telling him that he had told everyone that he was dead in Nightwing vol.3 #30.

Bruce was a horrible human being in the pre-New 52 timeline too sometimes, mostly towards Dick but in a way, it felt like Dick was able time and time again to get away from him a little bit. Now none of his kids are given the opportunity to turn their backs on Bruce, they are kept in his surroundings no matter how abusive he becomes towards them.

My biggest problem with Bruce’s abusiveness is the fact that the writers never treat it like he acts in an abusive way, they never make him apologize or have an internal discussion where he realises that he was in the wrong. “Bruce is a horrible person to his sons but it doesn’t matter because he is right and he is Batman so that’s that”, that’s the message that I feel DC is selling us. Bruce never receives punishment or is called out for his behaviour, Dick was never able to tell Bruce that what he did to him was unforgivable, he never got the chance to explain to anyone that he didn’t play dead, and when he came back from Spyral he took all the shit from his “family” himself.

Sometimes DC does something even worse, they try to hide Bruce’s neglect with things that never happened like they did with the Ric thing in Dick’s case. Dick was passed around from villain to villain when he was most vulnerable and at the end of it all DC had the guts to say that Batman had been watching over Dick all the time. Like, why lie in such a blatant way? Does Bruce enjoy watching his son suffer from a far or was he too much of a coward to tell Dick that he was a shit father, got stuck in a hole and then decided to play “Cat and Bat” with Selina instead of caring for any of his children?

The situation with Damian’s death and resurrection was a whole thing that was meant to prove that Bruce loved Damian and considered him his son. But in their effort to make Bruce look like a good father to Damian they completely destroyed his relationship with his other kids and that was also the start of Bruce referring to Damian as his ONLY son. And like you said after Damian was resurrected Bruce ended up neglecting him afterwards which ultimately led Damian to run away.

His relationship with Cass and Duke is something that I cannot explore because I am not into those characters and they are involved in books that I am not interested in. So I cannot say anything about that.

With Tim it’s complicated because I feel like his relationship with him was never actually father/son it was more like mentor/mentee and that seemed to work better for them, ever since they started the whole family thing Bruce started to act a little bit too rough towards Tim and that ended with Bruce punching Tim during the “City of Bane” arc. Bruce never apologised or was shown realising his mistake, but DC made sure to explain that Bruce was going through a rough time so that’s why he did it. It was pure rubbish and I dislike it a lot.

I answered an ask a while ago about how I thought Dick and Jason could become family the way that DC treats the “Batfamily” within comics and I came up with the idea of the “Dickfamily” because I felt like DC made a big mistake the moment they revolved the Bat family around Bruce and not Dick. Bruce is a character that is known for being lonely and for being surrounded by darkness that he only manages to escape through the light of Robin (Dick Grayson because he was the first), he was always depicted as someone who is hard to work with and considers his teammates only co-workers and not friends. He is a difficult person to connect with, so why on earth did DC come up with a family surrounding that man? (I actually know the answer to that question and it is: money, DC did it to sell more comics under the Batman name but we are going to forget about that here, let me be petty).

Why would DC make it all about a man that doesn’t connect or goes out of his way to say that he “works alone” when Dick Grayson is standing right there? DC hates that they created a character like Dick because he is just better than Bruce at everything, he just is, he is better family to Alfred, Jason, Tim and Damian, he was even written as a better father to Damian than Bruce ever was!

Bruce is just not a people person or a person that forms strong bonds with people. And that makes the whole “Batfamily” concept suffer and come off as something forced that doesn’t actually work.

Tom King was one of the writers that tried to kill the concept of the “Batfamily” with Bruce and Selina becoming a couple and by continuously saying that Selina was who was the most important person in Bruce’s life and the one that made him a better person. All Tom King did with that is make fans and non-fans of the “Batfamily” feel rage. Like, I might not like the “Batfamily” but there is no way that Selina comes first to Alfred, Dick or Damian, there is just no way and if that were actually true then that’s boring.

All the writers that have pushed the “Batfamily” concept (try) do it in a way that makes it look grand and of actual essence but without putting any work on it, if you ask me the “Batfamily” (if there has to be one) should only include Bruce, Alfred (he do be dead though), Dick, Tim, Cass and Damian (I suppose Duke too, I don’t know much about him). The “Batfamily” has to be small because that way you can actually build relationships and make them matter. Having Kate, Steph, Jason and so many others involved in a concept that was made to fit around Bruce looks stupid! Bruce has had almost zero connection to Kate and Steph in the last ten years and Bruce’s “relationship” with Jason is a complete joke!

Bruce is just not the character that is meant to be surrounded by too much people, and he is not a good person towards his family so the whole ass concept should be thrown to the trash and finally let it die. But money is important and if there is something that DC will never stop doing, is milking Batman for content that can be (sometimes) pretty basic.

All in all, I think Bruce sucks and that his “kids” shouldn’t be dragged back to him ever again or at least for a long while. All of them would actually benefit from not being involved with anything relating to Batman. Dick could benefit from Bruce and other Bat-related characters staying away from him and letting him live his life in Bludhaven. And Jason? My sweet Chonky? He would be in such a better place if Bruce disappeared from his life, imagine the actually good books we would have if Jason was free to act the way he was meant to do as the Red Hood…

(We saw a little bit of that in the back up story of Detective Comics by Rosenberg, Batman is still involved but he and Jason are definitely not on the same side of the story! So excited for Task Force Z!)

I don’t know If al that I just said answers your question but I hope you have a fantastic week Anon!

#batfamily #batfam #jason tood #dick grayson #bruce wayne #damian wayne #dc comics #asksss

[just-a-creep-babe]

Hello, I am here with a request if that is ok, I was thinking about how would Eyeless jack, BEN Drowned, and our three favourite proxies react to an S/O who is very quiet and shy yet out of no where she defends herself easily out in the woods by herself without even knowing her lover was there, then when they ask her about how she did it she says that she got it from watching them

Oki poki so I’m not sure if this is what you wanted, but I hope it’s ok!! Also I changed like,,, the verb tense (is that even what you call it? Idk skdhdkdjdk) but I changed it a couple times n ahhhh I just don’t know, it might read kinda weird, I sowey 🥺👉👈 But I hope you enjoy nonetheless!!

~Requests are closed~

Masterlist: x

BEN Drowned

“Woah”

Is that his s/o he just witnessed??

His adorable little reserved s/o that just beat the crap out of some rando who was bugging her?

Boy’s absolutely amazed

He jumps out of her phone & immediately has a ~shit ton~ of questions because he’s blown away 

“Are you ok? Did he hurt you!? Holy shit, that was sick, (y/n)! Where’d you learn to do that?!”

When she explains herself, he honestly gets kinda flustered & bashful

But then his regular shit-eating grin returns and he tries to play it off like it’s nothing

“Of course you got it from me, I’m pretty badass” he scoffs

Honestly though, he’s super flattered & honored and just??

Like wowie, he doesn’t know what he did to deserve such an amazing s/o

A very proud ghost bf uwu

Eyeless Jack

Boy was following her scent through the forest so they could meet up & hang out

And, having lived in the mansion for quite some time now, he’s grown to be pretty unfazed by all manners of things that happen around him

But he really wasn’t expecting to stumble in on his shy little s/o pressing her foot into someone’s neck on the ground

And then she gives what sounds like a warning before letting them go, and the stranger scrambles off into the woods

His first instinct is to immediately race over & check her for any injuries—and he’s bIG TIME relieved when it turns out she’s fine

When she finally explains herself after, like, the 12th time of reassuring him she’s fine skdjdkl, his black heart swells with pride

He’s pretty stoic, so it’s hard to read what he’s feeling, but his protective instincts definitely have him sticking closer around her for the rest of the night

And later that evening, when he thinks back to what happened, he gets mad at himself for not being better for his little mate

He knows he can’t actually be there for her 24/7, but he wants to try to put in more effort to assure her overall safety

He’s super proud she defended herself this time, but what if the next creep is much stronger??

The whole thing just makes him stalk follow her around a lot more tbh, even when she might not realize it

He also starts second-guessing himself a lot more than he already did

Is he a bad influence? If she gets used to seeing his eating/hunting habits, will it affect her in the long run?

Boy ends up with lots of existential questions, and she has to reassure him a lot tbh :/

But honestly, homeboy should know by now that she doesn’t want a normal life if it means not being with him uwu

Masky

He sees his s/o pining someone down, and for a split second, he almost gets the wrong idea

Maybe she isn’t who he thinks she is—maybe she’s a lot more brazen and open and… unashamed

But then he realizes that she isn’t, in fact, cheating on him or anything like that, and he’s immediately ashamed of ever even thinking she’d betray him like that

He walks up to them and he is pissed

The stranger doesn’t stand a chance

After he deals with them, he pulls her impossibly close to him and asks a million questions all too suddenly

“Who was that? Where did they come from? How long have they been following you? How did you learn to do that?”

When she explains, he gets quiet for a moment, and again, because of the mask, it’s kinda be hard to tell what he’s thinking

It’s almost,, kinda scary ngl

But he just gets that way because he’s crazy worried for her

And he’s super proud she could defend herself, but he understands the risks of fighting almost better than anyone else

So he definitely wants to teach her more about self-defence—while also lowkey feeling soft that she originally learned from him without him even teaching her in the first place

He honestly feels kinda bad for not teaching her sooner—oop

Overall starts being more protective of her too, while also seeing her in a new light

Guess his cute little s/o is actually pretty damn badass, huh?

Hoodie

He‘d be trying to find his s/o when he hears someone else in the forest

So naturally, he decides to check it out

And when he sees his s/o kicking the shit out of some shady person, he gets this huge grin tugging at his lips because damn, that’s my babe

Like he’s pretty amused ngl skdjdjsls

He sticks around in the shadows for a while, watching until the creep eventually scrambles away with their tail between their legs

And then he sneaks up behind her & wraps his arms around her to nuzzle into her neck

Almost earning a punch to the gut but, c’mon, what’d he expect? Skdjdkl

When she tells him what happened & how she knew what to do, he offers teaching her more right away

Will arrange plenty of training/workout sessions, no further questions asked

He’s probably the most chill about what he saw tbh

Like he knows quiet people have it in them to be scary, being quiet himself, so it isn’t much of a cause for concern

And he doesn’t stress over it because, hey, they managed to beat them up, so she’s probably already stronger & better at fighting than most

Sprinkle in some extra prep & tips from a skilled stalker/killer?

Whew, boy knows his precious little s/o will become a force to be reckoned with

And he’s damn proud of it, too

Ticci Toby

Boy sees shit going down & immediately rushes over to knock the other person tf out

He acts on impulse cause not only is that what he’s used to doing—but also how dare someone even think of harming his perfectly adorable little s/o??

He has to stop himself from chopping them up right then & there

The only thing stopping him is his s/o, who he doesn’t wanna end up traumatizing :/

Like BEN and EJ, he asks a shit ton of questions while frantically looking her over for any kind of injuries

“Oh my f-fucking God, are you alright?! What ha—what happened?! Jesus, (y/n), y-you know I love you—I love you so fucking much, right!? Holy shit, you—you fucking kicked ass!!”

She earns the biggest bone-crushing hug ever combined with an excited squee! when she explains where she learned moves like that

He’s so damn proud that he has to resist smothering her in countless bouts of affection

Definitely finds some kind of way to celebrate later on that evening :3

And it’s only after his initial rush of joy that he realizes it could’ve ended badly

He’s lost a lot of people throughout his life & he doesn’t want the same thing happening to his s/o, so he’d ask around for advice on how to protect them better

He ends up teaching them more self defence stuff while also watching them a lil more closely too

But he’s sO damn proud, it honestly gives him a happy high for a good few days ngl <33

It’s like he’s your hero!!

The thought alone motivates him to keep treating you better because you really are one in a million uwu

#creepypasta #creepypasta x reader #Ben drowned #eyeless Jack #Masky #hoodie #Ticci Toby

[shihalyfie]

The Kaiser wasn’t very good at being a villain (and that’s the point, actually)

Ken’s journey of redemption is generally well-documented overall, and it was explicit enough in the series that there’s only so much you really need to explain it, but due to the blurred boundary of what was supernatural influence from the Dark Seed and what was Ken’s own emotional problems wreaking havoc, it’s somewhat more difficult to bridge that gap between the Kaiser and Ken, and how they can be the same person.

The easiest way to understand it comes from both directions. One is that Ken, even in his normal element, is much more assertive than he’s often given credit for -- it’s just that the Kaiser is a (fragile) manifestation of that very carefully cultivated to channel that in all of the wrong directions. The other has to do with the fact that the Kaiser is actually really terrible at being a villain, and the persona itself is very fragile and difficult for him to maintain.

Rewatching the first half of 02 shows multiple indications that, for all he seemed to be the stereotype “evil genius”, Ken was forcing himself into the mold. He was never cut out for it from day one. Even from the beginning, Ken’s actual nature as a lonely and inherently kind eleven-year-old child was tearing apart at the Kaiser persona, and the fateful episode 21 was not so much a single turning point for him as much as it was the last straw in a series of things tumbling down for him.

Before we continue: While all of the meta on this blog is only possible thanks to support and input from a handful of friends (whose names will not be disclosed on account of privacy requests), this one in particular arose from a long and extensive discussion with said friends that I am extremely grateful for. As always, I hope I was able to convey your points well.

Well, firstly, it’s important to understand that, much like nearly any other character in this series, Ken’s surface demeanor is a bit deceptive. The Crest of Kindness has the original Japanese name of yasashisa (優しさ), which has a secondary meaning of “gentleness” (lost in translation, but still apparent with the bubble metaphor in 02 episode 23). That also ties into the secondary meaning of “kind” -- it’s not just about being naturally “soft”, but actively choosing to be gentle with others even when you’re theoretically capable of not doing so. (For those of you who have seen Appmon, the entire point of that series was about what it means to consciously and deliberately choose to be kind, and, in fact, quite a few parallels could be made between Ken and Haru...)

The contrast between Daisuke and Ken goes far beyond just the surface. Daisuke’s surface demeanor is abrasive, but he’s not actually very good at being assertive until push comes to shove, and he otherwise tends to bend easily to others or get overwhelmed; in contrast, Ken has a more polite demeanor and for the most part seems non-confrontational, but has much stronger control of his emotions and is more easily able to be assertive than Daisuke is. (Of course, both of them share the common point of being like-minded when it’s something that really matters, but Ken is much better at imposing his will and getting what he wants done before Daisuke ever gets to that point, which is what fuels the whole punchline of Daisuke and Ken’s Shopping Carol.)

So, the point is: Daisuke is kind out of instinct and just “naturally” being so, but Ken is kind because he consciously believes in treating others well and not causing conflict, and not causing pain to others.

That’s not to say that Ken’s behavior is out of suppression or anything! It’s not a case like Takeru, who’s trying to push complicated emotions down while pretending they’re not boiling under the surface, nor is he like Hikari, who’s compulsively pressing her emotions down out of a desire not to burden others. Rather, even as early as 02 episode 26, he’s very straightforward about what his issue is and what he thinks about it. Ken’s “shyness” during the latter half of 02 is largely due to shame and hesitation from not knowing the other 02 kids well, but as the series goes on and as we go into post-02 material, he indicates that he’s perfectly wiling to be vocal about what he thinks without necessarily fighting any compulsion to suppress it. For someone who claims he doesn’t know much about his own heart, he arguably seems to have the best grip on understanding himself compared to a lot of this cast!

So in essence, the main take-home here is that Ken is theoretically capable of being strong-willed and assertive, and is very good at choosing when he wants to be assertive and when he wants to hold back. And he likes seeing people get along, and he wants everyone to be happy, and he doesn’t like seeing people be hurt or hurting others, and under normal circumstances, Ken has very good control of his emotions for the most part and quite a lot of self-awareness. That’s why Ken is the one to get the unique designation of this Crest; everyone in this cast can be said to be generous and supportive of others in some form, but there’s a difference between being a “natural” doormat who defers to others by default (Daisuke being a very good indicator of how this kind of mentality has a flip side of lack of self-esteem and high insecurity, and Tamers’s Takato being a good indication of how “being deferential” doesn’t necessarily preclude you from having tendencies towards selfishness or cowardice), versus choosing to be kind by understanding everything and still being gentle out of a belief that it’s the right thing to do (again: see Shinkai Haru). And it’s why Wormmon says in the 02 episode 23 flashback that Ken’s kindness can be used against him; being “kind” in this way requires a lot of mental fortitude, strength, and guts, all of which are things that could easily be very bad things when applied in the wrong direction.

This means that all the Dark Seed really needed to do in order to turn him into the Kaiser...was make him lose grip on that self-control.

Actually, Ken says it himself in less-than-subtle words in Spring 2003:

…It was revenge. But who was this revenge against? Did I want to triumph over the ones who made fun of me? The ones who looked down on me and used me? But… In the end, it was revenge against myself. I couldn’t do anything but deny the kind of human being that I was.

So in other words, the Kaiser persona was, effectively, a self-loathing eleven-year-old boy throwing a massive tantrum. A lot of the Kaiser’s actions in the first half of 02 are honestly rather petty -- he’s basically upset at the kids spoiling his holiday in 02 episode 6, he attempts torturing Daisuke out of a petty grudge over a soccer sliding tackle in 02 episode 8, and everything to do with expanding his territory and eventually (hopefully?) becoming ruler of the Digital World is frankly very sloppy. For all he’s said to be a genius, his genius only seems to extend to book smarts, and his “tactical planning abilities” never really expand beyond that of a soccer field sort of affair; his way of locking down control on other things is basically just “brainwash it harder” or “whip it harder” and applying harder brute force instead of doing something in the long-term like, say, trying to rule with charisma and recruiting allies.

(Again, bringing Appmon back into this, seeing Cloud in action will give you a much better example of a charismatic human villain who’s actually competent at his job. Or, heck, you can even look back at Savers’s Kurata, who at least was savvy enough to pull strings with people in powerful positions. Or even the Kaiser’s predecessor Saiba Neo from V-Tamer, who may have been openly sadistic but still had the sense to align himself with background power. Really, compared to all of these folks, the Kaiser is downright pathetic.)

Remembering that Ken fell into the Kaiser persona partially as a desperate attempt to become a “perfect person” like Osamu, Ken “imitated” Osamu’s cruelty to him because he felt that was how he could improve himself to become a “strong” person better than him. But the irony here is that Osamu’s “cruelty” was something that he himself never liked, and mainly came from lashing out at Ken due to feeling like he had a lack of control over his own life. So Osamu was never happy in that position, and Ken, who is indirectly pointed out via the bubble metaphor to be even more fundamentally inclined towards gentleness, is probably even more miserable.

Because everything Ken does as the Kaiser is “unfocused lashing out at everyone”, the Kaiser has less control over his emotions than Ken normally would. Takeru manages to emotionally pin him to a corner by confronting him with enough assertion in 02 episode 19 (this is before he punches him), and correctly points out that the Kaiser isn’t capable of winning with words (i.e. ideologically) and resorts to violence as the first thing he can think of. You’d think that if the Kaiser were actually someone with the self-confidence to consider the other Chosen Children beneath him, he wouldn’t even bother giving them the time of day, but Takeru just happening to be a little assertive is enough to make him lose his composure and start falling apart, and a lot of his shaken “insects!” yelling comes from him seeming pretty desperate to cling onto that rather than being all that confident about his natural superiority over anyone. 02 episode 20 establishes that he’s getting himself in over his head by tampering with the powers of darkness he can’t control, and while, on a plot level, it means that he’s misjudged his own capabilities, on a metaphorical level, it corresponds to the fact that even Ken himself is incapable of getting himself out of the emotional abyss he’s in.

And on the flip side, one of the biggest “tells” that Ken is still miserable during all of this is 02 episode 9, where he’s seen ruminating on the “glory” he’s getting in the real world despite having just decided to leave it all behind. The episode prior, after all, had been called “The Digimon Kaiser’s Loneliness”. The media is using him like some kind of “hot topic”, his parents’ affection (in his mind) is shallow and based only on his achievements, and he has no friends (how much of a role Akiyama Ryou played in his childhood is unclear, but either way, he’s no longer around now). With no emotional support coming from any direction in the real world, he’s resorting to at least trying to have some “fun” in what he perceives to be a “game”, and yet he’s still not having fun at all.

If you look carefully at a lot of the Kaiser’s actions during the first half of the series, one thing you’ll notice is that there are multiple indications that he’s not quite up to par to being as sadistic as you’d think he’d be. Recalling that we learn in 02 episodes 20-21 that the Kaiser is under the impression that the Digital World is like a game that he can “reset” and the Digimon in it not real living beings, it has interesting implications of the fact that he’s actually very hesitant to physically harm other human beings -- he certainly likes emotionally toying with them, but even when he’s trying to take petty revenge on Daisuke in 02 episode 8, he goes out of his way to set up a trap with Bakemon to torture him rather than, well, actually using the kids as hostages. That’s a hell of a lot of work to do, but he instead uses this extremely roundabout way to get them out of the picture in a somewhat less harmful way, risking having them escape (which is exactly what happens).

And in 02 episode 19, when Takeru confronts him and he ends up whipping him, you can hear a slight “...gh?” in the Japanese audio for a split second right after that, meaning that the Kaiser is, for some reason, having a hard time dealing with the fact that he just hit Takeru, and he does a very poor job defending himself against Takeru punching him out despite ostensibly being trained in judo. (Seriously, if you watch the animation of the scene, he’s just lying there while Takeru repeatedly punches the hell out of him, because he’s so out of it.) Regarding the Digimon, he’s convinced himself that they’re not living beings, but regarding the human Chosen Children, who undeniably are, no matter how much he might look down on them, he has a suspiciously hard time harming them as much as he could...

On top of that, one interesting question that might come up to one rewatching the first half of 02 is the strange “contradiction” of why the Kaiser ostensibly seems to hate Wormmon so much, calling him an unworthy idea of a partner in 02 episodes 10 and 19, and yet does remarkably little to get Wormmon away from him or off his case (he hates Wormmon calling him “Ken-chan”, yet doesn’t really try very hard to stop him). He could have easily locked Wormmon away in a cage or something if he really wanted to -- actually, there’s the question, why doesn’t he slap an Evil Ring on him? Because in the end, Wormmon is the only emotional support he’s really getting, and so it’s likely he unconsciously doesn’t want to lose that. Recalling that Digimon are fundamentally linked to the inner self, the Kaiser rejecting Wormmon for being “weak” is analogous to Ken rejecting his own self for being “weak” and “not perfect” -- which means that the fact he still keeps Wormmon around is analogous to the fact that Ken hasn’t really been able to bring himself to completely let his fundamental nature go. And, hence, it’s why he gets so initially incensed at Wormmon’s “betrayal” at 02 episode 10 (and yet still keeps him around despite that), and is ultimately emotionally destroyed by his death in 02 episode 21.

Although, actually, if you look carefully at 02 episode 21, it’s not quite Wormmon’s death that necessarily does it -- the turning point where he sheds the Kaiser persona is right before that (and in case you have any doubts, the animation puts highlights in his eyes for the first time in the series right at that point). Wormmon’s death is the first major consequence of his actions that he has to deal with, but what actually brought Ken back to his senses was his own realization that Digimon are living beings, that his actions have had permanent effects this whole time, and that he can’t take back anything he’d done.

Remember that 02 is a series that is largely about moving on and accepting that you can’t change the past, and that you have to move forward regardless of that. Ken’s fall into sadism was only possible by driving him into extremely deep-seated denial -- he was already starting to face the potential reality of Digimon being real, existing beings in the real world an episode prior. He says, outright, in 02 episode 21, that part of the reason he came to the Digital World to do all of this was escapism -- and, presumably, under the idea that any mistake he made could be rolled back and redone, unlike Osamu’s death. But the Digital World is not a place you can reset like a game, Ken will have to live with the consequences of his actions again, and moreover, every single one of the actions he’d been convincing himself were relatively meaningless had caused severe and permanent harm, and the entire thing overwhelms him.

It’s also important to point out that this was probably where the Dark Seed had to work a lot of magic to get Ken to embrace this kind of denial so easily -- after all, it’s established in the final quarter of the series that it does have a tangible impact on personality and puts a damper on one’s ability to feel empathy. In the flashback in 02 episode 23, regardless of whether Ken considered the Digital World to be a “game” or “able to be reversed” or not, he clearly still didn’t care and treated those around him with proper kindness (even if he did consider it to be all of that, it probably wouldn’t have been entirely unlike how a lot of us have a hard time picking rude choices in video games). It’s a very complicated chain reaction of events that allowed this to be even possible, and it was so against his fundamental nature that once the denial broke and Ken reached his limit, he wasn’t able to do it anymore. The Chosen Children’s main role in 02 episode 21 was really just cleaning up the massive mess he’d made in the form of Chimeramon, but as far as the whole thing about the Kaiser’s persona completely falling apart and Ken being forced to confront his own self goes, that was pretty much all Ken and Wormmon, in a series of dominoes that had already been collapsing for episodes on end.

The following episodes have Ken treat the 02 team with a certain amount of detachment, and this is often construed by a handful of people as being reflective of Ken being standoffish of some sort. The fact that Daisuke and Ken are often promoted in franchise materials as “rivals” mainly due to them being in the “protagonist and right-hand-man” position such characters are in might tempt you to think that way, but they are most definitely not!! (Considering that even saying that Taichi and Yamato fit that mold is a bit questionable, and neither Ruki nor Jian quite fulfill the expectations of the role in regards to the genre-subverting Tamers, Frontier, which is explicitly said to be deliberately written to be conventional, is probably the first proper execution of this trope in the form of Takuya and Kouji.) Ken’s detachment from the group at this time in the series is something he actually gives the reason for quite directly: he believes it’s his fault and doesn’t want to burden them with what he considers to be his job, and in the end Daisuke ultimately breaks through to him and they become completely normal friends who get along. “Rival” what?

Ken is, at worst, distant during this point of the series, but he’s actually very straightforward about what he wants and intends to do; it’s just that he’s being a bit blunt about it because he’s still drowning in his shame and not sure how to approach them. (Also, consider the fact he was rather lacking in friends or a support group before all of this; he doesn’t have a lot of experience in socializing, either.) So he keeps everyone at arm’s length, and the reason he comes off as so standoffish is because he’s so assertive! He directly and bluntly makes some very strong remarks about how he believes everyone else shouldn’t be getting involved! Again, when left to his own devices and not being manipulated into by a supernatural evil seed into multiple levels of denial, Ken is very in control of what he wants and thinks, and is even very open about speaking his mind.

That’s even when they’re not good decisions, mind you. Ken starts off the climax of 02 episode 26 being very firm about wanting to suicidally throw himself into the reactor in order to stop it, and 02 episode 30 has him consider himself a burden to the team after the fallout with Iori and try to stay out of it despite them very badly needing his presence, which Daisuke (of all people!) rightfully calls him out for being childish about. But he also listens to reason very quickly and acknowledges the others’ point very easily, with Daisuke reminding him in 02 episode 26 that his suicidal recklessness is actually pretty self-centered and short-sighted of him, since it’ll prevent him from doing anything else to take responsibility for his actions going forward, and Miyako, uh, slapping him in 02 episode 30. (But he comes quietly right away as if acknowledging his own idiocy, and never holds it against her thereafter.)

Nevertheless, the point is: you can see that this kind of assertiveness is the same kind of assertiveness he had as the Kaiser, just channeled in a different direction and for a different purpose. But as the Kaiser, he was angrily lashing out at anything and everything and stepping on anything he could just so he could have a show of power; once he comes back to his senses, he reserves that force for it being something he consciously believes is the right thing to do (regardless of whether it’s actually the right thing to do or not).

Because of the fact Ken spends a lot of the last quarter of 02 suffering and parsing a lot of trauma, a lot of people have tended to pin him as constantly sad and being a soft crybaby, but that couldn’t be further from the truth! Despite all the emotional pain he goes through, Ken has a hell of a ton of strength through all of this -- he even flings a well-aimed quip at Oikawa in 02 episode 44 despite being in a completely helpless situation, and in 02 episode 45 he himself is the one who volunteers to open the gate to the Dark Ocean, despite knowing exactly what it entails. That takes a lot of guts, and all things considered, his recovery from being the Kaiser spans only four months and is altogether incredibly fast given what he went through -- it did not take long for him to regain his bearings and get himself back on track. Again, it’s the same kind of “assertiveness” and capacity for action that fuels what the Kaiser did, just better controlled and in a direction Ken knows he actually wants.

This is also why I tend to object to insinuations that Ken would be overly touchy about or traumatized by the mere discussion of him being the Kaiser in the aftermath of 02, because the series itself, multiple times, portrayed him as being very able to talk about his experiences bluntly and honestly, at worst maybe considering it a bit of an awkward topic. He has no problems admitting that it was a thing that happened, especially if it involves discussing it as part of taking responsibility or preventing further damage -- it’s just that he of course doesn’t enjoy it either, and is equally as open about the shame he feels as a result. All of the times Ken loses his composure in the latter half of 02 involve either physical pain being inflicted on him, or a lot more actively vicious invocation of his memories and insecurities, and even then he gets himself back on his feet with a rather prompt amount of speed. Poorly timed of a statement as it may have been, Miyako is not incorrect when she says in 02 episode 31 that he has a certain amount of natural resilience that he carried from being the Kaiser.

All the way back in 02 episode 9, shortly after it was revealed to the group that Ken was the Kaiser, Iori, Hikari, and Takeru all label Ken as someone who doesn’t look like someone who could do something so horrible, and Hikari even says that his smile looks “gentle” (note that this is yasashisou, a word derived from the same root word used for his Crest). So in other words, even all three of them were able to catch on to his actual nature betraying himself even during that awful period of time. It’s still poking through, all things considered.

But we as the audience know he’s putting on that face for the camera, and his eyes are still as dead-eyed as they are for the first half of the series, and when Miyako accidentally makes him laugh during the Christmas party in 02 episode 38, it’s very much framed as probably the first time Ken has been this genuinely happy in a long while. He was never able to be this happy even when “satisfying” himself by stepping on others as the Kaiser.

And that’s why it’s so extremely unlikely that Ken will ever be able to lapse back into the Kaiser persona after the events of 02, even with the Dark Seed technically still inside his neck. He wasn’t enjoying it anyway; the Kaiser persona wasn’t a habit that he fell into out of emotional suppression or even catharsis, but rather him forcing himself into a role he was never comfortable in to begin with. He was never truly satisfied with anything he was getting out of it, and moreover, it took the combination of supernatural influence and a hell of a lot of denial to allow it to get that far in the first place, because of how far against his fundamental nature that was.  (Again, for those of you who have seen Appmon: think about what it would take to get Haru to embrace sadism.) Even Osamu wasn’t enjoying being cold; being kind and living your life with positivity is a lot more fulfilling and fun, anyway.

In 02 episode 48, Ken describes the influence of the Seed as “horrible” in retrospect; even if it didn’t involve physical pain and exhaustion the way it did for the Dark Seed children, the entire experience sucked even back then. And while Ken theorizes about the Dark Seed’s influence being countered by the power of love earlier in the episode, when you look at the whole of 02, it’s not just his family’s love -- Ken now has the emotional support of his family, and Wormmon, and his newfound friends, and that’s giving him all of the fulfillment he wanted that putting on a front of sadism wasn’t giving him, and he doesn’t really need anything else anymore.

02 itself is very much about the fact that it’s not a bad thing to rely on the support of others to be happy; the Ken and Kaiser are undoubtedly the same person, but the latter’s existence requires a very specific lineup of events and factors to happen, and one of the massive parts behind that was a severe lack of emotional support or anyone who properly understood him. And by the end of the series, Ken has more than enough strength of heart to accept everything that’s happened and move on, and to stop reaching out to denial and clinging onto the past, and he has emotional support and understanding from a whole new group of friends that thoroughly understand everything he did and went through, and wholeheartedly accept and love him anyway.

He is never going to have a gaping hole in his life like that again.

#digimon #digimon adventure 02 #ichijouji ken #ken ichijouji #shihameta

[ilikekidsshows]

how would you feel if, regardless of whether the theory's good or well supported by the rest of the series, etc., they DID make senti-adrien a thing? I'm struggling at the moment because I genuinely hate the idea (for all the reasons you've listed before), but reading Astruc's tweets and how he's bending over backwards to justify it or contradict the counter-arguments to it (which honestly just feel like he's making up stuff on the fly because present canon really does contradict a lot of the senti-adrien stuff), it all makes me feel like it really is going to happen. So I'd rather be resigned to it happening and prepared than deal with the gut-punch disappointment, if you know what I mean. Or Astruc is just the world's biggest troll and is deliberately answering these questions to make people THINK the theory is valid but it's actually not going to be the answer. Either way, I'm just... tired. I just want it over. Either reveal adrien as a sentimonster and let me live in my disappointment, or disprove it and move with the show, you know?

As soon as I saw that people were screenshotting Astruc talking about Sentimonster lore, I knew I would get an ask referring to his tweets eventually. But, here's the thing: nothing I have seen Astruc say has contradicted anything I have said against the Sentimonster Adrien Theory. It doesn't matter if the Peacock holder couldn't sense or control Adrien because I have never used that as a counterargument. I have only ever discussed the Amok, never the Miraculous.

If Adrien was a Sentimonster, there is no reason Gabriel wouldn't have his Amok on his person at all times with how obsessed he is with controlling and keeping tabs on Adrien. And if Gabriel had the Amok Object, he would use it. Gabriel is an abusive control freak; why on earth wouldn’t he use that kind of an advantage? What possible justification is there for him to go against his character that much for over 3 seasons?

Gabriel has not used an Amok object against Adrien. This means there isn't one. Adrien can't have an Amok object because Gabriel doesn't have it or use it against him. That means that we have proof there is no Amok, so Adrien can't be a Sentimonster.

It also doesn't matter what the lore is when the characterization and story themes are against it. Adrien is a victim of domestic abuse, not an artificial being being misused by their creator. The framing of this story arc has been explicit; Adrien has been emotionally manipulated, gaslighted and isolated on-screen. You don’t turn something literal into a metaphor after nearly a hundred episodes of being explicit. It defeats the purpose of a metaphor to backtrack from something that’s been explicitly literal in the show. We have literally seen Adrien be abused on-screen repeatedly, explicitly so. Adrien's abuse is not a metaphor for anything: it's abuse.

Also, the show has killed every single Sentimonster we have seen and hasn't brought a single one of them back. Sentimonsters aren't people, they aren't worth the same as real people. If an existing character ended up being a Sentimonster, that character's humanity value would decrease. They just wouldn't be as important anymore. The writers have told us this with every single Sentimonster they’ve killed off. Miraculous is not real life: it’s a show. Everything included in the show is someone’s choice and someone’s bias. This is not about how the fandom views Sentimonsters. It's literally in the show. If the writers kill Sentimonsters with no reset button, they aren’t worth living in the writers’ eyes. They wouldn’t make their secondary lead not worthy of life.

So yeah, talking about how Mayura or Shadow Moth couldn’t recognize Cat Noir was a Sentimonster even if he was one and how Adrien could totally still have those three kids with Marinette if he was a Sentimonster sure does address all of these concerns (sarcasm).

Also, since we’re taking all of Astruc's tweets as clues to the show's future plotlines, he has said that Lukadrien is better than Luchloé, so I guess Lovesquare isn't endgame after all and we're ending up with the Lukadrien/Marigami double dates setup I always dreamed of instead. Because Astruc, the guy who notoriously hates spoilers, sure would not just say whatever on his unofficial personal twitter and would instead be leading people to a canon plotline on purpose, right?

However, if the writers ignored all of this or if they missed this much about their own show, and Adrien turned out to be a Sentimonster, I would most likely never write another piece of Miraculous meta or fanfiction again. The reason I put effort into this show is because I like it and care about it. And I would not care about SentiAdrien.

I have previously discussed how 'A Single Pale Rose' made me stop caring about what happened in Steven Universe, and you'll notice I don't really write about that show. Similarly, I dropped Young Justice as a show the instant I found out they killed off Wally West, my favorite character, in the series finale. I was only three episodes into said season, but I stopped caring about anything else that might happen because my favorite character would still end up dead. I have a well-received fanfic 'Conner Has Two Daddies (And a Robot Nanny)' that hasn't been updated in years because I have a hard time caring about the universe anymore.

Adrien being a Sentimonster would make me stop caring about what happens in Miraculous or what could happen in Miraculous, because no amount of canon divergence could undo the fact that my favorite character wasn't a real person, could never be a real person and would instead have a "fragile" existence. I would most likely never find the motivation to write about the show again.

So, for the question of how I would feel: most likely I would feel nothing. My investment in this show would drop so low I couldn't even be disappointed anymore.

*insert all the She-Ra fans following my blog hoping Adrien will end up being a Sentimonster so that I will focus all of my attention on writing SPoP meta*

#dats chats #adrien is not a sentimonster #ml fandom salt #long post #basically I don't hate watch shows #I too am very tired

[timelesslords]

your response reminds me of the time i went to a talk from maggie stiefvater (she's a great author if you don't know her) and i asked if she aimed to make her readers suffer and she said that when she read the time travellers wife she was ugly sobbing. like snot bubble ugly sobbing. and said that her goal was to do to someone what time travellers wife did to her.

so my question is: what broke you?

the way carrie asked me basically the same question when she was beta-ing this lol 😭 the god's honest truth is just life in general but that's not really what you're asking lmfao

Honestly there isn't like a piece of media that "broke me" per say, I don't really cry a lot at books and movies and stuff. But when I started writing this I was rereading chapter 9 of Wuthering Heights (as I am prone to do) and I figured if I could get this fic to make people feel the same gut punch as reading the paragraph I chose as the epigraph, I would've succeeded:

I cannot express it; but surely you and everybody have a notion that there is or should be an existence of yours beyond you. What were the use of my creation, if I were entirely contained here? My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff's miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning: my great thought in living is himself.

I feel like it just perfectly captures the feeling of desperation and helplessness that comes with watching someone you love have to go through something and being powerless to stop it. In this part of the book Cathy is coming to terms with the fact that the only way to help Heathcliff is to emotionally devastate them both. All she wants to do is take away his pain and all she can do is cause more of it, because they love each other and they're tied together and causing pain to one of them causes pain to both, and they're trapped in this endless dysfunctional cycle of hurting each other even as they desperately try to do the opposite.

Anyway, Emily Brontë is obviously brilliant and did what I tried to do in 15,000 words in about 60 but yeah, that paragraph is what "broke me" that I wanted to inflict onto you all lol. There's heavy influences from all of chapter 9 of WH in this will end but the epigraph is the biggest one

#never underestimate my ability to turn anything into an english lesson <3 #nobody read wuthering heights bc then all my good lines will look like cheap imitations #which they 100000% are but we don't need to talk about it!!! #asks #this will end fic #nswd