#juri's rambles

[saionjeans]

ok so. miki’s sunlit garden is the literal sunlit garden where he and kozue played piano together as children. it’s the defining version of this narrative device, and in a way, it’s the most straightforward. miki is leaving the garden and entering the world of teenagers. he is scared of growing up, and he misses the effortless, uncomplicated bond he shared with his sister when they were children, before being inculcated into a world of sexual power and abuse, before his parents divorced and his beautiful nuclear family was rent asunder by real-world complications. i genuinely think every 13-ish year old goes through this grief and a desire to hold onto the past, to remain in this perfect nostalgic bubble through which you view your childhood. it’s probably the most universal and identifiable instance of the motif of the sunlit garden.

then it gets more complicated. nanami’s sunlit garden is her memories of short-haired touga, of her big brother showing her his affection, making her feel special, worthy, and loved. but unlike miki, she doesn’t miss being a part of the ideal nuclear family. for one thing, both she and touga are adopted. of course, she doesn’t actually know that, but it nonetheless problematizes the bioessentialist logic upon which the nuclear family [abuse factory] structure is predicated. secondly, it’s clear that she was always the scapegoat to touga’s golden child. which is why it’s not that she loves her sibling as an extension of her childhood nostalgia, but that her entire value system fundamentally revolves around touga, because he was the only person in her formative years who ever showed her the slightest sliver of affection. and in all her memories of him, he has short hair (like dios, like miki), because subconsciously she doesn’t even want him to be her Prince, her patriarchal savior, she wanted him to be someone who loved her because she inherently deserves love. she does treat him like her prince in the present, but that’s only because it’s how her love for him must take form in ohtori. deep down, she doesn’t want a prince, a lover, or even a brother; she wants a friend who will love her for nothing. but she has no way of expressing that, not in a world that claims true friendship is for fools. so instead she values him for their biological ties, for his status as a kiryuu, for his patriarchal role as the eldest son in their perfect nuclear family. and she refuses to acknowledge how she demeans herself in the process of worshipping him, how she’ll drown herself and cook herself and cage herself, debase herself and dehumanize herself for his illusory love. and that is what the sunlit garden means to nanami.

as for saionji, the sunlit garden also constitutes his memories with touga, of a “before” that is much more definable in the sense that there is clearly a moment where it becomes “after.” one day they are riding their bike through the rain after kendo practice, and they decide to take shelter in a church. and saionji sees touga become someone he fears and also envies. someone who wields the power to project something eternal, to inspire, to save. and he exerts his power in a subtly violent way, by transgressing invisible boundaries. saionji cannot harness that power, so he attempts to exert it clumsily, through immediate, obvious, physical forms of violence. it never quite packs the same punch as touga’s manipulation, no matter how hard he tries. but what saionji really longs for is not to possess touga’s power, but to go back to the way things were before touga decided he wanted power. touga thinks true friendship is for fools, but like nanami, all saionji wants is to be touga’s true friend. and isn’t that just tragic?

of course, that’s not all saionji wants. but his desire is complicated by the fact that he clearly also resents the sexual acts he is being put through by touga, even if in other circumstances, it could be what he wanted. juri’s situation, her sunlit garden, is similar to saionji’s in this respect. all she wants is shiori, but she doesn’t want the shiori she is being presented with. she wants the shiori from an illusory idealized past in which they were true friends, before shiori betrayed her and revealed her ugly feelings in the process. like miki with kozue, nanami and saionji with touga, utena and anthy with dios, mikage with mamiya, juri is idealizing a version of the object of her affection who never really existed. shiori’s ugly feelings were always latent. unlike miki’s sunlit garden, nanami’s flashback to touga’s party and sea of photographs, or saionji’s memories of touga tenderly wrapping his hand, juri does not even have memories of shiori that are not defined by her betrayal. yes she has shiori reaching out, holding a rose, saying “believe in miracles and they will know your heart,” but it’s an obvious fiction. juri doesn’t know shiori at all, and the shiori juri knows is not the shiori she loves. the sunlit garden is always a garden of illusion.

utena’s sunlit garden, which opens many episodes, is perhaps the most obvious example of this fact. she completely rewrote her own formative memory to better suit the dominant patriarchal narratives she was forced to adopt all her life. and you can say that akio actively tampered with her memories, but functionally speaking, that’s the same thing. even more so than the others, her sunlit garden is a palimpsest; she idealizes a past and a prince that never actually existed. sure akio and anthy exist, but her “prince” is not either of them. the locus of her will to live, that eternal thing, is a fiction. but her desire to help others in need is genuine. and that is what differentiates utena’s sunlit garden first and foremost. it is not founded on a selfish desire to cling to a perfect past of illusion, but on the selfless desire to keep moving forward in hopes of a better future. they all want to hold onto something eternal, including utena in her desire to keep her parents with her, and all of those desires are perfectly understandable and eminently sympathetic, but utena is different because that day that akio showed her anthy’s suffering, utena’s desire shifted from a memory to a telos.

mikage’s sunlit garden thus becomes a cautionary tale to all the members of the student council who wish to live in a memory, perfectly suspended, pinned in place like a butterfly on display. just as a caterpillar must become a butterfly, a child must enter the world of adults. mamiya is beautiful because he has the luxury of dying young, of being immortalized on a carousel, of never losing his innocence. mikage is what happens to people who idealize eternity through escaping into nostalgia. the world keeps moving on without them, and they become ghosts, trapped in a past that no one can recall.

so what of akio? he uses people’s sunlit gardens against them, he manipulates time and memory, feeds off nostalgia and the grief of lost childhood. he cultivates his garden to resemble golden days, and as he invites you through his gates, ensnares you. so what does that mean, when his goal, too, is to achieve eternity? above all he wants to forge a sword that will break through the closed gates and reinstate his former glory. of anyone in ohtori, he is the one most deeply entrenched in his oh so cozy coffin. for all that he knows his promises to be illusory, he also clings to that logic, he also mourns dios. he longs for his golden days despite knowing that they’re untenable, despite being well aware of the toll it took on anthy. and even fully aware of the extent of his exploitation, of the fundamental illusion of eternity, he still attempts to attain it, he still instantiates himself in a cycle on the carousel, condemned to ghosthood, a butterfly pinned in place.

finally, we must look to the absent figure, the outlier. what, or rather who, is touga’s sunlit garden? the movie tells us it is utena, that he embodied the princely role in the truest sense and that this is his deepest aspiration. but i don’t know if that’s necessarily how i read him. anthy and touga are foils, two sides of the same coin. anthy doesn’t have a “sunlit garden” per se, because she has long given up on the idea of returning to a time when she loved dios, before the swords of hatred pierced her heart. but she has a literal sunlit garden, and her role is to tend the flowers in it and never leave. she has a literal coffin, guarded carefully in the chambers of her heart. anthy knows better than to cling to an idealized past, but still, she cannot find a way to move forward. so she gets stuck in a circular present, where both past and future are illusory concepts. it is not enough to simply know that the past is gone, one must also strive for a better future. it is why utena and anthy’s promise to drink tea and laugh together in ten years is just so powerful within ohtori’s timeless walls. i’d bet anything that touga also doesn’t have an idealized past. if, again, we use the movie to inform our understanding of him, he was always aware of the abuse that pervaded his world, he was never an innocent. but instead of desiring reform, like utena, of wanting to save those suffering, he wants to be the one inflicting that suffering as much as possible. to cope, he accepts his abuse as a necessary consequence of existence, and assumes that anyone capable of abusing him is simply more powerful, and thus deserves to exert their power over him, just as he deserves to exert his power over those less powerful than he is. so like anthy, he doesn’t have a sunlit garden, but he has a coffin, and a garden, and a carousel. and like anthy, he must choose for himself whether he wishes to remain a complicit victim, or to leave his cozy coffin and find a way to move forward. and that, only time can tell.

#analysis #manalysis #u #UMM. THIS POST WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ONE PARAGRAPH????? OOPS #it’s 2 am now. fuck #the sunlit garden #miki #nanami #touga #saionji #utena #anthy #akio #mikage #juri #shiori #mamiya #dios #this was just me rambling as a way to organize my thoughts #it’s incredibly stream of consciousness #i am in no way trying to make an argument here im just trying to like. parse my thoughts on the sunlit garden #(the land of illusion….. anyone else hongloumeng pilled.?) #long post

[cottoncandysprite]

The most fascinating part of wwdits is that they somehow managed to make every single member of the main cast a different flavor of tumblr sexyman

#yes this includes Nadja #jurys still out on Colin Robinson but im sure someones into it #wwdits #what we do in the shadows #guillermo de la cruz #nandor the relentless #laszlo cravensworth #nadja of antipaxos #ramblies

[abysmal-eve]

My favourite problematic bisexuals 🩷💜💙

#jin kazama #kazuya mishima #devil jin #ogata hyakunosuke #juri han #vega #askeladd #canute #tekken #golden kamuy #street fighter #vinland saga #eve rambles #i love my problematic bi kings (and queen) so much <3

[niccichi]

Everything We Know About Jamie (so far)

Recently some developers for SF6 revealed a bit of Jamie's backstory at an event, and since he's my babygirl I decided to compile everything that's confirmed to make it easier to reference! I tried to pull everything from the game (World Tour, official descriptions), developer tweets and summaries from events like these. Most of these were in Japanese though, and since idk Japanese I had to Google Translate, so please take these with a grain of salt!

Putting everything under the cut because it's long and I don't wanna clog up dashes 🍶

He’s 2 years younger than Luke. Luke’s in his late 20s.

While Luke loves fighting for the sake of fighting, Jamie takes his relationship with his opponent into consideration. He reserves some techniques (like the finger snap) for a few opponents.

Jamie’s dad is a rich businessman and his mom is his dad’s mistress. His father’s wife passed away for unknown reasons. He hates his dad but loves his mom as they both went through a lot of hardships together (not sure how correct this is considering in WT he says he rarely sees her and doesn't know anything about her besides the fact that she's pretty).

Jamie's mom is a former actress.

He was born in Shanghai, but moved with his dad to Hong Kong to live with his mom.

He knows how to play the trumpet and learned it when he was a kid. The taunt he does where he sings his theme song and pretends to play the trumpet actually has the right finger placements.

He values his friends highly, always considering them first before himself.

He finds it hard to open up with people he likes, but he has no problems being honest with people he doesn’t like.

He moved to the US with his parents in high school due to his father’s work.

He hates lectures and arrogant people.

He loves his grandmother, Yun, and Yang.

He lived with his grandmother for a little bit in China, in the middle of nowhere. His parents sent him to live there when they got tired of his reckless behavior. He says that she was the one who taught him "how to fight" and "how to live." It's unknown how old he was when he lived with her.

Yun and Yang saved his life when he was in middle school after he got beat up by a gang member and was about to be killed for refusing to join their gang. He's admired them since and considers them his bros. He hasn't seen them in recent years though.

His favorite food is cloud noodles. He loves spicy foods and candy too.

He doesn't like carbonated drinks and he doesn't like any foods with raw fish because he can't stand the smell.

He's ambidextrous.

#jamie siu #street fighter 6 #nic rambles #he has so much backstory and yet in game #he's just messin around in chinatown doin his own thing #meanwhile luke kimberly and juri are getting involved with shadaloo stuff #i hope capcom does more with him #will update if there's more #might do one of these for luke too

[sy-fri]

Listen I simply do not see it. I’ve never seen this man before. I am blind. Kwite recorded that whole thing and then had an ai man on screen. I am blind. I’ve never seen that man before. Kwite’s face is literally a mask and glasses that’s who he is. I’ve never seen this man before in my life.

#kwite #pluto rambles #listen……. it’s always good to be neutral before things are figured out #ouch. sorry man. sorry my guy #like geez. #everyone believes they are judge jury and executioner except without the judge and jury part #maybe sit and have some critical thinking skills for a while okay #okay

[aingeal98]

Having Bruce and Cass and the Robins thoughts and they're a bit messy and jumbled so bear with me.

Idk how to explain why the Bruce and Cass messed up but loving dynamic is so much more appealing to me than his toxic relationship with his other kids but I guess it's because the entirety of Batgirl 2000 understands that Bruce is not a perfect parent. His flaws and virtues are both deliberately and carefully written and his relationship with Cass is so layered and it makes it so that I can both laugh and cringe, appreciate the sweet moments and rage at some of his more shitty moves. It's not perfect but overall the writing is just GOOD, and there's enough material to form a solid core of understanding even when their dynamic grows past Cass's solo run. This is Cass and Bruce and this is how they tick and no writer has been able to thoroughly screw that up no matter how hard some of them were pushed to by editorial.

Compare that to how he's written with his other kids, where every writer has their own version and some have him be a perfect dad and others have him be shitty and frame it as "He's got this darkness in him" while another group of writers have him absolutely brutalise his kids or neglect them or gaslight them for angst all while knowing the kids will never receive any sort of narrative justice for this because he's Batman and he's the big flagship hero. There is no single run you can point to and say yes this here showcases the heart of the dynamic between him and Tim or him and Damian, no single run so good that all other comics about their dynamic use it as their basis for this bond between father and child. There is no consistency and no communication or understanding between writers or even an attempt to pick up what the other puts down. Batman comics will have him be a good parent or a bad parent but either way it will be all about Him. Batfamily comics tend to have him just be absolutely awful and then a few months later they have to pretend it never happened because the main bat books want to make him a good parent again.

It's all shock value that rarely lasts past the arc and writer. When Tom Taylor has Dick hug Bruce and call him dad I'm remembering that time Bruce beat him into a bloody pulp or backhanded him across the face and Dick never got to call him out on it. But we're not meant to be thinking about that in Taylor's run because this is a Good Dad Bruce comic. Taylor's Bruce and Dick dynamic is completely different to the New 52 dynamic the same way that dynamic is different to Wolfman's which is different to the original Batman and Robin. And that variety can be a great thing when it comes to comics but the downside here is that you can pick Bruce's "good dad" comics or you can pick his abusive asshole comics but you cannot find the middle ground that Batgirl 2000 hit because (controversial opinion I guess) it doesn't exist for the batboys and no writer has successfully managed to pull all the different comics together and create one.

Fans have tried. Fans have pieced together a decent narrative from the mess of inconsistencies, taking the moments of almost cartoonish abuse and the moments where Bruce is shown to care, and forming the image of a complicated and nuanced abusive parent from it all. But the great thing about Batgirl 2000 is you don't have to do all that effort of trying to make the happy fluffy hero batman and the edgy punches his sons Batman fit into one character. The writing does it and does it in a more realistic fashion too, which is saying something considering the big Bruce and Cass emotional fight is solved by Bruce letting them both get drugged and fight bloodlusted. I do think there are moments when it hypes Bruce's bad parenting up a tiny bit but compared to the absolute mess that is the writing of say, Bruce and Jason? It's just so much easier to actually engage with. Being on the same page as a narrative instead of chafing against it is just a much better way for me to read comics.

That's not to say there isn't any kind of narrative and canon dynamic for Bruce and the Robins. Tim's Robin run, Dick's various runs, UTRH, Batman and Robin etc. Just that for me none of them hit that balance Cass and Bruce's dynamic succeeded in hitting during Batgirl 2000. And to be fair it's harder to hit that balance when you're working with characters who have been through the hands of so many different authors before landing on your doorstop. UTRH probably comes closest but unfortunately everything that came after that did manage to shake the emotional foundation utrh set up to the point you can look back on it and wonder if Bruce cared about Jason much at all, despite the writer clearly not wanting it to be seen that way.

Not sure how much sense this makes but to me it's the difference between a bad parent Bruce I am actually interested in engaging with and a bad parent Bruce where I just want the kids to team up and knock his teeth out.

#dc #cassandra cain #batfam #bruce wayne #dc rambles #This is a very long and very rambley ramble. Sorry if you've made it to the end and are confused #I'm not sure if I had a point or if I was just thinking aloud #And I'm sure others will disagree with me here #But this was mostly me trying to tease through why I can accept comics making Bruce a good dad to Cass #And enjoy it fully. Whereas with the Robin boys I'm like hmm OK #but are you going to address any of the messed up stuff he put them through just last month #“he cares and he's not good at it but he's trying (but jury's still out on how successful his attempts are) " #Vs “he cares and he's good at it PYSCH he needs to be locked up on child abuse charges! Wait jk! it's batman he's a hero don't worry.”

[iveneverbeenmorestressedinmylife]

Obsessed with like the three people ive seen who pull the "why are you hating on a woc" card on loreen like. I cannot express to you how non-personal this whole thing is. People don't hate on her because she is loreen, they just rightfully hate everything she stood for this year (unjust jury votes, undeserving wins, beige boring songs, the entire country of sweden).

#eurovision #like people have the right to complain babe. the voting this year was a mess and the jury has been hated for years. #like ive never really been a fan of hers #but its honestly concerning how badly this whole PR nightmare has fucked her over too #like sure first woman to ever win Eurovision twice yeah but at what fucking cost. #still should people spam her Instagram with hate comments? abso fucking lutely not #should they dislike the winners performance esc video on yt and leave commenst complaining there? hell yeah brother. #maybe we will get to see some actual change this way. #maybe then people who give their money to vote for this whole thing wont feel like they are getting scammed next year. #Al's ramblings #anyway this has been my two cents on the matter. #can you imagine what would have happened in2021 if gjons tears or however his name is spelled had won against måneskin because of the jury? #people would have rightfully rioted. #like this is hardly a new sentiment.

[juriyuna]

Juri maintaining a successful career as an auto mechanic in the Kimochi world is good for a lot of reasons, but one aspect of it that I really love is that it lets Juri know that she's not stupid or broken; school just wasn't the right environment for her.

She thrives when given jobs that keep her physically active with something she enjoys, where she always has new and different things to do. Working in auto repairs and customization suits her needs like a glove: She gets to do a bunch of fun stuff with cars and bikes (a subject she finds engaging), and the tasks she has to do vary from day to day, which means she won't get bored. It lets her burn off energy by keeping both her hands and her mind busy, making it a perfect fit with her personal magic as well!

That's a huge change from a classroom setting, where she had to sit still and listen and do the exact same things all week long. Add in the stress of trying to study with attention span difficulties, anxiety about forgetting important homework, and the risk of getting expelled if she fails too many classes, and it's no wonder that Juri is so prone to outbursts. The school system is constantly drilling into her (both directly and indirectly) how shameful and abnormal her mental illness is-- and by extension, how much of a failure she is. I'm not surprised she was convinced that she was never gonna amount to anything. :(

But school isn't the be-all-end-all, and I feel like getting to see that is part of why Juri has an easier time controlling her temper after she wakes up from the Kimochi dream. She got to find a career that lets her channel her boundless energy in a productive way-- and better yet, people appreciate it! She's just here doin' her thing as usual, and her clients reward her with praise and the occasional thank-you present for a job well done (rimshot). Quite the shift from getting constantly chewed out by teachers and classmates alike.

Figuring out that she's not innately destructive; just understimulated, and that a brighter future could be lying ahead of her... That must've been a huge weight off of Juri's shoulders. The Kimochi world may not have been "real", but I'm so glad that she got to experience it.

#late-night ramble go!! #magia record #ooba juri #i mean i guess she could've just gone to therapy to learn some of this stuff too #but the kimochi world also helped ao and yuna and hikaru #and showed juri firsthand that she can grow up and be happy with friends and family who love her #so it's like. Advanced Group Therapy #random side note: i bet juri would love stupid car mods

[hikayunas]

something i've always liked the thought of is yuna's lightning abilities sometimes manifesting depending on how poor her mood is when she's transformed, getting more intense as her mood gets worse.

if she feels fine, or is otherwise content or happy, she's unaffected. if she's just a bit grumbly, she might occasionally buzz with electricity, barely flickering about her if you look close enough. may or may not shock you when you touch her if she's in a sour enough mood -- like static electricity would.

but if she's really pissed off, or maybe in a fight, she's crackling with it, an aura of lightning flaring to life around her, audibly crackling and popping. best advised to approach with caution, or maybe with a lightning rod.

#magia record #kureha yuna #rambles #i like the mental image of yuna pursuing another magical girl when it's night and pitch black out #and yuna's location can only be pinpointed by the occasional flicker of lightning illuminating her #as she steadily gets closer and closer #like a more terrifying version of turning your light on/off and your cat getting closer each time #alternatively; juri tries to pat yuna on the back when yuna's in a sour mood and gets zapped #yuna mood-lightning is very versatile #that's all i have for now i think. if you've read this far have a wonderful day / evening

[zavbees]

The Jury of Nine Headcannons

The Jury of Nine was formed to be the judgment of Lady Irene when she walked this plane. She could not go anywhere without people forcing her hand to give them time. In order to protect the one he was sworn to guard, Xavier got a group of people with magical abilities to band together. This group passed judgement on those who wished to approach her, allowing only those who were pure of heart and free of corruption.

Irene disappeared from the mortal realm as tensions between her and the other Divine Warriors began growing, but the Jury of Nine stayed in prominence within O'khasis. This began the rise in importance of the Church of the Faith of Lady Irene within the city. The group took only the best guards in the city, and they were regarded with high status, just below the royal family.

As time passed, O'khasis began growing more and more powerful and corrupt. As the city expanded, relatives of current Jurors were allowed to become one of the Nine, replacing their family member once they aged out. This, as well as the royal lineage being just that, a lineage, created a new form of elite within the city.

The Jury and the Modern City

Within O'khasis, the three areas of importance are the Royal Family, the Jury of Nine, and the Church of the Faith of Lady Irene. The faces of each area are treated as almost celebrities within the city: the standing royalty, the current jurors, and the High Priest.

The Jury often are the first to hear about potential hazards to the city, as they take great interest in the state of the guards. They are also usually the first line of defense for the city, sent out to deal with foreign threats, and, at the Kings approval, maintain treaties with outside forces.

The amount each Juror, also called Knight, involves themselves with the people of O'khasis is up to them. Some make frequent patrols around the city in order to boost the moral of the civilians and keep an eye on the ground. Others see patrols as the duty of the guards, choosing instead to stay within the Capital. Regardless, whenever a Juror is seen outside the Capital, it is often viewed as a big deal.

As time has passed, the divine context of the Jury has been lost, instead just being an elite sect of the guard.

Requirements of the Jury

The Jury of Nine has specific criteria for people to be allowed in. Firstly, the youngest a member can be is 18, with the oldest being 35. If a Juror makes it to 35, they are given a farewell celebration throughout the city.

When going through the initial stages of becoming a Juror, the person chosen must cut all ties with the outside world for the first few months, only being around the rest of the Jury or those important in the city. This means, often, they are kept within the Capital until they fully transition. This period is used to train them, both mentally and physically. This is also when they are given the magical abilities often possessed by the Jury of Nine.

That being said, Jurors can still have families outside of this period; once they are fully trained, they are free to make personal relationships as they see fit. Many do not, but there are some who do.

In order to replenish the Jury as members die and/or age out, there are two methods used to find replacements. Either the top performing guards within the age bracket are picked by the First Knight, or Jurors can specifically claim an heir to inherit their title and place within the Jury. The first category is the most common, as the Jury tend to be slightly removed from the rest of the City. However, the second way is still used.

If a Juror is to claim an heir, the person chosen must be within the age range, be trained as if they were to be a guard, and be a family member of the Juror claiming them. Heirs tend to be the children of Jurors, being raised to take their parents place. This can apply to siblings or cousins as well. This method makes it so bloodlines can keep the title the Juror had, essentially giving importance to that bloodline as a whole and making them minor celebrities within the city (ex: Golden Heart being passed down from generation to generation). That was not the intended purpose of the claiming of heirs, but that is how the city progressed. Inherited titles often don't change, but each Juror has the choice to change it if they wish.

If a Juror proves to be difficult, untrustworthy, or a traitor, the First Knight can choose to force them out of the Jury. Depending on the situation, the Juror could be treated as if they aged out with no further consequences, or exiled, or sentenced to death.

If a Juror is forced out or ages out, the magical abilities they were granted during their training period get essentially taken from them by the First Knight. If aged out, this is seen as a bittersweet event, usually with a citywide celebration. If forced out, it is a private affair, with public only find out about the Juror being removed once someone new replaces them.

Titles in the Jury of Nine

There are, as the name suggests, nine Jurors at a time. If one leaves, another one is sworn in. Each member is given a title: (number) Knight, (first name), the (title of choice). Often the title of choice is tied to either their weapon or their character, such as the Venom Blade or the Silver Death.

If an heir is sworn into the Jury, it is looked down upon to change the title, as it is seen as disrespectful against the previous Juror and their legacy.

Roles in the Jury

The First Knight is the one in charge of the Jury; they become first either by appointment of the King, or the Second moves up once the current First is removed for whatever reason.

The Second Knight is the second in command. Often, this means that while the First is holding an audience with the King, the Second is keeping tabs on the rest of the Jury.

The Third Knight, Fourth Knight, and Fifth Knight often are lumped together as veterans within the Jury, as the only way to get into those positions is to be there long enough to move from Ninth to where they are, meaning they worked their way through the ranks. It is rare for four members of the Jury to be removed at once, so it tends to be difficult for newer Jurors to find their way within these slots. They are often called the Upper Four.

The Sixth Knight, Seventh Knight, and Eight Knight are often seen as the newbies. They don't usually have as much say, yet tend to be more personable with the public. They are usually the ones who are seen patrolling in order to gain the favor of the civilians of O'khasis. They, including the Ninth, are referred to as the Lower Four.

The Ninth Knight is seen as the hardest rank to endure, as it is the one with the most to prove. Often, even if they are out of their training period, the Ninth Knight is secluded from personal relationships, since they tend to be treated as the errand boy of the Jury. They are the ones who initiate the official meetings of the Jury, they are the ones who keep the logs, they are the ones sent to deliver messages.

Current Jurors

The First Knight, Zane Ro'Meave, The White Chalice

The standing prince has managed to surpass many within the citys history, being the youngest to take the role of First Knight as well as High Priest. As of the start of the story, Zane has been the First Knight for a year. The High Priest being the First Knight is not unheard of, but Zane changed what people thought were possible once the heir to the throne gained control of the church and Jury. He is a studious and serious man, and often keeps to the Capital and out of the public eye. At least, the First Knight keeps out of the public eye. The Prince is a different story.

The Second Knight, Ivan Maddock, The Venom Blade

The Second Knight has been in the Jury for a few years, watching people come and go. The warlock is not seen often, but when he is, he makes an entrance. He is probably the most whispered about Juror around the city for being mysterious and devilish, which he often plays into. Not much is known about the man, only that he is not from O'khasis and is usually seen at the right hand of Zane, regardless of who the young Ro'Meave is appearing as.

The Third Knight, Jeffory Laurent, The Golden Heart

Jeffory is by far the most personable in the Upper Four. He is constantly seen throughout the city helping in local events or just shopping. He always takes the time needed to help those he can. A smile is always present on his face.

The Fourth Knight, Janus Othniel, The Silver Death

The Fourth, Janus, is the oldest current Knight on the Jury. He also has been there the longest. Despite this, he refuses to move above the position of Fourth, purely because of his title being the Silver Death. He is seen as the most physically intimidating of the nine, often being the muscle. Within the city, he is said to be the loose cannon, the one most likely to get into a bar fight. Despite that, he is honored throughout O'khasis.

The Fifth Knight, Katelyn Ralston, The Fire Fist

The Fifth Knight is often viewed as the level headed one in the Upper Four. She is the straight laced logical one within the band of heart, mystery, and ego. She is sometimes seen outside the Capital as either a bodyguard or with the Third Knight. Whenever she is seen, she is blunt but relatively pleasant.

The Sixth Knight, Zero Rivera, The Bronze Dagger

Zero was chosen to be the Sixth Knight despite him being relatively unremarkable within the Guard. It is rumored he was chosen by the First and Second because of his knack for following orders. He is a monotonous man, emotions never seeming to phase him. He is, by far, the most disliked Juror, purely for the fact that he tends to weird people out with his lack of emotions. He is the only one in the Lower Four to almost never be seen out of the Capital, only ever out with another Juror.

The Seventh Knight, Ruby Hightower, The Crimson Hammer

Ruby, the Seventh, is often viewed as the Fire Fist of the Lower Four. She brings the fire of Janus but the logicality of Katelyn, allowing her to be seen as the glue of the relatively reserved batch of the current Lower Four. She makes patrols around the city, usually being seen helping the poorer side of the city.

The Eighth Knight, Lilian Sterling, The Silver Scythe

The second newest Knight is thought to be the visual of the Lower Four. The people see her as spunky, usually with an attitude but with the looks for people to excuse it. She is the second favored within the Lower Four by the public. She is often seen at events to participate and host.

The Ninth Knight, Clas Lynn, The Iron Shield

The current Ninth Knight is by far the most popular Juror in the Lower Four. He is almost always seen around the city, making sure he gains the peoples trust with his charming smile and friendly disposition. Clas was a hot topic when he first was sworn in, as he was the son of Ivy the Venom Scythe yet chose to change the title he inherited. However, the people have mostly forgotten this.

Thanks for reading!

That's basically it for now! I may do more regarding them, but for rn this is the majority of how the Jury works in my head. If anyone has questions or anything, I will happily answer!

#wow thats a lot #dont mind my rambling #the brainrot is real #and strong #but boy did i enjoy this #Jury of Nine #aphmau #minecraft diaries #aphmau mcd #yes i just spent essentially two hours writing this #no i dont regret it #have fun with this #wow i seriously rambled a LOT in this #expect more like this #this is how i worldbuild ig #ZSpeaks #Diaries #ZSpeaksDiaries #ZPresents[FtLB]

[saionjeans]

actually why wait let’s talk about shiori and mikage now. let’s talk about how shiori and kozue both use their sexuality to hurt the object of their affection/obsession who they put on a pedestal and feel like they will never live up to due to their sheer (quote-unquote) “perfection.” let’s talk about how they would both be touga if only they had the right tools and the right body. let’s talk about how shiori and ruka are two of the only characters to actually explicitly have sex that is depicted sans obfuscation or metaphor and yet their entire relationship is a performance built on a mutually agreed upon lie. let’s talk about mikage and miki and what it means to be considered a genius. let’s talk about the alienation and the entitlement of the male ego and his superior intellect. let’s talk about mikage and mamiya and the notion of eternity as directly opposed to corporeality and disability politics. let’s talk about illness as metaphor. let’s talk about metaphor as illness. let’s talk about the divide between the mind and the body as the divide between a nostalgic idealized vision of the past and the intolerable present and even perhaps the unimaginable future. let’s talk about the act of imagining a future as a radical act of hope and resistance and mikage and utena as opposing paths displaying themselves before the one singular being. let’s talk about what it means to try to bury an institution in flames and then deny that the violence was done by your hand. let’s talk about tokiko and the passage of time. let’s talk about loneliness.

#u #mikage #shiori #kozue #ruka #tokiko #mamiya #utena #miki #juri #touga #analysis #manalysis #except not really. this is just stream of consciousness rambling #but that’s ok i think

[todayisafridaynight]

OH OH OH OH OH FULL NAME FULL NAME AKANE KISHIDA

I figured she was the one to get in touch first based on Jo knowing she wanted to see her son, but I have SO many questions about that... how does she know her son survived... how does she know Ichiban was her son and not Aoki... how does she know who Jo is and how to contact Jo... (<- tearing my hair out as we speak)

Anyway when you have the opportunity please view the gameplay footage...

obsessed how its addressed to Mr. Jo Sawashiro i dont know why that detail tickles me... thats cute..

chicken-and-egg kinda deal with Who Contacted Who first. like id ASSUME sawashiro'd get in contact with her first if he was feeling guilty enough about The Whole Situation and was willing to dig into arakawa's past imo, esp since akane wouldn't have any reason (or ability to) know who he was until after he joins the yakuza.. and i mean.. shes long gone by then.. tho that's assuming they got in contact early on and they didnt JUST start communicating within the past few years.

BUT EITHER WAY just gotta wait and see for it all to play out.. in three months <- still cant believe its coming out january 26th 👁️💋👁️

IM OBSESSED WITH THE GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE im soooo glad i was right in how they were going to handle the style change aspect (though i guess it wasnt a hard thing to predict but still..). I LOVE HOW KIRYU CAN ACTUALLY ROAM FREE THAT'S SO COOL i remember people kept speculating on how the gameplay was gonna go with how different ichi and kiryu's playstyles are and this is SUUCH a rad way to answer that question. my excitement is immeasurable and im gonna throw up

#snap chats #lest i neglect chitose's fighting style looks SICK. the neck stomp did remind me of juri han sorry im sick in the head EITHER WAY #the ballet skills... explains why she seems so skinny tbh. like maybe im delusional but i feel like her model is Extra slim yk #i hope im right... oh but speaking of diversity i love how they got people speaking english #Typical Westerner Answer Is Typical IM JUST SAYING its a nice immersion aspect. also im nosy let me eavesdrop #-5 points on the immersion aspect for the fact katy didnt immediately apologize after ichi bumps into her #any american would start profusely apologizing excuse you. BUT SPEAKING OF MOVEMENT #maybe its too early to make this assessment but i like how more concise ichi's walking is #back in Y7 one issue i had was just how.. not 'slippery' he was but it certainly felt like his shoes didnt have any traction #but now he seems to walk more precisely. hope im right.... #crazy eats looks so fun... they have no idea who theyre playin with when my dumbass has all these tony hawk and jet set radio hours #im rambling on too much i still have to answer your other ask LMAO thank you for writin in an sendin the gameplay demo :]

[msviolacea]

It's funny, March 15th is not only Tumblr's favorite holiday, it was also my dad's birthday, and since he died I can't for the life of me figure out if my whole dash being full of stabbing memes helps or hurts.

Anyway. Happy 81st, Dad. I still don't know what I believe about the afterlife, but I hope you found Mom and Susan wherever you are.

#jaime rambles #seriously i have no idea whether the flood of stabbing and salad dressing makes me feel better or not #jury's still out

[tekkenenjoyerblue]

Downloading SFIV for research purposes, also to have another fighting game I suck ass at playing <3

#rambling #the animated cutscenes are so neat i wish sfv and sf6 kept doing that #instead of the still images #but yeah i understand it’s expensive to animate like that #still looks so cool.. #i don’t really hear many people talk about sfiv #fun fact for the longest time i thought juri first debuted in sfv 💀

[asukiess]

who is gonna make the adrigaminette of this pic. huh. a girl is starving.

#yes with all the truth that juri was in love with shiori and not the dude #asukies ramble #utena posting

[thousandbuns]

Oh yeah baby, it’s time for the unhinged, unscheduled and unstructured Ylthin rambles, today’s topic: loose thoughts on the overall structure of “Horus Rising” (based on my increasingly more faded memories so forgive me for any inaccuracies) and how it contrasts the first few chapters of “Flight of the Eisenstein”.

*cough*

So, in no particular order, and jumping around subjects a bit...

Remembrancers. I know you probably don’t care about them because they’re either annoying, forgettable, blatant writer self-inserts so that Graham McNeill can ogle some fictional women, or have the misfortune of competing for attention with Astartes and Primarchs, but... they are so goddamn important to the story structure, characterization and theming in “Horus Rising”. They are sheltered civilians and bohema-roleplayers fed mountains of propaganda before getting shipped off to create more propaganda about “our brave boys”... and they get reality-checked on multiple levels.

They expect glorious, refined, “peak of humanity” warriors - they get barracks filled with what’s at best scaled-up teenagers, and at worst actively hostile war machines. The Astartes typically dismiss them, avoid them, treat them as a nuisance - which is why someone like Mersadie or Ignace having direct access to Garviel Loken is such a big deal for both sides. They get to talk to a company Captain and Mournival member - and he doesn’t shun them. He’s actually a little sympathetic to them even if he doesn’t quite understand them. That sets him up to be a “good guy” type - an image that is then viciously (and forgive me for using a word so abused it’s lost all meaning) subverted, because...

Whisperheads. The Remembrancers perhaps expect the scattered strands of humanity to kneel before the majesty of the Great Crusade, then rise into a glorious new future - and then they see the reality of ruined cities filled with hostile locals and keeps lined up with mangled bodies. And remember - Luna Wolves don’t particularly revel in violence, they specialize in fast, precise assaults to decapitate the enemy. The action at Whisperheads isn’t a malicious slaughter. It’s an execution, a burst of gruesome yet detached violence, and its aftermath shocks the Remembrancers even before the supernatural gets involved. It has what may be one of my favourite moments in 40K novels - Loken calmly, yet callously dismissing a grievously injured soldier’s pleas for spiritual solace by calling them “superstition”, then mercy-killing him through a decapitation. This is our “hero”. This is a man we’ve seen cheering and fraternizing with his battle-brothers like a middle-school kid. This is a man considered to be a good leader, respected and liked by his men. This is one of the kinder, more mortal-friendly Astartes.

And then there are the others. Abaddon, who can be choleric and brash, but not a blood-addled fool or a sadist, whom we see frolicking with the rest of the Mournival and trying to ease Loken after the Whisperheads - who then gets into a vicious argument with his own Primarch, to the point of driving usually calm and fatherly Horus to throw his wine glass, command him out of the room, threaten demotion and only consider showing mercy if his First Captain comes back groveling and begging for it. All of it over Horus’ refusal to conduct a direct military action against the Interex clashing with Abaddon’s warmongering attitude and disdain for the “deviant” civilization. Torgaddon, the king of witty retorts and master of dad jokes, an “older friend” type to Loken - and yet you don’t see him fraternizing with the Remembrancers. Wish I could say something more about Aximand - but his silence and general withdrawal is also somewhat telling. You see their human side, yet they stay away from mortal humans and keep to their insular little coven of warrior-brothers instead.

“Horus Rising” succeeds at making its Astartes human-yet-dehumanized by having them interact with - or avoid - mortals, and all of it plays into the further themes - the intended nuance and tragedy across the loyalist-traitor divide. The doubt over the veracity of Imperium’s stated goal. The insidious nature of propaganda, the inherently repressive nature of this authoritarian state. The fallen idol of gold we see in 42nd millennium was standing on feet of clay from the very beginning, and the book isn’t subtle about it. Doesn’t have to be - nuance and subtlety aren’t inseparable - and shouldn’t be because the 40K fanbase is full of people like me, who need to be whacked over the head to understand something, and also people who wouldn’t get the memo even if it gave them a wedgie and stole their lunch money, like some of BL’s own writers.

I’ll spare you the extended screaming match over “False Gods” killing all nuance, assassinating half the cast (for now figuratively) and taking a massive step towards an oversimplified “good Imperium vs. evil Chaos” storyline that misses the entire goddamn point and actively makes the whole series less entertaining. I’ll also fast-forward over “Galaxy in Flames” struggling to pick up the pieces as it has to rush forward and cover a major event without having the same amount of time and word count to flesh out some of the key players in it, and deepening or firmly rooting in the problems of the previous two books as a result. We’re now at “Flight of the Eisenstein” scrambling to flesh out Death Guard the way “Horus Rising” fleshed out Luna Wolves.

And I’m just 4 chapters in, about 70 pages out of 280-ish (discounting all the superfluous marketing/publisher crap inflating the pagecount of BL novels). Things could change. I could be wrong and full of shit, and I’ll be the first to admit it if the novel somehow corrects itself on the problems I have with it right now: namely that everything is once again so goddamn flat and simplified.

Remember the nuance with which both halves of the Mournival were written? Fuck that. Grulgor is a brash dick with no redeeming qualities, Garro is a saint of a man and Typhon is Erebus Mini. Remember how the Remembrancers served to highlight that even the kindest Astartes is still a cold, uncaring war machine at the core? Fuck that, so far the only mortal character - Garro’s housecarl - is here to show you that Grulgor is a dick and Garro is a saint. The divide between diminishing ranks of “watered and fed” Terran-borns and Barbaros Legionaries whose ancestors struggled in extreme conditions - and how it feeds into some really toxic mindsets (I’m not apologising for this awful pun) across the Legion - may as well end up being another botched “good-evil” binary, and I saw enough derision towards the “lows” of society (working class deriding the margins, working-ascended-to-middle class looking down at both, big city middle class sneering at them all) to feel afraid.

I’ll give it benefit of a doubt in one area for now - remember how “Horus Rising” focused mostly on conflict against “normal” humans - not insane technobarbarians, not deranged Chaos worshipers, but conventionally acceptable “civilized” worlds, some of which proclaimed themselves to be the Sole Human Empire In The Galaxy (what could Dan Abnett mean by this, I wonder) - and only introduced a planet of “hostile xenos” as a (forgive me for using this cursed word again) subversion to once again remind you with the subtlety of a brick through the window that the Imperium’s policies are horseshit across the board? “Flight...” opens with an assault on the world-ship of distinctly inhuman xenos who go as far as to implant combat augments into their “children”, which has potential to be another stab against the Imperium and Astartes... but unless it gets elaborated upon later, it may as well end up being a footnote in the story, a cool little setpiece to introduce the characters and little more - or worse, be repurposed into yet another pro-Imperial argument without a hint of self-awareness. After all, we’re already setting up an abridged rehash of “Galaxy in Flames” so we’ll have the basis for Garro turning against his Primarch, siding with the Emperor and flying the titular ship to deliver the news of the Heresy.

A story that could easily have the same nuance and message as “Horus Rising”, but that will most likely end up being boring “good guys outsmart the bad guys” drivel.

Wake me up when Heresy remembers what does “no good guys” actually mean again.

#warhammer 40k #40k rambles #horus heresy was a mistake #100% only reading TSons/White Scars/Space Wolves novels and maybe a handful of guaranteed quality recommendations after I'm done with FotE #because I'm not wasting time on aborted plotlines and Imperial bootlicking #SWs are only there because I need context for how they are in Heresy vs. 40K's present times #so I'll probably drop off after the first few novels #Russ apologists rejoice #I'll be reading about your favourite war criminal because I care too much about my own Fenrisian baby boy #and his dynamics with the 10.000-year-old evil wizard thembo #I'm not a Magnus apologist BTW #I'm his judge-jury-executioner because I love him and TSons but boy do they also fucking suck #imagine being a pick-me girl for the Imperium of Man