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betawooper · 3 years

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rating every demon fight in kny bc i can

non-biased, completely objective rating (more or less) of every significant demon fight in kny based on a number of factors, including:

cleverness of fighting tactics

placement in the story’s timeline

integration of character backstories

cohesive themes between characters

etc

by non-biased and objective i mean i’m not skewing the rating if a death felt fair or whatever

everything past where the anime ended will be under a read more so anime onlys who havent watched mugen train, youre safe lol

oh and i reread the manga like 20+ times (reread the latter arcs at least 40 times, haha hyperfixations am i right?) so be rest assured im not pulling these ratings out of my ass

also ill randomly be bolding certain phrases just to improve readability

anyways let’s gooooo

VS NEZUKO

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kamado Tanjirou and Nezuko. Tanjirou is fending her off by putting the axe handle in her mouth, keeping her from eating him. End Image Description.]

10/10

i like how realistic it is, because yeah tanjirou would react the way to he did with zero fighting skills against a demon

very clear why tanjirou is fighting nezuko and shows a bit of worldbuilding on how normal people react to their family becoming demons

always nice to see worldbuilding

giyuu is the perfect example of a seasoned demon slayer who’s good at his job, and he juxtaposes tanjirou very well in that aspect

my only complaint is not directly in this fight itself but how nezuko is handled throughout the story as a whole

like bro, it is literally never explained why nezuko is different from demons

could have been easily explained if maybe her family’s ghosts like slapped her hand every time she wanted to eat a person but nope

she’s just built different lol

so yeah youll see future ratings get points docked off bc nezuko unlocks some secret power with no prior explanation other than she angy >:3

VS TEMPLE DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of a demon. The demon has a sharp-nailed hand over his neck and there are four text bubbles around him saying “But a wound like this... will heal in no time! See? The bleeding already stopped!” End Image Description.]

10/10

may be more forgettable compared to like rui but still good

tanjirou did exceptionally well in this fight and his ability to think on his feet is once again beautifully illustrated here (trapping this dude’s head against the tree trunk with the axe)

very clever

again, establishes more demon worldbuilding regarding regeneration and still being able to move without their head

and the demons burning in the sunlight thing since nezuko wasn’t able to show that

the ending where tanjirou hesitates to kill the demon also serves to show his sympathetic nature towards demons that will last throughout the entirety of the first 60-ish chapters

we’ll talk about what the hell happens to tanjirou after that

or not, it could honestly be its own post

VS HAND DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of a many-handed demon. He has six hands around him, three of them covering his mouth while he chuckles, two of them grabbing his cheeks, and one holding on to the top of his head. There are two text bubbles saying “That’s how many of Urokodaki’s students I have eaten! I’ve decided to kill all of his students!” End Image Description.]

10/10

ooooh probably the first big fight against a demon in the series

oh yeah not doing the two random demons tanjirou one shot in a single blow bc eh

anyways hand demon’s pretty goddamn scary, considering the fact that this is the 5th demon or whatever tanjirou has had to face so far

very nice way to show us how much tanjirou’s innate intuition and all his other random abilities (sense of smell, hard forehead) can come together and help him decapitate this guy

i liked the mini history with urokodaki this dude had and why he had beef with our favorite mentor figure, it establishes that urokodaki was in fact a super good demon slayer and its cool to see that actually shown

i also liked that small moment of compassion tanjirou gave this demon, staying consistent with tanjirou’s established kindness

the demon’s sad tale with killing his own brother very much humanizes him when all the reader has seen up to this point is that this guy is a monster who eats people

sets up the theme of demons just being humans but being victims of circumstance that unfortunately doesn’t hold up as well in arcs past mugen train

VS SWAMP DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kamado Tanjirou fighting off three horned demons as they appear from below. There is a spiky text bubble saying “Three of them!!!” End Image Description.]

10/10

not my most favorite fight but it still portrays everything alright and im not allowed to let my personal opinions mess with the rating so

i like how tanjirou mentioned the fact that he trained in conditions similar to the bog and explains how he pulled off the whirlpool form

using past experiences to aid him in the present, nice nice

tanjirou and nezuko dont quite work together very well but its yknow the first mission so ill chalk it up to simple inexperience

also the way the muzan curse thingie was hinted at here? fantastic way of showing that little bit of demon worldbuilding

...

oh god, it mentions nezuko being stronger than normal demons

ok its not a problem here per say since i can still suspend my disbelief, but later on it just becomes a glaring problem that gets worse over time

VS SUSAMARU AND YAHABA

[Image Description: Manga panels of Susamaru and Yahaba. The first one is a joyful Susamaru about to throw a temari ball. There is floating text saying “Is she one of Kibutsuji’s minions?!” The second image is an annoyed Yahaba, holding one of his eye-hands to cover himself. There are two text bubbles around him saying “My kimono got all dusty. Tch!” End Image Description.]

9/10

why dont these bitches have a good looking panel together dammit

anyways amazing entrance, the way yahaba used his hand eyes to track down tanjirou is really neat

the synergy yahaba and susamaru have is incredible, its awesome dude, they work extremely well together and it shows

tanjirou actually mixing his water breathing forms together is a god tier move and i absolutely love how he can show off his ability to think on his feet once again

establishing how yushiro’s bda works early on is really well done

establishing tamayo as a fugitive this early on is also super well done

not to get into spoiler territory but both these things pay off

how tamayo ended up defeating susamaru is literally awesome in so many ways

shows off both how smart she is by exploiting the muzan curse

and speaking of the muzan curse, we actually get to see what happens to demons who even say his name, back when it was hinted with the swamp demon

tamayo is amazing dude, and we get some real evidence of the horrible suffering demons go through if they even accidentally attempt to betray muzan :D

...

now heres what keeps this fight from being perfect

nezuko somehow grew stronger against susamaru’s temari

with no explanation

which could have been easily explained if tamayo was like “oh yeah the drug also boosts a demon’s strength temporarily”

but nope

god, i just dont like how gotouge handles nezuko’s power boosts throughout the series bc like i said before

no explanation is given anywhere

this is a huge issue, this isnt a pokemon game, you cant just kill demons and get exp at the end of every battle, level up, get some sweet stat bonuses and move on

(actually if gotouge established that this is how nezuko grew in power, than all my complaints about this would be gone, im not even joking)

anyways i get that nezuko is supposed to be “special” but thats too vague of a descriptor

how the hell is she special? ya gotta be more specific and stick with that explanation or that suspension of disbelief is going to disappear

VS TONGUE DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of a four-eyed demon with horns and a long tongue. He is crawling in an awkward position, one foot in front of his tilted head. There are two text bubbles around him saying “Heh, heh! I’ll slurpy slurp your brains out through you ear!” End Image Description.]

10/10

not much to say, showcases zenitsu’s true abilities really well

nicely done

VS HORNED DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of a big, single-horned demon. There are three text bubbles saying “You dodged! You’re awfully lively for a human! It’ll be a treat to carve away your flesh!” End Image Description.]

10/10

would have ignored this fight if not for the fact we havent seen inosuke fight before

it definitely shows how very fast-paced and wild inosuke is

no complaints here lol

VS KYOGAI

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kyogai, a demon with tsuzumi drums attached to his shoulders. There are four text bubbles around him saying “Why?! Why does everyone keep sneaking through my house? It’s so aggravating. It’s my prey! It’s my prey! Found in my territory!” End Image Description.]

10/10

establishes marechi blood pretty early on, once again expanding the worldbuilding of kny which is always cool

interesting terrain where it’s always shifting, tanjirou once again proves his ability to adapt really quickly by altering one of his forms to work with the turning room

(man, i wish the form mixing/form modification thing carried on throughout the rest of the story, but it really didnt which is just a shame)

the injuries tanjirou had prior to this mission actually affecting him was a nice touch

oh yeah, kyogai gives us more worldbuilding (which is always nice) regarding the 12 kizuki, and the aspect of him being cast out due to being weak shows a lot about muzan’s indifference towards his own demons if they arent strong

his backstory being a failed writer once again humanizes kyogai as a former human being and not just a monster

tanjirou shows his sympathy and compassion again by not stepping on his written work and complimenting his bda

well, tbh tanjirou’s actions kinda came out of nowhere but its a very minor thing and not enough to dock a point off, like it didnt affect the outcome of the fight that much if at all

(so if you see future battles where points are docked off for things not logically making sense, its bc whatever nonsensical concepts were integrated into the fight actually turned the tide of the battle and thats a big no-no)

very good fight and if you remember how kinda bad tanjirou was at accurately slicing the swamp demon, you can see that he’s already improved leaps and bounds

im so proud of him

VS MOTHER SPIDER DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kamado Tanjirou and the Mother Spider Demon. There is a light shining down from the top right on to the demon as Tanjirou slices her head off, rain following in his wake. There is floating text saying “Water Breathing: Fifth Form - Blessed Rain After the Drought!” around them. End Image Description.]

10/10

i mean does anyone disagree?

all the demon slayers getting their necks snapped by her threads was pretty horrific, probably more horrifying than anything else we have seen in the entire series if im gonna be honest

the death scene is probably the most beautiful one in the series

it reveals a water breathing form that we havent seen before thats the 5th form

as far as i know, no other breathing style has this merciful sword stroke so it shows a lot about the original water breather and what they might have been like

but enough about them, really the focus is on tanjirou bc this is like the best example by far of how kind and sympathetic he is to demons

dunno what else to say, its perfect

VS SON SPIDER DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of Agatsuma Zenitsu performing Thunder Breathing 1st Form: Sixfold on a spider-like demon. Zenitsu is crashing through the roof of a shed, and a zig-zag path is left behind. There are sound effects all over the panel, saying “Bam!” in large font. End Image Description.]

10/10

chose a picture without a huge spider on it bc i would like to not scare myself half to death

anyways extremely amazing fight, showcases zenitsu’s immense talent and skill, adapting the 1st form of thunder breathing to be a more versatile move

theres a moment where his backstory with kuwajima and kaigaku were revealed and his hidden insecurities are out in the open which is super nice and further develops a character weve only considered as comedic relief until now

the anime made the backstory scenes and the killing scene so much cooler

while there is no thematic connection between zenitsu and the demon, it really isnt necessary to keep this fight interesting

anyways another pretty much perfect fight

VS FATHER SPIDER DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kamado Tanjirou and Inosuke slashing at the Father Spider Demon. The demon has blocked Tanjirou’s sword with his arm, and Inosuke is slamming both his blades down on the demon’s other hand. End Image Description.]

10/10

again, not my most favorite fight but it does everything right

i do have to say it was excellent how gotouge hyped up the father spider demon to be the big bad, only just so the plot twist later takes the readers by surprise

nicely done

VS DAUGHTER SPIDER DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kochou Shinobu and the Daughter Spider Demon. Shinobu’s back is seen and her haori looks like a butterfly’s wings keeping her afloat as she holds her stinger blade out to the side. The demon looks surprised as blood gushes from her side, arm, shoulder, chest, neck, and forehead. There is floating text on the panel, saying “Insect Breathing - Butterfly Dance - Caprice!” End Image Description.]

10/10

first time weve seen shinobu and her fighting style

what i love most about this is how much it shows her true character, appearing as a carefree and naive individual so she seems underwhelming

then bam, reveals exactly how dangerous and uncaring she is of demons, listing out the specific ways she would torture the daughter spider demon in grotesque detail

her using poison to take demons by surprise is also super clever and brings back the worldbuilding established way earlier about wisteria being poisonous to demons

amazing integration of that concept

anyways this fight really encapsulates who shinobu is as a character and thats why it gets a perfect score

VS RUI

[Image Description: Manga panel of Rui holding his hand out directly towards the viewer. There are two text bubbles around him, saying “Give me your sister. If you hand her over quietly, I’ll spare your life.” End Image Description.]

8/10

not only is it a super scary fight but there is a deeper conflict between rui and tanjirou, what it means to be family

they are opposites in the sense that while tanjirou believes love is what makes a family, rui’s subconscious desperation for an unbreakable bond drives him to use fear to keep his “family” together

excellent juxtaposition of their values, and this is only further emphasized when rui expresses out loud what he was going to do to nezuko

i also like the symbolism regarding rui’s bda, how he uses threads or the “familial” bonds to cut up his fake family with it if they act out of turn or annoy him

super neat detail

alright what i dont like about this fight is nezuko (again)

mostly her unlocking her bda to turn the tide of the battle bc her mom was like “yo, wake up, your brother is going to be killed”

feels... forced ig

her bda in general is confusing and not consistent

man, i wish i could make a stronger argument for this but i do believe the problem stems from the fact that we dont ever know what nezuko is thinking, and what she thinks of tanjirou specifically

if she even cares for him as a sibling or if shes only going along with what her family is saying to her, things like that which would have been fixed if gotouge actually gave her thoughts some screen time

so the action feels pretty shallow

im also conflicted over tanjirou somehow remembering how dance of the fire god works

on one hand, hes using past information and applying it in the current setting so he doesnt die, which is understandable

but on the other hand, this was a teeny bit random?

i think what could have fixed this is if there was a scene in the beginning of the series where tanjirou was performing it himself, like practicing before he actually had to do it for new years

so that when the rui fight rolls around, it would have felt less like throwing dry spaghetti at a wall

but yeah

overall super good fight, giyuu ending up having to kill rui instead of tanjirou was super good in that tanjirou didnt become a pillar this early in the series and to show how strong giyuu is

there are some odd bits regarding the ultimate “beheading” of rui using nezuko and tanjirous supposed bonds but it doesnt kill the fight entirely so it deserves its pretty high score

***under read more is manga-only fights so beware***

VS ENMU

[Image Description: Manga panel of Enmu holding his hand out directly at the viewer, with a mouth on the back of it. There is floating text to the top right of Enmu that says “Whispers of Forced Unconscious Hypnosis!” End Image Description.]

9/10

id say this fight is definitely overshadowed by the dream stuff prior to this but its pretty good in its own right

enmu fusing with the train was kinda confusing, like when was it established that demons could fuse with objects?

this worldbuilding element doesnt even appear again so yeah thats why it loses a point

how the kmbk gang end up defeating enmu is pretty sweet though, tanjirou using dance of the fire god to sever the neck bone was really nice and shows that him using the breathing style in the rui fight wasnt a one time thing

while kyojuro’s role was smaller in this part, the next part makes up for it so i cant complain

anyways ye, almost perfect score but its pretty good

VS AKAZA (MUGEN TRAIN)

[Image Description: Manga panel of Akaza holding his hand out to the viewer’s left. There is a text bubble saying “Why don’t you become a demon?” End Image Description.]

10/10

this encounter is literally amazing okay?

after the crew kills the big bad, it seems like everything is fine

but plot twist, upper moon 3 appears out of nowhere

this is the first time the reader has seen an upper moon, let alone the 3rd/4th strongest demon in existence and the way gotouge handled this twist is fucking amazing

kyojuro’s death scene really shows just how human even the strongest pillars are against demons with incredible power

its just

amazing

VS OBI DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panels of the obi-like demon. The first image shows the obi hung in the air and strung over each other like decorations, with women-shaped patterns in its folds. The second image is Hashibira Inosuke fighting the Obi demon which now has lips and eyes. There is floating text in that panel saying “Breath of the Beast: Sixth Fang - Jagged Gnaw!!” End Image Description.]

10/10

on to red light district

this fight is admittedly super forgettable and not very interesting at least compared to the main fight with daki and gyutaro

but it wraps up the sub plot of the women and uzui’s wives going missing so it gets a perfect score for not messing that up

oh and it establishes the stretchy neck thing daki has going on which is very good

VS DAKI AND GYUTARO

[Image Description: Manga panel of Daki and Gyutaro. Daki is sitting on Gyutaro’s shoulders. There is a text bubble on the top right that says “The two of us are one, after all.” as well as floating text that reads “The power of the irregular siblings...!? Next issue lead color and the fight reaches its climax!!” End Image Description.]

8/10

love how this battle challenges tanjirou’s sympathy and kindness towards demons, just simply bc daki and gyutaro are horrible people

(too bad nothing came of this, which ill explain in the hantengu portion)

daki and gyutaro are very good villains and kept this fight super interesting from start to finish

uzui acting as a foil to gyutaro is nicely integrated and properly shown with how jealous gyutaro gets over seeing uzui’s perfect form and stature

tanjirou not only mixes forms but mixes breathing styles as well, which is so fucking awesome

(too bad it was only used like once throughout the entire series, its quite unfortunate)

the super high tension right after inosuke gets stabbed and tanjirou wakes up was expertly portrayed and handled, it felt like the kmbk gang and uzui were actually going to lose

super awesome

the tanjirou and gyutaro parallels are expertly portrayed, with how gyutaro taunts tanjirou over failing to protect his little sister, and the more visual thing where tanjirou imagined his own neck underneath his blade, that was super duper nice

the ending is extremely tense and emotionally gripping, gotouge did a really good job with that artistically too

the demon mark acquisition scene was surprisingly not frustrating, considering that it wasnt really explained prior to the battle

i do think it has to do with how it was explained later just exactly how they worked so its not just some random thing gotouge pulled out of their ass

so pretty good

what i dont like is nezuko and her full power demon form

first of all where the fuck did that come from? she just got angry and suddenly shes as powerful as an upper moon

how?

that doesnt make sense???

her extremely quick regeneration makes no sense

her ability to manipulate her blood’s properties makes no sense

and it doesnt even appear again so what was the point of that existing

none of this is even explained later which annoys me

that one part where tanjirou sings a lullaby to her to calm her down was alright ig but nezuko in this fight makes me extremely irritated and frustrated

just ugh

VS HANTENGU

[Image Description: Manga panel of Hantengu opening a shoji door. He is crawling inside, his hand in a gnarled, unnatural position. There is a text bubble saying “Eeeeeeek.” End Image Description.]

1/10

swordsmith village

this fight can go fuck itself /j

no but seriously it has so many problems that it would be shorter to name its redeeming qualities (which ill do later)

first off, the nezuko full power form thing again

i hate it so much with a passion

again, where did her ability to regenerate instantly even come from???? this is never explained, ever

and why did she cut herself on tanjirou’s sword anyway

did she somehow know that it was going to turn red if she burned it?

gotouge what the fuck, there is literally no reason why nezuko would do that and we cant even read her mind to see her thought process

gotouge hates nezuko, i swear

remember when i said uzui is meant to be a foil to gyutaro in the rld fight? its pretty obvious that those two are opposites, it was nicely done

... what the hell does mitsuri’s insecurities about strength have to do with whatever the fuck hantengu has going on (which is basically nothing)?

so no meaningful connection between mitsuri and hantengu

theres no meaningful connection between tanjirou and hantengu other than tanjirou getting pissed off for like the second time

also tanjirou’s thing with being kind and sympathetic to demons was entirely dropped at this point

but instead of it leading up to a corruption arc of some sorts, it just doesnt

like honestly if something actually came of that anger he exhibited in this arc and from red light district from this point forward story-wise, i would have counted this as an amazing writing decision

but it literally doesnt so who cares

(god, i really start to hate what happened to his character after this )

and genya’s revealed motivation also doesnt fit at all with hantengu’s thing, he’s not a foil, not a parallel, nothing, there is nothing

tanjirou being the catharsis for development for mitsuri and muichirou, who he has only talked to like twice

theres definitely a better way to handle those two’s developments without his help

like gotouge, you have a big cast of characters, use them lol

i want to kick hantengu in the face for being boring as fuck (at least his clones have cool looking weapons)

doesnt even have a proper backstory, just a single spread of him being blamed for shit as a human

like... thats it? this is upper moon 4 what the hell

theres no clever form mixing here at all (regarding tanjirou) which probably would have helped with foreshadowing the 13th form for dance of the fire god/sun breathing better

also gotouge established that as tanjirou’s thing and now he doesnt do that stuff anymore which sucks

oh hey remember when tanjirou actually learned how to do zenitsu’s speed boost thing?

if you didnt, i dont blame you bc it literally doesnt appear again, ever

you could argue that he adapted it into his “waltz flash” technique or whatever the fuck that is but the way it was integrated into this fight was like throwing dry spaghetti at a wall

which is just a shame bc its meant to be representative of how tanjirou and zenitsu are good pals but the way it was utilized is forgettable as hell

i absolutely loathe the crimson blade concept as a whole and im mentioning this now bc its going to come into play why future instances where this goddamn thing comes up again causes points to be lost

its inconsistent as fuck ill tell you that

at least some yoriichi stuff appeared here and not shoved into the final battle with everything else

so the yoriichi stuff later didnt come out of absolute nowhere

genya and mitsuri’s unique fighting styles expand the kny worldbuilding just a little more which is always nice

tanjirou got a cool sword out of this which would have been cooler if him and yoriichi had a deeper connection that was actually explored

but we didnt get shit so whatever

other people getting demon marks being revealed here is also okay so that again, the final battle isnt filled with absolutely everyone getting their marks at once

demon marks have their own slew of problems but its not as bad as the fucking crimson sword shit

god i hate the crimson sword shit

...

dude this section needs a tldr, even i cant sit and read through my shit

TL;DR - this fight sucks and crimson swords are bullshit (more on this later)

VS GYOKKO

[Image Description: Manga panel of Tokitou Muichirou and Gyokko. Muichirou is looking to the left while Gyokko is looking to the right, both with their backs to each other. There are mist clouds billowing in the foreground and background, as well as a slash mark going across Gyokko’s neck. End Image Description.]

7/10

this fight suffers from the same lack of cohesive themes through characters like the hantengu battle bc the antagonist is given nothing

but its better

we havent actually seen mui fight before so theres no consistencies that the reader has to keep track of for now

and there arent like 10 characters in the fight so this fight gets a lot of points just for being a lot more coherent

i do like that this fight shows just how good mui is that he can defeat an upper moon by himself

mui’s backstory is neat

gyokko’s bda is very interesting too

... thats pretty much it lol

ye, anyways not the best fight but not the worst fight either

VS KAIGAKU

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kaigaku holding the hilt of his blade with one hand. There is two text bubbles around him, saying “...As usual, you’re still shabby. It’s been a while, Zenitsu.” End Image Description.]

9/10

alright on to final battle arc

theres some good fights and then some really sucky ones, but this one was pretty incredible and very emotionally charged

theres a clear reason why zenitsu and kaigaku are battling each other (kai betrayed the corps and inadvertantly caused the only parental figure in zenitsu’s life to die, and zenitsu is rightfully pissed off about that)

the visual yin-yang symbolism is awesome too

zenitsu winning due to using the 7th form he created himself (which i have reason to believe was inspired by tanjirou) was the perfect ending to the fight, really couldnt ask for anything better and is a perfect example of how much of an effect tanjirou has had on zenitsu

the 7th form is what tanjirou’s waltz flash should have been lol

what keeps this fight from being absolutely perfect is lack of development prior to this conflict

(since the final battle arc is basically a culmination of all the hinted developments through the series, im going to actually factor in how much and how well these conflicts were foreshadowed)

anyways if we had actually seen zenitsu, kaigaku, and kuwajima actually interacting with each other and showing how they were essentially a family (not just through flashbacks), it would have made zenitsu placing the responsibility of killing kai onto himself a lot more tragic

but like, apart from brief flashbacks where zenitsu actually met kaigaku off screen and that one thing all the way back in natagumo where both kuwajima and kai were introduced, thats pretty much it in terms of thunder family development

so yeah its underdeveloped for sure

also one random thought, i personally think zenitsu should have gotten his demon mark in this fight, it would have been cool to see

VS AKAZA (INFINITY FORTRESS)

[Image Description: Manga panel of Akaza’s face. There are two text bubbles around him, saying “Okay, let’s get started. It’s time for the feast.” There is also floating text saying “The inspection of the strong has begun...” as well as a simple box on the lower left, denoting its the end of chapter 147. End Image Description.]

6/10

oh god please dont hate me for this

ill list the good things first how about that

this conflict was foreshadowed perfectly in mugen train, you bet the readers were expecting a tanjirou vs akaza battle after the death of kyojuro and gotouge delivered

akaza’s power is shown extremely well with how many close calls tanjirou and giyuu had while fighting him

akaza eventually giving up on his own volition was really nice and fit into the context of the battle very very well, like sure tanjirou and giyuu wouldnt understand why he gave up but us readers do know

akaza is a really good character and a good villain

now notice how im only mentioning akaza and not giyuu or tanjirou in the good aspects

bc those two are eh

no form mixing at all from either tanjirou and giyuu

i know i said form mixing was kind of tanjirou’s thing but you’d think giyuu would have gotten more creative with his moves once akaza said that he was getting predictable

(well he said he “ran out of water breathing forms” but same thing)

so its kinda bland lol

speaking of giyuu, his whole thing with his insecurities of being weak wasnt handled well (it was sort of immediately brushed off in pillar training, and its unclear what part of his character arc he was in)

like sure him announcing that he’s going to protect tanjirou is cool but it feels like he was haphazardly dropped into the tanjirou and akaza conflict

isnt he supposed to be both their foils? that wasnt really explored that well in this fight and theres no deep meaning behind him even being here just analyzing what he did in it

he could have been handled better or even given more focus is what im saying

the anatta state came out of nowhere, im sorry okay? just bc inosuke like barely hinted at not being able to sense grandma hisa bc she had no fighting spirit and tanjurou magically taught his son how to achieve this state doesnt mean it was properly integrated into the fight

if the anatta state was actually explored prior to this battle, i would have given it a pass but it just feels like a cheap and poorly developed trick to get around akaza’s technique development (which is overpowered as fuck might i add)

gotouge should have just given akaza a plausible weakness to his technique development instead, especially since they dont use or even mention the anatta state after this

the transparent world shit makes no sense but ill elaborate on that in the koku battle analysis

oh and this thing doesnt affect the score but why wasnt there a “yoriichi visage overlapping” moment when tanjirou was fighting akaza? hes an upper moon, he should have gotten those visions but he didnt

for some reason

anyways this battle was alright and has good set up but the middle and end parts didnt hold up as well bc random concepts were thrown at us without prior explanation or development

VS DOUMA

[Image Description: Manga panel of Douma licking Shinobu’s butterfly pin. There are two text bubbles around him saying “Anyway, tonight is a good night. Such fine feasts keep showing up one after another.” End Image Description.]

9/10

damn, such an amazing fight

the build up to this was properly foreshadowed

shinobu finally showing her true anger after hiding it for so long is amazing

douma is a super interesting character and fantastic villain

shinobu showing off her true power and determination against douma was sooooo nice

shinobu’s poisonous body plan is so clever and so interesting

if i was to rate the shinobu part of the fight alone, it would have gotten a 10/10 no question

the reason why its knocked down a point is because of the kanao and inosuke part

dont get me wrong, the way kanao is able to hold her own against douma by herself is pretty cool, how shes meant to parallel douma with their similar struggles surrounding human emotions and demonstrate how she has grown as a person, how she regains the ability to cry

that shit is cool, inosuke also getting in touch with his emotions after learning what happened to his mom was super neat as well

however

bc this battle takes place in the final arc with everything else, there wasnt proper build up regarding many things, the kotoha reveal especially

so inosuke feels kinda forced into the kanao shinobu and douma conflict, similar to how giyuu felt forced into the tanjirou and akaza conflict

its quite unfortunate bc if the kotoha stuff was actually explored prior to the confrontation, this “forced” feeling would have disappeared

i know some people have suggested that the douma fight should have just been its own arc, and i very much agree, it would have certainly helped fix this problem regarding inosuke and kotoha

last random thought, i wish shinobu, kanao, and inosuke got their demon marks

VS KOKUSHIBOU

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kokushibou looking directly at the viewer, holding the hilt of his blade as if he’s going to pull it out. There are text boxes around him saying “This... is Upper Moon One... He’s so different compared to the other Upper Moons. He looks so dignified and majestic.” The text boxes are narrated by Tokitou Muichirou. End Image Description.]

5/10

this fight is... mediocre

at least theres a more tangible connection between muichirou and kokushibou

even though that was handled kinda poorly

tbh there really was no point to revealing that mui is koku’s descendant like at all, it just had no significant bearing to the plot of the fight

sanemi’s backstory being here is... okay ig?

idk the whole shinazugawa conflict has fundamental problems that i just cant think of any other place to put it without changing the entirety of canon

the marechi blood concept coming back was nice though

genya is there

him getting his bda was cool and helped turn the tide of the battle in a satisfying way (before kicking the bucket but thats not the focus here)

gyomei is a hollow husk of a character who barely got anything at all

but his fighting style is extremely cool and conveys his immense power very well

oh and him and sanemi are amazing at working together, like better than giyuu and tanjirou, and better than kanao and inosuke

theyre that good yet pretty much nobody acknowledges it which is sad

koku himself is pretty interesting and pretty tragic, very nice villain

but everyone together?

gonna be honest but this is such a random collection of characters, there was basically no foreshadowing that these four were going to go up again kokushibou, they are not that connected very well

i know there was this one post that focused on the theme of family that was common in all 5 characters in the fight but its just not enough

it would have been more cohesive if gotouge emphasized gyomei, mui, sanemi, and genya being like different aspects of yoriichi coming together to kill kokushibou hundreds of years after yoriichi failed to kill him

lmao its not like the 4 of them defeated koku with the power of family or friendship, they just smacked him over and over with a flail, shot him with magical bullets, and stabbed a crimson sword into his abdomen

wouldnt have been too hard to switch over to koku’s pov and go “damn these bitches are like my stupid brother”

...

speaking of crimson swords

i fucking hate the crimson sword concept oh my god can i complain about it now? im gonna complain about it now

unlike demon marks, the crimson blades werent even given any proper conditions, you just hold the stupid thing hard enough and it somehow imbues it with magical properties with no logic behind those properties

what part of crimson swords completely destroys a demon’s body in an instant? even muzan didnt go through that process when he was almost killed by yoriichi so where in the goddamn fuck did it come from

it could be explained bc the sword was left in the same spot for a long time but this tactic doesnt even appear again in a meaningful way (didnt kill muzan when tanjirou and giyuu held the sword together) so what the fuck was the point of having this even exist

its so underdeveloped and confusing and i hate it

the transparent world stuff is also confusing as shit and its pretty much never explained how they work aside from the vague “close your mind” advice, like why did it exist, it did nothing to help the present day demon slayers

its just so... poorly integrated

yeah anyways this is around the same rating as the akaza fight but a little worse bc there wasnt that strong set up beforehand

VS KOKUSHIBOU (SENGOKU ERA)

[Image Description: Manga panel of a bag getting ripped open, pieces of a wooden flute tumbling out. End Image Description.]

10/10

easily 10/10

this fight shows the tragedy of kokushibou giving in to his envy and hatred, when yoriichi cries over seeing his own family commit terrible attrocities against the people he wanted to protect

and yoriichi dies, now carrying the fact that he couldnt even save his own brother from the influence of muzan on his conscious forever

what a sad ending for yoriichi

and after koku angrily slashes apart yoriichi’s corpse, having him find and keep the flute he gave to him when they were kids to the present day gives him a small shred of humanity in the midst of his monstrous anger

VS NAKIME

[Image Description: Manga panels of Nakime. The first one shows a low quality version of her playing her biwa. The second one is a close up of her eye. There are spiky text bubbles saying “It’s Upper Rank... 4!” End Image Description.]

0/10

no nakime backstory

not even a goddamn fight

forgettable

useless

VS MUZAN

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kibutsuji Muzan in his white-haired, mouth-covered form. There are text bubbles around him saying “Not a single one was of use to me. I will crush the demon hunters tonight. I’ll massacre them all right now.” End Image Description.]

1/10

._.

i have many complaints but ill try my best to not make this another hantengu rant section lol

first off, obanai deserved better

im serious, this poor dude was forgotten until pretty much the end when we finally get a backstory out of him

and then he died

what a waste of a potentially amazing character

mitsuri getting taken out early was ehhh

pretty sure someone else made a post about her supposedly being extremely strong but she was nerfed in this battle which i agree with

literally none of the pillars work together very well, like remember how i praised sanemi and gyomei for being super coordinated? lmao that doesnt exist anymore

you could say this is caused by desperation though and you wouldnt be wrong, its just boring to sit through

that causes issues bc this now basically requires the crimson sword and transparent world concepts to be there to spice things up

but in this fight, they do nothing in the long run (except for tanjirou using the crimson sword at the very very end)

youve already heard me talk about why those two things are super shittily integrated and i cant be bothered repeating myself so moving on

kanao, inosuke, and zenitsu

they... exist? they didnt do much tbh, which i guess is the point but like, now its boring again

nezuko could have been used as a potential way to raise the stakes and make things interesting again (like “ah shit, muzan might actually be unkillable if he gets nezuko but its okay bc shes not here- oh fuck shes here this is not good”)

but nothing came of her running off except confirmation that she became human again so whatever

uzui and shinjuro are useless, why werent they at the fight?

like they could have followed nezuko and contributed to the battle even a little but they just didnt and now theres literally no point to them appearing in this arc at all

wasted potential

tanjirou

i wish him going absolutely apeshit had actual substance behind it, like it being a part of his character arc or something

i remember having this one theory that he had a corruption arc (due to dropping his kindness thing towards demons) and i wanted this to be true so badly

but it doesnt exist

not with how the series ended

god

the only thing that saves this fight from being complete trash is tamayo’s poison thing being amazingly executed

and the part where everyone got blasted away, losing limbs and shit, that made things a little more interesting again

but thats it

VS MUZAN (SENGOKU ERA)

[Image Description: Manga panels of Kibutsuji Muzan, Tamayo, and Tsugikuni Yoriichi. The first one has Muzan and Tamayo, while the second one has Yoriichi pulling out his sword. There are text boxes saying “And the moment I met him, I understood that I was born into this world to defeat this man.” End Image Description.]

9/10

finally something good again

while short, that’s just the nature of all of yoriichi’s battles with demons

anyways pretty nice, theres a clear reason why this battle exists (shows the scenario that made the original breather get super close to defeating muzan in detail)

adding tamayo here was a nice touch

my only complaint is that it seemed extremely coincidental that yoriichi somehow developed a breathing style specifically countering muzan’s multiple organs without even knowing prior that he had all those brains and hearts floating around freely in his body

like thats kind of ridiculous, even for yoriichi whos supposed to be “blessed by the gods”

could just be me though

VS TANJIROU

[Image Description: Manga panels of Kamado Tanjirou in his demon form. The first image has his eyes closed. The second image has his eyes opened and the tumor on his face almost completely faded. There are text boxes around him saying “You will destroy the demon hunters in my stead.” End Image Description.]

1/10

hoo boy

ok first off, demon tanjirou lasted for 2 chapters

thats it

2 chapters

so thats already a problem

i am aware its meant to parallel the beginning of the series but also its ridiculous how completely vague and rushed this entire thing was

nezuko doesnt do shit through not just this battle but this entire arc which i already explained so not gonna go into it further

kanao magically having a demon cure on her made very little sense

the scene where tanjirou leaves muzan in purgatory is pretty but if you look at it in the context of everything else, its ambiguous and confusing

(if someone could explain it and see how it connects to the original theme of “demons just being victims of circumstance,” i would love to hear it)

actually you know what makes me so mad about this “fight” as a whole? there was so much potential to do more with this concept

and im not talking about him escaping and nezuko becoming a demon slayer roleswap au (even though its a pretty cool concept)

him becoming a demon could have been a metaphor for his lost kindness and sympathy towards demons halfway through the series

it could have been a punishment for letting his anger towards muzan cloud his judgement

it could have symbolized literally anything about him losing his humanity as he got stronger

but those three things are just scenarios from my head, they dont exist in this series just based off of what weve seen from these two chapters

its disappointing

the only thing keeping this from getting a 0 is the one part where inosuke couldnt chop off tanjirou’s head bc he cared about him too much

that at least shows inosuke had grown as a character

everything else is just meaningless and convoluted garbage and “convoluted” is not what you should be aiming for if this is supposed to be the ending of your series

IN SUMMARY

early kny is very good, later kny is questionable and the ending is just a mess of wasted potential and disappointment

i get why gotouge had to have the transparent world ability, crimson blade ability, and the demon marks appear before they all appeared on yoriichi but theyre all just so underdeveloped and terribly handled in the battles they are used, it makes me want to kick a wall

like lmao, i could literally think of so many ways they could have been properly integrated, hell, im even writing a whole goddamn rewrite using my ideas for these three things (link to that is in my pinned)

just, god

if you want to debate over these ratings, my ask box is open ig? idk

#kny #kimetsu no yaiba #kny meta #demon slayer #my writing #long post

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 3 years

Text

Day 4: Pining / Attention

“If you were to look my way, I think my heart would just about explode.”

Day 4 of JustJadelentines2021!

[Day 1] / [Day 2] / [Day 3] / [You’re at Day 4!] / [Day 5] / [Day 6] / [Day 7]

JadepleaselookatmeJadepleaselookatmeJadepleaselookatmeJadepleaselookatmeJadepleaselookatmeJadepleaselookatmeJadepleaselookatmeJadepleaselookatmeJadepleaselookatmeJadepleaselookatmeJadepleaselookatmeJadepleaselookatme--Ah-HEM! Um... I mean... Leech mob family is a fun theory~

***Warning: Wish Upon a Star (Floyd’s Wish) & Floyd and Jade Birthday Suit Up! personal story spoilers!***

Imagine this...

Several wheelbarrows’ full of packages addressed to the twins arrived at Octavinelle every holiday. At first, Octa A was startled by the strange influxes of mail--but his concerns were often dismissed by his upperclassmen. Most notably, Jade would reassure him that the packages thanks to the Leeches’ “extensive connections” and “family ties”, whatever that meant.

The mob student tried not to linger on the meaning of those words too often, for whenever he did, his mind would wander into dark theories. Whichever corner of the deep, murky sea the twins originated from, Octa A didn’t want to be dragged there for asking too many questions.

So he closed his eyes and went about his work like the diligent employee that he was. The school year passed, and in turn, so did the holidays--and, as expected, the packages arrived without fail on each special occasion.

Then came Valentine’s Day.

“Wh-Whoah...!!”

Octa A’s jaw dropped at the sheer amount of mail unceremoniously littered across the floor of the Mostro Lounge. Boxes large and small were stacked as tall as him, wrapping paper of various patterns, glittery bows, and packing peanuts were scattered everywhere. One big mess.

Floyd say amongst the packages, giddily ripping boxes open, while Jade stood at the edge of the sea of mail, carefully inspecting the various packages.

“G-Good morning,” Octa A called out as he slowly waded through the mail, cautious about not stepping on anything. “What’s... What’s all of this? Th-This is a lot of mail--even more than usual.”

“Oya. Good morning to you as well, Kon-san,” Jade replied with a polite wave. “Bright and early for your shift, I see.”

“Ahh? It’s Konbu-chan!” Floyd cried, wearing a toothy grin. The eel excitedly waved to him, hailing the mob student over. “C’mere!”

Oh, thank Neptune, Octa A thought. He had caught the brothers in good moods today. The last thing he needed was a grumpy Floyd or a passive aggressive Jade leering over his shoulder.

With a little less trepidation than usual, he tip-toed over. Octa A just narrowly missed dirtying a discarded bunch of blue tissue paper before he reached his upperclassman.

“Hold your hand out,” Floyd commanded, his smile stretching.

“O-Okay...?” Octa A obeyed, unsure of what to expect.

“Here you goooo!!”

Floyd dropped something brown, warm, and sticky into the mob student’s palms. Octa A jumped at the strange sensation, his thoughts racing to the conclusion that it was something unsanitary--but when a sweet smell hit his nose and Octa A immediately knew it was chocolate.

“I don’t want it, so you can have it!”

“E-Ehhh?! Y-You’re just going to hand me a bunch of melted chocolate?!”

“Yup! Oh--you can have those too,” Floyd added, jabbing a thumb at a box by Octa A’s feet. “And this, and that... pretty much all of it, ‘cept the one from mom.”

“W-Whaaat?! Th-There’s no way that I can eat all of that...!!”

Jade’s laughter cut in, interrupting the conversation. “My, my, Kon-san. There is no need to fret. You need not consume all these sweets. Feel free to dispose of them as you wish, if that is what you think is best.”

“Th-Throwing them out is just as bad as giving them away!!” Octa A cast a sympathetic look at all the packages. Some thrown open, their guts spilling out, and others left totally untouched by their intended recipients.

“Oh? Whatever do you mean. Please, do enlighten us.”

“Tch. You gonna lecture us, Konbu-chan? This oughta be good.”

“What about... What about the feelings of the people that sent them? If they’re all Valentine’s Day gifts... s-some of them must be confession or friendship chocolates, people pining for you. Y-You can’t just throw away their feelings like that...!!”

The twins exchanged glances with one another, then collectively stared at Octa A. Floyd started first, his slow and steady chortle becoming increasingly raspy and unhinged. Jade followed suit, his gentlemanly chuckle twisting into a composed, yet cruel laugh.

“Wh-What’s so funny?”

“I simply find your naivety fascinating, Kon-san,” Jade replied with a grin. It seemed grossly out of place, given how he had laughed mere moments ago at the notion of discarding emotions.

“We don’t need to accept everything that’s thrown our way, you know~” Floyd cackled, flicking a wrapped truffle across the room. It hit the wall and ricocheted under a table. “Especially when we know all this junk’s from kiss-ups that wanna make it big.”

“H-Huh?” Octa A’s eyebrows knitted together. “What do you mean...?”

“Floyd.” Jade’s voice took on a stricter tone than usual with his twin. “You’ve gone and said too much.”

“Ehhh? It’s fiiine,” Floyd insisted with a pout. “It’s not like any of ‘em will know! And they always do the same thing every year. It’s sooo boring!”

“I understand your sentiments--it does become rather troublesome for us to dispose of these chocolates every year. However, that is a time and place for everything, and this is not one of those times.” Jade’s eyes briefly cut to Octa A before returning to his brother.

Floyd rolled his eyes, shrugged, and returned to delving into boxes.

“Um... S-So what did Floyd-senpai mean by ‘kiss-ups’?” Octa A dared to ask--his curiosity getting the better of him.

Jade heaved a sigh. “... If you really must know, Floyd and I are quite ‘popular’ back home in the Coral Sea. This is due, in part, to our father’s rather successful business enterprise. There are a number of his partners and associates that wish for what the Leech family has.”

He gestured to Floyd, who was still wrestling around with the packages. “Thus, they often attempt to curry favor by sending gifts. The hope is to soften us up to them--but many of them, I suspect, are aiming for a far greater long term prize: our hands in marriage, and therefore near unlimited access to the resources and power that our father wields.”

Octa A paled. Already, he could feel his stomach sinking, and his body temperature turning chilly--as though he had just plunged into an icy sea. He was on the cusp of a dark secret--he felt it in his gut.

“O-Oh... I see... Ahahah... Y-Your family politics sound complicated, Jade-senpai, Floyd-senpai.”

“Indeed, they are.” Jade spoke quietly, his eyes digging into Octa A’s soul. Though the eel still sported a curve to his lips, his gaze lacked warmth. The light seemed to have drained from his irises, leaving them dull and frigid.

Sizing the mob student up--trying to ascertain whether or not Octa A needed to be blackmailed into submission--into silence.

“I trust that you would not dig deeper. It would be rather unfortunate if we lost one of our treasured employees.”

Octa A gulped, nodding vigorously to confirm an unspoken promise to Jade. Then the first year scrambled to make small talk, to change the topic, if only to avoid his vice-dorm leader’s dreadful stare.

“I-It does sound annoying to have people always trying to get your attention. I-I’d just want to live a quiet, peaceful life not getting noticed by too many folks... That way, I can just do what I want.”

“That sounds sooo nice!” Floyd chimed in from the floor. “It sucks when other people try to tell you what to do or how to be, or tryin’ to get you to act how they want! Like, if I’m gonna do something, I’m gonna do it cuz I wanna, not cuz someone else wanted me to.”

“I-I guess...?”

“Ehehe. Konbu-chan gets us! So you’ll take all the chocolate off our hands, right? Riiiight?”

“E-Eh?! I-I mean, I can if it really troubles you so much, senpai--”

“Great! I knew we could count on you~ Here, here, take it all!!” Floyd leapt to his feet and began piling box after box in Octa A’s arms, despite the melted chocolate pooling in the mob student’s palms. Chocolate smeared on the bottom-most box, and Octa A yelped.

“W-Wait...!! P-Please slow down...!!”

“Fufufu. Thank you for your assistance,” came Jade’s voice. Octa A couldn’t see him, since a bunch of boxes now obscured his line of sight, but he was sure that Jade was smirking.

He caught a flash of movement in his periphery. Jade emerged on his left, his olive and gold eyes narrowed--and his mouth, lined with sharp teeth, folded into a perfect smile.

“Did you know, Kon-san? Many people would kill to be in the position that you are in... being able to so casually engage with us on a daily basis,” Jade chuckled, granting the mob student a pat on the back. “Octavinelle is very fortunate to have our full attention, don’t you agree?”

“Y-Yessir...”

#twst #twisted wonderland #Floyd Leech #Jade Leech #Octavinelle A-kun #JustJadelentines2021 #disney twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland imagines #twisted wonderland headcanons #twisted wonderland scenarios #something no one asked for #spoilers

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cheri-translates · 3 years

Text

[CN] ASMR Transcripts (Shaw)

🍒 Warning: This post contains detailed spoilers for ASMRs which have not been released in English servers! 🍒

This post contains transcripts of the following:

> scorching inscription - 滚烫印迹

> aftertaste - 余味

> low mumbling - 低喃

> tip of the tongue and heart - 舌尖心上

scorching inscription - 滚烫印迹

No responses to my messages, no picking up of my calls

I even thought you got kidnapped.

You’re only checking your phone now?

What were you doing just now?

Were you spending the whole day writing your proposal?

Will you ever be able to finish your work?

Huh? You still need some time?

Hurry up. I don’t have much patience.

[ sound of fizzy drink being poured ]

What are you looking at me for?

Who made it a rule that I can’t come find you even when there’s nothing on?

Done with your work?

From what I can tell, you don’t seem to be thinking about work.

In that case…

Take a break.

You didn’t know that today is a resting day?

It’s enough.

Stop holding on to your computer and refusing to let go.

What’s the meaning of a computer?

Come, let me show you something more exciting. Here.

I found this small plaything in the shop.

I’m giving it to you.

No way.

You don’t know what this is?

Hm, you’re so stupid.

Fine, I’ll help you expand your knowledge.

This is citrine. It’s a type of crystal.

Do you want to know what citrine can be used for?

You really don’t want to? Tch. What a shame.

I originally wanted to carve a seal for you today.

Since you don’t want it, I’m leaving.

What is it?

Do you regret now?

Fine. My mood is pretty good today. I’ll give you some face.

“Why did you buy this?”

You have so many questions.

I wanted to buy it, so I did. Do I still need to list out the reasons why?

Bring your own chair and sit beside me.

Tell me. What do you want to carve on the seal?

So hesitant?

Forget it. I’ll help you choose.

Seeing how you put in so much heart into your work, how about carving a “World’s No. 1 Producer”?

[ Shaw laughs ]

No way, you really what to carve this?

It’s possible to carve it, but where would you use it?

Work documents? Or do you plan to play with it for a few days and toss it aside?

The things I give you

You have to look at them every day

Use them every day

Understood?

How about this. What’s the meaning in carving words? I’ll carve a rabbit.

It does things slowly just like you. It looks silly… eh what are you doing!

I’m not even done yet.

Mm, however, it does have moments of intelligence.

Tch – you’re quite picky.

Then what do you want?

Carve lightning?

That requires too little skill.

How about this. I’ll carve a rabbit that’s surrounded by lightning. Only then would it be interesting.

[ carving sounds ]

Oi, you’re blocking the light.

Move over there a little.

You’re too extreme. I didn’t ask you to go so far away from me.

Come here.

Almost done.

How does this bunny look?

Huh?

Of course it looks good. You know your stuff.

Lightning…

You try. You wouldn’t carve it crookedly.

I could teach you step by step. That will work, right?

Don’t tremble.

The knife has to be steady.

Don’t panic. These things can’t be rushed.

Why are you so nervous? You’re sweating.

Focus.

If you’re like this, I’ll lose focus too.

Almost done.

Done.

Your seal. Try it.

Not bad.

Especially the rabbit’s expression.

It’s basically the exact same as yours.

I didn’t even say it looked bad.

It’s just… it makes people want to give it a pinch.

I carved you a seal personally.

Pinching your face shall be an exchange.

Hm? You’re not letting me pinch you?

That’s not for you to decide.

This seal – do you like it?

When you look at this citrine, I immediately felt it should be yours.

It’s quite similar to you.

…why?

Think about it yourself.

Mm…

The seal… is yours.

What is on the seal… is also yours.

aftertaste - 余味

[ sound of burning incense, Shaw’s footsteps, lots of random sounds ]

It’s been lit.

I’m turning the lights off.

And then?

Wait?

Wait for what?

So it’s really the case.

You must be bored.

This toy – isn’t it the thing kids put on birthday cakes.

That… what’s that called…

So you like such things? [laughs]

Okay, I’ve got it.

Give me your hand.

I told you to give me your hand, not retract it.

[ rustling of sheets ]

I realised that you truly lack a sense of balance.

What?

I just pulled you lightly

And you already fell over

If it isn’t a lack of balance, what is it?

[ rustling of sheets ]

Oh right.

What’s this sachet for?

Is it just meant to be a toy?

It’s not that nice to smell either.

You seem to be playing with such things lately.

Like lavender mist sprays

Sandalwood eye masks

And random tea oils.

I feel as though my nose hasn’t had a peaceful moment in this duration.

No matter where I walk, I smell such things.

Hm. Insomnia isn’t anything serious.

There’s no need to be so anxious.

Also, such aromatherapy is useless.

[ Shaw’s footsteps ]

If you can’t sleep, then don’t sleep. Do something else. When you’re tired, you’d naturally sleep.

Don’t tell me it’s because of work. Don’t you have fresher worries?

Or do you think things that aren’t finished in the morning will automatically resolve themselves on the bed?

Come here. I’ll teach you how to sleep.

If you want to sleep, sleep. Don’t toss and turn.

Are you cold?

[ Shaw gets out of bed and adjusts the temperature ]

Pull the blanket over yourself tighter.

[ Thunder sounds in the background ]

Close your eyes.

It doesn’t matter how much you toss and turn. As long as you don’t close your eyes, you wouldn’t be able to sleep.

Tch, you’re already an adult. You still want someone to teach you how to sleep?

How about I teach you how to ride the skateboard?

Or take you to listen to my class next week?

These two things are very sleep-inducing, especially the class idea.

Just staring at the black board and not doing anything is enough to lull one to sleep. And the sleep is even more blissful than usual. Sleeping for half an hour is comparable to eight hours of normal sleep.

[ Shaw’s breathing ]

So hugging you from behind feels like this.

I usually don’t notice, but your shampoo smells good. Much better than that random aromatherapy.

Have you been unable to sleep for a long time?

Why didn’t you mention it earlier?

There are more scientific methods, and yet you buy these random items to try.

You truly are… Hmm, let me find a word that wouldn’t be a big blow to you… Right… ‘lacking in IQ’.

Ah, why are you hitting me? I’m not wrong.

Give me your hand.

I’m not going to hit you.

What are you thinking? I’m not as childish as you.

When I had trouble sleeping last time, I would hold something in my hands.

I have no idea why, but it could help me sleep more peacefully.

You should try it too. I’ll let you hold my hand for the entire night.

I told you to close your eyes.

Remember. Maintain your breathing. Hold me tight. Don’t think of anything else.

I promise that you’ll have a good sleep tonight.

low mumbling - 低喃

[ ruffling sounds ]

Just sleep.

I’m doing my homework.

Tch, what’s weird about doing homework?

Do you know what it means to be “a paragon of virtue and learning”?

I’m referring to myself.

[ sound of paper rustling ]

It’s not early.

You should sleep.

Don’t bother about me.

[ sound of Shaw scribbling ]

You really went to sleep?

Hey, are you asleep?

[ Shaw walks over ]

You’re actually in such a deep sleep

And didn’t think of waiting for me.

[ Shaw slides into the bed ]

Are you really asleep?

[ ruffling sounds ]

I knew you were pretending to sleep.

Are you having trouble sleeping again?

Your quality of sleep is really worrying.

Let me think.

Hey, let me count sheep for you.

No, count rabbits.

[ Shaw clears his throat ]

One dumb bunny.

Two stupid bunnies.

Three messy-haired bunnies.

Four flat-haired bunnies.

Five greedy bunnies.

Six picky bunnies.

Seven crybaby bunnies.

Eight scholarly bunnies.

Nine-

Hey, I’m trying to coax you to sleep.

Are you sure you can sleep when you’re laughing like this?

Come here.

Tch. Lean over here. I’ll continue counting.

[ Shaw takes a deep breath ]

One bunny. Two bunnies. Three bunnies. Four bunnies. Five bunnies. Six bunnies. Seven bunnies. Eight bunnies. Nine bunnies. Ten bunnies. Eleven bunnies. Twelve bunnies. Thirteen bunnies. Fourteen bunnies. Fifteen bunnies. Sixteen bunnies. Seventeen bunnies. Eighteen bunnies. Nineteen bunnies. Twenty bunnies.

21 bunnies. 22 bunnies. 23 bunnies. 24 bunnies. 25 bunnies. 26 bunnies. 27 bunnies. 28 bunnies. 29 bunnies. 30 bunnies. 31 bunnies. 32 bunnies. 33 bunnies. 34 bunnies. 35 bunnies.

[ Shaw yawns ]

What’s wrong? I’m tired and your eyes are still wide open. Why do you keep staring at me? Sleep seriously.

36 scallion rabbit meat.

37 mala rabbit heads.

38 simmered rabbit feet.

I’m eating rabbits, not you.

Why are you throwing a fit?

Or do you think I want to eat…

You can’t sleep. So you aren’t tired. Why not do something that can make you tired? That way, you’ll naturally fall asleep.

Am I wrong?

Mm. You’re more obedient now.

Pull your blanket properly.

If you don’t want to catch a cold, stick closer to me.

36 bunnies-

Did I count to 36 just now?

Your interruption has made me lose count.

Forget it. Let’s start from the beginning.

[ Shaw yawns ]

I’m tired from counting.

Are you asleep?

If you don’t sleep, I’m not going to care.

Anyway, I’m tired. I’m going to sleep.

Eh? Could it be that you aren’t able to sleep because of me?

Are you not used to sleeping with someone?

Should I sleep on the sofa-

What? Don’t want me to leave?

Why don’t you want me to leave?

There must be a reason.

For example, you wanting to continue hugging me, and things like that.

What kind of an expression is that?

Did I hit the nail on the head?

[ rustling ]

Hmm…

I don’t think you want to sleep either.

Let’s not sleep then.

It’s fine to stay up late.

Want to get up to play a game?

No?

You don’t want to play a game, or you don’t want to get up?

You aren’t saying anything?

Then I’ll take it that you don’t want to get up.

Let me guess what you’re thinking about.

Are you thinking about this?

[ Shaw kisses MC ]

I’ve hit the nail on the head.

Next time, just tell me what you’re thinking of directly.

I don’t have the patience to keep guessing.

But I’m in a good mood today.

Whatever you want,

I’ll satisfy you.

I’ll keep satisfying you until you willingly and obediently sleep.

[ rustling sounds ]

tip of the tongue and heart - 舌尖心上

[ sound of door + footsteps ]

It’s so late and you aren’t asleep yet.

What are you doing?

Are you having insomnia again?

I told you before –

Don’t tax your mind and body when you work.

You can’t even sleep well.

[ footsteps ]

Oh? You were specially waiting for me to return?

How rare.

[ footsteps + Shaw’s sigh ]

Hey, did you do something against your conscience behind my back?

Tch, you’ve done few of them?

Let me count.

Messing up the arrangement of my books,

Using my antique porcelain dish as a box for soap

[ MC whacks Shaw]

Ack, why did you hit me?

Was I not speaking the truth?

Fine,

Stop keeping me in suspense.

What do you want?

Huh? You’ve prepared Baileys Irish Cream?

Don’t you know that you have a very poor alcohol tolerance?

You still want to drink?

Even though its alcohol level is very low

It looks to me like you don’t really want to drink it.

You don’t even have a bribe.

However,

It’s not an impossibility.

I’m also a little curious about how you’d look like after drinking.

[ footsteps ]

What’s the rush?

Hold on.

Hm?

I’m making you a cup of exclusive Baileys Irish Cream of course.

One that normal people don’t get to drink.

[ clinking of cups ]

Tch. What’s strange about me knowing how to mix drinks?

It’s such a simple thing.

You’ll know it at a glance.

[ footsteps ]

Coffee, milk, chocolate

And ice-cream.

Mm… forget about the ice-cream.

Among the remaining three, pick one.

You have to hesitate about this?

If you don’t say anything, I’ll take it that you’re picking milk.

Hm?

I just like adding milk. Can’t I do that?

[ footsteps ]

All right, we can start mixing.

Watch carefully.

[ mixing ]

I’ll put it out there first.

If you turn into a drunken cat, I’m not going to take care of you.

[ mixing ]

Hey hey hey,

That’s enough.

Don’t think of being greedy.

[ mixing ]

The milk has been added.

Want ice cubes?

Let’s just add two cubes.

Otherwise, the taste wouldn’t be as interesting.

[ footsteps + sound of ice cubes ]

Done.

[ footsteps ]

Here.

Shaw-style Baileys Irish Cream.

Only one cup.

[ clinking of cups + washing sounds ]

What’s with that expression?

There aren’t any ingredients at home.

So of course I could only do a simple mix.

[ pouring ]

Hm, you have quite a lot of demands.

At most, I’ll mix a more complicated one for you next time, okay?

[ footsteps ]

If you still don’t try it, I’ll drink it myself.

[ ruffling sound + drinking ]

How is it?

Looking at your expression, I already know the answer.

[ drinking ]

Why are you drinking it so quickly?

The strength is low,

But I don’t have faith in your alcohol tolerance.

[ drinking ]

Hey,

You don’t drink it like that.

I know you can’t taste anything.

But you should at least pretend to.

Hm?

Then tell me,

How is the drink I mixed?

Just “not bad”?

Come over here.

Come here.

Why are you in a silly daze?

Come a little closer.

Hm?

Whether the taste is good –

I can try it myself.

I’ll use my own method to taste it.

[ kiss ]

This type of drink is still a little too sweet.

Isn’t it?

In that case, I’ll just taste it again.

Hm?

You’re unwilling?

It isn’t up to you.

When will I finish tasting it?

I’ll have the final say.

79 notes · View notes

makeste · 4 years

Text

literally just a giant post of Bakugou faces.

today, 4/20 (actually it is very much still only 4/19 over here, but to heck with it, we’re getting an early start dammit), is Bakugou Katsuki’s birthday. and as someone who loves Bakugou and who also hasn’t found much worth rejoicing about in April 2020 in general, it’s important to me to celebrate the shit out of this day. but these are strange times and I am le tired, and so what my tired brain ended up arriving at was “just do a post about how much you love his stupid face.”

so these are my favorite Bakugou faces. I stopped after Kacchan vs. Deku because this post was already like 100k words (slight exaggeration) with like 40,000 faces (slight), and because this already took forever and the next 130-something chapters were only going to have about one fifth as many good faces compared to the first 120, even though there are some good ones there still to be sure. but anyway, so there are no spoilers here.

happy birthday Kacchan, and happy birthday to Kacchan’s angsty side profile with his hair covering his eyes.

why I like it: he scured.

lol but seriously. because up until this point he’s just been a complete asshole. even after he gets grabbed by sludgeman, he’s all “AS IF I’D LET THIS MUDMAN TAKE MY BODY FOR HIMSELF”, and he’s all feral-looking, and at first you’re like “eh he’ll be fine.” but then along comes this panel to serve as our narrator saying “he was not fine.” because he really is not. and on the page before this too, you can see how tired and desperate his struggles are starting to get. and absolutely no one is trying to help him. and he’s fighting, he’s straining, but he can’t. fucking. breathe.

and then this panel. and he’s just a kid. he looks so very, very young here, like this is the youngest he looks throughout the entire series except for in his flashbacks, and it’s because all the pride and bluster and anger are stripped away and he’s just a boy underneath it and he’s scared. “you looked like you needed saving.” exactly. exactly. and for Katsuki to actually ask for help is so rare. so you know that when he does ask (and he absolutely was begging for someone to come help him even though he couldn’t vocalize it. credit to Horikoshi for conveying all of that emotion in a single panel), he really, really needs it. thankfully there was one person watching who finally snapped himself out of that “a hero’s bound to come along soon” mindset that had everyone else gripped, and realized that he needed to be that hero.

why I like it: because he’s humiliated and fairly shaken up and also the most handsome he’s looked up until this point, but most of all he’s just chewing his lip and being all “god fucking dammit did fucking Deku really just save me, fuck my life, why is the universe fucking dumb.” like even after this hugely traumatizing experience, he’s incredibly resilient to the point where after he calms down, his lingering emotions are mainly just “smdh this is a new level of irritated even for me.” he is so brave and thickheaded and tough and absurdly, ridiculously petty jesus christ.

why I like it: like the old man said. his face just screams “I’m a rotten thief.”

there’s so much personality in this one expression. and then it’s juxtaposed against proto!Katsuki who I really desperately just want to punch in the face. just. my son my be a dick, but by god he’s an honest dick.

why I like it: baby?? cute baby??? mine?? my baby?!?

he’s just like. “I got it all figured out. gosh I’m so good at life.” that is the face of a child who has never encountered a single difficulty in his very young existence. everything is easy and he expects to be good at everything and he always is and he’s so, so pleased with himself. with a kid that little you really don’t want to go and shatter their dreams just yet, but maybe someone should have taken him down just a peg or two before it all got out of hand. alas. he was so cute that nobody wanted to and I can’t even blame them because he’s just that fucking cute, though.

why I like it: this is a very underrated panel which I think most people probably don’t even recall. it’s from chapter 11 just after he loses to Deku and Iida, and specifically right after Momo just completely lays into him and explains in vivid detail exactly how stupid every single one of his decisions was lmao. and it’s like he’s just had his eyes opened. he talks about her speech later, too, so it clearly had an impact.

there is no pride here at all. initially when I was reading this, I thought he was still shell-shocked. but looking back at it, and knowing what I do now about his unexpected willingness to accept criticism (something I certainly wouldn’t have expected during my first readthrough of this chapter), I think this is also a genuine “!” face as he realizes that she’s completely fucking right. YOU DONE GOOFED SON. but it’s okay because he learned from it!

also look how big his eyes are. when they get all wide like that. it’s so rare that I have to appreciate each and every time it happens. also he has no right to have such thick eyelashes. goddammit.

why I like it: because he’s strongest at his moment of weakness! because he’s upset but he learned from it! because he is such a strikingly human character with such complex emotions and there’s such a lovely mix of them on display here and that shit is my weakness! because this is when I signed the adoption papers (well, had them finalized after I initially obtained them after the “you looked like you needed saving” face in chapter 1, at least)!! because he always cries in front of Deku and doesn’t get embarrassed, but then he does get embarrassed if anyone else shows up! because his emotions around Deku are so raw and out of control! because the intensity of them is as compelling as it is confusing! but mostly because someone showing fierce determination while simultaneously showing intense vulnerability is basically the cheat code to unlocking my heart, and also the best thing anyone can ever draw in a shounen manga. thank you I’ll take infinity of them.

why I like it: because half of 1-A saw this face and instantly thought “fuck that’s hot” and then went “!! oh fuck me” but it was too late! that’s right kids. even knowing firsthand what a trashpile he can be, you’re still not immune to his charms. that confidence, though.

why I like it: the face of a boy who has just realized that holy shit, there are other people in his class. nothing gets past him. his reflexes are too fast.

why I like it: the slow motion (this is such a cool moment even if it’s at his expense lol), and the fact that this is such a weird and totally unique expression, and yet he somehow almost manages to make it look good. actually he does make it look good, let’s be real. of course, this was back when Horikoshi had more time to roll up his sleeves and really get into the art. look at all that shading goddamn.

why I like it: he cares!! he has feelings!! he has concern about someone other than him omfg whaaaaaat.

he’s so unsettled by what he just heard about Todoroki. the guy who was so strong and cool turned out to have an absolutely horrifying shounen protagonist past that he never let on about. honestly this scene is one of the reasons why I’m so strongly in favor of not interpreting Katsuki’s parents as abusive; because I just really like the character arc of him actually having a pretty good childhood, all things considered, but still having all these problems. because sometimes people actually do have everything going for them and yet they still screw up, because people are only human and sometimes you can fuck up (or be fucked up) even on easy mode! and if that happens it doesn’t mean you’re any more to blame, or more worthy of derision or scorn, or that you already had your chance so screw you, or any of that! anyway so that’s just such an interesting and relatively rare thing to explore and so I like it.

anyway. so just, the idea of him thinking of Todoroki as someone who had it made all his life, only to realize that’s not actually the case at all and that he’s actually the privileged one in comparison, just makes for a really great character-building moment. it’s a really big wake up call for him, especially given that he’s so often just wrapped up in himself and his own concerns still at this stage of the game. and it’s a moment that has a lasting impact on him and that he doesn’t forget, and it helps contribute to him starting to learn more empathy.

why I like it: my child is rabid please help.

but he’s so happy to have Ochako prove to be such an unexpectedly worthwhile opponent. she was sneaky and she nearly got him and he only just made it out by the skin of his teeth and fuck yes, that was awesome. he was really ready to throw down some more with her and it was gonna be the highlight of his fucking day. I just love seeing him acknowledge other people’s strength, because we know the value he places on being strong. so that’s a ton of respect from him, and Ochako fucking earned it, and this is just a great moment.

why I like it: just casually spittin facts and launching ships. nothing to see here move along.

why I like it: for everyone reblogging that one scene of shoujou!Bakugou from the anime over and over again, I just want to remind you all that as great as that scene is, we shouldn’t forget that in the manga he can be effortlessly handsome without even trying.

why I like it: as I said above.

why I like it: another one of the infamous “haah!?” faces. whenever he does these that one raised-eyebrow eye always goes so wide, and even though he’s trying to look like a pissed off thug it always makes him look surprisingly young instead.

also I’m not crazy for seriously wondering if Horikoshi’s art peaked all the way back in the sports festival arc though, right?? you honestly can’t find a bad panel even if you specifically go out and look for them.

why I like it: babyyyy.

I still don’t get how anyone could watch this scene and not get that he was way more upset than he was actually angry. he looks like he’s about to cry honestly.

why I like it: MY PRECIOUS SON’S ANGELIC SLEEPING FACE. all tuckered out. he’s had a hard day.

but seriously when you smooth out all of the >:O it is amazing how young he actually looks though. this one panel is shaded in such a way that you can see that he still has baby fat in his cheeks!! he’s just a little boy! HE IS A LITTLE CHILD LIKE THE REST OF THEM AND YOU MADE HIM PARTICIPATE IN THESE HUNGER GAMES AND HE KICKED ASS AND THEN GOT SAD AND YOU MADE HIM SLEEP AND CHAINED HIM TO A POST WHEN HE WOKE UP ANGRY AND TRYING TO BITE PEOPLE. anyways what a whirlwind of events huh.

why I like it: this child is literally trembling. he has been shaken to his very core. also for real though how did Jeanist even do that. anyways great internship or greatest internship.

why I like it: this is from chapter 60, right after he basically declares war on Deku and says he’ll crush him during final exams. then he turns around and is just like AND LET’S NOT FORGET THIS ASSHOLE HERE!!! and his eyes are practically bulging out and Todoroki just has his trademark “!!!” totally blank stare. this panel fully kills me guys.

why I like it: how was he THE CUTEST CHILD WHO EVER LIVED?? look at his little fists?! I can’t even deal with this???

why I like it: I actually like this one even more than the more iconic “the strongest heroes always win in the end” panel right below it, because in this panel you can more clearly see that he was crying quite a lot (he was only six!!), but it seems to me that it was more because of the unfairness of it than because he was hurt. even though he was hurt. but these jerks bumped into him and then acted like it was his fault, and it was two against one and he was much younger than them and IT’S JUST ROUGH YOU GUYS! LIFE IS HARD WHEN YOU’RE SIX! but he’s a little tough guy though so he scrubs the tears away in this very clumsy and boyish fashion because HE WON ANYWAY SO TAKE THAT! he is so little but already so determined.

why I like it: his eyes are just so intense all the time. even when it’s not an intense moment at all. also the dot shading here is so cool.

why I like it: okay so technically it’s the back of his head and not his face. but I feel like the fact that Kacchan was twitching and flinching and shaking too doesn’t get enough attention in this scene. he and Todo were both wigging out here and I love it. during the third light novel he also gets freaked out by the whole Disney Channel “we were telling a ghost story but now it seems like the story has come to life” plot that goes on at one point, just fyi. Kacchan is absolutely that kid who will refuse to watch scary movies just because “they’re dumb” and definitely NOT because he is scared, how fucking dare you sir.

why I like it: because this is the first of many scenes in this arc and the next arc in which he is freaking out but doing an excellent job of covering it up with his natural ferocity. he and Shouto have just come across one of their classmates’ arms lying in the middle of the path being chewed on by a villain in a straitjacket. his first reaction is to ask Shouto which of their classmates had been out on the path in front of them. he has immediately put two and two together, and he is immediately ready to throw hands with this dude, rules or no rules. but you can see the shading over his eyes though, and I think that -- along with the sweat visible on his face -- is a huge indicator of how horrifying this actually is to him.

why I like it: because this blank “processing...” expression that he sometimes gets when a lot of people are talking at once and he’s not really sure but he is pretty sure that he doesn’t like where this is heading, is my favorite.

why I like it: because even now it’s still ambiguous just what exactly was the prevailing emotion in these eyes and this expression, and the prevailing sentiment behind the “stay back.” I happen to think it was fear! not the same overwhelming, helpless fear as the 14-year-old who was caught up in the sludge, but a very on-edge, controlled-panic fear of a 16-year-old who’s trying to remain in control because he’s a hero in training now. and I think the “stay back” is the “stay back” of a boy who knows the look in that other boy’s eyes, and knows that it’s no use this time. it’s not protective, and it’s not hostile or defensive either. it’s just... resigned. don’t do it, Deku. that could have been the last thing he ever said to him, and it was measured and brave even through his fear and I love him so much.

why I like it: this is one which has to be viewed in juxtaposition with the panel immediately above it lol. Tomura looks like he could literally stare a man to death with those crazy eyes, and Kacchan is comparison just looks so ridiculously young and small and out of his league. but he doesn’t crack. but his eyes are super wide and even the shadows underneath them are stressed almost to their breaking point. like I’m screwed I’m screwed I’m so goddamn fucking screwed oh shit. my baby, guh. this was such a fucking scary experience though for real??

why I like it: same deal as above lol. this whole situation just keeps getting worse and worse, and here he’s just probing for more information while simultaneously trying to buy himself more time to think of a miracle plan. there really isn’t much chance of him getting out of here unscathed at this point (or at least there wouldn’t have been if the heroes hadn’t shown up), but I don’t think he’s letting himself think about that yet. but I’m sure it’s there at the back of his mind all the same.

why I like it: this is my favorite Bakugou face ever. SO MANY EMOTIONS. All Might came to save him! his hero!! he beat the bad guys (or so they think for that brief moment anyway) and it’s all okay now! he was alone but now he’s not anymore and All Might is there! and he is relieved, and he actually lets his guard down to show it for just a split second! his lip is trembling! I don’t think he even realizes for a moment, and then he does, and he immediately goes all tough guy again and the moment is gone! but while it’s there! it’s so much! I have never so badly wanted to hug a fictional character in my life.

why I like it: don’t you think this person could one day inspire thousands of others. do you see this courage in those eyes. the way he pushes past fear and panic and fatigue. don’t think, don’t doubt. just win.

why I like it: by now you have probably detected a pattern of me liking all of the Kamino faces because he was going through so many emotions that for once the walls just couldn’t keep up. he always looks so much younger when he’s not making >: faces. everything just smooths out. I also like that Horikoshi never makes his expressions symmetrical; he almost always has one eye wider than the other, eyebrows doing different things, stuff like that.

also this is when he sees All Might’s true form for the first time, and you can just see it hit him like a punch to the gut. All Might weakened; All Might weakened because of him; All Might might lose (!?!); All Might might die???? Katsuki’s entire world is falling apart in an instant, and in this moment he’s just a little boy.

why I like it: it beginsss. the angstening.

he’s not even resisting the hand guiding him. none of his usual unruliness or general aura of barely-checked rage. he just looks tired. and completely lost in his own thoughts. which as we now know were not good. I cannot fucking believe we had to wait another 25 chapters after this to finally get this kid a damn hug.

why I like it: because Bakugou Mitsuki is fulfilling my (and dating sim!Momo’s) lifelong dream of ruffling Bakugou Katsuki’s (spiky yet fluffy!!) hair. and all he can do is just chew his lip and halfheartedly glare at her all “mooooooOOOOmmm.” he doesn’t even really look pissed off here (because it’s hard to be mad when someone is talking about how worried they were about you and how relieved they are that you’re safe now, especially when that someone is your mom who isn’t normally the type to be so open about this kind of stuff at all), just begrudgingly grumpy. and I swear to god his bottom lip is made of fucking rubber the way he moves it around, just look at it.

why I like it: those eyelashes though!?!? [grabs Katsuki by the shoulders and shakes him roughly] WHY ARE YOUR EYES SO PRETTY.

why I like it: this is right after he found out he flunked the license exam, and you can see how upset he is. obviously we now know that shortly thereafter he went and had a complete meltdown. and buddy if you keep grinding your teeth like that, your dentist is also going to have a meltdown.

and yet again Horikoshi manages to strike this uncanny balance between making him look pissed off and making him look like he’s trying very, very hard not to cry. he just failed, again. it’s like the whole world is screaming at him over and over again that he’s not hero material at all.

why I like it: because he drags Deku out to the middle of nowhere and is all “I know you have All Might’s power and we’re gonna fight”, and Deku protests, and you expect Kacchan’s reaction to be just about anything other than what it actually is. this is as close to pleading as Katsuki is ever going to get. he may not be drowning in sludge but he is still desperate.

why I like it: this may be the best Katsuki that Horikoshi has ever drawn.

why I like it: super ultra mega unpopular opinion: I like this panel even more than THE PANEL!! that follows shortly after it. I am a sucker for when Horikoshi does this thing where he shows Katsuki’s face from a side profile, and his eyes are covered by his hair so you can’t see his full expression, but you know it is something vulnerable because he only ever does this when Katsuki is trying to hide his vulnerability. I could make a whole separate post just about these hair-covering-eyes faces lol. but out of all of them this is my absolute favorite. I can hear Okamoto’s voice acting in my head just looking at it.

why I like it: because it is THE PANEL. he finally broke completely; he let the walls fall away; he couldn’t hide it any longer. he’s so unbelievably torn up about this; he hates himself for it and feels like a failure; he’s lost and doesn’t have the faintest idea how to find his path again. he ended the Symbol of Peace. he was weak and wrong, and Deku was strong and right, and he can’t even hate Deku for it anymore, he just wants to understand what it is that he keeps doing wrong, why it is that he keeps failing.

why I like it: it’s, uuuuuh, angst.

lol it’s funny because at the beginning of the series, it was always Deku who was always crying at the drop of a hat. and to be fair this is still true. but Katsuki also cries way more than I would ever expect a rival character in a shounen manga to cry. and specifically he has cried every single time he’s had a dramatic and overly emotional altercation like this with Deku (and that’s three separate times now). is it because he’s always felt like he has less to hide around Deku? or because his Deku Emotions are so much more intense and volatile than his other emotions? at any rate, whatever it is, if this happens one more time (and I guarantee you it will too because A Certain Someone still hasn’t officially made an apology yet) he will officially lose all authority to ever call Deku out for being a crybaby again. meanwhile poor All Might will just be beside himself. I’m sorry dude, both of your children are just like this, you just gotta deal with it and accept their feelings.

why I like it: HE FINALLY GOT HIS HUG, BLESS.

and more hair covering his eyes! and chewing of the lip! and his head is bowed so much here, he fully allowed himself to be pulled into this hug and to accept this gesture of comfort for once in his life, just for a moment! after everything he was feeling, everything he was beating himself up over, All Might comes and tells him it’s not your fault. and there’s still so much guilt there, but he needs to hear this so badly that he accepts it all the same. meanwhile he is also CRYING AGAIN!? because this was the chapter where Horikoshi said “I am going to put all of the angst and cathartic conflict resolution into a single fight and it’s going to be the best thing ever” and it really was. do you even understand how much I love this. do you??

why I like it: OH GOSH I FORGOT ABOUT THIS, THIS IS MY OTHER FAVORITE KATSUKI HAIR-COVERING-EYES PANEL.

oh no. he’s ruffling his own spiky fluffy hair. he’s tired and he’s beat up (and whose fault is that lmao) and he’s learning all kinds of new things about himself today. he’s got basically nothing left in the tank, but for the first time in ages he has his path laid out in front of him again and he knows the way to start moving forward. he has been absolved of his guilt, the guilt which was eating a hole away inside of him. and all of a sudden he realizes -- it occurs to him -- hey, All Might finally admitted it, he really did give his power to Deku. but it’s still a secret though, isn’t it? it’s important, isn’t it? and so he tells them, hey, look, I get it, I won’t say anything, you don’t have to worry. it’s partially gratitude -- he owes so much to All Might and it’s ridiculous, that’s a fucking debt right there, and this is the least and only thing he can offer right now in return -- and it’s partially just... the right thing to do. like, common sense. honorable and shit. and it’s not like it’s a big deal or anything. but just, let them know.

I love his side profile so much and I love his hair and his ear and the scuffs on his face and his beaten up hand and his hunched up shoulders and him being soft and trying not to show how soft he’s being and he is precious.

BONUS:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY HANDS IN POCKETS GRUMPY TRIANGLE EYES ROVING FERAL HOG SON, I LOVE YOU.

#bnha #boku no hero academia #bakugou katsuki #makeste reads bnha #HEAVEN #MUST BE MISSIN' AN ANGEL #MISSIN' ONE ANGELLLL CHILDDDD #[camera pans over to the feral toddler digging through trash while I sigh in fondness]#bnha meta #bakugou meta

479 notes · View notes

angel-with-a-pipette · 3 years

Text

I finished Melody of Memory

I have strong feelings.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve been kind of prepared to not expect too many new cutscenes and that was a good thing because I might have been a little disappointed otherwise. Yeah, this isn’t a big KH game and more of a trip down memory lane, but c’mon, Nomura. Throw us a bone, will ya?

Anyways. Let me try to order this chronologically.

KAIRI. CAN. FIGHT. Did you see her fight against Xehanort?

Man, that was awesome. Yeah, I know, she lost, yadda yadda, this is Xehanort, we’re speaking about. The dude who took on Terra, Aqua and Ven two to three? So don’t you dare complain, that girl had a hard enough time already (not gonna lie though, I kinda hoped she would kick his bald ass in the face).

And THEN. HER BOYFRIEND. He’s fucking DEAD (or ~on the other side~, I’ll get to that) BUT HE STILL PROTECTS HIS BELOVED GIRLFRIEND AND I AM

I legitimately screamed. Nomura feeds me so well in this game.

Also, anybody else realize how both Sora’s and Kairi’s themes include

Because I did. And I am living the dream.

By the way. Xehanort. Honey? God, that’s not how you talk to a four year old. Especially not a frightened four year old. And just - how far back do the MoM’s plans go? I mean I’ll probably have to watch the cutscenes again but really. Xehanort.

Now. Not-Noctis and not-Versus and not-Stella.

I had two years to accept the fact that not-Versus will be most likely included in KH one way or another. I’m still not thrilled, far from it, but at least not-Stella isn’t being a little bitch and isn’t outright attacking sunshine boy. I can say her being the third Key is way better than Yozora being it although it’s obvious not-Stella isn’t doing much (she might serve as the gateway in the future again but that’s about it for her Key role at least) and Yozora surely will have a bigger role. Eh. Not looking forward to it, but I didn’t have to see the dude that fucking froze my boy in the bad ending and that is always a plus.

By the way, the Fairy Godmother told not-Stella her dream would come true soon. According to our time or Nomura-time?

The other side/world/fiction - or maybe it’s reality after all? Not sure what I am supposed to think of it. The moment Ansem the Wise talked about it, I joked about our characters finding out they’ve been the fictional world all along, but after seeing the segment in Yen Sid’s tower, damn, I’m not so sure anymore Sounds like Yozora’s world was the original and we’re either in the Datascape or another word. World line, I guess? Hello headache my old friend.

Now. Oh boy.

Get ready for an explosion.

YEN SID, THIS LITTLE PIECE OF SHIT, SITTING WITH HIS ASS ON HIS CHAIR IN HIS TOWER ALL DAY, ONLY GETTING UP ONCE IN THE LAST 11 YEARS AT LEAST, LET KAIRI BE PUT INTO A TIMELESS FOREST FOR APPARENTLY NOT A LOT TIME AT ALL DESPITE, you know, HAVING ALL THE TIME IN THE GODDAMN WORLD ONLY TO PULL HER OUT TOO EARLY AND TOO INEXPERIENCED TO FIGHT, DIRECTLY CAUSING SORA’S DEATH, HAS THE AUDACITY TO ASK KAIRI IF SHE WANTS TO CONTINUE TRAINING UNDER MERLIN, THE MOST INCOMPETENT SWORDS TEACHER BECAUSE HE WIELDS NO SWORD.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

But dear sweet, little Kairi (no seriously, she’s so tiny next to Riku, it’s so cute) has more of a brain THAN ALL MASTERS COMBINED and TELLS Yen Sid she wants THE QUEEN OF KINGDOM HEARTS TO TRAIN HER.

AQUA

I don’t think I’ve screamed that much since Sora and Kairi hugged in Re:Mind and clapped so hard my hands hurt.

GOOD ON YOU SWEETIE. TELL THE OLD SENILE WIZARDS TO FUCK OFF.

There is definitely more, but it’s late, I have to sort my thoughts and definitely need to rewatch the cutscenes, too, because, uhm, Radiant Garden? Hope? What now?

Well. It’s finally time to undo all the spoiler blocks LMAO.

#KHMoM #Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory #KHMoM spoilers #KH spoilers #MoM spoilers #I had way too much fun with the gifs

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pan0ramy · 3 years

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re8 thought dump because YE

i feel like this was almost inevitable but idk where else to talk about resident evil village so i’m just going to rant about it here!!! i have,,,, a lot of thoughts on this game after being so excited for it for so long

obviously, massive spoilers if you haven’t finished the game. i feel like i have thoughts on pretty much everything so please please please stay clear of this post if you’re trying to stay blind

otherwise, let me just rant about this game for a bit - mainly the story and characters - because i have Thoughts™

(also i feel like it goes without saying but this will be probably be quite long, so. strap in, ig)

okay SO. the whole intro was pretty interesting - even though we’d seen bits of it in trailers, it was still pretty unnerving and felt like it came out of nowhere. but the first thing that really stood out was the first village section with the hordes of lycans; i didn’t expect this game to start freaking me out so quickly but JESUS my blood pressure went up fast.

there’s so many of them coming at you at once, and not only have you just lost half your damn hand, you’re not really used to the gunplay at that point AND you don’t have that many weapons at your disposal. so it’s basically just “hey we’re throwing you into this ring of death, good luck surviving!” which... now that i think about it, that really sums up the whole game lol

but for the most part, the early parts of the game are what we saw in the demos, so there’s nothing too new - it was nice getting to see the scene with all four lords and mother miranda, though. i wasn’t sure how the whole chase scene with the lycans would work - i thought heisenberg’s area was going to be some sort of mine, and that the chase would take place there - but it didn’t, and it was interesting regardless of it being so short.

but the castle. THE CASTLE.

i would be lying through my teeth if i said i wasn’t excited for dimitrescu like everybody else; i’m firmly in the camp of people who both meme about how attractive she is, and then also the people who legitimately find her attractive, soooo i kinda had high expectations going in?

and sure, the castle section is only part of the game, but if there’s anything that makes me nervous most, it’s stalker enemies. resi 2 remake was actually pretty tough for me to get through because of how anxiety-inducing mr x was, and even though i don’t feel like she was as present as mr x was, lady d was still great! there were a good few times where you could hear her walking around and you just knew she was searching for you, which was really damn cool.

also, i know capcom had a lot of hype to live up to with lady dimitrescu, but goddamn they did such a great job with her. she’s so imposing but badass and just... really damn cool? like i honestly found myself being excited for her to show up rather than being scared. i just think she’s neat! I MEAN LOOK AT HER.

(also yes i know the whole internet has talked about how attractive she is, but can we just. appreciate that for a second???? she’s gorgeous and yall can’t tell me otherwise. like. bro ik the pronunciation is wrong but the way she says dimitrescu made me GASP i love this powerful vampire woman)

if anything, though, i... actually felt really bad that her story ended up the way it did. i mean, think about it: you break into her house, kill the three people she’s grown to consider her daughters, rob her shit, and then kill her? she technically goes through the same kind of parental grief that ethan does, in a way, which is a really interesting parallel. grief seems to be a theme that capcom really pushed for this game, and it works.

also, her boss fight design is badass. she’s literally a dragon, how is that not incredible

so the castle was great, where could the game go from here? oh, i don’t know, how about gOOD OLD FASIONED FUCKING TRAUMA.

jesus christ the dollhouse GOT TO ME.

i’m pretty used to horror in general; i love horror games, movies, books, you name it. i’ve gone to horror movies where people have ran out because of fear all while i’ve sat there giggling the whole time. but the dollhouse? that dollhouse is FUCKED. i can’t remember the last time i watched someone play through a horror game and was so... on edge the whole time. the fact that they keep you waiting for so long with nothing happening just... makes the atmosphere incredibly uncomfortable, and then when shit does start going down, it goes down fast. in other words, jesus fucking christ that baby will haunt my nightmares until the end of time

basically capcom managed to make the n*zi baby joke from south park: the stick of truth legitimately terrifying, and i was glad to see donna die. moving on.

moreau’s section is the one i... actually don’t have as many thoughts on. it’s cool, sure, and the whole idea of him turning into a fish when he hits water is neat - it’s definitely a good callback to re4 - but idk, it didn’t really scare me that much. i can see it scaring those with a fear of water or the ocean, for sure, but eh. i thought the designs were cool, but i kinda tuned out a little here.

heisenberg, though, was anything but. the entire time leading up to village’s release, this guy has fascinated me for some reason. i don’t know if it’s because he’s the most normal-looking of the four lords, or the fact that he has telekinesis, or his amazing voice acting (seriously i know some people have shit on his VA but oh my god i adore it) or what, but this guy stood out to me from day one. i even went into the game expecting him not to die tbh. but no, he does, and his fight is pretty damn cool all things considered. only in a resident evil game could you have a mech fight and have it not feel out of place lol

also this line ^^^ legitimately made me laugh so hard i almost choked on my water. THE FACT HE TURNS AROUND AND APOLOGISES SO MEEKLY its fucking hilarious to me

but anyway.

similar to alcina, though, i was left with one big question about heisenberg - what did mother miranda do to him to get him to join her impromptu familly? he said himself to ethan that he didn’t want to join, so what did miranda do that didn’t give him a choice? did he have a family at some point? is he grieving too? what did miranda take from him? i can only hope this gets answered in the dlc, because it’s by far one of my biggest questions surrounding all of this. i may very well have missed it somewhere, and at least we know he has his telekinesis abilities thanks to miranda, but it’s a question that’ll definitely be on my mind going forward.

at this point, though, the story REALLY gets insane. it’s really nice how village decided to just continue on straight from what 7 did, and i’m very glad that everyone’s theories about chris being a werewolf were wrong - it’s a really nice spanner to throw in the works. if anything, the whole revelation of mother miranda disguising herself as mia the whole time since rose’s birth was really cool, and ethan being Mold™ the entire time was pretty neat too - it made a lot of things both in 7 and village make more sense.

what i’m still digesting, though, is the ending.

...man, capcom, you put poor ethan through all of that and then you have the balls to actually kill him? i mean shit, you made us think he was dead for a whole 20 minutes but then nope! he’s alive! but then nope! he’s dead again! i did see someone point out that at least ethan got to go out on his own terms, but dammit i would’ve at least liked for him to get to see mia one last time. i think it would’ve softened the blow a little more. but i guess that ties into the whole grief theming this game has going for it, and like i said, i probably just need some more time to digest it.

i don’t dislike the ending, it’s just a very big culture shock - it’s definitely a ballsy move, and i really respect capcom for going all out the way they did. they really held back on nothing in terms of this game’s story and i absolutely love it. it was so, so worth the wait in that regard.

and tbh that’s kinda how i feel about the whole game in general; it was super super good, very much worth the wait, and i absolutely cannot wait to see where resident evil goes from here. i have a gut feeling this’ll end up being one of my absolute favourites in the series, which i know is very high praise, but i really do love it that much. i wasn’t disappointed with much in this game, if anything at all. it’s just a super fucking good video game man idk what else to say at this point

#resident evil #resident evil 8 #resident evil village #if you read through all of this: first of all i love you. second of all i am so sorry lol

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silver-wield · 4 years

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Hi there! I was wondering if you could actually make an analysis comparing the touches between Cloti and Clerith (including the times when he leans away/doesn’t lean away when they get close). I know this is a big ask since Cloti share about a million touches lol. You can ignore me if this is too much. Thank you for all your insightful analysis thus far. I’ve really enjoyed reading everything you’ve put out. It’s made my FF7R experience so much more fun 😊

Heya, nonny! It's finally your turn, but with a slight tweak to our usual programme! There's way too many touches to compare each directly, it'd be like trying to break down every single look and say which are romantic and which aren't.

That being said, it's easier to list how many times each pair touches, how and who initiated and whether that touch was returned turning it into a mutual touch. Because there's passive touching, where only one person is taking hold and there's mutual, when both are taking hold of each other. There's also who is dominant in the situation because that's telling of whether they have mutual respect for each other.

Ok, spoiler warning for ppl who haven’t played – do I still need to do this? Eh ok, (I tag FF7R spoilers as final fantasy 7 remake spoilers) and it’s gonna be long.

Also, this is one person’s interpretation of the scene, so if you disagree that’s cool and we’ll agree to disagree.

You’re also gonna have to excuse the janky quality on some of the screens, I’m grabbing them from Youtube and it’s frustrating af trying to get the exact moment I want.

Please check my master post to see if I've already covered your question, thanx

Let's mosey!

I figured I'd start with the shorter one, since it only goes over one screen and it's easy to break down.

Of the 18 chapters of the game, Aerith appears as a playable character for 8 of them. The rest are minor appearances for cut scenes only. This takes her total screen time to 11 chapters.

The amount of times Cloud says Aerith's name in total is 23 times, with an optional 24th if you choose her in the sewers at the start of chapter 10.

This is the only part of the game that's optional. All touches are non-optional. They all happen. The ultimania confirms the clotiscrew tunnel as having happened and the resolutions all happen within the same night, but we only witness one at a time – which is why it says in the play log we witnessed them. It's just the one we happened to see that changes.

Of that 23 times, Cloud says Aerith's name, he says it directly to her a total of 9 times, with the sewers adding an optional 10th.

Cloud speaks Aerith's name to others a total of 14 times. The chapter he says her name the most is during chapter 16 when he, Tifa and Barret talk about rescuing her. Because it'd be weird to call her “the ancient” or some other epithet when she's their friend. In fact, Cloud does refer to Aerith as their friend when talking about her as well.

What's interesting is that even after meeting her during chapter 8, Cloud doesn't say Aerith's name to her or about her until they meet Leslie in Chapter 9. In game, they've been together around 12hrs by this point and Cloud never once said her name. In comparison, Cloud says Tifa's name to her in the first chapter they're together. Chapter 3 also lasts around 12 hours.

Onto touching.

The total amount of times Cloud and Aerith touch in the entire game is 18. Or once per chapter if you want to spread it out lol

Most of the touches come from Aerith to Cloud, with only 2 mutual touches between them, which are the 2 high fives.

Cloud touches Aerith a total of 7 times. Most of those are “action touches” where he's saving her from danger. I bet it still counts to some people though, so let's drop the whole “action” bullshit. It's a touch.

I suppose if someone wanted to romantically code this chart then the damsel catch and face touch are the most romantic gestures. Yet, we know from Cloud that he had no interest in Aerith then because of how he acted. And the resolution left him confused, so from Cloud's pov, nothing he did with Aerith was romantic. He did his job as a bodyguard. Aerith was the one making the flirty gestures, but even those came from a place where she's the dominant partner and Cloud is the submissive one. Their interactions were not that of equals from her perspective.

The most times Aerith and Cloud touch is chapter nine: Wall Market. Not surprising. Aerith initiates touch a total of 3 times, always her right to his left. There's the mutual high fives which are both right hand to right hand and then Cloud touches Aerith once at Don Corneo's when he helps her up. That's his right hand to her right wrist.

There's a very notable save between them during the train graveyard against the ghost in the maintenance room where we can see that Cloud doesn't put his hand on Aerith at all and holds his arm out to the side. This is during the jump when he also has his arm around Tifa. Because Cloud puts his arms out for balance when he's jumping and is already off balance by his hold on Tifa, he's keeping his other arm extended and wedged Aerith against him, holding her in place with upper body strength alone. I counted it as a touch since they are touching, but his hand is nowhere near her.

As for the resolution. If people think that Aerith had control over whether she was solid enough to touch Cloud, but then his hand went through her, that's their business. I made the allowance that she did touch him, but he didn't touch her because his hand literally went through her.

Right or left hand?

The right hand is a symbol of strength and most people's dominant one. The left hand symbolises passivity and weakness. It's the one you see Cloud clenching when he feels like he's not strong, whereas when he wants to protect someone he clenches his right fist.

Now that's explained, the touches between Aerith and Cloud are predominantly her right hand touching his left side. Even when she uses both hands to grab him, she's grabbing his left wrist or hand. This suggests that she thinks Cloud is someone weak in need of her protection. She doesn't believe he is bodyguard material.

In terms of symbolism, Cloud considers Aerith more of an equal than she does him.

The one time she touches his right arm is during the train graveyard section when he's about to kill a ghost. She uses her left hand to touch his right arm and stop him. She then puts her other hand on him to reinforce her words. This is a moment when Cloud is strong and she's weak, but there's no protection here. Aerith is in the passive role, but still trying to protect someone else. The ghost. Cloud is the aggressor and she is pleading for the Ghost's existence. It's a contrasting moment to Tifa and Cloud with Johnny, where Tifa begs for the living and Aerith begs for the spiritual. It's a strong division between their two roles and outlooks, as well as Cloud's preference. With Tifa, he backs down and trusts her judgement. With Aerith, he questions it.

Yeah, this got long because Cloud wouldn't stop touching her lol

Tifa appears in the game for a total of 17 chapters, either as a child in a flashback or actually in the chapter. Only chapter 2 is missing her presence. She is playable for 15 chapters.

Cloud says Tifa's name a total of 37 times, with one extra as the optional choice in the chapter 10 sewers. Of that amount he says her name to her 28 (29) times and he says her name when she's not around 9 times. He even says her name during battle, which he doesn't do with anybody else.

He mostly says her name to her and makes a point of using a different tone when speaking to her to highlight his deep feelings for her. When he's speaking about her there's still that edge of softness, but it's less obvious since she's not there in person and he doesn't want to give himself away how much he cares about her.

Cloud and Tifa touch a whopping 61 times! Because there's no such thing as “optional touching”. You just chose not to witness it.

These are all individual touches. This means that one touch ends and then another touch begins. With the clotiscrew tunnel, Cloud has his hand on Tifa's back, that's one touch. He takes it off to brace against the ground. Then he puts it back on her. That's a second touch. In the list the first is under full body hug because that's how that touch began. The back caress is listed as its own touch because there was no reason for him to do that. When there's no reason to touch, but it happens, then it's its own touch.

Most of Tifa's touches are to Cloud's hand, arm, back or shoulder. She varies which hand she grabs him with depending on how insecure she's feeling at the moment and which side of him she's on. She shows weakness towards him at times, but predominantly her touches are her right to his right, showing that she views him as her equal. The times when she touches his left side, it's usually in a moment of weakness for herself, so she's touching him with her left hand.

Ex. the final dungeon when Tifa grabs Cloud. She starts off by holding his wrist with both hands, but he slips, leaving Tifa to clasp his left hand in hers. This is a moment of weakness for them both since she's not strong enough to pull him up. Barret appears and helps. The touch began by Tifa taking Cloud's wrist but became mutual when their hands held. This makes it a different touch than the initial wrist grab because Cloud returned it.

Cloud touches Tifa a lot. Like a stupid amount. There are several “action back hugs”, he grabs her around the waist a lot, and although in early chapters he took her wrist, after chapter 12 he also begins taking her hand.

During the train graveyard he literally uses his body as a shield, throwing himself on top of her (in case people wanted to question why I described it as “guards”)

The chapter 14 resolution I've listed as Cloud hugging Tifa, since her arms aren't around him. They're resting on his upper torso – which counts as a touch since she had to put them there – but this was Cloud hugging Tifa.

Cloud's touches towards Tifa are a lot more romantically coded than hers are to him. He caresses her back, grabs her around the waist, by the hand, props her between his legs and hugs her. Tifa is much more reserved in comparison, but her touches imply a lot of affection and desire to be close to him, while remaining respectful of his personal space.

No naming?

Cloud doesn't speak Aerith's name in 10 chapter out of 18.

He doesn't say Tifa's name in 2 chapters out of 18.

People can argue it's because he didn't know it before that point, and sure, okay, whatever, in that case he didn't say her name in 2 chapters, but to get that total you have to ignore 10 chapters of the game.

Oh wait. How many chapters does Aerith appear in? Sounds about right.

After her rescue, Cloud only says Aerith's name to her 3 times. This is in chapter 16 and 17 only because he says neither girl's name in chapter 18. In comparison, Cloud says Tifa's name 7 times in those same two chapters.

This shows that even when in the depths of a fear state, he knows he can rely on Tifa as a figure of support.

No touching?

You'll notice that in plenty of chapters there's zero touching at all between Cloud and anyone. That's because skinship isn't the point of the game and he's got bigger things happening in his life than who he's touching more.

After Cloud and co rescue Aerith you'll notice he doesn't touch her at all. Not once. During this part of the game, Cloud is in a fear state because of all the Jenova stuff, the experiments, Hojo, the drum, Sephiroth and so on. He's terrified and Aerith isn't someone he feels he can look to for comfort. During this part of the game, Cloud is mostly a silent background presence within the narrative. For the hero, that's very telling what state his mind is in. He doesn't return to that cocky SOLDIER persona until the Rufus fight.

Cloud also doesn't initiate touch with Tifa during these closing chapters, however he does engage in mutual touch by taking her wrist and hand.

“Action touching”

Since I'm sure some people would love to discredit a lot of the touches between Cloud and Tifa as necessary because he's saving her.

6 of the 7 actual touches from Cloud to Aerith are action touches. The Resolution where his hand goes through her is only an attempt and didn't succeed. Cloud is saving Aerith in every single one of them. The one touch from Cloud to Aerith that isn't an action touch is when he puts his hand on her shoulder after saving her from Eligor. During this moment, he doesn't make any kind of eye contact with her or checks to see she's ok. He doesn't ask if she's ok, either. He puts his hand on her shoulder, then turns to face Eligor. Of the two, it's Tifa who checks that Aerith is ok and reassures her; she also puts her hand on the same shoulder that Cloud did.

Of Cloud's touches to Tifa 22 are “action touches” with the remaining 11 being unnecessary. That means those touches happen when there's no threat to Tifa or himself or need for him to put his hands on her in a protective capacity.

In the name of fairness, the 2 mutual touches between Cloud and Aerith are not action touches, whereas all 9 of the mutual touches between Cloud and Tifa are “action touches”.

Battle banter?

There is no downed or low health dialogue between Cloud and Aerith where he says her name. Cloud yells Tifa's name if she's knocked out and he asks if she's okay when she has low health.

In conclusion

Was this a stupidly long and involved way to waste my time on a replay? Yes. It fucking was. Why? Because it doesn't even fucking matter who said who's name more often or who touched who more often and how.

Cloud and Aerith began the game as literal strangers – one who Cloud didn't particularly like that much either – and then they slowly became friends by the end of the game. Cloud literally calls her his friend several times.

Aerith's touches are either her showing dominance towards Cloud by taking his left hand or arm, or they're flirty and irrelevant. She slaps his shoulder at one point, which isn't close to the kind of thing someone with an interest in another person does. Compare to Tifa who touches Cloud's shoulder, it's a marked difference between their attitudes towards him.

More telling is the fact that after Aerith rescues Tifa, there's only one moment she touches Cloud that's a purposely flirtatious gesture. It's the arm grab during the train graveyard. This is the only time she's purposely flirting with Cloud. Even then, Aerith grabs Cloud's left arm, signifying that he is not her equal in this exchange. Tifa takes the right arm, looping her left arm around his and placing her right hand on him, signifying she does consider him her equal.

After that there's only two other times in the entire game that Aerith touches Cloud. Her resolution when she uses her left hand to touch the left side of his face – signifying that she is feeling too weak to be a figure of strength and that Cloud is also weak. It's not a flirtatious gesture because her expression conveys regret. This is also a reference to the gold saucer date where Aerith laments not meeting the real Cloud. This Aerith knows Cloud isn't real and regrets she'll likely never meet him if her death remains as it was in OG.

The other time is during chapter 18 when she grabs his arm to stop him walking straight into the portal at destiny's crossroads. Again, she grabs his left wrist. Not romantic.

Cloud and Tifa began the game as old friends. They already have the foundation of knowing each other, not to mention their mutual crush. This means they're more eager to further intimacy. They want to touch each other. Cloud more so than Tifa because he's not long out of a mako coma and his last memory is her stabbed by Sephiroth and believing she died. Ofc he wants to touch her to reaffirm she's still there. Ofc he wants to push for that relationship he was too afraid to go for. And this is further impressed on us after the chapter 16 cut scene where he sees the vision of her being killed again. After that, not only does Cloud turn his head to look for Tifa, but he turns his entire body to reorient himself to her. Because he's terrified of losing her again.

Tifa has more reserve with her touches because she's aware something's wrong with Cloud and doesn't want to upset him. She's concerned and it shows. Her touches are very supportive and sympathetic. She's conscious of not pushing him or getting in his personal space. The one time she does break this unspoken rule is during her resolution and even then she's very mindful of not touching him more than necessary until he puts his arms around her. Then she puts both hands on his chest, but still able to maintain that respectfulness towards him.

So yeah, that's that.

I'm not gonna be providing a load of pics with this one because it's insane trying to illustrate every single touch between Cloud and Tifa. I probably could've added another category listing them by cut scene, but I literally didn't think of it until now and there's no way I'm going back over everything again.

Estimating Aerith's off the top of my head it's about 17 cut scenes worth of touching.

Tifa's is about 23 cut scenes worth.

So yeah, hope everyone's happy with the results lol

#final fantasy 7 remake spoilers #final fantasy 7 remake analysis #name/touch analysis #cloti

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Ducktales Reviews: The Forbidden Fountain of the Foreverglades!

Here I am a day late and 7 dollars short.. because I just bought the lost boys. Scrooge and the kids find themselves in America’s own personal circle of hell Florida to track down the fountain of youth. But with Goldie arriving for the same reason and swiping Finch’s diary, Scrooge and Webby are forced to take off without the boys in persuit while the boys enjoy themselves.. well Louie does, Dewey and Huey fight over whose the older sibling. Meanwhile Scoldie find themsleves magically younger, Webby finds herself crotchety and Rockerduck finds all of them in his quest to get the fountain for himself and be carried around like a baby like Jeeves. Full review with spoilers bellow.

Yes this is a day late, as I had to stop writing yesterday to do other stuff and to help stablize mom’s internet while she worked, and then had a full day with my best friend watching the bizzare but enjoyable double feature of Hubie Halloween and Tales from the Hood. But i’m back and with a LOT of other reviews to get to this week, two more for regular coverage, a review I didn’t finish sunday due to being really tired, and some reviews in time for next week’s episode, no more time for a big intro. Let’s go. Thankfully did get some of this done yesterday soooo...

It's spring break in Duckberg. So while Violet does her vacation research, Lena throws some things into the local ditch and misses webby, Boyd goes on family vacation with his adopted parents, birth creator parent, and Anthony Fremont without the powers thank god, Beakly goes on her annual grannies gone wild vacation, Donald goes on a boat trip with Daisy with his boys crashing, Della tries to party wtih the young people to show she still has it, Launchpad joins her because he is the young people. Fenton works and Penny.. triest to reign her girlfriend in because it’s Donald’s week off from trying to get the non-beakly adults to be reasonable. It’s her curse now.

In the actual episode Scrooge has taken the niece and nephews to Florida, the land that gods forgot.. yes gods forgot. They all did. Except maybe Loki because the god of chaos and storytelling really can’t ignore his people. Much as he’d like to. Sadly we don’t get Scrooge and the nephews on jetskis outrunning alligators iwth guns also on jetskis.. both anthro gators and regular animal gators, that still have guns mind because florida. And yes that is a recycled script from my failed Calvin and Hobbes spinoff pitch, Calvin and Hobbes: Miami Nights. Hobbes has a serious coke problem. Also Opus from Bloom County is there.. I mean hew as just supposed to be a guest star but the execs loved him and Berke was like “whatever can’t be worse than the Garfield movies throw bill in too”. But obviously coked up gators, tigers and bill the cat are not what you came to see so let’s move on. Though if it is hit me up. I think we’d get along great.

Anyways instead of Cokehead and Hobbes, we get a bunch of partying college kids, which given Scrooge already hates young people, this is indeed his own personal hell.. much like everyone whose not young or old going to florida. But spring break hotels are super cheap so Scrooge’s need to save money outweighed his need to not be surronded by young hot morons blowing off steam. Though Webby being webby points out the blowing off steam part.. which is nice of her but is probably only like.. half of them the other half being young dumb rich people looking to get laid. Which is also the mission statment MTV’s had since 2000. 20 years of not being about music and counting!

Anyways, naturally their here for a quest, with everyone else gone for the above reasons I made up but sound plausible and entertaining, as Finch’s diaries put the fabled fountain of youth here. As does a cheesy video from the lion owner of the result played by Nestor Carbonell. If that name dosen’t ring a carbonbell, which fair enough it iddn’t for me at first either, his voice probably will for disney fans who grew up around the 2000′s like me. It’s Senior Junior! From kim possible.

The Late Great Ricardo Montalbon, who I dearly miss to this day,with Nestor as his son, Senior Senior Senior and Senior Senior Junior, which are great names already. Their easily my favorite Kim Possible Villains (Yes I still love Drakken and Shego now hush), and it’s in part because the concept is brilliant: Senior was just a rich man accidently taking all the power in France. Kim showed up to stop him and Ron, her best friend sidekick and later boyfriend and presumably now husband, casually mentioned Senior’s home was the perfect villain lair, and that Senior had the talent for it. Senior took that to heart and spent the rest of the series trying to be the best classical arch villain he could be, trying to adhere to the tropes of one warts and all while his son just wanted to loung around and be young and rich. It was a great dynamic and the two really played off one another beautifully. Hopefully if there’s another reboot nestor can pick up where Montalbon left off with some new hot idiot as his own son. Even if it’s just for the intro you have to admit it’d be great.

So yeah I was happy to have him on board once I realzied this, More on him later I keep getting sidetracked this review and we’re, no joke not even past the intro. But Scrooge needs ice for his back, so the boys have the afternoon off while Webby helps him, because she’s a sweetheart, and Huey’s in charge because oldest.

Thus we get their subplot for the episode.. or most of it but more on that in a bit: Dewey is annoyed Huey is ALWAYS in charge and always overscheduling, case in point he has an afternoon schedule down pat MOMENTS after they arrive. However given Huey later did his research and has a super analytical and regimented mind, it isn’t a stretch to say he spent their time on the plane planning out things just in case. or that he always doesn’t do that when they have to stay overnight. But what makes it work is Dewey’s frustration is understandable. Despite being barely younger he never gets put in charge, Huey while a good kid can be bossy as we’ve seen as early as season one and has even been condescending with it once or twice. So as a younger brother myself I understand chafing under an older brother all the time.

However, Huey being in charge.. makes the most sense. Scrooge , and i’m HEAVILY betting Donald on the boat to present day and every other adult, uses the oldest excuse as something the kids will follow easily without starting a fight over the simple truth that Huey’s the most responsible and organized out of the three. And by that I mean Dewey fighting over it or being hurt at his mom saying it , Louie would probably be hurt but would probably be fine just fine with having no responsibility or effort to put in. Huey makes plans, looks after his siblings even when not in charge, and thinks things through the most of his three brothers. Sometimes overly so, which I can relate to, but point is he’s the best boy for the job, though I could also easily buy that at least for Scrooge, he genuinely buys into oldest is in charge because he was raised that way. Also this episode didn’t explain how he’s immortal but I’m betting “Battle for Castle McDuck” does so no harm done.

Back on point, Dewey is governed almost entirely by his impulses, which does work sometimes as seen with the season premiere, but has also lead to him nearly being sacrificed 74 times, while Louie can lead, he just doesn’t wanna half the time and would likely weasel out of it. And the episode bears this out with Louie being more bothered with the power struggle interfering in his being lazy time and generally being outside it. He just doesn’t care whose in charge unless it benefits him in some way and right now it doesn’t.

I’ll go ahead and cover this plot since, surprisingly, it ends up dovetailing into the main plot, and it’s easier to get it out of the wya here and cover where they start to overlap when the main plot catches up. So Huey leads them around starting with Lounging which goes well: Louie’s naturally on board and while well bored, Dewey sleeps when he can’t just impulsively jump into he pool.

The tide turns however when after his short dip, Dewey seemingly has a growth spurt and is taller and thus takes overa s big brother and forces them to go ahead and lunch.. which runs into both the old people and the old people menu. It backs up what I thought from the start: huey likely knows what he’s doing, which he does; Obviously in Florida old people eat earlier, so Huey’s scheduling wasn’t just his normal OCD flaring up, but using it to strategically plan when to have fun so they could in a packed resort. It also shows how clever Huey is, as even for something so mundane he plans perfectly. He’s my faviorite for a reason.

Huey eventually gets fed up with it and plays Dewey, but Louie, suspcious of the head of the hotel, instead starts piecing things together... and i’ll save that reveal for when it ducktails into the main plot..l because I couldn’t resist that pun and you know it. Not a bad plot, mildly slight but it sets up it’s connection to the main plot well and has a good conlict. Moving onto the real meat of the episode, turns out the race.. isn’t that much of a race as Webby outspeeds both Scrooge and Goldie, who bicker over a canteen and their long history of her betraying him and him betraying her for betraying him etc etc. Webby is delighful here as she’s both understandably awkward playing third whell and not at all fond of Goldie which.. yeah you would be too if she locked you in a closet. It’s nice to see the two interact if not by much. However things soon change when Scrooge and Goldie seemingly get tranformed by the river into younger 18-20 something versions of themselves. Admitley Tennant’s voice for younger scrooge is.. eh, but he still does well enough that you soon stop carring. The designs are great.. and damn if young scrooge isn’t delcious. Seriously it’s only thorugh the magic of network standards that Jodeci’s freak n you isn’t playing over half his scenes. Damn. Him around this age in the comics just looked sorta like donald with sideburns god damn Frank thank you.

Speaking of thirst with their hormones in place it’s naturally not long before the twos old spark that was smothered under decades of betryal comes roaring back, and the two even almost make out before Webby interputs, getting increasingly injured by the everglades.. as most people do by florida itself really. It won’t let you leave in one piece.

But things get interesting when Goldie makes a proposal.. ditch Webby for a bit and go find the fountain. As Goldie brilliantly puts it youth’s wasted on the young.. but not them. This is a second chance. While I heard people comment on “why is scrooge’s age suddenly affecting him now”... honestly it really probably isn’t. While he’s likely been old for some time, we’ve seen his back hurt him once or twice, just faking being hunched hurt him. And while it is played up a bit much in this episode, it’s perfectly realistic that his body has good and bad days. My mother does, I do, most people do as they get older. The parts of you that ache and don’t work right tend to wax and wayne in how much they hate you.

TO me it works to sell why this is tempting for Scrooge: A chance to start over, not abandon his family obviously, and given how much nonsense is around his life and how old he is, it’s not a stretch for duckberg to accept he’s younger than his own son and daughter now. Scrooge can buy or earn anything he wants and really is the man who has everything: He has a loving family, a repaired relationship with Donald, Della back after loosing her, a nice and nephews to carry on his legacy, tons of friends, a thriving empire, and tons of mysteries to track down, including recently ones his own idol never could find. He has everything he could want and tons more adventures to go: Bold New Discoveries, old ones to show his grandkids for the first time, and a cozy mansion. There’s really only two things missing: more time, as even with him and goldie having worked hard magically to stay alive as long as they have, as while they’ve found ways to stay alive, they haven’t been able to stay YOUNG. Sure they’ve added years and years, hell 60′s scrooge only looks somewhat older despite decades having passed, but while they can probably go on for a few more decades, there’s only so much they can do before their time runs out. And the other thing missing from his life quite obviously is goldie. The two clearly love one another.. but scrooge very justifably can’t trust her and can’t have her in his life until she tries to change, and she dosen’t want to. This.. offers a chance to turn back all of that, to cast aside their bitter history and start over as better people than they were before. Scrooge can have time with his family, time he would likely loose eventually to see THEM grow old. Raise their own families he might not get to see. To see those kids grow up and take on their own parents legacy. And to share it all WITH Goldie. TO have her in his family at long last. Sure he’s leaving Webby behind but he’ll come back and as we see she’s fine if understandably upset. Granted I think they could’ve done more with her leaving her, but the sheer brilliance of this plot I didn’t see coming, the sheer pathos of Scrooge’s second chance makes up for it. They find the fountain.. but it’s dried up and unconnected to the river. They also find Rockerduck, out of the amber with his frakenstein butler whose clearly now just a mindless monster. which means whoever did his work really did it shoddy as even frakenstein had some intellegence. He’s also being carried around like a baby which I enjoy throughly. Rockerduck does not look plesant, and i’m happy to have him back as I was upset this character only got adapted for seemingly one episode and was pleased to see him with fowl. They also find a good angle for him: Beisdes the old timey rober baron thing, and looking like Rene Belloq.. he even gets to do the nothing you can’t posses that I can’t take away line which is great and Hodgman is amazing as ever. But yeah besides that, he also gets his comic versions tendency to throw money around and do none of the work himself. The throw money around thing while neat in the comics did need to be reframed, as Glomgold now does it, and so does beaks. But with Rockerduck they found a nice medium for the two: like both he’ll spend massive amounts of dough. Like Glomgold he likes a good scheme, but dosen’t go to the sheer lunatic lenghts Glommy does: His schemes are more practical, stealing a deed from some unsuspecting trusting townsfolk, or finding some youth water to shore up his plan to freeze himself by getting his apperance back. While no longer young like Beaks, he shares beaks laziness and again tendency to spend money.. but still contrasts the guy: Rockerduck is ambitious in his cons and plans, Beaks is not. Rockerduck has money already to tap into, Beaks is new money and clearly burns through it on a daily basis. The show brillinatly kept what made the mallard a great villian, while reframing what no longer worked. But yeah Scrooge realizes that if the river didn’t help them what did, and now it’s time to get back to Louie: Whose figured out that Ponce De Leon, mentioned earlier, and the hotel manager are one in the same! Also props for making Ponce an actual lion. Nicely done. Yeah turns out Ponce diverted the water from the fountain to the resot: The tap water there is actually the restorative water, with Scrooge having filled his canteen with it without realizing. As for the old people turns out the fountain runs on equilvent exchange: Some of it’s waters drain youth to create the youth creating part of it. As such the seniors.. are actually the spring breakers, drained of youth and too senile to fight back. And Dewey’s sudden growth spurt was just him being in the pool for two seconds draining his youth. Naturally though Louie made the mistake of blurting this out and the boys get captured by Ponce who explains why the resort scheme: At first he just lured gullible minions on expeditions but eventually that scheme dried up so he simply modernized by building the resort and diverting the fountain to it., having gallons of youth restoring water stocked up. He traps the boys with a pool ring and while I expect more from them I get leaving them out of the climax. While Mildly annoying.. this really isn’t their story anymore, and the scrooge and Goldie stuff is where to focus. I can let a story slide on some weaknesses if it’s for good reason and really, focusing more on the more engaging main plot with Scrooge and Goldie was the right call. That said the nephews could’ve fought Jeeves or something but i’m getting ahead of myself. This twist is utterly and a great surprise. No notes.

Back at the fountain having realized what’s going on now, if not the youth sucking part just yet, Scrooge and Goldie race back with Rockerduck and Jeeves in persuit. Scrooge and Goldie arrive to find De Leon, revealing their on to them if being confused for springbreakers. But once he realizes what’s going on De Leon.. actually offers to cut them in. After all while it means sharing his water as shown the man has gallons of it, and even off spring break likely still has no shortage of young idiots to drain because it’s Florida and he runs a cheap hotel with a pool. But while Goldie’s naturally tempted.. Scrooge isn’t. He’s fine with a second chance.. but not at the cost of other people’s first ones. Sure they might waste it.. but it’s not his life to steal. Naturally a swordfight insues while Goldie darts off to find the water and Scrooge finds himself fighting both De Leon and Jeeves, as Rockerduck cheerfully admits he has ZERO issues with stealing other people’s youth and while he and De Leon don’t formally partner up, it’s not a stretch to say De Leon would be happy with a rich billionare joining in his operation providing both fincial backing.. and possible room to expand and steal MORE youth.

But before Goldie can run away with the water she finds the boys.. and in a nice callback her previous bond with Louie gets her to crack.. and she realizes she can’t just run out on scrooge again and repeat their history. So she frees the boys,k who are a bit dazed to help, and shoves the bit of water she got down jeeves throat. Though Rockerduck still got some, so he’s back to peak shape, if now having to carry around a baby frakenstien. He exits, and I loved him in this one clearly, even if i’m STILL annoyed it’s taking till next week for FOWL to do much of anything. I mean it’s obvious FOWL told him about the fountain but still, while they’ve set up the members well for the second half, we still haven’t seen much of the actual orignization and it’s grating. But again the rest of the episode is good enough that it swoops over this. This episoide has some minor flaws.. but the core story, big twist and everything is so good and the upcoming climax so emotional, it’s easy enough to forgive.

So speaking of that climax we get one hell of a swordfight with Scrooge and Goldie versus Ponce before Ponce ends up in the pool as he deserves but is determined to take Scrooge with him. So we get Goldie’s moment of truth: She could leave scrooge the drown, go about her day and take the water for herself.. or decide it’s not too late.. that even with her clean slate gone.. she can still change and still have a future with scrooge, stop betraying him for his own gain and start enjoying their time together instead. She makes the obvious choice, diving in in a beautifully shot sequence to save him. Ponce withers to death which is sad, as I really would’ve liked to see him again, but fitting. With the villian gone it’s time to wrapup loose ends! The ducks hand out the youth water, using up all but a few drops left to restore the spring breakers and hte natural order, Scrooge happy in his decision. Dewey decides to cede being the bigger brother back to Huey , and offers Webby some and in a great gag, she explains she just had a bad day she didn’t get her youth sapped.. though I feel she did in an earlier draft, but a quick pop of her back gets her back to normal. Though having her be an old lady was hilarious and it was nice to have a youth swap plot that didn’t have a roll reversal. To close things out Scrooge laments Goldie probably ran off again and leanred nothing.. only to be plesantly suprsied when it turns out while she is leaving for more adventure, she didn’t want to say good buy.. and it’s clear she’s changed. While her last apperance showed some cracks forming, while she did take the loot she did go back to save Louie and vice versa, here we see a genuine change. She’s realized, and it feels entirely plausable, that even if she can still scam other people and probably will.. she shoudln’t keep hurting scrogoe like this and her feelings for him outweigh any beinifit from treating him like garbage. Having a clean slate for a moment gave her a persepctive, and even if the slate’s back to full.. it’s not too late to fix things. So she kisses him passionately he happily reciporcates and i’m totally on board. I only didn’t ship this version fo the two because this goldie.. was not a godo person. Granted I do like her better than the comics version. While Comics Goldie is not BAD persay, she lacks some agency. She’s still cool, what with her shotgun and take no fucks attitude especailly in her youth, her just.. waiting for scrooge instead of getting after him feels.. weird to me. Sure the man’s stubborn but it didn’t fit her personality to just wait for it. Here there’s a valid reason they aren’t together despite a clear attraction: Goldie is out for herself. She’s the catwoman to his batman, which was a good metaphor really: Scrooge too is a grumpy guy who fights evil and has traveld the globe and has a massive extended family includling children he teaches to fight crime and his own adult children and is richer than god. But more than that Goldie is selfish, untrustworthly and loved money more than Scrooge.. here.. she realizes while she’ll likely still be stealing shit, because hey it’s her calling, she loves him more than doing crimes and that it’s not a clean slate they needed. .it was abetter her. I didn’t support them because frankly she wasn’t in a good place for an actual relationship. Now she is, he is and it’s sweet to see. A good note to end the episode

Final Thoughts: This ep was a bit uneven in places, not knowing what to do with the kids at times but as i’ve made clear i’ts excellent with the scrooge and goldie core really working well and Janney and Tennant bringing their absolute best to this one. Easily one of the season’s best. Not much more to say. If you liked this tune in each week for more ducktales coverage, and I intend once the hiatus begins to try and do one episode a week still to catch up as hopefully this isn’t the last season it might very well be. Next week Darkwing owns the night! I had planned a full darkweek.. but my busy monday and some other stuff got away from me. Still I have two darkwing themed reviews planned: Drake’s introdcution in the reboot with “Duck Knight Returns!” and the very first darkwing episode, chronlogically anyway, “Darkly Dawns the Duck.” Until next week, Let’s Get Dangerous!

#ducktales #the forbidden fountain of the foreverglades!#ducktales spoilers #reviews #scoldie #scrooge mcduck #goldie o gilt #john d rockerduck #huey duck #dewey duck #louie duck #webby vanderquack #ponce de leon #nestor carbonell #spring break

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lifeofroos · 4 years

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ToN spoilers!!!!!!

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This is the last ‘Nico in therapy (with different drinks)’ I have planned for. Maybe I’ll write more, but I am not sure. The other two chapters are on my AO3! (and somewhere on my Tumblr too).

This might be crazy chap.3: Strawberry Milk

I had almost forgotten what the strawberry milk carton was supposed to mean when I found it. It wasn’t that I hadn’t thought about my last conversation with Dionysus, but my week had been rather good - it had sunken to the background.

The milkcarton appeared next to my sword after training. According to my schedule, I actually had to pick strawberries - something I did not really enjoy. I had to give Dionysus credit for how he had planned this session.

When I arrived at the Big House, Dionysus was standing on the porch. It seemed like he was thinking about something. He even looked a little sad. He shook his head for a moment when he noticed me, as if to throw the thought out.

‘Nico di Angelo.’

‘Sir.’

‘Do you remember our last conversation?’

I put the straw through my juice… milk carton.

‘Yes, I did think about our last conversation. About… how there are probably more trauma’s than just… you know.’

He nodded. ‘Is it difficult to say?’

I looked at my carton. ‘I think so. I don’t know why, but...’ I shrugged.

‘It’s understandable. It will take a long, long time before it will hurt less.’ He shrugged as well, as if to say ‘I am just telling you’ and ‘there is no use in sugarcoating it.’ I shrugged again. ‘Of course…’ I hesitated.

‘I think what you want to say is ‘of course that comment does not help.’’ That was exactly what I wanted to say. ‘...No.’

‘Can you tell me about some of the other things - concrete things - that the voices remind you off?’

I took a sip of strawberry milk. Just like last time, I was overcome with the thought that it was ridiculous to be telling all of my problems to Dionysus, god of being out of your mind. It took me quite some time before I had gathered myself enough to go on.

‘... Of course, eh, tartar sauce. You know what I mean.’ He nodded, waiting for me to continue. I had already mentioned Tartarus, therefore it was easier to to tell him again. Now, I had to say something about the other things. Other things like losing Bianca, and seeing her in my dreams sometimes, before she chose to be reborn. Other things like Minos chasing me while I was trying to get her back. My feelings for Percy. The whole mess with Cupid. Losing Jason after all that. Did I have to tell goddamn Dionysus of all people about Cupid and… everything else around that topic?

I took a tiny sip. ‘I…’ another one. ‘I… you know…’ I took a very deep breath. ‘Bianca,’ I whispered.

‘That was your sister, right?’ Dionysus’ voice was quieter, more soothing, than usual. I nodded. It felt like I was shrinking. A tear rolled down my cheek.

‘Nico?’

‘Hzm?’ I sniffed, trying to hold back a sob.

‘I am sorry, but I think it is important that we try to continue. This is a difficult subject, but it is one that needs to be discussed.’

I nodded once. He was right. But another part of me (was it me?) wanted to punch him. Or run away. Or both, at the same time. Yet, I stayed, while more tears slowly rolled down my cheeks.

‘She chose rebirth. Is that correct?’

Another nod. How did he even know that?

‘And there was something with king…’

‘...Mi-minos.’ If anybody was going to tell this story, It was me.

‘I don’t know anything else about it.’ He spoke the truth. I could hear it. I know I said I wanted to tell this story, but now I was not so sure anymore.

‘I…’ more quiet. ‘I… wanted to get her back.’ It came out softly, but it came out. Dionyus’ shoulders rose a little. He looked as if this brought back memories for him as well. ‘And Minos… ‘helped’ me. Said he did.’ The look of sadness in Dionysus’ eyes changed to something more like ‘of course. It’s Minos.’ ‘Eventually… with Percy, and the others… I… I…’ I waved with my hands, but it was too much. It hurt to think about it. And what did this guy have to do with any of it?

I broke down. Not with a loud scream, but silently. The tears ran down my face, my nose stuffed up and I felt a faint pounding in my head. It took some time for the tears to stop - before I went completely quiet.

I might have been silent for an hour. At some point, Dionysus took a deep breath. ‘Nico di Angelo?’

‘Eh?’

‘What do you think about… getting a therapist?’

I looked at him. But he was my therapist. Who was he talking about? What was he talking about?

‘There is a therapist for demigods in New York. I can bring you there tomorrow. Maybe… it’ll be easier.’ To talk to her than to me. I shrugged. I did not care. Maybe. I felt bad. My head hurt.

‘I’ll get back to you tomorrow.’

The next morning, I woke up early. There was a box of Minute Maid grape juice on my nightstand. I climbed out of bed and walked out the door, while forgetting to take along the juice box. Dionysus was standing right outside my cabin. ‘Come. You got a free day. We’re going to New York. By car.’

I did not say anything while walking towards the car. Will would want me to eat breakfast, but I did not feel hungry. Dionysus did not do or say much. All he did was open the door for me and make another Juice box appear in my cup holder. I did not touch it.

‘Demigod mental center.’ It made me look up. The drive had taken us... time. How much, I could not tell. I looked out the window. The building was bleak and did not invite me to start feeling hopeful. ‘Ask for doctor Trevorson,’ was all Dionysus had to say. ‘I cannot go in with you. That’s the rules. No gods in the demigod mental health centre.’ Alright, that made sense, I guess. I did not question the fact that Dionysus of all people abided to this rule.

I felt a lot and I felt nothing at the same time. I just did not know, I really didn’t. I did not know while I was waiting for the doctor and I did not know when he came to collect me.

The session was a blur. I knew only one thing when I came out of the room: No. I did not want to be treated by doctor Trevorson. And, I was only being honest, I did not think he wanted, or even knew how to, treat me. As soon as the word ‘Tartarus’ fell, it was over.

Dionysus was waiting in the car, seemingly deep in thought. I wondered whether he had gone anywhere else or if he had just spend all the time waiting. I slipped back into my seat.

‘How did that go?’

I looked at him. Apparently, that was enough. ‘Than… we have to talk about other options.’ I legit had no idea what he meant. But I was also starting to get sick of not knowing.

‘You haven’t had breakfast yet,’ Dionysus stated. I shrugged. ‘Therefore, we are going to get you breakfast. Do you have any ideas?’

I almost automatically responded with ‘I don’t know,’ but then I remembered that I did not want to not know anymore. Anything was better than not knowing. So I said I wanted sloppily made pancakes with chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Good choice, apparently, because Dionysus smiled. ‘Alright then.’

A few minutes later, we walked into a Denny’s. It was questionable whether this was the right place for a therapy session, seeing as how it radiated chaos energy. They did, however, have sloppily made pancakes. Those were a certainty right now, and I was going to hold on to that.

When we sat down, me with a plate filled with pancakes (and some other stuff - like, for real America, calm down, I only need one meal), Dionysus put a carton of Demeters’ Divine Orange Juice in the middle of our table.

‘Wait. I first want to eat one of these pancakes worry-free.’

‘Absolutely.’

I tasted like sloppily made pancake with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. And I was going to savour every sloppy bite of it. At a while, Dionysus wasn’t even paying attention to me anymore. He was scanning the crowd. I wondered whether he was trying to find out if any Olympians were in the restaurant (is it a restaurant? Can you really call Denny’s a restaurant? They might have more nuanced terms in other languages).

I put the straw through the juice carton as soon as I had finished the pancake. The sound caught Dionysus’ attention and he turned back to me. ‘So. Let me start off by saying that you do not need to go back there.’

‘Isn’t it a thing that the first session is weird?’

‘For most demigods, that’s what we say.’ Oh, so there are more demigods that went to therapy? How come we don’t know that? ‘But one look at you and I realised that that wasn’t going to do it for you.’

I tore a little bit of pancake off with my hand. ‘So… then what?’

Dionysus gestured at my juicebox. ‘You mean that you keep…’ counseling me? Giving me therapy? ‘...helping me.’

‘Yes.’

‘Fine.’

He looked at me for a moment. ‘That also means that you have to trust me.’

Trust? that goes far, man. I’ll let you council me, but trust? Calm down. ‘Partly.’

He did not respond. I took another bite of pancake. Then, I took a deep, deep breath. ‘Shortly after she had died… I kept hearing Bianca’s voice in my dreams. That… also hurt. It is less now, probably because... she is reborn. But now Jason is gone too.’ I felt tears coming up again. My throat closed up. I stared at the pancakes (and other crap) on my plate - I knew I would have never finished it all, but now it felt even more impossible.

‘There is a lot of old grief. It might hurt to work through that. Yet, it is important that you learn how to cope. That will make your life better. And Nico, you deserve a better life.’

‘I’ll… try to learn how to cope. I’ll do my best to do that. Really.’

‘I believe you. And about…’ He stopped. About what? ‘Nevermind.’

‘Nevermind what?’ I waited until he made a sign of some sort, but he did not. ‘We’ll talk about it in a future session.’ I wanted to press further, but decided that I either let it rest for now or that he would erase the last thirty seconds from my memory. Slowly, I took another bite of my pancakes. I’d have to stock up on juice boxes, too. I wasn’t about to let Dionysus control when we had an appointment all the time.

(A/N: In The Netherlands, we would call Denny’s a ‘vreetschuur’ or an ‘eettent,’ but certainly not a ‘restaurant.’)

#Nico di Angelo #Dionysus #Trials of Apollo #tower of nero #fanfiction #fanfic #writing #writeblr #percy jackson #PJO #hoo #heroes of olympus #therapy #denny's

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yakocchi · 4 years

Photo

peh i waited 2 years for this shit. u thought i was gonna wait a month to do one branch what kinda sad whale would i be

bc cybird routes are kinda lengthy and go all over the place i made a fun bingo sheet of wild guesses of things i thought that would happen in the route and tbh the ones that didn’t make the cut make me sad because they were good. and then they somehow outdid me with other cliche shit i forgot to add??? god damn

SPOILERS BEHIND CUT

explanations on the ehs

shakespeare has actually a kind of major role (compared to the other charas) but he’s in a much more sympathetic light now compared to the routes in the “first half”. bc as i said making him a real villain now is a little depressing. the boy’s just TROUBLED OK

leo isn’t really in the route as much as you would think. i mean he does show up a bit and then in one of the POVs they have a talk. but it’s not that big imo bc then there wouldn’t be enough room for vlad being creepy

faust and charles do help in the kidnapping of mc but they don’t start it per se. shakespeare does the initial entrapment and then they drag her to the castle. that’s not dramatic crazy, that’s just an uber

time does guide the mc to something, but it’s not a place. it’s not even something secret bc it’s the pocket watch he carries all the time. but the pocket watch is significant

stream of consciousness spoilers i want to talk about

they would reveal that the count has a real name, which is Abel. because mc can’t be going “count” during the sexy scenes (tbh... i was worried abt that)

so in the second half mc waits out the month but then the door doesn’t work for some reason so until then they gotta figure out why. but then it’s revealed that in vlad’s castle he ALSO has a magic time travel door and so you can’t use them at the same time or smth??? idk it’s very dumb

so vlad and count go way back, but like as in little boys way back. there are no sprites of shota purebloods im very disappointed about that

also speaking of which vlad has magic powers in which he can like.... do magic mind-manipulating shit??? it’s how mc gets to see count + vlad’s past

i have no idea why vlad seems to be pretty popular bc this guy just seems nuts. is it bc he’s voiced by saito soma? anyway the “crazy” thing he does in this route is throwing mc through his magic time door (where she might get carried away to a time period that’s not hers bc the doors were messed up at that moment) and then count has to go in to save her. bro wtf we do not stan

in the aisare branch they get married bc count wants to tie that shit down i guess i’m thinking cybird wants to still keep mc a human bc making mc a vamp at the end could make stuff messy. but yeah even he’s like “you know..... one day im gonna have to make you a vampire???” but her answer is all vague bc i guess she’s not ready yet. which i get bc she essentially gave her early 20s life to centuries old vampire

#spoilers #ikemen vampire #count germain

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a-skyfull-of-starz · 4 years

Text

Pinkie Swear

Spoiler alert for a few character names from post-Season Three of Attack on Titan, although no plot points are spoiled.

This is long. I have no regrets.

.....

Two days before her birthday, Gabi Braun announced that she did not want to celebrate her birthday that year. On the day itself, her cousin woke her up fairly early.

“It’s not my birthday,” Gabi mumbled, cocooning herself deeper under her blankets.

Reiner chuckled. “I know,” he said. “I was wondering if you wanted to come train with me at HQ.”

That got Gabi’s attention. Fast. She sat up. “For real?” she asked.

“Sure, why not,” Reiner said. “My mom’s made us both a packed breakfast. We can eat there. You in?” She nodded quickly. “Good,” he said. “Put on your fatigues and meet me downstairs.”

.....

Reiner and her mom were talking in hushed voices when she rushed downstairs although they both stopped talking when she entered the room. “Morning sweetheart,” her mom said, bending to kiss her on the forehead. “Ha-,”

“Mom, I already said I don’t want to celebrate my birthday,” Gabi complained, squirming away.

Her mom gave Reiner a knowing look. “Ah that’s right,” she said to Gabi. “I’m sorry.” She straightened Gabi’s collar and ran a hand over the top of her head. “Reiner has the breakfasts that Aunt Karina made for you. You’ll listen to your cousin, won’t you?”

“Urgh Mom, I’m not a kid anymore,” Gabi complained again.

“Oh no?” her mother asked lightly. “Because apparently you’re still eleven.”

Gabi rolled her eyes. “Come on let’s just go,” she said irritably to Reiner, who was watching the exchange with amused eyes.

“Bye Auntie,” Reiner said, winking at her mom. “See you later.”

“Have fun you two,” her mom said. “Gabi.”

Gabi sighed and turned. “What?” she asked.

“Be good.”

“Mooom,” Gabi complained. Her mother laughed and the two of them left.

.....

“So what do you want to work on today?” Reiner asked as they walked through the internment zone to the Liberio gate.

“Hand-to-hand combat,” Gabi said at once. She knew she would need to improve on this if she were to inherit the Armour.

“You know, I’m actually not that good at hand-to-hand,” Reiner said.

“What do you mean?” Gabi asked. “Of course you are.”

Reiner shook his head. “I lost two important fights,” he said. “Annie was the one who was really good. If she were here, she could train you up.”

“You’re still good though,” Gabi said. She leaned towards him and whispered, “Better than Mr Galliard anyway.”

Reiner laughed. “You would get into so much trouble if one of the other seniors had to hear you say that,” he said.

“Well, I won’t let them,” Gabi answered.

They reached the gate and held out their permits. “Off to work even on your birthday?” the gate guard asked.

“It’s not my birthday,” Gabi said impassively.

“Eh?” the guard asked. “I could have sworn it was today.”

“Well it isn’t.”

“Gabi isn’t celebrating her birthday this year,” Reiner explained.

“Bit young for that attitude, isn’t she?” the gate guard asked.

“You know our Gabi’s a bit precocious,” Reiner said.

“You don’t say,” the gate guard said. “Well, have a good one.”

.....

Thanks to the early hour, there weren’t many people on the streets yet. “What did Mr Gate Guard mean when he said that I’m too young for that attitude?” Gabi asked. “What attitude?”

“Hm?” Reiner asked. “Oh, when adults reach a certain age, they stop celebrating their birthdays because they don’t want to get older. Older means closer to death after all.”

“What age is that?” Gabi asked.

“Usually forty I guess,” Reiner said.

“Does that mean my dad is gonna stop celebrating his birthday next year?”

Reiner laughed. “Maybe,” he said. “Your mom will probably breathe a sigh of relief if he does.”

Gabi laughed too. “Yeah, probably,” she agreed.

.....

They ate their breakfast at the training field, Gabi chattering about the various happenings in their training, before beginning their workout. A couple of hours later, Reiner glanced at his watch. “We should probably get back,” he said.

“We only just got here,” Gabi complained.

“I promised your dad I’d help clean the gutters today,” he explained.

She sighed. “Ok I guess,” she said. “Mom’s probably going to rope me into some cooking and cleaning frenzy though.”

“Well, that can be your workout then,” Reiner said.

“What do you mean?”

“Kneading bread works the arms and the abs if you do it right,” Reiner said. “If you scrub the floors in a low squat instead of on your knees, it’ll work your thighs and your calves. Sweeping can be cardio. You just need to use your imagination.”

Gabi laughed. “Ok fair,” she said.

.....

“Why didn’t you want to have your birthday today?” Reiner asked as they walked back to the internment zone.

“How come you didn’t have your birthday last year?” Gabi asked.

Reiner blinked. “I don’t know,” he said. “I guess…we’d just come back from the war in the east. I wasn’t really in a celebratory mood at the time.”

“You didn’t celebrate the year before either though,” Gabi pointed out. “And you hadn’t been sent to the front in three weeks that time.”

Reiner huffed out a sigh. “Gabi,” he said. “You didn’t want to have your birthday because I didn’t celebrate mine?”

Gabi blushed. “I don’t know, I guess…” her voice trailed off. “I don’t remember you from before you left, but I know that things are difficult for you now. I don’t want you to feel…alone.”

Reiner crouched down in front of her and put a hand on her shoulder. “Gabi listen to me,” he said. “My problems are mine. You don’t need to take them on. I don’t want you to take them on. Whatever I might be feeling, whatever I’m going through, they’re not your problems. They’re mine. You are an amazing, brave, strong, funny little girl, and honestly, I think that the anniversary for the day you came into this world is one that should be celebrated.”

“But you-,”

“I’m fine,” Reiner interrupted. “I promise, ok? You don’t need to worry about me.”

“You promise?”

“Pinkie swear,” Reiner said. He held out his hand. Gabi giggled and hooked her much smaller pinkie on his large one. “Come on, let’s get going,” he said. “I bet your dad is really excited to climb onto the roof with me.”

“Urgh don’t,” Gabi said. “Dad likes to act as though he’s younger than he really is. He’ll end up throwing his back again.”

“Yeah well, he’ll have his big, strong, much younger nephew with him to help, won’t he?”

Gabi smiled. “Hey Reiner?” she said.

“What’s up?”

“I guess it’s ok to celebrate my birthday,” she said. “But only with you, Mom and Dad though, ok?”

“And my mom?” Reiner asked, sounding scandalised.

“Oh alright, Aunt Karina too then. She’s a better cook than Mom after all.” She paused. “Reiner, will you celebrate your birthday this year too though? Even if it’s only with us?”

Reiner smiled slightly. “I guess I could,” he said. “But only with you guys.”

“Yay,” Gabi said excitedly. “I’ll bake you a cake and everything.”

Reiner laughed. “Gabi, the last cake you baked was burnt to a crisp,” he said.

“I’m a year older now,” Gabi said. “That means I’m a year smarter too.”

“That’s true,” Reiner said. He looked down at his young cousin. “Happy birthday Gabi.”

.....

Happy birthday to one of the most underrated characters in the SNK universe, namely the cutest warrior candidate: Gabi Braun. I wrote a mildly-fluffy non-angsty ficlet for her because she deserves happiness and good things. Also, Reiner being like her big brother is my aesthetic.

#happy birthday gabi #attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #snk #gabi braun #reiner braun #fluff #birthday girl #big brother reiner

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why-this-kolaveri-machi · 5 years

Text

spn 15.01

SPOILERS ahead

1. sam’s hair looks especially floofy and nice this season! very season-one-y.

2. a brief google search reveals that belphegor, much like abaddon and asmodeus, is one of the princes of hell. his quippy dialogue is more miss than hit--mostly because it makes him sound like almost every demon that spn has featured over the last fourteen years--but given that he apparently tempts people by offering them shortcuts and generally encouraging them to be lazy? it might actually be an interesting choice to have him quip and spout pop culture references left and right. it’s ~meta, you see.

2.5. ... well, that was an anti-climactic end to the zombie apocalypse that was set up at the end of last season.

3. the callback to bloody mary looks weird because it doesn’t work at all without the... aesthetics of s1, if you know what i mean? when most of the horror these days on spn is more insidious and derives from the cosmic machinations that surround the winchesters, bloody mary looks... tacky, and painted on.

3.5. how did they get ‘woman in white’ from crashed, bloody car with no body in immediate sight???

4. i’m reminded of 8.22, where crowley steadily killed the people samndean had saved from the early seasons in order to force them to meet him on his terms: it functioned well as a neat bit of nostalgia as well as something with real emotional, personal stakes for the winchesters. the ‘saving people’ bit is all that they have to justify both the crap that they have done and gone through. but these call-backs so far... are far more transparent calls to nostalgia, a neat season-by-season retrospective where the audience can clap their thigh and go, ‘oh shit is that the killer clown from s2′s everybody loves a clown??’

4.5. BUT. this is also chuck upending the table and throwing all the pieces on the ground, half-tempting and half-taunting samndean with reminders of how and why they started doing what they did. it’s fanservice, but acknowledging it as fanservice is crucial to the plot of this season. AGH.

5. belphegor is aggressively boring.

i wonder if spn-verse views religion like... a steady progression towards the Truth. like there’s a straight line from ‘primitive’ to... here, where congratulations, you’ve figured god and heaven and hell out, and hey, you got to meet his sister too! in 5.19, a bunch of gods from different ‘dead’ religions got together to try and stop the apocalypse (and were handily defeated by lucifer). but these gods also included hindu deities like ganesha and kali, and i can assure you that hinduism is far, far from being a ‘dead’ religion. but maybe that’s just how it is in spn-verse, where there is an objective God, and an objective way that the universe works. religious myths and deities aren’t abstractions that a critical mass of people decided to believe in, or explanations for how the universe works that’s rooted in their land, their culture, their very blood; these things Exist, and they do so in a hierarchy, and now the winchesters have fought, stabbed and shot their way to the very top.

chuck couldn’t be bothered to write in any kind of nuance for this universe; he’s too pre-occupied with the winchester family drama. eh. makes sense.

6. dean gets to call jack “[their] kid”. oh okay. coolcoolcoolcool. so we aren’t going to address the fact that he wanted to murder jack dead last season because he believed that jack was completely past the point of redemption? we aren’t going to have castiel--the only one of them who wanted to protect jack and give him a chance--say this? coooool, ok, ~~no worries

7. i appreciate all of the cool possibilities arising out of sam’s god-wound: the visions, the fact that he has this connection to their ultimate Big Bad and could (eventually) use it to his advantage. but honestly? i’m exhausted man. i’m exhausted by the idea of something Happening to sam’s personhood without his consent for the eightieth time, and--given castiel’s vision--by the inevitable ‘what’s wrong with sam??’ song-and-dance that’s going to follow.

8. it’s kinda hilarious and also genius to have all these ghosts creeping about in the middle of the day and in the middle of a neat suburb? and the ghosts running after them, all in a row? LMAO

8.5. the little girl said thank you to sam! and his awkward little nod in response!! ALL YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN, SHOW

9. oh fuck did they really end with that shot from the pilot??? i thought that was just something intrepid gif editors came up with!

... given the endorphin boost that that just gave me, i’m clearly not immune to Show’s repeated appeals to nostalgia.

10. so... that’s that. kind of dull for a premiere, leave alone the Very Last One. barely skimmed over the most exciting things that 14.20 set up. still: cautiously excited for the rest of the season.

#supernatural #spn spoilers #season 15 #samndean #castiel #belphegor #meta #spoilers #just a tired incoherent mess #watched the eppy juuuuuust in time i think

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mellz117 · 4 years

Text

Hi! I’m Mellz and I’m starting up Kingdom Hearts 2 on the PlayStation 2!

Just below are links to the first parts of my previous Kingdom Hearts plays.

[ KH1 ] _ [ Re:CoM Sora ] _ [ KH Re:CoM Riku ]

It’s been a hot minute, like 3,155,763 smoldering hot minutes, which would be 6 years including leap years. Yeah it was 01/27/2014 last I touched this game, exactly 6 years ago to this day (01/27/2020) as of me starting up again. This was an accident.

Guide thingy: Things like long gaps between commentary and days will be separated by a line of dots like that -> ……

Text relating to an image posted will have a blockquote either above and/or below the image

Dialogue exchanges will also be separated by a blockquote

Ok I'm playing on standard difficulty, if I'm having a hard time, then I just suck. If you’re reading this and haven’t experienced KH2 for yourself, why are you here? Go away, there’s spoilers for things that aren’t revealed until later.

SO LET’S JUST JUMP INTO IT

……………………………………………………………………………………………

I always liked this fancy CGI opening. There’s a lot of things I missed last I saw it.

IT’S HIM. Look how cute he is!

So we start off with a recap of Kingdom Hearts via a dream it seems and our protagonist, my precious boy Roxas, wakes up his own home all alone because apparently DiZ didn't create a digital family for him. But KH is notorious for forgetting parents, so maybe they did. I’m not Cinema Sins so I wont ping this game for not giving Roxas fake parents lmao

In the next scene Roxas is more interested in his own hands than he is in his friends' conversation.

blurry ring textures, blurry checker pattern. Not everything holds up well on a flat screen TV

He hasn't been paying attention so he's just as confused as the player is at this point when he finally takes his attention off his hands.

This dialogue is so early 2000's. KH1 and CoM avoided this but with the urban setting of Twilight Town it's DEFINITELY noticeable and outdated. So rumors have spread about Roxas, Hayner, Pence, and Olette that photographs are being stolen, and THEY'RE the theives. Who is the operator of the rumor mill? Seifer and his posse. Also the actual WORD is gone too, they try to say “photo” but it just DOESN’T EXIST. This is where the game gets a bit odd.

TUTORIALS GALORE. I JUST WANT TO PAUSE AND CHANGE THE CAMERA CONTROLS STOP TELLING ME ABOUT MY NEXT OBJECTIVE but no no it’s telling me how to lock on, control my camera, context sensitive buttons, etc

This girl’s dress looks like shes wearing a bra over it

I like how the animal AI hasn't changed at all in this entire series. And by like I mean hate, KH3 doesn't change that. Sven is as boring as this cat we have to look at.

The gang heads to the sandlot where Seifer, Fuujn, Raijin, and Vivi like to hang out I guess? Vivi is a little, solid black, wizard dwarf amongst all these regular humans and no one bats an eye. This shit is normal. Seifer with his stupid Seto Kaiba jacket, shows up to further accuse Roxas and his friends of stealing photos, one specifically of Roxas flat on his face and Seifer standing triumphantly over him (which we’re actually shown later). "That was undeniable proof that we totally owned you lamers" he says in regards to it and challenges Roxas to a rematch.

A+ dialogue

Seifer. My dude, ya dumb-dumb. If you think for one second that I'm gonna let my boy lose to you, you are sorely mistaken.

“If you get on your knees and beg, maybe I’ll let it slide.” Seifer says and Roxas plays it slick, taking a knee and looking through a convenient selection of foam weapons. Battle ensues.

So of course I win because Seifer is a pleb, and Pence takes a commemorative ______ of Roxas's sound victory, but oh no! Something stole the camera right out of Pence's hands! Roxas gives chase, because apparently he's the only one who cares enough to do so, and confronts the actual thief, a Dusk type Nobody. Roxas is taking this creature encounter rather calmly. Like mild confusion at most.

I hate these things, they're creepy. When you do a reversal on them they like, plant their hands on the ground behind them and their legs wrap around their arms while they spaz out. Ughghdhahh

Of course Roxas's foam bat doesnt cause any damage to the Dusk, and suddenly a familiar giant key digitally manifests in his hands. DiZ is installing mods I see. I have a Keyblade mod in Skyrim, so we have something in common.

After we defeat the thief the next scene shows the gang at the usual spot with the recovered photos. Ok ok so was "photo" the only word deleted from the vocabulary or were any other alternative words taken away too? Like, if they could have said "picture" this whole time, they would have had much less stupid sounding dialogue exchanges. Whatever lmao.

“Tell us about the picture thief.”

“Not much to say. The pictures were just lying there.”

You liar. Tell them about how you fought a wormy, white boy.

Pence notices all the pics are of Roxas and speculates the picture thief wanted to take the REAL Roxas and Hayner is like

The best friendships are ones where you can take jabs at each other and know there’s no malice intended.

In the scene thereafter, the kids go their separate ways, the evening(?) sun assaults Roxas's eyes, and whenever he closes them he gets another vision? Idk what time of day it is it always looks the same.

God ok as someone who hadn’t played CoM before playing KH2 for the first time, I must have been SUPER lost regarding who DiZ and Namine were and why Sora is in the pod. More recaps of KH1: I don’t know why they found it necessary to redub over the old voices with the new actors in these flashbacks.

Moving on. Roxas learns what the Keyblade is through his dreams. On his way to meet up with his friends, he tries summoning the Keyblade with a stick, when that doesn’t work he carelessly throws it aside and it hits this cloak clad man behind him. This dude is either completely unfazed by that is or so offended he can’t even say anything and walks away before he goes all Karen on Roxas’s ass.

We’re back at the usual spot and summer vacation is nearing it’s end. Hayner wants to go to the beach before school is back in session! You poor fuckers...

Same, dude. I’m waiting on my tax returns, looking forward to that.

SKATEBOARD

“TO DEFEAT THE HUNSSSSSSS!”

Pretzels at the beach? Salty and not refreshing. I got you fam, I’ll make enough money for a watermelon. Roxas is so poor omg... How much is 150 Munny in American currency?

Just BEAT the cargo with a foam bat. What’s IN the bag? Is it trash? Clothes? Is it potentially breakable? Next. Time to beat some bees!

So Poster Duty was my go-to job in this game in the past because you could get 100 Munny if you did well. But now that I’m older I realized how annoying it is. I had an efficient route planned out, hit as many of the 3 poster placements in that route, and be over and done with that in about 1:10....

But then Roxas goes aND DOES THIS!

FUCKING SKIPS THE ONE DIRECTLY NEXT TO HIM, DEFYING GRAVITY IN FAVOR OF THE POSTS BELOW

HE DOES THIS CONSISTENTLY!! I do have a live reaction to this but it’s too big for tumblr. I’ll have it up on youtube one of these days

Eventually I stopped sticking posters to walls and became a mailman until the game made me stop.

Black-clad man is back with his own stick! Oof, Roxas eats the pavement and is manhandled by cloaky boy. WAS THIS ROUGH TREATMENT REALLY THAT NECESSARY? You might wanna treat Sora's Nobody with a little more respect. AND YOU STOLE HIS HARD-EARNED MONEY! YOU BASTARD!

The gang is on the clock tower, very dangerously high up. Wtf what if someone falls?! Roxas feels so guilty about what happened and Hayner gets over this little fiasco pretty quickly and the next day he already has another fun plan.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

On his way to the station, Roxas crosses paths with Pence and Olette, the latter two freeze and Roxas meets Namine. Is her interest in Roxas linked to her desire to be Sora’s friend? A strange girl tells Roxas she wanted to meet him “at least once” and he doesn’t know what to do lol. Namine doesn’t stay long, leaving Roxas with his confusion. What is going through his head? A girl he doesn’t know seems to know him well enough to want to see him. Pence and Olette unfreeze after Namine is out of the shot. Pence and Olette have such a cute relationship, I’d love for them to be siblings. Pence goes shopping with her even if he might not want to. I can relate, I hate clothes shopping.

These Dusks don’t seem like too much of a threat tbh, they just kinda swagger slowly towards Roxas and grab his hand. Roxas hardly struggles to escape to the sandlot.

Chicken wuss

WE FINALLY GET SOMEWEHERE, we end up on the stained glass pillars in the Station of Serenity (?). Time to grind for like 5 minutes because this giant noodle boy already killed me once.

This thing really unsettles me. All the creature Nobodies do! They’re all twitchy and stretchy. DISGUSTING

DAMN THAT IS A HIGH FALL HOW DO YOU SURVIVE THAT?!

Upon defeat, this big noodle boy falls on top of Roxas and Namine saves him from being enveloped by darkness.

Namine really seems to like to silence him. First she shoves her hand in his face but that was too forward. This time she daintily places a finger over her lips and says her part. Black-cloak guy shows up, rough handles Namine a little bit but not as roughly as he did Roxas. AND SHOVES ROXAS INTO A PORTAL

SEIFER IS AN OPPORTUNISTIC SHITLET POSING IN FRONT OF HIS UNCONSIOUS BODY. Bitch you didn’t earn that. Hayner, Pence, and Olette see Roxas with Seifer’s gang, Hayner feels betrayed thinking Roxas ghosted him in favor of Seifer. He stays pretty salty about it for a good while

IM NOT WORKING ON THIS LIKE I SHOULD. ITS ALMOST A MONTH SINCE STARTING. In my next post we'll be "Struggling" to progress. Eh? Eh? Get it? Like the tournament?

I'm not funny.

Here’s the next part: [ _2_ ]

Below is a compilation of my live reactions and comments throughout this point of the game.

youtube

#mellz plays kh2 #Kingdom Hearts Series #kingdom hearts 2 #kh2 #PlayStation 2 #square enix #disney #mellz post

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