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99corentine · 4 months

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How To Write Good by Corentine

THE DRAFTING PROCESS, PART 2/2

Writing guide continued! Here's PART ONE.

STEP THREE: THE START, THE END, THE BEATS

I’m of the opinion that every story should start with a bang. You could start mid-way through a notable event, as seen in GHD:

- O L H A - D - V - The words, incomprehensible, rattle around his head like the last rumbles of a great thunderstorm. Then, much like after a storm has passed, the air suddenly feels clearer, sharper. A sludgy fog he didn’t even realise he was in clears from his mind and he blinks, confused. The first thing he sees is his own hands.

If you want it to be especially punchy, you can start with a line of dialogue or a short sentence, like I did for T4T:

CHAPTER ONE: It is the end.

It’s reeeally easy to lose readers at the start, so you always want to write a strong opener. Something that grabs the reader by the collar and drags them in to read the rest of the chapter.

You don’t need to have all the details, but you should have at least a vague idea of how the story ends. If you’re writing fanfic that follows along the same plot as a game or existing story, most of the legwork is done for you – so writing GHD, I planned for it to end when Alduin was killed. As I got further into the story, I came up with a more narratively satisfying ending, because it’s okay if the ending changes. As long as you have an ending in mind, you have something to work towards.

So GHD’s original, very basic plot was:

START – the Last Dragonborn wakes up with total amnesia

???

He saves Miraak

???

They kill Alduin together – END

Now you have to map out those ??? parts by deciding the major beats of the story, i.e. notable scenes. This gives you something to work towards other than the ending. I ended up with notes like these:

START – the Last Dragonborn wakes up with total amnesia

Who is he? Don’t spend too much time on this, not important, can be answered later

Goes to Solstheim, meets Miraak

Finds a way to communicate with Miraak – sneaks into Apocrypha? Shares dreams? College of Winterhold has psijiics, use telepathy?

Finds a way to save Miraak

Go to Apocrypha, confront Hermaeus Mora, save Miraak

They look for ways to kill Alduin together

Hermaeus Mora comes for them

Prolonged recovery, tells reader that even ‘redeemed’ Miraak is still scary

They kill Alduin together

What happens after Alduin?

(Redacted for spoiler purposes) – END

The story beats should ebb and flow like the tide; high-octane scenes should be followed by periods of calm. You don’t want to do this too quickly or the story will feel like whiplash; rather this is a process that happens over many chapters. Let’s look at some examples in GHD:

⇈⇈ Miraak dominates telepathy and is really scary!! ⇊⇊ Chry wanders around Skyrim doing errands and Thinking About Life… ⇈⇈ Chry breaks Miraak out of Apocrypha!! ⇊⇊ They recover from the ordeal and have a honeymoon period… ⇈⇈ They go to Blackreach and it’s visually awesome, and also Chry gets jealous!! ⇊⇊ They do misc stuff for a while… ⇈⇈ They talk to Septimus Signus, Mora shows up, nearly kills Chry!! ⇊⇊ Miraak whisks Chry away somewhere to recover in peace…

You see what I mean?

Right, you know roughly what’s going to happen. Time to turn that into words, baby!

STEP FOUR: GOTTA START WRITING

My actual writing style is its own separate topic so I’m not going to tell you how I structure a sentence or anything, just my literal writing process.

In my chapter document, I start by making a bullet-point list of everything I want to happen in the chapter. What happens can, and probably will, change as you actually get the chapter down. That’s fine, you just need a starting point.

I very rarely write individual chapters in order, as in start to finish. Rather, I tend to write the scenes I can picture clearly in my head – then by the time I’ve written those I’m in a writing groove and the gaps in the rest of the chapter will come easier. When I’m done, I’ll stitch the individual scenes together, which sometimes requires altering the scene start or end to make the whole thing more cohesive.

There are times when the writer’s block takes me, and I have like two finished scenes and just cannot summon the words for the rest of the chapter. When this happens, to be honest, the only answer I’ve found is brute force: I sit myself in front of the computer, get rid of phone/alt tabs/other distractions, and force myself to type something. Or I hold myself hostage (i.e. ‘I am not allowed to play more Baldur’s Gate 3 until I have written GHD chapter 47’) that works too, for me anyway.

Whatever it takes to get something on paper. What’s mostly important is to get something written, even if it’s not very good. You can always edit, rephrase or even rewrite sections later. Usually I’ve found once you start writing, you get into a groove and then it’s no longer a chore.

I also aim for a certain word count / chapter length while writing. I know a chapter is exactly as long as it needs to be and blah blah, but I set myself a minimum wordcount to reach. Or if I go way over the word count it’s probably because I’ve waffled too much, so I either aim to split the chapter into two, or to ruthlessly edit it back down again.

For GHD I average 7,000 - 9,000 words, but I actually think that’s a bit too long and risks losing people’s attention span, so for T4T I aim lower, about 6,000-ish. Less is perfectly fine, but if I’m reading another fic I find a chapter length of 2,000 words or lower to be disappointingly short. That’s all personal preference of course, and certain fics will lend themselves better to shorter chapters.

Although I jump around scenes within each chapter, I make a point of writing my entire chapters in chronological order. If I’m on chapter 5, and I know something awesome happens in chapter 12, it’s imperative that I do not write chapter 12 ahead of time. If I do, I’ll reeeally struggle to write chapters 6-11, because I have already rewarded my brain by writing the cool thing. If I hold off, my enthusiasm to write chapter 12 may in fact motivate me to crank out chapters 6-11 in record time.

I do have one other thing – in my Scrivener projects I always have a document called ‘Unused’. Sometimes, usually at like 2AM when sleep has failed me, I’ll get a really good idea for some dialogue or description. I scribble it down somewhere (or it will be forgotten for sure) and later I type it into my Unused document, so it’s just filled with random bits of text like this (note, everything you see here is unused, so it's not going to feature in the last chapter of GHD):

At some point in time I’ll peruse it and think ‘yes, this line!!’ and drop it into a future chapter – again though I just write bits, not entire scenes or I’ll have written all the exciting parts already. Anything I edit out of a chapter (i.e. a paragraph I liked but didn’t quite fit) gets dropped here too, in case I can reuse it later.

STEP FIVE: FINAL EDITING

I will be honest, I’m pretty impatient. Once I’ve finished a chapter, especially if it’s one I’ve been struggling with for a long time, I want to publish it now. So I’m guilty of not editing as thoroughly as I should – but this is what I usually do and it catches at least most of my mistakes:

As a first step, I copy-paste the chapter from Scrivener into google docs. Remember I said Scriv’s word processor wasn’t the best? Yeah, it’s no good at picking up on dodgy grammar, but google docs is, so I run it through there and skim-check for wiggly blue lines, then make the changes in Scriv. You may not have this issue if you’re using Word or another more comprehensive software

Once I know the grammar is mostly fixed, I go back to Scriv and re-read the entire chapter start to finish – I’m looking for whatever google didn’t catch, wonky phrasing, repetition (i.e. I used the word ‘quickly’ twice in the space of two paragraphs, that sort of thing)

I go away for a bit (anywhere from a few hours to a few days) and do another careful re-read with a fresh set of eyes. Sometimes I use a text-to-speech software to read what I’d written back to me; you'd be surprised how much you pick up this way

In my great excitement, I publish the new chapter to AO3. As I re-read the chapter over there, I see a minimum of 5 glaring errors I somehow didn’t spot in the previous steps, and hastily correct them before anyone notices.

I like to get at least the first 2-3 chapters of a brand new story written before I post anything to AO3. This is to make sure my enthusiasm doesn’t immediately wane and I actually stand a chance of finishing it. After that I’m rarely more than a chapter ahead of what’s been posted, because go figure I’ll post the newly-written chapter once the editing is done, then start on the next one.

Some people won’t even post a story at all until they have the first draft fully written. This is admirable, but not always realistic – GHD is like 375,000 words, you think I would’ve sat down and written all that before posting chapter one and even knowing if anyone would read it? Hell no.

But while you don’t need a story to be fully written, you do need it to be decently mapped-out. I used to start fics with absolutely no idea where they were going to go; I’d finish 1 or 2 chapters, get really excited at writing that much and hungry for feedback, then post something that I would inevitably lose all enthusiasm for and leave unfinished.

So, know how it starts, know how it ends, and know the story beats in between so you always have a goal to write towards. There will inevitably be fics that you never finish and that’s fine – it’s all writing practice – but readers don’t like to be left hanging, so try your best to finish! Even if it takes ahem four years or so.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐

And there you go, that’s my writing process! I’m not sure how useful that really is, but if it was I could write more guides in future? I have…

A guide to my writing style (this one might be hard to put into a guide but people like my turn of phrase so, maybe useful?)

How I write a sex scene

How I write a fight scene.

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pluralsword · 4 months

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Months Later, Earthspark...

So... we didn't forget about Earthspark.

How could we? We've said we think it's the overall best Transformers show so far in 2023 CE, we were very excited at how it tackled how gender and alt-mode can relate to each other (except the Jawbreaker episode was a disappointment what with how masculinity problems were basically substituted for dinosaurs and mixed up with what should have been a PTSD narrative for Grimlock separate from Jawbreaker's aesthetic journey, and on the subject of rage that came here you would sure think the warrior teacher gal Robbie's asks if she'd show her "beserker rage" would have had some advise), the prison abolition stuff is cool, Arcee was fantastic and so very clearly drawing on her IDW iterations to the point we were hoping she'd talk about gender stuff onscreen and it would unfortunately seem that is not likely to happen... So we were enthused, but also frustrated, with how the Terran and Cybertronian aspects of life are almost always only seen through the lens of anatomy, vague history, or the oppression they go through under an ICE allegory, and qualms that have been touched on how the Terrans are basically raised without connection or celebration of transformer societal practices along with false equivalencies of the Transformers to human immigrants to the USA and uh well... ...there were some things that squicked us about some of the threats the characters faced that reminded us of childhood traumas from media and socialization growing up and we don't feel like getting into it directly too much.

We wanted to write something that honored the parts we liked while navigating how we think the bots in-universe would feel about the stuff the show didn't cover or the traumas they were put through, and how they may have tackled that offscreen, if only because we feel the deep want to. So... several months ago, after writing part of the first chapter but not being in the emotional headspace to actually finish it what with other things in life going on, we got back to it in November:

All Souls' Reforging is Neverending, which you can read on Ao3, here's the summary:

After the events of Season 1 Episode 19 "A Stygi Situation", Grimlock and Jawbreaker are in the forest when Grim gets a call from his close friend and old revolutionary war pal, Arcee, who's checking on him and offering to hang out beyond the notice of GHOST to help with his healing process, as Grimlock had done for her twice in the past. Grimlock happily agrees, and Jawbreaker goes along as well. In the Autobot's hideaway, Arcee and Grimlock detail to Jawbreaker some of the depths of peaceful transformer history and society that overlap and differ from humanity, the hierarchy that disrupted that legacy, and the Autobot rise after. Arcee also gives him some tools to embrace his strength to be gentle. As a neurodiverse trans system with some gal gender stuff & a second generation immigrant background who navigated anger and rage and pain over otherness and alienation, it was a bit saddening to see how awkward the guy-gal dynamic was in "A Stygi Situation" and that Arcee wasn't present with her own insight on rage as a tool with reason and ethos. So we wrote this, Chapter 2 and 3 will be about Arcee, Nova Storm, & Skywarp navigating traumas from episodes after, and how they seek closure.

For people who are okay with chapter spoilers, you can find the chapter 2 summary below. we dunno when we're gonna write chapter 3, rather busy:

Nova Storm and Skywarp have been through a lot. Veterans of the war against Functionism, they fell from the ethos of solidarity then by helping fight for the Decepticon Empire. In the aftermath of that war, they ended up on the run from GHOST on an unfriendly world, had to turn to the cruel and hateful Dr. Mandroid for sustenance and vengeance, endured imprisonment, faced off against the terrifying and repulsively invasive Dweller of the Depths, and finally became part of the reckoning that brings down GHOST. Trauma hits differently for everyone, and for Nova Storm, her encounter with the Dweller has left her unable to enjoy embraces and kisses from her partner Skywarp, and she still struggles with anger and sadness over how helpless she felt. So, when the dust settles after the Season 1 finale, Nova Storm turns for help from one of her old combat unit friends among the Autobots, Arcee… and she and Skywarp realize almost immediately that the violation of autonomy by mind control that Arcee experienced from GHOST likely left her in need of help as well, so mutual healing and reconciliation is sought… along with resolve to make joy and mourn for all that has come to pass.

So uh, yeah, this chapter also deals with how icky the Dweller in the Depths episode was (particularly but certainly not limited to the way the Dweller held Nova Storm reminded us of sexual(ized) violence. to be honest) in a way that we think the characters might in retrospect.

Again, you can read All Souls' Reforging is Neverending, which you can read on Ao3. Also, please feel free to reach out to us about this writing or comment, we know it covers sensitive topics even if with a g-rated framework.

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actualbird · 1 year

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// spoilers for marius' sweet chapter event storyline

hey so i just finished playing thru the phase 2 story and

holy moly, that was good and made me so emotional jhvJKVKSHFVJSDF. once again, i cannot emphasize enough just how much i adore grief narratives and themes, and all the parallels to cyrus brown (also lol at how they changed his name from chris brown jHVSKJFVJSD) to marius' own experience with giann

but the whole brother parallel is obvious and clearly tackled within the story. what i wanna talk abt instead is how a very specific portion of this story made me realize smthing that marius has done over and over again across so many of his stories.

and thus

mini character analysis (or maybe character observation?): marius and emotional distancing

wc: 1.1k obligatory disclaimer that these are just my own thoughts and interpretations. contains spoilers of marius' sweet chapter event, his personal story 4, and several of his cards

anyhoo, the part of the sweet chapter event that piqued my interest and made my brain.

in the last part of the story, when talking about how timmy's experience with cyrus reminded him of his own life, marius opened up on his his father and giann were busy when he was younger and that made him feel like nobody cared (before giann noticed and played a more active role guiding and encouraging marius). but when marius is telling his story, mc notes that:

the wording here nagged at me, because it felt so familiar. and i realized that mc notes something similar in marius' personal story 4, after marius opens up after nearly dying as a child because he was locked in a basement freezer, which, sidenote, im never getting over how fucked up that is!! marius are yOU OKAY???

mc was also hella concerned as i was, and notes the manner in which marius tells her about this:

theres two more examples i want to bring up.

in SSR Sweet Wonders (marius' dreams of childhood card), marius opens up about how, due to the psychological impact of him blaming himself for his mother's death, he got really sick for a while as a child. mc once again notes on how he tells this story:

and last example, SSR All Through The Night (marius' xmas partyland card). i dont have a screenshot for that because what i wanna add from there is speckled across the entire story:

mc learns about a picture book marius had drawn when he was a child, one that told the story that parelleled his own journey to learning about why his mother died.

whats my point here? that on many moments where marius recalls and explains very heavy things on his past, theres two things that stuck out to me.

first, the calm, collected demeanor. and second, the concept of him telling a story, one that belongs to someone else, one that he has detached himself from.

this peaks my interest for two reasons.

the "I'm Totally Over It" vibes

marius minimizes the concern that mc could possibly feel by masking any negative emotion he could possibly show.

this is hugely in line with how he is as whole, because he likes to present himself as carefree, light, easy-going, teasing and playful and nothing gets to him. tho by virtue of playing thru mc's perspective, we know this isnt true because marius' story themes are also chock full of the facades and personas he needs to don to survive as a public figure. marius had to learn how to be a good actor, and he succeeds, and this is again is super aligned with how he masks negative emotion with the mask of "i am unaffected by these objectively messed up experiences i had! This Doesn't Bother Me. I'm Totally Over It."

i found this interesting in contrast to luke. who also masks his negative feelings, but leans toward less of "This Doesn't Bother Me" and more of "no need to worry about that because it's Not Important." it's emotional minimization that could possibly leave room for "yeah, this maybe does bother me, but me being bothered is nothing of value."

but marius circumvents that process at the beginning by simply acting that he isnt even bothered in the first place.

now, this is something that maybe artem and vyn do too, but my knowledge of stories for them isnt as encyclopedic as my knowledge on luke ajhvfasjkhfvajsh so i wouldnt be able to accurately get a read on how they do on this sphere.

idk it's just cool to me to see the subtle variations in how the boys deflect and omit their vulnerabilities!

but back to the concept of "I'm Totally Over It", one way marius achieves this calm collectedness is through the next recurring commonality

the "story" involving the character who is separate from the storyteller

marius speaks of past experiences like hes a detached narrator telling another person's story. he even does this in an near-literal way with his picture book in SSR All Through The Night.

[EDIT TO ADD ONE MORE EXAMPLE of near-literal storytelling and distancing that was later pointed out by milkyway!anon: marius also does this in his very first character pv introduction, ever since the beginning

how he frames all this in his pv is pretty clearly in a playful storybook/bedtime story kinda way, both in the visual execution and writing. i always adored his character pv for being so different and cute and playful, but now in light of how The Rest Of What We Know and what i mentioned in the rest of this analysis, it's now way more interesting and...sad

i use this screenshot in particular detaching himself blatantly. while this part of the pv does this in regards to how the public sees him as a symbol instead of a being (and thus distancing who he is from like, his inherent Being A Person), marius also does it to himself by virtue of telling the story and walking away from it, albeit cutely, as he is a cat

heres the story. hes the narrator, and the character within the story is him but not him as well.]

in doing this, he once again seemingly relieves himself of any "bother" or negative emotions that he could experience, because all stuff that happened? it's not him. it's a character in a story, one that is not him and specifically separate from him because he is the one telling the story.

i fear im not making sense now (tho tbh when am i ever making sense jHVJSHDVFJ) but let me try and explain it through this post (which no longer exists on ops blog so i have to link my rb of it huhu) that shows a collection of quotes that hit the nail on the head, regarding this concept.

when you tell a story, as the storyteller, you are ultimately the one in control. part of being in control means that, if you know how to tell your story, you can ultimately lay all the details down while also leaving it, disconnecting from it, and distancing from it.

distance, imo, is the most fitting word to me, for how marius goes about his heavier experiences.

he distances from the emotions he felt and could possibly still be feeling, he distances from the fact that it was him who went through it, and he distances from mc's worry that could happen as a response.

of course, since mc is the best and an angel, she always takes the time to reassure marius that shes here for him and that hes not alone, that shes with him every step of the way (both him as the "character" he is Not in his stories and the person he Is in the present)

still, it's really fascinating on a characterization level that distancing and detaching is marius' go-to method. hes already somebody that has so many layers of facades and "different" selves, and here he is once more creating another self:

one that didnt go through all of what he went through.

#tears of themis #tot spoilers #marius von hagen #tot marius #lu jinghe

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all-i-do-is-read · 5 months

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Akatsuki No Yona Recap Chapters 1&2

First things first, this sword here, have we ever seen this referenced again anywhere else in the manga yet? I'm definitely keeping my eyes out for this on my re-read.

Before I start this, I am going to put a disclaimer that my recap and commentary will be based on official English translation from ShoujoBeat as they are the copies I own. A second disclaimer is that these are simply all my opinions and commentary from the way I read and consumed the manga. I would very much welcome it if you could also comment and share your opinions as these recaps progress. Also, these posts will be long, so apologies in advance.

Akatsuki No Yona Chapter 1: Princess Yona

Since this is a "pilot" chapter, the purpose is to quickly get to the point about who these people are and what their circumstances are in a glance. Now, I'll say this first: I think Kusanagi Mizuho, the mangaka, is a very talented storyteller and we will celebrate her through this work. Nonetheless, I also think that she is not perfect and has some misses in the way she handled some of the narratives.

This chapter has plenty of that in the employment of what I call her "storytelling shorthand." Basically, it just means infodump-y and trope-y expositions to get some points across that she would like to be dealt with immediately, so she can move to the next point of the story quickly.

(This technique does appear fewer and fewer as the story progresses, presumably as the mangaka improves in her storytelling craft, but there are still instances of them used in later chapters and I would point them out as they come)

To be honest, this is why most of the characters were kind of unappealing to me when I was only starting this manga, because of the very trope-y and, dare I say, exaggerated way they were presented to us. I think the biggest victim of this shorthand is Hak and we'll deal with that in later chapter discussions. But once I got over that, I was fine to continue with the story. Plus, again, this is chapter one, so the shorthand is useful for getting relevant context out of the way so we can quickly get to the inciting incident of this whole manga.

We begin with a narration about the Kingdom of Kohka, the Hiryuu Palace and the King who lavished all his love to his only daughter, Princess Yona. (Oh, look, it's the title of the chapter!)

This narration comes from Yona herself, but we can tell that she is reminiscing about her time in the palace, as opposed to her situation now--outside of the palace. We immediately understand that something must have happened.

Yona is imperious, spoiled and shallow, only caring about her looks. Hak is an irreverent and sarcastic general. He is also her exclusive bodyguard. He also deadpans a lot. We immediately understand that they have a close relationship dynamic in the way that Hak feels comfortable teasing the princess of his nation in front of his King (his masters, essentially) and the way Yona just immediately launches into countering his teasing.

I've seen some people put off by Yona, because she called Hak a servant here (she also called him this in a future chapter, we'll get to that), but to me, it is again one of those shorthands to inform us that Yona is simply ignorant. Plus, it clearly is not meant to insult or belittle Hak. She was just responding to Hak as he teases her. You never see her refer to other people in this way again in this manga, anyway.

Here, we also meet King Il, Yona's father who dotes on her... and the third essential pillar of the Akatsuki No Yona trio, Suwon.

Aside: Suwon looks like a princess here hahaha

We are told that Suwon is so kind and that Yona, very obviously, has a crush on him. We get into a flashback showing us that Suwon supported Yona when she lost her mother at such a young age. At this point in the manga, we were Yona, too, loving on such a gentle Suwon.

And then we are also shown and told that not only do Yona and Suwon have a pretty close relationship, Suwon and Hak are close friends, too.

With Suwon's arrival, we get the information that Yona's 16th birthday is coming up. We also learn, more or less, that Yona figures Suwon doesn't think of her romantically, King Il has a distaste for weapons (and thus a coward) and that King Il doesn't approve of Yona's feelings for Suwon. We get more shorthands here about the immediate royal family's who's who and that, at least, 2/5 of them is not among the living.

Here's another one of those shorthands (infodump exposition) pertaining to Yona's personality. Following this, Yona told her father certain information her father should already know, but for the sake of readers, is spelled out for us.

King Il tells Yona that the reason she doesn't approve of Suwon is because being married to her would put him in danger, just like how the Queen, Yona's mom, was killed by traitors.

Yona opposes, obvi, and goes to contemplate this information. But she gets stalked by an ominous presence, which more seriously brings the point about the danger of being married to her across. She runs and ends up getting into a room where Suwon is. Suwon sees her distress and comforts her. But Yona then has a thought, which to me is a glimpse of the real her buried underneath the spoiled princess surface.

Yona is someone who is able to think about the well-being of others.

Now, the next portion of this, I will skip for now and get back to later. But I'll say this: Yona being stalked in the castle even though Hak is supposedly her exclusive bodyguard is one of another "quirk" that usually happens in this manga.

Yeah, she ran away from that conversation with King Il and she was having a moment to herself, but as a bodyguard, Hak should have followed her from a respectful distance. But then if Hak did, the stalking scene and following scenes wouldn't have happened. So since there needs to be a plot beat here, some inconsistencies just have to happen, I guess. This is one instance where Hak's characterization is a victim of these "quirks," but we'll just overlook that and go straight to Yona's birthday party.

The first time I read this part, I really did believe the direction of this story is that Suwon is the one for Yona. There was also that sequence that I skipped for now that reinforced this idea to me.

So Suwon gives Yona an exquisite hairpin and praises her hair and they have that lovely moment above.

I will talk about this later: Suwon's gaze towards a smiling Yona.

Anyway, this moment is later interrupted by Hak telling Yona that King Il was looking for her. Left alone, Hak and Suwon has a conversation. Hak tells Suwon that he figures that Suwon and Yona will finally become a thing (again, based on the earlier scene with the hairpin, it does look like it, yeah? Hak is not simply projecting here, he is just saying what he has observed). He also says that he supports Suwon to be the future King. Suwon vaguely waves that away with an, "It's not what you think," and we get this little bit of Hak characterization here:

Hak is actually conscientious, as in he takes his role, place, job and status super seriously, even though he is usually irreverent (which was why it doesn't make sense that he wasn't with Yona during that earlier stalking incident, but fine, I'll let it go).

Hak and Suwon then has a serious conversation about things being a bit off in the palace. And Suwon advised Hak to take a closer look at how things are. This next bit is quite important: Hak felt confident about taking a look at things around the palace on Yona's birthday celebration that he wasn't exclusively hanging around Yona that day, because he believes he can leave her safety and protection over to Suwon.

Now as Yona's party quiets down, Yona decides she can't let go of her feelings for Suwon and goes to look for King Il to convince him, but when she gets there, she is greeted with this:

I mean, I know what the silhouette is trying to tell me, but when I was reading it, I was like There must have been an intruder or something! as foreshadowed by that earlier conversation between Hak and Suwon.

This couldn't be Suwon, right?

Yeah, no. It was him. It was Suwon.

And that's where that chapter ends.

Akatsuki No Yona Chapter 2: Shattered Bonds

Nothing for it, but to go directly to the second chapter. But we are treated to a cliff-hanging respite as we go to Hak this time. He is out on patrol through the palace grounds. He's approached by Minsu, King Il's attendant. Minsu offers him a drink and they chat for a bit. We don't know the laws of this Kingdom but we do know that Hak is 18, so it seems that at least he can have an alcoholic drink at his age.

Hak and Minsu talk about Yona and Suwon and we learn, what I think, is the core of Hak as a character in this story when he says this:

"I want them to be happy together."

Guy just wants the people he loves to be happy. How hard can that be to grant? Such a simple desire that, unfortunately for him, the mangaka (hereby referred to as Kusa) is about to shatter.

Now, I really like this narrative technique used here, because as Hak is confessing this desire to Minsu, we are reading it through this panel:

Hak gazing up, probably imagining the smiling faces of his two best friends in his head, and the the tip of the bloody sword that Suwon used to kill Il. I thought that was such a brilliant contrast. What a way to wring our hearts, you know. Kusa would employ this trick a few more times in the course of the story and she always picks the most devastating moments to use this.

Then we go back to Suwon and Yona.

Yona is devastated in more ways than one. Her father is dead and the man she loves is her father's killer. But Yona finds that hard to believe and so she tells Suwon that he is not someone who would do that. In response, Suwon tells Yona a secret about their families.

King Il killed Suwon's father, Yuhon. And so Suwon killed Il to avenge his father. And he has been planning to do it for a looooonggg time.

We also learn that Yuhon was, in all the ways that matter, the better choice to be the King of the kingdom. But for some reason, the former King, Suwon and Yona's grandfather, decided to choose Il as his successor. But now that Il is dead, Suwon is usurping his throne to be the ruler of Kohka.

Poor Yona cannot compute what is happening.

She thinks about multiple things. She thinks about the old Suwon who smiled at her warmly--the one who gifted her a beautiful hairpin just hours ago.

But I guess now that Suwon has finally let out the truth he had been holding on to for so long, he is a bit talkative. He tells Yona that he didn't expect her to be awake and asks her what brought her to the King's chambers that night.

I thought that Yona's response was devastating.

Even Suwon is taken aback by Yona's answer, but let's unpack that later. I promise I will get back to that.

At this point, they get interrupted by soldiers that are clearly on Suwon's side who congratulated him for finally taking his revenge. But then they notice Yona in the room and quickly realize that she saw everything and so they clamor to kill her as well. Suwon resolves to do just that, but fortunately for Yona, her survival instincts kicked in and she was able to run away.

Yona is very much shattered emotionally. While she was running away, she kept denying in her mind what she witnessed, what just happened. She wonders if Suwon actually hated her. She then gets caught by one of the soldiers.

But just as a soldier is about to strike Yona, a force of lightning appeared between her and her pursuers.

It's Hak.

And he's not happy. He considers the situation and demands an explanation from Suwon. (He even has a very good narrative excuse for not being with Yona this time [unlike that last time]: because she is supposed to be with Suwon, so he was making himself scarce).

He then turns to Yona and we see one of this manga's iconic panels: (iconic to me, at least. like when I think of ANY, this always immediately comes to mind)

Yona's response to him here is also very devastating.

"Hak, are you on my side?"

Poor Yona, she already thinks she has no one. Not surprising when the man you love commits regicide in front of your very eyes and soldiers of your kingdom wants to cut you down.

You can tell that Hak is taken aback by this question, too, because he pauses before answering her. Then he pledges his devotion and obedience to her.

Hak turns back to Suwon and Suwon gets him up to speed about the plot thus far, except Hak is not even given the grace of the full truth about the backstory of the royal family rift. So much for a best friend, really, Suwon. Instead, Hak was given a shortcut version of "King Il: Terrible, had to die. Suwon: Perfect Leader, taking over."

Hak then attacks Suwon, which, to his credit, he manages to dodge. The soldiers try to intervene, but they are warned away by Suwon by declaring that Hak is:

Hak is so remarkably strong as a fighter that he even has a famous nickname aside from being a general at his young age. The soldiers even sounded impressed at hearing his name. Now this is already the second time in two consecutive chapters where Hak's exceptional abilities in military arts or fighting arts or whatever you might call it is remarked upon. Bookmark that for now, because I will have some things to say about that in the future.

Anyway, back to the plot.

Because there are, obviously, many soldiers and just one Hak, he and Yona get cornered and all hope seem lost. Hak uses this opportunity to ask Suwon this:

"Suwon, was the man I knew just a facade?"

You get the feeling that the question was almost an imploration. Like Yona denying in her head what she is witnessing, Hak was also looking for his best friend in the face of this man in front of him through these questions.

Suwon, in fairness to him, does answer Hak, although I imagine that his answer actually pulvurized Hak's heart.

"The man you knew never existed. If anyone gets in my way, I will destroy them. No matter who it is."

I feel immense satisfaction knowing that Hak managed to wound Suwon, though. Suwon, you deserved worse.

Yona and Hak has no time to dwell on Suwon's declaration, however, as somebody fires an arrow that distracts the other soldiers. It was just enough distraction for Hak to snatch Yona and together they run away.

They are approached by Minsu and Hak remarks on his archery skills, saying it was a lousy shot (not the time, Hak). Minsu asks Yona if the king is really dead and Yona can only manage a nod.

They make a plan to escape the palace as more of the soldiers that are loyal to Suwon are gathering. Yona then despairs about leaving the palace where her father is. Hak comforts her with an embrace and gives her a reason for surviving for now.

As an act of loyalty, Minsu offers to draw the attention of the soldiers so that Hak and Yona can run away. His last words to Yona, "Please stay safe, your highness," is truly heart-wrenching to me, especially since the last page of this chapter ends with Minsu being shot in the back and with Yona, running away with Hak, taking one last glance at Minsu.

That ends chapter two.

Through all this, I have given very limited commentary about Suwon. And they are all related to the parts I said I will come back to. So here goes.

First, Suwon as the antagonist.

At the beginning, I didn't really see that, because I thought he is going to be the actual love interest for Yona. And I had that thought, because of that sequence in chapter one that I skipped, just right after the stalking incident.

Let's go back to that now.

Yona, overwhelmed by her emotions, tried to confess her feelings for Suwon, but Suwon shuts it down before she could even begin to say anything. However, Yona tries to keep pushing the subject of feelings without actually saying her feelings out loud. We get a few panels of Suwon looking like this and saying things like this:

Now, on my first read through, I thought that Suwon might have feelings for Yona. But (and spoilers for future chapters) it appears that Suwon is just truly awkward and clueless in matters about romance, hence his reaction.

But the really shitty thing about this is that when Yona says that it's enough for her that Suwon is a tiny, tiny bit aware of her, Suwon pats her head in a kind gesture, proceeds to give the hairpin to her on her birthday and then turns around and kills her father.

So given what we know now, that he kills Il and breaks the heart of his two best friends, all I can say about him is that he is a big piece of shit.

In these chapters, all we know about him is his kindness and yet his kindness turns out to be a lie. Kusa does give hints that there might be more to him on certain panels, but two particularly stands out to me.

The first one is his reaction after seeing Yona smile at the hairpin that he gave her.

Now at this point, he still had choices: turn back from his plans and choose Yona and Hak, or proceed as planned and turn his back on those two.

And he chose to be cruel.

Now notice that I am not attaching Kohka in his choices, because I truly believe it is an entirely different matter, even if the narrative and the characters keep insisting to us that killing Il and saving Kohka are one and the same. And I will get to that in later chapters. But like, way later. As in around hundreds of chapters later.

Going back, the second stand out Suwon panel to me is this:

This is him facing the consequence of that choice. Here he was, faced with the girl who, in many senses of the word, had no power. She's so powerless, she can't even choose who she can marry, but she was resolute to have a choice, to make it so that she can choose.

And she would have chosen Suwon.

You can tell from Yona's resolution before visiting King Il that she would have done all she can--all the cajoling, all the imploring, all the imperativeness in her spoiled body--just so she doesn't have to give up Suwon.

It's a choice that is impossible for Suwon to make. (Cause he's shitty)

Now, before you tell me that he had an impossible choice, because the choice was between Yona&Hak or Yuhon, all I can say is this: if Suwon wasn't a shitty person, he would have tried to make King Il answer for killing his father without having to resort to completely destroying the two people whose only crime was loving him wholeheartedly.

No, the choice was not between Yona&Hak or Yuhon, the choice was between justice and cruelty. He chose cruetly, because he is a shitty person, as I keep saying.

I will have more to say about Suwon, because I know his character gets expanded in later chapters, but my commentary on the core of his characterization will never change.

And that's it for my first Akatsuki No Yona Commentary Series. I'm sorry that it got so long, but I had to put chapters 1 and 2 together to make this make sense.

I'll be back with more chapter commentaries soon. Please let me know your commentary on these chapters if you love this manga. I would love to read more perspectives, more opinions. And thank you for reading until here. See you next time!

#akatsuki no yona #yona of the dawn #yona #hak #hakyona #suwon #analysis

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ckret2 · 1 month

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saw your recent reblog about feedback and, though I’ve been occasionally gushing in tags, you deserve to hear what I tell my friends! In general, your writing style is perfect at capturing the timing and delivery of the show itself. I’ve never read a fic i’ve been able to visualize more clearly than this one. You write each character so well that between chapters it feels like i’m right back where i used to be, waiting for new episodes again. I do think you haven’t *quite* solved your side-character-ification (applejackification?) of Dipper problem yet, but other than that you’re doing an astounding job at balancing all the characters and their interactions with each other and with bill in a way that feels natural (plus with these more recent chapters i’m seeing lots of good dipper stuff so you’re definitely getting there with him too! besides, it is nice to see Mabel get the spotlight after all these years anyway. healing, even.) You know exactly how to control an audience’s emotions, you know when to drag something out and when to shut it down, you know when to cut off a conversation and when bring up the fact it was cut off later. Little foreshadowings like the loose tooth are well-planted and plot beats like lucid dreaming are dropped and picked back up delicately and with precision, like pressing piano keys. i don’t doubt for a second it’s all a part of some grand instrument, though i wouldn’t be surprised if you told me most of it was improvised - another way you’re just like the show was. you’ve done the episodic-and-serialized thing better than at least half of all silver-age cartoons that have attempted to do so! I adore the way you show kindness to all characters in your scenes, from gideon’s characterless mother to the little freak himself. It truly feels as though you pick no favorites, and that’s something you do better than the show did tbh. Not that TBOB needed to hook me in with a marketing campaign, but hypothetically, in a universe where I didn’t own a hand-sewn bill cipher throw-pillow and yet somehow still found this fic, I would definitely be excited for it after reading! you’re gifted, and i hope this does numbers on AO3. I truly cannot stand hazbin hotel, but I may go back and read your other works once this one’s over, just to hear your narrative voice. it’s a voice worth hearing, and may it be forever amplified.

oh WOW thank you so much??? 😭 this is SUCH a sweet comment and it means so much to me that you took the time to write all this!!

APPLEJACKIFICATION... that made me laugh. Dipper will get some serious development before the end of the eclipse plot and he's key in the next plot, so I think that'll help him make some progress. But yeah—he's not gonna be as important as Mabel, but I do want to make sure he has a plot that stands on its own, smaller though it may be.

It's 2/3 planned, 1/3 improvised. 😁 I've got a lead time of about 15 chapters between what I've posted and what I've written, so I can do stuff like write the poppet chapter, write the tooth fairy arc, edit the poppet chapter, realize that as long as I'm giving him a bloody lip maybe I can loosen his tooth, edit the tooth fairy arc, have him mention that that tooth was loose. And many chapters I haven't written or outlined yet I have loosely planned in my head so I know how to aim toward them.

Wanting to show kindness to all the characters and wanting to give as many of them an internal life as possible is so important to me, and I'm so glad that's showing through so far!

And honestly I think "I hate [xyz] but I'll read it if you're writing it" is the highest compliment. 😂 All my hazbin fics were written pre-season 1 when all we had was the pilot, a couple comics, creator comments, and some Helluva to go by; but idk maybe you'd consider that a plus lol. (If you're interested, on ao3 I've also written Transformers, Godzilla, some Pokémon, and a smattering of other things.)

Thanks again for sending such a nice message!

#cartoonchaos #ask #about my writing #bill goldilocks cipher

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haleigh-sloth · 10 months

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On Hawks and Twice:

Alright, gonna dive into this pool of needles that is this topic.

I'll start by saying I've been through every stage of feeling for this particular arc. At one point I wanted Hawks to die a tragic heroic death, at another I just wanted to see him get called out about Twice's death by the kids, then I wanted Hawks to face his past demons through Twice via the clones, but I'm past all of that now, though it took some time and a LOT of thinking and talking it out with friends.

Currently where I'm at is just trying to make sense of the decisions made in the manga. I think a lot of people are confused by the Twice clones disappearing and Hawks still standing, and my initial reaction to that was also confusion.

BUT

Let's be real, there were issues with the "Hawks faces Twice through the clones" trajectory from the get go.

It seemed VERY likely and plausible at first, in fact almost guaranteed from the moment we saw Hawks say "kill him, now" with the most deranged look on his face. But then the battle progressed and he kept running away from the situation with Twice, despite AFO reminding him to go make an attempt at mending his mistakes (even though there was no way he could). Hawks meddled with AFO instead and got a whirlwind of punishment as a result, and here we are.

But meanwhile in all of that we found that the Twice clones were not what they were originally thought to be--which was clones of Twice, as if Twice himself had cloned them. No, instead we find out that the clones are simply just Toga. They're just Togas, transformed into Twice. Once that was apparent, that was the main issue I had with the Hawks vs Twice round 2 idea. The impact of Hawks facing "Twice" was immediately blunted by the sheer fact that it wasn't Twice, it was Toga. So it becomes a whole other situation.

The other potential situation was Hawks vs Toga (something I always hated the idea of tbh). But that would have been complicated, as it would have been introducing, initiating, developing, and concluding a relationship all in one arc, or rather even less in a matter of chapters. It felt very possible (and I can't discount that it could still happen in a different way later on, idk) but then Ochacko got the job done first before Hawks could get involved. So now we're left with Hawks who has nobody to face to deal with the consequences of killing Twice, a guy he says he genuinely liked and cared about, and wants to be like.

After talking it out....I'm landing on the point of--the only person Hawks has to face about killing Twice is himself.

Reasons:

The narrative as a whole....doesn't give much reaction to Twice's death. If we're being completely and brutally honest, which I am right now, the only reaction we got were from two characters: Dabi and Toga. Dabi continued on his merry way not really...giving much of a fuck beyond caring enough to give the blood he collected to Toga who he knew would cherish it. We literally got nothing from Tomura and when/if we do it won't be for a very long time after a point when it won't really matter, Spinner and Compress both barely reacted.

All that to say: nobody in the story itself gives a shit about Hawks killing Twice. Not the civilians, not the heroes, the LOV BARELY but not even enough for it to spread beyond Toga. Just....it's not something that weighs heavily outside of Toga's and Hawks's arcs. It just doesn't. That isn't to say it doesn't matter, because it does, clearly. But that is to say that the way Twice's killer gets "consequences" is going to look a lot different than what a lot of people--myself included--originally expected.

Because Twice has now vanished for good, it seems a lot like Hawks is responsible for his own closure now. Meaning he might not be forced into it via a confrontation from Toga (in fact I'd argue the chances of that happening are close to 0 at this point).

Hawks himself had a visceral reaction to his last encounter with Twice. (Read that, you won't regret it). Toga's grief is probably not resolved or gone, but her misery is finally starting to be lifted. Symbolically, all of the Twice's disappearing and Toga's smiling and crying face is her letting her feelings of anger and vengeance go so she can move forward.

All that's left is Hawks. All Hawks has to face is himself.

Hawks has his own feelings to face. Because Hawks is about to witness the results of Shouto and Ochacko succeeding where he failed because they both refused to give up no matter how difficult it got. I'd argue that Shouto's actions and the results from them speak very loudly on this, more than even Ochacko's. Because Touya was about to literally nuke the entire vicinity, and yet here he is, alive. Toga was literally doing exactly what Hawks feared Twice would do. And yet here she is, alive. Granted Toga was in a more reachable head space, but at the beginning she wasn't so easy to get through to. Ochacko didn't stop or give up and she opened up herself to Toga and validated Toga's feelings and doubt about being saved, unlike Hawks.

Hawks seeing these kids succeed where he didn't is the catalyst he needs to have a strong reaction to remembering what he did and how he's done nothing but run away from it (because he was so conflicted and fucked up over it in the first place). Nothing he does can change what happened, but he can at least start to have some introspection and ask himself why he is the way he is, emotionally stuck in one place, latching onto a man who has a family to take care of that Hawks isn't a part of, maybe start to work through that shit too.

Basically, removing all of the outside forces from Hawks's arc to me feels very intentional. Hawks has ALWAYS been a character who internalizes everything to his core. It feels appropriate that everything that moves him forward continues to be what he internalizes--which if I'm right later, will be his reaction to seeing the kids save the villains in the way that he genuinely wanted to do for Twice, but failed.

This isn't as coherent as I'd usually try to make it because I'm not trying to meta anything right now. Right now I'm just trying to reason out my own thinking for leaving Hawks with literally nothing to do or say or anyone to do or say it to. He's all alone now and if he's going to get out of this emotionally STUCK place he's in he has to look in the mirror and think really hard about himself.

#bnha 394 #takami keigo #toga himiko #uraraka ochacko #bnha twice #jin bubaigawara #bnha

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kvetchinglyneurotic · 1 month

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hello terrifying talented friend! i come bearing more ask game numbers than is reasonable so feel free to pick and choose!

2, 11, 13, 17, 35, 73, 81

💚💚💚

Thank you my friend!

2. talk about a notable time a narrative or character has looked you dead in the eyes and said “fuck your plan, here’s what we’re actually doing.”

This was what happened with most of the back half of The Hedgehog’s Dilemma! I intended for Ted to have a fairly minor role, but I wrote his conversation with Jamie in chapter 3 and there was so much of his own baggage with his dad lurking under the surface that it promoted him to one of the main characters. James Tartt also unexpectedly invited himself to practice while I was writing the scene where Jamie picks him up from the train station in chapter 5, and the fallout of that ended up being most of the plot for the rest of the chapter.

11. what’s something neat you’ve learned while doing research for something you were writing? also, how much do you worry about doing research in general?

I know so much about reality dating shows now, including a bunch of research into American shows that I probably didn’t need to do. Apparently after someone gets eliminated from The Bachelor, they have to ride around in the back of a limo with one of the producers until they could get a shot of them crying, even if it takes a very long time (which is maybe more sad than neat).

How much research I do for my fics depends on how much research I have to do in my academic life — when my life was consumed by thesis research over the summer, I hardly did any, but now that I’m mostly onto the writing/editing portions, I do it more often.

13. talk about a writing experience that has pleasantly surprised you.

Writing fanfic! I think I’ve mentioned before that I started off writing original fic, and for some reason I was convinced that fanfic would be way more difficult. It isn’t, and furthermore is a lot of fun.

17. what is your favorite line you’ve ever written?

Damn you, inability to remember any line I’ve written after I’ve written it! I’ll go with:

They’d got stuck to each other, these past days, like those little birds that rode around on top of capybaras but if the capybara saved the bird from his shitty bird dad and promised to take him home to see his bird mum, and in return the bird was so blindingly handsome and good at football that the capybara was honoured to have him riding around on his back, actually, even if he pretended not to be ‘cause he was a grumpy old twat.

from THD because I got a lot of nice comments about it, so now capybaras are permanently associated in my mind with people being nice to me on the internet, in addition to already being my favourite animal. I love those funky little guys.

35. tell us about a character who’s very different than you who you love a whole lot

Rebecca! She’s a delightful schemer in season 1, very poised and put together on the outside but kind of earnest and sweet on the inside. I’m also occasionally a schemer, but we’re generally very different people and want very different things out of life — I don’t think anyone would describe me as poised or earnest, and I don’t want a life partner of any kind, and definitely not kids.

73. how do you visualize scenes? do you see it like a movie in your head, or do the words just flow?

I can picture some scenes very clearly, but more often as static images rather than like a movie, so it’s a mix of trying to describe what I see in my head and just writing.

81. if you could go back in time and give your younger self a piece of writing advice specific to you, what would it be?

You don’t have to write quickly! It’s okay if you don’t make your word count every day or takes days off or set lower goals. In fact it often works better — it’s easier to be deliberate in your writing when you aren’t pushing to write a chapter a week.

#asks #ask games #thank you!#kvetch oc

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microwaving-tesilid-argente · 8 months

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putting down my scattered thoughts for where i would like season 2 of the webtoon to end 🤔

season 1 ended with the cotton candy scene, webnovel 51 and webtoon 42. s2 is currently at the slime dungeon, which is webnovel 61 but webtoon 52. the webtoon condensed hearthfenrir punishing the golden ivory tower (ch 46-49) into like 2 panels and condensed/skipped a few other minor scenes. i never actually read all the early chapters, so idk if the 10 chapter/episode gap is because even more entire chapters got skipped. if it is, then it means that the adaptation speed is roughly 1:1 except for when entire portions get cut.

if we take s2 to also be ~40 episodes, we might hit episode 80+? assuming a 1:1 adapation speed, it would mean webnovel 100+. and if some portions get chopped (maybe some sections of floor 299 and some others) maybe we can even hit webnovel ch 110?? idk if that area will be a good spot to stop though.

the week of regressions is at webnovel 77, while greenwalle starts at ch 82. narratively speaking, the start of greenwalle would be a nice place to start s3, except that i think the webtoon readers might get a little upset about still being stuck in the tutorial period orz. unless floor 300 is just that well done?? idk. actually i think floor 300 would work well as the central arc for this season, just like the toy mansion was. i just want to see post-regression tesilid though 😔

harpy queen is 87-91 and pandora's is ch 91-98. personally i think it would be nice if they could include greenwalle and a little bit after. just to smack all of us silly with the huge gap between tutorial tesilid and post-regression tesilid. i think casual webtoon readers would have forgotten how optimistic and well-meaning baby tesilid was by the time season 3 rolls over, so greenwalle wouldn't hit as hard.

stopping at the end of pandora's would also mean adapting 40 chapters, so i guess maybe they don't need to cut too many scenes? i also don't think it would be a good idea to include much past pandora's. the vatican arc is a liiiiitle bit long. there's the whole setup period, then the snow queen dungeon, then everything keeps snowballing into the magic republic arc and we only get space to breathe again at ch 128 when ailette blacks out. which is also a cliffhanger itself.

greenwalle being in s2 on its own would be a bit of a let-down i think because iirc nothing really happens there, we just meet reed and tesilid wakes up and barely talks. harpy queen arc very clearly shows how much more cold-hearted tesilid has become, which is great for making us all cry, but idk i think pandora's is a cooler place to stop? harpy queen ends with "how is tesilid going to sacrifice himself to regain powers without dying", which is a nice cliffhanger but i think it's not appropriate for a season finale - the stakes are too high. pandora's ends with them entering the vatican, which is a whole new stage of their lives so i think it's a nice spot for s3 to pick up.

#s-class heroine spoilers #might not reply to any replies for this post bc #i actually dont want to get reminded too much of what is gg to happen in s2 #j wanted to dump my thoughts somewhere #bc i wanted to work out the math and see if we're gg to get post-regression tesilid anytime soon lol #signs point to yes ☝️#altho tbh i think i could just get the answers for this by looking at the korean webtoon #but ✨ idk how ✨#would have saved me time tho LOL

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imaginary-zero · 11 months

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Future dark worlds

So I think most people have noticed by now that the two major Dark Worlds we've been to so far in Deltarune had double-doors as their entrances from the Light World. This is also clearly significant based on the door to the computer lab being changed when chapter 2 dropped. So I decided I wanted to analyze the different double-doors I found throughout Hometown and talk about why I do or don't think they might be future Dark Worlds. (this is gonna be LOOOOONG and also I'm definitely not the first or best one to do this but I think it'll be fun lol. Also I'm going to explain things as if the reader is caught up on all the major confirmed lore, the Spamton Sweepstakes stuff, the cancelled alarm clock app, and whatnot)

So I'm analyzing these options based on a few things: -Lore significance (if a location is significant to the overall lore of the world, both known and mysterious. So basically if it has something to do with Gaster, parallels to Undertale, potential exploration of character backstories, etc.) -Narrative weight (The impact a dark world in this location would have on the story, emotional or physical impacts on characters, previous foreshadowing, and if it would be sastisfying, important, or fascinating to the player) -Known contents (Do we know what's behind those doors? If the answer is no, then the possibility of it being a future Dark World is higher. It was very deliberate that we weren't allowed to enter the computer lab in Chapter 1) -Vibes (do I feel like this is something Toby Fox would do? Do I feel like the story is going in this direction? my own opinion and nothing more) -Isekai victims (would anyone potentially get sucked into the Dark World upon its creation? If so, who?)

So let's go over the possibilities I've found.

The second-floor door in Asgore's flower shop. -Lore significance: Asgore was heavily important to UT. Comparisons between UT!Asgore and DR!Asgore have already been made via his intro. He seems to have made some mistake that got him removed from the police force, so that could be a plot point that this story explores. Narrative weight: Yes, it would harken back to Undertale's ending. This would emotionally impact Kris, as Asgore is their father. Also, depending on how Chapter 3 pans out, Toriel might get involved as well. Known contents: Nada. The door is locked and Asgore says nothing about it. Vibes: Very much feels like something that would happen. Isekai victims: Asgore himself. Probably not any customers since the door is locked and the Knight or whoever would probably shut the door behind them, as it did with the other two.

The Church. -Lore significance: Worships an Angel, quite possibly the same Angel from the Legend ("three heroes appeared to banish the Angel's Heaven"). -Narrative weight: The Dreemurr family went to Church often in the past so this may affect Kris in some way. Also a lot of Alvin's words smell like foreshadowing -Known contents: Nope. The door is blocked by NPCs in both chapters so far. This feels very deliberate; it's not just locked, access is being actively denied to you by other characters. -Vibes: Strong yes vibes -Isekai victims: Father Alvin. Monster kid? (wears a cross). Any other church goers

The graveyard by the Church. This is technically a gate and not a door, the view of it is to the side, so in order for this to work the Dark World entrance animation would have to be different, or the Dark World would have to be created with our protagonists already there. Still, I've seen a lot of talk about this one being a possibility, so I wanted to give it the time of day. -Lore significance: It's near the lore-important Church. Possibly-important dead characters who were also dead in Undertale are buried there. The idea of this does make me wonder though, is it even possible to open a dark world outside? What are the ramifications of that? -Narrative weight: It would harken back to UT's True Lab and the amalgamates. Also Noelle's Ice-E pizza box story might be foreshadowing? -Known contents: Yes. You can enter the graveyard as early as Chapter 1. However, there are some as-yet unseen things there. Namely, the things underground. -Vibes: Idk, how much do you want to lean into Oberon Smog territory? (/lh, no shade to Jaru, i like that theory even if i don't necessarily believe it whole-heartedly). I keep going back and forth on this one, but you caught me on a "maybe" day. -Isekai victims: Father Alvin, Shyren, Snowy, maybe the Wet-Nosed Bandits?

The Bunker, AKA the bane of every Gaster-denier's existence. -Lore significance: It would take five goddamn paragraphs to explain lmao -Narrative weight: see previous statement -Known contents: One of the biggest mysteries -Vibes: Mixed bag. On the one hand, it would be very Toby Fox if we never got to see the inside of the bunker. On the other hand, I don't seriously think he's THAT much of a tease. -Isekai victims: Not sure. Whoever's down there, I suppose. The thought has crossed my mind before that there might already be a fountain down there, but I'd have to seriously think on that some more.

The Hospital -Lore significance: Unsure -Narrative weight: Rudy's failing health and the impact that would have on Noelle if he got worse or died (and we know he died in UT's universe). And if our choices to matter in regards to Berdly's fate or health, that could also be impactful. Noelle villain/redemption arc? -Known contents: Yes, we can enter in both available chapters. There aren't any hidden rooms or locked doors inside as far as we know either. -Vibes: Maybe. It would expand on Noelle and her family if that's going to continue being important (which is likely because Dess). How much can be done with a hospital theme though? (says the person with infinitely less creativity than Toby) -Isekai victims: Rudy, Mouthface (idk what their actual name is), whoever is in the east wing on that particular day (might tie in with events from the previous chapter or Weird Route?)

The school's entrance/main hall -Lore significance: meh -Narrative weight: We've already had a dark world in the school, though further in. Is this necessary? -Known contents: Yes; it's literally one of the first places you see in the game -Vibes: Seems unneeded and redundant, but I wanted to consider it, however briefly, for the sake of thoroughness. -Isekai victims: All students, Alphys, Toriel (second round?)

the gates of hell Ice-E's P"E"zza -Lore significance: God I hope not but that one video by HalfBreadChaos at least got me thinking (here's a link if you don't know what I'm talking about https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftQNVAY6KeU ) -Narrative weight: Noelle's Ice-E trauma courtesy of Kris. Would also have minor connections to UT? -Known contents: Yes, it can be entered in Chapter 2. -Vibes: please no -Isekai victims: Pizzapants, all other employees, customers

The Holiday family's house. Much like the graveyard, this is a gate at an angle, so it doesn't quite fit the bill, but I still wanted to consider it. The front door to the house could also be a double-door for all we know but that's pure speculation. -Lore significance: Noelle's mother having icy vibes seems important in a deeper way. Noelle's potential status as an angel (or the Angel) also gives her lasting importance beyond chapter 2. -Narrative weight: It's important for a lot of characters. It's Noelle's home, Susie's heavily implied love interest's home, Kris' childhood friend's home. Kris has also been there in the past. It would have an impact on the player as well because a lot of players want to know more about the Holidays and Mayor Holiday's importancce and power has been heavily hinted at multiple times. -Known contents: We haven't been past the gate and know next to nothing about the house itself (I think the only thing we know is that there's a piano in there somwhere and that's not much) -Vibes: Seems plausible Isekai victims: Noelle and Mayor Holiday. Maybe Rudy if he's able to go home (unlikely).

The locked doors in the main hall of Ralsei's castle. -Lore significance: A Dark World inside a Dark World? Sounds like Roaring time to me. And consider: "But what if it could... get darker than dark?" Alternatively, this could just be Ralsei's way of entering Dark Worlds disconnected from his own (like Cyber World), and if that's the case then this would be less possible probably. -Narrative weight: We would be coming full-circle, with our adventure starting in the castle and a late-game dark world (because I think it would be late-game) being in the place where we began. It could also pose a threat to the Castle Town we've helped to create and populate (in a Mercy run). -Known contents: Nothing. It's locked for now (side-note, I'm kinda surprised Ralsei doesn't mention it or ask Ralsei why it's locked when you interact with the door. Just seems like something she would do. Or that Ralsei doesn't try to explain, like he does with the barred off staircase upstairs past the gang's rooms.) -Vibes: I can totally imagine this being the fountain that completely topples the balance of light and dark into Roaring territory. It would probably by chapter 7. However, I'm hesitant to say that I'm 100% confident in this, more like 75%. -Isekai victims: Anyone in the castle, really. And they'd probably all turn into stone pretty quickly. Which... happens to be a part of the Roaring prophecy.

Alright, so that's all of the candidates gone over. I think the two most likely candidates are Asgore's flower shop and the Church. Now it's time to discuss the most likely candidates, what order I think they'll come in, and how many more Dark Worlds we're going to visit. That last point might seem odd - there are five more chapters, so four more dark worlds not including chapter 3, right? Not necessarily. I forget who it was, but I remember a Deltarune YouTuber floating around the idea that chapter 4 might be an "intermission" of sorts. Basically a chapter where we don't get a new Dark World. Instead, we just explore and hang out in Hometown with Susie and visit Castle Town. I really like this idea, but it's pure speculation as of now (Speaking of, this is the pure speculation part of this theorycrafting session, so keep that in mind). I can also imagine chapter 7 going one of two ways. Either a particularly bad dark fountain gets opened for the climactic dark world, or there are multiple dark fountains opened and we need to deal with several smaller dark worlds in the final chapter. In the former case, the dark fountain would either have to get out of control very quickly, or it would have to be created in such a way or location that the darkness would immediately overflow. In the latter case, there being multiple dark worlds open at once would cause the balance to shift. Maybe we'd have a time limit in which we have to close them all, or maybe we're too late no matter what we do.

So, with all that out of the way, I'm going to present a few formats that I think the future chapters could take. Due to the unknown variables, I will be doing so in a convenient, hastily cobbled-together two-way table that I made in Google docs.

Which one of these do I believe the most? ...eh, take your pick, honestly.

They all have their plusses and minuses, their points and their flaws. I don't want to get attached to any of these ideas either, since any number of rogue elements could prove me wrong once we get the next three chapters.

Since I kinda need something to close out this post which is more impactful and thought-provoking than that indecisiveness, I guess I should address something I mentioned in the beginning. I posited that maybe the bunker already has a dark world inside of it. Evidence to this point includes: -it plays the Entry Number 17 music slowed down (dark, darker, yet darker) (dark world cell phone audio) -many aspects of its design and vibe are prime dark world potential -Kris seems to know something about the bunker, so if you believe Kris-Knight or that Kris has been to Dark Worlds in the past, this could have merit (I'm not sure how much I believe those theories, but still, food for thought) -It would just be really cool

However, there is a massive flaw with this idea: Ralsei. He claims that the balance of light and dark is shifted by the creation of another dark fountain, and then in chapter 2, he says that he "felt a dark presence" and came to Cyber World to help Kris and Susie. Therefore, he would almost certainly know if there was an active dark fountain in the bunker, and he would have mentioned it by now (it's not the kind of thing you can neglect to mention due to there not being a good opportunity). And I doubt he would be unable to feel the dark presence due to it being too far away or something.

The only way for the bunker to already have a dark world in it and for it to make sense for Ralsei to not bring it up is if he does know and is actively keeping it a secret. Either because he is working with the person making these dark fountains (or at least the bunker fountain), or because that one is actually good to have around... somehow?

I'm a lot more hesitant to accept "Ralsei evil" than some people are, so this doesn't really compel me. So, much like every UT/DR theory I've ever come up with by myself, it looks solid at first but falls apart if you point in its direction too assertively. Still, it made me think. Never hurts to consider this kind of thing.

And with those four hours gone, hopefully I'll be able to think about something else again. Sorry if it's bad Tumblr etiquette for my first post ever to be something so heinously long, I'm new to this lmao. To all 3 people who made it this far in this monster of a post, congratulations for surviving my ramblings.

May the hymn of the Angel sing thee to thy rest.

#deltarune theories #deltarune #probably unoriginal #dark world

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spyrkle4 · 1 year

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Welp trial 2 is off to a *great* start

details under the cut so I don’t accidentally spoil the trial

-A couple secrets got confirmed in this one! which makes me sad : (

-Whit’s mom is dead : ( Ace has an eating disorder : ( Eden : ( just Eden is sad

(this kind of makes me feel like that the world of DT is not very lgbt friendly, as Nico was constantly bullied for being non-binary and Eden worries her sexuality is going to ruin her friendships, I mean the DT world clearly has problems as shown in the backstories of several characters and in the bonus videos, even when the Tragedy happened because of the messed up expectations of society (teenagers being pressured to be the best of the best), society still didn’t change : ()

that was probably a little off topic but if we get bonus videos for the dead people in this chapter it’ll probably worldbuild a bit more

-Also I am 100% certain David lied, not bc he said he got a dead person’s secret but we can guess Xander’s secret if you’ve seen the bonus videos, I mean it could be that it’s both Xander’s secret (Teruko having no idea what her secret is and the remaining few are kinda morbid), but David lying seems accurate

-And it was basically confirmed Nico did try to murder Ace, and J making a VERY good point that it’s something they have to live with, even if they didn’t kill Ace

-Them talking about the rules (Arei potentially being complicit in her own murder) is interesting, makes me think it’s something that’ll apply to future cases

-Speaking of that I love how Veronika is casually like “oh yeah I’m keeping my secrets to pan out the drama” like she has 0 fear of death and is just here for the chaos

-Everyone’s reaction to the murder secret being “wtf which one of you is a murderer?!?!” XD

-And of course the dead students having a presence still, (I repeat my statement of not taking a drinking game every time the dead cast are brought up, your liver will die), it makes seeing their portraits in the trial room more... spooky? I’d say? Like they def aren’t forgotten, not even dying in canon will prevent you from having effect on the plot, you will haunt the narrative

-Xander def haunts the narrative the most since David pinned the mastermind secret on him

-I kinda figured the ep would end on the note, I’m dying to see what that note is

-Also I wonder if it has to do with the Arei/J switch theory going around. Am I 100% percent certain it’s true? not really. Do I think it’s possible? Yes. Do I think there’s a lot behind the scenes we haven’t seen due to Teruko not being involved it things? Y E S

-Teruko’s actions are gonna hit her in the face as her removing herself from situations causes her to not be able to get all the information or even be able to help out, like she’ll probably slowly start trusting the others after this, since they’ve given no reason for her to distrust them

-Esp Eden, she’s trying her best over here

-Also omg I love the voicing for the nonstop debates, and the details of the trial look so awesome <3

#danganronpa #danganronpa despair time #fanganronpa #drdt #sparky talks danganronpa

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youkaigakkou-tl · 2 years

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The Haruaki Student Arc Post

In other words: “Haruaki has a weird dream and I read way too much into it”

It’s only 2 chapters, pretty short to be called an arc, but I call it an arc anyway since it’s got enough material I thought about and wrote all of this.

Also I’ve been reading up on stuff to make the Kyoto arc post and it's kinda driving me insane so this is like a brain cleanser.

All opinions, theories etc are my own, if it’s not explicitly shown in the manga it’s my own extrapolation.

This is over 3800 words, and more coherently written than the Renren arc post, so buckle in.

Spoilers for chapter 79 and 80, I recommend you pull up those two chapters on wherever you read manga for the full experience, and also pull up whatever other chapters I mention.

OP talks about Monogatari series for a minute

My first impression of these two chapters was that it’s very similar to Zoku Owarimonogatari, in that both are “MC is the same, but trapped in a world where everyone else behaves differently”. Of course, it’s very different once you actually get into it, in Zoku Owari it’s that everyone else’s hidden parts are on full display, whereas here it’s just a slight dynamic change due to Haruaki being aged down a few years. Despite that, I think both of these serve similar purposes in the narrative, as a reflection on the MC through the lens of the other characters, and also a reaffirming of who they are as people.

(If you haven’t seen Monogatari series, it’s really good, or maybe it’s just because I like ahoge idiots?)

Anyway, the chapter, huh

Interestingly, or rather obviously, it starts in almost the exact same way as chapter 33, with the students going to play somewhere and Haruaki feeling left out. In some sense, this arc is a “Prying into Haruaki’s Problem” part 2, tackling the problem from the students’ angle instead of the teachers’ angle.

This arc gives me so many emotions, he’s still hung up about this even after all this time (crying punching walls etc I care him so much)

Notably though, he’s been through a lot more at this point compared to chapter 33, namely the events of ch33 itself, Miki arc, Ebisu’s introduction, also the whole Renren arc.

You can really see this in how much better he takes stuff in the first pages of ch79 than in ch33, how much more open he and Miki and Hatanaka are. Reading back ch33 now, it’s really become clear how Miki and Hatanaka were tiptoeing around Haruaki in their own way. (Well, also because this is before Miki ironed out his own feelings about this whole thing)

It’s also fascinating that he says this in ch33, because the fact this arc happens shows that he clearly has not come to terms with this as much as he thinks he has. Haruaki’s such an interesting character to me for this reason, he’s clearly a smart guy, but even knowing about your own feelings objectively, you can’t do anything about it.

“Haruaki!!”

Clearly, the first sign that it’s not the real Sano would be this.

I translate from the Chinese version, so it wasn’t immediately obvious this happened, since Chinese doesn’t have furigana and doesn’t differentiate “Haruaki” and “Seimei”. In early chapters they used “清明” (as opposed to “晴明”, they have slightly different readings) for “Seimei” but ultimately they dropped that. Actually, “清明” is the word for qingming festival, or tomb sweeping day, so that’s kinda cute.

Anyway, I bring this up because I only looked at the JP raws after fully reading the chapters in CN, and for a moment I was exhilarated that Sano called him “Haruaki”, and then I remembered it’s a fake Sano.

This first scene in the dream is also a clue, because in the real world Sano and Mame are rooming, and neither of them would have it any other way.

I wonder if one of Haruaki’s grievances is also his loneliness in university, since Amaaki went to a different uni to study shrine stuff, Haru probably roomed alone. (This is in a twitter comic I haven’t translated yet)

Hijita talking to Haruaki

This is a very minor thing, but if you’ll recall, Hijita is introduced as hating humans because his sister’s husband has his shit together. He ends up changing his mind and being okay with Haruaki because he’s such a pathetic meow meow.

(If you look at early chapters, you can really see which details were put in later, like how Hijita says the only humans he knows are his sister’s husband and his family, but Beniko has 3 human dads)

(Also, the detail that Haruaki “didn’t know youkai existed before now”, but he’s seen mandragoras before, also small Miki, also the creepy lady dragging Ame away, also Ame says he “fibs about seeing strange creatures all the time”. Crack answer would be he’s an airhead who doesn’t connect any dots, crack taken seriously would be he has some kind of mental issues or coping mechanism either from being Abe no Seimei’s reincarnation or not being taken seriously all the time and possible bullying, the essay for which I’ll never write because I’m not good at understanding people/characters.)

Anyway, it’s really probably just a throwaway line, if we really take it seriously probably something similar happened in this fake universe.

Mame is the MVP of this manga

Have I mentioned Mame is the MVP of this manga? No because I just realised it writing this essay. This manga straight up would not exist without Mame. First of all, I’m pretty sure he’s the student who talks to Haruaki the most, as much as or even more than Sano. If they’re in the same scene, Mame’s probably saying something to Haruaki.

(All these are just from flipping through chapters for a minute, mostly volume 1)

The second line he ever says, 4 pages into chapter 1, is asking Sano if he’s going to help Haruaki when they see him getting harassed.

In chapter 1, Sano did go up to reassure Haruaki of his own volition, but I’m sure the entire reason he decided to do that and isn’t more of a brooding emo teen is because he’s been friends with Mame.

(There's an interesting throughline here, the parallel between Mame and Sano befriending Haruaki, and Hatanaka and Miki befriending him. The “emo loner with trauma” and “extrovert animal youkai bff”)

Mame also started the biology club, which = mandragoras.

Also, Hatanaka and by extension Miki only became teachers because of Mame.

In other words, Mame really is the mascot character.

Dodgeball

This part’s a callback to chapter 5, where Sano and Haruaki do basketball combat, it even reuses the same sailor uniform joke!

Again, Mame’s on Haruaki’s side instead of Sano’s, a clear but super missable clue.

I do wonder how exactly the makuragaeshi’s fake Sano works, is it just the makuragaeshi wearing Sano’s appearance, or was a Sano of this AU created, that the makuragaeshi is just piloting? Most of this Sano’s behavior is too Sano™ for someone who doesn’t even know what name he calls Haruaki, methinks.

(Or he just called him “Haruaki” to flatter him? Sure got to me for a moment.)

This page

What can I even say? This page just destroys me. This manga is a masterpiece

Izuna-kun and Rintarou-kun

Right, now we get into the detective part of this essay. I have to respect the makuragaeshi for this (and also Tanamai-sensei) that it’s not just “dream world where Haruaki gets everything he wants”.

(Imagine I’m like this)

The entire reason I’m taking these 2 chapters seriously is that the makuragaeshi seemed surprised at all the changes ageing down Haruaki caused, so there’s more to it than “haha wacky dream world”.

I can’t help but wonder if Hatanaka in this universe is way harsher than in the real world, and if there’s a reason why.

Compare this to him being all buddy buddy with Mame and Tamao in Yoseito, as well as him being one of the first ones to warm up to Haruaki in the earliest chapters.

This is a fascinating thing to consider as well, because I reckon the reason Hatanaka gave Haruaki a chance was that Miki gave Haruaki a chance, but Miki had ulterior motives. I’d even hazard that Miki arc was planned to happen from the very beginning.

Biggest thing in this chapter about Hatanaka, that’s pointed out twice, is that he’s not married to Ibara. (He doesn’t have the scarf and doesn’t have a ring) Which also means he doesn’t have kids. I bet having a wife and kids would mellow him out some and make him tolerate students more.

Miki is also extra prickly, which is understandable, but in ch53 we see him react to Ebisu knowing about his family matters, and he doesn’t explode like he does in this chapter. Of course, there’s different parts to the equation, Miki would be more careful about what he does in front of a god than a human, but I think it’s interesting to consider.

If Haruaki was aged down, Hatanaka and Miki would not have met him on their 2nd year school trip, but it’s not like that was a formative experience for the 3 of them anyway. Maybe it was for Sano, but Sano’s totally out of the equation for this analysis, obviously.

On the topic of Sano, Ebisu doesn’t show up at all this arc. In the real world, Ebisu spies on Hyakki primarily for Sano, and Haruaki is only secondary. The reason he’s even aware of Haruaki is the TV program he did in ch17, and also meeting him in Tokyo when he got lost in ch36 to ch38, which is kinda connected to meeting him 9 years prior when little Sano gave Haruaki the talisman.

All of this would not have happened if Haruaki was aged down. He still might have gotten lost on that field trip and ended up in Kyoto, but the timing would not have lined up with Hatanaka and Miki’s school trip.

Intermission

I’m realising this Just Now, but the dream doesn’t happen at the same time of year as the real world.

They’re wearing the winter uniform in the dream (gakuran for the boys, long sleeves for the girls) which would be for October until the end of May.

Whereas the students are still in their summer uniforms in the real world (blue button up for boys, short sleeves for girls). Even for the Kyoto arc after this which definitely happens in October, they’re still not in winter uniforms, just sweater vests over the summer uniform.

This is also why the last time we see students in gakuran in the manga proper is chapter 7, even though the unbuttoned gakuran is such a delinquent look.

If I had to guess, I’d say the dream is set super early in the school year rather than after October.

In that case, this would have been before the field trip to Tokyo happened anyway, timeline-wise.

Intermission over

Miki’s situation is interesting to consider, because Haruaki was a lot more involved with him.

First of all, his mom is still sealed, so it can be assumed not much has changed about Abe no Seimei 1000 years ago.

With Haruaki aged down, he wouldn’t have met Miki when they were 10, because Haruaki would have been like, 1 year old, not at the age he would go jaunting around to the next prefecture over.

This means Miki wouldn’t have had to see Haruaki get totally murdered! Hooray!

A slight tangent. The chapter title for Miki arc is “Abe no Seimei, Haruaki Abe and Shutendouji”. Have you ever wondered how it was written in the original? No? Come on, have some curiosity.

It uses the same kanji for Abe no Seimei and Haruaki Abe, but it has 2 lines of furigana. How many other mangas get to do this? Man.

That aside, this still doesn’t explain anything, in fact the Miki in this universe is even more prickly than the real Miki. This Miki actually reminds me of the real Miki when he learned his mom was going to be unsealed.

Actually, now that I think about it, even without the trauma of seeing his new friend get eaten, he would have been an outcast at school either way for being the shutendouji’s kid.

The thing I’m hung up on mostly is Ibara. Given that “the true nature of people haven’t changed” and all, if Hatanaka and Ibara both exist, pretty good chance they would have gotten married. So, indulge me on these 2 crack theories! Don’t take anything too seriously, I’m not taking anything seriously.

Crack theory 1: Time travel real

EDIT Feb 2023: wrote a post about hatanaka time travel, go read that.

This has to do with the whole subplot in Yoseito where Yamazaki recognised Hatanaka from 100 years ago, and also Ibara recognised him. My pet theory, because it’s the easiest and most obvious one, is that there’s time travel shenanigans involved, basically the Hatanaka from a future point in the main story ended up in the past. Now, because this is a reality where Haruaki is the same age as Hatanaka and a teacher, and he’s also the number 1 causer of shenanigans, it probably has something to do with him.

Conversely, if Haruaki isn’t the same age as Hatanaka and causing shenanigans, the events from 100 years ago might be different, and Ibara wouldn’t be as inclined to notice Hatanaka and get married eventually.

That said, this is a crack theory based off another crack theory, so nothing holds water here really.

Crack theory 2: Ibara is dead

This was actually the first conclusion I came to, because my default thought process is “but what if dead?”.

This might sound insane, but I have reasons. (I think.)

It all comes back to the “their true natures haven’t changed” thing, that if Hatanaka and Ibara both exist, they would have gotten together.

It’s not a world where Ibara never existed in the first place, because Miki is a teacher after all. Mame pushed Hatanaka to become a teacher, but he might have let Miki convince him not to if Ibara wasn’t there to convince Miki as well.

So if Ibara died at some point, it would be within the 8 years between Miki’s high school years and present day.

We know that Miki’s mom has been eating his spirit energy. I also wonder if eating Haruaki/Seimei’s soul had some averse effects on Mikimom, like delaying her seal getting nearly broken by a couple years.

While Ibara is the strongest of the Miki siblings, Mikimom is still considerably stronger. She also seems to be the most willing to put herself on the line for Miki.

I guess, what I’m getting at is, something happened with Miki and their mom, and Ibara ended up dead because of it, also explaining why he’s so much more prickly at his mom being mentioned.

So anyway

Fun thought experiment, right? Like I said, it’s stupid crack theories, don’t take either of them too seriously.

Most of this mystery comes from not knowing the details of how Hatanaka and Ibara got together exactly, as well as not enough details about Ibara herself, so I imagine this will get cleared up at some point. Hatanaka being maidenless was such a big detail that it was specifically pointed out and highlighted, so I wanted to explore it for a bit.

That was a lot of words about the teachers, so I want to go back and look at the students for a bit.

Some of the obvious changes would be Beniko being a shut-in, since in the real world Haruaki directly caused her to come back to school. Straightforward.

Fuji and Ogoso aren’t friends since ch35 didn’t happen.

From that panel in the classroom we actually learn the seating arrangement of the Ogata twins (previously, both seats were just labelled “Ogata” in the tweet with the seating arrangement), Rin (black hair) sits behind Kou.

Also from that classroom panel, Haruaki is sitting in Hijita’s seat, probably not for any reason other than it’s a nice central location. The person behind him whose hair you can barely see is probably Maeda, Satsuki either isn’t in class yet or at all.

Though on the next page it seems like he’s actually in the front row seat, where Nyuudou normally sits.

Where is Dr. Takahashi

The burning question. WHERE IS HE. WHERE IS MY MALEWHORE- I mean uh doctor!!

This also entirely has to do with Utagawa and Nyuudou, which is brought up in the chapter itself, but it goes even deeper than purely “Takahashi made Utagawa’s human form”.

The only thing that’s confirmed is that “Takahashi is not a doctor”, whether this means Takahashi doesn’t exist at all or simply has a different job, I’m not sure. I actually thought the policeman near the end of ch80 is Takahashi, since Tanamai sensei has drawn Takahashi and Yamazaki clothes swap before, but it’s not certain.

If Takahashi isn’t a doctor, Nyuudou’s parents wouldn’t have had that conversation with him about human mothers and youkai children, and he wouldn’t have made that remark about youkai and human laws, which means Nyuudou’s dad wouldn’t have been pushed to get involved in politics.

“Whether they exist was changed” is coupled with Saitou Manuel becoming minister of the ministry of youkai, so I’m not sure if this is trying to imply that Nyuudou doesn’t exist or his dad doesn’t exist.

Well… either case then, Nyuudou doesn’t exist, and Utagawa Ruri wouldn’t have met him. Even if she died then, she wouldn’t have the regrets that caused her to turn into a gashadokuro. Or maybe she’s still alive as a human in this universe! It’s only stated that her “birth condition left her frail”, so there’s a chance she wouldn’t have died.

There’s also the chance that Nyuudou does exist, just that Renka ended up in a different hospital than Ruri. Takahashi had connections with the director of the hospital Renka stayed at, and had his nurses placed there, so there’s a good chance he pulled strings to have Renka there to better keep an eye on her condition.

Still, that doesn’t explain why Nyuudou isn’t in class 2-3, so I’m inclined to believe he doesn’t exist in this universe. Maybe they went to a different doctor who convinced Renka to abort.

Or maybe Hajime and Renka didn’t get married at all, for some reason? idk

The principal mentions the youkai ministry’s push for coexistence, but the reason for that in the real world is Hajime wanting a better world for his son, so what would be the reason in this universe?

See, even after, or perhaps because of, Renren’s arc, there’s still so many mysteries.

None of this answers why Takahashi has a different job/doesn’t exist either, Takahashi not being a doctor is just the catalyst for the whole Nyuudou family mystery.

If Takahashi doesn’t exist for some reason, it would explain why Yamazaki isn’t a policeman, considering the reason he got an upbringing at all was that he was basically adopted by the Takahashi family.

Still. This is like THE biggest mystery. This has haunted me ever since I first saw this arc.

Principal and Ranmaru

Just kidding this is the biggest mystery.

In the real world, the principal is actually super open about Haruaki’s powers and why he wants him here. However, in this universe he seems especially ticked off by Haruaki mentioning it, something Ranmaru points out specifically.

And Ranmaru as well, in the real world he wasn’t even aware Haruaki existed until physically meeting him in ch21, so nothing should have been able to change him creating the karasu tengu troupe.

Granted, the troupe seems to have been a recent thing he came up with, and not hundreds of years old. Still, in this universe, the principal trusted him enough to hire him?

I just… don’t know what to make of this at all? We still know so little about the principal and Ranmaru, even now. Maybe when Kyoto arc is over I’ll return to this with answers.

Anyway, Ranmaru is the homeroom teacher of 2-5 here, which is interesting because 2-5 is the only class whose homeroom teacher we don’t actually know. (obviously it’s not Ranmaru in the real world, but y’know)

Class 1 is Hatanaka, 2 is Miki, 3 is Haruaki, 4 is Mouse-sensei, and 6 is Awayama (the centaur). 5 is probably the nurikabe teacher, considering we see him hanging out with the other second year teachers.

Ranmaru’s probably 2-5 just so he wouldn’t replace a character we know and raise more questions.

Woe, this diagram be upon ye. I made this back when I translated the chapters, so it’s not an exact 1-to-1 of this post, but the rough ideas are there. Now that I look at it, what the hell are some of these points? Just consider this a peek into my brain, I guess.

Fake Sano-kun

(Harusano handholding...)

This just FEELS like a callback to camp, combining both Sano catching Haruaki and Tamao exposing Yamazaki’s Nyuudou. Although the makuragaeshi’s fake Sano is actually a lot more convincing than Yamazaki’s Nyuudou. Every other sentence Yamazaki said was out of character for Nyuudou, from leaving Tamao behind to loredropping about youkai and ghosts.

The makuragaeshi’s Sano was a lot more convincing in contrast, the only things giving him away were insulting Mame at the end and also Mame himself. Granted, he said a lot less than Yamazaki, so that’s the secret to a good impersonation really. Funny, since the impersonation that was pulled off the best was Amaaki in the Renren arc, the combination of Amaaki knowing Haruaki well, as well as not talking that much, and also Kurai’s hubris. And also Haruaki coming up with that genius double impersonator plan, because nobody expects 2 impersonators.

To you, who became a teacher

I can only DREAM that I managed to convey these two pages as eloquently as the original (and the Chinese version) did, and I’m looking forward to the official translation so I can bawl my eyes out over these two pages all over again.

(I wrote these messages while translating these two pages)

I love the way this manga just answers philosophical dilemmas so straightforwardly, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Of course, the only reason he was able to say all this is because of all the work he put in, all the work he saw his students put in, and isn’t that what living means? Are you not just the sum total of your experiences, of all your hard work? Isn’t it worth it to live in the real world for the sole reason that you crafted it with your own hands?

I just think these 2 chapters are Phenomenal, Amazing, Life Changing, this is up there in my favorite chapters along with ch33. I love that even though the premise is a dream, it follows set rules and opens up interesting ideas and questions. It’s also such an important arc to reaffirm who Haruaki is as a person, and a prelude/setup to the Kyoto arc.

Thank you for reading all this, and I hope it made sense, as well as made you love these two chapters as much as me. Let me leave you with the inner color page of volume 12.

See you in the Kyoto arc post, I guess? I imagine that one will be a lot less narrative-focused than this one, and more focused on the history of Kyoto as well as Japanese mythology in general.

Also check my rambles tag for more stuff like this

#youkai gakkou no sensei hajimemashita #rambles

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bthump · 1 year

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How do you think Casca feels about Guts now after everything that has happened?

Do you have any predictions on what will happen between Guts, Casca, and Griffith now?

Well we know for sure that she's still traumatized and scared of him. And I don't think it's just because he was at the Eclipse - he's scary on his own merits in a very beast-of-darkness-way from her point of view:

Look at the highlights on his face that suggest the Beast of Darkness' zig-zag eyes.

Here he's shown in Berserk's specific visual language to denote an object of fear - shadowy silhouette, glowing eye. Plus he's clearly associated with the rest of the monsters of the Eclipse. Considering Casca flashes back to them a lot whenever she's being sexually assaulted, I'm very much inclined to take this as a reference to Guts sexually assaulting her and therefore Casca's mind viewing him as yet another monster.

So I think it's something that's going to have to be confronted, and personally I don't think it's likely to be overcome. Guts' reaction to Casca being unable to look at him has been mostly disappointment and boredom, rather than despair or regret or desperation. I think you can make a comparison, from Guts' point of view, to Casca yelling at him in the Golden Age lol - it follows the same pattern: Casca makes him feel bad, he goes and swings his sword aimlessly while stewing about it. It’s about how she makes him feel, not about their relationship.

And especially after those last few chapters, the emphasis is so thoroughly on Guts' sword and his own sense of inadequacy rather than Casca, like, it's stark in how unromantic it is lol. And yeah, Miura isn't writing it now, but it illustrates where Miura put his emphasis while discussing it with his friend, and it's certainly not on Guts and Casca's relationship.

The romantic fake-outs just after Casca woke up are also a strong sign imo - Casca gets all blushy, Danann pushes their romance specifically by putting Casca in a fancy dress, they prepare for a romantic meeting under a giant cherry tree... then Casca passes out because Guts subconsciously scares the shit out of her, and she immediately proceeds to get a haircut and put some pants on, and it's so pointedly stated that it's better lol:

This was Miura teasing the shipping contingent of fans, and denying them. And yeah, based again on the narrative emphasis on Guts' sword right after Casca's been kidnapped by Griffith lmao I don't really think that's very likely to change. Guts' goal isn't to win Casca back, it's to hit a god with a sword. Casca didn't even seem to care all that much that looking at Guts makes her faint even though she does presumably still harbour some romantic feelings for Guts - it wasn't treated as a tragedy, they weren’t portrayed as tragically star-crossed lovers in the few chapters between Casca’s sanity returning and the kidnapping. It just felt like a logical consequence of Guts’ actions that he has to deal with now.

SO anyway all that said, I don't really have any solid predictions lol. I don't think we're going the romantic happily ever after route. My main prediction that Guts and Griffith will die together remains unchanged. Casca's kidnapping was a giant curveball for me and I have no idea where that's going lol, but I suspect Guts is probably going to go full beast of darkness, lose himself in the armour, rampage around trying to kill Griffith, and likely at the very least traumatize Casca more if not kill her, or nearly kill her himself, a la dog!Guts in Casca's dreamscape. I've still got faint hope that Casca will use the behelit if like, the full extent of her memory restoration is delayed until she's near it again. I anticipated it being a downer end of act 2 style moment rather than an actual climactic moment, but there's still room for the latter.

I also think that the whole power of friendship bs is substantially less likely to be a major factor now - we got hints of that with Guts thanking the dudes for sticking with him, Farnese vowing that she'll save Casca from the darkness, all that, but considering it just lead to everyone being useless when Griffith showed up to kidnap Casca, and now useless with Guts having a dumb breakdown over his sword, in hindsight it honestly feels like set-up for a darker mood shift now. Dashed hope, kinda thing. And we still have Guts going feral to look forward to, so that could easily shake out as more dashed hope.

So yeah, no real concrete predictions, but this is the vibe I'm feeling right now. Guts and Casca are probably pretty over as a thing - maybe they get a moment of reflection over tragic potential for happiness lost or whatever at the climax, but I really don't anticipate a happily ever after for them. I would like Guts and Griffith to have a moment of emotional catharsis before one or both die, and I do completely think one or both will die. And the other will live miserably ever after. Frankly I think the happiest ending for both of them is dying together lol - Guts "struggling" on and living is kind of thematically negative to an extent, thanks to Skull Knight and Zodd the Immortal's examples, and thanks to Guts' own monstrousness as he declares his desire to live in the Black Swordsman arc and the way he’s directly compared to apostles for it... for Guts surviving and living on to be a happy ending, thematically, he'd have to decide to put down his sword for good, and I just don't see that as an ending based on the set-up we've gotten so far. It would require a hell of an amount of character development in probably a relatively short amount of time lol.

What I think is more likely is Guts confronting Griffith in a non-physical way, eschewing his sword for that specifically (this current sword crisis could be a good starting point for that), and dying with him in an emotionally satisfying way. Then if Casca's still alive and a monster she wanders the earth in a bittersweet way, if she's alive and human maybe she gets a decently happy ending, if she's dead then she's dead.

Thanks for the ask!

#ask #anonymous #a #b #theme: speculation #character: casca #ship: gtsca #arc: f

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