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ambrosiagourmet · 14 days

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Rin Masterpost

Rin! Rinsha Fana! Beloved side character I think about far too much (or maybe not enough?)

I decided that it might be nice to put together an informational post about Rin, since she has some of my favorite background details of any character in Dungeon Meshi. This is partly as reference for myself, and partly for anyone else who might be interested in her but not know where to chase down the tidbits we we get of her, both in canon & extra materials. There’s also a little bit of theorizing and analysis sprinkled in for fun.

If anyone spots something I missed, please let me know and I will add it in!

Alright. Time for ultimate #rinposting

History and Timeline:

We don't have an official timeline for Rin (even in the expanded Adventurer's Bible, sadly), but we can put a lot of pieces together based on Kabru's timeline & their respective ages.

Rin is 2 years older than Kabru, and they met when he was 9. Assuming that he met her soon after she was taken to the elven capital, that means that the elves took her when she was 11.

Before that, she lived on the Northern Continent. Interestingly, when Mickbell asks about Shuro, Rin says she was born "here."

Since "here" doesn't mean the actual Island itself, it must mean simply "not the east." She is described in the Adventurer's Bible as having "no real knowledge of or attachment to the East," so maybe that's why she draws a "there" verses "here" line.

I'd also like to add a note here that the elves don't seem uh... they don't seem great about respecting the value of other cultures, especially those of short-life species. Milsiril seems to have discouraged Kabru from eating or remembering food from his hometown, at least, and that's even as an adoptive parent who cares (at least in some way) for her child. As I will touch on later, the "care" that Rin was under probably had even less respect for her history or ties to either Eastern or Northern culture.

That is all to say, considering that Rin spent many years with the elves, I'd take her having "[no] attachment to the East" as more of a comment on how she feels now, and less as a definite choice she made. She may genuinely have chosen that approach and opinion for herself, she may have been pushed towards it by the elves, and she may have had little choice at all in the matter - all are valid interpretations, though I personally lean towards the thought that it's unlikely the elves didn't have at least some hand in it.

Anyway, Rin does seem to know at least a bit about her heritage - she can presumably name and identify the specific island her parents are from, and she recognizes that "Shuro" isn't a name used there. She also knows that different places from the Eastern archipelago speak different languages, so she knows at least a little about the other islands as well.

Some additional extrapolations I'll make based on these facts: she never mentions, and probably isn't in contact with, any family from her island. This may be because her extended family died, because her parents didn't (or weren't able to) maintain contact, or because she lost contact when she was taken by the elves. Somewhat relatedly, she also prooobably doesn't speak the language, at least not fluently, though her being able to comment on the state of language in the archipelago makes me think that she at least learned a little as a kid.

Anyway, Rin's parents were refugees from the archipelago, though we don't know what specifically caused them to leave. There is this little tidbit of info we get (from the cover of chapter 48, of all places), though:

So yeah, that seems like it would be the backdrop of Rin's parents fleeing. As I said earlier, it's unclear if Rin might have any living family left back on her island. The listing she has for “family” in the Adventurer's Bible is just a dash, but so is Izutsumi's, for instance, and we know that she was taken from her family with no knowledge of who might still be out there. It's possible everyone else was killed, it's possible they were separated... it's possible that Rin's parents didn't even know.

As an additional note, and this is speculation on my part, but I think there is an argument to be made, with this tidbit from the cover as well as the Nakamoto clan's specialty in espionage and use of ninjas, that the politics of the archipelago are partially based on Sengoku era Japan. Not necessarily super relevant here, but I think it's interesting context for all... of the archipelago characters, honestly.

(Especially considering it seems like the Nakamoto clan is in a relatively comfortable position, and yet clearly are involved, or at least prepared to be involved in larger conflict. How stable is their position, really? How is Shuro's father viewed by the wider region and archipelago as a whole? What about his lord? NOT THE POINT THIS IS A POST ABOUT RIN. BUT IT'S VERY INTERESTING TO THINK ABOUT.)

Okay, back to Rin's parents.

Whatever caused them to leave, they made their way to the north, where they made their living with their magic for a time. There are no specifics about what kind of magic they used, but we know at least some examples of jobs that magic can get you, based on the flashback to Laios and Falin's childhood in chapter 26. Laios proposes that Fain could use her magic to be a priest, gravekeeper, or wandering exorcist. Though these are specific to Falin's affinity with spirits, they give some idea of the shape of the work that might be available. It's important, but it is also on the outskirts of society - not necessarily admired or appreciated by the average person.

And Rin’s parents were killed by vigilantes for that magic. It's not entirely news that superstitious villages in the area would sometimes kill magic users - we see a small drawing of people being burned at the stake in a panel towards the end of the manga:

Nonetheless, Rin is the only person in the main cast who has experienced this brutality firsthand. And she did experience it firsthand, having been found by the elves as the sole survivor within the burnt ruins of her home.

It is unknown exactly how she survived, or what happened to her parents before and during the fire. Rin lived, and they did not.

The elves came some time after the fire, intending to investigate reports of ancient magic. They (and we) don't know if Rin's parents actually did use ancient magic, or if the reports and murders were simply spurred by general fear and superstition. Rin was the only piece of "evidence" that remained, and so she was taken back to the west with the elves when they left.

We don't know much about her time on the Northern Central Continent (where the elves/Canaries are based), but it doesn't seem like she was adopted or taken in by anyone the way that Kabru was. According to the Adventurer's Bible, after being taken into custody, "under their care she was treated as a captive animal would be." I would guess that means very basic food and shelter, little to no education. Probably the most social contact she got was from Kabru, as well as maybe, occasionally, from elves treating her as a curiosity, such as in this bit in the Adventurer’s Bible:

Assuming she left with Kabru (which seems like it is the case, there's no info about them having separated during that time), she spent 9 years with the elves, and has been with Kabru on the Island in the 4 years since then.

She also stays in the Golden Country after the end of the story, apparently working as an alchemist.

Additional Details (& Speculation):

What does she remember of her family and home?

I'd like to take a moment here to explore a little of what Rin might remember of her parents and home.

For reference, we can look at Kabru. The canaries came to Utaya when Kabru was 6, and he arrived in the capital when he was 7. He remembers the events of the tragedy in his home, and has some memories of his mother and life in Utaya, including memories of local dishes.

Rin lost her parents and home at 11, so she presumably has much clearer memories of the events that lead to her being taken by the elves... or she might, assuming that they haven't been completely blocked by her trauma from the event.

Yeah, I am fairly damn sure that she's got some memory issues from trauma and PTSD. For one, this is the state she was found in:

As already mentioned, she was also treated like something of an animal by the elves. She probably didn't have a lot of contact with other people, which would further perpetuate that sense of isolation and dehumanization. What I'm getting at here is that Rin probably didn't have much to help pull her out of this place, or heal these wounds. She had Kabru, who was also a kid and even younger than her, and she had herself.

Obviously trauma leaves different scars on everyone, and everyone responds and copes in different ways. But I do think it is interesting that we never hear anything about Rin's parents or life before the elves, and there are no real details about it given in the Adventurer's Bible the way we have for Kabru. What's presented is more surface level facts: they were refugees, they made a living with magic, they were killed.

I'm inclined to believe that things are laid out this way because that's how Rin holds on to these things. She knows things about them, but possibly remembers them more as things she was told/knows to be true, rather than actual memories she can picture herself experiencing.

Rin's Magic

In an interesting counterpoint to her potentially spotty memory, I do actually think Rin may have learned magic from her parents (or started learning, and was self-taught from there). She never attended a magic academy, and actually has a bit of grudge against people who did - owing to the social protection afforded to "upper-class mages," which her parents did not have. She also almost certainly wouldn't have been taught by the elves, who not only treated her as an animal but also knew her parents may have been involved with ancient magic.

Falin began to show signs of magical talent at 8, and was sent to the Magic Academy at 10, and that was as someone who had absolutely no guidance about or exposure to magic in her home town. Raised by two mage parents, I think Rin absolutely could have been learning some things by the time she was 11.

In terms of continued learning, I'll add that Rin is able to identify Marcille's magic as being A) from an Academy student, and B) cast by an elf:

This makes me think that she continued to study magic on her own while held by the elves, and probably even more so after leaving with Kabru. They didn't form the party until two years after they left the elves, which would give Rin plenty of time to try and learn from other adventurers on the Island, or to study up on her own. She'd probably be able to pick up some dungeon-crawling basics (like the water walk spell), as well as become familiar with the skill level and expression of skill common in different people with different backgrounds (hence why she is able to comment on the "textbook" academy wards).

Much like Marcille, Rin also seems to rely on a 'one size fits all' Big Boom method of dealing with monsters: lightning. We see the best example of its power in the fight with Chimera Falin:

But we also see her cast it pretty recklessly in a few other places, including the end credits of the new anime ED, which I think provides a good example of the downsides to such an approach...

Yeah, it is very much a 'get out of the way or get zapped' spell.

Especially since Marcille's offensive magic is self-taught and works very similarly, this definitely reinforces the idea that Rin figured most of this stuff out herself.

Outfit and Character Design

Dear sweet Rin of the Red And Black... how I love her design.

First of all, her clothes are damaged. Despite the fact that Rin looks relatively well put together overall, her outfit is worn out. I have some theories on why this is that I'll get to in a bit, but for now I'll just touch on what this design communicates in general about it.

I think, just like with Kabru's horribly messy room, it creates a sense that there is something more complicated underneath the surface. Something that isn't being addressed or seen to, just as the dress hasn't been mended or replaced.

It also reflects her not caring a ton about her appearance. She's neat, but she's not concerned about being pretty, so she doesn't bother with fixing up her outfit after her dungeon crawls. This also fits with her perpetual scowl (which I will talk more about in a bit), and slightly disheveled hair.

Next: the gloves. At first I thought they might be a sort of uncomfortable-with-touch thing, but after skimming through the manga and some bonus content, I have another theory. Rin takes the gloves off to eat, as well as a few other instances, such as when working on a spell with Holm and Marcille in chapter 36

This one is especially interesting because she has them on in the next chapter, during the fight with Falin. Since she also isn't wearing gloves during some of the Daydream Hour art of her outside of the dungeon, that leads me to believe that they are specifically for combat.

What does she need them for, though? Most other casters we see don't wear gloves. Well... just look at the other half of the page where she attacks Falin with lightning:

She is enveloped by this spell. I said it before was pretty reckless magic, but maybe its not just a problem for her teammates, but for her as well.

So here's my theory: maybe the gloves are rubber, or some other electricity-resistant material? They might help protect her from her own magic. I don't know why a caster would need gloves for combat otherwise.

I also think this might be why her dress is tattered at the bottom, by the way. Especially since the Daydream Hour genderswap design doesn't have a similar problem with his outfit, since the tunic isn't as long.

I will admit this is a bit of stretch/guess, but I think it's a fun one, and I wanted to share. I do think I'm right about the gloves being for dungeons/fighting specifically, at least. That seems pretty consistent throughout all of her appearances.

I also mentioned her scowl, so I'll touch on that briefly as well. The (fairly confirmed) explanation for Rin's expression is that she intentionally wears a frown to prevent her other expressions from showing through. I think it's important to emphasize that it's not just smiling that she is trying to suppress here - it's any strong emotion:

Anyway, because I can, here is the art of Rin smiling.

Rin and Kabru

I have talked a bit about Rin and Kabru's history, but I think it deserves its own section.

I think it's very interesting that Rin is pretty much the ONLY character in all of Dungeon Meshi that has explicit canonical romantic interesting in someone. It's literally part of the main summary sentence in her character profile.

This could be sort of reductive as a way to describe a female character (and in some ways it still is), but I think in part the simplicity and directness of it actually is part of what makes it so interesting. Especially when on the very next page we see the comic about her backstory. "This mage is in love with Kabru" -> one page of a horribly traumatic event and a child frozen in shock with no one to comfort her. What does that do?

Well, in my opinion, it shows how much Rin focuses on Kabru as something to keep her in the present. In contrast with the immense loss she has experienced, her love for Kabru is current and alive. He has presumably been her anchor for years, and I think that her love is part of that anchor.

Adding to this, in contrast with how explicit her feelings are, she never seems to actively pursue Kabru. She complains about his potential interest in other women, but she doesn't really flirt. She doesn't let herself smile around him any more than anyone else, and she doesn't hide her bitterness or anger from him to present a more appealing persona.

As much as she craves Kabru's attention, and has stayed by his side for years, I don't know that she really wants to possess him. He seems to know about her feelings, more or less, and she seems to know that he knows. Maybe she believes he doesn't reciprocate and is respecting that, maybe she's afraid of what she could lose if she tried to change things, or maybe the change itself frightens her. In any case, though she's not exactly happy with the way things are between them, she doesn't seem to be trying to change that status quo.

A specific thing I'd also like to talk about with their relationship, beyond Rin's love for him, is her fear for him. As the Adventurer's Bible puts it, "she worries that his knack for dealing with whatever life throws at him might lead him to get too full of himself and end up in serious trouble."

Rin is an interesting mix of restrained and explosive, herself. Her magic is destructive, her temper seems to run hot (she gets annoyed easily, at least), and her feelings for Kabru are apparent. At the same time, she doesn't let her emotions show on her face, she is the one who bluntly states that the group has hit the limit of their abilities, and she doesn't act on those obvious feelings for Kabru. It's interesting, then, that what she fears for Kabru is that he won't restrain himself.

And a small personal idea about that as well: I wonder if she somewhat blames her parents for getting killed. Again, this is very speculative, but I think it's interesting that her fear for Kabru is that he will get too full of himself. Take up too much space. It's never really stated what Rin thinks of her parents, but it can be easy in grief to search for control, and control often means blame. If they hadn't been so confident, so flashy, would they still be alive...?

I don't know if she's ever thought like that, and it could well be that her fears for Kabru come from a totally different place. But it's an interesting connective thread between her past and present - the idea of "getting in trouble" for taking up too much space and being too confident in one's own abilities.

Miscellaneous Tidbits:

On that note, I'd like to wrap up the main part of this post, and move on to a few extra things that I couldn't find another place for.

Rin plays with her hair when she's stressed

Using stressed as a pretty big umbrella here, because I think it's hard to perfectly pin down all the emotions at play, but it is a habit of hers. Best displayed in chapter 32, but it shows up in other places, too.

Her design contrasts with Marcille

This is a small thing, but I just love how much they are visual opposites.

Rin wears red and black and has dark hair, Marcille wears blue and white and has light hair. Marcille cares a great deal for her hair and puts it up in elaborate hairstyles, and Rin's is mostly loose and a bit messy. Marcille was even educated at the Magic Academy, which Rin dislikes. They both have little capelets. Also they both look very cute in each other's clothes.

Rin knows Flamela (and they meet again in canon)

Nothing much is done with this in canon, but I think it’s super interesting that Flamela's squad are the ones that find Rin as a child and take her away to the west, and then they end up stuck in the dungeon together for a bit.

Two days??? I'm so very curious what things were like between these three.

Aaaand I think that's all I have to say about Rin! For the time being at least. There's a lot more analysis that could be done about her and Kabru especially, but for this post I wanted to keep things at least somewhat anchored to canon facts, with only a layer or two of speculation on top.

If it isn't already obvious, I think Rin is a super interesting character with a ton of potential depth to explore. She mostly interacts with Kabru in canon, but has ties to a bunch of other characters: she and Marcille fill similar roles in their parties but have differing personalities and histories, she and Falin (and Laios) have been tremendously shaped by xenophobia and fear of magic common in the Northern Continent, her parents fled from conflict in the same region Shuro and his retainers are from, and she has history with Flamela and some of the second canary squad.

Her temper, her fear, her love... her repression and passion - they all inform her character, even in small ways, even with as little time as she spends on the page.

#dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #rinsha fana #rin dungeon meshi #dungeon meshi spoilers #dunmeshi analysis #thank u to anyone who takes the time to read this ♥️♥️♥️ I love rin and lot

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taeiris · 10 months

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okay guys here’s my crazy unsupported st5 theory that is mostly just me projecting my need for madwheeler bonding and drama and angst also byler duh

disclaimers: i never make theories so this is extremely messy probably, i know jack dookie abt writing shows i think of this as my own little version of what i would think would be very cool to happen, if this has loop holes dont ask me anything bc idk either

OKAY LETS GET ON IT

so first things first here is what i am taking into consideration for the theory to happen:

• mike pov, self reflection and introspection (he is gay and in love with will byers okay)

• madwheeler bonding, theyre both complex n misunderstood

• the upside down isnt just one dimension, i came up with this bc of how different the ud looks now

compared to when henry arrived.

to me theres like an umbrella dimension (yellow one) and others under it (blue one/hawkins ud, the void, etc)

this is also lowkey supported by the silly boobie diagram the writers posted abt

OKAY PREPARE FOR THE WORD VOMIT

in this silly theory of mine, a new dimension variant of the ud will be revealed in season 5, serving as a parallel to the void. this is where max is

OKAY another thing is this is also heavily based on those “leaks” that were going around twitter (for me at least) earlier when the strike first started. i remember a few of them claiming that we would get a deeper insight into mike and his own things, so this is my interpretation

this would serve as another vanishing, not really bc its shorter, but this time mike will be getting stuck in this other dimension, eventually finding max BOOM madwheeler serve

i mean look at them. the potential is insane

ANYWAYS

this dimension is like a combo of all the other ones, picture it like the hawkins ud, with the void’s wet floor maybe

lets go back to the fact max is here, this is her coma nightmare, its like this purgatory dimension vecna put her soul in

in this dimension inhabit your ghosts

this overwhelming, haunting, tormenting realm in your mind where you are constantly confronting all your bad memories, maybe this is kind of how vecna keeps max under his grasp, no happy memories allowed

okay so, mike gets there. how? when? i dont fucking know this is honestly just word vomit fanfiction to me

at first hes confused, scared but mostly confused, picture him screaming for wills name (the parallels) at first it’s empty and eerily quiet, but as he accepts it, the ghosts start coming in.

he gets BOMBARDED with these bad memories, some of them he cant even remember because come on, bro is always neglecting his internalized feelings/monologue in fear of what they say about him

this is where we get his pov on the whole will and eleven situation, amongst other things (like the way he’s constantly stressed thinking about the safety of the people he loves)

for a moment we see him break, bc these ghosts are LOUD and MANY

but it stops

max is here, she’s like “MIKE?”

“MAX?”

shes been here for a fat minute, she knows how to handle these ghosts in fact shes been going thru them one by one ever since, because shes done hiding. and she suspects that the only way to get out is by confronting them.

max saves mike from his ghosts, explains that this place is seemingly a purgatory with levels of memories and ghosts to overcome

this is how we get our madwheeler bonding we so graciously need, as they are part of eachother ghosts since theyre so similar it makes the other mad

this is how our complex misunderstood characters are broken down, explained to the audience, while also discovering the mystery that is this new dimension where at the finish line they might just figure out how to defeat vecna.

because they will

after overcoming the ghosts they find the place that vecna didnt think they would reach as he was so sure they would break and collapse on their own madness

think of it as how el found the source in season 3

or how max found vecnas lair after running away in dear billy

except this place is vecnas actual mind, they can see hear and feel what vecna is thinking, his plans and everything

mike wonders how will feels being able to feel this all the time

will feels this all the time

will is always connected to this piece of vecnas mind, to this source

he can always hear vecna

until he suddenly hears max… and mike and theyre calling for help

theyve figured out key clues on how to defeat vecna, and they have an idea on how to get out. this is how will’s connection comes in handy

mind walkie-talkie

maybe thats what this theory should be called, idk

so thats how we get our byler confirmation, madwheeler bonding like never before, mike focus, and the key to defeat vecna

at least in my head

i know this was messy and all over the place but it was very fun to explain and drop all my thoughts ive been vomiting on the gc for months now

let me know what you think, what you would add, if theres anything you think will support this theory?

its all just a theory, for fun! pls keep that in mind

thank you if you’ve read this far🫶

#mind walkie-talkie gate #stranger things theory #st5 #st5 theory #st5 headcanon #stranger things 5 #stranger things #will byers #mike wheeler #max mayfield #madwheeler #will and the mind flayer #byler #< target audience #taeiris word vomiting theories #mind walkie-talkie

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technicallyfriendly · 5 months

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About Skulduggery and Valkyrie's relationship

So I have seen many different takes on Skulduggery and Valkyrie's relationship over the years and I don't agree with any of them. Mind you this is just my opinion and everyone is entitled to their own. It's just to me no interpretation of their relationship really fits for me. I think their relationship is neither father-daughter, mentor-student or romantic. To me it's something else entirely.

Let's get down to why I disagree with the relationship takes I listed above. First during the talk with Melissa and Desmond in DotL Skulduggery makes it clear that he does not see Valkyrie as his daughter. He states that while he understands their concerns because he has been a father himself he does not see Valkyrie this way. He also stresses that she is his partner, his equal and not his student when Melissa refers to Valkyrie as such.

Additionally the way Skulduggery treated Valkyrie like his equal in all cases was a major conflict point with Kenspeckle to whom Val was like a granddaughter. While Kenspeckle wanted to take care of her, Skulduggery always let Valkyrie make her own desicions no matter how that'd turn out.

We also know from Valkyrie's side that she did not see Skulduggery as an authority figure which is stated many times throughout the books. Much like Skulduggery sees her as an equal she in turn also views him the same way. So if father-daughter and mentor-student is not it, than what is their relationship? I would argue against romantic for the sole reason that they are not attracted to each other (yes, I know a lot of you have an icky feeling about valduggery but this is not what this post is about anyways). Their relationship transcends all reason and can at best be seen as a bond of soulmates which is backed up by the observation of many other characters in the SP universe. But this does not really explain how they see each other.

In my opinion Skulduggery and Valkyrie are each others hero. Yes, this may not come as a surprise in case of Valkyrie but Skulduggery is a different matter mainly due to the way of how he is portrayed as a character. So how is Valkyrie his savior?

Well, in ther beginning of the series all the other characters treat Skul like they expect him to snap at any moment. They don't know that he already did, but he does and he is trying to atone for that. But when everyone close to you treats you like a ticking time bomb you might lose faith in yourself after a while. Skulduggery at that point in time is slowly loosing faith in his ability to be one of the good guys. He hates himself and knows what he is capable at his worst. He won once but who says he can win again? Standing in front of the abyss believing with everyone else that it is only a matter of time before he steps over the edge again. Enter Valkyrie, she does not know him, but beliefs in him. Sure she is twelve and believes in Skulduggery for all the wrong reasons but she believes in him where no one else does, not even Skul himself, she restores his faith in himself. She beats the enemy that Skul had never any hope of beating on his own, himself. She is his hero as much as he is hers and he is willing to kill for her, die for her and most importantly live for her.

On the other side, Skulduggery is Valkyries hero, because he saved her from a life of mediocricy. A life of yearning for something greater. He opened the door for Valkyrie and showed her that there was so much more to life than she could ever have imagined by herself. He is her hero and she would do anything for him.

So, this is my view on their relationship, while yes we can sum them up as soulmates it goes so much deeper. Sorry for the long rant. I'm always open for discussing my views. Just please don't take this as gosple or anything this is just my opinion nothing more nothing less.

#skulduggery pleasant #valkyrie cain #skulduggery

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bugsbenefit · 11 months

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seeing a "Mike is completely oblivious to his feelings and doesn't know he's in love with Will" take float on my dash from the wild and... i'm sorry i hate this interpretations so much. everyone can see things differently, but Mike having no clue of his own feelings makes absolutely no sense with what we see on screen to me. none

if this is ranty ignore little old me, i just need to complain today lmao

not only does Mike pause to look at Will's lips multiple times, which you could maybe argue he just doesn't realize anymore (doubtful since it's not something he's always done, it only started in s3 which is less than a full year away from s4 canonically)

there's also the whole fact that nothing else of his s4 conflict would make sense anymore. if Mike didn't know he didn't love El, what was he worried about telling her then, that she wouldn't like the truth of? it can't be that he loves her because he knows she would like that. Mike has to consciously be aware of something he knows he should tell El, but can't, because he's scared of how she'll take it

the same also goes for the sbp scene where Mike looks back at Will, shocked or conflicted, because Will is pushing him to confess to El. the initial shock would be inappropriate if Mike was already planning to tell El he loved her anyways and had no idea he actually loved Will

it also means that Mike didn't intentionally lie during the monologue with is almost more egregious because we saw Mike talk to the other's about sending El to Pennhurst with 0 concerns. he didn't know El overheard that so it might be something he thinks El could believe. but he himself would remember that he didn't "fall in love with her that moment", saying otherwise just makes Mike look like the dumbest, most unaware character in the whole show by far. not even just the show, it would probably make him one of the most oblivious characters out of Any show i can think of right now actually

it would also make no sense why we're completely barred from Mike's inner feelings during the monologue. if Mike genuinely believed what he was saying we'd be allowed to know his thoughts, since they wouldn't spoil anything yet. but alas, not only does Finn keep his lips sealed, even the rough drafts from three years ago skip over his internal feelings or thoughts completely which is extremely unusual for an emotional monologue of this importance and magnitude

everything else aside, the idea that Mike would just. not realize. he's queer and in love with his best friend is kind of bizarre to me. it really plays into the fanon version of Mike who is inhumanly oblivious and stupid. because canon Mike is actually not that bad with feelings, he can articulate himself if he wants to and he can pick up on and explain complex emotions he himself feels all the way back in s1. saying that Mike is genuinely too oblivious to realize his feelings isn't at all in line with his canon characterization

and besides it not making sense for his character. it's also a nonsensical choice from a writers perspective. if Mike would genuinely be unaware of his feelings for Will and his queerness; Byler would be rushed. i'm excited for Byler as much as the next person but this would be a horrible way to go about it. because s5 would then need to include:

Mike realizing he's not in love with El

Mike realizing he's queer

Mike dealing with the consequences of being queer in the 80s/coming to terms with said queerness to the point he feels comfortable acting on it

Mike realizing he's in love with Will

Mike and El finally breaking up

Mike and Will confessing to each other and getting together

that is an absurd amount of things to cram into a single seasons and essentially a character 180 in 8ish episodes. and all these points also need space and time to breathe to sit well with the audience. having Mike realize he's not in love with El and realize he's in love with Will would need a significant pause in between to feel good for the audience, but there's only so much time left. that will feel rushed no matter how well you write it. if they just revealed Mike being queer and in love with Will to the audience while having him already be aware of it we'd skip steps 1-4 on this list. the audience getting new information and recontextualizing things that already happened takes significantly less time than having a character go through the realizations first hand since that takes more development time

at this point, there's no way to write Mike realizing he's queer from scratch well with only one season left. there just isn't. especially with the amount of plot we need to cover in s5, the action, and all the other characters that need solid endings. opening a whole new can of worms for Mike is counterproductive. last seasons close character arcs, they don't kick new one's up that would take forever to properly flesh out

the thing that just really bothers me about this whole, "Mike doesn't know yet, he's oblivious" narrative, besides making little sense from a writer's pov and directly contradicting his canon character. is also that most takes just read extremely belittling. because a lot of people who say this seem to be aware that there won't be time to properly explore Mike's character or feelings like this. and they're fine with it because Mike will just be "Will's boyfriend", and only Will needs to come to terms with his queerness, Mike doesn't need an arc. and it's weird. the idea that Mike will have his whole queer realization in s5 hinges on the fact that Mike's character isn't important enough to get a fully fleshed out arc/time to naturally move from point A to point B, and that he'll just go from one relationship to the next with no problems

#byler #mike wheeler #i'm sorry live and let live everyone can do what they want with the show #but from a canon perspective the idea that Mike just /doesn't know/ is so insane to me #i genuinely hate it so much and i keep seeing it around lmao

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bones4thecats · 7 months

Note

It's okay can I please ask for record of Ragnarok characters with kianna

What's going up to you and what you wanted to be about and the characters you want to write for

Also thank you for taking my requests I really appreciate it also have a nice day or night

A/N: Sorry this took so long to do, I had so much going on with classes and family things so I hope this was good!! This can be interpreted as either platonic or romantic, depending on what you want!! Anyways enjoy, @nunezs-stuff~~

●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・

🍭 This guy met you during Ragnarok

🍭 You were fairly well known among the entirety of Valhalla, as the ‘Slayer of Vampires’

🍭 In life, you slayed 6 vampire brothers in honor of your sister, Yui Komori, but when Buddha first met you when he declared his loyalty to Humanity

🍭 You didn’t look as violent as many said you were, you looked like a adorable mortal

🍭 The god of Buddhism smiled when he saw you rush out to assist him in walking to the healers after his battle

🍭 After that, he was stuck by your side

🍭 Your past does not make him fear you, he stood against many different gods and humans before you, but it does make him shocked when he sees how violent you can get after your fight against a god

🍭 He smiles whenever you hug Göll, seeing Yui in her. It made him see how human you really are on the inside, you’re not an empty shell like many gods he once stood beside

●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・

🌸 The greatest loser in history adored you in many different scenarios, especially when it came to fighting

🌸 Your match was before his and after Lü Bu and Adam’s, and it was amazing

🌸 You fought the god you were against with such precise positioning and exact hits it surprised Brunhilde how well you held yourself against them

🌸 Seeing you and comparing it to the legends that laid around Valalla of you just made him laugh in your face

“ You don’t look like how I’ve pictured you, Y/N! ”

🌸 Your empty eyes and scars made him feel a bit bad for you, as it may have been hard to watch your sister die in front of you, and fight 6 vampires on your own

🌸 He is inspired by you, and winks at you when he begins his battle against the Tyrant of the Sea, Poseidon

🌸 When the battle ended and you helped heal him up, he just cracked jokes and watched your eyes highlight anger and satisfaction with the round’s execution

●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・

🥊 Let’s be honest here, he flirted with you at first

🥊 He has heard of your strength, taking down vampires is not an easy thing to do, especially when you’re a mortal

🥊 Raiden sat alongside the other human contenders as you walked into the ring for your battle against a god they had chosen for you

🥊 Seeing how you would dodge and hit him with such detail and anger hidden behind a facade made him smirk

🥊 You were definitely an interesting human yourself

🥊 This fighter walked into your healing room and began to talk you up about your fight, claiming you might be able to give him a fight to remember

🥊 Your scars that were shown surprised him, he thought nobody would be able to touch you

🥊 But when he heard the story of you from Brunhilde and the other remaining contenders, he understood

🥊 Raiden would watch you try walking off before popping up and laying you back into your bed, claiming just because you fought vampires doesn’t mean you can survived a gasp through your leg and arms

🥊 Watching his fight hurt you, he was a good man on the inside, and seeing him fade into nothing was tough, but you understand now why he smiled at you before his next death

🥊 He loved you, till death and beyond, like Yui

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dailydegurechaff · 4 months

Note

I wanted to know how do you interpret Tanya's gender. After reading chapter 58 of the manga i got the impression that she is definitely trans coded, but maybe thats just me

Very good question.

To be honest, when I think too hard about Tanya’s gender (and sexuality, for that matter) it gives me brain worms. Fun brain worms, but brain worms nonetheless. I can’t explain it. Everything she’s got going on is complicated as shit there’s way too much to think about.

Like, she was a man, but now she's a girl. But at some points she says she still sees herself as a man internally so is this MtFtM? How does that work. And if she accepts she's a woman now, is that just MtF or do we add more letters. More importantly: Was Being X being Transphobic or being the Greatest Trans Ally of All Time with the free divinely issued sex change.

Ok ok, jokes aside. Confession: I actually do not keep up with the manga, so I had to go find the chapter and read it first. Having read it now though, I see what you mean.

The conversation she has with the Salaryman/herself in that chapter really does read as essentially saying “I’ve accepted who I am now.” It’s a far cry from a much earlier part of the manga I remember where she has a breakdown about being a man/people seeing her as a girl.

A friend of mine was actually showing me stuff from more recent chapters of the manga (don’t know which chapter tragically, but I know it’s not currently translated to English) and from what I gathered of it, Being X was showing Tanya a dream of being back in her past life and in response she basically demanded to go back to being Tanya immediately. It is definitely not just you, I 100% see the trans-coding you’re talking about.

As for my personal interpretation of her gender, I touched very briefly on it once before, but I honestly think she wouldn’t want to label herself as anything. At first, this is out of hesitance and not wanting to acknowledge that anything might be ““wrong”” or ““different”” about her. Later on it turns into character growth, more along the lines of, “I don’t need the label to define me, I just am what I am/like what I like. I don’t care about it any more than that.” Yes this is 100% projection on my part. No, I won’t apologize for it lmao.

Of course, that's entirely my own headcanon. I definitely am not saying it’s the only way to interpret her, it’s just my personal thoughts. Especially since my opinion is subject to change on a dime depending on what I’m reading/working on myself. The Tanya gender is, in fact, transient, shifting like water.

Like. A transfem Tanya fic that focuses on her adapting to life in her new world and coming to discover she doesn’t actually hate her new body? I’d totally read that. I’ve seen a few fics that include that as a part of the narrative and those scenes of acceptance were among my favorite parts.

I get the feeling this is the route that the manga is going as well. It’s a bit of a shame that we don't have those aforementioned scenes in the light novel (or at least, I don't remember them), but I don’t think that Carlo Zen really intended that to be the focus/narrative in the first place. And honestly, I also think that’s a good thing because it allows for so much more room for interpretation and headcanon around Tanya’s character.

Anyway, the other direction is also compelling to me. A transmasc Tanya fic where, after feeling uncomfortable and hating how feminine he looks for years and years, he finally goes ‘Fuck this, I’m gonna go back to being a man’? I would read the fuck out of that too.

Could also be paired with him finally choosing to defect, where they think about it like, ‘Well there’s nothing to hold me back now, right? I don’t have to maintain appearances anymore. Also, since I’m defecting this would be a great way to hide myself. They’d all be looking for the wrong person. Two birds with one stone, how efficient.’ …Now we’re getting to fic ideas I won’t ever get to so it’s time to move on I think.

Semi-related to the Trans Tanya Concept, this actually brings me to a bit of a lore/headcanon/idea/question I want to present to the public for opinions. In Norden, during the inciting battle of the war, Tanya uses magic to “dope up” so she could enhance her strength and reaction time and kill pain. I took this to mean she used a formula to synthesize the narcotics/adrenaline hormone/whatever else directly into herself, right?

Can you see where I’m going with this? As long as you know which hormones to make, how they’re made up, and what quantities you need… Well, don’t you think magic HRT is completely possible? Of course, as I'm not sure it makes sense for Salaryman to have known the detailed specifics about it from the modern world, it would require a lot of in-universe research/science advancement for someone to actually do that, but theoretically...

The magic system in this universe has so much potential to be explored, I’m fascinated by what you can theoretically do with it. Although, this is long and off-topic already I think this should be the end, lol.

I think I talked too much? I’m sorry, you were probably not expecting such an answer. I told you, Tanya gives me brain worms (mental illness).

I guess the TL;DR is this: that kid definitely ain’t cishet.

#marathehomosexual #ask #not a daily post #you could ask me a simple yes or no question and i would STILL find a way to make the answer multi-paragraph #i STILL have things to talk about. im just choosing to throw it in the tags now #LIKE. if synthesizing hormones is something completely possible in universe #is birth control possible as well? how about anti-depressants?#how far can we go with this? can you get addicted to these magic-synthetic chemicals/hormones/whatever?#say you need a little pick me up in the day. you give yourself a little boost in the happy-brain-chemicals (dopamine or whatever)#(im not a biologist or knowledgeable about most biology-related things honestly. please just go with it)#would a mages body start to rely on magic to produce it and stop creating it naturally anymore?#could this create a dependency? would you start to need to make more?#its insane. i feel insane #you ask me a simple question and i refuse to stop elaborating #rimu be quiet now

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kikithedeceiver · 9 months

Text

MILGRAM - Mukuhara Kazui should be INNOCENT/FORGIVEN

I’m not very vocal online anymore and prefer to vibe to whatever I’m into. But this man’s MV came out on my birthday, solidifying my view about him, and I want to give my own view on why he should be seen as INNOCENT/FORGIVEN for his crime since his verdict is near 50/50, but getting closer to GUILTY/UNFORGIVEN as the days pass.

Just a heads up, I’m also open for other interpretation on why Kazui should be INNOCENT/FORGIVEN or GUILTY/UNFORGIVEN. I love hearing other’s opinions on these.

Also going to just use FORGIVE and UNFORGIVE now. I prefer the literal term instead of the black-and-white choice of GUILTY and INNOCENT.

Honestly, I still don’t understand why fans want to vote Kazui as UNFORGIVEN. From what I have gathered so far, people are voting him UNFORGIVEN because he might have been tactless when he confessed to his wife, Hinako, and voting him FORGIVEN does nothing for him and the story MILGRAM poses. Or, just for the hell of it because lolz.

I...won’t get into that part too deeply. Mostly it’s a joke and I don’t want to take a series too seriously. But c’mon for those who actually see the guy as forgivable, y’know?

1) Kazui was tactless when he confessed to Hinako

Anyways, for the opinion that Kazui was tactless when he confessed to his wife, I have to disagree. Remember, Milgram extracts the mental images from the prisoners based on their thoughts and how they feel and believe during the time the MVs are made. A case in point is Mahiru’s ‘I Love You’ MV, which kept showing how beautifully loving she was with her boyfriend, but she can also see that it might have been toxic from her ignorance.

What I’m saying is that Kazui might be pushing for the UNFORGIVEN verdict because he thinks, or even wants to show us, that it was his fault. He wants us to believe that he was tactless when he confessed to Hinako. I mean, he doesn’t see himself as normal (most likely he is a closet gay). Maybe even a monster because of what happened to Hinako when he confessed he lied.

From all we know, maybe this is what happened. Or this is what he thinks happened and Hinako’s reaction in the MV was exaggerated because of his guilt he carries. People can view things that happened in a different way, it all comes down to perspective, in the end. Afterall, in the end, Kazui felt guilty for what happened to Hinako, and even put back on the mask at the end of HALF and, according to his 2nd voice drama, confessed he would have rather continued lying if it meant she would have lived.

2) Kazui should be voted GUILTY/UNOFRGIVEN for his character and MILGRAM

This is an interesting take, I’ll admit. However, I have to disagree. And I have a lot of reasons, so sit tight.

First of all, this is based on how I feel and why I vote Kazui as /FORGIVEN. Like how the majority doesn’t see Yuno’s crime as murder, I don’t see Kazui’s crime as one either. His confession was never intended to harm Hinako as the outcome anyway. He was tired of lying, and tried to be truthful for once, and it backfired spectacularly in his face thanks to it, thus causing him to wear the mask again and wished he continued lying instead. This is one of those happened in the wrong place at the wrong time situation. Maybe if he was truthful at maybe a safer location (away from the balcony), then the outcome would have ended with no bloodshed.

Also, all of MILGRAM’s prisoners are murderers, yes, but they’re murderers that sort of make you question if they are one or not. Can ignorance that leads to the death of a partner be murder? Is organ harvesting from a brain-dead patient a murder? If someone followed orders to kill, are they a murderer?

So if someone confessed to a lie they’ve been saying for so long and resulted in someone dying from it, is that murder?

To me, no. It was just the worst result that Kazui never intended to happen.

Also, I don’t get why people are voting Kazui as FORGIVEN when he’s basically the same as Mahiru. They both have partners they never intended to harm from the beginning - being truly in love or not. The only difference is that Mahiru was ignorant of how her love affected her boyfriend, while Kazui put up with the lie for the sake of what’s ‘normal’ in love, and he tried to stop the lie, and, again, it failed on him big time. So like how Fuuta and Kotoko are similar in their crimes, Mahiru and Kazui are the same as well.

Also voting Kazui as UNFORGIVEN sounds like it will backfire like how it did with Mahiru and Amane in Trial 1. Now I only got into the series when I stumbled onto Muu’s 2nd MV, but from what I heard, and correct me if I’m wrong, people voted Amane as UNFORGIVEN back then because it was to make her ‘realise her sins’. And the result is a crazed Amame because of it.

Now I don’t believe Kazui will go batshit crazy like Amane if we vote him UNOFORGIVEN for this trial, but something tells me it will backfire more if we don’t vote him as FORGIVEN. By saying he’s in the wrong, especially if we’re correct on what he was lying about, it’s like we’re denying him because we reached that truth, and he should be punished for it. By denying him, we’re basically doing the same thing like what happened to Mahiru and Amane as well.

Also, yes I’m aware from a meta-perspective that it’s better to have him FORGIVEN because he’s the only one who can go up against Kotoko (and maybe including Amane and Mikoto), and maybe stop Haruka from offing himself after this trial ends. And I agree! This is also one of the reasons why I say to forgive him to protect others in MILGRAM. However, it is sort of safe to say that no one will die if Kazui is voted UNFORGIVEN. I mean from a storytelling perspective, it will be a waste to kill off the characters and make the last trial shorter because of it...

But! I still don’t want any other prisoners harmed because of Haruka, Amane, Mikoto and Kotoko if Kazui is voted UNFORGIVEN. The prison in MILGRAM will go even more hellish if that happens, and I’m not living up to that drama and am not doing it for the sake of drama. Again I don’t want more situations born from what happened to Amane. We should really choose wisely on why we vote, not because of what we want to happen in MILGRAM, but really personal belief whether the crime committed by the prisoners is forgivable or not.

In the end, I think what is important for Kazui is what he wants from us - to know his sin. He pointed out from his voice drama that we were wrong about him cheating. It’s most likely that he is a closet gay at this point. Voting for him UNFORGIVEN will most likely enforce how he isn’t normal, and being gay does make him a murderer, as shown at the end of his CAT MV. But really, it isn’t. His crime was lying. When he tried to confess, he didn’t intend death to follow.

I’m sure if he’s voted FORGIVEN in the end, Kazui will hear our reasonings that we think he’s gay. I mean, Yuno seem to be able to hear our opinions on her from the 1st trial according to her 2nd voice drama. So, I say to vote for Kazui to be FORGIVEN and let him know what we think his sin is likely this time. If he didn’t feel anything from it, we’ll leave that up to the last trial.

Cheers and thank you if you read this far.

TL;DR: Kazui should be voted FORGIVEN. The interpretation of his CAT MV can be that he was tactless when he confessed to what he lied about to Hinako, but that might be from his guilt and/or pushing us to make him UNFORGIVEN. Also, voting him so UNFORGIVEN sounds like it will backfire like it did with Amane during the 1st trial. Just realise his sin, most likely he’s gay, and vote based if you think confessing to a lie that caused unintended death is murder or not.

#milgram #cat #mukuhara kazui #kazui mukuhara #cat (milgram)#milgram cat #kiki's silly theories

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penguin--rat · 1 month

Text

canine girl in all her doggy glory!! already posted her design and profile the other day, but i updated her profile and i want all her images in one post.. speaking of her profile, warning warning for talk of violence there more on canine (+ lyrics?!! Woah!!) under the cut:)

canine girl is inspired/an au of my oc alík, but i don't think it'd be wrong to say she's a different character alltogether? while the things she struggles with are things that alík does, too, she's more like.. idk ❤️only i can understand this ...

as you may have guessed by her warning, canine girl has violent intrusive thoughts, and feels extremely guilty for them, even if she never acts out on them. her profile doesnt get too into this .. since she feels that guilt and shame, i don't think she'd wanna share the details online .. or with anybody ever.. you know how it is 💥

her design is smth i struggled with greatly .. her mask is this

and as soon as i saw it on alíks pinterest board i was set on using it and im sooo happy i did!! i think it works greatly..!!! other notable things about her design, that im happy with, are mostly to do with her hoodie. her hoodie-ears are actual ears, shes just hiding them:) and its made to resemble a service dog vest!

you can't really see it in the 'fake screenshot' art, the first one, but she's got a kind of belt (harness ?) around her chest !! its around her shoulders too.. and her chain hanging from that could be interpreted as a leash ig ?? idk 💥💥you'll never understand sinister minds inner workings... another design-y thing is !! shes got her arms around herself in the fake screenshot, which is bc she's hiding her claws from you 💥her eyes are also made to resemblea wolfs:)

her pants are just like that bc its alíks fashion sense 💥and bc i think they fit! and i like them!! a little treat just for me:)

another thing that i wanna talk about is her profile!! its so !! chill !! the colours are warm and inviting, her info there is silly, she invites you to talk with her if you're struggling, shes got fun blinkies.. !! shes just having fun on a site hanging out and chilling .. its like that bc i wanted to show, even if in a little way, that intrusive thoughts arent indicative of a persons identity. canine's intrusive thoughts don't make her a bad person, they don't make her a rabid dog like she thinks, they just make her somebody with intrusive thoughts. shes more than her intrusive thoughts, you know ??

anyhow! the lyrics !! i wrote lyrics for a theoretical song that she would have, but Wont, because im not a songwriter. i might make a silly littly tune for her one day, like a minute long at most, most likey shorter, so these lyrics are what you get !! and also it was my second time writing actual lyrics (first time was 10 minutes before when i was writing lyrics for another tptm oc, unknown girl) so Dont be meanies... Ok... treat me niceys... her voice for this would be kohaku merry btw :3

warning, again, more specified this time: themes of violent intrusive thoughts, talk of violence, vague references to generational abuse

That I’m just like a dog, I know Got the leash and collar to show Tug it one way, then another I’ll obey you like no other

But obedience doesn’t cut it With teeth sharper than a razor blade The only way to be is afraid That’s what I say, anyway

Can’t say I’m sorry, not to you That’d scare me, letting you know About your mangled body on the floor Still just a fantasy, nothing more

(Violent thoughts suppressed) Ineffective muzzle helps little (Violent needs repressed) ‘Cause my razors make it brittle It’s not on purpose, just my spittle Can’t help my second nature

(BEAT ME, FLAY ME, LEAVE ME DEAD PLEASE DO YOUR WORST, I BEG IT WON’T BE UNDESERVING TO BEAT A WILD DOG SENSELESS

GIVE IT YOUR ALL, YOUR EVERYTHING WE BOTH KNOW I’D DO WORSE WERE I NOT A DOG BUT SOMETHING LIKE I AM NOW, JUST SHAMELESS)

The carpet floor’s forever stained A family heirloom of violence and hate Trying so hard to reject that norm Can’t help but feel it’s all I’m destined for

Gotta stop myself with only a collar Can’t be like my father’s bully father So as long as you hold my leash I swear I’ll hide my deepest needs

Even if it’s not real, I fear You’ll reach into me and see All these sinful fantasies Of your bloody arteries I don’t mean them, believe me It’s just that this is all I know how to be A mutt that doesn’t know any better Only to claw and dismember

(Violent thoughts excessed) Maybe it’s just natural selection (Violent needs processed) Can no longer deny this connection That I’m just like a dog, I know Got all this shame to show

Your hands are only ever kind A stark contrast to my mind It’s not real, just thoughts, I know Adrenaline still fills me though

My collar thins, soon it will snap Go away, don’t want you here for that Your kindness is naivety My impending misery Your outstretched hand is prey Don’t say I didn’t warn you Here comes the prophesised day Where the hand feeds no more

(WITH MY LEASH AND MUZZLE GONE YOU MISTAKE FOR A FAWN YOU THROW MY COLLAR TO THE FLOOR I BEG, PUT IT BACK ON NOT YOUR FAULT, BUT C’MON DON’T BE SO CRUEL AND SHOW ME I’M THE ONLY VICTIM TO MY FANTASY)

#tptm #the post traumatic manifesto #tptm oc #oc art #AT004-212 #kinda ?#eye contact #eye contact tw

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transhawks · 1 year

Note

I remember that Hori referred to Hawks (and Ochako) being a 'light of hope' in 2021. It's also interesting that it was Hawks who commented on Ofa and how it connects people's hearts. Do you have any thoughts on this?

I think that arc was very dark for Hawks specifically and the anime's rendition of it is very dark. However these chapters... in 323-325 it is a bit different. It's where I think Hori was honest and where I do think Hawks and especially Ochako are at their brightest, narratively. So, uh, to go back to my writing for Graduation Day, I remember debating whether to analyze this scene because I thought it was relevant. I eventually decided that six thousand words is enough and to spare y'all, but let's get into it because I think it confirms my thesis that vulnerability is needed for connection in BNHA.

Ochako's first panels in 324 have her saying, admitting actually, that she cannot reassure people. She acknowledges they're all scared and worried.

This was the best thing she could have done.

The deification of heroes was something that led to the system they have now. Somewhere in the glitz and hero rankings people forgot these are regular people.

We see this repeatedly as an issue of identities - why Toshinori seems a shell of himself outside of All Might, most of Enji's issues boil down to him not knowing how to be Enji versus Endeavor and screwing his family up for it, and Hawks is...well, everything about Hawks is about being a Hero rather than a person, which is why Horikoshi had him kill someone literally named "humanity".

Ochako doesn't allow this to go on. She makes it clear they're all scared, they're all people who want safety, comfort, and want to be clean from mud and dirt, same as any other. It's why she's one of the Savior Kids; she's geared to try and humanize the other side. It's why she's paired with Toga. See below, as she thinks of Toga while giving a speech.

Essentially she reached the people in that crowd by reminding them who Deku is - a kid with way too much on his shoulders, a person just like them. Not a symbol, not a quirk, like AFO is treating him as. A boy. Or "regular high school kid" - yeah, I should have put this in Graduation Day, lol.

Symbols aren't meant to be fragile or have to come out from the rain. Deku does because he's a person.

So what about Hawks?

This isn't the last time Keigo is going make metaphors about One for All. Remember the line so many people read in bad faith about him comparing Endeavor "linking" people together too? He was talking about connection, pure and simple, realizing that much of his own motivations and Inasa's are connected through Endeavor, or their perceptions of him.

Truly, it's just him remarking that seeing society as holistic, as a whole rather than a part, is the key to solving their issue.

I think the emphasis on showing your soul, ugliness and cracks and all is one of the keys to reaching the villains. Something that doesn't position them as moral superiors, which is where Keigo failed drastically with Jin. He didn't give him a good choice at all. He also wasn't willing to be fully vulnerable with him. But I also think there's another dimension to this. More and more I think Horikoshi is actually criticizing individualism and the idea of "the great man". In his depicting of bystander system that has become an issue from society delegating acts of kindness and heroism to an actual career, I think he's critiquing the idea that one person can shoulder that burden.

It shouldn't be a person but a village, so to speak. It says a lot that the characters we know as villains are both seeking connection but also saying, in the depths of despair, that their individual will can change the world.

I still interpret this scene as Dabi deep in denial. Uh oh, he actually FELT something, time to double down and reiterate he doesn't give an actual fuck when truth is he DOES, he just doesn't want to. Otherwise he has to FEEL.

Anyway, the emphasis on the single person and single convinction is another one of those clues I think Horikoshi is leaving us about the "Great Man theory".

The great man theory is a 19th-century approach to the study of history according to which history can be largely explained by the impact of great men, or heroes: highly influential and unique individuals who, due to their natural attributes, such as superior intellect, heroic courage, extraordinary leadership abilities or divine inspiration, have a decisive historical effect.

I remember balking when I read this. Maybe it's because here in the West, there's little uhh agreement over Napoleon being heroic. Maybe it's because my history teachers were unsual but I've never really seen anyone seriously consider Napoleon heroic. There always seemed to be agreement he was a power-mad tyrant who took advantage of the Revolution to enact a military coup and then actual progress made by the Jacobins. So the fact chapter 3 of BNHA has Mic quoting him as a great hero was always weird. At the time of my first read through, I wrote it off as maybe Japan doesn't take this approach to Napoleon and the Revolution. One person's tyrant is another's hero, you know? But more and more I think Horikoshi has been debunking Great Man Theory with his manga. First off the premise of Great Man is usual that the Great Man is born, that his Greatness is congenital. That there's a natural aptitude for greatness, like superior intellect, etc. BNHA is absolutely refuting that, has from the first page. In fact the characters who get into the trap of believing they are born "anything" are shown to be trapped or not in a good way (see Redestro, or see Tomura and Keigo believing they are born to destroy/have dirty wings respectively). So much of who Deku has become is supposed to change this idea of biological predisposition to greatness.

Even Dabi, who has struggled against the circumstances of his birth, falls into the trap of believing some people are born with everything and are born to everything, essentially internalizing the worst of his father's own beliefs.

The story isn't kind to people who give us this rhetoric - that depending on others is wrong, or weakness. It's why Deku had his arc, after all.

Which brings us to my second point - the story isn't the triumph of individuals against evil. It's about people coming together. That's why Ochako and Keigo had their moments of realization in 323-325.

It's not about one person. It's about people.

Lastly, and this is conjecture, but there's a curiosity to the Great Man theory from a cultural standpoint. Now each culture has its Great Man to some extent. I've spoken about how All For One is likely trying to emulate Oda Nobunaga with his Demon Lord talk. But the emphasis on individual actions over collective ones, the commercialization of heroism, and the idea of competition breeding innovations/results are distinctively Western Capitalist ones. And in...a clumsy way, I think Horikoshi has been hinting at this being part of his own criticism.

Did you ever notice how the Japanese anime has them say "Hero/Hiro"? It's an imported word. Japanese has other words that mean hero, like yusha or eiyu, which have different meanings that all relate to the English hero as either a brave person (yusha) or a person of greatness/importance (eiyu). Why then use hiro, a foreign word as the title for this career?

Because the hero system is canonically imported. And so perhaps are the ideals it brought with it.

#asks #bnha meta #hawks #ochako #bnha

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utilitycaster · 2 years

Text

Anyway in thinking about the fact that the Calloways are complex, I really love how Chetney approached the situation. My hunch is that Travis out of character (and Chetney in-character) wanted to have a one-on-one with Birdie as they swept away the footprints but didn't get a chance, so he ended up joining the scene with everyone else instead to preserve the flow. I do think that a private conversation with Birdie probably would have made more sense, but what we got was still excellent.

Chetney knows Yu was specifically planning to assassinate the Calloways; that Morri almost certainly lied about the postcards; and that Ira is amoral and has shown himself to do some pretty harmful stuff. He knows there's a lot that's not quite adding up and a history of deception (and, as a blood hunter, he has some knowledge of the fey). He's established himself to be pretty familiar with the practice of thievery (and I would be unsurprised if he's also familiar with the practice of, say, sabotaging devices, given the backstory hints we have). He also has been remarkably delicate with the feelings of the party, Fearne included. In all, he's uniquely positioned to have a bigger picture perspective than the rest of the party when it comes to this whole scenario.

He poses the question of what device the Unseelie Court was building as an accusation against Ollie and Birdie - but it's not an unreasonable one. Either the Calloways did in fact just stumble in and pick the most crucial part by sheer luck, which means they're likely in well over their heads and aren't addressing that; or they know more than they're letting on. It becomes quickly clear that it's the former. Which, given that Yu's still out there and the Moontide Crown is literally in the room with them, is highly relevant information that Bells Hells needs to know.

It also has a second purpose: once he brings this up, Fearne catches on very quickly and points out that what the Unseelie Court was building is in fact important information to have, and from there all three of the Calloways look towards Ira. It leads them to it and forces Ira to very obviously evade, whereas directly accusing Ira might have incited the group to another tedious argument a la Birdie and Yu earlier in the day. It then indirectly lets Fearne address the time discrepancy with her parents, which again shifts the conversation towards what deals Ira may have made. In many ways, Chetney is all of Fjord's deftness with absolutely none of the charm, and this is a great example of it. For all I enjoy Ira, he absolutely isn't trustworthy, and this is a remarkably subtle way for Chetney to, in-universe, keep that in the minds of the party when there hasn't been much time for private conversation.

Edit: So I actually messed up the order of events above (kept for posterity): Fearne asks her parents whether she was a gift for Morri very shortly before before Chetney makes his accusation. So I'd interpret it a bit differently: Chetney's reading the room a bit more, seeing that Fearne is willing to consider that her parents might be flawed and that it's safe (so to speak) to bring this up too without upsetting her. He also knows Ira's very clearly evading the first question and now has significant reasons to doubt Morri's intentions, so it's again, maneuvering the conversation to point to Ira. The other points all still stand though; he's still a thief who's spotted some discrepancies in the story.

#critical role #chetney pock o'pea #fearne calloway #ira wendagoth

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micia-posts-stuff · 6 months

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The absolute double standard of saying Damian is more mature and doesn’t need to be change aged up when we have writers have him still treating Anya like if he was an 6 year old with a crush, lashing out at her and sometimes insulting her and treating her even worse, and it is worse because he should know better by then. Not to mention have him be openly ashamed of his feelings for her and have Anya still fall for a immature manchild like this, because it’s okay is not what he really thinks anyway :/

Alright, since I'm receiving a lot of asks on this subject, I want to preface this by saying that I haven't read a lot of Damianya fan fiction. The reason why in my previous asks I always go back to the manga is because I don't have that much experience in Damianya fan fictions and I don't want to seem like I have more knowledge on the subject than I actually do 😅

Also also for how many pet peeves you, me or anyone else might have it's important to remember that authors and artists do this for free and under no obligation, so I try to keep a "if you don't like it, don't read it" kinda vibe, or read it anyway if you want to explore a different interpretation, but keep in mind that it's ok if it doesn't align with what you have in mind. This is to say that I'm trying to answer these by just speculating my personal interpretation of Damian and Anya and their future, not to police anybody.

With that being said, from what I've seen a lot of aged up Damian and Anya are still teens, so I think it's ok if he's still embarrassed of his crush, because teens are awkward, so Damian has the right to be an awkward teen. Even if they're already adults a bit of "I can't believe I fell in love with you" can be funny, it's the classic "you're an idiot" "Yes but I'm YOUR idiot" situation. The same way I said I think Anya would still have a bit of childhood wonder I also think Damian might keep some tsundere-tendencies. I do agree that I'd like to see Damian stop lashing out to Anya and definitely not treating her worse, especially because I think he's already making progress in the manga, apologizing and dropping the act when other people aren't around, he still has work to do, but he's getting better. Tho I also think a bit of playful bickering is funny. It's even a recurring gag in the manga that their bickering is seen as normal, with the other kids, including Becky, Ewen and Emile, leaving them to go to class. Also when Damian thinks he has crossed the line in any way (even when he didn't mean it and it genuinely wasn't his fault, like when Anya told him she got a dog) he immediately apologies and tries to cheer her up. Like the way this kid cannot stand Anya being upset and crying is honestly so cute and funny, one of my favorite things about their dynamic. So in conclusion I think they would still bicker a bit, but never to be hurtful, because Damian can't really stand making her actually upset. But also, if a fic or a comic wants to explore a moment when one of them said something wrong that's also fine, because sometimes people say stuff they don't mean and writing about fictional characters doing the same is ok.

If you think my take is pretty lukewarm is because it is, I really don't want people to feel like they HAVE to write characters a certain way.

#also nobody said Damian doesn't need to be aged up #we were just arguing it's probably easier to age him up #ask #damianya #Damian Desmond #Anya Forger #spy x family #sxf #sxf spoilers

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etincelleart · 10 months

Text

Analysis of RWBY Volume 9 and V9 epilogue

So I have some thoughts stuck in my brain since I saw the epilogue, and I wanted to share them here ! o/

I've been thinking a lot about the overall message and meaning of Volume 9, and the epilogue is an interesting contradiction in some parts. There are different oppositions in there that I'd like to talk about.

Note that I'll (of course I mean who do you think I am) talk about how Penny's death is described and shown to us and from all of these characters' point of views, because there are interesting oppositions here to :]

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Volume 9 is about hope, it's about accepting that who you are and what you do is enough, and it's also the main and overall message of the story since the beginning. That even if everything seems to be pointless or doomed, just trying and doing simple acts can be enough. I think it's interesting to see how that influences Qrow especially in the epilogue, because he's very optimistic and doing his best, while Winter is spiraling and feeling guilty because she took a long time to finally act against Ironwood.

These two characters have a different point of view about everything, Winter thinks that they failed team RWBY, Jaune and Penny, and that it's better they never see this. Qrow thinks that they've done good despite everything, and his biggest regret is that they can't see all the good they started.

I'm also really glad to see that Qrow learned from Clover and is able to move forward, and make something of this loss. Qrow used to be completely pessimistic and alone for years, thinking that it was only because of his Semblance, while in fact the perspective and vision of the world is what allow him to decide of how things will go. Anyway I just thought it was nice as I loved their bond in Volume 7 ♥

The opposition of Qrow and Winter here is interesting, and I'm really curious to know now they'll both be developed in Volume 10 !

Btw, note that they mentioned before showing the epilogue that some parts of this epilogue were cut (it's a portion of the epilogue), because it leads to future plot that they probably want to keep for Volume 10. So some informations are probably missing too

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So what I also and especially wanted to talk about here is Volume 9 informations : if you think of the RWBY story in a larger perspective, you can see that :

life and death are the only known and "good" balance made by the two Brothers (who aren't the true Gods of the RWBY universe, but "only" Afterans with lots of powers basically--)

reincarnation/reviving people from the death is BAD and break the balance.

reincarnation is also seen as painful : Salem doesn't reincarnate, but she never dies. Ozpin reincarnates, but in a painful way as he keeps his memories, he stays the same and merge with a new person all the time.

But in Volume 9, we learn that :

the Tree and the Blacksmith are (is ?) the one who created everything, included the two Brothers, who created Remnant and other worlds

death doesn't exist in the Ever After (EXCEPT with the Jabberwalker). the balance here is to ascend, aka reincarnate, and lose some parts of your memories : you might not remember anything of your previous life, but you do remember deep down the very important things (like as we saw with Little who came back as Somewhat, who don't remember the details of their bond with Ruby, but they DO remember her and their connection deep down).

the Blacksmith talks about "the true balance", and we can see that what the two Brothers are (compared to two forces), isn't what this true balance is. So it's implied what the Brothers did/are isn't what balance is, or is supposed to be. At least, that's my interpretation of this scene.

I wanted to sum up all of these infos to have a clear and large vision of the story. Those in Remnant don't know a THING about what we learned in V9, we can see it with Winter spiralling on her failures and mistakes.

Now about life and death, there's this thing : in Remnant people die, they don't come back, yet everyone in Vacuo is about to see 5 young adults/teenager "come back for the dead" after seeing them fall in a dark void. They weren't really dead, but for everyone on Remnant they were, and I just feel like with V9 they're playing more and more around this idea of balance and life and death, and the vision around it.

Some funny thing I thought of too is that Little died, but they came back as Somewhat and no one really complained about how it would erase the meaning of their death, the impact etc. But I don't feel the same way, it was STILL impactful, it still pushed Ruby to give up everything and drink the tea. And it was mostly accepted by everyone to me because they're Afteran.

I'm kinda rambling a lot until now, but I want to talk about Penny and how I think things are even more confusing about her-

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There are two lines in direction opposition in Volume 9 and this epilogue, first we have the scene with Ruby meeting the Blacksmith in Chapter 5 of V9, when Ruby asks where they found Penny's sword. The Blacksmith answers "nothing, no one is ever truly lost". The "no one here is interesting" as Ruby only asked about Penny's sword, an object, and not Penny herself. And in this overall chapter, we have a whole scene with the Cat explaining to team RWBY what is ascension in the Ever After. They are shocked when they ask if people can die here, or even remember anything. Weiss says that "things have to die someday", but the Cat is shocked and denies it.

Then in this epilogue, we have Winter's point of view, saying "Because of me, Penny is gone, forever".

I'd like to note two things here :

this line is in opposition with what Penny and Winter said to each other during the transfer of the Maiden powers at the end of V8 : in this scene, Penny is reassuring Winter by saying she won't be gone, she'll be a part of her, just as Winter told her Fria was a part of Penny in V7 finale. Here in this epilogue, Winter is feeling guilty and doesn't truly believe what they said to each other, she thinks she's gone (and this "being gone" thing isn't just a metaphor : it's confusing because of the nature of the maiden powers. Penny is literally a part of Winter because her Aura was transferred to Winter with the powers, it's not just meant to be comforting.).

this line is also in complete opposition with the overall volume, a volume about reincarnation/ascension, about this idea of balance that might not be what we think it is maybe ? I would say that it's normal because Winter doesn't have this knowledge, we're only in her thoughts and she's feeling bad. The thing that I think is strange is this "forever" : Winter saying "Because of me, Penny is gone", would have been enough for the audience to understand that she's feeling guilty. This "forever" is subtle but to me it's still an important emphasis because we literally had the God of the RWBY universe telling us a few chapters ago "nothing, no one is ever truly lost". Once again, Penny had a LOT of references during V9, almost every chapter except 2 (I talked more about it in previous posts). She was literally haunting the narrative with these subtle moments, discreet enough to be unnoticed (or Penny's fans are just insane idk) : this moment when Ruby meets the Blacksmith, this moment in chapter 8 when Penny's illusion says "I died in Atlas too, didn't I ?".

So Penny is mentioned almost all of the volume, and directly paralleled to reincarnation with a character VERY similar to her (Litte/Somewhat), who's friendly, wants to help Ruby, loves hugs, loves to help their friends and be their guide. I just feel like they're playing a lot with Penny on the topic of death, she's truly an allusion to Pinnochio omg.

I did a little sketch/doodle to sum up all of that because I think it'll be clearer than my disorganized thoughts oops

Most of the time, adding such an emphasis on one character's death is pretty suspicious and means there's something more coming for them. I just think the parallel of seeing a character reincarnate and having this emphasis on Penny's death by multiple characters look pretty curious-

Now I know we could ask what about Pyrrha, Clover, Ironwood and many others who died then ? Well the thing is that even if I talk about Penny, I'm starting to think about them too and wondering at this point if they could not be back at some point in someway someday. I won't talk too much on this because I'm really not sure of anything and it's still complicated to talk about them when for most of these characters, you can see there's a form of "conclusion" to their death : Pyrrha got the statue scene in V6 and it felt like some sort of closure to me. Jaune moved forward and did his best to train with her videos. Clover died but Qrow has been able to move forward too and learn from his friend. Penny died to transfer the powers and save people, but if she's not coming back, then I'd like to see the effects on Ruby, to see her stay kind and friendly, to see her think about her friend and remember how positive she was about the world. Until now we only can see and feel Penny's death and character linger on the narrative, and we still don't know how Pietro, Penny's dad and creator, is taking all of this. As I mentioned before I highly doubt he would just stay there and mourn his daughter, he will definitely try to understand more how Aura works, Aura transfer, or even close himself to others and try desperately to rebuild her.

Ok it's late idk how to explain more my thoughts on these topic but I FEEL. LIKE. SOMETHING IN ALL OF THAT IS OFF. So I'll finish this with two doodles from yesterday when I continued to lose my brain and tried to analyse and speculate on the overall RWBY story/narrative, as well as how I see Penny's narrative and arc too. xD

Things just often happen in threes, and I feel like if Penny comes back, she will definitely stay this time. Idk if us Penny fans are just seeing things too far, being delusional or else, but aside all shipping or favorite character or anything, I still just think in a narrative point of view a lot of elements are leading to something big about her and death in general.

And I'll also add one image that sums up the structure of a narrative arc, to understand where I came from with all of this, and how we can try to predict how things will go for the Vacuo arc and the last part of the series :

I'll stop the massacre and go to sleep because I can feel my brain drifting off *runs*

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pocketgalaxies · 10 months

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miss ma'am would you like to expand some thoughts on all of the imodna stuff from this past ep? i always love your takes on them :)

hello yes!!

ok starting with imogen. i can't believe it's basically canon that girl's been kinda in love with laudna for so long. like i knew it but i didn't Know it and now i Know it and don't know what to Do with it except be like oh babe. i'm so happy for you for making that move. and the speed at which imogen steered the conversation to that point as soon as they were alone is so endearing, the way she was about to overflow with the need to ask that question. also marisha being like "this wasn't supposed to happen to my dead girl" and laura going "i know :( i know ¯\_(ツ)_/¯" bc sometimes the character wants what the character wants and this character wanted this so so so so so so so so bad

LAUDNA ON THE OTHER HAND.

i've seen a few other ppl say this and i certainly agree that laudna's reaction to being asked "can i kiss you" and what happened afterward is very ambiguous and i'm so curious what the Hell fuck is going on in her head now

what does it mean when someone asks if they can kiss you and you just say "ALRIGHT." like it's not an inconvenience and it wouldn't bother you so sure they can do what they want, you don't mind. it's not a "yes i want you to do that" it's a "yes i won't be upset if you do that" and those are different!! it could easily be either "i was not expecting this holy shit what do i do oh my god wait what okay wait just let her do it first and figure it out later" because laudna as we all know is romantically emotionally stunted. but also it could be "imogen wants this and what imogen wants i will give to her no matter what it is and this is an easy thing to give" which is,hmm,,,,unhealthy

and then immediately launching into like. i think i need you to be with me in order to be a good person. i think i can't separate from you without destroying myself or hating myself. and imogen going "you're not a bad person" and laudna kissing her again like she needs to Consume that in order to believe it

i'm kinda swinging between multiple interpretations of this, the first being like. laudna recognizing that imogen is showing interest and commitment to her but also coming from such a harrowing experience and needing to put that on the table first. "i don't think you realize that i'm unstable. i'm a bad person. i'm unlovable because you're the only thing keeping me from hurting everyone else." she doesn't explicitly say it but it'd be easy to see the implication of "are you sure you want this, want me?" and imogen saying with so much quiet conviction "you're not a bad person you're not a bad person" is why she kissed her again, because she needed to hear it and hearing that imogen still wants her despite her warnings makes her more confident to initiate a lil kiss or two by herself too

but there are so many other routes to take it. did she recognize that kissing is what imogen wants and therefore kissed her only as a way to say thank you for calling me a good person, almost like a reward, a purely transactional thing on laudna's part? did she not enjoy the first kiss but feel like she needed to try again to maybe convince herself to like it because imogen is so nice and wonderful and amazing that she should like it, what if not liking it makes her an even worse person? did she kiss her because she didn't know what to say in response because she didn't believe imogen's words at all and it was an easy distraction? did she just want to kiss her again so bad so she just did it?

idk maybe we're all reading way too much into this dkfjskdfjs but i think any option could be believable and i have things i like and dislike about each theory, and i love the fact that it wasn't a straightforward "omg yes please kiss me we're dating now!" bc it's so chewy and juicy and fun. if laura and marisha aren't on the next episode of 4-sided dive i MIGHT fly to LA and storm the set

anyway regardless of what's going on in laudna's head, i think it's safe to say that it's not a great sign of her general State Of Mental Health when she was kissed by her bestest bestie and STILL bor'dor and delilah were what she wanted to talk about. i think you'd have to be in a Very bad place for a reunion and a kiss with your fav person to not distract you, at least for a little bit, from talking about that stuff. how imodna's relationship changes moving forward (if at all) will be v interesting to see and i'm so so ssosososo os osos oso so os excited.

oh also before i end this post, just want to acknowledge that i'm assuming laura and marisha discussed it during the break and decided to keep it a secret from the rest of the party. i'm SURE we'll see some interesting discussions about that moving forward, both from laudna and imogen when they're alone + the rest of the party once they find out. i'm not thinking too hard about that decision, i think there are countless mundane and harmless reasons to keep it a secret for now, so i'm just gonna look forward to future eps!!

#hope this was an okay read! it's v long. as always.#thanks for asking anon i'm flattered you want to hear my thoughts #anonymous #ask #answered #critical role #cr3 #cr spoilers #cr meta #nova shh #imogen temult #laudna cr #ship: imodna

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ambrosiagourmet · 2 months

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Feel free to ignore this, but I love reading your analysis and was wondering how you start analyzing things? I try to do it myself but I always feel so unconfident in my interpretations and feel scared about posting about them and them being “wrong.”

Just curious to see how you approach your analysis and meta! Have a lovely day!

Ooh, what a good question! I'm happy to share a little, sure.

Under the cut bc it got long hehe 😅

So my first (and probably the most important) response to this is: it's hard to feel 100% sure that you are totally "correct" about this stuff.

There are always going to be other ways to interpret things. There are things you miss, or perspectives you don't consider. There will always be people who disagree. And even if you are as accurate and totally convincing as humanly possible, there always going to be different types of analysis that you can't cover all at the same time!

I think, especially when it comes to like, doing casual analysis for something you love, it really helps to just follow your passion. It's fine to speak confidently about an interpretation that you find compelling, even if you haven't considered every possible angle of how it could be wrong. It's about what speaks to you, after all.

For instance, the conflict-avoidant Falin post (which is currently the analysis post of mine with the most notes) was largely born from an interpretation of Falin that really resonated with me, based on a couple of points I remembered strongly from reading the story. It's definitely not the only way to look at Falin, and I don't think it's like the universally correct interpretation of her character. But it is the interpretation that got ME interested in talking about her, and in turn, resonated with other people, too!

I have plenty of anxiety about this stuff, so I won't pretend that it's just easy to turn off that "what if I'm wrong, though" part of your brain, but I will say it doesn't hurt to try to start writing. You can always draft a post and come back to it, or delete/private it, or reblog it later to add more context or nuance. You aren't shackled to your opinion forever, much as the internet (and anxiety) can make it feel that way.

As to where to actually start with analysis... for me, it's almost always either a detail, a question, or both.

Here's an example of an Idea In Progress I've been thinking about.

While I was grabbing screenshots from the Nightmare chapter, I noticed that Marcille's hairstyle there is similar to one of the chapter covers I'd also just looked at:

So like, that's interesting to me! Especially since the cover was from the chapter where Marcille makes her deal with the Winged Lion. So then I can start to ask like... what does it mean that there's this similarity? I could tie it in to the way I think the Lion kind of infantilizes her, talk about what influence the Nightmare chapter might have had on Marcilles decision. Alternatively, I could ask, are there any other similar times Marcille wears this hairstyle? Any other hairstyles that are repeated at key times?

Any of which could lead to some fun analysis! Alternatively, it can also just be fun to post about the detail without the analysis. Just be like, "hey, look at this weird thing." Other people might chime in with ideas about it, or maybe it will sparks something for you later! Either way, you'll have an easy reference saved for reference. Even if deeper analysis doesn't come, it's still fun to have pointed out. Details and connections are just. They are just great. And Dunmeshi especially has SO much to dig into.

(Oh, also, quick aside here: ignore anyone who tells you the details don't matter and weren't intentional. It fully does not matter. If drawing a connection helps you realize a new meaning in the story - if it inspires and motivates you - it's worth investigating.)

Anyway, the Adventurer's Bible is also a great place to find details to jump off of. The timelines and little blurbs highlight important events or facts about the characters, and you can then go fishing for other times those things come up or are referenced in the story.

In terms of starting from a question, it can also be fun just to spend a little time with something you don't feel like you totally got. I had a great time doing that with the succubus chapter, for instance. If there's a scene you find yourself kind of skimming over because its not clicking for you... go back and try and examine it! Even if it's just a small thing - an expression you missed or a panel with a funny little joke - it can be just as rewarding to try and pay attention to the parts of the story you don't understand as it is to dig into the parts you do.

Really, in a lot of ways, I like to use analysis as an excuse to just spend time with a story I care about. It's a way to savor it! And if you can write up those thoughts and ideas, you can share them with others, which can be even better. A dish doesn't have to be perfectly cooked to delicious, after all. Go, with Senshi's blessing, and make good food.

And of course, as with all things creative, never forget about Two Cakes:

#ask #hope this helps + isn't too ramble-y #much love and good luck if you do share stuff!!#writing analysis essays/posts is hard and cool and fun #and I think the more people having fun with it the better

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voltstone · 2 months

Text

A YELLOW DRESS FORGOTTEN | TWDG Retelling (Remastered - 2024) MASTER CONTENT POST

Hello! (And hello again to the TWDG fandom. At least, to anyone who remembers this fic.)

I'm VoltageStone. Still a shit uploader. I'm trying, and yes, this is one of the fics that has been in the works for...way too long, but at the same time..., glad I waited for my writing to get better?

This, quite simply, is my love-letter to the games, and to my Clementine. It's the one story I've wanted to get right, time and time again.

Especially since the comics have come out. Even though I've come to the conclusion that the comics are divorced from the games, because it's only one person's Clementine (and an...interesting interpretation of her at that), the comics did pull me away from the games for a little bit there.

But now I'm back. And I do intend to get to Season 4 this time. To finish this.

It'll take time, but I do feel ready now. I really have wanted to write out my Clementine's story, and have something that I can read back on rather than whatever Skybound's doing.

And honestly? While most of this is a self-indulgence thing, and it's because I'm bleeding my heart out here...

I do want more people to write about their Clementines. Cuz like... Maybe if there's enough people doing it, writing about their experiences, and not just the character as a whole... We'd get more enrichment from TWDG as a whole.

For anyone who wants to add on or talk about this, or follow along without having to subscribe to me, this fic will have its own tag (#aydf fic). So. If you're interested in just this, that'll be the place. :D

Anyway, now, for this specific update, this is a master post like the one I did for LYCOS (Wenclair fic). This isn't marked dead dove, but it is still a very...gritty fic. And it has a lot of very heavy themes.

It's a dark fic for different reasons, but a lot of the same. AYDF is what got me into writing gore, body & psychological horror, and the like. That being said, it's...also just a different beast.

Largely because I'm building off of what's in the games, so dead dove doesn't feel as appropriate for this.

Still. Might as well make a post here about its content. Any updates I do will be linked back to this.

So, for those who read this story before, I hope you enjoy, and thanks for sticking around through the years.

To any newcomers, to TWDG or other readers from other fics, I hope you enjoy. :)

-- -- --

Walkers. Muertos. Deadheads. Lurkers... The dead which roamed, they wore many names. Monster was yet another one. Though, Clementine knew most monsters didn't decay. Their hearts still throbbed. Their eyes, still with color. The monsters, still with words to asphyxiate. Because she was one herself: a monster with fire in her breath, and eyes that burned her own Hell. She drank for her life. She drank to forget.

A thank-you to Telltale, a love-letter to Clementine as a character, and a passion project writing out my Clementine's story. Made by my blood, sweat, tears, and probably also mucous from the tears, but it's sanitized, I promise.

AO3 | FFnet | Wattpad | Quotev | RoyalRoad

Fic Layout:

General Warnings:

Catharsis, Gore, Extreme/Graphic Violence, Fights, Murder, Horror, Body Horror, Angst, Trauma, a very Cynically Religious Clementine, Raider!Clementine, TWDG retelling (aka, a lot of the dialogue and canon-events will be here, or rewritten), (some, not a lot) Sexual Content (because it's a "growing up" thing not a horny thing, I promise, …and maybe sorta a little bit of how BPD and attachment issues do things), Violentine, a lot of homoeroticism, they are touch starved, Some fairytale symbolism, Louis will be protected and grow tf up.

Mental Health:

Alcoholism, Gambling Addiction, Addiction, Withdrawal, Relapse, Suicide Attempt(s), PTSD, Guilt, Survivor's Guilt, Rehabilitation, Psychosis, Child abuse, Parentification, and how that basically fucks Clementine in the head like a lot, and then A.J too because cycles and trauma, Borderline Personality Disorder, Trauma Trauma Trauma, and you'll never guess, a Clementine who really really really needs help and at least one (1) actual breathing adult in her life.

Oh which reminds me.

Finding guidance in adults who are already very much dead, and please Clementine, would you just bury the corpse?

…okay that's verging on dead dove, but if the game (almost) has an 8-year-old eat a dude's leg, and then a bigger dude get his head smooshed by a salt lick (which tastes gross, I dunno), I think it's still safe.

In Summary:

...okay I may have written a Carver's Clementine by accident bUT it was an ACCIDENT. My hand slipped. She's not evil, just a little demented some days, and bitter on the better ones.

I am half-joking. My hand didn't slip.

She does make the comic's Clementine look like an angel, though. So. There's that.

Anyway, if it's not clear, the tldr is this is my playthrough, and thusly my canon Clementine, just with the story tailored for indulgence and narrative reasons. Cuz. …alcoholism. …and stuff.

Not a great person. Very troubled. But you know. Tis how addiction works.

Hope you enjoy. :) If you see my blood, sweat and tears stained in the writing, no you didn't.

#volt's library #aydf fic #twdg #clementine twdg #twdg fic #fanfiction #aj twdg #javier twdg #violet twdg #the walking dead game #the walking dead games #telltale #violentine #alcoholism #this is a genuine fic by the way so the unhinged warnings are…taking the piss out of it a little but i do mean them #it's dark to reflect my playthrough but ultimately to reach a catharsis #this IS my clementine #mycanonclementine #my love letter to twdg and clementine

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