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eleni-cherie · 6 months

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a thief's end ✨ || bts • myg - epilogue

"so eager to be in a headlock again?"

"only if it's by you."

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masterlist: here

— genre: thief au, gangster comedy, adventure, romcom, humour, angst, fluff, sexual tensiON, slowburn, mutual pining, strangers to lovers s2l

ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSE. CHARACTERS NOT NECESSARILY LIKE THE REAL PERSONS. ALSO VERY UNREALISTIC PLOT LOL - JUST PRETEND READING A MANGA/COMIC OR WATCHING A FILM, REALLY.

SUGGESTIVE THEMES. MENTIONS OF VIOLENCE & BLOOD (BUT NOTHING TOO GRAPHIC, IT'S STILL A COMEDY!)

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3 months later

somewhere in the mountains of Taiwan

Soyeon dragged out a breath, the pencil in her right hand coming flat onto the notebook on her knees. Her mind felt heavy and she slowly sank her head until it touched the pages. And she remained like this for seconds until stirring up and sitting straight again. Allowing her brown irises wandering over the scenary in front of her.

Everything green as far as the eye could reach. A mellow breeze brushing by, clouds moving slowly on the lightblue sky.

It was peaceful, it was calming.

Maybe too peaceful and too calming.

Picking up the earphones that had fallen from her ears previously, she put them back in. The same melody still playing on repeat.

She was motivated to write, however, she simply didn't feel inspired. That was the issue.

Her gaze fell back down on her half-written lyrics.

'sunny

exceptionally pleasant morning

sunny

even if I hum lightly

in the scorching sun

that dirty feeling flies away'

Why did she struggle so much coming up with a chorus and second verse?

Of course, deep down she knew the answer and simply didn't want to admit it to herself. Admit that the story wasn't completely finished yet. That one puzzle piece was still missing, one end being still open. She just didn't know if it'd ever be possible to complete the puzzle, to finish this story completely.

Frustrated, she shut the notebook with the pencil still inside and pulled the earphones out. There was no use to try. For today, she was done.

Stuffing everything back into her backpack, she decided to look for some company. It'd been an hour, that was enough me-time she decided and hopped the stony steps down from the porch to the garden. Finding her object of interest not too far away, secluded from any possible disruptive elements - even if there were hardly any in the middle of a temple in the mountains.

Folding her lips, she suddenly felt lighthearted and in the mood to tease him a little. So she took off her shoes, holding them in her hands as she barefootedly neared him with quiet steps. Trying her best not to make any sound on the grass.

Only a few steps seperated her from him when she paused, heaving her leg slowly. Her tongue sticking out mischieviously between her lips like always when being focused. Ready to poke him with her foot when his chuckle made her pause mid-air.

"You didn't actually think I haven't heard you from the moment you stood up from the porch, did you?"

Soyeon puffed her cheeks, huffing offendedly. "As if." Yoongi only laughed more when seeing her stepping in front of him with crossed arms and a sulky expression, making her even more adorable.

"Did you get bored and wanted to scare me?" he grinned smugly and stood up. And she earned a poke on her still puffy cheeks. "You finished the lyrics?" he asked then, tilting his head inquiringly. Only getting a disappointed sigh as response. And he nodded, understanding.

"It's okay, you tried your best," he said, giving her an encouraging smile then which made her only sulkier. Feeling somewhat embarrassed about him having to cheer her up over trivial things like this.

They turned around then, making their way back when Yoongi peeked at her. Sighing then. "It's that list of symbols, right? You can't get over it."

Perhaps she shouldn't be so astonished about his perfect deduction as it was probably more than obvious. Ever since she had told him about it, he'd offered his help but she refused, believing it'd be pointless. But deep down, he knew, she couldn't let go of the curiosity.

Soyeon looked away, feeling only more embarrassed about having been so easily to figure out, like an open book. "Maybe.." was the only thing she was willing to admit in that moment.

»»»

The third manga volume was spread between her fingers when she eventually got tired of reading. She hadn't noticed how much time had passed already.

The scenery outside was only a blur. The mood depending on how much sunlight the clouds left through. Currently, they were hanging dark and low, creating a gloomy atmosphere contrasting to the deep green of the fields and forests.

For a moment she paused, simply staring out of the train. The view of the afternoon giving her some kind of inspiration, a tingly feeling spreading in her fingers.

It was usually random things like this, even watching animation films could sparkle her inspiration. So she quickly got her earphones out along with her writing tools.

Tapping her pen against the notebook which was balanced on her folded thighs. Chin resting on the palm of her hand as she pensively observed the grey cloud-blanket. Trying to fill in the empty spaces in the melody that was on repeat by creating somewhat poetic sounding sentences out of nothing.

She peeked at Yoongi then who had somehow managed to fall asleep next to her almost as soon as the train had departed. She internally scoffed, but couldn't help observing his sleeping self with a soft expression. His chest raising and falling under his folded arms, while his head was leaning against the seat. Dark streaks slightly covering his forehead and eyes.

She still couldn't believe he had convinced her in giving it a try. Frankly, it might not have been that hard after all, but she liked to pretend it was.

When she took a closer look of him, she could notice him having similar dark circles under his eyes as her. And she wondered if it was her fault, having unintentionally compelled him into staying up late with her, contemplating which decision to make. Her lips curled into a smile when reminiscing their conversation the previous night. He hadn't really pushed her or tried arguing, his words had been rather simple. Yet effective. And his voice was still stuck in her mind.

"My honest opinion? Do it or don't - you might regret both anyway. But if you don't, you'll have to live with the 'what if' and I think that's worse."

A string of words suddenly crossed her mind and she averted her eyes from him, redirecting her gaze onto the landscape.

'how was your sky today

how was your day today

how was your weather?

oh, my season?

every summer the same

good weather, bad weather

come and go'

She scribbled the words down when a yawn excaped her lips. She envied him. Despite her also still being tired, she wasn't able to fall asleep as easily, especially not in a cramped train.

And yet, her eyes did close eventually and she almost dozed off. Her head sliding onto his shoulder and resting there for awhile until one of her earphones dropped, startling her a little. Her eyes opened and she plugged it back into her ear, straightening herself and focusing back on the melody. Her eyes returning outside. Letting her mind wander.

'cloudy

dark clouds

have lost their taste

manic-depressed sky

you're dyeing even me'

She propped her chin on her fist when noticing small droplets hitting the glass. The pen tapped along the rhythm when she glanced at Yoongi again, pausing.

'in the rushing clouds

that clear feeling flies away

don't come, don't come anymore

summer, don't cry now

it's time to pass

how was your sky today?

how's your weather?

rainy

it's a rainy night'

She noted everything down, being so absorbed in her writing that she hadn't noticed Yoongi stirring up at her movement. Stretching next to her.

"What time is it?" he yawned, not getting any answer as the music in her ears was blasting too loud.

Confused, he blinked an eye open, realising she didn't hear him. And he got curious, now fully awake he leaned over to see what she was doing. His eyes widening when seeing her hand gliding over the paper.

He observed her writing like she was possessed by that pen, finding the way how immersed she was quite endearing. And he didn't want to disturb her flow, being happy her inspiration had returned in the end, so he sat back again. Waiting until she eventually put the pen down, exhaling contently.

She took a proud look at the once blank pages in front of her then. It was quite a lot. She had verses, the bridge and chorus. Not bad, she smiled to herself and was about to go back when the music was cut off in one of her ears. Startled, she looked aside, seeing Yoongi holding the earphone to his own ear and taking a listen.

He hummed then. "Didn't know you also work on weekends," he smirked and gave it back to her, seeing her pausing the music on her phone.

"I don't, but the weather fits the song's mood so I got some inspiration.."

"Huh, is that so.." His eyes instantly went outside, seeing the low hanging clouds, then went back to her notepad. "You know, you've never shown me any of your songs." He held her gaze while an implying smile spread on his lips, "You said you would."

Her lips folded, remembering their conversation months ago. "I did say that.."

She hadn't done it on purpose, avoiding showing him any of her work all those months. The opportunity simply never occured. Usually she was all by herself when writing lyrics, to concentrate better. So naturally, he didn't really saw her doing it and she didn't happen talking about it besides complainging whenever she got stuck.

She handed him the earphone back with a nervous feeling. "I don't know if you're gonna like them though.." she mumbled, searching up songs she had worked on.

He cocked a brow at her, mockingly. "Since when are you so self-conscious?"

Ignoring his teasing, she pressed play. Watching his eyes widening while the song progressed. "You wrote that?"

"The chorus and second verse only. Not the whole thing."

The irrational nervousness that rose in her didn't get any better with his unreadably stoic expression while listening through them all. She knew the songs were good, otherwise they wouldn't have got picked. And yet, she was nervous about his opinion, knowing he wouldn't lie just to be polite or because she was his girlfriend. Maybe only sugarcoat it, not to be too harsh. However, much to her ego's delight, he didn't have to do either one.

"You've got a nice way with words," he nodded then, unable to hide the clear adoration lingering in his simple words.

And she smiled.

He might not be a man of many words, but the ones he chose to say were always the right ones.

»»»

Taipei, Taiwan

"I.. don't understand anything."

With a yet again sulky expression she lowered the piece of paper. Not being able making any sense of the symbols drawn by her grandfather ages ago. Her already lacking certainty about finding the mystery behind them only declining ever since they had stepped foot out of the train.

After finding it behind the photo frame, she had tried - -and failed to decipher whatever code this was supposed to be. Leading her to give up back then. So she didn't know why she'd thought this time by being at the location would be different.

She knew 'oro' meant 'gold' in italian, most likely hinting at all the loot her grandfather had gathered over the years of being a secret thief and which interpol had still been unable to locate till now. This, however, was her only clue. The rest of the symbols had remained unknown to her.

She knew that this unsolved mystery constantly invading her thoughts in the back of her mind would never let her go, unless she tried solving it, though.

And yet, right now, she regretted telling Yoongi about it and him convicing her of going there.

Who knew, maybe it was nothing after all. Just a silly little doodle made by an old man.

"Don't give up so quickly, we just arrived," Yoongi scolded her and looked around, "And you're sure this is the place that photo was taken at?"

She nodded, fiddling out a photo from her backpack and pointing at it. "Yeah, see. That's my grandpa and that - " She pointed at the Little South Gate behind them. "Is the exact same spot. He even wrote it on the back."

However, something else seemed to have caught his attention instead. Brown irises fixated on the photo she was holding in front of his eyes. He grabbed it then with a scowl. "Who's this guy next to your grandfather again?"

She shrugged. "No clue. Some friend, I assume, whose name was 'M'. See." She turned the photo and he read the handwriting himself. "Why?"

"'Cause he seems oddly familiar. And I never forget a face," he mumbled then, trying his hardest to remember where he'd seen this man before or if he had at all. The photo was quite old.

She slid the photo back into her bag then, redirecting their focus onto the mysterious symbols.

"Let me see again," Yoongi said, peeking over her shoulder to the piece of paper she was holding.

This wasn't the first cypher he had come across. Over the years, he and the guys had seen and solved lots of them in order to find hidden treasures. This one, however, was quite different from the previous ones.

These symbols could mean anything or nothing at all.

And his eyes narrowed while trying making sense of them. "What's this?"

Soyeon squinted her eyes at the spot he was pointing at next to the 'W' and the arrow. Indeed, she hadn't paid attention to it before as it had almost completely faded away compared to the rest, but there was also a moon symbol.

"A crescent? Now I'm even more confused.." she mumbled under her breath. Losing any hope she had to ever find her grandfather's haul.

"Let's not over-complicate things," Yoongi said then with a surprising enthusiasm in his voice. He seemed to have caught onto something, she could see it in his little grin. Glancing at his watch then, he saw it was almost 6pm. The sun would set soon. "'Moon' might indicate night. And the 'W' with the arrow perhaps the cardinal point, West. So whatever these symbols are, we can only see them at night when going west from the Little South Gate. What do you think?"

Her brows rose in awe, his interpretation making sense. At least they had another possible clue now. "But.." she slowly began then, the excitement leaving her eyes, "Grandpa wrote that 'map' - or whatever this is - years ago. Who knows if these symbols still exist nowadays. "

He only hummed. "Suck it and see," he shrugged and began walking down the western located street. The raven-haired girl observed him dumbfounded before quickly trotting behind him. Following him with a curious glare as the sky darkened above them.

"So something you can only see at night," she thought out loud then, her eyes going back and forth from one side of buildings to another. "What could that be?"

A square. A rectangle with a semicircle on top. A triangle. An umbrella. A star. A keyhole.

She abrubtly stopped then. Her eyes widening. "Isn't that.. a rectangle with a semicircle on top?"

Yoongi paused in his tracks to look over his shoulder. His eyes then following her gaze, catching indeed a big blue neon-light on the top of a department store shaped like the second symbol.

"And there, a square!" she exclaimed excitedly. Pointing at red neon-sign on the opposite side of the street. "You think he meant neon-signs?"

"Could be," he smiled at her beaming face. And they continued walking down the street when Yoongi caught something that could be the third symbol. "You see the lights over there?"

She nodded vigorously at the illuminated triangle-sign of a building. Taking a look at the cryptic map then. "So we might've found the first three."

"What was the next one?"

"An umbrella."

An umbrella-shaped sign might be harder to find, if something like that even existed.

They continued looking around in the crisp evening, unable to find any neon-lights in that form, though, which was expected. A bright cloud icon on a display catching Yoongi's interest then. It was for weather forecast, informing tomorrow's weather would be cloudy again. And he smirked, beginning to understand.

"I can't find any," Soyeon stated with disappointment when he nudged her side, motioning with his chin to the display among the numerous billboards at the crossroads in front of them.

"I think I found our umbrella."

Her brows furrowed puzzled. Not being able seeing what he meant until it finally clicked and her expression returned to an excited one. "I see.. when this was drawn the weather forecast was predicting rain."

He nodded. "Now the star is missing."

Soyeon immediatelly perked up at this. A star, right! She had seen a star somewhere near by.

She started running, taking him aback. Only stopping at the end of the block, where the tall buildings weren't hiding the ferris wheel in the distance anymore. "He surely meant the giant star-shaped lights on this!" She faced him with a huge smile and he reciprocated.

"You're right, no way it's not this."

"That means only the last symbol is left."

The keyhole.

"Maybe it's not a light, though," Soyeon mused, "Maybe it just stands for the lock where the loot is at."

Shaking his head, he disagreed. "I don't think so." He grabbed her hand then, taking a few steps back until the vertical neon-framed billboard on one of the buildings was perfectly alligning with a circle of lightbulbs on the taller building behind it. Creating a keywhole-shape.

"You think that's.." She looked up at him questioningly, seeing him giving her an innocent look.

"Who knows.." Taking a glance behind then, he noticed they were standing right in front of an entrance. "But if I'm correct, then.. it's probably inside this building."

Her eyes grew, looking at the dark building that was quietly soaring to the sky. She rummaged the key out of her pocket then and inspected it closely. There was a small letter engraved on one side. B.

"B. Basement?"

"Possible. The only way to find out is to get in."

"Get in? But it seems there's nobo- oh. Oh!" She looked at him with big eyes, making him chuckle.

"You guessed right. We'll just break in."

"Or wait till tomorrow?"

He arched a brow at her. "You actually wanna wait till tomorrow? And have people ask questions?"

Watching her contemplating it, mouth moving from one side to another she eventually gave in with a groan. "Ugh, fine. But only if you're sure we won't get caught."

He scoffed. "You offend my abilities as a thief."

"Isn't Jimin the thief and you and Taehyung rather the assistants?" she grinned teasingly to which he only shrugged casually. "If that's the case you don't need me here then." And he turned around on his heels, ready to leave when she grabbed his arm, pulling him back with an eyeroll.

They decided to go look for the back entrance, it being less risky to enter from there. He took his phone out to switch on the flashlight as picking a lock in complete darkness went beyond his abilities, when seeing his screen being filled with notifications of multiple missed calls and texts from Jimin. All in caps. He turned his screen to her then so she'd read them as well.

chim (6:45pm): GUYS

chim (6:45pm): IDK WHERE YOU ARE BUT COME ASAP

chim (6:45pm): PLS?

chim (6:46pm): THE BABY IS COMING

chim (6:47pm): IM GONNA BE A DAD!!!!

Their eyes grew, exchanging glances.

"Oh my - When's the next train leaving? We must hurry!" Soyeon asked panicked, causing Yoongi to give her an astonished look. "But what about your grandfa-"

"It was hidden for decades, a few days or weeks more won't matter," she quickly dismissed his worry, waving him off. "Come, let's go already!"

And he smiled, nodding.

And so they went back to the central station. Catching the last train back to Tainan.

THE END

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thank you all for reading this story! it was fun writing it, so hope you also had fun reading it!

-lyrics taken from soyeon's solo song "weather"! idk i really like this song and it fit hah

-a prequel oneshot (?) for tae x cas might follow, as well as drabbles to other characters. keep an eye on my blog/masterlist not to miss anything!

- check out my other bts stories, too: here

Don't forget to like, reblog & leave feedback! ♡

It motivates me to keep writing :)

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muffinrecord · 5 months

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I love this event so much! Please watch if if you haven't already:

youtube

It's well written imo. It gives the characters a lot of really good moments without needing to be too overt about it. Like, Tsuruno points out that Oriko's manipulations are bait, Sana gets to protect people, we get a deep exploration of Mitama's character, and Oriko gets to be partially redeemed.

I like that they don't pull their punches with how evil Oriko can be. This event shows how selfish, how cruel, how self-centered, and how manipulative she is. I think it has to, in order for her to really hit rock bottom-- we have to see and be shown over and over that underneath it all, there is no salvation. Just a desire to save the self. To become useful and wanted.

Like I said, I can't blame people when they dislike Oriko, because in a lot of ways she is deeply unlikable. She's manipulative, she tries to kill popular characters, she's a hypocrite, and she uses the people who love her against their best interests. But I think all of these things make her a really fascinating character, and she's a lot of fun to watch. I think it also helps to know that in the right circumstances, she becomes very heroic. In an alternate timeline of the manga, Oriko is fighting Walpurgisnacht instead and is a straight-up good person. She's still struggling with her place in the world and her feelings of insecurity, but she saves Yuma and doesn't directly kill anyone (well she kind of does out of self defense, but it wasn't exactly her choice).

I think that's what makes me like Oriko so much-- that she desperately wants to be good and wanted. She wants to make the argument that she deserves to exist in the world too! And I can relate to that a little bit. Not necessarily murdering people??? But thinking that you need to accomplish great things in order to justify your existence.

Making her so overtly evil in some ways is like displaying a mirror in front of the face, saying "this is what you could be if you don't fix your path. This is what you could be in the worst case scenario."

I think it also helps that we see how Oriko's actions are hurting her and the people she loves. Yes yes she's rewarded at the end of the story, but only because she hit rock bottom and has to make up for what she's done. Not only that, but she can no longer move forward under the delusion that she did anything for a pure reason to save the planet-- she knows the depths of her soul now.

Stories imo don't need to say "this character is bad and if you are like them, you will be bad," but I do prefer it when we see realistic reactions to character's actions. ...Obviously the forgiveness at the end is pretty funny, but the stuff around it-- Oriko's suffering, what she's done to Kirika, the way she hurt everyone around her... Even the fact that Iroha admits that

(accept an apology is what Iroha is meaning)

is enough for me. I also don't need villains to really be punished for their actions either-- I just don't like it when stories present people who are doing awful things but the narrative presents it like it's actually justified or okay.

Overall I really enjoyed this event and I hope you guys enjoyed the liveblog :)

#Magia Record #Muffin Liveblog #My Only Salvation Liveblog #Youtube

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justatalkingface · 1 year

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I have to say, it is endlessly frustrating that every female character in mha, bar like, Toga, is not allowed to be angry. While Fuyumi’s response to abuse is realistic, I think its a really good showcasing of how hori views his female characters. Out of four children, the only one who even remotely puts up with endeavor’s behavior, who wants to have a real relationship with him, is his daughter. Why is she the only one who’s forgiving of him? I mean, I know why, but its still infuriating that none of the female characters in this manga are allowed to be anything other than alluring, happy, scared, or *briefly* upset.

Yeah, when I was writing that post out I noticed that stark difference between Fuyumi and the three guys, all of whom rebelled, and how their broad personality traits came down pretty straight from their same gendered parent.

Like, in general, all of the various Todokori family's reactions to Endeavour are legit, though Dabi's is, fittingly enough, turned up to eleven, but when you look at it from a broader perspective like that it is... prominent.

Like, real talk for a minute, if I could choose how Fuyumi was written, I'd have had her been quiet and passive her whole life, like she was knuckling down under the pressure... but the second she got of age she was gone. And when I mean gone, I mean gone: not just out of the house, like Natsuo, not just out of the city, but out of the country. Just... gone. The day of her eighteenth birthday, that morning the family wakes up and realizes that she vanished, there's nothing left in her room, and there wasn't even a mention of even wanting to leave or anything beforehand, nothing. Fuyumi just plans and executes this completely under the radar.

And then it turns out she's off somewhere riding motorcycles or something, probably in the US since that's the second most developed country in the story, living her best life and never looking back, with a changed name and a different hair style, nothing to connect her to her old life. It'd be easy enough for her to enter the story proper when Dabi Dances, wanting to see her long lost brother (maybe build that up as the point where she just gave up on Endeavour and everything and everyone even remotely related to him) and such, and there's a lot of potential conflict to play off her just abandoning everyone, but... a Todoroki wouldn't be a Todoroki if they weren't fucked up somehow, right?

Refocusing though... if anything, you're too generous to Hori. Toga was half assed angry for a handful of chapters, and even then it was muted and nonsensical, mixed with a basic inability to grasp reality ('"a hero killed us?", she said incomprehensibly; there was this bizarre lack of understanding of the consequences of the the PLF's actions and how killing people, gasp, may get you killed!) and a really weird refusal to actually be angry at the person who flatout murdered Twice. The murder that, you know, she watched happen, since Dabi conveniently broadcasted it for the world to see. After that though, she was depressed, and now she's in some weird 'Let me be evil' subplot where she's thoeretically doubling down on being an actual villain (like she wasn't already), but she's too busy having an identity crisis or something to actually focus on that, and a good half of her airtime is still about the weird, completely undeveloped 'love triangle' thing.

And now that you say this I really, honestly, can't think of a time a woman was properly angry in this series. I mean, hell, Mirko is usually the exception that proves the rule to most of Hori's sexist treatments about women, but even she's more determined and just plain aggressive rather than angry. It's pretty nuts when you think about it.

And it's just... it's not like we need a lot, but there's enough shit that happens in MHA, to everyone, that there's every reason for some woman somewhere to want to scream at someone good and proper.

I mean, normally I'd expand on this a bit, but I can't really think of anything to say beyond the obvious. Women should have been angry throughout the entire story. They weren't. There's nothing that can really explain it, or mitigate, or anything, beyond just Hori not wanting to write a woman that way for reasons that are all too obvious.

#mha critical #bnha critical #ask #hori's chronic hatred of women #fuyumi deserves better #why aren't women angry in this series?#there's really no way to justify this even a little

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aihoshiino · 5 months

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I haven't read the Spica novel since I don't know Japanese, so your latest ONK post had me wondering why you thought it was a bad novel?

So full disclosure: I have not read Spica in full yet in its original form but I have been working on a TL of the free preview which was posted by the publishers (which you can see here) and the rough TLs/summaries posted by folks in the fandom who bought the book - I, uh, feel slightly off about directly linking to those since they are reproducing content from a paid published release and I don't know exactly where that falls in terms of Piracy And OnK Leaks which I know Mengo especially feels really bad about, but you can easily find them by looking up the associated search terms on Pastebin (tho be aware, you apparently have to be logged in to search Pastebin's database??? TIL I guess)

If it wasn't for the free preview, I'd be more willing to put some of my issues with it down to just TL choices made by people who were quickly summarizing the novel for the fandom but like... between having access to the actual prose and how much the summary TLs are just straight up giving you chunks from the novel, there was enough consistency with the stuff that was not passing the smell check that I feel pretty confident in saying that Spica just flat out has issues. I actually did a bit of a ramble elsewhere talking about my issues with it way more concisely than my initial attempt here

(message from claire 40+ minutes after writing the above sentence: i'm sorry. i'm so sorry. i lied. the following passage is 900+ words long.)

Spica stands out pretty distinctly from Akasaka's short stories in that the Tanaka written parts of the novel are all in third person limited POV vs 45510 and Viewpoint B being in first person. Spica also has the issue of being EXTREMELY heavyhanded and hamfisted in terms of its emotional beats to the point where I felt it was straight up tacky and emotionally manipulative at multiple points, in ways that betrayed the spirit of the story it was trying to tell.

Like, as a point of contrast, in Viewpoint B, Ai casually mentions that she's on the verge of aging out of the children's home she was in and that her relatives who were supposed to adopt her backed out and dumped her after meeting her for the first time. The story does not linger on this beat, aside from Kyun's stunned reaction that something so shitty is happening to the invincible seeming Ai. The situation is just laid out in front of the reader and they are allowed to have their own emotions naturally arise from their own sense of empathy for Ai. In contrast, in the Ai-centric prologue to Spica, the story cannot go more than a few exchanges of dialogue without hammering in just how horrible everyone in Ai's life is to her and how tragic everything is. It is SO eager to do this that it trips into straight up contradicting how Akasaka has talked about these events and it's not the only time.

It's maybe a nitpicky complaint, but there are a lot of small moments in Spica that have timeline snarls or just contradictions in vibes and tone that make it feel like it was written by someone who just… didn't really know or care all that much about Oshi no Ko. For example, the first song Sarina makes Gorou listen to is implied to be Sign wa B and he quotes its opening line ("We're your idols, the sign is B!") while talking about it. The issue here is that Sign wa B wasn't released until after Ai came back from her hiatus following the twins' birth so its appearance here is at least four years out from it actually being created.

There are various other small timeline snarls like that and a few that are not necessarily textual contradictions but feel off from how things are portrayed in the manga — Gorou being totally ignorant of how bad Sarina's condition is in Spica vs the implication that he was well aware of it in the main manga. These sort of contradictions happen because the story is CONSTANTLY reaching for like… there's no kind way to describe this, but it is constantly grabbing at cheap emotional payoff by leaning excessively on references and calls forward to beats from the main story, hamfistedly setting them up and repeating them so clumsily that it almost feels like it cheapens them by comparison. To once again talk about Ai, because the Battle Royale collar around my neck will go off if I go more than 1000 words without doing so, the epilogue of Spica has this absolutely fucking excruciating conversation between Ai and Ichigo where they look up at the actual Spica star itself and Ichigo goes off on this random tangent about how it's a BINARY, TWIN STAR known for its AQUAMARINE SHINE and Ai (who is 12 at this point btw lol) has this whooooole speech about how it's so lovely that the star has a twin so it's never alone and she hopes that if SHE has a family that SHE has twins and WOOOOWWW WOULDN'T THAT BE CRAZYYYY… and basically the whole novel is like this. It's like the emotional equivalent of the fucking Superdictionary LMFAO

My other big issue with Spica is just that I absolutely despise how it chooses to characterize Sarina. While I can't necessarily say she's OOC just because there's so little Actual Sarina Herself pagetime in OnK, there's this really… honestly skeevy as fuck bent to the way she's written in Spica that actually really upsets me. Spica really leans into sexualizing her feelings for Gorou in a way that feels like pandering to people who have a thing for bratty, uppity loli characters perving on adult men. It 99.99999999999% almost absolutely definitely was not but those are the only words I can find to describe the vibes here.

The INSTANT she and Gorou meet, before they've ever had a full conversation or ever started idol fangirling together, Sarina immediately goes GOSH WHAT IF I WANTED TO BE UR GF ;) and makes a joke in her brain about Gorou being an S (Sadist) and not an M (Masochist). Later, after the two of them have spent time together and she's come to a bit of epiphany about her feelings for him, Sarina cries and laments his lack of interest in her, putting it down to the fact that she has "absolutely no charm as a woman" and like… I'm sorry but what the actual fuck is going on here!!! Sarina is twelve years old!! She is a prepubescent child!!!! NOTHING about Sarina's behaviour in OnK or her upbringing that we hear about elsewhere has the slightest indication that it should organically result in her articulating herself like that. There is absolutely nothing wrong with writing a child developing a puppy love crush on a reliable adult like a doctor or a teacher because… that stuff happens in real life! You can write that stuff without it feeling creepy or objectifying but Spica absolutely indulges in both of those things.

I'm forcing myself to stop here because I genuinely thought this was going to be a quick response banged out before I had to start dinner prep and then I ended up in hell but the long and short of it is that I feel like the Spica-original portions of the novel just... betray the spirit of OnK in a way that I really don't enjoy. To put it in academic terms, it just lacks the sauce.

#oshi no ko #onk spoilers #idk how we're tagging for spica so that'll have to do #oshi no posting #SPICA ENJOYERS IM SORRY IM REALLY GLAD YOU LIKE THE NOVEL I JUST HATED IT I LOVE GORO AND SARINA I PROMISE #I JUST DIDN'T LIKE WHAT TANAKA DID WITH THEM I'M SOOOOORRYYYYYY

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frost-felon · 4 months

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@ my anonymous asker: Your initial ask got eaten by Tumblr, so I'll be posting this as a separate post. You had two asks, so I'll address them both here, which works well, as I started ranting about the femme rep, lmao.

absolutely, like, 100% agree with you on everything you've said about the horrific lack of development with the interpersonal relationships between all the characters in jjk. the unexplained timeskip before the gojo vs sukuna fight made me SO MAD !!!!!!!! seeing it mentioned offhandedly. did such a massive disservice to gojo's character having his reactions to multiple deaths simply written out and missed so many opportunities for a more fulfilling narrative.

in general i feel that the relationships between characters in jjk are so... flimsily written. i have whole essays about how completely unexplored yuji and kenjaku are and how all the characters post-culling-game have suffered in favor of dishing out cool fights with fake-feeling emotional stakes. gege please start writing fights in a meaningful way... more than that please explore character dynamics outside of a purely tactical/background info way... is this the same man who wrote hidden inventory

Second ask:

my god don't even get me started on yorozu. atp the 'gege hates women' jokes can't even be dismissed that lightly I saw tsumiki's reawakening in the last jjk episode and literally said out loud don't piss me off again

Ah, thank you. I've been a bit worried about the in-universe time in JJK. If I'm not mistaken, the story starts at some point in June, and for the Juvenile Detention Center Arc/Super Happy Fun Killing Yuji Time, some point in July. Of course, Shibuya happens on the day/night of October 31st, and likely the wee hours of November 1st. The entirety of the Culling Games Arc takes place in about two weeks of November, as I recall; actually, maybe less, since the very start indicates that Yuji was on the run for a week. So many short timeskips happened early on, and had negative effects on developing characterization and worldbuilding, both of which I've thought were weak since the beginning. Worldbuilding moreso, but characterization issues were especially apparent with the second-years of Tokyo JJH and all of the Kyoto cast. This caused quite a crunch on Culling Games, since so much needed to happen over a short period of time, leading to a jumbled, molasses pace.

It's actually really interesting to me that Sukuna would agree to postpone the fight to nearly the end of December, and this would have given us more time to explore the newer characters and solidify the older ones; we really needed more interactions between Yuji and others that weren't full of misery. Or seeing Gojo adapting to life back outside the Prison Realm, especially given that so much has changed; for a character that values reforming society and raising a self-assured, powerful new generation, losing that society should lead to a re-evaluation of his priorities. Or like...develop Ieri! Hana! Miwa! And kill off Mei Mei or actually address her position within the cast.

Yeah, one of my biggest problems from the get-go was feeling that Megumi & Nobara was a dynamic that had been left to the wayside, even during early Kyoto Goodwill Arc. And those had been characters that were meant to interact regularly...literally what attachment did Higuruma have to anyone that wasn't Yuji?¹ I adore Yuji's relationships, but he's barely been allowed to have any after Shibuya. How is Choso doing, now that the only people (Yuki & Tengen) not related to him are dead or robbed of agency?

Speaking of...hoo boy, Tengen is a hell of a topic to untangle. And most femme characters really don't get to do anything. Nobara is fun, but suffered since day one with a lack of plot presence, and literally being removed from battlefields/character conflicts, lmao. Ieri straight-up doesn't matter, especially as the manga goes on--but even in Hidden Inventory, which I do think is likely the peak of JJK, she has no real impact. You could basically replace her with a medpack, and little would change. Mai gets a very good conflict with Maki, but just about nothing between then and her death. Maki has given up her niche and much of what made her engaging to become...a serial killer on the good side, suspiciously Toji-shaped. I really didn't like Perfect Preparation, and I dread re-reading it.

But "Gege hates women" was less of a joke to me, and more a hyperbolic version of a statement that I do believe in: "Gege shows a clear apathy and disregard for his femme characters." I noticed very early on in my initial read-through (to the end of 145) that many of the femme characters were simply treated differently than much of the male cast, and often given less to do. One time that I was truly disgusted, though, was how Remi (the lady with hair like a scorpion's tail, and a dependent personality) was handled, even before her ultimate fate in Culling Games. So much of that simply rubbed me the wrong way, and felt genuinely offensive, both in regards to women and to dependent personality-type individuals. And what happened to her later...man, those panels gross me the fuck out with how much they sexualize a woman who's about to get trafficked. I definitely have a lot to say on that, but I want to make sure I can actually post this before Tumblr fucks me over again.

As a note, I don't use materials outside of the story to gauge the effectiveness of the writing (and it's also because I'm a Naruto fan, so I know the Hell of databooks, nevermind some of the other art I enjoy), but I may be missing some things. Feel free to continue to make asks or to reach out to me via DMs. I do enjoy discussing JJK, whether it be for things it does well, things it does poorly, or for other reasons.

¹We did get some Higuruma & Kusakabe, but this came in late, and then Higuruma died, lmao.

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thefloatingstone · 11 months

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I dunno what all the drama was about. None of my business and I respect the privacy.

On another note, you do have me curious about your random anime facts. Mind throwing one my way?

Oh absolutely! Lemme see what I got lying around for you!

I recently watched a youtuber who has only put out 3 videos but every single one of them is a BANGER. And he spoke at length about the accidental queer story Ghibli made in the movie "Ocean Waves"

Here's the link

I do not like Ocean Waves. In a way it's frustrating because the movie is VERY good looking. For being the film supposedly made by the younger animators at Ghibli as a sort of "breaking them in" project, this movie looks and animates gorgeously!

The big problem is that the story is about the supposed "ROMANCE" between the main character and this girl called Rikako who is genuinely one of the WORST people I have ever seen in an anime that we're meant to...

Actually I don't know if we're supposed to like her???

She's manipulative, she's entitled, she's uncaring towards other people, she's arrogant. She's everything terrible that a main female character can BE. And she spends the entire film being just THE WORST to the main character. And then at the END the film is like "wow. I can't believe I always loved her" and it's like "WHAT??????"

But the video I linked speaks about the VERY OBVIOUS and not even out of left field relationship between the main character and his childhood friend. Like it's not even a REACH, It's literally there ON SCREEN.

But then the movie takes a HARD TURN into "no homo!" territory.

The video doesn't really talk about it at all, but Ocean Waves was based on a book. And although I doubt the book would be a straightforward gay relationship between the two male characters written in the 80s, it DID make me wonder if the book at least WANTED to tell that story and had to pull a 70s Shoujo move.

See, in the 70s, Shoujo manga often told distinctly queer stories. Often between two girls but sometimes between two men. However, due to Japan's decency laws. These stories almost ALWAYS ended with the main characters having to die tragically or, the more common move, for the two gay characters finding out THEY WERE SISTERS ALL ALONG and that's why they had such a strong connection. Or, the other get out of jail free card, which is to give the gay characters straight love interests LITERALLY in the last chapter for them to end up with.

These days people would call this queerbaiting, but in the 70s it was literally the ONLY WAY for women to tell queer stories with queer characters. Because if they didn't pull the switch at the end, the story would not be allowed to be published.

So part of my wonders if the book went this direction, or if the book is much more hetero than the film, and the queer coding of the film was the result of the young filmmakers who instilled it there, but similarly had to take a hard turn so as not to make it official.

It's an interesting thing to wonder about. And honestly I'd put more effort into it if it wasn't for the fact that aside from Rikako who is so horrible, the other 2 main characters are incredibly boring and uninteresting. So I don't really care if they're gay married or not because they're so bland.

At least the visuals and the music is good,

Honestly just stick with "Only Yesterday" as far as non Miyazaki Ghibli movies go.

#C-Puff answers

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lilyeon · 10 months

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ive been on a light novel kick recently

lemme summarize some thoughts on them:

7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! 1-4: i thought it would be a standard "hypercompetent female lead in medieval europe" story and it was for the most part, in terms of convenient contrivances to make whatever whimsical actions that Rishe takes, but i appreciated the set dressing, at least. Rishe is funny and the repeated time loops makes for an entertaining premise.

The 100th Time's The Charm: She Was Executed 99 Times, So How Did She Unlock "Super Love" Mode?!: god this sucked. this honestly felt like reading a novel published by an 8 year old. so fuckin juvenile

A Lily Blooms in Another World: sometimes all you need is some simply girls who love each other.

The Apothecary Witch Turned Divorce Agent: interesting world with just enough worldbuilding, i liked that it didn't get explicitly romantic at the end, and I really enjoyed Carla's brazen attitude. Either she fit really well into the world around her, or the world was written to support her character, but either way, she felt like a complete product of her world and upbringing in a way that was really refreshing.

Did I Seriously Just Get Reincarnated as my Gag Character?! 1-2: there sure was a whole lot of talk about how much her character absolutely sucked despite being the most powerful being to the point of absurdity. i know the point is the contrast between game mechanics and expectation vs how she would be as a function of the world, but man that point was harped on a lot. as a protagonist, gotta say, trans as hell, that won a lot of points with me. "oh i'm suddenly my off-main RP character now? guess i'm a girl now, full-on. hell yeah" now that's the true trans rep we need

The Drab Princess, the Black Cat, and the Satisfying Break-up 1-2: it was alright, i feel like i would've been more invested if everyone wasn't secretly in love with her though i suppose it is an interesting subversion of the usual "plain boring princess" trope that everyone is actually super on-board for her to become queen. she's a deeply tragic heroine, honestly, and i don't think that's the intention at all.

Saint? No! I'm Just a Passing Beast Tamer 1: if this was a oneshot i'd be chill with it but the fact that it carries on somehow makes me feel so tired.

Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss But I'm Not the Demon Lord: i read the manga first and this was just more of the same. it's cute, i like Yumiella as a protagonist for the same reasons i like Carla from Apothecary Witch. i wish we had a bit more on Alicia's whole deal because she could've been interesting at the end there but instead she just made the whole thing boring as fuck. probably my favorite moments in the novel were Yumiella grinding the boss for drops and the Patrick confession scene for two different reasons

The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life 1-3: i had access to 6 volumes but i had to stop in the middle of the 3rd one. i was displeased but willing to continue in the first novel when one of Mariela's first actions as a protagonist is to engage with the slavery thing, but willing to put that aside, but then we had several monologues about how much slavery sucks alongside diatribes about how it's Jay's/Sieg's/etc's own fault that they got sold into debt slavery. the chapters in the 2nd and 3rd novels where Jay is there being absolutely fucking miserable and you're expected to nod whenever the book says "Jay didn’t reflect on his own part in this at all, spewing resentment instead." made me fucking incensed. my breaking point was in novel 3 where a minor protagonist just straight fucking rips one of his teeth out after strangling him and replaces it with a Pain Tooth of Make Your Slaves Obey More, and it's immediately followed with that above line. just. jesus fucking christ.

The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash 1-4: hey speaking of slavery, in this one they spent 2 novels telling the main character she should buy a slave, and then she gets there and is like "man this is kinda fucked actually" and doesn't, so good for her, but i read it immediately after Alchemist Who Survived so i was a little pissed at the fact that slavery was also a thing here because please that's not a system that is necessary to your world stop fucking doing it

ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Cursed Sword 1-4: anyway not to continue talking about slavery but if you're gonna have it, do it like this one did, and make your main protagonist claw her bloody way out of slavery with incredible brutality and swear that she'll kill more slave traders if they lay a hand on her girlfriend. that part was great. shame it gets mega fucking transphobic at the end though, that whole bit about Mother being explicitly textually transgender and then not using the correct pronouns for her, the genitals = sex = gender segments, the gross parts where they discuss how Mother "isn't even a woman, yeah that tripped me up too, how gross is this dude". fuck that. the fight scenes and fucked up body horror parts are great though. and it's got a manga by minakata sunao, which is a shame given [gestures at novel 4]

She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man 1-8: honestly i enjoyed it more than i was expecting. mira's cute, this is another one of those trans-as-hell novels where the protag is like "i guess im a girl now! this is great!" but i do find it incredibly unsettling how everyone is commenting on her looks and whatever if she's supposed to be, essentially, a 12 year old girl. deeply gross anime bullshit aside, it's fun. i thought i had more thoughts on this one so i was saving it for later in this list but honestly thats all i got. gross sexualization/infantilization of a young girl, but otherwise just a fun little fantasy jaunt

A Tale of the Secret Saint 1-4: fia's an idiot, i want more of her taking control in battle situations and less waffling about Great Saint abilities and fake-deep "political" """intrigue""". if you say any of these stupid-ass old men are her love interests i will throw a knife at you, and if the book goes in that direction even slightly i will Murder. canopus's devotion in the last novel was borderline for me dropping it. the manic obsession/devotion to fia is supposed to be humorous, i think, but it just comes off as deeply unsettling when the novel reminds you, as it often does, that fia ruud is a 15 year old (reincarnation of an incredibly sheltered woman who died at 18, so honestly even her mental age doesn't add much here). i know this is one of those chill life fantasy novels but i honestly want fia to serve actual consequences for the insane shit she does, not just passing-by mentions of having to do more laps or take training more seriously or being teased by her superiors or whatever. it's fun enough to keep reading though, i guess.

#light novels #im not gonna tag all of these individually #thats too much of a pain in the ass #spoiler warning for any of the novels i mentioned here

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rinoaskyes · 1 month

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Delicious in Dungeon

I know I am going to get raked by the internet community for saying this, but Delicious in Dungeon (ダンジョン飯) is just way too weird for me.

It starts off with a standard medieval fantasy premise of a world where adventurers raid dungeons for treasure. The party that we're following loses to the red dragon and is teleported out by Falin, their spellcaster who ends up getting eaten by the aforementioned dragon. Some end up leaving but the remaining three, Lairos ('tallman'), Marcille ('elven spellcaster') and Chilchuck (halfling locksmith') decide to go back into the dungeon to save Falin. However because they've just lost, they don't have much money or resources and result to eating the inhabitants of the dungeon to stay alive.

I'd like to say it starts off innocently enough but straight up in the first episode, the crew attempt to eat a walking mushroom and a scorpion. The former doesn't sound too bad on paper but visually, it has legs, and something about that really made me want to gag. And as for the scorpion, no disrespect to other cultures that might actually consume scorpions as part of their diet, but this guy was huge and terrifying. The last time I felt this way was when that viral TikTok of Pokemon getting prepped for cooking appeared on my timeline. Ugh.

As far as other plot points and character development moments, I just wasn't that sold. What I hear from friends and peers is that the manga does this more justice. I don't know if I'll be sticking around to find out though.

Maybe it's my fault for going into this anime thinking it would be more akin to Food Wars! or Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill, where the cooking scenes are actually delicious. If you're not as squeamish as me, you might find this more entertaining. And for what it's worth, I did watch the first season right until the end. It captivated me in the same way a car crash does, painful but you can't look away.

Delicious in Dungeon is written and illustrated by Ryōko Kui.

#delicious in dungeon #dungeon meshi #anime

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mistress-of-vos · 2 months

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Timber / timsteph? (I personally hate them, with good reason, of course! but I'd like to know ur opinion on them.)

I'm gonna do these two together! But this time I won't tag the ships as I don't want 🐜 interacting plus I don't really think it would be nice to put my hate on their tag lmao 🤣

TimBer:

Hate it. Loathe it. Rather than not ship it I'd say I want to destroy it.

1. Why don't you ship it?

It's terribly written. It's an ooc Tim with a self insert of the author and not even the most bland straight ship writing of DC is at this level of awful. It has done nothing but make Tim a terrible character and ruin him; currently Tim is a no one at DC and I blame this ship 100%. Amazing that what Slade's comics did so easily with Jericho was something impossible for Batman editorial.

2. What would have made you like it?

It would have to be written by another author. Someone who understood Tim completely, someone who wasn't afraid of real queer experience, someone who wasn't sexist as hell, and someone who didn't destroy years of a character's legacy.

B would have to be the old, original version. And his messiness should be kept, because that's literally the only interesting thing he had going on.

3. Do you have anything positive to say about it?

Sadly no. B current character sucks, which is a shame because his old version was kinda funny and definetely had the vibes of "mean, rude boyfriend". This B is nothing but a self insert and is closer to a woman than to an actual queer man, which also sucks. Tim has been made something he isn't, and it's horrible.

The fandom is disgusting. It's full of sexism, racism, and most people have zero media literacy which means they spend their time harassing people who create content for other Tim ships.

I really hope DC buries this ship down on the grave.

TimSteph:

Huh, 50/50?

1. This is a complex ship for me. I think my problem is that I was very satisfied with their situation at the end of New Earth: I see them dating, caring for each other deeply, and eventually going their own ways but still being friends. Not even as bitter exes, no, I genuinely enjoyed Tim & Steph still trusting the other and being friends. I do enjoy them as two teenagers who feel attraction to the other and try it out. Now, this is usual verse. As you know, I play with Tim's gender quite often, and when I write Timothea/Thea, I really enjoy TimSteph more and feel like it's a sad but real romance.

Perhaps my feelings are too complicated for a single post. I see Tim as a queer person who loves strongly and not always in conventional ways. I think he loves Steph and Tam and Pru in different yet similar ways, and with the first two there was an attraction. It's just that it wasn't meant to be. That being said, I would really prefer Tim to be dating Steph or Tam in current canon (as long as it didn't do the girls any disservice) rather than his current love interest, but if it were up to me, Tim wouldn't have a canon love interest and Steph and Tim would be friends (not to be confused with family).

Plus I think a deep part of me was really confident Steph was gonna come out as bi or lesbian before Tim did because her story resonates a lot with wlw people who stay in the closet for different reasons (such as her past pregnancy) so... 😅

Idk! I don't want them to get married or anything like that but I think them dating is and can always be part of their story and something they look at with a smile. No need to ruin their friendship or push any of them as "evil".

2. If Tim were Timothea in canon I would be definitely obsessed with TimSteph. Something something make them the DC version of the manga NANA and have them reject heteronormativity.

3. Steph is a character unfairly hated most of the time and I think it goes hand on hand with people's own sexism and DC's awful writing for her. It makes me mad that we have so few moments where Steph actually shines and is allowed to be a more complex character. This is why I say I really would prefer if she and Tim had been allowed to stay single and as friends, because both of them deserve better than current DC.

#my writing #my opinion #ask game #ship ask game #proship

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nibwhipdragon · 1 year

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Alright, Joseph for the character ask I wanna read an essay

You all really know who to ask for these character ask games don't you. Thank you I have. Written a lot. I apologise in advance if my writing seems to be discombobulated at times or if it feels like I'm going in circles, my brain has been like mush lately I cannot essay properly rn

Tagging @pey-no-attention-to-me as you asked for this too :3

It's all under the cut because I wrote SO MUCH.

Sexuality headcanon: Bisexual fr ❗️❗️❗️ Though I did see something abt Joseph being aro on here ages ago and it's been rattling around in my head ever since...him being aro/aroace actually kinda gives a reason as to why he's Like That imo, I like to dabble in it. Also it's really funny

Gender headcanon: Genderfluid 💥💥💥 It just fits, yknow? Though I am also open to other gender headcanons, I like to dabble in trans man and trans woman Joseph sometimes (I actually did do a screenshot edit with transfem Joseph once, and oh my god I hate hair so much) <3

A ship I have with said character: Caejose is my main ship with him, as you can probably tell. I also love joseq, they're such a sweet little couple, it's so wholesome (we ignore the cheating, though Joseph does have his selfish and bad traits he would NOT cheat, I hate Araki making him cheat just to get another Joestar for the plot). Hmm actually I should write some joseq I haven't written much and when I do it's sidelined by caejose...

A BROTP I have with said character: JOSEPH AND SMOKEY FR!!!!! WE SHOULD'VE GOTTEN MORE OF THEM AND THEIR SHENANIGANS!!!!! THEY WERE SUCH A GOOD DUO SMOKEY WAS THE FIRST FRIEND JOSEPH MADE HAUGHHHHH ARAKI WHY DO YOU DO THIS ALL THE TIME (I need to actually work on my full rewrite of jjba tbh)

Also I think there's probably something that can be said about Joseph having no proper friends before Smokey. Idk man but the way he always gets so aggressive over the littlest things, but it feels almost defensive in a sort of way to me? Like with the way he immediately demanded to know what was up with the Squid Ink Spaghetti, and the way he was really tentative with starting to eat it once he was told what it was. Yeah that could be chalked down to him just being wary of it as he's not used to the food and he won't know if he'll like it, but with him having no friends and also being arrested 3 times before hitting 20, I have a feeling something else is at play. Joseph was likely bullied in school, if I'm completely honest. That guy 100% did not have a good childhood I can guarantee you that.

And with that likely being the case, his first friend being Smokey kinda has a lot more meaning if you get what I mean. Like they first met because Smokey stole his wallet and ended up being attacked by the police for it. Of course yeah Joseph's not a racist so of course he wouldn't stand for that (ONCE AGAIN, WE IGNORE PART 3 BECAUSE ARAKI LITERALLY CANNOT KEEP HIS OWN CHARACTERS CONSISTENT. GOD.), but the whole arresting thing you'd assume he'd be fine with. And oddly enough he's not, he doesn't want Smokey to get arrested in the first place. You'd think he'd tell them to chill tf out with the racist stuff and leave it at that, but the first thing he tells the cops is that he gave Smokey the wallet – meaning there was no crime committed at all. And the police also only start doing stuff to Joseph after he tried to get Smokey off it scot-free (I feel that this change is more emphasised in the manga, where they straight up ask Joseph why he cares about Smokey as he's white and Smokey is black, I feel like they sorta bring Joseph down to Smokey's level in their minds after Joseph still stays on Smokey's side), so he definitely doesn't do this for his sake as it'd be better for him if he just left it. And with this being Joseph, with his selfish streak, that's quite notable. Personally I think that Joseph could recognise that Smokey wasn't in a good spot if he was stealing in broad daylight like that, he must've been desperate to do that. And once he saw how the police were treating him that just made him wanna make sure Smokey didn't get arrested more. I feel that if he really was bullied in childhood he'd understand the othering going on here (sure he can't understand completely bc getting othered by bullying and getting othered by racism is different. But the similarities ARE there) by the police to Smokey and that's what does cause him to have that REALLY violent outburst towards them (it was deserved, yes, but it didn't need to go that far to get the job done, ykwim). Actually the violent outburst is actually quite notable, seeing that kids that have been abused a lot – because bullying IS abuse – do usually tend to become aggressive and have behavioural and emotional regulation problems later in life as a result of it, sorta like a defence mechanism (and also because being bullied is not a good place to grow up in they also probably didn't have a chance to learn how to regulate emotions, especially if they were being teased and mocked for their feelings and that) and oh my god I'm going off on a major tangent I'll stop now

They also seem to have a sort of brotherly bond with each other, and I love that. They're just really awesome and cool and god I wish Araki had more screen time of them. Part 2 suffers from a lot of pacing issues actually now that I think about it. I'm Normal as you can tell

A NOTP I have with said character: Literally anything incestuous. There's so much incestuous stuff I come across it all the time it's so bad. I hate how Araki goes about writing jjba as he goes along if not for that we wouldn't have had the whole Lisa Lisa bath scene while also being his mother, which I think a lot of the incest stuff comes from. It's just...ew. You can't even get any interesting takes on the narrative with it the majority of the time. Just. 🤢

Also Josekars. Like I can see AUs where Kars ends up turning good and becomes friends or whatnot, Kars is a very interesting character for plots like that, but I simply do not like the ship for em both, it's just not my cup of tea.

A random headcanon: Whenever he had a nightmare as a child, he'd go and sleep in the same bed as Erina, as it'd bring him comfort. However, he still did this even when he was older, until he finally moved out with Suzi. Erina never minded, she'd do anything to make him feel better. (WAAAAHHHHH JOSEPH AND ERINA'S RELATIONSHIP...)

General opinion of said character: do i even need to say.

Well. I think he's very interesting due to his personality and morals being very gray in a way the other Joestars aren't, the other Joestars mainly have their negative traits be in what they do (steal, be a delinquent, etc.) and not their actual personality traits like selfishness and that. He's terribly underused by Araki and also mischaracterised in later parts because it's Araki of course that's gonna happen. I think about him every day for hours at a time he's at the forefront of my mind constantly I'm Normal about him and he's one of the main things keeping my mind tethered to jjba as Sonic's kinda dragging me away from it, hence why Sonic and Joseph are fistfighting in my mind, they both want all my autism RAM so bad you have no idea. Nobody gets him like I do. OK maybe not nobody else, Seaweed and Kirsten get him. Other jjba mutuals don't Josephpost enough/I don't know irl so I can't make a proper judgement on it. He makes me sick I hope he dies. Taking him out for ice cream. Kissing him sloppy (platonically). Detaching his penis so he can never have sex again. Joseph Joestar

#jjba #joseph joestar #ask game answers #ARO JOSEPH TRUTHERS WHERE ARE YOU #there's so much more i wanted to speak about here. like the tequila joseph scene #yeah it was transmisogynistic (still is) but the original version in this day and age can be read in a way #that paints Joseph as a major egg. it's very interesting to me #ougaighhhh I'm normal towards joseph #yeah i wrote an essay about Joseph's relations to other characters that didn't include Caesar. wild i know #waugh

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hermioneismyrealname · 6 months

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Ok everyone.

Let's put some chronic internet buffoons in their place, shall we?

Let's first talk about the OG thai bl. Love sick. I was there. Let's talk about the one that got thai bl some traction. Love by chance. I was there. How about the one that put thai bl on the map, tharntype. I was there. Now KinnPorsche. The one that got global attraction from (mostly) everyone. Here still.

Before Asian bl, I was here for hannibal, supernatural and fucking merlin since day 1. Yuri on ice, been waiting for that movie for how many years now? And don't get me started on banana fish, given or all the bl manhwa, manhua and Manga. Call me fujoshi? Yeah aight but I'm here for the gl series (give me more) and the well written straight shit too.

The difference between the two kinds of media I present to you is deliberate fan service and fan acknowledgment.

If I were to categorize shows like merlin or Teen Wolf, I would put it as unfortunate writing. Supernatural and hannibal were not really a romance focused genre. Considering how early game these shows were, I wasn't surprised with the ending of all 4 of these series. Which is why good omens, heartstopper, young royals, and our flag means death is refreshing. These four bring a genre where LIFE is portrayed with romance being the center of it. They don't always give a happy ending. They have a realistic ending. I cannot always say the same for asian dramas.

In the early days of Asian bl, Thai especially, it focused on plot, actual plot, not hot guys who look great, but great actors. A good example is SOTUS and Until We Meet Again. A recent addition that I can add is Your Name Engraved Herein. It was also about getting society comfortable with LGBTQ+. Also, it tackled the ridiculous education system and challenged it. Up for some football anyone? This used to be a art form of portrayal and storytelling. Taiwanese drama has maintained a good story plot throughout most of it productions but it is a shame that it goes underrated most of the time.

Now, I observe the market for bl. I do blame KinnPorsche of this, but if I were to truly put a pin in it, I would stab it at tharntype. The thai entertainment industry is going to suffer. The primary reason for the inevitable doom is the unfortunate marketing ploy the actors have to do off-screen. Take tharntype, an unfortunately perfect example. While mame (previously) never re-used the actors in her universe, post tharntype, mew and gulf were expected to act again together. Why? The off-screen fan-service. Behind the scenes show actors being comfortable at their workplace. On stage in front of screaming, fans is just another act. If they did love each other, they wouldn't flaunt it as they did. Even now, there are wanjaai still thinking gulf is mew's affianced. It took mew to personally address the fans' ridiculous behavior and yet, here we are; bubbles mourning and the... I can't remember the ohmnannon fan base. I saw the panic when saint wouldnt be with perth again, and then when saint wouldn't be with zew. HAHAHAHA. Remember pretty recently when Freen's privacy was invaded and fans felt betrayed? pathetic.

Just thinking about it makes me laugh because even the japanese actors have their boundaries. Take Keita Machida for example. Not only did he get featured in Alice in Borderland, but he is also married. There was some backlash but not as much as Cha Seo Won from Unintentional Love Story and definitely not as much as any Thai BL actor. These are talented actors who are capable of so much. Take Fluke Natouch. He is a wonderful actor and is trying not limit himself to a ship/pairing/couple. Talk to me when you have seen Red Wine in the Dark Night. Imagine what the industry could truly be if markets wouldn't limit them.

If however, this is about the comfort of the actor, then FINE! But don't condemn them when they suddenly aren't paired up with each other again. For this, I put forward PremBoun (yes i just did that), NetJames and TutorYim. I will not mention FortPeat or BossNoeul because I can see all four of them going independent and succeeding whilst maintaining a brilliant friendship. Peat and Noeul especially. Cant wait for that to rock people's boat.

Need I remind these people that THEY ARE ACTORS! NOT DOLLS OR PUPPETS! Heck need I remind the public of the 227 scandal?

As fans, shouldn't we support the actor for acting? Not the ship for putting on smiles?

Now I sip my tea as I watch the ships. Actually, my eyes aren't on the ships; they are watching the idiots who can't take nuance and are chronically online. I watch them cry when their ships sink as me and my fellow veterans relax on our sundeck enjoying our teas, coffee and martinis with those tiny little umbrellas. Been through this all before and this whole manifesto was completely useless because nothing is going to change. Looking at the idiots in Macau for Bible's recent fanmeet.

*lifts my half empty teacup* Perhaps I am just @absolutebl but more chaotic and less diplomatic. Do I care about how many shippers this hurt? Considering some of their bullshit behavior, I'm gonna say how it is. I've been dealing with death threats since 2012 and the threats of chemical castration from my own government, I cant seem to fucking care. Cheers to chaos.

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ifellbecausegravity · 1 year

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"I can't imagine myself sticking with a show like this if I wasn't a fan of the original"

Look, liking the original doesn't mean you have to like Stampede. You can walk away. If you're not enjoying it, you should. As someone who loves the 90s anime and the manga, but who loved the manga more, I'm watching Stampede because I love it. I almost didn't because it was clear we weren't getting a straight manga adaptation this time either, but I'm glad I chose to. If I ended up hating it, I would've stopped watching it and reread the manga. You don't have to watch things you don't enjoy.

anon you know you're allowed to enjoy things that are badly written, right? you're even allowed to enjoy things and criticize aspects of those things. I'm actually happy that you're loving the series!

I'm only saying that if I weren't a fan of the manga and 90s anime and an animation buff I would've watched a few episodes and gone "meh", but since I am those things I've been watching it for the nostalgia and beautiful visuals. I'm still on the fence about how I feel about the series atm but I really hope the writing improves in the next few episodes because it has so much potential it's currently wasting and that bothers me

#what part of my my post made you think i was hatewatching i just care a lot about trigun and am upset with the crappy writing #asks #trigun stampede #trigun

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somthing-lavender · 1 year

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How I would rewrite Isolde's introduction

I'm really bothered how Isolde was introduced in the manga (found it unfunny and in bad taste), so this is how I would edit it.

First what are the important points that happened

She gets into a fight with the Percival platoon along with Chion and Jade

Establish her crush on Tristan (could be skipped and saved for latter)

Establish her views on chastity (could be save for later, possibly skipped all together depending if anything even comes out of it)

She runs off and meets Gawain

We established she's very emotional (could be saved for a later arc, but preferably we'll establish that in the Chaos in Liones arc)

Establish she's insecure (same as her being emotional)

Here's the rewrites

Instead of Percy running into her, she'll be hanging out with the rest of the gang when Chion sees Percival with the Dragon sword walks by. He points it out to the others and convenes them to fight Percival. The fight goes basically the same except for the fact Isolde wasn't chasing Percival before hand and we get rid if the time she'll randomly say "Prince Tristan"

The next noticeable change is why she got separated from the rest of the group. I came up with a few possibilities.

She runs off like in the original, but this time out of embarrassment/shame of getting into a fight. This would lead to Gawain finding her crying and so on.

While looking for Gawain Isolde is clearly upset about the fight, when Tristan suggests she should take a break that pushes over the edge and has her running off balling with a very concerned Tristan behind her.

After Jade and Chion leave, as Chion was suspected of treason, Isolde suggests to Tristan they should split up to cover more ground. Why she ends up crying can vary, maybe she was on the verge of tears the whole time and is crying now she's alone, or maybe she looks for Gawain but can't find them (making her feel useless (the irony)).

So most of these end with her cry, just for Gawain to find her and go "a pretty girl is crying? Now is my time to shine." But the reason why she's crying is different as it has nothing to do with chastity. Why exactly she's crying can vary

She's upset about attacking innocent people (can make her more sympathetic to the readers, cause I know alot of people where bothered by her for attacking them, so this would be a way to show actually regret, also it's somthing outside of Tristan)

She's upset about causing problems for Tristan in the Percival fight, feeling useless in the search for Gawain, her falling for Chion trick, not stopping Chion from attacking "Gawain" (playing into the idea she's worried she's useless for Tristan and only causes problems for him that's brought up in 82, if you want it could be written in away that she's more worried about being a burden to everyone else and not just Tristan).

This is more of a "cherry on top" thing, but being upset about her emotions getting the best of her. Either her anger leading her to fight innocent people, or her guilt and shame leading her to run off (bonus point if this is the scenario where Tristan told her to take a break, also adds to the "she feels like a burden scenario"). (Not only spelling out how she's very emotional, but also giving some extra character about it.)

So she's crying about what ever leading to a spiral of insecurity, so when Gawain comes up and starts flirting with her she's well in the mind set of "I'm not worthy of Tristan, and why in the world is this random man flirting with me?"

Also possibly instead just standing around crying, if this is one of the scenarios she knew of the search for Gawain, she'll be looking for Gawain while on the verge of tears (or she's just straight up crying while trying to find Gawain), then Gawain comes up to her and so on.

This is honestly the only time I could think were the whole chastity thing could be added back in. It'll be at most one line, like the Gawain is flirting and Isolde rejects their advancements like "I've already decided to dedicat everything to him, including my chastity.", or something like that.

The next thing I may change is her explanation of her power/her powers. If course I'm talking about the "my powers come from my lover for Tristan." I could see this going 3 ways

Her powers actually come from everyone she loves, but hasn't realized it yet, and there's gonna be an arc about it later (if this is the case, I may keep it depending on how good this hypothetical arc is)

Same as the last but she's already aware, she just said Tristan because it was from her love for Tristan in that moment. (Would probably change it to get rid of any confusion, it being from her feelings for Tristan could easily be implied)

Her powers literally only come from her romantic feelings for Tristan (in which case change her abilities so it's for her love of all her friends, family, and those she want to protect)

I would also like to suggest the idea of not bringing up the fact she romantically like Tristan until her conversation with Anne in 82. It'll allow the audience to know her before establishing her as Tristan love intrest (tho alot of people probably would figure out that's she's a love intrest). It wouldn't be that hard, just remove things explicitly stating she like Tristan. To make it more convincing we can have her worry about other characters,

"I wasn't able to spot Chion so know that random man got hurt. If I just listen to Jade instead of Chion that's knights and his friends wouldn't of gotten hurt. Everyone is looking for the knights except for me, really dragging the team down" And when talking about her insecurities just change "that man," to "a man."

Allow the girl to show off her other personality traits in a semi-none-Tristan context first.

Tw: mentions of SA

Okay now for why I dislike her introduction so much.

The writer needed the Tristan platoon to fight the Percival platoon, and for Isolde to run off to meet Gawain. So what they did was have the main character accidentally sa Isolde, and for her to feel so ashamed about it she runs away. The way I describe it sounds dark compared to the actual story, but if you actually look at it, it's basically what happens and it's played off as a joke. Even if there was no way to write around this, and the two groups weren't gonna fight any other way, if you need you MC to accidentally sa someone in order for them to fight, then maybe...

THEY SHOULDN'T FIGHT!

And as you could see their were very easy work arounds.

The only thing missing in this rewrite is a way to show of how little she knows about sex, but unless that becomes an actual plot point later, nothing of much value is lost.

#Isolde #4koa #4kota #four knights of the apocalypse #mokushiroku no yon kishi #mokushiroku no yonkishi #4 knights of the apocalypse

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trappedward · 1 year

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BLOG #06 - Holy shit I never made any kind of post about the ending of Haisha-san, attematsu!

For anyone unfamiliar, Haisha-san, attematsu! is a manga written and illustrated by Yamazaki Sho. The full series is available to read for free on MangaPlus. Link: https://mangaplus.shueisha.co.jp/titles/100114

It is intentionally meant to be kind of bait-y from a first glance. It looks sus but I ensure you it's not! (There is also a little bit of borderline sus stuff in the first 3 or so chapters but I promise, PROMISE, it really isn't anything like that once you get into the nitty gritty of it).

Anyhow, on Saturday the 21st of January (at the time of writing this, last Saturday), the last chapter of the series was published. I wasn't expecting it. I knew the series was coming to an end because of the pace of the chapters before this one, but I thought it would at least have a few more left to go. But no. This is the end.

The author / PR team has stated on twitter that there is bonuses to still be released for the paperback print. However, I am unsure as to whether the bonuses will also be released digitally because when the last chapter came out, the usual notice for the next chapter release at the bottom of the website page was not there. I am hoping we get digital uploads, otherwise I will have to wait and see if it gets a physical print in english and this could take any amount of time, if it even happens at all - as I am to believe that the series is not as popular in English speaking audiences as it is in Japanese audiences. I think the advertising is partially to blame as there is virtually none for this series other than the twitter account that is in Japanese.

So, with all the background now given, I have to get off my chest the thoughts and feelings I had on this 'final' chapter. First emotion I felt was sadness. I was actually genuinely mourning / grieving the end of this manga. Even though it only updated bi-weekly, it kept me going through the weeks as I could always tell myself to keep looking forward to the new chapter releases. My next feeling was a slight bit of disappointment. I felt that this last chapter was a bit rushed / too fast paced for all of the previous material it had to cover or wrap up. There were too many loose ends left untied and I had many questions as to what this ending meant for various characters, not just our MCs. I am hoping that this can be answered or rather compensated for in the bonuses coming up.

Spoiler warning from here on out.

From what I could gather, Takuma and Tomori choose to remain friends after everything was all said and done. The scene of them bathing in the bathhouse was a reused one from the initial one-shot that this series was (it was made a full series after the one-shot was made - I assume it got popular and therefore appointed it's own series). This, to me, was what felt rushed. From chapter 67-68, we don't see any progression from Takuma's realisation to the two of them becoming friends / allies. Takuma mentions at the end of chapter 67 that he wishes to have a drink of sake with Tomori as 'brothers' (yakuza term) but we don't even get to see this. It just jumps straight into the resolution for chapter 68 and we don't get to see the progression in between. This felt rushed to me and it is also why I was surprised initially that this was indeed the final chapter because I had assumed we would at least get to view this progression before we came to a conclusion. It made me a bit sad because until now, the pacing of the series was steady and well plotted and the ending sort of let it down a bit. If the bonuses can compensate for this by providing a bit more story of what happens afterword or perhaps what happened during the jump between chapter 67 and 68, then it will no longer bother me and I will not view this ending as such a fail. If not, it may leave a bit of a sour taste in my mouth cause I feel that it deserved more. I may be bias cause it's my favourite series but I mean c'mon, I want peoples' projects to be a reflection of their own passion - they deserve to have good quality for something they care about.

EDIT: Here's more on what I meant about lack of progression. First is what I was saying about the cups of sake. Tomori mentions it here and then that's the end of this scene. Nothing else. Just yeah we did do that.

Like hello????? I want to know what they talked about!! What was the exchange like?

Second detail was this scene here:

Senior Mima is about to rip his sleeves off as he usually does whenever experiencing heightened emotions, but he resists. WHEN DID HE OVERCOME THIS? Am I assume that this character progression occurred during the time jump between chapter 67-68?? How was he able to overcome his habit? Why weren't we able to see it?

Third point:

Takuma is taking notes about the others discussing him and Tomori. It sort of alludes that he is still interested in him or at least in learning more about him so what comes of this? Will we ever get to properly know? If not, what was the point of seeing him writing this down? Even later in the onsen, he's looking at Tomori as if he's still sort of interested in him. So what are his true feelings? Like I understand he had the realisation in chapter 67 that he wishes to leave things as they are (as it's implied) but has he really gotten over Tomori? Not to mention his lower body reaction.

Do you see what I mean? I feel like Sho meant to address all of this before this final chapter but it just wasn't? So what happened? Was there a limit on how long the series could be? Was it a problem with the author not knowing how to end the manga? Was it something in relation to Manga Plus or perhaps a contract thing? I need to know!!

When all is said and done, this series will remain my favourite - at least until something else surpasses it and takes its place. It made me laugh, probably tear up a bit, and I loved every single character. This is the first series where I can confidently say I didn't hate a single character. Each had their own unique schtick and it was just so silly and self aware and I will forever love it. Surprisingly, the straight man Tomori was my favourite!!

Thank you Yamazaki Sho for gifting me this experience. I had been following since the early chapters (somewhere in the 10s-20s) and I was there every 2 weeks, on the dot, for more. My journey was only roughly 2 years, but your 3 year journey meant a lot for me and I hope to see you with another series in the near future.

That's all!

#Haisha-san attematsu #excuse me dentist it's touching me #excuse me dentist #Haisha-san #Tomori Shirayuki #Takuma Kurosumi #Yamazaki Sho #Sho Yamazaki #manga plus

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