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kyrievali · 4 years

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I've been reading your posts and in one of them you mentioned that Iroh in fact is very shady and Azula has every right to hate him, may you explain why?

Sure, I’ll go into it.

Let me start off by saying that I actually really like Iroh as a character. I think he’s great and well-written. I think the fandom tends to gloss over his flaws and label him as “perfect”, which is not true. One of his greatest failings (aside from making two teenage siblings fight each other for the throne...or really not intervening at all where Ozai is concerned) is his treatment of Azula, and him saying “No, she’s crazy and needs to go down” and essentially writing her off when, if you compare Azula’s personality with Season 1 Zuko, they’re really not all that different. Azula, people tend to forget, is a 14 year old girl who was as much a subject of abuse as her brother. Zuko and Azula were essentially pitted against one another to both gain Ozai’s affection and, more importantly, avoid punishment. The only difference is that she was rewarded and praised by Ozai for her power and cruelty, while Zuko was punished for his “shortcomings”. Zuko’s entire storyline proved how important it is to have a good, guiding parental figure in one’s life, and it’s tragic that Azula didn’t have that.

Now, let’s talk about why Azula probably hated her Uncle.

1. She thinks he’s a failure and, worse than that, weak

And I don’t mean weakness in terms of his firebending skills. Let me explain - Fire Nation citizens are ingrained with Nationalistic pride and complete loyalty to the Fire Lord from a very young age. Iroh, once upon a time, was the heir to the Fire Nation’s throne and the favored son of the notoriously cruel Azulon. He laid a 600 day siege against Ba Sing Se during which his son, Lu Ten, was killed. This tragic event caused him to withdraw his troops, despite having breached the outer wall.

Upon his return home, his father dies under mysterious circumstances and decrees that Ozai will be the heir to the throne. Instead of contesting it, Iroh leaves the Fire Nation and ostensibly spends his time traveling the world, meeting with the Dragons, and getting in tune with the Spirit World. Doing so gives him the knowledge and wisdom to see the error of his ways, at which point he returns to the Fire Nation and serves as a General in the army.

Let’s look at this from the perspective of Azula, or really any other citizen of the Fire Nation. Their country waged a nearly 2-year long siege against the Earth Kingdom - and right when they make progress by breaking through the first wall, the Crown Prince gives up because his son died. Countless Fire Nation lives and resources were spent on this 600 day campaign, and they end up with nothing to show for it. If you look at the philosophy of Sozin, Azulon, and Ozai, they likely would have used the death of Lu Ten to galvanize the troops and double their efforts, in an attempt to exact revenge against the Earth Kingdom for daring to spill royal blood - and so that their sacrifices thus far would not have been in vain.

And then, not only does Iroh withdraw from Ba Sing Se, he also abandons his duties and his country completely. Iroh had a reputation as a fearsome Firebender and cunning strategist - and he just leaves. So now not only is he a failure, but he’s also a deserter, one who abandons his nation while it’s reeling from a humiliating defeat and the loss of its Sovereign, Azulon (who, by the way, ruled for about 80 years).

In Azula’s eyes, all of this amounts to weakness, and as we all know from how she was raised by Ozai, weakness is unacceptable.

2. She is parroting her father’s feelings of resentment

Given that Azula was the favored child of Ozai, it’s likely that she idolized her father and thought he was superior to her uncle, the Crown Prince (for the first few years of her life, at least, Iroh WAS the Crown Prince) and should have been the true heir to Azulon. We don’t see a whole lot of Ozai or his backstory/characterization, but it’s not unreasonable to assume that he, being many years younger than Iroh (it’s never officially stated, but Ozai is around 45 at the time of the show and Iroh appears to be in his late 60’s/early 70’s) had an inferiority complex growing up, and probably some form of sibling rivalry. After all, Iroh is already an adult by the time Ozai is born, and the Crown Prince, who has been groomed from birth to be Azulon’s heir. Ozai is an afterthought; an insurance policy, who at the very moment of Lu Ten’s birth, is outranked by an infant.

Ozai probably resented Iroh his entire life, so it is not unlikely that Azula would probably feel the same way.

3. He’s a traitor to the Fire Nation

Azula is a Nationalist and Ozai’s most loyal enforcer. Iroh’s a traitor, and as far as she knows, a corrupting influence to her brother, Zuko. She also probably thinks that he’s committing treason because (she doesn’t know any better) Iroh wants to be the rightful Fire Lord, and she is not going to stand for that.

4. He reminds her of her mother

Azula is used to being the golden child - a prodigious Firebender, the favored daughter of her father, representative of everything the model Fire Nation child should be. And yet, her own mother does not appear to love her. Her Uncle has stated distaste for her. She thinks she’s doing everything right - because according to Sozin and Ozai’s philosophies and the emphasis of power and loyalty to the Fire Nation - she is; so why do two of her own family members prefer Zuko, the “screw-up” of the family - to her?

It’s clear that Azula craves the love and adoration of others, but she doesn’t really understand it. I think as she grew older and saw more of the world and how people behaved toward her, she understood on some level that she was considered a “monster” and that people were afraid of her; but that’s how she was raised. Fear was power, and power was everything. And growing up, she was only ever positively reinforced for her ruthlessness and cunning by her father (of whom she is very much afraid, by the way...that is made perfectly clear in her attempts to bring Zuko home and also give him credit for allegedly killing the Avatar. Part of it is actually probably due to some level of affection she has for him, but part of it is definitely motivated by having someone else take the heat off of her in an abusive household) and she witnessed firsthand how perceived weakness was punished - so she did everything she could to achieve the ideal of perfection that Ozai, Azulon, and Sozin had proliferated. So she probably never really understood why her own mother and Iroh didn’t like her. And the fact that they both seemed to prefer Zuko, who she’s been taught to think she’s better than, would only further that resentment.

She thinks she can earn people’s affection by being a perfect Fire Nation soldier, because that’s what works with her father - and when it doesn’t work with Ursa or Iroh, two important adult family figures in her life - she doesn’t understand why and, even worse than that, it makes her feel inferior to Zuko.

5. My final point is purely speculative, but...He didn’t do anything to directly stop Ozai’s rise to power

In the years after the war, after recovering from her mental break and maybe rehabilitating to become an advisor to Zuko (let’s be totally honest, a Nation whose entire economy for the past 100 years has been built on war and imperialization is not going to have an easy transition into peace, especially when they are expected to give up their colonies and play nice with an equally corrupt government that was controlled by the Secret Police force which has no qualms about brainwashing its own citizens...also the new Fire Lord is a banished Prince who is the apprentice of the Disgraced Prince and who returned to defeat the pride of the Nation, Princess Azula, Ozai’s Chosen Heir and the Conqueror of Ba Sing Se), Azula’s going to be pretty pissed that her supposedly wise and worldly uncle did not intervene in her megalomaniacal and abusive father’s rise to power.

If my uncle, who never liked me, lost countless Fire Nation lives and resources in a battle that ended with him retreating, abandoned the Crown to go on a sightseeing tour of the world, returned and became a traitor to the nation by foiling the Admiral’s conquest of the Northern Water Tribe resulting in the loss of more Fire Nation lives, escaped from you multiple times and went on to become a tourist and small business owner in an enemy nation, turned your brother against you, did nothing to stop his own brother whom he knew was deeply abusive even after he came back after gaining all this supposed wisdom, and THEN also left you alone with your abusive father while taking your inferior brother under his wing and helping him become an extremely powerful bender who eventually defeats you with the help of a Water Tribe peasant...yeah, I’d be pretty pissed at him, too.

To be fair, she probably never would have willingly gone with them because they were basically just sent on a wild goose chase at that point...but he never even tried to help her.

Anyway, that’s why I think Azula hates Iroh and honestly, she has every right to hate him. He abandoned her Nation and wrote her off completely, so there’s no reason she wouldn’t do the same.

#a:tla #avatar #azula #iroh #a:tla analysis #anon answers #i actually do like iroh btw #i just don't think he's perfect #and don't give me that he's perfect because he's imperfect crap #he's predominantly portrayed as wise #so when he says Azula is crazy and needs to go down #all the fans think that too #and it's sad because azula doesn't get any love #not even from her mother whoops

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the-hidden-writer · 4 years

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A Second Chance: Chapter 5

An Ace Attorney fanfic. Read on both AO3 and FF.net!

Summary: Miles learns the identity of his “dead” mother, and the aftermath of that revelation is a tricky one. Especially when his newfound little sister is trying to turn him into a spirit medium.

AKA Miles is a Fey. Miles also doesn’t really know how to family properly.

[Chapter 1] | [Chapter 2] | [Chapter 3] | [Chapter 4]

Comments make my day! :D

The Promise

You’d assume, being a prosecutor, that one would get used to the atmosphere of a prison. Perhaps many do. Miles, however, doubted he ever could. Not when he knew that there were so many stories confined in its walls, many of them probably stories of injustice. It made him nauseous to think that he was so close to being in one of these himself.

If Phoenix Wright hadn’t intervened.

Waiting in a private visiting room, he couldn’t help but keep his gaze fixed on the ground. He couldn’t deny it- he was nervous to meet the man. They hadn’t really met each other before, but both unknowingly played a part in each other’s story, therefore it sort of felt like it was overdue.

The door on the other side of the glass finally clicked and opened. Miles looked up to see Diego Armando enter, clad in the black and white striped prison uniform with his head still held high. He was wearing his infamous visor, which he couldn’t help but feel relieved at. It was a special request from him that he be permitted to wear it during the visit, although he wasn’t sure if they would grant it. At least the man could see his expression when he told him the news.

“Miles Edgeworth,” Armando said as he slowly sat down in the chair on the other side of the glass (though somewhat visibly disorientated presumably due to suddenly being given his visor) with a small smile appearing on his face. His voice was deep and rough from misuse. “to what do I owe the pleasure?”

Miles cleared his throat. “Hello, Mr. Armando. I-”

“Stop shaking, Mr Prodigy. From what I’ve heard you’re no caffeine addict, so there’s no need to act like one.”

Had he been shaking?

In truth, Godot’s story hit a little too close to home for Miles, even before he knew that he had killed his mother. For one thing, to watch Phoenix Wright accuse a prosecutor in court is not something to be taken lightly. It was unheard of, until his own trial where the prosecutor was found guilty of killing his father. Manfred Von Karma. More recently, Diego Armando had been found guilty of killing Maya’s mother, coincidentally also with Phoenix acting as defence.

That man seemed to be a truth magnet.

After that trial, he’d gained a newfound sympathy for Maya. He’d never really known how to tell her properly, but losing a parent in that fashion is not an experience shared by many. Little did he know that they would soon have to both experience each other’s pain with the revelation that they were siblings.

And the white-haired man sitting behind the glass killed their mother. It was hard not to keep thinking of that.

He cleared his throat again. “I’m sure you’re aware of the Kurain Channeling Technique?”

Diego snorted. “Too well.” Was his curt reply.

“Well,” Miles continued, “after an important conversation with her, Mia Fey sent me here.”

Suddenly Armando stiffened, and his relaxed demeanor morphed into one of importance. His posture straightened, his shoulders tensed. It was almost comedic how the mention of one name could change his entire attitude. Almost.

“Why…” he whispered, perhaps to himself, “why isn’t she the one here?”

“Because the matter at hand doesn’t entirely concern her.” Miles responded honestly.

Armando didn’t reply. Miles took that as a signal to continue.

“She told me that you had once studied under my father, Gregory Edgeworth.”

Diego sighed. “I did, but not for long.” A wistful smile pulled at his lips. “The tricks he taught me lingered in my mind everywhere I went. I was young, reckless,” he stifled a humourless laugh, “and it took a lot of convincing to get him to take on a penniless runt like me.”

He turned his head towards him, and Miles could only assume that he was looking him in the eyes. All he got was the glare of the red visor.

“He caved in the end, if only because he wanted to practise on teaching a cub like me before he did it with his own son. Hmm, he talked about you all the time.”

“I see.”

“I taught everything he taught me to Mia, you know. She must’ve taught it to Phoenix Wright.” He laughed quietly. It was an unsettling, hollow sound. “That was probably what got me in the end. Good old Greg, always searching for justice, even from beyond the grave.”

He paused, and the smile faded. “He was a good man. Better than you or I could ever hope of being.”

Miles didn’t know what to say to that. He didn’t know many people who knew his dad, so any praise (even if it was coming from a murderer) was highly valued.

“I suppose,” Miles said, once he was sure that his voice wouldn’t break, “that you were the messenger between father and daughter then.”

He sucked in a breath and waited for a response. Even without the visor, Armando was good at hiding emotion. His expression was blank as he processed what he’d just been told.

“...You’re kidding.” He said eventually.

“No.”

“Ha… I always saw a piece of Greg in her. I guess that wasn’t just me after all.”

“No, it wasn’t.”

The realisation hit a little too late. Whatever emotional barrier Armando had built for himself suddenly shattered in an instant. His perfected neutral expression turned into one of horror.

“Hold on, are you Misty’s-”

“Yes.”

“So you’re their-”

“Biological brother, yes.”

“God…”

Armando forced a grin. “I ruined another life that day, huh?”

It took all of his effort for Miles not to say “yes” to that too. So he kept silent. It was Diego who spoke next.

“I’m not gonna waste my sins with an apology, because I would be lying to you. I’m not sorry for what I did, as much as I try to be... Regret? Sure, a bit I guess. But I would do it again. I orphaned you and your sister, there’s no changing that.”

To be honest, Miles was expecting an apology when he came in here. However, now he was glad he didn’t get one. He didn’t want to feel sympathy for this man.

He just wanted to leave.

“Thank you,” he said gruffly, “for saving my sister.”

With that, he abruptly rose and made his way to the door, knocking on it sharply thrice. He accomplished what he came to do, and kept his word. That was all.

“Edgeworth.”

He turned to look at Armando, who in that time had removed his visor to reveal white, glossy eyes and a long, deep scar between them. Diego wasn’t looking directly at him, instead was staring straight ahead into the glass. It was a haunting sight.

“Tell Mia… tell her thanks for sending you. And… I want to see her. Please.”

Damn it. Sympathy.

“I’ll consider it.”

And he left.

~._-_.~

Ring-ring. Ring-ring.

“Hello?”

“Mystic Soma! Hi!”

“Mystic Maya! How are you since last time?”

“A lot better. So much better! I’ve kinda come to accept that even though Mom’s gone, she got justice in the end. I didn't even really know her so…”

“I hardly remember her too, but my mother says she was an incredibly nice woman, so she’ll be happy when I tell her. You sound a lot better than last week, I was starting to get worried about your health. You do realize that you’re the mast-”

“Hey Soma, is Pearly around? I’ve got some really important news to tell her, and I just can’t wait!”

“Oh, yes she is. Is it good news or bad news? Should I stay with her?”

“It’s awesome news! But yeah, I think you should stick around. You can pretend you’re cleaning or something like you used to do with me.”

“I did not!”

“You’re a horrible liar.”

“And you’re imagining things. Hold on, I’ll get Pearly for you.”

“Thanks!”

“Pearl! Come over here, Mystic Maya wants to speak to you!”

“...Pearly?”

“H-hi Mystic Maya.”

“Oh Pearly, you’re not still sad over my mom, are you? Mystic Soma told me you were feeling better!”

“...I told her to say that.”

“Oh, Pearly.”

“I-I-I’m sorry! I d-didn’t want to make you s-sad...”

“Nonono, don’t cry! I have some really cool news!”

“R-Really? What is it?”

“I found out who my dad was, and I have a brother!”

“What? B-But Mystic Maya-”

“I know! But that’s not even the best part!”

“Wha-who…?”

“Pearly, you’ll never believe it, but Edgeworth’s my brother! He’s your cousin!! He’s a part of our family!!!”

“...h-huh?”

“Mr Edgeworth’s your big cousin, Pearly! And yes, it is the one you’re thinking of. Tall but not that tall, weird dark hair, always looks like he wants to slam his face into a wall? Him! He’s-”

“No!”

“Huh? Pearly?”

“NO!!!”

“What? Pearly, what-”

“Mystic Maya, what did you say?!”

“Mystic Soma, I-”

“I’ve got to go, Pearly’s really upset.”

“I don’t-”

Click!

“...I don’t know what I said.”

#ace attorney #miles edgeworth #godot #diego armando #maya fey #pearl fey #phoenix wright #a second chance

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kiss-venus · 4 years

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I PLAYED TLOZ BREATH OF THE WILD FOR THE FIRST TIME!!

Ok, so I know i’m like one hundred years later (too soon for references?) but in February I got a nintendo switch and got Breath of the wild t have a game to play with it. Just recently I fninished it, AND I HAVE A LOT OF THINGS TO ADDRESS. IT WAS MY FIRST THE LEGEND OF ZELDA GAME EVER HENCE I HAVE STUFF TO SAY I CAN´T LIVE WITH THIS ANGST INSIDE ME

1.- THIS GAME IS SO GOOD I’M LOWKEY CRYING BECAUSE I DON’T WANT IT TO BE OVER AFSFDXGD. The characters, the game design, the narrative, the soundtrack, the action, zidon. fucking everything is perfect. sue me.

2.- Never in my life I’ve played an open world game, aaaand omfg when I tell you that for like the first two weeks I was so lost and I panicked even with the smolest rain.

3.- Protect link at all costs, this bean wanting to save zelda (i know its literally his job) but slowly getting to know their relationship and see how in small details he really cared for her more than just having a princess-guard relationship is too pure and I love my smol blond hylian hero.

4.- Protect Zelda. Give the princess time to be happy, she deserves the whole world *trying no to cry* Seeing her struggle with her power and her destiny, it´s something that I´ve seen in lots of movies and series, but to see her in such pain for not managing to get there OMG I truly felt for her. Give her a hug and a cookie. She needs it

5.- Urbosa. A strong, tol, powerful queen. That’s it. That’s the comment. I was left with no choice but to stan. I really am that predictable. Sorry, thank you, you’re welcome. the way she cares about zelda and the way zelda probably sees her as a motherly figure I’m-

6.- Ravioli is a salty birb probably the spirit animal of salty birb mom from steven universe. You can hate all you want in him. I love him. 10/10 would have the audacity to make into my birb husbando.

7.- Mipha aka waifu fish. I know the champions are all sadly gone, bit the one that hurts me the most is Mipha >:’c SHE DESERVED SO MUCH BETTER AND, HONESTLY I DON´T BLAME HER FOR CATCHING FEELINGS FOR LINK. EVERYONE DOES. Such a pure soul. I still cry thinking of her.

8.- Daruk. Now, he´s too pure. I would totally adopt him as my father. Would 100% die for. He is the friend link deserves in this lonely world.

9.- Fucking guardians. Fucking ass bitches guardians I hate them, to this date if I hear that piano riff I get immediate anxiety.

10.- ZELINK. BITCH. O MAI GAWD. NOW I’M ZELINK TRASH. I’m still yet to understand how the timelines on zelda work, but bloody hell when i tell you I fell immediately for that ship. I went into The legend of zelda thinking zelda would stay as a legend (i know, my three braincells, amazing) and the she was probably dead or something, NOT THAT I WOULD FUCKING GET A SHIP, A SHIT TON OF ANGST AND NOW A DUTY TO INVADE MY TUMBLR WITH IT.

Olrighty, now that I’m done; the amount of joy I got from knowing that a sequel of breath pf the wild is due to come. I’m the happiest hoe on earth.

This being my firts zelda game,I’m so happy I got introduced to it, I totally understand why people want to see a movie based on the videogame. Now I also get the hardcore fans. The only thing that has me worried is to think that (as it always happens)I might have joined a fandom way too late (like I did with harry potter, game of thrones or most recently, Fullmetal alchemist).

Anywho, I hope you like this post that no one asked for and that probably will get lost because I admit it´s long and without drawing, so it’s understandable. In this times of crisis, we need good vibes and happy little moments uwu.

Thanks for reading, Bye <3

#zelda #the legend of zelda #tloz breath of the wild #breath of the wilf #the legend of zelda: breath of the wild #breath of the wild opinion #opinion #feel free to comment uwu #my post #original post #the legend of zelda breath of the wilf #tloz botw #botw #botw opinion

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jordm · 4 years

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Heartland 13x09 - Fight or Flight review

So, the episode starts with a wholesome scene of Amy, Ty, Luke & Lyndy playing in the blow up pool with water guns. It’s so wholesome and looks so ideal, yet I know it’s setting up whatever is to come for Luke in this episode.

Oh and hey, we hear that Ty is still helping out with Scott at the clinic, but do we know if he’s still partner since he cut down his hours? Or did he perhaps pass the torch to Cassandra whose there full time?

Also fun fact, I wrote the word major instead of mayor a billion times in this review. But a mayor of a town is kind of like major of a band or army or something? So, apologies if you see the word major a few times haha.

Amy & Spartan

Spartan is still recovering and showing signs of Arthritis. Georgie wants to play horse matchmaker with Amy since Spartan is getting younger, and i’m just glad that it isn’t human matchmaker. Georgie, with Lisa’s permission wants to bring Atlas to Heartland for Amy, but Lisa wisely remembers how Jack reacted with Paint and cautions Georgie to tread lightly. I think it’d be nice to see Jack help/talk to Amy about how she’s feeling seeing as he went through it himself, or even her father Tim since he may have gone through the same thing with his own horse as well.

Amy eventually gives in and tells Georgie she’s not ready but wants her to continue pushing her to get a new horse, which is partly due to her needing a distracting and partly due to her wanting to help. That is, until she notices the wild animal coming up and bonding with Spartan and decides she doesn’t want the perfect horse - just a horse she has a connection or the feeling with like she did with Spartan. It does not go unnoticed that she might’ve been getting flashbacks of taming Spartan when she saw the wild horse approach her. Amy likes a challenge with her horses as opposed to having the perfect horse.

If the seasons ends with Amy taming this new horse with Spartan watching, ‘passing of the torch’ why don’t you - I won’t be mad.

Oh and hey, we also learn that their house has WALLS and a first photo courtesy of Luke for the wall!! Progress y’all and they still have 2 months to winter!

Georgie

Oh and hey Georgie is surprisingly still not over Quinn and she’s off to BC to meet him! From the promo I saw, it shows her telling Quinn that she loves him so... that’s gonna happen. I’m glad that Lou let her go and trusted her to go on her own, plus if there ever is an emergency, her father, Peter is in Vancouver and seemingly a short drive away if she needs a place to stay. Had Georgie asked to go anywhere else, perhaps she might’ve been more hesitant but knowing that she’s going to a province where her father lives might’ve provided a little comfort. Or perhaps she just has so much on her mind she’s didn’t want to fight her on this and knows she needs to trust her since she’s going away to University next year.

Plus... Western Canada isn’t Ontario. You can drive 10 hours and still be in Ontario, but you can drive 10 hours and drive two provinces in the west. I drove 3 provinces in less than 10 hours on East Coast Canada and did a road trip in the West and there is a lot less driving required to go province to province in those areas since you don’t need go to around Lake Ontario :) And there’s your unasked for geography lesson.

Luke

Amy and Ty have a meeting with Clint, having to do with Andrea being on the mend and making tremendous progress, to the point where she can go back to parenting full time. This is great news for Luke - and great news for Andrea, and even for Katie I suppose who might get her own room back even if she’s finally warming up to him.

Speaking of Clint, he’s one of the few non-main character who has been guest-ing since season 1 eh?! Ever since he brought Ty to Heartland in the early days of the show. He did right with Ty and he always has the best intentions (he has too) when it comes to foster kids.

“I’m totally moving up to the loft when you leave, but i’m going to miss you” - Katie for the win

Gifting him the chess set and everyone telling Luke the kind words (ie. you’ll always have a home, come visit anytime, you’ll always have us in our heart) and they complete the chess set showed how much Luke became apart of the family. I have no doubt that everyone was sad to see Luke go - Amy and Ty especially but it was nice to see everyone in the family support him as he goes back home to his mother full time. I was glad that nobody tried to stop him or delay him going back to his family but rather supported him - this is the storyline I wanted to see.

Did the scene of Amy Ty and Lyndy waving goodbye to Luke as he drove away (how cute was Lyndy patting Luke’s hair?) remind you of when it was just Amy standing there when Ty drove away to Mongolia?

THE ELECTION

JD Worth running for election seems to have an impact on everyone in the Heartland family.

Lisa

Oh ayeee, these “cash flow issues” come back up again. Apparently, Lisa tried to solve the issue from last season by having investors bridge the gap... and one of them is... Worth Investments (or something like that), by the one and only JD Worth, Lou’s opponent and now they want Lisa to repay the entire loan immediately. Yikes. This has nothing to do with the election and that her grand daughter is running against him... right? Yeah, likely false. Lisa manages to pay him out and i’m just glad this doesn’t end badly.

Bob/Ty

Bob (via Ty) has a theory about why there has been so much wildlife in the area. Mountain View resorts, who, oh yeah JD IS BEHIND. Due to development, wildlife have fled which is why residents have had cougars/wolves in their backyards and an increase in animal attacks the last couple of days. Yikes, this is a big no and honestly likely the issue to get everyone riled up since everyone loves their animals.

Lou

First of all, it’s kind of hilarious that Tim is seemingly Lou’s new campaign manager, handling her schedule.

Now, I never liked JD but I also didn’t blame him for wanting to modernize and keep Hudson up with the upcoming changes, but him telling Lou what she probably already knows - being mayor requires sacrifice is running thin and that nothings worse than “children with no mother” and berating him for her divorce and that her children have no mother doesn’t look well. I know some of us were on his side of this debate last week but it’s hard to still be on his side after this week.

It also appears that JD is lightly treading the line of threatening, which hey, its probably the reason why all his opponents dropped out. Coincidence that JD happens to threaten to “recommend” to Garland some new pea feed beef (or something), he “pulled out” of a bad investment (Fairfield) and sent a notice to Tim that he couldn’t live in an RV for more than 6 months even on private property (since when is this a law?!). Something tells me that there is a reason why all his opponents dropped out...

Lou initially coups and drops out but after hearing about the wildlife theory below, Lisa, Tim and the “private residence” was caused a health inspection, with Mitch’s encouragement, encourages her to get back into the race. And with one cleverly timed article about how JD Worth’s mountain development has caused the wildlife (MVP FOR BOB!!) seems to tip the scale in Lou’s direction.

And thank god because JD is seen BRIBING some guy to deal with the wild life problem (by killing Wildlife? because that solves everything) so he’s definitely done it for every other thing that miraculously “got solved.” Lou may not be the ideal mayor but also, she is definitely better than him. With him as mayor, nothing is safe.

Does anyone else have the feeling that bribe guy might tell all to the press based on the look on his face when he saw JD didn’t pay him the full amount? Maybe he’s secretly a wildlife lover and doesn’t want to kill them? I mean, there’s no way the season ends with JD winning (think: poacher) so the question is how they make him lose/reveal the bribing.

Oh and...

Mitch

Mitch is mad that Lou didn’t tell him about running for mayor but Mitch didn’t also run turning their vacation property into a business (and seemingly moving away full time). And hey Mitch? Lou literally didn’t tell anyone she was thinking of running for mayor. Literally no one. She just stood up in the stands and announced it so it’s not just you. Don’t feel left out. No one was part of her decision really, except her.

PLUS, where the heck are Lou’s face all over these posters because so far all I’ve seen are JD’s! Lou, you need to step up your poster game. How is she allowing JD’s face to be across the diner & no posters of her?!

Songs in this Episode @heartlandians

The One I Need - Amy Stroup

Another Lie - Jacob John

#heartland #review #fight for flight

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legendsofthegffa · 4 years

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Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

A Satisfying Conclusion to the Sequel Trilogy, But an Underwhelming Finale to the Skywalker Saga

**SPOILERS!**

Well folks, here we are; four years ago, Episode VII came out and, despite leaning very heavily on nostalgia, still proved to be an exciting new beginning for Star Wars on the big screen. Three years ago, we saw Rogue One, which has proven to be a film that I enjoy more with each viewing. Two years ago, Episode VIII divided the fan base in a way not seen since Episode I, and proved to be an emotionally trying film for me personally. A year ago, we were without a Star Wars film, as Solo had already come out, and unfortunately had been caught up in the backlash against The Last Jedi, despite being a solid film in its own right. And now here we are with Episode IX; an exciting and enjoyable film, but one that stumbles to deliver on forty years worth of films and storytelling.

Rather than go into the plot, I want to touch on various aspects kind of like I did with my review of The Last Jedi; in this way, I can address some of my thoughts, critiques and predictions from that film as well as about the Sequel trilogy as a whole. First and foremost, let’s look at the biggest and probably most controversial aspect of the film: Palpatine. Making Darth Sidious the final villain was an excellent choice as a means of tying all nine films together; where it stumbles in his sudden and inexplicable return. As a hardcore Star Wars fan who liked the original story of the Emperor’s return in Legends, I was fine with them doing the same thing in the movies; while I do wish Snoke had returned instead (would have really been that hard to hand-wave Snoke’s return? It would have established him as having powers that Sidious didn’t, would have turned him from the joke that he became back into a serious villain, and would have given this trilogy its own unique feel, rather than the post-script that it ultimately was). Unfortunately, one of the core tenets of this film seems to be doing damage control for Episode VIII, rather than allowing it to tell its own story. While I appreciate that in other aspects, Snoke and Sidious is one place where I wish they had stayed the course rather than appeasing the really-sour fans that take their dislike of the film to new levels.

So with that spiel out of the way, let’s get into Palpatine proper. We don’t get any definitive answer to how he returned, but the body he’s inhabiting his decrepit and corpse-like, suspended from a mechanical arm (which, in all of the reviews I have seen of the movie, have yet to mention that it looks like Megatron’s setup from Beast Machines), and missing fingers. My guess, and we’ll get into this more when we look at the quote-unquote “build-up” for his return in the EU, is that he managed to transfer his spirit into a clone body, but the body can’t handle Sidious’ dark side power and is wasting away. When Kylo comes to confront him, we learn that Sidious has been manipulating Ben for years, including creating and using Snoke as a puppet to train Kylo Ren and speaking to him as his grandfather, Darth Vader. His plan (such as it is), is to either get Kylo to kill Rey, before I can only presume draining his life-force after proving he was the stronger Force-user, or getting Rey to kill him so that his power will pass into her and she will take his place as Sith Empress of the galaxy. Ultimately, neither of those things happens, and he ends up draining the life of both Ben and Rey to regenerate himself, but even for Palpatine this seems like a messy and convoluted “plan”.

Speaking of the “plan”, lets look at the hints that were laid since 2015, now that we know what it’s all been “leading towards”. We know that Palpatine was looking to expand into the Unknown Regions due to sensing a strong dark side-presence there; while at first we all believed this to be Snoke, but now it seems to be the planet of Exogal. What comes next is a muddled and uncertain, but at some point Sidious seems to have found this planet and set up his ultimate fail safes: a duplicate body for him to inhabit should he die, and a cult of ultra-loyal and dedicated Sith adherents to serve as his attendants, instruments and Final Order. The events of the Original Trilogy occur, and after Palpatine is killed by Vader, he puts some of his other contingency orders into effect: Operation: Cinder, and laying the groundwork for the First Order (which we now know has just been a front for the Final Order). The Emperor believed that if he was killed, then the Empire and the rest of the galaxy deserved to burn; had this gone on without a hitch, its likely Palpatine would have returned with his combined forces of ultra-loyal followers once he had regained his power and swept up the remnants of the galaxy beneath him. However, the New Republic and some of the Imperials interfered in his plans and prevented Operation: Cinder from being carried out, as well as forcing the Empire’s surrender at the Battle of Jakku.

Now, its likely that as with in Legends, Palpatine’s clone body couldn’t handle so much dark side power, and this is why he looked like a corpse in the film: if this is his one-and-only perfect clone body, then its probably been wasting away since day one, and even if he’s been able to keep transferring his body, its clear that this is not a long-term solution, unlike in Legends, where Palpatine was fine with transferring his essence to fresh clones until that plan was sabotaged by his supposedly-loyal underlings. Either way, with his body wasting away, Sidious needs to either transfer his power to his chosen vessel i.e. his granddaughter, Rey, or he needs both Rey and Kylo Ren so he can draw on their Force-bond (which is a whole other thing that I’m not even sure how to address in this review) to regenerate himself. Ultimately, he winds up nearly killing Rey and Ben Solo before Rey is able to redirect his Force Lightning back at him and cause him to destroy himself; his final defeat is one of the weaker aspects of the film, but I’ll get into that more in a bit. While Palpatine’s return was great, and can be made to fit with everything that has been leading up to Episode IX, there is no denying that at the end of the day Sidious’ inclusion will always feel like a messy addition at best, and empty fan service at worst.

Now, with that long-winded look at Palpatine out of the way, let’s move on to… a…different…Palpatine….who’s also a Skywalker…Rey, I mean Rey. Rey Palpatine is one of those base-breaking decisions that seem to be ever-present in Star Wars these days: some people feel that the evidence supports it, others feel that it’s a random pull for the sake of “subverting expectations”. Where do I stand? I think there is juuuust enough wiggle room within Episodes VII and VIII to leave it ambiguous enough for me to accept the answer. The biggest question I’ve seen is where the heck Palpatine’s son was this entire time, and I definitely think that that is an interesting story to be told, especially in regards as to whether or not he (and his wife, for that matter) were Force-sensitive. Me personally, I would have preferred it if Rey was the reincarnation of Anakin – being sent back to complete their task and bring balance to the Force. Some people also have issues with her rejecting her name and choosing to call herself a Skywalker but 1) at first, I honestly thought she was going to call herself Solo, just because Han was the first of the three she met and he seemed to have had the most influence on her (along with Luke) 2) I think the Hitler parallel is perfectly app here, most especially because Hitler was one of Lucas’ inspirations for Palpatine, and no one in their right mind would go around the galaxy with the last name that was equivalent to Hitler, regardless of how much good she did (for crying out loud, Leia was forced out of politics because the galaxy found out who her father was), so I don’t really have a problem with her changing it, and 3) with the Skywalker bloodline now (most likely) extinct, I think it’s good to have someone to carry that torch forward, along with the Jedi. As for her ultimate ending, well, that still remains to be seen. Rey Skywalker now has her own, orange lightsaber, and a brand-new galaxy to explore and rebuild. I’ve heard that Daisy Ridely is done with Star Wars, and while that makes me incredibly sad to hear since I really like the character, I can understand her decision to walk away from so much toxicity. Besides, I never thought that I would ever see an Episode VII, let alone be writing a review for Episode IX so who knows? All ways in motion is the future.

Now, lets move from one Skywalker to another, or rather, a Solo. I believed that Kylo Ren was irredeemable, after murdering his father and clearly trying to kill his uncle. I believed that the Skywalker legacy would be one of failure, and it was another problem that I had with the Sequel Trilogy as a whole, which flew in the face of both in the belief in redemption as well as Skywalker legacy of Legends. Thankfully, I can say that I was completely mistaken; while Kylo does have to pay with his life, he ultimately redeems both himself and his family in a very beautiful way. It starts after he and Rey engage in yet another battle, only for her to impale him with her lightsaber; Rey quickly uses the Force to heal and save Kylo, who is left stunned at both his brush with death and his salvation coming from someone he has been trying to kill for months. Kylo then has an internal discussion with a mental projection of Han where they repeat the dialogue leading up to Han’s death only this time, Ben does reject the darkness and discards his Sith saber. After rushing to aid Rey in her confrontation with the Emperor (which involves Ben completely destroying the Knights of Ren), Ben is unable to prevent Rey from dying while defeating Sidious, but after tapping into the Force, he is able to bring Rey back long enough for them to share a kiss before becoming one with the Force himself.

Ben’s sacrifice is one of the best moments of the film and one of the extremely few ways it ties into the wider saga. Anakin fell to the dark side because he was afraid of losing Padme, which ultimately he did because of his anger and lust for power. His grandson, despite making many of the same mistakes as him, is able to do what Anakin wanted most in the entire galaxy: to save the one’s he loves. It does come at a price, namely that to bring someone back, someone else has to give up their own life-force, but it still brings us full circle in a very nice way that parallels Anakin’s journey. It also helps that in doing so, he helps redeem the Skywalker name by passing the torch so to speak and helping undo some of the damage he caused by aiding the Sith and the First Order. Ben’s redemption is one of the strongest moments of Episode IX, and it makes me a little sad that we wont get to see more of him in the future.

So, now that we’ve gotten most of the important stuff covered, lets move on to some nitpicks before we look at the film as a whole as well as the Sequel Trilogy. The biggest wasted potential in this film to me was the Knights of Ren and, by extension, Luke’s Jedi Order. Ever since Episode VII, we’ve had only the most tantalizing hints about this dark side order, and when they finally appear on the big screen, it’s to stand around looking intimidating before getting slaughtered by Ben on his way to join Rey in confronting Palpatine. We no exactly zero about them, what their philosophy is, how they differ from Sith or why they decided to join Ben when he fell and turned against his uncle; maybe those that joined him were so appalled by Luke’s attempted murder that they cast off the identity of Jedi completely. The point is we don’t know anything about them, nor do we ever learn anything about Luke’s Order and how it differed from the old Jedi Order; from what I can gather it seems that Luke recreated the old Order nearly exactly rather than improving on it like he did in Legends, and I can’t exactly blame some people from going nuts after joining a religious extremist group.

Just like with Phasma and Snoke, the Knights of Ren and Luke’s Jedi are treated as an afterthought, an interesting idea that other media can talk about, but the movies cant be bothered with, and that is not only frustrating, but poor writing as well; and I know that all of these have a parallels with stuff from the Original Trilogy and the Prequels as well, but that just leads me to the jagged bedrock of my complaint: not learning from past mistakes, and just shrugging shoulders and saying “good enough, let someone else fill in the details.” The same also holds true for the final battle of the film; compared to the space battles of Episode III and VI, the one here is again, treated as almost an afterthought – something that needs to be there, but only serves as a backdrop to what’s going on with Palpatine. This battle includes fleets, ships and troops in almost never before seen numbers, and yet we only get a few snippets of action and shots here and there; when the reinforcements arrive, they fill out the screen, but none of them do anything special, or memorable or impressive. They go through all that trouble of having such an immense fleet, only for 95-99% of the action take place off screen. As with Palpatine’s defeat, the massive fleet had great build-up and potential, but fizzled out rather than concluding with a bang.

Speaking of the final battle, lets talk about the other half of that coin and its own lackluster finish. We’ve already gone over how Palpatine is defeated, but what I and so many other fans lamented was that no Force ghosts appeared, only spoke to Rey, and that the one appearance that would have really worked and helped give the film that sense of finality that it’s been claiming to represent, would have been an appearance by Anakin Skywalker. Seeing Anakin again after a decade-and-a-half since Episode III would have been incredible, given hardcore fans something special, and made sense within the story. We do hear him speak directly to Rey, but I have to wonder if either J.J. didn’t want to do it so as to keep the focus on Rey and her purpose/identity as All-the-Jedi-In-One, or maybe Hayden decided he didn’t want do it (and I cant say I blame him, after how toxic members of this Fandom treated him), but having three actors and characters from each of the three eras would have been a treat for everyone, and it’s yet another misstep that the film made.

So, overall, how do I feel about Star Wars: Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker? While I can appreciate everything that we got and how much it seems like they really wanted to repair the damage The Last Jedi did to the fanbase, I cant help but wonder at what could have been: what if the trilogy had been planned out from the start, or at least handled by one unifying creative director? Either way, it seems like what really hurt this trilogy was lack of direction and having to play catch-up when you only have half the pieces of the puzzle. In turns of the grand culmination of the Skywalker Saga…it’s not; it’s a satisfying conclusion to its own trilogy of stories, but in terms of being the grand culmination of forty years worth of stories, it just isn’t. If it was, it would have been treated that way and actually tied more of the three trilogies together instead of relying on nostalgia to round out the story the same way it began with Episode VII. I know this sounds like I didn’t like the movie, but I did: when I left the theater I was pleased with what I had just seen, and excited to see where the future was going to take these characters (well, mostly Rey, but that’s because Poe is barely involved in the story and poor Finn gets almost nothing to do – I heard how his entire character has been distilled into “the guy who shouts ‘whoo!’”, which is entirely apt and correct and yet another major misstep with this series since we finally have a character that was a former stormtooper, and they do nothing with him). While there are currently no plans for future films with these characters, there was a time when we all thought we would never, ever ever, ever see an Episode VII either, so I hold out hope that someday, these characters will return to pass the torch off to the next generation someday.

Final Score: 7.5/10

*Bonus*

My Star Wars 11 Films Rankings

Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope

Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens

Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Star Wars: Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker

Star Wars: Rogue One

Star Wars: Solo

Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars: Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones

Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace

#star wars #star wars canon #star wars 9 #rise of skywalker #rise of skywaker spoilers

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lilacflamesss · 6 years

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Shattered (Chapter 4)

Smutty Ayahina College AU

Summary: Hinami tries to deal with her sorrows through seeking Ayato out. Ayato can never turn away the girl he loves far more than he should. Two people with unrequited feelings, dealing with them in very different ways. Human AU. (7.6k words)

Warning: This fic contains unhealthy copic mechanisms, heavy sexual content, and plenty of problematic/ dubious things which I absolutely do not condone at all. This is a work of fiction that takes on a more mature, physical take on Ayahina’s relationship as opposed to the typical conventional one. Please feel free not to read this fic if it’s not your cup of tea! In addition, this chapter contains a character (baby) death so, trigger warning for stillbirth.

A/N: There’s no smut this chapter so I’m sorry for that! There’s also no Ayato in it lmao. But it’s a pretty heavy Touken chapter! There’s also a slight time skip between the Ken and Hinami bit in this chapter. About a couple of weeks, enough to at least let Touka recover from giving birth.

I’m really insecure about this fic right now. I lowkey had a breakdown before I posted this. I kept re-reading it over and over again but I still have so many worries about this... I’ve honestly never felt this way about a fic before. I’m sorry this took so long and even then I don’t know if it’s as good as it can be. I did try my best though, so I hope you guys continue to read and support this! Please do reblog this and feel free to leave some comments!

Preview:

Touka and Kaneki come out of the kitchen with a couple of plates. They place them on the table and Kaneki takes a seat, while Touka walks away to the corridor. Hinami panics for a moment, wondering if Touka might have gotten annoyed, but she calms down the moment she notices an extra plate, a kiddish and smaller one.

“Is she going to get your daughter?” Hinami asks.

“Yeah. Ichika gets too distracted when she’s playing. She forgets she’s hungry and her stomach starts acting up,” Kaneki explains with a slight chuckle. “I hope you like omurice. Touka forced me to cook it today. It’s her father’s own recipe.”

“I don’t mind it,” she replies. Kaneki cooked. She’s going to eat Kaneki’s cooking. Her heart races at this thought. She’s watched dramas where girls ate the food guys they liked specially cooked for them. In the end, no matter how bad the food is, they always taste good because of love, right? She wants to squeal-- to think she gets to live through such a corny experience. Ayato will never cook for her. That guy would probably burn the apartment down in the process. But Kaneki can cook and he did. Really, he’s the perfect guy.

A silent voice in her head coughs at her. She’s supposed to be getting over Kaneki. He’s married. He didn’t cook this because he loves her; he cooked this because the woman he loves asked him to. But even as logic is being flung at her, Hinami turns away. She fixes her eyes on the plate of omurice. It looks like a normal plate but even then, she’s never been this excited to dig in.

“Touka thought Ayato might suddenly show up as well so she insisted on this,” Kaneki continues. “Apparently, it’s his favorite back when he was a kid. Their father always cooked it for him whenever he was down… We made some extra for him as well.”

“For Ayato? But he isn’t here…”

“Touka insisted that we packed it and get you to deliver it to him if you happen to be dropping by his place or something.”

“I could do that.” If she has some time to kill, she’d probably go back to her dorm to study a little more, but dropping by Ayato’s place isn’t a detour. It’s still on the way to school.

“I’m not too fond of it though…” Kaneki admits with a sigh.

“It’s really no problem, Big Brother! His apartment is on the way to school. Besides, I think it’ll be better if he has some proper lunch… Otherwise he’d just eat convenience store food again. I don’t have time to go over and cook some lunch for him.”

Kaneki remains silent for a while, before he glances at where Touka had disappeared to. He inches closer to Hinami and lowers his voice. “It’s not that Hinami… Personally, I’m just not a big fan of you hanging out too much with Ayato.”

He’s jealous… Hinami slams the thought down the moment it surfaces in her mind. God, it sounded so stupid.

“Ayato is a good friend,” she says. “He’s always there for me.”

“Are you sure he’s just a friend? It didn’t seem that way to me that day,” Kaneki grumbles.

“We’re not together.”

“Touka was very confident about Ayato’s feelings towards you,” Kaneki says. “And even I… I saw the way you were looking at him when you waited for him.”

Kaneki thinks she’s in love with Ayato. Hinami feels her throat go dry.

“Even if… that’s the case, Big Brother… why does this bother you?” she murmurs. He shouldn’t care, right? He’s in love with Touka. It’s not like Kaneki has feelings for her. He shouldn’t care about who she’s dating or seeing.

“Hinami…” Kaneki sighs. “Look… I care about you and I love you--”

Ken finds himself pacing to and fro. He wishes he can calm down and relax, but he knows he can’t. It’s not happening-- it can’t be-- especially not when his wife went into labour a whole month before the expected due date. He already knows that this isn’t going to be the easiest pregnancy for Touka. On the contrary, the doctors had warned them to prepare themselves for the worst. They had gone to multiple clinics for different opinions and every one of them had said the same thing. There’s too many complications. The baby might not survive. The had predicted that the mother’s life would be in danger as well and they had recommended an abortion. But Touka had been adamant to see the pregnancy to its end. Even if it’s hard, she wants to try her best to bring their child into the world, even if she had to risk her own life. Ken had wanted to argue, but he simply couldn’t when she was looking at him with that determined expression-- the very expression he fell in love with. At least, he’s glad she saved him the dilemma of having to choose between his unborn child and his wife. He wonders some time who’d he’d choose. Touka, perhaps… They could always try again, right?

Right?

Sometimes, it’s easier thinking about things like that. He’s sure he wouldn’t have been able to choose if he had been in that position. In times like this, he’s glad he has Touka by his side.

Ken continues to pace until he hears a throat being cleared. He looks at the other man who’s standing by along with him. Yomo is leaning against a wall, his expression as solemn as ever, while he holds Ichika’s hand. The small girl’s head continues to nod as she yawns and rub her eyes with her other hand. She looks at Ken, sulking visibly.

Sometimes, when Ichika looks at him like this, Ken recalls Touka’s brother-- the asshole who isn’t answering or even bothering about his calls and messages despite the fact that his sister is in labour right now.

“Papa…” Ichika whines. “I wanna go home.”

Yomo picks the child up and carries her in his arm, fixing Ken with a hard glare. Calm down, it seems to say and Ken nods. Yomo cradles Ichika, rocking her lightly as the kid nestles her head into his granduncle’s neck. He walks a distance away from Ken, probably to keep Ichika from whining even more in the middle of a hospital. Ken’s glad that Yomo’s around. He’s probably just as worried about Touka. She’s his niece and he’d been by her side and watched her for so much longer than Ken had. But Yomo’s staying strong and Ken knows he has to as well.

If the worst happens, he has to be there for her as well. She might be as strong as-- or even stronger than-- him. But he wasn’t the one who carried the child in his womb for eight months. He wasn’t the one who had to struggle with all the challenges of pregnancy just to bring a child into the world. No matter how strong his wife is, no matter how much she tries to prepare herself, if things don’t go well, he will have to be there for her.

It feels like an eternity before the light goes off, indicating that things within the room had ended. By then, Ken already knows what awaits him.

There wasn’t a cry after all…

He’s only allowed to see her much later, despite his chagrined protests, but that also gave him some time to get ahold of himself. A look of complete despair had passed through Yomo’s eyes as the doctor relayed the news to the both of them. He didn’t comment on the situation at all. All he said was that he was going home to tuck Ichika into bed. Maybe he wanted some time alone, or maybe he wanted to give Ken some time alone. Either way, Ken realises he feels relieved.

He takes some time to walk around the hospital, mind completely blank, heart completely empty. He doesn’t know what to feel about the whole situation. They had asked him if he wanted to see the kid. He had said no, because he can’t bring himself to see her, especially not without Touka by his side.

They already knew that it isn’t going to work out. They were already told that this is what awaited them. Even then, why does he feel so empty?

He wants to get a drink, but he decides not to. His stomach can’t hold anything in right now. If he eats or drinks, he might just throw up. Instead, he finds a spot with a vacant seat and sits down. People walk past him, but everything’s a flash and a blur. The only thing that really stood out was a little boy, running past him screaming and giggling. He held the hand of a little girl-- probably his younger sister-- pulling her along excitedly.

Ichika will never get to pull her younger sister along. She probably won’t even know about her until much later, and by then, it’ll be too distant a memory for her to really feel anything about it. Ken wonder what he’ll give up to be able to see both his children happy and together. Siblings are a precious kind of relationship-- the best in its own way. Ken himself doesn’t know what it feels like to have a sister or a brother. Perhaps the closest he has to a sister is the little orphan girl he’d bonded with a long time ago, right after her parents had died in a brutal car crash. But she grew older and they’ve gotten distant. He still can contact her if he wants to, but he doesn’t really keep in touch. He saw her some time back and it feels like she had grown and changed a lot as well. Yet there had been warmth that filled him when he laid his eyes on her back then, a certain indescribably pride at seeing how far she’s come. Maybe he should put more effort into trying to keep in contact with her. He did feel a little guilty about keeping his marriage from her.

It’s Touka who told him the joys of being a sister. It was her who said that she wanted a second child so Ichika won’t be lonely, just like how she believes she would have been lonelier if she hadn’t had her brother around. Ken wonders how she can continue feeling this way, especially since it had been ages since she had last talked to her brother.

He checks his phone again. He’d texted Ayato and called him a couple of times, but he’d gotten nothing from him. Ken had thought that Ayato would at least answer one of his calls. The other time he did, he had sounded apologetic and regretful. Ken had thought that it’ll have changed things within him, but he hadn’t visited even though he promised to so Ken really shouldn’t be too surprised about his absence now.

It would be nice if he did show up though, especially after all that happened. Perhaps Ken might have gotten a better outcome if he had mentioned the whole complication with the baby. He was in the midst of doing so, but he ended up deleting the text. He probably should leave it to Touka to decide if she wanted her brother to know.

Personally, Ken is still not too fond of that guy. If anything, he questions every single thing Ayato has done. He’s sure he hasn’t been given the full story yet. Touka doesn’t really like to talk about her brother, unless she’s talking about happier times when her entire family was still around. There’s nothing that Ayato had done subsequently that gets him on Ken’s good side at all. All he’s ever done is hurt Touka more and more. Perhaps, if they hadn’t already known about the problems with the baby, Ken might end up blaming the whole thing on Ayato. He did push his pregnant sister after all and he’d never bothered to check up on her. It was Ken who called to inform him, that too after Touka had mentioned how he probably was upset.

That jerk doesn’t deserve a sister like her, honestly.

His phone vibrates in his pocket and he sees that he has a call from the reception desk of the hospital. He knows what that means-- he can go and see Touka now. He doesn’t feel like talking to anyone, but he knows that he has to take this. The conversation is quick and he doesn’t talk much, just thanking the receptionist after she gives him Touka’s room number. He’s up on his feet seconds after the call, heading towards her in long strides.

It seemed like some time had passed since he sat down. Apparently wallowing in his hatred for his brother-in-law had distracted him a little and helped to kill time. Perhaps Ayato isn’t as useless as he used to think he is after all.

Touka’s a shell of her former self. Maybe that expression might be a little bit of an exaggeration. She doesn’t look that lost. She looked much more lost when they first met all those years ago, crumbling under the weight of their family’s financial burdens and her father and brother’s never-ending arguments. But she’s surely not herself right now either. Just twenty four hours ago, she was smiling at him with the usual twinkle in her eyes as she pulled out a new watch she had bought for him. It had caught her eye randomly and she had gotten it for him as an early anniversary gift. He had left it at home in the rush to get Touka into the hospital when she went into labor, but now he wishes he has something to hold onto to keep himself together.

When he enters the room, she doesn’t respond. She continues to stare out of the window, eyes clouded and downcast.

“Touka.”

She jolts a little at the sound of her name and she turns to look at him, offering him a wide, but weak, smile. “Ken…”

“You did well.” He crosses over to her and sits at the edge of her bed. Touka bites her lip and she shakes her head.

“I couldn’t… I didn’t manage to…” She chokes, stopping herself with a deep breath. He sees the water in her eyes and he sees her trying to hold them back. There’s absolutely no reason for her to hold back her tears, not now, not then, but she continues to do so as she has always done. Ken reaches for her hand, taking one in both of his, clasping it tightly.

“You did your best. I’m sure she knows and I’m sure she appreciates whatever you’ve done. In another life, I’m sure she’ll want you to be her mother as well.”

That isn’t lip service. They’re not empty words. He’s sure of it. Touka is a great mother to Ichika and he’s sure she’d have been one to their daughter as well-- their little girl who left them even before she could come to them. He wishes they at least named her, but they hadn’t chosen a name yet. They were supposed to have another month.

“I’m sure she’ll want you to be her father as well,” Touka says. Her voice is weak, but he sees in her eyes her belief in him, clearly mirroring his in her. “Where’s Ichika?”

“She’s at home. Yomo took her back so she could sleep. I think Yomo wants to give us space as well,” Ken admits. He rubs the back of Touka’s hand and Touka responds by tightly lacing her fingers with his, locking their hands into a secured grip.

“Did you… say anything to Ayato?”

“No… He didn’t answer my calls and messages.”

Her eyes widen at his words and he senses panic in them, though Ken doesn’t seem to understand why. “So you tried to contact him! What did you say?”

“You went into labour…”

“That’s all?”

“That’s all.”

The panic vanishes and she sighs a little. She’s smiling now, but again, it’s weak and melancholic. “That’s good… I don’t want him to know about what happened.”

“Why not?”

“He’ll blame himself…”

That really shouldn’t be Touka’s concern right now. Ken really doesn’t want her bothering about Ayato at a time like this. But it’s always been in Touka’s nature to worry about others before herself.

“Touka, your brother--”

“It’s not his fault,” she cuts in. “He did something wrong… I know that but… this has nothing to do with that…”

“Touka--”

“I want to see him… Ken, please, I really want to see him…”

“Touka, come on, you know that’s not going to happen,” Ken sighs. “He didn’t care one bit when he hurt you. He doesn’t care now that you gave birth as well.”

“No, he cares. I know he does…”

“So why isn’t he here?” Ken challenges. His bitterness goes unnoticed by Touka, who clamps up as his words, shivering lightly. Ken wonders if he’s too harsh. Maybe now isn’t the best time to be honest with her about that asshole. He reaches over for Touka and takes her by her shoulders, pulling her against him, arms wrapped tightly around her.

“Look, I’ll see what I can do, okay? If Ayato doesn’t respond, I’ll call Hinami instead. Will that be okay?” he asks.

“Hinami…?”

“You know, the girl who was with your brother the other day?”

Touka relaxes in his arms and he looks down to see a small smile spreading on her face. “Ahh… That strange girl who somehow saw something in my useless brother to fall for?” The cheeky, joking tone in Touka’s voice is enough to make Ken relax a little.

Despite his complete aversion to Hinami being in a relationship with Ayato, he’s glad it at least brings some joy to Touka with her now being able to rest easy that her brother isn’t alone like she feared. Though Ken still believes he’s better off talking to Hinami about and giving her a warning here and there. It’s not like Hinami has anyone else to do that for her as well. It must be why she managed to get along with Ayato in the first place-- they’re both alone, after all. Just like Touka was at one point in time. Ken wonders how that feels like. He’s been lonely before but he’s never been alone. He’s had Hide with him since he was young.

“I’ll call Hinami and see what we can work out, okay? Maybe she can convince your brother about coming along,” Ken says. He really doesn’t want to, but he guess he’ll have to give in if it makes Touka feel better. From the expression she makes, he knows she feels better.

“It’ll be nice… If we called them over for a celebration instead…” Touka murmurs absentmindedly. She looks at Ken, forcing her smile to remain on her face. But she’s a terrible liar, especially to him, who knows her so well. Her watery eyes are telling him that she’s anything but smiling on the inside. She’s weeping and falling apart and that all that’s holding her together right now is the slight hope that she might be able to see her remaining family as a whole again-- that same hope, wish and desire that she has always clung onto in the darkest moments.

Her child is gone, just like her mother and just like her father. She doesn’t want anyone else to go. And like it or not, Ken wants to make her wish come true for her. Even if her brother is the most detestable person on earth, even if he’s the person who’s made her silently cry to herself countless times over and over again, he wants to bring him back for her.

Hinami thinks her heart is going to leap out of her chest. It might be an exaggeration, but she’s quite certain it’s not an impossibility. Her heart is beating so hard. Her ribs might not be able to stand it. She wonders how much it would hurt if her ribs do snap. Ayato had mentioned breaking a couple of bones before and he had said it had hurt like a bitch, to quote his words that is. Well, Ayato being Ayato would have broken a whole bunch of bones at one go. Hinami’s always wondered what he did to even have that happen. He hadn’t said anything much about that incident, except scowl whenever he talks about it and admit that it had hurt far too much and that it wasn’t him, but someone else who broke his bones. Hinami had wondered who even would break Ayato’s bones, but considering his high school escapades, she’s not too surprised someone would.

But back to the point. It had hurt for Ayato. A broken rib would make her break down and cry.

She ignores the heart and her ridiculous thoughts and presses the doorbell. She’s staring at a normal door of a normal house, but she’s immediately taken in by what she sees. This is where he stays. This is the place he lives, where he eats his dinner, where he relaxes, where he sleeps, where he bathes, where he reads his books and where he can be himself. This is the place she has long to step into for years. She gets to see how she lives; she gets to know him even better, to see things no other person would.

Hinami hears footsteps from the other side of the door and she stiffens, hands running through her hair before smoothening out her dress as she takes one look at her outfit. She’s wearing a simple light green dress with a black cardigan-- nothing too fancy, but it’s still a cute outfit. She had asked Ayato for his opinion when she bought it, but she learnt from the experience how bad of an advisor he is when it comes to these kinds of things.

“That’s nice. It looks easy to take off,” he had said with the usual smirk on his face. Of course, that earned him an elbow to the rib. She does, also, vaguely remember him grumbling about how she looked good in anything so she didn’t really need a second opinion on it, but her mother used to say that about her as well.

The door opens and Hinami puts on the biggest smile she can manage. She doesn’t have to force it out. It comes naturally the moment she sees the face of the person who answered the door. Kaneki Ken looks as gorgeous as always, his charming smile and gentle eyes welcoming her and making her feel at home almost instantly. He’s beautiful, she thinks the moment he says her name in greeting and steps aside to let her in. She doesn’t need him to say anything else before she’s practically running into the house.

So this is where he stays.

“Thank you for coming, Hinami! I hope you’re not too busy today,” he says.

“No, today’s a good day.” She only has classes in the evening and it’s still just morning. She has all the time in the world before she has to leave.

The call from Kaneki had been sudden and out of the blue yesterday, inviting her over for lunch. Kaneki had asked her to bring Ayato along but Hinami knew that there was no chance he would accept coming over with her. She had been honest with Kaneki about that and hadn’t bothered to ask Ayato at all. Kaneki sounded conflicted by her words over the phone; on one hand he sounded a little upset, but on another, he accepted it a little too easily that Hinami felt he didn’t really want Ayato around as well.

“Touka is getting ready so give her some time,” Kaneki says.

“Is she with the baby now?” Hinami asks. Some time back, Ayato had told her that the baby was born already. She hadn’t asked for much details but she had doubted he knew anything much either.

“Yeah… about that…” Kaneki grimaces as he speaks, glancing deeper into the house before he takes Hinami’s arm and pulls her closer to him. Hinami stiffens. She didn’t think her heart can race even more than it had been doing so, but she was instantly proven wrong. She’s close to him-- so so close. Just a little more and she’d be pressed against his chest, maybe with his strong arms around her. That very thought itself is enough to make Hinami tremble.

“The baby… isn’t here,” Kaneki says, his voice dropping quite a bit.

“Oh-oh?” she gasps out, trying to focus on anything else but their proximity, even when her voice sounds faked and uncaring. “Where is it?”

“Hinami…” Kaneki sighs. His hand releases her arm before it moves to the back of his neck, rubbing lightly. “The baby… didn’t make it.”

She’s silent as the words sink in. Kaneki gives her the time to as well, eyes fixed completely on her. Normally, she’d probably be happy; he’s staring at her and only her right now. But right now, Kaneki is the last thing on her mind. The baby is gone. The baby died. But how? She wants to ask him, yet she holds back. An image flashes through her mind. Kaneki’s wife, on the floor, eyes wide in horror as her brother watches her a small distance in front of her. Touka had fallen when she was pregnant and that’s dangerous, right?

In that case, was the baby’s death all Ayato’s fault?

“I-I’m so sorry!” she cries out immediately. She feels obligated to apologize, even though she isn’t the one who had pushed Touka down. Maybe if she hadn’t stood out there that day, maybe if she had gone in the store with Ayato and waited with him, she wouldn’t have met Kaneki and Touka-- Ayato wouldn’t have met Kaneki and Touka. The baby could still have lived. Maybe if she had cut the conversation shorter. Maybe if she had taken his hand and run off with him before Touka could talk to him. Maybe. Maybe.

“It’s nothing to be sorry about, Hinami… We were already prepared for this,” Kaneki laughs flatly. He had laughed, but his sorrow poured out of his eyes. Hinami feels herself choking. Something feels like it’s rising in her throat. She hadn’t eaten anything but it feels like she’s going to throw up.

He was prepared, he said. The knew about it apparently… So was that phone call a lie? He had told Ayato that the baby was fine the other day, hadn’t he? Had he lied back then? Maybe he did it to calm Ayato down and to stop him from worrying. That would be a total Kaneki-like thing, lying and putting people before him so that others didn’t get hurt.

“I… I really am sorry, Big Brother! I’m sorry, this is all Ayato’s fault and--”

“It’s not,” he cuts in and Hinami looks up at him blankly. It’s… not? A lie. That had to be a lie. Kaneki is lying again to help with the guilt and not to worry them too much. Of course he’d be like this. It’s in his character. Kaneki is nice and kind.

“Big Brother, please. I know this is because he pushed her the other day so… Please let me apologize properly… to you and your wife…” She chokes as she speaks and as she blinks her eyes, she feels tears falling out. Hinami immediately wipes them away. She doesn’t want him to see her cry, especially not when it’s over his own kid’s death. Kaneki isn’t crying. Even if he looks like he’s about to cry, she doesn’t want to cry in front of him when he’s trying his best not to.

Kaneki takes a deep breath and sighs. He places his hands on her shoulders, turning her to face him completely. “Listen. I’m not going to pretend Ayato is the best person out there. He brought Touka a lot of stress and that could have let to some problems… but Touka’s pregnancy was problematic from the very beginning. We both knew this was going to happen. Ayato might have hurt Touka… but he didn’t kill our child.”

“That’s a lie…”

“It’s not a lie, Hinami… Why would I lie about this?” Kaneki sighs. “The baby was unlikely to survive in the first place… But Touka still wanted to pull through with the pregnancy for that slim possibility. It didn’t work out. The baby died. We were both pretty much prepared for it, though I’d appreciate if you don’t bring this topic up when Touka’s around later.”

She considers the words and nods with a sigh. “So… Ayato… He really didn’t do anything wrong?”

Kaneki’s eye twitches at her words and he forces out a smile, which honestly looked more like a grimace to Hinami. “Well… I wouldn’t say that… but… don’t worry. Your boyfriend didn’t kill his niece.”

Kaneki must really hate Ayato. Hinami had noticed that it usually was easy for Kaneki to pretend around people. She’d seen him interact with people she knew he disliked. He generally was nice to them and could easily hold a calm, composed face. One wouldn’t have been able to tell Kaneki hated them from merely looking at his conversation with them. On the other hand, Kaneki’s distaste for Ayato was practically scrawled all over his face. She wonders what must have happened between the two of them. Ayato hates Kaneki a lot as well. She’d all along assumed it was because of her feelings for Kaneki--

Wait.

“B-Boy...friend?”

Kaneki nods. “Yeah, Ayato. Your boyfriend.”

“He’s… not my boyfriend…”

“Oh? He’s not? Is he more? A fiancé? A husband?”

“B-Big Brother! It’s not… We’re not--”

“Don’t tell me… He’s the father of your future kid…”

Hinami chokes and she swears her cheeks must be red right now. There’s no way she wants Kaneki to know that she’s sleeping with Ayato. Definitely no way. Kaneki doesn’t have to know that she’s sleeping with anyone in the first place-- he shouldn’t. It’s hard to tell if Kaneki is joking sometimes and this is one of those times. His face shows clear interest and he seems genuinely curious about the situation. But for Hinami, this is terrible. Kaneki is getting the wrong idea. Kaneki, out of all people, is getting the wrong idea. He thinks she’s in a relationship with Ayato. Well, she is in some kind of a weird arrangement with him which she supposes can be called a relationship, but it’s definitely not what Kaneki has in mind.

“I-I! I don’t like Ayato at all!” she cries out. “We’re nothing. There’s nothing. Big Brother, the only one for me is--”

“Oh, that’s sad…” A voice cuts into Hinami’s words and it hits her how she was so close to admitting the truth to Kaneki. Hinami clamps up immediately, putting some distance between her and Kaneki before she turns to the source of the voice. Kaneki retracts his hands and even though she’s thankful for it, she can still feel his hands on her shoulders.

“I think Ayato will be pretty sad to hear that.” The words accompany the emerging figure of Kaneki’s wife. She runs her hand through her hair, before she smiles at Hinami, walking up to her slowly. “I think my brother seemed really taken by you…”

“Ms… Kirishima…” Hinami murmurs. Wait, is that right? Hinami wonders if she should have called Touka something else instead. Mrs Kaneki? Ms Touka?

Touka smiles and wraps her arms around Hinami, holding her tightly for a moment before pulling away. “Just Touka is fine. Are you here alone?”

“Yeah.”

“Ayato’s not with you?”

“He wouldn’t come even if I asked him to… I’m sorry,” Hinami admits. Touka’s face falls at these words and Hinami honestly feels bad for her. She doesn’t know what happened between the two of them, but she finds herself a little annoyed that Ayato would even think of making his own sister upset. He’s honestly lucky. Even if his parents are dead, he has a sister. Unlike him, Hinami has no one.

“It’s not your fault… He’s always been like that,” Touka sighs. “He’s a good person at heart, but he can be a little difficult at times.”

“Don’t you think you’re a little too optimistic about your brother, Touka?” Kaneki sighs. A look of slight annoyance crosses Touka’s face, but she says nothing except to turn around and walk towards the table a slight distance off.

“Don’t just stand there, Hinami. Come and have a seat. We have lunch prepared for you. I hope it’s not too early.” The sudden change in topic takes Hinami by surprise, but from Kaneki’s expression, it felt like it’s something they’ve talked about too many times before. He seems annoyed, but more so exhausted. Hinami wonders what really happened with between Ayato and these two, especially with how Touka and Kaneki seem to think very differently of Ayato.

Hinami takes a seat as Kaneki and Touka enter the kitchen. There’s a slightly awkward atmosphere around them right now and even though she can’t hear the exact words, she hears a soft discussion happening between the two of them in the kitchen. Hinami’s confused. They seemed to have a good relationship when she saw them previously. Kaneki looked so happy and proud to introduce her to Hinami. She also remembered how protective he was over her when she fell and how he had spammed Ayato with calls to try and get him to visit Touka as well. Kaneki and Touka had looked like they were so in love.

She wants to know what’s going on and the temptation to sneak over and eavesdrop was too much to resist. She quietly gets up and tiptoes over to the kitchen, pressing her body against the wall as she tries to listen. She doesn’t have to try too hard; she’s always had sharp ears.

“This is getting ridiculous, Touka,” Kaneki grumbles. “You need to stop.”

“You need to stop pretending that everything is Ayato’s fault and that we’re not responsible at all,” Touka grumbles back. There’s the clacking of what Hinami assumes are plates. They probably are preparing some food for her.

“He’s hurt you so much. Why aren’t you seeing that? He left you alone, Touka.” Kaneki sounds exasperated and Hinami grimaces. Why is Touka having a hard time accepting this? Ayato did leave her after all. He’s ignored her all these time and even when they finally met, he went back to pushing her away. Hinami knows that if she is to be in Touka’s shoes, she’d have given up by now.

“And whose fault was it he decided to leave, huh?” Touka challenges. “Kaneki, I know you didn’t mean to and I know it’s not your fault entirely… but you hurt him too, you know!”

That’s ridiculous, right? Someone like Kaneki hurting someone like Ayato? It doesn’t make sense to Hinami at all. Kaneki is kind and gentle. She doesn’t think he’s capable of hurting anyone at all. Ayato would never hurt her, but she knows that’s not the case for everyone. He’s always hurting Touka and Hinami knows about his old notorious reputation from back when they were in high school. He’d picked fights and broken hearts. To think that he’d get hurt by someone like Kaneki-- it’s absurd to the point she almost laughs.

But as she listens in to the conversation, she realises something once again. She’s nothing to these people. She knows nothing about them; she knows nothing about Kaneki. It feels like it’s always the case, with everyone. Everyone knows about her problems, but she knows no one’s. She doesn’t know what happened between Ayato and his family. He’s never told her, even though he sits by her side and listens to her every time she cries about her own. She doesn’t know about Kaneki as well, not even back when she was younger. She knew he was an orphan like her. She knew he was lonely like she was. But she doesn’t know what happened to his family, even as he always consoled her over the accident that stole her parents from her.

It’s been ten years, or perhaps even more. But even after all this time has passed, things hadn't changed after all. She’s still the same clueless little victim that no one will ever confide it. She wants to tell them that she’s not weak. But will they even listen? She’d spent so much time with Ayato, but he still doesn’t feel comfortable enough to open up to her.

This isn’t fair…

She returns back to her seat feeling more miserable than ever. She hasn’t found out what happened between them, but she doesn’t feel like finding out right now. Maybe ignorance was better. It’s certainly better than knowing all those things happened to people she thought are close and dear to her, yet being kept in the dark about it.

Touka said that Kaneki had hurt Ayato. Yet he kept silent about it even when Hinami spoke about how great of a person Kaneki is. Did that hurt him? Did she hurt him? She wouldn’t have done that if she knew what happened.

“Is she going to get your daughter?” Hinami asks.

“For Ayato? But he isn’t here…”

“Touka insisted that we packed it and get you to deliver it to him if you happen to be dropping by his place or something.”

“I could do that.” If she has some time to kill, she’d probably go back to her dorm to study a little more, but dropping by Ayato’s place isn’t a detour. It’s still on the way to school.

“I’m not too fond of it though…” Kaneki admits with a sigh.

He’s jealous… Hinami slams the thought down the moment it surfaces in her mind. God, it sounded so stupid.

“Ayato is a good friend,” she says. “He’s always there for me.”

“Are you sure he’s just a friend? It didn’t seem that way to me that day,” Kaneki grumbles.

“We’re not together.”

“Touka was very confident about Ayato’s feelings towards you,” Kaneki says. “And even I… I saw the way you were looking at him when you waited for him.”

Kaneki thinks she’s in love with Ayato. Hinami feels her throat go dry.

“Hinami…” Kaneki sighs. “Look… I care about you and I love you--”

Her eyes go wide and it feels like her body freezes, as does the time around her. He said it. He said he loves her. This feels too surreal. Kaneki loves her? But why? Why would he love her? What’s so special about her? She’s not nearly as pretty as Kaneki’s wife. She doesn’t know a thing about that woman, but even then she already knows she’s amazing. She has to be a strong person after all she’s been through. Hinami isn’t a strong person. She’s weak. She’s a crybaby. There’s no reason he should love her; there’s no reason anyone should love her when there are others around.

Now that she’s thinking about it, she’s never asked Ayato why he was so in love with her as well? She had hurt him a lot but he’s still by her side. She’s never thought anything about her was attractive and lovable in the first place.

Big Brother… I… She doesn’t know what to say. Should she accept it? Should she turn him down? She and Ayato are not officially dating, even if they hang out too much for normal friends. But Kaneki isn’t just together with another woman; he’s married and he has a family. She doesn’t want to ruin that.

“--You’re like a little sister to me,” Kaneki continues and Hinami feels like she’s on a roller coaster. Never once had her hopes risen so high up only to come crashing down in the matter of seconds. Of course, that’s what he means. She feels so dumb for taking it another way— so dumb that she feels like crying right there and then. But Kaneki continues to talk and she’s thankful that she’s able to look down at her food and not keep eye contact with him. He seems oblivious to her emotions, or even if he did notice, he must have taken it as her response to what he’s saying. What’s he saying, again? She realizes she hadn’t been paying attention.

“I don’t get it,” she grumbles instead.

“God, are you listening to me?” he sighs. “I’m telling you that the only thing Ayato’s good at is hurting the people who loves and cares about him. I don’t want you to get hurt, Hinami. You’re the closest I have to a family outside of my wife and kid.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She’s annoyed. She’s so so annoyed. She can’t believe the situation. She wants to slam her head against a wall and black out permanently. The embarrassment is killing her.

“Fine then. I’m telling you straight right now. End things with Ayato and stay away from him.”

That snaps her out of her thoughts and she looks at Kaneki, eyes wide in disbelief. “What? But why?”

“How many times are you going to make me repeat myself?” Kaneki groans. “He will hurt you, Hinami. You might think the both of you are in love now but it won’t stop him from hurting you. He hurt his own sister, for god’s sake.”

“He won’t hurt me…” Hinami murmurs.

“I’m telling you, he will. You think you’re in love but—”

“I’m not in love with him, Big Brother,” she cuts in. “You got it all wrong. It’s Ayato who loves me.”

Kaneki’s brows furrow at her words, but he stays silent as Touka shows up, carrying a sulking little boy in her arms. “I’m sorry for the delay. Ichika wouldn’t stop her game,” she laughs. She takes her seat in front of Hinami and places Ichika on the seat beside her.

“It’s fine,” Kaneki says, eyeing his daughter. “You have to listen to Mama more or I’m going to take all your games from you.”

Arata looks horrified by this statement, but Touka only sighs and pats her daughter’s head. “Don’t listen to Papa. Don’t worry, he won’t do that,” she says. Hinami watches as Touka takes a spoon and scoops up some food for Ichika before holding it out to her. The girl takes the spoon and slowly puts it into her mouth before she starts chewing on in. Touka smiles, ruffling her hair. “That’s my girl.”

“They grow up so fast,” Kaneki sighs. “Look at my girl, Hinami. She’s feeding herself now.”

Hinami chuckles. Watching Kaneki and Touka with Ichika makes her feel really warm and soft. This must be what it’s like to be a part of a family, she supposes. It’s been far too long since she had one. She doesn’t really remember what it felt like to be doted on and loved. Touka and Kaneki must be extra protective of Ichika right now, especially since they had lost their other child. She can see it in both their eyes; they’re looking at her with a different look than they did the other day she saw them.

Everyone is going through their own things. And again, she feels like an outsider. She doesn’t know how things are going for them now and even if she asks, they will probably tell her not to worry and that everything is fine.

“Are you thinking about your parents?” Hinami’s head snaps up at Touka’s voice and she looks up at her in surprise. The older woman’s eyes soften and she reaches out to Hinami, placing her hand over Hinami’s. “You had a distant, nostalgic look in your eyes when you’re looking at us with Ichika. Kaneki told me you lost them some time back and you’ve been alone since then.”

“No… I… I just realise… it’s been so long. I forgot what it’s like… to be a part of a family.” It’s hard to speak about it. She’s choking as she does. But she forces herself to keep in her tears. She doesn’t want to cry now. She shouldn't. It’s not her who should be sad. She lost her parents years ago. Touka and Kaneki are the ones who are grieving now.

“Kaneki says you’re like a sister to him. I hope you can see me like that as well. You’re welcomed to be a part of this family, Hina, you really are,” Touka continues. She called her ‘Hina’. No one’s ever called her that aside from her parents and Ayato.

“You saved me once from the loneliness I felt when my own parents died. I know we’re not as close now, but I hope you realise you’re not alone in this world,” Kaneki murmurs.

“Nobody ever is alone, Hinami. Even if you can’t come to us, I’m sure you can rely on Ayato at least,” Touka continues. She pulls her hands away and picks up her spoon. “Now, eat. The food’s going to get cold.”

She doesn’t think she can eat. Her stomach is churning and the lump in her throat hasn’t faded. She wants to cry, but it’s not because she’s sad. She feels something else right now. She wants to say something but she doesn’t know what. Instead, she picks up her spoon begins eating as well. The food is delicious. She’s not too surprised it is, considering Kaneki cooked it. She’s never eaten Kaneki’s cooking before but it’s rare that Kaneki is ever bad in something. But she wishes she can enjoy it as much as she wants to, but her mind is reeling from everything.

A family sounds nice. It’s something she has along dreamed of-- herself, back with her mother and father. They’ve always been there for her back then and it felt empty when they were gone. She knew she only managed to pull through and survive because Kaneki was there by her side. They drifted the moment Hinami was old enough to stand on her own two feet. She hadn’t forgotten him back then. Her longing for him only grew. Perhaps it was the security that Kaneki gave her that made her fall for him and to continue longing for him to be by her side again.

I love you. You’re like a little sister to me.

She still feels really sick. Maybe dropping by Ayato’s place after this will be a good idea after all.

A/N: I really wanted to proofread, but I feel like if I do, I might stop myself from posting. I was supposed to post this last night but I fell asleep while typing lol. I hope you guys like this fic. I also knew I promised the sub Ayato smut scene in Chapter 4 and it’s still happening soon, but the word count got too long so it got pushed into Chapter 5. :’) I hope everyone looks forward to that because it really was fun writing it!

Also, word of advice, I won’t trust Kaneki’s narrations about Ayato if I were you. They’re about as biased as Hinami’s narrations about Kaneki. In this story, I’d say the Kirishimas are probably the most reliable of narrators. :D

Once again, please please do reblog if you like this! It’ll really help me out. Feel free to leave comments in the tags/ reblogs/ replies or through asks!

#tg #tokyo ghoul #ayahina #touken #fueguchi hinami #kirishima ayato #kirishima touka #kaneki ken #far writes stuff #my fic: shattered

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eloarei · 6 years

Text

WIP Game

List the things you’re excited to work on this year in as little or as much detail as you like, and then tag some friends!

Tagged by @enchantedtalisman (and again it won’t tag you. Tch. Sorry. But thanks for the tag!)

(Behind a cut, because you don’t want to read all that. ...Or maybe you do?)

In no particular order, because my level of excitement changes at the drop of a hat: 6 BNHA fics, and one each FFXV and FO4. 1700 words of synopses and babbling. (Friends who read my stuff: if you wanna skim through these and tell me which one(s) (if any) you’d most want to read, that’d be rad. =D Will it influence what I work on? Who knows? My inspiration is fickle as shit. But it couldn’t hurt.)

1. “Touch2” -- current WIP, 10k + notes. BNHA. Dekumight. Estimated total: 20k? Picking up right where “Touch” left off, this fic is a slightly more detailed/slow/slice-of-life story than its predecessor. The 10k I’ve written so far takes place over the course of only 2 days, and it’s mostly Toshi and Izuku getting to know each other, and Toshi being yelled at by his manager (an OC called Suzuki). The general plot of the story doesn’t deviate very far from canon, as far as I’ve planned. “Touch2” will probably cover at least up to the entrance exam, but I’m not entirely sure. Given that leisurely pace, there’ll probably have to be a Touch3 and 4 as well, if not even more. I’ve been slowly hacking away at this one since the start of December, just in between whatever else I might be working on. Kind of got to a point where I need to actually think about what happens next? ^^; Also, it’s gotten too long to be a one-shot, I think, but I’m going to have to be careful how I split it up. It’s not written for splitting… Well, I’ll figure it out. Just gotta keep writing first.

2. “Make the Most sequel, and side stories” -- only notes. BNHA. Dekumight. Estimated total: lots??? I’m lumping these all together, but this includes quite a few stories, some of which I have plans/notes for, some only ideas. One of the first is a fic that might be, at most, half the length of MtM, which is the events of MtM from Toshi’s POV. This was actually requested by a friend, but it was something I kind of already wanted to do, which is cool. Other side stories include perspectives from other characters, some things like dates and vacations, Izuku learning to use his powers, and some extra NSFW scenes, because why not? After all of those, I intend for there to be an ‘official sequel’, taking place towards the end of Izuku’s college run, which might function as more of an epilogue than a sequel, due to the potential lack of actual plot. Geez there is just so much potential for this series to go on in side-stories and extras and etc. I actually get a little mad at myself whenever I neglect to continue it, because it’s sort of my main, well, IP, I guess you’d say. It’s my kudos breadwinner. XD I should just do it!

3. “Loveless epilogue” -- only notes. BNHA. Dekumight. Estimated total: 7k? A short...er sequel/epilogue, taking place roughly a year (I might change that) after the main story, revolving (spoiler alert) around Toshi figuring out if/when/how to propose to Izuku, and summing up how things have gone in the past year. Mushy because I love marriage, okay guys, I just love it so much, and also a little bit morbid because of an in-universe tradition that could be considered either romantic or creepy, depending on your views. =D I actually ought to write this one like… immediately, while the main fic is still fresh in my mind. It’s extremely self-indulgent, maybe more than just, y’know, my normal writing. But I think at least some of the people who read LOVELESS will like it. ^^ And I will, I think. And that’s all that really matters, right?! *shakes head ‘no’*

4. “Waste” -- current WIP, 1k + notes. BNHA. Dekumight(-ish?), and Deku+friends. Estimated total: 15k???? No. Probably more. A Fallout fusion. Vault 211 (21-1 or twenty-one one) has been carefully breeding superpowers into its population for the past 200 years, but if yours doesn’t show up by your 18th birthday, prepare to be kicked out on your ass into the unforgiving wasteland. Guess who’s the newest resident of the wastes? Lucky for Izuku, he meets a frightening creature who takes to looking out for him. ‘Human’ under some description, he’s sure, this guy has radiation levels through the roof. Burly super-mutant by day, gangly rotting ghoul by night, he doesn’t exactly have a lot of friends, but boy is he good at surviving in the hellscape that the world has become. I freaking love Fallout a whole lot, and look, Toshi/All Might is so very much a ghoul/super mutant, and vaults just give you so much free reign to give people powers and etc etc, look, it just seemed like something that would work. Not sure really how it’s going to go, but we’ll see. =]

5. “Nana/Toshi darkfic” -- only notes. BNHA. Nana/Toshi (probably NSFW) and Dekumight. Estimated total: 20k??? His mentor was beautiful, kind, strong-- perfect. He didn’t realize she was being eaten away by a dark pit in her heart. He didn’t know if leaving her alone would help it. He just wanted to be with her so badly, to please her, to make that smile real, and she lacked the fortitude to refuse him anything that would make him happy. A fic about Nana and Toshi becoming perhaps too close, and Nana struggling with depression. Following the canon timeline moderately closely, it shouldn’t be a surprise that it will include a major character death, and the fallout surrounding it. Hoo boy did the desire to write this fic just hit me like a ton of bricks a few weeks ago. This is going to be a dark, sad, uncomfortable story, most likely. And although it will end with Dekumight, the large part of the plot will still revolve around Nana/Toshi, so I’m not sure most of my normal readers will want to touch it. XD;;; I think the inspiration to write this came somewhat from the feeling that the ending to LOVELESS was not nearly as dark as it could have been, haha. Every so often I just want to challenge myself and see how many boundaries I can push. ^^;

6. “Feed” -- only notes. BNHA. Dekumight. Estimated total: 15k? In a world ruled by a vampiric shadow known as All for One, Izuku’s group has been trying to find ways to fight him. Nearly everyone is of this man’s blood now, since he started handing out powers to gain followers. But it’s said that an artifact of some sort exists still which can give the power to defeat him. Izuku, with the purest blood of his group, is chosen to seek it out. But the artifact is a vampire, the last of AfO’s first ‘children’, frozen and starving after failing to defeat his ‘father’, and Izuku almost doesn’t survive the encounter. I want to write this fic, and I think I should do it while it’s still cold and gloomy, because that’s the feel of the setting, but if I get distracted and don’t get around to it, I probably won’t be too upset.

7. “Parents AU” -- current WIP, 6k + notes. FFXV. Gladnis + Ignis&Noctis. Estimated total: 40k? Teenage Ignis and Gladio happen to be babysitting the toddler prince when the Empire attacks, and in the chaos they manage to get safely mixed into the crowd of civilians fleeing the city. They decide to treat him as their own until they can be sure it’s safe to return him to someone with more seniority. But will it ever be safe? Fifteen years in hiding says no, and even when Noct is old enough to be asked to save the world, there’s no way in hell his parents are going to let him go it alone. I tried to continue writing this the other day and it was terrible. Painful. I almost cried. Literally every word of the 30 or so I managed before I gave up were the hardest things I’ve ever written. I think if I go back and play the game again (which I’d like to, since there’ve been updates and DLC), I think it will be easier. Honestly though, this is one of my favorite things I’ve yet written, so if I don’t see it to fruition, I will be moderately pissed.

8. “Same Heart” -- current WIP, 30k + notes. FO4. Estimated total: 90k (35k for act 1) The great synth detective Nick Valentine is recaptured by the Institute, remade and reset. He awakes to his new life underground, unaware that he ever roamed the wasteland-- except for the rare moments when they plug in his old memories so they can grill him for info. Though the memories are gone again after every session, they leave an aftertaste of distrust for the people he’s working with, until it’s too much to ignore. Meanwhile, he finds himself as the only person who seems to truly care about the little boy they’re all calling their savior, doing his best to help him grow up with some modicum of love in this sterile environment. When Nick finally decides to break out of their fancy little prison, it’s not a question whether he’ll take Shaun with him, and it’s obvious where they’ll go: to find the parents the Institute stole him from. This one haunts me, because I spent like 3 months doing practically nothing but writing this last year. I got almost, almost all the way through the first act (out of 3), and then… stopped. Now I know it’s going to be impossible to get back into. And this is already a very different story for me, because it’s essentially a gen fic. The intention is for acts 2 and 3 to focus on Nick and the ‘sole survivor’ Nora, but the whole first act is about him half-raising her son, Shaun. I really want to finish this, or geez, at least the first act! Because it is painful having 30k sitting around that nobody has ever seen. And it’s pretty decent! But even though I have 6 chapters done, I don’t want to start posting it until it has a halfway decent ‘conclusion’, so I need to finish the act. I have to.

And I’ll tag… uh… @oldseablues, @braincoins, @thenightisdarkandfullofbooty, @orionskingdom, @animeuzumaki7, @blessedblooduniverse, @rangrids, and anyone else who’s reading this and is also a writer. =] Tag me back so I can see it, please! ^^

#elo talks #elo fics #tag meme

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mononohke-archive · 7 years

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Anime Roundup Pt.2 - Fall 2016 [Spoilers]

More rambling~

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable [8/10]

Another season of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure has come and gone, and it’s been quite a wild ride. Personally, I think it was about on par with the first season of JJBA. I liked it better than Stardust Crusaders because I liked the main characters better and the plot was not as much of a repetitive “monster of the week” affair, but unfortunately, it seems like they didn’t put as much effort into the animation and production values. This 39 episode season was also a full 11 episodes shorter than the two 25 episode seasons of SDC, despite the manga being slightly longer. It definitely felt a little rushed, and I’ve had my manga reader friends inform me that some of their favorite parts were cut out.

But there were a lot of things I really loved about DiU as well. Josuke quickly became my favorite Jojo after Joseph, and I like Jotaro more in this part than I ever did in SDC. The villain, Kira, is also one of my favorite characters period and so is Rohan Kishibe, played brilliantly by Takahiro Sakurai as usual. Many of the stands are hilarious and creative in this part too. I also loved the whole Scooby Doo-esque mystery of a serial killer in the town and the slice of life elements. The scale was brought down from “evil villains try to take over the world” to one serial killer who “just wants to live a normal life”... and kill women and take their hands to satisfy his compulsions, of course. It was a really refreshing change from the typical formula.

The only thing or character that I didn’t like is Koichi - partially because he gets more attention than Josuke, kind of like Polnareff in SDC (except much less likable) and partially because his voice actor, Yuki Kaji, is fucking annoying as him. Unfortunately, on top of that, he’s the character who spends most of his screen time yelling exactly what’s happening, like Polnareff and Speedwagon before him, except his voice is literally ear-splittingly irritating.

I sincerely hope that in the next part, they don’t take shortcuts like they did with this part. JJBA is one of my favorites, so I will still be waiting for it eagerly.

Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru [5/10]

I wasn’t expecting much from this anime and it still disappointed me lol. Touken Ranbu is basically a moe anime (but with a diversity in character designs that moeblobs wish they had), except the characters are male. Some of it was sort of mildly entertaining and cute, but for the most part, it was pretty boring.

... Maybe I’m just peeved because they didn’t focus that much on characters I personally find attractive, like Kogitsunemaru. You know the only reason I watched this show in the first place was because I’ve seen a ridiculous amount of yaoi for it on pixiv? The porn was nice, but I would never play the game itself, so I figured the anime would give me a little more insight into the characters and their relationships. The anime did, but it still failed at entertaining me.

So, yeah, this anime perfectly average and forgettable. Only watch if you’re super dedicated to the game.

Poco’s Udon World [9/10]

The biggest surprise of this season for me was this show. Yes, this show is my AotS (by about .2 points) over that other anime which got super popular and had a ton of praise. Well, we all go against the grain sometimes and this is my turn. Poco’s Udon World is an underrated masterpiece in my opinion. This show came off the heels of the much more popular Sweetness and Lightning, which came out the previous season. Both shows have a similar premise - a young man in his early 30s with black haired (voiced by Yuuichi Nakamura) becomes a single father due to sudden circumstances and has to take care of an adorable toddler-aged child. There are some key differences, of course, but they are still similar enough to be comparable.

Personally I think Poco’s Udon World is far superior (for reasons I will discuss), and it saddens me that it hasn’t got half the popularity of S&L. (Probably because there isn’t a cute waifu character as one of the mains, heh.) So what makes PUW so good to me? Well, besides all the cute and the incredibly heartwarming/touching nature of the show, it’s also just very well-written. The characters and their development, as well as a plethora of themes I don’t see being portrayed very often in anime or when they are brought up, are handled in ways that make me uncomfortable.

Here is just a short list of themes PUW manages to masterfully cover in a 12-episode, single cour season:

career vs family

career and family separately

fatherhood

grief and nostalgia

growing up

love

And those are just the main themes? There are other things that are covered on a more subtle level. See, I explained in my review of S&L that it was lacking an exploration of its themes and was constrained by its repetitive slice of life format. Most of the supporting characters were not very fleshed out either. PUW fixes all or most of these problems.

Every episode brings something new to the table and there is no set episode format. I also absolutely love that every character outside of Poco and Souta feels like they could be a real person, instead of being a plot device or 2-dimensional character. They all have lives outside of their interactions with the main characters, so that even when they don't get much screen time, they feel fleshed out. All of them represent a different sort of family or different sort of lifestyle or different sort of mindset, which you can easily compare to Souta's situation because they all serve as foils to him. A lot of supporting characters even get their own character development like Nakaji and Rin (Souta' sister).

And... okay, I want to analyze this show in-depth one day, but I need to rewatch it (maybe several times) before I do. Trust me, it’s cute and all, but it’s much more than that too. You might be surprised at how high it is on my Top 10 Anime of 2016 list.

Kiss Him, Not Me [7/10]

After watching two absolutely terrible otome/harem anime that really pissed me off (Uta no Prince Sama and Kamigami no Asobi), I went back on my decision to never watch an otome because this one was about a fujoshi and written by a yaoi mangaka. Somehow... it paid off. I came out of this pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this show.

Don’t get me wrong, there is still plenty that annoyed me (the fatshaming, how Serinuma’s voice changes, the shoujo cliches, etc), but overall I enjoyed it more than I disliked it. Although I was only rooting for two of the love interests, Mutsumi-senpai (who is mild mannered, friendly, genuine, liked her when she was fat) and Nishina (the gay option™, also a fujoshi and otaku who has a lot in common with Serinuma, also liked her even when she was fat), I didn’t really mind or hate the others either. All of them still treated her more respectfully than LIs in the other otome I watched.

The ending was brilliant too, and if they make a second season, I would still watch it for the characters and humor.

Yuri!!! on Ice [9/10]

How do I even begin to tackle Yuri!!! on Ice? This is the AoTS for sure (in general, not to me personally) and is by far the runaway smash hit in terms of both popularity and ratings. This anime is a game changer, to put it lightly. It did something no other popular anime has done before, and the praise is honestly well deserved. But, hey, remember that it’s still not perfect. In fact, up until the very last episode, I was debating on whether it deserved an 8 or a 9 on MAL. I settled on a 9 (a low nine by my standards) only because I cried a whole lot the last episode and realized that the overall impact of the show is bigger than my minor gripes. What are those minor gripes?

#1) Off-model/inconsistent animation. I will give a slight break to the animators because I know that animating ice skating is very complex and intricate, especially if you consider just how much ice skating there is in almost every episode. There are about a dozen ice skaters, each with two different 2-minute routines. Yes, many of them are reused multiple times, but regardless it’s still a lot of work. Unfortunately, YoI missed the chance to be stunning all the way through and join the other always-praised animation greats like Cowboy Bebop and much more recently, Mob Psycho 100. Only the first episode truly impressed me with how perfect and fluid the animation was, and I was dearly hoping that they would keep up that level of quality all the way through. Sadly they don’t, but we should all thank the writing of this show for being so damn good and making up for it. Besides, aside from a few, rather obvious off-model shots, it didn’t ever get too bad, not like Cheer Danshi!! from the Summer season.

#2) Slightly rushed pacing. Yeah, some of the events of this anime just go by too fast, especially the beginning few episodes where months pass between Victor arriving in Japan and Yuuri beginning his journey to the Grand Prix Final. It’s not really made clear to the viewers how much time has passed, and even I didn’t realize until I read a tumblr post on it. Originally, I wanted a whole other cour so that I could see the ice skaters interact more outside of work, but I think that would be too much as well. One more episode (a full 13 episode cour) would’ve been perfect, imo. Thankfully, we are getting another season, so there will definitely be more time to develop the other side characters and resolve some of the remaining threads! But seriously, I hope they do slow down a little bit in season 2.

Other than that...? Gripes so minor that they’re not even worth mentioning. The amount of good that YoI has done is overwhelming my comparison. I’ll just go through them like a list again because why not?

#1) Viktor and Yuuri’s relationship. A healthy canon gay interracial relationship in a non-yaoi anime. That is just shy of revolutionary in terms of LGBT representation in an anime. “We are born to make history”, indeed. Yes, some other anime have done it too like No.6 and Revolutionary Girl Utena. But was No.6, the other one where the main couple is M/M, popular like YoI is? Not particularly. Most of the viewership comes from yaoi fangirls or LGBT anime fans seeking an anime with a canon gay ship in it. What about Utena? Well, Utena didn’t have a happy ending, not for the canon lesbian character and not for the main F/F relationship of the show. Nothing is also explicitly stated like it is in YoI. Ofc, Utena by the very nature of the show, explicitly states very little but still. There’s also a goddamn kiss!

The best part of this is that Viktor and Yuuri is that, despite their happy ending, they don’t sacrifice depth or conflict between them and the drama doesn’t feel forced either. That balance is hard to achieve and it takes writing talent to pull it off. Every action and reaction feels natural and in-character. The writing featuring them is as good as any well-written romantic drama with a hetero couple! The other great thing is that even though Viktor and Yuuri’s relationship is incredibly important to the narrative and is the main relationship overall, romance is still not the primary genre. It equally shares genres with sports, comedy, and drama.

TL:DR; Their relationship is important. It sets a precedent that a gay couple can be the main couple of an anime and still be wildly successful. Now future manga and anime writers can take risks knowing that they won’t end up being financially compromised due the lgbtphobic culture of Japan.

2) Yuri on Ice perfectly balances its genres. This may not seem that important, but it kind of is and ties into the last point about how romance is not the main genre. If romance were the main genre, then this would be a yaoi/shounen-ai anime and it wouldn’t have gotten nearly as popular as it did. Yuuri’s evolution as an athlete and his desire to win the gold for the first time is just as important as his relationship with Viktor. Yurio, Viktor, and the other skaters’ relationships with each other and ice skating is also given a lot of attention. The love and dedication to ice skating in general is prominent and that passion has attracted the attention of countless professional ice skaters. (In fact, It’s like the anime singlehandedly brought attention to a niche sport that doesn’t get a whole lot of industry unlike American football and soccer/European football.)

There’s also a lot of comedy, which may be hit and miss for some people, but I found it pretty damn hilarious when it happens. Of all the sports anime I’ve seen, only a few others try others bringing in other genres. Most are pure sports because pure sports are usually the most successful (Haikyuu!! and Kuroko no Basket). So far for me, only YoI has successfully melded together all the genres it attempts.

3) Characters. It is said that sports anime highly depends on its characters to be good and set itself apart from other sports anime... and that’s pretty true. Most sports anime follow a rigid, predictable plot structure that doesn’t allow for much creativity on that front, so aside from technical aspects like the production values, the characters’ likability are the only things that it can rely on for originality. Of course, as I’ve already discussed, YoI blends genres and isn’t just pure sports so it has more freedom, but even it follows the same basic plot structure: main character is an underdog (they’re usually underdogs) who wants to win the finals.

So, what about the characters? Honestly, they’re fucking great. The problem with sports anime characters in most cases is that authors will fall back on tired stereotypes. Even the best of sports anime tends to have really obvious archetype characters you can recognize instantly. YoI doesn’t really have that. Yes, some of the characters do follow archetypes a litte, but even in the short amount of time they are given, they end up having miles more depth than the average sports anime character. It helps that we get to see them interacting with each other off the ice too. YoI is a character driven show much more than it is a plot-driven one. The plot is fairly simple, but the characters and their development are the most important part, particularly the main character, Yuuri Katsuki. He is relatable but also very believably talented and multifaceted. Viktor comes off as kind of a passive aggressive jerk at first, but he is one of the kindest and most caring characters in the show. Yurio comes off like an aggressive little brat (and he is still a little shit, I hope he gets more development in s2), but he’s genuinely a prodigy and he cares about Yuuri’s career. Listen, I could keep going and list another 5 characters that I like, but that’s not the point of this review.

That about covers the major things... I could go on, but then I might never shut up. To summarize, YoI is not perfect, but it is still so important for the gains in made for gay representation and besides that, it’s a rich, funny, heartwarming, and interesting portrayal of figure skating. I am sincerely looking forward to season 2 and hope that it’s just as good or even better than season 1.

#*#anime roundup #anime roundup: fall 2016 #writing*

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