'do you regret it'

whispers his claymore

blade that once struck

his brother's starry

eye

high stakes, stacked deck

I love “I heard your voice too”, but I also love the translation, “Thank you Meryl. It reached me. Your voice”.

It cements the parallel between them as foolhardy, reckless idiots who never give up, as well as makes a neat little call back to the first episode where Meryl ropes him in. Meryl’s voice reached him in time to save him, and Vash’s wire reached her in time to save her from Knives.

Sorry midnight idiot brain thoughts but. I’m thinking about that Vento Aureo interpretation where Giorno doesn’t actually care about drugs and stuff, he’s just telling Bucciarati what he wants to hear. And that’s usually a way to paint Giorno as a villain or whatever, but if we take Purple Haze Feedback into account. Something weirdly bittersweet about Giorno, who didn’t truly share Bucciarati’s dream at first, ending up eliminating the drug trade as his first priority as the boss. Idk.

i think Pluto is right. as much as Saturn leans into being The Bitch™/the chaos gremlin, she is a very thoughtful and empathetic person. and not even just to the people closest to her. i think this shines through in her final words from the CM ending;

"Everyone on Earth who believed in us felt the same way;

'Let's be more human.' 'How much more human can we be?'

That faith waned, maybe because they were jealous. Yet, maybe also, because the direction we were taking the future wasn't enough. Just another human they didn't want to be. Or a sort of human that they're scared of being.(…)

So, choose to come with us, or choose to stay. But I won't be happy without them knowing what they're missing out on. Look up in the sky, and see all the weird stuff we get to do with each other! And come join!"

like with most things Saturn does, it's couched in her own desires and feelings, her own 'selfishness' (or, something more like 'self-love', or 'self-respect')........ and yet, she still thinks of humanity, the humanity who rejected her, the humanity she so resents, and she expresses a hope that those who want to also free themselves may follow them someday

her 'victory' against Luna-Terra in the mission "DEEPER CUTS" also sticks out to me. in this 'battle' her goal was to break down Luna-Terra's emotional and mental defenses.......... not just for her own satisfaction (though that too of course lol), but also to see LT truly be vulnerable, for her own sake as well

bothers me very much when people use Ted getting upset telling the denver broncos story as like evidence that he could be queer instead of thinking about an old friend drowning in loneliness and saying to himself “i should’ve been there i should’ve supported him” is him reflecting on his traumas, as if this is not a man who heard his dad kill himself at age 16 and carries that guilt wherever he goes. he tells EVERYONE he loves that he supports them no matter what the struggle is and colin’s struggle was internal and invisible, WHICH SCARES HIM. he’s terrified by invisible struggle and he always has been BECAUSE of that childhood trauma. so TO ME…… it reads very media illiterate to take it that way, because Ted didn’t have some tender gay experience with his denver broncos friend in the 90s, he’s haunted by knowing there was someone he loved who went through something alone (even if it was silly and minor like watching the Super Bowl alone) and doesn’t want anyone to ever feel like that again, (especially if it’s something as big as being one of two gay men in a room in an industry that hates them) let alone one of his players on the team that he has worked so hard to turn into a family!!!!!!!!!! damn!!!!!

obsessed that the one time dandelion ever actually felt guilt in his entire life maybe was not for the cheating, not for the cucking, not for the drinking, not for the whoring, not for the cheating (reprise), not for the avoiding paying his tab, not for the petty and minor theft, but he felt bad because he felt like he was not that good of a friend to geralt

Okay so a strange and stubborn endurance is maybe not the best book I've ever read peak high literature or whatever, but I'm only 1/3 of the way through and I've cried multiple times and been beset with that distinctive grief of a book really getting /me/. The title intrigued me and oh oh is it very much the heart of the book. A broken creature of odd endurance despite it all.

And I think it's because it manages to combine a serious emotional plot of assault/mental illness/homophobia/recovery with a fantasy intrigue setting. Most books do one or the other. You've got teen contemporary YA dealing with heavy issues but with teens in highschool, but I am 27 and tired of teen protags, or you've got intricately plotted fantasy masterpieces. This is neither. But it puts that recovery front and center within a larger fantasy setting and I cannot stress how much I need and crave that and how hard it is to find done even semi-decently.

Velasin makes me want to throw up from crying. His fears and shames, his desperation, and love, and nonexistent self esteem. His humour. His loyalty to his only friend. His Whole Deal with his father. Every chapter just brings a new. Huh. Recognition of the self through the other. Gut punch.

Idek what I'm saying. It's not the most insanely perfect book in the world. But it's doing something For Me that objectively better books don't. Idk. Idk. All I know is that I'm sick with weeping from it.

Like absolutely mind the author's note warning at the beginning, because it can be heavy, but it's never graphic or gratuitous. And it IS focused on recovery, just again, against a fantasy plot.

I really dk I'm rambling now but it's just. Oh. Oh. Maybe I needed this. Everything lately has felt either too lighthearted to be genuine or too desperately dark for me to handle. And I can only reread the cemeteries of amalo so many times. I eventually need other things that are both hopeful and dark, gutwrenching and reflective of the self, without grimdark. (Not that this is on the same level but who can compare to thara celehar To Me)

thinks about how Cloud and Tifa have matching every day outfits during Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus

im the only one who thinks about these panels as much as i do. guy whose eyes shine like this as he says he's going to steal literally everything. all of the art ever. i say that daisuke feels half bad about the stealing bc stealing is normally morally wrong and it's still true while dark is so clearly unrepentant if not outright feeling his most alive in this kind of moment!!! but it's kind of crazy how you can also still read the instant as dark covering up the fact he's going after something that's considered a 'worthless/trash' art in front of hiwatari because it might link him to manisumea. the only thing dark gives is a pause at satoshi's appearance before he says all of this. no vulnerability, no pleading, no explanation or even rage in front of the descendant of the creator and metaphorical god(s) that he betrayed out of a furious, first-betrayed sense of injustice and tyranny. just dark and his own lucifer pride!!! he's going to take everything because he CAN. he's going to take eeeeverything and he's going to enjoy it, even if an enormous part of why he even steals is meant to be both a reluctant gathering of strength and 'soldiers' for 'war' against 'the creator,' and/or atonement for his own birth causing an art-pocalypse; the destruction of so many other arts because he/the kokuyoku was decided 'too dangerous.' it's literally just two panels but it's like the epitome of everything To Me

What If…? Dark: Moon Knight (Vol. 1/2023), #1.

Writer: Erica Schultz; Penciler and Inker: Edgar Salazar; Colorist: Arif Prianto; Letterer: Cory Petit

just called off from the art store job for the first time ever and got only the slightest muscle memory of anxiety :) my boss said no why would you come in if you feel sick? get better!

Being bound has made Luci more careful about the risks he takes. Fearful even. He has no interest in dying. He’ll commit to the bit literally right up to that point. Which means he will, however, risk bodily harm, especially if it’s funny. He’d rather avoid permanent damage, but a broken bone or two won’t kill him. He’s been kicked, punched, tossed on pretty much a daily basis his whole life. Not to mention the far worse tortures he was subjected to in the Hells. His pain tolerance is absurdly high, and there’s nothing you can propose aside from death that’ll scare him.

Which is all to say that it’s no accident if he irritates your character til they snap. He’s never looking to get hurt but he is looking for a laugh, a bit of chaos, and is perfectly fine with getting hurt as a consequence. He won’t even hold it against someone if they retaliate with a strike. Honestly? 99% chance it won’t be memorable to him.

Also after scrolling through the hollow mind tag for a bit- I know it was definitely hunter's episode (the grimwalker reveal, his panic attack, him fleeing belos AND the owl house) BUT CAN WE TALK ABOUT LUZ. AND BELOS. CAN WE TALK ABOUT LUZ AND BELOS FOR A MOMENT PLEASE

What if, at a severe enough point with her emotions, Kasumi couldn't speak anymore? Like yeah, she can make noises (chirp, rolling sounds from the back of her neck [its hard to describe], etc.) and use body language, but no one can understand her.

Bonus points if the dragons can't understand her either since she's essentially speaking a dead version of their language to them