Big Mama must have lost some serious standing in the yokai underworld because it’s gotten apparent that she keeps being beaten by a small group of teenagers and the occasional rat man, and when it’s not them then she’s taking L’s from her own schemes working against her.
And in the ensuing power vacuum, the Hamatos accidentally become the most feared crime family known to all the big bads of the Hidden City.
After all, they’ve publicly outplayed Big Mama multiple times, a couple of them have taken out the heads of two of the most well known criminal organizations, one took out Heinous Green, two are responsible for the destruction of Witch Town, they have ties to both the infamous Baron Draxum and Captain Piel, they won the Doom Dome death race, they’re Battle Nexus Champions, they’ve displayed insane feats of power and defeated impossibly strong enemies, most of them have been to jail, and they regularly mingle with humans.
You can just imagine the notoriety they’d accumulate from word of mouth alone.
the speed with which phil shut up when dan got into reciting those lyrics just tells me this is something that happens frequently enough that dan has gotten mad at phil for interrupting him doing it so he knows to just let dan have his black eyed peas moment
Girl help they're calling the guy who blackmailed his wife and her teammates over their trauma to save his furniture store a "himbo who just loves his wife and wants her to be happy"
thinking about the relationship between sif and the universe, and related theories / headcanons aka I listened to a song and I need to get these feefees out of me
this is a lot of prelude for something that can be shown with just the video clip, but I want to include all the strings that make up this knot
Its not explicitly stated, but I believe it's pretty clear that whenever sif repeats something three times while hoping for something (sharpening the keyknife, carving in general, praying to the change god statue in dormont), he is performing wish craft.
however, he doesnt repeat anything three times when getting the keyknife. he doesnt even need to pray to get it at all, the change god just gives it to him. they say themselves that they dont care for rituals. they never even take credit for the stat buff, they only take credit for the keyknife
when sif changes how they pray at the change god statue, their method more strongly resembles the ritual to make a wish at the favor tree (picking the one you like best), and as a result the buff gets better. it is the wish craft ritual that is the important part of the prayer to that statue, not the change god
one thing that IS explicitly stated is just how powerful wish craft is for those who know the rituals, and how dangerous it is in the wrong hands. between the disappearance of colors (Im pretty sure that was the result of a wish, I may be misremembering), the disappearance of the country, and the king being nearly successful in freezing all of vaugarde in time, it only takes one wish to take out massive chunks of the world at a time
we know that wish craft is very entwined in the culture of the country (the story written about in the journal is told as a cautionary fairy tale, the rituals themselves are so deeply ingrained in sif that the wish to forget the country did not restrict his memory of the rituals, and he can perform wish craft without even being fully aware he is doing it)
it seems reasonable to me that the reason for the country's disappearance was to hide the existence of wish craft and the rituals to access that power from the rest of the world. considering sif didnt even remember his culture AND had good intentions, and still nearly ended the world, seems like that concern is pretty well founded. however, thats not the important theory Im making this post about
the country has knowledge of wish craft in conjunction with worship of the universe. "the universe leads, we can only follow," "the universe willed it," seems pretty safe to say that sif's Universe is the "entity" that is granting wishes
the way wishes are described, they dont seem like something the universe grants based on who worships it. as long as you know the ritual, you get the wish. everyone is part of the universe, after all, worshiper or not
Admittedly, its a bit of a stretch to say that the universe as a collective force has any sense of empathy for human struggles. but using the change god as an example, as spiteful as they are to sif, and unsympathetic to anything other than a human's role in the concept of change, they still show a great deal of care and favor to mira, someone who loves them. it is possible for a deity to care for those that care about it
sif, despite no longer having access to his culture or why he cares about the universe, still loves the universe, very very deeply, just as much as mira loves change. the change god says that sif's deity will never answer him, but I dont think thats the case
and this is the important headcanon that I am making this post for
sif is performing the rituals, so he gets the wishes, simple as. but I feel strongly that his wishes getting granted in very small but noticeable ways, despite not knowing how or why hes doing it, is the presence of his universe helping him, caring for him, even when he doesnt remember it
the strongest evidence for this, and the basis for this whole thing, is exactly how euphrasie breaks down in act 5
at first I only really noticed when she laughs, it reminded me very much of how the change god, a being who uses sprites of other characters and has done a whole possession, laughed during their encounter. they and euphrasie are the only two that use anything other than "ha," and right after this laugh is when her breakdown pauses and she says the lines
"... Soon you'll be able to go back to your normal lives. Away from battle and strife.
Finally, you'll all be able to go home!!!"
which, knowing the end of the game is coming, is incredibly relevant. very deliberate
before this pause, her breakdown seems pretty chaotic. the characters and the player are just coming out of one harrowing experience, and are clearly headed for another. the cohesiveness of this glitchy breakdown amongst a mess of the rest of the world doing the same isnt really high up on the list of priorities. none of the characters notice anything beyond the fact that reality is breaking, not even sif. it just sounds like scary nonsense.
but with the context of euphrasie being possessed to talk to sif, every single one of her lines makes perfect sense
(footage from Zhain Gaming on yt)
the universe is there its talking directly to him, it was there the whole time
There’s something so domestic and sweet about Ed asking Stede if he needs his clothes folded while they’re captive. Just the gentleness to his voice, barely above a whisper, asking, “Do you need anything folded? Your shirt? Your socks?”
It just seems like a glimpse of all the love and care to come.
i love the new pjo tv show don't get me wrong but i feel like it's missing the like, campiness of the original? that got translated pretty well into the musical but honestly 2-3 lines of witty dialogue per episode isn't really getting the original Ridiculousness of the book across.
like it's been pointed out that they seem to immediately know & recognize every myth they encounter, which is part of it, but like...episode 7 in particular made me sigh a lot because they cut so much of the humor! things like annabeth just immediately training cerberus to stay put and them bald-face lying to Charon that they are all dead, actually, they drowned in a bathtub. Together. it was such a nice like, breather before they get into the Very Serious Underworld Scenes and instead...nope, just more ACTION.
and they took out stuff in other episodes that made the tone lighter-things like percy and annabeth getting grossed out by the mirrors in the tunnel of love ride, the dam snack bar jokes, grover eating cans, them playing around in the lotus hotel, etc. i feel like half the fun of the original books was that, at any given conflict, the main characters were either going to sword fight their way out or completely bullshit their way out in the most convoluted ridiculous way possible. which was hilarious and also suspenseful-is percy going to pick up riptide, or is he going to start talking baseball? and them giving impassioned dialogue all the time instead of goofing around a bit just weighs down the whole tone of the show.
i feel like the show is very action-adventure whereas the original book was more of an adventure romp. i also feel like with the new heaviness that's come with multiple POVs (like seeing percy and sally's backstory) the show would really benefit from like, sad shot of sally and poseidon talking then BOOM cut to percy complaining about getting sand on his favorite pair of jeans while on the beach with ares. or something else.
I lowkey want one of those "live laugh love" type house signs that says "come freely, go safely, and leave something of the happiness you bring" for the entryway of my house someday. I think it'd be hilarious, but it's also lowkey a nice greeting in its own way, if perhaps mildly ominous... What a nice way to set a welcoming vibe! ;)
when you’re a group of two where one is captain of the basketball team and the other is the weird genius student but you’ve finally embraced your true love for singing (and each other) and audition in the call-backs for the school winter musical after winning the basketball championships and the science decathlon, respectively.