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just-like-playing-tag · 3 years

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aaaaaaa okay i just watched the new episode and im so curious about how theyre going to handle the rest of this arc? you always have really good takes so i was wondering what your thoughts were!! bunkerman is such an important character in this part of the story, it seems like they cant cut him out entirely????so where is he!!!

~ Sorry for the late answer, I kept procrastinating writing my thoughts because I knew this would have turned out to be long ahah ~

Thank you for the compliments, I'm flattered!!! Tho I doubt I will be of great help, I feel like I'm lost at sea ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But I'll do my best!!!

First of all, I'd want to point out that, as of now, I'm confident they will not cut Bunkerman and Goldy Pond off the plot. Goldy Pond is a strong and solid arc that I'm sure received a positive response from SJ readers while it was on going; once it's animated, the anime will be completed of the action that has so far been lacking. As for Bunkerman, in the Shounen Jump's tpn popularity polls he earned 16th and 7th place, which makes me think he's fairly popular. His presence adds a very nice twist to the plot: not only he's the first male adult we see; even though he doesn't side with demons, he's still hostile to the children, which comes off as very surprising to the reader / watcher (and builds up to how Andrew and later the whole Ratri clan will persecute them, introducing the aspect that not all humans on the outside are their friends). Additionally, he is the first character to help build up the theme that Emma is not only going to help her friends and family, but also her enemies, which puts the basis of her character development and her decision to save all the demons and mamas. Moreover: how people have already pointed out, Bunkerman has also a very important role as representing the “what-if” version of the children, as showed in chapter 177:

His character has a very poignant role, as he's revealed to have a very tragic backstory: his story consolidates the cruelty of the world they live in, which is a main theme of tpn, and the way it's ultimately revealed how the children saved his life and gave him the chance to start living again comes to the viewer as extremely moving.

To sum up, he's too much of a great character to be omitted- they're not going to have all that great potential go to waste. His character development and personal growth is too powerful to be thrown away, and I refuse to believe they will (I'm going through chapter 109 again after a long time and I'm getting a little emotional :')

So next up is when we're going to see him, right? I doubt it is going to be soon. My guesses are that he'll show up either in the second half of the season, or even at the very end as teasing for an eventual following season.

The conditions in which the children have found the shelter unsettle me. The shelter confuses me so much, because things simply don't add up. If Bunkerman and his friends have already been there, then why Minerva's letter is still hanging there, unopened. On the opposite, if they have never been there, then that doesn't explain the cookies, which are a clear wink to manga readers, nor the scratched room. I'm confused, because these elements just aren't coherent with each other, and that makes me uneasy. I'd exclude that the Glory Bell escapees didn't open the letter, or that a Minerva supporter came back and placed a new one, but then again those elements really don't make any sense? Any that I can understand anyway- I hope they'll come up with a good explanation in the next episosodes.

Back to why I don't think Bunkerman will show up in the next episodes: several elements from the shelter make me think that. The most evident is obviously the rotten cookies. If he's just out hunting, and he usually lives in the shelter, then I don't see why he would keep those moldy biscuits (if not to commemorate his comrades? Dunnot). Besides, the shelter as for how it's been displayed seems to have not been inhabited for a long time: all the crockery was neatly placed; besides from the biscuits, there was not a single hint of people living or having lived there like the food we saw in the manga- if there had been, the children would have surely noticed. Again, that confuses me. Everything is perfectly tidy and clean, making it more similar to the untouched, neat shelter the Glory Bell escapees found when they arrived there for the first time- except for a conveniently scratched room? Isn't that weird that the room and the biscuits are the very only hint that somebody has been there before? But I'm digressing.

Other things that make me think Bunkerman is not going to show up: the children are learning everything on their own. There won't be Bunkerman to show them the armory, to talk about the limited resources and stuff. I believe that them finding about all these things on their own is a further proof that the kids aren't going to meet him soon.

I don't know how the children are going to meet Bunkerman. I'll be frank, I'm very worried, because for the way the children meet Bunkerman to be as it is is of great importance for his character and character development; I worry to make them meet in a different context is likely to have negative consequences to his character growth.

Shifting back to Goldy Pond, I don't think we're getting there any time soon either? There was no hint to A08-63 in the letter. My personal guess is that the "Poachers" skretch was replaced with "help" because we're not getting any poacher this season, and they didn't want to introduce so early an element that is not going to be explained in this season. Of course "Minerva" could reveal it in their phone call- but then why not mention it at all in the letter, besides from ending the episode with a cliff hanger? Furthermore: would it make sense to introduce Goldy Pond before Bunkerman? Goldy Pond wouldn't be the same without him- besides the fact that it would be hard to integrate the story of Lucas and the other Glory Bell escapees, this is a friendly reminder that it's Bunkerman to both break Lewis' mask and later kill him.

Now, as for my personal guess? I think the children are going to leave the shelter and look for Minerva. First of all, that would explain why, in the opening, everyone has the go-out-shelter-coats:

That's the outfit Emma, Ray and later Gilda and Don wear when going out; it's an outfit we never saw the younger children wear in the manga. Another reason why I think that all the children are going to leave together is because it's the only way to protect them: they still can't be sure the shelter is a safe place (the manga reveals it isn't), so they can't leave the children alone in it. In the manga, they divide in two groups: Emma, Ray and Bunkerman leave the shelter, and Gilda and Don would have stayed to keep the children safe. For how things are in the anime, this becomes a problem. Let's say they decide to leave the shelter (and like, they will, otherwise the plot can't move on lol): Emma and Ray can't leave on their own, without Bunkerman to both guide and protect them; at the same time, they can't leave with the support of Gilda and Don, for that would mean leaving the children alone in the shelter. It's not only because leaving a group of less then nines alone would normally not be a good idea (these children are very smart, so maybe they'd manage to go on?), but they can't really know if the shelter will continue being a safe place: only because the demons haven't found it so far, that doesn't mean they can be sure they won't find it at some point; additionally, for what they know poachers are still after them. That's why I think the most logic progress of events will be for the children to leave the shelter together. Which, even though I stand for what I've said... Sounds like a very bad idea??? Not only the children keep travelling in this demon world- they also don't have weapons besides from bow and arrow? That's why I find the armory being empty one of the most senseless things- of course I want the children to be safe, but for the children to survive in demon forests completely unarmored sounds extremely unrealistic. I just hope they aren't going to kill one of the "irrelevant children" to prove how dangerous the world is, that would destroy me.

(I'm Chris.)

Ok, I think I covered everything! Thanks for asking! Let's hope together they won't mess this up for us :))

#If you don't feel like reading this: totally understandable.#I need to reread this before posting and I don't want either.#tpn bunkerman #tpn #the promised neverland #tpn manga spoilers #mine #tpn analysis #tpn theory #people asks me stuff #Thanks for asking :D

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muninnhuginn · 3 years

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DC (you can choose which one)

Sorry for the delay on this! I started it then saved it in my drafts and proceeded to forget that drafts were a thing OTL.

Anyway, I'm going to go for the Detective Conan DC because my knowledge of the other DC is... lacking.

The first character I first fell in love with: Haibara. Her character arc is still my favourite even now. She was very much traumatised in a number of ways and that wasn’t much shied away from. Like, she’s actively terrified of Gin and Vermouth and when we first met her she’d just lost her sister. But despite that, she still managed to open up over time. And it wasn’t a linear path because she still freaks whenever someone from the BO is present (and I know the entire BO sense is kinda weird in terms of how much of it is like a magic realism thing vs her panic response but there’s some of both of it in there). But she is happier after her development and her friendship with Ayumi is precious honestly. The case about being able to call her by her first name was legit sweet.

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Akai, I think. He was pretty clever without getting nerfed for it and saw through the Conan shtick, same as with Yamato and Koumei (who are both also charas I like). But then, I was just incredibly amused by his Okiya act. I have no idea how much of it was intentional trolling but turning up with curry to incredibly non-subtly check up on Haibara cracked me up. And obviously alongside that you have how he was freaking Haibara out and it just led to a lot of scenes with tension between them where Akai wasn’t communicating his reasons (because he got her sister killed. yikes.) and Haibara had enough pieces to have an idea but not enough to complete the puzzle as to Akai being a “good guy”, so to say. It was fun, I think. Even if the setup of characters not communicating definitely started to become frustrating after a while. But anyway, Akai has the range. He has the clever dangerous side and the “wdym, I’m just here for curry” memeability.

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: This isn’t an “everyone” thing exactly but I’m not sure there is any one character who is universally liked by the entire fandom. Anyway, I find Conan frustrating nowadays. I think he was decent up past Desperate Revival (maybe even Vermouth reveal?) but after that stagnated big time. The main issue is that DC is a long runner and so at some point character development has to be put on hold. It’s more obvious with Conan because we literally see him every case as opposed to the other characters who have fewer appearances. But I think to narrow it down further, the problem is how Conan is not allowed to make mistakes that are punished by the narrative (aside from perhaps when it’s time to show off Yuusaku). Say for instance, he can actively refuse an information exchange with Akai because he doesn’t want to confirm his identity despite the fact that Akai already knows who he is. And this is treated as though it’s fine and logical even though it really isn’t? I don’t mind character flaws. If anything, I want characters to have flaws. But when the manga continues to twist the narrative around to try and pretend like character flaws aren’t flaws, it really puts me off that character.

The character I love that everyone else hates: This is more a case of the potential than that I actually think she's super well done, but early era Sera was actually pretty good? I find the later choices (especially once Mary is introduced) to be too inconsistent with her previous characterisation and strongly dislike how her intelligence gets retrospectively nerfed by the revelation that Mary was helping her out all along. But Sera in her first few cases and especially in the case with bomb at the detective agency? She was being the most realistic person there and it was really refreshing. (I feel like talking more about this could go off topic but basically I get that Ran is supposed to be the kinda pure more idealistic style morality because that’s what Aoyama is gunning for with her chara and that’s what Vermouth likes about her and Shinichi, but what Ran did with blocking the snipers’ views there was actively dangerous. It would have been safer for everyone else if they’d just gone with Sera’s plan and let the sniper take out the bomber)

The character I used to love but don’t any longer: Gin was a pretty intimidating and challenging antagonist all the way up until maybe around Clash? I just feel though that he’s become less and less of a serious antagonist the more spies get revealed within the BO? Peak Gin was Dark Footprints though imo and since then, well. Nowadays, I really struggle to see the hype around him.

The character I would totally smooch: Uh... none, sorry.

The character I’d want to be like: I was so stuck on this question but I’ve settled on an answer now. I’d go for Haibara because even though her science knowledge keeps getting nerfed (ngl, so salty she didn’t know basic physics in the Maria case) she does have that biochem background. And even though she’s quiet and not actively trying to fit in she still manages to gain friends willing to put in the effort for her. It’s sweet and I’d like that.

The character I’d slap: Shuukichi. This guy. He decides without consulting her that he will ghost his girlfriend so he can win a shogi title “for her” which will somehow prove that he’s worthy of marrying her (????). He hasn’t even told her he plays shogi professionally before he does this. What. Maybe I’m just someone who would appreciate communication in relationships of any flavour but I don’t think I’d ever want to marry someone who breaks up with me out of the blue to ghost me for years only to reappear and say he wants to marry me because he’s won some competition I don’t even care about. And Yumi doesn’t care about shogi or she would have known years ago he plays professionally, especially considering it’s aired on TV.

A pairing that I love: TakaSatou. In a series where most of the relationships start with some kind of childhood connection, TakaSatou is definitely refreshing for entirely bypassing that and gunning for a more mature relationship overall. That said, there are a couple of their stories that rely way too much on second hand embarrassment for me to rewatch.

A pairing that I despise: Okay, I'll just go for the worst offender here with Shuukichi/Yumi. See my answer on why I would slap Shuukichi for reference and also the fact that I’m about 95% sure Aoyama is going to make it canon despite this. I wouldn’t mind half as much if the manga actually critically examined why Shuukichi pulled his ghosting stunt, but it’s just brushed over as a big romantic gesture. So yeah. I’m out.

#ask meme #dcmk #I'm putting it here for self reference pls don't take this as like tagging hate in the main tag or sth thanks #long post

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duhragonball · 3 years

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Hellsing Ch. 70-76

I guess anything I say here is a spoiler, so yeah, this is “Heart of Dreams”, “Relics”, “Heart of Iron”, and the arc “Finest Hour”. Oh, and “Lunatic Dawn”. Gotta lotta ground to cover. Treacherous ground.

Not a whole lot to say about Anderson’s death. He tried to become a monster using one of the Holy Nails from the True Cross, and then Alucard defeated him anyway, once Seras gave him a little help and a reason to go on living. Alucard was pretty upset about Anderson’s demise, but Anderson says a few soothing words, and reminds him that Al only became a vampire because he couldn’t stand being a human, so it doesn’t make a lot of sense for him to cry now.

So yeah, as determined as Anderson was to kill Alucard, he’s a pretty good sport about losing this fight, and he seems to genuinely pity the man. He wonders how long Alucard will go on living with his regrets, and Al replies “Until my expansive future shatters my expansive past.” So, if we want to take that literally, I guess he’s trying to find redemption by being a good guy to make up for his years as a bad guy. Well, he’s been a vampire for 523 years, and a servant of Hellsing for 101 of those years, so I guess maybe he figures if he trucks along for another 321 years that’d balance the scales?

And maybe I’m finally starting to appreciate some of the complexities of Alucard’s character. The Team Four Star Abridged series spent some time on his desire for redemption, but I couldn’t tell if it was based on the original material or something they came up with for their own version. For instance, the Abridged!Alucard rejected the forgiveness offered by God himself, but later Anderson spoke of his desire for redemption and Alucard didn’t dispute that. It seemed contradictory to me at the time, but the manga does seem to support that. As Vlad Tepes, he refused to ask God for anything, preferring instead to fight and drive himself and his followers to the limits of endurance and decency as proof of their faith.

I find that idea heretical, because it suggests that a person can “earn” God’s favor, or God’s forgiveness, or a place in heaven. Arguably, Anderson tried to do the same thing, but I think he was coming more from a place of doing zealous deeds out of gratitude for the Lord’s grace, rather than trying to earn anything he didn’t already have.

The difference with Alucard is that he seemed to be really wrongheaded about his faith, trying to use violence to become a good person. Then it didn’t work, and he became a vampire, devoted entirely to his own selfish desires, and I guess he’s spent the 20th Century realizing that he’s back where he started, trying to fight his way to redemption, only now he has centuries of red in his ledger instead of mere decades.

Oh, anyway, while this is going on, Integra takes a sword and stands it upright so it looks like a cross to mark Anderson’s death. It’s like this quiet sign of respect. I’m not sure whose sword that is, but it looks like the one Alucard was using in his Dracula persona.

Anyway, fuck all that, because Walter finally shows up and stomps the ashes of Anderson just as everyone was having their final farewell with the guy. Rude.

Young Walter just looks kind of stupid to me. Why is he still wearing the monocle? He’s trying to be 14 and 69 at the same time and failing at both.

Seras asks what Millennium did to him, but Walter makes it clear that this isn’t some brainwashing trope. He’s doing this of his own free will.

He also doesn’t consider himself loyal to Millennium. They turned him into a vampire, but he’s doing this for himself, and he’s only cooperating with them because their goals are in alignment.

Yumiko Takagi tries to kill Walter for... Was she mad at him for stomping on Anderson’s remains? I mean, Alucard’s the one who actually killed Anderson, so shouldn’t she be mad at that guy?

It doesn’t matter, because Walt just slices her into pieces with his magic filaments. Now Heinkel Wolfe wants revenge, because she was her long-time partner in assassin stuff. The TFS Abridged series implied that they were lovers, too, which seemed authentic at the time, but I’m not sure there’s any confirmation to be found in the manga itself.

But before she can take the shot, the Captain shows up and shoots Heinkel in the face. Like, through one cheek and out the other, and the only thing saving her from serious injury was that she happened to have her mouth open at the time.

Side note: I caught myself referring to Heinkel as “him”, which frustrates me because I’ve known she was a woman for like five years now. When I first watched the OVA, I was confused, becuase I could tell it was a female voice actor, but maybe that just meant he was really young, like with Schrodinger. But the Hellsing Wiki set me straight, or so I thought. I didn’t think I’d still be making this mistake.

On the other hand, Yumiko sometimes looks a lot like Goemon from Lupin III, so her wearing a nun’s habit isn’t as heteronormative as it might seem. I’m getting off-track.

You’d think this would be leading up to some big double-team on the Hellsing group, now that the Iscariots are out of the picture, but the Captain’s only stopping Heinkel so Walter can have a clear shot at Alucard. That’s the sole reason Walter turned traitor, you see. He wants to fight Alucard and win, and for the last 55 years they’ve been on the same side.

But is that all it is? I never got to read or watch “Hellsing: The Dawn”, the prequel manga Kouta Hirano created after Hellsing. I’ve heard that it never got finished, but also an anime adaptation was released with the home video release of Hellsing Ultimate Episode VIII. All I really know about it was that there was this time where Alucard and Walter were fighting the Nazis, and the Captain showed up, and Alucard ran away because he didn’t think he could beat that dude. Presumably, he left Walter to fend for himself? But all three of them survived until 1999, so I’m not sure what the outcome of that was. I always wondered if Walter held a grudge over that. But maybe I’m reaching.

There’s also a suggestion of professional jealousy. Walter was a rockstar vampire hunter in his youth, but he’s been overshadowed by Alucard, who is--let’s face it-- a living legend. This would be doubly true in the 90′s, when Integra reawakened Alucard, and Walter having to step back even further from the spotlight. The only way for him to reclaim his former glory would be to challenge the greatest of all vampires and win. He’d go down in history as a traitor, but at least he’d be cemented as the absolute best.

Or... or, you can go with the TFS version, where Walter hints at his motives, only for Alucard to take the wind out of his sails and announce “because you wanna fuck me!” And I love that theory more than any other explanation, because it just brings everything together a lot more neatly. I guess you don’t need Walter to have had a crush on Alucard for 55 years, but it’s a lot more compelling than revenge or professional jealousy. Those things have weight, sure, but they work better as distractions, the things Walter might admit to because they hide the deeper reason that he can’t bring himself to say out loud.

And it’s not entirely rejected by the manga. Alucard remarks on how much more beautiful Walter looked in his old age, compared to this treasonous knockoff vampire look he’s sporting now. The last time he spoke this way, it was when he flirted with Queen Elizabeth II. The next time he does it, it’ll be with Sir Integra when she’s in her early 50′s.

Speaking of QE2, she’s safe and sound, because the Secret Service evacuated her to a fortified location in Dover before Millennium attacked. If things get really hairy, they’re prepared to send her to Canada, and if London can’t be secured, they’ll nuke the whole city, though the Queen is certain that Integra and Alucard will win the day. The vampires acting as Millennium agents outside of London are being contained and destroyed, so things seem to be getting under some semblance of control.

However, the Royal Order of Protestant Knights, also known as the “Round Table” is down to just three surviving members. Integra’s in London, but here we have Rob Walsh and Hugh Irons, reflecting on the death of their fellow Round Tabler, Penwood.

This whole scene struck me as a complete non sequitur when I first saw it in the anime. Walter’s betrayal seemed to sudden and poorly explained that it felt like the author was just winging it by this point, and now we have these two dudes struggling to provide some justification for the twist. But reading this manga in 2021, I find that it makes a lot more sense. We’ve already seen tons of Britons in rather lofty positions, all willing to sell out their principles for a chance to become a vampire. Walter is no different from any of them. It’s just more personal when he does it because we actually know the guy.

But as Walsh discusses the utter debacle of this Millennium invasion, he deduces what we’ve just learned back in London. There must have been a traitor in their ranks, because that’s the only way Millennium could have made it this far. I mean, they just flew a bunch of giant blimps full of rockets right into British airspace. That only worked because they had traitors sabotaging the U.K.’s defenses and communications, and Hellsing was especially vulnerable at the same time.

The only thing Walsh can’t figure out is who the traitor was, since it had to be someone at the Round Table, but they’re all dead now, except for Integra, Irons, and himself.

But Irons fills in the missing pieces. It doesn’t have to have been one of the Round Table’s members, but someone close to one of the members. Years ago, Irons warned Walter about Richard Hellsing. Irons knew that when Arthur died, Richard would try to make a play for the Hellsing estate. But when Irons’ fears came to pass, Walter wasn’t there. It’s like he wanted things to play out the way they did.

But why would Walter want events to play out that way? On her own, Integra had no choice but to unseal Alucard to defend herself, and she’s kept Alucard active ever since. And now, lo and behold, Walter reveals that he turned traitor just so he could take on Alucard. It’s like he arranged for all of this to happen years in advance. But how many years? Fifty-five, Irons wonders.

It’s never explicitly confirmed, but Irons’ reasoning makes too much sense to ignore. Earlier, the Major said that he decided back in ‘44 that Walter “Angel of Death” Dornez would have been a good “get” for his side. Now, Irons is suggesting that Walter might have agreed in the same year. So maybe Walter and the Major made a secret agreement even then. It’s possible that they might have done it later, but why not in 1944?

I mean, the whole backstory here is that Millennium is a continuation of a secret Nazi Vampire project that Walter and Alucard destroyed in 1944. Except they didn’t destroy it at all, which sure makes Walter and Al seem very bad at their jobs, unless Walter let them escape and covered it up.

Meanwhile, the Captain tosses a first aid kit to Heinkel, kind of like he’s saying that he doesn’t want to kill Heinkel, but he can’t let her interfere either. We’ll talk about the Captain later.

As for Alucard vs. Walter, Al wants to check with Integra before he goes through with it. He asks for orders, repeating his big speech from when he killed all those cops in Brazil. Yeah, Walter’s a traitor, but he’s been a close mentor and advisor to Integra for all these years. Does she really want Alucard to killerize his ass?

Yes, she does. If Walter stands against them, then he’s the enemy, and Integra has already ordered Alucard to destroy the enemy, no matter who (snif!) they may be. Integra doesn’t relish this command, but she refuses to compromise over sentimental feelings.

Man, fuck you, Walter.

Then the Major lands his airship near the battlefield and invites Integra to come aboard and fight all of his remaining guys. Alucard orders Seras to join her while he deals with Walter. I can appreciate Seras’ concern here, because the last time she watched Alucard fight alone, he took a flaming bayonet to the face. She probably doesn’t care for Integra and Alucard splitting up like this.

Before she goes, she thanks Walter for all of his support, which disarms Walter for just a moment. Man, fuck you, Walter. Seras is so nice and grateful and polite and cool and you just go right ahead with your 55-years-in-the-making Nazi Vampire Jilted Lover scheme. Fuck you, Walter. You don’t deserve to be in Seras’ life.

So the gals go on board the airship and Schrodinger’s there and Integra just shoots him right between the eyes without bothering to slow down. This is maybe my favorite Integra moment in this thing. I sort of wish Kouta Hirano had done a spin-off of Integra and Seras doing cool shit like this for 30 years.

Alucard taunts Walter with the fact that he no longer gets to be a part of Inegra or Seras’ lives anymore. It sounds kind of petty, but when you think about it, it’s a pretty sick burn. Walter may have been planning this for 55 years, but he still had to live that double life, and it’s not like he can just say he was faking it the entire time.

So they fight. Walter’s magic wire powers seem to be amplified, either because of his restored youth or maybe the boost offered by vampire powers, or maybe he’s always been this strong but now he no longer needs to hold back anymore. For instance, he can make mesh screens with his wires to deflect Alucard’s bullets. And when Alucard summons that dog creature he used to dispatch Luke Valentine....

... Walter just bisects it with a flick of the wrist. You really begin to see why he was “The Angel of Death” back in his heyday.

I never understood what this dog familiar was supposed to be. Walter refers to the Hound of the Baskervilles, but as far as I know that’s just a legend confined to the Sherlock Holmes novel of the same name. But apparently that concept was based upon “black dog” folklore of the same region. There’s a whole laundry list of “black dog” apparitions in Britain alone. Black Shuck, Padfoot, Hairy Jack, Bizarro Snoopy, and so on. So I’m not sure if Hirano is saying that Alucard was the source of these legends, or if they were all based on a single creature which Alucard eventually defeated and absorbed into himself.

Al tries to use the Jackal to kill Walter, but that’s kind of stupid, since Walter designed the gun in the first place. In the anime, I thought Walter somehow triggered a bomb he had planted inside it, but maybe he used his wires to make this happen. It doesn’t really matter, because we already saw that the Casull was useless against Walter’s defenses, and not because it had smaller ammunition.

Then Luke Valentine emerges from the black dog’s body. This part never made any sense to me, but I loved how the Major recognized him, but barely. “Oh yeah, it’s that guy from Volume 2! The guy with the brother.”

The doctor suggests that when the dog was killed, this allowed Luke to reassert himself from inside the dog. Something about a “control ratio”, whatever that is. Like, he was absorbed into the dog’s mass, but now that the dog is no longer conscious, he can think for himself again. Notably, only half of Luke actually makes it out . It’s like he’s half-Luke, half dead dog monster.

But before he can do anything else, Walter puts his wires into Luke and starts controlling him like a puppet, mostly so he can use the dog half to attack Alucard.

Alucard seems more impressed than threatened. Keep in mind, Walter was doing pretty damn well against him early on. You’ll notice Alucard’s missing his right arm along with one of his guns. This is better than Anderson managed to do. So why does Walter even need this Luke-dog puppet thing in the first place?

Well, it’s because Walter’s body is giving out on him. Earlier, when the Doctor was performing the procedure to turn Walter into a vampire, he spoke about how rushed the operation was. I mean, he had to finish the whole thing in one night, after all. And Walter’s a lot more powerful than Dandyman, whom the Doctor considered his finest artificial vampire work. So maybe Walter’s just too powerful for this, and he can’t sustain this form. The Luke-dog-thing is just to keep Alucard busy while he coughs up blood.

The Major sees this development, and likens Walter to a high stakes gambler who’s mortgaged everything for a single hand at a high stakes table. Walter’s risked everything just to tangle with Alucard, and it still isn’t enough.

Alucard does manage to finish off the dog-Luke thing, and this sets him up for Walter’s next attack, and then he goes to finish him off, so things seem to be going Walter’s way...

But Alucard used a decoy, disguising Luke’s severed torso as his own, all so he could sucker-punch Walter in the face. As it turns out, Walter’s physical breakdown is making him younger, which amuses Al to no end.

So Alucard follow suits and assumes the form he once used when they fought the Nazis in 1944. Yeah, say hello to “Girlycard”. I’m not sure why Alucard looked like a 14-year-old girl during World War II. I’ve heard this form described as a Japanese 14-year-old girl, and I can’t dispute it, but it also makes Girlycard seem even more random somehow.

I mean, I guess the idea here was for Walter and Alucard to be able to move inconspicuously through enemy territory. No one would suspect a couple of kids until it was too late. I’m imagining a similar scenario to the ones presented in “Cross Fire”. Heinkel and Yumi would play innocent bystanders, then whip out their guns and swords and go ham on the bad guys. Knowing Hirano’s style, maybe Girlycard and Young Walter operated the same way.

And this further supports the Walter-had-an-unrequited-crush-on-Alucard theory. He might have understood that Girlycard was a disguise. On an intellectual level he might have known, but maybe he still carried a torch, and told himself that there was some way that they could be together. Was he just in love with this disguise, or does he love the real thing? Alucard says that he told Walter the truth decades ago, and claims that this is the reason Walter turned traitor, so yeah, it sure feels like Walter couldn’t handle Alucard’s true nature, one way or another.

I mean, let’s assume that this isn’t just about Alucard not being a cute girl. Maybe Walter fell in love with Alucard in all his forms, whatever that means for his sexuality. The bigger issue is that Alucard’s a vampire, and he’s just fundamentally different from Walter, and maybe that was the problem all along. It’s interesting to think about, but the point here would be that there was some kind of problem, and Walter couldn’t let it go.

Meanwhile, Seras and Integra are busy looking like total BMFs. Just HBIC’s. What’s better than this? Two gals bein’ pals.

Hell yeah!

Bad ass!

The vampires on board this airship are happy to meet their doom, and Integra recalls what her father once told her about how vampires want to die on their own terms. Seras doesn’t get it, because if they want to die so badly, they could have just died in the war they were already in fifty-odd years ago.

So the Major gets on the PA system and explains to her that they want more than just a glorious death. They want bigger, better, more perfect battlefield, so as to make their deaths as meaningful as possible. That’s why I don’t understand that airship captain from a while back. Everyone else in Millennium seemed to understand that they weren’t necessarily fighting to win. Britain is prepared to nuke London if they have to, so it’s hard to imagine anyone in Millennium surviving past today, even if they won.

Anyway, as the Major explains all of this, the Captain appears before the gals. It looks like he’s here to stop them, or is he?

#2021hellsingliveblog #hellsing #alucard #seras victoria #walter c dornez #alexander anderson #heinkel wolfe #yumiko takagi #the major #the captain #warrant officer schrodinger #sir hugh irons #lt general rob walsh #luke valentine #really? luke valentine?

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tomurasprincess · 3 years

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let’s start from the beginning shall we.

in his first appearance with all might, i think that was more of shigaraki trying to bluff his way through rather than being manipulative? how was he manipulative in this case? he definitely did not manage to control or influence all might in this case.

yes he did hate stain, however i wouldn’t say he manipulated, or used stain’s mission to further lov’s image in this case. it was more of a- “i know you are going to cause chaos and i do not like it because you hurt me so I am going to take the attention away from you by releasing the nomus” kind of thing.

as for overhaul arc, i wouldn’t say it was because of his manipulation that he managed to take down overhaul. by the time he got to him, overhaul was all beaten up by mirio and izuku, and he was cuffed (probably with some anti-quirk cuff) and binded. in this case, how was overhaul supposed to fight back when shigaraki was in a better condition than he is, and he had the lov with him (like a 3 vs 1 situation).

and if the heroes failed to take down shie hassaikai and overhaul managed to escape instead, how will shigaraki, in this case, get to manipulate his way through and take down overhaul?

and regarding the canon vs fanon shigaraki interpretation link, i do not agree with the fanon points in it at all, but then again they are fanon and can be unrealistic too so yeah 🙂

The point is that he was trying to feel All Might out and his beliefs on hero society. Even if he didn’t succeed in that case, he was still trying to and got a bit amused when All Might called him out for it.

And uhh, yes he DID use Stain’s mission to further LoV’s image. How else would you explain why he has people like Spinner who are hardcore Stain supporters to be long term supporters of his own cause? Shigaraki even explicitly says that Stain’s beliefs and cause will be taken and used by him for his own purposes.

And you forgot Toga and Twice. Shigaraki sent in Toga and Twice to betray Overhaul and the Shie Hassaikai, with the instructions of “do what you want to do” knowing that they wanted to betray him. Because of those vague instructions, Toga and Twice were allowed to join because the question of “Did Shigaraki ask you to betray us?” from Shin Nemoto, the truth telling quirk guy, was technically false.

They then went on to become absolutely vital in taking down Overhaul, causing Mimic to completely lose his cool and allowing his quirk to be Erased by Aizawa. This led to him being caught, the twisting of the underground rooms of the base stopping, and allowing Deku and the rest of the heroes to go find Overhaul.

That was ALL directly Shigaraki’s influence, as he sent them there knowing full well what Toga and Twice would do in order to get revenge for Magne.

And it’s fine to disagree with the canon vs fanon post, but they use direct evidence in the form of manga caps and dialogue. You also didn’t address any of the points about All for One, who trained Shigaraki from the very beginning to be his successor and who undoubtedly told him a lot about how to manipulate situations and people to his favor. It’s kind of All for One’s entire MO, as a matter of fact.

#mari muses #anon asks

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hollowisthyname · 3 years

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Hello, Icarus! Please infodump to me about Danganronpa?

okay so! I had written out a whole thing but then tumblr deleted it! so that was fun! /s but now that I know what I'm going to write it's much easier, so that's good 😌

n e ways, I'm gonna do like a basic timeline w explanations and some other stuff that hopefully I'll remember once I start writing!! so let's go :D

a list of everything danganronpa in chronological order (not the order that you should play/watch the stuff in, I'll put that in the explanations)

Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School - Despair Arc (DR3) - second anime, watch along with the Future and Hope arcs after playing the first two games (and UDG if you want to). backstory for the cast of the second game.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (THH) - first main game, play first. also has an anime that's basically the same as the game, but since there's not enough time to put everything from the game into the anime I definitely recommend playing the game. high school students from a prestigious school trapped in said school are forced to play a killing game, hijinks ensue.

Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls (UDG) - third game, not main. play after playing the first two games. very different game mechanics from the main three, and widely considered not cannon by the fandom. I like it though, and it introduces a lot of really interesting characters along with giving a v underdeveloped character from the first game a lot more character development. it's not necessary to play it (though one of the characters plays a pretty big part in the third anime, so that would make more sense if you already knew her), but I think it's interesting and fun. there are also robot fights.

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (DR2 or SDR2) - second main game, play after playing the first game. same basic premise as the first game, except it's a different class (same school though) and this time they're on an island. even more hijinks and plot twists than the first game.

Super Danganronpa 2.5: Komaeda Nagito to Sekai no Hakaimono - (I could only find the Japanese title for this one, sorry 😔) kinda also part of the second anime? watch after playing the first two games (and UDG if you want) and watching DR3. character is woken up from a coma via overdramatic and overpowered other character.

Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School - Future and Hope Arcs (DR3) - second anime, watch along with the Despair arc after playing the first two games (and UDG if you want to). aftermath of the first two games.

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (DRV3) - third main game, fourth game in total. I don't actually know when it happens bc they're v secretive about everything, so I'm just putting it last. play last. same premise as the first two, the class is trapped in a school with a courtyard and a huge sort of dome around everything. peak hijinks, too many plot twists to count.

woo!! that's the timeline as I know it, hopefully I didn't miss anything. and I have managed to remember what else I was going to say, so let's move on to section two:

the mechanics of the games

danganronpa is, at its core, a glorified visual novel. every character has a certain amount of sprites for when they talk, as well as voice lines that aren't usually the exact text on the screen but fit the vibe of whatever they're saying. and as I've said before, there's quite a lot of talking. these games have more plot than should really be possible and most or all of it is done through dialogue. cutscenes and class trials are the only parts that are reliably fully voice acted, but there are a lot of those.

as for the parts that are less visual novel-y: you can walk around, and the settings are pretty much as 3d as the 2d-ish style of the game allows. you can also click on things, and sometimes clicking on stuff will get you monocoins, the currency of the game, which means you'll be able to buy presents for the characters!!

"now why do I need presents for the characters?" you ask. well, that's because you're given a certain amount of free time each game to hang out with characters you want to get to know better! the game's ending is fixed, so you won't change the course of the game by who you do or don't hang out with, but you can learn more about characters and become closer to them! giving them presents they like makes them like you more :D

and the most exciting part of danganronpa, what a lot of people play the games for, the true lure of the game.... the class trials!!

so these characters are in a killing game, right? basically, they're faced with a sort of lose-lose predicament: stay trapped in the school forever, or kill one of your classmates to "graduate". but it's not as simple as that, because in order to graduate, you can't be caught. and how do you determine whether or not a criminal has been found out? well, a trial of course!

enter the class trials. every student (barring dead or severely wounded ones) is required to participate in a kind of mock trial- except someone's really dead, and they need to find the murderer or they'll all die too.

(right, did I forget to mention that? only one person can graduate. getting out alive insures that none of your classmates get the luxury of doing the same.)

so, yeah. the class trials are a true fight for life on both sides, because who ever loses will be executed.

and they're really, really fun.

entirely voice acted! enough minigames that the list of them is probably longer than this entire post! the joy of solving the mystery! the... execution, right in front of everyone.

hey, it's a dark game. not like they're trying to hide that. and the executions aren't actually all that gory most of the time, but they're still very much there and onscreen. also as close to fully animated as the games ever get, which is pretty cool.

so how the class trials work is this:

there's a murder. dun dun duuuun. you investigate everywhere related to the murder to get "truth bullets", which are the reason you don't immediately fail at the trials. you don't have to remember all of them, they're all written down in your e-handbook. plus, the protagonists all seem to have really good memories.

time for the actual class trial!! Monokuma (asshole bear running the killing game) introduces everything, explains the rules. and everyone starts talking.

there are a lot of different parts to the class trial, but most of it is "nonstop debates". everyone talks one after the other, and you have to find inconsistencies and shoot the right "weak spot" with the right truth bullet. you refute the lie or mistake and everyone goes back to arguing normally.

there's also hangman's gambit (weird hangman to find a key word), multiple choice things (self-explanatory), and plenty of others.

near the end of the trial (or sometimes only a little over halfway in, it varies), the killer will.... kind of become obvious. there's a specific kind of change in behavior that's the mark of the murderer in these games, but I'm not sure how to describe it exactly. a lot of times there's an accent change, and in general they start acting much more erratic. since it's a trial, though, even after this presents itself you still have to prove your case beyond reasonable doubt.

and once it's become clear to the killer that they're backed into a corner, you have to do the "bullet time battle". it goes by different names in different games, but the basic mechanics are the same: you battle against a student (usually the killer, but not always) in a rhythm-based battle where you have to click to the rhythm to refute your opponent's statements. once you've dealt enough damage, you shoot the final piece of evidence, and that's the end of it.

the murderers react differently different times. sometimes they break down and confess. sometimes they keep denying it. sometimes, they're just calm. however they act, though, the end is the same. they are caught and punished accordingly.

but before that, there's one more thing to do. the closing argument.

your final task is to explain how the murder was committed, from idea to execution (look, a pun! see I can be funny too 😌). and you have to do it... as a manga.

you don't have to draw the whole thing yourself ofc- you just have to fill in the missing panels and then watch as the protagonist narrates it to the rest of the class.

and that's all for the class trial, not counting the long talks after every execution while still in the courtroom.

wow, this is getting...... really, really long. there's only one more thing I'm gonna add, and I promise it will be much shorter than the other two bc it is late and I am officially Incredibly Fucking Tired.

with no further ado, a very short part three:

my general impression of the game. its vibes or smth, I dunno this is just what i think about it

when I first heard of danganronpa, I thought it was a horror game. I can now assure you that it is not. thriller? maybe. debatable. but definitely not horror.

and despite its extremely dark premise, this game is not all doom and gloom. there's so much stuff about hope, and overcoming despair even when it seems impossible... it's not exactly a happy game, but there's a lot more of that in there than you'd probably expect.

all in all, I love this game. so much. it means a lot to me, and I think it's a really good game. thanks for letting me talk about it so much asdhfd :D

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lefossile · 3 years

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compare anime & manga mu🔪🔪🔪

The one that gets me every time, besides Pierrot adding tons of “extra” stuff is also how the animation twists original impact the chapters had, for example the whole Rukia suspense was lost, bc not only did they voice her which is a big spoiler, but also showed her face right away. That is a mood killer. We can talk about poor narrative takes with more extra time to some fullbringers such as Ginjo saving Ichigo and Yuzu or the whole ordeal with Jackie, where they just did contradict themselves, but nooo, we're gonna go straight to the point that kills me a lot.

We’re talking about Ichi’s lowest breaking moment and how it was handled differently in anime and manga by both parties. I was both time unsatisfyingly short tbh, but alas.

In manga everything goes kinda of rushed, Ginjo just extracts Ichigo’s power and leaves and narrative wise it feels mirroring Ginjo’s own situation, even though we don’t know that context at said point. I told it before, all of this was orchestrated in this way not only of mere practical reasons, but because of harsh lesson Ichigo learns that way. Ginjo literally puts him in the same pit of despair he most likely was himself after losing the original fullbringer group. He wants Ichigo to suffer that kind of pain, pain of wrong choice and its consequences, pain of powerlessness. And what makes it worse, he just leaves, making no long excuses or whatever, he gives Ichigo no time to recuperate or gather any moral strength.

What do we get in anime?

Well firstly everyone is having a nice little chat while Ichigo kneels in stupor.

We get a whole lot of flashbacks with dramatic music, to stretch the episode to its logical conclusion. Even if technically it wasn’t really necessary. After seeing Ginjo absorbing (finally after what? 15 minutes) Ichigo’s fullbring, we follow pretty close to the page with Ichigo’s inner monologue and here is where things GO ASTRAY.

From artistic choice to represent Ichigo alone, at “end of all bonds” while Tsukishima and Ginjo already walk away we get this poetic cinema shot. (Who allowed them, bc it makes zero sense for them just to chilly stand there and gloat, as they should made haste and just go on with their stuff, as they “mercifully” are letting Ichigo and his friends go.)

Even Uryuu’s initial bewilderment changed into trying to shut down his own failure ends up kinda a lot more dramatic shojo style stuff?

So we get different pacing, bc neither Tsukishima nor Ginjo move before Ichigo starts wailing, but technically they are already on their way and Tsukishima TURNS to cast a glance on another person’s despair. Which can either hint that he finds pleasure in the suffering or idk, is a normal human being who reacts to peoples tears.

And now when it gets worse.

In the manga Ichigo is still in denial about what happened, as he chants one phrase. Ginjo still walkis away but stops in his tracks to just side eye a mentally broken teen. (In case of any confusion the left speech bubbles are both Ginjo’s words, as he literally says that Ichigo got his fullbring because of Ginjo, so the power he gained with Ginjo’s help belongs to the one who helped achieve it).

What we get: no satisfaction, no standing up, straight up trauma out there as Ichigo is even drawn without blicks in his eyes to represent his lowest, desperate self. He sees Ginjo’s back, tall, unreachable and soaks in his failure, screaming in a final, futile attempt to action. It's the actions of a child.

Meanwhile, virgin anime gives us this:

Straight out of nowhere, as artistic choice we see Ichigo’s inner world which he shouldn’t be even able to access, where he, “chained by despair”, reaches eh, bottom and tragically lies there as sack of potatoes, thinking, “Is that it, what can I do?”

BUT SUDDENLY without further ado, light shines at the edge of water, and the memories flood in how he “wanted to become strong” and HIS CHAINS ARE RIPPING APART! God. As we couldn’t get enough of the same sentiments as of all the arcs before. And don’t get me wrong protecting others is what drives Ichigo, but don’t deny him any kind of growth like that, please? Let him live and process stuff not just coming back to his senses after two or three cliche sentences.

Spoiler: he does anyway.

And we’re coming to what completely destroys the original impact manga had.

So Ichigo says “Give it back”. But not in a way he chants and pleads it on his knees in the rain. No, he demands it with willpower to stand up. Ginjo stops in shock to hear him utter those words before rebuffing it, because it completely disregards the original setting of this scene. Here Ginjo, who served Ichigo despair akin to his own, witnesses him standing up, not losing any will to fight.

And we get extra pieces of dialogue, which just wasn’t there, which shows that Ichigos stubborness annoys Ginjo a lot, so much he asks him extra questions, giving some kind of extra care to somebody “useless” to him. While this serves to the point I was making earlier and we can guess that this kind of question Ginjo probably often asked himself and he accepted the situation happened to him or at least tried to, so that’s why the different approach shown by your overage shounen protagonist iffs him so much; it still turns the situation upside down. God, Ichigo even stands up himself.

AND as if it wasn’t enough to completely dismiss the WHOLE POINT OF THIS SCENE, they added this and I had to make a gif bc I am PISSED.

Can you believe they couldn’t let the protagonist hit the bottom, they had him, this 17 y.o. traumatized teen completely morally dominate old ass man who is SUPPOSED to be, at this exact moment, not giving a shit and being in the winning position.

There’s no tension, there’s no catharsis, there’s just same “I wanna be strong” agenda and zero character growth. Rukias arrival later feels absolutely bland, bc she doesn’t save Ichigo he already saved himself.

It does rob Ginjo of some of his real iconic moments, when he, a mentor figure and a character specifically made in contrast with Ichigo (also in their age, so he kinda has more life experience, that archetype) has won, as experience wins against naivete.

I’m smad//

Don’t let me get started at what they missed at his death sequence-

#bleach #ginjo kugo #ginjou kugo #ginjou kuugo #fullbringer #the first the lost #skyvar

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murasaki-murasame · 4 years

Text

Thoughts on Fruits Basket 2019 2nd Season Ep25 [”I’m Different Now”]:

For the season finale [but not series finale, because they’ve already announced a third and final season for next year], we get a huge plot twist that completely changes our perspective on one of the characters, and their various relationships, in a way that has major implications about the future of the story and how things will progress.

Aside from all that, we also get the world’s worst gender reveal party.

Thoughts under the cut.

Just to start off, this episode adapted chapters 96 and 97 like I figured it would, to wrap up this season with a big cliffhanger to hype people up for the final season. And for better or worse, this was a pretty much 1:1 adaptation of these chapters, so there’s not really any differences to talk about that I noticed.

Anyway, I may as well just cut right to the chase and talk about the whole Shocking Gender Reveal Plot Twist[tm], now that that’s out in the open and everyone can stop tiptoeing around it.

It’s not like I’ve really tried to hide it or how I feel about it as a plot point before this, but I really do dislike it on basically every level. There’s a whole lot to unpack about it, but really at the end of the day it’s just one of those old-fashioned plot devices where we’re meant to think that someone being a different gender to what you thought they were is inherently something scandalous and shocking. They could have at least immediately started talking about the idea of her being raised as a man against her will, since that’d at least give it some actual meaning and value, but they don’t, which really says a lot about how that’s actually kinda just a foot-note that the story doesn’t dwell on much, and in practice we’re just meant to be surprised that she’s a girl.

It doesn’t really help that the season just ends right there, when in the manga this whole sequence keeps going in the next chapter, and I think they start touching upon that part of Akito’s backstory then, but the anime won’t get into that until next year at this point, so I think it’s fair to take it as it’s presented right now.

The idea of Akito being a girl is surprising in basically the exact same way that it’d be surprising if we found out that Haru was a Sanrio fan, or something. That is to say, it’d be vaguely surprising, but then we’d all just go on with our lives.

Even at this point you can definitely guess that there’s probably something going on with her being forced to present as a man, but it hasn’t really been explained or touched upon yet, so it’s all pretty nebulous, at least from the perspective of someone like Tohru who barely knows Akitto at all and doesn’t know all the stuff about her past that Kureno does.

In general I’ve never been a fan of this entire trope to begin with, but I think it’s made a lot worse by the fact that, as you get further into the rest of the story, it becomes clear that it’s not even that important, and the majority of what’s going on with Akito’s character has much more to do with the curse situation and how it impacts her relationship with the zodiac members. The whole deal with her character is how being the god of the zodiac from birth forced her to be pretty much raised in seclusion, with her only frame of reference for human relationships being abusive cult behavior. She’s miserable and twisted because she isn’t allowed to live a normal life due to her status, and her possessiveness gets enabled by the people that she clings onto, putting her into a loop of arrested development and mental instability.

And literally none of that has anything to do with her gender, lol. None of it would be different if she was a cis man, or if she had been raised as a woman. Because that whole deal isn’t actually all that relevant to why she is the way she is, why she has the attitude and world-view that she does, and why her relationships are so fucked up. Even if you decided to write out her romantic/sexual relationships with people like Kureno and Shigure by having her be a man, that’d barely change anything about the story as a whole, because even if it was entirely for platonic reasons Kureno would have still decided to stay with Akito and ultimately enable her actions, and Shigure would most likely still more or less do all the same things he’s already done. And obviously to begin with, if Akito was actually a dude that wouldn’t even necessarily mean you couldn’t still have some of these relationships play out this way, so you can’t even really act like the story required her to be a girl for that reason, lol.

And for better or worse, if Akito was written as a gay dude, it could still totally have lead to all the same stuff with her possessiveness over the male zodiac members, and her irrational hatred of the female zodiac members. It’d just be a different, more homophobic sort of trope than what actually happens, in a way that plays out in basically the exact same way. It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve gotten a villain who’s a gay dude that irrationally hates women for Reasons [tm], and who has ominous and sinful relationships with men.

Which is also the reason why I don’t exactly think the story would be ‘better’ if she had been written as a gay dude, or as a trans woman, or anything like that. With her whole role in the story to begin with, it’d play out in an obnoxious way no matter what. Mostly I just kinda wish they had completely avoided this sort of outdated, schlocky storytelling to begin with, and just focused entirely on the more interesting stuff about her character.

And in terms of outdated tropes, we haven’t even gotten properly introduced to Ren yet, lol.

I’m also assuming that they’re not exactly planning to change anything about this in the anime, so I’m just going with my existing thoughts about how the manga handled it, since that should still carry over to the anime.

I know that this is all just beating a dead horse with a stick because of how long the series has been out for, but I still just can’t help but be irritated by this whole mess.

I don’t want to spoil it too much, but I think a good comparison to make is the recent Banana Fish adaptation, and how from what I gathered, most people’s reactions to that series’ ending was ‘I know it’s just a product of it’s time, but this is just kinda unironically shitty’.

Ultimately, I think a big part of why this annoys me so much is because I actually really like Akito’s whole character and what the story does with her after this point. I just dislike how it’s shackled to this unnecessary plot twist that ends up dominating the conversation surrounding her even though it’s barely relevant to anything after this in the story.

The stuff with her being the god of the zodiac and how much it fucks up her entire life and all of her relationships is genuinely really compelling, and represents an integral part of the story’s overall message about the nature of abusive families and cults, and the various ways they end up hurting everyone inside them. Her whole arc is about learning how to embrace a life that’s not based around being a god surrounded by their followers, and I think that aspect of it works really well, especially with how it ties into all the stuff with Tohru later on.

I also think that all the stuff with Kureno that gets revealed in this episode is genuinely really interesting, and is ACTUALLY a plot twist that meaningfully shakes things up, and people actually have a reason to be surprised by it. Especially Tohru, since her whole goal at this point is to break the curse, and now she’s literally found someone who’s already had their curse get broken. It’s basically the first major lead she’s found in her whole search for answers, but in the end it kinda just, y’know, gets overshadowed by the gender reveal and her being shocked about that instead.

It’s also still really interesting to me how the Kureno situation is basically the only time where the story seriously talks about the implications of the animal transformation part of the curse, and how someone in the zodiac might internalize that part of themselves. Most of the time, the animal transformation part of the curse is kinda irrelevant, and the series could work in 99% the same way without it. I think Takaya’s literally said before that she didn’t even plan to include that whole aspect of the story until her editor suggested it fairly late into the process, and I think that shows with how it’s kinda just there for some wacky hijinks early on, and then it just gets benched in favor of the actual stuff Takaya wanted to write about.

But with Kureno we actually get a look into what it meant for him to be able to literally turn into a bird, and how losing that ability affected his sense of identity and how he engaged with the world. It’s still ultimately just metaphorical in it’s own way, but it still feels like more of an acknowledgement of the fact that they literally turn into animals than basically any other part of the story, lol. And in general I just think it’s at least compelling on paper that he ends up shackling himself of his own free will, because that sense of freedom and disconnect made him feel obligated to stay with Akito to ‘make up for it’.

I just wish that Kureno as a whole was interesting enough for me to actually care that much about all of this, lol. In the end he’s just kinda intentionally boring, and it’s more interesting to write about his role in the story than it is to actually, like, watch him do stuff as a character. Which I guess is all just part of how much it bugs me that all of the interesting stuff in this episode, and this whole part of the story, feels like it gets overshadowed and drowned out by a dumb shock value plot twist.

There’s also all the thematic stuff with how he’s basically Tohru if she was taken advantage of and had all of her own bad habits enabled until she ended up barely being a functioning adult. He even has his whole personal conflict about feeling like moving on with his life and developing new relationships is an act of betrayal towards someone that he really needs to let go of at this point. But then you just get into the whole Uo thing and how their whole relationship is about as compelling as the whole Cinderella plot that it’s clearly a reference to, and aaaaaaah why is this series so frustrating, lol.

Really, the fact that I can gripe so much about stuff like this just goes to show how much I like the series in general, since I can’t muster up any strong feelings about stuff like this if I just straight up dislike it as a whole. At least for me, stuff like this is much more frustrating when it’s one part of a larger story that I really love. Thankfully there’s more good than bad when it comes to this series, so I can still hold onto it as a personal fave that I just happen to have complaints about.

I’m genuinely really excited for the final season, in spite of all this, since there’s a whole lot I love about the final third of the manga, and in a funny way, the fact that Akito being a girl isn’t actually that big of a deal in the long run, and what actually happens with her as a character after this is more about her status as the god of the zodiac, actually means that I’ll [mostly] enjoy a lot of it. It’s mostly just this specific part where we get the Big Reveal [tm] itself, and the immediate lead-up to it, that bugs me.

Anyway, as a whole, I still think this is a good episode that serves as a fitting cliffhanger for the season. The actual plot twist that most of the episode focuses on is really good, and serves a really meaningful role in progressing the story, and it gives a pretty clear picture of how we’re entering the final act of the story.

Hopefully the final season will start in April next year like the first two seasons did, but it’s entirely possible it might get delayed because of the whole pandemic situation. But I could live with them holding off on starting the final season until it’s ready to come out.

Also, before I forget, they haven’t said anything about it, I’m pretty sure the final season will also be around 25 episodes long. With how many chapters they have left, if they stick to the same two chapters per episode pace that the anime’s had on average thus far, they could easily cover the rest of the story in 22 episodes, which would be a lot easier to expand by an extra two or three episodes, than it’d be to condense it all the way down to 13 or so episodes.

#murasaki rambles #Fruits Basket #can you tell that I have Feelings [tm] about this whole part of the story? lol

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recentanimenews · 3 years

Text

FEATURE: Why You Never Get Sick of Seeing Char Aznable Ruin Garma’s Life

Today marks infamous Gundam villain and completely-innocent-man Char Aznable's birthday. What better way to celebrate than showcasing the Red Comet's love for good-natured betrayal? While Char might currently hold the title of anime’s most prolific back-stabbers, one classic case of betrayal continues to stay fresh in fans 'minds: the tragic tale of Garma Zabi. It's time to take a trip down memory lane.

Even Pretty Hair Won't Save You From Sweet, Sweet Revenge

During Mobile Suit Gundam’s original broadcast, little was known of Char or his backstory. Char’s initial appeal was undoubtedly his indisputable combination of fearlessness and mystery. Unlike all the other Zeon goons, Char wore a mask for undisclosed reasons, further adding to his allure. Besides a chance encounter with Sayla in Episode 2, everything and everyone about Char and his relations was totally up for interpretation. Until Gundam’s fifth episode aired on May 5th, 1979. Suddenly, Char had a friend and ally. His name was Garma, and he had nothing to blame except the misfortune of his birth.

Char and Garma return to a hero's welcome

“Re-Entry to Earth” begins a series of events that both lead to Gundam’s first major arc involving Char requesting the Zabi family's aid, Zeon’s most powerful asset. Up to this point, everything had been a game of cat and mouse between Char and White Base — an obvious fight between good and “evil.” However, the introduction of Garma signals the series pivoting from one-and-done episodic conflicts. Garma is not just a bad guy, but a bad guy with an implied backstory related to Char! And yet, something seems off. Char isn’t just playing dirty against obvious good guys or lasers now. He’s playing the political game.

After several failed attempts to capture White Base, Char offers Garma a chance to claim Amuro’s Gundam for himself under a strategic guise. Garma naturally takes the bait, depicted as selfish and vain in ways Char’s charisma can control. While both are hungry for clout and power, Char ultimately emerges the victor by guiding Garma’s forces directly into White Base’s line of fire. Garma crashes to his death in a fiery blaze, only barely putting together the pieces when it’s too late. This is when Char reveals his true intent: to destroy the Zabi family from the inside out. This classic betrayal isn’t just about Garma, but as Char announcing himself as a whole new class of anime villain with unprecedented nuance.

Innovating the meaning of "friendly fire" since 1979

Variations on a Theme

While Garma’s death sets off a chain of increasingly escalating events in Mobile Suit Gundam’s Universal Century timeline, this is specifically an early series watershed. And, of course, it’s also a huge meme. Theatrical screenings of 2016’s Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky film included a short animated PSA depicting Char and Garma on their cellphones reminding guests to mind theater etiquette. The two tease each other with catchphrases from Mobile Suit Gundam’s tenth episode, “Garma’s Fate.” The phrase “Hattana, Char!” or “you betrayed me, Char!” has become relentlessly parodied in everything from merchandise and boxed cookies to official parody manga like Mobile Suit Gundam-san. Garma’s classic quote has now become shorthand for Char (or anyone else) unexpectedly screwing someone over.

Local man ruins everything (Source: Gundam 0079: The War for Earth, Screenshots taken by Blake Planty)

Perhaps the strangest depiction of Garma’s betrayal is the 1996 FMV game Gundam 0079: The War for Earth. While exclusively released in Japan, this title used American actors and roughly adapted the first ten episodes of Mobile Suit Gundam. The title included many English-language firsts for this franchise entry specifically — including a delightfully hammy rendition of Garma’s famous last words: “Char, you craven traitor!” whereas the Japanese-dub preserves the classic line. Other versions of Garma’s final blazing moments of glory include the long-running strategy game series Gihren’s Greed. The 1998 title and its sequels depict a more mature Garma attempting to pacify Zeon if the player manages to have him survive Char’s sabotage. The 2001 Playstation 2 game Mobile Suit Gundam: Journey to Jaburo provides one of the first accurate depictions of Garma dubbed in English, this time translating the famous line as: "Char, this time you double-crossed me!" While these variations on canon never change the essential arc of Char’s first major betrayal, they nonetheless suggest a long-lasting fascination with a one-note character. With each revisit to classic Gundam, inevitably something new is always added.

Garma after Char gives him the bad news (Source: Mobile Suit Gundam: Journey to Jaburo, screenshot by Blake Planty)

Getting Back to Basics

Garma’s popularity could possibly be attributed to how unexpected Char’s betrayal was at the time, especially for a pioneering series like Gundam. Garma’s always been a plot device, albeit one that got a surprising amount of development (five whole episodes!) before his demise. It wasn’t until classic Gundam character designer Yoshikazu Yasuhiko began serializing Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin in 2001 that Garma finally got his narrative due. In this adaptation of the original series, a new arc was added about Char's previously mentioned academy days. Unlike the previous iterations of Char’s epic betrayal, this re-telling serves double-duty in developing Garma and Char’s shared megalomaniac tendencies. Char encourages a notably docile Garma to start a student uprising and in the process, plants all the right manipulative seeds to make his master plan work years later. It’s mind games all the way down.

Garma speaks to Char after the Battle of Loum

In an interview regarding his performance as Garma in The Origin’s OVA adaptation, voice actor Tetsuya Kakihara commented, “If I ended up portraying Garma as that epitome of a ‘spoiled kid,’ he'd end up a truly saccharine character.” Kakihara added that, had he played Garma without “a bit of mischievousness” Garma wouldn’t believably buy into Char’s plans nor “come together” as a character with a strong sense of pride. The Origin’s depiction of Garma would have to match up to Shuichi Ikeda’s reprising his original role as Char with the audience very well knowing how it all ends. In other words — portraying Garma as two-dimensional and vain as he was in 1979 simply won't do when everyone knows the beats. The Origin isn't exactly coy about this, either. After Garma happily introduces himself to Char as his new roommate, the scene immediately cuts to an explosion on a battlefield as Char laughs. Best. Friends. Forever.

Mood

Mobile Suit Gundam is a story that never gets old. No matter how many times it’s told, it’s always exciting to see how classic material gets reimagined over the years. While Garma’s betrayal might’ve been shocking the first time, it’s now just another part of the ebb and flow of Gundam lore. Yet, there’s excitement every time you know it’s coming — the same way audiences still anticipate Darth Vader telling Luke he’s his father. When "the moment" happens, it's all the sweeter for being the culmination of something bigger than itself. It’s not just a win for Char, but a win for Gundam’s talent for making nearly 41 years of twists feel as fresh as ever.

Who are your favorite Gundam besties? Let us know in the comments below!

Blake P. is a weekly columnist for Crunchyroll Features. How come Casval and Char are never in the same room together? His twitter is @_dispossessed. His bylines include Fanbyte, VRV, Unwinnable, and more.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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muichewrou · 4 years

Note

hi sdhsjdjs i just wanted to req smth really angsty for giyuu if its possible?? it can be anything u think of tbh AND THANK U

hello! sorry this took so long! i hope this can make up for it!

Note: Spoilers for the manga and it’s final arc. This is the follow-up for the last Giyuu fic I wrote which you can read here.

Word Count: 4k+

It happened once the fortress broke into the surface and launched its occupants into the air.

Muzan took advantage of the Demon Slayers losing their balance by unleashing an onslaught of whip-like strikes, indifferent to whether or not his attacks met his prey. Giyuu had been just a few feet away from you, focused on protecting Tanjirou after the demon had maimed his right eye. You knocked your shoulder into his own, sword almost flying out of your hand, pushing him so that he was facing the ground.

You hadn’t been taken down so easily, though. Muzan had managed to graze your legs and left arm, leaving a stinging pain behind. The injuries to your legs allowed a hefty amount of blood to drench the trousers of your uniform, forcing you down with the discomfort of wearing damp clothing.

You tumble to the ground, rolling over the debris in consecutive rounds. Blocking your face, you wait until you stop to get back up, checking your surroundings.

This is...the city?

You can hear how Tanjirou cries out your name and how Giyuu draws a sharp breath, turning towards you to assess the wounds, careless of Muzan’s attacks approaching with great haste and with undeniable fury.

Your heart thumps against your chest with such intensity that you feel the palpitations rattle you from head to toe.

You didn’t doubt that Muzan was strong--he had a thousand years on his life for God's sake--but it was unlike anything you had ever encountered in your life.

“Duck!”

As luck would have it, both of them heed your command. You jump, bending your body in the air to evade the jagged teeth of his limbs, twisting from left to right while using your breaths to ignore the tenderness of your thighs.

It was only when Muzan retracts his arm and focuses on the other Pillars did you feel your entire body burning. A fever, you surmise, and at the worst time possible.

”[Name]-san!” You look over to Tanjirou, scanning over the injury to his eye. He points to the right side of your face, telling you: “The mark! You have it!”

“Huh?”

Startled, you raise your hand to your cheek immediately, but you can’t feel it.

Was it like Tanjirou’s scar? Or was it like Giyuu’s? The three of you were Breath of Water users, so it must’ve been similar. It was no wonder you felt a rush of adrenaline and power circulate throughout your system even with your wounds.

“Focus, Tanjirou.”

Muzan hunches over, an array of whips sprawling from his spine. It was only a few seconds at most until he would attack, meaning none of you could afford to waste time.

“The other Pillars and I are going to attack him. Back us up if we aren’t able to retreat right away.”

”Right!”

You could barely hear his reply with the wind zipping in your ears, the noise of your haori flapping in the air, and the screams of the lower-ranked Demon Slayers who were just erupting from the debris.

Giyuu finally catches up with you, running over to your front. Tanjirou was behind, preparing for Muzan to strike again.

“An hour and a half until sunrise!” The crow circles the air above the battle. “There’s still an hour and a half until sunrise!”

You sprint towards Muzan, dodging the whips curving in your direction and following the Pillars, using Water Splash to traverse atop the debris. Like a harsh tide, you twist your body along the currents of the waves, rotating and slashing the air as you get closer to him.

Obanai departs for the demon’s jugular while Mitsuri extends her sword to wrap around his body. Giyuu swings his blade down vertically with you slicing past Muzan, looking behind to examine the damages.

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

You’ve made contact with his body at least four times, yet there are no signs of any injury inflicted upon him.

Mitsuri backs off, reeling back her sword. “Eh?! We hit him, but we didn’t cut him?!”

“This is troublesome,” Beads of sweat roll down Obanai’s face, choppy hair fluttering in front of him as he follows in Mitsuri’s steps. “We can’t even cut his neck. He’s regenerating way too fast to slice him.”

You flip your body to face them.

“We already know the only way to kill him off is by waiting for sunrise. All we need to do is hold him off until then. I know, easier said than done, but haste makes waste. We can’t just throw ourselves into him at any chance!”

Obanai clicks his tongue, knowing you were right.

Muzan stands stiffly, eyeing around the city with emptiness. His whips are still veering around, the pointed arrowheads just missing your torso. He sets loose another assault of strikes, to which you realize you were too close to avoid them.

This is a pain. All the vital Demon Slayers were within the vicinity of Muzan and if all of you were to fall here before Sanemi or Himejima arrives, lives would be wasted and there would be no more hope for humanity.

That was, unless Tanjirou continues to impress you once more as he had during the battle with Akaza.

But the kid had already suffered a blow to his arm just before the fortress collapsed. His eye handicapped him further, leaving him with his instincts and sense of smell.

I shouldn’t have told him to back us up. We’re so close in that we can’t withdraw without getting hurt.

Muzan stretches out his arms.

You’re too far from the surface to use Water Splash again, meaning that it was either he misses you entirely, or you let gravity take over and drop you to the ground.

Or, none of those options at all.

Someone collides into you, hurling you back. Muzan’s arms swing over your head as you fall from the impact, slicing off the slightest bit of your scarf.

Your back hits the floor. ”--the hell?!”

You look down, prepared to reprimand the person for interfering and exposing themselves to danger.

Spiky ponytail. Unkempt black hair.

His teeth were clenched, veins bulging from his hands and around his face. Sweat runs down his skin and splatters onto you as you roll on the ground, wrapping your right arm around his waist to cover him from the crash.

Except, there was nothing for you to hold on to. He had been completely severed waist down.

”G-Giyuu?”

You reach out to brush his bangs out of the way, overlooking the waterfall of blood seeping into your clothes.

His silence and stillness indicate that he had already gone into shock. Large brown eyes stare back at you.

It's not him.

You promptly reverse your positions, resting his body gently on the floor and hovering above him. ”Why the hell did you do that?”

He doesn't respond. You flatten out his uniform and place your ear to his heart, pressing your fingers to his neck to find a pulse. It’s incredibly high. His breaths are rapid and shallow, fingertips turning blue.

The early stages of hypovolemic shock, but why so soon? Did Muzan do something?

”Shit—”

“Let him go!” Another tells you. “There’s not much hope in saving him. Look after yourself first!”

You can’t do that. This guy is in trouble. Blood is pooling around him. There’ll be restricted flow to his brain.

If only Shinobu was here. She was more experienced in the medical field than you and would know what to do.

There’s not enough time. You don’t know if he’s in pain or if he’s unconscious. What can you do?

Someone else crashes into you once more.

”Go!!”

People are screaming. You can't tell who. It was so loud, with so much anguish that you overlook the individual who had just sacrificed himself for you.

”Keep advancing!”

The echoes of trampling footsteps and warcries enshroud the city. There are at least over a dozen Slayers swarming around Muzan, some of them offering themselves as fodder to save the Pillars.

”Become human shields for them!”

Bodies drop continuously from the sky like a leaking faucet.

”The Pillars have saved our lives countless times! If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be alive!”

You force yourself up, snatching your sword from the wreckage.

Mitsuri is unable to hold back her tears. She begins to sob, ”No! Stop it, all of you!”

She's knocked back once more.

Giyuu is relieved of his stoicism. Three of his juniors had surrendered their lives for him, and many more to come.

Obanai faces the same predicament.

You? You're feeling sick. You want to throw up.

It's endless. Waves of severed limbs and decapitated heads surge at you with the intent to drown you in the blood of your comrades— to pull you into a sense of desperation.

Desperation to avenge the fallen. Your family. Sabito. Those who threw their lives away for your sake.

You wonder if Muzan’s ever felt this way.

The feelings that everyone had suffered from because of his own selfish desires. Sadness. Loneliness. Hopelessness. Fear.

If not, you'll make him.

First, you need to find an opening. Locate and gather the Pillars together.

Giyuu is at Muzan’s front, Obanai to the side. Mitsuri is close by, too.

Tanjirou is—wait, where is he?

You run to Giyuu, dodging the bodies coming your way. Tanjirou was right behind you. How could you have lost him?

Something is wrong here. Very wrong.

”Those who die quickly are fortunate. Even if they don't die right away, those who attack me are done for.” Muzan nods his head to the side. ”Look that way.”

What is this guy talking about? Had he gone insane?

But you find yourself submitting to his orders. You almost trip over an arm when you turn your head to the left, taking one glance to the ground.

Deep within the wreckage was the boy you’ve been searching for.

His body remains unmoving, slumped over the ruins of the city along with several other deceased individuals. Blood surrounds his gaping mouth, around his hand--like he had been coughing into it moments before--then down to his sleeves, soaking the fabric. His lone eye is wide open, his iris a speck of dark red on a blank white canvas.

While his expression was certainly one of the most...gruesome you’ve ever seen, the area around his right eye was far more alarming.

The flesh is red and throbbing, and though you can’t see clearly from the distance, blood begins to congeal and stiffen onto the exposed tissue and muscle.

You gag.

Unfitting for the circumstance when everything you catch sight of is laced with blood and gore--entrails that line the toppled buildings, limbs that rain from the sky, and heads that roll steadily across the battlefield. The butchery of comrades you don’t even have a connection with. The nobodies who endangered themselves for you.

Maybe that’s why. Because you’ve known Tanjirou ever since encountering him in the Forest of Correction. Once more when fighting the Spider Demon family at Natagumo Mountain, again at the Ubayashiki Estate, and finally during his special training session with the Pillars.

He has to get up. He will.

“I infused my blood into my attacks,” Muzan proceeds monotonously, “but he won’t become a demon. It’s just too much blood. It’ll work like a fatal poison instead. It will destroy his cells, leading to his death.”

That’s what you believed when Tanjirou was struck down multiple times by Akaza. But as time passes on, he continues to survive against all odds. Pulling through in the Demon Train when even Kyojuro, a Pillar, had died. The battle in the Red Light District. The battle in the Swordsmith Village.

“Kamado Tanjirou is already dead.”

Dead? No.

Muzan is foolish. He doesn’t know what’s coming for him.

You have hope in Tanjirou. The 13th form of the Hinokami Kagura he told you about would definitely be the game-changer, even if you don’t know what it is.

But, maybe he was already dead. You don't know.

With that said, the battle continues to rage on.

Your legs are aching. Mitsuri’s sobs ring louder in your ears. Obanai struggles to find his place in this predicament. Giyuu is tight-lipped and sweating profusely, never breaking his gaze away from the male sprawled out on the debris.

If there was a rule you were expected to always bear in mind during combat, it was never to take your attention off your opponents. Even if you broke it many, many times (such as wanting to help the kids who saved you), you loathed it when it happened to those you cared for.

Obanai is struck to his head and shoulder, Giyuu to his leg and right arm. Mitsuri collapses to the floor after getting attacked at her chest.

“Kanroji!!”

“I’m fine!” She reassures the Snake Pillar, hunched on the ground, “Take care of yourselves first!”

Muzan aims for her once again but is intercepted by Himejima who seemingly appears out of nowhere. Sanemi slashes down on the demon, splitting him into two.

You don’t know how, but suddenly he’s on fire. In his rush of anger, Muzan begins to swing his whips out recklessly. They completely avoid you (which was a miracle as you were already growing tired and nauseous), but he aims behind you. You turn around. That's where Giyuu was.

“Hey, watch out!” You call out as fast as you could.

His back was facing away, but he jolted, signaling that he had heard you. From the corner of your eye, you can see some scrawny kid haul Tanjirou away. Was that Murata?

At this rate, Giyuu wouldn’t be able to avoid the attacks in time. You jump, outstretching both of your arms out, mindful of the Nichirin blade in your hand.

Pushing Giyuu with as much force as you can muster, you connect your eyes with his own as he turns to you, wide and frantic. ”You're a fool! Have you learned nothing from years of experience?!”

He stutters out your name. You bite your lip, feeling the searing pain of Muzan slicing through your midriff. Just like the first kid who pushed you away.

Oh, you've never felt anything like this before. Sure you've had a few cuts here and there, but in a fight like this where there is no medics present? There would be no relief for this agonizing pain you're about to endure for who knows how long.

When will the sun begin to rise? Would you go into shock soon enough? Maybe you can hold on long enough to see Muzan finally die.

You don't let go of your sword when you've fallen, turning your head so you didn't fall face first. The weapon had been something you could grip onto when the pain from your wounds got worse. You would definitely need it for this one.

Giyuu hooks his elbows beneath your underarms and drags you away with haste. The noise of your lower half thudding to the ground echoes loudly despite the roars of conflict and friction. Your head is buzzing and your vision is shaking. There's two of Giyuu, which you don't quite understand from the confusion that sets in abruptly.

Even if your mind is fuzzy, you perform the one thing you know how to do. You begin to breathe. Slowly. Inhale, then exhale. That way, you'll be able to clot the wounds and prolong your life.

You can feel your heart pounding against your chest with increasing urgency. You can hear your pulse resonate within your ears and nothing else. The words that slip away from Giyuu’s lips, the cries from Mitsuri when she sees your mutilated form, the sounds of panic from when the lower-ranked Demon Slayers realize that they weren't able to protect you from harm—you can't hear them.

Giyuu follows Murata and places you next to Tanjirou. Seeing the kid distracts you from the injury you've been trying to numb and close. He’s so young, suffering through so much throughout his life.

But you can't stop the bleeding entirely. You already feel like giving up. The wound was too severe.

You’re already going to die anyway.

“Leave me, Giyuu,” you manage to croak out. Your hand twitches as you raise your sword out to him, “I can’t fight anymore, but you can.”

He shakes his head. ”I won't leave you. We promised before.”

He knows that you’re right.

”This isn't the time, Giyuu. I don't want to do this either, but all we need to do is hold him off a bit longer. You're a Pillar. This is your job. I've done my part.”

Really, you’re never wrong most of the time. But he can’t bring himself to obey your orders.

”I’ll keep protecting you,” he insists. ”I won't let you die here.”

”I won't be dying anytime soon,” you retort, banging his shattered sword out of his hand with your own. It clatters to the ground, out of his loosened grip. You shove the hilt of your sword into his hand to fill in the empty space. ”I promise.”

It's a promise. You don't break promises and neither does he. He'll come back for you, he promises to himself.

Giyuu nods to Murata, giving Tanjirou one last glance. He turns to you and places a kiss to your temple. You find yourself nuzzling into the warm touch, caressing his cheek with your fingertips gently.

And then, he's gone.

You lift up your fingers to your mouth. It's cold and numb. Your whole body feels cold. Or rather, half of your body. It just feels so weird not being able to feel and move your legs.

But it's okay. You've diminished the bleeding for now. You're no regular human being. You're a goddamn Demon Slayer with the power of a Pillar. Surely the others have gone through worse, because they're already dead.

Rengoku, Shinobu, Muichirou, Genya. What did they even go through? Was it painful?

You weren't close to them, but their company was what you needed a lot after spending most of your time around Giyuu. You already miss him.

Your vision is still being invaded with all sorts of dark blotches and smudges. But even with the crappy vision you're left with, you turn around to look at the battle—

What?

That's undoubtedly Giyuu.

He's only been away for a couple of minutes, maybe ten.

You still can't hear shit. Your vision doesn't do you any good either. But, you can sense it.

Pierced straight through multiple areas. His heart, lung, thighs, and eye. If there was more, you couldn’t tell.

Maybe you shouldn’t have let Giyuu go.

You’re beginning to fade in and out of consciousness. Your mouth is unbelievably dry. You can’t call out his name. You can’t feel the tears that escape your eyes.

The pain returns full force, but you welcome it. You embrace the haunting darkness that floods your senses.

He broke his promise.

——————————————————————

It hurts. You can’t breathe.

You can hardly remember what had happened in such a short amount of time.

Rain patters gently onto the pale complexion of your face, stray strands of your hair gluing themselves intricately across your vision. It’s getting blurry. Was it because of the hair that was in your eyes or the fact that you could barely keep them open?

”You’ll be okay, [Name]-san,” he says, trying to reassure you, but how can you be ”okay” when the kid is struggling to keep his tears in--when you know that the one you cared for most is dead?

Tanjirou nudges the hairs away with bloodied fingers, shuffling off his haori and swaddling your lower half with it.

It’s warm. Unbearably warm when it soaks up the thin crimson liquid seeping from the lacerations that littered your body and the open cavity of your midsection.

You don't feel the need to prevent the bleeding anymore.

How is he alive…? And his little sister is with him too…

You can't deny your jealousy. You gulp.

”Take me to him.”

There's a miserable look in both of their eyes as Tanjirou lifts you easily and cradles you close. He's warm, even in the rain. Nezuko lingers behind before following her brother.

It doesn't take long to reach Giyuu. You can pinpoint his body from the others that surround him. Sanemi, Himejima, and Obanai. Mitsuri is nowhere to be found.

So Muzan’s weakness was truly the sun. It must have been half an hour after sunrise before the rain started.

Humanity was saved at the expense of too many.

What bothers you most that you survived for this long and regained consciousness only to die in the next moments. Was it a gift from the heavens? So that you could say goodbye to Giyuu one last time?

“You’re a good kid, Tanjirou.”“Huh?”

Tanjirou sets you down next to your partner. You don’t respond, taking in the Water Pillar’s appearance. Your heart throbs. He was bleeding everywhere. His eye, chest, arm… everything was just soaked in his blood. He must’ve died a painful death.

You feel your muscles strain as you reach over to grab his hand, stroking the calloused skin.

“I’m sorry, [Name]-san. If I wasn’t so weak, I could have saved you two. You would have been able to live a happy life with Giyuu-san and gotten married.” He shuffles behind you nervously. Though his hearing was not as good as Zenitsu’s, he could make out the sobs of fellow survivors around him. “And--and I would have been able to save everyone else.”

He shouldn’t have gotten so eager to attack Muzan in the fortress. If Mitsuri and Obanai hadn’t saved him that time when both Giyuu and you fell behind, he would have perished in a second.

But no one could blame him. Everyone that was present in the fortress all wanted a chance to inflict pain onto Muzan. It was for lives--and revenge--of all the loved ones lost in the once inescapable conflict that devastated the country.

But it wasn’t like Tanjirou could do anything about it now. It was useless to eat his heart out over about something like this. You close your eyes. “Stop it. This is the p-path we all chose... to take...”

Your breaths are faltering. It’s getting harder to even speak properly.

“...it’s not like we can...can turn back time either…”

It would be a miracle if you could. But if you were able to, what would you do? Run away with Giyuu? Live the life Tanjirou wanted of you?

You don’t want to die. You’re scared and ready to puke your guts out (assuming they were still there). Tanjirou remains quiet. His sniffles blend in with the rain. So do your tears.

It’s a comfortable silence. The drizzle feels cool on your skin.

You’re in the jaws of death and it hurts, you’ve just lost everything you loved, and now the Demon Slaying Corps would soon be disbanded. But does it really matter? You’ll be reunited soon--and not just with Giyuu, but with your family, friends, and Sabito. You’re done with the life you’ve set out for the sake of slaying demons. There are no other roles for you to fill in this world.

You’re counting down the seconds. One, two...three, and so on.

Your back aches. You can’t roll your shoulders to loosen the tension within your muscles. It was like your body wasn’t listening to you--like you were paralyzed.

A familiar voice colors the rainy morning. “Thank you for everything…won’t...forgotten...”

“[Name]?”

Your eyes open. It’s bright. How long had you blacked out for? The rain had ceased.

You groan and rub your head, propping yourself up. The early morning sun was far too much for your sensitive eyes. You pull your haori closer, blinking when a hand stretches out to you, looking up and reaching for it.

You clasp your hand around his hand and pull yourself to your feet. “Thank you, Tan--”

“[Name].” It’s Sabito, with Giyuu right beside him. Sabito’s hand is so full of warmth. He’s smiling, but his eyes exhibit heartache and grief.

“Welcome back.”

#chew writes #kny spoilers #kny x reader #tomioka giyuu x reader #giyuu x reader #giyuu tomioka x reader #kimetsu no yaiba x reader #demon slayer #unbeta'd

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robbyrobinson · 4 years

Text

Fanfic: Enemies Within

A @dokidokiliteraturegirls fanfic (webcomic was created by @youhavethewrong

[CHAPTER ONE]

“Quick, everyone, into the club room!” Monika yelled.

The girls’ rapid footsteps echoed down the halls. The entire school was tainted in a deep shade of red. The walls pulsated and contorted into different geometric shapes. Whatever was chasing after the girls was jetting fast, bouncing off the vibrant walls with ease. The school itself became a barren wasteland devoid of students and teachers. Outside of the building all of the windows had been shattered.

“It’s gaining on us!” Natsuki remarked.

“I wish Anthy was here,” Yuri sighs, “if she didn’t decide to face off against that beast, she would’ve deleted them a long time ago.”

Ako darted on the twisting floors, managing to avoid some obstructions. “We’re almost to the literature club!”

The black and white girl was correct. The entrance to the door of the literature club was within their grasp. The floors may be writhing and shifting, but if they kept their footing, they should make it. Natsuki turned to look at her lover and smiled. “We’re almost there, dear.”

Yuri’s mouth formed an O as if she were about to comment. Before she could, her left foot hit a bump in the floor and to her lover’s horror and bewilderment, she crashed onto the floor with an ungraceful thud. Yuri moaned in pain. “It’s my knee...I bruised it.” The walls merged into the ground and lifted the purple-haired girl in the air, propelling her backward.

“YURI!” Natsuki screamed in disbelief.

Yuri was sprawled on her back recoiling in pain. “Natsuki, you have to escape without me.”

Tears sweltered in Natsuki’s eyes. “No! Not after everything we’ve been through, you can’t give up now!”

Yuri started to cry as well. “I’m badly hurt...I’ll just slow you guys down. It’s okay.”

Natsuki shook her head violently in refusal. “My life was nothing but misery before I met you at the literature club. My father...everyone ostracizing me and seeing me weird for my obsession with manga and...other things...Yuri, you lighten up my world! I don’t want to lose you now! Please stand up!”

Yuri tried to get up, but the tremors in the ground forced her back down. The creature was now advancing towards them faster than before. “Forget me, Natsuki! If you won’t do it for me, do it for us!”

Natsuki looked at her other club members then back at Yuri. She did this a few times that felt like an eternity. Her thoughts were being drowned out by the quaking noise and Yuri’s vocal insistence. Natsuki grabbed the sides of her temples in anguish. “Why do I have to choose like this!?”

With that, she ran towards Yuri. Ako stopped momentarily to see what was happening. “Wait, Natsuki!”

She wanted to say more. She had to say more. She didn’t want to lose anyone else today. But Monika grabbed her only arm for she had lost her metallic arm in the fighting. “We don’t have much time,” Monika said solemnly, “it pains me, but Natsuki made her decision.”

“B-but...” Ako stammered. Monika dashed to the door and bent down to bite the handle of the door. Her teeth grasped the handle tightly giving Monika a slight toothache from them grinding on the handle to open it counterclockwise. She couldn’t help but pray to whatever forces out there in the universe to give her this small bit of strength to do this one simple task. With the door opened, Monika tossed Ako into the room and slammed the door.

Natsuki somehow made it to Yuri and placed herself on top of her girlfriend. Yuri was still hurting slightly, but feeling the warmth of Natsuki’s body did remedy some of it. Tears were streaming down her face. “That was quite an immature thing to do, Natsuki.”

Natsuki cried as well. Her tears fell on Yuri’s chest soaking it. “Hey, you know me, Yuri, I am a child after all.

The two shared a deep, passionate kiss with each other breaking it a few moments to breathe. Natsuki’s lips still tasted like cupcakes. Yuri’s were a sweet lavender scent. Their chaser towered over the couple and chuckled. “That would be sweet, but I already sacrificed my ties a long time ago.”

Natsuki looked up to see the attacker. They remained in a stable motion despite the walls and floors collapsing in on themselves. In fact, Natsuki could’ve sworn that whoever it was, they were levitating in the air. The attacker was radiating a red energy and was gathering into a violent ball of dark power. Natsuki grit her teeth.

“You’ll never get away with this!”

“That’s what they all say.”

Ako paced back and forth when she stopped in her tracks to hear several blasts and sizzling. Ako whimpered to herself knowing what happened but she could not even dare to imagine the immense pain Yuri and Natsuki were put in.She looked over at Monika. Monika was putting on a straight face, or at least a visual of it. She heard everything as well, but she had to be strong in their memory. Now they had to barricade the door to keep the attacker at bay.

Ako was grabbing whatever wasn’t glued down to the ground and blockading the door with it. Desks, chairs, boxes. Whatever was readily available, Ako made use of. “That won’t hold them for long, Monika, so hurry!”

Monika had her laptop in hand and activated it. “I’m hurrying, I’m hurrying!”

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Red energy illuminated through the cracks of the door. Ako responded by throwing in her body weight to slow down the attacker’s thrashing. She shoved her hands firmly on the door and pressed her feet on the ground. “Grrr....can’t hold on much longer!!”

“It’s finishing loading, Ako, just hold on a little longer,” Monika said reassuringly.

Ako’s sweat moistened her hands, making them slippery. Her arms were chafing and on the verge of failure. “I have to do this for all the girls.”

The banging on the door became louder and more forceful. The desks and chairs were giving way. The red energy shined brightly, overtaking the room. Monika became unnerved by it, but she pressed on. “Just one more and...there! Ako, I got into the command panel!”

Her tone of triumph fell flat from the lack of a response. “Ako?” Monika said “Ako?”

She turned to look at the door and nearly panicked. Ako was gone; evaporated. The door was now hanging on its single hinge alongside the charred chairs and desks. But worse of all, she was now alone in the club room with Ako’s killer.

“I-it’s you,” Monika remarked. She shielded her laptop despite being petrified.

“After I have destroyed all of the other alternate realities, you of all people should’ve known that I would come for this reality next.”

Monika narrowed her eyes in disgust. “There is one universe that I know you haven’t destroyed.”

The attacker laughed. “Dimension C-2293? The one where you live a happy little life as if none of your sins ever happened?”

Monika bowed her head in shame. “That dimension’s Monika has a copy of the laptop I use. I already sent it to her. You’ll never win because of teamwork.”

She looked at the clock on the wall, but reading it was difficult due to the walls twisting and turning and fading away. “99% of the game is deleted.”

The attacker smiled. “Everything you have ever done dies with you. I don’t care if you sent a version of yourself the message because you no longer exist.”

In a flash, the attacker was gone leaving Monika with the world crumbling around her. She collapsed on the ground writhing in agony. Looking down at her hands, she could see that the flesh on them was being eroded away. Before long, she would be completely deleted. More open wounds erupted throughout her body and unravels from the data being eradicated. With her gaze faltering, Monika felt her only solace would be that she’d be with her dimension’s Sayori.

“I just hope she gets the message ASAP.”

[CHAPTER TWO]

Monika and Sayori sat in their shared home one day watching television. For whatever reason, Monika had a worried look on her face. Sayori noticed her few passing glances and was slowly becoming alarmed as well. "Dear, what's wrong? You're acting weird."

Monika blinked suddenly and then a few times. "Oh, sorry; I just received some…interesting e-mail."

Sayori's eyes widened. "Really? From whom?"

Monika shrugged her shoulders. "The coordinates were all over the chart." She stretched out her arms to further emphasize her point. "I feel it has something to do with the game's code again. Maybe I'll ask Anthy on it later."

Sayori snapped her fingers suddenly. "Oh, shoot; I almost forgot. I think our Ako has a crush!"

Monika tensed up for a bit. Even if it's been about two years, Monika still felt slightly incensed to the notion that Ako would try to go after her Sayori again. Even though they had both buried the hatchet back during the beach episode arc. Sayori took notice if this and tapped her on the shoulder. "No, not me this time."

Monika's limbs loosened in relief. "Sorry. I still need to work on that. Anyway, who is it?"

"Anthy." Sayori replied.

A moment of silence filled the room. It was so quiet, that a pin could drop any minute and not invoke much of a reaction from the two girls. Monika opened her mouth a few times still unsure on what to say. Anthy? That girl who literally tried to kill all of them and was the one who bit her arm off? Really? Monika picked up her glass to take a few sips from it, but it noticeably wobbled in her hand.

"Anthy? Why?" Monika asked.

"It all started when Anthy started to appear more to check on how the game was running. As you know, Anthy kind of made some alterations to the game by making herself a home here. Well, she started hanging out with Ako at the library where she'd watch her draw two flowers and a cat. Anthy started bringing her different objects to draw. One thing led to another…and then they both kissed."

Monika spit her drink out, startling Sayori. "Monika, what the hell?"

"Sorry, sorry. It's just…coming off as a surprise to hear all that."

Sayori nodded her head. "That explained why they kind of…freaked out when they were close to each other at the club room a day before."

Monika was still unsure of what to think. Sure, she is content with the fact that Ako found herself someone to potentially love. But Anthy…to be frank, was a little creepy. What with her permanent smile and shark teeth, could you really blame her? Anthy couldn't much help that because she mentioned constantly that it was her default expression. Even when she wasn't doing anything…deadly, she was still intimidating. But at the same time, she shouldn't dissuade Ako from pursuing her heart, even if it ends in heartbreak.

"I take it that she texted you about it?"

Sayori nodded her head again. "Yeah; she did. She said that she wasn't sure about what to do."

"Are you suggesting we arrange for the two to confess to each other?" Monika asked.

"Of course; she's going to come by later to confide in me. You could maybe confront Anthy and give her advice."

Monika raised her finger to say something additionally. Sayori laughed at this. "She won't bite; I promise."

A large distance across from where they lived, a girl with short blonde hair and blue eyes was walking. She attended the same school as the four girls and walked home from school every day at a certain time. It was not long since school had let out for the day. She walked down a small path soaking in her surroundings. She was thinking of what to have for dinner at home when a surge of power generated through the air. She looked up in alarm.

Above her, a rip formed in the sky and gave way to a large, gaping hole. The girl stood glued to the ground with shock and awe. Fragments of the sky fell onto the ground revealing heavy static behind it. "What in the?" she asked herself.

From that rip came a rosy-colored flame ball. It launched itself in a downward spiral bombarding towards the girl. Seeing this suddenly brought the girl back to her senses and she ran right to dodge it. The flame ball smashed into the ground, leveling it. Smoke filled the site of the impact. Out of curiosity, the girl pondered what had fallen to Earth and stood by to observe. The smoke eventually settled enough for the girl to realize that it formed a considerably large crater.

"What?"

She ran towards the crater her curiosity being overbearing as it was. Panting from running, she investigated the crater to a surprise. In the hole, there was a girl, roughly around her age. More bizarrely, she was bereft of clothing and laying on her belly with her bare cheeks at full display. The blonde-haired girl blushed at this slightly most likely from embarrassment at seeing the girl in such a position. But she was horrified all the same assuming the girl for dead.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no…" she said. She scrambled through her belongings to find her cell phone so she could contact the medics of the dilemma. After dialing up the number, she momentarily looked away to listen to the ringtone. She looked back to catch another glimpse of the girl for a description but saw that she was gone.

"Ma'am? Ma'am?" the receptor asked.

The blonde girl held the phone shakily in her hand before dropping it seemingly not hearing the person on the other end. In front of her, the naked girl levitated before her. She couldn't speak. Nothing about what she was seeing made any sense. Before she could say anything, the naked girl grabbed her by her throat and glared at her. Upon looking closer at the girl before her, she saw that she shared the same color of her eyes. As she was desperately trying to comprehend what was going on, the nude girl's eyes turned crimson.

A few minutes later, the once nude girl had clothes. After finishing up on her necktie, she walked up the path. "I'll be coming for you soon. Don't get too cozy."

Ako arrived at Monika and Sayori's house roughly at six. She approached the door fretfully and almost found herself walking away several times unsure of whether she should go through with it or not. She extended her right hand to knock on the door, but her knocks were barely an octave. She waited around, but she did not hear the girls. "I knew this was a bad idea."

Ako turned to walk away, but the door slowly opened to a creek. "Ako?"

"Oh, uh, hey…Sayori," Ako said.

Monika had prepared some tea for the occasion and offered some to Ako. Ako thanked her for it and took a long, noisy sip from it. Afterward, the room went silent again. Monika and Sayori stood by waiting for someone to start the conversation. Eyes darted throughout the room to see a single instance of lips parting to form a vowel sound. When nothing came about, Sayori cleared her throat. "So, Ako, how…"

"I kissed her, Sayori," Ako finally responded.

"Oh," Sayori said plainly,

"I don't know what happened. We were both sitting down at a table. Anthy had gone to one of those online game websites and brought me back a teddy bear for me to draw." Ako stopped herself so she could drink more of the tea before starting again. "Before I knew it, Anthy was sitting close to me; so close, I could feel her body rub up to mine. That same sensation I felt for you came back. Stronger even. My gut was making…butterflies is the term, I think? My heart was beating fast in my chest…I was scared that it would burst out of my chest if I wasn't too careful. But I felt Anthy's heart also skipping a beat."

Sayori and Monika listened carefully not saying anything. Anthy's cheeks began to turn green and she was becoming queasy. "Sayori, she's having an attack, what are we going to do?"

Sayori slipped out a paper bag, walked across the room, and placed it in Ako's hands. After breathing sporadically into the bag, her breathing eased. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it," Sayori said, "can you speak now?"

"I was drawing the teddy bear like I mentioned…but when Anthy got even closer to me, my hand nudged up with hers, and…our eyes met each other. As if unprecedented, we suddenly kissed."

"And after that, Anthy opened up a portal to run away?" Sayori asked.

Ako bowed her head. "Should I have kissed her?"

Monika spoke up next. "Did she like the kiss?"

"Monika!" Sayori shouted in surprise. "That's too much to ask."

Ako shrugged. "I couldn't tell. She didn't turn her head in disgust over it, but she also didn't express that she enjoyed it."

"Well, maybe we can help you come to terms with it," Monika said.

"How?" Ako asked.

"Getting you both to state your feelings to each other."

Ako raised an eyebrow. "How?"

"Well, a poem worked for both Natsuki and Yuri," Monika explained, "maybe that could help."

Ako raised her palm. "I gotta stop you right there, friend."

"Why?"

"Writing poems are not my thing." Ako stated. "It sounds kind of dumb."

Monika's right eye twitched. She felt her inner rage reaching her boiling point. "What the f-!"

Sayori covered her lover's mouth. "Maybe a drawing you can both do?"

Ako scratched her chin in deep thought. "That could work."

Ako stood up from her seat. "But the only issue remaining is that she caused us so much pain and almost killed us and nearly deleted the game. How can I just forget that?"

Sayori smiled. "To be fair, you can never really forget something like that. It makes you more unsure that you could trust someone like that again because you run a risk of going through that pain again. But when the person is putting in the effort of being better, you have to have some faith in them."

Ako nodded in agreement. "Is that like when you forgave Monika for the things she did in your game?"

"Yes. I mean Monika tried to have my neck snapped when I had a noose around my neck, but it's all good now, right, Monika?"

Monika laughed nervously at Sayori's comment. "Yeah…I did, didn't I?"

Ako also joined in on the laughter. Sayori and Ako were laughing wildly as if it were some type of joke. But Monika remained quiet, clearly not wanting to be reminded of what happened in the past.

[CHAPTER THREE]

"This…doesn't make any sense," Anthy said to herself. She went behind the background of the game's world to view the coding. There was some recent addition to the game, but for some reason, the addition was invisible to her. As an antivirus program, Anthy would be aware of it. If data were being burned in exhaust, Anthy would be sure to quash that. And yet, here she was trying to find out what happened. She was so absorbed in her work; she almost did not hear her doorbell ring.

"What? Huh?"

"Anthy, it's me," a voice responded.

Anthy sighed in relief. "Oh, it's just you, Monika; come on in."

Monika opened the front door and entered the house. Her eyes widened in surprise. Anthy's house…was not that great to look at. The wallpaper was in stitched patches of light green stripes. Like a Christmas tree. All the furniture were merely photos she had made copies on by visiting various websites on the internet like Clip Art and Photoshop. Most striking, however, was that when the wallpaper began to decay and peel, it revealed the static background of the game's setting.

"Oh, hey," Anthy said in a half-laugh, "this is my humble abode." She stretched her arms out to further emphasize it. Monika soaked it in for a few moments but forced a smile.

"Oh, it's nice," she said.

Anthy lowered her head to indicate that she sensed that she was lying. "Yeah, yeah, I know. It isn't the best thing ever, but at least it's cozy." Anthy laughed in embarrassment.

"Well, what were you doing exactly?" Monika asked.

"Oh, the game apparently had some addition to it, but for whatever reason, I can't find it."

Monika scratched her chin. "That is odd; I received some coordinates on my laptop; it felt like it came from somewhere outside of the game."

Anthy sat on a green chair she copied and pasted from Clip Art. "What brings you to my home anyway?" Anthy squinted her eyes in suspicion. "You didn't add something to the game, right, Monika?"

Monika denied it by shaking her head. "No. It's actually about Sayori."

Anthy looked up. "She isn't still distraught over finding out the truth about the Player?"

Monika frowned. "It wasn't your fault, Anthy, you know that."

Anthy nodded. "Yeah, but when the game glitched out that one time and you all were thrown out of your game and met the Player, I felt it was my fault for it."

Monika pat Anthy's shoulder. "Even though the Player outright admitted to us that he viewed us as nothing more than pixels, the love that we had for each other was real. It was the only thing that mattered."

"True; well, what was on Sayori's mind?" Anthy asked. She ripped a small hole in thin air and pulled out a mug. In the mug was some coffee. She then opened her mouth and pitched the mug into it. Monika shivered a bit. Anthy always had the oddest way of eating food. If she even needed to eat at all.

"She spoke with Ako today about what happened between you and Ako."

Anthy suddenly spit the hot coffee out of her mouth. "What!?"

Monika waved her hands. "It's fine, it's fine."

Anthy's face reddened spontaneously. She bowed her head again and shielded it with her gloved hands. She let out a slight whimper almost as though she were a little puppy. "Oh, why did you have to bring it up? It was so…humiliating!"

Monika blinked a few times whilst thinking of what to do next. "Did Ako think it was?"

Anthy looked back up again. "I got out of dodge before I even asked her about it."

Monika nodded understandably. "Ah. I understand. You know, Sayori and I didn't immediately hook up, you know."

Anthy listened tentatively. "Yeah, I can see that. But what can I do about my dilemma?"

"Oh, when Ako came over to speak about what happened, she also had the same feelings about the kiss as well."

Anthy's eyes widened in surprise. "Really?"

Monika smiled. "Yes; she almost through up from it."

Anthy squinted her eyes to indicate a frown which was obviously hard due to her perpetual grin. "So, she did hate it?"

"I wouldn't say that" Monika replied. "It goes to show that she is just as unsure about her feelings like you are."

Anthy nervously tapped her two index fingers. "I…I think I love her."

Monika smiled warmly. "Well, I m glad to hear you coming to that realization of yourself."

"I don't know what it is," Anthy replied, "but anytime I'm around Ako, I feel…warm. Calm even."

"And what are you going to do about it?" Monika asked.

"Jump into a farming simulation and maybe disconnect with modern society?" Anthy answered.

"No. If you are unsure of what to do, Sayori and I came up with a solution."

"Tell me, please," Anthy begged.

Sayori was at home watching anime when she received a notification. She reached for her cell phone and saw that it was a text message from Monika:

"Anthy agreed to do the drawing with Ako."

Sayori smiled. She quickly replied and laced it neatly with a heart emoji. She played around with Monika in a teasing fashion until Anthy typed up a response amounting to STFU. Sayori rolled her eyes. That was one of the things she liked about her bizarre, shark-toothed friend.

Sayori continued to watch her show for a good hour. As it reached its finale, she received another buzz. "What now?" she asked.

She flipped through her messages again. This time, she saw that it was a number she did not recognize. She opened it up and read it. While the number was one, she did not know, it stated that it was from Natsuki. Sayori raised an eyebrow. She read it over a couple times to make sure she was interpreting what she was reading.

"I'm at the mall; I'm going to buy an anniversary gift for Yuri, and I need your advice."

Sayori was more complex. "Is that you, Yuri? What happened to your number?"

After typing that out, she got a response. "My phone broke, so I had to get a replacement."

Sayori rubbed her head. "Well, that makes sense."

Not taking how odd the text messages were, Sayori agreed to Natsuki's request and they both set up where they would be meeting at. Sayori followed the coordinates without further questions. Even though the site that they agreed upon was further away from the mall. Sayori thought to text Natsuki a few more times inquiring whether she had forgotten where they would meet up at. Natsuki sparingly gave responses at random until she arrived at a back alley. Sayori became unsettled by this.

"Natsuki, are you there?"

Her deep, innermost thoughts told her, nay screamed at her to not go into the alley, but her mind immediately drifted towards Natsuki. What if something was horribly wrong with her? Without much infliction, she rushed into the alley way. "Natsuki! Natsuki!?"

Her voice echoed throughout the seeming empty void. But there was no response. Sayori held her phone out and typed up another text for Natsuki. "Where are you, Natsuki? This isn't funny."

She waited around still fearful of her surroundings. She felt as if she was being watched by some unseen spectacle. It felt like an eternity of her waiting for an answer. The hair on the back of her hand stood on end. Her neck was out in the open, and now something or someone was caressing it. Sweat was raining down from her pores. But from that bout of anxiety, Natsuki's text came back startling her.

"Behind you."

Sayori turned around and saw a dark figure. It grabbed her before Sayori could even scream. Sayori struggled against her assailant with all her strength. The attacker grabbed onto Sayori's wrists with a tight grip. "Grrr…get off!"

The assailant twisted Sayori's right wrist propelling Sayori to fall on the ground. That proved to be Sayori's undoing. In a flash, the attacker held something in their hand and slammed it on Sayori's face. Sayori mumbled and squirmed vibrantly with her head pushed harder into the object. Eventually, Sayori's struggling weakened, and she fell unconscious. The assailant sighed heavily out of irritation at Sayori's resistance and went to collect her.

[CHAPTER FOUR]

"Mmm…. where am I?"

Sayori's eyes fluttered open to soak in her surroundings. She was in a dark room somewhere in an unknown place. Her mind pained her apparently resulting from her attacker wrestled that odd-smelling substance on her face causing her to black out. Sayori reached to soothe her aching head, but there were restraints around her wrists preventing her from moving her arms.

"What are these?"

She tried to feel for the rest of her body only to receive the same response. Her waist and legs were also seemingly locked in place. Sayori's eyes widened at the realization. She was trapped unable to maneuver her limbs. Before she could fully comprehend what has become of her, the room was suddenly washed over in light and assaulted her eyes. Squinting her eyes, Sayori beheld some figure standing in the doorway.

"So, you're finally awake, huh?"

That voice. Something about that voice was familiar. Sayori looked down seeing that she was tied to a chair. That made some considerable sense. But that was not her main concern. With her vision steadied, she further investigated the source of the voice. Her eyes widened in shock.

It was her. Or rather some entity that has her visage. She wore a school uniform like her own. Her hair was rosy-red with her signature bow on it. The other girl shared the blue color of her eyes, but in her case, they were paler and seeming lifeless. A dark aura radiated from her. Sayori could not believe what she was seeing. She blinked her eyes a few more time under the belief that she was having a daydream. But it dawned on her that she was very wide awake.

"W-who are you?" Sayori asked finally.

The girl lightly chuckled. "I'm you, idiot."

"B-but how?" Sayori stammered. "Were you left over when Monika rebooted the game?"

The girl turned aside and slipped out a phone. Sayori looked intently at it seeing that it was her own phone. The girl had stolen it when she was out cold. She lightly tapped the screen of the phone. She browsed through the pictures on her gallery. She raised an eyebrow, perplexed. There were several photos of Sayori with Monika. "How long has this…thing been going on?" The girl placed heavy emphasis on "thing."

"For about two years now," Sayori replied.

"Are you suggesting that after all of the pain that she had put us through, you're now in love with her?" she spit. Just thinking about Monika's name was enough to make her bitter.

Sayori frowned up in defense of her girlfriend. "What Monika had done was bad, but she worked hard to change. I gave her a chance, so why can't you?"

"You fail to realize how long it's been?" she asked.

"To me, it felt more like one time," Sayori said innocently.

The girl scoffed. "One time. Try about 1,000 times!"

Sayori tried to free herself from her binds to no avail. The ropes ripped further into Sayori's skin and were covered in her blood. They were leaving marks on her arms and legs. "Let me go!"

"For thousands of times, nearly every day, she corrupted my mind…made me do things that led to my death. Rinse and repeat. Every single day, the same routine. What I am is an amalgamation of all the Sayoris that have been dealt a bad hand. Through the different worlds, fragments of my being broke through realities out of one singular emotion. That being a pure, unending hatred."

She reached into her pocket again and slipped out an elongated chain. Sayori did not know what to think about it at first, but then it hit her what they belonged to. They were chains comprised of different codes. "That's not what I think they are, are they?" Sayori asked.

The girl nodded. "Yes, these are just some of the prizes I have acquired from exploring other games."

She laid the chain of codes on the ground to let it roll out. It started wat the girl's feet then inched its way towards the chair Sayori was strapped into. The chains were roughly around 30 ft long. "Each strand of codes was what I had collected when I deleted other versions of your game," she explained. "I always made sure to collect one to reminiscence on them."

"Why are you here now?" Sayori asked aloud.

"I assumed that I had deleted every dimension where Monika and that Literature Club were situated at. In each world, I made Monika suffer the same way we had suffered before ending her life by bringing devastation to her precious Literature Club. I like to believe that when my game was no more, the command powers that she had were unwittingly transferred to me. Whether it was fate or whatever, I do not see any reason to care. All I know is that I have gotten my chance on destroying Monika and erasing her from existence."

The girl dismissively rammed Sayori's phone back in her pocket and went to walk out of the door. Sayori started to panic. "Wait, wait, you can't leave me here! Let me go!"

The girl stopped at the door and smirked. "I'm sorry, I can't do that. I will play a game with your girlfriend first before tearing the world apart inside out. Now do me the pleasure and starve to death. Will ya?"

With that, Sayori's doppelganger slammed the door shut leaving Sayori to her own devices. Worse, she did not have her phone to notify Monika or her friends about her being locked away somewhere. The ropes cut deeper into her skin. The pain was excruciating, but Sayori had to do something. Fast.

Monika, Yuri, and Natsuki assembled at Monika's house with some pieces of paper. Yuri looked at the clock on the wall with concern. "Do you think they'll show up?"

Monika smiled slightly. "Don't worry, Yuri, I'm sure they hadn't booked us."

Natsuki looked at her wristwatch. "Speaking of booking us…where's Sayori?"

"Now that you mention it," Yuri began, "I thought she'd be the first one here since she's Ako's friend."

"She texted me about going to speak with Natsuki about giving her advice on what to get Yuri for their anniversary."

Yuri's cheeks blushed a deep red forcing her to shield her face in her hands. Natsuki was also blushing deeply. "You ruined the surprise, Monika!"

"Oh, sorry," Monika replied laughing nervously.

Natsuki crossed her arms and pouted. "Besides, I never told Sayori about my plan."

Monika raised an eyebrow. "Wait, if Sayori didn't text me that then who…"

There came a knock on the door startling them. "That must be them now," Yuri rationalized. Monika went to the door and opened it revealing that it was Ako on the other side. But her cheeks were a greenish hue again. "H-hey, guys," she said.

The three friends stared at each other at a loss for what to say. "Take a seat over there, Ako," Monika directed.

Ako did as she was told and sat in the seat Monika directed her to. Ako breathed in slowly and exhaled in a whistle. She did this a few more times before she felt her stress was away. Ako was then given paper and a pencil. "Draw whatever's in your heart," Yuri advised.

They waited around a little longer for at least Anthy to arrive next. But as the hours slowly went by, it seemed that Anthy kept to her word of leaving the game for some other one rather than confront Ako in her current state of mind. Ako had already begun drawing but with each scribble she did, she balled the paper up and tossed it into the garbage. With each one, Ako began to sink into depression. "She's not coming, isn't she?" Ako sighed. "I don't blame her."

Monika tapped her shoulder. "Please do not think that way, Ako. Maybe she just needed more time."

Ako looked up with tears in her eyes. "This hurts more then when I accidentally fell in love with Sayori."

Monika looked at Ako in pity. "You should not beat yourself up like that."

"It's true! You have Sayori; and Yuri has Natsuki. I have no one that I love."

Monika and the other girls ceased talking afraid that whatever they said next would further muddle the situation. While thinking, a rip manifested in thin air by Monika's couch. Inside of the rip revealed the static background representing the game's reality. A gloved hand reached out from the rip to pull itself out. On the end of the gloved hand was Anthy.

"Anthy, you made it!" Monika exclaimed.

"I did get cold feet and I did consider leaving," Anthy explained sadly, "but then I realized I would be hurting Ako by doing so."

Natsuki gave Anthy a piece of paper and she also sat in a seat by Ako. Ako looked up momentarily and blushed in embarrassment. Seeing the shark-toothed girl again at this proximity made her heart skip a beat again. "You-you came?"

Anthy's smile widened. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

The two began to draw. Anthy was a lot of things, but an artist was not her forte. Ako herself often drew two flowers and a cat. That was her main purpose as an NPC. But being so close to Anthy now filled her with different emotions. The two went wild with their drawings. They finished in about 20 minutes.

"Alright, present what you've drawn," Monika announced.

Ako timidly shook the paper in her hands. "Are you sure?"

Monika nodded in approval. "I am positive."

Ako took a deep breath and placed the paper on the table. It was a crudely drawn version of herself standing with a hand missing on the right side of the paper. Monika rolled an eyebrow at this. "Strange."

Anthy was next. The thought of ripping a hole into reality to leave crossed her mind, but she too took a deep breath and placed her paper on the table. Ako's face turned red. Anthy twiddled her thumbs her cheeks slowly turning red as well. For what was on the page was Anthy to the left of the paper extending her nonexistent hand like with Ako's self-portrait. When the two drawings were place together, it gave off the expression they were holding each other's hand.

"Does, does that mean," Ako stammered. Inspired by the self-portrait, she grabbed Anthy's hand, and Anthy reciprocated it.

"Oh, you're my perfect little ink blot girlfriend!" Anthy proclaimed.

"And I love your smile, my..my love!"

The two continued to say sugary nothings to each other. While Yuri and Natsuki were delighted by the turn of events, Monika was preoccupied with her phone and sending a frenzy of texts to Sayori.

"Sayori, I don't know where you are, but please pick up!"

(More to come)

#ddlc #doki doki is not oki doki #doki doki literature girls #anthy #ako #dokidokiliteraturegirls #fanfiction #monika #sayori #yuri #sayonika #natsuri #fanfic

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eidolonlathi · 4 years

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The Issue with Gen’s wasted Character Potential

With the manga about to reach its end I thought it worthwhile to have a closer look at how Gen’s character has been written. And the conclusion I'm coming to is that things started promising but then ended with already established potential not getting used.

Let’s start at the beginning. I don't believe that by the time of their introduction, any of the Sato squad’s new members had a clear and finished backstory. Or if, that it must have gotten changed while the story was progressing.

At this point it is difficult to say what the initial intention had been. But looking at Gen’s introduction, I always had the impression he and Takahashi didn't use to know each other before, came to the meeting alone and met there for the first time, instantly developing sympathy for each other. Something of the body and facial language in their first panel just seems too distant for me to signal anything else. And taking into account that until chapter 66.5 it hadn’t been confirmed that they shared a backstory, I view an individual arrival still as a possibility. Gen stating some time after the Grant Pharma arc that he possesses no ghost is no contradiction; just because Kou was clumsy enough to attract attention and got caught doesn't mean Gen wouldn't have been able to attend the black ghost meeting undetected.

Either way, only moments later, as soon as Sato's plan was established, he and Takahashi were able to quickly adapt to the situation and work together in harmony. Be it because they used to already know each other or by forming an instant strong connection. This moment already established the pattern that functioning together came easy to them while with Tanaka in the equitation friction would develop easily. But interestingly on the newly formed team all disharmony vanished at first, the operation on Grant Pharma ending a success.

I think this is about the only time in the manga where Gen is completely on his own and it’s impressive how good his nerves are during this moment. He stays calm, analyses the situation and delivers the needed information. And he has to do all of this while Takahashi is constantly being killed right next to him, yet Gen doesn’t get nervous at all.

That kind of levelheadedness would last until into the Forge Arc. And then getting reduced for the sake of preparing a “twist” lacking any solid foundation. Regardless of what one thinks of Gen being human or him and Takahashi supposed to have been brothers all along, from a storytelling perspective it makes zero sense to hide this all away from the reader until the last second. Like, that’s it? That’s the twist? How is this supposed to be relevant again? One of the random sidekicks to the main baddy –who you always knew wouldn’t have a chance to make it to the end- died instead of having gotten captured. I doubt anyone but the less than 20 people who used to ship takagen cared. These characters were about to disappear from the story either way, the average reader wouldn’t care about the surrounding details because these two were not the kind of characters that were given enough relevance. Or more, after a strong introduction, relevance and focus kept getting taken away from them.

Because relevance is the second factor why the reveals at the end were a bad way to progress the story. Since it got clear that some intended surprise was along its way (being shocking for the purpose of being shocking always looks forced), Takahashi and especially Gen were shoved further away into the background of happenings, given little to do. And that was a waste, frankly, taking into account how active both of them were allowed to behave shortly after their introductions. Remember them both supporting Sato with their sniping skills during the Grant Pharma attack? Sniping is a task complicated to do right but both of them were proving to be capable. Together and on their own: The moment Takahashi was taken out by enemy snipers, Gen was perfectly able to calmly overview and asset the situation, like this gathering together the information Tanaka needed to advance further and deal with those threats.

So, you have these two characters who have proven to be capable during stressful situations with a reliable mind and then the manga just… shoved them aside. Not just by lessening focus on them but by downright ignoring the ways they would have been able to contribute to their team. Cutting their teeth and claws further and further, first by putting more of a focus on their drug using habits (edgy. Now we know they’re bad guys for sure. Don’t get me started on addiction getting used as an indicator of morality) and then taking this further until they were reduced to not much more than moving props clowning around in the background. Compare that to Okuyama, whose early established technical skills kept getting efficiently used to advance the plot.

The curse got broken. After years of silence chapter 59 finally allowed Gen to speak again. Unfortunately barely anyone still remembered he existed or what he had brought to the plot so far.

Letting all this potential go to waste, for what? Because more of a focus would have threatened to reveal those wannabe twists? Something that turned out as boring as “one was human all along but the writing never told us that for no good reason”. It is hard to imagine after all the Sato squad was unaware about this important little detail: Not with their habit to regenerate themselves or their injured comrades via shooting themselves back to life during operations. With this they would have needed getting informed about Gen not being an ajin.

And the sudden sibling status about to get introduced resulting in “Gen’s dialogue needs to get reduced into nothing, otherwise it would become too obvious he and Takahashi being brothers was a last minute idea, with them going against local conventions by not calling each other “brother”, instead using their last names ever since.” Yeah, how did that work out? Now we have actual implied canonical incest because Takahashi and Gen being related changed nothing about the fact they were giving off the most obvious couple vibes this manga had to offer, making it look they were actively hiding being related. Where did it go wrong? Was “Gen is human” installed as a possible twist last minute late in the game, kept nebulous in case some better idea came up? (The hints were always vague guesswork at best, supposed to be able to go both ways, and unlike the anime the manga didn’t have the foresight to prepare it as believable by keeping Gen out of the most dangerous situations and reducing this drug consuming habit to a zero. So, am I supposed to look at it as a deliberate suicide mission on his part in manga context? Was his nihilism this deeply rooted here?) And what about the sibling retcon? Was “he joined this non-human extremist group for the sake of supporting his friend” sounding too gay an explanation, so in an attempt to erase that away they were retconned brothers? Would at least explain why those two look absolutely nothing alike despite supposed to be related.

Ironically this accidental incestuous implication was the only element working here in favour of story telling and character development. Disillusioned incestuous couple disappointed with life drifts into nihilism and thus resonates with Sato's ruthless modus operandi? Now that's the kind of variation and originality I like to see in fiction.

Interesting how Gen just shrugs his shoulders and goes back to routine once told the hostages already served their purpose. Zero sentimentalities to be seen.

I’m glad the story at least let those two stay loyal to Sato until the end, keeping the last bit of relevance in place that differentiated them from their (former) teammates. Takahashi and Gen had bloodthirsty motivations long before they met Sato, so it makes sense those shared similarities kept deepening the bond of those three. It makes sense on a level of characterization and interpersonal relation as well: I’d go as far as to say that Sato was most likely one of the few (the first?) people who accepted them the way they were. Attentive as he was it is hard to imagine he would have missed any aspect of the nature of their relationship. Yet his demeanour towards them never changed, more, as time went on the three of them grew closer. Being met with this kind of acceptance, it is easy to see why Takahashi’s and Gen’s loyalty towards Sato would have strengthened over time as well. Add to this that those three had a pretty similar mind set and voila. A unit that could have had it all, hadn’t it been for the story’s need to play it safe and prepare circumstances so the “good” guys (anyone seriously believing the status quo of using captured ajin for experiments would have changed without outside pressure?) win because of reasons.

This manga has many strengths but the recent habit to insert plot threads that keep dangling and are leading to nowhere or constant retcons that backpedal on what was previous established are none of it. Seeing how the manga started losing its way shortly after the Forge Arc ended and how the plot is now stumbling around in an attempt to reach an ending has been a disappointment, exactly because the story already has proven so many times that it can be excellent under the right circumstances. Alas, hope gets snatched away last.

#ajin #takahashi #gen #takagen #satou #eidolonlathi writes #lathi writes ajin

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ovyy-pvcure · 4 years

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Things I wish were better pt 1: Midoriya and Bakugou alone

hashbrowncatsandketchup

replied to your

post

No one asked but my top 4(5?) list of things about...

Expansion you say??? �� gimme deets op i love analysis like this and agree with every point

I can always count on you to enable me. Before we begin these criticisms come from a place of love. I like this manga and wish it was better. @nanininni235

1) Midoriya is a boring protagonist. On a personal level Midoriya has seen almost no growth whatsoever. Near the start of the series he reclaimed Bakugou’s insult towards him, and in the Apprentice Arc he finally started to come to terms that it was ‘his power’. Then his development as a person just kind of...stops. Not that Midoriya has a lot of baggage or personality flaws to overcome that Hori ever wants to focus on anyway.

Personality-wise there’s little to hate of Midoriya as he’s sweet earnest and accepting with few bad words for anyone...because he has no opinions or values beyond wanting to be a hero. You can make Midoriya mad in the short-term but he never holds a grudge against anyone. Not his childhood bullies or the system and teachers that enabled them. Not Endeavor who betrayed the public’s trust and ruined the lives of his family on a personal quest for glory in a flawed system. Not Sir Nighteye who poked at his vulnerabilities regarding OFA and was unfair to him from moment one.

Midoriya wants to be a public hero like All Might but still has difficulty leading in non-stress situations and we can almost forget talking to girls, strangers, the media, ...strange girls. This is a massive character flaw that directly stands between him and his dream of being the ‘#1 Hero’ but it's used for comedy rather than treated as the giant stumbling block that it is despite UA having an entire course and class dedicated to PR. This despite what happened to Yaoyoruzu during her own Apprenticeship of which we’ll discuss more in part 5. Instead, all of Midoriya’s serious hero training is focused on ‘how punch better’ despite that being established as a thing Midoriya is already working on making these latter sections a much better chance to focus on other areas in which Midoriya is still far from his dream.

Bafflingly Hori even wrote himself into and then neatly out-of forcing Midoriya out of his comfort zone in a way that would force him to confront this and make him an actual ‘leader of his class’ beyond him generically working hard (something we never see him doing beyond the level of his classmates and I’ll get to that). Midoriya was elected class president on the back of his showing in the entrance exam -his raw power and natural inclination towards heroism- as opposed to his ability to be charismatic or even speak with new people. Midoriya’s nervous disposition and fear of strangers makes a poor first impression with the class and vice-president Yaoyurozu

This situation is not solved by Midoriya having to interact with his classmates-at this point total strangers- and slowly earning the approval of the ones who didn’t vote for him. Taking his noted organizational skills and putting them to use earning respect for his diligence from his new colleague. Meeting his peers from other classes/courses and getting an inside view into how these other sections of the school are doing as he slowly networks inside the future hero industry he wants to be at the forefront of. Instead, our protagonist cedes his position to Iida - already a confident taciturn natural leader-within mere hours before we even see him try. Over his vice-president without telling her.

Even Midoriya’s stated strengths of intelligence and strategy have gone underutilized as his enforced passivity leads to a lot of flashes of convenient insight (looking at Stain here specifically) over time spent analyzing bigger problems including his own difficulties controlling his Quirk the way he's shown to do for his classmates. Solo conflicts and Midoriya’s strength inducing quirk fail to use the abilities he already had and there’s no time spent reinforcing those abilities on screen either. Thus, we circle back around to the ‘how punch better’ problem from before where Midoriya’s growth as a character (and followingly as a person) is tied entirely into his Quirk....just like society says it should be.

Even outside his role of future hero, Midoriya is paper-thin he’s a hero otaku and nothing else -as indicated by his room- but even then only on paper. Midoriya doesn’t reference the hero strategies’ he's spent years observing and categorizing (in 13 notebooks) for his plans after getting his quirk. He doesn’t run around wearing hero merch outside of All Might gear. We don’t see or hear of him on hero forums. He didn’t know about Sir Nighteye or David Shield. He knew about Eraserhead but not All Might’s former sidekick.

Midoriya suffered a decade of physical and mental abuse from everyone including his teachers for his Quirkless status as a direct result of how Heros and powerful quirks are idolized within society over personality and merit. Despite suffering from his ‘outsider’ status for the majority of his life and watching his friend become twisted because he could no wrong as no one wanted to ‘ruin his future’ Midoriya shows no resentment towards the system or the people who unflinchingly follow it. This, along with many other instances of a broken system turning out broken people -Shouto, Shinso-affect Midoriya’s outlook on hero society all of nothing. He has brief moments of reflection on the state of affairs but little impetus or stated desire to change how things are done despite the manga making it clear that that’s something that needs to happen.

Midoriya spends no time reflecting on how he wants to be the ‘can-do’ hero despite the fact that he couldn’t. With Hero society’s focus on flashy quirks and big fights even if Midoriya had applied himself with physical training on top of his analysis work without All Might granting him a Quirk Midoriya literally could not ever have followed his dream. And his Quirk grows more powerful his rise is less due to inventive use of his power and more the sheer scale of it.

Youtuber Explanation Point made a video about why Hero Aca’s simple characterization works, and I agree. However almost 300 chapters into the manga we should have a more nuanced view of our main character’s world view, how he interacts with the world around him, and what he wants to enact on the world.

2) Bakugou is coddled by the narrative. Let me start by defining that: The narrative often warps around Bakugou’s character. Be it characters shilling his tiniest acts of decency into huge moments of growth or illogically putting up with his attitude as he treats them like dirt. Bakugou’s pivotal moment of growth is mostly part 3 material but it's spent placating him and enforcing who he is rather than trying to change his negative aspects.

A huge problem with Bakugou’s writing is how his own actions often lead him into negative situations but a lack of self-reflection on his or the narrative’s part cripples his growth. Let’s go through this chronologically: Bakugou is attacked by the Slime Villian because he’s all alone because he chased away his lackeys because they suggested that maybe telling Midoriya to kill himself was crossing a line. Bakugou will continue to be an anti-social jerk who refuses to take criticism without ever acknowledging this. Bakugou continuously makes an ass of himself in front of his new class because he’s still acting like the big fish in a little pond, but doesn’t suffer from ostracization and is only lightly teased even while he’s actively making the class enemies in the Sports Festival Arc. [Expanded in point 4] Bakugou completely fails against Kurogiri and makes everything worse only to turn around have a plan instantly and save the day that wouldn’t have needed saving if not for him messing things up in the first place. Yes, Kirishima also messed up but Kiri admits to being wrong while Bakugou does not.

Bakugou getting kidnapped is not his fault. This is an accurate statement of fact. Bakugou screaming at the top of his lungs, and acting like a rabid dog on Live TV is his fault. The kidnapping was a direct result of the tantrum but this should have already been addressed by his teachers as such unprofessional behavior is all Bakugou’s shown the world since he stepped on the pulpit at the beginning of the arc. Mr. Compress manages to slip through the gang’s defensive formation and steals away Bakugou and Tokoyami, which does nothing to further Bakugou’s arc. The villain’s kidnapping should be the culmination of Bakugou's mistakes and character flaws in the first part of the series that have been noticed and addressed by the people who should be mentoring him. Had Bakugou objected to being “look down on”-like with Midoriya- and ran off to fight the villains on his own despite warning -like with 13- his ensuing capture-like the Slime Villain-would have hit harder as then his getting kidnapped could be once again laid at the feet of his anti-social loner attitude. As it stands Bakugou’s breakdown is entirely self-inflicted as prior no one was blaming or criticizing him for his actions on-screen.

Bakugou fails the license exam, but we’re never given an explicit reason as the only thing we see is a couple of examiners twisting Bakugou’s utterly callous words into a positive. For Bakugou’s failure here to count we need to see him fail not to be arbitrarily praised for things he clearly wasn’t thinking about.

#hashbrowncatsandketchup #bnha #might need to come in and clean some of this up #pt 1 of 2 #bnha criticism #I wouldn't spend this many words on something I hated #I just see so much potential and its a shame its not being capitalized on better #I have so many Words about Midoriya

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megashadowdragon · 5 years

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The True Face of Pariston, The Kurta Clan Massacre and The events that lead to it

source : www . reddit . com/r/HunterXHunter/comments/6jzwyo/theory_the_true_face_of_pariston_the_kurta_clan/

Ok, so there was a post recently saying Pika was partially responsible for the massacre of his clan. I also had a fever dream a few days ago and the answer to to the Kurta mystery suddenly appeared within the dream. The fore mentioned post said that basically Pika was responsible because he didn't let the elder know his eyes went red while he was on his mission in the human town during the test, so someone spotted him. The Kurta are nomads, so anytime they think someone might find their location, they change it. Since the Elder hadn't known about Pika's incident, they didn't move the village, and, well, we know what happened after that. So, here's my theory with the evidence, step by step:

1)Pariston is Sheila

The evidence we have for this is;

-they look extremely alike

-Sheila wanted to become a Hunter, Pariston IS a Hunter

-Sheila has the rat ears, while Pariston is the Rat Zodiac

-Sheila's suspicious behaviour(see next point)

2) Sheila(Pariston) didn't get lost in the woods, he was searching out the area for the Kurta clan

-Pika and Pairo find her in the woods with a broken leg and severely dehydrated, but when they give her water, she has a few gulps and suddenly, she's back to normal!(Was she just faking it?)

-To show her gratitude, she gives them a book*, which is really weird and random since they don't speak or read the language(was the book some kind of tracking device or had a chip in it?)

-There's a scene that shows them(Sheila, Pika, Pairo) holding their forefingers against their closed mouths(the generic hand sign of keeping something a secret). Did she tell them not to tell anyone in the clan they found her? Did she want her appearance to be kept a secret so the clan wouldn't be alerted?

-Sheila's leg starts to heal but then SHE STARTS FALLING AND HURTING IT AGAIN MANY TIMES ALL OF A SUDDEN. This is the most suspicious part. But the question is, since she obviously wanted to prolong her stay there, why would she want to do that? Still, suspicious as a mother#ucker.

-She one day suddenly decides to leave and leaves them a letter saying goodbye and all that jazz. Why is this suspicious? Pika and Pairo are shown in the panel being surprised at her leaving, so they thought she still had to rest some more to heal her leg. Amplifies the above point about her faking a leg injury.

3)Kurapika's (seemingly) fatal mistake

-Pika's seemingly fatal mistake was when he was on his mission to the 'outside' with Pairo world during the test, when he got mad and his eyes reddened. A bunch of people saw this and word must have gone around. He didn't inform the elder about this, so , in his mind, when he heard of the massacre, he thought it was his fault. Why do I say he 'thought' and not 'it WAS his fault'?

Because of the tracking device in the book Sheila(Pariston) gave him. That book was actually the reason the Troupe managed to find the Kurta village, and not the fact Pika had his 'outburst of red'. Pika doesn't know this and it only amplifies his rage and creates terrible self hate and blame, since he thinks the massacre of his kin was his own fault.

Kurapika's(and Pairo's) true fatal mistake wasn't this, it was not informing the clan of Sheila and accepting the book*

4)Origins of the Kurta Clan

-To those who more or less frequently browse this sub, the belief that Kurta originate from the DC is prevalent. The evidence is abundant(their huts and the birds they use for transport are also found on the DC map, Kurta traditional symbols resemble the lake Mobius and the gatekeeper's fate symbols) Here's a good post that proves this point:

www . reddit . com/r/HunterXHunter/comments/5ugjiq/the_lake_mobius_strip_the_kurta_and_the_dark/?utm_source=amp&utm_medium=comment_list

Mobius, in case anyone doesn't recall, is the name of the great lake the known world of HxH currently resides in. The name "Mobius" seems to originate from the Mobius Strip; an example of a mobius strip is a ring of tape with a half twist on it. Anything caught in a Mobius strip, by it's definition, cannot escape the boundary of the Mobius strip. A Mobius Strip can also be made into a three dimensional plane so the boundary is a circle, but it would look something like this....

It is also interesting to point out that if a line is drawn at the seam, it ends up at the starting point but on the OTHER side of the Mobius strip. If the line continues it will end up back to where it was. I believe the lake they reside in is going to be shaped like a Mobius strip and will cause a great deal of problems once they realize the shape of the "lake" they reside in. The Dark Continent must reside somewhere on this Mobius Strip, perhaps off to the side somewhere. If I had to guess it would be far, on the other side of the starting point like the example I stated.

Further evidence of that basically confirms this is this image from the manga when Ging is talking about the Dark Continent to the specialists on the boat.

What gets even stranger is the fact that on Kurapika's robe, you can CLEARLY see a Mobius Strip on his robe.

I think this is conclusive evidence that the Kurta have some tie to the Dark Continent and Kurapika is going to learn some truths about the Kurta if he survives his trek to the DC.

There are 3 Mobius Strip instances in HxH to my knowledge:

Kurapika had it on his second Kurta robes in the YorkNew arc

The known human world is in the center of a giant lake - Lake Mobius

2 books that Don Freecs wrote/is writing about DC form a Mobius Strip

And we know that Chimera Ants came from DC to the Human world. Here is the scoop - almost every explanation about how traversal works in a Mobius Strip is using ANTS as an example

google Mobius strip ants and see it for yourself

So, basically I think the Kurta came from DC(well, duuuh). But why did they come?

Well, we know that every time mankind has tried to explore/colonize/invade(colonize and invade? wtf? - I'll explain) the DC a calamity has befallen humanity IN HUMANITY'S OWN WORLD. This is an important distinction. There were 4 calamities mentioned: Hellbell, Papu, Brion, Zobae and Ai (also probably the Ants, but that's a theory for a different time). Well, these weren't the only ones. The one that was overlooked and not mentioned was the "Great Kurta Retribution" and the Creation of Meteor city.

Sidenote: Did you know the Vikings were the first ones(from Europe) to discover and try to colonize North America? (They have sagas about it, and they called it Vinland). What happened to these Vikings? They arrived accidentally in NA while following the water currents, decided to colonize the place, got in a fight with the natives and we're all killed by the same natives in retribution.

Now, back to HxH. Here's what I think happened: In the place of Meteor city, there was once the capital of a large, wealthy kingdom. This kingdom decided to explore(or better yet, colonize) the DC. They sent their army and fleet across the ocean. What they found were the Kurta, who, even though they lived in small huts and rode birds, were extremely advanced and strong. This DC-exploration force at first glance thought the Kurta were weak and primitive and so they wanted to conquer them. Long story short, this exploration fleet got their asses handed to them, and a big war ensued. The Kurta were beating this Kingdom badly, the conflict moved from the DC into the Known World , and as the climax, the Kurta destroyed the Capital of the kingdom and other large parts of it. In this place of rubble and trash Meteor city was born. The name of Meteor city comes from the time of Kurta invasion, and I guess the Kurta attacked the Kingdom with blasts from the skies that resembled meteors, and also turned the Capital of the Kingdom to rubble and ruin with these attacks. Yes their power was that great(remember when Uvogin mentions to Pika while they were fighting that the Kurta were really strong, this is what he meant).

After their undisputed victory, the Kurta forces started to return to the DC. A small number of them stayed behind in the known world, since it was more peaceful than DC. They also had to remain in hiding, always migrating, since humanity now hated the Kurta and would gladly hunt them given the chance.

This happened so long ago that people slowly forgot what happened to the part of the world that is now Meteor city, and The Kurta Invasion faded into myth and legend. The only people who DIDN'T FORGET were the elders of Meteor city, who have the forgotten history handed down from their predecessors. The flame of revenge still burns in them, for they do not forget the destruction of their once glorious Homeland. This is the reason The Troupe were ordered to kill the Kurta. It was revenge for what the Kurta did. In the note they left at the site of the massacre, it said:"We reject no one, so take nothing from us.". They(Meteor city) have become the World's dump, where people leave dead bodies, junk, waste and even children - they accept everything and reject no one, so take nothing from them, since they once had everything taken from them(the Kurta War).

-The view of the Kurta as merciless Invaders and monsters lives on even today, even though people don't know it's origin. We can see this clearly by the reaction of the people when Pika 's eyes turned red when he was with Pairo in that town. The reaction was much, much stronger than what you'd expect. Those people were TERRIFIED! That grandma even called Kurapika "Red-eyed devil", like it was a monster's name from a scary story parents tell their kids at night to scare them into behaving well. Like:"If you don't do eat your veggies the Red eyed devil's will come take you!"

Kurapika will probably discover his origin and the truth about the Kurta calamity later in the DC arc

5)Final proof on Pariston

-You know what's odd about Pariston/Sheila? Except the part that he and Pika NEVER met after the Kurta massacre(when he was Sheila)(smart Togashi!)-The panel where he said to Ging that "He loves destroying those he loves/is fond of".

Ok, the guy's a psycho, what about it?

Well wouldn't you say he kinda got to like Pika and Pairo when they found him/her in the forest and were taking care of him/her for weeks? Hadn't those 3 spent hours conversing, sharing stories, and getting to become closer for multiple hours a day?

Yes, but where are you going with this?

Do you remember the panel where Prince Thunder Sandwich is sitting on his sick throne of body parts?

The head in behind him is probably Pairo's. Now, why did all the Kurta have their eyes removed, except Pairo, whose head they severed whole?

Sheila only met Kurapika and Pairo, and now you're telling me the only person with the preserved severed head with the eyes from the Kurta, is one of the only two people from the clan Sheila has met?

Do you remember what Pariston said, about destroying those he loves? He probably tortured Pairo the most during the Kurta massacre, and finally sawed his head off,(pretty dark, huh?) not only for his own pleasure, but as a message to Pika, who he also wanted to torture and kill, but when he came there with the Troupe Pika wasn't there, so he wanted to at least hurt Pika by making him find Pairo's decapitated body. That's what hurt Pika the most, beside his case of extreme survivor's guilt.

(Also, when Pariston reminisces about loving to kill the people he loves, a doll with it's eyes torn out is shown! A Kurta eye reference!??)

-Also, as I mentioned before, Kurapika and Pariston(in his male form) have NEVER MET. Probably because if they had met during, let's say, Chairman election arc, the the shit would had hit the fan and chaos would ensure. Togashi's a really good writer, and he has been saving this for later on in the story. Kurapika not visiting Gon wasn't bad writing, it not only served as good characterisation to demonstrate how Pika descended into darkness even deeper, but now it makes even more sense from the story perspective - Pika wasn't meant to meet with Pariston yet.

-This will be the final point on Pariston/Sheila: Isn't it so convenient that "a lost female traveler" discovered the massacre. I mean, come on! It doesn't take a genius to realise this was Sheila/Pariston, and ain't that SUSPICIOUS AS FUCK!!?! You're telling me he/she GOT LOST(it specifically says she got lost in the manga) again and conveniently wondered upon the scene of the massacre?

I think Pariston/Sheila either came there to confirm the kill,in which case he wasn't there at when the massacre was happening. This is the less likely version.

The likelier version, considering what happened to Pairo and his/her relationship with Pika, I'd say Pariston/Sheila was there at the scene, maybe even coordinating the Troupe, ordering them to exclusively cut off Pairo's head, and then reporting the incident to the news to inform Kurapika of the tragedy(to Pariston's delight). They probably killed the Kurta some days immediately after Pika left to find the cure for Pairo, waited for him for some weeks to return so they could ambush him upon his return, but when he didn't show up in those weeks, Pariston reported the story to the authorities as "the lost female traveler, Sheila"

*Many people got hung up.on the fact that the book Sheila gave the boys was called "Adventures of D Hunter", since D Hunter is probably Don Freecs. The reason I think this isn't important and this isn't neither the West books OR the East book is this; The V5 organisation members mentioned that the stories about the DC were well known in the world but people thought they were just fiction. I think the book Sheila gave them was to them just an ordinary (DC, non)fiction book(with a tracking device).

Tell me your thoughts on this theory. It was a lot of fun making it!!!

@hamliet @aspoonofsugar

edit: addition by @gallyl

Wow. Very interesting. Now I also think Sheila was specifically searching for the Kurta Clan, and that she is Pariston or connected to him (a relative?). As for the Kurta massacre, I still like to think that the Troupe did what they did out of cold greed. But the idea about the war is good and provides the explanation for the existence of the meteor city.I also believe that Kurapika and Melody are connected not only by friendship but by fate too: the Kurta clan were associated with the devils, while Melody was injured by the Devil’s Sonata. I guess this sonata could be composed by someone from the Kurta clan. This supports the idea above that the Kurta clan was really powerful and capable of destruction. That’s why Melody is on the Whale ship too. In this regard (as a possible hint to Devil’s music, Kurta and the war in the meteor city?) when Chrollo starts a revenge massacre in the Yorkshin city, he orchestrates Requiem music for Uvogin killed by Kurapika.

#Hunter X Hunter #hxh #hunter x hunter theory #hunter x hunter pariston #pariston #hxh pariston #kurapika #hxh meta #hunter x hunter meta

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floatingcatacombs · 4 years

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In Praise of the Blonde Twink who May or May Not be a Trans Girl

12 Days of Aniblogging, Day 3

There’s been something in the air recently. Last year, the New York Times’ fashion magazine published an article titled “Welcome to the Age of the Twink”, a 600-word LGBT hitpiece arguing that a new wave of “art twinks” are redefining what it means to be an ideal male. The author argues that the term “twink” is being broadened past just gay culture and we should slap it on every slim attractive straight white dude that we see in order to overturn toxic masculinity. Because there’s nothing more revolutionary than, er, fairly conventional western beauty standards.

The internet promptly responded by shitting on the author’s brazen attempt to export twinkness to the straight world. I too think it’s an awful take, but I get the feeling there was a satirical bend to the article that got edited out or otherwise miscommunicated. After all, the author is a gay man; why would he misrepresent and diminish his own community like that?

The broadening and appropriation of LGBT terminology is a touchy subject, so I’ll save it for another day. If taking gay terminology and morphing it into new definitions is en vogue nowadays, I’m happy to join ranks with Nick Haramis and add new meanings to “twink”. Let’s talk about twinks as Schrodinger’s trans girls.

Unfortunately, I have a type when it comes to media, and it’s twinks who I can project transness onto if I desire it. These characters are beacons of androgyny, male-at-birth characters with some connection to femininity via their appearance or their actions. Often, this connection is left unclear by the end of their series, leaving plenty of room for me to imagine “OK so they’re totally gonna be a girl for real now”. This archetype has proven a very useful crutch for me over the years. For so long, media about cis femininity was too intimidating and distant for me to even dream of consuming. During that time, I read lots of manga and played lots of games starring androgynes, allowing myself to project onto them as well as project their character onto girlhood. (see where this leads by transitive property?) Also, a lot of them were blonde (I’m not gonna read into this! My hair is closer to brown tho). With that out of the way, let me rip my heart open and highlight some of those twinks that I’ve latched so strongly onto throughout the years.

Kuranosuke from Princess Jellyfish

I’ve written a whole writeup on Kuranosuke, so if you’ve read that you should know where I’m coming from! Kuranosuke is graced with natural femininity and a desire to perform it, and lands himself into a situation where he must pass on a daily basis while designing fashion for the girls of the Amars house. Kuranosuke’s crossdressing is both effortless and extremely laborious, but it always pays off.

Kaito from Himegoto: Juukyuusai no Seifuku

Himegoto is one of the messiest mangas I’ve ever read. Three characters spiral around each other while desperately trying to negotiate their orientations, gender presentations, and livelihoods with each other and with themselves. Kaito is the standout for me – a ‘guy’ who crossdresses in a desperate attempt to ‘mirror’ his ideal image of femininity. Kaito radiates extremely eggy energies, and it’s increasingly obvious as the plot goes on that all his justification is elaborate smoke and mirrors for his desire to simply be a woman. He begins by projecting his feminine ideals onto his tomboyish friend, but by the end of the manga it all comes collapsing back onto himself. The epilogue leaves it rather ambiguous, but one can only hope that Kaito figured it all out by then.

Alucard from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Symphony of the Night is one of my favorite Castlevanias and maybe games of all time. I’ve always been in love with its hand-in-hand elegance and jankiness. Unlike Kaito and Kuranosuke, we’re going to have to stretch out of the canon to justify this placement, but I assure you it will be worth it. In Symphony of the Night, Alucard is a tall deep-voiced bishounen and that’s that. However, the eva problems classic “YOUR ASSHOLE DAD’S CASTLE IS BACK AGAIN” adds a sickening new twist onto the game: what if Alucard wanted to be a woman? This article retraces the full plot and route of SOTN, adding extra backstory and inner thoughts showing Alucard’s visceral bodily discomfort and twisted-up jealousy towards the female monsters of the castle. Eventually, she takes those terrifying first steps towards accepting oneself as a woman. It’s one of the most effective recontextualizations of a piece of media that I’ve ever read, and I’m not afraid to admit that it reassured and helped me with my own transition a few months down the line. Plus, the idea of Alucard But A Girl is somewhere near my ideal aesthetic.

Ryo Asuka from Devilman

--devilman spoilers--

Ryo is a bit of an oddity. A total weirdo, he doesn’t particularly demonstrate femininity throughout most of the series beyond just being kind of fluffy and cute in the 80s OVAs. However, this all changes in some of the final chapters, when Ryo is revealed to be Satan in disguise. Though every Devilman adaptation has a very different artstyle, Satan’s designed has remained the same: an androgynous fallen angel possessing both breasts and a penis. There’s a lot of associations and implications to unpack there, but I’m not going to do that in this article! While it doesn’t necessarily recontextualize Ryo’s human existence, he sure still is a twink with some Gender happening around him.

Venus from We Know The Devil

Ok, this one’s just a girl! No questions about it! Someone get her some hugs and a bottle of estradiol, stat!

Honorable Mentions:

Raiden from Metal Gear Solid 2

As much as I love slapping the “GIRL” label onto any blonde twink I can find, Raiden’s MGS2 arc of intense emasculation works way better if he's actually a guy. If there’s any further gender stuff happening with Raiden, it’s actually to be found in MGS4 and Metal Gear Rising, in which Raiden sheds his twinkish flesh to become a way more masc cyborg ninja. As The Cyborg Manifesto teaches us, cyborgs are one hell of a post-gender tool. Honestly, reading Raiden as FTM may work way better than parsing him as a trans girl, I just don’t have the specific background and ability to do that headcanon justice.

Lio Fotia from Promare

Promare was maybe the first time I saw a blonde twink character and didn’t immediately think it might be better if they were a girl. Amidst all its discussions of immigration, racism, and climate change, Promare finds time to be real gay, in a delightfully masc4fem way. Together, Lio and Galo stretch the full spectrum of male presentation, and I wouldn’t want to take that away from them.

So that’s that! I hope you enjoyed the lineup of twinks who are dear to my heart, and maybe learned a thing or two from my ramble at the start.

#12 days of anime #12daysofanime #twink

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temporoom · 5 years

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Continuation of my “TPN IQ test analysis” but this time it’s more about Norman

(*cough* and why he is such a great antagonist but that’s my opinion and we’re not here to talk about that *cough*)

(Also yes I put a gif cause it’s cute, it’s a serious post I assure you)

So here’s a summary of my deductions about Norman in my last post :

Norman just knows the answer. He sees the question and knows what is the answer, he doesn’t need to check the other possiblities. At the same time it means that he is the smartest of the three, but it also means that he’s not looking at all the possibilities around him, and if he applies that to his life, then he is actually trapped in this “just give the right answer” without thinking about other methods to find the answer. He is simply smart, but is also absolutely blind to any judgement.

To read Ray and Emma analysis based on the IQ test here’s the post, and I would recommend you to read it cause everything that will follow is based on that :

https://temporoom.tumblr.com/post/185792776008/analysis-of-norman-ray-and-emma-based-on-the

Now, let’s go further into how his thoughts process shape him (and also some part of this post is mostly me theorizing about his thought process, I’m not a specialist I’m just an art high school student passionate about narration in stories don't take my ideas for granted) :

WARNING : BIG MANGA SPOILERS, also English is not my mothertongue

Let’s continue from my last sentence in my last post :

If Emma will change her opinion easily through her deductions, and Ray can also change it as long as he is given the knowledge and reason to change it, Norman cannot change his opinions that easily.

Because he can’t change his opinions that easily, and he knows that, he is following others opinions blindly.

He wants to create a world for children because that’s what Emma proposed back in GF :

And wants to kill all the demons because he knows that’s what will please the lambda children :

I’ve seen great analysis about Norman taking up Emma’s ideals because he thinks his own are worthless. (Here’s my favorite Norman analysis and I just love them) And I do think they are right. But it’s even more vicious than that :

He is willing to take anyone’s ideals as long as it gives him an identity.

Norman is empty. He doesn’t have a will, he is defined by his surroundings and how they view him. And why that ?

Because he doesn’t trust his own self. He doesn’t trust his own decisions. And that’s from back in GF :

His mind is telling him that Emma’s ideal is morally better than his. And once his mind told him that : he cannot believe in himself anymore. And he won’t for the rest of the whole manga.

The answer he found about his life is that he will forever be morally wrong.

He will still believe that he has an answer to everything, but the answer to his own mind is that he is morally wrong. And like I mentioned, once he has an answer, this answer is obviously the right one for him and he refuses to check the other possibilities.

That’s also why he choses the Minerva persona : he doesn’t need it, he has enough charisma for not using it and practically everyone knows that he is not actually Minerva, he chooses it because it’s a way for him to avoid being Norman. It’s a way for him get away from his own self, the one he trusts the least.

If we all know that Ray used to despise himself to the point of preparing during 6 years a plan that will kill him, Norman might actually show one of the most impressive self-loath I’ve ever seen as he tries to erase his own identity.

By taking the ideals and beliefs of someone else, he can believes he can become someone better. Except that he is still himself, and since he doesn’t have any way to judge wether or not the ideals he chose to follow are morally right or wrong he can do some irredeemable choices. Especially in the demon world !

What probably kept him from becoming a bad person back in GF was the idea that he was living in the human world. And the human world has rules and a moral to follow. As long as he followed them he knew that he would live his life smoothly.

But once they discovered the truth, he wasn’t bond to those rules anymore. he can even consider murder to be an option.

And he had to take up someone elses moral and rules : and he chose Emma’s one because they were the closest to the morals of our own world (altruism and the community before the individual). Once he was shipped out, what kept him from losing this ideal was the idea of Emma’s ideal that was twisted with the lambda’s children ideal. And due to the idea that he had of Emma’s ideal, he chose the majority over the minority.

And he kept on chosing the majority over the minority.

Norman probably actually know the answer, he actually could definitely choose to go back to Emma’s answer. But he doesn’t do that because he already took upon the ideals of the majority. And this majority gives him something that his been longing for 2 years and that Emma won’t give him back :

An identity.

With his majority, he is William Minerva, he is a leader, and he is a savior. As long as he follow this role he play, he will have the Identity he craved for.

I think this is what this arc will be (partially) about Norman finding himself again. That he will stop to being Emma’s ideal’s vessel, that he will stop being William Minerva, and that he will go back to just being Norman. A young boy with his own view of the world.

And now I’m really sorry I said wouldn’t go there but can we talk about how great Norman is as a antagonist because I absolutely love that (and villains) and I need to talk about it !?

(I want to precise that as much as I feel like Norman is becoming an antagonist and that I absolutely LOVE it because I love well written antagonist you are not obligated to see him as such)

So, Norman follows a very specific archetype of villains (which was the same as Isabella and you can check a really good comparison of Norman and Isabella here) which is the :

Obliviously Evil or the “evil who does not realize that what they are doing is evil”

(Here’s the TVtrope link) And once you know this archetype you know how well it fits Norman. The Obliviously Evil is a type of antagonist who do not realize that what they are doing is evil, and they do not try to justify themselves, they just sincerely believe that what they are doing isn’t.

And why don't I put him in the Well-Intentioned Extremist ? (TvTrope link) Because even if he ends up becoming extremist, he isn’t aware of what he does.

He is extremist because the people he chooses as model are, especially since he can only grasp the idea that he has of those people and not who they might really be. And because his sense of judgement is blinded by his idea that his own ideal is inherently wrong, he does not realize that he isn’t following anymore any fundamental humans rules and doing the worst. Because it’s what the majority wants, and the majority shapes him.

Norman is not only not aware of his own wrong but his logic and way of thinking, the “I must have the answer” makes it so that he thinks it’s sincerely the good path. As much as Norman doesn’t trust himself, he’s still himself and since his logic tells him that “the majority is obviously right” then he doesn’t even consider any other possibilities.

Notice how it’s always Ray and Emma versus Norman’s group, who are a group of 4 people ! :

(Yeah this time I choose a nice “everyone is getting along” panel because we need it)

But the fact that he trapped himself in a certain way of thinking is reminding me of someone else :

Indeed, he does act similarly to Isabella : she trapped herself in believing that the only way to survive was to do what was told to her. But in the end, when the children escaped, she found the answer that Norman still can’t grasp even now : there’s always another option.

This is what Norman needs to get out of his antagonistic role : find out that he isn’t always right and that there is always another option.

Once he get out of his thoughts process, then he will finally know by himself what’s right and what’s wrong. He will finally be able to define himself without the use of a model. He will finally be able to embrace his own ideals, and not what his logic told him to follow.

Norman’s problem is that his thoughts process is already more similar to a computer than a human, and he is losing even more of his humanity by giving up his identity.

If you have read this until the end thank you ! I’m not sure about my meta since it’s the first time I’m going this deep into a character analyse so any return is gladly appreciated ! I’ve just been really fascinated by Norman in the recent chapters of the manga and trying to understand him is like a puzzle : sometimes hard but very fulfilling at the same time. I probably got a lot of stuff wrong as well as I found out right ones. If it was entertaining to you anyway that’s what is important !

#the promised neverland #Yakusoku no Neverland #ynn #tpn #norman #meta #analyse #analysis #theory #theories

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