#his experiences shaping him into what he wished he had as a child etc etc

[padfootastic]

hello miss padfootastic, today I am thinking about godfather Harry who would move mountains for Teddy, when Remus never moved mountains for Harry. :(

yES!!! miss imp ur so so right for this

i don’t care how ooc it might be but i truly fully believe teddy was a traumatised harry’s salvation postwar. he kept that boy alive. physically AND mentally. harry will literally do anything for him and nothing is ever too big or too much for his godson.

i’m thinking of—harry, parenting teddy, wondering about how easy it is (it’s not, really. he’s a child bringing up another child. but take away the nappy changes and the constant crying and the keeping a living being other than yourself alive part, and it really is easy. bc he loves parenthood. loves teddy. so much) and wondering why remus never wanted this. how he could have given it up so easily. it’s honestly just really sad? like makes him hold teddy tight and never let go? primarily i think he just pities remus at that point.

i can ALSO see harry being offended, not on his behalf, but primarily on teddy’s. because this wonderful, amazing child should’ve not had his father attempt to walk out on him, shouldn’t have had to grow up an orphan but that’s what it is. i’ve only read one fic w a similar premise but i rly need more where harry is just. mad at remus postwar for his treatment of teddy lmao.

#teddy lupin #harry potter #side note i read a fic once where harry says ‘u saved my life. we’re even now’ #and teddy’s like ??? #and harry’s like ‘after the war’ #and it’s all very sweet #but that’s basically the vibe #can also imagine him being a helicopter parent tbh #his experiences shaping him into what he wished he had as a child etc etc #also really really need remus to be. Treated. like the not great guardian he is #like bro ur bestf died and his kid is left w/o anyone who cared for him #ur telling me u won’t even make one measly visit??? #not even as a benevolent stranger? #get outta here w that shit #harry should’ve been more mad and i stand by that #i GET why he wasn’t. truly. but that doesn’t satisfy my mean lil heart lol #pen’s asks

[class1akids]

Some thoughts about Ch 419 - character agency and origin

I'm way behind, but wanted to add my 2c on the debate relating to the AFO "twist" and what it means for Tenko to have AFO at the core of his existence. It made me think once again of the Shouto-Shigaraki parallels .

I didn't take it quite as bad as some of the fandom, because:

we kind of already knew AFO was behind it, we just didn't know the full extent

unlike a lot of people, I didn't think that Tenko being saved by vestige magic hugs, sidestepping Tomura's adult personality and going hand in hand with child!Izuku to fight the big bad would have been a good conclusion.

I also don't think that Tenko not having any agency is necessarily a bad thing. You see, my favourite character, Shouto is a lot like Tenko. His birth, his quirk, the loss of his family, every trauma that shaped him as a child leads back to Endeavor. He's born to be his weapon to use as he wishes.

His lack of agency doesn't make him a boring character. In fact, I find it fascinating how the story shows us Shouto clawing back his agency, identity inch by painful inch, until he's able to stand firm and say - so I can AFFIRM the reason for being born. So let's look at saving Shouto, because I do think it's kind of a blueprint not only for saving Tenko/Tomura, but to Tenko/Tomura rising to save others.

And if we remember Shouto's journey - yes, it starts with a moment of a hero reaching out to him, reconnecting him to his child self who was told that he can choose who he wants to be, he can be a hero.

Notice though how being reconnected to his child self, is not an insta-save. Baby!Shouto doesn't just take over UA!Shoto and erase his personality or past mistakes. Shouto himself has to do the work. He has to face his own shitty choices, like giving the cold shoulder to Inasa or not seeing his mom for a decade and try to reconcile who he is NOW after the abuse, grooming and being driven by negative feelings. Taking ownerships of his mistakes (even if the source is Endeavor) is one of the ways to emancipation.

But it's also not a straight path. Shouto experiences being faced with his childhood dream as a nerf (just like Tomura did now lose to AFO) because of the trauma and doubts he carries. He momentarily loses his will to fight.

For people who never had agency in their lives like Shoto or Tomura, the simple truth that you get to make choices is hard to internalize and the constant doubt whether it's a choice you make by yourself or are you just walking down the path your "creator" set out for you remains.

And how could it not? Shouto wants to be a hero and wants to be not like his father who is the No 1 hero now. It's a contradiction, no? And it takes Shouto 200+ chapters to come up with an answer to reconcile the tension - he wants to be a reassuring hero - something Endeavor never was. Having this goal in his mind, he's able to accept more and more of the tools his father gave him - his quirk, Endeavor's techniques, even gear that looks like his father's - because as long as he's rooted in his own will, his own goal, he gets to keep his own identity, he gets to affirm his reason.

This is why I want not some idealized child Tenko to vanquish AFO. I think it's much more powerful if the person who makes a return is Tomura (who is also Tenko, but I use Tomura as a shorthand for his adult self, the person who he has become).

And while it's undeniable that AFO is deeply at the core of Tenko's origin (just like Endeavor is for Shouto), I also think he's gaslighting Tomura when he says Tomura never made a choice. And I'm talking about the League here specifically.

The bonds Tomura created with Touya, Toga, Spinner, Compress, Twice, Magne, etc - are fully choices he made. AFO let it happen - but the League (a place for outcasts to be accepted) are Tomura's choices.

Just as for Shoto the friends he made are instrumental in him earning his agency, being able to affirm his existence and not crumble from tragedy, the LoV is the key for Tomura to start to claw back his own.

And that's why I think it's narratively desirable for them to be part of Tomura's endgame (also to mirror Deku who would be fully an OFA/All Might creation if not for the friends and allies he made for himself and who all come to his aid in the end).

The League is also the place where the Tenko/Tomura faultlines can be reconciled into a whole. Tenko's desire to be heroic (to play with the outcasts) and Tomura's desire to stand with his allies/friends (the villains). So it boils down into a moment of wanting to be the Hero of the Villains. That's Tomura affirming himself right there. This is not AFO's path for him, but it's him reintegrating everything he has become, his truths and understanding of the world, his bonds that shaped him into that childhood dream. (It's like Shouto's "reassuring hero" moment).

And I think Tomura losing himself to the trauma, PTSD, etc. momentarily is ok too. He lost the rage that drove him forward (like Shouto in the final of the Sport Festival) and is untethered right now. He will need to find a positive emotion to become his drive to take him forward.

But his power will surface with the right trigger, just like Shouto showing up at the Stain fight wielding his newly liberated fire to help Deku was the real pay-off for their Sport Festival fight. (But only after Shouto digged deep inside himself and went to face his mother, face the existence he was given and the hurt it caused to his family with the actual reality.).

I think Tomura will also need a "deep dive" to compare his perception of the world to the current reality. Is society as passive and worthless as his perception of it? The heroes all fighting together, the civilians pitching in feels like there is a change compared to the passive hero society he remembers. But I think the real trigger should be / will be the LoV coming in. Because is it true that AFO made him choose them?

The LoV despite their bonds being real and deep couldn't save each other because they were all spiralling deep in their own traumas. But now Toga and Touya also had their own moments of reconnecting with their child self and having that child's original desire fulfilled (for Tenko - a hero came, for Touya - his family watched him, for Toga - someone accepted her as normal) but of course it's not a magic solution.

Because that moment would have saved the child they were, but not enough for their current selves. They will also have to make their own choices going forward. I think all of them can find the reason to face AFO now - Toga still wants to protect the things she likes, Touya maybe able to move beyond his father's reasons and look for his own, but not from a revenge perspective, Spinner is loyal, Compress I think will also come.

How, you ask? Well, Kurogiri is still black with bits of white. He still has in him the conditioning to protect Tomura, but also infused with Shirakumo's genuine care. I think just like Oboro helped the heroes to round up everyone, Kurogiri will round up Tomura's allies.

And once they are there, Tomura will rise up to them and will be the hero of the villains, joining forces with Deku and everyone to finally finish off AFO (and maybe save his friends). Because even with the little agency he had over his life, those choices were his alone, and he will be able to root his identity in that.

#bnha meta #bnha 419 #tomura shigaraki #lov #todoroki shouto #afo #shouto shigaraki parallels #bnha parallels #shimura tenko #class1a reads bnha

[uptoolateart]

Having now seen the finale three times, details have popped out. I still hate hate hate that Adrien was not there in the final battle...but I think I see what the writers were trying to do.

As we know, there is so much fairytale imagery / allusion in the show, like Rapunzel, Bluebeard, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Pinocchio in a way, Cinderella, etc.

At the start of Conformation, Adrien has been removed from Paris and the mansion - effectively, his kingdom.

He's locked in that room, plagued with his own worst thoughts. He only has his painful unconscious to keep him company. This mirrors Snow White being cast into the woods, running in terror from shadows, the woods and shadows being a classic symbol for parts of our unconscious we are afraid to acknowledge.

He is then tempted with the Alliance and eventually gives in, in mimicry of Snow White accepting the poisoned apple offered by the witch. The apple puts her to sleep. The ring seems to hypnotise Adrien, dulling his senses like sleep.

The action then happens without him, just as in Snow White and Sleeping Beauty the action is all done by the prince.

I said in a previous post (non-ml, just looking at fairytales) that there have been psychoanalytical studies of fairytales to show that they work like dreams - every character is an aspect of one person, so the prince is another part of the princess taking over, to help her break free and mature beyond the child stage. The witch is also the princess, but the part tentative about growing up - and also represents all the adults in her life, afraid to let go of their child.

In Miraculous, though, it really is just Marinette being the prince saving the unconscious princess, and this is what irks me. We will come back to this.

After the Wish, we see Adrien asleep. Marinette leans over to kiss him and he wakes up. It's an odd little moment at a noisy pool party, which is what made it stand out to me. It's the kiss of true love waking him from the spell after the witch / dragon has been defeated. And really, this is where it becomes more like Sleeping Beauty, because that involved a real battle.

And if that's Emilie by the pool, she too is a Sleeping Beauty figure who's just been brought back.

The implication is supposed to be that Adrien has grown up a lot through this, and the demons in his life and mind have been vanquished..although I guess time will tell if this is true.

There was also a lot in the finale about nightmares, like think of this as a nightmare and the Alliance will free you from it, etc etc. When Adrien wakes, it's like everything before it was a bad dream.

But, as my husband commented, all that bad dream stuff is what MADE Ladybug and Cat Noir's relationship. It's what led to them being chosen. It's what changed their lives and helped them grow, so arguably it's what brought them together as Adrien and Marinette.

These bad experiences shape us. We can use them to become better people. Without them, we change.

Adrien cannot be the same person, if his mother is alive...especially if they all believe she's been there the whole time. I guess we will see about that, too. His mother's absence was the initial catalyst for all his growth as a person. He actually needed the dragons. He needs to KNOW about those dragons.

I said ages back that we had a classic Bluebeard scenario, where we were waiting for the princess to open the forbidden door and find all the skeletons in the evil husband's closet. By keeping Adrien out of the basement, he never opened that door.

In some way, he needs to be the prince who vanquishes the monster. Otherwise, he hasn't truly woken up. I don't care how good Marinette's kisses are. He is stuck in an infantile state and unable to grow.

Okay, I...managed to talk myself back round to finding his absence in the battle seriously irritating. But listen - maybe it's frustrating on purpose because they are using this as a plot point for the next stage of the story. I have no idea. But this is why it is so frustrating and doesn't hit the emotional mark. This is what needs to be addressed.

Because right now...Marinette has taken over the Bluebeard story. She is the one with the locked secret room containing all the skeletons of HIS past. We NEED him to open this door and have a genuine awakening. She is taking the Guardian thing too far, watching over rather than simply supporting. She is doing to Adrien what he accuses her of as Ladybug - forgetting he's her partner and leaving him out of vital information.

#miraculous ladybug #adrien agreste #mlb #ml fandom #ml meta #ml analysis #ml spoilers #ml s5 spoilers #ml s5 #ml recreation #ml conformation #ml adrien #ml marinette #adrinette #ml ladybug

[anghraine]

I'm iffy about reader-response theory in general, but sometimes there's really no way of avoiding how profoundly interpretations can be shaped by personal experience. I mean, yeah, there are headcanons with acknowledged projection (I have these!). But even things that are ostensibly more, well, interpretive can involve a lot of projection if you dig about two inches in.

I was thinking about this, because my best friend and I have talked about our views of Anakin as Vader and his relationship with Luke in the films, and we just blatantly come at it from our different Bio Dad Issues.

For me, Anakin is a kind of photo negative of my bio father, who was never menacing, but just didn't ... care very much.

He missed my birth because he was watching a football game, he ditched my mother and me when I was two and took several of my (scarce) toys for his new SO's children even when they had duplicates of them, would tell me that he'd come to visit or was going to take me somewhere and then not show up, had to be essentially dragged by my stepmother into paying his $300/month child support even though my mother was dirt poor, etc etc.

Apparently I called him a liar when he bothered to visit once when I was four and I refused to talk to him, but eventually I just sort of adapted to this weird dynamic where I could never be sure that he wouldn't show up or express affection (sometimes he did!), but certainly couldn't expect it. I still tend to engage with the world with the kind of neutral expectations he instilled: X might happen, or might not, so I won't assume it won't, but I'm not going to expect anything either, since that leads to disappointment much of the time.

Anyway, he gets sad that we're not closer, but it's like ... you were 27 when I was born! And you always knew where I lived! Nothing was stopping you from offering to rule the galaxy as father and daughter reaching out before I was 29! This is on you.

I watched the OT as a teenager (after seeing parts of TPM) and, to me, there was something weirdly powerful about just how far Anakin was willing to go to track down Luke. Yes, he does terrible things to achieve it and yes, his desire to throw the Empire's resources into hunting down Luke is uhhh problematic, but hey, he cares! He ultimately cares enough to essentially throw away everything he's worked for and his own life so that Luke can live. As he's dying, he just wants to see Luke with his own eyes and get a message to Leia.

teenage me: *mind blown*

Luke's refusal to leave him and grief afterwards was immensely powerful as well to 15-y-o me—the idea of this father and child who (through the intervention of others) barely know each other and yet have such a powerful bond and are willing to do so much more than my bio dad would ever do for me. For all the evil that Anakin does, there's a kind of raw wish-fulfillment in that arc for me that definitely affects how I see them and why their relationship matters more to me than any other in SW.

I won't get into my friend's history, but he does see Anakin pretty differently even though we agree on some particular points, in a way that's equally filtered through his experiences. So it's like. I don't think I'm wrong (lol), but I'm aware that I'm coming at it from a specific perspective, and the meaning and power I find in the arc and what tends to be most impactful for me is strongly influenced by my own experiences apart from SW.

So sometimes I do look at reader-response theories and I'm like ... okay, fine.

#anghraine babbles #long post #cleft chins and cyborg hands #literary theory unfortunately #not tagging w/ star wars just to keep it out of the main tags

[nancydrewwouldnever]

In going off your post about childhood experiences because of our parents: this is why things like therapy, journaling, talking to someone we trust, etc. are so important. It was through journaling that I realised I'd suffered from childhood emotional neglect (honestly, 2020 brought up so much stuff because I was taking that time to become more self aware). It was a gruelling thing to realise and accept because when you're provided for physically, you don't really think you're being "abandoned", but in reality, emotional abandonment is still abandonment. And as a kid, you don't realise it, although you do feel like something is missing but you're not that aware to realise what it is. And when you don't have that emotional support as a kid, you struggle with emotions as an adult. You struggle to connect emotionally with other people, and you fear emotionally connecting with someone because of the abandonment you had a child.

I agree with you about his fear of abandonment. I also think it was someone else who said he probably struggles with intimacy, which is another manifestation of childhood emotional neglect. It all comes down to fear of vulnerability.

I'm about to analyse him right now, so hear me out:

I think the reason why he sleeps around, "dates" and never truly commits is because of a deeper, internal imbalance. See, when it comes to hooking up, you don't have to have emotions involved. You can fuck, have fun and have no serious strings. But when it comes to commitment to another person in a romantic sense, that involves emotional connection, intimacy, vulnerability, which are most likely things he fears because of the experiences in his childhood, emotional childhood neglect, his parents' divorce more than likely altered his view of commitment, marriage, and relationships (and even women, because we don't know the effect the divorce might have had Lisa and what he's probably seen or death with, and then it's been said before they have a borderline unhealthy mother/son relationship, so we don't know what Lisa might placed on him, or what he might have taken on as a result of that divorce, with him being the eldest son) then there's probably heartbreak at a young age, etc.

And I know people get down on him for being a bro, but I do think he's a sensitive guy. His emotions run deep, their intense, he's more than likely a sensitive person. And for a sensitive person, to have all those negative emotional experiences, it shapes this perspective that emotional connection is something to be feared. It's scary, it hurts and so it's probably best to avoid those kind of situations at all costs.

It's also explains why he's a control freak. With all those experiences he's had, he had no control in them or the outcome. And so he's probably learned that if he controls situations, they will go his way and he won't have to fear anything or be hurt, because he controls what happens, how it happens, why happens, when it happens, etc.

He's gone so long without proper support and help, that when he finally does seek therapy, it's going to be a lot to unpack, and it's going to exhausting for him. If he does that move, I hope he does have someone there as a strong support system, and I don't mean his friends who probably have their selfish motives with still being friends with him. But he's going to need that support system when he begins to unpack all of that bullshit he left stuffed in a basement closet his entire life.

I don't wish bad on people, so I hope he does get the counselling he needs. It will really help him turn over a new leaf, and maybe have a better personal and career life.

Thank you, Anon - a very interesting read. I do agree on several points.

Also, good luck with your own journey! I also had to come to terms later in life with childhood neglect that was combined with physical and emotional abuse (and all from the same parent). I know the journey is tough, but I'm feeling thankful to finally start seeing some changes.

#ask

[dazzle-writes]

Hello, how are you? Can I get a matchup for Demon Slayer?Please, and Thank you.

Name-Anneliese

Pronouns- She/her

Sexuality- Heterosexual

Zodiac- Leo, INTP, Slytherin(Harry Potter)

Appearance- Olive skin, with barely freckles on the cheeks and nose. Small beauty mark on my left cheekbone. Light brown almond eyes. Heart face shape. Bigger lower lip, Button nose, long Wavy dark ash blonde hair, petite, 4’11, hourglass figure, and People say that I look like tinkerbell.and I get mistaken for looking like a child.

Personality- Calm, sweet, ( shows it too people that I don't know more )loyal,fiesty when provoked, brutally honest, friendly, mysterious, always cold( people joke saying I'm a vampire)-Straightfoward, Daydreamer, anxious, ambitious, clever, quiet, gets embarrassed easily(social anxiety), over thinker, I like to be alone, I love music I always have headphones in. I love anything to do with fighting, such as boxing, martial arts. Etc. I have a big family, and I have a twin brother,I love soccer, anything to do with Nursing helping people. My dream job is to be a travel nurse Labor &Delivery , and a business woman. I get told a lot that I have a soft spoken voice, whispy like. I bottle up my emotions.and very protective over my family.

Hobbies-Likes- Herbs, Tea, Martial Arts/Boxing,Katana’s, anime, supernatural stuff, conspiracy theories, music, Soccer, helping people, calisthenics, language learning, reading,and psychology.

Dislikes- people being mean to the elderly and kids, math, backstabbers, cheaters, crowded places, and crumbs.

Thank you 🤍

awawa HELLOW ANNELIESE rvsnd boy do I have the matchup for you HEHEH

For starters i think you'd definitely be related to Shinobu somehow or like...live with her bc you two would get along GREAT I can just see it.

ANYWAYS I'm going to do a demon and a Hashira!! Again this is my fancy little redemption au tee hee :3

For a Hashira I match you up with Gyomei!! I think he would really like you having a love for martial arts, and perhaps would even help you train!

-Gyomei also is very protective of children and the elderly, he appreciates that you feel the same way

-He would love it if you read to him

-Big family? Marry him rn, he loves big families. Growing up with tons of children he considered his siblings he feels most at home with lots of people!!

-He would follow you anywhere in the world you wished to go!! I think travelling is something he would really enjoy, especially after fighting in the demon slay corps for so long. Getting to experience the beauty of other places instead of fighting? Sign him up.

-ALSO GO YOU BESTIE FOR LABOR AND DELIVERY

-Gyomei has such a profound respect for you because you help bring life into the world!! Sometimes he gets a little down bc he thinks that he isn't good for you. He is a taker of life and you are not(comfort this big man pls)

-Tea expert you and him will always have the BEST teas and the FRESHEST herbs for them. In fact, Gyomei is a tea SNOB but refuses to admit it

-If you are living with Shinobu he makes more visits to the butterfly mansion after every injury

-He says it's because hes trying to show Genya how important it is to take care of his body! (Its not. He wants to see you.)

-Once he finally asks you out he gets VERY OVERPROTECTIVE pls don't take offense he is just a Worried Man who wants you to be safe always

-For a demon I match you up with Gyutaro!!!

-He saw you before the uppermoons had decided to leave Muzan, angrily muttering to himself about your beauty and deciding you would be his next meal

-You had travelled to the entertainment district to help a poor young courtesan who had gotten pregnant due to her work. She just so happened to be a part of the same house that Daki was in.

-He watched from Daki as you helped the poor girl through everything, and was shocked as you handed the baby to it's mother.

-"What is it? Is it a girl? Are they pretty?" The young girl has asked, begging the gods for a girl that would grow up beautiful and be able to survive within the district.

-"He. Your son is healthy, and that is what matters." You said back, a tiny smile on your face. "You have the power to make your child's life better than your own. I believe in you."

-Homie was like "owo" and has lowkey stalked you ever since

-Chases away other low level demons tryna grab a snack, and who the hell is gonna face upper moon six?

-You quickly found out he was following you everywhere and searched him out, offering for him to return and help you and the demon slayers face Muzan

tee hee au time!!!

Okay so i did a previous matchup where i paired Gyomei and Kokushibo together so like....oops but its my universe(s) and i'll write whatever i want!

-Living with both Gyomei and Gyutaro is.......an experience. But a good one! As Gyomei is blind, he has no concept of what is attractive and Gyutaro's widdle brain kinda explodes.

-Gyutaro likes helping you when you travel around! He puts on a half assed disguise and a big ass hat and follows you around like a lost puppy but he gets so into hyping up the new moms!!!

-Cries nearly every time a child is born

-You made the mistake of both Gyomei and Gyutaro coming with you one day to work and the TEARS could fill a POOL

-Gyomei spoils Daki bc he misses caring for younger kids and she reminds him of the orphans he would take care of

-They are both so clingy

ALSO I AM SORRY THIS IS LIKE MONTHS LATE listen im a college girlie who works and i am........going through it. AWAWAWA TYYYYYYY

#razz writes #matchups #demon slayer x reader #demon slayer #gyomei x reader #gyutaro x reader

[emilynightshade89]

kind of random but aah!!

I'm curious to know about what your current favorite WIP to work on is right now - and this can be through actual writing, plotting, developing, etc.! I wanna know which of your WIPs is giving you brainworms!

That’s such a great question!!!!! 

GET READY TO HEAR EVERYTHING BC I LITERALLY CANNOT PICK AND ALSO I REALLY WANT TO SHARE MORE WIPS !!!  🥺😍😍

So, my current favorite WIPs to work on right now are my original WIP The Innsmouth Bride and my fanfic WIP series with my Daybreakers oc Wendy McCoy. 

The Innsmouth Bride atm is really gaining traction in my brain because there is much of the worldbuilding that i need to do and since it involves the Cthulhu Mythos, a genre i am completely a newborn to, and also the setting of 1800s Victorian England I’ve got my research cut out for me but i am so excited to learn more about these topics, and in return, the world i am building too! I am also slowly but gradually falling in love with my characters as they grow and are fleshed out bit by bit, and with the history they keep in their families i am enthralled with how their dynamics are shaping out to be and what that means for my lovelies Emmett and Nerida as i try to balance the story as well as character arc. I also wanted to try out a story akin to beauty and the beast but with reversed gender roles because i don’t think we get those too often or maybe i just haven’t looked enough but darn it i wanted to see some cute/scary/badass/kind creature ladies and if i must i’ll try to do it myself. 😅

With my fanfic WIP, working series title: Nights In White Satin, this is very much a teensy bit a love letter to the film for me because it was the first film that really started my love for films that explore the human condition. There was something intriguing and almost real about the film that made it like something that could happen and i loved that so much. The world building is fantastic. And it had a great cast too! All the actors and characters in the movie i had loved before i really started paying attention to them and started simping. xD but with my oc Wendy, i really wanted to explore what could happen after the events of the film and possibly add real world problems and solutions and that’s where her and Elvis’s story goes through as they try to survive and fight for a future where humans don’t need to be hunted or hidden. 

So, out of all of my original WIPs The Innsmouth Bride comes in first when i think about working on them because i really have been putting in all the thoughts and brainworms into that one as mentioned above! :D

My other OG WIPs includes:

The Spring Man (working title): A story about the personification of Spring in a man living in a small village who must be buried into the ground before winter and the seasonal family he raises there. 

Untitled Seaside Creature Feature:  A sea creature turns human to explore the world above. Still in development but this wip holds a special place in my brain.  

The Moor/Teardrop (w. t.): A story about a small-town priest that went missing for five years and was found when he was a teenager and the girl he raises as a daughter after her mother had the same experience.

 The Stolen Child: A story that involves a mysterious creature that abducts children, a reserved man living with a haunted past, and the mother of a recently taken child that reaches out to him for help. 

The Undertaker’s Wife: & Other Short Stories: A potential short stories series if any of these ideas don’t pan out fully. 

Short Stories include:

The Undertaker’s Wife: A cautionary story in which a young man working at a funeral home, wishes back to life a woman he had hoped to be with, when she turns up on his silver table after a tragic accident. 

Young Turks: A typical 60s biker love story but with the girl as the biker. 

The Fox’s Huntress Bride: A story inspired by the aesthetics of the film The Green Knight. A prince goes missing, a huntress with nothing left to lose save for an animal companion, an old wives tale taboo, and a kingdom on the brink of war are all players in what i hope is to be a medieval fairytale. 

Cell: A thriller/mystery where a woman is kidnapped and held in the basement of a man who claims that her imprisonment isn’t for her own safety but the safety of others from her instead. 

 The Boxer: Based on a dream i had about a quiet young man coming to work as a boxer in an old gym for the owner to gain cash in return for housing. He meets a young woman who works there and they develop a relationship. 

Grandfather Jack: Currently an idea still being worked on. The story centers around a woman about to have her first child and her thinking about her father who went missing as she receives daily visits from a wild jackrabbit in her garden. 

No-Face: An idea for a story where a man without a face finds an abandoned child one night and raises her as his own all the while trying to solve a case and keep his true identity a secret.  

A Touch of Death: A horror/thriller/mystery about a detective woman with a troubling past and a serial killer that keeps trying to prove to her that he cannot be killed.

The Body (w.t.): A sci fi story about a nurse living with her android assistant in a rundown hospital on a ruined Earth. They receive unexpected cargo containing a cloned body of an elite social lite whose father had him made after a deadly accident and wishes to keep his son’s death a secret, as cloning is illegal throughout the galaxy only if used to prolong life.

An Untitled Sci Fi Story about a malfunction on a colony ship headed towards an earth like planet. A young passenger is awoken and with only an android for company; must figure out how to survive aboard. 

And finally, an Untitled Midnight Mass inspired Vampire WIP: A woman visiting from out of country falls prey to a dangerous creature and miraculously survives, but soon finds out that this creature won’t let her go so easily.  

It’s a lot of ideas but i’m really hopeful about some of them making it! Almost all of these i have already written out a bit in my google docs and every once in a while, i’ll revisit them and add more if i’m not daydreaming about it for too long. I hope this was entertaining and thank you for asking! 🥰 

#shut yer face moony #my wips #the innsmouth bride #my original wips #my ocs #writing #my writing #fic writing

[kaiwithastar]

Hoshi no Samidare has had such a strong focus on the concept of childhood, and the journey of growing up from a child to an adult. It's something that's been prevalent throughout the entire show and we've seen it in so many different instances - Shinonome's relationship with Yuuhi, Akane's struggles with himself, Samidare's relationship with her family, etc. The members of the Beast Knights range from school-children to old men, however they're all put on the same battle field and they treat each other as equals.

Nagumo is a father and a police officer. He's always seen it as his job to be a protector - both as a Beast Knight, and as an adult. However, seeing Yuki and Subaru fighting, seeing the strength Samidare possess, he realises that these children have the power to protect their own future. They have the strength and the determination to do what it takes to move forward and create their own future. Children are to be protected and looked after, that's the general consensus of course. Adults are there to guide children, but that doesn't mean children don't have their own agency and the freedom to have their own thoughts and make their own decisions.

Childhood as a concept is so interesting to think about. It's a fleeting period of time. Many children can't wait to grow up and be adults, while many adults miss the times when they were children. Children have the freedom to express themselves without the restrictions of societal expectations or responsibilities. Of course, it's not like children are able to take care of themselves and do anything all the time, however I think it's also important not to dismiss their capabilities just because they're young. It's these children who are going to be living and moving forward to their futures in the world that the Beast Knights are fighting to protect. Children grow up and become the future of society, time keeps moving and the world keeps turning.

When Shimaki found out that Taiyou was siding with Animus, he didn't do anything about it. He didn't tell anyone and he chose to let Taiyou figure things out for himself while watching over him silently as an adult. Taiyou is still figuring things out for himself, and I think Shimaki understands that. Sometimes children need to make their own decisions and learn from mistakes and regrets. It's these experiences that shape them into the adults that they grow up to become.

In Episode 20, as Yuuhi runs across the panels to activate Blues, we see him at 3 key stages in his life. The first is as a child, when he suffered the trauma brought on by his grandfather. The second stage is his most recently self, when he discovered that he had inherited Shinonome's power. The final stage is his future self, the adult he wishes to become, the future he wants to save by stopping Animus and his Biscuit Hammer. At the current age of 19, Yuuhi's in that weird in-between stage of not-quite-child-but-not-quite-adult. It puts him in a position where he's able to somewhat relate to both the younger and older members of the Beast Knights, to an extent, and that makes Yuuhi such a key figure in the whole story. His interactions with Shinonome are especially impactful, because Shinonome was the man who Yuuhi seems to view as an ideal adult. He wants to grow up to become like that - he wants to be an adult who smiles, he wants to be an adult who reassures, he wants to be an adult who's strong. He's not quite there yet, but he's working towards it - and if what we saw in this episode is any indication of his future to come, he's going to achieve it.

#hoshi no samidare #simulkaist #kaistar brainrot #idk I just had a lot of thoughts so I needed to word-vomit HAHA

[starrynightofcontradictions]

In which Bella regrets becoming a vampire:

For the first several years, it’s everything she hoped it would be. She has Edward. She has strength and beauty and immortality. She doesn’t have to try in order to succeed. As much as she pretended that beauty didn’t matter- the confidence that comes with it is intoxicating. She has Renesmee, the child she didn’t know she needed. All in all, being a vampire is everything she wanted.

Eventually, they have to move. Bella visits Charlie, of course, but it’s still hard. She goes on to get her English degree. She aces every class, even math. It’s a little distracting being around humans, but she doesn’t slip up or have accidents. She eventually wants to become a professor, but it’s a little difficult since she can barely pass for twenty. That’s something she hadn’t anticipated. Older people don’t always take her seriously on that level- even with her looks. Beauty can’t hide the fact that she still looks nineteen. Edward consoles her, and she brushes it off. It doesn’t matter really. She has everything she wanted. A career isn’t that important in the grand scheme of things (she tells herself).

She watches Renesmee grow up into a beautiful teenage-woman-hybrid-whatever. Eventually, Renesmee and Jacob fall madly in love. Their “love” rivals Edward and Bella’s, and eventually they run off together to have adventures of their own. Renesmee goes off to college/Jacob opens his own shop etc.  At some point they leave the nest, and this leaves Bella feeling predictably…. empty. She knew it was coming; eventually Renesmee would want independence. It’s fine.

She has Edward and immortality. It’s everything she ever wanted. Years pass. Eventually modern technology catches up to them. The Cullen’s public “lives” start to become complicated. One day Carlisle comes home and announces he will have to leave his job indefinitely. With facial recognition and a host of identity-verifying hoops to jump through, it’s just too much of a risk. Carlisle is somewhat depressed, but it is what it is. It bothers Bella deeply, and she can’t really place why. In truth, their public “lives” had become important to her. She won’t admit it, but she likes when fellow classmates look at her with awe and envy. With the way things are shaping up, though, they will have to take more precautions so as not to attract the Volturi’s attention.  Endlessly going to high school and college are no longer an option.

More years pass. The Cullens end up having to live as recluses, essentially. They can still go out, but mostly at night. They still live in a mansion, but it’s in the middle of nowhere where no humans could ever stumble upon it. They can’t risk ending up on the internet and with smart phones it’s a serious possibility.

Years pass and all the beauty and talent that comes with being a vampire becomes normal. Bella is slipping back into her pre-vampire depression by this point. She can never, ever admit it though. She’s happy. She has everything she ever wanted, and there’s nothing else to be said. She takes up hobby after hobby to pass the time. And that’s all there is now- endless amounts of time. Even sex with Edward has lost its early appeal. She still loves him, of course, but there’s something deep inside her that’s left wanting. It terrifies her. She goes off on her own a lot to deal with the feelings, so Edward won’t notice. She can never tell him that a small but significant part of her feels a growing glimmer of regret. She refuses to name that feeling, even in her own head. Edward can never know. If he knew the truth it would be the thing that broke them.  After everything he did to convince her and all the arguments, he can never know how she actually wishes things were different. In truth, she has everything she thought she needed to be happy and successful- beauty, talent, confidence. But she can never achieve anything because of her eternal youth. Growth, a career, the respect that comes with age and experience. She will never have these things, and she knows it. So, she buries the regret under a steel wall of “happiness” and makes sure she never slips up. She has to control her emotions the way the rest of them control their bloodlust. In a way she’s reminded of those three days of her transformation, holding herself still, so Edward would never know the pain she was in. She holds her emotions in check now for the same reason, but underneath it all, she’s screaming and wishing for an end. More years pass, and Bella feels isolated because of this. In the end, though, she’s not alone. She sees Jacob, bound to her daughter in eternal happiness brought on by the imprint. Jacob, who left his entire life behind for Renesmee. She looks into his eyes and realizes that underneath all that eternal “bliss”, he’s screaming too.

#twilight #edward cullen #Bella Swan #renesmee cullen #twilight thoughts #breaking dawn

[witch-hazels-musings]

I WOKE UP JUST IN TIME AAAAA

Can I request the tall boys (Childe, Zhongli, Diluc, Kaeya + anyone else you think you wanna add or change (except maybe Childe because I love him)) reacting to you having animal-like features (like ears and tail)

Or

What they would do if by some accident they themselves end up getting animal features (like fox ears and tail for Childe, cat ears and tail for Kaeya or Diluc, dragon features for Zhongli, etc) do they become clingy and display cat behavior of rubbing themselves on you? Something like that aaaa I'm so sorry if this doesn't make sense it's my first time requesting

experiments gone wrong

(eehe these men *cough* zhongli *cough* will be the death of me) 

Warning -> sfw, fluff (kissing, character suddenly acquiring animal like features) 

Character X GN Reader | anthology 

Includes: Childe, Kaeya, Zhongli 

As an alchemist, you really should have remembered the most important rule -> don’t leave unmarked bottles out where people can drink them …

So you couldn’t be too surprised by the turn of events that followed

Childe 

He went to bed earlier than normal, but you didn’t think anything of it. Perhaps he had a terrible day and just wanted to sleep it off, there wasn’t any reason to pester him about it anyway. 

The next morning, you felt him slip out of bed, a yawn falling from his mouth as he made his way toward the bathroom. Turning, you claimed more of the bed and attempted to sleep just a little bit longer. That was until you heard a wild cry and shot up in an instant. You were already partially out of the bed when Childe burst into the room. 

He looked at you, you looked at him, and as your eyes drifted from his ears to his tail, you understood his reaction. 

“WHAT?” He shouted into the bedroom. 

Oh archons, to see him like this … you wished it was easier for you not to think about how adorable he was, but it was impossible. The soft ears that peeked from underneath his hair, the fluffy tail that didn’t know how to stop moving, and the frantic face he gave you were all just perfect 

“What happened??” He asked, running back to the mirror before returning his attention to you. Quickly, you made your way to his aid and did your best to calm him.

“I’m not sure, did you do anything strange yesterday?” You pulled his face toward you, cupping your hands against his cheek and running your fingers through his hair. 

“Not that I know of … uh, oh! I found this …” He reached for a small bottle on the bathroom counter and handed it to you. Shit.

“Did you drink this??”

“ … yes.” 

“CHILDE!” You burst into laughter, knowing it wasn’t the right time but also unable to control yourself. His expression was distressed and worried and, as best as you could, you tried to bring yourself back to calm. “This wasn’t supposed to be consumed …” 

“A-am I going to die?” 

“No, you’re just going to be, well, this it seems.” 

“How long??” 

“I don’t know, a few days maybe.” He dropped his head into his hands, his ears drooped and his active tail dropped toward the ground. Wrapping him in your arms, you offered him reassurance while trying not to laugh. “You’re very cute though.” 

You caught sight of his tail moving slowly back and forth and added more pressure to your hug. 

He found that it wasn’t as bad as he thought, in addition to the extra features, he also was able to gain other advantages - his eyesight was much better in the dark, his sense of smell more keen, his agility top notch 

You were sure he had grown attached to them in the short time he had them - so when the option came for him to revert, you were sure it would be a tough decision 

Still - to keep him trapped like this, with features that weren’t his own - you didn’t want to be cruel 

“Here,” You put the bottle down in front of him. His ears perking up at the item and his fingers reaching to grab it. “All you have to do is drink that and everything should go back to normal.” You said with a slightly wistful tone to your voice. It was somehow sad to think these adorable additions leave would be gone soon. 

“What if it doesn’t work?” 

“I’m not sure. We will just try again if it doesn’t though.” Quickly, he took the cork from the lid and moved the vial to his lips. His ear twitched as he smelled the concoction. “I’ll miss this.” Resting your head in your hands you watched as he downed the liquid in one go. 

“It’s hard for people to take me seriously like this …”

“Did people take you seriously before?” You joked, winking at him. 

The next morning, he stirred in bed next to you, his hair brushing against your face and making you wake up before you wanted to. As your eyes adjusted, you instantly recognized what you thought was hair was actually ears and the giddiness of your heart jump-started you awake. It didn’t work -- oh no, guess you’d have to keep trying. 

Kaeya 

Waking up next to Kaeya was your favorite thing. It was an opportunity for you to be close to him, to witness his relaxed expression, and know that in these moments he trusted you over anyone else. 

So, when you woke and found him pressed against you, your hands absentmindedly began to run through his hair, over his shoulders, as you meandered your way into the waking world. There was something soft that flicked against your hand, but you pushed it away. It happened again, confused, mouth turning into a scowl and eyes rudely being pried open, you looked down to see what was making you irritated. 

You were wide awake when you saw the cat ears sticking out from Kaeya’s blue hair. They were richly shaded, deep blues with tips of white and perfectly placed on his head. Shifting, you tried to get a better view and the action made him stir. 

“Mmm, stop moving.” He mumbled, wrapping his arms around you and holding you steady. Tapping his arm, you tried to get his attention. 

“K-Kaeya …” 

“What is it?” 

“Do you feel okay?” You asked, your voice shaking and hands hovering over his ears. 

“I feel perfectly fine, why do you ask?” He kissed your chest before nuzzling back into his place. 

“You … you’ve got cat ears.”

He laughed and pushed your comment away. His legs moved under the sheets and you swore you saw something poke out from the bed. “You’re pulling my leg, I didn’t know you could be this funny so early in the morning.” 

“I’m not, see.” Stealing his hand you placed it on his head and watched as his fingers ran over the ears which were sticking straight up. When his eyes shot open and his hand began to move faster, pulling, tugging, examining the feature, you tried not to laugh as his confused expression turned into a slight panic. He shot up, his legs moving so he could sit on the bed but winced when he did so. That’s when the both of you saw the tail. 

“Hold on, let me get ready, just … don’t freak out.” 

You rushed around the room to gather up your items, your gaze continuously falling on the incredibly still, unmoving frame that was Kaeya. 

After calling on Albedo to come and offer assistance, only to find that the features would be around for a few days … Kaeya started to get more accustomed to them 

He was for sure rattled but bounced back rather quickly - in fact, the features seemed to get him even more attention than he had before and he found that the added bonuses were helpful when he needed them for his knightly tasks 

Not to mention it seemed he was more affectionate than normal, and not in the way he normally was, it was more in a … cuddly, interested, curious manner 

One evening, you found yourself reading over several books that Albedo had recommended and became rudely distracted when Kaeya pushed his way under your arms and nestled into your lap

“Hey there.” You called down to him, hand dropping to his shoulder as he nuzzled against you. 

“Give me attention.” 

You laughed at his pouting expression, his lips turned downward and ears twisting to show he could be trusted. “I’m currently trying to figure out how to fix this, I can’t do that if I’m giving you all my attention.” His eye squinted for just a moment before he moved more into your lap and nearly pushed the book in your hands onto the floor. “Kaeya!” The playful laughter that filled his ears was as tantalizing as the drinks he let touch his lips. 

“You can figure that out later. How can you possibly resist me right now anyway?” He asked, pushing against you until your back pressed into the couch and his hands weaved their way around your body. His hair tickled your face as he nuzzled into your chest and, even though his hips dug into yours, you didn’t seem to mind the closeness he was trying to find. 

“Okay. Fine, I’ll look into it more later.” 

“What excellent news.” He practically purred as he slid his way to your neck and let his body rest against you.

 Zhongli 

It’s been so long since he saw himself with such features - and, to be honest, he didn’t notice them for some time. It wasn’t until you returned and the items in your hands fell to the floor upon seeing him that his attention was captured

“Zh - Zhongli!?” You babbled, making your way to him and not knowing what to rest your eyes on first. Was it the pair of elegantly shaped horns that sprouted between his brown locks of hair? Was it the golden slits in his eyes that reminded you of the reptiles roaming around the rocky paths of Liyue? Or did you look at the scales that decorated his face in such perfect placement? 

“Has something transpired?” His expression was one of concern, but also one of disillusionment. Did - did he not notice? 

“Are you feeling nostalgic today?” 

“Not particularly, what makes you ask?” 

“Well … you look kinda like … I mean hold on.” You quickly disappeared down the hallway before returning with a small handheld mirror, one that Zhongli had purchased for you some time ago. Handing it to him, you waited until it started to register on his face the changes to his appearance, and that’s when you noticed the long claws which jutted out from his nail beds.  

“Huh, this is peculiar …” 

Sitting down across from him, you placed your hands on the table and watched as he examined the reflection of his face. “So you didn’t do this?”

“I must say that I did not, though It is rather pleasant to see …” His voice trailed off and you watched as he fussed with his hair, touched the horns on his head, and opened his mouth to check and see if - yup, he had canines much like a dragon too. That’s when it hit you. 

“Did you … drink anything strange?” 

The mirror found its place upside down on the table, his glowing eyes shifted to you as he took in your question. You let him think and finally, he gave you his answer. “I do recall there was a strange vial on the counter when I awoke. Ah - my dear, are you unwell?” He asked as your head dropped onto the table. 

The strangest thing about Zhongli holding these features was that he seemed … perfect for them and it was becoming quite the problem to hide

You were much too cautious that someone may discover who he really was with these pretty telling additions to his wardrobe, so you asked him to stay home for a while until you could get some answers

He didn’t seem to mind, and when you were finally able to gather up all the items needed to prepare an antidote for his condition, you were finding it very distracting to make the concoction at home 

The bubbling liquid warned you it was much too hot and so, with adept fingers, you turned the nobs and burners down so as to not overheat or scald the liquid inside. The aroma that filled your nose was … unpleasant to say the least, and so you finally succumbed to the need to wrap your nose in a clean cloth. 

Turning your back to the equipment, you made your way toward the drawer where the rags were kept but when your eyes caught sight of Zhongli standing by the window, you nearly fainted. 

He was wearing a robe, the material had slid down one of his arms and rested in the crook of his elbow. It gave you pause and allowed you to see the toned torso which was normally hidden by the layers of clothing he wore on a regular day. 

Since he found no need to properly get dressed, he had reserved himself to lounge about in clothes that felt ‘more suitable’ to him, as he explained. 

The light from the sun flashed across his chest, laid softly against his face, and illuminated the golden speckles in his hair - you wondered if it was because of the horns, perhaps they were reflecting the light and making him look ethereal in the warmth of the sun. He crossed his arms and shifted his weight as he looked beyond the window, almost as if he was yearning for something far beyond his reach. 

“I think I’m nearly done.” You explain, tying the towel around your face and returning, reluctantly, to the concoction behind you. 

As you began to spoon out the unnecessary ingredients until you were only left with the pure grade potion, you didn’t notice how he had moved to your side until the small vial was filled. 

“Here you -- oh!.” He stood right in front of you. His eyes were dangerous, burning, focused. “I didn’t see … you …” He reached around to the back of your head and skillfully undid the makeshift mask you had created moments ago. When it was off, he took the vial in his hands and placed it onto the counter before returning his attention to you. “Are you … okay?” You asked, tracking the movements of his face as he leaned down toward you. 

His lips hovered barely over yours and the closeness of him made your heart flutter. “You are mine, are you not?” His voice rattled your bones from the intensity, it was oppressive and supportive all at the same time. 

“Y-yes?” 

His lips pressed against the corner of your mouth, “You belong to no one else?” 

“No …”

“Good.” 

It’s a good thing the instructions never said anything about, ‘consume immediately’ because you were very distracted for some time. 

-- 

tag list: @star-gods @mercurysmaiden @dourpeep @clemmywrites @pepperoncinipizza @handswritteeen @lucifucker @beelsdessert @odafashioned @coolcats09 @ninqat @musekala @sufzku @mooshymello  @heavenlyang @plenilunegazes @glazelilyy @justyoureverydayqueer @idunkar @solowmomo @twokissesforamelia @the-mermaid-of-mondstadt @fuwon @goat-mama-breezie @angelmelt @lucacandy @shesleire @mariana @zentoruu @smol-knife @nightlywallows @aoirohi @nitorious-ghost @mguerra11 @maiiikoo @actstfbla @youaskedfurret @nonniechan @evolcahra @tempehlust @zenith-impact @plumpkie @jaggedsi @salty-salty @onlyhereforinteractivestories @gultonluvv @shy-specter @liebestraumss @jaemjenjam @softlybeloved @anatthesavage

#genshin impact #genshin impact X reader #genshin impact headcanons #genshin impact musings #genshin impact fiction #childe X reader #childe #genshin childe #kayea x reader #kayea #genshin Kayea #Zhongli X reader #zhongli #genshin zhongli

[fantasychica37]

Today in Middle-earth! 9/29/(30)21, (almost) the end.

Bilbo Baggins, who started it all, is sad to leave the land of his birth, but he’s getting old and he’s had a full life and is quite ready for another adventure. And this time, he and Frodo get to go together. (He’ll learn, properly, what has happened to Frodo on his own adventure once they get into the strengthening airs of Valinor, and he’ll get a chance to be the supportive parent he wanted to be.)

Elrond E- Elrond M- Elrond Half-elven, child of the Elves of Middle-earth and the descendants of Valinor, and survivor of the stories of the Elder Days, is  enduring perhaps his most grievous parting - two children and another homeland lost to him, forever - but it is also his final parting, and on the other side of the sea waits the first reunion of his life. (He’ll have hordes of ancestors and aunts and uncles and cousins waiting for him on the other side of the sea, who have nursed his wife back to health (chief among those of course being his grandmother and her aunt Melian), and when he is ready they’ll open their homes to him and urge him to call them Grandfather and Grandmother by some lineage or other. Two unexpected guests will meet him on the shore along with Celebrian, and ask his forgiveness for being the first to leave him.)

Frodo Baggins, saddled with a Princedom of the West he doesn’t really want, has said good-bye in his own way to the friends and family he still counts as dear - and Freddy and Folco know more or less what he has been through, beside - but Merry and Pippin show up with Gandalf, the delightful old meddler, to wish him good-bye in person! Frodo holds Merry, Pippin, and Sam in his arms one last time, then, steps away from his family on the shore, the land he was born in and could not enjoy anymore but bequeaths to everyone he loves, to the children of the future (it’s Children’s Day, in our world), and towards his family on the ship, onto a new home where he can find healing and joy in fullness. (Once they get to Valinor, Finrod will have scarcely disentangled himself from his sister’s arms before he assaults the hobbits with a barrage of greetings and eager questions and words of comfort; he’ll have friends aplenty.)

Artanis Nerwen Galadriel Arafinwiel, youngest of the great Elf-houses, older than the Moon and Sun, and last greatest survivor of the journey forth from Valinor, who has each of her names in a different tongue, has had her adventure, loved and lost, experienced tragedy after tragedy, humbled herself and sacrificed everything (and in thus doing became the character to experience the most growth in all of Tolkien’s stories), defeated her foe, and returns home in triumph alone of Fingolfin’s host. (The king and queen of the Vanyar, Teleri, and especially the Noldorin king, queen, and queen mother have prepared a hero’s welcome for her - for all of them, really, but mostly for her, and although it will only be them, Finrod, Celebrian, Melian, Eonwe, Earendil and Elwing at the docks, all Alqualonde prepares to celebrate.)

(Idly, Galadriel realizes that she finally gets to cross an ocean by boat as she was promised an entire era ago. This is also the moment when she realizes that  once she is back in Valinor she will probably let her tongue slip between her teeth as her father’s and mother’s people do, every now and again. It’s been Ages, and there isn’t a reason not to anymore.)

Olórin who is and forever shall be Gandalf, wisest of all Maiar, has never been so grateful to be given an assignment he did not want. He returns home alone, but he returns home anything but empty-handed. He grieves his new home but looks forward to his old one, and he even gets to bring some of his friends. He is going to his home, to his kin, to be whole. (Aule will meet him and reassure him that it is not his fault. Manwe and Varda will meet him and realize that he has some bits of wisdom that they do not. Nienna will meet him and when he tells her that he wore his grey robes across Middle-earth as Eonwe carried Manwe’s standard in the great battles of old, she will tell him that she has never been prouder of anyone and hold him as he finally lets himself weep.)

He has packed a year’s supply of pipe-weed.)

And the friends and family left behind, all across Middle-earth turn away from the West, towards their home that they have freed from great evil. There now remains no great power threatening Middle-earth, and they think, the world is ours to heal, to shape, to explore, to enjoy! So let’s stop scrolling mindlessly through Tumblr and get to it!

I, for one, am full of nostalgia at this thing I barely did at points - I could have been posting every day in winter 2019, and I missed all of 2020, etc. - being almost over, but I did do stuff with it and I did have fun, and I am happy, and now I am going to get back to my (very interesting, really, the only downside is it’s due tomorrow) homework that will allow me to get a job I want making the world a better place. Thanks for taking this ride with me, everyone. I love you all!

#today in middle-earth #today in middle earth #the lord of the rings #lotr #silmarillion #tolkien #frodo baggins #gandalf #olorin #elrond #galadriel #bilbo baggins #finrod #valinor #the return of the king #rotk #nienna #manwe #varda #aule #saruman #celebrian #elwing #earendil #alqualonde #melian #indis #ingwe #olwe #earwen

[daily-douma]

Demon With No Name

An analysis on Upper Moon Two: Douma

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba spoilers!!

Hello! ❤ I wanted to discuss the significance on Douma’s real name never being revealed to us in the KNY story.

I'd love it if you guys could share your thoughts on this with me please!

Before I start:

Disclaimer: I do not speak Japanese at all, I’m basing all quotes off of the first manga site i could find. Translations may vary depending on the source. Also I may not be aware of alternate meanings of words that may have been lost in translation for the most important quotes! So please forgive me if I misinterpret something!!

A lot of the demons in KNY’s story are either nameless, or go by an alias that isn’t their real name. Examples of the former include most minor demons, such as the Temple Demon, Swamp Demon, Older brother/sister, Mother, and Father Spider demons, etc. Examples of the latter are mostly are more relevant Upper moon demons-- Daki, Akaza, and Kokushibou, whose real names are Ume, Hakuji, and Michikatsu respectively. The other upper moons, Nakime, Gyokko, and Hantengu, however, don’t have their human names revealed, along with Douma. However, these 3, did not hold as much story significance as Douma.

Then in addition to that, there are some demons who go by their human names still, such as Rui and Kaigaku. I assume it is because they are young enough relative to other demons age that they haven’t forgotten it (or maybe they just like their human names lol).

(I don’t know if Gyutaro’s name is his actual name or a fake name and, if it is a fake name, I don’t remember if his real name is actually given, which is weird because his sister’s was. But that’s a topic for another day.)

However, Douma, who holds the rank of Upper Moon 2, is one of the most relevant demons in the story, yet his real name is never disclosed. Even in the Kimetsu Acadmeny chapter extras, is stated that his AU version’s real name is unknown.

So, why is that? Douma even said so himself that he has great memory. He remembered many details of his life but he failed to ever disclose to us his name. Was that one thing he did forget? Was it not important to him? Did he simply not have a real name before becoming a demon? (Maybe his parents thought he was above having a normal human name?) And most importantly, was this intentionally done by Kyoharu Gotouge?

Before I continue, first we should know the meaning behind Douma’s name. His name is officially 童磨. According to the Kimetsu no Yaiba wiki,  童 ( dō ) means “child,” and 磨 (ma) which can mean “polishe,” “grind,” or “improve.” (Someone also said it can mean magic but I don’t have the source im sorry :( ) Based on these, Douma’s name has a meaning somewhere along the lines of “magical child” or “polished child.” This is most likely to reference how his parents thought he had divine powers at his birth.

For most people, your name is one of the most significant aspect of one’s identity. It’s the first bit of information you to give to anybody upon introduction. However, Douma’s unknown name is a demonstration of his own lack of personal identity.

If we take a look back at Douma’s childhood, he’s been put on as the figurehead of the Eternal Paradise cult from the day he could even sit up. His entire life he was put on a pedestal for an identity he did not make for himself, but one manufactured and forced onto him by his parents. In chapter 142, Douma admits that he can’t speak to the Gods or have any spiritual connections that his parents believe he has. In fact, he doesn’t even believe in any of it. If that’s the case, why does he seem so fixated on the idea of bringing his troubled followers to “paradise” as his sole reason for being born?

Earlier I mentioned that one large aspect of identity is our name. However, another important aspect in defining our identity is the personal relationships we have around us. Who we value and surround ourselves will shape our own individual perceptions of ourselves. However, Douma, who has admitted to having limited capability in feeling emotions, is unable to form meaningful bonds with people around him. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is story where most, if not all, the main themes revolve around love, family, and friendship being the main motivators to drive characters in the pursuit of goals. However, here we have a character who serves as a direct antithesis to of all these themes. He has nobody he loves and nobody who loves him.

In chapter 157, Kanao calls out Douma in their fight, telling him she can see through the fake persona he puts on. She then proceeds to question him: “Why were you even born?” (damn....) Douma gave clearly visible cues that he was not pleased with what she had to say. The important observation to take from this scene is Douma’s reaction. The man who was just revealed to not feel any emotions, who is usually unbothered by harsh words thrown at him from demon slayers and other members of the upper moons alike, showed an emotional response to the cutting words of a child questioning his existence.

Based on this reaction, I think there is reason to believe Douma has an innate dissatisfaction with his own identity, or moreso his lack of identity. From his childhood, he’s been more than aware of how he cannot feel emotions the same as others. Even in his dying thoughts in chapter 163, he thinks back on how he was “always been this way.” He thinks about how human emotions to him were nothing more than  “mere dreams.”

I think should we take a close look at the word choice used here. He could have simply said something along the lines of “I’ve never felt emotions;” however Gotouge specifically phrased it as a metaphor comparing it to dreams. This word choice conveys a sense of longing associated with the idea of being able to experience emotion. This suggests that there is a chance he did wish for a better understanding of emotions. After all, like Kanao said, what’s the point of living if one can’t truly indulge in all of life’s pleasures associated with the emotional bonds we build with one another?

However, what does all this of this have to do with Douma not having a name? Douma not having a name is symbolic of his entire character. He is a man with no true identity of his own. He was unable to maintain any close, meaningful, interpersonal relationships with anyone around him in the hundreds of years he lived. He lived every day with a false persona knowing deep down inside of him knowing he was different from everyone else around him, but not in the “spiritual way” that was expected of him. And in his own Nihilistic opinion, he felt his own life was pointless. But as a direct contradiction to those beliefs, he continues to lie to himself, telling himself the people need him to save them. It’s ironic--Douma, the man who mocked demon slayers’ efforts to do whatever they can to achieve their goals, is doing the most to do whatever he can to mask the emptiness he feels inside. His boastfulness of his cult, his over-acting of emotions, and his insistence of friendly and polite conversation even in the face of insults and attacks from opponents all demonstrate this. While he may not be able to process and understand emotions like most people, there is one thing that Douma appears to have in common with many people: wanting a sense of purpose and meaningfulness in life.

While Douma’s reason for becoming a demon is never explicitly disclosed in the manga, I think we have reason to suspect him of becoming a demon for the purpose of finding an identity to call his own. Muzan Kibutsuji is notorious for taking advantage of humans who are at their lowest points in their life. They have lost everything that mattered to them and have no one else to turn to. However, it was a different case with Douma--a man with no loved ones, no purpose, no real identity--already had nothing to lose to in the first place.

Despite all Douma thought he though he “dedicated [...] to people and made contributions to the world,” in the end, his choice to become a demon never brought him the sense of identity and purpose he sought out by the time of his death. Unlike even other demons, who had family members they could happily reunite with in death, he would simply be forgotten from the rest of the world. Sure, maybe the demon slayers will remember him as Douma, one of the strongest demons. However,there was not a single person who knew the real Douma, the real name behind the man who served as Upper Moon 2 under Muzan. He will just continue to remain nameless even in death. A cruel reminder of how any way Muzan’s involvement in any other demon’s life did nothing to improve any of their lives, if not worsen it.

I don’t think I worded this well but I hope it still makes sense to everyone 🥺

#Douma #dōma #kny #kimetsu no yaiba #demon slayer #character analysis

[amaya-writes]

Myriads of memories. A PJO one-shot of how Sally and Poseidon met.

A/N: I’ve decided to post my one-shots, etc. on here as well. This is actually my first one-shot, which I wrote when I was 12, so it might not be very good but I’m still proud of it. 

It had been a long, tiring week at work, the customers had been rowdier than usual, and all Sally wanted to do was get away to her beach cabin in Montauk. Her life had been going down the rabbit hole for quite some time, and all she needed was a little time to get herself together. She rushed off to the local supermarket to retrieve supplies for her week off and then drove off to the cabin.

After thoroughly cleaning the cabin and putting away the food, she made her way to the beach, packing a book, towel, and sunglasses in her handbag. She put on her bathing suit and made her way down the peninsula shaped beach, making sure not to go too far away from her cabin. Sally was an ordinary human in every aspect of the word, except for her wild imagination.

Ever since she was little, Sally would always dream up these weird creatures, things like three-headed baby dragons, lizards with human features, stuff like that. She even spoke to a shrink about it, but they said it seemed not to affect her in any harmful way and might be an overactive imagination.

No, you are not going to think about any of that, this week is going to be nothing short of a peaceful, serene vacation away from everything.

With that thought, she proceeded to read her book and sip her water in peace, occasionally looking up to the sea and smiling. After a bit she could feel her eyes drooping, not wanting to get a terrible sunburn by sleeping out on the beach Sally decided to head back. 

See that wasn't so hard, it's just the strain that caused you to think you saw a boy fight dragon of sorts'

No sooner had she thought that she passed by a (very handsome) man, his wavy brunette curls fell to his remarkably deep green eyes, oh those eyes, she could stare into them all day. Her eyes scanned over his partly unbuttoned shirt and khaki shorts, admiring the way he looked as she walked towards him. 

He was holding something in his hand, as she got closer, she couldn't believe what she saw and was positive her previous thoughts had jinxed her, for the man was holding a trident.

No Sally, stop it!

She groaned and walked on, not noticing the man's curious stare or the things he muttered under his breath as he sighed and walked into the ocean.

*~*~*

A scream pierced through the cabin as the woman thrashed around, ripping the sheets as she tried to escape the horrors her dream portrayed, she let out a final screech before falling off her bed and successfully awakening.

She shivered on the hardwood floor, reminiscing her nightmare's events. It had been the same thing ever since she saw that man on the beach side. It started off in a dark and empty room with voices resonating around her, throwing insults that would make a sailor baffled. 

The room would then light up, blinding her each time as a dark and generally evil man stood by a man surrounded by lighting, torturing her and a boy who she had come to realize was her son.

They would stop and mutter in a language fairly similar to Latin and start the torture once again, causing her to awaken. Sometimes a wave of water would wash them away and bring her back to the beach, but that had only happened once. Sally muttered profanities and headed out of her little cabin, heading to the beach.

You could call it a gut feeling or destiny, but something pulled her towards where she last saw the man with the trident.

This is stupid, I should go back in, who's to say he'll even be there?! oh..

She noticed an outline of a figure holding a trident while gazing at the sea.

"It's beautiful isn't it?" 

He questioned her as she came into hearing distance.

"Um yes, sorry to intrude." 

Sally smiled shyly, still unsure whether she should question his little...instrument, she decided against doing so and instead stared at the peculiar object.

“Oh of course not-"the man trailed off and followed her line of sight before letting out a chuckle, "-how curious, you can see through the mist! Is that why you rushed past me the other day?"  

"Why would you carry such a thing around? Are you one of those Greek god fanatics?" 

This evoked a hearty chuckle as the man dug his trident into the sand, facing her and sighing.

They spent the next few hours sitting in the sand and discussing the apparently real Greek gods, occasionally laughing and bickering over little details. Poseidon summoned a bunch of sea creatures and manipulated the water to convince her of his godship, causing her to stare and coo at the water-works. 

As dusk faded to dawn the both parted ways, promises of meeting the next day being exchanged. And feelings (unbeknownst to them) being developed and reciprocated. If you would have told Sally she'd spend the entire week romantically with the Greek sea god, she would have scoffed and sent you off to a shrink. But currently the past week was all she could think of as she packed up her little cabin, walking down the beach to visit him once again before her leave. 

She approached his surprising disheveled form and set down her bags, watching as the waves grew higher than trees before collapsing.

"What happened?" 

She questioned him as she knelt down in the sand, pulling him to face her. He sighed, running a hand through his hair and clutching onto her hand for dear life.

"You are with child; do not question how I know this. My brothers, if they find out they'll be furious and possibly attempt and harm you. We must never meet again until our son is grown, you have to hide away and promise not to come back here or reach out to me until his birth, I will contact you when it is safe."

Sally's face flashed through an array of emotions before settling on sad, she had lost enough people in her life, she didn't want to lose her lover and son as well. She gripped onto his other had and bowed her head, contemplating on informing him about her repetitive nightmares and how they'd gotten worse since they interacted.

"Your brothers, I- I've had nightmares about them, they torture our son different way in each of them, I thought nothing of it at first but, but now I can't risk his life for...this."

Poseidon looked at her in shock, having expected at least a little fight over 'how selfish he was to put her through this' yet here was the woman he loved, kneeling beside him and ready to sacrifice everything for their unborn child's safety. 

As he stared at her, the sea god came to realise he truly had fallen in love with Sally Jackson, and, leaving her would be harder than witnessing the Trojan War. He had never felt the loss of a loved one, after all gods lived forever and loved no one except themselves, yet here he was, wishing to be a mortal and experience such mundane events just to be closer to her.

Sally felt a sudden weight around her neck and looked down to see a gorgeous necklace made of silver, its centerpiece being a blue seashell with a trident imprint.

"Hold onto it and think about me if you ever need me, I'm always here, my love," he hugged her closer and slowly dissolved away, watching as she sobbed into the sand, holding onto air and cursing the mere existence of the gods. Get up Sally, he's not coming back, he probably never will, get your shit together, you have a lot of explaining and planning to do young lady.

It had been a month since he left her on that wretched beach, but Sally couldn’t quite get over Poseidon. 

The usually cheerful woman was down in the dumps, the daily morning sickness not making it better, she presumed the child would mature faster due to being part god, and she frankly couldn't wait to have her little Percy with her.

“What if he looks like his father?”

The question made her smile as she leaned against a wall.

“...then I'll love him as unconditionally as I did his father.”

A/N: I’ll come back and edit this at some point. 

#percy jackson #sally jackson #poseidon #greek gods #how sally met poseidon #magic and mythology #percy jackon and the olympians

[ouyangzizhensdad]

RE: WWX and his arc being about trauma. I got into the fandom through CQL and the first time I saw it I actually read a lot of his actions post the burning of Lotus Cove as being influenced by his trauma. He's paranoid even before getting thrown into the burial mounds. He seems to be self medicating with alchohol (which WQ kinda calls him out on). He over-reacts to a lot things, which seems to me like a nasty case of emotional dysregulation as a result of PTSD. He avoids all kinds (1/3)

Of reminders of his tramua, his sword being the greatest example but there were other little things. He never gave much of a fuck about propriety but the way he completely igonres it (and the possible social fallout) later speaks to me less about not caring and more about not *having* the emotional capacity to care, much like what happens with depression. Plus, a lot of his behaviour can be read with various shades of being self destructive, and there are just in general a lot of points (2/3)

Where it's made clear that he's in a pretty bad headspace (him crying about being useless in the burial mounds for example), but none of that ever really gets dealt with so all of those issues are still hanging under the surface even if they're not apparent all the time. I mean, this is just my take, but at least imo WWX ticks a lot of the checkboxes for PTSD in the drama and it explains a lot about the way he acts and the bad decisions he makes. Hope this was helpful! (3/3)

I'm only referring to the drama btw, not the novel (which I haven't read yet). My memory is terrible so I'm not sure if I made it clear or not lol. Anyways, have a good day ^^

Hi there, 

I am always curious when people who have only engaged with CQL end up engaging with my novel-only meta blog but perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised: if CQL posts end up in the mdzs tag, why not the opposite? I’ve seen some of my novel meta reblogged and tagged with “the untamed” and “CQL” so maybe the answer is already out there, staring at me in the face! 

I’ll start by saying that I do not wish to really argue with people’s interpretations of CQL since I consider that MDZS and CQL are very different works because so many changes were made in the process of adapting the novel, and I personally have no interest in analysing CQL except wrt  how it can help us better understand the novel (seeing certain elements removed or changed may help us understand why they mattered in the first place or what their use was). So I will speak to the arguments that could be applied to the novel and why *I* don’t think WWX’s arc in the novel is about trauma, and why I don’t think that picking up certain behaviours that can be exhibited by people with PTSD (but not exclusively by people with PTSD) is enough in itself to support the idea that a character’s arc is about trauma/shaped by PTSD. That does not mean that my interpretation is the only acceptable one--I am aware that a lot of people disagree with me on this and see trauma as a central theme/central part of WWX’s arc--and so I expect that a lot of people will disagree with my points (hopefully after they’ve read this post in good faith). And that’s perfectly fine: how likely is it that we can find another person who will agree 100% with our own interpretation of a work of fiction? And having divergent opinions floating around the fandom, or having to develop counter-arguments is a good way to strengthen our own pov if we don’t find ourselves convinced by that other interpretation, so it’s all good. 

So first, I’ll address the biggest point of my argument before moving to address more specific points you raise in your ask. For me, WWX’s characterisation is not about trauma but about resilience. 

So first, let’s clarify some things. Going through adversity/experiencing a situation that is difficult =/= experiencing trauma. Trauma is a concept referring to a potential response to going through adversity/experiencing something distressing or disturbing. In short, trauma as it is conceptualised and understood is not universal: not only in the sense that is a spatiotemporally specific concept used to make certain experiences intelligible, but as the reaction to difficult events (as well, what is considered to be an experience that falls under that concept is not itself universal and can take many gorms, and the behaviours and thoughts associated with trauma are generally not exclusive to it, ie having certain behaviours/thought processes is not an automatic proof that someone is dealing with trauma/ptsd). So after all this word vomit I want to clarify that my intent is not to suggest that WWX doesn’t go through experiences that are likely to cause trauma, but that to me, what is being portrayed is a different reaction to these events: resilience (if a slightly more “fictional” portrayal of resilience than what it would be presented in psychology/psychiatry). 

Resilience refers to how people adapt or recover successfully from adversity/distressing situation/stress. That does not mean that people’s first reaction to adversity/distressing situations will be not defined by negative emotions, of course. For instance, I don’t think WWX’s heightened paranoia/emotional state directly after the fall of LP when he goes to look for JC is an indication of trauma because at this point WWX is still deep in the middle of that moment of adversity: he’s still a fugitive in the middle of a war, in the middle of danger. This also doesn’t mean that people cannot still have some temporary negative reactions to things that happened to them, afterwards: WWX having to pause when JC presents him with Suibian after he returns from Mass Grave Hill is not inherently an indication of trauma as it can be read that his sword a reminder of the difficult sacrifice he made--and the consequences he faced as a result (just because a situation was not traumatic doesn’t mean we enjoy revisiting it).

Why I think that WWX’s arc or characterisation is about resilience rather than trauma is because of many things, but mostly I want to point out two sections of the novel in particular. 

First, this characterisation of WWX through JYL that we get relatively early in the novel:

Most memories from back then were already blurred. Yet, Jin Ling’s mother, Jiang Yanli, remembered all of them, and even told him quite a few. She said that, after his father heard of the news that his parents both died in battle, he had always dedicated himself to finding the child that these past friends had left behind. After searching for a while, he finally found the child in Yiling. 

The first time they met, Wei Wuxian was kneeling on the ground, eating the fruit peels that somebody tossed on the ground. Yiling’s winter and spring were quite cold, yet the child only wore thin layers. His knees were already tattered, and on his feet were two different shoes that didn’t fit at all. As he was looking down, searching for fruit peels, Jiang Fengmian called him. He still remembered that there was a “Ying” in his name, so he lifted his head. Although his cheeks were both red and chapped from the cold, he still wore a smile. 

Jiang Yanli said that he was born with a smiling look. No matter what unfortunate thing happened, he wouldn’t cling on to them; no matter what situation he was in, he would be happy. Although it sounded a bit heartless, it really was not bad.

This refers to a time of his life that is extremely difficult: he lost both his parents suddenly, at a young age, became suddenly homeless with no means to feed himself except to beg, and yet the only trauma he seems to carry from this experience is related to dogs. To me, this is a clear move from MXTX to position WWX as the kind of protagonist who can face a storm and keep his smile on his face. I can imagine that some people take it perhaps as a subversion, as the text telling us that WWX is weathering it all with a smile but underneath it all he is just a bundle of unaddressed trauma. And that’s certainly a possible interpretation, but it’s not mine. In this case I think the text is being straightforward. What we see of WWX also seems to support that: the way WWX just rolls with being brought back from the death, how easily he finds a way to adapt to things, etc.

I also find it meaningful that the novel choses to include in its ultimate chapter this discussion as part of its wrap-up of WWX’s journey and of Wangxian’s relationship.

After they left the shop, Wei Wuxian still sat on Xiao Pingguo while Lan Wangji held the reins in front.Swaying left and right atop the donkey, Wei Wuxian took the flute from his waist and placed it by his lips. The limpid notes flew across the sky like birds. Lan Wangji halted and listened quietly.

It was the song he sang for Wei Wuxian when they were stuck in the Xuanwu cave. It was also the song that Wei Wuxian just so happened to have played at Dafan Mountain, the song that enabled Lan Wangji to confirm his identity.

When he finished, Wei Wuxian winked his left eye towards Lan Wangji.

“How was it? Beautiful, huh?”

Lan Wangji slowly nodded. “For once.”

Wei Wuxian knew that ‘for once’ referred to how his memory was good for once. He could not help but smile.

“Don’t always be so angry about it. It was my fault in the past, alright? Besides, my terrible memory should be accredited to my mom.” Wei Wuxian propped his arm on Xiao Pingguo’s head, spinning Chenqing in his hand. “My mom said you have to remember the things others do for you, not the things you do for others. Only when people don’t hold so much in their hearts would they finally feel free.”

This was one of the only things he remembered about his parents.

Of course, this is not a direct reference to resilience as it is explored in psychology. But to me it speaks to that idea: one of the biggest lesson WWX has kept with him, one of his only memory of--and thus legacy from--his parents, is this idea that we should not hold so much in our hearts. It also reframes his bad memory as being the result of a philosophy, of an approach to life that not just about being grateful/paying your debts to others, but also a form of resilience, in a sense. 

As well, I find that a lot of people who go with the trauma interpretation see WWX’s actions and thoughts processes dyring his YLLZ’s days as being the result of his ptsd, where I personally read it as the influence of modao. I am aware as well that some people do not think that modao actually harmed WWX during that period of his life, but I don’t think that LWJ would have been worried if there were not reasons to believe it would:

One against two, Lan Wangji still refused to back off. He gazed at Wei Wuxian, “Wei Ying, for cultivating an evil path you would eventually have to pay. Throughout time, there has not been a single exception.”

Wei Wuxian, “I can pay.”

Seeing how unconcerned he seemed to be, Lan Wangji lowered his voice, “The path would not only damage your body, but your heart as well (此道损身，更损心性。)”

So now, onto the specific points you raised in the ask.

Self-medicating with alcohol: WWX is shown to enjoy and drink large amounts of alcohol before the fall of LP and after most of the events of the novel have unfolded. In the novel, while WQ tries to make WWX stop drinking, it is as likely to believe that it is for his health (now that he doesn’t have a golden core) than it would be because she was worried he was self-medicating. As well, heavy drinking is a very normalized behaviour (although most physicians don’t think it’s a good thing) in a lot of cultures and times, and considering WWX’s higher tolerance and his general demeanor while imbricated, his drinking is not shown to have a negative effect on his ability to live his life. The line between “self-soothing” (normal aspect of being humans dealing with emotions and hardships) and “self-medicating” (pathological) is hard to trace with alcohol consumption. As well, just because people with PTSD may self-medicate with alchohol doesn’t mean all people who self-medicate with alcohol do it because of PTSD. 

He's paranoid even before getting thrown into the burial mounds. As I mentioned briefly before, WWX is at the time a fugitive in the middle of a war: he’s still in the middle of those stressful events and his paranoia is not necessarily a maladaptive response since they are still very much fugitives in the middle of a war. Trauma is not really your reaction during but in the aftermath. It would be more telling if WWX were still exhibiting signs of paranoia in situations where he would have no reasons to. 

He over-reacts to a lot things, which seems to me like a nasty case of emotional dysregulation as a result of PTSD. I’m not certain at which reactions you are referring to here, but especially considering that some of this might be chalked up to acting choices since this is based on CQL, I probably won’t address this one point too much in relation to the novel. I do want to emphasize though that we’ve seen prior to Sunshot campaign that WWX can be quite impulsive in certain situations (hitting JZX for insulting Shijie, which he does both before and after the events of the Sunshot Campaign). As well, I do think it’s important to remember that he is still in the middle of the war during the Sunshot campaign, and that he is also hiding something pretty important from the people close to him and living a sort of double life, on top of experiencing fatigue/hunger in a way he hasn’t for years due to the loss of his golden core. In short, there are a lot of things going on that can be used to explain what can be seen as “over-reactions” without necessarily going with PTSD.

avoids all kinds  reminders of his trauma, his sword being the greatest example but there were other little things. I’ve broached in my previous discussions, but it’s also pertinent to remember his mom’s philosophy: we can also see this as WWX trying to leave in the pass this difficult sacrifice he made in order to move forward. 

He never gave much of a fuck about propriety but the way he completely ignores it (and the possible social fallout) later speaks to me less about not caring and more about not *having* the emotional capacity to care, much like what happens with depression. I have to disagree with that interpretation of WWX and WWX’s actions, but again this might just be a case of CQL-only vs novel-only interpretations of the character. One thing WWX thinks about being reborn in a “lunatic’s” body is that he’ll get to have fun, the way he never could when his actions reflected on others. So while at times WWX flaunts propriety, he is aware of how his actions can impact others and show in different situations that he is aware of propriety. His choice to protect the Wen Remnants goes against that, for sure, but it isn’t necessarily a case of not understanding the possible social fallout so much as putting other things (ie his life-debt towards WN and WQ) before propriety, as we can see for example in this exchange.

Jiang Cheng, “I’m the one who fucking wants to give you a thrashing! Yes, they helped us before, but why in the world don’t you understand that right now any remnant of the Wen Sect is a target of criticism! No matter who they are, with a surname of Wen they have committed a most heinous crime! And those who protect the Wen are at risk of being condemned by everyone! All the people loathe the Wen-dogs so badly that the worse they die the better. Whoever protects them is against the entire world. Nobody would speak for them, and nobody would speak for you either!”

“I don’t need anyone to speak for me.”

[...]

Swords unsheathed, the two stared at each other for a while. Neither was willing to take a single step back. A while later, Jiang Cheng spoke, “Wei Wuxian, have you still not realized what the situation at hand is like? Do you really need me to say it out loud? If you insist on protecting them, then I won’t be able to protect you.”

“There’s no need to protect me. Just let go.”

Jiang Cheng’s face twisted.

Wei Wuxian, “Just let go. Tell the world that I defected. From now on, no matter what Wei Wuxian does, it’d have nothing to do with YunmengJiangShi.”

“… All for the Wen Sect…? Wei Wuxian, do you have a savior complex? Is it that you’ll die if you don’t stand up for someone and stir up some trouble?”

Wei Wuxian stayed quiet. A while later, he answered, “So that’s why we should cut ties right now, in case anything I do affects YunmengJiangShi in the future.”

a lot of his behaviour can be read with various shades of being self destructive Which ones, specifically? I’m not trying to be obtuse, but I’m not sure which ones you mean. 

he's in a pretty bad headspace (him crying about being useless in the burial mounds for example) It needs to be said that the crying is only in CQL (it was an acting choice by XZ). My memory is playing tricks on me, but I think pre-rebirth we only see him cry after he kills JZX and after JYL’s death? Someone please fact-check me on this. 

Since I don’t believe it was MXTX’s intent to make WWX’s characterisation and arc about trauma, I do feel like interpreting the different behaviours as signs of his PTSD might lead us to miss out on other potential interpretations or meanings behind these choices, if we put aside the PTSD angle. It may also lead us to deny the text the possibility to signify something different through these behaviours and signs, especially on a thematic level--to explore something about how events and emotions shape us in a manner that exists outside of modern psychiatric classification.

TLDR (because god this got long): My point is not that WWX is unaffected by the things that happened to him or the things he’s done during this portion of his life: of course he is! Especially as they are happening to him, or when he is still stuck in a very difficult situation. But I don’t think his character and his arc is about trauma but instead about resilience. That, at the end of MDZS, WWX is still the person JYL described: No matter what unfortunate thing happened, he wouldn’t cling on to them.

#wintersrchild #mdzs meta #mdzs #wwx #maybe i should tag this as unpopular opinion? just in case

[noteofnaught]

内容全部都是个人意见与理解。这是之前为了活动写的，我个人认为谈不上对维吉尔分析，大概类似于某种梳理。

翻译还是可爱的deepl（翻译器）做的。

如果有什么错误或者问题请告诉我。

欢迎各种讨论。

The content is all personal opinion and understanding.This was written for activities before. Personally, I don't think Vergil can be analyzed. It is probably similar to some sort of combing.

The translation was done by the lovely deepl (translator).

Please let me know if there are any mistakes or problems.

All discussions are welcome.

维吉尔的童年曾经发生了什么

其实关于维吉尔在那天经历，官方有过非常明确的提及。

What happened to me in Vergil's childhood

In fact there is a very clear official reference to Vergil's experience on that day.

父亲下落不明，那场火灾中母亲和胞弟因为未能及时赶回而死于仇人之手，在多年的行踪不明下，有在后续无尽的追杀中幸存下来。

尚且年幼维吉尔在童年经历这一一系列的变故后，认为弱小——也就是我们通常对当时发生的所有一切都无能为力的现象，他认为是一种罪。

弱小对于他而言是一种负面的表现。

他出现问题就会把问题归类于这是自己出现了问题而不是外部原因所造成的，看到这���，反过来我们也许会思考，为什么弱小会被他归类于是自己的问题？

没能保护母亲，没有能保护一同出生也没有任何想要共同承担起家庭责任的弟弟，又或者说他已经承担代替父亲保护母亲保护这个家的愿望彻底的破灭。

这所有的一切都是他的责任，所以他不应该怨恨其他人，没能保护好自己是过于弱小没有拥有力量的问题，而没有去思考别人伤害他这个行为根本就是错误的。

没有能力反抗伤害也是因为自身的弱小所造成的。

他将所有的问题都归纳在自己，是自己年幼无知的幼稚想法才让他失去了一切。

他“想要”很多东西，但“想要”这种需求对他而言是一种错误的贪婪行为。但凡他想要什么的时候，这种行为就会被归类于错误的一端，错误的欲望应当被压制，这让他兄长身份赋予超过这个年龄所有拥有的重压。

对于兄长的这个身份，不仅仅是他是他对自己的要求，其中还包含的有母亲对他的家庭角色定位，以及嘱托和期望。

从剧情中考虑伊娃只是一个普通的人类，一个年轻的单身母亲，亦不是圣母。就算是普通的家庭里，对于长子应该承担多一点做法也是完全合情合理的要求。

唯独在这样的家庭里，这种要求变成了对自己的苛责，在这样的家庭里，昔日的英雄下落不明，年轻的母亲因为需要带着孩子躲避灾祸而忧心忡忡，唯一能减轻母亲的负担的只有自己，在这样的情况下他还需要塑造达成兄长这样一个角色。

在这里，他角色定位被反复强调，他是什么样的角色远比他是谁更为重要。

His father's whereabouts are unknown, his mother and brother died at the hands of enemies when they failed to return in time from the fire, and after years of uncertainty about his whereabouts, he survived the endless chase that followed.

Still young, Vergil, having experienced this series of changes in his childhood, considered weakness - that is, the phenomenon that we are usually powerless against all that is happening at the time - to be a sin.

Weakness is a negative for him.

When he has a problem, he attributes it to the fact that it is his own problem and not to an external cause.

He had failed to protect his mother, his brother who was born with him and had no desire to share the responsibility of the family, or his desire to protect his mother and the family in place of his father had been completely dashed.

All of this was his responsibility, so he shouldn't have resented the others, failing to protect himself was a matter of being too weak to have power, and not thinking about the fact that the act of others hurting him was simply wrong.

The inability to resist harm is also the result of one's own weakness.

He blamed himself for all the problems, and it was his own childish thoughts of youthful ignorance that cost him everything.

He "wanted" many things, but the need to "want" was for him an act of misguided greed. But whenever he wants something, this behaviour is classified at the wrong end of the scale, and the wrong desire should be suppressed, which puts the weight of his elder brotherhood on him beyond all that he possesses at this age.

The role of older brother was not only a requirement for him, but also included his mother's role as a family man, and her wishes and expectations of him.

Considering the plot, Eva is just an ordinary human being, a young single mother, and not a saintly mother. Even in an ordinary family, it is a perfectly reasonable request that the eldest son should be given more responsibility.

Only in such a family, where the whereabouts of the former hero are unknown, where the young mother is worried because she needs to take the child away from the calamity, where the only one who can relieve her burden is himself, and where he needs to shape up to reach the role of older brother.

Here, the positioning of his character is repeatedly emphasised, the kind of character he is being far more important than who he is.

在三代里，阿卡姆曾经这样形容过爱丽丝。

In the DMC3, Arkham once described Alice in this way.

被人讨厌的孩子，也不受到父母的喜爱，这个孩子自己都讨厌自己。

所以迫切希望长大，能够让自己坚强起来，不想再当一个幼稚的孩子。

维吉尔情形与她是类似的，当天因为生气的缘故跑了出去，然后发生那样的悲剧，而出去的理由对一个小孩子而言再正常不过。

三代漫画人物简介中，你会看到维吉尔认为母亲更偏爱但丁，在漫画VOV的剧情也得以见到这种想法的根源。

剧情很明显的向我们表达出：但丁让维吉尔陪自己玩，而维吉尔想要独处，最后在明显不是由自己挑起事端的状况下，母亲仍然责怪他，认为他应该迁就弟弟的要求。

这样的情况在家庭有复数孩子经常会出现——让年纪大一点的迁就年幼的孩子。当他们之间发生争执，那无论什么原因，错的都是年纪大一点的孩子，因为年幼应该被保护应该被善待仿佛是一种理所当然的存在。

这事一种显而易见的偏袒，当然在这里我们并不是要争论这个行为的对错，而是同样尚且年幼的维吉尔也同样知道这样的偏袒行为是一种不公正对待，就算他比弟弟早出生那么几秒钟，那他也希望周围的对象能和他一样以理服人，而不需要母亲以大道理来偏袒弟弟，用这种方式来苛责自己。

The child who is hated is also not loved by his parents; the child himself hates himself.

So desperate to grow up and be able to toughen myself up and not want to be a childish child again.

Vergil was in a similar situation to her, having run away that day in anger and then having a tragedy like that, for reasons that were perfectly normal for a small child.

In the character profiles of the three generations of comics, you will see that Vergil believes that his mother prefers Dante, and you will be able to see the roots of this idea in the storyline of the comic VOV.

The plot is clearly expressed to us: Dante asks Vergil to play with him, while Vergil wants to be left alone, and in the end, in a situation where it is clear that he did not start the trouble, his mother still blames him, believing that he should have accommodated his brother's demands.

This is often the case in families with more than one child - the older child is allowed to give way to the younger one. When there is an argument between them, it is the older child who is at fault for whatever reason, because it is as if the younger child should be protected and treated well as if it were a matter of course.

This is a clear case of favouritism, and of course we are not arguing about the rightness or wrongness of this action, but Vergil, who is also young, knows that such favouritism is an injustice, even if he was born a few seconds before his brother, and he wants to be surrounded by people who are as reasonable as he is, and does not need his mother to favour his brother with her reasoning and to criticise himself in this way.

因为弱会导致死亡，无论他者还是自身。

可以看出DMC3维吉尔名台词：「没有力量你无法保护任何东西，即使是你自己」的由来。

兄长的身份让他认为自己应当承担责任，承担父亲的遗产等等，但悲剧变故是引发他扭曲责任感的源头。

三代漫画人物简介中你也可以看到，维吉尔认为但丁分走了属于自己一半的力量。

正义基本要素就是公平。

你有母亲的爱与保护，那父亲的力量归属就给我了吧，这是公平的。

你有母亲的保护，那我要父亲的保护，这是公平的。

为什么这个是你的，这个也是你的呢？这不公平。

在DMC5我们可以看到经典那一幕，V在说完斯巴达之刃（父亲）保护了但丁之后情绪严重失控。

说出了：“如果你不存在…………”

这句话可以引申出很多含义：如果你不在的话，自己就能拥有全部力量去保护母亲，母亲就不会死。如果你不在话，父亲也会保护我之类。

经过以上举例，我们会发现这些引申都是一些人很常见的想法，打开网络页面去搜索或者询问身边有兄弟姐妹的朋友，会发现这些情况是存在的，他们或多或少存在过以上这些问题，毕竟兄弟姐妹的存在，确实一定程度上分走本可能全部属于自己的资源。

孩子自私希望全部都属于自己，是人之常情。

当然，公平性是很重要的，但公平性也会有非常残忍的一面。

就如同你有一盒子巧克力，决定奖励给学生，通过考试测验，你奖励给了学习成绩更好那一个，因为你认为他很努力所以学习成绩好。

而这一刻公平性残忍出现在地方是：有其他孩子，因为下课之后还需要帮助父母工作，导致他学习时间与精力不能与其他人相比，于是他成绩不如其他人。

知识测试题目，人人都一样，所以这是公平，但每个人拥有学习时间、资源却并不一致；于是这就出现非公平。

弱者与强者同台比拼，靠体能决定胜负，但为什么这是不公平？因为弱者与强者之间体能本身就已经天差地别。

理同恶魔与人类，人类就是比恶魔在体能上弱小，所以恶魔与人类之间如果存在斗争，那就是不公平，是强者在欺负弱者。

于是，我们就可以称呼该行为属于非正义行为。

这也是为什么当我们看到，体育运动这类带有竞争性比赛上，在各方面不占先天优势的人赢了占先天优势的人，会如此热血沸腾的缘故之一。

维吉尔对公平性要求是刻入骨子的程度，从DMC5中他复活后与但丁对话到DMC1中黑天使从不偷袭而要求堂堂正正战斗，都能体现这一点。

无论对手是谁，堂堂正正是要务，大概只能阿卡姆能够破列吧，虽然阿卡姆其实不算对手。

维吉尔（V）在漫画里面不断责问自己，他的责问并不是，【自己为什么没有赢】而是【自己为什么会输】。

为什么没有赢与为什么会输，看起来是相同的东西，但提问方向是不一样的。

【为什么没有赢】是处于认为自己各方面条件都很好，没有破绽的是应该会赢才对；而【为什么会输】责问是自身到底那里做的不够好，才导致失败。

这其实也是符合维吉尔内在归因的问题。

他认为他与但丁之间应当是平等，而不是一高一低。

在VoV漫画里面有一段监督关于：在V噩梦中为什么出现的是叛逆而不是力之刃的解析。 是因为维吉尔觉得，叛逆与阎魔都是各自属于他们，而斯巴达之刃是属于他们共同所有的。

而但丁与维吉尔在经历那一天之后，他们所在社会、拥有的资源已经完全不一致。

维吉尔所在的社会看起来是人类的社会，但实际是恶魔的丛林社会。

蒙杜斯的追杀让他一直生活一个恶魔丛林里面，这个丛林唯一的法则就是：弱肉强食。

谁也不能够完全付托信任，天知道那是不是蒙杜斯派来恶魔伪装的。

“同伴”“信仰”那是与恶魔毫无关系的东西，甚至是导致其丧命的。

另一边的但丁用他自己所说的最为合适「グルーに言われた通りだぜ。オレは大甘の甘ちゃんで、 奴やあんた に甘えっぱなしだったんだな」

【一切确如格鲁所说，我以前太天真单纯/天真到傻，尽跟他还有你撒娇/尽是依赖你们】

但丁遇到了愿意保护他愿意引导他的格鲁、待他如同自己孩子的尼尔（妮可的婆婆）。

可以说但丁在一个充满爱的环境下长大，有能够依赖的人，能够像孩子一样长大。

我们看新闻或者小说也会经常提到，那种单亲家庭或者孤儿的孩子，会比一般孩子更早熟一点，并不是他们心理状态真的已经是完全的成年人了，而是环境迫使他们必须承担更多东西。

在生活中得像成年人一样处事或者工作，老成的可怕。

但丁自己的话，自证他并没有变成那种老成可怕的人。

这里不是说，谁比谁更惨一点，没有比惨的意思。

而是在说，他们两个人从那一天开始，遇到的人/事，生活的环境是不一样的，经历也不一样，拥有的资源更不一样。

这些都是让他们为何看起来如此不同关键之一。

当然维吉尔介意从来不是，但丁待遇更好资源更好，而是父母。

V的台词：“我也曾想要爱与保护，但我孤身一人，除了生存别无选择。”

这里爱与保护，不论是英文还是日语表达都是过去时，是曾经渴望过的东西，而他现在已经放弃不再“贪心”，再结合前面V在斯巴达之刃那里失控，还有但丁对U所说的“母亲并没抛弃你。”

我们其实可以得出V（维吉尔）真正介意的并不是但丁比他幸运比他过的好，但丁拥有一切包括名声等等其实都可以都不在乎的，内心唯一纠结妒忌过的是父母的保护与爱。

可是想要，甚至妒忌弟弟能有父母的爱与保护。

这一点上连维吉尔自己都在鄙视自己。

在遭受痛苦的时候，孩子渴望父母保护是非常天然的一件事情，对于孩子来说，父母是如同神一样的存在。

那么在遭受恶魔袭击的维吉尔而言，会产生希望母亲来救自己的想法，是非常自然的一件事。

而孩子在遭受痛苦时候父母没有出现，会产生遭受遗弃感觉也是非常理所当然的结论。

我们可以在很多儿童心理学上找到无数的案列，甚至在日常生活中见到，有这样的一些人，他们会逗弄孩子，告诉他：你妈妈没来找你就是不要你了。这些行为都会将孩子弄哭，甚至产生对孩子的心理造成严重的影响。

这让很多人批判这种逗孩子的行为，也有很多人在网络上发表自己遭受过这种行为后留下很多心理阴影，多年都无法释怀。

当然，人在遭受自己无法抵抗苦难的时候，渴望得救想法也是非常自然的事情。

这种想法与维吉尔想要保护自己的母亲的想法完全是不矛盾的。

可为什么要鄙视这种自然而的想法呢？

因为作为这种想法是作为一个兄长、保护家庭的角色定位里面不应该有的。

或者换成那种最令人厌恶的表达方式，就像有亲戚告诉你：你妈妈怎么来救你啊？飞过去来救你吗？你怎么可以这样想？你妈妈为了救你都死了啦！你怎么那么没用，真给你爹妈丢人！腿断了有啥大不了的，你有手啊？你一个男人怎么那么矫情，不就说几句嘛？要大气一点！懂吗？你学学你弟弟，你学学你爸爸啊。别那么丢人现眼好吗？要大气一点！懂吗？别那么小鸡肚肠子。你爹妈都死还惦记这个？现在小孩子真不行，我那会儿不也这样过来的吗？

如果刚好是一个神经比较大条，大概可能笑笑就算了，但如果撞上一个非常敏感的人，那么这些话几乎就是核弹级别了。

人的情绪是复杂，有时候并非完全单一的情绪，在一些电视节目采访里面，那些做出英雄举动的普通人，也会告诉你，其实当时自己也不是不害怕的。

我们可以随着时间或者成长释怀某些东西，但维吉尔人生（DMC5之前）还没能得到这些。

最终，维吉尔对这一切又重新落回去，对自己的恨意之上。

在这个简介中还会提到，维吉尔对自己作为半魔是非常自卑的，同时也是一个理性的、个人主义者。

作为人类，并不纯正，作为恶魔又是个半调子，那边都不是又同时被两边嫌弃。

而身为半魔注定了，作为人类伴随而来的人类情感，这些情感自然包括负面感情。

DMC3里面维吉尔作为一个冷酷无情的恶魔，却又被阿卡姆耍了一番，虽然他们的合作本质是建立在互相利用之上。

但对人性透彻与坚定不移牺牲一切获得力量的阿卡姆而言，维吉尔也不过是一个毫无防备便于利用的孩子罢了。

在DMC3过场中，我们可以看到维吉尔与阿卡姆之间互动，维吉尔非常嫌弃并厌恶阿卡姆，而他也并非像他战斗时候表现的那样，冷酷无情，精准切割；相反是一个拥有浓烈感情，甚至一定程度是脆弱而敏感的。

他会被阿卡姆的嘲讽他不过是不完整半人半魔杂种而极其愤怒，过场动画还给了愤怒的维吉尔一个特写镜头。

其后游戏过场中还有日后经常被各路玩家提梗：Why it doesn't work！！

维吉尔因机器不工作而大为愤怒，仿佛一个小孩子遇到困难时候，毫无办法只能在那边生闷气；还有M13过场动画中他发现被阿卡姆欺骗，气的咬牙切齿的表情。

他会被但丁话语简单激怒，又会因为蕾蒂说他利用阿卡姆，而语带嘲讽。

这些都是作为人的情绪，起源于非理性。

好的，我们再次要提及他们成长环境带来的影响。

在官方出版刊物中，在解析但丁与维吉尔关系之前，有这么一段话作为前序。

「在梦中有时会有这样的人物出现，他们做着自己绝不可能做的事情，有着和自己完全不一样的行为。会经常让梦中的自己非常烦躁不安。他们即便张着一张自己非常熟悉的朋友的脸，但却怎么也回忆不起那张脸是谁。

根据荣格所分类的6种梦境原型来看，这种现象叫做阴影理论。人出生之后，受成长环境，本人秉性的影响形成了人格。但是不管是多么温厚，替人着想的人格，冷彻，残酷，利己这部分是不会消失的。这部分人格在人们潜意识里静静存活。这就是阴影理论，应该说是被隐藏起来的人格。

能否将鬼泣3的但丁与维吉尔当作互为影子的存在？」

For weakness leads to death, whether of the other or of oneself.

One can see the origin of DMC3 Vergil's famous line: 'Without strength you cannot protect anything, even yourself'.

Being the older brother makes him think he should take responsibility, take on his father's legacy, etc., but the tragic turn of events is what triggers his twisted sense of responsibility.

As you can see in the character profiles of the three generations of comics, Vergil believes that Dante has taken half of the power that belongs to him.

The basic element of justice is fairness.

You have the love and protection of your mother, so it's fair that the father's power belongs to me.

You have the protection of the mother, then I want the protection of the father; that is fair.

Why should this be yours and this be yours? It's not fair.

In DMC5 we can see that classic scene where V loses a serious emotional outburst after saying that the Blade of Sparta (the father) has protected Dante.

Speaking out, "If you didn't exist ............"

There are many meanings that can be derived from this statement: if you had not existed, he would have had all the power to protect his mother and she would not have died. If you were not there, my father would have protected me and so on.

If you search the internet or ask your friends who have siblings, you will find that these situations do exist, and that they have had these problems to some extent.

It is only human for children to be selfish and want it all for themselves.

Of course, fairness is important, but fairness can also have a very cruel side.

It is as if you had a box of chocolates and decided to reward a student, and through a test you rewarded the one who did better in school because you thought he had worked hard and therefore did well in school.

And where this moment of fairness cruelty appears is that there are other children who, because they have to help their parents with their work after class, are not able to compare with the others in terms of time and energy spent studying, and so he does not do as well as the others.

The knowledge test questions are the same for everyone, so this is fair, but everyone has the time and resources to study but not the same; so this appears non-fair.

The weak and the strong compete on the same stage and rely on physical ability to decide the winner, but why is this unfair? Because the physical ability of the weak and the strong is already very different from each other.

So if there is a struggle between demons and humans, it is unfair, the stronger bullying the weaker.

We can then call the act an act of injustice.

This is one of the reasons why we get so worked up when we see, in a competitive competition such as sport, someone who is not innately superior in every way win against someone who is.

Vergil's demand for fairness is engrained in his bones to a degree that is evident from his conversation with Dante after his resurrection in DMC5 to the Black Angels never sneaking up on him but demanding a square fight in DMC1.

No matter who the opponent is, tangibility is a priority, and probably only Arkham can break the list, although Arkham is not really an opponent.

Vergil (V) constantly berates himself in the manga, not so much for [why he didn't win] but for [why he lost].

Why he didn't win and why he lost seem to be the same thing, but the direction of questioning is different.

The question "Why didn't you win" is based on the belief that you were in a good position to win, and that there were no flaws in your game.

This, in fact, is also in line with Vergil's internal attribution problem.

He believes that there should be equality between him and Dante, not one above the other.

There is a passage in the VoV comic that oversees the resolution of why it is Rebellion and not the Blade of Power that appears in the V Nightmare.

It is because Vergil feels that both Rebellion and Yama belong to them individually, while the Blade of Sparta belongs to them jointly.

And Dante and Vergil, after that day, are in societies and have resources that are completely at odds with each other.

Vergil was in a society that appeared to be human, but in reality was a demonic jungle society.

Mundus' hunt has kept him in a demonic jungle where the only law is that the weak are the strong.

No one can be fully trusted, and God knows if it was Mundus who sent the demon in disguise.

"Companionship" and "faith" are things that have nothing to do with demons, even if they lead to their death.

Dante on the other side uses his own words most appropriately, "グルーに言われた通りだぜ. Ore wa da gan no gan chan de, nuiya aanta ni gan e jin shi dana

[It's true what Guru said, I was too naive and simple/naive enough to pamper myself with him and you/relied on you all the time]

Dante meets Gru, who is willing to protect him and guide him, and Neal (Nicole's mother-in-law), who treats him like her own child.

You could say that Dante grew up in a loving environment, with people he could rely on and grow up like a child.

It is often mentioned in the news or in novels that children from single-parent families or orphans are a little more mature than the average child, not because they are really fully grown mentally, but because the environment forces them to take on more.

Having to conduct themselves or work like adults in life, the old age is frightening.

Dante's own words testify to himself that he did not turn out to be one of those old and scary people.

Here it is not saying that who is a little more miserable than who, there is no comparison of misery.

Rather, it is saying that the two of them have encountered different people/events, lived in different circumstances, had different experiences, and had even more different resources since that day.

These are all part of the keys that make them seem so different.

Of course Vergil minded that it was never, Dante who was treated better and had better resources, but his parents.

V's line, "I too have wanted love and protection, but I was alone and had no choice but to survive."

Here love and protection, whether expressed in English or Japanese, are in the past tense, something that was once desired and which he has now given up and is no longer "greedy" for, combined with V's loss of control at the Spartan Blade earlier, and Dante's words to U, "Mother did not abandon you. "

The only thing V (Vergil) really cares about is not that Dante is luckier than he is, but that Dante has everything he needs, including fame, and could care less, and that the only thing he is jealous of is his parents' protection and love.

But he wanted, and was even jealous of, his brother's love and protection.

Even Vergil himself despises himself for this.

In times of suffering, it is natural for a child to long for parental protection; to a child, parents are like gods.

It is natural, then, for Vergil, who has been attacked by a demon, to want his mother to come to his rescue.

And it is only natural that the child would feel abandoned if his parents were not present when he was suffering.

We can find countless cases in child psychology, and even in everyday life, of people who tease the child by telling him that if your mother doesn't come to you, she doesn't want you. All these actions can make the child cry and even produce serious psychological effects on the child.

This has led many people to criticise this kind of teasing, and many have posted on the internet that they have been subjected to this behaviour and it has left many psychological shadows that they have not been able to let go of for many years.

Of course, it is only natural for people to long for salvation when they are suffering from something they cannot resist.

Such thoughts are not at all incompatible with Vergil's desire to protect his mother.

But why should one despise such a natural thought?

Because such thoughts are not to be found in the role of an older brother, a protector of the family.

Or to put it in the most disgusting way, like when a relative tells you: How is your mother going to come to your rescue? Fly over to save you? How can you think like that? Your mother died trying to save you! Why are you so useless? You're a disgrace to your parents! What's the big deal if your leg is broken? You have a hand? You're a man, why are you so pretentious? Behave yourself! You know what I mean? You learn from your brother, you learn from your father. Don't be so embarrassed, okay? Behave yourself! You know what? Don't be such a chicken. Your parents are dead and you're still thinking about it? It's not good for kids these days. I was like that when I was a kid.

If you happen to be a person with a lot of nerves, you might laugh it off, but if you run into someone who is very sensitive, then these words are almost nuclear.

People have complex emotions and sometimes they are not completely monolithic. In some TV interviews, ordinary people who do heroic acts will also tell you that they were not unafraid at the time.

We can let go of certain things over time or as we grow up, but Vergil hasn't been able to get that in his life (before DMC5).

Eventually, Vergil falls back on top of it all, on top of his hatred for himself.

It will also be mentioned in this synopsis that Vergil is very inferior to himself as a half-demon, as well as being a rational, individualist.

Not pure as a human, and half-toned as a demon, neither side and disliked by both at the same time.

And being half-demon predestines, as humans come with human emotions, and these naturally include negative feelings.

In DMC3 Vergil, a cold and ruthless demon, is again played by Arkham, although the nature of their partnership is based on mutual exploitation.

But to Arkham, a man with a thorough understanding of human nature and a determination to sacrifice everything to gain power, Vergil is nothing more than a defenceless child who can be used.

In the DMC3 overworld, we see Vergil interacting with Arkham, who Vergil dislikes and loathes greatly, and who is not as cold and precise and cutting as he appears to be in battle; instead, he is a man of strong emotions, and even a degree of vulnerability and sensitivity.

He is extremely angry at Arkham's taunt that he is nothing more than an incomplete half-human, half-demon bastard, and the overworld animation gives a close-up of an angry Vergil.

Later on in the game, there is also a frequent reference to Why it doesn't work!

Vergil is furious that the machine doesn't work, as if he is a child in trouble and has no choice but to sulk, and the M13 overworld animation shows him gritting his teeth in anger when he realises he has been tricked by Arkham.

He will be simply angered by Dante's words, and then mocked by Letty's comment about him using Arkham.

These are emotions that originate as human beings and are irrational.

Well, once again we have to mention the influence of the environment in which they were brought up.

In the official publication, before parsing Dante's relationship with Vergil, there is this passage as a preface.

"In dreams such characters sometimes appear who do things they could never do and behave in a way completely different from themselves. They can often be very disturbing to the dreamer. Even though they have the face of a friend whom they know very well, they cannot recall who that face is.

According to the six dream archetypes classified by Jung, this phenomenon is called the shadow theory. After birth, a person's personality is formed by the environment in which he or she grows up and by his or her own nature. But no matter how gentle and considerate the personality is, the cold, cruel and egoistic part of the personality does not disappear. This part of the personality lives on in the subconscious. This is the shadow theory, the hidden personality, I should say.

Can you think of Dante and Vergil in Ghostbusters 3 as being in the shadow of each other?

维吉尔作为这个名字拥有者，神曲中理性的代表。

我们先将这部分作为他本性存在，在dmc3也提及过，名字是一个恶魔的如同原型一样的东西。

通常情况下，我们正常生活中，理性会让我们控制住自己的兽性。

而维吉尔一般情况展示给大众是这样的一个形象：冷酷无情、自我中心、冷漠，像恶魔一样自私自利，为了一己之私而不惜牺牲其他任何事物。

在人类社会中，即使人性确实存在这样的负面部分，但被认为这是劣等的人，社会提倡我们要为他人着想；我们成长在一个有铁序安全的和平的社会之中，周围的人也是温柔善良的人，那么我们自然也会受到影响，把属于人性之中不好的兽性部分，压制下去。

即使我们受到社会道德影响与本性等等反面的影响，那些阴影的部分也绝对不会消失。

我们依旧存在着人性里面包含着负面那一部分，会为了自身安逸、利益等原因破坏环境，发动战争。

在地球上存在着这一边生活的是在安稳中烦恼着金钱、家庭、朋友、理想等的人们，而另一边却是在战火的废墟里卑微祈祷着能够活下来的人。

我们得到东西、思考的���式与我们生活的社会有着密切的联系。

而维吉尔生存的社会是一个怎么样的社会呢？他展示出来的是自己生存的社会，是一个恶魔社会。

他整个人内外翻转了。

人的兽性在内部，人性在外部。

但维吉尔他的兽性在外部，人性反而在里面。

在刊物描述中，对维吉尔与但丁之间关系总结是：「处于对极的但丁与维吉尔,他们之间的战斗其实也是与另一个自己的战斗。但丁、维吉尔互为影子，同时互为光芒。但丁与维吉尔的关系就是，通过彼此的存在而成就自己。」

而在dmc3故事结局，也符合这个描述的。

维吉尔故事最后，让但丁离开，无论从对话中还是行为中都没有体现出，他打算独占力量，而是他认可但丁想要作为人类活下去的想法。

他行为与态度确实是存在着爱，并不是利己的而是利他的，给予但丁爱与希望。

也正如荣格的阴影理论所言：阴影是我们生命力之源，我们需要整合到我们自身当中去。

也亦如荣格那句：当爱支配一切时，权力就不存在了；当权力主宰一切时，爱就消失了。两者互为对方的影子。

维吉尔也许希望过爱，但他所在社会决定了，是权力主宰一切。

人性现在都成为维吉尔的阴影部分，没有被恶魔完全同化掉，甚至可以称为奇迹。

Vergil as the bearer of this name, the representative of reason in the Divine Comedy.

We will start with this part as the presence of his nature, also mentioned in dmc3, the name of which is a demon as if it were an archetype.

Usually, in our normal lives, reason keeps us in control of our bestiality.

Vergil, on the other hand, generally presents the public with an image of being cold, self-centred, indifferent, self-serving like a demon, and willing to sacrifice anything else for his own selfish ends.

In human society, even though such negative parts of human nature do exist, they are considered to be inferior and society promotes us to think of others; we grow up in a peaceful society with iron order security and surrounded by gentle and kind people, then we are naturally influenced to suppress the bad bestial parts that belong to human nature.

Even if we are influenced by social and moral influences and the opposite of our nature and so on, those shadow parts will never disappear.

We still have the negative part of human nature that destroys the environment and starts wars for our own comfort, profit and other reasons.

On one side of the planet exist people who live in peace and worry about money, family, friends, ideals, etc., while on the other side are people who are humbly praying to survive in the ruins of war.

The way we get things and think about them is closely linked to the society in which we live.

And what kind of a society does Vergil survive in? What he shows is the society in which he survives, a society of demons.

His whole being flipped inside and out.

Man's bestiality is on the inside, his humanity on the outside.

But Vergil his bestiality is on the outside, his humanity on the inside instead.

The relationship between Vergil and Dante is summed up in the publication's description as follows: "Dante and Vergil, at opposite ends of the spectrum, are in fact fighting with their other selves. Dante and Vergil are each other's shadows and at the same time, they are each other's light. The relationship between Dante and Vergil is that of being made whole by the presence of each other.

And in the dmc3 story ending, which also fits this description.

Virgil's story ends by letting Dante go, and it does not come across, either in the dialogue or in his behaviour, that he intends to monopolise the power, but rather that he recognises Dante's desire to live as a human being.

There is indeed love in his behaviour and attitude, not self-interested but altruistic, giving Dante love and hope.

It is also as Jung's theory of shadows states: shadows are the source of our life force, which we need to integrate into ourselves.

It is also as Jung said: When love rules everything, power ceases to exist; when power rules everything, love disappears. The two are each other's shadow.

Virgil may have wished for love, but the society he lived in dictated that it was power that ruled.

Humanity is now all a shadow part of Vergil, and it may even be called a miracle that the demon has not been completely assimilated away.

关于父亲

About father

维吉尔简介中也提及，他渴望超越自己的父亲。

恶魔=父亲。

这反馈到DMC主题中之一。

超越父亲。

这个命题到底还是建立自我、成长。

在古典的故事里面，角色都是通过击败上一辈或者象征父亲的角色，来证明自我的确立，摆脱父亲，对自我的肯定。

他渴望超越父亲带来不止是荣耀还有包含其中的自由与自我。

但恶魔给予他带来是无穷无尽的伤害与压制，先不提后面dmc1中蒙杜斯的事情，我们从他小时候第一次遇见恶魔开始。

他当时作为一个恶魔的受害者，第一次面对恶魔力量带来的感受，并不是自由与安全，而是应当是恐惧。我们在可以在漫画VoV中看到，当他遭遇恶魔攻击时候，他是没有还手的能力，直接被贯穿胸口倒在地上，并非常自然伸手呼喊求救，感觉到巨大的疼痛。

Vergil's profile also mentions that he aspired to surpass his father.

Devil = Father.

This feeds into one of the DMC themes.

Beyond the Father.

The proposition is ultimately about building the self and growing.

Within the classical stories, the characters are proving self-establishment, freedom from the father, and affirmation of the self by defeating the previous generation or the character who symbolises the father.

His desire to rise above his father brought not only glory but also the freedom and ego contained therein.

But the demon gives him is endlessly hurtful and oppressive, leaving aside for a moment what happens to Mundus later in dmc1, where we start with his first encounter with the demon as a child.

The feelings he felt at that time as a victim of a demon, the first time he faced demonic power, were not freedom and safety, but should have been fear. As we can see in the comic VoV, when he is attacked by the demon, he is incapable of fighting back and falls to the ground straight through the chest and very naturally reaches out and cries for help, feeling great pain.

他根本没有抵抗这股力量的能力，是恶魔在用力量在伤害他，而不是他用力量战胜了恶魔。

他是讨厌受伤的，在DMC3过场动画里面，维吉尔需要用鲜血才能激活祭坛，那一幕里面我们可以清晰看到，当他割开自己手心时候，极度厌恶的表情。

然后，他在DMC1再次受到恶魔力量严重摧残，在这里恶魔力量给予他的感受其实依旧是恐惧。

是的，没有力量，他活不下，自身难保，这次连自我都再次被夺走，成为蒙杜斯复仇的玩偶。

He had no power at all to resist this power; it was the demon that was hurting him with its power, not he that had overcome it with it.

He hates being wounded, and in the DMC3 overworld animation, Vergil needs blood to activate the altar, and in that scene we can clearly see the look of utter disgust on his face when he cuts open his palm.

Then, he was again badly ravaged by demonic forces in DMC1, where the feelings they gave him actually remained fearful.

Yes, without power he could not live, he could not defend himself, and this time even his ego was once again taken from him, becoming a doll for Mundus' revenge.

在DMC5的小说中，可以看到蒙杜斯征服黑天使描述是这样的

In the DMC5 novel, Mundus' conquest of the nelo Angels can be seen described as follows

蒙杜斯认为项链是维吉尔渴望的力量的象征。

改造后一直不愿意服从他的黑天使，在给予项链之后，终于服从于他。

但是我们在VoV漫画中知道，阎魔刀才是维吉尔追求力量的代表，阎魔刀才是力量的象征。

他是通过阎魔存活的，如同DMC4一样阎魔激活尼禄的力量，让尼禄重生。

阎魔就像他的化身一样，是维吉尔践行的力量之道。

Mundus saw the necklace as a symbol of the power that Vergil craved.

The nelo Angel, who had been reluctant to obey him after the transformation, finally obeyed him after being given the necklace.

But we know in the VoV manga that it is the Yama sword that represents Vergil's quest for power; the Yama sword is the symbol of power.

He survives through Yama, and as in DMC4 Yama activates Nero's power and brings him back to life.

Yama is like his avatar, the way of power that Vergil practises.

那项链在这里代表是什么？

So what does the necklace represent here?

那项链在这里代表是什么？

首先，这个项链并非他的父亲给他，反而是属于母亲的遗物。

代表是母亲对他的爱，而不是父亲对他的爱。项链更加是属于他的东西，独一无二的东西。母亲对他的爱也是，是理应无法被抢走的东西。那这里项链代表应当是父母的爱，母亲对他的爱。而不是力量。蒙杜斯通过爱让黑天使完全接受控制，从而使自己的恶魔力量能够腐蚀维吉尔。作为黑天使的时候，拥有可不仅仅自尊的严重伤害，也并非毫无益处。作为黑天使的时候，他确实是安全的，受到庇护的。

剥夺思考带来同时也是不需要承受压力与重坦的状态，但确实是扯线的玩偶。他自尊是完全不能够接受这样的耻辱。维吉尔自然是憎恨厌恶自己人性（感情）懦弱的，这之后击败他刚好又是宿命的对手，但丁。

但丁不仅仅是他弟弟，也是作为“斯巴达之子”有力竞争对手，他们两个是双胞胎，都继承了父亲一部分的东西。

而DMC1游戏过场中，我们都可以从台词中知道，恶魔眼中的但丁就像斯巴达一样。

DMC3中贝奥武夫也直接喊着但丁是那个垃圾斯巴达。

那么，作为黑天使的维吉尔，其实就像被斯巴达打败一样。

他不但没有达成超越父亲的渴望，而是又一次遭受到恶魔力量摧残，最后一次甚至是来自于自己敬畏的父亲代言人也是自己宿命对手但丁，那相当于父亲否定了他。

我们都知道维吉尔崇尚力量甚至可以说崇拜力量，完全可以从DMC3里面他不择手段想要获得斯巴达力量跟M20中与但丁最后一战那一句：“我需要更多力量。”看出来。

同时，我们从但丁口中得知维吉尔是很敬畏自己的父亲的，在前面官方刊物内容中也有提及到这个。

一般来说造成人对某个事物的崇拜，理由有很多种，但我们这里先不说其他的，而是说最原始的一种，在一些电视历史节目或者传统神话故事里面，我们可以看到古代的人崇拜的神灵并不是那种满足人类愿望的神灵，比如说龙神，在一些地方是这样的传说，要每年定期安排祭品进行祭祀，而不进行的话龙神就会发怒，淹掉整条村子。

那些崇拜龙神的人并不是在感恩龙神保佑他们，而是在害怕龙神的惩罚，是对被毁灭的恐惧，

人们为龙神进行祭祀仪式以确保自己是安全。当然也有另外一种形式，就是通过“晒龙王”这种行为，从而证明自己获得比龙神更强的力量，在心理上确保自己是安全。

但无论是那一个方法，村民们其实都已经遭受过严重灾难，那些恐惧深深刻他们脑海之中。

维吉尔已经被恶魔力量摧残过很多次，他内心对恶魔力量恐惧理应在DMC1之后达到最高峰，同时崇拜也达到了巅峰。

但同样不可否认恶魔力量确实一定程度为他带来安全感，但这是一种一直在漏水的安全感。

即使他后来拿起这个伤害他的东西作为武器，也没有完全摆脱恶魔力量给他带来巨大创伤。

他生活环境也没有提供给他一个安稳的环境，导致他也失去重新认识自我与审视的机会。

那么让我们谈谈别的，他对母亲的感受。

维吉尔人性有很多负面想法，甚至有维吉尔认为可耻的想法，这些我们都知道了。

他对于回忆母亲会感觉哀伤而不是被爱着的安慰，这一点在DMC5里面V在游戏里面与格蕾芬交谈中可以得知。

而在DMC3个人简介描述中，对于身为人类的母亲则是抱有类似乡愁，但又会使他重新感受到自己身为人类，并且唤起对自身厌恶的存在。乡愁是一种再也无法回去又无法拥有的，又深深挂念着的充满哀伤的感情，而更加会想起那天惨剧，自己当时作为人类的无能导致母亲死亡甚至渴望得救的可耻想法，从而更加无法克制产生恨意。

维吉尔每当回忆起自己母亲或者如同VoV里面V去但丁事务所时候，看见母亲照片那种时候的厌恶的表情，他的表现就是无法控制自己的厌恶。

如果他只是单纯恨自己母亲，恨他抛弃了自己，那理应不会对母亲抱有乡愁的感情，毕竟正常情况下我们是不会去挂念我们恨着的东西甚至不会去一直惦记那些自己讨厌的东西，而V过场与格蕾芬台词：“说不想是在说谎。但过去……对我来说很是痛苦”，他的确是思念自己的母亲，硬要说因为得不到反而恨起来还能像那么一回事，所以这个恨意与厌恶是对着他自己的。

母亲是他陷入力量泥潭原因之一吗？是的，但并非全部。同样，母亲那天是企图拯救他这个事件，能解决他沉迷力量这个问题吗？

在DMC5里面但丁曾用母亲到死之前都在寻找他，是想去救他来劝说Urizen，而但丁回忆过场中，母亲的确也是外出寻找维吉尔叫喊他的名字然后遭遇不测，从这个角度上来说，我们是否可以说，如果不是为了救维吉尔，母亲有可能活下来？那么，但丁说这句话不相当于在责备维吉尔害死母亲吗？

维吉尔因没能保护母亲长久痛苦，自我责备自我厌恶自我憎恨，知道母亲居然为了救他而死，是自己害死母亲，那这句话只会让他更加难受更加自责，更加憎恨自己的无能为力。

所以，很可惜并不能。

但维吉尔是爱着自己母亲的，通过DMC5SE对话我们可以得知，维吉尔还害怕自己母亲生气。

那既然是这样，维吉尔因为知道母亲临死之前心愿就是他能够活下去，能够得救虽然并不能让维吉尔放弃力量，但至少能有一点安慰，当然是建立完整的维吉尔而不是Urizen之上。

那么，维吉尔是否是一个不自爱的人？

作为如同半身一样存在的但丁，也对痴迷力量的维吉尔充满了厌恶。

而但丁与维吉尔作为恶魔是必须合起来才算完整，在DMC3游戏阿卡姆台词可以得知。

他们身为半人半魔也意味着，他们的人的部分也是对半开的，他们终其一生必然互相追逐着对方才能使自己人性得以完整，而不是处于残缺的状态。

First of all, the necklace was not given to him by his father, but instead belonged to his mother as a relic.

It represents his mother's love for him, not his father's love for him. The necklace is more something that belongs to him, something unique. His mother's love for him is also, something that should not be taken away from him. Here, then, the necklace should represent the love of his parents, the love of his mother for him. And not the power. Through love Mundus had allowed the nelo Angel to accept full control, thus enabling his own demonic power to corrupt Vergil. It is not without benefit that having can be a serious injury to more than just self-esteem as a nelo Angel. As a Black Angel he is indeed safe and sheltered.

The deprivation of thought brings with it a state of being free from stress and heavy tampering, but it is true that it is a doll that pulls the strings. His pride was totally incapable of accepting such a disgrace. Vergil naturally hates and loathes his own human (emotional) cowardice, which is followed by the defeat of his fated rival, Dante.

Dante is not only his brother, but also a formidable rival for the role of "Son of Sparta"; they are twins, both having inherited a part of their father.

In the DMC1 overworld, we all know from the lines that the Devil sees Dante as a Spartan.

Beowulf in DMC3 also outright shouts that Dante is that trash Spartan.

Vergil, then, as the Black Angel, is in fact as defeated by Sparta.

Instead of reaching his desire to surpass his father, he is once again ravaged by demonic forces, the last time even from his revered father's spokesman who is also his fated rival, Dante, and that amounts to his father denying him.

We all know that Vergil admires power, even worships it, as evidenced by his desperate attempts to gain Spartan power in DMC3 and his final battle with Dante in M20: "I need more power." It's obvious.

At the same time, we know from Dante that Vergil is in awe of his father, and this is mentioned earlier in the official publication.

There are generally various reasons that cause people to worship something, but let us not talk about the others here, but rather about the most primitive one. In some television history programmes or within traditional mythology, we can see that the gods worshipped by the ancient people were not the kind of gods that fulfilled human wishes, such as the dragon god, which in some places is the legend that sacrifices had to be arranged regularly every year to be performed, and that if they were not performed then the dragon god would become angry and drown the whole village.

Those who worshipped the dragon god were not thankful that the dragon god had blessed them, but were afraid of his punishment, the fear of being destroyed, and

The people performed rituals for the dragon god to ensure that they were safe. There is, of course, another form of ritual, the act of 'sunning the dragon king', which proves that one has gained more power than the dragon god and psychologically ensures one's safety.

But in either case, the villagers had already suffered a serious disaster, and the fears were deeply rooted in their minds.

Vergil has been ravaged by demonic power so many times that his inner fear of it rightly peaked after DMC1, along with his worship.

But it is also undeniable that demonic power does bring him security to some degree, but it is a security that keeps leaking.

Even when he later took up this thing that hurt him as a weapon, it did not fully rid him of the immense trauma the demonic power had caused him.

The environment in which he lived also did not provide him with a sense of peace, resulting in him also losing the opportunity to reconnect with himself and examine.

So let's talk about something else, his feelings about his mother.

Vergil had many negative thoughts about human nature, even thoughts that Vergil found shameful, as we know.

That he would feel grief over the memory of his mother rather than the comfort of being loved is known from V's conversation with Gryphon inside the game in DMC5.

In his DMC3 profile, he has a similar nostalgia for his human mother, but one that makes him feel human again and evokes a disgust for his own existence. The nostalgia is a feeling of sadness that can never be returned to and cannot be possessed, but is also a feeling of deep sadness, and even more so when he remembers the tragedy of that day, when his own incompetence as a human being led to his mother's death and even to the shameful thought of his desire to be saved, which leads to an uncontrollable hatred.

Whenever Vergil remembers his own mother or, as in VoV, the look of disgust on his mother's face when he sees her picture when V goes to Dante's office, he shows that he cannot control his disgust.

If he simply hated his mother and hated him for abandoning him, he would not have had nostalgic feelings for her, after all, normally we don't hang on to things we hate or even think about things we hate all the time, and V is lying when he crosses the line with Gryphon: "It would be a lie to say I don't want to. But the past ...... has been painful for me", he does miss his mother, and to say that he hates it instead because he can't have it is still something like that, so this hatred and disgust is directed at himself.

Was his mother one of the reasons he was in the mire of power? Yes, but not all. Again, can the event that his mother was attempting to save him that day solve the problem of his addiction to power?

In DMC5 Dante had persuaded Urizen by saying that his mother was looking for him until her death and was trying to save him, and Dante recalls scenes where his mother did go out looking for Vergil calling out his name and then met an untimely end, so in that sense, can we say that it is possible that his mother could have survived if she had not been trying to save Vergil? Wouldn't Dante's statement then be tantamount to blaming Vergil for his mother's death?

Vergil's long suffering, self-blame, self-loathing and self-hatred for not being able to protect his mother, and knowing that she actually died to save him, that it was his own fault that she died, would only make him feel even worse and blame himself even more, and hate himself even more for his inability to do anything about it.

So, sadly it doesn't.

But Vergil loves his mother, and as we learn through the DMC5SE dialogue, Vergil is still afraid of his mother's anger.

So if that's the case, Vergil's wish was that he would live because he knew his mother was dying, and being saved doesn't make Vergil give up his powers, but it's at least a little comforting, based on the full Vergil and not Urizen, of course.

Is Vergil, then, a man who does not love himself?

Dante, who exists as if he were a half-body, is also disgusted by the power-obsessed Vergil.

And Dante and Vergil as demons are the ones who must be combined to be complete, as can be learned in the DMC3 game Arkham Lines.

The fact that they are half-human and half-demon also means that the human part of them is also split in half, and they must chase each other throughout their lives in order to make their humanity whole, rather than being in a state of disfigurement.

我们先来说一下作为维吉尔的恶。

Let's start with the evil of being a Vergil.

名字是一个恶魔的本质，这一点在DMC3漫画被提及。

The name is the essence of a demon, which is mentioned in the DMC3 comic.

不得不说再次提的是维吉尔这个名字，在神曲中是理性代表。

理性的恶魔到底是一种怎么样的恶魔？

或者说极度理性的人是怎样的人。为什么维吉尔表现的是兽性。

极度理性的人。本身就是极度自私的人。理性主义本身就会诞生功利主义，结果是一切行为目的。这种催生之下，人命就是一个数字，或多或少。

那将会缺乏对他者的同理心与同情心。大脑就像机械一切精准衡量一切的利弊，好谋求利益的最大化。但这种需要吗？也是需要的。但对于人而言，看见便是兽性。

没有道理没有感情可以谈，杀一百人能救人，那就杀，杀一万人能救人，一样杀；就像我们生死居然靠抽签来决定，不管你是贫穷还是富有，是公平了但也是残忍的，是一种如同天灾一样可怕的野兽。

维吉尔他不以拯救人类生命为行动驱动力，而是如同天灾一样，是今天台风就要过来，这场暴雨今天就要下，他是不关心你家里头衣服没收呢，要等收完再下。

这也是维吉尔作为Urizen时候表现出现的属性。一个天灾一样的野兽。

他觉得力量不够就去找力量，就像野兽饿了就去找吃一样自然，而不存在这是人不能吃这个问题，毕竟恶魔本身就存在有吃人的恶魔的这个分支，人类也不会指责一个本身吃人的东西骂他怎么可以吃人呢。

通常情况下人将对自身有益的行为定义为善，对自身有害的行为定义为恶。

但人类的定义善恶只能适用在人类的价值观上与人类自身，而非全部适用在其他生命上，野兽袭击人类与他是否恶毫无关系，你不能判决一个树正常生长对人类存在善恶问题，你也不能指责你家猫咬你不跟你玩跟恶有关系，也没办法说一只老虎袭击人，就是因为他邪恶。

但尤立增他对虐杀人类与玩弄人类，征服世界毫无兴趣，他并不享受这种东西，他行为对于人的世界是自私的，所以人可以称他为恶，但他的行为并非针对折磨人类进行享受。

因为通过杀戮获得快乐，这需要建立有一定知性的生物上，动物的杀戮是基于本能狩猎行为。

而通过杀戮获得快乐则是通过残害生命来愉悦自我。所以享受虐杀与玩弄这种行为，是危险的。这不是一头野兽为了生存或者本能对你的袭击，而是一种针对人类与拥有知性动物的扭曲行为。这是非常原始的疯狂的欲望。

动物狩猎是生存需求，恶魔社会作为丛林社会，遵守野兽本能又仿佛就是天然的正确。

但通过虐杀去享受快感是完全两种产物。现代有很多满足这种需求的游戏，但他们依旧不会做到真的跟现实一模一样。

It has to be mentioned once again that the nameVergil, in the Divine Comedy, is the representative of reason. What kind of demon is a demon of reason? Or what is it like to be extremely rational. WhyVergil is shown to be bestial.

The extremely rational man. Inherently extremely selfish people. Rationalism in itself gives birth to utilitarianism, with the result that all acts aim. Under this kind of doctrine, human life is a number, where numbers are nothing more than addition and subtraction.

By treating human life in this way, there will eventually be a lack of empathy and compassion for the Other. The brain is like a machine that precisely weighs the pros and cons of everything in order to maximise the benefits. But is this necessary? It is needed too. But for man, seeing is the nature of the beast.

There is no reasoning or emotion to talk about; if killing a hundred people saves lives, then kill them, if killing ten thousand saves lives, kill them all the same; just as it is fair that we live and die by lot, whether you are poor or rich, but it is also cruel, a beast as terrible as a natural disaster.

This is the same attribute thatVergil showed when he was Urizen, like a beast of preternatural calamity.

It is as natural for him to seek power when he feels it is not enough as it is for a beast to seek food when it is hungry, and there is no question of this being something that a human cannot eat; after all, demons themselves exist in this branch of demons that eat humans, and humans do not accuse something that is itself a cannibal of scolding how he can eat humans.

Normally humans define good as good and evil as harmful to themselves.

But the human definition of good and evil can only be applied to human values and to human beings themselves, not to all other beings. A beast attacking a human being has nothing to do with whether it is evil or not, nor can you accuse your cat of being evil for biting you and not playing with you, nor can you say that a tiger attacks a human being because he is evil incarnate.

But Urizen he has no interest in torturing humans and playing with them and conquering the world, he does not care for or enjoy the pleasures that come from such things, he acts selfishly towards the world of man, so one can call him evil, but his actions are not directed towards torturing humans for enjoyment.

For to gain pleasure by killing requires the establishment of creatures with a certain amount of sentience; the killing of animals is based on the instinctive act of hunting.

Pleasure through killing, on the other hand, is the pleasure of the self through the mutilation of life. So enjoying the act of sadism and playfulness is dangerous. It is not a beast attacking you for survival or instinct, but a twisted act against human beings and animals with sentience. It is a very primitive and insane desire.

It is a twisted desire to satisfy your own enjoyment of being powerful by crushing, abusing, playing with, and playing with creatures weaker than yourself.

Rationally the same as the abuse of dogs and cats, etc.

Animals hunt as a need for survival, and demon society, as a jungle society, abides by beastly instincts again as if it were the natural right behaviour.

But the enjoyment of pleasure through sadism is a product of two entirely different things. There are many modern games that satisfy this need, but they still don't really do it exactly like reality.

可以看到DMC3漫画里面维吉尔遭遇恶魔，在谈论快感这个东西。

图上所有词汇，都指向了这个恶魔，享受是杀戮、痛苦、虐待这些东西，这是非常可怕而且危险的恶魔，这个恶魔拥有知性并享受这种扭曲东西，并不是一个目标单纯的野兽。

维吉尔能够享受战斗，但他无法享受杀戮、折磨这些东西带来的快感，他对战斗享受是对于目标靠近与强大对手战斗的喜悦。而关于杀戮给予他通常都是痛苦的回忆，因为杀戮会流血，而他极端厌恶受伤带来的回忆。

蒙杜斯为什么又是最大的邪恶？因为蒙杜斯享受并渴望控制人类，将人类视为玩偶。

并折磨与虐待中获得满足感与成就感。

他的行为完全针对人类来进行的，因为人类会惨叫会痛苦会难受会哀嚎，但你虐待树木、虐待动物也带不了这种。

我想我们在玩DMC这个游戏时候，享受是爽快的战斗、自己就像人物一样无敌、强大；而不是享受击倒敌人之后它们所发出来的痛苦惨叫声，并感受到身心愉悦。

维吉尔自切也并非针对折磨人类。

针对自身的人性部分跟想要与弟弟一决胜负与渴望毁灭、折磨人类是两回事。

是自切掉人性之后，他的恶魔面不受人性控制的原始行为给人类世界带来了毁灭性。

一个是跟随本能去追求力量的野兽，一个是让你求生不得求死不能的并热衷折磨你的真正恶魔。

我们可以VoV与DMC5过场动画可以看出来，维吉尔最初的目的就是，将恶魔部分切出去然后去与但丁一决胜负。但Urizen偏偏没有马上去找但丁，甚至在那边与恶魔争果子，几乎对力量以外东西完全不感兴趣，Urizen就坐在那里等待果子成熟，让我们有一种错觉Urizen如果不是因为但丁找上门，它可以在那里坐到天荒地老，甚至说出斯巴达之刃已经没有用的台词，所有行为都不是等待已久的对手总于来，我要击败你；而是对手排在力量后面。

但维吉尔回来的目的就是为了但丁，这变成本末倒置。

当时维吉尔当时情绪并不是稳定的（DMC5结局之前），他情感非常丰富，而这样感情丰富的他，在遭遇DMC3又到DMC1各种打击与折磨，又偏偏拿回来了掌握人类与魔界之间钥匙的阎魔刀，并再次为之孤注一掷。如果这刀仅仅只能将人与魔分开那姑且尚好，他也仅仅只想与自己弟弟再战一次，但这把刀是人类与魔界之间的钥匙，那么本来只是一个简单的愿望就变成巨大的麻烦与灾难。

就同如果你给孩子一个核弹按钮，他按下那一刻真的可能仅仅是因为好玩。

同样你永远无法知道一个情绪失控的人能够做出多么疯狂的事情。

当然，我不是在洗白什么，门就是Urizen打开的，Urizen是维吉尔做出的选择才会出现的。

维吉尔最大恶就是他的自私，他为了自己目的而行动，但他的行为其实没有顾忌跟考虑周围无辜的人类，他像��魔一样自私自利行动，而不顾及他人。

用日常刑事案件常见的疑问来表达就是：怎么可以为了钱杀人呢？怎么可以为了利益杀人呢？怎么可以为了感情就杀人呢？怎么可以为了点东西就发动战争呢？怎么可以为了利益就破坏环境呢？怎么可以为了利益就提价呢？

但如果自私是一种罪，那恐怕全人类难逃一死吧。

同样拥有如此丰富感情的人，已经不能成为一个单纯的恶魔了，而维吉尔行为又更像恶魔。

这仿佛让他变得的异常矛盾：最像人的恶魔和最像恶魔的人。

当然如果参考对象是人类的历史，这好像也并不矛盾，在战争中，人是恶魔亦是人。

在战争中参与厮杀的人其实也在残杀同类，可以称为恶魔一样的行为，只为自己立场上的利益就对同类痛下杀手；那些战场上的人不论敌我，他们都是有父母的活生生人活生生的生命。

甚至在二战时期，兄弟姐妹在战争上互相残杀也不过家常便饭。

但这里并不是说杀戮这种行为是正确的，而是想要说这不正确，但人类的历史往往就是如此一再重复。

关心别人拯救世界是人类，为了利益对自己同类痛下杀手，甚至为了享乐对某种动物进行过种族灭绝行为也是人类。人是复杂的，是神与魔的混合体，成神成魔都在人的一念之间。

You can see the DMC3 comic where Vergil encounters the demon and talks about the pleasure thing.

All the words on the picture, point to this demon, enjoyment is killing, pain, abuse and these things, this is very scary and dangerous demon, this demon has sentience and enjoys such twisted things, not a beast with a simple goal.

Vergil can enjoy fighting, but he cannot enjoy the pleasure of killing or torturing, his enjoyment of fighting is the joy of being close to his goal and fighting a powerful opponent. And about killing gives him usually painful memories, because killing bleeds, and he has an extreme aversion to the memories that come with being wounded.

Why is Mundus again the greatest of evils? Because Mundus enjoys and desires to control human beings, to see them as dolls.

He enjoys and desires to control humans, to see them as dolls, and to gain satisfaction and fulfilment from torturing and abusing them.

His actions are directed entirely at humans because humans scream and suffer and wail, but you can't bring that from abusing trees or animals.

I think what we enjoy when we play DMC is the pleasure of fighting and being as invincible and powerful as the characters; not the physical and mental pleasure of the painful screams they make after knocking down an enemy.

Nor is Vergil's self-cutting aimed at torturing humans.

The desire to fight his brother and the desire to destroy and torture humans are two different things.

It is the primal behaviour of his demonic side, uncontrolled by his humanity, that has devastated the human world since he cut himself off.

One is a beast that follows its instincts in the pursuit of power, the other is a true demon that leaves you begging for life and death and is keen to torment you.

As we can see from the VoV and DMC5 overworld animations, Vergil's initial aim is to cut out the demon part and then go for a fight with Dante. But instead of going to Dante right away and even fighting the demon over there for the fruit, almost completely uninterested in anything other than power, Urizen just sits there waiting for the fruit to ripen, giving us the illusion that Urizen could sit there until the end of time if it wasn't for Dante coming to the door, even uttering the line that the Spartan blade is no longer useful, all actions that are not waiting The long-awaited adversary always comes, and I will defeat you; rather, the adversary ranks behind the power.

But Vergil's return for the purpose of Dante becomes putting the cart before the horse.

Vergil was not emotionally stable at the time (before the end of DMC5), he was very emotional, and this emotional man, after all the blows and torments of DMC3 and then DMC1, came back with the Yama sword, which holds the key between the human and the demon worlds, and again threw himself at it. If the sword could only separate humans from demons, that would be fine, and he would only want to fight his brother once more, but this sword is the key between humans and demons, so what was a simple wish becomes a huge problem and disaster.

Just as if you give a child a nuclear bomb button, he may really push it just for the fun of it.

In the same way you can never know how crazy an emotionally disturbed person can be.

Of course, I'm not washing my hands of anything, the door was opened by Urizen, and Urizen came into existence because of the choices Vergil made.

Vergil's greatest evil is his selfishness, he acts for his own ends, but his actions are not really scrupulous or considerate of the innocent humans around him, he acts like a demon selfishly and without regard for others.

He acted like a demon, selfishly and without regard for others. The common question in everyday criminal cases is: How can one kill for money? How can one kill for profit? How can one kill for the sake of feelings? How can you start a war over something? How can you destroy the environment for the sake of profit? How can you raise prices for the sake of profit?

But if selfishness is a sin, then I am afraid that all mankind will not escape death.

The same man who has such a wealth of emotion can no longer be a mere demon, and Vergil acts more like one.

It is as if this makes him an extraordinary contradiction: the most human-like of demons and the most demon-like of men.

Of course, if the reference is to the history of mankind, this does not seem to be a contradiction, for in war, man is both a demon and a man.

Those who fight in war actually kill their own kind, in what might be called demonic acts, killing them for the sake of their own position; those who fight on the battlefield, whether they are enemies or not, are living, breathing human beings with parents.

Even in the Second World War, it was not uncommon for brothers and sisters to kill each other in war.

But this is not to say that the act of killing is right, it is to say that it is not right, but this is how human history tends to repeat itself over and over again.

It is human to care for others to save the world, it is human to kill one's own kind for profit, and it is human to commit genocide against an animal for pleasure. Man is complex, a mixture of god and devil, and it is up to him to become a god or a devil.

关于Urizen的象征。

About the symbol of Urizen.

A Poison Tree

I was angry with my friend:

I told my wrath, my wrath did end.

I was angry with my foe:

I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I watered it in fears,

Night and morning with my tears;

And I sunned it with smiles,

And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night,

Till it bore an apple bright.

And my foe beheld it shine.

And he knew that it was mine,

And into my garden stole

When the night had veiled the pole;

In the morning glad I see

My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

与友人心存气恼

我一吐为快, 怒火随之熄灭

对敌人怀揣愤懑

我一言不发, 恼怒却生根发芽

从此, 不分昼夜

忧惧中我用泪水浇灌它

我的笑容和狡黠

是它明媚的阳光

它日夜不停茁壮成长

直到结出一颗鲜艳的苹果

我的敌人眼见它亮丽四射

明知它的主人就是我

但他却在夜幕笼罩下

偷偷地潜入我的花园

清晨, 看到敌人挺直地倒在树下

我心中暗喜

这是一首描述了谋杀的诗歌，也是DMC5开场时候展示诗歌。

他表达的是人对感情不忠诚，一种虚伪的善良。对朋友愤怒表达了，愤怒就结束了。但他对敌人仇恨却不表示，愤怒便在内心种下种子，这棵树本身就是感觉具象化。

首先对于布莱克神话体系中，作为理性代表的Urizen控制人们，绑架人们，一个以自我为中心父亲的角色作为庭院主人，这首诗歌参考的是圣经中人类偷食禁果的那一章。

Urizen在DMC5这个故事中，在维吉尔的故事里面，是一个怎样的角色呢？

我们可以在Urizen的一个设计稿中，得到一个非常直白的设计思路。

This is a poem that describes murder and is also the poem displayed at the opening of DMC5.

He expresses the unfaithfulness of man to his feelings, a kind of hypocritical kindness. Anger towards a friend is expressed, and the anger ends. But his hatred for his enemies is not expressed, and anger is then planted within, the tree itself being the feeling embodied.

Firstly for the Blakean mythological system of Urizen as a representative of reason controlling people and kidnapping them, a self-centred father figure as master of the courtyard, the poem references the biblical chapter in which man steals the forbidden fruit.

What is Urizen's role in the story of DMC5, within the story of Vergil?

We can get a very straightforward design idea in one of Urizen's design drafts.

黑天使在一代就是作为父亲的象征。

这个设计稿是直接写上斯巴达与黑天使。是的，对于维吉尔而言。恶魔是父亲，父亲又是恶魔力量的代表。Urizen也称呼自己为没有名字，只是力量。

同样斯巴达作为神明被崇拜。恶魔视斯巴达为叛徒，人类不可能接纳恶魔，却又视斯巴达为救世主，认为拯救他们是理所当然的事。斯巴达不止是恶魔，更是一种身份的称呼。

回到这首诗歌上，这个庭院是属于上帝的，这个果树也是上帝种下的。这里上帝是Urizen。

那么故事里面的上帝是吗？

Urizen在游戏里面有一个称号【魔界的反逆王】英文给翻译是uprising，中文可以翻译为暴动、起义，在客观层面上来说，Urizen的确引发变革，取代了蒙杜斯的魔界地位，并拿走本来属于蒙杜斯的果子吧，某个意义上来说是新铁序的来临。

The nleo Angel was in the generation as a symbol of the father.

This design is written directly on the Spartan with the Black Angel. Yes, for Vergil. The demon is the father, who in turn is the representative of demonic power. urizen also calls himself no name, just power.

Likewise Sparta is worshipped as a god. The demons see Sparta as a traitor, and it is impossible for humans to accept demons, yet they see Sparta as a saviour and take it for granted that they will be saved. Sparta is more than a demon, it is a designation of identity.

Returning to this verse, this courtyard belongs to God, and this fruit tree was planted by God. Here God is Urizen.

So is God inside the story?

Urizen has a title in the game [Rebel King of the Demon Realm], which in English translates as uprising, which in Chinese can be translated as rioting, uprising. On an objective level, Urizen does trigger a change, replacing Mundus in the Demon Realm and taking away the fruit that belonged to Mundus, in a sense the coming of a new iron order.

We can check the documentation that the tree exists in its own right and is present in the magical realm, bearing fruit once every two thousand years.

我们可以查询到文档里面，这棵树是本身就存在的，而且存在在魔界的，两千年结果一次。

We can check inside the document that the tree exists in itself and exists in the magical realm, with results once every two thousand years.

但这棵树是由人血来灌溉而来。

那么整个诗歌让故事的人与魔微妙了起来，这个庭院应该是属于恶魔，但灌溉这个树的是人。

我们回到故事中，分裂的状态的维吉尔，V对Urizen的态度。

V对Urizen态度非常明显，他对Urizen的行为极度厌恶，但他喜欢Urizen，他喜欢只是Urizen强大力量的欣赏。维吉尔在故事里面没有明确或者非常直接的情绪表达他对恶魔是否抱有极度的憎恨或者厌恶情绪。即使在DMC3漫画里面，阿卡姆与他第一次相遇所说那段对话也与此无关，也存在因为恶魔力量而被吸引所陶醉的人。

V的敌人是Urizen，他的敌人的确吃下那颗果子并��终战败倒于树下，而他为之欣喜。

这个有毒的果子，代表的是V自己的怨恨，与自己因为恶魔而流血所受到伤害所产生厌恶，最终滋养结成的果实。而Urizen极具象征意义的代表性，也表达维吉尔对于父亲另一种态度。产生这样的心情是他一直压抑已久，对自己受到伤害闭口不谈的缘故，愤怒日积月累的存在。

那么我们也是不是可以说，维吉尔对于父亲的爱，是一种对幻影和空想的爱呢？

在很多衍生产品甚至DMC3里面但丁都用父亲来规劝维吉尔，像：斯巴达也如何如何吧，所以……

但维吉尔最终行动完全不按照所谓的斯巴达如何来的。

而但丁依旧要认为维吉尔沉迷父亲，不过这在这里并不重要。

所以，我想也可以那么说的。

V从不喜欢恶魔，他说他喜欢，他的喜欢是对力量的垂爱，是对力量的功利性。

But the tree is irrigated by human blood.

The whole poem then makes the story subtle between man and demon; this courtyard is supposed to belong to the demon, but it is man who irrigates this tree.

We return to the story, the divided state of Vergil, to V's attitude towards Urizen.

V's attitude towards Urizen is very clear, he is extremely disgusted by Urizen's behaviour, but he likes Urizen, he likes just the appreciation of Urizen's great power. Vergil has no clear or very direct emotion within the story to express whether he holds extreme hatred or disgust for the demon. Even within the DMC3 comic, the conversation that Arkham speaks of in his first encounter has nothing to do with this, and there exists people who are intoxicated by the attraction because of the demon's power.

V's enemy is Urizen, and his enemy does eat the fruit and eventually falls under the tree in defeat, and he rejoices in it.

This poisonous fruit is the fruit of V's own resentment and disgust at the harm he has suffered as a result of the demon's bloodshed, which eventually nourishes the fruit. The symbolic representation of Urizen is another expression of Vergil's attitude towards his father. It is the result of a long repression of his feelings, of his silence about the harm he has suffered, of the anger that has been building up over time.

So can we also say that Virgil's love for his father is a love for phantoms and empty dreams?

In many spin-offs and even in DMC3 Dante uses his father to admonish Vergil, like: how about Spartan too, so ......

But Virgil ends up acting not at all according to the so-called Spartan how-to.

And Dante still has to think that Vergil is obsessed with his father, but that doesn't matter here.

So, I guess it could be said that way.

V never liked demons, he said he did, and his liking was a droopy love of power, a utilitarian love of power.

现在让我们看Urizen对V的态度。

V角度看待Urizen大体上已经知道了。

那么Urizen怎么看待V的呢？对他而言是再明显不过的讨厌。

这是一个导致他虚弱而不是让能够完善自己的存在，是他蔑视属于自己的软弱部分。

Urizen不会受到感情的困惑，因为这些东西他根本不需要，自然也就没有。在DMC5中Urizen台词：“我对这个地方没有记忆。这只是果实制造出来的幻象。”

而在DMC3，但丁曾对维吉尔说过这样的台词：“我没有父亲。”同样也意味着，我不需要父亲，他明明是有父亲的，但是他在这里表现出否认的态度。

我们多多少少应该都有过忘记的经历，像忘了带笔忘了带书出门等等，当我们发现自己忘记的时候恰好就是我们发现我们需要这个东西，而自己却没有的那一刻，心情必然是懊恼中存在着懊悔的感情。

所如果我们记得那就是我们所需要的东西，如果我们不记得那就是意味着他不需要存在，不记得的东西自然不感兴趣。

所以Urizen说的不记得，不但表达他没有这方面的记忆，也包含了不需要的意思。就像V还残留魔力一样，Urizen也是存在记忆的，但这些是属于身体记忆，与作为人性（V）意义是完全不同的。

可以说，Urizen某个程度是理想中有几率战胜自己弟弟的自己，拥有强大身躯不再被人性（记忆、感情、道德）所束缚着，纯正的毫无感情的野兽一样的恶魔。

Let us now look at Urizen's attitude towards V.

The V perspective on Urizen is largely known.

So what does Urizen think of V? It could not be more obvious to him that he hates it.

It is a being that causes him to be weak rather than allowing for the ability to perfect himself, a weak part that he scorns as belonging to himself.

Urizen is not confused by feelings because they are things he simply does not need and naturally does not have. Urizen's lines in DMC5: "I have no memory of this place. It's just an illusion created by the fruit."

And in DMC3, Dante had said the line to Virgil, "I have no father." The same implies that I don't need a father, which he clearly has, but he's showing denial here.

We have all forgotten at one time or another, forgotten pens, forgotten books, etc., and the moment we find ourselves forgetting is the moment we realise that we need the thing and we don't have it, and the feeling of remorse is inevitably present in the form of anguish.

So if we remember it is what we need, if we don't remember it means that it doesn't need to exist, and what we don't remember is naturally of no interest.

So when Urizen says he does not remember, he not only expresses that he has no memory of it, but also contains the idea that it is not needed. Just as V still has residual magical powers, Urizen also has memories, but these are physical memories, which are quite different from the meaning of being human (V).

It could be said that Urizen is, to some extent, the ideal self that has the chance of defeating his brother, a demon with a powerful body no longer bound by humanity (memories, feelings, morals), a pure, emotionless beast.

那么我们现在可以提出一个问题，维吉尔是否是一个不自爱的人？

So we can now ask the question, is Vergil an unself-loving person?

V与Urizen互相厌恶，证明作为本体的维吉尔是完全不自爱，是自我憎恨的自我厌恶的。

Urizen作为恶魔力量与父亲的象征，厌恶着作为人类与孩子代表的V，同样V也厌恶象征父亲与恶魔力量Urizen的行为，两者是如此极端又如此撕裂。

而官方漫画中会直接告诉你，V代表的其实是维吉尔的心，Urizen则是力量。

结合到故事里面情况，V并不会像正常人类那样死亡，而是变成灰一样的情况，他是维吉尔人性/心，而人类的人性是人的情感、记忆、思想的混合体。而人性是需要肉体作为载体的，这个载体，换而言之就是Urizen是维吉尔的肉体，肉体与心灵处于分裂状态，虽然精神已经离开，而肉体还在苟活着。

维吉尔（V）从来没有表达过对恶魔的憎恨，但维吉尔表达过对自己弟弟的愤怒。

在表面上，维吉尔要战胜的对象是但丁，但维吉尔还有一个内心最深处从没表达过敌人，则是Urizen。Urizen与V之间战斗是与自我厌恶做斗争，最终融合也是对自我的和解。

但同样Urizen跟V无法完全单独代表作为整体的维吉尔。

Urizen的行为有些是维吉尔绝对不会做的，V有些想法也是维吉尔绝对不会透露的。

维吉尔虽然喜欢力量，但不是所有力量都可以接受，他也会挑嘴来，我们可否还记得DMC4维吉尔过场中的一句台词：“他们将恶魔视为神明？……嗯，我不能说他们误入歧途，但他们很快就会见识到这份恶魔力量，这份强大到他们无法想象，这份斯巴达之子的力量。”

而V有着维吉尔自己都在否定的情绪与懦弱的想法，这是他不想被人知道。

如果只在乎Urizen是维吉尔，则不在乎V作为维吉尔内心感想、情绪、痛苦、悔恨等等，如果只在意V的话，那么就忽视了Urizen的行为对人类而言的错误性。

Urizen作为维吉尔一个组成部分，体现的也正是维吉尔性格中傲慢与叛逆那一部分，或者说Urizen最像维吉尔的地方让人感觉到他就是维吉尔不完全的本身，除了力量沉迷之外，就是M17兄弟之战时候，他才表现好像残留那么一点点的人性像是维吉尔的样子，让人觉得他好像有记忆他都记的。但我们也必须清晰的认识到，维吉尔的行为对于人类而言是不对的，是不可取的。

无论漫画、小说、还是游戏内，没有任何一点对于维吉尔行为给人带来的伤害是处于肯定的，肯定过是维吉尔的不屈的精神而不是行为。

人一旦无法自爱，前往极端那就是自我伤害，而一个无法自爱的人是无法去爱其他人的，更不会是顾忌其他人。

The fact that V and Urizen loathe each other proves that Vergil as an essence is totally unloving and self-hating self-loathing.

Urizen, as the symbol of demonic power and fatherhood, loathes V as the representative of humanity and children, and likewise V loathes the actions of Urizen, the symbol of fatherhood and demonic power, both so extreme and so torn.

The official manga will tell you straight away that V actually represents Vergil's heart and Urizen is the power.

Combined with the situation inside the story, V doesn't die like a normal human, but turns into an ash-like situation; he is Vergil's humanity/heart, and human humanity is a mixture of human emotions, memories, and thoughts. And human nature requires a physical body as a vehicle, and this vehicle, in other words Urizen, is Vergil's physical body, which is in a split state from the mind, although the spirit has left while the physical body is still lingering.

Vergil (V) never expresses his hatred of demons, but Vergil expresses his anger at his brother.

On the surface, Vergil's defeat is against Dante, but Vergil also has an enemy he has never expressed in his innermost being, Urizen, whose battle with V is a struggle against self-loathing, and whose ultimate fusion is a reconciliation of the self.

But again, Urizen and V cannot fully represent Vergil as a whole on their own.

Urizen acts in ways that Vergil would never do, and V thinks in ways that Vergil would never reveal.

Vergil likes power but not all power is acceptable and he picks his words, can we remember a line from the DMC4 Vergil over scene: "They see demons as gods? ...... Well, I can't say they're misguided, but they'll soon see this demonic power, this power so strong they can't imagine it, this power of the sons of Sparta."

And V has emotions and cowardly thoughts that Vergil himself is in denial about, which he doesn't want to be known for.

If one cares only that Urizen is Vergil, one does not care about V's inner feelings, emotions, pain, remorse, etc., as Vergil, and if one cares only about V's words, then one ignores the wrongness of Urizen's actions as far as humanity is concerned.

Urizen, as an integral part of Vergil, embodies that part of Vergil's character that is arrogant and rebellious, or rather the part of Urizen that is most like Vergil feels like he is Vergil in his incomplete self, except for his power obsession, and it is only during the battle of the M17 brothers that he acts as if a little bit of his humanity remains like Vergil, making it seem as if he has memories that he remembers. But we must also clearly understand that Vergil's behaviour is wrong and undesirable for humanity.

At no point in the comic, the novel, or within the game is there any affirmation of the harm Vergil's actions have caused to people; it is Vergil's unyielding spirit that is affirmed rather than his actions.

Once a person is incapable of self-love, going to the extreme is self-harm, and a person who is incapable of self-love is incapable of loving others, much less caring for them.

而关于维吉尔为什么还在做当年的事情？

And about why Vergil is still doing what he did back then?

在DMC3的设定图有一行关于维吉尔结局的解说：维吉尔的故事的开始。

是的，这个人的故事才开始。

那之后他的遭遇到dmc5开场之前其实就是：被打败、被洗脑、被折磨、带着残破身体不知道怎么活下来。那么在这种状态的人，是不可能突然觉醒出现：啊！我应该保护人类！

就像你现在得病非常痛苦，你一般也不会突然想都怪没我做善事，而是更多会想，这个医药费怎么那么贵。当然如果你有宗教信仰，那属于非一般情况了。

要是有个人在旁边叽叽哇哇又不帮忙，平时说你都不听吃吃吃，你看你现在可好了。那大几率你出现不会是，痛哭流涕我错了，而是知道我错了但你好烦。有些情况你会越想越生气。

当然我个人认为维吉尔还是占反派的优势，因为反派可以表现比主角的行为不正确，但情感更加丰富而多样，可以堕落、可以颓废、可以不正确更多呈现人性的复杂。

主角毕竟还是承担故事里面超人这个义务的。

In the DMC3 setting art there is a line of commentary about Vergil's ending: the beginning of Vergil's story.

Yes, the man's story has only just begun.

What happens to him after that up until the opening of DMC5 is actually: defeated, brainwashed, tortured, and left with a broken body with no idea how he survived. It is impossible then for someone in that state to suddenly awaken and appear, "Ah! I should protect humanity!" Such a consciousness would not have been possible.

Dante's lines with Vergil before DMC5 do not mention anything about protecting humans in order to become strong or protecting important things in order to become strong, and the lines in DMC3 say that he believes in inheriting the spirit of Sparta, but there is no complete statement of what this spirit is, so this spirit has been speculated to be about protecting humans, protecting the weak and protecting important things.

Of course I personally think that Vergil still has the advantage of the villain, because the villain can behave incorrectly than the protagonist, but with more rich and varied emotions, can be depraved, can be decadent and can incorrectly present more of the complexity of human nature.

The protagonist, after all, still takes on the obligation of being Superman within the story.

人追求像上帝一样完美，亦寻求像恶魔一样的堕落，这也是人心理需求的一种状态。

当上帝教条绑住人，使得人受着精神上的痛苦时，人反而会走向堕落而非继续升华自己。

Urizen是天堂也是地狱，V在天堂也在地狱，这是一个人体内两个情况，也是人复杂的表现。

爱恨，享乐与物欲，在真、善、美与假、恶、丑的比照中。

我们可以感受到，尘世生活中一切并非尽善尽美，与其对立面也不是具有天然的鸿沟。

人毕竟是再平凡不过的，具有七情六欲的生活者，是既伟大又渺小得可怜，任何微弱的自然界的风浪，抑或人们自我的争斗，都会使他们自己有限的知识、体力难以承受这些考验,更不用说道德、情感、以及理想的沦落了。当然,物欲亦是人类自身最经不起时间和意志考验的脆弱之点了。

从人类自身而言，缺陷是无时无刻存在的。

但就另一方面来说,如果没有以上种种矛盾的对比现实生活也许就不是千姿百态,而变成索然寡味的一潭死水。那便是人人喊打的虚假乌托邦，人从根本失去了自由，成为一个个索然无味的复制品，同一个思想同一套模式，这样得多无聊啊。

这样毫无进步的社会迟早被遗弃。

同时,人自身及其缺陷也是在压力和苦难中得到某种磨砺和修补。当然这个前提，人必须审视自身，去认识自我。

故事中维吉尔通过剖开自我，从心（V）里面认识到自身的行为（Urizen）是怎么一番模样，在DMC5开场中一直认为自己是力量不足才导致悲剧的发生，从Urizen身上意识到这不是力量不够的问题。他在不断厌恶Urizen的行为中意识到自己的错误，随着剧情发展，死亡的逼近，在崩溃之下透露的真心话对他人的坦诚与对过去的释怀，也都走完一段自我完善的道路。

最终合体那一刻，他最终获得与自我和解的结局，他终于可以也学会爱自己，那个以丑陋面目追求力量抛弃一切的自己，也是自己的一部分。他从来不是一个好人，也不是一个什么在其他方面显得高尚的人，他真切渴望想要力量想要变强，他没有继承过这种东西也没去想继承什么斯巴达精神。那一天想去回家拯救自己父母与兄弟行为与想法，对于年幼孩子而言，这毫无疑问是拥有着高尚的人性光辉。但这也是他的人生，也渴望能够彻底战胜一次自己的兄弟，而不是去否定这一切，企图当成从没发生过也没有存在过，而是肯定这一切确实是存在，即使现实并不是那么美好。

即使这满地的鲜血中，也有想要去肯定是存在的事实，不会去否认这一切并非自己所为，也不会去逃避这一切与他无关的事物，无论人生是否拥有成就，他也确实存在着，在经历这一切之后依旧心怀对美好怀有希望。

V理解了U，U也渴望着V。他已经认识了自我，并从中审视了自我，从死亡中得到跃升，从诅咒中拯救了自己，并爱着自己。无论母亲的还是父亲的诅咒都无法再对他生效，他最终从童年的阴影中挣脱出来，重获新生。

毕竟他是要与弟弟再决斗一次才能从地狱回来，即使要砍树要关门，按顺序要排在与但丁决战之后的，他确实���望解决与但丁之间的那些问题，但我们也可以从DMC5过场中看到维吉尔复活之后的转变，比如他恢复本体之后对尼禄的道谢，在M20尼禄出现时他的态度变化。

那是一种比较尴尬情况，如果要打但丁我们则会发现，尼禄与他战斗，但丁会出面阻止尼禄战斗；如果但丁继续要与他战斗，那就进入尼禄会去与但丁战斗的可能。如果是以前的维吉尔，那应该会非常死脑筋坚持继续与但丁战斗，但m20维吉尔台词表现态度却是：既然都是要打败但丁，那尼禄代打也未尝不可。

当然在尼禄来之前，兄弟胜负是死亡还是存活，谁他不知道，但他接受死亡是一种结束，无论人生有没有意义、输或赢在死后一切将变得不再重要。

他思想从激烈自我斗争中归于和平，从迷途重新返回，肉体方面的堕落给予他精神上的进化。这也是互相分裂又统一的理论，与我们之前提到的阴影理论是一致的。

阴影、黑暗、另一个黑暗双胞胎、另一个我。这是生命力的源头，是创造力的源头，也是自我厌恶但又无法缺失那一部分。没有对立就没有进步，吸引与排斥，理性与力量,爱与恨是人类生存所必不可少的。

维吉尔他的旅途从来都是苦难，没有一丝值得观看的风景。但他清醒过来了，他救了自己并建造了天堂。你甚至可以看到DMC5结尾中出现的地狱与任何一作出现过地狱都完全不同的。

而在神曲里面，但丁也是在白色蔷薇花或者说白色植物之中，看见了上帝。

在DMC5中安排这个城市，也是他出生地方，在这里他放下了曾经挣扎过、强求过、渴望过、怨恨过、爱过的一切，回去他来的地方，迎接他这趟叛逆的惩罚，永无止境战斗着。

It is a state of psychological need for man to seek God-like perfection and devil-like depravity.

When God's dogma binds man and makes him suffer spiritually, he will instead fall rather than continue to elevate himself.

Urizen is both heaven and hell, V in heaven and hell, two situations within one person, and a manifestation of the complexity of man.

Love and hate, hedonism and materialism, in the contrast between the true, the good and the beautiful and the false, the evil and the ugly.

We can feel that everything in earthly life is not perfect, nor is there a natural divide between its opposites.

After all, human beings are no more than ordinary human beings, and those who live with their seven passions and desires are both great and pitifully small. Any feeble storm of nature, or the struggle of people themselves, will make it difficult for their own limited knowledge and physical strength to withstand these tests, not to mention the fall of morals, emotions and ideals. Of course, materialism is also the weakest point of human beings themselves, which cannot stand the test of time and will.

In human terms, flaws are always present.

But on the other hand, without the contradictions mentioned above, life would not be so varied, but would be a pool of stagnant water. It would be a false utopia that everyone would be crying out for, where people would lose their freedom and become tasteless replicas of the same idea and the same model.

A society without progress would sooner or later be abandoned.

At the same time, man himself and his defects are sharpened and repaired by stress and suffering. Of course, this presupposes that one must look at oneself and get to know oneself.

In the story, Vergil is able to cut himself open and realise from his heart (V) what his own behaviour (Urizen) is like, and in the opening scene of DMC5 he thinks that his lack of strength is the cause of the tragedy. He realises the error of his ways as he continues to loathe Urizen's actions, and as the plot progresses and death approaches, the honesty he reveals under his breakdown to others and the release of his past, both complete a path of self-improvement.

The final moment of merging, the moment he finally gets to the end of his reconciliation with himself, the moment he can finally learn to love himself too, the self that threw away everything in the pursuit of power with an ugly face, is also a part of himself. He was never a good man, nor was he a noble man in any other way, he really wanted to be powerful and strong, he didn't inherit such a thing and he didn't try to inherit the Spartan spirit. The idea of going home that day to save his parents and brothers was, no doubt, a noble human act for a young child. But it was also his life, and the desire to overcome his brother once and for all, not to deny it all, to try to pretend it never happened or existed, but to affirm that it did exist, even if the reality was not so beautiful.

Even in the midst of all this blood, there is a desire to affirm the fact that it exists, not to deny that it is not his own doing, not to run away from what is not his business, that he does exist, whether he has achieved anything in life or not, and that after all this he still has hope for the good.

V understands U and U desires V. He has come to know himself, has looked at himself, has taken the leap from death, has saved himself from the curse, and loves himself. Neither his mother's nor his father's curse can take effect on him any longer, and he finally breaks free from the shadows of his childhood and regains his life.

After all, he was to fight another duel with his brother to return from hell, even if he had to cut down a tree and close a door, which in order would have to come after the duel with Dante, and he did want to resolve those issues with Dante, but we can also see the transformation of Vergil after his resurrection in the DMC5 overture, such as his thanks to Nero after he regains his true form and his change of attitude when Nero appears in M20.

That is a rather awkward situation, if we were to fight Dante we would then find that Nero fights him and Dante would step in to stop Nero from fighting; if Dante continues to want to fight him, then enter the possibility that Nero would go and fight Dante. If it had been the old Vergil, that would have been very deadly insistent on continuing to fight Dante, but the m20 Vergil lines show the attitude that since it's all about defeating Dante, it's not a bad idea for Nero to fight instead.

Of course before Nero comes, the brother wins or loses whether he dies or survives, who he does not know, but he accepts that death is a kind of end, whether life has no meaning, loses or wins after death everything will become unimportant.

His mind returns to peace from the fierce struggle of the ego, from the lost way, the physical aspect of his fall giving him a spiritual evolution. This is also the theory of mutual division and unity, which is in line with the theory of shadows we mentioned earlier.

The shadow, the darkness, the other dark twin, the other I. This is the source of the life force, the source of creativity, and the part of the self that is loathed but cannot be missing. There can be no progress without opposition, attraction and repulsion, reason and power, love and hate are essential to human existence.

Vergil's journey was never one of suffering, without a glimpse of the landscape worth watching. But he came to his senses, he saved himself and built heaven. You can even see that the Hell that appears in the end of DMC5 is completely different from any other where Hell has appeared.

And in the Divine Comedy, Dante also sees God among the white rosebuds or white plants.

In DMC5 arranges this city, the place where he was born, where he lets go of everything he once struggled with, forced, longed for, resented and loved, and goes back to where he came from to meet the punishment of his rebellion on this trip, fighting forever.

#dmc #Devil May Cry

[jostenneil]

Do you have any fav anime dads?

ok so i am going to go out on a limb here and assume you would like for these dads to be somewhat respectable father figures, as i Have been prone to liking some of the more questionable ones (tho purely for purpose of exploiting a good tragedy!), so i hope the following are perhaps enjoyable to you as well as new. i tried not to go for the standard and popular ones bc lbr, that would render the point of this list moot 

seiji (balancing toy, yamakawa aiji) - one of the sweetest father figures i’ve had the pleasure of reading about. i can’t necessarily go into detail about why i love him so much without spoiling the series, but i love him bc it’s rare to find a story about a step-father and his step-daughter that doesn’t devolve into the prevalent pedophilic trend. he’s patient, kind, and feels almost like his step-daughter’s best friend, and it’s so sweet seeing the two of them try to parse what exactly they mean to each other in terms of their mutual trauma, bc his wife (and his step-daughter’s mother) has been dead for ten years. they wonder if their connection to each other is strong enough despite the person who forged it no longer being there, and it’s really wonderful to see that parent-child relationship between them mature 

tsutomu mukae (kids on the slope, yuki kodama) - admittedly, tsutomu’s role in this series isn’t super pronounced. he’s not someone who moves the plot forward nor is his own fate important in the grand scheme of things. rather, he’s a constant to return to for the primary characters in the narrative. he’s wise, he’s stable, and most of all, he’s not judgmental. these kids go through such harrowing identity crises over the course of the story, and he’s always there to joke around, to ease the burden a bit on their shoulders, to just jam out in the basement below and let the music take over. he’s a father figure whom they can depend on, and i think it’s also interesting to view the tragedies of the kids through his own lens, bc he’s helpless to stop some of their plummets, but he loves them and cares for them nonetheless 

kohei inuzuka (sweetness and lightning, gido amagakure) - one of the cutest single fathers omg! the series follows him and his daughter, tsumugi, shortly after his wife dies, and how he adjusts to being a single parent who can properly take care of her, with the focus being on him learning to cook for her. he’s rly earnest, kind, and hard working, and it’s also sweet to see how he bonds with one of his students, kotori, who’s kind of a loner bc her parents are divorced. her mother is a famous chef, so she helps kohei improve his cooking skills, and in turn he kind of takes her under his wing as a faux-daughter/big sister to tsumugi. the way the series navigates his trauma around losing his wife and the pressure of living up to her memory is rly sweet when it’s intertwined with the loneliness that both tsumugi and kotori experience, and the ending is so heartfelt! i love it 

shiro fujimoto (blue exorcist, kazue kato) - personally i’m not going to call this a spoiler bc it literally happens in the first episode/couple of chapters, but shiro’s death is what triggers the major events of the series. as such, it’s really interesting to see the full picture of his character and influence on the series mcs, rin and yukio, gradually unfold in the aftermath of his death. although he’s initially depicted to be a rambunctious priest with a somewhat perverted sense of humor, there’s a depth to his character and motivations that’s really nice to see come to light, esp bc, despite his job as an exorcist of demons, he genuinely loved rin and yukio despite them being satan’s children. there’s a huge burden that his death leaves on their shoulders, but the impact of his love on each of them is everlasting in the long run, and it’s tragic but really wonderful to see how they come to understand just how much he did for them when he was alive, and why 

kippei katakura (aishiteruze baby, yoko maki) - i’m including this on a technicality, bc kippei is a teenager lol. the series events are triggered when kippei’s aunt abruptly abandons her five year old daughter, yuzuyu, on his doorstep. despite the fact that he’s a playboy teenager with little to no sense of responsibility, he takes it upon himself to fill the role of “mother” and take care of her, transporting her to and from school, playing with her, cooking for her, etc. the new responsibility and his relationship with yuzuyu slowly shape him into a more mindful and caring person, and the impact of this can be seen not just in his growing good influence on yuzuyu herself, but in his relationships with other people. his character development and blossoming maturity are the focal point of the series, and i just think it’s nice to see how someone can step up to the task and adjust themselves to fatherhood despite such bizarre circumstances 

i am also on the fence about mentioning daikichi from usagi drop, given the whole. . . issue with that series, but at least within context of the anime only, he would probably be one of my all time favorites as well. it’s just a shame where the manga took the relationship between him and rin in the end and i truly do wish the worst upon the mangaka :) but feel free to watch the anime at your own risk! it cuts off before the manga takes a weird turn so if you can stifle your curiosity and pretend it’s the only part of the series to exist, it’s stellar lol 

#balancing toy #kids on the slope #sweetness and lightning #blue exorcist #aishiteruze baby #mine: recs #also just as a side note i do have other faves who i love more than some of the people in this list #but they're very mainstream so i didn't mention them #they include most prominently: hohenheim (fma) and isshin (bleach) #also toji (jjk) but that's like. complicated jgkldfjhlfd #and as for usagi drop ig look that up at your own peril #ig it depends from person to person how they want to take it #for me personally the series is forever tainted bc i Did end up reading the manga #but ig it doesn't have to be if you don't? idk like i said it depends from person to person